The Gym Rat, The Pandemic and The Text Messages

Today’s guests are producers Stephanie Lydecker and Jeff Shane.

When a healthy Florida woman comes down with Covid-19 and disappears, her loved ones will have to investigate the mystery themselves. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Falling in love is the best feeling in the world.
You see stars, you feel giddy, But sometimes that makes
you do crazy things, and sometimes that means murder. Just
because the story starts out with once upon a Times
doesn't mean it ends happily ever after. Welcome to Crazy
and Love, a production of Katie Studios and I Heart Radio.

(00:25):
Today's guests are true crime producers Stephanie Lai Ticker and
Jeff Shane. Episode forty two, The Case of the Gym Rat,
the Pandemic, and the Text Messages. In the upscale and
scenic seaside community of Jupiter, Florida, live Gretchen Crane. As

(00:48):
an HR administrator. Gretchen got paid to help employees fix
their issues. She was a thoughtful and empathetic person and
this was her dream job. At work, Gretchen was loved
by colleagues and considered them her second family. The blue eyed,
blonde haired fifty one year old was described as a
beautiful person who cared deeply about people. But perhaps the

(01:10):
person Gretchen love more than anyone was her twelve year
old daughter Ava. Gretchen was a devoted mother and would
proudly say that Ava was her greatest accomplishment. After a
divorce from Eva's father, Gretchen was looking to reset her life,
Hoping to get herself in shape for her second chapter.
Gretchen joined Orange Theory. Orange Theory is a popular gym

(01:34):
chain that involves high intensity workouts. It was there that
she met David Anthony. While chatting with the honky six
ft seven inch trainer, Gretchen found that her runs on
the treadmill weren't the only thing getting her heart raising.
There was an undeniable spark between the pair. They complimented
each other. David was calm and reserved and Gretchen was

(01:56):
outspoken and self assured. They were both also active. David
was a zealous outdoorsman who relish cycling, deep sea fishing,
and kayaking. Gretchen adored going to the beach, paddle boarding
and doing yoga. By December fourteen, the pair were engaged.
They got married at the Elvis Chapel in Las Vegas.

(02:17):
In Aside from his strapping good looks, David was also
an exceptional stepparent to Gretchen's daughter. The little girl called
him her bonus parents. Here's Stephanie. This was a couple
who had a lot going for them. They were both
very into the gym, so they did this together both

(02:37):
as a hobby and in David's case, he was also
a personal trainer. Gretchen was in incredible shape and David
was a popular trainer who got a lot of female attention.
Apparently he really commanded the attention of most rooms that
he walked into, and when his energy was high, it
felt contagious. If anyone who's ever been to personal trainer,

(03:01):
you know, these are people who take their bodies extremely seriously,
and they're usually big personalities and magnanimous because they really
need to inspire people. I'm looking at a photograph of
them right now that will post on our website, and
she has long blonde hair and is in his arms,
and she just looks incredibly at ease, and he is very,

(03:22):
very tall, and again, first impression seemed like they're a
happy couple. Despite all the good they had in their relationship,
by Gretchen and David had hit sort of a rough
patch and decided to split. According to their friends, they
had lost themselves in the relationship and they each wanted
to focus on finding their own self identity. And this

(03:43):
was not the first time the pair had parted. They
once had a six month separation, but eventually found their
way back. In December, Gretchen texted a friend about this
split and said that she thought David needs to learn
how to love himself before he can love anyone else,
and desp the fact that they had broken up and
gotten back together before. It seemed like this split might

(04:05):
actually have stuck, because on February Gretchen filed for divorce.
Just a few weeks after filing, the impending divorce would
be the last thing on anyone's mind. The world was
now dealing with COVID nineteen. Businesses in schools shut down,
and people were forced to quarantine in their homes. Thousands

(04:26):
of Americans were getting sick and dying every day. It
seemed no one was immune, not even healthy and active
fifty one year old Gretchen, who came down with coronavirus.
On Monday, March nine am, Gretchen sent a text to
her daughter Eva, good morning, awoke to shortness of breath,

