True Crime with Kimbyr - Fatal Love Story: The Brutal Murder of Cindy Monkman: Part 3

Episode Date: September 5, 2025

The hunt for justice intensifies as detectives close in on Cindy Monkman’s killer. In Part 3 of True Crime with Kimbyr, Kimbyrleigha breaks down the investigation’s breakthrough moments, the trial, and the devastating impact on Cindy’s family. How did the evidence finally connect the dots? And what punishment awaited the person responsible for such brutal violence? This episode reveals the courtroom drama, the emotional testimonies, and the lasting legacy of Cindy’s story—a tragic reminder of love, loss, and the fight for justice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So now, Davis already picked up on this almost right away. This was a translation. Meaning when Detective Davis took the words from this message, translated them back into German, it actually made perfect sense. So I went ahead because I'm not German. And first I plugged it into Google Translate from English to German, and of course I got a whole paragraph in German. Then I plugged it back from German to English.

And sure enough, guess what it said. It said, listen to what I have to say. I cut your wife's throat and repeatedly stabbed her in the stomach and back with a knife. If I don't get my stuff, your girlfriend comes next, then your brother, and you come last, do it now. If not, see what happens. My eyes are everywhere. Well, this last part, my eyes are everywhere.

When translated to German, it's actually a German idiom. Now, we have them in English, break a leg, bite the bullets, spill the beans. It translates to, I'm all seeing. Now, I'll have Google actually say it to you in German. Ready? Here goes. My own are everywhere. Well, there were three Germans in question, Michael Rudy and Ananka. And this was a link that they were involved.

I mean, some random killer isn't going to use German phrases like that. This is not common in English. We don't have the same phrase. Davis thought that they may flee the country and that this was some kind of diversion and he didn't want to tip them off. He needed to dig deeper. So he put 24-hour surveillance on Cindy's apartment. that night of January 5th, 11 officers were deployed around the apartment complex at 5.30 p.m.

And shortly after 8.30 p.m., an undercover officer knocked on the door to make sure that Michael, Rudy, and Uncle were there. And when Michael answered, the officer asked him for a fake person. He's just trying to see, like, are the people inside the apartment? And Michael told him, oh, you have the wrong unit. Immediately after this, though, guess what happens? Michael calls a police station, and he reports, in his words, that two told him, tall black men had just appeared at their front door and threatened them. More lies. But Davis again wanted to use this to get closer to these brothers.

So we told them he was really worried about their safety. They needed to come down to the station the next day to make a composite sketch of these men that they saw. So all three of them come down. They put the brothers in separate rooms. Michael's description to the sketch artist was of a young black man with expensive sunglasses wearing a suit. And there is Davis looking at this picture and he's thinking, this looks like this looks like one of the main actors for Miami Vice, which just happened to be one of the brothers' favorite TV shows.

So they were really trying to pull a fast one on these officers. Well, now they're being interviewed for hours. And the detectives were turning up the heat, especially on Michael, but he's sitting there saying, this is a joke. I'm not involved. He denied having anything to do with his wife's murder. But that's the thing. He kept saying, my wife, my wife, but never Cindy.

He wasn't using her name. And this is a distancing tactic. It's to separate yourself from the victim. Another sign that he was involved. All the while, Unka is in the waiting area being watched. Detective Jones was waiting for a sign that she was going to break. And she takes her head, she puts it between her legs,

she like bends over hanging her head down, like she's gonna throw up. And that was the signal. He grabbed her, he puts her in an interview room, and he begins to press her. And at first, she's defensive. She insisted she knew nothing about Cindy's murder, but the detectives were not convinced.

And meanwhile, they were using this time while all of them were in these rooms getting interviewed to try to think of a motive. Because what reason would Michael have to kill Cindy? She just married him so he could stay in the United States. So they began showing Unka photos of Cindy's brutalized body. Now this is shocking, it's a grim tactic, but you know what? It worked.

Unka broke down. Her composure shattered under the weight of what she knew and was holding back this entire time. She admitted that Michael and Rudy had been targeting women like Cindy from the moment they arrived in the U.S. She explained that a few months ago, back in August of 1988, Michael, Rudy, Rudy's wife, Suzanne, and Uncle, who's actually Michael's girlfriend, traveled to San Diego, California with the intention of finding a woman that Michael could convince to marry him. so that he could obtain citizenship. First, they met two women in a nightclub, Cheryl Rubinstein and Trudy Waters, and they actually lived in Phoenix.

