RedHanded - Episode 387 - Janet Chandler: Murder at The Blue Mill Inn

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

The body of a woman – a hotel night clerk – is found frozen in the deep winter snow of Van Buren County, Michigan. A tragic discovery; but the tale it went on to tell revealed a series of ever more barbaric and gruesome details: of no-holds-barred sexual games, crises of faith, and utter betrayal.The web was so tangled that it took police more than three decades to uncover the full, shocking truth.Exclusive bonus content:Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHandPatreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesFollow us on social media:YouTubeTikTokInstagramVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondry Plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad free. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple podcasts. classics like MGM Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat, and Roulette. With our ever-growing library of digital slot games, a large selection of online table games, and signature BetMGM service, there's no better way to bring the excitement and ambiance of Las Vegas home to you than with BetMGM Casino. Download the BetMGM Casino app today. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions.

19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BedMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario.

In the 1980s, a rose swept the country. Hey Mike, I really like this white Zinfandel. Well good, good. Now put it down, we're going to try another one. White Zin became America's top-selling wine. But most don't know that this sweet drink has a sour history. What began in 1986 with counterfeit bottles… A big fraud.

A multi-million dollar fraud. Sent investigators chasing one of the most powerful families in the business. The Lacharties. But the closer the feds got to them, the more dangerous things became. It's a story of deceit… At the time I was paranoid. Threats… You of deceit, threats, and murder. What started with a scheme to mislabel wine spilled into a blood-soaked battle for succession. Welcome to Blood Vines.

You can binge listen to Blood Vines exclusively and ad free on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts, or Spotify. I'm Hannah. I'm Saruti. And welcome to Red Handed. A clarification before we go on. Maybe I'll eat my glasses. Oh no. Again. And it was entirely my fault. Everything she does is my fault because she's my responsibility. But I was in Melbourne over the weekend.

So I landed Heathrow at 5am. Cab home. Got in the car. Three hours up to Melbourne to pick her up. So I stayed in Melbourne so I didn't have to do a six hour round trip after a flight. Woof. Um, so we get to the Airbnb, all fine. And I lie down, take my glasses off, put them next to me.

Mistake. Woke up. And I was like, wait a minute. And I thought she just like chewed the like ear bit and I was like, okay, I can live with that. It's annoying, but it's fine. And I thought she just like chewed to like ear bit and I was like, okay, I can live with that. It's annoying, but it's fine. It was not until quite some time later after I had been to the supermarket, I'd been to

a pub, I'd been to lots of other places that I realized that she'd actually popped out one of the lenses. So I'd been walking around with one empty lens. Mate. And what I know. What is happening? I know you were very jet lagged and very tired and you got back from South Africa. But what's happening? I think because, so I have two different prescriptions. So like the right eye, which the lens that

popped out is only minus 0.5. So it's a small. I still I mean I should have noticed anyway bonkers I do have contact lenses but they're not the so I was driving and I was like I don't know if this is fine and it's because I have astigmatism and then anyway so your rugby shape rugby ball shaped eyes yeah so I also one of the many reasons I have dim vision is because of the shape of my eyes. I just took my contact lenses out because I think they're actually making things worse so if I am a slower reader than usual. Okay so we are going bareback in it. Yes! With Hannah no eyes over here. What I

must say is quite a dimly lit studio. So Hannah just crank up the volume, the brightness on your screen and let's hope for the best. But that does remind me of the time when I was looking at a picture and I couldn't see it clearly on my phone and I tried turning up the volume so I could see it clearly. So you know, we all need help. So let's see what we can do. Maybe we can help you out this glorious day with what is going to be not a very glorious case. That's pretty fucking horrible. At 1.30am on the 1st of February 1979, a snowplow driver who may or may not have been Mr Plow, pulled into a wooded turnaround point in Van

Buren County, Michigan. As the driver maneuvered his plough, he noticed a set of fresh footprints in the snow leading out towards the woods. No, he does the right thing. But I'm going to say it's not what I'd be doing. It's straight back in the plough. Yeah, just plough over the footprints. Leave no trace. Mr Plough did not do that. He was confused and actually quite worried that someone might have wandered off into

the freezing cold Michigan wilderness, which is very cold indeed. So the man jumped out of his plough and he followed the tracks in the snow. He didn't have to walk far before his worst fears were realized. There was a body in the snow. The body of 22 year old part-time motel night clerk, Janet Chandler. Janet was naked, wrapped in nothing but a tarp. And when the police arrived, it was clear that she'd been savagely beaten and raped. The police had actually been looking for Janet for the past few hours. She'd gone missing from her job at the Bloom Mill Inn about 40 miles down the road earlier that night.

As far as the police could see, it looked like a robbery turned kidnapping, turned rape and eventual murder. But even that long list of horrible things wasn't the full story. Unfortunately it would take the police almost three decades to find out what really happened to Janet Chandler and to piece together the story we're about to tell you. To tell you that story, as we so often do, we have to rewind all the way back to the 29th of May 1956, when Janet Chandler was born in Keegan County, Michigan. Her parents, Jim and Glenna, raised Janet as a devout Christian,

which in that neck of the woods isn't surprising. And Janet grew up passionate about music and singing the word of the Lord. However, it wasn't all sunshine, rainbows and genesis. Janet's strict Christian upbringing meant that building friendships was tricky. So she's like, particularly strict even in an area that would have been quite Christian. Interesting. So strict, in fact, that Jim and Glenna wouldn't even let Janet go over to friends' houses if their parents had alcohol on the property. So the classic rite of passage for every teenager, the sleepover, with her BFFs, was

just totally out of the question. So Janet drifted through school as a bit of a loner. After she graduated high school, Janet went to college to study nursing, but didn't quite land on her feet. Janet found university difficult. She wasn't particularly academic and found taking criticism hard, even leaving the lecture hall in floods of tears after being told off. Horrible, but a necessary evil, I think. How are you going to grow? Especially when you're studying something like nursing?

