MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Cold Fusion (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

Episode Date: June 6, 2022

Very late one night in 2004, a woman in Connecticut pulled into the driveway of a house that had just been put on the market for rent. She didn't know if the owner was home or not, but she figured even if they were, they probably wouldn't mind if she just quickly walked around the outside of their property and then left. So, after turning her car off, she hopped out of her vehicle, and began walking down the driveway toward the dark backyard. But, before getting there, she stopped, because something on the ground was staring up at her...For 100s more stories like this one, check out my YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @MrBallenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Very late one night in 2004, a woman in Connecticut pulled into the driveway of a house that had just been put on the market for rent. She didn't know if the owner was home or not, but she figured even if they were, they probably wouldn't care if she just quickly walked around the outside of their property and then left. So after turning her car off, she hopped out of the vehicle and began walking down the driveway toward the dark backyard. But before getting there, she stopped because something on the ground was staring up at her. But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious Delivered in Story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do,

and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please offer to be the five-star review button's assistant as they fix their car troubles, but do not hold the flashlight steady. Also, please subscribe to the Mr. Bowen podcast wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Hello, I'm Emily, and I'm one of the hosts of Terribly Famous, the show that takes you inside the lives of our biggest celebrities. And they don't get much bigger than the man who made badminton sexy. OK, maybe that's a stretch, but if I say pop star and shuttlecocks,

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and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. Hello, I am Alice Levine and I am one of the hosts of Wondery's podcast, British Scandal. On our latest series, The Race to Ruin, we tell the story of a British man who took part in the first ever round the world sailing race. Good on him, I hear you say. But there is a problem, as there always is in this show. The man in question hadn't actually sailed before. Oh, and his boat wasn't se actually sailed before. Oh, and his boat wasn't seaworthy. Oh, and also

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on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. Okay, let's get into today's story. It was early March 2004, and Dr. Eugene Malov was a man who had just received very good news. As the scientist headed from his home in Pembroke, New Hampshire, to his small publishing company, As the scientist headed from his home in Pembroke, New Hampshire, to his small publishing company located just seven miles away in Concord, he looked out the window of his dark green Dodge Caravan minivan. The narrow local road that would take him to Route 3 and then north to the state's picturesque capital was hemmed in on both sides by a thick border of trees. No matter how many times Eugene made this drive, he was always struck by the natural beauty that surrounded him. And now, as he looked at the postcard perfection of the New Hampshire mountains, forests, and rushing streams, he suddenly felt hopeful that the research he was doing would help preserve the beauty of this environment for generations to come.

If his two children and his brand new first grandchild were going to enjoy the cool summers and clean air that he'd grown up with, then the United States and the world had to find a power source that was cleaner, cheaper, and safer than burning natural gas or fossil fuels. And Eugene, along with a small handful of other scientists, was absolutely positive that he already knew what that power source was, cold fusion. Also known as low-level nuclear reaction, cold fusion is a revolutionary way to create unlimited energy by forcing a nuclear reaction to take place at room temperature and under normal pressure. It's actually the same kind of reaction that triggers the energy released by the explosion of an atomic bomb. The very good news that Eugene had read that morning was in an email from a high-profile science writer saying that the US Department of Energy had finally agreed

to review all the research and evidence supporting cold fusion as a viable energy alternative that should be funded and studied at the government level. Although the upcoming review was not yet public knowledge, Eugene knew that the implications were potentially huge, because up to that point, cold fusion was mostly ridiculed as being a foolish idea straight out of a science fiction novel. But now, if the government stamped their approval on cold fusion, it would totally disrupt the world energy production industry, and more specifically, it would cost jobs and money for a lot of people who worked or invested in fossil fuels. The concept of cold fusion had first made

public headlines back in 1989 when two electrochemists working at the University of Utah claimed to have discovered the chemical process that led to cold fusion. And for a while, it was the breakthrough in energy research that everyone, including Eugene, was buzzing about. But when no one else could replicate the scientists' results, it didn't take long before people began accusing the electrochemists of faking their results that cold fusion was just a hoax. But over the years, after reviewing all the science and data, Eugene had gone from being a member of the mainstream cold fusion skeptics club to conducting his own experiments and research that convinced him that cold fusion was possible. In fact, as far as Eugene was

