Sword and Scale - Episode 301

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

It was a quiet Shabbat Saturday in Boca Raton, Florida. The Jewish community was shut off from the world for their holy day of rest, but inside Tzvi Allswang’s house on Larkspur Trail, one social wo...rker was trapped in every woman’s worst nightmare.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Your garden, where dreams are grown from muck, where future county stars kick balls till their dinners go cold, and every morning those birds chirp your national anthem. This is your second nature. And putting it all together? At Tierlawn Country Life, that's our second nature. Friendly, knowledgeable heads with everything you could ask for and all the advice you need on putting together
Starting point is 00:00:27 your little corner of paradise. Shop online at tierlawncountrylife.ie or visit your local Tier Lawn Country Life today. Gardens, our Second Nature. Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. And that's when he grabbed me really fast to yank me back in there and I got really startled and scared and so I screamed.
Starting point is 00:01:01 screamed. Not as excited about episode 301. Doesn't have that nice round number to it, you know? Nevertheless, this is going to be a good one, so welcome. Episode 301 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. So apologies for giving you the wrong description of the SNS TV episode that's currently available. I'm losing track of what's what because there's so much going on, but you know we're just trying to produce as much true crime content as possible for you and it all starts to blend together at some point. Regardless of my horrible salesmanship, you should go on over to swordandscale.com and
Starting point is 00:02:10 check out Sword and Scale Television. We have 15 full-length episodes. They're each about an hour long and tell an incredible tale of murder and mayhem in only the way we can here at Swordsdale. Your garden, where dreams are grown from muck, where future county stars kick balls till their dinners go cold, and every morning, those birds chirp your national anthem. This is your second nature. And putting it all together at Tierlawn Country Life, that's our second nature.
Starting point is 00:03:14 Friendly, knowledgeable heads with everything you could ask for and all the advice you need on putting together your little corner of paradise. Shop online at tierlaancountrylife.ie or visit your local Tealand Country Life today. Gardens, our second nature. It was July of 2022 in a little place we like to talk about a lot called Florida. This time Boca Raton, a place named after the mouth of a rat. On a suburban street where crime was low and the Tesla count was high,
Starting point is 00:04:07 along with a few vandals I'm sure, a group of friends in their mid-20s were standing outside a big yellow stucco house in Larkspur Trail before sunrise. One of the friends in the group was a woman who we will refer to as Annie and her girlfriend who we will refer to as Annie, and her girlfriend, who we will call Kate, had been missing for over 12 hours. Annie had this feeling that Kate was inside the yellow house, and one of the things that clued her into that was the fact that her car was sitting in the driveway. The night before, she had received some strange messages from Kate's phone that did not sound like her.
Starting point is 00:04:43 Maybe Kate was at a hotel, like the text messages claim, but that didn't seem right and Annie wanted to be sure. The friends had rallied around the house in Larkspur Trail while the cops did their due diligence. Knocking on doors and windows, announcing themselves to the property owners, but they are met with silence. By the looks of it, no one was home. It was hard to tell what was going on. The house on Larkspur was in an orthodox Jewish neighborhood, and
Starting point is 00:05:12 the day in question was Shabbat, which is the holy day of rest for the Jewish people. Shabbat starts at sunset on Friday and ends 24 hours later, at sunset on Saturday. And during this time Jewish people are not allowed to use any forms of technology. Orthodox Jews take Shabbat very seriously and everyone in this neighborhood was on their day of rest like the Good Lord. The cops continued knocking and calling out property owners but no one responded. Without cause, they couldn't just break in. I mean, do you want cops breaking into your house without permission? So the police left. But Kate's friends did not. They were convinced that the police had made a big mistake. So one of them called the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office again. And if you can't reconnect to me, then I would like the officers who are dispatched to that call, and I would like their name and batch numbers too.
Starting point is 00:06:26 Okay, hold on just a second. I never spoke with you, so let me... If you have to, I completely understand. I'm just letting you know what's going on. The scene was tense. Annie had already reported Kate missing to the police department near their home, which was in another jurisdiction. Okay, what's your name? That's irrelevant, ma'am. I just want to know the officers' name and batch numbers too, which was in another jurisdiction. I'm sorry, but you don't need to ask me a relevant question. I'm asking for the officers who are dispatched for that call. You're a public servant.
Starting point is 00:07:06 I am a part of the public and I'm asking you a question I need you to answer, please. I'm not answering any questions related to that address because I can't verify or know if you're the one who called. The dispatch operator had a point, but so did the caller. And things only escalated from there,
Starting point is 00:07:22 as they tend to do when one party is emotionally charged. And don't ask me another bullshit about it. Okay, I can't give you any information because I don't show that name listed on the person who called. Oh, so if I called on a starfish-eva number, you guys got that on file, right? Come on, man. Let's not play this game. I don't do this. Like, there's a missing person right here. This is our friend. This is our loved one. Okay, and I'm trying to help you. Listen, no one's here to play. No, you're not. No, you're not You're playing some shit game with me. Don't play the game with me 22147 lakes for trails which officers would were ditched back to that call. Are you at the location right now?
