MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - The Devil Waits in the Bedroom (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

Episode Date: April 18, 2022

In 2010, a young tutor stepped inside of her student's apartment. At first it was quiet, then a terrified voice called to her from the back bedroom... Had she known what was waiting for her inside of that bedroom, she would have turned and ran.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.

In 2010, a tutor stepped inside of her student's apartment. At first, it was quiet. Then a terrified voice called out to her from the bedroom. Had she known what was waiting for her inside of that bedroom, she would have turned and ran. But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Deliberate in Story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do. We upload twice a week. Once on Monday and once on Thursday.

So if that's of interest to you, please sneak into the five-star review buttons home and turn the batteries in every remote in the wrong direction. Also, please subscribe to the Mr. Ballin 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 weekly uploads. Shorts? Free cocktails? Careless whispers? OK, last one. It's not Andrew Ridgely. Yep, that's right. It's Stone Cold icon George Michael. From teen pop sensation to one of the biggest solo artists on the planet, join us for our new series, George Michael's Fight for Freedom.

From the outside, it looks like he has it all. But behind the trademark dark sunglasses is a man in turmoil. George is trapped in a lie of his own making, with a secret he feels would ruin him if the truth ever came out. Follow Terribly Famous wherever you listen to your podcasts, or listen early 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 seaworthy. Oh, and also tiny little detail, almost didn't mention it. He bet his family home on making it to the finish line. What ensued was one of the most complex cheating plots in British sporting history.

To find out the full story, follow British Scandal wherever you listen to podcasts or listen early and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. Okay, let's get into today's story. When 23-year-old Juri Kibuishi walked into a room, you couldn't help but notice her. Just 5 foot 3 inches tall, beautiful and outgoing, Juri, whose Americanized name was Julie, had a freewheeling personality and instinctive kindness that just drew people to her. a freewheeling personality and instinctive kindness that just drew people to her. From the flowers that she often pinned in her dark hair to her dramatic eyeliner and colorful painted fingernails, Julie looked like what she was, creative and unconventional. Despite their much more proper and low-key appearance, Julie's Japanese-born parents had always encouraged their daughter's

artistic pursuits. And when Julie, a lifelong resident of Irvine, California, was high school-aged, she was accepted into the prestigious Orange County School for the Arts. This was a highly selective charter school that catered to students who were especially interested in the visual and performing arts. But Julie's parents had also stressed the importance to all four of their children of getting excellent grades. So even as Julie spent five years studying dance and becoming a gifted and passionate performer, she also applied herself with just as much energy to her college preparatory courses.

Julie's goal after high school was to dance and to eventually get a degree in fashion design. She found just the program she wanted at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California, one of the top transfer community colleges in the country, and just a 30-minute drive from Irvine, California, where Julie lived with her parents. At Orange Coast, Julie could get her associate's degree and start work in fashion right away, and then if she wanted to, she could transfer to a four-year college. She would also have time to take dance classes and keep performing. Located 37 miles south of Los Angeles, Costa Mesa is a busy commercial city

about a mile from the Pacific coast. Not nearly as expensive as Los Angeles, Costa Mesa was a magnet for aspiring actors and artists and writers who hoped to make their way into some aspect of show business, whether it was movies, the stage, dancing, or script writing. Julie loved the creative energy at Orange Coast, and she also loved all the different types of people who were drawn to a community college, from older students with day jobs to younger students like herself. One of these students was 26-year-old Samuel Herr, an Army veteran whose military service included 15 months in a remote and dangerous outpost in Afghanistan.

Five foot ten inches tall and 200 pounds, Sam had movie star good looks and an outgoing personality. An only child of older parents, Sam's father had served in the Marines, and like his father, Sam had also found purpose, meaning, and self-discipline during his time in the military. Sam's fellow soldiers described him as courageous and funny. The women he served with described him as very professional and chivalrous. In 2010, after his army enlistment ended, Sam had also enrolled in Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. This was the first step in his plan to earn the

college degree that he needed in order to re-enter the military as an officer. Although Julie and Sam came from very different backgrounds, as soon as they met each other in an anthropology class, they totally hit it off. Not in a romantic sense, each of them had serious long-distance relationships with other people, but as friends. Both of them were very close with their families, they enjoyed socializing, and they both had the same outgoing personalities and the same slightly goofy sense of humor and fun. They also both liked tattoos. Julie had seven of them, and Sam had ink on both arms as well as a huge heart inscribed with mom and dad tattooed on his chest. But on a deeper level, Sam and Julie were also both very serious about getting good grades in college

