Dateline NBC - Night of the Summer Solstice

Episode Date: January 30, 2021

Just a few hours after the longest day of the year in 1990, hikers find 21-year-old UCLA student Ron Baker’s body in a Los Angeles area train tunnel. As detectives investigate, they begin to wonder if Ron’s interest in an alternative religion is connected to the murder, but soon discover the suspects are much closer to home. Keith Morrison reports.

Tonight on Dateline. It had so much mystery involved. Pentagrams painted on the wall. What was this young man doing in that tunnel? The Manson Tunnel. Yeah. It's a pretty horrible place to die. The murder happened on the summer solstice.

This whole occult story came out. There's evidence of occult activities having taken place up there before. He told me that he had witnessed a murder. And that he was helping the police with it. Little by little, it started coming out. There had been some plot afoot. Brutal and violent and chaotic. They are vicious killers. A famous crime novelist returns to an infamous case. You went to the tunnel. I kind of stopped in my tracks. It was a dark, scary place. You go into darkness, darkness is going to go into you. I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's Keith Morrison with Night of the Summer Solstice. This wasn't supposed to happen. Ever.

It was a chilly December morning, 2020. The high desert outside Los Angeles. In there, behind barbed wire and secure locks and thick concrete, a prisoner was placed in front of a camera. It was a parole hearing for a lifer who was never supposed to be set free. Fifty miles away, nervous and worried, the sister of the man's victim listened to a live broadcast

with her, a storied L.A. homicide detective now retired named Rick Jackson. Powerless to intervene, they waited for the board's decision. And it all came flooding back, as if decades had vanished, and the strange, terrible events had only just occurred. I worked homicide by the end of my career. It was 28 years,

and you always think that you've seen everything, and this was one of those cases that just didn't make any sense. No, it didn't. Still doesn't. Maybe never will. It was just a few days after the summer solstice, that longest day of the year. It was June 24th, 1990. My supervisor called and said, hey, I've got an interesting case for you and Frank. And so Frank and I went directly to the coroner's office to view the body. Frank was Detective Frank Garcia, Jackson's partner. He had multiple stab wounds and his throat was slit.

It was a murder, all right. Close-up, personal, bloody. Whoever did this wanted to make sure that it was done. No one was going to survive this. He looked to be in his early 20s, but he had no ID. So they called him John Doe 135, L.A.'s 135th unidentified victim of the year. He had a medallion on, and there were two.

One was a pentagram, and there was also one that was just a religious cross. Meaning something, possibly? John Doe 135 had been found by hikers in an old train tunnel that cuts through the rocky hills in suburban Chatsworth. Went up to the tunnel the next day. What was it like in there? Strange. There's paintings everywhere. Paintings of words involving drugs, LSD, acid.

We were told that they would do animal sacrifices there. There was writing on the inside of the tunnel, things about hell and fear. There was pentagrams, all indicating some kind of occult activity that was taking place in the tunnel. The pentagrams are long gone now, covered by newer layers of graffiti, hiding secrets, perhaps horrors of the past. But even today, the tunnel remains a dark and spooky place. Some of the locals call it the Manson Tunnel because of that, and because Charles Manson once lived nearby.

Whatever, it was catnip for media. The body was found in a railroad tunnel above Chatsworth Park. They have no leads, no suspects. If you do have any information about this case, call LAPD Major Crimes. One of the many assigned to the story was a young reporter for the L.A. Times named Michael Connelly. Yes, that Michael Connelly, the best-selling crime novelist, who back then was just beginning to make a name for himself. It just from the beginning had so much mystery involved.

You know, what was this young man doing in that tunnel? And I suppose it would just add to the allure of the idea, calling it the Manson Tunnel. Yeah, it was a pretty horrible place to die, that was for sure. And no one knew just then that they'd entered a story already into Chapter 2. The San Fernando Valley is a vast and crowded sprawl. More than one mystery here. It was midnight in the valley, A couple of hours before John Doe

135 was found in the Manson Tunnel, Gail and Kay Baker's home. The phone rang. There was a strange voice and he said, we have your son. Unless you give us a hundred,000 by 5 o'clock tomorrow, he will die. Their son Ron was a student at UCLA. So I called his apartment, and I was told that he had been dropped off at a bus stop and he was going to a meeting at UCLA, and he hadn't returned. His roommate telling me that.

The next morning, Ron still hadn't returned home. And then the phone rang again. Same strange voice. He said, unless you give us $100,000 by 5 o'clock, he will die. And at that time, I really did become worried, and I called the police. Ron's older sister, Patty, rushed over to her parents' house.

The police put a wire on the phone. Nobody called back. The longer it went, the more worried that we got. Police got a picture of Ron from the family. They checked it with the coroner's office to see if it matched any outstanding cases they were handling. It did. They called the bakers. Asking about some...

if Ron would have worn some earrings and the pendant and he had done that so then they came to see us and told us that his body had been found it's really way to understand is like? It's devastating. Then the Bakers had to do the most difficult thing they had ever done. We were asked to go to the coroner's office to identify him. Ron Baker was just 21,

their only son. Ron was not your average victim, and this, not your average murder. When this thing first happened, we were just a few years past Richard Ramirez, the night stalker who was involved in pentagrams and things like that. And he had struck a couple times in the valley. And just how that gripped the town in fear. There's a little bit of here we go again. Yes and there was something else about it too. The date. It was the evening of the summer solstice. There were rumors going around at times that this could have been a sacrifice due to the multiple stab wounds and the fact that Baker's throat was slit.

Did you think it was an occult thing? We didn't know. We certainly didn't rule that out. Especially when they discovered what Ron Baker belonged to. It had a name. The Mystic Circle. When we come back, cryptic clues in Ron's apartment. An altar, candles, the pentagram. Could this killing be linked to the dark arts of the occult?

There's evidence of occult activities having taken place up there before. Was there a lot of concern that maybe there were other people who were in danger? Definitely. The question is, did the occult lead to his death? It was the word that got all the attention. The word that brought TV crews to the notorious train tunnel under the Chatsworth Hills. The word that conjured

up all manner of dark arts. Occult. Holy terror reads the graffiti over the train tunnel where Ron Baker's body was found. Was 21-year-old Ron Baker the victim of a ritual killing, an occult murder? Did you or your parents have any idea who could have done this?

