ANNOUNCING: Park Predators Weekly!
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High crime junkets and happy tuesday. I've got another something special for you today. If you're like me, you're probably a little sad to see summer go.

No more pool days, top down drives or soaking up the sun. Unusually IT would also mean the end of new part predator episodes, but not anymore. Well, I can't stop the days from getting shorter or the least from changing.

I can keep part predators going. And that's right. It's exactly what i'm doing. Delia is staying in the parks longer. And now part predators is audio trucks newest weekly podcast. Every tuesday idea is taking us back to the parks, guiding us through stories where natures beauty hide some truly minister secrets.

These episodes will cover everything from infamous headlines to let her known mysteries still looking for answers, and everything in between to kick off the launch of park predators as a weekly show. I'm bringing you the first one right here. This case takes place in the iconic Joshua tree national park and is a reminder of our crime junk life role. You never really know anyone ever after you listen, head over to the part predator feed to explore all of the past episodes, waiting for you make sure to follow the show so you never miss an update or a new episode on tuesday. This is park predators.

Hi park enthusiasts. I'm your host. Dia d amra. In the case i'm gonna tell you about today is one that, at its core, involves two of the oldest motives in the book for murder, sex and drugs. IT took place in twenty eighteen and was a case that got a lot of coverage within the state of california where the crime happened.

But overall, I didn't see a ton of national coverage about IT, which to me felt like a shame because the circumstances that let up this crime are things that millions of people deal with every day, either with a current or former romantic partner or maybe even in acai tance. I'm talking about stuff like out of controlled jealousy, stalking, manipulation and even physical and emotional abuse. The national park services website for Joshua tree national park, where the story unfolded, dubs IT as a place where two distinct desert ecosystems meet.

If you've ever been there, you know that the landscape has endured hundreds, even thousands of years of violent rainstorms and blustering winds. Those events, plus s volcanic activity, flash fleming, have all shaped the rocks and vegetation in the park, which are habitats to an array of animals and plant species that live in the landscapes, harsh environment. Most visitors go to the park during the spring time or on holidays.

Temperatures in josh between tend to vary wildly throughout the year. For example, IT can get up to one hundred degrees fair and height in the summer and think well below freezing at night in the winter. The lives of the individuals involved in this crime were just as up and down as the well known parks climate.

They were three distinct people whose lives collided in the most chaotic and violent way possible. And the Young man at the center of the entire saga had so many chances to stop and think about what he was doing to make different choices, but he didn't. And though the life he took as a result can never be brought back, the elements of josh a between national park made sure he didn't get away with cold blood and murder. This is park predators.

Around noon on friday, june first twenty eighteen, a guy named mark powers was hiking alone inside Joshua three national park when he spotted a group of vultures circling in the air and gathered on the ground about fifteen feet away from him. The area where mark was hiking wasn't that off the beaten path? In fact, IT was near the intersection of big horne pass road and park bully's, which are two traveled roadways in the park.

I checked on google maps, and there is even a campground nearby. So mark assumed that maybe the vultures were picking apart a dead animal or something. I don't know exactly what was going through his mind, but I imagine that since the road was right there and IT might have been common for critters to try and cross IT but not make IT, mark just figured whatever the birds were after was likely a casualty of traffic.

Intrigued by the site, he decided to snap a few photos of the vultures. After a few minutes, he left and kept hiking. The next morning, saturday, june second, he was back with his family in doing what so many of us do.

After we've gone on a cool hike. He shared a few of the photos that he taken when his wife viewed the pictures of the vault. Res SHE voice concern, I imagine SHE must have felt like something was just off about the car.

Cus the bird have been swarming around because he told mark that he should contact the closest park ranger station and report what he'd stumbled across. So around nine fifteen in the morning, that same day, mark made the call, he found the local N, P, S. Station and gotten hold of a ranger who took his report.

And the that ranger sent out another ranger to check the ground near the intersection of the corn ass road and Parker of yard. And sure enough, when that range got to the spot where market taking his photos, he saw what appear to be a man's torso sticking out of the dirt. From the looks of IT, the upper part was still partially buried, but the lower portion wasn't.

And I had clearly undergone severe decomposition because of the extent of the decoy. N, P, S, surmised that the body had likely been in the area for several days after finding the victim. Rangers immediately called the riverside county share of office to report what was going on around one P.

