The Misery Machine - The Case of Andrea Balcer | RIP Tony & Ali Balcer | Halloween - Winthrop, Maine (TRAGIC)

Episode Date: November 2, 2020

This week, Drewby and Yergy discuss another local case taking place in the early morning hours of Halloween 2016, in the small town of Winthrop, Maine. Andrea Balcer, a 17 year old student with a seemingly bright future ahead of her, snaps, leaving her mother Ali, father Tony, and their family dog dead in her wake. The only survivor of the horror was Christopher, Andrea's then 24 year old brother. We discuss the known theories as to why Andrea may have committed such heinous acts, and how her actions shattered her family and community.  This episode is brought to you by Scary Time, help support us by clicking the link to check out Scary Time here: http://www.dummies.fan/mmachine Join Our Facebook Group to Request a Topic: https://t.co/DeSZIIMgXs?amp=1 Support Our Patreon For More Unreleased Content: https://www.patreon.com/themiserymachine PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/themiserymachine Instagram: miserymachinepodcast Twitter: misery_podcast Discord: https://discord.gg/kCCzjZM #podcast #documentary #truecrime #halloween Source Material: https://mycrimelibrary.com/andrew-balcer-teen-killer-transgender-teen-murders-parents/ https://bangordailynews.com/2018/12/04/news/woman-gets-sentenced-to-40-years-for-killing-her-parents-and-dog-on-halloween/ Photos courtesy of Ali Balcer/Facebook, RevTony Exiles/Facebook, and pressherald.com

And I'm Drewby. And this week we're doing another local case, one that happened just up in Winthrop four years ago. Let's see Andrea Balser case. Yes, this happened on Halloween of 2016 in the early morning hours. And today being Halloween, we thought it would be a rather topical pace. Yes, absolutely. And if you're listening on YouTube, please hit like and subscribe, hit the bell notification, share this video with people you think they might like it. We've had a lot of growth lately and I'm very excited about all the new listeners. So without further ado, Andrea Balser. So Winthrop is a small town in Kennebett County, Maine, with a population just above 6,000 that doubles during the summer months as part-year residents return to seasonal camps located on the shores of Winthrop's lakes and ponds. Winthrop is like many small towns and has a very low crime rate, roughly 4.1 times lower than the national average. Over the past five years, Winthrop has seen decreasing violent crime.

crime and property crime. In 2016, Maine only had 18 homicides. So Winthrop is a place that I did not grow up far from at all. Me neither. I was like 10 minutes from the Winthrop line, roughly. There's really nothing to say about it. Yeah, it's a small town on the way to Augusta is basically, there's nothing wrong with it per se. It has a cute downtown.

It's very cute downtown. It's very small, but it has these old, like, charming, buildings. There's really nothing to say about it. It's known for this long stretch on Route 202 and all the buildings that come up while you're going through it like Fast Eddies. Is that? Fast Eddies. Yeah, it's Winthrop. Yeah, it's definitely Winthrop. And they have, from what I understand, a really good fisherman's platter and Haddock sandwich according to one of my go workers. And there was an old steakhouse on that same stretch, which had a cow out front. The cow is still there. Yes, but it's now. I think it's like a farm and feed type store. Yes, I believe that's true. There's the creepy

hotel. That's probably for people who aren't from Winthrop. I'm assuming people from Winthrop don't really like to associate it with that much. But if you are from away and somebody asks you, what's the first thing you think of when you hear the name Winthrop? It's probably this creepy motel that's right on Winthrop line. Yeah. So if you think about any, Winthrop Monmouth line, any sort of hotel in a movie or a TV show that is creepy, strip motel. It's your standard strip motel, how it looks on the outside. looks like it was around in, I don't know, 70s, 80s, maybe. Yeah, it has that kind of almost Western look to it. It does.

We don't have a lot of motels that look like that around here. It's one of those motels you'd see in a movie when they were trying to really get across, oh, this is a small town motel in the middle of nowhere. It looks like that. Kind of like the motel they stay in in Schitts Creek. I know you haven't seen it. I have not seen it, no. But it's sort of like that.

