Going West: True Crime - Deanna Cook // 72

Episode Date: June 10, 2020

In 2012, a 32-year-old Dallas, Texas woman was found murdered in her own bathtub. She had called 911 during her death, but the call wasn't described as an emergency by the 911 operator, so her life wasn't saved. When her family found her dead in her home days later, and they knew exactly who killed her. This is the murder of Deanna Cook. PATREON BONUS EPISODES: http://patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES: https://truecrimedaily.com/2018/02/08/woman-murdered-while-making-911-call-prompts-change-to-texas-emergency-response-system/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/deanna-cook-texas-woman-found-dead-two-days-after-calling-911-about-attack-police-say/ https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/texas/stalking-victim-heard-issuing-final-911-plea-before-her-death/285-321029809 https://www.leagle.com/decision/intxco20180821607 https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-5th-circuit/1855103.html https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2015/05/21/rebuttal-witnesses-testify-in-delvecchio-patrick-murder-trial/ https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/crime/defense-focusing-on-mental-illness-drug-abuse-in-deanna-cook-trial/148916096 Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to Cran fans? I'm your host Tee and I'm your other host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. I feel like I've said this a lot lately with everything that's going on but we hope everyone is staying safe out there. We got some really nice reviews which remember we now do at the end so we're excited to give shout out to all of you. Thank you guys so much for the kindness. But before we start the episode today, we want to let you guys know that if you want to shout out in our show head over to Apple Podcast, leave us a five star of you but make sure you leave your name and your location. And also, we are gonna be putting out

some bonus episodes this month, two of them for the month of June. So if you wanna get some extra bonus content, head over to our Patreon, which is patreon.com slash Going West Podcast and subscribe. We just came out with an episode on the Wells Gray Park murders, and that was a crazy case from the 80s so go and check it out. And you guys already know that I'm whipping up something good for y'all for our

June bonus episodes. All right guys let's not waste any more time. This is episode 72 of Going West so let's get into it. In 2012, a 32-year-old Dallas-Texas woman was found murdered in her own bathtub. She had called 911 during her death, but the call was entered as a non-emergency by the 911 operator. When her family found her dead in her home days later, they knew exactly who killed her. This is the murder of Deanna Cook. Diana Cook was born on June 19, 1980 in Dallas, Texas to parents Vicki Cook and Mark Thompson. And she also had three slightly younger sisters, Valencia, Davia, and Carlytha, who she was really close with. She even helped raise them with her mother Vicki since the girl's father was not a part of their life. Although the family lived in a bit of a rougher area of Dallas, Diana shined in school and in her life.

But I actually did read some conflicting reports on her hometown of Oatcliffe. Some said it had a lot of crime, but I read one report that called it the Howdy Capital, because of all the down to earth and friendly people, which I thought was kind of sweet. Anyway, Diana was this ray of light who loved animals and she was very passionate about making her dreams come true. While she attended Southcliff High School in Dallas, she ran track and field and even broke multiple records for her times in relays and sprints. So not only was she very motivated, but she was incredibly athletic. She was known to have an infectious laugh and just an overall beautiful personality and

spirit. She grew up loving, running and really used it as an outlet and her mom says that she always knew her daughter was a skilled runner. So whenever Diana was sad or something didn't go right, her mom would always encourage her to run it out. But she also had aspirations in other fields. She dreamed of being a model, and she did do some modeling gigs throughout her life, and she also wanted to be an author.

