Going West: True Crime - Girly Chew Hossencofft // 125

Episode Date: June 16, 2021

In 1999, a young bank teller left work in New Mexico and was never seen again. As her co-workers began investigating her disappearance the following morning, they were confident they knew exactly what... happened to her. Between proof of long-standing cons, cannibalistic conspiracy theorists, and mysterious evidence found in her home, this case proves to be one of the most bizarre we’ve covered. This is the story of Girly Chew Hossencofft. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Girly_Chew_Hossencofft https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19840366/girly-hossencofft https://murderpedia.org/female.H/h/henning-linda.htm https://www.oxygen.com/crime-time/the-disappearance-of-girly-chew-hossencofft-a-con-man-a-fashion-designer-ufos-and-a-ninja https://charleyproject.org/case/girly-chew-hossencofft https://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art22944.asp https://www.septembersacrifice.com/reaction-from-malaysia/ https://www.abqjournal.com/news/775322news09-30-02.htm https://read.amazon.com/?asin=B07MM36L1X Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 What is going on true crime fans, I'm your host T and I'm your other host, Daphne, and you're listening to Going West. Howdy folks, hope everyone's having a good week so far. This case that we have for you today is maybe the wackiest case that we have researched thus far on the show. I'm really, really excited to get into it. There's so many weird elements to it that you might look at it and just think it's you know, pretty cut and dry, but there's so many layers. And if you have heard this story, I tried to put as much
Starting point is 00:00:45 detail as I could in this episode so that you get all the scoop. So I hope you guys enjoy this very, very tragic story. Also, if you guys are looking for more episodes head over to our Patreon Patreon.com slash going west podcast. We have a bunch of bonus episodes and for you patrons that are listening right now, we haven't put out a bonus episode yet because we had some technical difficulties, but that will be out shortly for you guys, so stay tuned for that. Yes, Heath found such a crazy case from a country we have not yet delved into on our bonus episode series, NorOnGoingWest.
Starting point is 00:01:20 So check that out for this weekend, Heath also found a great second bonus episode for June, so patreon.com slash going west podcast. Yes, please head over there and subscribe. All right guys, let's not waste any more time. This is episode 125 of going west, so let's get into it. In 1999, a young bank teller left work in New Mexico and was never seen again. As her co-workers began investigating her disappearance the following morning, they were confident they knew exactly what happened to her. Between proof of long-standing cons, cannibalistic conspiracy theorists, and mysterious evidence found in her home, this case proves to be one of the most bizarre we've covered. Girlie Chu was born on August 27, 1963 to parents Chinggek Wang and Chu Ching Kang near
Starting point is 00:03:00 Georgetown in Penang, Malaysia, which is an absolutely beautiful, low-crime island state. And she also had a sister named June Chu, and a brother, Andrew Chu. Gurly grew up in her parents' gorgeous homes surrounded by loving family members and neighbors, and she just had this wonderful and consistent sense of security. She also grew up very faithful and spent a lot of time in a stunning local cobblestone and consistent sense of security. She also grew up very faithful
Starting point is 00:03:25 and spent a lot of time in a stunning local cobblestone Chinese temple called the Goddess of Mercy Temple. When she turned 21, she began working as a marketing rep at the Hong Kong Bank in Penang and throughout her whole 20s, she worked at this bank.
