Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
All right, you guys, we are jumping into an ad and I wanted to let you know that listening on Audible helps your imagination soar. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, and new ways of thinking.
Listening can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits, and ultimately your overall well-being. Audible has the best selection of audiobooks without exception, along with popular podcasts and exclusive Audible Originals. All-in-one, easy app.
app. Enjoy Audible anytime while doing other things, household chores, exercising, on the road, commuting, you name it. Audible makes it easy to be inspired and entertained as part of your everyday routine without needing to set aside extra time. You guys, since becoming an Audible member, I've found it so easy to fit more stories into my day. Recently, I've actually been listening to Twilight on audiobook and it's been a game changer during my daily walks.
So there's more to imagine when you listen. New members can try Audible now for free for 30 days with your first audiobook included. Visit audible.com slash MWMH or text MWMH to 500-500. That's audible.com slash MWMH or text MWMH to 500-500 to try Audible free for 30 days.
You guys, most weight loss plans are one size fits all. They don't take into account each person's individual needs, but Noom builds personal plans that can meet your individual needs. Noom takes into account dietary restrictions, medical issues, and other personal needs to build a plan that works for you and is built for your psychology and your biology,
meeting you where you are. And you guys, I actually have been using Noom Weight and it truly feels personalized to meet my lifestyle. What I love most is that Noom doesn't restrict what you can eat and it actually doesn't shame you when you choose to treat yourself. Noom's personalized program has felt more sustainable than other more restrictive weight loss programs.
Noom Weight uses psychology and biology, and that's why they say losing weight starts with your brain. The program helps you understand the science behind your eating choices and why you have cravings and actually helps you build new habits for a healthier lifestyle. So stay focused on what's important to you with Noom's psychology and biology-based approach. Sign up for your trial today at Noom.com. Today, Noom has helped more than 5.2 million people lose weight.
Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. I'm the husband. All right, you guys, just a reminder, merch is out and available. It's our special edition, well, special Halloween edition, I guess. So if you want to check that out, it's at fanjoy.co slash MWMH or at the link in our bio or in the episode notes. All right, we are going to jump right over into Garrett's 10 seconds today. We went to Disneyland last...
week and it was really fun. It's so weird because growing up I went to Disneyland quite a bit but now it is just it is so crowded. Yeah like absolutely insanely crowded and I guess if you don't know any better you don't you don't know the difference it doesn't matter to you but I feel like growing up like when I would go to Disneyland like we would ride I'd ride Splash Mountain like 10 times in a row. I don't know like we'd go a couple times a year and
It just wasn't crowded. Now it's just so crazy. Yeah, it was very busy. Still very fun, but very busy. Very busy. Anyways, we went to Disneyland. That was super fun. But other than that, I'm going to kind of make this 10 seconds about you guys today. Cool. All right. We just wanted to give a special shout out to Anthony. He teaches AP Chem. AP Chem, correct? Yep. He teaches AP Chem in Michigan, a class I never took because I was not smart enough.
But thank you for teaching it. Samantha actually messaged in and said that Anthony has used at least one of our episodes to teach his kids about things. And now the kids listen and apparently he listens. Samantha listens. And we just thought that message was so super cool. So we wanted to bring it up. See, parents, we are a teaching resource. Every kid tune in.
Pretty soon you're going to see us in every single school across America. Oh, what an ambitious goal. Thank you. Never going to happen, but that's okay. And then other thing before we kind of jump into everything, someone sent to our PO box custom Air Force Ones. A bunch of Murder With My Husband designs. We'll post about it. They are sick. I think her name was like Lolo B Creations. Yeah, on Instagram. She did...
They are so cool. And I'm so excited to wear them out. So yeah, we'll post pictures of them. They're really cool. All right. That is my 10 seconds. I think the next four months, I'm just going to be in sweatpants and sweatshirts. Always. Every time. Every time during this year. Fall's coming. I don't want to be dressed for the next five months. Wake me up when February ends.
And I'll be back in regular clothes. With that note, let's hop into another episode. All right. Our case sources are abcnews.go.com, latimes.com, cbsnews.com, napavalleyregistered.com, theweeklycalistogan, legacy.com, findagrave.com, swordandscale.com, redfin, zillow, and forensicfilesnow.com. Zillow. All right. Buying some houses today. I really do be looking them up.
- All right, so our second October episode begins in 2004 in Napa, California. Now Napa is a beautiful little town north of San Francisco in the heart of California's wine country. It serves as the seat of Napa County and it's primarily known for its wine and wineries.
Now, Napa is considered a very safe place to live, and according to ABC News, prior to Halloween 2004, there hadn't been a murder there for two years. But we know the context of this podcast and how we are always breaking those considerations. The population of Napa is about 75,000 people, and the town is described as upscale and charming.
Our case takes place in a particular neighborhood within Napa, which according to neighbors is described as quote, very quiet, sort of leave it to beaver kind of neighborhood where people wave to each other and walk their dogs. They must not have an HOA or else it wouldn't be so nice.
And it was in this friendly neighborhood that three young girls decided to room together in one of the four bedroom, two bath homes. And those three women were 26 year old Leslie Ann Mazzara, 26 year old Adrian Insana and their friend Lauren. Now, according to one source, Leslie, Adrian and Lauren met in college and became friends
and then later decided to rent the house in our story together. But most other sources claimed that actually Adrian and Lauren were good friends in college far before Leslie entered the friendship. Adrian and Lauren already renting the house, just them two in early 2004. And then it was only after college that Leslie moved to Napa from South Carolina and became friends with them. And then by June, 2004 had moved in with them into this house.
