Morbid - Episode 144: Zach Bowen And The Murder of Addie Hall Mega Mini Morbid

Episode Date: June 1, 2020

Well Alaina can't do it. She can't stay mini and she won't! Honestly, this was supposed to be a real mini but then I found another source and things got wild. Thanks for appreciating my lack of brevity on the regular, weirdos. This case is WILD. Zach Bowen and Addie Hall were two 20-somethings experiencing a whirlwind romance in New Orleans in the early 00s. Both had a free spirit way about them, they loved fiercely and they seemed to carve out a niche as the king and queen of the French Quarter misfits. But they both had a dark side and we all know everything done in the dark comes to the light eventually. This murder/suicide has twists, turns, romance, violence and worst of all, a truly tragic end for two people who could have lived, had they realized they needed to do that apart. Shake The Devil Off by Ethan Brown Thanks to our sponsors! Purple Experience the next evolution of sleep. Go to Purple.com/morbid, and use promo code morbid. For a limited time you’ll get $150 off any Purple mattress order of $1500 or more! Terms apply. Embark Right now Embark has an exclusive offer just for our listeners! Go to Embarkvet.com now! and use Promo code MORBID to save 15% off your Dog Breed and Health kit. Visit See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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That's W-O-N-D-E-R-Y-P-O-D. Audible.com slash wondery pod or text wondery pod to 500-500 to try audible for free for 30 days. Angie has made it easier than ever to connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well. Whether it's routine maintenance and emergency repair or a dream project, Angie lets you browse home on her reviews, compare quotes from multiple local pros, and even book a service instantly. So the next time you have a home project, just Angie that and start getting the most out

of your home. Download the free Angie mobile app today or visit Angie.com. That's ANGI.com. Hey weirdos, I'm Alena. I'm Ash and this is a mini morbid! It's a lame centric. It's a lame amorbid, so it's a full morbid! I guess I can't even imagine. It's just huge. Yeah, I was really thinking at first. So this is a case, and I'll tell you what it is in second

but you can all just hang on to your butts. Um, it's a case that I've been wanting to do for a long time. Love that. And it's been sitting there just waiting for the right time. And I always thought it was gonna be like a mini-mini. Because I thought it was like pretty straightforward. Yeah, but then I dove into it and you were like never mind. And wowser. So eight pages later we have a full length more but that's gonna be labeled mini.

But you know what? You guys are used to this by now. I was gonna say you know what? What else is new? Yeah, what else is new? And I don't think there's a whole lot of like crazy news we're gonna be moving forward soon on like new merch. Yeah. New stuff for Patreons which we are really excited about and I think you guys gonna like pee your pants and excitement. I hope so at least. We're holding on to your butt. Yeah I hope so at least. I hope you're holding on to your butt. Yeah, I hope you have to, all of you have to change your trousers when we tell you. I like that. Change your trousers.

Yeah, and that's gonna be coming soon. We've been working on it really hard, so we're really psyched and we'll let you know when that's going on. Other than that, I think the really only thing that we wanted to just quickly address was Some new dates for the shows because as we know COVID-19 has just like like roundhouse kicked us all in the face

Yep, and And right as we were about to go on our tour. It was like no, no, no It was like say less say yeah literally So now we finally and I know a lot of people have been asking You know is this one gonna be your scheduled? Well, I believe they're all getting rescheduled and we have some dates for you So if you have tickets to any of these shows hang on to them because they can be used in these new dates and if you haven't got tickets to some of these places that are not sold out, go ahead and get some tickets because even if they get moved, you can still use those tickets.

Get yourself a ticket. Do it! Alright, so as of right now, we have Philadelphia at the Punchline Comedy Club on August 11th. We have Washington, DC at the DC Improv on September 16th. We have Nashville, Tennessee at Zainey's on September 23rd, and those are back-to-back shows. So two shows one night, back-to-back early late. Get it. We also have Huntsville, Alabama at standup live on September 24th, so the day

right the day after the national show. And we have Chicago, Illinois at Talia Hall on November, or no sorry, October 11th. And that's two shows. Yeah, that's also two shows on one night. So October 11th, Tally Hall, Chicago, Illinois, that's going to be fun, I'm excited. We also have Charlotte, North Carolina, which a lot of people have been asking you about the North Carolina ones. Charlotte, North Carolina, Comedy Zone, that's going to be November 10th.

Then we have Raleigh, North Carolina, Good Night's Comedy Club. That's going to be November 11th. So back to back shows, November 10th, November 11igh, North Carolina, Good Night's Comedy Club. That's gonna be November 11th. So back to back shows. November 10th, November 11th in North Carolina. That's amazing. Then those were gonna be like the day after tomorrow. I know.

It's so crazy because it kept popping up on like my calendar. It would be like today, tell you a hall, Chicago, Illinois. And I was like, no. I saw it in my planner last week. And I was like, oh cool. I'll just go fuck myself. Right, it was such a bummer, such a bummer. And then we also have the Wilbur Theater in Boston,

but that is moved to March 26th, 2021. Very long time from now. Very long time, but you know what, the good news is with that one. First of all, there's plenty of tickets left, so go get your tickets for that one. You don't mind. So yeah, go get those over theater tickets,

and we're excited because we have all this time now to make that show like a blow out extravaganza because it's like our hometown, so we gotta make it crazy. And we're still gonna try to have Emily Walsh, the comic stylings of Emily Walsh there. So, yeah, so get your tickets for those shows. We are hoping we're fairly positive that we're also gonna be at CrimeCon in October.

If that changes, we will let you know, but we're pretty sure we're gonna go to the rescheduled date. We're excited about that. But I think that's really all we have. Rainbow, that's that. What the fuk is your mini about? So my mini-slash main is the story of Zac Bowen and the murder of Addy Hall. Now, I don't know. This takes place in Nolens. Nolens. Which researching this case makes me want to go to New Orleans so bad because not because of like the murder and all that,

but like it's just got like a vibe to it that I'm like, I have to get there. You got spooky, voodoo, old school, f**king, jazzy, jazee vibe. Oh Everything that we are in a city it really is like we are just we're ready for you I want to have a show in New Orleans and that is on my bucket list my Coven themed show in Nolens. Oh, we gotta do it. Oh That's all I could get out of them. Oh

So New Orleans would love you. Oh, okay. So this is a crazy tale. It is a murder suicide. And it's just bonkers bananas. Why do I feel like I know this? You might. You might know like the, you might know like the gist of it.

But uh, go ahead. A lot of the information I got was from a book called Shake the Devil Off by Ethan Brown. Yeah. And Ethan Brown is like a journalist and he got so much insider information in this case like he got a lot of background into Zach. He got a lot of background into their relationship together that I think a lot of people didn't know. I certainly didn't know. So I also used a ton of articles which I'll link a few in our show notes. But all right. So let's go to October 17th, 2006. Okay. A guest at the Omni Hotel in New Orleans sees a man's body outside his window on a roof of a parking garage

after hearing a thud and called the front desk. Oh my God. Yeah. So he sees the body on the parking garage. He's like, holy shit, he had just heard like a giant thud. He calls the front desk, they call 911. Police get the call saying there was a jumper at the hotel. Because unfortunately it's kind of common for people to jump off of hotels.

But so they show up and they find Zachary Bowen. He had jumped from the roof of the hotel and landed on a parking garage roof. Five stories down. Wow. Yeah. I mean a lot of times it's like when people jump off of things, you either get like a very clean scene or you get like a very messy, messy, depending on what they hit. So if he hit like the pavement below, it would have been a different story, but because he hit a roof, they said he didn't even look like to like mangled essentially. They said it's just like a little blood coming out of his mouth, but other than that, they were like, it kind of just looked like he was like half asleep.

That must be so strange. Right? It just feels like that would be a strange thing. Yeah. I mean, the whole thing is very eerie. But so the police show up, they find Zachary Bowen. And when they surveyed the scene, they were like, okay, well, he was obviously dead right on impact.

And they look inside his pocket and there was a zip lock bag. And in that zip lock bag, there were his army dog tags with his name on it, so he was obviously in the military. And there was also a folded up note that said for police only. Oh, shit. So they're like, oh, a suicide note. We're like, oh, that's for us. Yeah, and they're like, you know what? note. We're like, oh, like that's for us. Yeah,

and they're like, you know what? That cleans up nice. Cool. Well, I bet it was waken-fusing. Well, then they open up the note. And it says, quote, this is not accidental. I had to take my own life to pay for the one I took. Oh, if you send a patrol to 826 North Rampart, you will find the dismembered corpse of my girlfriend, Addy, in the oven, on the stove, and in the fridge, along with full documentation on the both of us, and a full signed confession from myself. Shot. The fuck. Yeah. The keys in my right front pocket are for the gates. Call Leo Watermire to let you in. Sacbowen. So they're like, oh, this is not just a suicide. Okay, this is a murder. Yeah, this is a bad, real bad, bad, bad murder. On the stove in the refrigerator. In the oven. In the oven. Okay. And then he's

like in this also a full confession. Tell you everything you need to know. Okay, this does sound familiar. Keep going. Mm-hmm. It's crazy. So according to his friend, Zach left his friends home that night with a bag of cocaine worth about 20 bucks. I don't know anything about cocaine or how much it's supposed to be worth. Sounds like that's a lot. I don't really know. Okay, it's like very expensive. So I'm assuming it's not that much. I would think so, but they made it seem like it was like a good amount. So I don't know. I don't really know. I don't know. Color be crazy. But according to hotel security tapes for that night, Zach went up to the rooftop bar at the Omni where there was a pool.

