Dr. Insanity - Man Terrified After Learning Roommates Evil Secret

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

This is Ian, and his father Perry. They’re being questioned by police about their tenant, Thomas Lopez’s whereabouts. Lopez brutally beat his girlfriend, Sabrina, right in their own home. Before losing consciousness, Sabrina managed to name Lopez and give the police an address—but with no search warrant and no idea what Lopez looks like, the police needed the homeowners' help to solve the case. What none of them realize however, is that Lopez hasn’t fled. He’s hiding inside the house in plain sight, and watching their every move. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Come on outside. Keep your hands rock to see you. What's going on here? Okay, so is Thomas Lopez staying out here? This is the father and son who owned this ranch house in the New Mexico desert miles from anywhere. Police believe a murderer is hiding inside their home. Thomas Lopez, a man who, days earlier, beat his girlfriend to death. Do you know where he might be staying at or anything?

But what makes this interesting is that the son is in fact hiding this man, and the father is about to find out that his son is protecting a murderer inside the vents of his own home. They said he might be in the vent? Thomas, talk to me, man. I know you're down there. We don't come over here for a simple stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So what's up? She's dead. On the 24th of February, police were called to a hospital in New Mexico to investigate something horrifying. 26-year-old Sabrina Calderon had just been brought in, unconscious, covered in bruises, barely clinging on to life. So her name is Sabrina Calderon. Is in such, like, dehydration that her kidneys are failing. She is too sick for even us to take her. And who brought her in?

I believe that they found it was her dad. What is that, would you say? Is that something from being hit? She's 26 years old. She should not be in this condition. Right. Sabrina is in such critical condition that the nurses are almost certain she won't survive.

But what made the hospital so suspicious is that Sabrina's injuries were that of someone who had been viciously beaten and the man who dropped her off left almost as quickly as he possibly could. The hospital called in police, but with no leads, the cops decided to use her emergency contact info and call up her dad to see if he could shed any light on what just happened. Can you hear me on Mr. Calderon? Yeah.

Could you tell me what happened real quick, why she has these injuries? Yes, Thomas Lopez, he got her from here. I guess at night point. He took it over there. Where's over there? It's a ranch house. He had it locked up in the room, and he would just be nice. She said he'll be there every day.

That was almost disturbingly simple. Apparently a man had taken her at knife point from her dad's home and was beating her every day at a house out on a ranch somewhere in New Mexico. The cops find it extremely strange that he never contacted police, so there is some amount of suspicion to cast on him. Regardless, they ask him for some details about the guy that he claims did this to her, knowing that if this lead hits a dead end, They know who to suspect next.

Where does he live at? He was just going from place to place. How did you get her? He ended up picking his hospital, and I thank God for that. And dropped up and took off. Do you know what he looks like? I sure don't. Okay.

Say his name one more time. Thomas Lopez. Thomas Lopez. Okay. Police now have a name. Thomas Lopez. The victim's father claims that Lopez was the one who both attacked and dropped Sabrina off at the hospital. which would explain why he was in such a big rush to leave.

What do you think he resides mostly, in Carl's Bad or in Portalus? I mean, he's just staying wherever he could, I guess. It seems like Thomas is going to be extremely difficult to track down. The cops don't have a description of him, he has a common name, and constantly jumps from place to place without a known address. If this guy had gone on the run, it could be weeks before they managed to find him. But that's when everything changed. Sabrina briefly woke up and found the strength to come.

confirmed that it was indeed Thomas that had done all this to her, and she managed to give police the address of the ranch her father mentioned, all before taking her final breath and dying moments later. Sabrina had just solved her own murder. Immediately, the cops head to the address heavily armed, knowing that they might come face to face with an aggressive killer. However, there is one problem. Police haven't had time to get a search warrant. meaning that they have no right to enter the home without permission. That means they're stuck outside, knowing that just feet away, a brutal murderer could be hiding. It's the sheriff's office.

Let me see your hands. Come outside. Let me see your hands. Let me see your hands. Is the dog okay? Yes, sir. Hey, Rice, I got contact. I don't have nothing.

