Going West: True Crime - Karen Duenas // 106

Episode Date: February 3, 2021

In 2012, a Northern California mother of 5 went to bed and was found brutally murdered in her room just after midnight. From strange sightings outside the family's home, to previous texts with an old classmate, the family is left wondering who killed this amazing woman. This is the story of Karen Duenas. *BONUS EPISODES* https://www.patreon.com/goingwestpodcast *CASE SOURCES* https://2paragraphs.com/2015/09/mark-duenas-attorney-says-he-talks-too-much/ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/90395881/karen-kay-duenas https://hpusharks.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=1921 http://archive.redding.com/news/analysis-duenas-murder-retrial-prosecution-contrasted-sharply-with-prior-trial-ep-299295910-353680501.html/ https://krcrtv.com/archive/a-murder-two-trials-and-a-supportive-family https://casetext.com/case/people-v-duenas-21 http://archive.redding.com/news/mistrial-declared-in-duenas-murder-case-ep-299480379-353788291.html/ https://www.redding.com/story/news/local/2018/09/28/ex-chp-cop-jacob-duenas-sentenced-26-years-prison-rape/1459974002/ https://www.redding.com/story/news/local/2019/10/14/mark-duenas-cottonwood-murder-case-becoming-true-crime-fan-favorite-redding-shasta-county-california/3976004002/ https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/redding/obituary.aspx?n=karen-kay-duenas&pid=157637737&fhid=7298 ( https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/redding/obituary.aspx?fhid=7298&n=karen-kay-duenas&pid=157637737 ) https://www.redding.com/story/news/local/2018/09/28/ex-chp-cop-jacob-duenas-sentenced-26-years-prison-rape/1459974002/ 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 crime fans? I'm your host Heet. And I'm your other host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Thank you so much everybody for tuning in today. Just a little quick update. Last week we released a brand new bonus episode on our Patreon on the murder of Bo Kirk. Yeah, that's a really, really heartbreaking case.

It's so weird. There's crazy creepy ATM footage, weird bank withdrawal, and so many twists and turns. So if that interests you guys, we have that episode plus about 32 other bonus episodes full length, add free on our Patreon. Patreon.com slash going west podcast. And for everybody who does subscribe to that Patreon account, we just want to say thank you guys so much. And we do actually give shout outs to our newest patrons. That'll be at the end of our episode today and at the end of every episode. So make sure you listen to hear your name.

Yes, so thank you guys so much and the link is in the description of this episode if you guys are interested in checking out our Patreon. Alright guys, this is episode 106 of Going West, so let's get into it. In 2012, a mother of five went to bed and was found brutally murdered in her room just after midnight. From strange sightings outside the family's home to previous texts with an old classmate, the family is left wondering who killed this amazing woman. This is the story of Karen Dwaynes. Karen Kaye Taney was born on December 31, 1960 in Reading, California to parents Eileen and Hugh Taney, and she was one of seven kids.

She had four brothers, a man, Paul, Roger, and Joe, and then two sisters as well, and that was Julie and Jennifer. And for those unfamiliar with California Geography, Reading is a city of around 90,000 people in Northern California just minutes away from beautiful Lake Shasta. And since Reading is right next to the town of Shasta Lake, where Lake Shasta is, Karen attended Shasta High School and graduated in 1979. During her high school days, she met a man named Mark Dwaynes and they started dating and became high school sweethearts. They allot and come in and really enjoy each other's company, and they both came from good Mormon families.

Shortly after graduating, the two married, and almost immediately while still in their teens, they had their first child, Jason. Within a couple years of Jason came Jacob, then Tyler, then Troy, and then Casey, so they had five boys. That's a lot of boys. Yeah, this was a huge family. And this big family settled into a home in Cottonwood, California, which is just south of Reading

and only hosts about 3,000 people, so much smaller than Reading. Karen was the kind of mom to make chocolate chip cookies and bring them to Oliver Kid's sports games for the players as she cheered them on and even kept the scorebook. So she was a seriously amazingly kind woman and mother, and actually all of her kids described both Karen and Mark as the best parents that you could ask for. They

had a great marriage by all accounts and Mark treated Karen like a queen, but they slept in separate bedrooms apparently because Mark didn't want to disturb Karen when he would get up for work at 2am to work for UPS. He had this job so he could get off in time to help coach the boys' sports teams and spend enough time with them. And this worked well for Mark and Karen, but they were together the rest of the time and really loved each other. They definitely had their hands full raising 5 boys, but they were such a tight-knit family

