April 21, 2026

Shot, Burned, and Betrayed: The Chilling Pettit Family Massacre

Shot, Burned, and Betrayed: The Chilling Pettit Family Massacre
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Season 10

In the middle of the night on August 8, 2013, firefighters raced to a raging blaze at a quiet home in Modesto, California. What they found inside the master bedroom was pure horror: Scott and Janet Pettit — a loving, well-respected couple — had been executed in their own bed, shot seven times as they slept. The fire wasn’t an accident… it was a deliberate, cold-blooded attempt to destroy every trace of the crime.
What began as an arson call quickly spiraled into one of the most shocking family betrayal cases in recent true-crime history. Investigators uncovered a twisted plot allegedly fueled by greed, inheritance, life insurance payouts, and one prized 1961 Corvette. At the center of it all? A son and the friend he supposedly hired to carry out the unthinkable.

Timestamps
03:34 A Case from Modesto, California
15:02 The Day of the Tragedy
20:30 Investigating the Fire
27:43 Brandon's Background
38:53 Felix Valverde: The Unlikely Associate
41:52 Evidence Found at Felix's Apartment
1:06:49 Brandon's Trial
1:14:17 The True Face of Evil

WEBVTT

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Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime podcast where I tell

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stories of real crimes with real victims, whose cases are

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so shocking that many are left wondering how is this

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even real? I use my experiences in law enforcement corrections,

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and combined with my years as a criminal justice educator,

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dig deep into complex cases of evil acts, some so

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evil many feel they are unspeakable. Warning. Unspeakable as intended

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for mature audiences. If you are easily offended, then I'm

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not your girl. Listening discretion is advised. Hey, y'all, it's

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kJ You're back with a no other episode of Unspeakable.

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How's your week going. I hope it's fantastic. I have

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been working so hard on some new content and some

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new projects that I'm excited to roll out here in

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the future. But today's episode it's a little different, if

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not really, I guess, but it's a little different in

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people that are involved. And I'll get to that in

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just a second. To explain it to you, first, let

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me do some shout outs. So I have got three

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of them. I'm gonna go through today and I'm going

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to start in West Des Moines, Iowa. And I've got

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Miss Carrie is a brand that she has joined our

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Crime Family. So Carrie, I'm waving to you on the camera.

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I appreciate you so much and I'm so thankful to

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have you here in the Crime Family. And then I've

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got G now just G. That's the letter that my

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girl Ginger goes by. And so I don't have a

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last name for you, Ginger, but you know it's you,

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And I don't have an address on file for you either,

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But I want to give everybody the opportunity now to

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hear me out when I say, if you are on Patreon,

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please go in there and make sure you put your

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address in there acually if you are at the Crime

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Family level, because if I go to mail out quarterly

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gifts and I don't have your address or it's an

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incorrect address, your gift will go nowhere or to the

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wrong address, and I want to make sure that you

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get them. So please go in there update your address.

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But either way, wherever you are in the world, my

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girl G Ginger, I'm so thankful to have you, and

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I know we spoke already on Patreon, and I'm excited

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for our friendship. And then last but certainly not least,

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just for today, from Prattville, Alabama. Is miss Deanna Wrenn.

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What is going on over there in Alabama? I hope

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you're having the best week. And again, Deanna, you're the difference.

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I'm so excited to have you on my Patreon. It

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means everything and your support is what allows me to

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keep doing what I'm doing. So if you are interested

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in joining, you can go to Patreon dot com, p

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A T PAYATEPA t R e o N patreon dot

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com and you can sign up. There's also a free option.

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Everything's not about money. You can also join for free

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and see certain things there, so be happy to have

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you there. There's also a merch link. If you go

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to Unspeakable theepodcast dot com, there's a merch link there,

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a tab you can go and you can order you

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some merch. Also, because I had some requests for this,

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I'm getting with my distributor this week and we are

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going to try to set up maybe a different type

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of ordering option on there where maybe you can build

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an item and make it more customizable. So stay tuned

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for that. Whenever I get the answers for that, I

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will be happy to share them with you. So some

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a few things to look forward to, and I want

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to make sure that you're all on top of that

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and you know what is going on. So today I

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didn't have any shout outs in California, but this episode

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is going to take place in California, So how the

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hell are my calipeeps. I'm waving to y'all as well

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on the camera because this week we will be in

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the neck of your the neck of your woods, and

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so we're gonna be in Modesto, California for this one. Now,

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the murder of Lacy Peterson is really the most recent

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huge case that put the police apartment there on the

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national map, I guess you could say, But there were

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also some older things that were big in Modesto. For example,

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the Zodiac Killer. He was believed to possibly be linked

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to the Modesto area because there were speculations about a

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kidnapping of a pregnant woman and her baby back in

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the nineteen seventies. So that kidnapping was never officially confirmed

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from anything that I've ever read, but huge talking points

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around the community more current and also in the years

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that are gone by. But this case that I'm going

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to be doing right there out of Modesto is going

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to take place in twenty thirteen. But before I get

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hard on into this story, I've got to say something here.

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I have never been somebody to shy away from topics

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that are uncomfortable. I'm not that person. I feel like,

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if something's uncomfortable, hell, let's talk about it. Let's discuss it,

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Let's think about it, because that's what makes a society

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a community that we can talk about and that we

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can discuss them. And we may not all have the

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same opinion. We all come to these stories through a

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different lens. We all have different perspective and experiences, and

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so I want to address that before I get started,

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because I'm gonna have some characters and this story that

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are a little non traditional in true crime cases, and

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so I want to put it out there that I

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recognize that this one might be a little touchy, okay,

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But I hope that you'll come listen to this one

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with me with an open mind and that no matter

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where you fall in your beliefs in this case. That's

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why I give you all the details. That's why I

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give you everything that I can find so that you,

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as a listener, can come to your own conclusions. But

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I'm certainly going to give you mine as well. So

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let's keep that in mind whenever we go back in

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twenty thirteen to Modesto, where this case is going to

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just hit the spotlight, because that was the home of

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Scott and Janet Pettitt. Now, Scott's first name was actually David,

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and that is so weird for me personally because as

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a storyteller of true crime, my brother in law's name

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is David Pettit, and so that was odd when I

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started looking into this one. But my sister's name isn't

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Janet or else that would hit too close to home.

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But David Pettit in this story, he went by the

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name Scott, and so I'm gonna be calling him Scott

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in this story. So Scott and Janet had built an

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amazing life for themselves in Modesto. They had met in

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their late twenties when they were both working jobs that

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I find personally to be admirable. Janet was working as

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a pediatric nurse while Scott was working as a paramedic.

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And legend has it that one day, back when they

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were in their twenties, a baby is what brought them together.

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But it wasn't their own baby. Now, this was a

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either sick or injured baby that was being rushed to

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the hospital by Scott on his ambulance. And when he

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whipped that ambulance into the drive of the hospital, there

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was none other than a beautiful pace mediatric nurse that

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was waiting there for him to lay that baby in

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her arms and whisk the child off for care. And

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as he handed over that child, two strangers working hard

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in the night to save the life of a baby

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that they didn't even know. Well, when that happened, they

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also saw something in one another that they thought was

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worth saving. So call it like minded individuals, or call

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it just straight up primal attraction, whatever the case may be.

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The nurse and the paramedic, well, they wanted to see

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each other again, but the next time they wanted it

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to be under much less stressful circumstances. So that chance

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meeting had turned into a lifetime of commitment and joy

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for this couple. They would eventually get together, They would date,

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and they would get married, and then shortly thereafter they

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would have two children of their own. First came baby daughter,

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sweet Lauren, and Lauren was the apple of her daddy's

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eye and her mama's pride and joy, and just whenever

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they thought that they could not love anyone anymore possibly

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than their little baby girl, Janet found out that she

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was pregnant again. And I'm sure all moms of multiple

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children probably have had that same thought at one point

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when they were pregnant. How could I possibly love another

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child as much as the one that I already have?

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How could this be? But the truth she would find out,

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as all of us do as we have more children,

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is that you don't have to split your love that

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you give with this new baby between the new baby

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you know and the one you have. Your heart just

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actually grows and you get more love to share. And

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that's literally what happened here. It's just always natural that

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there's room for one more, no matter how many there

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may be. So when sweet Lauren, at two years old,

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walked into that hospital room and she lay eyes on

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her baby brother, it was nothing short of a real

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life fairy tale. She was in love and she would

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shower baby Brandon with kisses and affection and she just

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adored him. And maybe at that point she kind of

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thought of him more as a toy in all honesty,

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something that she could play with but as they grew

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up together, they were a very tight knit family whose

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bond just continued to grow and flourish throughout the years.

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So as far as home life was concerned, this was

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a home filled with love, affection, and devotion to one another. Now,

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the younger years were much like all of ours, I

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guess you know, the joy of the holidays and the

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innocence of knowing no real trauma. Two kids with two

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parents who loved them with all of their heart, and

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they continued to grow both together as a family unit

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as well as the parents continued to grow professionally. So

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Scott would eventually decide that he wanted to change career

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paths because his interests, as we've all probably been through

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your interests kind of ebb and flow, and so he

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decided that he he wanted to make a change. The

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thing was, he loved helping others and the chance to

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make a difference in the lives of people that he

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didn't even know was still something that drove him. Now,

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he may not have been in an ambulance at this

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point that he made this change, but he was still

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going to help kids as well as adults. Because Scott

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would become the proud owner of Riverbanks Black Belt Academy,

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where he was not only the owner but also the instructor.

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And this was a karate a karate studio. So whenever

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or maybe I should say dojo, y'all, I'm not sure

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karate dojo. I think that's what it should be. Y'all

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can tell me, y'all can message me in safe y'all

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totally jack that up. Studios sounds more like dance, all right,

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So we're gonna say the dojo, all right. So whenever

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he wasn't teaching, he was very involved in organizing community

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activities with the local kids in mind and matter of fact,

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he was the guy that started the Relay for Life

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in his area. And in twenty eleven he was proud

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to be named the Mass of Ceremonies during the town's

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Christmas celebration, where he oversaw the event and he did

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all of the announcing and just had a blast doing so.

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And Scott was sarcastic, and he was witty, and there

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was just a joy about him that just people were

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drawn to him. They liked him, and he was even

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voted Citizen of the Year at one point. So another

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event though that Scott loved, and when I say loved,

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I mean this was his jam was the classic car

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show parade that was held each year, and thinking, talking

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and planning and everything to do with classic cars was

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always just a fun thing for him. So as his

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son Brandon grew up, Scott imparted that love and drive

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to learn about cars on to Brandon as well, and

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so it was something they liked to do together. So

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Scott had a few cars of his own, by the way,

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but his main pride and joy was his nineteen sixty

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one Corvette. Now let me stop here for just a

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cool second, because I could leave it at that, all right,

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But I'm going to go a step further about this car.

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And you may be like why, and my answer is

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because car people deserve it. Okay. The truth here is

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that I am not a car officionado by any means.

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Cars are not something that I know much about. But

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what I do know is that the David Pettitt that

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I know in real life, well, he would be scoffing

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at me right now if I just left it as

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a nineteen sixty one Corvette. So to that note, for

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all the car people that are listening, this is for you,

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I went the extra mile. Here is the description you

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deserve of Scott's Pride and Joy nineteen sixty one Corvette,

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because this vet, well, it was pure rolling Americana, a

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classic mid century convertible, white body with bold red side panels,

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long hood, low stance, and a whole lot of chrome.

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And on top of that, with red interior signature, rounded fenders,

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chrome accents, and wide white wall tires, all you would

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think to say, is it rolled by? Was? Hell? Yeah?

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It was a show stopper, y'all. And it wasn't just

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a car. It was a time machine, the kind that

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00:13:17.159 --> 00:13:20.799
takes you back to when style mattered and engines rumbled

240
00:13:21.080 --> 00:13:24.799
with personality and a car like this it wasn't meant

241
00:13:24.799 --> 00:13:28.240
to be contained. It was built for cruising, for being seen,

242
00:13:28.919 --> 00:13:31.759
and just like the Freedom of America, it was the

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envy of all who saw her. How'd I do? Guys?

244
00:13:35.919 --> 00:13:37.960
Was that good? Did that get you in the mood?