Okay, sit right here, man. Okay, yes, sir. Sorry. This is Ian, part owner of this ranch and good friend of Thomas Lopez. Sabrina had told cops about him and said that he could be vital to tracking Thomas down. At this point, the cops have no idea how much Ian knows, but they do know that. his house is supposedly where Sabrina was attacked. For all they know, he could have been involved as well, so they have to be extremely cautious when dealing with him and clearing

out the house. Who's all here, man? My father, um, my friend, uh, Bugsy. What's a Bugsy's real name? I don't know. Come on outside. Keep your hands, we're up to see him. Oh, what's going on here, man, smoke is staying out here? Or has he been out here? been out here a few times Is there anybody else inside? You said, Bugsie, if I can go with you with the door, can you call her outside? Yeah, okay. Do we go get here?

Well, just call it from the door, please. Bugsy is another one of Ian's friends that happened to be staying at the property around this time. She couldn't have anything to do with the crime, but cops are still pleased to hear that there might be another witness and someone that could help them track their suspect down. What we're doing is we're, I think everybody to come out of the house, They were fixing to do a search warrant on the house. Supposedly, there was an incident a couple of nights ago

or somebody got beat up out here. And so now we're securing the house to do a search warrant for evidence. Okay. See how Perry keeps looking over to Ian. It's almost like he knows something is wrong. Because this isn't the first time that Ian's brought criminals over to this house, something police would later bring up. With that said, Perry obviously doesn't want to give his own son up to the police,

so he decides to stay quiet. We're good. We're out here with Ian Wayland and who's that and then nobody else in the trailer. So we'll just chilling out here for a now. We're working for Temple. Notice how Ian doesn't say a word. That's because he, just hours earlier, helped Thomas crawl into the vents inside his house to hide him from the cops.

However, his father has absolutely no idea. Yeah, we're good for the next few minutes out here. That'll work, thank you Well, we don't have it right now We're getting it Like I said, we just came here Okay, well then we don't have To give anything you say

We're secure in the house You don't actually have a warrant No, I don't have a warrant Okay, Ian, Ian Hold on Hold on, come here I'm exercising my rights Ian, come here

So we could talk to you Would you mind if I walked inside with you Just so we can make sure There's nobody else inside Sure Okay, I will go with you Like I said, I'm not looking for anything except for just make sure there's nobody inside they're

still not a hundred percent sure that the house is empty Ian mentioned someone called bugsy but wasn't sure if they were still around or not so the officer prepares to head inside and clear the scene with Ian okay you might have to put on some lights yeah go for it man and make it easier for both of us And you don't have anybody staying with you currently? No. No.

I just want to make sure, you know, not somebody waiting behind me, you know? Oh, shit's back here, man. Okay. Didn't mind if I walk, make sure there's nobody on the side? Go ahead, man. Okay. Appreciate it, man. Yeah, absolutely, so. Okay.

Thank you. Do you mind if I walk in here? Like I said, I'm not worried. Go ahead, go ahead. I'm not looking for anything. Just make sure nobody's in here. Sure, yeah, it happens man. Do you want if I take a look inside?

Yes, I appreciate that. Okay, thank you. My cross speed is filming. Right on. Do you have just friends stay from time to time or you have... Yeah, it was a while, you know. Hey, stay. Sorry, I'm sorry, my bed, hey.

My bad, hey, come right here. Okay, come back here. What? You, under the covers. Let me see your hands. What's up? There's somebody under the blanket there. You, under the covers, let me see your hands.

Let me see your hands. It's not a guy. But you see, it's not a guy. Okay. Mine, coming with us, ma'am? You're looking for you. Okay. No, she's fine.

We're looking for her, but we do, ma'am, need to ask that you come outside with us. Clearly, Bugsie isn't the person. they're looking for, but she would turn out to be extremely useful to the case down the line. She's been staying at the house recently, so the coughs keep her around thinking she might have seen something Ian didn't. The officer then clears the rest of the house and finds it to be totally empty. In the meantime, the officer outside catches Perry up on everything that's been going on at the house lately and what they plan to do in the search. So you're referring to this Tommy screw, yes. Thomas has gotten himself into some pretty

heavy at this point so uh yeah but what i've seen other than i i don't care for the dude okay uh keep this between me and you uh i'm here trying to make shit right and i apologize for my son you know what happens uh what's okay okay that's that yeah obviously not the i we're looking for so mr wheyland um so they're fine where they are right now but what it's sounding like like is the investigators I wanted to do the entire property covered in the search warrant. So what does that mean? Well, meaning the car's going to have to stay here. They can, they're okay in there for now, but they are asking the entire property.

