MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - The View From Above (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

On a crisp fall morning in 2007, a small airplane took flight over the forested town of Graham, Washington. The pilot was a detective with the Pierce county sheriff’s department, and he was flying a somewhat unusual mission. He wasn’t looking for a lost person, or chasing a fleeing suspect. Instead, he was circling the sky above the scene of a double-murder case that had him – and his whole department – stumped. The detective had run out of ideas on the ground. So he’d decided to take flight. He always thought better in the air – and he figured he would literally get a new perspective on his evidence this way. He circled over the house where the homicides took place. And that’s when he noticed something – from the sky, it became obvious in a way that he never considered from the ground. With a rush of adrenaline, he turned his plane back toward the airfield. He had a hunch – and if he was right, he’d just cracked the case. For 100s more stories like these, check out our main 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.

Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. On a crisp fall morning in 2007, a small airplane took flight over the forested town of Graham Washington. The pilot was a detective with the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, and he was flying a somewhat unusual mission. He wasn't looking for a lost person or chasing a fleeing suspect. Instead, he was circling the sky above the scene of a double murder. case that had him and his whole department stumped. The detective had run out of ideas on the ground,

so he'd decided to take flight. Plus, he always thought better in the air, and he figured, you know, while he was up there, he would literally get a new perspective on his evidence this way. He eventually circled over the house where the homicides took place, and then also began to kind of loosely circled the neighborhood. And that's when he noticed something. It was something that he wouldn't have noticed on the ground, but from up here, it was incredibly obvious. With a rush of adrenaline, he turned his plane around and headed back toward the airfield. He now had a real hunch, and if it was right, that means he just solved the case. But before we get into that 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 tell the follow button you want to show them something funny, then put a mirror directly in front of them. Okay, let's get into today's story. story. 30-year-old Brian Mock stood just inches away from his TV set, anxiously watching the Seattle Seahawks football team

line up on the goal line about to run a play. His living room was filled with friends who'd come over to watch the game as well, and who were there to eat the eggs and bacon and biscuits and gravy that he'd cooked. On TV, the quarterback suddenly threw the ball to the wide receiver, but the pass was intercepted, and the living room erupted in booze and groans. Brian turned and kissed his 28-year-old wife, Beverly anyway. win or lose, Brian and Bev were still die-hard Seahawk fans, and in fact were actually season ticket holders. And when the Seahawks were playing on the East Coast during away games like today, they would always invite their friends over for a breakfast watch party,

because the games would start on the East Coast at 1 p.m. Eastern, and then on the West Coast where they were, that would be 10 a.m., hence the breakfast watch party. Brian and Bev loved toasting their friends. It was exactly what they had imagined doing when they bought this house a year earlier. The couple had gotten married about 18 months ago, and so they still were very much in their honeymoon phase. They lived in this modest ranch-style home with a nice front porch on the rural outskirts of Gramp. They had five acres of land with breathtaking views of Mount Reneer out back. The neighborhood was sparsely populated. There was only one house close by with plenty of wide-open space in between. Their closest neighbors lived in a trailer across a field behind their house.

It was perfect for the couple. They were both very outdoorsy, not really cut out for, typical office jobs and that kind of life. On their days off, they loved doing things like taking scenic rides on their motorcycles or kayaking in the Puget Sound. But no hobby trumped the pure joy of watching their beloved Seahawks play. The first half of the game came to an end and Brian walked out of the living room and into the kitchen, where he topped off his cup of coffee.

As he stood there drinking it, he noticed the kitchen trash was full, so he put his coffee down and grabbed the bag to take it outside. Brian walked to the bins out back and tossed the bag of trash inside, then turned to walk back into the house. As he did, he heard a car rumbling down the road. He looked up to see his neighbor, Daniel, sitting in the passenger seat, and the two men exchanged a quick wave. Daniel and his wife were the ones who lived in that trailer across the field, and like most

of the residents around here, they enjoyed the quiet and mostly kept to themselves. But they were perfectly friendly. But just then, from inside the house, Brian heard somebody yelling angrily. instantly he knew it had to be his friend Randy Holmes and as he thought that he felt a pit form in his stomach Randy was clearly slurring his words which was not out of character he was only invited to this party because he was cousins with one of Brian's close friends he could be okay but he was young just 21 years old and a very heavy drinker this was not the first time he'd come over and gotten belligerent

