March 23, 2021 • 48 mins
Three months after his arrest, Anthony Rauda is charged with the murder of Tristan Beaudette, all the other shootings, as well as a series of strange burglaries involving junk food from commercial buildings around the periphery of the park. He pleads not guilty.
Erica Wu, Tristan Beaudette’s widow, opens up about her husband, and files a $90 million dollar lawsuit against the county, the state parks system, and the sheriff’s department for failing to warn the public about the danger in the park.
In an election upset, Alex Villanueva, Cece Woods’s candidate, becomes the new sheriff of LA County, and Cece hopes he’ll bring change to Lost Hills.
Meanwhile, new information emerges about the cops involved in the Rauda investigation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Pushkin. There has been a major development in the investigation
(00:53):
into the murder of a father who was killed while
camping with his two young daughters in California last June.
On the first Monday in January twenty nineteen, while he's
still finishing out his sentence for the probation and weapons violations,
Anthony Rawda is charged with this series of crimes in Malibu.
Anthony Rauda was charged yesterday with one count of murder.
(01:14):
He also faces ten counts of attempted murder and five
counts of burglary over string of shootings that date back
to twenty sixteen. I expected this, you could see it
coming a mile away, but it's still pretty shocking. For months,
the cops have been saying that they can't connect the
various crimes, all those near misses, the murder, the armed burglaries.
(01:37):
Now they're saying not only that they're connected, but that
they were all committed by the same person, Anthony Rowda.
So that's one count of murder Tristan Bodett, ten counts
of attempted murder, including Bodette's two young daughters, and all
the victims of the near misses. The charges don't say
much about the weapons or ammunition used in the crimes,
(02:00):
but news reports confirm the rumor. I've been hearing that
Bodette was killed with a nine millimeter round the same
kind of ammunition that Rouda was arrested with. Rowdah pleads
not guilty at the arrangement, and he's confident he wants
to proceed to trial as quickly as possible. Every time
(02:21):
I see Rowdah's father, Ozzie, he says, I hope he
didn't do this, but he also repeats what Rowdah's telling him.
He's saying he's innocent. Ozzie tells me he said I
didn't even want to be around people. People cause problems,
so how can they say I did this. I try
to schedule a visit with Rowdah, but it's abruptly canceled.
(02:44):
The only thing I can do is write him a letter.
I tell him I'll leave money with the cashier at
the Twin Towers Jail. It's for pencils, stationary and stamps
so he can write me back. Finally, he does. I
do appreciate your care and diligence in contacting me. I've
wanted to talk to you but could not get your
(03:04):
contact info. He writes, I feel wronged. I'm not someone
who kills innocent people. In subsequent letters, he writes, I
know people must feel I'm guilty, but I suffer every day.
I suffered sometimes when I was free. I know I'm innocent,
but I can't prove that because of the emotions that
are involved. There's nothing I can say to clear my name.
(03:26):
There's nothing I want to say. Okay, fine, But I
notice something about his writing, a kind of parallel he's
setting up between himself and, of all people, Tristan Boudette.
He refers to Boudette as an innocent person, and he
says that he Anthony Rowda, is also an innocent person.
(03:49):
They're both victims in his view. He writes, if you
feel the family of mister Boudette needs some closure, I
can try to help that. That's definitely a surprise, and
so is this quote. The Baudette family and friends can
blame the Sheriff's department for his death. That's where the
(04:09):
justice is at. I'm Dana Goodyear and this is Lost Hills,
(04:47):
episode three. Lost. Ever since her husband Tristan Boudette died,
Erica Wu has felt like she's trapped inside a never
ending dream. You know, the moment my sister told me
what had happened, I feel like I was just watching
(05:07):
myself for the rest of the day in a way,
you know, live out this horrible sort of nightmare. And
I still feel that way sometimes, like it's so unbelievable,
this isn't real, that this is some sort of dream
or nightmare or movie or something that I'm just watching
happening to my family, to myself and to my family.
(05:31):
She woke up alone that morning at home in Orange County,
getting ready to take her medical exam, the whole reason
why Tristan had taken the girls camping and she'd stayed back.
Then somehow her oldest sister was at her door then
driving her to Malibu. I mean it it's such a blur,
but they told me what little they knew at the
(05:53):
time was that Tristan had been shot and that he
was dead, but that the girls were safe. And you know,
in the hours that it took me to get there,
I was not believing any of it, you know, I
didn't believe that he was really you know, like it
was just so unbelievable to me, and I remember arguing
(06:14):
on the phone just how do you know that he's dead?
Like why why isn't he at the hospital? Like who
who said he was dead? Like how do they? How
do they know? And then when they told me the
girls were safe, I mean I just remember thinking like
what if they're not? Are you just saying that? Are
you just waiting until I get there to tell me? Um?
(06:39):
It was just I mean, like it just gosh, it
just really messes with your mind, you know, hearing that
that information. So I think I was all over the place.
I tried to go to the campground, and I think
it was one of the rangers or somebody there that
said something like that to me that this never happened,
(07:02):
you know, this kind of stuff never happens here, which
just you know, at the time, it was sort of like, Okay,
well that's good to know that that kind of stuff
never happens here, but also just happened, you know, we
could just happened like yeah, and it would come out
that in fact, many similar things without being anywhere near
(07:30):
catastrophic in the way that it was with Tristan. But
there's been a lot of near misses. People knew, yeah,
and that was something that I didn't I didn't find
out until much later on. Yeah, I'm at Erica's new
house in the Bay Area. This is not the home
(07:54):
she and Tristan were going to move into. It's a
different place that he never saw, a townhouse in a
row of identical townhouses near the medical center where she works.
She asked me to come here for a reason. She
doesn't want to talk about the night of Tristan's death,
the investigation, the charges against Anthony Rawda, or the impending
criminal trial. The words Rauda and Malibu feel like they
(08:18):
exist on some other planet, light years away from her grief.
I want to tell tristan story, she says. I want
to tell our story. This neighborhood is so friendly and nice.
It's lovely. Are you guys settling? Ye? Yeah, we're settled,
settled as it can be. I didn't know before we
(08:38):
get started. She shows me around. Do you want to
leave our shoes down here? That's fine. There's a tiny kitchen,
a breakfast nook, a cozy living room. Every inch of
the house down to the balcony is filled with kids toys.
One wall is devoted to framed paintings that Clara made
with Tristan, isn't this the best? My favorite? So she
(08:59):
would do this thing where she would draw, just like
do this like freehand draw, how she would fill in
all the colors. Interesting, got her to do it on
a canvas. So this was actually Mother's Day last year.
They gave me this and that coffee machine and everywhere
they're pictures of Tristan smiling on a hiking trail at
Yosemite at Glacier National Park, carrying Clara in his arms
(09:23):
and Ev and a frame pack on his shoulders. I'm
really happy. Yeah, you guys went out into the wilderness
a lot. Yeah, yeah, good, Yeah, I mean that was
old Tristan. He loved to do that stuff. Took me
a long time to be able to put up the
pictures of him, but yeah, you know, obviously, sorry, it's
(09:46):
a balance between still wanting to see pictures of him
and wanting the girls to be able to see pictures
of him. But balancing that was just still being really
hard for me. Yeah. I mean we have a ton
of like family pictures and stuff like that that I
haven't been able to put up yet. Yeah. Sorry, Yeah,
(10:11):
the pictures are painful, but she knows they're important and
that pretty much captures her reason for talking to me.
She wants to create a portrait of Tristan that is
something other than his violent death. Erica and Tristan both
grew up in Fresno, California, in the Central Valley, a
midsize city in the middle of farm country where the
(10:32):
credit card was invented and the modern landfill. Erica was
the fourth of five girls, serious, a little bit reserved.
In her senior year, she met Tristan, this happy, exuberant guy,
bursting with confidence. We met because we had a mutual
friend who was trying to find him a date for
(10:54):
a winter formal. So it was January of our senior
year in high school that we met. And did you
do you have an impression from that night or something
you remember? He was yeah, I mean he was a
happy guy, and he was very sort of just uncomplicated,
(11:17):
you know, like he sort of just wore everything on
his sleeve. I think it's a testament to both of
you that that was not a super awkward I was
probably awkward. I'm sure it was awkward, but he was
definitely like first serious boyfriend. I mean, yeah, After high school,
(11:43):
Erica went to Stanford, Tristan went abroad for a year
and then do you see San Diego. At his graduation,
he surprised everyone he had the highest GPA in his college.