He drank there from like four in the afternoon all the way until about 8.30 pm. I would be fuked up. Oh he surely was. He opened up a tab. He was heavily drinking the entire day and night. And just before 8.30 pm, the security tapes show him pacing from the roof's railing to the pool and back again like several times like he's contemplating Right at 8.30 on the dot. He walks up to the railing and just launches himself over. Oh, geez. Yeah, so police are like, uh-oh So they got to the address on North Rampart Street at around 10 p.m. and they asked the landlord, Leo, to let him into Zach's apartment. Leo's like, what the fuck?

What they found inside that apartment was an absolute horror show. Yeah. What makes a person a murderer? Are they born to kill? Or are they made to kill? I'm Candace DeLong and on my podcast Killer Psychie Daily, which you can find exclusively on Amazon Music, I share a quick 10-minute rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the criminal masterminds you read about in the news.

I have decades of experience as a psychiatric nurse, FBI agent, and a criminal profiler. On Killer Psychie Daily, I'll give you my expert perspective on cases like the mysterious New York City drugings, Breaking Down Lori Vallow, a.k.a. Mommy Doom stays motives, and what drove Caitlin Armstrong to murder? I'll also bring on expert guests who add even more insight into these criminal minds. I promise you won't regret adding these 10 minutes to your morning routine. Hey, Prime members, listen to the Amazon Music Exclusive Podcast Killer Psychie Daily in the Amazon Music app. Download the app today. Hey there, fellow podcast listener. It's Elena. And Ash, and we're taking you back to the days before streaming services.

Whoa! You know when you would come home from high school and it was only a few hours until that TV show, everyone was watching was about to come on. Well, in 1999, that show was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In our podcast with Wondery, the re rewatcher Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we take it back to 1999. So get out your knee high boots and paste that poster of Angel on the wall. It's time to enter the Buffyverse.

Some of you avid morbid listeners already know what we've gotten stored. Hey, my nose. Join us as we sway our way through Buffy's drama, action, and romance, episode by episode. Slacy, follow the rewatcher, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and add free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. Darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, darn, Before we go into what they found in that apartment, let's back it up a bit and talk about Zach for a moment. Okay. Because I think it's important to learn about Zach and it's important to learn about his girlfriend.

Yes. So in his adult years, there's really nothing to say that Zach was anything other than a totally normal and relatively unremarkable dude up until this point. He was well liked, but like nothing created, like there's just not a lot that like totally stands out about him, you know, I mean, yeah, yeah. He didn't have this crazy temper, or he didn't, you know, he was kind of known as like a somewhat of a goofball, but like he was also kind of shy, so he was just kind of there. And like a full regular dude. Yeah. And by all accounts, a very friendly, nice guy, people liked him. He did like to drink way too much.

That becomes an issue later. But you know, and how old was he? When he died, he was, he was 28. Okay. So like a little too old to be continuously like heavily drinking, but also. Oh yeah. So, and he had, as you'll see, he had a lot of responsibility that he should have been taking. Not drinking and actually taking care of. It seems like he was kind of trying to take care of his situation, but it seemed like

a lot was working against him as well. Okay. He was born on May 15th, 1978. His parents were Zach and Laurie, and they began he and his older brother Jed's life pretty like nomadic actually like they took them they had a VW bus and they took them like all over. I'm so into that. Yeah they would like I knew you would be. I'm not at all like that does not sound at all. I am all for that., and they ended up, you know, like they would just camp out places.

They would go, which is cool. They got to see a bunch of places. Yeah. Um, they ended up settling in, um, Oh, hi, California for a bit. And then they moved to WIDB Island, um, in Washington. And their marriage, the parents marriage was like kind of on again, off again. They didn't really like break up or anything like that. But it was on again, off again, good, you know, the parents marriage, was like kinda on and off again. They didn't really like break up or anything like that, but it was on and off again good. You know, like, yeah, it would be tough for a little while and then it would be really good.

And tough for a while, really good. Okay. There's nothing to say that like there was any abuse or anything like that. It was just kind of a tumultuous marriage. I was gonna say, yeah, it sounds pretty virtuous. Yeah, just not like volatile. So when they moved to Woodby Island, this is when Laurie and Jack's marriage really

began to sour. He was staying out all night with friends doing God knows what like drinking, partying. It sounds like he just wasn't ready to give that up either. And he was leaving Laurie alone with the kids all the time and like it just wasn't happening. So Laurie finally disaster. Exactly. So Laurie finally left him in 1990. She moved with the boys to Santa Maria, California. In school, teachers either loved Zach or they hated Zach. There was like no one between. There was just no in between. He was popular in school, but he was pretty shy. Like he was very shy, but like also goofy at the same time, you know, those kind of people. Yep, for sure. And according to those who knew him,

he was also really friendly. He could be outgoing if he knew you, but he was into metal and grunge music. Oh cool. Yeah. One of the biggest disappointments in one that his family points to as like a real thing that affected Zach for a long time is something that might be strange to some of us as like a big disappointment, but I'm not, I mean, it was important to him. So it was him losing homecoming king. Oh, okay. Yeah, it devastated him. Wow. I guess he was like on, I forget how it works. Like he was like nominated. Yeah, is that what it is? Like he was in the court. It's different everywhere. Yeah, and I guess he had to like give a speech and he gave like, he tried to be funny and say that all these other dudes were all dressed really preppy and they were the typical homecoming case. And he dressed up with a cape on, like he had a black cape.

Which I'd like you go. You would've thought it. I'd hate for him, for sure. I don't know why he didn't win. That's awesome. And then they all were like, you know, talking about their plans after high school and like really making it like serious speeches. And his speech included him saying that there should be a mandatory two-hour nap period every day. That's hilarious. That's like what you're supposed to say when you're leaving high school. And he was joking. Like he was saying it to be funny and then... He didn't win and everybody kind of treated it,

like you messed up by doing that. Okay, so I can see where he felt like he disappointed other people. Yeah, and I feel like he was really insecure at also in high school, because the other thing is he's very tall and lanky, which later in life, you know, because you know, all the shit that sucks in high school that kids don't get in high school. very tall and lanky, which later in life,

because you know, all the shit that sucks in high school that kids don't get in high school. It works out for you later. Yeah, it becomes the thing that makes you awesome later. So it's like tall, lanky dudes are like where it's at. But it's like in high school, it's like, in the gangly, and you exactly, exactly, at John. But in high school, you're in your awkward phase. So being taller than everyone is like,

makes it even weirder and like, it makes you insecure. So it's just he was in the middle of that like weird awkward phase. So having everybody kind of like reject him when he was trying to be funny, I think just like really crushed his confidence. I make total fun. And this was just something that kind of like kicked off a lot of disappointments and what he looked at

as failures in his life. Right. Right. Because a big theme in Zack's life is his failures. He sees many, many failures happen in his life and he beat himself up for it and he kind of blamed himself for everything. So after he lost homecoming king, his grades started slipping. He had been doing like, he had been getting like a's before that.

Like, he was doing well in school. But this really shook him. So he started ridiculous. It's a lot. I mean, like I'm going to go ahead and, I mean, he's a murderer. So like, I feel like I can say it. That it's like pretty ridiculous that you let that affect you that much. Well, that's, it's like, I'm not here to tell anybody what should be important to them, but like, don't peak in high school. When you look at the grand scheme of life, there's gonna be far more disappointing things

than losing homecoming. Well, and that's the other thing. It's like, I'm gonna be real right now. If somebody told me as part of like their like, success story, and I was homecoming King or Queen, I'd's like, I'm gonna be real right now. If somebody told me as part of their success story and I was homecoming King or Queen, I'd be like, cool, you peaked in high school. I'd be like, are you really still using that? Like, are you really still telling people that?

I don't know. But, you know, that was important as X. So he won on the Richter scale. X, right? It's just not really important. But to him, it was super important, Right, it's just not really important. But to him, it was super important, which, you know, says a lot. So he ended up really fucking up school.

