Sword and Scale - Episode 137

Episode Date: May 12, 2019

On October 10th, 2008, 38-year-old Johnny Altinger made his way to South Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He had set up a date with a mysterious woman on the website Plenty of Fish. He emailed friends and family about his big date, even forwarding the directions of where he was heading to. A few days later, his friends and family realize they haven’t heard from the man who’s usually always in contact. A string of bizarre emails they receive make them contact the police about his well being. The directions lead to a garage full of horrors, almost as if it was made for a movie… See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences Listener discretion is advised It's interesting we pull up to all these people today beside red lights and they have no idea what you've just done You're the guy that wanted to be a serial killer but got caught on his first kill. Welcome to season 6, episode 137 of Sword and Scale. Since it's inception, the television has become a staple of entertainment in most every home. TV has gone from little boxes projecting black and white pictures on the screen to giant flat screens capable of producing 4K resolution, showing us vivid detail with each individual pixel of light.

We use TVs as a way to connect with our family members and friends through shows and movies. We stand around the water cooler at work and talk about the latest episode of Game of Thrones. But when you sit and watch these television series or movies, what do you feel? Are you able to relate to the protagonist? What about the antagonist? What if there is an anti-hero? Can you feel what they go through in the story? Most of us are able to do that because the majority of the human race is born with an innate sense of emotion and empathy. And of course, we all dream of being a superhero, saving others from the bad things in the world.

But where's the line drawn between fiction and reality? How far are some willing to go in order to become just like their favorite character on television. Life tends to imitate art. Edmonton, an Alberta Canada is known as the Gateway to the North. The capital city is full of culture, governmental and educational opportunity. Edmonton is also host to year round festivals which has been reflected in its nickname, Canada's Festival City. The land is vast and has become a booming metropolis.

Edmonton is also the home of Alberta's oil industry. In 2008, 29-year-old Mark Twichel was an aspiring filmmaker who was juggling a new family and a dream of becoming a big-time Hollywood director. He had just come back to Canada after spending time in the Midwest with his first wife, Megan. Their marriage had started off in an odd way. After three days of being married, they laid in bed together. And this is when he asked her a strange question.

Have you ever thought about killing someone? Megan didn't know what to think. Besides, she was in a foreign country in a stranger's bed. Over the years, the marriage became tumultuous once Megan started to notice a pattern of lying. And it was on a weekend trip that Mark left his wife to attend a cosplay convention. It was there that he cheated on Megan. When he came home, he told her what he had done with no remorse. Needless to say, they soon divorced. Now, if you're old enough to remember what things were like back then in the mid-2000s or OTS as some people call them, dating websites were a bit weird and not particularly popular.

Social media was booming and people were connecting on my space and Facebook more than they were on dating sites. It would still be a few years before the influx and popularity of dating sites such as Ashley Madison for those who want to have an affair, farmers only, for the country folk, Christian mingle so people could thought more than their bibles. And believe it or not, their Bibles and believe it or not, Fursu for those furries wanting to get their freak on. In any case, plenty of fish was Mark's dating side of choice and that's where he met Jess, his second wife. It was around this time that he decided to return to chasing his dream of filmmaking.

Mark believed there were a few ways to make it in the movie industry, knowing someone or going to do it your self way, creating content and hoping the right investors would come along. And for a while, his ideas were appealing enough for people to actually invest, including his new brother-in-law. But the truth is, he was somewhat failing in his aspiring career. He had a hard time finding original content

that was his own. It was always a fan-made film or content that had derived from other original content that was put out by those already established in the industry. Filmmaking wasn't his only hobby, he was a bit of a nerd, he enjoyed cosplay, chatting online in Star Wars groups, and spending time with his wife Jess and his eight-month-old daughter. Although it was his second attempt at marriage, he seemed to have it all. Unfortunately, some of the reasons that had led to his first divorce carried over

into his second marriage. He compulsively lied. Not always about big things, but small things, such as paying bills on time, lying about going to work when he didn't really have a job. Instead, devoting his time to daydreaming over filmmaking. Mark felt like he struck gold when he had an opportunity to direct Star Wars, Secrets of the Rebellion, which was a fan-made film. Mark was able to obtain a cameo by Jeremy Bullock, who had played the character Boba Fett in the original films. An actor by the name of Jimmy Siacos had been cast as Han Solo in Mark's fan film. But quickly upon joining the project, Jimmy realized that Mark wasn't as prepared as he had

originally presented himself. 2005 Mark Twitchell comes up to me at a convention in Indianapolis, and he looks me in the eyes and says, you want to play Han Solo on a Star Wars fan film. and he looks me in the eyes and says, you want to play Han Solo in a Star Wars fan film. As soon as he said that, I fell off my chair. As a child growing up, Han Solo was always my hero, and as soon as I got off that airplane, and went to the studio, and saw that. Every single thing up there, every set, every prop,

was half built, it wasn't even completed, and things started to unravel at that point. When I was up there for two weeks, I spent just as much time as I did acting, building props, cleaning break rooms, going through footage, trying to pick people up at airports, trying to, I mean, we all had a pitch in because he was so unprepared. Mark didn't want to limit himself to a specific genre. So he uploaded a comedy short he was working on called day players to his YouTube channel under the account name Express Director in 2007. The short

video shows two actors trying to get their lines perfected before Mark cuts in as an irritated director in a scripted attempt to create a humorous atmosphere. What's Amy up to lately? I don't know. I was gonna ask you the same question. I remember the last time I saw Amy, it was definitely not last night. You did see her last night? No.

