Daydreamers
24:55 Share

Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. In our lives, all of us have to make really difficult decisions from time to time. Sometimes we make the right call and other times we don't. Today's story is about someone who did the latter. But really, the story is about what this person did to try to fix that bad decision.

Simply put, this story takes a totally unexpected turn, and unless you heard it before, there's really no way you're going to see it coming.

But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please move all of the strike plates in the follow buttons door frames slightly lower so anytime they try to close their door, the door won't latch. Okay, let's get into today's story.

Step into a world where stories come alive. On Audible, there's more to imagine when you listen. Immerse yourself in captivating audiobooks, including master storyteller Stephen King's latest short story collection, You Like It Darker. Let King's chilling tales transport you to realms both haunting and thrilling. With Audible,

With Audible, you're not just hearing words, you're experiencing them. From thrilling mysteries to heartwarming romances, there's a story waiting for everyone. As an Audible member, you choose one title a month to keep from their entire catalog, and new members can try Audible free for 30 days. Visit audible.com slash wonderypod or text wonderypod to 500-500. That's audible.com slash wonderypod or text wonderypod to 500-500.

What time is it?

It's harvest time. Join Sarah Jessica Parker in the ultimate challenge of Solitaire Grand Harvest. Experience the thrill of strategic play as you navigate through exciting levels and reap the rewards of your skills. Are you prepared to crack the cards and harvest your way to victory? Okay, now let's crack the cards. Enjoy a head start with 10,000 free coins. Download Solitaire Grand Harvest now and harvest the rewards. It's free, available for download on Google Play and the App Store.

On a cold day in January of 2017, a 26-year-old man named William Hargrove paced anxiously back and forth inside of his tiny bedroom.

Will was nervous because he was about to take the biggest chance of his life. He was about to ask a woman, who he had only known for a few weeks, if she would marry him. Will looked around his bedroom and he saw there was dirty clothes coming out of his hamper and there was fast food trash all over the ground. And so he knew this was not the ideal location to ask someone to marry him, but he also knew he was running out of time.

The woman he wanted to propose to, who was sitting right behind him on his bed, was about to head back to Russia where she lived in just a few hours. And so Will finally stopped pacing. He turned to face this woman on the bed who was just sitting there silently and Will was about to say something, but then he chickened out and just kept on pacing.

To that point, Will's life had been pretty boring and lonely. He worked a low-paying job as a mechanic, and he lived in this bedroom. This was his apartment, this one room, which was being rented to him by a married couple who owned the house it was in. And this house was in a small city in the US state of Oregon. Will didn't really have any friends, and he didn't really have any meaningful hobbies. All he really had was his intense love of science fiction and fantasy.

He would lose himself for hours watching movies about outer space and strange distant alien planets and magic. And then often after he would watch these movies, he would walk into the forest near his house and he would just kind of wander around daydreaming about these movies and he would pretend he was the hero from these movies. And suddenly in his mind, Will would become a sorcerer with great powers or a brilliant scientist who went back in time to save the world.

But as much as Will loved daydreaming and fantasizing, what he really wanted was a wife and kids. And so recently he had joined an international dating website and it was through that website that he connected with 26-year-old Anna Repkina from Russia, who was the woman sitting on the bed behind him.

And now, if Will could just muster the courage to pop the question to her, he was confident she would say yes and he could finally start his real life with Anna.

Anna, who had blonde hair and striking blue eyes, was a bit of a dreamer like Will. For example, she fundamentally believed that there was a soulmate somewhere in the world for everyone. However, to that point in her life, she had not found her soulmate. Instead, she had been through one bad breakup after another.

But a few weeks earlier, when a short, stocky, bald guy with a bushy goatee, Will, had reached out to her on an international dating website and invited her to America to visit him, she believed it was fate that they were being brought together, and so Will had to be her soulmate.

Will finally stopped pacing and turned again to face Anna, who was now reading a book on the edge of the bed. And Will, who was terrified at this point, took a deep breath and then reached into his pocket and pulled out a jewelry box. Inside of it was a beautiful emerald ring that was situated on a white gold band. And so Will took a step towards Anna, he dropped down to a knee, and he held out the jewelry box and he opened it up.

