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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
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Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. Like I said, right? If I wanted to toss you in jail with no questions asked, you would have already been there. I am living with somebody that murdered two people. So how are you liking that new app? This is episode 260 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real.
Well, here we are. We've launched. And I have a cold because I've been working way too hard. But it's here. The app, the website, it's beautiful. And of course, if you go there, to swordandscale.com that is, you will see The Making Of. That is the title of our documentary about The Making Of Sword and Scale Television. It's free to watch. I highly, highly suggest doing so. It's what we've been working on for the last decade.
year and a half or so. And while we're on the topic of paying for things, we are still having some issues with a few customers not being able to log into their accounts. If you do have an issue, please contact
Email support at swordandscale.com. Gertie at customer support will be happy to help you log into your active account. We ask that before you do so, though, you make sure you know what your login is. And you can do that by searching the email you think you used for any emails from us. If you don't see any, then that's probably not the email you used. That'll help us a lot because we have a very small support staff.
In fact, it's just Gertie. It's just Gertie. So be nice to her, please.
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. Be careful of who you let into your life. Relationships, even casual ones, can have a profound effect on you. Building meaningful relationships takes time.
You have to build trust, set boundaries, and have honest communication. Without patience and time, no relationship has a chance. So watch out for the red flags. Avoid those that bring any negativity or drama or stress along with them. Be cautious of people with a history of toxic or unhealthy past behavior and prioritize your own well-being. Otherwise, someday...
you might find yourself trapped. It was a beautiful summer day in Seattle. A group of kids were eager to get out and go do something, anything. It was a nice day out, so we just went to Alki Beach for a walk. After what felt like an eternity in COVID lockdown, they decided to go to the Alki Beach Park. If you stand on the pier, the view of the Seattle skyline is unmatched.
Natalie Castellon was in that group of kids. They randomly selected a location using a new app that was trending on social media.
Our original plan was we wanted to see the statue. It's like a fake Statue of Liberty at the end of the strip of Al-Qaeda. But we also went to Randonaut. It was like a trend that was going on on TikTok at that time. You just basically like download this app, sends you a random location. And I guess when you get to those locations, you see like random things, I guess. And yeah, it's like our first time doing it.
Randonautica is an app that gives you random GPS coordinates that may or may not lead you to whatever you intended when you prompted the app. Yeah, I know it sounds weird. It just basically gives you a set of locations and you go there and maybe there's something there. Maybe there isn't. Fill in your own imagination. But on this day, it led the group to Alki Beach on Duwamish Head.
Overlooking Elliott Bay on the Puget Sound, with the skyline of Seattle in the background. I would say it's a good amount of people on the sidewalk walking, just because it was a hot summer day, so it's pretty typical to go to Alki. The park was busy that beautiful summer day with people walking and admiring the view from the pier. We all noticed that there was a suitcase down by the rocks on the overlook. I think it was just like a coincidence that we saw that we were talking about
I think on the drive there we were talking about random nodding and we were talking about like traveling and we wanted to like get money or something like that it was like a weird conversation so when we saw it it was just like a like an aha moment like oh that's such a coincidence we're talking about traveling in the car and and then we're talking about random nodding and people find crazy stuff on random so we were like let's just see what's down there and um
We were like, this could be something fun to record at that time. Guys, we found a suitcase at the beach. On the drive to Alki Park, the group talked about travel and coming into a lot of money right before prompting the app for coordinates. When they saw the black suitcase on the rocks beneath the pier, they thought it couldn't be a coincidence. They joked with each other that it was probably Alki.
a suitcase full of money um we were curious so we went to go see what it was wait open it it was just like a suitcase um we started on zipping it pretty normal suitcase no tears or anything to it
They dismissed the odd odor because it was obviously floating in the bay before being washed onto the rocks with other pieces of garbage. It stinks, y'all.
Just like a really foul odor. So we stopped opening it halfway. We left it there. And then we were kind of still in this weird childish fog of just like pretending it's not what we think it could be. We were just joking around saying it's probably just like garbage in a suitcase that just washed up. And we stopped and we were kind of talking about what if situations and then just stopped for probably like a good five minutes, six minutes, just sitting there.
Fighting the morbid idea that this was a suitcase filled with a dead body, they hesitated to open it. But, of course, just like a cat, their curiosity got the better of them. We saw a black plastic trash bag and it was wrapping something. It was trash bags and then they were just in the suitcase. We could see that they were tightly wrapped.
