Morbid - Episode 632: The Suspected Crimes of Guy Muldavin

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

When a girl walking on a Provincetown, Massachusetts beach discovered the decomposing body of a young woman in the summer of 1974, it began an investigation into what would become one of the most notorious cold cases in the state’s history. The victim—who would remain unidentified for nearly five decades—and her killer were the source of much speculation, with theories ranging from an extra in Jaws to the victim of the local mob. After decades of mystery, DNA from the remains of “the Lady of the Dunes” was subject to extensive genetic matching and was finally identified as thirty-seven-year-old California resident Ruth Terry. A year later, authorities in Massachusetts announced their main suspect in the murder was Guy Muldavin, Terry’s husband at the time of her death. Muldavin died in 2002 and thus couldn’t be prosecuted for the crime, so the case was finally closed. Identifying Ruth’s killer brought an end to one of the most enduring murder mysteries in Massachusetts, yet identifying the Lady of the Dunes and her killer turned out to the be the beginning of a new mystery. Indeed, investigators soon learned this might not have been Muldavin’s first murder, but one of several mysterious disappearances that traced back to him.Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!ReferencesAbrams, Norma, and Sidney Kline. 1960. "Nab village Casanova onb grisly find." Daily News (New York, NY), December 2: 33.Associated Press. 1960. "Woman's remains found in search of old Seattle home." Bellingham Herald , August 31: 1.—. 1950. "Police probe for clues in beach killing." Berkeley Gazette, June 19: 1.—. 1961. "Rockwell says resentment le to life of deception." Longview Daily News, October 25: 11.—. 1960. "Rockwell on hunger strike; seeks death." Peninsula Daily News, December 3: 1.—. 1961. "Rockwell's wife not sure she will remain married." The Columbian, October 20: 2.Cavallier, Andrea, and Sheila Flynn. 2023. "'Lady of the Dunes' killer identified after nearly 50 years." The Independent, August 30.Dowd, Katie. 2022. "California man questioned in double murder linked to 'Lady of the Dunes' victim Ruth Marie Terry." SF Gate, November 3.McClatchy Newspaper Service. 1950. "Sea search is started for missing girl." Sacramento Bee, June 20: 1.McClatchy Newspapers Service. 1950. "Kidnaping is suspected in beach killing." Sacramento Bee, June 23: 1.—. 1950. "State detective is called into beach death case." Sacramento Bee, June 22: 1.Murphy, Shelley. 2023. "DA says husband killed 'Lady'." Boston Globe, August 29: 1.NBC News 10. 2022. "Man eyed in Lady of ther Dunes murder had a dark side." NBC News 10, November 11.Reynolds, Ruth. 1961. "Too many women, too many lies." Daily News (New York, NY), December 24: 38.Rule, Ann. 2007. Smoke, Mirrors and Murder: And Other True Cases. New York, NY: Pocket Books.Sacramento Bee. 1950. "Humboldt beach slaying may join long list of county's unsolved mysteries ." Sacramento Bee, June 30: 22.—. 1963. "Lie test plan is dropped in hunt for bones." Sacramento Bee, April 3: 47.San Francisco Examiner. 1963. "Con tells of killing lovers." San Francisco Examiner, March 22: 22.—. 1963. "Girl-killer's search for grave fails again." San Francisco Examiner, March 25: 3.—. 1963. "'Murderer' can't find victim." San Francisco Examiner, April 2: 3.The Doe Network. 2017. 119UFMA. May 17. Accessed November 25, 2024. https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/119ufma.html.United Press. 1950. "Waitress sought for questioning in state beach death mystery." Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, June 19: 4.Wood, John B. 1974. "The baffling case of the body on Cape dunes." Boston Globe, December 22: 1.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey weirdos, it's Ash. Before we dive into today's twisted tale, let me tell you about the spooky perks of Wondery+. It's like having a skeleton key that unlocks ad-free listening and early access to new episodes. So don't wait, try Wondery Plus today. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You're listening to a morbid network podcast. Listening on Audible helps your imagination soar. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, and new ways of thinking. Audible has the best selection of audiobooks without exception,

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I'm Ash. And this is morbid. It's morbid. This is morbid. It's kind of like an update on a case that's coming a little late because we don't know when anything comes out. Yep, you know that. For one. And then two, this has a lot of, it has its own cases associated with it. So this is like a whole thing. This is a very late discussion again of the Lady in the Dunes

case and the update. Oh, I've always been so interested in that case. And then when the update finally hit, I was like, Oh damn, you said, Oh shit, I said we should cover that. And we are, we're going to talk about the suspected crimes of Guy Moldaven. Let's go sister. It's raining by the way. So if you hear any like pitter patter, that's why. It is. Yeah. We have skylights above us.

You know. So soothing. It's so soothing, but it's like hella windy outside and it knocked over my Christmas plants. And it's knocking out the the Wi-Fi every now and then. So good luck to us. So everybody hang tight. But anyway, sorry I interrupted you because that's who I am as a person. That's really rude.

It's who I am as a person. So I guess I'm rude. You're a rude bitch. Whatever. No, you're not. So we're going to talk about this. Let's go back to the original Lady in the Dunes case though first. So when a girl walking on a P town that's Provincetown, I'm going to call it P-town

though because that's what I know it as. When a girl walking on a P-town Massachusetts beach discovered the decomposing body of a young woman in the summer of 1974. It began as an investigation into what would definitely become one of the most notorious and well-known cold cases in Massachusetts history for sure. Oh, yeah, but just in general Yeah, like everybody in true anybody who is it had an interest in true crime or had looked into any kind of true crime E things you would come upon this case

Yeah, and the enduring mystery that was associated with it And the victim who remained unidentified for nearly five decades. Just crazy. That's wild. So this victim and her killer were the source of so much speculation too. We even talked about it in our episode about it. This speculation and theorizing ranged from being an extra in the Jaws films to a victim of the local mob. Yep. And Whitey, of course.

The local mob. I was like, indeed. And Whitey, who was his own. I thought he was anti-mob. No, he's like part of the mob. He's anti-drug. Anti-drug, that's what it is. He's anti like, well, I shouldn't say anti-drug, but you know, look into, look

into Whitey Poulter. Everybody's grandpa has a different opinion of Whitey, okay? It's true. In my mind, I thought he was not the mob. Hi, Papa. So after decades, literal decades, like I said, of complete mystery, not being able to tie anyone to this. DNA from the remains of who was known as the Lady of the Dunes was subject to extensive genetic matching and was finally identified.

She was 37 year old California resident, Ruth Terry. So sad. Like, oh, it's awful. What happened to her? You know, 37 years old. Yeah. Yeah. And a year later, authorities in Massachusetts announced their main suspect in the murder

was Guy Moldaven, who was Terry's husband at the time of her death. Moldaven died in 2002. Oh, motherfuckers. And so he couldn't be prosecuted for the crime. So the case was finally closed. But identifying Ruth's killer brought an end to literally one of the most enduring murder mysteries in Massachusetts, for sure. But identifying the lady of the dunes and who killed her turned out to be actually the

beginning of a brand new series of mysteries. In fact, investigators soon learned this might not have been Maldaven's first murder. I mean, given how brutal it was that. Yes. And in fact, it could have it's one of several mysterious disappearances that all link back to him. Oh, yeah. I hate that he died and like didn't serve any time for I hate that that guy died this. We know it pisses me off and got and literally did get any of this. I hate that that guy died. It pisses me off. And got, and literally did get away with this. So let's go back to the Lady of the Dunes in case you need a little bit of a recap here.

