Murder With My Husband - 78. Ryan Waller and Heather Quan - The Infamous Interrogation

Episode Date: September 20, 2021

On this episode of MWMH, Payton and Garrett discuss the murders of Ryan Waller and Heather Quan. LIVE ONLINE SHOW TICKETS HERE! https://www.moment.co/murderwithmyhusband Case Sources: This is MONST...ERS - 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 Links: https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband  Ads: Prose: www.prose.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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:25 Yes, you energy, energy for everything. Casp the banner now to learn more. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to our podcast. This is murder with my husband. I'm Peyton Morlan. And I'm Garrett Morlan. And he's the husband? I'm husband. This week has been such a long week.
Starting point is 00:00:40 Like, it feels like it's been so long since we last 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, Gary, we forgot your 10 seconds last week. We had some
Starting point is 00:01:13 difficulties and everyone has been waiting for it. So what is your 10 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 is 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.
Starting point is 00:01:34 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. Our lawn is still green. And the last one is the other day, I was scrolling through DMs. And I think there's a DM that said,
Starting point is 00:01:51 I'm a group of guys they listen 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. 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. Oh, it's so cool.
Starting point is 00:02:11 They're all like working it. So I saw the DM shout out. I didn't know I did. I know. 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.
Starting point is 00:02:32 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, MaricopaCountyAttorney.org and Legacy.com. So our case this week begins in 2006 in Glendale, Arizona. It's actually Christmas day and families everywhere 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 is looking forward to Christmas dinner that night with all of his children.
Starting point is 00:03:05 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.
Starting point is 00:03:26 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 dead bull unlock from the other side of the door. Standing there at the door is missing Ryan Waller himself.
Starting point is 00:03:55 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 and bruises to his face. The police ask him, like, higher, you Ryan Waller, and he doesn't reply. He just looks at them.
Starting point is 00:04:14 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.
Starting point is 00:04:33 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, as 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
Starting point is 00:04:50 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 says, 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.
Starting point is 00:05:16 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.
Starting point is 00:05:35 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.
Starting point is 00:06:04 Oh, she's dead, huh? Heather 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 Waller, walking out with police.
Starting point is 00:06:29 The relief dawn fills his 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 backseat 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 a.m., they rushed in to tend to Heather, but they too confirm Heather's status and they deemed her too far gone. Like, there's nothing they can do. The responders walk back out to their vehicle and they drive away.
Starting point is 00:07:02 This seems too simple. Like, like 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
Starting point is 00:07:21 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
Starting point is 00:08:01 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 way. Like a blank yet. Over her when someone knocked in the door like nothing, but he was defensive when the police got there.
Starting point is 00:08:30 Yeah. So as Don Waller stands outside watching the scene unfold, which is police investigating the crime scene, the medical examiner looking at Heather quan'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 through 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 And this footage is what breaks this case.
Starting point is 00:09:07 So hold on to 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 eyes 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,
Starting point is 00:09:46 you can tell that he's uncomfortable, he's agitated, and occasionally he lets out these short moans, like, or size, or moans, like, he's not talking, he's just kind of letting out these noises. He stands up and sits down multiple times, but he still handcuffs to the table, so every time he stands up, he gets tugged on and then he sits back down. I think it's strange that he hasn't denied anything yet.
Starting point is 00:10:11 Like, it wasn't me, I don't know what happened or... Yeah, nothing, nothing. Just, I don't know. I don't know. Throwes a few names out. Eventually, a detective comes in to 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. I'm not going to go home right now.
Starting point is 00:10:33 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.
Starting point is 00:10:48 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.
Starting point is 00:11:09 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 looks like. Yeah, but it's swollen shot like you can.
Starting point is 00:11:33 And it's big, like the bruises almost half of his face. I can just imagine from 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. Ryan goes, yes, I have seen it. What? So the tech is already like, okay,
Starting point is 00:12:06 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
Starting point is 00:12:32 he says, eight 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.
Starting point is 00:12:51 You don't know what? I don't know. I don't know. I just want to go home. I'm not going to go home right now. He basically just, he wants to go home. I think he does not want to go home. That's how it feels.
Starting point is 00:13:05 Okay. 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?
Starting point is 00:13:30 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 Kaiman, which is not Heather's last name. And he says, he can't spell Kaiman. He's like, it's Kymann, okay, can you spell Kymann? And he's like, no. So the detectives 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.