Yes, sir. You don't want to go through the barns and? Yes, sir. That's what it's sounding like. We could probably go do that right now. Well, the well house is locked up and the barns unlocked. Okay. I could take y'all on a tour if you want to do it.

Yeah, we're going to wait for them to get the paperwork done just so that I don't think, I'll be honest with, I don't think Thomas is hiding in the shop or something like that. But on the off chance that he is, I don't want him to have the ability to talk to a lawyer and say, well, they illegally search the barn. Even if we have permission at this point, we're just going to kind of stand by and do it by the books of the paperwork, okay? The thing is, Officer Rice was wrong thinking that Thomas wasn't hiding on the property. Had he gone looking for him on his own, things could have ended much, much worse for him. However, the day is coming to an end, and it's time for the officers to go over everything they've figured out so far.

However, they can't risk Ian or Perry overhearing any of this. See if you can figure out why that might be, and we'll reveal it after this clip. She's been living here? Probably. Did you ask her? I haven't asked her to ask her. I would ask her. If she has been living here, she might have witnessed.

Sorry, I don't mean to be on edge of foot. You know, yeah, especially after, yeah. But, um, I guess the way it's looking is she died from that in the situation. Like, those beatings. I see. I guess there was internal injuries. Okay. So it wasn't like any tractor down.

The way it's seen it. Okay. The officers are clearly trying as hard as they can to conceal the exact details of the case from Ian and Perry. That's because detectives plan to interview them later, so, the less information that gets put into their heads, the better. This is usually for two main reasons. If they're guilty of something, this stops them from changing their answers to hide evidence based on what they know. Or, if they're just a witness, it stops them from giving answers based on what they heard from the cops,

rather than what they actually saw, protecting their credibility in court. It should be made clear that this isn't the first time that cops have been dispatched to Ian's house. And in fact, multiple criminals had been arrested here before, though never even. himself. He just seems to hang around with the wrong people. Let me tell you here. Okay. Hey, listen, they're expanding

the search to the whole property. We cannot take the car. Okay. So, okay, so the thing is with it is you guys, physically yourselves are not being entertained, okay? You know, the other than I guess today, any other issues going on? No. Okay.

That's good, I guess. Fortunately, no. Yeah. Got a nice place. I'm going to be more so liking about who comes out. Yeah. Honestly, when I lived down in the county, if I had friends over and they brought somebody I didn't know, I would straight up to him back. Guys, I'm cool with all y'all. So, but I don't know him?

And if I don't know him, he doesn't need to be here. If you haven't noticed, the longer this goes on for, the more uncomfortable Ian seems to get. And as that continues, the cops start to get more suspicious, too. After having multiple criminals caught and arrested on his property, you'd think he'd start to be more careful about who comes over. That's what made the cops suspicious here. If he's been hanging around so many criminals, he might feel obligated to cover up for them. That's the main thing on the officer's mind when he decides to bring Ian to the interview room, but they actually decide to wait before questioning him.

They have a fairly large number of witnesses for the case, so they want to get as much information from the others first, before talking to the riskiest of the group. Ideally, they'll get information that could help catch Ian in a lie and force him into telling the truth. So they start by questioning his father, Perry, the owner of the property. Too many people coming and going. I'm getting sick of the shit.

So you were in your room. They had been there a couple of days. You heard her getting slapped. You knew she was getting slapped. By the way, she was sounding. You peaked out. Ian was telling me, hey, y'all need to call him and quit. Whatever he said, the girl outside, this Elizabeth chick moved out.

And some other guy gave the girl that was being slapped after she said, y'all didn't help me. But that, apparently, this is two different women. See, I thought the girl that got beat up was not the girl. This girl. I don't know. I'll stay back in my room. But you saw a woman get a beat? Yeah, but I didn't think it was her.

She was already in Carl's dad, right? Is it Thompson? She just barely got in Carl's a bad, probably Friday. It seems that Perry absolutely heard Thomas attacking at least one woman, but wasn't able to confirm who it was. He backs up Ian's propensity to let anyone and everyone over to the house and tells the cops that it was bound to end up badly eventually. If Perry can identify the girl that he saw Thomas hitting though, it could be a massive help for the cops, as it would mean all the evidence lines up and they can begin their search for him immediately.

