EP. 51 WASHINGTON D.C. - The Mansion Murders: One Family, One Bloody Night
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He's the most terrifying serial killer you've never heard of. Haddon Clark has confessed to several murders, but investigators say he could have over 100 victims. At the center of the mayhem, a cellmate of Haddon's that was able to get key evidence into Haddon's murder spree across America,

because hadn't thought he was Jesus Christ. Born Evil, the Serial Killer and the Savior, an ID true crime event. Premieres Monday, September 2nd at 9. Watch on ID or stream on Max. Set your DVR. Warning, the following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects. Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape,

murder, and offenses against children. This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned. On May 14th, 2015, at 1.24 p.m., the Washington, D.C. Fire Department was called to respond to a house fire at 3201 Woodland Drive in the upscale neighborhood of Woodley Park when

When firefighters arrive at the large red brick mansion, they immediately see smoke billowing out of one of its upstairs windows, and they know they need to act fast. There isn't anyone visible from any of the windows of the house, and there isn't anyone screaming for help, so at first it's unclear if anyone is home. When they go to open the front door, it's locked, so they have to kick it in. Let's evacuate the building, let's go!

Once inside, the firefighters are immediately hit with the unmistakable smell of gasoline. They also notice thick smoke billowing down the stairs of the mansion, meaning the fire is located on the second story. So they make their way upstairs, through the black smoke, and come across a room that is completely engulfed in flames. While one firefighter works to put out that fire, another goes to the other rooms of the house to look for possible victims.

But as he does, he realizes that he won't be able to see anyone in these rooms because they're all completely filled with smoke. So he does what they're trained to do in these situations, feel for a victim. The firefighter walks around the black room with his hand out in front of him when all of a sudden he hits a chair and sitting in that chair is a person. He quickly lifts them up to get them out of the room

But as he does so, he stumbles upon another victim lying on the floor. Now, he can only handle one person at once.

So he quickly gets the first victim to safety and returns back to the room with his lieutenant. But while they're getting the second person out of the room, they come across a third. The firefighters hurry and bring all of the victims out to the front yard, but one thing that immediately stands out is that when they look down at their gear, they are all covered in the victim's blood.

something that you normally don't see in an accidental house fire. Now, slowly but surely, they're getting control of the fire upstairs. But as the smoke clears, they come across something that would be ingrained in their minds forever. Not only are the rooms of the house covered in blood, but inside the room where the fire started was the body of...

of a child. At the end of the day, four people would lose their lives inside of the home on 3201 Woodland Drive. But they didn't die from the fire. Autopsy reports would later prove that they were all beaten and stabbed. This is the story of the Washington, D.C. mansion murders. I'm your host, Courtney Shannon. And I'm Colin Browen. And you're listening to Murder in America.

The neighborhood in which this story takes place is amongst the nicest in all of Washington, D.C. Its streets are lined with multi-million dollar homes with well-established families and it's considered to be a safe neighborhood. So safe, in fact, that at the time, Vice President Joe Biden lived right down the street from the Sevopolis family. So when news started spreading about the quadruple homicide that occurred on 3201 Woodland Drive, it was hard to believe.

The family who lived there were the Savopolises, respected members of their community. The patriarch, Sava Savopolis, was a successful businessman and a CEO of a construction company called American Iron Works. The company was so successful that they even helped restore the Pentagon after 9-11.

And throughout the years, with this business, Sava had created a great life for he and his family. His wife, Amy, was described as down-to-earth, funny, and a very loving mother, and an all-around amazing person. It was said that she was well aware of the privilege she had, but she never flaunted it and always stayed very humble. And she and Sava had a very loving relationship. They were high school sweethearts, went off to college together at the University of Maryland, and they would even go on to have three children, Abigail, who was 19, Katerina, who was 16.

and Philip, who was 10. And it was well known that they were a loving and tight-knit family. Now, at the time of our story, Abigail and Katarina were off at a boarding school, but Philip, the youngest sibling, was still living at home with his parents. Philip was a sweet kid in fourth grade who played baseball, loved Harry Potter, and he had recently gotten into the hobby of go-karting. It was something that he and his father actually bonded over.

Not that Sava was crazy about go-karting, but he saw that his son loved it, so he would often take him to the go-kart track to have a fun Father's Sunday. This was the kind of family that the Savopolises were. They were all close and supportive of one another. Now, like we mentioned, they were also very successful, and with success comes a lot of responsibilities. Because of this, the Savopolises had housekeepers that would help relieve them of the stresses at home, like cooking, cleaning, and running errands.

Nelly Gutierrez was one of these housekeepers, and she had worked for the family for nearly 20 years. Nelly actually introduced the Savapolosis to their second housekeeper, 57-year-old Vera Figueroa, who had been with the family for the last four years.

Vera was from El Salvador, but she moved to the US for a better chance at life. Her family and children still lived out of the country, but she would work and send them money so that they could get an education. But Vera would end up being a tragic victim in this story. Both she, Sava, Amy, and 10-year-old Phillip were the people that were dragged out of the burning house on that May afternoon in 2015. And all four of them would end up losing their lives.

Their autopsies determined that each of them suffered from tremendous beatings before their death and that Philip could have actually still been alive when someone doused him in accelerant and lit him on fire. But how did this horrific story happen to such a loving family? A family who was known around Washington, D.C. and seemingly had no enemies? Well, follow us as we take you back to the Wednesday before the murders.