On the afternoon of July 26th, 1974, Leslie Metcalf, a local P-Town girl, left a friend's cottage along the national seashore and began chasing after her dog. When she reached the dunes about a mile from the Race Point Ranger station, Leslie could hear the dog barking from somewhere close by. So she walked about, you know, like 50 yards into the brush and she ended up seeing something strange, but she looked at it and was like, I think that's a dead animal. Mm-hmm. So her first thought was like, I don't want to get too close. And she's like, and I should grab the dog and get the fuck out of here.

Cause the dogs are going to try to like eat it. So she got a little closer just to grab the dog and get out of there. But when she did step closer, she noticed that it wasn't an animal. It was clearly a woman and she was very clearly dead. In fact, she had been dead for some time. And the cause of death appeared to be a, quote,

fist-sized hole in her left temple. My God. Leslie ran to tell her parents what she'd found and a few hours later, the beach was absolutely crawling with investigators, detectives, crime scene techs, press, you name it. Since the 1940s, P-Town, Massachusetts has been a popular vacation destination. Still is. Huge. Very popular.

Yeah. Huge tourist. So much fun. You know, like, yeah. And because of this, you know, other places that are like this can understand this. Because of this, the local officials do have to deal with like a fair share of crime. Of course. Yeah.

Be it small crimes or big crime. It's not like it's this crime ridden area. It's just when a bunch of people are coming from all over the place, you're going to get some undesirables. Of course. You've got some shit. Now, and it's, and honestly, this is like a very popular place to, like to go stay or vacation at for several months of the year.

So at least for those several months, that's when they really have to worry about crime ticking up. The other times, pretty chill. Right. But rarely had police dealt with the kind of cruelty that they saw here. Based on the advanced decomp,

the medical examiner estimated that this woman had been laying on the beach for at least a week, but probably longer. The body was lying face down on the beach for at least a week, but probably longer. The body was lying face down on a beach blanket. Her head was nearly decapitated from her body. Her skull had been bashed in with a blunt object and both hands and one forearm were missing. It appeared as though her killer had left her with her head lying on her clothing, which had been neatly folded.

That's the part that always got me. Very strange, yeah. And there was no signs of resistance, like I was saying. So that led investigators to theorize that maybe she had known her killer. One park ranger said there was no sign of a struggle. Even the sand hadn't been disturbed. There was very little evidence really at all collected at the scene and there was no identification on the body.

So they knew that was going to be a challenge to tell who she was. And remember, we're in the 70s. I was just going to say. Now during the autopsy, the medical examiner found evidence that the victim had been sexually assaulted and this is very graphic. I apologize. She had been sexually assaulted by a piece of wood, which is absolutely horrific. She had been subjected to strangulation and the cause of death was listed as blunt force

injury to her skull. So she was like tortured. Absolutely. The hands and teeth of their victim had been removed as well. At least some of the teeth had been removed. They theorize that this was probably done to dissuade an identification. Of course, yeah. Now, the medical examiner also noted that the victim, from what they could tell from what she had left, that she had had extensive dental work done in recent years.

And they described it as New York style and estimated it to have cost anywhere from 5,000 to $10,000, which is now is a lot back then. Even more. Even more. As investigators expected, you know, attempts at identifying the victim without hands, without some teeth.

Yeah. You know, like that's really, really difficult anyways. And in the seventies. Exactly. It's difficult to identify someone anyways. And in the 70s. Exactly. It's difficult to identify someone when you have all those things sometimes. Right. Never mind when that's gone. So the press dubbed her the Lady of the Dunes.

As far as the local police knew, no one had been reported missing. No one had come forward to identify the woman in the police sketches. So they weren't really confident that she was a local at that point. And they were correct. And while it was not unusual for young people or those, you know, that didn't have the means to rent a room in the area or any of the cottages for them to sleep on the beach, like that was not a strange thing, especially in the seventies. And also like a really nice area. It is. It's beautiful. The victim's extensive and expensive dental work

suggested that she was probably not from a working class background. Right. So that probably wouldn't have been what they were doing. She would have been able to stay somewhere. Yeah. Without any leads or any way to identify the body, the case went cold within a few months.

And in October of that year, the remains were buried in an unmarked plot in a local cemetery. Which is so sad. It was so sad, cause she just went into the ground. Unknown. Unknown. Completely.

But brutalized and unknown. Now over the years as advances in, you know, science and technology kind of brought forth new investigative techniques, you know, things like DNA and even fingerprinting became more advanced, like all these things advanced. The body was exhumed and examined for new clues, but nothing ever really came out of it, like no significant leads. And at this point, it is just this woman's body.

They didn't know who she was. It also gets harder and harder. As decomposition advances. And in the absence of any leads or any suspects, members of law enforcement and the public started to speculate as to who this person could have been. Because they were like, somebody's gotta come up with something here. Yeah, we gotta theorize a little.

Yeah, so some believed that she was an extra in Steven Spielberg's film Jaws, which had been filmed that summer on Martha's Vineyard, and maybe they thought she drifted over after production ended. Sounds kooky a little bit, because you're like, she was an extra in Jaws, but it kind of made sense as well. Everybody in P-Town at the time was an extra in Jaws. Yeah, so you were like, maybe. And others thought she was, you know,

the missing attempted murderer Rory Kessinger, who had escaped from a Plymouth jail the previous year. And some thought she might have been a victim of Boston mob boss, Whitey Bulger. That's the guy. Who often spent time in P-Town and was known to remove the teeth of his victims. And the whole hands thing, the really going to extensive lengths to stop identification did come off very mob.

Yeah, definitely. Every theory, no matter how kooky or unrealistic it sounded, was investigated and ruled out. The investigators here, I remember when we'd covered this, I was so taken by how personal the investigators took this case. They just did not want to let this go. It was not something that they were willing to... Good Massachusetts folks.

Just good Massachusetts guys, you know? These cops are all right. But after decades of investigation, detectives never made any progress on the case, no matter how hard they tried. But they didn't let it go. Finally in the fall of 2022, after nearly 50 years, Massachusetts FBI agents held a press conference to announce that thanks to the beauty of DNA analysis and extensive genealogical research, the lady of the dunes had finally been identified as Ruth Marie Terry. She was quote, a Tennessee native wife and mother.

A mother. Yeah. Investigators spent the better part of a year investigating Terry's husband at the time, Guy Muldavin, who again died in 2002. The DA wrote in a press release in 2023, based on the investigation into the death of Miss Terry, it has been determined that Mr. Muldavin was responsible for Miss Terry's death. Now according to the DA, Robert Galibois, I love that name. The couple had married five months before. Just five months before. In Reno, Nevada.

I'm sorry, I say it wrong, but I'm from Massachusetts. That's how we say it. And drove across the country to Tennessee to visit Terry's family after they got married, then traveled up to New England that summer. So they had just been at her family's house in Tennessee when this man did this as soon as, like right when they left. And this is even worse, when Maldaveon returned in the fall, still driving Ruth's car, by the way, he told her friends and family that she had just passed away.