And they were in San Diego just catering a party for Cheryl's brother at the time. So they're sitting there spending the evening chatting with the brothers. And because Michael's English wasn't very good and Rudy's was even worse, communication was really hard until they found another patron at the bar to just translate for them.

The brothers at first claimed to be wind surfboard manufacturers and then Mercy and before leaving these women who were charmed by them at the time, they gave them their addresses and phone numbers. And two weeks later, Unka and the brothers flew to Phoenix. This is how they ended up in Arizona. Cheryl picked them up from the airport, took them to the Holiday Inn in Mesa, and they soon moved to that nearby Motel 6. But all the while, they pretended to be staying at the Holiday Inn, which was more expensive, at which point Suzanne, which is Rudy's wife, returns to Germany. Because you know why?

The Khan worked better without women around. So Anka would hide out as well, and Suzanne just left. So over the next month, the brothers met and conned a series of women, pretending they were wealthy, and the goal was to get money and to get citizenship. And it was on October 6th, the brothers met Annette Clay. Now, this is Cindy's friend. They met her at Bobby McGee's bar. They were purposely wearing gold and diamonds.

They were crafting this illusion of wealth and money. sophistication all in an effort to lure in vulnerable women. Now, Cindy, with her trusting nature, and the dream of finding love, she had been the perfect target. But Uncle told detectives that Cindy wasn't even the brother's first choice. They had tried to manipulate many other women, but Cindy had fallen for Michael's charm. And once he had her trust, the plan was set into motion. As soon as he convinced her to marry him, Michael began gaining access to Cindy's funds. For Cindy worked two part-time jobs, her income was modest, and she was doing her best to save for her future. And there's Michael. Spending like crazy between October and December, he withdrew

over $4,000 from her bank account. It was pure greed. All the while, he's buying Anka, his girlfriend, and Rudy, his brother, whatever they want, shopping sprees all the time while Cindy is working. And it is such a shame. But still, Anka's not admitting anything about a murder. But now, the detectives believed the motive was financial. And they told Anka that if she didn't tell them the truth, they were going to charge her with murder, just like they were going to plan to charge the brothers. So she eventually kept talking. Apparently once Michael had a taste of the good life, he came up with a very twisted plan. He told Anka that if he took out an insurance policy on Cindy and she died an unnatural death, he would be rich. By the

This time, Cindy's bank account was dwindling, and Michael just saw an opportunity to become a millionaire. He just had to convince Sydney. On November 7th, less than two weeks since they had gotten married at Michael's suggestion, he and Cindy consulted an insurance agent named Doug Ramsey. They wanted to know about a million dollar life insurance policy. I know you have a lot of questions, and I'll answer one of them. Cindy was led to believe that Michael was wealthy, that he was just waiting for all of his overseas

bank accounts to be transferred to the U.S., and he told her that purchasing large insurance policies was customary. They were investments for couples back in Germany. More lies. But he said it was for their future children, just in case anything were to happen to them. And she went along with it. Now it's easy to look back and wonder, how did Cindy miss the warning signs? The inconsistencies in Michael's story, the evasiveness about things like his living situation, the world-win nature of their relationship, but love has a way of blinding us to the truth. Cindy wasn't naive. She was hopeful, and that hope led her down a path that she could have never imagined. Many of us know about insurance schemes because we watch true crime, but it's not always obvious, especially not back then. However,

the agent informed them they could not get such a large policy, but they may be able to qualify for a $400,000 policy. So they filled out the application, and Cindy wrote a check for the first month's premium. It wasn't cheap. It was about the same amount as one month of her rent. The average at that time was about $250 and that's about $700 today. Right after this and all the way up to the time of Cindy's killing, the brothers and uncle were going on shopping sprees

and they were also looking for items for future purchases. They looked at expensive Piaget watches, Rolex watches, and at one time they made a deal to buy three of them, for a total of about $130,000. That is insane for me to think that they actually plan to any person's life for material things like this. It is just sick.