Starting point is 00:08:17 Yeah, I am But the police had left However, this caller was too heated to relay that. Ma'am, are you gonna hang up on me too? Is there anything else I can help you with? I'm not giving you an option. Absolutely there is. Okay, you can contact the records.
Starting point is 00:08:37 Bad numbers. Contact the records division during normal business hours to get that information. I'm not gonna give you. Ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, man, man, man, man, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no Why not just say your name? If it's the emergency you say it is, I mean, say your name, right? The dispatch operator told the caller
Starting point is 00:09:32 that she would contact an officer and have him call them back. That was all she could do from the 911 line. I mean, you can't just call up 911 and start obtaining personal information about prior calls. There are rules and procedures for a reason to protect the public. That's when a calmer friend took over the phone and gave his number to the operator. Then they waited.
Starting point is 00:09:58 As intense as it was, that 911 exchange worked because more officers were soon sent back to the scene. This time, they heard something that made them second guess if Annie and her friends had been right. We would dispatch to this location approximately 6 45 this morning sometime roughly in a reference to assisting Lantana PD in recovering a missing persons from their jurisdiction. I arrived here with my trainee deputy parent. We arrived here and met with the complainant who filed the original missing persons report with Lantana Police Department. I cannot recall her name right now. She told us that she believes her girlfriend is inside that house and she did report her in fact made out with Lantana police department last night. Asked her how does she know she's in there
Starting point is 00:10:53 she goes well her car is here okay. Originally we're trying to gather as much information as we can kind of things were not really that clear but it became clear later on when other deputies arrived that she is a therapist and she came here to meet a client. Kate was a social worker who had been sent to the yellow house on Larkspur by her boss to check on a client. Soon the officers found themselves walking around the perimeter of the house, knocking on doors and windows. Repeatedly bang, bang, bang, bang bang bang bang got no answer
Starting point is 00:11:25 we did notice that the window to the door was obscured with something we didn't know that that was art we had that conversation but anyhow we went window in the house so the front door okay because we try to look in the glass I gotta see if we can see anything in the house the obvious front windows had the blinds closed. We continued around the outside of the house to see if we could get in, see if we could see anything or anything to see people inside the house. As we're going around the house, we're at the rear of the house now on the pull deck.
Starting point is 00:11:58 There is a big sliding glass, it's a double sliding glass door. We kind of pulled on that, hey, you know, try to save the token. And when we were at the door, I don't know where, but at the moment we pulled it or let go or whatever, we heard a very loud scream, female clearly from inside the house. And that's all we heard. And we confirmed we checked it. Hey, did you hear that? Yeah, I heard that.
Starting point is 00:12:21 I heard that. Came back to the front of the house, the complainant from who filed the missing person report. I go, did you hear that? Yeah, I heard that. I heard that came back to the front of the house. We From who filed the missing person report. I put did you hear that? She goes I heard that you guys hear that so she heard the scream also from inside the house and I confirmed we all heard Something from inside the house at those before we came around the front of the house My training down on the radio and made an announcement that we heard a scream come from inside the house upon hearing the scream the officers immediately called their sergeant, who drove to the scene. As Annie and her friends huddled on the sidewalk watching, the officers briefed one another. They told me all the details they had. And then they said, we've looked in all the windows,
Starting point is 00:12:59 we can't see in the windows. There's a section where they could see it, but you couldn't see anything. I think it was a hallway or something. We're looking for phone numbers and all that. I said, all right, we're talking about the stream again. So we're trying to hash out, is this a healthy stream? Because now we have more information that there was something about a 22-year-old. I don't think we had that this was a patient.
Starting point is 00:13:23 I don't remember what the timeframe looked like. I don't think we had that right away because I patient that I'm not. I don't remember what the timeframe was, but I don't think we had that right away because I think that's what we're trying to figure out is who's the parents, where are they at? There's two kids that live in the house. It's a 26 year old team out with a 22 year old male. So we had that. So the conversation we're having
Starting point is 00:13:37 where we're standing in front of doors, hey, is this a fall final? Or is this an affair? She got caught and it's that? Hours passed and more details began to unravel as the day broke. Kate was a 26 year old social worker and the client she had gone to meet was a 20 year old man who lived on the house at Larkspur, but the cop was right.
Starting point is 00:14:03 There were many ways this could play out and one of them could have been an affair. So something about this still wasn't right and there was another option. It's a call for an open. You can write that shit up. I said we'll fucking kick the goddamn door. The officer who originally heard the scream confirmed that it sounded off. So the sergeant called his lieutenant and the two decided to have fire and rescue come break the door. That way, if it did turn out to be a false alarm, the homeowners would be left with minimal damage. And then we start getting more details. And one of the details was that the doctor who is caring for this kid, so now we know it's the kid is the patient, the 22 year old is the patient, the doctor
Starting point is 00:14:52 who's caring for the kid sent her here on assignment at 6 p.m. last night and I don't know if it was him or the girl, when somebody told us they got a text message saying I made contact, I think it was the doctor. I made contact, he let me in the house. So now we have that information. After realizing that Kate was potentially inside the house with a mentally ill patient, the cops knew they had to get in immediately.
