61. Paul Ezra Rhoades – The Grocery Store Killer
40:51 Share

- All right, probably not expecting me to start this ad, but I'm gonna start this ad. The Skims ad. And let me tell you about something that Peyton's been wearing. The Skims Soft Loungewear is amazing. It feels great.

- Payne wears it, she looks great, she feels great. - Okay, it has completely transformed my lounge wear game. I love everything I own from Skims, you guys know this, so does my husband. Especially my new pieces from the Soft Lounge Collection. And I kid you not, you guys, it is soft. It is the softest fabric.

It makes me feel both confident and comfortable. And it's not just loungewear. It's actually the first thing I reach for no matter what my plans are for the day. And my favorite piece is the soft lounge tank paired with the fold over pant. You guys, I have tried every ribbed tank on the market. Nothing beats this one. And it looks so adorable.

with the pants set. It is like just the most comfortable go-to outfit and the soft lounge sleep set. I have two of them and it is like sleeping on a cloud. It feels good. You feel put together at the end of the night. You guys, it is lightweight, comfortable, and stylish. I live in it. Also, if you're thinking about getting it for your significant other, just do it. They'll love it.

Shop the Skims Soft Lounge Collection at Skims.com. Now available in sizes extra, extra small to 4X. And if you haven't yet, guys, be sure to let them know that we sent you. So when you go to checkout, please don't skip this step. After you place your order, select Murder With My Husband in the survey and select our show. The drop-down menu that follows, it's a great way to support the show. It lets them know we sent you. Again, you guys, go get Skims.

soft lounge from Skims. The entire collection is so good. And then let them know Murder With My Husband sent you. Okay, we love you. Bye. You guys, most weight loss plans are one size fits all. They don't take into account each person's individual needs, but Noom builds personal plans that can meet your individual needs. Noom takes into account dietary restrictions, medical issues, and other personal needs to build a plan that works for you and is built for your psychology and your biology,

meeting you where you are. And you guys, I actually have been using Noom Weight and it truly feels personalized to meet my lifestyle. What I love most is that Noom doesn't restrict what you can eat and it actually doesn't shame you when you choose to treat yourself. Noom's personalized program has felt more sustainable than other more restrictive weight loss programs.

Noom Weight uses psychology and biology, and that's why they say losing weight starts with your brain. The program helps you understand the science behind your eating choices and why you have cravings and actually helps you build new habits for a healthier lifestyle. So stay focused on what's important to you with Noom's psychology and biology-based approach.

Sign up for your trial today at Noom.com. Today, Noom has helped more than 5.2 million people lose weight. Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. Thank you for listening. If you are on YouTube, please give us a thumbs up and subscribe and turn on notifications so you guys can be notified every single time we upload a new video. And also, we love the comments on there. We try to reply as much as we can, so keep commenting.

And if you are listening on podcast, hi. If you want to leave us a review, if possible, also subscribe. It helps us out so much. And if you are a new listener, hi, hello, welcome. We love having you. We do have a Patreon exclusive episode coming out. It should be out actually by the time you're hearing this.

And it's for our $10 and $20 tiers. So if you want to check that out, the link will be in the description of wherever you're listening or watching. And also you can just Google Murder With My Husband Patreon and check our Patreon out. Thank you so much for supporting the show. We love you guys. We love our patrons. Okay, Garrett, do you have your 10 seconds for this episode? I don't really know if I have any 10 seconds. My grass is not any greener.

And I haven't used the barbecue in a week, so... Because it's been so windy here. It's been so windy. Okay. Well, we had our anniversary. We did have our anniversary. That is an important 10 seconds. Oh, and I did get a lot of messages about this actually on Instagram because we posted and we stayed in a very old hotel in the city. And I got so many messages like, oh my gosh, you're staying in a hotel? Yes, that's right.

Literally the first thing I did when Garrett told me we were staying at the hotel was Google any type of crime that has happened there, any type of death, what room, what floor. And there were quite a bit. And so I felt a little spooky there. But yes, I did stay there and it was great. That's so true. The first hour we were there, Peyton was on the couch going, oh my gosh, this happened in this time. This happened at this time. It's true. This happened at this time. I just had to know. And this is not sponsored. So if this hotel wants to reach out to us and do a sponsor, then I'll say the name. Yeah.

