Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised this episode includes discussions of murder, rape and assault that some people may find offensive.

We advise extreme caution for children under 13 Christmas cheer permeated the schook family residence.

The family of five had just put down roots in the small town of Hamilton, Montana, and they were eager to make this holiday season special.

As Mike played Christmas music softly on the stereo, his wife Teresa baked cookies with their four year old son, Luke.

Luke was especially excited about this year's festivities. Not only was the sweet smell of sugar cookies wafting throughout the house, a tree stood proudly in the living room, waiting to be decorated.

Now all he needed was Santa to arrive and deliver the presents when a knock came at the front door.

Little Luke scrambled to open it. But instead of jolly old St. Nick, a man with bright red hair and glasses stood on the front stoop. There was a knife in his belt and a gun in his hand.

This stranger wasn't there to dole out gifts. He was there to kill.

Hi, I'm Greg Polson. This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from podcast. Every episode we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today, we're taking a look at Wayne Naans with a sadistic, secretive man, also known as the Missoula. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone.

You can find episodes of Serial Killers and all other Spotify originals from podcast for free on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Last time we explored Wayne's troubled adolescence, detailing how his early interest in Satanism fueled his transformation from troubling child to calculated murderer.

Today, we'll examine the drastic shifts in Wayne's modus operandi and discuss what happened when one of Wayne's targets fought back.

We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. By the fall of 1984, 28 year old Wayne Nance had completely turned his life around, once considered the social outcast of Missoula, Montana. He was now regarded as a loyal friend and dedicated employee at both Coblentz Furniture and a local bar called The Cabin.

Julie Slocumb, one of his co-workers from the cabin, was especially taken with Wayne and had harbored a crush on him for years. So when planning her birthday festivities that year, she made sure to invite him to the party.

On the big night, a large group of young Muslims crowded into Julie's apartment and proceeded to dance the night away. Julie tried her best to have a good time, but it was difficult to enjoy herself without Wayne by her side as she greeted each guest. She kept her eyes on the door, waiting for him to arrive.

But when Wayne finally made his entrance, Julie's heart sank. Wayne had brought 16 year old Marci Borkman along with him. Marcy was beautiful, with shapely curves and the perfect smile. She had drifted into Missoula only a month earlier, and now it seemed that the two were inseparable. Wayne and Marcy stayed arm in arm throughout the event, giggling and kissing in the corner of the room. Even worse, everyone remarked that they were the picture of happiness, and Julie felt forced to politely agree.

She resigned herself to the fact that Wayne was taken for good. Little did she know it wouldn't last long. Shortly after her birthday, it's believed that Wayne invited Morrissey for a walk deep in the Missoula woods.

The couple were known to have an enthusiastic sex life. So it's possible that Marcy believed the two were about to engage in a late night dalliance beneath the stars.

Instead, Wayne led the team to a shallow grave near the Bonner Dam. Then he pulled out a gun and shot her three times in the head. Later, when asked about Marcy's whereabouts, Wayne solemnly replied, She's gone.

At this stage, it's important to note that because Wayne never confessed to any of his crimes, much of his story relies on educated guesswork. So although we've done our best to bring you the most accurate version of events, there's still an element of doubt that lingers.

Following Marcy's disappearance, most of Wayne's friends assumed that the two had simply broken up. At the time, Marcy was believed to be a drifter who frequently moved around. In reality, she was a teenage runaway.

Perhaps Marci's deception had finally come to light, enraging her devoted boyfriend. Maybe not. Either way, the reason why Wayne allegedly pulled the trigger on his lover will forever remain a mystery. However, it seems that he was greatly affected by her death following Marcy's disappearance.

Wayne was noticeably sullen and depressed, quick to irritate and easily distracted. He was acting like someone who was dealing with the stress of something far worse than a simple breakup.

Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she has done a lot of research for this show.

Thanks, Greg. According to psychiatrist Bruce Harry and Phillip Resnick, some killers experience the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after committing a murder. From what we know about Wayne's behavior at this time, it seems to align with this theory. Numerous studies have emphasized the psychological after effects of killing as displayed by soldiers. But doctors Harry and Resnick focused on men who murdered off the battlefield, men who shared a particular profile. The participants of the study all endured particularly difficult childhoods.

