Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - Joshua Wade Pt. 2

Episode Date: September 2, 2021

By the end of summer, 2000, Joshua Wade had murdered at least one woman, and possibly many more. Despite the evidence against him, and tips from people who knew what he did, Josh got away with the crime, leaving him free to kill again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of rape, murder, necrophilia, domestic abuse, and racially motivated violence that some people may find disturbing. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. It was a little before dawn in the late summer of 2007. A car skidded to a halt at the end of an abandoned cul-de-sac, and the driver, 27-year-old Joshua Wade stepped outside. From the back seat, Mindy Schloss could hear the sound of sneakers scuffing away, and for a moment she hoped this meant that the nightmare was over. Instead, Josh swung open her door and dragged her outside.

Then he cut the zip ties around her ankles and told her to walk. Twigs and leaves crunched on the ground as Mindy stumbled into the woods. Above her own breathing and whimpering, she heard Josh's footsteps behind her. She felt the barrel of his gun jabbing into her ribs as he told her to keep going. She tasted the dirty cloth as he shoved it in her mouth. She smelled the pine, mingled with her attacker's sweat. And overhead, she caught one last glimpse of the stars lighting up the broad Alaskan sky before Josh told her to stop and drop to her knees.

Hi, I'm Greg Poulson. This is Serial Killers. a Spotify original from Parcast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today, we'll delve into the disturbed psyche of Joshua Wade, a rage-filled murderer who killed multiple men and women in Anchorage, Alaska. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone.

You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. Last time, we explored how a childhood of abuse and neglect may have contributed to Josh committing multiple crimes at a young age, including murder. Today, we'll hear how he got away with the slaying of Della Brown and how he went on to kill again. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter.

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Yamava's history. Club Serrano members can earn daily instant prizes and secure a spot in the finale May 29. Don't pass go and own it all. Only at Yamava, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You win? Details at yamava.com must be 21-20. Please gamble responsibly. Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. On the night of August 31st, 2000, 20-year-old Joshua Wade murdered 33-year-old Della Brown in a roadside shack in Anchorage, Alaska. After beating the the woman savagely with a rock and a shovel, Josh raped her. Continuing to second. actually assault her long after she was dead. When he was done, he tossed lit matches on her face and hair, further desecrating her remains.

As far as we can tell, Josh wanted to maim and abuse his victim's body, an urge that may have stemmed in part from his past. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. As a reminder, she is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but we have done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. As we heard in the last episode, Josh reported being sexually abused between the ages of five and seven, and this experience may have affected his sexual proclivities as an adult.

In a 1986 report in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Robert K. Ressler, Anne W. Burgess, Carol Hartman, John Douglas, and Arlene McCormick explained that criminals who were sexually abused are far more likely to rape and mutilate their victims. That's because these types of criminals often grow to associate sex with violence. In some cases, they develop sadistic fantasies around abusing and disfiguring their victims. So it isn't too surprising that Josh treated Della's body the way he did. After he'd satisfied his sadistic urge, Josh spent the rest of the night covering his tracks. Along the way, he showed Della's body to at least two of his friends,

20-year-old Romeo Beckett and 18-year-old Danny Troxel, implicating them in the cover of. But one step Josh didn't take was disposing of Della's body. The following evening, two men on their way to a party stopped by the shed to drink some tequila. One of them pushed the door open and found Della's corpse lying just inside. Her naked legs were splayed, and there were cuts on her thighs and neck. But it was obvious what had killed her. Jealous skull was a mess of bone fragments surrounded by a pool of blood. In a panic, the men drove to the party and told their friends what they'd seen.

But as most were already high on a variety of drugs, no one in the group was sure what to do. Then, finally, someone called the police. Within hours, the area around the shed was swarming with officers. But they weren't the only ones there. They had an audience. When Josh and his friends returned to the garage, the following morning, they could see law enforcement combing the area. Josh paced nervously, worried that he may have left something behind, but not everyone at the garage was content to wait

around and see what the cops turned up. Later that morning, Romeo walked over to the crime scene and approached the lead investigator. Josh probably wondered what his friend was doing, but he didn't need to worry. Romeo told the detective he'd seen a woman who fit Della's description, stumbling down the road the night of her murder. He said she was accompanied by a very large black man. Josh was likely trying to throw police off the scent of his friend, but it turned out his vague account fit the description of 37-year-old Gregory Poindexter, a local serial rapist. Pointexter was known to target native women while they were intoxicated. As such, it wasn't hard to imagine that he'd progressed from sexual assault to murder.