and ultimately achieving their long-term career goals. So as soon as Julie realized that her classmate Sam was struggling in their anthropology class, she offered to help tutor him. One evening, when Sam's parents stopped by their son's apartment and met Julie, who was there helping Sam with his homework, they were both struck by the easy friendship between their son and Julie. And when Julie would go on to describe Sam to her parents, she would say they were just friends. One of the nice things for both of them about being in a strictly platonic relationship was being able to talk to one another about their romantic partners.

Julie was in an online relationship with a Marine corporal named Mark, who was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, and Sam was engaged to a German woman named Katarina, whom he had met while he was in the service. Sam also felt comfortable opening up to Julie about his combat experience in Afghanistan and the night terrors that he had brought home with him. As their friendship grew, Julie began spending more time with Sam outside of just tutoring, and one thing they both liked to do together was spend time with the group of young people who often gathered in the evenings and on the weekends outside of the large apartment complex where Sam lived. For Sam, the Camden-Martinique Apartments, which is where he lived, were the perfect location.

It was less than a half mile from Orange Coast College and only a 30-minute drive from where his parents lived in Anaheim Hills. The rent wasn't cheap, but Sam had always been very careful with money, and he had saved $62,000 in combat pay that he had earned while he was serving in Afghanistan. Among the big group of young people who hung out together at the apartment's pool and outdoor patios, there was one couple in particular that Julie and Sam got to know pretty well. 26-year-old actor Daniel Wozniak and his fiance, 23-year-old actress Rachel Buffett. Like a lot of actors, Dan and Rachel struggled to make ends meet, even as they dreamed of breaking into the Los Angeles acting scene. Rachel, who was small with delicate features and long blonde hair, still looked the part of the Disney princess she once played at Disneyland when she was a teenager.

Dan, who was a big guy, had an easy smile, thick dark hair, good looks, and a booming voice that helped him land lead roles in the community theaters where he and Rachel often starred opposite one another. Usually dressed in khaki shorts or pants and Hawaiian shirts with bright prints, Dan never felt more at home or more genuinely himself than when he was on stage. In the spring of 2010, when Julie and Sam met Dan and Rachel, Rachel was busy planning the couple's wedding. After a two-year long engagement, the big date was finally just weeks away, May 28th, and afterward the couple would go to Mexico for their

honeymoon. On Friday, May 21st, just a week before Dan and Rachel were going to get married, Julie had a date with her older brother, Taka, at a Thai restaurant in Long Beach to talk about his wedding. Taka also had a surprise for his younger sister. He and his fiancée wanted Julie to be a bridesmaid at their wedding, and that night at dinner, Taka handed Julie the tiara that she would be wearing on Taka's big day. Julie was thrilled, but she was also feeling a little distracted and worried. Throughout that afternoon and evening, Julie had started to receive a series of very strange text messages from her friend Sam. He sounded upset, and he told her he needed to talk to someone.

In what she thought must be a bad attempt at humor, he wrote, No sex. Can you come over tonight at around midnight? Just talk. Don't tell anyone. Going out for a little now. Some bad family stuff.

Julie was puzzled. Like her, Sam seemed to get along with his mother and father really well. In fact, she thought he was supposed to be visiting with them in Anaheim that weekend. Julie told her brother about these weird messages she was getting. Taka asked her if this was normal for Sam, and she said no, but Sam had been through a lot. Noticing her brother looking concerned, Julie looked up from her phone and smiled at him and said, don't worry, you'd like Sam. After dinner, Julie said goodbye to her brother and laughing, she put the tiara on just before stepping out into the clear 60 degree evening. She could feel the light breeze from the ocean as she climbed into her car to make the 35 minute drive south from Long Beach to the Camden

