The Deck - Your Honorable Honor (King of Clubs, California)

Episode Date: November 8, 2023

Our card this week is Your Honorable Honor, the Queen of clubs from California.  This is a case I’d bet money you haven’t heard of… Because when you google her name, only her cold case card pops up. Nothing else. The story of 62-year-old Your Honorable Honor, better known as Honor, has more than been forgotten… it’s never been told. Until now. To apply for the Cold Case Playing Cards grant through Season of Justice, visit www.seasonofjustice.org. Let us deal you in… follow The Deck on social media.Instagram: @thedeckpodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @thedeckpodcast_ | @audiochuckFacebook: /TheDeckPodcast | /audiochuckllc The Deck is hosted by Ashley Flowers. Instagram: @ashleyflowersTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieTwitter: @Ash_FlowersFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Follow The Deck on social media and join Ashley’s community by texting [phone] to stay up to date on what's new!

Our card this week is Your Honorable Honor, the King of Clubs from California. This is a case I'd bet money you haven't heard of, because when you Google her name, only her cold case card pops up, nothing else. The story of 62-year-old Your Honorable Honor, better known as honor, has more than been forgotten, it's never been told, until now. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is The Deck. The late summer air in Southern California felt pleasantly fall-like on September 14, 1994. Perfect for a leisurely walk around the up-and-coming peaceful Fletcher Hills neighborhood. But for 42-year-old James Nelson, that was hardly his idea of a relaxing afternoon. Instead, he was kicked back in the

TV room watching 80's crime dramas, making the most of a relatively calm house. Given that it was 2pm on a weekday, only three of his 10 housemates were home at the huge split-level residence. Larry was in his bedroom, and Miguel was downstairs with James. And he could hear that their landlord-slash housemate,mate honor was upstairs yelling at her dog. But just as James was getting into an episode of Magnum PI, his afternoon veg sash was suddenly and loudly interrupted. He heard a long, dry-out scream in his statement was that he initially thought that maybe the dog had gotten out and gotten hit by a car or something like that.

That retired Sergeant Kevin Trotter with the Elkahon Police Department. The blood curling screen brought James to his feet and he ran upstairs to see what it happened. Is he entered into the front entryway of the house from the downstairs? He noticed blood on the floor and and the front door was open, and he could see the gate out to the street was open, which he thought supported his belief that maybe the dog had gotten out,

because she would never leave that gate open. And as he entered the area, he found her on her back in the kitchen right next to the front door. It was honor. She was unresponsive, sprawled out on the floor in a pool of blood, and her dog was standing at her feet whining. Horrified James rushed over to the landline in the kitchen to call police, but the phone

was, quote unquote, locked up. Honor had installed a device on it that prevented tenants from making calls without authorized access, her way of limiting long-distance calls. So unable to call for help himself, James booked it back downstairs, ordering Miguel and Larry to phone the cops. And hearing the franticness in his voice, Miguel called 911 with the phone downstairs that was unlocked while Larry ran back upstairs with James. Now Larry and James could tell that honor was already dead, so if they couldn't save

her, the least they could do was try and save the scene from contamination. Larry tried to get the dog away from honor's body so it wouldn't mess anything up, while James continued out the front door to flag down police who were quick to arrive at the scene. Authorities immediately began roping off the crime scene, which was bigger than what James had initially discovered. In front of the residence, there was a car that had some blood on the hood of it, and

then there was some various spots of blood in that walkway. Based on that, it's of the blood on the blood out by the car, like tells me that that was where it started. Like Trotter said, the trail of blood went from the car in the driveway, across the sidewalk, and ended in the pool of blood around honor inside. Now it wasn't clear from the scene if the attacker had followed honor into the home, or if she'd retreated there after the encounter. What was clear though was that the attack was brutal and it was targeted.

There were puncture wounds on Anna's neck and her throat had been slashed. But with what, investigators didn't know, because they couldn't find a murder weapon on the scene. Neither could officers scouring every inch of the neighborhood. The investigators at the time walked the entire block and went through trash cans and everything else and never located anything

that they believed to be a murder weapon. Back at the house, investigators were quick to start interviewing the housemates who were at home when the attack happened. James, Larry, and Miguel. But like I mentioned, they were all doing their own thing at the time. Larry said he was in his room building a model airplane.