Sava Savopoulos was a very busy man, like we mentioned, but he had more on his plate than just being the CEO of a multi-million dollar company. Since he was a teenager, Sava was very interested in the world of Kenjutsu, a type of Japanese martial arts involving samurai swords, and Sava really loved it. With his tasking job and lifestyle, Kenjutsu was a way for him to escape all of that. He had a large collection of samurai swords and had even become a headmaster in the sport.

and in 2015, he decided to build his own Kenjutsu studio, which he was really excited about. The week of the murders was the same week that the studio was supposed to have its grand opening, but he would never live to see that happen. On Wednesday, May 13th, Sava actually left his home to go to the studio for some last-minute finishing touches, like installing the plumbing and finishing up the flooring.

He even hired his housekeeper, Nelly, to come along that day and help him clean up the studio. Nelly invited Vera to come as well, but for whatever reason, she declined, a decision that would later cost her her life. But according to the podcast 22 Hours, while Sava was there at the studio,

His daughter Katarina texted him about her boarding school's prom night. Katarina told him that she was going to ask a boy to go with her because gender roles are stupid and Sava would respond back in a typical dad fashion saying, good job, remember to hold the door for him since gender roles are stupid. Really glad you're going, have fun. But this would be the last time Katarina would ever hear from her father.

While Sava was texting his daughter and working out the studio for the grand opening, Philip and Amy were back at their home on Woodland Drive. It was a school day at Philip's all-boys private school, but he had stayed home that day for a doctor's appointment. Security footage shows both Amy and Philip arrive at the doctor's office at around 9 a.m. and leave.

and leave at around 10. The two would come back to their house afterwards, and at 11:30 AM, Amy would leave again to go run some errands while Philip stayed back at the house with Vera. But little did Amy know while she was out and about,

man named Darren Wendt was sneaking up to their house and intruding into their home, while Phillip and Vera were still there. It's unclear exactly how Darren got into the home, but many people suspect that he slipped through the door while Vera was taking out the trash. When Vera eventually noticed the strange man inside of the home, she quickly ran to the next room and grabbed one of Phillip's Little League baseball bats.

to try and fight off the intruder. But 57-year-old Farrah was no match for Darren. He quickly overpowered her and forced her and Phillip upstairs. Farrah was probably afraid and confused, and she didn't speak much English, which probably made the situation even worse.

Once upstairs, Darren would duct tape Vera to a chair and hold her and Philip captive until Amy came home a few hours later. I can't imagine what was going through their minds as they waited for hours as a stranger held them hostage.

It was also around this time, while Vera and Philip were upstairs being held captive, Darren cut the phone lines of the home, making it to where no one inside of the house could call for help. We know this because the Savopoloses had two dogs that often stayed at a pet hotel nearby, and the hotel called the home at 3:14 pm, but the phone was disconnected.

would be spotted by a neighbor walking back to her home at around 3:25 p.m. When she walked through the front door, she places her Starbucks drink and Louis Vuitton down by the stairs.

When Darren comes out of nowhere, surprising Amy, the two struggle at the front of the house before Darren forces her upstairs with Philip and Vera. She is then bound with duct tape around her wrist and ankles. The Pet Hotel would call again at 4.20 p.m., this time to Amy's cell phone, but she didn't answer. Then, 18 minutes later, Amy would place a call to her husband, who was still at the studio at the time.

Sava had a lot of work to do before the studio opened, so he was clearly confused when Amy told him he needed to come home immediately. Nellie, the housekeeper, who was still at the studio cleaning, said that Sava came up to her after the phone call and told her that he had to leave. Apparently, Amy needed him to come watch Phillip while she went out with her friends that night. Nellie remembers this being a strange request

Because Amy knew how much Sava still needed to get done at the studio before its grand opening in a couple of days. So why would she make him come home early? Nellie watched as Sava left that day, an image she would never be able to forget. Because that would be the last time she would ever see him alive. Because Darren Wint was at the house where she worked, holding Vera and the rest of the family hostage. And it was only a matter of time until Sava would be held hostage too.

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Interestingly enough, right after calling Sava, Amy would place a call to the pet hotel. No one's sure why this call was placed, but it's assumed that Darren started to get paranoid that they kept calling. Maybe he thought if they left them unanswered, someone would come by the house to check on them. So he probably ordered Amy to call them back.

telling her that if she said anything about her situation, he would kill her and her family. The lady who answered this call at the pet hotel said that Amy sounded different than usual. She was very to the point and almost sounded like she was sleepy. Normally, Amy was very friendly with the hotel's employees, but not this time. Something was off. The receptionist could have never known that Amy was being held hostage

on the other side of the phone. But in retrospect, I'm sure that these phone calls send a chill down her spine when she thinks back on it. If only they could have known. About an hour and a half later, before 6.30pm, Sava would pull into the driveway of the home. It's

unclear on whether or not he had any notion that something was wrong but if he didn't already then he would very soon because right after walking through the front doors of his house darren would attack sava knocking his red briefcase out of his hands and splattering his blood on the kitchen door after this darren forced sava upstairs where amy phillip and vera had been for hours

Amy and Vera are in separate rooms from Philip, both tied to chairs with duct tape, and soon Sava would be in their exact same position. But Darren made sure to tie up Sava extra securely with zip ties.

knowing he was the strongest of the four. And for the next few hours, Darren would taunt the family, threaten them. All three adults would suffer from extreme bruising around the wrist and ankles from where they pulled on the restraints. Phillip in the other room was probably terrified and confused as to what was happening. And from the phone calls that Sava would later make, it's clear that Darren wanted one thing and one thing only,

money. But before we get into that, let's take a look at Darren Wendt and how he came into this equation. Darren Wendt was 34 years old at the time of our story. He had come to the US in 2000 from Guyana and had even served in the Marine Corps for a period of time. Before moving to Washington DC, Darren lived with his family in Lanham, Maryland. Darren didn't have the easiest time keeping a job while in the US, but eventually he

he became a certified welder. And this is how he came into contact with the Savopolises. As we mentioned, Sava owned a construction company. And in the early 2000s, this company hired Darren. But he wouldn't keep this job forever. You see, Darren was known to be a violent person. And in 2005, he was fired from American Iron Works for threatening a co-worker with a knife. Afterwards, he had a hard time finding a job.

and in 2008, he even asked American Ironworks if he could return and come back to his job. But they weren't interested in hiring him again. In 2010, Darren was actually arrested across the street from the company with a machete and a BB pistol. Darren had a long history of crime throughout his life, including second-degree assault, malicious destruction of property, burglary, theft, assault, sexual offense, and weapons possession. But no one had any idea of exactly what he was capable of.