Martinique apartments where Sam was. The following morning, Julie's mother, June, looked down the bedroom hallway of their house and noticed the door to her daughter's bedroom was open. Peeking inside, she saw Julie was not in there, and she realized in that moment that her daughter had not come home the night before. June immediately called and texted Julie but received no answer. When she called her son, Taka, to see if maybe Julie had stayed the night before. June immediately called and texted Julie but received no answer. When she called her son Taka to see if maybe Julie had stayed the night with him and his fiance, June's worry deepened to alarm. Taka said no, Julie was not with them, and he told his mother about the very strange text messages that Julie had received from her friend Sam. Feeling very concerned, Taka

and his mother began scrolling through their texts and contacts to see if they could find Sam's number. Meanwhile, about 20 miles away in Anaheim, Sam's parents had also begun worrying about their child. Sam was supposed to visit them that morning, but he hadn't shown up yet. Sam had always been good about letting his parents know if his plans had changed or if he was running late, but by midday, they still had not gotten a call or text from him. By late afternoon, Sam's father, Steve, who was an athletic-looking man with thick white hair who often went to the gym with his son,

he hopped into his car and drove up to Costa Mesa to make sure Sam was okay. Once Steve arrived at the Camden Martinique Apartments, it was getting dark. He walked up the stairs to apartment D-110 and knocked on the door. When he didn't hear an answer, Steve reached into his pocket and pulled out the spare apartment key that Sam had given him. He unlocked the door and he stepped inside. Turning on the light, Steve saw immediately that there was no one in the kitchen or living room and also no sign of any disturbance. As he headed toward the bedroom, he hoped he'd find his son laid up in bed with a bad cold. Instead, as he pushed open the door to

the bedroom and flipped on the wall light, it was like he had discovered a chamber of horrors. Kneeling next to the bed with her upper body lying stomach down on top of the mattress was the body of a young woman. Her jeans, which were cut or torn, had been pulled down almost to her knees. On the back of her sweater, scrawled in black magic marker, were the words, all yours, F you. Although one side of the woman's face was visible, she was totally unrecognizable. Her features were covered in blood and gore, and all Steve could really see was just this massive wound above and behind her ear. It looked like the back of her head had been blown off. And just above that crater of bone,

blood, and brain tissue, Steve saw a tiara tangled in a mass of blood-soaked hair. Shocked, Steve backed away from the gruesome scene, and after quickly checking the other rooms and finding no one else in the apartment, he pulled out his phone and he dialed 911. Near the doorway to the bedroom, police found a colorful shoulder bag. It contained a cell phone and a wallet with a driver's license. The victim, sprawled on the bed and the floor, was 23-year-old Julie Kibuishi. When they were informed by police that their daughter was dead, Julie's parents were devastated. June Kibuishi kept telling the officers they must have made

a mistake. The evening before, she and her daughter had been cooking together in the kitchen. When it had been time for Julie to go see her brother at the restaurant, she had changed her clothes, given her mom a quick hug, said goodbye, and stepped out the door. It was impossible to June and her husband that this daughter, who was so kind and so full of life, could now just be dead. As for the Costa Mesa detectives who arrived on the scene moments after receiving Steve Herr's frantic 911 call, every piece of evidence they discovered inside of that apartment pointed to Steve's son, Sam. Sam knew the victim, and from the words written on the back of Julie's sweater and the position of her body that suggested

sexual assault, she may have been caught up in a love triangle gone wrong or been the victim of a domestic dispute with Sam. Most damning of all was the long string of strange text messages that Sam had sent Julie the night before, begging her to come see him immediately. And even though Sam said, quote, no sex in one of his text messages, just the mention of sex seemed to indicate that it was possible that these two were in fact romantically involved, despite what they told people. And then there was Sam's military background and his combat experience in Afghanistan, and the possibility that Sam, like many combat veterans, was affected by post-traumatic stress disorder. Maybe Sam had just snapped and killed Julie during an episode of combat-related psychosis. The cause of death appeared to be a single gunshot wound to Julie's head,

and as a trained combat soldier, Sam would have known how to use a firearm. 24 hours later, when Sam still had not been located or heard from, the Costa Mesa police had found yet another reason to suspect he was their killer. After digging into Sam's background, detectives were stunned to discover that back in 2002, when Sam was 18 years old, he had been arrested and charged in connection with the murder of another teenager. Although Sam was eventually acquitted and cleared of all charges, he had been a serious suspect and he had spent the better part of a year behind bars. The police wasted no time. They issued an all-points bulletin with Sam's picture and

