Hey, Weirdo's, I'm Ash and Emelina, and this is morbid. Many, many, many, many, many morbid, many morbid. Many, many more about. It's an ash centric, morbid, ash centric, which means not as long as Leena's. Yeah, we gave you a long one before this. You always have to upstage me. It's what you do. Honestly, I didn't I was not ready to do that one, but like, it just had to be done.

It was worth it. I hope it was it felt like it to me. You put your thing down, flipped it and reversed it. Yeah, exactly. So I feel it. I loved it. I don't think there's any.

Yeah. I mean, I think we updated in the other episode that we'll be doing a Lori Valo updated Chadwell update this week. That will just be like a little extra like. Here you go. Here's a gift. Yeah.

And besides that, you know, we'll let you know about shows still, because that's still all just up in the air. Nothing. We're going to let you know as soon as we know. But as you know, like, things are really, really just floating nebulous.

And I was going to say right now. So we will definitely let you know when we know. And hopefully we'll be able to see you next year.

I want to see your face.

But either way, we are going to do more virtual shows, so and I'll wear fancy pants this time.

Did you see how upset people were that I was not wearing fancy pants? And I kind of love that. I love it. But I was like I was serving a look. You were. But I love that. I like listeners have connected so hard with your fancy pants. It just feels good. I know I'm actually wearing a pair of my fancy pants right now, so you know what? And they'll be back. Don't worry, they'll be back again.

Well, let's just let's go right into it. I feel. Let's do this. OK, so this week I'm going to be talking about the murder of Brenda Schaefer.

I know this one. So, OK, I, I don't even know where I found this. I think I was just it might have been in our suggestions or I might have just been like looking for a case to cover.

Our suggestions are like a gold mine. I don't know if it was. I don't remember they drew because I've been working on this now for weeks because I got wicked invested.

I love that. I love when you get invested.

Well, the issue is that I feel like there's like nothing online about this case. I found like maybe two articles other than like Wikipedia.

Yeah, I can't look there because I think I've only heard this case. Me? Well, I mean, I've only heard like one podcast about it.

And I remember being like, whoa, that's crazy.

There's like in America, remember that show American Justice. Oh, yes. I'm so good. There's I know there's an episode on it, but I couldn't find it anywhere. So I was like, well, I had to go. I will what I can go with. So I bought me a book. Oh, look at you. I know I pulled you. Look at you.

And this book, this is basically where I got like all of my information. So all the credit, all the sighting to Bob Hill, who wrote the book Double Jeopardy.

Nice. So good job, Bob. Bob, you killed it. I'm loving the damn thing, so. Oh, and by the way, this is going to be a two parter, a two party. You say to Potter for the party, I probably should have made mine a two parter, but, you know, probably whatever.

That's OK. I hope you have a long commute to know where exactly. To your your couch. To your backyard. Yeah. Perfect. All right. Well, let's dive in. So Brenda Shaffer grew up in the St. Matthew's area of Kentucky.

It's like pretty close to Louisiana. OK, OK. Cantando not Louisiana Abbeyville. I want I'm literally just going to be like, wait a sec. You know, Louisiana and Kentucky are pretty close. They are there. I meant Louisville.

OK, so anyways, bye. She I don't know if you saw life like eyes glaze over.

I was like I didn't picturing a map in my head. My head was just like, no, no, no. You didn't even write that down. Did you say that? You fixed it. So she came from a big German Catholic family and she was the youngest of six children while lots of kids busy. So her parents were Mary SC and John W. Schaefer, and they had gotten married in 1937. Look at them a long, long time ago.

And Mary says she went just by Essy because all the girls in her family were named Mary after like Mother Mary.

Oh, my God. That was like kind of funny. Wow. So we'll just call her S.E. from now on. That's cute. Such a cute name. Great. Now, Paul Shtoom. It's true. It is.

So Mary Essy and John decided they were ready for their first child and they decided actually to foster a child first. And her name was Mary Ann. So they took her in when she was nine years old. And then they were like, cool a have like so many more of these. So they keep doing that. It went well, let's keep good, keep going.

And they were like great parents. Oh, so they had Carolyn, they had John Junior, who they called Jack, Tom, Mike. And then lastly, Brenda and Brenda was born in 1952.

OK, so all throughout childhood, in her whole life, Brenda was like really, really close to SC because the child that she was pregnant with before she had Brenda died while she was still while the baby was still in the womb.

Oh, she miscarried. She miscarried. But like, I don't know if it was just because it was back then. I think it was a culmination of. Is that a word? A culmination.

Yeah. Of like being back then. And also they were of Catholic faith.

So they didn't believe in, like. Like abortion, even though technically, like the baby already died, so she had to carry it to term and give birth to a stillborn. Which was obviously a very traumatic experience for her. So tough. So imagine that anybody.

I mean, if any of our listeners ever had like a miscarriage or knows what that feels like, it's like I can't imagine having to to deliver, like not having a choice of how to go about. Exactly. Just moving forward, you know, it's so sad. So she had to give birth to the baby. And obviously that's an insanely traumatic experience. So she was really depressed afterwards. And then she got pregnant with Brenda and Brenda was like her rainbow.

But I was just going to say, it's the Rambow baby.

So all throughout, like ever since Brenda was born, literally through her whole life, her and Essie were best, best friends, like super, super close.

So special about your rainbow baby. There is. Yeah, the girls are my rainbow babies. I was going to say I was going to say, you have two of them, but I didn't know if you wanted me to. Yeah. Brenda like everyone was like she was so beautiful. Like if you and you look at pictures of her and you're like girl like you're gorgeous, you're doing it. She had like medium dark brown hair that was always styled.

She always dressed nicely and she was quiet and shy. But if you were close to her, she you were like you thought she was super funny. Yeah. Like you you knew who she was. You knew she was. Exactly.

And people loved her. Like anybody that was close to her was like everybody that was friends with her, was close friends with her. It seemed like she wasn't one of those people that had just like acquaintances. It was like you were her friend. Right. And like if she was letting you in, she was letting you in like that. And so one of her friends from high school said, quote, of our whole group, Brenda was always the best person.

She was afraid to do anything, really afraid to do anything, really daring. Oh, so she was just kind of like, I'm going to do what I do. Yeah. Like, she played it safe. I'm not a wild child. I am who I am. So she wasn't you. Yeah, no, no, not at all. So when she was in high school, her father bought the family like a small vacation spot. It was like a little summer camp area on Harald's Creek along the Ohio River.

The vacation spot was like twenty five, thirty minutes away from their house. But they loved to go there all summer. And like even like when it was in summertime, it was like their little spot. And Brenda and her friends would like lay out suntanning together and talking about life. It was the 70s like they were like really good music, like just love, peace, love, peace, love, happiness, all of the above and boys, obviously, and all that good teenage stuff.

Yeah.