A watch, they even looked at expensive boats and cars, and they told the dealer they were gonna buy two Jaguars for 144,000 and two Toyota Supras for about 66,000. Why would they even need four luxury cars? It's pathetic. What they would do is they would even fill out these purchase contracts and they would make a small down

payment with assurances that they would come back and pay more cash later when all their funds came in from Germany. But they would just never return. Now there are people who do this. It's called window shopping. They have no intention of buying anything. It's just the thrill of making people think that you're rich. But these brothers had a plan that was way darker. On November 25th, the insurance agent made Cindy and Michael Ware. They had been approved for a hundred thousand dollars, but we're waiting for the 300,000. So they had to do a few more checks on her. her financial information, but it should be approved within the next couple weeks. Well, at this point, Rudy and Unka went and rented a car with a large trunk with the intention

of having it ready for Cindy as soon as the application went through. But then just a few days later, on the 30th of November, Michael was informed they needed to fill out an additional application to get the $300,000, so they had to wait a little longer. Therefore, Rudy went and canceled the car rental reservation. Now, if it's not clicking, think about this. When I said getting it ready for Cindy, they got a car with a large trunk because they were eager to get rid of this human being,

just like that. When they heard that the application was going to be approved, they were going to throw her into this trunk and then do the unthinkable. And I can't wrap my brain around how cold someone would have to be to do this. On December 22nd, just one day before Cindy went missing,

guess what happened? the insurance policy became effective. Now you'd think that it would be super obvious if your wife just went missing or was found murdered right after you just took out a big life insurance policy. And by the way, it was actually double that 400,000, it was 800,000, because Michaels was set to kick in when Cindy died.

He would be collecting close to a million dollars if everything went according to plan. And the plan was Rudy would rent that car with the big truck. drunk, Michael would rent a car too so that, you know, no one would see Cindy's vehicle. He was driving the Subaru. Remember, he and Cindy drove her VW to get fixed. All that was part of his plan.

Then he was going to convince Cindy to go with him somewhere, but then knock her unconscious and then meet his brother Ananka in front of a German restaurant in town. That was kind of weird. Like they specifically picked a German restaurant. And then they were going to go into the desert and kill Cindy, leave her out there and return the rentals and act like, They had no idea what happened, but they didn't expect her to be found. They didn't expect things to come together so quickly or at all.

Anka insisted she never saw Cindy being killed. She said she didn't see anything. She just assumed it happened once they drove to the desert and both Michael and Rudy got out of their cars and they told her to stay where she was and not look. So she didn't. But both brothers came back covered in blood. And we know that poor Cindy had no idea what was coming. She trusted her new husband. She was giving him a chance. And he led her right out there to the desert and brutally attacked her. Cindy's life ended in an act of sheer cruelty. And afterward, they drove that rental car back to the Motel 6, both of their rentals, where Unka and Rudy had been staying. And Michael and Rudy just showered. They put on fresh clothes.

They cleaned up. They disposed of whatever evidence they needed to get rid of. And they just made their way to Bobby McGee's to establish an alibi. It sickened me when Unka said, it only took the brothers five minutes to kill Cindy. That's how long they were gone before coming back covered in her blood, and that is horrific. Unka's confession filled in a lot of missing pieces.

Detectives now had a clear picture of what happened to Cindy, but they needed more to make their case. This was just Unka's word, no evidence, so they pressed her even more. Remember the tire tracks at the crime scene, how they didn't matter. match the Subaru that Michael had rented. Well, without physical evidence, the prosecution would just have to heavily rely on Unka's testimony,

which isn't going to be that compelling. According to Unka, the answer was simple. Michael had deliberately damaged the tires on the Subaru after he realized that the police were onto them. Remember how at first he allowed them to search the apartment and the car early on before they gathered the tire tracks from the scene? Well, Michael was forward thinking. thinking. On the night of December 25th, Christmas, he drove the Subaru out to the Salt River bottom and he drove around erratically. He was making these hard turns, he was slamming on the brakes, all of this in an effort to change the tread of the tires so that they wouldn't be linked to the

murder scene. It actually worked because when he brought the car back to the rental agency, two of those tires had to be completely replaced because there were flat spots caused by his driving. So when the detectives went back to get those in-compressions, they didn't match the dirt at the scene, and that is pretty clever. Detectives confirmed this by speaking with the rental car clerk. He remembered Michael returning the car with severely worn tires. It was a meticulous move by Michael, but it wasn't enough to cover all of his tracks. The net was closing in on the Appel brothers, and they didn't even know it. The detectives had already been suspicious about the threatening message left on,

Cindy's machine. It sounded too deliberate, too calculated, and to rehearse and scripted. But Anka revealed something. She told them it was all fake. Just another piece of this elaborate cover-up. She admitted, Michael borrowed some money using the insurance policy as collateral, and the three of them flew to Illinois for Cindy's funeral on December 31st. But afterward, they took a little detour to Los Angeles, where they approached a random man, they saw loitering outside of a CD establishment, and they convinced him to make a phone call in exchange for a few dollars in cash.