Starting point is 00:03:41 As a fluid English speaker, she and her coworker and friend Susan loved visiting the United States. And while girly was in her late 20s in the early 1990s, girly took a trip to the United States, with Susan. And while she was in San Diego, she headed over to SeaWorld and met a man named Diazine Haasencoft, a surgeon in his mid-20s from Houston, Texas. They hit it off very well and decided to become pen pals so that when girly returned to her home in Malaysia, they could continue to get to know each other. But after corresponding by mail back and forth for over a year, they decided they wanted to be together for real, so in 1993 they got married and moved
Starting point is 00:04:26 to a home in Albuquerque, New Mexico together. In Albuquerque, Gurley began working as a bank teller at Bank of America, where she made great friends with her co-workers and everyone just adored her. And even all the customers loved her because she really cared about her job and cared about making people feel comfortable. And because of all the referrals she would get and her job and cared about making people feel comfortable. And because of all the referrals she would get and her general work performance, she went a lot of trips through work like to San Francisco and Hawaii, so she was just great at her job. Before girly moved to the United States, Dyson wrote girly's parents a letter explaining
Starting point is 00:05:00 that he was from Zurich, Switzerland, and that he worked for NASA. The letter apologized for not having asked girle's father for her hand in marriage, and the rest of the letter basically boasted about how successful and worldly he was. He bought Gerle a nearly $8,000 diamond ring and presented it to her when she arrived in late 1992. But over the years, things between them were not good with their relationship. And this was all thanks to Dijson's temper. Dijson was also incredibly unfaithful during their marriage. In a 1996, a Japanese woman in Canada gave birth to a son named Dmitry, and
Starting point is 00:05:38 it was Dijson's child. After the boy was born, Dijson took a trip to Mexico and returned home with him, telling his wife, Gurley, that he was a Mexican orphan, and that they were adopting him. Which is insane, because he just came home and said, here's a kid, we're going to adopt him and Gurley's like, wait, what? Like never even talked about it. Yeah, she had no say in the situation whatsoever. So, there was no conversation like you just said, and it was very matter of fact that Dyson
Starting point is 00:06:06 brought the boy home and Gurley had no choice but to accept it. But that's just how terrible their marriage was. But Gurley accepted the child as her own and was a wonderful and loving mother to him. But she didn't find out until at least two years later that Demetri was actually her husband's biological child. Sadly, Gurly was fully aware of Dyson's affairs, and she was expected to put up with them. But in 1998, girly had a conversation with Dyson's girlfriend about their relationship, and the woman
Starting point is 00:06:36 ended the affair. Dyson was so upset by this that he ended up choking and threatening to kill his wife girly, and he was actually sighted for this domestic abuse charge. And there's at least one other report of domestic violence in their relationship. And by the way, this was at the hands of Dyson. Gurley confided in her co-workers about the spousal abuse that she suffered, and they supported her anyway that they could. Shortly after discovering that Demetri was in fact Dyes and Son, Gurley found out some more baffling information.
Starting point is 00:07:09 Her husband had been lying to her about his lifestyle and profession for years. So when they met, Dyes and explained that he was a successful thoracic surgeon, which is someone who specializes in treating lung and esophageal cancer. And that he had multiple degrees from various prestigious universities such as the University of Tokyo and Cornell Medical College. On top of that, he wasn't actually a doctor at all. He had been expelled from medical school many years prior, and had falsified his transcripts and had been living as a total con artist.
Starting point is 00:07:47 Dyson also claimed he was a geneticist, someone who studies genes, who had leukemia for years, and that he was constantly sick. And, early and everyone else, believe this whole heartedly, because he would even go so far as to cough up blood on occasion. Dyson also told people that he was a former CIA scientist, and over the course of his late 20s and early 30s, he conned over $100,000 from cancer patients by selling them a so-called cancer cure that would also stop the aging process. But in reality, these were just vitamin B6 shots. And to try and sell these injections even further, Dyson claimed that he was actually 2000 years
Starting point is 00:08:29 old, and the only reason he looked so young was because of this cure that he made. And one woman who lived in Santa Fe awarded Dyson with over $300,000 from her trust fund for these treatments before she died. At the time, Gurley had no idea that he was conning so many people, but in 1995, the FBI began to catch onto his schemes. And the reason the FBI became involved was because Diasyn tried to purchase a bioreactor, which is an apparatus for growing organisms, and told the company that he was trying to conduct cell growth experiments. But knowing it could be used for dangerous tests, the company that he was trying to conduct cell growth experiments. But knowing it could be used for dangerous tests, the company alerted the FBI and they
Starting point is 00:09:10 started digging in to Diozans' background. But he was never arrested for this. Also, his real name wasn't even Diozans' Haasinkovd. It was Armand Chavez. And he changed his name after he was expelled from medical school, so this guy is just a legit pathological liar who wanted to screw with as many people as he could. And that name is totally made up. Like I looked it up, Hossingcoff does not a real, you know, historical last name.