Diana grew up in a Christian household where she and her family often attended church at the super city of Refuge, and she carried this faith with her into her adult life. When Diana was 16 years old, she became pregnant with her first child, who she gave birth to, and she was just shy of 17 years old in March of 1997. She named her daughter, Nesia. About a year and a half later, when Diana was 18 and done with high school, she had another daughter named Anaya. And as far as we can tell, these girls had the same father, but it doesn't seem like

he was really in their lives. And we'll get into the custody stuff later. Diana fell so in love with her daughters, and she wanted nothing but to provide for them. So she worked very hard to make sure they could have a good life. Eventually, the three of them moved into a three-bedroom house in a middle-class neighborhood of bulk springs, which is a quiet and safe community in Dallas, Texas. It was a nice, updated house with a yard, and it was right across the street from a park,

which was perfect for her daughters. So, they were doing pretty good for themselves. But years later, in 2008, Diana married a man named Delvequeo Patrick. Delvequeo Patrick, who was about 5 and a half years older than Diana, was an incredibly violent husband, and he had a prior criminal history, including charges in 1994 for aggravated assault, and a charge in 2007 for possession of cocaine. Before they married, he would often beat on Diana, but she was hoping marriage would change him.

But during his fairly short marriage to Diana, they fought often and her mother described their relationship as very rocky. The first call to 911 regarding a domestic abuse claim was placed in January 2009. Diana's friend called the bulk springs police department, explaining that Delvequio was holding Diana at knife point. Camaro was staying with Diana at the time and walked into the room while he was choking Diana. She screamed at him to let her go and he finally dropped her, but as he did, he told Camaro

to shut up or he would do the same thing to her. That's when she ran outside and called the police. So this guy's got a very, very violent history and now he's taking it out on these two poor women. Yes, and I don't think he actually touched Kamara, but she was there to see this violence. And so as their relationship or at least their marriage is starting, other people are aware of this abuse. When police arrived, Deanna explained that Delvecchio had kicked their bedroom door off its hinges and choked her up against a wall so hard that she almost blacked out, and that's when he picked up the knife and threatened to kill her.

The officers immediately arrested Delvequeo after this, and an officer gave Diana a family violence package. She then asked the officer if she could file a restraining order. The following month, Delvequeo Patrick was released on a $25,000 bond. And we're not sure who paid this bond, by the way, but somebody did. But Delvequeo did try to resume life as normal after he was released. When he got out in February, they had another argument that resulted in him choking her. So she asked him to leave her house and said that she was done with him. The following month in March, records show that he called her phone hundreds of times,

and he apparently threatened to have his friends sexually assault her children and to kill her in front of her children. Oh my god, this guy is a fucking monster. Yeah, if you're gonna say those horrific things, it really, really tells us a lot about you. So, a few months later in August, he choked her out again and stole her wallet. Wait, so they're currently not together, but he choked her and stole her wallet? Well, because he's stalking her.

He is not leaving her alone, and that's the whole issue in this case is that. You know, like I said, he called her hundreds of times. He keeps going to jail for assaulting her, but then as soon as he gets out, he starts harassing and stalking her again. Right. And you would think, or you would would assume that after all of this that's been going on, they may want to like put him in prison for longer since he just continues to keep getting out and harassing this poor girl. Exactly, and we'll get to that because they do that, but it's still not enough.

So at this time as well, when he choked her out in Stolar wallet, he called Deane as mother Vicki and threatened to kill her. Delveque was arrested once again, and since the judge saw his violent patterns, they increased his bond to $150,000 and stated that once he was released again, he would have to be electronically monitored. So meaning that he'd have to wear an ankle monitor

so they could detect his whereabouts. Because the judge is recognizing that he's dangerous. Right, and clearly this restraining order is not working. She's not even getting it. There's so many issues in this case, but she's trying to get it, and she was having issues getting it because he was in prison, and I mean, she was trying so hard to get this man away from her and whatever she did, it just wasn't working.

So the sad thing is, if he's assaulting her, you can only put someone away for so long with this assault. And I don't remember what state, honestly, it might be Texas, I thought. That has the three strikes law. I know that California does, for sure. Okay, so I should have educated myself on that before I'm speaking about it But this is exactly where that type of law would really really benefit because he keeps going away for a certain amount of time for assault And they legally can't hold him longer

