Small Town Murder - #516 - The Office Stalker - Woodbury, Minnesota

Episode Date: August 9, 2024

This week, in Woodbury, Minnesota, a woman found brutalized & murdered with a hammer, near a corn field, had been dealing with constant issues at work, like someone who keeps stealing her keys from her cubicle, and dumping coffee on her chair. This seems to escalate, until she disappears from the company's lobby at lunch time. There are several suspects, but one has the strangest reaction when he was told that police found her body, then he has some even weirder pictures in his briefcase!!Along the way, we find out that you should check to see if the name is taken, before you name a town, that you shouldn't drop into a fetal position & sob, when you hear someone you barely know died, and that pictures of strange women, on the toilet, is always the sign of a strange man!!Hosted by James Pietragallo and Jimmie WhismanNew episodes every Thursday!Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: [e-mail] to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!Follow us on...twitter.com/@murdersmallfacebook.com/smalltownpodinstagram.com/smalltownmurderAlso, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!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. I'm Dan Tuberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast. What's the answer? And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head? Hysterical, a new podcast from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios. Binge all episodes of Hysterical early and add free on Wondery Plus. Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay and choo choo.

Oh yay indeed Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petragallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you folks so much for joining us. Why are you here? You want lots of murder in a small package and we got it for you here with Small Town

Murder Express. You want lots of murder in a small package and we got it for you here with small town murder express a very wild story a very Frustrating story that's also just crazy and weird. It's crazy stuff We'll talk all about it before we get to that very quickly shut up and give me murder.com Head there for your tickets for live shows and merch and everything like that. But September the 20th here We Minneapolis State. Oh like that, but September the 20th, Minneapolis State Theater. Get in there, sell this bad boy out. It will be our biggest show ever.

Be a part of the loudest shut up and give me murder that's ever happened. We cannot wait, so get your tickets now. Also, tickets for other cities on sale as well, but that's the one we're talking about because that's coming up very soon, and we have a Minnesota episode today to motivate you Minnesotans a little bit here. Just we give you this, you come to a show. It's a little quid pro quo on

the info here. Alright, so good there. Shut up and give me murder.com. Patreon.com slash crime and sports is where you get all of your bonus material. Hopefully you're listening to this show, the regular length small town murder. Hopefully crime and sports you're listening to as well. And then of course you've been hooked on your stupid opinion since it came out me too And you even want more we got it for you with patreon all the bonus stuff You could possibly want anybody five dollars a month or above you get hundreds of back episodes New episodes every other week one crime and sports one small town murder you get it all baby This week what you're gonna get for it is in addition to all the hundreds that you haven't heard yet you're gonna

get for crime and sports the most inept teams of all time ineptitude and sports we're gonna call it there and then for so just terrible teams lots of failure then for small town murder we're gonna have a lot of fun talking about the very weird shit that Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell believed in and told everybody and killed for It is the most bizarre thing ever and Chad just got convicted and everything and I think Laurie's is going on So we'll talk all about that. Yeah, it's crazy stuff patreon.com Crime in sports is where you get all that and you get a shout out at the end of the regular show

Oh, you bet Jimmy will sure mess your name up even though he'd love to get it correct. So that said, let's do this. I think it's time, everybody. Okay. Don't care where you are, you can do this. I don't care if you're in the middle of work. That's all, that's all right. You stand up so you rise above your cubicle right now,

and I'd like you to shout. You'll scare your coworkers, but do it anyway. Deep breath and let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this everybody. Here we go. Let's go on a trip, shall we? We shall.

Let's do it Jimmy, a trip that we will be making next month. We are going to Minnesota. We're going to, we love Minnesota, especially anytime pre-November. It's wonderful. Summer. I still don't even mind that. It's just, it's abrasive.

Yeah. It fucking sucks. Yeah. Working off a plane in nine degrees. It's tough. It's a little, it'll poof, especially when you're coming from Arizona. It's like, oh Jesus, what's going on here?

And that wasn't even their cold time yet. No, no. There was college kids walking around with shorts and t-shirts Chicks with like their belly showing and cleavage. I'm like it is nine degrees outside. You're just wandering They're not even they're not even like arms. No, no, they're just like Strolling vaping and shit like it's nothing. I'm like these kids are nuts. You're a different breed. Wow This is Woodbury, Minnesota, which is in Eastern, Minnesota It is just east of st. Paul. So if you know how it works, Minneapolis

Then st. Paul is just to the east of that and then just an east of that is going to be Woodbury It's a suburb of the whole deal here. It is in Washington County It's about a half hour to Minneapolis from here. To get to our live show at the State Theater on September 20th. That's where you'd go. You can still get tickets for it. Shut up and givememurder.com. Anyway, this is in Washington County.

Area code 651. The population currently, it has blown up in the last 20 years, the population. Oh, it's gotten huge. It's currently 74,014 people. Well, that's because Minneapolis is almost unlivable for money. It's so expensive.

It is, and it's expensive out here. This is like a pricier suburb. Really? Yeah, this is where you'd move to drop some coin. If you're really successful in Minneapolis. Yeah, this place had less than 20,000 people when this murder occurred, and it wasn't that long ago. It wasn't like the 60s or anything either.

So it's really blown up. Like in the last 20 years. It's doubled in population. So median household income here 114,000 to 52. Oh, they're doing great. Usually 69 thousands a national average for that So that is well above the average and median home cost here is gonna reflect that 435 thousand eight hundred dollars cost here is going to reflect that $435,800 median. So you're coming out here with some money. This is like we're going to have good school districts and all that kind of stuff here. Little bit of history.

It was originally named Red Rock, this place, because there was a sacred stone supposedly painted by the famous Dakota chief, Little Crow. And then, though, in 1859, when they went to incorporate the town or whatever, the state legislature discovered there was another Red Rock township in Minnesota. It's like, well, you can't have that. We already got one. And it's in Minnesota.

Already got it. Pre-Google, they couldn't just look it up. They had to wait years until the legislature uncovered it somehow. So I think that's where they were going in the hateful eight, going to Red Rock. That's possible. Minnesota though? It was fucking snowing, I don't know where they were going. So Woodbury was named after Judge Levi Woodbury, who was from New Hampshire, and he was a friend

of the first town board chairman. Of this? Yeah, I like this guy so much, I'm gonna name a town after him even though he doesn't live here. Sounds good, 1844. In the firewood. Yeah, 1844 is kind of the settlement of the place here.

The land was mostly the woods, it was all trees, and then it was converted to farmland, knock all that shit down and grow shit. And that's what they're doing now. One of the farms still survives, the Charles Spangenberg farmstead. Yeah, exactly. A lot of the people, everyone who came here,

the immigrants at first were German, Irish, Swedish, Swiss, Scottish, Denmark, all, you know, Danish. Very, no, not just white, very white. Incredibly white people. Tall white people, that's who, people named Sven with blonde hair. So we've never been here, let's find out some reviews of this town.

Here we go, five stars. I've lived in Woodbury for two years. Woodbury is a well-educated, diverse, high class, and accepting of all people. High class. We've never had a review that called a town high class before. I would change nothing! Exclamation point.

