Murder With My Husband - 223 - The Infamous Interrogation of Ryan Waller
Episode Date: July 1, 2024On this episode of MWMH, Payton and Garrett discuss the murders of Ryan Waller and Heather Quan. Links for Patreon, Podcast, and Social Media https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband Ads: Prose: www.pros...e.com/mwmh Betterhelp: www.betterhelp.com/husband HelloFresh.com/Husband14 and use code husband14 for up to 14 free meals, plus free shipping! Modern Fertility: www.modernfertility.com/husband - $20 off Case Sources: This is MONSTERS - The Story of Larry and Richie Carver EXPLORE WITH US - The Haunting Case of Ryan Waller The Waller Family - Ryan Waller Shooting https://celebsaga.com/ryan-waller-wikipedia-death-or-injuries/ https://medium.com/crimebeat/when-the-suspect-is-a-victim-f4a019da6999 https://www.maricopacountyattorney.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=185 https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/azcentral/name/heather-quan-obituary?pid=85856224 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Hey everyone, it's Peyton here.
I just wanted to check in before this episode starts.
If you are an original Murder With My Husband listener,
you might recognize the title and let me explain to you why.
So as you guys know, last week I updated you
that Garrett and I were having some family emergencies
and life happens and we decided that we were both going
to pick one of our favorite Murder With My Husband episodes,
just a Murder With My Husband original,
something that really represents us
and do a blast from the past, repost it,
let you guys re-listen to it so that we can have a buffer
and kind of get back on our feet over here.
Again, everything is okay, just life happens
and we need some time.
So I hope you guys can support this,
re-listen to these episodes.
They are two of our very best.
Garrett and I took this decision very seriously
and I'm excited for you to listen.
Also keep in mind that there's still
new content on Onomedia. We have Rise and Crime. I have Into the Dark which is posting new episodes,
new content and then we're always over on TikTok, on Instagram posting things so you don't have to
miss us too much. Again, this is just a blast from the past. I hope this is fun to go back and
re-listen to these episodes. They are good ones and you're not going to want to miss it.
Okay?
I love you guys and I'm just going to let you get into it.
Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast.
This is Murder With My Husband.
I'm Peyton Moreland.
And I'm Garret Moreland.
And he's the husband.
And I'm the husband.
This week has been such a long week.
It feels like it's been so long since we last recorded recorded but I feel a lot better just sitting down right here I feel like we have a community of love
and support so thank you so much for making this be the place that I want to
go after a long week we just wanted to say thanks to everyone who is supporting
our ads and supporting us and supporting the show we really appreciate it and a
reminder that patreon is ad free so if you'd rather support the show that way you can check it out at patreon.com slash murder with my husband
All right, Gare. We forgot your ten seconds last week. We had some difficulties and everyone has been waiting for it
So what is your ten seconds? I am telling the story this week. Just kidding. You can't say that
Oh my gosh, people really want you to tell the story. I should have paused a little bit longer
just to see if everyone was like, oh my gosh.
I keep telling him that you guys keep sending in
a request for him to do it and he just, he won't do it.
I will do one eventually.
One of these days.
Okay, but what's your real 10 seconds?
My real 10 seconds, a couple.
I'm still playing pickleball.
Arlan is still green.
And the
last one is the other day I was scrolling through the DMs and there's a DM that said
a group of us, a group of guys, they listened to the podcast and it's a bunch of construction
workers and they all work on it while they're building homes. I don't know exactly. I forgot
because it was a while ago and I just tried to find it but I couldn't find it I forgot because it was a while ago. Yeah, and I just try to find it
But I couldn't find it, but he said if you could do a shout out, that'd be awesome
I thought it was I thought it'd be pretty funny. They're all like working it. Anyways, so I saw the DM shout out
Our DMs have been very packed and we are very behind and they've been flooded and so we're trying our best
But just know that we are seeing your messages
and you are not forgotten about
because there are a lot in there right now.
Anyways, I hope they're listening to this.
Yeah, me too.
Okay, so our case sources this week is some YouTube videos.
This is Monsters, explore with us, the Waller family,
and then also celebsaga.com, medium.com,
maricopa-county-att, attorney.org and legacy.com.
So our case this week begins in 2006 in Glendale, Arizona.
It's actually Christmas Day and families everywhere are spending time together on their days off,
but specifically father and husband Don Waller is looking forward to Christmas dinner that night with all of his children.
But as dinner starts and the Waller's adult son, 18-year-old Ryan Waller,
fails to show up for the family dinner, the whole entire family is confused.
They try calling, but they get no answer and their confusion turns into worry
when the night comes to a close and they still haven't seen or heard from their son Ryan.
Don decides to head over to his son's apartment in the late hours of Christmas night, but
he also actually calls the police to have them come along and be the ones to conduct
the welfare check on his son at his apartment in Phoenix.
So with Don Waller waiting outside, the police arrive at the apartment.
They knock, but no one answers.