So according to family, Leslie made friends quickly and easily. She was outgoing and beautiful. And so it wasn't surprising that shortly after meeting both Adrian and Lauren, she was invited to move into the home in Napa as their third roommate.
And although the girls were all young and in their 20s, neighbors described all three of them as very nice people and good neighbors. As renters, they were quiet and respectful of the long-term families nearby, which was very appreciated. Now before we go any further in the story, I do want to get to know Leslie, Adrian, and Lauren a little bit more so you, Garrett, and listeners really have a good concept of them as we move ahead.
So Leslie was born on August 1st, 1978 in Orlando, Florida. She was described as bubbly and a beauty queen. At some point, she moved from Orlando to South Carolina and actually competed for the 2003 Miss South Carolina in a beauty pageant contest. She was 2002 Miss Wilmeston. Now, Leslie was also a member of the Greenville Ballet Company.
She graduated in 2003 from the University of Georgia, where she earned her bachelor's degree in philosophy. She was a member of the karate club and the lacrosse team there. And afterwards, she met Adrian and Lauren, like we said. Leslie had two brothers and was close to both her grandma and mother, Kathy Harrington. Now, according to sources, Kathy was the major reason that Leslie even moved to Napa after graduation.
The story kind of conflicts, but Kathy, a minister in her own life, either thought the move would be good for her daughter or she herself lived in Napa and wanted Leslie to be closer. We're not sure. But after moving in with her friends and settling in Napa in 2004, Leslie began working for a local winery as a tour guide and sales coordinator.
Now, Adrienne Insana was born on December 30th, 1977. Adrienne was from a nearby town and in high school, she was actually involved in a terrible car accident that resulted in years of recovery. Adrienne didn't allow this setback to stop her though, and she graduated from high school in 1996.
After meeting Lauren and finishing college, she had an engineering degree and was working as a civil engineer for the Napa Sanitation District at the time of our story. She had attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which if anyone has been listening to the podcast, Your Own Backyard, you are very aware of this college and its campus.
A little rundown for Garrett, who is not aware. Back in 1996, college freshman Kristen Smart, not to be confused with Elizabeth Smart, was attending Cal Poly when she vanished after she was last seen after a party, stumbling back to her dorm room with a known classmate who was very much a creep. I never really put together the difference that Kristen Smart and Elizabeth Smart. I mean, I know they're two separate people, but I would always see like
those names come up and I think in my head, I just always assumed they were the same person, even though they had different names. It just, I, you know, I don't look into it much and I would see those names and be like, oh, smart. I don't think you're the only one. I think people often get them confused.
So from the beginning, this guy, this creeper, had a long history of drugging, assaulting, and terrorizing women. He was the main suspect in the case, but they never found Kristen's body and they couldn't prosecute him. The podcast, Your Own Backyard, comes along and he decides to re-examine the case.
And he turned a lot of new attention onto it in recent years, which ended up with police basically finally arresting Paul Flores, who was the boy who walked her home that night. Now, the trial is ongoing currently right now, and Your Own Backyard is following along and giving us updates. It's a great series podcast that I would recommend if you are wanting a new one.
So back to our story, Adrienne became an officer with the Society for Civil Engineers in college and as a longtime Girl Scout herself, she continued to be involved as a Girl Scout troop leader. She played volleyball, softball, and was active in many charities and Adrienne was close with her mother, her father, her stepmother, and brother.
So now Lauren was the third housemate like we've discussed and Lauren had a political science degree and was an all state athlete. Now out of respect for what I learned about while researching, I'm not going to go any further into Lauren's life at this point. So these are the three girls, the three young roommates in our story who by all accounts were successful, driven and hardworking women with their whole lives ahead of them.
But we know where this story is going. And because it's our Halloween episodes this month, we also know that by the time October 2004 rolled around in Napa, California, something bad was about to happen to these girls. Something that should never happen to anyone.
Now, remember how I said Leslie's mother was part of the reason she moved to Napa and met the two other girls? Well, it wasn't just that. Back in South Carolina, Leslie had actually gone through a pretty bad breakup with a young man named William Lee Youngblood Jr. Now, the breakup was not going well. His last name is Youngblood. Oh, cool.
He's not a rapper. I was going to say, is he a rapper? No, he's not. That's kind of cool. Your actual name is Youngblood. It's not a rapper name. His name is Youngblood. The majority of the time it's like
My name is little baby, Youngblood, whatever it is. Right. But his actual name is Youngblood. Yeah. So he is not taking his breakup with Leslie well. He began making Leslie uncomfortable, calling her all of the time. And it was to escape him that Leslie decided to take her mother's advice and move to Napa. Yeah.
But this wasn't the only boy drama happening in the friend group around this time. According to sources, Adrian was really good friends with a girl from work, and this girl's name was Lily Prudhomme. Now, Lily and Adrian had known each other for quite some time and had somewhat merged their friend groups.
When Adrian and Lauren moved into their new rental back in early 2004, before they've met Leslie and she moves in, it was actually Lily's group of friends who helped and then stayed afterwards for a housewarming party. So Lauren, Adrian, and Leslie had a pretty good, solid social life and group of friends by this summer. But it wasn't going to be easy because more drama, boy drama, was about to hit them.
Lily, Adrian's friend we just met, was actually engaged to a man named Eric Koppel. But later in that year, Lily and Eric decided to call off their engagement. And just like Leslie and William, Eric was not handling it well. He didn't understand how Lily could give up on him.
