February 2, 2024 • 32 mins
In this chilling episode of ‘Twisted Truth’, we dive headfirst into the turbulent life and horrifying acts of Cassandra Bjorg. This troubled teenager, entangled in a horrific murder plot, painted a horrifying picture of betrayal and endless greed. Starting with the stark portrait of a rocky childhood, we follow the downward spiral of a budding romance that turned dreadfully sour.
Joined by her equally rebellious boyfriend, Johnny Ryder, they become the central characters in a story filled with dark intentions, deceit, and heartless violence.
News Broadcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tutKUhACsjA
Police Interrogation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvIsogANoOg&t=26s
Check out our Instagram for pictures from this case
https://www.instagram.com/twisted_truth_atcp/
Music used in intro/outro (Legacy - Savfk)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
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Hey y'all, you're listening to Twisted Truth, a true crime podcast brought to you by Emily and Alyssa.
This week's episode, we'll be talking about Cassandra Bjorg.
I wanted to try to do something a little light, you know, as light as murder gets.
This one is going to be not as bad as the other episodes that we've been doing,
but there's still obviously violence, murder, but we'll get into that.
(00:39):
All right, so let's just jump right into it.
Cassandra had a difficult upbringing. She had a rocky relationship with her
mother and her father, constantly arguing with her mother, and then,
in result, her mother would kick her out.
And in between those times, she would stay with her grandparents.
So whenever, I guess, her mother wanted her back home, she would report her
(01:00):
as a missing child, and she would go back and live with her mother.
Only when she wanted her back home?
I guess. I don't know. That was just what was reported. They would constantly get into altercations.
Her mother would, quote-unquote, kick her out.
But I don't know if that's just Cassandra's way of validating it.
She was reported as a runaway, but she also did that with her grandparents.
So was she actually kicked out or would she just leave?
(01:22):
You know, after she had had those issues with her mother and they were tired
of going back and forth, living with her mother and then leaving to stay with
her grandparents for a little bit.
Her grandparents, Wendy and
Randall Bjorge, decided to just let Cassandra stay with them permanently.
When Cassandra was 16 years old, she was a problem child, obviously,
(01:42):
and her grandparents hoped that
living with them permanently would get her back on a good track. Okay.
So within the first year of Cassandra living with her grandparents,
the police had been called to her grandparents' house on over 30 different occasions. Holy crap.
I do have a question. Yes. So was there something wrong with her mother that
she had to live with her grandparents or her mother just couldn't handle her
(02:05):
or something? I think it was just that her mother couldn't handle her anymore.
It didn't say why. Like, it wasn't like her mother was an addict or anything.
It's just that they got into multiple occasions.
And I guess her mother just agreed to go live with your grandparents at this
point and see what they could do.
In the midst of living with her grandparents, Cassandra met a guy named Johnny
(02:26):
Ryder, who was 19 years old.
They had only been dating three months when they had put together a plan that
would change both their lives and others forever.
Three months, and then they decided to do whatever this is? Yeah,
she was described as a master manipulator. Okay.
So, she's actually, I looked, she's not, I don't know, this is very shallow
(02:46):
of me, but she's actually pretty, you know?
So I guess maybe her looks and just the power that she had over him.
Okay, and it was something like how it is with Ted Bundy. He was so attractive. Exactly.
So she was just very manipulative, I'm guessing, with just how beautiful she
was and just convincing.
After living with her grandparents, Cassandra started dating a guy named Johnny
(03:07):
Ryder, who was 19 years old.
They had only been dating three months when they decided to put a plan together
that would change their lives and others forever.
So one night, Cassandra came home late from hanging out with some friends, along with Johnny.
Due to previous phone calls that you know
the police had came to the house and all of the
altercations they were having before this led cassandra to
(03:27):
have probation so i guess she had gone to court they
told so much so is she just running away or was she like doing like other things
because i mean it wouldn't just she wouldn't just go to probation running away
well the altercations were recorded as like assault against her grandparents
oh you know not just altercations maybe some were just altercations where they
had to call the police to intervene before it got to that point,
(03:49):
but there was definitely assaults made on the grandparents from Cassandra.
Okay. So, because of this, she was on probation.
She had curfew. She had to abide by and she had to be home by a certain time.
So, when Cassandra came home late that night, her and her grandmother had gotten
to another altercation.
Cassandra claims that when she arrived that night at her grandparents' house,
(04:10):
Cassandra's grandmother was still awake waiting for her to return home while
her grandfather was asleep in the bedroom.
This led to an altercation and as a result, her grandmother kicked Cassandra out.
Okay. And she's 16 at this time? Yes. Okay.
During the midst of this argument, Cassandra left the house and stayed with her boyfriend, Johnny.
Johnny and Cassandra slept in Johnny's car for two days while hanging out with
(04:32):
friends, going to the mall, just trying to keep busy and pass time.
So does he not have a house?
I'm assuming not. How old is he? 19. Oh, okay. So he doesn't have to be home or anything?
No, he doesn't have to be home at a certain time. and we'll talk about this,
but he has a rocky relationship with his family. Okay.
And I guess because she left and she had nowhere to go, I'm assuming she wasn't
(04:54):
allowed at his house, so that's why they just slept in his car. Slept in the car.
The night they planned to return to Cassandra's grandparents' house,
Johnny and Cassandra parked at a park and discussed their plan.
She claims that this was not her idea at first, but that it was Johnny's.
Johnny asks Cassandra, are you afraid to die? And Cassandra replies,
no, returning the same question and Johnny returning the same answer. Okay. Yeah, I know.
(05:19):
Nothing good could come of whatever's going to come up after this conversation.
So Johnny then begins to tell Cassandra that they could run away together and start a new life.
Cassandra then states that Johnny asks her if she would kill her grandparents.
Cassandra claims to have been taken back by this statement, but clearly she
did do the unimaginable.
So she's saying it's all his idea. Correct. Okay. I don't know why, you know, but...
(05:45):
Well, obviously, he doesn't want to get in trouble. Correct,
but this is just how she claims this even got brought up. Was that he asked
her if she was afraid to die.
She said no, asked him the same thing, and then they could just run away together.
I don't know what since or what connected those questions, but I guess when you're 16.
Yeah, but he's 19. Yeah, well, clearly he's a dumbass too.
(06:08):
And we'll get into a little bit about what his life consisted of,
but he's not so great either.
In order for Johnny and Cassandra to start a new life, they started to brainstorm
on how to acquire some money and fast.
The first obstacle was confirming the time they would sneak into their grandparents' home.
Discussing materials needed for this. So right now, they're not even talking
(06:31):
about killing them? They're just, we need to get money from them?
Yes. They're just trying to think of a plan, I guess, at the park,
thinking about what they're going to need to, I guess... Leave?
Yeah, leave. And I'm guessing they're going to assume they could inquire this
money by her grandparents.
But you can tell, when they were talking at the park, they knew what they were going to do.
(06:55):
Okay. How else would you get the money and it just be okay? Like,
you just walk in, sneak in the middle of the night, and just be like, hey, what's some money?
Like, clearly they had a plan to kill them because they're, we're going to talk
about it right now. But, well, you know what? Just let me get down to business.
So they're talking about the materials needed for this. They finally agree on
12 a.m. to 1 o'clock since her grandmother usually went to bed around this time.