What? Yep. When Ruth's brother pressed Moldaven for answers, because what the fuck? She's 37 years old. Goodie, you mean she just passed away? Moldaven said, quote, that they had a fight during their honeymoon and he had not heard from his wife again. That does not check. He then made some mention of her running off to join a cult and said when she didn't return,

he sold her belongings. Nice. Yeah. And Ruth's family never believed this explanation. No. And they always suspected that he had done something to Ruth. But without any evidence to disprove what he was saying, their hands were tied. Of course. Which I feel fucking awful for her family.

To know in your gut that you're right about something as serious and as devastating as this and to not be able to prove it. Yeah. Torture. It must have been torturous. Torture. I, it's awful. So in their press conference and press releases, the district attorney's office revealed few

details about the investigation or the circumstances that led to Ruth Terry's death. After killing Ruth in P-Town, Muldaven returned to California, where he had an antiques business. He married two more times and became active in his community in Salinas before again dying in 2002 after a long illness. His obituary in the Californian described him as an artist, actor, and poet, but made no mention of his several previous marriages. Also, every time I hear the Californian, I think of the SNL skits, the Californians. Oh, I feel like you showed me that one. And it's one of the funniest skits, like a running skit that they have,

called the Californians. Is that where they're like trying to give directions? Yes. Okay, yeah, I know that one. And they have a California accent. I laugh every time I hear the Californians. I think you said I sounded like that one. You're so mean! Shh!

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Go to rocketmoney.com slash morbid today. That's rocketmoney.com slash morbid. Rocketmoney.com slash morbid. All my parents out there, I know that you never want to sacrifice quality for convenience, but listen, so many baby and kids food options today, they just don't meet the mark. But that is why I really love Little Spoon. They deliver healthy, ready-to-eat meals and snacks that your baby, toddler, or even your big kid will love and that you can actually feel good about.

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win-win-win for our family, and it can be for yours. Simplify your kiddo's meal time with 30% off your first order. Go to littlespoon.com slash morbid30 and enter our code morbid30 at checkout to get 30% off your first little spoon order. Now descriptions of an elderly guy, Moldavan really didn't match those of a man capable of committing a brutal rape, murder and dismemberment. Yeah. One friend told the independent in 2023, he was great. I really loved him. I mean, he was terrific and I was very close to him. But the more investigators learned about Meldaven's past, the more plausible it seemed that, yeah, he would kill his wife.

Absolutely. He wasn't so terrific. And also, it may not have been the first time he did it. I mean, that makes a lot of sense to me given again how brutal her death was. Also my goodness that he can have somebody who is actually close to him after this be like, no, he was a great guy. Like I loved him. You also feel so bad for those people who must just feel exactly so duped. Like you think you know someone and then you find this out about them.

Yes. It's like, what the fuck? Like, and it shows you how he was able to compartmentalize pieces of himself. Which is so common in these kinds of people. Exactly. And you can see it doing like throughout his life. This is how he's a very big manipulator. He's a good charmer. He's a good con man. You can con anyone. He's able to get, did you say three wives or four wives?

He had several wives. I don't even know how many he had at the end. To get that many women to marry you, you have to be somewhat charming. Absolutely. You have to be able to turn it on. Now Guy Rockwell Muldaven was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico on October 26, 1923. I think that makes him a Libra. Oh, really?

I'll check. Uh-oh. Oh, he's a squabio. There you go. Mikey was like, we do not claim him as Libra. We do not. No. He was given up for adoption at birth, and he was quickly adopted by Abe and Sylvia Maldaven,

and he was raised on a little cattle ranch in Tiberia, New Mexico, along with his brother Michael, who was six years older. Not a lot is known about his early life, but according to a press report, he was, quote, schooled in Switzerland, New York, and Connecticut, and was tutored privately. He was well motherfucking off. He was doing okay.

In his younger years, it looked like the family traveled extensively through Cuba, Germany, Italy, France. Damn. Court documents show that in addition to the ranch in New Mexico, the family, Italy, France, court documents show that in addition to the ranch in New Mexico, the family quote, bought land and properties and towns in the late 1940s and mid 1950s. So they had houses and places to live in. They were flushed with cash.

In 1942, Muldavin moved to New York and he decided to change his name. He changed, he changed his name to Guy Raul Rockwell. And took a job as a professor at the Academy of Dramatic Arts, which I did not see coming. I did not see coming either. It was there that he met and soon married his first wife, Joellen Loop. Oh, that's a cute name. I know, an adorable name. I love that. Joellen Loop.

A former beauty pageant contestant and model. Oh, stop it. Not long after marrying the couple relocated to Fortuna, California. I had to look that up. Yeah, it could be Fortuna. It's got to be like Fortuna. I don't know. Where Guy found work as an actor, singer and occasional DJ at KIEM radio.

There you go. It is in California where many people believe his criminal career began. And it began in a really scary way. It began with the murder of a young couple on a beach in Eureka. Oh, weird that it was on a beach too. Yeah. Yeah, very weird. Now on the evening of June 17th, 1950, 28-year-old Henry Baird, a delivery driver for a local

bakery showed up at the Sweet Shop, which was a local Fortuna diner, to meet his girlfriend Barbara Kelly for a date. The couple went to a movie and after they went out to Table Bluff, which is a popular lovers lane overlooking the water. Oh, I love a lovers lane moment. You know, everything seemed to have gone, you know, fine smoothly. Yeah. But the following morning, a local fisherman and his son getting ready to go out on their

boat for the day discovered the body of Henry Baird lying on the beach nude except for shoes and socks. He was laying face down and had what appeared to be a bullet hole in the back of his head. His clothes were in a pile not far from his body and alongside his clothes were several pieces of women's clothing. But Barbara Kelly was nowhere to be found. Now police arrived at the scene pretty quickly, but aside from the clothing, there was really nothing to be gathered or any witnesses to question.

This is like a lovers lane situation. Right. The lighthouse keeper at the nearby Coast Guard lighthouse station told detectives that Henry's car was the only vehicle he'd seen come down the road to the bluff that night, but he never saw it leave. Okay. Now the car was found a few yards from his body, both doors ajar, and the 22 caliber pistol that he was known to keep in his glove compartment was missing.

As far as investigators could tell, there was really no sign of a struggle where he was found, and a $20 bill was found in Baird's wallet among the clothes, indicating that robbery was probably not the motive here. And his body was taken to a mortuary in Fortuna, where the deputy coroner, Dr. Gavin Goble performed an autopsy. According to Goble, he found quote, several pieces of a copper jacketed 22 caliber bullet in Henry's brain. And he expected his death was quote, instantaneous. At least there's that.

Yeah. Now, according to Goble, the bullet entered the back of his, of Henry's skull and exited the front right side of his head. While the bullet was clearly the cause of death, he also noted that Henry's skull seemed quote to be unusually crushed for so light a bullet as a 22 caliber. And the coroner suspected that maybe he had also been struck in the head. Oh, okay. Now the murder of Henry Baird was the most obvious crime for investigators, but it was followed very closely by the question on everyone's mind, which was, where the fuck is Barbara

Kelly? According to Barbara's parents, Henry and Barbara had been dating for a little over two months, and despite their difference in ages, there was nothing concerning about their relationship to anyone. Okay, well that's good. On the night of the murder, Barbara had left a quickly scribbled note for her parents telling them she was planning to spend quote, Saturday night with a girlfriend in Eureka. Oh, she was the whole fibby fib.

