Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
The national sales event is on at your Toyota dealer, making now the perfect time to get a great deal on a dependable new Toyota truck. Like a rugged, half-ton Tundra, workhorse by nature, powerhouse by design, the Tundra combines raw capability with premium comfort and advanced tech to fuel your wildest adventures. And with the available i-Force Max Hybrid Powertrain, you can take electrifying horsepower farther
than ever before. Or check out the fully redesigned Tacoma, delivering trail-dominating power and captivating style. The new Tacoma was born to make your off-roading dreams come true. And with the new available tech, this legendary truck is getting even better. And when you buy a Toyota truck, you buy Toyota dependability, meaning your truck will hold its value long into the future.
So visit your local Toyota dealer and check out amazing national sales event deals when you visit buyatoyota.com. Toyota, let's go places. Ever find yourself holding back on travel plans because you're afraid of the language gap?
Well, no need to mind the gap if you have Babbel. Designed by real people for having real conversations, Babbel gets you talking. Babbel's tips and tools are grounded in the real-life stuff you'll actually need. Everything is focused on conversation, so you'll be ready to talk wherever you go. Babbel's personalized learning lessons, real-time feedback, tracking, and visualizations keep you focused and motivated.
Babbel helps millions of people quickly and confidently have real-world conversations in a new language. Now, when I say to learn Mandarin on this program, I'm not kidding. There will be a future sooner than you think, where if you don't speak the language, the widely accepted language of Earth, you're going to be left out, just like you were left out when the internet took off and you didn't learn anything about coding.
So don't do that. Here's a special just for you. Oh, and this is a limited time deal for our listeners only. Right now, get up to 60% off your Babbel subscription, but only for our listeners at babbel.com slash monsters. Get up to 60% off at babbel.com slash monsters spelled B-A-B-B-E-L dot com slash monsters. Rules and restrictions may apply.
Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. She's a little 100-pound girl, and you're a killer, dude. Fuck you. No, fuck you. No, fuck you. Go ahead. What are you going to do? Ask me in 30 years when you're halfway through your sentence if you're a killer.
We made it all the way to season 10 and the end of 2023, a year that I thought was for sure going to kill me on a show called Sword and Scale that proves that the worst monsters are real.
Well, like I said, it's been a hell of a year and not in a good way. We started out in a complete mess. The site was broken. The app was broken. We worked really hard to fix it. And we're going to launch a new app, a new website very soon in 2024. We're going to take a short break because I'm going to crack if I don't. And, uh,
You know, we'll be back really, really soon, as soon as we can with some major surprises for you. I think you're going to love them.
The national sales event is on at your Toyota dealer, making now the perfect time to get a great deal on a dependable new Toyota truck. Like a rugged, half-ton Tundra, workhorse by nature, powerhouse by design, the Tundra combines raw capability with premium comfort and advanced tech to fuel your wildest adventures. And with the available i-Force Max Hybrid Powertrain, you can take electrifying horsepower farther
than ever before. Or check out the fully redesigned Tacoma, delivering trail-dominating power and captivating style. The new Tacoma was born to make your off-roading dreams come true. And with the new available tech, this legendary truck is getting even better. And when you buy a Toyota truck, you buy Toyota dependability, meaning your truck will hold its value long into the future.
So visit your local Toyota dealer and check out amazing national sales event deals when you visit buyatoyota.com. Toyota, let's go places. When a murder is committed, people usually want to know why. And oftentimes, that answer makes sense to us. We all know what it's like to be jealous, angry, or want something we can't have.
When a person kills for money or revenge, we get it. We don't necessarily condone it. Kinda like that Chris Rock joke. Buuut it makes sense. In some way. The motivations are, on some level, relatable. But every once in a while, a murderer comes along with a motivation that is not quite so relatable. Not quite so easy to understand.
They aren't driven by anger or jealousy. They don't seek revenge or wealth. Instead, they are driven by something much more frightening. All they want is to experience the planning and the crime itself. All they're really after is the thrill of the kill. In November of 2014, on the morning after Thanksgiving, a young med school student was fast asleep in his bed.
at the River Ranch Apartments in River Oaks, Texas, which is about a 10 minute drive from Fort Worth. As the student was sleeping off his turkey dinner from the night before, he was suddenly awakened by a scream that apparently had come from the apartment above his own. Do you remember doing anything after 6 o'clock? What awakes you next? It was just the scream upstairs. So at 7.30 you heard screaming? I was laying in bed
And it wasn't, I wouldn't call this a blood-curdling, high-pitched talk as loud, you know, I wouldn't describe the scream like that. It's more of a scream/yell. And that woke me up. So I'm sitting there looking at the ceiling and I'm racking my brain thinking, "Okay, what the heck is going on up there? "Do I need to go up there?" My first thought was she woke herself up from a nightmare. And then I heard the real loud pound on the ground.
After hearing the scream followed by a loud thud, this young man contemplated what to do next. Eventually, he decided to get out of bed and inspect his apartment. After he did, he found that everything seemed fine. So I get up from bed, I go out and look around our apartment, the cat's just sleeping on the couch, like nothing's out of the ordinary. And I'm thinking, like, okay, maybe I should go up there, like, what if she's having a heart attack, a seizure, something like that, I could...
The carbon monoxide alarm in the apartment started blaring. Soon after, the fire suppression sprinkler system activated.
So the young man called 911. Yeah, hi, I'm going to live over at River Range Apartments, and I think there's a fire upstairs in the apartment above me, and now my sprinklers are going off. Fort Worth Fire Department, this is Kevin, may I help you? Yeah, I live over at 4705 River Range Apartments, there's a fire above me. 4705? Yeah.
Stay with me, I'll get someone in here. The River Ranch apartment complex is a two-story quadplex that only consists of four separate dwellings. Even so, the med school student wasn't the only person affected by the assumed fire that had broken out in the apartment above him. Not long after this initial 911 call was placed, more emergency calls were transferred to the Fort Worth Police Department.
Hello? Man, this is the Fort Worth Police. You're calling 911. Do you have an emergency? Yeah, the apartment's on fire, but...
Eventually, emergency responders and Fort Worth firefighters arrived on the scene.
They found that one of the second floor apartments was on fire and they quickly began working to extinguish the flames. Meanwhile, a crowd of onlookers began gathering around the complex and news of the fire quickly reached friends and family members of the River Ranch apartment residents. 4th Police in 581, what's the address you're calling about? I'm actually calling in regards to a fire that you guys are...