concerned, cold fusion was not just a theory. It was a scientific certainty that would transform people's lives and save the planet from global warming. And, especially with the U.S. Department of Energy review adding to his credibility, Eugene knew that he had the brilliance and academic pedigree to totally back up his claim that cold fusion was not just a crazy pipe dream. Back when he was just 23 years old, Eugene had earned both an undergraduate and advanced degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This college, which is known more commonly by its acronym, MIT,

is one of the top science universities in the world. Five years later, he'd graduate from Harvard, another top-ranked university also located in Cambridge, Mass., with a doctorate in environmental health sciences. But to his friends and his family, Eugene had never been known as a straight-laced, boring academic. While he did love to talk endlessly about his latest experiments and global warming and cold fusion, he also had a totally zany sense of humor and a big personality to boot that often made him the life of any party he attended. Eugene's

interest in science extended far beyond the laboratory. He didn't just research the development of new energies, he wrote about the futuristic ways they could be applied. When he was 34, he co-authored a paper about using solar sails to travel to Alpha Centauri, the star closest to the sun. And as a science journalism teacher at both MIT and Boston University, Eugene was popular for his ability to teach students how to turn dry technical and scientific findings into language that could capture the public's interest and imagination. In fact, in 1987, because of his acclaim as a scientist who was also a gifted writer, MIT offered Eugene the job of becoming the university's national and local media contact for MIT research, and the chief science writer and

director in charge of reporting on all MIT research for the MIT University newspaper, Tech Talk. And during all that time, Eugene continued focusing his energy and genius on what had become his personal crusade, exploring and understanding cold fusion. So four years later, in 1991, it did not come as a big surprise to his fellow scientists and colleagues when Eugene published a book on cold fusion that was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, one of the most coveted awards in literature. What did surprise the scientific community was Eugene's decision, also in 1991, to resign from his high-paying job at MIT and to accuse the prestigious university of deliberately hiding cold fusion data so it could protect its reputation and its funding for more conventional nuclear fusion research. After leaving MIT, Eugene totally embraced his new role as an outsider, a highly respected and credentialed scientist and writer who challenged

his more traditional and mainstream colleagues to push the limits of invention and theory. He began working as a consultant to U.S. corporations and investment firms doing research and development in cold fusion. In late 1994, he founded his own magazine called Infinite Energy, and with the money from an anonymous donor, he also set up his own non-profit organization called New Energy Foundation that built a laboratory for testing new technologies. In 1998, Eugene was the technical advisor for the Hollywood thriller The Saint that centers around the theft of a newly discovered formula for cold fusion. Now in 2004, as Eugene drove along the beautiful New Hampshire country roads, he was known not only

for his brilliance and unconventional career path, but for his outspoken and sometimes combative criticism of big oil and the mainstream energy science community. As Eugene turned right onto New Hampshire Route 3, the narrow highway that would take him the rest of the way to his office in Concord, he'd already decided on the headline for the article he'd be writing for the May-June issue of his magazine, Infinite Energy. It would read, U.S. Department of Energy commits to re-examine cold fusion, 15 years of evidence for low-energy nuclear reactions. After pulling into a parking space out front of his magazine headquarters, Eugene hopped out of his car and headed inside where he celebrated this victory with his little four-person staff. Over the next few weeks, Eugene put off everything else in his life so he could work exclusively

on the article for the next issue of Infinite Energy. And only when it was finished did he really turn his attention to another totally separate personal problem that had been coming to a head over the last several months? Back in the spring of 2003, a little more than one year before the review of Cold Fusion was announced, Eugene's parents were ready to sell their house in Norwich, Connecticut, where Eugene had grown up. Eugene's dad had been a plumber, and his mom had been a math teacher, and then once they retired, they moved away from Norwich. And for more than a year, the white craftsman-style home on Salem

Turnpike, in the middle of the old mill town in eastern Connecticut, had been sitting vacant. But Eugene, who was an only child, had very fond memories of the house with its arched windows and doorway. He'd spent hours when he was young lying out in the backyard of that house, looking up at the stars while he imagined scenes from the hundreds of science fiction books he loved to read. So he persuaded his parents not to sell the property, but to rent it out instead. This way, they could keep the place that held so many happy memories. And Eugene, who said he would manage the property for a small fee,

could pull in some much-needed extra income. Ever since Eugene had left his high-paying job at MIT to focus on his magazine and foundation, money had become tight, especially in the last year when his fundraising efforts had fallen short and he'd been forced to shut down the research lab at Infinite Energy