Oh my gosh, that's so funny. I was going to say before we jump into it, at the beginning when I say and I'm the husband, I always wonder if people think that we like put the same intro on every single episode because I feel like it sounds the same every single time. No, yeah, we just say it every single time. And honestly, I went back and listened because I was like, when did we start doing this? Because we didn't plan this. This wasn't like a thing that we wrote out and planned. We just said it once.

And I think it wasn't until like the third, fourth, maybe even fifth episode that we started doing the intro sort of like this the first time. It wasn't, I don't think you said, and I'm the husband. Like we kind of just said, and then it just got bigger and bigger as we went. And now we just, I don't even know when we just started saying it every time. Is it on our first episode? No. Our first episode, we just jump in and we're like, hi.

What's up? It's so awkward. If you're ever referring our podcast to someone, tell them to skip the first couple and then go back and listen because they might not want to listen after they hear those first ones. Kind of true. Okay, so our case this week was actually suggested multiple times and you'll understand why once we get into it. But like any case, this case actually rocked the small town that it happened in.

And it actually happened in East Idaho. So this is a hometown murder for me. It's a case that happened in my town. And it was suggested multiple times because shout out to my dad. A lot of his friends listen to our podcast and they all were alive during the time that this happened.

And so they all have suggested it to me multiple, multiple times. And then anytime I call my dad and he's with them, they're like, hey, are you going to do that case? So guys, this one is for you, you old farts. We are doing the case of Paul Ezra Rhodes. Okay, let's do it. Our case sources are fdsidaho.org, odp.idaho.gov,

An episode of Ice Cold Killers called Blizzard of Bullets and Clarkprosecutor.org as well as Murderpedia, obviously. Our case starts in Blackfoot, Idaho, which you know where that is. We've been there. You do know where that is. This is where 21-year-old newlywed Stacy Larson was working the night shift at a local convenience store. Stacy is described as a tough girl who knew who she was. She was kind and confident. She stood up for those around her.

February 28th, 1987, just after midnight, some of Stacey's friends decided to rent some movies from the store that Stacey was working at. So this is when you actually like had to go in. Blockbuster. Yeah, there was no Netflix or anything. I love those days. So her little convenience store she worked at had a couple movies to choose from. So they're like, oh, we'll just go random from the store. While walking into the store, Stacey's friends are actually almost hit by a pickup truck that was driving manically

considering the condition of the roads this time of year. Basically, Blackfoot is about 30 minutes away from my hometown of Idaho Falls. And in the winter months that sadly, honestly last from like October to early April, even sometimes May, the weather can be brutal. It's cold. It's snowing all of the time. And the roads are icy. I usually drove like an average of 20 miles per hour basically any time it snowed.

and due to the small town atmosphere, there are not a ton of snow plows to take care of the snow fast enough so it freezes over and it gets icy. So Stacey's friends just assume it's a drunk driver that almost hit them in this parking lot. I mean, it's the middle of the night. When they walk into the convenience store, they see Stacey's purse, her car still in the parking lot, but no Stacey. They don't believe that she would have walked out on a shift. They feel something bad has happened to her. Her friends call the police immediately.

When Blackfoot police arrived just after midnight, they discovered that about $200 was missing from the register. Stacey's friends tell police about a dark green pickup truck who almost hit them in the parking lot and that the person inside had long, dark hair.

Police contact Stacy's husband, and he is shocked about his wife's disappearance. Blackfoot police set up searches around the area, the fields, the land. A local dentist who had volunteered to help was slowly driving around the area kind of early the next morning when he passed two dumpsters on the side of the road.

That's when he noticed the blood-stained snow. And that's all he could see. Also, Blackfoot is not very big. In 1987, it would be even smaller. And so you have to imagine this guy, the dentist, that found this snow. He drove down a long road. There's not much on it. And then he just passes some random dumpsters and sees the snow. When they further investigated the blood-stained snow, they found Stacy's body.

What the heck?