I'm not sure the exact address. It's my sister's address. One of her co-workers had called to tell me that
31-year-old Ashley Harris lived with her golden retriever at the River Ranch Apartments.
and worked full-time as an assistant manager at American Eagle at the nearby Hewlin Mall. Can you describe her duties as an assistant manager? Well, her department responsibility, because she was trying to get into store management, she had just taken over visuals a few months back, which required her hours sometimes to be a little longer, like later evenings, doing visual changes and stuff.
Other job duties would be just running our sales floor during business hours. She was really big into loss prevention. That was her track. She wanted to eventually end up with our loss prevention department. So she would help me out with a lot of operational things that's actually what she was strongest at was just making sure that everybody was trained on procedures and make sure that everybody was aware of what was going on in the store.
As an assistant manager at American Eagle, Ashley Harris worked long hours and was paying her dues in hopes of eventually being promoted. Ashley wanted to be a loss prevention specialist. If you're not familiar, many retailers employ these specialists to safeguard the company's assets and prevent or minimize theft. So Ashley was working her way toward the position that she ultimately wanted.
She regularly posted videos of herself on social media while she was at work. For anyone who has ever had a retail job, you can probably relate to how demanding and tiresome that kind of job can be. It was JCPenney for me in case you're wondering.
Despite the long hours and demands of her job, Ashley maintained a good attitude and a healthy personal life. Again, Ashley lived at the River Ranch Apartments and she lived there with her beloved golden retriever, Nala. Sadly, in 2014 on the morning after Thanksgiving, a large fire broke out inside Ashley's apartment.
Fort Worth firefighters were eventually called to the scene and as they worked to extinguish the blaze, many onlookers and concerned friends of Ashley watched as flames and black smoke billowed out of Ashley's apartment. As many of these onlookers anxiously waited for news of Ashley's well-being, a few of them were questioned by police. She works at American Eagle Mall. Okay, American Eagle over at the mall. Yes.
What time was that? 4:40 when you left here? Was there anybody else in there with her?
Among the onlookers was a young woman that was well acquainted with Ashley. In fact, she and Ashley had been on a few dates together. Her name was Alexis Torres.
And Alexis claimed that she was with Ashley just a few hours before the fire broke out. As is usually the case for retail workers, Ashley Harris...
had to work on Thanksgiving. In what has become the American custom, many retailers open their stores on Thanksgiving evening as an extension of, and an early start to, Black Friday. Y'all consumers, I don't have to tell you that it's the biggest single shopping day in the United States every year. It kind of sets the tone for the whole Christmas shopping season.
On this particular Thanksgiving day, Ashley was expected to work an especially long overnight shift at her American Eagle store at the nearby Hewlin Mall. Ashley was having to work for Black Friday. So we had a Thanksgiving at Tracy and Carrie's house, which is another group of friends of ours. We had Thanksgiving around, I guess, I believe it was about 2 o'clock. She left because she had to be at work.
She asked me to take care of Nala, her dog. While Ashley was at work, Alexis looked after her dog. Early the next morning, at around 3 a.m., an exhausted Ashley returned to her apartment. Was Ashley still wearing the same clothes that she went to work in? Yeah, she was still wearing her same work clothes. Can you describe those? She had on a red shirt, I don't remember what it said, but all of her employees were wearing it.
Um, she had on jeans and her boots. She still had her keys. Or did she see the keys anywhere? Uh, she still had them on her belt loop. It was a pretty big clip. Um, she always just put it around her belt loop. According to Alexis, after Ashley came home, she and Alexis spent some time together before Alexis said goodbye and left the apartment. And, uh, we talked for about an hour and, um,
And just to clarify, I know I had asked you this before, but just so we can put it on the record, was there anybody that Ashley ever talked about having problems with or that would want to harm Ashley? No.
By all accounts, Ashley Harris was an extremely well-liked, caring, and personable young woman. She had a lot of close friends, many of whom described her as having a magnetic personality.
People liked to be around Ashley. Even people that only briefly interacted with her could easily recognize the overwhelming positivity that Ashley carried herself with. She was extremely nice, extremely just positive. It was only for a couple seconds we were walking our dogs, and I just felt just her positive energy. As the police investigated the fire at Ashley's apartment,
One of the people they spoke to was her boss at American Eagle. Not unlike Ashley's friends and acquaintances, her boss...
had only good things to say about Ashley and couldn't imagine that anyone would want to hurt her. What kind of employee was Ashley? Fantastic. Ashley just, you know, tried to be as cordial to everybody as possible. You couldn't ask for a more positive person. The associates all just kind of attached themselves to her. She was like the mother of the store. She was my right-hand person. I depended on her for so much.
Do you know if Ashley was having problems or trouble with anyone? No, that's what we're all beating ourselves up over. We just don't get it. Like, she didn't have an enemy in the world. Despite what everyone was saying about Ashley, the chaos at her apartment suggested that she must have had at least one enemy. Tragically, as Fort Worth firefighters were working to extinguish the blaze, they found a body among the flames. It was female.
She was lying face down, and it was obvious that the fire didn't kill her.
Ashley Harris had been murdered. And an apartment fire has turned into a potential murder mystery in Southwest Fort Worth. On Friday, we told you about this. Firefighters discovered the body of a young woman inside her burning apartment unit along Keene Ranch Road. But investigators quickly determined the fire was not the cause of her death. Arrest warrant affidavits say Harris was found with her ankles bound with gray duct tape. Her hands were also bound with gray duct tape behind her back.
and that her body was partially burned. In the early morning hours of Black Friday, someone or multiple people broke into Ashley Harris' apartment and attacked her. They bound her arms and feet with duct tape. They pistol whipped her and strangled her to death. Then they set her apartment on fire and fled. Interestingly, as police processed the scene, they determined that
that the only thing missing from the apartment was Ashley's work key. For detectives, this was bizarre. Why would someone only steal a set of keys to American Eagle? Was that all they wanted? What the detectives didn't know is that the person behind all this mayhem had a plan, and part of that plan was to murder Ashley Harris.
Another part of the plan included gaining access to the store where Ashley worked. Ultimately, it was those missing keys that would help explain why someone wanted to commit this brutal crime and why a well-liked young woman that seemingly had no enemies was viciously attacked and murdered.
The COVID-19 and the flu are disguised to make fun of your immune system. That's why vaccines are updated to protect you. Get up to date with vaccines. Sponsored by the defenders of education, equity and the progress of vaccination.
What if you could have a career where the opportunities are as vast as our nation, where it's not about mission statements, but a shared mission? At U.S. Customs and Border Protection, we go beyond to protect more than borders. From ship to shore, air to ground, cities to local communities, CBP agents and officers are keeping people safe. Join U.S. Customs and Border Protection and go beyond for something far greater than yourself.