They announce themselves and knock again,
and this is when they hear the deadbolt unlock
from the other side of the door.
Standing there at the door is missing Ryan Waller himself.
He's alive, but he does have an intense bruise over one eye
that is now like completely swollen shut.
Like you can't even see his eyeball.
He also has some other minor scratches can't even see his eyeball. Okay.
He also has some other minor scratches and bruises to his face.
The police ask him like, hi, are you Ryan Waller?
And he doesn't reply.
He just looks at them.
They tell him they are here to conduct a welfare check because his father called them because
he missed the family's Christmas dinner that night.
And once again, Ryan really doesn't respond.
He just kind of stares at the police. They look inside the house from the front
porch kind of like looking around him and they notice a woman laying on the
couch. They ask Ryan, okay hey what happened to your eye? Like why is it
black? Why is it swollen shut? And once again he says nothing. I wonder, I was gonna say it
sounds like there's almost someone behind him. Well there is a woman laying on the couch behind him. A little on edge, the police ask him, hey is that your
girlfriend Heather on the couch? They tell him your dad told us that she was supposed to come along
too, that you had been with her, so we're checking to make sure she's okay too. And Ryan responds
with I don't, I don't know. He, I don't know who that is on the couch.
They ask him, okay, well, is that woman back there sleeping?
And Ryan becomes defensive.
He says he doesn't know, he becomes very annoyed with them.
He's being short, he's rolling his eyes.
Police tell him, hey, well, we need to go inside.
We need to check on her too.
Like we're here for your girlfriend, Heather too.
Ryan becomes agitated with them at this point.
He says, he says, no, he's like, no, you can't come in.
And they say, okay, Ryan, calm down.
We're the police and we get to come in because we need to like perform this welfare check.
But Ryan really isn't using like complete sentences.
It's more just like short answers.
He just seems very annoyed with cops.
Eventually the police tell him he's gonna have to move over
so they can check on her and so he does step aside.
Upon entry into Ryan's apartment,
Phoenix police come upon a disturbing scene.
21 year old Heather Kwan, Ryan Waller's girlfriend,
is on the couch, but it's pretty clear to police
that she is not asleep or alive or well. She's dead, huh?
Heather is dead on the living room couch.
Police noted that she had been shot in the head.
Don Waller, Ryan's father, is waiting outside for any news.
He is relieved when the front door opens and the police walk out with what appears
to be his son. The bruise on the side of Ryan's face kind of made him do a double
take. But after a second look, he confirms that is his son, Ryan Wallise on the side of Ryan's face kind of made him do a double take, but after a second look he confirms that is his son Ryan Waller walking out with police. The
relief Don fills is quickly overcome with confusion when he also notices that the police
are escorting his son Ryan out of the apartment in handcuffs.
Ryan is taken to a police car and put into the back seat of it, like basically in holding.
Phoenix police had dispatched paramedics for Heather
to also assess the situation.
And when they arrived shortly after around 1.30 AM,
they rushed in to tend to Heather,
but they too confirm Heather's status
and they deem her too far gone.
Like there's nothing they can do.
The responders walk back out to their vehicle
and they drive away.
This seems too simple.
Like he just answered the door, his girlfriend's dead on the couch inside.
Like it seems like he's annoyed.
He doesn't want him to come in.
Right.
There's going to be more to the story.
Well, I'll find out.
So why was Ryan Waller would appear to be injured, but sitting handcuffed in the back
of a police car while paramedics drove away?
Police say that after finding Heather dead on the couch, they asked him what happened. He
once again wouldn't talk much. He just kept saying he didn't know. Almost like
he's in shock. Almost like he's in shock. They ask him why he was in there with
her dead on the couch and like didn't call the police. He ignores them. He says
he doesn't know. He doesn't know. When he would talk, he would like kind of contradict his last sentence. He doesn't
know what happened, but he mentions the names Alicia and Eric, like out of the
blue, he just starts mentioning these people. The strange behavior from a very
conscious and coherent and also alive Ryan, combined with his dead girlfriend
on the couch, made police suspicious and they immediately look at him as a
suspect.
They quickly assumed that Ryan and Heather had gotten into a fight that morning that escalated to him shooting her
and so they're going to bring him in for questioning. What I thought is weird is it didn't seem like he was trying to hide her.
Well, he was like annoyed and agitated, but it was very obvious. There was a woman on the couch behind him. He didn't like put her in a different room. Yeah, nothing.
When someone knocked on the door, like nothing.
But he was defensive when the police got there.
Yeah.
So as Don Waller stands outside watching the scene unfold,
which is police investigating the crime scene, the medical examiner
looking at Heather Kwan's lifeless body inside,
Ryan Waller is eventually driven away to the police station
to be interrogated.
He had been sitting in the back of the police car for over three hours as they like sat
there and worked the crime scene, got the paramedics there, sent them away.
And they eventually arrive with him at the station around 5 a.m.
So we are now going to dissect the infamous hour long interrogation footage of Ryan Waller. And this footage is what breaks this case.
