156. Candra and Julio Torres - The Anniversary from Hell
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Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. I'm the husband. Okay, before we get into Garrett's 10 seconds, we actually have some pretty exciting news. We don't really know what it's going to look like yet, but to start doing listener tells or where you guys write in and tell us about true crime, hold on a second.

hometown murders or things that happened to you or kind of the subject will probably change as we go. But basically, listener tell episodes. Right now, the plan is to do it maybe just once a month on Murder With My Husband.

We're going to kind of figure it out. We're going to look at some submissions and see what it looks like and take it from there. So if you are interested, you can submit that to listeners at murderwithmyhusband.com. And we're going to have links kind of all over the place. These will be stories like if your grandma went on a date with Ted Bundy or you have a personal connection to something that has to do with true crime or you discovered a body

body or honestly just anything even if there's a pretty crazy little connection you have that you would like us to read you will write in your story and then we will read it to share with everyone it's not going to replace any of what we're doing currently like I said it's going to be maybe an extra one we add a month just on top of everything just to

change it up a little bit and to get some more content out there. So if you're interested, go ahead and submit that. And we're excited to see what we get. And just a reminder as well, Apple subscriptions and Patreon, there is bonus content, extra episodes, two extra episodes each month, and all the content is ad free. So if you're interested, go check those out. We have links everywhere as well. Okay, I think that puts us right over into your 10 seconds.

I'm currently dressed and ready to head to pick a ball after we record. That's what I'm going to be doing tonight. And Daisy, Daisy, Daisy, Daisy, that little puppy. For a puppy, she's pretty well trained, I feel like. She is doing a really good job. Completely potty trained. Crate trained. Crate trained. She's been doing a really good job.

But we have been training her to get used to the bag that you travel with them in at the airport, on the airplane, underneath the seats. We've been taking her to the car, putting her in it, training her at home, just everywhere, right? And she's been loving it, doing a good job, sleeping in it, knowing what to do in it.

And we thought, all right, let's do it. We had a collab planned with Kendall and Josh from Mile Higher, but that didn't work out. That was the second time we had it planned. The third time is the charm and we will get it down. So we had to cancel it because we went through security. We went through everything and that in itself was, I don't know, she just...

She was doing so good and then something happened. She just got spooked. I think she got spooked. Yeah. She started freaking out and I felt so bad and they just weren't going to let us in the plane. Yeah, she just started. It wasn't even crying. It was like she was so agitated and she was fine in the carrier before we got in. I don't know if she got overstimulated, but we've taken her to the mall in the carrier because we wanted her to be around loud noises. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know if it was security or... Honestly, we've heard from multiple people that it's a hit or miss with puppies. I mean, she's still a puppy. She's three and a half months, four months old. So, I mean, she's still a puppy. It's to be expected. But that's kind of what happened. We were in the airport, long story short. I mean, we probably... We could have went. Maybe you could have just got on the airplane. And I don't know. It was so hard. We just... It was super hard with her and it just made more sense to...

Come back home and make sure she was okay because she was freaking out. So third time's the charm. We will get out. We will get that collab done. We will get that collab done because we're really excited to do it with them. And I think it's something that you guys would all enjoy. But Daisy Mae over here did not like it. She did not want to go to the collab, which is so sad because they have cute dogs and pets and bunnies. But we'll get her and everything will be okay. And you know what? We're just being good dog parents.

And on the good note for Daisy, we left her in the crate last night and we went to a hockey game and she did amazing. She slept. She slept. Played with her toys. With the toys. Came back. Excited to see us. She's a pretty good dog. So if you're done hearing about dogs, then I will stop here and let's hop into today's episode.

Our episode sources are Empty Promises and Other True Cases, Forensic Files, AETV.com, and Newspapers.com. Okay, so for this story, we are going back to the 1970s. This was a decade that was just...

Covered with crime, if you know what I mean. Everything seems like it was just so grungy. A decade of Gary's and Larry's and Tom's in windowless vans, creepy cat callers, grimy times. Gary's, Larry's. And Tom's. Oh my gosh. I don't want to add more interruptions to this story, but you need to tell them what happened to you at CVS. Oh my gosh. Yeah, we'll do it quick. Okay.

So Garrett and I were at CVS the other day and I had Daisy with us. She was just in my arms and she,

Most of the time with Daisy, I just try to keep her. This isn't about Daisy. No, it's not about Daisy. So stay tuned. I just try to keep her entertained. So Garrett was the one kind of grabbing the stuff we needed. He went over to the checkout by himself. I had Daisy near him, but it didn't look like I was with him. And this lady walked up to me and she looked me dead in my eyes and said, cute dog.

