Slaughterhouse (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

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[2] At around 2 a .m. on May 12, 2007, a 20 -year -old woman named Maggie, woke up totally confused in her bedroom.

[3] As she sat there, looking around her dark room trying to get her bearings, she suddenly became aware of loud screaming coming from the room next door, her brother's room.

[4] Then she heard loud crashing and banging sounds coming from her.

[5] next door like the sound of people wrestling.

[6] Maggie had no idea what was going on, but she knew she had to go out there and investigate.

[7] So she took a deep breath, she got out of her bed, she walked up to her closed door, and then she opened it and stepped into the hallway.

[8] Moments later, local police would arrive at Maggie's house, and at first, when they searched the home, it was still and quiet, almost eerie.

[9] But when they went upstairs, they discovered something so horrible that trying to use words to describe it just falls short.

[10] And so, fair warning, this story is not for the faint of heart.

[11] But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, and you come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

[12] So, if that's of interest to you, please place headphones on the Amazon Music Follow button while they're sleeping, and then wake it up by blasting episode number four of bedtime stories, the brand new Ballin Studios podcast and my favorite new show.

[13] Just search for Ballin Studios and then look for bedtime stories on Amazon music.

[14] Okay, let's get into today's story.

[15] I'm Dan Taberski.

[16] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York, a mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

[17] What's the answer?

[18] And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

[19] Hysterical.

[20] A new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios.

[21] Binge all episodes of hysterical early and ad -free on Wondry Plus.

[22] On May 11th, 2007, 16 -year -old Kevin Haynes practically bounced with excitement on his seat on the bus as he headed home from Mannheim Township High School outside of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

[23] His older sister, Maggie, had just come home from college the day before, and their dad was going to make his signature spaghetti and meatballs to celebrate her return.

[24] And if the Haynes family followed their tradition, they would also rent a family video after dinner, and then maybe watch the Philadelphia Phillies baseball game.

[25] Kevin thought his Friday night lineup sounded great.

[26] Kevin and his sister Maggie were not super close, partly because Maggie was four years older, but Kevin looked up to Maggie.

[27] She was cool and stylish and so athletic, she actually ran for the Bucknell University track team.

[28] And Maggie admired her brother right back, even bragging about him to her college friends.

[29] Kevin was a straight -A student in his school's gifted program and a member of the school's quiz bowl team, which competed against other high schools to show who was the smartest.

[30] And his big sister had plans to make Kevin even better.

[31] This summer, she had promised to fix his nerdy fashion sense.

[32] She told him no more knee -high white socks with khaki shorts.

[33] Kevin chuckled to himself as he wrote along that the idea that his sister was going to fix him.

[34] He was a very modest young man, his round face turning bright whenever he became the center of attention.

[35] And he would never brag.

[36] But Kevin knew that he was doing a lot of things right already.

[37] He was close to getting his Eagle Scout badge from the Boy Scouts, and he had just passed his driver's test.

[38] He was a homebody by nature, but he was emerging as a young man ready to take on the world.

[39] The evening before, he had gone to a meeting at his school about a class trip to Germany in July.

[40] Kevin's family, like so many in eastern Pennsylvania, traced their ancestry to Germany, and Kevin had always dreamed of visiting.

[41] Finally, it was actually happening, and, best of all, his roommate on the trip, would be one of his two best friends, Alec Kreider.

[42] Now, on the bus, he and Alec chatted excitedly about all the things they planned to do in Berlin, Germany's capital.

[43] When Kevin waltzed into the kitchen of his family's neatly kept middle class home that Friday afternoon, he plopped his backpack down onto a chair and went to the refrigerator to look for a snack.

[44] He was daydreaming about Germany and pulling out the blueberry pie when his sister, Maggie, walked in and reminded him they needed to get Mother's Day cards for their mom.

[45] So Kevin wolfed down his pie and then the pair drove off to a nearby strip mall to shop for cards.

[46] Kevin and Maggie often joked about how perfectly boring their family was, comparing themselves to the Cleaver family from the 1950s TV show, Leave It to Beaver.

