American Monsters: Lance Robert Mueller

0:00 Speaker 1: Warning. Kind of Murdery contains adult themes, explicit language, and descriptions of violence. It is not suitable for anyone, and we recommend you stop listening. Now.

0:20 Speaker 2: True crime with a dash of the paranormal, the garish, the strange, in the darkly comic. I'm Zevan Odelberg, host of Kind of Murdery, a podcast that's about more than just murder. It's my very own pocket dimension, home to a curated collection of bizarre and compelling stories, the unsolved, the unsettling, and the unbelievable. I cover it all just so long as it's kind of murdery. Like it says in the intro, I am Zevan Odelberg, and this is kind of murdery. If you're ready, please join me as we uncover what truths we can and solve what mysteries we may.

0:58 Speaker 2: Kind of Murdery Murder at the Elegante Hotel starts now. Glenn Flannagan had the art of road life down to a science, a methodical approach carved from years of travel. His rolling suitcase wasn't just luggage. It was a mobile drawer, a symbol of a transient existence, but one that he had mastered. In this hotel room, as in so many before, each item had its designated place, a floor for the soiled garments, a closet rod for the shirts still fit for public view. His toiletries occupied their own compartment in a cloth case, hanging ceremoniously on a bathroom towel rack like a banner of daily rituals.

1:50 Speaker 2: And let's not overlook the worn brown leather boots seasoned by countless journeys, alide near the suitcase, Like guardians at a temple. These boots had stories embedded in their scuffs and creases, an unspoken chronicle of where they'd been and what they'd seen. They held more than just the contours of Greg's feet. They held fragments of his life's mosaic. His faded genes cast aside spoke of labor and longevity, No glamour, just grit. They were shed like a second skin at the end of each taxing day.

2:23 Speaker 2: In their stead, he donned cotton pajama bottoms, a transition as symbolic as it was literal. In his shift from hardwearing genes to soft pajamas, he hung up the roles and responsibilities of his waking hours It was a curtain call of sorts, an actor stepping off stage, shedding a character to embrace his authentic self, if only for a few hours of rest. In the quietude of his hotel rooms, surrounded by the artifacts of a life spent on the road, Greg Flinniken found his order in chaos, his stability in flux.

2:56 Speaker 2: That is what makes this story so harrowing, as a story of a sanctum that provided no sanctuary at all, a story about how a life so meticulously arranged could still harbour invisible perils waiting to shatter the fragile equilibrium. For now, though, the room is silent, the boots in their place, the toiletries hanging from the rack, and Greg is in his cotton pajamas here in the sanctuary, in this brief moment of stillness, all seems right in the world. But as anyone versed in the capriciousness of fate would know, appearances can be dangerously deceiving.

3:31 Speaker 2: For Greg Flannigan, most evenings unfolded like a well rehearsed play, each act predictable yet comforting. In the confines of Room three four eight at the MCM Elegante Hotel in Beaumont, Texas, he had all he needed to sequester himself from the world. He'd kick the air conditioner into high gear. Its hum a soundtrack to his solitude, its chill a metaphorical barrier between him and the world outside. He'd sit propped up by pillows, leaning against the headboard of a bed that wasn't his but felt close enough.

4:04 Speaker 2: A clean white hand towel served as his tableaux, a miniature stage upon which the artifacts of his evening were carefully arranged ashtray, cigarette pack and lighter, BlackBerry, TV remote, and candy bar. Each object had its role in the performance of his evening. It's not just that he was watching TV, mind you. He was engaged in a solitary ritual as deliberate as a tea ceremony, as intimate as confession, smoking a cigarette, breaking off pieces of a rhese's Crispy Crunchy bar, sipping root beer.

4:36 Speaker 2: Each act was a quiet celebration of the mundane, a slow dance with routine. The movie of the night was Iron Man two, a tale of a hero wrestling with identity and responsibility, themes that might have resonated with Greg. On September fifteenth, twenty ten, ensconced in his hotel sanctuary, munching a candy bar, drinking a root beer, and smoking a cigarette, Greg Flinnickan started watching Iron Man two. Then comes the unnerving part. He missed the ending. Think about that a man so wrapped up in rituals, so intent on finishing what he started, didn't get to see how the story closed.

