August 29, 2018 • 49 mins
In the premiere episode of Sleuth, investigative reporter and host Linda Sawyer takes us through the details of Southern California theatre actor Daniel Wozniak's double murder case. This real life Phantom of The Opera says he murdered and dismembered his friends for money. But did Daniel kill alone? Was his Disney Princess fiancee at the time, Rachel Buffett, the true mastermind in these killings of victims Sam Herr and Julie Kibuishi? Will Rachel walk free from any culpability she had in the crimes? Follow Sleuth and learn the whole truth of what happened with all it's twists and turns in this gruesome story.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Please be advised this story contains adult content and graphic language.
It's called it being recorded and made monitored. Baby, are
you sitting down? Yeah? You don't think any left to
me after I tell you this good That is not
a good story, Okay, but you need to know. I
(00:22):
called them and head looked good down to the theater
on the bay and I had my dad done fully loaded,
and when I took him up into the attic, I
shot him two times in the back of the head.
It's a horrifying story that drew national media attention, and
(00:45):
it grabbed me unlike any other murder case I had
covered as an investigative reporter. It all started in the
spring of two thousand ten Buffett and wasn'tiac Both community
theater actors were starring in the play nine, but police
say on the same day the couple performed in the
play Wasniak Lord his neighbor, twenty six year old college
(01:05):
student Sam Hair, who had recently returned from a tour
in Afghanistan, into the theater and shot him. Wosniak allegedly
then dismembered the body. The motive for the killing reportedly
to steal hair savings account The night of the murders,
Hair's father went to his apartment. He found the body
of twenty three year old Julie Cabawishi, a friend and
(01:27):
classmate of Harrors. She had also been shot and there
was evidence of a sexual assault. Welcome to sleuth. I'm
Linda Sawyer. It was winter and I was in Long Beach, California,
(01:51):
covering a new story for a TV show called Crime
Watch Daily. It was a profile piece on a psychologist
who's patients, believe it or not, were some of the
most infamous serial killers in the eighties. After my interview
with Dr von der Pelto, she invited me to stay
for a Christmas gathering at her house that evening. It
(02:13):
was Friday, December four, and rather than face the l
A traffic at rush hour, I thought, why not have
a little eggnog and some holiday cheer. The guests arrived,
and soon the word was out that I was a
crime reporter. And when that happens, people inevitably love to
tell me some local story or an unsolved mystery. But
(02:36):
I couldn't have been less prepared for what I was
about to hear from a gentleman who once owned the
Liberty Theater, which was located on a local military base
in Los Alamitos, California. Dan Wasniak was in some of
our Liberty Theater musicals. He was a friend of our
daughter Alison, and definitely someone we trusted. We liked him,
(02:58):
everybody liked them, so I have no idea why he
would have killed his friend that dismembered him in the
attic of my theater. There were two shows that I
did there. One was Charlie's Aunt and the other one
was Arsenic and Old Lace. I played Carrie Grant's character,
so a lot of fun. It was the case of
(03:21):
a real life Phantom of the Opera on MA Daniel Wazniak,
a Southern California community theater actor, in between stage performances,
killed his friends and chopped up their bodies in the
attic of the theater prior to and after his showtime.
(03:43):
And his reason he wanted to drain his victim's bank
accounts so he could finance his upcoming honeymoon with his fiance,
Rachel Buffett. Rachel was also an actress and a former
Disney princess who often played alongside Dan in musicals. You see,
his role was made for you. I don't want to
(04:04):
play an I have not as you have three downright
loss but those are is aren't exactly knocking down my goal.
I lost something, but I don't know what. I know.
You can help me finds. I was never that is
(04:28):
what you imagine, but it was always you. He would
get a lot of roles, do a lot of theater,
much more than I ever did. There's a gazillion movies
made about the blonde that comes from Oklahoma to be
a famous movie star. It's a dime a dozen in
l A, you know, but it's still something I like
to do, so I continue doing it. Listen to Daniel
the actor speak about his young victims. The two victims
(04:51):
were two of my close friends, um Sam and Julie.
Sam lived in the same complex that me and my
fiance I lived out. The helped me out on several occasions.
Just he was there for me when you know I
needed him. And Julie was just a friend in the group,
just very to the nicest people, to the nicest people
(05:11):
that I've ever known. So wait he kills them. He
talks about how great they were, and then he kills
them for money. Who is this guy? I had to
know more. I was stunned to learn that while the
murders took place five years earlier, the trial itself was
about to begin that following Monday, December seven. Fast forward
(05:35):
to and I haven't left Orange County since. So I
started seeking out his high school friends that knew Daniel
was nia prior to his time with his fiancee Rachel.
It was a time. Friends tell me that Daniel didn't
do drugs, he didn't steal for food, he didn't really
do too much of anything that didn't make his parents
(05:56):
really proud. Everyone that talked to me about him from
his high school years said, he's really a totally decent guy.
Pre Rachel, Daniel was often referred to by those that
knew him as this happy, go lucky theater geeky, this goofy,
friendly guy who you know, didn't have his act together.
(06:18):
You know, I literally I just saw him as this
this sweet kid who um, you know, trying to make
something doing his bass. How is this man that I
watched in court every day at his murder trial? How
is he the same guy that his friends described to
me as this fun, generous, kind person that always made
(06:40):
them laugh. And those same friends said to me, there's
no way they can reconcile it either that it was there, Dan,
who was the kind of person that could murder and
mutilate friends while not missing a mark on stage. I
knew I had to stick around and find the answers,
so I moved in and spent time getting to know
the various people of interest in this story. I mean,
(07:03):
after all, it's these people who are in the know.
They had the answers, and like pieces of a very
intricate puzzle, I was hoping to connect them all. On January,
Daniel Patrick Wozniak was sentenced to death, and today he
sits on San Quentin's death row. But my investigation only
(07:23):
grew deeper. Why Because I suspected there were other accomplices
that were walking free, accomplices that the courts knew about,
that the police knew existed, and I had to find
out why they weren't being charged. I wondered, what kind
of justice is this for the victims families? You Dan
(07:46):
are coward. My only regret that in this state won't
let me kill this coward myself. You took my daughter's beautiful, caring,
loving daughters precious left to cover up your highness and
planned crime. During the trial, Daniel was Sniak reached out
(08:06):
to me on a call from his jail cell. It
was during the penalty phase of his trial, and he
told me that one of his victims, Julie Kibuishi, was
supposed to be killed while he was still performing on stage.
So who was supposed to carry out this murder? I
had to find out, And after spending time at some
pretty shady local haunts where Daniel and his older brother
(08:29):
Tim was Nia hung out, I found evidence I couldn't
ignore and I just talked to him and I need
to make a phone called the detective now because Kin's involved.
I need to call the detective first, because I need
to call him and by him now before they catched
me on this recording device, because it looks like I'm
not trying to tell him right away. Him said he
has evidence with them or there he knew where it
(08:51):
was or something. Yeah, do you know that Tim had
some evidence? Oh good, oh god, oh god. Okay, that's
a ridiculous, And I have to go tell the detectives
in here. Um Kim Kim good speak up only to
me so far, and it was in casting. I thought,
(09:13):
I'm going to believe taking right now. Danny's interrupted and
he starts freaking out, and he's really frantic, and he
said something, and something slips that he had evidence, so
I have to I don't, don't, don't, don't, can't get done. No, babe,
I'm gonna do it. All of Daniel's friends tell me
he changed ever since she entered his life, and everyone
(09:34):
that knew them as a couple say Rachel was in
charge and she called the shots. Yet Daniel was still
obsessed to be with Rachel no matter what. If I
was given the opportunity to talk to my fiance right now,
I'd either say can I be with you out there?
Can you be with me in here? I mean the bond.
(09:54):
I just love her like that's that's the hardest part
about getting through my day. It's just no one that
I can't be with her period. It's you know, it's
it's it says absence makes the heart group, wonder does
it really does? Yet all indications were that Rachel did
not return that same love, not at all. She actually
(10:15):
told police early Thursday morning after Daniel's arrest the night before. Now,
remember this is just two nights before their wedding was
supposed to take place. She told police that Daniel was
a lousy lover and furthermore, he didn't have much to
work with down below. What a thing to say about
(10:36):
your future husband. He actually fell for me first, and
um at the time he was he had already kind
of become my best friend, and I was hanging out
with them so often. I wasn't head over heels in love,
but I was okay with him. Halfway through the trial,
I learned from a source about the existence of a
(10:57):
letter written by a notorious Orange count, a Gelhouse informant
named Fernando Perez. Perez was housed next to Daniel Waznia Excel.
He said he had a conversation with Daniel and he
wrote about that conversation to Detective Jose Morales, telling him
(11:17):
that in this conversation with Daniel, Daniel confided in him,
saying that Rachel knew about the plan to murder Sam
for his money, and her alleged response to Daniel was
do whatever you have to do to make us happy.
So with any good true crime saga, this one has
it all. Intrigue, greed, lust, love, jealousy, and of course
(11:43):
the sex tape with an old flame who came back
into Dan's life for one last fling. The story opens
with a father's discovery of a dead body in his
missing son's apartment. That father is Steve Hare. He's a
retired teacher who has a very special relationship with his
only son, Sam. What I would do is I would
(12:06):
go over Sam's apartment once or twice a week after work.
I drive over there because it was closer to his place.
