Daniel Wozniak
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To get this episode of Forensic Tales ad-free, check us out at patreon.com/forensictales. Forensic Tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing. The contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. In sunny Southern California, 23-year-old Julie celebrated one of the happiest moments of her life. Over dinner, her big brother asked her to be a bridesmaid at his wedding.

He crowned Julie with a tiara fit for a princess. As Julie smiled ear to ear, her phone kept buzzing. Her good friend was in trouble. Sam was suffering and needed help. The kid sister rushed over to his apartment, but when she got there, shots rang out. This would be the last time anyone saw Julie alive.

This is Forensic Tales, episode number 122, The Daniel Wozniak Story. ♪♪ ♪♪

Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell-Ariola. Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast covering real, spine-tingling stories with a forensic science twist. Some cases have been solved with forensic science, while others have turned cold. Every remarkable story sends us a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.

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On May 21, 2010, 23-year-old Julie Kiboishi waved goodbye to her mom in the kitchen of their Southern California home in Irvine. She told her mom, June, who was busy making dinner, that she was meeting up with her older brother, Taka, and his new fiancé at a Thai restaurant in Long Beach, a town only about a 20-minute drive away from Irvine. She told her mom that she'd be back home after dinner.

The dinner that night was a special occasion. Not only were they going to talk about Taka and his fiance's upcoming wedding, but Taka also had a very important request from his younger sister. He asked her to be a bridesmaid at his wedding, and Julie excitedly accepted. As part of the invitation to be a bridesmaid, Taka gave Julie a tiara to wear at the wedding. But instead of waiting for the wedding day to wear it, Julie immediately put it on.

Throughout dinner that night, Julie's phone kept vibrating. She received text after text from one of her friends, Sam Hare. Sam and Julie were both students at Orange Coast Community College and became close friends after Julie started tutoring Sam in anthropology. Julie even helped him get an A in the class.

Sam told Julie over text messages that he was upset. Something was bothering him and he wanted to see her to talk about it. Julie told Sam that she was busy at dinner with her brother and his fiancé, but once they wrapped up dinner, she would go see him. After finishing up at the restaurant in Long Beach, Julie, Taka, and the fiancé went back to Taka's apartment.

But when they got there, Julie's phone wouldn't stop ringing. It was Sam again. This time, Sam told Julie that he really needed to see her because he was having some family troubles and he just needed a shoulder to cry on. So he told her to come over alone. Julie told her brother Taka that she was going to stop by Sam's place on her way back home.

Taka was a little nervous about his sister going over there so late. By this point, it was almost 11.30 p.m. So he told his sister, Julie, to be careful and to send him a text when she got there. Around midnight, Julie pulled up to the Camden Martinique apartment complex in Costa Mesa. As soon as she parked her car, she pulled out her cell phone and texted Taka. I'm here. Don't worry.

After texting her brother, Julie texted Sam, Hey buddy, I'm here, walking to your place. As she approached Sam's front door and waited for a response, she texted her brother Taka again, saying that she could hear Sam crying and that it doesn't sound good. The following morning, May 22nd, June woke up and was surprised that her daughter still didn't come home.

Although Julie was 23 years old, she had never stayed out all night without telling her mom first. So when June went into Julie's room and saw that the bed hadn't been slept in, she became worried. 23-year-old Julie grew up in a Japanese-American family in Irvine, California.

Although her parents, June and Masa Kibouishi, named their daughter Juri, she started going by the American version of Julie as she grew up. Julie was born on Valentine's Day, and of course, everyone joked. This was why that she was such a hopeless romantic. She was the third of four children and grew up with two older brothers. Because she was the first girl born into the family, she instantly became the apple of her parents' eyes.

In their eyes, Julie was perfect. She was kind, honest, caring. She loved to take care of other people. That's why it was no surprise to Taka when she told him that she was going to go help a friend in need that night. June immediately picked up the phone and started calling Julie's friends to find out if anyone knew where she was. But her friends didn't seem to know anything. They hadn't seen or heard from her.