Now going through this tough time, Adrienne decided her friend Lily needed support, just like they had given Leslie. They decided to plan a trip to Australia to try and get away. Adrienne felt it was important to be a good friend and give Lily a place to try and heal. And
And also at this point, William and his family have still not left Leslie alone, despite the fact that she's moved away. She's moved in with two other girls. She's met Lily. They continue to reach out to her to bother her to call her. I mean, I'm really kind of thinking of an episode of Friends here. You have these three girls, Leslie, Adrian and Lauren living together. They've met Lily, but now they're being dragged into Lily's mess with her and her fiance, who are now calling it off.
off, but you also have Leslie's ex-boyfriend back home who's still bothering her. And they're just trying their life as new roommates. You know what I mean? This is what happens when a group of young people get together. It just ends up being chaos with all of these friends involved. Even to the point that as October rolled around, Leslie ended up bringing a guy home one night. She was actually dating a lot during this time. I think probably just trying to get her ex out of her head, right?
And the other roommates ended up hearing her and the guy, you know, having fun. Just watching TV. All night long. Yeah. And they stayed up. They giggled about it. They talked about it. And they decided just not to say anything. They're like, okay, we'll just let them keep having fun. Yeah.
But this was just their life, the fun life of living with roommates. And eventually, Halloween rolled around. It's October 31st, 2004, and everyone in the girls' lives have different plans for the night. The heir was kind of anxious because Lily and Eric's wedding was originally planned for the next day,
And then Lily called it off, so now it's not happening. And I'm sure it was kind of this awkward thing, everyone was kind of skittering around. So because of this, Lauren, Adrian, and Leslie, the three roommates, decided to just stay home that night and hand out candy to the neighborhood trick-or-treaters.
They decided to put out some jack-o'-lanterns and even made specially prepared treat bags for their kids. Oh my gosh. That's nice. I mean, I think as like young girls, you have the energy. You're like, oh, this will be so fun. The kids will love these. So that's what they did. They spent the night. I would never do that now. Never. Ever actually in general. Well, we actually do buy, we have not had good Halloween experiences because every year we've bought candy and we've never had trick-or-treaters. That one time we ran out of candy.
Yes. Way back when. Because we barely had any candy. Yeah. Because we were like, oh, there won't be that many. And they came by and I'm like, do I give them apples? Like what am I supposed to do? And then the next year we double tripled the candy and we had two trick-or-treaters. So we just left the bowl out there and someone ended up taking it. Yeah. So neighbors and parents actually remember the fun atmosphere from the girls' home that night. Everything was happy. Everyone was having fun. The kids really loved the special bags. Even
Eventually, though, the knocks became less and less as the late hours of Halloween approached. Kids were at home, completely hungover on sugar, and the three roommates, Lauren, Adrian, and Leslie, decided to just call it a night. So it's now past midnight on Halloween, and it's dark up and down the roommate's street. This was a family neighborhood, and everyone has turned in.
But it was sometime between 1.30 and 2 a.m. that Lauren was woken up in her downstairs bedroom by a motion sensor security light tripping behind their garage. I thought you were going to say motion sensor camera. And I was like, they had a camera? In 2004? No. Yeah, I was like, no way. Just a light that flicks on if there's motion. Okay, you guys, shifting my wardrobe from summer to fall can be a challenge. But I'm telling you right now.
My quince products that I have, my quince clothing items are my go-to staples in the fall. They make it so easy. They have timeless high quality items. I use their silk skirts. I literally wear them in so many ways with boots, with tights, with a sweater, with a crop top.
They have cashmere sweaters from $50, pants for every occasion, washable silk tops, so much more. And the best part is that they are priced so well because they partner directly with top factories. So they cut out the cost of the middleman and then they pass the savings onto you. So you are literally getting cashmere sweaters for $50. I love it.
I just got a cashmere sweater from quince that I am going to be wearing I also have a pair of their linen pants. I'm actually just going to pair them together I will post it on my social media and you will see it So make switching seasons a breeze with quince's high quality closet essentials go to quince.com husband
for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns you guys if you want free shipping make sure to do quince.com husband that's q u i n c e dot com slash husband to get free shipping and 365 day returns quince.com husband they have the cutest clothes you need to go check it out okay let me guess your medicine cabinet is crammed with stuff that does not work
You still aren't sleeping, you still hurt, and you're stressed out. That's how it was for me, so I cleared out my cabinet and reset my health with CBD from CB Distillery. CBD Distillery's targeted formulations are made from the highest quality clean ingredients, no fluff, no fillers, just pure effective CBD solutions designed to help support your health.
In two non-clinical surveys, 81% of customers experienced more calm, 80% said CBD helped with pain after physical activity, and an impressive 90% actually said they slept better with CBD. I have personally used CBD before to help me sleep. I used to have a lot of trouble sleeping and I couldn't figure out what to do to help. And honestly, CBD did help. And if that's something you're struggling with, yeah.
Give it a try. Check it out. If you struggle with a health concern and haven't found relief, make the change like I did to CBD Distillery. And with over 2 million customers and a solid 100% money back guarantee, CBD Distillery is the source to trust. You guys, we have a 20% discount to get you started. So if you've ever wanted to do CBD, now is the time. Visit CBDistillery.com and use code husband for 20% off. That's CBDistillery.com.
So Lauren was the only roommate who slept on the main floor of the shared home. Adrian and Leslie actually both roomed upstairs in the house. So she was the only one to see this light go on while it woke her up from sleeping. And as Lauren came to, she also heard the faint sound of her dog, Chloe, a golden Labrador retriever, growling.
