Sword and Scale - Episode 185

Episode Date: April 18, 2021

We’re back to bring you the conclusion of the mysterious staged death of Natasha Waalen. In order to get the full story, we encourage you to go back and listen to part 1 before diving into this episode.When we left off, Natasha’s former boyfriend, Ryan Boland had been arrested for her murder. But, police had a hunch that Ryan didn’t act alone and all signs pointed towards his hotheaded, weapon-obsessed brother, Tim Boland. The Boland Brothers had grown up with the world at their fingertips, but they were both on dark downward paths. Had they finally gone too far? Soon all of Anoka County would know the true nature of these entitled, manipulative brothers and what they did to Natasha Waalen.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 Talked a lot about using weapons to assault people he fantasized about it, that's what he did. And this is part two. Season eight, episode 185. If you haven't heard 184, go back and listen to that first This is sword and scale a show that reveals of the worst monsters are real Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, When we last left off Natasha's former boyfriend and father of her child 33-year-old Ryan Bowlin had been arrested for murder. Police determined that Natasha had suffered a savage beating, causing fatal blunt-force trauma to her head. Detectives had soon uncovered the truth about Ryan and Natasha's turbulent relationship, in which Ryan was verbally and physically abusive for the last ten years.

On the days leading up to her death, Natasha had finally gathered the courage to tell Ryan to move out of her house. She had also recently found out that she had full legal custody of the couple's four-year-old daughter. Detectives were certain that Ryan had involvement in Natasha's murder, but they weren't sure how just yet, and the physical evidence was minimal. Ryan was lying. Natasha did have enemies. Well, one enemy really. Besides he, Natasha and their daughter, there was a fourth person in the house the night Natasha died. His younger brother, Tim.

Anyone who knew Ryan Bowland told police, they also had to look at his younger brother and close confidant, Tim Bowland. The Ryan and Tim led their own lives. They had a closeness that was unbreakable. The Bowland brothers always had each other's backs, no matter how bad the situation. Over the last few years, Tim, Ian Boland, had developed a bad reputation around town. The 32-year-old was seen as violent and unstable. Tim had once been a happily married young man with a bright future, but now he was estranged from his wife, living out of his Chevy Malibu with his two dogs. He was dealing and using cocaine on a daily basis, and most people in town were scared of him. In a few short years, Tim's life had

rapidly spiraled out of control with no signs of stopping. Pretty much, everyone close to Tim was fed up and abandoned him. Everyone except his older brother Ryan. He was at the end of his role and needed somebody to believe him, to support him, to allow him. I was the last guy on earth, but, give many of those things. Tim hadn't always been a drug addicted screw up. In high school, he was promising baseball star who scored a full-sport scholarship to St. Cloud State University.

There he studied English, broke many state records in baseball, and graduated with dreams of becoming an author. According to friends who grew up with the Bolin brothers, Tim had been more of a recluse compared to Ryan. But he always had sports and threw himself wholeheartedly into basketball and baseball. He was a fearless, phenomenal athlete who was praised and rewarded for his accolades.

But now, Tim was a shell of the person he once was. He had lost a ton of weight. His mental health was fading. He didn't sleep, he didn't eat. He drove around in his car, doing line after line off a dinner plate. He kept under the driver's seat. Ryan and Tim Bowland were very close siblings, being only 18 months apart. They were really more like twins even though they looked completely different. Ryan was tall, muscular, and blonde while Tim was dark-haired, with pronounced cheekbones and a wily build. Their parents, Patrick and Sonia, both worked in education, but Patrick left his job in

the school system to start his own construction company called Bowling Construction. Ryan took an interest in the new family business and picked up the trade with ease. After high school, Ryan attended but never finished college. Instead, he worked at Bowling Construction remodeling houses while Tim played baseball in college and set his sights on writing. Here's Tim's wife explaining to police her feelings about Tim and Ryan. I got the picture that Tim's a writer has a college degree and has a drug addiction problem

with a cream puff. That was the picture I left with. Okay. And did I have a... Well, you know, he's still in some ways like nicer and more sensitive or sure than Ryan. I think that he does have a temper, but I still think in some ways that he's definitely nicer. And Ryan just rude sometimes. Ryan is just a rude.

Both Tim and Ryan were known to cause trouble, but because Tim was such an excellent athlete and Ryan was seen as the good son committed to the family business, they managed to skirt punishment when it came to their parents. In high school, Ryan was pegged as the guy you didn't want at your house party,

because he would act stupid and break something. We all know the type. Now the kind of guy you go back on Facebook and find many, many decades later, only to realize there's still a DJ at 45. I'm talking to you, Dune. One former friend said that Ryan would talk a big game and act tough. But when it came down to it, he would always let his brother do the fighting form. Tim was more unpredictable. He would be cool one minute than suddenly out of nowhere he'd explode and beat the living shit out of whoever was in his way.

Tim may have been the more emotional and fiery brother, but his ex-wife told police that he never laid a hand-honored. While Ryan had a well-documented history of violence towards women, one thing was for sure though, friends confirmed that you wouldn't find one bowling brother without the other. Ryan and Tim's parents had a sense marriage. Family friends see they were the kind of couple who took a walk around the neighborhood each night holding hands. Ryan and Tim were raised in a loving, supportive family, and a beautiful suburban home that backed out onto a golf course. They played sports and race dirt bikes. Their parents bought them cars when they got their driver's licenses.