The trash bags inside the suitcase were stuffed full of large, heavy objects, pulling the plastic bag taut around them. Undeterred, or perhaps overly curious, they continued to investigate the rancid bag. So there was a stick that we had, and Gabby was...
The smell immediately got ten times worse. Even with like a face mask, I was wearing a face mask.
It definitely wasn't money in this bag. With a hole poked through the outer bag, they caught a glimpse of what was inside. I thought it was food or something like that.
With the dissatisfying discovery that the bag was not full of money, the group wanted to leave, but Natalie called the police. Okay, so she's calling the police so we can see if it's actually a dead body or it's just food. 911, what is your emergency? Hi, um, so we found a suitcase on Uwamish Point in Alki Beach and it has a pretty bad smell.
Not knowing the address to the park itself, Natalie's eyes darted from building to building, across the street searching for an address. 1150 Alki? Perfect. 1150 Alki Avenue Southwest. Is that the number on the building? Yes.
Yeah. Okay, perfect. So you're across the street on the side of the water, is that correct? Yeah, and the suitcase is on the rocks. Okay. Okay, did you open the suitcase and there was a black trash bag inside? Yeah, so me and my friend were interested in what was in it, so we opened it up, but there was a black trash bag, and we just called. Okay, so it was on the rocks by the water, and you said there's a pretty foul smell?
The group waited for the police to arrive, but the PD was overwhelmed or understaffed, and a call about a weird-smelling suitcase on the beach wasn't really the highest priority. They waited and waited, but nobody ever showed up.
-9-1-1, what is your emergency? -Hi. So I called about an hour and a half ago. -Okay. -And we found a suitcase that's, like, really suspicious. It's, like, in a black bag, and it smells really bad. There's flies all around it. -Okay. So has anything changed since you last called? -What? -Has anything changed since you last called?
No, but the water is rising and the suitcase is about to get covered. Okay, I'll go ahead and make that notation. How long do you think it is until the police officer arrives? Oh, I don't know. Yeah, we don't have that information. I wouldn't be able to tell you. Okay. Elliott Bay is directly connected to the Pacific Ocean and as such is subject to the tides.
In the time since Natalie's first 911 call, the tide had come in and started pulling the suitcase into the open water. 911, what is your emergency?
Hi, we just heard that some people were down at Alki and they were just really hyper alert. We're at like the historical point of interest, this little park on Alki in West Seattle. And they said they reported a couple of hours ago a suitcase and we just went and were like pointing it out to us. But they seem, I guess they looked at it and are convinced that there's
When the police finally showed up, the kids had already gone.
Officer Terrell with the Seattle PD was the first to arrive on the scene nearly two hours after the original call. The rocks kind of right off the pier there was...
He took the little path to the side of the pier down to the rocks to get a closer look at the bag. Just several, not particularly far, just a couple of feet away from the rocks.
The black trash bag the kids saw inside the suitcase was now bobbing in the tide. I wouldn't say that I identified exactly what was kind of protruding out of the bag, but I remember thinking that it looked like the upper chest of a person, specifically the pectoral region. I saw what appeared to be a nipple protruding
And I remember thinking it looked like a human torso, but wasn't sure could have been an animal or something like that. So at the time I wanted more resources and more assistance. So I requested the assistance of fire department because they have like tools I can reach out there. And I kind of
Erring on the side of caution, he didn't want to claim something that wasn't true. He needed to get the bag out of the water to confirm what was inside.
- Hello, radio. - Hey there, would you guys be able to send some resources down to 1150 Alki Avenue Southwest? Basically, we went down there, we found a suitcase, and they're trying to retrieve it from the rocks down there, and it has foul smell coming from it, and it looks like to be organic matter in it. - Okay. Alrighty, I'll send a truck down there. - All right, thank you. - Yep, bye. - All right, bye.
waiting for the fire department to arrive he made another discovery one that would cement his fear i saw on the rocks kind of further east closer to the road was another black bag looked like a duffel bag it was close enough that there was a stick or kind of a log nearby that i could kind of
The call not prioritized would now spark a frenzy of activity. The police, fire department and even the harbor patrol would descend on Alki Beach.
and the surrounding waters after the report of found human remains in a suitcase. 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 community safe. If you're ready for a new mission, join U.S. Border Patrol and go beyond.