Not a thing. Nothing! It's perfect. OK. Well, that is five stars. So they understood the assignment, at least. Great play. Even the one stars aren't that what they're complaining about isn't much here. Here's a three-star. I am not quite sure how the crime is in my neighborhood

That's the whole review If they could tell me about it, it might be five star. Let me ask you something when you go outside Are you afraid? Yeah, no, then it's fine. There you go. That's the cry well aware If you were unsafe, you'd know it probably yeah Here's a two-star while it's a great place to live everything is way too far apart to be able to get around without a car It's not the inner city. That's it all works three stars. There are many popular fast casual places That means fast food. I think there's what you're going for places. That means fast food I think is what you're going for. Wow that are affordable for everyone here and there's also a wide variety of possible types of

food possible types of food and different restaurants to choose from here. There are not many bar or nightlife places in Woodbury but there are still some. Well you're a half hour from downtown Minneapolis so go out there all you want there's tons of bars remember. If there's a place where you can go get a quiet drink You're doing great. I think that's fine. Yeah. Yeah, here's three stars the last one. I'll read here You better have boots and four-wheel drive There are often times unplowed streets. Oh, no, not unplowed streets

My cul-de-sac didn't get plowed. Oh god take two stars away Boots and four-wheel drive she had to get to your car, to get to your four wheel drive vehicle. Things to do here. Woodbury Days. Woodbury Days, a three day family friendly fun celebration to bring together and celebrate our great Woodbury community. It's packed with great entertainment. They say great a lot in this thing. Everything's great. Great entertainment, delicious food, and many other wonderful activities.

Wonderful ones. Do you think they got the thesaurus out for that one? They're like, good, great, great, great. Am I exhausted great? OK, great's good. Shit, wonderful. There we go, wonderful. That sounds even better.

More syllables makes me sound smarter. It says here, live music is back. Woodbury Days is already one of the best places to enjoy a meal with your friends and family. Our exceptional live music performances at the band Shell make it even better. Oh, we got a shell. Friday's live music, Cole Thomas. Oh. No?

No. Thomas. Oh no? Sometimes you're like oh okay no nothing. Performing all of the top piano bar favorites. So that's why I don't know. So it's it's it's piano man over and over again. He's basically he's gonna do a Billy Joel cover set. He might throw a couple Elton Johns in there. Tiny Dancer will come out probably and you know. That's about there. Tiny dancer will come out probably and that's about it Saturday night. It's all right. Left over fighting might throw in a Stevie Wonder. Maybe possibly if we maybe Georgia do a little Ray Charles and maybe Alicia Keys and he's gonna do audience audience regret requests as well so you can request any of this stuff. You got regrets. You almost got it right. But request audience request something that's not done on the piano please. Yeah. Request like stuff. You got regrets. You almost got it right. But requests, audience requests,

something that's not done on the piano please. Yeah. Request like fugazi, you know what I mean? Like just make it weird. Like totally fucking. Something with a keytar. Yeah something straight. There you go. Request Flocka Seagulls. Say do that. So along with guitarist Joe Roskowski. He'll be there as well, so can't miss Joe. After that Saturday's music, Crowfather will be playing. Yeah. You know Crowfather's a great band because they have the coveted 2 p.m. to 2 30 p.m. time slot that all entertainers wanna have.

2 30. That's great. Open Door and Open Air, that's community theater performers singing music from past community theater shows. Oh boy. Yeah, like My Fair Lady and shit they're going to sing to you, things like that. And their favorite pieces from the musical theater canon, so just musical theater bullshit.

Jordan Johnston and The Elevation will be performing. And then you got Bloodline will be performing. Okay. And then you got Bloodline will be there. Yeah. I don't know what the Bloodline is. And then finally the big headliners, High and Mighty, from 7pm to 10.30pm. They have a three and a half hour set, which sounds like a lot. What?

They gotta dig deeper. They better act. And then Sunday, Haley James is there. Nope. Don't know. Not sure. I'm looking for you. I don't know, isn't that the chick who said she spits on people's dicks?

Isn't that her? No, I don't know. Maybe. It possibly is. There you go, so. There we go. That said, let's talk about a murder. Yeah.

What do you say? Let's do it here. Let's go all the way back in time, not too far, to 1989. Yeah, very recent. Yeah, 1989, a magical time. Not really, it was pretty lame. Dick Spitter wasn't even born yet. People thought those voices were coming out

of Milli Vanilli at this time. They said, those European men that can't speak English, I'm sure, sing like Southern black men who have an extra 40 pounds on their girth. You know what I mean? That sounds right. That sounds like grit to me. like southern black men who have an extra 40 pounds on them on their girth you know what I mean? That sounds right. That sounds like grit to me. Yeah I saw the documentary by the way you should watch it the Milli Vanilli that's so funny because when you watch it now the guy one guy's singing it and he barely speaks English he has like a high German accent

and a high voice and this guy's like. The light one or the dark one? The lighter one lighter one Rob Rob Fab's the dark one a darker skin of the other yeah the dark one son he's the dark one that's not what I meant to say you know what I'm talking about but you hear you see him singing blame it on the rain it's like blame it on the rain it's like that's a fat southern man. He said, own and blame it on the rain. That's a fucking fat man from Tennessee. That is not a European man who weighs a buck. 30 in a church choir. Yeah. He'll tell you all about the Lord and you'll,

you'll believe it because it sounds so good So let's talk about this. Let's talk about a young lady here Sharon Phyllis Bloom. Okay, she is born on November 2nd 1951 and She is the daughter of Ida and Leonard Bloom here Those are her parents comes up in a nice family in Chicago, is where she grows up. Very much into science and math growing up. She is like, she won a science award when she was a junior in high school

and that sort of thing. She also would, she danced and did shit like that too, and like had, like was in like a dance troupe type thing I think here. She did some thing with her troupe at a folk festival when she was in high school. So yeah, she does stuff. She gets out there.

Everybody says she's very bubbly. She wrote an essay about loneliness for the Chicago Tribune when she was in ninth grade. Wow. Smart kid. Yeah. I couldn't write a postcard about having a boner in the ninth grade.

I would fucking. She's published. Yeah, she's writing to the. She's published about emotions. About emotions, yeah. What were your emotions when you were in ninth grade? I'm horny and mad. Because they always said no.

Mad and horny is what I am. How much, how, it's not really an essay, you know? It's gonna be over soon. No. So, she wrote that. She had went and she's Jewish. She visited Israel at one point and her father said that when reading her writings about it, she said, I don't remember ever reading them about his writings.

And he said she, he read it about when he did read it, it was about her description of the sunset over the mountains and he was like wow She's a she's a really good writer. Holy shit. Like she's also So she's into math and science and the other side of her brain works too though. She can write So it's a rare well well-rounded person, you know, yeah math and science go together like yeah carrots But that uh, that emotional part is oftentimes disconnected. Yeah from those other side of the fucking brain. That's right They don't work together very often. So she ends up in about 1981 she's about 30 she moves to the Minneapolis area and

That is to take a job with 3m, which is only in Woodbury here. She's gonna invent post-its Yeah, I think she is actually We've had many Romy and Michelle references lately. 3M certainly did invent Post-its. They did actually, yeah. So she moved from Illinois to this area to work as a computer, a systems analyst for 3M. That's her shit.

So, smart lady, let's just say. Cutting edge, early adopter. Yeah, this is in 81 she's doing that. Soting edge, early adopter. Yeah, this is an 81, she's doing that. So I mean, she knew what the future held and was getting right into it here. She, about 1987, she's been working at her job for a few years, she meets a young man and they seem to hit it right off.

His name is Dave Kofod, K-O-E-F-O-D, and they hit it off right away and within the next year and a half they're living together and Everything like that. They did they they met doing volunteer work at KTC a TV That's where they met so I had a volunteer work for a TV station or network Yeah, I don't know if it was like a fundraiser like you're on, you know Phone banks type of thing like they did with PBS back in the day or what.

But first of all, she's pretty black hair, green eyes, real attractive. But he said it was more than that. He said, quote, she was sheer energy. She could be like a champagne uncorked. So just exploding out everywhere with energy. That's a weird reference, but okay. I've never heard a human compared to Uncorked Champagne before, but I'm... You know what?

That's not bad, actually. You get what he's saying. That's probably why he's got a gal. It paints a picture. Yeah. He's good with them words. So they live together and they start remodeling a home that they bought. Oh, this is a great way to find out.