And he was fired from American Iron Works 10 years prior to the kidnappings. So what brought him back to the Savopolises? And more importantly, how did he know where they lived? These are questions that we never get the answer to. A lot of questions in this case are still left unanswered. But before we go over that, let's get back to the Savopolis house, where Sava, Amy, Vera, and Philip are being held.

Back in the Savopolis home, the next thing we are sure of is that at around 8:00 PM, Sava would place a call to his sister, Deborah. She too worked at American Iron Works and controlled where the business's money came and went.

and Sava knew that she would be able to help him get some cash for Darren. So when he called her that night, he told her that she needed to immediately withdraw anywhere from $35,000 to $50,000 from the company's account. For most people, this would be a red flag for a family member to call you and tell you that they need $50,000.

But for Debra and Sava, they worked together, and he was a very successful man who sometimes needed to spend a lot of money in order to make money. So it wasn't unusual for Sava to need thousands of dollars at the drop of a hat. Debra tried to convince her brother to use a cashier's check, but Sava told her it had to be cash, no exceptions.

Debra would later say that her brother sounded normal. He didn't leave her any hints that he was in trouble. He didn't have a nervousness in his voice. So Debra did what she was told. She wouldn't be able to get the money until the next day because all of the banks were closed, but she ended the phone call that night without having any second thoughts.

But the issue was that Debra lived in Florida, so she wouldn't be able to deliver the money to her brother. So Salva had to make another phone call after this one to his personal assistant, a man named Jordan Wallace. Who is Jordan Wallace? Well, remember how we mentioned that Philip loved go-karts earlier in our story? Well, he loved them so much that he started telling his family that he wanted to be a race car driver when he grew up.

Sava, being the supportive father that he was, got Phillip lessons at a go-kart track to help support his son's passion. Phillip's instructor at the track was Jordan Wallace, and he and Phillip worked together really well. Sava noticed this bond that his son had with the instructor, and when he found out that Jordan needed another job,

Sava actually hired him to be his assistant. He had worked for Sava for two months before the murders. And he was even at the Kenjutsu studio when Amy called Sava, telling him to come home. From what Sava could tell, Jordan was a hard worker and trustworthy, which is exactly why he called them on that night to see if he could deliver the money to the house the next day. But the phone rings and rings, and Jordan doesn't pick up. And while Darren is still watching his every move, Sava leaves him this voicemail.

Yeah.

you to bring down to me and, uh, probably won't be ready to leave the office until like 10 o'clock or so. But if you could just go in there and check on things like those eBay listings, et cetera, I'm sure we got plenty to do. And then, um,

I'll just be in touch with you when there's some more details. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. A lot of people, after hearing this voicemail, wonder how Sava sounded so calm and collected, even cracking a joke at the beginning of the call. No one would ever assume that he and his family are tied up and being held hostage inside of their home. But to the people close to the family, it's clear that they were doing everything in their power to protect their son, Philip.

who was in the other room. I can imagine that Darren was telling Zava that if you tell them anything, if you hint at anything, or even have a quiver in your voice during the call, I will go in the other room and kill your son. It's hard to even imagine the threats and the terror that the family was under during those few hours of captivity.

And while all of these threats were being thrown around and Sava and Amy weren't even in the same room as Philip, I'm sure this made their fear even more palpable. And they probably told themselves that as long as they do what they're told and listen to Darren, that there's a possibility they can make it out alive.

All they needed to do was cooperate and get Darren his money. I'm sure there was a glimmer of hope between the Sevopolises when Jordan Wallace texted back a few minutes later saying, quote, got your message, we'll wait for package, end quote. And now that the money was coming, all they could do was wait and preemptively

Pray that they would live to see another day. Shortly after Sava placed the call to Jordan, another phone call was made, this time to Domino's Pizza. It's unclear whether or not Amy and Sava made this suggestion, hoping that the person on the other line would notice something was off, or if it was Darren because he was hungry. But either way, it had been

Hours since anyone in the house had eaten and someone inside was hungry. So Amy places a call to Domino's and orders two pizzas, one pepperoni, one cheese, and one liter of soda. She tells the Domino's employee her credit card information and leaves a tip for the driver. But she makes sure to tell them that when they arrive at the house with the pizza, not to ring the doorbell.

because her son is sick. This pizza would go on to be a crucial part of this case. But while they were waiting for it to arrive, Sava needed to make one more phone call, this time to their other housekeeper, Nellie, at 9.35 p.m.

Hey Nellie, it's Saba. I hope you get this message. Amy is in bed sick tonight and she was sick this afternoon and Vera offered to stay and help her out because, you know, we're going through some stuff with Phillip. So she's gonna stay the night here but Vera's phone died and she doesn't have her charger and I don't have a charger that fits her phone. So I don't know if you can tell anybody that would be worried about her that she's just gonna be here with us tonight, okay?

Now, something interesting about this phone call was that Vera had never spent the night at the Savopolis household in the entire four years that she worked for them. And it just didn't seem plausible that Sava would call on her behalf just because she didn't have a phone charger.