and lay off three of his lab technicians. Eugene had even gotten his own real estate license to help cover family expenses and keep his magazine afloat, but it still just wasn't really enough. And so this rental property opportunity was a lot more than just nostalgia. This was a big financial opportunity for Eugene and his wife of 34 years, Joanne. So in May of 2003, Eugene's first tenants at his family's home moved in, Patricia and Roy Anderson. And at first, everything was great. Then in January and February of 2004, the couple missed paying their rent. As a licensed real estate broker, Eugene knew that he could have started eviction proceedings within two weeks of non-payment, but Eugene and

his parents did not want to just kick the couple and their 26-year-old son off the property unless that was their absolute only option. But after months of sending the tenants dozens of legal notices that rent was due and never hearing a word back, the matter unfortunately went to mediation, which is when a neutral third party steps in and helps the two sides resolve their issues. Eugene and the tenants would eventually work out an agreement that gave the Andersons until mid-April 2004 to move out of the house. And, true to their word, the Andersons would leave on time, and they would move into a new apartment about 20 minutes away. But despite getting the property back, Eugene knew that it was not ready to be rented out again.

Soon, he would have to get over there and make some repairs and do some lawn work, and remove some belongings that the Andersons appeared to have just left behind. But for now, with the May-June issue of Infinite Energy finally out on the newsstands, Eugene, who had not had a day off in weeks, decided to take a little break from his responsibilities. So he and Joanne arranged to take a short vacation and go to Seattle, Washington to visit their newly born first grandchild. This flexibility was one of the things that Eugene had enjoyed the most since leaving MIT. He missed the big paycheck, but really, Eugene had never been much of a 9-to-5 company man.

Still strong and in good shape, with receding but still thick dark hair, a graying beard, and glasses, Eugene threw himself into physical work and social get-togethers with the same energy that he brought to conducting cold fusion experiments in the basement of his New Hampshire home. His wife, Joanne, was just as outgoing and sociable as her husband, so they were both excited about seeing their daughter and son-in-law meeting the new grandbaby and exploring the largest city in the Pacific Northwest. And once there, everyone knew that Eugene would spend at least a few hours in various Seattle coffee shops chatting with environmentally conscious hipsters about global warming. Before leaving for Seattle, Eugene had emailed his colleagues in the scientific community

about the pending Department of Energy review of cold fusion, and he urged them to make the potential role for cold fusion a key issue in the 2004 presidential campaign that was now underway. It was clear Eugene wanted to rattle a few cages amongst the cold fusion skeptics. After returning a few days later from Seattle, all Eugene really wanted to do was dive right back into his cold fusion research. But before he could do that, he knew he had to head back down to Connecticut and prep the family property so it could be rented out again. So bright and early on Friday, May 14th, 2004, Eugene put on his khaki work pants and white t-shirt. He hopped into his Dodge Caravan

decorated with cold fusion decals, and made the two and a half hour drive south to begin the big cleanup. Eugene liked physical work, and he was actually looking forward to getting the property back in shape. The mediation slash eviction process had been quite stressful, and it had cost him some money, but in the end, both he and the Andersons had actually parted on good terms. When Eugene arrived at 119 Salem Turnpike, he felt a familiar sense of affection for the place where he had grown up. The house was set close to the road, and the road was now a lot busier since he was a kid, and then as he kind of looked around, he felt a little

pang of regret that so many of the houses on the block that he had grown up with had given way to fast food restaurants and shabby strip malls. There were some big trees on the Malove property, and their driveway extended from Salem Turnpike straight back to a detached two-car garage in back. Once in the backyard, the house itself blocked the view of the street and muffled the sound of traffic. It was actually one of the property's best selling points that the backyard felt much more private than the location of the house suggested. Eugene turned his car into the driveway and drove down it

until he came to a stop right in front of a big green dumpster that he had rented that was positioned right outside of the garage. After getting out of his car, Eugene walked over to the back door of the house, he unlocked it, and went inside to use the first floor bathroom. Afterwards, he went back outside, tossed his empty coffee cup into the dumpster, and then he made his way into the detached garage to start clearing it out. Over the next couple of hours, Eugene threw a lot of the junk in the garage out into the detached garage to start clearing it out. Over the next couple of hours, Eugene threw a lot of the junk in the garage out into the dumpster, he cut the grass, and he got a chance to chat with

the next-door neighbors and put out the word that, yes, they were looking for some new tenants. Eventually, Eugene went back inside of the house and began removing some of the random possessions that the Andersons had left behind. By mid-afternoon, Eugene had called his wife, Joanne, to let her know that he was making good progress, but there was still a lot to do, and so he probably would not be back until at least 9 p.m. It was late afternoon when Eugene, who was working in the back of the house by this point, heard a car pull into the driveway.