(07:18):
They parked down the road from her grandparents' house and you could see the
house from the park. So park, and then there's a gate, and then it's her grandparents' backyard.
Okay, so they're in the park. So they're in the park, and they can see the house.
They're waiting for the lights to turn off, and then that's going to be their
cue to kind of just start walking towards the home.
They were able to squeeze through the gate between the park and her grandparents'
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backyard, and once they entered the backyard, they walked up to the back deck stairs.
They were able to see Cassandra's grandmother still awake and decided to wait
until it was safe to enter when they knew she was in bed.
Once the lights went off, they waited a little longer, and Cassandra unlocked
the back door with her keys.
The grandparents had sensors on the doors that beeped when someone entered and
(08:04):
exited the home, but this wasn't a problem because Cassandra had already previously
disabled one of those doors for when she used to previously sit in and out. Okay, yeah.
So it would, like, announce, like, door four.
Yeah, I used to have one of those, yeah. So she had already disabled it,
so that's why they chose that door, this location, and how they were going to get in.
Cassandra and Donnie are now in the home of Cassandra's grandparents and lock
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the door behind them. As they stayed in the home to furthermore confirm her
sleeping grandparents, they acted to their plan.
With one tire iron in Cassandra's hand and another bag containing duct tape
and gloves in the other that she would get from Johnny's car.
Which is weird to just have laying around, but... Just duct tape in your car?
Duct tape and... what's the other one?
(08:49):
Gloves? I don't know, doesn't your husband have duct tape and gloves in his car?
Yes, but my husband also works. so they brought
duct tape and a tire iron
yeah they didn't need to get in the house that way because
she had keys so obviously yeah why would you burn that well also they waited
till she was asleep well i mean i guess that makes sense if they were planning
(09:10):
on robbing them but you enter the home with the tire iron duct tape yeah like
i would get it if you just went in with no like weapons or whatever like it
could have been an accidental like heat of the moment thing but you You went in with a tire iron.
Yeah, they definitely planned this. This was definitely a confirmed,
like, do you want to kill your grandparents?
So I guess... Yeah. Yeah, it was already premeditated. And because they had
(09:30):
waited so long, discussed it at the park. I mean...
It's hard to think that within just a couple of minutes of having a conversation
at a park, you're just like, yeah, let's fucking do it. Yeah.
Like, and Johnny's not going in with any weapons. He's just,
quote unquote, using his hands as his weapons.
Okay. So, Cassandra and Johnny make their way upstairs to where both the grandparents are asleep.
(09:54):
Grandpa is in one room, and then Grandma is in another room. Okay.
It's a little weird, but. Well, I mean, that used to be the norm.
Yeah, but this is, yeah. Yeah.
So Johnny enters the bedroom that her grandfather was in while Cassandra enters
her grandmother's room.
Cassandra then hears her cue when the screams of her grandfather emerge from the other room.
(10:15):
Cassandra repeatedly hits her grandmother with the tire arm in the back of the
head. And after time has passed, the screams from the other room deceased.
And Johnny enters Cassandra's where Cassandra is with her grandma. Okay.
So, yeah, obviously that was the plan. They didn't even try to rob anything first. Yeah.
They immediately went to murder and said, I'm going to find some money.
(10:36):
Yes. So as you find out, Grandpa's passed away at this point.
And Grandma's still alive.
After being hit in the back of the head with a tire?
So Johnny goes into the room with Cassandra and her grandmother.
And they both tire up together, bounding her hands and her ankles.
Once they finish tying her up, she's still alive. And they drag her grandmother
(10:57):
into her grandfather's room. Oh, my God. Could you imagine?
I know. know the fear that that poor old lady was just
and like the emotions like you're finding
out this is your granddaughter doing this to you and your husband's dead
in the bed and not to mention you're in so much pain you've
been smacked in the head with a tire iron i johnny tells cassandra to grab some
knives from the kitchen and cassandra goes down and does just that i'm not gonna
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like this she grabs the three biggest butcher knives she can find which three
what are they gonna have one person with two and one two in their hands and
one person with one i guess i don't know Honestly,
I don't know what the point of grabbing three was.
Maybe in case one broke or I don't know what that means.
But she grabbed three and then they started to threaten her grandmother for
(11:40):
the code to the safe that Cassandra knew she had.
So her grandmother complies and tells them the code to the safe that contained $1,000.
At this point... They did this for $1,000? Well, she didn't know how much was in there.
She just said that she had known there was a safe. She didn't know what was
in it. I mean, it could have been fucking empty for all she knew.
Like she had no idea there was anything in there. so i know that she
had mentioned or her grandmother had mentioned
(12:03):
like you know if i just gave you a thousand dollars would that
just make you happy would that make like problems go away while she was tied
up no just before like previously like when they had altercations she'd be like
if i just gave you money would that just make you happy so when she opened the
safe she i guess probably knew that there could have been some money like her
maybe her grandma wasn't just speaking out of like thin air thin air and i was maybe like.
(12:26):
More or less foreshadowing she had money so maybe it just led cassandra to believe
there could be money in there okay i mean who else i mean what else would you
put in a safe right yeah i guess so her grandmother complies gives her the code
and it contains the thousand dollars.
At this point her grandfather has passed away and cassandra once
she has gotten everything they came for slits her grandmother's throat
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they drag her grandma into the bathroom and
places her into the bathtub while she continues to grasp
for air johnny takes the tire iron and hits her with the final
blow to the head until she's finally passed away
so she was a she was alive after they slit her
throat yeah i guess maybe they didn't do it
oh god right i don't i don't even know what that doesn't
(13:07):
sound like the right context but yeah she was
still gasping for air i hit it okay so cassandra
gathers all of her clothes while johnny makes a sweep around the
house to confirm both parents death and that they didn't
leave anything behind any evidence the two leave together
and go to a kroger to get something to eat and return to the home are
you kidding they want to go get food after this they wanted to make a
(13:28):
what's the word i'm looking for i don't
appear it's like a public oh say an alibi
right okay which i don't
know okay an alibi that would be but they went
to kroger they got something to eat and then they returned back to the home
they were in and out of the house for about a
week and well at this point it.
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Was only a couple of days so cassandra told family and friends
that her grandparents had gone on vacation for two weeks that
she finally came back from when her
grandma kicked her out and they were like where's your grandma when they had
friends over and she was like well I came back and they just left a note saying
they went on vacation were their bodies in the house yes okay Cassandra's grandmother
had sent like a message to like all of her friends and family just saying look
(14:13):
out for Cassandra we want her back home stuff like that so that's why whenever
her friends were like where's your grandparents she It was like,
oh, they went on vacation just to kind of eliminate suspicion.
Okay. So, Cassandra and Donnie had some friends over while her grandparents
lay dead in the upstairs bathroom.
The reality of the next couple of days after their murder was fine dining and
(14:34):
karate lessons and shopping.
What? Yeah, they just continued their lives. Karate lessons is so weird.
Well, she did karate lessons, so I guess that was a priority.
Okay. Maybe they were trying to make it seem like it was normal,
like nothing had happened, so they were just doing what they normally did.
Maybe, but knowing the backstory of Cassandra, it just seemed like she,
(14:55):
it wasn't more of like a, to keep everything normal. It was just like a,
I'm going to go to my karate today.
