Park Predators - The Pack

Episode Date: June 22, 2021

In 2015, a Canadian tourist and California therapist are slain inside parks surrounding San Francisco, California just a few days apart. The hunt for their murderers leads authorities on a wild chase that reveals a single predator isn't behind the killings, but rather, a trio of young people holds the key.Sources for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://parkpredators.com/the-pack/ Park Predators is an audiochuck production. Connect with us on social media:Instagram: @audiochuckTwitter: @audiochuckFacebook: /audiochuckllcTikTok: @audiochuck

Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra, and the case I'm going to share with you today is a wild one. Wild for so many reasons, but for me, I think it's probably one of the most depraved, violent, and senseless stories of murder I've researched so far this season. It involves three suspects, all incredibly young people, who chose to mar beautiful recreation areas in California's San Francisco Bay area with two heartless murders. Their homicidal rampage involved a strange love triangle, drugs, guns, and stolen cars that left authorities following a trail of breadcrumbs far into the Pacific Northwest. The path of murder started in Golden Gate Park in downtown San Francisco.

This park is super popular and each year hosts millions of visitors. It's a haven of nature, historic buildings, and special events, all set in the heart of one of America's major cities. One minute you can be crossing a busy street with traffic, and the next you're surrounded by beautiful landscape. I actually went here on my honeymoon back in 2019 and loved that I was surrounded by nature but could easily buy food or drink from a street vendor if I wanted to. The other park tied to this story is the Loma Alta Open Space Preserve just north of Golden Gate Park. This spot is much more secluded. A lot of people use the trails there to get away from city life and go hiking and camping.

At the highest point, you can stand almost 1,200 feet up and look down into the Bay Area. During the summer, Loma Alta gets super hot, and there are few places to find shade, so most people don't stay all day long. They go for short morning or evening walks. day long. They go for short morning or evening walks. In October 2015, Sean Angold, Morrison Lampley, and Lila Alligood took two lives in these park areas and forever changed two families and how Northern Californians look at youth wandering the streets of San Francisco. This is Park Predators. On Sunday, October 4th, 2015, Isabel Tremblay and a man named Benoit were messaging online.

Isabel and Benoit had known each other for years, and their families were really close. They were talking back and forth about how Isabel's 23-year-old daughter, Audrey Carey's backpacking trip was going. Audrey had been gone for over a week, and Isabel had been keeping in touch with her regularly as she traveled up America's west coast. Audrey had left her and her mother's home in the suburbs of Montreal in mid-September to spend two weeks adventuring around California and the Pacific Northwest. Isabel knew this trip was something her daughter had been planning for months, and because Audrey was somewhat of a free spirit and what her mother called, quote, a hippie on the side, end quote, Isabelle knew the adventure was going to be right up Audrey's alley. Before this, Audrey had spent the previous summer planting trees and staying busy with volunteer work, so taking the time to

see the world for herself was definitely a dream of hers. The weekend Isabelle and Benoit were messaging was supposed to be the start of Audrey's last week in the U.S. before returning home to Canada. According to the San Francisco Examiner, Benoit and Isabelle signed off for the night, but the very next morning, Benoit received a message from Isabelle that read, quote, my daughter was found dead, end quote. Two days before Benoit received that message, a person walking inside of Golden Gate Park in the heart of downtown San Francisco, California, 3,000 miles away from Montreal, had found a woman's lifeless body in the woods. According to multiple news reports, around 9.15 in the morning on Saturday,

October 3rd, the passerby walking near some woods along Golden Gate Park's golf course discovered the woman's bloody body lying face down in the dirt. The corpse was still clothed, but abandoned on the outskirts of a temporary music festival known as the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Whoever the woman was, she'd sustained gruesome injuries to her head. The night before the body's discovery was Friday, and that was sort of the kickoff night for the two-day music festival. On Saturday morning, when the body was found, tons of people were already making their way back to the event site. Time was of the essence to make sure that nobody disturbed the death scene. I mean, two hours before more artists were supposed to start performing

is when the body was found. Within minutes of getting that first 911 call, paramedics and police arrived on scene, and detectives roped off the area. Even though the spot where the woman was found was secluded, it's not like this area as a whole was in the middle of nowhere. It's actually right around the corner from the famous San Francisco Zoo and the Golden Gate Bridge. According to the San Francisco Examiner, police investigators realized right away that they were most likely dealing with a homicide.

