Doomsday Prepper (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

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[2] What happens when armed home invaders break into a residence that's owned by a man who has a black belt and karate?

[3] He keeps hundreds of guns stashed all throughout his house, and he also has a doomsday shelter specifically in case somebody breaks into his house.

[4] Well, the result might surprise you.

[5] But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange Dark and Mysterious Delivered in Story format, then 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.

[6] So if that's of interest to you, the next time the Amazon Music Follow button asks for a movie or a show recommendation, tell them you don't need to watch anything, you just need to listen to our brand new show, RunFool.

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

[8] I'm Dan Tiberzky.

[9] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York.

[10] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

[11] What's the answer?

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

[13] Hysterical.

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

[15] Binge all episodes of Hesterical early and ad -free on Wondery Plus.

[16] On November 16, 2009, Kay Mortensen walked in the front door of his second home in Payson, Utah, a small city, south.

[17] of Salt Lake City.

[18] Most of the time, he and his wife Darla lived about 250 miles away, but Kay had a lot of valuable stuff in the Payson House, including at least 100 guns and rifles, and so he liked to check in on the property at least once a month.

[19] Kay was riding high these days.

[20] At 70 years old, he liked to say that he had finally found the love of his life in Darla.

[21] They had each raised separate families before finding each other three years earlier through the Mormon Church, and now they work together as volunteer tour guides at a a Mormon historic site, which was perfect for Kay, who was a retired Brigham Young University professor.

[22] This job allowed him to indulge his love for teaching and his love for Darla all at the same time.

[23] That day, Darla was heading out to babysit her granddaers in Salt Lake City, so she'd be gone for hours, leaving Kay to do chores around the property all by himself.

[24] Now, the house was out in the country, kind of isolated and surrounded by woods, but Darla never worried about her husband when he was left alone at the house, because her husband, and Kay was not your typical retired professor.

[25] The man was a black belt in karate who always carried a gun and kept weapons in virtually every room of the house.

[26] Darla almost felt sorry for anyone who tried to tangle with Kay.

[27] Once, Kay shot a neighbor's great -Dane dog that he just said was threatening him, so he was obviously ready to pull the trigger.

[28] Darla kissed Kay goodbye, walked outside to her car, and then drove off to spend time with her grandkids.

[29] And once Darla was gone, K. immediately stepped outside to inspect his pride and joy.

[30] Not many people knew about his pride and joy, but he had built an underground bomb shelter near the house where his family could take refuge when the inevitable nuclear war that he was so scared of finally began.

[31] Kay had constructed the shelter to very high professional standards, including an air filtration system and enough concrete to withstand a missile blast.

[32] There was even a bathroom and a composting toilet.

[33] Kay bent down and grabbed the handle of a heavy metal door that was sitting in the ground, and he opened it up, revealing a staircase.

[34] And then he went down those stairs and threw another door, where he entered into the pitch -black shelter.

[35] Kay flipped on the lights and looked with satisfaction at the contents of his hideaway.

[36] There were canned foods and bottled water stacked the ceiling.

[37] There was a small library of classic books and magazines, and there were 20 guns with ample ammunition.

[38] When Kay flipped another switch, he heard the electric hum of the air system kicking in.

[39] Everything was the way it should be.

[40] Kay knew that some people thought he was totally a crazy extremist whenever he talked about his belief that the United States was destined to be destroyed by nuclear war with the Russians or civil war right at home.

[41] But he was in good company in Utah.

[42] When he had taken a course in disaster preparedness a few years earlier, he was surrounded by familiar faces from the area, including Martin Bond, the son of one of Kay's closest friends.

[43] They had joked that Utah might be more ready for nuclear catastrophe than anywhere else in the world.

[44] And Kay had already made a fortune by predicting America's doom.

[45] He was so sure that the U .S. dollar would soon become worthless that he had begun investing in gold as a young man, and sure enough, the price of gold had skyrocketed over the decades, and so now Kay was a multi -millionaire.

[46] It was a good thing he'd made all that money, Kay thought, as he walked back to the house from his bomb shelter.