Anka admitted that she wrote down what Michael told her to, and the man read it. We know that none of them spoke fluent English. That's why it came out so sloppy and disjointed. And remember the way they were all laughing at the gravesite? Well, that evening, right after Michael had sat there and cried at Cindy's funeral, he told Unka that Cindy had signed her own death warrant when she signed those insurance papers. But he also said he regretted killing her. Really? Because in my mind, I did not believe it.

He only regretted that detectives were closing in on them. He got to spend three months with this gorgeous, trusting, happy, amazing woman. And on top of that, he just snuffed out her life, taking that light away from everyone who loved her. He didn't deserve Cindy. and he didn't deserve to spend one more minute free. The investigators agreed, and they arrested both Michael and Rudy for first-degree murder. As the cuffs were placed on Michael, his arrogant demeanor finally cracked.

The man who had exuded confidence and charm now just look panicked. His carefully constructed image was crumbling. His girlfriend ratted him out, and she was off her immunity in exchange for her testifying against him and his brother. When Kathy received the call, informing her that Michael and Rudy had been arrested,

she felt this strange mix of emotions. She felt relief because Cindy's killers were finally being held accountable, but also sorrow because no amount of justice could bring her sister back. And it was sad how much she believed in the fairy tale that she was going to live happily ever after. Even with Michael and Rudy in custody, detectives knew the hard work was not even close to being over.

The prosecution's case would hinge on just Unka's testimony. Without forensic evidence, the jury would have to believe her version of events, and the defense could paint her as a scorned lover, a liar, a jealous ex. So the prosecution was going to need more. And on January 9th, the police searched Cindy's apartment pursuant to a warrant. And this time, they could do a much more thorough search. They seized a number of items, including the brother's shoes, a crossbow, business cards that led the police to various jewelry stores and car dealerships, that the brothers visited on their shopping sprees. They also seized two roles of film

that contained pictures of guess what? Michael wearing Reebok tennis shoes. He had acted like he was too good for tennis shoes as though he only wore luxury brands. And maybe that's why he deliberately chose to wear these Reeboks to throw the investigation off, and he got rid of them. But when they looked at the exact same style

and compared them to the pictures of the tree, read on even Cindy's face and also in the dirt, they were a perfect match and more evidence came to light. While the brothers were in jail, Unka thought it would be a good idea to write to Rudy several times. And these letters contained various incriminating statements. Maybe she did it on purpose to help the police. I don't know, but corroborated her version of events. The letters were seized, and Michael also sent Rudy a note in German that translated in part, quote, I have a guy who's getting out in two to four days and then we'll be free in one to two weeks. It won't matter if the police have anything or not.

We're in jail and won't be able to have done that. So don't do anything, okay? Because when a woman is dead, the same thing will have happened. We'll be free and I'll have the money because the police won't be able to do anything." End quote. So I have to tell you, when I read that, I read it a few times. I wasn't sure what he was trying to say. It wasn't very clear to me, but I guess he's thinking that they're going to get out on bail.

because otherwise this note makes no sense. Of course, it matters that the police have evidence. So I'm guessing they were going to try to flee. But this note was intercepted by a fellow inmate and he turned it over to the police. And after the police interviewed this inmate, they obtained an executed search warrant for Michael and Rudy's adjoining cells. The police seized other letters the brothers had sent, which included even more incriminating evidence.

And then Michael and Rudy were tried separately. Even though there was no DNA or blood connecting Michael to the crime scene, the prosecution had something else on their side. Michael's arrogance. Michael considered himself way more intelligent than everyone around him. And he made a bold and even reckless decision to testify in his own defense. And I always say, of course they did. It was a move that even his defense attorneys advised against. But Michael's ego couldn't resist the chance to try to talk his way out of all of the these charges. On the stand, he painted himself as a loving husband, a devoted partner to Cindy.

He claimed to have no knowledge of the murder, insisting that he had just been out to dinner with Rudy and Uncle that night that Cindy disappeared. But this performance, it definitely did not go over well, especially not on cross-examination. The prosecution confronted Michael with one key piece of evidence that just blew his credibility, the photograph of him wearing that pair of Reebok tennis shoes. When Michael was initially being questioned by his attorney, he denied owning Reebok tennis shoes. He acted like the brand was below him. But the photograph, taken weeks before Cindy's murder, showed him wearing the exact same shoes. It was uneniable. It was a match.