and loved every minute of their time together. And in fact, when their eldest son Jason, who became a firefighter, got married, he moved into the house right next door. As the boys got a bit older, Karen was able to stop being a full-time mom and spend more time doing things that she wanted to do. So she became a part-time business teacher at Shasta College, and while she did this, she also was in the nursing program at Shasta College. So she was really trying to make her career goals of becoming a nurse come to life in her

late 40s since she became a mother so early on in her adult life. And she was really excited about it. Also, her students absolutely loved her. And many of them said things like, I was so privileged to have Miss Dwayne as my teacher, and she was so warm and always had a smile on her face, and she touched my life. So it seems that she didn't just make a positive impact on her children's lives, but also her students and just everyone that she didn't just make a positive impact on her children's lives, but also her students and just everyone that she came into contact with. Mark and Karen lived very simple yet happy lives, and by 2012, they had five grandkids

in counting, and their marriage was still going strong. They still went on dates and just really enjoyed their lives as 51-year-olds with just one kid living in the house, which was Casey, although like I said, everyone remained very close. And by this time, Karen was finally getting to work more as a nurse in the ER, which was a big deal for her because she had a hard time being the best mom and grandma that she could be all while studying in school. But she made it happen and the first time she worked in the ER, she was exhilarated. She made sure to text all of the kids about how much she loved

finally being able to help people. But things would soon take a really dark turn. On the night of Friday, May 4, 2012, Casey returned home from his baseball game at West Valley High School in Cottonwood and he was a senior just weeks away from graduating. After spending some time at home, he said bye to his parents and went out to catch a movie with his friend. They were going to see the 915 showing of the Avengers. When Casey got home from the movie, he went off to bed, noticing that his parents had already retired to their bedrooms.

It was about 12.30 am when he got back, and the door was unlocked, which wasn't unusual. He locked it and then headed to his room and collapsed into bed. He was going to tell his mom that he had gotten home and that he was going to bed, but he noticed that the light in her room was off and he didn't want to wake her. What would have been just minutes after falling asleep? Casey was awoken by his father just before 1am in the early morning hours of May 5th, 2012. He told Casey to run next door and get his brother Jason, because something had happened to his mom. Mark was in a panic and wouldn't tell Casey what was going on, just that he needed to get

out of the house and grab his older brother, who at this time was 32 and a father of his own. With that, Casey ran to Jason's house right next door, as Mark called the police at 12.56 a.m., and explained that his wife was bleeding and there was blood everywhere. And when the dispatcher asked him why she was bleeding or where she was bleeding from, he said that he didn't know and then eventually said that it looked like she was bleeding from her chest.

Casey and Jason ran back to the house to discover their mom in her bedroom, covered in blood, and then the ambulance came. Understandably, Jason was in shock, so he kind of froze up and his firefighter duties to perform CPR and check for a pulse just didn't kick in, you know, when he came into the room and saw his mom like that. Which again, is understandable since, I mean, he was looking at his murdered mother lying on the floor. She had multiple stab wounds to her chest, and as the ambulance and police arrived moments

later, Karen Dwaynes was pronounced dead from said stab wounds. There was also a gash in Karen's chest, and they presumed that she had been murdered in her bed, but there was no obvious murder weapon found in the home. The corner determined that Karen's body went into rigor mortis around 10.30 a.m., meaning that her time of death would have been between eight and 12 hours before this. Since the police were called around 1 a.m.,

that would mean that she was murdered sometime between 10.30 p.m. and 12.30 a.m. when Kacey arrived home. Since none of the neighbors heard anything, we can't know exactly when it was that she died. In the days after Karen was murdered, police put teams together to search the areas surrounding the home for any kind of evidence that could be related to Karen's case and help them catch her killer.

They also had divers search in nearby Canal, the Anderson Cottonwood Irrigation District canal, to be exact, which was just a few blocks from their home, looking for any evidence but ultimately, nothing was found there. The search and rescue team also combed the entire neighborhood, but still, nothing. Within just the first week, police interviewed over 200 people. One week after her murder, a memorial was held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' stake center, because she was Mormon, again, and all five of her sons, along with her four brothers, were the Paul Bears.