You know at least longer than a certain amount of time and then they have to release him But he has violent patterns. he's not going to stop. Right, these tendencies are very clear, and it's very clear to all of us that this guy should be locked away for a very, very long time. And I mean, I guess, did they assume that he's going to abide by this ankle monitor and not? I wonder if the police are immediately called as soon as that ankle monitor goes off or if there was some way he could get around that well he wasn't under house arrest it was just they put this monitor on him so that they can track where he is and make sure probably that he's not getting too close to her

but the problem with the monitors is that an employee has to be watching it and we we talked about this in the John Gardner episode. For those who haven't listened, that is a crazy episode as well. It's episode 41 on John Gardner, and same thing with him, he was being monitored, but you have to be watching it. And so if you're not watching it and you're not paying attention,

people get away with things. This isn't just an automatic system. So there's just so many flaws in that anyway. And maybe they were well-intentioned, but it didn't help. Yeah, I was kind of assuming that maybe they would put like a monitor around Deanna's house, and then it would go off if he came in like within a certain amount of feet. But I guess that really kind of doesn't do anything though, you know? Yeah, there was a lot in this case that fell through the cracks, a lot of things that were

done incorrectly and laws were changed because of it. And we'll get into that later, but there's a lot more disappointment coming ahead. So in October 2009, just 10 months after Delvecchio was first arrested for violence against Diana, she finally filed for divorce. But since Delveque was in prison, she had a difficult time getting him to sign them. Because of this, she had to write to the court multiple times begging them to serve him the papers, explaining why she needed to be divorced from him.

But he never signed the papers. Soon after, a judge dismissed Delveque's case, and once again, he was signed the papers. Soon after, a judge dismissed Delvecchio's case, and, once again, he was free to go. On March 20, 2010, Diana ran over to her next door neighbor's house and just her bra and underwear screaming, he's trying to get me. Over and over, as well as, he's trying to kill me. And she was covered in marks and bruises and when the neighbor looked behind her she saw Delvequio and Diana's front yard so she immediately let Diana inside of her house. Even this neighbor knew about the violence from previous incidents. Yeah so this again like I said the friend

witnessed the violence her mom knows, her whole family knows, her neighbors know, this is no secret. Yeah. And the police in the judges know exactly. So that same evening, an employee at a local Lakinta motel called the police after Delvequio was found sitting in the lobby. He had a wound on his shoulder and face, and this concerned the employee, which is why they called the police. So when the police arrived, Delvickio told them that Diana had assaulted him and made her appear to be the instigator and the aggressor.

And remember, at this point, he was stalking her and constantly harassing her. He no longer lived at her house, she was actively seeking a divorce and she was trying to get away from him. But police went and arrested Diana. And shortly after, Delveque was also then arrested once again, and I'm not sure what this was for, and he remained in prison for one year. After he was released, he continued to physically abuse Diana. So in May of 2011, just two months after he was released, a family disturbance call was made to police, and they were dispatched to Diana's house. When they arrived, they noticed that Diana had knife wounds to her hands, and she told

police that Delvequeo had dragged her by her hair, hit her, sliced her hands with a knife, and threatened her with a crowbar. The officer then arrested Delvecchio for the fifth time now, so Diana once again filed for divorce, and this time a judge granted it. After four years of marriage, it was official. It was finally over, but it took until January 2012 to go through. In May 2012, just about five months after her divorce was finalized, Diana reported to the police that Delveque called her 107 times. So once again, he was harassing her.

Diana was trying to move on from him and live her own life away from him, and she had successfully gotten divorced from him, but he continued to stir the pot, and live her own life away from him. And she had successfully gotten divorced from him, but he continued to stir the pot. And he threatened her life during many of these 107 phone calls. At this point in time, her daughters were 15 and 13. We couldn't figure out what Diana's job was, but she went into work five days a week to provide for these girls. But she could not escape this monster. I can't believe that this is the fifth time now that he's been arrested for threatening her, and overall, he's probably made over 1,000 harassing phone calls to her, and most

of which were threatening. On July 28, 2012, Diana placed a call to the police while she was on her way to work that day. She explained to the operator that she had called countless times over the last four years regarding her now ex-husband's violence towards her. This time, she was calling because she spotted Delvequeo at the park across the street from her house. And we'll post some photos on social media because her house was directly across the street from the park,

