September 5, 2018 • 43 mins
Steve Herr sits down with investigative journalist Linda Sawyer as they discuss their shared odyssey to connect the pieces of an intricate puzzle. Together Sawyer and Herr form an impenetrable bond in order to seek the truth and expose the murdeous contingent, who plotted and planned the execution of Herr's only child Sam Herr along with Sam's friend Julie Kibuishi. For now only Dan Wozniak sits as a convicted killer in a San Quentin cell. But this unexpected duo are convinced there are others involved who still walk free. In this episode hear why Daniel Wozniak's ex-fiancee and former Disney Princess, Rachel Buffett, is first on their list of possible accomplices.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Please be advised this story contains adult content and graphic language. Surprisingly,
you met with your son's murderer, Daniel Wozniak while he
was waiting in jail before his trial. We spoke for
a total of almost six hours. During that time, he
(00:25):
had told me that actually he had planned to um.
Initially he had planned to kill his parents. Welcome back
to Sleuth. We have Steve Hair, Samuel Hair's father, and
(00:48):
sam was one of Daniel Wazniak's murder victims. And we're
very grateful to have you here today. Steve, thank you
good to be here. So I want our listeners to
understanding of appreciate how our relationship began. We met actually
after the trial officially, and I had been going on
for years trying to find out the truth of what happened.
(01:13):
The police regarded as far as what they could tell me,
obviously because they had to prepare for the trial as
well as the prosecutors, so they couldn't tell me much.
But I found out enough of my own through interviews
of my own certain things. And then when you had
introduced yourself to me, you had mentioned something, and that's
(01:37):
something told me that other people trusted you with that information.
So I figured if those people trusted you with that information,
I could trust you and share some of the information
that I had received. And I believe what you're referring
to is when I told you that I had seen
(01:58):
the pictures and what those pictures reflected were what Daniel
was Nia did to your son. And once again, once
I realized that those people entrusted you with showing you
those pictures and they were quite graphic, trust me, I
know then that was good enough for me. So from
there we really did share a journey together. I think
(02:22):
it really fortified um the results we came up with
and the work that we did when we were able
to join forces and do it together. When you came
along and when you told me what you had seen
and I said, okay, let's do a little collaboration on this,
and all the stuff you hadn't covered, Linda, and all
the interviews you've done showed me what a true investigative
(02:46):
reporter should be. I've always believed right from the beginning
that there was more than just Dan mos NAC's involvement.
Through Sam's friends, quite an number of occasions would fill
me in on certain areas that just strengthened my belief
that there were more people involved. Then when you and
(03:09):
I had met and we started going over some notes
that we had, we realized that this goes much deeper,
and that began our collaboration as far as, hey, let's
get to the bottom of this. Let's find out or
try to find out the whole truth. And part of
that truth is in fact looking into others involved in
(03:32):
these crimes, looking into accomplices of dance and and to
try to find out in fact what their roles were,
if any, and and the evidence to support that. And
I think some of that focus has to do with
Rachel Buffett, who was Danniel wznia x x fiance and
quite frankly the person that he was allegedly committing these
(03:55):
crimes for so that he could win favor with her
and and take her on a beautiful honeymoon with your
son's hard earned savings. And so I think to focus
in on her with a trial coming up very soon
charging her with three felony counts. As an accessory, I
think we learned a lot through police transcriptions that I
(04:19):
was able to procure from a source, gave a real
blueprint into her guilt. It's the lies I always say
that led us to believe that she was guilty of
a lot more than police were able to prove. It's
the blueprint, is the foundation, it's the whole building. Uh.
(04:39):
Those the information that you had received, What they did
is they strengthened my suspicions of her her influence. I
have said, actually after the last two and a half
years of of my time in on on this investigation,
that I truly believe that Daniel Wozniak wouldn't have committed
(05:03):
these crimes if he had never met Rachel Buffett. And
I will say that Costa Masa please agreed with me
on that. On several occasions, I know that they tried
to come up with all the evidence necessary so that
the d A could go after her for murder charges
or accomplished charges, but they just fell short, and that
(05:24):
just confirmed my belief that, Yeah, she's much more part
of this story. I mean, at this point, you really
had the access to Sam's friends who lived in Campden
Martinique at the time, so you could talk to them.
I know it's hearsay, but you certainly did speak to
quite a few people to find out her nature. And
(05:45):
her relationship with Dan, and how she was really the
one in charge. She was the one in control. I
mean she I have a quick little story that I
think really reflects their relationship and her power over him,
when they would get together with a bunch of neighbors,
including your son, and they called it, I think Taco Tuesday,
(06:06):
and it was that a neighbor's a mutual friend, Dave Barnhart's.
And when they get together for these parties, Rachel would
like to exert her power over Dan by sort of
telling other guys there, look, watch, I'll get him to
kiss a guy, and I'll tell him if he doesn't,
we're not going home together. And sure enough she would.
(06:29):
She would basically assert to him, unless you kiss that
guy sitting next to you, I'm not going home with you.
And that's what do you do? And everybody laugh and
and and that just that to me is so revealing. Well,
I had learned that story from you, but I had
heard the other stories. Whereas she was the one pulling
the strings in that relationship. She was the one who
(06:52):
quote wore the pants in that family. She was the boss.
But once again, everything led to certainly Rachel of being
part of this, you were actually face to face with
Rachel on Dr Phil's stage for a national television audience.
(07:12):
They were young, in love and living the American dream
of being actors in California. Rachel's claim to fame was
playing Princess Ariel at Disneyland. Dan was well known in
the local Orange County theater scene. They were in the
prime of their lives, engaged to be married, and just
a week away from their beach side wedding. That is
(07:35):
until the cops called it off. I'm December two thousand twelve.
I got a call from Dr Phil Studios saying that
they wanted to do a show on this and I said, no,
I don't want to get involved. And they had told
me what Rachel Buffett is going on there, basically to
profess her innocence, so I said, sign me up. Two
days later we had a pre interview, and then three
(07:57):
days after that, the following Wednesday, we taped the show.
Because of how much these people are hurting and they
think that I had anything to do with that, It's
bringing up a lot of pain for me. And if
I had not gone on that show, they would have
had a show with her who was going to benefit
(08:18):
from this except for Rachel. I'm finding out random different lies.
Jobs that he never had, people that he talked to
on the telephone, that never existed, a condo that he
never owned, over John Bank accounts. I'm starting to question
if I've ever known him. I absolutely feel like I
was stupid by Dan. So of course Rachel goes on
(08:42):
and I'm in the they keep me in the green
room there and I'm watching, and she's saying, well, I
didn't know Dan. I didn't know he was like this.
I didn't know he was like that. She did know
certain things, she knew the financial It wasn't what she
was saying on Dr Phil was it wasn't the truth.
And then I did have the opportunity to confront her,
if you're so innocent, reputations whatever, it's hard on your business.
(09:05):
I'm sorry, but my son is dead. My son and
his friend, his tutor, is the part. They're both dead.
He was cut up into pieces. And you to come
on here and go on the TV stations. Poor me.
That offends me. That offends me. And album was leave
it at that, and Dr Phil also confronts Rachel on
(09:29):
some of her inconsistencies. Well, what I want to do
is give you, Rachel, the opportunity to tell your side
of this story. According to the d A, Rachel described
a third party who came with Sam on the night
they picked up Dan. Now, according to police, Dan admitted
(09:50):
fabricating this third party. And it's my understanding that you
didn't say you inferred that there was a third party,
but that you told the authorities that you saw a
third party. Is that not correct. I don't recall telling
that specifically to them. She said, I saw Sam, saw
(10:13):
Sam coming down with another person on the day Sam
was murdered, and he had a black hat, and he
had a black hat. And then so that was something
that police say, oh, that's the story that Dan came
up with. But then he recanted that story when we
eventually got him to confess, and he told us that
was a made up person. And so one of the
(10:34):
charges is that she said that to police. And the
reason how she described that story on Dr Phil was
because of this coffee pot story. You have a wife, right,
I do, a beautiful wife. Thank you. If your wife
told you that she had just made a cop or
a pot of coffee and it was in the kitchen
and then you didn't see it. But later on somehow
(10:56):
it became really important whether or not it was there,
and a cop to um, what was in your kitchen
and say, oh, Spahila fork and a pot of coffee.