Let's find out if we can make it together here. When we're when we're in Home Depot arguing about shades of white. I don't give a fuck. It's white. This is eggshell. No, this one. But look at it. It's darker than that. Who fucking cares? None of that matters. Just a great way to find out if you're compatible. Rebuild and remodel. eggshell no this one but look at it it's darker than that who fucking cares none of that matters just it's a great way to find out if you're compatible rebuild and remodel perfect you couldn't get any perfect like on 30 rock when they were like ikea is the ultimate test of a of a relationship yeah take the shit home from ikea try to put it together that's the test of the relationship. Yeah. So they have, she has some troubles at work from 88 into 89.

All of a sudden there's very weird things are happening to her. Pranks and harassment are happening at work. And this is like 3M. She's not working at a, she's not working like a telemarketing bullpen with a bunch of people who just got out of prison. Like these are all like nerds. So it doesn't make any sense who's harassing her, but they are People people start she had a few suspicions of who it might be in the office, but couldn't figure it out Set pranks like several sets of her car keys and house keys had been taken from her desk Like several times it was like, you know the end of the night and there's not a lot of people there and she can't find her car keys

and they've been taken from where she keeps them and so she, you know, they have, she calls security and says what the fuck, how are you? That's frightening. So she's terrified, yeah, because she doesn't want to go stand out in the dark in a parking lot. Or worse off, get home and somebody's already there. That's scary too.

Yeah, you figure people at your job, A, know what car you have and probably know you can get your address too. So, and so she ended up after a while, she had taken to safety pinning her keys to her purse. Okay, yeah. So it's harder to swipe. You can't just grab them.

You have to undo like four safety pins to have to do it. So just little things like that, but very weird stuff like the keys and also a set of transparencies she needed for a presentation was stolen from her desk. She had all her stuff for her head projector. She had all her stuff ready and there's one thing was completely missing. Then like three days later, it was right back where it was. It was put right back where it was where on her desk where nothing else was anymore. So it was put right back where it was, where on her desk, where nothing else was anymore. So it was like, someone's fucking with her, obviously. Coffee was poured on her chair at one point.

Someone soaked her chair seat in coffee, because it's cushioned. She sat in it. Yeah, she sat down. Yeah, her ass is all brown. Yep, she had to go home and change her clothes because she was covered in fucking coffee. People stole her glasses.

Her glasses were stolen. You don't steal someone's glasses. That's crazy. Number one, what are you going to do with them? And number two, they fucking need their glasses to see. That's a whole other level of weird, you know? So 3M decided after all of this that they would install hidden cameras around her desk to catch who the fuck was doing this.

So these cameras were set to be installed on November 5th, 1989. That's that's the that I was the date with these and she knew about it but no one else did. They brought her in and said, Listen, are you okay? Because they had to ask her permission to, you know, whatever. And she, she said, Yeah, please please please do it. I want to see who's fucking doing this So November 5th, they're waiting for then on November 2nd 1989 Dave is waiting for her at home and she doesn't come home She doesn't come home and so he reports her missing to the police and he also goes out and looks for her himself

He said that's what he says. Anyway, Dave to the police and he also goes out and looks for her himself. That's what he says anyway, Dave. He drives to 3M and finds that her Honda is still in the parking lot. Oh boy. So that's not great. They say, the police ask the coworkers when was the last time everybody saw her.

Last time they can get a time where anybody saw her was 1130 a.m. Standing outside the front entrance of the of the building the work little of a shit lunchtime at work Yeah, not usually dangerous when you're leaving your office. You're not thinking. Oh boy. This is a prime kidnapping time here Why I'm gonna be swiped so it's very fucking strange Her boyfriend called all the hospitals, police stations, all around different towns he was calling police stations. And then finally the Woodbury police report her officially missing and all of that sort of thing. So her, her cousin says her cousin Norma who talked to her all the time said that her dad called her cousin to ask whether

she had talked to Sharon that day when the dad knew she was missing and the dad had told her if Sharon was angry upset or anything you'd be the first person she'd call so do you know if she needed some time to herself or something because they talked every day and the cousin said no not at all and you know they used to babysit together and do all that kind of shit and she said no I haven't talked to her. So it's tough. So police go to the coworkers now.

It's a huge place, by the way. There's hundreds of people work here. So this is tough. The factory in town. It's a big place. You basically have, let's talk to all the guys first. Who's more likely to swipe a woman from a parking lot, probably not another lady.

So they talked to about 100 coworkers and family members and friends, past boyfriends, people she'd talked to at a bar three weeks ago, anybody they could find. And they learned, that's when they learned about the harassment at work. And they were like, really, she's being harassed? They said, this has been going on for over a year. Just constantly fucking with her.

Then they find out that her keys had been taken and when her keys were taken, they were never returned. Still, they're still missing. Every time she got new sets of keys, that's what she had to do. So they're all out there. So somebody has four sets of house and car keys of hers. So that's interesting.

They also found out that in her glasses, sometimes they'd be stolen and never taken back, never given back, and then sometimes they'd be taken and then put in a place that was already searched for them. Like, out in the open. On the filing cabinet, yeah. Where they already looked, which was very weird. One time, one of her other materials for a presentation got taken, not

the transparencies, another time, and then she found them returned to her locked desk after the presentation. That's where she found them. Like right after they were in her desk in the locked desk. So she's like, okay, someone's got my desk keys too. It's a lot. And they said it's been going on for more than a year. Her friends knew of the harassment and knew of all that kind of thing and that she had expressed concerns for her safety because she didn't understand why someone was doing this. They must really have it in for her.

And can this escalate to something worse is what she was worried about here. So the harasser had not been identified, but several people had a guy they thought maybe it was. A guy named Steven Zantar. Z-A-N-T-E-R. Zantar, I guess. And Steven is, I guess, Stefan, I guess it would be. S-T-E-P-H-A-N. That's Stefan.

Stefan. Stefan. But he's not a Stefan. No? No, he's like a half Japanese, small guy. His mom's from Japan, his dad's American, yeah. Interesting. Stefan, I guess.

They worked together for years, and he was the former occupant of her desk. I guess when he had moved to another department, that's she took over that desk. So that's why she suspected him, because she said he might have the desk keys still. Okay, yeah. So that was why, that's the only reason

why she suspected him. Now, so they're trying to get alibis. They were able to alibi her boyfriend, Dave. And they were able to get alibis for pretty much every single coworker. Like 100 people, they were able to alibi up because they were all elsewhere. They went out to lunch together, half of them were in the break room eating together or

whatever it is. The only person they could not quite nail down a solid alibi on is Stefan Zanter. Zanter? Zanter, can't get Zanter here. Really? Yes. And one of her coworkers, Tamara House, said that Xanter had loaned her a computer manual in 1986 or 1987. This is weird. Okay. Couple years ago. Couple years ago I, he

lent me a computer manual. I had it the whole time. Then in 1989 she discovered that the manual was missing from the cabinet above her desk and And so she couldn't find the manual, she approached Xanter and he said, yeah, I took it back. And she said that she was very angry because he entered her cubicle without her permission. That's weird. Which is weird. Also, when you borrow something,

you should return it within three years, probably. Yeah, I gave you a three year window. Yeah, you know, I'm not gonna judge him on that action alone because he might have been like it's been three years lady I'm sorry but he could have asked for it. I feel like I gave you ample opportunity. Yeah still you don't enter people's space without and if you've worked in an office people are fucking weird about their cubicles man they're real territorial about that shit. Like anybody wants pictures of your shitty kids, don't worry, no one's taking anything.

It's your space, it's the only thing in this cold shit place that's mine. That's it. Stay the fuck out of it. That's it, no, no, no, come in here. It's like a seat on a bus, like don't put your elbow over here, this is all I have.