Starting point is 00:09:37 And um, Dyson is also not like a real used name. I guess any name can be a real name if you name your kid that, but he just picked like a totally fake made up name. Such a scammer. And this was the man that poor girly chew was involved with. Yeah, and it's sad because you know by all accounts, girly was a very simple loving woman who had just fallen in love with an evil scammer and she just wanted out. So when Gurley found all this out, she told her co-workers about this as well and they were just as dumbfounded as she was. She also told them as well as an FBI agent that her husband threatened to kill her numerous
Starting point is 00:10:16 times throughout their relationship and that if anything happened to her, they would need to investigate him. She was terrified of this guy because the threats he made to her weren't just like, in the moment rage comments, they felt genuine. So genuine, that girly began taking karate lessons so that she could learn self-defense. Because he would say things like he was going to kill her and no one would ever find her body. And he would say this with a smile, so this wasn't just like a, I want to kill you, which is also not
Starting point is 00:10:49 okay, but these were more so plots. Yeah, it wasn't like a friendly like, you know, goofy like, oh man, I'm going to kill you kind of thing. It was like, I'm literally going to fucking kill you. Which doesn't sound too friendly anyway, but. I mean, it doesn't, but. But yeah, no, I know what you mean though. It's like these were really terrifying threats. And by February of 1999, Gurley was moving forward with divorce proceedings and got her own apartment in Albuquerque. Diasin wanted full custody of Dmitriya
Starting point is 00:11:20 and although Gurley had been, you know, a mother to him for over two years and feared what his life would be like with Dyson in charge of his care, she reluctantly agreed. After moving out of Sheehan Dyson's home, Gurley's car's windshield was smashed on two separate occasions while it sat in the lot at her work, and she felt confident that it was done by Dyson both times and that he wasn't done with her. In the summer of 1999, so a few months after Gurley moved out, Dyson visited the Triad adoption agency and explained to them that he was dying of leukemia, which again was not
Starting point is 00:11:54 true, and that he needed to find a new home for his three-year-old son, Asap, despite the fact that he had demanded to keep Demetri and his divorce with Gurley. The administrative director of the adoption agency, whose name is Vonda Cheshire, even saw Dyson cough up blood, which made his fake illness seem much more real. And at this time, she of course believed he was really sick. But before accepting Demetri into the adoption agency, Vonda wanted to know more about the mother of the boy, and this is when she started getting a bit suspicious. Because Dyson's answer was that he had harvested eggs from a Japanese woman in Canada,
Starting point is 00:12:31 took said eggs to a lab in the United States, created him, and stored all the information about the creation on five gold disks, which by the way, this is literally impossible. Yeah, for those who may not be sure, the technology to create a real human baby in a lab is non-existent even today, meaning it is especially, or was especially non-existent in 1996 when Dimitri was born. So when the truth was discovered that Dimitri was actually born in Japan and came out of a real woman's body, not a lab, dies in claim that he convinced the mother to bring Demetri to Mexico since he supposedly had a rare disease that only he, Dyson, understood. In late August of 1999, the process of putting Demetri into the adoption agency was moving
Starting point is 00:13:20 forward, and Gurley had to sign some paperwork since she had been Demetri's guardian for the majority of his life. When the administrative director Vonda confirmed to Dyson that Gurley had indeed signed these papers, his response was, there'll be justice. Vonda was confused by this, just as she was confused and disturbed by Dyson in general. And she was worried that Dyson had kidnapped his child years prior, so she decided to call the FBI. But as the FBI was looking into Dyson, Girly disappeared. As we mentioned, Girly had been in contact with the FBI regarding her fear of Dyson, but the day before she disappeared, she contacted them again.
Starting point is 00:14:05 She was extremely concerned about her safety and asked special agent John Schum if he could protect her. Despite the fact that Gurley had been previously abused by Dyson and he made numerous death threats towards her, Schum told her that there was nothing that he could do. The following day, on Thursday, September 9, 1999, Gurley left her job at the Bank of America in the early evening. And after that, she was never seen again.
Starting point is 00:14:33 The following morning, Gurley was expected to show up at her bank teller shift at 8 a.m. at the Bank of America location in Uptown, Albuquerque, as she always did between Monday and Friday. Although it was Friday, Gurley hadn't requested off work, and she was never late. Yet that morning, she didn't show. It had only been 10 minutes past the start of her shift, yet her coworkers were immediately alarmed.
