Rotten Mango - #143: The Temple Of DOOM (Case of Belinda Lucas)

Episode Date: February 28, 2022

Children say the scariest things. Sometimes you can’t help but feel like they know something you don’t. One daycare worker vividly remembers a moment that sent shivers traveling down her spine. A little boy was playing with a little girl. House. Innocent right? Out of nowhere, the little boy started to scream and smash mommy doll up against the wall. It was so unlike him. The alarming part? The little boy’s mom had recently been murdered and everyone suspected someone close to her. Did the boy know more than he told the police? ` Book Rec: “Shattered” - by Kathryn Casey (amazing deep dive and really shines a light on the victim) Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier or pay to description starting at 12.99 per month. Butta being better boo. Welcome to this week's mini-sode of Rotten Mango. I'm your host Stephanie Sue.

And do you guys have kids? Because kids say some of the scariest things. They do some of the scariest things. There was a redditor who said that one time she was putting her two-year-old to sleep and he pointed and whispered, Mommy, there is a monster over there. Oh, it's okay, sweetie. Whenever you feel scared, I just like to say a little prayer, right? So let's do it together. Come on, hold your hands with me and she proceeded to say a little prayer, but the two-year-old put his hand over his mom's mouth. And he said, shhh, he doesn't like that. Another child was playing with her toy kitchen,

and she put a plastic baby in a pot and was sauteing this plastic baby, and her mom kindly reminded her, oh no, we don't cook babies! And she turned around, looked at her mother and said, oh don't worry mom, it's just to take the skin off. There are countless stories on the internet about instances like this, some of them are terrifying, some of them are honestly comical, but I'm sure some people have seen a lot more

of this than others and one of those people are daycare workers. I mean there are round kids all the time, right? Well, let's talk about one. She was watching and supervising a three-year-old's little boy in a little girl playing dollhouse. The two were good friends, they played this game a lot. You know, he would always be the daddy doll, she would be the mommy doll, and everything would be swell in the dollhouse. Sometimes there were minor inconveniences, like a tsunami of sand.

Sometimes a random tiger would just show up in their good suburban neighborhood, but nothing that mommy doll and daddy doll couldn't tackle together. But out of nowhere, the little boy was in braged. He started slamming down the mommy doll and he was screaming, I don't like you get out of here! The daycare teacher had to physically rip them apart. She was terrified. Not at which she had just witnessed, because you know, kids have done a lot worse in her care. But she was terrified, because the little boy's mother had just been murdered recently.

And everyone had suspected someone very close to her. Did the little boy know more than he could tell the police? As always, full show notes are available at RottenMangoPodcast.com, but please check out Shattered by Katherine Casey. I mean, this book is truly amazing. It's the best deep dive on this case out there. And I mean, I'm not even surprised because it is Katherine Casey. If you guys are even remotely intrigued by true crime and you must be, since you're here, please do yourself a favor. Pick up one of her books, any of by true crime and you must be since you're here, please do yourself a favor. Pick up one of her books, any of them really, and you will forever be sucked in.

She delivers an impactful, strong story, and I love that she spends a lot of time focusing on the victim's life. She really is a meticulous researcher and a fantastic writer, so with that being said, let's get into the story. The story starts with a Belinda Lucas. She was a most pleasant surprise, but a surprise nonetheless. So her parents, Tom and Carol, they were already swamped with their three sons, their three, Ryan, Barry and Brent.

Right? And when Carol was pregnant with Belinda, yeah, I know, so cute, all their names start with B. When she was pregnant with Belinda, Barry almost got hit by a bus. He's four years old and his ball flew into the street and he ran over to get it. The bus has headed straight for him. Slammed on the brakes, comes to a screeching halt and Barry shocked everybody, including that bus driver by calmly picking up his ball, turning around and walking back to his lawn. I mean it was crazy people are like, does this kid have no emotions? I mean, I'm sure kids have a strong sense of fear for their own safety at that age.

He's four years old. This seems nearly impossible. Is he like a psychopath? What's happening? That's what people were saying. This is how Barry's parents found out that he was deaf. Oh. They were shocked. For the past four years, I mean, they just thought that Barry was shy and quiet.

They had no idea that he was deaf. And with that, and the fact that Carol is heavily pregnant, and I mean heavily pregnant, they were just super stressed. Carol kept telling her husband, I just want to girl this time. I really want to girl and I want to name her Brenda because it starts with B. Okay, babe, whatever you want, you can name the next child whatever your heart pleases. In the delivery room, she named her baby girl Brenda. But yet another surprise. She kept pushing and pushing and another baby girl popped out. Listen, neither of them knew that she was pregnant with twins, which is like, who is there, OBGYN?

Maybe it was just a different time then. Maybe they didn't get checkups. I don't know, it's still honestly wild. So she just popped out. Tom said that he was holding two baby girls in his arms, and he had to sit down, he was getting weak in the knees, he was starting to feel woozy.

But they were ecstatic. He threw his hat in the air, and he started yelling and excitement in the hospital, but they were in a bit of a pickle. They had all the B names, and they hadn't thought of another B name for a girl. So they thought, okay, we'll Brenda and... Bylinda! So they had two fraternal twins.

Now, Bylinda, even though she was a fraternal twin, she was not identical, by the way. She was the baby of the family. She was even the smallest in size. Her brother's love to baby her take care of her. by the way, she was the baby of the family. She was even the smallest in size. Her brother's love to baby her take care of her. She was even nicknamed number five in the house. And they just had this really cute family.

Carol became a stay-at-home mom. Now that she had five kids to take care of, that's a lot of kids. Tom said, you know, care could have worked. We could have hired someone to take care of the kids and do this and do that, but her life emphasis, her life purpose was taking care of her kids. So yeah, we didn't have as much money as some families, but when our kids got home from school, their mama was always there.

And she especially doated on her twin girls. She would sew them these cute little outfits and eventually She started noticing that as she's sewing these outfits, the Belinda, the little baby, number five, was quickly outgrowing Brenda, like physically but also personality-wise. So Brenda had this more laid-back personality. She just kind of went with the flow. Belinda on the other hand, she was spunky. That's what everybody calls her, just like a firecracker, full of energy, So loud. She wanted to be part of everything. She did not have a shy bone in her body. Her brother said, listen, no matter what is going on Bolinda is gonna be right in the middle of everything. Okay, she's gonna be right there in the center of all the chaos

She's quick on her feet too, so she would pick up on things, then she would teach it to Brenda. So she was the one that learned how to ride a bike first. Tie her shoes first, and then she would help Brenda learn. She was almost motherly in a sense, like she loved making sure Brenda was okay, and if there was something that needed taking care of, she would do it. She even learned how to sign language to communicate with Barry. So Barry could read lips, and that's how he understood his other siblings and his parents, right?

But I mean, he would just always have a special place in his heart for Belinda because this was such a huge gesture to him that she went out of her way to learn how to sign. So Belinda would make sure Barry was never bullied at school. She would do a really good job at scaring off bullies, like that was her forte. Barry was four years older but if he ever had a problem, he would go to Bolinta. He'd be like, hey, I need help with this. I don't know what to do.

It's like he looked up to her in a sense, even though she was younger. So at this point, the family had to pack up their bags and they moved to one of the oldest towns in Texas to be closer to Tom's family. And honestly, live a more peaceful life. Like this is gonna be one of those towns That's filled with scenic backdrops of lush greenery just so much nature everywhere

Belinda was loving that small town life at school. She was active She spent a lot of time at school basketball practice. She loved basketball Then she would join the cheerleading squad. And her coach told her, you can't do both. Because what are you gonna do? You're gonna switch into your cheer gear and then cheer on the squad and then what, switch back into your basketball gear and then run out. What are you gonna do during half times? Like, that doesn't make any sense. You have to choose one or the other. Okay. I'll let the others cheer for me and I'm gonna be on the basketball team. But it didn't really work because she still led the cheers at all the pet rallies in her basketball uniform

Like she just like you had to drag her away. She was the loudest. She just radiated so much energy She was so enthusiastic. She was voted most school spirited later on. It was like her energy was contagious So during the summers she would train. Now Belinda was not a natural athlete. I don't think that it was a gift that she was born with. So in order to do well she really had to try. She spent entire summers lifting weights. This is a high schooler. Lifting weights, training to get in shape for the upcoming season. She was determined. She loved being part of the team. She never hugged the ball. She was the type that knew it wasn't about her.

It was about the whole team and it's about winning. And when she wasn't doing that during the summers, she would raise their chickens. Yeah, they had chickens like this is I'm talking picture perfect Southern bell life. She would just crack an egg in the morning fresh from the chicken coop. In every single morning she would go outside, run out in her PJs, and take care of the chickens. She'd be scooping poop. She'd be cleaning their little chicken coop like all the time. It was crazy. She was so full of energy. They were really well taken care of that during the annual Piney Woods fair? Oh, oh, oh, oh. Ballendous chicken, one grand champion of all the chickens.

Oh yeah, she got a $2,000 gift from the fair. Yeah, she put it away for college, the grandest of all chickens. How do you win that? I don't know what the criteria is. Yeah. Is it like based on the egg? Is it based on the dimensions of the chicken? Is it like a dog show, but for chickens?

So you just have a chicken on a leash. And you just start running. Dog shows are bizarre to me. Like, I swear, if you were an alien and you watch dog shows, you'd be like, what are these humans doing? This is goofy. So after high school, Belinda wants to pursue a teaching degree. I mean, it's kind of a natural step for her.

She had always been a great babysitter. She was nurturing. She was also really outgoing. And she's a passionate person. So if you wanted a teacher that really cared about you, Belinda would be it. Especially if you had any disabilities, because she just had this passion

of wanting to help young kids like her brother was. So she goes to college and she moves into this cute little apartment with two of her girlfriends. One of them is a girl named Stacy. And you know, she's putting in work, Belinda's in class, and then she's working part-time at a grocery store, and then another part-time job as an aerobics instructor. She even managed to make time for a guy that she started dating, so they had known each other since high school.