And it caught me off guard because normally when people say that Daisy's cute, they're looking at Daisy. But she was just like, she got really close to me and said it right to my face. And so I was like, oh yeah, thank you. And I walked away. Well, then I was going to go outside with Daisy to get some fresh air while Garrett was finishing up checking out. And so I turn around and walk out the doors, but I'm not going to go to the car. I'm just going to stand right outside. And that same lady comes barreling out after me.

But then when I stop, because I wasn't walking to the car, she abruptly stops and now is just like awkwardly standing next to me. And I turn over and look at her and I'm sure my face was like, okay, this is weird. And then I recognize that she was the same lady who had said cute dog. And she flips her head out to someone in the parking lot and does like one short nod and

at someone and then just like looks down and so i turn out to the parking lot i don't see who she's nodding to and i think okay maybe someone's just coming to pick her up so she was saying like yeah i'm done come come get me but then all of this sudden as garrett walks out of the store and looks at me and says are you ready to go she turns around and walks back into this store it was weird and i was like what the heck and then as we're walking out this white windowless van

Just comes driving down the row that we parked in and just drives right past us. And I could be making this up like it could have been nothing. It was weird. But it was also one of those things where like my hair started to stand up. I got goosebumps. Like it was just weird. And she was acting weird when she first came in. Like the whole thing was...

I don't know. The whole thing was freaky. Yeah. Garrett did go back in, though, just to make sure. You bet I would have followed that van anywhere. I couldn't find the van. I couldn't find... Well, she was just shopping. I went back in, and she was just standing there, just staring at, I don't know, some of the items. Like, we drove around a little bit, and I was like, I'm going back in the store. Like, I'm not okay with this. I went back in, and she was just...

standing there just looking at some items so i just i wasn't gonna confront her right because i mean i don't know so we just walked i just walked back out and got back in the car and we left but yeah it was weird i mean if she walked out like looked at peyton looked at the parking lot and then

Not and then walked back inside as soon as I came out and she made eye contact with me. She went right back inside. It's almost like because I was standing away from Garrett with Daisy, just kind of doing my own thing. She didn't know we were together. It was weird. And then when I walked outside, it still didn't look like we were together because I walked out by myself. But then I sat and waited for you. And the second she realized we were together, she like just bolted back inside. Yeah, the whole thing was weird.

So we had to tell that because we were just talking about creepy vans. Windowless vans from Gary's and Larry's and Tom's. Yep. So again, the 70s. This is a grimy time. But for Candra and Julio Torres, all this stuff was kind of outside of their field of vision. They were innocent and young and in love in the 70s. And they had been married for only a year. Candra was 16 and Julio was 21 years.

And yes, I know, Candra was still a minor and Julio was an adult, but it was not a vast age difference, especially during these times. They'd been dating for a while and they were so in love that Candra's family supported the relationship. Only her father wanted it to be proper because he was a religious man and so he encouraged them to get married even though she was only 16, which they did.

And they remained a really happy and close couple all the way a year into their marriage. Just still kind of in that honeymoon state, blissful state, really into each other. So now at this point, it's July 1976. Candra and Julio were approaching their one-year wedding anniversary. And to celebrate it, they planned a weekend camping trip into the rustic wilderness of Oregon, which is where they lived.

Now, originally, they were going to travel to the Oregon coast, but Julio decided instead to take them to the Austin Hot Springs, which was up in the mountains along the Clackamas River. Now, Julio loved fishing, and he wanted to teach his new wife, Candra, how to fish. But also, money was really tight for this young couple, as you would imagine. Neither of them were from a wealthy family, and they were both just making ends meet.

They had a combined total of $60 to spend for this anniversary trip. Sounds like you when we got married. Shots taken. Should I not say that? Just saying.

Okay, yeah, okay, I was a little bit broke. So camping out and sleeping under the stars and cooking food over an open fire, not only would this save them money, but it actually seemed like a pretty romantic and adventurous alternative to a motel room. The night before the trip, they did most of their packing and called a few of their friends to see if they could find someone to watch Rusty. This is their pet dog.

but it was looking like they might just have to take Rusty along with them. That night, they went to bed, and then all night long, Kandra had nightmares, dreadful dreams of something going deeply, horrifyingly wrong in the mountains. In the morning when she woke up, she was feeling like her dreams may have been a premonition.

And this is like such a scary thing, especially after watching Final Destination. Because if you're getting on a plane and you have a dream about a plane crashing, do you really want to go get on the plane? Yeah. I mean, no, but I understand what you're saying. So they brushed this off. And the date, by the way, was Thursday, July 22nd, 1976. And that was the day that they planned to embark on their camping trip.

