True Crime Campfire - Patreon Upcycle: Dark Knight - The Attempted Murder of the Dillmans

Episode Date: December 2, 2022

Whitney has been sick this week, so we're giving everyone a little taste of what our Patreon-exclusive episodes are like. This one is from March 2021--the story of Grace Dillman and Robert Best, a couple of lovestruck teenagers who met in an online roleplaying game and ended up plotting bloody murder. Want more exclusive extra episodes? Subscribe to our Patreon, at Patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfireSources:https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ohio-teen-boyfriend-charged-in-alleged-plot-to-kill-her-parents/https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/crime/2013/06/22/stabbing-girlfriend-s-father-nets/23766718007/https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/crime/2013/08/08/teen-gets-probation-for-plot/23977977007/Investigation Discovery's "Web of Lies," episode "One Way Out"Follow us, campers!Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfireFacebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://gramha.net/profile/truecrimecampfire/19093397079Twitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfireEmail: [e-mail]! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.

Hello, campers. Grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire. We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie. And I'm Whitney. And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction. We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire. Hello, Patreon Angels. We're sorry your March Extra episode is a few days late. That second COVID shot is a doozy. and I spent a couple days just beached like a dying sea lion. It was pathetic. But now I'm back, and we've got a hell of a story for you. It's got teenage romance, online gaming, a meticulously plotted murder attempt, and a dramatic rescue. This is your March Patrons-only episode, Dark Night, Teen Killers, Grace Dillman, and Robert Best.

Robert Best didn't have an easy life. His bio mom gave him up at birth, and he never knew her. His parents split up before he was born, and his father remarried. Until Robert was four, his stepmom was mom. And mom, well, let's say she made some bad decisions. She cheated on his dad a lot, and she used to take little Robert with her when she went to meet up with her boyfriends. He saw some stuff a kid most definitely should not see. And one day his dad found out about this and he, understandably, freaked out.

Not so understandably, he went out and assaulted the guy and he went to jail for it. So now, little Robert didn't have a mom or a dad to count on. So nice job, dad. Way to let macho bullshit get in the way of your judgment. Good parenting, man. So after his dad went to jail, poor little Robert got sent to live with his grandparents at their ranch in Ellensburg, Washington. His grandparents loved him to bits, and he loved him too, but the ranch was really rural and isolated, and as he got older, Robert started to feel like a prisoner there. Stuck at the ranch miles and miles from the nearest town, Robert couldn't just go hang out with friends like most kids do. There were no neighborhood kids for him to play capture the flag

with or kickball or whatever. It was just him and his grandparents, and they felt guilty about it. So when Robert turned 15, which I think was around 2005, his grandparents got him a computer. And Robert started reaching out online. Every night, after school and chores, he logged on to one of those online role-playing games where you can play with other people from all over the world. He named his character, Elemental Evil. Nerd alert. Okay, fully agree. He's a total dweeb.

But, in fairness to him, you know he's a number. No, G. Because he didn't have any numbers after the screen name or nothing. Like, it would be much nerdier to be like, Elemental Evil 3. Yeah. Elemental Evil 426.9. Nice. I mean, at least he was unique. He had that going for him. Right. Exactly. Now, if you've never played one of these games campers, the way it works is you create a character and you get into adventures with other characters, being playing. by people from all over the world.

Could be somebody down the street, could be somebody in Beijing, you don't know. So, you know, you can go team up with some dude from Argentina and go fight a dragon together. It's very cool. And a lot of people strike up friendships in the game. People meet their future spouses in those games. I mean, it's a legit

social environment because while you're playing, you can chat, either by text or over headsets, just like you're talking on the phone. So this was a way, finally, for Robert to have some human contact outside of his elderly grandma and grandpa. Thank God, right? And one night, a message came in from a player called Ice Princess.

Which, Ice Princess, like, that's a red fly, but anywho, didn't seem that way to 15-year-old Robert. Ice Princess said, I need someone who can teach me how to fly. So Robert wrote back, sure, just follow me. And he showed her how to fly in the game, which is very romantic, you know, with something kind of Superman and Lois Laney about it. And they hit it off immediately. Ice Princess said her real name was Grace. She was 16, so a year older than Robert, and she lived in Gahanna, Ohio.

Before long, Robert and Grace, as Elemental Evil and Ice Princess, were spending hours, emailing and texting back and forth and flying together in the game. And Grace started confiding a lot in Robert. She felt just as isolated as he did, but for different reasons. Grace and her brother were homeschooled. Their parents were very wealthy and very, very religious, and they didn't want their kids corrupted by the evils of the public school system. Ely.

Grace hated it. She didn't feel like anyone in her family understood her. She felt alone. And, of course, Robert could relate to that, out on the ranch miles away from other teenagers. One night, Grace texted him, You're the only one who makes me feel real. with everyone else I have to pretend.

It felt good. In fact, sometimes he felt like Grace was the only good thing in his life. School wasn't going great for Robert. He had trouble focusing, and he was fighting a lot with his dad, who was out of jail now and trying to be more involved in Robert's life. Robert's dad and grandparents were concerned. His grades were falling, and his work on the ranch was suffering, too. It seemed like everything was taking a back seat to the computer.