From where he was standing, he couldn't see the car because the house was blocking his view, so he just stopped what he was doing and listened for a second. A second later, Eugene heard two car doors open and then slam shut in the driveway. Eugene likely believed these were people who had maybe seen his for rent sign, which was out front, and they were just looking for more information about the property. So Eugene made the short walk from behind the house over to the

driveway, and when he turned the corner and looked up the driveway toward this new parked car, he had to squint because the sun was beaming down on his face. As he strained his eyes to see who was there, he made out two large men he did not recognize walking toward him. Before Eugene could even ask their names or what they wanted, the two men rushed up to him and began kind of muscling him backwards. As they did this, they told Eugene very clearly why they were there, at which point Eugene, who's kind of stumbling backwards, began yelling for them to stop and to just leave, but the two men did not leave. Instead, they continued to press and muscle him backwards

until Eugene was out of sight of the driveway and the main road. Several hours later, at around 10 p.m., Eugene's wife, Joanne, who was at their home in Pembroke, New Hampshire, two and a half hours away to the north, received a call from a woman who identified herself as Demetris Granger. The woman was down in Norwich, Connecticut, and while driving along the Salem Turnpike, she'd seen a house with a for rent sign out front, and she called the number, which was Joanne's phone number. She apologized for the late call, but she wanted to know if it was possible to maybe have a look at the property that night? Joanne had not heard from Eugene since their last call several hours earlier, and since he wasn't back yet, she had just assumed he was still at the house working.

So she gave Demetrius a description of her husband and his vehicle and told her that if Eugene was still there, she was sure he'd be happy to show her around. About 40 minutes later, Demetrius arrived outside of 119 Salem Turnpike. She didn't see a Dodge Caravan in the driveway, and so she figured Eugene must have left to go back to New Hampshire. But she decided since she was there, she would still like to just hop out and maybe get a better look at the outside of the property. So she pulled into the driveway, she parked her car, and she got out and began walking down the driveway toward the back of the house. But after walking only a few steps, she suddenly stopped. Then, with her hands shaking, she pulled out her cell phone and she dialed 911.

This podcast is brought to you by Frankopan. And I'm Afua Hirsch. And we're here to tell you about our new season of Legacy, covering the iconic, troubled musical genius that was Nina Simone. Full disclosure, this is a big one for me. Nina Simone, one of my favourite artists of all time, somebody who's had a huge impact on me, who I think objectively stands apart for the level of her talent to her and engaged with her message. It totally floored me. And the truth and pain and messiness of her struggle, that's all captured in unforgettable music that has stood the test of time. Think that's fair, Peter? I mean, the way in which her music comes across is so powerful, no matter what song it is. So join us on Legacy for Nina Simone. song it is. So join us on Legacy for Nina Simone. heard on Amazon Music ad-free, and you'll always be the first one to catch our new episodes. But that's not all. You get access to other amazing shows like Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Morbid, 48 Hours, and 2020, all ad-free too. And you know what that means, uninterrupted listening,

so no more cliffhangers. Amazon Music is your home for all things true crime and offers the most ad-free top podcasts, so we definitely have something for you. And it's already included in your Prime membership. To listen now, all you need to do is go to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash ballin, or download the free Amazon Music app. It's just that easy. At the Norwich Police Department, just seven minutes away from the rental property, the night dispatcher answered the emergency call.

Demetris told them she was at 119 Salem Turnpike and that she was looking down at the mangled body of a man lying face up in a pool of blood on the driveway. By 11 p.m. that night, Eugene's childhood home was swarming with police and emergency medical personnel. It didn't take long for the two lead detectives who arrived on the scene to realize that they were likely dealing with a homicide and a possible robbery. As they approached the victim, they immediately noted that his shoes were gone and his pockets had been pulled inside out. After talking with a terrified Demetrius who had gone back to sit inside of her car,