They were planning on getting back home on Sunday. And while Julio tied up loose ends and got the rest of the packing done, Candra shared her fears with a close friend of hers. And the friend suggested that she take her Bible along with her just to maybe ward off bad luck. The friend assured her the Bible would protect her from anything bad happening. So Candra slipped the Bible into her backpack along with the rest of her essentials.

And it's worth noting that Julio also had an ominous feeling about the trip. He even went so far as to suggest that even though it's their anniversary trip, maybe their friend Mike should join them because...

safety in numbers it was maybe a solution to their worries but when they stopped by mike's house to see if he wanted to come there was no answer when they knocked on the door so they just left a note and on it they wrote sorry you missed the fun then candra and julio getting ready to take off also couldn't find anyone to watch rusty and they couldn't afford to board him at a kennel so they decided to just take him with they loaded up their car stopped for gas and canned food bought

bought fishing licenses and headed toward mount hood national forest it was a late afternoon by this point a beautiful day but while driving up the winding paths into the mountains they end up missing their turn this would be the turn into austin hot springs which was where they were going so they ended up driving miles in the wrong direction toward another destination

And before they realized their mistake, they found themselves on the spookiest road that they'd ever been on. Like something really didn't feel right about this seemingly endless stretch of eerie old road. And that was when they realized they had missed their exit. So they finally turned back around, having lost considerable fuel as well.

By the time they reached Austin Hot Springs, it was getting dark and the gates were closing for the night. But a park ranger allowed them to just park outside the gate and then walk in.

He said they could cook dinner and do some twilight fishing if they liked, but they couldn't camp inside the park that night. They'd have to wait till the gates open the next morning and spots became available. So they went into the park and after cooking their dinner, they gravitated to some other campers who were also parked near their car and settled inside their car with the doors locked for the night. Okay.

But then the dog was restless for most of the night, so they weren't able to actually get in a really good night's sleep. In fact, in the middle of the night, they had to dig out the flashlight and take Rusty down to the river for a drink of water. After this, the dog settled down and they managed to sleep through the few remaining hours they had left.

And when they woke up early in the morning, the rangers let them know that there was now a spot available inside the park. They were taken to the campsite and there, Candra cooked breakfast while Julio fished.

It wasn't great fishing, though. He didn't catch anything, so he packed up the poles and they moved on to the hot springs, which were really busy that day. There were plenty of people around as they swam, and some of them were people they recognized from the car park the night before. So they felt pretty safe despite that uneasy start to their trip.

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And as they continued on with their day, Julio tried multiple spots along the river trying to catch some fish, but he just wasn't having any luck. He hadn't caught a single fish all day. Candra moved on to cooking some food and as the afternoon began approaching evening, they drove farther downstream until they passed a fisherman. They asked the fisherman if the fish were biting and he said he hadn't caught anything at all.

They drove further and saw another fisherman. They asked him too if he'd had any luck that day and he said he'd caught three fish but none of them were keepers. It was growing to be a bit frustrating by this point and Kander asked Julio if maybe they shouldn't just go home. The fuel in the car was getting really low but Julio wanted to try one more spot. I mean he came here to fish. So

So they drove on deeper and deeper into the woods. The sun at this point was setting, the road was getting dimmer, and eventually they pulled over and parked by a boat launch near the North Fork Dam. And as they were getting out of their car, they noticed a red pickup truck with Nebraska plates pulling up and parking next to them. The man inside, who appeared to be in his late 20s, got out of his truck and walked up to the water.

Julio then approached the man and, hoping to get some pointers, began talking to him like he had the other two fishermen, telling him about his rotten luck, that there had been zero fish all day. But the man just sort of stared straight ahead without making eye contact and delivered short replies, almost like he didn't even want to give Julio the time of day. He didn't seem interested in anything that Julio was saying.

But that all changed when the man turned around and saw that Kandra was with them. Suddenly, he lit up. It was like a switch had been flipped.

He told Julio that he knew a place where a truckload of fish had just been dumped into the river. He'd heard about it from some other fishermen, he said. And that was when the now helpful stranger introduced himself. "'I'm Tom,' he said. "'I'm a logger and I work in these woods.' The spot he had in mind was about eight miles up the river, deeper into the woods."

Julio didn't think that they'd have enough gas in the car to make it there and back, but Tom told him not to worry. If their tank hits empty, he could go to town in the morning and bring back some fuel for them. Man, that's like the, it just seems, I mean, I know it's out of context because it just seems like the biggest red flag ever. Right. If anyone ever told me that, I'd be like, you're insane.