Bev also was not fond of Randy and she and Brian also knew that Randy had actually been in trouble with the law before. They just didn't know the specifics. But Brian did still let him come over for parties so as not to make things awkward with his cousin. So Brian picked up his pace and ran inside to see what was going on. In the living room, the mood was obviously tense. Randy was standing in the middle of the floor, yelling at no one in particular. Everybody else was giving him a wide birth, trying not to provoke him further. When Randy got like this, it was impossible to reason with him. Randy pointed at Brian's friend, Justin, and shouted drunk nonsense like he was deliberately trying to start a fight with him. Brian stepped forward, putting himself between Randy and the other

party guests, and he told him to chill out. But that only set Randy off. Randy stumbled toward Brian, cursing and swaying on his unsteady feet until they were chest to chest. Then Randy shoved Brian. Not hard, though, since he was too drunk to put any real power behind it. Besides, Brian was a big guy, and he wasn't exactly easily moved. In fact, if anything, the shove just sort of knocked Randy off balance, and Brian seized the opportunity to grab him by the arms and literally drag him across the living room to the front door. And when they got to the front door, Randy just kept on shouting

and Brian had to physically push him outside into the yard, and then he told Randy to just go home. Randy kept on cussing and yelling at Brian, but he also seemed to realize that he was physically outmatched here. He spit on the lawn and then gathered himself and ambled back to his car. Brian watched him weave his way off the property and drive down the street toward his own home, music blasting out of his car windows. The moment Randy was out of sight, Brian exhaled, his body full of adrenaline.

He'd seen Randy pretty bad, but never that combative before, and it sort of unnerved him. He shook his head, wondering what set Randy off in the first place. Brian turned and walked back inside. The second half was about to start, and he hoped the Seahawks would start playing a bit better and maybe take his mind off what had just happened. That evening, Bev felt exhausted as she and Brian picked up after the party. She didn't have the stamina to fully clean the whole house, but she at least wanted to get all the beer cans and booze bottles into a recycling bin,

maybe do a few dishes before bed. She told Brian she'd put on some music while they tidied up, and then she went to go grab her phone, which she had left in the kitchen all day charging. But when she got to the charger, the charger was still plugged into the wall, but her phone was gone. She called for Brian asking if he had seen it, but he leaned his head into the kitchen and said, no, not since earlier, when it was charging right there on the counter.

So he offered to help her find it. But as they began to tear apart the living room looking for her phone, a sinking feeling settled in Beverly's stomach. Randy had been in the kitchen a few minutes before his drunken outburst. Bev sighed and turned to Brian and asked him if Randy had used their bathroom while he was over. Brian shrugged and said, yeah, at least once or twice. I mean he was here for a few hours. Bev sighed again. She was willing to bet that Randy very likely had been casing their new house while he wandered down the hallway to the toilet. You know, maybe he was taking things. She told

Brian he better go check his hunting equipment. Then she ran into the bedroom and flipped open her jewelry box. And thankfully, nothing was missing. But Brian soon appeared in the doorway, very pale on the face, and said one of his guns was gone. And so now it became very clear that, you know, Randy had probably taking the gun, taken her phone, and who knows what else. Bev asked if maybe they should just call the police. She was already scared of Randy, but now knowing that he very likely also stole from them, including a firearm, I mean, what's to say he wasn't planning to retaliate after Brian threw him out of their house?

But Brian said, no, we can't do that. Randy was a live wire. It was probably best not to confront him, especially not with police. Besides, everybody at the party was drinking. You know, maybe the gun and the phone were just misplaced. they should just finish cleaning the house in the morning, and very likely everything would turn up then. Six weeks later, on the evening of Friday, November 16th, Brian packed up some of his hunting equipment so he'd be ready for the morning. Then he went to brush his teeth before bed. He had plans to go hunting before sunrise with his friend Justin White and wanted to get to bed early so he'd be well rested.

Brian and Bev still hadn't found Bev's phone or Brian's gun that disappeared during that party. At this point, they were both certain that Randy had stolen both items, but they weren't sure how to get their stuff back without involving the police or making things awkward with Randy's cousin. So they had agreed to wait a bit longer and just see if Randy tried to return the items with some kind of flimsy excuse. In the meantime, Bev was okay without her phone and Brian had other guns. So Brian crawled into bed and soon his wife joined him.