Starting point is 00:15:20 We're getting a fire rescue at the loft, but it wasn't him. So that's what we're planning for. LT Cohen shows up. So at this point, we're pinging the phone. So now we're kind of doing like the extra like, all along, like just make sure this isn't some 26 year old that ran off with a 22 year old.
Starting point is 00:15:35 So we're pinging phones. We're trying to get everybody's number. This whole time, you know, hey, you, a deputy is being tasked with, get the parents on the phone. We can't get the parents, we know the neighbors close to parents are out of town, and it's, I don't know what holiday,
Starting point is 00:15:49 what Saturday is to the Jewish religion, but something about on Saturday they can't use phones. So we knew that, they don't usually try to send their use phones, okay. Remember that it was Saturday of Shabbat, so the all-swangs weren't permitted to use technology. So no one could reach them on their cell phones. And while we're playing the phone, Canaan's on the way, drone's on the way, we get this match regret it. I'm just mad that it waited.
Starting point is 00:16:28 And it's nobody's fault. Just checking the fucking boxes. So they waited. They followed the protocol, like the sergeant said, checking all the fucking boxes. But time was ticking and Kate was potentially inside the house. No one had heard a peep from inside since the first scream. Then they received information that the cell phone ping was off. Finally it was time to go in. So once everybody gets into the house and I'll be honest I don't even know how many people went in there. Because it ended up being everybody. Once they get into the house, myself and Sergeant Aguirre's going into the house. So stick teams in front of us.
Starting point is 00:17:14 So you went in? Yes. And now I'm in the front door. There was a room to the right. I did not go into it. At this point I have my gun out. We're kind of clearing behind them, opening closet doors that they're making their way through. The officers began thundering through the quiet house,
Starting point is 00:17:29 opening closets and checking rooms with their weapons drawn and their shields ready. And then I start making my way to the other side of the house and they start saying, hey, we got a locked door, we got a locked door. At the back of the house, off a bedroom, the cops found a locked door and knew the scream had to have come from inside. A female officer opened the door and was stunned at what she saw hiding in the back of the
Starting point is 00:17:58 closet. At first I was like, okay, you kind of do that like glance, like, oh, it's clear, nothing in here. Then I'm like, no, no, no, assessing. No, there's people in here. I now see a man and a female at when I saw them. I'm now trying to figure out what I got. At first it looked like he, he just was like choking her out.
Starting point is 00:18:16 At the back of the closet was Tsi Allswing, the 20 year old patient. And he had Kate in his grasp. Tsi, what a name. The 20 year old patient. And he had Kate in his grasp. Tsy. What a name. I guess his parents didn't like vowels. So they're now talking to me, what do you got, what do you got, what do you got? I'm trying to access processing. I'm like, okay, I see he's got her, you know, and then I'm like, okay, now I'm seeing the knife.
Starting point is 00:18:43 I'm like, knife, it's got a knife. At this point, as I'm like, okay, now I'm seeing the knife. I'm like, the knife, it's got a knife. At this point, as I'm talking, Nagira slides in. Where was the knife? Shiny. In relation to her body? Neck. He had it at her neck. What was she doing? Did she say anything? No, she was dead silent.
Starting point is 00:18:56 She was staring at me, like, scared. Did he say anything? No. He's right here? No, he's just there, not moving. She has her hands up, like chest maybe, like even in her throat, like kind of doing this. And like, I heard thungs are against her throat.
Starting point is 00:19:14 And the knife was either on the thumb or right above it. It was right there. And Will starts giving him commands. You don't want to do this, you don't have to do this. You know, there's a better way, he's talking. Drop the knife, drop the knife, then he starts to do to me, hey, come on man, just talk to me,
Starting point is 00:19:29 just talk to me, just talk to me. And literally as I'm behind him, I see the knife, can we, I'm thinking this to myself, I shouldn't know. I'm thinking this to myself, I'm like, man, this is fucking nice, man, this is fucking gross. And, shot.
Starting point is 00:19:44 Okay, shot the guy in the head. He dropped. We go in. It all happened in a flash. The shot rang out 100 times as loud in that tiny closet. It hit Z and he dropped to the ground. Kate was free. She was grabbed, taken out of the room. A couple of deputies took her out of the house.
Starting point is 00:20:08 People moved in. I handcuffed the subject. At that time he starts speaking. I can't tell you what he was saying. It's not because I don't know, I just don't remember. And it wasn't like it was gurgling. He was actually communicating words. He was saying something.