Vera and Nellie were extremely close, so it just didn't make sense that Vera wouldn't call herself. Plus, like we mentioned, Vera didn't speak very good English. She often had a hard time communicating with the family. Another thing that didn't really add up about this phone call was that Sava said in the voicemail that Amy was sick.

But earlier in the day, Sava told Nellie that he needed to leave the studio because Amy wanted to go out with friends, not because she was sick. There were a lot of inconsistencies in this call, and Sava was probably very deliberate in making these inconsistencies.

Maybe if Nellie heard the voicemail, she would know that something was wrong and get them help. And that's exactly what happened. When Nellie eventually heard the voicemail, she knew that something was wrong. But unfortunately, she wouldn't listen to it until the next day, until it was too late.

So in the meantime, all the Savabolos' could do was wait. The pizza would eventually get to the house and the delivery guy would do just as he was told. He left the pizza on the front porch and didn't ring the doorbell. He would later go on to say that it looked like no one was home. The house was completely dark except for the light on the front porch

And he left that night without thinking anything was wrong. Soon after, Darren would walk downstairs and grab the pizza. But when he opens the front door, he realizes that the Savapoloses have a security camera on their front porch, and it's pointed directly at him.

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Darren Wint was surely paranoid about this security camera, and he told Sava and Amy that he needed to access the footage immediately. But the surveillance in the home was fairly new, and Sava didn't know exactly how it worked, so he told Darren that he would need to make a call to the person that helped install it, a man named Eric Pellick, the vice president of SEI security. Sava tried to call Eric many times on Wednesday night, the first being at 10.08pm. Once Eric answered the phone, Sava had many questions for him.

He asked Eric to explain to him exactly how the security cameras worked. Do they constantly record, or are they motion-censored? Is the footage stored on iCloud somewhere? How do we access that? Now, one would think that this would raise some red flags, calling late at night, after hours, with a ton of questions about how to delete security footage. But Eric, like every other person they called during captivity, didn't notice that anything was wrong. He explained to Sava that the cameras start recording when it detects motion, and that the footage isn't stored on an iCloud.

but in the family's computer hard drive at the house. And then they ended the phone call without raising any suspicion. For the rest of the long night, the four hostages would wait in agony. They sat in their uncomfortable chairs for hours with duct tape still bound around their wrists and ankles. And it makes you wonder if Darren ever lied down for a while or if he kept a watchful eye on the family throughout the night. Did Sava, Amy, or Vera ever try to break free from their restraints?

If they did, were they met with a beating? What was going through their mind as they watched the sun set that evening and then rise again the next morning? That's something we aren't sure of. But one thing that is for certain is that the following day, Darren was still very paranoid about the security footage. So much so that he forced Sava to call the security company again to ask some more questions.

The first call that day would be placed at 6:19 AM from Amy's phone, but because they weren't open yet, there was no answer. But they would try to call again at 7:02 AM. When Eric finally answered that next morning, Sava asked again how to access the video, and he wanted extra reassurance that the footage was not stored on iCloud.

Eric told Sava again that no, the footage is not stored on the iCloud. And one would think that these multiple urgent calls late at night and early in the morning after business hours where Sava's asking the same questions over and over that

This would make Eric think that something was wrong, but he didn't. He would go on to say that the multiple calls were a little strange, but Sava sounded normal, so he didn't think anything of it. The next call Sava made was to Jordan Wallace, his assistant who was supposed to drop off the money at the house. He went over all of the details and told Jordan to be ready for the package at 10 a.m. Next, Sava calls his sister Debra again and tells her to take out the $40,000 so it can be dropped off at the house.

She told Sava that she would have to make a few calls, but that the money should be ready for him soon. Sava then makes another phone call to the Bank of America, and a woman who he knows very well answers the phone. Her name is Elena Shepard, and she has worked with Sava and American Iron Works for years. Sava tells Elena that he needs $40,000 in cash immediately, and surprisingly, she would be the first person to find this suspicious. Sava frequently needed a lot of money, but he never asked for it in cash.

And he also seemed to be in a rush. Something about this encounter was different. But as soon as that thought came, it went. Elena started to reason with herself that she wasn't in a position to be telling Sava, a man she respected, how he should handle his money. So she ignored her intuition and started getting the cash together. After this phone call, Sava would call American Ironworks' CFO, a man named Ted Chase. And he called him to see if he could pick up the money.

You see, normally the CEO of the company, who is Sava in this case, would need to come by the bank, sign some papers, and go through an entire process before picking up $40,000 in cash. But Sava clearly couldn't leave his home. So he called Ted to see if he could have the papers emailed to him so Sava could sign them and then email them back over. Ted would then take the papers to the bank, get the money, pass it off to Jordan Wallace, his assistant,

And then Jordan would drop it off at the house. And again, for some reason, no one questioned this. No one even asked Sava why he couldn't come in. To Ted, Sava was the boss and his job was to do what he was told. So that's exactly what Ted did.

He gathered the paperwork for Sava to sign and emailed it over at 8.18 a.m. Minutes later, Ted received the copy back from Sava, signed and ready to go. To whom it may concern, this shall serve as my authorization to withdraw $40,000 from AIW Inc.'s checking account. Please hand the cash to Ted Chase, our chief financial officer, when he presents this letter. If you would like to contact me to confirm, please call me on my cell phone. Thank you. Signed, Sava Savopoulos.

By 8:30 a.m., the Savapoloses' other housekeeper, Nelly, tried to call Vera's cell phone again, but there was no answer. And this was strange. She and Vera were very close and they always kept in contact.

Plus, if the only reason Vera didn't call her the night before was because her phone was dead, then she should have surely had a charger by now. It's also important to note that Nellie still hadn't listened to the voicemail that Sava had left on her phone from the night before. The voicemail that would have surely raised some red flags.