Miguel was watching TV and so was James, so unfortunately none of them witnessed anything. But in talking to the three of them, police got some good context regarding honor's life. It seemed that she'd essentially converted her whole home into a hostel, running out rooms to long-term tenants, which, for investigators meant they had a long list of people to interview, and lucky for them with each passing hour, more of those tenants began showing up at the house. Detectives asked each of them if they knew of anyone who had an axe to grind with honor, and surprisingly, nearly every person pointed the finger at one tenant in particular.

Thirty-six-year-old Paul Brink, who also happened to be honor's long-time boyfriend. Everyone said the two of them had a tumultuous relationship, to say the least. Constant bickering, but no physical abuse that anyone knew of. One tenant said Paul told him honor controlled all of his money, which seemed to be the source of many of their arguments. And actually, almost on cue, Paul showed up at the house. They broke the news to him about his girlfriend, and once Paul regained his composure, they got right into questioning, asking him to walk through everything he'd done that day.

Paul said the day was nothing out of the ordinary. He and honor met with a new tenant that morning who was moving in soon. She had come to the house to drop off some boxes as well as her deposit. After that, honor asked Paul to go to the store and pick up some items in preparation for honor's trip later that day to go visit her grandchildren. She was going to go stay with her daughter Valerie and her husband and kids about an hour or so away just for a few days. So after dropping those items off at home, Paul said that he went to work at 1pm where he

stayed the rest of the day until right now when he showed up and now police are questioning him. So truly, he says nothing unusual happened that he could think of. Police asked Paul the same question they were asking everyone else, if he knew of honor having beef with anyone. And he brought up a name no one else had yet. Jim Boone. Jim was an old tenant who had moved out a few weeks prior.

Now, it's not super clear why Paul immediately accused Jim, but he did note that Jim's ex-wife disliked honor and would always hang up on her during phone conversations. Now, investigators kind of brushed off the whole gym thing because not only did it sound kind of baseless, but also because everything else that they were learning seemed to point to Paul. A theory that only grew stronger after talking with one of honors daughters, Julie. Julie told police that the only person she thought might have killed her mom was Paul. Like everyone else, she mentioned their rocky relationship, and she claimed it was exasperated by Paul's struggle

with a substance use disorder. But if Paul was involved, that meant his alibi of being at work had to be bogus. So investigators honed in on vetting that. In talking with Paul, they learned that he was a contract custodian at a local seers, which is where he claimed to have been

when honor was killed. And he gave a step-by-step account of his whole shift. He went through all I clean these bathrooms, I did these things, and the detectives went and checked those bathrooms. Detectives felt that in each of the places Paul said he cleaned, there was evidence that he did, in fact, clean them, like mostly empty trash cans, for example. But police didn't just stop there. While at Sears, they also checked around with some of his co-workers. They did also talk to a number of other employees who were able to say, yes, I saw him out around this time. He helped me clean up a mess here. He was in the elevator there.

Paul's timeline for the afternoon was filling up. And with a 10 to 15 minute drive, that it would have taken for him to return home, commit the murder, and then a 10 to 15 minutes back to work, things just weren't adding up. But I mean, still, it wasn't impossible. They couldn't 100% say they couldn't have left work. He did have a vehicle.

He could have theoretically done it and come back in a relatively short time frame, you know, 30 minutes, possibly or less. But even with that in mind, it still didn't seem likely that Paul was their killer. So investigators kept their eye on him, but they had to move on. And soon enough, they had something promising

to move on too. Investigators spoke with one of honor's best friends, and she brought up the name that they'd heard from Paul, Jim Boone. She said Jim's ex-wife hated honor. Though the friend didn't explain why. Luckily, Jim and his ex were easy to track down, and they both agreed to phone interviews. The ex-wife flat out told investigators that what they'd been told was true she didn't like honor or Paul for that matter. She claimed that they did drugs, specifically pot and meth, which is why she wasn't too fond of them.