Oh, like nothing happened. I mean, she went to Kroger to get something to eat.
Like she acted as if something crazy didn't just happen. Like she's not freaking
out. She's not like, you know, like we just did this. What should we do?
Like, should we come? She's like, it's done.
It happened. Let's have friends over, you know, go to karate today. You know?
(15:19):
After about a week, Johnny and Cassandra decided they were going to kill Johnny's
family to acquire some more money.
I guess they've blown through the money from her grandparents,
and they just decided, I want to kill my family now. What?
Yeah, there's some fucked up individuals.
We're going to get into a little bit of the backstory on why he thought he should or wanted to. Okay.
(15:41):
And apparently they had already previously talked about this before while they
were discussing killing their grandparents.
Or just taking everybody out. right okay so they
leave cassandra's grandparents home and they drive to johnny's home
and inside his family's house is his
sister and his sister's boyfriend and i
guess their plan was to wait for
(16:03):
each person to come you know like she
still had the mom the dad and then he
had two sisters so he wanted everybody in the
house to kill them all yes but they didn't really
strategize it they were were just kind of hoping natal be
there no they didn't want everybody to be there it's more i guess
powering to have everybody there at once so they
(16:25):
were actually happy that it was only going to be johnny's sister
and her boyfriend okay so they were hoping they could take
care of them and then somebody else would come home and they would just one by one
okay so it'd be easier than everybody all at one time yes their plan
didn't go as well they went to bass pro shop and bought some bear bear
spray what for why i don't
(16:46):
know but this is the
bear spray was not a good idea because i mean it was a
good idea for the fact that it saved their lives but a bad idea because i don't
know i've never hurt anybody trying to plan a murder with bear spray but anyways
they try to use the bear spray cassandra's had malfunctioned while trying to
(17:08):
trigger it and so they were using johnny Okay,
I don't know anything about bear spray. What is it supposed to do?
I don't know either. I'm assuming it works just like mosquito spray. You just push it down.
And the bear's just like, nope. How would that work on a person?
But it's supposed to burn.
Oh, so like severely burn. Yes. Yes. And apparently it's very potent.
(17:30):
Oh. And I don't think it's supposed to be used in a confined room.
They did. They bear sprayed themselves.
They did. Idiots. And they were, you know, obviously just things went downhill
from that, which is good.
So the bear spray went off and it got in cassandra's eyes johnny's eyes everybody's eyes.
And they were they knew the SWAT was coming i guess the sister called the police
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and they were they were done okay so could you imagine feeling so stupid i know
and honestly when i was watching the interview the detectives were like so let's
let's talk a little bit about johnny she goes oh oh, man,
it just all went downhill in the bear spray. And they were like, go back.
You know, like, what about the bear spray? So, yeah, you could just tell she
(18:15):
felt stupid. Yeah, good. Because what the fuck? Yeah.
So she claims that she felt terrible about the murders of her grandparents.
But in the moment, she just couldn't handle it anymore. So when they were coming
up with a plan, she was just like, fuck them.
You know, they got me probation, which was self-inflicted. Yeah, you did it yourself.
Your grandparents can't do it for you. You're beating the shit out of your grandparents.
(18:35):
Where it's, yes, you should have gotten more than probation, but be thankful.
So she claims that this interfered with her ability to try to get a job because
now she has a curfew she has to abide by.
And just she couldn't be as free and willing as she was before.
Well, what job would you want that would be after? Because I think curfew is
like 11 o'clock at night. What job would you need after that hour?
(18:55):
She's only 16. What else can you do? You could just waitress.
Yeah. Not even waitress. You would have to host. Yeah.
She claims that this was her only way of getting away from her family,
from her mother, from her grandparents, just all the negative relationships
she had felt within her family.
Just killing them was going to get rid of all, apparently.
Sure, that's how that works. That's the mind of a 16-year-old. That would be fair.
(19:17):
So the reasoning for the murders behind Johnny's family was Johnny claims that
his mother would constantly put him down, saying he was useless and didn't do anything with his life.
And Cassandra defends him by just saying he had just gotten out of jail. I was on a defense.
No, no, but she was very sincere. She was like, he had just gotten out of jail.
(19:37):
He was working a part-time job. Like, he was getting his shit together.
Real keeper, that guy. Yeah. Real. What did he go to jail for?
It doesn't say, but, I mean, it could have been for something minor.
Just, you know, you could have gotten pulled over, not paid a ticket.
Yeah, and it would be worse because he's actually an adult.
So, even though she beat her grandparent, she only got probation. Right. Right.
(19:59):
So that was his reasoning for wanting to kill his family, was that his family
was always constantly putting him down.
The night they discussed their plan, they had initially wanted to kill Johnny's
family, her grandparents, and her mother.
So, Cassandra's mother. Okay. I was wondering what they were going to do anyway.
They had planned it, but Johnny was like, we just don't have the time.
(20:19):
We don't have the time to kill all these people. I know, I know.
We don't have the time to kill all these people. We don't have the time to kill
all these people. What the fuck? So had Johnny's family been murdered successfully,
they would have ended up murdering seven people.
Holy crap. I'm assuming by that they didn't successfully murder anybody else.
No, it was just her grandparents. Okay.
Right before Johnny and Cassandra were about to get caught, both decided they
(20:40):
did not want to spend the rest of their lives in jail.
While SWAT was closing in on Cassandra and Johnny, they both tried to take their own lives.
They were quickly rushed to the hospital, and doctors were able to save both
of their lives. What did they do? Ew.
Sorry, jumping ahead.
Cassandra had about 100 stitches and casts on both arms due to the incisions
on her wrists. Holy crap. 100?
(21:01):
Yeah. How big were those? They must have been up. Maybe.
Yeah, because if it was across the wrists, that wouldn't be.
Yeah, I think they would probably.
Yeah, and whenever she was being interviewed, she was way more concerned about
Johnny's well-being. Like, how's Johnny?
Is he doing okay? hey you know like showing no remorse
about the fact that she had murdered her grandparents and then
(21:23):
tried to kill johnny's whole family just how's johnny doing is
he okay is is he good okay and
apparently he had done it worse than
her so but well that's what she thought when they
were they were doing it together i guess and she was
telling him to stop because it was too much but apparently it wasn't as bad
as cassandra's oh why would you tell him to stop if they were trying to okay
(21:46):
don't know yep after cassandra and johnny were taken into custody investigators
spoke to a couple of friends who visited them at their grandparents home after the killings.
Wait, what? So they're caught. Yeah. Cassandra's talking to investigators.
They're trying to get the whole story.
And they had come up on a video.
(22:06):
Okay. I don't know how this video got acquired, but a video was leaked of Cassandra,
Johnny, and a couple of their friends that they had invited over to the grandparents' home.
And they were asking about it because they were like, well, you just murdered your grandparents.
Did these people know about it? Okay, so this was after they murdered and they
invited the friends over and their grandparents were still dead in the house.
(22:29):
Okay. And so they wanted to see if she was going to come clean about anything,
if they knew about the murders.
I think that's what they wanted to find out was if anybody else knew.
So the sister called, Johnny's sister called and the cops came because they
were being attacked with bear spray or whatever.
How did they know about the grandparents in the house?