You know, I don't know if Sun was the thing back then, but I feel like it was if it wasn't, you know, they were square.

Yeah. And they were doing something to get streaks in their hair ruining their day jobs. Don't put lemon in your hair.

But the summer she turned 16, she caught the eye of Charles Peet Van Pelt, who was nineteen. So he was three years older. All right. And like I said, Brenda was one of those girls who was like, absolutely stunning, but she didn't realize it.

And she was like her own worst critic. Like she thought that she was fat, which she was not by any stretch of the imagination. Of course not. She thought like her makeup was wrong. And everybody was like, no, like, you're perfect.

That's so sad that she like she was just insecure things about herself. Yeah.

But she was like, yo, I think you are gorgeous. I love you.

Like, he was like super into Brenda and they hit it off right away. He was the first boy she really fell in love with. So he went by. Pete, I there's like so many people in this story where it's like their first name, but they go by their second name. I was going to say because I was like, wait, what's this? There's a lot of that. His name is Charles Pete Van Pelt, but we're going to call him Pete.

What a name. I know that isn't Van Pelt. You know, I love a van van. Anything is just fun. It's true. Wasn't that your drag name was going to be like van something? Yeah, I forget what it was.

I need to listen to that episode. We got Texturizing and Tyler and that spooky ghost, and that's spooky. So, Pete, you know why by Pete, he was a police dispatcher in Louisville and he wanted to be a policeman someday.

And that was what Brenda's older brother Jack did. He was a police officer, a police detective. Oh. So Brenda dated Pete through the rest of high school. I think they met, like, right at the probably like she was going into her junior year and they dated junior year and senior year. And they decided to get married, so they got engaged during her senior year. Well, which I was like, well, but then if you think he's am I right?

I was going to say, think of the time. And it's like, that makes sense. Yeah. They plan to get married a few months after graduation, which was going to be in 1971. But in May of that year, Brenda's brother Jack was actually killed while he was on duty. And it was like a very like insane murder. And we're family. I know him and his partner were killed by I.

I don't I think it was like a gang or something like that. And they he was shot something like five times in the chest, in the head and just left in an alleyway.

Oh.

And actually Pete Brenda's boyfriend was, like I said, a dispatcher. So he was one of the people that had to go tell Essy.

There was like a group of people that went to tell her and she fainted when they told her, oh, that's so sad. So they so obviously the family was like super affected by that. And they put the wedding off. And I don't blame them.

Actually, while Jack was still alive, he asked Brenda not to marry Pete just to wait longer because he was like, you guys are so young, like, yeah, don't get married right now. Live your life. Like, at least someone was saying that. I know. And that's what he really wanted.

But the wedding, like, it was postponed. But then when everything kind of got back together again by the end of 1971, in December, they went through with the plan and they got married. Right. So now Brenda and Pete are married. They are in holy matrimony.

Let's face it, most women's razors don't cut it, huh?

You get it. But, um. Well, I think we deserve better than having to choose between either overpriced brands or, you know, those like skin scraping crappy razors that have like two blades on them. And then they get rusty in your shower. They always get rusty. After one year.

I was going to say, and it's always within like one or two uses, you're like, oh, here, go going to shave again. And then you're like, oh, I just gave myself tetanus.

I'm covered in blood and I love that. That's the worst. And thankfully, we don't have to go through that anymore because we found the Athena Club razor.

I love my Athena. So it is I really like what color did you get? I got black or onyx. Oh oh she she she on.

If I got that like light blue color. I knew you did. I love it so much. It looks like perfect in my shower because everything in my bathroom is like white, grey and light blue love. So it fits perfectly. It does. I love it anyways. Athena Clubs Razor. It's expertly designed with the sharpest patented blades on the market and every razor head comes with five American made blades. You'll get the closest shave with maximum comfort no matter where or when you choose to shave.

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My favorite in mine is Onyx. So yeah, I love it. And I was like, I don't know. I was like, is that going to actually say, oh, does I've had my like I've had like new razors, obviously, because I'm not yukky. Stockey thing has been on for like months.

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And things were like, all right, but they were not amazing. You don't say no, he was not very good with money at all because he's like a child.

I mean, I was not he's Pete. He's like 20. Yeah. I was like, not very good with money when I was 20. No, no, no, no.

Not at all.

And he he wanted like a very old fashioned kind of relationship, like the one that Brenda and Brenda's mom and dad had. Like he was like, I want to call the shots. I want to spend the money. And she was like, I know. He's like, I don't want to have to discuss with you when I spend money kind of thing. Exactly. And she was like, OK, I don't like I supposed to be a team and he wasn't necessarily a drunk, but when he did drink and they got into it with each other, he would be like very violent and yell and punch walls.

I couldn't find anything that he was ever violent toward Brenda, but he was violent around Brenda, which is scary. Yeah, that's still like not OK. If he's yelling and stuff, it's like that's, you know, verbally abusive.

Yeah. It was an abusive relationship for sure. So according to Brenda, didn't like to be intimate that often. And that was another thing that kind of contributed to their which not that often is probably like a pretty normal amount.

And he was probably one of those like he might have been. But this is like a running theme that we're going to see. And I'll get a little more interesting. Yeah, it is. And I there's nothing I'll get into it later. But so he said that she didn't want to be intimate other than just like cuddling and kissing and but Brenda was she never talked about sex with her friends that often like she didn't like to get changed in front in front of people.

Like she was just a very private person, very modest, super, super modest. Some people are just like that. It's just that's how she was and that's just who she was. So but obviously, it wasn't a fan of that. He's like, I thought when we were going to get married, we were going to be like doing it all the time to be bunnies. And I was going to spend the money and it was going to be great.

He had this spend money and have sex. I thought that's what marriage was about that we signed up for. I'm sorry, was that not our vows? He's like I said, I do so like you should have put it in the vows. So if you wanted that part of it. Exactly. And you didn't. So they're fighting all the time. The money problems are coming up to spending like a ton of money. At one point, Brenda's family was keeping track of all the things he was spending money on, and it ended up being like a ton of money.

What was he spending it on? Just like just dumb shit, like cars.

And like, I don't like furniture that they didn't need. Yes. Like, stuff that he just wanted. Yeah. And I think he was probably just excited to be married and have his own place and was just like buying a ton of stuff, being irresponsible.

He was just being twenty, you know, you know, so they wanted to get divorced because things were getting worse and worse. But Brenda was really struggling with that decision because again, she was she was Catholic. Yeah. And her Catholic guilt man. I know. And her family was like very against divorce because they were all practicing Catholics. Yeah. It was just normal. And also it was the seventies. Yeah.

It was not a thing that happened very often, especially with like the woman being the one to decide to get divorced. It's like it's a lot of factors working against it being an easy decision. Yeah.