So hold onto your seats.
Every detail in this interrogation is vital,
which is why we will be dissecting it.
We will try to insert some of this footage onto YouTube
and maybe some audio clips here and there.
So the footage begins with Ryan alone,
sitting alone in the interrogation room.
He is now changed into a white jumpsuit. He's handcuffed to the table with one arm.
He has a very noticeable large and graphic bruise to one of his eyes.
It's so large that you can see that his eye is swollen shut from the corner camera that's in the room.
He also has noticeable bruises on his face.
As he sits alone in the room,
you can tell that he's uncomfortable, he's agitated,
and occasionally he lets out like these short moans,
like or sighs or moans, like he's just, he's not talking,
he's just kind of letting out these noises.
He stands up and sits down multiple times,
but he's still handcuffed to the table.
So every time he stands up, he like gets gets tugged on and then he sits back down.
I think it's strange that he hasn't denied anything yet like it wasn't me I don't
know what happened or...
Yeah nothing nothing just I don't know I don't know throws a few names out.
Eventually a detective comes into the room to take some pictures of Ryan and
it's during these pictures that Ryan talks really
for the first time in the footage.
I just want to go home.
You're not gonna go home.
I know.
They're like, hey, can you turn to the side?
And he'll turn and then just say, I just want to go home.
I just want to go to sleep.
I just want to go home.
That's all he's saying.
The detective kind of mumbles back to Ryan at this point.
You can hear him and he says, you should go to the doctor if you're going anywhere.
And Ryan's like, why? Is it because of my eye? And he's like, yeah. And Ryan says, is my eye bad? And the detective tells him, yeah, I would say it's really bad.
During all of this, Ryan is still periodically letting out like these weird noises.
Eventually, another detective comes in to start the interrogation.
And one of the first things he asks Ryan is if he knows why he's in here and being questioned.
Ryan says no. He's fidgety and distressed. He can't stop moving.
And from an outside perspective, it's almost like he's really annoyed that he's sitting in there being questioned.
Has he not looked in the mirror at his eye?
No.
He didn't know what his eye looked like, yeah.
But it's swollen shut, like he can't even,
and it's big, like the bruise is almost half of his face.
I can just imagine him going like, is it bad?
Yeah, he points up to it and he goes, is it really bad?
Okay.
When the detective begins to read Ryan his Miranda rights,
he asks Ryan if he's ever seen cops or CSI to try to explain to him like what he's doing.
And Ryan goes, no. And the detective is like, you haven't seen cops? And he's like, no. He goes, okay, well, I'm reading you your rights. And then Ryan goes, yes, I have seen it.
What? So the detective's already like, okay.
After the detective reads Ryan his rights,
he asks him, okay, what's the highest grade
you made it into school?
Like he's trying to get some details on Ryan.
He's, I mean, detectives do this.
They like set up a relationship with them first
before they jump right into the heavy questions, right?
So he says, what's the highest grade
you made it to in school? And Ryan says, I don't know.
I don't know. And he's like, well, like, did you like, did you graduate? What's
the highest grade? And he says, eighth grade. Did you graduate? Yeah. Have they
talked to the dad at this point? Yes, they've talked to him, but not a not a
ton. Like they just said, we're taking him in for questioning basically so the detective says
Do you have a GED?
I don't know
You don't know what?
I don't know
I just want to go home
You're not going to go home right now
He basically just he wants to go home
That's how it feels.
Yes.
So the detective asks Ryan, okay,
do you have a girlfriend?
And Ryan just kind of goes,
he then asks if he knows Heather
because Heather is the woman on the couch.
And so he's, the detective is kind of like,
he's ignoring me.
So I've got to start jumping into like these questions.
So he says, do you know Heather?
And Ryan says, mm-hmm.
And he says, okay, what's Heather's know Heather? And Ryan says, mm-hmm. And he says, okay, what's Heather's last name?
And he says, mm-hmm.
What in the world is going on?
He says, okay, what's the last name?
And Ryan's like, I don't know her last name.
And he's like, you don't know Heather's last name.
And he goes, it's Kymann,
which is not Heather's last name.
And he says he can't spell Kymann.
He's like, it's Kymann, okay, can you spell Kymann?
And he's like, no.
So the detective's like,
why is he lying about these simple things that don't matter?
Like he knows Heather,
but he's not telling me her real last name.
Yeah, I mean, he doesn't sound like he's there at all.
Exactly.
The detective is like obviously suspicious of this behavior.
Ryan is acting like he barely knows Heather,
even though Heather was just found in his house
where she was murdered.
Ryan was dating Heather,
and no matter what happened at that house,
he would have feelings about what he's being asked,
but he's acting like he wasn't even there.
He's like not even pretending to care.
He asks how old Heather is, and Ryan says 16 or 17.
We know Heather is 21 years old.
The detective asks more questions about Heather
and the majority of the answers from Ryan are,
I don't know, or sentences that don't really make much sense
like we've seen before.