so you guys can see what that looks like. So when she says he's at the park, he's right in front of her house. She'd even phone police earlier that day when she first noticed him because he had also knocked on her door and told her that she better not go to work. She had missed

work the previous day because of the same reasons. But Diana was worried because she wanted police to come and escort him out of the area, but every time she called police on him, it also backfired. Because as soon as he'd be released, he would come back at her with anger for getting him in trouble in the first place. Diana explained to the operator that she had attempted to get a restraining order against him multiple times over the years because of the abuse, but that there were issues with retrieving one. But all she was asking was for the police to escort him out of the area to make her feel

safe and so he wouldn't go and kind of ransack her house which he had also done before. And the operator dispatched a Dallas police officer to the park to question Delvequeo. And he noticed that Delvequeo had two bags with him, which were apparently filled with clothes. Delvequeo told the officer that he was waiting for his niece to pick him up, but it was very late at night. So instead, the officer drove him to his stepfather's home, which was nearby. Since he was at the park and didn't seem to be causing

trouble or threatening Diana, the officer let him go and did not arrest him. Think about this. This guy has threatened Diana multiple times, and now he's hanging out at this park across the street from her house and the cop says, well you're not doing anything wrong so I guess it's fine. And I did listen to part of this call and you can just tell she's so fed up. She sounds just defeated and deflated and she just wants it to be over. I think she said something along the lines of, if you check my name, if you look at my name, you'll see the thousands of calls that I've made regarding this incident, regarding my ex-husband.

So she's kind of just like, I've called you guys literally thousands of times, I'm over this, I just want him to get away from me. Yeah, and also she has to be thinking in her mind, is this going to lead to something really, really terrible? I mean, yes, he's annoying and he's threatening me and harassing me, but also at the same time, she has to worry about her two daughters safety

and her own safety. Especially because most of their encounters are violent. So when's, where's the final straw? And just a couple weeks later, tragedy struck. On Sunday, August 12, 2012, Vicki went to church as usual and Dianna met her there, but with her was Delvecchio, and this was incredibly unusual. Obviously, at this point, they had been divorced for almost two years and separated for much longer. And Delvecchio never went to church with her, I mean not ever. So her mother Vicki was very confused, and she even noticed that they were both acting

off. She thought that her daughter seemed very quiet, and she felt like they were likely together because Diana was incredibly strong-willed, and she was the type of person who just wanted to forgive and not hold grudges over anything. But her mom also often saw her with bruises and wounds and she pleaded with Diana to get out of that relationship. And this would be the last time that she would see her daughter alive.

Throughout the week, Vicki continued to talk with Diana on the phone. They spoke every day around 10 a.m. or so when Diana was going to work. So they always kept in touch and were very close. On Friday, August 17, 2012, they spoke for the last time. Vicki and Deanna's church had something called a prayer line set up, where a group of them would get on the phone and they could pray that way when they weren't at church.

So that's how she and her mother were speaking that morning. Afterwards, she texted her mom at speaking that morning. Afterwards, she texted her mom at 9.34 a.m. saying about to take a nap. Diana and her mother didn't speak for the rest of the day, but the following day, Saturday, August 18, 2012, Diana didn't answer any of her mom's phone calls. She also didn't post on Facebook, which was very strange for her because she was on Facebook constantly. She wasn't too alarmed, she just thought that maybe Diana was busy. But she still called around asking about Diana and no one had seen her. She even called Del Vecchio, and he said that he

tried calling her too, but didn't get an answer, and that he hadn't seen her since the previous Wednesday, so about four days earlier. He told Vicki that since Deanna hadn't answered his calls, he sent his homeboys to her house, but she didn't come to the door. The following day, which was Sunday, Deanna didn't show up to church, so Vicki decided to head over to her house after the service to check in on her. But before she went to church, Delveque called her again and he changed his story and said that he actually saw Diana on Thursday, not Wednesday. And then he reiterated that he had some friends go over to her house and check on her. I think it's interesting that Delveque told Vicki that he specifically had some of his buddies go over to Diana's house to check on her, because we know that he specifically had some of his buddies go over to Deanna's house to check on her.

