0:01

What is going on true crime

0:04

fans?

0:14

I'm your

0:16

host Heath and I'm your host Daphne and

0:18

you're listening to Going West. I

0:20

didn't know if you were gonna get your intro in time with that

0:22

yawn. I had a really big yawn right

0:25

before I needed to start my intro but I nailed

0:27

it. You did it. You did it. Alright

0:29

everybody, thank you so much for tuning in today and thank you

0:32

so much to Hussein for recommending today's

0:34

case. It is one out of Washington.

0:37

There are so many suspects in this one but it actually

0:39

takes a very unexpected turn.

0:43

But this one is solved so we do have resolution

0:45

at the end of it, at least

0:46

for the most part. Yeah, and thankfully

0:49

we're actually able to record this today because

0:51

yesterday we had a pretty big storm here but

0:54

we got a ton of rain. I

0:56

think I was up until like four in the morning just listening

0:58

to the windows shake.

0:59

Oh my god, last night was insane. We

1:02

both kept waking up like what is happening but

1:05

it was lovely to have some rain

1:07

for a change in LA.

1:08

But thankfully we are here to give you

1:10

guys a little dose of true crime

1:12

today so let's talk about

1:15

this episode. Alright guys,

1:17

this is episode 333 of Going West. Let's

1:22

get into

1:22

it.

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3:16

What's

3:19

your story? What's your story?

3:33

In

3:33

August of 2001, a

3:36

36-year-old mom of three was found murdered

3:38

in her own home in Washington.

3:41

No

3:42

one could understand who would kill

3:44

her and why. But

3:46

as police dug deeper into potential

3:48

suspects, a journal entry

3:51

with the desire to kill someone

3:53

and get away with it would ultimately

3:56

crack the case.

4:00

This is the story of

4:02

Dana Leskowski. Dana

4:20

Ross was born on February 23,

4:22

1965 to parents Judy and Bill Ross. Above

4:28

all, Judy remembers her daughter's kindness

4:31

and big heart, saying fondly, quote,

4:34

she was my baby. She was just so

4:36

gentle. But sadly, Dana's

4:39

kindness was often taken advantage

4:41

of, as you guys will see. So

4:43

Judy and Bill eventually divorced, and

4:46

Bill remarried a woman named Kathy,

4:48

which brought Dana two half-siblings and

4:50

four step-siblings.

4:52

As a child, Dana settled in Puyallup,

4:55

Washington, which is about 20 minutes

4:57

southeast of Tacoma and 45 minutes

4:59

south of Seattle.

5:00

Puyallup, which is a quaint suburb

5:03

rich in Native American history, is

5:05

settled between the Puget Sound and Mount

5:07

Rainier. In her

5:10

20s, Dana met and married a man named Stan

5:12

Leskowski, and thrilled

5:14

at the prospect of being parents, they started

5:16

trying for kids right away. But

5:19

after struggling with infertility for years,

5:22

Dana and Stan attempted in vitro

5:24

fertilization, and luckily, they

5:26

were successful. So at 27

5:29

years old, Dana was met with the news that

5:31

they were expecting triplets.

5:34

In an interview with the local paper, she said, quote,

5:37

we had dreamed of one baby. To

5:39

be expecting three, two boys and a girl

5:41

was incredible.

5:43

But throughout her pregnancy, she did

5:45

have some complications. And I'm going

5:47

to briefly get into them now, but this part does

5:49

have a happy ending. Christmas

5:51

of 1993, so just a few

5:53

months into the pregnancy, she was put

5:56

on bed rest. By February,

5:58

she was rushed to the hospital. with pre-labor

6:00

symptoms at just 20 weeks. At

6:04

this point, doctors cautioned the couple

6:06

were at risk of losing their baby girl.

6:08

So heartbroken at the possibility,

6:11

Dana remembered, quote, The emotional

6:13

pain was incredible. We were

6:15

so in love with each baby already.

6:18

We cried the whole night. So

6:20

Dana was admitted to the hospital for an extended

6:23

stay in hopes of keeping the babies from

6:25

delivery for as long as

6:27

possible. And for 13 weeks,

6:30

Stan worked during the day at his job as a mechanic

6:32

and spent every single night by

6:35

Dana's side.

6:37

At seven months, Dana went into labor

6:39

and miraculously delivered three

6:42

healthy babies. Thank God.