But for some reason, when I look at it, it reminds me of one that should be somewhere like on Route 66 out west. Yeah. That's what it looks like to me. Yeah, but besides that, I mean, people go there for the lakes and the ponds. I personally have never been on them. I have. So Winthrop Lake, I've done some canoeing there. There is a cute little island towards the back called Boy Scout Islands.

Well, it's not the official name. That's my aunt called it. She calls it that because she went there and there was like remnants of an old little campfire. So I think she romanticized the idea of a bunch of boys scouts going out there in camping. Who knows? Yeah. There's also like a bridge you can jump off of Lake Covez-Conti, which is one of the bigger lakes around the area, is a lake that we took our boat out as kids. So I've spent quite a bit of time in the area.

I also played sports. So we played against Winthrop pretty often. So I'm pretty familiar with the area. I have to drive through it literally any time I go see my mother and my sister. Yeah. Now that we've set the stage for you for what. this small town is like. This all changed during the early morning hours of Halloween of 2016 on Pineau Road,

which is a residential street with a few houses just off of Route 202 and East Winthrop near Lake Copsicani. At approximately 1.45 a.m., residents of Pine Noel Road began to call 911. Someone thought to be a woman was running around the neighborhood screaming and ringing doorbells and knocking on doors furiously. The voice screamed in horror that they were in trouble. Someone had a gun. They were afraid for the life and they didn't want to die tonight. None of the neighbors opened their doors opting to call 911 instead.

How helpful. Right? I think if someone were running through the halls here slamming on doors. Yeah, I would let them in. I would absolutely let them in. I understand definitely this is a rural area. This doesn't happen and, you know, they are fearing for their lives too. But you see a lot of people who end up getting killed because of bystander apathy like that.

Yeah. And I mean to extend, too, yes, it's a rural area. If somebody's running through here, do you think that they're really going to be scamming people like this to bring them out just to kill them for no reason? It doesn't make sense. Like, obviously, be safe. Have your wits about you. A lot of people in this area have weapons. So handle these things cautiously. Sure. And definitely call 911. But to just not let anyone in, I don't know. I just feel like I would have let this person in. Me too. So the voice did not belong to a woman, rather to 24-year-old Christopher Balser, who lived in the neighborhood. While dispatch was fielding multiple 911 calls from the residents of Pinewall Road, they also had on the line one Andrea Balser, whose confession would send ripples of shock and horror through the town of Winthrop forever. So 17-year-old Andrea, you may hear in some news clippings, Andrea, but I've heard the family say, the name Andrea, so we're going to use the name Andrea. So 17-year-old Andrea happily explained to dispatch that she had killed her mother by stabbing her in the back, often laughing and cracking jokes.

I don't know if I'd say laughing or cracking jokes about it. It just seemed like kind of this almost manic disbelief was in good spirits for sure, but it just seemed like very manic in my opinion. I don't know. For me, it felt a little bit too jovial. It did come across jokes. But there was something eerie about it to me when I listened to the dispatch. Her father woke up to her mother's screams and she stabbed him to death as well.

She also killed the family dog, a small chihuahua because it was, quote, barking too much. Andrea was armed with a Walther P.K. 380 belonged to her father, as well as a large K-bar knife. She couldn't state exactly why she decided to murder her parents and left her weapons inside at the request of the 911 dispatcher and walked outside when the police arrived in order to be arrested. So Andrea was born in Nantucket, but grew up in Winthrop. By all accounts, she was a great kid, unlike many rural teenagers, you know, as Drewby can attest as well, from small towns, she didn't drink or do drugs. You know, just growing up in a small town, that's what teenagers sometimes do because they're bored. It's everywhere. Either due to boredom or because so many people

are doing it, you almost don't have a choice. Yeah, I'm not trying to. to throw out a huge generalization here, but it's kind of common. If anyone can make this, for lack of better term, generalization, if you dare call it that. It's us who grew up in those situations. Yeah, it's true. But regardless. She was in a catalog of AP classes such as calculus, chemistry, physics, and Latin four. And these weren't just like you're running the mill. She was in the AP classes. Yeah, these are advanced placement. These are difficult classes. She excelled in all of them. Yes. She was aspiring to be a marine biologist. Andrea had a love for the ocean that Maine is known for and wanted to go to Maine Maritime Academy and Castine so she could be Coast Guard certified.

