Small Town Murder - #4 - Three Charred Bodies in Manistique, Michigan

Episode Date: February 8, 2017

This week, we head to the tiny vacation town of Manistique, Michigan to see what happens when the case of 3 charred bodies, found in a burned out car is handled by a rookie prosecutor. Treachery, deceit, and extreme violence, followed by stupidity, ineptitude, and even more treachery. It's a twisted tale of stolen drugs, spurned advances, and revenge. Along the way, we learn how lousy an eleven thousand dollar house is, why Facebook can lead to murder, and what happens when the town from "The Great Outdoors" goes wrong.Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie WhismanNew episodes every Thursday!!Please subscribe, rate, and review!Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!Head to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder!For merchandise: crimeinsports.threadless.comCheck out James and Jimmie's other show: Crime in Sports Follow us on social media!Facebook: facebook.com/smalltownpodInstagram: instagram.com/smalltownmurderTwitter: twitter.com/MurderSmall Contact the show: [e-mail] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Small Town Murder early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. What if you married the love of your life and then stood by them as they developed 21 new identities? What would you do? This Is Actually Happening is a weekly podcast that features extraordinary true stories of life-changing events told by the people who lived them. Listen to the newest season of This Is Actually Happening on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. This week, we look at the small town of Manistique, Michigan, where in 2015, three smoldering bodies were found in a burned out car

on a rural road. back to Small Town Murder. Yay! Yay. Boy, do we have something for you this week. Wild story. My name is James Petrigallum here with my co-host. I am Jimmy Wissman. First of all, thank you guys so much for listening and for joining us

this week. Thank you for the iTunes reviews this week. We got a lot of them and we cannot tell you how much we appreciate them. They're huge. They're huge. They mean the world to us. They mean everything to us. That algorithm is bizarre. It's bizarre. You guys have kept us on the charts since our debut, so thank you so much and keep

that shit going. Thank you guys so much. Keep the reviews coming. Please give us five stars. Tell us you like the show. Tell us whatever you want. Tell us you like ice cream. We don't care. Just give us the five stars. And it helps us out a lot.

If you like the show, that's how you can help us. Before we get started here, quick disclaimer. Like, I'm going to do this every week now. This is a comedy podcast. Isn't it a bummer that we have to do this? It's sad that we have to. It has to be said. It has to be said.

This is a comedy podcast. That doesn't mean that the information is not true or correct. It's kind of like, you know, The Daily Show, if you watch it. You know what I mean? Like, they're giving you the correct information and making jokes about it. That's basically what we're doing. We never intend to denigrate the victim or the victim's families or anything like that. We go out of our way to not do that.

The jokes are basically made at the expense of towns because every, everywhere sucks. By the way, if we're insulting your town, guess what? We're going to do one from my hometown and we're going to insult the shit out of that too. So it doesn't matter where it's,

that's all in good fun. We mainly make fun of the perpetrators and the ineptitude that surrounds them. Basically. And also too, if you can't laugh at yourself, you don't deserve to be able to laugh at anybody else. So shut the fuck up.

Exactly. Get out of here. Basically, if you don't believe that you, there don't deserve to be able to laugh at anybody else. So shut the fuck up. Exactly. Get out of here. Basically, if you don't believe that there should be any jokes involved in true crime at all, then this is not the podcast for you. Go ahead and turn it off. And thanks for giving us a shot. And don't worry about the iTunes. Thanks for coming around and enjoy Dateline. Exactly.

Bye. But we are going to get into this and we're going to have a good time and we're going to be respectful at the same time. You can do that. It is possible. And that's what we're going to do. So let's get right into this because we have a deep story this week. Good. We are going to the town of Manistique, Michigan.

Sounds beautiful. It is not. Manistique does sound beautiful. It sounds beautiful. And actually, it's kind of picturesque. It's in the Upper Peninsula. Picturesque. Picturesque.

It's in the Upper Peninsula. If you're not familiar with Michigan and how it works, there's two parts of Michigan. There's the bottom part that has Detroit and all that. And then above Lake Michigan, there is the Upper Peninsula, which is basically stolen from Canada to make an even border that goes across more easily rather than dipping down into Michigan like that. So that's what it is. It's basically this is the best way to describe this town as we get into this. If you've ever seen The Great Outdoors with John Candy and Dan Aykroyd. It's one of this is the best way to describe this town as we get into this. If you've ever seen The Great Outdoors with John Candy and Dan Aykroyd.

It's one of my favorite movies. Yeah, it's the best movie. It's so great. Basically, it's that town that they go to to camp, to go to the cabin on vacation. It's that town. Are there pissed off dogs with porcupine eels in their face? That's what I want. I didn't find any, but I'm sure they're there in this town.

It's basically the people here. Like, remember the girl that the son went out with? She's like, he's like, are you local? She's like, you don't know how local I am. She's bad about that girl. Her shit attitude, which is sexy. That's these people grown up, basically, because they're from this town. It's a tourist town on the lake. There's nothing else to do.

You either work at the restaurant or you rent boats to somebody or you sell cocaine. Or you cook the old 96er. Or you cook the old 96er. Exactly. That's all there is to do there. So Manistique, Michigan. It's zip code 49854 in case you want to drop something in the mail. Area code 906.

If you ever see that popping up on your phone, be careful. It's a small town. Population is very small in this one. And we're going to get the nearest traffic light is 50 miles away. Holy shit. 50 for a traffic light. So, I mean, that's a lot. You don't stop to go through that town.

You just fucking go. That's a long distance. There's no McDonald's. Yeah. Not even a McDonald's. Where in the world can you not? So rural. You could be in India and get a, well, maybe not India, but you could be.

They might be the kind of town that are like, fuck it. We're not going to have a McDonald's. We don't want it. Possibly also to. They're holding out. I don't it, we're not going to have a McDonald's. We don't want it. Possibly also to – They're holding out. I don't – I'm not sure. It's – man, it's a small town, 3.51 square miles, so a very small town. It's on the shores, like I said, on the shores of Lake Michigan where the Manistique River meets the lake.

That's right where this place is. So they're named after a river. Named after the Manistique River. It used to be called Eastport originally. Should have kept it, I think. It sounds like a boarding school for rich people, but more the Manistique River. It used to be called Eastport originally. Should have kept it, I think. It sounds like a boarding school for rich people, but more than Manistique. Manistique, they just started naming it. It doesn't sound bad.

They just named it after where everybody took a bath. That's what it sounds like. I think so. They're like, well, the river's nice. Go down to the Manistique. We're giving them a southern accent. We should probably give them a Canadian accent because it's probably more likely. It's an old city.

It was incorporated in 1883. It was a city in 1901. It's in Schoolcraft County. It is the only incorporated city in the county. Everything else is just these unincorporated municipalities, as they like to call it. It's a very small town. It's super small. Things to do there.

Let's get into things to do quick. I can't imagine much. It's super small. Things to do there. Let's get into things to do quick. I can't imagine much. It's a short list. In case you're there, the 28th annual Folk Fest is the second Saturday in July. What exactly is a Folk Fest? How do you even participate in a Folk Fest? Well, it's labeled as, quote, an ethnic festival. It says, quote, arts and craft booths display diverse wares on two blocks while the aromas of multicultural food booths tempt to participants down the street.

Two blocks. And Friday, that's probably the whole town. Yeah. They don't have a traffic light. And Friday night, there's a pet parade and street dance. That's very folksy. Take your pets out to that there. Take your pets and your folks.

The population in this town is 2,982. Oh, Jesus. Very, very small. There is only 1,297 households. Way more people listen to this podcast than live in that town. Yeah, exactly. And it's shrinking. This is a dying town.

Wow. The population is down 13.7% since the last census in 2010. 13.7 in seven years? In seven years. It's down that much. It's down almost 17% since 2000. 2%. And 2% of 2000 is a lot.