They each also killed a woman with whom they'd had a romantic relationship after the murder. These men began to display signs of emotional distress. These negative feelings were exacerbated by the fact that these men had to keep their murders a secret. Those who kill in combat are afforded a measure of emotional support from their peers and their country at large, which can help alleviate symptoms of PTSD. However, these killers experienced the aftershocks of their murders alone, which made their symptoms worse.

It's possible that because he was unable to come clean about Marci's death, Wayne retreated into his own head to deal with the trauma of killing her.

And though it seems like Wayne tried to shelter the emotional burden alone, his co-worker Julie noticed that something was wrong and tried to console him. But Wayne refused to talk about Marci at all.

In fact, he quit his position at the cabin and started avoiding Julie altogether, causing a serious rift in their relationship as the year came to an end. Julie accepted that a relationship with Wayne was not in the cards and started dating a new man. But she didn't forget about Wayne and Marcy entirely.

In January of 1985, Julie and her new boyfriend, Craig, watched a Crime Stoppers segment on the TV. The report detailed the discovery of a body near the Missoula Mountains just below the Bonner Dam, as the host described the corpse, a sinking feeling washed over Julie, the curvy body, the auburn hair, the perfect teeth. They were describing Marcy to a T..

Craig had met Marcy, too, and agreed that the similarities couldn't be ignored. So Julie called the hotline and told investigators that she may know the identity of their Jane Doe. She considered mentioning that Marcy had been dating Wayne when she disappeared, but ultimately decided not to. She didn't want to think that Wayne had anything to do with Marcy's death.

The detective took down her statement. But without the crucial information about Wayne, it did little to help the investigation. Julie never heard back from the Missoula police.

It's possible that the authorities overlooked her tip because Julie gave them Marci's alias Robin instead of her real name. It's also possible that their attention was split between this Jane Doe and another. Around this time, investigators received new information regarding a 1980 cold case in February of 1985.

Investigators finally learned the identity of another teenage body found mere miles from Marcy's corpse. Her name was Donna Nelson.

In 1978, Devaney's mother reported the 15 year old Seattle native missing. Then in 1980, her remains were discovered hundreds of miles away in Missoula, right near the Bonner Dam. It's believed that Wayne abducted and murdered Devona after she hitched a ride with him in Seattle.

However, because Devona was found so far from home and because her body was significantly decomposed, it took authorities five years to discover who she was other than the location of the bodies.

There was no evidence suggesting that the same person had killed both Devona and Marcy. Devona had been stabbed while Marcy was shot and their murders occurred years apart, so no one thought to link them as authorities strove to discover the truth.

Throughout the early months of 1985, 28 year old Wains mood appeared to gradually lighten. He seemed like the same old Wayne again.

Unfortunately, these same old Wayne isn't a comforting thought. It's believed he began using his job as a furniture deliveryman for his own sadistic pleasures once more, in addition to canvassing the apartments of potential victims. Wayne reportedly began making frightening phone calls.

In the spring of 1985, Conlin's furniture store received a flurry of complaints. The customers all claimed that shortly after receiving a delivery from the store, they started getting obscene, anonymous calls. One woman was so frightened by the calls that she changed her number. Another was sure that the person on the other end of the line was the delivery guy she'd met at her door.

If anyone at Conlin's had thought to check their records, they would have noticed that Wayne had delivered furniture to each of the women in question. However, it seems no one thought to follow up on the disturbing complaints. Instead, they checked the phone calls up to a random prankster.

However, even if they had checked the logs, it's probable they still wouldn't have taken the complaint seriously. Around Conlin's, Wayne was known as a friendly, hard worker. He took on extra deliveries and he was always happy to lend a helping hand.

Following high school, Wayne's reputation was tarnished by his suspected involvement in the brutal murder of Donna Pounds. But after years of careful work, he was now considered an upstanding employee and friend. Perhaps that's why he felt beyond reproach and decided to strike again.

During the summer of 1985, summit in Montana crossed paths with a still unknown young woman of mixed Caucasian and Asian descent. Her attacker led her deep into the wilderness, shot her twice in the head, then left her body to rot in a parched mountain creek.