He was one of those it just like came very
easily to him, kind of every you know what he
was good at in terms of the chemistry, Like I
(12:04):
feel like for me, like I've always you know, like
I have to study a lot to know what I know.
But he just like knew it and it would click
and he was Yeah, he was the smartest person I knew. Then.
He was at Berkeley for grad school and chemistry and
(12:24):
she was in San Francisco for medical school. They moved
in together and then got married in two thousand and
eight when she was twenty six and he was twenty five.
Right away, Tristan made himself an indispensable part of Erica's family.
Tristan's personality was just you know, he got along with everybody.
You know. He was one of those people where he
had like zero social anxiety. With four sisters, Erica had
(12:48):
a pack of brothers in law, and Tristan became their ringleader.
He loved to plan a twenty person family dinner, a
trip to Hawaii, and especially any kind of outdoor adventure,
and once he became a father, his love of nature
took on a whole new dimension. Clara or would ask
a question like how you know where are the cloud
(13:09):
come from? Or where is a rain coming from? And
he would give like a scientifically accurate answer that she
could understand, you know, at three or four. One of
the things I loved was that he used to teach
the girls stuff like that, you know, like he knew
that kind of stuff. The days before Tristan died are
bright in Erica's memory, super saturated. First there was Father's Day,
(13:33):
so it was just a couple of days before he passed.
We went to the beach because that's what he said
he wanted to do, and I remember we It was
like a really beautiful day and it was super sunny,
and Tristan set up like a little sunshade, and the
girls were playing in the waves. They were letting the
(13:54):
waves chase them, and I remember running after them and
Tristan running after them, and I remember sort of looking
at them, the three of them, and just thinking how
lucky I was to have them. After Father's Day, they
(14:21):
started getting ready for their move up to the Bay Area.
Erica was really busy. She had her big exam on
June twenty second and was studying non stop in between
shifts at the hospital. So he was he was like, oh,
you know, it's perfect. I'll get them out of the
house Thursday night. You'll have you know, you'll be able
to focus on the test, do whatever you need to do.
(14:42):
I'll be able to take. But Ivie was a little
sick that week, and Erica was secretly hoping they would
just stay home. She hated it when they left. She
always worried they waffled into the last minute, but it
was their last week in southern California, maybe their last chance.
Tristan decided to go for it. We all woke up
(15:05):
a little bit late and he made the girl's breakfast,
and I remember were sort of helping them get out
the door, getting the girls dressed and braiding their hair,
you know, like I remember, the one thing Tristan couldn't
do was anything with their hair. So we we braiding
both of the girls hair and be like, okay, just
leave it like this un till you guys get back.
And you know, he was just in such a good mood.
(15:28):
He you know, like I said, his The trip for
him started as soon as he started planning it. So
he was getting all the gear together and um pet
loading up the car, and I remember he put the
bikes on the roof, you know, and we both thought
it was super cute that m that my daughter's bike
was next to his. I remember girls putting their shoes on,
(15:51):
and um, my older one helping the little one put
her shoes on so that they could get out the door.
And they were just so excited to, you know, to
go on this trip with daddy. Yeah, and I know
it's like in retrospect, but I think part of me
that like had, was a little bit anxious saying bye
(16:11):
to them. And I remember feeling that way as they
were leaving. Um, when he loaded the girls first, and
then he came back and sort of held open the
garage door to say bye to me, and UM, I
just remember saying telling him to be careful. Um. I
was always worried about the girls. Again, I just thought
he was so untouchable. UM, but I remember just saying,
you know, be careful with them, drive safe. You've precious
(16:35):
cargo in your back seat. Um, come back. I would
always say stuff like that, you know, like I said,
I was like worried. L right, did something like bring
them back to me. You can all come back, you know,
you come back together. Um. You know, he just you know,
(16:57):
did what he always said to be, like Erica, don't worry,
We're gonna be fine. You know, nothing can happen, you know,
being out there, that was like his sanctuary, you know,
like he didn't think something. He would never believe that
something like that could have happened. And I just remember
him saying, yeah, I just go study, take your test.
(17:17):
By the time you're done, will be back. We'll celebrate. Um.
Then he just you know kissed me on the chicken.
He was gone, gosh, And I feel like I can
(17:42):
still remember what what he felt like standing there. You know,
he was just so there one minute and then so
god the next. Tristan sent her texts and pictures throughout
(18:37):
the day. The last one was late just before bed. Yeah.
I think he's he said Evie was maybe halvy hard times.
I mean she was too, but he would send me
like thumbs up. You know. I think he sent me
like a thumbs up, And he said, you know, study hard.
(18:58):
You know what he would always say, losing Tristan. Erica
feels she lost everything, not just her husband, but herself.
That Erica, the Erica that was Tristan's wife, is gone,
and the girls who they were when their father was alive,
they're gone. To the family as it was, it disappeared forever.
(19:23):
God losing him in front of them. How that what
kind of impact that has on them? You know in
a way, I feel like, uh, that sort of family
(19:44):
that I had died too, you know, like part of me,
part of them. Life with Tristan was in full color.
Now the three of them are surviving in the grade
out time after. From the minute Erica set foot in
(20:15):
Lost Hills Station on the morning of Tristan's death, she
says she struggled to get information about the case. The
Sheriff's department keeps sighting the ongoing investigation, telling her only
the bare minimum. There was only one way to get answers,
she tells me. A few months before I met her,
she filed a ninety million dollars claim with the county.
(20:37):
She names Anthony Rowda as liable in her husband's death,
but he's almost an afterthought. The Sheriff's department in California
State parks. She alleges they acted with deliberate indifference and negligence.
They willfully created the conditions for the shooting to occur.
There was a danger, they knew about it, she claims,
(21:00):
and they didn't tell anyone. It's their fault. She says
that her husband is dead. History is made in the
race for La County Sheriff. In winning, Vienneueva ousted the
(21:23):
incumbent sheriff, Jim McDonald, a feat that has not been
accomplished and more than one hundred years. The upstart, the outsider,
Alex Viennueva retired at the rank of lieutenant. He never
even ran a station, and in November of twenty eighteen,
he's elected the new sheriff. Here are the basics about
(21:45):
the La County Sheriff's Department. It's not the lap LAPD
wears dark blue. Sheriff's deputies wear the khaki shirts and
green pants and have a big star on their chests
Old West style. The LAPD polices the city of La Well.
The Sheriff's department patrols the dozens of cities in the
county that don't have their own forces, like Malibu and
(22:07):
Calabasas as well as the town. These unincorporated areas like
where Malibu Creek State Park is in all, it has
something like ten thousand deputies who cover an area of
nearly three thousand square miles. They also worked the jails
and the courts. One more thing. For decades, the La
Sheriff's Department has been mired in scandal. Maybe you heard
(22:30):
of Lee Baca, two Sheriff's back. He's in prison now,
as is his under sheriff, Paul Tanaka, for obstructing an
FBI investigation into the treatment of inmates in the jail system.
Alex Via Nueva says he's going to clean it all up.
That sounds ambitious and frankly all consuming, and you wouldn't
(22:51):
think it would have much to do with sleepy, old,
fancy old Malibu. Please give a more round of applies.
But here he is at Duke's, a surfer themed restaurant
on the beach side of Pacific Coast Highway, talking about
fixing Malibu's problems too. Everyone Cecie Woods and the mayor
(23:16):
and everyone were coming for a tendency. It's all thanks
to Cecie Woods, the Malibu activist who broke the story
of the near misses and has been calling out the
Lost Hills cops for as she sees it, lying to
the community. She was a vocal cheerleader for Vienneueva during
his outsider campaign. She used her social media feeds and
(23:37):
her website, The Local, to celebrate him and run down
his opponent, who she blamed for the problems at Lost Hills.
And we had the occasion just a few weeks ago
to do a town on the Lost Hills stationary for
aolve all the cities. But now we're here specifically for
the Malibu community and your particu Garne, which were slightly
different from the ones that are sitar the other side
(23:58):
of the hill range. And now it looks like Ceci's
support is being rewarded. There she is in the front
row in a leopard print dress, thing to Viennueva expert.
He sits back down and I see she wasn't kidding.
She has the sheriff's ear. Literally she's leaning over whispering
(24:22):
into it. I wonder what this all means. Will Cecie,
with her access to the new sheriff, be able to
find out what no one seems to know what really
happened in Malibu. How the shootings could go on for
so long unchecked until finally someone got killed. Anthony Rowda's
(24:56):
case is creeping through preliminary hearings, and the prosecutor says
that the Sheriff's department is still working on ballistics. Also,
they discovered seven electronic devices in Rowdas's camp. That's a
lot of self and computers and kindles for hermit who
doesn't want to talk to anyone. They all need to
be analyzed, which is going to take even more time.