Fucking horrible. So a little bit about Stefan Zanter here. He is born in 1955, so he's around her age. Like I said, half Japanese, mom born in Japan, came over when she was a kid, like right after World War II, and then met her dad and all that kind of thing. So, they had lived there, they had worked at the same desk, and he, I guess the two of them,

Xanter and Bloom, apparently were like only one of two of only a few employees who customarily arrived early to work every day. Oh, they're the early birds. They're the early birds. And they happen to share this. They haven't had the same desk. Yeah. She struck him with her motor vehicle. She had been under the influence that she left him there.

In January 2022, local woman Karen Reed was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe. It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location. What happens next depends on who you ask. Was it a crime of passion? If you believe the prosecution,

it's because the evidence was so compelling. This was clearly an intentional act. And his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia. Or a corrupt police cover-up. If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover-up to prevent one of their own from going down. Everyone had an opinion. And after the 10-week trial, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision.

To end in a mistrial, it's just a confirmation of just how complicated this case is. Law and crime presents the most in-depth analysis to date of the sensational case in Karen. You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts, or Spotify. Scammers are best known for living the high life until they're forced to trade it all in for handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit once they're finally caught. I'm Saatchi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagge. And we're the host of Scamfluencers, a weekly podcast from Wondery that takes you along the twists and turns of some of the most infamous scams of all time, the impact on victims and what's left

once a facade falls away. We've covered stories like a Shark Tank-certified entrepreneur who left the show with an investment but soon faced mounting bills and what's left once a facade falls away. We've covered stories like a Shark Tank certified entrepreneur who left the show with an investment, but soon faced mounting bills, an active lawsuit filed by Larry King, and no real product to push. He then began to prey on vulnerable women instead, selling the idea of a future together

while stealing from them behind their backs. To the infamous scams of Real Housewives stars like Teresa Giudice, what should have proven to be a major downfall only seemed to solidify her place in the Real Housewives Hall of Fame. Follow Scamfluencers on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Scamfluencers early and ad-free right now on Wondry+. Utilize the same desk at one point in time? That's wild. So weird. So

he left work that morning, which, by the way, was two days before her birthday. And he had left work, and she had last been seen at 11.20 AM outside. So they're like, he had left work, and they don't have like a why everyone knows where he was. He was with somebody else. He was by himself.

He just leave at any point. What a wild job. Fuck. So November 12th night, they trust nerds. That's why. People like us, all the jobs we've had, there's always been like somebody looking at your clock. Where's that asshole? Did he leave already?

That's what happens when you have no skills. People just like they have to keep an eye on you. Whereas if they're, if you have any kind of skills or anything like that, they just trust you'll do it. Not fuck off. So November 12th, 1989, there, this is 10 days later, the police interview Stefan finally after they figure out, you know, it takes a while to clear 100 people on alibis. So Ray DePrima here, he's an agent with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and David Hines, an investigator with the Woodbury Police Department, they go to his

home to interview him and try to see if he's got an alibi. Now his wife Barbara is there and she's going to sit with him through the whole time. This is weird by the way rather than usually if you have any kind of, you take the person to the station. Because that's your environment, you have everything there. Number one it's safe, he's's not gonna pull a gun out from under the couch cushion and shoot you And number two, it's your environment. You can set it up how you want it You can make him wait and stew for a while. You can control everything to sit in his living room and do it That's that doesn't that shows me that he's not a suspect or they were trying to make him think he wasn't a suspect or something But his wife is there the whole time.

His daughter was present for the first half of the interview as well. Gather around kids, daddy's got a murder interview to do. He's got a murder interrogation here. You mind if my daughter sits on this? No, no, no problem. Yeah, she's really into criminal justice. So the interview is about four and a half hours long. And during the interview, he acknowledged

that he was aware of the harassment of Sharon. I knew about it. I heard about it. He said that, yeah, I know that some of my coworkers considered me to be a suspect, but I'm not there. I didn't harass her. I don't know. I wouldn't do that.

What the hell am I going to do that for? He said that in front of his wife, huh? Yeah. He said, people think I'm doing this shit for some reason. He said, I think it's just because we shared the same desk. I don't know what it is, he goes, but it's not anything like that, which is fair. I mean, who knows?

So they said, all right, well, what do you have for November 2nd, an alibi? By the way, she's born November 4th, 1951, not November 2nd, I messed that up earlier. And he's about to get it, she's about to get cameras on the 5th of November, the day after her birthday. The day after her birthday

or when the cameras are going to be installed. Happy birthday, we'll figure this out now. Now they said, where were you on the 2nd? And he said, well I was working at 3M. I left work at about 11AM. I drove to the 3M employee store in Maplewood, Minnesota and I went there to purchase some items. He said, I don't remember what I went there to get but whatever

Then but he said he left the store without making any purchases So don't know if he changed his mind or they didn't have what he was looking for or whatever here So then he drove to a Burger King for lunch. Oh, yeah, so it's a Burger King He's got his whopper in him. And then he said that shortly after leaving Burger King He was driving along a busy street when his car broke down. Oh So he was stuck. He said he when his car broke down. Oh. So he was stuck. He said he waited for a while.

I don't even know how long. This is his pre-cell phone, so you don't know how fucking long anything is. That's a significant day. That's a lot, Sonny, it's like noon too. It's still early. So his car breaks down. He said he waited for a while before finally somebody

pulled over and helped him jump start his car. So somehow his battery died while he was driving, which I don't know how that happens. It doesn't make any sense. I've never heard of somebody, I've never seen someone on the side of the road need a jump start. Yeah.

They were already driving. That's a different thing, not a battery. Yes, that's a different thing completely. But I'm not a car expert, but that's one thing I do know is usually it doesn't start, you need a jump start. Right, they tell you, don't shut it off till you get where you're going. Let it charge. Cause it'll get't start. You need to jump start. Right, they tell you don't shut it off till you get where you're going.

Let it charge. Cause it'll get you there. Yeah. Right. Charge it up. And if the battery's bad, then it won't start back up if you stop it somewhere. Then you're fucked.

So he remembered that the individual that helped him was male. They said, okay, a guy came and jump started your car. A description, height, weight, height weight black guy white guy green guy Anything about the car big car little car truck red green. We got any of this He said I don't know his age race appearance height or the type of car He drove don't remember that ten days ago. I stood on the side of the road for an hour Praying that someone would pull over and help me someone finally did and I can't remember a fucking thing about him

Nothing. I'd know. Yeah, he could be a It could be JR rider coming from the Timberwolves Yeah, Kevin Garnett could be helping him or it could be you know a five foot four 75 year old light man We have no idea. He has no... That's how... It's one of them or the coach. We don't know.

He said, I don't see race or age or gender or fucking hair color. This man's mad progressive. I don't see anything, man. I'm completely blind to people and what they are. I just see people. I just see people. He was a person driving a car.

That's all I saw. Heart beats and organic matter person driving a car. That's all I saw. Heart beats in organic matter. So after he got his car cranked and he said he went home because he was cold because he was, you know, sitting out there with no heat for an hour in November in fucking Minnesota. So he was cold. So at about 2 p.m. he called 3m to tell his supervisor that he wouldn't be coming back to work that day. He's like, well, it's already 2.

I came in early anyway. I'm leaving. He said that he spent the remainder of the afternoon just kicking around home, you know, farting around the house, just doing whatever. His wife's at work. I'm not even worried about that car that's dead in the driveway. No, what are you going to do? It's dead.

That's it. We'll figure it out later. Okay. So just kicked around the house. His wife's a teacher, so she's not at home. She's at work. So, approximately three to four hours into the interview with him, the detective was paged and so he said, can I use your phone quick?

