Sins & Survivors: A Las Vegas True Crime Podcast - Off The Cuff

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

This episode is a bit different. We'll be talking about a few different items that have happened in the Las Vegas area that definitely need to be shared. A domestic violence case that leads to police shooting a family pet, the staling of a sheriff, and updates on several cases we've covered in the past.Tune in and let us know what you think of this formathttps://sinspod.co/97https://sinspod.co/97bloghttps://sinspod.co/97sourceshttps://sinspod.co/97subBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sins-survivors-a-las-vegas-true-crime-podcast--6173686/support.Domestic Violence Resourceshttp://sinspod.co/resourcesClick here to become a member of our Patreon!https://sinspod.co/patreonVisit and join our Patreon now and access our ad-free episodes and exclusive bonus content & schwag! Get ad-free access for only $1 a month or ad-free and bonus episodes for $3 a monthApple Podcast Subscriptionshttps://sinspod.co/appleWe're now offering premium membership benefits on Apple Podcast Subscriptions! On your mobile deviceLet us know what you think about the episodehttps://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2248640/open_sms

To listen ad-free, visit sinspod.co slash subscribe. Starting at $2.99 a month, you'll also get access to our exclusive bonus content episodes when you join through Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Thanks for supporting the show. Welcome to our first episode of Off the Cuff, conversations with Sean and John about Vegas news, strange headlines, case updates, and whatever else we feel like talking about. I'm your host Sean. And I'm your co-host, John. If this is your first episode of Sins and Survivors, I feel like I need to apologize because this is a departure from what our episodes usually sound like.

We've received really good feedback of the style of our bonus episodes, our swing shift episodes, where John and I just kind of talk about what went into making the episodes. So we thought this could be a great way to do case updates or talk about headlines that come up in the news that we'd never make into a full episode, either because they're not really 100% true crime related. They're not on topics we would normally cover on the podcast. Um, and if we recorded a, just like a short five minute episode, I think our hosting company would probably put as many ads in the episode. They would. Yeah. And it would just kind of drown out that

content. So John and I kind of put our heads together and we said, it would be, be easy for us to find the time during, you know, during the month to record one episode where we just kind of keep track of different things that have come up for us that we want to talk about and updates we want to share with you. So this is our first one. So yeah, this is that. If you are, like I said, if you're new to sins and survivors, I recommend you listen to the previous episode that came out about Linda Wise or the episode we did at the beginning of the month about Satsi or literally any other episode or literally almost any other episode um a lot 95 yeah to get a sense of what our typical case coverage is but we expect to do

one of these maybe once a month and we do have some case updates for you and some other true crime related stories in this episode so um I guess we'll get started and um I'm I'm sure I sound much happier than usual because John and I are still very much riding the high. Today when we're recording this, it's October 11th and John, you want to share with the people what happened last night? Yeah, last night. So we

are Las Vegas Aces season ticket holders. So we go to most of the home games. I think we only missed one or two, maybe two. Yeah. Of this year's home games.

So we are big fans of the Las Vegas. Aces. And last night for the third time in four years, they won the WNBA championship. And we are pretty darn excited for them. So if you are from another WNBA city, specifically Minnesota, New York, or God help us, Phoenix. Our thoughts and prayers are with you if you're from Phoenix. We're sorry about that. But it was a great series. And we really, really enjoy watching them. We're excited for next year. Yeah, absolutely. All right. So should we get into our first? Yes. So this was something that you looked into and you wanted to share with me. So I'm going to let you talk.

Yes. So the first thing is that recently in August of 2025, Nevada state government was hit by a major ransomware attack. Originally, it was just called a cyber attack. But they specified later that it was actually a ransomware attack. There was no information about what ransom, if any, was demanded or if it was paid. But, It took out many of the websites in the Nevada state government. Phone lines, it took down somehow state services, and it is one of the largest state-level cyber incidents that we've seen recently, and they did confirm that data has been stolen from the various different agencies. So we're going to talk about what happened, what's known about the stolen data, what you can do to protect yourself, and where to find various updates. We set up a link so you can see. the recovery effort on the Nevada government page at Sinspod.co slash NVHack Recovery. So you can click that and see the latest updates there. So what happened was they discovered the attack on the weekend of August 24th and 25th when

the IT department for the state noticed unusual activity and shut down systems to stop all that stuff from propagating. So it took down websites, as we said, phone systems and internal agencies tool. across Nevada. So that included the DMV. I believe WIC payments were interrupted. Yeah, I think you're right. It was a huge problem. And they called it ransomware style intrusion. So files were encrypted and data was removed from the servers. So that's not good. So they didn't just lock up our systems. They actually stole information. So like I said, DMV Department of Insurance and licensing and administrative departments confirmed that they all had disruptions. All sorts of online portals and scheduling systems went down statewide. You couldn't get a new license. The DMV was literally shuttered.