Since Mark had indicated on the phone that Karen had been murdered, a homicide detective showed up at the house with the other officers and began investigating the scene. So we're going back a little bit back to the crime scene when it all happened. Due to Karen's bedroom window screen being cut out, so there was like cut marks within her, like the screen outside the bedroom window, and footprints outside the home, police wondered if someone had attempted to rob the house and Karen was a casualty of that crime. On top of this, a car was speeding away from the area as the police arrived to the house,

so that was obviously very weird. Also, as they questioned neighbors that night, a couple of them reported seeing two unknown people near the house before the murder happened. So this is all kind of leading to, this could have been a robbery gone wrong. Right, there's some suspicion leading to these two characters that were probably seen around the house and may have sped off in a car. Exactly, but I mean, nothing appeared to be stolen from the home and the place wasn't even ransacked to the slightest.

And as far as the bedroom window being cut goes, or the bedroom window screen, it didn't look as though anyone had actually gone through the window because there was still dust, like, sitting on the window still and it didn't look like a body had gone through it. It just looked slashed, so that was obviously weird. Yeah, and their most likely would have been some fingerprints within that dust. Exactly. So as Casey told investigators that the door was unlocked when he arrived home,

they wondered if someone had just entered the home that way, killed Karen, and then left within minutes of Casey returning home from the movies. But who on earth would want to kill Karen and why? from the movies. But who on earth would want to kill Karen and why? Well, I also don't understand why. I guess I don't know, it's weird because me personally I would never leave my door unlocked, but I know that some people do, and so I'm just curious how small, I mean I know this town is small, right? Yeah, I mean it's only 3,000 people, It's a pretty safe area, so maybe they just figured

Casey's coming home tonight, so we'll just keep the door unlocked for him so he doesn't have trouble getting into the house like that seems normal, especially in a smaller neighborhood like this. And like Casey said, it wasn't super unusual that the door was unlocked. Then of course, police wondered, did Mark kill his wife? He was in the house after all, so of course they questioned him.

Mark explained that he and Karen had been watching a movie after Casey left to hang out with his friends, and that she had gone to bed before him. Instead of joining her, he wanted to stay up and catch a giant baseball game before deciding to go to bed in his own bedroom a short while later. He woke up a bit later to the sound of what he thought was fighting cats. He explained it to the police as a very weird screaming sound that he could only imagine would have come from an animal outside. To see what was going on, he went into the kitchen and opened that back door to see if anything was out there.

But the noises didn't appear to be coming from out there. That's when he began heading back to his bedroom, which was down the hall from Karen's. When he noticed a light from underneath Karen's bedroom door, figuring she had also woken up from the sound of the potential animals, he opened her door and found her bloodied and dead. Everyone in the family really worried about Mark because he was so incredibly distraught and no one could figure out why someone would come into the home and murder Karen. It just didn't make any sense. But Jason, who remember is the son that lived next door, was terrified that there was a

senseless killer out there in his neighborhood. And that's understandable. Yeah, and he had his own kid, so he was greatly worried for their safety. And these concerns were shared by all the neighbors on the street. But police didn't share this same concern, because they felt confident that they knew exactly who had done this. Karen's husband Mark, especially after another very interesting story he told investigators. It was no surprise that police were spearheading Mark because after all, he's the husband. And he discovered the body.

They noticed how hard he was taking her murder and how adamant the family was about this being a crime outside of the family, but they wanted to fully be able to rule him out first. During their initial interview with him, Mark mentioned something that seemed like a possible motive for murdering his wife, which made police wonder why he was bringing it up in the first place. Mark explained that, a year prior in 2011, he got a Facebook account after a coworker recommended it. He was interested in reconnecting with some people from high school

and seeing what people were up to, which is why most 50-something-year-olds are even on Facebook in the first place. There was one person in particular he was interested in catching up with. A girl, who at this point was a woman, named Annette, who he used to see in high school before getting together with Karen. She was now living in Idaho with a family of her own. And this isn't strange, you know, yes, he's married and I kind of think all of us are guilty of checking on people from our past, so, you know, not weird that he wants to see what she's up to, so far not weird. When Mark found a net on Facebook, he added her and the two started chatting a lot,

and then eventually switched from Facebook to text message. Then, two police marked started bringing up that they exchanged photos. But it's not like how you're probably thinking these were not sex. It was just, oh, this is what I look like now and here's me with my grandkids, so pretty normal stuff. So she was married as well, and they kept it very platonic because of this. Although Mark did mention that he told her that he loved her a couple times, which questionable. That's weird.