You don't fib. And that was the last they'd heard from her, which is very sad. After clearing the scene on the beach, investigators started talking with the press. One deputy told a reporter of the motive. It could be anything. Maybe she ran away. Maybe she and he made a suicide pact. We're still in the press. One deputy told a reporter of the motive, it could be anything. Maybe she ran away. Maybe she and he made a suicide pact. We're still in the dark. I feel like in the fifties, they love to just be like, I bet it's a suicide pact. I feel like that was like a thing that like back then, I feel like it was like, maybe they did this. I bet they

decided to have a suicide pact together. It was like, why? And also like, why would she then run off to do it elsewhere? Yeah. Why? Like, I don't get it. For qual. I don't get it at all. Now, within a few days, the sheriff's office had put together their initial theory that the couple had indeed made a suicide pact and that Barbara had shot Henry in the head, then removed her clothing and walked into the ocean to drown. I don't think most people, aside from Ophelia and Hamlet, would choose that. Please sit down, investigators, in the 1950 case of this,

and tell me where the fuck you came to that theory. That's a leap. Like, you talk about a leap. And a jog, and a run around the corner. That's a triathlon. That's a marathon. And a jog. Yeah. And a run around the corner. That's a triathlon. That's a marathon. Yeah.

That's something. Operating on that theory. Leap, triathlon, jog around the block. Searches for Barbara were launched from the air, on the beach, and even in the ocean. Wow. But when they failed to find literally any evidence to support their belief, investigators were forced to rethink that theory. It's like also what if she was kidnapped y'all?

That's the thing and you're thinking she shot him in the head and then tried to walk into the ocean like wow. Like weird. Yeah. But okay. Sheriff Charles Rab told a reporter, we have no idea what happened that you don't say. I'd rather you say that. We have no idea.

And then he said there is no indication of a third party involved, but we are investigating that and every other possibility. There's no indication of anything. That's the thing. Like you're making it seem like only the two of them have to be involved in this when you say something like that. Right. Just like choose your words better when you're explaining this.

Say like, we don't know what's going on. This could be anything. We will update you when we know what's going on. This could be anything. We will update you when we know it. Literally, keep it short and sweet. We don't think another person was like, no, there's no indication that anything happened here except for people died and someone's missing. Yeah, keep it simple.

So those possibilities included Barbara having been killed at the scene and dumped elsewhere, and that the couple could have been attacked by a patient who'd recently escaped from the Napa State Hospital and was seen in Eureka, which is chilling. Now within a week of the murder, the Sheriff's Office had called in detectives from the State Department of Justice to help them in the investigation and they had largely changed their theory. Now the Sheriff's Office was, quote, working on the theory that the couple were followed

to the beach. Baird was slugged and shot to death by an intruder and Miss Kelly was kidnapped or perhaps killed. I'm like, that's what I would have gone with at first. Versus suicide pact. In the meantime, the residents of Fortuna started pitching in to offer a reward for information leading to an arrest. But leads and information were not a common.

They're really scarce. While state detectives began expanding the search efforts, lab results and analysis of Baird's body and the bullet evidence from the state lab finally came back. Okay. Initially, the coroner's office had stated that Baird had been struck in the back of the head and shot with his likely his own 22 caliber weapon. Yeah. But according to the state's authorities, the bullet was not a 22, but was quote, of the explosive type and its caliber could not be determined exactly.

What? The exploding bullet. So it's like there's certain bullets that when they enter, they just shatter and will cause like immense damage. And that's possibly why that they saw more damage than usual. That's what accounted for the severity of the entrance wound at the back of the head. So probably didn't get hit in the head. It was just the bullet.

Oh man. By the end of the month, the case had gone cold and the press was beginning to speculate that the murder of Henry and the disappearance of Barbara, quote, may join the other unsolved killings which dot Humboldt County's history. After two weeks of intense investigation, neither the local or state detectives had managed to find literally any evidence, and they had not found any trace of Barbara or Henry's missing gun. The only lead they had, which officers discounted as a quote, crackpot theory, was a letter mailed to the sheriff's office

from an Oakland, California address. The writer claimed to be the killer and said he'd committed the murder out of jealousy. But investigators had failed to locate the writer and they just wrote it off as a prank. They just didn't find him. So they were like, we can't find him. So he must be a joke. Yeah. Even Blanche was like, fuck that. Blanche is like, yeah. I was like, you good girl? In the winter of 1963, more than a decade after the murder of Henry Baird and the disappearance of Barbara Kelly, Gail Patrick Irish, an inmate at the Atascadero, I'm almost going to say that, state hospital confessed to three murders, including the deaths of Henry Baird and Barbara Kelly.

Okay. Now Irish, who was serving a sentence for, quote, sex perversion, claimed he was prowling around the beach when he came across them in their car. He said he forced them to strip, shot and killed Baird and took Miss Kelly to a logging site about 20 miles north of Eureka. Once they reached the remote area, he claimed he sexually assaulted and murdered Barbara. Okay.

Which sounds fucking terrible. Yelp. The detectives from the State Department of Justice, he had just enough details of the case to satisfy their belief that he was at least possibly responsible. Yeah, you can see why. Also, he claimed to have committed a similar crime around in Yuba County in 1957. In that instance, against a 13-year-old girl. As evidence of his sincerity, Irish offered to lead investigators to the bodies. So they received approval to take him from the hospital to the sites in Northern California

where he said he had left his then 13 year old victim. Now unfortunately, once they arrived at the supposed burial site, Irish failed twice to lead them to the body and indicated he might not be able to remember. Oh, that's good. Humboldt County Sheriff Edward Hurlburt told the press though, we have a very definite feeling Irish is the murderer and is sincere in helping us locate the body. What makes you feel that way? I don't know.

I feel like it would have been when he said he wasn't going to lead you to the body that would have probably changed my view on that. But hey, me, I'm not a sheriff. Call me crazy. Who am I to say? That's the thing. A few days later, investigators arrived at Table Bluff with Irish, who claimed he would trace the route from the beach to the logging site.

Like, I think he just doesn't want to be in his cell today. Exactly. He wants some attention. This is where he claimed to have left Barbara Kelly's body. But after nearly a week of searching, Irish had still yet to identify the site where he'd left Kelly's body. Let's bring him back to where he is. Although Irish had directed investigators to a logging camp approximately 20 miles from

the beach, when they arrived there, they found that it was totally wildly overgrown, which he insisted made it difficult for him to recall accurately. Oh, okay. Sorry about that. Now facing criticism over the increasing likelihood that they had fallen for a dumb lie, the sheriff's office recommended that Irish be subjected to a polygraph examination to prove he was telling the truth. Also to prove that they were not falling for something.

But when he returned to the hospital after failing to find either body, doctors at Atascadero explained to investigators that he was, quote, too unstable to be a fit subject for a lie detector test to be valid. Awesome. Yeah. Love to hear it. For months, the sheriff's office remained absolutely committed to believing Irish's story and even insisted they were going to search the entire area for Barbara Kelly's

remains when the weather improved. Over time though, it became very clear that there was no body at the logging site and the case went cold again. It's really sad that they had so much hope and I'm sure that gave her family hope as well. Of course. And they wasted all these resources. All this time.