(25:22):
But Cecie Woods doesn't need to wait. She's getting a
constant stream of information about the investigation, not just from
her new highly placed friends in law enforcement, but from
her tea leaf reader. No no, no, I used to
go like every six months, and then there was like
a year and a half break maybe higher, and then
(25:44):
all of a sudden, the last city council election and
my marriage going down the tubes. I'm like time to
call Monica, like everything was going to Monica source Ceci's
psychic source. Ceci doesn't think Routa did it, and she
wants to find out who did, and more important, what
the cops did wrong. And I have literally had more
(26:06):
than forty nine readings since, which is so not the norm.
But now since she's seen that, every time I have
a reading, new information comes up. Now she doesn't ignore me.
She knows shit's going down, and so she better. It's
tax Monica emergency, it's urgent. Shit's going down. So I've
(26:26):
got to see this one day, Cecie lets me tag along.
My psychicness started in through dreams. I do have a
spirit guide that works with me. He's actually the one
who does the reading and he speaks to me. He's
a virgo. He's very you know, because he's kind of quirky.
And sometimes it's like a riddle, you know, and you
have to kind of figure it out, or it comes
(26:47):
up in a quirky way. You know, it'll show up, like,
for instance, one time I said to somebody, I see
Howard Stern in your cup and they're like what, And
then a couple of weeks, a couple of weeks later,
she bumped into him in a seven to eleven. But
I mean quirky, it's like, it's yeah. Monica Source lives
with a roommate in a cookie cutter stucco house on
a four lane road in Burbank She does her readings
(27:08):
in a time knee paneled room. There are owls everywhere,
big small, ceramic, stuffed, perched, peering, sharp beaked, like the
world's creepiest bed and breakfast. Her two dogs, Wolfman and Bandit,
suffer from anxiety, she says, so during readings she holds
them in her lap. Cecie, pick your tea and put
(27:30):
two tea spoons in your cup. The table is set
with a red checked tablecloth, blue and white china, and
glass jars filled with loose leaf tea. And then when
she gets her tea in there and drinks it, she's
gonna stir it three times. Three's a magic number. Three's
a magical number. Cecie has two cell phones out, one
for taping, one for taking notes. She's on the edge
(27:52):
of her seat. Okay, you done, good man? Do you
remember what to do? Cecie puts the saucer on the
cup and inverts it like she's flipping a cake out
of a pan. One hand on the cup, the other
spinning the saucer. Am I at three, yeah, I embrace it,
Embrace it. Monica. Source lifts the returned cop off the
saucer and stares into the drags left on the plate.
(28:14):
It looks like Tea leaves to me, but she starts
channeling her spirit guide. The dogs get anxious. Gotcha, Okay,
here we go. Um, I'm getting some initials around you.
Of course, I'm getting the j's, I'm getting the s is.
It is actually spelling out cops. Um, so you're definitely
(28:36):
going to be around cops. She's getting Italian energy and
Celtic energy and some Hispanic energy and some strong Asian energy.
She's getting a Rob and a Joe. Is he bad
bad coped? Good copy yet? Okay? Because I'm getting morals,
(28:56):
m could be okay, And then it's simply spelling out proof.
So there is going to be proof. You are going
to prove some things that are going down, and you
have the proof. So we'll find the prof. And this patrol.
Do they do patrol by horses around there? Two? Malibu
Creek State Park? Because that's what I'm getting. The patrol
is like by someone on a horse. Okay, so that
(29:19):
could still be involved with Malba Creek State Park because
Rouda did not do it. I'm telling you Rowda did
not do it. Josh. I don't know if we got
Josh before. But I'm getting like a Josh or Okay, yeah,
we got that. I just actually heard an issue with
a Josh today. CC does not observe the psychic firewall,
(29:40):
So sitting in on her session with Monica sources an
opportunity for me to hear what she's picking up from
her other sources in law enforcement about what's going on
inside Lost Hill Station. You're kidding a cop. Oh yeah,
something's coming in with the cop for sure, for sure. Okay,
And I'm also getting Tuesday or Thursday being oh my god, CIA,
(30:05):
I have to admit she's losing me. Yeah, but it
doesn't CIA like globe bullshit. Tuesday Thursday, the CIA. Why
would they call it the CIA? Yeah? Who knows. I
could stumble upon something that maybe I mean right now,
the tea people. Who are the tee people, Well, there's
a couple tea people. There is Sergeant Twee right, but
(30:27):
now I snapped to attention Sergeant Twee Wright. He's the
guy who took me on the helicopter ride. Good cop,
bad cop. I think Twee is a bad cop. She
thinks Sergeant Writes a bad cop. Yeah, because one of
them looks like it's not looking too good for them either.
(30:50):
I'll read it with that. After the session's over. I
sit in the car with Ceci for a minute. It's
clear how little she thinks of the Lost Tail Sheriff station.
But now I find out something new and alarming. Alex
wouldn't even know this ship was going on if we
didn't tell hold on a second Alex, Alex via Nueva,
(31:14):
the new La County Sheriff arftural loss mopos that need
some direction, Well, hopefully they're gonna get it now from Alex.
I mean, and that's why we voted for him, because
we want him to succeed. We want him to turn
this damn department around. Yes, Lost Souls is a perfect
(31:37):
name for him. It sounds like Cecy's feeding the sheriff information,
possibly from her tea leafreetings. And just like him, she's
gone from being a total outsider to a total insider.
(32:16):
CEC and I don't share methods, not at all, But
there are ways of finding out if someone is a
bad cop. The Sheriff's department doesn't like to share personnel records.
You basically have to sue to get them. I put
in a public records request and they tell me essentially
get in line. But the District Attorney's office does keep
(32:37):
files on cops with histories of misconduct, cops they've been
asked to investigate, and they're supposed to keep these records
even if they never file charges. That's because if a
cop is called on to testify in court and has
a history of misconduct, the defense is entitled to know
that it's considered exculpatory. So I submit a series of
(33:00):
requests to the DA asking about every name I can
find involved with the Malibu case. I also try to
get to know Sergeant Twoey Wright, the Lost Hills detective
who seems to be the center of the ROUTA investigation.
All right, are you ready? Can you say who you are?
(33:21):
I remember you, I'm hard to hear. Right. After hounding
him for months, I got him to give me that
helicopter tour of Malibu's killing zone, and today he's sitting
down with me to do an interview. Sergeant Wright is,
by his own description, not totally at home in the
culture of the Sheriff's department. He's an ex marine and
(33:41):
a vegan and a bow hunter who grew up into
Panga Canyon a hippie trippy enclave in Lost Hill's jurisdiction.
He's also gotten dozens of awards and commendations, especially for
his work leading the Malibu Search and Rescue team. He's conflicted.
He loves the Sheriff's department devoted his life to it,
but he says he wants to tell me the real story,
(34:04):
the truth about what went on behind the scenes at
Lost Hills Station before and after Tristan Boudatt was killed.
I've got so many questions. There were three shootings in
Malibu Creek State Park in late twenty sixteen through January
(34:26):
twenty seventeen. I'm imagining because it is a small community
and Malibu Last Hills Sheriff Station is just a few
miles from the park, that you would have heard about
those shootings in the park, right. Well. I did eventually
hear about those shootings. I had only heard about them
(34:49):
when the state park supervisors called Lieutenant Royal and told
them that they had a series of crimes that they
wanted him to weigh in on near Missus one through three.
Sergeant Wright tells me all happened on state park property,
so it was the rangers respon ability to investigate. California
(35:11):
State Parks is a separate law enforcement agency. They investigate
the majority of their own crimes, and they make arrests
their full peace officers in the state of California. The
shootings were in State Parks jurisdiction, but they didn't get solved,
and the problem didn't seem to be going away. When
you have three shootings in a particular period of time,
(35:34):
in the same area and with the same type of
weapon at the same time of day, it makes you think,
I mean, these are unknown an unknown assailant that fired
from the dark and disappeared into the night, always one shot.
Lieutenant Royal was Sergeant Right supervisor, and they were both concerned.
(35:55):
But when they took the information to their bosses at
the station, Sergeant Right says, the bosses blew them off.
I was told by the captain that it was a
State Parks problem, and obviously Lieutenant Royal told talked to him.