And that's a really prestigious place to go. Yes, it is. Her middle name was Taney, which was an ode to the last ship floating during the World War II attack on Pearl Harbor. This name was given to her by her father, Tony. Antonio Balser, who was also known as Tony, was retired Coast Guard serving for over 20 years and a road captain and chaplain for the Exiles Motorcycle Club out of Pittston. He led the MC Bible studies and was known to them as Rev. Tony was a recovering alcoholic and used medical marijuana to treat a bad back in PTSD. He spent his time trimming marijuana for local growers.

So some people might be hearing this and being like, wait, what? This is a legal activity. Well, in Maine, it is not. No, we've had medical marijuana legal for a number of years now. And actually, in 2016, recreational became legal. So you could have your own plants for recreational uses at this time, and you could have plants for medicinal uses years before that. We have countless numbers of dispensaries, and I believe eight of them just this year became legal to sell recreationally. They really took their time allowing that.

Yes, it is here, and many people work for grow facilities or have their own little government-approved grow facilities at their house. So working with marijuana here is not illegal, as some might think it is. Yeah, and it's not even questionable anymore here. Right. So Alice Balser, known commonly as Allie, was described as a kind mother. She had a passion for running and was an avid animal lover. Ali worked as a veterinary technician at Winthrop Veterinary Hospital on Route 202, which was just miles away from the family home. The family had 17 pets, which included 12 cats, two snakes, two guinea pigs, and one dog.

which was unfortunately the small chihuahua that was killed. On October 29th, Tony and Ali Balser went to a Halloween party and came home late, sleeping in most of the next day. Christopher Balser lounge about the family home playing on his Nintendo D.S. And Andrea, being studious and it being a school night, caught up on her homework. Later in the day, the balsters went into town to pick up dinner and brought home Wendy's that they ate together as a family. Andrea had the Baconator.

I would probably have the Baconator too. Yeah. I know you don't do bacon, but it's one of the better Wendy's sandwiches. Pigs are friends. Pigs are friends. After, the family sat together and watched Monty Python's Life of Brian. By all accounts, it was a pretty normal day. Andrea went to bed around 9 p.m.

Her parents were already asleep, and her brother, Christopher, was in his basement bedroom playing on his computer. After her arrest, Andrea was taken to the local police station and was questioned by the Winthrop Police Department and the main state police. The idea was to find a motive for the killing and to get her comfortable, as Andrew was had already confessed to double homicide on the dispatch call. They talked a lot about school and the advanced classes that Andrea was taking. She seemed very content to be discussing herself. They talked about video games and RPGs.

Her favorite game was Elder Squirrels Oblivion, which I've never played. I haven't heard the best reviews about. I played Morawind. I liked it, though, very easily broken. As you probably know, the most popular game from that series and widely considered the best as Skyrim, unless you're really old, you probably consider the best to be the second one, Daggerfell.

But that's my... Or if you're Yergy who can't play Skyrim, I have problems with Vertigo with a lot of video games, specifically Bethesda games. So I bought Skyrim and immediately couldn't play it. But for some reason, I was able to stomach playing Ultra Scrolls online. And I did that for a little bit, but... Yeah, I never tried that either. I, that game is too much of a time sink.

I don't have time anymore to... I maybe put five hours into it. I just can't do it. I know people with hundreds of hours. I just can't do that anymore. So, Andrea was a member of the Winthrop School's track team for a number of years to impress a girl, by her claim, and performed in the throwing offense, like discus and javelin. She referred to this girl as, quote, a mistake. Socially, Andrea didn't connect with the rest of the student body, much like many teenagers.

