Sword and Scale - Episode 201

Episode Date: October 31, 2021

What do you get when you cross a sheltered and immature young adult with the trials and tribulations of navigating adult relationships? You get Andrew Jondle and the precarious situation he found himself in after being seduced and manipulated by his first ever girlfriend, Cindy Lou Beck.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sort and scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences Listener discretion is advised I can understand if you hit him in the head once and he fell to the ground and then you said oh crap That would make sense to me, but then you continue to smack him in the head, pick up a sickle and stab him. Hello, and Happy Halloween. This is Season 8 Episode 201 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals it to worst monsters. Are we? Hey! I'll tell you, every year, those halloween decorations get a little more realistic, don't they?

It must be the Christmas of serial killers. They get to just leave their handy work all over the yard and nobody eats bats and eyelash. But guys, don't litter. Pick up after yourselves. Come on. The least you can do is recycle. You know what I mean?

Be an eco-friendly murderer. Alright, that's enough of that. Hope you enjoy this one. And hope you enjoy your Halloween's Day Safe, Kiddies. Check your candies for razorblades. Where does knowledge actually come from? Do we learn all the lessons about life in school or from books? Or do we learn the brunt of our life knowledge from our attempts and failures in the real world? What happens when you find yourself on your own before learning these

valuable life lessons? In this week's episode we dive into the deep end of the pool, that pool being life, and investigate what happens when the naive get taken advantage of and do what they know is wrong for what they are convinced is the right reason. We descend into the rural countryside of Dallas, Oregon and abundant life farms. It's a abundant life farm. A local organic farmer was just discovered dead by his Tuesday morning water door. It was a big, big, big farm. It was a big, big farm. You know, abundant life farms. It's abundant life farms? Yes, sir. A local organic farmer was just discovered dead

by his Tuesday morning water delivery. What do you think happened? Sir, there's a body remaining to garage with a site. A sickle is headed and smashed in at the top. It was cut right on the floor. It was a quiet morning. This guy was overcast and rain seemed imminent. The farm and the body showed no signs of life. Does anybody who lives or works then know that you're calling?

No sir, haven't looked around. My father is here. And he is armed. What is he armed with? I could you not. There was a real life horror scene in the garage complete with Grim Reaper Sith. real life horror scene in the garage complete with grim reaper sith. That's a big yep. Is your dad there? Can I talk to him for a moment? Yeah, he is. In disbelief of what he just saw, the young man handed the phone to his father. Maybe he could offer more insight into the situation. Is there a family that lives in that house there? Yes, as I said before, it's got in Maryland, young adults.

Are the residents there that you know? I, well, they're normal, they're... Do you have any idea who it is that is there in the room? No, no. Like an elderly... I don't know. Male Caucasian. Elderly Caucasian male.

You've seen anyone else there at all this morning. I haven't seen any fine of anybody else. there at all this morning. While seemingly alone, with a dead body there was a foreboding feeling on the farm. When the first deputy finally arrived at the end of the driveway, he couldn't even see the collar standing by the house. The dispatcher had to direct the collar toward the deputy. So we're supposed to put your gun in the truck, and then walk down the driveway toward the deputy. But under the circumstances, and I'm not sure who else is around this place,

I don't feel comfortable leaving my, leaving my gun. Who would? They didn't know how this man was killed. There could have been a person with a hammer right around the corner or a sniper a hundred yards away in a treeline, completely unseen. Detective Sergeant Michael Zappel of the Polk County Sheriff's Department knew how serious the situation they had on their hands was. My name is Michael Zappel.

I was the detective sergeant back when the on their hands was. My name is Michael Filsappel. I was the detective sergeant back when the onal case occurred. I was also the science supervisor for the major crime team, which also involves multi-agency group of investigators that come together when there are major cases that occur. Murder is serious, but to the supervisor of the major crime team, Murder is serious, but to the supervisor of the major crime team, it meant serious work and collaboration between multiple law enforcement agencies, something they didn't have to do all that often. These are small agencies that have 10 to 15 sworn staff, so they'll have one detective for the whole office to do all the investigative work. So you're pulling those resources together

to work large cases like homicides. Polk County is a mostly rural county, farming community. Most of the areas outside of the city are farming communities and everything from large commercial farms to small family farms. Polk County will do on average a murder every other year. He remembers this case all too well.

I remember coming into work, go into the office, just like a normal day, you go to the coffee machine, you start making coffee. And one of the investigators that worked for me comes in, he says, hey, Hoss, are you listening to the radio? And I'm like, no, I'm making coffee. And he's like, you need to look at the CAD. That's computer-aided dispatching for anyone wondering. Pulled up the call, looked at the call,

and the media were like, we need to go. So it was like, we need to go, because patrols just running out there now. And we could hear them leaving the office with the sirens going. And so we headed down, jumped into our cars and responded with patrol. As they raced to the scene, a rare homicide on a small farming homestead, it put Detective Sergeant Holes Apple on edge. He knew what was about to happen.

It's just outside of town, about five miles. And it's a farmhouse that's on 40 or 50 acre lots and you have to go past the house, take a gravel driveway around to the mouth of this long driveway that leads up a hill and this is all wide open grassy space that you're going up the hill to get to the house. So there's nothing out there to protect you as you're approaching. There's been a homicide already and you don't know the status of the scene and you need to get in there and secure the scene. This quaint farmhouse in rural Oregon was a potential death trap. No one knew what lay in weight inside. And we had formulated a plan from that point as to how we were going to approach the scene and secure it. And the plan we came up with was we were going to use

a patrol car as cover. The first deputy on the scene would drive his patrol car slowly toward the home with three others following behind for cover. The garage door was open and there was a very large fir tree that's on the right side of the driveway right up by the house. So we went up to where that tree was at so that we could spread and use that as cover. And that's when we were able to see the body inside the open garage door and see the siling on the body with blood all around it. This is the first time law enforcement was able to lay eyes on the body for themselves and it wasn't pretty.