245
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Do you understand this car? If not, damn you? Because

246
00:13:41.440 --> 00:13:43.200
chat GBT kind of helped me with that. But I

247
00:13:43.240 --> 00:13:47.279
customized it, but I did my best. I gave it all. Now,

248
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as for miss Janet, she was so proud to accompany

249
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her man and hold down the passenger seat in that

250
00:13:54.639 --> 00:13:57.480
beast of a car. And while that engine may have

251
00:13:57.559 --> 00:14:02.240
screamed brawn right everything that a man would love, missus

252
00:14:02.320 --> 00:14:06.679
Janet's strength, hers would have been in more quiet, yet

253
00:14:06.720 --> 00:14:13.320
impressive brains because she was absolutely brilliant in her respective

254
00:14:13.519 --> 00:14:17.000
field of expertise. So while she was fulfilled in her

255
00:14:17.080 --> 00:14:20.320
job as a neonatal nurse practitioner and a clinical nurse

256
00:14:20.360 --> 00:14:24.960
specialist at Doctor's Medical Center, she was still always craving

257
00:14:25.279 --> 00:14:27.960
more knowledge. And I love people like that. I think

258
00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:30.720
that's fantastic. You never stop learning, you always want to

259
00:14:30.759 --> 00:14:34.600
know more. So eventually, even though she was working, she

260
00:14:34.639 --> 00:14:38.360
would obtain her PhD. She never quit learning and going

261
00:14:38.360 --> 00:14:41.480
to school all while working. So that would be doctor

262
00:14:41.879 --> 00:14:45.320
Janet Pettit to you and I. But mothering her kids

263
00:14:45.919 --> 00:14:51.360
was her all time greatest achievement, and Janet documented everything

264
00:14:51.399 --> 00:14:54.159
about them and their lives, and these scrap books that

265
00:14:54.200 --> 00:14:58.240
she had little notes and quotes written in all reminiscent

266
00:14:58.279 --> 00:15:01.720
of the memories that she chaired. So with all of

267
00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:06.080
this in mind, neighbors were horrified to wake up in

268
00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:09.320
the early morning hours of August eighth, twenty thirteen to

269
00:15:09.480 --> 00:15:14.279
something burning and a blaring alarm going off, So they

270
00:15:14.399 --> 00:15:17.639
got up and they would peek outside towards an orange glow,

271
00:15:17.799 --> 00:15:22.200
only to realize that their beloved neighbors home was engulfed

272
00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:25.919
in flames. And multiple neighbors saw this, and so they

273
00:15:25.960 --> 00:15:28.279
would run to the phone and nine one one calls

274
00:15:28.279 --> 00:15:31.000
would start coming in, one after the other, all of

275
00:15:31.039 --> 00:15:34.000
these people begging for help for the Petits and their home.

276
00:15:34.559 --> 00:15:38.840
The blaze was huge, and no one saw them outside.

277
00:15:39.080 --> 00:15:41.360
Their cars were there, so that meant, my god, they've

278
00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:43.440
got to be inside and it's the middle of the night.

279
00:15:43.519 --> 00:15:46.679
Please hurry, hurry and get here and help them. So

280
00:15:46.759 --> 00:15:50.720
the initial callers reported, look, it's a structure fire. There's

281
00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:54.960
visible flames, and some callers even said that they thought

282
00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:58.919
they might have heard screaming coming from inside of the home.

283
00:15:59.360 --> 00:16:02.039
So the initial belief was that the petits may be

284
00:16:02.120 --> 00:16:04.840
trapped inside. They're blocked off by a wall of fire,

285
00:16:05.279 --> 00:16:08.639
and if they were burning and trapped inside, it was

286
00:16:08.679 --> 00:16:12.399
almost too much for these neighbors to even process in

287
00:16:12.440 --> 00:16:15.279
the moment. But regardless of all of the drama that

288
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was going on, firefighters rushed to the home, sirens wailing.

289
00:16:20.080 --> 00:16:23.799
They flew up in front of it, and they jumped out.

290
00:16:23.960 --> 00:16:26.279
They had their gear already on, they were ready. They

291
00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:29.240
hooked up their hoses, and they began fighting that fire.

292
00:16:29.320 --> 00:16:34.679
I mean almost immediately, the massive flames growing every single minute.

293
00:16:35.519 --> 00:16:39.720
And with a fire like this, everything is relative and

294
00:16:39.879 --> 00:16:43.039
everything matters when you are trying to fight it. Now,

295
00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:46.120
I do have some experience in fire dispatch, obviously, but

296
00:16:46.360 --> 00:16:48.960
as far as actually fighting a fire, I've never done that.

297
00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:52.960
But I'm so proud and so honored to let you

298
00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:55.759
know that I have a former student that I taught

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00:16:55.759 --> 00:16:57.960
in high school who has grown up. He's an adult

300
00:16:57.960 --> 00:17:03.039
now and he is now actually a firefighting commander, and

301
00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:05.839
so I actually reached out to him a form a teacher,

302
00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:08.240
the student teaching the teacher. It was beautiful, and I

303
00:17:08.279 --> 00:17:10.160
reached out to him to get a little more insight

304
00:17:10.200 --> 00:17:13.000
to how this scene would have played out. Now, what

305
00:17:13.039 --> 00:17:15.759
I can tell you is that there was a haze

306
00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:18.559
of smoke that could be seen all around the house,

307
00:17:19.039 --> 00:17:24.000
and the fire was clearly visible from a second story window. Now,

308
00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:26.559
the bedrooms of the home were believed to be on

309
00:17:26.599 --> 00:17:29.400
the second floor, which made this even worse for the

310
00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:32.799
petits because we all know that heat rises and the

311
00:17:32.960 --> 00:17:36.759
likelihood of survival dips pretty dramatically the higher up you

312
00:17:36.880 --> 00:17:40.519
go in levels in a building during a fire. So

313
00:17:40.640 --> 00:17:43.720
basically this would create what I would call a two

314
00:17:43.759 --> 00:17:48.000
prong effort. In that moment, one portion of the crew

315
00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:50.720
would be trying to suppress the fire, while a second

316
00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:53.680
portion of the crew would be in the home trying

317
00:17:53.720 --> 00:17:57.640
to search and possibly save any living victims that might

318
00:17:57.680 --> 00:18:01.200
still be inside. So parts of the fire crew made

319
00:18:01.240 --> 00:18:04.559
their way inside and they found that the fire was

320
00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:08.440
mainly in this upstairs bedroom. So as they carefully made

321
00:18:08.440 --> 00:18:13.039
their way into that room, they found that there were

322
00:18:13.160 --> 00:18:17.680
people inside, and they came upon the lifeless bodies of

323
00:18:17.759 --> 00:18:23.000
two people, an adult male and an adult female. So

324
00:18:23.160 --> 00:18:25.640
both victims were assessed right there in the moment to

325
00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:27.960
try to figure out what's going on, but they were

326
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both found to already be beyond help. So firefighters not

327
00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:35.440
only found these two people that were already deceased, but

328
00:18:35.640 --> 00:18:40.720
they also found the couple's two dogs deceased as well.

329
00:18:40.799 --> 00:18:44.160
So based on the status of the victims, the recovery

330
00:18:44.279 --> 00:18:48.119
turned more into preservation tactics so as to not let

331
00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:52.480
any possible investigative evidence burn up Any further in this

332
00:18:52.559 --> 00:18:56.480
file this fire. So once the fire was contained and

333
00:18:56.519 --> 00:18:59.079
it was eventually put out, that was when the fire

334
00:18:59.079 --> 00:19:02.759
investigators had their job to do. Basically, they had to

335
00:19:02.799 --> 00:19:05.079
determine what was the cause of the fire. That was

336
00:19:05.160 --> 00:19:08.920
the main question. Was it electrical or was it something else.

337
00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:11.960
Maybe they had left a candle burning unattended and it

338
00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:16.480
lit fire. Whatever the case may be, this investigation would

339
00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:19.240
have to take place before that could be determined. So

340
00:19:19.359 --> 00:19:21.680
when you're trying to determine the cause of a fire,

341
00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:25.200
I mean, it's gonna take a great deal of information

342
00:19:25.279 --> 00:19:29.039
gathering and this includes everything from analyzing the burn patterns

343
00:19:29.319 --> 00:19:33.160
to speaking to possible witnesses, and the goal basically to

344
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determine or classify the fire as either accidental, natural, or incendiary,

345
00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:44.400
which would be like arson. So to that note, speaking

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00:19:44.440 --> 00:19:48.160
with some witnesses, they would claim that they thought that

347
00:19:48.240 --> 00:19:51.680
they may have heard gunshots prior to the fire breaking out.

348
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Now that is obviously a huge red flag because shootings

349
00:19:56.880 --> 00:20:00.519
and fires together aren't usually something that we would expect

350
00:20:00.759 --> 00:20:04.200
to take place. So when the coroner arrived and was

351
00:20:04.240 --> 00:20:06.759
told where the bodies were and went to collect them,

352
00:20:07.200 --> 00:20:10.440
it was determined that they were in fact, the bodies

353
00:20:10.480 --> 00:20:16.559
of homeowners Scott and Janet Pettitt. Luckily, if you want

354
00:20:16.559 --> 00:20:20.519
to look at it that way, there weren't three bodies found,

355
00:20:20.640 --> 00:20:25.000
as their autistic son lived with them, but he was

356
00:20:25.039 --> 00:20:28.920
not home. He was working that night, and one of

357
00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:32.000
the dogs ended up surviving as well. They actually had

358
00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:35.400
a total of three, so their son was presumed alive

359
00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:37.839
because he wasn't found there and the dog, one of

360
00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:41.359
the dogs also made it out well. Finding the next

361
00:20:41.359 --> 00:20:44.519
of ken to notify of what was going on, you know,

362
00:20:44.559 --> 00:20:47.000
that became the mangal of the police, and they had

363
00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:51.480
this heartbreaking task of telling both of the children that

364
00:20:51.519 --> 00:20:54.519
they had lost both of their parents, and then it

365
00:20:54.599 --> 00:20:57.839
was in a fire on top of that. So although

366
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both were now adults, I mean, you know this, that

367
00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:05.759
information was still very hard for them to process. Lauren

368
00:21:05.960 --> 00:21:08.799
was now living almost five hours away in Los Angeles,

369
00:21:09.160 --> 00:21:11.680
but she would hardly pack up her things and make

370
00:21:11.720 --> 00:21:13.960
her way back home because she knew that there were

371
00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:17.720
things that she would have to handle on top of grieving,

372
00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:20.759
you know, just the shock of it all. She broke

373
00:21:20.839 --> 00:21:24.119
down and she sobbed at the thought of never seeing

374
00:21:24.200 --> 00:21:27.200
or speaking to her parents again. They were close, she

375
00:21:27.440 --> 00:21:31.599
loved her parents, and she also knew that her brother

376
00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:35.640
was now going to be her responsibility to manage as well.

377
00:21:36.079 --> 00:21:38.319
I mean he may have been an adult, but he's

378
00:21:38.359 --> 00:21:45.160
still required oversight because of his diagnosis. So an autopsy

379
00:21:45.799 --> 00:21:49.440
of the petits would be conducted, and it turned out

380
00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:53.079
that some of the witnesses that said they heard gunshots,

381
00:21:53.119 --> 00:21:56.920
well they might have actually been onto something. See, when

382
00:21:57.000 --> 00:22:00.680
you're going to responding to an emergency care, if it's fire,

383
00:22:00.759 --> 00:22:03.400
I don't care, if it's a police hell, it can

384
00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:06.559
be medical. Something you'll find and people who have worked

385
00:22:06.559 --> 00:22:08.839
in this field will probably back me up on this

386
00:22:09.200 --> 00:22:13.039
is sometimes you get flat out wrong information. I know

387
00:22:13.119 --> 00:22:16.480
when I worked with law enforce in law enforcement that

388
00:22:16.599 --> 00:22:18.640
we would get dispatches to go to things and when

389
00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:21.119
you got there, it was not even close to what

390
00:22:21.400 --> 00:22:24.240
the caller had called in that you were actually responding to.

391
00:22:24.519 --> 00:22:28.039
And sometimes you get weird information from people that doesn't

392
00:22:28.200 --> 00:22:29.720
even fit at all. Maybe they just want to be

393
00:22:29.720 --> 00:22:32.759
a part of something, or they're just amping up the drama. Well,

394
00:22:32.799 --> 00:22:37.079
in this case, when the bodies were assessed, neither Scott

395
00:22:37.160 --> 00:22:40.440
nor Janet were found to have died from smoke inhalation,

396
00:22:40.839 --> 00:22:43.960
even though they were found deceased in a fire, and

397
00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:47.519
they also, by the way, hadn't burned to death, so

398
00:22:48.519 --> 00:22:52.000
the coroner realized they were dead before the fire had

399
00:22:52.079 --> 00:22:57.960
even started. Scott had suffered a total of five gunshot

400
00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:02.279
wounds to his body. Those witnesses that said they thought

401
00:23:02.279 --> 00:23:06.599
they heard gunfire, they were telling the truth. This had

402
00:23:06.640 --> 00:23:11.440
been an all out attack on Scott Pettitt. He was

403
00:23:11.480 --> 00:23:14.920
shot in the right elbow, he had a gunshot wound

404
00:23:15.480 --> 00:23:19.720
to the chest he took around through his chin, and

405
00:23:19.759 --> 00:23:23.240
he also had rounds in the head. Now, the head

406
00:23:23.279 --> 00:23:29.440
shots were most certainly the execution shots. Janet's body showed

407
00:23:29.519 --> 00:23:33.799
that she suffered two gunshot wounds, one to the left thigh,

408
00:23:33.960 --> 00:23:37.119
and she also had an execution shot to the head.

409
00:23:37.599 --> 00:23:43.039
Again that one absolutely ensuring her death. So when people

410
00:23:43.119 --> 00:23:47.359
die in fires, there are telltale signs of this, and

411
00:23:47.440 --> 00:23:52.039
this includes soot deposits. The soot will be in the nostrils,

412
00:23:52.039 --> 00:23:54.960
you'll find it in the mouth, but that's if you're

413
00:23:54.960 --> 00:23:58.240
alive in breathing. Even if you're unconscious, you're still alive

414
00:23:58.240 --> 00:24:00.279
in breathing, and that's why the soot is found. Sound

415
00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:03.559
deposited on and inside the body. Well, the couple didn't

416
00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:07.000
exhibit any of this. Again, backing up, they were dead

417
00:24:07.079 --> 00:24:10.880
before the fire started, so this meant this fire was

418
00:24:11.039 --> 00:24:15.559
likely someone's attempt to hide a double murder. This would

419
00:24:15.599 --> 00:24:19.680
be confirmed when the fire investigation was completed and they

420
00:24:19.720 --> 00:24:22.519
found that an accelerant had been used to start the

421
00:24:22.559 --> 00:24:27.960
blaze in the bedroom. So Modesto now had a double

422
00:24:28.039 --> 00:24:32.000
murder on their hands. And the motives and murder are

423
00:24:32.119 --> 00:24:37.559
usually pretty simple. Money, sex, vengeance. That's pretty much why

424
00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:42.039
people will kill other people. Every murder will usually fall

425
00:24:42.200 --> 00:24:45.160
into at least one, if not more, of those categories.