From the looks of it, the victim had suffered severe wounds to her skull. From the looks of it, the victim had suffered severe wounds to her skull. The newspaper also reported that detectives found a cell phone and an ID card on the body. The driver's license indicated the young woman was 23-year-old Canadian tourist Audrey Carey. But because Audrey's injuries were so severe, they needed to compare her dental records to the body in order to confirm who she was for sure. The next day, the results came back as a match. On Monday morning, San Francisco police notified Canadian authorities and officers broke the terrible news to Audrey's mom, Isabel. The next day, Isabel released a statement to Canadian news outlets saying how shocked and completely bewildered the family was to learn about Audrey's murder. In the statement, she said, quote, Audrey was loved by so many people and was so full of life, end quote.

The family asked for privacy and declined to do any interviews with any media in the wake of the murder. At the start of law enforcement's investigation, San Francisco police were tight-lipped about the case. They didn't provide any updates or indicate that they had any suspects. They even allowed the music festival to continue. All police would say is that it appeared Audrey had been shot or beaten and that the brutal crime appeared to be isolated to where she was found near the edge of the golf course. Which essentially is another way of saying that they didn't find any evidence indicating Audrey had been killed somewhere else and then dumped there. When news

of the killing made headlines, several people came forward reporting that they'd seen Audrey walking around the first night of the Bluegrass Festival, and she was with two men and a young woman. Some reports even indicated that Audrey was camping in the park during the event, but after Friday evening, no one reported seeing her again. That made police feel confident that likely she had died on Friday night. The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival stretched out over six stages in the park, and tens of thousands of people were coming and going from the free event. Police had little to work off of and spent most of the weekend sorting through the tips and eyewitness statements that were coming in from the concert goers. Detectives were also trying to work with Canadian authorities to get more information about Audrey's background.

Canadian authorities to get more information about Audrey's background. They wanted to know if she'd recently had any run-ins with people back in Montreal or while she was on her trip in the United States. What they learned was that during her travels, she reported nothing urgent to her family and she was fully committed to returning home in just a few days. According to her mom, Isabel, Audrey had plans to camp in Golden Gate Park for the weekend, then spend a few more days in San Francisco before flying home. Her family told police that Audrey already had another backpacking trip to Europe planned for the upcoming winter. On Monday, October 5th, as investigators were working full steam on Audrey's case, another shocking murder happened about 20 miles north of San Francisco in a neighboring recreation area called Loma Alta Open Space Preserve. This second murder got San Francisco police investigators' interest almost immediately. At 6 p.m. on October 5th, two days after Audrey's body was discovered, hikers walking near Old Railroad Grade Trail inside of the preserve found a wallet laying on the side of the road.

They picked it up and saw blood on it. Right away, they called the police. Around that same time, another group of hikers walking a few hundred yards away found a man and his dog lying in pools of blood on the side of the dusty trail. The bloodied man looked to be in his 60s and he wasn't breathing. Lying next to him, still clipped to its leash, was a Doberman Pinscher, heaving and whimpering. Marin County Sheriff's deputies immediately responded to the scene and realized the bloody wallet and the dead man were likely linked. Investigators opened the bloody wallet and found it contained bullet holes and fresh blood smeared on the inside. The ID behind the plastic flap belonged to 67-year-old Steve Carter, a therapist from nearby Fairfax, California. At the crime scene, Steve Stoberman,

nearby Fairfax, California. At the crime scene, Steve's Doberman that had the name tag Coco was on her last leg but was still alive. She heaved labored breaths and her head was soaked in blood. She was still clipped to her leash and the other end was still clutched in Steve's hand. It was obvious to investigators that Coco had been shot once in the eye and the bullet had passed through her skull and exited the left side of her head. Miraculously, though, she survived and Humane Society volunteers rushed her into emergency surgery to remove her eye. Meanwhile, detectives looking over Steve's body