There were other potential suspects as well, including Della's ex-boyfriend Rudy, who acted suspiciously when police questioned him. He seemed unsurprised and unmoved by the news of her death. This reaction, coupled with his known abuse of Della and their recent split, put Rudy near the top of the investigator's list. Although the medical examiner found semen on Della, it likely came from someone else Della was with that evening. Josh had been careful to wear a condom.

But while there was nothing connecting him to the crime, Josh had made one critical error the night of the murder. He bragged to several people about what he'd done. Along with his friends at the garage, he told his father, Bubba, that he killed someone. And it didn't stop there. Over the next few weeks, Josh spoke several times with his friend, 26-year-old Danny New, revealing details of the crime. According to New, Josh spoke to him like a patient speaking to a therapist,

becoming emotional as he questioned his own motives. He was especially conflicted about raping Della after her death, asking again and again why he'd had sex with her. Interestingly, this kind of psychological torment is typical of murderers who commit acts of necrophilia. In a 2010 article in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, Michelle L. Stein, Lewis B. Schlesinger, and Anthony J. Pinesado explained that murderers who sexually abuse their victim,

victims' dead bodies often experience a torrent of confused emotions. These feelings may emerge from a long-standing sense of sexual inadequacy. They're desperate to compensate for these feelings, and exploiting the corpse sexually becomes an arousing display of dominance. Whatever Josh's motives were for abusing Della's body, the story stuck in his friend's minds, and word began to get around Anchorage about who might be responsible for the crime. In the middle of September, police received a promising lead from 34-year-old Kevin Ayers,

who'd been arrested for assault and stalking. Likely hoping for a lesser charge, Ayers told police that Dwayne and Romeo had told a friend of his about the crime. They said that someone named Josh had boasted about beating a woman to death in a shed. He said that Josh had killed and then raped her, spurred on by his hatred of Alaska natives. The story fit what investigators had learned so far about the crime. It also fit in with a disturbing trend that was gaining attention in Anchorage. Later that month, the Anchorage Daily News published an article about the recent spate of violence against Alaska natives. In less than a year and a half, six women had been murdered in the city, five of them native.

Among them were three of Josh's possible victims. 26-year-old Beirahapov, 45-year-old Annie Mann, and 38-year-old Michelle Foster Butler. Naturally, people feared that a serial killer was on the loose, and native protesters charged that authorities didn't value native lives. One activist referred to the situation for natives in Alaska as a form of apartheid. With emotions flaring in the city, police were eager to pursue their new leads in the Della Brown murder, but all they had was a first name, John. They needed more information, and it wasn't long before they got it.

Days after receiving the tip from Kevin Ayers, police got another lead. Romeo called Crime Stoppers, a hotline where citizens anonymously report tips about investigations. Considering both Romeo and Danny had kept their mouths shut at first, it isn't clear why Romeo betrayed Josh at this moment. Except that the tip scored him a $1,000 reward, which he then split with Danny. Romeo referred to the killer by his first name only, then offered something else, the location of Josh's trailer. Police traced the property back to Bubba and discovered that his son, a young man named Josh, lived with him.

It was clear to authorities that they were on the right track. But instead of arresting Josh right away, investigators work to obtain more evidence, tying him to the crime. Fortunately, the leads kept coming. On September 25th, an anonymous caller to crime stoppers suggested that Danny also had information about the case. Police promptly went to Danny's house and found him with Romeo.

And while they didn't know that Romeo had been the one to place the earlier crime stoppers call, they knew he had something important to say. That's likely because Romeo had already spoken with the lead detective from the crime scene. Whatever the case, his presence at Danny's seemed suspicious, and they decided to bring both men in for questioning. Investigators warned them that withholding information about the murder could make them both accomplices. It appears that was enough to get Romeo and Danny talking.