426
00:24:45.880 --> 00:24:48.319
And that student that I told you about in my

427
00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:51.640
personal life that I called, and his name's Caleb, So Caleb,

428
00:24:51.640 --> 00:24:53.440
if you're listening, thank you so much for talking with me.

429
00:24:53.519 --> 00:24:56.759
But he told me that a lot of the conferences

430
00:24:57.319 --> 00:24:59.759
that he's gone to that they do case studies, because

431
00:24:59.839 --> 00:25:03.160
he said, you'd be surprised how many arsons are to

432
00:25:03.319 --> 00:25:06.759
cover up murder, and it's kind of crazy if you

433
00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:10.400
think about it. So they're looking here at money, sex

434
00:25:10.519 --> 00:25:14.119
or vengeance, right and infidelity. So the sex portion that

435
00:25:14.160 --> 00:25:18.039
would be ruled out as not a possible motive. The

436
00:25:18.119 --> 00:25:22.960
couple was very much in love. There was no infidelity,

437
00:25:23.279 --> 00:25:25.799
There was nothing of anything that was found to support

438
00:25:26.519 --> 00:25:30.359
going down that route. The couple also was checked out

439
00:25:30.440 --> 00:25:35.039
and they were found to have no known, verifiable enemies.

440
00:25:36.039 --> 00:25:40.119
So vengeance in the for them, you know, like getting

441
00:25:40.200 --> 00:25:43.559
even necessarily, that was pretty much ruled out, as well

442
00:25:43.640 --> 00:25:46.720
as the motive for why this couple would have been murdered.

443
00:25:47.400 --> 00:25:51.759
So with money, the only thing really left detectives dug

444
00:25:51.799 --> 00:25:55.000
in to figure out who could possibly benefit from the

445
00:25:55.079 --> 00:25:59.640
deaths of both of the Petits. Now, the truth here

446
00:25:59.640 --> 00:26:01.880
is that they were well off. Okay, I'm not going

447
00:26:01.920 --> 00:26:04.640
to say that they were filthy rich, but they were

448
00:26:05.039 --> 00:26:09.160
very secure. They had made great decisions in life. They

449
00:26:09.279 --> 00:26:12.200
had lived very comfortably and that was because of their

450
00:26:12.319 --> 00:26:15.160
conscientious living. I'm not saying they didn't splurge and they

451
00:26:15.160 --> 00:26:18.160
didn't you know, spend money, but they were doing pretty

452
00:26:18.200 --> 00:26:22.279
well for themselves. They owned their home, they had several

453
00:26:22.319 --> 00:26:27.160
rental houses in the area, as well as seven expensive vehicles,

454
00:26:27.160 --> 00:26:28.720
one of which I've given you a whole lot of

455
00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:33.519
detail on. So the obvious heirs to their finances were

456
00:26:33.559 --> 00:26:37.920
their children. But Lauren, she was doing well on her

457
00:26:37.960 --> 00:26:42.039
own and she was also, you know, five hours away,

458
00:26:42.319 --> 00:26:46.480
which would have made that hard. And the Petits took

459
00:26:46.599 --> 00:26:50.359
care of their now adult son with his special needs

460
00:26:50.359 --> 00:26:54.920
in terms of his autism, So Brandon a little more

461
00:26:54.920 --> 00:26:59.079
about him. When he was younger, he did almost everything

462
00:26:59.640 --> 00:27:03.319
with his dad. So Brandon was absolutely smart, but he

463
00:27:03.440 --> 00:27:09.119
struggled immensely, immensely in social settings, and in early childhood

464
00:27:09.160 --> 00:27:13.039
that had become very obvious that he was different. He

465
00:27:13.200 --> 00:27:17.039
was stubborn, almost to a fault. It was very hard

466
00:27:17.079 --> 00:27:19.920
for him to make friends. He did not fit in

467
00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:25.000
and as a result, he was a very lonely person

468
00:27:25.400 --> 00:27:29.240
as a result of this, and so his parents lovingly

469
00:27:29.759 --> 00:27:33.079
took him to see numerous specialists, and when he was

470
00:27:33.119 --> 00:27:37.079
in high school he was diagnosed with as Burgers. Now

471
00:27:37.119 --> 00:27:38.799
I'm going to address this real quick because I know

472
00:27:38.839 --> 00:27:41.039
I have a lot of listeners that have children with

473
00:27:41.119 --> 00:27:44.880
autism or maybe have autism themselves. I understand, and I

474
00:27:44.920 --> 00:27:47.599
want to be clear. I know it does now fall

475
00:27:47.839 --> 00:27:50.519
currently under what we would refer to as the autism

476
00:27:50.599 --> 00:27:55.640
spectrum disorder. But back when this took place, his diagnosis

477
00:27:55.880 --> 00:27:59.079
was as Burgers. So in a nutshell, just for listeners

478
00:27:59.079 --> 00:28:00.960
to kind of get a grasp of this. There's three

479
00:28:01.039 --> 00:28:05.720
levels of autism and it is certainly not linear. And

480
00:28:05.759 --> 00:28:07.880
what I mean is a very good friend of mine

481
00:28:07.920 --> 00:28:10.880
who happens to be a detective. She and I spoke

482
00:28:12.440 --> 00:28:17.440
in depth in terms of law enforcement and you know, autism,

483
00:28:17.640 --> 00:28:20.960
and her child. And she said, you know, the saying

484
00:28:21.079 --> 00:28:24.319
is that when you've met one person with autism, you've

485
00:28:24.319 --> 00:28:26.960
met one person. And I was like, okay, we'll tell

486
00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:28.400
you what you mean by that, and she said, there's

487
00:28:28.480 --> 00:28:31.799
no you can't meet one person with autism and think

488
00:28:31.839 --> 00:28:33.519
that you know what they're all going to be like,

489
00:28:33.599 --> 00:28:37.240
because it's just not linear. It's it's different for every

490
00:28:37.440 --> 00:28:40.880
single person. It affects them differently. And I mean things

491
00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:45.799
like social differences, their interests, whether they have repetitious behavior,

492
00:28:46.240 --> 00:28:52.319
sensory sensitivities, emotional regulation will be different, perception, executive functioning.

493
00:28:52.640 --> 00:28:56.319
All of this is you cannot make it black and white.

494
00:28:56.440 --> 00:28:59.559
It's ebbs and flows based on the person. So the

495
00:28:59.599 --> 00:29:03.319
basic way you would look at this is there's autism spectrum.

496
00:29:03.359 --> 00:29:06.240
You'll have level one, level two, level three, Level three

497
00:29:06.400 --> 00:29:13.359
being the most severe and requires substantial support. Level two

498
00:29:13.680 --> 00:29:17.880
they still require substantial support, but they can still function

499
00:29:18.279 --> 00:29:20.519
pretty well, and not pretty well is not even the

500
00:29:20.559 --> 00:29:24.160
right word. But they can still function on a behavior,

501
00:29:24.240 --> 00:29:28.519
but sometimes they have repetitive and restrictive behaviors that are

502
00:29:28.559 --> 00:29:32.799
more frequent, and then level one just is requires support.

503
00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:36.839
So maybe they have difficulty understanding and following social rules,

504
00:29:36.880 --> 00:29:41.119
like they're socially awkward, and they may appear just flat

505
00:29:41.160 --> 00:29:44.559
and uninterested even though they are intelligent, just their responses

506
00:29:44.599 --> 00:29:48.079
are a little a little different from the rest of us.

507
00:29:48.440 --> 00:29:51.359
So while I'm not a specialist and I don't claim

508
00:29:51.359 --> 00:29:52.880
to be an expert, and I don't want anyone to

509
00:29:52.920 --> 00:29:55.559
think that I am, I think that this information is

510
00:29:55.599 --> 00:29:58.680
important because Brandon was going to need support in his

511
00:29:58.759 --> 00:30:02.079
life and that was going to be continuous, and now

512
00:30:02.119 --> 00:30:05.880
his main caregivers were gone. So with all of this

513
00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:09.960
in mind, who the hell would want them dead because

514
00:30:09.960 --> 00:30:13.640
both of their children have very different situations, but just

515
00:30:13.759 --> 00:30:17.599
were not in you know, in the in the field

516
00:30:17.640 --> 00:30:23.079
of suspects at this point. So Lauren was an absolute wreck.

517
00:30:23.119 --> 00:30:26.000
Her emotions were all over the place. She was in

518
00:30:26.039 --> 00:30:29.759
this this jumbled up mix between suffering but also having

519
00:30:29.799 --> 00:30:32.480
to handle what had to be done. You know, she

520
00:30:32.559 --> 00:30:34.960
has a lot of responsibility now on her plate. And

521
00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.039
when the news was broken to Brandon, his response was flat,

522
00:30:39.480 --> 00:30:42.160
but it was not anything out of the norm for him,

523
00:30:42.480 --> 00:30:48.039
because flat affect autism is something that I've seen actually

524
00:30:48.079 --> 00:30:50.599
quite often and when I was a teacher. But having

525
00:30:50.599 --> 00:30:54.960
a flat affect is not the same thing as lacking emotions, okay,

526
00:30:55.119 --> 00:30:59.160
because autistic individuals may struggle to show emotions because of

527
00:30:59.200 --> 00:31:03.039
that flat apple, but they still feel them. Don't get

528
00:31:03.039 --> 00:31:07.680
it twisted. So after the news was broken, police gave

529
00:31:07.759 --> 00:31:11.839
these siblings time to reconnect and gather themselves and kind

530
00:31:11.880 --> 00:31:15.599
of process what was going on. And then the following

531
00:31:15.680 --> 00:31:18.440
day the police wanted to speak with both of them

532
00:31:18.480 --> 00:31:21.160
and see if they could find out anything that may

533
00:31:21.559 --> 00:31:24.000
send them in a direction to figure this out, maybe

534
00:31:24.039 --> 00:31:26.519
get some answers to what could have possibly taken place,

535
00:31:26.599 --> 00:31:28.799
you know, in the last twenty four hours, even that

536
00:31:28.839 --> 00:31:33.240
could have caused this to take place. So the siblings

537
00:31:33.839 --> 00:31:38.759
had one small but very bright light to cling to,

538
00:31:39.519 --> 00:31:45.200
and her name was Bailey, an old, gray faced, bug

539
00:31:45.200 --> 00:31:50.039
eyed Boston Terrier that their parents both just adored and

540
00:31:50.079 --> 00:31:53.680
sweet Bailey that was that pup that had survived this

541
00:31:53.839 --> 00:31:57.559
horrific fire, And in a way, this left both of

542
00:31:57.599 --> 00:32:00.880
them feeling like not all was lost. They could at

543
00:32:00.960 --> 00:32:04.079
least hug this dog and gave them some solace that

544
00:32:04.119 --> 00:32:07.240
it was going to be okay. They could love on

545
00:32:07.319 --> 00:32:09.799
this dog and through that it might help them with

546
00:32:09.880 --> 00:32:12.160
some healing, and then they would be able to go

547
00:32:12.200 --> 00:32:15.720
talk to police and try to solve this. So it

548
00:32:15.759 --> 00:32:18.480
was the next morning, like I said, when police spoke

549
00:32:18.599 --> 00:32:21.480
to both siblings to gain insight into the family dynamic,

550
00:32:21.720 --> 00:32:25.039
work life, et cetera. So in terms of motive, what

551
00:32:25.079 --> 00:32:28.440
could have possibly been the motive here, neither sibling had

552
00:32:28.480 --> 00:32:32.480
a clue. Now, they talked a long time, and Brandon

553
00:32:32.599 --> 00:32:35.640
did tell police that he had an ex girlfriend named

554
00:32:35.680 --> 00:32:39.400
Susan Carter and maybe they should look at her, he said,

555
00:32:39.599 --> 00:32:44.319
because she had ties to the Nicaraguan cartel. So he

556
00:32:44.480 --> 00:32:48.920
was convinced that this Nicaraguan cartel, they could have somebody

557
00:32:49.000 --> 00:32:52.400
killed within four hours, you know, very short timeframe if

558
00:32:52.599 --> 00:32:56.279
they were asked. And so it was kind of odd

559
00:32:56.319 --> 00:32:58.880
what he said, but then again so was Brandon. And

560
00:32:58.920 --> 00:33:01.640
I say that with all due respect, Brandon was just

561
00:33:01.720 --> 00:33:04.960
you know, he processed and said things differently. He even

562
00:33:05.039 --> 00:33:09.119
said that Susan herself may have been the one to

563
00:33:09.319 --> 00:33:14.839
sneak in the house and kill his parents. Now Lauren,

564
00:33:15.039 --> 00:33:19.000
on the other hand, she was very clear that one

565
00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:21.039
of the things about her brother was that he would

566
00:33:21.039 --> 00:33:26.119
make up stories to feel like he belonged. Sometimes he

567
00:33:26.200 --> 00:33:30.559
wanted so bad to be accepted or to be a

568
00:33:30.599 --> 00:33:33.319
part of things that he had a history of saying

569
00:33:33.359 --> 00:33:36.759
things that people knew weren't true, but it made him

570
00:33:36.839 --> 00:33:40.000
feel cool telling the stories like it was real, And

571
00:33:40.200 --> 00:33:43.359
sometimes he would live kind of in a fantasy, a

572
00:33:43.440 --> 00:33:47.519
kind of a fantasy world of sorts, and tell these stories.