But the hatred didn't run deeper than that, it seemed. Jim was interviewed at the same time as his ex, but as far as I know, he wasn't asked any questions regarding hard feelings toward honor. Why, I truly don't know, seems like a good time to bring that up and get some clarity, but instead, they chose to ask him about Paul. And Jim didn't have much to say other than completely unrelated speculation about his sexuality. After that, Paul, Jim and his ex-wife essentially fell off the person's adventurous list.

And before anyone knew it, the entire investigation had come to a screeching halt. Everyone was either pointing the finger at Paul, who had a pretty rock solid alibi, or Jim, a claim that seemed largely unfounded. So sadly, honor's case just sat on the shelf collecting dust until 1997, when someone came and shook the tree. And that someone was the newly appointed detective on honor's case, who in October of 1997 decided it was time to follow up on an old lead.

And this lead came in the form of a person, a woman named Priscilla Chavez, who went by Brian, kind of like Brian with a pee, which is how I'll be referring to her. Anyway, the detective went to Brian's house to chat with her about the call that she had made to police at an earlier date. I'll let Trotter tell you what went down in that initial call. She stated she had some involvement with the homicide that she was the person that killed her and then basically immediately recanted and said, I didn't really do it. I just want to make sure that you guys are still working on it." Now here's what's weird. Trotter can't find any record of that initial call happening.

Like he's got pages and pages of information regarding the follow-up visit in 97, but nothing on the actual initial call to police. So he doesn't know what exactly prance said or when the call occurred or even how this 1997 investigator honed in on a tip that there is no record of. But here's Trotter reading from the detective's report about that follow-up interview with Prayon. He says she had no further information as to who may have killed honor and denied having killed her herself.

I asked if she had killed on her because at an earlier date in time she had confessed that she had killed on her. I asked why she had done that and she said I did it because I felt nothing was being done in the investigation and I wanted to get the investigation started again. I knew I shouldn't have done something like that because I could get in trouble for it, but I just wanted to see the case get worked.

To make things even more interesting, Priya's confession wasn't the first time her name popped up in the investigation. In fact, her name was brought up day one, but not as a suspect. You see, on the day of the murder, police told Paul, remember, honors boyfriend, that he would need to find someplace else to stay

for the time being, given that the house that he lived in was an active crime scene. So Paul said, okay, yeah, I've got someone I can stay with. It was a friend, just a few houses away around the corner. A friend named Priand Chavez. So officers obliged, they drove him to Priand's home and dropped him off. Which is interesting in hindsight, now that this connection is being made post-confession, or at least post-review of a previous confession. I don't know why this didn't raise more red flags

initially, but now investigators wondered if something more was going on there. Though even though it's clearly getting clocked in 1997, as far as I can tell, there was no dogged pursuit to get to the bottom of what if anything was going on. It seems like for the time being, police just assumed that she was wanting attention or something and dropped it, waiting for other leads to come along. Which it was going to take a hotman before that happened. But eventually, 14 years later, something would fall right into their laps.

In August of 2011, investigators at the El Cajón PD got a phone call from someone familiar. None other than Priand Chávez. Now this time she wasn't confessing to any murders, she just said she was checking in. She said she knew honor and wanted to make sure she had not been forgotten. She wanted to share with investigators' information she believed could help in the investigation. With a nearly 17-year-old cold case on their hands at that point, detectives weren't in any position to turn down potential leads. So a detective made an appointment to meet with Priyann.

While they were still on the phone scheduling the interview, the detective heard a male voice in the background, and thought Priya said the name Paul. So the detective took a shot in the dark and asked if that was Paul brink in the background. And Priya said, yes, yes it was. And listen, same, I know that tingling feeling you got at the back of your neck. Me too. But we already knew, Priann and Paul were friends before, maybe they still were. Do I think it's a little strange to still be friends, however many years later, with the lady who confessed to your late girlfriend's murder?

Yeah, I do a little, but maybe that's just me. Now lucky for this investigator, when he showed up at Priyans house for their chat, Paul was there too. So he could ask the burning questions we all now have. Here's Trotter, reading from that detective's report. It says I asked Chavez and Brink how they met each other. Brink said that the original detective asked him if he had a place to stay while ECPD was investigating the crime scene and bring went to Chavez' residence.