Eventually the detective asks Ryan
what happened to his face.
You remember who hit you?
Oh, I don't know. I think it was Heather. You remember who hit you? Oh, I don't know.
I think it was Heather.
Why would Heather hit you?
I don't know.
It was an accident.
I forget why.
What was an accident?
Heather's last name?
No.
What was an accident?
Heather hitting me.
He just completely jumped back to the subject
they were talking about earlier.
Yeah. Even though they had moved on to
Heather hitting him. So do they keep interviewing him? Are they gonna just stop and be like we need to take a break?
Well, so I think the detective here is thinking this is pretty common like sometimes if they're questioning someone
they'll go in and they'll purposely act like this or they'll purposely lie or be defensive or
be like too smart for the detective.
And it's not like, I mean, he's acting agitated.
He's frustrated.
He's raising his voice.
He's like, I don't know.
I don't know.
He's acting annoyed.
And so I think the detective is also on edge.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
So despite the confusion, the randomness and the irritation in Ryan's voice,
the detective keeps on asking about the injury,
but his answers only get worse from here.
Ryan says that Heather hit him with her hand
and then when he's asked why, he replies with,
she was helping Christina with her head doing her hair.
And the detective is like, Ryan, who is Christina? And Ryan says she's on the couch. And the detective
asks, Okay, what's Christina's last name? Like, what does
Christina look like? And Ryan raises his voice and in a very
annoyed tone says, I don't know, I really don't know, man. So
confused. So the detective asks more questions about this new Christina. But after some more annoyed, I don't know, man. So confused. So the detective asks more questions
about this new Christina.
But after some more annoyed I don't knows,
the detective displays frustration.
He begins shaking his head.
You can tell he's annoyed.
He's probably so confused as well.
And he's just annoyed with Ryan's behavior.
Like, Ryan's not answering any questions.
He's ignoring him half the time.
So at this point, the detective starts
asking Ryan about a couple different people that he had like mentioned earlier back at the crime scene
and Ryan claims to know none of them. So after some back and forth of this the
detective just jumps right to the point. He's annoyed you can tell he's annoyed
so he just jumps right to it. He asks Ryan what happened last night.
What happened last night? I don't know. You don't know? I really don't.
I just wanna go to sleep and go to sleep.
The detective tries asking more questions
about Christina on the couch,
and Ryan says, no, Heather was on the couch.
Oh my gosh, this is giving me a headache.
So when the detective confronts him
about the contradiction in his statement,
he's like, Ryan, you just said Christina was on the couch.
Ryan once again raises his voice.
He's moving, he's agitated, he's slamming down in his chair.
And he says, I don't know, I just want to go to sleep, man.
I just want to go to sleep.
The detective asks, okay, we're going to start over.
What happened last night?
He's like, I don't know.
The detective is like, why is your nose all beat up? He's like, I don't know. Who is Heather? Eric's
girlfriend. Okay, Heather's Eric's girlfriend? No, she's my girlfriend. I
don't know. I don't know. I just want to go to sleep. I don't know. I don't know
how the detective is still asking him questions. I'd be so frustrated. I'm
frustrated and you're just listening to this.
So once again, the detective asks,
okay, let's go back to what he just said.
So Heather hit you in the eye, right?
Like you said that earlier, Heather hit you in the eye.
Ryan goes, no, Alicia did.
He's just saying random names.
What is going on?
So the detective asks, okay, then why did Alicia hit you?
And he says, she probably hit it on something. Confused, the detective asks, okay, then why did Alicia hit you? And he says, she probably hit it on something.
Confused, the detective asks, hit what on something?
And he's like, I don't know, I don't know.
So as you can tell, this interrogation is going in circles.
It's not cohesive, it's not productive.
But it's as if the only, like only the detective knows that.
It seems like Ryan isn't even comprehending
or recognizing how his story is changing.
Like he can't even keep up with the conversation enough
to realize that he just said it was Heather
and then Alicia and then Christina.
Only the detective is like, am I real?
Like, is this happening right now?
Is this what's really going on?
So the detective just flat out kind of tells Ryan
in a very forceful voice, you know that girl in your house is dead. That girl that was
behind you in the house, she's dead. And Ryan says, Heather? And the detective
says, you tell me. And Ryan says, the girl on the couch is dead? And he says, I don't
know if she's on the couch. Ryan then says something that will confuse everyone even more.
Well, these people came over, Ruchi and his dad,
with a shooting arrow, bow and darts.
You know what I'm talking about?
Yeah.
They hit me and her with those.
That's it.
And Heather wasn't there.
And Eric wasn't there.
It was just me and
Heather it's like he's in a dream right now Yes
So Ryan has now been in the interrogation room for over 30 minutes
And this is the first time that he's mentioned intruders coming over like really it's the first time he's talked about any
Possibility of what could have happened that night
And he also name drops Richie and his dad,
these two, another two names.