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Call 1-800-GRANGER, click granger.com, or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. A suitcase and duffel bag discovered on Alki Beach were found to contain human remains. Authorities scrambled to investigate. A call that took forever for the police to respond to ended up being the beginning of a huge investigation. The medical examiner came to the scene to start her analysis.
It was immediately clear they were dealing with much more than a simple murder. Some bags contained two heads, hands, feet, an arm. It was obvious that they were dealing with at least a double murder and dismemberment. It was clear that there were two people involved.
In the bags, she found two severed heads, part of a torso, a female pelvis identified by the ovaries and uterus, two feet, and three hands, one still attached to the forearm. There was a lot missing, but there was hopefully enough to identify the remains. They released a statement to the public to try to get ahead of the probable media storm.
But it was already too late. We basically wanted to do a trend post on Randall Notting. And it was the summer during a pandemic. We didn't really have a lot of options of entertainment. That was just the source of it. And I don't know, maybe I was just very into the idea of showing this. And I had such a very crazy, surreal experience. I wanted to just document it.
First, we want to begin with some breaking news. Seattle police are investigating after several bags filled with human remains were found near the water on Alki Avenue this afternoon. Police are saying they got the call about a suspicious bag on the beach and another one was located in the water. Police determined the contents to be human remains. Police say bags containing human remains were discovered.
First, a viral social media video claims to show the discovery of human remains near Alki. It appears a group of young people made a video of that discovery. So we just found this suitcase. We're going to get it. It's like opening it up with the sticks. They added music and graphics and put it on TikTok. It has got a couple million views.
With the news reports and more specifically the viral TikTok post, the story of the suitcase full of human remains spread pretty quickly. Social media does that.
Seattle was gripped with fear and reports came pouring in. Seattle Police, Operator 31. Hi, I have, this is unfortunate to say, but I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't relevant. We're at Looney Bucks this morning and there was a suitcase. Seattle Police, what are you reporting? Hi, my name is Diane Cognar. I live in West Seattle. The reason I'm calling is...
I saw a man walking down Harbor Avenue, the beach thing, with a black bag and wheels. I don't know if that black bag had the human remains. That stretch of alkyl, I don't think I've ever seen anybody walking with a rolling bag.
Seattle Police Operator 105. Hi, I am calling because I saw something last week, but I just can't get out of my mind and I wanted to let you guys know there was a car parked and the side of the road heading east with their trunk open and their hood open.
Reports of mysterious luggage and strange trash bags spotted in the days and weeks leading up to the discovery came in. One man, an active rower, spotted trash bags floating down the river. I was out alone one day in a single rowing with a couple of friends and
You know, I basically ran over a trash bag in the river and it was pretty weighted down. It wasn't like, you know, the bulk of it, like an iceberg or something, the bulk of the thing was below the water. So I didn't see it and I actually kind of ran over it. And I thought that was weird, but I was in a single and there's no good way to like explore something. So I left it alone.
And then I forget if it was the day after or two days after I was coaching with the youth and we saw a trash bag again, about the same area, but it was a different trash bag. It was clearly not the same one I saw the other day. And it was floating higher in the water, but big black kind of hefty trash bag, like an industrial, you know, it's big. And I remember one of the youth rowers was joking like, oh, you should go open it up and see what's in there. And I was like, no way, we're not doing that.
You see occasional debris, maybe a drink bottle or something, but you don't see trash bags ever. It's just not something you see floating down the river. With the story's exposure, everyone was taking notice of strange bags, especially near the water.
A couple of days after the case hit the news, they got another strange call leading to yet another bag upriver. We arrived at the area and we were doing our usual dog walk. And we made our way to the southeastern corner where the river access is. And our dogs were down by the water and...
When we looked down there, we noticed there was a suitcase floating at the water's edge. Well, it seemed odd and I thought it was suspicious that a suitcase would be floating, that there was something buoyant inside of it. I went down to the water's edge and the suitcase was floating a couple of feet off of the bank.
So I grabbed a stick that was nearby and I pulled the suitcase to shore. Once I pulled the suitcase to shore, I opened it partially to see what was inside of it and I observed some trash bags. Once I saw those trash bags, I used that same stick to tear open one of the bags.
and see what was inside. And I observed a piece of what I interpreted to be human skin that was unidentifiable as to what part of the body I was looking at, but it did have a tattoo on it. The medical examiner hurried to the scene to see if these were the missing pieces to her two bodies.