6:44

And within just a few days, the family of five

6:46

was home and beginning their new life together. The

6:49

family's doctor claims that it was their strength

6:52

and determination that kept them afloat, saying,

6:54

quote, They believed so strongly

6:56

in a positive outcome. We did everything

6:59

to keep those babies, but it was their

7:01

determination that made the difference. And

7:04

then Dana echoed this by saying, quote, Whatever

7:06

it took, whatever it takes now, we're

7:08

willing to do. And

7:10

the family really prospered in their triplets

7:13

early years, but the relationship between Dana

7:15

and Stan eventually ran its

7:17

course. And in 2001,

7:19

when the triplets were around eight years old,

7:21

the couple separated and then they filed for

7:24

divorce. In the summer of 2001,

7:27

36 year old Dana was rebuilding her life after her

7:29

separation. And now that the kids

7:32

were older and their needs weren't quite as demanding,

7:35

she had more time to herself. She

7:37

settled into a new house and she and Stan

7:39

shared full custody. At 36

7:42

years old and still a vibrant young woman,

7:45

she was excited to start going out more and

7:47

to begin dating again. And

7:49

this is purely speculation, but it's rumored

7:51

that Dana is the one who initiated the divorce

7:54

and that Stan had hopes that she would maybe come

7:56

back to him, but she was ready to move

7:58

on and see where things could go for her. her. Dana

8:01

is remembered by friends and family as fun, vivacious

8:04

and social, and as much as she enjoyed

8:07

having her children at home with her, she had

8:09

always loved to go out dancing,

8:11

and she used her kid-free nights to the fullest.

8:14

That summer, Dana was working as a full-time

8:16

nanny for a family in the community, really

8:18

just cherishing the time that she spent with children

8:21

and outside of working with them and caring for

8:23

her own, she volunteered teaching sign

8:25

language to kids. She

8:28

was also a very gifted artist, and she loved

8:30

to paint in her free time.

8:31

Yeah, it just seemed like Dana was always helping others,

8:34

especially kids or just young people in

8:36

general, and a little

8:38

more on that. So in addition to all

8:41

of her other commitments, Dana took time

8:43

to mentor teenagers in the area who were

8:45

struggling with addiction and family

8:47

issues. Like, she was just such an amazing

8:50

soul. And one of those teenagers

8:52

was her own niece, Amanda.

8:55

Dana really prided herself on her closeness

8:57

with her family, but she had a special affinity

9:00

for Amanda. Amanda

9:02

kind of had a reputation in their family and

9:04

in the community for being a bit of a wild

9:07

child, and she had engaged in frequent

9:09

drug use. So she was often

9:11

getting kicked out of the house or running away,

9:14

but Dana, as a nurturing adult

9:16

figure in Amanda's life, was known for

9:18

taking Amanda and her friends in since

9:20

many of them had been kicked out of their houses for

9:23

frequent partying and drug

9:24

use, which

9:25

led Amanda and her friends to playfully

9:27

nickname themselves the Park Rats.

9:31

But although many had been shunned

9:33

by their families, Dana treated them

9:35

with kindness, dignity, and patience.

9:38

And she would actually frequently allow Amanda

9:40

to hang out at her house with her friends so that

9:43

Dana could keep an eye on them. Amanda

9:46

and her best friend Emily were pretty regular

9:48

guests, and oftentimes Dana

9:50

would even leave a window unlocked so that

9:52

Amanda or her friends could come in to eat,

9:55

do their laundry, or take a shower at her

9:57

house, which is really, really generous. On

10:00

top of that, sometimes she would give them money

10:02

when she could, just hoping that they would use it

10:04

to take care of themselves, but unfortunately,

10:07

more often than not, Amanda and Emily

10:09

would use it to buy drugs. Now,

10:12

somehow, amidst all of her outside

10:14

obligations, Dana also found

10:16

time to meet a new love interest. Dana's

10:19

new boyfriend Mark hailed from Vancouver,

10:22

Canada, which is about three hours north

10:24

of Puyallup, and he worked in the film

10:26

industry.

10:27

And immediately devoted

10:29

to Dana, he was kind of this breath of fresh

10:32

air after her separation.

10:34

But Mark wasn't the only one who had his eyes

10:37

on Dana that summer. In the months

10:39

leading up to her murder, she was dealing

10:41

with a stalker.

10:43

So Dana had been having problems with her phone

10:46

line, and she had called this cable company

10:48

to request that they send over a technician. The

10:52

cable employee, whose name is Earl

10:54

Baxter, worked on this issue

10:56

while he and Dana, who was friendly with everyone

10:58

she met,

10:59

just kind of chatted. And apparently,

11:01

Earl got the wrong idea, thinking

11:04

that Dana was interested in him. And

11:06

because he already had her phone number

11:08

from repairing her phone line, he

11:10

abused it. He started texting

11:12

and calling her incessantly, checking

11:15

in on her and asking her out. Dana

11:18

was polite and firm at first, just

11:20

kind of explaining that she already had a boyfriend, but

11:23

his attempts to woo her just continued.

11:26

He started sending her flowers, notes,

11:28

and poems pleading with her

11:30

to give him a chance.

11:32

In one, he vaguely threatened her that

11:35

he would be quote, watching over

11:37

her. And a friend of Dana's

11:39

even caught him spying on her in his car

11:41

across the street from her house. According

11:45

to her employees, Dana had said that

11:47

if anything happened to her that summer, they

11:50

needed to look into Earl Baxter. Yeah,

11:52

like she was so freaked out by this man

11:55

that she made that statement.