This was at Johnny's house. I know, but the grandparents are at Cassandra's
(22:52):
grandparents' house. How did the cops find them if they got called to Johnny's house?
Honestly, I'm a little gray in that area. I do know while they were living in
the home that, remember, Grandma had messaged people in the family and her friends
saying to look out for Cassandra.
Yeah. Well, one of their relatives were texting her grandma while she was dead.
(23:16):
Okay. So Cassandra took it upon herself to reply and just be like,
yeah, everything's fine. We're on vacation.
And maybe that just rose a little red
flags from them it's not very clear on how they
got caught i want to say they just came clean in the
interview oh maybe they're like why are you trying to kill these people well
we already killed these people okay and why yeah why
(23:37):
did you kill you try to kill yourself and just everything came out because she
was very open about everything just no remorse just yeah we did this and you
know she was laughing with detectives and just it was it's always creepy to
me when like the people who do these horrible crimes laugh while they're telling
what they've done yeah it's very odd,
(23:58):
once they've gotten caught they're speaking with investigators about the killings
and they're wanting to know who all knows about them killing their grandparents
obviously you have people over,
there might be some smell you know we know they're in the home how would somebody
not think so i guess they're trying to figure out if anybody else needs to be
brought in for questioning like so you knew why didn't you say anything correct
(24:20):
okay so she claims that nobody had known and And investigators had already spoken to these people.
They located the people in the video, had an interview with them.
And they said that they were, let me see what they said. I wrote it down in my notes.
So one of the friends said that they were at the home and says that they were
(24:41):
complaining about the smell upstairs, which Johnny replies, it's just the sewage issue upstairs.
Cassandra doesn't believe this. the statement that the
friend had made about them complaining about a smell because they
knew they were having friends over and johnny told her to go
upstairs and pour bleach on her grandparents okay and
(25:01):
after she had poured bleach on them he shut the door and then caught the door
shut so nothing so she's saying they couldn't have smelled anything exactly
so she's just further bearing herself at this point yeah and then now admitting
to another thing after the death which is His desecration of a body. Horrible. Yeah.
So we're going to play a little clip from the interview, just of Cassandra talking
(25:27):
about the murders and, in her own words, how it happened.
Well, obviously, I'm the guy kind of in charge of what's been going on,
I guess, the past week, okay? Mm-hmm.
Well, I don't want, you know, kind of to make you upset or make you relive anything,
but I just got some follow-up questions I'd like to ask you.
Your boyfriend Johnny how long did that do for like three months three months.
(25:53):
Was you guys, you and Johnny pretty tight? Did you have feelings for him or
just kind of a boyfriend type thing?
I had feelings. I still have feelings for him. Oh, gosh. I care about him.
Is he okay? Yeah, he's fine. He sends his regards and all that stuff.
Is he doing okay? No, he's fine. Okay.
He actually is better off than you. They weren't that deep or anything. So he did.
(26:15):
Really? Mm-hmm. Man, I could have sworn he did worse than me because I remember
over here in the bathroom, because he did it with me, too.
He kept going, and I kept telling him to stop.
Yeah, his maybe this tougher skin. I don't know. I know.
Hmm. Okay. So I guess let's start from scratch about what happened,
(26:39):
starting from when you ran away, I guess.
Was that the 31st? Do you remember? Or 28th or something like that?
I don't really. Was it? I didn't really run away.
My grandmother kicked me out. Oh, bad.
Because, like, this is what happened. Like, I was chilling with Johnny and my other friend Sabrina.
And I came home because, you know, it was time for curfew. Because I didn't
(27:00):
want to violate my probation. So I came home.
And my grandpa was asleep. And my grandma got really mad at me.
And she was, like, saying, like, oh, you know, if you don't like it here,
you know, we're just going to find somewhere else for you to stay.
And she just said that out of the blue.
Like, she just got really mad for some reason. And so I was just like,
(27:21):
if you're going to find another place for me to stay, I'm just going to leave.
I'm just going to find somewhere else to go.
And this was basically when you took off, you came back, your grandparents were
home. And I guess that's when you had that argument.
Wait, what? You just had an argument with your grandma, right?
And then I left. Okay. I'm sorry. I got you.
(27:43):
And then when you left, where'd you go to?
I was just staying with Donnie. like we were sleeping in his car and then so
you're kicking up with Johnny where are you kicking up with him man um.
We were just all over the place, bailing. We were just trying to find something
to do, just keep, you know, just have something to do, because we don't want
(28:05):
to just sit around and do nothing.
So, you know, we would find, like, people to chill with and go to the mall or something.
Was it all your friends you were chilling with, or all his friends,
or a combination? It was sort of, like, a combination between both.
Who are your friends? Is it just Sabrina, or you got other...
I mean, I only have like one other friend, Izzy. Izzy?
(28:28):
I don't like chilling with like a lot of people just because I don't trust a lot of people.
I'm the same way. I only have a couple of friends myself. So I guess when do
you decide to go back to your grandparents' house in the middle of the night?
It was like a couple of days after, like two or three days.
You remember Saturday, Sunday? Do you have an exact?
(28:52):
I don't really remember. I didn't really even know what day it was that we went into the house.
And before he did that, did you and Johnny meet up somewhere at a park or something
to talk about what was going on?
We went to Peachtree Park, and we talked about it.
At first, it wasn't my idea at first.
(29:12):
How do you even get, I guess, what was said? How do you even bring up what was
the context? He first asked me, are you afraid to die?
And I said, no. no. And I asked him, are you afraid to die? And he said, no.
And he was just talking about how we could like run away together,
you know, that kind of like dream.
(29:33):
And he asked me, he was like, would you kill your grandparents?
And I kind of like hesitated for a minute. And I was like, why?
And he was just like, I don't know.
I mean, cause I, he knows probably everything that I've been through with all
of my family and he understands that, you know, like all I really wanted to
(29:53):
do was just kind of get away from everything, kind of just.
Move on with myself, like, I wasn't having a good relationship with my grandparents,
like, it just, it started getting really bad, you know, like,
that I got a charge from them, because, you know, like, I fought them,
you know, I might have broken, like, my grandpa's ribs when, you know,
for that charge for simple assault and simple battery, you know,
(30:17):
and it just, like, it just got really worse, we just kept arguing all the time,
and then, I don't know, I guess, Just things just seemed different.
They didn't look at me the same anymore.
So she had confessed and Cassandra and Johnny were both charged with two counts of murder.
The families decided they didn't want to go through to a trial.
(30:39):
So the prosecutors offered them a deal.
If they both pled guilty, they
were getting life in prison with the possibility of parole in 60 years.
So did they not get charged for the attempted murder of the other family?
No. Why? Like, that's stupid. They should have, but I guess part of the plea
deal was just to plead guilty to the murderers. So that is the case of Cassandra Bjorg and Johnny Ryder.
(31:04):
I don't know when they're going to be ready for parole, but... When did this happen?
So this happened in 2017, and they're sentenced to two life sentences with a
possibility of parole after 60 years, in addition to concurrent 21-year sentences.
Okay. So I'm not sure what concurrent means. I'm not like super knowledgeable about that.
(31:28):
It just means that it's run at the same time is what concurrent means.
So it would just be included in their life sentence. Okay. So these charges
also included murder, aggravated assault, and theft relating to the horrific incident.