physical description plastered across the top of it. Meanwhile, however bad things looked for Sam, Steve Herr could not believe that his son killed Julie. Sam had been acquitted of all criminal charges related to that 2002 murder, and even after the trauma and stigma of spending months in jail, Sam had gone on to rebuild his life and reputation. He always had a steady job from that point forward, but it was when he enlisted in the army that he found his true sense of meaning and purpose. So while police launched a massive manhunt for the man they considered armed and dangerous, Sam's father started to do his own digging. If Sam was on the run, he would need money, and Steve shared a bank account with his son. Sure enough, when Steve accessed the

shared account, he saw that every day since his disappearance, Sam had used his ATM card to make a series of large cash withdrawals. The trail led south to a bank of ATMs in Long Beach. The police had also tracked Sam's ATM card, and unlike Steve, they had access to the video surveillance at the ATMs. Looking at the camera footage, detectives expected to see the face of Sam Herr. Instead, the person seen using Sam's card was a teenage boy carrying a skateboard and wearing sunglasses and a hoodie. When the same ATM card was used to place a pizza order at a nearby pizza joint called Echo's, police were able to get the address of the house where the pizza would be delivered. They staked out that address, thinking that maybe Sam was hiding inside of the house, but when police, guns drawn,

entered the house right alongside the pizza delivery person, the only people they found inside were the teenager they'd seen on the ATM surveillance tape and his mother. A terrified 16-year-old Wesley Freilich told police that he had been given the ATM card by a man he knew who was working for a bail bonds agent. The man had told Wesley that the card belonged to a client who had

posted bond but then disappeared without paying the agent. According to Wesley, this man who had given him the ATM card was someone his mom knew through the community acting that she did. Wesley said he was a good guy and he trusted him when this guy outlined the plan with the ATM card. Wesley would make withdrawals every day of up to $400 and turn the money over to the man who would wait in his parked car some distance from each ATM machine. As payment for doing this, Wesley would be allowed to use this ATM card to order pizza for himself. The name of this mystery man was instantly familiar to police, 26-year-old actor Daniel Wozniak. Daniel and his fiancee Rachel, who were both friends with Sam and Julie, had been among

the residents of the apartment complex that police had interviewed the day after Julie's body had been discovered. And in the course of that routine interview with them, Dan had told police that he and Rachel had last seen Sam on the afternoon of Friday, May 21st, which was the night Julie had dinner with her brother before going to see Sam. Daniel told police that he, Rachel, and Sam had chatted briefly that night, and then Sam had left the apartment complex with a man in a black hat who Dan did not recognize. After determining that the 16-year-old Wesley

had no personal connection to Sam Herr, police decided to turn their attention back to Dan. The bail bondsman story just sounded like a total fabrication. They now suspected that Daniel might be helping Sam get money, and that Dan might even be hiding or covering for his friend. But tracking down Dan for a second interview turned out to be much more difficult than the police expected. When they finally reached Dan on his cell phone and asked him to come into the Costa Mesa police station for another interview, Dan was evasive. He wanted to help, but he was busy. It was the final week of the play Nine, in which he and Rachel had starring roles. They were also just days away from getting

married, and when they weren't rehearsing or on stage, they were busy with last-minute wedding plans. Frustrated, detectives decided not to wait any longer. On the evening of May 25th, just three days after Julie's murder, detectives crashed Dan's bachelor party. They found Dan, dressed in his trademark khaki pants and Hawaiian shirt, at a suburban Japanese restaurant named Tsunami in Huntington Beach. Guns drawn, police entered through both the front and back doors. That way, no one could get out of the restaurant without being seen. At about 10 p.m., in front of his stunned group of friends, police snapped handcuffs on Dan and charged him with accessory to murder.

Dan was completely shocked, and the color in his face just completely drained. But once Dan was inside the police station, his demeanor changed. He suddenly seemed somewhat composed and told police that he wanted to tell them what his real connection to Sam Herr was. I'm Peter 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. In May of 1980, near Anaheim, California, Dorothy Jane Scott noticed her friend had an inflamed red wound on his arm and he seemed really unwell. So she wound up taking him to the hospital right away so he could get treatment. While Dorothy's friend waited for his prescription, Dorothy went

to grab her car to pick him up at the exit. But she would never be seen alive again, leaving us to wonder, decades later, what really happened to Dorothy Jane Scott? From Wondery, Generation Y is a podcast that covers notable true crime cases like this one and so many more. Every week, hosts Aaron and Justin sit down to discuss a new case covering every angle and theory, walking through the forensic evidence, and interviewing those close to the case to try and discover what really happened. And with over 450 episodes, there's a case for every true crime listener. Follow the Generation Y podcast on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

Sitting in a plastic chair in the corner of the small interrogation room, Dan took a deep breath and then came clean. He told police that the whole bail bondsman thing that the 16-year-old kid was involved in was indeed a fabrication. It was a cover for a credit card scam that he and Sam were in on together. The way it worked was Wesley, the 16-year-old, would make a series of large cash withdrawals using Sam's bank cards, and then Sam would put in a claim with his bank saying he never authorized the withdrawals.