Starting point is 00:20:22 Then he starts hitting the ground. An officer grabbed a towel and pressed it on Z's gunshot wound as they handcuffed him to the gurney and wheeled him out of his parents' 1.5 million dollar bungalow. Outside, Kate's friends rejoiced. But now it was time to take her to the hospital and find out exactly what happened on Larkspur Trail. Palm Beach County sheriffs had spent the early morning hours in a SWAT-style takedown at a home in a Jewish Orthodox neighborhood in Boca Raton. A missing 26-year-old social worker had been trapped inside with her
Starting point is 00:21:30 22-year-old client, Zee Allswang, for the last 15 hours or so. The social worker's girlfriend, Annie, had reported her missing the evening before, but it took until the next morning to find Kate and get into the All Swangs house. When they did, the police found Kate trapped in a closet being held at knife point by Z. When he refused to comply, an officer shot him and saved Kate's life. It was an incredible and terrifying scene. Now, Kate was in the hospital recovering from the kidnapping and was ready to tell police what happened to her inside that house. Kate's identity had been protected and since we want to honor that the details of her exact
Starting point is 00:22:15 employment status will remain confidential. Despite what you might have heard on certain forums where people who spend all of their time online hang out, we do not dox victims. And if we do make a mistake, we typically correct it within 24 hours. Anyway, back to the story. You just need to know that she was finishing up her degree to become a counselor and she worked for a mental health practice, of all things, that had Zee All all swing as a client. She was tasked to help him find employment and to help him figure out how to exist in the adult world
Starting point is 00:22:52 because obviously he was having trouble doing it. Zee wasn't a normal 22-year-old. Despite his privileged upbringing and resources, he was floundering. Kate had a big morning at work and the last client of the day was Zee. Everything was kind of smooth sailing. Went through and saw the rest of the clients for the day. And then I had ski scheduled for, originally for or five thirty. He pushed it back to six p.m.
Starting point is 00:23:27 He didn't have a particular reason, but I was willing to be flexible because it's been a challenging start for him to accept therapeutic services. And this is something that's not uncommon, especially in case management, to have some clients that might be really stuck in life or really struggling to need additional support in order to get them on track and everything. Kate drove up to Z's parents house like she had done for the last month she'd been working with
Starting point is 00:23:56 them. She met with Z there and they would have their session in the den while his parents stayed in the living room. Kate only had about four or five sessions with him, so she didn't know him all that well just yet. But what she did know was that he was socially off. I guess what I would say that would be unusual with Svee was that he was a little off at times, meaning that Spie was not fully able to be present in conversation and engage. And this was something that Dad was particularly concerned about in terms of there being any cognitive deficits that might be present along with the clinical team. In addition to that, Dad would always make remarks to Courtney, who is his primary therapist, and I was the case manager on the case, would mention to Courtney that Spie's dad was very
Starting point is 00:24:57 scared of Spie and wouldn't necessarily give any context to it. Then I started speaking with Dad a little bit more often because he's a very, you know, overprotective and involved parent in Spie's life. And he had disclosed that Spie had a history of sexual assault as a minor where he was convicted and the case was ultimately sealed and resolved in the sense that he did his service, he did his community service that he did his, you know, time. He went to court mandated counseling and the therapist at that time had given him a clear bill of health. Spie, however, had never opened up about that side of his history, even when
Starting point is 00:25:45 directly asked about it. So Z had a history of assault on his record, but it was sealed and obviously no one thought it was too big of a deal to deny him home visits. Kate waited at the front door for someone to answer. Z swung it open and let her inside the cool, air-conditioned Florida home. So you know I go in with him and right off the bat he's a little bit more talkative than he normally is. He's a little bit more engaged. He's asking a lot more, he's asking a lot more questions about me to get to know me. And I looked at it from a perspective of okay, we can focus on report building. Kate was a little surprised by Z's new attitude, but saw it as positive.
Starting point is 00:26:39 Then they sat down for their usual meeting. While we were meeting for our regular case management discussion, which was for board building job discussion. Um, and a little bit more about like getting to know each other. Sve had gotten up a few times either citing that he need that Sve needed to go to the bathroom that Sve needed to go get some water and I didn't think anything of it at the time. So then when I got up to leave, when our time was over, he kept trying to persuade me to stay
Starting point is 00:27:15 and saying that he wanted me to help him with more things. Kate kept it professional and told him that she had to go. They could schedule another time to meet next week. As she walked towards the door, she noticed that all the blinds in the house had been shut. In that moment, her stomach flipped. She picked up her pace towards the front door and realized that it had now been covered
Starting point is 00:27:37 with black plastic and duct tape. And as I was about to get to the door, which I never needed to, duct tape. my neck. He was trying to overpower me. He started dragging me back into the living room. And at that point, I was resisting and he didn't like that. So he um, he started grabbing my hands, like this with his, really tightly. And I have, you know, his hand marks here from it. And I tried to struggle and break free multiple times, to which was met with his first round of beating me, which included punches in the face, being meat in the gut, just to get me to calm down and be compliant. Kate fought as hard as she could, but Z was strong, tall and overpowered her.
Starting point is 00:28:58 I bit his hand at one point. You know, I tried to kick him out and just scrote him. I really tried everything I could and he let me know that there wasn't anything you can do and then he was much stronger than me. Well there was this struggle going on and he was trying putting his body weight on me and trying to subdue me and trying to end hurting me. He kept wanting me to sit on his lap and at this point he had obviously had, he had a heart penis and kept wanting me to sit on his lap, pulling me on his lap. And kept wanting me to sit on his lap. He was pulling me on his lap.