So there are multiple commingled remains, once again, including legs, arms, and multiple plastic bags. In addition, there were other miscellaneous items, including clothes and a knife. So these body parts were the body parts that belonged to the same individuals that I had examined that day. And so with the additional body parts, I was able to add them to each of the respective bodies.
So there were some tattoos. There were pieces of skin that had tattoos that were not attached to the body part that fit other body parts that were later recovered. Also, the way the bones were dismembered, we were able to sort of fit the pieces together, sort of like a puzzle piece. The medical examiner used tattoos and saw marks to piece the bodies back together.
All in all, she had one male head, one female head, one male upper torso, one female lower torso, three hands, two legs, two male arms, four feet, and one arm with a hand attached. Quite the jigsaw puzzle. Two hands and two feet were determined to belong to the female because the nails were painted pink.
The female hand attached to its forearm still had two rings on the fingers. Luckily, they were able to pull prints from the water-saturated hands and come back with an identification. The two victims were 27-year-old Austin Winner and 35-year-old Jessica Lewis. Besides being dismembered, their actual cause of death was bullet wounds.
After the identification, the police had the daunting task of informing the families. Here's Jessica's aunt, Gina, remembering her. She's like a ray of sunshine. She helped develop me disabled people. She worked and was a caregiver like that. And a lot of patients that I don't have. Austin and Jessica had been together for nearly a decade. He had a girlfriend, Jessica, yes.
I'm not completely sure, but I know it was a number of years. Austin and Jessica were eight years apart. But despite their age difference, they were incredibly close. Inseparable. They loved each other. As a couple, they experienced a series of trials and tribulations in life. But they always stuck together. I mean, they had their struggles.
Like we all do. That just shows how much they did care for each other. They didn't ever leave each other when things got hard or rough. They always stuck it out together, their ups and downs. When Jessica's Aunt Gina first heard the news, she was absolutely broken. Everyone, however, was told they were both shot. They didn't mention what else happened. My brother was shot when he told me what happened.
And just the hurt. Of course, the families of Austin and Jessica had seen the news and perhaps the viral video. I mean, it was everywhere. I couldn't even believe that was their story. Because I'd seen it, trying to look for them. I don't want them to be remembered for the brutality. I don't want them to be remembered in any violent way. I want them to be remembered for their humanity and their kindness.
Accepting that both Jessica and Austin suffered horrible ends left the family little solace. I want to believe that they didn't suffer. They were people. They were real people who were loved. The investigation was far from over. Doing their due diligence, the police interviewed family and friends and subpoenaed phone records. The last time either of them had been seen by Austin's parents was in the early days of his life.
was three weeks to a month prior. Jessica was weeding, and she was planting her son's strawberry plant that he got. It was a reward, and so she planted that for him, for me, and then Austin would do all the weed eating, and he would mow the lawn, and...
I mean, offered to feed him, you know, that sort of thing. And then he was going to be doing, helping flatten some area for a shed that I had bought. Austin and Jessica often helped his mother with her yard. Austin tried to see his mom at least once a month. He kept in contact with his dad on a nearly daily basis. Daily or every other day. It was often.
By mid-June, Austin's father realized he hadn't heard from his son in a few weeks and tried to contact him. And I actually went over to the place he was staying at looking for him. They lived together in a room they rented in the city of Burien. When Austin's dad went there and talked to the landlord, he told him something unexpected. Just that they had left in a hurry and left a mess behind.
He noticed something strange, however. Some of my son's clothing were at the trash can, at the base of the trash can. He thought that was odd, but knew that Austin and Jessica, while they always stuck together, moved often. I asked him that if he heard from them, would he please have them contact me because I was worried and hadn't heard from him in a while.
The police investigation revealed some disturbing information about Austin and Jessica. There were reports that in the not-too-distant past, Austin and Jessica had been assaulted by a group of Samoans affiliated with the Islander Bloods, who burst into their home with guns wanting money. According to conflicting reports, this was over a credit card scam gone wrong or a $1,200 COVID voucher.
or some Czech thing. Who the hell knows? Another person said that the last time he saw the two, they were in fear for their lives because they had done something, quote, bad. Another report said that Austin had discovered a bullet in the mailbox that literally had his name on it. Other reports said that two men, one described as, quote, Chinese black guy, and the other guy named T-Mac,
came looking for Austin, knocking on doors in the neighborhood. The investigation was all over the place until the Kings County Sheriff's Office made an arrest on an unrelated matter. They picked up Jennifer Leon for carjacking. During the investigation, she denied jacking any car and insisted that she borrowed it with permission. Eventually, she just burst into tears and uttered a confession.