At first, Anna didn't know what Will was doing and was kind of confused. But when she saw the ring and saw him on his knee, she knew what was happening and she began trembling with excitement. And then Will, he pulled the ring out of its holder and he slipped it onto Anna's finger and he asked her if she would marry him. And Anna, she began crying tears of joy and shouted, "Yes!"

Later that day, Anna would fly back home to Russia, but as soon as she landed, she began getting her affairs in order to go right back to Oregon to live with Will permanently. And two months later, in March of 2017, Anna was touching back down at the Oregon airport, and then right near the baggage claim, she had her big reunion with Will.

That evening, when Anna and Will drove from the airport to Will's place, they parked the car, they got out, they grabbed Anna's luggage, they went up the front steps, and when Will unlocked the front door to go inside of the house to make their way up to his bedroom apartment, as soon as the door swung open, there was a woman standing in the doorway with her arms crossed, staring out at both of them.

This woman was 34-year-old Michelle Chavez, and she and her husband were the married couple who rented the bedroom apartment to Will.

Michelle had dark hair and piercing eyes, and even when she was being pleasant, she could be very intimidating. And right now, it was obvious she was not trying to be pleasant. And so Anna, who sensed something was wrong here, kind of awkwardly said hi to Michelle. But Michelle, she just glared at Anna and said nothing, and then looked from Anna to Will and said, Will, I need to talk to you. And then before Will could say anything, Michelle grabbed his arm and began dragging him through the house to the back.

And as Will is kind of stumbling along after Michelle, he tried to be calm and told Anna, just go ahead and take your stuff up to the room. I'll be up there in a minute. And so Anna, she's very confused about what's happening here. She does not understand this dynamic at all. But she began taking her suitcases and marching over to the side of the house where Will's bedroom was. And as she did this, she could hear on the other side of the house, Michelle really yelling at Will. But Anna couldn't make out what Michelle was actually saying.

And so at some point when Anna was now inside of Will's bedroom, just kind of waiting, Will finally did come into the bedroom with his head hung down low. And Anna could just tell that, you know, obviously he's just been yelled at. He looks defeated. And so Anna's trying to make eye contact with him. And finally, you know, Will looks up at Anna and Anna says, you know, hey, what's going on? Why was she so upset? What's happening here?

And in a quiet, trembling voice, Will would tell Anna that Michelle and her husband had just told him that they can't live here anymore. They have to move out. Anna couldn't believe this. She had just flown across the world to be here with Will, and now they don't have a place to live? But she could tell, obviously, Will is really upset about this too. And so instead of just being mad at him, she said, you know, what's going on? Why is she kicking us out?

And at first, Will kind of acted like he didn't really know, but then eventually when Anna kept asking for more information, he would tell her that Michelle sort of had a crush on him, and when she saw Anna moving in with Will, she became really jealous and told them to leave. When Anna brought up the fact that Michelle was married, Will said, "I know, she's married, the crush hasn't gone anywhere, but she still feels really jealous."

Anna was obviously really upset about this situation, but after Will had explained what's going on with Michelle, you know, Anna wasn't mad at Michelle. She actually felt kind of bad for her. It was sort of pathetic that this married woman was acting the way she was. And so Anna actually figured that really, this is probably for the best, that we should get away from Michelle.

And within a few days, Anna and Will had moved out of Michelle's place and found a place of their own in a neighboring town. And as soon as they were settled inside of there, it was like relief washed over both of them. And they both became really excited to plan their wedding and think about their future together.

A few weeks later, on March 25th, 2017, Anna woke up early and put on her beautiful, simple white wedding dress that she brought from Russia, and then she and Will piled into his car and they headed to the beach. The couple had decided to go with a very simple, intimate outdoor wedding ceremony led by an officiant. An officiant is someone who can legally conduct a wedding.