He was sort of up in a sitting position and there was a large hole in the forehead where it had been bashed in. And then there was a sigh, which a sigh is a old farm tool, typically associated with images of death or the reaper with the long curved blade. And that was stuck in him and then laid down on him. He was obviously dead but they still had to clear the scene and the scene was the whole property. And there was farm buildings, sheds and a travel trailer and we didn't know what the involvement as far as you know how big a scene do we have, how many people do we have down?

Are there suspects still in the house? Are the suspects the people from the trailer? There are a lot of unknowns still going on here. So myself and another deputy held long cover further up the driveway while we sent three into the house to clear the house. And that's when they discovered the second body in the house. A second obviously deceased victim, the two were presumed to be the owners

of abundant life farms, Scott and Marilyn Yondle. So far, only the house offered any clue as to why they were dead. The house had been ransacked. There had been drawers open, things tossed around the house, clearly had been ransacked. And then there was a body, a female body, on the floor of the hallway from the garage into the kitchen.

And again, large pool of blood, large indentation in the skull. I had decided to pull my phone out and call the sheriff. And that's when I asked him, hey, I'm gonna need major crimes. Can you activate the team? He knew they had an extensive investigation about to unfold, but first, they still had to clear the rest of the scene.

They would have to move from building to building one at a time. There was still the outbuildings in the trailers and we didn't know. So once they had secured the house, we moved up to secure the trailer. We move up as a group up to some other vehicles and start yelling commands, doing what we call a felon, he take down, which is weapons prepared and ready, and yelling commands to the trailer. And the door to the trailer eventually pops open and the gentleman hops out, and we're giving command, show me your hands, show me your hands, and he waves at us, and then he turns to the trailer, and he reaches in, and so the commands, we don't know what he's going for. The commands become even more intense. Don't reach in the trailer, show me your hands and then he

starts unloading children out of the trailer. And that's when the dynamic changed and the weapons came down and it was your okay kids come to us you'll be okay. A tense few moments with guns drawn resulted in a massive family emerging from the trailer on the far end of the farm. So he unloaded seven children out of that trailer I believe literally and then his wife came out. They didn't know if the family of nine had anything to do with what happened, but they had to be sure. So they were taken in for questioning.

So then we've got the outbuildings cleared the barns, and so we know there are no other people on the property in any of the buildings. We've cleared all of the buildings, and we have this large family with small kids. And we've got to get them away from the scene somehow. The only way to do this is to walk them down the driveway, right past the open garage door, where the body is. Two deputies take a large tarp and put up a barrier and then we had dad lead behind one of our deputies and we walked them in a line like a line of ducks

is how we explain it to the kids walk like a line of ducks follow your dad, moms at the back carrying one of the babies and we walked them down the gravel driveway. And I was behind Mom, and she turned to look after going past the garage, which I didn't understand, but she did and saw everything. The mother holding a baby that unwittingly saw the horror of Scott Yandle's body and the other seven of her family that would be quickly cleared of any involvement. They were friends and they were being allowed to stay up on the property because the Yandle's will help helping them out, which we found out later was very common for them.

As a con gesture to a family in need, the yandals allowed them to stay on their property until they got back on their feet. They would often help those that needed it. Apparently, that's just the kind of people they were. Everybody we talk to was like, these guys are great, everybody loves them, they'll help you out. They adopted boys and raised them as their own. And yeah, there's nothing wrong with nobody. Nobody dislikes these people. And it's like, they're dead.

Not being the most likely of victims, the yandals were indeed both murdered, but why? The house left a slew of conflicting clues. Sure, it was ransacked, but to what end? People, when they break in to steal things, will take things of value that they can either quickly sell or trade, and they don't typically take things to keep them. They take them to sell them, trade them, get the money that they need for whatever they're going to use their money for. So those items were all left at the house, jewelry, televisions, all that stuff. So the place was just trashed, but nothing, there were still a lot of things of value that were left behind.

The early theory of home invasion burglary just didn't quite add up. That did go into the theory of was this an interrupted, did they come home while the burglary was happening? Was there a burglary that was occurring and then they came home and walked in on people burglarying in the place and then they killed them because they didn't want to be caught and then left. That was one of the theories that we had. That would explain why nothing was taken if the burglars were interrupted. But that didn't make perfect sense either, as both

Yandals were in their pajamas and bath robes, with no clear idea of why the Yandals were murdered, Detective Sergeant Holes Apple began to leave for a command center to start managing the rest of the investigation. Maybe fully processing the scene would reveal a lead. the investigation. Maybe fully processing the scene would reveal a lead. As we were leaving to get that set up, one of the neighbors came up to my car and waved at me, so I stopped rolling them down. He said, you need to look at Andrew Yandle. That right right off the bat, just a neighbor walked in and told me, hey, this is who you need to look at. It's one of their sons and I said, okay, hold on. I would say that was the first lead that we had because at that point it was a who done it.