But eventually she did come to the decision that she wasn't doing this anymore and their marriage ended in divorce and that only lasted four years. Wow. So it was a very short marriage, short and tumultuous. Very tumultuous and very expensive. Yeah, apparently. Yeah. So she moved home even though her dad was like super against it. He, he literally was like Brenda made her bed. Now she can lie in it. Oh. But they got over it eventually.

It's just like who he was. Yeah. He was just kind of like didn't like a picture just like the dad and like TV shows that just doesn't say much. And he's just like like yeah that's it is what it is. Yeah. And again another time. Right.

But obviously he was like super happy to have Brenda back because that was her girl, like she loves her. Brenda dated here and there after the divorce, but she was pretty put off for a little while because I remember that marriage was not just shitty and like a financial way, it was shitty and like a violent one.

Yeah, absolutely. You wouldn't trust someone. And she she definitely had trust issues after that.

But after a while, she did meet this guy named Jim Rusch. He was a dentist and they met at TGI Fridays. Oh, my goodness. Which is literally one of my favorite restaurants in the entire world, was just like, meet cute. I'm there. I'm like, I wish that I met. And yet, T.J., Fridays, I don't pretend we met outside of a Forever 21, so it's just as good.

I was going to say that's that's about on par.

So it truly is. But they really hit it off and they begin seeing each other all the time, like taking vacations together.

They would go take vacations with friends, family and friends. Family was like, we love Jim.

Wow, Jim, GetNet, Jim was getting it. And listen to this. One time he bought Brenda a billboard like he rented a billboard that basically was just like, I love you so much.

There's not enough space to tell you how much I love you on this billboard, that dental flex like I've been here, a straight up dental swanage.

All roads, I love it down. So they dated for eight years. Whoa, but, you know, like, things are not always all.

TGI Friday's mashed potatoes and billboards love professed to be a billboard exacta also have ever had the TGI Fridays mashed potatoes. I have. Oh, my God. They're pretty good. So good. So it wasn't all mashed potatoes all the time? It wasn't. Not at all. OK, they had their fights and it seemed like a lot of them were just because they were like very opposite people with very opposite personalities.

Brenda thought that Jim drank too much and she was like embarrassed by him when he would drink. And he did agree. Yeah, there were times when he drank too much, but he thought Brenda could be like hard to read even though they had been together for a wicked long time. Yeah. He was like, I don't know how she feels about me. Like, yeah, because she seems like she's just one of those people that even if you know her really well, like, you just can't crack it.

Like you're like, do do you like me. Like how do you feel. Right. Like you told me I feel like we've all dated somebody like that. Yeah. Like why are you dating.

Like they just don't express any like what you need. Right. They express just enough. Exactly. And that's exactly how Jim felt. He was like, I don't I don't know if you like me. Can you tell me how you feel about me? I feel like you're a little too cold. And she he also felt like she was a little too hard on him. OK, there were also sexual issues in this relationship as well.

Huh? So it seems like Jim was having a problem with impotence. Oh, so that was going on. And he said that Brenda just wasn't really interested in having sex all that often. He actually suggested when they broke up that she might have LSD, which is actually referred to now as H SDD. So it's hypo not hyperactive sexual desire disorder. Oh, the person affected just like isn't interested in having sex very often, even when their partner is OK.

So like low libido, it's literally like that's like the exact same thing. According to Healthline dotcom, it's different than being asexual. I didn't want anybody to get confused because that is defined as like the lack of sexual attraction. Yeah. Where Høst is not it's not like you're still attracted to the person, but it's you just have the desire, the act of sex. You're just not something you're into. I don't need to. So that was that that wasn't working out.

And also so I think it's kind of like common to assume.

And I when I was reading the book, the author said the same thing that like maybe she was like molested or like it seems like that kind of I was wondering if there was something that just because she was so I mean, some people are just inherently modest and not really like into talking about sex with their friends or anything like that. But I feel like sometimes that can be a factor of like, why are you why are you so against talking about it, writing it, you know, especially when it carries until like all of your relationships.

Because sometimes I mean, I guess I could see, like, you're just not sexually connected with one person. Yeah. But when it comes to all your relationships, it is, it seems to be you kind of rush like. Yeah.

So I couldn't find anything at all and neither could the author of Double Jeopardy, but I don't think it happened. So I don't there's nothing to say it did. I mean, might just be modest.

Yeah. It's just who she was. But I was looking into it. And some of the causes of HST include having a partner with a controlling attitude, contempt or criticism and conflict. Oh, OK. So those were all things that seemed to be the big problems that Brenda's marriage to Pete and all kind of issues that she was facing with Jim, too. Yeah.

So it might just be that she's picking the wrong dude, the wrong dudes.

Yeah.

That's also a common theme here, among other causes can be painful sex, feelings of rejection, hormone changes. And there's like the list goes on. Yeah. Of course. So she also could have been dealing with that and just didn't want to talk about it. Yeah. So nobody really knows. But I also said Brenda was like one of those girls who didn't realize how beautiful she really was. Like she didn't feel pretty.

And people think that that could have been a reason to why she was suffering from this, because that's a whole other reason why people suffer. Could have been like a body dysmorphia, insecurity kind of thing. Right. And I clarified like I couldn't find that she was like molested or anything like that. I also couldn't find anything to say that she was ever diagnosed with Høst, OK? It was just something that Jim was like.

I think you have this. Yeah.

And he he wanted things to work between them. He was like, I have this issue where, you know, like I can't get going. I think you have this issue. And he was like, I'm seeing a therapist for my issue. But like he and then he was like, I think you have this and like kind of hit me. It would be good to talk to someone.

But there and he brought this all in a letter to her.

And there was other things in the letter like you're so cold, I don't know how you feel about me.

And Brenda just took that and was like heartbroken that she was like it completely turned her on. It didn't get taken. I was like maybe like feedback to help the really. Sonship, it was like criticism from Twitter, and he kind of got, like mad at the end of the letter and like said some other stuff that was like, OK, Jim, like, you got it. You got to calm down. You got to quit while your guys don't like feeling rejected.

No, but I was going to say it does. So they tried to work things out after, but after eight years, they wanted to call it quits. It's like eight years old. You're almost dead a decade.

I know, right?

Just get over that hump. Just it's everybody gets their eight year itch. Yeah. There's one year later, right? Yeah. It's a seven year itch. Usually ask Marilyn about it. I don't know things. I mean, they ended amicably enough, but it didn't seem like moving forward. They were kind of they didn't really talk that often. Yeah.

But it did seem like for each of them, the other was the one that got away, because we'll get into that a little later on. Don't worry. But Joyce Smallwood was one of Brenda's best friends and they had like a ton in common. And Joyce had been in Brenda's shoes before. She had been in a shitty marriage and she had been in failed relationships. And she's like, I know exactly how you feel, girlfriend. Like we need to get you out there.