(04:47):
checked into e R awaiting test kits hopefully by ten am.
Wish me luck. I'll keep you posted. Here's Jeff. For
the next few days, it seemed gretchen state was getting worse,
and she continued to text family and friends with her
health updates. She texted her daughter, good morning. Tested positive

(05:09):
for coronavirus early this morning. That means I have to
stay here for at least two weeks. It also means
our house is quarantined for two weeks. Another text read,
I am on a ventilator due to coronavirus, and yet
another text read after checking into the R today, I
passed out due to high fever hundred and two degrees
and low oxygen levels. Because it was an acute case,

(05:29):
they transferred me to an off site medical facility being
run directly by the CDC and Coronavirus Task Force. According
to Gretchen's text, this facility was more than an hour
away in Bell Glade, Florida, and this seemed really serious.
We remember what the early days of coronavirus were like
and it could be considered life and death. So it
was no surprise when Gretchen's loved ones were really alarmed

(05:52):
and worried. Not only did it seem like her health
was deteriorating, but aside from just a few short texts,
nobody could get hold of her, and when they pressed
her for why, she wasn't answering her phone or couldn't
actually speak to anybody. Gretchen wrote, and this is a
direct quote, the coronavirus is causing my right lung to
work extra hard to help me breathe. No visitors, no

(06:15):
phone calls, and I'm limited to a little bit of
cell phone use because the doctors think the radiation from
my phone is causing my immune system to not fight
the virus like it should. I'm staying strong as it
could be worse. I promise you'll all stay strong for me, Okay.
End quote. On March, fed up with not being able

(06:36):
to talk to her, Gretchen's ex husband and the father
of her daughter, a man named Jeff went to the
Jupiter Medical Center to see if he could track Gretchen down.
In the parking lot, he spotted her dark blue Mini
Cooper on the passenger side floor was her purse. When
he went inside to ask the r physician to speak
with Gretchen, the employee told him that she was in
fact once a patient, but hadn't been to the facility

(06:58):
since two thousand and eight, so despite texting people that
she was at the hospital, she hadn't actually been there.
In years, Jeff, the ex husband, thought perhaps she was
at the CDC facility instead. As it turns out, despite
texting people and really clearly stating that she was at
the CDC facility in Bell Glade, there was no such
facility in that area. Now people are really starting to worry.

(07:22):
We're going to take a break. We'll be back in
just a moment. Was Gretchen so sick she was losing
her mind? Was she trying to keep her actual location secret?

(07:46):
Or was someone holding her hostage and forcing her to
send those texts? With many more questions than answered, it
seemed only one thing was clear. Gretchen Anthony was missing.
Now officially terrified, Chin's family called nine one one on March,
the police went to her house for a welfare check.
There they spoke to a few neighbors, one of whom

(08:08):
had a story worth telling. A few days ago. On
the morning of March, this neighbor had heard a woman screaming.
It sounded like she was being attacked. The screaming lass
in about fifteen minutes, and despite the serious nature of
the noises, this neighbor never called men one one. Eventually,
that neighbor gave a statement to police but their statement
wasn't the only thing that they were concerned about, because

(08:30):
police also noticed a trail of some sort of soapy
substance coming from Gretchen's garage, and remember her garage is
closed at the time, and at the side of the door,
they also found that a lock had a key broken
off into it, meaning somebody had tried to break the
lock and probably the key snapped inside of it. And

(08:51):
as police found their way into the garage, they found
bleach footprints accompanied by an overwhelming smell of cleaning products,
and it looked like something really messy had obviously happened
there and that someone had attempted to really clean it up.
After looking around the garage, the police went into the house.