Not at your apartment? Well, I mean, you know what? Yes. Oh. Yeah, you know what? And I was, I was, well, okay. Amy is my girl. You broke up with her jackass. Yeah, and I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, Star Wars film and day players were on the back burner until he was able to obtain more funding to finish them. He wanted to start creating a new project, a bigger and more ambitious project.

Unfortunately, for Mark, his lies and narcissistic tendencies would not stop. He began shacking up with a former college girlfriend. Mark told Jessif this, again, with no remorse for what he had done. And of course, Jess kicked him out of the house, leaving Mark to move into his father's basement. As 2008 was coming to an end,

the Showtime television series Dexter was entering its third season. Mark absolutely loved the show. Loved might be an understatement. He was obsessed with Dexter. His obsession began to make him question many things in his life. In a diary, Mark wrote, When a man approaches 30 years of age, he tends to question what his ultimate purpose is in this world and where he fits into the picture. Mark started a Dexter Morgan Facebook page, posting to it regularly as if he were the

fictional killer himself. During this time, he had the idea to create what he described as a suspense thriller film called House of Cards with the script loosely following a fictional character similar to that of Dexter. Mark rented a garage in the Millwoods neighborhood of South Edmonton. He turned the garage into the kill room that he wanted to film for his story. In order to tell the story the way he wanted, Mark wanted to get into the headspace of the killer. He started writing in a diary, turned script,

that he titled SK Confessions. This story is based on true events. The names and events were altered slightly to protect the guilty. This is the story of my progression into becoming a serial killer. Like anyone just starting out in a new skill, I had a bit of trial and error in the beginning of my misadventures. Allow me to start from the beginning. And I think you'll see what I mean.

While Mark was busy researching information for his upcoming project, he was juggling the responsibilities as a husband and father. With that said, this attempt at method acting left him feeling less stressed. I don't remember the exact place and time it was that I decided to become a serial killer, but I remember this sensation that hit me. It was a rush, a puri-phoria. I felt lighter, less stressed, if you will. There was something about urgently exploring my dark side

that greatly appealed to me. The very challenge itself was enticing to behold. Mark may have been trying to get into the headspace of a killer, but he had sent out an email to his production team, letting them know that he needed to find the right person to cast into the film. Somehow someone who was cold calculated, but when pressed, would, quote, show the wimp deep inside. On Friday, October 10, 2008, 38-year-old Johnny Altinger left work as an oil field equipment

manager for a company called Argus. He sent emails out to some friends stating that he had a date with a woman named Jen. According to Johnny's brother, he spent a good amount of time on dating sites, and he really wanted to meet the love of his life. Johnny received instructions to a garage in South Edmonton, which he had forwarded on to his friend Willie. Contained in the email, where a series of messages would show that Jen was concerned about meeting a man offline.

Although this sounds exciting, I have to make sure you're not some kind of weirdo, and about meeting a man offline. How long can I keep you for if I choose? Maybe you should pack for a few days, LOL. Johnny pulled his red maus to three down the alleyway towards the garage as instructed. When he arrived, there was no one around. He waited around for a bit before deciding to depart. Eventually Johnny emailed his friend Dale stating, She's home now. I'm heading over there. He he.

Friends reached out to Johnny to inquire about how his date with this mysterious Gen Woman had gone. But no one received a response. Three days later, on October 13, Dale received an email from his longtime friend. Hey there. I've met an extraordinary woman who has offered to take me on a long, nice, tropical vacation. from his longtime friend. Dale wasn't the only one to receive this email.

Johnny's friend Debra received the same email multiple times. Each one contained a different subject line. All of Johnny's friends got in touch with one another to discuss the stories they had heard. They all agreed. There were many concerning factors, including him quitting his job without notifying his employer of where to send his last check.

Johnny's friends decided to break into his condo and what they found left them stunned. His home was a mess as if it had been ransacked. To make matters worse, Johnny's passport was sitting on the kitchen counter. How could Johnny have left to Costa Rica without taking his passport? His friends promptly notified the police, news spread quickly of the missing man. And for the detectives investigating, this story was similar to a call they had received a week earlier. A couple on an evening stroll had heard a man yelling for help in an alleyway. He looked at us and said, this guy is trying to rob me.