It is a lot. People are fleeing. Yeah. They're fleeing. People are running. They possibly are fleeing because it's really cold there. They have 152 inches of snow a year. Oh, my God.

It's really cold. Yeah. It's cold. More rain than average. Like the July highs, the average July high is 73. Some shitty weather. It's cold at night in July type of thing. The January low average is 9.7 degrees.

Oh, good God. Chilly. You can check the snowmobiling, upsnowmobiling.com to get the Manistique snowmobile trail report. That's a big deal there. Imagine that's the preferred mode of transportation in the town, a snowmobile trail report. That's a big deal there. Imagine that's the preferred mode of transportation in the town, a snowmobile. And I was reading the snowmobile trail, obviously, report. And it said, as of this week, it said to, because of rain, the trails will be very flat and very mushy in capital letters.

Very. So stay off of the snowmobile trails, guys. The town is basically a little bit more higher percentage of females than males than usual. 52.5% female, which is a little 2% higher. Much older crowd than national averages. It's an older people live there. The 18 to 34 age group, there's much lower people in that group. The young people are looking for shit to do, and they're just like, there's nothing here.

Let's get out of here. They're fleeing if they're smart. They're either fleeing. And the old people are and they're just like, there's nothing here. Let's get out of here. They're fleeing if they're smart. They're either fleeing. And the old people are like, I'm just going to fucking die here. What's the point? Exactly. They're either fleeing or they're a carny. That's it.

That's it. So, I mean, that's nothing else. Join the circus or a renaissance festival. Yeah. The over 60 age group is much, much higher, and we'll get to that here in a second here. They have 7.79% of their population is 75 to 84 years old. Wow. That's like 3% higher than the national average, which is actually a lot.

The 85 years plus category, it's almost 5%. What? That's insane. It's like 1.5% nationally. That's crazy. We had zero in our first town that we did. There's nobody. Racially, it's about what you might expect up in that area.

Almost 85% white, which is what you'd expect. 0.62% black. That's probably literally a black couple lives there. 0.62%. Yeah, that's like two people. It's like two, three people. 2.83% Asian. 6.21% Native American, which is 10 times the national average.

To average, it's usually 0.66%. It's probably reservation close by or something. It's up near candidates. A something. It's in Canada. It's up near Canada. It's a lot of that area is reservation. 0.66% Hispanic. The average nationally is 16.9%. So that's way low.

And it says right here, 99.34% non-Hispanic. By the way, if you live in a small town, I am noticing a pattern. We're only on episode four. Right. And this is our third town we've dealt with. And all three towns, no Hispanics, no Jews. Get yourself some Jews. Get yourself some Hispanics.

And you got yourself a culture. You'll have yourself less murder, I think. And maybe a city. Maybe a city. It's possible. 10% less married people than average. 10% more single people than average. It's a weird, it's a really weird town.

The divorce, the divorced people is 5% higher than the national average. There's a lot of drugs around there. That might be it. Twice the amount of widows as everywhere else, which is old people too, I assume. Yeah, you're probably right. Normal amounts of children, but then once it gets to the 18 to 34 age group, when people turn 18, they get the fuck out of this place, man.

It's like it's that waitress in the great outdoors. She's like, you don't know how local I am. She's like, please take me out of here. Somebody, anybody. I don't care what happens. I'll get in your station wagon with the car top carrier. I'll go anywhere. Anywhere else.

Put me in the carrier. Just sneak me out of this place. Like Vito Corleone snuck out in The Godfather 2 while they looked for him in the streets. Religion-wise, about 55% say they're religious, a little higher than the national average by about 5%. 32% Catholic, a little higher than the national average. Lutheran, Methodist, other Christians, whatever, that sort of thing, 5%. 0% Jewish, 0% Muslims. That's fascinating.

Get yourself some Hispanics, get yourself some Jewish people, and you're going to have less murders in your shitty small town. Let's just say that. Education in this area, they spend around the same average dollar per student as around the country. This is a funny stat here. It says the students per librarian is zero. They have zero librarians? I think they have zero librarians because the average is 538 nationally. So I don't think they have a library in this town.

Literally. They have no books. They're like, it was cold. We had to burn them all. I don't know. It was very cold. We're just giving them a southern accent. Fuck it.

But yeah, it's cold. They had to get warm. High school graduation rate's about normal. Four-year degree is where it drops. People with a four-year degree, what are you going to sell, rent boats on the lake with a four-year degree? No. How are you going to get your Four-year degree is where it drops. People with a four-year degree, are you going to sell rent boats on the lake with a four-year degree? How are you going to get your four-year degree? There's no books to get it. None.

None. You're going to leave. Only 10% have a four-year degree. It's about 30% nationally. They relocated there. Yeah. 1.87% have a master's. That's about almost 8% nationally.

0.0% have a doctorate. No doctors. They're not attractive. There are no doctors there. No. Zero Jewish doctorate holders, guaranteed. I guarantee you there's zero Jewish doctorate holders in that town. None.

None of each. Basically, like I said, complete tourist town full of retirees and carnies. That's it. That's all it is. Basically, that's the deal. The economy in this place, not great and getting worse, actually. Well, it's all on Social Security and Medicare. And tourism. So it's 8.10% unemployment, which is about 3% higher than the national average. The recent job growth here is negative.

What? It's shrinking. The jobs are going away. Nationally, it's 1.5% growth. Here, it's 2.09% drop. Negative. Negative. Wow. Household income here. Household income averages $26,514.

What? The national average is $53,482. How do you live off of under $30,000 a year? The only thing I can think of is a lot of that is Social Security. That's all I can think of. House is already paid off or you live on a reverse mortgage or some shit. Man, I would hate to have a mortgage in this place. 28.84% make less than $15,000 a year.

Holy shit. I don't know if that's- 28%. That is of 2,000. That's a lot. That's 800 people, isn't it? That's a lot. Making, no. 500 people. Yeah, that's 800 people, isn't it? That's a lot. 500 people.

Yeah, that's 500 people. I'm not the best at math. Well, there's not a lot to do there also. 500 people make less than $15,000. That's it. That's crazy. They're washing their clothes in the creek. Oh, in the creek and hanging them up like on a tree outside, just nailing them to a tree.

That's what I feel like. They walk around in long underwear with that butt flap. That's what they have to have. And this is a tourist place. This is a place where people go to vacation. And then these people that live there are horrible. I want to go vacation where I watch the locals wash their laundry in my drinking water. They live on the other side, away from the cabins, I'm sure.

Just keep them away. But they live downstream. Exactly. Like the jobs there, 0.00% fishing farming or forestry which it's on a lake in the forest so neither of that stuff is being used legal the legal profession there 0.0 set 0.0% legal they have no lawyers no lawyers town. No lawyers, no judges. What? None. Nothing. Where do they send them for law? Another town?

They must. It's insanity. Now here, we'll do the cost of living here. This is insane too. Basically, we'll say the 100 would be the national average. The 100 is cost of living average. Here, it's an 83, which is good. It's low.

But the crazy thing is the housing is 38. Wow. To 100. What the fuck costs so much? No, it costs nothing. It's low. 38 is extremely low. The housing is 100 is the average.

Okay. All right. So they're under that. Yeah, they're 40% of the average. But the cost of living is at an 83. Yeah, because other things are more. So what else costs? The health care is more.

The milk? The health care, I know, is very high, and I believe that's probably because of the older population. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes sense. And a lot of people are on drugs, as we'll find out also. Methadone. The median house cost in this area is $70,000. $70,000.

That house doesn't look nice. It does not smell good. I'll tell you another thing. The national average is $185,000. Wow. So't look nice. No. It does not smell good. I'll tell you another thing. The national average is $185,000. Wow. So that tells you there where they are. It's $115,000 less to buy a house there. Average.

Yeah. The average age of the homes there. Yeah. Age of the actual home itself. 66 years. Good grief. 37's the national average. I won't even buy a 30-year-old house.