5:15 Speaker 2: It's like reading a novel and finding the last page torn out. For Greg, this wasn't just about missing the climax of a blockbuster movie. It was a break in the ritual, an unforeseen interruption that, unbeknownst to him signaled a more ominous cut off. In a room chilled to his preference among possessions meticulously placed, Greg Flinnickan found himself in a storyline that he didn't write, couldn't control, and wouldn't see to its end. This was the night when his carefully orchestrated solitude was shattered when the plot took a turn he couldn't have scripted.

5:48 Speaker 2: The room may have been cool, but the events that unfolded were anything but. What happened that evening in Room three forty eight long remained an unsettling mystery, A jarring deviation in a life measured by consistency. The story didn't finish the way that Greg expected, and therein Liza tail as gripping as it is tragic. In the realm of quiet men who make their mark, Greg Flinnickin stands out. His early years were defined by vast, untamed oceans as he worked as a chief engineer on seafaring vessels.

6:20 Speaker 2: But life is a series of acts, and Greg transitioned to his second act seamlessly. He became a landman in South Texas, facilitating the uneasy relationship between landowners and oil companies. He was good at it, joining forces with his brother Michael to carve out a prosperous niche in a city just east of Houston. Every Monday, the call of his responsibilities had him drive a two hour stretch from Lafay At, Louisiana to Beaumont, Texas. The journey was an unremarkable parade of roadside Americana, punctuated by industrial bohemoths like the Conico Phillips Refinery.

6:54 Speaker 2: His home away from home was the mcm Elegante Hotel, specifically a room in the Kaban, a three story wing that gave a nod to leisure with its swimming pool and potted plants. On the evening of that faithful Wednesday, September fifteenth, twenty ten, life seemed to follow its routine script. He received an email from his wife, Susy, updating him on tax matters. His reply, you're doing good, babe, might have suggested a moment of satisfaction, a brief digital exchange that bridged the miles between them, then irony with a sinister edge.

7:27 Speaker 2: Greg was watching Iron Man two, a film punctuated by fabricated high stakes violence, unaware that his own life was about to be punctuated by a very real and catastrophic event. During the film's climactic battle, Greg was blindsided by a blow so violent, so brutally real, that it severed his narrative right there. This blow wasn't a plot in a film. It was a shattering assault on Greg himself. As if propelled by sheer will, Greg managed to stagger off the bed. He aimed for the door, perhaps a subconscious attempt to escape the inexplicable horror unfolding, but his body gave out and he fell, his face meeting the green rug in a final grim encounter, By that point, Greg Flinnickan was likely already departed from a world he had navigated with such deliberate care.

8:19 Speaker 2: It's a disconcerting thought. Greg had survived the unpredictability of the high seas, navigated the complexity of oil rights, and built a life composed of routines and familial bonds. Yet in a room surrounded by the trappings of his chosen solitude, a vicious blow tore through that carefully constructed life like a rogue wave, leaving everyone to grapple with the unsettling mystery of his untimely end. The cruel irony is inescapable that a man so grounded, so tethered to his routines and responsibilities, would meet such a violent and mysterious end.

8:53 Speaker 2: The tale of Greg Flennecan is a haunting paradox, a narrative abruptly cut short, leaving us the audience of his life's story, with a set of difficult questions that have surprising answers. The ripple effects of Greg Flannikan's sudden death emanated far beyond room three four eight. For a man who valued his routines, failing to call his wife Susie in the morning, was more than an oversight. It was an alarm bell. His silence set a series of events into motion. Concerned co workers, unanswered knocks, and unlocked door.

9:26 Speaker 2: These were the first steps to unraveling what had happened in that room. Susie had been expecting a routine call, but instead she set off a cascade of inquiries that led two of Gregg's co workers to his hotel room. Once the door swung open, what they found was a diorama of stillness, of life interrupted. Greg lay prone a cigarette arrested in its journey to his lips. The room was suffocatingly warm, in contrast to Gregg's preference for a cool environment. Interdetective Scott Apple, a man who looked like he was molded from the clay of law enforcement culture itself.

10:00 Speaker 2: His initial assessment of the scene found little that seemed suspicious or out of place. No forced injury, no signs of struggle, and Gregg's wallet filled with cash still in his pocket. There was nothing to suggest anything but natural causes, a notion that even Gregg's wife, Susy was prepared to accept. Greg was a man who'd lived life on his own terms. His disdain for authority and modern health culture were well known. He'd chained smokes since his teens. Perhaps, as Detective Apple mused, this was just a man meeting the end his lifestyle had long promised.