573
00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:51.079
So the question now was is Susan real and if so,

574
00:33:51.559 --> 00:33:54.640
did she have anything to do with the petit parents

575
00:33:54.640 --> 00:33:56.559
that would have caused any type of rift to make

576
00:33:56.599 --> 00:34:00.279
her do this. Well, turned out, guess what, Susan was

577
00:34:00.359 --> 00:34:04.720
real and he really did have an ex girlfriend. Learning

578
00:34:04.720 --> 00:34:08.039
more about her, it became clear that she and Brandon

579
00:34:08.119 --> 00:34:11.159
had been in a real relationship. That was in twenty thirteen,

580
00:34:11.280 --> 00:34:13.800
so that same year, and they had even moved in

581
00:34:13.880 --> 00:34:17.199
together at one point. Now the home that they shared

582
00:34:17.239 --> 00:34:20.440
together it happened to be a rental home owned by

583
00:34:21.000 --> 00:34:25.440
Scott Pettitt, Brandon's dad, so there was a link here.

584
00:34:26.519 --> 00:34:29.360
But when they broke up. That was in July twenty thirteen,

585
00:34:29.760 --> 00:34:32.079
Brandon moved out of the rental house and moved back

586
00:34:32.119 --> 00:34:35.760
home with his parents. Now, from what I can gather,

587
00:34:36.280 --> 00:34:40.559
there wasn't any real bad, bad blood or anything per se.

588
00:34:41.599 --> 00:34:44.480
It also turned out that she was going to be

589
00:34:44.559 --> 00:34:49.519
having a baby. Brandon had gotten her pregnant. So she

590
00:34:49.599 --> 00:34:52.159
had found out that she was pregnant, and when she

591
00:34:52.320 --> 00:34:55.360
told Brandon, he was over the moon, excited to be

592
00:34:55.400 --> 00:34:58.000
a dad, even though they were no longer together. He

593
00:34:58.079 --> 00:35:00.239
was excited at the thought of having a child. Child.

594
00:35:00.840 --> 00:35:04.760
So as far as the Nicaraguin cartel claim, she said

595
00:35:05.159 --> 00:35:08.960
that it was Brandon who had claimed that he knew

596
00:35:09.119 --> 00:35:11.159
hit men. He had said that in the past when

597
00:35:11.159 --> 00:35:15.599
they spoke to her, So she was, you know, acting

598
00:35:15.679 --> 00:35:18.920
like she didn't know what exactly they were talking about. Well,

599
00:35:18.960 --> 00:35:21.920
when it was kind of broken down, Susan explained, Look,

600
00:35:21.960 --> 00:35:25.280
I already have an ex husband, and when Brandon and

601
00:35:25.280 --> 00:35:27.679
I were together and we were talking and we were dating,

602
00:35:27.719 --> 00:35:30.559
we were having a conversation one time and Brandon told

603
00:35:30.599 --> 00:35:33.960
me he knew a guy that could make her ex

604
00:35:34.039 --> 00:35:38.840
disappear if she wanted him to. And so it's like, okay, Well,

605
00:35:39.199 --> 00:35:44.079
who was it then? And Susan said Brandon claimed he

606
00:35:44.119 --> 00:35:47.000
knew a guy named Felix and he would go murder

607
00:35:47.440 --> 00:35:52.519
basically her ex husband for five hundred dollars. I go,

608
00:35:52.639 --> 00:35:55.800
that's just dumb, all right, nobody does a hit for

609
00:35:55.880 --> 00:36:00.559
five hundred dollars. That's dumb. So police are kind of like,

610
00:36:00.559 --> 00:36:02.760
all right, we got to kind of figure this one out. Well,

611
00:36:03.639 --> 00:36:06.639
when Brandon had been interviewed and they asked him to

612
00:36:06.679 --> 00:36:09.679
list out all of his friends and who he dealt

613
00:36:09.719 --> 00:36:12.239
with on the daily, blah blah blah blah blah, he

614
00:36:12.320 --> 00:36:15.960
never mentioned a guy named Felix. So maybe Felix was

615
00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:18.960
again one of those fake stories that Brandon had told

616
00:36:19.000 --> 00:36:20.360
to look cool, like he was going to be the

617
00:36:20.400 --> 00:36:23.639
savior of Susan blah blah blah blah blah. So police

618
00:36:23.679 --> 00:36:26.239
did more digging because they're like, we got to figure

619
00:36:26.280 --> 00:36:29.119
out if this guy's real or not. Well, police found

620
00:36:29.159 --> 00:36:31.519
that he may not have mentioned a Felix, but there

621
00:36:31.599 --> 00:36:35.199
definitely was a Felix in his life. They were two

622
00:36:35.280 --> 00:36:37.760
for two on figuring out if people were real or not.

623
00:36:38.320 --> 00:36:42.360
And this guy's name was Felix Valverde. Now, he and

624
00:36:42.400 --> 00:36:45.920
Brandon had met when they both joined a group known

625
00:36:45.960 --> 00:36:50.639
as the Clampers CLA M p e r s. The Clampers.

626
00:36:51.440 --> 00:36:55.360
So Ever curious, I looked up this group because I'm like,

627
00:36:55.360 --> 00:36:57.639
what are these fricking clampers? Man, I've never heard of it.

628
00:36:57.760 --> 00:37:00.079
I've got to know, and I won't lie to y'all. Well,

629
00:37:00.159 --> 00:37:03.239
I got a bit of a chuckle when I looked

630
00:37:03.280 --> 00:37:06.119
up this group, so I read a line. The first

631
00:37:06.159 --> 00:37:08.719
line that I read when I googled Clampers, it said

632
00:37:08.760 --> 00:37:12.679
a historical drinking society or a drinking historical society, and

633
00:37:12.719 --> 00:37:15.239
I started laughing. I was like, here we go. This

634
00:37:15.280 --> 00:37:18.599
is going to have some shenanigans attached to it. And

635
00:37:18.920 --> 00:37:22.039
it was true, because what I found was a group

636
00:37:22.199 --> 00:37:27.320
of history enthusiasts who also have a penchant for drinking.

637
00:37:27.920 --> 00:37:32.800
And they also love the absurd, and so they dress funny.

638
00:37:33.159 --> 00:37:38.800
They make purposeful mockery of traditional groups of historical societies.

639
00:37:39.199 --> 00:37:42.719
So they drink beer and they like cheer loudly and

640
00:37:42.760 --> 00:37:46.320
when they're telling the true history, but they it's just

641
00:37:46.559 --> 00:37:50.320
a goofy type take on it. They love the gold

642
00:37:50.400 --> 00:37:54.000
Rush era and it's like a brotherhood founded in fun,

643
00:37:54.519 --> 00:37:58.119
some history and a good time one thing that tickled

644
00:37:58.159 --> 00:38:03.000
me to was, you know the pompous historical societies that

645
00:38:03.119 --> 00:38:06.119
dress nicely and they have like you know, the names

646
00:38:06.159 --> 00:38:08.599
and their like fraternal orders, whatever you want to call it. Well,

647
00:38:08.639 --> 00:38:13.440
the Clampers they dress up like almost like I guess

648
00:38:13.440 --> 00:38:17.199
the old timey neighborhood drunks or something like top hats

649
00:38:17.199 --> 00:38:20.239
that don't look right. And then they use ten cans

650
00:38:20.239 --> 00:38:22.880
and they cut out little badges from ten cans and

651
00:38:22.920 --> 00:38:26.480
pin those on their shirts and they're just a mismatch

652
00:38:26.519 --> 00:38:30.159
of just I found it hilarious. I thought it was great. Okay,

653
00:38:30.320 --> 00:38:32.320
so I see what the fun in this would be. Okay,

654
00:38:32.519 --> 00:38:36.239
and this brotherhood and this good time that's where Brendan

655
00:38:36.320 --> 00:38:40.719
and Felix had met was when they both joined that group. Now, Felix,

656
00:38:41.559 --> 00:38:44.880
he struck me as looking like someone when I first

657
00:38:45.239 --> 00:38:47.599
saw a photo of this guy. And I want y'all

658
00:38:47.639 --> 00:38:50.119
to know I'm not being mean by any stretch of

659
00:38:50.119 --> 00:38:53.360
the imagination, but he looked familiar to me, and I

660
00:38:53.400 --> 00:38:55.639
couldn't figure it out. And then it hit me like

661
00:38:55.679 --> 00:39:00.239
a ton of bricks yesterday. He looks like Milton from

662
00:39:00.360 --> 00:39:04.119
Office Space, those thick glasses and that kind of goofy

663
00:39:04.159 --> 00:39:07.440
air about him. That's what he reminded me of. And listen,

664
00:39:07.480 --> 00:39:09.159
I'm not being mean, guys, I just want to give

665
00:39:09.199 --> 00:39:11.039
you a visual here of it just kind of made

666
00:39:11.079 --> 00:39:14.360
me kind of chuckle a little bit. So police decided

667
00:39:14.599 --> 00:39:17.400
that since there really was a Felix, that they wanted

668
00:39:17.400 --> 00:39:19.639
to follow up on this possible lead, and they went

669
00:39:19.639 --> 00:39:22.800
over to Felix's apartment. Not only they wanted to talk

670
00:39:22.840 --> 00:39:25.199
to him, but they also were able to secure a

671
00:39:25.360 --> 00:39:27.639
possible search warrant or not a possible to secure a

672
00:39:27.679 --> 00:39:30.480
search warrant to see if there's any possible evidence of

673
00:39:30.519 --> 00:39:35.039
any type. Now, during that search, they did actually find

674
00:39:35.079 --> 00:39:39.440
things that were extremely alarming. They found things like a

675
00:39:39.559 --> 00:39:43.159
box of gun ammo in his kitchen on the kitchen counter,

676
00:39:43.519 --> 00:39:46.559
and they also found a gas can that still had

677
00:39:46.599 --> 00:39:51.039
gasoline in it in the kitchen. So they are now

678
00:39:51.079 --> 00:39:53.719
those let's be real, those aren't items that I would

679
00:39:53.760 --> 00:39:55.480
think are that crazy to find in a house. If

680
00:39:55.480 --> 00:39:56.920
you went in my house right now, you will find

681
00:39:56.960 --> 00:40:00.480
bullets galore, and you'll find gas cans galore, because we

682
00:40:00.599 --> 00:40:03.639
just have a bunch of it. But they decided, you know,

683
00:40:03.639 --> 00:40:07.400
we've got to be meticulous here, that's great circumstantial stuff

684
00:40:07.440 --> 00:40:09.480
to find, I guess, but we've got to we've got

685
00:40:09.480 --> 00:40:11.719
to keep looking. So they were very meticulous and searched

686
00:40:11.760 --> 00:40:15.559
any small places that you might get hide items. They

687
00:40:15.639 --> 00:40:19.760
left no stone unturned, and this included a hall closet

688
00:40:20.239 --> 00:40:25.199
which they located a rolled up brown paper bag hidden

689
00:40:25.239 --> 00:40:28.079
inside of some other items. So they pulled that out,

690
00:40:29.039 --> 00:40:34.159
unrolled it, and what they found inside were wallets and

691
00:40:34.199 --> 00:40:37.840
some keys. So they're like, what the hell, right, So

692
00:40:38.000 --> 00:40:41.199
they open up the wallets to look inside, and there

693
00:40:41.280 --> 00:40:44.599
were the IDs still in them, staring back at them,

694
00:40:45.159 --> 00:40:49.360
and it was none other than Scott and Janet Petted.

695
00:40:50.920 --> 00:40:53.960
So I don't know if they were actually expecting to

696
00:40:54.000 --> 00:40:58.880
find that, but this was wild. So the keys that

697
00:40:58.920 --> 00:41:01.400
they found, they decided to go over to the Pettit's

698
00:41:01.440 --> 00:41:04.159
house what was left of it, and try the keys

699
00:41:04.400 --> 00:41:09.440
in the locks, and guess what they worked. One key

700
00:41:09.800 --> 00:41:11.920
was for the house and one was for the garage.

701
00:41:12.360 --> 00:41:17.800
It opened the house. No gun, however, was located in

702
00:41:17.840 --> 00:41:23.760
Felix's apartment. So eventually a neighbor would see police searching

703
00:41:23.800 --> 00:41:25.760
Felix's house and he would come over, and you'd want

704
00:41:25.760 --> 00:41:27.639
to talk to them because he said, look, I don't

705
00:41:27.920 --> 00:41:31.559
know exactly what's going on. I know these two people

706
00:41:31.559 --> 00:41:34.320
were murdered. Now you're searching this house, and he says, look,

707
00:41:34.639 --> 00:41:39.039
Felix had been acting kind of strangely moving around that

708
00:41:39.480 --> 00:41:42.280
flower pot planter right there on the porch, and they

709
00:41:42.280 --> 00:41:45.639
look and there's a planter with dirt and plants now

710
00:41:45.760 --> 00:41:47.519
like over here. He's like, yeah, it was kind of strange.