The prosecution methodically laid out their case, presenting both Michael and Rudy as calculated killers who manipulated Cindy for financial gain. They highlighted the insurance policies that Michael had taken out on Cindy, totaling nearly $1 million, and how the policies went into effect to just a day before her murder. I mean, come on, it's kind of obvious. Unka Dorn's testimony provided a twisted account of the brother's premeditated plan,

from targeting Cindy at Bobby McGee's to taking her into the desert on December 23rd. The jury also heard about that staged phone call that was orchestrated by Michael, Rudy, and Unka to shift suspicion away from them. The prosecution told the jury that Cindy was never more than a means to an end for Michael and Rudy.

They didn't love her. They saw her as a paycheck. But of course, the defense tried to once again shift the blame onto, guess who? Unka, actually. Suggesting that she was more involved in the murder than she let on. And you know what? She could have been. They painted her as an unreliable witness who had lied to protect herself. Clearly, you know, she went on all the shopping sprees.

She was, in fact, Michael's girlfriend the whole time. To the defense, it showed that she wanted Cindy dead too. But the jury just wasn't convinced. Unka's testimony was detailed. It was consistent. and it was corroborated by the evidence detectives gathered. And Michael's own actions, his lies, his arrogance, and his desperation only strengthened the prosecution's case.

And on June 1st of 1990, the jury returned their verdict. Michael and Rudy upheld were found guilty of first-degree murder. And during the sentencing phase, the brutality of Cindy's murder weighed heavily on the court. The judge sentenced both brothers to death. He emphasized the cold, calculated, nature of their crime. So they were not getting out like Michael thought. For Cindy's family, it was a bittersweet moment. Justice had been served. But the void left by Cindy's absence

could never be filled. And then, I hate to even have to say this. I hate when these things happened. 19 years later, in 2009, Rudy's death sentence was overturned because test showed he had a low IQ. The court determined that he was intellectually disabled, which used to be referred to I'm just going to tell you. It used to be called mental retardation. We do not use that anymore to label it that way. But it meant that his IQ made him ineligible for the death penalty under federal law. So his sentence was commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole. And for Cindy's family, that was very difficult. Kathy has an entire website that she runs and she's actually writing a book about Cindy's murder.

And on the website, she expressed her thoughts about all this. Her family always believed that Rudy was just as culpable as Michael, regardless of his intelligence, but they had no choice but to accept the court's ruling. As of today, Michael Appelt remains on death row in Arizona. His fate is unchanged. But who knows how long the wait will be until he's put to death, if ever. For Kathy, the trial and the sentencing were only part of the journey. In the years that followed her sister's murder, she struggled with.

with overwhelming grief and anger. Losing Cindy wasn't just the loss of a sibling, it was the loss of her very best friend, her other half. In interviews, Kathy described how difficult the first 25 years were. Every Christmas was a painful reminder of the holiday season that Cindy never got to celebrate again. But over time, Kathy found strength in honoring Cindy's memory.

She refused to let Michael and Rudy take anything more from her and her family. Today, Kathy talks about Cindy with a sense of peace. The pain will never fully go away, but she's found a way to keep her sister's spirit alive, especially during the holidays. The holidays were the hardest every Christmas. Kathy was reminded the devastating day

that she had boarded that flight to Illinois alone, leaving behind the ticket and the note for Cindy, hoping that she would show up. Instead, Christmas Eve became the day that Cindy's body was found. She found herself in this cycle of what-ifs. What ifs? What if Cindy had never met Michael? What if she had seen through his lies?

What if Kathy would have pushed harder to convince Cindy to stay away from him? One of the ways that Kathy has kept Cindy's spirit alive is by actually embracing Christmas again. Kathy decorates her home the same way she knows Cindy would, hanging ornaments that reminds her of their childhood and playing the Christmas music that they once loved together. It's still hard. She says she knows Cindy would be happy, though, that she's seeing them laugh and celebrate

and living their life to the fullest like she always did. Cindy's story is heartbreaking. It's a reminder of how quickly life can change, how easily trust can be betrayed. But it's also a story of resilience because her family refused to let tragedy define them. Kathy's work and sharing Cindy's story has brought awareness of the dangers of manipulation

and the importance of recognizing red flags in relationships. Cindy's legacy isn't about what happened to her, it's about the lessons her story can teach us. In the end, Kathy's, Kathy sums up Cindy's legacy best when she says, she was a dreamer, a lover, a believer in people. That's what made her so special. And while the world lost her far too soon,

the love she gave us will last forever. So my message to you that we can take is to say something to your family members. Pick up the phone, send a text, remember that life can end in ways we will never expect. It's sad but true. We're not promised the next day or the next hour. And I will see you in my very next video.

Thank you all so much. Bye.