Rotten to the Core (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

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[2] Jealousy, revenge, romantic triangles, robbery, sexual assault, and disputes during drug transactions are the most common motives and circumstances surrounding nearly all homicides.

[3] But the homicide that takes place in today's episode will not fall into any of those categories.

[4] Instead, it will fall into a category that most people don't realize actually exists.

[5] Needless to say, be very careful of who you spend your time around because not everyone is who they appear to be.

[6] But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

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

[9] I'm Dan Tibertsky.

[10] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York, 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 hysterical early and ad -free on Wondery Plus.

[16] On the morning of February 8th, 2010, 17 -year -old McKenzie Cowell was sitting in her high school cafeteria in Winachi, Washington.

[17] Wenatchie was a small agricultural town, nicknamed the Apple Capital of the World, because of its thousands of acres of sprawling apple orchards in the area.

[18] And in the cafeteria, McKenzie was sitting around a long table with her high school dance team, the Appalettes, that was named after the town's biggest cross.

[19] Mackenzie loved dancing almost more than anything.

[20] And even when she wasn't doing routines with the dance team at football and basketball games, she would often dance her way down the halls to class or out to her car in the school parking lot.

[21] And as a high school senior, she was one of the leaders of the Appalettes.

[22] And so she and some of the other seniors were talking about the new sweatshirts they wanted to design for the dance team.

[23] The girls talked about the different images they could put on the shirts and what color they should be.

[24] McKenzie voted for her favorite color, purple.

[25] And then they just relaxed and talked about other things that were going on in their lives, like the boys they were dating, SAT scores, and what they wanted to do that weekend.

[26] Then the morning bell rang, and McKenzie and the other girls grabbed their school bags, got up from the table, and headed to class.

[27] McKenzie was five foot eight inches tall, and she was pretty with long brown hair and red highlights.

[28] And she had braces on her teeth that she couldn't wait to get off, but even though her braces made her self -conscious, they didn't stop her from smiling at the other students she passed in the hall.

[29] And she knew the braces were a necessary evil if she ever wanted to live out her dream of becoming a model someday.

[30] That day at school was a pretty typical one for McKenzie.

[31] She liked her classes and she loved getting to hang out with her friends at lunch, but she spent a lot of her time daydreaming about graduation and thinking about a time when she'd be able to pursue her goals outside of high school.

[32] And to that end, McKenzie had enrolled at a cosmetology school, or what some people called beauty school, that allowed her to get out of her high school classes a little early every day.

[33] McKenzie wanted to learn how to become a hairstylist and a makeup artist because she believed it could help her in modeling.

[34] But McKenzie also loved the idea of doing something that could help other people look and feel their best.

[35] So that afternoon, McKenzie went into a bathroom, dug her cosmetology school uniform out of her bag, and got changed into black pants, black shirt and a black apron, like she did most days during the week.

[36] Then she put on her coat and walked outside to her car in the high school parking lot.

[37] It was a cold day, a little under 40 degrees Fahrenheit, but McKenzie's coat and her fur -trimmed brown boots helped keep her warm.

[38] Mackenzie hopped into her red Pontiac Grand Prix, tossed her school bag and purse in the passenger seat, and then drove a few miles away to her cosmetology school.

[39] When she got there, she parked in the lot behind the school, grabbed her phone from her pocket, and sent a text message to her boyfriend, Joaquin Villasano.

[40] Joaquin was a few years older than McKenzie, and he was busy working most days, so McKenzie made sure to text him whenever she had a chance just to say hi, because she thought it was important for them to check in with each other even when they were busy.

[41] Then McKenzie put her phone back in her pocket and headed into the school.

[42] Once inside, she stepped into a classroom that was set up like a working hair salon, and she gave a huge smile to her instructors and classmates.

[43] McKenzie loved everything she was learning about hair and makeup at the school, but she also really liked having the chance to be around people of all different ages.

[44] Some of the students in her cosmetology classes were well into their 20s and even 30s, so McKenzie felt much more like an adult with real freedom when she was there than she ever did at her high school, and she knew she could learn a lot from the other students because they had different backgrounds and life experiences than she did.

[45] One of the students, a 28 -year -old man named Chris Wilson, had a mother who owned a salon.

[46] And so Chris was already really good at certain techniques like dying hair, and McKenzie loved how Chris dyed his own hair.