And we didn't know. We had no idea at that point. We have two dead bodies, if no suspects until this guy walks up and says, you need to look at Andrew Yundle. With two dead bodies and a ransacked home with nothing of real value stolen, the investigators hadn't realized there was one very important thing missing. The Yandell's 20-year-old son, Andrew, a young man that the neighbors seemed to suspect. Scott and Marilyn Yondle were living the simple life on their organic farm in rural Oregon when tragedy struck. A water delivery man found the skull-bashed body of Scott in his garage.

Maryland was found in a similar state in the hallway leading to the kitchen. Finding out why this devout Christian couple met their ultimate demise was Detective Sergeant Holzapp Apple's singular mission. First step, evaluate the victims. They had their career somewhere else and earned their money, and then they came up to Oregon, to a small rural county, to buy a farm, to live the simple life. That is, I can point to several places

where that's the common story. Mr. Mrs. Yandle devout Christians that lived their faith, they adopted three boys and raised them as their own. And all of the neighbors that we talked to said they'd give you a shirt off their back if you needed it. And so that's who they were. And they just enjoyed their organic farm, South of town, and just loving, caring people.

With no motives for murder or merging from the Yarnels' background, they moved on to interviewing those closest to them. We started listing out, you know, what are the things that we're going to do on this? And we write them out on a board and it's like we're going to do search warrant for the house. So when we get the search warrant, we're going to process a scene.

We're going to do interviews. Who do we need to interview? We need to interview the parents from the trailer that had the kids. We need to interview the neighbors, especially the guy who gave us this name of this kid. Find out who this kid is. So we had to people doing some searches and finding out, you know, who were these kids, who are associated family with the victims? They had already been clued into their youngest son Andrew, but the Yandals had two other

sons. One was living in California after recently being discharged from the Marines, but the middle son lived nearby with his wife. Family members, anybody that you think of possible that you keep a book doing something like this. And you have a brother that is still living in Oregon right now? A dear, what's his name? Eddie Yondle. Luke Yondle and his wife were the best chance at insight into the Yondles and Andrew. And you actually use the words that you've been a bad lawyer, you said, why did you describe that way?

Just because he just hasn't been acting like himself. He's just a very immature and very young. He hasn't finished high school, even being home-schooled and stuff. And he'd rather be outside doing a lot of farm equipment and stuff than inside working on, finishing school, so he's 20 years old, he hasn't finished school. Mentally, like the decisions that you make to set, if you talk to him, you probably wouldn't know that he was 20, he probably think that he was younger.

He's been sheltered, he's been, you know, he hasn't been around a lot of the things I guess if they say of the world, but being exposed to different things, like alcohol or drugs or you know any You know anything like that. He's just with me very naive I guess Besides Andrew being a bit immature sheltered in naive

He also had a bit of a childish temper Little things like when they would tell him that he hadn't been the animals and said he was going to be losing some pain or something for it. You would get upset when the dead are asking him to help with something else. He would roll his eyes or stop us from there's something to show you, so set about it. Physical things like rolling eyes, something you see never come to use fists or and he didn't swear verbally, making it very good, he was unhappy. He got in trouble fairly often because he wouldn't do things that he was supposed to feeding very saddles, the things he was supposed to do. They would find it not done.

Pitching a fit over undone chores around the farm doesn't mean Andrew is capable of murder, of course. But with his recent change in behavior, neither his brother nor sister-in-law can say that he isn't. So is one person going to describe who would you think would be most likely a person known to you or to the family. I am saying there would be only one that can possibly think of that. I would have any idea

of why you would, and you would seem like you'd be, you'd be scared to do it at all or whatever, but you know, you acted a little bit strangelyly. I guess I'm not seeing all the lot of surprise that we're just wondering about your brother. I'm not hearing anything like, oh, there's no way that I could continue with doing anything like that. Sir, it's because I never would have excepted to run away in a contact for almost a month. So what has been doing recently is I think

is who I can say, you never run with your brother and seeing how he's changed into the person that you saw earlier this month, do you think he's capable of becoming your parents? That can say that I have a shitty would. Andrew's own family thought he'd been acting a little out of sorts lately. And maybe he could have had something to do with the death of his parents. But his brother and sister-in-law weren't the only ones who thought this. There were multiple people that said, hey, you need to look at Andrew.

Other than his brother and sister-in-law, Ann neighbor, the local pastor also said to check out Andrew. The list was growing and there was the beginning of an investigation that supported the idea that Andrew was involved. His relationship with his parents was a little rocky, to say the least. My mom was diagnosed with a test as breast cancer. She wouldn't have a battery of test on different scans and they found that the cancer had a test of size. I'm sure it never really reacted other than saying there's probably reacted other than saying that we've been to this before.

But we wouldn't, I'm not about it and wouldn't discuss it. Now how would you describe your parents and Andrew from the way she should? You know, but if you would have an hard time dealing with the cancer part. They had a hard time talking to him. They were frequently asking him a few really long in the farm, wanted to take over.

They had offered me the time to train them on how they ran the business and leave it to him and fade into the background and just sell pain about with it rather than the other way around. They offered that to all three of us no one get a good strain answer really, one of the farm or no. And most things used kind of that way. You wouldn't really say what he was thinking or feeling. You're not saying what he wanted, the life is going on for a year and a half now, at least well actually, never since he turned 18 early, because we were talking about what he wanted to do. The rocky relationship escalated when Andrew decided what he wanted to do.

He got a starkest license and believed in me. And then two weeks after that you ran away. Hold on, it's called moving out when you're 20. I guess this is further proof that Andrew was rather immature for his age. After his childish display of rebellion, he stayed out of contact with his family for some time. That is, until he needed money, of course. saying that they were going to be evicted. He asked, like, he was someone I shouldn't have been asking. When his brother refused to loan Andrew any money, he tried somewhere else.