Because we know that he had her aster with phone calls over the years. Like we said, sometimes calling her over 100 times in a day. So she absolutely did not answer his every call by any means. And she ignored him a lot of the time in hopes that he would just leave her alone. So suddenly, she doesn't answer his call and he has his friends check on her to make sure she's good that just doesn't seem like it would be true. And I wonder what Vicki thought about this statement because I don't know, it just sounds weird he had never done that before, so why do that now?

Well, you know what I mean? Right, and Vicki knows of Delvecchio's past. She knows about her daughter's relationship with her ex-husband who was a violent person. Right, and also, I have no idea where the girls were at this time. During my research, I was under the impression that both of her daughters lived with her full time. So it's possible that they sometimes lived with Vicki since D&A worked full-time

and was in a violent relationship, but I'm not sure. This is kind of the impression I was under while researching, so maybe the girls were back and forth. Yeah, that could be true. After church, Vicki went to Dianne's house with her other daughter and Dianne's youngest sister, Carlytha, and even brought along Diana's two daughters, who remember were about 15 and 13 at this time. When they arrived at the house, they noticed that two of Diana's dogs were barking outside and that all the doors were locked.

At this point in time, they noticed that there was water coming out of the garage, so they began feeling very worried. That's when they called the police, because they wanted to see if they could do a welfare check since Deanna hadn't answered her phone in three days and now she wasn't even opening the door. And the circumstances were just all too strange. The operator asked Vicki if she had called all the hospitals and jails in the area first. And Vicki was astounded by this question.

She responded, no, I have not. Ma'am, can you just send the police over here? And the operator responded, no ma'am, you just have to do this first. And I've never heard of this happening. She's clearly stating that she's worried about her daughter, who she hasn't seen in three days. She's explaining to the operator that there is water coming out of the garage, and that her dogs are locked in the's explaining to the operator that there is water coming out of the garage and that her dogs are locked in the backyard, and the operator is just like, no, call the hospitals in jails. What?

Yeah, that just doesn't seem right to me. So Vicki was trying to explain that she thoroughly believed her daughter was in danger, and someone should come check on her. But the operator just would not budge. She refused to dispatch an officer, so one of Diana's daughters jumped the fence that led to the backyard and opened it for the others. Then, Carlita, remember Diana's sister, kicked in the back door to the house so they could go inside and look for Diana.

As soon as they got into the house, they all noticed an incredibly intense smell. It was the smell of death and decay, and it made them all either cover their mouths or run right back out of the house. The house was completely flooded with water about six inches off the ground, so it was submerging their feet. The house was an absolute mess, and this also didn't make any sense because Diana was very clean and tidy. And why was it flooding and what was that smell?

They had no idea what was going on, but they all ran throughout the house to see if Diana was even home or if something had happened to her. Vicki followed the source of the flood into the bathroom where she noticed a shadow behind the curtain. And behind that curtain was Diana, August 16, 2012, Diana had called the police again, explaining that Delvecchio was across the street at the park, and she was

worried he was going to break into her house while she was at work. And like he's saying, this is again, so she had made this call a couple weeks prior, and now he's doing it once again. Right, so she explained to the operator yet again that she was unable to get a restraining order against Delvecchio, so she wanted an officer to go check him out for her and escort him away from the house. She also told the operator, he's trying to kill me three times. This poor woman is like pleading for her life every time she calls the police.

She's trying to make the next operator understand how serious this is and just no one's taking it seriously. Yeah, everybody is disregarding everything that she's been saying this entire time. When Vicki came upon the body of her deceased daughter laying in her bathtub filled with water, she knew right away that it had to have been done by Delvequeo Patrick. She had still been on the phone with police when she found the body. So during the whole break in, she was on the phone with the operator that told her to check the hospitals and jails. And she was screaming, oh my god, oh my god, my baby and she was crying. And so this is how the police were dispatched

because she was still on the phone with the operator. So when the police arrived, the first thing that they noticed was that water was coming out of the house and running down Deanna Street. When a paramedic went to the bathroom to see if he could revive her, he saw that she was long gone.