Yeah, like I'm not going to go up there and lose gas. Yeah, I don't want to run out of gas. Like, are you crazy? Also, Tom the Logger.

Come on. I mean, unless that's really his name, but there's no way his name's really Tom the Logger. Well, it's not just you, because something about the stranger named Tom made Kandra feel uneasy. Okay. And honestly, it is probably little things about Tom that Kandra noticed that her husband didn't. Like, she was noticing that his eyes kind of spent a lot of time on her. She could feel it, but also...

This wasn't new for her. She was young and attractive and often found herself on the receiving end of unwanted attention from men. So in that respect, Tom wasn't necessarily unusual, but there was something else about him. She just couldn't put her finger on it. So she ignored her intuition and got into the car with Julio and began following the man's truck as he led them to the spot that he described.

After all, Candra thought to herself, she had her husband and dog with her. So she had two pretty loyal defenders to back her up if things went wrong. And Julio was not a puny guy. He was six feet tall and a sturdy 185 pounds, both bigger and taller than the stranger Tom the logger. So she felt comfortable enough. And as they were following behind Tom, the road was getting narrower and seemingly farther from civilization.

The man stopped his truck finally and pulled over. He walked up to the couple and suggested that they ride with him the rest of the way so they don't run out of gas. Kandra almost instinctively rejected this. She didn't want to abandon their car and be at the mercy of this unfamiliar person. Julio asked, okay, where exactly is this fishing spot? And he told them, well, it's just beyond Bagby Hot Springs Road. Now, this is exactly where

where Julio and Candra had inadvertently been heading the previous day when they missed their turn. Interesting. Okay. But remember, they went up that super creepy road. And so this is like, this is the place where they were getting that creeped out vibe the day before. Yeah. But despite this, despite all that foreboding, they decided to continue on and follow Tom to the fishing spot up an old dirt road that was completely canopied by the woods. Yeah.

By the time they parked, the sun had set and it was too dark to fish. So they pitched their tent, set up camp, and started a campfire. Tom went to his truck and came back with something he wanted to show them. It was a dead bird.

So they park, they put their tent up and then logger Tom is like, hold on. I got to go get something out of my truck. I want to show you. And it's a dead bird. Oh my gosh. That's okay. He said that he killed it on his way to the forest, but Kendra was repulsed. She said, we don't believe in killing things for sport. And Tom said, I didn't kill it for sport though. I'm going to eat it.

And honestly, let me just say at this point, I would be looking for an opportunity to flee. Like, this is just not my vibe. I mean, I don't know if it's the fact that he killed a bird. I think it's the way he presented and did all of it. Yeah, like, let me go get something. Yeah, let me go get something. Oh, look at this bird I just killed. That's weird. That's weird. But also, they're already up here. So it's kind of like, oh, are we overreacting?

I don't know. It's just too late. They were already past the point of no return. They'd come this far and they didn't know these woods. After dinner, Tom went back to his truck and returned with a rifle. Let's go for a walk, he told the couple. I know of a spot where we can hunt for deer. Julio told him that hunting deer out of season was illegal, but Tom didn't seem to care. He just laughed. He says, quote, we could eat only the hindquarters. We could be wasteful masters.

And wasteful masters was a stilted phrase. Candra wondered where it came from. Like, that was just odd. And Tom's manner overall was just odd. And Candra recognized and tried to ignore the fact that they were now alone with this man who was armed with a rifle in an isolated part of the woods. They were, at this point, completely at his mercy. But she tried to talk herself out of her feelings of dread.

And meanwhile, Julio followed Tom out into a clearing and the man handed him his binoculars. There were deer just a little ways up ahead. Julio observed them through the binoculars and then Tom raised his rifle, cocked it, and pointed it toward the deer. But he didn't shoot.

But just hearing the sound of the rifle being cocked gave Kandra goosebumps. She wanted to turn back. She wanted to go back to camp, but they were essentially trapped now. They said goodnight to the man and locked themselves in their car and went to sleep. Now, before drifting off, Kandra told her husband that she didn't like Tom. He seemed to enjoy killing for the sake of killing. But Julio reminded her that everyone's different and you just have to understand them on their own terms.