found several.40 caliber shell casings scattered around him and where Coco had been lying. Police were pretty sure that these bullets belonged to the handgun that the killer had used. They knew from just looking at Steve that he had not been dead long. For one, his injuries and blood loss looked fresh. Second, Marin County 911 dispatchers had received a call about gunshots being fired in the area roughly 45 minutes before the hikers found Steve's body. As they were examining him, the only other things missing from his person besides his wallet were

his car keys. When officers checked the trail parking lot, they discovered that Steve's silver 2003 Volkswagen Jetta station wagon was missing. So they worked on the assumption that whoever had killed him had stolen it after the shooting. The investigation kicked into high gear after that. Deputies were working with basically an in-progress crime and knew that whoever had shot Steve and his dog couldn't be too far away, maybe an hour or so at best. Marin County Sheriff's deputies mobilized quickly, and they notified Steve's wife, Lakita, and his brother, Michael. The Carters were devastated, as you can imagine. Steve and Lakita had been married for 17 years and were originally from Northern California. The couple had moved to Costa Rica a year earlier, but returned to Fairfax when Lakita was diagnosed with breast cancer.

At the time of Steve's death, she was in the middle of her cancer fight and announced on her chemotherapy GoFundMe page how horrified she was to learn Steve had been murdered. She wrote, quote, I am beyond devastated to face this situation while already going through intensive breast cancer treatment. His senseless and shocking death is incomprehensible to all of us. Please hold Steve and me close to your hearts and in your prayers. I am shattered, shocked, enraged, and so, so sad. End quote. She went on to write that Steve had been on his usual evening walk with Coco inside of the preserve when he was attacked. Monday night, going into Tuesday morning, Marin County detectives working Steve's case started gathering eyewitness statements and surveillance video from every store and business around Loma Alta Preserve. And their best lead came when several people called in to report that they'd seen a suspicious group of young people on the trail around the same time Steve was killed.

The report stated that the group included two young white men and a young white woman with sandy blonde hair. They were all wearing dark colored clothing and appeared to be homeless. be homeless. Just as those reports were coming in, authorities found surveillance images of two men and a young woman matching that description at a nearby gas station. The images were time-stamped for 3 p.m., which would have been right before Steve was killed. As deputies widened out their surveillance video search, they found another clip of the same suspicious young people from a gas station in Point Reyes, California. That sighting was time-stamped for around 6 30 p.m. shortly after Steve was killed. The video showed the group pulling up to the store in a silver 2003 Volkswagen Jetta station wagon, the same car that

authorities knew had been stolen from Steve after his murder. As soon as investigators got these images, they blasted the pictures to the media and asked people to call in if they saw the group. According to reports, while that was happening, Steve's autopsy results had come back. The medical examiner determined he died from three close-range.40 caliber gunshots. One bullet entered his head, another tore through his abdomen, and the final shot went into his thigh. Steve's last few moments on this earth were likely excruciating and terrifying. He didn't die immediately. He slowly bled to death, alone on the dirt trail with Coco, his dog, bleeding and injured next to him. That is a horrific way to go.

On Wednesday morning, October 7th, his wife Lakita and several of Steve's friends visited the spot on the trail where he'd been found, and they started building a memorial with flowers and pictures. where he'd been found, and they started building a memorial with flowers and pictures. The authorities were working quickly to try and get the family some answers and find Steve's shooter. One clue that really stuck out was that they'd found bits of what appeared to be U.S. currency embedded in some of Steve's wounds. Because no money was found on his body, investigators knew this likely meant he'd been robbed on the trail. And not only that, whoever his shooter was had fired one of the shots through his wallet first while it was still in Steve's pocket or hand. Authority's next move was to visit the gas station in Point Reyes, where the surveillance video showed the suspicious young people

stopping in Steve's car just 30 minutes after his murder. When deputies interviewed the clerk there, they learned that the trio had stopped and hurried into the store, went straight to the bathroom, then emerged and purchased cigarettes, gas, and two bags of potato chips. When the group paid with a $20 bill, the clerk noticed that the money was torn and wet, like it had just been washed. The clerk said when he asked one of the young men why the money was wet, the guy answered saying, quote, My mom washed money in my clothes, end quote. The clerk thought it was weird, but rang the group up and watched them leave. rang the group up and watched them leave.