M. A deputy for that department came out to the scene and roped off the area around the remains. Shortly after that, homicide investigators from the share of office arrived with forensic tex for a few hours, the group work together clues and carefully remove the body so IT could be sent off for an autopsy by five fifteen P.

M. There was nothing more to investigate, so the share osf ice released the scene back to the park service. The victim's body was set to a local corners office for a full examination, but those results didn't come in until the morning of june fourth.

Nearly a day and a half later, the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy found several fractions tus on the victim kull, as well as multiple wounds to his chest, neck that all appear to have come from a sharp object, which I assume probably was either a knife or something similar. The case was quickly ruled a homicide. During the autopsy, the pathologist was able to pull a fingerprint from the man's left hand, and after law enforcement ran that print through the california I D.

Database, they learn the victim was fifty four year old Henry Allen stage. Something deputies found interesting was that Henry was not listed as a missing person anywhere in the country, which no one had been looking for him, or even realized he was dead in the desert. Investigators found more records for Henry and learned that he was from the city of murieta, which is in riverside county.

So on the evening of june six, four days after his body had been found, the share of office went to Henry's home. When they got there and went inside the garage, they found blood spatter streets of blood on the floor that appeared to be drag Marks, a pile of towels soaked with blood and a large pool of blood on the ground. And when I say large pool of blood, I mean, large police reports stated that this pool was roughly four feet by two feet.

So, yeah, no small area. After finding the scene, the shares office linked up with a murra police department, and IT was the city officers who officially began to process and investigate the scene. They found more blood spatter next to some ham radio equipment in the garage. And beneath the underside of a fishing vessel that was being stored on a trailer there, this boat was reported to be kind of small.

And investigators assumed that one way blood batter could have gotten on the underside of IT was if Henry, possibly his head, had also been on the ground nearby in a since what all the blood evidence indicated to detectives that the garage had clearly been the actual site of Henry's murder, one detective later remarked that whatever had happened in there was not quick and said, all signs pointed to a quote, prolonged assault. And quote, based on the fact that Henry had suffered so many blood force injuries to his head, which the pathologist determined had collapsed a portion of his skull, investigators felt pretty confident that he not left his home on his own free will. They suspected he'd likely been transported away from the initial crime scene in a vehicle then driven into the desert where someone quickly try to bury him in order to prove that theory, though, crime seam tax processed everything of evidentiary value in the house, hopeful that something would point them in the direction of Henrys killer or killers.

According to brian rock's reporting for the press enterprise and the press released by the murray a police department, IT was at this point in the investigation that the case was officially taken over by the city investigators since the crime scene was in their jurisdiction. The first major clue that stuck out to the detectives was the fact that officers had not found any signs of forced entry to Henry's house, which typically means that the suspect or suspects could have been someone the victim might have known. On the kitchen table, investigators found Henry's wallet and some cash still inside.

Even more odd, nothing of value appear to be missing from the rest of the house, which reinforced for investigators a theory that robbery most likely was not the motive. IT seemed more and more like the crime was personal. When officers inspected the outside of the home, they realized him we had a security system installed that had several cameras.

However, when detectors went to the area in the garage where the D V R system for the cameras was supposed to be, they found nothing but a bunch of disconnected wires. Someone had intentionally removed the archive system. Now this was a tetel sign to investigators that whoever had killed Henry knew where that system was kept, and they're purposely sabotaged IT to cover up or destroy video evidence of them at the murky e.

So with all this information in hand, the big question the enforcement needed to answer was, why? Why had someone done this to Henry? But before they could solve that piece of the puzzle, detectives needed to learn more about their victim, who was he? When was the last time anyone had seen him alive? These were crucial questions investigators had to follow up.

Born, they learned that the fifty four year old was a father of two, and at the time of his murder was separated from his wife malicious stage. The couple hadn't been together since SHE filed for divorce in twenty seventeen. At the time of his death, their divorce was still pending, and Henry was only allowed to visit with their kids on a limited basis because he had full custody.

Heavy duck ham reported that the couple separation stemmed from allegations of domestic violence. Investigators checked out these allegations, and even though, according to police records, there were nearly two dozen past calls for service between the two of them from when the'd been together, detectives were too concerned. The press enterprise and heavy dot com reported that malicious mother had filed a restraining order against Terry in twenty seventeen, and so did two other people.