And in just a few minutes, they were both fast asleep. What if I told you that the crime of the century is the one being waged on our planet? Introducing Lawless Planet, Wondry's new podcast exploring the dark side of the climate crisis. Uncover shocking tales of crime and corruption threatening our world's future. Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Mr. Ballin. For the first time, my show Medical Mysteries has joined forces with Redacted for a special episode. A redacted medical mystery uncovers how routine surgery leads to classified government operations.

Listen now on the medical mysteries or redacted feeds or search a redacted medical mystery wherever you get your podcasts. Around 5 a.m. the following morning, Brian's friend, Justin, pulled his SUV into Brian and Bev's driveway, ready to pick up Brian for a morning of hunting. However, the house was completely dark. Justin couldn't see any lights on inside. For a moment, Justin did just idle there in the driveway waiting, taking the last few swigs out of his tumbler of coffee. But he'd been up for a while already, so he was wide awake and pretty anxious to get to their hunting spot.

He thought about going up to the door to knock, but he knew if he did that, he very likely would wake up Beverly, since, I mean, it was the weekend, and it's 5 a.m., so she very likely was asleep. So instead, Justin just let his headlights shine in, through the front windows, figuring that if Brian was awake by now, he would see the light and come outside. But after about five minutes of that, when still Brian had not come outside, Justin decided this was a lost cause, and he pulled out of the driveway. He figured his friend must still be asleep,

so Justin decided he would go hunting alone that day. He drove to the woods on the outskirts of Graham, and as he did, he kept checking his phone. He figured Brian would wake up any second, feel bad and ask him to turn around and come pick him up. But the call never came. And then when Justin actually got to the hunting spot and was walking around out in the woods, he kept checking his phone, but still there was nothing. And then once the sun began to creep over the tree line,

Justin started to get worried. By this point, Brian definitely should have been up, and it was weird that he hadn't called Justin to at least apologize for missing the trip. Finally, after a few hours of unsuccessful hunting, Justin walked back to his car and just called Brian. but there was no answer. At this point, something in his gut told him to go back to Brian's house

to check on his friend one more time. Justin pulled into Brian and Bev's driveway for the second time that morning, and it looked like the house had not changed at all. You know, no lights were on, the cars were in the same spot, and was all the same. And so Justin hopped out of his SUV and headed to the porch to ring the doorbell. But when he got to the top step, he looked down and noticed that one of the wooden panels on the door looked like it had been kicked in. He hadn't noticed this earlier, but it had been dark out, so maybe he hadn't seen it.

And then, Justin heard something coming from inside the house. He peered through one of the windows into the living room, and he realized the noise was coming from their TV set. And he saw something else, too. It sort of looked like a pile of blankets on the floor. This was strange. Bev and Brian were always very neat and tidy, and so it was unlike them to leave blankets strewn around.

So Justin squinted, trying to get a better look, and as he did, he realized he was not looking at a pile of blankets. In a panic, Justin ran for the door and tried it, but it was locked, so he rushed to his SUV, grabbed his phone, and called 911. Moments later, a Pierce County Sheriff's Department deputy was driving through Graham and his patrol car when a call from dispatch came over the radio. They requested assistance for a possible injured person at a house on 70th Avenue East. This deputy happened to be in the area, so he said he would go check it out.

It took him less than 10 minutes to get to the address. As he pulled up, he saw a man standing in the driveway next to an SUV rubbing his hands together. The man seemed very nervous and began to approach the deputy's car. The man introduced himself as Justin and began kind of stumbling over his words as he recounted that morning. He said he pulled up to the house and it was dark and then he circled back after a fruitless hunting trip. and his voice shook when he explained what he saw when he came back, that he could actually see somebody lying on the floor inside the house. The deputy told Justin to stay put and not to follow him into the house.

Then the deputy placed a hand on the holster of his gun and crept up the front stairs. He knocked on the front door, eyeing the broken wood panel that Justin had mentioned. When there was no response, the deputy pushed the door open and stepped inside the house. Immediately he saw a long trail of blood that led from the front door into the door. the living room. This was clearly way too much blood to just be somebody's simple injury. I mean, this very likely had to be a crime scene. The deputy grabbed his radio and called the sheriff's department for backup. Then he unholstered his gun and began moving slowly following the blood trail into the living room. The trail led the deputy to a bloody sheet lying on the floor. An arm

and a leg protruded from underneath the sheet. The deputy looked at the outline of the lumpy mass underneath the sheet, and saw it was clearly too big to just be one person. He knew he was looking at two bodies, dead on the floor. Now, the deputy knew, obviously this was going to command his attention at some point, but for now he needed to search the house and make sure there wasn't anybody here, like the perpetrator or perpetrators. And so with his gun drawn, he searched the whole house. And when he was satisfied that the house was indeed empty, he made his way back to the driveway to wait for backup. He also wanted to get more information from Justin. However, when the deputy got outside, he was surprised to find that the driveway was empty.