And they began to have a relationship for approximately one year. So right after his girlfriend of 14 years gets murdered, he jumps into a year-long relationship with another woman who is later a person of interest in his girlfriend's murder. Okay, rebounds are a thing. I know trauma bonding is a thing. And truly, I don't even know what his living situation may have been. So was the relationship built on convenience if the house that he was in was no longer an option for him? Whatever the reason is, they spend the next year together. But Paul said that after he and Priyaan broke up, he got into another relationship for 12 years.

So why is he with Priyaan now? Well after that 12-year relationship ended, he came running back to Priyaan in 2008, and they'd been together ever since. But Priyaan and Paul both said that they hadn't been in a relationship prior to honor's debt, only after. I mean, immediately after, but after nonetheless. Now, was that the truth? Hard to know, because both Priyann and Paul seemed to have a complicated relationship with the truth. For instance, the detective asked Paul if he knew that Priyann had called the police recently regarding honor's case, and he was like, no, I had no idea.

But remember, he was literally in the room with Priyenne when she called, so that doesn't totally add up. And then you have this whole thing even starting because Priyenne confessed, and then unconfessed, so things feel muddy. Anyway, it seemed like Paul was glad investigators were there because he had a new theory for them. One that involved honor son-in-law Joe, who was married to honor's daughter, Valerie. That was the couple that honor was supposed to go and stay with the day that she died. Joe was a real estate person, so he was fairly well-today.

They lived in a gated community. Honor is an eccentric lady and honor and Joe didn't get along. Paul's speculation is that he wouldn't want her there because she would embarrass him in front of his highfalutin neighbors and that that would be the motivation for killing her to prevent her from coming up there. Priya and agreed with Paul's conjecture and she piled on with a story of her own. Chavez said she found it suspicious. That joke had a yard sale and honors residents

after the murder getting rid of all our belongings. Chavez asked Joe how much he wanted for everything and he said a hundred bucks. Chavez told Joe she wanted to buy everything and would come back with $100 when she returned 20 minutes later, Joe had packed up everything and was gone. The investigator asked Chavez why she wanted honors belongings and she said, I had money, why not?

It was my birthday present. Now theories were all well and good. They took notes, but that wasn't why they were there. Detectives wanted to revisit Prian's confession from years ago. Chavez was asked if she had contacted the Elkholm Police Department in the past regarding honor's investigation. Chavez said she had contacted detectives in the past. She stated on one occasion she told the detective she was the person who murdered on her.

She said she wanted detectives to do something about the case and that is why she told them she did it. She was asked if she murdered on her and she replied, no, I didn't know her." But she obviously did know on her. She literally just said she wanted to buy all her possessions, and Priya did eventually admit that she knew her. Her song was best friends with honor son, and that's how they knew each other. And then she admitted that they had a few unsavory interactions. Chavez said that once honor came to her house because she was upset with Brink, who is at her residence. Chavez said she remembered a belt being ripped during this incident.

Chavez said she also remembers walking by honor's house once and honor began talking to her. Before Priyenne could finish the second story, though, Paul cut her off. He stood up, banked the detectives for coming, walked toward the front door, and held it open. One of the detectives wrote in his report, quote, quote, "'It was clear to me that Brink was uncomfortable and wanted us to leave the residents,' end quote.

Paul basically did everything short of saying, don't let the door hitch you on the way out. So what the rest of that story was, investigators would never know, because they would never talk directly with Priyann again. She died in 2018 of cancer and investigators were left wondering if any hope of solving honors case died with her. But then, they found someone in Pryan's life who might be able to help. Two years after Pryan's death in 2020, Pryan's sister randomly came forward to police

with an interesting story. The sister said she and Anise were at Brienne's bedside visiting her while she was in hospice care. And that went out of nowhere. Brienne said, remember honor? The two said yes, they remembered. And then Brienne made a gesture, dragging her finger across her neck, like a throat slash. And then she told them, the murder weapon would never be found.

That was it. You could call it confession number two for Priya. Now, I don't know why the sister didn't come forward sooner, and I don't know what Spargter desired to do so in 2020. But I don't want to harp on that too much because let's be real better late than never, right? And this was huge for the investigation. Detectives were hopeful that the sister could provide a bit more context for them, like details of the truth behind honor and Priya's relationship. And their apparent hatred of each other. But, unfortunately, she said she wasn't that close with her sister, so she didn't really know anything concrete.