I trusted him, and I trusted that what he said
was true, and especially before I thought it really mattered,
I didn't question it. And then later on in question
(11:16):
when the police asked me, well, did you as actually
see him, and I said, well, no, no, I didn't.
That sounded like a really rehearsed and coached response. She
told the police that the man at the black hat
did not live at the apartments, she didn't recognize him. Well,
(11:37):
if you say somebody doesn't live at the apartments and
you can't recognize him, implies that you saw him. You
don't hear from anybody, It implies that you saw this person.
That's not right, Lie. I think that's a really important point.
Let's talk about the weaknesses of that, which is that, unfortunately,
normally there's a recording camera on the body of the
(11:59):
Coasta Mesa police wherever they go, and in this case
there was no recording. The other thing that unfortunately might
be considered a problem is that when you look at
the police report, the date that the police report was
in fact completed and written up was a year later
(12:19):
after this incident. So because there's such a leg and time,
I'm just saying that it does lead people to have
some reasonable doubt. The facts are the facts. If they're
handed out the next day or they're handed out a
year from that date, the facts state. The way I
look at is she lied and she's being charged with
(12:40):
that lie. The other basis for her felony charge is
that she lied about Sam telling her before he left
with Dan that Friday, that Faithful Friday when he was murdered,
when he he was leaving cam Den Martinique with Dan,
because Dan asked him to go help move some furniture
in the attic of a theater up on the low
(13:00):
Selimentist military base, and she said that when Sam came
down to leave with Dan, he kind of pulled her
aside on on their deck and said, I'm having some
issues because she said she saw him and he seemed
forlorn and a little despondent, and he explained it by
saying that he had these family issues. Here's what happened.
Dan ro Nack was one of the ways we helped
(13:24):
catch Dan was when I spoke to Dan and Dan
told me. This was a few days after I found
the body. He said, Sam seemed nervous that day and
I said, what do you mean. He said, well, he
said he was having some issues, women issues, and he
and Dan wose Nick told me Sam said he had
(13:46):
family problems. That was the red flag that told me
Dan Mosnack was part of something I didn't know at
the time Sam was dead, and so I knew Dan
mos Nack was lying because Sam and I are best friends.
We shared so much together. My goodness he has That's
how they identified his body. He had a huge heart
(14:07):
with a rose on his chest that said mom and dad.
So when Dan wood Nac told me Sam told him
that he had family problems, I knew Wosnack was lying.
When Rachel goes on and tells the police, Sam told
her that he had family problems. I absolutely knew Rachel
(14:28):
Buffett was lying because there were no problems. She got
that because Dan and her concocted up that story, and
that puts her right in the mix. And Steve confronts
Rachel on another falsehood for Dr Phil's audience. Rachel had
mentioned that Sam confide in her well alluded to the
fact that Sam was having family troubles. Anybody who knows
(14:51):
Sam knows there we absolutely no family troubles. Dan said
the same thing in his alibies, that's that Sam was
having family problems. Sam wouldn't tell you anything on family
problems here because there were none. So your story absolutely
coincides with your ex fiancee's dance, which, as we know
(15:15):
now we're fabricated. Explain that it could be something as
simple as he was having girl problems and just didn't
want to tell anything. I'm talking about girl problems and
talking about family problems. I don't know why I would
have said it. She's still trying to back down up,
she's still going with it. She's still going with it,
and she's going with something that never existed. She lied
(15:38):
about the man in the black hat, she lied about
the relationship that we had Sammy and myself and Raquel had,
and she also lied about other things. Do you believe
she belongs in prison? Yes, you're lying and you're covering
it up. So now that we're focusing in on these
felonies in Rachel's case, she's been charged with accessory after
(16:02):
the fact, which implies that she covered up the crime
but didn't participate in the planning of the crime. What
is the maximum time she faces if convicted. I was
told the maximum time. There's different levels of felony after
the fact. The maximum time Rachel will get is three
years in prison. That's the maxim California. In other states
(16:26):
is ten years. Some stage is thirteen years, but in
California it's three years. So our whole point here is
it is both of our beliefs that those charges should
have been accomplished charges or in fact murder charges. That's
that's how we feel, based on the knowledge that we've
accumulated all over these years. But the d A just
(16:47):
felt it wasn't enough. It was a circumstantial at best,
and he felt strongly that he had a better case
for accessory. It's not what you and I believe, it's
what the coast of Masa police believed as well. And
if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me.
And so that leads us to the third and final charge,
which in my mind, it's the strongest charge that the
(17:09):
DA has against Rachel Buffett, and that charge involves a
gentleman by the name of Chris Williams, and he was
the person that they had met through the Nine Cast.
He was very friendly with one of their fellow cast members,
and within weeks of knowing him, Daniel asked him for money,
(17:31):
which he often asked many people for money because they
were being evicted and Chris was willing to give them
some money. He felt that it was a good gesture
to pay it forward after all of these fellow Thesbians
had come up with a charity concert for him, because
he had some upcoming surgeries and and he had quite
a bit of money that came from that concert. So
(17:54):
he offered to loan Dan and Rachel the money, but
he wanted it back within a very finite period of
time because he didn't know them very long and he
was worried about getting his money back. So Chris told
Dana's story. By the way, Dan told Chris he was
a fellow Paison, which he was not. So he told
Dan that there were these loan sharks that he got
(18:15):
the money from, and if he didn't get that money
back by Friday, they were going to come after him.
Chris Williams, and that was a big concern, so Dan
new Friday was the deadline, and with that, Chris Williams
shows up at their apartment wanting his money back, and
Dan said he was going to try to get some
of it back, and Chris saw Dan leave with your son.
(18:39):
When Dan came back alone, he handed Chris the money,
and Chris offered to give them a twenty because they
had no food money, and so he did that, and
he said he soon wanted to leave there because the
stress was so high between the two of them, and
there was obviously a very negative energy going on there.
And the reason why I think this charge for accessory
(19:04):
is the strongest. When she was questioned by police, she
told them that Dan most likely gave the money back
to Sam or one of the loan sharks outside of
the apartment. So she completely lied because she was there
present when she saw Dan give Chris the money directly,
That to me not only is the strongest charge, but
(19:28):
quite frankly for me, that says to me that she
is an accomplice and was very much part of the
planning of the murders, because for her to say that
she had to have known Sam was dead. I'm in
agreement with you regarding this is the strongest charge. Rachel
(19:49):
Buffett on Friday saw it. Dan mos Nack give Chris
Williams four hundred dollars he had just murdered. Sam comes
back and says, here, Chris, here's money, and there's four
and according to the records, Chris says, here's twenty dollars.
Hold on and Chris gives him the money and then
(20:12):
he takes off, and half an hour later he gets
a call from Rachel and says, by the way, you
dropped twenty dollars, why don't you come and pick it up?
And essentially that's what I've heard that's on Friday, that
every bone in his body told him not to go
back there, that he said something was wrong because she
(20:33):
saw me hand them with twenty. I didn't drop a twenty.
I handed it to them for food. And he said her,
do you want me to come back because of the
money issue? And she said no, it's something else. I
believe she was trying to lure him back, as do police,
because she realized he was the only one that saw
Dan leave with Sam. But that was just another indication
(20:55):
to me that revealed that a she's capable of luring
people and be She could have very easily been part
of the plan if she was willing to make that call.
Why else would she put the blame on Sam? Say, oh,
Dan could have given the money to Sam, because it
falls in line with their whole story. They wanted Sam
(21:18):
to be the man on the run. He had it
out with Julie and there was some kind of love triangle.