[47] His oldest child, Roger, who lived just down the road in Payson, was constantly in need of money for one thing or another.

[48] Kay loved Roger, but his son, despite being 48 years old, really couldn't take care of himself, not since he suffered a severe head injury from driving his ATV off a cliff in 1994.

[49] Ever since then, Roger had not been able to hold a steady job for very long.

[50] Kay had already put his wealth into a trust that would be divided among his three kids, but he knew that Roger would continue to cost him money for the rest of his days.

[51] Despite Kay's misgivings about his son, he was looking forward to seeing Roger and his wife Pam that evening.

[52] Pam had called the night before to suggest they dropped by to play board games before Kay and Darla went back to their primary home 250 miles away.

[53] The couple might be needy, Kay thought, but they were loyal.

[54] They never missed a chance to see him while he was in town.

[55] But first, Kay had chores to do that would take most of the day, including getting the house ready for another snowy Utah winter.

[56] Also, the internet service was acting kind of shaky, and so he had called a tech to come take a look.

[57] So when he heard a car pulling up the driveway around four, he thought it might be the tech guy.

[58] And when the doorbell rang, Kay opened the door without giving it a second thought.

[59] Around 5 .30 p .m., so less than an hour later, Kay's son, Roger, and daughter -in -law, Pam, pulled into the door.

[60] to Kay's driveway and they could see that Kay had company.

[61] A blue hatchback car that they didn't recognize was sitting in front of the house.

[62] Pam figured it was a handyman helping Kay with his internet problems or maybe replacing a worn out carpet that Darla hated.

[63] Pam rang the doorbell with a smile on her face and a pecan pie in her hand, Kay's favorite.

[64] A friend at work had given Pam the pie as a gift that morning and all day she couldn't wait to give it to Kay.

[65] But when the door opened, it was not Kay.

[66] Instead, a man in his 20s with a blank look on his face greeted them and let them inside, saying, don't worry, Kay was right upstairs.

[67] Two hours later, at about 7 .45 p .m., a very strange 911 call came into the county sheriff's office that patrolled Payson.

[68] When the dispatcher answered, a woman with a calm voice told her that she and her husband had just been held hostage for the last two hours by gunmen inside of her father -in -law's house, and now the gunmen were gone, and so they were calling the police.

[69] The caller was, of course, Pam Mortensen.

[70] But when the dispatcher asked Pam for more details, Pam couldn't seem to remember a thing.

[71] She said there could have been maybe three gunmen, but she wasn't sure.

[72] And then when asked what any of them looked like, she said she didn't really get a good look, but they could have been African American.

[73] Meanwhile, in the background of this call from Pam, her husband, Roger, so Kay's son, yelled out a different account.

[74] He said there were two invaders, and they both were white.

[75] While Pam continued talking to the dispatcher, Roger yelled out that he was going to go check on his father who was upstairs.

[76] And so Roger ran upstairs, and then moments later, Roger came back downstairs and while Pam was still on the 911 call, Roger would say out loud that his father was dead.

[77] The dispatcher, who heard this, said that sheriff's deputies were on their way.

[78] A few minutes later, around 8 p .m., Kay's wife, Darla, who was driving home from her day with her grandchildren, got a call from her neighbor.

[79] Her neighbor was usually a laid -back person, but now he sounded totally anxious.

[80] He told Darla that there were all kinds of sheriff's deputies at her house in Payson.

[81] The friend had no idea what it was about, but he urged Darla to be careful when she went home.

[82] Darla hung up and had a horrible thought.

[83] What if Kay shot someone?

[84] He'd always said he'd kill anyone who tried to break into their house.

[85] Maybe it actually happened.

[86] Darla then repeatedly began calling Kay's cell phone, but he didn't pick up.

[87] And so in a panic, she called a friend and explained what was going on, and the two women agreed to meet near Darla's home in Payson at 8 .30, and they would find out what was going on together.

[88] By 8 .30 p .m. that night, yellow police tape blocked access to the driveway at Kay and Darla's house, and police cruisers lined the rural road leading up to it.