She would go on to tell them she had a reason to believe the man that owned the house she was staying at murdered two people.
The deputies asked a few more questions before realizing she had information about the recent bodies discovered on Alki Beach. They contacted the PD and got in touch with Detective Cooper. This is regarding a case I'm investigating up in Seattle. And there's a couple of people in it, two victims, and it's a homicide case. First of all,
Did you know my two victims? I did not know them personally and I had never seen them personally. I just know that they were residences in the bedroom that I now am a residence at. Okay. And who is your current landlord? His name is Michael Dudley, D-U-D-L-E-Y. Okay. I thought he was a great guy. He's really soft spoken, older man, had a huge house.
Jennifer found herself in a bit of a domestic violence situation and went to stay with Michael Dudley. He had a house all to himself. Before COVID, he rented rooms on Airbnb, but since, he relied on word of mouth.
So my old landlord and Mike, Michael, my current landlord, are friends. So that's how I came about meeting Mike. So he moved me out on June 8th because I was in a bad situation and he brought all my items over there. However, I did not...
technically show up at his house until like the 9th of June. Was anybody else there? No, it was super, super quiet. My friend Kimberly wasn't even there. But Mike's glasses had been broken. And he looked like he had been in a scuffle. He had like what I would call defense wounds. Right. Scratches and everything. She was concerned about his condition.
She'd seen him less than 24 hours earlier and he was fine. Now he had scratches and his glasses were broken. As I asked him if he's okay, that's when he turns to the computer and starts texting me and telling me weird things. Apparently the two residents were running in the room upstairs. He had told me he had tried to lock him out of his house twice that day. And that people are trash.
She asked him if he was okay.
Rather than tell her face to face, he chose to email her while she was in the same room. If that wasn't weird enough, the cryptic answer to her question, which amounted to little more than bitching about tenants, creeped her out. She left, but eventually had to go back. After taking a shower, she opened the door to the room formerly occupied by Austin and Jessica.
She immediately regretted what she saw. I opened the door and right here on the ground is heaps of clothing. I can see the figure of a body, like, and then the hands sticking up. Okay. And it's just, I just remember a bloody hand, that's it. Officially, you don't know it's Austin's body. No, I don't know. I didn't even see a face. All I saw was a body and a bloody hand.
Fearing that she may be in a worse situation than she was previously, she ran downstairs and tried to play off the sighting as a joke. Her only chance for survival was to play along with Dudley. Now, Mike has cameras and computers everywhere. Plus, he's directly underneath me. He knows everything, every creak. So, I immediately shut the door. You and Hal Marion walked down the stairs and go tell him I think I fucked up. Mm-hmm.
He looked at me. He's like why said I did something in your house. I should I did right now I just opened the door and he looked at me then I My dumb ass has something like to the fact that well don't worry Halloween's my favorite holiday And I love props and he started laughing his ass off Okay, and then that was it a couple hours later. He told me is there somewhere he can drop me because he needs to clean up the mess and
Dudley offered her his truck keys to get her out of the house. While I'm doing this, he's getting plastic and where the wash basin is and the washer and dryer is there, he covered everything, the ceiling, every part of that part of the downstairs with thick, clear plastic.
She stayed gone for seven days, but with nowhere else to go,
She eventually went back. So after I came back after seven days, because I started thinking I got somebody, I killed somebody. Right. You know, and I'm staying away for seven days and then I come back and he might be mad. But he wasn't mad with me because it took him that much longer to clean up. When I did come back,
Right.
Other than some strange email correspondence with Dudley, Jennifer claimed to have more proof.
And it looks like a straight bullet hole.
At that point, I couldn't report to anybody because I was scared for my life. Right, right. You know what I'm saying? But after I found out that that girl was shot multiple times, they have kids, I couldn't. Jennifer had pictures of what appeared to be bullet holes in the furniture from the room Austin and Jessica used to live in. She claimed to have seen a body and a bloody hand poorly hidden under a pile of laundry.
And she had saved emails between her and Dudley providing a timeline for the murder and dismemberment. June 9th, 2020. When they checked with Burien PD for the police history at the house, they found another clue. Quite a big one. 911, what are you reporting? Hi, my husband and I believe that we just heard a guy pass next door and now we can hear somebody screaming for help.