But in the meantime, Elena Shepard calls Sava back to let him know that the Bank of America has the $40,000 and is ready for pickup. And while Ted Chase and Jordan Wallace go to the bank to pick it up, the Savopoloses wait patiently back at the house. It was around this time, about 9 a.m., when the doorbell rings to the Savopolis home. It was a sprinkler technician.

who had been scheduled to work on their lawn that day. He stands at the door for a few minutes waiting on someone to open it, but they never do. And I can't even imagine the frustration from Sava, Amy, and Vera upstairs knowing that someone is at the door, but there's nothing that they can do to let them know they're in danger. I'm sure at the time Darren was holding knives to them, threatening them, so they couldn't even yell out and ask for help.

I'm sure that this unexpected visitor also angered Darren. A few minutes after the doorbell rang, he forced Amy to call the sprinkler company and call the appointment off. Amy tells them that her son got hurt and that she had to leave unexpectedly. And they tell her that everything's all good and they can reschedule for another time. And with that, the technician leaves the

But he wouldn't be the only unexpected visitor that morning. Shortly after the technician left, Vera's husband, Bernardo, and her stepdaughter, Claudia, would pull up to the home. Bernardo had been trying to contact Vera, but she wasn't answering. She also hadn't come home from work.

and like we mentioned earlier, she never stayed the night at the Savopolises. So, Bernardo was starting to get worried, and he and his daughter thought that maybe she was just at the house and there would be a simple explanation on why she never came home. But Claudia said that once they pulled up to the home, something didn't sit right with her. Something seemed...

Wrong. Bernardo knocked on the front door for several minutes, but of course, no one answered. He would later say that he heard some sort of noise from the inside, and that it almost sounded like chairs dragging across the floor. He would knock for another 20 minutes, but still, no answer. He then tells Claudia that he knows someone is inside, and he isn't sure why they aren't answering. Then, all of a sudden, he gets a phone call from Sava.

When Bernardo answers, Sava apologizes for not calling the night before and tells him that Amy got really sick and Vera had to take her to the hospital. But he reassures Bernardo that everything is fine and that they will be back soon. When Bernardo asks what time Vera will be home, Sava tells him that he will call the hospital to check and then call him right back. But Sava never calls Bernardo back. Bernardo tries to call him, but he doesn't answer.

Back at the Bank of America, Ted Chase and Jordan Wallace were about to make the money exchange so Jordan can drop it off at the Savopoulos' home. In the parking lot of the bank, Ted hands Jordan the money and he puts it into a black backpack. And before leaving, Ted makes sure to tell him to guard it with his life. Jordan is young, in his 20s, and had never seen so much money in person.

And when he gets into the car, he takes a picture of the cash and sends it to his girlfriend. Then he immediately deletes the picture. And it was around this time when he got a call from Sava. Jordan tells him that he has the money and he's on his way. And Sava replies, okay, great. Give me a call when you're about 10 minutes away and I'll give you further instructions on what to do with the money.

About that same time, Amy sent a text to their other housekeeper, Nellie, saying, It's believed that from in that text was a typo, meant to say Friday. Nellie would respond a little later, saying,

"Hi Amy, I don't have any plans to go over there today. Monday is fine, thank you." At 10:15 AM, Sava gets a call from Jordan, letting him know that he's 10 minutes away. So Sava tells him that he will be in a very important conference call when Jordan arrives, so he shouldn't knock on the door. Instead, he should just leave the $40,000 inside their sports car in the garage.

Jordan would arrive at the house a few minutes later. When he got there, he took the money out of the backpack, put it in a manila envelope, and then placed it on the driver's seat of the red sports car. Before leaving, he texted Sava that the package was delivered.

and then leaves the property without ever suspecting anything was awry. After this, all contact from inside of the home and outside of the home would stop. No text messages were sent, no calls. And what happens after this is pretty much a mystery. Darren Wendt got what he wanted. $40,000 in cash was in his hands and no one suspected a thing. And now, Sava, Amy, Vera, and Philip

were useless to him. It was here, after Darren walked down to the car and got his money, when he walked back upstairs with a bat and a knife. We aren't certain the order in which he attacked the family, but based on evidence at the scene, here is what we know. Once upstairs, Darren beat Sava with a bat,

The bat that Sava had given Phillip earlier that year, and it actually had Phillip's name on it. Darren repeatedly hit Sava with his bat, giving him a head injury and skull fractures in three different places.

After the beating, Sava's face was covered in bruises and blood, and he was bleeding from his brain when Darren took a knife and stabbed Sava in the back five different times. The stab that would kill him was one that went through his upper back and exited near his neck.

Sava also had ligature marks around his neck, indicating that there was some sort of strangulation. But those ligature marks could have possibly been from the torture. You can imagine the chaos that erupted in the room after this first kill. Next, Darren turned to Amy, who was still bound in the chair at her wrist and ankles. Darren then took that same bat that he beat Sava with and beat Amy. Darren hit Amy many times.

many times in the head, giving her skull fractures and a huge open wound on the back of her head. Darren took the knife that he used to kill Sava and stabbed Amy eight different times. Next, he turns to Vera and savagely beats her. Her body would later show signs of a head injury and severe bruising. After beating Vera, Darren stabbed her in the back of the neck so hard that it fractured her spinal cord.

She also showed signs of strangulation. Then lastly, it's believed that Darren walked to the room that Philip was in. You can imagine after hearing his family die in the other room that he was terrified. Darren used one of Saba's samurai swords to stab Philip two separate times.

But as we already mentioned, it's possible that this stab didn't kill him. Phillip's ultimate demise was when Darren poured gasoline over him while he was lying in bed and lit him on fire with matches.