Yeah. Calls the office and learned that, oh, Sharon Bloom's body has just been found. Oh, that's terrible news. Terrible news, but amazing to see a guy's reaction to it. Yeah. You normally don't get to see that, because at that point. You get to give him breaking news

that nobody on the planet knows. Nope, nobody at all, and they've just paged the investigating detective to tell him about it. I'm about to tell you something that her parents don't know. They didn't. So her body was found that day. So after 10 days of being missing that's nobody had much hopes. Found by a guy named Dennis Sutter who's a farmer just after 3 p.m. on

that day. It's a Sunday afternoon he's out picking corn on his farm and he finds this horrible fucking site here. He said he had just started working in that field when he saw the body lying about 20 feet from the dirt road That runs at the fields northern edge. So somebody ran down a dirt road and just dumped her right there So he called the authorities right away. He said that he hasn't looked over that field for more than a week About 10 11 days probably we're gonna say She when they find her, she's wearing a coat and blouse but no skirt that she had or nothing on the bottom. No. Her glasses are nearby so there's that but her purse and other

personal belongings are not there and they search the field, they get dogs in to find any kind of anything they can't find anything There's a couple other details that we'll talk about too here. So ten days after this this is ten days after she's gone There's also her undergarments are nearby. So her underwear are there and a man's black sock Was the undergarments and a man's black sock were wadded into a ball next to her stomach. So that's very weird. They found on her a gold acrylic fiber, so they found a fiber and it's gold acrylic,

and a gray olefin fiber as well, or olefin, I don't know how you say that, O-L-E-F-I-N. Some material, I don't know. They find that, O-L-E-F-I-N. Some material, I don't know. They find that, that was found on the sock and a gray olefin fiber was found on the suit jacket that was on, that she was wearing on her body. So she has been killed by blows to the head with a heavy rounded object.

Oh no. Yes, this is, I mean she's just been battered and bashed and it's like, you know, 15 blows to the head with a fucking... They're thinking like a rounded object, possibly a hammer, maybe a ball peen hammer, maybe a tire, maybe a rock, if they can find the right rock, that time, they don't know exactly. There's also semen present, she was attacked and sexually assaulted as well, but it's very degraded because there's been animals out here.

So she's been out in the elements for 10 days. So it's been, things have been happening. The 3M offered a $15,000 reward for finding her and the farmer ended up getting 15 grand out of this. That's a lucrative corn picking day for you. Of course, now you're traumatized. You just saw a nice woman's fucking corpse battered and beaten in a horrible, worst state

you can imagine. So they immediately they're worried about is this connected to another missing woman. The day she went missing, the same fucking day another woman, Heather Lambert, was last seen outside her office at Northern States Power Company at 4th Street and Nicolette Mall in downtown Minneapolis. Half hour away. Her body was later found the next day in Chisago County. So the body of Louise Johnson, who had been missing for four months, was then found on November 3rd. She had last been seen at a supermarket in Roseville on July 3rd. So the cops are checking possible connections between

these women disappearing. This could be so bad. This could be very bad. They're like,, do we have something real real bad here? They tell the parents, they tell Sharon's parents, Leonard and Ida there, and Leonard said he received word of his daughter's death from a nephew who lives a few blocks from the home. Mm-hmm. They said that. Dad said he wasn't surprised. He said we had anticipated the worst because her credit cards and checking account had not been used. She can't run away and not use money. You know what I mean? She said it sounded very bad right from the beginning. So this is happening in the middle of interviewing

their main suspect, by the way. So he hears this, goes and the two officers tell Steph and Xander that we just found Sharon's body, by the way. And we found Bloom's body, and at that point, he became emotionally distraught. Which, if it's just somebody at your job that you know and you found out dead, maybe you'd become emotionally distraught. That's what you would think.

If we're here just talking about a missing girl, that's pretty fucked up. Yeah, and now she's dead, oh no. The girl that has my old desk is dead, that's pretty fucked up and now you're telling me the girl that has my old desk is dead that's fucked up. That would be normal. But then he said something very fucking weird. He said quote, I was hoping she wouldn't be found.

What? His wife jumps in and goes, I think he means that they were, they were, we both hoped that she had been not found dead We hope that she was like just took off somewhere. We'd hope she wasn't like found in a field That's what he's trying to tell you. We hope that she'd come Wow Old fucking wife Barbara Esquire over here is gonna he means this don't worry. Good save Barb Then he began to sob and wail and moan that is not okay. It's not his kid or his wife. I mean, that's like, you know, we found your,

we found your daughter, you sob and wail and moan. We found your wife, you sob and, not your coworker that you barely fucking know. He eventually goes from sobbing and moaning to crumpling down into a fetal position. Hello? His fucking weird reaction. Yeah.

That's a crazy reaction to someone that you don't, unless you love that person. Yeah. You go, oh that's terrible, fuck, ah, it's so sad. I loaned her a compact prosario manual. I'm losing my shit. Curling into a fetal position. His wife Barbara became concerned and asked the officers, please

don't leave. Please stay. Don't leave me alone with this guy. She did. She was, I've never heard of that before. Please stay in my home and interrogate my husband about a murder because I'm freaked the fuck out here. So then after he gets his breath enough to speak, because he's literally just, uh, uh, uh, like a three year old.

Oh, toddler. Yeah. He gets his breath up and he says, are you going to take me to jail? What? Bad, everything he said is wrong. What are you doing? All of this is wrong.

They responded by asking, is there a reason why we should take you to jail? Right, why should we take you? Which is the exact correct thing to say, which he wouldn't, and then he just stopped answering questions. He didn't like answer and he stopped making eye contact. Both officers thought later on they said they found his behavior highly unusual. I would say. I've never heard of this.

No. Foreigner shows this. I've never heard of this. 500. 500. 500 succeed in this episode is. This is the first fucking time we've heard this reaction No, he's ever done that. This is crazy. So they're like, that's that's a awfully strange there

So they end up saying that they they found it weird and then the officers they just go Okay, well, we're gonna take off now and they leave we don't know this but look back I'm not leaving till I get kicked out or he or he confesses. Those are my two fucking, because he obviously knows what the fuck happened if I'm these guys. I'd ask him if he wants to maybe go get a soda, jump in the car, let's go, we'll talk about it on our way. Let's go get a cup of coffee, me and you. You know what I mean? Share a basket of fries. Shit, but they definitely are suspicious as fuck of a guy, obviously. So November 16th, 1989, the police applied for a search warrant for both for his home and to take blood and hair samples from his body as well.

Because we have a little bit of DNA technology at this point. They could narrow it down just not to one in 75 billion. It'd be like, you know, one in 6,000 would be your thing, which is still a narrow. It's helpful just but it's not really like a Slam dunk in court especially because people don't know what the fuck DNA is yet So it doesn't really help so the they do this the affidavit in support is in support of the warrants that say they're looking for They're saying he's a suspect in the harassment of bloom the police were unable to verify his alibi because he's by himself He acted in an unusual manner upon learning that her body had been discovered. And so they do issue a search warrant looking for, and it's very important what they're

authorizing them to search and seize, clothing and personal effects belonging to or owned by Sharon Phyllis Bloom, including a skirt, shoes, underwear, and a gray and brown purse and its content. It was his underwear, it was male underwear, not her underwear with the male sock, by the way. Keys, credit card, calendar, address book, identification, a heavy blunt metal object indicating the presence of hair, blood, or bodily fluids, sample of hair, blood, and bodily fluids, and possible fingerprints of Sharon Phyllis Bloom, if you can find them in there too.