They could not do anything. And they just wouldn't even let people come to the locations because they couldn't even, they couldn't do anything for folks. As they recovered, they started doing things using paper. And that was, oh, my gosh. Yeah. So it has limited services like issuing new licenses and things like that, but mostly it was completely shut down.

Governor Lombardo activated what apparently they have. have emergency IT protocols and created a public recovery hub, which is that site that I mentioned before. Federal partners, including the CSIA, which is the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, joined the investigation and the online recovery. So we do know that data was stolen and 90% of the public-facing websites were restored by late September. So that was like a month. They were down for a month. They were down for weeks. Like, things were down for weeks. I know they announced that there was going to be a waiver of fees. Like if it was your car registration was due and it was late, like they were giving people

like a moratorium or whatever on that. Yeah, they didn't waive all those sorts of fees. Because people did, like if your registration was expired, you couldn't do anything. That's it. You start getting fees accrued. So they did waive those, which is nice. And as far as the scope of data that was taken, it was from the DMV. So we're not sure whether it was social security numbers, drivers license data, addresses,

insurance information. We don't know how many records were affected or how many people were. were affected and we still don't know the identity of the attackers, but I do suspect that we will eventually know the identity of the attackers because we just learned recently the identity of the attackers of the MGM cybersecurity, although that young man turned himself in eventually. Yeah, he did. So eventually we do tend to catch these people. So hopefully we will catch that person.

But because it was the DMV and insurance systems, we suspect that the stolen data likely includes PII personally identifiable information like names, addresses, driver's license, vehicle registration details, always not sure exactly what people want with that and maybe insurance-related records. So the state's recovery portal continues to update to let you know what the agent's recovery status is and the status of all the systems. It looks like everything is back online now. And some internal databases are still offline for security audits.

I know this directly affected us and our work on the podcast because we couldn't access any court records. Oh, yes. And we couldn't. That's right. The 8th Judicial District site was down as well. And also the inmates, the list of inmates in custody at the state level. Do you know if that came back up? I'm going to look right now.

I don't know if it came back up. But you can check it out. So the 8th Judicial District is where we get a lot of our court records for criminal cases. And then, of course, we look suspects up who are in DOC custody. So there's a site for that, and it was down. Yeah, it's finally back up. Oh, that's good. But the state officials did warn that a full forensic analysis will take weeks or months.

Whoa. And the public disclosure of details will only come after investigators confirm which systems were breached and what data was stolen. So no information about a ransom payment or a hacker group responsible has been publicly identified as of this month. And as far as what you can do to protect yourself, you can always review the NV hack recovery, sinspod.co slash NVHack recovery to see the status of what's going on with the websites. I would recommend changing your passwords if you have a login to one of these sites. There's no much you can do about other public information if it's been compromised, you know, unless you want to move or something, but I wouldn't really recommend that.

If there's multi-factor authentication available, I recommend that. The DMV site here in Nevada doesn't use a password, user ID password system. It uses a license number and then you enter your license number and then they email you a code to log in. So there's no password. So that changes every time. So you don't have to worry about that. But if there's a site you use that uses multifactor authentication, definitely recommend leveraging that. always also monitor your credit and financial accounts so we always review our credit reports yearly

from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, and you always have the option of temporarily freezing your credit to prevent new accounts from being opened under your name. We always do that as well. So my credit is always frozen because it doesn't need to be unfrozen for anything unless I'm out, you know, buying a car or applying for a mortgage or something. So that's always locked. of recommend that. Also be alert for scams and phishing in your email. So emails that look suspicious and, you know, potentially are trying to get your information. We see a lot of those. I get a lot of text messages like that. Like the California Department of Transportation wants to let you know that you are overdue for a payment. Click here to enter your information to pay your,