[47] And so she had started practicing hair -dying techniques on herself as well.

[48] And so every day when McKenzie left cosmetology school, she felt like she was learning new skills, either from her teachers or from her classmates.

[49] And that evening, after another great day at beauty school, Mackenzie drove home, and as she did, she was in a really good mood, so she turned up her car stereo, blared her favorite song, and bobbed her head along with the beat.

[50] And as McKenzie drove down a tree -line street in her small neighborhood, she was excited about all the opportunities she was sure were going to come her way.

[51] McKenzie pulled up to her mother's two -story house and parked her car in the driveway.

[52] She grabbed her stuff from the passenger seat and then walked inside the house and went straight into the living room.

[53] But before she could even put her bags down, her mother's boyfriend walked in and started yelling at her.

[54] And any of that joy McKenzie had felt when she was driving home had now completely disappeared.

[55] McKenzie couldn't even tell what her mother's boyfriend was mad about other than the fact that she had come home.

[56] Because for some reason, her mother's boyfriend did not like McKenzie.

[57] And so McKenzie just stood there while he shouted at her and got angrier and angrier until finally McKenzie told him to leave her alone and she ran upstairs to her room, sat on her bed and fought back tears.

[58] Then she grabbed her phone and called her dad.

[59] Mackenzie split time between her divorced parents' houses, and on the phone she told her dad she couldn't wait to come over to his house the following night.

[60] And her dad said when she came over, he would cook her a special dinner and make her an ice cream float, which had been her favorite dessert since she was a kid.

[61] By the time McKenzie hung up with her dad, she felt a little better.

[62] But while she sat there on her bed, she thought about the argument she'd just had with her mother's boyfriend over seemingly nothing, and she decided she was not going to put up with him anymore.

[63] So, Mackenzie sat there on her bed for a minute, took a few deep breaths and really psyched herself up.

[64] Then she marched downstairs, found her mother, and she told her it was time to make a decision.

[65] Mackenzie said her mother could choose either her, her daughter, or her boyfriend, but she couldn't have both.

[66] And McKenzie said if her mother's boyfriend stayed living at the house, she would move out for good.

[67] Her mother listened and tried to calm Mackenzie down, and then she promised she would think about what McKenzie had to say.

[68] But later that night, McKenzie went to bed without an answer from her mother.

[69] But as she drifted off to sleep, she tried to push any thoughts of her mother's boyfriend out of her head.

[70] She reminded herself that she was going to her dad's house the next day, and she knew that meant everything would be a lot better when she woke up.

[71] The next morning, at 7 .15 a .m., McKenzie rushed out the front door of her mother's house and got into her red Pontiac parked in the driveway.

[72] Mackenzie wore jeans, a t -shirt, and her coat, and she had her cosmetology school uniform folded up neatly in her bag.

[73] And that day at school started just like the day before.

[74] McKenzie walked into the loud cafeteria, where a group of high schoolers were hanging out and talking loudly before first period, and she made her way through the crowd to the table where her friends from the Appalettes dance team were sitting.

[75] And the Appalettes talked a little about the sweatshirts they wanted to make again, and after they'd talked for a while, the bell rang.

[76] So McKenzie said goodbye to her friends and headed off to class.

[77] And later that day, she changed into her cosmetology uniform and drove to beauty school.

[78] And once she was there, she worked on some new hairstyling techniques and talked with her classmates like she always did.

[79] But then, at around 3 p .m., the students got a break, and McKenzie told one of her classmates that she was going to leave during the break, but she'd only be gone for about 15 minutes, and she wondered if she had to sign out with the front desk before she did that.

[80] Her classmates said she didn't think so, and so McKenzie just grabbed her cup.

[81] coat, put it on over her uniform, and walked out the back door into the parking lot.

[82] Mackenzie slid into the driver's seat of her car, tossed her purse in the passenger seat, started the car, and turned on the heater.

[83] Then she grabbed her phone and sent a text to her boyfriend, Joaquin, that just said, hey.

[84] Mackenzie stared at her phone for a little bit, waiting for a reply, and just a few minutes later, Joaquin responded with, hey, as well.

[85] McKenzie smiled, put her phone back in her pocket, and drove out of the cosmetology school parking lot.

[86] It was cold, but the sun was shining, and McKenzie looked out the windshield and saw the barren apple orchards that lined huge parts of the town, and she thought that the empty orchards in winter were beautiful in their own way, but she really couldn't wait for summer when the apples would start growing again.