[47] Their father, Tom Haynes, was an industrial supply store manager who loved his work, while their mom, Lisa Haynes, taught preschool at a church school.

[48] None of them did drugs or drank much alcohol, and neither Kevin nor Maggie had ever had a serious romance.

[49] On Sundays, they all went to church.

[50] The Haynes family also prided themselves on leaving their doors unlocked, except when they went away for vacation.

[51] Their town was on the edge of Amish country, where the straight -laced Amish people still travel in horse -drawn wagons, and crime was so rare that many of their neighbors did the same thing.

[52] In Mannheim Township, people felt safe.

[53] But a boring lifestyle worked just fine for Kevin, Maggie, and their parents.

[54] They enjoyed each other's company and looked forward to being together.

[55] Both Maggie and Kevin were back at the house by the time their father, Tom, came blazing in promptly at five to start getting dinner ready.

[56] Tom had recently had surgery for prostate cancer, and he still had a catheter implanted, but you'd never know it by his good cheer and energy.

[57] At 5 .30, the whole family gathered around the dining room table for pasta and lots of catching up.

[58] It was Kevin's mom, Lisa's last day of preschool, and she had been touched by the gifts that her preschool students had given her.

[59] She planned to write notes back to all of her little scholars.

[60] Maggie talked about her professors at Bucknell, some she loved, others not so much, and everyone at the table talked about how glad they were that Maggie was home.

[61] They had missed her last summer when she stayed at college to work on a biology project.

[62] Kevin loved the dinner.

[63] His dad had a magic touch with the meatballs.

[64] But Kevin didn't love the family movie that night.

[65] Maggie and his mother had picked out a romantic comedy at the local video store, and Kevin groaned as soon as his mom pulled it out of the bag.

[66] He tried to watch it, but the film seemed sentimental and dumb to him, and he could feel his eyelids drooping about halfway through.

[67] So, not long after 9 p .m., Kevin told his family that he loved them, but he needed to go to bed.

[68] Maggie teased her brother, as he headed for the stairs, saying he might be the only teenager alive going to bed so early.

[69] But Kevin didn't mind.

[70] He was going to read until he fell asleep.

[71] Maggie and her parents watched the rest of the movie.

[72] Then Maggie and her father stayed up a bit longer to watch the Philadelphia Phillies, beat the Chicago Cubs.

[73] By 11, everyone retired to their bedrooms, passing Kevin's darkened room along the hallway.

[74] Tom and Lisa quickly fell asleep, but their daughter Maggie was still on a college student's schedule.

[75] She watched TV programs on her laptop and then chatted online with college friends until she finally nodded off around 1 a .m. An hour later, at a little after 2 a .m., Maggie was suddenly jolted awake by the sound of screaming.

[76] There were no words, just the ear -splitting screams of a man, along with loud thuds as if people were wrestling, and all these sounds were coming from her brother's bedroom.

[77] Totally confused and now trembling with fear, Maggie grabbed her glasses from off the nightstand and stepped into the hallway to investigate, but the terrible noises coming from Kevin's room made her so scared that Maggie just ran back inside her bedroom, slammed the door, and sat with her back pressed against it.

[78] She tried desperately to make sense of what was happening amid all the screeching.

[79] Was there an intruder in the house who was attacking her brother?

[80] And if there was, what hope did she have of preventing the intruder from breaking into her room next?

[81] She couldn't just sit there and wait.

[82] So Maggie summoned all her courage and ran across the hall to her parents' room where the light was on.

[83] Her father was lying motionless, while her mother was sitting at the end of the bed, hunched over and crying hysterically.

[84] When Lisa Haynes saw her daughter, she told her in a voice barely above a whisper, Go get help.

[85] Maggie didn't need to be told twice.

[86] She ran wildly down the stairs and out into the cool spring night, banging on one neighbor's door after another until finally one woman turned on a light and let her inside.

[87] Maggie told her that she had no idea what was going on inside of her house, but judging from her mom's hysterics, she feared it had something to do with her father's prostate cancer.

[88] And so whatever was going on, Maggie said, we need the police right now.

[89] Officer Steve Newman, working the night shift just weeks after finishing the police academy, got to the scene first.