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But let's get back to the story.

Soon after the fire was started, a contractor would see smoke billowing out of Philip's window. He would call the police, but as we all know, it was far too late. Sava, Amy, Vera, and Philip would all die from their injuries that day. And when the first responders pulled up to put out the flames, they had no idea of the horrors that had occurred in that house over the past 22 hours.

And it wouldn't be long until all of Washington, D.C. would hear about the quadruple homicide that took place in one of its most affluent neighborhoods. As soon as they discovered foul play, detectives were hard at work gathering any evidence that they could from the scene. And here are the main pieces of evidence in their case. Outside of the home, it was clear that someone had deliberately cut the phone lines. In the foyer of the home, right when you walk inside, Sava's briefcase was turned over and Phillip's school papers were all over the ground, leading them to believe that a struggle took place.

The Savopolis' computer hard drive was missing from the home and the wires of the computer had been cut. Amy and Sava's cell phones were also missing. A bloody baseball bat was found in the room with the three adults and tests would later prove that the blood belonged to Sava and Amy. A bloody plastic bag was also found in this room. Investigators believed that the killer had used this bag to torture Amy.

torture them. Another piece of evidence in the house was Sava's samurai sword that had traces of Philip's blood. Investigators believed that this was the murder weapon. There were a lot of questions surrounding these murders in the first few hours of the investigation, and soon they would start to put some of the pieces together, like the fact that $40,000 was withdrawn from Sava's business account. And at first, investigators were suspicious of Jordan Wallace.

He would end up finding out about the fire at the home a few hours later and he immediately started calling and texting Sava and Amy. Witnesses said that he was freaking out so much that he actually drove to the Savopolis home to see if they were okay. When he got there, investigators were still working the scene and they took him in for questioning, knowing he was just at the house hours before and one of the last people that was there before their house was set on fire.

they were rightfully suspicious. Investigators got warrants for Jordan's DNA, phone, and car, and he seemed like he could be a likely suspect, especially when investigators saw the pictures of the cash that he sent to his girlfriend with the caption, "My job is insane. Don't show anyone." And the fact that he deleted these texts right after didn't look very good either.

But Jordan told him that he was young and had never seen so much money before and the only reason he deleted them was because Sava was a professional and he didn't want to get caught with pictures of $40,000 that belonged to his boss. But investigators were wondering how Jordan came into this story. Why did Sava, who only knew him for a few months,

asked Jordan to deliver $40,000 to his house right before they were all murdered. But Jordan didn't have those answers and he was just as confused as they were. And it wouldn't be long until investigators were able to confirm his story. They were able to look at his phone records and text messages and Jordan's location during everything. And it soon became clear that he was not their killer. But if it wasn't him, then who was it?

One thing that immediately stood out to investigators was that there were no foreign fingerprints in the home, which is usually how they identify killers. And considering the amount of time the killer spent inside of the home, there should have been at least one fingerprint. This led investigators to believe that their killer wore gloves while he held the family captive.

They were able to find two pieces of hair that didn't belong to any of the victims. And investigators were certain that this was the hair of their killer.

Because just a few hours later, they would find a similar hair, but not inside of the home. This hair was inside of Amy's blue Porsche. You see, shortly after the firefighters got to the Sevopolis home, they noticed that Amy's blue Porsche was missing. They wouldn't find it until a few hours later when reports came in that it was engulfed in flames behind a church parking lot.

Inside of the car, they found another strand of hair on a green construction vest, and the hair was a match to the one found in the Sevopolis home. Witnesses would later come forward saying that they saw an African-American male with short hair driving the Porsche erratically around town at around 1.30 p.m.

But the one piece of evidence that really stands out in this case is the DNA found in the Savopolis home. Remember that pizza that Darren ordered while he was holding the family captive? Well, one thing he didn't account for was a piece of crust he left inside one of the boxes.

While the family was tied up and fearing for their lives, Darren was morbidly enjoying his dinner, leaving his DNA on a piece that he didn't finish. Now, as detectives are combing through all of the evidence, Darren is back at his parents' house. Like we mentioned, he didn't have a job, so he still lived with his dad and stepmom. He also didn't have a working cell phone at the time, so no one had been able to contact him the entire time he was holding the family hostage.

He did have a cell phone, but it wasn't activated, so the only time he could use it was when he was on Wi-Fi, and he mostly communicated with people through Facebook. Darren's Facebook was typically very active, but for the entire time the family was held hostage and some hours after, it was completely inactive.

He would finally pop back up on the digital radar just 30 minutes after Amy's car was found burning in the church parking lot. It's also important to mention that Darren's home, where he lived with his parents, was just a few miles away from where the car was found. His girlfriend, Vanessa, was very worried about him after not hearing from him for over 24 hours. She lived in New York City, and when he wasn't responding to her messages, she started messaging him things like...

Hey babe, I know you said not to worry about you if I don't hear from you, but can you please call me and let me know you're okay? I love you. I just want to hear your voice to know if you're okay.

But little did she know, while she was sending Darren these messages, he was torturing and murdering four people. When he finally came back to the house, his parents were angry with him for leaving and not telling them where he was going. But Darren continued to stay tight-lipped about his whereabouts. Later that night, Darren would text his girlfriend a picture of two white iPhone 6s. Now, these phones were never recovered, but it's widely believed that the phones belonged to Amy and Sava, since their phones were missing from the scene, and they both had white iPhone 6s.

And Darren was concerned that these iPhones could be traced back to him. He would later Google that night how to master reset an iPhone 6. He also Googled how to beat a lie detector, 10 hideout cities for fugitives, and five countries with no U.S. extradition treaty. He also seemed to be a little curious on the media surrounding the murders, Googling "Tonight News Fire on Woodland Avenue" and "Channel 9 News Last Night House Fire" and "Video of Four People Died in House Fire Tonight."