Learn more at cbp.gov/careers. Every day, we rise, challenging ourselves to work for what we believe in. At U.S. Border Patrol, protecting our borders is more than a job. It's a calling. Agents answer the call, working together to keep our country and communities safe. If you're ready for a new mission, join U.S. Border Patrol and go beyond. Learn more at cbp.gov/careers.
In November of 2014, Fort Worth firefighters were called to a fire at the River Ranch Apartments in River Oaks, Texas. Inside one of the apartments, firefighters found the dead body of 31-year-old Ashley Harris. Soon after, Fort Worth homicide detectives were called in to investigate, and they quickly determined that Ashley had been murdered. Ashley's hands and feet were bound with duct tape and
She had multiple lacerations and wounds all over her body. A medical examiner later determined that Ashley must have been dead before the fire started because her aorta blood tested negative for carbon monoxide. The medical examiner also found that Ashley's eyes reflected strangulation. The cause of death was asphyxia and blunt force trauma to the head. There was no doubt that this was a homicide.
As for the fire, an arson investigator determined that rubbing alcohol was used as an accelerant and the fire had multiple points of origin including Ashley's bed, her closet, and her body. In other words, someone viciously beat and murdered Ashley, poured alcohol all over her body and her belongings, and then set the apartment on fire before fleeing the scene. Thankfully,
Ashley's dog survived. During the subsequent investigation, homicide detectives interviewed several people, one of which happened to be a former police officer that lived in the same apartment complex
as Ashley.
Not a car that I had seen before. And can you describe what you saw? What I believe to be a black Infiniti. And did you see anybody coming or going from that vehicle? No, sir. Okay. So when you left for work at 720, you said the car, you meant the black Infiniti, was still parked next to Ashley's truck? Yes, sir. According to Ashley's neighbor, his typical morning routine included smoking a cigarette on his apartment's front balcony.
On the morning of the murder and before the fire broke out, this neighbor noticed a black car parked next to Ashley's truck. It was a car that he did not recognize as usually being parked there. Don't you just love neighbors? At the same time,
Ashley's other neighbor, the young man that lived below her, noticed a black car leaving the complex just before his carbon monoxide alarm went off. I look out the window, and that's when I told you I saw that black car leaving. Ten minutes after that, my carbon monoxide started going off, and that alarm is so different than a smoke alarm. It's so much louder, so anything that I didn't hear anything after that, the alarm just turns out everything's gone.
At this point in the investigation, the cops had gathered a lot of information very quickly. They were trying to put all the pieces together. But the one thing they knew right away was that they needed to find that black Infiniti and its driver. Somehow, the news of that car spread among Ashley's friends and coworkers.
And it prompted Ashley's boss to approach detectives. Now, from your understanding, what kind of car did Carter drive? I was told that it was a black, it's like a little black sports car. Two-door, four-door? I believe it was two-door. I never saw it in person, just that picture that you forwarded over to yourself.
Like Ashley Harris, 28-year-old Carter Cervantes was also an assistant manager at American Eagle.
Both women had worked at the same store and Carter happened to own and drive a two-door black Infiniti. On the morning after the murder, the lead homicide detective on this case decided to visit Carter's apartment and when he arrived there, he found a black Infiniti parked in the driveway. Rather than approach the home and knock on the door, the detective decided to sit, wait and watch.
After a few hours, he saw Carter leave her apartment and walk toward her car. But Carter wasn't alone. With her was a young black man that looked to be around 18 or 19 years old. The detective watched as the young man got into the driver's seat of the Infinity while Carter sat in the passenger seat. The couple drove off and the detective followed until they arrived at the Hewlin Mall.
The same Hewlin Mall where Ashley Harris used to work. The detective continued watching as Carter stepped out of the passenger seat and walked into the mall. Meanwhile, the young driver sat and waited in the parking lot. At this point, it was around 8:00 a.m. and the doors to the mall were open, but many of the stores inside were still closed.
So, the detective decided to follow Carter into the mall as he called upon another detective to put eyes on the young driver. Unfortunately, the detective in the mall lost sight of Carter and was unable to find out where she went or why. The other detective, however, decided to approach the Infinity and question the driver, who identified himself as David Mallory.
David explained that he had driven his girlfriend to the mall so she could pick up some documents from her job at Aeropostale. Of course, that's not really where she worked, is it? This struck detectives as strange because he knew that Carter didn't work there. What a dumb lie. Some people are really bad at it. When the detective asked David for his driver's license, he explained that he didn't have one, which prompted the detective to arrest him.
David was then taken to the police station and questioned. What did you guys do for Thanksgiving? We cooked, stayed in, watched movies. What did you guys have for Thanksgiving?
In questioning David, detectives learn that he was Carter's live-in boyfriend. And according to him, he and Carter spent their Thanksgiving at home together.
He explained that all they did was cook, eat, watch movies, and sleep. At this point, David had already garnered some suspicion from detectives because when he was first approached at the mall...
He presumably lied about where Carter worked. So this morning, you guys get up. What's going on? What are you guys talking about? What are you doing? I just get up and I took her to the mall. She said she needed some papers or something. Okay. She would be in and out. She left her phone. So I was waiting in the front row. Okay. Okay. What time is the mall open? I'm not sure. She was going there to put out paperwork or pick up papers. Pick up some papers. Where at? Her...
I'm not sure. Did she work there or what? She said that she was going to pick up some papers. Did you ask her where or what paper? I mean, I wasn't too concerned about it. Detectives seemed to believe that whatever was supposed to happen at the mall that morning had been orchestrated by David's girlfriend. They also seemed to believe that David knew all about her plan, and that David was going to pick up some papers.
And they wanted him to tell them what the plan was. So...
David maintained his story and claimed that all he had done that morning was drive his girlfriend to the mall. At the same time, David had some questions of his own. From his perspective, it was obvious that something more was going on here. When someone is arrested for driving without a license, they aren't typically questioned by multiple detectives.
Much less homicide detectives.
about to happen this morning. So that's kind of what's going on. - You just bullshitted me for about 15 seconds. Do you want to let me know what's going on? 'Cause I mean, I would really like to know why I'm in this. - Okay, well that's why you're here? - No, it's coaching. You need to watch, I mean, we're not the ones that are bullshitting here.
You don't go through this length of investigation. OK, you're the smart guy. You tell us why we're here. I don't know why the fuck we're here. Well, obviously, you think you're smarter than us. You tell us why you're here. You do this to all your people who-- we do this to a lot of people for no driver's license? That's a good one. No, you don't. But you are a smart guy. You have figured it out. You know what? I did want to talk to you. I did have an investigation going that I'm not going to-- I'm going to be 100% honest with you. I am not going to show you my cards.