Now, this would have been extra creepy to me. First, this light goes on and now your dog that's sleeping in your room is growling. But when you have roommates, it's hard to immediately jump to worst case scenario. Adrian had a lot of cats who sometimes would trip the sensors. So when her dog let out like a warning low bark, Lauren quieted her down, comforting her and lays back down. She's like, dog.
Chloe, listen, sweetie, nothing is going on. We're going to go back to sleep. It's probably just one of your enemies, the cat, right? According to abcnews.go.com, Lauren began drifting back to sleep when just minutes later, she heard someone enter the house and begin climbing up the girls' staircase to the second floor.
Now, although a little spooked, Lauren came to her senses and began shaking her head. Oh, no, she thought. Leslie's little boyfriend has come over again, and it's about to be another night of the listening in on their lovemaking. Now, despite this, Lauren didn't want to be a poor sport, so she just stayed in her own bedroom and quieted down her now alert dog. She's like, I'll just let them do their thing. I'm not going to make a problem out of this. I'm just going to go back to sleep.
Lauren then laid back down once again, closed her eyes and tried to relax. But no one was expecting what would wake up Lauren next. Just a bit later, her eyes snapped open, her body completely frozen with fear.
She woke up to the sound of blood curdling screams coming from upstairs. She could hear Adrian screaming over and over. Please help. Please help me. Oh, Matt. That's no, I can't. I can't. Now you have to imagine how terrifying this moment is. Holy crap. This is truly the epitome of freeze, fight or flight. Like you wake up, you hear this and you're like,
What do I do? What does she do at this point? They're not in her room. Whoever's there is not in her room. So as Lauren opened her bedroom door to run up the stairs and help, she freezes in total panic. She's so scared that she can't get her body to take another step.
She finally alerts and begins to move when all of a sudden the intruder begins running through the upstairs hall and bounding down the stairs. Now her bedroom is downstairs. This person is smashing and breaking things along the way. They're that out of control. This is insane. Afraid whoever it was is now heading for her room. Lauren makes a split second dash to the kitchen, running through the kitchen and out to the backyard. Lauren,
but it was only once she got out of the door and into the yard that she realized she had picked the wrong way to run in her fear. She was now stuck in the backyard surrounded by a six foot fence with no way out. Oh, you jumped that thing. Well, if she had just run to the front door, she could have kept running to get help. And now she's like,
Why did I run this way? But she only had a split second to decide. Hearing the intruder still inside the house and getting into the kitchen, Lauren decided to leap behind whatever was near her to hide. She's like, since I can't make it over the fence, I'm just going to hide. She sat in fear. Lauren could hear the intruder struggling in the kitchen.
She thought she could hear them struggling with the blinds of the window, but eventually it went quiet. The noises stopped. Okay, so the intruder's in the kitchen. Right. Is he fighting with Adrian in the kitchen, according to Lauren right now? Not that she can tell. She doesn't think Adrian's in the kitchen. All she can hear is the intruder in the kitchen. She's hearing nothing else. And he's just breaking things? Making noise everywhere.
messing with the blinds, the window. Like she doesn't know what they're doing, the intruder is, but she can still hear stuff going on. So as she sat in fear, Lauren, like I said, could hear the intruder struggling, but eventually it goes quiet.
But Lauren then begins to hear Adrian's pleas from upstairs in the house. So she can still, although it's gone quiet, she can kind of hear Adrian still calling for help. So not even sure if the intruder was gone or was still inside. Lauren stood up out of her hiding spot and made her way back inside the home to help her friend.
She ran into the kitchen and reached for the phone to call 911, but the line was dead. She could not get the call to go through no matter how frantically she tried. Oh no, grab a knife. Scared out of her mind, she set the phone down and began tiptoeing through the home. Imagine this.
up the stairs and to Adrian's bedroom. She needed to figure out what was going on. She needed to help her friend. Now I want to stop here and talk about how brave Lauren is being in this moment to go back into that house.
she had to have been absolutely terrified this is a huge risk to herself and her life like she could hear something bad happening there and she chose to walk back in so lauren is trying her best right now but she can't even get the freaking phone to work like what how is this phone broken i can't imagine it none of us can
I'm going to directly quote from the ABC News article to describe the scene that Lauren walked into once she got upstairs, once she opened her friend's bedroom door. Quote, the entire bedroom floor was covered in blood. Oh, wow.
Leslie was face down in a pile of clothes with stab wounds all over her upper body and arms. A few feet away, Adrian was crouched behind her bed alive, but no longer able to speak and rapidly bleeding to death from multiple stab wounds. Holy crap. This is nuts. So both of her roommates are in one room upstairs stabbed. When Lauren discovered what had happened while she was just down in her bedroom, as if not
not already scared enough, she really begins to panic. Imagine opening the door and seeing this.
she ran to her bedroom and looked around for her cell phone it was not a very good cell phone this is 2004 she had a cell phone but she runs for it leaving bloody footprints throughout the home because she's now walked into the floors covered in blood she walks in i guess finds this and goes back down i guess it makes sense 2004 so she called 9-1-1 from the cell phone and talked to the operator until the line went dead too
So after this incident, the Napa Valley actually would upgrade their 911 system for people calling from cell phones. So this is not weird that the line goes dead. What do you mean the line goes dead? They didn't have the infrastructure to support it, I guess. The 2004 system that was in place at the time involved the California Highway Patrol getting the initial 911 call from cell phones and then them needing to call a separate dispatch center, which often resulted in costly delays. So are they on the way then? Yeah.