Justin White was gone. About 10 minutes later, Detective Sergeant Ben Benson pulled up outside of Brian and Beverly Mock's house. Benson was a 23-year veteran of the force and the lead investigator. He arrived on the scene with one of his team members, Detective adjacent Tate. The two detectives climbed out of their car, and Benson gave Tate a very encouraging nod. Tate had just made detective a few months ago, and this would be his first major homicide case. Benson surveyed the neighborhood, or what he could see of it, given how dispersed it was. He told Tate to take a walk around to get the lay of the land, and then start

trying to reach the victim's family. Tate nodded and headed down the street. Meanwhile, Benson headed up the driveway to Brian and Beverly's home. A police team was already making the perimeter of the house with yellow caution tape. Benson dipped under the tape and a deputy came down the driveway to meet him. The deputy told him that he was the one who responded to the 911 call. He motioned to the open front door and said that Brian and Beverly Mock's bodies were inside. Benson headed for the door and the deputy followed. He told Benson about Justin White, the friend who had called 911 and then disappeared while the deputy was investigating the house. He said it just felt weird. Justin had seemed so concerned about his friend's well-being, but then didn't

stick around to see if they were actually okay. Benson thanked the deputy. It was a good lead, one he had every intention of pursuing after he assessed the crime scene. Inside the house, a forensics team was already busy collecting evidence. Benson pulled on a pair of disposable gloves as he followed the trail of blood from the front door to the two bodies piled in the living room. There, he knelt down and lifted up the edge of the sheet that was covering them, and he was met with a grisly scene. Brian was face down on the ground, wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Bev was on top of him, but completely naked, and they had both clearly been shot repeatedly in the head.

So it was no wonder the floor around the bodies was completely soaked in blood. There were pools of blood, smudges and smears. It looked like someone did a poor job of trying to clean up. And when they couldn't sop up the mess, they just sort of covered the crime scene with a few blankets. Benson looked down at the trail of blood, which clearly had been created when the killer dragged Brian or Beverly from the front door into the living room.

But the trails sort of look strange. The blood was streaked with these long, thin lines. He couldn't imagine what had caused them. Benson moved around the living room looking for clues. Forensics had already found an imprint of a shoe in the pool of blood beneath the sheet, right by Brian's body. But otherwise, there were no footprints in the house. As Benson walked through the house,

he began to notice blood smears in odd places, like on light switches, and there was a bloody smear on the door jam leading into the bedroom. It looked like the killer tried to clean up the scene, but then ended up making a bigger mess in the process. And yet, for all the carnage, nothing else in the house was amiss. None of the drawers had been ripped from the dresser. The jewelry box looked untouched. There were plenty of valuables just lying around the house still.

I mean, this clearly was not a burglary gone wrong. The killer had enough time to wander around and get blood smears everywhere, but apparently had no interest in stealing anything. Benson circled back to the living room, where forensics was still dusting and photographing the scene. He looked over at the kicked-in front door. The killer clearly was not let into the home, which meant they were either a stranger to Brian and Beverly

or someone they didn't want to let inside. All things considered, Benson's money was on the latter scenario. Someone that Brian and Beverly knew, but didn't trust, who showed up at their house, kicked down the door, and killed them. And given that Beverly was naked, Benson also had to consider the possibility that she was sexually assaulted as well. There was a lot of anger in this murder. It felt personal.

But the question was, who wanted Brian and Bev dead? An hour later, Detective Benson pulled his car up to the house of Justin White. The house looked quiet, and Justin's SUV was in the driveway, so he appeared to be home. Benson walked up to the front door and knocked, and a moment later, Justin opened the door, looking pale. And his first question was, you know, our brother. Bev and Brian okay? Benson paused for a moment and then told Justin that he likely already knew the answer to that question. Justin just sort of swallowed hard but didn't respond. So Benson asked him why he fled the scene so quickly after the deputy arrived. Justin's voice trembled as he explained

that he just couldn't stay there, not after what he'd seen or what he thought he'd seen on the floor inside the house. Brian was one of his best friends. He couldn't believe that something could happened to him. And then once the deputy showed up, it all just seemed too real. He just couldn't handle it. And so he panicked and drove off. He said he regretted leaving, but he just couldn't seem to turn the car around. Benson listened to this skeptically. On one hand, it was suspicious that Justin essentially fled the scene. But on the other hand, Benson knew that in high-stress situations, people did weird things, and sometimes they made themselves look really guilty out of just fear or panic.