They spilled how Josh had shown them Della's corpse. They also said Josh talked about how much he hated Native women and believed he was doing the world a favor with each one he killed. But as damning as their testimony was, a second-hand account of the events wasn't enough. Police wanted to hear it from Josh himself. So detectives hooked up Danny and Romeo with a wire and sent them to Josh's trailer. Inside, they said things were heating up and they needed to talk to him about what had happened. They acted concerned and even brought along a copy of the newspaper article about the recent slings. At first, Josh was careful not to incriminate.

himself. But when he saw the article, he lit up. He complained that police were trying to pin extra crimes on him, suggesting he hadn't murdered all the women. When his friends pressed him for more details, Josh pointed to three of the victims, called them expletives, and implied that he'd killed them. To Danny and Romeo, this was nothing short of a confession. However, the admission wasn't enough to secure a conviction. So officers sent in another mole. The following day, another one of Josh's friends, 21-year-old Jesse Ackman, arrived at his door, and just like Danny and Romeo, Jesse was wearing a wire. But it seems the back-to-back visits set off some alarms.

Before letting Jesse in, Josh tried to get him to lift his shirt to see if he was wearing a wire. When Jesse refused, Josh guest investigators were onto him. So when police moved in on Bubba's trailer the following evening, Josh was already prepared. Before they barged inside, he'd taken off on his bicycle. Officers immediately searched the surrounding area, and at one point spotted him on the road. But after Josh fled into the woods, he was nowhere to be found.

It was almost as if he vanished into thin air. Soon enough, police worried that if they didn't act fast, they'd lose their suspect for good. Coming up, Josh gets away with murder. Imagine living with a secret so big that if anyone ever found out, it would change everything. Imagine carrying that secret with you every day, desperate to one day get it off your chest. Do you think you could take a secret like that to the grave? I'm a Stefania Hakeman, host of the new podcast series, Deathbed Confessions,

the show where we dive deep into the most explosive things people have admitted to while drawing their last breath. from murder, fake identities, heists, elicit affairs, and even top government secrets. This season on deathbed confessions, we investigate cases like Frank Thurrogood, the construction worker who claimed that the drowning of Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones was no accident. Margaret Gibson, a silent film actress who, while dying of a heart attack, confessed to one of the most famous unsolved crimes in Hollywood history. And ex-CIA officer Howard Hunt, who on his deathbed, confessed to playing

a role in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Deathbed Confessions is a Spotify original from Parcast, airing episodes weekly starting July 21st. Follow and listen to DeathBet Confessions for free on Spotify. Now back to the story. In the fall of 2000, authorities attempted to apprehend 20-year-old Joshua Wade for the murder of 33-year-old Della Brown. But before they could arrest him, Josh ran away and vanished deep into the Alaskan woods. In reality, he'd just gotten a ride from an unidentified female friend,

and it seems word got around about what had transpired. The following day, an anonymous source tipped off police, giving the name and address of the woman Josh was staying with. Officers rushed over to the house and arrested him. With Josh now in custody, investigators likely believed it was only a matter of time before he was tried and convicted for murder. Police had even provided the district attorney with a slew of evidence for their case against him, including a recording of Josh seeming to admit to the murder.

Unfortunately, this quasi-confession wasn't enough to seal Josh's fate. What's more, he somehow managed to obtain two of the most accomplished defense attorneys in the state. And during the two years for the case to go to trial, his team put together a strong case of their own. You see, the prosecution's star witnesses were all criminals. and gang members. They spoke quietly and gave muddy, impertinent accounts on the stand. Josh's lawyers were quick to highlight the contradictions in these testimonies. As a result, jurors didn't find any of the state's witnesses particularly convincing. On top of this, the police never found any physical evidence linking Josh to the crime.

The only thing they did recover was a pocket knife in Josh's bedroom with a small amount of blood on it, a knife that was likely used to cut into Della's body. However, due to a filing error, the knife was deemed inadmissible. Without it, the prosecution was missing a key component of their case against Josh. There was no way to prove he'd been the one to assault, rape, and kill Della Brown. To make matters worse, the state's lead prosecutor stepped down a few weeks into the trial, citing health concerns. Unfortunately, the two district attorneys who took over were totally unprepared and overwhelmed. Neither of them had ever tried a murder case, and the defense took them to task.

When the jury went into deliberations, three-quarters of them thought Josh was guilty, but they didn't think the prosecution had proven their case beyond a reasonable doubt. In the end, Josh was acquitted of eight of the nine charges brought against him, and for some reason the only one that stuck was tampering with evidence. During sentencing, Della's mother took the stand. She expressed her sadness and outrage at how she, Josh had defiled her daughter's body, but there was nothing she could do to cement a longer sentence. In spring of 2003, 23-year-old Josh received the maximum of six and a half years for evidence tampering,

with two years already served. Justice clearly hadn't been served, for Della or for Josh's earlier victims. What's more, police never pursued possible links between Josh and the unsolved murders from 1999, Despite his apparent confession to Danny and Romeo, detectives never compared samples from any of those crimes to Josh's blood or DNA. Whatever their reasons, by the beginning of 2005, Josh was a free man. Shortly after his release, the now-24-year-old began dating 44-year-old Alaska native Lisa Andrews. The bleached blonde knew Josh from years earlier. She'd found him attractive, but was married at the time.