Starting point is 00:14:59 She always showed up before her shift and never after. And since they were aware of how afraid of her now ex-husband she was, they feared for her well-being. But a big reason they had this immediate concern was because just after 8 a.m., an unknown man called the bank and asked if they had seen Gurley. The man didn't give his name, but it was very suspicious to all of them that someone would call and ask this, especially since Gurley hadn't shown up yet. The vice president of this location named Kathy Samansky, who was in her late 40s, had
Starting point is 00:15:35 become close with Gurley and knew all of her struggles with Dyson, so moments later when the phone rang again, she took the call. The man on the other line said, has Gurley arrived at work this morning? As he continued to ask questions, Kathy wondered if it was Dyson on the other line. But she wasn't aware of what his voice sounded like as she had never met him or spoken to him. But then, Kathy heard a woman's voice in the background, and moments later, she grabbed the phone and said, hello, this is Ernie Johnson. Kathy vaguely remembered that Gurley had a very close friend named Ernie
Starting point is 00:16:10 Johnson, and they spoke every night on the phone, but the previous evening, Ernie hadn't heard from Gurley, and it really worried her, hence why she called into the bank to check on her. After Kathy explained to Ernie that Gurly wasn't at work, they both knew that something terrible had happened to her. Kathy hung up and called girly cell phone as well as her home phone, but she received no answer. At just 8.10am, a fellow teller named Jesse Grove offered to go over to Gurley's apartment to check on her. And Jesse's described to kind of be like a brother to Gurley since they work together for a while. He was younger than her, but everyone said that he acted like her older brother,
Starting point is 00:16:50 so he really cared a great deal about her. So of course, he was extremely concerned and sped over to her apartment while Kathy called the police to reporter missing. Since at this point, Gurley was only 15 minutes late to work, police didn't take this seriously and actually suggested Kathy called the non-emergency number. But Kathy knew something was wrong, and she didn't know how to calmly explain to the operator that they needed to send someone over to Gurley's home, so she went ahead and called the non-emergency line, hoping that they could help her. But they really didn't understand the urgency either. Regardless, Kathy gave the operator Gurley's address, which no one, not even Gurley's closest friend Ernie, had at the time because Gurley was worried that somehow Dyson would find out where
Starting point is 00:17:38 she lived. So the only person who had this address was Kathy, her employer. Well, actually, there was another person who knew where Gurley lived and that was Jesse, because he had helped her move into her apartment earlier that year in January. That September morning he arrived to her apartment at around 8.30am and noted her green 1995 BMW in the parking lot. Even taking note of the damage to the corner of her windshield after a recent vandalism that had occurred a couple weeks prior while she was working, as we touched on earlier, most likely dies in. He also took note that there wasn't the typical club on Gurley's steering
Starting point is 00:18:16 wheel, which she always kept locked into place. Paranoid that someone would steal her car, just about 35 feet from where Gurley's car was parked, was the front door to her first floor apartment. It wasn't super out there in the open, but instead a bit tucked away near the back of the complex. This was great for privacy so she could hide away, but it also made it harder for anyone to know if something bad had happened to her. Jesse Ringgurly's doorbell multiple times and knocked on the door as well, but to no avail. And after what seemed like forever since the first doorbell ring, he peered through
Starting point is 00:18:52 the windows hoping to catch a glimpse of something. But he couldn't see a thing. So Jesse called his boss Kathy to explain his findings, or lack thereof, and after learning that she had called the police but they weren't actively working on making it over there, he informed her that he was going to go straight to the building manager and get inside Gurley's apartment. Like they were not wasting any time here. Jesse was not messing around. Bill Orruth, who managed the apartment complex, joined Jesse over to Gurley's door and tried to unlock the deadbolt.
Starting point is 00:19:26 But that's when he realized it was already unlocked. This perplexed him because he knew Gurley was terrified of her ex-husband and always kept both the doorknob lock and the deadbolt lock secure and in place to be extra safe inside her home. So this was a big red flag. Within minutes, Jesse and Bill got the door knob lock undone and entered Gurley's apartment. They didn't hear a single sound upon entering, but immediately noticed three stains on her orange crushed carpet throughout her home. And Mark Horner describes in his book September Sacrifice that the smallest spot on the carpet was the size of a grapefruit,
Starting point is 00:20:07 while the largest was about the size of a basketball, in case you needed a visual. And it looked to Jesse as though someone had recently tried to clean that stain. Jesse called out Gurley's name, praying that she would just walk out of her bedroom in a sleepy haze, but she didn't. And in fact, when he walked into her bedroom, there wasn't anyone inside, just a neatly made bed, except from one pillow that was lopsided. They even checked Gurley's closet, but didn't find anything except for her neatly hung clothes. Nothing was messy in the apartment, and there were no signs of a struggle. And actually, you really would never assume anything bad had happened just by walking in there, aside from the questionable stains.
Starting point is 00:20:49 Back at the bank, Kathy called the police again and explained to the police for a third time now that her employee, who was in an abuse of marriage where a restraining order was filed, didn't come into work and that she wasn't in her apartment and something was wrong. She also mentioned the thing that Gurley always said, if I don't show up for work, please call someone, something happened. So after Kathy explained to the operator that Gurley always said that if she didn't show up for work, they needed to look into it. The operator dispatched an officer to Gurley's apartment to check. Jesse and Bill gave the officer more information, and with that, he was on his way without even stepping into Gurley's home.
Starting point is 00:21:58 Another hour later, at about 10.30 a.m., police did a welfare check on DIA Dyson, but really they were just seeing if he was home and if girly was with him. When they arrived, his front door was open and a woman holding a cleaning cloth came to the door, stating that she didn't speak English. As they peered inside, they noticed that Dyson's house was completely empty. No furniture, no decor, nothing at all. Well, that's not suspicious. I know.