The next morning, the couple was jarred awake when Tom began knocking on the hood of their car just as the sun began to rise. He suggested that dawn was the best time to fish and they should skip breakfast and let him drive them further into the forest to the ideal spot. Oh my gosh, it's so hard because...

hearing it from this perspective, you're just like red flag, red flag, red flag, red flag. But how are they supposed to know? I know it's so much different in person sometimes that I don't know. Well, and also it's the seventies and I'm not saying that's like, and it's just, it was a different time. I think it's just, I think stranger danger is way more prevalent now than it was in the seventies. Um, it's strangey dangey. Strangey dangey. Um,

But yeah. I mean, those that grew up in the 70s, correct me if I'm wrong, but I would dare to say that's pretty obvious. I mean, my dad was born in 1970 and he would have gotten into a truck with a man that he didn't know and drove up to go hunting or fishing. Yeah. He'd still do it. Probably. Just kidding. Shout out, dad. But yeah, so it's just...

And you hear it and you're like, no, no. It's like watching a horror movie and you're like, don't do it. Don't do it. Yeah. So they decided to get into his truck and they drive onward. But as he drove, Tom had trouble finding the spot that he claimed to the couple that he knew. Of course he did. As familiar as he claimed to be with the area, it was like he'd suddenly lost his bearings.

When Tom finally found the area of the river where he had been indicating this huge population of fish was, Tom hung back while Candra and Julio tried their luck. Julio cast his line and waited. But it was the same as it had been since the beginning of the trip. He caught nothing.

As they contemplated returning to camp, Tom suddenly began shooting at birds with his rifle. It was just as Kandra had said, he seemed eager to kill things. And as Tom began petting their dog, Rusty, he offered his opinion that there are only two things wrong with Rusty. He's alive and he's walking. Now, this was another comment from Tom that just said, yes, about their dog.

And this just sent chills up and down. Candace spine as it should. And Julio to seem to sense at this point that Tom was not safe. Like they, uh,

The red flags are blaring at this point and they're like, we are in danger. We need to leave. And they feel stuck, I'm sure. He told Kandra that he didn't want to leave the two of them alone, which Kandra agreed with. And when Kandra unbuttoned a few buttons of her blouse to cool down from the blistering July heat, Julio told her to button them back up. He's like, no, we can't even be doing that at this point.

So there was something definitely predatory about Tom. Okay. And Julio was noticing it too. But trying to deescalate the situation, Tom suggested they go do more hunting. And Julio was like, okay, yeah, we're going to go off and try to hunt some deer, I guess. He then followed Tom and disappeared into the clearing while Candra stayed behind with Rusty and began cooking breakfast. Suddenly though, she heard a single shot ring out.

She turned around in the direction of where she heard the shot, and a few moments later, Tom appeared, but he was alone.

He said, we got ourselves a deer while staring at her. Kandra felt something deeply wrong. Where was Julio? And as she got up and ran toward the clearing from where she heard the shot, another gunshot sounded behind her. And trigger warning here, this is animal cruelty, but she... Oh, no. Here's a Yelp, and you guys know what happens after that. I cannot believe it.

So, Kandra confronts Tom crying and says, you just shot my dog. And Tom begins approaching her while reloading his rifle. And he says, that's right. And I shot your husband too. Yes. So, Kandra is absolutely terrified. She's terrified because now she doesn't know where Julio is. This guy just says he shot him. Oh, my gosh.

He just shot her dog. And she's now all alone deep in the woods, which she doesn't know, with a stranger who had just apparently murdered her husband. And she just saw him kill her dog. So at this point, she's I'm going to die. That's what's running through her mind. It was at this point that Tom walked her towards Julio's body to show her that he really did shoot her husband. So then she had to look at her body.

husband's dead body and then he grabbed her by the hand and started forcing her to walk with him he told her it wouldn't do her any good to run because he could just shoot to kill her from 500 yards away if i leave you here he warned her it won't be alive she begged him not to kill her but he would only react by flashing the same creepy vacant grin that he had been kind of doing the whole morning

You and your husband were dumb to believe that I was a logger who worked up here, he said. I've killed five or six people and I'm wanted for murder in several states. He said, you can see my truck is from Nebraska. My name is Kent, not Tom. And I'm a hitman for the organization. Doesn't declare what organization that is. He's just a freak.

Freaking weirdo. Yeah. But I've killed one man too many and now they're after me. I had to kill your husband because I wanted to take you into the mountains to live with me because I need a companion. He told her she was fit enough to be a mountain woman. She told him she would only be a drag on him. That she was a city girl at heart and...

feeling his sexual interest in her she told him that she was a quote slut who gets it on with everyone which is so devastating because she's trying to turn it off yes that's like it's not true but she's yeah and even if it was true it's like something that would then turn this guy off you know what i mean so it's just all in all bad i can't believe he just shot them

Right. And her dog and her husband are now dead. That is like so much trauma within just two minutes. I don't even know how you handle all of that. Right. And now she has to fight for her life. Yeah. But it doesn't seem to be working. He led her deeper into the woods, dropping items along the way to leave what Kandra believed was a false trail. He made her step only on rocks and nothing like the mud or the dirt, nothing that would leave her footprints. He hiked with his kidnapped victim for about four hours. Yikes.