However, now that she was divorced, the two fell into a passionate romance. Lisa was drawn to Josh's softer side. She enjoyed doing housework with him and eating the wonderful meals he cooked. For his part, Josh said that Lisa was the only woman he'd ever loved. But there was also a dark side to their courtship. Along with stealing from her, he was aggressive and physically abusive, spewing a string of racist and sexist slurs at her. And yet, the two continued to date.

Ironically, Josh's abuse may in part explain why Lisa remained attracted to him. In their 2017 article Emotional Profile of Women Victims of Domestic Violence, researchers Asmina Vdbegovich, Maya Birkich, and Osman Sinanovits, identified patterns in many women's reactions to abuse. They found that women who suffer violence at the hands of their partners end up expressing a host of destructive emotions and behaviors. These often include depression and withdrawal from other social bonds. Because these women experience negative feelings, but avoid outside connections,

they often end up looking to their abuser to satisfy their emotional needs. This can create a horrific cycle of attachment between the abuser and their victim. But Lisa did keep some boundaries. She refused to let Josh live with her, and in April of 2005, she filed for a restraining order against him. However, their romance was far from over. Their turbulent relationship continued on and off for several years. Of course, Lisa wasn't the only person in Josh's life. In 2007, he began renting a room in a house with two young men,

but his name wasn't on the lease because he didn't want the police to know where he lived. It also appears he didn't want to get too close to other people. One of his roommates reported that Josh mostly kept to himself, often drawing and listening to rap music. But his housemates weren't free of his dominating behavior. One afternoon, one of his roommates was sitting in the living room and noticed a red dot of light on his chest. When he looked up, he saw Josh aiming his Glock handgun at him and laughing.

However, Josh wasn't only interested in tormenting his roommates. That August, the 27-year-old turned his sights on his next-door neighbor. 52-year-old Mindy Schloss. Mindy Schloss was a psychiatric nurse who lived alone. In some ways, she didn't fit the pattern of Josh's earlier attacks. Notably, she was not an Alaska native like Della Brown and two of the other women Josh may have killed. But she had other qualities that Josh was attracted to. You see, she was older than him and had dark curly hair, just like his other victims.

Once, when Mindy passed by on the street, he made a crude comment to his roommates. He wanted to have sex with her. His father Bubba later pointed out that Josh's victims all bore a resent. semblance to his mother, who had been absent from his life since he was young. This might provide a clue to Josh's deeper motivation. Psychoanalytic researcher Zelda G. Knight posits that some serial killers may be driven by a lack of, quote, good enough mothering in early childhood. They may continue to crave the missing mother-child bond into adulthood, expressing their

psychological need through destructive acts. They may also attempt to fill the emotional gap with violence. With his mother absent since adolescence, it appears Josh long for surrogates to satisfy his needs and vent his rage. Unfortunately for Mindy, he directed that anchor towards her. On the evening of August 3rd, Josh and his roommates were having a late night hangout. But Josh wasn't in the mood to party. He'd just been fired from a construction job and was in need of some cash. So he decided to take up his old hobby of breaking into people's houses and stealing valuables.

Around 2 a.m., Josh picked Mindy's lock and entered her home. Then he prowled around the living room looking for anything to pocket. Mindy was woken by the noise coming from her living room. She put on a bathrobe and came out to find Josh snooping through her things. Mindy was startled, but she remained calm. She tried to persuade Josh to take what he wanted and leave. A dedicated healer, she even offered to help him if she could. Josh was torn.