you know, to pay your overdue fees. Always be on the lookout for a fishing attack. like that. You can consider enrolling in credit or identity monitoring. That's something we also do. And then report suspicious activity. So you can go to identity theft.gov or the FBI's IC3.gov portal if you notice identity, misuse, or fraud attempts. Awesome. That's really helpful, so going forward, I guess, expect more detailed disclosures once they finish their forensic analysis. And they may announce a credit monitoring program for specific people that are affected. That's pretty common if your data gets stolen. You usually can get free data monitoring for two years from like one of the major credit unions. That's pretty common. And the best way to

track information is to check out sincepod.co slash envy hack recovery. The next update we want to share is about Leslie Palacio. I think any of our longtime listeners are familiar with Leslie Palacio's story. Leslie was killed on August 29th of 2020. And the one and only suspect in her murder, Eric Rangel Abara, he fled the country shortly after Leslie was killed. And he was recently extradited back to the U.S. He was arrested in August of 2024, just extradited last this, this August. So August of 2025. And if you haven't listened to the full case coverage, we did a flashback episode with updates just a couple months ago when he was finally extradited. And you can find that at Sinspod.com slash Leslie Flashback. Leslie is spelled L-E-S-L-Y. So Leslie Flashback.

Where we left off with Eric, he pleaded not guilty to murder and destroying evidence. And he's being held without bail. But we learned in late September that when Leslie was killed, he was already on probation. So Eric had been pulled over in 2018 for speeding and driving erratically. And when they pulled him over, the cops noticed he was doing something weird in like the side panel of his car, his car door. And they discovered that he was trying to conceal a gun. Eric is what's considered under American immigration rules. He's considered a dreamer. So his family brought him to the U.S. when he was a young child. And his citizenship status is, they call it DACA, DACA, deferred action on children. So he is not a full U.S. citizen. And on some level, he's undocumented. So because of that,

I did not realize that this was part of U.S. immigration. law. He's not allowed to own a gun, period. And he didn't have a permit for it anyway. So when he was pulled over in 2018, he was charged with, you know, having a gun without a permit. And due to those violations in 2019, he was put on probation. And as a condition of that probation, he was ordered to do a bunch of things, one of them being comply with anything ICE was telling him to do. But he was also ordered to hold a job, but abstain from drinking and using drugs, drinking alcohol and using drugs. So the judge just last month, September of 2025, found that Eric had violated his parole by

drinking the night of Leslie's murder. There is that footage of him in the casinos and he's drinking. It's known that he had been drinking. So based on that alone, she sentenced him to a year in jail right now. which he's currently serving, which doesn't really matter because he's already being held without bail pending Leslie's trial. But yeah, I just found that interesting that he, I don't think we talked about that in the early episodes that he had. I don't even want to call it a criminal history because it, I mean, so many people speed or don't, don't seem to change lanes erratically or whatever. And his immigration status hardly matters when it comes to what happened to Leslie.

it's not really relevant. Only that it made him, made it so that he was on parole when he committed this crime. Yeah. And probably, I'm guessing, when this happened,

he said, you know, his family said to him, you're already on parole. And that's why he ran, possibly. Possibly, yeah.

Just guessing. Yeah, even if, yeah. So, um, that's kind of where Eric, Eric and Leslie's trial stands right now. He is being held without bail.

He'll have another appearance in front of the judge in December kind of to check trial readiness, but the trial's set to begin in August of 26. And we all know, in all the cases we've covered on the podcast, the likelihood of it starting in August of 2026, a year after is slim. There could be more continuances. There could be a plea.

A lot can happen between, now and then, but his immigration... I can see him pleading guilty just like his dad did, to some lesser charge, possibly. Right. And we already know we've talked about this before with extradition. He can't be sentenced to life. He's not going to be sentenced to life. And they obviously know that. Yeah. And with the immigration situation in the United States right now, I think he will probably likely be deported once his sentence is served anyway as well. I would not be surprised. Yeah. Given that he has this, he had this violation.