711
00:41:47.519 --> 00:41:49.679
He was like digging in there and moving the plants around,

712
00:41:49.719 --> 00:41:52.440
and he's not really a gardener. I mean, it's kind

713
00:41:52.480 --> 00:41:54.719
of strange. So the police go over to the planter

714
00:41:54.800 --> 00:41:56.519
and they kind of start digging through it, and then

715
00:41:56.599 --> 00:42:00.679
they see something, so they dig some morely they would

716
00:42:00.719 --> 00:42:06.320
locate seven spent bullet casings buried in the dirt. Well,

717
00:42:06.360 --> 00:42:09.239
it doesn't take a genius to figure out that there's

718
00:42:09.280 --> 00:42:12.400
a pretty big problem here, right, So Felix was arrested

719
00:42:12.440 --> 00:42:15.519
on suspicion of murder and Brandon was now brought back

720
00:42:15.519 --> 00:42:19.760
in for questioning, and this questioning was videotaped. Now, the

721
00:42:19.840 --> 00:42:23.119
questions at this point were much more pointed in the interview,

722
00:42:23.480 --> 00:42:28.119
and Brandon was basically confronted by detectives who flat out

723
00:42:28.159 --> 00:42:31.440
told him that Felix had been talking to them, and

724
00:42:31.559 --> 00:42:35.360
Felix said that Brandon was the one who gave him

725
00:42:35.639 --> 00:42:39.679
those keys to his parents' house. Now Brandon's looking at

726
00:42:39.719 --> 00:42:43.760
them and he's wholly denying this. Absolutely not, you know.

727
00:42:44.599 --> 00:42:47.519
So he's denying, denying, denying that he ever did that,

728
00:42:48.480 --> 00:42:50.280
And they say, okay, well, let's go to your phone

729
00:42:50.320 --> 00:42:54.400
records then, because you have never mentioned that Felix was

730
00:42:54.440 --> 00:42:57.960
a friend of yours. Ever, we directly asked you that,

731
00:42:58.719 --> 00:43:01.559
we asked you for all of your friend's contact information.

732
00:43:02.119 --> 00:43:04.920
You never gave us that. But yet in your phone

733
00:43:04.960 --> 00:43:07.400
records we can see where y'all speak on the phone.

734
00:43:07.880 --> 00:43:11.960
Why is that, Brandon? And Brandon's response was that, well,

735
00:43:12.000 --> 00:43:15.199
we're not like real friends like that. He's more of

736
00:43:15.320 --> 00:43:19.599
like someone I just met. We're not friends. But then

737
00:43:19.639 --> 00:43:23.599
the police added on to that and they said, well,

738
00:43:23.679 --> 00:43:27.320
if y'all aren't friends like that, we have proof in

739
00:43:27.360 --> 00:43:30.079
your phone records that y'all spoke to each other the

740
00:43:30.239 --> 00:43:33.760
very night that your parents were murdered. What do you

741
00:43:33.800 --> 00:43:37.440
have to say about that? And Brandon looks them straight

742
00:43:37.480 --> 00:43:39.760
in the eye and goes, well, yeah, I called him

743
00:43:39.760 --> 00:43:41.760
because we were going to make plans for the weekend.

744
00:43:42.320 --> 00:43:43.880
We had plans, we were going to go do something,

745
00:43:43.880 --> 00:43:49.239
but he fully denied knowing anything about his parents' murder. Now,

746
00:43:49.280 --> 00:43:51.679
Brandon's sister, Lauren, she was the one that had driven

747
00:43:51.760 --> 00:43:54.519
him to the police station, not realizing that he was

748
00:43:54.559 --> 00:43:58.119
actually now being looked at as possibly involved somehow in

749
00:43:58.159 --> 00:44:01.199
what had happened to their parents. But when she realized this,

750
00:44:01.960 --> 00:44:07.079
her helpful personality shifted to immediate defense mode, like, She's like,

751
00:44:07.119 --> 00:44:09.360
what in the actual fuck is going on here? Are

752
00:44:09.360 --> 00:44:14.440
you serious? My brother with autism, that's who you're really

753
00:44:14.519 --> 00:44:18.320
going after right now? Are you serious? Right now? And

754
00:44:18.360 --> 00:44:22.760
you can't help but align with her in her thought process.

755
00:44:22.840 --> 00:44:26.199
She's lost everything. Lauren has lost everything. She has lost

756
00:44:26.239 --> 00:44:28.840
her father, she has lost her mother, she's lost the

757
00:44:28.840 --> 00:44:34.679
beloved family pets minus Bailey, and now her brother who's

758
00:44:34.679 --> 00:44:40.760
got diagnosable issues, is being hounded in an interrogation room.

759
00:44:41.239 --> 00:44:44.000
I don't blame her that she is now not feeling

760
00:44:44.079 --> 00:44:49.360
so nice towards the police. But police felt like and

761
00:44:49.400 --> 00:44:53.119
they explained to her Brannan had said some pretty incriminating things.

762
00:44:53.440 --> 00:44:56.679
But Lauren was not having it. She was not having it.

763
00:44:56.880 --> 00:44:59.440
She kept trying to explain to the police that her

764
00:44:59.480 --> 00:45:03.360
brother does not process information the same way and that

765
00:45:03.440 --> 00:45:07.519
while his personality may be different compared to others, that

766
00:45:07.559 --> 00:45:11.519
doesn't make him a killer. You know, he just doesn't

767
00:45:11.840 --> 00:45:13.920
say things the right way. He doesn't pick up on

768
00:45:13.960 --> 00:45:16.440
social cues to know that the way he says things

769
00:45:16.440 --> 00:45:18.440
may not be the way that you should considering the

770
00:45:18.480 --> 00:45:22.440
circumstances that are at hand. Had she known that they

771
00:45:22.440 --> 00:45:25.239
were in there treating him in an accusatory way, she

772
00:45:25.280 --> 00:45:27.440
would have not brought him and she would have hired

773
00:45:27.480 --> 00:45:33.119
an attorney. This is serious. But Brandon was now already

774
00:45:33.159 --> 00:45:37.079
in there for his second questioning session, and that was

775
00:45:37.119 --> 00:45:41.400
shifting obviously now into more of like an interrogation. So

776
00:45:42.239 --> 00:45:47.360
as more information about Felix was given to Brandon, Brandon

777
00:45:47.440 --> 00:45:50.000
did seem to open up more and start to kind

778
00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:53.719
of expand more. And he now explained to police, well,

779
00:45:54.039 --> 00:45:57.920
about a month before the fire, Felix threatened to kill

780
00:45:58.039 --> 00:46:00.599
my parents, and he said, if I don't pay him

781
00:46:00.639 --> 00:46:03.920
ten thousand dollars, then he's going to kill my parents.

782
00:46:04.559 --> 00:46:07.360
So the police are like, did you ever go to

783
00:46:07.360 --> 00:46:09.199
the police about this? Did you ever call and let

784
00:46:09.280 --> 00:46:14.079
us know that? And his answer was simple, He said no, okay,

785
00:46:14.239 --> 00:46:17.559
you never went to the police station and someone threatened

786
00:46:17.559 --> 00:46:20.199
to kill your parents? And he said, yeah, I didn't

787
00:46:20.239 --> 00:46:21.599
go to the police station. I went home and I

788
00:46:21.599 --> 00:46:23.679
told my dad so that my dad could handle it.

789
00:46:24.440 --> 00:46:28.000
And he's like, that's what I am supposed to do.

790
00:46:28.599 --> 00:46:31.440
I go and I tell my dad and they're like, okay,

791
00:46:31.480 --> 00:46:33.320
what's your dad gonna do? He's like, I don't know.

792
00:46:33.559 --> 00:46:35.800
When I told my dad, my dad didn't take it serious.

793
00:46:35.840 --> 00:46:37.400
He just thought it was some kind of you know,

794
00:46:37.920 --> 00:46:41.079
bs and the guy was want some money or something.

795
00:46:41.119 --> 00:46:43.119
But Dad didn't think it was a serious threat. Why

796
00:46:43.159 --> 00:46:45.400
would I you know, I didn't call the police. Dad

797
00:46:45.440 --> 00:46:48.679
should have done that, if you know, if but we

798
00:46:48.679 --> 00:46:50.320
didn't think it was a real threat. We just thought

799
00:46:50.320 --> 00:46:56.400
he was being stupid. But police were not accepting that explanation.

800
00:46:56.800 --> 00:46:59.000
And their reason they wouldn't accept it is because they're like,

801
00:46:59.039 --> 00:47:02.480
why would you wait until now to tell us this

802
00:47:02.800 --> 00:47:07.239
when you are directly confronted with possibly being involved. It

803
00:47:07.280 --> 00:47:10.639
had been nine days since his parents' death, and he

804
00:47:10.800 --> 00:47:13.599
never thought in that timeframe that this might be important

805
00:47:13.840 --> 00:47:19.679
to mention. So the questioning continued, and things that Brandon

806
00:47:19.719 --> 00:47:25.840
would say only seemed to get worse. Brandon admitted, Yeah,

807
00:47:25.880 --> 00:47:28.320
I do own a gun. I have a gun, he said,

808
00:47:28.320 --> 00:47:31.400
but the bolt is missing on my gun, and since

809
00:47:31.920 --> 00:47:35.800
the gun doesn't work, I gave bullets that I had

810
00:47:35.840 --> 00:47:39.679
to felix. And so the police are like, dude, you

811
00:47:40.440 --> 00:47:42.639
don't think that at this juncture and where we are,

812
00:47:42.719 --> 00:47:46.760
that that's not you don't think that's odd And he said, well,

813
00:47:46.880 --> 00:47:50.599
I mean, and then I didn't. Now, in hindsight, it

814
00:47:50.599 --> 00:47:54.360
looks like it was a bad idea, and you didn't

815
00:47:54.400 --> 00:47:57.519
think to mention that any of this to us the

816
00:47:57.599 --> 00:48:01.199
police in the last nearly two weeks. That's what the

817
00:48:01.199 --> 00:48:05.679
police were thinking. Make it make sense. And Brandon's further

818
00:48:05.800 --> 00:48:11.159
explanation again was odd as hell because he said that

819
00:48:11.559 --> 00:48:15.960
he wasn't sharing everything with the police because he wanted

820
00:48:16.000 --> 00:48:21.000
to solve it himself. So real quick, I want to

821
00:48:21.000 --> 00:48:22.800
give I want to talk about that for a second.

822
00:48:24.320 --> 00:48:30.400
Autistic individuals often perceive and process reality differently due to

823
00:48:30.519 --> 00:48:35.039
a multitude of reasons, things like sensory differences, a preference

824
00:48:35.079 --> 00:48:41.440
for literal interpretation, and they can have distinct cognitive processing styles.

825
00:48:41.719 --> 00:48:45.679
And so for example, all right, if you ask someone

826
00:48:45.719 --> 00:48:50.719
with autism if they want to wave their rights. They

827
00:48:50.760 --> 00:48:54.159
may take that as a literal wave, like waving their hand.

828
00:48:54.199 --> 00:48:56.199
And if they like to wave, they know what that means.

829
00:48:56.199 --> 00:48:58.880
They may agree, yes, I would like to wave my rights.

830
00:49:00.039 --> 00:49:05.360
But that explanation aside. Some people with autism can also

831
00:49:05.440 --> 00:49:09.079
live in a dual reality world, and part of this

832
00:49:09.119 --> 00:49:13.880
includes where they have been conditioned to respect and look

833
00:49:13.960 --> 00:49:18.559
to authority to make life's important decisions for them. So

834
00:49:18.960 --> 00:49:21.679
in Brandon's case, for example, his parents would have been

835
00:49:21.800 --> 00:49:25.039
the authority for him or to him, and even as

836
00:49:25.079 --> 00:49:28.119
a grown man, he recognizes that his parents were still

837
00:49:28.159 --> 00:49:31.440
calling the shots for him. And since Brandon was seeing

838
00:49:31.760 --> 00:49:37.880
the police now as authoritative, was it possible that Brandon

839
00:49:38.000 --> 00:49:41.760
really did think that he could solve it himself, And

840
00:49:41.800 --> 00:49:44.719
then the reward would be that the police, who he

841
00:49:44.760 --> 00:49:48.159
looked up to, would accept him as quote unquote one

842
00:49:48.199 --> 00:49:50.639
of them, you know, like a hero, and now they

843
00:49:50.679 --> 00:49:54.360
would be his friends for doing so. And while that

844
00:49:54.440 --> 00:49:57.159
sounds kind of odd and complex, we're talking about someone

845
00:49:57.199 --> 00:50:00.440
with autism here, and as someone who didn't make friends easily,

846
00:50:00.519 --> 00:50:02.519
and as someone who wanted to be a part of something,

847
00:50:04.079 --> 00:50:06.440
you can kind of see how he may have really

848
00:50:06.480 --> 00:50:08.400
truly believed that he was going to try to solve

849
00:50:08.440 --> 00:50:12.519
it himself. So the questions are being asked and you're

850
00:50:12.559 --> 00:50:15.679
trying to understand his answers and how through his lens

851
00:50:15.719 --> 00:50:18.559
of life and why he might say what he might say.