And then we asked, from the pastor in Calvary Chapel Dallas, his name is Larry King. And I know he asked, pastor in Calvary Chapel here in Malibu, Malibu, and the events and events of him is your cockings. But the reason for the family turmoil and being turned down all over town was that Andrew had recently taken a girlfriend or anything. Yes, and her name I believe is Cindy, the first name in the last name is back in the BBCK. I didn't believe that he was hanging out with her son a couple of months before that. It's in there connection to me, it started to bend.

I think maybe he met the son and kind of introduced him. I believe so, depending on that, I believe so. And in case you missed it, Andrew's new girlfriend is over twice his age, and he met her through her 15-year-old son when they were hanging out together. He's 20, but I want to say mentally, he wasn't 20 mentally, he was a little slow, and so he made friends with her kids who were younger and played with them. And that's really what it was. It was that was his mental level. He would go out and he would play with her kids.

And that's how they met. 20-year-old Andrew befriended a 15-year-old boy and then his 46-year-old mother, prompting him to run away from home and move in with her. Two people were dead. Everyone who knew them said, take a look at Andrew and he was known to have a strange relationship with his parents and was also known to be hard up for money. There was a lot adding up that would give Andrew motive to

commit this crime. So I sent a couple of detectives over to contact them and when they were there and had contacted them, they found identification for the victims in their apartment, like credit cards with their names. So we knew that there was a conflict between Andrew and the parents and the Andrew had been begging them for money and even gone to the church and asked the church for money. The ball really started rolling on, hey we're starting to zero in on a possible suspect. We've got neighbors telling us, hey look at this kid, we've got this kid he's got things in his apartment. Don't make sense for why he has him at his apartment and they're from his parents and his parents are dead and that's kind of what focused

things on. Maybe this is where we should be looking. The couple voluntarily came down to the station to be questioned. It was the first time investigators laid eyes on Andrew and Cindy, who by the way, you're just gonna have to see a photo. They were very cooperative initially. They willingly came back to the Sheriff's Office

with the detectives and said, we'll do whatever we can to help. And Andrew was a average height kid, so about 5, 8, 5, 10, he was skinny. Athletic kind of build. When he spoke, he was reserved and quiet and kind of mousy. A couple times I had to ask him to speak up until I could hear him. Cindy is a middle-aged older woman. She's short and heavyweight. She has facial

hair. She would not be someone you would describe as a pretty woman. She's very, I would say manipulative in the way that she views things and she's the victim. I mean, she likes to play the role of the victim. I mean, he was smitten with this. I'll try not to be too mean, but the bridge troll. I mean, it was bad. During her interview, Cindy Liu dived right into the role of the victim, regaling the investigators with all her woes' me-tails beginning with her glaucoma. I have a problem with glaucoma. Okay. And I spend a lot of time with a washcloth over my eye.

Then for the longest time last night, I actually took a piece of tape and put it on this side, so it would stay closed if her bother me that much. Wow. Oh, and her bad knees, of course. If I stood up, you could hear my knees crunch. Oh, sorry. And the plate in her neck. I take oxycodone because of the plate in her neck. I take oxycodone because I have the plate in my neck.

I also take diabetic medication. Okay, and then I have high blood pressure and thyroid. I take a depression medication and she's taking me off an anxiety medication on the second. You know what that's doing. The depression is symbolta and the anxiety wants you to take me out of this little rest of him. After you do you have to take the the off scene? I'm supposed to get five times a day. Oh, wow.

And leading to her unfair run-ins with the law. Have you had any recent police contact at all? Yeah, the police contact from officer Rans because there's a girl that's a compulsive liar. And this has been going on for a long time. She has a question my son and my son doesn't like her. So she goes running home to her mom's saying that I threatened her, I yelled at her, and I got told Rans, I just want to leave me alone. That's why we walked, we don't walk down the sidewalk, we walk clear around.

Just so you don't have any problems? Yeah. Okay. I got in beat up by an officer, and they closed my daycare. Okay. And my kids can tell you all about that because they saw the officer come up behind me, throw me up against the wall. By now you should be starting to see a bit of a pattern.

A bunch of unfortunate things happened to Cindy Liu, but none of them are her fault. But there's more, like how she lost her car. Do you have a car? I did until an old lady decided she forgot her glasses and couldn't tell if the light was red or green. And why she was on probation. Can you tell me earlier light was red or green and why she was on probation He told you earlier that you're on probation. What are you on probation before for theft for theft when we moved out of a house

My mom had just passed away And she had these planters that she made like when she was either between 8 and 10 and 10 and 12 They said they were selling the place. We took those. Oh, okay. And Kristen Jen decided, well, that's that. We want those. Stay there.

They look nice. I don't think so. Those are my mother's. My mother gave them to me. I ended up doing 30 days. For the theft. Oh, okay. And finally, her abusive ex-baby daddy.

Well, I was with their father for almost 13 years. He was abusive physically and mentally. He was a drunk. All he could do was yell, scream, raise his hand, threaten him. But most importantly, how the Department of Human Services taking her kids wasn't even her fault. What did they intervene and take the kids? I think it was January. January, okay.

And why was that? What happened there? Because the kids went to school for a month. Okay. They had that swine for a couple weeks. And then my daughter has foliosis and my son has asthma. And that was bothering him. And I had doctors' notes to verify.