No, not at all. Or why? And why Ron Baker, of all people? He was a compassionate, kind, church-going Methodist. Not an enemy in the world. Okay, there's Cousin Ronnie. He was a compassionate, kind, church-going Methodist. Not an enemy in the world. Okay, there's Cousin Ronnie. There is you.

My brother, he was a really positive person, a real gentle soul. He was very smart. He was majoring in astrophysics at UCLA. Intellectually curious. Yes, definitely. Which probably explained why, Methodist or not, Ron joined a club at UCLA called the Mystic Circle, where he met fellow student Christine Reyna. We would meet and hear lectures and talks from people that practiced a variety of different traditions or alternative religion.

We've had people come in who studied Wicca. Wicca, the pagan nature religion. Ron was fascinated. I think as a physicist, there was something appealing about Wicca being a nature religion. Because what do physicists study? They study energy and they study forces. And those were things that were part of everyday language in Wicca. But had he encountered something much darker?

Ron shared an apartment with two roommates, Nathan Blalock and Duncan Martinez. The detectives drove over to talk to them. Nathan was out of town, so they talked to Duncan about the murder. He was upset. How close was he to Ron? They were pretty close. They were very different characters. Ron was inward and naive a little bit. Duncan was more worldly. He had the energy, charm. Yin and yang. Duncan, a former Marine reservist, was bright and funny to Ron's quiet and shy. Duncan got a job after high school while Ron went to college.

But both grew up in L.A. and had been best friends for years. Duncan's stepfather was a professor at UCLA where Ron went to school. Nathan was from Detroit, ended up in L.A. after serving in the Army. He'd been a great athlete growing up, a football star,

runner-up boxing champ as a teenager. He was the most recent member of the trio. Duncan told detectives that on the night of the murder, the summer solstice, Ron had planned to take the bus to UCLA to visit his Mystic Circle friends. He asked for a ride to the bus stop. So they dropped him off and Ron went where he went. And that, said Duncan,

was the last time he and Nathan ever laid eyes on their roommate. So the cops had a look at Ron's room and there it was. An altar, candles, the pentagram, all the Wicca stuff there.

Large knives that supposedly were used in their ritual. It was certainly not ruling out the possibility that Baker's death was cult-related. Cult-related? Satanic ritual? Human sacrifice? This whole business about Wicca, how seriously did you have to take it? We had to take it seriously because it was the summer solstice, a holiday for Wicca that happened in the tunnel. There's evidence of occult activities having taken place up there before. Understand a myth that some secret groups may have been practicing dark arts, even harming children and others at a brief unfortunate resurgence around that time.

So the idea that occultists, they actually have sacrificed a man in a tunnel that was decorated with the signs of devil worship. The media fixation was hardly a surprise. I wrote some of these stories. I think we wrote them with reserve, saying this is what the police have on their plate is one of the things they're looking at but they're probably looking at many other things as well but i know enough now as a novelist to know that certain words can really fire the imagination of the reader and so i think

these stories did that in in a big way this whole occult story came out and that was the dominant narrative for a long time It was in UCLA and this group that knew him Was there a lot of worry, concern that maybe there were other people who were in danger? Definitely, and made us concerned that it was a hate crime Despite their fears, some of Ron's Mystic Circle friends concerned that it was a hate crime.

Despite their fears, some of Ron's Mystic Circle friends joined his family for a deeply emotional memorial service. Ron's close friend and roommate Duncan Martinez delivered the eulogy. He was the most friendliest, sweetest guy there and I just hope that it's something I can get over.

Because I love him. As for suspects, there were none. Except perhaps the alcohol. It showed up at the autopsy. Booze. A lot of it. His alcohol was.21. That's another thing that didn't fit. Baker did not drink.

But he fought his killer. That much was apparent from the traces of blood under Ron's fingernails. So, DNA? Well, no. not back then. All we could do was type and match the blood. It was AB positive. Four percent of the population had AB positive. Four percent.

So that could narrow down the list of suspects, if they could ever find one. Coming up, a mysterious phone call in the middle of the night. They got me in like a warehouse. I didn't know what was going on. Had another young man disappeared? When Dateline continues. It was in those days like a curse had come to Los Angeles. A curse of murder. So many murders.

Best-selling author Michael Connolly was a journalist then, on the crime beat for the L.A. Times. I came here in 87, which was the dawn of the highest murder rates ever in the city. And a lot of it was fueled by the crack epidemic and gang warfare and all that. But the murder of Ron Baker was different. A middle-class college student. And the questions that made the news. Was this a ritual killing, an occult crime?

Was it Wicca-related? Detectives Rick Jackson and Frank Garcia had to know. We sure got an education real quick on Wicca. We interviewed one Wicca lady who was very knowledgeable about the practice of Wicca. That woman was Christine Reyna, Ron's friend from the Mystic Circle Club, and an expert on everything Wicca. It is helpful to be able to talk to somebody who not only knows what's entailed in the occult, in terms of at least Wicca, but more importantly, to actually know what Ron himself believed and practiced. Raina gave the detectives a crash course on Wicca, its history, its peaceful rituals, its spiritual traditions.

And wrong, she told them. He had absolutely no involvement in anything that would ever involve human sacrifice. I mean, he would never have meddled or even ventured into anything like that. So he worried about that himself before all this happened? Yeah, absolutely. Like, that repulsed him. The more detectives learned about Wicca, the less likely it seemed to them related to Ron's death.

I think through that process of just discovery and learning more things, they probably quickly got off the occult trail. It was very clear. No ritual at all? There was no ritual. The Wicca just faded away, and it became even more of non-interest to us. So while the media was focused on Wicca,

the detectives returned to more normal sorts of police work. They kept talking to people who were with Ron the day he died. Roommate Nathan was back in town and ready to talk. Not that he seemed to know very much. And neither did Duncan, for that matter, though he was eager to help. The two told the same story. They dropped Ron off at the bus stop the night of the summer solstice,

and they never saw him again. Then, after they heard Ron had been kidnapped, they went looking for him. But when Duncan told the detectives where they searched, well, it seemed odd. He told us that he and Nathan went to Chatsworth Park near the tunnel to look for Baker. Why would anybody go look for their friend at Chatsworth Park near the tunnel

if he was kidnapped? Anyway, Duncan kept talking, offering information which might be true or not. We asked Duncan to take a polygraph test. How'd he do? He failed it in all pertinent questions involving the murder. Uh-oh. Soon after that, Duncan lawyered up and stopped talking. I thought we were going in the right direction because we had the right people.