June also tried calling and texting Julie's cell phone, but she didn't pick up. Finally, after not hearing from her daughter all morning, June contacted the Irvine Police Department to report her missing. At the same time June worried about Julie, another set of parents worried about their son. 20 minutes away from Irvine, Steve and Raquel from Anaheim Hills couldn't find their son, 23-year-old Samuel Hare.

Raquel had spoken to her son around noon the day before. They had talked about plans for Sam to drive up to Anaheim Hills and have dinner that night, but he never showed up. Steve and Raquel tried calling Sam throughout the day to find out about what happened to their dinner plans. He had never blown them off like this, so they were worried. But every call to his cell phone went straight to voicemail. So Steve decided to drive down to Costa Mesa.

He went inside using a spare key that Sam had given to him. Once he got inside the apartment, everything seemed normal. The lights were still on, he saw a few dirty dishes in the sink, and the place looked like you'd expect it to look with a young, single, 20-something-year-old guy to live in. As Steve made his way deeper inside the apartment, he called out his son's name. Hey, Sam. Sam, where are you?

Although no one called back, Steve couldn't shake this eerie feeling that someone else was inside. When he entered Sam's bedroom, his heart sank. He felt the instant rush of cold sweat. Right there on his son's unmade bed was a female body.

She was covered in blood, kneeling next to the bed with her body draped on the bed. Her jeans and underwear were ripped down to her feet. She had been shot in the head. Across her sweatshirt was a message written in black marker, All Yours, F.U. On top of her head sat the tiara her brother gave her.

Steve immediately recognized the woman as Julie. His son was friends with her and she was his tutor. He had even met Julie because she was so close to Sam. At one point, Steve thought that his son and Julie were dating because they were so close. But Sam always assured him that Julie was like a little sister to him, even referring to her as a kid sister.

Steve picked up the phone and called 911. He told dispatchers that a female body was inside his son's apartment. When the police arrived, their first thought was a sex crime. You've got the victim's pants and underwear pulled down and ripped. Then you've got the message written across her sweater, all yours, F.U.,

The detectives quickly found out that Julie was friends with Sam, so maybe there was some sort of love triangle going on. Maybe Sam was jealous of Julie hanging out with another guy, so he lured her to his apartment, sexually assaulted her, and then he killed her.

The police found Julie's purse, keys, and cell phone inside of Sam's apartment. When they looked through her cell phone, they found the text messages between Sam and Julie, the ones where Sam asked her to come over that night, to come over alone. The police also noticed that Sam's wallet, passport, cell phone, and car were all missing from the apartment.

Costa Mesa police officers immediately began their search for 26-year-old suspect Sam Hare. Within a few hours, he became suspect number one in Julie's murder. Sam enlisted in the army at 20 years old and became a private first-class officer. Shortly after enlisting, his unit was deployed to Afghanistan. While overseas, he experienced intense combat.

When he eventually returned home from his tour, he was left broken from the war. He experienced terrible symptoms of PTSD, and he had nightmares practically every single night. The Costa Mesa police ran a background check on Sam. Besides his military combat experience, they wanted to see if there was anything else they should know about. What police discover about Sam Hare is utterly disturbing.

The police uncovered that eight years earlier, in 2002, Sam was arrested on murder charges. When Sam was 18, prosecutors accused him of taking part, along with 17 others, in the stabbing death of then-19-year-old Byron Benito. The criminal complaint alleged that Byron Benito, a Guatemalan native, was associated with the Brown Familia family, a local gang.

On the night of January 15, 2002, a Brown familia member, 19-year-old Victor Flores, was shot and killed and had his body dumped in a riverbed. By the next day, the gang began plotting their revenge on whoever killed Victor Flores.

The gang decided that it was Byron Benito who might have done it. Although a thorough investigation would uncover that there was no connection between the two men, that Byron Benito was innocent. Prosecutors argued that Sam Hare picked up Benito and drove him to an industrial park. Once they got to the park, several gang members attacked and stabbed him to death.

Immediately after finding Benito's body, the police discovered that Sam was the last person to see Benito. Although prosecutors didn't believe Sam participated in the murder, they accused him of knowingly luring Benito to the park that night, all while knowing what was about to happen.