In Benson's experience, the best way to find the truth was to look for physical evidence that either corroborated or contradicted the stories they told. So, as Justin spoke, Benson scanned his hands and forearms looking for any marks

that maybe Brian or Beverly left. The crime scene he had just left was bloody and violent and brutal. I mean, the killer was very likely to show some signs of a fight. But Benson couldn't see any cuts or scratches on Justin. He wasn't sure what to think,

But just to be safe, Benson told Justin he would likely have more questions for him in the coming days. By the time Benson got back to the Mok's home around noon, their quiet investigation had turned into a full-blown circus. The whole neighborhood was swarming with cops. Also, reporters from several local media outlets were stalking the street, asking for interviews with basically anyone who would give them the time of day. Benson did his best to dodge the journalists until he could duck under the yellow caution tape and retreat up to. the Mox driveway. His partner, Detective Tate, was on the front porch to greet him, and he told Benson that he had just had a phone call with Beverly's mom, who supplied him with a viable suspect, a guy named Randy Holmes. Apparently, Brian and Bev thought that Randy stole a phone and a gun from their house

about six weeks ago, the same day that Brian had to physically eject Randy from their party. Bev's mom said that she urged Beverly to go to the authorities, but the couple hadn't wanted to. But according to the mom, Randy always made Beverly nervous. To Benson, this all sounded like a motive. He told Tate, great work. That's when a uniformed officer approached Benson and Tate, saying that one of them needed to come talk with the neighbor who lived in the trailer at the edge of the Mok's property line.

He apparently thought he saw something last night and wanted to help with the investigation. Tate knew that was his cue, and he told Benson he would call him with a report. Then he followed the officer across the field toward the trailer in question. Meanwhile, Benson headed back into the office. He wanted to learn whatever he could about Randy Holmes, including if he had a criminal record. It didn't take long for Benson to discover that not only did Randy have a record, but it was pretty extensive.

Before the age of 21, Randy had been arrested for a litany of crimes, including possession of a stolen vehicle, forgery, and violating a restraining order. And that last one was of particular interest because it suggested that Randy could be capable of violence. Benson grabbed the phone on his desk and called Detective Tate. He told Tate that Randy was looking like a pretty good suspect, and he wanted to go and find him. Tate agreed and thought that was a good idea, and he also told Benson that he had some news too. He had just wrapped up an interview with Daniel and Jennifer Tavares,

the husband and wife who lived in the trailer across the field from Brian and Beverly, and the couple said they didn't know the Mok's very well, but David said he did see something strange at the Mok's house that morning. Around 7 a.m., Daniel said he had heard gunshots outside. There were a lot of hunters in the area, so gunshots were sort of common this time of the year, but he said he was still curious, so when he heard them, he'd peeked out his blinds towards the Mok's house in time to see two men run out of Brian and Beverly's home, jump into a red pickup truck in the driveway, and peel out. Daniel said he did get a really good look at one of the two men.

That guy had a ponytail that was tied back, and his face was pockmarked and scraggly, like he hadn't shaved in a couple of days. As for the second guy, Daniel said he really didn't get a good look at him, but he could see enough to know that it definitely was a man. And so after saying all this, Tate followed up and asked Benson, you know, hey, does that description match Randy? Benson thought for a minute. The photo he had seen of Randy did not show Randy having long hair or a puck marked face.

But, you know, Daniel didn't get a good look at the second guy, and so maybe the second guy could have been Randy. Either way, such a detailed description would definitely help them figure out if Randy was their guy or involved. Benson told Tate to wrap up what he was doing and head back to the station. They had a suspect to track down. Hey listeners, Mr. Ballin here. What if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories happening right now are all connected to what might be the biggest crime of our generation. You know I'm always on the hunt for the most chilling and perplexing

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are all part of something bigger, the systematic destruction of our planet. From activists who vanish in the Amazon to whistleblowers uncovering billion-dollar environmental crimes, these aren't just stories about the environment. They're real-life thrillers about people caught between powerful forces willing to kill to keep their secrets buried. Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondry Plus.