And in fact, her body was already bloated from the water. He felt that this wasn't caused solely by the water, though, and he could tell that she had died from drowning. That's when he turned off the faucet, and the police began looking around the house for any answers or clues. The officer on the scene noticed something off about Diana's bedroom door. It looked like it had been forced open.

The door frame was broken and the lock was turned, meaning that someone had likely kicked her door open. And although Diana's family had forced open the back door, they hadn't done so to her bedroom door. It was already like that. There was disarray throughout the rest of the house as well. And we mentioned that Diana's family knew she was an overall very tidy person. But the officer saw lamps knocked down, the bed was flipped over. It just looked like it had been ransacked.

Right. And at the time of Diana's death, Delveque was living at a stepdad's house in the area. And on the day that she died, which was Friday, August 17th, 2012, he called Diana 164 times. And not only this, he was even witnessed with Diana on the same day. Diana's male carrier was very familiar with her since she always delivered her mail. So that morning at 10.40am, which was a little over an hour after she texted her mom that she was going to take a nap, her mail carrier Debbie saw her walking next to her house with Delvecchio and Debeke was holding a few bags. And Debbie could tell that things just didn't appear to be good. Delvecchio looked angry and Debbie wasn't the only one to witness Delveque in the area that day.

One of Diana's neighbors, who lived a few houses down from her, had seen him around 11.30am, sitting on the trunk of a white car without a shirt or shoes. On the day she died, Diana called 911 at 10.52am, and that call lasted a total of 17 minutes and 21 seconds. During the very graphic 911 call, which by the way hasn't fully been released, Diana is heard begging for her life. And I know this because I read transcripts and read some court documents that explained some of what she was saying, but again, it has not all been released. At different points in the call, she's her telling Red to please stop as well as Delvequio. So it's unclear if she called Delvequio Red or if someone else was also involved.

You can apparently hear Delvequio telling Diana that he's gonna kill her. At one point during the call, you can hear water running, gurgling, and the sound of a struggle. You can hear Diana pleading different things, including, I'm not doing nothing. Please don't take me out. Please stop. Help. Meanwhile, the operator is asking her if she needs police, fire, or ambulance. It was later identified by Deanna's mother, Vicki, that she heard both Deanna's voice and Delvequeo's voice on the 9-1-1 recording. And some would say this could be biased, so it was also then verified by a detective who had known Delvequeo since high school.

And he agreed that it was indeed Delvequeo since high school, and he agreed that it was indeed Delvequeo's voice on the call. And you would think that during a 17 minute phone call, where you can clearly hear that someone is in trouble, the 911 operator would have dispatched police immediately. But there was a lot of issues with this. Since Deanna was calling on her cell phone, it took about 9 minutes for them to find her location. Because it takes just seconds to find it on a landline, but a cell phone is much harder to track.

And this was also about 8 years ago, so technology wasn't as good as it is today. But, the operator didn't note that it was an emergency situation, only that there was domestic disturbance. And the operator didn't assign the call to any officers. She put it as voluntary, so kind of like, go if you want. So, police took almost an hour to get there, and they had even made a stop at 7-11 an American convenience store on their way to Deanna's house. When they arrived at 11.45am, they rang the doorbell and knocked, but didn't get an answer. Instead of checking the house or breaking in, they just left. Because again, they thought it was a generic disturbance call and they didn't notice anything strange. They also tried to call Deanna's cell phone, but it went straight to voicemail.