Starting point is 00:29:45 It was so quiet in the house. Just the sound of the air conditioner humming and Z's grunts and struggles as he yanked Kate back every time she tried to get away. He would squeeze her towards his body and smack her anytime she fought. So Kate dug into her social worker toolkit and tried another approach. when he was, he was really, really angry at me. And he seemed really odd at this point to a place where Svi was sounding, you know, delusional. He was unable to listen to any logic.
Starting point is 00:30:34 He was unable to listen to any reason. He couldn't comprehend or try to see my perspective or engage in a rational discussion. And he said that the reason he was so angry at me and was doing all of this was because at our previous meeting, he had told me by accident that he had applied to a job in Pennsylvania. So I reported to Dad that he had applied
Starting point is 00:31:04 to a job in Pennsylvania. And then Spie had corrected himself and said, oh never mind, it wasn't a job in Pennsylvania. And I had not followed up with Spie's dad about that. But Spie's dad confronted Spie about this miscommunication about the location of jobs he was applying to. And Spieth thought that I was doing that to make him look bad, to steal his family's money, and to ultimately try to make Spieth need to spend more time with me. He held Kate's wrists tightly like a human handcuff, and he explained all this to her. She was terrified, and she started pleading.
Starting point is 00:31:47 You know if you need to you can you know look at the text messages if that's what you want you know but that would require you to give me my phone oh at this sorry it's okay it's okay it's okay I'm saying pieces here it's okay you're already doing great. At this point, he had taken my phone. And that was what much of the struggle ensued on. Was when he originally was first dragging me into the room. He was very methodical in wanting to take my bag and my phone away from me. And that's where he started calling me a dumb bitch and telling me that I'm like you know just a hoe that wants money and asking me how much I
Starting point is 00:32:32 make and asking me you know what I like to do with that money you know at that point I just I really focused on a very calm and collective tone saying, Speed, we're talking about like that, it doesn't make sense. Like that doesn't fit right now. And he like couldn't hear any of that. So that was his reasoning. He was mad that Kate had reported something he felt was incorrect to his father. That's how sick and delusional this kid was.
Starting point is 00:33:04 Kate kept trying to talk to him, but it wasn't working. He went to go grab duct tape and bond me with my hands like this behind my back. And he put a lot on, you know, telling me that he didn't want me to be able to get loose and that he knows all the tricks I could pull and that he thought this through. And at that point I was like,
Starting point is 00:33:30 I'm gonna be in this for a while. And then after that, while I was bound, he got my phone and was trying to convince me to give him my phone password and I didn't want to give him my phone password. So I lied or tried to give him the wrong ones and tried to have him type in the wrong ones enough times so that it would disable my phone. And he told me he knew my tricks, he knew what I was doing, and that's when he started to beat me again.
Starting point is 00:34:08 Z beat Kate again until she was face down on the floor. Still want to be a social worker? Yeah, I'm talking to you. When he had me overpowered on the floor, my knees were on the floor, and he put my hand into the couch. He's on the floor and he put my hand into the couch. He put his hand on the back of my head and he said, you know what would happen if I smashed this right here? You know, you would be dead. Throughout this process, throughout the struggle,
Starting point is 00:34:38 he is trying to grope me. He is rubbing me over my pants, on my vagina. He is grabbing my ass. All of this is mixed into the struggle. So I knew at some point that that was most likely coming. He was really well planned at times. And other times it just seemed like he didn't know what was going on or he wasn't totally there or things just weren't connecting or adding up. It was really strange and scary because it was so volatile and unpredictable.
Starting point is 00:35:12 Part of his plan was to make sure that no one could reach Kate. He wanted to wrap our phones in tin foil and put them on airplane mode. I noticed on his phone he was using this VPN. He was saying, you know, strange things about how his location could be tracked or pinged. He was talking about, you know, odd things related to people watching him and being able to see him and hear him. Like, for example, like, he did let me go to the bathroom if he took me in there and watched me. But he wouldn't let me flush the toilet because that would make too much noise.
Starting point is 00:35:49 And he would cover my mouth if I started to speak any louder than a whisper. Back at Kate and Annie's house, Annie was beginning to become worried when Kate never came home. She was supposed to be home by like 6.30, 7.30. That's when I texted her, where are you? And the message didn't go through.
Starting point is 00:36:07 It went straight to like the green text bubble. So then I was sending up just like question marks. And then I was like, are you good? Hello, I'm concerned. And then I'm like, what the fuck? Hello, are you okay? Where are you? Are you okay?
Starting point is 00:36:21 And then I was like, I'm gonna have to call her boss. And then I was like, hello, please, are you okay? And then I was like, I'm gonna have to call her boss. Okay. And then I was like, hello, please, are you okay? And then, then randomly it turned back to blue, like her phone went back on. Okay. And then I got the text message, quote, oh my God, I got pulled over on my way. Cop thought I was drunk, taking me to station. I'm going to take blood tests there because the cop is a dick. Love you. see you later.
Starting point is 00:36:46 And what time was that at? That was at 9.13. At that point, he took me over into the bedroom closest to the front door. And that was the first time he forced me to have sex with him. I convinced him, convinced him to wear a condom.