11:57

Yeah, so he's really.

12:00

not getting the point here. So

12:02

when she told her new boyfriend Mark about this stalking

12:05

issue he was irate. Sadly

12:08

Dana's friends remembered him as intensely

12:11

protective and sometimes to

12:13

a controlling degree. God

12:14

like poor Dana I can't catch a break with these guys.

12:17

Yeah it just seems like they're all just a

12:19

lot. Yeah. Calm down.

12:21

So Mark told Dana that he knew people who could quote

12:24

take care of Earl,

12:25

claiming to insinuate that Mark was going to

12:27

have him killed. So Dana was

12:30

just understandably horrified

12:32

at this situation and asked Mark who

12:34

was staying with her at the time to leave the

12:36

house so that they could take some space. And

12:39

this just goes to show you how good of a person

12:41

she really was because she was upset

12:43

about her boyfriend talking about killing a guy

12:45

who was stalking and threatening her.

12:47

Like most people would be like yeah

12:50

please help me but she's like no

12:52

that's far too much. Yeah that's like

12:54

the wrong way to approach this. That totally shows

12:57

her character. But apparently she was kind

12:59

of already on the rocks with Mark as he had

13:01

basically told her that he was ready to move to Pialup

13:03

from Vancouver to be with her

13:05

and she had to break it to him that she just really

13:07

wasn't ready for this step. She

13:10

told him that she thought that they should pump the brakes

13:12

on how quickly their relationship was progressing

13:15

which he was not happy about. On

13:18

the evening of Thursday, August

13:21

30th, 2001, Dana and

13:23

Mark shared a tense conversation on the phone

13:25

in which Dana didn't respond when he told her

13:27

that he loved her. Which was also

13:30

very upsetting to Mark.

13:32

The next morning, which was Friday, August

13:35

31st, 2001, Dana failed to show up for work at

13:39

her nanny job.

13:41

Puzzled as this was entirely

13:44

out of character for Dana, the mom of the

13:46

children Dana cared for called the police

13:49

and requested a wellness check at her home.

13:52

When the police arrived there, the

13:54

house was static and seemed undisturbed.

13:58

Now the front door was locked and Dana's

13:59

His car was parked out front, but

14:02

Dana continued to be unresponsive

14:05

to the repeated calls to her home and cell

14:07

phone, and no one was

14:09

answering the door.

14:11

As police surveyed the premises

14:13

of her home, they found the back

14:15

door not only unlocked, but

14:17

partially open.

14:19

So they entered slowly, but

14:22

were met with total silence.

14:26

Then on the couch, they came

14:28

across Dana, face down,

14:31

body limp.

14:32

At first, it appeared that

14:35

she was sleeping. She was twisted

14:37

at the hip, she had one arm folded behind

14:39

her and the other placed above her head,

14:42

and she was covered with a blanket and

14:44

pillow.

14:45

So hoping that she had simply just slipped

14:47

into a deep sleep, police

14:49

approached her cautiously, but

14:51

to their dismay,

14:53

quickly found that she was cold

14:55

to the touch. She

14:57

had been dead for hours

14:59

by then, but the crime scene itself

15:02

was strange, like there was no sign of a struggle,

15:05

except for a few scuff marks in

15:07

the carpet.

15:09

There was no DNA and no fingerprints

15:12

recovered at this scene, and Dana was fully

15:14

clothed with no signs of sexual assault.

15:17

After her discovery, her body was

15:19

removed from the premises to undergo an autopsy,

15:22

while police scoured her home for any sign

15:24

of a break-in, a motive, or a

15:27

suspect. Due to ligature

15:29

marks around her neck, Dana's cause

15:31

of death was determined to be strangulation,

15:33

and police noted that her attacker was likely

15:36

quote, stronger than the average

15:38

man.

15:39

So

15:44

as investigators looked around her home, they

15:46

noticed a scarf discarded in a chair

15:48

near where she was found in the living room, which

15:51

was believed to be the murder weapon.

15:53

And disturbingly, Dana had

15:55

been strangled so roughly that

15:57

her attacker fractured her windpipe

16:00

and there was dried blood found around

16:02

her nose and her ears. There

16:05

was severe bruising on her knees, indicating

16:07

that a scuffle had taken place between Dana

16:10

and her murderer before she was killed, which

16:13

likely accounted for the marks in the carpet. They

16:16

suggested that Dana and her attacker had fought

16:18

on the carpet before Dana was killed, and

16:21

that she was then placed on the couch posthumously

16:24

before the blanket and pillow were placed over

16:26

her. And as we've briefly

16:28

touched on in other episodes, but not for

16:30

a while, investigators noted that gently

16:33

covering the corpse of a victim is usually an

16:35

indication of guilt

16:36

by the attacker.