According to the Los Angeles Times, in the first 36 hours of working the case, hundreds of tips about the group of suspicious young people had come in to the authorities. In addition to that, deputies had been able to crack into the GPS tracking system installed in Steve's station wagon. That allowed investigators to follow its movements north through California and all the way into Oregon.

The car's data showed it had been driven for 600 miles and stopped a few times at a McDonald's, a few more convenience stores, and eventually parked at a church. By Wednesday morning, October 7th, Marin County authorities were closing in on the station wagon in Portland. 7th, Marin County authorities were closing in on the station wagon in Portland. Police officers there arrived at the church, which was offering food and shelter for homeless people. Investigators found the trio they were looking for standing outside of the soup kitchen, getting into Steve's station wagon. At a press conference later that afternoon, Marin County authorities announced they'd arrested 24-year-old Sean Angle, 23-year-old Morrison Lampley, and 18-year-old Lila Alligood for robbery and Steve's murder. The trio were drifters and had no known addresses or ties to Steve, other than the fact that they'd been seen in the same recreation area around the time Steve was murdered. Portland authorities held the suspects in custody

while Marin County deputies made their way to Oregon to interview them. According to the San Francisco Examiner, when detectives arrested Morrison, Lila, and Sean, they found a.40 caliber Smith & Wesson pistol in Morrison's waistband. Volunteers at the Portland church told officers that staff had to repeatedly ask the trio to stop smoking in their building, and while they were there, the trio had been offering other guests an opportunity to buy a silver station wagon. When detectives searched the car, they

turned up even more incriminating evidence, but not related to Steve's death. The item stained with blood, tossed in the back seat, belonged to a murder victim who was already familiar to authorities in Northern California. Inside Steve Carter's stolen Volkswagen station wagon that Morrison Lampley, Sean Angold, and Lila Alligood had gone on the run in, police found a blue backpack, a tent, a sleeping bag, a passport, and airline tickets. The plane tickets and passport belonged to 23-year-old Audrey Carey. Before that moment, investigators had no real reason to suspect Audrey and Steve's murders were linked. The victims were both completely different ages, found in totally separate parts of Northern California. They were murdered on different days, and nothing about their lives or backgrounds indicated that they knew one another or had any friends or enemies in common.

After arresting Sean, Morrison, and Lila and searching Steve's car, San Francisco police and Marin County authorities started working together. The agencies compared the handgun and bullets that were found on Morrison to the casings that had been collected near Audrey's body, and the shells were a match. It was clear the gun that had killed Audrey Carey was the same one used to murder Steve Carter. Authorities later announced that the gun also matched the make and model of a firearm that a truck owner in San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf neighborhood had reported stolen on the evening of October 2nd, the same night police believed Audrey was killed and left in the woods. night, police believed Audrey was killed and left in the woods. The owner of the gun, a man named Tony Chaplin, told authorities that he'd left the gun in his truck with the doors unlocked.

On Thursday, October 8th, San Francisco police and Marin County detectives announced to the press that the two murder cases were officially connected and all three suspects would be charged with additional counts of robbery and murder. What the public didn't know up until that point was that since late Wednesday night, detectives for both agencies had been interviewing the suspects about both murders, and they were learning a lot of new information. What they discovered was that Sean, Morrison, and Lila had been identified as being with Audrey in Golden Gate Park on Friday night. Several witnesses claimed to see the trio smoking marijuana in the woods that evening.

After their arrests, prosecutors in Marin County charged all three suspects with first-degree murder and additional counts of grand theft, animal cruelty, and possessing stolen property. During police interviews with Lila and Sean, authorities determined that Morrison was the person who pulled the trigger in both murders. He was charged with additional crimes for being the alleged shooter. According to reporting by the Desert Sun, Morrison had a criminal history going back as far as 2010 for possessing a firearm in a park, vandalism, stealing a car, and stealing a dog. For those crimes, the court had sentenced him to time served. When both murders occurred, Morrison was technically a convicted felon, so he faced a few other additional charges on top of murder for being a felon in possession

of a firearm. The Marin County DA initially slapped all of the defendants with what's called a special circumstance add-on for first-degree murder. The special circumstance basically meant that because the trio had laid in wait to commit Steve's murder, the nature of the homicide qualified them for the death penalty. The courts had to come to an agreement about where the capital murder trials would take place. Technically, Audrey and Steve were murdered in two different California jurisdictions. After a bit of back and forth, San Francisco police and Marin County deputies decided to try the defendants in Marin County Superior Court. According to the Sacramento