Starting point is 00:37:04 Thank God. Tried to tell me his pullout game was strong. And then he put me on the bed and he put the condom on. And like I was dry, like it hurt. And I told him that. I was like, this is uncomfortable. Like, I don't like this. This doesn't feel right.
Starting point is 00:37:23 You know, like I'm not into it right now. And he like was fixated on me calling him daddy. And putting it in him anyway, and putting it in me anyway. What you did, as I was lying down, he was barreling over me with his full body weight on top of me. I remember just thinking, when is this gonna be over? When is he gonna finish? Cause this isn't gonna stop until he's done. So it did.
Starting point is 00:37:53 This point he was tired and he wanted me to go to sleep. And I told him I was not gonna go to sleep, that I was too scared. That I was too anxious. That, you know, I'm not hungry. He offered to give me like melatonin and like sleeping aids and I told him I don't want any of that. I said like, I can't sleep.
Starting point is 00:38:12 Like, what are you gonna let me go? And this was something that I kept reiterating the whole time. He's like, when is he gonna let me go? After he raped her, Zee decided to follow up with Annie on Kate's phone. So then I'm saying what the hell is happening. Only three messages got delivered and then the phone was turned back off. Um, and then nothing. I just was like blowing up her phone trying to see if anything got sent. Okay. And then I got a text message at 12 28 a.m. Hey, sorry, I never got back to you.
Starting point is 00:38:46 I'm fine. They got me a hotel room for all the shit they put me through. I'm still kind of shook. I'm staying here tonight. I'll see you tomorrow. I'm going to sleep now. Good night.
Starting point is 00:38:55 Which just did not sound like her. That's not how she normally texts. Not how she usually texts. In five and a half years, we've had three nights apart because we were on vacation. And also a cop, the whole thing about going for a blood test
Starting point is 00:39:10 sounded sketchy to begin with, because she was coming from a client, you know, and she did have one drink with someone and she was pulled over and she refused a breathalyzer. Like, it just didn't make any sense to me. And then when she said that the cops got her a hotel room for all the trouble she caused, that was a major red flag and I immediately called the police
Starting point is 00:39:29 back and then that's when I... But before then I was calling just to see if she had been arrested for drinking and driving or if anyone had brought got brought in for like a field sobriety test or something like that. Did you call 911 or what number did you call for the police? I was calling the Boynton Police Department, I called the Delray Department. I called the FOCA. I called the county office and the sheriff's office and no one had any records of her. Z thought that his pathetic messages to Annie would keep her at bay. But Kate also did something smart. She never let Z know that Annie was her girlfriend.
Starting point is 00:40:05 She told him that Annie was her roommate, which probably helped him underestimate how hard Annie would be looking for her. I told him I wasn't gonna go to sleep and we were back on the living room couch at this point. And he was ready for round two with sex. And I told him that I was still sore and in pain and that I wasn't in the mood. And then he said again, if you ever want to get out of here, if you want to be able to leave, then we're going to need to figure out something that works for us. This guy is such an unbelievable monster. Listening to this poor woman recount what undoubtedly
Starting point is 00:40:47 is the most terrifying experience of her life is heart wrenching. This young man deserves to be locked away for the rest of his life, regardless of any mental health issues he might have, because it ain't an excuse. If you act like an animal, you belong in a cage. And the same thing happened again,
Starting point is 00:41:10 except this time he couldn't get it inside of me because I was just too dry and I was just wailing in pain. I told him I didn't want it. And then he said I need to suck him off. So I sucked him off, you know, with his hands there. And then he came all over me, and my hair, and my face, and my chest, and my sports bra I have it on here right now.
Starting point is 00:41:41 And then my hair is, you know. And at this point, he wanted me to change into his clothes or shower. And I told him that I was okay that I wanted to stay in these clothes. And then I really started after that to plead with him more about when he was going to let me go. You know, it's hard for me to necessarily sequence because it comes in flashes. At some point within the beginning part of it though, he had tried to use a heavy duty sex toy that he had on me to try to simulate me. And I told him it hurt. And I told him that it hurt because he didn't even know. While Kate was trapped in hell, Annie had rallied some support
Starting point is 00:42:36 and was not giving up on finding her girlfriend. Her boss, he's also, like the rest of this community, Orthodox Jewish, so he does not use electronics. So all night I knew that like she was with her client, so I was trying to get in contact with him and just find out like if he heard anything that there was an issue with her boss or the client. The boss.
Starting point is 00:42:56 Okay. But he was not answering the phone because he doesn't use electronics during Shabbat. So but I didn't really care at that point, so I was just continuously blowing up his phone and he finally called me back at 3 a.m. And I explained the situation. I was like, I need the address of the last client she was gonna see.