His instincts told him to run. But he knew that she recognized him, and that was a problem. He was on parole, and a breaking and entering conviction would put him away for a long time. So he forced Mindy into the bathroom where he had her lie down on the floor and tied her up with some clothing. Then Josh ran to his house to get some supplies. He grabbed gloves, zip ties, an old rag, a roll of painter's tape, a bottle of lighter fluid, and his Glock Pistol. He returned to find Mindy still lying helpless on the bed. bathroom floor. By Josh's account, he didn't attack her any further at the house. However,

two of his pubic hairs were found in the living room carpet, suggesting that he may have sexually assaulted her. Either way, he fastened the zip ties tightly around Mindy's wrists and ankles. He found her wallet and demanded to know the pin for her debit card. He jotted the number down on a scrap of paper and slipped it into the wallet. After getting the information he wanted, he grabbed Mindy's keys and forced her into the backseat of her car. Then he drove up a country road for almost an hour to an abandoned cul-de-sac near Wasilla, almost 50 miles to the north. There, Josh dragged Mindy out of the back seat. He cut the ties on her ankles and walked her a few hundred feet into the forest. As she stumbled in the darkness, one of her leather clogs slipped off her foot. When they were out

of sight of the road, he had her stop. By now, Mindy must have sensed her life was on the line. Perhaps out of desperation, she told Josh again and again that she would give him money or whatever he needed if he would just let her go. In response, Josh said he was going to cut the ties on her wrists and she would be free, but he needed to make sure he could get away safely, so he shoved the rag into her mouth and taped it, saying he didn't want her to scream when he took off. Then he told her to drop to her knees. But instead of leaving, he raised the gun and fired a single bullet into the back of her head. Mindy slumped to the ground, dead. Just like that, Josh had killed yet another woman, and just as before, his sexual desire may have surged as he stood over his victim, but there was

no time for fun in games. The sun was slowly rising, and he needed to take care of some things. He doused her body with lighter fluid and set it ablaze, tossing stray garbage on the flames to keep them going. The body didn't burn up entirely, but he didn't. figured it was enough to eliminate any evidence of his contact with her. When he was satisfied, he got back in Mindy's car and drove to her house. There, he made sure he hadn't left any incriminating evidence and carefully made her bed. He also grabbed Mindy's Gold Watch and took off again in her car. Later that afternoon, Josh parked the vehicle in a lot near the airport. The next day, Josh went to an ATM, wearing a black hooded coat and a

bandana over his nose and mouth, he withdrew $500 from Mindy's savings. He did the same thing before sunrise the following morning, but this time he was sloppy. He forgot to take Mindy's card from the machine before walking away. When he went back a moment later, the ATM had sucked the card in for security purposes. Josh paced around, trying to think if there was any way to recover the card, but nothing came to mind. In a moment of frustration, he pulled down the bandan. Then he took off, barking at another customer that the machine was broken. Little did he realize that his face had just been caught on camera.

It was the beginning of the end. Coming up, the manhunt begins. Now back to the story. In August of 2000, 27-year-old Joshua Wade murdered 52-year-old Mindy Schloss and burnt her body in the woods of Wasilla, Alaska. At first, he thought he was home free. Not only had he killed the woman without anybody finding out, he'd withdrawn $1,000 from her bank account. But after accidentally leaving her debit card in an ATM, Josh made a grave mistake. He'd shown his face to a surveillance camera.

The same day that Josh was caught on camera, a co-worker of Mindy's named Kathy Hodges grew worried. Mindy was supposed to have flown into Fairbanks for work, but she never showed up. Knowing this was not like her friend, Kathy called the local police department. Detective Pam Pernu was assigned to the case and connected with Mindy's close friend, Jerry, yet. According to Jerry, she immediately knew something was wrong. It appears Jerry regularly went out into Mindy's house to feed her cat. Within a day of Mindy's disappearance, Jerry noticed the home was oddly in order. You see, Mindy was generally very tidy except when it came to her bed,

which was often left disheveled from her sleepless nights. So after visiting the house with Jerry, Detective Pernau was convinced. The police now had a missing person's case on their hands. When they located Mindy's car, it raised even more alarms. Her house was within walking distance of the airport, so she would have had no reason to park in the lot. Upon closer inspection,

police found traces of a man's DNA on the steering wheel and a dusty footprint from a woman's clog on one of the, the armrests. They also found Mindy's purse and wallet, with her debit card pin number written on a little slip of paper. Investigators looked into Mindy's bank account and saw two recent withdrawals had been made. Naturally, they checked surveillance footage from the ATMs and found their suspect, a young white male in a hooded coat wearing a bandana over the lower part of his face. And in one of the videos, the man pulled the bandana down and turned to the camera just long enough to get a clear image of his face. All they needed now was someone to recognize him.