He decided he was going to drop out and he wanted to live with his dad in Washington. Okay. Now, he wasn't like, you know, him and his mom were not like not getting along. Like he had to find a relationship with his mom. I think he just like, he thought he could start over and was gonna think he wanted like a fresh start. Yeah, exactly. So I think he was just like, I'm gonna do this.

So he decides that they're gonna do that. So he does. And him and his dad end up going on this like crazy cross country road trip together. Okay. Because again, his dad has not really grown up a lot. According to Laurie, Jack kind of was like the best friend and not the parent, which is not good. It's never worked out. Yeah, you got to wait till later in life to be their best friend, unfortunately.

It just sucks, but like you got to be their parent. Or you might just not end up being their friend. Exactly. If you want them, it's like in modern family when Claire Dunphy says that like your kids, once they hit like a teenage phase, they go around the dark side of the moon and then you lose contact with them and everything's weird and you don't know what's going to happen and then all of a sudden they come around the other side and contact comes back. Don't you kind of feel like that with me? Yes.

I was like fuck you. I do. I really do. And then you just float it around the dark side of the moon. I back. You just got a hold on while they float around that dark side of the moon. That's all. So, right.

So he's going, you know, he's going to put, I think they went through like Fort Lauderdale. They went to Savannah, Georgia. They went to all these cool places together, and then they passed into New Orleans. Okay. This is where Zach re-enrolled in high school. Okay. So he was like, because they settled in there, they decided to get an apartment and he was like, all right, cool.

So he re-enrolled, he kept in touch with his mom the whole time obviously because they have a fine relationship. Right. But he told his mom a lot time obviously because they have a fine relationship Right But he told his mom a lot of the times on the phone that he was like, I don't know like this isn't really what I thought It was gonna be like dad's kind of like a fuck up I don't know and like you know, I don't know if I'm getting along with people at school He didn't end up finishing high school bear But he was digging New Orleans the actual place. He was like, I like the place.

It's just this is not what I want to do. So at this point, he was turning 18 years old. He was starting to be more confident at this point because he's six foot 10. Yeah. So he's very tall. All car. He's very tall. And as you can imagine, being that tall in high school is probably tough

Yeah, more often than not because I don't think I knew anybody who was 610 in high school That's really tall. I mean John's 6 foot 4 and that's really tall so damn Yeah, so he was 6 foot 10 but at this point he's starting to like grow into himself because you're turning he's turning 18 Like the baby fat is going away. He's starting to like you into himself because you're turning he's turning 18. Right. The baby fat is going away. He's starting to like, He's doing him some favors. Yeah. So he ended up turning into like, you know, kind of handsome looking dude.

He's six foot 10. I mean, like, that's going to stick out in the crowd. And it's like, so he's getting more attention. So he's like, I like this place. I picked that guy. Yeah, in New Orleans, it's like, you go out at night and he's like, right there. He's wearing at right now. So,

when Zach was 18, he met a 28 year old woman named Lana Shupack. Lana had worked as a stripper for many years in Dallas and I think Houston. Okay. She was looking to get out of that. She was like, it was making money, but she just wasn't really wanting to do it anymore. She was visiting New Orleans with her friend, and she saw Zach while she was out on Bourbon Street with her friend, and she saw him selling go cups, which, it's a foreign concept to us in the Northeast because we don't get to,

you can't drink alcohol. Like I was like a road soda. Pretty much. So apparently he would hang out of a bar window on Bourbon Street and he would serve to go cups of alcohol to people on Bourbon Street. A fucking dream. And because he was like kind of handsome and like this, you know, 18 year old stud muffin over there,

they picked him to to lean out the window and try to entice ladies and gentlemen, I'm sure to come over to the window. We love a good marketing move. We love it, it's smart, it worked out. And Lano's like, break me off a piece of that. Exactly, and I guess Lano and her friend walked up and we're like, yeah, and I guess her friend initially

was like, yeah, that's mine for the rest of the trip. And then Zach ended up really liking Lana. And so the friend, which I was like, what a good friend, the friend backed off and was like, oh, he likes you. I love that. I love that. Which I was like, wow, friendship.

Like a good job. Good job. Good goals. So yeah, so they hid it off right away. They ended up starting to date because Lana was like, I'm gonna move to New Orleans. Like, it seems like a cool place. It was so great.

Yeah, she's like, we're dating, but, you know, New Orleans as a place seems cool. I liked it better there. I wanted to get out of where I am. I don't wanna be, you know. So she was like, I'm ready to do this. So, Lana became pregnant with their first child, Jackson early in their dating.

And the problem is Lana was 28 years old and Zach was 18. Okay. Lana did not know that he was 18 years old. She assumed he was at least 21 because he was working at a bar. Well, did she ask? I don't think she asked.

I didn't even know where she found out. Boyfriend how old he is. Well, this was like before she got pregnant, she found out, but like she, I guess in the beginning, like when she found out she got a little weird about it and like kind of pulled away, but then she ended up, she really liked him, so she just couldn't.

Okay, yeah, what happened was nothing I've had nothing wrong with it. It's not like it's illegal or anything. It's 18. I think at first she was just like he's like a baby. Like you know what I mean? Like he's not going to be really good with commitment. I mean, if he was old enough to like date a 28 year old and like she seemed like it was okay, he obviously was like mature enough.

Yeah, I mean, he definitely, so when she ended up getting pregnant, they were not married yet or anything like that. not that it matters, but it was pretty early in their dating. And Zach initially was terrified when she told him the news. Like, because he's going to be a teenage father at this point. Like, he's like, I'm 18. And he was like, I don't want to do this. Like, I'm not ready for this. And she was like, well, I'm keeping this baby. So, like, she was like, I don't want to do this. Like, I'm not ready for this.

And she was like, well, I'm keeping this baby. So like she was like, I don't know what to tell you. And he was like, hold this shit. Like he was freaking out. But then she says when Jackson was born in Zach held him, it was like a switch flipped. Because that's when dads become fathers. They truly do.

They need to see and is it that they hold and bond their baby. Women become mothers when they find out they're pregnant. The dad becomes a father when they see the baby. Yeah, because it's easy, you know, because with mothers, it's like you're into how is the baby? Yeah, you're already in the care of the baby. Yeah, so it's hard for fathers to feel as connected until they have that baby in their house. Me and my therapist talk about that legit all the time. Really? Yeah, I love that. It's the truth. Yeah. And I mean, that's what happened with Zach with Jackson. He said, she said he immediately shifted into this amazing dad. He was totally focused on this child.

He was like, I want to be here. I want to be a better person for this child. And he also started being a better partner to her as well. She said it was like. That's awesome. Yeah, she was like, it literally like flipped. Soon they decided to get married. I guess it was like this really big ceremony in New Orleans

at this church where like a bunch of tourists showed up and like it was this big event. Why does it all go wrong? I know, that's the thing. It's like this whole thing is like, oh, this is great. And then at the end you're like, oh no. Oh, this is bad.

It gets real bad. So they get married and then Lana gives birth to a daughter Lily soon after. I love the name Lily. It is really cute. And again, Zach was fully committed to this. He was like, I am a dad, I love the name Lily. It is really cute. And again, Zach was fully committed to this. He was like, I am a dad, I am psyched. He even went back and got his GD in 2000 because he was like, I want to do this for my kids. So then Zach was like, I want to make sure I can

give them a good life. So he decided he was going to join the military. He wanted to join the army because he was like, I can get insurance, I can have security, I can, you know, show the medical work or act like. Yeah. So at the time, this was in 2000. So at the time, he was going in and it, there was no war going on. Uh-huh. But once the war began in 2001 after 9-11, he had to go and do a tour in Kosovo and one in Baghdad. Okay, so he has insane PTSD. Oh, this is definitely a case. I fully, fully, fully believe that this is very heavily reliant on the fact that he has severe

unchecked PTSD. That breaks my heart because it's like yeah, it's a void. Yeah, exactly. It's like if you can I should say what it's this action could have been avoidable if he was given the help that he needed and it's not always readily available. No, especially not readily available. It's also not, you know, there's still that stupid stigma, especially on like men of like don't ask for help, don't go to therapy and stuff and it's like they're supposed to just suck it up and move on. It's like, it's like, it's like, quote, unquote,

man up and it's after what's in hearing what he saw and knowing what like other it's like, quote, unquote, man up. And it's, you know. After what's, in hearing what he saw, and knowing what like other, you know, military members say, it's like, no, that you need help, like to get through that. I couldn't imagine trying to work my own brain around this kind of stuff. No. So his military service seemed to definitely

change him as a person. He afterwards, like we said, he became super depressed. He definitely suffered from severe PTSD. And what happened was he lost a few people over there that were very close to him. And it really, really got to him. And he probably looked at that like it was his fault. Yeah, like there was this young girl.