But from what I could find in the source material, IT seems like those cases were eventually t it's hard to tell from the articles I found. So I don't know if this next bit of information came directly from Melissa or some of Henry's neighbors who also spoke with police. But not long into the murder investigation, detectors learned that Henry had developed a serious addiction to prescription medication, specifically opioid, meant to treat pain.

According to court documents, Henrys divorce had affected him deeply. And on top of that, he suffered some serious injuries in a car accident. While we're Operating, he used prescription pain meds.

And because dependent on them, in fact, detectives investigating Henrys murder learn that on may twenty third twenty eighteen, nine days before that hike remark, powers had found his remains in Joshua tree. Henry had picked up a prescription for a hundred twenty count dosage of oxi code at a local grocery store. SurveilLance video confirmed IT was Henry hood picked up the medication.

It's unclear from the source material how the authorities knew to go to the specific pharmacy and check for that video. I assume they must have found the oxide prescription net Henrys home and traced IT back to the name of the store that he filled in in order to confirm he was, in fact, the person who'd picked IT up. But regardless of when or why he got those pills, the authorities knew that the bottom line was, one, Henry was still alive on may twenty third.

And two, all signs pointed to him having a poor quality of life. Shortly before his murder, they reviewed his finances, and the picture they got was even more bleak. Henry had been struggling financially for a while, and sometimes he couldn't even even afford to keep the lights on at his house.

So to say things we're pretty rough for him is kind of an understatement. But there was one thing that made him really happy, and that was Operating his ham radio within a community of other ham radio hobbyists, according to police reports, signing on with something Henry did weekly, if not daily. There had been instances in the past with some disco amateur dio Operators who'd goten into arguments with Henry over the airwaves, but IT seemed like by in large, the hobby was a positive experience for him.

And because he signed on so much, there was an online broadcast, often are called broadcasts fy, that kept a record of communications between Henry and other hand radio Operators. When law enforcement investigators reviewed the radio traffic from late may twenty eighteen, they realized that Henry had been on the airwaves during that time, or at least up until thursday, may twenty fourth, after that, Henry had never logged back on. According to court documents, at three thirty five P M.

On the twenty fourth, Henry got on his radio for about twenty minutes to talk with other Operators. And in those conversations he indicated that he was doing well by three fifty five P. M. He'd signed off in good spirits saying, quote, my beautiful, lovely and smart Ashley was here and quote, now obviously law enforcement wanted to find out who this Ashley person was, and in a very short amount of time, they did. However, what they learned only gave them more questions than answers.

After doing a little bit more digging into Henry's life, homicide detectives in merida city police department learn that the fifty four year old had been in a 大 ship with a twenty seven year old woman named Ashley step IT appeared。 The couple had met through craggs list and god romantically involved some time in the spring of twenty seventeen, so a little more than a year before Henry murder.

In addition to the noticeable age gap between the two, what investigators also found surprising was the fact that Ashley appeared to be in another romantic relationship at the same time he was dating Henry. The other man he was involved with was thirty year old curtis coogan, A U. S.

Marine lootenant station at twenty nine palms s, marine core base in twenty nine palms s. California, based on what detectives could find online, actually incurs, his relationship seemed equally as involved as the relationship he had going on with Henry. Maybe even more so, because there were several articles in the source material that stated actually in curtis were actually husband and wife or engaged to be married.

A photo of the two of them on the department of defensive website, which was dly taken on may tenth, 11， showed curtis applying camfed sh paint on a woman. The caption beneath the image said the female subject was Ashley stap curtis wife. Now maybe that was just an error by whoever took the photo and put in on the D O.

D S. Website, I don't know, but the source material goes back and forth a lot when referencing curtis and Ashley as either husband and life partners, boyfriend and girlfriend or whatever. They definitely get confusing. And to be honest, i'm still unsure if they were legally married or just engaged, but I don't think that really matters that much because what I do know for sure is that in may twenty eighteen, actually in curses or living together as a couple inside cursi trailer in nine pms, theyd met some time prior to the fall of twenty seventeen, through one of courtesy.