They're on the way, but she just keeps getting disconnected. This may have affected how quickly the Napa police were dispatched to the crime scene though, because there was all this back and forth. Now, alone again, off the line with cops and still unsure if whoever had done this was still in the home with her,
lauren decides to run out front and get into her car she grabs chloe her dog first locks herself in the car and begins driving away from the house all while calling 9-1-1 again now before anyone begins dissecting the choices that lauren made here i haven't even thought twice about it i yeah i do want to say that through the chaos the fear and the trauma lauren absolutely
absolutely did the right thing here. Honestly, better than most of us probably could. Getting out of there if the whereabouts of the attacker was unknown was absolutely the correct thing to do. - Yeah, I don't know what you're supposed to do. I mean, yeah, I don't even think we should dissect it. - Right, she called for help first, dispatch was on their way and now she needed to stay safe. She needed to get out of there. So when police arrive on scene, they clear the area. Whoever had done this was no longer at the girl's home.
Police make their way up to the bedroom and the reality of what had happened that night was gruesome and disturbing. Leslie Mazzara was already dead. No! She had been dead when Lauren first discovered them.
Police discovered that Adrian and sauna was barely alive, but it was too late. She died just a short time later and was unresponsive from the time she had been found. So Lauren's two roommates literally were stopped to death. Neither victim had been sexually assaulted. And despite the mess, nothing had been stolen from the house.
A traumatized and distressed Lauren is interviewed and then sent to stay with relatives as the entire neighborhood lays in shock. And we always talk about survivor's guilt, right? It's real, it's sure. Imagine how Lauren feels.
What are the things that are running through her mind? I am absolutely devastated and heartbroken for her that, you know, there's three victims to this story. You know what I mean? So two weeks after the murders, a candlelight vigil is held for Leslie and Adrian. All of their friends attend. Because of the tragedy, the friend group grew closer and Lily and Eric decided life wasn't promised. They called their engagement back on. And in February 2005, three months after the murders, they were married again.
They dedicated a section of their wedding to Leslie and Adrian. Adrian's mother spoke at it in memory of the girls. Following the murders, a massive investigation began and the FBI were invited in. The police bring in a bloodhound to track the killer's scent. According to sfgate.com, this bloodhound was, quote, following a scent near Highway 29, but investigators had no solid leads. Who does this? Right? Yeah.
This whole thing is absolutely mind-blowing. The police shut down the house for 10 days so they could process the crime scene. And they collected a drop of blood outside the broken kitchen window. Okay. Or on a set of blinds from the window. Sources differed, but either way, there's blood collected from the kitchen. And they believe this blood came from the killer. I feel like there's got to be evidence all over the place, right? I mean, he ran through the house. He was super messy. Right. He climbed to the second floor. Mm-hmm.
I mean, it's got to be evidence all over. So in order to preserve the crime scene, investigators use ladders to see inside the house and take photographs, which is actually very brilliant because there's nothing worse than a like corrupted crime scene. The police suspect that this was not a random attack. The killer seemed to know where he was going and who he was targeting. So they can't help but wonder why had Lauren been spared? Why kill only two of the three roommates?
After evaluating the crime scene, investigators determined that they believe Leslie was the intended target, but Adrian heard the attack and ran into the room, which would also make sense why Lauren was spared. Maybe one girl was only the target, but Adrian heard and ran in. A $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest was offered by a group of Napa Valley businesses.
the most popular lead police found had to do with Leslie Mazzara's old boyfriend, whose father, William Lee Youngblood Sr. was reportedly obsessed with her and her beauty. So when they start learning about Leslie, not only does she have this ex-boyfriend, Mr. Youngblood, who can't get over her, they also learned that his dad had like this weird, creepy infatuation with her that she told people about. Um,
And they also discover that this dad, her ex-boyfriend's dad, had called her twice on Halloween night. So not only is he infatuated with her, he had tried to reach her twice Halloween night. But both William and his father were apparently in South Carolina, where they're from, at the time of the murders. And both were later cleared by the DNA evidence. Neither of their blood matched. Now, this doesn't mean they're completely cleared.
But it's a pretty weird thing that there's blood in the kitchen that doesn't match to them. Police follow up so many leads during this investigation. They conducted over 1,300 interviews and they collect 218 DNA samples from various individuals, mostly young men who had a connection to the victims. However, none of these DNA samples are a match to what they believe is the killer's blood.
The investigation started by looking into the men who were closest to the two women and then spread out as they weren't getting any, you know, DNA matches. They asked retired police detectives to come back on duty to help with the investigation. And the issue was they were running into is they had two quote, very popular women who had numerous friendships, social contacts, and coworkers, uh,
they had to sift through all of these relationships to try and pinpoint people of interest. I mean, they had a large friend group. You have three different girls who are very close with three different friend groups that they've somehow merged. - I feel like it's gotta be someone obvious though. - Right, so Leslie was new in town and like I said, she had been on a variety of blind dates since her arrival. So there were many men to sift through to her just alone.
Despite the fact that police had collected mounds of evidence, they never found a murder weapon. They do, however, collect two camel Turkish gold cigarette butts from inside the house. And this promises to be a solid lead because number one, there is DNA on the cigarette butts.
And two, none of the girls smoked, let alone smoked such a specific brand. - Why would he leave cigarettes there? - Right? It's weird, but police are like, this has to be from the killer because even Lauren says, no, I don't know who would have left that. I don't know anyone who's even smoked here recently.