10:34 Speaker 2: But that's the deceitful thing about appearances. They simplify complexities, they mask the inexplicable. On the surface, everything looked routine, a term that in the context of Gregg's meticulously structured life, had always offered comfort. Now it veiled an unsettling mystery. While the police may have seen the incident his routine, treating it almost like a procedural formality, there were elements that defied explanation. Why was the room so warm when Greg liked it cool? What could cause a man so attuned to his environment to drop dead without warning or reason.

11:08 Speaker 2: The initial phase of the investigation concluded with the perfunctory click of a camera, capturing images that would serve as the last record of Greg's life and surroundings. His body was then taken for an autopsy. On the surface, it seemed like a closed case and a fair needing only medical rubber stamping. But those who knew Greg and the life he had built couldn't shake the feeling that the story was incomplete. Susy found solace in the idea that Greg had died as he lived on his own terms. Yet there were unanswered questions, ones that neither the police nor the routine photos could put to rest.

11:43 Speaker 2: While Detective Apple may have initially categorized this as a quote natural causes thing unquote, the situation whispered more than it revealed. For a man so steeped in routine, what broke the cycle? What script when awry? It seemed like a minor medical mystery at the outset, but the real puzzle was just beginning. The tension between what appeared routine and what could be deeply mysterious sat heavy in the air, like a note sustained, waiting for the next chord in a dissonant song. As far as investigating death in Beaumont, Texas, is concerned, medical examiner Doctor Tommy Brown was an institution speedy, methodical, and deeply knowledgeable.

12:25 Speaker 2: He carried himself with the air of someone who had navigated the landscape of mortality more times than he could count. Each autopsy was conducted with precision, forty five minutes of inspecting, measuring, and dictating notes. His quick spoken demeanor and seemingly eccentric appearance only heightened his credibility in the professional community. In Jefferson County, Texas. His conclusions were treated as gospel. So when the body of Greg Flinnickan lay on the table before him, the expectation was for another routine case.

12:56 Speaker 2: At first glance, the man appeared healthy for his age, so obvious signs of trauma or degradation, just a lifeless shell of what was once a vibrant being. But as doctor Brown delved into the nitty gritty, an anomaly stood out. A half inch laceration on Greg's scrotum with accompanying discoloration and swelling. It was a jarring discrepancy amidst an otherwise unblemished physique. Beyond the laceration, there was more. The bruising expanded, rising through the groin and fanning out across the right hip.

13:28 Speaker 2: These signs didn't square with the early theories of natural death, and it wasn't just a matter of inconsistent details. It was a stark contrast that screamed for an explanation. What had struck Greg with such force and why a small abrasion on the left cheek from his fall to the rug seemed inconsequential. By comparison, here was a case that defied expectations. It seemed to ask more questions than it answered, poking holes in the theory of a natural death. Detective Scott Apple may have entered Room three five forty eight thinking he'd find answers easily, but Doctor Tommy Brown's findings pointed to something more complex, possibly sinister.

14:08 Speaker 2: The inconsistencies made the mundane elements, the room temperature, Gregg's unresponded emails, the undisturbed items on his towel all the more unsettling. What had started as a routine inquiry now treaded into uncharted territory. In a room where a man had seemingly built his own fortress of habits and preferences, something had violently intruded. The more doctor Brown discovered, the more the narrative seemed to unravel. Doctor Brown was no stranger to the baffling and inexplicable, but this mystery was a doozy even for him.

14:53 Speaker 2: Here was a man who, by all accounts, should not have met the fate that befell him in such a jarring and violent manner. As doct moved through his forty five minute routine, it became increasingly clear that this was anything but a routine case. What looked like just another post mortem on doctor Brown's table had evolved into a profound mystery. This was not just a question of how Greg Flinnickan died, but a question that dug deeper, unsettling all who delved into it. What exactly happened in Room three forty eight.