Yeah. Although it would not be widely known for several decades, Gail Patrick Irish wasn't the only suspect in the Baird Kelly case. In fact, many investigators believe that Guy Muldavin made a far more likely suspect. I was waiting. At the time of the murder, Muldavin and his wife were living in Fortuna, California, the same small town where the victims lived. Imagine that.

More importantly, however, Muldavin's in-laws owned a sweet shop, the restaurant where Barbara Kelly worked as a waitress, and a restaurant on Baird's Henry Baird's regular delivery route. Stop. Guy Moldaven happened to work there as a short order cook sometimes to make additional money. Since they hadn't announced their plans that evening to anyone, Barbara and Henry, investigators had initially thought, assumed basically, that they had been attacked by a stranger. Yeah.

But it was equally possible that either Henry or Barbara mentioned their plan to go to Table Bluff to Muldaven or one of the other coworkers shortly before leaving the diner that afternoon. Whatever the case, investigators strongly suspected Muldaven of being involved in the murder and in Barbara's disappearance. But without Kelly's body or any other evidence to tie him to the crime, they had no cause to arrest him. And did they ever find her? No. Oh.

I know it kills me. That's devastating. Now, not long after the discovery of Henry Baird's body, Guy and Joellen strangely relocated to Seattle, Washington. I wonder why. Weird that Betty left. That's like crazy that they decided to move out of like nowhere. Listen, I don't know about you guys, but obviously I have some bad habits that I want to shrug

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Visit BetterHelp.com slash morbid today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash morbid. Now where Guy, and when they went to Seattle, Washington, he found work as a DJ again. And that was before he opened a shop, which I hate to say this is a pretty good idea. It's a nocturnal antique shop. No, that actually is a really good idea. I was like, fuck you for having a good idea. Maybe he stole it from a better person.

He probably did. He didn't come up with that himself. No. And this operated from 6 p.m. to midnight. I love that. Kind of a good idea. Maybe he stole it from a better person. He probably did. He didn't come up with that himself. No. And this operated from 6 p.m. to midnight. I love that. Kind of a cool idea. I love that a lot. Yeah.

But Guy and Joellen's marriage lasted a few more years. They had a daughter together until one day in early 1956 in front of customers in the store, Guy announced he no longer wanted to be married to Joellen and told her to pack her things and leave. Sounds abrupt. In fact, one witness told police, it was the cruelest thing I ever saw. Oh, that's so sad. Joellen, good for her, filed for divorce and was awarded sole custody of their daughter

and left the fuck out of Seattle. Thank goodness. I don't think she would have made it out alive otherwise. No. Although she didn't know it at the time, Guy's demand for a divorce had not exactly come out of nowhere. In fact, it was something he'd been planning for some time. At least since starting up an affair with his soon-to-be second wife, Manzanita Manzie

Mearns. Guy had met Mearns several months earlier when she came into the antique store with her husband, William, while the couple was visiting from Vancouver. Manzie and Guy hit it off immediately and their affair soon started. By 1958 they both had divorced their respective spouses and got married. Manzie and her teenage daughter Dolores moved into the apartment Guy occupied above the antique store. Delore. Delore. Whatever charms Manzie had seen in Guy before the marriage

soon wore off after they got married. This is what he does. That's always so scary too. You think you know somebody and then you marry them and like those stories and cases are so sad. Yeah, they are. Well, Guy cultivated a certain persona at the antique store. He would chat up the wealthy women

in order to sell them expensive to antiques. Manzie worked really hard at a local bank and would come home and continue having to do more work at the store. According to author Anne Rule, ever heard of her? I know her. For Guy, it was a social time, but his wife and stepdaughter would have preferred

to have family dinner and some quiet evenings. Yeah, probably. At some point, Manzie began noticing that certain women were coming by the store far more often than they needed to, but they always left without purchasing anything. Whenever she would express his pleasure with the fact that this was happening, you know, show some jealousy to him, he would insist that he had no interest in any other woman and any flirting he did was strictly for the purposes of making a sale. But Manzie didn't really believe him. So like you can make a sale without flirting.

Well, and after all, it wasn't too long ago that she'd left her husband and two youngest children behind to move in with the man she knew as Raoul. So she knew how convincing and charming he could be. And she was like, fuck, he's probably doing it to other people. She knew how convincing and charming he could be and she was like fuck. He's probably doing it to other people Now whatever stories and exaggerations guy told his wife to alleviate her concerns. They were nothing compared to the outright lies He was telling women who came in the antiques show store. He said he was born in Saint Tropez in the French Riviera He told he told him that he had been raised in a family of well-known and widely respected French antiques dealers He told him that he had been raised in a family of well-known and widely respected French antique dealers. He had come to the United States as a teenager when so brilliant that he was immediately

accepted at the University of California. And then he joined the army and did a six year tour of duty engaged in some of World War II most notorious battles. None of that was true. I say that's weird. I didn't hear you mentioned that in the beginning. Not a one of it. Not one thing of that's weird. I didn't hear you mention that in the beginning. Not a one of it. Not one thing of that was true. It's unclear how much of this is customers actually even believe

to be honest, especially considering the timeline did not match up at all. But it kept them coming back. And more importantly to him, they were paying attention to him and buying his shit. So it didn't seem to matter. By March 1960, it was becoming clear that Manzie and Guy's marriage was falling apart. Yeah. According to Ann Rule, neighbors could not help but notice a lovely middle-aged blonde who arrived at the antique shop close to midnight several evenings a week. And that's closing time. Yeah. And that was also while Manzie sat in their apartment upstairs, completely unaware of what was, well, probably aware of what was happening. Yeah, that's very sad. But not wanting to believe it.

A month later, Manzie and Dolores suddenly disappeared. Both of them? Yep. Causing neighbors to speculate that she'd grown tired of guys cheating and finally decided to leave him. Yeah. Those who knew her, however, Manzie's disappearance came as a big surprise. She'd always been very reliable, very, very good worker. So the manager at the bank

was very stunned that she would suddenly quit, like not show up and just quit without notice. Also Dolores had seemed very committed to her studies at university. So the faculty there was very surprised that she had just stopped attending classes without saying anything. And the couple next door with whom Manzie had become pretty close, they were sure that she would have talked to them before she left. Like they would have said something. In fact, they were hurt that she didn't say goodbye,

but then that soon turned to serious concern. Now, whenever anyone asked about Manzie and Dolores, Guy would tell them that she had gone to Vancouver to visit relatives. When the two of them still hadn't returned though, after weeks, Guy was forced to explain that his wife had in fact left him and taken her daughter. He feigned embarrassment and appeared pretty sheepish whenever it would come up.

He would say to people, she doesn't love me anymore. And Manzie closed out our joint bank account. She took every penny I've saved for the shop and to buy more antiques. She even burned all my business records before she left. Wow, just selling her name. That's nice. To those around him, he did seem upset about the whole thing. He drank heavily, he appeared depressed. He would often let days pass without even opening the antique shop. Oh, wow. And after a few months, he finally managed to pull himself together though and file for

divorce from Manzie, citing cruelty and desertion as the reason for filing. Okay. Then to everyone's surprise though, in July, just a few months after his wife had disappeared, in just 72 hours after getting their divorce, Guy remarried. 72 hours? Yes. Girl. Yeah.

Wow. This time to Evelyn Emerson, the daughter of two of his wealthiest customers, Clifford and Jermaine Winkler. To those who had been close with Guy and Manzie, the speed at which he moved on and remarried came as a shock. But by then the only opinions Guy seemed to give a shit about were his very wealthy in-laws opinions. He didn't give a shit what anyone else was saying.