Yes, yes. If you get it wrong, you get it wrong. Eventually Janet dropped out altogether, claiming that she couldn't cope with the behaviour of her wild and rowdy peers who were smoking and drinking and taking drugs and stuff. But God loves a trier. And by the mid 1970s, Janet had re-enrolled. This time she signed up to study music at Hope College, with the dream of becoming a teacher or even working in musical theatre. Don't bother.

I mean if we're talking about criticism at uni being too hard. Oh yeah, fucking hell. Now that will uh, that will thicken your skin or it will kill a bitch yeah. So it was while at Hope College that Janet began her first proper relationship with a man in his 40s. Yeah, bad news because she is obviously very young. Now it's unclear from the research that we've done how Janet met this man or where their relationship developed.

We actually don't even know his name. But we do know that Janet would sneak the man into her parents home a few nights a week to have sex while her parents were away. This is the thing isn't it if you are so strict with your children they are going to rebel at some point or another and you have to wonder if she was just allowed to go on a sleepover whether she would have ended up with a man you, decades her senior. Very good question.

And I am reminded, it's not exactly the same thing, but I am reminded by this. I cannot remember her name, but she's an African comedian. And I just was like, yeah, I feel you. Right. It's like, if you grow up in like a particular type of immigrant household where your parents are like, no boyfriends, no boyfriends, no boyfriends, no boyfriends. And then the minute you're like in your 20ss they're like, why aren't you married? Because I'm fucking emotionally incapable of having met a man because you didn't allow it for my entire formative years.

So yeah, I can see where that's kind of playing into this, right? So despite this older man's identity not being public knowledge, he has spoken anonymously since all this happened. And allegedly he's said that he deeply now regrets his relationship with Janet and feels that he took advantage of her naivety. Yep, you did. And you will live with that for the rest of your life. While we don't know too much about the man that Janet was sleeping with, we do know that

their relationship marked a significant change in her behaviour. And those changes were noticeable enough that Janet's friends had started to worry about the devout Christian girl they'd once known, who was now sneaking a middle-aged man into her parents' house for sex. But it didn't last forever. By 1978, Janet was single again. And in August of that year, the 22-year-old got a part-time job as a night clerk at the Blue Mill Inn, a motel in Holland County, Michigan.

The motel did have a reputation for being a pretty seedy establishment, show me a motel that isn't, and it was generally frequented by truckers, traveling salesmen, and the occasional sex worker. And I would bet any money, external corridors. That is my one rule. When we travel and we're asked what we want the hotel to be like, I say no external corridors. Not to me. Agree. And I insist on no more former workhouses for children because we did one stay in what was a former Victorian workhouse that was filled with the ghosts of all sorts

of fucking dead babies for sure. And also no people having a fucking-induced rap battle next door at 3 in the morning. True story. Anyway, I don't know if that's what's going on at Blue Mill or not, but that is where Janet worked. And she got the job through her best friend Laurie Swank. 21 year old Laurie was the hotel's manager, which I'm like, that is exceedingly young to be a motel manager, but she is. In the 1980s, a rose swept the country. Hey Mike, I really like this white Zinfandel.

Well good, good. Now put it down, I'm going to try another one. White Zin became America's top-selling wine. But most don't know that this sweet drink has a sour history. What began in 1986 with counterfeit bottles, A big fraud, a multi-million dollar fraud. sent investigators chasing one of the most powerful families in the business, the Lacharties. But the closer the feds got to them, the more dangerous things became.

It's a story of deceit, At the time I was paranoid. threats, You touch my kids, Iit, threats, and murder. What started with a scheme to mislabel wine spilled into a blood-soaked battle for succession. Welcome to Blood Vines. You can binge listen to Blood Vines exclusively and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app,

Apple podcasts or Spotify. It takes one guy out there to say, who's that? Kyle who thinks he can just get on a microphone on a podcast and start publicizing this. From I Heart podcasts and tender for TV comes a new true crime podcast, Crook County. I got recruited into the mob when I was 17 years old.

Meet Kenny, an enforcer for the legendary Chicago outfit. And that was my mission, to snuff the f*** life out of this guy. He lived a secret double life as a firefighter paramedic for the Chicago Fire Department. I had a wife and I had two children. Nobody knew anything. People are dying. Is he doing this every a wife and I had two children. Nobody knew anything. People are dying.

Is he doing this every night? Torn between two worlds. I'm covering up murders that these cops are doing. He was a freaking crazy man. We don't know who he is, really. He is my father. And I had no idea about any of this until now. Welcome to Crook County, available now.

Listen for free on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And not only did Laurie get Janet the job, but the pair actually moved in together as well, living in a duplex nearby. By day, Janet would attend classes at Hope College and by night, she would run Bloom Mill Inn's reception until the early hours of the morning. Now it's important to reiterate that Janet came into this job in a bit of a weird headspace. Remember she'd been raised as a devout Christian but had recently entered into an intense sexual

relationship with a much older man. Which probably destroyed her when it ended. I think again, possibly, like we said, we don't even know the identity of this man, which probably destroyed her when it ended. I think again, possibly, like we said, we don't even know the identity of this man. We obviously don't know too much about how Janet felt about it. But what we do know from her friends is that Janet had enjoyed that relationship. And more importantly, during that relationship with this man, she'd realised something important that there had been absolutely no consequences. Biblically speaking, to her having had sex outside of marriage.