He kills Julie, he's on the run. He had this
pass that once he was charged with murder, he's the
perfect candidate for our new tail, are you know our
new play? The night they arrested Dan for bank fraud
(21:39):
because they still thought your son was the prime target, right,
They couldn't find him, so they brought Dan and thinking
he was hiding Sam or helping Sam. So he was
at that point just being charged with bank fraud. That's
the same early morning when you know she's being walked
to the car after they brought her in for questioning
and she said, oh, by the way, Detective morale Us,
(22:00):
did you look into Sam's past. It's all part of
this story, this narrative that they came up with well
before the murders. Why Sam was going to be their
target I'll leave it at that. We certainly know that
Dan was luring Julie to Sam's apartment on Sam's phone.
Sam's phone was more archaic, a flip phone, where Dan's
(22:24):
was a more state of the art phone. Not only
that he was luring Julie after he spoke to Rachel,
after he came home and he came with Rachel. Prior
to that, Dan was texting with Julie. He was posing
as Sam, but it was light bantering, has nothing to
do about luring. Until after he came out. It went
from just like you say, friendly banter. How are you doing,
(22:47):
what's going on? What's your day? Like blah blah blah too?
Where are you going to be? When can you be?
When can you meet me? I'm in trouble, I'm in pain,
I'm suffering. I need to talk to someone, no sex.
When can I meet with you? That the intensity shifted
as soon as he came home, brought that money to Chris,
(23:08):
and then was with Rachel. It's what police believe instigated
the murder of Julie because they surmised that Rachel saw
the text that Dan sent to Julie as Sam, where
he said I'm with my neighbor Dan, we're moving furniture
in the theater, So at that point police feel that
(23:32):
Rachel felt it was time to do something about Julie
because he put himself as the last person with Sam.
One of my interviews in this case was with a
gentleman named Dave Barnhard, who was very close with Dan
and Rachel at the time of the murders, and he
shared with me that he in fact had a budding
(23:53):
relationship with Julie Cabuishi, and that they had actually consummated
that relationship just two nights before the murders. Back in
and I was told by several people that Rachel also
had interests in Dave, would actually play with him and
tease him, and and that she knew that Dave had
(24:17):
a serious crush on her. Whether or not that relationship
was a consummated or not is still something I haven't
been able to firmly verify. While Dave Barnhard did say
to me that he did not consummate that relationship with Rachel,
he confessed to a mutual friend, Ruben Manacho, that he
(24:38):
did have an affair with her. I felt it was
important to share that with Detective Michael Cohen, who was
one of the lead detectives on the Wozniak murder case,
because I wondered if maybe jealousy was a factor in
Julie's murder given what was written on the back of
her sweater, and he time, you have a jealousy factor
(25:02):
when in the case with Rachel, she always thought that
she would control men with her feminine wiles and that
she was sort of the focus of any man's attention.
And to find out that potentially she might not be
the only girl that Dave Barnhard was was entangled with,
(25:23):
makes you kind of wonder if there was some form
of jealousy, because that has an element of rage to it,
if that would ever play into the idea of what
was written on the back of of julie sweater all
yours fuck you. Um. Is that a possibility, Yeah, I
mean it's a possibility of Rachel's you know, piste off
(25:45):
and as a an anger towards Julie. And this was
a good way uh in her and Daniel Kosniac's master
plan that you know, he needs money, she needs money. Uh.
They get rid of Sam and they get rid of Julie,
(26:06):
so that takes care of her and Uh, it's a possibility, absolutely,
I believe it could be. And for them she was
just like a prop in one of their plays. Another
telling Rachel's story involves Violet Randolph, who was married to
John Randolph at the time. They as a couple were
(26:26):
very close with Dan and Rachel. Of all the people
that came to Martinique, and when you had found Julie's
body in your son's apartment that Saturday night, that weekend
of the murders, I believe they all got together, right.
They had called Dan and Rachel back from a cast
party and they all got together to basically discuss who
has seen Sam last, where was he, who was he with?
(26:50):
And Dan was changing stories in that meeting. He he
was really inconsistent, and at one point they kind of
broke off and went back to the Randolph's apartment and
that's when Rachel said to Dan, your stories are changing
and it's messing up my story something along that line.
That's what the Randolphs told me, And remember talking with
(27:11):
you about that. And it was told in kind of
a little bit stronger language that Rachel was telling Dan,
you're screwing put the other expletive there up my story, Dan,
be quiet. But you had mentioned that Dan and Rachel
had gone over Jake and Dave's apartment when they were
(27:32):
called in because they were talking about who was found
in Sam's apartment. And that's when Dan was telling the
guys he was changing the story there about what this
guy looked like, about this man was in a black hat?
Was he in a white hat? What was he? Was
not there? Not Reuben was not there that night. It
(27:53):
was Jake, I believe, a couple of randolph And what
I had heard they had told me was Rachel said,
we gotta get out of here, we gotta go, and
they abruptly left, and Ashley was there. Ashley was there,
and she she and the Randolph's told me that when
Dan was messing up his stories, Rachel said, we have
(28:15):
to get out of here, and she pulled him out
of the meeting and and so we've got to go,
We've got to go. Like she was panicking because she
could hear his right And then when she went back
with just the Randolph's, that's when she said, you're effing
up my story. Dan, You've got to stop her story. Yeah, right,
So that that's that's pretty big. Once again It just
(28:38):
solidifies my belief, and I'm sure others believe that she's
much more involved, and I share with Detective Cohen another
noteworthy story involving Violet and Rachel. I just wanted to
say when you were talking about the call between Dan
and Rachel while he was in jail, and she's telling
(28:59):
Dan that you know, she ran into Tim and he's
got this evidence, and he's like, no, baby, no, baby,
you can't show that. You can't do that. I'm dead
if you do that, and she's like, I have to
because I'm on a recorded call and I have to
look like I'm cooperating. I wanted to mention to you
that I've spent quite a bit of time with a
(29:19):
woman by the name of Violet Randolph who happened to
be in the car sitting next to her when that
phone call was taking place. And the reason why she
was saying that on the phone to Dan was because
Violet had threatened her and said, I am calling Jose Morales,
Detective Morales right now if you don't tell the police
(29:41):
about this evidence before it gets destroyed by Tim, because
she was saying, I don't want to do it, I
don't want to tell them. So, I don't know if
you know that or not, but I thought it was important. Yeah,
I do recall now that, yes, she was kind of
forced to do it because of Violet. Yet, during Dan
Bosniak's trial, Prosecutor Matt Murphy told yours that the cornucopia
(30:05):
of evidence, as he put it, was a gift from
Rachel Buffett, but it was actually Violet Randolph who was
going to make sure that the authorities knew about this
grab bag of evidence. And one of the questions I
asked Detective Morales, who was one of the lead detectives
in this case, what would have made the difference between
(30:28):
charging Rachel with accessory after the fact versus an accomplice.
He said that they would have had to have proven
that she was part of the planning and that, for instance,
she staked out the locations. Well, that's indeed what she did.
We have eyewitness testimony that shows puts Rachel and Dan
(30:51):
at the Liberty Theater, which was the scene of the
crime of the murder of your son. Puts them both
at the Liberty Theater two nights before the murder. And
I also spoke to the ranger of El Dorado Park.
I had gone there two months after the murder, and
he said that this couple and he identified Dan, had
stopped at that park prior to the murders as well,
(31:14):
and that is where Dan told cost to Masa police
that he spread your son's body parts after leaving the
Liberty Attic theater where he had dismembered his body. And
I and I have three witnesses that saw her at
the theater. There was no reason for them to be
at the theater. One of those witnesses, Stuart McDougall, told
(31:37):
me that they were rehearsing a show that night for
Rachel and Dan to show up at the theater that night,
that Wednesday night before the murders. Was there a specific
reason for them to be there or was it a
shock to everybody? I was shocked, surprise to everyone. There's
no there's no reason for them to actually be them. No,
(32:00):
they just combed up down, but combed up, you know,
And but that's we hadn't seen him for a while
and they just thumbed up. Do you suspect that there
were drugs involved? But how I would definitely suspect about
She was a nervous nelly. I'm not kidding she was.