The detectives traded questions and accusations with David.
But by the end of their conversation, neither side gave more than an inch. David never admitted to anything and he was eventually booked, taken before a judge and jailed for driving without a license. Meanwhile, the cops had also tracked down Carter and brought her in for questioning as well. Interestingly, they found Carter in the laundry area of her apartment complex.
Which meant that after David dropped her off at the mall, Carter must have made the long walk back to her home. So whatever Carter had done that morning in the mall remained a mystery, at least for the time being. - Carter Carol Cervantes? - Yes, sir. - I know you mentioned David is your boyfriend. How long have you guys been together? - About a year and a half. - How did you guys meet? - We worked together at American Eagle briefly.
28-year-old Carter Cervantes originally worked as an assistant manager at an American Eagle store in Amarillo, Texas, which is about 400 miles north of Fort Worth. It was in Amarillo that Carter met and began dating her co-worker, David Mallory. When the district manager became aware of that situation, he gave Carter a choice. She would either resign or be transferred to another store. Carter
chose the latter. Before Carter made the move from Amarillo to Fort Worth,
She called the American Eagle store manager in Fort Worth and spoke to both him and Ashley Harris. But it's not like she was transferred here because she had ties to Fort Worth or wanted to... No, no, no. She didn't know anybody here. Matter of fact, whenever she was going to move here, she had called and talked to me and to Ashley and asked, like, what's an area that, you know, would be close to the store but kind of central? And Ashley, I think, is the one that actually mentioned the Benbrook area.
Carter made her way to Fort Worth and soon began working at American Eagle at the Hewlin Mall. While there, things didn't go well for her. Carter struggled to get along with many of her new co-workers, which...
happened to include Ashley Harris. - Can you describe the relationship between Ashley and Carter? - They never clicked. I mean, Carter never clicked with anybody in the store from my understanding except for the associates. - Do you know? - Again, Carter kept everybody at arm's length. She didn't... - You know, Carter ever went over to her apartment to hang out or anything like that? - No. - He didn't. - Carter and Ashley were both assistant managers, but they were pretty much also completely opposite people.
They had conflicting personalities and approached their positions at American Eagle in different ways, if that makes sense. While Ashley was an upbeat and exceptionally personable worker, Carter usually kept to herself and maintained a matter-of-fact attitude during her shifts. Meanwhile, back in Amarillo, David Mallory stopped showing up for work and was eventually fired from his American Eagle store. David's name was placed on the company's "Do Not Hire" list and
He soon moved to Fort Worth where he reunited with Carter. Once there, Carter used her position as an assistant manager to falsify some paperwork and hired David to once again work alongside her at the Hewlin Mall American Eagle. Unsurprisingly, both Carter and David were eventually fired, but not for the reasons you may think.
I was put on a suspended leave of absence the week before, and then they decided to let me go on September 1st. There was a robbery at Hewlin Mall, and I had closed the night before. They determined that I had left the store unsecured, so they let me go. Was that case ever solved? No.
Did you ever speak to detectives about that case? No, it was never questioned. And I did not leave the store. I actually filed for unemployment and filed the company. So where are you currently working? I'm not currently working. If you ask Carter why she was fired from American Eagle, she will tell you that she was accused of leaving her store unsecure. But if you ask her boss, you'll get a more detailed explanation.
I got a call one day while I was at church on a Sunday morning. Our deposit from the night before had been stolen. So I went to the store. We had video inside of our store. What had happened is the night before, she was scheduled, I believe, a 2 to 10 to be like the closing manager to close down our registers. And then Carter was scheduled to work, I believe, a 3 to midnight or a 4 to midnight.
Three months before Ashley Harris was murdered, in August of 2014, there was a robbery at the Hewlin Mall, American Eagle. On the night of that robbery, Ashley Harris had done a shift change with Carter. And during that brief time that they were working together, Carter did something unusual.
around 7:00 or 7:30 that night, told Ashley that she was going to take the trash out. And Ashley thought it was strange. It's something that Carter's, you know, Carter was very hands off. She didn't, a lot of that stuff was beneath her. So either way, she took the trash out and left the back door unlocked. A few hours later, Carter and a couple of other employees finished up their shift.
closed the store and left. So that night, I believe at 5 or 10 minutes after 12, you could see on the camera Carter and her team leave the building, lock down the front gate, and they leave. At about 1:15 in the morning, you see on the camera a black male walk in from my back door onto my cell floor. He's wearing like a black hoodie or a dark hoodie, pulled up over his head, wearing gloves.
He walks over into my cash-n-wrap area and bends down. He walks directly to the safe, bends down, puts a key in, unlocks it, and takes the deposit. It was a little over $18,000 deposit, and then takes that same path back out. A masked thief dressed in black casually walked through the unlocked back door, reached into the store safe, and left with about $18,000.
Needless to say, it was highly suspicious that this thief somehow knew that the back door was unlocked. At the same time, this thief seemed to know exactly where to go to get the money.
These retail workers sure are smart. A week went by after we were doing our investigation and I was told to contact Carter and terminate her employment for policy violation for leaving the store unsecured. And then as far as the theft, it was put in the hands of Fort Worth PD to kind of go from there. We were going to press charges assuming that they would move forward on their end. After the robbery, Carter was let go.
It was assumed that she planned the robbery. But aside from firing her and handing the investigation over to the police, there wasn't much else that American Eagle could do. At that point, nobody at the store knew that Carter was dating David Mallory.
But that didn't stop Ashley Harris from putting two and two together. As soon as I walked in that Sunday morning, and Ashley hits the play button, she goes, that's David Mallory. I said, okay, so what about that? Do you know that's David Mallory? She goes, it's the way he's walking, the way he carries himself, how skinny he is. That's David Mallory, like without a doubt. In watching the surveillance footage, Ashley could easily tell that the mass thief was David Mallory.
His mannerisms and lanky frame gave him away. Even so, the managers at American Eagle were never able to question David about the theft because after it happened, David just for some reason never came back to work. So, so curious. So, so, so curious. Somehow he suspiciously just disappeared. Weird.
And after that incident with the theft, was David ever put back on the schedule? Was he fired? Our policy is that they have to have three consecutive no-call, no-shows. So I put him on the schedule for three consecutive shifts, and he never picked a schedule, never showed up, so he was terminated. And that was shortly after the theft? Did he ever come back? No, sir. Okay. Ashley Harris believed that Carter planned the robbery and David carried it out.