His dad desperately wanted Robert to get an education so he wouldn't end up working a construction job like him. He tried to tell him, son, I don't want you in a job where you'll ruin your body at age 40. I want something better for you. But Robert only had eyes for grace. Even though he worried sometimes that she might be out of his league, a year older from a rich family, did he really have a chance with a girl like that? And then a year into their online relationship, relationship, Grace dropped a major bomb on Robert. Robert, she texted, I've been lying to you. I'm not who I said I was.

I'm not really 16. Robert couldn't believe what he was reading. He wrote back, how old are you? I'm 13, she said. Robert, please don't be mad at me. Robert was crushed and he was furious. Sure. He said, you mean you were 12 when we met?

What does that make me? He felt betrayed, and he felt kind of dirty, too. He'd been communicating with a kid. Grace begged him not to cut off contact. Please, Robert, don't go. It doesn't change my feelings, please. But Robert wasn't having it. He broke it off with Grace.

He missed her, but he felt totally betrayed that she'd lied to him like that. Soon he started dating a girl from school, Christy, and working on old cars with his dad, and he realized he had a real talent for mechanic work. He could take any shitty old jalopy and get it running. He was starting to feel better about himself, better about life in general. And for a year, he didn't have any contact with Grace. But then, he and Christy broke up. She, yeah.

She was his first real girlfriend, so, you know, it sucked. He was feeling mopey, and right about then, as if she somehow knew, Grace got back in touch. At first, he ignored her, but Grace was persistent. She reached out again and again and again. And finally, Robert gave in and answered her. And soon they started talking again. By now, Grace was 14 and Robert 17.

Yeah, that was the age difference between me and my first boyfriend. And believe me, I was a freshman in high school. I thought I was hot stuff because he had a car and you could drive me to Pizza Hut. For dates, it was the world's shittiest car. Like, literally parts of that car were held together with twine and, like, duct tape and shit. Also, probably one of the world's shittiest Pizza Hutts. But at the time, it was pretty rad. Well, I mean, when you're 14, Pizza Hut is basically caviar and champagne, so I don't blame you.

It was, yeah. It's like, Pizza Hut was the bomb back in the day. If he wanted to pull out all the steps, he'd take you to Olive Garden. But Pizza Hut is a good stopover. Please, we didn't have Olive Garden in my time. town, not even close. We would have been over the moon if we'd had to flip an olive garden. Very romantic. When you're there, your family, so. Robert told Grace all about Christy, of course, and soon she started telling him about a guy she

had a crush on. The guy was a little older, she said. He was into cars. He lived on a ranch. Eventually, Robert picked up on that super subtle code language she was using and got up the courage to ask, uh, Grace, are you talking about me? And Gray said, yeah, I love you, Robert. And Robert said he loved her too. Oh, boy, y'all are children. Anyway, no offense intended to any teenagers listening, but like, just, I don't know. So you do not love your high school boyfriend.

What are you laughing so hard about? You're killing me. It's just, are you talking about me? Yeah, I love you. I know. I love you too great. Yeah, it's very like after school, something kind of after school specially about the whole thing. It's so degrassy, twilight, just very teenage.

It's very digressy, yeah. Yeah. And I think they were fully wrapped up in that vibe, you know, enjoying that vibe, which is, you know, that's what teenagers do. So, you know, at this point, the age difference seemed a little bit less of an obstacle to them now, although I'm sure many people would disagree, especially many parents of 14-year-old girls. in particular, but Grace and Robert started up their online relationship again, full force. I mean, they lived clear across the country from each other, so it's not like they could make out or anything. I mean, he was in Washington. She was in Ohio. In the spring of 2010, Robert turned

18. Grace by now was 15. Robert graduated high school that spring, and he started working on a plan to get closer to Grace. It didn't take him long. He found out about a prestigious school for auto mechanics in Cleveland, which was just two hours away from Grace's house. The school was the number one rated one in the country for mechanics. So Robert's dad and grandparents who knew nothing whatsoever about Grace were stoked. This was what they'd always wanted for him, you know, a good education, doing something he loved and was good at. So they signed him up for an 18-month course and sent him on his way. Robert hauled asked to Cleveland, and when he got there, the first thing he did was text Grace to let her know he was close to her,

geographically, for the first time since they started talking. Grace texted, OMG, I can't wait to see you. But, you know, stars and moons and clovers aside, there was a fly in the Chardonnay. They knew that if they were going to have a prayer in hell of seeing each other regularly, Robert was going to have to meet and charm the pants off of Grace's parents. And that was not going to be easy. These are not the type of people that let go of those pants easily. So Grace decided that the best way to work this would be for Robert to join their church.

Grace would talk him up for a couple months beforehand as a boy she'd met in person, because she didn't want them to know that she'd met him online. And Robert could shake her dad's hand and ask politely if he could take Grace out. You know, for ice cream in a picture show or whatever. Now, y'all, how they thought this was going to work, I cannot imagine. Like, Grace's parents were super religious, like homeschooler types. These were the type of parents who had strictly forbidden their daughters to date before age 16. It was the kind of house where they observed old school biblical rules like Sunday dinner has to be silent.