Bee, it was common practice for Marin County prosecutors to handle major cases that involved crimes in neighboring counties. For example, in 2013, prosecutors in Marin had won convictions for a death penalty case involving a serial killer. So everyone felt pretty confident that Morrison, Lila, and Sean would be convicted. Also, Marin County had more public defenders who had experience representing clients who were facing the death penalty. None of the defendants had any money to pay for private attorneys, so they had to take the lawyers the court appointed them. Immediately after all of the defendants were booked, their defense attorneys requested delays to review evidence and push their clients' arraignments.

In late November 2015, Morrison, Lila, and Sean finally stood before a judge and all of them pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. During that time, Marin County Parks Department renamed the road next to the trail where Steve Carter was killed. At the time of his death, the road was called Gunshot Fire Road. In light of the horrible nature of Steve's death, citizens felt that the street should be renamed. And within a few months of the crime, Marin County renamed the road Sunrise Fire Road. the road Sunrise Fire Road. In a strange twist, in January 2016, the Sacramento Bee reported that someone had taken down the flower and picture memorial that Lakita Carter had built at the spot where her husband died. And it wasn't like some of the stuff had just blown away. When I say the

memorial was taken down, like everything was taken. Photos, candles, flowers, balloons, ribbons, everything. The Marin County Parks Department claimed none of their staff removed the shrine, and no one ever came forward to explain what happened. Lakita was really distraught about this, and to this day, what happened to the memorial remains a mystery. A few months after that, in March 2016, the Marin County District Attorney announced that he would no longer be pursuing the death penalty against Lila, Morrison, and Sean. The announcement was controversial, but he assured the public that if convicted, all three of the young people would face life in prison without the possibility of parole. would face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

He had to eat his own words, though, because two months later, in May, the DA made another bold announcement. In May 2016, the DA in Marin County announced that Sean Angold, the eldest of the three defendants, had accepted a plea deal. Prosecutors had offered him the chance to admit to second-degree murder for being involved in Steve's death. By taking the deal, Sean was guaranteed he'd only go to prison for 15 years.

In exchange for less prison time, he would testify at trial against Lila and Morrison. he would testify at trial against Lila and Morrison. According to KPIX News, Sean admitted to using LSD, heroin, and meth with Morrison and Lila leading up to the killings. He told investigators that he was the one who stole the Smith & Wesson handgun from the parked truck in downtown San Francisco. He also admitted to planning a string of robberies

with Lila and Morrison. According to Sean, Audrey and Steve were just easy targets. Sean denied being the trigger man in either of the murders. He said it was Morrison who had fired the shots that killed Audrey and Steve. In an affidavit, Sean explained that during the attack on Audrey, he'd walked away and a few minutes later heard gunshots. When he asked Morrison what happened in the woods, Morrison told him, quote, she's dead, dude. Don't worry about it. End quote. Sean told investigators that during the attack on Steve, he'd walked further down the trail than Morrison and Lila and had his back turned. He said he heard several gunshots ring out

and then the couple ran up to him with Steve's keys and his wallet in their hands. According to Vivian Ho's reporting, more details of both murders came out in a preliminary hearing right after Sean took his plea deal. The hearing was scheduled to last two weeks. Both sides planned to present witnesses and evidence. Then the decision would be up to the judge of whether or not to let the case go to a jury. As prosecutors laid out their case, they spent a lot of time emphasizing the lives of the two murder victims. They explained that Steve Carter was not only beloved by his wife, but he was beloved by his Tantra students. For decades, he and Lakita had built a business focused on massage therapy and yoga. Their business, the Ecstatic Living Institute,