And given that David never came back to work, her assumption was all but confirmed. Even so, the police investigation into this theft dragged on for months. David and Carter were never even questioned by police about it. - Carter took it very hard when she was terminated. Like she was not gonna go down without a fight, but she took it extremely hard. But she also knows that Ashley is the one that called and turned her in. - Given the nature of Carter's departure from American Eagle,
and her response to being fired, it wasn't unreasonable to suggest that Carter may have had an axe to grind with both the store itself and the very recently murdered Ashley Harris. When Carter was brought in for questioning, the detectives were already highly suspicious of her, and as she was interviewed, Carter didn't do herself any favors to sway those suspicions. In fact, she really only made things worse.
At one point during the interview, detectives briefly left the room, but not before offering Carter something to eat or drink. Carter accepted a bottle of water from one of the detectives who left the room after handing it to her. Carter opened the bottle and took a sip. She then...
went for another sip but abruptly stopped before taking it. Then a look washed over her face that can only be described as, oh shit, what have I done? Carter then put the water bottle on a nearby table. She grabbed the tissue from a nearby tissue box and used it to wipe down the water bottle. Huh? What was she doing? Wiping away fingerprints from the water bottle?
Wiping DNA, maybe? What did you guys do for Thanksgiving? We were here for Thanksgiving. It was just me and him. So did y'all go to dinner or did you go to... I actually cooked. I made turkey and there was stuffing and mashed potatoes and green bean casserole. Did anybody join you for dinner? No, it was just the two of us. What time did you guys have dinner? We actually ate all day. I...
Like David, Carter explained that she and David were at home on Thanksgiving. She claimed that they cooked, ate, watched movies, and slept.
She also explained that on the following day, she and David briefly left Carter's apartment to check on some Black Friday sales before returning home later the same evening. Naturally, Carter never mentioned anything about going to Ashley's apartment, committing murder, oh yeah, and setting the place on fire. Okay, so this morning, what time did you guys get up?
Carter told detectives that on the morning that David got arrested in the mall parking lot, she never left her apartment complex.
She claimed that when she got out of bed, David was just gone and she didn't know where he went. What Carter didn't know was that the detective she was telling the story to had watched her leave the apartment that morning and drive to the mall with David. I don't know how I can put this to you, but I'm going to stress to you that you need to be completely honest with me because at this point you have not been 100% with me.
Before revealing what he knew, the detective gave Carter one last chance to revise her story. But she never did. Carter stuck to her easily disprovable lies.
Alright, so let's start with this morning. Okay. Alright? This morning. Okay, what time do you get up? About 7:30, 7:45. And then what happens then? And then we talked and I went back to sleep. When I woke up he wasn't there. I know that's a lie. No it's not. You know why I know it's a lie? Why do you know it's a lie? Because I saw you come out of your apartment and get in the passenger seat of that car and I saw him drive out of there. That's why I know it's a lie.
You're lying to me. I'm sorry. You were in that vehicle. I'm sorry. I saw you exit that vehicle. I saw you get in that vehicle, and I saw you exit that vehicle. All I've done today is take the laundry. Okay, well, we're going to start over about what happened today. I'm sorry. I did not do anything this morning. Okay, I know you didn't do anything this morning, but that's... Except for go take the laundry and go check my email. You are lying 100%.
How did... How... Right now, you're making yourself seem like you're just a terrible person. You're a liar that doesn't give a damn about your life. No, not at all. Okay. Then why can't you just be completely honest? I ain't completely honest. Do you understand what he's saying? He was there. Okay. He watched you. He followed you. Um, I... He don't stop. Okay. He saw it with his own eyes. It's not what someone told us. It's what he saw with his own eyes.
When you can't be honest about the little things, when we get to the big things, nothing matters. Despite what the detective had seen, Carter maintained her story. For whatever reason, she did not want to place herself at the mall and the cops wanted to know why. What exactly were Carter and David planning to do that morning?
I don't know what you're... Do you know what DNA is, right? Mm-hmm. Do you have a problem with me getting a sample of your DNA? Yes, I would have a problem with that. Do I need an attorney? What am I being accused of? Well, you're not under arrest. What a buccal swab... I'd just like to do a buccal swab inside your mouth and get a sample of your DNA. No. Would you be willing for us to consent a search of your residence? No. Is there a reason?
Again, Carter had not done herself any favors. She had presented herself as an uncooperative liar. And for detectives, that meant she must have been guilty of something. Whatever that something was involved the murder of Ashley Harris, the Hewlin Mall, and probably American Eagle. For a time, Carter was a victim of the murder of Ashley Harris.
Several questions lingered over this case. Who killed Ashley Harris? Why did they do it? And what exactly did Carter and David originally plan to do at the mall on the morning after the murder? The cops already had the assumption that Carter was a terrible person and a criminal. But as they began answering those big questions in this case, it became clear that Carter was much more sinister and sociopathic
than anyone could have ever suspected.
With benefits for medical emergencies and evacuations, trip cancellations, travel delays, and baggage mishaps, you can travel with perfect peace of mind. Learn more and get a quote at AllianzTravelInsurance.com. This episode is brought to you by Allianz Travel Insurance. Are you planning two or more trips in the next 365 days? An all-trips annual travel insurance plan can protect all your adventures for less. Get a quote at AllianzTravelInsurance.com.
On November 28th, 2014, the dead body of 31-year-old Ashley Harris was discovered inside her apartment. Ashley had been beaten and strangled to death and her killer or killers set her apartment on fire before fleeing the scene. One witness saw a black two-door Infiniti leaving the apartment complex just before the fire set off smoke alarms and the building sprinkler system.
Fort Worth police quickly learned that Ashley's former co-worker, 28-year-old Carter Cervantes, owned a Black Infinity. Within a day of Ashley being murdered, Carter was questioned by homicide detectives, as was her 19-year-old live-in boyfriend, David Mallory. Carter and David had both worked alongside Ashley Harris at American Eagle at the nearby Hewlin Mall.
But Carter and David were both fired after $18,000 was suddenly stolen from the store. It was presumed by the store's management staff, which included Ashley Harris, that Carter planned the robbery and David carried it out. Three months after the robbery, Ashley Harris was found dead in her apartment. 31-year-old Ashley Harris was murdered Friday, November 28th.
Police say because she turned in two coworkers for stealing almost $20,000 from the American Eagle store where they all worked.
Well, Steve, Ashley Harris's neighbors at her apartment complex were awakened on that morning by fire and even water from sprinklers leaking down through the ceiling of their apartments. Police say that they were eventually led back to Harris's coworkers who were suspected in that theft back in August, but they weren't arrested for the murder until this weekend.