Can we also look in his underwear drawer and see if he's wearing those that we found? If those come in a three pack or six pack back then. Let's see if Thursday's missing, shall we? Let's check this out. So. So he's got Monday through Friday minus a day. Let's find out, man. So when they execute the warrant,

he was painting his master bedroom at the time. So he's recently moved into a newly built home here. So why are they painting? It's newly built, that's weird. Yeah, I mean, they oftentimes just paint it white and then come back through and get the colors. So during the search, they seize several items, including photographs found in his briefcase, okay

the photographs are not sexually explicit, but many were women in bathing suits and Things like that and several were of women sitting on the toilet so Mormon porn listen yeah Sitting on the toilet. So more Mormon porn listen. Yeah That's me on the toilet. I'm sorry. Okay. I don't care about at this point I'm we're usually evidence people but between the sobbing the wailing the moaning saying I was hoping she didn't want to be found and then Pictures of women sitting on the toilet. I'm arresting him for something. This is fucking weird. You're tripping me out

That's who has several pictures of women on the toilet? On the toilet. It's not his wife, it's just women. That's the thing, it's not his wife, it's not even, now whatever your kink is is fine, but not the toilet, that's not fine. Don't burn the toilet. That's the only one that I'm not okay with,

as fucking as that. So the agent here agent deprima Immediately recognizes one of the women in the photographs as being a co-worker of Sharon and Stefan It on the toilet Bathing suits and shit like that. So oh Yes, there's 25 photographs, basically. It's some, most of them are just shorts and swimsuits and like boating or vacation settings. So someone's beach pictures, like someone's vacation pictures. And yeah, the woman that they found in many of the photographs is Donna Summerfelt Billick.

She's a 3M employee. And until the discovery was brought to her attention, she had never, she didn't know her photographs had even been stolen these are her pictures except for the toilet ones okay and that's a different thing when she picked up her processed rolls of film and noticed that some prints were missing she assumed that the company 3m photo service because you can get your film developed at work there failed to print some of the negatives and just fucked it up so she just re-ordered prints of everything and didn't think twice about it. Meanwhile, he fucking stole them from before she got them. That's creepy.

I would say, imagine, fuck, imagine what other weird shit he's doing. So, neither Xanter nor any of his family members were in any of these photographs. So these are not his pictures. They seized the photos because they assumed they're stolen and anything that was related to the alleged harassment at 3M. Now the police did not confirm the photos were stolen until they talked to that woman and she said, holy fuck, they're my pictures. The police did not test the house for blood or other trace evidence for some reason.

Didn't just loom it all around or anything The crime lab the reason why the BCA crime lab was not on the scene because it was busy with another case Let's make time, what do you say guys? This is some small town shit here bring someone in from Minneapolis can we there's a big city right there small town shit here. Bring someone in from Minneapolis, can we? There's a big city right there. You only got one guy? So, because the police had removed what they thought to be seminal material from Sharon's body, they believe that that would be, they'd be able to compare that, compare DNA in that with samples of his DNA, but what they couldn't get anything, they don't know if they actually had semen or not. They're not positive it's semen they can't it's degraded they can't figure it out so that's a problem so they can't compare that.

November September 5 1990 so the next year months and months go by they don't arrest him even for the theft of the pictures nothing. This is when they get another search this This is 10 months after the first search. They are seeking this. The affidavit for that one says that it's set forth additional evidence that focused suspicion on Xantar, including preliminary conclusions by the BCA lab indicated that a head hair and a pubic hair

found with Sharon's body were microscopically similar to known samples taken from Xanter, but that means nothing especially the Similar is so hard to fucking tell. Yeah, so but that's whatever they said that There was that also Xanter had been painting his master bathroom when the police executed the first warrant Luminol testing had in the past been successful in revealing trace blood on painted walls. So they said, maybe we can still use it,

even though it's painted. I'm Dan Tbersky. In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York. I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad. I'm like, stop around. She's like, I can't.

A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast. It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these girls. With a diagnosis the state tried to keep on the down-low. Everybody thought I was holding something back. Well you were holding something back. And tension, I. Yeah, yeah, well, yeah. No, it's hysteria. It's all in your head. It's not physical. Oh my gosh, you're exaggerating. Is this the largest mass hysteria

since the witches of Salem, or is it something else entirely? Something's wrong here. Something's not right. Leroy was the new dateline and everyone was trying to solve the murder. A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical.

Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus. Was there a crime committed? As far as I'm concerned, there wasn't. Guilty by Design dives into the wild story of Alexander and Frank, interior designers who in the 80s landed the jackpot of all clients. We went to bed one night and the next morning we woke up as one of the most wanted people in the United States. What are they guilty of? You can listen to Guilty by Design exclusively and add

free on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. The photographs seized during the first search had been confirmed to be stolen. His car battery showed no signs of having recently been connected to cables back then either. He had the dust on the connectors. You can see if someone recently put cables, you can see it. It wasn't there. It was still the dust. So there's that and other inconsistencies in his alibi. So the exit this time the lab personnel actually come into the house to they execute the warrant.

They use luminol testing procedure to attempt to find trace blood on the painted walls. They don't find anything. They also conduct a second exhaustive search of the home. Luminescent testing revealed no blood on the master bathroom walls. A blue sock similar to a sock found between the legs of the victim was seized. They found the fucking left to the right there. Carpet fibers from the sock found on the victim are comparable to carpeting in his home. Oh. Yes. In the previous place they lived.

They moved into a new place now. The police did not arrest him though. We got similar carpet hair, we've got the other sock. So the press. We want the jizz. We want the jizz. The press are asking, will you prosecute this man? Okay. Can't you?

Are you gonna prosecute anyone? And they said, this is what they say. They say, the police tell the press that they questioned a suspect and tested his DNA They spoke of calling a grand jury in building a murder case the prosecutors said But then it didn't happen the DNA tests were inconclusive and because it's they're not great back then to is what they're about 1991 here. No one was arrested. No murder weapon was found her skirt purse and shoes are still missing Yeah, so they they're like they don't really have a case is what they're

saying Woodbury police chief Greg Orth said who was one of the first to look into this believes he knows who killed her he said oh I think I know who did it but I can't prove it he said he suspects a man who was among those police questioned whose story about where he was when Bloom disappeared wasn't quite right. He is someone that Bloom knew. He said, but if I was a juror, I couldn't convict him. He said, I don't have the evidence. He wouldn't say if the suspect worked with Sharon, but he said that Sharon made an appointment to see the man the day she disappeared. Who would she make an appointment to see? That's interesting. The witnesses last saw her in the lobby of her building just before lunch. She was wearing her coat

and appeared to be waiting for someone and her Honda Accord was in the parking lot the next day. Now the chief said, my suspicion is that the person didn't plan to kill her, something just got out of hand. He said the man he suspects still lives in the area He wouldn't say if the police are watching him all the time this guy He did say that he's frustrated with the investigation the chief did he said it may be even more Frustrating when you think about when you think you know who did it, but you need those couple extra pieces to prove it Now the another cop they talked to, we have an obligation to prove our case beyond a reasonable doubt. This is the prosecutor. And juries don't always agree with

police and prosecutors about what that is. This guy, the chief again, said that Sharon was fastidious and blunt and quote, was not the star of the office, but he didn't believe that her killer was the one who harassed her. That's what he says He says I don't think it's the same person. I think we're making a connection He said it's a pretty big drunk jump from stealing keys to murdering someone True Hmm, but you certainly put you in the argument. There's just nothing else now Dave at this point the boyfriend He's like he says he hopes that the chief suspicions are wrong he said it's easier for me to accept a complete stranger I don't want to think that she knew

someone that beat her to death yeah that's fair yeah he said they were remodeling their small home in south Minneapolis when she disappeared and he said that the plasterboard walls remain unfinished and he's yet to put the doors on the bedroom closets. I'm waiting. Wait, she gets home. Dude, finish the shit. I was fixing it up because that's the way we wanted it. I was doing it for a purpose. Now that purpose isn't here. Yeah. So he said he's trying to start over. He started dating again. Um, he refers to her murder as a room. I try not to go into anymore Tries to block it out He said I don't wish this hurt on anybody not on anybody the person who did this doesn't deserve to be out there with the

Human race so you would think despite all of this stuff going on there'd be something No progress whatsoever not a drop of it nothing Her parents are pissed by the way her parents and they fucking kind of deserve to be here. They're pissed off. Her father Leonard said I was never a very religious person, a very pious person, but now he goes to synagogue every morning to pray for her. And he says, the only reason I go so often is because of Sharon. So he's changed here. February 1992, Agent De Prima has not stopped work in this case. He interviews several of Barbara's, Barbara Zanter, Stefan's wife's co-workers, school teachers, and some of them recalled that on November 3rd, 1989, day after this all happened, Barbara was distracted at work because on the previous

day she had found freshly spilled blood on the carpet and walls of her new home. Say again? Pardon? What? Barbara asked her coworkers for suggestions on how to remove blood stains from carpet. Google doesn't exist. You have to ask coworkers about it. That's a nice invention of dog pile and all these other search engines.