And, of course, hindsight's 2020, so us looking at this, we're thinking, how could they not have just gone into the house and checked on her? But they didn't know because this was put in the system all wrong. I don't know why the operator put it in as voluntary. I don't know why she put it in as a non-emergency or why she put it in as just a regular generic disturbance call, but technically, DNA's life could have been saved, but the officers that were reporting to the scene did not know that there was an emergency there. After DNA's autopsy, the medical examiner determined that her cause of death was drowning and other homicidal violence, and that she was asphyxied to death. But she also endured strangulation. There were multiple

medical examiners who conducted this autopsy and they all came to the same conclusion and only a handful of them had listened to the 911 call. But they admitted that her death was very mysterious and suspicious and that she couldn't have done this to herself. It was also discovered that there were two male DNA profiles found during a vaginal swab, but neither matched with Delvequeo. And she definitely could have been seeing other men at this time, but it also makes you wonder if his buddies helped him commit this crime.

Delvequeo Patrick was arrested for the murder of Diana Cook. His trial began in May of 2015, which was about two and a half years after Diana was killed. Delveque pleaded not guilty to the charge, and his defense team wanted to paint Diana in a very negative light. Diana suffered from mental illness, apparently she was bipolar and she had a mood disorder, but of course, this is absolutely no fault of her own. Everything that happened to her was very real and she was a victim here, but the defense really played a permental illness and even stated that she abused drugs because of her occasional

marijuana and PCP use. And because Delveque knew that Diana sometimes used these drugs, he also had his defense tell the court that Diana had likely hallucinated the whole attack, and that Delvecchio wasn't there to begin with. And this is really devastating because Diana, like Heath said, is the victim here. So her having a mental illness makes her no less a victim. And it's a really low blow that the defense ran with this because they took a lot of her dignity away. And we had the 911 call that proved Delvecchio was in the room and we have all of his previous threats. You know, she couldn't have hallucinated that and she also couldn't have given herself those injuries. So the fact that they said any of this was just such a stretch.

Yeah, that's a lot of nonsense, and they're really reaching right now. The numerous 911 calls that Diana placed regarding Delvequeo stalking her were played in court, and so was the entire call that took place during her death. And the court was completely horrified. Emotions were running incredibly high, and even higher when Diana's mom Vicki took the stand and explained what it was like finding her daughter dead. When Diana's daughters testified, Delvequeo flipped them off. They're literally teenagers who lost their mom.

Like what's wrong with you? And luckily the judge saw him do this. He showed no remorse, meanwhile, people on the jury who had never met Diana sat there in tears, hearing all of these calls. Despite what they already knew about Delvequeo, this made the whole room despise him even more. There was another testimony that kind of helped Diana's case as well, and it was from a witness in jail. A woman named Jamie. In April 2013, while Delveque was in jail awaiting trial, Jamie was passing out medicine when Delveque apparently confessed to killing Diana. After the jury deliberated, Delveque was found guilty and was charged with the first-degree murder of Deanna Cook and was sentenced to 85 years in prison.

Deanna's family started an organization called Deanna's Voice, and with this, they host events, give back to families who experienced the same loss Deanna's family did. They have a scholarship fund, they do a lot to help the community and help the other victims. Diana was a huge inspiration to her sisters. Like we mentioned in the beginning of this episode, Diana helped raise her sisters while her mom juggled multiple jobs just to support the girls. So Diana always wanted them to reach for the stars, just like she wanted to do herself, and then later for her daughters. Her sister Valencia went on to attend law school to pursue her dreams of becoming a lawyer, and this was something that Diana had encouraged her to take on. Valencia says that Diana was her motivation, and she's the woman

she is today because of her older sister. Diana's daughter Anaya followed in her mom's athletic footsteps and played sports in school. Anaya, who stands 5 feet 11 inches or 1.8 meters tall, did very well in women's volleyball, while her older sister Nacia studied biology. Both of Diana's daughters were given to Vicki, Diana's mother, and she was granted their guardianship. The 911 call situation was a huge issue. The fact that Diana called 911 pleading for her life and it was described as a non-emergency situation