I talked to him about it, and there was concern
on our part because it's right down the street. It
(36:15):
might technically be in the State Parks jurisdiction, but who's
to say it couldn't spill out into ours. It just
didn't seem like there was much interesting at the supervisory
levels above us. Five months after Sergeant Right and Lieutenant
Royal learned about the three near misses in the park,
(36:35):
there was another shooting, this time in Lost Hills jurisdiction,
the white Porsche on the Canyon Road at four thirty am.
That was the one where the driver had to drive
himself to the station to make a report, even after
calling nine one near miss number four. Six weeks after
that near miss number five, a teenager driving her mother's
(36:59):
white BMW on her way to a surf competition with
a friend, same road, same time, something hit the car,
blowing out a back window. Fearing for their lives, the
teenagers sped away and when they got to Sir Frider Beach,
they saw that the back of the car was riddled
with holes, pellets from bird shot lodged in the rear lights.
(37:23):
We went out and investigated that, and I personally went
out and looked at the scene, and we searched for evidence,
and I found a shotgun wadding that I believe came
from the shot, and I believe it gave me an
indication or where the shot was fired from. By then,
(37:45):
July twenty seventeen, eleven months before Tristan Boudatt was killed,
there had been five near misses, three in the park
and two on the road. There was a puzzling if
distinct pattern, location, time, ammunition, a single shot. Well certainly
the crimes the shootings occurred in the we morning hours,
(38:10):
just before dawn, so that was one one thing that
was consistent in his m A. The other was, of course,
as you know in the beginning, a shotgun was used,
so same weapon and one shot fired. That was pretty consistent.
And the location was a huge issue inside the state
(38:31):
park and one particular campground. The state park is huge,
but one particular campground not spread all over one spot,
within a few camp spaces of another, and then finally
on the highway adjacent to the campground in the same spot.
So those were consistent patterns that I think indicated a
(38:58):
serial shooter. I think there's only common sense to be
able to see that. Sergeant Wright says he and Lieutenant
Royal were frustrated and fearful. When Wright told me in
the helicopter that it was quote our greatest fear that
the shooter would kill someone, he meant it was his
and Lieutenant Royal's greatest fear. But they couldn't get traction
(39:19):
with their theory to be told by other investigators or
the department. There was no evidence or there was not
enough information to link these crimes. I just thought it
was ridiculous. It wasn't my opinion. But while the investigation
was sputtering along, word of a shooter got out among
the deputies. We all knew where the shooting grounds, and
(39:42):
I had heard rumors at patrol cars. Some patrol cars
would go by at high speed with their guns out
the window pointed in that direction, and I believe people
that knew warned their family members not to drive by there.
This might be the most outrageous thing. Sergeant Wright has
(40:04):
told me. The threat was real. The deputies knew there
was a shooter in the area and that he might
kill someone. They were scared, but the department still didn't
warn the public, and then the shooting stopped for the
next eleven months. There was a lull, which, if anything,
(40:24):
Sergeant Wright says, made him more nervous. We were wondering
during the gap what the heck was going on. And
I had told Lieutenant Royal that I believe we had
a serial shooter. I actually told him I thought we
had a serial killer that had not killed yet in
our area, that we knew of a serial killer in Malibu.
(40:48):
The lull in the shootings was shattered in June twenty
eighteen when the white Tesla was hit on the Canyon
Road near Miss Number six. Four days later, Tristan Boudett
was killed in his tent after the murder. The detectives
from Homicide and Major Crimes showed up after the murder.
(41:12):
Obviously the department was taking note and there was more interest.
Sergeant Wright says that his search and rescue team was
told to keep assisting with the investigation. They knew the area,
they could be helpful, and as far as he's concerned,
they were. We were there the day of the murder,
(41:32):
and later Homicide went back with one of their volunteer
teams to try and find shellcasings and they were unable
to do so. When I heard that they found nothing,
I asked them if they wanted me to take a
crack at searching with my team, and they stood by
(41:53):
all means, so we went back a week after Boudette
was killed. He says his search and rescue team used
metal detectors and found five nine millimeter shell casings in
the campground. It looked like multiple rounds had been fired,
though it was hard to say for sure. Two of
the casings were so rusted their headstamps were illegible. And
(42:13):
that was a great farm. Homicide was ecstatic. He came
out to the scene. They were very happy. Later, Sergeant
Wright decided to go looking for the actual bullets. Only one,
the one that killed Tristan Boudette, had ever been found,
lodged in his right shoulder blade, but the tent showed
a second entry hole and an exit hole. Sergeant Wright
(42:36):
and one of his search and rescue guys went out
to the campground. Their idea was to position themselves where
the nine millimeter casings had been found and aim a
laser towards Bodette's campsite. The laser beam pointed at a
small hill in the distance. Sergeant Wright and his team
member dug into the hill and pulled out a spent
nine millimeter bullet. Sergeant Wright says he also helped Major
(42:59):
Crimes investigate the rash of burglaries that happened around the
park after Bodette was killed. Major Crimes certainly came in
at some point after the burglary started, and they do
specialize in burglary serial burglary investigations, and there seemed to
be more interest in that than the shootings, which is strange.
(43:19):
But we worked closely with Major Crimes. Major Crimes expected
that help and they deserved that help from the locals
that know the area. He says that after he and
one of his trackers found those bootprints leading up into
the hills, he was the one that proposed a search.
(43:40):
Major Crimes was not doing anything in that particular spot
or area, so it was off the radar. Everything else
they were doing was sort of random, you know, stumbling
around looking for clues. I was able to convince Detective
Berry that we needed to go back there, and he said,
okay too. We tie Berry the Major Crimes detective Gray
(44:03):
hair Beard Chick Kickers. He's the guy I saw at
one of Rout's early hearings for his probation and weapons violations.
So it was a combined Lost Hills team with two
Major Crimes guys added, and they went back there. We
stumbled upon Routa and we captured him. Lieutenant Royal was
on that team too, part of the route to capture,
(44:25):
and I would expect that even though it was late
in coming, and even though it came after a terrible tragedy,
this was a great victory for Lost Hills to have
arrested this suspect. It was a great victory. And I
mean we had captured an on burglar. But I happened
(44:48):
to start to believe that Router could be the suspect
and the murder at that point because of the particular
firearmy had. And it was such a great victory that
the station captain bought dinner for everybody. In the beginning,
he says, the department was treating him and Lieutenant Royal
like heroes. I was told at some point that some
(45:13):
of those involved in the arrest and the investigation, we're
going to get a medal. I was supposed to get
a medal, and Royal was supposed to get a medal
along with others involved. I don't know who. In January
of twenty nineteen, when Rota was charged with the murder,
the near misses and the burglaries, Sergeant Wright and Lieutenant
Royal's efforts to solve the case were vindicated. Their theory
(45:36):
that the crimes were connected, was seemingly now validated by
the Sheriff's Department and the DA. The suspect they had
tracked and helped capture in the Hills he turned out
to be the one. It was right around that time,
Sergeant Wright tells me that everything changed. No medal for him,
(46:00):
no medal for Lieutenant Royal, kind of the opposite. Suddenly
they were under investigation. I've never had an internal affairs
investigation before that, certainly that I know of. I've never
been in trouble, and all of a sudden in January,
we get told that we're the subjects of an internal
(46:21):
affairs investigation. Sergeant Wright was transferred out of Lost Hill station, expelled,
given freeway therapy along commute, a loss of seniority, public shame,
his new job patrolling CityWalk at Universal Studios out of
the West Hollywood station. Finally, he just retired, which is
(46:46):
why he was willing for a little while at least
to talk to me and Lieutenant Royal, sergeant right supervisor,
the same thing happened to him. He got transferred out
of Malibu, demoted, shamed. This is all very strange, is
Sergeant Wright telling me the truth? Because if he is.
(47:07):
If he basically solved this case, then why would he
be under investigation. I asked the DA about every Sheriff's
Department name I could find associated with the Router case
to see if any of them had a history of misconduct.
(47:30):
Sergeant twey Wright and Lieutenant James Royal don't. But two
of the detectives who took over the case from them
they're dirty. Daniel Morris, the homicide detective who oversaw the
chain of custody on the murder evidence and was a
witness at Bodet's autopsy, He's got a record of dishonesty.
(47:51):
And Ty Berry, the major crimes detective. He's been accused
of planting evidence, fabricating police reports, and lying. It's so
bad that the Sheriff's department fired him for dishonesty back
in two thousand and three. He only has his job
because he sued to get it back. So the Hamis
detective and the major crimes lead both have histories of dishonesty.