Now, the motive for the killing is still kind of tough. Yes, the motive. Why in the world would Ron's friends and roommates be mixed up somehow in his murder? It just didn't make any sense, especially to the Baker family. We were kind of shocked. Like, what do you mean you're looking at Duncan and Nathan? Did you think that they were barking up the wrong tree?

Yes, it seemed really far-fetched. Like, why would he do that? I mean, we didn't know Nathan that well, but why would Duncan do something to his good friend? In fact, Duncan had been to the Baker home lots of times to hang out and was always the entertaining house guest. He was always really personable, very funny, easygoing, easy to talk to. Was he a teller of tall tales, fantasized a little bit as he told your story?

Yes, he was. And a lot of times the whole group would be kind of like, oh, yeah, whatever, you know. He just liked to be the center of attention. A few weeks after the murder, Duncan and Nathan moved out of the apartment. And Duncan asked the Bakers for a favor. They said, sure. Duncan actually moved a bunch of stuff into my parents' house, into the garage. So my parents would talk to him every once in a while.

And I know he told my dad that he was feeling pressured by the police, and he felt like people were following him. Police may not have been following him, but they would soon hear him. A few weeks after the summer solstice, middle of the night. They got me in like a warehouse. I didn't know what was going on. It sounded like Duncan Martinez. Had he been abducted? Could it possibly be another kidnapping?

Coming up. We respond that night. Made a missing persons report. What had happened to Duncan Martinez? I'm going to try and get out of here. We're just waiting to see if he's going to be found. This was going to be a tough one to crack. A cryptic phone call late at night.

A panic-stricken message from... Well, the caller didn't say. But the voice on the line sounded familiar. They got me in like a warehouse. I didn't know what was going on. My partner and I received a phone call from our boss. Say, hey, Duncan Martinez just made a phone call to a friend of his. Said he's being held as a hostage.

And then all of a sudden there's a, uh, uh, uh, oh. You know, like he's being beaten or kicked or whatever. I'm going to try and get out of here. Holy s***. It was one month after Ron Baker's apparent kidnapping and horrific murder. So now what? Had Ron's friend and roommate Duncan Martinez been abducted too? So we respond that night, made a missing persons report, and we just made the assumption that it was a legitimate kidnapping.

And there was no trace of Duncan anywhere. His disappearance made the news. We would like to eliminate him if he does not have any involvement in this case, and as long as he remains gone, we cannot eliminate him. And then, several days later, a clue. Investigators tracked down the phone number Duncan used to make that panicky phone call, reporting his own kidnapping. Detective Jackson gave it a ring.

Somebody picked up and I said, hey, this is who I am, and I'm working on a case. Where are you? And he goes, well, actually, I'm at the airport in Las Vegas. It was a random stranger, not Duncan, who answered a pay phone. And not in a warehouse in North Hollywood, but in a crowded airport. The kidnapping phone call that he left was a total farce. Nobody would have believed that. I think the motive for him making that phone call was, if he's kidnapped, then we'll stop looking for him.

But the Baker family could not believe Duncan Martinez would harm Ron, much less kill him. Duncan, who delivered such an emotional eulogy at Ron's memorial service? No. And then, that weird phone call. So obviously, he's trying to escape. Then we started believing that he was probably involved. It was a few weeks later when Ron's father looked through the stuff he'd so graciously allowed Duncan to store in the Baker garage.

He opened one of the boxes and... I discovered this note of things to do, get a new identity, and to sell his car. But it sounded like he was getting ready to leave the country or something. Didn't look so innocent, though it didn't exactly implicate him either. Weeks passed.

No more crazy phone calls. And no trace of the elusive Duncan Martinez. He was gone, missing. We had no idea where he was. So Duncan was in the wind, and Nathan was sticking to his story, that they'd simply dropped Ron at a UCLA-bound bus stop and never saw him again. And a once-hot murder investigation started turning ice cold. It got pretty discouraging. You're just waiting to see if anything comes out and if he's going to be found.

But apparently he did a good job of disappearing. Autumn came, Christmas, the new year, and Ron's 22nd birthday. We would go visit the grave and put flowers on all those occasions and it's not really how you want to spend your your holidays and your birthdays yeah having to remember them that way another summer solstice came to the anniversary of ron's death The longest day following the longest year for the Bakers. We think about some things that would have been and aren't. What he would have made of his life. Whether we would have had more grandchildren. Things like that. The detectives, meanwhile, were stymied. They were convinced that Duncan was somehow involved in Ron Baker's murder.

But to crack the case, they had to find him, which was not so easy. We get nervous as far as the case being stagnant. It was over a year, a year and a half almost. You know, something's got to happen. He's got to turn up someplace. Some people who've done terrible things imagine they can disappear forever. Fake a death, change a name, an address, an ID.

But living, breathing human beings have needs. And sometimes they make mistakes. Coming up, across the country, the case takes an unusual turn. A young man with a dubious identity. The social security card was new and that is suspicion right there. What was he up to? I'm saying to myself, that doesn't make sense. When Dateline continues. Where was Duncan Martinez? For 18 months, there wasn't a trace anywhere.

Were you afraid he was just gone for good? I knew eventually he would surface somewhere. You felt if you could get your mitts on him again, you might be able to get him to talk. Yeah, because I felt Duncan, at some point, was going to get tired of running. Then, it was late autumn, 1991, Boston, Massachusetts. Three young men walked into the downtown federal building and encountered a seasoned and very particular passport agent

who just happened to have the same first name as the elusive Mr. Martinez. The name is Duncan Haywood Maitland. Duncan Haywood Maitland looked out at the three young men before him. One of them spoke. He needed a passport, he said, urgently. He was booked on a flight to Paris that very night. His name, he said, was Jonathan Wayne Miller. He had several pieces of identification.

One was a school transcript, which has no photo, no description, no nothing. Maitland told this Jonathan Wayne Miller that wasn't good enough. He needed a valid ID and passport photos. So Miller and his buddies left and then soon returned with the pictures. First thing I told him, where is your ID? And he said, it's right here. I've got two friends. They're going to identify me.