Starting point is 00:43:17 And he gave it to me and that's this house. And then I called back the Lantana Police Department because at that point I had already filed a missing persons report. All right, so you did speak to Lantana Police Department because at that point I had already filed a missing persons report. All right so you did speak to Lantana? Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah when her mom called Lantana the police then came to my house, like my apartment,
Starting point is 00:43:35 and we discussed everything. They went down and checked all the files to make sure she wasn't in any systems anywhere and then came back up and then gave me the option to make a police, oh, a missing person's report. So that's what I did. And what time was that at? Did they come in? Probably around like 1 a.m., 1.30. So at that point he started to express
Starting point is 00:43:56 how he's had like a history of suicide and that he's not planning on letting me go. And I kept at this point trying to get him to turn on his phone just to maybe like see if you know, if anyone's called or there's someone he can talk to and like figure out another way out of this, like that he doesn't have to escalate this whole big thing. And then he said he's fucked and that he's sorry.
Starting point is 00:44:21 And at that point he didn't have any hope anymore. And he wanted to take us down together. Annie was frustrated. She had checked with every police station and filed a missing persons report. There was nothing left to do except go to Kate's last known address herself and knock on the door. So Annie, along with some friends,
Starting point is 00:44:43 drove over to Zee's house on Larkspur Trail at 4 a.m. and took matters into her own hands. And what did you see or hear when you got here? Nothing. I saw her car in the driveway and I was just banging on the door and like walking around the house. And my friend stopped me from using a rock to try to crack the window even though I probably wouldn't have done anything. Kate could hear the knocks and doorbell rings from inside the house, but Zee had grabbed a large butcher knife from the kitchen and told her that if she made a sound, he'd kill her. The End Outside, Annie was calling Kate's name and waiting.
Starting point is 00:45:56 Of course, they couldn't break in, so they tried to talk to some neighbors. Six o'clock, I knocked on the neighbor's door just because I noticed that he had a ring camera. So I just wanted to know if, like, because it's facing the street, so you would have saw her car drive past that house. So it's like, okay, we know she came here, but did she ever leave? So, with the client, like how they were supposed to,
Starting point is 00:46:18 or did she only ever, like, get here? And he told me it was Shabbat, and he could not help me. I know religion is important to some people, but can you imagine if that was your loved one inside? As the knocks grew more frequent and police arrived on scene, Z began to freak out and dragged Kate into his parents closet and that's when she let out that fateful scream. That was the one time that kind of gave confirmation that I'm here. I screamed when he was taking me from the main part of the house with like the living room area in the bedrooms we had been in over to his parents bedroom and closet.
Starting point is 00:47:01 You know, at that point the cops were round and he was starting to get rid of he himself was getting really scared at one point he asked me to feel his heartbeat. But he was also getting weirdly turned on and he kept asking me to fuck in the closet and I kept telling him no, no, no, like I don't want this anymore and I still had to cuddle him, you know, want this anymore. And I still had to cuddle him, you know, with his heartbeat up against me. Every time I tried to move away while we were laying on the floor in the closet, he would pull me back in. This Kate was being held in the closet with Zee trying to rape her again while the cops surveyed the perimeter of the house. Annie waited with her friends outside and talked with the officers.
Starting point is 00:47:47 She was getting fed up. I waited here and then they got when they got back here, two of them showed up and I explained the situation and they did their little walk around and then they were in the back and they came up and we me and all my friends heard it. We all heard a scream and they came in and they said you guys heard that too and they came in and they said, you guys heard that too? And we said, yes. And then it still took three hours
Starting point is 00:48:09 for them to get inside that house. So many things went wrong during those hours while the police figured out if they could get inside. Like the sergeant at the top of the episode said, just check in all the fucking boxes. But while they were handling protocol, Kate was stuck in a closet, being held at knife point by a deranged 20-year-old who had repeatedly raped her for the last 15 hours. I mean, fuck protocol.
Starting point is 00:48:36 They laughed and they told me and my friends to go get breakfast while we were sitting out here begging them to go inside. And then when I did get them to briefly for the two seconds, she was telling me that the only thing that kept her going was hearing me yell at the cops outside to do something. So I just don't understand how this can be the correct way to handle this situation to have your deputies be telling us that we should be going for breakfast
Starting point is 00:49:00 and brunch when this was happening and chit chatting with the neighbors who were outside drinking their coffee watching us have mental breakdowns on the road because no one's doing anything. How could anyone have known what was happening inside that house? The cops had to play it safe to avoid being liable and Annie was emotional and frantic, her gut firmly telling her that her girlfriend was in trouble and was behind those doors. But finally, they got in.
Starting point is 00:49:29 And eventually, as more and more knocks started to come more frequently, and he eventually heard the drill of the door or the saw of the door that was gonna be knocked down, he wouldn't give me any answers, but he just told me, he was like, I need you to do exactly what I say, and telling me that I can't say a word and that I say a word that I'm going to be dead. So he holds me up in the closet
Starting point is 00:49:53 behind me with me in front of him and he pulls out the knife and he has it up to my neck and then he says wait a minute and then he is going through his mom's clothing and he picks out a dress of hers and asks me to hold it up and hold it and I tried to put the hook of it you know over my neck so that he couldn't you know cut it but he picked up on that and he lowered my hand and he held with this hand, this arm down and put the knife up to my throat and waited for the cops to come. And he had been saying how hopeless he was. And at this point I was shaking and crying and just saying, please let me go.