They started talking about marriage, about getting engaged, but then, Belinda found out that this mother forker was cheating on her. She was devastated. She was so hurt, but she did not hesitate to end the relationship. I mean, she was like, the trust is broken, there's no going back. I could never see you the same way and no matter what he did to get her back, because he did a lot, she just was not having it. It's over, for good, I'm not doing it. And to distract her from her heartache, what does she do? Does she go date another guy? No, she gets a third job. At a local farm. I mean, she needed the money, she had bills to pay. She had tuition, rent,

food. It was a lot. She barely had any spare time. But she always made sure to have fun. So let's say Halloween is coming around and this happened, one of the Halloween's. She doesn't have time to go out in party. She's got all these shifts planned out and then she's to go home and study on Halloween night. She's not living that stereotypical college life. So what does she do? She puts on a cow costume. I'm talking full Chick-fil-A cow style, utters everywhere. Just cow nipples.

And she wore it to the shift at the grocery store where nobody else dressed up. And her utters were like getting in the way when she's scanning things, stalking shell. She's like, oh, excuse me, that's my utter. I mean, but it was so much fun for her. But for everybody else, they had such a blast. getting in the way when she's scanning things, stalking, she's like, oh, excuse me, that's my outer. I mean, but it was so much fun for her. But for everybody else, they had such a blast. So she just knew how to have a good time. Stacy, her roommate, always admired her.

It just seemed like she saw the good things and everything. She never got angry. And Belinda was just a positive person. One time she was driving Stacyacey to the flea market outside of town, and her car stops on the side of the highway. So this is a toxic trait that Belinda had, which is that her gas tank was always edging on zero

to negative to your stop on the side of the road. That's what it was. And so her gas tank is low. They stop on the side of the highway, and Stacey's upset. Not because she has to walk, not because this ruined her day, but because she cares about Belinda. She's like, Belinda, I told you a million times, like this is so careless you're going to get in trouble one day.

What if this happened at night and you were alone, you need to be more careful. This is dangerous. Belinda calmly got out, took out her empty gas can from the trunk, and started walking down the highway with Stacy running after her. And she just looked at Stacy and apologized and said, but aren't you glad that we're out? It's such a pretty day. Like, I'm just glad that we're outside and we're together and we're not missing this

special time. It was hard for Stacy to be mad at her, because you know, she's just really enjoying life. She had this endless energy, even a full day after school, work. She still managed to find energy to go clubbing with Stacy and even do workout classes. So this calls a catch, okay? She was the girl that almost seemed untouchable by guys, because she smart, hard working, independent, insanely fit, beautiful. She had this dark curly blonde hair and these

Striking green eyes. She got a lot of stairs everywhere she went from all genders and romantic, non-romantic, you know Some people just stopped and stared to appreciate her beauty. Eventually she caught the attention of a student named David Temple. A little bit about David. He becomes very important later. So David was born in Katie Texas, which is just a little bit outside of Houston, Texas. Now Katie Texas has kind of that old, tiny vibe. It's, there's a lot of farmers out there.

It's just that pure Southern vibe. Football is life. Okay, life is football, football is life and Katie. Football is everything there. Everybody cares about high school football. Even if you're not in high school, even if you don't have kids in high school, or kids that are gonna be in high school

and they know football is life. On high school football game nights, businesses would close early, because everyone would be at the game. No one is out shopping, and even the owners themselves would be at the game No one is out shopping and even the owners themselves would be at the game even if they have no kids in high school High school football high school football not even like College football or the NFL high school football

So this is the town that David grew up in with his two brothers now David's family owned some land in Katie But they weren't wealthy. They did like to keep up with appearances, though. David's mom was incredibly religious, and she wanted everyone to know it. She was said to have been the type of woman that if you went to her house, she said, hey, Stephanie, you want a cup of coffee? Oh, yeah, sure, that'd be great.

She would have a slice of pie to go along with it. Fresh baked pie. You know, she wouldn't just give you the coffee, no. She was always described as, and I quote, a good Christian woman. David had a really nice life growing up under parents like this. All of his extended family members bought houses

on the same street as the temple family, so he's constantly surrounded by family, which if that's not a dream, I don't know what is You know when you're growing up and you're like, oh when we get older, we're gonna buy houses right next to each other That's a dream and then everybody moves out of state and you're all alone They would all meet at someone's house every Sunday. It was really cute pretty much the American dream picture it like that David's backyard was surrounded by nature and the one thing that David loved more than family time was going hunting. Yeah, he loved it. His grandparents taught him they would go out into the rice fields to go hunting which is

said to not have been unique to the temple family though a lot of people in Katie said that hunting is the norm and every boy gets a shotgun for his birthday or for Christmas. said that hunting is the norm and every boy gets a shotgun for his birthday or for Christmas. Eventually, David gets into football and he was good. He was like a small town celebrity in Katie. It was the first thing he thought about when he woke up and the last thing he thought about when he went to sleep. It was his entire life. He started training at the age of eight years old. So a lot of kids, like they would be put into this training classes by their parents

were like, football is life, you know? and all these eight year olds, they're eight. They don't know what their parents are talking about. What do you mean football is life? I'm just trying have a good time. So they would kind of goof around and have fun, not David. Okay, his coaches said that he was built for it. Yet the determination like no other player on the field. Of 8 year olds. They're just having fun enjoying themselves, but not David. David was always out on the field to win. He was different.

Eventually, all of Katie Texas would know his name. His celebrity status would also come with other perks. His parents started treating him like their golden child. They were way less strict on him than his brothers. They babyed him. Whenever an adult came to the temples and told them, hey, sorry, you're kid over there, David. He made a mistake.

I'm sure it wasn't serious, but he hit my kid. He slapped my kid and he spit on me and tried to kill my dog. You know, like they would just say like whatever he did. And David's parents wouldn't scold him. No, they would calmly ask him, did you do that? Did you spit on that kid? Did you hit that kid? David would say, no, of course not.

And they would march back to the other adults and say, I'm sorry, but our David said he didn't do that. The other parent would be like, yeah, because kids frickin' life. I mean, my kid lives too. What do you talk? I have evidence. Like, what do you mean? But as far as Maureen and Kenny were concerned,

these are David's parents. David was innocent. He never messed up. He never did anything wrong. Essentially, he was untouchable. He was never held accountable for anything in his entire life. Even when he was held back a year,

in fact, his parents were happy about it. They said, well that means you're bigger, older, and stronger than the other kids on the field. Good for you. You know what? This is what I like to call visionary thinking. You're a forward thinking person, son. To be fair, it's not like he needed the advantage,

though, he was already a lot bigger and better than the other kids. Like he was a standout from the beginning. I will give him that. So by junior year, David is one of the starters for his team. And he just kept bulking up, just kept growing. His friends used to make fun of how big David's head was getting. I mean, literally and figuratively.

Like he was egotistical maniac for sure. But the size of everything on David was getting too big. It was alarming. But they liked him. You know, his his friends said David's hilarious. He's charismatic He just he just has his way about him He's the type of person that just has a strong presence in life So if he's out and about and he walks into a room You're gonna kind of feel the energy shift. He's one of those people

He's not like someone that can blend in with the crowd. A friend said, you know David has a gentle side about him too. But there was an absolutely dark side. There was this ego-tistical side. This part of him that thinks the world revolves around him, but can you even blame him? Why wouldn't he think that? He had been spoon-fed that idea that he was exceptional, that he was superior since the moment he stepped foot on the field when he was eight years

old. And what's craziest, it wasn't just David's parents who cemented this in his head. No, coaches, peers, strangers. Strangers would come up to David at restaurants, shake his hand like he was an adult like a celebrity And they would say David Temple you are the future of Katie You're gonna put Katie high school football team on the map. You're gonna make it famous and this town is gonna rise because of you Anyway, enjoy your meal guys. See you at the next game. Keep it up champ Like that's how I imagine the conversation would happen, right? Even girls would start fawning over David Temple, and David loved it.

But he was really picky, for him it was less about connection, less about love. What is that? Who needs that? No, it was more about what kind of girls should David Temple, the football star, be seen within public. He thought to himself, you know what? He's debating between these two girls. Perhaps another athlete, that makes sense.

You know, it shows that I'm athletic and I care and I'm building this athletic future for my family, or maybe a bombshell blonde, you know, the popular, maybe I'm Tom Brady. Maybe I need like a supermodel, supermodel business woman, you know what I mean? Honestly, he sounds lovely to be around. I want to be David Temple's friend. He sounds like he would not give me a migraine. Eventually, Hillary, the basketball player he had been stringing along, wasn't having it anymore. She broke it off with him.

She was like, I think that you're just dating me because I'm one of the best basketball players on the team, and you keep cheating on me,'re about to growl, like the popular blonde girl. And he was devastated, he said no, Hillary, no. And he would beg for her back, she refused. His friend said he was beyond devastated, emotional, crying, they said it was amazing to see David Temple cry, while they'd never seen it before. And then once he stopped, he snapped back to reality and he said, whatever, Hillary's

a horsehead anyway. So she had a slightly longer face than others. Which I don't even think that she did, but that's the explanation he gave. And from there, he would call her a horsehead. Every single time she walked by in class, in the hallways, every single time. Eventually, he egged on other people to start calling her horse head, and he threatened any guy who wanted to be popular that if they dated Hilary, not only would he make sure that they were losers, but he would physically throw them against the walls.

And he did. If anybody asked out Hilary, he would literally confront them physically and push them up against the lockers. Guys were scared of David, so they backed off. I mean, it was brutal. A guidance counselor even got involved in us, David to stop. Of course, David didn't stop, and of course there were no consequences. Now, did he stop there?

No. One night, Hillary's family found out that her pet rabbits were missing. They literally had no idea where the rabbits went. Later, the talk of the town was that David Temple when it got them and strangled them. And then David would later date a cheerleader named Renee Zellweger, which, yes, the Renee, the one that would later be coming and Academy award-winning actress. She would an Oscar. She was in movies like Cinderella Man, Bridget Jones, Diary Cold Mountain. Yeah. Yeah. It was in the same high school and he dated her very briefly.

But I just thought that that was so fascinating. Yeah. So no, not you David. She put Katie high school on the map. Thank you very much. Anyways, back to David. So at this point, this guy is 5'11 and weighs over 200 pounds. And it wasn't just his size that intimidated the other kids.

It was just the way he was. One time during practice, so you know those practices for ball teams make you do where you run up and down the bleachers and it's just really hard. He slipped and fell. Sliced his leg open. It was torn nearly to the bone. The other teammates looked at it. Some of them had to gag and throw up.

They're like, oh, God, I got to get throw up. It was that bad. But David just sat there and he started laughing. There was blood everywhere. Another time, David fell on a piece of plywood that had nails embedded in it and he had puncture wounds all over his body from the nailscing through his skin. He didn't even shed one tear. Not one. David's friend said, I was terrified of David. Listen, people don't understand how intense football is and how violent it is.