Meanwhile, Josh seemed to know the walls were closing in. One August afternoon, police officers were going door to door, questioning Mindy's neighbors about her disappearance. Worried that authorities would connect him to the crime, Josh walked up to the house of a woman named Kathy Easley and told her not to tell the cops he lived next door. Minutes later, investigators arrived to Kathy's door, but it appears Josh's insistence paid off. As officers questioned her about Mindy's disappearance, she could see Josh leering at her from outside, and she kept her mouth shut. But Josh wanted some assurance. After the officers left, he stormed back to Kathy's house, demanding to know what she'd told them. In response, Kathy brushed past him, saying she had to get to

work. Later that night, Kathy saw Josh standing on her porch, gazing threateningly through her window. Needless to say, it was all too much. The next day, Kathy spoke to Detective Pernew, telling her that a man living next door had threatened her not to tell police about him. She told them his first name was Josh and that he was in his late 20s, but she didn't know much else. Police then questioned Josh's roommates who hadn't mentioned him before because they were afraid of him. Eventually, investigators found out what they really needed to know. The man's full name was Joshua Wade. This name was already familiar to the police.

The memory of Josh's acquittal for Della Brown's murder was still fresh for many in Anchorage. As such, he quickly became the prime suspect in their investigation, and it didn't take long for them to link him to the crime. In the middle of August, police brought in an elite canine tracking unit from California. The bloodhounds traced the scent from Mindy's car to her house, but the dogs didn't stop there. Their noses then led them straight.

to Josh's door. This was convincing enough to secure a search warrant. In a closet, they turned up a black hooded coat exactly like the one in the ATM surveillance footage. Inside a pocket was a receipt for a $500 withdrawal from Mindy's account. They also found Mindy's gold watch. It was clear that Josh was their man.

Unfortunately, the police had no idea where he was. That's because Josh was already on the run. Increasingly paranoid that he was going to be spotted, Josh connected with his friend, 20-year-old Christina Greaser. Christina knew that Josh had a criminal record, but it seems she didn't realize how serious some of his crimes actually were. So she often gave Josh rides because he didn't have his own car. She noticed that he'd hide himself whenever they passed by the police.

He also had her drive him to a park to urinate, avoiding public restrooms. Although she found this behavior off, she wasn't suspicious of her friend, but all that was about to change. A few weeks after Mindy's disappearance, Christina and her mom were watching the news on TV, and a story about the case came on. When they heard descriptions about the prime suspect and saw images from the ATM footage, they knew Josh might be the person investigators were looking for. To confirm her suspicions, Christina looked inside Josh's backpack,

which he left at her house and was shocked at what she was. found. On his phone were pictures of him holding a Glock pistol with a red laser sight. Frightened by the image, Christina went to the police and told Detective Per knew she thought Josh might have done something to Mindy. She also gave them his backpack, including the phone with the photographs of the Glock. However, when the detectives showed her the surveillance footage from the ATM, it appears Christina got cold feet. She refused to identify Josh and walked out of the interview. Even so, this new information was enough for authorities to obtain an arrest warrant.

All they had to do now was find him. But they weren't alone in their efforts. Josh's father, Bubba, made a tear-filled appearance on the news, begging his son to turn himself in, reward offers also mounted, and tips flooded in with supposed sightings. However, none of these leads amounted to anything. But by the following month, police caught a big break.

That September, just after dawn, Christina was alarmed to find Josh waiting for her outside her house. He demanded his backpack, to which she said she'd get it and hurried back inside. There she placed a call to the SWAT team. Afterwards, she mustered the courage to go back out and pretend like everything was fine. At some point, she even offered Josh a ride, but it appears he could tell something was wrong. He called her a rat and took off into the woods. He made his way back to a residential area and forced his way into a woman's apartment. Some neighbors heard the commotion and called the police.

By 8 a.m., the area was surrounded with the SWAT team ready to go, but a raid wasn't necessary. Around 9.30, a negotiator convinced Josh to give himself up. At first, Josh refused to say anything about Mindy's disappearance, so the detectives tried an interesting gambit. They told Josh they'd spoken with Mindy. Of course, Josh knew this was a lie. There was no way they could have spoken to her because she was dead. And his incredulous look told authorities just that. They knew he'd killed her.