No. No. It's all owner- the national average. I won't even buy a 30-year-old house. No. No. It's all owner-occupied houses, first of all, too. And there are 0.00% of the houses in this town valued at over $300,000. No house is even valued over $300,000. 43% of the houses were built before 1939. Wow. The Depression was still going on. Yeah. houses were built before 1939. Wow. The Depression was still going on.

They were built in the fucking Depression. A Depression-era house, and you're going to buy that and put a mortgage on it. Pre-war. Yeah. They were probably built during Prohibition. These guys were angry, wanting a drink, probably fucking up, nailing shit wrong. People hammering. Right.

People laying bricks, and Pearl Harbor hadn't even happened yet. No. Since the year 2000, they have had zero new houses built in the state. Zero. None. They have not built a new house. In 17 years, not one new house. Nothing.

Nope. People are leaving. They're not coming. Why build new houses? People are leaving and people are dying. I'm surprised no one said, like, I'm going to retire up there and build a house on the lake or something. It's cheap.

Nope. Hasn't happened. No. It's, Jesus, that is wild. Zero. I don't even know what to say about that. That's crazy. Nope, hasn't happened. It's, Jesus, that is wild. Zero. I don't even know what to say about that. That's crazy. 15% is the average. It's nuts. If you

are looking for a house in Manistique, if you've heard us talking about it so far and you just need to get there, we'll do the Manistique real estate report here. You can get a four-bedroom, two-bath, 1,900-square-foot house on Lake Street. Sounds nice, right? For $89,000. It smells like mothballs and whoever just died there.

And carp that have been like in a closet somewhere in the back that somebody caught six years ago. There's another one in the woods on a lake. This is like the, this is like on the outskirts of town because it's over 300,000. Two bedroom,room, two-bath, 2,000 square feet on the lake, like on top of it. An actual lake house. Beautiful, picturesque, as beautiful as you can imagine. Less than 400,000, 389,000. And a one-acre lot, if you just want to get a tent, 13 grand. Knock yourself out there.

And that's a full acre of land. And I found the bargain of the century here. Two-bedroom, one-bath, 854, 854 square foot house for $11,000. Wow. $11,000. $11,000. You own it. It's a used car.

Yeah. You can live in it. Interesting. It doesn't move, unfortunately. You can pay that off in five years. Now, get to the crime, because that's what we're into here. There's less violent crime by average here, basically. It's a little more than half the average of violent crimes happen here.

Property crime is actually a little above average here here because there's a lot of crackheads. So they're stealing shit, basically. It's probably a lot of kids and people stealing shit from tourists. Who knows? But in this town, probably breaking shit, hoping they'll tear the house down and build a new one for Christ's sake. Probably get that first one to the ground. Smells like carpet. Let's introduce us to some cast of characters in this town here, into the crime and the violent crime.

We're going to first talk about Kenneth Brunke. Kenneth Brunke is 46 years old. He's from LaGrange, Illinois. He moved to Manistique in 2011 to work for the Schoolcraft County Road Commission. What is that? He goes around in a county-owned truck and basically looks at roads to make sure they're okay. He's like a road guy for the county, basically. He moves somewhere to do that.

He's divorced. He has two kids. He's known as Spark on the street. That's his nickname, which is a terrible nickname. I'd like to know how he earned that. He sounds like he's got some barbed wire tattoo with flames in it. Or a couple of lightning bolts on his arm. Something shitty, yeah.

He's a major area cocaine and morphine dealer, this fella here. He's a mid-level guy, so he would sell to street dealers. He wouldn't sell on the street himself, but he'd sell weight to street dealers. So he feels like he's a big badass. Oh, and he is, too. Got himself a nickname, and he's pushing weight. And he's in a small town thinking he's hot shit. Oh, yeah.

He's known to be dangerous, and he keeps an arsenal of guns, according to one of's known to be dangerous and he keeps an arsenal of guns. Of course. According to one of his friends. That was a quote, an arsenal of guns. And living a few houses down from him is his buddy and a guy that sells drugs for him named Gary Cordell. Gary Cordell is around his age, 47 years old, recently out of prison when him and Kenneth Brunke met up. Right. Kenneth Brunke and him started hanging out. He got out of prison in 2011 after serving a 10-year sentence for burglary, Cordell did.

He claims to be in the Aryan Brotherhood. Gary Cordell has heavily tattooed. He's like the type of idiot who has a skull on fire tattoo. He's that guy. You know what I mean? Classy. He's a classy guy. Guess what I have.

You do have that? Jesus Christ. I have a flaming skull tattooed on my arm like an asshole. You're an idiot too, just like this guy. This guy jumped into my boat, or I jumped into his. Let's hope you don't turn out the same way as this fucking guy by the time you're 47. He began selling drugs for Kenneth Brunke right after they met in 2014. He lives just down the street from Brunke, and so they hang out every day and do all of that.

Cordell lives with his girlfriend, Marietta Carlson. She's a born-and-bred Manistique girl, graduated from Manistique High. She's only 28 at the time, so she's a lot younger than these guys here. Gotcha. As of a couple years ago. She was a good student in high school but started doing drugs toward the end of high school. Of course she did. Absolutely. Basically had a boyfriend in high school who got her hooked on i believe it was

heroin wow she was doing heroin the real stuff yeah i got her hooked on needle shit so she started uh you know getting into that and then she began dating cordell who you know was selling morphine and cocaine it's a perfect matchup and they were hanging out together match made in hell she's a huge addict and it is a match made in hell. Jesus. They're going to put everything here in hell. This is hell, this whole thing. It's a mess. Now, February of 2015, Kenneth Brunke, who's the head dealer here, the wannabe bad, Mr. Spark, he hears about a girl.

This is how small of a town it is. There's an addict girl that does drugs and that hangs around kind of, and he hears about her. Yeah. There's a million. I don't know any of these. I never hear about some crackhead. I don't hear about anybody, to be honest with you, unless you live in a tiny town.

But he heard from Gary Cordell because I guess she was a customer of Cordell, a girl named Heather Aldrich. She's 25 years old at the time. He hears that this girl is blonde and pretty and Kenneth Brunke wants to meet this Heather Aldrich. So he arranges it with Cordell for them to meet. And for him, he's like, yeah, tell her I'm the guy with the drugs and all that. He's trying to move in on her, right? She was using a lot of cocaine and morphine at the time, so that's not a bad strategy on his part, I've got to say. She is from – Heather Aldrich is from Germfask, which is a small town in Schoolcraft County.

This town only has 491 people in it. Wow. So she's moving on up. Yeah, she is. You don't know how local I am. That is this girl. This is the girl. I'm telling you, man.

Man, I hope that actress worked out better for her. She's a high school dropout, Heather Aldrich. She got her GED. She's 25 years old and has five children. Five. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, she started doing drugs early and started having children. Five. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. She started doing drugs early and started having kids at a young age in high school.

Oh, good God. Long history of drug abuse. And all of her kids are adopted out. Of course. Thank goodness. Yeah, that's a good thing. They're all adopted out to different families. She was arrested in 2011 for drug possession, which is, you know, she'd get clean from time to time.

Yeah. Like most junkies do. Most do. And she'd come in and out. Like she had a job at a local casino for a little while just to try to get it together. But her life basically is completely run by drugs since high school. It's a disaster pretty much. She is now in February of 2015 when we're talking about here, when we're introducing these people, Heather Aldrich is arrested in Gould City, which is nearby, in a drug and prostitution sting.

Perfect. She's doing a lot of things that are not great for her, really. Things that are dangerous and things that you wouldn't want someone you knew to do. Not how I want my daughter to live. No, you don't want her to be shooting up morphine with some scumbag, you know, hanging out, waiting for the old 96er to be done. You don't want that to happen. You don't want any of this shit to happen. Now, late February, early March, Cordell introduces

Heather Aldrich to Kenneth Brunke. And not a bad things here. It was a bad cocktail, we were going to say. We wish for everyone's sake that this never happened. At the time, she had been sleeping in her car and she would also go to cheap motels to turn tricks to get enough money for a room. Oh, no.