[89] Even the leader of the investigation, Sergeant Eric Newtson of the Utah County Sheriff's Office had to park a 10 minutes walk away from the crime scene.

[90] But as soon as Newtson arrived at the house, a sheriff's deputy led him through the growing scrum of investigators into the house to the upstairs bathroom.

[91] And there, in the bathroom, was the body of K. Mortensen.

[92] He was kneeling on the tile, bent half over his bathtub.

[93] His hands and feet were zip -tied together.

[94] As Nudson got closer, he could see that Kay's throat had been repeatedly slashed from ear to ear, and he had a deep stab wound in the back of his neck.

[95] Whoever had done this had first arranged Kay over the bathtub so that his blood didn't get all over the floor.

[96] It was almost like an execution.

[97] Knudsen was a veteran detective who had seen lots of grisly crime scenes before, but the cruelty of what he was seeing in front of him made him a little bit nauseous.

[98] It also puzzled him.

[99] Kay was well known for his self -defense skills and his vow to defend his home with deadly force if necessary.

[100] How could this have happened?

[101] Downstairs in the living room, sheriff's deputies were trying to get more details from Kay's son, Roger, and his wife, Pam, the two who had called 911, but it was frustrating work.

[102] The couple repeatedly contradicted each other as they tried to describe what happened, or they would just shrug nonchalantly and say they didn't know the answer.

[103] Sergeant Knutzen saw the looks of mounting annoyance on his deputy's faces as he came down the stairs and gestured for them to stop asking the couple questions.

[104] Nudsen then led Roger and Pam into the kitchen where it was a little quieter and he asked them to have a seat at the table.

[105] Nudson then asked one of the deputies to videotape the conversation he was about to have and then he told Roger and Pam to walk him through what had happened from the top.

[106] Nudson's first impression of the couple was that they did not seem traumatized from their ordeal or even particularly sad that Roger's father had clearly just been murdered.

[107] Instead, they just kept glancing at each other and smirking like this was some sort of game.

[108] Pam explained that they were planning to spend the evening with Kandarla, but when they arrived at their house, they were greeted not by Kandarla but by strangers with guns.

[109] Pam said that her husband, Roger, sensed trouble immediately and asked the gunman if they could just take their pecan pie and leave.

[110] But the gunman said no. And then another gunman said very simply, you've seen our faces, and so now we have to kill you.

[111] Knudson listened silently to Pam and Roger's story, but inside, he was thinking that it was totally ridiculous.

[112] So they were confronted by two men with guns and their first thought was to try to get their pecan pie back?

[113] Shouldn't they have been more worried about Kay's safety or their own?

[114] Who would ever think first about saving a pie?

[115] But Nudsen let Pam continue.

[116] Pam said the gunmen made them kneel in the living room, and then one of the men zip -tied their hands in front of them while the other zipped tied their ankles.

[117] Then the two men just left Pam and Roger kneeling on the ground for a really long time totally by themselves.

[118] Pam said while they were kneeling there, she just prayed to a picture of Jesus that Kay had hung in the living room as much to calm herself as it was to calm her husband.

[119] Roger as well had begun praying loudly while they were kneeling there and he was right in the middle of a sentence about the Lord being his shepherd when Pam started shushing Roger because she heard the gunman coming back.

[120] But to Pam's surprise, one of the gunmen told Roger to keep praying.

[121] Then both gunmen bowed their heads and silently listened as Roger asked God to spare his wife and him from harm.

[122] After Roger said amen, the gunman said they had decided not to kill Pam and Roger after all.

[123] At this point, Knutzen just completely did not believe the couple.

[124] Pam and Roger were claiming that the same men who had just slaughtered K. Mortensen like a hog decided not to kill the only witnesses because they were so moved by what, Roger's prayer?

[125] Are you kidding?

[126] But Knudsen didn't realize the story was actually about to get even more ridiculous.

[127] Pam and Roger continued and said that the gunmen had told them they would let the couple live on one condition.

[128] Pam and Roger should tell police that they were held hostage by three African American men.

[129] That way, investigators would not go looking for the two young white men who actually committed the crime.