She hadn't been cast down to the depths of hell. She hadn't been smoted. A plague of bad luck hadn't hit her family and she hadn't gone blind. Janet had been kept on the straight and narrow all her life through fear and now that fear was fading. Janet didn't have anything stopping her. And with that foreshadowing out of the way, let's talk about the Wackenhut Company. I can't take this name seriously. I can't either. No. There's a company in the US who I worked with many a year ago when I was producing a manufacturing conference.

Oh my God, it was so boring, kill me. But the company will always live in my brain. It was called the Big Ass Fan Company. That's the name and they make giant fans and it's literally called the Big Ass Fan Company. A company, well, it's a shop actually that I've seen in Australia and they have it in South Africa as well. It's like trainers and like running socks and stuff. It's called Athlete's Foot.

Come on! Memorable though. Oh, I hate it. Like, oh yeah, like let me go and get some socks at the fungal infection shop. No thanks. Have you ever had Athlete's Foot? I actually have not. No, nor have I.

Because I'm not an athlete. I am a potato. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no.

No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no.

No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. situation because I was like my mum's got like some sort of thyroid problem, both my parents are B12 deficient, I'm definitely pin anemic in the past and I've gone off the pill now and I'm having periods again I'm definitely gonna be that. Let's just get it all done. And I don't I don't like eat dairy very much except cheese and chocolate so I probably got some sort of bone density problem. They were like

everything's fine but you have got high cholesterol. I was like what? The actual fuck. The episode went out three of my friends text me, I just found out I've got high cholesterol. What's going on? I'm confused. But yeah, maybe I'll get gout. Hmm. I mean, affluent. So it turns out that the Wackenhut Company was and actually still is a large security firm founded by ex-FBI agent George Wackenhut. was and actually still is a large security firm founded by ex-FBI agent George Wackenhut. That's not your name. No. It sounds fake. I don't like it. But he did enough to keep it or not change it and him and his mates started the Wackenhut Company in 1951.

And in October 1978, they were brought into Holland County, Michigan, by a big chemical manufacturer called Chemitron. OK, Michigan obviously does not have the best history when it comes to this sort of thing, so bear that in mind. Yeah. Chemitron had a chemical factory in Holland County and the factory workers in said factory had gone on strike. During this strike, the Pickett line had become violent and Wackenhut security guards were brought in to control the violence. As a result, in October 1978, about 80 security guards from all around the US were moved into the Blue Mill Inn.

These security guards were employees of Wacken Hut who had taken an offer of good money to move away from home for a few months set up in a motel and fight picketing factory workers. I'm going to say if you are installing a group of people to beat another group of people up who are only exercising their right to strike, which I have said many times is a right that I will stand by under any circumstance. Don't put them all in the same place. Yeah.

Some of these security guards had families, some of them were a bit more transient, but they all liked a drink and a smoke and a party. And they especially liked to do that out on the road where their wives were not. Hmm. The head of security for this rowdy bunch of hired thugs was a man called Arthur Paiva, although his friends called him Chuck. But we're going to call him Paiva, because, er, well, I'm not his mate and it also turns out he's not a very nice man.

Almost as soon as the guys from Wacken Hut Security turned up at Blue Mill Inn, things between the guards and the motel staff got incredibly complicated. Shock. Most of the staff were women in their early to mid-twenties, and the guards didn't do much to hide their obvious lust towards them. And from what we can see, things very quickly turned into some kind of like after dark, seedy back alley Love Island. I saw a really funny TikTok last night. It's a comedian talking about Love Island. I can't

remember his name. I know I always do this. I'm so sorry. And he's like, why is it that when on Love Island, when you pull someone for a chat, it's like a GCSE French oral exam. I have two brothers and I like to play football and I go to the swimming pool. Oh my God. That's amazing. Even when you just said pull them for a chat, like I cringed internally. Look, I'm not too good for a romantic reality show,

everybody fucking knows that, but I draw the line at Love Island. They're too young and they're too stupid. I only ever watched one series and then Caroline died and I was like, you know what? I'm good. But back to our story. After a day of beating up striking factory workers, the guards would come back to the motel with alcohol, cigarettes and enough drugs to kill a small pony, all to party until the early hours of the morning. Where there be truckers, there be crystal Methodists. And the hotel staff quickly began to develop relationships with the guards that, according

to later court records, were sexual and non-monogamous in nature. God. Yeah. Someone spray them down. They'd probably like it. Oh god. Some sort of antibacterial antibiotic spray. But it's at this point we're going to take a quick pause and discuss the delicate topic of if pause and discuss the delicate topic of if and when Janet Chandler got involved with these last days of Saigon parties. Janet's family and friends are still around. It's not like they just disappeared, she left them all behind and they actually have appeared in several documentaries on this case. And given that Janet's family are devout Christians, it is their belief that Janet had

absolutely no interest in what was happening at the Blue Mill Inn and that she was coerced into the debauchery against her will. And I don't blame them. I also don't think that that is specifically unique to like a hyper religious parents or hyper religious family. I think given what's about to happen with this story, I think most people who are the parents of a young woman would want that to be the case. Or not want that to be the case, but you know what I mean. I don't think they'd be able to bring themselves to believe that their daughter was involved in what the fuck was going on in this motel. I agree.

Unfortunately for them, from what we can see from court records and other reports, it seems like Janet was actually pretty up for it. Of course, you could argue that Janet had been tainted by evil or tempted by the devil and was not really in control of her actions and some of her friends and family make that argument. But as we said earlier, Janet had already had quite a lot of sex and done kind of everything with her older boyfriend in the year before. And as we foreshadowed, Janet had been struck by the distinct lack of holy consequences for her so-called sins.