I'm not making that up. They actually, like, you couldn't make noise during Sunday dinner. You couldn't talk, which would drive me bat shit bonkers because I cannot stand the sound of chewing. Like, I can't even listen to myself chew. It annoys me to listen to myself. So I got to have Seinfeld or something on in the background or I'm going to start cracking skulls. Like, that's just, it's not my fault. I have misophonia.

If I hear your jaw start popping, the red mist just descends, man. It doesn't matter how much I love you. It is outside my control. Yeah, like, you have that and I'm physically incapable of shutting the fuck up. Like, I'll be sitting there eating and suddenly I'm hit with the urge to tell my meal time companions about how when Aragorn kicks the orc helmet in the Lord of the Rings, the scream he let out was real because Vigo Mortensen broke his toe in that scene and they kept it in. Anyway, it's a really, very real character flaw. That's very nerdy what you just said. You're welcome.

do that. All right. Anyway, so it was never going to work at a million years, is my point. These were not the kind of parents that you could charm easily. But I guess, you know, love at that age, young love is optimistic. Dumb. So Grace started talking about her new friend, Robert, you know, Robert this, Robert this, Robert this, and one Sunday, Robert put on his best suit and showed up at their church. I know this is going to shock you, campers, but it did not go well. Grace's dad did not even let him finish the sentence. Like he stopped him before he got three words into his spiel and told him that if he ever tried to make contact with his daughter again, he'd call the police. So Grace's dad put the kibosh on the young romance in no uncertain terms. Grace was crushed and Robert was crushed too, like a grape. But he respected her dad's wishes. He backed right off, stopped trying to see Grace, stopped calling and texting. He broke it off, just like he.

had years earlier when he found out she'd lied about her age. Yeah, like he didn't sneak around. He was like, no problem. I will not see her anymore, and he didn't. Yeah. Despite this, the dad went ahead and reported their relationship to the police. By now, he'd gotten it out of grace that she'd met Robert online, which I'm sure set off red flog.

This is 2010, so there had been like 500 school scare episodes about creepy men trying to Oh, yeah. Like Chris Hansen. And he, like, moved there to be close. Yeah, that's, once he found that out, I can totally see where he'd be wigged out. This is when Chris Hansen was at his prime. Like, there was all kinds of men being asked to take a seat. So I can see, like.

He was worried that Robert was a fan of iced tea. Yes. And Mike's Hard Lemonade. A detective took statements from the parents and from Grace and Robert and quickly determined that there was no crime to investigate. Now, Robert threw himself into his auto mechanic courses, and for a year, he stayed away from Grace, both in real life and online. But then a year later, Grace reached out to Robert again.

This girl's like a bad penny, man. This time, she was taking steps to avoid her parents finding out, texting and emailing from friends' phones and computers, and soon she and Robert struck up a relationship again, talking whenever they could, whenever Grace could get a hold of a safe phone or computer. One night, Robert got a frantic text from Grace. I need to tell you something. You have to help me. And over the course of an hours-long conversation, Grace spilled out an awful story. Her parents had been abusing and beating her.

Robert was totally devastated. A couple of years earlier, his grandmother, who he was really close to, had confided in him that she been badly abused as a child, so this really hit home for Robert. His heart just broke for Grace. He asked her, why haven't you called the police? But Grace said she couldn't. Her dad was way too rich and powerful. They had connections with the local cops. Calling them would only make it worse for her. Over the next few weeks, they talked about Grace's situation nonstop. Robert thought she should just pack up some stuff and run away. He said he'd help her do it. help her hide from her folks.

She was 17 now. She'd be a legal adult in the year. She only had to stay hidden for that long. But Grace said no. Her parents would find her. They had resources. They had friends in high places. There was nowhere she could run where they couldn't reach her.

Doesn't this remind you of Bill Bradfields spiel in season one when the Brad gang was like, we should call the cops on Jay Smith and we should tell them. And he was like, no, no. He has connections everywhere. He'll find out. And just like with Billy B, every time Robert offered up a possible solution, Gray shot it down. There was nothing she could do. Her parents were all powerful.

They owned the police. They had the means to track her down no matter how far she ran. She almost made it seem like they were supervillains from a dark graphic novel. And then late one night, Grace said that the only way out was to kill them. She said, they just breathe in the air that better people should be breathing. I'm sure there's a line to kill them, and God knows I'm happily standing at the front. Geez. Normally, Robert would have been horrified by the idea, but by now he was so swept up in the horror of Grace's story that he didn't take much convincing.

