Going West: True Crime - Rinette Riella-Bergna // 419

Episode Date: July 7, 2024

In June of 1998, a 49-year-old woman and her husband were out for a late-night drive when their car careened off a Nevada cliffside, killing her. To everyone’s surprise, when police looked into the accident, they began to suspect that it wasn’t an accident after all. This is the story of Rinette Riella-Bergna.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on true crime fans? I'm your host Heath and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to going west Hello everybody. Hope you had a safe and very fun 4 of July. And if you don't live in the US hope you had a great Thursday. We did have a really fun Fourth of July. We watched Jaws in the pool and it was awesome. We pretty much do that like every year. It's becoming a tradition but it was it was amazing. It's like the third year in a row right? I think so yeah. Ordered some pizza, had way too much dessert like I had like a hangover the next day from sugar,

not even from alcohol. Like no alcohol, sugar only. It's so many sweets. Yeah, we did have a lot of sweets at the party, but we also had a lot of beer too. So I was hungover from beer. You were regular hungover. I was, yeah.

Absolutely. Well, today we have a very interesting story for you guys. Yeah, this one is a California case and the small details of this one are really really important like the way that the investigation Unraveled they had to really really nitpick those little things and they did as you guys will see Yeah, they had to basically collect all this information to finally see some justice Yeah, all this like weirdly specific data. So without further ado, let's talk about it.

All right guys, this is episode 419, not 319 of Going West. So let's get into it. Last week he said 318. I did. Neither of us noticed. It's 419. Let's get into it. Make your nights unforgettable with American Express. Unmissable show coming up?

Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main event, skip to the good bit using the card member entrance. Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash y amex. Benefits vary by card, other conditions apply. ["The Day We Were Born"] In June of 1998, a 49-year-old woman and her husband were out for a late-night drive when their car careened off the side of a Nevada mountain and killed her.

To everyone's surprise when police looked into the accident, they began to suspect that it wasn't an accident after all. Renee Riella was born on April 17, 1949 to Ida and John Riella in Stockton, California as the only girl of her four siblings, because she grew up alongside brothers Jack, Jim, and Rick. Renette was incredibly smart from a young age, so after graduating from Mantica High School in 1967, she continued on to attend the University of California at Davis, completing her degree with honors in 1971. Deciding that she wanted to pursue a pharmaceutical degree, she then enrolled at the University of the Pacific and graduated with her doctorate of pharmacy in 1974.

Renette quickly built an impressive resume for herself in healthcare as she worked as the director of pharmacy and multiple hospitals. She was also a member of multiple organizations of American pharmacists and even served as the president of the Nevada pharmacists association. So for her work there, she won the outstanding pharmacist service award in 1994, but more so than her achievements in health care, which were obviously great, she was remembered for being loving, thoughtful, and kind.

And it was those qualities that attracted her future husband, Peter Bergna. Yeah, this guy sucks and we're going to get into it. Spoiler, damn. Sorry. Yeah, sorry about the spoiler there, but I had to. So after graduating with her doctorate, Renette moved from California to incline village, Nevada, which is a pretty popular vacation spot because it is insanely beautiful.

It has a very clear Bay. Did you see pictures of this place? No, but just knowing that it's close to, as you're going to mention, it's close to Tahoe. It is. You can picture. I can picture just how gorgeous it is. So is so we want to show you really quick because like look how clear the waters get is this not incredible? Oh my god it honestly looks like the Caribbean but like in the Pacific Northwesters. Yes so true you know trees in the mountains with Caribbean water exactly so true so she lived there that must have been an amazing place to live, you know,

to be able to enjoy all of that year round. And like Heath just said, this is basically the Bay, which is called Crystal Bay for good reason, is connected to Lake Tahoe. So if you've been to Lake Tahoe, you can kind of picture this a little bit better overall than a great area. And it was here in Incline Village that Renette met Peter Bergna who was a successful appraiser of antiques for the San Francisco San Francisco San Francisco baby yeah the San Francisco auction firm Butterfield and Butterfield now to Renette Peter seemed charming and

warm you know he coached a local youth athletic team in his spare time, so that's appealing and cute, right? And he was generous with his very substantial income. Peter was the son of an accomplished district attorney so he had grown to enjoy. You know those finer things in life. He even kept a wine cellar

with many exquisite bottles, and because of his line of work, he also collected many works of art and antiques. So after they got together, Renette opened her own pharmacological consulting business. So they were both doing very well for themselves. But Renette also had a passion for travel, which just got stronger with age.