and after dialing the phone number listed on the for rent sign out in the front yard, it also didn't take the detectives very long to identify the victim as Eugene Malov. Joanne Malov, almost speechless with shock, was able to tell detectives that her husband was in Norwich to clean up the family rental property. She told them that she had expected Eugene home in New Hampshire by now, but she had talked with him earlier in the afternoon by phone, and he had told her that there was just a lot of work to do and that he might be much later than he had thought. When police told her that his van was not in the driveway, Joanne suddenly spoke in a rush and said, well, are you sure the body is his? You know, maybe he already left and the person you're telling me that's dad, maybe that's not him. But as gently as they could, the detectives on the

phone told Joanne that the man they had found definitely matched her husband's description. Then the Norwich police called the Pembroke, New Hampshire police and asked them to send an officer over to the Malibu house to check on Joanne and to gather any information they could about her husband's activities that day. they could about her husband's activities that day. The Norwich police also put out a be on the lookout or bolo alert for Eugene's car with its distinctive decals and vanity license plate. The crime scene itself was a mess, in part because the yard and driveway were covered with fresh grass clippings as well as litter and debris from the ongoing clean out of the property. Based on everything they saw, the theory the police came up with was that Eugene had been the victim of a robbery, and that after killing him, his attacker had taken Eugene's watch and wallet,

removed his shoes, and then fled in Eugene's van. Early the next morning, Norwich police got a call from a patrol officer saying he'd discovered Eugene's Dodge Caravan in a commuter parking lot at the Foxwoods Resort and Casino, located 15 minutes away from the site of the murder. A forensic examination of the vehicle showed no signs of any fingerprints on the steering wheel or on the car door handles. any fingerprints on the steering wheel or on the car door handles. The engine and exhaust pipe were cool to the touch when the car was found, so police knew it had not been driven recently and was probably left there immediately after the murder. Security cameras at Foxwoods didn't help either. The night had been cloudy, damp, and hazy, and there was no footage that showed the vehicle or its driver entering the lot or parking the van. The only time frame that the police could come up with for the killing

was that it must have happened between early afternoon, when Eugene called Joanne, and 8.30pm, which was when a neighbor had noticed that the Dodge Caravan was no longer parked in the driveway. Within 24 hours of the murder, the news that a prominent MIT scientist and cold fusion advocate had been found dead was making local and national headlines. And it didn't take long before the brutal but straightforward robbery homicide theory got a lot more complicated.

Even as police in New Hampshire interviewed Joanne Malove and her two children, and police in Norwich started tracking down other persons of interest like the Malove's former tenants, the science community that studied nuclear and cold fusion, as well as other potentially significant alternatives to fossil fuels, began buzzing with rumors and speculation. And the lead detectives on the Malib case were about to get swept up into a high-stakes world of scientific research and intrigue. As police started interviewing

Eugene's colleagues and co-workers, his closest friends in the scientific community hinted to police that not everyone would have wanted Eugene to succeed in his quest to discover the secret of cold fusion and a potentially unlimited source of cheap energy. And based on those rumors, and the fact that Eugene's vehicle had been found several miles away with no fingerprints on it anywhere, people began to speculate that this could have been a professional hit or maybe a revenge killing. And these speculations quickly began to appear in the media, with headlines like, were those with financial stakes in the big gas and oil companies

trying to stop cold fusion research? Meanwhile, police interviews with the Malov family quickly confirmed that no one in the family had either the motive or opportunity to kill Eugene. But when Joanne told police about the eviction proceedings against Roy and Patricia Anderson that Eugene had been directly involved in, police quickly turned their attention to tracking the former tenants down. Almost immediately, they got a tip from a neighbor who had been friendly with the Andersons that led police to the Andersons' 26-year-old son, Chad Schaefer, who had lived in the house on 119 Salem Turnpike with his parents. And Chad,

who was totally shocked at the news of Eugene being found dead, would tell police that he was not directly involved in the eviction proceedings. That was something that Eugene and his parents handled. But his impression was that his parents and Eugene had ended things on relatively good terms. When asked, Chad told police that he had been at his apartment with his girlfriend and newborn baby on the day of the murder. As for his parents, he didn't know for sure where they had been on the day of the murder, but he believed with relative certainty that they had been at their new house in Montville, Connecticut. So, police would go to Roy and Patricia's house in Montville, and the couple would be just as shocked by the news about Eugene as their son was,

and they would say they were home on the day that Eugene was killed. And when asked about the eviction, Roy and Patricia's story would match their sons. They said that they had not been happy about being evicted, obviously, but ultimately, they had managed to end things on fairly good terms with Eugene and his family. And so after the police left the couple's home, they realized that they had no leads. Everything had turned into a dead end. Everyone had an alibi and no one knew what happened. But soon the police would catch a huge break, or so they thought. Within days of Eugene's body being discovered, the police actually arrested two men for the murder.