That's where she's at at this point. That's the life that she's living. She's living this life. The legit prostitute life. She's 25. I mean, she's still young. And she has five kids. Five kids.

It's really sad, man. There are 45 months of her life where she was knocked up. Yeah, already. And she's still at 25. She's still living a shitty life. Yeah, nothing could clean her up. Nothing has been able she was knocked up. Yeah, already. And she's still at 25. She's still living a shitty life. Yeah, that couldn't even, nothing could clean her up. No. Nothing has been able to clean her up.

But Brunke really likes her. Apparently, she's very pretty still, even though she's been doing a lot of drugs. She's very pretty. She's 20 years younger than him. Right. And I don't know, he probably sees someone he can manipulate with drugs also. Sure, yeah. Which I'm sure helped his liking of her.

She started sleeping at his house. He invited her, you can stay at his house. He invited her. You can stay over here. He would give her free drugs. And the whole time he's trying to start a relationship with her, basically. And she's kind of not real. She's taking the drugs. Yeah, of course.

She's sleeping over, but she's kind of not really into the relationship. A little apprehensive because he's a drug dealer and he's probably not the best looking man. I think that's it, too. He's 20 years older than her. And I think she has other boyfriends too as we'll get into and that's what makes her mad. Now Cordell right away told Brunke to not let her

in the house basically. He said look she's just going to use you. What are you doing? You don't need this girl. Why are you doing this? He said Cordell, Gary Cordell said quote I encouraged him to have Heather to not have Heather at his house. To only treat her the way she wants to be treated but he never took took my advice, and he let her come to his house, and they began to see each other on a regular basis. Oh, no.

I wish for her sake she didn't here. Now, she would come in and out of the house, basically. She wasn't there 24-7, obviously. She's not bound to the home here. She'd come in and out. Brunke wanted a relationship, a real relationship. He just didn't want to, you know, shoot her up with morphine and have sex

with her. He wanted to, you know, then... Maybe get her off that. No, no. Shoot her up with morphine, have sex with her, and then not have her go have sex with other people. He just wanted to control her. I don't think it was to help her or do anything positive in her life. Just not do that with other people. Yeah, just control her, keep her in the house, and make her his little

toy or puppet or whatever, which is horrible. So horrible. It's fucking horrible. He would get mad when she'd disappear for a few days. As you would. As you would. I mean, yeah, you would. But you kind of should expect that.

You invited that, yeah. Right. You're putting the shit in her that makes her disappear for that many days. You've invited a drug addict into your home. And created worse. And then go, why isn't she stable? She's a little unstable. Have you noticed that? It's kind of strange. I would expect her to be more stable.

That's all I'm asking. What's a drug dealer got to do? And maybe also, too, when she's in the house, she's probably constantly on shit. She probably goes away for a couple days to clean up for just a couple of days. Because that's what they'll do. They'll go on a bender and then, okay, I've got to get my shit together for a few days to not die.

Right. And then they go back to it. Now, she'd go to her mother's house a lot. We have a quote from her mother, Kelly Roll. We're going to have a few quotes from her over the course of this story. She said, quote, she would come home to me sometimes, mostly to rest. I would fix her something to eat and she'd stay a while, but then she'd be gone. Look, my daughter was an addict.

It was a sickness. Oh, my gosh. No secret with the whole family. They knew this had been going on since she was a teenager. When a girl's got five kids and she's 25, in that small town, word travels fast what's going on. Everyone knows her. They knew

by child too that there was a problem. Think about it. He heard about her on the street. There's a pretty girl. He's like, where is she? There's a pretty single 25 year old with five kids on the street. There's a pretty girl. He's like, where is she? There's a pretty single 25-year-old with five kids down the street. Literally, yeah. He heard about her. That's what bugs me out about a small town.

I never hear about anything unless I seek the information out on my own here. Now, Aldrich also, she posted a lot on Facebook. She's one of these people that I hate. I know we'll get into bad things happen to her, but we'll get into we don't want to say anything horrible, but she sounds like one of these people that over shares on Facebook. She's one of these people that whatever her deep emotional, whatever her deep emotional volcano is that day, she's going to just throw it out on Facebook and you're going to be like, oh, God, what's going on with her?

I'm scrolling there. I don't think she wants a like on that. Right. Like, I think she's one of those people. She posts. She talked a lot about wanting to get clean and have a better life. And, you know, that's which is great that she wants to do that. And it's excellent that she feels comfortable enough to reach out.

But as a Facebook friend, you're like, oh, boy, that's a bit much. Jesus, just post a picture of your dinner and move on. I mean, that's what her friends are probably. There wasn't much dinner. No, no, probably not. She posted about someday wanting to be able to go find her kids and meet them. She would go on and off drugs. And like I said, she'd keep posting about how she wants to be clean.

Other posts were like excited. She said she was moving downstate, I guess, away from the Upper Peninsula, down to civilization, apparently, at one point. So she was very excited. She posted another one early in the year, early of 2015, all dressed up and going out, apparently not to shoot morphine. She was like, had nice clothes on. Not going to a 45-year-old's house. Not going to a 45-year-old's house to shoot morphine and try to act like you're nodding off so you don't have to jerk them off. Yeah, I think that's probably preferable.

She was probably having a good night that night. Now, Cordell this whole time, Gary Cordell is encouraging Kenneth Brunke to kick Heather out of the house. He keeps telling her, dude, you got to get rid of this guy. Cordell hung out with Brunke every day and just thought he was being a sucker, thought he was letting Heather punk her. And this punk him. And this guy, Brunke, was like the badass drug dealer with all the guns.

And he's like, why are you letting this girl punk you? And it's like, because he really likes this girl. Because they're a digger. He digs her. Leave me alone. Exactly. Even a hardened drug dealer will have a soft spot. Soft spot, yeah, for sure.

For a minute he has a soft spot, and then that goes away. For a chick, too. For a chick, that's what it is. He doesn't have that for a dude. No, no, no, no. He doesn't have any friends that he's like, just stay with me. It's fine. And I'm sure it's not a soft spot as more as it's. He doesn't have that for a dude. No, no, no. He doesn't have any friends that he's like, just stay with me. It's fine. And I'm sure it's not a soft spot as more as it's probably a hard spot for him is what we're getting at here.

It's probably him being horny and wanting to control the relationship. Exactly. At some point, she posts on Facebook announcing that she is in a relationship with another guy sometime in March of 2015. And this 45-year-old has Facebook. Or he hears about it. Well, Cordell, Gary Cordell, is Facebook friends with her and tells Brunke about it. So Brunke looks at it and he...

Facebook ruins fucking everything. Facebook ruins everything. And this is literally death by Facebook almost, this whole thing. It's basically, yeah, he freaks out, Brunke, when he sees this. He is hurt. He's distraught. Now, he knew she was going out for days at a time and all this. I don't know what he thought she was doing, but to actually see it in black and white public.

She probably changed her Facebook status to It's Complicated, and he thought it was about him. About him. Yeah, I know. I guess she was like, I love this guy I'm with, and he's great. Some other guy. He heard about it and thought it was him. Cordell says about Brunke seeing the post, he said, quote, he saw that on Facebook and he was fucking madder than fuck. Wow.

That's the type of white trash we're talking about here. They use fuck in two places. It doesn't really go at once. In an interview. In an interview. Clearly he wasn't counted in the percentage of doctorate holders, because clearly he's a very well-educated man. He's a fucking madder than fuck, man.

You can totally see the guy that's- Fucking madder than fuck. Everyone out there, you know that guy. Yeah. You know that guy. Definitely. Picture him. He was my uncle.