Cousins who worked at the same smoothly shop as as soon as the authorities investigating Henry's murder realized Ashley might have been seeing both men at the same time, they got suspicious and they secured a search, went for her kurtis and Henry cell phone records. And this is where things got interesting. The record showed that curtis's phone had been at or near Henry's house on thursday, may twenty th, the last day Henry was heard from by his hand radio friends, which was also the day that investigation believed he was killed.

Even more suspicious was the fact that courtesy phone had traveled from the twenty nine palms marine base two Henry's house by five twenty pm on the twenty fourth. Then his device stayed put there for twenty minutes, travel to Ashley's mother's house in kenyan late california, and then return to henri house at seven forty five pm. The phone remain there for forty minutes, then traveled from Henry's house back to twenty nine palms, then several miles to the general vicinity of Joshua tree national park.

The desert son reported that because of reception issues, the phone couldn't be tracked to the specific spot in the park where Henry's body was eventually found. Now, as damming as this evidence seemed, it's important to understand that the cell phone data took some time for investigators to collect and analyze. They didn't know of this stuff right away, which meant for june and july twenty eighteen.

They just had their suspicions. And really only the authorities knew that curtis and Ashley might be possible suspects. However, by mid d August, that changed on August fourteenth, law enforcement secured a warm to listen in on curtis, an Ashley phone conversations.

That same day, a police detective spoke with Ashley brother, Kevin's dad, and this detective ask Kevin what he knew about his sisters s relationship with a man named Henry stage. Not long after that conversation ended, Kevin called Ashley and curtest to tell them that the authorities had contacted him asking questions. What Kevin curtin Ashley didn't know was that investigators were covertly surveilling their communications and heard everything that the couple, their friends and their family members discussed.

On August twenty forth, the cup struck gold. They recorded several phone calls between kurtis and Ashley y, in which the couple discussed some really incriminating things. For one, they talked about whether or not anyone had seen them loading a body into curtis's black truck while at Henry's house, or if any surveilLance cameras on the road had captured images of curtis's black truck coming or going from Henry street.

So, yeah, pretty damming conversations, which is why five days later, on wednesday, aug. Twenty nine, investigators felt like they had more than enough to arrest curtis and Ashley y for Henry's murder. According to brian rockers reporting for the press enterprise, the couple wasn't together when they were taken into custody.

Curtis was at the twenty nine palms s airport, ound combat center and actually was at college, and josh a tree. Each of them was brought in under suspicion of murder and conspiracy. The judge over their case ordered they be held under one million dollars bail after curtis's arrest.

A marine core spokesperson responded to reporter brian rocco's request for comment by riding. In part, the marine court takes allegations of this nature and that of any criminal misconduct seriously. The command is CoOperating with the law enforcement agency in charge of this investigation and quote, after the couple was taken into custody, detectives search their trailer in twenty nine palms and curtis's office on his military base.

They seized phones and computers as evidence. News week reported that in addition to that stuff, investigators also took affordable travel from curtis that was, quote, used for digging combat fighting holes and quote, back at the police station, authorities questioned ashly in curses. Separately, investigators read Ashley her Manda rights, and afterworld SHE repeatedly told detectives that he didn't know anything about Henry's murder.

However, once the police confronted her with some of the evidence they've gathered so far, her story started to change. SHE told them that he had been at Henry's home on may twenty fourth, and not long after getting there, he said curtis showed up. SHE believed some kind of confrontation had happened between the two men in Henry's garage, and curtis ended up beating Henry in the head, SHE said together.

SHE in curtis cleaned up the scene as best as they could and transported henri's body to josh wet try and curtis's black truck. SHE claimed that while the'd been at the house attempting to load the body, Henry was still breathing, but in really bad shape. And how once they got to the spot near big horne pass road, curtis duga make shift grave with a shovel a few yards off the roadway.

Then they unloaded Henry's body, and each of them took turns scooping dirt onto him. After that, they left when investigators pressed actually for more details as to why curtis would have fought with Henry, SHE vegan mentioned that prior to that day, he told curtis that Henry had sexually assaulted her while he had been high on drugs at his house. SHE assumed curtis's arrival was his way of enacting retribution.

When detectives interviewed curtis in another room, they played excerpts of the wiretapped phone conversations he'd had with ashly after the crime. After a few minutes of listening to that audio, curtis decided he wanted to speak with an attorney before answering any more questions. Basically, investigators didn't get anything from him.