And David was absolutely brutal on the field. Even in practice, nobody wanted to go up against David. He was so rough. He would go through two to three helmets a season And before each game they have what's called Skull time, which is where you clear your head and you start hyping yourself up for the game Sometimes during this time David would put on all his pads and just ram himself into the lockers Because you know big man destroyed big things

himself into the lockers. Because you know, big man destroy big things. Lou, caveman mentality, I love it. His coach said, David is one of the most intense players I have ever coached. On the field, he was one of the meanest. The other team's offense didn't like to see David just even staring at them. But it wasn't just that on the field though.

David was ready to fight all the time. He always acted like he was better than all the kids. He was tougher and honestly, he was a big, big bully. He treated 90% of everyone in class as I were lesser than him. If you were lucky, he would completely ignore your presence. If you were unlucky, he was bullying you. That's it.

There was no in between. He had a couple of friends and that's it. If you were near him, you would walk on pins and needles. I remember there were a couple kids in high school like this Where you know you just like hope that they don't notice something about you because you just know you're in for a world of pain He had this tiny short temper and I mean do you really want to get bullied by the quarterback on a random Tuesday during third period? Probably not So you're like, wow, how did this guy even have more friends? What does this guy have more friends than I

do? Okay. What's wrong with me? Because he had quite a bit of friends I tell you. And he was nice to them. Genuinely, one of his friends broke his arm during a game and David went with him to the hospital and stayed there during the entire surgery. The friends said, David was the last person I saw before they put me out and the first person that was there when I woke up. But even his friends had to be careful. If they pushed his buttons or didn't do something he liked, he would tease them and his favorite way to do it was to call them momas boys, which is ironic, considering he's a momas boy. But everyone cut him slack because he was so good at football and this is the entire

town just thrived on football. So as he gets more popular, as more strangers would walk up to his table, congratulate him. Parents idolize this kid. He just, like that fuel time, he started getting stronger and stronger. By senior year, he was able to bench press 430 pounds which my toxic trade is thinking that's easy. And my fans are told me he bench presses like 150 pounds. I did 200 once.

He said one time. I broke both my arms but I did it. So there's that. I actually had to YouTube a video of bodybuilders bench pressing 450 pounds and they just do one. Yeah, they're max. Yeah, so it's like a 10 minute video of them like hyping themselves up and then they're super buff and it's just like one and then done and I was like, oh wow, okay, so it's

really hard. I thought I could do it with some training. He was getting so good and so strong that he was actually accused of using steroids, which is not only illegal but horrible for his mind and body. Stairroids increases testosterone levels to a very, very unhealthy point and it can really have a harsh impact on your mood. So it typically makes people more aggressive, prone to outbursts and they could easily get enraged. In very, very extreme cases, it even leads to paranoia. But again, this is all a rumor. So that might explain some of the aggression

that he was showing with his classmates and his teachers and everybody, but it doesn't excuse it. Or he could have just bulked up and he was a major asshole. Probably the latter, because David would even threaten his teachers. And when they called his parents, they realized David's parents were never going to do anything about it. They turned around and they say, David, did you do that? They were so soft-spoken with David, so patient, their golden child.

It all just resulted in David being this arrogant, aggressive person, which could be a fatal combination to have in anyone, especially someone so big. And then David's dad lost his job. So it caused a lot more tension in this house. And one day David was in trouble with the school. Marine, David's mom, she was just at her wood's end. She just kind of exploded on the golden child. And I don't even think she really exploded.

She might have said something along the lines of, David, I understand you're under a lot of pressure with school, with football, with the season, but you just keep getting in trouble. You need to stop fighting with other students. I think it's time to take a good look at your behavior. But David exploded. He could not handle his mom treating him like this.

How could she? He would yell that he was the one this family would be nothing without him. Katie would be nothing without him. So how dare she yell at him? It got so bad, David's older brother intervened and he said, Hey, show some respect to our mom. Oh yeah? You back the hell up. What do you know about my life? And it's said that the fight ended with David grabbing a shotgun, pointing it at Darren's face, backing him into a corner,

date or later, bragged to his girlfriend at the time that he had his older brother beg for his life. And even his mother started begging. Please David, please just put the shotgun down. Darren said David just looked at them with this blank look. Finally he put the gun down and he left the room. He was shaken, angry and scared. But at the end of the day, the family said, oh, it's just David being David.

Come on. That is what the heck. Why would you break into these apartments? For money, for drugs, whatever was in there? Why aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No, who's gonna catch us? What a police! It was the height of the crack era

and instead of locking up drug dealers, some New York City cops had become them. I would suit up in my uniform and we're gonna want some drug dealers and I know how to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the investigation that uncovered it all. Did you consider yourself a rat? 100% I saved my soul just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set, an Autosy Originals documentary podcast series available now in the Autosy app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your shows.

I'm not a big guy man, but I love being that dirty mother f***er. So senior year was supposed to be the best year of David's life. It was the year he was going to be scouted for college. A lot of the top tier football colleges were looking at him, trying to give him scholarships, but what had happened was, I guess they'd seen videos, I guess that they had heard of him, uh, on him on the field, and they loved it. They were like, yes, we want him on our team.

They were going to fight to the death to get David on their team. But when they came to the field and actually saw him play, they were upset. Coaches were only interested in getting players that were six feet and above. David was 5'11 and that one inch really bothered them. They just did not want to recruit him. What?

Yeah. Most major colleges backed out and recruiting him. They would always say, oh, he's smaller than we thought. David tried to brush it off. He'd say it's to his friends, what the hell does one inch make a difference anyway? Sounds like he's talking about something else. In a sick twist, if David was taking steroids,

it might have hurt more than it helped, because one potential side effect is bone shortening. And both of David's brothers were a lot taller than him. But again, I mean, who's to say if he was using steroids, it's not confirmed, but if he was, it would have been a sick little iron, ironic thing. It hurt David a lot that he wasn't recruited because of that one inch. It just, I feel like he was the type of guy that measured his private areas like once a week. That was just the vibe that he's giving me. So it really hurt. To make matters worse, the town of Katie was going through a lot of senior year.

There were a lot of crimes taking place, a string of burglaries. People were burglarizing cars and stealing radar detectors. Which, that sounds weird. I don't know what that is. I guess maybe it's like sensors on a car. Radar detectors? Yeah, like a radar? Like a police? No, I don't know. It was like regular cars. Maybe it's like some sort of hardware,

some sort of equipment. And they were reselling them. For some reason, the police got tips that it was a group of high school boys. They go to investigate. It was said that one of them was David. So the police find a man who bought one of the stolen goods. And he said, oh, yeah, it's definitely

to some two high school, what do you call it? Football players selling it. One of of them he's all over the news all the time on the papers like the posters of freaking what's David Temple David and his friends were arrested for burglary charges two Katie high school athletes arrested that was all over the news for some reason the article also listed David's full name his full address for the whole town to see. I mean, they all knew where he lived, but it was just very bizarre. At first, David admitted involvement to one burglary.

He said, oh, it wasn't my choice, like I was influenced. But later, he was tied to at least six to eight burglaries. And in the end, he was given a deal. Plead guilty to a class A misdemeanor, attempted burglary of a vehicle, and be sentenced to three days in prison and a $100 fine. Two months later, he graduated high school, with no mentions of the charges ever brought up again. Now, after high school, he wasn't scouted by the big leagues, but he was offered a five-year

scholarship from Stephen F. Austin University. It was in this small town in Texas, but yes, the same town that Belinda Lucas would attend, it was a good-sized school. It had a one-double-a athletic program. Listen, I don't know what that means. It had a double-a battery. It wasn't the big leagues, but it was a good team.

And it was in a town that worshiped football just as much as Katie. So now both Belinda and David were enrolled at university, but they wouldn't meet the right way. Belinda was studying, working hard, having fun, and David was to stop there being somewhat of a celebrity. He wasn't as famous as he was in Texas or in Katie, but a lot of students knew about him, and he relished in this feeling. He joked around with people, but everyone could get the vibe. He's funny, he's charismatic for sure outgoing, wow, but you do not want to get on this guy's bad side.

Like that's a vibe. And he was only getting bigger and scarier. He was like 220 pounds now of just pure muscle essentially. And in college, the fights only started getting more serious. One time David was talking to a girl when another student walked past and said, Hey, Brittany, David didn't like that. David was like, Wow, are you disrespecting me? I'm having a conversation with this woman right now. And you want to say, Hi, Brittany, he picked the guy up physically, like a little rag doll and threw him up against a wall.

The world dude. Yeah. If I saw that I would be calling 911 immediately like this officer this man, this man right here, I'm terrified. If you even talk to David State, he would interpret it as disrespect and he would flip out. What's interesting is that whenever David was dating someone, he would put the girl on the world's highest pedestal, which sounds nice, but it's not because from there there's only one way to go and it's down and it has nothing to do on faults of that person, right? So if any guy came close to the girl, he would go ballistic. He expected his girlfriends to never

leave his side. So he's the type of guy that would say, as my girl, your place is next to me. His first serious girlfriend in college was a girl named Pam, and she said that she didn't mind his possessiveness, actually. Even David's family was so nice to her, made her feel loved, but she knew, she knew better than to even glance at another guy. Not because she would get her or David would get mad at her, he would never get mad at her. He would just get so pissed off at that guy and it would just create this uncomfortable, violent, scary situation.

Listen, if that's not a red flag, Pam said she had to be extra careful if David was drinking. So one night after drinks, Pam and her sister were walking towards the car. David was walking a little bit behind them, so it almost looked like they weren't in the same group. And I guess some guys thought the girls were alone. They approached him. And as Pam is getting into her driver's side, the guy is still talking to her. And in fact, he's blocking her from closing her driver's side door because he's trying to get her number. And she's panicked, not because

she doesn't like this guy, but literally for the safety of this stranger. So she looks him in the eye. I'm not kidding, you need to back off because my boyfriend's coming, please. But it was too late. By the time she finished saying that, the guy was being BODY SLAMED onto the hood of a random parked car. David BODY SLAMS him on there, THROWS HIM ONTO THE CAR and just gets calmly into Pam's car and they drive off. Pam knew better than to argue, Pam knew better than to tell David what he did was wrong.