We need to cheer you up. And I've been dating this guy, Bob Davis. And so Bob is like a little bit older than Joyce, but he was a super nice guy. And he had this friend, Mel, and she was like, I want to set you up with Mel. And Mel's last name is Ignarro.

OK, so Mellick, NATO, whenever I read it, I want to say ignitable, but that's not how you say it.

That one sounds good to them. Yeah.

So Joyce suggested that Brendan meet Mel and they go on this double date with her and Bob and Brent is like, you know what? Like, why not? Sure. Let's let's try this again. Let's go crazy. She's like, if it sucks, it sucks. Yeah, whatever. In September of 1986, Brendan met up with Bob and Joyce and met Mel on his boat. His boat was called motion lotion.

Motion lotion. Motion lotion.

Yeah, I'd split dewpoint. I'd be like, you know what, I'm actually good. I'm actually really good. I'm actually going to motion to the other way.

I actually feel really good about leaving right now. You know what?

On second thought, I had bad sushi isolation lotion, but she did not take that as a sign to run the other way.

And they hit things off and he things went so well that Mel invited her back on the boat the next day. Just the two of them. Wow. And she was again, like, yeah, why not? Like, cool, hop on the motion lotion, let's get on this motion lotion and get it moving to Brenda.

I guess, like Mel seemed different than the other guys that she had been involved with in the past because he was different. He was older by fourteen years. He was really well established, to be honest, like he had money. He had a job as a salesman, where he traveled back and forth to Asia. He drove a Corvette.

He owned this big, gorgeous home that was like super expensive at the time he had the boat. So he had motion lotion. He had motion lotion. How are you going to say no to. That's different. And so she was like, OK, let's let's do this. So they're dating whatever.

But she also learns that he has, like, a lot of, like, strange pet peeves and weird quirks. And Joyce remembered that once they were going to go on another double date on the boat and that Brenda and Mel showed up super, super late because Mel insisted that they eat dinner first. And Joyce was like, well, why didn't we just eat dinner on the boat? Yeah, why can't we do that? And Mel was like, no, like, we'll make a mess on the boat if we eat dinner on the boat.

Like, I'm not going to have four Dulci dinner on my boat.

I be like, are you OK? And it's like we're like you just said, we're adults. I was going to say clean up after four. You know that. Right?

But he did not like people eating on his boat. He did not like messes. And he thought that if they all had dinner on the boat, it was going to be sure to leave a mess.

And he was, of course, not into that. And then what are you going to do with the mess? I mean, he didn't want to clean it. That's it. You can't do anything about it. The motion lotion is now just a mess. It's out now. It's just it's stop. We have to abandon it wherever it is just before we get it messy. So we we've made a mess. So our sandwiches save our sandwiches from the motion lotion.

So Joyce is like, OK, well, that's weird. And then she slowly started to like, add up the weird things about Mel and was like, Brenda, you need to get rid of this guy.

He's a weirdo. And I'm going to read about you in the paper someday.

Oh, because things started getting, like, a lot more serious than just eating on the boat.

Yeah. Like, he's letting these things out slowly, slowly. And Joyce is like this guy is rude. He boasts about money all the time. He's like always saying how much things cost, which I think is so yucky.

I was going to say that to me is a red flag for a person when they constantly talk about how much money they have, I'm like, yeah, we're not going to get along.

He also lied about being in the CIA. He would like talk about CIA missions that he had been on.

Oh, that's like that's a real sign that he's out to lunch like you need to. You need to get off that ride, and that's what Joyce said. She literally told Brenda, I'm going to read about you in the paper. You don't get rid of this guy. That makes me like a girl. If your boyfriend if your friend's boyfriend starts talking about his CIA missions. Yeah. You need to go get your girlfriend out of there.

And you know what? When your friend is telling you, like, I'm so concerned that I'm afraid I'm going to read about you in the paper, it's snip snip.

At least consider it. Give it a shot. But it was too late at this point. Yeah, she was already and she was like a couple months and she was one year in with these people.

You're in in these certain people, these certain guys. Will they know how to hook you and Mellars, this guy to say yeah he he sounds like it.

Hey Weirdo's guess what.

What? Oh I'm glad you asked.

So we have teamed up with Paşa Cast and we are doing a new show every Monday called Crime Countdown.

Crime Countdown. It's so good. It's so fun.

Elena and I sit down with each other every Monday. We got real cozy and we're like, let's do a countdown show with the Cast Network. We're going to discuss ten true crime stories. We're going to do it. We're going to count them down. Ten to one. What was the craziest?

It's going to happen, number one. Number one, we're also going to try to make some lighthearted jokes along the way. Yeah, because that's just who we are as people, as true.

And, you know, crime is uncomfy. So you got to let's make it come. Let's make a company. You know, it's perfect. We have the park ass research gods behind us.

And, you know, we're going to we're going to disagree with them. Sometimes we're going to test them. We're going to try to prove them wrong. We sure are. What every episode. What did they miss? What did they what should they have put on so much? Do I agree with them? Most of the time? I do.

We also have really good topics that they are the park house research gods have found. And they're like, this is the craziest things that ever happened within these topic. Like here. Talk about this, talk about this. Be lighthearted. It'll be great. We're going to talk about the most terrifying hotel crimes, all of the bodies in the bed, bodies in the bill, the most notable Alcatraz inmates.

Oh, that one was fun. Do you think Al Capone made the list?

I'm pretty sure he did, probably. We're also going to talk about culture. What is a subculture? Just some culture. No, like what is the most infamous art heist? Oh, because in culture, exactly. You know.

And did you know anything about the screen painting has been stolen more than one time.

I believe that that's weird to me.

I want the screen painting, so I get it. I don't.

Well, like Ash said, we have partnered up with the research gods and goddesses at Park Cast, and we're going to bring you true crime deep dives.

I mean, it's going to be deep cuts. We love's a deep dive. We're going to do it when you're scuba mass.

Bring it because we're going scuba diving.

Don't get the bends. So every episode we're going to have crazy, insane stories and details you've probably never heard.

And to be honest, we've really not heard some of them. So that's that's something.

And if you're a true crime fan, which we know you are done because you're listening right now. So we know you. We thank you all for you.

Follow Crime Countdown and join us every Monday as we try to shock, surprise and one up each other. Listen free and follow on Spotify or you know what, wherever you podcasts.

He became obsessed with Brenda. I mean, remember, the other thing is he was he said at one point he was like, I don't know why she was dating an ugly guy like me when she was beautiful.

He carried a picture of her in his wallet in a bathing suit. And he used to, like, show it to people that he worked with. Creepy if she had known that, I feel like she would have been. I don't know if she did or not, but she would not have liked that. Yeah. Like, she's so modest, very modest. He constantly showed up at work with, like, gifts and jewelry, you know, that honeymoon phase they put you through.

He even proposed to her after two months of dating her. Wow. He proposed, like, right around Christmas time. And he told Brenda that the ring cost twenty thousand dollars.