We will go to the gym and we would work out.
After workout, Sam, who was known for his volumeless appetite,
we'd go out and gets on the eat and then
we go back to his place and just kick back
(12:27):
and watch him TV. Father son time. We were best
friends as well as dad and son. And don't forget
once he got out of the army, he's not a
kid anymore. You're able to talk to your child a
man to man and these are very very important times,
but fun times. So boy, I could just tell you
(12:48):
that Sam and I were best buddies. On Sam Hair's
return from his three year military tour in Afghanistan, he
decided to move into the Camden Martinique apartments, a complex
right us from the Orange Coast College. Sam enrolled there
so he could earn a diploma with the hopes that
he would someday become a military officer. The Camden apartments
(13:10):
in Coasta Mesa, California were very much like a dorm,
with nearly all of Sam's neighbors enrolled into college across
the street. It was there he met his newest friend,
Reuben Menacho, who himself was a former Marine, and the
two of them hit it off. Damn told me that
he was going to do something that Friday. The night
(13:30):
before we went out to dinner, Sam, Julie and I
and so we went out to dinner. After dinner, we
had a great time. He took some price from me,
which how you really don't like people take photo eight
out of my bake. But that wasn't given to Sam. Yeah,
that's he didn't. He used to do that just to
(13:51):
piss me off to people would say he would literally
order it, would never order an entree. He'd ordered just
like a side of fries and then would wipe up
every body else's place. You're going to eat that? Are
you gonna finish that? Like the flour? They even thought
about being done. It's like you're done with that, you know,
And and all of a sudden he had a full meal,
and I was he paid for some friends. Yes, he is.
(14:12):
After Sam's night out with his friends, he mentioned to
Reuben that he promised someone he'd helped them with an
errand the next afternoon and Ruben had to remind him
that their mutual friend Dave Barnhard was hosting a beach barbecue.
Sam assured him that he'd make it after he was done.
Friday came, we went to the beach day was having
(14:34):
a barbecue with his family, UM a couple of friends.
And when I started asking for Sam, nobody knew where
he was at. So Sam was invited to this barbecue.
He was supposed to be there, Yes, I believe so.
I mean if I was there, then he must have
been invited, because they never invited me to something without Sam.
So and I did ask the guys about Sam, so
(14:57):
they said, oh, I think Dave told me that he
was helping out a friend. Even that night we went,
we went out and had some drinks with the guys,
and Sam was not found when we were at cam Then.
I think it was either Jake or Dave that went
to knock at his door and then nobody was there.
They came back and said, okay, it was a normal day.
You know, Sam is not answering the phone. But that
(15:19):
afternoon when he wasn't showing up for the barbecue, you
were calling him, you were texting, you were trying to
reach out, and at one point did did someone inswer
the phone? Yes, there was another person in Lyne that
answered the phone. And when they answer, it was very windy.
And I said if he was driving a car or
standing outside because it was a windy day. But I
(15:40):
asked him where, I said Sam, and he goes yes,
And I'm like, they didn't sound like Sam. I was like,
where are you? What do you sound weird? And he goes, oh, no,
I'm just having some issues. And he made the mistake
to say that he was having issues with his father.
So that was a flag to me because Sam him
has a great relationship with his father and mother. So
(16:03):
that immediately gave you pause automatically, and I questioned him.
When I questioned it more, he hung up and then
I called again, no answer. I texted, no answer, so
and that that's when I got a little bit more
worried and asked, I started asking the guys more question,
but since they say no, I don't know, so I
just let it go. But the idea that you know,
(16:24):
you did kind of press this person and they hung
up on you really must have heightened your your concern
at that point, Yes, and hand my concern, but since
I didn't see it from the other guys, it lowered
it again. While Reuben was uneasy over the whereabouts of
his friend Steve Hair, Sam's father was still expecting his
(16:47):
son to arrive at their home that weekend. It's Friday
when you had an expectation that your son at some
point that Friday was going to head up to your
and your wife's home in Anaheim Hills. Well, what it was.
Raquhel had spoken to Sam around twelve twenty on Friday afternoon,
(17:09):
that was the afternoon of one, and they had mentioned
Raquel wanted to speak to him, and he said, Mom,
I'm busy, I'm helping somebody, But we were anticipating Sam
to come over for the weekend. However, knowing Sam, I
probably I was not expecting him really until Saturday. It
looks Sam was in a war zone. He was a
(17:30):
decorated combat veteran. He was an a war zone. He
would call every two or three months when he got
off the hill, his observation posts and what have you.
So I certainly not really overly concerned, saying I wonder
where he is. I wish he'd dropped me a line
let us know if he's coming or not. By Saturday
early evening, there's still no word from Sam, So Steve
(17:51):
decides it's time to get in his car and drive
down to Sam's place in Coasta Mesa. I had a
key to his place, so that wasn't an issue. So
I arrived there approximately nine o'clock and I knocked at
the door. There was no response. I said, okay, I
have got the key, and I let myself in. I
opened the door, turned on the lights, livering was fine,
(18:14):
Everything looked very neat in place. Peeked into the bedroom.
That's going on, sirs? What once I went into the
apartment and then I saw the body. That's when my
whole world changed. Dead body? Are you sure, sir? Does
(18:38):
your son know who it is? Okay, we're standing people, sir.
I've got someone on the way. Okay, I'm just gonna
get information from you. Are right on Friday May, Julie Kibuishi,
Sam's close friend and tutor, also went missing. Julie's friends
were texting her frantically. It was text after text coming
(19:01):
in her phone. Hey, Julie, your mom called, Can you
call me please? Is everything okay? By the next day,
Julie's mom was desperate. This kind of thing never happened
to my daughter. So we called it police and I said,
I don't care. I don't care where you find her,
but I need to find her. It's cose to MASA
(19:21):
detective Michael Cohen who arrives at the crime scene. As
we walked in, you know, the kitchen look clean. Everything
looked very clean inside until we went into the bedroom
or a male. Once we were in the bedroom, we
had seen a lone female slumped over the bed that
appeared to have a gunshot wound to the back of
(19:43):
her head. Initially, we saw blood and it appeared to
us that it looked like some type of either blood
force object had hit her or it could have been
a gunshot, when we weren't sure initially at first from
our initial investigation until we found more later. She was
bent over the bed actually with her knees partially on
(20:05):
the ground. Her torso was slumped over on top of
the bed, almost like in a kneeling position. Her pants
were somewhat ripped and pulled down. It appeared to us
like maybe there was a sexual assault that had gone bad. Yes,
in the bedroom, but there's some such activities. There's the
(20:29):
one call was from Sam, her father, and he was
looking for his son also, so we felt that Sam
was on the run and had maybe had some involvement
with this homicide. For June and Massa Kabuishi, they both
feared that fateful knock at their door. It's any parents
worth nightmare, and it was Detective Michael Cohen's job to
(20:51):
deliver the news. My partner and I when we had
to make the death notification to Kibayashi family, it was
tough because we had a young girl who was twenty
three years old, and now we had to make contact
with her parents. My partner and I drove over to Mr.
And Mrs Kubayashi's home, knocked on the door and made
(21:12):
contact with her and her husband. Once we walked in,
they had to sit down on a couch, which I
remember still to this day. They sat down. I then
proceeded to tell Mr. And Mrs Kubyashi that we had
located their daughter and an apartment complex in Costa Mesa,
and that she had been basically murdered. When I made
(21:33):
that statement, two Mr and Mrs Kubayashi, Mrs Kubyashi basically
just broke down and started crying. Her husband tried to
calm her down, and we we tried to calm her down,
which we finally were able to after a few minutes.
(21:55):
And it was just a very tough situation. When you
see the pairs become so emotional, and as detectives, and
not only as detectives, but as fathers of having our
own children, you start thinking about how you would react
to that type of situation. Julie was loved by everyone
(22:18):
who knew her. She was a talented dancer and a
budding fashion maven, and she was also really smart, which
is why Sam's parents said. Julie would help Sam often
with his studies as his tutor. She looked up to him,
and she was very good at tutor and him in
(22:39):
anthropology and he got in a in that class. I said,
sim is there anything going on with you and Julie?
And he says absolutely not that she's like my kid's sister.
Steve realized that he knew very little about Sam's friends
at the Camden apartments, but he was certainly determined to
find out more and to find his son. Okay, I
got the list of names by calling those few numbers
(23:03):
that I had on my phone of Sam's friends. The
first two I called were Ruben Menatro and Dave Barnhardt.
I spoke eventually Dan Moseniack. I spoke to a number
of people, and each one of those people were telling
me while when the last time they saw Sam, what
did they hear? What do they know? And I took
(23:24):
it from there and I called for a few hours
speaking to people, and then I got a few hours sleep,
and then on Sunday was this was Saturday evening, Saturday night,
Sunday morning when this was all occurring, got a few
hours sleep, awoke, and then was out searching again. Steve
had a feeling that finding Julie's body in Sam's apartment,
(23:47):
combined with Sam's military background and his knowledge of handling guns,
would certainly make Sam a person of interest for the authorities.
But the other news Steve was about to tell police
would leave little doubt for them that Sam was their
reasonable prime suspect and could very easily be on the run.