The family went her in Arizona at their vacation home. The boys wanted for nothing. They were entitled upper middle class kids who had the world at their fingertips. Maybe it was this cushy privilege that enabled them both to go sideways. Mr. and Mrs. Bowling stuck by their sons no matter what, covering for them whenever they screwed up. In 2003, Tim had gotten into a road rage incident with two strangers who cut him off. He followed the men to a radio shack parking lot, then got out of the car and beat them to within an inch of their lives with a hatchet.

Tim fled the scene, leaving the men brutally injured. He was never caught by the police because they had his license plate wronged by two digits. Later that night, the story was all over the local news. The police were looking for the assailant. Allegedly, Mr. Bowlin knew what his sons had done, and hid Tim's jeep in the single stall of the family garage to keep the car off the road until things blew over. Mr. Bowland also probably knew that Tim had thrown the hatchet he used to assault the men into the pond behind his house.

You said he used to weapon them? Yes. Half it? Yes. Do you know what happened to the hatchet? Yes. Tim told me he threw it in the pond. Apparently it was the pond beyond my parents' house. I learned later. I didn't know that initially.

How did you know that's the pond? Just talking with my dad, and I learned that the police has looked in the pond. By 2008, Tim had a laundry list of charges following him around, most of them relating to his recent issues with drugs and violence. Tim seemed to always be angry about someone who was trying to screw him over. He kept his vehicle armed with knives, rubber mallets, baseball bats, and occasionally, guns. He had the strange habit of methodically wrapping the handles of all his weapons with black grip tape. He was extremely paranoid and convinced that

people were out to get him. Tim had a machete outside and he was mad at somebody that stole his $1,000 golf clubs. And supposedly he was there to find them or something. I was scared. I thought, you know, from what I was told, Tim had a machete and he was trying to find somebody so I didn't know what I was walking into. You know, I had no idea why we were going to see him. Like, he didn't tell us.

In June of 2008, Tim had been busted by a Noca County police for sleeping in his car outside a bowling alley. Police searched his vehicle and found drugs, cash, and a 22 caliber rifle. So, he was charged. During this time, Tim had desperately been trying to prove to his wife that he was turning his life around. He would do anything to get rid of these drug charges and save face for her. So Tim struck a deal as an informant for the Anoka Hennepin County drug task force to work off his charges. This is Officer Mary Wellman. He didn't give me a tape statement but he was an informal statement that he wanted to help himself out. And he gave me some names of potential people

that he could purchase narcotics from to help himself out with these charges. He was a bit out. OK. And did he end up working for you? We required, typically, three deals. He ended up doing two buys for us. Tim had officially signed up as a snitch, which only

increased his paranoia. He was gaming everyone around him and the system to preserve his own lifestyle. So who were the first people he decided to rat out? Well, Natasha's father and brother, of course, who he knew had a small cannabis garden. Now in 2020, with weed being fully legal in 15 states and decriminalized in all but six, it's hard these days to imagine a world where selling some pot to a family friend would entitle the police to rage or property.

But that's exactly what happened to the Wailands. How did this all come about that Tim turned in Travis and Jeff Wayland? He wouldn't be original interview. He did not give me that name. You know, we were just talking about different things he could do. He seemed like he was very interested in working his charges off quickly. So I kind of took it as it was, you know, he was kind of making some

phone calls to see you could buy from to get this over with. And he had called me with a name of Travis Wallin. And during that time he also informed me that this was what he considered to be a sister-in-law. Well, the sister-in-and-truth was kind of considered as a brother-in-law. That one was July 28th. That was the first one he did that's the date we signed him up. And he went over there and we gave him just $20. And on our paperwork here, so that he ended up purchasing 1.94 grams to be exact in Marijuana

from Travis. The Wailand Men had no idea that Tim had been responsible for the police raiding their home. But as time went on and rumors of his work as an informant grew around town, they too started to become suspicious. Tim and Natasha had never really gotten along, but this really amplified their bad relationship. She was aware of Tim's work with the drug task force that suspected that it was he who ratted out her family members in order to save himself.

She was right. Natasha and Tim had their moments of being able to act friendly when they were in social situations, but for the most part, they just avoided each other. Tim harbored an unrelenting resentment for Natasha. To him, she was a nuisance. She had ruined his brother's life simply by being in it for too long. Natasha irritated Tim. It was alleged that Tim had been violent to Natasha in the past. Ryan told police that Tim and Natasha had once gotten into an awful fight at a house party which ended with him being ripped away while spitting on her.

One friend told police that he witnessed Tim once throw a burning log at Natasha. Another recalled seeing Tim beat her up with the help of his brother Ryan. She showed me bruises on her more than a few times. Four years ago, five years ago, I was spending the night at their house, and I woke up to banging, and Tim and Ryan were holding pasta down, and I was looking at a door, or I was three quarters of a way up, but with a mirror on it, and I had seen, at a door, or I was just a three quarters of a way up with a mirror on it. And then he seemed to the mirror, I seemed to him, Tasha was a shotgun. What else? Four different occasions, yeah, in AK.

And he had a bat, a bat in his car all the time, you know it. I mean, he's a scary guy. Tasha was scared to death of him. While Ryan sat in the county jail awaiting murder charges, detectives processed the couple's garage with luminal and found a significant amount of blood that had been recently cleaned up. Detectives also noticed that a piece of carpet had been cut from the garage floor. They soon relocated the missing carpet and a piece of black plastic in a dumpster, half a mile from the house.