In September, a local Missoula bear hunter discovered part of the victim's skull and contacted the authorities. The creek where this body was found was only three miles from the site where Dijuana and Marcy were discovered.

This time, Captain Larry Weathermen of the Missoula Police Force felt certain that the same man was responsible for all three murders. But narrowing in on a suspect was difficult. While Diviners identity was known, the two other victims were still Jane Doe's. As a result, it was hard to create any kind of profile for their killer.

Authorities named the latest unidentified body, Krissie Crystal Creek. After the stream, she was found near its widely.

I believe that 30 year old Wayne Nades was her killer. There's no definitive proof, but there also aren't any other suspects.

A few short months later, in November of 1985, another horrific crime hit Missoula.

On the night of December 12th, 32 year old Teresa Schook baked sugar cookies while her husband, 34 year old Mike, relaxed on their brand new sofa from Carmens. They had just moved into their house in Hamilton, about 45 miles south of Missoula.

Teresa and Mike's three children were scattered about math. Their second grader was already in bed, fast asleep. Luke, their four year old, was helping his mom with the cookies. And two year old Megan was playing on the floor near her dad.

Shortly after nine p.m., the family heard a knock on their front door. Theresa and Mike were likely confused. They weren't expecting anyone to come calling. But before they had a chance to wonder who their late night visitor might be, Luke ran to the front door to invite the stranger in.

A man stood in the doorway and adjusted his glasses, perhaps a little surprised that the door had been answered so quickly.

Mike and Teresa didn't recognize the wild eyed redhead standing in front of their son. However, they clocked the knife in his belt and the gun in his hand.

As they scrambled to the entryway, Luke asked Wayne who he was. Wayne stared down at the toddler for a moment.

Finally, he said, I'm Conan the Barbarian.

Then he pushed his way in, raised the gun and fired.

Coming up, Wayne terrorises the Shook's. Listeners, this month marks 60 years since John F. Kennedy became the 35th president of the United States, ushering his already prominent family into the highest enclaves of political power. But behind their storied successes like secrets and scandals so severe, if it were any other lineage, they would have been left in ruin this January. To commemorate this iconic milestone, dig into the dramas of a Real-Life American Dynasty and the Spotify original park cast the Kennedys Crime History Mystery.

This exclusive series from Spotify features your favorite cast hosts examining one of the world's most formidable families from all angles, whether it's assassinations and conspiracies, corruption and cover ups in international affairs and extramarital ones to discover all of the Kennedy family's most controversial moments, all in one place, you can binge all 12 episodes of this limited series starting on Tuesday, January 19th, followed the Kennedys free and exclusively on Spotify. Now back to the story on the evening of December 12th, 1985, an intruder forced his way into the home of Theresa and Mike Shook.

He brushed past their four year old son, Luke, and shot Theresa in the ankle, letting the family know that he meant business.

As Mike jumped to defend his wife, Theresa hobbled into the kitchen, pushing Luke and their two year old daughter, Megan, behind her. The exact details of what happened next are unknown, but the police pieced together the following story.

Mike grabbed a brass candlestick from their living room and attacked the man. Theresa joined in the fray, hitting Wayne with a tennis racket that was lying on the floor. Unfortunately, the intruder managed to knock the weapons out of their hands and overpower them.

He ordered Teresa to return to the kitchen while he tied Mike up in the living room. Then Wayne stabbed him in the chest.

Mike fell on to his side as blood pooled beneath his body.

Then the intruder pointed the gun at Teresa and ordered her to take him to her bedroom on their way. He allowed Theresa to put Luke in his bedroom and Megan in her crib. However, Megan's crib was located inside her parents room, so she was forced to watch what happened next.

The toddler screamed as the man tied Teresa down and raped her. When he was finished, he stabbed her in the chest.

After killing Teresa, the man left Megan in the room with her mother and started rummaging through the family's belongings. He stole Mike's collection of silver dollars, a hunting knife and a plaster statue of an elk. Then he left.