Police noted the truck tire marks around the body and two sets of footprints. So she was dead. She was just found shot dead. Yes. Okay. There were also 38 caliber revolver shell casings around the body, as well as an 18 inch long hair on Stacy's sweater that didn't match her hair. Detectives note that Stacy's watch that she usually wore was missing off of her wrist.

After digesting what they had found, police come up with an early idea of what might have happened. They think that Stacey somehow fought off her attacker in the truck who had kidnapped her from the convenience store she was working at that night. And she opened the passenger door and began running away. Her attacker then chased after her, firing multiple rounds at her, but missing. It wasn't until one hit her in the arm that Stacey fell down in the snow.

Stacy's killer then needed to reload his revolver after missing so many times. So he dumped the old casings out on the ground and then reloaded. So a revolver gun doesn't actually just discharge the casings. You have to actually dump them out. So that's why police were like, it's kind of weird that these casings are here. But then they realized he shot so many times he had to dump and reload. Oh, man. So it was probably the last time.

the last round that hit her. So Stacy, who was still on the ground at this point, while her attacker is reloading maneuvers her way to the dumpsters, police think for protection because it was the only thing out there. So she's trying to like hide, I guess, uh,

But her attacker actually followed her, like walked over to her and shot her from close range two more times with the new bullets. The attacker then gets back in his car and leaves. But Stacy's wounds weren't immediately fatal. She'd only been shot. So she sat in the freezing cold, bleeding out until she passed away. And she sat there for quite a while. It's so messed up. To this day, I still don't get how...

You can just walk up, the shooter killer, and be like, all right, I'm taking off. Police obviously run through early suspects, suspicious and creepy customers from the convenience store that all employees knew about. They're like, oh, check this guy, check this guy. But all immediate suspects are cleared. There's no lead on the green truck, no lead at all in the case until 16 days later. We are now moving to my hometown of Idaho Falls.

On the night of March 16th, 1987, 23-year-old Nolan Haddon is also working at a convenience store, but this time in Idaho Falls. Nolan's brother, Clay, who had never been to Nolan's work, decided to randomly visit him that night. Nolan's mother, Julie, says that Nolan loved working at the store because it gave him some extra spending money. He was on track to graduate as a radiation technician.

Nolan was very active, the youngest of three boys. He was friendly and loved to be outdoors. He had many friends. Clay, his brother, says that he left the store around 1030 p.m. So Clay is like randomly, I'm gonna go see Nolan at work, goes, hangs out with him for a bit and then leaves at 1030 p.m.

And says, Nolan was doing great when he left. You know, he was about to close up. Everything was good. The next day, around 6 a.m., another convenience store clerk shows up for the morning shift at Nolan's work. She was surprised to find the front door to the store unlocked and the telephone was off the hook, dangling from the spiral cord. And I do just want to give a fun fact. My parents actually just moved in.

And the convenience store that is taking place in our story right now is right down the road from my parents' new house. Yes. Well, I didn't know that. It hasn't been to my parents' new house yet, but we'll pass it. You'll know exactly which one I'm talking about and we'll pass it on the way. I don't know if I want to go in it now. I know. So the new clerk is surprised to find the front door open, as I said, and the cash register was opened and the clerk noticed bloody footprints on the floor. So immediately she's on high alert. Okay.

She decides to call her boss who shows up and together they found, they begin searching the store and they found Nolan on the floor in a pool of blood in the store's walk-in refrigerator room. What? So it's kind of where they keep supplies, cold supplies, beer, stuff like that. And he's on the floor in a pile of blood in that room. So most likely it's the same person that did it in Blackfoot now went to Idaho Falls. Yes.

convenience store again late at night. So they are both actually surprised to find a faint pulse on Nolan upon checking him. So it seems as if he was dying from blood loss and hypothermia because he's in the freezer. Yeah. But they're like, oh my gosh, you know, call the ambulance. Like he's alive. So the owner applies pressure on the wound until the ambulance arrives and doctors note that Nolan had been shot multiple times.

So he needed immediate surgery at the hospital. And the hospital is just right down the road from where this convenience store is in Idaho Falls. Okay, let me guess. Your medicine cabinet is crammed with stuff that does not work. You still aren't sleeping, you still hurt, and you're stressed out.