She claimed to not have many memories from childhood. Overall, Andrea came across as a well-spoken, well-adjusted teenager that had all of her ducks in a row and was set up for success. and, I mean, listening to the call, it's hard to disagree with that. She did come across very well-spoken, and she seemed, I don't know, sound of mind when talking. However, the tone of the room changed when the topic of her family came up. Andrea claimed her parents had a bad marriage and constantly fought verbally, especially after his retirement from the Coast Guard. She had a lot of animosity towards her father, referring to him as,

the guy that lives in my house and eats all of my food. She claimed that her brother was on Ali's last nerve, Ali being their mother, due to drop it out of school twice and living in the basement. Andrea, like many teenagers, especially ones that are more bookish or have more varied interests from the norm, was a loner and didn't have many friends outside of school. She claimed to have felt suicidal and felt this every few weeks. This feeling was fleeting and she didn't have any concrete plans to end her life. However, she didn't feel like being alive. I think the way she put it across was, yeah, I feel it, but it's not like I've ever had a gun to my head. I think that's how most of us feel.

A lot of teenagers will think about suicide without concrete plans. I think this is just a thing that happens to a lot of teens, especially if you live in Maine where it's bleaker, there's not a lot of opportunity, and you're in the middle of a pandemic. So, I mean, I don't really think. I mean, above and beyond that, Maine, like a lot of different places in the north, you. You, it's cold, it's dark for a good portion of the year. Into the winter months, you are, you know, going to work or school in the dark. Yeah, you're coming home. You're coming home.

Yeah. So it's very similar to a lot of Scandinavia nations in that aspect. Although I think those places are fabulous. I just don't think that the fleeting thoughts of suicide or anything to hold on to here is to establishing a motive or to. No. I think that's very normal for a teenager. Yeah, for sure. So Andrea walked the detectives through the events of the evening. She took a shower, painted her nails, and then lounged about for a while, deciding to lay down in about 9 p.m. She claims to not remember much else, but felt empty, not happy, anxious, or stressed, just empty. Andrea goes on to say that around 1.30 a.m. she was shaking and had a knife in her hand and that everything was a blur. That knife in question was a K-bar, which is a military-style knife that Christopher had bought.

for her for Christmas a few years back. Andrea had a lot of swords and spears in her room and used the K-bar for when she went hunting. The K-bar has an average blade length of seven inches and I'm sure your average person may be like, wow, why would somebody own a knife like this? Well, everyone does. It's a very common knife that people in Maine own. And when I say very common, I mean very common. Even some of here are just people who aren't gun nuts or into weapons or into weapons.

military stuff, they just own K-bars just because it's useful to have around and there's just a culture of having that. Kids carried knives in school when I went to school and while I don't recall seeing any K-bars in school, I mean, I knew so many people that own these things and it's just a commonplace in Maine now. So if somebody tried to convince me that somebody owning a K-bar around here was a warning sign, I would laugh at them. Yeah, a lot of people, I mean, they're very synonymous with hunting-style knives. Everyone uses them for hunting. And they're high quality, too. They're a useful tool. You know, I don't hunt, but if I were to have some sort of knife, this is a knife that I probably have on me because it's very common. They're very easy to get.

Yeah. You know, they have them at gun shops, hunting shops. A lot of people refer to them as a Rambo knife. So if you don't know what it is, just think of that. Yeah. So again, does Andrea owning this Kbar automatically qualifies a warning sign? No, not at all. So Andrew claims to have heard a 13 kilohertz frequency tone. That was the exact terminology, which I find impressive or weird. I'm not sure which because even as a musician, you can play a tone for me and I wouldn't be like, oh yeah, that's 13 kilohertz. I didn't immediately know exactly what that sounded like until I looked it up. So it's not really high pitch, but it's in the higher frequency. for sure. So it's sort of like a high-pitched tone that you'd hear when you're experiencing

tinnitus or ringing in your ear. I mean, not me personally. When I get ringing in my ear, it's really high-pitched. So maybe some people get that frequency in their ears. That's what I get. So we don't know how she would have actually known exactly what that was. Yeah. And I would assume that she wasn't accurate about it being a 13-kilhertz tone. I would surmise that it was close. And even that, I just found it weird that she described it that way. But regardless. So Andrea walked into her parents' room, waking Allie, who asked if she was having a bad night if she wanted to sit in her room and talk about it.