(09:11):
They were hopeful that Gretchen might be inside, but what
detectives found was signs of a violent struggle, a broken
picture frame, shards of glass on Gretchen's bed, and a
stained towel. The towel had BLS on it, and what
BLS means is a blood like substance. The police also
noted that security cameras around the home had seemingly been
ripped off of the walls. They contacted the company to

(09:33):
see if they could retrieve the video from the cloud.
It was clear that something bad had happened to Grutchen
in the home, but there were still no signs of
the mother. Police got another huge break when a different
neighbor told them they had seen this sketchy looking black
truck the same morning that the other neighbor had heard
blood curdling screams. In fact, they were so creeped out

(09:54):
by this truck they even took a picture of the vehicle.
In the picture, which is a black Nissan up truck.
Police could actually make out the license plate. Well, who
did it belonged to? Stuff Gretchen's a strange husband, David Anthony,
and this photo meant that David had been very close
to Gretchen's house the last day she was seen alive.
But at this point, where is David because nobody knows

(10:16):
where he is. So police started to figure out David's movements,
and what they found was that after Gretchen filed for
divorce in February, David moved in with his mom, so
police went to her home to find David. When they arrived,
David's mother told the police that she had last seen
him on March. Now Remember that was three days after
Gretchen has last and seen alive. David's mom told the

(10:38):
detectives that she didn't know where her son was. He
had packed up his truck and left. David's mom notably
asked detectives if the visit was about Gretchen, as she
had gotten texts from her saying that she had seemed
pretty sick. So all this didn't look good for David.
He was last seen outside of Gretchen's home the last
time she was seen alive, and then he seemingly disappears.
Can you imagine? And to add further suspicion, police were

(11:00):
able to retrieve the security footage from the Jupiter Medical
Facility where Gretchen's car had been found earlier. They could
see her Minnie Cooper, pulling into the lot, but she
never got out of the car. Instead, a very tall
man exited the vehicle and walked out of frame. And
remember David is six seven. With David looking like a

(11:22):
likely suspect, police got a notification that Gretchen's phone was
pinging about six hundred miles away in Pensacola, Florida. Her
and David's phones were both moving across the state and
into Louisiana. Detectives wondered if the pair could be on
the run together. As the detectives worked to track down
David and Gretchen, police began looking into David's past. They

(11:44):
found that he grew up with a single mother in
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Painfully shy, he usually didn't speak
unless spoken to. David was overweight as a young man
and had a low self esteem, which made him a
constant target for bullies at school because he was so
much bigger than other kids. He hadn't and allowed to
join recreational sports leagues. As he got older, he continued
to struggle with severe depression and showed signs of bipolar disorder.

(12:07):
He refused to take any medication, instead becoming obsessed with fitness.
He got in great shape and got a scholarship to
play at basketball in college. It was there he fell
in love with Kobe Bryant. He idolized the athlete and
even int his dog after the star. He fell into
some trouble when he held up a Blockbuster video store
with a water gun. Another point, he also assaulted a
police officer. He reached a plea deal in both of

(12:29):
those cases and spent a short time in jail. As
we know, he eventually got it together and became a
popular and successful trainer at Orange Theory for over six years. However,
that seems to have ended pretty poorly as well. While
at first his clients seemed to love his high energy
and his good looks, at some point his behavior changed.
David was usually the first person at work and at

(12:50):
the gym in the morning, but in January he started
to come in later and later and later, apparently, and
according to his coworkers, his behavior vier shifted noticeably. Those
closest to him said they believed it was a combo
of his relationship issues with Gretchen and also the death
of Kobe Bryant. As we heard, he was a huge fan,

(13:13):
but didn't know him personally, and apparently Kobe's death really
sent him into its hail spin. And we can all
agree that that was a hideous tragedy, but David took
it harder than most, almost as if they were best friends,
when in fact they had never met. David continued to
go to work and to try to get other people,

(13:33):
but it was clear something was off. He became involved
in a controversial self improvement program called Gratitude Training, which
has been compared to a cult. There, he spent thousands
and thousands of dollars on seminars That all seemed to
come to a head on February when David failed to
show up at work at all, leaving everybody at his

(13:55):
gym completely locked out, and at that point his boss
confronted him him he erupted into a bit of a rage.
As a result, he was fired, and it turned out
that wasn't the first time he had been in trouble
at work. A research shows that David had been fired
at least twice for aggressive behavior towards women. That's a

(14:15):
big deal, and he was able to convince his boss
to give him another shot, But this time the not
showing up to work with the final straw. Yes, his
boss was so shaken by that encounter the morning that
he didn't show up to work that she actually texted
Gretchen in all caps saying stay away from him. Just
four days after that text, Gretchen filed for divorce and