So the detective, thinking that Ryan is finally
creating a fake story that somewhat explains
how his girlfriend was dead on his couch,
asks them again, okay, okay, so what,
tell me exactly what happened.
Ryan says that Richie and his dad tried to break in
through the back and that Richie used to live there in that apartment as a roommate of his.
And that Richie and his dad hit him because they were trying to get their stuff.
So the detective then asks, okay, and they did this with a bow and an arrow.
And Ryan says, mm-hmm, they each had two revolvers and they didn't let off any shells.
So the detective, extremely annoyed, tells Ryan,
you just said they had bows and arrows.
He's not even, he's speaking English,
but he's not speaking English.
He's like, you just said they had bows and arrows
and now they have revolvers?
And Ryan goes, no, that's what I meant.
They had revolvers.
I meant they had revolvers.
So this next part is the most important part
of this whole footage. The detective asks, okay, what happened next? And Ryan says, they shot us both.
And the detective says, they shot both of you with revolvers?
And Ryan says, yeah, they shot me in my eye.
They have revolvers.
Yes.
And then what happened?
And then they shot us both.
They shot both of you? Yeah. Where'd they shoot you at?
I got shot in the eye. You got shot in the eye? I think so. With a revolver? I think. I don't know man, I don't know.
Holy crap. And the detective says you don't know a lot Ryan and he says did you shoot Heather?
And Ryan's like no I didn't shoot Heather.
The detective says, tell me the truth, Ryan.
He's so frustrated.
Ryan says, Richie and his dad came over,
and I don't know, I don't know, they came over.
He says that they put him in a sleeping hold,
and he lived through it.
I'm almost starting to believe him,
because this story is so confusing.
Yes.
So the detective's like, OK, Ryan,
what's a sleeping hold?
And he just continues to say, I don't know.
I really don't know.
The detective confronts him with what has
gone on in this interrogation.
He says, OK, Ryan, listen up.
According to you, Heather hit you.
No, Alicia hit you.
No, Heather and Christina are on the couch.
Never mind, Alicia, Christina, and Eric aren't even there. Richie and his dad
broke in through the back and shot him with bows. Never mind, it was revolvers
and then they shot him in the eye. And he's like, mm-hmm. The detective is like,
okay, was the gun a BB gun? Ryan goes, no, it was a revolver. The detective says,
Ryan, if they shot you in the eye with a revolver you
wouldn't be talking to me right now. Ryan says, how do you know? He says, because you'd be dead.
Ryan says, well I thought that too man. He just says over and over he wants to go to sleep, he
wants to go to bed. The detective says, that's not going to happen bud. Like your girlfriend was just
found dead on your couch and you're lying right now. You can't even tell a straight story. He asks if Richie and his dad shot Heather after they broke in through the back door of the kitchen.
Ryan says yes and this part takes a lot of pull from like an insinuation from the detective
as he tries to piece together Ryan's story for him. And so he's like maybe Richie and his dad knocked and you open
the door and they push their way in and they shot you and he's like yeah yeah
yeah and he goes and then they shot Heather in the face and he's like yeah
yeah. Oh and Ryan says that during this time he was trying to get up off the
ground but he saw Heather sleeping so he just laid back down. Okay. The detective
says none of this makes sense. He confronts Ryan saying right now
You're saying that you've been shot in the eye with a revolver Ryan says yes, the detective doesn't believe him
He tells Ryan to tell the truth. He asks him what happened to Heather last night
What did you do to Heather last night and Ryan says?
Her dad came and shot up the whole house. Oh my gosh
I can't so the detective at this point, you can see,
he throws his arms up in the air in frustration.
I've seen some pretty frustrating interrogations
where people are lying.
They're not telling the truth.
I've never seen a detective so frustrated.
He throws his arms up, and he's like, her dad
came and shot up the house.
And he's like, yeah.
And he goes, so Richie is Heather's
dad Ryan says mm-hmm Ryan says that after he was shot in the eye he tried
to go back to sleep and he didn't call 911 because he wanted to go to sleep
because the detectives like okay well if Richie Heather's dad who is not Heather's
dad by the way Heather's dad is not no but according to Ryan's story right now
it is after he shot her why didn't Ryan call 911?
He's like, well, I just wanted to go to sleep, man.
He's like, okay.
So the detective asks, why did you shoot Heather Ryan?
He goes, I didn't.
She was shot once by her brother, I swear.
So it was Richie, her dad, and now her brother.
The detective says, and you were shot in the eye too.
Ryan says yes. Okay, I want to reiterate something to you. The whole half of his face basically
is black. His eye is completely swollen shut. So I'm thinking, don't know, so when
he said he got shot, does he mean he actually got shot with a gun or a bow
and arrow? He said no, I meant a revolver. He said I got shot with a gun or a bow and arrow? He said, no, I meant a revolver.
He said I got shot with the revolver.
So I'm thinking that a revolver, he had a gun or there was a gun and a revolver hit his face.