So it was all compiled into that one sentence. And that is the horrific case
on Cassandra Bjork. Thank you for listening on Twisted Truth,
(31:52):
a true crime podcast hosted by Alyssa and Emily.
Music.
Until next time, stay curious, stay vigilant, and never underestimate the power of the truth.
Music.
(00:14):
Hey y'all, you're listening to Twisted Truth, a true crime podcast brought to you by Emily and Alyssa.
This week's episode, we'll be talking about Cassandra Bjorg.
I wanted to try to do something a little light, you know, as light as murder gets.
This one is going to be not as bad as the other episodes that we've been doing,
but there's still obviously violence, murder, but we'll get into that.
(00:39):
All right, so let's just jump right into it.
Cassandra had a difficult upbringing. She had a rocky relationship with her
mother and her father, constantly arguing with her mother, and then,
in result, her mother would kick her out.
And in between those times, she would stay with her grandparents.
So whenever, I guess, her mother wanted her back home, she would report her
(01:00):
as a missing child, and she would go back and live with her mother.
Only when she wanted her back home?
I guess. I don't know. That was just what was reported. They would constantly get into altercations.
Her mother would, quote-unquote, kick her out.
But I don't know if that's just Cassandra's way of validating it.
She was reported as a runaway, but she also did that with her grandparents.
So was she actually kicked out or would she just leave?
(01:22):
You know, after she had had those issues with her mother and they were tired
of going back and forth, living with her mother and then leaving to stay with
her grandparents for a little bit.
Her grandparents, Wendy and
Randall Bjorge, decided to just let Cassandra stay with them permanently.
When Cassandra was 16 years old, she was a problem child, obviously,
(01:42):
and her grandparents hoped that
living with them permanently would get her back on a good track. Okay.
So within the first year of Cassandra living with her grandparents,
the police had been called to her grandparents' house on over 30 different occasions. Holy crap.
I do have a question. Yes. So was there something wrong with her mother that
she had to live with her grandparents or her mother just couldn't handle her
(02:05):
or something? I think it was just that her mother couldn't handle her anymore.
It didn't say why. Like, it wasn't like her mother was an addict or anything.
It's just that they got into multiple occasions.
And I guess her mother just agreed to go live with your grandparents at this
point and see what they could do.
In the midst of living with her grandparents, Cassandra met a guy named Johnny
(02:26):
Ryder, who was 19 years old.
They had only been dating three months when they had put together a plan that
would change both their lives and others forever.
Three months, and then they decided to do whatever this is? Yeah,
she was described as a master manipulator. Okay.
So, she's actually, I looked, she's not, I don't know, this is very shallow
(02:46):
of me, but she's actually pretty, you know?
So I guess maybe her looks and just the power that she had over him.
Okay, and it was something like how it is with Ted Bundy. He was so attractive. Exactly.
So she was just very manipulative, I'm guessing, with just how beautiful she
was and just convincing.
After living with her grandparents, Cassandra started dating a guy named Johnny
(03:07):
Ryder, who was 19 years old.
They had only been dating three months when they decided to put a plan together
that would change their lives and others forever.
So one night, Cassandra came home late from hanging out with some friends, along with Johnny.
Due to previous phone calls that you know
the police had came to the house and all of the
altercations they were having before this led cassandra to
(03:27):
have probation so i guess she had gone to court they
told so much so is she just running away or was she like doing like other things
because i mean it wouldn't just she wouldn't just go to probation running away
well the altercations were recorded as like assault against her grandparents
oh you know not just altercations maybe some were just altercations where they
had to call the police to intervene before it got to that point,
(03:49):
but there was definitely assaults made on the grandparents from Cassandra.
Okay. So, because of this, she was on probation.
She had curfew. She had to abide by and she had to be home by a certain time.
So, when Cassandra came home late that night, her and her grandmother had gotten
to another altercation.
Cassandra claims that when she arrived that night at her grandparents' house,
(04:10):
Cassandra's grandmother was still awake waiting for her to return home while
her grandfather was asleep in the bedroom.
This led to an altercation and as a result, her grandmother kicked Cassandra out.
Okay. And she's 16 at this time? Yes. Okay.
During the midst of this argument, Cassandra left the house and stayed with her boyfriend, Johnny.
Johnny and Cassandra slept in Johnny's car for two days while hanging out with
(04:32):
friends, going to the mall, just trying to keep busy and pass time.
So does he not have a house?
I'm assuming not. How old is he? 19. Oh, okay. So he doesn't have to be home or anything?
No, he doesn't have to be home at a certain time. and we'll talk about this,
but he has a rocky relationship with his family. Okay.
And I guess because she left and she had nowhere to go, I'm assuming she wasn't
(04:54):
allowed at his house, so that's why they just slept in his car. Slept in the car.
The night they planned to return to Cassandra's grandparents' house,
Johnny and Cassandra parked at a park and discussed their plan.
She claims that this was not her idea at first, but that it was Johnny's.
Johnny asks Cassandra, are you afraid to die? And Cassandra replies,
no, returning the same question and Johnny returning the same answer. Okay. Yeah, I know.
(05:19):
Nothing good could come of whatever's going to come up after this conversation.
So Johnny then begins to tell Cassandra that they could run away together and start a new life.
Cassandra then states that Johnny asks her if she would kill her grandparents.
Cassandra claims to have been taken back by this statement, but clearly she
did do the unimaginable.
So she's saying it's all his idea. Correct. Okay. I don't know why, you know, but...
(05:45):
Well, obviously, he doesn't want to get in trouble. Correct,
but this is just how she claims this even got brought up. Was that he asked
her if she was afraid to die.
She said no, asked him the same thing, and then they could just run away together.
I don't know what since or what connected those questions, but I guess when you're 16.
Yeah, but he's 19. Yeah, well, clearly he's a dumbass too.
(06:08):
And we'll get into a little bit about what his life consisted of,
but he's not so great either.
In order for Johnny and Cassandra to start a new life, they started to brainstorm
on how to acquire some money and fast.
The first obstacle was confirming the time they would sneak into their grandparents' home.
Discussing materials needed for this. So right now, they're not even talking
(06:31):
about killing them? They're just, we need to get money from them?
Yes. They're just trying to think of a plan, I guess, at the park,
thinking about what they're going to need to, I guess... Leave?
Yeah, leave. And I'm guessing they're going to assume they could inquire this
money by her grandparents.
But you can tell, when they were talking at the park, they knew what they were going to do.
(06:55):
Okay. How else would you get the money and it just be okay? Like,
you just walk in, sneak in the middle of the night, and just be like, hey, what's some money?
Like, clearly they had a plan to kill them because they're, we're going to talk
about it right now. But, well, you know what? Just let me get down to business.
So they're talking about the materials needed for this. They finally agree on
12 a.m. to 1 o'clock since her grandmother usually went to bed around this time.
(07:18):
They parked down the road from her grandparents' house and you could see the
house from the park. So park, and then there's a gate, and then it's her grandparents' backyard.
Okay, so they're in the park. So they're in the park, and they can see the house.
They're waiting for the lights to turn off, and then that's going to be their
cue to kind of just start walking towards the home.