I think context would probably matter in that situation. Like if it's like, oh, like I love you, you're so funny. Right, yeah, that's true. I don't think it was that, but because he kind of said, yeah, I did say I love you to her a couple times. So this obviously doesn't seem platonic, but Mark he kinda said, yeah, I did say I love you to her a couple times. So this obviously doesn't seem platonic, but Mark swears that they agreed to be respectful of their partners and not see anything through. Which is apparently why they had agreed not to meet up in person.

A few months into texting, Karen was checking something with their phone bill when she noticed a lot of calls and texts going to a specific number that she didn't recognize. So she confronted Mark about this, and he told her all about this girl from high school, which I mean, I'm assuming that Karen knew her, at least knew of, and that since they all went to school together. So, but I didn't find anything on that specifically. Oh, I'm sure that they did know each other.

Right. So Karen was understandably hurt by this, but Mark assured her that there was nothing to worry about, and to make her feel better, he would stop talking to her. However, and this is a big however, Mark ended up going out and buying another phone so he could continue to secretly talk to a net. So that's sketchy. And he told all of this to the police. But after some time, he started kind of developing feelings for her,

so she broke it off and said that she wasn't interested in having any kind of relationship since she was married and so was he. And on top of that, she even sent Karen a letter telling her how sorry she was to have been texting and talking to Mark knowing that they were still married. So Annette felt really bad about this and she was like, I'm done. Yeah, I think in her mind she's thinking this is way more platonic and in Mark's mind he's getting a little romansy. And with that she and Mark stopped talking for good, and this was roughly

three months before Karen's murder. But according to Mark, everything was good in their marriage. Yes, Karen was upset about him keeping in contact with a net behind her back, and she had even told some of their sons about it, but it seemed to just go away, and things reportedly went back to normal between them. I do think it's really interesting that he came out with this information, because usually when people are being implicated for a murder, they lie a lot and they try to cover things up or make it seem like that one thing isn't a big deal.

You know what I mean? I feel like we just covered a case where it was just like this, but the person did the opposite where they were lying. Yeah, I kind of think that Mark is using this reverse psychology to try and make himself not seem suspicious. Like, hey, you know what, I'm being honest with you guys. I laid everything out for you guys to know. So obviously I'm being truthful. Well, I also think that maybe he kind of figured

they would find out anyway and he wanted to be the first to say it so he didn't look guilty. Because for all of those of you who listened to last week's episode on Michael Chambers, Michael's wife Becca was lying about her affair and she didn't bring it up. So then that made her look worse because they were like, oh, you're hiding shit. But Mark is like, here's my truth. Here's what's going on. I've got nothing to hide. Yeah. And Becca had multiple affairs in that episode. If you haven't already listened to that, it's the last episode that we just released episode 105. Check it out. Michael Chambers.

Really, really crazy. Unselfed case. Right. It is. It really is crazy. But that wasn't like this. And so I think it's, I do think it's interesting that Mark kind of came out and said, this is what's going on, there is another woman just so you know. But of course, police kept pressing on about him killing her. But Mark just kept saying that he would never lay a hand on his wife and that everything he said was true. He went into her room and found her stabbed and bloodied, and that was that. He said he did not do it. And when his sons were interviewed, they said the exact same thing.

Not even an ounce of them believed that their father was behind this. They expressed that he treated her so well, and that they had such a great relationship growing up, and they could never see their dad doing anything bad like this. They were very adamant that this had to have been done by an intruder or someone else entirely. But since police had no other suspects, they just kept pressing Mark, but he never budged. Also, when they were questioned about the affair, all the kids and their partners said it

really wasn't a big deal like they may be believing. And this is really tough, because I do see it from both sides. One is that the boys love their dad and can't imagine him doing wrong because all they saw was goodness. But of course, things happen behind closed doors and marriages that not everyone knows about. So it could make sense that their relationship wasn't great, but they hit it from their kids.

But then I also think about my parents, for example, they split up when I was 16, and I literally have one memory of them joking around and laughing in the kitchen, and remember being so shocked and happy when this happened because I'd never even seen them kiss. Like, they never really talk, they didn't flirt, they just cohabitated, and I knew this all my life.