Starting point is 00:22:28 They questioned one of his neighbors to see if they had details, and he explained that he saw a moving crew taking all of Dyson's stuff away two days prior. Dyson was moving one state over to El Paso, Texas, apparently, so he could gain easier access to a certain area of Mexico where he was getting treatments for the cancer he didn't have. The two officers at the scene got a sneaky suspicion after realizing that Dyson had skipped
Starting point is 00:22:55 town, so they decided to once and for all, roughly two and a half hours after Kathy had originally called them, take a look inside Gurley's apartment. As soon as they did, they detected the smell of bleach. They also immediately noticed the reddish stains on the carpet, but also saw that nothing else looked out of place. There was a banana and a glass of water on her desk next to some incense, but they discovered
Starting point is 00:23:20 that these were offerings left by Gurley to Kuan Yin, the goddess of mercy. She had a very peaceful, simple, and traditional-style department, and liked to keep it this way since she finally had a place of her own. But inside of her apartment, police noticed that her purse and car keys were gone. Which was quite suspicious since her car was still outside. And on top of that, despite it smelling so strongly of bleach inside of her apartment, there wasn't any bleach bottles around. However, the stains were still wet,
Starting point is 00:23:52 meaning that someone had tried to clean them up very recently. The rest of that Friday and well into the night and very early morning hours of the following day, was spent testing that apartment top to bottom for evidence, including the suspicious stains. It was quickly determined that the stains were indeed blood, so this deeply worried them that something bad had happened to girly. But what and where was she? The lead detective on the case, a man named Michael Fox, noticed on some adoption paperwork for her dies in son, the emergency contact of a woman named Linda Henning. He had been trying to contact her to see if she possibly knew anything but she wasn't answering the phone. This worried him that she had been met with tragic fate as well, so he went to her northeast
Starting point is 00:24:41 albacurkey home. When there was no answer at the door, he peered through the window and noticed a purse on the kitchen countertop. When he returned to her home later that evening, once again, there was no answer at the door. But this time, when he peeked through the window, the purse was gone. So was Linda hiding from him? Luckily, the following day, police located 45-year-old Linda Henning, and she explained in an interview that she was Diozine's caretaker, and that they only had a professional relationship.
Starting point is 00:25:15 She also mentioned that she knew nothing about his ex-wife, nor that she was even missing. When investigators asked her how she and Diozyson met, she explained that they both attended a UFO convention conducted by David Ike, a hardcore conspiracy theorist and former footballer and sports broadcaster from England, and there Dyson told her how he was dying of leukemia, to which Linda explained that she could heal him through holistic medicine. Since Dyson was nowhere to be found to confirm this story, police just believed that Linda was nothing but a caretaker and sent her on her way, but they found it increasingly difficult to get in contact with her when further questions arose. Either way, shortly
Starting point is 00:25:54 after this, police tracked Dyson's phone calls and found him in Charleston, South Carolina, where he had been staying with a woman named Cheryl Kolp. A woman he was engaged to be married to, knowing he had answers on girlie woman named Cheryl Kolpe. A woman he was engaged to be married to, knowing he had answers on girlie's disappearance and potential death, he was extradited back to New Mexico for further questioning. And for anyone wondering how they were able to extradite him, Diason made calls to his divorce attorney and adoption case worker and one other person and threatened them all for talking to police. So investigators were able to charge him with making telephone threats, which meant they could hold him until they were potentially able to charge him with more serious crimes
Starting point is 00:26:33 related to girly. And they knew Dyson had been behind this for many reasons, but also, after girly disappeared, investigators discovered that she had a safe deposit box with a copy of a three-page letter that dies in kept in a forbidden room in their home while they were married. This is how Gurley found out about all the lives her husband had told, including how his name was fake and that he had abused many other women. And this letter confirmed every con that dies in ever ran. So this opened up a whole massive can of worms for investigators.
Starting point is 00:27:09 The day girly disappeared, a man was driving around 120 miles south of Albuquerque when he noticed what he thought was a blanket off to the side of the road. Realizing that it was dangerous to have it flailing in the wind as it was, he pulled over to take a look. And he noticed that it was actually a tarp, and a long sighted was a woman's blouse, a pair of shorts, underwear, and some twisted pieces of duct tape in gauze. The eerie part was that they were all stained with blood, and a piece of the duct tape had a few long strands of hair attached. Worried that something bad had happened to someone, he called the New Mexico State Police
Starting point is 00:27:46 to take a look at it, and he collected the evidence to present to them. And that same morning, another man was driving an albacurky when he saw a wallet in the middle of the road. So he pulled over, waited for a safe time to run into the road and grab it, hoping that he could return it to the rightful owner. But only saw inside was a foreign ID card with a photo of a nice young Asian woman named Gurly Choo, Hossingcoft. Since the wall it was essentially empty, the man just put it in his car and carried on.