She looked strung up. Jeez, you know, hope the hell
(32:21):
was going on? Not Nate, you know, because and again
I just put it Day didn't know. I just thought
she was at my head. And then I just done
and asked him you, okay, yeah, I'm fair on fair pay,
and they just brushed off of it. On Steve, let's
talk about your meeting with Dan one on one, three
separate visits while he was sitting in County jail waiting
(32:43):
for his trial to start. You actually made an effort
to meet with him, and he agreed to meet with you.
I had absolutely nothing to lose, so I decided one day,
let me go to the jail. We spoke for a
total of almost six hours. During that time, he admitted it.
He apologized eyes. He had told me that actually he
had planned to uh. Initially he had planned to kill
(33:06):
his parents, but he backed out from that. And then,
of course, in a very he wrote it, okay, he
said Sam, and Sam was not my first target. Was
not initially my first target. And they said, what do
you mean? And he didn't want to say it, so
he wrote he carried a bible with him with a
little golf pencil, and he wrote in the Bible my
(33:31):
parents mean His parents were initially his first target, and
Dan confesses the same to Rachel during one of their
jailhouse calls. So they leave your family, then crazy. That's
why you left them, because you're crazy, because they hate compromications,
(33:58):
because they required too much out of mean and I
couldn't deliver. And the main reason that I left them
is I almost reached the point where I almost killed them.
Did you almost reach the point where he killed me? No? Never,
I promise you were my only light personally, I would
(34:19):
have chosen that then Sam which still and Julie would
still be alive. But he also spoke about other things.
He spoke about Wesley, that he spoke about the plan.
He told me certain things, not much about Rachel, but
he had mentioned a few things about his brother Tim,
which I believe you'll want to discuss in the later episodes.
(34:41):
But once again, I wanted to go there and uh
find out as much information as I could, because, like
I have said, he was the only one who was
going to give me the direct information, and I knew
it was lies, but not all of them are lies.
What I found out during my course of my investigations
Sam's friends from the Camdens and what have you. Is
(35:04):
that certain times Dan would tell the truth, certain times
he would lie. Those lies would be when it would
benefit him. He told me when Wesley would take money
out from the A t M s. That's the young
lad who took who had Sam's credit card. He told
me he solicited for his help in his scheme. He
(35:25):
he sent Wesley on the mission to go in like
a hat and classes to camouflage his identity, but go
to the A t M physically to get the money.
He told me things like he told his brother not
to look in the backpack, but his brother not only
did that, but he took the money, the foreign money
that was in Sam's He had mentioned it to me,
(35:48):
so Dan was told also used Sam's card to try
to get cass right. Well, I also found out that Tim,
his brother, not only went into the backpack and took
the foreign money which was actually worthless, but Tim actually
went in and got Sam's A t M card and
tries to use it to fill up his gas tank.
This is from a person who said, meaning Tim his brother,
(36:09):
who told me that he uh, he didn't even go
into the backpack, so lying tends to run into wols
Nack family regardless. So I did speak to him. There
are those times, and I was getting certain answers. He
said he was upset with Wesley. He was upset, not
what he was upset with Wesley. This is what Dan
(36:31):
told me. He said he got piste off at Wesley
for using Sam's car, driving Sam's car around. But it
bothered me in the sense that is Wesley not as
innocent as he as he comes across. And then also
that Dan gave him money to let him have money
for drugs and things like that. I don't know how
(36:52):
that played out, but I do know this. Dan told
me certain things. Some of them proved out to be
true and some of them was just out now bs.
And Wesley did admit to me because I kept asking him,
I don't understand what did you do it for? I mean,
I understand you trusted Dan and he was like an
older brother to you, and but why did you do it?
(37:14):
You knew, I mean clearly you knew what you were
doing was not on the up and up. And he
did admit that one of those days he took out
an extra four hundred for himself and he told me that, so, uh,
that was clear. On the Saturday, he told Danny couldn't
do what he did do it on that Saturday, so
he did take an extra There you go, there you go.
(37:36):
But funny it's and I just wished the police had
done a little bit something towards Wesley the kid got
off scott Ford. Do you feel when you had those
conversations with Dan did you get the sense because so
many people kept asking why is he protecting her? Why
is he not coming forward and and and exposing her
role in all of this. I mean even that jail
(37:58):
house snitched that spoke to Dan. You know that for
a Fernando Perez says in the letter that Dan told
him that Rachel knew, and she said, go make us happy,
Go do whatever you have to do. When he discussed
the plan of killing Sam. Nobody could understand why Dan
was protecting her. But to me answer, I would love
for you to answer. The reason why Dan didn't snitch
(38:20):
quote on Rachel is because if he snitches on Rachel,
they will expose Tim. That's what I believe too. In fact,
him said to me, if Rachel comes forward and says anything,
that if he has to go down, so will she.
I mean, he has said that he's pulled the wool
(38:42):
over everyone's eyes, that he that he was able to
dupe the FBI and the police, and oh that d a.
What a great guy he is. I know I've gone
to the police to push this and check on Tim
and pushed it for him to be charged with more.
But it falls on deaf ears with that case for
the coast of Masa police end of the a's office.
(39:05):
Tim's done. Tim has done, and now they're focusing on Rachel. Well,
they made a deal with him. I mean they made
a deal with him because they wanted to make sure
their capital case was going to be one and they
were worried that the defense attorney was going to talk
about some kind of mental instability in his background. But
a deal is premised on the fact that that person
tells you the whole truth and that and Tim Mosenick
(39:27):
did not tell them the whole truth. He lied often frequently,
and for that that negates any deal. He was awful.
I was in court that day. I was in court
every day along with you, but that day I remember
just he was babbling all over the place and nothing
made sense, and he was inconsistent every other word out
of his mouth, and he told me later that he
(39:48):
specifically drank a fifth of jack. He wanted to come
in there trash, so that he was the most ineffective
witness they ever saw. And even with that, he still
got away with everything because it worked. It worked, And
I have been in the room when I've heard Matt
Murphy characterized Tim Wozniak as just a hapless fool who
(40:13):
was another Daniel Wasniak victim like Sam Hair and Julie Kis.
There are so many questions that's still are unanswered, and
I'd still like to know eventually why. That's all. I've
heard you say that in many ways, my investigation picked
up where yours left off, and that it re energized
(40:35):
your desire as we together collaborated to find out the
whole truth. But really the most important thing for me, Steve,
is that you and your wife and the Kibuishi's learned
the entire picture, so you all know what happened to
your loved ones. And I do want to say, first
(40:55):
of all, thank you, Linda, and let me explain my
Once I saw that the police trusted you and you
were able to see certain things, and once we started collaborating,
I found out what true investigative reporting is. I had
done episodes for Dateline, being a novice who never had
(41:17):
exposure TV before, I assumed there they had investigative reporters
who would find out everything, and unfortunately, everything they did
they got from the transcripts. There was really no investigations
per se. And you can give a lesson to every
one of those shows what true investigative reporting is. Thank
(41:37):
you so much, Linda, Thank you so much, Steve, and
I will continue to ask questions until the whole truth
about this case can be told. I know Detective Michael
Cohen yearns for the same answers. Cases can be looked
at again. And there are others. There are others involved
in this, absolutely absolutely. You know. There's no statue in
(42:01):
homisid it. So you know, even though we have one
guy in prison right now on death row, there's still
plenty more room for others to follow. You have often
said to me, Steve, that Dan Wozniak took away your
best friend, he took away my hand, a large part
of my life, Okay, and they can't put him to
(42:22):
death fast enough for me. But let's find out about Rachel.