All that would accomplish is David getting more mad and taking out his violence on inanimate objects. He loved punching walls. One time he kicked her car door so hard that it was a dent. He would go to a bar bathroom and punch the mirror and completely shatter it. Pam said it was always over jealousy issues and most of the time Pam was even confused on how the fight started. It wasn't typical jealousy, it wasn't like, you were texting with that guy and you guys were flirting. No, it was like, did you look at that guy? And then he would go punch that guy.

By the next morning, David would be back to normal, charming, kind, attentive. He would buy Pam flowers and go out of his way to let her know that he loved her. And she would forget and excuse his behavior. I mean, it's alarming, right? Because a guy this size, he's only getting stronger and it's going to be good.

In college during a game, David had tackled a guy so hard with so much force that he dislocated two of the poor guys vertebrae and nearly broke his entire back. He was just that aggressive. He was nicknamed the Temple of Doom. The Temple of Doom. His coach loved him though. He tried to argue. The coach is like I I mean, sure. David's aggressive, but you know, I've never seen him lose his control for his heavy-minded person. He's focused. He's obsessed with the game with the strategy with winning. I guess David was strategic. He did study his opponents. He found out all their weaknesses and he would tackle them in their

weak spots. You got a weak leg? Oh, David's coming for that leg. He's coming for that leg. He just had a lot of alarming things going on. David also was particular about his clothes. Everything had to be name brand matching and color steamed perfectly. Sometimes he would shower up to four times a day. Not just because he was working out He just hated feeling dirty. Anyway, about a year into dating, Pam and David, they're going strong. Things are getting serious. They're talking about getting engaged.

Pam already wore the promise ring he bought her every single day. Pam was in love. David's friends even called her Mrs. Temple, but everything changed in Dallas. So the couple went for a friend's wedding in Dallas, and the night before David was going out with the groomsman. So Pam is going to stay at the hotel with the girls. They're in Pam's hotel room, so David's staying in like a different room too. They're doing their nails, they're talking, fixing each other's hair. I mean, it was very cute girls night vibes. And that night David gets back to the hotel with the groomsman. He calls Pam and he says, I want to see you. She had never rejected him before.

And even though I would hardly call this a rejection, she told him, I don't think I can, I'm with the girls right now and I don't wanna make it weird. I also can't let you in the room because I wanna respect the girls night energy. We said no boys, you know, some of us are wearing nightgowns and he was pissed. Despite her saying no,

he was pounding on that door with a minutes. He brought two of his guy friends, he burst in through the door and started screaming at her, cursing at her, dragged her into the bathroom, and pushed her up against the wall. So this is the first time that he's physically abused. Pam. She was terrified. All the girls were screaming they were begging the two guys. Please just take him away They had to wrestle him off of a sobbing Pam

In hindsight Pam said she never really realized how much danger she was in in a relationship like that As strange as it sounds, I guess I thought it was normal for a boyfriend to be like that And I just didn't know any better So Pam doesn't forgive him right away, but after Dallas they kind of reconnect and David promised, ah, it's never gonna happen again. I love you. And she loved him and she believed him. So their relationship goes on super smoothly. They still talked about marriage and then in November, another incident. So Pan was working at this local restaurant as a waitress. Now that Friday night, she had pretended to be sick

and called out. She wasn't actually sick. One of her friends was coming out of town and she was gonna hang out with her. So she called in sick and she was hanging out with her friends when she gets another phone call. Hey, I just went by your workplace and you weren't working today,

but I just saw David there. And you weren't. And he was so dancing with another girl. So it's like a restaurant bar dance type place. I think her name is Belinda Lucas she goes to university with us. What? Now Pam couldn't go because she called in sick but she knew who Belinda was. She had seen her in the hallways. She was very active in the football life. I don't know if she was a cheerleader in college but she went to all the pet rallies. She's a very like sport fanatic

So she confronts David later and he's like, oh, baby, there was nothing What? What do you mean it was nothing? I can't believe you dance with someone behind my back. You hurt me I want to break up and immediately David is sobbing crying on his knees. No, baby I love you We're gonna be together forever that dance didn't mean anything. I'm devoted to you. I'm loyalty. Pam forgave him. And a few hours later,

so this is that David's apartment with his roommates. The doorbell rings and there was Belinda standing at the door. She looked at David, looked at Pam, looked back at David, looked at Pam, looked shocked, and then said, is Scott home? David's roommate. It's really awkward. So David's like,

oh yes, Scott, but Linda's here for you. So I mean the energy was just so weird. It's clear that she probably came for David and then saw what was happening and was like, oh, shoot, what do I do, make up something. Okay, is Scott here? And I'm sure the roommate was in on it. David tried to change the subject at an increasingly worried Pam and he's like, so you're going to tonight's game, right? No, I can't get off work tonight. Okay, well that's fine. We can hang out tomorrow then. Sure, I guess we can do like a little picnic.

I'll get together a little picnic for us. They kissed and Pam left, thinking, you know what, all as well. He loves me. Sunday comes around. Pam is busy prepping their little picnic and she gets a call. David, I thought about it, Pam, and I think we need a break. I think we need a break from the relationship. We can get back together later, but I just need some time. She was shocked. But she still didn't think it had anything to do with Belinda. She thought for sure he would come back to her. But then our friend saw him dancing with Belinda.

And it was just utter heartbreak. For the next few weeks, she was depressed, she started seeing a school counselor, and in Param's grief, she wrote a letter to Maureen, David's mom, whom she had grown super close with, remember? And she said, I'm just so sad, David's decision has left me absolutely devastated. Marie and wrote back, coldly. We know that YOUR and David's decision was mutual. We wish you the best.

What? That was it. Pam said it was like when David was done, he was done. And he wanted her gone, and one minute he was in love with her, and the next minute he was ready to move on, and he didn't even give a thought to the person he was leaving behind or hurting. And it seemed like his parents were on the same page. They were just so rude.

Now was Belinda and David's relationship gonna be any better? I guess we'll see. At this point it was their third year of college, and Belinda was thriving, she was doing so well, and then incomes David. And at first he seemed like the ultimate package. A great catch. He's the star football player, somewhat of a celebrity. They're both very active, very athletic,

and like, Belinda. David was a very romantic person. He treated her like an absolute princess. Stacey, Belinda's best friend in roommate, did not like him, though. She said that he used to call her a redneck and make fun of her Texas accent to Stacey. Belinda's roommate and she's like, you're really rude.

But to Belinda, he was the ultimate gentleman. It was just weird. Belinda was treated well even by David's family, very similar to how they were with Pam. And she was hooked. She was in love. Her friend said that she did start to change though. She wasn't as self-assured or opinionated as she usually was when she was in front of David.

And he was always so protective, he treated her like she was made out of glass and he was just always so freaking angry when she did something that he didn't like. He would just stare at her very creepy, very quiet and Belinda would back down. No, Belinda is not the type to back down easily. So they didn't like this change. Whatever David wanted she would say, okay, and she did it without hesitation. But Belinda wasn't the only one changing. David's family noticed that David was changing, but all of those were positive. He was suddenly

becoming very financially conscious, he was managing his money well, so they all thought it was Belinda's good influence, and they started to like her even more. Some said even though Belinda's fires seemed to kind of get smaller around David, she was still a lot stronger in terms of her opinions than Pam was. So Pam in general was a very chill laid back person. And Belinda was a bit more of a firecracker and very self-assured, even though she seemed to lose

to David a lot, but she still stood her grounded random things. For example, during Family Game Night once, in front of David's parents, Belinda and David fought for properties so hard against each other so intensely. Everybody else at the table wanted to cry and never wanted to play with them again. It was just so intense. It almost seemed like David had met his match. Meanwhile, Belinda's parents really liked David too. I mean, it's so easy to like him. His face was all over the town for college football. Strangers would stop him in the streets to take pictures with him.

He was a celebrity. The one person that was not easily impressed, other than Stacy, Belinda's roommate, was Brenda. Belinda's twin sister. She just hated the fact that David only talked about football. It's just everything in his mind was second to football, including Belinda, her sister. If David disagreed with Belinda, Belinda would just go silent.

She's felt like what? Are you abandoning your opinions and your confidence for a man? This is just unlike you. It doesn't make sense. It seemed like everything had to be David's way or the highway, but she couldn't say anything. Belinda was everything had to be David's way or the highway. But she couldn't say anything.

Belinda was in love, and she watched her fall deeper and deeper. Stacey the roommate wants her David referring to his own girlfriend's family as white trash. He said the other are nice, but they're white trash. And Belinda would come home more often saying things like, God, I'm so tired. David flew off the handle again today. Blinda, that's not. I think something's not right with that guy.

Like, nobody should be flying off the handle every day. It's just finals. He's under a lot of stress with football and everything that's going on, but you know me, I can handle him. I know when to back off. Besides, Blinda was almost being pressured to stay with him. People would stop her at the school, strangers, and they would say, oh my god wait, aren't

you the one that's dating that football player? Wow, that's crazy. And it is like they're impressed by her. Dating David made her feel important, made her seem important, and think about the pressure of being the one to hurt him. Could you imagine how much people would hate you? Football is everything. Imagine you break up with David and he loses the game. People would hate you. Football is everything. Imagine you break up with David and he loses the game.

People would hate you. It's the dumbest thing ever, but they would hate you. She quickly found out that any guy that even breathed in her direction was probably gonna get beat up by her boyfriend. Whenever she ran into old friends from high school, she'd be so excited, give them the biggest bear hugs, these guys,

and then she would quickly change her attitude and look fidgety and say, I have to go. My boyfriend is here somewhere and he's the jealous type. And she would just rush off. Soon after, David invited Belinda's parents over to his parents place one day. He's all dressed up and he sat them down and said, I'd like your permission to ask Belinda to marry me.

Both our parents were impressed. Like, how many young men took that formal, even old-fashioned step before proposing. Not a lot. So they agreed, and of course David turned it into this huge football event. One day after a game, David walked Belinda out onto the football field. His friends had stationed a ring around the perimeter in their cars. All the lights were turned off, and on David's cue, they turned on the car headlights one by one while they were in the middle. David got down on one knee and asked her to marry him.

She got all teary-eyed and she said yes and I tell you it was a big diamond ring. She was ecstatic, she was happy, not for the ring but for the marriage but this big diamond ring becomes important later. Now her sister Brenda and roommates, Daisy, they were skeptical. And Belinda's older brothers, they were skeptical too. They said that all David does is talk about himself, brag about himself, about how, you know, good at dove hunting is and how good at this he is. They didn't like it. They didn't like the proposal.