On the evening of June 9th, before the sun was even all the way down,
The Gunnersons heard what could only be gunshots coming from inside their neighbor's house. But the neighbor wasn't on the same street. It faced the street behind them. ... ... ... ...
Units were dispatched quickly. Shots fired was a far more urgent call than a stinky bag on the beach. 911, what are you reporting?
Have you heard any additional disturbance since then?
Officers showed up in minutes. So many officers got dispatched because it was a serious call out. It was an allegation of
After checking in with the Gunnersons, they raced through the backyard and over the fence. They searched the entire property. They knocked on the door, but no one answered.
They checked every window, every door, every opening. Nothing was broken and they couldn't see inside. The detached barn was empty. The grounds were quiet. There was no indication anything was going on. I didn't find any gunshots. Didn't find anything broken. No broken glass. No one in distress. No one injured. Nothing to indicate that...
If only they had found a reason to go inside.
They would have realized that Dudley had just murdered Austin and Jessica. In the days and weeks to follow, the Gunnersons noticed something else unusual. I mean, the only thing that I remember smelling from the Dudley property was an extremely pungent and overwhelming smell of rotting. It was the smell of when you...
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The police investigation into the human remains found in bags along the Alki Beach and the Duwamish River led to Michael Dudley. The discovery of the 911 calls about gunshots and the eventual horrendous smell emanating from his home, combined with the witness statement from Jennifer Leon and Jessica's phone records, gave the police enough for a search and arrest warrant.
The last time Jessica's phone was on was the 9th, and the last tower it connected to was in the area of the home. Dudley was lured away from his home by the King County Sheriff's Office, claiming they had a development in the case of Dudley's recently poisoned chickens, and he was swarmed and taken into custody. Oh, God.
In my town, Detective Paul Tomomura. I didn't know I was myself. So, you have no idea what this is about? Am I under arrest? You said that I was under arrest? Technically, you're under arrest. That's why you're here. When am I under arrest? Well, we're investigating a death. So, a couple people that are supposed to have been staying at your place. Are you talking about Austin? Yeah. So, technically, to bring you in here, you're under arrest. For what? For their, related to their death, investigation of homicide.
Are you out of your mind? You're saying I killed him? Well, that's what I want to talk to you about. If you didn't do it, then... I didn't do it. Okay. They're my friends. Okay, then. Okay, people are saying you had something to do with it. Who's saying that? I just need to ask questions. That's all. You have questions? Well, I got a question for you. Why did you come and ask me this like a month ago? I would think that if they had been living there, you would just come talk to me first.
And who are these people? A number of people. Okay, did you see anything about them in the news? Yeah. Okay, so what did you see all about in the news? I heard something about Alki Beach and a warship and a suitcase full of garbage bags or something. Okay, and did you hear anything about the cause of death or anything? Like David and Sean or anything like that? Yeah, I read something about that, yeah. Okay, so with that being said...
Dudley played the part of an old man. Well,
He fell asleep while waiting for detectives to question him, and when they finally did, he tried to place the blame on them. Why didn't you call the police? I was waiting for you guys to call me. I figured you'd be right there. Well, when we did call, why didn't you call us?
Well, there's really nothing to report. And I figured, you know, you'd be there. Isn't that part of your standard procedure? I was kind of sitting there like wondering, you know, where the hell you guys have been? And now I started wondering, what the hell is going on? I mean, there were people that knew them less than you did. I mean, you pretty much roomed with them. They lived with you. Yeah.
I had a guy from Eastern Washington that hadn't talked to him for four years who called us. So, I mean, do you see why we're kind of perplexed? Well, I was perplexed too. I mean, you know. Dudley claimed he expected to be interviewed after he heard the news of Austin and Jessica's untimely demise. But when it didn't happen, he didn't bother involving himself. I mean, why would you?
So when Austin and Jessica were staying there, I mean, anybody else stay in there when you guys were, you guys were just on lockdown? Uh, we were just kind of on lockdown. Okay. Did you have any problems with Austin at all? I mean... Uh, the biggest problem I had with him was stealing. Mm-hmm. Everybody says he would steal anything if it wasn't locked. He was a freaking prolific thief, but, you know, again, we were quarantined together and, you know, uh, uh...
When Dudley was asked to elaborate on the other people that would want Austin dead,
He brought up the same false leads from earlier in the investigation. Yeah, he'd go on and on about, you know, his conspiracies and this and that. But then he said, oh, no, no, it wasn't Mexicans. It was Samoans. And if I got this right, you know, the...