16:38

Based on the state of the body, the

16:40

medical examiner determined that Dana was killed

16:42

in the early morning hours of August

16:45

31st,

16:46

that same Friday, hours

16:47

before she was discovered. Not

16:51

only did the covering of the body make investigators

16:53

note that the attack seemed personal,

16:55

but strangulation is most often committed

16:58

by someone who knows their victim

17:00

and is usually spur of the moment.

17:02

Because there was no sign of forced entry,

17:05

police believed that this was either someone who took

17:07

advantage of her back door being unlocked or

17:09

more likely that it was someone

17:12

who Dana knew and someone

17:14

she herself had let into

17:16

her home.

17:26

Of course, death is very long and

17:33

UW cannot be met by any sources

17:36

of After

17:39

Correcting 123 more days

17:42

to Did Very compress Fuck

17:44

of America, dark

17:48

FBI police were built to prevent suicide during aWSU

17:50

marriages for allgun, and

17:53

gave her the nerve to take the life of a beloved mom

17:55

and such a treasured member of the community.

17:59

about this case. There were multiple people that

18:02

could have done it. Like, first of all, we've got Stan,

18:04

who, Stan, Stan, who's

18:06

kind of like her scorned

18:09

ex-husband. And he, like,

18:11

Heath was touching on earlier, seemed

18:13

to be holding out hope that the two of them would

18:16

end up together and saw his chances

18:18

dwindling as Dana's relationship with

18:20

Mark kind of flourished.

18:22

Yeah, he was really hoping that that would

18:24

not be the end. Yeah. So then you're the

18:26

police are thinking at least... Could that be motive? Yeah,

18:29

could that be motive? But, sorry

18:31

to repeat you, but Mark and Dana

18:33

seem to be on different pages

18:35

of their relationship as we've touched on as well,

18:38

because he was ready to move to a different country

18:40

for her from Canada to the US. And

18:42

she

18:43

didn't really seem to want to be in a relationship

18:46

with him or at least wanted to take some space

18:48

from him. So not only was he upset

18:50

by Dana's unenthusiastic response,

18:52

but he was angry about the cable

18:55

guy Earl's inappropriate behavior

18:57

towards Dana. And then there's

18:59

Earl. So Earl was upset by

19:01

Dana rejecting his advances. And

19:03

remember how extreme those advances

19:06

were. He was constantly calling

19:08

her, texting her, sending her flowers, watching

19:10

her from outside of her house. Like he's, it's like, dude,

19:13

get the message. She's not interested. And he's

19:16

not getting it. And he's getting upset

19:18

that she is not reciprocating.

19:19

And he even threatened her. He even said that, you

19:22

know, I'll be watching over you. Exactly.

19:25

So police announced that while they wouldn't

19:27

name them publicly at that time,

19:29

they had multiple suspects,

19:32

obviously. So they started with

19:34

her ex-husband, Stan, bringing him in for

19:36

questioning. And when they did, police

19:39

noted that while he attempted to seem

19:42

forlorn, he was fake crying

19:45

and he wasn't actually producing tears.

19:48

They also noted that he appeared to have scratches

19:51

on his elbows and knees, as

19:53

if he had recently been involved in an altercation.

19:57

And they thought this may explain the scuff marks

19:59

in Dana's car

19:59

and the bruises on her own knees.

20:03

Also, I know we keep saying scuff

20:05

marks in the carpet.

20:07

I don't know what that means either, okay? Maybe

20:10

it's just, it could have either been for

20:12

dirty shoes maybe is what I was thinking

20:15

or

20:16

just like an impression in the carpet

20:18

that didn't seem normal. Yeah, we

20:21

tried to figure out exactly what that meant and

20:23

I just don't know. So I keep, every

20:25

time I say it I'm like, what

20:26

does that mean? Like I can't picture that. I

20:29

mean, there's just so many different types of carpets.

20:31

I know, yeah, you're right. You know what I mean? Yeah,

20:33

like what to even picture.

20:34

But anyway, so police obviously

20:36

found this very suspicious that he seemed to be

20:38

faking emotion. He also had

20:40

these injuries which never looks good when you're

20:43

looking at somebody for a murder. So they questioned

20:45

his whereabouts for the night that she was killed. And

20:48

they found that he had been preparing to take

20:50

the triplets on a camping trip early the

20:52

next morning and he had been home with

20:54

them all that evening. And he

20:56

was even able to provide a receipt from

20:59

a gas station that he stopped at that night. Now

21:02

that's not like the most airtight alibi. Obviously

21:04

your kids can vouch for you and you're at a

21:06

gas station, but that doesn't mean that you didn't go to

21:08

her

21:09

house and kill her after that, you know? But they,

21:11

after questioning him, the police felt like, okay,

21:14

we can move on. And they may have

21:16

done their due diligence and possibly looked

21:18

at security camera footage from the gas station

21:21

or determined

21:22

what time he was there and how far

21:24

he would have been away from the house.