[90] He went straight to the neighbor's house where Maggie had made the 911 call.

[91] Maggie was teary -eyed and dressed in a sweatshirt decorated with a cartoon penguin.

[92] And she was totally confused about what was going on in her house across the street.

[93] She said her dad might be having some kind of health crisis or maybe there was a home invasion going on.

[94] When Newman left the neighbor's home and went across the street and rang the doorbell on the Haynes family home, no one answered.

[95] So he opened the unlocked door and went inside, mindful that an intruder could be lurking in the darkness.

[96] On the first floor, Newman, along with the second officer, saw nothing unusual except that the glass sliding door in the kitchen was open.

[97] Otherwise, the house was still.

[98] But as Newman climbed the stairs, gun drawn, he saw a spot of blood.

[99] Then he saw two more further up.

[100] As he reached the top of the stairs, he could see bloody footprints on the hallway carpet, and there, in the doorway of his bedroom, lay Kevin Haynes in his Boy Scout t -shirt, face down in a pool of blood.

[101] Newman could see that his throat and face had been severely slashed, while his arms were covered with knife wounds, as though he had put up a desperate fight to live.

[102] Both officers continued down the hall to Kevin's parents' room.

[103] There they found Tom Haynes lying on his back on the bed, eyes staring up at the ceiling, deep stab wounds to his chest.

[104] At the end of the bed, curled up in the fetal position, lay Lisa Haynes.

[105] Lisa was still warm, and for a moment, Newman hoped she might be alive, but then he saw the deep gash on her throat.

[106] All three were dead.

[107] Detective Allen Lead grabbed the phone on the second ring when the 911 dispatcher called a little after 3 a .m. The 57 -year -old detective called himself the old dog of the Mannheim Township Police and he had plenty of experience answering emergency calls in the middle of the night.

[108] Bald and bespectacled, Lead could pass for a high school teacher, but in reality he was a hardened investigator who had just finished investigating a shooting at a local tavern the day before.

[109] He was also a veteran of the Vietnam War who had learned a valuable lesson a long time ago, treat people the way you would want to be treated.

[110] The other detectives looked up to lead, and they often went to him for advice about their cases.

[111] The dispatcher told Leed that something terrible had happened at 85 Peach Lane.

[112] Leed did a double -take when he heard the address.

[113] Peach Lane was in one of the most peaceful and pleasant neighborhoods in the whole town, an area where police were seldom called.

[114] He asked the dispatcher if it was some sort of domestic disturbance, and they just said, no, that's not what happened.

[115] You'd better get over there.

[116] Lead knew that the crime scene unit was pouring over the crime scene, cataloging all the evidence.

[117] They didn't need Leeds help with that.

[118] could check out the scene later.

[119] Right now, Leed needed to talk to the only surviving witness, Maggie, and by now, Maggie was on her way to the police station.

[120] So Leed got dressed, jumped in his car, and headed into the office.

[121] Maggie was already in an interview room talking to another detective when Leed arrived, and the detective excused himself to brief lead on how it was going.

[122] The whole conversation was making him uncomfortable, the detective said.

[123] Maggie seemed relaxed and chatty, and she kept talking about her family in the present tense, as though they were not dead.

[124] The detective said she didn't seem like a woman who had just lost her entire family.

[125] Leed looked through the one -way glass into the room where Maggie was still sitting, occasionally looking up and smiling in their direction.

[126] Other times, she smoothed her hair and sat with her hands folded on her lap, as though she was just awaiting instructions.

[127] The other detective was right.

[128] She certainly did not seem heartbroken.

[129] But Leed said that the most important thing they could do right now would be to get as much information out of Maggie as they could.

[130] For all they knew, the killer could be planning to strike again, so time was of the essence.

[131] He asked the detective to get a written statement from Maggie that included everything she could remember about the evening, no matter how minor it seemed to her.

[132] The tiniest detail could turn out to be a critical clue.

[133] So the detectives set Maggie up with a laptop computer and gave her an assignment, tell us what happened, and Maggie took it to heart, typing page after page about everything that took place since she returned home from college.