Both items were covered in Natasha's blood. Besides the fact that friends and family had told detectives to look into Tim Bowland, it was physical evidence linking him to Natasha's murder. Police located a few dog hairs from Tim's Labrador Retriever on Natasha's dirt bike. There was no possible way that those dog hairs could have ended up on her motorcycle, without Tim coming in close contact with her bike the night it was tossed onto the road next to her dead body.

Police had a hunch that Ryan had killed Natasha in a fit of rage, panicked, and then had Tim help him stage her death to make it look like a motorcycle crash. Covering up this horrific crime would have taken the strength of two men. Ryan only trusted one person and that was his brother. Friends confirmed to police over and over that if Ryan was involved in Natasha's death, Tim Bowling was arrested and taken in for questioning. Detectives caught him and his estranged wife walking out of the grocery store towards their car, which was parked in a handicap spot by the way.

I know you guys love to be outraged by inconsequential parts of the story in the face of a horrific murder, so I thought I'd throw that little fact in there for you. Detective Closterman sat down with Tim Bolland at the police station. Tim was sweating and couldn't sit still. Closterman wasted no time and immediately asked him about his relationship with Natasha. Because I've heard it and talking to a lot of people and you and Natasha don't get along. I get along with Tasha this fine. I haven't no one's told the sad. I had no one's told the sad. When Ryan and Tasha is to get in the fights and all that stuff. I guess maybe she didn't like me because I was a threat to spend time with her. I hear taking the night away from her or whatever, you know, but

No, I get along with all of them this fine. It seems like they get along this fine, telling the truth. I came from the last time maybe they didn't fight. I just had dinner over at the house with all four of them. Tim was lying through his chattering teeth, and Detective Clostrum knew it. Not one person have reported Natasha and Ryan having a happy relationship, let alone Natasha and inviting Tim over to have a Norman Rockwell-style dinner with her daughter.

By the way, if you're in the mood for a chuckle, look up the Norman Rockwell dinner painting, and you'll see a bunch of families mimicking the iconic image. It's kind of a hoot in the middle of a murder story. Anyway, Tim said that on the night of Natasha's death, he went to spectators for chicken wings with Ryan and their family friend Chad. Of course there's a Chad in the group.

He soon left to do some work for the Inoka Hanupin County drug task force, then headed home to his wife's house. This was later proved as a lie, as he had no informant work with the police arranged for that evening. Pretty bad lie, if you ask me. Tim insisted he never went to Ryan and Atasha's on the night of September 18th. He swore up and down over and over that he had nothing to do with Natasha's death. Detective Closterman nodded along.

He already knew that the cell phone towered records had placed Tim, leaving Natasha and Ryan's house at 11.38 pm, and then at the crime scene around midnight on the night of her death, Detective Closterman calmly explained to Tim that he believed he was involved with Natasha's death, and that they had evidence linking him to the murder. They were taking him to jail. I'm not going to give you what we all have right now. And that's it. Why do you feel like I was a mole? Well, you will have to have your lawyer ask you to have those questions.

So I'm not being at least tonight? No. No. Can we kid me? Whereas Ryan had played dumb and innocent with Detective Clostraman, Tim became agitated. The second things didn't go his way. He started negotiating, then demanding to speak to Detective Clostraman's superior, like he was an entitled Karen getting bad service from Verizon.

Instead of what he really was, a murderer being booked in jail. What if I take the polyurethic? What if I take the polyurethic? What the hell, the hell? Well, it's going to tell me a lot about your involvement or your own involvement. Okay, so I think if I'll go for it in a fast fall, you're up, can I leave them? That's not a can-me. Just shoot it straight at me. Well, yeah, what do you mean it's not up to you? Who's out to it?

Yeah, it's going to be a tar of us. We got a mercy bus. We're here. This is Sucks. Shouldn't an English major have better grammar, Tim? I know you guys love getting pissed at grammar stuff, too. When Detective Closterman came back into the room, Tim immediately started quizzing him again. It was clear that he thought he could argue his way out of this. Tim kept repeating he had nothing to do with Natasha's death.

I guess the usual tactics he had used on authorities weren't working with Detective Closterman and he was getting frustrated. He asked again if he could go home if he passed the polygraph test. Closterman said, sure, Tim took this as leverage and then started negotiating for a phone call. And with that, Tim Bowlin was booked into the same county jail as his brother for the murder of Natasha Whalen. The two Bowlin brothers thought they could get away with homicide, just like they had been getting away with just about everything for most of their lives. But this was the final straw.

This was too big. They had gone too far, and they were finally going to face the consequences for their savage, despicable actions. Or so everyone thought. Brothers Ryan and Tim Bolland were both awaiting charges in the Inoka County jail for the murder of Ryan's former girlfriend, Natasha Whalen. Police were not sure which Bowland brother had committed to brutal homicide or if they had done it together, but it didn't matter, because they knew both brothers were involved and they had attempted to make her murder look like an accident by carelessly staging her death as a motorcycle crash.