[130] One of the gunmen then took Roger's license from his wallet.

[131] If the couple told investigators what really happened, he said, they would come to their house and kill them.

[132] The couple then said they escaped from their zip ties as soon as they realized the gunmen were really gone, and then Pam immediately dialed 911.

[133] She told Nootson she had to be vague with the 911 operator about the number and race of her attackers because she was trying to tell the lie that they had demanded.

[134] But she said Roger, who was kind of yelling in the background during this call, was telling the truth.

[135] It really was two white men in their early 20s with black hair and maybe a mustache or a goatee.

[136] And then Pam told Nudson that Roger had run upstairs to find his father, bound, hand and foot, and slumped over the bathtub.

[137] Kay had bled profusely from deep wounds in his neck, and his body was cold to the touch.

[138] Roger knew immediately that his father had been murdered, and so he went downstairs and told Pam.

[139] To Nootson, Roger just didn't seem that shaken up about his father's death.

[140] In fact, Roger seemed a little gleeful.

[141] As the video camera rolled, Roger told Nootson that his father was a, quote, cantankerous old fart, end quote, who never stopped sharing his opinions.

[142] He also volunteered that now that Kay was dead, he was likely to inherit millions of dollars from his father's estate.

[143] Sergeant Nudson thought the whole story was absolute nonsense, except for the part about Roger inheriting millions now that his dad was dead.

[144] Nootson was mildly offended that Pam and Roger would expect him to believe their cover story.

[145] This was not his first day on the job, and these two seemed totally guilty.

[146] If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good.

[147] You are a fan of the Strange Dark and Mysterious.

[148] And if that's the case, then I've got some good news.

[149] We just launched a brand new Strange Dark and Mysterious podcast called Mr. And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries, a genre that many fans have been asking us to dive into for years, and we finally decided to take the plunge and the show is awesome.

[150] In this free, weekly show, we explore bizarre, unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between.

[151] Each story is totally true and totally terrifying.

[152] Go follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a prime member, you can listen early and ad -free on Amazon Music.

[153] I'm Dan Tiberski.

[154] In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

[155] I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad.

[156] I'm like, stop fucking around.

[157] She's like, I can't.

[158] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast.

[159] It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these girls.

[160] With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down low.

[161] Everybody thought I was holding something back.

[162] Well, you were holding something back.

[163] Intentionally.

[164] Yeah, yeah.

[165] Well, yeah.

[166] No, it's hysteria.

[167] It's all in your head.

[168] It's not physical.

[169] You're, oh my gosh, you're exaggerating.

[170] Is this the largest mass hysteria since the witches of Salem?

[171] Or is it something else entirely?

[172] Something's wrong here.

[173] Something's not right.

[174] Leroy was the new date line and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

[175] A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical.

[176] Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[177] You can binge all episodes of hysterical early and ad -free right now by joining Wondry Plus.

[178] Kay's wife Darla finally reached the police tape across the driveway to her house a little after 9 p .m., feeling totally exhausted from worrying over the past hour.

[179] At this point, she was still expecting to hear about something Kay had done to another person, like shoot them or something.

[180] But when Darla identified herself to the sheriff's deputy guarding the driveway, he immediately led her and her friend inside to Sergeant Nudson, who had a grim look on his face.

[181] He said he was so sorry, but he had very bad news.

[182] Darla's husband was dead.

[183] Darla immediately fell against her friend as the world that she and Kay had built, dissolved in an instant.

[184] Then, out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of her steps on Roger, just standing in the corner looking beleaguered.

[185] Darla ran to him and hugged him tight as she started to weep.

[186] The two just stood there in a silent embrace for a long time.

[187] Sergeant Nudsen watched Darla as she leaned on Roger weeping, and he felt a pang of sorrow for her.

[188] But he also knew he was leading a murder investigation that just couldn't wait.

[189] If Pam and Roger were actually telling the truth, then that meant the gunmen were still at large, posing a huge threat to other people.

[190] Knudsen at this point basically did not believe Pam and Roger's story, but he still wanted to give them a chance to fully explain themselves.