(14:37):
the plot thickens. Just a few weeks later, David was
arrested for following teenage girls at a local mall. Think
about that. Listen to the body camp footage from when
he was arrested. Yeah, yeah, like a place. You know,

(14:57):
it's really shocking to hear. And David spent just a
few days in jail before posting bail and was released
just three days before Gretchen disappeared. It's clear he is spiraling.
So back in March of twenty, with both Gretchen and
David missing, the police were actually able to track down
David using his cell phone, using the cell phone towers
that they were able to locate him on various surveillance cameras,

(15:20):
one of which was at a local pawn shop where
he could be seen selling Gretchen's possessions. When the police
went to the store, the manager actually remember David because
of the story he told. Apparently, he said that the
jewelry he had been selling was left to him by
a loved one who had died from COVID nineteen. Unfortunately,
by the time the cops had gotten there, David was
long gone and they always seemed to be just one
step behind him. It really was becoming a huge game

(15:42):
of cat and mouse at this point. You know, David
would turn on his cell phone and then that would
send a ping, and then detectives would run to that location,
and then he would turn it off and disappear. So
again this kept happening, but finally, on March, David's phone
pinged in New Mexico, nearly one thousand, nine hundred miles

(16:02):
away from Jupiter, and local officers were able to track
him down in his truck and in the passenger seat
was his dog, Kobe. Take a listen to what he
told the cops who arrested him lost. I heard she
was in a CDC facility treatments for coronavirus. Even worse
than that. Without having enough evidence to hold him, David

(16:24):
was released. By March, Jupiter police finally received the surveillance
footage from Gretchen's home. Remember cameras had looked like they'd
been ripped out of the walls. At least contacted the
company asking to retrieve the footage, and what they found
painted a truly disturbing picture of what happened to the
fifty year old mother. In the video, David could be
seen pacing outside the home shortly after six am, seemingly

(16:48):
waiting for Gretchen. Six minutes later, Gretchen enters the frame.
What are you doing, she demanded to her estranged husband.
The video then showed David forcing her into the garage.
Off camera, she could be heard screaming. Gretchen began yelling
for her Amazon Alexa device, Alexa, turn on the garage
light she called. The camera then picked up a loud
thud sound and Gretchen's muffled cries. At this point, she

(17:10):
shouted three times for Alexa to call nine on one.
By her third play, her voice was fading before finally
it went silent tragically an unbeknownst to Gretchen, you actually
have to enable Alexa to call nine on one before
being able to do so. For anyone who owns one
of these devices, you can do that on your Alexa app.
As the detectives combed through the footage, they located one

(17:31):
shot where Gretchen was covered in blood as David paced
around her in the garage. At the end of the video,
David realized he could be seen on the surveillance In
the shot, he walks up to the camera and then
pulls it down. The freeze frame of this shot is
one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen. It's
literally David seconds after killing his estranged wife. We've posted

(17:51):
it on our Instagram at Katie Underscore Studios if you
want to see it for yourself. Let's stop here for
another break. With the surveillance footage, the police finally had

(18:17):
enough to get a warrant for David's arrest. In New Mexico,
officials comb the streets looking for the man they believe
killed Gretchen. At a little before midnight on March they
found him outside a comedian store. Listen to audio from
the moment David was taken into custody. There's a warrant

(18:38):
for your arrest, and I'm gonna explain that when we
get down to go back to that. Excuse me, what
homicide for whom? Who do you think? That's why I
said much we'll talk about the dead quarters. Okay. It
really is one of those photos. If you do a
side by side with this picture, to your point, he

(18:59):
literally just murdered Gretchen and the original photo that we
have of them in happier days. It just goes to
show you really can't judge any book by its cover,
and beautiful as they may look, this is the face
of pure evil. Back at the station, David told the
police that he hadn't harmed Gretchen, but she was actually alive.