[87] At about 5 .45 p .m., over two hours after McKenzie had left cosmetology school on her break, her dad was at home in the kitchen cooking dinner.

[88] He glanced at his watch, picked his phone up off the table, and called McKenzie.

[89] He knew she usually left cosmetology school around 5 .30, and he just wanted to let her know dinner was almost finished and to see how close she was to the house.

[90] But McKenzie didn't answer her phone, so he left a message for her and turned back to the food he was making.

[91] McKenzie's dad knew that sometimes she stayed around after class to talk to her teachers and the other students, so he didn't think much of it.

[92] But after a while, when McKenzie didn't show up and he hadn't heard back from her, he called her again.

[93] And when her phone went right to voicemail, he started to worry.

[94] And so he kept calling McKenzie, but she never picked up.

[95] Then a little while later, at 8 p .m., so about four and a half hours after McKenzie had gotten in her car in the parking lot, a local rancher was driving his truck on a dirt road on the land that he owned.

[96] The rancher approached one of his cattle gates on his land, and then he saw something which caused him to slam on his brakes.

[97] In the headlights of his truck, the rancher could see an abandoned car a few yards down the road.

[98] The rancher got out of his truck and ran to the car and looked through the window to see if anyone was inside, but the car was empty.

[99] People did not just abandon their cars like this on his land, and the rancher worried that the driver might be injured somewhere nearby.

[100] So he ran back to his truck, climbed in, grabbed his phone, and called 911.

[101] Not long after that 911 call, McKenzie's dad was sitting on the couch in his living room.

[102] He was nervously tapping his foot on the floor and calling McKenzie again and again, but still not getting through.

[103] It had been almost three hours since she should have come home, and he still hadn't heard anything.

[104] And when his daughter's phone went right to voicemail one more time, McKenzie's dad hung up and just put the phone down next to him.

[105] But minutes later, the phone rang, and McKenzie's dad answered without even looking at the number of the caller, hoping he would hear his daughter's voice.

[106] But instead, a police officer introduced himself on the other line, and McKenzie's dad knew something was terribly wrong.

[107] Then the officer asked him if he was missing a red Pontiac Grand Prix that was registered in his name because that car had been found abandoned on some nearby ranchland, and McKenzie's dad felt like the room started to spin.

[108] He took a breath and told the officer that yes, that was his car and he was missing it, but the car was not important.

[109] He said the only thing he cared about was finding the person who had been driving the car, his 17 -year -old daughter, McKenzie.

[110] On the morning of February 13th, 2010, so four days after McKenzie's car had been found, police, local volunteers, and even members of the FBI, were searching all over town for McKenzie.

[111] They'd spent the last few days knocking on doors in every neighborhood in the area, hoping that someone had seen her, but they still hadn't had any luck.

[112] And so it seemed like once McKenzie left the parking lot at her cosmetology school after going for her 15 -minute break, she had just vanished.

[113] Then, at 12 .45 p .m., a man was walking on the banks of the Columbia River, about 25 miles away from Wenatchee, in an area known for its great hiking trails.

[114] The man listened to the river running nearby and breathed in the crisp winter air.

[115] Then suddenly, he stopped in his tracks.

[116] He shielded his eyes from the sun to get a better look at something several yards in front of him by the water's edge.

[117] And when the man realized what he was looking at, he immediately started running towards the water and shouting, and when he got to the edge of the water, he crouched down on the ground and just started shaking his head, like he couldn't believe what he was looking at.

[118] He had seen a person lying on the ground, and he hoped they were just sleeping, or at worst, they were injured.

[119] But now that he was up close, he knew he was looking at a dead body.

[120] The man's hand started shaking, and he looked around for anybody else to help, but he was alone.

[121] So he took a deep breath and steadied himself, then he reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out his phone, and called 911.

[122] Not long after that 911 call, Chief Deputy Robin Wag of the Douglas County Sheriff's Department walked down the banks of the Columbia River towards a group of police officers and forensics technicians.

[123] Wag was a big guy with a steady voice, and he was known for always remaining calm under pressure.

[124] But when Wagg saw the body near the river, he got mad, because he knew immediately the victim was 17 -year -old McKenzie Cowell.

[125] Mackenzie's picture had been sent to the law enforcement agencies in the area, and her face had been all over the news for the past few days while people had been searching for her.