15:24 Speaker 2: The palpable tension between what was seen and what was found couldn't be ignored. It seemed as though the very room itself held its breath, awaiting a resolution to its newly enshrouded mystery. When doctor Tommy Brown cut into the torso, the narrative of a simple or natural death was immediately dismantled. What lay before him was a gruesome scene of internal destruction, lacerations on essential organs, broken ribs, and a hole in the heart, an injury most often seen in cases of fatal stabbings or gunshot wounds.

15:56 Speaker 2: What should have been a routine autopsy had suddenly escalated into a dire revelation, uncovering a theater of violence inside a seemingly undisturbed body. The trauma was too severe to be a mere accident. Something or someone had inflicted this. Gregg's injuries weren't just isolated or random. They were interconnected in a pattern of violence that had unfolded in a chillingly brief period of time. He would have bled out internally in less than half a minute, his life leaking away before he even had a chance to understand what was happening to him.

16:29 Speaker 2: It was an agonizing, shocking end for a man whose room bore no signs of intrusion or struggle. Brown's findings couldn't be shrugged off as an unfortunate medical event. This was intentional, gruesomely violent, and enacted with a precision that left hardly any external marks. The severity of Flennikan's internal injuries was a grim testament to the calculated brutality of the act. Doctor Brown didn't hesitate. The evidence was overwhelming, almost screaming at him from the autopsy table. When he filled out manner of death on the official form, there was only one word that could encapsulate the horror of what he had found, homicide.

17:07 Speaker 2: At that moment, the stake skyrocketed. Flennigan was not a man who had died. He was a man who was killed, and it begged the question, how could a murder so violent leave behind a crime scene so immaculate? What kind of person or force could enact such precise devastation without leaving a trace. The revelation that this was a homicide not only rocked the investigative team, but also turned Room three hundred and forty eight from a mundane hotel space into a chilling crime scene. Room three four eight had safeguarded its terrible secret until doctor Brown's scalpel laid it bare for all the world to see.

17:48 Speaker 2: Detective Apple was a seasoned officer, but nothing in his experience had prepared him for this. When he got a call from doctor Brown, it wasn't just a plot twist. It was a seismic shift in the landscape of the cave. Doctor Brown likened the internal injuries he had found to those usually seen in victims of catastrophic car crashes or industrial accidents, not in a man found alone in an undisturbed hotel room. Now, Beaumont, Texas wasn't a hotbed of criminal ingenuity. They averaged about ten murders a year, and most of them were straightforward.

18:20 Speaker 2: The motives transparent and frankly, the perpetrators careless. Typically, the clues lined up like a simple equation that just needed solving. But this, this was something else. Apple knew he had entered rarefied terrain, the kind of case that could define a detective's career either as a triumph or as an eternal question mark. For weeks, then months, Apple turned over every piece of evidence, interviewed every potential witness, and even revisited the scene multiple times, hunting for that elusive piece of the puzzle that would make sense of the nonsensical.

18:55 Speaker 2: The intrigue of a once in a career mystery soon gave way to fatigue and a harsh reality. Hard cases are hard for a reason. The conundrum was maddening. The scene of room three four eight bore no evidence of the ferocious violence that had shattered Funnican's insides, no signs of a struggle, no broken furniture, no marks on the walls, just an eerie silence that contradicted the story told by the dead man's battered internal organs. And the impossibility was compounded by a lack of any commotion heard by neighbors.

19:28 Speaker 2: Could such a horrific assault really leave everything and everyone around it so untouched. The questions stacked higher and higher. How does a man endure a beating so severe that his inner body resembles a car wreck without showing comparable exterior damage? How do you reconcile a lethal, clearly intentional attack with a crime scene that stubbornly refused to look like one. It was as if Flennakin had been killed by a ghost, a specter capable of inflicting deadly harm without leaving a trace. Apple was stuck in a made with no visible exit, casting shadows in a case that defied all conventional wisdom.

20:05 Speaker 2: And the weight of that paradox wasn't just professional, It was profoundly human. A man had been murdered, and the absence of answers was its own form of injustice, a secondary victimization that compounded the tragedy of Greg Flinnickan's incomprehensible death. The nagging question mark that loomed large over the investigation was simple, but vexing. Why Why would anyone target a man who, by all accounts, had not a single enemy in the world. What was the motive? Greg Flinnecan had a life that was a study in reliability, his home life, especially with Susie, was the bedrock upon which he built everything else.