Evelyn seemed equally taken with Guy and told friends she was eager to start traveling around the world with him, purchasing antiques, all of which she believed was gonna be funded by a Fulbright Scholarship. In fact, Evelyn was so enthusiastic and so believing him that she agreed to sell the antique store that she had operated for a number of years. Oh no.

And placed her remaining inventory with an auction house and plan to give the proceeds to Guy. That's how much this guy was able to convince people. Now just days after the wedding, Guy approached Clifford and Germaine, his in-laws, with a business proposition. Oh goody. He had been offered the opportunity to buy a large amount of First Nations art and artifacts from a dealer in Canada for the price of $8,000.

Because Manzie had taken all the money, he didn't have the funds to make the purchase. So he claimed that he'd put down $500 as a deposit on the items. And he had received assurances from two collectors in Seattle who were willing to pay nearly twice the price. He just needed the money to close the sale. The Winklers had known Guy for some time now, and as far as they knew, they thought he was a smart businessman, a savvy investor, so they happily lent him the money. And they even gave him an additional $2,000 to make sure he was fully covered.

Oh, such nice people. A few days later, on August 3, Guy announced that he would be making the trip to Canada, but he was going to do it alone. And he told Evelyn he thought the trip might be dangerous and he didn't want to put her at any risk. Okay. A week passed, and Evelyn still hadn't heard from her new husband. Fearing something might have happened to him, she called the only one of Guy's friends she

knew, which was his lawyer, Jeffrey Hyman. Jeffrey tried to reassure her that guy was probably fine. But then he learned that guy had been carrying a large sum of money like that. And he was like, Oh, actually, that is a little concerning. That concern only grew a few days later when Jeffrey was unable to confirm that guy had even gotten onto flights leaving from Seattle on August 3rd. Having run out of ideas, they called the police and reported him missing. The case was assigned to Sergeant Herb Swindler, what a name.

Herb Swindler? Herb Swindler of Seattle's Crimes Against Persons Unit, who immediately began investigating the disappearance. Swindler confirmed that Evelyn and Hyman had already learned from the airlines that he had not gone in any planes, but then they called the Pacific National Bank where Guy had an account. The bank manager told the detective that Guy had been into the bank on August 3rd. Oh. And he'd cashed a $10,000 check from Jermaine Winkler,

as well as withdrawn $3,000 from his own account. That's so crazy. But when Swindler asked whether the money had been converted to Canadian currency. He said, uh-uh. It was not. It was still in US dollars. He said, nor. Nope. That was when it occurred to Swindler that Guy hadn't gone missing. He'd stolen their money and fled the state.

He was on the yam. Yeah. He was on the yam. Swindler became even more suspicious a few days later when Jeffrey Hyman received a phone call from a woman who said, uh, actually, I have flown on a plane to San Francisco with Guy on August 4th. And he was supposed to be in Canada on August 4th. According to the caller, she was positive it was him because she quote, has known him for a long time.

So Swindler flew to San Francisco to interview this woman and learned that she and Guy had been carrying on an affair for about five years. Five years. When the woman found out Guy had married Evelyn, she was pissed. Obviously. Which is why she chose to call Jeffrey Hyman in the first place. Queen. The further the investigation went, the more women emerged to report their ongoing relationships with Muldavans. He's literally like Bluebeard.

Women, he is like Bluebeard. It's actually crazy. Yeah. And we didn't even plan that. No. most of them felt they've been taken advantage of by a con man. He's literally because they had. Yeah. He's literally he's, uh, what's his name? Watson Watson there. The discovery of guys lies prompted Jeffrey Hyman to guys lies. Sorry. It's like, it's like, in, it's like never been kissed. Yikes. Bikes. You are a guy. Quite a guy. It's true. Guys lies. The discovery of guys lies prompted

Jeffrey Hyman and Swindler to wonder whether what he'd said about Manzi and Dolores leaving was actually true. Immediately they were like, wait a second, this guy's a fucking liar. Yeah, survey says. Having checked the bank, both men now knew Manzie hadn't taken any money from their bank account, like he claimed to everyone. And it was just the beginning because everyone had felt strange

that no one had heard from either of these women since he said they disappeared. Like no one in their life, they just disappeared. Like they have younger siblings and young children. Exactly. According to the neighbors, the last time anyone had seen Manzie and Dolores was on March 31st and both of them had acted completely normal. In fact, according to their neighbor, Karen Yerrick, Dolores seemed excited about starting her new classes. So it just didn't make sense. That breaks your heart. There was one other thing that Karen Yorick

wanted to tell the detectives though. She realized it might seem strange, but she said not long after Manzie and Dolores disappeared, Yorick noticed one of the windows in Muldavon's basement was open, which she'd never noticed before. About a month later, Yorick and her husband noticed a quote, foul odor coming from the house.

The odor was bad enough that they asked a guy about it. And he told them, quote, it was only some crab that had spoiled, and he threw it into the garbage can. Uh-huh. No. In your basement? Babes, everybody, it's never crab that is spoiled.

No. Just call someone. You'll know the difference. Yeah, don't worry. And even if you don't, call someone. Just call. You might as well the difference. Yes. Don't worry. And even if you don't, call someone. Just call. You might as well just check.

Things became even more ominous when Detective Search Moldaven's house and found that this is so chilling. They found that all of Manzie and Dolores's clothing and belongings were still there. From their hairspray and makeup to Dolores's schoolbooks, Manzie's purse. Oh, and things are just like almost preserved like that. That's the thing. It's really chilling is the perfect way it was untouched. Also, yeah. Also investigators were beginning to notice small inconsistencies in the stories that Guyworth was telling neighbors and friends. The main part of the story that Manzie had left and stolen their money was always the same.

But the less important parts, how much she'd stolen, what town she'd gone to, so on and so forth, they seemed to change depending on who he was talking to. For the detectives on the case, a very clear picture was emerging of a man who had been carrying on tons of affairs, lying to everyone for years, and then he decided

to cut all ties and start a new life somewhere else. But the question was, where the fuck is his ex-wife and his stepdaughter? Now in late August, Swindler received a call from the sheriff's office in Wenatchee, Washington, a small town about 150 miles from Seattle. Deputies there had discovered, and this is horrific, deputies there had discovered a pair of woman's legs floating in the Columbia River a few months earlier. At the same time, they also received information from a local rental car agency,

letting them know that Guy had rented a panel van on April 6th, just a few days after Manzie and Dolores went missing. Oh no. The mileage on the odometer showed that Guy had driven 316 miles, which was about the distance from Seattle to this place in Washington. Lab analysis confirmed that the legs matched Manzie's height and weight and the blood type was also a match. Again, can we just say the detective work for the time period goes crazy.

It goes crazy. But what kills me is in like, this is not going to end the way you want it to. And when you look at this, you say, you have all this, you have an odometer that says it, you have him renting the car. All of this. I'm like, how, what do you mean you didn't have enough to get him? And there's more. Based on all the evidence they compiled, investigators did get a warrant to search the entire Moldavian

house from top to bottom. In the kitchen, technicians discovered small blood stains on the walls and the stairs leading to the attic were also known to have seen to have droplets of blood leading up the stairs. On the wall leading up the stairs to the attic, there was a faint smear that they suspected was blood leading from the kitchen all the way up the stairs to the attic. And when they reached the attic, investigators discovered what was fucking clearly a crime scene. There were droplets, smears, even what looked to be dried pools of blood all over the room.