when he was already on a conditional permission to stay in the U.S., and now he has this. I don't, yeah, so I wanted to share that update because I thought that was kind of an interesting situation that technically right now, Eric, is in prison for things that happened, you know, on the night that Leslie was murdered. But he's still being held for the murder. And when he does finally get sentenced,

he will get some number of whatever days, years what have you in jail and he will be given credit for time served for the time he has held that is not because of his parole violation yeah and then likely we suppose he will be released and then probably deported yeah it's it's sounding that way so the next one we want to cover is about samari norris johnson we covered him back in april of 2004 and what happened him the link for that is sinspod.co slash 25 if you want to go back and listen to that original episode. We also did a flashback episode on that where we updated a little bit probably, I think a year later, kind of every October we tend to bring this one up again. So it's been a year

and a half since the episode and two years since, you know, the incident would happen to him and his family still waiting for answers. So we will review a little bit about, what happened, who he was, and update you on where the case stands. Samari was a 17-year-old Desert Pines High football and track star, incredibly well-loved, tons of friends. We went to his memorial on the anniversary on Halloween of last year. And his, like the number of people that were there, his schoolmates, his girlfriend, his mom, you know, his family. He had, a huge amount of people there for him. He was so well loved. He was just the kind of person that people loved and followed. They moved to Las Vegas in 2016, and he was kind of a fixture

in their community as sort of a sports star, an up-and-coming sport star. On Halloween, 2003, he was shot and killed in North Las Vegas. He was out with some friends, trick-or-treating, and there was some sort of an incident with another group of trick-or-treaters. We're not really sure exactly what happened, but possibly Samari and his friends were being teenagers and running around, and maybe they frightened someone who was, who they knew, who was trick-or-treating. We don't really know, and it led to gunfire, and unfortunately, Samari was killed on the scene. There are a lot more details, which we won't cover here, but...

You know, we did cover that in our original episode. In January, we talked about this in our update. January 2024, a 16-year-old was arrested in connection with the shooting, but he was only charged with discharging a firearm at an occupied vehicle and possession of a firearm by a minor and carrying a concealed weapon. But no homicide or murder charge has been reported publicly. And since he was a juvenile, we have no information about that. And in fact, we originally covered this as a part of victims' rights. week. And one of the rights of victims' families is to get information about the case of their family member who's affected by violence, and they are not being given those rights. And I think

the state is hiding behind the fact that this 16-year-old is a juvenile. So we don't know his name. We don't know anything about him. But they say that North Las Vegas says the case is still active and ongoing and that's really where the updates stop yeah so they've got nothing from north Las Vegas police or the district attorney's office we have reached out to the DA ourselves uh yeah and the state attorney general oh the AG right oh it was the AG we reached out to I did and I don't think I I ask that they please um reach out to his mom and just whatever it is I think a lot of times people who are survivors and victims of these crime, they just want to talk to somebody. They just want to feel heard.

And I had hoped that someone from the office would reach out to her. But as far as I know, that didn't happen. I did reach out to her myself just last week just to see how she was doing and send our love because not only did Samari, was Samari murdered in October, but his birthday also is in October. So it's a very heavy month for his family. And we're just always thinking about them. it's hard not to think about them this time of year, especially high school football seasons in full swing.

And yeah, this was a real loss for our community. The juvenile who was arrested is probably no longer a juvenile, and he's probably served his time and is probably moving on with whatever happened. Yeah. If only we knew. If that boy was just was even responsible for the shooting, it's, I don't even know if that's even clear. He was like you said, he wasn't charged with assault or murder, secondary murder.

voluntary, like anything homicide related. Nope. It's hard to know what really happened and we probably won't. And I think that's just devastating for Samari's mom and girlfriend with all his loved ones, his grandpa. But if anyone out there does happen to know anything about this shooting, definitely come forward to the North Las Vegas Police Department or crime stoppers where you can remain anonymous.

And remember, these people aren't just numbers and statistics. Samari deserves justice and his family deserves answers. So we're thinking about you, Samari's loved ones, and all his friends and his high school buddies, everyone, is just a tough time of year. The next one we have is a case that involves some domestic violence, but we're not really focusing on that aspect of it. Interestingly, this is the case of an incident where a Henderson police officer shot a dog. So the incident happened Friday night, September 5th, around 9 p.m. near Patty Ann Woods Drive and Mission Drive and Henderson's that's right off of, so not too far from where we live. And what happened was Rebecca Babowski, who owns this dog named Bruno, was not at home

that night. So she was estranged from her significant other, her partner, Nick Dornan. They had had some domestic violence incidents in the past. They had broken up. She was staying with her brother, so she was not home that night. He was there with their three kids and the two dogs. So inside the house were the two dogs, Bruno, a white and brown boxer, dogo Argentino mix, who was around 100 pounds and a smaller gray pit bull named Pepper.