They were able to squeeze through the gate between the park and her grandparents'
(07:42):
backyard, and once they entered the backyard, they walked up to the back deck stairs.
They were able to see Cassandra's grandmother still awake and decided to wait
until it was safe to enter when they knew she was in bed.
Once the lights went off, they waited a little longer, and Cassandra unlocked
the back door with her keys.
The grandparents had sensors on the doors that beeped when someone entered and
(08:04):
exited the home, but this wasn't a problem because Cassandra had already previously
disabled one of those doors for when she used to previously sit in and out. Okay, yeah.
So it would, like, announce, like, door four.
Yeah, I used to have one of those, yeah. So she had already disabled it,
so that's why they chose that door, this location, and how they were going to get in.
Cassandra and Donnie are now in the home of Cassandra's grandparents and lock
(08:27):
the door behind them. As they stayed in the home to furthermore confirm her
sleeping grandparents, they acted to their plan.
With one tire iron in Cassandra's hand and another bag containing duct tape
and gloves in the other that she would get from Johnny's car.
Which is weird to just have laying around, but... Just duct tape in your car?
Duct tape and... what's the other one?
(08:49):
Gloves? I don't know, doesn't your husband have duct tape and gloves in his car?
Yes, but my husband also works. so they brought
duct tape and a tire iron
yeah they didn't need to get in the house that way because
she had keys so obviously yeah why would you burn that well also they waited
till she was asleep well i mean i guess that makes sense if they were planning
(09:10):
on robbing them but you enter the home with the tire iron duct tape yeah like
i would get it if you just went in with no like weapons or whatever like it
could have been an accidental like heat of the moment thing but you You went in with a tire iron.
Yeah, they definitely planned this. This was definitely a confirmed,
like, do you want to kill your grandparents?
So I guess... Yeah. Yeah, it was already premeditated. And because they had
(09:30):
waited so long, discussed it at the park. I mean...
It's hard to think that within just a couple of minutes of having a conversation
at a park, you're just like, yeah, let's fucking do it. Yeah.
Like, and Johnny's not going in with any weapons. He's just,
quote unquote, using his hands as his weapons.
Okay. So, Cassandra and Johnny make their way upstairs to where both the grandparents are asleep.
(09:54):
Grandpa is in one room, and then Grandma is in another room. Okay.
It's a little weird, but. Well, I mean, that used to be the norm.
Yeah, but this is, yeah. Yeah.
So Johnny enters the bedroom that her grandfather was in while Cassandra enters
her grandmother's room.
Cassandra then hears her cue when the screams of her grandfather emerge from the other room.
(10:15):
Cassandra repeatedly hits her grandmother with the tire arm in the back of the
head. And after time has passed, the screams from the other room deceased.
And Johnny enters Cassandra's where Cassandra is with her grandma. Okay.
So, yeah, obviously that was the plan. They didn't even try to rob anything first. Yeah.
They immediately went to murder and said, I'm going to find some money.
(10:36):
Yes. So as you find out, Grandpa's passed away at this point.
And Grandma's still alive.
After being hit in the back of the head with a tire?
So Johnny goes into the room with Cassandra and her grandmother.
And they both tire up together, bounding her hands and her ankles.
Once they finish tying her up, she's still alive. And they drag her grandmother
(10:57):
into her grandfather's room. Oh, my God. Could you imagine?
I know. know the fear that that poor old lady was just
and like the emotions like you're finding
out this is your granddaughter doing this to you and your husband's dead
in the bed and not to mention you're in so much pain you've
been smacked in the head with a tire iron i johnny tells cassandra to grab some
knives from the kitchen and cassandra goes down and does just that i'm not gonna
(11:20):
like this she grabs the three biggest butcher knives she can find which three
what are they gonna have one person with two and one two in their hands and
one person with one i guess i don't know Honestly,
I don't know what the point of grabbing three was.
Maybe in case one broke or I don't know what that means.
But she grabbed three and then they started to threaten her grandmother for
(11:40):
the code to the safe that Cassandra knew she had.
So her grandmother complies and tells them the code to the safe that contained $1,000.
At this point... They did this for $1,000? Well, she didn't know how much was in there.
She just said that she had known there was a safe. She didn't know what was
in it. I mean, it could have been fucking empty for all she knew.
Like she had no idea there was anything in there. so i know that she
had mentioned or her grandmother had mentioned
(12:03):
like you know if i just gave you a thousand dollars would that
just make you happy would that make like problems go away while she was tied
up no just before like previously like when they had altercations she'd be like
if i just gave you money would that just make you happy so when she opened the
safe she i guess probably knew that there could have been some money like her
maybe her grandma wasn't just speaking out of like thin air thin air and i was maybe like.
(12:26):
More or less foreshadowing she had money so maybe it just led cassandra to believe
there could be money in there okay i mean who else i mean what else would you
put in a safe right yeah i guess so her grandmother complies gives her the code
and it contains the thousand dollars.
At this point her grandfather has passed away and cassandra once
she has gotten everything they came for slits her grandmother's throat
(12:47):
they drag her grandma into the bathroom and
places her into the bathtub while she continues to grasp
for air johnny takes the tire iron and hits her with the final
blow to the head until she's finally passed away
so she was a she was alive after they slit her
throat yeah i guess maybe they didn't do it
oh god right i don't i don't even know what that doesn't
(13:07):
sound like the right context but yeah she was
still gasping for air i hit it okay so cassandra
gathers all of her clothes while johnny makes a sweep around the
house to confirm both parents death and that they didn't
leave anything behind any evidence the two leave together
and go to a kroger to get something to eat and return to the home are
you kidding they want to go get food after this they wanted to make a
(13:28):
what's the word i'm looking for i don't
appear it's like a public oh say an alibi
right okay which i don't
know okay an alibi that would be but they went
to kroger they got something to eat and then they returned back to the home
they were in and out of the house for about a
week and well at this point it.
(13:49):
Was only a couple of days so cassandra told family and friends
that her grandparents had gone on vacation for two weeks that
she finally came back from when her
grandma kicked her out and they were like where's your grandma when they had
friends over and she was like well I came back and they just left a note saying
they went on vacation were their bodies in the house yes okay Cassandra's grandmother
had sent like a message to like all of her friends and family just saying look
(14:13):
out for Cassandra we want her back home stuff like that so that's why whenever
her friends were like where's your grandparents she It was like,
oh, they went on vacation just to kind of eliminate suspicion.
Okay. So, Cassandra and Donnie had some friends over while her grandparents
lay dead in the upstairs bathroom.
The reality of the next couple of days after their murder was fine dining and
(14:34):
karate lessons and shopping.
What? Yeah, they just continued their lives. Karate lessons is so weird.
Well, she did karate lessons, so I guess that was a priority.
Okay. Maybe they were trying to make it seem like it was normal,
like nothing had happened, so they were just doing what they normally did.
Maybe, but knowing the backstory of Cassandra, it just seemed like she,
(14:55):
it wasn't more of like a, to keep everything normal. It was just like a,
I'm going to go to my karate today.
Oh, like nothing happened. I mean, she went to Kroger to get something to eat.
Like she acted as if something crazy didn't just happen. Like she's not freaking
out. She's not like, you know, like we just did this. What should we do?
Like, should we come? She's like, it's done.
It happened. Let's have friends over, you know, go to karate today. You know?