So I feel like the kids usually do get a sense of if things are good because you all live together, so you can't hide everything. Yeah, exactly. And where my mind is going to right now is the fact that Mark and Karen sleep in separate bedrooms. I know that there are relationships out there in the world where people do this, but it does make me question how in love they actually are. I don't know if that's wrong or not. I mean, I agree. It seems really weird. And maybe there's someone

listening right now who's like, well, me and my partner do that and it's normal. So, I can't really see it from that perspective because my parents didn't sleep in the same room either so to me that means things aren't good. I get it if he doesn't want to disturb her but it doesn't seem like the next day he had work and she didn't have work so it's like why can't you guys just like you never sleep together like ever not even on the weekends? Right and ever since you told me that growing up your parents didn't sleep in the same room, that that has made me, I guess that's influenced what I'm thinking in this episode. And maybe it's influencing how I'm thinking too, because I correlate not sleeping in the same room

as things aren't good, but maybe it wasn't that way, I don't know. And by the way, Casey, the youngest son, he didn't know about his dad talking to another woman at all, but he did notice a small period of time way before her murder when they weren't getting along, but he said that that went away and things went back to normal soon enough, and in his words they were better than ever, because apparently they taught their kids that you never give up on your partner and you forgive and love them and move on. Yeah, and we have to go back to, we've also talked about this in other episodes. A lot of times religions won't allow partners to be separated. They won't allow divorce. So, and I'm pretty sure that's true in the Mormon culture. This is another thing that I couldn't really figure out is,

I know that they were both raised Mormon. I don't know if they raised their kids to be very Mormon or religious. It didn't seem that way from my research. I didn't read anything about the family going to church together. It was just sports, sports, sports, sports. So I don't know if they really carry that throughout their lives and into their children's lives. So I can't really say on that. Right.

I just remember when we were talking about Christian Longo His wife in a bonus episode right in a bonus episode So his wife him and his wife were Mormon and I think she wanted to leave him at some point But because of her religion she wasn't able to do so So that's really the only reason why I'm bringing it up right no that's it could be relevant for sure Months went by and nothing happened in Karen's case. There were no leads or people of interest other than Mark and they didn't find any other useful evidence. By that fall, Casey had graduated from high school and was attending Shasta College where

his mom previously taught business and he was even majoring in business while he played as a pitcher on the school's baseball team. He was still living at home while he went to school, but now it was just he and his dad. Almost exactly five months after Karen was murdered on Friday, October 12, 2012, police arrived to the Dwayneus home and a rested mark for the first degree murder of his wife, Karen Dwayneus. Both Casey and Mark were dumbfounded, but they hauled Mark away and kept him on a 1 million dollar bail. The crazy thing here is that again, Mark's entire family had his back and none of them believed that he was guilty of this crime. Even Karen's family was all fighting for him and

telling police that they had the wrong guy. Now before we get to the trial, I want to mention that when police arrived to the scene of the murder five months earlier, Sergeant Michael Peary noticed that the shower was wet, which to him indicated that someone had recently taken a shower. Casey didn't report taking a shower, and he actually just said that he went straight to bed. Also, let's go back to the time of death along with the murder weapon.

We're gonna talk a bit more about the murder weapon speculation in a bit, but there was no obvious murder weapon and no clear signs of bloody clothes in the house. According to the corner, the earliest time of death for Karen would have been around 10.30 pm, so two hours before Casey came home. Which would mean if Mark did do this and did commit the murder at 10.30 pm, he would have less than two hours to hide the murder weapon, get rid of his bloody clothes, and come back before Casey came home.

Is it possible? One would assume it could be done, but let's get into the trial. I would absolutely assume it could be done. So the following summer on July 11, 2013, the trial began and a net, remember the woman from Idaho, discussed that when she and Mark had been talking, he said that if they were to be together, something bad would have to happen. She didn't think anything of it at first, because bad could really mean anything. Like it could be a divorce, or maybe like, you know, a partner passing away, or something like that.