Police eventually matched the DNA from the blood found in the kitchen to the DNA on the cigarette butts. So they're like, this is a lead. This is a lead. We now have two sources of DNA. We're pretty sure this is the killer. It feels even more sure now that they found the cigarette butts. So they have now confirmed the killer is number one, a smoker. And number two smokes a relatively unusual type of cigarette. This isn't a very common cigarette.
So in September of 2005, 11 months after the murders, police decide that these cigarettes are the only major lead they have to find someone to compare against the DNA. They have exhausted all other efforts.
Because of this, after going back and forth on the pros and cons, they decide to go public with this information. They want to keep it private because they feel like it was just another way to put a nail in the coffin if they do find a suspect, but also they're running out of leads. So they hope someone will recognize this brand, recognize someone who might have done this, put two and two together, and then say, "Hey, this might be your suspect."
At a press conference, they alert the media that whoever had killed these two women back on Halloween night in 2004 smoked a very distinct brand of cigarettes. And to everyone's surprise, all it took was this announcement to make waves in this case. And although police had announced this in hopes of someone coming forward and turning someone else in, that wasn't what happened.
It didn't end up being a friend of a friend because one person came forward, not with information, but with a confession. No, there's no way.
Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage, to the first real life store stage, all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Shopify is there to help you grow. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with the internet's best converting checkout up to 36% better compared to other leading commerce platforms.
and sell more with less effort thanks to Shopify Magic, your AI-powered all-star. Peyton and I love Shopify. We have been using it for, I mean, I've been using it for six years now, so many years, and it's amazing. It just keeps getting better and better with more updates. It's easy to use. It's user-friendly. Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the US, and Shopify is the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklyn, and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries.
Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash husband, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash husband now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash husband. Hola. ¿Cómo está? Hola, ¿cómo estamos? Want to learn a new language? Well, the best way is to uproot your entire life, move to Spain, and live there for the rest of your life.
I made that up. I went off the ad. Let me go back to the ad read. The best way is to uproot your entire life. Drop your... Oh. You literally followed the ad. I didn't read the rest of that. Drop yourself in the middle of a new country and figure it out from there. I just want to let everyone know that's what I did. But... That's what I did. It worked. If you're not ready for that, you can still learn a new language the next best way. And that is with Babbel. See...
Speak like a whole new you with Babbel, the science-backed language learning app that gets you talking. Wasting hundreds of dollars on private tutors is the old school way of learning a new language. Babbel's 10-minute lessons are quick and handcrafted by over 200 language experts, ready to get you talking your new language in three weeks because talking is the key to really knowing any language.
Designed by real people for having real conversation, Babbel gets you talking. You guys, I actually use Babbel to brush up on Spanish when we travel. I love it. It is so easy. And then I can actually kind of keep up with what's going on. And with over 16 million subscriptions sold, Babbel's 14 award-winning language courses are backed by a 20-day money-back guarantee. So there's no pressure. Buy Babbel and travel.
Here's a special limited time deal for our listeners right now. Get up to 60% off your Babbel subscription, but only for our listeners at babbel.com slash husband. Get up to 60% off at babbel.com slash husband spelled B-A-B-B-E-L.com slash husband. Rules and restrictions may apply. One man came forward and turned himself in for the murders of Leslie and Adrian after this announcement. Okay.
He claimed he was nervous police were closing in. And that man was Lily's now husband, Eric Cottle.
So this was Eric who had helped the girls move into this home and celebrated with them that night. Eric who had attended their funerals and their vigils. Eric who had gotten married to Lily, the girl's almost best friend, three months after the murders. Eric who had asked Adrian's mother to speak about her daughter and the victims at their wedding. Eric.
Eric, who smoked Camel Turkish gold cigarettes and had been avoiding police for over a month. Eric Cottle turned himself in, shocking his wife Lily, claiming he was the murderer and that the DNA in the case would surely match him. So before we go forward, did Lily's boyfriend have like a good relationship with the girls at all? Like a close relationship or was it just kind of like an acquaintance level? Yeah, so...
Basically what happened is Lauren and Adrian move into this apartment and Adrian gets this new job. At this new job, she meets Lily. Now Lily is engaged to Eric. Yes. Now because Adrian and Lily start becoming friends, I mean, they're going to the gym together. They're spending all their time at work together. They begin hanging out. Casually, Lily brings her fiance, Eric, over. There was no crew.
close connection eric had only been in the house once he was more an acquaintance of the roommates lily was more the friend of the roommate so it really doesn't make where's the motive here so then lily could potentially be involved could potentially yes she could be involved she could have set this up or something but police are still kind of feeling like why
Why? Like you're kind of barely connected to the girls. I mean, you are in their life, but it just doesn't make sense.
So back in August 2005, police, like I said, had contacted Lauren to ask if she knew anyone who smoked. Lauren is our living roommate. At first, she couldn't think of anybody. But then she remembered that back on the day her and Adrian moved in and Lily, their friend, brought her fiance over, Eric, he had smoked in the house.
But Adrian, Leslie, and Lauren barely knew Eric like we just talked about. He was very shy. He was quiet. He was not social at all. He was almost like this character in Lily's life that they knew, but they were way closer with Lily than Eric. Lauren doesn't even know why Eric would target them. They had nothing really to do with him besides maybe the fact that they had taken in Lily, his fiancee, when things had gotten hard between the two.
So despite the fact that police were confused about what motive there could possibly be for Eric to kill the girls before he's turned himself in, this is a month before while they're talking to Lauren, they decide to just bring him in and test his DNA. He hadn't been tested somehow.
But he won't come in willingly. Every time police try, he's never home. He's hard to find. A month or so later, police make the announcement publicly. They're looking for a guy who smokes this kind. And then Eric willingly comes in and confesses and turns himself in. So just days after police released the information on September 28th, 2005, Eric Koppel is arrested and held without bail.