The Shook's children had no idea what to do. Matt, their second grader, had slept through the entire ordeal. Meanwhile, four year old Luke was too afraid to move, and little Megan was in her crib wailing next to her mom's dead body.

For the next few hours, the kids remained in those positions. Eventually, Luke heard someone enter the house and crept into the hallway to see who it was. As Luke peered around the corner, a chill went down his spine. His parents killer had returned.

It's assumed that the intruder wanted to get rid of any evidence that might link him to the crime, including the young witnesses who are still inside. To that end, he piled together pieces of wooden furniture and magazines, then set it all ablaze. As soon as Luke saw the flames, he ran back into his room to hide.

Moments later, the man crept out of the house, shutting the door tightly behind him. But what he didn't know was that Mike Schook had built his new house to be almost airtight. By shutting the door, Wayne cut off the oxygen supply to the fire. The flames died down quickly, and though the furniture smoldered throughout the night, it never lit up again.

Unfortunately, that didn't mean the children were in the clear. The burning magazine submitted a noxious gas which permeated the entire home.

When Matt finally woke up, he jumped out of bed and found his younger brother, Luke. The boys remembered that they were supposed to stay low to the ground in case of a fire. But as they crawled along the carpet for safety, they fell unconscious across the hall. Two year old Megan slipped into a coma.

The following morning, a family friend named Greg arrived at the shack home to drop off his son, Jesse. Theresa often babysat Jesse while Greg was at work.

After knocking on the door and receiving no answer, Greg decided to investigate. He discovered that the front door was unlocked, and when he pushed it open, he was hit with the smell of smoke and toxic fumes.

He covered his face with his sleeve and peered into the living room, where he saw Mike lying on the floor in a pool of blood.

Miraculously, despite the exposure to poisonous gas, all three children were alive. But they were in critical condition. Megan's lungs had collapsed and Matt and Luke were still unconscious as an ambulance raced them to the hospital. Eventually, the kids were airlifted to Denver, where doctors hope they would receive better care in a city hospital burn unit.

As the schook children fought for their lives. Wayne celebrated the holidays with his father Christmas morning, and their home was filled with peace, happiness and, of course, gifts.

Wayne handed his gift to George, who carefully unwrap the package and smiled as he took in the plaster elk his son had given him. He had no idea the statue was stolen goods taken from the Shook's home.

It's not unusual for serial killers to take trophies from their victims, as we discussed in the past, numerous psychological studies have suggested that murderers may take these souvenirs in order to look at them and relive their kills later on. In his book, Mind Hunter, FBI agent and criminal profiler John Douglas asserts that some serial killers take this practice one step further and give these trophies as gifts. According to Agent Douglas, they usually present these souvenirs to their true object of their resentment or hostility.

Seeing this person handle the trophy allows the killer to feel a sense of control and power over the one individual he hasn't been able to dominate. Wayne's father was known to have issues with aggression and went to prison for robbery and assault when Wayne was just 13, although they picked up their relationship when George was released. It's possible Wayne never got over his father's abandonment. Giving George the stolen elk might have given Wayne a feeling of authority over the man who'd made him feel so helpless as a child.

It's certainly possible that George had no idea Wayne harbored any feelings of resentment. It's also possible Wayne gave the gift as a gesture of actual love.

While George had missed out on several years of Wayne's childhood, he cared deeply for his son. He'd been the one to shield Wayne from the unwanted stares and whispers following the Donna Pownce murder investigation and later his dismissal from the Navy to George the Elk statue might have represented a turning of the tide.

Not only was Wayne making money of his own, he'd become a responsible young man who cared about his family. But as George reflected on his son's growth and kindness, police scrambled to solve the schook murders.

At that stage, the authorities hadn't realized that the plaster Elke was missing, the shock home was still considered an active crime scene, so family and friends weren't allowed back inside.

If people close to the family had been able to search the house. They certainly would have noticed the few things that were missing. All of the items that Wayne took were extremely special. To Mike Schuck, the elk was a one of a kind statue handmade by Mike's sister in law, and the hunting knife was a personalized gift from his father.

Without those key clues to help them, the police were left with little to go on. And although the young children were witnesses to their parents murder, they were all far too traumatized to be useful to the investigators.