Kind of cracky, lots of tattoos, skinny. Looks like he's... Has he slept in the last week? Right. That's the guy. You think that's a beard, but it's not really a beard. That's not. It's just an accidental. He just hasn't shaved in a while. No, he's he slept in the last week that's the guy you think that's a beard but it's not really a beard it's just an accidental he just hasn't shaved in a while it's just a mess yeah in early april aldrich heather aldrich tells a friend that she walked into brunke's house this is after the facebook deal here yeah tells a friend she walked into brunke's house and he had a handgun to his head what and so he's gonna commit suicide over this chick? She walked in. He had a handgun to his head, and then he pointed it at her.

So she ran out of the house. Yeah. Took the fuck off, basically. Yeah. Scared of this, okay? So in April here, now I think he's trying to get her back. She would still come back, though, because he's still giving her free drugs. So even with a guy pointing guns at himself and her, she still comes back.

That's how strong the lore of drugs is. And the battered woman complex, too, I suppose. But I think for her, it's not even that, because she doesn't even like this guy like that. Yeah, it's just the drugs. It's all drugs. Is he the only one in the 2,000 people that has it? Only one that will probably give it to her for free.

I think that's the thing that it is. And for her, it's gotten into a convenient life for her to not have to go out and hustle and turn tricks to buy the shit. She just buys it, and then she has a place to stay. Or she takes it from him and goes somewhere else. And she's got a supply here. Now, April 14th, 2015, Brunke gives Heather Aldrich a large quantity of cocaine. Now, I'm not sure if this was to use, to sell, to deliver to somebody else.

I don't know why he gave her this, but he gave her a large amount. She ends up taking this cocaine. She drives out to a rural gravel road called River Road. This is surrounded by woods, like everything is in this town. It's out there, this road, right? She goes out there. She's

with another guy, and they are shooting up the cocaine in the car. On this road. It's a rural road. No one's coming by. It's a gravel road surrounded by woods in the middle of fucking nowhere. This is like a first date. This is a guy. I think this is the guy from Facebook probably. And they're shooting the cocaine up together.

And who should happen by? Of course. Brunke drives by in this secluded middle of nowhere place. Not a place where it's like, I was driving down Main Street and I saw you sitting at the Dunkin' Donuts. It's not that. Such happenstance. You have to. He drives by in his county road commission truck okay so i don't know if he knew if he was looking for if he was just inspecting that road that's or if he's inspecting the road it's only a three mile three

and a half square mile town so you could probably just inspect all the he probably that's his afternoon thing from two to four i inspect all the roads and then i go home like i think maybe that's what it was i'm not sure But either way, Brunke sees them. Yeah. And he didn't seem too happy. The man in the car would later tell police that Brunke saw them and what they were doing, and he glared at them pretty hard and then drove off. Yeah.

Now, think about that. He obviously knows her. Yeah. They live in the same house. She's doing his cocaine in the car to not come over and just say hello even. Right. You've got to be pissed. He stays in your you

stay in this man's house yeah free of charge i mean for him not to go over and be like hey how you doing he must have been really pissed oh yeah that's my point yeah totally he just drove away gone right so heather aldrich here ends up coming back to brunkey's house the next day april 15th nothing's been said between them that it's that or whatever. So she's just going to act like all's cool and come over the house. She comes over the house. She finds his stash, finds his cocaine stash. Now, she probably knew where the stash was and just knew better than to steal it. And now, I don't know if she's on a bender and needs to do it or whatever, but she finds

an ounce of cocaine, which is his stash, in a PVC pipe buried in the backyard. It's a plastic pipe for people who don't know what PVC is. So she had to dig this shit up. Not even. It's a little bit. The pipe is buried, but the end is sticking out. And he just put some pine needles on it, basically. You just reach in and grab it.

You reach in and grab it. If you didn't know it was there, you'd just think it was some kind of drainage thing. Some 25-year-old crackhead's not going to go picking around drainage things. She knew where the shit was. She had a good clue. She didn't stumble upon it in the backyard now there's just some pine needles she grabs it she uh also takes what he later says is about two thousand dollars in change what but he had he had gatorade bottles full of change in the

house apparently i don't know if he's been collecting this for years so bizarre two thousand that's a lot of change i used to always put my change in a thing, and after like three months, it'd be like 80 bucks. Yeah. So 2000 is like years. That's like 12 years. He took this shit from Illinois when he got the county road guy job. He was like, I'm moving up there with my change.

Just in case I lose my road job and I got to pay my mortgage for 12 years. I was going to say, this is about the next 15 years, next decade of mortgage all paid off. Matter of fact, I could buy the next door neighbor's house with all this change. Shit, why not? So apparently she stole those also, which he's also pissed off about because that's probably worth as much as the cocaine. So he's like, what the fuck? She's stealing all my shit here.

So anyway, she steals the cocaine and takes two of her friends out to the same spot on River Road. The same spot also. That's like her shoot up spot. But he saw you there. If you're trying to go there, don't go there. So she ends up spot on River Road. The same spot. Also, that's like her shoot-up spot. But he saw you there. If you're trying to hide from him, don't go there. So she ends up going to River Road. You can tell this is not going well. She's stealing an angry drug dealer's cocaine.

This is bad news. And not changing her daily routine of where she does things. You're pissing off a terrible person. She just can't help it because it's the drugs. That's the sad part is this might have been a, you know, who knows? She could have been a good person and a nice mother and all this but her life is destroyed but at least go somewhere that's that less conspicuous than where he knows you fucking go yeah he's like she's like no this is the spot this is the spot here he'll never find us exactly where

he saw me two days ago never never he's never here except for two days ago lightning never strikes twice never so there she takes the two friends out there to the same spot, and they all shoot up this cocaine. A lot of it. A bunch of it, apparently. A few hours later, a few hours after this all happens, Brunke texts Heather, quote, there's free morphine on my computer desk. Come and get it. Oh, boy. That's a little suspicious, eh?

After you just stole an ounce of this guy's cocaine, you've got to think, is this a trap? Yeah. But on the other hand, she really wants free morphine too so she's like shit she doesn't know what to do but she's scared shitless she's scared she's being set up yeah which thank you at least she had that much sense in her head to go that doesn't sound right right the drugs haven't completely melted away her her thought process here uh she's coming down from this huge high of shooting up all this cocaine. She's worried about the consequences of what she did.

Of course. That's a horrible feeling. I always think about this, too. If you watch a movie where someone is very much into drugs and especially like cocaine or heroin or something like that, there's a great documentary called Dope Sick Love. It's the fucking best. It's the best documentary ever. It's just following around these junkie crackhead couples as they try.

They're like they're in love. You know, they're not in love but they're couples on the street and they're trying to do this all thing together and it's similar to this it just really it just really really all the different hustles that they have and yeah how pissed they get when the when the actual yeah when the use is impossible because there's a bent needle in the fucking oh they freak out and they're like they're just trying to jam it. They're just jamming it into their vein anyway. You're like, no, stop that. Stop it.

These people, you see them hustle, hustle. They spend all day putting together a hustle to trick this guy to get $20 to do this. And then they get everything and they're all happy. Like, yeah, we got this. We got that. And they shoot up and then they're like, fuck, now we have to figure out how to do this again. That's what I feel like she's doing. Like, shit. It's like the fucking.

That was a guy who wants to kill me, too. But the stopwatch has started now. Yeah. On when you're about to come down. Yes. And you better have some more before that happens. It's fucking terrifying. And she's scared shitless, too.

The suspense is crazy. She hides her car at a casino, a local casino, and calls her sister, scared. Where there's 30 cars there. Yeah. Nobody lives in this town. She just blends it in somewhere. Yeah. He's still probably got the road commission truck.

She eventually meets up with her sister and her sister's boyfriend at their mother's house in Germfast. Okay. Now, her sister is Carrie Ann Nelson. She's six years older than Heather. Yeah. She lives in Gould City. She has two children, and she is also a coke head.