During their initial police interviews, neither David nor Carter admitted to any wrongdoing. They didn't come clean about the robbery and they certainly didn't come clean about the murder. A few more weeks went by which allowed police to gather more evidence. Eventually, David and Carter were both arrested and charged with capital murder. After these arrests were made, David was given another opportunity to speak to detectives. And during this second interview,
David got a taste of the overwhelming evidence that cops had on both him and Carter. And although your phone was locked, we were able to get into Carter's phone, the one we recovered from the car the day that we got her. So we've got a lot of stuff on her, and we've been able to make sense of a lot of it. And I know there was a lot of communication between you and her. There was some planning. At one time in Abilene, when you were working up there, she wanted to basically hit a lick over at the American Eagle there.
Some of the most damning evidence that the cops found came from David and Carter's cell phones. In reviewing their text messages, detectives learned that before robbing the Fort Worth American Eagle store, Carter and David planned to "hit a lick" in Abilene, Texas. For those of you that aren't career criminals, the term "hit a lick" means basically to steal a lot of money from a very easy target.
There was some extensive surveillance done by her watching one specific manager and her car. The plan was basically to disable her car and then continue with what she wanted to do. And there's no doubt in our mind that you were aware of that because when we get your phone, all the corresponding text messages are there.
Based on Carter and David's texts, it was apparent that they had followed and surveilled an American Eagle store manager in the Abilene Mall parking lot. They planned to disable the store manager's car, incapacitate her, and steal her work keys. The end goal was to break into the American Eagle store and rob it. We've also got pictures.
which are pretty damaging, mostly to her, about what she was up to and what she was planning to do. And David, I think Detective Payton and I are both thinking that, you know, she was a mastermind behind this thing, and that's been our position the entire time that we've been investigating this case, that she was a mastermind. She's a person that likes to manipulate people. She's a sociopath. She likes to lie, and she's going to stick to her lies.
Given that Carter seemed to be the mastermind of this criminal duo, detectives were hoping that they could get David to flip. What they truly wanted was details about what happened inside Ashley Harris' apartment on the night that she was murdered. Let's start with the Abilene situation. Explain to us what was going on with that whole Abilene planning. I don't know, man. She don't want to work. She kept trying to get me to quit my job and...
Trying to go hit a link with them. So tell me what her plan was. She didn't really just like disclose everything to me. She just really told me that she wanted to hit Abilene. For the majority of this interview, David tried to maintain as much plausible deniability as possible, which wasn't easy given everything the cops found on his cell phone. So what was the plan? How was she going to get the keys from the girl? She never told me.
Come on, David. You got to be honest, man. Man. I'm asking you because I already know. Do you remember ever going into the Abilene Mall and kind of scoping out the American Eagle for her? Do you ever remember going in or snapping pictures of the manager's schedules? Mm-hmm. Is there a reason why you're taking this picture? That's what I'm getting at, David. I didn't take that. She took that. She showed it to me.
She send it to you on your phone? She send it to you by text? She sent it from my phone to her phone. It's stuff like this, David, that this is stuff you need to be upfront about. I mean, this is something you would remember. Despite the pretty clear-cut evidence, David maintained that when it came to any criminal activity, Carter was doing her own thing. David claimed that he just kind of watched from the background, didn't help with any of the planning, and
wasn't privy to any of the details.
She never said. She just kept saying that she was going to get the keys. But then you mentioned something about a tire earlier. Yeah. I mean, she said, well, maybe I can pop her a tire and she would just be in the parking lot. Carter and David planned to attack an unsuspecting woman in a parking lot and steal her work keys. They exchanged text messages as they surveilled the woman and discussed each move as they went along. But
In the end, David convinced Carter to abandon this plan. This is from her to you. Do you think she parked to walk out of the movie theater doors? You respond, yeah, she did. And then you respond, she's not too far from where we'll park. And then she says she has a purse. And then you respond, so that's most likely where they would be.
Then she asks you, which side is it on? And then you respond, I like it. It all just doesn't seem feasible. You're there. You're watching. You're talking to Carter about what's about to happen. But then you kind of try to back out and say this doesn't seem feasible, which kind of goes back to what we're thinking. You're the smarter guy in this whole situation. She's trying to make you do this. But when you're sitting here trying to lie to us about what really happened, it doesn't make sense to us, David. Eventually, David explained that Carter...
had filled his head with fantasies. According to him, Carter wanted the two of them to become cross-country bandits. They could plan and commit robberies in one state and then move right on to the next. America was their oyster, and they were going to be the next Bonnie and Clyde.
And fuck, man, I'm 19. Who doesn't want all that money? I mean, fuck, I come from the hood, man. I've never seen $10,000 in my life. She said I quit my job and I could go help her scope out wherever the hell she wanted to go. She said we can go anywhere. She said I have this car and it has low miles. We can go anywhere. We can go anywhere. We have 50 states that we could choose from.
David and Carter abandoned their plan to rob American Eagle in Abilene, but they followed through with their plan to rob the American Eagle in Fort Worth and walked away with $18,000.
This ultimately led to both of them getting fired, but David and Carter weren't finished with the Fort Worth location. After losing their jobs, they came up with a plan to hit the store again. And that plan involved the person that identified them as thieves, Ashley Harris. But if you had Ashley's keys...
In the early morning hours of November 28th, 2014, Ashley Harris returned to her apartment after working a long and tiresome Black Friday shift
at american eagle detectives theorized that shortly after arriving home carter cervantes and david mallory forced their way into ashley's apartment and attacked her they bound her feet and hands with duct tape pistol whipped her and strangled her to death then they stole her work keys and set her apartment on fire before fleeing the scene the next morning carter and david drove to the hughlin mall
and they planned to use Ashley's keys to break into American Eagle and rob the store before it opened. Surveillance cameras captured a masked woman trying to unlock the store's front gate. That woman was, quite obviously, Carter. What Carter and David didn't realize is that a homicide detective had followed them to the mall
And Ashley's keys were completely useless. Cervantes and Mallory had been fired from their jobs at American Eagle Outfitters at Hewlin Mall after they were suspected of stealing nearly $18,000 from the store safe in August.
Harris had identified the pair as the suspects. The police documents say Cervantes and Mallory planned to go back to American Eagle to take $40,000 to $50,000 in Black Friday shopping sales. But they needed the keys from Harris. The day after Harris was killed, Cervantes was seen on mall security video. Police saying she appears to be trying to unlock the gate. What Cervantes and Mallory didn't know, the locks had already been changed.
The evidence that police had gathered in this case was overwhelming. That's what happens when nitwits commit crimes. Lots of evidence. Despite this, David maintained that he had never been to Ashley's apartment and that he had nothing to do with the murder. "Wasn't me," said David.