Next week, tune in for an exclusive interview with Dan
Wasniat defense attorney Scott Sanders. He will reveal some of
(42:47):
his earlier frustrations during the Wazniak trial, and one of
those frustrations involves his inability to introduce Sam Hair's dark
past when he himself was charged with murder. Scott Sanders
will take us through his legal predictions of Rachel's upcoming
trial proceedings. Hear what we might expect from the courtroom
(43:09):
drama between prosecutor Matt Murphy and Rachel Buffett's defense attorney,
David Medina. If you enjoyed this episode of Sleuth, share
it with a friend and be sure to leave a
rating or review. Follow Sleuth on I Heart Radio, or
subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so that you never
(43:29):
miss an episode
Please be advised this story contains adult content and graphic language. Surprisingly,
you met with your son's murderer, Daniel Wozniak while he
was waiting in jail before his trial. We spoke for
a total of almost six hours. During that time, he
(00:25):
had told me that actually he had planned to um.
Initially he had planned to kill his parents. Welcome back
to Sleuth. We have Steve Hair, Samuel Hair's father, and
(00:48):
sam was one of Daniel Wazniak's murder victims. And we're
very grateful to have you here today. Steve, thank you
good to be here. So I want our listeners to
understanding of appreciate how our relationship began. We met actually
after the trial officially, and I had been going on
for years trying to find out the truth of what happened.
(01:13):
The police regarded as far as what they could tell me,
obviously because they had to prepare for the trial as
well as the prosecutors, so they couldn't tell me much.
But I found out enough of my own through interviews
of my own certain things. And then when you had
introduced yourself to me, you had mentioned something, and that's
(01:37):
something told me that other people trusted you with that information.
So I figured if those people trusted you with that information,
I could trust you and share some of the information
that I had received. And I believe what you're referring
to is when I told you that I had seen
(01:58):
the pictures and what those pictures reflected were what Daniel
was Nia did to your son. And once again, once
I realized that those people entrusted you with showing you
those pictures and they were quite graphic, trust me, I
know then that was good enough for me. So from
there we really did share a journey together. I think
(02:22):
it really fortified um the results we came up with
and the work that we did when we were able
to join forces and do it together. When you came
along and when you told me what you had seen
and I said, okay, let's do a little collaboration on this,
and all the stuff you hadn't covered, Linda, and all
the interviews you've done showed me what a true investigative
(02:46):
reporter should be. I've always believed right from the beginning
that there was more than just Dan mos NAC's involvement.
Through Sam's friends, quite an number of occasions would fill
me in on certain areas that just strengthened my belief
that there were more people involved. Then when you and
(03:09):
I had met and we started going over some notes
that we had, we realized that this goes much deeper,
and that began our collaboration as far as, hey, let's
get to the bottom of this. Let's find out or
try to find out the whole truth. And part of
that truth is in fact looking into others involved in
(03:32):
these crimes, looking into accomplices of dance and and to
try to find out in fact what their roles were,
if any, and and the evidence to support that. And
I think some of that focus has to do with
Rachel Buffett, who was Danniel wznia x x fiance and
quite frankly the person that he was allegedly committing these
(03:55):
crimes for so that he could win favor with her
and and take her on a beautiful honeymoon with your
son's hard earned savings. And so I think to focus
in on her with a trial coming up very soon
charging her with three felony counts. As an accessory, I
think we learned a lot through police transcriptions that I
(04:19):
was able to procure from a source, gave a real
blueprint into her guilt. It's the lies I always say
that led us to believe that she was guilty of
a lot more than police were able to prove. It's
the blueprint, is the foundation, it's the whole building. Uh.
(04:39):
Those the information that you had received, What they did
is they strengthened my suspicions of her her influence. I
have said, actually after the last two and a half
years of of my time in on on this investigation,
that I truly believe that Daniel Wozniak wouldn't have committed
(05:03):
these crimes if he had never met Rachel Buffett. And
I will say that Costa Masa please agreed with me
on that. On several occasions, I know that they tried
to come up with all the evidence necessary so that
the d A could go after her for murder charges
or accomplished charges, but they just fell short, and that
(05:24):
just confirmed my belief that, Yeah, she's much more part
of this story. I mean, at this point, you really
had the access to Sam's friends who lived in Campden
Martinique at the time, so you could talk to them.
I know it's hearsay, but you certainly did speak to
quite a few people to find out her nature. And
(05:45):
her relationship with Dan, and how she was really the
one in charge. She was the one in control. I
mean she I have a quick little story that I
think really reflects their relationship and her power over him,
when they would get together with a bunch of neighbors,
including your son, and they called it, I think Taco Tuesday,
(06:06):
and it was that a neighbor's a mutual friend, Dave Barnhart's.
And when they get together for these parties, Rachel would
like to exert her power over Dan by sort of
telling other guys there, look, watch, I'll get him to
kiss a guy, and I'll tell him if he doesn't,
we're not going home together. And sure enough she would.
(06:29):
She would basically assert to him, unless you kiss that
guy sitting next to you, I'm not going home with you.
And that's what do you do? And everybody laugh and
and and that just that to me is so revealing. Well,
I had learned that story from you, but I had
heard the other stories. Whereas she was the one pulling
the strings in that relationship. She was the one who
(06:52):
quote wore the pants in that family. She was the boss.
But once again, everything led to certainly Rachel of being
part of this, you were actually face to face with
Rachel on Dr Phil's stage for a national television audience.
(07:12):
They were young, in love and living the American dream
of being actors in California. Rachel's claim to fame was
playing Princess Ariel at Disneyland. Dan was well known in
the local Orange County theater scene. They were in the
prime of their lives, engaged to be married, and just
a week away from their beach side wedding. That is
(07:35):
until the cops called it off. I'm December two thousand twelve.
I got a call from Dr Phil Studios saying that
they wanted to do a show on this and I said, no,
I don't want to get involved. And they had told
me what Rachel Buffett is going on there, basically to
profess her innocence, so I said, sign me up. Two
days later we had a pre interview, and then three
(07:57):
days after that, the following Wednesday, we taped the show.
Because of how much these people are hurting and they
think that I had anything to do with that, It's
bringing up a lot of pain for me. And if
I had not gone on that show, they would have
had a show with her who was going to benefit
(08:18):
from this except for Rachel. I'm finding out random different lies.
Jobs that he never had, people that he talked to
on the telephone, that never existed, a condo that he
never owned, over John Bank accounts. I'm starting to question
if I've ever known him. I absolutely feel like I
was stupid by Dan. So of course Rachel goes on
(08:42):
and I'm in the they keep me in the green
room there and I'm watching, and she's saying, well, I
didn't know Dan. I didn't know he was like this.
I didn't know he was like that. She did know
certain things, she knew the financial It wasn't what she
was saying on Dr Phil was it wasn't the truth.
And then I did have the opportunity to confront her,
if you're so innocent, reputations whatever, it's hard on your business.
(09:05):
I'm sorry, but my son is dead. My son and
his friend, his tutor, is the part. They're both dead.
He was cut up into pieces. And you to come
on here and go on the TV stations. Poor me.
That offends me. That offends me. And album was leave
it at that, and Dr Phil also confronts Rachel on
(09:29):
some of her inconsistencies. Well, what I want to do
is give you, Rachel, the opportunity to tell your side
of this story. According to the d A, Rachel described
a third party who came with Sam on the night
they picked up Dan. Now, according to police, Dan admitted
(09:50):
fabricating this third party. And it's my understanding that you
didn't say you inferred that there was a third party,
but that you told the authorities that you saw a
third party. Is that not correct. I don't recall telling
that specifically to them. She said, I saw Sam, saw
(10:13):
Sam coming down with another person on the day Sam
was murdered, and he had a black hat, and he
had a black hat. And then so that was something
that police say, oh, that's the story that Dan came
up with. But then he recanted that story when we
eventually got him to confess, and he told us that
was a made up person. And so one of the
(10:34):
charges is that she said that to police. And the
reason how she described that story on Dr Phil was
because of this coffee pot story. You have a wife, right,
I do, a beautiful wife. Thank you. If your wife
told you that she had just made a cop or
a pot of coffee and it was in the kitchen
and then you didn't see it. But later on somehow
(10:56):
it became really important whether or not it was there,
and a cop to um, what was in your kitchen
and say, oh, Spahila fork and a pot of coffee.