And based off that outcome, you d think things would have moved along well in the first forty eight hours after the initial arrests. However, that's not what happened. The desert sign in K, S, Q news reported that things came to an abrupt hold just a few days later on friday, August first.

That's when the district at turney office in riverside county declined to officially file murder charges against curtis and and because the couple had been held for the maximum forty eight hours and didn't have prior fellini on their records, they were both released from custody. According to the news coverage. All the D.

S. Office would say about why they did this was that the case was under review and the official criminal complaint against curtin, Ashley was still pending. Now I don't know if this meant that the da just had a lot of questions about how the police department put its case together or what, but the fact that the couple just walked right out of the jail a few days after being arrested for murder surprised a lot of people.

Folks who knew Henry and wanted to see justice served spoke out on social media in the wake of this news. One of his sister's judy stange gardener posted on social media saying, quote, he was a son, a father, a brother, a cousin and a many. He was murdered the last week of may.

His remains were found in the desert near josh, a tree in california. Our lives will never be the same. If you know anything, please contact murray at A P.

D, and quote. After August, things in the case went radio silent. For several months, news stations and newspapers stopped covering the story, and that kind of went staging for a while.

That is until december seven, twenty eighteen. That's when investigators with the police department and the riverside county district attorney office formally filed a first degree murder charge against curtis, and we arrested him for Henry's killing. Shaan snow reported for marine court times that curtis was picked up at camp pendleton in california by detectives on december thirteen th, then transferred to a detention center in marieta.

Now you're probably asking yourself, what about ashly? Was he charged to? And the answer is, no. Officials chose not to formally charge her with any crimes in december twenty eighteen. At the time, IT seems like prosecutors were just mainly focused on getting curtis at as a rain met a week later, on december seventeen, teeth curtis plead not guilty to the charges against him.

His bail was set at one million dollars, and over the course of the next few months, his defense attorney and the state began to build their respective cases for trial. At a court hearing in mid january twenty sixteen, the court ordered for curtis to undergo a routine physical at his detention center so that the U. S. Marine core could officially severity with him.

Apparently, this physical exam wasn't anything out of the ordinary, because documents from the court state that IT was basically just an administrative thing the military had to do in the time I had taken to get to that point, though investigators had been hard at work gathering additional evidence to bolster their case against curtis, they come through all of the configured digital devices and interviewed people who knew him or who lived in his trailer park. And IT was the phone data that really revealed to detectives the kind of person curtis was. The picture wasn't pretty.

According to an article by the press enterprise to the outside world looking in, curtis appeared to have a fairly respectable position as a first routed in the marine core. On top of that, he was also a communications officer with a combat logistics battle on the desert sign in. K.

S, Q. News reported that after he didn't listed in the marines in two thousand five at just seventeen years old, he'd worked hard as a private and earned his way to the rank of officer. After that, he'd become A U tenant in twenty fifteen.

He had extensive training in martial arts and was a black belt instructor for the marine core. Photos of him at his court proceedings demonstrate the level of peak physical fitness curtis had, thanks to all of that training. But despite those accomplishments, curtis had won major downfall.

He had a very obsessive personality. When I came to his romantic partners in court documents, IT stated that he had a temper which could cause him to become violent. And when IT came to his relationship with Ashley, he was described as, quote, highly distrusting, totally obsessive and extremely controlling, and quote, you see for the first few months that he and actually work together.

Curtis would do things like track her cell phone, follow her places, check her emails and threaten man, he thought, be interacting with her. An article in the same burner, dino county centeno, stated that curtis and Henry had actually gotten to know one another through their shared mutual interest and communications equipment like ham radios. They attended radio enthusiast barbecue e together and knew one another socially.

It's unclear from the source material, though, if curtis knew when he met Henry that Henry was already involved with ashly or when exactly the and the love trying will begin but what is clear is that by mid january twenty eighteen, curtis had become aware of Henry and asa's relationship after he snooped through her email account and found some messages Henry had sent to her. Curtis threatened hendry in riding to stay away from Ashley, but just a few days later actually went to see Henry at his house in Mariah. While there, he ignored curtis's attempts to contact her for hours, and the next day curtis throwed to Henry's house broken and went after the fifty four year old with a hammer.