[134] She wrote about the TV shows she watched and how her parents didn't understand the TV show, Gray's Anatomy, she wrote about doing a crossword puzzle with her mother, and she wrote about the score in the Phillies game that she watched.

[135] But when Maggie got to the moment that she heard screaming from her brother's bedroom, her account became less and less specific.

[136] She never saw the intruder.

[137] She didn't realize her parents had both been stabbed even though she was in their bedroom with the lights on, and she never investigated what was causing all the noise in her brother's bedroom.

[138] When she needed to describe her reaction to learning that her family was dead, she wrote simply, quote, and you know the rest, end quote.

[139] Lead and the other detectives didn't know what to think.

[140] Some details in Maggie's statement were touching, depicting an unusually close family.

[141] But it's a basic principle in police investigation that when a witness fills their statement with irrelevant details, they may not be telling the whole story.

[142] Leed didn't think of Maggie as a suspect, but it did seem odd that the killings came just two days after she returned home from college and that she was miraculously spared.

[143] It was also strange that she had seen so little of the loud, bloody attack unfolding all around her in her home.

[144] But Leed thought to himself that Maggie's performance was so bad that she had to be telling the truth.

[145] After all, if Maggie was connected to the crime in any way, wouldn't she put on a major display of grief to cover her tracks?

[146] As Dawn broke over Mannheim Township, Leed was facing perhaps the most appalling murder case in his town's history, and he had little more to go on than the quirky personality of the lone survivor.

[147] She struck him with her motor vehicle.

[148] She had been under the influence and she left him there.

[149] In January 2022, local woman Karen Reid was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O 'Keefe.

[150] It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location.

[151] What happens next?

[152] Depends on who you ask.

[153] Was it a crime of passion?

[154] If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling.

[155] This was clearly an intentional act.

[156] and his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia.

[157] Or a corrupt police cover -up.

[158] If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover -up to prevent one of their own from going down.

[159] Everyone had an opinion.

[160] And after the 10 -week trial, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision.

[161] To end in a mistrial, it's just a confirmation of just how complicated this case is.

[162] Law and crime presents the most in -depth analysis to date of the sensational case in Karen.

[163] You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondery Plus.

[164] Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

[165] Hey, all you fans of The Strange, Dark, and Mysterious.

[166] It's me, Mr. Ballin.

[167] And today, I have some big news.

[168] It's something I'm holding in my hands right now, and so obviously you can't see it.

[169] But this is something you're really going to want to see.

[170] It's the first ever official Mr. Ballin publication.

[171] It's a graphic novel, and it's called Mr. Ballin Presents, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, The Graphic Stories.

[172] It's an anthology of both classic and brand new, terrifying stories that we've never covered on any of my other platforms, because we created them specifically for this first book.

[173] Each of these stories in the book are feature -length, Mr. Ballin's stories that really needed to be told visually.

[174] And the artwork in this book is, I mean, I'm looking at it, and it's just absolutely stunning.

[175] So the book is not actually coming out until my birthday this year, October 1st.

[176] But you can pre -order it right now at book .bollen studios .com.

[177] Again, that's book .bollandstudios .com.

[178] The slaughter of a respectable family in a picture -perfect neighborhood where people leave their doors unlocked was an irresistible story to the national news media.

[179] By late on Saturday, May 12th, the same day as the murders, the crime was on CNN and other big national networks, all of them pointing out that the killer or killers were still at large.

[180] The people of Mannheim Township were scared that a psychotic killer was on the loose in their community, and police started giving Maggie around -the -clock security protection.

[181] For Alan Leed and the other detectives working the case, the media coverage triggered dozens of calls from people who said they knew something about the crime, but almost certainly didn't.

[182] One woman called to report three Hispanic men in a black Chevy cruising the neighborhood near the crime scene.

[183] Perhaps they were involved.

[184] A man called to report two young men.

[185] people dressed in goth clothing who spit on him, maybe they were the killers.

[186] One couple who called in actually volunteered the use of their bloodhound dog, Nellie, which initially seemed like a smart idea to lead.