So as she approached her 50s, Renette decided to leave her job in healthcare and become an international tour director at Tauke Tours, which was a job that would take her all over the world for weeks at a time. And she absolutely loved this because, again, she loved to travel. But like most cases that we cover regarding marriages, Renette's friends and families saw through this seemingly perfect relationship with Peter. Her siblings remember that Peter was short-tempered and impatient, and that he was quick to belittle her, even in public, and even in front of her immediate family.

Well, their neighbor Cynthia even recalls hearing like screaming matches between them from time to time and said that Peter could be volatile and violent at times. And this is super messed up, but he even once used a snow blower to like blast her with snow in the front yard with neighbors watching. So obviously this just shows us how much he didn't care about who was watching when he like severely mistreated her. Yeah and if he was willing to do these things in public, what would he do behind closed doors? Absolutely, you know it just it seems like a really bad scenario but Renette always felt like she needed to cover for Peter because she felt like if

she didn't she'd kind of be throwing the towel in on her marriage. So this is why her brothers believe that she really took the job as a travel agent, so that she could give herself an excuse to be away from home more often. Yeah, and it's believed that when she was away on these trips, that Peter would be cheating on her. So overall, things are just not good. Exactly, and more on that actually, so the night before his wife Renette died, Peter hosted a house party that multiple women in the community attended and later multiple of these women who attended this party said that Peter was hitting on them at the party and he was acting as if he was already

single. Which he would be the next day, so suspicious. Very suspicious. So the next night, which was May 31st, 1998, Renette returned from a six-week tour of Italy. So Peter picked her up at the Reno Tahoe Airport telling her that he had missed her terribly, I'm sure. And just hours later, Renette would be gone. In a frantic and breathless 911 call placed just after midnight on June 1st, 1998, Peter explained what happened and here is a clip from that call. By the way, I know that it's kind of muffled. He's hard to hear, so it's hard to hear exactly what he's saying. We're going to talk about that after the clip.

The matter. How is Charles? Calm down. Where are you? Where are you? Okay. So, you know, he sounds upset. He's definitely very frantic, like I said, but again his voice is so muffled in this call. So this is what he said. Peter told the operator quote, my car went down the hill. My wife is in the car.

I was thrown out. I'm sliding down the hill. I'm trying to hang on with one arm and I can't hang on. I'm sliding down the hill. We were coming down and it wouldn't stop." Now, in between broken explanations to the dispatcher, Peter continued to call down to his wife desperately as you guys could hear, he was calling her name in that distressed tone.

Now, based on the description of his surroundings, police determined that Renette and Peter were located near the Mount Rose Ski Resort on the East Bowl of Slide Mountain, which is about 25 miles or 40 kilometers from Reno, Nevada, which again, that is the nearest international airport. And that is the one that Renette flew into that night. Right, the one that Peter picked her up from. Exactly. So it seems like they were about halfway through their journey. And if you look at it on a map, which I will post just so you guys can get a little visual, the airport

is just about 45 minutes away from where they lived. And then this spot on the mountain is like halfway between the airport and their house so they're not they're not far away. So it seems like Peter went off the side of the mountain while they were doing this drive. Also there is only one photo that we could find of the car. It's not a good one but I found a newspaper clipping that shows illustrations of the mountain and the fall in the way that Peter described it and and the fall in the way that Peter described it and then the fall in the way that police believe it actually happened. By fall, of course, I mean

the drive off. I don't know what else to call that. Okay, so yeah, go check our socials if you want to see those. But anyway, so the operator kept him on the phone as officers scanned the mountain for any sign of him or the scene of this accident. When asked his account of the events, Peter recalled, quote, we were coming down, I was breaking and it wouldn't stop. It wouldn't stop, it wouldn't stop. He broke into violent sobs

before screaming his wife's name twice and then sobbing, God. Finally, officers came upon a section of missing guardrail that looked as if a car had barreled through it. And in almost the exact center of the damage done to the guardrail, this baseball hat had been left behind on the asphalt, just sitting there. And remember that, because that will be important later.