So they walked into Andrea's room together, and Allie reached out to hug Andrea. As she reached out to hug her, Andrea stabbed Allie in the back repeatedly. She had nine separate knife wounds in her back in her chest. As Ali screamed in agony, Tony Balser came running into Andrea's bedroom. there was a massive struggle and Tony attempted to fight back and defend himself. But ultimately he was no match given Andrea had a K-bar and was killed by Andrea, having been stabbed 13 separate times. So hearing the commotion, Christopher came up from his bedroom in the basement and found his father laying in a pool of his own blood at the top of the stairs, breathing very slowly, with Andrea standing over him wielding the K-bar and's Tony's gun, which was the Walther P.K. 380. Tony often left his gun out in the open locked and loaded.

Christopher was going to call 911, but instead threw his phone at Andrea's feet. Christopher begged for his life and Andrea told him to go back to his bedroom and promised not to hurt him and even asked him, do you want to die today? A throwback to a joke she had made years ago regarding what would happen if she snapped and killed her family. Andrea let Christopher go and he smashed his head off the garage door during his escape. At this time, Andrea contacted 911 to turn herself into the police who didn't immediately believe what was happening, thinking it to be a Halloween hoax. So here's another kind of weird tidbit of information. Andrea sang Pavarotti in the back of the police cruiser while police were securing the scene.

Luciano Pavarotti, probably being one of the more famous opera singers that even your average person would know about. Yeah, she's saying Ladonna I.Mobilay, which is about the fickleness of women. So the thing about this song, some people allege that there's some sort of resentment towards women in singing this song. I didn't think so because it's a very popular song. If you look it up, you'll probably have heard it. But it should be noted that Andrea has a pretty extensive knowledge of Latin having taken Latin for us. So it's possible. She knew what the song was about.

Also possible. She just really likes opera. I don't know. I don't really look too deep into this one. If you looked deep into it, you could find some sort of poeticness to it, but I don't really think it was anything that was intentional. Andrea claims to have felt affections for her family the night before and mourning of the murder, even towards her mother as she was stabbing her to death. On the way to Long Creek Youth Detention Center in South Portland, Andrea joked with police and remarked how nice they were being to her, making some comment that on TV cops are portrayed as very mean and cruel and that she had the opposite. Is it experience, I guess?

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Best of all, if you like the creator, you can follow them for more great content. What do you listen to between episodes of The Misery Machine? How about a scary episode from another indie creator? With Scary Time, it's spooky season all year round. Check out Scary Time via the link in our show notes. If you dare. So one important thing to note is while at the Long Creek Youth Attention Center down in South Portland, Andrea came out as transgender after talking with the counselors and psychologists.

Her maternal grandfather announced her chosen name and pronouns to the court. So if you look this up, you'll see a lot of publications and news sites referring to her by her dead name and using male pronouns. Some of this is people not really believing it. And the way I look at it is she identifies as a woman. She wants female pronouns used, so I have no issue using them. You know, you can separate the fact that she's a complete monster, but not dislike her for her pronouns. Yeah, just know that when you look this up further, you'll, see a different name and just putting that out there for if you ever want to do further research or

listen to more about this and being confused being confused being like you know this isn't the name i heard well that's what happened so with that out of the way it took nearly a year to decide whether or not to try andrea as an adult because she was 17 at the time of the killings the defense argued that it was inappropriate due to her being under age however the prosecution cited the gruesomeness of the crimes and andri's high IQ as factors to why she should be tried in an adult court it was ultimately decided that Andrea would be tried as an adult and was subsequently transferred to the county jail. Right before her trial, Andrea changed her plea to guilty. She also wanted to talk about what was going on her life and the events leading up to the murders and phoned the Kennebec

Journal to do a jailhouse interview. She talked about the alleged mental abuse from her father, Tony, in particular a time on her 16th birthday when Tony approached Andrea with an unloaded gun, placed it on her chest and pulled the trigger, stating, happy birthday. birthday, six-letter F word that we can't say on YouTube. Yeah, this was bleeped out in the interview, so it may have been something else, but that's what it sounded like it was. So, yeah, this was not mentioned before. This was mentioned much later.