I believe she was 19 years old. She was one of the only women in his unit named Rachel and they became super close. I mean, like they were all in his whole unit with this girl was like super close. They were like, like attached at the hip. Yeah. And she ended up dying being killed in action. And she was like one of the first women to be killed on the front lines.

But she was only 19 years old. She was a child. That's insane. And I don't mean that in like an offensive way. She's a child. You know, like I mean like 19, like a baby, I feel. It's like, you know what I mean? Like you're so young, you're so much ahead of you.

But she was killed. He was there when it happened. And like his whole unit took it as like really bad. Like it was, that was really, really hard on everybody, especially him. And then there was a time where he gave, like this little, like they said it was like a little like racky girl.

He gave her like a handful of candy because she was just like playing in the street. And he found out that she was killed the next day for interacting with Americans. Oh my god. And so he took that as a fall. I just killed a little girl a century. And then there was a little boy, a little Iraqi boy named Rashid. And Zach took a huge liking to this little boy.

He would bring Zach and his friends in his unit, his fellow soldiers, like Coca-Cola and bags of ice from his family store because his family owned a store nearby. And so in return, Zach taught him English and like really bonded with him. This kid was like there every day. Well, you have to think he has kids like he had. Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, one day, insurgents blew up the store and killed the entire family for helping the Americans. No, it was just like it just happened. And they said that I mean they said it could have been partially. What was going on? I mean, we don't know, but right, right. It definitely could have been that, I mean, they said it could have been partially what was going on.

I mean, we don't know, but right, right. It definitely could have been that, but either way, it was just the idea that like he was there one day and not there the next day. So he was already like a mess. And everybody in his like military unit said that like, I think it was the author of that book that I mentioned, Ethan Brown, I think his name is, he talks about like emailing later all of his like military buddies to try to get like more information. And they were all like, don't you dare say anything bad about Zach, like he's an amazing

person. Like, oh my god. They were all just like really shocked that he could do what he did because they were like, that is just not him. So obviously he does something beyond horrific later. But it's just, I just wanna point out like how much of a dichotomy this is to like, well, it's like mental illness can make you somebody

that you're not. Oh, it's horrifying. Like PTSD to no fucking joke. No. No fucking joke. So he left the military after purposely failing his physical tests over and over and over again. He was doing it on purpose.

So he got back to the family. I don't blame him. Yeah. And he left with a general discharge. Now this isn't the same as like a straight up honorable discharge. It's honorable, but it's not the same as an honorable discharge. He was not happy about this because a general discharge, it's like a general discharge under honorable conditions, which means that your service was satisfactory, but it did not deserve

the highest level of discharge for performance and conduct. So why? Basically what they're saying is like you must have gotten in some kind of like disciplinary issue or something like that. But he did. So he was very confused and angry about this discharge. And people around him were, too, people were like, what the fuck? I think they even had a lawyer try to change that,

because they were like, did they catch on to him like purposely trying to fail the fitness test? Is that what I wonder? That's what I wonder. I don't know if that's something that would do it, but I mean if we have any military members that can shed light on us now. Let us know because we love hearing about it, but yeah, so it's, he got a general discharge under honorable conditions. Lana decided, so when he came back to her and was like, I'm discharged from the army, I'm stopping this whole thing. Lana was pissed because she decided she was like, you know what, we need to separate because she felt betrayed that he was like,

now I'm going to go work in a bar again and you can go back to stripping. Like, that he was like, now I'm gonna go work in a bar again and you can go back to stripping. Like, and she was like, what the fuck? Like you said you were doing this to make us a better life and now you're just like, fuck it. Right. So, and they were already having issues, like, you know, because he was going through a lot,

I think she was like, she was going through a lot with the kids and it's like, it just was a strange and strange rush to get her again. Exactly. So they separated and in 2005, so they moved back to New Orleans. In 2005, he began working in a bar in the French quarter called Hogsbar. Apparently he was very popular with the ladies as a bartender there.

And one fellow bartender was not interested in him at all. And she was a woman who was like just not she was like I don't understand it. Her name was Adrian Adi Hall. I knew it. She was 29 years old originally from Durham, North Carolina. She was an artist, she was a dancer, a seamstress, a poet. She was living this very like free spirited bohemian. Exactly what you think of when you think of like someone just living on Bourbon Street. Just like, you know, I love it. It's the very romantic notion of like the Spohemian girl in my next life. She definitely, I know it keeps making me think of you, but not this part because she portrayed that on the outside for sure.

And she was an incredible seamstress, she was an incredible artist, she had all these talents, but who boy did she have a dark side? Oh, okay. Yeah. So, um, I mean, but she was very, she was dark side? Oh, okay. Yeah, so... Jam, I mean, just... But she was very... She was very carefree, she was artistic, she'd come to New Orleans and lived in her car

before finding her first apartment, she ended up living with a playwright friend who said about her, quote, she was so smart it just killed me. Her poetry was very, very good, and when it came to sewing, she could make anything from anything. Oh, that's cool.

So she sounds awesome. Right. She seems like if she had certain things under control, she would have been awesome. She's so, but there was a very dark side to her. And in 2003, it got real bad. When she drank, which she drank a lot, and she drank very heavily, which so did her average. So did her average. Exactly, and so did Zach. So now these are two things coming together

that are just not good. When she got drunk, it was like a straight-up abusive because And she got drunk, it was like a straight up abusive because that's not good. Yeah, it was not good. And what she would do is she would find your weakness or something that you're like the most insecure about. And she would just dig the knife in. That was like what she was known for. I had a stepdad like that. Yeah, yeah, he did.

He sure did. That's fun. I'm like, LOL. You're like funny. That's fun. I'm like, LOL. You're like funny because it's true. But yeah, like that was, and that's what people do. Like those kind of drunks, that's like, they're real weird. Oh yeah, they're real weird about that.

I mean, literally I was going to say, it's like a talent. It truly, truly is. Even if you don't tell them what your weakness is, they'll find it. Oh yeah. That's the thing they know. They can find it, they can sense it and they will use it again. She the second they have too many drinks and that's what she would do. So she had a lot of friends. She knew a lot of people because she was kind of like this like, you know, fairy girl who just like float it around and was like just doing everything. But they all knew that she had a really dark temper when she got drunk.

Like they all knew this. Some of them were fine with dealing with it, but others were like, there was a time, especially in 2003, I believe it started, where people started dropping off a little, because they were like, I'm not dealing with this. We're not into that. Yeah, like, throw up. One too many times, you call me something something terrible and I can't do it.

So when she wasn't drunk, when she was sober, she was awesome. That's the thing when she was great. A lot of people are like that. Exactly, but then she was a different person when she drank too much. So in 2003, this is when she started getting into like bar fights a lot. Like she was getting way more violent with her behavior when she would drink and she was drinking way more She was also getting into cocaine so she was going on like coke rages on top of getting like crazy drunk so it's like Just a lot of bad stuff happening with somebody with that kind of temper

She went through a ton of remates at this time because she just like couldn't hang on to somebody And she started hanging out with a ton of roommates at this time because she just like couldn't hang on to somebody. Made sense. And she started hanging out with a lot of Coke dealers, which ended up not being a great idea because she even tried to rob a Coke dealer at some point with her roommate. Girl. Yeah, and her roommate was like, no, no, I'm good. And like she was just, you know, she was drinking too much, so she was starting to fuck over her friends.

And she was getting into a ton of like a string of relationships with like abusive men. It just was a really bad time for her. And so this happened up until about 2005 when she met Zach. And this is when she was working at, you know, this bar with Zach and... And she didn't get why everybody thought he was the tits. No, because she said she was like, yeah, he was cute and like, whatever, but like, he's kind of goofy and he's like a frat boy and I'm not like into it. Like, she was just way too, she was like, no.

And this intrigued Zach because she... Because they always want the one that's not fucking intrigued. Exactly. So it was like the one girl that's not falling all over him themselves for him. He's like, wait a second. Who's this girl? And he said he was immediately attracted to her.

He just really liked her. She was fun. She was smart. She was spunky. She was artistic. She was just everything you think someone from New Orleans is going to be like just this awesome, you know know just colorful person so what he did to gain her favor finally is he was working the 2 a.m. to 10 a.m. shift I believe yeah so the middle of the night

but he was actually making a lot of money because this happened to be a favorite bar of you know people that are working those kind of hours around town it was like strippers and dancers and other bartenders you know people that are awake in the middle of the night. Yeah like come wind down. Yeah so we got a lot of business but she worked the shift that was directly after his shift so like the 10 a.m. to whatever shift So she didn't get the great people. Yeah, pretty much.