She'd heard through the great bind about a potential love triangle involving Priyaan and honor, but that was all she knew. Police wanted to get in contact with the niece, who supposedly was there and witnessed the same confession, but when they got a hold of her, she remembered things just a bit differently. Like she remembered it happening, but the details weren't 100% the same. She recalled that Priyaan started talking about honor out of nowhere, and then verbally confessed that she, quote, slit her throat.

And then took the knife to quote, daddies, and hit it. Now, like I said, this is two years later that these women are coming forward with this story, so it's understandable to have some discrepancy between accounts. But honestly, even these discrepancies, to me, aren't totally discrepancies. They're both kind of saying the same thing. Either way, whichever point of view you believe or a combination of the two, that is a full-on deathbed confession. That's how Trotter felt, too, when he read it in the case file.

He had actually retired from the department in 2020, but returned about a year later on a part-time basis to assist with cold case homicides. Part of Trotter's job when he came back was to go through their files and determine which cases had the highest solvability. And with a deathbed confession, honors was very high on that list.

When I heard there's a deathbed confession on this, and that would be a great early win that I thought it would get to get the team rally and start making progress. I thought, oh, this one should be easy. Wishful thinking trotter. With their prime suspect deceased, investigators decided that their best route was DNA testing. There had been some testing done of all the blood found at the scene back in the day, and at the time, everything had come back to honor. But present-day detectives were hopeful that with modern technology, they'd be able to find something, anything, that would

be a match to their killer. But as you well know, these things take time, and in the meantime, they had other matters to tend to. Like paying a visit to the man closest to the victim and the suspect, the one who hadn't been interviewed in a decade. Draughter in the team scheduled a visit with Paul to collect an oral swab, you know, to compare to any potential foreign DNA that they might find in their testing. Paul was totally cooperative with the sample collection, and while the team was there, they decided to ask him a few questions. Particularly, questions about Priyaan's deathbed confession.

Prank acknowledged the statement was made, but he claimed Chavez was not capable of it, and that she loved and respected honor. Paul also said that Priyaan might have been trying to draw some attention to herself because she was always jealous of honor and how popular she was. Nepal was more than willing to answer all of investigators' questions, but he did have a few things of his own to get off his chest, like reiterating his suspicion of Joe, honor son-in-law. He noted that, one time, prior to Honor's murder, Joe said something kind of sketchy.

Prior to the homicide, at some point, Joe was at their house, and Joe was telling Paul, you should move out, something bad's going to happen here. But Joe's involvement wasn't Paul's only theory. He also mentioned that he thought the mafia might have had something to do with it. Of course, like last time, the detectives listened to what Paul had to say, and they documented it. But what they really wanted to know about was the details of honor and

pre-ans relationship. They asked if the two of them had ever gotten into a fight that he knew of. And he was like, actually, yeah, they had a little cat fight once. And he claimed that it was over him. Here's Trotter reading from his own report this time. I asked why they would fight over him and he claimed not to know. I asked if he had been having a relationship with the Chavez at that time since he went to live with her immediately after the homicide. Brink initially claimed that he and Chavez were never in a romantic or sexual relationship. He also maintained that he did not know why honor and Chavez had had a fight over him. At this point we thanked him for his cooperation and I

gave him a business card. As we were about to leave, bring shook my hand and he admitted to me that he and Chavez did actually have sex but it was only one time he said it was before the homicide. So he did have an affair with Priya. Police had long suspected that to be the case, but now they had confirmation. That is, if you can trust anything Paul says. I, for one, think you can't trust the guy as far as you can throw in, but I don't know why

he'd lie about an affair. Anyways, investigators left that interview with Paul scratching their heads with a lot to think about. None of the investigators bought the Joe Angle, simply because the motive just didn't make sense, killing your mother-in-law because she potentially embarrasses you for a couple of days, like that's a bit of a stretch. But you might be asking yourself, what about the whole, you should move out, something bad's gonna happen here thing that Joe supposedly said to Paul.