Yeah, kind of weird. So Peter made a comment to the 911 operator about how he was like looking for a blaze, assuming that the car had caught on fire in the wreck, but that he couldn't see anything but darkness. Now when the police arrived, almost 100 feet down the hillside from the broken guardrail lay Peter, facedown in the dirt on the slope of the mountain. Officers carefully navigated down to him to bring him back up to the safety of the road, while a flight for life helicopter circled overhead

with plans to bring Renette and Peter to a nearby hospital for their assumed injuries. But let's talk about those injuries. Well, shockingly, Peter barely had any injuries. He was complaining about pain in his legs and said that he couldn't move them, so he was loaded onto a stretcher and taken in for an evaluation. Now he told the paramedic and nurse who had arrived in the helicopter as he continued to shout Renette's name, of course, that he thought that she was dead. And the nurse also noted that as he sobbed his wife's name,

he couldn't produce a single tear. So after arriving at the hospital, Peter was checked for his injuries, but medical personnel found no lacerations or blood. I mean, aside from some dirt covering the back of his jeans and some dark stains on his shoes, he was virtually untouched and unscathed from the car wreck, which was super confusing to staff and police, of course. Yeah, especially when, you know, the fact that he was found 100 feet down the cliff side

on the mountain, you think if anything, him flying out of the vehicle and tumbling down that mountain 100 feet, which is pretty significant. Yeah. 100 feet is not nothing. There would have definitely been some sort of injuries. At least, at the very least, in my opinion, a scratch or a scrape or blood. You think sliding down a mountain, that would be the most likely injury absolutely I mean you could have just tumbled completely down the mountain

broken multiple you know multiple legs or arms in this 100 foot fall but nothing like that happened but renette however was a completely different story now their car which was a 1997 Ford F-150 pickup truck, had landed about 700 feet from where Peter was flung from the vehicle. It had rolled multiple times as it slid down the hill and was in really, really poor shape. I mean the camper shell, you know, that covers the bed of the truck, had even broken free and it laid somewhere on the hill above the car. The truck landed upside down and backwards with the cab facing up the hill. The airbags had deployed and rennetly slumped and motionless, still in the passenger seat and still buckled in.

One officer pulled her from the vehicle and attempted to find a pulse, but sadly he was unable to do so. So it was just too late to save 49-year-old Renette. Her body was removed from the site of the crash while Peter was airlifted away in the helicopter. And right there in the pitch black night, officers began their investigation into what originally appeared to be a tragic accident. So when Rennette's body was removed from the scene and autopsy'd, her remains were so mangled

that the coroner couldn't even determine a cause of death. She had suffered a broken rib and a broken kneecap, 13 broken ribs, a broken rib and a broken kneecap, 13 broken ribs, a broken neck, and had bleeding in both her chest cavity and her brain. The medical examiner also noted that due to the severity of her injuries, unfortunately, it was impossible to determine if she had been killed before the crash even occurred and was sent over the cliff to cover for her killer, which is what really complicates this suspicious case.

Yeah, they're just trying to like figure out what happened here and they don't really have a clear picture because you know, you've got one person who is pretty much unscathed and you've got another person who is, you know, as they said, mangled. Yeah, and she is, I mean, her journey was far worse anyway. You know, she went over 700 feet down that mountain. She was still in the car. The car was super messed up. It was rolling and tumbling. Yeah, so it's definitely possible that she could have sustained these injuries in the car, but it definitely is weird as well when you look at Peter,

who doesn't have a scratch on him and that's what happened to Renette. It's pretty intense. So Sergeant John Schilling, who was the lead investigator for the Nevada Highway Patrol who specialized in reconstructing accidents, made his suspicions of Peter clear immediately and he really led the crusade for the truth which he believed was pinning Peter as Renette's murderer. When asked to recount the events leading up to the crash Peter said quote I may have opened the door for all I know and jumped out of the truck I don't know I may have jumped out of the window I don't know. That's pretty convenient that he has no idea how he got outside of the vehicle.

Also, it's not like he had a head injury. Like, dude, you've got nothing. There's nothing wrong with you. How do you not remember? Right. That's what I'm saying. So this is really weird too. The road showed no signs of a fatal traffic accident. Like there were no tire marks or indications that the car had swerved at all, which you'd think both would be very present if Peter was telling the truth. If you are barreling towards a cliff side and a guardrail and you can't break,

which is what he's going to say, you're going to, you're going to swerve. You're going to do everything you can not to hit that guardrail. That's a worst case scenario, is you hitting that guardrail. Well, as we're gonna talk about here in a minute, he actually explains, er, actually doesn't explain, sorry, he has no explanation for why he didn't swerve away from the guardrail. Exactly. So, the only evidence of the crash actually occurring was that clean break of the guardrail, which was exactly where the truck had broken through it. So that at least, if that hadn't been

there, there would be no signs of what Peter sang other than the truck being off the cliff, right? Right. So gas and oil were strewn along the hillside in the trail that the car had slid down, but most of it was not from inside the car. Here's the thing. Multiple red plastic gas cans had been found, all full at the time of the accident, and they had been left without caps in the bed of the truck. Hmm.