Starting point is 00:28:16 But later this would be used as evidence, along with the ever-important tarp and bloodied clothes. Because the hair the first man found would match to that of girly chew, and so would the blood. But girly's DNA wasn't the only DNA in the belongings. Shockingly, it wasn't Dyson's. The other DNA belonged to Linda Henning, the woman who claimed to be Dyson's caretaker who knew nothing about girly chew.
Starting point is 00:28:43 Not only was Linda's DNA found on those belongings, but a pair of her underwear that were stained with her menstrual blood was found in Gurley's car. And her blood was amongst Gurley's blood in the carpet stains in Gurley's apartment. Regarding the stains in the apartment, there was also blood from an unidentified person. apartment, there was also blood from an unidentified person. After confirming Linda's DNA on multiple sources of evidence, police executed a search warrant of her home where they found a Japanese ninja sword hidden in the garage's ceiling. And after comparing it to some receipts, it was confirmed to have been purchased by Dyson the same day that Gurley disappeared.
Starting point is 00:29:25 Also found in Linda's Albuquerque home was a 22-boretta handgun. At this point, detectives were confident that Linda was involved in whatever happened to Gurley and that she'd been lying about a relationship with Dyson. Linda Henning was born on October 10, 1953, and Hollywood, California, and had become a model-turned-ffashion designer in her 20s. But as the years passed on, she became very involved in conspiracy theories and everything unexplained. And in 1999, the year that girly disappeared, she met Dyson at the UFO convention that
Starting point is 00:29:58 we had previously mentioned, but their relationship was far from professional. In fact, after she met Dyson, she broke up with her fiance and became engaged to Dyson almost immediately. And creepy enough, records show that Linda had banked at the same bank of America location that Gurley worked at. And on at least one occasion, Gurley was her teller. So it really seemed like Linda had been plotting something with Dyson, especially since Dyson's saliva was found on Gurley's blouse. And it was enough to hold up in court. But police still didn't know what had happened. They just knew that they had done something to 36-year-old Gurley chew.
Starting point is 00:30:36 So on October 29, 1999, about a month and a half after Gurley's disappearance, police arrested Linda Henning for perjury. And then three weeks later, they indicted both Linda and Dyson Haasencoft for the first degree murder of Gurley Choo. Both Dyson and Linda were very much into conspiracy theories. In fact, Linda believed that when they made love, Dyson would turn into a cat. Oh, right, bunch of wackadus. I don't really know what that means, that he would turn into a cat while they were intimate. Like, does he turn into a cat man or...
Starting point is 00:31:13 I don't know. Like, like a cat with a human face? I don't know any details, that's all I know. So it seemed like they had other people in their little group too that had the same beliefs and views as them, including a man named Bill Miller. Bill was born on February 26th, 1950 in Jamaica, New York, and he had also attended that UFO convention that Linda and Dye is in Medat.
Starting point is 00:31:39 Bill Miller had studied to be a history teacher, but when that didn't prove to pay the bills because sadly teaching really doesn't, he began doing electrician work, but he also began committing crimes. At the age of 26 and 1976, Bill was arrested for grand larceny, though he was never convicted and he went back to teaching in Albuquerque. He eventually married another teacher and they moved into a home in a middle-class neighborhood where Bill would spend his weekends hunting elk with his friends. He was also known to be a trustworthy and kind man, but later reports suggest otherwise. Bill Miller got involved with
Starting point is 00:32:19 the UFO club where they would discuss aliens, lizard people, cattle mutations, UFOs, and much more. Especially living in New Mexico, he believed that all its residents needed to be prepared for government takeover because of all of the state's military bases. Some sources explained that Bill Miller was creepy, and that he didn't seem like the loving family man that others painted him as. In the summer of 1999, he spent a great deal of time with Dyson and Linda, so much so that they were described as a trio. Bill defended Dyson whenever anyone in the UFO club called him a fraud.
Starting point is 00:32:56 The three of them got the idea to leave New Mexico, and Bill told the group that it was because of the supposed upcoming government takeover. But then he turned around and told his wife that he didn't like the neighbors or their barking dogs, and that's why he wanted to move. So it just kind of seems like he has two different personas. Yeah, and his wife really didn't see that conspiracy side of him, but he was a totally different person when he was at these conventions in these meetings with these other people or hanging out with Linda and Dyson.