This, of course, allowed Sam and Daniel to keep the cash Wesley had taken out, as well as the reimbursement money they would get from the bank. Wesley did not realize this was going on. He thought this was all legit, and he really was working for Daniel, who was working with a bail bondsman, and Wesley thought he was just getting some free pizza out of it. His mother was also unaware of this scam. The police proceeded to ask Daniel the same questions they had asked before when they spoke to him at the apartment, and Daniel gave the same answers. The last time he saw Sam was on that Friday afternoon, shortly before he saw him walk off with some guy in a black hat, and then that night, Daniel and his fiancée Rachel had been at their theater performing in their musical called Nine. But then something odd happened. About 30

minutes into this interrogation, Daniel suddenly completely changed his story. The police were so caught off guard that they really didn't even interrupt. They just let him speak. One minute, Daniel was talking about this credit card fraud scam. And then the next minute, without missing a beat, Dan told detectives that, well, in fact, Friday afternoon had not been the last time he had seen Sam. In his new version of events, Dan told police that in the very early hours of Saturday, May 22nd, Sam had knocked on the door of Dan and Rachel's apartment. When Dan got out of bed and walked through his darkened living room and opened the door, he saw his friend standing in the doorway looking totally frantic and

disheveled. Sam immediately told Dan that something horrible had just happened and that the two of them were in trouble and they needed to get the F out of there as soon as possible. Dan, who thought this must have something to do with their credit card scam, immediately stepped back into his apartment and, being careful not to wake up Rachel, put on his clothes. A few minutes later, he and Sam were driving Sam's car south to the Long Beach Town Center Mall where Sam had asked to be dropped off. And it was during that drive that Daniel heard exactly what the horrible thing was that had just happened. And it had nothing to do with a credit card scam. Sam went on to tell Dan that Julie was in his apartment and that he had killed her.

Dan told police Sam's exact words. I shot somebody. It was a fit of rage. I was doing some heavy drugs. I'm not happy about it, but she had it coming. The two detectives looked at each other. This was exactly the break in the case that they had been hoping for. Daniel's story had just confirmed their own reconstruction of the crime. Now they hoped that Dan could help them locate their killer, Sam. According to Dan, he had no idea where Sam was or where he was going,

and that before they parted ways, before Sam got out at that mall, he had threatened Dan and told him that if he went to police and ratted him out, that Sam would come back and kill him, or he'd come back and he would kill his fiancee Rachel. And so when police had questioned Dan and Rachel the day after the murder had been discovered, Dan had panicked and lied to police in order to protect himself and his fiancee. He told police there was no man in a black hat, that he had made that up. At this point in the interrogation, Daniel was a wreck and he just repeatedly apologized to police for misleading them. But despite Dan's sincerity, the police were now concerned that he might be hiding even more information about Sam and so they decided to

apply some pressure. At 11 43 p.m., about one hour into this interrogation, police asked Dan if he would give them permission to take a DNA swab. That way they could confirm that Dan was never present at the actual crime scene. Right away, Dan agreed. At this point, he was extremely eager to do anything he could to remove himself from the suspect list. As soon as the detective finished taking the swab out of Dan's mouth, the video camera inside of the interrogation room captures Dan's very obvious sense of relief. It was clear as he started to check his pockets and put his cup of coffee down on the floor that Dan thought this whole thing was over. The interview

was over, he had done the swab, and now he could leave. But just seconds later, as the detective who had taken the DNA swab peeled off his gloves, the other detective asked Dan where exactly in Sam's apartment were police investigators likely to find Dan's DNA. Since Dan was a regular visitor in Sam's apartment, if they were going to use his DNA to rule him out as a suspect, they needed to know what Dan had already touched. And this question seemed to startle Dan. The camera footage showed him running his hands through his thick black hair, and for the first time, Dan looks kind of nervous, but he does tell police that they are likely to find his DNA