(48:13):
And the two local guys who had been trying to
solve the case when their bosses didn't seem to believe
there was anything to solve, they are under investigation. Is
there anyone here I can trust? I know what I
need to do. I need to go see it for myself.
I need to go out there where it all happened.
(48:35):
Malibu Creek State Park,
Pushkin. There has been a major development in the investigation
(00:53):
into the murder of a father who was killed while
camping with his two young daughters in California last June.
On the first Monday in January twenty nineteen, while he's
still finishing out his sentence for the probation and weapons violations,
Anthony Rawda is charged with this series of crimes in Malibu.
Anthony Rauda was charged yesterday with one count of murder.
(01:14):
He also faces ten counts of attempted murder and five
counts of burglary over string of shootings that date back
to twenty sixteen. I expected this, you could see it
coming a mile away, but it's still pretty shocking. For months,
the cops have been saying that they can't connect the
various crimes, all those near misses, the murder, the armed burglaries.
(01:37):
Now they're saying not only that they're connected, but that
they were all committed by the same person, Anthony Rowda.
So that's one count of murder Tristan Bodett, ten counts
of attempted murder, including Bodette's two young daughters, and all
the victims of the near misses. The charges don't say
much about the weapons or ammunition used in the crimes,
(02:00):
but news reports confirm the rumor. I've been hearing that
Bodette was killed with a nine millimeter round the same
kind of ammunition that Rouda was arrested with. Rowdah pleads
not guilty at the arrangement, and he's confident he wants
to proceed to trial as quickly as possible. Every time
(02:21):
I see Rowdah's father, Ozzie, he says, I hope he
didn't do this, but he also repeats what Rowdah's telling him.
He's saying he's innocent. Ozzie tells me he said I
didn't even want to be around people. People cause problems,
so how can they say I did this. I try
to schedule a visit with Rowdah, but it's abruptly canceled.
(02:44):
The only thing I can do is write him a letter.
I tell him I'll leave money with the cashier at
the Twin Towers Jail. It's for pencils, stationary and stamps
so he can write me back. Finally, he does. I
do appreciate your care and diligence in contacting me. I've
wanted to talk to you but could not get your
(03:04):
contact info. He writes, I feel wronged. I'm not someone
who kills innocent people. In subsequent letters, he writes, I
know people must feel I'm guilty, but I suffer every day.
I suffered sometimes when I was free. I know I'm innocent,
but I can't prove that because of the emotions that
are involved. There's nothing I can say to clear my name.
(03:26):
There's nothing I want to say. Okay, fine, But I
notice something about his writing, a kind of parallel he's
setting up between himself and, of all people, Tristan Boudette.
He refers to Boudette as an innocent person, and he
says that he Anthony Rowda, is also an innocent person.
(03:49):
They're both victims in his view. He writes, if you
feel the family of mister Boudette needs some closure, I
can try to help that. That's definitely a surprise, and
so is this quote. The Baudette family and friends can
blame the Sheriff's department for his death. That's where the
(04:09):
justice is at. I'm Dana Goodyear and this is Lost Hills,
(04:47):
episode three. Lost. Ever since her husband Tristan Boudette died,
Erica Wu has felt like she's trapped inside a never
ending dream. You know, the moment my sister told me
what had happened, I feel like I was just watching
(05:07):
myself for the rest of the day in a way,
you know, live out this horrible sort of nightmare. And
I still feel that way sometimes, like it's so unbelievable,
this isn't real, that this is some sort of dream
or nightmare or movie or something that I'm just watching
happening to my family, to myself and to my family.
(05:31):
She woke up alone that morning at home in Orange County,
getting ready to take her medical exam, the whole reason
why Tristan had taken the girls camping and she'd stayed back.
Then somehow her oldest sister was at her door then
driving her to Malibu. I mean it it's such a blur,
but they told me what little they knew at the
(05:53):
time was that Tristan had been shot and that he
was dead, but that the girls were safe. And you know,
in the hours that it took me to get there,
I was not believing any of it, you know, I
didn't believe that he was really you know, like it
was just so unbelievable to me, and I remember arguing
(06:14):
on the phone just how do you know that he's dead?
Like why why isn't he at the hospital? Like who
who said he was dead? Like how do they? How
do they know? And then when they told me the
girls were safe, I mean I just remember thinking like
what if they're not? Are you just saying that? Are
you just waiting until I get there to tell me? Um?
(06:39):
It was just I mean, like it just gosh, it
just really messes with your mind, you know, hearing that
that information. So I think I was all over the place.
I tried to go to the campground, and I think
it was one of the rangers or somebody there that
said something like that to me that this never happened,
(07:02):
you know, this kind of stuff never happens here, which
just you know, at the time, it was sort of like, Okay,
well that's good to know that that kind of stuff
never happens here, but also just happened, you know, we
could just happened like yeah, and it would come out
that in fact, many similar things without being anywhere near
(07:30):
catastrophic in the way that it was with Tristan. But
there's been a lot of near misses. People knew, yeah,
and that was something that I didn't I didn't find
out until much later on. Yeah, I'm at Erica's new
house in the Bay Area. This is not the home
(07:54):
she and Tristan were going to move into. It's a
different place that he never saw, a townhouse in a
row of identical townhouses near the medical center where she works.
She asked me to come here for a reason. She
doesn't want to talk about the night of Tristan's death,
the investigation, the charges against Anthony Rawda, or the impending
criminal trial. The words Rauda and Malibu feel like they
(08:18):
exist on some other planet, light years away from her grief.
I want to tell tristan story, she says. I want
to tell our story. This neighborhood is so friendly and nice.
It's lovely. Are you guys settling? Ye? Yeah, we're settled,
settled as it can be. I didn't know before we
(08:38):
get started. She shows me around. Do you want to
leave our shoes down here? That's fine. There's a tiny kitchen,
a breakfast nook, a cozy living room. Every inch of
the house down to the balcony is filled with kids toys.
One wall is devoted to framed paintings that Clara made
with Tristan, isn't this the best? My favorite? So she
(08:59):
would do this thing where she would draw, just like
do this like freehand draw, how she would fill in
all the colors. Interesting, got her to do it on
a canvas. So this was actually Mother's Day last year.
They gave me this and that coffee machine and everywhere
they're pictures of Tristan smiling on a hiking trail at
Yosemite at Glacier National Park, carrying Clara in his arms
(09:23):
and Ev and a frame pack on his shoulders. I'm
really happy. Yeah, you guys went out into the wilderness
a lot. Yeah, yeah, good, Yeah, I mean that was
old Tristan. He loved to do that stuff. Took me
a long time to be able to put up the
pictures of him, but yeah, you know, obviously, sorry, it's
(09:46):
a balance between still wanting to see pictures of him
and wanting the girls to be able to see pictures
of him. But balancing that was just still being really
hard for me. Yeah. I mean we have a ton
of like family pictures and stuff like that that I
haven't been able to put up yet. Yeah. Sorry, Yeah,
(10:11):
the pictures are painful, but she knows they're important and
that pretty much captures her reason for talking to me.
She wants to create a portrait of Tristan that is
something other than his violent death. Erica and Tristan both
grew up in Fresno, California, in the Central Valley, a
midsize city in the middle of farm country where the
(10:32):
credit card was invented and the modern landfill. Erica was
the fourth of five girls, serious, a little bit reserved.
In her senior year, she met Tristan, this happy, exuberant guy,
bursting with confidence. We met because we had a mutual
friend who was trying to find him a date for
(10:54):
a winter formal. So it was January of our senior
year in high school that we met. And did you
do you have an impression from that night or something
you remember? He was yeah, I mean he was a
happy guy, and he was very sort of just uncomplicated,
(11:17):
you know, like he sort of just wore everything on
his sleeve. I think it's a testament to both of
you that that was not a super awkward I was
probably awkward. I'm sure it was awkward, but he was
definitely like first serious boyfriend. I mean, yeah, After high school,
(11:43):
Erica went to Stanford, Tristan went abroad for a year
and then do you see San Diego. At his graduation,
he surprised everyone he had the highest GPA in his college.
He was one of those it just like came very
easily to him, kind of every you know what he
was good at in terms of the chemistry, Like I
(12:04):
feel like for me, like I've always you know, like
I have to study a lot to know what I know.
But he just like knew it and it would click
and he was Yeah, he was the smartest person I knew. Then.
He was at Berkeley for grad school and chemistry and
(12:24):
she was in San Francisco for medical school. They moved
in together and then got married in two thousand and
eight when she was twenty six and he was twenty five.