That's how it was for me, so I cleared out my cabinet and reset my health with CBD from CB Distillery. CBD Distillery's targeted formulations are made from the highest quality clean ingredients, no fluff, no fillers, just pure effective CBD solutions designed to help support your health.

In two non-clinical surveys, 81% of customers experienced more calm, 80% said CBD helped with pain after physical activity, and an impressive 90% actually said they slept better with CBD. I have personally used CBD before to help me sleep. I used to have a lot of trouble sleeping and I couldn't figure out what to do to help. And honestly, CBD did help. And if that's something you're struggling with, yeah.

Give it a try. Check it out. If you struggle with a health concern and haven't found relief, make the change like I did to CBD Distillery. And with over 2 million customers and a solid 100% money back guarantee, CBD Distillery is the source to trust. You guys, we have a 20% discount to get you started. So if you've ever wanted to do CBD, now is the time. Visit CBDistillery.com and use code husband for 20% off. That's CBDistillery.com.

.com code husband, cbdistillery.com code husband.

Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the launch online shop stage to the first real life store stage, all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Shopify is there to help you grow. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with the Internet's best converting checkout up to 36% better compared to other leading commerce platforms.

and sell more with less effort thanks to Shopify Magic, your AI-powered all-star. Peyton and I love Shopify. We have been using it for, I mean, I've been using it for six years now, so many years, and it's amazing. It just keeps getting better and better with more updates. It's easy to use. It's user-friendly. Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the US, and Shopify is the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklyn, and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries.

Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash husband, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash husband now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash husband. Hola. ¿Cómo está? Hola, ¿cómo estamos? Want to learn a new language? Well, the best way is to uproot your entire life, move to Spain, and live there for the rest of your...

I made that up. I went off the ad. Let me go back to the ad read. The best way is to uproot your entire life. Drop your... Oh. You literally followed the ad. I didn't read the rest of that. Drop yourself in the middle of a new country and figure it out from there. I just want to let everyone know that's what I did. But... That's what I did. It worked. If you're not ready for that, you can still learn a new language the next best way, and that is with Babbel. See...

Speak like a whole new you with Babbel, the science-backed language learning app that gets you talking. Wasting hundreds of dollars on private tutors is the old school way of learning a new language. Babbel's 10-minute lessons are quick and handcrafted by over 200 language experts, ready to get you talking your new language in three weeks because talking is the key to really knowing any language.

Designed by real people for having real conversation, Babbel gets you talking. You guys, I actually use Babbel to brush up on Spanish when we travel. I love it. It is so easy. And then I can actually kind of keep up with what's going on. And with over 16 million subscriptions sold, Babbel's 14 award-winning language courses are backed by a 20-day money-back guarantee. So there's no pressure. Buy Babbel and travel.

Here's a special limited time deal for our listeners right now. Get up to 60% off your Babbel subscription, but only for our listeners at babbel.com slash husband. Get up to 60% off at babbel.com slash husband spelled B-A-B-B-E-L.com slash husband. Rules and restrictions may apply.

And as this is happening, Idaho Falls Police begin investigating the scene. They lift 149 prints out of the store, which is pretty usual. It's a convenience store. There's a lot of people in and out of there. Whoa, how would you organize all of that? Right, it's going to take time, especially back in the 80s, to decipher all of this.

They photographed the bloody footprints that looked, they say it looked like a boot, as if a boot had made the footprints. And they note that $160 was taken from the register as well as some cigarettes and some lighters.

But there were still $1,900 sitting in an unlocked safe in the convenience store. So I was going to ask about that. It's kind of not making sense to me why he's taking such little amount of money. Yes. Especially if he's killing someone. It's not like he's trying to stay...

undercover by taking right right so you're you caught on to that a lot faster because police also begin to feel like nolan's attack wasn't necessarily about the money why did they leave so much money why didn't they take a lot they recover 538 caliber bullets from the walk-in cooler noting that some of them hadn't hit nolan they also found some burned paper bags and a lighter in the refrigerator as well

It's noted that the last transaction on the store's register was at 1017 p.m. The store was supposed to close at 11 p.m. And that's when police think the attacker showed up, took Nolan into the cooler and shot him five times. One bullet severed his spine, which meant that he couldn't walk or move out of the cooler despite being alive, which is why they found him in the cooler.