Hey listeners, big news for true crime lovers. You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon music with your prime membership. Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Ballin's Strange, Dark and Mysterious stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts, completely ad-free. No more waiting through cliffhangers or dealing with ads, because let's be honest, ads shouldn't be the most nerve-wracking part of true crime. To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon music app for free or head to Amazon.com slash balin. That's Amazon.com slash b-a-l-l-l-en. Dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today.

About 40 minutes later, Benson and Tate pulled down a dark residential street in Graham looking for what they hoped would be Randy's home. Randy had given multiple different addresses over the years during different arrests, so Tate and Benson were going to try all of them, starting with the most recent. They squinted out the windows looking for house numbers, and for a moment they thought they found his home, but then realized the number on that house had an extra digit. It took two more sweeps of the street for Benson and Tate to run.

realized that, in fact, none of the house numbers on the street matched the address Randy had given his arresting officers. So either the booking officer had made a mistake or Randy had given a fake address. Tate looked down at his notebook where he'd scribbled all of Randy's known addresses. He wondered aloud how many of them would be phony. But Benson, he just sighed, and said this gave him even more reason to suspect Randy. I mean, everything about this guy was sketchy. The second address on their list took them to a real house, which was promising. But when they knocked on the front door, a middle-aged woman answered. She admitted to being Randy's mom, but said she hadn't seen her son in days, and she had no idea where he was.

She looked genuinely concerned, as she asked if he was in some kind of trouble. Benson felt bad for her. It seemed like this was definitely not the first time cops had come around looking for her son. So he handed her his card and told her he just had a few questions for Randy about a case they were working on. Randy's mother took it and promised to call if her son showed up. Back in the car, Benson pulled on his seatbelt. Meanwhile, Tate crossed off Randy's mother's address and rattled off the next house to try. Under the circumstances, it was bad news that not even Randy's mom could find him, and so Benson just hoped that he and Tate would have better luck. He pulled his car down the street and headed west, winding his way through Graham. The third

address took them all the way to the outskirts of town, where the streetlights disappeared and the road was suddenly full of potholes. Benson and Tate bounced their way down the uneven road, looking for Randy's house. Benson was beginning to think this was just another wild goose chase when he suddenly slammed on the brakes. The car skidded to a stop, kicking up a cloud of dirt, because there, right up ahead was a smoldering pile of rubble where Randy's alleged third home used to be. But all that was left were the remains of a charred foundation. The house had been burnt to the ground, and recently, too. Tate climbed out of the car and went to go walk the perimeter of the burned down home.

Benson just leaned on the hood of the car, scratching his head. He was starting to worry that Randy was on the run. By the time Benson and Tate got back to the station, the preliminary results from the medical examiner had arrived, and so Benson sat at his desk looking over the report, and the details of the murder were absolutely depraved. Both Brian and Bev had been shot in the head three times at close range, with a 22-caliber revolver. But, to Benson's surprise, the rape kit used for Beverly came back negative, which meant that

she suffered no sexual assault either pre- or post-mortem, despite having been found nude. Benson also had a report from the forensics department, analyzing a palm print lifted from the blood smear on the bedroom door jam, as well as the bloody shoe print they spotted by the bodies. They hadn't matched the palm print to anybody in the system yet, but they would run the prints against any that Benson collected from suspects, and so Benson really needed to find Randy Holmes. But before he could even start to formulate a new plan, Benson's phone rang. And when he answered, he was shocked, because the voice on the other line belonged to none other than his number one suspect,

Randy Holmes. Randy said his mom told him that Detective Benson was looking for him. She hadn't said what it was about, but he'd heard about the murders of Brian and Beverly, and he figured it had to be related. He said he was staying with a friend about 10 miles away and wanted to come in and clear his name. Randy swore he had an alibi for the night of the murder, along with several friends who could back up his story. Now, Benson had not been expecting this. So, pretty aggressively, he asked Randy for the names and phone numbers of these so-called friends because he was going to call each and every one of them and asked them questions about Randy's alibi. Benson was hoping that the way he was asking being sort of aggressive on purpose would maybe get Randy to flinch, or maybe

refused to give him contact information to show he was guilty. But Randy reacted by saying, yeah, that's fine, all good. And then he encouraged Benson to make those calls, call all of them. And so Benson scribbled down the information as Randy rattled off a handful of names. Then Benson asked Randy point blank, did he steal a gun and a phone from the Mok's house on the day of the football watch party? This was a test to see if Randy would lie. But Randy didn't hesitate. Yes, he said. Yes, he did. He said he knew all of the this made him look horrible, but he swore he did not hurt Brian or Beverly. Trying hard not to be completely thrown off by Randy's apparent honesty, Benson asked for the address where Randy was