[126] And as Wagg looked down at McKenzie, he felt shaken, and not just because of how young she looked, but because McKenzie had a knife sticking straight out of her shoulder.

[127] Wag hadn't seen anything like that before, and he couldn't imagine what kind of a person would do something so violent, especially to someone so young who had her whole life ahead of her.

[128] But Wag couldn't spend any time trying to figure out a potential killer's motives just yet, because he saw McKenzie's feet were already in the water, and he knew the river level would rise throughout the day, and so the body, and any evidence around it, were in danger of being washed away.

[129] So Wagg ordered the team on site to start their search for evidence with the body, and then to make their way outward further away from the water, and so that day the investigative team worked as quickly as they could as they raced against the rising river.

[130] Normally, Wagg would have wanted to inform the victim's family in person, but the time crunch he was under meant he needed to stay at the crime scene.

[131] And on top of that, he had to inform FBI agents who'd been helping with the search for McKenzie about what they had found.

[132] And after the FBI was notified, they were the ones to contact McKenzie's dad.

[133] And so while police searched the crime scene, McKenzie's dad sat at home, and he was still desperately hoping to hear some good news from the search party who were looking for his daughter.

[134] But then his phone rang, and an FBI agent on the other line, introduced herself and said that she was so sorry to be giving this information over the phone and not in person, and McKenzie's dad knew before she even said it what he was about to hear.

[135] The agent informed McKenzie's father that police had found his daughter's body on the banks of the river, and McKenzie's dad just went completely silent and he felt like his whole world had just shattered.

[136] And not long after that call, while McKenzie's dad informed his fiance, his ex -wife, and other family members about what he had just heard, police continued their search on the riverbank.

[137] And before the river water got too high, they were able to pull blood and hair samples from McKenzie's body and the knife found in her shoulder.

[138] And a little further up the riverbank, they found five feet of duct tape that was spattered with blood.

[139] So over the next few days, while the blood samples and physical evidence were sent to the lab for tests, Deputy Wag and his investigative team started talking to anybody who they thought might know something about what had happened to McKenzie.

[140] They interviewed McKenzie's family, and they met with friends and teachers from her high school, and at McKenzie's cosmetology school, they talked to the woman who McKenzie had told she was leaving for that 15 -minute break.

[141] And they spoke to Chris Wilson, the man whose mom owned a salon.

[142] But all anybody seemed to know was that McKenzie had gone out to the parking lot for this break and then just never came back.

[143] But then a woman contacted the police and told them that she thought she had seen a thin, dark -haired young man walking away from McKenzie's Red Pontiac Grand Prix not long after it had been abandoned.

[144] But that description could fit a wide range of people.

[145] So, Wagg shifted his search from McKenzie's school life to her life online to see if he could narrow down his search for this thin, dark -haired young man. And so detectives began looking at McKenzie's social media pages on sites like Facebook and MySpace, and McKenzie's social media posts led police right to a young man who fit the witness's description, McKenzie's boyfriend, Joaquin Villasano.

[146] She struck him with her motor vehicle.

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

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

[149] 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.

[150] What happens next depends on who you ask.

[151] Was it a crime of passion?

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

[153] This was clearly an intentional act.

[154] And his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia.

[155] Or a corrupt police cover -up.

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

[157] Everyone had an opinion.

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

[159] To end in a mistrial, it's just a kind of.

[160] confirmation of just how complicated this case is.

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

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

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

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

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

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

[167] We just launched a brand new Strange Dark and Mysterious podcast.

[168] called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.

[169] 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.

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

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

[172] 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.

[173] On an early morning, about a week after McKenzie's body was found on the banks of the Columbia River, Chief Deputy Wag walked through the Douglas County Sheriff's Department into a small interrogation room.

[174] Wag watched as a technician wrapped a blood pressure cuff around Joaquin Villasano's arm to prep him for a polygraph or lie detector test.

[175] Joaquin was thin with dark hair and he wore a t -shirt and jeans, and under the bright fluorescent lights overhead, Wag could see that Joaquin was visibly nervous.

[176] Then, Wagg entered the room and took a seat next to several officers who were already inside there.

[177] In the days following the discovery of McKenzie's body, different law enforcement agencies had come together to form a task force for the murder investigation.