Police figure out that the paper bags had most likely been lit on fire by Nolan himself, who was most likely trying to stay warm the whole entire night in the cooler. No way. Until he was found the next morning. That's crazy. He would sit there for almost eight hours bleeding out, having been paralyzed because he was shot in the spine before being discovered the next day by the worker and the manager. Police notify Nolan's family about the attack and,

And then also recognize the similarities between their case and the murder case that happened in Blackfoot just a little over two weeks earlier.

Both convenience store workers, both night shifts, both shot, both with .38 caliber bullets. They sent the bullets to comparisons and they confirmed that they matched. It was the same shooter who had shot Stacy in Blackfoot and now had shot Nolan in Idaho Falls. Despite these similarities, the only thing stumping detectives was that Stacy had, it looked like, been attempted to be sexually assaulted and Nolan had not.

So why would a serial killer cross genders? Why a girl and then a boy question? Did anyone see the truck again by chance? Not in, not in the Idaho falls shooting. Okay. I got it. Police discovered that Nolan had actually switched shifts with a woman who usually worked that night. So,

So police think that the attacker had staked the place out, knew this woman's schedule, showed up that night figuring she would be there, but was surprised to find Nolan. So they do think he was actually trying to target a woman, but ended up targeting Nolan. Okay. Back at the hospital, Nolan was fighting for his life.

But the hypothermia and loss of blood overcame him. Nolan didn't make it. He didn't survive after surgery. Oh, man. Nolan unfairly and unjustly was taken too soon and his family was destroyed.

Nolan's brother is so grateful that he had the random idea to stop in and see Nolan that night before. And he knows that that happened for a reason. He knows that he was like, he felt the feeling to go there for a reason. Do you know if he died more from the gunshots or it being cold? He died from a combination of hypothermia and loss of blood. So both.

Panic begins to spread throughout East Idaho and East Idaho includes both Blackfoot and Idaho Falls. They obviously have maybe a serial killer before these murders. A lot of people believe that nothing like this could ever happen in these small towns of Idaho. They were small.

All sorts of calls being began pouring into police neighbors, throwing other neighbors under the bus. Like, Oh, it was this guy. It was this guy. It was this girl. Yeah. Chaos began in suing sifting through these tips was hard and it made it even worse when a man falsely confessed that he had done these killings and then went back and recanted. Why would someone do that? I don't know. I don't know. So police feel the burden of trying to close this case. Uh,

Local convenience stores in surrounding counties were warned. The killer was still on the loose and this was his M.O., like convenience stores. Police videotape and stake out both Stacey and Nolan's funerals in hopes of finding suspicious behavior, but no one stands out. Police are doing all they can, but they really are no closer to finding the perpetrator. And then, on March 19th, the day of Nolan's funeral, only a few days, it's actually only three days after Nolan was shot,

the police department receives a missing person report from a concerned husband in Idaho Falls 34 year old teacher Susan had stayed home from work that morning but had actually had to head to the school to drop off the lesson plan so she felt sick but she's like I have to go drop off the lesson plan for the substitute and then I'll be home to rest she never came home

When Idaho Falls releases the image of Susan to spread the word and spread awareness, calls come in from witnesses who had seen her at a grocery store by herself that morning.

A search is started for Susan as police feel like it might be related to the other murders happening. I mean, what are the chances that this many crimes can be happening in one small town? And she was at a grocery store. Convenience store, grocery store, gas station. Yeah. As we know, the more time that goes by in an abduction, the less likely they will be found alive. So 24 hours after Susan had been last seen, her van is found abandoned on some random road in Idaho Falls. The only clue to the disappearance is

police collect long brown hairs that weren't Susan's in the van. They find her checkbook in the van and it shows several checks written out totaling around $2,000. It appears as if Susan's abductor had made her drive around town to different banks to pull cash out. So it also seems like, well...