Can you help me? And I was already stunned. Like I was like, I think I'd just kind of like panic and just stopped and just didn't know what to do. The couple called police who had investigated but found no one nearby. It wasn't until Johnny went missing that they took the previous incident seriously.

Unfortunately, they didn't know who the man being attacked was. He was either dead or missing, same as Johnny. After police investigated Johnny Altinger's condo, He was either dead or missing, same as Johnny. After police investigated Johnny Altinger's condo, the detectives handling the case went to the garage. The detectives were unable to get in, but they were able to contact the owner, who told them it was being rented out by a filmmaker by the name of Mark Twitchell. The owner passed along the contact info from Mark.

On October 19, detectives asked Mark if they could meet in a public location to get a key to the garage, to which he agreed. Upon their initial meeting, Mark recalled that just over a week prior, a man had knocked on the window of the garage, offering a car for whatever he had in his pocket, which on that day was about 40 bucks. Mark claimed the man had told him that he had just met a sugar mama who was going to take care of all of his wants and needs.

Therefore, he no longer needed the car. And he asked me, you know, hey, buddy, do you want to buy a car? And I said, well, I'm in a car. Like, what do you mean? And he goes, well, I've shacked up with this really rich lady, you know, it's like a sugar mom in a situation.

And she's going to take care of me. And she's going to buy me a new car when we get back from a vacation that we're going to take. He consented to a search of his vehicle. In the trunk, they found two license plates, a blood-like substance Mark described as corn syrup and food coloring for his movie production and a Toshiba brand laptop. It was time to bring Mark in for further questioning. Mark claimed the detectives that they only had used the garage for one day of filming.

Well, most of my stuff is all pre-production. I knew that I was going to use it as a location for filming, so I started. I mean, basically I'd be looking for something that's suitable in late August. Yeah, so I found that garage, found that it was a non-illocation, it worked great for what our purposes were. And directed it, the only time that we actually spent shooting in that place was the last weekend of September, the last week of September. We had an evening shoot on the Friday,

and that was for a couple of hours actually at someone else's house downtown shut in their condo. And then all they satirates when we used the garage to film. After filming, Mark stated that when he had gone to clean up the garage and gather their gear, some things were out of place. Not only was that an oddity, but he found that the padlock he had placed on the back door had been switched, with a new lock he was unfamiliar with. the garage. Yeah, and what was that? So when down the side of the garage came back around, look at the door itself, and the first thing that I noticed upon looking a little closer at it,

so it wasn't that great, but I could see what was going on. The padlock didn't look familiar to me. And I was the one that actually put the latch on the door, I haven't had a lot previously but it wasn't the same one. The one that I had was a little bit of silver on the outside, like a black plastic die on the center and this one was just all metal. So you notice the different padlock. Yeah. Quickly though, Mark contradicts himself as detectives ask how often he is gone back to

the garage since filming. I remember the exact date. I went back one time because we had a table saw, a bunch of tools that were there, and my dad's store set stuff and he's the rush. So I told him, you know, I'd come meet me, we'll order it up and get rid of it. So I went over there and met him after work one day and he loved that stuff up and took it home. The next time was when I was taking delivery of a steel drum using a garbage can basically. And then last Friday, what went through to clean everything up, get the basic garbage out of there, and stuff like that. There was still like a box of bottles, and stuff like that.

Things that have been there, previously me renting the place, but it just never got around to get rid of. But just getting some stuff out of there, that was, when you say last Friday, you mean the one just passed? And I mean, we're now in Sunday morning, right? I know, it was a week ago.

A week ago, yeah. So, today being the 19th, it would have been probably 12. Today's 19th, today's Sunday. And it went up. So the Friday before this Friday, so probably both the 10th. Yeah. If Mark had just visited the garage in a little over a week prior to the interview, wouldn't he have noticed the padlock being different? Also, keep in

mind, that was the day Johnny Altinger went missing after he was to meet the mysterious woman Jen. Mark tries to deflect the question, claiming he has issues remembering anything through his day to day routines. He also had to reiterate to the investigator his big plans for the project. One of my problems is already I have issues with this and also issues with remembering tasks to do so I live on lists. I try to formally list as long as I have a list and I can check things off as I'm doing them. Okay.

So I need to stay organized and I'm a procrastinator or stuff like that. So I did, I figured it'd drop off. And I'm gonna say I don't remember if it was this past week or the week before it. But I remember dropping off some cleaning materials just for the next time when we were going to go in there. His mind intention to get this thing and get it into a TV series or a movie. The detective tries to get back to when Mark had last visited the garage to drop off the cleaning supplies. He claimed the date might have been a few days prior to when he originally said.