She was arrested for drugs in 2011. Everyone involved in this story is a drug addict, first of all. Good grief. She lives with her boyfriend, a guy named Jody Hutchinson, who is 42 years old. He's about 10 years older than her. He's recently separated from his wife and moved in with Carrie Ann. Okay. He has five kids and two grandchildren.

Everybody's got five kids. Five kids, two grandchildren, 42 years old. Stop fucking. Stop fucking. Good God. I don't know if in addition to newer houses, they also don't have condoms or birth control pills. Maybe they don't have a doctor. Zero doctorates.

No one to prescribe the pills to these people or sell them anything. Does cocaine make your sperm count go up? Does heroin do that? Does morphine do that? Why does every drug addict have five fucking kids in this town? I think they should really study fertility and heroin addiction because it really seems to go hand in hand.

You're producing more eggs than more cocaine you do. You're jacking up your system. You're shooting out eggs like nobody's business. Firing them off all over the place. That's crazy. That's my medical opinion. Firing them off like crazy. Dr. Ph. my medical opinion. Yeah. Firing him off like crazy. Dr. Ph.D. James Petrigallo. I have a doctorate.

I am the most educated person in Martin. I do not have a doctorate at all in anything, especially not anything that has to do with medicine. Nothing reproductive, that's for sure. Fertility, reproductive, biology, or drugs. Nothing. I know shit. So keep it going here. So he also was arrested in 2009 for cocaine.

He did 166 days in jail and was paroled in 2011. Wow. Everything starts in 2011. 166 days. That's a fucking six months. Yeah. 2011 is like ground fucking zero. That's when everything started.

All these people came together. Brunke moved there. This one got out of jail. This one got out of jail. They all start there. Now, Heather Aldrich, Carrie Ann Nelson, Jodi Hutchinson are all at the mother's house. Heather Aldrich and Carrie Ann Nelson's mother's house. And Kelly Roll, the mother, said, quote, she told me she'd taken the drugs.

I said, give them back. But she was scared. Seems logical. She said, well, just give them back, stupid. What the fuck? Don't do them. Give them back. Stop.

Give the drugs back. She ends up sleeping at her give them back, stupid. What the fuck? Don't do them. Give them back. Stop. Give the drugs back. She ends up sleeping at her mother's house that night. And she wakes up the next morning and she's real sober. And she really wants morphine. Of course. And she's saying, maybe it's worth the risk. Maybe it's worth the risk.

I'm going to do this. She asks her sister and her sister's boyfriend, Jody, for a ride to his house. I guess she figures maybe if they come too, it'll be safer. Safer in safety and numbers. Right before they leave for the house, she posts on Facebook. She posts song lyrics. Oh, boy. It's a quote. Yeah, this is some shit you don't want to see on your Facebook feed from one of your

friends. Some dark side of the moon or shit. It's a quote. The needle in my arm. Oh, no. The thoughts in my head. What's it matter anyway? By morning, I'll be dead. That's her quote. That's not great on your Facebook feed. Oh, no.

That's her quote. That's not great on your Facebook feed. It's actually lyrics of a song called That's Deep by Chantel Castello. And it's just like a North Carolina kind of rapper girl. She's young. I'm out. Yeah, I don't know. It was hard to find what the hell that was from. I had to look at these lyrics and figure out what is this?

Is this a poem, a song? I don't know. Is this Elliot Smith? She's from North Carolina. Sounds like Elliot Smith, but it's not. Big hardcore rappers. I was going to go. I was assuming it was that Nine Inch Nails song.

Trent Reznor? Yeah. I was so thinking Elliot Smith. I'm like, that seems like serious Elliot Smith shit. Basically, the three of these, now the three of them, Hutchinson, Carrie Ann Nelson, and Heather Aldrich, all drive to Brunke's house. This is on April the 15th, or April the 16th. I apologize.

April the 17th, 2005, a couple, a married couple with two children were driving down River Road. Does that sound familiar? We all know River Road where Brunke saw Aldrich. And they find on the side of the road they see a car. It's a 2000 Oldsmobile Bravado, which is a shitty SUV. Yeah. And it's burned out with a little bit of smoke still rising from it. Wow.

So they see that like out in the middle of nowhere. They all stop. They hop out of the car. Something just happened here. Because the kids are like, oh, what is that? And they all go up to the car to look at it basically. No, don't do that. What's going on here?

Right. Family goes up to the car. They check it out. They're looking in like, you know, it's the kids, the mother, the dad. Oh, no. There are three burned up bodies smoldering, still smoking human corpses in the car. Holy shit. They run.

The kids scream and cry. Yeah. The father calls 911, obviously. I don't think the kids should be crawling all over him like that. No. That's the spot that I'm seeing it from. Yeah, exactly. From great outdoors.

Get the kids off of him. No, no. It's cute. It's cute. It's cute. A dead'm seeing it from. Yeah, exactly. From Great Outdoors. Get the kids off of him. No, no, it's cute. It's cute. It's cute. A dead person breathed on me. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what it is. He died on the way over here.

That's so great. He died on the way over. Didn't have the heart to say anything. So the bodies, oh God, now we're laughing and now I'm going to say who the bodies are. It's back to serious here. We're not laughing at them. No. It's a completely different Great Outdoors tangent.

That movie makes me happy. And you know what? I've been researching nothing but murder and mayhem. It makes me happy. It makes me happy. I'm going to have to go watch it because I'm telling you guys, please, by the way, listen to our other podcast, Crime and Sports. It's terrific. You don't have to like sports to like. It's true crime and comedy. But I have been in

like this just hole of murder and mayhem and horror this week. And Jesus Christ, I need the great outdoors. So let me laugh for a second. Don't get mad at me, god damn it. So the bodies turn out they are Heather Aldridge, Carrie Ann Nelson, and Jody Hutchinson. All three of them.

Days later, a friend of Cordell tells police that she was with Cordell when he threw away items belonging to these victims in the river. So there's already a witness cooking Gary Cordell into this mess. About 10 days after the murder, Cordell and his girlfriend, Marietta Carlson, are arrested. Now, both confess to the murder. Oh, my God. They confess. It's already over? Not even close.

But they implicate Brunke. Okay? They implicate Brunke in this. But also now the stories start changing after that. Brunke is gone. They cannot find Brunke in this. But also now the stories start changing after that. Brunke is gone. They cannot find Brunke. He's missing in action. Okay.

Now, they don't find him until April 26, 2015. Ten days later. When he's arrested in West Frankfort, Illinois in Franklin County. Oh, he was running. He was running. His car was spotted at an area home in a driveway. Somebody recognized it. Police surveilled the home while they got proper warrants and they came in and busted this jackass.

He only gives one interview with police, Brunke, before getting an attorney. And all he said was, quote, I was upset. I didn't sleep that night. Someone I thought I cared, or someone that I cared about, you know, basically stabbing me in the back. He's very upset that she found another guy, which he's telling them.

But he said, he denies everything else. Denies he was home when this thing happened for the killings. He said, I don't remember. She never came over when I was there. He said, quote, all I know is when people left my house, they were vertical. They were fine. He's like, I don't know anything about this. OK.

Now, Marietta Carlson, the girlfriend of Cordell, tells police that Brunke strangled Heather Aldrich in Brunke's bedroom while she, Carlson, held her legs down. Okay. That's what she says. She later changes the story and said that Brunke had Cordell strangle her while she still held his legs, but he said he couldn't do it, Brunke. He said, you have to do it.

I can't strangle her. I like her too much or whatever. Now, he says that while that was going on, Carlson says that Brunke was in the basement killing the other two who were tied up down there. Okay, that's the story that she gives. Yeah. Gary Cordell's story, he says he was upstairs while, same thing, while Brunke strangled Carrie Ann Nelson in the basement. Said Brunke came upstairs and said it was really easy.