Not seems like, but this guy obviously, or girl, obviously has long brown hair. Yes. I mean, they found it on the second scene. Police find scrape marks, rocks, and grass under the frame of the car and the wheels. So this car is kind of trashed. Deputies are sent out to the west side of Idaho Falls around Highway 20 because they noted that the grass that was stuck in the van looked particular to this specific area in Idaho Falls.

They noticed that an area fence around this place looked as if it had been driven through. And so police begin, you know, they get out, they begin searching the area by foot and they actually come upon some school assignments on the ground that were from Susan's class that she had corrected. Oh, it's so sad. Police are like crap. Our hunch was right. We are close. Susan has been here. Keep in mind, it's cold. It's snowing. The fields are covered in snow.

While scanning the area, an officer sees Susan's body. All hopes of saving her fade as they see the blood in the snow and they discover her dead. That's three people now that he's killed. In like two weeks.

and she had been shot nine times and sexually assaulted. Susan had been abducted from the grocery store parking lot that day around 7 a.m. So people saw her at the grocery store, and then she was abducted from the parking lot. It looks like Susan had also tried to run away from her attacker once they got to the field and was shot in the back.

Once down, the attacker unloaded his revolver, dropping casings once again, and the attacker then continued to fire at an already wounded Susan. I feel like he's so careless. I agree. Which I'm surprised he hasn't been caught yet because he's so careless. I agree. He's just dumping his casings everywhere. He just...

He's picking people out of parking lots, dropping shell casings and broad daylight. That was the morning time, right? Yes. This one was in daylight. So the other two were at night and this one was daylight. And also I didn't see anything that said this, but just a personal hunch. I do think it's weird that the two girls that he or she kidnapped into their truck and took out to a random open area and

both happened to escape from the truck and run away i think he let them out just to chase them i think it was like a game it's like a game that's what i feel because what are the chances that the doors unlock all of a sudden and they're both able to get out and run away yeah i find that weird so a 16.5 inch long brown hair was actually shot through susan's body and lodged into her heart

This means that it was like laying on her skin. And then the bullet went in and clipped the hair and took it into her heart. And it was the same hair from Stacy's case. The same hair from Susan's family. The 38 caliber bullets are matched to the previous cases. It was the same attacker.

So the same attacker attacked Stacy in Blackfoot, attacked Nolan in Idaho Falls, and now attacked Susan in Idaho Falls. And all three victims have passed away. The next part is going to show you just how small Idaho Falls was at this time. The farm hand that was near the field where Susan was shot out in the middle of nowhere was

Had heard the gunshots like he was just sitting there working heard these random gunshots was like, okay, that was kind of weird He cautiously made his way out to the main road just in time to see a red van Driving east on the road as the van passed to the farmhand where he was standing. He realized he knew the driver and

He put up his hand to wave because the person driving Susan's red minivan back into town was the farmhand's own cousin. No way. His cousin's name is Paul Ezra Rhodes.

According to FDSIdaho.org, Paul was born in 1957. He was the oldest of four children, and he also had an older stepbrother. His family had a history of neglect, domestic violence, drug abuse, and mental illness. It's pretty safe to say that Paul's family was not a cohesive family. It was very, very rough. His father didn't help raise him or his siblings, and Paul contracted polio at four years old.

He then went on to have multiple complications for years due to the disease and was unable to participate in any sports or physical activity growing up.

He grew up on 6th Street in Idaho Falls, and he was introduced by his father and grandpa to drugs at the age of 10 years old. Paul dropped out of high school at age 16 and began working for his uncle until he became heavily addicted to meth in the 1980s. Not so fun fact, Idaho ranks 8th in the nation for meth use in 2016. Is it really? Yeah, and approximately one Idahoan dies every week from meth.

These were in 2016 statistics. It's also studied that an inmate with history of methamphetamine use is nine times more likely to have committed murder than an inmate without history of methamphetamine use. So if an inmate like uses meth, he's nine times more likely to have killed someone. Okay. Is that not crazy? That's a crazy statistic. Also, all of our sources for these statistics are linked in our bio along with our case sources. Okay.

Police discover, once having a name, that Paul Rhodes was in trouble for breaking into a lingerie shop, performing a sexual act on a store mannequin in the shop, and then shooting that said mannequin with a .38 caliber bullet.