I trusted him, and I trusted that what he said
was true, and especially before I thought it really mattered,
I didn't question it. And then later on in question
(11:16):
when the police asked me, well, did you as actually
see him, and I said, well, no, no, I didn't.
That sounded like a really rehearsed and coached response. She
told the police that the man at the black hat
did not live at the apartments, she didn't recognize him. Well,
(11:37):
if you say somebody doesn't live at the apartments and
you can't recognize him, implies that you saw him. You
don't hear from anybody, It implies that you saw this person.
That's not right, Lie. I think that's a really important point.
Let's talk about the weaknesses of that, which is that, unfortunately,
normally there's a recording camera on the body of the
(11:59):
Coasta Mesa police wherever they go, and in this case
there was no recording. The other thing that unfortunately might
be considered a problem is that when you look at
the police report, the date that the police report was
in fact completed and written up was a year later
(12:19):
after this incident. So because there's such a leg and time,
I'm just saying that it does lead people to have
some reasonable doubt. The facts are the facts. If they're
handed out the next day or they're handed out a
year from that date, the facts state. The way I
look at is she lied and she's being charged with
(12:40):
that lie. The other basis for her felony charge is
that she lied about Sam telling her before he left
with Dan that Friday, that Faithful Friday when he was murdered,
when he he was leaving cam Den Martinique with Dan,
because Dan asked him to go help move some furniture
in the attic of a theater up on the low
(13:00):
Selimentist military base, and she said that when Sam came
down to leave with Dan, he kind of pulled her
aside on on their deck and said, I'm having some
issues because she said she saw him and he seemed
forlorn and a little despondent, and he explained it by
saying that he had these family issues. Here's what happened.
Dan ro Nack was one of the ways we helped
(13:24):
catch Dan was when I spoke to Dan and Dan
told me. This was a few days after I found
the body. He said, Sam seemed nervous that day and
I said, what do you mean. He said, well, he
said he was having some issues, women issues, and he
and Dan wose Nick told me Sam said he had
(13:46):
family problems. That was the red flag that told me
Dan Mosnack was part of something I didn't know at
the time Sam was dead, and so I knew Dan
mos Nack was lying because Sam and I are best friends.
We shared so much together. My goodness he has That's
how they identified his body. He had a huge heart
(14:07):
with a rose on his chest that said mom and dad.
So when Dan wood Nac told me Sam told him
that he had family problems, I knew Wosnack was lying.
When Rachel goes on and tells the police, Sam told
her that he had family problems. I absolutely knew Rachel
(14:28):
Buffett was lying because there were no problems. She got
that because Dan and her concocted up that story, and
that puts her right in the mix. And Steve confronts
Rachel on another falsehood for Dr Phil's audience. Rachel had
mentioned that Sam confide in her well alluded to the
fact that Sam was having family troubles. Anybody who knows
(14:51):
Sam knows there we absolutely no family troubles. Dan said
the same thing in his alibies, that's that Sam was
having family problems. Sam wouldn't tell you anything on family
problems here because there were none. So your story absolutely
coincides with your ex fiancee's dance, which, as we know
(15:15):
now we're fabricated. Explain that it could be something as
simple as he was having girl problems and just didn't
want to tell anything. I'm talking about girl problems and
talking about family problems. I don't know why I would
have said it. She's still trying to back down up,
she's still going with it. She's still going with it,
and she's going with something that never existed. She lied
(15:38):
about the man in the black hat, she lied about
the relationship that we had Sammy and myself and Raquel had,
and she also lied about other things. Do you believe
she belongs in prison? Yes, you're lying and you're covering
it up. So now that we're focusing in on these
felonies in Rachel's case, she's been charged with accessory after
(16:02):
the fact, which implies that she covered up the crime
but didn't participate in the planning of the crime. What
is the maximum time she faces if convicted. I was
told the maximum time. There's different levels of felony after
the fact. The maximum time Rachel will get is three
years in prison. That's the maxim California. In other states
(16:26):
is ten years. Some stage is thirteen years, but in
California it's three years. So our whole point here is
it is both of our beliefs that those charges should
have been accomplished charges or in fact murder charges. That's
that's how we feel, based on the knowledge that we've
accumulated all over these years. But the d A just
(16:47):
felt it wasn't enough. It was a circumstantial at best,
and he felt strongly that he had a better case
for accessory. It's not what you and I believe, it's
what the coast of Masa police believed as well. And
if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me.
And so that leads us to the third and final charge,
which in my mind, it's the strongest charge that the
(17:09):
DA has against Rachel Buffett, and that charge involves a
gentleman by the name of Chris Williams, and he was
the person that they had met through the Nine Cast.
He was very friendly with one of their fellow cast members,
and within weeks of knowing him, Daniel asked him for money,
(17:31):
which he often asked many people for money because they
were being evicted and Chris was willing to give them
some money. He felt that it was a good gesture
to pay it forward after all of these fellow Thesbians
had come up with a charity concert for him, because
he had some upcoming surgeries and and he had quite
a bit of money that came from that concert. So
(17:54):
he offered to loan Dan and Rachel the money, but
he wanted it back within a very finite period of
time because he didn't know them very long and he
was worried about getting his money back. So Chris told
Dana's story. By the way, Dan told Chris he was
a fellow Paison, which he was not. So he told
Dan that there were these loan sharks that he got
(18:15):
the money from, and if he didn't get that money
back by Friday, they were going to come after him.
Chris Williams, and that was a big concern, so Dan
new Friday was the deadline, and with that, Chris Williams
shows up at their apartment wanting his money back, and
Dan said he was going to try to get some
of it back, and Chris saw Dan leave with your son.
(18:39):
When Dan came back alone, he handed Chris the money,
and Chris offered to give them a twenty because they
had no food money, and so he did that, and
he said he soon wanted to leave there because the
stress was so high between the two of them, and
there was obviously a very negative energy going on there.
And the reason why I think this charge for accessory
(19:04):
is the strongest. When she was questioned by police, she
told them that Dan most likely gave the money back
to Sam or one of the loan sharks outside of
the apartment. So she completely lied because she was there
present when she saw Dan give Chris the money directly,
That to me not only is the strongest charge, but
(19:28):
quite frankly for me, that says to me that she
is an accomplice and was very much part of the
planning of the murders, because for her to say that
she had to have known Sam was dead. I'm in
agreement with you regarding this is the strongest charge. Rachel
(19:49):
Buffett on Friday saw it. Dan mos Nack give Chris
Williams four hundred dollars he had just murdered. Sam comes
back and says, here, Chris, here's money, and there's four
and according to the records, Chris says, here's twenty dollars.
Hold on and Chris gives him the money and then
(20:12):
he takes off, and half an hour later he gets
a call from Rachel and says, by the way, you
dropped twenty dollars, why don't you come and pick it up?
And essentially that's what I've heard that's on Friday, that
every bone in his body told him not to go
back there, that he said something was wrong because she
(20:33):
saw me hand them with twenty. I didn't drop a twenty.
I handed it to them for food. And he said her,
do you want me to come back because of the
money issue? And she said no, it's something else. I
believe she was trying to lure him back, as do police,
because she realized he was the only one that saw
Dan leave with Sam. But that was just another indication
(20:55):
to me that revealed that a she's capable of luring
people and be She could have very easily been part
of the plan if she was willing to make that call.
Why else would she put the blame on Sam? Say, oh,
Dan could have given the money to Sam, because it
falls in line with their whole story. They wanted Sam
(21:18):
to be the man on the run. He had it
out with Julie and there was some kind of love triangle.
He kills Julie, he's on the run. He had this
pass that once he was charged with murder, he's the
perfect candidate for our new tail, are you know our
new play? The night they arrested Dan for bank fraud
(21:39):
because they still thought your son was the prime target, right,
They couldn't find him, so they brought Dan and thinking
he was hiding Sam or helping Sam. So he was
at that point just being charged with bank fraud. That's
the same early morning when you know she's being walked
to the car after they brought her in for questioning
and she said, oh, by the way, Detective morale Us,
(22:00):
did you look into Sam's past. It's all part of
this story, this narrative that they came up with well
before the murders. Why Sam was going to be their
target I'll leave it at that. We certainly know that
Dan was luring Julie to Sam's apartment on Sam's phone.