With that in mind, it's not an enormous surprise that when the Wackenhut guards turned up, rough and ready and up for a good time, Janet may have gone on a bit of a tear. Do you know what's so bad about it being called Wack and Hutt? They're whacking people. That's what their job. Their job is to whack. I don't know if I've just been corrupted by all of the rampant sex in this episode, but I was like, whack and one out, whack and one out in the heart, in the blue mill heart, whack and heart. Yeah, it all works. Oh yeah, true.

So yeah, almost immediately after the Wacken Hut guards had arrived, Janet had started a sexual relationship with none other than the head of security, Arthur Paiva. However, when Paiva started to become verbally and physically abusive towards Janet, she broke things off. And instead, she began having casual hookups with the other guards. Now, it's not clear how many of the guards Janet slept with, but it seems to have been quite a few. And there are hints that she may also have been engaging in group sex sessions. These hookups with the guards became steadily more frequent and blatant, until they were essentially an open secret

within the motel. One guard, called James Nelson, would often come down to reception, openly grope Janet and describe the sex acts that he wanted to perform on her. This just all sounds so fucking horrible. And in another quite ballsy moment, Janet apparently phoned one of the guards in his room and asked him to come to reception. The guard, who was allegedly dating another woman working at the motel at this point,

came downstairs and found Janet in a side room wearing nothing but a pair of cowboy boots. Something for which Janet received quite a bollocking from management. Not a holy consequence, but a consequence nonetheless. And let's make something very clear. There's not much wrong with any of that. If you are a consenting adult. Janet was 22.

She'd struggled to open up and enjoy herself before at nursing college because of her religious upbringing. And that had had such an effect on her. She quit. So perhaps Janet was making up for lost time. And quite frankly, a 22 year old shagging their way through their uni halls is not that unusual. And for some people, it's the whole reason that they go to university in the first place. But these weren't university halls, and these were not university students either.

The Wackenhut men were older, rougher men than university students, who'd taken a months-long job in the middle of bumfuck nowhere so they could get paid to fight factory workers. And potty. Even more unfortunately for Janet, while her newfound liberal attitude to sex was going down a storm with the security guards, it was not going down so well with the other motel staff. Most notably her so-called best friend, Laurie Swank. Living with friends is hard enough. Living and working with your best friend?

It never ends well. Now Laurie's exact reasoning for her developing jealousy over Janet is actually not that clear. A lot of the newspapers and documentaries simplify the situation by making out that Laurie was simply jealous over the attention that Janet was getting from Arthur Peever, the head security guard. They say that Laurie fancied Peever herself, and she knew that he and Janet had hooked up. And while this could be true, we also know that Arthur Peever had another on-off girlfriend

called Patti Ward, who Laurie didn't seem to have a problem with at all. I think it seems more likely, possibly, that Laurie was actually getting jealous over the attention that Janet was getting in general, rather than just maybe from one particular man. Also, she has got her that job, and she's her manager, and it doesn't seem like Janet's doing much work. This is the thing, I think this case it is presented very strongly that Laurie is intensely jealous of Janet and I don't necessarily think that's true.

I don't either and I think women get fobbed off with that a lot. Like it's not like Janet is also conducting herself in an unprofessional manner at work yeah in a job that her mate got for her like I would be fucked off and we don't know the full ins and outs of it look Janet can do what Janet wants to do but when you're at work obviously she got a bollocking from management because she's like hanging out in the bloody stationary cupboard wearing nothing but a pair of cowboy boots and like you know doing what she's doing but like Laurie also lives with her like you said, and I think we don't

know what time she's turning up at the house. Is she drunk when she gets home? Does she wake Laurie up? Like, I don't think it's that simple. I think their relationship is fragmenting because of the lifestyle that Janet is choosing, but either way, what we know for sure is that Laurie used Arthur Paiva to enact her so-called revenge. At some stage during late December 1978, the strike at the Chematron Plant, or Futurama,

the strike began to wind down and everyone knew, the strikers and motel staff alike knew that the guards would be leaving pretty soon. So Laurie Swank hatched a plan. She told Arthur Paiva, head of security, that Janet was sleeping around, which she was, and managed to convince him that that was a real embarrassment for him. Why this was such a slap in P'Eve's face is not totally clear, considering he had already moved on to another woman. But pride is pride, I suppose. Somehow, Laurie Swank convinced P'Eve that Janet was basically sleeping with other men behind his back, despite the fact that he and Janet were not actually together anymore. Arthur P'Eiva got so riled up over this convoluted explanation, he decided

that he was going to teach Janet a lesson. And so Paiva, along with a couple of his cronies, hatched a plan all of their own. Yeah, so I'm just saying like, just to put this out there, like, obviously we don't know the exact reason for why Laurie and Janet's relationship sours, but what she does here is not good. She may have various different gripes with Janet, but this seems quite extreme. Extreme, underhanded, dangerous, lots of things, lots of words. So on the night of the 30th of January, 1979, Janet was once again working at the reception of the Blue Mill Inn when two guards walked over to her.