20:43 Speaker 2: They were a pair stitched together by destiny, so much so that they'd walked down the aisle twice in one lifetime. Susie, with her unique blend of Southern warmth and rock and roll spirit, was the last person who deserved to be plunged into this chasm of uncertainty and pain. Her voice was a medley of emotions, heartbreak intermingled with fierce resolve. It's the voice of a woman who can extend a gracious invitation with one hand while holding a line in the sand with the other. Anyone listening could sense the duality of her emotions, part grieving widow, part lioness ready to pounce at the merest sniff of a clue that might lead to her husband's killer.

21:22 Speaker 2: To say she adored Greg would be an understatement. Their rekindled love story had the hallmark of a fairy tale. When they reconnected years after their initial marriage, Susy called Greg, and when he answered and realized who it was, he said immediately, I've been waiting for you to call. It's the kind of sentiment you can't fake. It has to come from a place of true devotion. Their love was, in its way, evidence evidence that Greg was not a man of conflict, but a man of deep connections. Detective Apple had to recognize the anomaly of this case.

21:57 Speaker 2: The victim's profile clashed with the very idea of being a target. Greg was a man who managed to navigate life's complexities with a kind of quiet grace that made him universally liked, even respected. The circumstances were more than puzzling, they were nearly paradoxical. The nature of Greg's injuries indicated a violent struggle, a battle that left its scars deep within his physical body. Yet the setting, the elegante hotel room, offered no corroborating signs of such a brutal confrontation. And Susie, well, she was a reminder of all that had been inexplicably lost, a human emblem of the case's deep, seemingly unanswerable questions.

22:37 Speaker 2: Greg's life was marked by the absence of the very elements that often play into violent crimes. No vices well except for cigarettes and candy bars, no dark secrets, no list of enemies. Yet the man who had waited years for a single phone call had met an ind so violent that it defied logical explanation. The case was not just a profession challenge for Detective Apple, it was an existential one. The absence of a clear motive struck at the core of his understanding of crime and justice. In a world that often seeks to categorize events as comprehensible or incomprehensible, the death of Greg Flennickan remained hauntingly in the second column.

23:19 Speaker 2: Greg Flennecan was a beacon of stability and decency. Those who knew him, his brother, his colleagues could attest to his commendable character. He kept to himself, usually retreating to his room at the Elegante early in the evening. He didn't haunt the hotel bar, nor did he engage in the sort of behaviors that usually attract trouble. Greg was not a drunk, not a womanizer, and certainly not a man prone to fights. He was, by all accounts, the kind of man most people inherently trust and like. Now this raises a glaring, unsettling question.

23:50 Speaker 2: Why would anyone target such a man for murder? It defies logic, Yet the grim reality was someone had Detective Apple waited through this murky mystery as the leaves of fall gave way to winter's chill in twenty ten. He turned over every possible stone, traced every conceivable line of inquiry. One notable event did catch Apple's eye, a small but potentially significant incident. On the evening of Gregg's death. While preparing a simple bag of microwave popcorn, greg had accidentally tripped an electrical circuit, causing a temporary power outage.

24:26 Speaker 2: The outage wasn't just confined to his room, it also affected room three four nine next door and the rooms below. He'd reported this to the front desk, even humbly admitting his mistake to the maintenance man who restored the power. The electrical mishap gave rise to two theories for Detective Apple, two theories that plunged the investigation into even murkier depth, amplifying the sense of urgency and despair. One moment, you're looking at a popcorn mishap, the next you're diving into the grim intricacies of human behavior.

24:57 Speaker 2: It was as if the darkness was easy to unfurl its secrets, but not without demanding its due in diligence and agony. So the power outage led Detective Apple to two competing theories. Theory number one, a deviant obsession. The maintenance man at the Elegante was no stranger to the darker allies of human behavior. His criminal record listed him as a sex offender. It was a glaring red flag, one that became even more ominous when you considered Gregg's peculiar injuries a puncture wound to the scrotum and internal traumas.

25:32 Speaker 2: Could a long screwdriver have been the instrument of a sadistic, sexually driven assault. Detective Apple engaged in exhaustive conversations with the man, dug into his past, but found no definitive evidence to substantiate this grim hypothesis. Like a mirage, this theory shimmered with dark promise before dissolving into the realm of unconfirmed speculation. Theory number two an unplanned confrontation. The second path of inquiry led to union electricians men who were bunked in room three four nine, just next door to greg These men were no mere travelers.