The men had been on a drug-fueled burglary spree in the Norwich, Connecticut area at the same time that Eugene was killed, and so they seemed like the perfect suspects. But after being held in jail for four years, it would turn out the state's forensic lab had actually mishandled a key piece of evidence falsely linking the two burglars to the homicide. While the two men would go on to be tried in court for their burglary spree, the state had no choice but to drop the murder charges against them and apologize. But that mistake was much more than just embarrassing for law enforcement. It meant that for the last four years that they were focused on the wrong suspects, the police had done nothing for Eugene's

murder. They had not investigated anything else. They believed they had their suspects. And so now Eugene's murder was just a cold case. But in November of 2008, which was right after the two wrong suspects were released, the state of Connecticut formed a special cold case task force of state and local law enforcement personnel that began aggressively reinvestigating Eugene's murder. Three months later, they held a press conference announcing that they were now offering a $50,000 reward to anyone from the public who came forward with information that would lead to Eugene's killer. While the task force declined to give any details about their new

investigation, Detective Jim Curtis told reporters that during their first three months on the case, they had already come up with at least one very promising lead. The news of the possible lead and the $50,000 reward electrified the scientific community. Even researchers and scientists who had disagreed with Eugene about cold fusion had soon realized that his death had left a huge void inside the field of new energy research. And Eugene's friends and his staff at Infinite Energy, who had managed to keep Eugene's publication afloat even after his death, had not only missed him and his brilliant mind, but they also just wanted answers. Who killed Eugene and why? The big new lead that Detective

Curtis had referred to during the press conference related to a particular set of keys. On the night of May 14, 2004, which was the night Eugene was found, the police would immediately notice that the entire property was covered in grass clippings from when Eugene had cut the grass earlier. There were clippings still clumped up on the grass, the clippings were out on the driveway, they had blown into the garage and out into the street in front, and all the litter and debris that was scattered around the property from the clean-out of the house. That too was covered in grass clippings. But there was a set of keys that had a distinctive plastic tag attached to them that had a picture of the sun on it, as well as the name Brittany on the keychain, that were found near Eugene's body, but these keys did not have a single blade

of grass on them. Instead, it looked like they were dropped on top of some loose clippings, meaning they had to have been dropped later in the night well after Eugene had cut the grass. And so maybe these keys were not Eugene's. Maybe they were the killer's keys and they had accidentally dropped them during the attack. But despite this very promising lead, the police got nowhere with it. Then, roughly one year later, in May 2009, a mother of three young children, enticed by the $50,000 reward, walked into the Norwich Police Department and announced that she had information about the Eugene Maliff case. The story she would tell police would not only lead them to discover who owned those distinctive keys,

but also her story would completely break the murder case wide open. And it would turn out Eugene's murder had nothing to do with cold fusion. Based on what this woman said and the subsequent police investigation, here is a reconstruction of what really happened to Eugene Malov on the evening of May 14th, 2004. subsequent police investigation, here is a reconstruction of what really happened to

Eugene Malov on the evening of May 14th, 2004. On the morning of May 14th, 2004, Eugene packed his dark green Dodge Caravan with folded up moving boxes and bags of rags and cleaning supplies, and then he headed south from his home in Pembroke, New Hampshire to his childhood home two and a half hours south in Norwich, Connecticut. He wished now that he had made more in-person visits to the property since renting it out a year ago to the Andersons, because not only had the Anderson family stopped paying rent, but they had also stopped treating the property with any respect. stopped paying rent, but they had also stopped treating the property with any respect. When they finally moved out after the mediation and the eviction, the place had become a total eyesore

in the neighborhood. At one point, there were two non-working cars on the front lawn, and even though the Andersons did remove them when they left, they did not remove all the remaining extra car parts and bike parts that were all over the lawn, and there was just lots of trash and other debris basically strewn across the entire property. And to top it all off, Eugene would learn that the Andersons had been subletting out the basement of the house to help pay their $1,000 a month rent, which had resulted in a steady stream of kind of sketchy people coming in and out of the house that also did not treat the property with respect. And so when Eugene arrived at the house that morning, his plan was just to go in there and throw away anything the Andersons

had left behind. After parking in the driveway in front of the dumpster, Eugene took a quick bathroom break inside of the house before going back outside into the garage to start throwing away whatever was inside of there. Over the next couple of hours as he did this, he periodically glanced out the front doors of the garage up the driveway to Salem Turnpike where he could see the curious glances from pedestrians and drivers, some of whom slowed down as they passed by the house to see what he was doing. Eugene likely didn't think much of them and just kept doing this big clean out. However, what Eugene didn't realize was that one of those passerbys was a relative of the