And they didn't have enough to arrest him? And it looked like someone didn't even bother to really clean it up. Instead, he had just put fucking shit over the stains, like rolled up rugs, paint, other household items, just over the stains. Which is wild, because he continued to live there for a period of time. Yep. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondry Show American Scandal. We bring to light some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history. Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, NASA embarks on an ambitious program to reinvent space exploration with the launch of its first reusable vehicle, the Space Shuttle.

And in 1985, they announce they're sending teacher Krista McAuliffe into space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, along with six other astronauts. But less than two minutes after liftoff, the Challenger explodes. And in the tragedy's aftermath, investigators uncover a series of preventable failures by NASA and its contractors that led to the disaster. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery+. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today. Apple podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial today. Detectives also found hair evidence and what would later be fucking identified as human tissue, as well as a broken human tooth that would be identified as having

come from someone roughly 21 years of age. Oh, dude. How did they not feel like they had enough? They never even tried to. Beeps me. Well, okay. So the evidence in the attic strongly suggested that Guy Moldaven had murdered his wife and stepdaughter, then dismembered their bodies. If not just flat out screamed at investigators, he did it.

And Swindler also recalled what the Yarex had said about the odor coming from the house and seeing Guy working on the septic tank shortly after Manzie and Dolores disappeared. So the detectives were like, oh, bitch. So they obtained the necessary tools to access the septic tank. Whoa. And when they opened the lid and started pumping out the contents, they discovered what appeared to be human remains. In the septic tank? Yes. The remains would be removed to the medical examiner's office, with Dr. Gail Wilson would

confirm that they were human remains. Among the remains in the tank, and this is horrifying, I want everybody to realize that, in the tank there was a uterus with a small portion of the vaginal vault attached. The upper portion of the right ear of a human, which had been hacked off, like brutally hacked off. Five pieces of colon, one section of lung, one partial kidney, an ulnar bone, a radial epiphysis, and four phalangeal bones. Phalangeal, sorry, I said that weird.

I was okay, I think all of us move past it while we sat in shock. Yeah, I was going to say, I think there was more to that than my mispronunciation, but... Oh my God. Yeah. So he dismembered to the point where he like took organs out? Or had they possibly just decayed through the skin and it was just organs left? There is a real possibility that he flushed actual organs. Oh my God.

Yeah. And they never got him for this? Nope. How? In 1960, DNA testing was still decades away. DNA testing was still decades away. So they were not able to tell whether those remains or the remains in the Columbia River were those of Manzi and Dolores. No, no, for sure. But like they were residents of that home and isn't there something called probable

cause and circumstantial evidence? These remains were human. Yeah, they knew that. And it strongly suggested that some criminal and violent thing had happened in the house. So with that, the case did turn from, you know, missing persons and larceny cases to a double homicide with their prime suspect on the run.

They were going after him now. They were like, okay. Okay. Now, while Swindler continued his pursuit of Guy Moldaven, additional investigators were added to the case to try to locate the rest of Manzie and Dolores' bodies. In the meantime, police had located Guy's brother, Michael, and he was in San Diego. And he tried to fill in some blanks for them in this story, like the fact that his name

was not Raul. He said, Guy and I lived together for a good part of our youth, but I can't say we were ever close. I wonder why. Yeah, he told a reporter, Guy cut I live together for a good part of our youth, but I can't say we were ever close. I wonder why. Yeah. He told a reporter, Guy cut himself off from his family. He told me very little about himself and I never pride, which like good for you, Michael. Unfortunately, while Michael could provide investigators with some background on his

brother, he hadn't seen him in years. And he's like, I have no idea where he could have gone after leaving Seattle. He could be going by any name at that point. In late September, the Winklers, remember his wife Evelyn's parents, his in-laws who he stole the money from, they got a letter that had been dated back in March. And this letter was saying that it was from someone

named Major John Riley. I feel like it's probably Guy. Probably. The Winklers knew no one by that name. And its purpose it, was to assure them that Guy Moldaven was a great man. I don't think so. In fact, the writer spent most of its two pages just enthusiastically gushing about the achievements of Guy Moldaven. It's screaming narcissism. It's yelling from the rooftops. It's a howler, actually. It is a howler. That's exactly it.

That's literally what this was doing. A handwriting expert analyzed the letter and concluded that the handwriting of Major John Riley was an exact match of a guy Moldovan. No way. But unfortunately the postmark had been smeared. So there was no way to tell where it was mailed from. By the end of the fall, Swindler and other investigators were beginning to feel as though Moldaven had actually gotten beyond their reach at this point. It does be feeling that way. And just a few days after Thanksgiving, they received a call from detectives in New York City.

I bet that made them thankful. To inform them that guy, right? To inform them that guy had been arrested on the larceny charge. Shut up. Swindler immediately booked a flight to New York and a few hours later, he was sitting across from the fucking man that they had been pursuing for months. Stop it. He later said, I met him in unfamiliar territory.

The New York cops were anxious to talk to him, but they gave me the interview room and some time alone with him. He came so close to telling me what I needed to hear. Well, what happened? At the time, the FBI were holding Guy on a charge of unlawful flight to avoid giving testimony and the charge of grand larceny for the theft of the Winkler's $8,000. Actually, I think it ends up being. It's a lot more than yeah.

But if Swindler and the other detectives thought Moldavian would simply confess to the murders of Manzine Dolores, they were very mistaken. In fact, rather than appearing guilty or ashamed, he seemed to kind of love the attention he was getting and he welcomed the opportunity to demonstrate what he believed to be his superior intelligence. Oh goody. Because he liked getting right up to the point of telling them and then he would pull it back.

Douchebag. He said, he told Swindler, I'm morally guilty of Manzanita's and Dolores's deaths. Okay. But he said, I was the only living person, person living with them and the only person who might have had an opportunity to commit these crimes. But he would just stop right before there. So he would say like, yeah, I was the only one who probably could have done it. And they'd be like, did you do it?

I hate him. He's a fucking asshole. Yeah, he is. Guy was held on $50,000 bail as preparations were made to extradite him back to Washington, he didn't protest it. Also, the press couldn't resist a sensational story at the time. They were calling him the hipster, bunko artist and great lover who was arrested after the grisly discovery of human remains in his septic tank.

Do better. Do so much better. In newspapers around the country, the press delighted in describing Guy's many affairs and his ability to charm anyone he met. The New York Daily News described his antique shop as a gather spot for Beekniks, art lovers, celebrities, and celebrity hunters, all bound by Moldavans magnetism and offbeat philosophy. Shut up. Fuck off. All of the above.

He's a piece of shit. The games and theatrics continued once Guy had gone to Seattle. A few days after his arrest, he started a hunger strike, publicly declaring that he had willed himself to die. And I said, you're not alone. A few days later on December 6th, he was interviewed again by Swindler, this time telling him, and this is awful. He said, I'll tell you all about the murders as soon as I talked to a Jesuit priest. So he was allowed to speak to a priest and after he did, he refused to

speak with Swindler or any of the other detectives and would only say they're dead and I'm alive. And that's what's important. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Like literally fuck this guy. I hope he is rotting so hard in hell where he is. I think something's awaiting him in his next life. He already met it. He's meeting it as we speak. He's been meeting it. He's been there for a while now. I hope you're tired. Hope it sucks. In early 1961, the prosecutor in King County, Washington had charged Maldavan with grand larceny and he was bound over for trial.