Jesus. Which also I don't want to know how much money, you know, I mean, like do I want to know for sure if it's like really expensive? Like, don't tell me though. I was like twenty thousand dollars.

And that's also like putting a like that's almost putting a bounty on your head kind of thing. Like it's literally being like you got twenty thousand dollars on your finger right now, like that's basically him being like put the pressure on, like just remember what you have on your finger. It's you know, look what I did for you. Control. Exactly. And so lucky. I mean, luckily I don't know what Brenda was thinking, but the right thing because she was like, no, it's like it's too early.

Wow. Good for her. And I kind of wonder if she was like, I can still get out of this if I don't engage him.

Yeah, but he asked again and kept showering her with gifts and he would call every weeknight at like a certain time. He would call her on the weeknights between ten and eleven so that she couldn't go out because she had to be home to take his calls. OK, honey, she would be so bad, so bad he would make dates with her on the weekend.

So like so she all of her time was monopolized, devoted to Mel. Exactly. And all of her friends started to catch on and her family starting to catch on. They the family hated Mel. Like they were like, I don't like this guy, something's off. But like I said, it didn't matter because he proposed again and he proposed on Valentine's Day 1987. And this time Brenda said yes, because she's like, all right, third time's a charm, I suppose.

Second, I thought it was three. I said, I think I said at first I didn't mean to say, OK, so Mel started calling even more.

Now, he would call two to three times at work during the day. He would still do is ten and eleven calls. And he was still like taking her out on the weekends. So now it was at work.

She was talking to him and she worked as a nurse's aide. Oh, wow. She didn't have time to be taking these phone calls. She wasn't at a desk much.

She's like, I'm kind of actually busy. I'm kind of saving lives. After he start like the calls and everything, then he wanted to know about her finances, even though Brenda didn't know a lot about his finances, but it seemed like he was doing pretty well.

Well, it's also like, guys, you're going to get married, maybe maybe share that information with each other.

Well, he was willing to get all of her information. Yeah, not well. You've got to give me yours. I'll let you know why he didn't want to share his.

I'm shocked that it's something shady. I bet it's real shady, but more shady stuff than he did. He made her and all of her jewelry. He pressured her to buy a condo was like an investment, even though she wasn't going to live in the condo because she was still living at home, because at this point, her mom had lupus and like she was a nurse's aide.

So she lived at home and took care of S.E. Oh, man. It was like she was just like such a person. So he made her buy this condo that she's not going to live in. And he starts like getting really, really pissed off about very, very small things. And when I say small things, I'm talking like how she ripped toilet paper. Whoa. Like if she didn't rip the toilet paper on the periphery, it'd line, he would lose his shit if the faucet handles, like on the sink weren't lined up where he liked them to be and like completely even he would like flip out.

Oh, I know. I couldn't live this way. Small things like that.

And if the state of anxiety you would be in at all times.

No, that's insane. Like, I have to like, put it out like ten and like the fucking faucet, OK?

It's like how many times do you really pull the toilet paper off the perforation?

I mean, I actually do that all the time, but I will never do it on the perforation. I like to only do it on the preparation. And if I leave a little piece, I like pull it. I mean, I definitely like usually works that way.

Yeah.

But like, I'm not if somebody came to my house and didn't do that, I went out and like, flip out on them, I'd be like I probably wouldn't even know what to say. Would you be like anything? No, I wouldn't be like anything. But he meall was like something because he was like this bathroom cost me twenty five thousand dollars to redo and it's very important to me. So it needs to be clean at all times.

Your bathroom is very important to you.

His bathroom was super fucking important to him because he like remodeled the whole thing. But it's like everything was like pink and like, I mean it was the 80s selling pink tubs and shit were well, but yeah, it was really important to him in his whole house like lady.

Ron, we're going to find out that, like people were like shocked that anybody even lived in this house. It was like a museum. It was everything perfect.

It reminds me like the whole fosset thing reminds me, have you seen sleeping with the enemy with no Julia Roberts?

I haven't. Oh, my God. It's so good.

He the guy in the movie, like it's literally Mel, he would like flip the AFL if the towels were messed up, like they had to be like perfectly even and the canned goods had to all be facing the front. And there's this scene where, like, she like gets away and then like he comes and finds her and he like she knows he's in the house because everything's lined up perfectly. And when she got away, she didn't want it to be spoiler alert.

But I haven't seen that movie.

Yeah, sorry. So Mel got weird about all that, like, weird stuff and then he got super, super weird about sex. Oh. So Brenda told Joyce, the one who said up set them up and then was like, why the fuck did I do this?

She told Joyce that Mel talked a lot and pressured her into having group sex. And he said that he knew another couple they could arrange it with.

And Brenda was like, yeah, no, like, I don't want to do that at all. Like, I'm offended that you're even bringing that up.

Yeah. You can't just force that on someone if you entered your relationship as like no swingers. Yeah, I mean, that's fine. I don't want to do that. Do what you do. But the like not for everybody. Yeah. And that's something that you should probably talk about pretty early on. That's a pretty big assumption to just feel like you're into this. Right. Like what? I don't think he even like assumed that she was I don't think he was like, this is just what we're doing.

This is what we do so far because you're my, like, little person that I control, which is love that's so creepy. So Brenda was like pissed. She was like, no, but he continuously asked her.

He was like, are we going to do that? Like, come on, let's do that answer still. No, no. Can I have no for five thousand dollars please. He also wanted to try different like stuff in bed, like restraining Brenda and she I feel like she probably agreed to do that.

So maybe he would like stop like two other things. So she agreed to do that. But she told Joyce that he tied her so tightly and wouldn't loosen the grips even when she begged him to like her circulation was like being cut off and he wouldn't loosen them. And he just did whatever he wanted to.

Oh, he made her take these, like, pills that she didn't know what they were. And he called them sex tablets. And he she was like, even if she didn't want to take them, he told her, quote, I can get this pill into you somehow if I want to.

Oh, I don't like that is not the most I thing is bone chilling. She one time told one of her friends that she didn't remember taking one of these pills like she didn't. It was like she didn't take it. She didn't do it with consent, with consent. But she woke up completely naked with no recollection of taking her clothes off or falling asleep. And she woke up in Mel's house.

Oh, my goodness. Yeah.

He kept pressuring Brenda to set a date for the wedding because, remember, they're engaged at this point. And he wanted to have or he was like, if you don't set the date, like at least like do this big engagement party like I've planned. But she kept putting off the date and she canceled an engagement party that they had planned. So she clearly was not. It was a duck. She was scared, scared, stuck, didn't know what to do.

It just like stresses me out. And then things got even worse. So Brenda one night went out to dinner with her sister in law, Linda Love, which like Linda and Linda, was dating Brenda's brother Tom at the time.