He also claimed that on the morning after the murder, when he dropped Carter off at the mall, he didn't know what Carter was planning to do. When I tell you that I literally slept there,
- Okay. - That's what happened. - So she rolled out sometime during Thanksgiving while you were asleep? - Yeah, like I had no knowledge that she even left. I had no knowledge that she came back. I never woke up and she wasn't there. Nothing, I never went to sleep and she wasn't there. Every time I was there, she was there. - Okay, well we know that's not the case. You knew what she went to the mall that day that you took her with her to do.
How?
Yes.
Y'all got me. Y'all got me. And the night before. No. No, hell no. So you're saying that's a lie? Yeah, that is a lie. Okay. Detectives knew, or at least strongly suspected, that David went to Ashley's apartment with Carter and helped commit the murder. But no matter how hard they pressed him, David simply wouldn't give it up. What did she tell you, say to you, or show you?
- Reference the death of Ashley. - Nothing, man. I had no idea nobody got killed, man. If I had knew somebody got killed, man, I wouldn't have helped her, man. I swear to God. - So you're saying if you had have known somebody gotten killed, you would not have helped her? - Hell no! There's no way she could have done this by herself, man. She was 100 pounds at the most. The way that that scene looked, there's absolutely no way that she would have done this by herself.
I can admit man, I've done some bad things in my life man, but never ever murdered somebody bro. Imagine this, you're sitting in a police interrogation room and a homicide detective is accusing you of a murder that you didn't commit. Would you just sit there and meekly say, I've never murdered somebody bro. I get that everyone reacts to situations differently, but
Let's just say if that were me and I were innocent, of course I'd be innocent. I wouldn't murder anyone. But let's just say that were me, I wouldn't be that casual. In fact, my inner Hispanic would probably be coming out and I'd be screaming at the detective, telling him that they have the wrong man. They made a mistake demanding a lawyer immediately before anything else comes out of my mouth. In fact,
In any case, these particular detectives kept pushing David and dumb David eventually offered to give them more information in exchange for a deal. Basically, David was willing to tell the truth, finally. If and only if he could get something out of it, that is. I need a guarantee, man, that y'all aren't going to run away with me like her. I need a guarantee.
And what kind of guarantee are you asking? I don't know, man. A document. I need something. We don't do that here. This ain't the time for documents. The document is when we tell the DA's office that we want to use you. That's when the documents start coming in. Y'all ain't going to do that, man. I know y'all ain't going to do that. What are you talking about railroad? How are we going to railroad? David, we're trying to ask you what she did. This is a fucking capital case. We're asking you what she did. This is a capital case. I understand that. I'm glad that that's finally sunk in your head that that's what this is.
Again, the evidence in this case was overwhelming. Not only did detectives not have the authority to offer David any deals, but quite frankly, they didn't need to offer him any deals. They had him dead to right. Not really sure what that expression means. I just, I've heard it said before. So there it is, dead to right. Not sure if I even said it the right way.
But besides that, the purpose of this interview was really just to make the case even stronger and to more specifically determine what Carter and David did on the morning of Ashley's murder. Okay, tell us what you did, because we know that at the very minimum, you drove her there. You may not have gone in and did what you did to this girl or she did what they did to this girl, but at the very minimum, you drove. And there's a difference. Somebody just drives and somebody actually goes in and does it.
- I didn't even drive there. I don't know where this took place. - Did she drive and you just stayed in the car and you were supposed to like honk or something if something happened? - No. - Okay. But you were at least there. - I wasn't there. - I'm telling you, Dave, you're not just doing this for yourself, man. You gotta do this for other people. - Man, I can't tell you. - I told you the lies that I told you and I told you the truth about them. - The people that matter, the jury, there's gonna be people that are made aware of this interview.
And I want those people to know this truth. The only reason not to tell the truth about all this is if you're a killer. If you are a cold-blooded, thieving, stealing killer, then stick to it, 'cause you have nothing else. There is nothing redeemable about you. That is the only reason to stick to the lies, because you can't swallow the pill
of being a killer. You're big enough to do it, but you're not big enough to admit to it. And that makes you, that makes you nothing. That makes you unredeemable. That makes you a liar. That makes you a capital murder actor. After three hours of interrogation, detectives determined that they weren't going to get anything else from David.
he was sticking to his guns and unwilling to admit that he took part in ashley's murder so detectives called it quits but not before getting in a few more well-deserved jabs and let me tell you something if you if we were sitting in different chairs and you were accusing me of it i'd be standing up screaming yelling stark raving mad if i was innocent you have never been that you never will be that
Because you're guilty of killing Ashley Harris. Fuck you. No, fuck you. No, fuck you. You want to talk to me? What are you going to do? Because I'm going to walk out of here. And that's all you got. All you got. When I confront you with the truth and get in your face like a man, because you're 19 now and you're a man, and when I confront you with the truth, all you can say is fuck you. That doesn't hurt me, dude.
Because that doesn't affect me. That's a kid's answer. That is the way of an ignorant child who has nothing else. Because everything you tell, everything I tell you, you say is a lie. You've been confronted with your actions. You've been confronted with your deeds. I terminate the term. You shut your bitch ass up. I'm done. I'm done. I'm done.
Fuck you. I'm done. I'm done. You ain't finna sit here and call me the real David. That's the real David. You got me fucked up. That's the one I wanted to see. Right there. That's the one I wanted to see. I'm done, man. It had nothing to do with Carter. You're the thug from the hood who killed her. She's a little hundred pound girl.
David made his choice. He was not going to cooperate with police, and this interview came to an end. But not before one of the detectives made a prediction.
Unless we know exactly what you did and it comes out of your mouth. I'm not talking about Carter telling us, 'cause I'm guarantee you that sooner or later she'll wanna be sitting right here. She may not get the opportunity, but I can guarantee you that she's gonna try. And we don't want her telling your story. This is your story. And like I told you the first time, you cannot afford for somebody to tell your story. 'Cause I can guarantee you that she's gonna make you the bad guy. She's gonna say it was David's plan. He's the one that hated this girl. He's the one that needed the money. She's gonna put it all on you, David. I'm telling you, man.
Unsurprisingly, detectives turned out to be completely right. In May of 2016, Carter Cervantes took her case to trial. She testified in her own defense and her story was one that we have heard many times before. According to Carter, David was violent, sexually abusive and controlling.
Yes, of course, she's going to claim these things after she's caught red-handed, as always. She claimed that their relationship had devolved to the point where Carter was in fear for her life and that David had threatened to kill her on multiple occasions. So, naturally, Carter had no choice but to do exactly what David told her to do. How many times have we heard that before?
While on the witness stand, Carter also claimed that in order to keep her in line, David enlisted the help of two of his friends to rape Carter. Yeah.