21:28

And that's why I want to touch on it because even though it kind

21:30

of doesn't seem like a lot or enough,

21:33

they did feel confident

21:35

moving off of him as a person

21:37

of interest. So after

21:39

talking to her employers, police were

21:42

very curious about Dana's stalker,

21:44

Earl.

21:45

Now Earl was apparently shocked

21:48

that Dana had been killed. Though after

21:50

Stan's feigned reaction to sadness or

21:52

supposed feigned reaction of sadness,

21:55

police were pretty unconvinced. And also

21:57

I want to add that if Stan was

21:59

really upset by this, especially because Dana

22:02

is the mother of his children and he did

22:04

want to get her back. I don't want it to come off

22:06

like I'm saying he wasn't sad at her death.

22:08

This is just what the police believed. Thank you, exactly.

22:11

So Earl was apparently shocked,

22:14

but police kind of felt unconvinced with

22:16

that, or at least unsure with that.

22:19

But when they asked about his whereabouts, Earl

22:21

claimed that he had been watching a movie with friends

22:24

on the night that Dana was murdered, which

22:26

was an alibi that was verified by the friends

22:28

that he was with.

22:31

They showed him the phone logs of

22:33

both Dana's home and cell phones, showing

22:36

his dozens of attempted communications

22:38

with her over the past few months. But

22:41

aside from that, surprisingly, neither

22:43

his interview nor a search of his home

22:46

yielded anything suspicious. So

22:49

he was released from consideration

22:51

and frustratingly was never

22:53

charged with stalking Dana.

22:56

And then lastly, there was of course,

22:59

Mark.

23:00

Now Mark also seemed to have a motive, as

23:03

he was anxious for their relationship to move forward.

23:06

Police also found it highly suspicious that

23:08

he had hinted at wanting to kill Earl

23:10

for stalking Dana

23:12

instead of simply reporting it to the police.

23:14

But when police spoke with Mark,

23:17

he had perhaps the most airtight alibi

23:19

of them all. He had still

23:21

been in Canada. So none

23:23

of this is going how police imagined that it would

23:25

go. At this point, they figured that one

23:28

of these guys

23:29

would have been responsible for Dana's

23:31

murder.

23:32

Because remember with Mark, the day

23:34

before Dana was found killed, they

23:37

had that conversation about how he kind of wanted

23:39

to progress things with their relationship and she

23:41

was just not really having it.

23:43

Well, according to Mark, he had been disturbed

23:46

by their conversation and feared that he was

23:48

going to lose Dana. So he had

23:50

gotten into his car and headed down to Pialup

23:53

to straighten things out.

23:54

However, he was actually denied

23:57

entry at the US border

23:59

and never

23:59

Mark actually made it to Dana's house, though

24:02

the reason for his refusal is pretty unclear

24:04

at this point. But his story

24:06

was verified by his phone records, all

24:08

of which confirmed that he was in Canada

24:11

at the time of Dana's death.

24:13

So Mark II was ruled

24:15

out as a suspect.

24:16

So with this, police were just basically

24:19

back to square one and at a total

24:21

loss because they couldn't figure out who could have committed

24:23

this crime after they felt like they had

24:25

three solid persons of interest here.

24:28

But now, all three of them had been

24:30

cleared. So a month passed

24:32

with no answers for Dana's devastated

24:35

family, friends, and children,

24:37

who were just eight years old at the time.

24:40

Investigators attended her funeral, which

24:42

was held 34 days after her

24:44

death, just paying their respects and

24:46

scoping out the crowd for anyone in attendance

24:49

who raised their eyebrows.

24:51

But while they were there, they stumbled

24:54

upon something very eerie

24:56

and reeking of guilt.

24:59

So at the service, Dana's family

25:01

placed a guestbook for mourners to sign

25:03

and leave their final wishes, memories,

25:06

or messages of love for her.

25:08

And in it, Dana's niece Amanda

25:11

penned a heartfelt tribute to her aunt,

25:13

apologizing that she hadn't been a better

25:16

niece.

25:17

She also proudly wrote to Dana that

25:19

motivated by her death, Amanda

25:21

had been sober for the last 34 days

25:24

and planned on staying that way,

25:26

which is something that Dana had always wished for

25:28

her.

25:29

But here's the kick.

25:31

That was enough for police to want to take a look at

25:33

Amanda's potential involvement,

25:36

because suspiciously, Amanda had

25:38

also written about how hard that

25:40

night was for her.

25:43

Steven Penner, who was the prosecutor that

25:45

later worked on Dana's trial, explained, quote,

25:48

there was something about the way that she had written it

25:50

that suggested that it was communication to Dana

25:53

of remorse and to make amends

25:55

for what had happened. It's something

25:57

that was significant enough to follow up on.