When they stopped to rest at a river, she entered the water to cool off. And as they'd been hiking for miles, she was burning hot. But she felt Tom staring at her. And when she turned around, he demanded that she walk over to him. She did. And he then ordered her to take her top off. You know where this is going. I don't have to explain it. But she begs him. She says, you murdered my husband. Please don't do this to me. But then he pulls out a knife and he forces her to.

And over the next two days, Tom kept Candra around, moving her from area to area within the woods, as if he hadn't yet decided what he was going to do with her, all the while continuing to assault her again and again. He bragged during this time that he could have killed her husband with a knife or with his bare hands. He says, because I'm trained in hand-to-hand combat.

But a gun, of course, is much less messy and painful, he said, if you know how to use it. He told her he was trying to protect her by not killing Julio in front of her. He said it was decent of me to make sure that I dragged him away before I did it. It's so weird to me that I just can't believe these are the actual thoughts are running through this guy's mind. And that he's just bragging to her about it. It's absolutely cold blooded.

And Kandra had become convinced that she was not going to make it out of these woods alive. By the second day, she began submitting to the man. She stopped resisting. She tried to forget that her husband was dead and that this man was the man who killed him. And every time they would stop to rest, she would read that Bible that she had packed and she would pray.

Tom noticed this and told her that he too used to be religious, but he said, God gave up on me a long time ago. This is when Kendra told him God doesn't give up on anybody. Tom disagreed. He said once again that he killed too many people and that the organization was after him. Okay, let me guess. Your medicine cabinet is crammed with stuff that does not work. You still aren't sleeping, you still hurt, and you're stressed out. That's

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He's the most terrifying serial killer you've never heard of. Haddon Clark has confessed to several murders, but investigators say he could have over 100 victims. At the center of the mayhem, a cellmate of Haddon's that was able to get key evidence into Haddon's murder spree across America.

because hadn't thought he was Jesus Christ. Born Evil, the Serial Killer and the Savior, an ID true crime event. Premieres Monday, September 2nd at 9. Watch on ID or stream on Max. Set your DVR.

Tom talked nonstop. He told her that he admired Hitler. This is not the first time we've seen this being said in one of these stories. And that he hated his family. He talked about his mafia connections. A lot of his stories sounded like bullcrap and his demeanor veered from rough to gentle, swinging back and forth like a pendulum. She kept pulling out her Bible and reading aloud from it. By the third day, Tom was beginning to look and sound sick.

He thought he might have pneumonia and told her he thought he was going to die. Kandra began crying and then Tom started crying too. And this is when something seemed to kind of break in this moment. And finally, he confessed to Kandra that he didn't want to kill her.

He told her that he didn't kill her husband on purpose. It was an accident, he said. But he'd already served time in prison and he was afraid of going back. So that's why he brought her up to where he led her at this hiding spot. I mean, he still killed the dog, so. It's obviously a lie. I know it's a lie. I'm just saying. Even if it was an accident, it's like. Yes. I think he's unwell. I think he's unwell. Obviously, he's unwell. For sure. So as Kandra's like sitting here grasping at straws, trying to figure out the right thing to say, trying to fight for her life.

he agrees to let her go. So she's like bargaining with him.

He agrees to let her go under one condition. And that condition was that she back up his story that the shooting was an accident and tell authorities that she saw the whole thing. It's hilarious that he thought that she would do that. Right. And over the day, as they hiked their way back to the surface of the forest, he repeatedly told her how it happened, how it was an accident, to get the story in her head, how the gun had unexpectedly discharged when he was handing it to Julio. And eventually, Kandra...

started to have a little bit of stockholm syndrome okay imagine what she's gone through the last couple days so she begins to almost convince herself that this happened she's like okay maybe this did happen the more she said it over and over maybe he didn't mean to do maybe he didn't mean to do it maybe this is all just a bad dream she hadn't seen the actual shooting she didn't want to believe this man you

in front of her was bad because then that means that she's at the mercy of him so she accepts this version of events as a survival mechanism and once they were out of the woods they go to the police station together and tom whose full name was thomas leslie brown so his name actually was tom took the lead he did all the talking he told the police he wished to report an accidental shooting

And when the two sat down with the detective who took the report, Tom explained that he'd met this couple, brought them deep into the woods, and he went hunting with Julio. In his statement, he said, quote, Julio and I walked up to the clearing the morning of the 24th. He was looking through my binoculars and he spotted a deer. He handed them to me so I could see and I handed the rifle over to him at the same time.