(15:19):
After about a week, Johnny and Cassandra decided they were going to kill Johnny's
family to acquire some more money.
I guess they've blown through the money from her grandparents,
and they just decided, I want to kill my family now. What?
Yeah, there's some fucked up individuals.
We're going to get into a little bit of the backstory on why he thought he should or wanted to. Okay.
(15:41):
And apparently they had already previously talked about this before while they
were discussing killing their grandparents.
Or just taking everybody out. right okay so they
leave cassandra's grandparents home and they drive to johnny's home
and inside his family's house is his
sister and his sister's boyfriend and i
guess their plan was to wait for
(16:03):
each person to come you know like she
still had the mom the dad and then he
had two sisters so he wanted everybody in the
house to kill them all yes but they didn't really
strategize it they were were just kind of hoping natal be
there no they didn't want everybody to be there it's more i guess
powering to have everybody there at once so they
(16:25):
were actually happy that it was only going to be johnny's sister
and her boyfriend okay so they were hoping they could take
care of them and then somebody else would come home and they would just one by one
okay so it'd be easier than everybody all at one time yes their plan
didn't go as well they went to bass pro shop and bought some bear bear
spray what for why i don't
(16:46):
know but this is the
bear spray was not a good idea because i mean it was a
good idea for the fact that it saved their lives but a bad idea because i don't
know i've never hurt anybody trying to plan a murder with bear spray but anyways
they try to use the bear spray cassandra's had malfunctioned while trying to
(17:08):
trigger it and so they were using johnny Okay,
I don't know anything about bear spray. What is it supposed to do?
I don't know either. I'm assuming it works just like mosquito spray. You just push it down.
And the bear's just like, nope. How would that work on a person?
But it's supposed to burn.
Oh, so like severely burn. Yes. Yes. And apparently it's very potent.
(17:30):
Oh. And I don't think it's supposed to be used in a confined room.
They did. They bear sprayed themselves.
They did. Idiots. And they were, you know, obviously just things went downhill
from that, which is good.
So the bear spray went off and it got in cassandra's eyes johnny's eyes everybody's eyes.
And they were they knew the SWAT was coming i guess the sister called the police
(17:52):
and they were they were done okay so could you imagine feeling so stupid i know
and honestly when i was watching the interview the detectives were like so let's
let's talk a little bit about johnny she goes oh oh, man,
it just all went downhill in the bear spray. And they were like, go back.
You know, like, what about the bear spray? So, yeah, you could just tell she
(18:15):
felt stupid. Yeah, good. Because what the fuck? Yeah.
So she claims that she felt terrible about the murders of her grandparents.
But in the moment, she just couldn't handle it anymore. So when they were coming
up with a plan, she was just like, fuck them.
You know, they got me probation, which was self-inflicted. Yeah, you did it yourself.
Your grandparents can't do it for you. You're beating the shit out of your grandparents.
(18:35):
Where it's, yes, you should have gotten more than probation, but be thankful.
So she claims that this interfered with her ability to try to get a job because
now she has a curfew she has to abide by.
And just she couldn't be as free and willing as she was before.
Well, what job would you want that would be after? Because I think curfew is
like 11 o'clock at night. What job would you need after that hour?
(18:55):
She's only 16. What else can you do? You could just waitress.
Yeah. Not even waitress. You would have to host. Yeah.
She claims that this was her only way of getting away from her family,
from her mother, from her grandparents, just all the negative relationships
she had felt within her family.
Just killing them was going to get rid of all, apparently.
Sure, that's how that works. That's the mind of a 16-year-old. That would be fair.
(19:17):
So the reasoning for the murders behind Johnny's family was Johnny claims that
his mother would constantly put him down, saying he was useless and didn't do anything with his life.
And Cassandra defends him by just saying he had just gotten out of jail. I was on a defense.
No, no, but she was very sincere. She was like, he had just gotten out of jail.
(19:37):
He was working a part-time job. Like, he was getting his shit together.
Real keeper, that guy. Yeah. Real. What did he go to jail for?
It doesn't say, but, I mean, it could have been for something minor.
Just, you know, you could have gotten pulled over, not paid a ticket.
Yeah, and it would be worse because he's actually an adult.
So, even though she beat her grandparent, she only got probation. Right. Right.
(19:59):
So that was his reasoning for wanting to kill his family, was that his family
was always constantly putting him down.
The night they discussed their plan, they had initially wanted to kill Johnny's
family, her grandparents, and her mother.
So, Cassandra's mother. Okay. I was wondering what they were going to do anyway.
They had planned it, but Johnny was like, we just don't have the time.
(20:19):
We don't have the time to kill all these people. I know, I know.
We don't have the time to kill all these people. We don't have the time to kill
all these people. What the fuck? So had Johnny's family been murdered successfully,
they would have ended up murdering seven people.
Holy crap. I'm assuming by that they didn't successfully murder anybody else.
No, it was just her grandparents. Okay.
Right before Johnny and Cassandra were about to get caught, both decided they
(20:40):
did not want to spend the rest of their lives in jail.
While SWAT was closing in on Cassandra and Johnny, they both tried to take their own lives.
They were quickly rushed to the hospital, and doctors were able to save both
of their lives. What did they do? Ew.
Sorry, jumping ahead.
Cassandra had about 100 stitches and casts on both arms due to the incisions
on her wrists. Holy crap. 100?
(21:01):
Yeah. How big were those? They must have been up. Maybe.
Yeah, because if it was across the wrists, that wouldn't be.
Yeah, I think they would probably.
Yeah, and whenever she was being interviewed, she was way more concerned about
Johnny's well-being. Like, how's Johnny?
Is he doing okay? hey you know like showing no remorse
about the fact that she had murdered her grandparents and then
(21:23):
tried to kill johnny's whole family just how's johnny doing is
he okay is is he good okay and
apparently he had done it worse than
her so but well that's what she thought when they
were they were doing it together i guess and she was
telling him to stop because it was too much but apparently it wasn't as bad
as cassandra's oh why would you tell him to stop if they were trying to okay
(21:46):
don't know yep after cassandra and johnny were taken into custody investigators
spoke to a couple of friends who visited them at their grandparents home after the killings.
Wait, what? So they're caught. Yeah. Cassandra's talking to investigators.
They're trying to get the whole story.
And they had come up on a video.
(22:06):
Okay. I don't know how this video got acquired, but a video was leaked of Cassandra,
Johnny, and a couple of their friends that they had invited over to the grandparents' home.
And they were asking about it because they were like, well, you just murdered your grandparents.
Did these people know about it? Okay, so this was after they murdered and they
invited the friends over and their grandparents were still dead in the house.
(22:29):
Okay. And so they wanted to see if she was going to come clean about anything,
if they knew about the murders.
I think that's what they wanted to find out was if anybody else knew.
So the sister called, Johnny's sister called and the cops came because they
were being attacked with bear spray or whatever.
How did they know about the grandparents in the house?
This was at Johnny's house. I know, but the grandparents are at Cassandra's
(22:52):
grandparents' house. How did the cops find them if they got called to Johnny's house?
Honestly, I'm a little gray in that area. I do know while they were living in
the home that, remember, Grandma had messaged people in the family and her friends
saying to look out for Cassandra.