[178] And so now, Wag and other investigators from the Douglas County Sheriff's Department were joined by members of the Wenatchee Police, the Washington State Police, and the FBI, and all of them were eager to hear what McKenzie's boyfriend, Joaquin, had to say.

[179] The room got quiet, and then in a calm voice, the investigator leading Joaquin's polygraph test asked if Joaquin was a gangster, because they had seen social media posts that supposedly celebrated gang behavior.

[180] But Joaquin said no. He just really loved hip -hop music, and some of his favorite artists talked about gang life in their songs.

[181] Then the investigator asked if Joaquin had met up with McKenzie after they exchanged text messages on the day she died, but Joaquin said after he had sent the response text just saying, hey, he never heard from or saw McKenzie again.

[182] Wag noticed that almost every time Joaquin answered a question, he looked down at the floor, and Wag knew that could be a sign that Joaquin was lying or trying to avoid the question.

[183] But Wagg also thought this kid might just be painfully shy.

[184] Then finally, the investigator asked Joaquin if he had killed McKenzie, and Joaquin said no. He said he loved her.

[185] But by the end of the session, investigators still weren't sure what to make of Joaquin.

[186] Several answers he'd given had been inconclusive on the polygraph test, so there was a chance that he'd told several lies.

[187] But Wag and the others didn't want to condemn Joaquin without conclusive proof, and so far all they really had was the text message that Joaquin had sent in response to McKenzie's text on the day that she had died, and neither of those text messages were substantive.

[188] They just said, hey.

[189] And so investigators knew they had to find something more concrete than that if they wanted to hold Joaquin, but Joaquin's interrogation and conversations with some of McKenzie's friends and family led them to another potential suspect, because almost all of the people police talked to had pointed them to someone who they said McKenzie fought with all the time.

[190] And so, as the investigation moved forward, Wag started to think that maybe McKenzie's boyfriend was not the killer.

[191] However, maybe McKenzie's mother's boyfriend was.

[192] About a week after McKenzie's body had been discovered, Wag and other members of the task force started to look deeper into the relationship McKenzie had with her mother's boyfriend.

[193] And almost everything they found out made it clear that McKenzie and her mother's boyfriend argued a lot.

[194] And then McKenzie's dad told investigators that the night before McKenzie had gone missing, she had given her mother an ultimatum and said her mother had to choose between McKenzie and her boyfriend.

[195] So on a cold February afternoon, investigators went to Mackenzie's mother's house.

[196] But when they met with the boyfriend, it was a quick conversation.

[197] He admitted he and McKenzie did not get along, but he said he would never do anything to hurt her.

[198] And he said he was nowhere near McKenzie at the time she was murdered and that multiple people could vouch for his whereabouts.

[199] And when Wag followed up on his alibi, it checked out.

[200] Still, Wag was not ready to write off any potential suspects just yet.

[201] But after meeting McKenzie's mother's boyfriend, Wagg still thought McKenzie's own boyfriend, Joaquin, seemed like a much stronger lead.

[202] And the test results that came back from the lab confirmed that genetic material found on that knife in McKenzie's arm and on the blood spattered duct tape belonged to a male.

[203] And the violent nature of the attack led Wag to believe it had been carried out by someone who knew McKenzie and that it could have been a crime of passion.

[204] And so Wagg felt like he was still on the right path with Joaquin.

[205] On February 25, 2010, over two weeks after McKenzie's murder, 1 ,800 people filled the stands of the arena where the local hockey team played.

[206] They had all come together to celebrate McKenzie's life at a public memorial service.

[207] The owner of the hockey team had paid for the entire service and had made sure that the ice on the hockey rink was covered with a floor so McKenzie's dance team, the Appalettes, could perform a routine in her honor.

[208] And at the end of that dance routine, all of the dancers hugged and cried.

[209] And none of them could believe that their friend McKenzie, who loved dancing as much as they did, never get to perform with them ever again.

[210] And during that memorial service, members of the audience were very moved by that dance performance and the effect it had on the dancers.

[211] They saw how emotional they were getting.

[212] And so the audience got really upset and angry, and a lot of the people in attendance decided they needed to do something to help find McKenzie's killer.

[213] So in the weeks following the memorial, business leaders in the community came together and started a reward fund, offering almost $40 ,000 to anyone who had information that led police to the person who had committed this horrific crime.

[214] Chief Deputy Wag hoped the reward might bring someone forward who had been unwilling to talk to police before.