Starting point is 00:13:56 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,
Starting point is 00:14:12 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 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,
Starting point is 00:14:33 I don't know, or sentences that don't really make much sense like we've seen before. Okay. Eventually, the detective asks Ryan what happened to his face. Do you remember who hit you? Um, I don't know. I think it was Heather Do you remember who hit you? I don't know. I don't know. I think it was Heather.
Starting point is 00:14:47 Why would Heather hit you? I don't know. It was an accident. I forgot why. What was an accident? Heather's last name? No. What was an accident?
Starting point is 00:14:58 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 going to 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
Starting point is 00:15:22 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 like frustrated, he's raising his voice. He's like, I don't know, I don't know. Like, he's acting annoyed. And so I think the detective is also on edge, you know what I mean? This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.
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Starting point is 00:17:32 By going to rocketmoney.com slash husband. That's rocketmoney.com slash husband. Rocket money.com slash husband. 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?
Starting point is 00:18:12 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. I'm so confused. So the detective asks more questions about this new Christina, but after some more annoyed, I don't know, is the detective displays frustration. He begins shaking his head. You can tell he's annoyed.
Starting point is 00:18:31 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 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?
Starting point is 00:18:58 What happened last night? I don't know. You don't know. I really don't. I just want to go to sleep and go to sleep. Oh. 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 a statement, he's like, Ryan, you just said Christina was on the couch. Ryan once again raises his voice. and a statement. He's like, Ryan, you just said Christina was on the couch. Ryan once again raises his voice. He's moving.
Starting point is 00:19:29 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.
Starting point is 00:19:41 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 wanna go to sleep, I don't know. I don't know how the detective is still asking questions.
Starting point is 00:19:58 It's still asking him questions. I'd be so fra- I'm frustrated and- 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 rangos no elisha did He's just saying random names Is going on the detective asks okay, then why did elisha hit you and he says she probably hit it on something Confused the detective asks hit what on something and he's like probably hit it on something. Confused the detective asks, hit what on something?
Starting point is 00:20:27 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
Starting point is 00:20:51 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,
Starting point is 00:21:11 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 says something that will confuse everyone even more. Ryan says something that will confuse everyone even more. Well, these people came over, which ain't his dad. It's a shoot and arrow, but we're going dark. You know, talking about, yeah, that me and her with those, that's it. And the Heather wasn't there. The air wasn't there. It was just me and Heather. It's like he's in a dream right now.
Starting point is 00:21:46 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 named drops Richie and his dad. These two, another two names. So the detective thinking that Ryan is finally creating a fake story that someone explains how his girlfriend was dead on his couch asks him again, okay, okay.
Starting point is 00:22:16 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
Starting point is 00:22:38 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 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?
Starting point is 00:23:06 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? Then they shot us those.
Starting point is 00:23:22 They shot both of you? Yeah. Where did shoot you at? And Ryan's like, no, I didn't shoot Heather. The detective says, tell me the truth, Ryan. He's so frustrated. Ryan says, richian 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
Starting point is 00:23:57 and he lived through it. I'm almost starting to believe him because the story's so confusing. Yes, so the detectives like, okay, Ryan, what's the 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
Starting point is 00:24:13 in this interrogation. He says, okay, Ryan, listen up. According to you, Heather, 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.
Starting point is 00:24:30 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.
Starting point is 00:24:49 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. But 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
Starting point is 00:25:05 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 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
Starting point is 00:25:34 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.
Starting point is 00:26:00 Oh my gosh, I can't. So the detective at this point, you can see, he throws his arms up in the air and frustration. Like, 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.
Starting point is 00:26:24 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 here. Oh, it isn't, okay.
Starting point is 00:26:39 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.
Starting point is 00:26:58 The detective says, and you were shot in the eye too. Ryan says yes. Okay, I want to reiterate something to you. Okay. The whole half of his face basically is black Okay, his eye is completely swollen shut. So I'm thinking don't know So when he said he got shot this he mean he actually got shot with a gun or a bone arrow. He said no I meant to revolver. He said, I got shot with the revolver.
Starting point is 00:27:26 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 it. I'm kind of not that he was actually shot with a, but he was hit with one. And that's why he's saying that. Yeah. Okay.
Starting point is 00:27:42 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. I mean, his half of his face in his head. So that could be why he's speaking like this. I have no idea.