So she told Linda this horrible, horrible story. Her and Mel were on vacation together and she woke up to Mel holding a cloth over her face. And she, like, wakes up and is like what she was like, what the fuck are you doing? My God. And he was like, oh, look, I got this stuff in Asia. Like, it's I just want to help you relax.

You're stressed out lately, so I'm going to chloroform you.

That's exactly what it probably was. My God. And she's like and he said he's like, I just want you to relax. You've been so stressed out. And she's like, I'm sleepy. She's going to say, I was sleepy. It doesn't get more relaxed than that. Mel.

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So she tells Linda this and Linda was like, yeah, you need to get out of there, like you need to get rid of him, Brenda.

Yeah, if that's not a red flag, I don't know what is.

And right when that happened, while they were on vacation, she wanted to leave, but there was no flights out. And somehow he talked her down. You know, these people, they talk.

Oh, yeah, they know how to talk like they know how to like they always know how to do a complete 180. So Linda was like, you're so pretty. You're so smart. Like you have so much to offer. Like, what are you doing?

You don't need to do that. Chloroform you in your sleep.

But Brenda kept telling Linda what she was telling all her other friends and family.

She kept telling people, you just don't understand which when some when if your friend says that to you, like they're in so deep. Yeah. Like, yeah, she needed, like, some kind of help.

But it's like, what do you do when you're having to say to people you don't understand how he is when you're not around or whatever like that. And it's like, why, why? Why is he only, you know, why do you only have these like little like you just don't understand moments or is it like you don't understand like what will happen if I try. Yeah exactly. It's like both things.

So she said that, I mean Linda encouraged her to get out of there but she was, she said you just don't understand. And she was like, I'm going to talk to him. So she talked to Mel and he was like, OK, I'm I am being too hard on you. I'm not going to call you on Friday nights.

Oh, boom. You know, Friday night. So I won't call you.

Oh, that was easy. All right. Moving on. So to us, that's like, are you fucking kidding me? But if you picture, like, what Brenda was living, that was a huge win for her. Anything, any concession, any would have been a win, any piece back to her fucking life.

So she was finally able to go do something on a Friday night rather than just sit home and wait for Mel to call her. So she gave Jim a call, the dentist or dentist, and she went out with him for drinks and she told him everything that was going on with Mel. And she said, quote, I want to get away from Mel. He frightens me, but I know he won't let me go.

Oh, that makes me so sad. So sad. They talked for hours and hours while they were out. And Jim even stopped in the house when he when he brought Brenda back home, because, like I said, she was living at home taking care of Essie. And she was like, so excited to see Jim. He stopped and talked to the family for a little bit. And then she remembered the Brenda walked him back outside and they stayed outside talking for two more hours.

We got like so they were they were the way they were, by the way.

So a couple of days after Brenda went to dinner with Linda and told her everything and went out with Jim and told him everything, she's on her way to work in the morning and she calls Linda. It's a Friday morning. And she's like, I think Mel is following me to work. Oh, no.

And now you have to wonder, like, did Mel like Mel followed her often? This was not the first time she thought he probably saw he saw Jim. Oh, that was the day before Brenda disappeared. Oh, I'm so nervous. And I know what happens. And I'm nervous. I know. So that next Sunday at three thirty in the morning, as called Mel and was like as Brenda still at your house because she knew they were supposed to see each other that Saturday.

But now it was three thirty in the morning and Brenda still wasn't home. And Mel was like, no, she's not here. So Brenda or excuse me, was like, oh, shit. Like, I know her and Jim are kind of getting back together. Maybe she's with Jim. I'll cover for her, which was her mom. Incredible. So she's like, my friend is like, oh, you know what? I think she was going to standees, which was her other sister in law.

So he was like, OK.

And she was like, I'll I'll call you back, I'll let you know. And she was like, fuck that. I hate you. Shouldn't be. Chubais So at four a.m., Olstad still didn't hear back from Essy. So he calls Sandy himself because obviously he has all her fucking contact information and saying he's like, no, she's not here. Like, what are you talking about? And that's when Mel started to panic. So I started to panic.

I was just going to say, quote unquote. So he called 911 and this is exactly what he says. He goes, I don't know if I've got a problem here or not. I've got a person who's missing or or seems to be missing.

Sir, those are two very different things. I don't know if it's a problem, but I've got somebody who's missing or seems to be someone might be missing.

Is that a problem? But like, I might just be interpreting it as missing.

It's like, can you can you help me no matter what? It's a problem. So like an imagination concreter. Yeah, she's like, so. So what's the problem? She's like, sir, do you want to hang up and maybe figure this out first? Call me. Do you want a minute. Do you want to know what the problem is. So by this point, as he had already called Sandy herself and she knew Brenda wasn't there, so she calls Jim and she's like, is is Brenda there?

And Jim's like, no. So everybody's starting to panic.

Jim himself immediately got dressed and ran down to his car and starts driving around town looking for Brenda. And like all the spots he knew, like she may have been. Jim sounds like very, very her, he loved her so much, I mean, they were together for eight years. I imagine they had their issues, but I feel like they were so sad. He drove by Mel's house to to see if Mel's Corvette was there. And it was Brenda's brothers.

Mike and Tom went looking for her, too. They drove past her condo and she wasn't there either. So Brenda's car was found abandoned on the westbound lane of I 64 in St. Matthew's, OK. The rear tire was flat. The car, like, clearly been ransacked. The radio that Brenda had specifically put in there, it was like a special radio because she cared about her car a lot.

She kept it super clean and super nice. So to find it in this state, they were like, oh, what the fuck happened? So the radio was gone. There was blood in and outside of the car. Someone had attempted to break into the trunk, but unsuccessfully, they somebody had been steadying themselves, like there was a handprint on one of the windows, like they were like studying themselves to get up.

So that's the state that the car was in. And everybody knows that Mel was the last person to see Brenda alive.

So the police. I have a theory. Yeah. The police immediately go out there and they're like, what do you have to say?

So Mel tells them everything. He had literally taken notes to read from like to to say exactly what they had done that day.

So he's reading to them from notes which no one is weird as fuck.

That would be my first, like, ding, ding, ding. Something's wrong. Well, and that was like their ding, ding, ding.

And then there was another ding, ding, ding. Because most of the time Mel and Brenda spent together, that Saturday was only spent between the two of them with no other witnesses to corroborate the story.

Huh. Which I mean, like, that's so crazy.

Oh, that's that's so coincidental. Happenstance happens all the time. So this is what Mel said. And he said Brenda came to his house about three, three thirty and they decided to go drive around together. And he made a point of telling the police that they were driving Brenda's car because he said his Corvette was having a tire issue and he wanted to make sure that Brenda was safe.

Oh, of course. Of course. It's always all about her safety. I love her so much. She is precious cargo. I just personally treat her like shit, sir. Mel no, I hate him.

So he said they drove around in Brenda's car.