Right away, Tristan made himself an indispensable part of Erica's family.
Tristan's personality was just you know, he got along with everybody.
You know. He was one of those people where he
had like zero social anxiety. With four sisters, Erica had
(12:48):
a pack of brothers in law, and Tristan became their ringleader.
He loved to plan a twenty person family dinner, a
trip to Hawaii, and especially any kind of outdoor adventure,
and once he became a father, his love of nature
took on a whole new dimension. Clara or would ask
a question like how you know where are the cloud
(13:09):
come from? Or where is a rain coming from? And
he would give like a scientifically accurate answer that she
could understand, you know, at three or four. One of
the things I loved was that he used to teach
the girls stuff like that, you know, like he knew
that kind of stuff. The days before Tristan died are
bright in Erica's memory, super saturated. First there was Father's Day,
(13:33):
so it was just a couple of days before he passed.
We went to the beach because that's what he said
he wanted to do, and I remember we It was
like a really beautiful day and it was super sunny,
and Tristan set up like a little sunshade, and the
girls were playing in the waves. They were letting the
(13:54):
waves chase them, and I remember running after them and
Tristan running after them, and I remember sort of looking
at them, the three of them, and just thinking how
lucky I was to have them. After Father's Day, they
(14:21):
started getting ready for their move up to the Bay Area.
Erica was really busy. She had her big exam on
June twenty second and was studying non stop in between
shifts at the hospital. So he was he was like, oh,
you know, it's perfect. I'll get them out of the
house Thursday night. You'll have you know, you'll be able
to focus on the test, do whatever you need to do.
(14:42):
I'll be able to take. But Ivie was a little
sick that week, and Erica was secretly hoping they would
just stay home. She hated it when they left. She
always worried they waffled into the last minute, but it
was their last week in southern California, maybe their last chance.
Tristan decided to go for it. We all woke up
(15:05):
a little bit late and he made the girl's breakfast,
and I remember were sort of helping them get out
the door, getting the girls dressed and braiding their hair,
you know, like I remember, the one thing Tristan couldn't
do was anything with their hair. So we we braiding
both of the girls hair and be like, okay, just
leave it like this un till you guys get back.
And you know, he was just in such a good mood.
(15:28):
He you know, like I said, his The trip for
him started as soon as he started planning it. So
he was getting all the gear together and um pet
loading up the car, and I remember he put the
bikes on the roof, you know, and we both thought
it was super cute that m that my daughter's bike
was next to his. I remember girls putting their shoes on,
(15:51):
and um, my older one helping the little one put
her shoes on so that they could get out the door.
And they were just so excited to, you know, to
go on this trip with daddy. Yeah, and I know
it's like in retrospect, but I think part of me
that like had, was a little bit anxious saying bye
(16:11):
to them. And I remember feeling that way as they
were leaving. Um, when he loaded the girls first, and
then he came back and sort of held open the
garage door to say bye to me, and UM, I
just remember saying telling him to be careful. Um. I
was always worried about the girls. Again, I just thought
he was so untouchable. UM, but I remember just saying,
you know, be careful with them, drive safe. You've precious
(16:35):
cargo in your back seat. Um, come back. I would
always say stuff like that, you know, like I said,
I was like worried. L right, did something like bring
them back to me. You can all come back, you know,
you come back together. Um. You know, he just you know,
(16:57):
did what he always said to be, like Erica, don't worry,
We're gonna be fine. You know, nothing can happen, you know,
being out there, that was like his sanctuary, you know,
like he didn't think something. He would never believe that
something like that could have happened. And I just remember
him saying, yeah, I just go study, take your test.
(17:17):
By the time you're done, will be back. We'll celebrate. Um.
Then he just you know kissed me on the chicken.
He was gone, gosh, And I feel like I can
(17:42):
still remember what what he felt like standing there. You know,
he was just so there one minute and then so
god the next. Tristan sent her texts and pictures throughout
(18:37):
the day. The last one was late just before bed. Yeah.
I think he's he said Evie was maybe halvy hard times.
I mean she was too, but he would send me
like thumbs up. You know. I think he sent me
like a thumbs up, And he said, you know, study hard.
(18:58):
You know what he would always say, losing Tristan. Erica
feels she lost everything, not just her husband, but herself.
That Erica, the Erica that was Tristan's wife, is gone,
and the girls who they were when their father was alive,
they're gone. To the family as it was, it disappeared forever.
(19:23):
God losing him in front of them. How that what
kind of impact that has on them? You know in
a way, I feel like, uh, that sort of family
(19:44):
that I had died too, you know, like part of me,
part of them. Life with Tristan was in full color.
Now the three of them are surviving in the grade
out time after. From the minute Erica set foot in
(20:15):
Lost Hills Station on the morning of Tristan's death, she
says she struggled to get information about the case. The
Sheriff's department keeps sighting the ongoing investigation, telling her only
the bare minimum. There was only one way to get answers,
she tells me. A few months before I met her,
she filed a ninety million dollars claim with the county.
(20:37):
She names Anthony Rowda as liable in her husband's death,
but he's almost an afterthought. The Sheriff's department in California
State parks. She alleges they acted with deliberate indifference and negligence.
They willfully created the conditions for the shooting to occur.
There was a danger, they knew about it, she claims,
(21:00):
and they didn't tell anyone. It's their fault. She says
that her husband is dead. History is made in the
race for La County Sheriff. In winning, Vienneueva ousted the
(21:23):
incumbent sheriff, Jim McDonald, a feat that has not been
accomplished and more than one hundred years. The upstart, the outsider,
Alex Viennueva retired at the rank of lieutenant. He never
even ran a station, and in November of twenty eighteen,
he's elected the new sheriff. Here are the basics about
(21:45):
the La County Sheriff's Department. It's not the lap LAPD
wears dark blue. Sheriff's deputies wear the khaki shirts and
green pants and have a big star on their chests
Old West style. The LAPD polices the city of La Well.
The Sheriff's department patrols the dozens of cities in the
county that don't have their own forces, like Malibu and
(22:07):
Calabasas as well as the town. These unincorporated areas like
where Malibu Creek State Park is in all, it has
something like ten thousand deputies who cover an area of
nearly three thousand square miles. They also worked the jails
and the courts. One more thing. For decades, the La
Sheriff's Department has been mired in scandal. Maybe you heard
(22:30):
of Lee Baca, two Sheriff's back. He's in prison now,
as is his under sheriff, Paul Tanaka, for obstructing an
FBI investigation into the treatment of inmates in the jail system.
Alex Via Nueva says he's going to clean it all up.
That sounds ambitious and frankly all consuming, and you wouldn't
(22:51):
think it would have much to do with sleepy, old,
fancy old Malibu. Please give a more round of applies.
But here he is at Duke's, a surfer themed restaurant
on the beach side of Pacific Coast Highway, talking about
fixing Malibu's problems too. Everyone Cecie Woods and the mayor
(23:16):
and everyone were coming for a tendency. It's all thanks
to Cecie Woods, the Malibu activist who broke the story
of the near misses and has been calling out the
Lost Hills cops for as she sees it, lying to
the community. She was a vocal cheerleader for Vienneueva during
his outsider campaign. She used her social media feeds and
(23:37):
her website, The Local, to celebrate him and run down
his opponent, who she blamed for the problems at Lost Hills.
And we had the occasion just a few weeks ago
to do a town on the Lost Hills stationary for
aolve all the cities. But now we're here specifically for
the Malibu community and your particu Garne, which were slightly
different from the ones that are sitar the other side
(23:58):
of the hill range. And now it looks like Ceci's
support is being rewarded. There she is in the front
row in a leopard print dress, thing to Viennueva expert.
He sits back down and I see she wasn't kidding.
She has the sheriff's ear. Literally she's leaning over whispering
(24:22):
into it. I wonder what this all means. Will Cecie,
with her access to the new sheriff, be able to
find out what no one seems to know what really
happened in Malibu. How the shootings could go on for
so long unchecked until finally someone got killed. Anthony Rowda's
(24:56):
case is creeping through preliminary hearings, and the prosecutor says
that the Sheriff's department is still working on ballistics. Also,
they discovered seven electronic devices in Rowdas's camp. That's a
lot of self and computers and kindles for hermit who
doesn't want to talk to anyone. They all need to
be analyzed, which is going to take even more time.