So back again, so we're talking about back of the garage. And you're saying that the temp was the last time that you were out of the garage. Yeah. Okay. And you could say that absolutely pressure. No, it was either a couple of days before or a couple of days after that I dropped off some cleaning stuff. It was like a Tuesday, Wednesday, something like that. Tuesday or Wednesday. You had to drop, drop some cleaning stuff.

Mark went on to explain how the need for cleaning supplies at the garage was an understatement. With the type of film they were shooting lots of fake blood was involved, and in order to keep renting the unit, he wanted to keep it pristine. The detective reminded Mark why they were sitting there talking. Meanwhile, letting him know the oddities surrounding the events. Meanwhile, letting him know the back wall called me and said that you know this is what's going on, this weird chill, it just doesn't sit right. So the first thing that started asking myself is who all knows about what we do there and what our schedule is like and stuff like that. And if we have a shooting schedule, you think there's a bunch of people in there out of there to prep, leading up to it, and then we shoot something there, and then that's it. Until we announce something else, we just don't fix that to me.

So... Early on into the interrogation, the detective had asked Mark who else had a key for the garage. He claimed only himself, and a producer named Mike had a key for the garage. He claimed only himself and a producer named Mike had a key. But when asked again, he said that another person just so happened to have a copy. Jason how it's in? Quickly. The detective changes gears. Now you've been told that we're looking for a missing now. Okay.

Have you been told the same? No. Okay. The name is John. Okay. All-tinger. ALT, IMG, ER. Okay. Old King or, ALT, I-M-G-E-R, okay.

Does that name, or ring of melody, or mean anything to you? No. Never heard it before. No. Can the indication that we have, that we have, and we've got this through our investigations, and the address comes up and the gerologist described and he actually said that he was there on that particular day. The particularly we're talking about is I think the 15th.

Now and I may be mistaken, I may be mixing a couple things up but I think 15th up here. Now, and I may be mistaken, I may be mixing a couple things up, but I think 15th, and that's the thing you're indicating that you were probably down there putting splice there. Okay, yeah. Okay. Like on Wednesday or something. Yeah. Yeah. And it was in and around the same sort of time frame that you were there. You know that he would have been there. Okay. Like in the out of you. Really? Hell. And he was supposed to go there and meet a girl who described the out of the rest of it. Told her I didn't. The lesson from these math through. Yeah. They learned to cite. Okay. Mark appeared taken aback on the information he heard.

All of a sudden, he disappears. Last known place was there. Said he went there. Medi-guy, the girl wasn't there. Medi-guy, the garage. In the garage? Apparently. Okay.

That would be good to know what you're doing. What was the big way to you? Tell me what you're thinking. Well, it explains the foreign padlock. If he switched it out or something like that, that makes sense. Who switched? Who the guy is? Well, he didn't switch it. He went there and met someone in there. Yeah. Because I don't know if anybody else that has access unless they, you know, accessed it themselves pretty much. So your log was totally gone all the way there.

Yeah. Okay. The log was still there, but a different pan watcher. Some of the anybody could have come along with said bull cutters, cut cutters, or put their own on, right? That still didn't give back to us, the ground, because it's still an in-bow, right? Eventually, Mark was allowed to leave the interrogation room on his own free will. Detectives brought up a lot of unanswered questions. And initially, they believed there was honesty in what market told them. You remain calm and collected, but it wouldn't be long before he was back at the

police station to answer more questions. Finally, I went for it. I typed a message back with a quick apology for the delay and an invitation to come back. I meant business. Crouched. Poise. I had a whole new plan. No mass needed this time. Just pretending to be poking around the back of the satin and wham.

I would slam him unconscious and his survival would be a bonus. But not necessary. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. He shrugged. You have no idea. The room filled with the echo of the pipe crashing into the back of his skull, as I could feel my predator self take over. That one single motion was the end all be all.

I had committed now, and there was no going back. I won't go to jail for an all most. He began screaming at the top of his lungs, police, police, police, and I just about shat my pants. My fury doubled and I blasted him so hard blood spattered everywhere, but primarily on me. I've had enough of this." He said, as he feebly and dizzily tried to grab the pipe away from me.

My anger resurged. I pulled my hunting knife from its sheath and watched the shock in his face as he saw and dizzily tried to grab the pipe away from me. My anger resurged. I pulled my hunting knife from its sheath and watched the shock in his face as he saw the blade. I thrust it into his gut. His reaction was pure Hollywood. The lurch forward with the grunt was dead on TV movie of the week. He moaned and groaned. I plunged the knife deep into his neck.

I let him bleed out right there on the floor, away from the plastic sheeding specifically put up to avoid that sort of thing. On October 20th, the day after his initial interview with police, Mark was back in the station to answer more questions. This time, with Detective Bill Clark, who didn't hold back with putting the pressure on him. Detective Clark had watched the interview from the day prior, and many things stuck out to him. The way Mark was charming. Charming as he may have been, he changed his story so easily and so often without effort.