He said then after he looked at the deer and gave the glasses back to Julio, he was handed the gun and it was while it was being passed that he accidentally grabbed it by the balance with his finger and on the trigger it fired and the bullet hit Julio in the head. So it was an accident. And Tom claimed that Kander had witnessed the whole thing. She ran screaming. He claimed the dog, which had been asleep, then woke up and charged at him trying to attack him. So he shot the dog too. He had no choice.

The detective asked Tom to clarify when exactly this had occurred. And he said it happened on Saturday. Well, it's now Wednesday. Yeah. And so the detective is like,

This was four days ago, and Tom explained that he'd gone into a state of shock for several hours. He didn't know what to do. He'd felt that because he had a rather extensive criminal record, no one would believe him, so he decided to flee. He claimed he then told Kandra that she could do what she wanted, but he was going to retreat.

And then he said she told him that he couldn't just leave her there, that he had to take her back to civilization. He said he then refused, saying there's no way he was going to go back. And so she was free to accompany him into the mountains instead. And because he knew these woods and she didn't, she followed him.

He told detectives he spent the next three days trying to push past his fear and confront the situation. And when Kandra agreed to back him up, he then left the woods with her and proceeded to go to the police station. And here they were. Now, obviously the detective was suspicious of Tom's story and asked Kandra to explain what had happened. And she sitting there in front of Tom backs it up. She says, yeah, it was an accident. Tom didn't mean to do it, but she, she was talking very robotic. And,

And if they had been split into separate rooms immediately, there's a chance that she wouldn't have agreed. Surprised they didn't split immediately. Right. Knowing that it was her husband. I'm surprised they didn't go, let's split them up. Right. Let's figure out what's going on. I'm not blaming anyone. I'm just saying I'm surprised they didn't do that. But either way, she, in a robotic, basically dead eye way, says, yeah. Tom was then given a polygraph test and he passed. Yes.

What?

and he had been covered in ferns as if to conceal him. Now, nearby, they found the remains of Rusty, and they also found the Winchester rifle that was responsible for Julio's death. Tom had discarded it before leaving the woods. Same with the Savage rifle. There were two rifles, and both rifles were confiscated by police for ballistics examination.

The autopsy that was performed on Julio showed that he died from a single rifle blast to the head. The bullet entered through the right cheek and exited on the left side of his neck. So this would mean the bullet's path was almost perfectly horizontal, which seemed unlikely if the gun had accidentally discharged while being passed back and forth.

It was more like it had been aimed at Julio, but they couldn't tell for sure. Nonetheless, he had passed his polygraph and the police here were supportive of Mr. Tom and believed his account.

Meanwhile, as she rested at home with her parents, Kandra kept having flashes of the trauma on the mountain. Something inside her brain was alerting her, telling her that the story that she was telling, which she had absolutely absorbed into her memory at this point, wasn't what happened. So she starts having memories.

PTSD flashbacks of like, I buried this, I'm burying this thing. And it's like trying so hard to fight out of her brain. It seems she had memories of everything leading up to meeting Tom. But then the three days that followed the shooting were a total blur. She remembered being scared of Tom when they first met him and kind of liking him by the end of the ordeal. But then she thought about the gunshot, the blood and the memory gap began slowly filling in.

And when she returned to the apartment she had shared with Julio in the company of her mother, she broke out crying. It was almost like this barrier broke. She turned to her mom and said, I'm not sure Julio's death was really an accident.

And her mom was horrified, but not exactly shocked because she knew her daughter and the way she was acting and the story just hadn't been sounding right. Obviously, the way Kandra was delivering it, like in a very robotic tone, it seemed programmed. And so a week after she went to the police, Kandra returned to the station with her parents.

And she told the detectives she wanted to tell him what really happened because now she was pretty sure it wasn't an accident. She said, that guy murdered my husband. And she revealed that over the next three days, she was sexually assaulted multiple times, held prisoner. And then that he had convinced her that she'd seen the shooting and it had been an accident and that he'd let her go if she came to town and backed up his account. So she thinks that her brain just like went into survival mode. Yeah.

The detectives, though, were now having trouble with Kandra's story. They couldn't believe that she'd lie for a man who just murdered her husband. She was his prisoner for three days. Why can't? Right. Like anything could happen. And also she's in such a vulnerable state. Like her mind all over the place. Right. Susceptible to anything.