I know, baby, he said, I know they're evil. He said, God said, it's wrong to kill, but I've never been one to be concerned with God. Oh, boy. That's some prime Rod Farrell material right there, isn't it? Isn't it? It's not remind you of him? That's exactly the kind of thing he would say,

I've never been one to be concerned with God. So you can tell Robert was starting to get into his dark night roll already. And I mean, Grace insisted there was no other solution. Her evil parents had to die. Robert had to help her. She couldn't do it by herself. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

And so the planning began. During the spring of 2012, they spent almost all their time together online talking logistics, and Grace continually painted a horrifying picture of the abuse she was suffering at the hands of her monster parents. The I-immed back and forth for hours and hours. They picked June 13th for the big event, the early morning hours. The day before, Grace went over their final checklist. Grace was supposed to turn off the burglar alarm and leave the outer garage door unlocked.

She even checked the garage floor for dust to make sure Robert wouldn't leave footprints. I love that they're so meticulous, even to the point of checking the floor for dust, yet they seem to have forgotten one fairly glaring detail. You know that planning a murder over Instant Messenger probably isn't the best idea? I guess Elemental Evil and Ice Princess

didn't know that forensic computer analysis was a thing. bless their heart so as evening fell on the night of june twelfth robert got ready he got a knife and he set off from cleveland for the drive to gahanna as he drove grace wrote in her diary about her fallen angel pause for i roll and we're good she wrote my fallen angel i know it's the only way but i worry for his humanity when this happens a part of his humanity will be lost from the world forever even he fears for the same same thing. Even he, it's his humanity. I would think especially he. Robert parked his car at 2 a.m. a safe distance from Grace's neighborhood. He walked through the woods to her house. Everything went according to plan. She turned the alarm off. Robert left his shoes by the garage door, which was unlocked just as promised. He walked into the dark, silent house and made his way to Grace's room. She hugged him. Five years since their first online conversation, this was the first online conversation. This was the first time they'd ever hug.

He was having second thoughts, he told her. He didn't know if he could do this. Grace looked crushed. No, you have to. It's the only way. She reminded him of all the abuse she was suffering, how powerful and connected her parents were, all the planning they'd done.

How they could be together once her parents were gone. How he was her hero, her fallen angel. He was the only one who could save her. That's a lot. for, you know, an 18-year-old boy or whatever, 19, 20. He's 20 now, I guess. 17 and 20. It didn't take long for him to get back on board.

And clutching his knife, he made his way quietly down the hall to Grace's parents' bedroom. They were sleeping. Robert stood over them, watching, listening to them breathe. The plan was for Robert to slit Grace's father Alan's throat first because her mom would be less likely to put up a struggle. As Robert stood looking down at them, he got cold feet again. And he crept back to Grace's room and said,

I couldn't do it. There's got to be some other way to do this. And Grace at this point was furious. There is no other way. This is the only way. We won't ever get to be together if you can't do this. And then, Grace kissed him. Their very first kiss.

And she said, why won't you help me? Don't you love me? That did it. Damsel in distress. Robert said, all right, let's do it. But he said he needed a bigger knife. So he and Grace went to the kitchen and picked out a seven-inch butcher knife. Are you fucking kidding me? There's a real-life situation where the phrase,

we're going to need a bigger knife, applies? I quit. I quit. This is bullshit, Whitney. Maybe they were Jaws fans. Oh, my God. We're going to need a bigger boat. He also picked up a blanket from the cat.

In his words, to contain the arterial spray. I mean, these kids had done some research on this shit. He and Grace went back to the parents' bedroom together this time. Grace stood in the corner as Robert approached the bed. As Robert got close to Mr. Dillman, the blanket grazed Mr. Dillman's leg, and he woke up and saw Robert looming over him. Alan Dillman shot out of bed and charged him, and this was the point of no return for Robert.

He started stabbing Alan Dillman frantically, and in no time he had him down on the ground. And as he was stabbing him, Robert yelled, why did you do that? Why did you have to abuse her? And Mr. Dillman looked totally stunned, and he said, for God's sake, I never abused her. She's lying to you. And there was something in the way he said it that just rang true to Robert. Sometimes we just know the truth when we hear it. And he stopped, stabbing.

He was straddling Mr. Dillan, who was bleeding really badly by now and starting to lose consciousness, and he looked over at Grace in the corner of the room. He said, Grace, is this true? Grace was quiet for a moment, and then she said, yeah, it's true. I've been manipulating you. I'm sorry, Robert. It was eerily calm, the way she said it, almost casual. Her father by now had stopped moving.

Stop breathing. Mrs. Dillman was screaming her husband's name over and over again. And Robert, who had been trained in first aid, snapped out of his shock and yelled, call 911. And he immediately started CPR on this man that a moment ago he had been stabbing as Mrs. Dillman talked to the 911 dispatcher. When the police arrived, they found Robert Best doing CPR on Alan Dillman, as his wife sobbed on the bed and Grace stood calmly in the corner. Mrs. Dillman kept sobbing. Grace, what did you do?

What did you do? The police took Robert out in handcuffs, and as they were heading out the door, one of the detectives asked Grace, Is that your boyfriend? And Grace was like, no, not really. Just like that. Cool as a fridge full of cucumbers. Damn, ice princess indeed. And I want to draw attention back to her initial discussion with Robert about her parents' abuse.