Around 7 o'clock, Rebecca received a text from Nick saying that he had fallen down. She texted him back and didn't get any answers, so she got worried. So she knew that sometimes he drank heavily and she thought he might have hurt himself and the kids were in the house so she was concerned.

She called 911 and asked for a wellness check, and she told the dispatcher that there are two dogs in the home, but they were friendly. She even gave specific instructions to the dispatcher that if the dogs barked or got loud, just call their names Bruno and Pepper, and they would calm down. Dispatch told them not to worry

that responders were used to dogs. The fire department arrived first, followed by the police department, including Officer Christian Salas. They made contact with Nick, and he was intoxicated and belligerent and refused medical assistance. And because of a prior domestic violence incident in June, there was a no contact order between Rebecca and Nick,

so she wasn't even supposed to be there. But she was already on her way because she was concerned about the scene. In the official account, it says that after refusing help, Nick told the officers to leave and they walked outside. Officer Salas wrote in his incident report that as he was reaching his car, he heard a door open and the thumping footsteps of a dog running up behind him. And he claims he saw Bruno sprinting toward him aggressively, snarling and lunging. And he thought he couldn't outrun the dog.

So he jumped into the road and shot the dog. And they said that Bruno died almost immediately. So Bruno was a big dog. He was a hundred pound dog. And I know you've talked before about how volunteering at the animal shelter helped you understand that just because the dog is big doesn't mean a dog is dangerous and it seems like this this poor dog was just like a victim of like his breed or his size yes and it's not clear how he got out um one of the neighbors amber siddle told investigators that she saw the incident

and bruno didn't appear aggressive just curious so she said obviously the officer obviously knew nothing about animal behavior and he shot and killed the dog because of his own fear well Of course, Nick also disputed the account, saying Bruno had simply run up to the officer to play with him. And he can be heard on a voicemail moments after the shot calling Bruno's name, confused and panicked. And a female officer can be heard in the background saying, why do you let the dog out? And Nick replied, he just slipped past me. He's not aggressive at all. And police detained him that night, citing intoxication and emotional distress, but he wasn't arrested.

During all this, Rebecca is on her way to the house. And when she gets there, the scene was taped off and she finds out that her dog's been shot by Henderson Police. Rebecca told the reporters that Bruno was gentle and loving, protective of her children, especially patient around smaller kids and animals. His best friend was a duck named Abby, who lived in their backyard. And she had a whole wall of photos of him when the reporters met with her, including his ashes. So they created a whole memorial. They had pictures of him wearing a Christmas sweater and wearing a cowboy hat that said sheriff on it and dressed as the Grinch.

Henderson Police have declined to comment, citing policy. Not surprised. And they said body cam footage wouldn't likely be available until December of 2025. How could that possibly be true? Well, they have to redact the footage and edit it to make it look like the officer wasn't at fault, is my guess. I don't trust that footage at all. their department policy allows deadly force against an animal if an officer reasonably believes, which is of course subjective, that the animal may cause great bodily harm if not controlled, whether or not that standard met is under dispute and obviously really hard to prove. So as far as the shooting of dogs go, incidents like this are not at all isolated.

These are very common. In 2013, some of the statistics I found were that in 2013, North Las Vegas police reported. using deadly force against nine dogs, seven of whom died. The review journal documented multiple cases that led Nevada lawmakers to propose mandatory training for officers in animal behavior, and Metro logged five shootings in 2011, one fatal and six in 2012. We don't really have updated information past that, though. There are watchdog groups out there that estimate thousands of pet dogs are shot each year

by law enforcement, often during welfare checks or minor calls. So it's not just they think these dogs are aggressive or the homeowners are sending them out to attack people. No, often they've been called specifically by a homeowner for some sort of minor thing and they end up shooting the dog. This is another reason that I will not call the cops. Right. It seems like it's an issue of them being fearful of animal sizes or different breeds and