Carter spun quite a tale and was clearly hoping to garner some sympathy from her jury. It all sort of reminds me of a certain Aquaman actress. When prosecutors were given the chance to cross-examine Carter, one of the things they asked her about involved her police interview. They wanted to know why Carter had wiped down the water bottle that the police had given her.
Carter's response was just as surprising as it was unbelievable. Carter claimed that she wasn't trying to wipe away DNA or fingerprints. She was just trying to wipe away the overwhelming smell of semen because the water bottle reminded her of being raped by David's friends.
As for the morning of the murder, Carter's story wasn't all that different from David's. According to Carter, the murder must have been carried out entirely by David while she was asleep at home. The next day, David drove Carter to the Hewlin Mall
Gave her Ashley's work keys, pointed a gun at her, and demanded that Carter use those keys to rob the American Eagle store. Gave me some gloves, told me to put them on, and then he handed me a pair, a set of American Eagle peaks. And he said, go in and open the gate, bring me that fat-ass deposit. I shook my head that I wasn't going to do it. And he said...
During Carter's trial, a lot of details about this case were revealed. For starters, when police searched Carter's car, they found a semi-automatic pistol with Ashley Harris' DNA on it.
The prosecution theorized that this gun was initially used to gain Ashley's compliance when David and Carter broke into her apartment and was later used to pistol whip her, which explains the bruising and abrasions on Ashley's body. Also, Carter had clearly surveilled Ashley's apartment during the weeks leading up to the murder, as there were several photos on her phone of Ashley's apartment complex. Ashley's truck,
and the stairwell leading up to Ashley's front door. Just a quick pro tip if you're thinking of murdering someone, don't take pictures of their apartment beforehand. I know some of you are dumber than most, but, you know, there it is. There's a tip for you. That one's for you. Prosecutors also revealed that this...
wasn't a situation of a robbery that incidentally turned into a deadly homicide. No, this was a murder. The murder of Ashley Harris was always part of the plan. Also found on Carter's phone were text messages with David that included map coordinates. These coordinates led police to a shallow grave in a deserted area of Abilene, Texas.
about 100 miles away from Ashley's apartment. Police also recovered a sales receipt and surveillance footage of Carter purchasing gloves, a tarp, and two shovels. I mean, you might as well just walk into the police station with the evidence at this point, if you're that dumb. The prosecution theorized that Carter planned to abduct Ashley, steal her work keys, murder her, and then bury Ashley in that shallow grave.
For whatever reason, and much like the rest of Carter's plan, things didn't really play out as intended. Instead of driving Ashley to her intended burial site, Carter and David must have decided to leave her body in the apartment and burn the place down. Of course, no thought or consideration was given to any of the other occupants of the apartment complex.
The thought that more people could be injured or killed didn't even cross their minds. As for David, he also took his case to trial and maintained the same story that he told detectives. His lawyers argued that if Carter did go over to Ashley's apartment and murder her, David knew nothing about it. In the end, both Carter and David were unsuccessful in convincing their respective juries
that their partner was solely responsible for the killing. They were both convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In Carter's case, the jury deliberated for only two hours, which came as no surprise because frankly, Carter was a shitty criminal. As for her motivation, things aren't as simple as they may seem. Yeah, Carter had an axe to grind.
She was angry that Ashley accused her of robbing American Eagle. She was angry that she got fired. And yes, Carter wanted to steal a lot of money. But all of those things were just peripheral. Carter's criminal acts were driven by something much more complicated. I can tell you that she is...
When detectives investigated this case, it didn't take them long to understand Carter Cervantes.
She obviously lacked empathy and remorse. And she had complete disregard for the law. The woman was a textbook sociopath. And when it comes to killers like her, the easily understood motivations for murder, like anger, revenge, or greed, don't really apply. You see, Carter Cervantes is what is commonly referred to as a thrill killer.
She wasn't seeking victory over Ashley or revenge against American Eagle. What truly motivated Carter was something much more terrifying to the average human being here on Earth. What truly motivated Carter was the agony of her past defeats. And like most thrill killers and sociopaths,
The only satisfaction that Carter could find was planning out and carrying out her crimes. Any money or retribution that she gained as a result was just a bonus or a cherry on top, if you will. Two years after the murder of Ashley Harris, Carter took her case to trial and tried to lie her way out of trouble. She demonstrated that she had not changed and will likely never change.
She knew every step of the way that what she was doing was wrong, and she didn't care. She didn't care about the life she took or the people she hurt, and her only regret was that she got caught. Well, it's hard not to get a little sentimental at the end of the year, but I do want to say that I love you guys. I know it's hard to hear that from another adult that you've never met through a telephonic computer device, but I mean it.
You guys have changed my life so much for the better. And you've affected the lives of countless others who work on this show every day, try to bring you the content that you appreciate, try to do it in a respectful and responsible way. All of us here at Sword & Scale, and especially I, appreciate you so much. You guys who are still here today,
actually see through the bullshit. You actually see what's happening. You see that authenticity is no longer valued, that people value fake fucks, politician-like fake fucks that'll tell them everything they want to hear. And that's not me. That'll never be me. I just tell the truth because that's all that I know how to do. So if you're still here with us in 2024, thank you and stay safe.
Hi, Mike. My name is Dominique and I'm in Houston. And I just listened to Plus episode 153 and it pissed me off.
I consider myself to be pretty liberal, but I'm over all of these new ass diagnoses for mental health disorders. Give me a damn break, okay? This is what happens when you breed an entire generation of athletes that get participation trophies because they showed up. Now they don't know how to take rejection. And when they get told, no, now you gotta stab someone. This is dumb.
But that's all. Great podcast. Been a listener since like day three. It's amazing. Keep doing what you're doing and everybody else can kick ass.
The national sales event is on at your Toyota dealer, making now the perfect time to get a great deal on a dependable new Toyota truck. Like a rugged, half-ton Tundra, workhorse by nature, powerhouse by design, the Tundra combines raw capability with premium comfort and advanced tech to fuel your wildest adventures. And with the available i-Force Max hybrid powertrain, you can take electrifying horsepower farther and
than ever before. Or check out the fully redesigned Tacoma, delivering trail-dominating power and captivating style. The new Tacoma was born to make your off-roading dreams come true. And with the new available tech, this legendary truck is getting even better. And when you buy a Toyota truck, you buy Toyota dependability, meaning your truck will hold its value long into the future.
So visit your local Toyota dealer and check out amazing national sales event deals when you visit buyatoyota.com. Toyota, let's go places. This episode is brought to you by Allianz Travel Insurance. Are you planning two or more trips in the next 365 days? An all-trips annual travel insurance plan can protect all your adventures for less. Get a quote at allianztravelinsurance.com.