When the couple arrived at the beach, Anna hopped out and immediately began walking over the sand towards the water and Will stayed back to call the officiant because he didn't see him anywhere. And so when Anna reached the water, she took in the beautiful sights and sounds of the beach, she felt the sun on her face and she listened to the sound of the waves crashing and it was like suddenly she realized how lucky she was. I mean, this wedding day was turning out to be perfect when over the past couple of weeks, she wasn't sure if it was even going to happen.

Even though Anna and Will had left Michelle's house and had no contact with her, over the past couple of weeks, Michelle had become a sort of thorn in their side, sending Anna all these really threatening messages, things like demanding that Anna share Will with her or else she'll do something awful. And so Anna is thinking that Michelle is going to find a way to sabotage their wedding, but here they were on the beach about to get married with no Michelle in sight.

And so at some point, Anna looked along the beach and saw a little bit farther along were the two friends that she and Will had invited to be a part of their wedding. And so Anna ran over to them and she hugged them and began chatting with them. And as she's chatting, she looks up and she sees Will coming down onto the beach and he's on his cell phone. And Anna can't tell what he's saying. He's too far away, but it's obvious there's something wrong. And

And by the time Will actually got up to the group, he had hung up his phone, but it was very obvious he was really upset. And as soon as he reached the group, he would announce to Anna and their friends that the officiant was not going to be able to make it. And so unfortunately, the wedding was off, at least for now.

Now, Anna was totally crushed by this, but she could tell Will also was totally crushed by this. And so instead of crying and making Will feel worse, Anna put on a brave face and told Will, "Don't worry about it. We will find another officiant. We'll reschedule this. It will be fine." And so Anna and Will's friends, they said bye and they headed their way. And Anna and Will had a very somber walk along the beach back to their car.

But on the drive from the beach back to their apartment, they would stop at a fast food restaurant, McDonald's, and they would get some food. And by the time they had made it back to their apartment, they were laughing about how ridiculous it was that they were eating fast food in their wedding clothes.

Hey, podcast listeners, have you heard you can listen to your favorite gripping investigations ad-free? Good news! With Amazon Music, you have access to the largest catalog of ad-free top podcasts included with your Prime membership. To start listening, download the Amazon Music app for free or go to amazon.com slash ad-free true crime. That's amazon.com slash ad-free true crime to catch up on the latest episodes without the ads.

Worried about letting someone else pick out the perfect avocado for your perfect impress-them-on-the-third-date guacamole? Well, good thing Instacart shoppers are as picky as you are. They find ripe avocados like it's their guac on the line. They are milk expiration date detectives. They bag eggs like the 12 precious pieces of cargo they are. So let Instacart shoppers overthink your groceries so that you can overthink...

A couple weeks later, Anna was still in the process of rescheduling their wedding, and she was starting to feel very frustrated with Will.

Over the last week or so, Will, instead of helping her with the wedding, was spending much of his time outside of the apartment pacing around chain-smoking while talking to someone on the phone. Now, Anna didn't know who he was talking to, but based on how stressed out he seemed, Anna assumed he had to be talking to either Michelle or talking to someone else about Michelle. Regardless, Anna knew this had to, in some way, be connected to Michelle.

However, whenever Anna would approach Will and ask him why he was so stressed and whether or not he was still in contact with Michelle, Will would try to change the subject or he would just clam up and not talk at all. But finally, on April 16th, so three weeks after the couple's first failed wedding attempt, Will would approach Anna and ask her very sheepishly if she would come with him on a walk through the woods because he had something important he wanted to tell her.

Now, Anna knew that Will loved walking in these woods. He still went off and daydreamed after his movies. And so she knew that if he's asking her to go out there to talk, that this was going to be a very serious conversation, most likely about Michelle and whatever's going on.

And so the couple piled into Will's car and they drove to the parking lot right near the woods. They got out, they hopped on a path and they began walking into the trees. And for a while, they didn't really talk to each other. They just walked quietly side by side through the woods.