Something within his gut told him Mark was involved in Johnny's disappearance. Even though there was nothing at the time to prove Mark was tied to the investigation, the detective had the trust his instinct. There's something else I want to tell you, Mark. And that's that there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that you're involved in the disappearance of John Altinger. No doubt in my mind at all. Why? As I said, Mark, there's no doubt in my mind that you're involved in this disappearance. I just want to get to the bottom of this, because this is not going to go away. It's not going to leave you mark.

I don't understand. I mean, does this happen because it's not the movie thing? Something that went too far? I have no idea what the hell is going on. You do have an idea. You have a very good idea, Mark, but what's going on? You know exactly what happened during that night. Detective Clark knew something wasn't right.

No matter how Mark tried to play the circumstances off, he appeared to not quite grasp the severity of this missing person's investigation. I'm going to explain some of the reasons to you, but you do understand it because you know what I'm talking about. You're involved in this and unfortunately something got carried away. Something got carried away with this guy. I just don't understand. But what don't you understand?

We have a fellow who's missing. We know he's been to your garage. We've talked to all the neighbors now. You know, the neighbors saw you changing the lock. About a week we can have a go. Neighbors watch. They see all these things. Little things that you don't realize.

We know the lock was changed, long before the 15. Yeah, when you get there on the 15, you tell me, oh, that's your lock on there on the 15. It's not until you go back with the policeman. Last night, did you notice, or are you saying? So that's a lie. That's a lie you told me. When you gave your version of events to Detective Tabler last night, your version of events was different than what you told me today. What you wrote down was different than what you told me in this room.

What you told me in this room when I first came in was different from your final version of events. You've changed your whole story. All kinds of different lives. Now, I know this isn't the easy thing to live with. Something went wrong there. Like I said, I don't think you're a bad guy. You seem like a decent guy.

You got a wife, you got a small child. You're trying to do the best. I don't think, you know, I don't know, but I don't think you're doing that well financially. I think it's a tough life what you're in. You're trying to do your best with something wrong. Maybe you were just trying to make a better movie. I don't know.

But simply went wrong and you're involved. Unlike his previous interview, Mark sat staring at the ground, appearing as if he was pounding. Detective Clark wasn't playing in the Mark's ego by questioning him about the movie industry, or conversing about what he may find interesting. Mark was called out on the car he bought for the supposed $40. You are definitely not a dumb man. You know very well that you don't buy a car that's worth over $10,000 from someone for $40. You know that. You know that you get a pill of sale.

You deal with the items on eBay. You sell items all the time. Just like going to store and buy anything. That part of your story is just, it's just lie after lie after lie. And it's time to end those lies, Mark. You shake your head, but you know what I'm saying is true." Eventually, Mark began to break down, sniffling.

He pulled a tissue from a box and brought up his failing marriage. The detective reminded Mark about his eight-month-old daughter. Mark continued to sit silently before asking for his options to obtain a lawyer. Detective Clark reminded him of his rights and that he was able to make a phone call for one. Instead of making that choice, he sat there, staring at a document, and began filling it out. Detective Clark tries to press him further, but Mark just ignored the attempts. get them to close your. His friends have called us. If there are other stressors going on in your life at the time, that's

just what you need to tell me now. But I think you're going on, Mark. Wouldn't that really be your element though? I'm just going to think it would be very relevant. What do you think? Or they'd be financial at home, marriage, health? I don't know. A lot of things go on behind closed doors.

What do you think is going to happen to you? I just put it over there though. Again, Mark sets stone-faced, appearing to have shut down. Do you know the difference between them? Again, Mark sets stone-faced, it's like planning it. Second of all, it's basically not planning it. Man's Law is spur of the moment. You know, like a barifier or something. So I'm punched as someone that I get angry. Something like that. Which category would you fall into? to rebuttal the question Mark makes a statement coming across as irrational and seeking some

form of pity. The detective plays back into him, making him think about what this suicidal action would cause for his young daughter. There's no way to show your cold batter, it's a sweet hell. But, is that an reason to take your whole life? Is that an reason to leave your daughter without a father? Regardless of whether you're with me beside her or living in the same house you're still her father. And of course it isn't the best of certain circumstances, but... It can happen to be away forever. Mark wouldn't budge. But it wouldn't be long before detectives discovered the Grizzly Truth. Three days after his second interview with police, Mark sent out an email to people on

his production team, urging them not to talk with detectives. He explained to them. Sometimes what we see on TV is a true representation of how they work. Sometimes they do lie and make up things in order to get people to say things they otherwise would not, so they can have an answer for the media.

I didn't think this was the case until this week when I was proven otherwise. On October 31st, detectives got word from their lab that the blood-like substance found in Mark's trunk wasn't corn syrup. It was, in fact, blood, and it belonged to Johnny Altinger. Even more damning was the information they pulled off of the Toshiba laptop. When forensics tech searched through it, they found a deleted document, SK Confessions. They finally found out the horror that Johnny Altinger had gone through.