Sam spent a year in jail before the case went to trial in 2004. But after several days of intense testimony, a jury acquitted Sam on all charges. After his release from jail, Sam wanted to start a new life, so he enlisted in the Army. After the Army, he enrolled in classes at Orange Coast Community College in Orange County, California. Here is where he met Julie.

After considering Sam's military background, history of PTSD, and a previous murder case, Costa Mesa police officers were convinced that he was responsible for Julie's murder. Since Sam might pose a danger to himself or others, the need to find him and find him quickly intensified. The only people who didn't think that Sam was capable of murder were his parents.

Steve and Raquel Hare knew their son, and they didn't think that he would have killed Julie. Even if there was some sort of love triangle going on, why would Sam kill someone that he called his little sister? While the police searched for Sam, Steve started his own search. Sam had provided his dad with a list of all of his banking information and passwords in case of an emergency.

So with Sam's banking information, Steve decided to look at Sam's banking activity to try and find his son. If he's used his credit card or his debit card somewhere, that could lead him straight to Sam. The first thing Steve noticed when he looked at the bank accounts was that there was a lot of activity on the accounts. He saw that Sam had repeatedly pulled money from two different ATMs in the city of Long Beach.

But it wasn't just the amount of withdrawals that caught his attention. He also noticed that each withdrawal was made in $400 increments, the maximum allowed with Sam's bank. So the total amount of withdrawals came to about $2,000. Steve jumped in his car and drove up to Long Beach. He decided to wait by an ATM to see if Sam would stop by. So he parked, waited, and waited. But nobody showed up.

He then drove around Long Beach looking for any sign of his son's white car. But there was no sign of his car either. Steve arranged with the bank to get alerts whenever Sam's debit card was used. With each ping, he could quickly try and locate the card's activity. Ping. An alert came. The card was used at a Long Beach pizza restaurant.

Steve rushed to the pizza restaurant as fast as possible. He arrived within minutes. But he was too late. Sam was gone. Costa Mesa police also monitored Sam's bank activity. They went to the two Chase locations when withdrawals were made and got their hands on the ATM's surveillance cameras.

But when the police watched the tapes, they didn't see Sam. Instead, they saw someone much younger, a teenager dressed in a dark hoodie and hat.

The police called the pizza restaurant where Sam's debit card was used and asked the restaurant managers for the delivery address. Within minutes, dozens of SWAT officers and helicopters swarmed the address. The investigation is getting closer and closer to catching Sam. SWAT and police arrived at the quiet home. Officers knocked on the door.

And a teenage boy, 17-year-old Wesley, opened the door. The same kid from the ATM surveillance cameras.

Wesley told the police that he knew nothing about the debit card. He even denied being the one to use it. But the police weren't buying his story. So they continued to press him and told him that his face was caught on surveillance cameras using the debit card to pull out money from the ATM. When the officers told him that that particular debit card was linked to a murder case,

Wesley decided to come clean. Wesley said that he didn't know who Sam Hare was. He was simply withdrawing the money for someone else, a guy named Daniel Wozniak. 26-year-old Daniel Wozniak lived in an apartment with his fiancee, Rachel Buffett, just a couple floors down from Sam in that Costa Mesa apartment complex.

Both Daniel and Rachel got by by working different odd-end part-time jobs. Neither one of them was working full-time. Instead, they put their passion into becoming professional actors. They met while performing in a community theater at the Hunger Artist Theater Company in Fullerton. At the time of Julie's murder, they both were performing in a production of the musical Nine.

Daniel, Rachel, and Sam became friends when Daniel and Rachel moved into the apartment complex a few months earlier. Most of the people who lived there were either young 20-something-year-olds or college students. So the neighbors hung out and got to know each other. When the police found out that Daniel Wozniak had asked Wesley to use Sam's debit card, they needed to see him.