lack of training on their part, which is crazy to me because we have animal control. officers that are under the police department and canine officers who work with dogs all the time. It seems like a very simple cross-training moment to help everyone out. Yeah, but they're not cross-trained at all. Yeah, it's apparent. And even the canine officers, there are cases in Las Vegas where officers have shot canine dogs. Right. Obviously in the reports, large breed dogs like boxers, pit bulls, German shepherds, and Doggo Argentinos are disproportionately represented and not necessarily because they're more aggressive just because they look more intimidating. And officers often read, misread canine body language. And they misinterpret curiosity

or excitement as aggression. Especially, I can see they might mischaracterize excitement as aggression. Yeah. And most jurisdictions, including Nevada, pets are considered property. So legal recourse is limited to monetary value, not emotional loss. Of course, that makes sense. Which is, of the outrage that follows these shootings. Families lose a loved companion and the law doesn't treat it like that. And you always see this contrast between the official narrative and the eyewitness accounts. The dog charged. The dog was aggressive. The dog was snarling. And the eyewitness accounts, which are the dog was curious and the dog was not aggressive and there was no reason to shoot the dog. It's very often something like that. There's no transparency. They often fall back on the policy and they cover themselves with the language of the policy. Yeah. All of this started as a wellness check. And ended with this poor family being traumatized and this dog being killed in the street. Yeah. When police incidents where humans are shot and killed, the police fall back on their policies.

It's always subjective of what the officer felt in the moment. His or her life was in danger, that it was self-defense. The shooting was justified. It's not unexpected. If human life is not given that respect and that scrutiny, when there's a shooting, it would never happen with an animal. One of the things you can do as a pet owner, if you're especially a large breed pet owner, is to have a plan for something like this if the police or the fire department or paramedics come to your house. We, for example, have gates everywhere in our house. So if someone opens the front door and walks in, the dogs are 20 feet from them behind a gate.

They cannot get to the officers. So you can put a gate around your door so they can. can't escape inadvertently and apparently what happened was the dog just got past him and was curious and ran out that happens all the time that's how dogs get lost and if there's someone in the yard of course the dogs are going to run up to that person having a screen door having a gate in an area around your door we have an airlock everywhere so like we have a door to the garage a gate on the laundry room preventing them from coming into the laundry room so if the garage door is open and someone comes in through the garage the dogs are not right there they are a good few feet

away behind a gate. And if you, if you don't have those gates, you could, you should think about a kennel for your dog, like just a kennel that you keep by the door, just like scurry them, put them in if someone needs to come in your house to, in the case of an emergency, you could do that. Absolutely. Although there have been cases of officers shooting dogs inside of kennels. Sure. So I think the most important thing is to have a space where the dogs can be far away from the

officers. Yeah. That's going to reduce the likelihood, but it's not going to prevent them. No. Like if they, if they see a dog they don't like and they think looks violent, they, I can't imagine a cop will hesitate to discharge a firearm in your house and shoot your dog. Yeah. They just don't care.

And we all know that even the best trained dogs can get aggravated when it's an emotionally tense situation and there's strangers in your house, right? I mean, that's just, even the best trained dogs are going to have their moments. I'm very sorry for this family and for this woman. I mean, given that she was going through all of this with this DV situation and then also her trying to do the right thing. Right. And that doesn't even touch on a DV situation they were going through. Her trying to do the right thing.

Yeah. I do wonder how much the DV situation colored how the officers arrived at the scene as well. Because I think it's not uncommon for them to treat DV situations as being very, very dangerous and to come already at high alert, thinking that this man has a history of being violent, so he's likely to be violent. They're always on high alert, though. I know you're right.

I know you're right. But thank you for sharing that. Sorry, goodness. I don't think, I wish I could feel that this woman and her family that they would get some kind of recourse, but like you said, it's probably if they get anything at all. The Henderson police won't even talk to them. They said no one will be made available to talk about the incident.

That's terrible. Yeah. Do better. Do better. Henderson, please. Do better. Hopefully, this next topic is a little lighter, but actually, as I think about it, it's probably not.

The one with the murder? Because it does deal with a homicide. Cool. But we were talking about Burning Man a couple months ago, a couple months ago. And you said, what in the seven plagues is. is going on at Burning Man. And if I don't know who out there is familiar with Burning Man, this festival that happens at like the end of August every year.