Yeah, or the fact that they were going to stay together, they did not like it. The two had a very small ceremony since they were still in school. And just like that, they were a married couple. They graduated, both had degrees in physical education, Belinda had a second major in special education, and David was eager to get to work. But Belinda wanted a master's. So David followed suit.

And I think after the marriage was official, David just started spending less time with Belinda's family. It just felt like maybe they weren't worshipping him enough, or what? I don't know, but he just stopped seeing them all together. He didn't even show up to big family events. Belinda invited in her twin sister. He's just not doing well, you know. He's stressed about his master's, and that's why.

And then David's old high school coach called. His name is Don Clayton, which if that's not a high school coach name, I don't know what is. So Don calls him up and says, listen, I was called over to go to an even bigger high school, not Katie high school, but a bigger one outside of town. Be the coach there. They said I can bring on some assistant coaches, which, you know, I want some people I can trust. Are you up for the job? I remember. You're intensity.

And I think you can bring that passion into coaching. What do you think, David? David did not hesitate. He took the job. Even though it meant relocating Belinda, him all the way back to near Katie, I mean, Belinda's whole family lived near this area, so she would be abandoning all of them.

It would be rough on her, but she moved. I don't know if it was a question, I don't know if it was a statement, or if that's what love is, but they end up moving, renting this cute little house filled with Belinda's beloved flea market antiques. And even though she was away from family, Brenda, her twin sister, would still visit often, and they definitely had this twin connection. A lot of the times, they would call each other and it would go to voicemail, or they would get the busy tone, and they would literally be calling each other at the same exact time. That's wild.

It was strange. They said that they always laughed about it, that it was weird, which probably stressed Brenda out, because after Belinda moved away, Brenda started having some really bad health issues, some strong stomach issues. Maybe it was part of this twin thing. Maybe she felt like Belinda wasn't making the right choice. In hindsight, it's all a little bit spooky. So now David is working at the high school with Don. And Belinda is taking a special education teaching slot at a nearby middle school.

And Belinda's main complaint is that David is literally never home. Never. He would leave for work early in the morning and he wouldn't get back home until well after dark. During the football season, she barely saw him. And Belinda would tell Stacey, because they kept in touch and she worried out loud. I don't know. What if he's having an affair?

I just, I don't have any proof and I feel like he's getting more distant and he's just never home, I don't know what to do. You know what, I'm sure I'm just imagining things, he's just too busy, that's what's going on. After about a year of this, they moved on to another high school. This time, on the outskirts of David's former town, David was a football coach and Belinda was a teacher. Eventually, she ends up working at Kati High School,

which is the same high school that David graduated from, so it all comes like full circle. She was working as a girls volleyball, basketball coach, and a special education teacher. Both of them had incredibly hard work hours. It just none of them had free time. David still maintained his showering schedules. He was obsessed with it. At home he would have Belinda iron his t-shirt so that he could bring extras to school, so that he could wear a fresh pair after a fresh shower. You would think that such a fresh smelling coach would be a favorite of the students, right? You know, he takes care of his hygiene, nope, they hated him.

They were scared of him, he was so intense, he was not friendly. If you messed up, would you on a high school football team chances are you're going to be messing up the whole time, he would get up in your you on a high school football team chances are you're going to be messing up the whole time? He would get up in your personal space, all up in your face. Other coaches had to physically hold him back. It's like he would lose it with the kids. It seemed like he failed to realize that his team that he's coaching, which is high school kids at the end of the day.

David's neighbors also found him super strange. He just never talked to anyone. Meanwhile, his wife Belinda was super friendly with everyone. She even made friends in the neighborhood and as they got closer, she would open up about how stressed she was that David was never home. And then she would glance at her watch. Oh, I don't know if he's coming home for dinner, but if he has, I gotta go make dinner. And she would rush back home to make him dinner.

She didn't even know if he was gonna be home. Belinda even took care of David's beloved dog. It was this big brown chow chow named Shaka, and he looked and acted like a bear. He was adorable, and at first he wasn't aggressive. But there was definitely something wrong with that dog. So, um, okay, I blame the owner not the dog, just a prophet, and a quick disclaimer, but a lot of the neighbors were very terrified of that dog.

One day, David was out working in the front yard. Shaka had been chained to a tree. A cute little friendly lab mix was being walked down the block, and I don't know if the dog was off leash, I don't know what happened, but the dog ended up running up to Shaka, wanting to play. In a very calm manner, Shaka was bigger than this dog,

so it's not the most frightening, you know, threatening thing ever, but shocka immediately lunched at that lab, latched her jaws onto the lab's neck and started shaking it around. David just stood there and watched. He didn't scream, he didn't try to separate the dogs. The neighbors recalled him almost looking amused. Until one of them screamed at him, call your fucking dog off. Then it looked like he just kind of snapped out of it and pulled his dog off.

Thankfully, the lab wasn't hurt badly, but Shaka's reputation had been cemented in stone by the entire neighborhood after that. Now, quick question. Do kids fix a marriage? It's hard to say. I'm sure the evidence leans towards no, but David and Belinda welcomed their very first child into their home, April 13th, 1995. So very similar

in ages us. Neighbors were shocked to see so quickly after birth, Belinda was skating down the neighborhood with baby, let's call him Sean, baby Sean and the stroller, and they just all laughed like she's nuts! What are you doing? You're just out of baby! And she would confess, well, I put on a little bit of weight while I was pregnant. Yet, isn't everyone that's pregnancy? Yeah, but David doesn't like heavy women. And with that, Belinda would just skate away.

Another neighbor that was really close to Belinda was named Jackie. And Belinda started confiding in her that David doesn't want her to see her family anymore. He just doesn't like them and he doesn't want Sean to be around them. What? That's weird. I mean you have the right to see your own family and so does your kid. Those are their grandparents. Belinda would only spend the holidays with David's family and you know her family noticed and they were hurt but they figured it's probably because they live near Katie now. They live way closer to her, his family

now. That's the only reason, right? They had no idea that David was talking her out of seeing them. I mean, it was weird. Belinda's view on David's parents was also changing in the beginning she loved them. It's, but now, now she called Maureen Mother Temple. And it wasn't coming from a place of affection. She was just tired of them. Probably they're constant babying of David, and honestly, their strong misogynistic views in life were getting too much. They were the type that would say,

woman belonged to the kitchen, but they weren't kidding. They're the type that after dinner, they wouldn't move a finger to help clean up. They would just sit there. While all the girls would stand up and start clearing the table, they were that type. But Jackie and another neighbor friend that they had named Cherie weren't necessarily alarmed by David. Like they had heard all of these from Belinda, but they still thought he seems nice though. Maybe there's something about Belinda's parents that we don't know about.

So for example, Cherie's son was named Evan and he was, he made a game out of shooting the spotlights and David's front yard with his BB gun. So we just shatter these like solar panel lights, you know those little spotlights that you have in the grass to illuminate the area at night. And it resulted in shattered glass everywhere in the grass and he kept doing it instead of getting mad, which honestly I would have gotten very mad. David sat ev'ndown and told him, shattered glass in the grass is very dangerous because we have a young son who loves playing in the grass and we have a dog that could be hurt. So Sheree said, well David must be a great father. You know maybe something's wrong with Belinda's family, maybe we're not getting the full picture, he's got to be a good person. So later she was shocked when she found out from the local high schoolers that everybody thought

Coach Temple was a satanic meanie. He was just so mean. What's wrong with this guy? She did she did not understand and then Jackie witnessed an incident So Jackie lived across the street from Belinda and David and she saw Belinda drive up to the house now Belinda opened the garage and before she could even get baby Sean out of his car seat, David is at the door screaming at her to get inside. He looked pissed. Sometimes Jackie would be talking to Belinda in the driveway and David would stick his hat out the door.

And instead of being like, oh hey Jackie, hey babe can you come inside and help me real quick? Or like, oh hey Jackie, hey babe we gotta go soon. He would order her, not ask her, order her, come back inside. Belinda would immediately say goodbye and leave. He just seemed so quick to anger. One time Sheree even heard Belinda withdrawing from fights by saying, Sheree David, you're always right. Sheree knew that Belinda wasn't a pushover, but there was just this cold look in David's eyes and it was just creepy. Sheree then would Belinda wasn't a pushover, but there was just this cold look in David's

eyes and it was just creepy. Sheree then would have a change of heart, though. Because she saw David's high school football students, they would come decorate David's house for the holidays in December, help putting up the tree, the outside decorations, and she thought, wow, that's so sweet! The kids love their coach so much that they offer to help. Maybe he's giving them a part-time job, helping them, paying them, either way, so kind. And as she's enjoying the view of like, wow, this is so cute, this is all about community.

She overheard a kid talking about, this is the worst punishment we could ever get. I'd rather run laps. No way. So she found out that this is a punishment for not performing well in practice. That Christmas, Belinda was sad. So she found out that this is a punishment for not performing well in practice. That Christmas, Belinda was sad. She really wanted to go see her family, and she just wanted to have this one big happy family, but you know, she couldn't.

David refused. And it was rough. She had this full-time job, all these coaching jobs, a small child, she was overwhelmed physically, mentally exhausted. So she applied for a new position at Katie High School. This is where David had gone to high school. And she was gonna be a tutor in math and science. She killed it at the interview. The teacher who interviewed her said,

Belinda is so full of life. It's clear that she loves kids. She's just radiating energy. Then she said, oh, Belinda Temple. Are you made to a David Temple? Oh my God, I used to be his teacher. Now Debbie, the interviewer of the teacher, she didn't say this on the spot but she thought it.

This can't be right. I know people change but no, not like this, honey no. But Belinda seemed very proud to be David's wife. And Debbie, the teacher, was just really worried for her. David had such a bad reputation. It took her back. Belinda was great. She was strong.