Yeah. That's very suspicious. Yeah. So most of the gas at the scene was believed to have spilled from the nearly full cans. And remember how Peter said that he was expecting the car to blow up? Well, you then have to wonder if that's what he hoped would happen after he potentially opened those cans himself.

That's exactly what happened. I mean, he was hoping, I mean, he was looking down the mountain going even though they you know they found him down the mountain. He was apparently... On his face, clutching the dirt. Yeah, clutching the dirt. Oh so dramatic. Yeah whatever guy. But yeah like he was looking down the mountain expecting to see flames, expecting to see smoke because he knew that those fucking gas cans were in the back of that truck and he was just hoping that that truck would explode Well, tell me if you think this is weird because I'm not I've never gotten a gas can and filled it up

Like I've just never had to do that so Peter said that he had 11 gallons of spare gas in the truck because He was attending a trade show in Las Vegas for work and he didn't want to have to stop for gas on his way there Or back obviously he's gonna have to stop to fill them from the jugs. Maybe that's super, is that common? Do people do that? I mean, people get cans of gas for a reason, but 11? No, no, that's such, such a lie. Like, first of all, like you said, if you can stop to put a gas from a gas can in your truck, can stop at a fucking gas station and fill your truck, right? Especially in in modern I mean, this is 1998 but still if you're going to Las Vegas from California or well, he's he's in Nevada

Sorry, I think I said earlier this took place in California. Well, it's close to California It's literally on the border. But yeah, if he's going to Vegas from there, it's not going to be far enough for him to need all of this gas. No, there's no way. I don't think you would even need half the amount of gas cans to to fill your truck to go that distance. And again, it's weird. It's just a stupid idea.

And we know we can see through it. It's so easy to see through this bullshit Yep, so Peter's behavior and recollection of the events only continued to raise eyebrows for investigators Just hours after the tragic loss of his wife and what should have been a traumatizing car accident Peter was released from the hospital virtually unscathed as we mentioned because all he suffered was a fractured ankle but some sources say that it wasn't even fractured that it was probably just sprained. And then again poor Renette sustained so much more before she passed again I know that

she went down over 700 feet but still it just feels a little convenient that you're 100 feet down the cliff and you have nothing but a sprained ankle. Yeah, I mean, it's crazy, but get this friends. So after Peter was released from the hospital, he returned to the scene of the accident because he said that he needed something from his truck, which he hoped police would let him take.

He asked officers if they had recovered his fanny pack from the truck. And this is happening just so casually because remember just hours earlier he was whining about how much his legs hurt and that, you know, he couldn't move them and now suddenly he's striding up to police just feet away from where his deceased wife still lay in a body bag by the way demanding to get something from his truck. It's just a bad look. Yeah, because like you said, he was at the scene.

He said, I can't move my legs. And this is just like you said, hours later, walking right up to him. Horrible. And for his fanny pack. Yeah. And the fact that like you care more about your fanny pack than your dead wife that's right there says so much. So then police began to wonder how, if he had been so hurt, he could have had the presence

of mind to pull his phone out of his pocket and call for help right away. Another strange detail was that Peter had gloves with him, citing the chilly desert temperatures at night, but his window had been open, so too many things here just weren't adding up. In the days following his wife's tragic death, police detained Peter for questioning as they tried to make sense of the scene. When asked to give his account of losing control of the vehicle, Peter remembered that their speed was increasing as they were heading down the mountain, and that the brakes gave

out and he lost control of the car plummeting into the guardrail. He explained, quote, We got down that way and I started to accelerate down the hill a little. And then I started to brake and I started to brake and I started to brake and it wasn't braking It wasn't stopping. I couldn't figure out why it wasn't stopping and then I hit the guardrail When asked how he wound up outside of the car He claimed that he was ejected from the driver's seat while Renette was belted into the passenger seat and dragged down the rocky hillside. So you're ejected and pulled from your seat

under the steering wheel and out the driver's side window. Like a ghost hand is just grabbing you. Yeah, like ripping you out of the car. Like you're not going through the windshield. Yeah. You're going, like you're just slipping right out. I'm not saying that's not, that that's impossible to happen. It just feels a little convenient.

Yeah, and like we said, you know, the driver's side window had been left open Peter said because he had just smoked a cigar and that this left a convenient exit for him right cuz you know Accidents happen in slow motion and you can just think fast enough to get out the window as the car is is flying off The cliff totally well if you didn't if you didn't realize, Daphne, this guy is actually Neo from the Matrix. So, you know, everything is happening.

He's like got this plan already, you know. I mean, he's the fastest man alive. He's the Flash. Like he is able to, in a half a second, go, whoop, I'm going out the window. I mean, car accidents happen so fast. Like, you don't see it coming at all. And like, I've been T-boned before and it was like a blur.