Detective Closterman had written up formal criminal complaints for both Ryan and Tim Boland seeking charges of intentional second-degree murder and aiding and abetting murder in the second degree. If convicted, each charge could mean a potential maximum of 80 years in prison for the Boland brothers. As friends and family of Natasha Wailen grieved, they also had to deal with the local media frenzy that surrounded her death. Now that the Boland brothers had been arrested, the real story of Natasha and Ryan's relationship had become public knowledge. Rumors were flying around town as people speculated

about the horrible crime. Equateance's neighbors and co-workers who were unaware of the grizzly violence Natasha had faced at the hands of Ryan and Tim were completely shocked. Former friends of the Bull and Brothers weren't surprised, but they were disg shocked. Former friends of the Boland brothers weren't surprised, but they were disgusted. Tim's wife eventually started divorce proceedings. Detectives continued to interview everyone involved

with the Whalans and the Bolans, while prosecuting attorney Paul Young got to work. When it came to physical evidence, there was nothing direct pointing as to which brother had killed Natasha. Neither of the brothers was saying anything. However, inside the jail, rumors were racing, and the prosecution was on high alert. Within the 13 months that the Bowen brothers were held in the county jail, six inmates had come forward claiming that they had information about Natasha's death.

Prosecutor Paul Young was skeptical. Not only was this a significant amount of jailhouse snitches, but at the time, the federal prison had emptied some of its inmates to the Inoka County jail because their prison had an influx. This was an unusual circumstance. We spoke to Inoka County prosecutor Paul And what's in it for me, so to speak. This case took that to a level I hadn't seen before and quite can't have been seen since.

There are six or seven different inmates who were serving, were being held in the Inokin County jail at the same time, Ryan and Tim Boland were in custody pending these charges, who reached out through their lawyers and wanted to give statements, offer assistance in the prosecution of these two. Well, if it's one or two, we might have something, but as soon as those numbers were increasing to that level, it was giving me increasing concern about the sharing and buying and selling of information within the jail. There was a cousin of the Bullins who was in custody.

There were notes that were passed that jaylers were intercepting. There was a machine in place about getting information around the jail, including between the brothers and to their family on the outside about how to manage this case. So while it sounds great, hey, there's an informant and they want to help you, the responsibility of the prosecutor is to only produce and present evidence that is credible. And our concerns were with the credibility of the evidence that there were so many different versions coming from the snitches, so many impeachable motives from the snitches

that it became counterproductive and it would have probably backfired, had we gone to trial and tried to use them as witnesses because the defense would have had a field date with being able to impeach them in the number and what happens in the jail. The fact that police reports were in the jail or criminal complaints for news stories. So we have to be very careful about how we use snitches.

And in fact, this case in the rampant exchange of information led me as the supervisor at the time to really tighten and redefine our use of snitches in our felony prosecutions. Maybe the snitches were embellishing rumors as truth in the vain hope of landing diminished charges for their own crimes. But Ryan was talking in jail. A lot. He was a nervous fish out of water. We're got back to Tim about Ryan's big mouth and Tim tried his best to use his mother as a way to get a very important message to his older brother. Here's one doing? I'm doing good. Good. How are you? Not too bad. It's Dr. Miller today. He's friends with what's his name?

Joe? Joe. Yeah. So he kind of talks about both things, but everything's going to go design on both ends. So that's what, uh, just tell that one thing. Yeah. Tell him to tell him to tell Ryan to absolutely shut his mouth big time right now because they're not talking about it.

Because he was, I've heard from five people in here that he's been talking about the case in here, the other guy is in the And he needs to shot his mouth big time. Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. Because he's been talking about me and everybody. So he's never, he's not really in his element. I'm not in my element.

I'm hearing it, but he's nervous. Obviously, he's bumping in and stuff, but he'll be okay, he's nervous, obviously, about being in here and stuff, but he'll be okay if he's just calling out that's what you're paying the lawyer for. Have you done any writing today? Yeah, I actually wrote a grandmother. Okay, sure. Yeah, we'll get through this together.

Plus, like I said, I'm a founder, astronaut life painter, he has back to take care of me, but 31 years old. I appreciate it. I told the other message, and then it's over with. But it's very, very important to what that thing was right. Well, that was very, very, very, very important. Mr. and Mrs. Bowland, the dedicated parents that they were,

had lined up one of the state's top criminal defense attorneys for Ryan, an infamous shark named Joe Friedberg. Tim, however, wasn't so fortunate and got stuck with less high profile counsel. It had been almost a year since the Bowling Brothers had been locked up and no trial date had been set. Prosecutor Paul Young was diligently working with the minimal physical evidence he had

and sifting through the endless stories documented by friends and family. The case against Tim and Ryan was fragile and relied heavily on testimonies, not forensics. Prosecutor Young wondered if it was strong enough to take to trial. He wanted to do the Whalen Family Justice. He couldn't risk having the Bolans walk free. Furthermore, neither Ryan nor Tim had spoken to the police since their initial arrests.

They had confessed nothing. Then in late October of 2009, Ryan Bolans lawyer got in touch with prosecutor Young. He said his client was willing to make a statement and finally tell the truth, but he wanted something in exchange. Drop the second degree murder charge and instead give him a accomplice after the fact. And then he would talk. Ryan said that he did not murder Natasha. Tim was the real killer. The prosecution team weighed their options and decided to hear Ryan's story. But with this statement, Ryan was also agreeing to testify against Tim if he were to go to trial. On October 28, 2009,

Detective Closterman, prosecutor Young and his team, as well as Ryan's lawyer, all sat down to hear Ryan Bowlin's version of the truth. Ryan was emotionless, as he explained that September 18th, 2008, started off like any other morning. Ryan was emotionless as you explain that September 18th 2008 started off like any other morning. His daughter got up and they made breakfast together while Natasha got ready in her bedroom. No one argued. Everything was normal. Ryan had the day off from his job. So he made plans to meet up with his brother Tim around noon. Tim had recently stolen some firearms from Ryan's house and Tim having his guns made Ryan nervous He was upset that Tim had taken these guns again without his permission and Ryan wanted them back unstable, hyperactive sense of paranoia, violent temperament, averaged on insanity most of the time.