They're my ID. And I said, they're not good enough. You need a blood relative. We need either your mother or your brother to come into this agency today. Was it panic Maitland was seeing in young Miller's eyes? He said, it's not possible. He said he had a very difficult time at home. He was abused. He finally left home and school. He said, that means that I only have an eighth grade education. So I said, that's fine, but it doesn't help you with I.D.

It won't surprise you to know Maitland had heard more than a few stories in his time. Had seen an abundance of bogus passport applications, too. He smelled something fishy, especially when Miller presented one more piece of ID. The Social Security card was new, and that is suspicion right there. It tells you that it's a new identity.

It doesn't tell you that it's fraudulent. It just tells you it's new. It tells you both. No proper ID, no passport. Maitland sent Jonathan Miller away, empty-handed. But he wasn't done. The next day, Maitland started his own little investigation into Jonathan Wayne Miller,

who claimed to have been born in the central Massachusetts town of Webster. So Maitland called the school listed on the transcript Miller submitted. And I talked to a guidance counselor there, and I said, it gives English 1 and English 2. He said, that's freshman and sophomore English. And I said, well, what grades? He said 9 and 10.

And I'm saying to myself, this fellow quit school 8th grade. That doesn't make sense. Something else also didn't make sense. On the fine print of that transcript... There was a reference to a California test, a California test for a Massachusetts school? I don't think so. Bateman knew what to do next.

He called the FBI, which issued an arrest warrant for Jonathan Wayne Miller for passport fraud, only to find that Miller had vanished. And then it was two months later, two months after young Mr. Miller encountered the Boston brick wall named Maitland. The location this time? A stretch of highway near the little town of Nephi, Utah. A highway patrolman pulled over a driver on Interstate 15. The officer took the driver's ID, ran the name.

Jonathan Wayne Miller. Wanted by the FBI for faking a passport application. Miller was arrested and booked in a Utah jail. And in Webster, Massachusetts, a state detective went to Miller's last known address, knocked at the door, and Jim Miller, Jonathan's father, opened it. And he says, we're looking for Jonathan Wayne Miller. I said, why are you looking for him? He's been dead for 21 years. Coming up, Jonathan Wayne Miller, dead?

I started crying. It was like my whole world came caving in. Then who was the man locked up in that Utah jail cell? Who was Jonathan Wayne Miller? Asked the cop at Jim Miller's front door The answer was Perhaps not quite what was expected He was so happy-go-lucky baby The answer was perhaps not quite what was expected. He was so happy-go-lucky baby.

He was one of the happiest-go-lucky babies I ever saw in my life. Jonathan was just a baby when he died. An accident no one's fault, really. He wasn't quite two. It was bad. It was bad. The was a bad feeling. I didn't think I was going to make it. Do you ever lose that sense of loss?

No. No, and I tell people, love your children, because when you lose one, you can't replace them. Little Jonathan had been dead 20 years when that detective showed up at Jim Miller's door to say that his son was wanted in L.A. I started crying. Jonathan had been dead 20 years when that detective showed up at Jim Miller's door to say that his son was wanted in L.A.

I started crying. It was like my whole world came caving in. Right back where I was. That first day? Yep. Jim Miller insisted his son was dead, even told the detective where he was buried. Yet at that very moment, that self-same Jonathan Wayne Miller, supposedly dead for two decades, was sitting 2,000 miles away in a Utah jail cell

and very much alive. So what was going on? Duncan Maitland, the passport fraud specialist, had already figured that out. Not long after that young man presented what Maitland could see was bogus paperwork. So we were falling into a category, and that category we call IDI, infant death identity. Why would you call it that? Because it's a way to assume a brand new identity without ever bumping into the person.

You've seen this before. Absolutely. And it's a good way to hide. Yes, the man who called himself Jonathan Wayne Miller had found and stolen Jim's baby son's identity in an effort to disappear forever. It was Maitland who told us how he must have done it. By cruising cemeteries, most likely. You try to match a person. If you're a male, you're looking for a male.

You're looking for a person born within one or two years of your year of birth. And you're golden. Back then, it was that easy to fake an identity. Unless you ran into someone as exacting as Maitland, who called the Massachusetts Vital Records Department and asked to contact there to do a search for Miller's official death certificate. So he went to the volume where that death record should have been, turned to the page number, and guess what?

That page was missing. Really? Someone had actually cut the original state death certificate out of the book. And presto, no death certificate suddenly brought the late Jonathan Wayne Miller back to life. It almost worked. Until the passport agent got suspicious, and the FBI got involved, and the fake Miller was pulled over for that traffic violation in Utah. So he's taken into custody, and he refuses to tell the judge who he really is. Well, the judge says, there's not going to be any bail until we find out. Faced with a long stay in jail, the imposter finally came clean. As you've no doubt guessed, his real name was...

Duncan Martinez. Under investigation in L.A. for the murder of Ron Baker. We were thrilled, because now at least we had that reinvigoration. You know, you get that adrenaline pumping. We now know where he is. Later, Detective Rick Jackson called Jim Miller and explained the whole messy truth about how and why his son's identity was stolen. The guy was wanted for murder, and he got the boss

and tried to get out of the country with a passport under my son's name. I was mad that someone would steal his identity to commit a crime. So generally the principal, or was it because this was your Jonathan? The principal behind it, I don't care whose child it was, let him rest in peace. Leave him alone. Duncan had been on the lam for a year and a half. He'd been in Boston much of that time,

working as a cook in a pizzeria, living in this apartment in a suburb called Revere, and stealing a dead baby's name to try to get a passport and skip town. Had he have gotten the passport, who knows what would have happened. Instead, Duncan's devious passport scam had put him in a Utah jail facing federal fraud charges.

But Duncan had a plan. Another one. Coming up. but Duncan had a plan another one coming up we get a call from Duncan Martinez's attorney informing us that Duncan is willing to talk to us about what happened the night of the murder and talk he did Duncan Martinez spins a spellbinding tale

Ron is screaming help me Duncan when Dateline continues spins a spellbinding tale. Ron is swimming out in Duncan. What did anyone do to deserve this? When Dateline continues. Winter, 1992. Park City, Utah. Resort town. Park City, Utah. Resort town? Ski mecca?