It all happened so fast. So I understand the aspect of like, oh my God, suddenly, I mean, what I will say though, when I was T-boned, I didn't see it coming at all. He's saying, we're coming down the hill and I can't break. And then so, it's like, there is awareness in that, in that event. But still, there's only just a few seconds probably where he's realizing, oh no, the brakes aren't, you know, the brakes aren't working. But obviously, you know, he also said, as we mentioned earlier, he had no explanation

for why he didn't try to swerve away from this guardrail. Right. But he was able to conveniently slip out the window with no problem. Sure. I can't swerve to miss this guardrail, but somehow I can get out of the window with the quickness of a cheetah. Meanwhile, Renette can't get out of her window, can't open her door, can't even unbuckle her seatbelt.

Right. Well, Peter was also given a polygraph examination, but the results were inconclusive with the examiner claiming that Peter had been breathing so heavily during the questioning that he was unable to secure an accurate reading. So before that break, Heath let us know that Peter's polygraph test results were inconclusive because he was breathing so heavily during the questioning that they weren't able to secure an accurate reading. He was a little nervous. He was a little nervous.

To say the least. So also during his questioning, seemingly unprovoked, Peter went into a tirade about how his wife was gone too often on her travels and that he was lonely. Because you know, that's super relevant to talk about when discussing her death. Yeah. Like let us know how you really feel. Also, you know, he was cheating on her when she was gone

and throwing parties where women were coming from the community to his house and he was hitting on them. So he's just trying to play the victim. Very lonely guy. Well, the night that she arrived home from Italy, he had met her right at the gate, giving her a quote, big hugging kiss and excitedly welcomed her home. He recalled telling her how much he missed her and that he didn't like when she was gone

for so long. Now, Peter did admit though that he and Renette had a bit of an argument in the car. He said that he told her quote, and this is probably, you know, a loose quote. You have a great time and it might be your job, but I'm home and I'm alone and I don't like it. He then said that he added quote, I want a wife who's home with me. That's important to me in my life. Among many other aspects of his behavior, police found it strange that he was spending the days following his wife's untimely death complaining about her choices and their marriage when she had been alive. Because, you know, again, it's just not relevant. She's not, unfortunately, she's not here to hear

about this. So you're just telling the police they don't care. We're not here. Yeah, they're there to investigate the situation. They don't care about what you're talking about. So strangely, found on him the night of the crash was a typed up list of demands that Peter had for their marriage, which he said he shared with Renette in the car that night. Here they are. Number one, improve on self-love. Number two, love the other person. Numberlove 2. Love the other person 3. Listen to the other person's ideas 4. Compromise with our ideas

5. Implement our ideas 6. Work for common goals 7. Be kind to each other 8. Take control of our money and bills each other. Number eight, take control of our money and bills. Number nine, deal with problems as they arise. Number 10, use common sense when dealing with problems. And number 11, make love more often. I find this really, really interesting. And this is my thought, in my opinion, my theory.

But I think that he wrote this list of shit so that eventually when police did come upon this crash, they would find that list and go, oh look, they had this loving marriage, he was really trying to work on bettering the marriage, kind of like diverting them from the situation at hand. Yeah, like he doesn't want her dead, he wants it to work out, kind of like diverting them from the situation at hand. Yeah, like he doesn't want her dead. He wants it to work out, which, you know,

there's nothing wrong on wanting to work on your marriage and wanting to talk about these things and maybe, I don't know, writing them down so you don't forget your points, I don't know. But this just feels like a ruse to me. Yeah, it's definitely really weird, especially when she just got back from this trip, it's nighttime, as he's going to talk about as well,

this was like a quote unquote romantic drive. Actually, I think I'm about to talk about that. Yeah. And, and on top of that also, you know, going back to the pre-planned stuff, I think that was pre-planned. And then obviously the gas cans, as we mentioned before, so it seemed like it was all set up. Well, he claims that he suggested that they head up to slide mountain before heading home that night, which was apparently their favorite lookout point that was, you know, like I said earlier, basically on their way home. Now, although it functioned as a ski resort in the winter months,

it was a lot more quiet and more secluded in the off season since again, this story happened in May. So he thought that it would be romantic. So he brought out the list and apparently discussed his needs moving forward with Peter admitting that he didn't want her going away as much or for as long as she had been doing. Peter said that despite the gravity of the conversation, Renette had even brought up divorce at one point, he says, the night seemed to be going pretty well. Peter said, quote, and my thought in my mind was it's quiet, it's romantic, it's beautiful.