offered classes to couples who wanted to learn more about compassion, love, and rejuvenating their sex lives. The couple produced and sold DVDs and books related to their business and had a thriving practice with dozens of clients. Shortly before his murder, wildfires had burned the business to the ground and the Carters were forced to relocate and rebuild. On top of that, when Lakita was diagnosed with breast cancer

while the couple was living in Costa Rica, Steve had stopped everything he was doing and moved them back to California to make sure his wife got the best care at Marin General Hospital Cancer Clinic. She was just a few months into her treatments when Steve was killed. When Lakita testified on the stand, she walked the court through the last time that she saw her husband alive. According to the Tulare Advance Register, Steve left the couple's home near the Loma Alta Preserve around 3.30 p.m. on October 5th. Lakita hugged and kissed him goodbye and watched him get into his station wagon with Coco.

The two were headed out for their daily evening walk. A few hours later, she learned that he'd been robbed, shot, and left for dead on one of his favorite hiking trails inside of the preserve. shot, and left for dead on one of his favorite hiking trails inside of the preserve. Before any more witnesses could speak, though, the hearing was abruptly paused and postponed. Defense attorneys had argued that the public and media being allowed to attend the hearing would create a prejudiced jury pool and hurt their client's right to a fair trial. According to the San Francisco Examiner, when the case was back in court that fall, nearly a year after the crimes,

the media was allowed inside of the proceedings. And by that time, both Morrison and Lila had completely transformed their appearances. Long gone was Lila's matted and dreaded blonde hair. Morrison, who'd originally had a shaved head that revealed his neck tattoos, had grown his hair out long and was wearing eyeglasses. Both defendants had gained weight and no longer appeared to be using drugs. Prosecutors knew the defense was trying to paint the pair as innocent youth, but the DA pressed on

and told jurors what a loss Audrey and Steve's families had suffered as a result of the trio's actions. When it was the defense's turn, they came at the prosecution head-on and tried to undercut the state's star witness, Sean Angold. Morrison's lawyers laid out a narrative that painted Sean as the group's ringleader, not Morrison. Lila's attorney tried to distance her, the youngest of the trio, from Sean and Morrison. They claimed Lila had never been a part of any robbery plans or murder plots. She was simply caught in a bad situation with two manipulative older men, one of which was her boyfriend. According to Jonah Lamb's reporting, Lila and Morrison met when she was just 12 years old and he was 17. They quickly became inseparable and Lila claimed she would do anything for him.

I definitely feel safe saying this was a typical case of teenage obsession versus real love. Lila was still a child when she became involved with Morrison, a much older teenage boy, who clearly didn't think it was weird to be romantically involved with a young girl. It's worth noting that it's completely possible Lila could have been a victim of grooming by Morrison. She was so attached to him in an unhealthy way, to the point that she did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. There's no doubt that he had serious emotional control over her. In court, though, the DA argued that the relationship did not appear to be a case of grooming, and he believed Lila was able to know right from wrong. Her defense attorneys argued the opposite, though,

and they said that the couple's young love only grew stronger and stronger as they continued their relationship and bonded over drug use. By the time Lila turned 18, the two were full-blown drug users with no plans to quit. According to news reports, they both used different kinds of drugs, but their drug of choice was methamphetamine. By late September 2015, they were both homeless and drifting from place to place with no homes or families that wanted them. That's when they met 24-year-old Sean. Sean had reportedly picked the couple up while they were hitchhiking to San Francisco from San Diego on California State Highway 1. At the time, Sean went by the name Smalls and was a known meth dealer and user

in and around San Francisco. Not long after picking Lila and Morrison up, the three began smoking meth together and drifting from place to place in neighborhoods throughout downtown. According to court transcripts, after about a week or so of using drugs and couch surfing, the trio befriended Audrey Carey in Golden Gate Park. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that during the preliminary hearing, a detective from Marin County testified that a woman had come forward not long after the murders and told detectives that on October 3rd, she'd seen Lila with two men in a bar called Lucky 13, which wasn't far from the music festival. This witness said that she remembered Lila with two men in a bar called Lucky 13, which wasn't far from the music festival.