(24:07):
We put all points Bolton out for him because we thought,
you know, right now, he's our loan suspect. There's nobody
else that we should be looking for other than him,
because we can't find him and his father is trying
to call him and answering his phone. So we felt
at that point in time he was the initial suspect
of interest and we need to find the situation at hand. Lawrence,
(24:27):
you got to speak to the police. What have you
fill them in on what you know. So they took
me down to the station and took me to an
interview room, and of course your whole world is crashing
around you, and then they started questioning common senses. There's
a dead body in your child's apartment and your child
is not there. The first thing I thought, they're gonna
suspect him, understandably. So so as they were questioning me,
(24:49):
I said, look, before you find out, I'll let you
know he was involved before. When I say involved, he
was charged with a murder. So I let them know
that there was a situation at wouldn't look good for him,
but I also emphasized that he wouldn't do that. And
it goes back to I knew he would not harm
a woman. One name on Steve's list of Sam's buddies
(25:11):
gave Steve his first warning sign it didn't seem right,
changed his story a little bit, and then I asked him, hey,
you know, have you seen Sam? How was his disposition?
And and Dan Bosniak said, well, I was nervous, but
he said no, Sam was even nervous. He was upset.
And I said, really, like what? And Dan Mosniak said,
(25:32):
Sam told me he had girl problems and he had
family problems. If you want to see red flags, lightning bolts,
shooting cannons firing off in Monday night, I went through
the list with Raquel and we looked and since everything
was being purchased from Long Beach, we looked at the
list and on that list of about fifteen, there was
(25:53):
one prefix with a Long Beach prefix on a cell
phones I had the only prefix with Long Beach belonged
to Dan mos n Steve was always very coopertive and
had given us information as to when it was being
taken out, what banks they were being taken out, so
he was very credible. In fact, Steve mentions that he
(26:14):
can recall you saying to your partner on the way out, gee,
maybe we do have the wrong guy. I think that
gave him some level of hope, at which point you
guys went out and got some warrants right for some
bank statements and yeah, and on those bank statements were
purchases from Echoes, pizza and Long Beach that were being
made by whomever had possession of Sam's card at the time.
(26:38):
That was kind of the breaking of the case. I
would say, um, and I think a lot of the
other guys would say the same, because we were able
to track where the pizza was being delivered. We actually
eventually raided that house and was able to talk to
a young kid and I don't remember his name, with yes,
(26:58):
he mentioned he definitely said that Daniel Wasniac gave the card.
From what I recall, I guess they had an agreement
with each other to go. Wesley was going to get
money out and give him the money. And but Wesley
really had no clue as to what was going on
that all. He knew that he was gonna get a
(27:19):
little something out of it. From Dan Wassniak, and that
was it. Yeah, he got he got something, all right.
As I look closer at those bank records, I realized
that he in fact took four hundred dollars out over
the weekend himself, even though he told Dan I couldn't
get to it on Saturday. I couldn't get to it
on Sunday. So yeah, there's there was more to his story.
(27:43):
But you know, he was young and and naive, I
guess enough to think that he could get away with
what he did. So you know, he's not as innocent
as people think he is. But you guys needed him, right,
You needed him for the for the trial, Yes, yes,
we needed him so and he was you know, he
cooperated with us and it worked out really well for us,
(28:04):
so having him as a witness on the stand. And
how did Dan get Sam's pin number to give to
Wesley for the A t M withdrawals? Well, earlier that
week of the murders, Dan and Rachel faced yet another
eviction and Sam offered to help with the rent, so
he brought Dan to his bank a t M. It
(28:27):
was there Dan focused in and watched while Sam entered
his pin um. When Adam help me pay for the round.
I forgot a glance but his bank account number. At
this point in the investigation, Dan Wozniak was still only
(28:47):
a suspect that police believe was helping Sam, still on
the run, but the police wanted to bring him in
for questioning because Dan was their best lead at the time.
And I believe it was Hose that called him to say,
we'd like you to come in and talk at Ed's directive,
and I think Daniel told Jose, well, he's heading off
(29:07):
to Tsunami Sushi over in Huntington's Beach because it was
his bachelor party, right, Yes, that was his bachelor party
at the sushi place. Just having a great old time
over there. That's where we contacted him a little bit
more than contacted. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we um actually, you know,
(29:28):
relocated there. I initially went inside the bar, just kind
of playing clothes, walked around. I saw him sitting way
in the back of a kind of like a banquet room.
As he's in there enjoying life and having fun. You know.
I get on the radio and I trying to call
I think at the time it was at Everett believe
m was Keith Davis with a learner, other sergeants and
(29:50):
lieutenants at the time, and they ended up coming in
the back door, making contact with him and arresting him
right there at his bachelor party. Police scort Dan back
to the station, where they hope to unravel the mystery
of where Sam is still hiding. At this point, they
want to learn what role, if any, Dan Wozniak has
(30:10):
played in Sam's disappearance, and that's when Dan's story was
first tested. He's like, I'm not good. I did something that.
What did you do? It's like, there's a dead body
in my party. I shot somebody. It was a fit
of rage. You're not thinking of we both, you know,
(30:35):
after we took a little break a partner and are
looking at you and going, wow, you know this guy
he thinks he's acting in front of us, you know,
with this story. And same with her when we interviewed her,
when Detective more Alice interviator and when I actually did
the voice stress analyzer test on her. You know, she
just trying to be utilizing their acting persona on us.
(30:56):
And it was terrible, it really was. They were pretty inseparable,
they were always together. I don't know how she could
not have known what was going on. You know, we
can't use it in quote. I did a voice what
we call a voice tress analyzer. It's kind of like
a lie detective test, and she failed it. She failed
all three of them, from what I understand, Yeah, I
had to. Initially I did the first test. I couldn't
(31:19):
get any good valuable graphs from her comments because it's
just yes and no answers, because there's time to disguise
her voice, you know. So then I had to do
it again, and by it's the third time, I think
I finally got some decent patterns. The patterns show that
she was she's not truthful. I'm a big advocate of
that machine, you know, I was trained on. It gives
me a lot of investigative tools to go further. And
(31:42):
so when I got all the information, I was able
to tell Detective to hey, you know, she's not telling
the truth. At this point in Detective Cohen's interview, he
tells Daniel that he wants a sample of his DNA,
and Dan's reaction reveals quite a lot to the detective
slow for he said, you guys interesting. So I remember
(32:09):
very specifically when I asked him to do a DNA sample,
and I pulled out the little kid. He just sat
backed up in his chair and you could tell his
wheels for spinning. And next thing you know, he's like, well,
you know, I've been in Sam's apartment before, and you
might find my DNA in the bathroom and you might
find it over here. And he starts telling me all
(32:29):
these places you might now find I knew at that
point in time he was lying. You know, he's not
telling the truth. Now. I was in Sam's apartment Friday afternoon.
Dan's next version of events, where Sam is the suspect
on the run, leads Dan into making a critical error
and he totally loses his cool. Okay, fine, you know what.
(32:53):
He didn't come down. He came down and said, helped me.
I went upstairs and yes, I saw the gandham body
is that what want to end? We want to hear
the truth. That is the truth. Okay, and tell us
what happened? How did that? How did that play out?
So how did you get honor that? I don't DNA
doesn't just fall off. I don't know. I didn't touch her,
(33:15):
I didn't do anything. What did you see? Two gunshots
in and that was Dan Wasniak's undoing. He thought he
was the smartest guy in the room. He thought he
could outwit and act his way out of a situation
he found himself in. But this wasn't a play, this
(33:36):
was no joke. This was a murder investigation, and these
detectives were narrowing in on his blunders. Lieutenant Ed Everett
was in the room with Dan at the time and
describes what he felt was the break in their case
because when we were in the apartment and we all
looked in, it was only one visible to our eyes.
(33:56):
And then when he had mentioned he saw two gunshot wounds,
I said, well, was there when she was shot. He
was there when she was killed. And we all kind
of simultaneously when we're in that interview when he said
to my partner and I, we kind of looked at
each other. And then that's when Lieutenant Evert said the
two shots and you could see wosniacs face, you know, like, oh,
I guess my acting job just went down the toilet.
(34:18):
And and because as you said earlier, you couldn't tell
on the scene if there were two wounds to Julie's head,
you could, you could not. And there's no way you could.
You know, there's too much excess blood that's intermingled within
the hair, and and even if you tried to move
the hair around, you're not gonna be able to tell
the wards two it looks like just one blood spot.
(34:39):
Until the body goes to the corner's office and actually
an autopsy is performed, you're not going to know at
the time. I don't even think that from what I recall,
the corner didn't even make a determination as to anything
until the autopsy came back officially for Wosnia to say
two shots. We knew right then and there that he
was totally involved, and now we've got him. You you
(35:08):
can't even keep your life straight. His story kept changing.
I think he thought that his acting ability was going
to carry him through this, this performance, so to speak,
and it wasn't doing it. Dan is ushered back to
a holding cell in the jail. There, Dan has access
to a phone. As the pressure mounts, he really needs
(35:29):
to talk to his fiancee. It ends up being the
call that will take down the curtain for Dan's last performance.
What please you realize you're recording the song conversation anyways,
You're being an absolute ask to try and lie again. Yeah,
(35:49):
I am, because they're the bad um. You're talking about
their credit card theme. They already know all about it,
no more than that that. What I'm saying is that
if they can't find up, they can't I know. But well,
I don't know what that is. I thought it was
(36:09):
a murder weapon. I don't know what you're talking about
other evidence. I don't know what Kim how decides that
then said he had a murder weapon. So that's exactly
what Kim told me. So I'm gonna go tell the
detective now, So what do you want me to do?