She was 19 when this all came out. She was scared to come out as transgender to her family due to it allegedly being beaten out of her as a three-year-old child after telling her parents that she wanted to grow up to be a woman. Andrea claims to have never told her brother, Christopher, about her gender identity because she was afraid he would react in a similar fashion. Andrea also alleged that her mother, Allie, was overly affectionate and had been molesting her since the age of 14 till about the age of 16.

Andrea claims that she was afraid that it was going to happen again in the early morning hours of October 31st after Ali whispered into her ear, do you want me to make everything better? She claimed that this was a trigger for the murders. However, the court found the claims to be too little too late. The Kennebec Journal held the interview but did not publish it all. in full, specifically the manner in which Andrea claims Ali had been molesting her. As this interview was held pre-trial, the courts tried to subpoena the content.

However, their motion was denied. To this day, the Kennebec Journal has not released full transcripts of the interview to anyone. And I don't understand this. And yes, freedom of press, you can keep it covered up. Sure, they have that right under the Constitution, but I find it irresponsible at best to withhold that, especially around a trial, and especially to this day. During sentencing, Andrea Balser, dressed in green jail clothes, stated that she would not ask for leniency. She has been quoted as saying, I'm here today to ask for one thing, and that is for the forgiveness of my family.

I don't blame them for this because I've caused them such great pain. They believe I have no remorse for what happens. Andrew said that there is nothing that she could do to explain to family and friends how she feels about what she did. Quote, I made a terrible mistake, one that cost the life of two people who made and raised me. Though no one may believe me, I'm truly sorry for what I have done. I killed my parents. Andrea also said she hopes her beloved brother Christopher would be able to deal with his demons and forgive her. As friends and family members spoke emotionally about the effect that the slayings had had on them,

Andrea often broke down in sobs during the three and a half hour sentencing hearing. Some family members referred to Balser by her dead name during the hearing while others called her Andrea. Tensions ran high as the family were not only mourning the loss of Tony and Ali, but also of Andrea. Christopher Balser, who now lives in Ohio, asked the judge to show no leniency. Quote, I just want this to be over. Two years ago, my entire support system was destroyed. Justice could not be served by what happens today. I want you to do all that's possible to put this dangerous person away from society, end quote. Allie Balser's older brother, Carl Pierce, asked the judge to protect society from Andrea, whom he described as dangerous. And I quote, society needs to know

why kids like her do things like this. She needs to search deep into her soul to provide us answers about what happens. Workers from the Winthrop Veterinary Hospital where Ali Balser worked emotionally described her as a loving, accepting, understanding, and generous woman who was devoted to her children. All said that they were devastated by the murders and struggled to understand what had happened. Only her maternal grandfather, Arthur Pierce, spoke in support of Andrea. Arthur was a former school superintendent, and he talked about Andrea's intelligence and academic achievements. While incarcerated, Andrea earned a high school equivalency diploma.

Pierce paid for Andrea's legal defense with the money intended to send her to the Maine Maritime Academy to study marine biology. Andrea was then sentenced to 40 years in the main state prison for two counts of intentional or knowing murder and one count of aggravated cruelty to animals. Andrea's plea agreement with the main attorney general's office called for the prosecution to recommend a sentence of 55 years in prison. The defense urged the Superior Court Justice to impose a lesser sentence close to the 25-year mandatory minimum, but did not propose a specific year length for the sentence. The main state prison is a maximum security prison for men. However, Andrea is being housed in a section for prisoners with sensitive needs. However, tragedy struck yet again, as members of the same. and friends of the Exiles Motorcycle Club

gathered to honor the club's fallen road captain and his wife when a member of the funeral possession died in a crash. The exiles were on a funeral procession heading down Route 27 South and one of the bikers, his name was Christopher Graham, had fallen behind and was trying to catch up.