This witness said that she remembered Lila because of all the scabs and sores that Lila had on her face. If you look at Lila's early mugshots, you'll see exactly what this witness described. Lila had large red scabs and scars all over her cheeks and mouth. It's a super distinguishing characteristic as far as mugshots go, and sores like this are often a telltale sign of meth use. The witness told police that when they asked Lila why she had all the sores, Lila just started twirling around and dancing. When Lila's mugshot came out later, the witness came forward because she recognized Lila's distinct picture. The witness told authorities that while Lila was inside Lucky 13 Bar, she tried to use a credit card to close out her tab at the bar, but it was declined. The bar was one of those places that only took cash, so Lila was out of

luck. The witness said Lila cocked an attitude with the bartender, clearly upset she couldn't charge the bill on the credit card, then walked outside. Detectives who went by that bar to follow up ended up finding a folded up credit card inside of a booth. The card belonged to Audrey Carey. The detective who testified on the stand said that during Lila's interviews with police, she admitted to investigators that the group robbed and murdered Audrey. She said shortly before meeting up with Audrey, Sean and Morrison had broken into a pickup truck in San Francisco and stolen a gun out of it. Then they went to the music festival and met up with Audrey, intending to rob her by the end of the night.

Lila told investigators that while hanging out in the secluded area of the woods near the golf course, she jumped on top of Audrey's chest and straddled her. Morrison then held a gun to Audrey's head right next to her left ear and threatened to kill her. The group, including Sean, attempted to tie Audrey's feet and hands up with rope. Now, the information about the rope was unknown to the public and Audrey's family up until that point. But during the hearing, investigators revealed that crime scene techs had found loosely tied rope around Audrey's ankles. Lila told police that the plan all along had been to just tie Audrey up and rob her. She was always going to be kept alive, but then things went wrong.

Lila said during the attack, Audrey pleaded multiple times with the group to just take her belongings and leave her alive. According to Lila's confession, Audrey screamed, quote, Please don't shoot me. Please don't shoot me. But also during her confession,

Lila told detectives that Audrey then changed her panic plea to, quote, just kill me, just kill me, end quote. Before Lila knew it, one of the men had pulled the trigger of the handgun and shot Audrey in the head. After that, the group left her body in the woods and took off with the gun, her backpack, a credit card, her tent, sleeping bag, passport, and plane tickets. They left behind $84 in cash and some of her other credit cards and her cell phone. They also left behind some other incriminating evidence that police eventually found. According to the criminologist that testified in court, crime scene techs found a black beanie near Audrey's body. in court, crime scene techs found a black beanie near Audrey's body. When they tested that item for DNA, samples came back as a match for both Morrison and Lila. Even more damning forensic

evidence that strengthened the DA's case was that lab techs had positively identified Audrey's blood on the stolen.40 caliber handgun. They also found Steve's blood on Audrey's blue backpack inside of the station wagon. Steve's blood being on the backpack proved that Audrey had clearly been killed first, then Steve was murdered. That is the only way his blood would have ended up on Audrey's belongings inside of his station wagon. As the prosecution prepared all of this for trial, they realized that their biggest challenge was going to be proving who exactly fired the gunshots that killed Audrey and Steve. Based on what Sean had confessed to, it was Morrison who pulled the trigger in both murders. But defense attorneys for Lila and Morrison flipped that right back on Sean and told jurors that Sean was a liar and he was actually the murderer. Morrison and Lila's attorneys aggressively defended their clients and said they were just

Sean's helpless pawns. They claimed Sean was the mastermind of the entire rampage and Morrison and Lila were complicit because they were fearful he would kill them. To make matters worse, Lila at one point had told police two different versions of who had pulled the trigger during the crimes. According to the San Francisco Examiner, in her first interview right after her arrest, Lila told Marin County detectives that Sean fired the gun that killed Steve and Audrey. She claimed that Sean was their ringleader and she and Morrison were afraid of him. in Audrey. She claimed that Sean was their ringleader and she and Morrison were afraid of him. Not long after her arrest, though, she admitted to a cellmate that what she told police wasn't the real truth. Her cellmate told detectives that while in jail, Lila had claimed that Morrison was actually the group's leader and he fired the shots that killed both victims. Lila confessed to

wanting to downplay her boyfriend's involvement in the crimes in order to protect him. They'd been dating for two years leading up to the murders, and she wanted to save Morrison from a harsher punishment. When Lila's cellmate's story was introduced in court, it obviously didn't help Morrison's defense attorneys. They were trying to argue that their client was in fact not guilty of two murders. So as the trial approached, Morrison's lawyers changed their strategy. They now decided to attack the credibility of Lila's cellmate, which wasn't that hard to do because the woman was a five-time convicted felon herself.