Starting point is 00:33:26 Yeah, exactly. And then at home he was this nice family man who was a history teacher. So it was like he was two different dudes. Very, very strange how people can do that. Well, Linda Henning brought up Bill Miller during an interview with police, and they wondered if he was also involved in whatever happened to girly. They issued a search warrant for his home and found dye deer hair in his fishing tackle box. And those who were kind of in the dark about the dyed deer hair thing I was too, but I guess it's used for fly fishing. So a normal thing to have in your tackle box. Knowing there were various forms of animal hair found
Starting point is 00:34:05 on Gurley's clothes that were found on Highway 60, remember about 120 miles outside of Albuquerque, as well as in the living room carpet, which included cat, dog, and rabbit hair, as well as feathers and dyed deer hair, they had these hairs tested, and they were a match with the living room carpet sample. They ultimately arrested Bill Miller for tampering with evidence, kidnapping, and first-degree
Starting point is 00:34:32 murder. As this was happening, Bill was acting very suspiciously and was visibly trembling. While he was being arrested, I mean, and once they had him back at the station, they witnessed him on camera in the holding cell, stuffing paper, business cards into his mouth and eating them. So they had to stop him and try to figure out why he was. What the hell? It was like he was trying to hide something. So this guy was just acting really weird. And police were like, okay, something's up with this man. Yeah, it's really sketchy. And upon issuing another search warrant, police seized the following items from Bill's home.
Starting point is 00:35:10 Ammunition magazines, duck tape, two black bags with ammo, maps, notebooks, a Smith & Wesson 38 special, a 22 caliber barretta, and 18 other weapons, including rifles, shotguns, bayonets, and more. And it also seized fiber samples from his home and car. So this guy had like an arsenal of weapons. And I know he was a hunter. I don't know shit about hunting.
Starting point is 00:35:38 I don't know, you know, what guns you use for that or weapons you use. It just seems like a lot. I don't know. Well, it kind of seems like he was preparing for this government takeover that he was talking about. Yeah that's what people are thinking and that's what police were thinking as well so when they found this arsenal they were like oh shit. On January 14th 2002, Dyson who had since been pleading not guilty and denied having any involvement in Gurley's case, walked into the courtroom and pleaded guilty to Gurley's murder, as well as a dozen other crimes. To avoid the death penalty and instead be set to serve a life sentence in prison, he
Starting point is 00:36:15 agreed to give a statement with all of the details of her murder as well. But then, days later, he told detectives quote, I don't know any knowledge of the whereabouts of girly hawks in coughed. My statement is very clear. The detective replied with, I think you're lying to me, to which Dyson said, I don't care what you think. In a separate conversation with a different detective, Dyson boasted about what an idiot Bill Miller was,
Starting point is 00:36:41 and that Bill's exact statement was that he was going to gut girly like a fish. But then dies and explained more. He set up the crime and discovered that no one worked security outside Gurley's apartment until 9 p.m. And by the way, I think we forgot to mention this earlier. Um, Gurley actually lived in a pretty secure apartment complex and there was a security guard who was
Starting point is 00:37:05 posted at the entrance of the complex all night long. So he knew that and he was trying to kind of get around that. So he planned the kidnapping between 5.15 pm and 6 pm and he said that's when it occurred and this would be right after Gurley would get home from work as well. However, the investigator noted that Gurley had called her phone company at 7.03pm the night before she disappeared, or the night before she was last seen really, because we don't know when she disappeared. But he just let dies and keep talking. He then went on to basically describe a scenario where he committed the murder and Linda was not involved, but
Starting point is 00:37:46 he was caught slipping and lying multiple times during this interview as investigators tried to match what he was saying to the evidence they already had. His story made no sense, so it really seemed as if he was trying to trick them into believing a false story like the con man he really was. Once again, Dyson was sentenced to life in prison, and as sad and disgusting as it is, he laughed at the witness stand and said, quote, she knew she was going to be hunted like the dog she was. I only hope that she felt as much pain as humanly possible.
Starting point is 00:38:24 Oh my god, this guy is an absolute monster. Is that not sickening? That's just, ugh, good no words. And especially just, just with you guys, what we've discussed about girlie's background and who she was, she was so, so sweet and so peaceful. And to say something like that about an innocent human being who was just abused for years during her marriage and was just trying to live a safe and happy life, like this guy is one of the most evil people I have ever read about.
Starting point is 00:38:55 He's at POS. And I want to play a little clip of him talking so you can't, oh god, this clip I'm going to play, he's like smiling the whole time, which he was doing, which you can only imagine how infuriating that was for, you know, Gurley's family to see and hear about like, and just for everybody in the court to see that he's just laughing and smiling while he's talking about her and the horrible shit that happened. Yeah, no remorse at all. Here's a little clip of him talking. But when you decide you're going to commit murder, you decide that you're going to trade your life for theirs. I did that. little clip of him talking. I honestly just want to throw punch this guy.