She loves to go up and look at the lights. He says that he explained to her, quote, it really hurts me. I hate to be home alone. I want you to be home with me. This is what I want for our life and we started talking about that. According to Peter, Renette was gracious and understanding and agreed to his terms, apparently wanting to fix things moving forward. Peter even claimed that she said quote, if you want me to stay home, I will stay home and I will not travel.

I'm sure she did not say that. Yeah, so he's kind of saying, it does make sense what you said earlier. He wants it to look like, hey, we're fixing things. We're moving up, we're moving forward. I have these issues, she has her issues, but we're agreeing and we're agreeing to these terms and we're going to move forward as a better couple for it." So they then began to drive toward a lookout point where you could see the city of Reno from above,

and that's where the fatal accident occurred when a supposed brake malfunction took his wife away from him. But during his interrogation, police began to note inconsistencies in his story, like how he quickly contradicted himself saying that they had actually never been there before. Even though just minutes prior, he said it was one of their favorite lookout spots in the area. Uh-oh, Peter's getting caught in lies. Yeah, and the police are catching on to this, but Peter's maintaining, quote, I'm a very respected person around town and loved my wife dearly, and I'm just sick to death that I'm gonna be alone.

My biggest fear is I don't want to be home alone. Huh, okay. Well, Peter had a ton of justifications for not wanting Renette to work the job that she had been working. Because not only did Renette's new career venture frequently take her away from her husband, but she was making significantly less money than she was when she was working as a pharmacist. Because Peter wanted to upgrade their already cushy lifestyle and relocate to a nicer home

closer to the water, which they wouldn't be able to do without the help of Renette's salary. Renette's brothers also attest to the fact that Peter had been resentful of Renette for years as she had made the decision to not have children, and he was kind of holding out hope that she would change her mind. But when they married, Renette was in her late 30s. Remember, she was 49 when she died and was very career focused. Peter, who was four years younger and still hopeful of being a dad, came to resent Renette's choice. He also apparently hated that she had chosen to hyphenate her name to Renette Riella Bergner, instead of changing her name, or last name to Bergner. God, who cares?

Like so many demands I get if you want kids and she doesn't, that is a huge thing to disagree on. You know, that's a, it's a big life thing. But why do you care so much if she takes your name? It's just a name. Yeah, I never really fully understood that. I mean, I didn't care that I, well, I did take your name, but you did not quote unquote professionally. Yeah. And that's the thing is like, it probably doesn't matter, but I know

that there are a lot of people out there that are going to say that it does matter. Um, but then, but then to, to that, I just say if he has all these issues, if you know, he resents her, if he wants kids, there's a woman out there that wants kids to and will meet you on these other points, right? It doesn't seem like they're on the on the same path. Yeah, don't try to force it. Yeah, exactly well, he also felt like she was too independent and successful for him and Knowing that she didn't need him like he needed her began to weigh on him knowing that she didn't need him like he needed her began to weigh on him. Well, Renette also had a $250,000 life insurance payout, which increased by another $200,000

due to her accidental death. So it almost felt like Renette was worth more to Peter dead than alive. And it took only a few months to secure this payout. As Sergeant John Schilling scrambled to prove that the accident had been intentional, Peter was enjoying his new sum of cash. Peter argued that it had been Renette who wanted such a large policy, but either way, he put it to good use. So with the money that he had just gained from this life insurance policy, he was able to replace his wrecked car with the exact same vehicle, a Ford F-150 pickup truck. Additionally, Renette owned a quarter share of her family's ranch fortune, the Riella Ranches, which the siblings inherited from their parents when they passed away. And since that happened, Renette managed the portfolio with

her three brothers. But Peter pleaded his case to them. He was losing the input of Renette's income and deserved to be cut into the family fortune as she would have been if she were still alive. So her brothers paid him off with a lump sum of $275,000 for a total payout of $725,000 with this life insurance included. And of course, you know, this was back in the 90s, so with inflation, this is about $1.4 million by today's standards. But even though her brothers are, you know, paying him off and he's inheriting all this money, no one is letting go of the fact that Peter seemed to have purposefully murdered his wife. In fact, their neighbor Cynthia, who Heath mentioned earlier, you know, she

witnessed a lot of Peter's kind of questionable and very crass behavior towards his wife multiple times, claims that Peter's reputation in the community really soured after what happened to Renette. And he was even dubbed the incline OJ because remember they lived in inclined village. So everybody is calling him, you know, essentially OJ Simpson. So Peter then decided to relocate to Seattle, which was familiar to him because that's where he went to college. So he relocated his business there, eventually met a woman there and became engaged to her.