The police got Daniel on the phone, but he said that he couldn't talk. He told officers that he had his bachelor party that night and was getting married in two days on February, May 28th. But the police weren't going to wait. That night, Daniel met up with some friends at a Japanese restaurant called Tsunami Sushi in Huntington Beach. While Daniel enjoyed sushi and drank sake with his buddies, Daniel

Over a dozen Orange County Sheriff's deputies sat outside the restaurant. As soon as the check was paid, the officers stormed the restaurant and took Daniel away in handcuffs. Officers drove him to the Costa Mesa police station, where he was questioned about using Sam's debit card. Daniel then dropped a bombshell. He agreed to tell the police everything.

He told the officers that he knew nothing about Julie's murder. He said he was tricked into giving Sam money to help him escape. He said that Sam called him on the morning of Julie's murder and told him that he needed him to do something. And in exchange for doing it, Sam would give him some money.

Now, this deal interested Daniel because he and his fiancee, Rachel, could use some extra cash. Being a struggling actor doesn't exactly pay the bills. They were already a couple months behind on rent and had an elaborate beachfront wedding and honeymoon to pay for. So Daniel said that he agreed to do whatever Sam wanted him to do.

According to Daniel, Sam had come up with a plan to scam his bank. He wanted Daniel to drain his checking account so that he could turn around and file a fraud claim against Chase Bank. He would tell Chase that his card was stolen and in the end, he would double his money.

Now, Sam didn't say exactly how he would double his money in this plan, but Daniel believed him and he agreed to do it. The plan was for Daniel to take the money out of the accounts by using a few different ATMs in Long Beach. If the bank reviewed the security cameras, they wouldn't see Sam withdrawing the money. Instead, they would see Daniel.

After agreeing to go through with this bank scam, Daniel told the police that he had contacted 17-year-old Wesley. Daniel and Wesley both knew each other from the theater.

Daniel told Wesley that he worked for a bail bonds agency and that the money was for a client that had skipped bail. He told Wesley to withdraw cash in increments of $400 and, while withdrawing the money, always cover up his face at the ATM. When the police asked Daniel where Sam was now, he said he had no idea.

Then the officers informed him about Julie's murder. Daniel said that he didn't know anything about it. But as the officers continued to question him, his story changed. He eventually told officers that he did know about Julie's murder because Sam told him he did it.

He said that on Friday, May 21st, he and his fiancée, Rachel, performed together at the community theater. After the show, they went home and watched some TV. He said Sam came down and knocked on their front door the following morning. He said Sam looked worried, so he asked his friend what was wrong, and Sam simply told him that he was in trouble. Sam said he needed his help getting out of Costa Mesa.

Daniel told the police that the two of them got inside of Sam's car and headed south on the 405 freeway towards San Diego. While driving down the freeway, Sam told him that he shot and killed Julie inside of his apartment the previous night. According to Daniel, Sam said he killed her after looking at photos of her on social media with other guys.

He became jealous and angry, texted her to come over alone. When she got there, he wanted to have sex. She said no. Then he shot her twice. When the police asked Daniel, hey, why didn't you come forward about this earlier? He said Sam told him not to tell anyone about it. And if he did, he would kill him and his fiancee.

So instead of telling the police about Julie's murder, Sam told Daniel that he would pay him $16,000 if he helped him get out of town and disappear. Not entirely buying Daniel's story, the police told him they needed a DNA sample from him. They wanted his DNA to eliminate him in Julie's murder.

At the crime scene, investigators collected a mountain of forensic evidence still waiting to be processed. So they wanted to get some of Daniel's DNA to compare the DNA found at the crime scene. While the forensic technician swabbed Daniel's mouth for DNA, he changed his story again. Now he told officers that he was inside of Sam's apartment on the day of Julie's murder.

He still maintained that he never saw Julie, but he admitted to being inside the apartment. Furthermore, he told officers that he only went inside to use the bathroom and he might have gone outside on the patio. So according to Daniel, if investigators found his DNA either inside of the bathroom or outside on the patio, then that's why.

After submitting his DNA, Daniel asked the officers if he could leave. They already ruined his bachelor party night by taking him away in handcuffs. But now he needed to get home and get ready for his wedding in two days. But police told Daniel, you're not going anywhere. You need to cancel your wedding because you're under arrest for accessory to murder after the fact.