And until he got busted on the highway for that fake passport, the new hideout for fugitive Duncan Martinez. A prime suspect in the murder of his good friend, Ron Baker. Park City was just the next convenient place to disappear. Until that inconvenient traffic stop, followed by his arrest on passport fraud charges. That changed things. So Duncan came up with a new plan. We get a call from Duncan Martinez's attorney, informing us that Duncan is willing to talk to us

about what happened the night of the murder, out of the clear blue sky. So the detectives and Duncan's attorney in the DA's office agreed on some ground rules. He'd tell the story all right, but only in exchange for some sort of limited immunity from prosecution. Otherwise, no story, no dice. We worked out a deal where he could talk to us freely.

We couldn't use anything he told us against him. There's a term for the deal they made. They call it king for a day. Fancy. He was in charge that day. Our hands were tied as far as what couldn't be used, but it could give us information to move forward to try to further the case. But there was a catch, a big one. If Duncan ever let anything slip to anyone else, or if detectives uncovered any additional evidence, they could charge him

with murder. But on this day, right here, he had one free day pass to reveal all, no charge. So what happened that night of the summer solstice 18 months earlier? Duncan explained that he and Nathan had lured Ron to that spooky railroad tunnel, supposedly to drink beer and meet girls. Then, as they walked down the track, said Duncan, Nathan tripped. Ron made a joke. Nathan got mad and started stabbing him. Ron was screaming, help me, Duncan. Why are you doing this to me?

What did I ever do to deserve this? But it got worse. Duncan described graphically Ron Baker's last moments. Nathan's face looked like it was on fire. I told him to make sure that it was over because I didn't want Ron to suffer. Slit his throat. And Ron Baker, the sweet, gentle astrophysics student, was dead. Then, said Duncan, he and Nathan fled the crime scene

and raced to a payphone where, again according to Duncan, Nathan insisted that he, Duncan, call Ron's father to say it was a kidnapping and demand ransom. So Duncan said he made the call worried that Nathan might kill him if he didn't. He said, now you've got to do this. And I think I said no at first. He says, you better do this.

And kind of just looked at me, and then I did it. Then he said they went home, dumped the murder weapon, cleaned up, and went to a party in their apartment building before making a second ransom call the next morning, that is. In short, said Duncan, it was really all Nathan's doing. It mitigated a lot of his involvement in this, minimized everything he did, at least for the most part, with the, I didn't think it was really going to happen. why would you go to the extent to lure him up there if you didn't really think it was going to happen? Good question.

Duncan had an answer, which put that Nathan lost his temper and snapped excuse in a whole more dubious light. Because, Duncan freely admitted, they had discussed doing something beforehand. Inspired by the TV show Dragnet. Me and Nathan were sitting around watching a cop show or something, and on in the kidnapping or something, right? And Nathan said, oh yeah, we should do that, and brought it up, and it was definitely in a joking manner.

Or maybe not a joke. Because on the night of the summer solstice, Duncan admitted, he and Nathan took their roommate Ron to the Manson Tunnel, and there, for reasons he couldn't or wouldn't explain, they killed their friend. But here, long after the fact, Duncan was talking like some spin doctor. There was no way in my mind that it was possible for Nathan to commit that. All I was in it for was to go to the park and have a few brews. And, you know, no realization that it could in any way be real. Did you hear the blame shifting?

Not the first time Detective Jackson had encountered that sort of behavior from people. And in this case, he was unconvinced. I think it was a joint thing. They were both involved. There's a French term, folie a deux, which translated means the madness of two. It's a psychological term that two people together get to the point where they do something that normally neither one would do on their own. And it's like a one-upsmanship on the next. Two people acting together. Yeah.

Can produce a poisonous mix. Yeah. But Duncan, the king for a day, deflected and denied, always blaming Nathan for killing Ron. Detective Garcia even tried one more time to maybe elicit some kind of confession. Duncan, did you stab Ron? No, I didn't. I honestly say I did not kill Ron. I did not stab Ron in any way. You know we can't use this against you.

Right, I know you can't. I did not stab wrong in any way. You know we can't use this against you. Right, I know you can't. I did not stab him. In fact, everything Duncan said that day was off limits. But as we say, there was some fine print. We told him you cannot talk to other people because if you talk to other people, those are potential witnesses against you. And that was part of the deal. Sure, said Duncan Martinez. A deal's a deal. They had no choice but to let him go. But soon, detectives and Duncan would connect once more in ways they couldn't possibly have imagined. Coming up. We told him you will help us prove that what you're telling us is the truth. Investigators were far from done with Duncan Martinez. Dude, what are you doing, man?

He was about to go undercover. To him, it was, hey, man, this is Hollywood stuff here, man. I can really pull this off. Could he? Day after day, the trains rolled through the dark old Manson Tunnel, past the strange graffiti, past the place where Ron Baker breathed his last. And two years went by.

Duncan Martinez returned to the good life in Park City, Utah, while detectives turned their attention to his old pal Nathan Blaylock. He wasn't hard to find. Nathan, we learned, was arrested for a bank robbery. He pulled with somebody that he was doing drugs with. So now, Nathan was locked up at the county jail in Riverside, California, totally unaware that his buddy had betrayed him. Oh, Duncan's story about what happened in that train tunnel was a betrayal.

But was it true? Can't charge a man with murder based on blame from an old accomplice. Mind you, there was some forensic evidence, a little. Traces of blood under Ron's fingernails. Rare blood, type AB. Duncan was type A. But what about Nathan?

We got a search warrant for Nathan Blaylock's blood, and that blood came back AB positive. Blaylock's blood. Four percent of the population have it. That was good, quite good, but still not enough for a murder charge. Detectives needed to place Nathan inside the Manson Tunnel with the knife in his hands. One possibility. Would the guy who'd ratted on him help them some more? We had established a relationship with Duncan. He knew where we were coming from.

We wanted to get Ron Baker's killer. He told us he was involved. And we told him, you will help us prove that what you're telling us is the truth. He was in total agreement. Eager to help throw Nathan under the bus. So a recorded phone call was set up through the jail. And Nathan and Duncan spoke for the first time in almost two years. Dude, what are you doing, man?

What the hell have you been? Uh, everywhere. I ended up in Boston for a while. Yeah? How about you? I heard about you've been in a lot of trouble. Oh, you could say that. It was like old times as the two caught up. And then Duncan started spinning a story to get Nathan talking. I just got in touch with my mom, and she says they've been over at her house

giving her, like, serious s*** about my blood type and stuff. Then, without missing a beat, Duncan cleverly got Nathan inside the tunnel and tied him to the struggle just before Ron Baker was stabbed to death. Remember, you got your hand scratched? I thought about that when you guys were wrestling and stuff. I have nothing to say about that.