[215] And he hoped someone would be able to shed light on new evidence because he still didn't have enough to link Joaquin to McKenzie's murder and he really had no other viable suspects.

[216] But then, in early April, over a month after the memorial, a call came in to the police that would turn the entire investigation on its head.

[217] In early April, about two months after McKenzie's murder, Chief Deputy Wag was sitting at his desk when a fellow officer rushed in looking very excited.

[218] And the officer told Wag that they had just gotten a call from a woman who said she knew exactly who killed McKenzie and how they had done it.

[219] So Wag took down the woman's information and quickly set up an interview with her.

[220] Her name was Liz Reed, and she was a low -level drug dealer who had worked as a police informant in the past to help police catch bigger drug traffickers in the area.

[221] And so not long after Wag contacted her, Liz came to the station.

[222] And when Wag and other members of the task force sat across from her in the interrogation room, they were blown away by what they heard.

[223] Liz told them that two major dealers she knew had bragged to her about being the ones who had killed Mackenzie Cowell.

[224] But she said that wasn't all, because these dealers had made Liz watch a video, what they called a snuff film, that actually showed McKenzie's murder.

[225] And then Liz gave police another piece of evidence that she said would make it clear that these drug dealers were really the killers.

[226] She said that after they forced her to watch this snuff film, they had sent her out to the banks of the Columbia River, close to where McKenzie's body had been found, and the dealers had told Liz that they needed to find a ring that had fallen off of McKenzie.

[227] McKenzie's finger by the river when they had killed her.

[228] Liz told police she had gone searching for the ring, but she couldn't find it.

[229] After meeting with Liz, Wag and the other investigators shifted their focus from McKenzie's boyfriend Joaquin to the drug dealers, Liz had mentioned.

[230] Wag was not going to just take Liz at her word, but she had been a good police informant in the past, so he at least considered her story credible.

[231] And so with all of the details Liz had provided, investigators set out to tracked down the drug dealers, to find the ring Liz had mentioned, and to locate the snuff film she said would prove who killed McKenzie.

[232] And it turned out that finding the drug dealers was not that hard.

[233] They were well known by police in the area, and so not long after talking to Liz, investigators questioned them.

[234] But not surprisingly to the police, the dealers denied everything, and they claimed to have no idea who McKenzie was other than what they had seen on the news.

[235] But police were not ready to just accept the word of two known drug dealers, so they continued to pursue this new lead.

[236] And on April 20th, over two months after McKenzie's murder, several members of the investigative team were back on the banks of the Columbia River.

[237] They were combing the area around where McKenzie's body had been found, looking for the ring Liz had told them about.

[238] But it had been months since the murder and the depth of the river water fluctuated so much.

[239] So officers worried that if they really had missed something as important as a ring the first time around, it would have been washed away by now.

[240] But the officers walked up and down the banks, searching every inch of land, and at times one of them would get down on the ground and dig through rocks and dirt where they thought they might have found something, but each time the excitement quickly disappeared when they realized they had not found the ring.

[241] Then, suddenly, one of the officers stopped in his tracks.

[242] He thought the sunlight had bounced off of something near his feet.

[243] He knew it most likely was a rock, like all the other times, he thought he had found the ring, but he wanted to make sure.

[244] So he got down on the ground and moved his eyes across the dirt, but at first he couldn't see anything.

[245] Then the sun shined just right again, and something caught his eye.

[246] And he bent down even further and started digging the dirt away, and his eyes lit up because he was staring at a ring, just like the one the police informant Liz had described.

[247] And later that day, when Chief Deputy Wag and other task force leaders got a look at this new evidence, they thought they might finally have something that would prove who killed McKenzie.

[248] And so Wag and a member of the Wenatchie Police Department took the ring and drove all over town, And they showed it to McKenzie's parents, her family, and her friends from high school and cosmetology school, but not one of them recognized the ring.

[249] So Wag took one final step, and he went directly to the young man who had been his prime suspect, McKenzie's boyfriend, Joaquin.

[250] But Joaquin looked at the ring over and over again, and he said he'd never seen McKenzie wear anything like it.

[251] And all of a sudden, this piece of evidence that had looked so promising proved to be yet another dead end.

[252] But even though nobody in McKenzie's life recognized that ring, investigators still didn't give up on the drug dealer angle.