When police asked him why he came in, he said he was suicidal. And when he told his family, they encouraged him to turn himself in instead of taking his own life. So it was either come in and tell police or take his own life, which is why he even came in in the first place. Every time police asked about the actual killing itself or motive, because they're just as confused as we are, Eric claims he was having a mental block and couldn't tell them.
He does tell them that back on Halloween 2004, he grabbed a military style knife from his home and drove to his fiance's friend's house. He says he stood out front smoking a cigarette, then recalls climbing through a front room window and heading upstairs to a bedroom. What? He says after that. Zero explanation, basically. Yeah. He says after that, his eyes were closed and he can't tell them anything else.
He says after the killings, he drove home and burned his bloody clothes. He tells police that he can't remember what he did with the knife. So do you think he's saying this because he's trying to plead insanity? Or do you think it's true? And I guess we'll never know. Well, my first instinct is that he didn't actually do it and he's covering for someone, which is why he won't tell any details because he doesn't know what happened. That was my first instinct while listening. But we still have the DNA. If that blood is his...
Then he was there. Yeah, and I feel like it's going to... Yeah, exactly. So police claimed he provided enough detail to prove he was the killer. He was saying things that only the killer would have known, like the fact that he brought zip ties to the murder, but dropped them while climbing in through the front window. And then the zip ties were found underneath the front window. Which, I mean, someone could have told him that, but yes, correct. But it's not something they released publicly. But he still didn't tell them why...
or how, and they couldn't fathom why or how. They couldn't come up with a motive. Police send Eric's DNA to the lab to be tested, and they begin informing the victim's family about the arrest. Adrian's mother claims no one was more shocked than she was to hear this news. She claimed that Adrian considered Lily one of her closest friends.
And now her fiance killed her daughter. And the reason that she even spoke at their wedding in the first place, her and Eric's wedding, was because Lily and her daughter Adrian were so close. Her mother was convinced that whoever had done this had had to have not known her daughter. It had to be a stranger. And now she's finding out that the person that did this was someone that she's hugged since her daughter's death.
She's talked to him. She's supported him at his wedding. Eric Koppel is charged by the Napa County DA's office with two counts of murder when the DNA evidence comes back to be his.
including special circumstances of using a knife and committing a crime involving multiple victims. In October of 2005, Lauren, the third roommate who avoided being murdered, likely by the virtue of the fact that her bedroom was on the ground floor and her door was shut, spoke publicly for the first time. Her televised interview on primetime aired on October 6, 2005. As reported by ABC News, quote, she said, still I can't sleep.
Basically, it was a horror movie. That's what I thought. Exactly what I thought was when I was up there. In this interview with Lauren, Primetime asked her why she thinks Eric didn't kill her. She says, quote, I don't know. I just happened to have my door closed that night. That's it. That's the only thing I can think.
She says that she told law enforcement to test Eric's DNA once the police told her that they believe the murderer left behind cigarette butts at the crime scene. Now, per Napa Valley Register dot com, quote, And so then my brain started going, OK, you know, we didn't really associate with a lot of smokers. And then it took a couple seconds and I went, wait, Eric smokes. And then I remembered that he had been in the house. And then I asked, have you checked into his DNA? And the police told me no.
A whole year later, on December 5th, 2006, Eric pleads guilty to two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances of lying in wait, using a knife, and committing a crime involving multiple victims as part of a plea agreement with the state.
The plea deal allows him to avoid the death penalty for the two murders. The plea agreement provided that Eric would receive life without the possibility of parole, and it also provided that Eric wouldn't appeal and that he would never profit off the crimes. NapaValleyRegister.com says, quote, he can never talk about what happened that night except to clergy or family members. He may not discuss the facts of the case with the media or anyone dealing with writing a book. Why not? Just for profit?
Yeah, because he can't profit off of what he's done. Interesting, because I feel like that would maybe help in getting answers to why. I think so, but also if the victim's family have come forward and say we'd just rather him not be able to talk about it than to have answers, then of course they're going to put that in the plea agreement. Because the victim's family will be heavily involved in the plea agreement. So I'm going to assume that's what happened. Oh man, I'm so confused. Yeah.
Yeah. The courtroom was packed, both with victims' family and friends, along with people who still supported Eric Koppel, including Lily, her parents, and Eric's mother. So Lily is still married to him and still supporting him at this court hearing for his plea deal. Oh.
The plea agreement was in accordance with the victim's family's wishes, like we just talked about. At the sentencing hearing, the victim's families and friends sat on one side while Eric's supporters sat on the other. Maybe I'm missing something, but supporters. Well, this is what we talked about on a recent episode. Supporters for killing someone. I...
Maybe that's me just not being understanding, but I don't understand. Not supporters for killing someone. Supporters of their loved one. They're supporting Eric as a person, not the actions he's committed. We already discussed this. Gareth said that would be very hard for me to continue to sit by and... And these are all personal opinions. Right. This doesn't have to do with the case. I just...
I think it's crazy. You just don't understand why Lily would still go and sit if he murdered her best friend, essentially. Two best friends. Basically. Oh, yeah, best friend. Correct.
So the victim's family at this hearing spoke about the impact the murders had on them. And then Eric spoke himself. This always happens at sentencing hearings. He claimed that he suffers from depression and he has been suicidal his whole life. He said he came from a broken home and deeply regrets his actions. He claims he still has no explanation for his actions other than the fact that his relationship with Lily was in jeopardy. She just called off their wedding and he was angry and full of rage. So...