[191] The stakes were simply too high to do anything else.

[192] So late on the night of the murder, he asked Roger and Pam to come back to the sheriff's office, so they could go over everything that happened again, but in a quieter, more peaceful setting.

[193] By this point, investigators had done a first sweep of Kay and Darla's home, and they had discovered that about 20 guns in Kay's bomb shelter were now missing.

[194] But if the killers were there to rob Kay, why had they only taken 20 guns?

[195] Kay had way more guns in the house, some of which were so valuable that Kay kept them in a safe.

[196] It made Noots and wonder if the theft of a small portion of, of the guns was just a part of Pam and Roger's cover story to try to draw suspicion away from themselves.

[197] So Sergeant Newtonson sent Pam and Roger to separate interview rooms so the investigators could compare Pam's answers to Rogers to see if there were any differences.

[198] And almost immediately, Pam and Roger's stories began to go in different directions.

[199] Roger said the gunmen were wearing, quote, blue fuzzy gloves, end quote, Pam said they were wearing purple surgical gloves.

[200] Roger said he freed them both from the zip ties with a knife he was carrying, Pam said she freed herself.

[201] Knudson, sitting across the empty interview table from Pam, finally just stopped asking questions and just stared at her with a mixture of incredulity and irritation.

[202] Then Sergeant Nudson took a deep breath and told Pam point blank, I think your story is a bunch of crap, and then he asked her flat out if her husband was capable of murder.

[203] Specifically, could Roger have killed Kay just to get his inheritance early.

[204] Pam replied that she didn't think so, and then quickly added, quote, I personally would not have had my father -in -law killed for money, end quote.

[205] But that's exactly what Nootson thought was really going on, that they had killed him for money.

[206] And later that night, when Sergeant Nootson showed the videotape of the interviews with Roger and Pam to Kay's wife, Darla, Darla, Darla began thinking the same thing.

[207] Roger and Pam were clearly acting very suspicious.

[208] By the next morning, Nudson and his team had figured out a few things about the death of K. Mortensen.

[209] The crime scene itself was very neat with no fingerprints, blood spatters, or signs of a struggle for investigators to analyze.

[210] That suggested that the crime was totally planned out ahead of time, but it also suggested something more.

[211] Kay may have knew his killers.

[212] He was a man who carried a gun at all times because he was so worried about his personal safety, and he was a black belt in karate, but he apparently let the murderers right into the house without any problem.

[213] The investigators also realized that their victim was the kind of person who had rubbed a lot of people the wrong way over the years.

[214] Stubborn and quick -tempered, Kay had been through two divorces before he met Darla, and he was estranged from one of his sons over a fight about money.

[215] Over the years, he had fought with Brigham Young colleagues, a business partner, and of course the woman who owned the Great Dane that he had shot.

[216] At the same time, Kay had close friends going back decades, people like Martin Bond, the other guy who was very in to doomsday prepping, as well as Martin's father, Mike, and they both lived nearby in Payson.

[217] Kay had helped them both cope with the death of Martin's older brother in 1997.

[218] Also, Kay could be very generous, loaning money to friends and family in need without really ever pressing for repayment.

[219] And so as a result, Kay had died with lots of people who owed him money.

[220] And so investigators came up with this long list of people who had something to gain from K's death, from revenge to debt forgiveness.

[221] But they struggled to identify anyone who would have been motivated to actually kill him.

[222] Roger and Pam suggested a guy named Mike Kip, who apparently was so broke he had recently sold some of his guns to K to raise some money.

[223] And it just so happened that those were the very same guns that the gunman took from the bomb shelter.

[224] And so maybe, they suggested, Kip just wanted his guns back.

[225] But Roger's own relatives increasingly suspected that Roger may have been involved in his father's death, and they let Nudson's team know that Roger had a history of violence.

[226] He had once aimed a gun at a vehicle full of Boy Scouts when he was riding on his ATV, and his third ex -wife had accused him of throwing her against the wall and slapping her.

[227] He had also battled a drug addiction in the years after his head injury.

[228] Roger admitted to having a troubled past, but he insisted that that was the past before he met Pam and settled down.