Henry was wounded in that attack, but chose not to involve law enforcement or file an official report. So no one really knew this incident had happened. They just kept curtis's confession to themselves anyway, after the hammer attack actually in, Henry continued to Carry on their relationship, much to curtis's dismay.

However, IT appears actually also continue to be with curtis too. So IT definitely seems like none of these folks stay away from one another. Court filing state that throughout february, march, April, in may twenty eighteen, curtis escalated his controlling and obsessive behavior, taught ash.

He wrote notes in his phone that analyzed where he would go and when he calculated how much time he would be driving in a car versus possibly spending time at her mother's house or at Henry. He also kept a log of when he suspected Ashley would turn her phone off in an attempt to keep him from tracking her, as well as times he believed he would have sex with Henry. He also wrote about how he believed her sexual relationship with Henry was related to her desire to score and use drugs with him.

A detective who worked closely on the case also concluded that part of the reason ashly had started a relationship with henery in the first place was because he might have struggled with substance to use disorder and saw Henry as a means to satisfy her addiction. But IT wasn't just the presence of so many talks, notes and stalker ish writings about Ashley y on curtis's phone that alarmed prosecutors. IT was the fact that on the day Henry was killed, IT appeared that kurtis had openly lied to his commanding officers to manipulate circumstances so that he could get out of his duties and track ashly down.

According to court documents presented by prosecutors and reporting by Christopher damian for the desert sun on the morning of may twenty fourth twenty eighteen, ashly sent curtis a text message that stated he was going to her mother's house in kenya, ate california to get some luggage. Curtis immediately wrote her back, accusing her of lying, and warned her that you d Better not be going to do drugs in the exchange, actually wrote that he wasn't planning to use any drugs, but eventually her communication with curtis dropped off. He tried to track her phone, but the device stayed idol at ashli y's mother's house, which kurt suspected meant his girlfriend had intentionally left IT there so that he follow her movements.

Later that day, ashly failed to show up at a family day event at curtis's military base. Enraged that he was being ignored, curtis asked his superiors if he could leave base for a quote, family issue and quote. He was released from duty and immediately called nine one one to report Ashley as mentally unwell and suicide dal.

He asked riverside county deputies to go to her mother's home and do a welfare check, but when authorities has got there, no one was home. Curtis then went to the house after asking Ashley's mother, who was out of the area, if he could go inside. And there he discovered Ashley cellphone abandoned in a pot plant that confirmed for him what he already suspected.

Ashly had ditched him and was likely at henri's house. It's this kind of behaviour that investigators and prosecutors realized made kurtis a dangerous individual who was likely capable of committing murder. There is just one problem.

Prosecutors needed Ashley to correlate a lot of their suspicions about curtis's potential motive for the crime. Essentially, they needed her to fully CoOperate. But that was going to be difficult because you see, in january 2， right, when authorities needed her most, Ashley was nowhere to be found.

Law enforcement couldn't locate Ashley step for months after they rearrested curtis for Henry's murder. IT wasn't until mid April twenty thousand that authorities finally caught up to her and took her into custody again. Sh'd been living in riverside county, but not where detectives could easily find her. In may, a month after her arrest, the district attorney's office filed a criminal complaint against her that noted he was being charged with accessory after the fact of murder, and then SHE also got additional charge for kidnapping Henry from his home while he was technically still alive.

Alongside her lawyer, SHE SAT down with investigators and gave an official statement, SHE explained that what sh'd confess to before back in August twenty eighteen, which was that she'd been in Henry's house when he was murdered and help curtis clean up after the fact, was true, but not the whole truth. SHE brought up the fact that curtis had previously attacked henri back in january twenty eighteen with a hammer and even went as far as giving investigators the location of that weapon. SHE also confess that when she's spoken to police the first time while in custody, SHE lied about why curtis had come over a Henry's house in the first place on may twenty fourth.

Henry had emailed her earlier in the day on may twenty fourth and invited her to a quote, oxy party and quote, and while he was there, curtis had shown up an attack. Henry, in a jealous rage, SHE said the reason she'd helped her boyfriend and clean up and why SHE made up the story about the sexual sault was to protect curtis. In june, he took a plea deal for one count of harbin, a person suspected of committing a felony.