cost her her life. Everyone was talking about it and this caused the system to change. First off, the person who took Diana's final 911 call was fired. More people were put on staff, domestic violence calls were given high priority, and there was a heavy urgency put on all calls. They retrained staff to understand that all calls could be life-threatening, and they

should be taken seriously. This also goes for the call that Vicki made regarding a welfare check. So this particular 911 center had a lot of issues with urgency, and that all changed thanks to this case. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you so much everybody, and next week we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. It's always great to hear when systems change or laws change because of a case but it's

obviously really devastating that this poor young woman had to die to make that happen. So rest in peace to Diana. Alright guys, it's time to kick off the shout outs of today's episode. And I want to kick it off given big thanks to the amazing mother daughter duo Kayla and Haley Best in Baker Montana. They listened to us together during long car rides and that just fills our hearts with joy. To our so lovely thank you very much for listening and being a patron. We've got a lot of shout outs this week, so let's get into them. Big thanks to Airebela and Hillsboro Oregon, Emily and Kentucky and Katie and Tiverton,

Rhode Island. Thank you so much to Isabella and South Dakota, Jenny and Omaha Nebraska and Jillian and Fairfax, Virginia. And then we have Monique and Corona, California, Claire and Cincinnati, Ohio, and Emma and Harrisburg, Virginia. Thank you so much to Athena and Las Vegas, Nevada, Taylor and Orlando, Florida. And thank you to Cindy and Ohio

who said I have a soothing voice, love you. And a big thanks to Ethan and Prescott, Arizona, Tori and Oregon and Rodneyney in Hamilton, New Jersey. Thank you so much to Dana in New Jersey as well. Danielle in Long Island, New York, and thank you to Allie and Salt Lake City, Utah. Big thanks to Charlotte in Wisconsin, Christina in Los Angeles, California, and Courtney in Mexico, Missouri. I didn't even know there was a Mexico in Missouri. Shout out to Willow and Montessana Washington. I'm so sorry I might butcher this. Nathlin in Denver, Colorado or Nathlin in Denver, Colorado. I'm so sorry. I hope one of those is

correct. Thank you so much. And thank you to Rachel in Texas. Big thanks to Lisa in centerville, Texas, Kristen in Lewis Center, Ohio, and Aurora in Salt Lake City, Utah. Thank you to Mariah and Charleston, West Virginia, thank you Samantha and San Bernardino, California, and Shelly in California as well. And last but not least, we have Catherine in England, Laura and Vernon, British Columbia, Shars and Adelaide, Australia, Courtney and Saskatoon, Canada, Vanessa and Sydney, Australia, Sarah and New Zealand, Alissa from Adelaide, Australia as well,

and Genika in Ontario, Canada. You guys are fucking awesome. Thank you so much for listening, and thanks for leaving us a great review. Yeah, thank you. It means a lot to us. We love reading the nice reviews. It's so fun.

Thank you guys so much. It's now time to give thanks to our newest patrons. If you don't know what Patreon is, you've probably never listened to this show before. Patreon is a place where you can get bonus episodes and bonus content for a small fee every month. Since our normal episodes are free, it's a nice way to give us a little kickback and help support going west. You can find us at patreon.com slash going west podcast. The link is also in the description for this show.

So here we go. Huge thanks to Elizabeth, Marion, Jackie, Emily, and Sarah. And another huge thanks to Diana, Marion, Jackie, Emily, and Sarah. And another huge thanks to Diana, James, Kristen, Conn, Elizabeth, and Danielle. And then we have a big thanks going to Carla, Julie, Marion, Yman, love that Yman, Cody, Tatianna, and Diane. And last but not least, thank you so much again to Kayla, Eugenei, Erin, Vanessa, Jean, thank you Kendall,

thank you Victoria, and thank you so much to Jennifer, Lizette, Jamie, and Shelby. You guys are kick ass. Yeah, you guys honestly help us out so much. It helps our show continue to grow. It helps us keep going All right, so for everybody out there in the world Cheerio and don't be a stranger and if you don't like Daphne bringing back the Cheerio you can lick my butt Hahaha! 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, Thank you. you