So they give her a polygraph. And while Tom passed his polygraph, Kandra felled, which is not weird because there was still probably a part of her brain that thought it was true. She was trying to figure out what the correct version was. So she was given another polygraph test and she felt that one too. So like we've said many times on our podcast,

Polygraph tests are just bogus. They are. But poor Kendra, who'd been through so much already, failed these tests. And the police thought she was lying and they refused to reopen the case. And they returned Tom's rifles to him. No freaking way. Yep. But then a psychiatrist named Dr. J.H. Trelevan of the Oregon State Hospital sat down with Kendra to go through what she said had happened.

And he walked away from his interactions with her with the conclusion that she had in fact been brainwashed. It's Stockholm syndrome, they call it. That's when kidnapped victims and hostages, either as a survival mechanism or because they've been manipulated, or sometimes a combination of both, begin to sympathize with their captors and believe everything that they're told.

This was named after the 1973 Stockholm Sweden bank robbery, which we've covered on this podcast. The doctor believed all the hallmarks of Stockholm syndrome brainwashing were evident in Kandra. Psychic shock, witnessing Tom Brown kill her dog and being told that he'd killed her husband, then seeing her husband's body, isolation, programming, Tom repeating the story of how the accident happened, torture, and

and the promise of a reward, which was escaping the woods with her life. Dr. Treleven shared his thoughts with the detectives and convinced them just to take another look at the case. He's like, listen, I know it's closed, but as a doctor, I'm pretty sure she's telling the truth.

And also, you know, they knew of Tom's criminal record and that Tom had prior arrests for kidnapping dating back to when he was a teenager. Which makes it even more obvious. Right. It turns out the truck and the rifles that he had that day were stolen and physical evidence would tell whether the dog had been shot in front like Tom had claimed or from behind like Kander claimed.

but the dog was never autopsied and had already been buried. Another finding from Julio's autopsy they revisited was the lack of gunpowder residue around the entrance wound, not on his head, in his hair, or in his shirt, and it would have been if it really had gone off from just a pass. So they did a series of test fires on the same Winchester rifle from varying distances, and they concluded that the rifle couldn't have been closer than 36 inches away from Julio when he was shot.

which proved that his story was a fabrication and Kandra had been telling the truth. Julio's death was in fact a murder and not an accident. The case was then brought before a grand jury and it was decided that Tom Brown would be tried for murder. So he was arrested and charged. And while he was in jail, he actually confessed everything to his cellmate. He boasted that he was going to beat the rap. And once he was out, he would go after both Kandra and the two prosecutors. He was going to kill them both.

And even if he did get convicted, he would only do a few years, he told the cellmate. And once he was out, he would then go kill Candra. Either way, that cellmate decides to testify against him. I feel like that happens all the time. It seems so weird to me that...

You have two cons inside a jail and you're telling the other con your story of how you killed someone. You don't think he's going to snitch on you? Don't trust a sneaky sneaky. Of course he's going to snitch on you. Exactly. Two days before the trial, Tom Brown posted Bond. And meanwhile, Kandra was put up in a motel room under a false name for her own protection.

Brown was so cocky and confident that he waived a jury trial, and so the trial was presented just before one judge. Kander had a hard time testifying on the stand and reliving the incident, no doubt. So instead of testifying, she wrote an 18-page statement detailing the entire ordeal. Tom Brown took the stand and gave a new account of how the gun went off, trying to conform the story to the forensic evidence.

but the judge didn't buy it. The judge found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison. Good, good, good. Kandra Torres eventually remarried and had children and lives in a different state under a new name, so we will also be protecting her identity. Poor Kandra. Good for her for figuring out how to deal with all the trauma and continue with life. Right, and again, with these survivor stories, it's the hardest part.

It's like you would think that surviving would be the tough part, but any survivor tells you it's the aftermath that is so hard. Oh, that's so crazy. Julio's dead. It's so traumatic. That's so sad. That is horrible. It's so traumatic. Gosh, dang it.

And Rusty. I know. That's so sad. I felt bad at the beginning. I was talking about Tom the Logger and I was right. Yeah. But then he said his name was fake, but then it actually was Tom. So we can kind of just take a moment here to think about Kandra because she is a real victim. This is a real story. And, you know, like it's someone's real life. And I also think

I don't ever want to discredit the fact that she played a big role in getting out of this alive. She went through what she had to go through. She did what she had to do to stay alive. And it's more than any of us would ever understand. All right, you guys, that was our episode for today. And we will see you next time with another one. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.