She stonewalled every single suggestion he had, and in my opinion, was trying to get him to suggest the murder. And when he didn't, she had to be the one that suggested it. And even then, she didn't really suggest it. That's the mark of a master manipulator. They never want to be the one left holding the back. They want to make their target feel like they made the decision. And I think the way she phrased it was indicative of a greater plan. Yeah, that too actually reminds me a lot of.

Billy B from season one. I'm first in line to kill them, but if you want to cut me, go ahead. It was absolutely a manipulator line. Based on the 911 call, they knew Grace was somehow involved in all this. They hauled her into the station too. As they put her into the squad car,

her mom screamed out, how could you do this to your father? See, you'll see why we picked this for your March patrons only, right? Because just high drama. Like, it's the perfect cap off to our month of cases that could have been Lifetime movies. I don't think I've ever heard a more movie-like scene in all of true crime.

Mr. Dillman saying, I never abused her in Grace admitting that she made it up. And Robert throwing down the knife and yelling, call 911. I mean, it's just amazing. I got goosebumps saying it, you know. I never heard anything like it. Yeah, I always criticize Lifetime movies for having unrealistic, like, dialogue. And I think I'm wrong. I think I owe all of those writers an apology.

Sometimes. Well, because, like, like, I would have never. thought a stabbing victim would have the wherewithal to get out the phrase, she's lying to you. I never abuse. Like, what? Or adrenaline kicks in and I think it, people are capable of, you know. Absolutely. And the, and the, the, um, the guy stabbing saying, why did you abuse? Like, like, that's weird. That's a weird thing to say, Robert. But I don't think that's weird. I think that was him realizing in that moment like, damn it, I don't want to be in this situation. think it was rage. It was him saying, this is your fault. But, like, usually when you hear

people who are victims of stabbing, they say, like, oh, they were silent. They didn't say anything. But so it's just weird that, like, he was stabbing while screaming. I don't know. I, like I said, I'm going to write a formal apology to Lifetime movie writers. At the police station, Robert confessed everything immediately. He told them about his whole online correspondence with Grace going back to age 15, and he still everything about Grace's stories of abuse and the murder plot they concocted. The investigator's impression of him was that he was horrified and scared shitless. It was one thing when he thought he was doing this to save Grace from abuse, but if her parents

weren't actually abusing her, then what the hell had he just done? And I mean, we want to make it clear. Like, even if Grace's parents were abusers, this would have still been an incredibly bad idea. Like, there are a million avenues to get help that do not involve. anybody getting stabbed to death. But as you just pointed out, any time Robert had offered up one of those avenues, Grace had shut it down.

Now, Wyatt never occurred to him to call the state police. You know, if they own the local police, they don't own the state police, or the FBI, or tell a teacher, or whatever, I don't know. And I believe Robert does have genuine remorse for what he did here, but I also think on some level

Mr. Elemental Evil was enjoying, playing the knight in shining armor for his online girlfriend. And he, He got big, big, dumb in the process. Yeah, I think until it actually happened on some level, this was all about fantasy for Robert. I'm not convinced he really believed it was going to go down until it did. And now reality was crashing down on him, like that house falling on the wicked witch of the east and Wizard of Oz. Fucking dumbass.

Down the hall, in her own interview room, Grace was sipping on a bottle of water and acting like they were there to talk about a parking ticket or something. Actually, not even a parking ticket. You'd be upset about that parking ticket. But Grace was bizarrely detached and casual. The investigators both said later that she creeped them the fuck out. She just sat there, calm and polite, drinking her water. And she wouldn't tell them anything.

But of course, they impounded Grace in Robert's computers and Grace's diary because, you know, they kept all that stuff for sentimental values. you, I guess. Yeah. Maybe Grace was planning to do a scrapbook. My mom loved scrapbooking, and that was like in the early odds. So maybe that was a big thing for her. Maybe she wanted a scrapbook.

And this goes back to something I've brought up before on this show. And I know I'm going to ruffle some feathers. But I need to know who keeps diaries. Like, okay, I keep travel diaries when I go out of the country. But I've never actually kept a day-to-day diary. Like, I have a planner where I keep my podcast info, like a list of my plants and their watering schedules and various other, like, things I want to keep track of. But I'm just not that interesting.

I'd be like, Dear Diary, today I beat the first Bioshock and cried at the ending. Then my dog was an asshole while I tried to record. That's it. Love Katie. Well, it doesn't have to be a chronology of your day. Like, I kept a journal for most of my life. I don't do it anymore just because I don't have time. really but for me it was more like kind of reflecting on things that I was thinking about like does everybody else see colors the same way I do and just like you know stuff about society and

it was good writing practice for me and also for me it was a stress relieving thing like I'd write out all my worries and kind of talk myself through them and so it wasn't like dear diary today I ate this for breakfast and whatever and then for a while I kept a dream journal which was kind of fun like I wrote down all my dreams and then I started remembering more of the dreams. That's the beginning of the diary like I'd remember one. And then by the end I'd remember five different dreams. So, you know, yeah. Yeah, I'm interested too to hear what you all write in your journals.