But the most incriminating Google search from Darren's phone was "Channel 9 savage vocalist die." Although that didn't make any sense, it's widely believed that he meant to type "Savopolis," not "savage vocalist." But interestingly enough, the media hadn't released the names of the victims until the following day. The next day, Darren would go to the gym with his sister's boyfriend named Godfrey. And while he was there, he pulled out large amounts of cash, mostly $100 bills.

And this stood out to Godfrey because Darren didn't have a job. He hadn't had one in years, so what was he doing with all of this cash? Darren explained to him that he had won the lottery.

Later that night, Darren called Godfrey, telling him that he needed some help with something, but he didn't want to talk about it over the phone. Godfrey told him, I'm not going to help you unless you tell me what it is. So Darren ended up telling him that he needed help setting his van on fire. When Godfrey asked him why, Darren told him that he was involved in a hit and run, and he didn't want to get in trouble for leaving the scene, so he needed to burn it.

But Godfrey told Darren that he was not interested in helping him, so Darren did it himself. He burned his blue van in a random parking lot in DC, took all of the cash he had gotten from the Sevopolis's, and he took a bus ride to New York City to see his girlfriend, Vanessa. Darren Wendt was officially on the run.

While he was in New York, he took his girlfriend on expensive dates, paying in only $100 bills. And just like with Godfrey, Darren told Vanessa that he won the lottery and he sold his van, which is how he got all of the cash.

But it was during this time when Darren was in New York when police got a hit on their DNA. Five pieces of evidence, including the pizza crust, proved that their perpetrator was none other than Darren Wendt. And from this point forward, a manhunt was on. A joint fugitive task force was put together to find him. But it wasn't very easy tracking him down considering he didn't have a cell phone to track his movements.

But soon enough, tips started flooding in that Darren was in New York City with Vanessa. The US Marshal and the NYPD got together to try and locate him, but by the time they arrived, Darren had already fled the city. But luckily, he wouldn't be on the run much longer. Members of the task force would end up spotting him leaving a hotel and a white Chevy Cruze in College Park, Maryland.

He was with several people at the time, including his brother, Daryl, which will come up later in our story. The task force would tail Darren and his friends all the way to Northeast D.C. and eventually block the car in. Finally, their manhunt was over, and Darren Wendt was arrested for the murders that occurred on 3201 Woodland Drive. After the arrest, the surviving members of the Savopolis family made a statement, saying, quote,

We are thankful to law enforcement who have worked so diligently to bring about an arrest in this case. While it does not abate our pain, we hope that it begins to restore a sense of calm and security to our neighborhood and to our city.

We are blessed to live in a community comprised of close circles of friends who have supported us and grieve with us. We are grateful as well to the men and women of the fire department for their professionalism and caring. Our family and Vera's family had suffered an unimaginable loss, and we asked for time and space to grieve privately and willingly.

The trial for this case was far from cut and dry like you think it would be. The issues with this case didn't have to do with whether or not Darren was involved. I mean, five pieces of evidence planted him at the scene, so we already knew that he was involved. A conviction should have been easy, and after Darren was sent away, the friends and family of the Savopolises should have been able to close that horrific chapter of their lives. But it didn't end like that.

The thing that complicated this case was whether or not other people were involved as well. Darren Wint surprisingly testified at his own trial, and he claimed that he was not responsible for the murders. Who was, you may ask? His two little brothers. At first, the idea that Darren may not have acted alone was raised by Darren's defense team, and later Darren himself identified that he was lured into coming over to the house and was taking the fall for his own brother, a man named Darrell Wint.

Darren also claimed that his younger brother, Stefan, had been involved in the crime too. According to his defense, Darren's brother, Daryl, asked him if he could use his minivan one day. The next day, instead of returning the minivan, Daryl shows up driving a blue Porsche and tells Darren that he needs his help in painting a home in Woodley Park.

But the real reason Daryl wanted Darren there was because they were going to unload the home, which basically means steal all of its valuables. Allegedly, Daryl even gave Darren a construction vest and a hard hat so that it wouldn't look suspicious. Once the two arrived at the house, Darren said that he stayed downstairs while Daryl went upstairs.

When he came back downstairs, Daryl was holding a box of Domino's pizza. Darren said he was hungry, so he ate a piece, but he left the crust because it was cold and hard, which is his explanation on why his DNA was left in the house. Darren claimed that he had no knowledge that a family was being held hostage and tortured upstairs in the home, and that when he left the house that day, he hadn't helped steal anything or aid in anything.

any type of crime. According to his testimony, he simply visited the house and then left the property. When asked why Darren burned his minivan, he denied burning it, despite the testimony of Godfrey saying that Darren had asked him for help burning it.

And Darren admitted that yeah he did ask Godfrey for help but he didn't burn his minivan. Darren also said that his brother Darrell gave him $6,000 in cash to buy himself a new vehicle after his was burned. Darren also claimed that the reason he was in possession of the two white iPhone 6s is because Darrell found them in a park

and gave them to him. While this story sounds bogus and clearly we don't believe that it's true, it was hard for Darren to explain away his Google searches that day. If he wasn't the killer, then the prosecution wanted to know why did you Google things like how to beat a lie detector test? Darren replied that he didn't want to go to jail for a crime he didn't commit.

A witness would later come forward saying that they saw the Porsche erratically driving through town and the driver was a smaller African-American male with short, well-groomed hair wearing a construction vest. And the witness specifically used the word "petite" to describe the driver.