But the judges, that doesn't matter the kid should have been in school. Yeah. All the while, she's cracking jokes with investigators. She joked about video games for God's sake. Every time she shoots a dog, she's like, Don't shoot the dog! Look the dog's gonna get me I thought, Shoot the dog! The dog's gonna get me, don't shoot the dog! Yeah! Yeah, I know what you mean.

He hates my game and this is not much action. And I don't like his game because he shoots animals. And she joked about the cold weather. I told him, she had a worse weather sweater. The other weather is starting to change. I can handle the cold to a certain extent. He can't. He's a pretty thin guy.

He's pretty cool. So you get a lot of meat on his bones. Keep him warm. I got plenty. Congratulations. Oh, and how enjoyable her twin-sized air mattress was. And even though it's just a twin, ah, it's nice.

But with all the distractions aside, the reason they were there was serious. Detective Sergeant Holes Apple sent in investigators with a specific purpose. And it was basically get a good solid timeline from them, ask questions about him asking for money, any kind of conflicts that they have with the parents and but mostly knock them down to a good timeline.

So do you know why we're here today? I'm hoping it's not because of my kids. Okay, it's not because of my kids. Okay, it's not because of your kids. Is there anything else that kind of comes out or you're eating a recent events? No. No. Okay.

We're here to talk today about an incident involving Andrew's parents. Okay. So what I'd like to do is start off with, can you tell me what you're kind of if you can to give me an oral history of what you've done for about the last 48 hours? Kind of walk me through. We could walk you through what Cindy Lou said she did for the last 48 hours, but it wasn't much. You see, she's unemployed and has no vehicle, so she rarely leaves the house. She couldn't give you a good timeline for herself because she was at home the entire time. She did try, had to leave early Andrew. Okay. Why did he have to leave early?

Andrew went and saw a guy at the National Guard. I think he had to meet him around 11 Something like that 11 and then oh, we had breakfast Andrew took the bus down to the National Guard Okay, and I guess they let him do like an ask Bad bird as that. Yeah, it's a test. Let him do sample test He didn't he came close to pass it, but he didn't okay This is important to their timeline, but also their need for money We're behind a little bit

But we're gonna be invented on the numbers. I'm going to get a payment on it. Oh, you are? Yeah. So what were you planning on doing the get money for the rent so you didn't do the effective? I'm trying to do the ad ads that was impossible and join the national government. And they were going to need you.

Well, so that's what I thought that it was like $10,000 when we signed on it, $5,000 or something. Oh really? So we're going to use that for the rent, and that idiotic this couple is, I'll lay it out for you. Neither of them are employed, and they are behind on rent. Andrew takes it upon himself as the man, father figure, or whatever in the relationship to go out and find money.

The idea he came up with, as a 20-year-old without a high school diploma or a GED, was to join the National Guard for the Sinon bonus. The ASVAB or Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery is a test that measures aptitude and potential success in military training. To be clear, it isn't really a pass or fail can a test. Sure, these Armed Forces don't accept anyone who scores

below a 31, but what Andrews 25 really meant was that he scored in the 25th percentile, meaning that 75% of the people who took the test scored better than him. Think about that. When he came back from the National Guard after a few hours, he wanted to go with his friends place. Okay, well, he took the scooter. So let's backtrack this a little bit because I think we're getting off on our time. So he had to be to his National Guard thing, he said around 11. What time did he get back from that appointment? And I say around three or four. And he went to a friend's house, so what time did he leave for the friend's house? Probably around 6'37. Well, he went to, he was gonna go to a friend's place, but he gave me a call and said he wasn't there,

so he came home. What time was that, that he came home? I don't have to say around 9. Did you read the bus home? No, he was writing the scooter. Scooter? Like a motorized motor. Okay.

So according to Cindy Liu, they woke up around nine a.m. Had breakfast, and then Andrew took the bus to the recruitment office to take the ASVAB. After he failed the test, he took the bus home and stayed for a few hours before taking his motorized scooter to go see a friend.

But the friend wasn't there, so he returned home around 9 p.m. They had some cigarettes with the neighbors and fed their pets and went to bed. Seems pretty straightforward. And how about this morning? You woke us up this morning. Well, did we? OK. We didn't get much from Cindy's interview the first day. She really wasn't giving much information,

such she didn't know much about anything other than the anger had been gone. Cindy Lou seems nice enough, other than some might say, resembling a bridge troll a little bit, maybe? I'll let you decide for yourself. Google her name. Otherwise, I'm gonna get all these angry women writing in. She certainly didn't appear to be a criminal mastermind

unless you counted her collection of exotic pets. I'm an animal I've as you saw. Yeah, you have a lot of lizards inside. The monitor, she's full grown, but she looked like a stegosaurus. She was already dehydrated. She was stuck in an age like this when we straightened out her tail. It kept popping, so she's got scoliosis. And it took two IV sterehydrator. And it took two IVs to rehydrator. And with the iguana his tail was popped in half. His jaw was dislocated, his shoulder was dislocated. And he was also dehydrated.

And so I'm glad they could find a good home to do them. And if you discount the fact that she's over twice Andrew's age and twice the weight, by the way, and has a beard, basically, she actually sounds kind of cute describing her relationship with them. So how exactly did you meet Andrew? My at Bush Park, the kids were down playing by the river. They were getting their feet wet and Andrew was walking along there and the kids introduced me to him. And we got to talk and if you notice he's a really

nice guy. He really loves the kids. We like the same movies. We like almost the same game. He got me out walking. I lost almost 20 pounds in one month. Oh, great. How do your kids feel about the fact that, I mean, Andrew is what, 20? Oh. And how do they feel about the fact that, I mean, your son who's 15, Andrew's five years older than he is? They're absolutely thrilled. Really? Yeah. The HSS, he can only be a peer figure because there's only five year difference. I see him as being a good role model, a good father figure because he's already, he's

willing to work with the kids. I know everybody lives down at his mouth the age age but we have a lot in common. Well there's a 26 year age difference. Most people that doesn't bother the HS, it definitely bothers. My attorney doesn't bother. I know my family bothers. Your father is your family? Yeah.