Because they both admitted to loving their partners so surely, it would be considered bad if they were to not be with their partners. But she wanted to mention this anyway because of course it could definitely be relevant. In her opening statement, Shasta County District Attorney Stephanie Bridget explained that DNA evidence proved that some of Karen's blood was found on Mark's clothes. However, even law enforcement didn't know if this was true, to which the DA explained that maybe Mark had washed his clothes, so essentially there was no evidence of this. But as Daphne just mentioned, if he did kill her and he did it two hours before Casey got

home, that would be enough time to wash and dry his clothes. But there's no evidence of this happening. Yeah, so she was just kind of bringing it up like there was blood on his clothes and everyone's kind of like, I mean, there's no evidence of that though. Like she was kind of really pushing this bloody clothes thing because to her, she's like, if Mark murdered her, there was so much blood at the scene there would have had to have been blood on his clothes somewhere that maybe were watched

but they didn't have that as evidence. A weird thing that Sergeant Perry discussed in court was that after law enforcement arrived to the scene and started talking to Mark, he laid on the couch and covered his whole body with a blanket, even his face. While they investigated the home and the sergeant returned by his side, he asked, you find anything out there? To which sergeant Piri asked, where?

Mark then said, on, never mind. And then proceeded to close his eyes and appear to be sleeping. So this isn't super incriminating but it's definitely kinda odd. A forensic pathologist testified regarding Karen's autopsy and stated that she died within two minutes of being stabbed, because it severed her windpipe and aorta and even struck bone. She wasn't conscious for most of that time though and the forensic pathologist believed she was unconscious just seconds after the stabs occurred.

This conflicts a bit with what Mark said to police originally. During his interrogation the night of the murder, he said that when he found his wife, he could hear her gurgling. But the pathologist stated that this wouldn't have been likely unless he committed the murder himself because again, she would have gone unconscious within seconds of being stabbed. The only way to explain this would be maybe trapped air escaping from her lungs after she was dead,

but it probably wouldn't have been as loud as he made it out to be. And by the way, Karen was stabbed once in the chest and twice in the back. Her face and hands had been wiped clean from blood, and she was propped on pillows, lying in a pool of her own blood. When Jason and Casey returned to the house that night, Mark was next to Karen wiping blood from her forehead.

So I don't know why he was doing this. I can't really explain that. That seems really strange that blood was missing from her hands and from, you know, different parts of her body. Like, why would you be cleaning that off? That's what I don't know. I'm assuming if they saw him, because Jason said, yeah, when we came in, my dad was wiping blood off her forehead. And it didn't seem like, you know, he believes in his dad's innocence, so I don't think he meant it in a way that was incriminating, like it didn't seem weird

to him as if he's trying to help clean up his wife's face kind of thing. But I don't know why he would do that and why he would remove the blood from her hands. That doesn't make sense. Yeah, yeah, that doesn't make any sense to me. The big issue for Mark in this trial was that there was no other person of interest whatsoever. As we stated earlier, there was no evidence of a burglary or sexual assault, so what was the motive for this murder? Out of the hundreds of people that police interviewed, they couldn't find anyone who had

malice towards Karen. So the prosecutor tried to prove that Mark was the only one who had a motive, and that motive was to get rid of his wife of 33 years so he could be with a net. And this was a decent theory, but it didn't hold too much weight because a net cut contact with him over 5 months before the murder occurred, and they didn't start talking again afterwards. She didn't want to leave her husband, so there doesn't seem to have been hope that Mark could have been with her, even if he weren't married anymore. Also, in one of their last conversations, Mark told a net that he loved Karen and said

that he needed to be a better husband for her. Earlier, we kind of discussed the 911 call. We were going to play it for you guys then, but we wanted to wait, because there's a pretty heavy controversy regarding what Mark says when he gets connected to the dispatcher. Listen closely to what Mark says. Here's the call. We didn't want to influence your ears, so we wanted to play it before telling you what people believe he really says there in the beginning. To us, and to many others, it sounds like Mark says, Shit, blood everywhere. Here it is again. This was played a few times in court and actually all the jurors got to hear it with headphones on.

But Mark's defense attorney maintained that what Mark was really saying was, I found my wife sick, blood everywhere. Here's the clip one more time. But weirdly enough, there was a hair found under Karen's fingernails, which is huge. This hair sample did not match Karen, nor Mark, nor anyone in Karen's immediate family. But after those tests were done, this hair was not tested any further. Mark's defense attorney also pointed out that the car speeding off also wasn't looked into, because police thought that Mark was guilty from the start and built their investigation around him being guilty. And I fully understand why Mark was the main suspect in

law enforcement's eyes, but it really is disappointing when police put all their eggs in one basket like this, especially if there was a hair under her nails that didn't match Mark's, like that's a huge deal. And you're not going to look into it any further because it's not your main suspects hair. I totally, again, I totally get it. Look into Mark, go do that for sure, but you should also really just check all your boxes first. A neighbor who spoke mentioned that she had seen both Karen and Mark hours before the murder

as they did yard work together. They all chatted for a bit in the neighbor who lived next door and didn't even hear a scream that night, stated that they appeared in high spirits and talked about getting debt paid off so that they could start checking off adventures on their bucket list together. And they didn't have money troubles, they were just a normal couple who lived paycheck to paycheck but they got by totally fine. There was no sign of severe financial struggle, just normal stuff.