in both the bathroom and perhaps out on the patio. Those are the two places he would go inside of Sam's apartment. After Dan says this, one of the detectives asks Dan point blank, did you see Julie's body inside of Sam's apartment? Dan practically shouted that he had not, that all he knew about the murder was what Sam had told him in the car on the way to the mall that night. But the detectives, noticing that Daniel was really starting to fall apart and act nervous, they decided to ramp up the pressure by bluffing. Leaning forward towards Dan, who was now leaning back in his chair,

one of the detectives asked Dan, so if you claim you were only in Sam's bathroom and patio, then why did we find your DNA inside of Sam's bedroom near Julie's body? Now, keep in mind, they had no way of knowing if his DNA was inside of that apartment. They wouldn't have known for weeks. But Dan didn't know that. He thinks what they're telling him is factual. And as soon as they said this to him, Daniel changed his story again. Looking totally defeated, Dan slumped down in his chair and he said, okay, okay, I'll tell you. This is what really happened. According to Dan, when Sam arrived at his apartment in the early morning hours of Saturday, May 22nd, and told Dan

they needed to get the F out of there, before they got in the car and drove away, Sam had told Daniel what he had done and then took Daniel up to his apartment and actually showed him Julie's body. At this point in the interview, the cameras showed Dan back on his feet pacing across the small windowless room. He's agitated and he's running his fingers through his hair. And for the next three hours, the two detectives pressed for more details about exactly what Dan had seen in Sam's bedroom. By 2 a.m. on Thursday, May 27th, Dan had been talking, yelling, and sometimes whispering to police for four straight hours. He was exhausted, and since he was getting married in now less than 48 hours, he was desperate to just wrap this up so he could

go. So at 2 17 a.m., Daniel, who had been caught completely between a rock and a hard place, between trying to protect his friend or telling the cops everything he knew, seemed to crack. Yes, he finally shouted at detectives. Yes, I saw her goddamn body. Is that what you want to hear? I saw two gunshots in her head. Both detectives suddenly went completely still and looked at each other. They also looked up at the camera that was recording the interview and playing it live in an adjoining room where a third detective was watching it. All three detectives were thinking the exact same thing. Dan Wozniak had just given them a critical new piece of information. Based on what would stretch into a 14-hour interrogation of Daniel

Wozniak and an investigation into the new evidence police would uncover based on what he told them, this is the reconstruction of what happened to 23-year-old Julie Kibuishi and how police were finally able to locate their prime suspect, Sam Her. Back on the evening of Friday, May 21st, about half an hour after Julie had left that Thai restaurant in Newport Beach where she was having dinner with her older brother, Taka, Julie pulled into the parking lot next to the Camden Martinique Apartments where she had agreed to meet her friend, Sam Herr. Although she was still wearing the sparkly tiara that her brother had just given her, Julie's mood had turned serious. Before heading into Sam's apartment, she scrolled one more time through the

dozens of text messages he had sent her starting that afternoon. They all seemed so strange and out of character for Sam, but she knew Sam dealt with some very serious night terrors from his time in Afghanistan, and for all she knew, he could be having some sort of breakdown right now that was Afghanistan related. So, believing Sam really just needed a friend right now, she put her phone away, got out of her car, and made her way over to the stairs that would take her up to his apartment. When she reached the floor his apartment was on, she saw Daniel standing outside of it. It turned out Dan had become worried about Sam too when Sam had not been responding to his knocks on his door. Dan told Julie he did have a spare key and thought you know maybe the two of them should just go inside and see what was going on. Grateful for

the company, Julie waited a minute after Dan had unlocked the door and walked inside. Then she followed Dan into the apartment. There was no sign of Sam, but a few seconds later, Julie, who was standing in the front area of the apartment, she heard a terrified sounding Dan call out from Sam's bedroom in the back of the apartment. She asked what was going on and Dan just called out, you'd better come in here. There's something in his bed that you need to see. And so Julie began walking towards the bedroom. Several hours earlier, Daniel had called Sam and asked him to go with him to one of the small community theaters where Dan often performed. It was called the Liberty Theater and was located about 30 minutes north of their apartment complex. Daniel needed help moving a

heavy piece of set furniture that was wanted by another local community theater. Sam agreed, and the two met outside in the parking lot of their apartment building. Then they hopped into Sam's car, and they headed north. Once they arrived, Dan led Sam through the empty theater, and when they were backstage, they climbed a flight of stairs to the second floor, and then once they were up there, Dan pointed out a dusty wooden ladder that led up to the attic. So up they went, and as soon as they were up there, Dan quickly walked over to this big piece of furniture and signaled to Sam that that was it. That was the piece they were going to move.