I don't want you to tell the detective anything, and
I don't want them involved like that. I mean, now
I'm now I'm dead. Now I'm really dead. Maybe you're
(36:31):
already dead. You said you wanted to talk to me.
What's going on? I'm crazy and I did it. You
did what they killed Julia and I killed Sam. Okay,
tell me how you you killed Sam two shots using
my father's gun that I had, and you're motored behind
(36:55):
Uh killing Sam was money and it's in money. And okay,
tell me about the same incident on what you did.
I told him that I needed to move some stuff
from the theater. I said, you need to bend down
and help me lift this thing up. And when he
bent down, I grabbed the gun. I never really fired
(37:18):
the gun before, so I pulled it back and I
shot him. Term Is there anything that you said to
Julie Pryor sharing her? No? I didn't. I had I
got her in. I was downstairs in my apartment. I
was still text messaging. That was Sam's phone. You were using. Yes,
what what sort of text precage on where you're doing that? Before?
I was saying you need to come over tonight, You
(37:39):
need to come over tonight. What what did you say
to Julie? Tally was wearing like a crown tr She
had just come from her brother's eye. Had said like, um,
Sam just called me and he was going through some stuff.
She said, yeah, me too. When I said, adm key,
let's go in, opened the door. I listen. I just
went to the bathroom and quick, because I was really
nervous into gun again. I went back out into the
(38:03):
hallway and then said, oh, by the way, did you
see this in sam Stead? And I said, rasinging over
look at it right there? When she was lead over
and put two mills in the back of around. Okay,
when did you feel you have to kill Joey? What
was the rationale behind? Man was called crazy? But seriously,
seriously to cover up Sam and so well, why how
(38:26):
would that cover up? To make it look like he
was on the run and he did? Why could you
try and cover for him? We needed the money, No,
we never need money. We need to be good people
and you have each other. Sorry, on that call, you
(38:49):
hear Rachel lecturing Dan on being good people. Meanwhile, Rachel
knew Dan kept a sex tape of a former girlfriend
in their heartment safe she found that tape, which was
located right next to Dan's father's gun. Rachel confronted Dan,
(39:10):
and he told her he filmed it with the purposes
of planning to extort money from his ex girlfriend and
her family. Rachel actually told police this explanation of the
sex tape the night Dan was arrested after his bachelor party,
as if it was a matter of fact, because that
was part and parcel with her lifestyle with Dan. It
(39:33):
was that lifestyle that we now know included stealing, lying, cheating,
and conning people out of money. So the idea that
she's telling him, we have to be good people and
we don't need money. Because Rachel knows the police are
recording her, she knows about the sex tape. It was
(39:54):
in the apartment, she knows what Dan planned to do
with it, and she seemed to have have no problem
with it. I was able to get some calls that
were made that happened between Dan and Rachel, and he
seems to be sort of taking her through the murders
just so that she's up to speed on the details
(40:17):
of how much he's told you, guys, did you feel
that way? Would you listen to the call? She knows
a lot more than she's saying. I think he's telling
her piece by piece, each detail as to what's going on.
And I don't know if he's doing that to protect her,
to make it look like he's the only one involved. Again,
in my opinion, I know she knows a lot more.
There's no doubt in my mind that she probably knows
(40:39):
every detail. This caller is being recorded and maybe monitored.
They are you sitting down? They don't think any left
me after I tell you this good This is not
a good story, Okay, but you need to know I
called Pam and Ted look go down to the theater
on the baby and I had my dad done at it,
(41:00):
and when I took him up into the attic, I
shot him two times in the back of the head.
And Rachel continues to profess her innocence to the media
as yet another victim of Daniel Wozniak. After I'm finding
all this out, I'm starting to question if I've ever
known him. I absolutely feel like I was stuped by Dan.
(41:23):
Rachel says she was duped by Dan, but let's start
with the Fernando Perez letter, where he writes that Rachel's
response to Dan when he tells her of the plan
to kill Sam for their honeymoon money, is to do
whatever you have to do to make us happy Dan.
Rachel claims that Dan hid their debt from her, but
(41:45):
based on former friends of Rachel's, they all agree she
was completely aware of their financial status. Sources shared with
me that Rachel and Dan stole nearly on a daily basis.
A bridesmaid of Rachel's said Rachel stole their bridesmaid's dresses
for the wedding. Rachel and Dan stole furniture for their apartment,
(42:08):
along with food and alcohol. Chris Williams said on the
day Sam was murdered. When Dan and Sam left the apartment,
he stayed back with Rachel and she got on Craigslist
looking for stripper jobs and nude model jobs. Why would
Rachel do this if she thought they had money? Neither
(42:31):
Dan nor Rachel held a steady job, so I'm not
sure where Rachel thought the money was coming from. She
said she didn't realize that Dan was a prolific liar,
but Rachel told police that he was an absolute pathological liar.
So it's all Rachel's lies and inconsistencies that serve as
(42:52):
the blueprint to the truth in this case. And you're
absolutely right about Rachel Buffett. How could you not know?
You know, you're counter over gone, you're into red, You're
constantly borrowing money from everybody, and all of a sudden,
your husband to be comes up with money from somewhere.
It's not from working hard as a starving actor. It's
(43:12):
like he's got four or five hundred bucks in his pocket,
all of a sudden, Where'd that come from? In an
effort to clear her name, Rachel appears on the Dr.
Phil Show, and it's confronted by Steve Hair because of
how much these people are hurting and they think that
I had anything to do with that. It's bringing up
(43:33):
a lot of pain for me. Do you believe she
belongs in prison? Yes? I didn't. You're lying and you're
covering it up. My son and his friend, his tutor,
they're both dead. He was cut up into pieces. And
you to come on here and go on the TV
stations pour me? That offends me. And how does Steve
Hair feel about Rachel Buffett's claims of innocence. There's fifty
(43:55):
a hundred different times you you lie to the police.
You came out and like out and right, So just no,
you're gonna have to live with this and you're gonna
have to live through social media now. Is that every
time your name comes up, you're going to be associated
with the murder? And more importantly, is that you lied
about it? That says volumes about you? Baby? Where are you?
(44:19):
I don't hear they won't mean they already told them, no, no, no,
What was what on your line when you were just
remember you buy it? Just Rember his hands water, laughing.
Why do you think you're doing? I don't know. I
(44:46):
don't know, and the heartbreak for Steve Hair continues. The
police called to Steve. Before you find out from the TV,
we have to tell you that Sam was dismembered. That's
when I lost it. That's when I lost it. They
were looking for body parts at a park. That was Friday. Saturday,
(45:06):
May twenty nine was Sam's birthday. And I'll never forget,
but on my son's birthday, I was praying that day
would find his head. This was a boy, a man
who had on a tattoo on his chest, huge tattoo
on his chest of flowers and hearts with mom and
(45:28):
dad in the middle of it. That's how they identified
my son's body because he didn't have a head, needed
some arms. What Daniel wasny I did to that body,
the way he left him there with just no regard
for human life was so disgraceful. And I swore that
I was going to promise Sam that I wasn't going
to stop until I found out what happened to him.
(45:50):
Over the next ten episodes of Sleuth, we will discover
whether Dan wasnia committed these murders on his own well
here from countless witnesses, and reveal more evidence that points
to others who may have helped Dan Wozniak plan and
execute the murders of our victims. Sam Hair and Julia
(46:10):
Kibuishi will learn of possible accomplices that authorities decided either
to ignore or chose to overlook because they needed their
testimony in the prosecution of Daniel Wasniak's death penalty case.
There's no statue in homicide. So you know, even though
we have one guy in prison right now on death row,
(46:30):
there's still funny more room for others to follow. And
so this odyssey that I've been on for the last
two years has really been not only about answering the
questions for me on a personal level, but more importantly
helping these victims families, helping them understand what really happened
to their loved ones. That hoping that the rest of
(46:52):
the people involved are found guilty of the crimes they
committed as well, because it wasn't just Daniel Wasniak, It
just wasn't There's no doubt in my mind she might
be the mastermind of this whole thing, and Dan's just
taking a hit on his own. Theyb are you sure
you're not making this up? Because you're under pressure. Don't
have to God, truth time, it can be truthful. And
(47:16):
now all I want to do this dietause my life
is over. Why baby, because I don't want to live. No,
I mean why we'll get that back? What I really got? Bad?
Why did it back? Feel bad? Not have anything money
(47:37):
for him? Next week, on Sleuth, victim Sam Hare's father,
Steve Hair, returns to share the details regarding the three
(48:00):
felony counts Dan wazne x X fiance Rachel Buffett faces
in her upcoming trial for accessory after the fact. To date,
prosecutor Matt Murphy has only been willing to charge Buffett
with the lesser crime of accessory, as he suggests he
can only prove she aided in covering up the murders,
(48:20):
Yet his own police who investigated the case, feel Buffett,
the former Disney princess, should have been charged with murder.