The trial only lasted about six days, and the jury was deliberating for three of those days. At the end of it, they stated that they were hopelessly deadlocked, nine to three in favor of acquittal, meaning that after all the evidence was shown, the majority believed that Mark Dwaynes was not guilty of murdering his wife. Which is really a shock to me because every time we cover cases where the husband is thought to be the murderer of the wife or vice versa, everyone's just kind of like, oh yeah, he did it, you know, or yeah, she did it.

You just kind of assume that because it's such a popular combination. Well, in statistics, show us that that's more likely than not. Right, which is why I think it's so interesting that nine out of twelve of these jurors were like, there's just not enough here for me to say without a shadow of a doubt that he is the one behind this murder. But I'm also not really surprised because again, there really was no physical evidence that he is the one behind this murder. But I'm also not really surprised because again, there really was no physical evidence that he did this. So basically, the first trial resulted in a mistrial,

so they're gonna have to do it all over again. Just two months later, on October 1st, 2013, so almost one year after Mark's arrest, a second trial began. Because of all the publicity that this case was getting in the area, jury selection was very difficult. And this time, new potential evidence was brought in and all the previous things we mentioned were once again told to the jury.

A large kitchen knife found at the Dwayne's home was produced and shown to the jury. But after experts tested said knife, they said that it could be the murder weapon, but it's also possible that it wasn't they just couldn't conclusively say. Because knives can be very hard to link, since they're easy to clean, thanks to the surface of the knife not being porous. As we mentioned in the previous trial, the DA really believed there to be blood on Mark's clothes that was washed out. And during the second trial, she tried to prove to the court that a piece of Mark's clothing that had been washed, proved to have previously been covered in blood.

Although this is still inconclusive, so she ran like a bunch of tests where she put blood on clothes and did different washing techniques and all this stuff, and then compared those washed clothes to Mark's clothes that he was wearing at the time, and eventually just kind of said this could be a match, but I can't say for sure. Kind of seems like everything in this case is inconclusive and pretty much all circumstantial. Exactly, which is why this case is a frustrating. After weeks on trial and just a day and a half of deliberation, on November 1, 2013, exactly one month after the trial began. They found 52-year-old Mark Duaneis guilty of murdering his wife Karen Duaneis and was

sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. As the verdict was read to the room, Mark stared straight ahead and his family who was taking up the rose behind him began crying and disbelief. Because at this point, all of his children and their partners and his family and still Karen's family believed him not to be guilty. As Mark was led out of the room, he said, I didn't do it. After the second trial, even Karen's brother stated, quote, having more information than the jury would ever have, they didn't get it right.

The family also argued that police assured the public that they were safe. Yet for five months, they felt confident that Mark was the killer and he was a free man. So that logic just didn't make sense to his family and they just think the whole thing is unfair because there was no physical evidence that Mark committed the crime. Either way, Mark was found guilty of this murder. He appealed the case almost immediately, which was denied. He's attempted to appeal over the years, but he remains incarcerated at the Folsom State Prison outside of Sacramento, California, where he's serving a life sentence.

An interesting turn of events that doesn't have anything to do with Karen or Mark specifically occurred in 2018. Jacob Dwaynes, who remember is their second oldest son, was working as a California Highway Patrol officer and Monterey County until he was suspected of molesting and raping multiple children. After these allegations, Jacob was fired and placed on three years probation

and ordered to register as a sex offender. Apparently, he had previously pleaded no contest in 2008, four years before Karen's murder to charges regarding molesting two girls who were the ages of 13 and 14. In 2015, he pleaded no contest to molesting a 10-year-old boy in Chico, California, but was sentenced to just 180 days in jail. So this is really crazy. I know, and after he was released, he apparently continued to offend because, as he said, in 2018, 36-year-old Jacob Dwaynes was convicted of raping a child. He was found guilty and sentenced

to 26 years in prison, and this crime was in Washington state, so he's not serving in the same prison as his father, but instead will be in prison in the state of Washington until he's in his early 60s. And I kind of hate to speak about his case since Karen is the victim here, as well as Jacob's victims, but I just thought it was a really crazy thing I came across while researching this case. Obviously, it has nothing to do with Karen's case, but I was definitely shocked to read about it.