But Morrison's attorneys didn't just have Lila's cellmate to worry about. Other witnesses who testified at hearings backed up claims that Morrison was the mastermind of the group. According to the trial transcript, the clerk from the Point Reyes gas station that took the wet money from the trio testified that when Sean, Lila, and Morrison showed up at the store, Morrison had been the one driving and was in control of the group's money. He also appeared to be the one directing Sean and Lila what to buy and barking orders for them to hurry up. Throughout all of this back and forth and all of these witnesses testifying, the identity

of who really fired the gunshots that killed Steve and Audrey was still a big question mark, one that prosecutors could not get a clear answer on. But after a few months, everything in the case changed. For the third time, the Marin County DA once again made a big announcement. KPIX News reported that in February of 2017, the Marin County DA offered Lila and Morrison plea deals. Both defendants accepted and agreed to plead guilty to two counts of first-degree murder for killing Steve and Audrey. As part of his confession, Morrison admitted to pulling the trigger in both murders. He was sentenced to 100 years in prison.

Lila admitted to two counts of first-degree murder as well and was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. In her admission to the court, she broke down in uncontrollable tears, saying, I feel so much guilt and shame for the wrongdoing and the horrible decision I made, and I am so sorry. I'm sorry."

In the end, all three defendants, including Sean Angold, gave up the right to appeal their convictions. The Marin County DA said in his announcement that offering the plea deals did not come easily. He consulted with Audrey and Steve's families for weeks before everyone decided it was the best course of action. According to reporting by The Guardian, of action. According to reporting by The Guardian, at the sentencing hearing in April 2017, Morrison's defense attorney, David Brown, calmly delivered parting words to the court regarding his client's actions. Brown emphasized that Morrison's actions were horrific, but so too were the 24 years of life he'd experienced on earth prior to becoming a violent felon. Brown told the court

that neglect, homelessness, abuse, and mental illness had deprived Morrison of everything a child needed in life. Brown claimed that Morrison's birth parents had dosed him with LSD as a toddler, and by age 11, he started using hard drugs. His state of upbringing was so inhumane that child psychiatrists had once referred to his upbringing as, quote, feral, end quote. Brown told Audrey and Steve's families that despite all of those things, there was still no excuse for Morrison's actions. Audrey's mother, Isabel, wrote a statement that prosecutors read in court. She called all of the defendants, quote, unspeakable monsters and proof that evil exists, end quote. KPIX News reported that Lakita Carter gave a victim impact statement that read in part, quote,

The unbearable pain and grief and trauma that your actions have caused me have been too much to bear. Two things that really resonate with me after all of the research I've done on this case are, one, these crimes were completely random. Audrey and Steve didn't know they're attackers, These crimes were completely random. Audrey and Steve didn't know their attackers, and they could have been any one of us going to a music festival or out for an evening stroll walking our dog. The senselessness of their murders still haunts citizens in Northern California today. And just to emphasize how random their deaths are, according to The Guardian's article that reported the FBI's uniform crime statistics in 2017, only 10% of all homicides nationwide involve strangers.

Sadly, Steve and Audrey were in that 10%. The second thing that I've taken away from this story are the words Lakita wrote on her blog months after the sentencing. I think this advice is something we should all follow in life, no matter whether we're enjoying the outdoors or otherwise. Lakita wrote, May you celebrate each moment that life gives you, and may you love your beloved as much as humanly possible every moment, because we just never know when life will come to an end,

and that hug you gave each other might be the last one. End quote. Park Predators is an AudioChuck original podcast. Research and writing by Delia D'Ambra, with writing assistance from executive producer Ashley Flowers. Sound design by David Flowers. You can find all of the source material for this episode on our website, parkpredators.com. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?