[187] So, Lede let Nellie sniff blood spatters at the crime scene and then turned her loose, and Nellie took her handlers as well as the police on a zigzagging tour of the business district before finally leading them to a burger restaurant that Nellie thought smelled delicious.

[188] And it was at this point that her handlers admitted that Nellie very likely had no idea where the Haynes' killer had fled.

[189] The police had no solid suspects, but their crime scene investigation at least gave them some clues.

[190] It appeared that the killer, or killers, had struck the parents first, then savagely attacked their son, Kevin, leaving blood everywhere, including on the bottom of the killer's shoes.

[191] That's what left the bloody footprints in the upstairs hall.

[192] If they could find the shoes that matched the print, they would have their killer.

[193] Despite the extreme violence, there was no sign of robbery.

[194] Lisa Haynes' jewelry and other valuables in the house were undisturbed.

[195] Whoever killed the family had likely targeted them for some reason other than money.

[196] And the viciousness of the attack on Kevin specifically made police suspect that Kevin might have been the primary target.

[197] There was also one other disturbing detail at the crime scene.

[198] They found blood in the downstairs bathroom, as though.

[199] the killer had taken the time to clean up before leaving the murder scene.

[200] Their killer, it seems, was not remotely in a hurry.

[201] Maggie's role in all of this, if any, remained a mystery.

[202] Almost immediately, rumors spread that a former boyfriend of Maggie's could be the killer, but Maggie had never had a serious boyfriend.

[203] Lead asked an FBI analyst to read Maggie's written statement to see if he saw signs of deception about the murders.

[204] The analyst said they did not.

[205] And so it seemed to lead that people were gossiping about Maggie, mainly because she was the only family member to survive.

[206] The police began interviewing everyone who knew the family, hoping that they might gain some insight into who would want to hurt them.

[207] But the Haynes family were a tough family to hate.

[208] Person after person reported how decent and friendly they all were and how they always tried to do the right thing.

[209] Kevin had two best friends, Alec, who he was going to Germany with, and Warren Toe.

[210] who he had known since elementary school and ate lunch with in the school cafeteria most days.

[211] These three were so close that they called themselves the three musketeers.

[212] If anyone would know who might hate Kevin and his family enough to kill them, it would be Alec or Warren.

[213] But the detective who called them came away with few concrete leads.

[214] Warren, who was choking back tears, said that Kevin got along with everyone.

[215] He said Kevin didn't socialize much, but he was always helpful to his classmates and no one seemed to pick on him.

[216] Warren said all of the Haynes family members were extremely nice and he couldn't understand why they had been attacked.

[217] Kevin was even closer to Alec, who lived just a half mile away.

[218] Not only were they going to Germany together, but they were well known at the high school for their good -natured cafeteria debates about everything from religion to politics.

[219] But Alex said he was just as baffled as Warren.

[220] When Warren called him on Saturday with the horrible news, Alex said he initially thought Warren was just making a terrible joke.

[221] He said he couldn't think of a single person with a bad opinion of Kevin, except for perhaps a couple of students in math class who occasionally teased him.

[222] But it seemed like no big deal to Alec.

[223] In all their interviews, police found only one trace of ill -will towards the Haynes family.

[224] One of Tom Haynes's co -workers said that Tom, in his role as a manager, had recently threatened a new employee with firing if his performance didn't improve.

[225] The co -worker said the two men got into an angry discussion behind closed doors in Tom's office, but when one of Leeds' detectives tracked down this new employee, he denied there had ever been any shouting or even any anger.

[226] And he had a perfect alibi.

[227] He and his wife were out late with another couple the night of the murders.

[228] So it was another dead end.

[229] Then on May 15th, so three days after the murders, Leed got a call from an alert trooper in North Carolina who had pulled over two men in their 20s for speeding, and then discovered they had been smoking marijuana as well.

[230] One of the men volunteered, while high, that they were heading for Florida after, quote, getting away with murder in Pennsylvania, end quote.

[231] The trooper was aware of the Haynes family murders, and so he searched this vehicle closely until he found a knife.

[232] Both of these men were locked up in the Johnson County Jail, the trooper told lead, if he wanted to send someone to question them.