Oh, like with the butt of the gun or whatever?
That's what I'm kind of thinking. Not that he was actually shot with a bow and arrow.
But he was hit with one and that's why he's saying that.
Yeah. Okay, so at this point, with all of the things going on,
with him being so agitated, with him talking in circles,
not making sense.
I think, sorry, before you go on,
I think he probably has a concussion.
Yes.
I mean, half of his face is bruised.
So that could be why he's speaking like this.
I have no idea.
Yeah.
So the detective at this point,
his frustration starts to turn into like worry.
Okay.
Because he's like,
Something's wrong.
Something's wrong.
Like he's like, something's wrong.
I'm not sure what's going on,
but he's not even making sense.
All he wants to do is go to sleep.
And so he's like like he starts to worry so
he asks Ryan hey can I take a closer look at your face because he starts to
think okay maybe this guy has a really bad concussion and he needs to be seeing
a doctor right now not talking to me so he says can I take a closer look at your
wounds he stands up and he's still a little frustrated you can tell but he's
trying to figure out what's going on so he looks at Ryan's face and the second he touches like Ryan's head,
Ryan goes, Oh, my head hurts.
So the detective like abruptly gets up and exits the room at this point.
Like he just walks out of the room and when he comes back into the room,
it's like a completely new detective, but it's the same guy.
His demeanor has changed the way he's talking. His changed.
He comes walking back in and in a very compassionate and calm voice,
he tells Ryan that the fire department is coming back and they're going to take
him over to the hospital. They've,
they've dispatched the fire department to come look at him. Okay.
Ryan goes, you're taking me to the hospital? And he's like,
yeah. And he goes, why? I don't want to go to the hospital. I just want to go to bed. And the cop
uncuffs him and says, we just need to make sure you're okay. The cop uncuffs him. So he was a
suspect and he was cuffed, but now he's uncuffed. All right. So what happened? He just needs to make
sure he's okay. So they both sit there and they wait despite Ryan's pleas to go to sleep. He's like, I don't want to go to the hospital. I just want to go to
sleep. Finally, the paramedics enter the room and as they do, the detective mumbles, you're
not going to believe this one. He tells them, I looked closer at his face. He keeps telling
me that he was shot or hit by a revolver And he starts whispering and he says, I think these wounds right here near the nose
is a gunshot entrance that passed through his nose
and went into his eye.
Oh my gosh.
So he's actually shot.
So the fire department walks in,
they start looking at him and it's a big rush.
Holy crap.
And you guys are all probably as heartbroken
and sick as I was when I first heard this
because now what you know, this whole story is awful.
Yeah, like he was telling the truth.
He was telling the truth.
But he couldn't speak because he was just shot
in the face. He literally has a bullet in his eye.
Holy crap.
Yes, so Ryan Waller was shot in the face, the bullet lodging in his head.
And then he was forced to wait in his house, holding on to life,
until the police showed up and arrested him,
holding him in the backseat of a cop car for hours,
and then demanding he talk to them, treating him
like he was a criminal
for almost a whole hour before finally calling
for medical attention to him.
So they literally had no idea.
I mean, could you just not tell that he was shot?
You couldn't tell he was shot.
There was no blood.
I mean, you would think if someone was shot in the face,
they would die, number one.
And number two, there was no blood.
But looking at him and we will post pictures,
he needed to see medical attention.
The second he answered the door and they saw his face.
Yeah, I haven't seen the picture yet.
That is how bad his face is.
Like I'm saying the tiny little corner,
like you can see how injured his face is
just from the corner camera.
Poor guy.
I don't know how paramedics showed up You can see how injured his face is just from the corner camera poor guy. I
Don't know how
Paramedics showed up to look at Heather on the couch to make sure he was she was dead
While Ryan was in the back of the cop car and they never once stopped to make sure he was okay
Okay, even though half of his face was black and you couldn't even see his eye because it was so swollen. So did he live? Is he okay?
So Ryan Waller was actually held by police
for roughly six hours with a bullet in his brain.
How was he a lot? Wait, a bullet was in his brain?
Yes, it's in his eye, which went into his brain.
And he had obvious signs of trauma and pain.
Like he was sounding like he was not okay
He wasn't even speaking coherent sentences six hours during which he was experiencing
worsening brain damage
Six hours where he could have been getting surgery for his active injuries and at this point the police department is hoping that it's not true
They're hoping this isn't a bullet because if if it is, there really is a bullet in Ryan's
head.
They have neglected a victim for hours.
Even after he had tried to tell them he had been shot.
He said, I've been shot and they sat in there for another 30 minutes questioning him.
At 6 30 a.m.