They went to a Gold Star chili restaurant and it was raining. So then they drove to a boat show where they stayed in the car instead of going on any boats because of the rain too detailed.

So they're a little weird. Oh, it's it's very detailed. Then they left and went to an art festival, but they stayed in the car again because it was raining. What a day.

So it's like, why are you going all these places where you can't go inside because it's raining and it's like the art festival was happening outside in the rain.

Yeah, of course it was. And so was the boat. You then they looked at a housing development. Obviously, they then went to an outdoor shopping mall from six thirty to nine pm, which I'm like, you you got to the shopping mall at six thirty after going to dinner, a boat show and an art festival.

And that's a long time to go shopping. After a long day like that, I can't lie. I probably would do the same thing.

And then they went to dinner at Captain's Quarters. Then after they went to dinner, they looked out at the water together. And Brenda wanted to see this like certain landmark, but it was raining so they couldn't see that it was raining. Yeah, I don't know if I mentioned it before.

If Mel wrote down in his notes that it was precipitating that day, precipitation, precipitation.

So then they got back in the car and Brenda dropped him off at home. He kissed her and he told her to drive safely. Of course, I kissed her. I kissed her. And I said to her, drive safely because I love you, because I love her, because I kissed her on the mouth. I did it.

He went inside and yelled to his mom that he was home because, yes, he lives with his mom as well, which is fine. But I hate mail.

So I'm saying that it just makes me think of the Will Ferrell in Wedding Crashers.

He's like my job. Well, I love I love that he's like and I yelled to my mother at eleven thirty pm that I was home so that I could confirm that I was home. And my mother can tell you that I was also home at eleven, thirty pm because I was home and I yelled to her that I was home, I was home at eleven thirty p.m..

Oh. Then this is weird as fuck.

Then he said he woke up around twelve and he was hungry but there was nothing to eat so he went out in his Corvette by the way that has the bad tire to the sky left Chile restaurant which I was a dim night at midnight. And also how many fucking Chile restaurants do you need to go to? I was going to say and it's also like give your gastrointestinal self a rest. Well well, with Chile, too, they had started at a Chile restaurant.

Then they went to another restaurant and now he's hungry. So you're going to three restaurants in like a matter of two out of three or Chile. Yeah, I mean, you're going to have heartburn, like calm down.

And also, like, that's just a lot of restaurants for one day. Calm down. Get a Dawidoff. No. He talked to a waiter while he was there. Oh, he did talk to a waiter who could confirm that he was there at the restaurant because he talked to him. I spoke to another human being at the bar at the time. He said that he talked to him about like a soft drink, like the size of the soft drink because he got a soft drink.

This is what he ordered, a soft drink, spaghetti, chili, spaghetti and chili. My God, the heartburn this dude is going to have. I know a manager did later confirm that he had spoken with Mel that night because he was there at that restaurant where he ordered this thing and made sure that he talked to somebody about the soft drink.

Yeah, establishing an alibi. And that was the only part of the story that checked out. And what a weird part, because, like, why did you go to dinner?

I love that. The Midnight Chili dinner, chili and spaghetti dinners, the only the only thing that was like. Well, the check though. He did he did do that. I love how like very classy everything else is. It's like an art show and a boat, a boat, a housing development.

And then I went to a chili restaurant, things like that. And er and er and er and then I had chili at midnight and I talked to someone with some spaghetti on the sides and so the entire time they're questioning me.

So obviously this was like a back and forth exchange.

He keeps like parsing his story to be like, have you found Brenda's car yet, have you found her car? He's like, did you or did you see what I did? Did you find that? Yeah. Yeah. But basically, I think I'd like to know if you found that yet. And they kept telling him like, no, dude, we haven't found your car yet, which I don't I couldn't figure out if they were lying, that they hadn't found the car, if they actually just hadn't found the car yet.

They probably were just saying no because they were like, you're shady as fuck. Yeah. We're telling you we're going to keep it close to that chest. We need to put that on the shirt. We do.

So after they talked to him, they were like, you do realize that nothing in your story can be corroborated by any witnesses, right.

Except for them in Chile, actually, that Chile, rather, we honestly don't really care that much about right now. And he was like, yeah, I know, I know that looks bad for me. And they were like, cool, cool, cool.

Like, good that we understand each other and we're on the same wavelength here. We're all on the same page in the same paragraph.

But obviously, like eating chili isn't enough to just arrest somebody. So no, no, I really want chili.

So I'm not a man. I like chili, I guess a thousand degrees, but I want chili. Yeah, I was going to say I don't want chili right now. I want chili in the fall. I make a great fall chili with sweet potato. And actually I do want that. Right. Oh right. Yeah. I'll make it for all of you. Thank you. So that's a big batch of chili. Yeah. Raise your hand if you want some shoots.

That is a lot of chili.

I'm nothing if not a giver. Millions and millions of batches. Yeah.

I'm here to share my chili love with everybody. I like the Red Hot Chili Peppers. My husband used to love the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I like that you said that to me. My husband has used to like I don't know if I don't know if, you know his name is John. Used to love them. My we went to their concert once. Oh that's fun. Yeah. So anyways, the whole family had gone to Brenda's home earlier that day to be together and in case she came back or.

Yes. They heard anything, you know, like old things like this happen. You're like and they were super, super close anyways of course. And Mel showed up there and he was un fucking welcome because the entire family hated him. And Linda is there because she's part of the family and she's like, oh, I know you.

I had dinner about you. I know you and I've seen you.

I'm old and gray. I'm old. Gregg And the other thing that was like pissing people off is that Mel kept doing these like big emotional outbursts all of a sudden, like sobbing. And he specifically was getting really fucking pissed off because she was trying to, like, hold it, hold it together. And this guy is like the matriarch. Right. And this guy is like crocodile tears and the whole place. Yeah. So they actually had to separate him like and put him in a separate room, like he was like, get him away from hell.

You need to get this motherfucker out of my face. Fuck him. And Mike and Tom are like, dude, you got to stop doing that. So while he's in the separate room, he talks to Carolyn, who's Brenda's older sister. And Carolyn was like, you know what, I know that Brenda is still alive. Like, this can't happen to our family twice. Like, I know she's still alive because remember, Jack. Yeah, I know the older brothers had been murdered.

So they're like, there's no way. What are the odds?

Right. The odds of that must be astronomical.

And Mel looked at her and literally looked into her eyes and said, I think she's dead.

Oh, I looked at her at her sister and was like, I think she's dead. Wow. I'm like, do do you know that I like you to please share with the class and tell me why you think that? Like, I what piece of evidence do you have that says that. Right. Like she's been at it at that point. She hadn't even been gone a full 24 hours. And she's like, she's dead. She's dead. I just have a feeling.

And it's like, OK, so Linda, I was talking to Linda before Linda Love had been listening close by and she knew something was completely fucking wrong about this situation.