Sam's phone was more archaic, a flip phone, where Dan's
(22:24):
was a more state of the art phone. Not only
that he was luring Julie after he spoke to Rachel,
after he came home and he came with Rachel. Prior
to that, Dan was texting with Julie. He was posing
as Sam, but it was light bantering, has nothing to
do about luring. Until after he came out. It went
from just like you say, friendly banter. How are you doing,
(22:47):
what's going on? What's your day? Like blah blah blah too?
Where are you going to be? When can you be?
When can you meet me? I'm in trouble, I'm in pain,
I'm suffering. I need to talk to someone, no sex.
When can I meet with you? That the intensity shifted
as soon as he came home, brought that money to Chris,
(23:08):
and then was with Rachel. It's what police believe instigated
the murder of Julie because they surmised that Rachel saw
the text that Dan sent to Julie as Sam, where
he said I'm with my neighbor Dan, we're moving furniture
in the theater, So at that point police feel that
(23:32):
Rachel felt it was time to do something about Julie
because he put himself as the last person with Sam.
One of my interviews in this case was with a
gentleman named Dave Barnhard, who was very close with Dan
and Rachel at the time of the murders, and he
shared with me that he in fact had a budding
(23:53):
relationship with Julie Cabuishi, and that they had actually consummated
that relationship just two nights before the murders. Back in
and I was told by several people that Rachel also
had interests in Dave, would actually play with him and
tease him, and and that she knew that Dave had
(24:17):
a serious crush on her. Whether or not that relationship
was a consummated or not is still something I haven't
been able to firmly verify. While Dave Barnhard did say
to me that he did not consummate that relationship with Rachel,
he confessed to a mutual friend, Ruben Manacho, that he
(24:38):
did have an affair with her. I felt it was
important to share that with Detective Michael Cohen, who was
one of the lead detectives on the Wozniak murder case,
because I wondered if maybe jealousy was a factor in
Julie's murder given what was written on the back of
her sweater, and he time, you have a jealousy factor
(25:02):
when in the case with Rachel, she always thought that
she would control men with her feminine wiles and that
she was sort of the focus of any man's attention.
And to find out that potentially she might not be
the only girl that Dave Barnhard was was entangled with,
(25:23):
makes you kind of wonder if there was some form
of jealousy, because that has an element of rage to it,
if that would ever play into the idea of what
was written on the back of of julie sweater all
yours fuck you. Um. Is that a possibility, Yeah, I
mean it's a possibility of Rachel's you know, piste off
(25:45):
and as a an anger towards Julie. And this was
a good way uh in her and Daniel Kosniac's master
plan that you know, he needs money, she needs money. Uh.
They get rid of Sam and they get rid of Julie,
(26:06):
so that takes care of her and Uh, it's a possibility, absolutely,
I believe it could be. And for them she was
just like a prop in one of their plays. Another
telling Rachel's story involves Violet Randolph, who was married to
John Randolph at the time. They as a couple were
(26:26):
very close with Dan and Rachel. Of all the people
that came to Martinique, and when you had found Julie's
body in your son's apartment that Saturday night, that weekend
of the murders, I believe they all got together, right.
They had called Dan and Rachel back from a cast
party and they all got together to basically discuss who
has seen Sam last, where was he, who was he with?
(26:50):
And Dan was changing stories in that meeting. He he
was really inconsistent, and at one point they kind of
broke off and went back to the Randolph's apartment and
that's when Rachel said to Dan, your stories are changing
and it's messing up my story something along that line.
That's what the Randolphs told me, And remember talking with
(27:11):
you about that. And it was told in kind of
a little bit stronger language that Rachel was telling Dan,
you're screwing put the other expletive there up my story, Dan,
be quiet. But you had mentioned that Dan and Rachel
had gone over Jake and Dave's apartment when they were
(27:32):
called in because they were talking about who was found
in Sam's apartment. And that's when Dan was telling the
guys he was changing the story there about what this
guy looked like, about this man was in a black hat?
Was he in a white hat? What was he? Was
not there? Not Reuben was not there that night. It
(27:53):
was Jake, I believe, a couple of randolph And what
I had heard they had told me was Rachel said,
we gotta get out of here, we gotta go, and
they abruptly left, and Ashley was there. Ashley was there,
and she she and the Randolph's told me that when
Dan was messing up his stories, Rachel said, we have
(28:15):
to get out of here, and she pulled him out
of the meeting and and so we've got to go,
We've got to go. Like she was panicking because she
could hear his right And then when she went back
with just the Randolph's, that's when she said, you're effing
up my story. Dan, You've got to stop her story. Yeah, right,
So that that's that's pretty big. Once again It just
(28:38):
solidifies my belief, and I'm sure others believe that she's
much more involved, and I share with Detective Cohen another
noteworthy story involving Violet and Rachel. I just wanted to
say when you were talking about the call between Dan
and Rachel while he was in jail, and she's telling
(28:59):
Dan that you know, she ran into Tim and he's
got this evidence, and he's like, no, baby, no, baby,
you can't show that. You can't do that. I'm dead
if you do that, and she's like, I have to
because I'm on a recorded call and I have to
look like I'm cooperating. I wanted to mention to you
that I've spent quite a bit of time with a
(29:19):
woman by the name of Violet Randolph who happened to
be in the car sitting next to her when that
phone call was taking place. And the reason why she
was saying that on the phone to Dan was because
Violet had threatened her and said, I am calling Jose Morales,
Detective Morales right now if you don't tell the police
(29:41):
about this evidence before it gets destroyed by Tim, because
she was saying, I don't want to do it, I
don't want to tell them. So, I don't know if
you know that or not, but I thought it was important. Yeah,
I do recall now that, yes, she was kind of
forced to do it because of Violet. Yet, during Dan
Bosniak's trial, Prosecutor Matt Murphy told yours that the cornucopia
(30:05):
of evidence, as he put it, was a gift from
Rachel Buffett, but it was actually Violet Randolph who was
going to make sure that the authorities knew about this
grab bag of evidence. And one of the questions I
asked Detective Morales, who was one of the lead detectives
in this case, what would have made the difference between
(30:28):
charging Rachel with accessory after the fact versus an accomplice.
He said that they would have had to have proven
that she was part of the planning and that, for instance,
she staked out the locations. Well, that's indeed what she did.
We have eyewitness testimony that shows puts Rachel and Dan
(30:51):
at the Liberty Theater, which was the scene of the
crime of the murder of your son. Puts them both
at the Liberty Theater two nights before the murder. And
I also spoke to the ranger of El Dorado Park.
I had gone there two months after the murder, and
he said that this couple and he identified Dan, had
stopped at that park prior to the murders as well,
(31:14):
and that is where Dan told cost to Masa police
that he spread your son's body parts after leaving the
Liberty Attic theater where he had dismembered his body. And
I and I have three witnesses that saw her at
the theater. There was no reason for them to be
at the theater. One of those witnesses, Stuart McDougall, told
(31:37):
me that they were rehearsing a show that night for
Rachel and Dan to show up at the theater that night,
that Wednesday night before the murders. Was there a specific
reason for them to be there or was it a
shock to everybody? I was shocked, surprise to everyone. There's
no there's no reason for them to actually be them. No,
(32:00):
they just combed up down, but combed up, you know,
And but that's we hadn't seen him for a while
and they just thumbed up. Do you suspect that there
were drugs involved? But how I would definitely suspect about
She was a nervous nelly. I'm not kidding she was.
She looked strung up. Jeez, you know, hope the hell
(32:21):
was going on? Not Nate, you know, because and again
I just put it Day didn't know. I just thought
she was at my head. And then I just done
and asked him you, okay, yeah, I'm fair on fair pay,
and they just brushed off of it. On Steve, let's
talk about your meeting with Dan one on one, three
separate visits while he was sitting in County jail waiting
(32:43):
for his trial to start. You actually made an effort
to meet with him, and he agreed to meet with you.