But at some point, Will began to slow down and then finally came to a full stop, at which point Anna stopped too and she turned to face him and when she did, Will paused for a moment and then with a shaky voice told Anna that he felt like they rushed into their relationship and he wanted to call off the engagement.

Anna was so caught off guard and heartbroken by what she was hearing that she couldn't say anything. She just stood there in stunned silence and then finally just turned around and stormed off away from Will, deeper into the woods, until she was out of Will's sight. The next day, when Will woke up, the first thing he did was pick up his phone and text Anna. But Anna didn't write back.

And so as Will is laying in bed, he couldn't help but feel this overwhelming sense of regret about the decision he had made the day before. He wanted Anna back.

So, over the course of the next several hours, Will would send Anna a series of increasingly more desperate sounding text messages pleading with her to just talk to him, please. But she didn't respond to any of his messages. And so Will decided that the only way he could get Anna back would be if he did something big.

So he hopped out of his bed, he grabbed his cigarettes, he went outside, and he began pacing and chain-smoking, trying to come up with whatever big idea was going to get Anna back. And at some point, an idea came to him. He would do what he had seen heroes do in several of his favorite science fiction and fantasy movies. He would use time travel to go back in time and get Anna back.

Feeling totally energized by this idea, Will ran back inside his apartment, he grabbed another pack of cigarettes, a six pack of soda, and then he sat down at his computer and he scoured the internet for any information about how to build a time traveling machine.

And for the next 24 to 48 hours, Will stayed at his computer chain-smoking and drinking sodas, drawing all these sketches of different time machine designs that he found on the internet. But at some point after 24 to 48 hours, Will realized that no matter how good these sketches were, he lacked one, the resources,

and two, the knowledge and expertise of how to take this sketch and actually make it into a real physical time machine. And so feeling totally frustrated, Will took a sketchbook and threw it and then lay down on his bed, feeling somewhat defeated.

But as he laid there thinking about Anna, he had another epiphany. In other science fiction and fantasy movies, sometimes the heroes didn't need to use time machines to go back in time. They would use magic. And so suddenly Will decided, oh my goodness, I need to find the right magical spell that will allow me to travel back in time and get Anna.

And so once again, he ran back to his computer, continued chain smoking and drinking sodas while scouring the internet looking for the right magical spell that would take him back in time. And several times he communicated with strangers on the internet telling them that he would sell his soul to them if they could give him the right spell. And then anytime he thought he found the right spell, he would close his eyes and chant the words out loud and then open his eyes only to realize he was stuck in the present.

And so finally, after basically staying awake for 72 hours on this quest to go back in time to get Anna back, Will realized that it was not going to work, and so he gave up.

The next morning, on April 19th, so this is three days after he broke up with Anna in the woods, Will heard a knock on his front door. And when he opened the door, there were two police officers standing there. And when Will asked them, you know, what's going on, they told him that they actually needed his help and would he mind coming to the station to talk to them.

And so Will, he was still totally exhausted from not having slept over the last three days, but he of course agreed to go. And when he got to the police station, he was led into a small interview room and he sat down behind this metal desk in front of the other two officers and he asked them, you know, what can I do for you? And one of the officers eventually asked Will if he had recently eaten at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. That's a fast food restaurant also known as KFC.

Will was puzzled and almost wanted to laugh because he couldn't understand how this was important. But when he saw that these two officers were not making light of this at all, they were very serious, Will said, "Yeah, a few days ago I did eat at a KFC. Why does that matter?" To understand why it mattered, we need to understand the relationship between Will and Michelle.

It would turn out Michelle did not just have a crush on Will. Michelle and Will had been having an intense affair right in Michelle's house with her husband since 2015, so a full year before Will met Anna.

Now, Will had wanted Michelle to leave her husband and be with him, and Michelle had told Will that she wanted the same thing, but she couldn't do it right now. And so to show Will that she was serious, that one day she would be with him, she gave him her wedding ring, which was an emerald stone sitting on a white gold band. It was like a promise ring, that this is my token to you to show you that one day we will be together in public.