So while Peter's life just resumed without Renette, investigators were still attempting to find a loophole to put him away for what they know he did. So they poured over every small detail in this case, just hoping to happen upon something that they missed. They even had a mechanic take the truck apart to test for brake failure. But everything seemed to be in order. There was nothing wrong with the truck and no mechanical explanation for why it would have failed that evening, like Peter claimed it had. Investigators had collected Peter's

clothing after the accident, and they decided to have it forensically tested. And on his shoes were holes and the black tarry remnants of asphalt. So if he had been thrown from the driver's seat as the truck careened off the hillside, you know, as he said, why were there remnants of the road on his clothes? Well, they were able to determine that his shoes had been met with force against the asphalt and there were remnants of it on his clothes as well, while the plant and dirt debris that should have been left over from this tumble down the side of the hill was not present at all. So it appeared that he had been thrown or more likely leapt

from his car when it was still on the pavement and that's when his shoes met the asphalt. Whereas you know he's kind of making it seem like the car is going down, he's able to fly out the window and then he landed 100 feet down but based on what they're finding with this asphalt on his shoes and his clothes, that's not the case. And then another odd detail about his clothing was that of the baseball hat that they found perfectly perched on the road at the top of the slope. Like how would that have fallen on the road if he was thrown from the car after the collision

with the guardrail. So police are just putting together all these really suspicious little things to help their case. Yeah, and I mean, that baseball cap being on that road, it just would make absolutely no sense if he had flown out the window, like you said, after going through the guardrail,

it would not be on the road there. Yeah, it just feels like he's planting his story. Of course, and investigators now felt like they had a much larger picture of what had happened. Peter had accelerated toward the guardrail and leapt out onto the pavement just in time while sending his wife off the cliff to her death. He then climbed down the hillside to give the appearance of having been ejected from the window as the car slid down the mountain.

The case was agonizingly slow-paced, but it was moving forward with these findings, and in June of 1999, one year after Renette's death, investigators submitted the evidence that they had collected to the district attorney, just hoping that they could get an indictment. A year and a half later, in December of 2000, two and a half years after Renette's death, there was finally enough evidence, both to arrest him and secure a conviction in court. Sergeant John Schilling, again the investigator who had been on this case since the beginning, claimed that Peter said that he knew exactly what the officer was there for when he showed

up to arrest him. Like he didn't even ask any questions. On Friday, December 14, 2000, Peter was arrested in Seattle for the murder of his wife, Renette Riella. Surprisingly, he chose not to fight his extradition, and he was brought back to Nevada to go to court. Though the evidence seemed indisputable to some, many friends and co-workers of Peter's still jumped to his defense, saying that they believed that he was innocent.

And actually, one of his co-workers named Gary testified on Peter's behalf, saying, quote, it was a beautiful marriage. Were you in it? Do you know? Yeah, like what the hell? And he described Peter as numb after the death of his wife saying quote, Peter took a long time to come out of this. It took a lot of spirit out of Pete. However, a local woman who chose to remain anonymous

testified before a jury that she was invited over to his home just six weeks after Renette's death, and that Peter had aggressively come on to her and touched her while she was in the hot tub, despite her protests, so didn't really seem like Peter was grieving all that much. Well, his friend Gary, who the one that was defending him in court, scoffed at this, saying that it never happened, and added that charming the local clientele was part of Peter's job First of all, you dude

Secondly, how the hell do you know it didn't happen and the fact that there are multiple women even the night before Rinette passed when there was that party and apparently Peter was coming on to all these different women who came forward later and said so. Like this Gary dude is just acting like Peter's a perfect person and he didn't do that. Of course. Yeah, such a bad look on Gary's part to race to the defense of a murderer. Come on, Gary. Well, the prosecution presented the fact that the truck had been traveling at only about 22 miles per hour when it hit the guardrail at nearly a 90 degree angle.

So obviously the truck was moving pretty slow which would account for Peter being able to get out of the truck unscathed while the truck went through the guardrail. Well yeah let's talk about that for a second because if you, he said that they were barreling down the hill and his brakes went out, you would imagine then that you're going to pick up a lot of speed I'm assuming you're going at least 25 to 30 miles an hour anyway. Yeah, and you're going again like you said downhill Yeah, it's it's very interesting to know that it was only 22 miles an hour Yeah And Peter was only able to leap from the car because he wasn't wearing his seatbelt, unlike Renette,

which the defense believed was a premeditated escape plan. I mean, that would make a lot of sense. He decides not to wear his seatbelt so that he can open the door and jump out very quickly. Yeah, and that's actually how they think that he messed up his ankle. Like he is leaping from the car and then he landed on his foot in a way that rolled and injured his ankle, like he is leaping from the car and then he landed on his foot in a way that rolled and injured his ankle and that in turn left marks from the asphalt on his shoes and

then his clothes because he kind of like fell over. Right, well his defense attorney Michael dismissed these findings and countered that the truck had slid along the side of the road as Peter attempted to brake, then struck the guardrail and sent it over the edge in a twisting motion, which violently ejected Peter from the car. But that just doesn't make any sense, and when they recreated this scene, they didn't believe that was true. But the jury was not convinced by this either, and it resulted in a 9-3 split, leading to a mistrial in November of 2001.