So they said Jeeves came from that and all that bullshit from back then. The fucking stupid paperclip. I don't know what he was doing. Just showing you how to fill up the sheets. There you go. Fuck him. Xanter. They said, well, how did you get so much blood on the carpet and walls? Xanter accidentally cut himself, he said. Just spilled it everywhere.

I lost like three pints, but I'm, you know, half bled out, but I'm okay. Enough on an accidental cut that you need that. You need advice on how to fix it. It's not only soaked into the deep end into the shag, but it's also sprayed on the walls. It's in the drywall. It's also spattered. So now the police want a third search warrant.

The affidavit in this warrant says, the only new information contained in the affidavit is that Barbara Zanter discussed the existence of blood at their house and also that the day Bloom disappeared, a coworker at Zanters, oh, no, that was then. Now, recently, a coworker at Zanters' new job, because he left 3M under the suspicion, he works at the University of Minnesota now. Oh my God. Yeah, had reported her wallet stolen, someone he worked with. Uh-oh. So they're like, you put that in in there too because they try to connect it. Now they go back March of 1992. It's another search here. This time they are authorized to seize evidence related to the cause, matter or motive in the death of Sharon Phyllis Bloom, including hairs, blood, clothing, fibers and fingerprints, any weapons or instruments which could cause blunt force trauma and documents, records, notes, photos, correspondence, and fingerprints, any weapons or instruments which could cause blunt force trauma, and documents, records, notes, photos, correspondence,

which could be used to establish a motive for homicide, including bank records, checks, and credit card account statements to include samples of carpet, carpet pad, woodwork, wall board, and flooring materials. Now, warrant is executed at night and the Xanters have to leave their home overnight while the police toss their house. Yeah. So during the search, they found evidence of blood on the underside of the carpet in the Xanter home.

Uh-oh. But they couldn't figure out the origins of the blood stains. We'll find it. We'll figure, we'll talk about that in a second. I mean, it has to be a crazy amount. If it gets all the way to the pad, that's a lot of blood. Yeah, you didn't sop it up real quick either. You didn't stub your toe, you know what I mean? Yeah, this is a six-hour search. Then they go down in the basement in the bottom drawer of a dresser in the side corner back in the basement somewhere, they find a set of keys.

One of the keys is for a Honda. None of them own a Honda. Sharon owned a Honda. The police subsequently determined it's her Honda key. It's hers. Now the search was- Jeff, this fella doesn't own a fucking Honda? That's crazy.

No, he doesn't. No, he's not. He's driving American only? That's crazy. No he doesn't. No he's not. He's driving American only. It's weird. The search resulted in the discovery of bloodstained carpet backing on the stairs and landing going down to the basement. The Honda keys were found clipped to safety pins in a dresser drawer in the basement. Also keys to Sharon's St. Paul condominium were found in the drawers in the master bedroom and bathroom. What's he doing?

Spreading the keys out. The investigator who seized the keys was aware of Sharon's habit of pinning her keys to her purse. The keys were for her car and her previous residence. Because at the crime scene, the police had found the keys Bloom had with her on the day she disappeared, they concluded that the keys found in Xanthar's basement were probably the keys Possibly taken as part of the ongoing harassment of Bloom, but not proof of murder true true then Yeah, they talk about the it's fucking amazing By the way he cut his hands so bad that he was bleeding out in the house because he had car trouble earlier Yeah, sliced his whole shit open on an engine

and then got all the way, there's no blood in his car, like, you know, around the steering wheel or any of that shit, just in his house. He exploded when he got there. Or in the engine compartment, yeah. It took a minute. That is fucking wild here. Now, testing available at the time

determined that the dried blood from the carpet came from either a human, an ape or a monkey. A higher primate, quote unquote. Yeah. I'm going to go with human. That's as far as they can narrow it down. I doubt there was an ape in the house. We'll put it that way. Have you as far as they can narrow it? That's it. They called a few zoos, no apes or monkeys were missing. So they assumed it was human. I assume. Probably a person. They got all their chimps. One of the odds, yeah.

So October 1992 he is arrested, finally, Santa here. He is indicted for first and second degree murder. A chimp, a gorilla, or a human. Or a human, one of the three. After the hearing the district court suppresses a receipt that they found of his, the photos of the other woman at work, and the keys to the Honda and the condominium. That's all suppressed, which is brutal because you have to show he had that shit in his house to connect them.

That's the reason you arrested him. Yeah. So the state appeals this. And yeah, they say that the district court's admission of evidence of workplace harassment of Bloom, Bloom's statements regarding her fear and disbelief or belief of physical threat and Xanter's retrieval of a computer manual at work. All that's suppressed and they want it back in. Oh my God, it's everything.

It's everything. So the investigator who sees the photographs testifying here, they said, you had a reason to believe they were stolen? And he said, I knew that one of the primary issues in our case was, a case was theft of property. And I saw a picture of Donna, Donna Summerfelt, a woman who worked in 3M. So my alarm bells went off and said these could be stolen. They said, follow that out a little. Why could they be stolen? Realizing, of course,

Donna Summerfelt didn't think her pictures were stolen at that point in time And the cop said that's right, and I had only interviewed Donna summer felt on one occasion However, they said shit the photos they kept describing a large breasted woman in a bathing suit He likes to tell you he fucking out of a hundred people he goes. I remember Donna. Let me tell you something I know why listen Let me tell you something. I had no way. Listen. Oh, Donna.

Big tits. Oh, Donna. I was singing shit to her, man. The guy turned into Richie Valens over here. I interviewed her breasts. I mean, I interviewed her for several hours. I talked to her. I couldn't pick her out of a lineup face-wise.

If you showed me just mug shots, I'm not sure. But her tits, mwah. Show me Ariella's. I'll tell you who she is. Yeah. He said, however, these did not appear to be the appropriate type of photographs that you would find in a businessman's briefcase. We had a sexual crime and one of these photographs in particular was of a very large-breasted

woman and I was thinking, well, this is it. He's a tit man, obviously, this guy. Me too, bud. Me too. Who isn't? That too, yeah, who isn't? That's so funny. Who isn't? So the receipt here from Knox Lumber, the investigator who seized the Knox receipt,

testified on direct examination during these proceedings that correspondence from World Book Encyclopedia was seized as a means of establishing residency, and we also took a receipt from Knox. That's the lumber place. The investigator did not testify why he seized the receipt and was unable to recall the location of the receipt in the master bedroom. The state argued that the receipt shows what his post-crime movements were. The state

showed that the receipt shows an opportunity to dispose of Bloom's body early on November 4th. Xanter told investigators that he went to 3M briefly at 4 o'clock or 5 o'clock a.m. on November 4th, then returned home. And the Knox receipt apparently indicates the purchase time to be 8.49 a.m. on November 4th. He's supposed to be at work. Yeah, but he said he left because he said he went in five or six and then went home.

A further investigation of the receipt indicated that it was for paint brushes spackle and a drip cloth that had been purchased by check So she was painting when they searched the place on the 12th. He was painting So the Court of Appeals also had held the state had not met a Pre-trial burden of showing that the suppression of the photographs would have a critical impact on the state's ability to prosecute. So with the keys, the Court of Appeals agreed with the trial court that no new probable cause existed for the parts of the third warrant that authorized the police to search the dresser in which they found the keys. Okay, so they affirm the suppression of the keys.