The police tried to question four year old Luke about the man who appeared at the door that evening. But the poor boy wasn't much help. He mumbled his words and seemed to barely remember the events of that fateful night because Luke was unable to provide reliable witness testimony.

Police worked exclusively from the evidence. They recovered from the crime scene, and it wasn't much. They had a stray bullet from the gun that shot Teresa, some semen found inside her body and a stray red hair.

Unfortunately, DNA sampling wasn't advanced enough yet to determine who exactly left the semen and hair behind.

As a result, the Hamilton Police Department's investigation crawled to a stop after six months of keeping the crime scene under wraps. They finally allowed the Shook's extended family back into the house in July of 1986. Mike's parents comb through the home, gathering up anything not ruined by fire, gas or fingerprint dust. Mike's dad noted that the hunting knife and the plaster elk were missing. However, because the house was in such disarray, he wasn't sure if they'd been taken or just destroyed.

It was a vital clue that might have led investigators to Wayne, but it fell through the cracks.

However, in early August, the Hamilton sheriff allowed a piece about the schook murder investigation to be printed in the Missoulian newspaper. He made sure that the article claimed that their department had a suspect in mind and that they were in the process of sending additional evidence to the lab.

Of course, these were all lies. The sheriff hoped that the murderer would read the paper and worry that the police were onto him. Hopefully the culprit would be so spooked that he would attempt another crime to relieve the stress. In that case, the police could potentially catch him in the act and lock him up for good. It was a risky gamble. The sheriff's tactic seemed to work.

It's believed that 30 year old Wayne read the article and started to panic. He tried to keep his paranoia under wraps, but his co-workers at Conlin's noticed a change in his demeanor. He'd always been flirty with the women in the office. But shortly after the piece in the Missoulian, Wayne ramped up his displays of affection for his married boss, Chris Wells.

He struck up uncomfortable conversations, stared at her longingly and even gifted her a necklace, one that he later found in her trash can. Then, for her third birthday, Wayne surprised Kris with a ceramic turtle shaped paperweight and a card. She smiled politely as she unwrapped the turtle, but her face fell when she read what Wayne had written in her card.

It read, Since you didn't seem to enjoy the jewelry that I gave you, maybe you'll appreciate a piece of artwork. I may be slow and cold blooded, but only time will tell. Chris felt a shiver run down her spine. Wayne had been a fixture at Conlon's furniture for years, but lately he was becoming downright creepy. She didn't quite understand what he had written inside, but she knew something felt wrong.

Wayne immediately picked up on Chris's negative energy and became deeply upset. It reminded him of his adolescence when all of the neighborhood boys and girls thought he was strange and avoided him at all costs. Eventually, Wayne's wounded pride turned into resentment.

But his anger wasn't directed at Chris alone. It was also aimed at her 35 year old husband, Doug. Although he didn't know much about Doug, that didn't stop Wayne from disliking him, that he was married to Chris was enough to earn Wayne's scorn and Wayne discussed his hatred for Doug.

Any chance he got everyone had Conlin's could see that Wayne's interest in Chris had become a full blown obsession. His co-workers dreaded talking to him because they knew he would inevitably bring her up. Unfortunately, the resulting solitude only made Wayne slip deeper into the dark corners of his mind.

Wayne wanted Chris for himself so desperately that he began crafting a plan to get Doug out of the way for good.

It would be easy enough to carry out. After all, he knew just where she left.

Coming up, Wayne's final deadly House Call now back to the story. During the summer of 1986, 30 year old Wayne Naans reportedly obsessed over his boss, 33 year old Chris Wells. He started concocting a plan to get her alone and to cut her husband out of the picture once and for all.

On September 4th, he was ready to put the plan into action.

That night, Wayne made his way to Chris's Missoula home, parked his truck nearby and waited. At some point in the evening, Chris's husband, Doug, returned home from a night out with his friends as Doug started from the front door.

Wayne climbed out of his truck and hid behind some bushes. Wayne watched with a jealous rage as Chris greeted Doug with a big hug and kiss. A few minutes later, Wayne was still so wrapped up in his own fury that he didn't notice Doug carrying a bag of trash outside as soon as Doug stepped onto the driveway.