But as time went on, Michelle didn't really show any signs of trying to leave her husband. And so Will started to wonder if he was just kind of letting his life slip by. Because remember, Will really wanted a wife and kids. And it was starting to look like Michelle was not going to give him either of those things. And so that was why Will went on that dating site and contacted Anna. And then when he learned that Anna wanted a family too, he had asked her to marry him.

The ring that Will gave Anna when he proposed to her was the same ring that Michelle had given Will. Her wedding ring, the promise ring. And so when Michelle saw that ring on Anna's finger on a Facebook post that Anna made about having been proposed to by Will, Michelle was enraged.

And then just a few weeks later, when Anna showed up at Michelle's house to move into Will's bedroom with him, she grabbed Will, dragged him to the side of the house and said, you need to choose right now between me and Anna.

And because Will couldn't come up with an answer, Michelle kicked him and Anna out of the house. However, over the following weeks, despite Michelle having booted them from her property, she could not let go of her jealousy of Anna and her love for Will.

And so she sent Anna all these threatening messages on Facebook demanding that she share Will with her or else. And she began incessantly calling and texting Will demanding that he choose her over Anna. And so when Anna saw Will walking around outside chain smoking cigarettes on the phone, Anna was right in suspecting that that was Michelle that he was talking to.

But despite all this pressure, Will just could not make up his mind. He didn't know which woman he wanted to be with more. And so to buy himself some time, he had lied to Anna about hiring an officiant for their wedding on the beach. And then when they arrived on the beach and Will said the officiant had canceled, it was all a ruse. There was never any officiant. He was just trying to buy time for himself.

But finally, on April 16th, for whatever reason, Will had decided that he knew which woman he wanted to go with. He wanted to go with Michelle. So he brought Anna out into the woods and he told her the news that he was breaking off the engagement and effectively their relationship was over, at which point Anna turned and stormed off into the woods. And so Will, he watched her disappear and then he turned around and walked back along the path back toward his car.

And when he got there, he opened his trunk and got something out of it. And then he walked back along the trail into the woods where he had seen Anna last. And when he reached that spot, he kind of walked off in the direction that Anna had wandered. And eventually he spotted Anna. She was standing in a clearing, looking up into the sky, seemingly lost in thought.

And so Will quietly walked up right behind her, and then he raised the shotgun he had gotten out of his trunk, he placed the barrel against the back of Anna's skull, and before she could even react, say something, turn around, do anything, he pulled the trigger.

Afterward, he ran back down the trail to his car and he gathered up all of Anna's things that happened to be inside of the car, along with some trash on the floor of the car. And then he brought all of that stuff back into the woods and kind of dumped it both on and around Anna's body.

The next day, a walker and their dog happened to come across Anna's body, and when the police were called out to the site, they began sifting through all of the trash that was kind of scattered around Anna's body. And inside of a crumpled up KFC bag, the police would find a receipt for the day of the murder. And that receipt belonged to Will.

The morning after Will killed Anna, he sent those initial text messages to Anna just to cover his tracks. But as he sent them, he actually did feel an enormous sense of regret about the decision he made. He no longer wanted Michelle, he wanted Anna. And it was at that point that he decided he would do what the heroes in some of his favorite movies did. He would go back in time and undo the murder and get his love back. But of course, his efforts would fail.

And in January of 2020, three years after Anna's murder, Will was sentenced to life in prison. As for Michelle, she was never charged with any crime.

Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. If you enjoyed today's story and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studios' podcasts. Not just this one, but also Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Run Fool, and Wartime Stories. To find them, all you have to do is look up Ballin Studios on any podcast platform, and boom, you'll find them all. If you want to watch hundreds more stories just like the one you heard today, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin.

So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya.

Hey, listeners. Big news for true crime lovers. You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership. Listen

Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Ballin's Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts, completely ad-free. No more wading through cliffhangers or dealing with ads, because let's be honest, ads shouldn't be the most nerve-wracking part of true crime. To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free,

or head to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash b-a-l-l-e-n. Dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today.