What in the world? That's so weird. Yes. So he got in trouble with this before all of these murders happen. Once they find out who it is, they look up his record and discover this. And I include this because this, he just escalated. He escalated. He broke into a store and did it on a live person. He went from like fake to real. On a mannequin and then shot the mannequin and then decided to do it to like a living person. Now three people in two weeks. Yes. He's definitely like on a rampage. Yeah.

Detectives head to Paul's home only to find his mom there and she claims that Paul had come home and stolen her car and then left. Police decide to release Paul's picture all over the news hoping someone might see the now fugitive. And it works because a trucker calls police in Nevada and says that he thinks he saw Paul crash his car, get out of it and drop a gun on the ground and then leave.

So I'm assuming when he saw the farmer, when he saw his cousin. Yes. He went, oh, crap. I need to get out of here. Yes, exactly. Yes. Thank you for pulling that together. He was like, now someone recognized me driving missing Susan's van. I've got to leave. So he immediately left the state with quite a bit of money from the one register, the other register, and then $2,000 from Susan's accounts.

Nevada police head to the scene and they discover the revolver, the exact gun used in all three murders back in Idaho. They call Idaho police and let them know that Paul Ezra Rhodes, their wanted fugitive, was playing blackjack inside one of their casinos after crashing his car outside. So how does that work with the different state boundaries and so forth? So I'm not positive. If you know this, go ahead and message. But what I think happens is this.

Nevada could arrest and charge for crashing a car and leaving it and charge him and do whatever they want with that. But they will most likely release him back into custody in Idaho Falls to be charged with the murders of those. Because I do know that like sometimes one criminal can be charged in multiple counties depending on where the murder happens. Does that make sense?

Yeah. So police head into the casino and arrest Paul, who still had blood on his clothes from Susan's murder. And he was just sitting down playing blackjack. With all the money he had collected. Yes. Oh, he's crazy. And he still had the blood on his clothes from Susan's murder. He had five lighters in his pocket from Nolan's store. Remember how lighters were missing? The five of them were in his pocket from Nolan's store. And he had Stacy's wristwatch in his jacket.

So he didn't even care about being caught. No, he literally had ties on his person to all three victims in Idaho. He, he didn't, he didn't care at all. No, he was just Paul.

Paul was eventually extradited back to Idaho where detectives interrogated him about all three murders. Paul says, yes, I did it all. He lays his head down on the table and goes to sleep. So it wasn't even like a fight. He was saying, yes, he did it. And actually this comes into when he begins to appeal his case. This comes up as a problem. I'm not going to go into detail of it, but he was saying he did it already to the Nevada police. And then once Idle police showed up, he said, yeah, yeah, I did it. And then once he got into interrogation, he said, once again, yes, I did it. This comes back.

into a problem because apparently Nevada police hadn't read him Miranda's rights yet before he said, yes, I did it. His appeal gets denied. They're like, no, that's done. Yeah, whatever. Paul Espinosa

Paul Ezra Rhodes pleads guilty to all three murders and is charged separately for all three. He is sentenced to life for Nolan's murder and to death for Stacy and Susan's murder. So how does that work? Because does Idaho have the death penalty? At this time? Yes. Okay. Or else he wouldn't have been able to be charged for it. Got it. So actually on November 18th, 2011,

At 9.15 a.m., Paul Ezra Rhodes was executed by lethal injection in Idaho. Oh, wow. Okay. He's the last person to be executed on death penalty in Idaho. So 2011. So it's kind of a big deal. It kind of, yes, it is a big deal. So Paul was actually offered hot

Hot dogs, sauerkraut, mustard, ketchup, onions, relish, baked beans, veggie sticks, and ranch dressing, along with fruit and strawberry ice cream cups for his last meal. This is the same meal that's offered to all Idaho maximum security inmates. They don't get to like choose in Idaho. His last words right on before getting executed was this to Bert, who is Susan's husband. And I'm purposely leaving their last name out.

I am sorry for the part I played in your wife's death. For Haddon and Baldwin, which is Stacey and Nolan, I can't help you. You still have to keep looking. I'm sorry for your family, but I can't help you. I took part in Susan's murder, but I can't help you guys. I'm sorry. Wait, what? Yes. So he pled guilty at first.