Ryan was taken to the hospital after casually walking out of the room when they tell
him his ambulance is there. This part of the video was gut-wrenching to watch because he there's a
piece of paper that they put on the table so if he has notes he wants to write he can and as he
gets up they're like hey buddy your ambulance is here and he stands up and he looks at the table
and he grabs this piece of paper that has no writing on it at all
And he walks out with it
He grabs it like it's important and he walks out with it because he's that confused or guy and my heart just breaks
for him in that moment I
That's so hard because I
Don't I don't know. I mean I wasn't there but the way you were telling it. It just sounded like he was
being kind of
crazy I don't know but I'm sure if maybe if I saw his face I would have thought
differently yeah well after being rushed to the hospital with what doctors
determined to be life-threatening injuries and in critical condition
police went back to Ryan's apartment and checked it out they tracked down Richie
the possible ex-roommate that Ryan had been kind of talking about, and discovered that Ryan's sad and fogged recollection
of the events that night were true. On December 23rd, 2006, Ryan and Heather were
spending a night in together eating pizza, being in love, when they heard a
knock at the door. Some sources say that Richie
and Ryan had actually gotten into a fight when they like lived together that possibly involved
a standoff with guns and so Richie came back that night for revenge. Richie and his dad, Larry,
ambushed Ryan and Heather. Ryan fought back trying to force the door closed. So they knocked. He opened
it, realized it was them, tried to force it closed. But Richie got his arm through the
door and shot Ryan in the face twice.
Oh my gosh, that's horrible.
The first bullet was the one the detective finally noticed. And the other one actually
skimmed the side of his head, taking a piece of his skull and then exiting. Ryan fell to the floor and Richie and Larry pushed their way in.
They reportedly only walked over to Heather on the couch and shot her
because she was a witness. They took some weapons and a computer from the house
and they left thinking both Ryan and Heather were inside dead. Richie Carver
was sentenced to a term of natural life in 2008
and Larry, his father, initially was released because the only physical evidence from the
crime was only linked to Richie and all police had were Larry's wife's confession that he
told her he did it so they had to let him go because
Did Richie not tell them that his dad was with him?
But according to AJ Wiseman with TheMedium. medium calm Heather Kwan's family actually appealed to Arizona
Legislators to use what is now known as Heather's law which revokes the marital privilege law
So Larry Carver was finally reindicted in November 2011 and he was convicted of first-degree murder and is also
Serving a life term is so crazy. I didn't think that he was convicted of first-degree murder and is also serving a life term. It's so crazy. I didn't think that he was shot. I thought maybe he was just, oh my
gosh, I'm mind blown. Yeah. So after being rushed to the hospital, Ryan was immediately
taken into surgery where they had to remove a section of his brain. He had a
shattered eye socket, swelling, bleeding, bone and a section of his brain. He had a shattered eye socket, swelling, bleeding,
bone and bullet fragments in his brain.
It's also known for sure that his one eye was removed
due to the damage, but there is speculation
that the hospital actually removed both eyes
in order to appropriately fix the damage to the brain.
So this guy sat here with the police
and then went to surgery and got both of his eyes taken out because it was that bad. So he's permanently blind. Okay. If you remember,
I said that this happened the night of the 23rd, but Ryan wasn't found until Christmas,
the night of the 25th. So this means not only was Ryan held by police for that long, he also spent almost two whole days
shot and confused in his apartment with his girlfriend decomposing on the couch.
It's crazy.
No one knows what happened during this time, but it's heartbreaking to even think about those two
days that he spent so confused in his house. So if you're confused right now,
you have to understand that Ryan was shot in the brain.
It ruined the part of his brain. He couldn't function. He could,
he could function like he could talk. He could walk.
He could kind of follow a conversation, but he wasn't there.
He wasn't there. His brain had been shot. He's more just kind of like a robot.
Like he, it took a ton of pushing for him to even be able
to say I was shot.
I don't even think he knew he had been shot
until this detective and pushed him over
and over and over again.
And he was trying so hard to remember
that he finally like said it.
And this is why he said,
bow and arrow, no revolver no
Heather no Alicia or guy he was just and this is why he wanted to go to sleep
yeah he was in so much pain but he because he had been shot in the brain he
couldn't look at the detective and say I've been shot I need help yeah he
couldn't he couldn't say it Ryan's life after the injury has remained private out of respect for him and his family.
He was permanently blind though,
but because of the injuries,
Ryan also repeatedly suffered seizures.
And heartbreakingly, he passed away at the age of 28
on January 21st, 2016,
due to a seizure caused by these injuries.
So to me, that means that Ryan was not an attempted murder by Richie and Larry Carver.
He was murdered by Richie and Larry Carver because he died at a very young age because
of the injuries from them.
According to a YouTube comment supposedly from the Waller family on this is monsters episode about this case
The Waller family said for all of you that have asked if we filed a lawsuit against the Phoenix police
We did we had a 15 million dollar lawsuit against the city of Phoenix
The lawsuit went on for nearly three and a half years and just three weeks before the trial was set to start, the city filed a motion for dismissal with the court because they had stated that they had found
a brain expert that said the six hour delay where Ryan was with the cops in Ryan's treatment
probably didn't make a difference in his outcome and that he would have had the same damage
had he received treatment right away or six hours later.