And, listen, fair, that's sketchy. But, Trotter says he's pretty sure that comment was taken out of context. It was known that Joe, who was a real estate guy, was unhappy with what honor had done with her house. She'd converted her garage and pool house to living spaces, and was essentially running a whole business out of her home. I think really what Jill was afraid of was at some point the city would come down on her

and the way she'd put her at this house and that she would find a homeless but that's a bit speculative but I think that would be his concern about why he would get in there and say things like you should get out of here. So investigators kind of swept the whole Joe thing to the side and focused on the pre-ann angle once again. But detectives hadn't heard the end from Paul. To this day, he keeps in regular contact with investigators. And it seems like each time he reaches out,

he has something new to add. Like in February of this year, he called up the Colt case squad to get a little bit more off his chest. He reiterated his confession that yes, he'd had an affair with Priyenne. And this time he even provided a timeline. He said that it was six years before the murder, and it had only happened once. Paul also gave an explanation this time for why he thought the mafia was involved.

He claimed one of the housemates who found on her murder said it looked like a hit by a professional. Now he didn't specify which housemate told him that, but he said that that's his sole reason for thinking organized crime was involved. Another time Paul contacted police, he tried to discredit pre-ant's deathbed confession, saying that she was in hospice care and receiving doses of pain medication when it happened. He believed that she was not in her sound mind and hallucinating when she made those statements. Which, to be fair, could be a valid point,

but police aren't totally buying it. Though the case is still wide open, and they're doing their best to keep an open mind. Right now, literally where we're at is I think we've talked to all the people that we can talk to. So for us, we're really hoping to pursue getting items that we have in evidence that we're collected

from the time, re-analyzed using modern DNA standards and techniques in the hopes of identifying a suspect that has thus far not been identified or confirmed. So I mean, if we were to find Priyanshavas's DNA at the crime scene or on the clothing of the victim, that would be rather significant or someone else that wasn't hurt. Because I mean, we don't know for sure.

That's where the investigation needs to go. Unfortunately, the reason we're not making progress with that is that our local sheriff's department is very backlogged and they basically told us if they're not gonna get to it any time soon because the suspect pre-end is deceased since 2018. So it's not like a public safety issue. Drawter said the last estimate they got from the lab

was two years. And don't get me wrong, I get what Drawter's saying and why the testing is taking so long. But I can't imagine how frustrating it is, not only for detectives, but for honors loved ones, waiting and waiting for this testing that may very well not yield the results they're hoping for at all.

And if it doesn't, that means the suspect isn't dead and there might be a public safety issue. We did let them know about the nonprofit I founded that provides grants to investigating agencies for things like DNA testing. So season of justice is on their radar. But for now, they are crossing their fingers and waiting. Either for those results, or for another groundbreaking tip that'll take the case over the finish line. And maybe, just maybe, someone out there listening right now can help with the latter. But before I close out this episode, I want to take a minute to tell you about honor. Someone used the word eccentric to describe her, but I leaned toward using the word spunky

or individualistic. When she wanted to do something, she did it. And she didn't give a damn what anyone else thought. Even her name. I mean, I'm sure you've guessed by now that that's not her birth name. Prior to the name change, she was Betty Sue Freeburn. And one day in the late 60s or early 70s, she was watching a film in which one of the actresses name was on her. And she loved

the name so much that she wanted to have her whole name change to just honor. Like one name, like Adele or Beyonce. But when she went to sign the paperwork and make things official, they wouldn't let her have just one name. So instead, she cooked up, you're honorable, honor. It's a cute, funny story, but I think it says a lot about how honor lived her life and who she was, which is true to herself. That is the honor that so many around her knew and loved. And it's the honor her family is still longing to see one more time. Like I mentioned at the top of this episode, honor honors case hasn't seen an ounce of the coverage it

deserves, but that doesn't mean her story has been forgotten. Her children are still longing to see their mom's case solved after all these years. They deserve closure, and honor deserves justice. So please, if you know anything about the murder of your honorable honor in 1994 call the El Cajon Police Department at 619-593-5774 or you can email them at coldcaseatelcajon.gov. The Deck is an audio chuck production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about the Deck and our advocacy work, visit thedeckpodcast.com. So what do you think Chuck? Do you approve? Rrrr!