[233] For the first time in four days, Alan Leed felt hopeful, and he practically skipped out of his office into the squad room to tell the other detectives about this new hot lead.

[234] He told them how one of these suspects even had lacerations on his right hand.

[235] The guy claimed the injury was from a sawmill, but those cuts could also come from violently murdering people.

[236] Lead told his team, we may have our killers.

[237] At Leeds' request, the FBI had already done an analysis of the bloody footprints in the hallway.

[238] They came from size 12 hush puppies, a casual shoe brand.

[239] So, Leed called the Johnson County jailer and asked him to send a photocopy of the souls of the two men's shoes.

[240] The jailer was happy to oblige, and a few minutes later, Leed received a fax from North Carolina.

[241] The pictures were disappointing.

[242] The two men were wearing sneakers, not hush puppies, and neither was a size 12.

[243] But Leed knew they could still be the killers, so he asked for a DNA sample from both of the jailed men that could be compared with DNA from the crime scene.

[244] Once again, the jailer was happy to help, and once again, the results were disappointing.

[245] A few days later, the crime lab told Lee that none of the DNA from the men in jail in North Carolina matched the crime scene.

[246] They were not the murderers.

[247] Feeling very discouraged, Leed thought to himself, you know, maybe they were thinking about this case all wrong.

[248] The FBI had told investigators that the murderers The murders had the earmarks of a crime by someone who knew their victims, not a crime committed by strangers.

[249] The killer or killers had used a knife, which is a very intimate murder weapon, and the attack on Kevin seemed an act of pure hatred.

[250] And whoever had done this did seem to know their way around the house, likely knowing that the Haynes did not lock their doors.

[251] Maybe, Lee thought to himself, investigators needed to keep looking closer to home.

[252] On May 19th, so a week after the murder, murders, people crowded into the Otterbine United Methodist Church for a memorial service for the Haynes family.

[253] It was a church that had long been at the center of the family's life.

[254] Kevin's grandmother was one of the church's founders, while Tom had served as a trustee.

[255] The crowd grew so large that volunteers hastily set up folding chairs at the back of the church to accommodate the overflow.

[256] All the while, a Pennsylvania state trooper videotaped everyone coming in the door and local police were stationed all over the building just in case the killer might reveal themselves.

[257] Moments before the service was about to start, Detective Leed escorted Maggie and her other family members into the church where they somberly took a seat in the front row.

[258] The entire chamber immediately fell silent, except for the sobs of Warren Tobin's sister.

[259] The pastor spoke about the mystery of evil and the promise of the afterlife for the faithful Tom, Lisa, and Kevin Haynes, providing some comfort amid such a staggering loss.

[260] But then the pastor invited Lisa Haynes' brother to the podium and his message sent a shiver through the entire congregation.

[261] He talked about the profound impact the murders were having on the Haynes family, as well as the larger community, and he called on the killer to come forward and ask Maggie for forgiveness.

[262] He said the killer might even be here right now at this memorial service, posing as a grieving friend or loved one.

[263] For Kevin's friend, Alec, who was seated with the German teacher who would have chaperoned Alec and Kevin to Germany that summer, the message that the killer might be in that room was overwhelming.

[264] By the time the service was over, Alec had balled up his fists, his face was glowering, and when several girls tried to comfort Alec and give him a hug, he grew rigid and stepped back.

[265] Alex stalked off to his father's car where he sat, fuming, and when his dad got in, he asked what was going on.

[266] Alex said he was furious at all the hypocrites in the service who never cared about Kevin when he was alive, but now that he was dead, everyone was acting so sad in public like he mattered to them.

[267] But he didn't.

[268] They didn't care.

[269] And in fact, Alick was now convinced, like Lisa Haynes' brother, that the killer had to be one of those hypocrites.

[270] They were there in the church, he knew it.

[271] By May 22nd, so 10 days after the murder, lead and his team were no closer to making an arrest, and the detectives were starting to disagree amongst themselves about how to move forward.

[272] Several believed that Maggie had not told them everything she knew.