He was on a lot of pressure. The people who tried supporting him, friends failing his wife had alienated him for the strange and violent behavior that he displaced. And he just expressed to me a lot, talked about suicide, talked about attacking people, talked about depression, talked about giving up, I mean he was on tough shape. On the Friday before Natasha was murdered, Ryan said he was out of town on a hunting trip.

When he called Natasha to check in that Saturday, she said that Tim had come over unannounced to their house the night before. Tim was screaming at Natasha, accusing her of spreading rumors that he was working as an informant for the drug task force. He pushed his way inside and started rummaging through the house. He took Ryan's guns as well as some clips and ammo, told Natasha she better shut her mouth and then stormed out. Natasha told Ryan that was the last straw. She was going to get a restraining order on Tim if he came back to her house. Later that week, Ryan and Tim met at a parking lot

so Tim could return his brother's guns, but when Tim showed up, he didn't have them. Instead, Tim convinced Ryan to take him across the street to Dick's sporting goods. After looking around the store for a bit, Tim asked Ryan to buy him a small aluminum bat. Not a weird request at all, right? So Ryan caved into Tim's demands and I'm gonna bring the guns back when I see a next Thursday night. He said, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll bring the guns back. So Ryan caved into Tim's demands and bought the little red bat for his brother. No explanation there, just let that sit there for a moment. Think about it.

The next evening, September 18th, 2008, Tim picked up Ryan in his Chevy Malibu. He brought back all but one of Ryan's guns and put them on a shelf in the garage. Then the brothers headed out to spectators, their favorite wing joint, to meet their friend Chad for drinks and chicken wings of course. Tim was fixated on confronting two guys who had accused him of being an informant, even though he was. That was the plan for later in the evening, after the chicken wings. The bollons were going to find the guys and confront them together.

They plotted for an hour at the bar, but then Tim and Ryan ended up leaving in Tim's car, heading back towards Ryan and Natasha's with some extra chicken wings. When Ryan and Tim arrived home, Natasha was irritated that Tim was there, but she tried her best to hide it in front of her daughter. Tim sat alone in the kitchen while the rest of them ate the wings Ryan brought home in the dining room. The Tasha put their little girl to bed and when she returned to the kitchen she asked Tim why he had barged into her house last Friday. More importantly, what was he doing there now? The two started to argue so Ryan told his brother to take his stuff and go wait out in the garage. So Ryan told his brother to take his stuff and go wait out in the garage

Ryan claims that he and Natasha then shared a beer on the back deck And he promised her that this was the last time Tim would ever be at her house At that point her and I walk her on the back of the deck into the back garage service store and Tim was sitting in a room in plastic chair and he was wrapping the barrel of his fat with black grip tape as we walked into the back of the garage. Now all three of them were in the garage. As Tim meticulously wrapped the little red bat in grip tape, Natasha asked Tim what he was doing. Tim snarled back that he was gonna take care of some guys because of her big mouth,

accusing her of spreading gossip that he was working as an informant, which again, he was. It was then that Ryan noticed his daughter standing in the breezeway of the garage. The little girl had woken up from the noise. Natasha walked over and put her daughter back to bed, telling Ryan and Tim that they better be gone by the time she comes back. I said, yeah, I said, really, he was 15 minutes.

We're gonna touch one and holless. And I said, Tim, I just said, take it easy. I said, don't stir things up around here. We'll talk to Tim, you can be about this. This is not Tasha's business. I said, we'll talk to just gossiping with him. This isn't the business I had. It was then that Natasha came back outside and asked Ryan and Tim what they were still doing at the house.

Natasha told them again to leave, and that she would be filing a restraining order against Tim. As Tim and Ryan gathered their things to go, Natasha asked Tim something she'd been wanting to know for a long time. Tim kept saying, where did you hear this? What are you talking about? He never said yes or no. She kept asking, kept asking, saying, I know, I know you set up my dad. My brother wanted you just admitted. What tone of voice is Natasha using?

Things are getting more aggressive at this point. But I was asking him, both take it easy. I was asking, continually asking Tim to get his stuff together so we can leave. And finally, Tim said, yeah, I set up your fucking dad and brother, he said, what the fuck are you going to do about it? Like that, only he more or less hollered it. You know, and then he said, nothing, that's what he said, there's nothing anybody's going to do about it.