[229] And he loved his father.

[230] They had bonded over their love of guns and often traded weapons.

[231] He considered his dad to be his best friend and said that he gave him money anytime he asked for it, and he also helped him break his addiction to drugs, and so why would he want to kill his dad?

[232] But when Roger agreed to take a lie detector test, he failed it.

[233] The analyst concluded that Roger was trying to be deceptive.

[234] Investigators tracked down the suspect that Pam and Roger had suggested, Mike Kip, to see if he could have conceivably killed Kay to get his guns back.

[235] But Kip told the sheriff's deputies who came to his house that he was not at all angry at Kay.

[236] He was grateful that Kay was willing to pay him $25 ,000 for some 30 weapons, money that he desperately needed.

[237] He was distraught over Kay's murder, and he had witnesses who knew Kip was nowhere near Kay's house on the day Kay was killed.

[238] Sergeant Knudson quickly decided that Mike Kip did not kill Kay Mortensen.

[239] Meanwhile, Nudson's deputies were having a hard time confirming key parts of Pam and Roger's story about the home invaders.

[240] They couldn't find the mysterious blue hatchback that Pam and Roger said was parked in the driveway, and the two white male suspects were given such a generic description by Pam and Roger that really they could be hundreds of people.

[241] Also, Pam and Roger just consistently behaved like they were hiding something throughout the entire investigation, even before they had struggled with the lie detector tests.

[242] Knudson and his boss decided it was time to turn up the heat on the couple to see if they would crack.

[243] The sheriff's deputies still had no direct evidence that the couple actually harmed Kay or hired others to do it for them, but Newtson just felt like it was a matter of time before they confessed.

[244] On February 2nd, 2010, more than 10 weeks after Kay's murder, the sheriff's office announced to the media that Pam and Roger were persons of interest in Kay's murder.

[245] Investigators filed a court document laying out the inconsistencies in a couple's statements about the day of the murder and pointing out that Roger had a criminal history that included both violent threats and theft.

[246] Roger had been found guilty, but mentally ill, by a jury for stealing tools from the hardware store where he worked.

[247] A judge sentenced him to 45 days of home confinement saying his depression was not an excuse for criminal behavior.

[248] The sheriff's office also complained that Pam and Roger had stopped cooperating with the investigation.

[249] Basically, investigators had stopped just short of actually saying that Pam and Roger were the murderers.

[250] Pam and Roger were now totally isolated.

[251] The entire Mortensen clan believed they were the murderers, except for one of Roger's aunts.

[252] However, she didn't think they were innocent.

[253] she just thought they hired a hitman to carry out the crime.

[254] Over the coming months, detectives would pour over every detail of Pam and Roger's life, while county prosecutors convened a secret grand jury to determine whether the evidence was enough to put the couple on trial.

[255] Sheriff's deputies also searched their home and cars, finding illegal weapons, as well as marijuana.

[256] Finally, on July 29, 2010, eight months after Kay's murder, the grand jury indicted Pam and Roger for murder.

[257] Prosecutors said the couple had misled investigators from the very first 911 call, and they never stopped misleading the investigation.

[258] Authorities were certain they were the ones who brutally killed Kay and then tried to make it look like a robbery gone bad.

[259] On the same day of the indictment, a team of armed sheriff's deputies showed up at Pam and Roger's door, accompanied by TV cameras.

[260] When Pam and Roger came to the door, the deputy told them they were under arrest for the murder of K. Mortensen.

[261] They were booked into the Utah County Jail and ordered to be held until they could raise $500 ,000 bail.

[262] That night, 150 miles to the east in the town of Vernal, Utah, a young woman named Rachel Bingham, watched the TV news showing Roger and Pam being let out of their home in handcuffs.

[263] The reporter said that the two would soon face trial for killing Rogers' own father so that he could collect his inheritance earlier.

[264] Rachel shuddered as she watched the TV.

[265] She had been keeping a secret for months, and it was absolutely destroying her.

[266] She knew she needed to come clean to investigators.