Sam nodded and moved past Daniel and took up a spot next to him, kind of crouching down to get a good grip underneath this big piece of furniture. Little did Sam know that his friend, Daniel, who was now standing behind him, could not have cared less about moving furniture. Instead, Dan was quietly pulling out a.38 caliber semi-automatic pistol, and then once it was out, he aimed the pistol carefully at the back of Sam's head, and then he pulled the trigger. For a moment, all Dan could hear was the echo of the shot reverberating around the attic. And then Sam, who was still alive, turned to look up at his friend. Sam whispered,

I need help. I need help. Something hit me. I think I've been electrocuted. Looking directly into Sam Herr's eyes, Dan raised the pistol and pulled the trigger a second time. Except the weapon didn't fire. It jammed. So while Sam is laying there staring up at Daniel with a look of horror on his face, Daniel calmly pulled the slide back of the pistol. He cleared the jammed round out of the gun. He reloaded the gun and then placed the gun up against Sam's temple and pulled the trigger again. This time the gun did fire and this time Sam would die. Then Dan, stepping carefully to avoid the blood that was spreading out across the floor, bent over Sam's body and removed his phone and rifling through his friend's wallet, Dan pulled out Sam's passport and Sam's ATM and credit cards. Flipping

Sam's phone open, Dan began to send what would be a long string of text messages to Julie. Each one was carefully scripted to draw her to Sam's apartment later that night and to look to an outsider as though Sam was in the midst of a personal crisis and that he and Julie were somehow romantically involved. Leaving Sam's body where it had fallen, Dan climbed back down the wooden ladder, down the flight of stairs to the ground level, left the empty theater, and got into Sam's car. But before going back to his apartment, Dan picked up the 16-year-old Wesley Freilich and they made their first withdrawal using Sam's ATM card. Once he had returned to the Camden Martinique apartments,

Dan had just enough time to shower, change his clothes, and send Julie yet another round of strange text messages from Sam's phone. I need to talk to you. Can you come here around midnight? Please, come alone, please. A little while later, when Dan arrived at the Hungry Artist Theater for the final showing of the play he was in called Nine, this was not the same theater where hours earlier he had killed Sam, his fellow actors would report that Dan showed no sign of any stage jitters. Instead, he gave what some of his colleagues described as the best performance of his life,

playing opposite his beautiful bride-to-be, Rachel Buffett. After the performance, Dan stood for a moment backstage by himself and checked Sam's phone. Once he saw that Julie had agreed to meet Sam at midnight, Dan smiled. Then he stepped back into the group of friends who were all congratulating him on his great performance. Then he and Rachel headed home, where Dan would shower yet again, he would have sex with Rachel, and then he would tell her he was stepping outside just to go for a little walk. In reality, he was making his way over to Sam's apartment to wait for Julie. At midnight, Julie arrived, and then when they both went inside and Dan went into the back bedroom and called out for Julie,

Dan did in fact have something he wanted Julie to look at in the bed, but not because there was anything for her to actually see. Once Julie had walked into the bedroom and put her bag down and stood in front of the bed, not seeing anything on it, Daniel reached around her and pointed at the center of the bed and told her she needed to look closer to see what he was talking about. And so confused, Julie leaned forward, looking at the center of the bed where there was nothing. And as she did that, Dan pulled out the same pistol he'd used to kill Sam earlier in the day,

and he aimed it at Julie, and he fired two shots into Julie's head, hitting her just below the tiara that was now tangled in her blood-soaked hair. Moving quickly, Dan arranged the scene as he would any other stage set. Using scissors he had brought with him, Dan cut through the as he would any other stage set. Using scissors he had brought with him, Dan cut through the waistband of Julie's jeans, pulling them down around her hips to make it look like she had been sexually assaulted. Then he took a black magic marker and wrote all yours F you on the back of her sweater. Satisfied that he had created the perfect frame job that would have police chasing down Sam Herr as Julie's murderer,