Maybe it worked. I guess if anyone was going to change, it was going to be for someone like Belinda. OK. Maybe either way, Belinda was hired. And as a celebration, Belinda and David went out to a Mexican restaurant, where they ran

into another couple that they had mutual friends with, a Quentin Harlan and Tammy Harlan. Now Quentin was also a football coach so the guys bonded over that, they would eventually end up working at the same football team. Tammy and Belinda bonded over the fact that they never see their coaching husbands and Tammy really loved Belinda, like right off the bat. They just clicked. Honestly, it's tough to really loved Belinda. Like right off the bat, they just clicked. Honestly, it's tough to not like Belinda. Everybody loved her. She was great to be around. More fun than it seemed possible. If you knew she was coming to game night, she was the

life of the party. The party really doesn't start until Belinda gets there. Like that was the type of person she was. So from there, Belinda and Tammy start organizing play dates for their kids. They would have dinners together so that they weren't eating alone and they lived only like five miles away. So it's perfect. And whenever David was around and it was at like a barbecue at the temple's house, the Harlins were shocked at how controlling David was. For example, he planned everything. The exact time the Harlins would arrive, the exact time to put the burgers on the grill, the exact time to start playing card games. Then at the precise moment the kids would go down for a nap and then they would play another

card game. David also talked about Katie as if it were his town. He would then really say, my town. Which is so weird. The Harlins also noticed how spotless the house was. His clothes were always in pristine condition. Sean was only dressed in brand name clothes. I mean, the whole thing was wild.

But the Harlins, they try to see the good side in him. David is funny. He is charismatic. He does have a strong personality. David also set down rules for Belinda that the Harlins thought was so weird. She was only able to shop at certain stores. The more upscale ones. He said being seen at the right places will give people a good impression of us.

And from Tammy's perspective, it looked like David put Belinda on a pedestal and she told him everything and she loved him back and at first Tammy was jealous of their relationship. She would say, Quintin, I wish we were more like them. They respect each other, they love each other. He treats her like a princess. But Tammy's husband said, no, no, no, no, no, because he had caught on to David's dark side a bit quicker. They were coaching the same team later this year and Quentin realized how freaking competitive David was at everything.

Every good idea had to be his idea, he had to be the best coach. He always tried to drag the other married coaches into going to the bars with him after work. He would call the other male coaches' proceeds if they refused to lie to their partners. He would say, get your woman in check. Are you a man or are you not a man? And they'd be like, no I'm not. My wife will literally be home, I've got to go home, she's in charge. And he'd be like, whatever, pussy.

He loved going to the bar, taking off his winding ring and flirting with woman. Sometimes Quintin would see David leave the bar with another woman. Like seriously, what are you going to leave together for? Nothing excusable. And the next day, Quintin asked him, how was your night last night and you would make a fist indicating that he scored a touchdown. Quintin never told Belinda. Maybe she knew.

I don't know. But Belinda seemed to have an incentive to act like it wasn't happening. She would have done anything and everything to keep her family together. Anything for her was for Sean. Sean was her whole life, and she loved him so much. She always called him my little man,

and whenever Belinda came to pick him up from daycare, he would run over to her, rushed over. But when it was David, Sean didn't rush. He seemed like he didn't really want to go with his dad. Blinda was also doing well with her child, but also with work. Everybody loved her. She was amazing at her job. People loved her soft, spoken little southern accent. She was so kind to other staff members. She was always the one to boost morale. She was like a cheerleader for the teachers

Which a lot of them had been jaded at this point So with both their salaries coming in they decided by a giant house in an affluent neighborhood It was beautiful a nice yard two floors and after Belinda saw the house for the first time she called her mom She's so happy. She said I didn't think that we could afford anything this big wait till you and pop see it It's beautiful. David loved to show it off. He always made his guests drive to his place using a very specific road. So let's say there's two entrances to the house.

Are you seeing where I'm going with this? You're kidding me. So one of them is longer and way more spirally. There's a much easier way to get to their house, but he said, the longer route goes past the bigger houses, and it makes the neighborhood look a lot more expensive. Yeah. Meanwhile, Belinda did not care about any of that. She just wanted to give baby Sean his dream room.

She had a railroad track rug, she painted fire engines on his walls. She had an own bathroom for him decorated with jungle animals. That's what she wanted. Belinda brieffended the neighbors again, meanwhile David treated them like they weren't worth his time. One neighbor was kind enough to walk over with tickets to a big hockey game and hoping to introduce himself to David. David opens the door, takes a look at the tickets, snatches them from the neighbor. Without so much as a nod, a

hello, a thank you, he closes the door. He took the ticket. He took it. I would have been flabbergasted. I would have come home and I would have been in shock. I wouldn't know what to do because can you go back and ask for them back? Probably not. Who does something like that? Meanwhile, Tammy starts pulling away from her friendship with Belinda. She was just starting to feel uncomfortable with the way that David treated his family, the way that he treated Belinda's family. In front of Quentin and Tammy, David would always just say, ugh, her family's white trash. Of course we never see them.

One time Belinda told family, I just hate that David won't let Sean see my parents. I just want to be with my parents once in a while. Well, why don't you go by yourself, Belinda? You have the right to see your parents, and Sean needs to know his grandparents. And all of a sudden, it was like Belinda did a 180, and she said, No, I understand how David feels. He's a wonderful father and a husband. He means well.

It was shocking for Tammy. It felt weird. Like Belinda was having a conversation with herself, like she was trying to convince herself. And then one time, Belinda was having a conversation with herself, like she was trying to convince herself. And then one time, Belinda quietly asked Tammy, I don't know why you let your husband be friends with someone like David. Tammy was shocked. She wondered how much Belinda knew about David's cheating,

all the other coaches' wives knew, and they didn't want their husbands to be hanging out with David for that exact reason. He might influence them to cheat. But Tammy trusted Quentin. She didn't expect Belinda to say something like that, so she just said, well, Belinda, Quentin can take care of himself. Well, Tammy, if I didn't know David better, I would think he's cheating.

But he can't be cheating. He couldn't. Tammy stayed quiet. It just seemed like the nicest thing to do at the time. A few weeks later, Belinda came to Tammy's conflicted. I don't know what to do. David's 10-year high school anniversary is coming up and they're having a reunion. He doesn't want me to go. What? Everybody brings our significant other to the reunion. You're going. Don't be silly. You're going to buy a new dress. You'll look beautiful and you'll have fun.

So for weeks, Belinda was going back and forth whether or not she should be assertive and just tell David, you know what, I'm going. And if I'm not going, you're not going. She did eventually, but David went to the pre-party without her, the pre-game, the night of the reunion, and he was seen flirting with his high school ex-girlfriends at the bar. Later Quintin asked about how his reunion went, and David talked about one of his ex-girlfriends, and how he did everything but sex with her. On the night of the actual reunion, David begrudgingly took Belinda and he embarrassed her by flirting with other women and all of his ex-girlfriends right in front of her.

She cried to Tammy, I just don't even feel pretty anymore. What? You're a beautiful woman and don't let him make you feel bad about yourself. Belinda forgave David but he just kept going. See, Belinda was struggling to lose some of the baby weight, which like, are you kidding me? And David would make fun of her for having a big butt. So this was before it was, I guess, the BBL days.

And there was a time where it wasn't a conventionally pretty thing to have a bigger butt. David would constantly compare Belinda to her college age body before she had kids, and he would constantly remark that she had let herself go. Not that it matters, but just a little information. Belinda was an average sized woman, like just a normal woman, but David made it seem like

she was over a thousand pounds. He would tell people, oh you should have seen Belinda before she had Sean, she looked so good. He would say this in front of Belinda. Oh and Sean, that's not just her son. She carried your child, you freaking idiot. Then David would turn around and compliment Tammy's body. And he would sit in awe at the fact

that she had three kids, but her body was still petite. I wanna punch this guy. David is most definitely the type of guy that would have a misogynistic podcast that just pretty much talks about women and it would say, don't get mad at me, but these are just my preferences. If my wife doesn't lose the baby weight, I'm leaving. Because I want a woman who takes care of herself, who respects herself to work out.

Sometimes at dinner parties, if Belinda was getting up from the table to grab something, in front of everyone, he would insult her and like, I know, with context, it's going to sound like a nice thing today, but it was it was rude. It's like saying oh look at her flat ass, but he would say you've got a big fat ass. It was just huge insult and people were shocked. Belinda never stood up and told David to stop. She had been abused for too long to do something like that. and then that spring, Belinda found credit card statements that David had used at local bars and strip clubs. She confronted him. They had a really nasty fight.

The next day, David took it out on Quentin and told him, keep your woman in line, Tammy's ratting me out, mine. Keep your woman in check, okay? Tell her, shut up. I guess it worked because Belinda forgave him, but she started to let the facade crack. Even her co-workers at work started to see her sad more often and it really broke their hearts.

And then even more receipts were found. After David said he would stop and after he said he would change, he went again. What's his solution to getting caught the second time? It wasn't a change, it wasn't to apologize, no. It was just to get his own separate checking account. Belinda was devastated. And around this time, I guess she had disagreed on something with him

and he gave her the silent treatment for weeks, not hours, not days, but weeks. Meena, you kidding me? It's speculated that the argument had something to do with the in-laws. Belinda missed her family and she hated spending so much time with the temple family They were overbearing. They were incredibly misogynistic. It just wasn't fun and after the silent treatment one day Belinda saw David watching her Tuck Sean into bed and she asked him do you love me and he said I don't know

She was in tears. She called Tammy and told her what happened. She was panicked. She thought their marriage was ending. There was no recovering from something like that. But then that night, David came up to her and said, I love you and kissed her on the back of the head. Belinda immediately called Tammy and told her, that's all I needed to hear. Tammy said it was like Belinda forgot the weeks of the silent treatment and then she was just so overjoyed as if him saying, I love you and not doing shit to show it was good enough was enough for their marriage. So from that point Tammy decided to pull away even more from her friend.

She felt like it had been a five year roller coaster watching David put you know Belinda up on this pedestal and then watching it crash every time he was in a bad mood. The more time Quintin and Tammy spent around the temples, the more they fought between themselves. And then Belinda got pregnant. She was having a baby girl this time. She was so happy, confident, optimistic that this one would change their marriage. David is a really good father to Sean.

He's just strict and treats Sean like he's an adult, but maybe a daughter will soften him up, right? So let me explain this whole adult thing. David treated Sean like he's an adult, but maybe a daughter will soften him up, right? So let me explain this whole adult thing. David treated Sean like he was an adult already. When he was being potty trained, Belinda was really good at training him, and of course, that daycare and other times, he's gonna make mistakes, that's what kids do.

So Belinda always made sure to send a spare change of clothes to the daycare we're Sean, but one time, he used up the spare change of clothes and peed again. So the daycare just put Sean in whatever they had. And it wasn't cute. It was just like a shirt and overalls. When Belinda came to pick him up, she looked worried.