Yeah. Well, one of their relatives were texting her grandma while she was dead.
(23:16):
Okay. So Cassandra took it upon herself to reply and just be like,
yeah, everything's fine. We're on vacation.
And maybe that just rose a little red
flags from them it's not very clear on how they
got caught i want to say they just came clean in the
interview oh maybe they're like why are you trying to kill these people well
we already killed these people okay and why yeah why
(23:37):
did you kill you try to kill yourself and just everything came out because she
was very open about everything just no remorse just yeah we did this and you
know she was laughing with detectives and just it was it's always creepy to
me when like the people who do these horrible crimes laugh while they're telling
what they've done yeah it's very odd,
(23:58):
once they've gotten caught they're speaking with investigators about the killings
and they're wanting to know who all knows about them killing their grandparents
obviously you have people over,
there might be some smell you know we know they're in the home how would somebody
not think so i guess they're trying to figure out if anybody else needs to be
brought in for questioning like so you knew why didn't you say anything correct
(24:20):
okay so she claims that nobody had known and And investigators had already spoken to these people.
They located the people in the video, had an interview with them.
And they said that they were, let me see what they said. I wrote it down in my notes.
So one of the friends said that they were at the home and says that they were
(24:41):
complaining about the smell upstairs, which Johnny replies, it's just the sewage issue upstairs.
Cassandra doesn't believe this. the statement that the
friend had made about them complaining about a smell because they
knew they were having friends over and johnny told her to go
upstairs and pour bleach on her grandparents okay and
(25:01):
after she had poured bleach on them he shut the door and then caught the door
shut so nothing so she's saying they couldn't have smelled anything exactly
so she's just further bearing herself at this point yeah and then now admitting
to another thing after the death which is His desecration of a body. Horrible. Yeah.
So we're going to play a little clip from the interview, just of Cassandra talking
(25:27):
about the murders and, in her own words, how it happened.
Well, obviously, I'm the guy kind of in charge of what's been going on,
I guess, the past week, okay? Mm-hmm.
Well, I don't want, you know, kind of to make you upset or make you relive anything,
but I just got some follow-up questions I'd like to ask you.
Your boyfriend Johnny how long did that do for like three months three months.
(25:53):
Was you guys, you and Johnny pretty tight? Did you have feelings for him or
just kind of a boyfriend type thing?
I had feelings. I still have feelings for him. Oh, gosh. I care about him.
Is he okay? Yeah, he's fine. He sends his regards and all that stuff.
Is he doing okay? No, he's fine. Okay.
He actually is better off than you. They weren't that deep or anything. So he did.
(26:15):
Really? Mm-hmm. Man, I could have sworn he did worse than me because I remember
over here in the bathroom, because he did it with me, too.
He kept going, and I kept telling him to stop.
Yeah, his maybe this tougher skin. I don't know. I know.
Hmm. Okay. So I guess let's start from scratch about what happened,
(26:39):
starting from when you ran away, I guess.
Was that the 31st? Do you remember? Or 28th or something like that?
I don't really. Was it? I didn't really run away.
My grandmother kicked me out. Oh, bad.
Because, like, this is what happened. Like, I was chilling with Johnny and my other friend Sabrina.
And I came home because, you know, it was time for curfew. Because I didn't
(27:00):
want to violate my probation. So I came home.
And my grandpa was asleep. And my grandma got really mad at me.
And she was, like, saying, like, oh, you know, if you don't like it here,
you know, we're just going to find somewhere else for you to stay.
And she just said that out of the blue.
Like, she just got really mad for some reason. And so I was just like,
(27:21):
if you're going to find another place for me to stay, I'm just going to leave.
I'm just going to find somewhere else to go.
And this was basically when you took off, you came back, your grandparents were
home. And I guess that's when you had that argument.
Wait, what? You just had an argument with your grandma, right?
And then I left. Okay. I'm sorry. I got you.
(27:43):
And then when you left, where'd you go to?
I was just staying with Donnie. like we were sleeping in his car and then so
you're kicking up with Johnny where are you kicking up with him man um.
We were just all over the place, bailing. We were just trying to find something
to do, just keep, you know, just have something to do, because we don't want
(28:05):
to just sit around and do nothing.
So, you know, we would find, like, people to chill with and go to the mall or something.
Was it all your friends you were chilling with, or all his friends,
or a combination? It was sort of, like, a combination between both.
Who are your friends? Is it just Sabrina, or you got other...
I mean, I only have like one other friend, Izzy. Izzy?
(28:28):
I don't like chilling with like a lot of people just because I don't trust a lot of people.
I'm the same way. I only have a couple of friends myself. So I guess when do
you decide to go back to your grandparents' house in the middle of the night?
It was like a couple of days after, like two or three days.
You remember Saturday, Sunday? Do you have an exact?
(28:52):
I don't really remember. I didn't really even know what day it was that we went into the house.
And before he did that, did you and Johnny meet up somewhere at a park or something
to talk about what was going on?
We went to Peachtree Park, and we talked about it.
At first, it wasn't my idea at first.
(29:12):
How do you even get, I guess, what was said? How do you even bring up what was
the context? He first asked me, are you afraid to die?
And I said, no. no. And I asked him, are you afraid to die? And he said, no.
And he was just talking about how we could like run away together,
you know, that kind of like dream.
(29:33):
And he asked me, he was like, would you kill your grandparents?
And I kind of like hesitated for a minute. And I was like, why?
And he was just like, I don't know.
I mean, cause I, he knows probably everything that I've been through with all
of my family and he understands that, you know, like all I really wanted to
(29:53):
do was just kind of get away from everything, kind of just.
Move on with myself, like, I wasn't having a good relationship with my grandparents,
like, it just, it started getting really bad, you know, like,
that I got a charge from them, because, you know, like, I fought them,
you know, I might have broken, like, my grandpa's ribs when, you know,
for that charge for simple assault and simple battery, you know,
(30:17):
and it just, like, it just got really worse, we just kept arguing all the time,
and then, I don't know, I guess, Just things just seemed different.
They didn't look at me the same anymore.
So she had confessed and Cassandra and Johnny were both charged with two counts of murder.
The families decided they didn't want to go through to a trial.
(30:39):
So the prosecutors offered them a deal.
If they both pled guilty, they
were getting life in prison with the possibility of parole in 60 years.
So did they not get charged for the attempted murder of the other family?
No. Why? Like, that's stupid. They should have, but I guess part of the plea
deal was just to plead guilty to the murderers. So that is the case of Cassandra Bjorg and Johnny Ryder.
(31:04):
I don't know when they're going to be ready for parole, but... When did this happen?
So this happened in 2017, and they're sentenced to two life sentences with a
possibility of parole after 60 years, in addition to concurrent 21-year sentences.
Okay. So I'm not sure what concurrent means. I'm not like super knowledgeable about that.
(31:28):
It just means that it's run at the same time is what concurrent means.
So it would just be included in their life sentence. Okay. So these charges
also included murder, aggravated assault, and theft relating to the horrific incident.
So it was all compiled into that one sentence. And that is the horrific case
on Cassandra Bjork. Thank you for listening on Twisted Truth,
(31:52):
a true crime podcast hosted by Alyssa and Emily.
Music.
Until next time, stay curious, stay vigilant, and never underestimate the power of the truth.
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