Starting point is 00:39:37 I know, he's, oh my god. Oh well post the video so you can see his stupid face too. But wow, so so infuriating. Yeah definitely, and also at this guy's trial was one of Dyson's former girlfriends Julie, who he was dating while still married to Gurley in the mid 90s, and she spoke and explained that he had conned her out of thousands of dollars. She also explained how she believed Dyson was abusing his son Demetri, and that she wanted to help him, so she continued to play along in their relationship to gain more information.
Starting point is 00:40:10 Julie even told the court under oath that he had confided in her about his plan to have someone kill girly, and that no one would find her body. Julie told Dyson that people go missing all the time, and that the body is typically found, to which Dyson apparently responded with, not if they're dissected. And by the way, Dyson had abused so many other women and had also been married to other women before girly. Like there is so much backstory and history attached to him and his cons, but there's just not enough time to discuss, so we're going to reference a book with all the information
Starting point is 00:40:44 at the end of this episode. So later that year, Linda Henning's trial commenced on October 1st, 2002, and she was actually the first woman in New Mexico State history to face the death penalty. Prosecutors had an immense amount of DNA evidence putting Linda at the scene, although Dyson did try to vouch for her and say on the witness stand that he planted her blood at the scene, although Dyson did try to vouch for her and say on the witness stand that he planted her blood at the scene. But again with so much DNA found, in so many different places, this really just didn't seem likely.
Starting point is 00:41:16 Months later on April 18, 2003, Linda's sentencing was held, and the prosecutor presented an investigation report showing that Linda had made statements saying that she had consumed girly-choose flesh, and that because of this, her body would never be found. Despite this horrific statement, Linda bypassed the death penalty and was sentenced to 73 years in prison. And although it's heavily believed that Bill Miller was equally as responsible for girl's death, he received one year of probation for his role after pleading guilty to evidence tampering.
Starting point is 00:41:57 And Dyson painted the picture that Bill was actually the sole attacker in this crime, and that Linda wasn't involved at all. So it's hard to know it to believe, but it's safe to say you probably shouldn't believe a word out of Dyson's evil mouth. And I do want to add something that I wanted to mention earlier, the night before Gurley didn't show up for work, Dyson's neighbors reportedly saw him entering his driveway with black paint on his face and neck and sporting a camouflage shirt.
Starting point is 00:42:27 And they did tell this to police, of course, at the time. And this is obviously very, very suspicious, as if he's maybe went to, had gone to a girl he's apartment and was trying to blend in and, and, you know, go unnoticed. I mean, that's kind of weird because you're wearing camouflage, but you're not in the wilderness you dumbass. Like what? That's so true. We know that Bill Miller and Linda Henning
Starting point is 00:42:50 had made multiple trips to Magdalena, New Mexico, which is a small village before girly disappeared. And that's the same area where the tarp and the clothes with the DNA were found. So investigators believe that what's left of her remains is likely somewhere in that county. But to this day, girly choose remains have never been discovered, and no one has given a real confession as to what truly happened to her, nor why that fateful day in September 1999.
Starting point is 00:43:20 There's a book on this case that does a very deep dive into the story and it's called September Sacrifice written by Mark Horner. I did reference to it a few times throughout this episode, but if you'd like every single detail of this long-winded wacky case, check out this amazing book. It's such a great read and he really includes everything. Again, that's September Sacr sacrifice written by Mark Horner. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this wild episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and next week we'll have an all-new case for you guys to dive into.
Starting point is 00:43:59 This episode actually wasn't as long as I thought it was going to be and so I felt like I had to kind of wrap it up when I was doing the research Um, but I probably could have included a little bit more But I I pretty much included like all the main details, but there's obviously so much more that goes into the story um of the crime and of the evidence. So again check out that book and we gotta say thank you to all of our patrons All the people who became patrons this past week. Yes, thank you so much everybody who joins Patreon. It really helps support our show. And we do bonus episodes on there that we wouldn't otherwise cover on going west because
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Starting point is 00:45:12 Thank you so much to Marina, Karen, Ashley, Teresa, Michael, and Danny. And a big thanks going out to Anna Lynn, Chegster, Hey Chegster, Cassie, Elizabeth, and Daisy. Last but not least, thank you so much to Kira. I think it's Kira or Kira. I think it's Kira. Thank you so much to Silvio, Kate, and Sarah. We appreciate every single one of you. It really helps support the show.
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