26:00

Yeah, because if she had said that night

26:03

was hard for her,

26:04

the police are like, well, what do you mean that night?

26:06

Like, we found her the next day. Why

26:08

would that night have been hard for you?

26:11

Unless you were there. Right? Yeah,

26:14

you wouldn't have known about it till the next day.

26:15

So when they brought Dana's niece, Amanda,

26:17

in for questioning, she was clearly

26:20

nervous, which is fair. She's also a teenager,

26:22

but she first attempted to blame Dana's

26:24

death on a friend in her group of park rats

26:27

named Blaine, who she described

26:29

as a 250 pound drug dealer with

26:32

a violent history. Amanda

26:34

even claimed that he had physically attacked

26:36

her in the past. But when they located

26:39

Blaine, it turned out that he had been in

26:41

another state altogether when

26:43

Dana was murdered, and he was not

26:45

found to be involved in any capacity.

26:48

So they're like, all right, what's the next

26:50

story? Well, when investigators begin

26:52

to question others in Amanda's

26:54

friend group,

26:55

three different people claim

26:58

that they heard from Emily Lauenborg,

27:01

who was Amanda's best friend, that

27:03

Emily herself had committed

27:05

the murder. They claim

27:07

that she'd even been bragging about it in

27:09

a desperate grab for attention and

27:11

like clout, and so that others

27:14

would fear her. One

27:16

of these friends, who was another member of the

27:18

park rat, was actually incarcerated

27:20

at the time, so police were easily able

27:22

to interview him during his stint in

27:25

prison. Well he also

27:27

cited Emily as Dana's killer, claiming

27:30

that she would brag about the murder and

27:32

that she also took pride in openly

27:34

challenging and threatening other members

27:37

of their group physically in order

27:39

to assert her dominance over them. So

27:42

investigators again brought Amanda

27:45

into the station, and the more they

27:47

prodded her,

27:48

the more she fell apart. Finally,

27:52

in tears and clearly wracked with

27:54

guilt, Amanda began to give

27:56

them pieces of the truth, claiming

27:59

her best friend, Emily, was not the only one.

27:59

Emily had killed her aunt Dana

28:02

before her eyes that night. Amanda

28:05

confessed that they had come to Dana's house

28:07

late that night, high on cocaine, and

28:10

looking for money to purchase more drugs.

28:13

As I mentioned earlier, Dana had given them money

28:15

in the past, but this was really to try to help

28:17

them and she hoped that they wouldn't use

28:20

the money on drugs, so when they came asking for

28:22

it, she declined. She didn't want them

28:24

using her money to buy more drugs.

28:26

She was trying to look out for them. So given

28:29

the state that they were in, she asked

28:31

them to leave. When

28:33

Emily refused to go and began

28:35

escalating the situation, Dana

28:38

had just gently tried to guide Emily

28:40

out the front door of her house, and

28:42

according to Amanda, Emily

28:44

then became extremely

28:47

agitated.

28:48

In Amanda's interview with police, she explained,

28:51

quote, she was getting really irritated

28:53

because Emily was being pushy. Emily

28:55

started getting really upset and being really

28:57

rude to Dana.

28:59

Amanda then claimed that she had been

29:01

scared of Emily and what she was capable

29:04

of, and that she didn't want to be involved in the fight.

29:07

So after attempting to get Emily to leave

29:09

with her and being ignored, she

29:11

turned around and shielded her eyes.

29:15

Amanda then says that she heard sounds of

29:17

a struggle,

29:18

gagging noises, and finally, silence.

29:21

Director Steven Penner described

29:24

on behalf of Amanda, quote, she

29:26

heard a crack and she heard

29:28

a gurgle and she heard Dana

29:30

gasping for her life, and then

29:32

she didn't hear anything.

29:34

And that was because Dana was dead.

29:38

Amanda eventually opened her eyes to see

29:40

her aunt's lifeless body. And after

29:42

she was dead,

29:43

both girls grabbed whatever money

29:46

they could find

29:47

and left out the back door.

29:50

Amanda claimed that Emily had apparently

29:52

always been jealous of Amanda's connection

29:54

with Dana. Amanda also said

29:56

that Dana, fearing Emily was a bad

29:58

influence, tried to convince her

29:59

convince Amanda to distance herself from Emily,

30:02

and of course, to stop using drugs,

30:05

two things that threatened Emily's way of life.

30:08

After Dana's murder, Amanda had been

30:10

overcome with guilt,

30:12

and vowed to change herself, stopping

30:14

her drug use cold turkey, and distancing

30:17

herself from her friends.

30:19

Emily however, seemed unbothered in the

30:21

wake of Dana's murder.