852
00:50:19.159 --> 00:50:23.840
But another way that it can be problematic when you're

853
00:50:23.840 --> 00:50:28.199
introgating someone with autism is that you know the person.

854
00:50:28.599 --> 00:50:31.480
For example, you know the person might think if the

855
00:50:31.519 --> 00:50:35.440
detective thinks I robbed the bank, maybe he's right because

856
00:50:35.440 --> 00:50:38.000
he's in an authority position. So sometimes you can also

857
00:50:38.079 --> 00:50:43.800
confuse someone with autism legitimately confuse them and so, you know,

858
00:50:43.800 --> 00:50:46.719
because they're taught to yield to authority, and if they've

859
00:50:46.719 --> 00:50:49.639
been accused of something, then they might start thinking, oh,

860
00:50:49.679 --> 00:50:51.599
maybe I did do it because the authority person is

861
00:50:51.639 --> 00:50:56.800
saying that I did it. Because at one point the

862
00:50:56.840 --> 00:51:00.199
Brandon never blindly was agreeing with the interrogators. Have to

863
00:51:00.199 --> 00:51:01.760
tell you that ever, he was saying no, no, no,

864
00:51:01.760 --> 00:51:07.400
no no, he was vehemently, vehemently denying when they eventually shifted,

865
00:51:07.440 --> 00:51:11.079
because they did start doing pointed accusations towards him that

866
00:51:11.119 --> 00:51:12.559
he had something to do with this and that he

867
00:51:12.639 --> 00:51:17.880
knew about this, and they even gave some posed scenarios. Okay, Now,

868
00:51:17.960 --> 00:51:20.960
at this point in the interrogation, they had been advised

869
00:51:21.079 --> 00:51:25.440
of his autism diagnosis. They knew this, and even with

870
00:51:25.519 --> 00:51:29.199
that knowledge to the police, there were just still things

871
00:51:29.199 --> 00:51:34.480
that weren't seeming right to them. For example, after the murders,

872
00:51:35.199 --> 00:51:37.840
Brandon admitted that he did go over and he gave

873
00:51:37.880 --> 00:51:42.119
Felix one hundred dollars. So the police follow up that

874
00:51:42.159 --> 00:51:45.239
statement and they're like, okay, so he threatened your parents

875
00:51:45.679 --> 00:51:48.840
and you told your dad. Your parents actually end up

876
00:51:48.880 --> 00:51:53.239
dead shot the exact amount of times as the spent

877
00:51:53.360 --> 00:51:55.639
casings that we have found in a flower pot at

878
00:51:55.639 --> 00:51:59.599
Felix's house. You remain friends with him, and then you

879
00:51:59.639 --> 00:52:04.360
also give him one hundred dollars after their death. Please

880
00:52:04.559 --> 00:52:06.840
make this make more sense, dude. We're trying to listen

881
00:52:06.840 --> 00:52:09.920
to what you're saying, but that is not driving. And

882
00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:13.239
Brandon's explanation was Felix said he needed some money. After

883
00:52:13.280 --> 00:52:16.920
paying his bills, he needed more money, and Brandon said

884
00:52:16.920 --> 00:52:21.239
he never thought that Felix was serious about killing his parents.

885
00:52:21.719 --> 00:52:26.320
So was he thinking black and white or was he

886
00:52:27.159 --> 00:52:30.480
trying to lie and cover up and with the possibilities

887
00:52:30.480 --> 00:52:35.559
of his reality being skewed. Police hadn't just like stopped

888
00:52:35.719 --> 00:52:39.800
with Brandon in terms of investigation. They were asking all

889
00:52:39.840 --> 00:52:42.719
these pointed questions of him, but they were still investigating, okay.

890
00:52:43.280 --> 00:52:46.079
And a couple people had actually come forward at this

891
00:52:46.199 --> 00:52:50.480
point contacted police themselves to provide additional information that they

892
00:52:50.559 --> 00:52:53.000
thought the police may want to know. And this was

893
00:52:53.039 --> 00:52:56.920
starting with a woman named Sarah Wilson. Now, Brandon and

894
00:52:57.000 --> 00:53:00.719
Sarah had met in high school. Originally, they reconnect online

895
00:53:00.840 --> 00:53:03.400
in twenty thirteen, just some months before the murders of

896
00:53:03.440 --> 00:53:08.000
his parents, and she could tell that Brandon seemed to

897
00:53:08.039 --> 00:53:10.639
have a bit of a crush on her, but Sarah

898
00:53:10.760 --> 00:53:15.239
was not interested in dating Brandon. Now, Brandon, they still

899
00:53:15.239 --> 00:53:17.280
became friends and they had reconnected and they were talking

900
00:53:17.320 --> 00:53:20.239
all the time. And Brandon, although she was not interested,

901
00:53:20.320 --> 00:53:24.119
he wasn't easily deterred by the fact that she wasn't

902
00:53:24.119 --> 00:53:26.840
wanting to date him. And he was very excited to

903
00:53:26.880 --> 00:53:29.119
share with her that he was about to be moving

904
00:53:29.159 --> 00:53:32.519
to Georgia his parents. He explained to her, Look, my

905
00:53:32.519 --> 00:53:34.440
parents have plenty of money. They're going to be buying

906
00:53:34.480 --> 00:53:38.880
me a house there and I'm going to move to Georgia. Now,

907
00:53:38.920 --> 00:53:41.760
she was going through a lot of things in her

908
00:53:41.800 --> 00:53:44.760
personal life at that time and having some struggles, and

909
00:53:44.800 --> 00:53:47.079
she thought that that sounded really cool to just be

910
00:53:47.119 --> 00:53:49.519
able to up and move away from drama, or to

911
00:53:49.559 --> 00:53:51.320
be just able to up and move and start your

912
00:53:51.320 --> 00:53:54.800
life somewhere new. That sounded really exciting. And he told her, well, look,

913
00:53:54.800 --> 00:53:56.440
if you want to go with me and move in

914
00:53:56.480 --> 00:53:59.599
with me, I'd love that. That would be great. And

915
00:53:59.760 --> 00:54:04.280
so he started sending her email correspondence and texts that

916
00:54:04.719 --> 00:54:08.920
were from this realtorm in Georgia. They were communicating back

917
00:54:08.960 --> 00:54:12.440
and forth about houses to look at information on these

918
00:54:12.480 --> 00:54:14.519
listings in the houses, and he was trying to pick

919
00:54:14.800 --> 00:54:17.519
his house that he wanted to buy. The thing was

920
00:54:18.199 --> 00:54:24.920
these homes were expensive, like million dollar homes that he

921
00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.239
was communicating with this with this realtor about. So while

922
00:54:29.280 --> 00:54:32.440
she had never met the Petits, it still seemed pretty

923
00:54:32.599 --> 00:54:34.760
crazy that they were just going to buy him this

924
00:54:34.880 --> 00:54:38.360
house in Georgia and a million dollar home, like wow,

925
00:54:38.400 --> 00:54:40.039
and he was just going to move out and start

926
00:54:40.039 --> 00:54:42.559
doing his thing. Well. The closer that they got to

927
00:54:42.599 --> 00:54:46.480
the summertime, they continue to grow closer, and that's when

928
00:54:46.480 --> 00:54:50.920
Brennan gave her some more amazing news. He had told

929
00:54:50.960 --> 00:54:54.639
his mother Janet, that his friend Sarah that he had

930
00:54:54.639 --> 00:54:57.280
reconnected with she was going to be moving to Georgia

931
00:54:57.320 --> 00:54:59.519
with him and that they could kind of depend on

932
00:54:59.519 --> 00:55:04.280
each other lived together in the new house. And because

933
00:55:04.480 --> 00:55:06.800
she was willing to go and be helpful to Brandon,

934
00:55:07.760 --> 00:55:10.639
Brandon told his mom Janet, Look, my friend wants to

935
00:55:10.639 --> 00:55:13.679
open a boutique. That's her dream blah blah blah blah blah.

936
00:55:13.719 --> 00:55:17.000
And Janet said, well, if that's going to be the case,

937
00:55:17.039 --> 00:55:20.079
I want you all to be successful. And Janet was

938
00:55:20.199 --> 00:55:23.159
willing to help her do this and would help financially

939
00:55:23.480 --> 00:55:27.159
with her opening her own boutique. And although this was

940
00:55:27.320 --> 00:55:31.840
wildly exciting, she almost couldn't believe it, Like everything is

941
00:55:31.920 --> 00:55:36.000
just falling right into place, and this is amazing boat.

942
00:55:36.519 --> 00:55:43.000
It almost seems too easy. Well, right before the Petits died,

943
00:55:43.800 --> 00:55:48.199
they had purchased plane tickets for both she and Brandon

944
00:55:48.800 --> 00:55:52.440
as well as themselves, to fly to Atlanta to go

945
00:55:52.480 --> 00:55:55.199
look at these houses together in person. And she was

946
00:55:55.239 --> 00:55:57.079
super excited about this, I mean, this was going to

947
00:55:57.119 --> 00:56:00.519
be a monumental change. And the flight tickets were for

948
00:56:00.599 --> 00:56:05.280
August the ninth, two days before that trip was supposed

949
00:56:05.280 --> 00:56:09.239
to take place on August the seventh, and this was

950
00:56:09.320 --> 00:56:11.280
late at night. This is like ten forty five at night.

951
00:56:11.760 --> 00:56:15.440
Brandon texted her and he said, quote, You're gonna get

952
00:56:15.440 --> 00:56:22.760
a boob job for Christmas end quote. So she was like, what,

953
00:56:23.480 --> 00:56:25.800
you know, that sounds awesome. You'll you'll pay for that.

954
00:56:25.840 --> 00:56:27.679
I guess they'd had a discussion. She wanted to do that,

955
00:56:27.920 --> 00:56:29.840
and he was like, yeah, I'm going to make it happen.

956
00:56:29.960 --> 00:56:32.280
And she's like, wow, now I have to say this.

957
00:56:32.400 --> 00:56:34.440
I have nothing to base this on. I want to

958
00:56:34.480 --> 00:56:37.039
be clear. This is my own personal opinion. This is

959
00:56:37.079 --> 00:56:39.800
not fact any way, shape or form. It's just my opinion.

960
00:56:41.039 --> 00:56:45.519
While Sarah wasn't romantically interested in Brandon, you get the

961
00:56:45.599 --> 00:56:49.639
feeling that financially for her, he was looking pretty good.

962
00:56:50.079 --> 00:56:52.920
So I'm sure that she was flattered and she was

963
00:56:52.960 --> 00:56:56.719
excited for all the possibility of you know, self improvement

964
00:56:56.880 --> 00:56:58.320
and all this kind of stuff and getting to go

965
00:56:58.360 --> 00:57:01.480
live in a million dollar home. While was benefiting because

966
00:57:01.480 --> 00:57:03.400
he wanted to be with her, and he was kind

967
00:57:03.400 --> 00:57:05.719
of walking in because he was going to be able

968
00:57:05.719 --> 00:57:09.360
to do it with this money. Well, it was then

969
00:57:09.440 --> 00:57:13.559
tragically the very next day that his parents were killed.

970
00:57:14.920 --> 00:57:18.000
So when Brandon called and told Sarah the news about

971
00:57:18.039 --> 00:57:21.679
his parent's death, she was in total shock. She didn't

972
00:57:21.679 --> 00:57:23.760
know what to do, she didn't know what to say.

973
00:57:25.199 --> 00:57:28.920
In August eighth, that was the day of the second

974
00:57:29.039 --> 00:57:32.320
interview police had had with Brandon, and when Brandon left

975
00:57:32.320 --> 00:57:34.840
that interview, Sarah went and met up with him at

976
00:57:34.880 --> 00:57:37.920
a friend's house because she wanted to share her condolences

977
00:57:38.000 --> 00:57:40.480
and just be there for him because that this is tragic,

978
00:57:40.559 --> 00:57:43.039
you know, this is huge. She wanted to also help

979
00:57:43.079 --> 00:57:45.159
take a load off of him in any way that

980
00:57:45.199 --> 00:57:47.519
she might could help. And so she's like, Brandon, listen,

981
00:57:48.079 --> 00:57:50.159
I know you got a lot going on. Would you

982
00:57:50.280 --> 00:57:52.480
like me to go cancel all of the plane tickets

983
00:57:52.639 --> 00:57:54.320
so that you don't have to worry about that? Don't

984
00:57:54.360 --> 00:57:56.000
you know there's no you know, we need to save that,

985
00:57:56.039 --> 00:57:58.159
you can save that money whatever, you know, we don't

986
00:57:58.159 --> 00:58:01.079
want to waste those tickets. But he told her, no,

987
00:58:01.119 --> 00:58:04.199
don't worry about it. It's already been handled. He said

988
00:58:04.199 --> 00:58:08.639
that his aunt had canceled the tickets, but he followed

989
00:58:08.719 --> 00:58:12.679
up with please don't mention the flight to anyone. The flights,

990
00:58:12.760 --> 00:58:17.320
including the police, just don't bring it up. It just

991
00:58:17.480 --> 00:58:19.719
was weird. All of it was weird to her, and

992
00:58:19.800 --> 00:58:22.000
so that's why she called the police to tell them

993
00:58:22.000 --> 00:58:24.880
about it. It may be nothing, but it was just odd.