That's when Ryan says things escalated. Natasha pulled out herself phone threatening to call her brother and tell him what Tim had said. Ryan tried to wedge himself between them as they argued. Natasha told Tim to get out of her house, but first she was going to call his wife and let her know everything that was going on, including the fact that Tim had been seeing another woman. Tim exploded. He stood up calling Natasha a bitch and he lunged at her. Ryan says he grabbed Natasha and tried to push her towards the door away from Tim. That's when he heard the swoosh of the little

red bat swinging against the stale garage air. I felt a rushed on my back right and I saw the bat come around and get touched on the left side of her face. Ryan watched as his brother swung the red bat over and over at Natasha's head. Tim was enraged, caught in a trance, as he threw Natasha to the ground by her hair and raised the bat above her face. When the fascia was on the ground at this point, she was on her back, no, she just had her hands in her legs up. If she's saying anything, she's screaming. No, she knocked out by the bat but Tim overpowered him and threw him towards the that it smashed open. As soon as I was out of team's grasp, he turned around immediately and I noticed him

stop Natasha with his right foot in her face. She wasn't screaming much. She said, no, stop. She said, help. What'd you do? Ryan did nothing. He didn't throw himself on top of Natasha to protect her from the blows. He didn't grab her and pull her to safety. He didn't pick up a hard object and smash his brother

over the head to stop him. He didn't get one of the guns that were sitting on the shelf behind him. He did not call 911. Instead, Ryan laid there like a coward as his little brother beat Natasha to death. Then he warmed himself into the kitchen to safety. Yes, yes. Do you call 911? No, why not? I don't know why not. Ryan's voice was deadpan as he retooled the story to police. His tone didn't waver. He didn't cry. He didn't shake. Maybe he had replayed the event so many times in his head that he had become numb to it. Maybe this graphic beating along with all the other beatings he had given Natasha

was starting to congeal into one twisted, disgusting memory. Maybe he knew he was a coward, or maybe Ryan was just a cold manipulative chameleon who was now ratting out his brother to save himself. Just like Tim had done to the waylands who he too pretended to love like a family. You knew there were guns right here. Right?

Because you put them there in about an hour or two before this. Yes. You're worried that Tim's too powerful. Why didn't you grab a gun? There was no way in hell I was gonna get a gun out of that case, loaded, armoured, infighter at my brother. Not possible. Because I moved, he would have hit me. I think he would have hit me. If I had made any threatening move like that towards him, I think he was just, I think he had gone berserk at that point and he was just, he had snapped.

He was, wasn't my brother at that point. While Tim was still in the garage, Ryan went down the hallway to check on his daughter. The four-year-old was sleeping soundly in her bed. Oblivious to the murder that was happening just down the hall from her That would change her life forever I wonder what was going through Ryan's head as he looked at his innocent child sleeping there Did he feel anything besides concern for himself? Tim soon came into the kitchen. He was breathless

and spattered with Natasha's blood. He said he was sorry. He just snapped. Ryan told police that Tim threatened to leave him alone if he didn't help him cover up the murder. Tim decided to stage her death to look like a motorcycle accident. Together the Bowen brothers hoisted Natasha's lifeless bloody body and her dark bike into the back of Ryan's truck, securing both with red tie-down straps. Ryan said the two of them stood at the edge of the garage door, looking out onto the quiet suburban street in total silence.

That's when Ryan said he broke down. The alcohol was wearing off and reality was setting in. This wasn't a dream. This wasn't a nightmare. This was actually happening. He could go to prison for the rest of his life. He told his brother he couldn't do it. So Tim got in his car and took off. Ryan panicked. He called Tim relentlessly, begging him to come back to the house and help.

He claimed he was so scared and he probably was, but only about what was going to happen to him. Because in all that time that Tim was gone, Ryan could have taken Natasha to the hospital like he claimed he wanted to do, like he claimed Tim was stopping him from doing. He could have called 911. He chose to go to Tim for protection. He was more interested in self-preservation than facing the consequences of his actions and maybe even saving Natasha's life. Tim told Ryan to meet him a few miles away, just off to Lipschreet.

Ryan checked on his sleeping daughter one more time. He removed all his bloody clothes until he was barefoot in his underwear. Then he got in his truck, leaving his young child to sleep unattended at the bloody crime scene. When the brothers met up, Tim pushed Ryan out of the driver's seat. It was dark and quiet outside as Tim walked around the back of the truck and pulled Natasha's lifeless body over top of her dirt bike.

He then unclip the tie-down straps and opened the tailgate. He got back into the truck, revved the engine, and hit the gas. He drove wildly in silence, swirving the truck back and forth until Natasha and her bike hit the pavement with a devastating thud. Ryan drove home and cleaned up the crime scene. He carefully removed carpet and plastic from the garage floor, then scrubbed the remaining blood away. He wrapped the little red baseball bat that Tim had used to kill Natasha with an old newspaper and then threw it in a dumpster. Then he laid in his bed and waited. Because of the way that Ryan and Tim covered up Natasha's death, the physical evidence

had been greatly compromised. Prosecutor Young took Ryan's confession with a grain of salt. After all, he'd been lying since the minute they got a hold of him. He spent weeks creating detailed maps of testimonies and evidence trying to point out all the inconsistencies in Ryan's story while searching for the best version of the truth. The chances that Ryan's story was 100% exact were minimal. And prosecutor Young couldn't risk a double-definite jury trial where both brothers could potentially walk away free men.

The prosecution reluctantly accepted Ryan's guilty plea for the charge of accomplice after the fact. As for Tim, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter to avoid a jury trial, relying on his inebriation and poor mental state to account for his lack of premeditation. However, there were a few stories floating around that had led people in a no-go to believe that Ryan and Tim had in fact planned Natasha's murder. In the weeks leading up to her death, Natasha had told two of her girlfriends that Ryan had asked her to go out to dinner.

He suggested that they go on a date date and try to see if they could have some fun together. Natasha was shocked and a little reluctant, but she agreed. When it came time to leave for dinner, Ryan made some excuse about not being able to drive and said that Tim would be giving them a ride. Then the three of them went to a restaurant for dinner and drinks, even though it was supposed to be a date date. The whole thing just felt off to Natasha. The three of them never hung out like this.