So 1995, the murder charges against him are dismissed after the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that some of the evidence taken, including the Keys, had been illegally seized. DNA tests to match Bloom's blood with the blood found in his carpet and hairs on the body were inconclusive. So they don't have any evidence basically. It's dismissed. Which is fucking crazy They said one of the reasons why we Dismissed the indictment in August 95 was to give the investigators an opportunity to see if further information could be developed

That's what the prosecutor said. Yeah. Now the reaction here her brother Sharon's brother said you hope that justice will be served and it's a shame that it's taken so long Sharon's brother said, you hope that justice will be served and it's a shame that it's taken so long. You still have to wait. It still has to be served. All you can do is hope for it. So that's it. Now November 2000, there's new DNA technology. This is 11 years later, literally 11 years. Technology available at the time couldn't tie the blood found in his place to a hair found at the body at the crime scene. Advanced DNA testing methods have since indicated that the hair more than likely belongs to Xanter. According to the complaint here, they say that DNA from blood found in the carpet of the home matched Sharon Bloom's DNA. Now they can match it. Now they

have the technology. A different DNA testing technique they can match it. Now they have the technology. A different DNA testing technique found a match between Xanter's DNA and DNA segments on the head hair found on Bloom's body as well. So they matched his hair, his hair that's on her body and her blood is in his house.

That's not good. That is all bad stuff. Police would later learn that the fibers matched the carpet of his house as well well where him and his wife lived and there's also another fiber from his previous residence because they had just moved into the new one. Yeah, are the socks the same? They gotta be the same. They had never figured out the socks or they never found a purse, the skirt, nothing. The paperwork says at the time DNA testing of hairs and fibers could not be done.

Methods of sequencing the DNA have been developed in these years since Sharon Bloom's death was investigated. December 1st, 2000, he finally turns himself in. He's wanted. Turns himself in. He's held on $50,000 bail. But they're waiting to go to trial. He says he turns himself in. They think he's gonna plead guilty and then in

2002 he claims to have lost all memory all of a sudden Everything not just this whole past it's all gone now Yeah, all gone and yep, he was evaluated to see if he was Stan trial and he was found competent to stand trial, and also more than likely completely full of shit is what he's found. Yeah, probably remembers everything. Yeah, he remembers everything here.

So they said on the day he was scheduled to appear in court, he was hospitalized for overdosing on sleeping pills, which his attorney said was an accident. Right. Right. Then he wants out. So bad. He does. Finally, I think he's cracking mentally, obviously. Which his attorney said was an accident. Right. Right. Then he wants out. So bad.

Yup. He does. Finally, I think he's cracking mentally, obviously. He breaks down and fucking admits it. He actually admits it. I remember it all. I'm a liar. He says that he beat her to death with a hammer in his home.

He drug her to his house. Why did he do that? During a confrontation in which she accused him of him of harassing her? She had confronted him that day and said you're the fucking asshole who's harassing me Yeah, so he I guess he said let's talk about it or whatever and got her in the car once he got her in the car That's it to the house So Xanter said that he did it in his bedroom Yeah, that's why her bathroom there, where all the fucking blood is,

spattered all over the wall. And he had said that he pulled her body down to the basement, which explains the stairs, there's blood there. Then he put her in the trunk of his car, kept her there for a little bit, drove out and dumped the body in the cornfield off some country road that he found, didn't know where it was,

located somewhere between Northfield and Faribault. He didn't go into detail there. He wouldn't talk about that. Yeah. But he did that at his house, I assume. Of course, yeah. Yep. The prosecutor said he realized

we had a strong case against him and it was to his advantage to plea. It was not out of the goodness of his heart. No. Nope, so there's that. They said people from her family and her work were here to hear the plea after 14 years I think that speaks volumes to the type of person that she was. Yeah I don't even remember people I worked with 14 years ago if any of them died. I I'm not going to their funeral and I'm certainly not going to the plea hearing of the guy who killed her

I won't even remember like did I work with that person? I don't know. So, he's going to plead guilty to second-degree murder. Really? Yup. Sentencing numerous victim impact statements. They have to, they show a video of Sharon that was made shortly before her death and a 1992 video of her parents, because they're both dead by now, by the way. Oh, for heaven's sake.

They never got to see this. The parents talking about the daughter's murder and how it's affected them back then. During the hearing, they talked about Bloom remembered for her work in St. Paul's Jewish community as a loving family member and a role model for girls interested in technical fields because she was the senior systems analyst. She was hot shit. Her brother gave his impact statement and said, my parents never got the benefit of seeing this day.

The taking of my sister's life has devastated my parents. Every time we watch the news or read about someone missing, we're reminded of the days when she was missing and not knowing where she was. Her boyfriend gives an impact statement, Dave there. He said, there's a hole in my soul and a hole in the soul of every person she touched. They say time heals all wounds, they are wrong. They had a retired executive talked about that, talked about her, and then said to our

guy here, said to dipshit, as you spend the next few years in prison, I hope sometimes you reflect on what would have happened if you would have had the courage and moral strength to confess what you had done so many years ago. Barbara goes up and talks for him, and there's letters from 21 of Zanter's friends and family members portraying him as a good father who coached his daughter's soccer team and worked

several jobs. This guy is like Dexter's dream kill right here. He's coaching soccer teams, he's killing women. Several jobs at times to provide for his family. She says, the only thing I have to say is that this awful tragedy will forever affect both of us, Sharon's family and ours. Anything you got to say for yourself, dummy? He said just that I'm very, very sorry. For what part?

All of it, I suppose. You, sir, may fuck off 25 years in prison because he pled to second degree. Not even to life, just 25 years. It's second degree, it's not first degree. Can't do life on second degree. Oh my God, he's out right now. He pleaded guilty to second degree. They said that he is eligible for a parole in 17 years Oh my god. Oh, yeah They said that obviously the reaction was they were happy to get him there. I can't get him in there March 16th

2020 he is released from prison on parole 16th 2020 he is released from prison on parole he is on parole looks like until 2028 June 23rd 2028 but that guy is walking the fuck around right now if he happens to steal any of your toilet picks or anything like that his case workers name is L solder home and the phone number is 507-334-0700. So just in case. And poor Sharon is buried at Waldheim Cemetery in Forest Park. It's in Chicago. So there you go. They made a TV show about this, Motives and Murders, Cracking the Case, which is a show

I never heard of before, in 2012. It's called Dying to Fit In. So I can't believe the son of a bitch just gets to be out there He's fucking wandering around, Minnesota. Just enjoying people's nice Nice demeanors right now. I'll tell you somebody who's not welcome at the state theaters Fuck you nose answers allowed none. What the shit? I'm fucking perplexed as shit by that. Yeah, he's out If I'm her family, I'm just like, we waited 10 years, and then we got barely anything.

Now he's out? Fuck this guy. So anyway, if you like the story, not what went down in the story, but how we told the story, give us five stars on whatever app you're listening on. It really, really helps out. Definitely head over to shutupandgivemurder.com.

Get your tickets for Minnesota, Minneapolis, State Theater, September 20th, get them right now, patreon.com slash crime and sports is all your bonus material, $5 a month or above, a mere cup of coffee gets you hundreds of back bonus episodes, new ones every other week. This week, crime and sports, most inept football, or most inept teams and people of all time in sports, you'll get access to that and for Small Town Murder, Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, their weird fucking belief system. We'll talk about all that. Get into everything there, patreon.com slash crime and sports.

Follow us on social media, at Small Town Murder on Instagram and you'll find us on all the other shit you got us there. You wanna talk to us, find us at shutupandgivemurder.com. Links right there. That said, until next week everybody, it's been our pleasure. If you like Small Town Murder, you can listen early and ad free now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen early and ad free on Amazon Music.

Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.