We're getting pieces. We're getting to the motive, which that's probably the motive. But why them? But he just doesn't want to say that's what the motive was. Right. Lily Koppel, her new last name, supported her husband throughout the process and thanked the victim's families for not pressing for the death penalty. She said, quote, I wish with all my heart that these events could have been avoided. However, she then shocked and upset some of the families by also saying the following, quote,
Eric, there's nothing you could do to make me love you any less. These words are just as true today as they were on that afternoon. Oh my gosh. Yeah, these quotes come from CBSNews.com and I always think about these sentencing hearings and, you know, okay. It's a lot to unravel. Right. Well, I watched Dahmer and in one of the episodes you see his victim's families come in and give statements and it's just crazy.
all the emotion in that courtroom. I mean, you get a chance to say how you feel, but then you have to sit and listen to his wife get up and defend him. You know what I mean? And it's just hard. It's so much emotion packed into one, one little courtroom.
Apparently a suicide note was found from around the time Eric turned himself in. And in it, he writes about his jealousy of the friendship between his future, well, his wife, Lily, and the victim, Adrian. Because remember, they spent a lot of time together. But that, like, we still don't have a very clear motive here. Was he going out to kill Adrian because of their friendship? It just, it all seems still a little confusing. Also,
it's so selfish like everything he's doing is so selfish so it's like oh i'm i'm writing a suicide note because i'm jealous it's just all so selfish my empathy is just zero right completely i mean i assume most everyone that's listening is probably the same right but it's just that i feel like he's trying to get empathy when it's all just it's all selfish reasons right well a huge investigation was done in this case which ultimately led to the killer right and
However, what's been frustrating for law enforcement and for all of those involved, and I'm sure all of us listening, is trying to understand what the true motive could possibly have been for such a brutal crime. We're talking multiple stab wounds, stabbed to death, two different girls.
Murder never makes sense, but that's especially true in this case. The DA in this case has a theory and he says it's all about Eric's relationship with Lily. November 1st, 2004 would have been their wedding day and instead Eric was alone. That was the night the girls were killed.
CBSnews.com says, quote, One comment that Eric made at his sentencing was, quote, Mm-hmm.
In his own tortured mind, Eric maybe believed Adrian was poisoning Lily's feelings for him. Maybe Adrian was the reason she had called off their wedding. And now Lily was supposed to save his life and he was so excited for this wedding. And now he's placing the blame on Adrian possibly. But this theory still doesn't explain why he attacked Leslie first then. We know Leslie was attacked first before Adrian. Oh, that's true.
- That's true. - So there are rumors that maybe Eric had made a pass at Leslie and not only had she denied him, but she threatened to tell Lily, but I've seen no credible source report that I think these are just like hometown murder or rumors. - Yeah, just like Reddit stuff or hometown rumors. - I do believe that maybe his passing wedding day with a called off wedding that he was thinking was going to save him out of his depression and turn his life around
Could have been a trigger and he did fall into a pit of rage. Maybe he did go to attack Adrian, but he found Leslie first and couldn't control himself. Either way, it's all bad. That's just me trying to make sense of this. By 2008, Eric and Lily were officially divorced. She changes her name back while he was serving his life sentence. Okay.
The house in Napa, which was the scene of the brutal crime, was sold a few months after the murders. This case has been featured on Snapped, 48 Hours, and also a book was written about it called Nightmare in Napa by 48 Hours producer Paul LaRosa. The $100,000 reward money was never paid out since Eric Koppel turned himself in and confessed.
However, instead of keeping the money, the businesses decided in 2007 to donate the money to various charitable causes, with the majority of it going to causes chosen by the victims' families. The pain of losing a loved one to murder lasts a lifetime for the survivors of a crime. I always say it, and I'll say it one more time, there are always more victims than just one in these cases. A
Adrian's mother has said, quote,
It's never going to be the same, but now I am living life and experiencing joy and having fun. The way I'm living now is the new normal. Leslie's mother said, quote, I think that I'm certainly better, but there are reasons for that, citing her spiritual work and actually advocacy for abolishing the death penalty. And what about Lauren?
Lauren is still alive, but like I said, based on the research I found, we're not going to dig into her, share her last name or anything like that because she did survive the crime. She's a survivor and I don't want to invade her privacy as the living victim. But that is the case of Leslie Ann Mazzara and Adrian Asana who were murdered on Halloween night. This case kind of frustrated me, but I think it's because I feel like he did have a reason and I feel like he copped out by saying...
That he blacked out because then later he slowly starts getting to, well, it might have been this. Maybe I was mad. Maybe it was this. And he just probably didn't want to talk about it. And he just, it was easier for him to say, I don't know. I blacked out.
But it was me. Put me in prison. And I know it's fine because I'm hopefully at this point, all the families have closure and it's obviously hard to heal from that. But hopefully they have closure and they didn't need the other information. I think that's why it kind of upset me because it just felt like a selfish, obviously it was selfish. Anything that has to do with murder is selfish, but it just felt like a big cop out to me. Right. And maybe it just would be nice to be able to look at the families and say,
I was being selfish. I thought Adrian was taking or whatever the reason is. This is why I did it. I can't explain it. I was in a rage. I've been suicidal. I was in a very bad spot, but this is why. And maybe it doesn't matter. So, I mean, right. Maybe they don't care. Moved on now. So we're moving on, but, but it does feel like just one last steam. Correct. You know what I mean? All right, you guys, we hope you have a good week and we will see you next time with another episode. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.