They were James Nelson, who Janet had slept with before, and another man called Robert Lynch. Lynch was a little older than the others and generally kept more to himself, drinking heavily on his own. Nelson and Lynch told Janet that they'd planned a surprise party for her and she should put a blindfold on and come with them. Now at first Janet was hesitant, but the two men insisted they'd cleared the whole thing with Laurie, who is, remember, her best friend and boss and her roommate. So Janet went along with it. and boss and her roommate. So Janet went along with it. It's just so fucking scary. Yeah, I also obviously we're not 100% on how much drug partakement Janet was doing, but

I can... It's not none. It's not none. So perhaps decision-making impaired. And it does make me think of Nancy and Peep Show. She was like, oh, I was just making crystal meth at the IMAX in Croydon. It's so scary oh my god. I actually watched this film the other day that's like it's like a horror film thriller film about these two girls I think they're American or something and they basically go backpacking in Australia and they run out of money and so they get to go to this agency and they're like get them a, like working in a motel or something. And they're like, the only thing I've got

this late in the season is that this random motel in the middle of fucking Bush fucking whack and hut nowhere. And they're like, we'll take it. And when they get there, it's just like, it's all men. And it's just like this rough outback area. And they're all just kind of like, I want to say like oil rigors, but like obviously not because I'm not in the seat, but you know what I mean? It just gets progressively more scary every night and that's what this feels like. Can I remember what it's called? It's got the lady from Ozark in it with the blonde curly hair. Oh, I don't know fuck about shit.

I love her. Yeah. So yeah, sticking with the terrifying situation that Janet is about to go into. I don't need to show about fuck, sorry. As you should correct yourself. So the two men blindfold Janet, then handcuffed her and led her to a waiting car. Another guard called Anthony Williams watched from a balcony with some of the motel staff as Janet was bundled into the vehicle and it drove away.

balcony with some of the motel staff as Janet was bundled into the vehicle and it drove away. Hmmmm. At around 2am, Robert Lynch went back inside and rummaged through the Blue Mill Inn's reception office, stole about $500 in cash and then called the police. The police arrived a few minutes later and Lynch told them that Janet had been on the phone with James Nelson and it sounded like someone had come in and robbed the motel. James Nelson said that he'd heard a scuffle down the phone and when he went downstairs Janet was gone. The police assumed understandably perhaps that a robbery had gone wrong and had resulted in Janet's kidnapping. They interviewed the two men along with some of the other hotel workers and security guards,

and then they went out to look for Janet. Little did they know, Janet was with another set of security guards. They were holding her at the temporary accommodation of Arthur Paiva, who, as head of security, had a lake house on the Chimitron factory ground. Oh fucking dystopian shit I've ever heard in my life. Who wants a fucking lake house on the grounds of a chemical plant? Well, Arthur Paiva.

Might spot some Blinkies. Also looked it up. She's called Julia Garner, the lady from Ozark, and the film is called The Royal Hotel. Oh well done. So for the duration of the journey there, Janet was still under the impression that she was going to a surprise party held in her honour. But that impression quickly changed. When she arrived at the house, there were about 15 people waiting for her, including six female colleagues from the Blue Mill Inn, one of whom was of course her best friend, Laurie Swank.

Now Janet's colleagues watched as the blindfold was taken off and then quickly replaced by duct tape. James Nelson then wrapped a belt around Janet's neck and he dragged her around the house, verbally abusing her. During this time, Patti Ward, Arthur Paiva's ex-girlfriend arrived dragged her around the house, verbally abusing her. During this time, Patti Ward, Arthur Paiva's ex-girlfriend arrived, and apparently Janet mumbled to Ward that she was alright as she was dragged past her. Then Paiva told Patti Ward to leave as he, James Nelson and two other guards took Janet

upstairs to his bedroom. Paiva then raped Janet, while several other party guests watched. As he raped her, Paiva shouted at Janet, You're gonna die, bitch. You're gonna die. Once he was finished, the other guards formed an orderly cue. It's like a McCamey Manor shit isn't it? What's that? It's that haunted house where you have to sign a waiver. Oh yeah yeah yeah. Fuck. I actually just feel so disturbed by this story because I just have this feeling right Janet that she maybe have had some reservations about the whole situation on the drive there. They take the blindfold off. She sees six of her female colleagues there. I assume there must've been some relief at that point where you're like,

okay, maybe everything is okay. And then this starts. I also think it perhaps illuminates how debauched what was going on at the motel had already become for no one to say that this was not fine. And this is particularly disturbing. But you know, I've thought it now, so let's put it out there. I wonder if at any point during her ordeal, Janet slipped back into her upbringing and wondered if this was all some sort of biblical smiting for what she'd done. And we're not finished. Two of Janet's colleagues, Cheryl Ruiz and Diane Marsman, watched on as James Nelson, Janet's ex-lover, raped Janet, anally and orally. Arthur Paiva was watching too, shouting, fuck her to death, that fucking bitch, she deserves to die, she deserves to be

fucked. For the next few hours, Janet's colleagues from the Blue Mill Inn watched, shouted abuse and joined in. The guards took turns raping Janet. During that time at least four men, James Nelson, Arthur Paiva, Freddie Parker and Anthony Williams individually raped Janet multiple times. Williams specifically spent most of the time masturbating in a corner until Paiva finally gave him his turn and Williams ejaculated on Janet's back. Laurie Swank would later admit that she'd also participated in the rape of her best friend. How exactly she did that has never been made totally

clear. As all of this took place another guard called Ronald Wirick took photos of the whole thing because Arthur Paiva told him to. Apparently Paiva wanted to make sure that he had evidence to hold over everyone's heads in case they decided to rat him out. Well that's all thoroughly unpleasant so we're gonna bring you a quick interlude so you can have a breather, have a break and we're gonna tell you about some other bits of red-handed content that you might have missed this month. This week on Under the Duvet, which is our Patreon exclusive show, I did a deep dive

into Belle Gibson, who is of course the cancer scammer who fooled Apple and the world and everybody is talking about because of the new Netflix show, Apple Cider Vinegar. If you want the real story behind her, we talk about it on Under the Duvet this week. And we also talk about Kanye West and his Swastika t-shirts because they're hard to miss. And if you're interested in hearing us talk about those things, well you can sign up and become a patron right now and get tons of exclusive content like weekly episodes of Under the Duvet and also monthly full bonus episodes of Red Handed exclusively on Patreon. And this month's bonus is on the case of Ashley Reeves, a teenager who was groomed

by her teacher who then tried to kill her. But if you're not quite ready to commit to a full subscription, you should talk to your therapist about your issues. But still want more red-handed in your life? You can do that because now you can purchase individual pieces of bonus content and you can do that as many times as you like. You can indeed, and the place to do it is over on patreon.com. Do not, for the love of God, sign up through the Apple Patreon app. They will just charge you more.