So he would work his entire shift and then he would just sit at the bar and just chat with her while she worked. And just wanted to get to know her, wanted to just hang with her. That's cute. So finally she gave in, she just gave in, she was like, you know what, you're super persistent,

you're pretty cute. And you're nice persistent. You're pretty cute and you're nice enough You seem like a pretty interesting person. So they end up finally starting to date in 2005 I love love. I hate that it ends. I know it It ends very poorly. Uh-huh So they're dating they're having this like whirlwind romance. And everyone's like this adorable couple, that's just partying and it's just, you know, living in New Orleans, just doing their thing.

Then Katrina hit New Orleans. Oh no, yes. I'm sure people from New Orleans can shed more light on what it was like there, but everyone was evacuating at this point because the storm was coming. But Zach and Adi refused to leave. They were like, nope, so we're going to ride it out in our apartment together. And Lana, Zach's soon to be ex-wife,

she wanted him to come with her and the kids who had their further away. And she was even like bring Adi. Like you can bring Adi. Just while we could come. Yeah. And she was like you can come, just bring Adi and we all need to be together.

Like I'm worried about. Yeah. We're family. She said that he was very callous on the phone and was just like, nope, not coming, refused to come with his kids. Which like, what the fuck dude? Like you don't choose your new girlfriend

in this like crazy, like let's stay behind for the hurricane thing over your kids. Grow up. So I guess like when they hung up the phone, she was like, what the fuck dude? Like you have to, like you have to like you have kids Like come here and he was like you'll be fine and Then just that was it yeah, but like what if they're not and he was like so that's dickish. What if you're not exactly

That's the thing. It was like this was that young I was a father very young so I didn't get to live out my craziness time where he starts making stupid choices. Right. So once the storm had passed, they still stayed even though they didn't have electricity running water or any supplies because we all know how Hurricane Katrina was handled by the government at that point. They were not getting any help at all. Yeah. Most people were not back in the city, but they were already there with this small band of people that refused to evacuate, no running water, no electricity, nothing.

They basically went into naked in a frayed mode. But I was going to say, literally. Literally. Like this turned into survivalist living, but they loved it. Like loved it. Right. They became super well-known

because of this choice to stay with this group of like people that were like, we're like the renegades who are staying behind, you know, that whole thing. Yeah. And they all banded together. They sat outside at night where they lit mattresses on fire for like warmth and to like cook food. And they made like a makeshift bar and restaurant outside of Zach and Adi's apartment where they cooked beans and like other food that they supplies they could get. They like made drinks because they went and like just stole alcohol from bars that were like abandoned at the time and they were both bartenders so they were making

drinks for everyone. It was like this little commune kind of thing going on. That's awesome. And at the time, they were getting attention for this. Like papers were covering it and stuff. Like there's pictures of Adian Zach in a lot of papers because of this from the tree now. That's crazy. Because people started knowing who they were.

And they became like the king and queen queen of the post-apocalyptic society. Yeah. And they also routinely went about trying to clean up the mess together, like all these people. They would clear debris and pick up trash and just try to clean up the streets. So it seemed like a cool, a little renegade society here. They also broke like I said broke into a bunch of bars. They stole the alcohol like they were, you know, they were, well I don't

love that. But you know, like you do what you do. And they broke into like some grocery stores that they would like take canned goods and stuff like that. Because again, this was all abandoned at this point. Like everybody's evacuated. They appeared just to embrace this whole like weird New Orleans that was just like this little group of people that had chosen to ride it out. And then they started like looking at it like where the true New Orleans people, like New Orleans, you know what I mean? I don't know if that's fair.

Even though they weren't because they're from North Carolina and California, but like, okay. I don't feel like that's just, like that was just a choice that you made. Well, it's like you any better than anybody else. Like that's really like, like that's ridiculous. And it's a lot. But it became like a whole thing. The way it's described and everything I read is like,

they became very close during this time and they bonded because they had to, basically, they had no other choice. They would ride around holding hands on their bikes, they were attached at the hip everywhere they went. People were like, look, these romantic couple of just bohemian, free spirited lovebirds just walking around They fucking goals things I read said that they would like have sex in the street in the middle of the night like it was just like

Total like just Like give no fucks just like we love each other kind of shit Which it's like whoa like that's so much. All of this is so much. And you look at this and you're like, wow, this can only end happily. And it does not. No, you look at that and you're like,

that's not gonna end. I know, I feel it's too much. Yeah, it's too much. So like if I wrote this in a book, I'd be like, no, you can't write that. That's silly. This is like, no, this is like the escalator to the top. And you're like, oh, everything's going so well

and then you crash and fucking burn. It's the roller coasters, the slow climb to the top and that's the plummet straight up. So yeah, people are like, wow, look at this weird ass romance and like let's write about it in newspapers and like everything's wonderful. In fact, the newspapers at the time were referring to these people who left behind, who like stayed behind as like tribes.

Like they were calling them tribes. Makes sense. In a New York Times article, it also mentioned that Adi was very good. I mean, again, she's a free spirit. She doesn't give a fuck. She was very good at keeping because again, like I said, this is like post-Katrina when everything's still very up in the air there. It's dangerous there at this point because it's like lawless at this point, you know what I mean? Because it's there's no electricity, nothing. Things are a little things are a little hairy. Sorry if you just heard that bang that I dropped something.

So things, so there was police presence happening at times, but you really needed to be careful about where you were going at night and what you were doing. But Adi was very good at keeping police coming to their home to help them out. And the way she was good at this was, and here's the quote in the New York Times paper, in the French quarter,

Addy Hall and Zachary Bowen found an unusual way to make sure the police officers regularly patrol their house. Miss Hall, 29, a bartender, flashed her breasts at the police vehicles that passed by, ensuring a regular flow of traffic. I mean, Margie Grille, am I right? I love it. She's just like, all right, I'll just use my tits and I'll get some police here. I'm there for a reason. Girl's got to do what a girl's got to do. Like, she would be, if she, if she just kept it together. Yeah. So, sounds great. Wasn't all great though. Like I said, outside of their little bubble, of their little community they were making,

there was like death, destruction. You know, she was nearly raped at one point when she went into an abandoned grocery store to grab some supplies. There was like a man hiding in there waiting. Oh, that's awful. Yeah, so it was really scary. So, soon after all of this, the 82nd Airborne Division of the Army was brought into New Orleans to, um, from Fort Bragg, and they were there to help with the aftermath.

They were there to help with peacekeeping. We filled. To search and rescue, like, all that stuff, exactly. Problem with this was they were watching this from their balcony, like watching these, like, hundreds of soldiers, like, just march in and tanks and stuff. This was PTSD. Yes and this was extremely triggering for exact PTSD. It's just like Fourth of July like fire. Yeah. Like anything like that is going to be a huge trigger. Exactly and like we said his PTSD is very significant and very unchecked. So this

was not a good thing. Started with the flashbacks. I mean, that sends him into like a spiral. And he was using drugs and drinking because he was also like doing tons of coke. He was like drinking like a fish at this point. Like every picture of them, they are either smoking, drinking, like there's never, they're just substance. They never let up. They just lived that like very fast, very hard lifestyle. And he's using this stuff to like check that PTSD, like drown it out. And all it's doing is like just, and just make it and find it until it's just going to

explode. Right. So, so yeah, so that happened, and add on top of this, the fact that Adi was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Okay. And the storm had stopped her from refilling her prescriptions. So she was unmedicated at this point

and she remains unmedicated. So this brought for a lot of volatility between the two of them because there for a lot of volatility between the two of them because there's a lot of psychological issues happening that are not being treated correctly. So the then mayor ordered that police and military quote compel the evacuation of all persons from the city of New Orleans regardless of whether such persons are on private property or not or have no desire to leave.

So like you gotta go. Because they're like you gotta get out of here so we can like start getting shipped back together and like this has like gotten too far. One at that point you should probably want to so that you can have your city be rebuilt. Yeah at this point it's like just you know just help out with this stuff isn't it was an you know an act of nature nobody can help that. just help out with this stuff. It was an active nature, nobody can help that. So, Adin's Act was some other people, again, refused. They refused to leave. They were pissed.

They said they were trying to take their rights away. And like, we have the right to stay here. They're just trying to help you. I feel that way, but they held out. And a week or two later, everyone who had evacuated started slowly coming back in Because they were slowly being let back into their homes and all that and

This is when like Adi and Zach became like very superior about like these people coming back in They were like, oh, you're coming back now like this is our town. You know, I mean like they started getting very superior about what they And one of their friends said quote they liked camping out are town, you know, to be like they started getting very superior about what they, and one of their friends said, quote, they liked camping out. They liked not having to work. They liked to not having the responsibility of paying bills. They didn't like the change back to normalcy. Well, thank God, live in the woods. So it ended up being that they did really well with this like romantic notion of like we we're gonna live this survivalist lifestyle together. Or like why don't you just go find a commu?