Starting point is 00:50:42 It doesn't have to be this way. We can do something else. I was like, please, I'm scared. Like like please don't hold the knife up to my throat. That's when the female officer broke in the locked door and found Kate and Zee huddled at the back of the closet. The long silver blade held tightly against her neck. Then all the police swarmed in. Within a matter of seconds, a gunshot went off and I heard it in this ear and then a ringing came on.
Starting point is 00:51:10 I couldn't look back and I was shuffled out of there. Z all-swing was shot in the front of the head. The bullet hit him right above his left eyebrow. It's not like it is in the movies. If you give them an opportunity, they will shoot you dead if you're threatening someone with a knife. This one was a near bullseye. And the most shocking thing of all was he survived.
Starting point is 00:51:38 The 20-year-old rapist and kidnapper would have to face what he did on that horrible Shabbat Saturday. Z showed up in court in a wheelchair with a plastic beige helmet on his head. He was charged with first-degree attempted murder, kidnapping, and several sexual battery charges. No one in his family attended his court appearances or spoke to the media on his behalf. Remember how Kate mentioned that Z had a previous sexual assault charge that had been sealed?
Starting point is 00:52:10 It was also for rape. And he served not a minute of jail time because the victim's family did not press charges. He was let out. Back into the free world. A rapist. Can you believe that? Yeah, these are the court papers right a rapist. Can you believe that? Now, these are the court papers right here that detail a 15-year-old girl's accusation
Starting point is 00:52:29 that Svi Oswang raped her. Oswang was 16 at the time, and the victim's attorney told me tonight because of Oswang's age and his lack of criminal history, they decided to give him a break. It's a decision they'd all now like to have back. Even Z's first victim's lawyer regretted underestimating how dangerous this man really was. So because of his young age and the fact he had never been arrested before, Roderman and the prosecutor agreed to ask the judge to go easy on Alswang. That we would agree to probation with the special conditions that he undergo an evaluation and any kind of follow-up treatment.
Starting point is 00:53:07 The judge agreed and Roderman says even the victim's family was on board with All Swang only getting probation. Z had planned Cates' attack out carefully. The police were able to obtain video footage of him buying plastic bags and other supplies from Party City, of all places, before the kidnapping. And check this out. This is the part that should sound some alarm bells and teach a little bit of a lesson about how the world works.
Starting point is 00:53:34 Zee Alswang, this rapist, chose Shabbat, a religious holiday because he knew that no one in the neighborhood would be using their cell phones, ring cameras, or any other electronic device. Shabbat meant the Jewish world was turned off, so even Z's parents would be out of communication and out of town. That bought him a lot of time, a lot of leeway, and he knew it. Even Kate's boss was an orthodox Jew. Z knew this too. His sick plan would only work on this quiet, holy day. What a sick fuck. Remember
Starting point is 00:54:18 Z was angry with Kate for relaying the wrong information to his father about a job application. Like, that was a justifiable reason for anything. In his twisted mind, Z thought that this was the perfect excuse to kidnap, rape, and torture the woman who was assigned to help him. The judge showed Z no mercy, and thank God for that. He handed him down four life sentences for his crimes to make sure that he would never be able to hurt another woman ever again. Kate lived through a woman's worst fear, but she survived. I have to think that her education and social work helped her survive this situation. It must have. She used her compassion to her advantage and was wise enough to trick her
Starting point is 00:55:11 kidnapper into thinking that the girl he was texting was only a roommate, not her beloved girlfriend of five years. So many things went wrong in this story between the cops and Kate's friends and family, but the most important thing is that Kate should have never been allowed to be alone with Zee. He had a history of sexual violence and rape. Men who do this are going to do it again. Letting Zee off so easily the first time only told his underdeveloped brain that he could possibly get away with this kind of behavior again. But this time he took it too far and he underestimated Kate's prowess and Annie's devotion despite
Starting point is 00:55:59 the cops missteps. This truly is a story of love. Annie saved Kate. She never gave up and she trusted her gut even when the cops were moving too slow or telling her that they just had to follow protocol. This was simply not acceptable. Annie's love for Kate is what saved her. And that, in its own way, is what makes this tragic story kind of beautiful. Well, I hope that by the time you hear this story, we're done with all that replacing cops with social workers bullshit. Perhaps we should stop listening to people that come up with really retarded ideas like that.
Starting point is 00:56:59 But I'm sure those of you that believe that sort of nonsense will just complain and whine instead like you always do. Maybe just leave the adulting to adults. Adults have a way of being able to keep you safe. Then again, the cops weren't really adulting, were they? I don't know. I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about. But I do think we need to stop making excuses for those with mental illness. Just because you have an illness doesn't mean you're not responsible for your actions.
Starting point is 00:57:35 I think we need to stop selling that lie. Because even at the height of madness, you still have choices to make. And those choices say who and what you are fundamentally. So sorry if you don't like that and your kid's mentally ill. It's just the cost of living in a society. The good of all outweighs. You You Music

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.