Starting point is 00:28:02 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, 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.
Starting point is 00:28:34 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
Starting point is 00:29:10 tells Ryan that the fire department is coming back and they're going to take him over to the hospital. 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.
Starting point is 00:29:34 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 pleased 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,
Starting point is 00:29:48 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 it's a big rush. Oh, crap.
Starting point is 00:30:20 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, but he was like I he was telling the truth He was telling the truth He couldn't speak because he was just shot. He literally has a bullet in his eye Holy crap. Yes So Ryan Waller was shot in the face Holy crap. Yes. So Ryan Waller was shot in the face, the bullet lodging in his head,
Starting point is 00:30:48 and then he was forced to wait in his house, holding onto life, until the police showed up and arrested him, holding him in the backseat of a cop car for hours, and then demanding he talked to them, treating him like he was a criminal, for almost a whole hour before finally calling for medical attention to him. They literally had no idea.
Starting point is 00:31:11 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 they, he answered the door and they saw his face. I haven't seen the picture yet. That is how bad his face is. Like I'm saying the
Starting point is 00:31:35 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 to look at Heather on the couch to make sure she was dead while Ryan was in the back of the cop car and they never once stopped to make sure he was okay. Even though half of his face was black and you couldn't even see his eye because it was so swollen. Jumping into an ad and it is native. I use their body wash. I use their shampoo.
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Starting point is 00:33:15 So Ryan Waller was actually held by police for roughly six hours with a bullet in his brain. Was he a lot wait a bullet was in his brain? Yes. It's in his eye, which bullet in his brain. 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
Starting point is 00:33:41 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 it is, there really is a bullet in Ryan's head. They have neglected a victim for hours.
Starting point is 00:33:59 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 6.30am, 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 there's a piece of paper that they put on the table
Starting point is 00:34:22 so if he has notes, he wants to write, he can. And as he gets up there, like, hey 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.
Starting point is 00:34:36 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. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:34:55 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-Rumate that Ryan had been kind of talking about and discovered that Ryan's sad and fogged
Starting point is 00:35:18 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 close, 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 that detective finally noticed, and the other one actually skimmed the side of his head, taking a piece
Starting point is 00:36:11 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? Mm-hmm.
Starting point is 00:36:50 But according to AJ Weisman with themedium.com, 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 re-indicted in November 2011 and he was convicted of first degree murder and is also serving a life term. It is so crazy. I didn't think that he was shot.
Starting point is 00:37:16 I thought maybe he was just, oh my gosh, a 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 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 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
Starting point is 00:37:51 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. 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.
Starting point is 00:38:32 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 function like he could talk. He could walk. He could kind of follow a conversation, 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
Starting point is 00:38:52 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 bone 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
Starting point is 00:39:36 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 21, 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. Yep. According to a YouTube comment, supposedly from the Waller family
Starting point is 00:40:13 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 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
Starting point is 00:40:35 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. This motion went before Judge Robert Boodoff and he dismissed
Starting point is 00:41:15 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.
Starting point is 00:41:36 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. Hey, poor Heather and Ryan is horrible. And even if Ryan looked only badly beaten, he should have been examined first. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:42:01 If you remember, one of the first things said in the interrogation video, is it detective saying, if you're gonna need to go see anything, you need to go see a doctor. 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.
Starting point is 00:42:19 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,
Starting point is 00:42:44 walks in this room, is moaning. 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?
Starting point is 00:43:04 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. It's insane. He was in such distress. He was so confused.
Starting point is 00:43:22 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 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,
Starting point is 00:43:38 that's why he didn't remember what he'd 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.
Starting point is 00:43:56 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's 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
Starting point is 00:44:24 things people have written about her and who she was before she was a victim of this senseless crime. It's really beautiful. 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
Starting point is 00:44:40 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 being a victim of a senseless crime and then continued to be treated as a suspect. It's so crazy.
Starting point is 00:45:08 When you were telling the story, I had no idea. I thought honestly, because I didn't think of pictures of him. And 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 is unreal. And here's my thing.
Starting point is 00:45:28 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, he's being defensive. So I think you thought me maybe they thought he
Starting point is 00:45:46 was. 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. Yeah, because he's sitting there the whole time with two gunshot wounds to his head horrible. I thought there was going to be some good news, but 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.
Starting point is 00:46:23 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. Bye.
Starting point is 00:46:36 you

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