That's a thing like go live it man. You can live that way if you'd like to. Yeah, you totally can. And what happened was like they started fighting again. It started the romance is dying. But before this is starting to get like really volatile, they still had to like rebuild to rebuild what they already had, along with everybody else.

So they started living in a commune situation in their apartment with a bunch of other people. They used to, people said they used to talk about their post-Katrina love story all the time and romanticize it and tell it like it was this big echo tale. And friends said they appeared to be deeply in love. Like deeply in love. People said Zach looked at Addy like she was the only woman on earth.

And they said Zach told his mother that Addy was his soulmate. Like things looked like they should go in the right direction. But now again, life is slowly returning to normal from this crazy Katrina stuff. And shits, the Bohemian veil is starting to slip now. Now we're in real life. So, remember, this is all well and good, but we have to remember that Zach straight up abandoned his children during this. Like, this is not like the sure romance fun.

You straight up abandoned your children and mother of your child. He didn't send messages, he didn't answer messages, he didn't send money, he wasn't paying child support, poor Lana has no fucking clue whether he's dead or alive at this point.

She thought he was dead at one point Yeah, and she told so when her children asked her like where's daddy? Because they were asking like is he okay? Did she tell them that he died? No, she said that oh I told them that he was working for the Red Cross and he was helping build levies and he was helping people rebuild after the storm Like he's a hero. Wow like Like she's telling her kids that, because she's like, I don't know what else to tell them. Like that's the only thing I can think of. To keep them thinking that he's this wonderful guy.

That was the best thing to do. Yeah, so like good on you, Lana. As hard as it is, that's what you do. That's like amazing to me. I was like good for you, Lana. Like I love her. Damn. So Lana said that, so yeah, so she's like,

I just wanted them to be proud of him. Finally, they get back in touch. She finds out that he's alive. And then all of a sudden Zach is like, I wanna see the kids. So Lana's like, Jesus Christ. Well, Lana's like, all right, you are their father. They miss you.

I want you to have a relationship with them. But she says, listen, I need to meet Addy. If she's going to be around these kids, I need to meet her. Very fair. At first, Zach was super weird about it. And was like, yeah, no, she doesn't want to meet you, blah, blah. And she was like, then you don't fucking see the kids around it.

It's real clear. I don't know what to tell you. But apparently, according to friends, when he went back to Addy and was like, then you don't fucking see the kids around it. Like it's real clear. Like, I don't know what to tell you. But apparently according to friends, when he went back to Addy and was like, this is the deal, like, I wanna have the kids over the apartment, Addy was like psyched to meet the kids. She was like, let's do this. So apparently she ran out,

bought clothing for Jackson and Lily. It was like psyched about that. That's nice. But then it came down to it and she sucked. Why would we want to do that? Why would we want to do that? At the stepmother thing. She refused to even speak telana.

She would not speak telana. Which she has no fucking reason to not speak telana. I was going to say what's your reasoning. In Lana said a million times, she was like, in like the source I was reading, the article, Lana's like, listen, I could have had Zach back if I snapped my fingers. I was done with him. Like, you don't need to worry about it. I'm good.

Right. Like, what the hell? She refused to speak to Lana. And then she, then people said, and the kids said that when she would, they would go visit Zach and Adi, Adi wouldn't speak to them. Like, wouldn't interact with them. Just totally flip the switch.

But do you think it's because she was bipolar and unmedicated? I wonder because it's because she's unmedicated, so it's not being checked. And I'm wondering if this situation is just like throwing it into haywire. High gear. And so she refuses to speak to them, doesn't interact with them. The kids said that they didn't think she liked them. Well, Diane, she's not talking to them. At this point, they're like seven and five.

Like they're like young. They said she would go out to bars all night, then come home drunk and lock them out of the bedroom that she and Zach were in. Awesome. Yeah. And then she started saying that when, then she started saying to Zach, when, when the kids come over, you have to go to a hotel with them. You can't stay here.

But why? Oh, like, what the fuck? That's the thing. So it's like, what the fuck, dude? It's, there's so much strangeness when it comes to Zach and Adi's behavior. Yeah. But particularly Adi's behavior. Um, but particularly Adi's behavior. By 2007, and like, let me be clear, I don't think I need to say this, but like, clearly she did not deserve anything that she got later. No, obviously.

This is just reality. What was going on? Just what the hell happened. And I think it's important to show what a crazy-ass relationship they had, because it didn't just come out of nowhere. By 2006, the couple was just partying, doing tons of drugs together, and then they would get in insane fights like all the time. Addy was super abusive physically and verbally, but Zach came right back out of verbally at least and there was no serious reports of physical violence on his end

But there was one time where they woke up after a huge fight and she had bruises on her arm Okay, and so that's nobody really knows but that to me points that you were beating the shit out of each other or he hit you So yeah, or he may have like grabbed her arm like stop her you just you don't know. All it painly says to me is like you guys shouldn't beat him. I was good. That's pretty much all right. Maybe you should stop changing drugs. They would break up and get back together a ton of times. Friends said that it was just getting super dark and they were getting wicked worried about them. Like they were getting embroiled in the whole thing. They would kick each other out of the apartment regularly. And then they would chase.

We want to put it out. It's like, yeah. What's the point of being together? Well, and I think they just thought, I think they did. I think they loved this. Yeah, I think some people do. Yeah, because they, Exactly. And I think it's, they would kick each other out of the apartment. And then they would chase the other one down to beg them back. So I think it was this fun, they needed this.

It was like they need the craziness. No thanks. And it was so toxic, so toxic. Friends said at the end they would break up and reconcile literally every other day. Like every other day, 24 hours apart, they would do it. day like every other day like 24 hours a part they would do it. In August 2006, Adi was actually arrested after one of their fights. She stormed out with a handgun into the street, started a fight with a dude like a random dude on the street and pointed the gun at him. Yeah, you can't be out there doing that. Yeah, in Zach refused to post her bail.

So the friends had to put together money to get her out of jail. So already it's just looking bad. That's the poor friends. Look at that. Zach was constantly moving in temporarily with friends and then moving back in with that. He was just insane. Zach then, finally, in 2006, he decided

that he was looking elsewhere for companionship. Now he started having a relationship with another man. Okay. But did he end things with... No, yeah. Was that okay with... I'm not sure exactly their togetherness at their moment was. But it doesn't look like there was an agreement

that he could do this because Adi gets real mad. Okay. So he's starting to understand at this point that he's bisexual. And he's not exactly comfortable with it yet, so he's trying to hide it, but eventually Adi found out. Right. So Adi finds out that, you know, he's cheating on her

with a man and she loses her shit Like loses her shit causes public scenes She's calling him homophobic slurs in front of people like literally calling him an f-word like screaming it in the middle of the street at him Then she called every woman in his phone and told them that he had AIDS Oh wow, yeah, he didn't by the way every woman in his phone and told them that he had AIDS. Oh, wow. Yeah, he didn't, by the way. You got that in a matter of space. But like, not okay.

Holy shit. How do you even come up with that in your brain? Like, how are you like not mad that you're like, this is what I'm gonna do? This is what I'm gonna do. I think it's gonna work. And this, I just can't imagine living this way. No.

Like, why are you into this? Why is this one gets you off, dudes? Like, this is. No. Like why are you into this? Why is this would get you off, dudes? Like this is not okay. Some people though, like that's their personality. Like they love it. Some people love it. Yeah. Yeah. Some people thrive on it as a couple. You know what I mean? It's just not good. So because at this point, Adi's really like going off the rails at this point. And she's scrounging together money because she was kicked out of her apartment. She's not working a lot. She's like real, like friends said that they saw her like using quarters to buy groceries

once like, oh, that's really sad. So she needs money. So she's pissed at Zach for this whole thing. But she convinces Zach to pay for a new apartment Okay, because Zach is working like a hundred jobs at this point because he's paying Lana child support at this point So he's trying to and he's seeing his kids every other weekend So he's trying to like maintain that so he's working like crazy So she's like listen we will get back together. Let's live together in this apartment.

Let's have a new start. Let's wipe the slate clean, but you pay for it. So, Zach is like, cool. Let's do it. So this is the apartment. This is the apartment on North Rampart Street. loved her. This is the apartment on North Rampart Street. And they signed the lease together, but then days later on October 4th, Addie secretly had the lease put only in her name. How do you even do that? She just went to the landlord and was like put it in my name. And then she suddenly kicked him out out of nowhere. So base that she tricked him into buying her in a part. This was after he paid two months rent ahead of time. Right, so she didn't pay anything.