It's out in like the desert of northern Nevada. It's 100 miles north of Reno. It's the middle of nowhere. And the folks who organize it, it's not even exaggeration to say they like build a city for the week of the festival and then take it right back down. So we're talking, I'm saying city. 70,000, 80,000 people in this area in the desert, they set up, the city is like horseshoe shaped.

And then the man that they burn at the end of Burning Man, which is like a literal structure that they set on fire at the end, is like in the middle of that horseshoe, almost more like a, like it's kind of shaped like you think like an arena or a, um, what do they call that in ancient Greece? Like, you know what I'm talking about? Yeah. An amphitheater. They have this.

it's like an amphitheater with the with the burning man there and then they name the streets almost like a sundial or a clock so it's like two o'clock street three o'clock street like to keep to make a city and in 2025 the weekend when they were setting it all up and getting ready for the week to start there were terrible storms so there were high winds um the orgy tent blew away and could not be reconstructed for the event this year. I know you were like, wait a minute, they have an orgy tent.

I don't know why I was surprised that they'd have an orgy tent at Burning Man. I can't believe it's called the orgy tent. It might, that might just be what I call it. I don't know if everyone calls it that. But it's a tent and it has mattresses in it and a lot of hand sanitizer and condoms and it's very consent.

The news article calls it the orgy dome. I mean, it's what it's called. That's like the worst Mad Max sequel. So, so it's supposed to be a very sex positive space and you have to come with a, come with a partner or partners when you come into the tent and there's like, there's, you give me this look. You sign forms. I, I've never been there.

I don't really know. I'm not speaking of my experience. Well, that's what my look was about. but like I'm just just the you know so that the gloves like they they got it covered but they I guess it was a very disappointing thing that the tent blew away in the storm this this year and they could not have it so they had two days of wind when they're trying to set it up there's dust it's it's awful the it took people hours to get in there it's only a two lane road to get there and we're talking about 80,000 people trying to get to the same place I think it was like

nine hours people waited in traffic to actually get there because the weather was so bad, the visibility was bad. And then it started raining like a deluge, like the desert was flooded. The part that they call the Playa, which to my understanding is like the flat area of dirt in the middle of the kind of like the horseshoe, it felt like it was full of mud. It was just it was flooded. It was terrible for like the first two days, Monday and Tuesday. The weather was terrible. And then on Wednesday, the weather got better. People were all there even after being stuck in traffic and they're like having this, the festival started. Everyone's enjoying themselves. And this woman from Salt Lake City at her very first burning man ever goes into

labor. She was having a cryptic pregnancy. She didn't even know she was pregnant. Like she had, did not have symptoms of pregnancy, thank goodness. And this, I don't know why this would surprise me, but I guess Burning Man appeals to people of all professions, all walks of life. But there were several medical professionals like neonatal nurse, OBGYN, a pediatrician. We're all at Burning Man. And when this woman went into labor, they helped deliver the baby in her RV. The baby weighed only three pounds. And she had to go and stay in the NICU, but all the reporting I found now is that the baby's home, they named her Aurora and she's fine. So when is her first burning, second Burning Man?

I guess in August. I wonder if they'll come back with the baby. We did have a friend that we've lost touch with who had gone to Burning Man. I don't know if we know anyone else in our life that has actually been there, but that she had always said that it was a very interesting environment because there's like a lot of cooperative. Who went to Burning Man? Holly. Oh.

Oh, obviously. There's a lot of, um, cooperativeness that happens, a lot of trade. Like, it is like a city and it operates. And, um, one of the interesting, I don't want to say rules, but cultural phenomena, um, etiquette rules is that you don't ask people for water. You're supposed to bring your own water and be responsible for your own water. And if people are going around asking for water, I guess that's kind of like a suspicion. thing. So I don't know. I get like several different kinds of vibes from Burning Man where it's like

this woman goes into labor and needs help and doctors and nurses show up to help her deliver her baby. At the same time, it's like if you go around asking people for water, you're like, she probably had her own birthing tub. They said she gave birth in the bathroom of the RV. I can, I just cannot. I just cannot. Probably because if it's your RV, probably because you just wash it all the way down the drain and nothing gets stained or Oh my goodness

But I can't I don't know I mean We can move on from that part of it So I think There were This year There were reported 44 arrests at Burning Man

So there was like Of course This will shock you Possession of controlled substances No not a Burning Man Sure but also assault with a deadly weapon, domestic battery, burglary, and sexual assault. Oh, God.