I don't know if this line's secure or not. Nathan got nervous. But before they wrapped up the call, an unexpected bonus. Nathan was totally unaware that Duncan had just duped him. And he invited his old friend to visit him in jail. And four days later, there he was, wearing a wire. You have to understand Duncan's personality. To him, it's, hey, man, this is Hollywood stuff here, man. I can really pull this off. Those few moments when he was screaming my name to help him out.

Dude, I thought I was going to die, man. Then Duncan went to work and tried to draw Nathan out by claiming he'd left behind his blood on the walls of the tunnel. Party on the wall. That's the party on the wall. Dude, you f***ing had scratches on your arms and stuff from smashing on against the f***ing walls of the tunnel. You didn't do that. It was for you. Blaylock, he'd play it down, play it down, play it down. smashing on against the walls of the train, in the train tower. Blaylock, he'd play it down, play it down, play it down. It just happened. It just happened. That was good.

But detectives in the DA's office still wanted a little bit more evidence before indicting Nathan for murder. And Duncan? Thanks in part to his limited immunity agreement, he remained free, as if he'd never harmed a hair on Ron Baker's head. And the Baker family was not happy. Not at all. I didn't like it.

My parents didn't like it. Duncan walking away, I mean, he was friends with Ron for a long time. Like, he'd been at the house, talked about him at the funeral. At any point, he could have said what happened. But Duncan didn't seem to care. He was about to embark on a whole new chapter of his life. At the University of Utah,

the man who liked to tell stories now had plans to make movies. Coming up... He had a leather jacket. He had a tattoo. He had a little bit of the bad boy thing. A whole new role for Duncan Martinez and an encore undercover performance.

I don't know what to do, and I don't know what I'm going to tell him. I mean, what should I tell him? If you didn't do it. Yeah, and? If you don't know who did. When Dateline continues. There was a brand new student at the University of Utah. The guy majoring in film studies, and his name was Duncan Martinez.

He rushed a fraternity at the university. He was really liked by most of the fraternity members. He was living a pretty good life. Yes, he was. 22-year-old Duncan Martinez, once a big-time murder suspect, was now a big man on campus. He went by the name Doofus O'Reilly. That's what he liked to tell his friends to call him, Doofus O'Reilly.

He was a center of attraction at a lot of events. Charming, charismatic, life of the party. Doofus, a.k.a. Duncan, was a long way from that murder in the mansion tunnel. And here he soon caught the eye of an attractive sorority sister named Melissa Bean. And the two started dating. I hung out at a particular fraternity house and Duncan was pledging the fraternity. So we got to know each other and Duncan was quick. He was witty. And I liked that.

He had a leather jacket. He had a tattoo. He had a little bit of the bad boy thing. It was as if Guy Fieri had rolled in and come to college with sort of the hair and the look and the big stories. Melissa said it was like Duncan dropped in from another planet, but he instantly fit in. He was a leader. He was a little bit of a Pied Piper. I think people naturally followed him. I think people very much liked him. Duncan could identify with and talk to anyone about anything that they were into. He had a lot of capacity for dazzling people. Back in L.A., the detectives were still investigating the Ron Baker murder,

and they wanted to put Duncan's dazzling but devious skill set to use one more time and get one more blockbuster piece of evidence. They found Duncan at college and persuaded him to make yet another call to his old buddy Blaylock, who was still behind bars for bank robbery. Maybe this time, Duncan could spark something really incriminating out of Nathan to seal their case and then charge him. We flew up to Utah and made the call from the Marriott Hotel where they had private lines and stuff.

They talked about a half hour and little by little it started coming out. Naturally, the call was recorded. Hello? Yeah. Hey, bro. Hey, what's up, dude? Oh, man.

Um, I got a problem. Talk to me. And sitting in that hotel suite, Duncan did talk, as usual, spinning another one of his stories, saying a warrant was out for his arrest, and he feared taking the rap for Ron's murder. All I know is that I'm flipped, and I don't know what to do, and I don't know what I'm going to tell him if I go down. I mean, what should I tell him?

But you didn't do it. Yeah, and? And you don't know who did. Duncan kept trying to get Nathan to say the words, to take the blame directly for stabbing Ron, for cutting his throat. This is something you did that's f***ing me up and I don't know what to do about it. That's why I wanted to talk to you about it. And I'm telling you what to do about it. That's why I wanted to talk to you about it. And I'm telling you what to do about it.

Ask God for forgiveness. How can you ask for forgiveness or something like this? Ask God for forgiveness. I don't understand. So that makes it better? It's hard to, it doesn't make it better, it doesn't make it worse,

but it makes me able to function and continue to do what I have to do. Then Duncan played the guilt card. I mean, it sounds like you've got it tucked away like it never happened. And I can't see how you could do that. Because I have to live my life. I have to go on. It happened. It was a mistake. It happened. A mistake.

Not quite a confession, but close enough. Now, two years after Ron Baker's murder, Nathan was talking himself into being charged with the crime. But Duncan Martinez? He would resume college life, film studies, frat parties, and freedom. After he wrapped up his undercover call with Nathan, detectives drove Duncan back to campus and dropped him off. As he was getting out of the car, he goes, it's really too bad that we had to meet under these circumstances because I think it would be a lot of fun to hang out with you guys.

Was Duncan Martinez literally getting away with murder? Maybe. He was too smart to screw that up. Wasn't he? Coming up... He told me that he had witnessed a murder. Duncan's secret. I remember thinking this has to be something that he's made

up. Surely this would be something that would have caught up with him. Was it about to? It was almost as if he knew that his facade might have been slipping. If Duncan Martinez was the charismatic Pied Piper of his University of Utah fraternity, Melissa Bean was, well, let her describe it. I was president of my sorority. I was going to be chief justice of the judiciary. I was exceptionally capable and kind of nerdy and boring. I mean, I drove a Volvo. I was basically a Volvo. I was the Volvo in college, right?

And Duncan seemed to love impressing Melissa. Is that why he told her a story that was more disturbing than impressive? He told me that he had witnessed a murder. So he's walking up to the edge of something here. Yeah, he never got really into details, but he had told me that he was helping the police with it. Duncan, fun-loving film student and party animal, Doofus O'Reilly, tangled up in murder? But for once, Duncan seemed serious. Deadly serious. He said that he and a roommate had talked about going after a college friend and that there had been an intentional plan.