At the same time, the federal authorities were eager to get him for the murders of Manzi and Dolores. So they admitted, and I don't understand this, the case against him was weak in their eyes. Oh no, there's blood like everywhere. Literally. And there was a kidney, a fucking uterus and somebody's ear in his septic system. I wouldn't call that weak. I feel like it's like this was the time when it was like

without a body, you don't have a case. But you got, and yeah, you got somebody. But you can't identify that body. That's the problem is you can't, they haven't said that this is, you know, we know. You know what it is. Everybody knows, but it's like. It depends on if somebody's willing, if the DA is willing to take it. Yeah.

And a lot of times they will take that gamble because we've covered cases even earlier than this, where they go to trial without a body. So it really does come down to the DA. But I don't know if it was like, that was the attitude here was like, Yeah, we can't definitively say so it's weak in our eyes, which I'm like, That's not a weak case. You also have that like the rental car in the area where the body was found in the river. You have the odometer basically having the same amount of miles to go from Seattle to

where the body was found, like the body parts. And also like he has shitty character. Clearly, he's like, come on, this could work. You're going to get him on a larceny charge. You could definitely get him on everything else. So after multiple pretrial hearings and motions for dismissal, the larceny trial got underway in October. The defense opened by interviewing Evelyn, his wife, who explained that the money that

he had stolen, he had not stolen. That was a loan. He didn't steal anything. Well, yeah, it was a loan, but he didn't go to where he said he was going when he took it. So he stole the money, babes. And he bamboozled you guys. Like, that wasn't him just not, you know, like that doesn't...

This was honestly the foundation of the defense's argument, though. Guy may have been unfaithful and a shitty person, but the money had been given to him in good faith and he had not stolen anything. He merely failed to return with the items he intended to purchase. You have to wonder if she was scared. Because I wonder that too. If Dolores and Manzie, you know, faced the fate that they did up his hands, I'm sure there was lead up to that. I'm sure he was a terrifying man.

So I give her a pass. Now, during the trial, Guy testified in his own defense, telling the jury that... That checks so hard. Yeah. He said that he was bullied as a child and that led to a life of resentment, which in turn led him to become a deceitful person. Okay. I would like to point out that many people have been bullied and do not turn into deceitful

pieces of shit. Yeah. In fact, according to Guy, all the behavior that made him appear suspicious, the constant lies, his secrecy, all that shit, you know, the crime scene in his house, it could all be attributed to his sensitivities around being bullied. Huh. He was just sad. Okay.

You know? Yeah. I'm like, what? What? I'm not, what? You're what? I'm not seeing the linear pathway there. The reason I have multiple affairs and treat my wives like shit and steal money from people and lie and have body parts in my subject tank is because I was bullied. And it's a sensitive subject.

And it's like, please connect those fucking dots for me. Connect one of those dots. Make a dot. There's no dots. I don't see a dog. Like what are you doing? Like who let him say that? He claimed he had gone to Canada and went ahead with the purchase but to which we say babe We have proof you didn't write What do you do? What never flew there? He said but the deal fell through and he was he was cheated out of the money Just like remember man. He stole all the money from him.

We proved that didn't happen too, but that's no matter. He was cheated again. That's crazy. He gets cheated a lot. Yeah. He said, and he said after that, he couldn't face his new bride and her stepmother. So he left on August 4th, 1960. I want to be clear with you what he just said.

He couldn't face his wife and his stepmother, his new stepmother. How about our stepmother-in-law? Yeah. We're not going to talk about the father-in-law. We're only going to... We're only going to... Villainize the women here, which seems to be a fucking path in his life. Sure does.

Now, despite the best efforts of the defense, the jury found Guy guilty of grand larceny, luckily. Yeah. I feel like they would have fucking found him guilty on a murder charge. But this is awful because when it came to sentencing, he was given a 15-year suspended sentence and allowed to leave court a free man. Wait, why? Yep.

They were, it was a suspended sentence. The judge may suspend the sentence in part or in full and the defendant serves probation. Yeah, so he was given the 15 year suspended sentence. So he could just like serve probation. Like it's totally up to the judge. Wow. I mean, I guess like having it, I'm sure the jury didn't hear about like the... No, because you can't introduce that stuff.

Right. Like the body parts and everything. So they just heard this larceny thing. And it's, I mean, $10,000 is a lot of money, but like, you know. But he was able to walk out a free man that day. And due to lack of evidence in their eyes, police were unable to charge Moldavian with the murders of Manzi and Dolores. And that remains unsolved to this day. It actually doesn't.

It doesn't. Wow. Now after the trial, Evelyn and Guy actually stayed married for a few years before ultimately getting a divorce. That's good. In February 1974, that's when Guy and Ruth Terry were married. Then they left for their honeymoon on Cape Cod. That was on their honeymoon, by the way.

Which is just like, try to conceive of that. Everybody who's married or like at least has, but at some point, think about your honeymoon. Yeah. Like what? Yeah, now what happened after Guy left Massachusetts after he murdered Ruth Terry is somewhat of a mystery. It looks like he eventually returned to California.

He lived basically there the rest of his life with few people close to him actually knowing who he was. Like they didn't know his scandalous history. They didn't know any of the things that he was accused of. He really surrounded by himself by people he could fool. Yeah. In the 1980s, he took a position on a local radio station posting a show called Talk To Me,

which covered topics ranging from cuts in social security, Alzheimer's disease, homosexuality, this is a quote by the way, the erosion of culture, and his belief that killing has become a habit. Oh, wow. Yeah. Wow.

I want to go back and I want to hear some of those, because I want to see what he was saying. I do too. Yeah. On March 14th, 2002, Guy Muldavin died after a long illness at his home. I hate that he was able to be comfortable. I do too. He was never charged with any of the murders he was suspected of having committed.

And he appears to have been remembered by friends and family as great and terrific. No. You know what, though? He died in March and Dolores and Manzie were last seen in March. So that's karma at work, in my opinion. He sounds like a whatever he was guilty of. He sounds like a complete asshole. Also, I in my opinion, at least there's no way he just stopped with Dolores, Manzi and Terry.

No, no way. And there's no way you, the crime scene literally in his home, the body parts in his septic tank. Like come on, get it together. Everybody. That is just wow. It's horrifying. I've never heard of somebody having that found in their septic tank and just being like, oh, anyways, they got to live the rest of their life untouched.

Ugh. Damn. It makes me so angry. It does make me, it makes me so angry that all of that, but it does make me so happy that at least now his name is tarnished. Yeah, exactly. It's like you did get what was coming to you at the end, so there's that at least. But it's soarnished. Yeah, exactly. It's like you did get what was coming to you at the end. So there's that at least.

But it's so sad that technically Dolores and Manzie never got the justice that they deserved. Yeah. And that they never found Barbara Kelly's body. No. We still don't know where she is. Like, ugh. It's just awful.

Yeah. Ugh. Yeah. Well, we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But it's a word that any of this don't be that bad of a human. Please don't be good. So Thank you. If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+, in the Wondery app, or on Apple podcasts.

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