Yeah. So tell me, campers, what do you write? Tell me. Because I'm so, like, actually one of my favorite things. Read it to us. Read us your eighth grade journal, please. I love finding, like, found notes. Like, if somebody drops a note, I love reading them.

I have a little collection of them. I'll have to post about them sometime if I can find them. And by the way... I love that found magazine that collects those kinds of things. It's great. And I do have to say, campers, that my dog is being an asshole while we're recording. Whitney has not heard anything because I've been trying to mute it, but he was snoring so loud while she was talking. So I need a formal apology to our editor for that.

But yeah, my dog is being an asshole right now. Anyway, back to Robert and Grace. The story was starting to take shape, and it corroborated everything Robert had told them. The investigators were blown away at just how detailed the plot was. I mean, we've got Grace turning off the burglar alarm, checking for dust on the garage floor just in case Robert left footprints in it. Like you said earlier, they thought about all these little things, but then they forgot to do anything about the massive evidence, they'd left. Yep.

I mean, you know, you can't expect people to think of everything, though. Like, who hasn't accidentally left their murder diary laying around? Like, you know, we all make mistakes. So many murderers have murder diaries. So this was one of the easiest solves in the history of murder. It was all laid out step by step in emails and IAMs in Grace's diary. And speaking of the diary, they found no evidence that Grace's parents had abused her, including in her diary entries, which, you know, in addition to the fact that she told Robert

that she had lied about it, makes me think, you know, there's a pretty good chance that she was lying about that. Now, does this mean we can say definitively that Grace was never abused? No, of course, we don't know for sure we weren't there. You know, it's possible that there was abuse and that Grace saw murder as the best way out of the situation. I mean, when you're 17, your brain's not done growing. When you're 20, your brain's not done growing. And the part of the brain that develops last is the part that has to do with foresight and being able to, you know, think about the consequences of your actions, which is why kids can be so, you know, bless their hearts, dumb sometimes, and not think things through, which probably also explains why they didn't think the whole

leaving a massive trail of evidence thing through. So, you know, it's possible. It's possible, too, that there was no abuse, but she knew she couldn't talk Robert into killing her parents for her if she didn't give him a justification for doing it. As we've said before, false abuse allegations are rare. The overwhelming majority of people who say they've been abused have been. But when false allegations do happen, they're often intended as a manipulative tool. And we've seen that pop up in a number of cases over the years, especially in killer couples.

But also, like, remember our Viper episode about Celespier Johnson? That's a perfect example. Where she filled her girlfriend's head with all these stories of abuse to get her to want to murder her husband for her. So either way, it's obvious that Grace Dillman was obsessed with getting her parents out of her life. Now, whether that's because they were beating her or whether it's because they were just insanely strict and wouldn't let her do anything she wanted to do, we don't know for sure. It seems pretty clear, though, that something disrupted Grace's attachment to her parents at some point

in her life, and that could be abuse, or it could be something in Grace's psychological makeup or in the architecture of her brain that makes her incapable of close attachments to other people. It's hard to say. It's especially hard to say at 17 because, again, your brain is still developing. Amazingly, Alan Dillman survived the stabbing and made a full recovery.

And he actually forgave Robert and Grace. He went to Robert's sentencing and asked the judge to show leniency for Robert and Grace both. He said, quote, While I'm convinced his intentions were evil, I also believe he's simply a lost soul looking for some direction and meaning in his life.

We were all lost at one time, and only by the forgiveness of God, through Jesus, did I have an opportunity to be found, which is surprising on one hand, but kind of not surprising on the other. I mean, I've seen that a lot in killer kid cases or cases like this where a kid attempts to kill the parents. They tend to forgive. Remember that girl Erin Caffey a few years ago? She got her little shitty teenage mustache wearing boyfriend, and I think two or three of his shitty friends to kill her entire

family because her parents wouldn't let her see him anymore. And apparently their teenage love was eternal and worth the lives of her entire family. So the plan was to kill everybody. The dad ended up surviving. And despite the fact that his daughter Aaron had been the ringleader for the whole thing

had sent people to wipe out his wife, his children, which they did with unbelievable brutality, the dad forgave his daughter. And they still have a relationship. Like she's in prison, but like he visits her and it took him a long time to come around to actually believing she was involved. It's just amazing. And I'm not sure if I find it inspiring or kind of scary, to be honest with you, like that parental love.

It's both. It's absolutely unconditional. It's both. It's inspiring and scary. Yeah, it's inspiring and scary. So Robert Best pled guilty. He got an eight-year sentence for attempted murder and felonious assault. And by the way, the doctors at the hospital said that he actually did say.

save Alan Dillman's life. Wow. Like if he had not started CPR, dude would have died. Wow. Grace Dillman, the girl at the center of it all, went through the juvenile court instead of the adult one, and her sentence definitely reflects that. She got two years probation under medical supervision. The judge ordered her to get intensive counseling and gave her an eight-year suspended sentence,

meaning if she violated the terms of her probation, she'd have to serve the jail sentence. Grace's mom told the judge that she appreciated the sentence. Even after what happened, her parents didn't want her to go to prison. So holy shit, right? I mean, all we can do is hope to hell that Grace got some really good counseling during those two years of probation. I mean, I get that we shouldn't treat minors the same way we treat adults in these situations.