Just go to patreon.com. Right, let's get back to it. Back to Janet. Have you ever gotten a message out of the blue? Maybe you ignore them. Or maybe you end up in conversation. Maybe they tell you about an amazing offer. I can really show you how to make some money. And maybe that gets you into a lot of trouble. But this isn't a story about people like you, the people receiving these messages.

This is a story about the people behind the messages, on the other end of the line. Thousands of them, working in a micro-city built for scammers. From Wondery, the makers of Dr. Death and Kill List, comes Scam Factory, a new series about survival at the expense of others. Follow Scam Factory on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Scam Factory early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Hey everybody. We have some exciting news that we wanna share.

If you wanna go on an adventure with Generation Y, we'd love for you to join us. January 26th through the 30th, 2026, we'll be sailing from Miami to the Bahamas on Wondry's first ever True Crime Cruise aboard the Norwegian Joy. Aaron and I will be there to chat, hang out, dive into all things true crime, and we're thrilled to be joined by some familiar voices in the true

crime podcasting world, Surti and Hannah from Red Handed, Sashi and Sarah from Scam Fluencers and Karl Miller from Kill List. Super excited to hang out with them too. We've got some cool activities, interactive mysteries we can solve, testing our forensic skills with a blood spatter expert, and so much more. So for some sun, fun, and just the right amount of mystery solving, come join us. If you'd like to know more and secure your spot, visit exhibitccruise.com for presale information.

The last man to rape Janet Chandler was Robert Lynch, the older alcoholic loner who'd set up the Blue Mill Inn's reception to look like a robbery and phone the police. Lynch violently raped Janet, pulling hard on the belt around her neck as he did so. When he'd finished, Janet slumped down, lifeless. And a party guest cried, she's dead. As the realization spread through the room, people scattered. Laurie swank, fled the scene immediately and drove back to the Blue Moon Inn, while Paiva ran into another room and began smashing furniture in anger and panic. Williams, Lynch, Nelson, and Paiva then took Janet's body into the shower

and then wrapped her in a tarp. I find it shocking that they're also shocked that she's died when they've literally been screaming that they're going to kill her from the second she arrived. Now some of the other guests fled while others rapidly cleaned up the guest house. They then transferred Janet's body into Robert Lynch's car. Paiva and Nelson went back inside and told Patty Ward, Cheryl Ruiz, and Diane Marsman that the same thing would happen to them if any of the women ever spoke out. Meanwhile, Lynch drove to a wooden turnabout, roughly 40 miles on the I-196, just outside the town of Grand Haven, Michigan.

And there he dumped Janet's body in the snow. The police believe that the snow plow driver who found Janet's body arrived about five minutes after Robert Lynch had dumped it. I just can't imagine being another woman who was there and like having taken part in it. Look, I'm not like under any illusions that women can't take part in violent sexual situations like this, of course they can, but I'm like were you not fucking terrified that they were gonna do this to you next? Like my god.

When word got back to Janet's family that her body had been discovered in the snow, of course they were absolutely devastated. They knew that she was missing, they'd heard that from the police and they'd spent the night driving around looking for her. Even someone being missing in weather like that is terrifying enough. Yeah. The police did attempt to talk to everybody who had been staying at the Blue Mill Inn immediately after they found Janet's body but it turned out that Paiva had timed his so-called lesson well. The strike officially ended just a few days after Janet was killed and the guards from the Wackenhut Company quickly dispersed across the country. But not before Arthur Paiva dropped into Janet's funeral to pay his respects.

Eventually with every potential witness littered across the continental United States, and without DNA testing to fall back on, we're in the 70s let's remember, Janet's case went cold. And Janet's family wouldn't get anything even close, even approaching closure for another two and a half decades. It wasn't until 2003 that Janet's name would be brought up again, but not by police, but by a professor at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, where of course Janet had been studying two decades prior. David Schock, who led a film class at the college, set his students to task of creating a documentary on Janet's murder.

Together, Schock and his students pored over old newspaper articles, spoke to locals on the street, and eventually even filmed interviews with Jim and Glenna Chandler, Janet's parents. The class titled the short film, Who Killed Janet Chandler? It opened to a packed Knickerbocker theatre in downtown Holland on the 25-year anniversary of Janet's murder. The documentary was such a success that public pressure began to build to a point where the police decided they were going to reinvestigate Janet's death. Holland's police chief, one John A. Kruithof, was just a fresh-faced junior when Janet died back in 1979. Off the back of the film, Kruithof decided to assign Janet's case to David Van Loppeck, 45-year-old veteran who led a small

team in re-investigating Janet's murder. They spent the first few months trying to put together a better picture of Janet Chandler, not just the god-fearing good girl that had been described to the police by her parents, but also who she was when she was away from her parents' gaze. And that was when the police found out about Janet's 40-something-year-old boyfriend, and they tracked him down and spoke to him. They also managed to track down Laurie Swank. Laurie, who was now in her forties, spoke about her best friend Janet with a tear in

her eye, as she described her musical and fun loving pal but she also let slip about the guys staying at the motel saying that they were a wild group who liked to party. Laurie admitted that she and Janet both had affairs with the guards and that she'd had to reprimand Janet for a display room for sex. I am aware that I carry more guilt than a normal person. The idea of a negative Airbnb review keeps me up at night. What's your Uber rating? I don't know. It was really low for a while and I really had to push it back up. This is an unpopular opinion. I understand that when Airbnbs used to be cheaper than hotels, I understand why you're

expected to strip the beds. If I've paid double what I would pay in a hotel, I'm not stripping the bed, I'm not taking the bed out, I'm not doing it. I'm not washing everything up. No, but I do because I'm scared of the bad reviews. Well, this is it. Okay, my Uber rating. I can't believe it's fucking this. It should be higher.