I remember thinking as I hoisted this giant up into my table that I should really stick to smaller guys. But I got his dead carcass up on that table and I figured that since I went through all this trouble and made all this mess that I would have to clean it up, I got my game processing kit out which contained a butcher knife for the hefty meat, a filet knife for smaller works, a skinner which might come in handy for scalping the skull into a serrated soft of the bones. I decided the best course would be to go from the feet up. First things first, I poked and prided the joints to find the path at

least resistance. I began cutting the legs off at the knees, all in one piece. I didn't even bother to take his shoes or socks off. The knife went through the flesh like it was nothing. I was surprised at how utterly non-resilient human tissue could be. There was almost no blood, not surprising since the grand majority of it pooled on the floor. Thankfully soaked up primarily by his jacket. I put the severed leg in the trash and moved on to the thigh, which was essentially the same routine, only thicker, more fatty. The smemoring a human body was a relatively unexciting event, but I had my ways of making it more fun. I sang to myself

as I worked, talked to myself, reflected on the new tools I would get to make the next one easier. I took the arms off at the elbow joint and used the scissors to cut off the fingertips for attic infusion, identifying the body. Serving the head was also a simple matter, and going through the vertebrae in the back of the neck didn't take much at all by going through connective tissue. The torso was surprisingly heavy by itself, and I cut that in two across the diaphragm. Human intestines just look like one long roll of uncooked sausage as opposed to the gruesome millage of stringy nastiness they appear to be on film. I was surprised.

Funny sounds and pressure releases took place on my table as the torso sank. Funny sounds and pressure releases took place on my table as the torso sink. I doused the first bag which contained the torso pieces and gasoline after dropping it in the barrel. I let a match and tossed it in. I've heard there's no smell like that of a burning fleshy person, but I lacked that particular member of the sense group, so you won't get any dramatic descriptions from me. Once the flesh was removed, I used the pipe to knock at the teeth, eliminating dental records

as a form of ID. I broke the jaw after that, and used the scissors to cut out the ligaments, ripping the jaw clean from the head. I used a knife to destroy the eyes, and then ram the pipe into the side of the skull to bust it open, fueled only by the curiosity to see the human brain, life, and in person. In 2012, a study was published suggesting that a lack in the sense of smell may be linked to psychopathy, pointing to inefficient processing in the frontal lobe.

If this theory were to hold true, it would explain why Mark wasn't able to dramatically describe in his diary about the burning dismembered remains. Police had the perfect way to catch Mark, and he wouldn't even see it coming. In fact, he thought he had gotten away with it. He had received an email from a potential investor who had seen the Star Wars film and was willing to invest a hefty sum of money into his new production. This was it. His career was finally going to take off. As he left home and began driving down the road heading towards his meeting, a white van pulled up from down the street full of police. Mark was placed under arrest. On November 1st, Mark Twitchell was charged with the first

degree murder of Johnny Altinger. After three long weeks of waiting for any word from Johnny Altinger, police arrested a man Friday. They say is responsible for his disappearance and his death. 29 year old Mark Twitchell, husband, father and independent filmmaker charged with first degree murder. It was definitely planned and it was definitely, um, he had put a lot of thought into it and a lot of work into it. Friendsy on October 10th, the night Johnny went missing.

He went to go meet a girl that he had connected with online. The address allegedly took him to this Millwood's garage. He called friends shortly after he arrived, saying that there was a man at the garage with a replica gun who was making a movie, so he left. But a short time later, the girl contacted him online again, and he returned to the garage. It was the last time anyone heard from him. That same day, police took Mark back to the garage for a walk through. For the entire visit he stayed quiet unwilling to cooperate with detectives. Even though he sat there silent and stone faced, detectives pointed out the obvious observation

points at which neighbors were able to see him changing the padlock. So how did you lock this skate up? Make them go in the overhead door. What did you do to lock that? Is that the lock you bought at the store there? I showed you the wall mart or see? Come the lock you put it on here you put it on the front. See how when you're installing this?

See that? Take a look at those windows right there. See how easy this is for the neighbors to see who's doing it? See that? See that there? Beautiful view coming from the neighbors house. See the side. Too easy. Way too easy Mark. Bring back any memory. We're gonna tell us where the body is now. We'll get this over with. Get you back to the station. After their visit to the garage, the detectives tried an approach that they knew might work with Mark.

They tried hyping up his plans to turn his life into a movie just like he wanted. The tone obviously sarcastic, mocking his errors and showing just how easy it was to catch him. I mean let's look at this realistically Mark, you will be able to sit in jail while you're serving your time and write this whole thing out. And when you get out, because it'll happen, what do you know? 28? 29. 29? You'll still be able to be young enough to write a movie about this.