In exchange, the prosecution drop the kidnapping charge against her, and he was ordered to spend around three hundred days in jail beyond for three years and participate in a substance abuse treatment program. Because she'd already served some time in jail, SHE actually went straight to the rehab center and wasn't require to spend any time behind bars. Later that same month, the court held a preliminary hearing for curtis in which investigators testified and showed several pieces of evidence they plan to present as part of their case.

Also during that hearing, prosecutors tacked on an additional charge against curtis for the hammer attack he was accused of committing against Henry in january 20。 The exhibits the state presented included pictures of Henry's burial side, his autopsy, that large pool of blood on his garage floor and the traces of blood sweaters throughout the crime scene. Investigators also presented an email between Henry and curtis that they felt should be shown at trial.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the judge decided that there was more than sufficient evidence to have curtis stand trial for Henry's murder a few months later, while each side was preparing their case, ashly made headlines again for fAiling to adhere to the terms of her supervised release. Turns out, after getting what many people considered to be an extremely lenient ent deal actually didn't finish, the man dated a hundred eighty days of substance abuse treatment. He was supposed to not only that he continuously broke the rules of the facility, SHE was sent to racking up fourteen different violations.

A detailed probation violation report states that he brought in things that weren't allowed, hung out with men participating in the program, which was also not permitted, and didn't abide by the light policy, or finished the necessary paperwork for her A A meetings. Christopher davie reported for the desert son that I november twenty second twenty nineteen, a bench warrant was issued for her arrest, and deputies found her shortly there after and took her to custody. By that time, curtis was thirty two years old and ashly was twenty nine.

Christopher anian reported that the one thing both the prosecution and defense agreed upon was that the love triangle element had created an environment for tensions to be high. Both sides also felt that Ashley y's substances disorder had made things even more complicated. The defense alleged that curtis, an ashlee, were engaged when he began her affair with Henry.

From curtis's point of view, he'd found his soul mate. And because of this passionate connection, he grown increasingly distrust by continual use of drugs. Enter infidelity the defense argued that even though curtis's controlling behaviors told seemed aggressive, he'd only been that way because he deeply cared for her well being and wanted heard to recover from her addiction.

But the state firmly disagreed with that notion. Prosecutors alleged that on may twenty fourth twenty eighteen, curter had simply had enough of being cheated on. He'd purposed in his heart to end Henry strangers life for good. The state argued that curtis had the motive, means and opportunity to end his girlfriend's relationship with Henry once and for all, and that exactly what he did.

Christopher davie reported for the desert sun that several of curtis's colleagues from the marine core testified at trial, and they said he'd been to Joshua tree national park many times prior to make twenty forth, and he knew the area well. An investigator with riverside county share of office testified that shortly after Henry's body was discovered, online search history for curtis's laptop and ashly cell phone show that their devices had been used to look things like, quote Henry stange identifying human remains in Joshua tree and man found dead in Joshua tree. IT was also revealed in court that Ashley had played a significant role when I came to help in kurtis brainstorm ways to cover up or conceal their involvement in the murder.

For example, transcripts of their wiretapped phone calls indicated that ashly recommended curtis removed the tires of his black truck after kurtis mentioned that the trade might have left the unique impression on the ground near the burial side. SHE also told curtis that if he was questioned by police, he would tell investigators that Henry sold drugs to a few other people, not just her. That way, he could cast suspicion off of her and curtis and give the cops a legit reason to investigate other people for the crime.

The couple also talked about whether or not they've been seen by one of Henry's neighbors when they came and went from the crime scene. They also discussed whether hand could have afforded to back up his home surveilLance system on cloud software. The wire tap transcripts also revealed, ed that eventually the couple group paranoid about police potentially watching them and listening to their communications, so they seized talking about details of the murder over the phone after a few weeks.

But by that point, IT was already too late. The coach had gotten what they needed, interestingly, actually did end up taking the stand to testify during the trial, but not as a witness for the prosecution. SHE testified as a defense witness for curtis.

Christopher davie reported for the desert sun that the story SHE told to jurors was when no one had really heard before. SHE described how things had escalated between her, Henry and curtis. Starting with the january twenty eighteen hammer attack at Henry's house, SHE stated that at the time he was addicted to prescription medications and hiding her substance use disorder from curtis.