(25:22):
But Cecie Woods doesn't need to wait. She's getting a
constant stream of information about the investigation, not just from
her new highly placed friends in law enforcement, but from
her tea leaf reader. No no, no, I used to
go like every six months, and then there was like
a year and a half break maybe higher, and then
(25:44):
all of a sudden, the last city council election and
my marriage going down the tubes. I'm like time to
call Monica, like everything was going to Monica source Ceci's
psychic source. Ceci doesn't think Routa did it, and she
wants to find out who did, and more important, what
the cops did wrong. And I have literally had more
(26:06):
than forty nine readings since, which is so not the norm.
But now since she's seen that, every time I have
a reading, new information comes up. Now she doesn't ignore me.
She knows shit's going down, and so she better. It's
tax Monica emergency, it's urgent. Shit's going down. So I've
(26:26):
got to see this one day, Cecie lets me tag along.
My psychicness started in through dreams. I do have a
spirit guide that works with me. He's actually the one
who does the reading and he speaks to me. He's
a virgo. He's very you know, because he's kind of quirky.
And sometimes it's like a riddle, you know, and you
have to kind of figure it out, or it comes
(26:47):
up in a quirky way. You know, it'll show up, like,
for instance, one time I said to somebody, I see
Howard Stern in your cup and they're like what, And
then a couple of weeks, a couple of weeks later,
she bumped into him in a seven to eleven. But
I mean quirky, it's like, it's yeah. Monica Source lives
with a roommate in a cookie cutter stucco house on
a four lane road in Burbank She does her readings
(27:08):
in a time knee paneled room. There are owls everywhere,
big small, ceramic, stuffed, perched, peering, sharp beaked, like the
world's creepiest bed and breakfast. Her two dogs, Wolfman and Bandit,
suffer from anxiety, she says, so during readings she holds
them in her lap. Cecie, pick your tea and put
(27:30):
two tea spoons in your cup. The table is set
with a red checked tablecloth, blue and white china, and
glass jars filled with loose leaf tea. And then when
she gets her tea in there and drinks it, she's
gonna stir it three times. Three's a magic number. Three's
a magical number. Cecie has two cell phones out, one
for taping, one for taking notes. She's on the edge
(27:52):
of her seat. Okay, you done, good man? Do you
remember what to do? Cecie puts the saucer on the
cup and inverts it like she's flipping a cake out
of a pan. One hand on the cup, the other
spinning the saucer. Am I at three, yeah, I embrace it,
Embrace it. Monica. Source lifts the returned cop off the
saucer and stares into the drags left on the plate.
(28:14):
It looks like Tea leaves to me, but she starts
channeling her spirit guide. The dogs get anxious. Gotcha, Okay,
here we go. Um, I'm getting some initials around you.
Of course, I'm getting the j's, I'm getting the s is.
It is actually spelling out cops. Um, so you're definitely
(28:36):
going to be around cops. She's getting Italian energy and
Celtic energy and some Hispanic energy and some strong Asian energy.
She's getting a Rob and a Joe. Is he bad
bad coped? Good copy yet? Okay? Because I'm getting morals,
(28:56):
m could be okay, And then it's simply spelling out proof.
So there is going to be proof. You are going
to prove some things that are going down, and you
have the proof. So we'll find the prof. And this patrol.
Do they do patrol by horses around there? Two? Malibu
Creek State Park? Because that's what I'm getting. The patrol
is like by someone on a horse. Okay, so that
(29:19):
could still be involved with Malba Creek State Park because
Rouda did not do it. I'm telling you Rowda did
not do it. Josh. I don't know if we got
Josh before. But I'm getting like a Josh or Okay, yeah,
we got that. I just actually heard an issue with
a Josh today. CC does not observe the psychic firewall,
(29:40):
So sitting in on her session with Monica sources an
opportunity for me to hear what she's picking up from
her other sources in law enforcement about what's going on
inside Lost Hill Station. You're kidding a cop. Oh yeah,
something's coming in with the cop for sure, for sure. Okay,
And I'm also getting Tuesday or Thursday being oh my god, CIA,
(30:05):
I have to admit she's losing me. Yeah, but it
doesn't CIA like globe bullshit. Tuesday Thursday, the CIA. Why
would they call it the CIA? Yeah? Who knows. I
could stumble upon something that maybe I mean right now,
the tea people. Who are the tee people, Well, there's
a couple tea people. There is Sergeant Twee right, but
(30:27):
now I snapped to attention Sergeant Twee Wright. He's the
guy who took me on the helicopter ride. Good cop,
bad cop. I think Twee is a bad cop. She
thinks Sergeant Writes a bad cop. Yeah, because one of
them looks like it's not looking too good for them either.
(30:50):
I'll read it with that. After the session's over. I
sit in the car with Ceci for a minute. It's
clear how little she thinks of the Lost Tail Sheriff station.
But now I find out something new and alarming. Alex
wouldn't even know this ship was going on if we
didn't tell hold on a second Alex, Alex via Nueva,
(31:14):
the new La County Sheriff arftural loss mopos that need
some direction, Well, hopefully they're gonna get it now from Alex.
I mean, and that's why we voted for him, because
we want him to succeed. We want him to turn
this damn department around. Yes, Lost Souls is a perfect
(31:37):
name for him. It sounds like Cecy's feeding the sheriff information,
possibly from her tea leafreetings. And just like him, she's
gone from being a total outsider to a total insider.
(32:16):
CEC and I don't share methods, not at all, But
there are ways of finding out if someone is a
bad cop. The Sheriff's department doesn't like to share personnel records.
You basically have to sue to get them. I put
in a public records request and they tell me essentially
get in line. But the District Attorney's office does keep
(32:37):
files on cops with histories of misconduct, cops they've been
asked to investigate, and they're supposed to keep these records
even if they never file charges. That's because if a
cop is called on to testify in court and has
a history of misconduct, the defense is entitled to know
that it's considered exculpatory. So I submit a series of
(33:00):
requests to the DA asking about every name I can
find involved with the Malibu case. I also try to
get to know Sergeant Twoey Wright, the Lost Hills detective
who seems to be the center of the ROUTA investigation.
All right, are you ready? Can you say who you are?
(33:21):
I remember you, I'm hard to hear. Right. After hounding
him for months, I got him to give me that
helicopter tour of Malibu's killing zone, and today he's sitting
down with me to do an interview. Sergeant Wright is,
by his own description, not totally at home in the
culture of the Sheriff's department. He's an ex marine and
(33:41):
a vegan and a bow hunter who grew up into
Panga Canyon a hippie trippy enclave in Lost Hill's jurisdiction.
He's also gotten dozens of awards and commendations, especially for
his work leading the Malibu Search and Rescue team. He's conflicted.
He loves the Sheriff's department devoted his life to it,
but he says he wants to tell me the real story,
(34:04):
the truth about what went on behind the scenes at
Lost Hills Station before and after Tristan Boudatt was killed.
I've got so many questions. There were three shootings in
Malibu Creek State Park in late twenty sixteen through January
(34:26):
twenty seventeen. I'm imagining because it is a small community
and Malibu Last Hills Sheriff Station is just a few
miles from the park, that you would have heard about
those shootings in the park, right. Well. I did eventually
hear about those shootings. I had only heard about them
(34:49):
when the state park supervisors called Lieutenant Royal and told
them that they had a series of crimes that they
wanted him to weigh in on near Missus one through three.
Sergeant Wright tells me all happened on state park property,
so it was the rangers respon ability to investigate. California
(35:11):
State Parks is a separate law enforcement agency. They investigate
the majority of their own crimes, and they make arrests
their full peace officers in the state of California. The
shootings were in State Parks jurisdiction, but they didn't get solved,
and the problem didn't seem to be going away. When
you have three shootings in a particular period of time,
(35:34):
in the same area and with the same type of
weapon at the same time of day, it makes you think,
I mean, these are unknown an unknown assailant that fired
from the dark and disappeared into the night, always one shot.
Lieutenant Royal was Sergeant Right supervisor, and they were both concerned.
(35:55):
But when they took the information to their bosses at
the station, Sergeant Right says, the bosses blew them off.
I was told by the captain that it was a
State Parks problem, and obviously Lieutenant Royal told talked to him.
I talked to him about it, and there was concern
on our part because it's right down the street. It
(36:15):
might technically be in the State Parks jurisdiction, but who's
to say it couldn't spill out into ours. It just
didn't seem like there was much interesting at the supervisory
levels above us. Five months after Sergeant Right and Lieutenant
Royal learned about the three near misses in the park,
(36:35):
there was another shooting, this time in Lost Hills jurisdiction,
the white Porsche on the Canyon Road at four thirty am.