It's to be your ticket and to be a movie about yourself based on a true life story. Hey Mark, are we beating the dead horse here or are you going to tell us where the body is? Simple question Mark, can't you answer that? I think we've been pretty decent with you, you can at least give us an answer on that. Our investigation is impeccable, our evidence, evidence is flawless. Evidence speaks for, as I said. The only piece of the puzzle that's missing is returning. Johnny Altinger to his family, the decent thing to do, all we're saying is you can end

the story and just satisfy the family. And we're just trying to do our jobs. But with or without the body, I have no doubt in my mind no doubt absolute whatsoever you will be convicted of first to remember minimum 25 years no chance per all. What do you think about Mark? I'm curious what does the man think about who's on his last ride in the city. Facing a type of sentence, you're facing. What do you think about it? You put those slots down for your movie, your book.

Your diary, what were you thinking about this whole ride? What's interesting, we pull up to all these people today beside red light, and they have no idea what you've just done. You're the guy that wanted to be a serial killer but got caught on his first kill. No idea. Kind of ironic. What else is ironic? I forgot to tell you this. It's a good one. Because you can find out anyway. You lured Johnny Altinger to his death on the internet by going to the Plenty of Fish website, setting up the fake IT with the woman from Ireland. Anyway, you make up the profile using a woman from another city, just like you described in your life.

You lure him in to his death. And what's interesting is you got learned it to your capture. We sucked you in on the internet. The guy you were gonna meet at the coffee shop undercover policeman. The guy you were bringing your portfolio to to try and get him by shares in your movie

undercover policeman Boy is that ironic You learned your victim in We learned you you were our prey and we got you So I got a thank you for that Mark Appreciate you You know the best case we've ever worked on. Appreciate you making nothing but mumbling errors to make it actually quite easy to catch you. Very easy to catch you. on November 3rd, police released an image of the hockey mask the couple who were walking

had seen in the attack a month earlier on October 3rd. Their hope was that the man who was attacked in front of them was still alive and able to come forward. That day, a man came out of the shadows to tell detectives' history. In late summer of 2008, Jill Taitrol had gone through a separation, moved to Edmonton and was looking to get back into the dating game. He created a profile on a dating site called Plenty of Fish. Jill did the usual, uploaded photos of himself, listed his interests, and what he was looking for in a relationship. It was tough to meet new people so I decided to go on an online dating website. Started going through profiles and talking to people through there and finally met this one girl.

Jill received a message from a blonde bombshell by the name of Sheena. The two connected quickly, sharing similar interests. Her messages in the conversation came across as highly intelligent that being very attractive to Jill. Soon after, they began conversing. A dinner and movie date was planned. The date was scheduled for October 3rd, 2008, just a week prior to Johnny Altinger going missing. Jill was reluctant at first, but he knew he had to jump in feet first. I almost didn't go and then I just decided to take a chance and go for it. had to jump in feet first. She sent him specific directions on how

to pick her up. If you're coming from north on Grote, get on Calgary trail and when you get to the south side, jump on white mud, take a right on 40th Avenue and after a block or two, take the very first right into the alley. It's marked by a yellow crosswalk, take the very first right into the alley. It's marked by a yellow crosswalk, pulling it the driveway on your left that isn't paved, LOL. Seriously,

whoever heard of a driveway that looks like the Amazon, whatever, that won't swallow your car, I promise. There's some garbage up against the fence, like an old couch and such, but it might be gone, who knows. Like I said, the garage door will be open for you. Don't worry about the neighbors thinking you're a burglar. Everyone knows there's nothing valuable in there, except for my car, of course. The first visible back door coming out of the garage knocks away. See you then, Shina. Zill was running late for their Friday night date. When he finally did arrive, he went inside the garage and began knocking on the door. He turned to face the garage door, where the car was parked just outside.

Suddenly, he felt an excruciating pain on the back of his neck. And all of a sudden, a man came from behind and kind of put me in a fair hug. He started stunning me with stun baton. He's just prodding me and then all of a sudden I look back and I see this man hovering over me in a painted a pocket mask and I just got killed on my back. Dill knew something was very wrong with the situation that his date wasn't real and his only chance to punch him in his chest. And I'm thinking, man, why am I so weak? And my punches are, I feel like I'm not doing anything. And it's like my punches are so weak. Neither man in the struggle was making any ground

to dominate the other. Eventually, the masked man pulled out a gun. As soon as I was able to escape, I felt the effects of the stun baton. And it was like my legs were paralyzed. And I felt down to of the stun baton and I, it was like my legs were paralyzed and I felt down to the gravel driveway. And any grab came after me, grabbed my legs and dragged me back into the garage, but then I was able to escape once again.