He came up behind the procession at too fast of a speed and he ended up laying down his bike striking a pickup truck that was part of the procession. He died instantly. There is but one silver line of the tragedy. The Winthrop Veterinary Hospital where Allie Balser worked, took in all 16 of the family's remaining pets, and found homes for all of them. So I guess final thoughts, and this is obviously a local case to us,

but there are some theories thrown around, there are some things people allege. Some people think that Andrea is, or should have qualified for an insanity plea. The problem is, is when you just readily admitted, even if it seems like you're admitting due to some lapse insanity, just that sheer admission can be enough to bar you from getting insanity. And insanity's hard to get in America. Again, this is why, and I'm not supporting killing your parents or anything, but this is why you don't talk to the police. This is why you ask for a lawyer. Talk to the lawyer first. Because if something happened and you truly weren't sound of mind

or you truly did snap for whatever reason or some mental health reason caused you to do something unthinkable that you normally wouldn't if you were sound of mind a lawyer would more easily be able to make sure justice is properly served

than if you just comply with the police so there's my little disclaimer on that one however some people allege that this whole I forgot what happened was not true, was a lie, to potentially get a hook line and sinker insanity play and just didn't know the proper court process

and just had really improper strategy. And then later decided, okay, this strategy isn't working, I'm going to come out as transgender and I'm going to allege verbal abuse from my father, homophobic remarks from my father, transphobic remarks from my parents and sexual abuse from my mother. These are just things people say. We obviously don't know heads or tails.

We can't really say much because Andrea at this point is the only person that knows. Yeah, she's the untrustworthy narrator here and the other two people that would have any information on this or dead. And Christopher Balser says that none of this is true. However, I will say that there are plenty of cases where parents, will choose to only abuse one child and the other children go almost completely unaware of it ever happening. So just his refusal of that alone is not enough for me to say that never happened. What hurts Andrea in this case is the fact that stories have changed so much. To say that you don't know

why you did it and to allege having lost time, having blacked out, and then two years later, be saying that there was lifelong abuse, I think that hurts your story in a lot of people's eyes than if you would just set it right out the gate. Or even within the first couple of months, I don't know what her conversation was like with her lawyer. Usually with cases like these, you'll see some sort of statements from the defense. You'll hear about things they say in court. I really didn't get anything out of this. I didn't even know her lawyer's name. I couldn't find that. And another interesting thing is when I heard some recordings of the initial hearing on whether or not they were going to try Andrea as adult, it really felt like the defense didn't try that hard. All they really said was, yeah, she's 17, so this just really isn't appropriate.

Yeah, and I will say that is difficult when you're 17 to not be tried as adult. If you commit murder as a 17-year-old, you are almost guaranteed. to be tried as an adult. So I don't know how hard the defense could have tried. I think they could have tried harder to propose a certain sentence. I think the defense could have tried a little harder to do damage control, especially when you're admitting to a double homicide right immediately on a 911 call and turning yourself in. Yeah.

It's very hard to come out of that. I mean, I do have some theories. I don't want to get too much into my personal opinions on it because it really doesn't matter. And at the end of the day, two people are dead in a very cute puppy. be as dead as well. Yeah, it's all very sad. And a family is destroyed. Yeah, clearly these were two people who were basically pillars of the community, respected. And I say this carefully because, yes, there were these horrible allegations against them. And I don't want to just discount them. But I can't definitively say for certain what happened. No one can. Right. I think it's more

likely that Andrea succumbs to the pressures of daily life growing up in a rural small town community where she didn't feel like she fully fit in. She clearly had a study load that was well beyond what normal kids would be taking. It was college level. And it should also be noted the struggles of growing up in a small town in a rather conservative place struggling with gender identity. That is going to have a profound effect on somebody and probably attributes to feeling like a loner and feeling like you don't fit in. You know, I can only speak from the experience of people close to me who've gone through that. But you can look at these things and try to figure out what happened. I don't think we're ever going to definitively say X, Y, or Z happens.

But what did happen is the loss of these two people and a very sweet puppy. There's really no fixing that. It's really tragic. It's really tragic. All right. Well, if you're listening on YouTube, please hit like and subscribe and hit that bell notification, share our videos. We've been having quite a bit of growth lately, and I just want to take this so much further. Our Discord group has been getting new members lately.

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Happy Halloween, despite what the pandemic is offering right now. All right, until next week. Bye. Bye.