Oh, Sean, we need to go to the mall now and buy some clothes and change you. We can't bring you home dressed like this. You know how your father is? They looked at her so confused, the daycare workers. Oh, his daddy just gets very upset if Sean isn't dressed just right. And she left.

But Belinda was very optimistic about her marriage. Except for the fact that David and Quinton were sharing offices with a new teacher named Heather Deans, God. She was this slim petite, blonde English school teacher. And at first Quinton was the one flirting with Heather. I know! Quinton would even visit Heather in her apartment sometimes. Now, to be fair, it seemed like Heather's roommate was always there

and Quentin and Heather never got physical other than making out a couple times, aka cheating. It's. But I still think so shady. The whole thing is so shady. Are you kidding me? Get it together. I hate him.

Quentin later said it was just a rough time and it's married with Tammy. No. Belinda was right. David probably was about influence on Quintin. The more time he spent with David, the more of an asshole he became to the point where he was openly flirting with other woman, not just Heather. And David noticed this. David noticed that Quintin was flirting with Heather.

So of course him being David had to flirt with Heather too. Now I don't know if he would have been interested if this wasn't a competitive thing because it didn't seem like he paid Heather any mind. Prior to this. But now that Quintin's flirting, he just needed to show Quintin I can get her first. He was just that type of guy. So they enter into this dick swinging contest. And I mean the whole competition was to see who could win over Heather.

And David one. Heather's roommate said Heather was kind of perfect for David. She was the type of girl that got dressed up to go to Target on the weekends. It didn't matter what she was doing, everything she wore had to match. She had a bit of a temper, she would get mad at the smallest bit of criticism, but she did work really hard. She wanted to be the best at everything she could do. It was just really important for her to even be thought of as the best.

And at this point Heather had just gotten out of a long relationship. She was single, living her best life. She really liked David. Rumor has that she had a thing for football coaches. The football coach wives called Heather Barbie Bitch. And at first, neither Tammy nor Belinda were worried about Heather and her reputation, or about how close she was getting with their husbands. But slowly, everybody but Belinda saw David getting closer and closer to Heather.

Even that unofficial work parties at the bars with all the staff, David and Heather would be off in a corner whispering like they were dating. And pregnant Belinda was at home waiting for David. He started going over to Heather's place and her roommates at the two of them were always upstairs in Heather's room. So come on, let's be real. What do you think is going up on there? You think they're going over syllabuses?

I don't think so. He started showering her with gifts, perfume, flowers, sweet love letters, everything. He would just lie to his wife that he was busy with the season coming up that he had to work over time. I mean, Linda was enclueless, but she had no idea that it was Heather. She noticed the change and she said, I think it's my pregnancy. At first, she seemed so happy that we were having a baby girl, but now, now, he seems indifferent. Like, he doesn't even have, want to have a baby.

And because of how little David was hiding as a fair with Heather, he banned Belinda from hanging out with the other coach's wives, because they all knew that David was cheating on Belinda with Heather. So from now on, on all the games, he ordered Belinda to sit with his parents, and if another person approached them to say hi, David's mom would budge, like, bud into the conversation. I guess no one felt the need to tell Belinda,

because the way David talked about Belinda made it almost seem like they were separated, especially because how publicly a fair is, I mean, they only assumed, yeah, it must be that they're separated and she happened to be pregnant, right? Heather loved that Quintin and David were both fighting for her. At one point, she kissed Quintin, flirted with him, and then taunted David about what Quintin had said to her, about how hot she was, blah, blah, blah, just egging them on. She was flattered by the attention,

and she was loving like every second of it. The two of them, David and Heather would email non-stop at work, Heather would write to him. I would just like to tell you that I'm the sexiest blonde in this building. Sometimes David would email her, have you been flirting with the maintenance man again? Should email back, never would I flirt

to get something that I want. That's your job? He would say you got that right Disgusting then another teacher emailed David that she wanted to see his wonderful body He sent it to Heather and she just got a hood out of it Meanwhile during Christmas Belinda told her family. Oh David God Shawn the cutest toys a bunch of gifts Shawn got a bike bike with training wheels. He's gonna love it. Well, what did David get you? Oh, we made a deal to not buy each other any big gifts

so we could save for the baby that's coming. Unbeknownst to Belinda at the time, David had bought Heather a gold necklace that Christmas. And then Brenda came to visit her pregnant twin. It was gonna be their 30th birthday soon and they wanted to celebrate it together. What really stood out to Brenda was how often Belinda and David would just snap at each other. It was constant. Sometimes David would even tell Brenda, look at your sister's big butt.

Your sister has a big butt. And she would say, David, I'm pregnant. But he wouldn't stop. He would just keep making fun of her looks. And because of how tired and exhausted and pregnant Belinda was, she ended up twisting her ankle in front of the two of them. And David of how tired and exhausted and pregnant, Belinda was, she ended up twisting her ankle in front of the two of them. And David's seeing this, did he rush over ice her feet, massage her toes? No! He said, God, so clumsy under his breath. And just like Christmas, David didn't even get her small gift, even a sentimental gift for her 30th birthday. On her birthday, he just said, because her birthday was like December 30th, he just said, oh, well, by the way,

for New Year's Eve, I'm leaving. I'm going hunting. She's like, what? That's so close to the due date. The doctor said the baby might come out early and at any time, what are you saying? You're going hunting and it's New Year's Eve. You don't want to spend it with me and Sean

and her unborn baby. So New Year's Eve rolls around. David tucks in Sean and heads to go out hunting, which like, come on, he's not going hunting. He didn't even tell Belinda who he was going hunting with or where or what he was hunting. And Belinda just couldn't take it anymore. Brenda tried to talk to her, you have to put your foot down. He's going out too much. He has a wife and a three-year-old and a baby on the way. He should be home. Belinda was upset, but she said nothing.

She just said, can you help me get the nursery ready? And Brenda was heartbroken to see that Belinda, with her seven-month pregnant belly, was climbing on ladders to hang curtains by herself. And she said, you shouldn't be doing this. Should you say I know, but David's never going to get around to it, so I just have to do it. New Year's Eve was spent at a friend's house. For a Brenda and Belinda. And they came home to an empty house. And David, well where did he go hunting you ask?

He went to Heather's place for a party. And he spent the night in Heather's room. And then another night. And then another. At that point, Belinda drove Brenda to the airport to send her off and Brenda said that her sister just looks so depressed. She just had this awful feeling and it was weird. She felt like something was going to happen on the flight. She didn't want to get on the flight. But with this heavy feeling that she would never see

her twin again because she felt like the flight was going to crash or something. She boarded the flight and didn't relax until they safely landed. Then she thought, okay, that was so dramatic. She shook off the feeling thinking, okay, the worst is over. She tried to go about her day. She had no idea that the feeling didn't mean she was in trouble, but that Belinda was in trouble. Around this time, Belinda's life had gotten harder because David Temple had started a rumor about his wife.

Yeah, his own wife, a full grown dude with a kid started a rumor. A bit of necessary backstory to this one, football is life in Katie, right? And the Katie high school team, they were killing it. This is the school that Belinda worked at, not David. He worked at the rival school. Anyway, it's the Katie high school Tigers. They qualified for state championships,

which is huge. They were gonna wrap the small town of Katie. But then out of nowhere, they were abruptly disqualified. It turns out one of the star players had forged their report card, so the rule for the state championships was that all players must not fail classes or else you're off the team. A teacher found out that the player had forged their report card, talked to the principal, essentially was a snitch and got the whole team disqualified. It was not only devastating to Katie high school, the tigers, but the whole town.

David started the rumor that the teacher that ratted out the kid was his wife. Why would he say that? Well, it made a bunch of full-grown adults incredibly pissed off at her. It sounds like satire, like are you kidding me, but no, these full-grown adults were pissed off at her. And she had no idea why. They just hated her. They didn't want to associate with her, they didn't want to talk to her. Anyway, January 11th rolls around that Monday. And Sean was sick at the daycare. And Belinda was super pregnant.

So she had to go pick him up, drop him off at home. She begged. She begged David to come home from work because she couldn't take any extra sick days. She was saving for those when she gives birth. She's going to have to take a lot of those. Around 440 that day, Brenda was urgently trying to reach her twin day. She was saving for those for all when she gives birth. She's gonna have to take a lot of those. Around 440 that day, Brenda was urgently trying to reach her twin sister. She needed to tell her that their grandfather had fallen. Hit his head on a concrete bird bath and was airlifted to the hospital. But neither Belinda or David were picking up their phones. She just felt so uneasy so she left her

twin a message. About 45 minutes later, a young girl named Angela, who didn't know the temples at all, was walking by their house when she saw a pick-up truck pull up to their driveway, with a young child in the passenger seat, not with a car seat or anything. She thought it was strange, but she kept walking on. She didn't think much of it. And then Peggy and Mike, neighbors of the Temple family. They were home when someone starts pounding on their door. Mike, Mike, Mike, let me in, it's David. He opens the door, David bursts it. Someone broken to my house, here take Sean, watch him.

And then David sprinted back to his backyard. Peggy and Mike were worried. They heard a commotion. Mike yelled at his wife, take Sean, call 911, and he courageously ran after David to help him. David ran back into his house through the back door, leaving Mike in the dust. Mike reached the gate and he hesitated. He's like, uh, first of all, I don't know if I want to go in there because what if the

burglar's still in there, like, why did you just run in there? Second of all, uh, David's aggressive dog is just roaming freely, barking loudly at me, growling, foaming at the mouth, looking at me. Do I jump over this gate right now? I mean, maybe not. Minutes later, David Dyle 9112, he's inside the house at this point. And he says, someone broke into my house, and my wife has been shot.

Please help. Oh my God, oh Jesus. I just walked it on my wife. I believe she's been shot. There's blood everywhere. I don't think she's bleeding. Her brains are on the floor. I think she's already dead. He starts crying on the phone.

Sir, can you check if she's breathing? Sir, hello, are you still there? After a long pause, he says, she's dead. The dispatch asks questions to figure out everything, and David said in a calm, quiet voice, that he left the house several hours earlier, and he just returned home. He found Belinda in the closet, her brain, well part of it, is out of her head. He starts getting emotional and starts to cry. Well sir, did you see anyone around the house when you got home? No, I was with my kid when I, I saw the back window was just shattered. I left the kid with the neighbors and I ran

here. Oh God. He mentioned how pregnant his wife was and that he checked for a pulse, but she's gone. What can you do CPR on Belinda? This could potentially save the baby. If you keep the oxygen circulating for her, even if you think Belinda is dead, it could save the little baby. David cried and said, I can't, I can't. She's been shot. Her brain is just bloody and it's covered on the floor. Her brain is everywhere. The patrol officers pull up to the house. Shaka, the dog kept barking so loudly and aggressively, the cops considered shooting it to get inside safely.