That was the one where the driver had to drive
himself to the station to make a report, even after
calling nine one near miss number four. Six weeks after
that near miss number five, a teenager driving her mother's
(36:59):
white BMW on her way to a surf competition with
a friend, same road, same time, something hit the car,
blowing out a back window. Fearing for their lives, the
teenagers sped away and when they got to Sir Frider Beach,
they saw that the back of the car was riddled
with holes, pellets from bird shot lodged in the rear lights.
(37:23):
We went out and investigated that, and I personally went
out and looked at the scene, and we searched for evidence,
and I found a shotgun wadding that I believe came
from the shot, and I believe it gave me an
indication or where the shot was fired from. By then,
(37:45):
July twenty seventeen, eleven months before Tristan Boudatt was killed,
there had been five near misses, three in the park
and two on the road. There was a puzzling if
distinct pattern, location, time, ammunition, a single shot. Well certainly
the crimes the shootings occurred in the we morning hours,
(38:10):
just before dawn, so that was one one thing that
was consistent in his m A. The other was, of course,
as you know in the beginning, a shotgun was used,
so same weapon and one shot fired. That was pretty consistent.
And the location was a huge issue inside the state
(38:31):
park and one particular campground. The state park is huge,
but one particular campground not spread all over one spot,
within a few camp spaces of another, and then finally
on the highway adjacent to the campground in the same spot.
So those were consistent patterns that I think indicated a
(38:58):
serial shooter. I think there's only common sense to be
able to see that. Sergeant Wright says he and Lieutenant
Royal were frustrated and fearful. When Wright told me in
the helicopter that it was quote our greatest fear that
the shooter would kill someone, he meant it was his
and Lieutenant Royal's greatest fear. But they couldn't get traction
(39:19):
with their theory to be told by other investigators or
the department. There was no evidence or there was not
enough information to link these crimes. I just thought it
was ridiculous. It wasn't my opinion. But while the investigation
was sputtering along, word of a shooter got out among
the deputies. We all knew where the shooting grounds, and
(39:42):
I had heard rumors at patrol cars. Some patrol cars
would go by at high speed with their guns out
the window pointed in that direction, and I believe people
that knew warned their family members not to drive by there.
This might be the most outrageous thing. Sergeant Wright has
(40:04):
told me. The threat was real. The deputies knew there
was a shooter in the area and that he might
kill someone. They were scared, but the department still didn't
warn the public, and then the shooting stopped for the
next eleven months. There was a lull, which, if anything,
(40:24):
Sergeant Wright says, made him more nervous. We were wondering
during the gap what the heck was going on. And
I had told Lieutenant Royal that I believe we had
a serial shooter. I actually told him I thought we
had a serial killer that had not killed yet in
our area, that we knew of a serial killer in Malibu.
(40:48):
The lull in the shootings was shattered in June twenty
eighteen when the white Tesla was hit on the Canyon
Road near Miss Number six. Four days later, Tristan Boudett
was killed in his tent after the murder. The detectives
from Homicide and Major Crimes showed up after the murder.
(41:12):
Obviously the department was taking note and there was more interest.
Sergeant Wright says that his search and rescue team was
told to keep assisting with the investigation. They knew the area,
they could be helpful, and as far as he's concerned,
they were. We were there the day of the murder,
(41:32):
and later Homicide went back with one of their volunteer
teams to try and find shellcasings and they were unable
to do so. When I heard that they found nothing,
I asked them if they wanted me to take a
crack at searching with my team, and they stood by
(41:53):
all means, so we went back a week after Boudette
was killed. He says his search and rescue team used
metal detectors and found five nine millimeter shell casings in
the campground. It looked like multiple rounds had been fired,
though it was hard to say for sure. Two of
the casings were so rusted their headstamps were illegible. And
(42:13):
that was a great farm. Homicide was ecstatic. He came
out to the scene. They were very happy. Later, Sergeant
Wright decided to go looking for the actual bullets. Only one,
the one that killed Tristan Boudette, had ever been found,
lodged in his right shoulder blade, but the tent showed
a second entry hole and an exit hole. Sergeant Wright
(42:36):
and one of his search and rescue guys went out
to the campground. Their idea was to position themselves where
the nine millimeter casings had been found and aim a
laser towards Bodette's campsite. The laser beam pointed at a
small hill in the distance. Sergeant Wright and his team
member dug into the hill and pulled out a spent
nine millimeter bullet. Sergeant Wright says he also helped Major
(42:59):
Crimes investigate the rash of burglaries that happened around the
park after Bodette was killed. Major Crimes certainly came in
at some point after the burglary started, and they do
specialize in burglary serial burglary investigations, and there seemed to
be more interest in that than the shootings, which is strange.
(43:19):
But we worked closely with Major Crimes. Major Crimes expected
that help and they deserved that help from the locals
that know the area. He says that after he and
one of his trackers found those bootprints leading up into
the hills, he was the one that proposed a search.
(43:40):
Major Crimes was not doing anything in that particular spot
or area, so it was off the radar. Everything else
they were doing was sort of random, you know, stumbling
around looking for clues. I was able to convince Detective
Berry that we needed to go back there, and he said,
okay too. We tie Berry the Major Crimes detective Gray
(44:03):
hair Beard Chick Kickers. He's the guy I saw at
one of Rout's early hearings for his probation and weapons violations.
So it was a combined Lost Hills team with two
Major Crimes guys added, and they went back there. We
stumbled upon Routa and we captured him. Lieutenant Royal was
on that team too, part of the route to capture,
(44:25):
and I would expect that even though it was late
in coming, and even though it came after a terrible tragedy,
this was a great victory for Lost Hills to have
arrested this suspect. It was a great victory. And I
mean we had captured an on burglar. But I happened
(44:48):
to start to believe that Router could be the suspect
and the murder at that point because of the particular
firearmy had. And it was such a great victory that
the station captain bought dinner for everybody. In the beginning,
he says, the department was treating him and Lieutenant Royal
like heroes. I was told at some point that some
(45:13):
of those involved in the arrest and the investigation, we're
going to get a medal. I was supposed to get
a medal, and Royal was supposed to get a medal
along with others involved. I don't know who. In January
of twenty nineteen, when Rota was charged with the murder,
the near misses and the burglaries, Sergeant Wright and Lieutenant
Royal's efforts to solve the case were vindicated. Their theory
(45:36):
that the crimes were connected, was seemingly now validated by
the Sheriff's Department and the DA. The suspect they had
tracked and helped capture in the Hills he turned out
to be the one. It was right around that time,
Sergeant Wright tells me that everything changed. No medal for him,
(46:00):
no medal for Lieutenant Royal, kind of the opposite. Suddenly
they were under investigation. I've never had an internal affairs
investigation before that, certainly that I know of. I've never
been in trouble, and all of a sudden in January,
we get told that we're the subjects of an internal
(46:21):
affairs investigation. Sergeant Wright was transferred out of Lost Hill station, expelled,
given freeway therapy along commute, a loss of seniority, public shame,
his new job patrolling CityWalk at Universal Studios out of
the West Hollywood station. Finally, he just retired, which is
(46:46):
why he was willing for a little while at least
to talk to me and Lieutenant Royal, sergeant right supervisor,
the same thing happened to him. He got transferred out
of Malibu, demoted, shamed. This is all very strange, is
Sergeant Wright telling me the truth? Because if he is.
(47:07):
If he basically solved this case, then why would he
be under investigation. I asked the DA about every Sheriff's
Department name I could find associated with the Router case
to see if any of them had a history of misconduct.
(47:30):
Sergeant twey Wright and Lieutenant James Royal don't. But two
of the detectives who took over the case from them
they're dirty. Daniel Morris, the homicide detective who oversaw the
chain of custody on the murder evidence and was a
witness at Bodet's autopsy, He's got a record of dishonesty.
(47:51):
And Ty Berry, the major crimes detective. He's been accused
of planting evidence, fabricating police reports, and lying. It's so
bad that the Sheriff's department fired him for dishonesty back
in two thousand and three. He only has his job
because he sued to get it back. So the Hamis
detective and the major crimes lead both have histories of dishonesty.
(48:13):
And the two local guys who had been trying to
solve the case when their bosses didn't seem to believe
there was anything to solve, they are under investigation. Is
there anyone here I can trust? I know what I
need to do. I need to go see it for myself.
I need to go out there where it all happened.
(48:35):
Malibu Creek State Park,
Host
Dana Goodyear
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