4.82. 4.61, which I, because I mean, years and years and years ago, it plummeted. It was really bad. Because I mean years and years and years ago, it plummeted. It was really bad. Yeah. And I just felt terrible. But I believe anything above a 4.4 is okay. Yes. I got picked up.

The only reason I did actually check my Uber rating the other day, but I forgot is I got picked up by a new driver and he was like, I don't pick anyone up less than 4.8. I was like, that's the 4.8. So I just snuck over the fucking line. 4.82 over here. Wow. I was like, that's the 4.8! So I just snuck over the fucking line, 4.82 over here. I know. I think I've done all my throwing up in the back of Ubers when other people have booked them. Sorry about that. It's just fear of influence. Having their Uber rating decimated. I know. But it's just the way it works out. If I'm that drunk that I'm going to throw

up, I've not got my shit together enough to order the uber. Fair fair fair. Hmm But getting back to Janet, sorry that was the whole point of that. Yes. Sorry. I tell me that forget so worried about stuff like that genuinely worried Imagine carrying for 25 years. You are the reason that your best friend is dead You are the reason that your best friend is dead. And you know exactly what happened and you know the police haven't found out and you know her family have no peace. I hope you haven't slept a fucking day of your life, Laurie Swank. Yeah, I would hope so, but I don't think so.

So yeah, to get back to Janet, the small team re-investigating her murder, then chased quite a few shadows and went down more than one wild goose rabbit hole across the land. They're just chasing kind of false leads all over the place, they don't really have enough to grasp onto, unsurprising, it's a 25 year old murder. But they are basically trying to track down all the men who stayed at the motel. And eventually, they did find Robert Lynch. Lynch was now in his mid-60s and lived just 80 miles away from the Blue Mill Inn, which in and of itself is disgusting, like that's where you fucking killed somebody. And it gets even more disgusting because in that time he'd also started a family and

he also ran quite a successful beauty school with his wife. Despite his squeaky clean family man image, Van Loppick was convinced that something about Robert Lynch was off. He was still drinking like a man half his age, downing large quantities of spirits on the daily, almost as if there was something he wanted to block out. Van Loppet was so convinced that Lynch had something to hide that he spent months, slowly, slowly, Catchy Monkey, getting to know the older man. Police went down for frequent casual chats and off-the-book interviews, telling Lynch that they just wanted to know a little bit more about Janet Chandler.

And it worked. Robert Lynch let his guard down and admitted to Van Loppik and his team that he and Janet had once upon a time slept together. Then he dropped another bombshell. Janet had been sleeping with some of the other guards at a party around the time that she'd gone missing and that that party had gone, and this is a quote, haywire. Funny word to describe a planned fucking rape party. Gag rape, yeah. And perhaps realising that he had said too much, after that revelation, Lynch went quiet and added that all of that was just second-hand information and he had absolutely nothing else to say. However, Van Loppick went back 11 days later, this time with a copy of Who Killed Janet Chandler on DVD. The officer sat with Lynch and watched the documentary, and paused as Janet's dad Jim

gave a teary interview talking about wanton closure. Van Lopik asked Lynch about his own daughter, who was roughly by this point the same age Janet was when she died, and said, if she were killed, wouldn't you want to know what had happened to her? This is some very interesting and very good police work. And finally, just as Van Loppick had hoped, Lynch broke and began telling him the graphic details of the night that Janet had been murdered. But even then, it wasn't plain sailing.

It took the team another four months to get everything that they needed. But eventually they gathered enough evidence to go and round up the entire gang. What about the photos? I can hear you asking quietly and politely. Because we know that Ronald Wirick was ordered by Arthur Paiva to document the whole thing in case he needed collateral for blackmail. Those photos never actually made it to Arthur Paiva. They were actually given to another guard who was supposed to pass them along but when the strike ended police were already sniffing around.

So those photos, those incriminating photos, never made it into Paiva's possession. Due to the repulsive content of said pictures, getting them developed would be quite difficult. So we can only assume that they never were, and that the negatives have either been lost or destroyed. We just don't know. The case of the murder of Janet Chandler went to trial in 2006, 27 years since Janet had been so brutally and senselessly murdered. To make up for the lack of physical evidence, i.e. the photos that were never developed

or lost or destroyed or buried, Robert Lynch was offered a plea deal. If Lynch testified against James Nelson, Arthur Paiva, Freddie Parker and Anthony Williams, then he would be allowed to plead guilty to second-degree murder. Laurie Swank also agreed to testify, which is absolutely the least she can fucking do, along with Cheryl Ruiz and Diane Marsman. And the four of them painted a graphic picture of the night that ended with Janet Chandler's death. with Janet Chandler's death. With their plea deals, Lynch was given 25 to 40 years. Swank was given 10 to 20.

Nelson, Williams, Paiva and Parker were all sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Despite several failed appeals, both Paiva and Nelson died in prison and Williams and Parker are still alive and still inside. Laurie Swank was released in 2016 after serving 10 years for her part in the rape and murder of her so-called best friend. Robert Lynch, who is believed to have dealt Janet's final blow, is still alive and will be eligible for parole in 2026. is still alive and will be eligible for parole in 2026. And that is where this whole thing would have ended.