30:23

Not only did she attend Dana's funeral

30:25

among the grieving, including Dana's

30:27

own children, but she even wore

30:29

a shirt that she had stolen from

30:32

Dana to this funeral. And

30:34

speaking with Amanda and Emily's friends, they

30:37

found that Emily was actually known among them

30:39

as a quote, mutant, because

30:41

she had abnormal strength. Which is

30:43

really weird. We are going to post photos

30:46

of her. I don't know how else to say this. She just looks like a normal

30:48

gal. Like, I don't know what a normal gal looks like, but you

30:50

guys know what I mean. And

30:52

it's just, it's weird because earlier, remember,

30:55

and I said, remember this about the whole,

30:57

um, what was the quote? It was like,

30:59

um, more strength than the average man. Wasn't

31:02

that it? Yeah. Yeah.

31:04

So then her friends are saying that she's a mutant and has abnormal

31:07

strength. Like what's, what is going on

31:09

there?

31:09

I mean, she sounds fucking scary, but,

31:12

uh, but I guess, I guess she was a wrestler

31:14

in school and

31:16

she also did some weightlifting. And

31:18

though she

31:18

stood at around five feet tall,

31:21

she was strong enough to overpower almost anyone

31:23

that she came up against, especially when she

31:25

had been using drugs.

31:27

So police finally brought Emily in

31:29

for questioning. And when confronted

31:32

with her friends, accusations of her involvement,

31:35

Emily was furious and combative and

31:37

couldn't

31:37

offer an alibi for her whereabouts that

31:39

evening. But police would need more

31:42

for an arrest. So they obtained a search

31:44

warrant for Emily's apartment and inside

31:47

they came across her diary.

31:49

Like Amanda, she had penned some very incriminating

31:52

passages. Not only was

31:54

she jealous of the relationship between Amanda

31:56

and her aunt Dana,

31:58

but she had also grown resentful.

31:59

full of Amanda in the weeks since Dana's

32:02

murder,

32:03

likely because Amanda had been so racked

32:05

with guilt and Emily was ready to

32:07

move on.

32:08

Well, in one passage complaining

32:10

about Amanda, Emily wrote,

32:12

I could strangle that bitch just like her

32:15

aunt. In another entry,

32:17

Emily had written out a bucket list.

32:20

And among items like own a

32:22

horse and lamb, spend a month

32:24

in the Caribbean and buy a house, was

32:26

the goal to kill someone and

32:29

get away with it,

32:31

which is just so out of place amongst

32:33

the others. Yeah, like you want you

32:35

want like a cute baby lamb and a

32:37

horse, but then you're like, oh yeah, but my other

32:39

thing is like killing a person.

32:41

Yeah.

32:42

But when she was confronted about this,

32:44

Emily just said that it was a joke. So

32:46

she's acting like, oh, I didn't actually

32:49

mean that. But

32:49

you didn't kill someone. Yeah. So

32:52

now of course, she's saying that when they are questioning

32:55

her for a murder and doesn't it feel convenient

32:57

that

32:58

this was just a joke. Sure. It's just a

33:00

joke now.

33:01

Of course. But the third damning

33:03

piece of evidence they found was of course, like

33:05

he'd said, the t-shirt of Dana's

33:08

that Emily had been wearing at the funeral as

33:10

if to kind of like show off what she had done.

33:12

It felt like this little Easter egg

33:14

moment. So that was enough

33:17

for investigators. And 17 year

33:19

old Emily Lauenborg was arrested

33:21

for Dana's murder. Though

33:24

it took over a year and a half for them

33:26

to incriminate her, they finally

33:28

had someone on the hook for Dana's brutal

33:30

slaying. Faced with the potential

33:33

of first degree murder charges, Emily

33:36

could have been sentenced to as many as 20 years

33:38

in prison. Although

33:40

they had strong circumstantial evidence

33:43

as well as a man's eyewitness account, prosecutors

33:46

worried that a guilty verdict would be impossible

33:49

just due to the lack of concrete evidence.

33:52

There was also Emily's petite size.

33:54

Like it just didn't seem believable that

33:57

a 17 year old girl standing

33:59

at five

33:59

feet two inches tall could overpower a 36 year

34:02

old woman. Even though Emily continued

34:05

to claim that she didn't do it, her defense

34:07

attorneys convinced her to plead guilty.

34:10

Entering what her attorneys called a

34:12

modified guilty plea, she maintained

34:14

her innocence while pleading guilty to

34:17

first-degree manslaughter.

34:20

With no physical evidence, the prosecution

34:22

struggled to build a case against her. So

34:24

while it seemed like an unjust sentence,

34:27

the judge accepted her plea.

34:29

In January of 2004, the

34:31

case against Emily was finally drawing

34:33

to a close. Emily's

34:36

defense lawyer said, quote, she's just 19

34:39

now and she's already been in jail a

34:41

year. A

34:42

conviction of murder in the first degree,

34:44

there's no way to recover from that.

34:46

If she pleads to manslaughter in the first

34:48

degree, there's a lot of life left.