And then after sitting in prison for a couple of years, said, actually, I only did Susan's murder. Keep in mind, the only physical witness was for Susan's murder because the cousin saw him. So why would he plead guilty to the other two then? I don't know. I don't know where along the way that he changed his mind and decided that he was. Or maybe he did it with. Well, there was no ever evidence of doing it with someone. Oh, but only in Susan's.

Because someone saw the van and said, oh, I saw Paul, but I also saw like Paul's cousin and Paul's girlfriend. Like it was the whole like Rhodes family in the van. Someone said that. Now at trial, they didn't, the state didn't come with that. They said it was only Paul alone. But someone comes forward, a witness and says, no, I saw the whole Rhodes family in the van.

So something's fishy. Something's fishy. And I'm not going to go into like small town talk, which is why I'm not like... Talking about it too much? Yes. But someone does at trial come forward and say, no, I saw more than just Paul in that van. I saw a whole group of people. And then a lot of people think a whole group of people helped with these murders, or at least with Susan's, because that's where it was seen. But the state says, no, they tried him as Paul and Paul only committing these murders. And we'll probably never know because...

He's dead. Well, he's dead. And I'm sure they're not going to open the case back up. And by the time he got to like his deathbed, he wasn't going, oh no, actually it was all three of us or I don't know. He had said, no, I didn't actually even do two of them.

What the heck? Okay. He then said goodbye to his mom and he turned to the executioner and uttered, I forgive you. I really do for killing him. Oh, it's kind of eerie. It is eerie. That's the end of the case. But I am going to go over something. There is some like speculation that he might have killed in Utah first.

Because there were a couple convenience store workers who were murdered in Utah around the same time before all of this happened. And no one knows who it was? No one knows. No one has made the connection. No one has matched fingerprints or anything. What part of Utah? I don't know. It just kind of brought up Utah. And then also the witnesses came forward saying that there were more in the van. But that's the only speculation about this case. I will say growing up in Idaho, I did hear a lot more rumors about this case, but I couldn't find any evidence.

a solid source for that. So, you know, like it's just not worth it to include it. But yeah, that is the case of Paul Ezra Rhodes. Wow. That's crazy. I think what interests me the most was the end. Really? Like that just out of nowhere, it just got like how he got caught or how he said he didn't do it. No, how he said he didn't do it. I don't know where it was just like, yeah, but also he was wearing the watch and

Yes. And he had the lighters. And he said he didn't kill them. I don't think there's any doubt that he didn't kill Stacey and Nolan. But that other people were involved. Involved, maybe there's a little bit of like, it's a little weird there. Okay. But I don't think there's any doubt that Paul Ezra Rhodes was not involved in all three of these murders. Yeah, I agree. And I just feel like he was on a rampage. He was in a spiral. It's very...

It's the behavior of killing all three in under two weeks, taking money, driving all the way to Nevada, gambling after crashing the car and dropping the murder weapon. You know what I mean? Like it's just a spiral. He was spiraling out of control. So I did ask my mom and dad. I said, hey, so what was this like? They were in like middle school, high school time in Idaho Falls. What was it like for you as this two week rampage is going on? Like what was this like personally for you living through it?

And my mom said that she remembered not being scared because she was young enough that she would have never gone to a grocery store, a convenience store by herself. She remembers like thinking that like, well, I probably won't be picked because I will never be there alone. But she does remember being scared for her mom and telling her mom, mom, don't go anywhere alone. Don't go anywhere alone because that's who he's picking people from is like this convenience store grocery store.

which I just think is crazy. It's kind of weird. It's all about self self-preservation. Like you're just like, I just don't, this is scary in a community. It's scary. It's terrifying. And it happens all the time.

So yeah, that is the story of Paul Ezra Rhodes and also the story of Susan, Nolan, and Stacey. I don't want to forget about them. I don't want their stories to die. So let's remember them. And keep in mind that we have the Patreon episode. It's out now as you're listening to this. If you want to check it out, the link is in the description. And we will see you guys next week for another episode. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.