He spotted the figure hiding in the bushes. He demanded to know who was there, and Wayne reluctantly stepped out from the shadows. He introduced himself as one of Chris's co-workers and said, I saw something out here. If you have a flashlight, you better get it.

Doug was so shocked to recognize the man peeping into his home, but he didn't even question what Wayne was doing there. In a haze of confusion, Doug turned to get a flashlight from the garage.

Almost immediately, Wayne ran up and struck Doug on the head with a small black baton. Doug fell hard onto the concrete, and Wayne dragged his unconscious body into the house.

Meanwhile, Chris was upstairs and didn't initially hear any commotion on the first floor. But as soon as Doug came to, he started throwing punches at Wayne. Hearing the scuffle, Chris realized something sinister was going on downstairs.

She made her way down to the living room and saw Doug wrestling with Wayne. When she ran to help her husband, Wayne produced a gun and ordered the couple to separate.

Chris pleaded with Wayne to leave them alone and asked why he was doing this. Wayne made up an excuse about needing money, then pulled a clothesline out of his pocket and ordered Chris to tie Doug up with Doug restrained.

Wayne carried Chris up the stairs where he tied her to the bed. Then he went back down to the living room to deal with Doug.

According to Doug, this was when Wayne grew noticeably excited.

Wayne told Doug that he wanted to get him as far away from Chris as possible and forced him to hobble down into the basement.

Over the next half hour, Wayne vacillated between the upstairs bedroom and the basement, checking in on Chris and Doug to make sure they were still secured. If he had a plan as to what he wanted to do with them, he hadn't yet enacted it.

Eventually, Wayne gathered the courage to carry out his deadly plan. On one of his trips to the basement, he knelt in front of Doug and stabbed him in the chest. Doug watched through half closed eyes as Wayne pulled his bloody knife out of his body, then wiped it clean on Doug's pants.

According to Doug, Wayne stared at him as he bled out onto the floor, looking down at his victim with complete and utter dispassion.

The callousness of the entire ordeal suddenly enveloped Doug, and when Wayne walked back upstairs, Doug was filled with a surge of rageful energy. He freed himself from his bindings and stumbled over to the bench, where he kept his hunting rifle. He loaded it with a cartridge, then heaved himself up the basement steps. Doug felt sure that he was going to die, but was determined to take his murderer down with him.

He slowly made his way up to the living room, where he started making noise at the base of the stairs. He hoped the noise would get Wayne to come back down, where Doug could get a clean shot off without putting Chris in any more danger.

Doug's plan worked. As soon as Wayne realized his captive was free, he ran out of the bedroom. When Wayne appeared at the top of the stairs, Doug aimed his rifle and shot Wayne in the side. Wayne fell to the ground, screaming.

Doug made his way up to the landing and slammed the butt of the rifle into Wayne's head. Instead of fighting back, Wayne started crawling back towards the bedroom. No matter how many times Doug smashed Wayne's head and neck with the rifle, Wayne seemed determined to return to Chris blood trail. The two men.

As Doug followed Wayne down the hall and into the dimly lit bedroom, Chris watched from the bed as her husband ferociously beat Wayne, who was crouched in a corner. At some stage, Doug was distracted, which gave Wayne a second to pull his own gun out of his pocket and fire a bullet into Doug's thigh. Wayne grinned through bloody teeth as Doug. Fell to the floor, then Wayne started to reload, at that moment, Doug remembered the second gun he kept in his nightstand, fueled by adrenaline.

Doug leapt across the bed, grabbed the gun and prepared to shoot Wayne. But just at that moment, another shot rang out in the room.

But Wayne hadn't shot Doug and he hadn't shot Kris, according to Doug, Wayne accidentally shot himself in the head and as there would be killer lay slumped over, slowly dying, Doug and Chris called the police. When the police and paramedics arrived, Chris pleaded with the EMTs to focus solely on her husband, but they loaded both men into the same ambulance and took them to the hospital together. Luckily, Doug survived his injuries. However, 30 year old Wayne Naans succumbed to his injuries and died later that day.