But a look was just a look. They needed a confession, or at the very least, to locate something much more damning. And on September 13th, that's just what happened. Over a month after Mindy's disappearance, a state trooper stumbled upon Mindy's burned and decomposing body. The single shot fired into her skull had left a shell casing nearby, and it matched the type of bullet used in Josh's Glock pistol. Once more, police hurried to connect Josh to the scene.

A bloodhound trailed his scent out to the spot where Mindy was killed, and then back to the cul-de-sac. It then followed Mindy's sent to the scene of the murder, and stopped right there. Between the physical and circumstantial evidence and the testimony from Christina, a greaser, the case against Josh was solid. But the real clincher came a few months later from the one person Josh thought he could trust. That winter, while 27-year-old Josh was in prison awaiting trial, he rekindled his relationship with 44-year-old Lisa Andrews. During one of her visits, Josh told her that he'd killed Mindy, recounting all the details of the crime. In spite of her

devotion, this proved too much for Lisa. She contacted the detectives on the case and told them about his confession. Prosecutors now had a strong bargaining chip. While Alaska doesn't use capital punishment, the fraudulent ATM withdrawals put Josh's crime under federal jurisdiction. This meant that he could be executed for the murder. Josh knew he was in big trouble, and he soon took his frustration out on his fellow inmates. In 2008, he choked another prisoner, threatening to kill him. The following year, he sexually abused another detainee, a disabled man who was an Alaska native.

But these outbursts couldn't stop what was coming. In early 2010, just before his 30th birthday, Josh entered a guilty plea. In exchange for a guarantee that he wouldn't receive the death penalty, he confessed to killing Mindy Schloss. He also agreed to admit that he'd murdered Della Brown seven years earlier. At the sentencing hearing in February, Josh attempted to garner some sympathy. He read a statement in which he apologized to the families of the victims.

He asked their forgiveness, saying he knew he didn't deserve it. Josh also mentioned the sexual abuse he'd suffered as a child, but blamed himself for not working harder to recover from the trauma. But the federal judge wasn't moved by his words and called Josh a coward for killing defenseless women. That's when Josh made a startling revel. What about the men, he asked, suggesting he'd killed more people than they realized. When the judge asked him to elaborate, Josh finally quieted down. The two murders he'd already admitted to were enough to put him behind bars for a lifetime. On February 17th, that's just

what happened. Josh received a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. But there was certainly more to admit to. Several years later, in 2014, Josh revealed the murders of John Michael Martin and Henry Antooshwuk, both of which he'd committed as a teenager. He also claimed to have killed another man on the same night as Della Brown. Josh said he found the man having sex with her when he first went into the shed. But this story contradicts everything else we know about the murder and probably never happened. Josh likely told this tale to portray himself in a better light.

He hated being seen as a predator of women. In interviews, Josh has consistently diminished the sexual dimension of his crimes. Interestingly, this behavior fits how some other serial killers have discussed their crimes. In 2009, researchers Ross Bartles and Carrie Parsons conducted a close analysis of how Dennis Rader, the VTK killer, described the killings he had committed. They found that the murderer gave contradictory accounts, at times painting himself as sympathetic, other times as a textbook serial killer, or else stressing his sexual fantasies. The overall effect, the researchers determined, was to mitigate his own responsibility for what

he'd done. The killer used various ways to rationalize his actions, attempting to shift the blame off of himself. When asked if he was a serial killer, Josh was dismissive, saying that people need to stop reading books. But whether or not he sees himself as a cold-blooded killer, he was a cold-blooded killer. the justice system treats him as one. Now 41, Josh resides at a maximum security federal prison in Texas. Because of his violent conduct toward other prisoners, he spends 23 hours a day in solitary confinement. But his actions are still felt every day by the friends and families of his victims.

And for Alaska natives, Josh is a reminder of the horrific violence their people have endured for centuries, and continue to experience. But at least with him behind bars, he can't hurt anyone anymore. Thanks for tuning into serial killers. We'll be back soon with a new episode. For more information on Joshua Wade, amongst the many sources we used,

we found Ice and Bone, tracking an Alaskan serial killer by Monty Francis, extremely helpful in our research. You can find more episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time.

Have a killer week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cuddler, sound design by Juan Borda, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Bruce Kitovich. This episode of Serial Killers was written by Greg Beam, with writing assistance by Jane O. and Joel Callan,

fact-checking by Cheyenne Lopez, and research by Brian Petrus, and Chelsea Wood. Serial killers stars Greg Poulson and Vanessa Richardson. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcast this year, but they're not crime beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

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