So what are your thoughts on this case? Ah, it's so hard. Regarding Mark's innocence, I just don't know how I feel. I feel almost guilty questioning his guilt, because again, the most important person in this story is Karen and her getting justice, and obviously there are a few shreds of doubt regarding Mark being innocent, hence him being in prison, but I just wish there was more actual physical evidence in this case, so we could all feel better about him being behind bars. Because I think his story about finding her is really strange and that there was absolutely no evidence that an intruder even entered the house.

But I also just don't know if there's enough motive for murder. I mean, murder is a huge deal. And Mark didn't have any record of violence or anger issues or other small crimes whatsoever. I mean, do people snap sometimes, I guess? But snap so much that they're gonna brutally stab their wife? For what? A previous affair doesn't automatically mean that someone's willing to kill for it. It's just too weird for me.

So I have to remain kind of undecided on this one. I hope he's guilty just because it's terribly unjust when innocent people are sent to prison, but I just can't get over how little evidence there really is and how much the police spearheaded him mostly based on a gut feeling. But that's my personal opinion. What do you think? I also agree. I think that there needs to be more physical evidence that comes forward for me to make, you

know, a positive ID on who murdered Karen. I also think it's strange because this is a really small town, so I'm surprised that more people didn't come forward with secrets or things to say about Mark, because I would imagine probably everyone knows everyone. I agree, and the problem with him being in prison is if he is innocent, then he is sitting behind bars having done absolutely nothing, and you kind of have to ask yourself what's worse, an innocent person in prison, or a guilty person out on the streets. Like, it's really, really tough, I know, but I definitely just wish that there was more here to go off of because they're just not quite enough. Yeah, and the weird thing is that Mark was the only one home in the house when Karen was

murdered. So that leads us to believe that he's probably the guy just because he's there. He's there inside the house. I get it. He's down the hall in a different room, but we don't really know what happened while Casey was at the movies. Our hearts go out to Karen's family. She was an amazing woman who didn't deserve to be killed, and she was on her way to doing great things. So, may she rest in peace.

Absolutely agree. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this 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. And just a reminder, I know we always talk about it, but if you're looking for bonus episodes more content more of us, head on over to patreon.com slash going west podcast. We have over 33 bonus episodes. We're gonna release one very soon for this month and another one for this month.

So go check it out and we do shout out which we should do right now. Yeah, and also remember if you have any thoughts on this case, make sure that you hit us up on our social media accounts, head over to Instagram, at Going West Podcast and our Twitter at Going West Pod. Also, we have a Facebook discussion group called Going West Discussion Group. So, check that out and let us know what you think. And thank you so much to everybody who has joined our Patreon in the last week. It means so much to us and it really is what keeps our show going. So, thank you so much to, first of all, I want to say actually the first shout out is going to Shavan. We missed my answer name last week and we're so sorry,

but you're amazing. We love you. Thank you, Shavon. Yes, thank you so much, Shavon. And thank you so much to Brianna, Courtney, Nathan, Carrie, Katie, Amy, Tara, or Tara, and Heather. Big thanks going out to one of our really good friends, Danielle Lou, Dan the Man, we love you.

Wow. Thanks, Danny. And big thanks going out to Nicholas, Christina, Megan, Rachel, Isabella, and Julia. And last but not least, thank you so, so much to Dominic, Jamie, Jenna, Tyler, Sarah, Kasia, Meg, and Jessica, we love the shit out of y'all. Again, that's patreon.com slash Going West Podcast. And if you're interested in getting merch from us, head on over to goingwestpod.com, hit the shop tab, we have a bunch of stuff I do the merch personally,

so maybe I'm biased, but I think it's all pretty cute stuff. We have sweatshirts, we have hoodies, we've got pullovers, hats, stickers, t-shirts, you freaking name it. I'm still waiting on that men's crop top. Oh, is that what you want? I can do that. Oh yeah, absolutely. I can definitely do that.

But heath's face on it, you can wrap it around and then people dig you have two faces. I'm in. Alright guys, that's it for us. So for everybody out there in the world, cheerio and Delmiest Ranger. you