Andersons and they didn't really know the full picture of what was going on. And so when they saw Eugene throwing away all of the Anderson stuff, the relative pulled out her cell phone and called Patricia and Roy Anderson to tell them what was going on. A few minutes later, as Eugene was peacefully going about his work, across town at an apartment on Chestnut Street, Patricia and Roy's son, 26-year-old Chad Schaefer, and his 24-year-old girlfriend, Candace, heard Chad's phone ringing. He picked it up, but before he could even say hello, he heard his mother's angry voice. She had just gotten the word from that relative that Eugene was at their old rental throwing out the Andersons' belongings, and she was furious. She had been telling Chad

for weeks to get over there and clean out the rest of their stuff, but clearly he had not done that. And so now she demanded that her son get over there and take care of this situation. Chad initially did not do anything. But as he sat there, he started to think about what he might have accidentally left behind at the property that now might get thrown away. And so eventually, he decided he would head over and talk to Eugene. But before he headed over there, he decided he needed help from his cousin, 31-year-old Moselle Brown, who was well-known to Norwich police and who had a past history of drug offenses. Moselle arrived out front of the

Chestnut Street apartment late that afternoon. On his way out the door of his apartment to go out and meet Moselle out on the road, Chad grabbed his own set of car keys from a hook and stuffed them into his jacket pocket. A few minutes later, the two men were in Moselle's car, driving over to 119 Salem Turnpike. Once they arrived at the house,

they turned into the driveway, and they parked behind Eugene's van. As the two big men got out of the car and slammed their car doors shut, they saw Eugene step out from behind the back of the house into the driveway, and he was kind of shielding his eyes with his hands, and his face showed no sign that he recognized either of them. The two men wasted no time and walked right up to Eugene and began crowding into his personal space, kind of forcing him to start stepping backwards. But despite how intimidating this was for Eugene, when Mazzel and Chad told him who they were and that he had to stop throwing their stuff out right now, Eugene was immediately defiant and said,

no, you had your chance to claim your stuff, you didn't, now leave. But instead of leaving, Chad stepped forward and threw the first punch in what would become a violent struggle that left Eugene's blood spattered on the side of his childhood home, on the garden hose lying across the backyard, on the doors of the cars parked in the driveway, and on the side of the green dumpster. When Eugene finally fell to the ground face first, Chad and Moselle took turns beating him literally into the ground with a metal pipe they found on the floor of the garage. Eventually, the two men stopped and just stood there in silence, sweating and breathing heavily

while they stared down at the horrible damage they had inflicted on Eugene. Then, almost like snapping back to reality, the two men looked around them to see if anyone had seen them. But when they looked around, it was quiet, and they noticed that where Eugene had fallen, his body was kind of blocked from view by the dumpster and his van and their car. And so no one could even see him, even if they were looking in their direction. And so the two men, satisfied they were in the clear and that they would not get caught, they just casually hopped back into their car, they backed out of the driveway, and they drove back to the apartment on Chestnut Street.

and they drove back to the apartment on Chestnut Street. When Chad and Moselle walked through the front door, Chad's girlfriend, Candace, immediately saw their clothes were covered in blood. But before she could absorb what the two men told her, that they had, quote, beat the shit out of their landlord, the two men told Candace that she now had to come with them and help them make their murder look like a robbery. Candace put her newborn baby in the crib, and then she, Chad, and Moselle left the apartment and returned to 119

Salem Turnpike. But when they got there and they parked in the driveway and approached Eugene's body, Chad and Moselle were stunned to find that Eugene was still alive. He was still breathing. were stunned to find that Eugene was still alive. He was still breathing. When they rolled him over, Eugene opened his eyes and looked up at his attackers and began pleading with them to help him as the blood began to spill out of his mouth. As Candace started to back away, Moselle reached out and caught her by the arm and dragged her back to Eugene's body, and Chad pushed the metal pipe they had used earlier to beat Eugene into Candace's hands. And then Chad pointed at Eugene and said, hit him. When she didn't respond, Chad slapped her and said if she didn't do as he told her, they'd kill her too. And so Candace gripped the pipe, she raised it over her head, and as she did this, Eugene begged them to stop.