That he was part of. That it appeared he had been part of, yes. I remember thinking this has to be something that he's made up. Another one of his many stories. He's just trying to be a bigger person than he is, because surely this would be something that would have caught up with him. But was it true? Melissa's happy campus life felt troubled, and so she confided in a couple of trusted friends. And she didn't intend that the story should spread. But it did. So kind of me sort of being big mouthed about what Duncan said

to me, to a couple of guys, went to my brother, went up the chain to the alums of the fraternity, went to university police, and then LAPD, and he's being asked to leave his fraternity. Then Duncan found out it was Melissa who leaked his story. He was pretty angry and pretty aggressive and told me that I needed to keep my mouth shut. There was sort of a restrained amount of violence in him. Were you frightened? I remember being afraid of him. It was almost as if he knew that his facade

and the way that he had sort of slipped in might have been slipping. Or maybe it was a mistake to bring it up in the first place. Might have been the loose lips were sinking ships. Back in L.A., meanwhile, Detectives Garcia and Jackson were focused on nailing Nathan Blaylock. He'd been sent to prison for that bank robbery, and that's where they went to see him, hoping to coax a confession, which they could use to finally indict him. So when Nathan saw us, it was like, hey, guys, what's up?

And we said, nothing, we just want to come sit down and talk to you and see if we're missing something here. Do you want to tell us what you remember? At this point in time, it's getting hazier and hazier. It is something that I don't sit and dwell upon. At which point, the detectives sprang a little surprise they'd brought with them. The audio tapes of Duncan exposing his good friend Nathan. What if we tell you that somebody's telling us you killed Ron Baker?

I'm telling you the damn lie. Okay. And that's where we're confronted with me. Somebody's telling us that you killed a lawmaker. Well, once again, I'm telling you that they're lying. And I said, would you be curious to hear who's saying this about you? And he said, yeah, I'd love to. And then I said, well, I have a tape of the conversation.

And we hit the button. And as soon as he hears, his head went just like this. I mean, it's like we had him so bad. And at that point, he's kind of losing faith on his ability to hold out and not tell us what happened. And I believe I'm the one that said. And that was the break right there. His confession. Two and a half years after Ron Baker was stabbed to death, detectives finally had what they needed.

And a few months later, Nathan Blaylock was indicted for first-degree murder. Fair or not, Nathan would have to take the entire rap for killing Ron Baker. As for Duncan Martinez, the worst thing that happened to him was being booted from his fraternity. Did you make peace with the idea that Duncan would just live the rest of his life? I guess I had to. Some people, through guile or luck, manage to avoid paying the price justice demands. But it's also true that in the fraternity of the convicted, few behaviors are considered as low, as despicable,

as the ratting out of a friend. And, though no one knew it, fate had redress in mind. And maybe a sense of humor in the form, this time, of a living, breathing rat. Coming up.

I witnessed my best friend kill my best friend. And I didn't know what to do. Was he emotional when he was telling you this? Not at all. Really? Kind of cold and calculating. Might the man who talked himself out of jail talk himself right back in when Dateline continues? Christmas time in Salt Lake City, Utah.

A sporting goods store. An alarm went off. Cops arrived. And Detective Jim Pryor was called to the police station to interview a burglary suspect caught red-handed. Seemed like a likable enough kid. He'd committed a petty crime, got caught, confessed his part in the crime. Seemed personable enough. Yeah, he did. Not adversarial at all. Chatty, cordial, cooperative. Sound familiar? Well, of course. The thief was Duncan Martinez. Did he come off as a criminal or as just a regular guy or what? No. My initial impression

was maybe a smart aleck college kid who could talk his way out of anything. But Duncan couldn't talk his way out of this one. He was headed to jail for a two-bit burglary. After he was interviewed and processed, he wanted to confirm his identity. And he says, well, we can go to my house and I have my ID there. So they went into Duncan's apartment, found his ID, and while there, Duncan asked for a small favor. He said, hey, can you feed my pet rat? Feed my pet rat? Yeah, and the other officer that was with me, we kind of looked at one another and said, did he really say that? And the kid was accommodating, so he wanted to feed his pet rat because he fully expected to be in jail, didn't want his poor creature to suffer.

So Detective Pryor walked over to the cage and fed the rat. And if he hadn't done that, he probably wouldn't have spotted Duncan's day planner lying right there. And like any good detective, he took a little peek inside. And found a business card. It was Detective Rick Jackson, LAPD Robbery Homicide Unit. Robbery homicide in L.A.? That's a big deal. Well, that's, I guess, the tip of the spear, if you will.

Yep. And it made me interested. So interested, he called Detective Jackson. He says, do you know a guy named Duncan Martinez? I said, yes, I know a guy named Duncan Martinez. And I said, is there anything I can help you with? My mind immediately went to, we can use this. We need to get it on tape. Use this? This was the excuse Duncan had given the police for the burglary. He said, I only did this because somebody is extorting me. Because I witnessed somebody get murdered in Los Angeles, and this person that I know told me if I didn't do this burglary for him,

then he was going to tell the police that he knew about my involvement in this L.A. thing. Wow. Everything is done where we can't use what he told us initially against him. Well, this broke the rules. Bingo. All Duncan's blabbing just might be his undoing. Remember, under the conditions of his king-for-a-day deal, Duncan couldn't talk to anybody about the case. So Jackson called Pryor with an idea. You need to call him back, tell him

this story is kind of a wild story. You're trying to get your mind around exactly what happened, and tape record him. By this time, Duncan had bonded out of jail, was back home. So Detective Pryor called him, left a message. And then, lo and behold, he calls me back. This is Pryor. Yeah, this is Duncan Martinez. Hey, Duncan, thanks for calling. What I'm trying to do... He started talking about his situation,

just giving, I don't want to say fatherly advice. And then Pryor eased into that L.A. murder thing Duncan had mentioned. I witnessed my best friend kill my best friend, and I didn't know what to do. You witnessed your best friend kill your best friend? Yeah. It was my two best friends. At that point in time, he started to open up a little bit,

and he started telling his story. The whole story, how he and Nathan saw a TV show about a kidnapping and decided they could do better, how they picked the unsuspecting Ron Baker as their victim, lured him to the tunnel, where supposedly Nathan tripped and Ron made a joke and then all hell broke loose.