So you put 80,000 people in a place. There's none, probably likely none to very little cell service there. I don't know how they staff it with security and police. I don't know how that happens or what that looks like, but the city exists. So the festival goes on, but then Saturday night, a 37-year-old man originally from Russia named Vadim Kru-Glove was found dead. It was August 30th, Saturday of the festival, he was apparently stabbed in the neck. Oh, my God. And he died.

And they described where he was found as kind of being a way towards like the end of the festival, like on that kind of on the outskirts. skirts at his own, or I don't know if his own, but like at a camp, camping space. Okay. It took the police three weeks to uncover the likely murder weapon. So it wasn't until mid, mid to late September that they actually recovered it. And as of now, there's no suspects because I, as I said, they, they build this city. It's, it's made up of RVs and tents and temporary structures, like the orgy tent. and then they break it all down, and it's gone.

So any evidence is, was taken away. Everything was cleaned up. The people who go to Burning Man have a very big leave no trace. I read that even flicking your cigarette ash on the ground is frowned upon. Like you, you like very much leave no trace situation. So that's really hindered the police in investigating Vottom's death. he was like I said he was 37 years old he was a Russian citizen born and raised in amsk which is a city of about a million people it's in southwest Siberia he moved to

the U.S. in 2016 and he lived in Washington State and he studied engineering and he worked in IT but he was also an artist and he was a big lover of Burning Man and and that whole that whole vibe. And a friend of his made a statement sending that this was the first time that he was ever able to go. And they want him to be remembered as the talented, bright, and inspiring human being that he was. Let his memory remain as a creator, a dreamer, and a man who gave love. But as I said, at this time, no one's been arrested. There is a reward. Crime Stoppers did a $5,000 reward. but the Burning Man Project, like the folks behind the festival, also contributed an additional $5,000 for info leading to the arrest of the person responsible.

But he died on August 30th. You're listening to this basically on September, or October 30th. And as far as I can learn, there haven't been any arrests made in his murder. Rolling Stone interviewed a man named Tim LaVell, who's been due, I don't even know how many burns. Man's it's he he loves it and he says I take the long view on this a life was born a life was taken in the grand scheme of things I still think that the black rock city is safer than pretty much any other place on earth I mean I guess just 44 of us I I think this is the first time in

the history of the festival that someone died as a result of a homicide because I mean we've talked about it before the desert can be dangerous yeah yeah for people people have accidents or people OD or people don't prepare heat stroke things like that can happen the weather things do happen but this was that I think the first time that there was a homicide and like I said as of now there's no suspects or anyone has been arrested so I'm guessing if you were at Burning Man and you have any information about this you should contact crime stoppers yeah contact crime stoppers or it's the it's the pershing county police any tips are useful because they are still trying to figure it out. Like I said, they, they don't have any cell phone video or, you know,

surveillance of the area because it's just not built, you know, it's not what we're talking about here. And the city is gone. And the city will be back at the end of August, but all that evidence is likely, is likely gone, whatever evidence there was. That was, that wasn't collected before everybody packed up. They did do investigation, but like I said, it took them three weeks to find the murder weapon. It was just a kitchen knife. So, yeah, we'll see. We'll see what happens if anything gets resolved.

And we'll bring you updates. But that's the story of Burning Man and the seven plagues of Burning Man this year. Well, thank you for that. And we know that next year we'll bring some other kind of calamities and another nine hours of traffic of 80,000 people trying to drive out of this rural, very, rural space. So those are the cases we had for you for this week. We have two more cases that we are, or two more topics that we're going to cover, but we're going to do it in our swing shift overtime episode.

We have, we're going to discuss the curious case of the 70 sets of human cremains that were found in the Nevada desert and also the curious case of someone who was stalking the governor. The governor. Governor Joel Lombardo. Yes. Someone needed to be closer to him. So we will cover that in our swing shift. So if you want to listen to that, head over to sinspod.com slash subscribe, sign up. And for only three bucks a month, you can listen to those. Yeah. But that's all we have for you for now. So let us know what feedback you have on this episode. Yes. Let us know what you think. And just remember what happens here. Happens everywhere. Thanks for listening.

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