News of the deadly home invasion spread quickly in nearby Hamilton. Bob Schook saw the story on the local news station. He realized that his son Mike and daughter in law, Teresa, had bought their furniture from the same place that Wayne had worked. Maybe he had something to do with their deaths. Bob called the Missoula Police Department and told Captain Weathermen what he suspected.

He also made sure to mention the missing elk and hunting knife and asked investigators to see if they were at Wayne Nance's house less than 24 hours later.

Police found both items at Wayne's, making him the primary suspect in the schook murders. They also discovered photos of Wayne with a young woman who matched the description of the body found near the Bonner Dam two years prior.

Wayne's father, George, identified the woman in the picture as Wayne's ex-girlfriend, Marcy Bachman, who he knew was Robin Marci's skull was shipped to a forensic lab in Colorado, where the head was matched to the photograph. Because of these revelations, the murder of Devona Nelson is also believed to have been committed by Wayne. After all, he had been in Seattle at the time of her disappearance and he dumped Marci's body in almost the same spot as diviners and years after he'd been questioned by police.

Wayne was retroactively implicated in the 1974 murder of Donna Pounds. The evidence had always pointed in his direction, and now that a fuller picture of his criminal life emerged, it seemed almost certain, in particular his habit of tying up victims before killing them convinced the police that they had the right man.

However, George Naans refused to accept that his son had possibly committed so many crimes. He tried to convince detectives that Wayne had been having a consensual affair with Kris and that Doug was the aggressor. George believed that Wayne may have accidentally hurt Dog out of self-defense, but he definitely didn't commit any of the other crimes they were trying to pin on him.

The police likely understood George Nancies instinct to defend his son. It was the kind of behavior they'd seen from parents and relatives of criminals before. Surprisingly, there aren't an abundance of studies that examine why family members insist on protecting their loved ones at all costs. Perhaps that's because, from an evolutionary standpoint, the reasons seem obvious. Scientists like Charles Darwin have observed that mammalian parents are programmed to keep their children safe from harm no matter what. Yes, Wayne was dead, but his reputation would live on.

So George followed his parental instinct to shield Wayne from the judgments and proclamations that would surely destroy his legacy. Of course, another primitive defense mechanism was likely at play here as well. George Nance was in denial about Wayne's true nature. Psychologist Anna Freud introduced the concept of denial as self-protection in her 1936 book, The Ego and Mechanisms of Defence. Accepting that his son may have been a serial killer was simply too painful for George to endure. So it's understandable if he wanted to believe that the police were mistaken about Wayne.

Wayne Nancies story is one of those difficult tales where untangling fact from conjecture seems impossible even when agreed upon nuggets of truth emerge, the waters are still muddied by rumor and opinion. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that a verifiable version of events will ever emerge on serial killers. We strive to unpack and demystify the stories surrounding the worst criminals. But sometimes the fog surrounding a killer is too thick. The strands of their story to hopelessly tangled Wayne Nance died never having been convicted of a crime.

Even though there are at least some deaths, he seems likely to have had a hand in. There are others that are even less certain.

So what do we do when a full picture eludes us? What can we say when guesses are all we've got? The answer maddeningly is nothing. Thanks again for tuning into serial killers. We'll be back soon with a new episode for more information on Wayne Nance.

Amongst the many sources we used we found to kill and kill again, the terrifying true story of Montana's baby faced serial sex murderer by John Coston. Extremely helpful to our research.

You can find all episodes of Serial Killers and all other Spotify originals from podcast for free on Spotify.

Will see you next time. Have a killer week.

Serial Killers is a Spotify original from podcast executive producers include Max and Ron Cuddler Sound Design by Michael Motian with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Carly Madden and Joshua Kern. This episode of Serial Killers was written by L.A. Reid with writing assistants by Jane O and Joel Kaplan, fact checking by Hayley Millican and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea. Would serial killers stars Greg Polson and Vanessa Richardson. Fact fiction fame discovered the real story behind one of history's most formidable families in the Spotify or Digital Fun podcast, The Kennedys.

Remember, you can binge all 12 episodes starting on Tuesday, January 19th. Listen free and exclusively on Spotify.