Here's Natasha's friend recounting the story for police. She thought it was just kind of awkward and you know nothing really came out of it. Like her and Ryan didn't get to like so they're not talking anything all like. No, people say they're not talking to them. No, but she said she felt really odd. It felt it was weird because when they left the restaurant or whatever, across the parking lot was, I don't know if it was his truck or somebody's truck, but the dirt bike was in the back of it.

You take his truck? Brian. I don't know if it was Brian's truck, I don't know if it was somebody else's truck. But she saw a pickup. With the dirt bike and they got in it. Natasha Ryan and Tim left the restaurant in a pickup truck that had Natasha's orange dirt bike tied up in the back. The Tasha felt something was wrong.

Why the hell was her bike in the truck bed? Then they started driving and it was like they were driving kind of like into the outskirts. I don't know where. She didn't tell me where, but she's like, I felt like we were driving out to the woods or something. I felt like they were going to swoop and take me out there and have the dirt bike and the truck and they were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me.

They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to take me out there and get rid of me. They were going to Kiela because he can get pretty violent. The three kept driving into the outskirts of town. The Tasha was growing more and more nervous with

each passing minute. Then all of a sudden Ryan got a phone call. He looked at Tim and told him they had to turn around. And just like that, Tim flipped directions and headed back to the house without any explanation whatsoever. That's what she called me and kind of told me that whole story. I thought it was weird, but I don't know. But more suspicious than the restaurant story was the fact that Ryan had lined up parts of the garage floor

with, get this, black plastic, the day before Natasha's death. Two different friends had reported this to the police. One friend had come by the house and witnessed the plastic flooring first hand. The other had tried to go in the garage to have a cigarette, but Natasha had urged her to use the balcony because Ryan is doing something in the garage, have a cigarette, but Natasha had urged her to use the balcony because Ryan is doing something in the garage, cleaning or something. At the time, this seemed weird, but no cause for concern. But in light of Natasha's murder in the garage, the black plastic lining on the floor had become kind of a red flag. We'll never actually know what happened to Natasha on September 18th.

Only Ryan, Tim, and Natasha herself know or knew what really happened. And of course, Natasha is no longer here to say it out loud. Whether the Bowling Brothers plotted and killed her together, or it was a fight that escalated into unspeakable violence. It doesn't really seem to matter because the outcome is the same. The Tasha Wailen lost her life and her young daughter lost both of her parents. Even today, prosecutor Paul Young still looks back on this case with mixed feelings. You know, there's cases as a prosecutor where when you're done and you've reached sentencing, whether it was by clear trial, you feel good.

You feel like you did your job. You feel like you got justice for victims and their families, that you worked the case with good partners in law enforcement and you got, you improved your community, right? Those are the days you feel like going to have maybe a celebratory drink or you feel some relief. I never had that belief in this case. And when I went back and was reading some of the articles about it, you know, that's what I was saying back then. It was frustrating. This wasn't a cause for celebration that we got convictions and they went to prison. We knew, I knew that

there was more to the story that these guys were more dangerous that appeared then the ultimate charges they were convicted of. So I don't feel I ever felt it was time to celebrate or be relieved at the conclusion of this case. Despite this, prosecutor-young Anas team worked within the confines of the law to the best of their ability. If I as a prosecutor, if we just focused on that as being the only just outcome, sometimes when you have those blinders on, you leave yourself in a position where you come up empty. So that was the constant struggle in this case was recognizing the violence, understanding

that these two guys were not really worthy of much consideration for their humanity at all, but the responsibility of understanding the reality is of prosecuting this case to a jury. Really we're challenging here because like you said, it was almost like a crutch they were using. All people were involved in drugs, people were using drugs. It ignores, unfortunately, the predisposition of Tim in particular and his use of violence when he doesn't get his way or like what the situation is.

I bet you're wondering what happened to Ryan and Natasha's daughter. Well, without revealing too much, we can say that she was formally adopted by Natasha's older sister and her husband. She now lives a normal, happy life, despite the tragedy she endured as a little girl, thanks to her new adoptive family. Ryan has no contact with her. At Ryan's sentencing, Natasha's older sister wrote the judge a powerful victim impact statement, and it she detailed the daily complications of explaining her mother's death to Natasha's little girl.

To aid the transition into her new reality and to help cope with her loss, she now sees multiple counselors. With her innocent stolen, she is desperate for answers. So what happened to mommy? She will ask? Or what exactly did my dad do to get into trouble? Not knowing how to explain this to a five-year-old mind. I say I do not know because there was not there. How will she ever process the fact that her mother died violently at the hands of her own father and uncle?

Natasha's sister ended the letter by asking the judge to give the bowling brothers the longest sentence possible. And explikably, it is the victims of these depraved criminals who have been given the life sentence, one of anguish, of loss, of anger, and of fear. Navigating the darkness of this crime is difficult enough, but having to worry about our safety, once Ryan is released, is a burden we beg you to relieve us from.

I am pleading for as much time as possible, so we can raise Natasha's daughter and our son to adulthood without having to look over our shoulder or fear some violent threat. I should never have to see Natasha's killer again. We desperately just want to find peace and return to whatever normal see we can find. With my teetering, almost nonexistent peace of mind, I ask you to punish Ryan Boland to the full extent the law allows. Now get this, Ryan Bowlin was sentenced to seven years in prison for being an accomplice after the fact.