Matt Murphy has offered Rachel a deal to plead guilty
to a misdemeanor with no jail time and in one year,
he says, the entire charge will be dismissed, but Rachel
(48:40):
has turned down the offer because she says she wants
her day in court. Next week, here with Steve and
I learned in our investigation and decide for yourselves Rachel's
role in the murders. If you enjoyed this episode of Sleuth,
share with the friend and be sure to leave a
(49:02):
rating or review. Follow Sleuth on I Heart Radio, or
subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so that you never
miss an episode
Please be advised this story contains adult content and graphic language.
It's called it being recorded and made monitored. Baby, are
you sitting down? Yeah? You don't think any left to
me after I tell you this good That is not
a good story, Okay, but you need to know. I
(00:22):
called them and head looked good down to the theater
on the bay and I had my dad done fully loaded,
and when I took him up into the attic, I
shot him two times in the back of the head.
It's a horrifying story that drew national media attention, and
(00:45):
it grabbed me unlike any other murder case I had
covered as an investigative reporter. It all started in the
spring of two thousand ten Buffett and wasn'tiac Both community
theater actors were starring in the play nine, but police
say on the same day the couple performed in the
play Wasniak Lord his neighbor, twenty six year old college
(01:05):
student Sam Hair, who had recently returned from a tour
in Afghanistan, into the theater and shot him. Wosniak allegedly
then dismembered the body. The motive for the killing reportedly
to steal hair savings account The night of the murders,
Hair's father went to his apartment. He found the body
of twenty three year old Julie Cabawishi, a friend and
(01:27):
classmate of Harrors. She had also been shot and there
was evidence of a sexual assault. Welcome to sleuth. I'm
Linda Sawyer. It was winter and I was in Long Beach, California,
(01:51):
covering a new story for a TV show called Crime
Watch Daily. It was a profile piece on a psychologist
who's patients, believe it or not, were some of the
most infamous serial killers in the eighties. After my interview
with Dr von der Pelto, she invited me to stay
for a Christmas gathering at her house that evening. It
(02:13):
was Friday, December four, and rather than face the l
A traffic at rush hour, I thought, why not have
a little eggnog and some holiday cheer. The guests arrived,
and soon the word was out that I was a
crime reporter. And when that happens, people inevitably love to
tell me some local story or an unsolved mystery. But
(02:36):
I couldn't have been less prepared for what I was
about to hear from a gentleman who once owned the
Liberty Theater, which was located on a local military base
in Los Alamitos, California. Dan Wasniak was in some of
our Liberty Theater musicals. He was a friend of our
daughter Alison, and definitely someone we trusted. We liked him,
(02:58):
everybody liked them, so I have no idea why he
would have killed his friend that dismembered him in the
attic of my theater. There were two shows that I
did there. One was Charlie's Aunt and the other one
was Arsenic and Old Lace. I played Carrie Grant's character,
so a lot of fun. It was the case of
(03:21):
a real life Phantom of the Opera on MA Daniel Wazniak,
a Southern California community theater actor, in between stage performances,
killed his friends and chopped up their bodies in the
attic of the theater prior to and after his showtime.
(03:43):
And his reason he wanted to drain his victim's bank
accounts so he could finance his upcoming honeymoon with his fiance,
Rachel Buffett. Rachel was also an actress and a former
Disney princess who often played alongside Dan in musicals. You see,
his role was made for you. I don't want to
(04:04):
play an I have not as you have three downright
loss but those are is aren't exactly knocking down my goal.
I lost something, but I don't know what. I know.
You can help me finds. I was never that is
(04:28):
what you imagine, but it was always you. He would
get a lot of roles, do a lot of theater,
much more than I ever did. There's a gazillion movies
made about the blonde that comes from Oklahoma to be
a famous movie star. It's a dime a dozen in
l A, you know, but it's still something I like
to do, so I continue doing it. Listen to Daniel
the actor speak about his young victims. The two victims
(04:51):
were two of my close friends, um Sam and Julie.
Sam lived in the same complex that me and my
fiance I lived out. The helped me out on several occasions.
Just he was there for me when you know I
needed him. And Julie was just a friend in the group,
just very to the nicest people, to the nicest people
(05:11):
that I've ever known. So wait he kills them. He
talks about how great they were, and then he kills
them for money. Who is this guy? I had to
know more. I was stunned to learn that while the
murders took place five years earlier, the trial itself was
about to begin that following Monday, December seven. Fast forward
(05:35):
to and I haven't left Orange County since. So I
started seeking out his high school friends that knew Daniel
was nia prior to his time with his fiancee Rachel.
It was a time. Friends tell me that Daniel didn't
do drugs, he didn't steal for food, he didn't really
do too much of anything that didn't make his parents
(05:56):
really proud. Everyone that talked to me about him from
his high school years said, he's really a totally decent guy.
Pre Rachel, Daniel was often referred to by those that
knew him as this happy, go lucky theater geeky, this goofy,
friendly guy who you know, didn't have his act together.
(06:18):
You know, I literally I just saw him as this
this sweet kid who um, you know, trying to make
something doing his bass. How is this man that I
watched in court every day at his murder trial? How
is he the same guy that his friends described to
me as this fun, generous, kind person that always made
(06:40):
them laugh. And those same friends said to me, there's
no way they can reconcile it either that it was there, Dan,
who was the kind of person that could murder and
mutilate friends while not missing a mark on stage. I
knew I had to stick around and find the answers,
so I moved in and spent time getting to know
the various people of interest in this story. I mean,
(07:03):
after all, it's these people who are in the know.
They had the answers, and like pieces of a very
intricate puzzle, I was hoping to connect them all. On January,
Daniel Patrick Wozniak was sentenced to death, and today he
sits on San Quentin's death row. But my investigation only
(07:23):
grew deeper. Why Because I suspected there were other accomplices
that were walking free, accomplices that the courts knew about,
that the police knew existed, and I had to find
out why they weren't being charged. I wondered, what kind
of justice is this for the victims families? You Dan
(07:46):
are coward. My only regret that in this state won't
let me kill this coward myself. You took my daughter's beautiful, caring,
loving daughters precious left to cover up your highness and
planned crime. During the trial, Daniel was Sniak reached out
(08:06):
to me on a call from his jail cell. It
was during the penalty phase of his trial, and he
told me that one of his victims, Julie Kibuishi, was
supposed to be killed while he was still performing on stage.
So who was supposed to carry out this murder? I
had to find out, And after spending time at some
pretty shady local haunts where Daniel and his older brother
(08:29):
Tim was Nia hung out, I found evidence I couldn't
ignore and I just talked to him and I need
to make a phone called the detective now because Kin's involved.
I need to call the detective first, because I need
to call him and by him now before they catched
me on this recording device, because it looks like I'm
not trying to tell him right away. Him said he
has evidence with them or there he knew where it
(08:51):
was or something. Yeah, do you know that Tim had
some evidence? Oh good, oh god, oh god. Okay, that's
a ridiculous, And I have to go tell the detectives
in here. Um Kim Kim good speak up only to
me so far, and it was in casting. I thought,
(09:13):
I'm going to believe taking right now. Danny's interrupted and
he starts freaking out, and he's really frantic, and he
said something, and something slips that he had evidence, so
I have to I don't, don't, don't, don't, can't get done. No, babe,
I'm gonna do it. All of Daniel's friends tell me
he changed ever since she entered his life, and everyone
(09:34):
that knew them as a couple say Rachel was in
charge and she called the shots. Yet Daniel was still
obsessed to be with Rachel no matter what. If I
was given the opportunity to talk to my fiance right now,
I'd either say can I be with you out there?
Can you be with me in here? I mean the bond.
(09:54):
I just love her like that's that's the hardest part
about getting through my day. It's just no one that
I can't be with her period. It's you know, it's
it's it says absence makes the heart group, wonder does
it really does? Yet all indications were that Rachel did
not return that same love, not at all. She actually
(10:15):
told police early Thursday morning after Daniel's arrest the night before. Now,
remember this is just two nights before their wedding was
supposed to take place. She told police that Daniel was
a lousy lover and furthermore, he didn't have much to
work with down below. What a thing to say about
(10:36):
your future husband. He actually fell for me first, and
um at the time he was he had already kind
of become my best friend, and I was hanging out
with them so often. I wasn't head over heels in love,
but I was okay with him. Halfway through the trial,
I learned from a source about the existence of a
(10:57):
letter written by a notorious Orange count, a Gelhouse informant
named Fernando Perez. Perez was housed next to Daniel Waznia Excel.
He said he had a conversation with Daniel and he
wrote about that conversation to Detective Jose Morales, telling him
(11:17):
that in this conversation with Daniel, Daniel confided in him,
saying that Rachel knew about the plan to murder Sam
for his money, and her alleged response to Daniel was
do whatever you have to do to make us happy.
So with any good true crime saga, this one has
it all. Intrigue, greed, lust, love, jealousy, and of course
(11:43):
the sex tape with an old flame who came back
into Dan's life for one last fling. The story opens
with a father's discovery of a dead body in his
missing son's apartment. That father is Steve Hare. He's a
retired teacher who has a very special relationship with his
only son, Sam. What I would do is I would
(12:06):
go over Sam's apartment once or twice a week after work.
I drive over there because it was closer to his place.
We will go to the gym and we would work out.