[273] Maybe Maggie was not involved in the crime, but she could be holding back details about the family's history, or something that happened on the night of the murder that could help them solve the case, and so they wanted to bring Maggie back to the police station for more questioning.

[274] Lee didn't like the idea.

[275] Maggie had answered their questions over and over again, often giving investigators.

[276] more details than they really wanted.

[277] What more could she have to say?

[278] And Leed feared that Maggie might have a serious emotional breakdown if they asked the same questions again as though they didn't believe her earlier answers.

[279] But Leed ran the team like a democracy and when the other detectives outvoted him, he agreed to question Maggie one more time.

[280] At 11 a .m. that morning, Leed walked into an interview room and sat down across from a now somewhat resentful Maggie Haynes.

[281] But to Lee's surprise, Maggie did have more to say.

[282] As lead asked question after question in his gentlest voice, Maggie energetically responded.

[283] As Maggie recalled the unfolding attack on her family, she said she could smell the blood when she stepped from her bedroom out into the hall.

[284] When she got to her parents' room, she couldn't see any blood, she said.

[285] But her mother was so upset that when she asked her to go get help, Maggie didn't ask any questions.

[286] She just went and got help.

[287] In the moments after Maggie had learned that her parents and brother were dead, she said the first person she wanted to call was the head of her prayer group at college.

[288] She wanted to know why God would let something so terrible happen.

[289] And then Maggie started to cry.

[290] By the time she walked out of the police station, Alan Leed was convinced of two things.

[291] One, Maggie had nothing to do with the crime.

[292] And two, she had told them everything she knew.

[293] Over the next two weeks, tips about the Haynes murders continued to come into police, but the results were much the same.

[294] They put a microphone on one informant who claimed that a guy named Amani had confessed to invading the Haynes' home and then, quote, taken care of, end quote, the people inside.

[295] But after two weeks of eavesdropping on Amani's conversations, all police heard about was Amani bragging about women, drugs, and guns.

[296] He did not seem to know anything about a triple murder.

[297] Meanwhile, one of Kevin's best friends, Alec Kreider, who had become really angry at the memorial service, convinced the killer was amongst them, he started to break down.

[298] In the first days after the killing, his parents worried that he was keeping his grief about Kevin's death inside, becoming even more silent and withdrawn than usual.

[299] Alec had never had an easy time expressing his feelings, and he didn't have a lot of close friends aside from Kevin and Warren.

[300] then in early June, three weeks after the murder, Alec began talking about suicide on the phone with a girl he had a crush on.

[301] Her name was Carolyn.

[302] On June 5th, he told Carolyn, he had a loaded gun, and he didn't think he was going to make it through the week.

[303] Carolyn's heart started racing when she heard this because she feared Alec really was going to kill himself, maybe even on the phone with her at that very minute.

[304] She managed to get the attention of her aunt who lived with her and she let her know that she had a suicidal boy on the phone.

[305] Carolyn gave her aunt Alex's address and said she had to go there to warn Alex's mother.

[306] Carolyn then kept Alec on the phone until her aunt spoke to Alex's mom and Alex's mom called 911.

[307] When Alec finally came out of his bedroom, there were several police officers waiting who tackled him and then handcuffed him to prevent him from hurting himself.

[308] Detective Leed had come with the 911 response when he heard the call, in part because he knew Alec better than anyone else in the department from the Haynes investigation.

[309] Lead walked next to Alec as he was gently led out of the house towards a squad car, and as he walked, lead put his arm around Alec and just said, you know, how are you doing?

[310] And all Alec would say was, the world is a terrible place.

[311] As police helped Alex step into the squad car, lead thought about the way the murders were totally upending the lives of the people who survived.

[312] Lead was convinced.

[313] convinced that Maggie was on the edge of a breakdown, and now one of Kevin's closest friends was cracking up.

[314] He couldn't help but agree with Alec.

[315] The world is a terrible place.

[316] The next day on June 6th, Alec was involuntarily committed to a mental hospital to be held for at least a week.

[317] For the next six days, Alec was kept in a locked ward and not allowed to have any contact with anyone outside of the hospital except for his parents.

[318] All the while, Alec wrote letters that he intended to send to Caroline.

