Afoot. Brutal, and violence, and chaotic, they are vicious killers. It was a horrible betrayal. This wasnt supposed to happen ever. It was a chilly december morning, 2020. The high desert outside of los angeles. In there, behind barbed wire and secure blocks of thick concrete, a prisoner was placed in front of a camera. It was a parole hearing, for a life or who was not supposed to be set free. 50 miles away, nervous and worried, the sisters of the mans victim listen to a live broadcast. With her, historic l. A. Homicide detective, now retired. And rick jackson. Powerless to intervene, they waited for the boards decision. And it all came flooded back. As if decades had vanished. And the strange, terrible events had only just occurred. I worked homicide, but by the end of my career what it was 20 years. And you also think that you have seen everything, and this is one of those cases that, that just did not make any sense. No, it did not. Still does not. And maybe never well. It was just
utah, resort town, ski mecca, until he got busted on the highway for that fake passport, the new hideout for fugitive duncan martinez, a prime suspect in the murder of his good friend ron baker. park city was just the next convenient place to disappear, until that inconvenient traffic stop followed by his arrest on passport fraud charges. that changed things. so duncan came up with a new plan, we get a call from duncan martinez s attorney. informing us that duncan was willing to talk to us about what happened on the night of the murder, out of the clear blue sky. so, the detectives, and duncan s attorney and the da office agreed on some ground rules, he would tell the story all right, but only in exchange for some sort of limited immunity from prosecution, otherwise no story, no dice. we worked out a deal where he could talk to us freely, we couldn t use anything he told us against him. there is a term for the deal they made, they call it king for a day. fancy. he
and his name was duncan martinez. he rushed a fraternity at the university, he was really liked by most of the fraternity members, he was living a pretty good life. yes he was, 22-year-old duncan martinez once a big time mitosis specht was now a big man on campus. he went by the name doofus o reilly, that is what he liked to tell his friends to call him. he was a center of attraction. charming, charismatic, life of the party, doofus, aka duncan, was a long way from that murder in the tunnel. and here he soon caught the eye
none can fun loving film student and party animal, doofus o reilly, tangled up in murder, but for once thank and seemed serious, deadly serious. he said that he and the roommate had talked about going after a college friend, and that there had been an intentional plan. that he was a part of. that it appeared he had been a part of. yes. i remember thinking it was something he made up. another one of his many stories? he s trying to be a bigger person than he really, is because surely this would be something that would have caught up with him. but, was it true? melissa s happy campus life felt trouble, and so she confided in a couple of trusted friends, and she didn t intend