[267] A couple of days later, on July 31st, Rachel finally got up the courage to call the Utah County Sheriff's Office.

[268] She was on the verge of tears as she began talking to the sheriff's deputy on the other end of the line.

[269] She told them that she had been withholding vital information about the Mortensen murder since March and had been trying to block the whole tragedy from her mind as the case against Pam and Roger progressed.

[270] But when she saw on TV that the couple was about to be tried for murder, Rachel said she just could not remain silent any longer.

[271] Rachel explained that she had just divorced her husband who happened to know a lot about the Mortonson murder.

[272] Rachel didn't talk to her ex anymore, but right before their divorce, when they were still trying to work things out last March, he had told her that he really needed her help.

[273] Then he led her in on a huge secret.

[274] He said he knew who killed Kay Mortensen, and he even had the evidence to prove it.

[275] He had the guns that had been stolen from Kay's bomb shelter.

[276] But Rachel said her ex -husband feared that the killer was going to find the guns unless he found a new place to hide them.

[277] And so this was why he needed Rachel's help.

[278] And so against her better judgment, Rachel had rented a U -Haul truck, and then she and her ex -husband had filled it with those 20 guns that had been stolen from K. Then, early on March 31st, the two drove into the desert near Vernal with their young son sitting in between them.

[279] Eventually, Rachel's ex directed Rachel into a wilderness park full of cliffs up to 100 feet high.

[280] Then the three of them walked down a trail into the woods until Rachel's ex -husband picked a secluded spot and began digging a hole to bury the guns in.

[281] After her ex -husband had tamped down the freshly overturned soil with a shovel and covered it with branches, he made Rachel promise not to tell anyone about the weapon stash.

[282] Otherwise, her ex -husband said, his life could be in danger.

[283] And so Rachel had kept her word until now.

[284] The deputy asked Rachel to please come into the sheriff's office for a formal interview.

[285] Rachel wiped away her tears and said she would.

[286] She had no choice.

[287] And so the next day, Rachel drove to the sheriff's office in Provo, Utah to meet with Detective Knudson and his team, and as soon as she was settled down on a couch in front of the video, camera, she began talking.

[288] Based on what Rachel told detectives and also the detective's follow -up investigation, here's what really happened on November 16, 2009, the day Kay Mortensen was murdered.

[289] At about 5 p .m., the two killers pulled into Kay Mortensen's driveway inside of a blue hatchback vehicle.

[290] Their plan was to steal Kay's prized gun collection, but just in case they were each carrying handguns if Kay gave them any trouble.

[291] But their motive was definitely robbery.

[292] The ringleader of this duo had serious money problems, and his sidekick could use some cash too.

[293] When the killers rang the doorbell, Kay instantly recognized the leader as someone who had been inside of his house many times.

[294] And so naturally, he invited the pair into the house without any hesitation.

[295] The ringleader felt a surge of excitement as soon as they stepped through the door.

[296] His plan was actually working.

[297] Almost immediately, the killers pulled out their guns and handed Kay zip ties.

[298] they told him to bind his own wrists Kay had seemed both surprised and annoyed to be treated so rudely by a friend but he did as they asked he then pointed out that his wife would be home soon so they didn't have much time for whatever it was they wanted to do the men said nothing in return and just put on latex gloves to make sure they did not leave behind fingerprints once their gloves were on they told Kay that they wanted to know where to find his gun collection the ringleader said he knew that Kay had scores of weapons, including very valuable antiques.

[299] So where were they?

[300] Kay directed the men to the guns in his bomb shelter without telling them about a much larger and much more valuable collection he kept inside of a safe.

[301] Even with guns pointed at him, Kay did not want to give up his best weapons.

[302] But the killers didn't question Kay, and instead, they took all the guns from the shelter and loaded them into the blue hatchback.

[303] But then, the home invasion took a dark turn.

[304] After loading all of the guns into the hatchback, the two killers went back inside the house, they grabbed K and began walking him towards the stairs that led to the upstairs bathroom.

[305] As they passed through the kitchen, the sidekick happened to grab a butcher's knife.