Okay. Like my sister. Well, he's a bit, yeah, and don't you think? I know his parents hate me. Really? Perhaps they are just an odd couple and their love for one another is real and pure. Andrew, sure seem to think so. So Andrew, I don't know if you know

much about what's going on or if you know anything about what's going on or that. Okay, talk to some people and they say I need to talk to you. Okay, I talk to you in your pastor. Maybe you can have a straight from that recently. Let's go on straight and write this. Kind of live my own life. Yeah, Larry was kind of concerned about he's living with Cindy.

What can you tell me about that? I said he got a phone call from recently. Yeah, we're in our time hangar right now, so I'm thinking of taking the help of us. He says that he goes against the religion to help me. He's been living with another woman. He's not married yet, but

how's he big deal in? Is a power truck set with that? Because then you guys a couple Andrew laid out nearly the same timeline and the cute story of how he and Cindy Lou met. It was almost as if they'd discussed exactly what to say. I think that they had come up with some story. If anybody comes knock on the door, this is what we're going to say. They didn't expect us to be there so quick. Andrew and Cindy Liu were unaware that the Yodol's credit cards had been spotted in their apartment by investigators. So as they wove their story, the detectives knew they were leaving the details out. They knew that they were lying. The last time I saw her was a court for theHS trying to get her a kids back.

Senior kids, I was concerned with our kids. So we had a divorce and I know I held in there and then go back out and I saw her and I was going to say a talk to her. I'm usually really against what I've done and I have something I can talk for yet. No. No, no, nothing. I told you about the truth. Yeah? This is where it becomes very important because right now you're lying to me.

Okay. Now it's not the time to lie. That's right. I'm not aware of it. At court. I know that's not the truth. Okay. You don't need to do in this situation. He didn't have the life experience or the mental capacity to deal with pressing questions from the police. Well, okay, tell me how I know. Let me know, okay. Nothing moves at the part where I'm pretty much cast

for me to see how long I'm just doing it with me, okay. I'm not going to get any of everything down, I know. If I can, I just just talk to Zane for two minutes. We're really a little down. And see if she's ready to kind of what, do we see things going on in the winter? He's always saying, well, can I do this? Or can I do this? Or should I do this?

And I keep telling him, you're an adult. You do need to make some decisions for yourself. He was smitten with her and nobody understood that. Nobody that worked this case knew where he was coming from when he was like, I just love her and it's like, what? Because he had nothing to offer him. Nothing. Well, he had one her and it's like, what? Because she had nothing to offer him, nothing. Well, she had one thing and nobody understood that either.

With the promise to speak to Cindy Liu eventually, Andrew agreed to answer more questions. The detectives could tell he was on the verge of spilling everything. I could send you to the room and you mean that second person? Tell me, Dave, tell me, what do you think? What do you think mean that second person? I'm a gay tattoo, I mean this. Why do you say that? Why?

Well, do you think that would happen then? I mean, I guess I got to do something really, really bad. Andrew Newe was caught. Less than 30 minutes into his interview with the police, he completely broke down, like the Simpleton he is. You can't let me in, put me in the toilet, stop, please don't hurt me. You have a title, me on the end. You can't let me in, so I can be in the toilet. You've got a pipe.

I just hate it from... This is how you throw a sauce. I can't be really happy. I'm gonna be really happy. I'm gonna be really happy. I'm gonna be really happy. I need to be really happy. I need to be really happy. I need to be really happy. I need to be really happy.

I need to be really happy. I need to be really happy. I need to be really happy. I need to be really happy. I need to be really happy. I need to be really happy. I'm not nice. Did you give any of my hair? I didn't decide. I didn't go back in time. Which is a letter of inter-empt.

Look at me. I didn't even know. But I didn't even know that was indecisive, but basically Andrew said he went to his parents' house to ask for money as a last resort. His father got so angry that he came at him with a pipe. There was a struggle during which Andrew got control of the pipe and beat his father on the head. Once on the ground he stabbed him with the sith just to make sure he was dead. When his mother heard the commotion, she entered the garage armed with a knife.

He didn't want to, but he hit his mother, then as she crawled back into the house, he chased her down and beat her to death as well. But even that wasn't the whole story, and Detective Sergeant Holes' apple knew it. Andrew still had some secrets to reveal. The day rural organ organic farmers Scott and Marilyn Yondle were discovered murdered, they're basically a strange 20 year old son broke down during the police interview and confessed. There were just a couple of things that still didn't add up for investigators. Detective Pitt came to me and he said, okay, well, he gave me a story, but you're not going to like it.

And then he's like, okay, what did he say? And he said, well, he went there to break in the house and steal some stuff or to ask his dad for some help and his dad attacked him. And he had to defend himself from his dad. And so, he ended up hitting his dad with a pipe and I'm thinking to myself, what? That doesn't marry up with anything that we've heard about these people. From any of the neighbors or anybody that then knows them, that's not the kind of people that they are. So I go to the interview room and I talk to Andrew. OK, so they said no.