The Waller family says, I paid an expert witness brain surgeon a $10,000 retainer and he
would have testified something a whole lot different. He would have testified
that when a brain is bleeding it is swelling and when it is swelling
catastrophic damage is being done so every minute that he was with the
police was critical. Totally. This motion went before Judge Robert Boudoff and he dismissed our case.
There's no doubt in my heart or mind that he was paid off.
There's no way that this should have been dismissed.
There were many other issues besides the six hour delay.
What about pain and suffering?
What about extremely irresponsible negligence?
The City of Phoenix attorneys, police officers, and detectives involved in this case
were collectively corrupt in getting this case dismissed and swept under the rug.
We were three weeks from getting our day in court when magically they got this case dismissed because they knew if it had gone to a jury, there's no way they would have had a chance.
But rather than take responsibility for their horrible crimes, they showed they are not much better than the two men that shot Heather and Ryan.
Dang. Poor Heather and Ryan. Hey poor Heather and Ryan, that's horrible. And even if Ryan looked
only badly beaten, he should have been examined first. If you remember one of
the first things said in the interrogation video is a detective
saying if you're gonna need to go see anything you need to go see a doctor.
Yeah. Him saying is my eye that bad Yeah, I would say it's really bad.
So they knew.
They knew that something was wrong, but they just thought he was the suspect.
Once again, the boyfriend, the husband is the first suspect always,
which is how he was immediately treated as a suspect.
No one has been held liable or accountable for the negligence that happened that day.
It was really disturbing for me,
and I cried watching the interrogation footage
knowing what we all know now.
You feel so disgusted when this sweet victim
with a bullet in his brain who is barely functioning
walks in this room is moaning.
It almost seemed comical like it was an act.
But think if you can sit here and say,
this is almost comical, it doesn't make sense.
Where was the adult in the room saying,
this doesn't make sense.
Something's going on.
Something is wrong.
Where was the adult to say, half of his face is black.
There is a hole in his nose.
The bullet entered the tip of his nose,
exited through the side of his nose and lodged in his eye.
There is a bullet hole in his nose and
No medical treatment for six hours. Yeah, it's insane
He was in such distress. He was so confused He's in so much pain in the video and you can tell the human body is a complex thing and you want to believe that if he
Had been shot he wouldn't be able to talk he wouldn't be able to to walk, but his brain had been hit. He had immense swelling and bleeding.
His thoughts were second by second. He was living in the moment. That's why he
didn't remember what he had been asked before or after. Like his brain
just wasn't there. He was in survival mode and I think the only reason he was
able to actually recall what happened was because the detective was pushing
him so hard and he just kept saying, I don't know.
I don't know, man. He was frustrated. He couldn't remember.
He couldn't figure it out. Ryan Waller is a hero.
He was strong enough to capture his and his girlfriend's murderers all on his
own. After being shot twice,
he was able to say what happened after being shot twice.
He cared and he fought
So there is this website called legacy.com where people can be remembered and Heather Marie Kwan has a profile on there
So you can log on and you can read the amazing things people have written about her and who she was before
She was a victim of this senseless crime. It's really beautiful. Like I love this website. I will be using it from here on out.
Heather was a graduate of Mountain Ridge High School.
She completed her education at Glendale Community College.
And at the time of the crime, she was a student at ASU.
She wanted to become a defense attorney.
She was a volunteer as a big sister
with the Valley Big Brother Sister Program.
She gave friendship to those who needed it most
and she was strong-willed.
So we are taking this day to remember Heather and Ryan
and what they went through,
Heather being a victim of a senseless crime
and Ryan being a victim of a senseless crime
and then continued to be treated as a suspect.
So crazy, when you were telling the story, I had no idea.
I thought honestly, because I didn't see any pictures of him. Yes. So you were telling the story, I had no idea. I thought, honestly, because I didn't see any pictures
of him.
So you were just reading me the interview
or telling the story of the interview.
It just sounded like he was like on drugs.
Like I said, like it didn't sound, it didn't sound real.
And here's my thing.
Like if you, I kind of wish we could go back.
If you would have showed me the picture,
if that would have changed how I was viewing the story.
I mean, it's bad.
Like he looks badly beaten up, but he's talking.
He's walking.
He's being defensive.
So I think-
You thought maybe they thought he was just on drugs
or something.
And I think when he first answers the door,
you're not like, oh, this is a victim.
But the second he can't put a sentence together,
this is why this interrogation footage is so infamous.
Because he's sitting there the whole time
with two gunshot wounds to his head.
Horrible, I thought there was gonna be some good news,
but there was-
No one's been held accountable.
There's no good news, Heather died. Brian died. It's, yeah.
What we can do is continue to tell the story
and help him receive the justice,
like publicly that he deserves
and help Heather be recognized.
Yeah.
That is this episode for this week.
Thank you again for all of your support.
We love you guys so much
and we will see you guys next week with another episode.
I love it.
And I hate it. Goodbye