After workout, Sam, who was known for his volumeless appetite,
we'd go out and gets on the eat and then
we go back to his place and just kick back
(12:27):
and watch him TV. Father son time. We were best
friends as well as dad and son. And don't forget
once he got out of the army, he's not a
kid anymore. You're able to talk to your child a
man to man and these are very very important times,
but fun times. So boy, I could just tell you
(12:48):
that Sam and I were best buddies. On Sam Hair's
return from his three year military tour in Afghanistan, he
decided to move into the Camden Martinique apartments, a complex
right us from the Orange Coast College. Sam enrolled there
so he could earn a diploma with the hopes that
he would someday become a military officer. The Camden apartments
(13:10):
in Coasta Mesa, California were very much like a dorm,
with nearly all of Sam's neighbors enrolled into college across
the street. It was there he met his newest friend,
Reuben Menacho, who himself was a former Marine, and the
two of them hit it off. Damn told me that
he was going to do something that Friday. The night
(13:30):
before we went out to dinner, Sam, Julie and I
and so we went out to dinner. After dinner, we
had a great time. He took some price from me,
which how you really don't like people take photo eight
out of my bake. But that wasn't given to Sam. Yeah,
that's he didn't. He used to do that just to
(13:51):
piss me off to people would say he would literally
order it, would never order an entree. He'd ordered just
like a side of fries and then would wipe up
every body else's place. You're going to eat that? Are
you gonna finish that? Like the flour? They even thought
about being done. It's like you're done with that, you know,
And and all of a sudden he had a full meal,
and I was he paid for some friends. Yes, he is.
(14:12):
After Sam's night out with his friends, he mentioned to
Reuben that he promised someone he'd helped them with an
errand the next afternoon and Ruben had to remind him
that their mutual friend Dave Barnhard was hosting a beach barbecue.
Sam assured him that he'd make it after he was done.
Friday came, we went to the beach day was having
(14:34):
a barbecue with his family, UM a couple of friends.
And when I started asking for Sam, nobody knew where
he was at. So Sam was invited to this barbecue.
He was supposed to be there, Yes, I believe so.
I mean if I was there, then he must have
been invited, because they never invited me to something without Sam.
So and I did ask the guys about Sam, so
(14:57):
they said, oh, I think Dave told me that he
was helping out a friend. Even that night we went,
we went out and had some drinks with the guys,
and Sam was not found when we were at cam Then.
I think it was either Jake or Dave that went
to knock at his door and then nobody was there.
They came back and said, okay, it was a normal day.
You know, Sam is not answering the phone. But that
(15:19):
afternoon when he wasn't showing up for the barbecue, you
were calling him, you were texting, you were trying to
reach out, and at one point did did someone inswer
the phone? Yes, there was another person in Lyne that
answered the phone. And when they answer, it was very windy.
And I said if he was driving a car or
standing outside because it was a windy day. But I
(15:40):
asked him where, I said Sam, and he goes yes,
And I'm like, they didn't sound like Sam. I was like,
where are you? What do you sound weird? And he goes, oh, no,
I'm just having some issues. And he made the mistake
to say that he was having issues with his father.
So that was a flag to me because Sam him
has a great relationship with his father and mother. So
(16:03):
that immediately gave you pause automatically, and I questioned him.
When I questioned it more, he hung up and then
I called again, no answer. I texted, no answer, so
and that that's when I got a little bit more
worried and asked, I started asking the guys more question,
but since they say no, I don't know, so I
just let it go. But the idea that you know,
(16:24):
you did kind of press this person and they hung
up on you really must have heightened your your concern
at that point, Yes, and hand my concern, but since
I didn't see it from the other guys, it lowered
it again. While Reuben was uneasy over the whereabouts of
his friend Steve Hair, Sam's father was still expecting his
(16:47):
son to arrive at their home that weekend. It's Friday
when you had an expectation that your son at some
point that Friday was going to head up to your
and your wife's home in Anaheim Hills. Well, what it was.
Raquhel had spoken to Sam around twelve twenty on Friday afternoon,
(17:09):
that was the afternoon of one, and they had mentioned
Raquel wanted to speak to him, and he said, Mom,
I'm busy, I'm helping somebody, But we were anticipating Sam
to come over for the weekend. However, knowing Sam, I
probably I was not expecting him really until Saturday. It
looks Sam was in a war zone. He was a
(17:30):
decorated combat veteran. He was an a war zone. He
would call every two or three months when he got
off the hill, his observation posts and what have you.
So I certainly not really overly concerned, saying I wonder
where he is. I wish he'd dropped me a line
let us know if he's coming or not. By Saturday
early evening, there's still no word from Sam, So Steve
(17:51):
decides it's time to get in his car and drive
down to Sam's place in Coasta Mesa. I had a
key to his place, so that wasn't an issue. So
I arrived there approximately nine o'clock and I knocked at
the door. There was no response. I said, okay, I
have got the key, and I let myself in. I
opened the door, turned on the lights, livering was fine,
(18:14):
Everything looked very neat in place. Peeked into the bedroom.
That's going on, sirs? What once I went into the
apartment and then I saw the body. That's when my
whole world changed. Dead body? Are you sure, sir? Does
(18:38):
your son know who it is? Okay, we're standing people, sir.
I've got someone on the way. Okay, I'm just gonna
get information from you. Are right on Friday May, Julie Kibuishi,
Sam's close friend and tutor, also went missing. Julie's friends
were texting her frantically. It was text after text coming
(19:01):
in her phone. Hey, Julie, your mom called, Can you
call me please? Is everything okay? By the next day,
Julie's mom was desperate. This kind of thing never happened
to my daughter. So we called it police and I said,
I don't care. I don't care where you find her,
but I need to find her. It's cose to MASA
(19:21):
detective Michael Cohen who arrives at the crime scene. As
we walked in, you know, the kitchen look clean. Everything
looked very clean inside until we went into the bedroom
or a male. Once we were in the bedroom, we
had seen a lone female slumped over the bed that
appeared to have a gunshot wound to the back of
(19:43):
her head. Initially, we saw blood and it appeared to
us that it looked like some type of either blood
force object had hit her or it could have been
a gunshot, when we weren't sure initially at first from
our initial investigation until we found more later. She was
bent over the bed actually with her knees partially on
(20:05):
the ground. Her torso was slumped over on top of
the bed, almost like in a kneeling position. Her pants
were somewhat ripped and pulled down. It appeared to us
like maybe there was a sexual assault that had gone bad. Yes,
in the bedroom, but there's some such activities. There's the
(20:29):
one call was from Sam, her father, and he was
looking for his son also, so we felt that Sam
was on the run and had maybe had some involvement
with this homicide. For June and Massa Kabuishi, they both
feared that fateful knock at their door. It's any parents
worth nightmare, and it was Detective Michael Cohen's job to
(20:51):
deliver the news. My partner and I when we had
to make the death notification to Kibayashi family, it was
tough because we had a young girl who was twenty
three years old, and now we had to make contact
with her parents. My partner and I drove over to Mr.
And Mrs Kubayashi's home, knocked on the door and made
(21:12):
contact with her and her husband. Once we walked in,
they had to sit down on a couch, which I
remember still to this day. They sat down. I then
proceeded to tell Mr. And Mrs Kubyashi that we had
located their daughter and an apartment complex in Costa Mesa,
and that she had been basically murdered. When I made
(21:33):
that statement, two Mr and Mrs Kubayashi, Mrs Kubyashi basically
just broke down and started crying. Her husband tried to
calm her down, and we we tried to calm her down,
which we finally were able to after a few minutes.
(21:55):
And it was just a very tough situation. When you
see the pairs become so emotional, and as detectives, and
not only as detectives, but as fathers of having our
own children, you start thinking about how you would react
to that type of situation. Julie was loved by everyone
(22:18):
who knew her. She was a talented dancer and a
budding fashion maven, and she was also really smart, which
is why Sam's parents said. Julie would help Sam often
with his studies as his tutor. She looked up to him,
and she was very good at tutor and him in
(22:39):
anthropology and he got in a in that class. I said,
sim is there anything going on with you and Julie?
And he says absolutely not that she's like my kid's sister.
Steve realized that he knew very little about Sam's friends
at the Camden apartments, but he was certainly determined to
find out more and to find his son. Okay, I
got the list of names by calling those few numbers
(23:03):
that I had on my phone of Sam's friends. The
first two I called were Ruben Menatro and Dave Barnhardt.
I spoke eventually Dan Moseniack. I spoke to a number
of people, and each one of those people were telling
me while when the last time they saw Sam, what
did they hear? What do they know? And I took
(23:24):
it from there and I called for a few hours
speaking to people, and then I got a few hours sleep,
and then on Sunday was this was Saturday evening, Saturday night,
Sunday morning when this was all occurring, got a few
hours sleep, awoke, and then was out searching again. Steve
had a feeling that finding Julie's body in Sam's apartment,
(23:47):
combined with Sam's military background and his knowledge of handling guns,
would certainly make Sam a person of interest for the authorities.
But the other news Steve was about to tell police
would leave little doubt for them that Sam was their
reasonable prime suspect and could very easily be on the run.