So why kill? I was trying to reason. Initially, you didn't think they were going to help you. And you went and they confirmed what you were thinking. But no, they're not going to help. I was going to try to reason with them off though. I was going to try to kill them. I went I'm not trying. I wasn't trying to kill them. I went there.

I was trying to offer you money for rent. You still think, expect me to believe that your dad is the one that picked the pipe up that came out to you initially. I checked that pipe for fingerprints and I got the state police crime lab coming up here. The best in the state, and they're going to look at that pipe, pipe and they're gonna process it for all kinds of evidence including fingerprints. Are they gonna find your dad's fingerprints on that pipe? Yeah. They're gonna find your fingerprints on that pipe. How do we?

Okay. I'll be upfront and honest, I was not nice to him and actually while I was uh, chastising him, the detective texted me,'re mean, and I'm like, I don't care. This guy killed his parents, and he wants to blame them for it. Detective Sergeant Holes Apple and the other detectives tore Andrew's story apart. Are you saying that friends can only be on that night because I don't think they are. Again, best people in the state. Best scientists we got. And we're looking at that stuff. Are you figuring friends all that night?

What are you lying about? How was my gloves? I was doing it. Oh, now you weren't gloves. Now they're the cold ones. I'm just going to take them off. You know, you keep digging holes like this for yourself. Who's going gonna believe you? Nobody. You try to go into a court and try to tell the jury

because they're gonna start seeing that, you know what? One thing is added to another and this plan keeps growing bigger and bigger and at some point there's no way all this stuff could happen. And I was like, you need to stop lying right now. You need to tell the truth, you need to start over because none of this makes sense. And that's when he took a step back.

He took a step back and he was like, okay, yeah, I'll start over. And that's when I knew. When he agreed to start over, that's when I knew. Andrew wasn't telling the truth, so he started over. The self-defense claim was completely untrue. Andrew went to the house with the intention to murder his parents.

Where's your girlfriend? J. Holmes. Did you tell her where you were going? Yes. I went. Did you tell her where you were going? Yes. And when? No. Still, it was a important truth about that. I didn't want to hurt you.

I went there and went to a little dark and called my grandma for my cell phone. And you called the day before I was alright? Yeah. I called myself and I was there. I couldn't come out, I'm attacking out. I didn't be into death, I'd be grieving down so I stand with a stick cool. So he didn't match you with the pipe, didn't he?

No, that didn't work. That's the absolute truth. Do you want to hear it, Joel? He lures that out to the garage, takes a metal pipe that he had, hits him over the head multiple times, caving in his forehead. His dad falls to the floor of the garage,

and he's still making sounds, gurgling sounds, that's what he described to me as. And he thought he was still alive, and so he picked up the side, which was leaning against the side of the garage and stabbed him with it in the heart. And he said, that's when mom comes out of the door to the garage, sees what's happening. He looks at mom, grabs the pipe,

she turns to run back in the house, he chases after her, and he swings to hit her as they're going in, and that's when he hit the door jam. And then goes in and catches her and hits her, and then bludges her multiple times over the head with the pipe and kills her. Finally, the truth is out. Not only did Andrew carry out the double murder of his parents, but his girlfriend helped him plan it.

I'm sorry about all the interruptions there. It's okay, I'm just trying to figure out where you guys are going with this. Where do you think I'm going with it? What I'm thinking is parents are trying to separate us, I think. Okay. Cindy, I just got finished talking to your fiance, okay? He totally confessed everything. All right, and he's quite upset and he wants to talk to you and we told him he would be able to talk to you. Because it's the right. Okay, listen, don't be acting

surprised because he told me that he came before I came home, that he told you what happened. He brought you some jewelry. There's cash at your house, there's also credit cards. He's rolling all over himself. Am I going to be arrested? I got animals that need be taken care of. I don't want to go anywhere, we're supposed to stay there. Tances are 100% that you're probably going to go to jail. You'll probably be there for a while. But still, the question remained why.

Why did they decide killing the yandals was the best plan of action? All right, you are not going to leave this, but I'm going to go through the profile, but you have the ability to see spirits. We have contact in the band, we just have spirits, and it builds around and it knows that we're trying to get the killi back, but the spirits of the amber and the orange danger Those are large cut along the dad trying to poison them This one is fear told the spirit enters Cindy and then talks to her

Yeah, I know I'm not gonna believe this you're gonna think that thing made it up, there's a difference in the spirit center, it's changing to the center. I know you're not going to do it, it's herbalist changes, it's a path being really quiet, and it doesn't move at all, except for maybe to scratch it, or something, but the spirit has to be completely controlled, or such a serious scratch before. I know you're not believing this, but this is actually where you. Wait what? Cindy Liu can see spirits.

Ugh. It goes on to say that the spirits told him that the children were in danger from his parents, and that his father had murdered at least four times before, one of which was supposedly buried in the barn. What an idiot. I think you're all my plan, yes, what I think it is. I think you're growing on plan, yes, that's where the students skirt things and that she's going to play you and tell you, you need to go tell your parents and get some money, money is what I think.

So I can survive? Yes, as she used to do for money in Dory. Okay, any point did you think this was bullshit at the beginning? Yeah, but once the spirit came and Jack completely different, you know, he'd need to take that. Maybe time to eat. I don't think so. And so the detectives took it upon themselves to point out some glaring discrepancies with Andrew's beliefs about Cindy Liu. A conversation I bet the Yandals would have liked to have had with the ball for all this. How's that making sense now?