Suppose we just got the, you got the faces mixed up? Because you don't seem sure, but you know, a woman... I thought this too... And there is, Thomas did beat up another girl. Yeah. He has warrants out for his arrest now too, that's why he's running. Does he beat up every woman he comes in contact with him? see i thought we was talking about another woman i knew this i knew it this chick the picture he showed me

i know her going to the er but the chick that i heard through the wall saying y'all gotta help me was not her perry is saying that he had heard thomas beating a girl up but that it was a completely different girl to the one that they were looking for so now there was even more reason to catch him as soon as possible as it seems like like this wasn't an isolated incident at all. Maybe I'm confused. Because okay, once she went to the ER, she never went back to the house, right?

Okay, I'm thinking of another chick. Does that make sense? No. But we'll figure it out. I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry. This whole thing is just confusing this for me. I need to be more involved, I know,

with who comes and goes, but you know, he thinks he's grown up man down. And Ian's going to have to start putting it split down about who stays at the house. Ain't it something? Well, we need to get this, whirr, huh? Perry unfortunately didn't have much else to add, so now they turn their attention to Bugsy. Their surprise witness who might just have the answers they're looking for. Okay, because you might have seen or heard something that happened out there at Ian's house a couple days ago?

Um, honestly, I just got there today to do some laundry, so I have... Well, Ian says you were out there a couple of days ago. never this incident happened. Okay? Oh. Do you know Thomas, the guy that's always out there with Ian and all of them guys? I mean, I've seen him a few times out there, yeah. I mean, even if I was there, I didn't, I mean, I didn't see none of that.

Did you hear any of it? I didn't. At first glance, it seems like Bugsie might not be as much help as they anticipated. But things can change quite quickly when a witness is told just half serious the situation is. That's why the officer decides to let her in. on what happened to Sabrina and see if that jogs her memory at all. The reason we're here is because there's a girl that was with Thomas. Today, she started having complications from what Thomas and Sabrina had an altercation over.

Okay. She is now deceased. Unfortunately for the cops, this didn't change the fact that Bugsy hadn't seen anything at the house. However, she was able to give them one piece of information that could end up proving infinitely more useful than what they were hoping for initially. She gave them the address of another house Thomas was known to stay at. Inside that house is actually another one of Thomas's victims, and the police are about to discover that he's actually a serial domestic abuser. This is crucial to build a strong case against Thomas. Good and yourself? Looking for Thomas? He's not here. My friend, Monique,

that's her boyfriend. Okay. She doesn't stay here because she just... Is Monique not here either? She went to Hoclovis. Okay. Do you know where Thomas is? We just really need to talk to him. He's not supposed to be here. We changed the locks for us. She's really scared of him.

Oh, yeah? Yes, we changed the locks room. Okay. Was she battered a while back? Yes. Is that what that... Do you mind if we just make sure he's not in the house? That's fine.

What's it? I'm not friend. But nobody else is in this house? Yeah. That she called me said she scared me. Uh-huh. My boyfriend changed out the box. For her, he took her phone.

Oh, he took her phone? Yeah. When you're staying here, who are you talking about? Money. She hasn't been here all day back here to stay here. But she still loves her? Yes, yes, this is there. She hasn't had contact with him that you and know of.

She pretty much won't have nothing to do with him. How long ago was it was their incident that happened? That was yesterday. But she called me to come to me to come to her to because she scared of you. She scared of him. It turned on. Turns out, this is the home of the other girl that Thomas had reportedly been beating, which, if anything, is worrying the cops even more.

Since we know he's not limiting his violence to one girl, it would make sense if he's hiding out here waiting for this girl to come back home. The homeowner, however, is telling the cops that he's not here and she's not seen him for days. Is she working? Where is she has? Um, she's got a rehab and she went to club with her daughter. Oh, I guess that's what I mean. Did he have any friends right here that we know that he hangs out with family? I know of him because she's my friend.

I know she don't have nobody terror. Do you think he still has her phone? Oh, he does. Get that number. He does have a phone. The officers continued to search every room in the house as well as the attic, but weren't able to find him anywhere. According to everyone they'd talked to, Thomas had gone off the grid and was nowhere to be seen. But there was still one person.

person they hadn't talked to. The one person that they knew was acting strange from the very beginning. Ian Whalen. If anyone was going to know where he was, it was going to be Ian. So later that night, they brought him into the interrogation room for hopefully the last interview that they need in this case. Their cameras are down, so I'm using this thing, okay? Okay. I'll spend to you over here talking. You're not any kind of trouble, okay? You have any idea why you might be down here? Well, yes. Because of the fight or whatever, I guess, that Thomas had, right? Do you know anything else about it? No. Remember, Ian hasn't been told any details of what actually happened yet.