And that's when I was able to put everything I had into my legs to somewhat jog over down the back alley and that's where I fell onto a walking path where I saw a couple walking her dog which pretty much saved my life. He wouldn't be wrong. This was Mark Twichel's first attempt at a kill. Jill tried to make a break for the outside of the garage when the opportunity presented itself. See, no, this is weird because I'm facing this way.

He pulls the gun out again. And for some, I think, because I grabbed the gun, somehow we maneuvered. We were struggling again. And I'm trying to break the gun, right? So we're struggling in some way. I ended up this way again, struggling with this gun. And he's here back at the door, OK? So because I just remember the door being there.

And I'm just trying to break this gun because I know it's plastic and I know what's he doing. He's yelling at me because he doesn't want me touching his gun. And so then I wouldn't let go, obviously. And I had a hold of his arm, his other arm, just in case he tried to punch me in the lab, what he never did. And so we're just struggling. I'm just... you can tell it's just weird because if he was a real gun, he would have fired it or whatnot. He never did. He had nothing and he never just wasn't professional.

It was just like, it was maybe his first time. That's why I thought of it. After making his way to his car and tried to put the hellish experience he had just encountered behind him. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to do that for very long. He made it into the driveway, and that's when I knew I was poached. I followed him out, not carrying any more who might see me. He was fumbling on the ground.

I grabbed him by the leg as if to drag him back into the garage caveman style, but my energy was depleting and the human survival instinct is one of the most powerful forces on earth. He tried to grab my mask and came quite close to pulling it off. Sure enough, a couple on an evening stroll saw me coming after him with a deer in the headlights look that could only be described as a total lack of comprehension. I stared back at them through my mask for half a moment and then headed back for the cover of my lair. As a final touch, I sent one last warning email to him through the dating site, telling him I had traced his IP address through his messages and that if he reported me,

I would hunt him down where he lives when he least expects it, finish what I started. My last lie was to tell him that he was lucky number 18 on my spree. The only reason Jill didn't want to go to the police was because he felt embarrassed by what he had encountered that night. It was easier to brush the incident off than to report it. While he felt for a long time that he was possibly being followed by his attacker, the story he shared with police would come in crucial. He wouldn't have to watch his back any longer. Police only had clues from the SK Confessions as to where Johnny's body may be. down there. The body would completely rot away before anyone ever discovered the bones.

On June 3, 2010, a little over a year and a half after he was arrested, Mark asked detectives to meet him at the romance center. He passed them a piece of paper, a map detailing instructions on how to find Johnny Altinger's remains. When they found them, their previous searches had been merely yards away from where they were finally found. On April of 2011, Mark Twittl was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. The charges for the attempted murder of Jill Taitrol were dropped, even though Mark himself had admitted to the attack. Since being in prison, Mark has tried to establish himself as some celebrity, trying to keep his name in the media. He began creating celebrity sketches he could sell from prison. And somehow, he was able to purchase a flat screen TV for his private cell.

And guess what? He just wanted to finish watching the Dexter series. Hopefully, he was just as disappointed as everyone else with the series finale. Mark may not know that the actor who played his hero Dexter was appalled by the crimes he had committed. He believes that one day, when he's released, he'll be able to revive his film career. In 2017, Mark created a dating profile on Canadian inmate intelligent, open-minded, delightful, imperfect woman to relate to and share amusing observations with, as well as potentially a long weekend every few months if it gets there.

His expected release is in 2027. Jill went on to publish a book titled The One Who Got Away. He wanted to raise awareness about the dangers of online dating, but also to help himself heal after the nightmarish experience he had just gone through. and thought about what happened in that garage, and it just, it was tough. But now it's not, it's really easy now. I don't get nightmares anymore, so it's, I hardly think about it, actually. But I think that's why I wrote the book as well. It helped me like a healing mechanism,

and a coping mechanism to move on. We all have dreams of a life larger than our own. It's normal to want to strive for greatness. Within most all of us is the potential to do anything we want. Many dream of the glitz and glamour that is Hollywood. But the truth is, not all that glitters is gold. The fictional heroes we watch and fall in love with are simply that. Fictional.

Creations of the mind in a universe that does not exist. For some, the romance of getting lost in these worlds is irresistible. And for some, the line between fantasy and reality becomes so blurred that it is no longer possible to tell the two apart. Have you ever gotten so lost in a TV or movie character that you are taken aback when the true personality is revealed in an interview of the actor that played that character. And you suddenly realize that character doesn't really exist. It's not a real person. Mark Twichel tried to become that TV character. He became so lost in the world of fantasy that the reality of what he

was doing no longer mattered. So next time you're watching your favorite TV show and you're empathizing with the characters and really putting yourself in their shoes. Remember, once the credits roll, it's time to come back to reality and leave the world of fantasy. Behind. That's going to do it for another episode of Sword and Scale. Thank you for joining us. Until next time, turn off the TV, and stay safe. you you