Nathan jumped him. I heard him slam back and forth between the walls. Ron was screaming, help me, Duncan. Nathan was screaming, no, I didn't want to do... Was he emotional when he was telling you this? Not at all. Really? Kind of cold and calculating. He didn't seem rem to do. Was he emotional when he was telling you this? Not at all. Really? Kind of cold and calculating.

He didn't seem remorseful at all. Even as he recounted Ron's last desperate effort to survive and his own instruction to Nathan. I told Nathan, you've got to finish him off or something. Because you can't leave him like that. You better cut his throat and finish him off or something. When he told Nathan Blalock to cut Ron Baker's throat. That still makes your hair stand up? It does a little bit, yes. For sure. And I'm thinking about it getting shivers.

Even now? Yeah, after over 27 years. Soon after, at the L.A. police station, Rick Jackson received that precious audio tape. It was like an early Christmas gift, and I was thrilled. Duncan had broken the rules of his agreement. All he had to do was keep his mouth shut, and he did not. So now Duncan Martinez was indicted for the murder, just like Nathan Blaylock. Soon he'd return home to L.A.,

but this time for trial for the murder of Ron Baker. But Duncan Martinez had yet another plan, and he intended to go free. Coming up, two trials, two verdicts, and one final twist. My heart just sank. All these years later. To deal with another heartache at the hands of Duncan. I'm glad that my parents aren't around to see this. Ron Baker could have been starting his career as an astrophysicist by the time his roommates went on trial for first-degree murder, a crime so senseless that even as a jury was seated, Ron's family and the detectives were still struggling to understand.

They were separate trials. Nathan had the first trial. It was March 1996. Nathan's didn't take long, and neither did the verdict. And they came back guilty. No surprise, and the court showed no mercy. He was sentenced to life without parole. Now Duncan. But before his trial began, because he'd helped the cops,

Duncan was offered a deal, a good one. Plead guilty to second-degree murder and just maybe walk after around 12 years. But it wasn't to be. He basically gave us the middle finger and said, No, I want less. I want a better deal. I want to go on probation or I want seven years or whatever. That wasn't in the cards. So Duncan put on his best behavior and took his shot in court. The defense made the arguments

of a man who'd had the confidence to turn down a deal, insisted Duncan didn't kill Ron. That was Nathan. And without Duncan's help, they said, the cops would never have cracked the case. Except, remember that story about watching Dragnet and actually planning the crime? And how, in that dark tunnel, while their victims struggled to survive,

it was Duncan who gave the order to finish him off, which the jury could not ignore. It was less than it took for Nathan's jury to come back, and he was convicted for the same thing. Guilty of first-degree murder, sentenced to life without parole. He had made his choice, no deal, and he'd paid the price. I wasn't surprised at all in the fact that he turned down a second-degree murder. He would have been out by now.

So he made his bed, he should just have to lie in it now. That's the way I feel. Duncan and Nathan were both sent away, destined to die in prison. And nearly 25 years went by. Young men to hardcore lifers.

Ron's parents died. Sister Patty married, had two children. Detectives Jackson and Garcia retired. And then, one June evening in 2020, right around the summer solstice. So I'm sitting, scrolling through Facebook, and somebody posted an article about the governor pardoning and commuting a bunch of people, which sure enough, I see Duncan Martinez, age 50, and, you know, my heart just sank. Her heart sank because Duncan's sentence had been commuted,

making him eligible for parole, and nobody had notified Patty. Later, she saw the commutation letter from the governor, which said, Mr. Martinez has dedicated himself to his rehabilitation and becoming a productive citizen and merits the opportunity to make his case to the Board of Parole hearings. I know there's a pressure to release inmates, but there are a lot more types of inmates that could be released than people that have committed murders. He has been a model prisoner.

He's behaved. He's obeyed the rules. Maybe he's schmoozed a few people too along the way, but he's not done anything bad. And had he made a deal, he would have been out a long time ago. Right. So why not? And it comes back to the victim. A nice kid, wouldn't hurt a fly kind of person.

He never got a chance to be a good, productive citizen. Nevertheless, December 8th, 2020, Rick Jackson and Tati Baker met to watch and participate via live stream in a formal parole hearing. Looks all density. Yeah. The parole board would not let us record the proceedings, but they did provide a few pictures of the man who came before them.

His hair's turned gray. He's gained a few pounds. Patty tried to stay calm as she prepared to watch. Well, my anxiety is pretty high. There's that doubt in the back of my mind. What if? Duncan, talkative as always, addressed the board, said he was deeply remorseful that he took responsibility for what happened, that he was a terrible person back then, but now was a changed man. Low risk of violence, said a prison report. Patty and Rick spoke up, too. They implored the panel to keep Duncan, a master manipulator, locked up forever,

just as the jury ruled he should be all those years ago. It's not life with parole, it's life without parole. Then, as Duncan waited patiently inside the prison, the panel spoke privately to discuss his fate. Keep him where he is, locked up? Or release him? It took less than 30 minutes. And then, three little words suitable for parole.

It's a gut punch mostly because it's a worse gut punch to Patty. I'm disappointed in our system and glad that my parents aren't around to see this, to deal with another heartache at the hands of Duncan. Duncan wouldn't comment, but his attorney gave us this statement, saying Martinez takes responsibility for his actions, is remorseful, has done all he can to rehabilitate himself in prison, and earned the right to be released. But we wondered why did Duncan get a shot at parole and not Nathan? Well, for one thing, Nathan didn't apply back in 2017 when Duncan did, so his case was not considered. Though he has applied since and it's gone to the governor's office, which so far hasn't released any details.

We asked Nathan himself if he had some sort of comment to make, and he wrote back this letter, which we showed to Patty. What started as an accident became a nightmare for so many. I can't ask the Baker family for forgiveness. It is up to them to determine if I'll ever earn that right. I'm glad he took accountability for his actions. It still doesn't bring my brother back. It still doesn't change what either of them did. What they did, the madness of two.

Nathan Blaylock is still serving his life sentence. No indication of when, if ever, he will get out. But Duncan Martinez, he is out, has been out of prison since April of 2021. In plenty of time, of course, for the summer solstice. That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 central.

And of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night.