(19:20):
He said. Gretchen had uncovered illegal activities at the company
where she worked and someone was after her. According to him,
this caused the couple to split down, and at some
point she freaked out and bolted. David told the police
that was the last time he had seen her lives,
but the cops were not buying any of this. When
detectives asked David about the COVID texts, this is what

(19:40):
he said. You have her phone, you sent the text messages.
You planted her car to put her medical center. Because
you're on video doing it, you have it. She had
me do it. You put your hand over her mouth
and racked her into the garage on video DA During
the two hour interrogation, David told cops Scretchen was alive,

(20:02):
literally thirty five times thirty five times. It was almost
as though he was willing her back into existence and
convincing himself of his own lies. The detectives attempted to
take a different approach and appealed to his softer side
by using Gretchen's daughter, the one he had a great
relationship with. I was the one who taught her how
to ride it by school, and you know what's right

(20:26):
for her, Well, you're hurting her indirectly by not letting
us know where her mom is. You have to ask her.
We can't ask her. She's dead. She's dead, her mother
still alive, alive? You are you didn't even like you
didn't even you're not even you and everybody who's going

(20:53):
to look at you like that. At one point, the
cops played a recording that Ava, Gretchen's daughter had made
for David, pleading with to tell the police what he
had done, but David had none of it. After two hours,
David stopped the interrogation and asked to see a lawyer.
At this point, it really didn't matter, as he was
charged with second degree murder at last, and was extradited

(21:15):
to Florida. However, the prosecution know they had a big issue.
Without an actual body, it's so difficult to get a
guilty verdict, so step in December, officials ended up offering
David a pleadale. If he pled guilty to second degree murder,
he would serve only thirty eight years in prison, but
in exchange for that, he would help lead authorities to

(21:36):
locate Grussians remains. It was a deal he accepted. I
hate this deal. This makes me crazy, but I could
imagine as Grettians loved ones want answers, but the idea
that he would one day walk free is so haunting. Yeah,
it's a fine line because you want to give the
family closure and help ensure that the right person gets

(21:56):
put away for the crime. So prosecution walks. You know,
a fine line between getting answers and also putting the
right person in jail. On December, nine months to the
day after Gretchen went missing, David pointed authorities to a
patch of grass behind a walmart. Buried there was his wife, Gretchen.

(22:19):
She had been wrapped in a blanket and buried in
a shallow grave. Her cause of death was stab wounds
to the neck and torso. At his sentencing, David made
a statement about why he murdered Gretchen wylusiens and I
guess an end of the world policy, an armagat that
I bought Compelo skate amount of the cost. Instead of

(22:42):
being a man, I chose of your coward, I try
to steal what was a line. In the process, I
ended his life for Lifehoad Volume for life had leading
still that life, Gretchen's loved ones bought none of it.
When it was her sister's time to speak, she didn't

(23:03):
hold anything back. Now, I would like to say some
words to the defendant, whose name and being are not
worthy of the air we all breathe. Your statement will
never mean anything to anyone. You are a fraud. Gretchen
had a huge heart and saved your life when your

(23:28):
car fell on you. Yet you killed Gretchen in that
same garage where she saved your life. You are pure evil.
You stole a mother away from her child, a daughter
away from her mother, a sister away from my brother

(23:50):
and me, and aunt's away from my children, and a
friend away from so many, all who loved her abundantly.
You are a monster. You are a coward. Every birthday, Holliday, graduation, milestone, marriage, birth,

(24:11):
ava and our family experience will that will be the
same because what you did you robbed this of these
experiences with Gretchen. You don't deserve to have a life.
You're pathetic and not worthy of happiness. One thing is definite.
Gretchen believed in karma, and therefore we can take some

(24:35):
comfort knowing. But every day you spend in prison will
be as horrific as the murder you committed. You can
never be forgiven. You are disgusting. David Anthony is scheduled
to be released from prison. You will be one years
old Shameless Plug. If you're enjoying Crazy and Love, leave

(25:00):
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hit series, The Piked and Massacre. Episodes there every Wednesday
wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to follow
us on Instagram at Katie Underscore Studios. Crazy in Love
is produced by Stephanie Lydecker, Jeff Shane, Chris Graeves and

(25:22):
me Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound design by Jeff Ta.
Crazy in Love is a production of I Heart Radio
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visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows. Stay safe, lovers,