[306] Now, the ringleader had not planned to kill K, but for some reason, after the sidekick had grabbed the knife and clearly showed he was going to use it on K, the ringleader just kind of went along with it.

[307] and so the two killers just walked Kay up the stairs into the bathroom and they forced him over the side of the bathtub so his torso was kind of hanging in the tub and his legs were out and then one of the two killers took the knife and began sawing at the front of Kay's neck and as they did this Kay began screaming in pain and then after sawing away at his neck for a while one of the killers took the knife, raised it high into the air and then plunged it straight down into the back of Kay's neck.

[308] A blow he had seen used before in Gladiator movies.

[309] Kay's body had barely gone limp when the killers heard the front doorbell ring.

[310] The sidekick got down to the door first and he let Pam and Roger into the house as the leader was coming down the stairs as well.

[311] The sidekick then calmly told the couple that they were going to kill them.

[312] Roger immediately started crying, but Pam, she stayed cool.

[313] The killers zip tied Pam and Roger's wrists and ankles and then left them kneeling in the living room for 45 minutes while the killers cleaned up the crime scene.

[314] But when they returned, Roger was praying aloud and the gunman stopped and quietly listened.

[315] The ringleader told his accomplice that there could be no more killing today and the two men agreed to let the couple live as long as they blamed the crime on three African American men.

[316] It would turn out Pam and Roger had actually been telling the truth the whole time.

[317] Then the two killers drove away from the scene with their stash of guns.

[318] They went out into the desert and buried them, figuring they would sell them when publicity about the murder died down.

[319] But as the investigation went on for months and months, the ringleader started to worry that his accomplice might turn the weapons into authorities and try to pin the murder on him.

[320] That's why he had asked Rachel to rent the U -Haul in March.

[321] The ringleader of the crime was Rachel's ex -husband, Martin Bond, whose father happened to be a dear friend of Kay Mortensen.

[322] 22 -year -old Martin had been to Kay's house from time to time since he was a little boy, and he had bonded with Kay as an adult when they both took an emergency preparedness course together.

[323] Bond insisted to his ex -wife that he had only planned to rob Kay, not kill him, and that he had been powerless to stop his 22 -year -old accomplice, Benjamin Reddigg, from slaughtering Kay.

[324] In the end, the partners in crime turned on each other.

[325] Reddigg claimed the whole crime was Bond's idea.

[326] Redig said Bond had first told him about the robbery plan the day they actually carried it out, and he also insisted that Bond was the one who actually killed Kay.

[327] Reddick pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 25 years to life.

[328] As for Bond, he claimed he was innocent, but a jury convicted him and sentenced him to life without parole.

[329] He later admitted in jail that he had been the one who slashed Kay's throne.

[330] wrote, but he said he only did it because his partner, Reddigg, had a gun aimed at him.

[331] As for Pam and Roger, they were released from jail on December 7, 2010, after four months of incarceration, and the prosecutor's office said the couple was fully exonerated.

[332] The couple sued the Utah County Sheriff's Department and prosecutors for falsely accusing them of murder.

[333] However, the lawsuit was tossed out because the U .S. Supreme Court has ruled that no one can sue over inaccurate testimony made to a grand jury.

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

[335] If you enjoyed today's story and you're looking for more bone -chilling content, be sure to check out the rest of our studios' podcasts, Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries, bedtime stories, and run full.

[336] Just search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts.

[337] If you want to watch hundreds more stories, just like the one you heard today, head to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin.

[338] so that's going to do it I really appreciate your support until next time see you hey prime members you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad free on Amazon music download the Amazon music app today and before you go please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondry .com slash survey she struck him with her motor vehicle she had been under the influence and she left him there in January 21st In 2020, local woman Karen Reid was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O 'Keefe.

[339] 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.

[340] What happens next?

[341] Depends on who you ask.

[342] Was it a crime of passion?

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

[344] This was clearly an intentional act.

[345] And his cause of death was blunt force, trying to be.

[346] with hypothermia.

[347] Or a corrupt police cover -up.

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

[349] Everyone had an opinion.

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

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

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

[353] You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondry Plus.

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