But if you look at a picture of Darren, he was far from petite. In fact, he was actually pretty big. Another interesting thing is that Darren had long dreadlocks at the time, not short groomed hair, but earrings.

Can you guess who does have short groomed hair? Daryl. Now we definitely think Darren was involved, but there are some inconsistencies in the case and lead us to believe that Daryl, his brother, could have been a possible accomplice.

Another interesting fact in this case was that a forensic scientist was called in to testify and he claimed during the trial that the DNA found at the scene could have also belonged to Stefan, Darren's other brother. But Darren's brothers weren't on trial for these murders. They would never go on trial. In fact, they provided alibis that seemed to check out. At the

At the end of Darren's trial, his defense team tried to call another witness forward to testify, a witness whose story would have poked holes in Darrell's alibi. But the judge, however, ruled that the witness's testimony wouldn't have really made that much of a difference.

and he stated that since the defense had already rested its case, they wouldn't allow them to call another witness. So Darren's brothers would never be put on trial, despite the compelling story that Darren's defense team told about their involvement. Now, obviously, Darren's account of these events needs to be taken with a grain of salt. It was basically just his word, and of course a guilty person is always going to say whatever they can to get themselves out of trouble. But interestingly enough...

There were several people who believed that Darren didn't act alone. According to court documents that were later released, even the authorities in the case believed that someone had assisted in the torture, murders, and robbery. The authorities also claimed in the court documents that were released that they believed that a crime of this scope, quote, "...required the presence and assistance of more than one person,"

The authorities didn't explicitly state who they thought could have been involved, but the fact that they even stated this is odd in itself, and points to the possibility that, indeed, Darren really may not have acted alone. But the state was never able to come up with enough evidence to prove any of this. And on October 25th, 2018, Darren Wendt was found guilty of 20 counts of kidnapping, murder, and extortion.

and was eventually sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. So at the end of this story, once again, there are no true answers. During the trial, the prosecution pointed out that there are a lot of gaps in the story. There are a lot of questions that they can't answer.

It leaves us wondering, we are pretty positive of Darren's involvement, but could his two brothers be involved in this horrific story as well? Are there other killers out on the street who escaped justice in this case? We don't really know. But what we do know is that over a 22 hour span, in 2015, four people were held captive, tortured, and murdered.

and murdered in a truly horrific way. And in the eyes of the law, there is only one perpetrator of this crime: Darren Wendt. Along with the unanswered questions in this case, there are also a ton of tragic coincidences.

Like the fact that Philip happened to stay home from school on the very day that someone would break into their house and kill their family. Or the fact that Vera stayed home that day instead of helping set up at Sava's studio. Sava and Amy made multiple phone calls over those 22 hours to people that they were very close with.

and not one of them realized that something was wrong. Several people even came by the house while they were inside being tortured, and still no one was able to help them.

And the craziest part to me was that Sava was able to withdraw $40,000 from his account all while someone was threatening he and his family and no one saw any red flags. I think at the end of the day that really shows how great of parents both Sava and Amy were. They could have easily just risked their lives and told someone on any of those phone calls that they were in danger. But they held it together and did their best to sound normal.

because of the small possibility that Philip's life would be spared. But as we all know, that wasn't the case. And this crime goes to show that greed and murder happen everywhere. No one, no matter your status or your wealth, is exempt from these tragedies. And the Washington, D.C. mansion murders will forever be a reminder of this.

The Sevopolis house was demolished and nowadays all that remains on that almost hollowed ground is an empty patch of land surrounded by a high brick gate and fence. It's eerie, isn't it? How after time passes and people move on, properties like the one where the Sevopolis home once sat just remain empty. It almost feels wrong to build on that land.

The property is permanently cursed, marked by negativity and true evil. And if they do ever build something on that land, it begs another eerie question. Do the new tenants know the real history of their new home? Have they read the news articles? Listen to the podcasts? Do they know the story? It's an interesting concept. The Savopolis home actually made the news again in 2015.

only half a year after the Savopolis family was murdered inside of its walls when it was listed as for sale. The, quote, manor home was listed for $3.2 million and interestingly enough, the listing made no mention of the people that were murdered there earlier that year.

You see, in Washington DC, you only have to disclose murders and deaths that occurred inside of a property when a potential buyer asks for information about them. And obviously, most of the time, realtors are more than happy to keep those salacious and disturbing secrets a secret so that they can sell the house. And it makes us wonder, what's the history of your home, your apartment, your place of work? Do you think someone has died in your house in the past?

In most cases, unless you asked, you probably don't know. So I'd recommend doing a search for yourself. You can actually look up those records online because who knows, you might not know it, but maybe, just maybe, there are some skeletons in your house's closet waiting to tell you their side of the story.

Thank you, everybody, for listening to another episode of Murder in America. This is honestly crazy that we've grown so much in one year. Courtney and I are so unbelievably proud of ourselves and proud to have you guys out there listening to us. Seriously, thank y'all. I know that this is dark subject matter that we're covering, but...

What we're doing here is different and it's important to be able to understand the world around us. You have to know the dark side of things to be able to appreciate the light. That's just my perspective on it. I want to thank all of our new patrons for the last week.

Thank you.

And Elizabeth Cosma.

Wow, that is a lot of names. So if you're listening right now and you want to join the party, come over to Patreon because we're interacting with y'all all the time. I love being able to chat with you guys. Courtney does too. And we're seriously so thankful. You all are the people that made this entire thing possible. Courtney's out right now. I'm just finishing this by myself. But I just want y'all to know how blessed we feel. And seriously, if you're sitting in an old home, get your home checked out. See what the history is. See history.

the truth behind where you're living and ask yourself that same old question, the dead don't talk or do they? We'll see you next week, everybody. We've got some amazing episodes coming up and thanks for listening.