994
00:58:25.519 --> 00:58:29.320
So when they got that information, detectives then showed up

995
00:58:29.360 --> 00:58:32.559
at Sarah's house and she told them everything anything they

996
00:58:32.599 --> 00:58:35.199
had questions about. She laid it all out there for them.

997
00:58:36.119 --> 00:58:41.119
But while Brandon's sister was just adamant that this is

998
00:58:41.239 --> 00:58:45.559
just how Brandon is. He makes up stories to keep friends.

999
00:58:45.639 --> 00:58:48.480
You know, this is just one of his fantasies he

1000
00:58:48.519 --> 00:58:53.079
built to impress Sarah. Police found some issues with that

1001
00:58:53.400 --> 00:58:59.599
stance because Brandon had actually called a real realtor a

1002
00:58:59.639 --> 00:59:05.639
real person and was having real discussions about homes in Georgia.

1003
00:59:06.360 --> 00:59:10.280
That's not just building a fantasy. That's acting on it.

1004
00:59:10.639 --> 00:59:13.639
And it's more complex than just you know, creating a

1005
00:59:13.679 --> 00:59:17.480
fantasy world. But you, as my listener, I want to

1006
00:59:17.519 --> 00:59:20.320
let you know that study show which I have cited

1007
00:59:20.360 --> 00:59:21.880
for you in the show notes if you want to

1008
00:59:21.880 --> 00:59:26.840
go check. But the study show that some high functioning

1009
00:59:26.920 --> 00:59:32.400
autistic folks do act on their fantasies. They just build

1010
00:59:32.480 --> 00:59:36.000
up these complex worlds around a fantasy to help them

1011
00:59:36.039 --> 00:59:38.639
feel included and important and accepted, like I told you,

1012
00:59:39.440 --> 00:59:42.000
and Brandon knew that he would keep Sarah's interest with

1013
00:59:42.039 --> 00:59:46.960
the promises of a lavish life. That said, this meant

1014
00:59:47.159 --> 00:59:51.639
nothing in relation to his parents' murder. It just meant

1015
00:59:51.679 --> 00:59:56.800
he lied, But it was mitigated by his diagnosis, as

1016
00:59:57.039 --> 01:00:00.440
understandable because y'all, there were no plane tickets to go

1017
01:00:00.480 --> 01:00:05.239
to Georgia. There was no doubt at this point that

1018
01:00:05.360 --> 01:00:09.199
Brandon did not physically kill his parents. He was working

1019
01:00:09.239 --> 01:00:12.119
as a security guard at the time of their shooting deaths,

1020
01:00:12.199 --> 01:00:15.440
and when the fire started and his boss was contacted,

1021
01:00:15.840 --> 01:00:18.679
verified this alibi. He saw him with his own eyes,

1022
01:00:18.920 --> 01:00:23.440
and this was an indisputable fact. But the police believed

1023
01:00:23.519 --> 01:00:29.079
that Brandon did, however, hire Felix to do this murder

1024
01:00:29.480 --> 01:00:35.960
for him. But why and was he actually capable of it?

1025
01:00:36.000 --> 01:00:40.519
Became the questions. But that's when another person came forward

1026
01:00:40.519 --> 01:00:45.199
to police, a family friend, and this guy was actually

1027
01:00:45.239 --> 01:00:49.119
a friend of Brandon's dad, Scott, whom he was very

1028
01:00:49.159 --> 01:00:53.280
close with. This guy's name was Mike Anderson. Now, Mike

1029
01:00:53.400 --> 01:00:56.960
and Scott had been friends for a while, and Mike

1030
01:00:57.039 --> 01:01:00.639
knew Brandon because of his dad. Mike was very aware

1031
01:01:00.639 --> 01:01:03.159
of Brandon's struggles, but he was one of those guys

1032
01:01:03.199 --> 01:01:05.960
that was still willing to help out friends, and so

1033
01:01:06.400 --> 01:01:09.320
at the request of mister Scott, he had even given

1034
01:01:09.360 --> 01:01:12.639
Brandon a job once in twenty twelve to try to

1035
01:01:12.639 --> 01:01:14.679
help them out, because Scott needed a job. You know,

1036
01:01:14.719 --> 01:01:17.719
he's an adult. He needs to be busy. So, as

1037
01:01:17.760 --> 01:01:20.119
you already know, Scott had a number of cars, some

1038
01:01:20.199 --> 01:01:25.320
of which he kept at Mike Anderson's property, including that Corvette,

1039
01:01:26.440 --> 01:01:29.119
and it was common between twenty twelve and the middle

1040
01:01:29.119 --> 01:01:32.119
of twenty thirteen for Brandon to go over to Mike's

1041
01:01:32.159 --> 01:01:35.119
property to tinker on the Corvette, and he would always

1042
01:01:35.119 --> 01:01:37.559
brag to Mike that the Corvette was his. This was

1043
01:01:37.639 --> 01:01:40.760
his car. Now, truth be told, if you look into this,

1044
01:01:41.760 --> 01:01:44.480
Brandon was actually the co owner on the pink slip

1045
01:01:44.559 --> 01:01:47.280
of this Corvette, but his dad was the one who

1046
01:01:47.320 --> 01:01:50.800
bought the car as a joint dad's son venture, hobby

1047
01:01:51.199 --> 01:01:56.960
and bonding time. Now, Brandon had made comments to Mike

1048
01:01:57.480 --> 01:02:00.239
about his parents during that time, including at at one

1049
01:02:00.239 --> 01:02:03.480
point telling Mike Anderson he would be better off if

1050
01:02:03.480 --> 01:02:07.360
his parents weren't here, and he had told Mike this story,

1051
01:02:07.360 --> 01:02:10.400
which Mike echoed to the police that Brandon was telling

1052
01:02:10.480 --> 01:02:12.800
him he was going to move to Georgia. So while

1053
01:02:12.800 --> 01:02:15.760
it may have been a fantasy that he was building,

1054
01:02:16.880 --> 01:02:22.440
at at the parents' vigil that was held after their death,

1055
01:02:24.880 --> 01:02:29.800
Brandon was talking about wanting to get the cars and

1056
01:02:29.920 --> 01:02:33.239
sell the Corvette before he moved to Georgia. I mean,

1057
01:02:33.239 --> 01:02:36.079
this is right after his parents were murdered and he

1058
01:02:36.119 --> 01:02:38.199
approaches Mike about I need to get the cars so

1059
01:02:38.239 --> 01:02:41.239
that I can sell them, and something about that conversation

1060
01:02:41.360 --> 01:02:45.719
bothered Mike because it just wasn't appropriate. It wasn't it

1061
01:02:45.760 --> 01:02:48.840
wasn't right, It was just not appropriate for what was

1062
01:02:48.880 --> 01:02:51.039
going on, and he felt like he just had to

1063
01:02:51.039 --> 01:02:55.960
contact police and tell them about it. Well. Susan, Brandon's

1064
01:02:55.960 --> 01:03:00.760
ex and baby mama, remember her. She also had spoken

1065
01:03:00.760 --> 01:03:06.280
to police during some questioning, and Brandon had told her

1066
01:03:06.920 --> 01:03:09.480
that he couldn't wait for his dad to be dead

1067
01:03:10.079 --> 01:03:13.960
so the Corvette would be all his matter of fact,

1068
01:03:14.039 --> 01:03:16.519
in April, before their deaths, they had gone on a

1069
01:03:16.599 --> 01:03:21.639
road trip where Brandon reiterated this, and after they broke up,

1070
01:03:22.239 --> 01:03:24.800
Brandon was still texting her and they were still talking

1071
01:03:24.960 --> 01:03:28.119
and he was telling her how he was irritated about

1072
01:03:28.320 --> 01:03:30.400
the way that his parents were treating him. They treated

1073
01:03:30.480 --> 01:03:32.880
him like a child, and he was saying that he

1074
01:03:32.920 --> 01:03:35.679
wished that his dad was dead. And then right before

1075
01:03:35.719 --> 01:03:39.880
the murders, he told her, look, I'm about to be

1076
01:03:39.880 --> 01:03:43.840
coming into a lot of money soon. So police now

1077
01:03:43.840 --> 01:03:45.400
had to figure out, you know, are these the words

1078
01:03:45.440 --> 01:03:48.960
of a jaded woman. But then again, two people that

1079
01:03:49.000 --> 01:03:51.480
were completely unrelated had come forward, and we're saying the

1080
01:03:51.519 --> 01:03:53.960
same thing. I mean, what are the chances of all

1081
01:03:54.000 --> 01:03:55.800
of these people that are not related to each other

1082
01:03:55.800 --> 01:03:59.440
in any way saying the same things at different experiences

1083
01:03:59.440 --> 01:04:04.480
with this guy. So looking more into people that knew Felix,

1084
01:04:05.800 --> 01:04:08.119
police got some wind of something else that they didn't know.

1085
01:04:09.199 --> 01:04:12.559
Felix had a neighbor friend. The guy's name was Matthew Wells,

1086
01:04:12.960 --> 01:04:16.760
and he told police that around late July of twenty thirteen,

1087
01:04:17.360 --> 01:04:21.199
he knew that Felix had gotten a new gun, and

1088
01:04:21.239 --> 01:04:26.840
this was just days before the Petits murders, and specifically

1089
01:04:26.920 --> 01:04:29.239
he was able to describe the gun. He said it

1090
01:04:29.280 --> 01:04:33.480
was a Western style twenty two revolver with a pearl grip,

1091
01:04:34.000 --> 01:04:36.480
and he said Felix had been practicing with it. And

1092
01:04:36.519 --> 01:04:38.519
what was kind of weird was that like he was

1093
01:04:38.599 --> 01:04:42.559
practicing from a variety of positions. He did it standing,

1094
01:04:42.840 --> 01:04:46.480
taking a knee, and even lying prone on his stomach

1095
01:04:47.199 --> 01:04:51.880
with this gun. That weapon was never found during any

1096
01:04:52.400 --> 01:04:56.639
searches of his of Felix's home. But it just so

1097
01:04:56.880 --> 01:05:00.239
happened that the bullets that Brandon had admitted to giving

1098
01:05:00.239 --> 01:05:03.199
to Felix right before the murders, those were for a

1099
01:05:03.239 --> 01:05:08.159
twenty two forensics you know, can never be compared to

1100
01:05:08.239 --> 01:05:11.000
the casings or with the weapon because the weapon was

1101
01:05:11.039 --> 01:05:15.320
never found. But come on, guys, seven casings found of

1102
01:05:15.360 --> 01:05:19.400
the same caliber bullets given to Felix by the victim's

1103
01:05:19.400 --> 01:05:26.800
son of whom was shot seven times. Like y'all know,

1104
01:05:26.880 --> 01:05:29.519
I don't believe in coincidences. How do you feel about

1105
01:05:29.559 --> 01:05:33.679
it right now? While the physical evidence really only linked Felix,

1106
01:05:34.000 --> 01:05:39.880
the circumstantial was really piling up against Brandon. So as thinkers,

1107
01:05:40.400 --> 01:05:43.840
you know, the question obviously becomes can an autistic person

1108
01:05:44.239 --> 01:05:50.159
consciously develop intent and understand outcomes with regard to criminality?

1109
01:05:50.800 --> 01:05:53.159
And this had be really curious. I'm serious, y'all, Just

1110
01:05:53.239 --> 01:05:56.119
as a thinker, I really wanted to I weighed this heavily,

1111
01:05:56.599 --> 01:05:57.960
so I did as I do, and I did a

1112
01:05:58.000 --> 01:06:00.760
little bit more research and what I find. I'm gonna

1113
01:06:00.760 --> 01:06:02.679
summarize it for you in brief, but I really want

1114
01:06:02.719 --> 01:06:06.440
you to think about this as a listener. Off the top,

1115
01:06:07.199 --> 01:06:11.400
most people with autism spectrum disorder do not commit crimes,

1116
01:06:12.159 --> 01:06:19.199
generally great people. This disorder, however, does impact a person's

1117
01:06:19.280 --> 01:06:24.599
individual reasoning process. And the key here would be intent

1118
01:06:25.079 --> 01:06:28.840
and potential gain from the criminal act. Could he have

1119
01:06:29.000 --> 01:06:34.280
done this? So intent and criminal intent with regard to autism,

1120
01:06:34.559 --> 01:06:36.639
it changes a little bit. And I'm gonna give you

1121
01:06:36.639 --> 01:06:38.559
a weird example here, but just to make the point.

1122
01:06:39.199 --> 01:06:41.280
If there was a dog that was barking and wouldn't

1123
01:06:41.280 --> 01:06:43.639
stop and it was annoying someone who had this high

1124
01:06:43.719 --> 01:06:46.840
level functioning autism. Okay, and again this is not everybody

1125
01:06:46.840 --> 01:06:50.719
with autism. Just in this instance I'm giving you if

1126
01:06:50.760 --> 01:06:54.119
that person has intelligence, right, they're smart, they want the

1127
01:06:54.159 --> 01:06:57.039
dog to stop barking. They know vocal cords are how

1128
01:06:57.119 --> 01:07:00.519
dogs make noise. So the person might think and white

1129
01:07:00.519 --> 01:07:02.599
and say, I want the dog to stop barking. So

1130
01:07:02.719 --> 01:07:06.159
if I cut the vocal cords, that will accomplish the goal.