Thankfully, David came out in time. Just a little side note, chow chow's are really gentle creatures as long as you have good owners. David just did not give this dog a good home. The dog deserves better. But thankfully, the dog is alive. He let the cops in, and the first thing he said to the cops was, my wife is dead, and he hung his head.

There were no tears in his eyes. There's no emotion. Just, my wife is dead. The police find Belinda's body stuffed in a closet. Her arms were at awkward angles, and her brain was literally spilling out of her skull. It looked like someone took a shotgun to the back of her head and pulled the trigger.

Unborn babies are known to survive up to 30 minutes inside a dead mother's womb, but there was a lot of blood loss. So it's obvious that more time than that had passed, and it was determined that Belinda and her baby were gone. David's parents rushed there and they were hysterical, but David seemed calm. He has an officer in charge.

Hey, how long do I have to just sit here? He's so uninterested in all of this. He just could not be bothered. Well, sir, you need to wait because your wife has been murdered and we need to get a statement from you later. Why do I need to make a statement? He was just ever so helpful. So they get taken in to be, you know, get their statements and some odd things. The window by the door was broken, suggesting a blurglary, but other than that, nothing was out of place, or taken. Belinda's jewelry box was in plain view on her dresser.

You could even see cash inside. You could see cash. Nearby in a dish with David's watch, wedding ring, a gold necklace, and a heavy carved gold championship ring. If a burglar broke in, why didn't you take any of this? And on Belinda's body, with her very expensive, very flashy eye-catching diamond engagement ring. If a burglar broke in, why didn't you take any of this? And on Belinda's body, with her very expensive, very flashy eye-catching diamond engagement ring. Nothing was taken. In the dining room, someone opened the drawers, but they didn't rifle through it looking for valuables, which is strange. So why would you just open the drawer and then leave? The TV was on

the side of the floor, so it kind of looked like someone tried to take it, but it was still plugged in. Wouldn't the burglar's unplug at first? And it looked like someone tried to take it, but it was still plugged in. Wouldn't the burglars unplug it first? And it looked like the TV was just dragged off the counter, which is very uncommon in a burglary. You want the TV to be in good condition. And the timing, I mean, this is when people are coming home from work, which is a horrible time to burglarize a home. Not just because that person might be home or might be coming home, but other people are pulling into their driveways. Most burglarers also don't carry shotguns, you know, they're not the most discreet,

so the whole thing just looks staged, every detective agreed on that. When Tammy heard the news, she broke down. Her first thought was, it had to be David. Brenda was devastated. She now understood that that horrible feeling had been for her twin sister. David seemed to be the only one that was devastated. She now understood that that horrible feeling had been for her twin sister. David seemed to be the only one that wasn't stressed. He was annoyed when he got to the station to be interviewed. The first question he asked was, Hey, can you find out who did this to my wife? It wasn't that. It was,

Do you play football in high school? Tell like, what? So just tell us what happened. Well, we were all home. Now, this is a very interesting thing. Remember Sean was taken out of daycare because he was sick. But David is like, oh, I decided to take Sean to the park for a while. And then we went to the store to buy drinks and cat litter. Oh, and then we went to Home Depot, and then we drove home. I noticed the broken window, and I knew something was wrong. Then I found Belinda in the closet.

The police were just confused why you would take your six on out. Anyway, especially if Belinda was home. Why wouldn't you just leave Sean with her that didn't make any sense? And he checked for a poll, he didn't find one. So during this whole statement, David just didn't seem like he was giving it as all. Usually innocent spouses will try to remember every detail of every second and they'll be like, then there was this, oh my god, I sell this random blue car. I don't know if that had anything because you know, they want to try to help the police catch the killer. But he was just like, so the night I did this, and I went to home and deep-ply about this.

Just not giving detail. In fact, he looked irritated. He never looked the police in the eye, and he fidgeted a lot. He was hesitant to answer a ton of questions. He never expressed any sort of grief. I mean, no sincere grief at all. Sometimes he would hang his head but no tears came out, no emotions. The only emotions he showed were aggression and irritation. They asked him, do you mind taking a polygraph? He said, yeah, under no circumstances, what I do that. I want a lawyer. Then the autopsy results came in. Belinda had been shot in the head so close that the gun was probably pressed up against her head before the killer pulled the trigger.

Most of her face, including her eye, had been blown away. Her skull was shattered, leaving her face distorted in a way that almost made it look like she was forever screaming an agony. They concluded she had been on her knees, facing the closet wall when she was shot. Maybe she was arranging clothes doing laundry and the killer came from behind. Another odd detail was how would the killer get past their dog, Shaka, so the back door window was shattered. Which Shaka is so ferocious. So ferocious in fact that the police contemplating shooting the dog to try and save the human life. I mean all these questions were making

the temples very nervous. They knew that they needed an attorney and fast, so they loyered up. They also decided that the police were no longer going to get access to the home, the crime scene, without a search warrant, which the police promptly got, and David broke the news to Sean by telling him, some bad man broke into the house, and mom his heart stopped, so she's going to be with Jesus now and not us. So rumors started circulating that David was potentially involved in Belinda's murder. Some kids even hung up signs near his house that said, killer coach.

Tiger killer with tigers, with tears running down its eyes because she worked for, you know, Katie high school, the tigers. Carol, Belinda's mom hugged David and sobbed. What are you gonna do without her, David? Well, I know the first thing I'm gonna do, I'm gonna sell that house. It took both of our salaries to keep it up.

She was so shocked. Well, I'm sure you're gonna miss her, and you just walked away. Meanwhile, can David's dad do damage control by oddly telling everyone who would listen? Hey, so like, my son doesn't even own a shotgun. It's been years since he's had a shotgun. Go tell everyone you know.

It's weird. Then at the funeral, David's attorney was there and he stood up to give a speech. Mm-mm. Does that belim this funeral? We believe in the next few days, David is gonna be arrested. You all need to support him.

The investigation is targeting him unfairly, of course. There are things that are being said about him being involved and it's all hearsay. He didn't do it. And then the attorney in front of both families asked David, when's the last time you and when hunting? Over a year ago, Brenda was confused. She looked at him like, uh, no, you freaking liar. You went on New Year's Eve. David pulled her aside and told her, hey, so New Year's, I actually didn't go hunting. I went to a party. Got super, and I kissed a girl. But you know, I would never do anything to hurt your sister, you know that.

I hope you don't hate me. She's like, what? Meanwhile, Ken is making circles at the funeral, just repeating to everyone, Hey, thank you for coming, David doesn't own a shotgun, tell your friends. Hey, thank you for coming, David doesn't own a shotgun, tell your friends.

Soon detectives went knocking on Heather's door because they found out about the affair. I mean, there was nothing being done to hide it. And they talked to her and Heather said, it's just a casual romantic relationship, but he would never kill his wife. The detectives straight up told her, listen, Belinda and David were not fighting, and it doesn't seem like this was over money. If he was in love with someone else, that could be motive to kill his wife.

And Heather just smiled and said, you mean he killed his wife for me? She seemed flattered. No way. Yeah, that's what the police said. She seemed flattered. Sean was interviewed by the police and they got nothing out of it. But then one day at daycare,

Sean was playing with a little girl and they were playing house, like they always do. The girl was holding a mommy doll. Sean was holding the daddy doll, but this time, out of nowhere, this was very uncharacteristic of Sean. He gets angry and starts pushing the mommy doll with the daddy doll screaming, I don't like you anymore. Don't ever come back here.

He was getting like so angry and so emotional that they had to intervene and they had to pull them apart. They were just shocked. Now the murder weapon was believed to have been disposed near David's house. David's parents' house where there were endless fields of rice fields and he knew the area well. He grew up hunting in that area. A month after Belinda's murder, as Valentine's Day, David was back together with Heather,

even picking up Sean from daycare with the two of them. It was ridiculous. Like people in town were not, they thought it was so inappropriate. So May 2001, years after the murder, David buys a new house, marries Heather, they move in together, Sean starts living with them and even starts calling Heather Mom. Sean was further isolated from his mom's side of the family, and in 2003, Heather was named Teacher of the Year at her school. She wanted to have more kids with David, but she said it didn't seem right with the murder hanging over their heads. What a way to say it.

A break in the case finally came in 2003, when they found that David's clothes had gunshot residue on them. So they got a warrant for his arrest, yeah, six years since the murder, and he was arrested November 30th, 2004. They asked him, do you know why you're being arrested right now? since the murder and he was arrested November 30th 2004. They asked him, do you know why you're being arrested right now? No, Belinda. And his jaw dropped. He said, you've got to be sh**ing me.

That was like six years ago. His trial started October of 2007, and most of the evidence was circumstantial, but a lot of people testified really solidifying David's character, and after five weeks he was found guilty. Of murdering Belinda and her unborn baby, he was sentenced to life in prison and eligible for parole after 30 years. While David served his time, Heather raised Sean. And then David appealed. In 2016, David was granted a new trial, and it started in 2019, 20 years after Belinda's

murder, and in the Belinda's murder, and in the midst of the trial, Heather filed for divorce. At this point, Sean is 24 years old. He testified that he considered Heather to be his mother and that he 100% believed that his father did not kill his biological mother. But David was found guilty for the second time. But in the end of the punishment phase,

like the sentencing, they declared a mistrial. So now he's still behind bars on a $1 million bond while he waits a third jury to decide his fate. And it's been pushed back because of COVID. I do get it. Like there is not really a lot of, I guess, forensic evidence that it was David, but there is a lot of motive and a lot of testimony.

So I don't know, this whole thing is so complex. I don't want to comment on the situation now, but just the fact that it is taking like a third trial, a third jury, what are your thoughts on it? And the fact that she was like seven and a half months pregnant, I think it's just hard when you see someone that is just so full of life and so full of fire and passion and they either have a life event or they meet someone and it just you slowly see it fade away and it feels like there's nothing you can do to stop it. I think this was one of those cases. Let me know your thoughts and I will see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode. Bye! and I will see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode.

Bye.