34:51

But she murdered somebody. Like I understand

34:53

that they're saying there's not enough physical evidence

34:56

to support that, but if there's an eyewitness,

34:58

she wrote about it in her diary, like

35:01

there's enough circumstantial evidence to point

35:03

to her doing it. So like why do we have so much remorse

35:05

for her and not for Dana?

35:07

Yeah, very, very

35:08

true. Like yeah, you're 19, but then why did you murder

35:10

somebody?

35:10

Exactly. It's just, it's very

35:12

stupid. But get this, somehow

35:15

Emily was sentenced to six and a half

35:18

years in prison and was even granted

35:20

credit for time served, which had already

35:22

been a year.

35:23

She was also released a year early for

35:26

good behavior, bringing her total time

35:28

incarcerated for the murder of the mother of three

35:30

to just five and a half years.

35:34

Dana's family were saddened and confused

35:36

by the verdict. Her father saying, quote,

35:39

it doesn't make sense.

35:40

Amanda, on the other hand, avoided charges

35:43

altogether in exchange for her testimony.

35:45

One local in a community forum said

35:48

that Amanda had feigned innocence, but

35:50

that she was just as guilty for covering

35:52

it up.

35:53

Which, I mean, obviously she

35:55

and her friend did rob

35:58

her dead aunt. right there, took all

36:00

of her money and ran out the door. So even though

36:03

she wasn't maybe wasn't involved in the

36:05

actual murder, she did.

36:06

Well, that's just her word. Yeah. That's the thing. She

36:09

did take all that money. Yeah, it's horrible.

36:11

And that's what sucks is that Amanda is

36:13

the one saying,

36:14

well, this is how it happened. And we don't know

36:17

if that's how it happened. Did you really just stand by and

36:19

close your eyes? Did you watch it? Did you help?

36:21

Like, I don't know, but it's just your

36:24

word against Emily's and Emily

36:27

isn't saying that Amanda had a bigger

36:29

part in it. But

36:30

it is frustrating that she kind of got off the hook

36:32

when she was standing right there, didn't interfere,

36:35

didn't call the cops on her own. And then

36:38

yeah, like stole from her aunt. It's

36:40

horrible. Yeah, it's terrible.

36:42

Well, they also claimed that she hadn't learned anything

36:45

from Dana's death and that her behavior

36:47

had not changed at all. But

36:51

here's the thing. Emily was released from

36:53

prison in 2008 and she

36:55

has since married, changed her last

36:57

name and had children of her own. And

37:00

she still resides in the Tacoma area.

37:03

Meanwhile, Dana's own children

37:05

have to grow up without their loving, supportive

37:08

and wonderful mother.

37:19

Thank

37:19

you so much, everybody, for listening to this

37:21

episode of Going West. Yes,

37:23

thank you guys so much for listening to this episode.

37:25

And on Friday, we'll have an all new case for you

37:28

guys to dive into. Yes. And

37:30

thank you again to Hussein for recommending

37:32

today's case. This was just such a senseless

37:35

one that really took, like I said earlier

37:37

in the beginning, a very unexpected

37:39

turn. Yeah,

37:40

I think all of us kind of

37:42

imagine that one of those three guys was

37:44

going to be responsible for Dana's murder.

37:46

And it just it ended up being her

37:49

niece's friend.

37:50

Yeah, like, what case have we ever covered

37:53

where somebody has a controlling boyfriend

37:55

and a stalker and they're

37:58

murdered and an ex-husband and

38:00

they're murdered and none of those people did it. I

38:03

mean, it's unheard of. But such

38:05

a tragic story. Thank you guys so much for tuning

38:07

into this one.

38:08

Also, guys, I wanted to

38:10

say that for all you patrons

38:12

out there or all you Apple subscribers, we

38:15

are gonna be coming out with the bonus

38:17

episode this week. And

38:19

so stay tuned for that. Also, if you are

38:22

looking for more episodes of Going West,

38:24

you can subscribe to our Patreon.

38:27

That's patreon.com slash goingwestpodcast.

38:29

Or you can head over to Apple and

38:31

you can subscribe for bonus episodes there.

38:34

Yeah, a lot of people ask if there's a difference. There's

38:36

not. The only difference is that on Patreon,

38:38

there's two tiers. You can do the $5 tier, you

38:41

get the entire back catalog of that

38:44

tier, which is like, I don't know, maybe

38:46

over 60 episodes. And you get

38:48

one a month. Whereas the other tier

38:50

is the $10 tier, you get almost 100 episodes

38:53

and two a month. But on Apple, there's

38:55

no tier option. So we can only offer

38:58

the $10 subscription for two a month. So

39:00

that's the only difference.

39:01

Yeah, I don't really know why they don't

39:03

add tiers to their subscription process. They

39:06

said they're working on it. We shall see. But

39:08

both are great options if you want more

39:10

episodes. If not, we will see you on Friday.

39:13

All right, guys. So for everybody

39:15

out there in the world. Don't be a stranger.

40:00

you