Daniel's demeanor and tone completely changed. He stood up from his chair and told the officers, quote, I will talk to you about anything if it gets me to my wedding on Friday, end quote. Daniel continued to deny seeing Julie's body despite admitting to being inside of Sam's apartment that day. But then his story changed once again.

He said Sam didn't confess to the murder in the car as he initially said. Instead, Sam actually told him about it inside the apartment that day. He even said that Sam asked him to help clean up the crime scene and get rid of any potential forensic evidence. Daniel said Sam took him back to his bedroom and showed him Julie's body kneeling on the bed.

Daniel said that's when he saw the two gunshot wounds to her head. At that very second, the second that that thing rolled off of Daniel's tongue, the police knew that he was lying. How could he know Julie was shot twice if he was just there to help clean up? After several hours of questioning, the police booked Daniel Wozniak on criminal charges of accessory to murder after the fact.

Instead of getting ready for his wedding, he was getting ready for his jail cell. He used his free call to call his fiance, 22-year-old Rachel Buffett. By the time Daniel got in touch with Rachel, she already knew all about what was happening. That's because Costa Mesa police officers had already gone over to the apartment to tell her that Daniel was at the station for questioning.

Whether or not Daniel or Rachel knew that jail officials were monitoring this phone call isn't exactly clear because this is what happened on that phone call. Daniel told Rachel that he helped their friend Sam, quote, cover some stuff up. He said to her that he knew what he did was wrong, but only did it because they desperately needed the money for the wedding and honeymoon.

This comment seemed to upset Rachel because she repeatedly told him that the money wasn't worth it and that they could come up with the money some other way. Rachel then told Daniel that after the police came to the apartment to talk to her, she picked up the phone and talked with Daniel's brother, Tim Wozniak. She said she told Tim all about Daniel's arrest and Julie's murder.

She said the second she told him about Julie's murder, Tim was silent. He told Rachel that Daniel had given him something related to Julie's murder and that Daniel asked him to get rid of it for him. Rachel told Daniel that she was planning to go to the police about what Tim had said. That's when Daniel said, quote, then I'm doomed.

Rachel then said, quote, Do you know that Tim had some evidence? Daniel said, Yeah. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. That can't be found. Babe, listen to me. I'm going to go do something right now, and you're not going to see me for the rest of your life. Do you understand that?

He went on to tell Rachel, quote, I have to tell the truth on what I did. And I think you now know what it is. And it's bad. Imagine the worst. And that's what I did. End quote. Immediately after hanging up the phone with Rachel, he told the jail authorities that he wanted to talk to the detectives who had interviewed him earlier. This time, he was ready to finally tell the truth.

In the interview, Daniel waived his rights and confessed to everything. He said, quote, I'm crazy and I did it, end quote. On May 23rd, 2010, five days after Julie's murder and Sam's disappearance, Orange County prosecutors charged him with two counts of first-degree murder, one count for killing Julie and one count for killing Sam Hare.

During his taped police interview, Daniel confessed to murdering Julie and making it look like Sam did it before killing Sam himself.

He said that two weeks before the murder, he was arrested in Costa Mesa for drunk driving. After being arrested for DUI, he called his friends to get money for bail. He didn't want to spend the night in jail. But he didn't have any money to bail himself out. He and Rachel were months behind on rent, and they both had zero cash in their checking accounts.

One of the friends he got in touch with reached out to Daniel's neighbor, Sam Hare, to see if he could help Daniel out and give him some money for bail. But Sam said no, he wasn't going to help him. Even though he had the money to help, he thought that Daniel should just spend the night in jail instead. The next afternoon, Daniel was released from jail. A few days later, he ran into Sam at the hot tub at their apartment complex.

Daniel asked Sam if he could borrow some money because he and Rachel didn't have enough to make rent. Daniel worried that they would get evicted from the apartment. So feeling bad for his neighbor and friend, Sam agreed to take Daniel to the ATM so that he could borrow a few hundred dollars.

At the ATM, Daniel watched as Sam entered his PIN number. He also saw that Sam had $62,000 in his account, money that he had saved from his service in Afghanistan. As soon as Daniel saw how much money Sam had in his bank accounts, his eyes lit up.