He doesn't know that Thomas killed Sabrina, or even that there was a physical exchange. But that's all about to change in just a few moments. Tom, let's talk about Thomas Lopez. What's the last time you've seen him? seen him. It's been about like a day or so. A day or so. What about his girlfriend, Sabrina? About a day or so. Okay. What happened between Sabrina and Thomas? I just like heard an altercation. I didn't like see anything. I just heard them screaming at each other enough to where it alarmed me. Were they inside your house when they did that when they were screaming? Okay. Was there anything physical going on or just screaming? Did you see anything physical? Did you hear anything physical? Did you hear her yelling stop or him

or anything? Mm-hmm. No? So whatever you heard screaming and stuff, where were they at? Like, I guess it would be, like, down towards the kitchen area. I don't know, I heard them yelling and what not, and I went out there and I was like, hey man, you're all okay, and they're just like, yeah, man, fine, you know. And what did she say?

Nothing. It's clear Ian was around when the fight happened, but it seems like he didn't realize how bad things had actually gotten. apparently Sabrina was actually crying when he went to talk to them but he just figured it wasn't his business and went back to sleep in his room do you know what the fight was about i don't and honestly i've got so much stuff of my own crap like okay when's the last time you heard from sabrina i don't know Sabrina like i said i'm not making this up like but you but she was that's thomas's girlfriend or whoever i don't even know that like i just know that that there was an altercation between. I don't even know if this Sabrina is, if this is who, like, messed up teeth.

I'm assuming that's who it was. So that day that whenever we went out there with the same check? As the officer mentioned earlier, Ian has a habit of letting people that he barely knows stay at his house. But it turns out this is a recipe for disaster. Since people know he likely won't get involved in their business, they see this property as an area out in the middle of nowhere where they can do whatever they want with no eyes on them at all. Initially, this only resulted in, smaller crimes, robbery or drug possession. But this time, it turned into something much more serious, and Ian is now about to find out exactly what happened. Do you know why I'm here? No.

We don't come over here for simple stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember you told me that. So what's up? She's dead. You're fucking me. What happened? Do you know? Well, from what she told us before she died was that she was getting her ass beat by Thomas over that your house in the barn with a cloth cloth. She died? And so whenever you heard him arguing, when he even said he was getting pretty roughed her, what did you see him do? Like, just slapping her, huh? Slap her? Well, I just trying to figure out what happened. And first of all,

he was in your house, he didn't know, so we can do it. From the very beginning, cops figured he knew a little more than he was letting on. Now he knows exactly, exactly what happened, how serious it was, and what the consequences will be if he doesn't give up everything he knows. Not only will he be implicated on the crime, but if Thomas is on the property and he ends up harming an officer, that will be his fault. The question is, is that enough for him to turn in his friend? When's the last time you seen Thomas? What even? Is he at your house? Oh no. Where does he hide in your house whenever the cops are trying to get him? Where would he go hide inside this? We're over there.

Okay, the house is secure. We're going to search warrant for it. Where would you be hiding? If he's in your house, where would he be at? You don't want that problem at your house. No. Like, I didn't know. Have you seen Thomas?

Have you seen Thomas today? Tell me the truth, man. Yeah, I mean. Where was he at when you see him? In the house. Okay. Was he there when the cops got there just a while ago? Ian.

Can we take the... Oh, you can't do that. This is Ian's ultimatum. Ian had been put in a scary position. He knew what the right thing to do was, but he was also terrified of this footage getting out. Amongst the people he hung around, he didn't want to be seen as someone untrustworthy,

so he asked for the camera to be turned off and told the detectives the truth. Ian admitted that Thomas was at his house. In fact, he was hiding, in the vents. Apparently, that's where he was the whole time. Now the cops knew exactly where he was, but getting to him would be no easy task. To arrest him, they'd have to try everything they could to make contact with him, or else get into the cramped vents with a known killer. Right. I mean, he knows we're here. I assume he knows we're going to come back, I guess. I don't

know. In the interview, they said he might be in the vent. Oh, yeah, that's what they're claiming. That's what Ian is claiming as it he might be. So if he's in a vent, the only one large enough for an adult that I know of, is when you go in, there's a hallway that was all the way back now, there's a hallway that's all the way back now in the hallway right now. As we go in, still clear all the little areas that we go past, I don't want to get fixed it and have him behind us. Yeah, if you hit that vent, you know, the downside is you'll have...