It only took like two minutes, basically, is what he says Brunke said. Now, okay, that's where it stands right this minute. They're each facing 12 charges. Both the men are. The charges are three counts of, quote, open murder, which I don't know what that is, a possible life sentence for each of those, three counts of conspiracy to commit homicide. Again, each life sentences they carry. Three counts of felony first degree murder, which all carry life without possibility of

parole. Three counts of unlawful imprisonment, which is 15 years for each count. Marietta, the girl there, Marietta Carlson, faces eight felonies, one open murder, one conspiracy to commit murder, three first-degree murder, three counts of unlawful imprisonment. So they're up on some serious charges, these people here. Marietta Carlson, on June 15th, this is only two months later, a month and a half later. So she's a key to this whole thing because she's given a pretty broad statement that they really need her for this case.

And she's up for the lesser charges. She's up for the lesser charges and she's given a statement that they really want to have in court. Now, Marietta Carlson on June 15th, 2015, is transported from the Schoolcraft County Jail to the Schoolcraft Memorial Hospital. She was exhibiting stomach pains and doctors thought she had some sort of gallbladder problem. She ended up dying the next morning. She just died 28 years old. She drops dead. Autopsy showed endocarditis, which is an inflammation of the inner layer of the heart.

Basically, it's old age and all these different things, all these different diseases or lots of intravenous drug use will do this to you. So that's what it was. It was too much. Too much. It ages your body super fast. Messed up the heart, weakened the walls of the heart or whatever. I'm not a doctor. Like I said, if I was, I would move to this town and be the king of the world.

Now, at this point, too, there's another witness, a jail drug suspect that used to sell for Brunke, used to sell drugs for Brunke, said that on the day of the murder, he went to Brunke's house and saw Brunke talking to Heather about the stolen cocaine. So he's placed Brunke with Heather at the house when the whole thing's going on. With the confrontation. Now, Brunke and Cordell before court will undergo psychiatric evaluations to determine if they're fit to stand trial, obviously. Both men say they have a history of depression and other mental illnesses. You know, no shit, you're on tons of drugs.

Maybe that's what it is. Now, September 2015, out of the blue, Cordell changes his story. What? Gary Cordell completely switches it up. He now tells police that he killed all three of them. Why would he do that? Doesn't have Brunke, had nothing to do with it. He said that he was house-sitting for Brunke after the thefts to make sure no one stole

anything else. He said the women arrived at the house, those two sisters arrived at the house for the morphine. He forced them into the basement at gunpoint. This is while the boyfriend's outside. Jody Hutchinson isn't in the house with them. Says that he tied both women up, then went back outside to invite Hutchinson inside. Say, no, come on in, guys. Take a minute.

Yeah, come on in. Basically, takes him down to the basement. Hey, everybody's down here. We're hanging out. Goes down there. Why would he do this? Well, Hutchinson, this is in, basically. Takes him down to the basement. Hey, everybody's down here. We're hanging out. Why would he do this? Well, this is what he says. Hutchinson sees the women tied up and pulled a small knife on him.

So he said he punched Hutchinson and took the knife from him after a struggle. Who knows what the physical limitations are to Hutchinson. He said, here's a quote from Cordell, and this is rough here. He says, quote, Jody was the first to die. I placed a bag over his head and duct taped it around his neck, at which time he told me he couldn't breathe, and I said, no kidding,

dummy. Wow. Holy fuck is that cold, man. That is as cold as it gets. That's more gangster than most fucking Italian gangsters will say. That's horrific, man. That's just, that's like you, not even like, you know, you're killing a guy. He didn't have two seconds of human capacity.

Like you have to be an asshole about it too. He says he then strangled Nelson while Carlson strangled Aldrich. He said that the girl strangled Aldrich. He said that he shot both the girls up with morphine first so they wouldn't fight. Oh, that's nice of him. At least he gave them another high. He called it a parting gift. Yeah.

Literally, that's what he said. Says Brunke arrived home and said, quote, once talking to me and finding out that I killed all three of them and that we needed to get rid of them, he's really mad at me. He's saying Brunke was pissed at him. He says he killed them for stealing the drugs and because he believed they were working with law enforcement. That's his new thing. Now he said they were all rats, which he never brought that up before. We'll get into why he's doing this.

He said that Brunke loaded the body. He helped Brunke load the bodies into Hutchinson's SUV. That's the Bravada. That's Jody Hutchinson's car. And they drove out to the secluded River Road. Says that they doused the vehicle in gasoline and Brunke threw a road flare into the car. He says it flamed right up and exploded and that was it.

I'm sure that part really happened. That part probably happened. Now, here's a letter that he wrote from jail to a friend of his, Cordell. He's an asshole, this guy. He says, quote, I hope it makes you feel good to know your dude choked the life out of that bitch. I'm going for life on these anyway. I killed every one of those bitches and I would do it all over again.

Let people know. There wouldn't be all these rats if others would stand up once in a while. My God. He's a piece of shit, this guy, Cordell. And I think this letter is one that he wanted to be read, though, because we'll get into why here. Now, we get the prosecutor steps in here. This is prosecutor Tim Noble. From another town.

No, he's from, that's what I said. Well, listen to this he's 39 years old this guy he's a recent law school graduate he is only a few months out of law school and he was appointed to school to be schoolcraft county prosecutor and guess what year 2011 everything else happened yeah you know why he was appointed to refresh out of law school they needed one they don't have any fucking lawyers in that town now this is the only one like just make him in charge of shit um he ran unopposed in that town. No, this is the only one. Just make him in charge of shit. He ran unopposed at that for the election to be the prosecutor. Nobody else was qualified.

There were fucking lawyers there. So he runs unopposed to be elected to that position. So now he's elected office prosecutor. He has never tried a murder case before. Good one to start with. Surprise. He could have called in help from the Michigan Attorney General's office. No, no, no, no, no.

No, I got this. No, I got this. Yeah, I got it. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good now. They often send veteran prosecutors, trial prosecutors to small towns for murders, experienced people who know how to put together a murder case. Of course.

The representative for the attorney general said, quote, to the best of our knowledge, there was no formal request for assistance from Schoolcraft County. So he did not put in any. He didn't need any help. Didn't want any help. Now, Jody Hutchinson's brother is angry that Noble didn't ask for help, obviously. He said, quote, he doesn't know what he's doing. Everyone is real mad up here.

They're just pissed off in the whole town. They're all pissed off. Now, due to Cordell's change of story and Carlson's death, because now they can't use her testimony. They can't use her statement because she can't be cross-examined. So everything she said is gone. Doesn't matter. The state has no evidence against Brunke because all they have is cross-examined. So everything she said is gone. Doesn't matter. The state has no evidence

against Brunke because all they have is Cordell's story now. So they have nothing against him now. What the fuck? The prosecutor drops the murder charges. This asswipe drops the murder charges against Kenneth Brunke. Not against Cordell, but against Brunke. Brunke will be allowed to plead to obstruction of justice and lying

to a police officer. He's the deal that he makes is for 40 to 60 months in prison. That's it. 40 to 60 months. Five years. What the fuck? Tops. Five years.

The family is livid, as you might imagine. I am right now. I'm pissed off. This is crazy. And Kelly Roll, the mother, as we've talked to here before, said, quote, we were all crying. There was all that evidence. It just didn't make sense. They're like, well, everything.

What happened? We had everyone said they did it. What's going on? Everyone believes that Cordell is taking the rap for Brunke here. What's going on? The families think he's taking the rap in exchange for money and for caring for Cordell's elderly mother. That's what they think the deal is. Oh, OK.