I had absolutely nothing to lose, so I decided one day,
let me go to the jail. We spoke for a
total of almost six hours. During that time, he admitted it.
He apologized eyes. He had told me that actually he
had planned to uh. Initially he had planned to kill
(33:06):
his parents, but he backed out from that. And then,
of course, in a very he wrote it, okay, he
said Sam, and Sam was not my first target. Was
not initially my first target. And they said, what do
you mean? And he didn't want to say it, so
he wrote he carried a bible with him with a
little golf pencil, and he wrote in the Bible my
(33:31):
parents mean His parents were initially his first target, and
Dan confesses the same to Rachel during one of their
jailhouse calls. So they leave your family, then crazy. That's
why you left them, because you're crazy, because they hate compromications,
(33:58):
because they required too much out of mean and I
couldn't deliver. And the main reason that I left them
is I almost reached the point where I almost killed them.
Did you almost reach the point where he killed me? No? Never,
I promise you were my only light personally, I would
(34:19):
have chosen that then Sam which still and Julie would
still be alive. But he also spoke about other things.
He spoke about Wesley, that he spoke about the plan.
He told me certain things, not much about Rachel, but
he had mentioned a few things about his brother Tim,
which I believe you'll want to discuss in the later episodes.
(34:41):
But once again, I wanted to go there and uh
find out as much information as I could, because, like
I have said, he was the only one who was
going to give me the direct information, and I knew
it was lies, but not all of them are lies.
What I found out during my course of my investigations
Sam's friends from the Camdens and what have you. Is
(35:04):
that certain times Dan would tell the truth, certain times
he would lie. Those lies would be when it would
benefit him. He told me when Wesley would take money
out from the A t M s. That's the young
lad who took who had Sam's credit card. He told
me he solicited for his help in his scheme. He
(35:25):
he sent Wesley on the mission to go in like
a hat and classes to camouflage his identity, but go
to the A t M physically to get the money.
He told me things like he told his brother not
to look in the backpack, but his brother not only
did that, but he took the money, the foreign money
that was in Sam's He had mentioned it to me,
(35:48):
so Dan was told also used Sam's card to try
to get cass right. Well, I also found out that Tim,
his brother, not only went into the backpack and took
the foreign money which was actually worthless, but Tim actually
went in and got Sam's A t M card and
tries to use it to fill up his gas tank.
This is from a person who said, meaning Tim his brother,
(36:09):
who told me that he uh, he didn't even go
into the backpack, so lying tends to run into wols
Nack family regardless. So I did speak to him. There
are those times, and I was getting certain answers. He
said he was upset with Wesley. He was upset, not
what he was upset with Wesley. This is what Dan
(36:31):
told me. He said he got piste off at Wesley
for using Sam's car, driving Sam's car around. But it
bothered me in the sense that is Wesley not as
innocent as he as he comes across. And then also
that Dan gave him money to let him have money
for drugs and things like that. I don't know how
(36:52):
that played out, but I do know this. Dan told
me certain things. Some of them proved out to be
true and some of them was just out now bs.
And Wesley did admit to me because I kept asking him,
I don't understand what did you do it for? I mean,
I understand you trusted Dan and he was like an
older brother to you, and but why did you do it?
(37:14):
You knew, I mean clearly you knew what you were
doing was not on the up and up. And he
did admit that one of those days he took out
an extra four hundred for himself and he told me that, so, uh,
that was clear. On the Saturday, he told Danny couldn't
do what he did do it on that Saturday, so
he did take an extra There you go, there you go.
(37:36):
But funny it's and I just wished the police had
done a little bit something towards Wesley the kid got
off scott Ford. Do you feel when you had those
conversations with Dan did you get the sense because so
many people kept asking why is he protecting her? Why
is he not coming forward and and and exposing her
role in all of this. I mean even that jail
(37:58):
house snitched that spoke to Dan. You know that for
a Fernando Perez says in the letter that Dan told
him that Rachel knew, and she said, go make us happy,
Go do whatever you have to do. When he discussed
the plan of killing Sam. Nobody could understand why Dan
was protecting her. But to me answer, I would love
for you to answer. The reason why Dan didn't snitch
(38:20):
quote on Rachel is because if he snitches on Rachel,
they will expose Tim. That's what I believe too. In fact,
him said to me, if Rachel comes forward and says anything,
that if he has to go down, so will she.
I mean, he has said that he's pulled the wool
(38:42):
over everyone's eyes, that he that he was able to
dupe the FBI and the police, and oh that d a.
What a great guy he is. I know I've gone
to the police to push this and check on Tim
and pushed it for him to be charged with more.
But it falls on deaf ears with that case for
the coast of Masa police end of the a's office.
(39:05):
Tim's done. Tim has done, and now they're focusing on Rachel. Well,
they made a deal with him. I mean they made
a deal with him because they wanted to make sure
their capital case was going to be one and they
were worried that the defense attorney was going to talk
about some kind of mental instability in his background. But
a deal is premised on the fact that that person
tells you the whole truth and that and Tim Mosenick
(39:27):
did not tell them the whole truth. He lied often frequently,
and for that that negates any deal. He was awful.
I was in court that day. I was in court
every day along with you, but that day I remember
just he was babbling all over the place and nothing
made sense, and he was inconsistent every other word out
of his mouth, and he told me later that he
(39:48):
specifically drank a fifth of jack. He wanted to come
in there trash, so that he was the most ineffective
witness they ever saw. And even with that, he still
got away with everything because it worked. It worked, And
I have been in the room when I've heard Matt
Murphy characterized Tim Wozniak as just a hapless fool who
(40:13):
was another Daniel Wasniak victim like Sam Hair and Julie Kis.
There are so many questions that's still are unanswered, and
I'd still like to know eventually why. That's all. I've
heard you say that in many ways, my investigation picked
up where yours left off, and that it re energized
(40:35):
your desire as we together collaborated to find out the
whole truth. But really the most important thing for me, Steve,
is that you and your wife and the Kibuishi's learned
the entire picture, so you all know what happened to
your loved ones. And I do want to say, first
(40:55):
of all, thank you, Linda, and let me explain my
Once I saw that the police trusted you and you
were able to see certain things, and once we started collaborating,
I found out what true investigative reporting is. I had
done episodes for Dateline, being a novice who never had
(41:17):
exposure TV before, I assumed there they had investigative reporters
who would find out everything, and unfortunately, everything they did
they got from the transcripts. There was really no investigations
per se. And you can give a lesson to every
one of those shows what true investigative reporting is. Thank
(41:37):
you so much, Linda, Thank you so much, Steve, and
I will continue to ask questions until the whole truth
about this case can be told. I know Detective Michael
Cohen yearns for the same answers. Cases can be looked
at again. And there are others. There are others involved
in this, absolutely absolutely. You know. There's no statue in
(42:01):
homisid it. So you know, even though we have one
guy in prison right now on death row, there's still
plenty more room for others to follow. You have often
said to me, Steve, that Dan Wozniak took away your
best friend, he took away my hand, a large part
of my life, Okay, and they can't put him to
(42:22):
death fast enough for me. But let's find out about Rachel.
Next week, tune in for an exclusive interview with Dan
Wasniat defense attorney Scott Sanders. He will reveal some of
(42:47):
his earlier frustrations during the Wazniak trial, and one of
those frustrations involves his inability to introduce Sam Hair's dark
past when he himself was charged with murder. Scott Sanders
will take us through his legal predictions of Rachel's upcoming
trial proceedings. Hear what we might expect from the courtroom
(43:09):
drama between prosecutor Matt Murphy and Rachel Buffett's defense attorney,
David Medina. If you enjoyed this episode of Sleuth, share
it with a friend and be sure to leave a
rating or review. Follow Sleuth on I Heart Radio, or
subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so that you never
(43:29):
miss an episode
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.