[253] In fact, they spent months following the lead they'd received from their informant Liz, but they could never find any connection between these supposed killers and McKenzie, and the horrific snuff film Liz had told them about never surfaced.

[254] And then finally, months after Liz had first contacted police, she told them she had made the entire story up.

[255] There was no snuff film.

[256] The ring had been planted on the beach, and the drug dealers had nothing to do with McKenzie's murder.

[257] Months later, Liz would try to go back again on her story and claim she was actually telling the truth about the drug dealers having killed McKenzie, but the damage to her credibility was done, and so police refused to listen to her.

[258] And so by July of 2010, five months after McKenzie's murder, Wag and other investigators felt like they had lost valuable time and spent valuable resources pursuing a lead that was very likely a lie.

[259] They believed Liz was just a desperate informant who was either trying to deflect from her own drug crimes or who badly wanted that $40 ,000 reward money for information that led to McKenzie's killer.

[260] And so, Wag kept trying to move the investigation forward, but the summer heat and the return of the apples to the orchards made it clear to him just how long the search for McKenzie's killer was taking.

[261] and he knew people in town and everybody who loved McKenzie were giving up hope.

[262] But then investigators got another call from a police informant, and unlike Liz, they still trusted this informant, and the call they got from him would lead investigators to a new key piece of evidence and they would finally find McKenzie's killer.

[263] Based on the call from this new informant, interviews conducted throughout the investigation and physical evidence found at multiple locations, here is a reconstruction of what members of the Investigation Task Force believe happened to Mackenzie Cowell on the day she died, February 9, 2010.

[264] On that February day, a few minutes after 3 .45 p .m., the killer followed McKenzie's car into the parking lot of an apartment complex.

[265] The killer watched McKenzie step out of the car holding her purse, and immediately, a look of complete calm came across the killer's face.

[266] Then the killer stepped out of the car, put a smile on, and called out.

[267] to Mackenzie.

[268] Mackenzie turned around, she waved and smiled, and walked right over to them.

[269] Then the killer led Mackenzie up a flight of stairs and into a small one -bedroom apartment.

[270] Mackenzie walked into the living room that was kind of cramped, put her purse down on the coffee table, and then she smiled even wider at the killer.

[271] The place wasn't much to look at with its old carpet, low ceilings, and a few small rooms, but Mackenzie got excited thinking about a time in the near future when she would be able to get an apartment just like this one, where she could live on her own or with one of her friends.

[272] The killer said they were going to grab a glass of water in the kitchen and they'd be right back.

[273] And so McKenzie just stood in the living room, daydreaming again, about the freedom she'd get to experience once she graduated from high school.

[274] In the kitchen, the killer turned on the sink to let the water run, but instead of getting a cup of water, they opened a drawer, took out a roll of duct tape, and put it on the counter.

[275] Then they opened another drawer and looked at all the knives inside, and one knife caught their eye.

[276] It was a kitchen knife with a sharp blade and a sleek black and gray handle, something that a chef might use.

[277] So the killer reached into the drawer, took that knife out, and held it up in front of them.

[278] And just feeling the knife grip in their hand got the killer excited.

[279] But they took a breath and kept that look of complete calm on their face.

[280] Then the killer turned off the water, picked up the duct tape, held the knife down by their side, and walked back into the living room.

[281] The killer saw Mackenzie looking around the room with her back turned to them.

[282] And so the killer leaned over and put the duct tape.

[283] and the knife on a coffee table not far from Mackenzie, and when McKenzie turned to see what the killer was doing, the killer suddenly lunged at her and shoved her down.

[284] McKenzie fell backwards and slammed her head into the carpeted floor, and immediately the killer climbed on top of her and wrapped their hands around her throat.

[285] Mackenzie tried to scream, but the life was being choked out of her and she could feel herself drifting out of consciousness.

[286] Then the killer released McKenzie's throat, but stayed on top of her to keep her pinned down.

[287] The killer reached back behind them, grabbed the duct tape from the table, ripped off a long piece, and quickly bound Mackenzie's hands with it.

[288] Mackenzie tried to fight back, but she could barely move.

[289] Then the killer reached back to the table again, grabbed the knife, and slashed Mackenzie's throat.

[290] Blood spilled from Mackenzie onto the carpet, and she took her last breath.

[291] The killer stood over Mackenzie for a minute, just watching her die, and then when she went still, they raised the knife and slammed it into her shoulder, and then began trying to saw her arm off.