Had him sign the lease, got him kicked off the lease, then was like, your home was see you later. Yeah, that's not okay. And it's like, dude, okay, he cheated on you. I get it. You're mad. But like, just break up with him and walk away. You do not need to do this kind of shit. Like that's petty shit Maybe like spit on his car or like like absolutely like do something like that. You did the whole phone book thing like exactly

You know just an I'm a girl's night and yell about him, but don't that there's a line and night and yell about him, but don't that there's a line. And like take it from someone who's been like super cheated on by my ex boyfriend. There's really nothing you're gonna do that's gonna make it feel better. Like the only thing that you do, you just have to let it happen. Yeah, like just dip. Like that's all you can do to make yourself feel better is say fuck off and just leave and then leave it behind. You get better for yourself, you know? Exactly. Like putting revenge out on them is not going to make

you feel better. It's just going to make it messier. And in this case, it made it real messy. So like we said, she was basically scamming him to get the apartment. Apparently he was, I mean, he was really upset. He loved her. He thought they were going to try to work it out. And he was mostly upset because he was taking the kids that weekend. And now he had nowhere to put it. And now he's homeless. And he was saying, and even Lana's father,

like his ex father-in-law, said that when it came to being a father, like when Zach put in the time, he was great. And that's all that mattered to him. And those kids gave him purpose. And especially with the whole thing going on, like, you know, the military stuff, the perceived failures that he keeps saying in his life, those kids like grounded him. So I think now that he's looking at being homeless, not being able to take them,

like, all this, he's starting to spiral. So that's really sad. So that night that he found out on October 4th, like that she had signed the lease just in her name, it was kicking him out, they started fighting and they fought for hours. I mean, just knock drag out constant hours hours hours and it ended with him strangling her to death. Wow. He was not violent before this. He was actually the one in the relationship that everybody was like he was the level-headed one and she was like the volcano and they balanced each other out really well that way. So it was shocking for everybody to be like wait a second he lost it. He did that to her. Like, so this second floor apartment, it was a second floor apartment that they lived

on. It is over a very interesting landmark, which I'm going to talk about in a second. But police went up once they, and we're going, you know, now they found, I'm going to like go forward for a second. When police found Zack's body, they went up and found the apartment in a crazy state. It was a mess, an absolute mess. There was trash all over the floor, alcohol bottles, cigarette butts, beer cans, you name it. He had left the AC blasting so it was what police referred to as resembling the feel of a morgue freezer or a meat locker. The walls were covered in black spray painted words, conveying Zack's obvious mental decline before his suicide. The messages said things like call Lana Bowen and then her phone number. I loved her

total failure Another wall said help me stop the pain That was above his bed on the ceiling. Oh my god in the bathroom. It said I'm sorry I couldn't finish and then there was a message on the wall that said look in the oven Oh and then there was a message on the wall that said, look in the oven. Oh, ominous as fuckers. So they look in the oven. Because it told them to. This story or this case is so, like, bananas that it doesn't even seem real.

No, it really doesn't. It seems like a book or a movie. Like the spray painted words, like, look in the oven and like, book or a movie like the spray painted words like looking the oven and like Like a movie you think okay overkill. Yeah, you'd be like this is fun fantasy like it's not real well they look in the oven Which on the front was spray painted on on the door with don't look and Is sitting in a tinfoil lined pan was a set of charred feet and legs. In a pot on the stove, we're hands and then in a bigger pot, a woman's severed head.

Oh my god. The New York Post at the time, which like, leave it to the New York Post, put a headline out that said gal pal gumbo. Isn't that fucked? How did they even put that out? Oh, they get to do whatever they want. They put out the freesiest headlines ever. Her torso was found wrapped in a garbage bag in the freeze in the refrigerator. And they found an eight-page confession that was written in the last pages of Addie's journal. Okay. So part of these said, so the first thing it said was, quote, she had stolen this apartment, tried to kick me out, then would not shut the fuck up. So I very calmly strangled her. It was very quick. Oh, he said, quote, after sexually defiling the body a few times, I was posed, I was posed with the question of how to dispose of the corpse.

So before he did anything, he went to sleep with her dead body in the living room. Like before he cut her up, he just left her body in the living room. woke up the next morning and went to work. Oh, yeah. He told one of their friends there that they broke, he was like, oh, Adi and I broke up and she left. Imagine if he was your bartender that day. Yeah, and he was also working at a grocery store. So I think this was like, I think he was like a delivery guy.

He had a full day visiting friends, living pretty normally that day. Later that night, he dragged her into the bathtub and began dismemberment using a knife in a hacksaw. A knife? Yep. And he said, in his confession, he wrote, quote, I came home, move the body to the tub, got a saw and hacked off her feet, hands, and head. Put her head in the oven after giving it an awful haircut.

Put her hands and feet in the water on the range. He then said he got tired after a while and he said, quote, I got drunker and some hours later turned off the stove, filled the tub with water, and passed out. So then he said he was off for that weekend at work. So he was like, I had tons of time to get this done. But he said, quote, due to laziness, I spent most of that time coped up in various bars with different girls. Can you imagine being one of those girls? Can you imagine? I've, oh, oh. So during this time, and these are like days passing back, like he's just living in that apartment with her rotting corpse that he's slowly pulling

apart. We're her like, uh, is it extremities? Is that the horn boiling? Like he roasted, he roasted most of them. Like he charred them. A lot of them, he charred like beyond recognition. There's also no evidence that he ate any part of her and that what it looks like is he did this purely to get rid of her like to make it easier to dispose of her. But you have to think he's literally sitting in that apartment like if you're cooking a flesh. Oh yeah, it's gonna smell horrific. Oh yeah, and people start smelling it. And during this time, he called Lana and he had her bring the kids to his work. This is when he was working at the grocery store,

and she did say she said he was happy, jovial, in a very good mood, told the kids, grab all the candy you want on me. Kids were all excited. Then he like, do you think he like wanted to live out like perfect last days? Oh, he definitely did. That was the, because then he gave Lana $600 and cash in child support and asked if he could have the kids the following weekend

Because he was like Addy left Can I have the kids at the apartment and he said I'm renovating the apartment? I really want them to come over And Lona's like cool. Yeah, definitely so she she tells the kids like, want to see Daddy next weekend. And they were like, yeah, right. Like, cool. Now, Addy's still just on the stove. And like, part of her is in the bathtub. Yeah, part of her is in the bathtub still.

So he writes, quote, Sunday night I saw it off the rest of the legs and arms and put them in roasting pans, stuck them in the oven and passed out. I came to seven hours later with an awful smell emanating from the kitchen. I turned off the oven and went to work Monday. This would be the last day of work. So one of the neighbors, one of their neighbors in this apartment was named John Boutet and he remembers seeing the bathroom light on the night of the

murder and he said he just couldn't stop like paying attention to it because he goes the night the light was on all night it never shut off and it gave him like a weird vibe. He just didn't like it. This neighbor had lived in the apartment that this that apartment that he killed Adian before and he had moved out because he felt so weird in the place. He said that place has bad vibes like it had bad vibes to begin with. And he actually said he had a priest come and bless it before he left. Oh my god. I know what like halfway through I realized the case you were talking about and I remember I want to say I heard this on my favorite murder and they were talking about really how the place was like fucked up.

It's bad juju and he lived in a few more units in that building and he said he never felt okay like he never felt like he could actually live there. So he said it just had bad energy. He didn't like it. He eventually moved into a small apartment in the back building and that's where he was living currently. So he said, the night of the murder is not only did he just watch the light on all night, and he was like, what the fuck? He said he also thought he saw someone outside his window standing on his balcony.

And when he went over, there was no one there. But then he said he kept seeing what he called like shadow figures out in the backyard. And he said he was like getting really freaked out. He ended up calling a friend over to like stay with him because he was so freaked out by it. Yeah. And he says in the book that I read, he said quote, this is an old city with old spirits. Don't tempt them. Right. Which is like, I was going to say that's like on some new orla or

nolyn stuff. This is some nolyn stuff. So like I said earlier this apartment sits on top of a well known landmark. Which is that landmark is the infamous Voodoo spiritual temple run going Run by Priestus Miriam Shimani. She's going to... She's very well-known, very well respected, very well-liked. She actually blessed the marriage of Nick Cage and Lisa Marie Presley. So to it. Which you know Nick Cage has a tomb in the St. Louis Cemetery at New Orleans, like, ready for him? You know, I do think I've heard that. And it's like a pair of...

And my friend Lindsay is like obsessed with Nick Cage. I mean, who isn't? And he's... It's a pyramid. It's like the weirdest looking tomb when he finally goes in there. But according to the website for this voodoo spiritual... I'm sorry, what is it called, the voodoo spiritual temple. According to the website, quote, it is the only formally established spiritual temple with a focus on traditional West African spiritual and herbal healing practices currently existing in New Orleans. It has been serving New Orleans natives and visitors of all nationalities for 27 years.