And Peter's second trial began in June of 2002, so about seven months later. So during this trial, his defense attorney, Michael Schwartz, sought to prove that there had been a large-scale issue of the brakes failing on this particular year and model of Ford truck. But they could not find enough compelling information for this to be deemed admissible in court. And funny enough, Ford even made an official statement claiming that this was not a problem of their 1997 F-150 truck.

So they're coming forward and saying, this is not a problem that we see. Like they're even acknowledging that this is a bunch of BS. Kind of seems like Michael is just grasping at straws here. Well he also brought in like more character witnesses in front of the court, just hoping to kind of prove the existence of, you know, a loving and stable marriage since they don't have any other evidence to go off of. But the prosecution kind of had something to combat this in the form of Peter Burgnas first wife, Rebecca.

So she and Peter were married for three years and she told the court, quote, "'I was very, very fearful of my physical wellbeing. Once the door was very, very fearful of my physical well-being. Once the door was closed, I found there was a totally different person. Deputy District Attorney Kelly Ann Valoria addressed the jury by quoting something that Peter had said to the authorities. He said, quote, I woke up, I looked for a fire.

She paused for a dramatic effect and then added, quote, he looked for a fire because that's what he was hoping would happen folks He was hoping these open leaking gas cans would have exploded and ignited that car She added that Peter Berkina quote cared as much about the person He sent over that cliff as he did about the truck. Both are replaceable. Now this time the answer appeared much more clear-cut to the jury because on June 19th 2002, almost four years exactly after his wife's death, Peter Bergner was found guilty of murdering her. As the verdict was read he appeared kind of like unsurprised and stoic.

He was just shaking his head and he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after having served 20 years. He was also ordered to pay back the nearly $300,000 he was given by the family for what he believed was his fair share of the Riela Ranch fortune. I mean, it's so sad that... I mean, it's such a slap in the face that he even asked them in the first place for this money when he knew that he killed Renette. Yeah. And then, you know, I mean, we talk about this pretty much every case, how it's just so useless. Like, if he had just gotten a divorce and married a different woman, he would not be in prison for life. She would be alive, living her own life, and he could find another woman out there who makes the money that he wants, you know?

Yeah. And now, he has to give that money back and sit in a cell for the rest of his years. Why? It's very simple. You ruined your life, and you ruined Renette's life, and her family's life. It's very simple. You ruined your life and you ruined Renette's life and her family's life. It's very simple. Don't murder. Exactly. So Peter presented his case to the parole board multiple times. He has tried to get this conviction turned around, but each time he has been denied.

The next time he'll be eligible is June 1st, 2026, when a couple years from now, but for now, 26 years after the crime and 22 years after his conviction, Peter Burkina continues to sit in prison for what he did to the amazing and beloved Renette Riella. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, yet another episode of Get a Damn Divorce. Seriously, I mean it's so disappointing to see this happen, like, not that anybody should be able to get away with it But it doesn't do you any good ever just don't do it just get a divorce don't murder right and what a schemer this guy

Totally set this entire thing up I'm sure that he thought he was gonna get away with it, but the police were too smart They saw through his bullshit, and they put all the details together and finally put his ass in prison Yeah, luckily They didn't give up for years and years just looking into all those small little details like we mentioned in the very beginning of this episode in the intro. And I'm so glad that they were able to secure a conviction and get this guy off the streets. Well if you want to see photos from this case and all the other cases that we've covered

thus far, you can go check out our socials. Daphne also mentioned that there will be some maps on there. You can check us out on Instagram at going west podcast. And we're also on Facebook. Yes, there's also remember that like newspaper clipping that has a, it's like an illustration of the truck going off the cliff. So I think that would help with the visual. It definitely helped me.

So check it out. Thank you guys for tuning in. Have a weekend, and we'll see you on Tuesday Alright guys so for everybody out there in the world don't be a stranger I'm just a little bit of a wimp, but I'm just a little bit of a wimp You