(24:07):
We put all points Bolton out for him because we thought,
you know, right now, he's our loan suspect. There's nobody
else that we should be looking for other than him,
because we can't find him and his father is trying
to call him and answering his phone. So we felt
at that point in time he was the initial suspect
of interest and we need to find the situation at hand. Lawrence,
(24:27):
you got to speak to the police. What have you
fill them in on what you know. So they took
me down to the station and took me to an
interview room, and of course your whole world is crashing
around you, and then they started questioning common senses. There's
a dead body in your child's apartment and your child
is not there. The first thing I thought, they're gonna
suspect him, understandably. So so as they were questioning me,
(24:49):
I said, look, before you find out, I'll let you
know he was involved before. When I say involved, he
was charged with a murder. So I let them know
that there was a situation at wouldn't look good for him,
but I also emphasized that he wouldn't do that. And
it goes back to I knew he would not harm
a woman. One name on Steve's list of Sam's buddies
(25:11):
gave Steve his first warning sign it didn't seem right,
changed his story a little bit, and then I asked him, hey,
you know, have you seen Sam? How was his disposition?
And and Dan Bosniak said, well, I was nervous, but
he said no, Sam was even nervous. He was upset.
And I said, really, like what? And Dan Mosniak said,
(25:32):
Sam told me he had girl problems and he had
family problems. If you want to see red flags, lightning bolts,
shooting cannons firing off in Monday night, I went through
the list with Raquel and we looked and since everything
was being purchased from Long Beach, we looked at the
list and on that list of about fifteen, there was
(25:53):
one prefix with a Long Beach prefix on a cell
phones I had the only prefix with Long Beach belonged
to Dan mos n Steve was always very coopertive and
had given us information as to when it was being
taken out, what banks they were being taken out, so
he was very credible. In fact, Steve mentions that he
(26:14):
can recall you saying to your partner on the way out, gee,
maybe we do have the wrong guy. I think that
gave him some level of hope, at which point you
guys went out and got some warrants right for some
bank statements and yeah, and on those bank statements were
purchases from Echoes, pizza and Long Beach that were being
made by whomever had possession of Sam's card at the time.
(26:38):
That was kind of the breaking of the case. I
would say, um, and I think a lot of the
other guys would say the same, because we were able
to track where the pizza was being delivered. We actually
eventually raided that house and was able to talk to
a young kid and I don't remember his name, with yes,
(26:58):
he mentioned he definitely said that Daniel Wasniac gave the card.
From what I recall, I guess they had an agreement
with each other to go. Wesley was going to get
money out and give him the money. And but Wesley
really had no clue as to what was going on
that all. He knew that he was gonna get a
(27:19):
little something out of it. From Dan Wassniak, and that
was it. Yeah, he got he got something, all right.
As I look closer at those bank records, I realized
that he in fact took four hundred dollars out over
the weekend himself, even though he told Dan I couldn't
get to it on Saturday. I couldn't get to it
on Sunday. So yeah, there's there was more to his story.
(27:43):
But you know, he was young and and naive, I
guess enough to think that he could get away with
what he did. So you know, he's not as innocent
as people think he is. But you guys needed him, right,
You needed him for the for the trial, Yes, yes,
we needed him so and he was you know, he
cooperated with us and it worked out really well for us,
(28:04):
so having him as a witness on the stand. And
how did Dan get Sam's pin number to give to
Wesley for the A t M withdrawals? Well, earlier that
week of the murders, Dan and Rachel faced yet another
eviction and Sam offered to help with the rent, so
he brought Dan to his bank a t M. It
(28:27):
was there Dan focused in and watched while Sam entered
his pin um. When Adam help me pay for the round.
I forgot a glance but his bank account number. At
this point in the investigation, Dan Wozniak was still only
(28:47):
a suspect that police believe was helping Sam, still on
the run, but the police wanted to bring him in
for questioning because Dan was their best lead at the time.
And I believe it was Hose that called him to say,
we'd like you to come in and talk at Ed's directive,
and I think Daniel told Jose, well, he's heading off
(29:07):
to Tsunami Sushi over in Huntington's Beach because it was
his bachelor party, right, Yes, that was his bachelor party
at the sushi place. Just having a great old time
over there. That's where we contacted him a little bit
more than contacted. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we um actually, you know,
(29:28):
relocated there. I initially went inside the bar, just kind
of playing clothes, walked around. I saw him sitting way
in the back of a kind of like a banquet room.
As he's in there enjoying life and having fun. You know.
I get on the radio and I trying to call
I think at the time it was at Everett believe
m was Keith Davis with a learner, other sergeants and
(29:50):
lieutenants at the time, and they ended up coming in
the back door, making contact with him and arresting him
right there at his bachelor party. Police scort Dan back
to the station, where they hope to unravel the mystery
of where Sam is still hiding. At this point, they
want to learn what role, if any, Dan Wozniak has
(30:10):
played in Sam's disappearance, and that's when Dan's story was
first tested. He's like, I'm not good. I did something that.
What did you do? It's like, there's a dead body
in my party. I shot somebody. It was a fit
of rage. You're not thinking of we both, you know,
(30:35):
after we took a little break a partner and are
looking at you and going, wow, you know this guy
he thinks he's acting in front of us, you know,
with this story. And same with her when we interviewed her,
when Detective more Alice interviator and when I actually did
the voice stress analyzer test on her. You know, she
just trying to be utilizing their acting persona on us.
(30:56):
And it was terrible, it really was. They were pretty inseparable,
they were always together. I don't know how she could
not have known what was going on. You know, we
can't use it in quote. I did a voice what
we call a voice tress analyzer. It's kind of like
a lie detective test, and she failed it. She failed
all three of them, from what I understand, Yeah, I
had to. Initially I did the first test. I couldn't
(31:19):
get any good valuable graphs from her comments because it's
just yes and no answers, because there's time to disguise
her voice, you know. So then I had to do
it again, and by it's the third time, I think
I finally got some decent patterns. The patterns show that
she was she's not truthful. I'm a big advocate of
that machine, you know, I was trained on. It gives
me a lot of investigative tools to go further. And
(31:42):
so when I got all the information, I was able
to tell Detective to hey, you know, she's not telling
the truth. At this point in Detective Cohen's interview, he
tells Daniel that he wants a sample of his DNA,
and Dan's reaction reveals quite a lot to the detective
slow for he said, you guys interesting. So I remember
(32:09):
very specifically when I asked him to do a DNA sample,
and I pulled out the little kid. He just sat
backed up in his chair and you could tell his
wheels for spinning. And next thing you know, he's like, well,
you know, I've been in Sam's apartment before, and you
might find my DNA in the bathroom and you might
find it over here. And he starts telling me all
(32:29):
these places you might now find I knew at that
point in time he was lying. You know, he's not
telling the truth. Now. I was in Sam's apartment Friday afternoon.
Dan's next version of events, where Sam is the suspect
on the run, leads Dan into making a critical error
and he totally loses his cool. Okay, fine, you know what.
(32:53):
He didn't come down. He came down and said, helped me.
I went upstairs and yes, I saw the gandham body
is that what want to end? We want to hear
the truth. That is the truth. Okay, and tell us
what happened? How did that? How did that play out?
So how did you get honor that? I don't DNA
doesn't just fall off. I don't know. I didn't touch her,
(33:15):
I didn't do anything. What did you see? Two gunshots
in and that was Dan Wasniak's undoing. He thought he
was the smartest guy in the room. He thought he
could outwit and act his way out of a situation
he found himself in. But this wasn't a play, this
(33:36):
was no joke. This was a murder investigation, and these
detectives were narrowing in on his blunders. Lieutenant Ed Everett
was in the room with Dan at the time and
describes what he felt was the break in their case
because when we were in the apartment and we all
looked in, it was only one visible to our eyes.
(33:56):
And then when he had mentioned he saw two gunshot wounds,
I said, well, was there when she was shot. He
was there when she was killed. And we all kind
of simultaneously when we're in that interview when he said
to my partner and I, we kind of looked at
each other. And then that's when Lieutenant Evert said the
two shots and you could see wosniacs face, you know, like, oh,
I guess my acting job just went down the toilet.
(34:18):
And and because as you said earlier, you couldn't tell
on the scene if there were two wounds to Julie's head,
you could, you could not. And there's no way you could.
You know, there's too much excess blood that's intermingled within
the hair, and and even if you tried to move
the hair around, you're not gonna be able to tell
the wards two it looks like just one blood spot.
(34:39):
Until the body goes to the corner's office and actually
an autopsy is performed, you're not going to know at
the time. I don't even think that from what I recall,
the corner didn't even make a determination as to anything
until the autopsy came back officially for Wosnia to say
two shots. We knew right then and there that he
was totally involved, and now we've got him. You you
(35:08):
can't even keep your life straight. His story kept changing.
I think he thought that his acting ability was going
to carry him through this, this performance, so to speak,
and it wasn't doing it. Dan is ushered back to
a holding cell in the jail. There, Dan has access
to a phone. As the pressure mounts, he really needs
(35:29):
to talk to his fiancee. It ends up being the
call that will take down the curtain for Dan's last performance.
What please you realize you're recording the song conversation anyways,
You're being an absolute ask to try and lie again. Yeah,
(35:49):
I am, because they're the bad um. You're talking about
their credit card theme. They already know all about it,
no more than that that. What I'm saying is that
if they can't find up, they can't I know. But well,
I don't know what that is. I thought it was
(36:09):
a murder weapon. I don't know what you're talking about
other evidence. I don't know what Kim how decides that
then said he had a murder weapon. So that's exactly
what Kim told me. So I'm gonna go tell the
detective now, So what do you want me to do?