Wow. So it's like well respected well known. Of course, people took this and we're like, oh, he must have been under demonic possession and like it's voodoo and it's all this. This is what it is. It all made him. But I think he was just very sick and very at the end of his rope. I think that's what it is. Maybe it contributed. I mean, is I'm a big believer in things like that, so. I just think, I think unfortunately a lot of like news outlets pointed to Miriam, like pre-Sys Miriam and being like, she must have had something to do with this bad energy and this bad vibe and stuff, and it's like, I don't think that's true. Like, I think she's, well, she's a nice lady from all stuff and it's like, I don't think that's true. I think she's well, she's a nice lady from all accounts. It's like, I don't think that was it. I think that this was a series of very unfortunate, very linked events and I don't want to say

recipe for disaster anymore. Yeah, yeah. It definitely is because I don't want to point to these outside forces as having something to do with it. I think that minimizes it. Zach did it. Like he chose to strangle her. having something to do with it. I think that minimizes it. Zach did it. Like he chose to strangle her, he chose to do this. Obviously there were psychological things at play, but so on that Sunday, he and a friend of this neighbor, John Boutet and his friend were outside the apartments, having like dinner I think.

And his friend was like a doctor and his friend was like what is that smell like what am I smelling? No, and John was like yeah, I don't know I've been smelling that but like you know And I think he says in the book like you know, New Orleans has tons of smells I didn't know what it was like it's just I guess the doctor was like that smells very familiar like that's a bad smell He's like and I'm a doctor, but they were kind of like, you know what? I'm just gonna stay out of it and just eat my dinner and go on my life.

I'm not gonna. So now three days after killing her, he said he came home from work in the boiling, rotting body parts and the rotted corpse smell and headless torso was suddenly horrifying to him. Zach. Yeah. As it should be.

He suddenly came home and It should have been. Oh no. So he wrote in his confession, quote, halfway through the task, I stopped and thought about what I was doing. The decision to halt the first idea and move to plan B, the crime scene that you are now in, came after a while. I scared myself not by the action of calmly strangling the woman I've loved for one and a half years, and then desecrating her body, but by my entire lack of remorse. I've known for forever how horrible of a person I am, ask anyone. And decided to quit my jobs and spend the $1,500 cash I had being happy until I killed myself. So that's what I did. Good food, good drugs, good strippers, good friends, and many loose ends I may have had. I didn't

contact any of my family, so that'll explain the shock. And had a fantastic time living out my days. It's just about time now. Wow, it sounds like it's so fucked up. It sounds like he was like in a very manic place and then he realized what happened. Yeah, and I almost feel like it's one of those things where they were the kind of people that wanted to be so extreme that he wanted that letter to sound extreme. Yeah, I agree. I think it was just like, he's just like, you know what? Fuck it. Like this is what I did. And now I'm gonna go out in a blaze of glory,

kind of thing, like he's like whatever. And he did, he went him at strip clubs. He slept with multiple women during this time. He spent tons of money, he did tons of coke, he drank himself silly, he partied. And in the days following, he drunkenly called Lana in the middle of the night at one point, to try to get back.

We're fucking Lana. Oh yeah, and he's like, meet me, I wanna see, at one point he said to her, I wanna see my favorite stripper. And she was pissed, she was like, fuck you. And she refused, she's like, no, and he's like, I just wanna meet with you. Let's have a drink, let's celebrate our like time you. And she refused. She's like, no, and he's like, I just want to meet with you. Let's have a drink. Let's celebrate our like time together. And she was like, listen,

where both? Who says that to the mother of their kids? Sorry, that thought came to me so weird. Exactly. I was like, what? And he's like, let's celebrate our time together. And she was like, we're, we're both in different relationships now. Like, that's not appropriate. No. Right. Like, I'm we're not celebrating our marriage while we're in different relationships. Like, oh, away. And he got pissed. Like, was like, fuck off.

So a week of Addy rotting in that apartment, he was still living there and still partying his ass off. He went back home Sunday and burned himself 28 times on his body with a cigarette. Once for every year he was living. And then he wrote out everything that he perceived to fail at. So he said all started with homecoming. All his regrets in his life. In his final like note page, he wrote friends, jobs, military, marriage, love, every last one of these I filled at. This is when he spray painted all the walls.

He left to party one last night and jumped off the Omni hotel. Wow. Now, New Orleans Police Detective Tom Moravitch said when he came on the scene, quote, in 10 years in law enforcement, I had never seen any scene that disturbing I yeah, that's like the inside of somebody's brain nightmare a nightmare and Lana was informed of his death when she and They told her where he had done it and everything and she said when she heard that it was at the pool like the pool deck At the on the kids there she she used to take her and the kids there and she felt it was a personal way to hurt her.

I mean, yeah. And the kids ended up being very scarred by this. The lily ended up having a ton of stomach issues from it, like couldn't get past it. I guess like Jackson just became very like introvert, like he like held it inside a little bit. You don't realize what you do. Yeah. Like this was, I mean he destroyed so many lives with this. One of their good friends, Zach and Adi's good friends, Capricio, I think his name is. Adi had dated him at one point. They stayed with him at times, they hung out with him, they confided in him,

Zach worked at the grocery store with him. When he heard the news, he said, quote, I was floored. It's just not something that is reachable. There are times when you can put yourself in someone else's shoes, but then there are times things, then there are some things that are so beyond our grasp of what we are capable of,

or what we understand ourselves to be capable of. We cannot go to that length. That's what this is. It is so really untouchable. It stays where it is. Yeah. And that's such a good way of saying, like that is so far removed from what I can put my brain into, like that kind of behavior. It is. And friends said they were shocked that Zach had done this. They said, you know, Adi was unpredictable and violent at times, but they were like, this Zach was level headed. They had a tumultuous relationship, but they seemed to love each other. And their apartment was added to a well-known ghost tour in the French Quarter where like people go by it and we'll be like, that's the, that's the, you need to let, you know, Norland's murder house and, you need to let like 50 years go by before you start making tours of crime scenes.

I know it's really, it's a tough, it's, it's one of those tough ethical and moral lines, but ghost tours and like those kind of things, I'm like, I get it, I see both sides of it. Like I can tell. I just can't sit here and pretend that I wouldn't go on that ghost tour. Like I'm not gonna sit here and pretend I'm morally opposed to going on that ghost tour. I feel like I'm pretty opposed.

Yeah, I feel like you dragged me to it. Yeah, I totally believe you. I can't lie to you listeners, I can't do it. I would tell a lot of, I'm firmly sitting here and saying that I built, I don't shame anybody for doing that. Yeah, I'm not saying it's right. There's a, what's it like the level of, or a certain amount of time that should pass?

Yeah, I mean, I think this period, the race period. Yeah, I can totally see both sides. I totally, I just can't. I can't lie to you guys. I can't do it, man. A lovey-so. I can't lie. That's what makes the podcast is those exactly very separate reasons. Exactly.

So just a couple of last things in this hour and a half many more. In this main episode. TVT2 and I thought I was I was doing the main episode this week. In 2016, Paranormal Lockdown, that show, they did an episode where they locked themselves in the apartment for 72 hours. No. And they got EVP that says,

you are not alone and strangled to death. That's horrific. Then there's a crazy connection to another dismemberment in New Orleans. Addy was best friends with a woman named Margaret Sanchez, who along with her sex offender boyfriend, Terry Speaks, murdered a dancer named Jaren Lawkhart and dismembered her body. We're going to cover that. I think I might cover it on the next mini because it's going to stay this.

I think it would be nice to like connect right into it So we'll go further into that in the next one, but that is the fucked up crazy story of Zach and Adi Wow that was bananas I feel like it's really sad because I feel like well all murder is like so preventable But when mental health takes a part in it, it's like you wish that those two people could have gotten help.

It's true, you really do, because there was things I read too that said Zach tried to talk about it with some of his friends and some of his friends like in that were like outside of the military and some that had served already and some of them weren't exactly super like helpful with it like they were kind of like what did you see that you're so fucked up from like they were literally like multiple extreme deaths which just

pushes them further into believing they shouldn't be asking for help so it's like that sucks right and then Addy had you know know, unmedicated bipolar. It's, that's, yeah. That's a recipe for trouble when they both got together. Mm-hmm. Well, as always, thanks for listening and you can find us on Instagram at morbidpodcast. Hit us up on Twitter. A morbid podcast. Send us a Gmail.

morbidpodcast at gmail.com and you can listen to us anywhere that there are podcasts do it because just you can yeah we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird it feels so wrong to do one right now. Sometimes you were going to do it again. I don't know. I thought you were going to do it. They're all wrong to do. Hold on. I was going to say, aren't they all wrong?

They're all very wrong today. I just don't know if my morals and my brain can go there today. You're wrong. You're wrong in my wrong a different way. Yeah. I'll try next time. We'll get you back. Bye.

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