And she told Tom, her boy, her boyfriend. Or I might have a husband at the time and Brenda's brother, everything that Brenda told her at dinner, because Tom didn't know that before, because Brenda was like, please don't tell Tom. Yeah, like, this is just girl code. But she told him everything at this point because she's like this mother fucker has something to do with it. Yeah, I know the words here.

So she tells Tom everything and they're like, we are going to the police right now.

Like, I'm not I'm going right now. He just said she's dead. Like, what the fuck does he know? Shit's getting weird, right? So on their way out, they saw that Mel was driving that Corvette, that he said the tire issue.

So now he's driven not to go get chilly in the middle of the night and now to the house. And he parked it across the street from the house, which I thought was suss because I wonder if he was doing that.

So it would be like inconspicuous. Right? Like no one would notice. Right. And he mentioned that it was having tire issues to the family as well, but they didn't have time to check. He's a dumb. He is a dumb. It gets done. He's a true dumb. It gets in part two, we're going to get real dumb. Oh, man. We're going to go stupid. That's okay, too.

But so they on the way out there, Linda and Tom wanted to check his car, but Mel left, right at the same time as them and they didn't have a chance to check his car, which is like such like a Grim Reaper movie.

It really is like the Joker here with my creepy fuckin moustache. Gross. Wait until I post a picture and you're going to vomit everywhere.

So the police needed more information for more people. So they went to Brenda's work where she had worked for twelve years. So they know her. So they know her for sure.

They know her habits, they know her and they see her. And she's Brenda. She worked as a nurse's aide for Dr. Spaulding. And Spaulding said that Brenda was the best employee that he ever had. He fucking loved her so much. He said she rarely took time off. She was super pleasant to all the patients. And she even went as far as to go visit the nursing homes where they lived, like on her time off.

So she was just a sweet bundle of joy. Mm hmm.

So as soon as the police walked in there and we're like asking things about Brenda, he was like, what happened? Did Mel do it? Like, I know that Mel did it.

And he starts offering up all of these, like things like information about Mel. He tells them things he had heard that, like, Mel had large sums of money hidden around the house that Brenda had seen. He said he knew that Mel had drugged Brenda and taken nude photos of her.

Oh, he said he just like went on and on. It was like a laundry list of things that he knew to be true about Mel.

Oh, man. And this is all stuff that, you know, these poor people are sitting there being like, damn it, I should have, you know, obviously you can't do anything. But do you want to do don't want to get out of there and they need to be ready to write. So you're kind of like out of your hands are kind of tired. But in these situations, you're always like, could I have done something?

Well, it's it was so far past the point. Oh, for sure. It was so set up for something horrible to happen or whatever.

So fucking sad. Yeah. It's percolating to this point. Yes, it definitely was. That was like a ten dollar vocabulary word. I love that word. So then please talk to other like a Brenda's coworkers and they tell the police what they know about Marlon Brando's relationship.

They were like, yeah, he calls here all the time, like two to three times a day. And actually he called the Friday before she disappeared. And she loudly said to him, I told you never to call me here again.

And she hung up on him. Oh, no. Yeah. And Linda had also informed the police that Brenda had planned to give Mel back his ring on Saturday, oh, Friday or Saturday, whenever there's she had planned to to end this.

That's always right. Always it.

So the police are like, cool, cool, cool. We're going to go pay another visit to Mel, going to go talk to Mr..

Talking to waiters over here, talking to I'm going to go talk to this chilly guy, this chilly lover, Bugatti spaghettini over here. The citric acid loving motherfucker is Tom's ass little bitch.

So weirdly enough, when they get there, are Millicent home? He's not. That's so weird, huh?

Oh, I thought you'd be waiting for him. And his sister answers the door and they're like, is going to be home soon.

And she's like, yeah. So they're waiting a direct quote actually.

So they're waiting there and they hear his mom on the phone with his attorney.

So he's lawyering up at this point or not.

And he actually already had an attorney, you know, say this was going to be the second time you needed to use his attorney. The first time he needed to was in 1984. And it was because he was in a vat of hot water for multiple counts of tax evasion. Oh, look at that. Oh, no, I'm not going to lie.

When you said vat of hot water, I thought he was literally in Nevada of hot water. I was going to be some, like, weird, like possibly sexual thing. And I was like, oh, what is this?

Yeah, he was in his pink bathtub in a lot of weird shit is going to happen. Well, he was involved in the CIA, so, like things went.

And then he ended up in hot water, actually at a time no figurative hot water because tax evasion, he had actually been sentenced to three years in prison and to pay eleven thousand two hundred forty five dollars in restitution.

Damn, yeah.

He only served 30 days of his sentence because apparently he's got a great attorney and we'll get to that in part two. And after that, he obviously got pretty depressed because he owed a lot of money.

That will make you pretty sad for sure. And I mean, obviously, like he was having anxiety about paying back the money. So he was suffering from depression, anxiety, financial shit sucks. Yeah, it really does. And his therapist also diagnosed him as having a passive aggressive personality structure. Oh, OK. You don't say that's shocking, sir or ma'am. So while the police are there waiting for Mel to get home and listening to his mom call his attorney and lawyer him up, they really start to believe, like, this is our dude.

Like I mean, obviously like to this point, they've heard all this crazy shit about him. Now he's lawyering up like, yeah, cool. Then that became a lot more apparent because Mel walked in the door booming through the fucking house, holding an alcohol bottle and screaming at the police that they had lied to him, that they had found Brenda's car and they hadn't told him. And he was like so fucking angry. He was screaming at the police about this.

Oh, no. We're going to talk about the rest in part to God damn it. Yeah, damn it.

Who runs in and screams at the police? I just have such a vivid image in my mind of that. I hope everybody else does.

And fun fact. The book, it said that the carpets were like chocolate brown. So I just picture him like walking into this like chocolaty like beige hole.

This just like you just want. But it's like gorgeous. It's like, you know, it's like weird. Yeah. No, I'm not into metal at all. I hate him so much.

In part two, we're going to talk about a girlfriend that Mel had friend Wild. In this case, it gets insane while potentially three parts.

But I'm just thinking two for now.

Probably probably two. Yeah, it gets crazy. Well, I'm ready, but I had to set the scene for you first scene. So right now, Brenda's missing. Oh, guys, everybody knows that Mel has something to do with it. But what are they going to do? Where's Brenda? I don't know. We got to know.

I know this is very sad. It is sad. Well, man, as always, you can follow us on Instagram while you're waiting for part two at Morbid Podcast. Hit us up on Twitter and tell us how much you love chili and how much you want to.

Leena's at a Mormon vodka and send us your chili recipes on Gmail at word vodka, vegetable dot com and label them chili recipe. Duh. We hope you keep listening. We hope you keep it weird, but not so weird that you go to Chili's restaurant at 1:00 in the morning.

But like, if you are, just don't do anything else. Make sure you talk to a waiter and take a time about the soft drink.