The day of the january hammer incident, SHE d falsely told curtis that Henry had seul assaulted her, and when curtis learned that information, he instructed her to take him to Henry's house. When they arrived, he saw curtest grab a hammer from his truck and go inside. When he returned to the truck, he told her he wasn't sure if Henry was alive.

Ashley y told jurors that after that incident, even though he cared about curtis and wanted to have a life with him, SHE was afraid of him, afraid he might harm her. SHE also explained that even though Henry had viewed their relationship as healthy and Normal, sh'd only ever seen IT as business. SHE admitted to engaging in a relationship with him in order to feed her six hundred dollar a day substance use disorder by having sex with him in exchange for pills.

SHE told jurors that SHE only saw Henry as her drug dealer, not her lover. On the day of the murder, SHE had visited Henry in the on, and together they'd started drugs at his house. Then the'd had sucks and he went into the bathroom while washing up.

SHE hurt a loud scream from the garage, and moments later, curtis came into the bathroom and remarked that they needed to leave the area. SHE told the jury that from her perspective, curtis had gone too far and let his anger issues caused him to commit murder. After SHE testified in court, curtis took the stand in his own defense and gave a similar story as Ashleys, but with a few critical details that only he could caborn.

For example, he told jurors that when he arrived at Henry's home on may twenty fourth, Henry had told him that Ashley wasn't there, and when curtis didn't believe him, Henry came at him with a knife. Acting in self defense, curtin said he tussled with Henry to trying to avoid getting stabbed, but ended up stabbing the fifty four year old in the neck. Then the men kept wrestling, and curtin said Henry tried to clock him with a weight, but curtis got the object from him and struck him few times.

When Henry still wouldn't let up, curter said he stomp on him, and after that he and actually left herry house first short time, but then later returned and clean up the evidence and removed Henry's body. After loading Henry into the truck, curtis said he initially drove to a lose home improvement store to buy a shovel to take to the desert, and on their way home, he discarded the knife in a trash cane at that same lows, as well as other incriminating evidence in a different trash can. He emphasize that IT was Ashley who'd speared, headed the efforts to cover up the murder from the very beginning, IT was not something curtis had initially wanted to do in early september twenty twenty, before the case went to the jury for deliberation, the lead prosecutor stated that he believed asha had played a pivotal role in the entire ordeal, even though he may not have been present.

When Henry was allegedly beaten to death or taking part in the killing, SHE had manipulated both men, and for that he should feel more more. But in the end, IT wasn't Ashley who had to face the music. The jury returned after four days of deliberation with a verdict and found curtest guilty of second degree murder as well as assault with a deadly weapon for the hammer from january twenty eighteen.

The fact that jurors felt the state hatten met its burden of proof for a first grade murder, A K. A premeditation meant that curtis fed a range of possible sentences as much as life in prison or as few as fifteen years. A few weeks later, at his sentencing in october twenty twenty, a judge handed curtis a sentence of fifteen years to life for the murder and three years in prison for the salt charge.

The likelihood that he would ever get out of prison was slim to none in court. Several of Henrys loved ones red victim impact statements, and they expressed how hurtful the entire ordeal has been. They described their lives as having been forever fractured and were disturbed by the.

That curtis had tried to claim self defense, they said he had been devastating throughout the trial to learn that both he and Ashley showed so little regard for Henry's life. Henry's mother wrote in her statement, quote, IT didn't matter to cragg that he buried my son alive alone in the desert. He was still breathing some part of him was holding on to life and quote Henry, sister judy was just as destroyed and said he felt that curtis's cocoon spirit had gotten not far too easy.

Judy said, quote, Ashley was present at both attacks and he could have done something at any time SHE didn't. She's equally guilty and quote, the only words curtis offered up at his sentencing were tearful statement of regret. He told the court he felt remorse over what had happened and said, quote, I took in america's life thinking he was more of a threat than he was.

I destroyed a family, a beautiful american family. And pod, as of twenty twenty one, a step was an impatient at a treatment facility in ventura, california. I imagine that by now she's out.

Curtis appealed his conviction, but in december twenty twenty one, the california court of appeals upheld the trial court's verdict of guilty at last check. He's still serving his time behind bars and immense prison in california and won't be eligible for parole until january twenty twenty nine. Park predators is an audio check production. You can view a list of all the source material for this episode on our website, park predators that com. And you can also follow park predators on instagram at park.

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