[292] But the knife wasn't made for that, and the killer realized they didn't have the time or supplies to do exactly what they had wanted.

[293] So the killer left the knife in McKenzie's shoulder, and they went back to the kitchen and washed the blood off their hands and face.

[294] Then they walked back through the apartment, grabbed McKenzie's purse, darted outside to the parking lot, and walked to McKenzie's Red Pontiac.

[295] The killer dug through McKenzie's purse, found her car keys, and got into the car, fired it up, then they drove that car outside of town onto a secluded dirt road by a ranch.

[296] Once they had parked the car, the killer got outside and calmly walked back down the road as the sun started to set.

[297] And they walked several miles back to their apartment, and by the time they got back, it was dark outside, and inside McKenzie's body was still on the floor.

[298] And days later, the killer drove McKenzie's body with the knife still sticking out of it to the banks of the Columbia River and left it there.

[299] And a few days after that, the killer told the cosmetology school they attended that they would be taking a leave of absence.

[300] Chris Wilson, McKenzie's classmate at beauty school, whose mother owned a salon, had murdered McKenzie and then attempted to dismember her.

[301] He tried to cut off her arm, but realized he couldn't, and so just kind of stopped.

[302] And in terms of Chris's motive, all we know is that Chris was totally obsessed with death, serial killers, and movie murderers, and he showed off this obsession with death with his tattoo of Hannibal Lecter, the killer cannibal from the movie Silence of the Lambs.

[303] Chris had even spent time working at a funeral home, likely because he loved being around dead bodies, but he had been fired because the funeral director said that Chris had started to do some things that made the rest of the staff feel very uncomfortable.

[304] But none of this was known to Chief Deputy Wag and the investigation task force until they received the call from that second police informant.

[305] This informant was in jail, but he hoped providing information about McKenzie's killer might help him with his own case.

[306] So he contacted police and told them that Chris was one of McKenzie's cosmetology school classmates and that Chris was actually very dangerous and was totally obsessed with murder.

[307] And after the police got this call, they met with Chris and they saw Chris's dyed black hair and thin frame, and they knew he fit the description from the witness who had seen a dark -haired thin young man walking away from McKenzie's abandoned car.

[308] And then police checked security camera footage of the cosmetology school from the day of McKenzie's murder, and on one of the videos, Chris could be seen leaving the school and heading into the parking lot about a minute after McKenzie was seen leaving on the video.

[309] And so with all of this new information, investigators asked Chris to submit to a DNA test.

[310] And those test results showed, Chris had possible links to the genetic material found on the knife used to stab McKenzie and on the blood spattered duct tape found near McKenzie's body.

[311] And DNA testing would also provide police with the piece of evidence that ultimately turned the case around, because when they searched Chris's apartment, police found a blood stain deep in the living room carpet, and tests done on that piece of carpet showed that the blood belonged to McKenzie.

[312] And police heard from other cosmetology school students that Chris and McKenzie might have been developing a relationship, which is why she would have been comfortable going to his apartment.

[313] Then, police found pictures on Chris's phone that he had taken of his female friend, posing as a dead body in his living room right on the spot where McKenzie's blood had been found, and so investigators were certain that Chris was the killer.

[314] Investigators believed they had proven, beyond a doubt, that Chris committed first -degree murder, but the district attorney had reservations, because there was no clear evidence that placed Chris in the apartment at the time of McKenzie's murder, and no evidence that Chris actually drove McKenzie's body to the river.

[315] And so Chris was able to sign a plea deal in which he confessed to killing McKenzie, and in exchange for that confession, he was only charged with manslaughter and sentenced to just 14 years in prison with a potential early release in 2023.

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

[317] 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.

[318] They are just on YouTube.

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

[320] I really appreciate your support.

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[325] And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondry .com slash survey.

[326] I'm Dan Tiberski.

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

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

[329] I'm like, stop around.

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

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

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

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

[334] Everybody thought I was holding something back.

[335] Well, you were holding something back.

[336] Yeah, yeah.

[337] Well, yeah.

[338] No, it's hysteria.

[339] It's all in your head.

[340] It's not physical.

[341] Oh, my gosh, you're exaggerating.

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

[343] Or is it something else entirely?

[344] Something's wrong here.

[345] Something's not right.

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

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

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

[349] You can binge all episodes of Histern.

[350] article early and ad -free right now by joining Wondery Plus.