Except Jim and Glenna Chandler were not done yet. Now that they knew who was responsible for the death of their daughter, they wanted to make sure that everyone involved saw justice. Because while the police were confident that there were at least two others involved in the horrific incident, everyone else was scattered to the wind. Prosecutors did briefly attempt to charge Cheryl Ruiz and Diane Marsman, who were present at the rape, and also admitted to throwing insults at Janet as she was defiled,

but eventually those charges were dropped. So the Chandler family set their sights on the Wackenhut Corporation instead, the security firm who employed the vile men who killed their daughter. In February 2012, Jim and Glena took the Wackenhut Corporation to court. They stated that the company was partially responsible for their daughter's death, having not properly background-checked its employees before hiring them. And this is not the only time that the Wackenhut Corporation has found itself in hot water. Although the Wackenhut Company actually still operates as a security company, since a merger in 2002 it trades under a different name, which is less amusing, G4S.

If you're in the UK or the US, G4S will probably be a familiar collection of letters and number to you. They have been involved in a lot of scandals. And here is a brief list of all of the major incidents associated with the company. During the 60s, George Wackenhut and his company began compiling information on people they felt were potential communists. By 1965, they had collected information on one in every 46 Americans. They were also accused of working with the right-wing contra-militias in Nicaragua, as well as the right-wing extremists in Belgium.

During their time in Belgium, Wacken-Huckards allegedly lured migrant children into a basement and beat them senseless. In the 90s, they were then accused of helping Saddam Hussein obtain chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq war. Then in 2008, their contract as armed guards for most of the US's nuclear sites was terminated when guards were found to be sleeping on duty. Then in 2012, one of the few nuclear sites they still had was broken into and overwhelmed by protesters, one of whom turned out to be an 82-year-old nun.

Get it, sister. Later in 2012, G4S came under further fire when they failed to provide the number of security personnel that they'd promised for the London Olympics. And those missing numbers were made up by the army. I remember that. Not a good look, no. Then in 2014 they were accused of using migrants for cheap labour in prisons that were under their control. And then finally, despite G4S repeatedly claiming that its background checks on its employees were thorough, there was Omar Mateen. In 2016, Mateen, an

employee of G4S who had worked at the company for nine years, committed one of the largest mass shootings in American history at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. Fucking hell. That is a bad, bad, bad, employee list. So as you can see from that quite extensive selection of scandals, when the Chandlers took the company to court in 2012, it was certainly not their first rodeo. And despite several witnesses providing testimony that proved a culture of conspiracy and silence at Wackenhart at the time of Janet's murder, G4S was found

not responsible in any way for her death. The company motto at the time of Janet's murder, would you like to know what it was? It's horrible. It's, I know nothing, see nothing and speak only kind words. I mean, it sounds like a fucking cult. A security firm? I want them to see things. I want them to see all of it. I want to be like, I know everything. I see everything.

Fucking hell. So at this G4S trial, the judge finished proceedings by saying the following. Today our hands are tied to give James and Glenna Chandler their day in court, as they surely deserve. Michigan law requires us, though, to find that Arthur Paiva's actions were within the scope of his own employment with Wackenhut. For the reasons stated in the majority opinion, I am unable to do so.

I regretfully concur. Sad times, really, really bad times. But it's a really interesting case. I mean, just the fact that it basically only comes back to be investigated 25 years later because of fucking like film school. Yeah, drama, a film school documentary is made about it. It's crazy. Yeah, teachers are fucking incredible, man. Yeah, I just think all the props in the world to Professor Shcock. Absolutely. And his team for making that. And also for the police officers who didn't just fob it off because it was a 25 year old

murder. Totally. Who investigated it thoroughly and brought so many people to justice. And as crushing as the final verdict on G4S is, I don't doubt that background checks weren't being done properly. But a background check will not tell you if someone is a bad person. No, no. And I completely understand the Chandlers. They had to give it a go, but it was never probably going to work massively. No, no. That is the very depressing, but like quite shocking how it ends in terms of actual justice story of Janet Chandler.

Yeah. So yeah, that's it guys. Everybody let's go. Let's all go have separate, not communal, separate showers and watch some Bob's Burgers, have a little lie down and then come back next week where we'll talk about something else. Goodbye, I promise. Behind the closed doors of government offices and military compounds, there are hidden stories and buried secrets from the darkest corners of history. From covert experiments pushing the boundaries of science to operations so secretive they were barely whispered about.

Each week, on redacted, declassified mysteries, we pull back the curtain on these hidden histories, 100% true and verifiable stories that expose the shadowy underbelly of power. Consider Operation Paperclip, where former Nazi scientists were brought to America after World War II, not as prisoners, but as assets to advance U.S. intelligence during the Cold War. These aren't just old conspiracy theories. They're thoroughly investigated accounts that reveal the uncomfortable truths still shaping our world today.

The stories are real. The secrets are shocking. Follow Redacted, Declassified Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Redacted early and add free right now on wonder E plus. He was hip-hop's biggest mogul the man who redefined fame fortune and the music industry. The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood walk

of. Did he built an empire and lived a life most people only dream about. Everybody know there ain't no party like a Diddy party, so... Yeah, that's what's up! But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down. Today I'm announcing the unsealing of a three-count indictment, charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution.

I was. I made no excuses. This custom so sorry. Until you're wearing orange jumpsuit it's not real now it's real. From his meteoric rise to his shocking fall from grace from law and crime this is the rise and fall of getting. Listen to the rise and fall of getting exclusively with