and knowing police would never find Sam, Dan backed away from Julie's mangled and bleeding body and returned to his own apartment where he showered yet again. The next day, Dan returned to the Liberty Theater where he had killed Sam. This time, he brought an axe and that same pair of scissors with him. This time, he brought an axe and that same pair of scissors with him. Returning to the attic, Dan used the scissors to cut off Sam's clothes, and he used the axe to dismember Sam's body. Dan left Sam's naked and headless body upstairs in the theater,

but using plastic bags he had picked up at a nearby cafe, Dan packed up Sam's head and hands and one arm and stuffed them into a backpack. Then Dan left the theater and drove to the El Dorado Nature Center three miles away. And there he scattered Sam's remains in shallow openings he found or dug near the bases of trees and under bushes. Then Dan, who was so far behind on his rent he would soon be evicted from the Camden-Martinique apartments, and who desperately needed money to pay for his upcoming honeymoon, headed for the ATMs where he would meet Wesley Freilich and collect another $400 installment of Sam Herr's combat pay. have gotten away with the brutal murders of Sam and Julie, but in those early morning hours of May 27th in the Costa Mesa police station, at about 2 a.m. when Dan was asked by detectives what specifically he had seen when he looked at Julie's body sprawled out on Sam's bed, Daniel Wozniak delivered exactly the wrong line. I saw two gunshots in her head. All three of the police officers who

were listening to that interview knew that anyone who was just looking at Julie's body, like Dan claimed he was doing, they would only have been able to tell there was a single wound. It would not have looked like two distinct gunshot wounds. So the only way Daniel could have known that there were two gunshots in Julie's head was if he had fired those shots himself. So when he still kept denying any involvement, the police told Dan they knew he was lying and they put him into a jail cell. They reminded him he was under arrest for being an accessory to murder and the only way he'd be leaving is when he told them everything he really knew about Julie's murder. And then the following afternoon, at about 1.15 p.m., Dan would further implicate

himself during a conversation he had from the jail with his fiancée Rachel Buffett. By then, Rachel knew Dan had been arrested. She had also found out from Dan's brother, Tim, that Dan had given Tim a backpack filled with bloody clothes and a.38 caliber pistol, Sam's brother, Tim, that Dan had given Tim a backpack filled with bloody clothes and a .38 caliber pistol, Sam's passport, phone, wallet, and two spent shell casings. Instead of destroying the bag as Dan had told him to, Tim had just thrown the backpack over the fence behind their parents' house. When Rachel told Dan on the phone in a call that was recorded by police that she was going to tell the detectives what she knew, including the existence of this backpack, Dan whispered into the receiver, then I'm doomed. 30 minutes after this phone call with Rachel, Daniel would signal to police that

he was ready to confess to what he did. The cameras show him sitting at a small table in the interrogation room, elbows on the table, head resting in his hands. Yes, he had murdered Sam because he wanted that $62,000 in combat pay that Sam had saved from his deployment to Afghanistan. And yes, he had murdered Julie just as a decoy, a way to mislead police into thinking that Sam had disappeared because Sam was not a war hero, but rather a killer who had gone on the run after murdering Julie in a fit of rage or jealousy. When asked by police why he did it, Daniel told them, I'm crazy. It was always all about the money. Following Dan's confession, police searched the Liberty Theater and found Sam's badly decomposed partial remains.

The only way to recognize the torso as belonging to Sam was the heart tattooed on his chest that was inscribed with the words mom and dad. On May 29th, the day Sam Herr would have turned 27 years old, police found his head, hands, and one of his arms scattered throughout El Dorado Nature Center. More than five years later, on December 16, 2015, Daniel Wozniak was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. At the penalty hearing in September 2016,

Daniel was sentenced to death. Three years later, a separate jury found Dan Wozniak's ex-fiancée Rachel Buffett to be an accessory after the fact, after further investigation revealed that she had lied to police to cover up her possible involvement in the crime and to protect her then-fiancé Daniel Wozniak. As for the families of the victims, June Kibuishi wonders if she had taught her children, especially Julie, to be too kind. And for Steve Herr, the thought of his son's final moments will haunt him for the rest of his life. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. If you got something out of this episode and you haven't done this already, please sneak in to the five-star review buttons home and turn the batteries in every remote in the wrong direction. Also, please subscribe to the Mr. Ballin Podcast

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