I actually do agree with that. Though we've certainly all seen 17-year-olds tried as adults. before. I suspect the reason why her sentence wasn't harsher was that her dad didn't die. I think if he had died, it might have been a different story. And like we said, her brain's not done developing. Right. And she had kind of a different upbringing. I mean, she wasn't socialized a lot because she was homeschooled and stuff. So maybe she just needed some help. Yeah. And hopefully she got it. I wasn't able to find out if Robert's been released for prison yet. If not, he should be getting out any time now since he was sentenced to eight years in, I believe, 2013.

My guess is he was more dumb than evil. Right. I hope I'm right about that. It'll be interesting to see whether either of these two pops up in the news again. We can definitely say we hope not. But it's a hell of a case, right? So going back to what you were talking about with the children charges adults, I have kind of a spicy, spicy take here.

And I just don't think any child should be charged as an adult. Like, if you want, you can charge them as a child and then have them re-evaluated as when they hit adulthood. You include Rod Farrell in that list? Oh, right. He wasn't, he was a child. But like I said, you can, like, they can be charged. I don't think, I don't know. I don't know.

It's just. I knew I was going to trip you up with Rod Farrell. I agree with you most of the time. I think every now and again, though, there's a situation where just for the protection, Yeah, of everybody. I think it's over done. That's what I'm trying to say. I do too. Absolutely.

Yes. We too often chart, like, especially if they're like a 14-year-old kid. Oh, yeah. I completely get what you're saying. I just, I don't usually like to say always or never. Okay. That's fair. Just because I feel like there's always going to be exceptions.

Ron Farrell can run now. I don't care about him. Rod Farrell, that fucker needs to stay right where he is forever, in my opinion. 17 or not. No, I agree. You're right. That kid could have been helped when he was younger, but... Listen, I... By the time he beat those people to death, like, he was gone.

I can admit when I'm wrong, and you're right, I didn't think that through. But I do... I have a kind of a hair-trigger response to it, because I do think we sometimes are out for blood in these kinds of cases. Oh, yeah. No, you're definitely right about that. And there's... We do it way too often. There's just too many little 14-year-olds that are, like, in adult prison. And I'm like, what the fuck are you doing?

Absolutely. And also there's a huge racial disparities and stuff with that. I mean, it's absolutely. It's a fucking meth. You're absolutely right about that. I just wanted to specifically say, I hope they never let Rod Farrell out. No, Rod Farrell, again, somebody clip me saying Rod Farrell can rot in hell and send it to him. Please.

I want him to know I exist and I want him to know how much I fucking hate him. Yes. And if you don't know who I'm talking about, go back and listen to when nerds attack the Rod Farrell episode, is Prince of Dorkness, because that dude is off the chain. All right, so now we're going to move on to our dipshit of the month, which is a special feature

just for you, our Patreon Angels, during your extra episode. This month's honoree is Jeremy DeWitt. Now, if you watch Dr. Phil at all, you might have caught the episode about this champ recently. He runs a funeral escort company in Florida, meaning

they make sure nobody disrupts funeral processions, not like provide sexy dates to take the funeral, obviously. And Mr. DeWitt, or as I like to call him, DeWittless, oh, my God. Has, sorry, has gotten arrested a bunch of times for impersonating a cop. Apparently, he wanted to be a cop at one point, but he's a registered sex offender, so he can't do it.

So because he can't be a real cop, Jeremy seems to have decided to just pretend to be one. And the vehicles for his business look like cop cars. Their uniforms look like cop uniforms. Like, it looks like he has gone out of his way to look as much like a cop as possible. Dudes packing handcuffs and other such cop Rasmataz. And yet he swears up and down that they've bent over backwards not to look like law enforcement, which he seems to have based on the fact that they're like flashing lights are purple.

Right. Instead of red and blue. Okay, so you did do that. Congrats. But, like, he's a nightmare. He's gotten into, like, screaming matches with motorists. And he'll say stuff like, get the F out of my funeral. Like, wouldn't that be lovely if you were burying your poor grandma?

And suddenly there's this lunatic in the middle of the road waving his arms and threatened him to tase people and shit. And when people ask him if he's a cop and if he has any, you know, actual authority to be directing traffic and bark and orders of people, he'll say shit like, we're a state agency, sir, which they are not. At all. So he's been arrested like a bunch of times. Recently, he got arrested again. If you can find that Dr. Phil episode on YouTube, it's worth watching because this dude is a sad little twatling and he is entertaining as hell to watch. And he's got his lawyer with him and the lawyer, you can tell it's just like miserable. Like he knows he doesn't have a leg to stand on.