So now you take the spirit a little bit more bullshit? Yeah. So if we were to pursue the Kirapats, it's still alive. Would you believe the spirit then? No. Just out of the spirit is that chief body. Wow. So that spirit staff isn't quite accurate, huh? I don't know. The spirits claims that the Yandals would hurt children or that his father had murdered before were claims that Andrew knew were wrong. These people had raised him his entire life.

He knew what they were capable of and what they weren't. Yet Cindy Liu, with all of her enticing mature sexuality, convinced him otherwise. She had sold this idea to Andrew that if he were to kill his parents that he would Inherit that farm and then they can move there and live there and show DHS that they had a stable family So that she could get her kids back and then they could live as a family on the farm there So why would you believe that Does he have that much power over you? Yes I thought she loved me one of the best for you? I guess so, yes. Mommy. I thought she loved me.

I wanted to ask for me if I could not do more. 47-year-old woman, and how old are you? So, what do you think she wants from you? So, maybe, my. You can hear the heartbreak in his voice when the realization washes over him that his loving parents were just that. And Cindy Liu used him to ensure her own survival. LA, so because she met her in the room, she used to be using me. I met her in the room, but she convinced me to do it.

I think quite honestly, she wanted that farm. She knew she was going to be homeless soon, and she wanted a place to live, and she could use Andrew to get to a place to live. I honestly believe that. I do believe that story that he told that she sold his bill of bill of goods to him. Hey, you'll get the property and we can live there. I think that was her goal was not to be homeless. She used him to take care of her. She used him like a tool to get what she wanted. When it was all said and done, Andrew had lost everything. He lost his parents, he lost the farm, his life as a free man, and his innocence. Because of this older woman named Cindy Liu. We asked him if he realized, you know, the seriousness of what he had done.

He says, I do know. Yeah. And it's like, you realize you had a good with these folks, your parents, they were there for you and he goes, yeah, I know. On the other hand, she had it somewhat better now. She didn't have her kids or her freedom or her stupid iguana, but she didn't have to worry about rent anymore. That was no longer a pressing concern. Andrew was charged with two counts of aggravated murder and one count of burglary in the first

degree. He agreed to testify against Cindy Lu and took a plea deal. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two life terms in prison with a 50-year minimum. Andrew will be over 70 years old by the time he's eligible for parole, but most likely he will spend the rest of his life in prison. Cindy Liu, upon hearing that Andrew agreed to testify against her, also took a deal and pleaded no contest with two counts of conspiracy to murder. And you know how sometimes I say that women get off easy in the criminal justice system

and I get all kinds of shit for it? Well, here it is. She only got 20 years. She will be released also when she's in her 70s, but that'll be at least 30 years before Andrew gets out. If you needed any more reason to believe that Cindy Lou Prey's on the easily manipulated, in September of 2011, after she'd already been sentenced for the Yandals' murders, she was charged with two counts each of rape and sodomy when an underage boy came forward.

By October of the following year she was sentenced to 16 more years in prison for this crime. With that addition, Cindy Liu will not be released until she's 83 years old. If she lives that long. Andrew really wanted to live a life of his own. He wanted to be a full-fledged grown-up and provide for his new family. But being grown-up is more than just the appearances. Because he lived a sheltered life of a homeschooled kid on a family farm, he had no idea how to do that. Being a bit slow and highly gullible, Cindy Liu convinced him to do the wrong thing for a reason that he believed was noble,

but instead was just complete utter bullshit. That does it for this episode of Sword and Scale. Thank you so much for joining us. We hope you've had a good time. If you have, consider joining plus. For just five bucks a month, you get all sorts of goodies. Over 100 plus episodes, early regular episodes, commercial free, all sorts of other goodies, join now sort and scale.com slash plus. Until next time, stay safe. Hi, I'm a regular listener.

I just wanted to offer a little bit of feedback. It's just my personal opinion, I don't think it's most likely not going anywhere, but I didn't do overall so as fantastic and I do listen to it regularly and I love the stories that you guys focus on. But the one thing that would just make my viewing or listening experience so much better is if the host might, if he could stop offering his personal thoughts and opinions so much during the show and rather be more of a narrator than a commentator. I mean, just as an example, I'm listening to episode 188 right now. And in case, I could have named Gary Michael McKiller, you know, there was a point in the podcast

after he had been caught and everything, and he was listening to the audit reading about what he thinks is philosophy and sort of deeper metaphysical principles. And might cause off on a slight hand in that, you know, what could we possibly learn from this person and basically get a formation of this heartening with that? There's nothing to learn. But that's not correct. And that is a personal opinion that really takes away from the original experience because there is something to learn from it. I mean, if you look at this guy's past and the upbringing

that he had, the biggest lesson in my thoughts, I hope that you could learn from this guy, it's important to be stable and healthy family relationships, especially growing up. Just because it is such a common way of current themes with a lot of these killers, or especially serial killers with their life, that what they're dealing with or the societal and episodes that they're dealing with are a direct result of the terrible home life that they experienced.

I mean, this guy in an act of, you know, terrible home life that they experienced. I mean, this guy, in an act of, you know, you could say defense when he was 13, shot and injured, his abusive stepfather. And I mean, there's just no importance put on that really in the story. So, it's just more like refraining from calling these people monsters. I'm not trying to discredit the act that they've done or anything, but maybe take the approach that your viewers are already intelligent enough to know that what these people have done is monstrous and terrible already. I mean, just by virtue of the fact of the genre of true crime, you know, I mean, everything

that we're listening to within the genre is already about something monstrous. So going in there and peppering in it with your personal opinion and reiter rest.