To put this into perspective, had he been charged with second degree murder, he would have faced 40 years in prison, plus whatever the judge could have tacked on for his additional charge of aiding and abetting. But the murky waters of the legal system allowed this slippery fish with a killer lawyer to swim away free. Ryan exhibited decent behavior during his sentence and served only four years before being released to supervision or parole in the spring of 2014.

Yeah, you heard that right. He only served four years in prison for the murder of his wife. While out on supervision, Ryan met a woman almost 20 years younger than him, and the two started a romantic relationship. Again, y'all like to be outraged by inconsequential details, so there it is. When he was formally discharged from the system in January of 2017, the couple took a cross-country road trip to celebrate their love and Ryan's freedom, eating sushi, drinking beer, you know, all the luxuries Ryan missed while behind bars for those difficult, four years.

The couple was married in September of 2018. However, the honeymoon faded fast and Ryan's new wife filed for legal separation only a year later. History repeats. But today, they have rekindled whatever broke their union to begin with, and they have a new baby girl. Congratulations, Ryan. Ryan runs his own successful construction business in Rochester, Minnesota, while his wife

works as the primary realtor selling the homes that he builds. They are both very active on Facebook, by the way, in case you want to drop in and say hello. Not encouraging you, just you know. You do you, boo. As for Tim, he was sentenced to 11 years. As for Tim, he was sentenced to 11 years. He only served five behind bars before being granted work release, where he lived in a house for inmates and earned about $1 an hour doing manual labor. Tim continued writing in prison, maintaining a column for a revolver magazine, a hard rock and heavy metal rag. He also worked as an editor for his prison newspaper,

and even one second place in an inmate writing contest sponsored by Penn America. Today, believe it or not, Tim is also free and living in Minnesota. The gossip around town is that he works at a local arcade bar he and Ryan liked frequency called up down Minneapolis but that's not confirmed. Two Brothers, the Bolin Brothers, walking free, living their lives, despite the

horrific murder of Natasha Whalen. That's the criminal justice system for you right there. You and I both know at least anecdotally, right? If you are perceived or have a particular athletic skill, your life may be a bit different. You might be treated differently, you might get the benefit of the doubt that others don't, and I think certainly Tim got that for a lot of his life. And we learned that from a lot of witness statements, and you even mentioned that. So I think all the time when you are sort of given the benefit of the doubt so often, and people want to take your side because

of your potential, you almost begin to start believing that you can say and do things that other people can't, right? To me, that really sums up Tim and in great part, Ryan. They were involved in relationships and had family and people around them who had a very utilitarian relationship with them, right? Hey, they're good guys. They might do those things, but hey, Tim's a heck of an athlete. He gets his heart, well, we'll overlook the flaws because there's more good there than bad. To me, that's how I would use the word privilege to apply to their life circumstances.

And it's still, even after all the cases I handled before bull ended, all the horrible cases I've handled since, I look at those pictures and I look at how they killed her. And it's infuriating to know that whatever we wanted to find justice has here, it was certainly short in terms of the incapacitation and prison part, no question, given the violence. So many people were affected by the senseless murder of Natasha Whalen, but despite the light

sentences she didn't die in vain. Natasha had left her mark on the world through all the people who love and remember her. At the beginning of this story, we introduced you to two young girls who found Natasha's body in the road, Sabrina and Cassie. We caught up with them recently and they both still have strong memories of that night. Cassie told us that Natasha's murder affected her greatly. For the first year, she had terrible night terrors about Natasha. Her anxiety was so bad on the road she had trouble driving a car. She masked

her fears with alcohol and fell into a slump until she sought the help of a therapist. Now she's two years sober and finishing up school to become a crisis counselor. I hope to be able to help women and children in domestic violence situations she told us via message. I think about Natasha almost every day, especially her daughter. I have learned to use my pain over this in a positive way. Sabrina also thinks about Natasha often, now that she's a mother herself. But what haunts her most is the timing of the events that night. We felt like we came up right after it, and I would like to hear the time stand

up if they got home at 12.30 because I always felt like we had just like missed them. What if we would have turned that down that road five minutes early would we have been killed for seeing it? I guess we'll never really know the answer to Sabrina's question. But I think it's plausible that if Cassie and Sabrina had accidentally flashed their headlights onto the Bowling Brothers that night, they may not be here right now to tell their story. The Bowling Brothers committed a merciless killing of a woman who they considered family.

She died violently at their hands and was tossed out of the back of Ryan's moving truck like a pile of trash. Tim and Ryan Bowland had their backs up against the wall the night they murdered Natasha. Instead of facing the consequences of their actions like two grown men, they showed their true colors and attempted to lie their way out of the mess that they themselves had created like selfish little children. As Natasha's sister wrote in her letter to the judge, Kasha was not accidentally beaten with a bat and stomped on, nor was her brutalized body accidentally loaded into a truck and dumped into the open road. It was not by accident that Ryan just stood there and watched, or that he failed to make

any effort to save her life. These are intentional actions, just as intentional as Ryan's attempts to cover up and lie about what happened. No one with any humanity could possibly sit there and watch their child's mother being savagely beaten to death until it was already decided that her life was not worth saving. I'm going to go to the next room. That does it for another episode of Sword and Scale, we hope you've enjoyed it. Until next time, don't buy your weird psycho co-cat of a brother on aluminum baseball bat at Dick's Sporting Goods. And stay safe. 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh

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1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc Thank you. you