He robbed the Samoans who robbed the Mexicans who owed money to some cartel. Wow. Take it, take it. Did he say what he, what he robbed from the Samoans? He said it was like duffel bags full of dough. Beyond the stories about Samoan drug dealing gang members...
Quite a new one for me, and I've been doing this for a while. Detectives wanted to know about Dudley's relationship with the two. So you didn't have a beef with them at all? Well, we had a little beef with them, you know. Well, I mean like a beef with... He's my friend. He claimed to be their friend, but was upset about the stealing and not paying rent. I gotta ask you, do you ever shoot your gun in your house? Uh...
I have occasionally, I think admitted I had a misfire. Okay. Sometimes. Can you explain that to me? What are your friends and people finding? Well, they're in the blue room and they said there's two bullet strikes on the wooden bed frame. So I'm like, what?
He had an excuse for everything. Well, yeah, Jessica cut her...
18 stitches in her thigh and she was walking around with one of these pressure washers. Oh yeah, that'll do it. He explained the bed frame was used and he didn't know anything about bullet strikes.
If they found any blood, it could have been from the time Jessica cut her leg and required stitches. I also have cadaver dogs out there. You know what a cadaver dog is, right? Yeah. Okay. And they're learning down in the basement and stuff like that to stuff. And there's some stains down there and stuff like that.
I'm asking if there's a reason why these animals-- - No, it's dead bodies in my basement. I'm sure of that. - Okay. - They're put that way. - Even in the chicken coop or anything like that? - You can go have a look. - And they're about to cut a hole in the wall to retrieve a bullet.
Dudley feigned ignorance to everything the detective brought up. I mean, Austin and Jessica lived at your place. That was the last place they lived at. They actually told people if something bad happened to me, you know, this Mike motherfucker did shit to me. I'm just telling you. Well, his mom told me that. They said if anything bad ever happened to us, look at Mike.
Why would they eat? I don't know. That's why I'm asking you. Why would they say that to her? I mean, I'm trying to get your side of the story. If something happened to them there and you know something about it, this is probably the time you want to tell us. I didn't kill them and I don't know what happened to them. Dudley denied it all.
Even with all the little pieces of evidence that pointed in his direction, he maintained that they just moved out suddenly and the next thing he knew, they were all over the news. Michael Dudley was arrested and charged with the murders of Austin Wenner and Jessica Lewis after the forensic team found evidence in their former bedroom. A hole in the wall that was recently patched and painted over revealed a bullet.
They also found a minute drop of blood that matched Austin. He would plead not guilty and proceed to trial. After a long two-month trial and a day and a half of jury deliberations, he was found guilty of two counts of second-degree murder. The families of Austin and Jessica died.
wept when the verdict was read. I'm so overwhelmed right now, it's hard to even come up with the words. But my son is shining down from up above and saying, you got him, Mom. And I just want to thank the detectives for letting us be one of the lucky ones that hopefully this animal is off the streets now. The world is a safer place without Michael Dudley in it.
Everybody can rest easy tonight because of that. On December 6th, 2022, Michael Dudley was sentenced to a little less than 47 years in prison. Michael Dudley killed Austin Wenner and Jessica Lewis. His reason was simple. He didn't want them in his house anymore. And the laws made it hard for him to get rid of them. They didn't pay. They lied. They cheated. And they stole.
They brought drama, negativity, and stress along with them. And that's always bad. Michael Dudley was trapped. But what Austin and Jessica didn't realize was that they were trapped also. And the cure would be worse than the disease. They all collectively ignored all of the red flags waving furiously. And then one evening...
When Dudley had had enough of them, he decided to remove them from his life and the planet altogether. Rather than go through the complex and expensive process of eviction, Magic Mike just tried to make them disappear. Alright, that's gonna do it. Thanks again for supporting Sword and Scale. We can't say this enough, you guys are awesome.
Thank you for being patient with us while we get this new app rollout going. And look, there's a lot more updates coming. We're going to add autoplay. We're going to add offline downloads. We're going to add shuffle, all that stuff. So just calm down. It's coming. Oh, yeah. And stay safe. ♪♪♪
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I know other people identify with me when they get the notification that Apple hit their bank and took a charge out. And you go in thinking, what did I forget to cancel? Which free subscription did I forget? But it's this podcast. So, um, story of the scale is worth it. Not going to ask for a refund on that. And can't wait to hear the next episode. So,
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