I don't want you to tell the detective anything, and
I don't want them involved like that. I mean, now
I'm now I'm dead. Now I'm really dead. Maybe you're
(36:31):
already dead. You said you wanted to talk to me.
What's going on? I'm crazy and I did it. You
did what they killed Julia and I killed Sam. Okay,
tell me how you you killed Sam two shots using
my father's gun that I had, and you're motored behind
(36:55):
Uh killing Sam was money and it's in money. And okay,
tell me about the same incident on what you did.
I told him that I needed to move some stuff
from the theater. I said, you need to bend down
and help me lift this thing up. And when he
bent down, I grabbed the gun. I never really fired
(37:18):
the gun before, so I pulled it back and I
shot him. Term Is there anything that you said to
Julie Pryor sharing her? No? I didn't. I had I
got her in. I was downstairs in my apartment. I
was still text messaging. That was Sam's phone. You were using. Yes,
what what sort of text precage on where you're doing that? Before?
I was saying you need to come over tonight, You
(37:39):
need to come over tonight. What what did you say
to Julie? Tally was wearing like a crown tr She
had just come from her brother's eye. Had said like, um,
Sam just called me and he was going through some stuff.
She said, yeah, me too. When I said, adm key,
let's go in, opened the door. I listen. I just
went to the bathroom and quick, because I was really
nervous into gun again. I went back out into the
(38:03):
hallway and then said, oh, by the way, did you
see this in sam Stead? And I said, rasinging over
look at it right there? When she was lead over
and put two mills in the back of around. Okay,
when did you feel you have to kill Joey? What
was the rationale behind? Man was called crazy? But seriously,
seriously to cover up Sam and so well, why how
(38:26):
would that cover up? To make it look like he
was on the run and he did? Why could you
try and cover for him? We needed the money, No,
we never need money. We need to be good people
and you have each other. Sorry, on that call, you
(38:49):
hear Rachel lecturing Dan on being good people. Meanwhile, Rachel
knew Dan kept a sex tape of a former girlfriend
in their heartment safe she found that tape, which was
located right next to Dan's father's gun. Rachel confronted Dan,
(39:10):
and he told her he filmed it with the purposes
of planning to extort money from his ex girlfriend and
her family. Rachel actually told police this explanation of the
sex tape the night Dan was arrested after his bachelor party,
as if it was a matter of fact, because that
was part and parcel with her lifestyle with Dan. It
(39:33):
was that lifestyle that we now know included stealing, lying, cheating,
and conning people out of money. So the idea that
she's telling him, we have to be good people and
we don't need money. Because Rachel knows the police are
recording her, she knows about the sex tape. It was
(39:54):
in the apartment, she knows what Dan planned to do
with it, and she seemed to have have no problem
with it. I was able to get some calls that
were made that happened between Dan and Rachel, and he
seems to be sort of taking her through the murders
just so that she's up to speed on the details
(40:17):
of how much he's told you, guys, did you feel
that way? Would you listen to the call? She knows
a lot more than she's saying. I think he's telling
her piece by piece, each detail as to what's going on.
And I don't know if he's doing that to protect her,
to make it look like he's the only one involved. Again,
in my opinion, I know she knows a lot more.
There's no doubt in my mind that she probably knows
(40:39):
every detail. This caller is being recorded and maybe monitored.
They are you sitting down? They don't think any left
me after I tell you this good This is not
a good story, Okay, but you need to know I
called Pam and Ted look go down to the theater
on the baby and I had my dad done at it,
(41:00):
and when I took him up into the attic, I
shot him two times in the back of the head.
And Rachel continues to profess her innocence to the media
as yet another victim of Daniel Wozniak. After I'm finding
all this out, I'm starting to question if I've ever
known him. I absolutely feel like I was stuped by Dan.
(41:23):
Rachel says she was duped by Dan, but let's start
with the Fernando Perez letter, where he writes that Rachel's
response to Dan when he tells her of the plan
to kill Sam for their honeymoon money, is to do
whatever you have to do to make us happy Dan.
Rachel claims that Dan hid their debt from her, but
(41:45):
based on former friends of Rachel's, they all agree she
was completely aware of their financial status. Sources shared with
me that Rachel and Dan stole nearly on a daily basis.
A bridesmaid of Rachel's said Rachel stole their bridesmaid's dresses
for the wedding. Rachel and Dan stole furniture for their apartment,
(42:08):
along with food and alcohol. Chris Williams said on the
day Sam was murdered. When Dan and Sam left the apartment,
he stayed back with Rachel and she got on Craigslist
looking for stripper jobs and nude model jobs. Why would
Rachel do this if she thought they had money? Neither
(42:31):
Dan nor Rachel held a steady job, so I'm not
sure where Rachel thought the money was coming from. She
said she didn't realize that Dan was a prolific liar,
but Rachel told police that he was an absolute pathological liar.
So it's all Rachel's lies and inconsistencies that serve as
(42:52):
the blueprint to the truth in this case. And you're
absolutely right about Rachel Buffett. How could you not know?
You know, you're counter over gone, you're into red, You're
constantly borrowing money from everybody, and all of a sudden,
your husband to be comes up with money from somewhere.
It's not from working hard as a starving actor. It's
(43:12):
like he's got four or five hundred bucks in his pocket,
all of a sudden, Where'd that come from? In an
effort to clear her name, Rachel appears on the Dr.
Phil Show, and it's confronted by Steve Hair because of
how much these people are hurting and they think that
I had anything to do with that. It's bringing up
(43:33):
a lot of pain for me. Do you believe she
belongs in prison? Yes? I didn't. You're lying and you're
covering it up. My son and his friend, his tutor,
they're both dead. He was cut up into pieces. And
you to come on here and go on the TV
stations pour me? That offends me. And how does Steve
Hair feel about Rachel Buffett's claims of innocence. There's fifty
(43:55):
a hundred different times you you lie to the police.
You came out and like out and right, So just no,
you're gonna have to live with this and you're gonna
have to live through social media now. Is that every
time your name comes up, you're going to be associated
with the murder? And more importantly, is that you lied
about it? That says volumes about you? Baby? Where are you?
(44:19):
I don't hear they won't mean they already told them, no, no, no,
What was what on your line when you were just
remember you buy it? Just Rember his hands water, laughing.
Why do you think you're doing? I don't know. I
(44:46):
don't know, and the heartbreak for Steve Hair continues. The
police called to Steve. Before you find out from the TV,
we have to tell you that Sam was dismembered. That's
when I lost it. That's when I lost it. They
were looking for body parts at a park. That was Friday. Saturday,
(45:06):
May twenty nine was Sam's birthday. And I'll never forget,
but on my son's birthday, I was praying that day
would find his head. This was a boy, a man
who had on a tattoo on his chest, huge tattoo
on his chest of flowers and hearts with mom and
(45:28):
dad in the middle of it. That's how they identified
my son's body because he didn't have a head, needed
some arms. What Daniel wasny I did to that body,
the way he left him there with just no regard
for human life was so disgraceful. And I swore that
I was going to promise Sam that I wasn't going
to stop until I found out what happened to him.
(45:50):
Over the next ten episodes of Sleuth, we will discover
whether Dan wasnia committed these murders on his own well
here from countless witnesses, and reveal more evidence that points
to others who may have helped Dan Wozniak plan and
execute the murders of our victims. Sam Hair and Julia
(46:10):
Kibuishi will learn of possible accomplices that authorities decided either
to ignore or chose to overlook because they needed their
testimony in the prosecution of Daniel Wasniak's death penalty case.
There's no statue in homicide. So you know, even though
we have one guy in prison right now on death row,
(46:30):
there's still funny more room for others to follow. And
so this odyssey that I've been on for the last
two years has really been not only about answering the
questions for me on a personal level, but more importantly
helping these victims families, helping them understand what really happened
to their loved ones. That hoping that the rest of
(46:52):
the people involved are found guilty of the crimes they
committed as well, because it wasn't just Daniel Wasniak, It
just wasn't There's no doubt in my mind she might
be the mastermind of this whole thing, and Dan's just
taking a hit on his own. Theyb are you sure
you're not making this up? Because you're under pressure. Don't
have to God, truth time, it can be truthful. And
(47:16):
now all I want to do this dietause my life
is over. Why baby, because I don't want to live. No,
I mean why we'll get that back? What I really got? Bad?
Why did it back? Feel bad? Not have anything money
(47:37):
for him? Next week, on Sleuth, victim Sam Hare's father,
Steve Hair, returns to share the details regarding the three
(48:00):
felony counts Dan wazne x X fiance Rachel Buffett faces
in her upcoming trial for accessory after the fact. To date,
prosecutor Matt Murphy has only been willing to charge Buffett
with the lesser crime of accessory, as he suggests he
can only prove she aided in covering up the murders,
(48:20):
Yet his own police who investigated the case, feel Buffett,
the former Disney princess, should have been charged with murder.
Matt Murphy has offered Rachel a deal to plead guilty
to a misdemeanor with no jail time and in one year,
he says, the entire charge will be dismissed, but Rachel
(48:40):
has turned down the offer because she says she wants
her day in court. Next week, here with Steve and
I learned in our investigation and decide for yourselves Rachel's
role in the murders. If you enjoyed this episode of Sleuth,
share with the friend and be sure to leave a
(49:02):
rating or review. Follow Sleuth on I Heart Radio, or
subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so that you never
miss an episode
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