currently staying. He told Randy he was going to send Tate over to check out the stolen gun to see if it matched the weapon that killed Brian and Beverly. And Randy eagerly gave him the address. He told him the gun was with him right now and he'd be waiting for Detective Tate. Benson hung up and just sat there for a minute, absorbing this new twist. Then he stood up and walked across the room to Tate's desk. He handed over the address and asked him to go check it out. Then Benson got to work calling all of Randy's friends. An hour later, Benson sat dejectedly at his desk, sipping lukewarm coffee and skimming through his notes on the case so far. He just hung up with the last of Randy's friends, all of whom had confirmed that they were with Randy at a party on the night of the

murder. Benson knew they could be lying to cover for their friend, but they all gave intricate details about the party, and all of those details matched. Their accounts were too nuanced and too overlapping to be lies. Benson had to reconcile the fact that Randy's whereabouts were accounted for during the murder. Just a few hours ago, he thought this case was basically solved. Now he was back to square one. Just then, his phone rang. Benson answered and heard Tate's voice. He said he was at Randy's house and he had some more bad news. The stolen gun was not a match.

Benson sighed and said, yep, he had a feeling that was going to be the case. Benson took another sip of coffee and he began to sift through more documents in the case file. He grabbed the interview that Tate conducted with Brian and Beverly's neighbor, the guy who lived in the trailer across the field, Daniel Tavares, who had seen the two men running out of the Mock's house. Benson wondered if he should go speak to Daniel again, just to see if maybe he remembered any other details that could help them crack the case.

Or maybe Benson thought he should send Tate out to campus again, this time asking neighbors if they recognized the man from Daniel's description, the guy with a ponytail and the pockmarked face. But whatever he decided to do, it was going to have to wait until tomorrow. This was only the first day of the investigation, and it was late. Benson and Tate both needed to go home and get some sleep. The next morning, on Sunday, Sergeant P. Benson climbed into the cockpit of a single-engine plane at the airstrip in Graham.

He hoped that by flying over the Monk's home, it could help him sort of reframe the evidence and show him what clues he could be missing. Benson glided through the blue skies, reviewing the details of the case in his mind over and over again, you know, the door was kicked in, the victim's bodies were piled on top of one another and covered with a sheet, their friend Justin was at the scene around the time of the murders, but claimed that everything seemed normal until he came back hours later. Randy Holmes technically had a motive, but no murder weapon and a decent alibi. And the neighbor saw two men running out of the Mok's home around 7 a.m., one with a pockmarked

face and the ponytail. What was he missing? Benson finally reached the Mok's home and looked down from the cockpit. Even at this height, he could clearly see the yellow caution tape lining their property. Benson scanned all around the sparsely populated neighborhood below, quickly spotting Daniel Tavares' trailer, parked across the field. He saw a trailer park even further down the road, Brian's friend Justin lived close, and Randy's mom's house wasn't that far away either. And as Benson was sort of staring around at all the places he had been on the ground with his partner, he noticed something, something he had totally overlooked while he was on the ground. He turned the plane around and headed right back to the airstrip. He now needed just one more

piece of physical evidence and one more interview, and then he was certain he would be able to solve this case. Less than an hour later, Benson stood. outside the sheriff's station as a squad car pulled up with his interview subject inside. Not because his subject was under arrest, they just didn't have a car, and so needed a ride to the station. It had just rained out and Benson watched as his subject stepped out of the cruiser and splashed through puddles to the station door to meet him. Benson thanked his subject again for agreeing to talk and then led them inside. While Benson walked with the subject deeper into the station to an interview room, Detective Tate passed by them on his way towards the front door.