[319] Finally, on June 12th, Alex's parents were scheduled to come to the hospital for a family therapy session and Alec was looking forward to seeing them.

[320] But Alex's parents had bad news.

[321] Carolyn did not want to have a romantic relationship with him.

[322] After all the suicide talk and threats of violence, Carolyn's aunt told them that the teen only wanted to be friends, nothing more.

[323] The second Alec heard this, he seemed to just crumple in his chair and let out a laugh that was anything but amused.

[324] He looked at his parents and told them bluntly to get out of the room.

[325] He needed to speak to his therapist alone.

[326] The therapist was only in the room with Alec for a few minutes before she emerged looking like she had seen a ghost.

[327] She told Alex's parents that Alec really needed to tell them something.

[328] And what Alec had to say would blow the Haynes family murder case wide open.

[329] Based on what Alec and his parents told investigators, here's what really happened to Tom, Lisa, and Kevin Haynes on the night of May 12th.

[330] A little after 1 a .m., the killer got dressed in dark clothes, including a baseball hat with duct tape over the team logo and hush puppy shoes.

[331] Then they grabbed a flashlight and a knife and began the relatively short walk to the Haynes' household.

[332] When they got there, the killer knew the door would be unlocked, so they opened it up and silently walked through the house up the stairs, towards the bedrooms.

[333] First, the killer went into the parents' room and quickly killed Tom Haynes with two deep stab wounds to the chest.

[334] The killer also stabbed Lisa Haynes, but she was still alive when the killer left the room.

[335] The killer then walked down the hall to Kevin Haynes' room, and he began stabbing him as he slept.

[336] But Kevin woke up and began to fight back.

[337] Kevin managed to get out of his bed and began crawling towards the door, but the killer caught up to him and then mortally wounded him with a slash to the throat.

[338] The screams that woke Maggie up were the sounds of her brother's dying moments.

[339] Maggie's appearance in the hall surprised the killer, who didn't realize she'd be home from college.

[340] But once she fled to get help, the killer forgot about her and just went back to the parents' room and slashed Lisa's throat, killing her as well.

[341] The killer then walked downstairs and casually washed their hands in the bathroom before slipping out the sliding glass door in the kitchen back out into the night.

[342] Alec had been carrying his horrendous secret around for weeks until he just couldn't bear it any longer.

[343] His rage over what had happened had grown day by day until he couldn't take it anymore and he decided to kill himself.

[344] But when he ended up in a mental hospital and got rejected by the girl he liked, Alec realized there were worse things than being dead.

[345] With no way to die and nothing to live for, Alec decided he might as well tell the secret.

[346] and the secret was that he, Alec, was the killer.

[347] Alec offered almost nothing in way of explanation for what he had done.

[348] He said only that his best friend, Kevin, had been annoying him lately, chewing too loudly at lunch and arguing a bit too much in their conversations.

[349] Alex said that initially he planned only to kill Kevin and smother him with a pillow.

[350] But once he got inside the house, he just decided to stab everyone to death.

[351] A month later, he told his parents he felt no regrets.

[352] In fact, he was still wearing the hush puppy shoes he wore the night he murdered the Haynes family.

[353] All the pieces now fit into place for Detective Leed in his team.

[354] Alex's shoes matched the bloody footprints, and police found the flashlight, as well as the baseball hat with duct tape over the logo in the woods behind the Haynes' house.

[355] They also found a ghastly note in Alex's desk at his house.

[356] The note said that Alexander, which is Alex's full name, was born at 3 .30 a .m. on May 12th, right after the murders, as though the slaughter had led to Alex's rebirth.

[357] Alec played guilty to three counts of first -degree murder in 2008, and he was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

[358] Then, in January of 2014, Alec made good on his suicide threats, hanging himself in his prison cell.

[359] Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast.

[360] If you enjoyed today's story, be sure to check out our YouTube channel, just called Mr. Ballin, where we have hundreds more stories just like this one, many of which are not available on this podcast.

[361] They are only available on YouTube.

[362] Again, that YouTube channel is just called Mr. Ballin.

[363] So that's going to do it.

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