So you're going to get out. You're going to be fine. And you're going to take care of my mother. And there's some proof of this, too, sort of what he says in court. October 19th, 2005 is the preliminary hearing for the Cordell trial. Brunke is set to testify. Before the hearing, the prosecutor, Tim Noble, hears a rumor that Brunke owed Cordell $6,500. Usually Cordell owes Brunke money because he's the guy, he's selling drugs for Brunke

and Brunke has a job and he's a homeowner. He has money. And this other guy is a schmuck who's selling his drugs on the street probably for subsistence to have his own. You know what I mean? So on the stand, the prosecutor asked Brunke about owing Cordell money. Brunke fumbled but said he owed him money for things like chores and landscaping. He said $6,500 for landscaping. Now, meanwhile, the reporters have gone out to the house. The house is completely unkempt.

No landscaping has been done in 10 years on this fucking house. Basically, they couldn't get any other answer from him. He just said that's what it's for, chores and landscaping. Cordell refused to let his lawyer cross-examine Brunke. Wouldn't let his lawyer go, hey, that's bullshit. You're putting my client in and weren't you there? Wouldn't let him do it. He said there'll be other opportunities.

Sit down. And he literally told him no. That's crazy. The lawyer said he won't let me cross- Sit down. And he literally told them no. That's crazy. The lawyer said he won't let me cross-examine. And the judge said, well, that's what he wants to do. It's his defense. Insane, right? They just let Brunke tell the story that he came home to discover Cordell had killed all three.

And he said that Cordell had a gun, so he had to help him get rid of the bodies because Cordell was threatening him. And they just have to buy all this. Nothing they can say because Cordell's saying, yep, that's what happened. That's what happened. And they want to clear the case in some way, shape, or form. So anyway, three weeks later, Cordell comes back to court to plead guilty. Prosecutors ask Cordell if Brunke still owed him money. On the stand, Cordell said, quote, not anymore.

Nobles, the prosecutor, said, what did he owe you money for? Cordell said, I don't think that's any of your business. Quote, one man shall die so the other may live. That's what he said in court. He basically said, don't worry about it. He paid me. I'm going to jail and he's not. Fuck you.

One man shall die so the other may live. I mean, you can't get any more obvious than that. That is incredible. Unreal, man. On February 18th, 2016, Kenneth Brunke is officially sentenced to 40 to 60 months in prison. And he's credited with 299 days served, too. So he's going to do less than five years. He's going to do nothing.

He's going to do probably three years. And he killed three people probably. Probably killed three people, at least as a horrible drug dealer. Anyway, the town is angry with the deal for Brunke, obviously. A resident, there's this article where they go and interview residents of the town. And the resident didn't want their name on the article because literally they said they didn't want to anger the small town prosecutor. That's some small town shit. I don't want the prosecutor to be mad at me.

Don't piss him off. I don't know who the prosecutor is. I don't care if he's mad at me in the city I live in. You know what I mean? He said, quote, it's a town torn apart. How is it that they can say this guy wasn't involved? There's something going on here. We're not getting the whole picture.

This is fucking crazy. This is some crazy, ridiculous, small-town fuck-up shit. How does this fucking happen? It happens in shithole. It happens everywhere, probably, but this is obvious. It's clear why this happened. Now, Brunke, after the sentencing, Brunke is charged. This is good here.

They can't do anything with the murder, so they charge him with three counts of delivery and one count of conspiracy to deliver cocaine. I love it. They try to get him on drug charges. Trial is set for November of 2016, it was. He faces up to 30 years in prison for this. So let's hope they get him.

Let's hope the judge digs him extra hard. Now, November 14th of 2016 is the sentencing for Cordell. 11th Circuit Court Judge William Carmody said of him, this is a good quote here, said to Cordell as he sentenced him, quote, I've never been an advocate for the death sentence. But in this particular instance, I could probably find an exception if this were a different state such as Texas. Because you've earned a different penalty in this court's opinion than we will have to be dealt. Three life sentences, no parole. Wow. Fuck off.

On drug charges. No, no on no no that was the other guy that's for the murder so it's like you want to take the gangster shit for drugs you want to take the rap yeah you got it you got the rap that's your rap take a hike uh december 8th 2016 the trial of brunke is delayed the drug trial is delayed till april 17th 2017 so you still don't know if he's going to get out. He's still hanging in the wind. The trial was supposed to start in December. The defense has asked for more time to prepare, and for some reason they gave it to him.

Now, Noble, the prosecutor, since then, he's embarrassed about this whole thing. He claims he did ask for assistance but was refused. He said that the state's attorney's office told him that it was a local problem and to fuck off, and they weren't going to help him basically. Well, yeah, because he looks like an asshole now. He wrote a whole article in the paper up there. Really? It's a whole article defending his actions. Wow.

I did this. I did that. I only did this because of this. Literally, like, that's how much the town hated him. He needed to put out an article. To have some sort of defense. Yeah, it's insane, man. So, I mean, that's the Kenneth Brunke, Gary Cordell, Heather Rodgers mess.

And the one thing I have to say, guys, do one – because Kenneth Brunke, we all hate this guy. We all want him to go to jail. Don't punish a different Kenneth Brunke first. Oh, God. There's a guy named Kenneth – some poor guy named Kenneth Brunke who's the senior vice president at Callen Associates, Inc. in Chicago, Illinois. It says about Callen, at Callen they collaborate with each client to build tailored and lasting investment solutions. I am reasonably sure that he will not strangle you while a crackhead holds your legs down. So hire that guy maybe and don't take it out on him.

Tailor-made to your investments. Tailor-made to your investments. So that is Manistique, Michigan and a messed up town. I'm not visiting ever. I'm not visiting either because I don't want to get killed there because no one will be held responsible. No, they still held somebody responsible who had little else to do with it. It's ridiculous. At least, I mean, if there's any sort of silver lining, at least that girl's kids are already in somebody else's custody.

That's the silverest lining that's possible in this because this is just so fucked up. Otherwise, yeah, it's just horrible. And her mother's distraught. Everybody's messed up. It's a mess. And that's what happens in a small town when they don't have the resources and they don't have a lawyer. They don't have more than one lawyer. Maybe if they had a decent, half-decent prosecutor, he could have manipulated the situation a little bit better.

But instead, we have one guy going and one guy maybe going for something completely different that's not even this. Hopefully he gets the 30. Hopefully. may be going for something completely different that's not even this. Hopefully he gets the 30. Hopefully. You want that brunky guy to stand there and know that he's getting it for Heather Aldrich, for Carrie Ann Nelson, and for Jody Hutchinson, not for drugs.

You know what I mean? Not for the coke. So you get 60 months for killing three people. You get 30 years for selling cocaine. That's normal. Unbelievable. That is insane in this country, but whatever. Let's do that. That is Small Town Murder for this week, guys.

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Otherwise, shoot us a message. Say hello. We're going to do a bunch of shout outs and name everybody that's done that also at some point here. And you want to give them your social media? I'm at Wisman Sucks, W-H-I-S W H I S M A N sucks on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Come around, say hello. And, uh, and we'll drop your name into a podcast and talk about you a little bit and how, how supportive you've been. Please. We would love that so much. Get ahold of us. We're really, we sound like we're dicks, but we're really actually pretty nice guys. And we'd love to talk to everybody. And if you also have a small town

murder case that you know of, your town had a murder, shoot it to us. We'd love to hear about it. Cause I'm, I found about 150 of them just to start with. We have years of this right off the bat, and that was without even any effort. So if you have an interesting case that you'd like us to do a little earlier than that, go ahead and do it, man. And we'll be definitely into checking that out. Yeah. So thank you guys so much for listening.

Yeah, come back next week. See us again, guys. It's been our pleasure. Bye. Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Small Town Murder early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid.

We're your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly. And our show is part true crime, part spooky, and part comedy. The stories we cover are well-researched. He claimed and confessed to officially killing up to 28 people. With a touch of humor. I'd just like to go ahead and say that if there's no band called Malevolent Deity, that is pretty great. A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing. This mother****er lied. Like a liar.

Like a liar. And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal. Or you love to hop in the Wayback Machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes. You should tune in to our podcast, Morbid. Follow Morbid on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.