As Benson opened up the interview room door and he and his subject began to go inside, Detective Tate reached the front door, stopped, and bent down. By the time Benson was actually sitting down opposite his subject inside of that room, Tate, out near the front door, was standing back up and smiling. Based on evidence and interviews collected over the course of two days by the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, this is what authorities believe happened to Brian and Beverly Mock on the morning of November 17, 2007. The killer arrived at Brian and Beverly's house early in the morning,

a 22-cali caliber revolver in hand. They were furious because they felt like Brian had disrespected them, and the killer did not let anyone disrespect them, not even their own mother. The killer walked up to the front door and knocked, but even though they could hear the TV on inside, nobody answered. So suddenly, in a rage, the killer just kicked in the door and stormed inside. From inside the house, Brian looked up in total shock, but the killer didn't hesitate. They raised their gun and fired. The first bullet struck

Brian in the side of the head, and he crumpled to the ground, but the killer wasn't done. They walked over to Brian's body and fired two more shots directly into the back of Brian's head. The killer was about to leave, but they heard footsteps coming down the hallway. The killer looked up to see Beverly, completely naked, her face frozen in terror. She screamed and ran for the front door, but the killer fired two more shots, and both struck her in the back of the head. She fell. The killer stalked over to her, pressed the gun to her forehead,

and pulled the trigger one more time. Then they dragged her lifeless body over to her husbands and stacked her right on top. It was only then that the killer was. looked around and saw the blood all over the house and realized what a mess they had made. They flicked on a few lights to see what they were doing, then went to the kitchen to find some cleaning supplies. The killer found a broom and tried their best to wipe up the blood on the floor with it, but it didn't do any good. It just smeared the blood around, creating these long, thin streaks across the blood trail that would later confuse detectives. The killer realized

they had to get creative, so they went into the master bedroom looking for extra blankets. As they walk through the threshold, they grabbed the door jam, leaving behind a bloody smear. Then they opened up the closet and found a spare sheet. They carried it back out to the living room and used it to cover Brian and Beverly's bodies. The killer turned off all the light switches they had turned on and then tried to wipe the blood off those switches, and then, feeling satisfied, they headed for the front door. But on their way, they stepped on the sheet, leaving behind a tell-tale shoe print of blood. Later that morning, a detective from the Pierce County Sheriff's Department would show up at the

killer's front door, asking questions about Brian and Beverly Mock. But unbeknownst to any of the detectives, the killer had a dark and horrifying criminal past, and their many experiences with the police had turned them into a very good liar. So the killer was ready with a story, a story that the police would believe for a full 24 hours. That is, until Detective Benson flew his plane over the crime scene and realized, that story was physically impossible. That flight, that discovery, would trigger one more interview, and the subject was the killer.

And because it had just rained when they walked through the entryway of the police station to the interview room, the killer would leave a shoe print on the station floor that Detective Tate would find. And that print would match the bloody footprint found at the crime scene. The killer was Brian and Beverly Mock's neighbor, Daniel Tavares. From the air, Benson had realized that Daniel's story about seeing two men running out of the Mock's house was actually impossible, because from the air, he could clearly see that Daniel's home was simply

too far away from the Mock's home to actually see that. And so as soon as Benson made this realization, he rushed to the police station and summoned Daniel in for an interview. He also ran Daniel's name through the computer system looking for a criminal record. And what he found would go on to shock the entire country because Daniel Tavares had been released from a prison in Massachusetts only a few months earlier after serving 16 years for stabbing his own mother to death. Daniel was not supposed to leave the state of Massachusetts, but he had and he fled to Washington and no one from Massachusetts had come to look for him. So Daniel was technically already on the run from the law when he murdered the mocks. And yet Daniel was so confident in his lie that when he

when he went to the police station to be interviewed that last time, which would also be the day he would be arrested, he wore the same boots that he had on at the time of the murder. However, once Benson finally confronted Daniel with all the police knew, including the fact they had matched the print he had left in the station to the one at the crime scene, Daniel would confess to the murders. He claimed he had done it because Brian apparently owed him $50 and also had somehow disrespected him. Daniel was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A quick note about our stories.

They are all based on true events. But we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. The Mr. Ballin podcast, Strange, Dark and Mysterious Stories, is hosted and and executive produced by me, Mr. Ballen. Our head of writing is Evan Allen. Our head of production is Zach Levitt. Produced by Jeremy Bone.

This episode was written by Zeth Lundy. Research and fact-checking by Shelley Shoe, Samantha Van Hoose, Evan Beamer, Abigail Shumway, and Camille Callahan. Research and fact-checking supervision by Stephen Ear. Audio editing and post-produced by Whit Lacasio and Cole Lacasio. Additional audio editing by Jordan Stidham. Mixed and mastered by Brendan Cain. production coordination by Samantha Collins

production support by Antonio Manata and Delana Corley artwork by Jessica Clogston Kiner theme song called Something Wicked by Ross Bugden. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast. If you enjoyed today's story and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studios podcasts. There's this one, the Mr. Ballin podcast, as well as Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries,

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