And I would like to say that, oh, our lights are purple. Well, what two colors are combined to make purple? Dumbass. Oh, I didn't even think about that. That's probably like some subconscious shit you just picked up on there. Oh, absolutely. absolutely I can guarantee you that he's like oh it's as close as blue and red as we can get like why not get orange why not get white like it doesn't make any sense right he's yeah he's such

a fucking creep I'll try to find videos and post this in our uh on our in our patreon page yeah they need to see this guy in action like see if you can find that video of him yelling at that guy and like calling him a little bitch and threatening to fight him there's one video where this guy like they're sitting next to each other like a red light and de witt is just yelling at this dude and this guy's like you're not a cop okay you have no and they like you know they get a get a mount and start spraying the corners and threatening to beat each other up and he's like I'll pull over that gas station and we can get it on it's ridiculous behavior like a couple of shaved gorillas you know the machismo was just so thick you couldn't breathe but it is funny like

who's hiring him at this point like who is like right thank you like I need to look up if you want your funeral to be a circus I need to look up his Yelp reviews, because I have to know, like, is he making- No kidding, right? Because the shit he's buying is expensive, too. Like, I'm pretty sure he has, like, bulletproof vests. Those aren't fucking cheap. No joke, yeah.

And he, like, tried to make some absurd argument on Dr. Phil. I forget exactly what it was. He's like, Dr. Phil's asking him, like, why do you have, like, weaponry on you and shit, you know? Like, he has this one thing that's not a gun, but it looks like a gun. Sure. and like there's an I think it's like a taser or stun gun or something but you can get you can get them where they're like bright orange and it's obvious that they're not real guns and he went to the trouble of getting the black one that actually looked like a real gun see because he's bending over backwards not to look like a real cop and Dr. Phil's like why do you need bullet like Kevlar and handcuffs and all the stuff and he was trying to act like that there had been like drug dealer funerals that he'd been hired to do and I think that If I remember rightly, Dr. Phil was like, so have you ever actually worked at a drug dealer's funeral? He was like, well, no.

But like, there are drug dealers. Okay. So drug dealers exist and will ostensibly die is his defense. And then my question is, would the drug dealers, like, friends not be able to then handle their own shit? Right. I would imagine so. They're too focused on mourning their dead friend or, like, family members. Yeah, the last thing that, like, Pablo Escobar wants is this chucklehead waving his arms, getting in fistfights with people because they just didn't realize it was a funeral procession and, you know, pulled up between two cars.

Stolen honor is always very interesting to me. And this is a flavor of stolen honor that I have never seen. Sure. Yeah. Is it's usually, because it's usually, oh, I was, I was spec ops. First of all, guys that are in special forces don't say that they're in spec ops. Yeah, it's usually people like those idiots that we did the episode about who had the charter playing company and were pretending to be pilots and spies and stuff. But this guy, like he actually has a whole company built around his pathetic little cop fan. He's built an entire business around it.

He's not a security guard. He's a funeral procession guy. Like literally that's it His job is to just drive alongside Funeral Processions with the lights on To let people know it's a funeral procession He's not even he doesn't even have authority To like get out there in direct traffic and stuff

He has he is just a dude Yeah He's not an authority figure And he cannot seem to wrap his tiny little brain around that It's just highly amusing So his name is Jeremy DeWitt Yep Don't hire him list

And he is True Crime Campfires Dip shit of the month I do have a question though, Whitney. Have you ever accidentally gotten into a funeral procession driving? Yep. Yeah, absolutely. Everyone has. I'm oblivious. I have.

I meant no disrespect. And you get out as soon as you can. Like, it's such a, like, if it's somebody you loves funeral, you're just like, oh, that's just how it is. Whoops. See, if I ever do it again, I'm not going to get out of the procession.

What I'm going to do instead is I'm going to put red lipstick on and sunglasses. and I'm going to get the black umbrella that I keep in the back of my car. Yeah. And I'm going to go to the cemetery and I'm going to open that black umbrella, put the shades on, and put the red lipstick on. And I'm just going to stand at the back behind a tombstone several yards away. And everybody's going to think that the dead person had some mysterious lover or something.

That's the greatest gift you can give. Like a miss, like if I go before you, I need you to, like, have some kind of mystery ready for my. funeral. I'll figure something out. And I want you to hire Jeremy DeWitt. Oh my God. And just turn it into a freaking zoo and it'll be hilarious. I hope he gets arrested at the cemetery because he punched a member of my family.

Preferably my brother. Because my brother is like six feet four and huge and it would, shit would get real for him real quick if he mess with my Terrify. Yep. That'd be great. Love it. I'm in. All right. So go check him out. Jeremy DeWittles. He is a trip. So that, I think you'll agree, it was a wild one.

Right, patrons? You know we'll have another one for you next month. But for now, lock your doors, light your lights, and stay safe until we get together again around the true crime campfire. And thanks, by the way, to the new patron who started the True Crime Campfire subreddit. We were very excited to see that, and we have been checking in here and there. It's small at the moment, but I bet there's going to be more and more campers signing up. So head over there if you want a place to chat about the episodes and know that we are reading the comments. Yes. We haven't joined.

Please don't be too mean. We haven't joined, but we will cry. We will read them. And we will text them to each other. And if you're mean, we will cry. Just so you know, or at least Katie will and I'll bang things around for a while. Mm-hmm. All right.

Bye, all. Bye.