He saw that money and instantly knew that he had no full-time job, he had no money, he was facing eviction from the apartment, and he had absolutely no way of paying for his upcoming wedding and honeymoon. And that's when his plan was hatched.

The next day, Daniel lured Sam to an attic at the Liberty Theater in Los Alamitos. He told Sam that he needed his help moving something heavy out of the attic. And being the good friend and neighbor that Sam was, he agreed to help his friend.

As soon as they got into the attic and Sam turned his back to Daniel, that's when Daniel pulled out a gun and shot Sam multiple times in the back, leaving him dead. After killing Sam, Daniel then took Sam's cell phone and wallet. The whole plan after that was to get his bank account and drain it of that $62,000.

Daniel used Sam's cell phone, pretending to be Sam, and started texting Julie to come over. In one message, he wrote, please don't tell anyone. To which Julie replied, I'm not going to say anything. I promise. Pinky promise. As soon as Julie got inside of Sam's apartment, thinking that she was going to go visit Sam, Daniel shot her twice in the back of the head.

He then staged it to look like Sam sexually assaulted her by pulling down her pants and riding across the back of her sweatshirt. Daniel then returned to Liberty Theater the next day where Sam's body was still in the attic. Using an axe and a saw, he beheaded Sam and cut off his left arm and right hand so that his body couldn't be easily identified.

After dismembering the body, he took the different body parts and spread them at El Dorado Nature Center in Long Beach. Around the same time Sam's dad drove to his Costa Mesa apartment looking for his son, Daniel took the stage at the Hunger Artist Theater in Fullerton. Only a few hours after spreading Sam's body parts across the park, he sang the lead role in Nine alongside his fiancée, Rachel Buffett.

The following day, Daniel reached out to 17-year-old Wesley from his theater group and came up with a lie about working for a bail bond agent. Of course, part of Daniel's sadistic plan is to drain Sam's bank accounts for over $60,000. But this part of the plan blew up in his face. After Daniel's full confession, Julie was cremated wearing the tiara her brother gave her the night she was murdered.

Sam Hare's parents, Steve and Raquel, buried what was left of their son at Riverside National Cemetery. It took the police over two full days to find most of the body parts. Finally, on May 29th, what would have been Sam's 27th birthday, the police finally found his head. Sam was given a hero's burial with full military honors.

Daniel Wozniak was immediately charged with two counts of first-degree murder. But it took more than five years and over 130 court hearings before he finally went to trial. At the trial, the prosecution had everything they needed to secure a conviction. Orange County District Attorney Matt Murphy played Daniel's entire taped police confession for the jury.

The jury heard about the backpack filled with evidence, the backpack that Daniel gave to his brother Tim to get rid of after the murders. The backpack was found right outside his parents' house, and inside of it was Sam's clothes, phone, and wallet.

Prosecutors also presented digital forensic evidence. First, the jury heard about Daniel conducted Google searches for how to hide a body and quick ways to kill people. Then finally, were the tools used to dismember Sam Hare's body? The police recovered the axe and the saw. In September 2016, Daniel was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

but it seems highly unlikely that Daniel will ever be executed. That's because California Governor Gavin Newsom has issued a moratorium on the death penalty, meaning the more than 700 prisoners on death row here in California, including Daniel Wozniak, are not facing execution at this time. Daniel's brother, Tim Wozniak, was also arrested for his involvement in the murders.

As part of a plea deal with prosecutors, Tim testified against Daniel at his trial. Instead of receiving prison time, he was ordered to serve three years on formal probation and participate and complete a drug treatment program. Daniel's former fiance and girlfriend, Rachel Buffett, was also charged.

Although she denied knowing anything about the murders, the police believed that she was lying to protect him. In November 2018, a jury found Rachel guilty of being an accessory after the fact for lying to investigators. She was sentenced to 32 months in jail. After serving her sentence, she was released from jail in 2019.

Daniel Wozniak thought he had created the perfect plan to scam his way into getting a desperately needed $60,000. But his perfect plan was too good to be true. So while he celebrated one of the highest moments of his life, the forensic evidence led investigators to his lowest. A self-interested, premeditated killer caught by stone-cold forensic science.

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