There is the cold habitual, and it is the frost of the montagne blue. The frost at its summit. Crosslight, t'n've been a fruade, Celebrate in a fashion responsible, you have to have the age legal for consuming the alcohol. Two rooms to clear in the hallway before the vent. The last door is literally next to the vent.

We'll figure out if anybody sees something weird. Several cops made it to the scene a few minutes earlier and have managed to locate the vents they think he's hiding inside of. This is the Rosamount County Sheriff's Office. Come outside. he's not answering or not you try my that's great let him know if he doesn't respond he doesn't come out yeah yeah i don't know i don't know how else or something like that's

he's office deputy bachman fall out man he hands up no you're down there so is that the big he went in or this that one it's got it's just huge over they saw it goes down there's no access back there. Ian had to, because Ian had the screen. He puts the vent back on. So he knew he was out there. The officers are right. The vent cover couldn't have been put in place from the inside,

so Ian had to have helped him hide. But they'll figure out what to do about that later. For now, they need to figure out a way to get Thomas out of the vents. To start with, locate his exact position. And they came up with a creative solution to do this. He was right there. How far, approximately? I just trying to see if there's a mirror.

I got a good point. I just need duct tape in the garage. There's probably duct tape in the garage. You take the phone and flashlight to get there and stick down in there just so we get some really good light and let them up. It sounds far-fetched, but after pointing a phone and a torch, deep into the vents, they were able to confirm precisely where Thomas was. It looks like you can see the back of his neck, a jacket.

The problem was, he still wasn't responding, and they certainly didn't want to get in the vents with him. So while another group of officers checked the outside to ensure he couldn't escape, the cops tried desperately to reach out to him. But quickly, they started to get concerned about something else entirely. Thomas, if you can hear me, Matt, answer. I know you're down there. We saw you in the pictures. Answer me. Just let me know you're okay, ma'am. Are you okay down there? Yeah, no, no. It's not got your door here.

Like you would think that he'd shuffle a little bit? I haven't heard him. Well, this looks like he moved since they just... That's happened. Like no noise, nothing. Mr. Lopez, Mr. Lopez, Mr. Lopez, Mr. Thomas had been down there for hours now, possibly even days. The cops know he's there, but they haven't seen his face or any movement whatsoever. They're fearing the worst, but they still can't risk going down there with him. that's when one of the officers gets a genius idea. You're going to want to push him back this way

because he's going to have to come out this way. So if you introduce gas, you want to introduce it on that. Okay. If you have a fogger or you have a pepper spray, I would introduce it down there. You don't do the same thing with the video? It may make him uncomfortable enough that you'll come out. That's going to make you cough.

So now it looks like he's facing us? His head's up here for sure. Yeah, because you don't want him to crawl. Yeah, because you don't want him to crawl. So I would introduce it over there, too. Push them this way. Yeah, yeah. They're planning to shoot pepper spray into both ends of the vents, forcing him out.

If he was to stay inside, he'd end up choking and writhing in the pain the gas caused. But it turns out, this plan was so smart and terrifying to Thomas that they wouldn't even have to put this into action. Hey, come on out, man. Dude, come on out. Come out, we'll talk. I'm scared for him. Well, there's nothing to be scared about. Come on out.

I've been beat up by the cops before. I understand, but nobody's going to hurt you. I just need you to come out slow. Get something to eat you? Yep, we'll get you something to eat. Go. We'll get you something to eat. Go ahead.

You got some dirt in there. You want to take the head off. The concept of being stuck in the vents with the pepper spray was just too much to Thomas, and with some convincing, they were able to get him out. The ideas and tactics used in this extraction were far from textbook, but they were incredibly smart. Now they just had one more job to do, interrogate Thomas and finally figure out the truth of what happened to Sabrina. Move all this over here, okay? He speak English or Spanish?

Both. Okay. Preferably English, though. Preferably English? And we'll stick with English. So listen to me. We are in America. You have the right to remain silent.

Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. Well, what we are here for is what happened with Sabrina the other night. That's what all this is about. There is an enormous amount of evidence against Thomas. Remember, everyone involved in the case has pointed the finger towards him, including the murder victim herself. him herself, but that doesn't mean he's not going to try and defend himself, notably without the presence of a lawyer. The story he chooses to go with, though, isn't the most convincing. Okay, we talked to Sabrina, okay? She told us what happened to her. I need you, to be honest with me,

and tell me the truth. Okay, were you guys fighting that night? Just an argument, man. That's all the was. We were fighting. We didn't get past school. Did she, how many times did she hit you? I don't want her to get in trouble, sir. Okay, how many times did you hit her? I didn't hear the show her. We just bumped to each other, like, you know what I mean? Did you shove her down the steps for her to cut those injuries? I'm not going to show her. That's not the kid's mom, but.

Young guys have a kid together? I don't hear. So tell me what happened in that bar? That's what she fell. And the surgery went back there and argued because I don't want to, we don't want to be arguing in that house. I don't want to get throwing out because I don't have nowhere to live. Apparently, they went out to the barn because they didn't want to argue in the house,

and Sabrina slipped and fell down. found some steps causing all of her injuries. You guys are arguing, okay? And it did get physical, but you didn't want to tell me what happened, right? Is that what you're telling me? It got physical, but you didn't want to tell me what happened? Honestly, we just kind of like, you got into the face, but it.

Was that the same thing that you took her to the hospital? Um, I mean, it was ongoing for like a couple days. So you guys were just like, basically arguing for two days? Pretty much. Who was the pushing and shoving? I don't have to say pushing and shove. We just kind of, With a chest pump and whatever you were.

Yeah, when was that? During that night when she fucking fell? Okay, so you guys do this chest pump in. We're going to arguing that house because I don't know how to get thrown out of there. Thomas is also claiming that he didn't hit her or even push her around. The worst they did was get into each other's faces and bumped each other's chests. As I'm sure you're aware, that's not exactly consistent with Sabrina's injuries or what she told the police. But Thomas' story gets even more unbelievable as he continues.

So then you guys go out to the ball. What happens next? You're sitting there and just smoking a cigarette and stuff. We grew up there. So you guys go up and you're like upstairs in the barn. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, and that law starts up there. And then she started coming back down and she fucking lose her foot.

You know, there she goes down the steps. So where was, so when was the... The big girl walked into the house and she's all, well, if I can't get buried, no more than I need to take me. in the emergency room so when was the uh the chest bumping or uh all that where was that at it's kind of the beginning we got in there like got in there then that's when how did she fall down the stairs she lost her foot you guess like you look at the stairs and there inside that place it's there's a big as gap between each it's not constructed pretty good just like some ships something

just put together and we're talking from the top all the way to the bottom it's like halfway So, even if you could have sort of the bottom, she lost your footing. You got kind of junk and stuff that's in that barn out. So not only did Thomas not have anything to do with her injuries, but when she got hurt, they'd already made up. He believes that this story has explained away why Ian will have heard shouting in the house, why they went out to the barn, and why Sabrina got such horrific injuries. This is why it's so important that detectives keep as much of the evidence as possible secret.

He's constructed a story that technically covers up all the evidence that he thinks exists, and while it's not comprehensive, it would definitely make proving his guilt in a courtroom slightly harder. But it doesn't explain a huge number of other things, like how the injuries were sustained by a golf club or the drugs Sabrina said he injected her with, both things he doesn't know the cops know about. And in fact, he was never able to explain these other things away. There was simply too much evidence for Thomas to deal with, and he chose to plead guilty at his trial.

Nurses from the hospital told the jury that Thomas had initially told them she'd fallen down the stairs too, but Sabrina immediately refuted this claim when she woke up. She said he'd hit her multiple times with his bare fists, struck her multiple times full force with a golf club, and had her tied up to a chair in the barn for a large amount of time while this all happened. Even worse, she said this had been going on for around a month,

and for the entire time, she felt as though she had been held captive. Obviously, there wasn't much Thomas could do against this defense, and he was convicted of murder, kidnapping, and resisting an officer. He was sentenced to 18 years behind bars. If you're interested in watching our uncensored, extended two-to-four-hour coverages of these original cases, make sure to check out our Patreon link in the description.