But seconds later, that pipe came crashing down directly onto his face. After she hit him, she handed the pipe back to her boyfriend, and then Chad and Moselle began taking turns smashing and kicking Eugene's face and body until they were so tired they had to stop. By the end of the second beating, Eugene would have 32 significant lacerations on his face and neck and a stab wound on his right forearm. But amazingly, at the end of this second beating, Eugene was actually not dead yet. And so with no more energy to use the metal pipe or to kick him, Mizzell Brown, who was a very big guy, just stepped directly onto the front of Eugene's throat and shifted all of his weight to that foot and began digging it into his neck. He would stand there grinding his foot left and right into the scientist's throat, breaking bone and cartilage, until finally Eugene stopped squirming and died.

watch, and digital camera. Then the men gave the keys to Eugene's van to Candace and told her to drive the van to the parking lot at Foxwoods Casino, where Chad's stepfather worked, and to make sure she wiped any of her fingerprints off of the car's steering wheel and door handles. Later that night, after Chad and Mizzell picked Candace up at Foxwoods, the three would go back to the Chestnut Street apartment. Before Mizzell left, all three of them stripped off their bloody clothes, which Candace bundled into a laundry basket for washing later. Candace stuffed the items they had stolen from Eugene into a box that she shoved into the back of a closet and then later burned. When Norwich police arrived at the Chestnut Street apartment the day after the murder to question Chad about his possible involvement in Eugene's murder, Chad and Candace gave each other alibis and Chad was highly cooperative, giving police the address of his mom and stepdad.

until later that day that Chad would realize he had dropped his car keys at the scene of the crime. Those were the distinctive keys with the plastic tag and the name Brittany on the keychain that the cold case task force had zeroed in on for not having grass clippings on them. The name Brittany was the name of Chad's daughter from an earlier relationship with an ex-girlfriend. In 2009, when billboards went up around Norwich advertising a $50,000 reward for any information that led to Eugene Malov's killer, Candace's good friend, Jill Sebastian, suddenly felt inclined to talk. So she was the woman who had gone into the Norwich police station and said she had information about the murder. It would turn out Jill had seen that bundle of bloody clothes at Candace's apartment around the time of the murder. Not only would Jill's boyfriend,

Keyshawn Dullivan, confirm Jill's story, but he also told police that he had personally heard Chad and Moselle boast about beating the Andersons' ex-landlord to death. The couple also told police that Chad and Mizzell had been selling crack cocaine out of the Malov rental property, and that when they heard that Eugene was doing a clean-out, they started to worry that he might find some of those drugs in the garage. And so when they went over there, they really needed Eugene to stop. Once police brought Candace in for questioning, and offered her a plea deal in

exchange for her cooperation, Candace would identify the keys found at the crime scene as belonging to Chad. She also described Mizzell's involvement as well as the role she herself had played in the murder. After being entered into the witness protection program along with Jill and Keyshawn, Candace agreed to testify against Chad and Mizzell. In 2008, four years after Eugene's death, the Malov family house at 119 Salem Turnpike in Norwich, Connecticut was torn to the ground. Four years after that, on April 20, 2012, Chad Schaefer pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter and accessory to third-degree robbery and was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Two and a half years after that, on October 24,

2014, Mizzell Brown was sentenced to 58 years in prison. And about seven months after that, on May 27, 2015, Candace Foster, who served four years and 10 months in prison while awaiting trial, pled guilty to hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence and was sentenced to five years probation. Back in December of 2004, seven months after Eugene was killed, the Department of Energy would finally release its report on their review of cold fusion research. While they stopped short of endorsing cold fusion as a viable energy source, they did recommend that funding agencies should entertain individual well-designed proposals for experiments involving cold fusion. According to a close colleague of Eugene Malov, while the report certainly fell short of what

Eugene expected, the colleague believes Eugene still would. While the report certainly fell short of what Eugene expected, the colleague believes Eugene still would have welcomed even the smallest steps along a new scientific path into the future. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Bolin Podcast. If you got something out of this episode and you haven't done this already, please offer to be the 5-star review button's assistant as they fix their car troubles, but do not hold the flashlight steady. Also, please subscribe to the Mr. Ballin Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Google, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.

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