1131
01:07:06.239 --> 01:07:10.719
That I want. Okay, that's intent, but the suffering of

1132
01:07:10.760 --> 01:07:14.719
that animal may not even cross the minds or the

1133
01:07:14.800 --> 01:07:19.280
consideration of the person on the spectrum. And the suffering

1134
01:07:19.880 --> 01:07:22.639
is what, to me would make it even more criminal, right,

1135
01:07:22.639 --> 01:07:25.960
because you're doing something criminal and then the suffering is

1136
01:07:26.000 --> 01:07:28.519
what makes it just just over the top. But this

1137
01:07:28.559 --> 01:07:30.519
is where it gets muddy, guys, and I hope you

1138
01:07:30.599 --> 01:07:32.440
can follow what I'm saying here. It gets really muddy

1139
01:07:32.679 --> 01:07:35.920
because police believe Brandon was absolutely the mastermind of his

1140
01:07:35.960 --> 01:07:40.480
parents murders and his motive was his inheritance. But based

1141
01:07:40.519 --> 01:07:43.760
on what we're just talking about, could they convince a

1142
01:07:43.840 --> 01:07:46.920
jury of the same. Well, this would be something that

1143
01:07:46.920 --> 01:07:49.280
they were going to find out soon enough, because Brandon

1144
01:07:49.360 --> 01:07:53.400
Pettitt was arrested and charged for the murder of his parents.

1145
01:07:54.599 --> 01:07:58.400
So initially Brandon and Felix were supposed to be tried together,

1146
01:07:58.880 --> 01:08:02.920
but it would take nearly seven years before Brandon would

1147
01:08:02.960 --> 01:08:06.800
have his day in court, and there would be multiple continuances,

1148
01:08:07.039 --> 01:08:10.079
multiple delays for a million other different reasons. But then

1149
01:08:10.119 --> 01:08:14.800
something would happen so big that this would then become

1150
01:08:14.840 --> 01:08:20.920
a public issue. Felix would be found by a judge

1151
01:08:21.520 --> 01:08:28.880
to be incompetent to stand trial. So while medical records

1152
01:08:29.039 --> 01:08:32.800
in this situation are not going to be public, okay,

1153
01:08:32.880 --> 01:08:35.520
I can't tell you what happened that would cause him

1154
01:08:35.520 --> 01:08:40.119
to be found incompetent, but where he was sent tells

1155
01:08:40.159 --> 01:08:43.840
me that there was not an intelligence issue as to

1156
01:08:43.880 --> 01:08:47.399
his incompetence. Okay, So what I'm saying is the judge

1157
01:08:47.479 --> 01:08:52.239
sent him off to a state mental health hospital. So

1158
01:08:52.800 --> 01:08:55.640
it's probably and this is my opinion, this is not

1159
01:08:55.760 --> 01:08:58.279
something I'm stating his fact, but it's more possible to

1160
01:08:58.319 --> 01:09:00.840
me that he maybe had a mental break down of sorts.

1161
01:09:01.640 --> 01:09:04.399
It's not he was incompetent to stand trial based on intelligence.

1162
01:09:04.399 --> 01:09:06.640
And I'm going to explain. Okay, So if he was

1163
01:09:06.840 --> 01:09:10.800
sent to a psychiatric hospital, and per documentation, it says

1164
01:09:10.880 --> 01:09:14.760
quote until competency could be restored end quote. What I'm

1165
01:09:14.800 --> 01:09:18.800
saying here is that if competency can be restored, then

1166
01:09:18.800 --> 01:09:21.680
it's not a permanent issue like an IQ deficet or

1167
01:09:21.720 --> 01:09:24.920
something like that. Obviously this is just a guess, but

1168
01:09:25.159 --> 01:09:27.560
there was something that I found in my research that

1169
01:09:27.640 --> 01:09:30.399
makes me believe this, because one witness said something during

1170
01:09:30.399 --> 01:09:35.399
the investigation that would probably support a breakdown happening with

1171
01:09:35.520 --> 01:09:39.399
Felix because this person said they saw Felix right after

1172
01:09:39.439 --> 01:09:41.520
the murders. I believe it was in a bar and

1173
01:09:41.600 --> 01:09:45.239
he was completely and totally disheveled. And this person did

1174
01:09:45.239 --> 01:09:49.760
not know Felix to drink in like excess, but he

1175
01:09:49.920 --> 01:09:53.640
was chugging alcohol. He was sweating profusely, so much so

1176
01:09:53.720 --> 01:09:56.399
the witness said that his glasses were even fogging up.

1177
01:09:57.079 --> 01:09:59.479
And so this person went up to Felix and was like, hey, man,

1178
01:09:59.720 --> 01:10:01.560
are you okay. You don't look all right. You look

1179
01:10:01.600 --> 01:10:04.000
like you're struggling. And he was like, I'm fine, it's

1180
01:10:04.000 --> 01:10:07.800
a kidney stone. I don't know, man, Would you just

1181
01:10:07.880 --> 01:10:11.159
take up excessively drinking because you have a kidney stone?

1182
01:10:11.439 --> 01:10:13.840
That seems kind of weird of a It seems more

1183
01:10:13.880 --> 01:10:15.960
like you would take up drinking whenever you may have

1184
01:10:16.039 --> 01:10:19.239
murdered two people and you're realizing, holy crap, this is

1185
01:10:19.239 --> 01:10:22.880
what I've done. So again, I don't believe in coincidences,

1186
01:10:23.039 --> 01:10:26.680
but you can decide what you think there. Eventually, I'll

1187
01:10:26.720 --> 01:10:29.920
let you know that Felix would be back to competency standards.

1188
01:10:30.399 --> 01:10:33.319
But when Brandon went on trial, which was in September,

1189
01:10:33.359 --> 01:10:36.359
first of twenty twenty. Felix at that time was still

1190
01:10:36.359 --> 01:10:39.359
not considered competent, and so he was not available to

1191
01:10:39.439 --> 01:10:42.479
testify for either side of the case. He couldn't testify

1192
01:10:42.640 --> 01:10:46.680
for the prosecution or the defense. The thing was, even

1193
01:10:46.760 --> 01:10:52.039
without the hitman available to speak, Brandon's own statements, combined

1194
01:10:52.079 --> 01:10:55.720
with his actions, we're going to be really hard to defend,

1195
01:10:56.039 --> 01:10:59.479
even without the hitman pointing the finger at him. Case

1196
01:10:59.520 --> 01:11:03.640
in point, Brandon claimed to not know Felix right until

1197
01:11:04.279 --> 01:11:07.920
he later on would admit that they were friends. Brandon

1198
01:11:07.960 --> 01:11:10.800
said he didn't have any clue how Felix could possibly

1199
01:11:10.840 --> 01:11:13.399
have gotten into his parents' house, but then later in

1200
01:11:13.439 --> 01:11:16.159
that recorded interview, would be heard saying that he admitted

1201
01:11:16.239 --> 01:11:19.279
he gave the keys to Felix, and then when he

1202
01:11:19.319 --> 01:11:22.279
was asked to expand on that, Brandon said that Felix

1203
01:11:22.399 --> 01:11:26.840
was quote just supposed to scare his parents end quote

1204
01:11:27.560 --> 01:11:32.560
proof for me that there had been a discussion. So

1205
01:11:33.279 --> 01:11:36.760
after his parents' memorial service, that's when he then drove

1206
01:11:36.800 --> 01:11:40.279
to Felix's house and gave him one hundred dollars and

1207
01:11:40.359 --> 01:11:43.720
police believed prosecutors believed too, that that was a down

1208
01:11:43.840 --> 01:11:47.439
payment until the rest of the money would come in.

1209
01:11:48.920 --> 01:11:51.359
Another friend would come testify at the trial too, named

1210
01:11:51.520 --> 01:11:55.479
Arlen Traster. Brandon had told him that he wanted to

1211
01:11:55.560 --> 01:11:58.439
quote unquote off his parents because they were being quote

1212
01:11:58.520 --> 01:12:03.760
unquote dix and they had money. And he also said

1213
01:12:03.880 --> 01:12:06.760
that Brandon told him that Brandon had given someone five

1214
01:12:06.840 --> 01:12:11.680
hundred dollars as a down payment to kill his parents.

1215
01:12:11.720 --> 01:12:15.560
Another witness Korin Cazares. She testified that in June of

1216
01:12:15.600 --> 01:12:19.359
twenty thirteen, Brandon told her boyfriend that he was about

1217
01:12:19.399 --> 01:12:21.039
to come into a large sum of money in a

1218
01:12:21.039 --> 01:12:23.159
couple of months, and he was interested in buying her

1219
01:12:23.159 --> 01:12:28.399
boyfriend's vehicle. Brandon gave the bullets to Felix. Brandon gave

1220
01:12:28.439 --> 01:12:32.720
the keys to Felix. Brandon called Felix after he arrived

1221
01:12:32.720 --> 01:12:37.039
at work the night of the murders, and something huge

1222
01:12:37.800 --> 01:12:41.279
that stood out to me and I could not get

1223
01:12:41.319 --> 01:12:46.600
over was the fact that Brandon never asked the police

1224
01:12:47.359 --> 01:12:53.720
how his parents were murdered, not once, and towards the end,

1225
01:12:54.119 --> 01:12:56.199
the police eventually confronted him with that, you know, you've

1226
01:12:56.239 --> 01:12:58.960
never asked us what happened to your parents. Don't you

1227
01:12:59.000 --> 01:13:01.600
think that's kind of odd? And he told him Oh,

1228
01:13:01.720 --> 01:13:05.079
I just don't want to know. What he did want

1229
01:13:05.119 --> 01:13:07.880
to know, though, was what his insurance payout would have

1230
01:13:07.880 --> 01:13:11.199
been from his parents' life insurance, which he was found

1231
01:13:11.239 --> 01:13:14.960
would be a million dollars, as well as wanting information

1232
01:13:15.039 --> 01:13:17.880
so that he could sell his father's most prized possessions

1233
01:13:18.159 --> 01:13:22.039
within days of his murder. With all of this and

1234
01:13:22.119 --> 01:13:25.640
more brought before a jury, after one and a half

1235
01:13:25.720 --> 01:13:28.760
days of deliberations, the jury came back with a guilty

1236
01:13:28.880 --> 01:13:31.840
verdict for Brandon Pettitt and he was sentenced to two

1237
01:13:31.840 --> 01:13:38.119
life sentences without the possibility of parole. Eventually, Felix Valverde's

1238
01:13:38.119 --> 01:13:41.560
competency would be restored and so he would be scheduled

1239
01:13:42.119 --> 01:13:45.960
to start go to trial, But in February of twenty

1240
01:13:46.000 --> 01:13:49.119
twenty three, he decided to take a plea deal. He

1241
01:13:49.159 --> 01:13:51.880
pled no contest to two counts of first degree murder

1242
01:13:51.880 --> 01:13:55.560
and arson as part of that deal, and he was

1243
01:13:55.600 --> 01:14:01.279
facing a sentence of thirty three years. So in the end,

1244
01:14:01.920 --> 01:14:06.760
based on what you now know, the face of the

1245
01:14:06.880 --> 01:14:12.600
killer wasn't some stranger in the shadows, was it. It's

1246
01:14:13.520 --> 01:14:16.680
the person that was sitting at the dinner table right

1247
01:14:16.720 --> 01:14:21.159
next to the victims, the one who knew their routines,

1248
01:14:21.920 --> 01:14:27.159
the locks, and exactly how much trust was sitting there

1249
01:14:27.560 --> 01:14:32.880
in the parents' home, just waiting to be weaponized. The

1250
01:14:32.960 --> 01:14:39.119
least expected person, but clearly the most prepared. Because capability

1251
01:14:39.680 --> 01:14:46.079
doesn't always have to look impressive. Sometimes it looks underestimated,

1252
01:14:46.199 --> 01:14:49.039
and it gets the benefit of the doubt made behind

1253
01:14:49.279 --> 01:14:54.479
lowered expectations. And then when people who love that person

1254
01:14:54.520 --> 01:14:57.800
beyond words are firmly saying he couldn't possibly have done it,

1255
01:14:57.960 --> 01:15:02.279
he's not capable, the evidence in this case has shown

1256
01:15:02.720 --> 01:15:08.800
that quietly and methodically, he absolutely could, and he did.

1257
01:15:10.319 --> 01:15:15.199
Those so called shortcomings they weren't barriers, and in this

1258
01:15:15.399 --> 01:15:20.439
case they were camouflage, a built in alibi, wrapped an assumption,

1259
01:15:21.000 --> 01:15:25.960
letting him move right under everyone's noses. But the truth

1260
01:15:26.680 --> 01:15:29.800
always has a way of showing up, even when it's sad,

1261
01:15:30.439 --> 01:15:35.039
or it's ugly, or at the jumpet may feel unfair

1262
01:15:35.359 --> 01:15:40.439
in a way. So no, Brandon wasn't the least likely.

1263
01:15:41.960 --> 01:15:45.439
He was the only one whose society continues to educate

1264
01:15:45.520 --> 01:15:49.159
us on that he isn't less, he is just different,

1265
01:15:49.720 --> 01:15:54.680
and in this case that's exactly right. The real surprise

1266
01:15:54.720 --> 01:15:57.039
when it was all said and done. Wasn't that he

1267
01:15:57.159 --> 01:16:00.800
was able to do it. It was that everyone around

1268
01:16:00.840 --> 01:16:16.399
him was naive enough to think that he wouldn't m