26:07 Speaker 2: They were in town for an extended period doing work for an oil company. By nightfall, they congregated in one another's rooms, perhaps with bottles opened and conversations flowing. What if the electrical outage had interrupted their nightly gathering. What if, fueled by alcohol and annoyance, they had confronted Greg in the hallway, an altercation escalated and things spiraled out of control. But you'd sure think there would be some evidence of disarray if that was the explanation, and the electricians, when questioned, presented a unified front.

26:37 Speaker 2: No one had seen, or heard or interacted with Greg from Room three forty eight. Each theory had presented its own set of questions, its own horrific scenarios, but neither bore the fruit of conclusion. Still, the painstaking inquiry led by Detective Apple refused to let go. It persisted, it nod, clinging to the slim hope that the veil would eventually lift to reveal the harsh, yet necessary truth. As the investigation soldiered on the question of why remained hanging in the air like a haunting melody.

27:11 Speaker 2: Could a simple electrical fault unravel into such calamitous events? If anything, the journey so far has taught us that in the most ordinary settings, the potential for extraordinary evil lurks. Often where we least expect it. Nine days after the murder of Greg Flannigan, as the questions continued to mount and the mysteries unfertile, Detective Apple donned a hidden camera and revisited the Commanda's wing, third floor with a fellow officer. Their mission to re question the same electricians, gauge their reactions, catch any inconsistencies, if there were any.

27:47 Speaker 2: What happened to that guy? Anyway? Lance Mueller broke the silence. His features were sharp and his dark hair was losing its battle with age. Clad in a T shirt and blue jeans, he and Tim Steinmanch were the occupants of room three four nine. Hell, I don't know, admitted Apple. That's precisely what I aimed on earth. It's as though some enormous weight toppled onto him. We're fishing for witnesses, sounds, whispers in the wind, anything, really. Mueller and Steinments were reservoirs of silence, except for one trivial clue they'd heard coughing from the adjacent room.

28:21 Speaker 2: As for the theory that something heavy had struck Greg, Mueller expressed the same bewilderment as Apple. There's nothing in these rooms heavy enough he insisted, the lingering questions continued to ferment like wine forgotten in a cellar. Weeks turned into months. Despite Apple's dogged pursuits and Greg's family offering a fifty thousand dollars reward, answers remained elusive. Private investigators came and went. The riddle of Room three four eight remained intact, an inch in the mind of every person who touched the case of the three electricians.

29:08 Speaker 2: Now being interviewed by Detective Apple, Trent Pisano, Thomas Elkins, and Scott Hamilton. It's Thomas Elkins who paints a surreal picture, revealing his initial thought upon seeing the body on the gurney in the elevator. He had presumed it to be caterers delivering either a large cake or an expansive food tray. Detective Apple ruefully acknowledged the happier interpretation, saying that's a better thought. Trent Pisano then admits that he was present in the room with Miller and another colleague named Steinmitz that fateful evening, Yet he adamantly asserts that he saw nothing out of the ordinary, And here the investigation hits another bewildering wall, a man who was in the room across the hall from a murder, claims that he neither saw nor heard anything unusual.

29:54 Speaker 2: It seems an unlikely statement, but Detective Apple has heard others Professor Sis similar ignorance, and so it does nothing to help solve the case. All three electricians willingly provide their identification, offer their mobile contact information, and declare their availability for future questioning. As they'd be in town for a few more months. We're happy to help, they say. These amiable electricians simply carrying on their work, juxtaposed with the dark undercurrents of the unexplained death that occurred just a couple doors away, presents a stark contrast.

30:27 Speaker 2: Here are individuals caught in the web of a bizarre case, their routine existence suddenly tinged with a touch of the macabre. It begs the question how many of us go about our daily lives blissfully unaware of the mysteries and potential dangers lurking just a few steps away. As weeks stretch into months, the supremely dedicated Detective Scott Apple exhausts every possible avenue of inquiry, ruminating on various theories that might shed light on the case. He doesn't rule out anyone, even entertaining the idea that Susie, the wife of the deceased, could have orchestrated her husband's untimely demise.

31:04 Speaker 2: The same intense objective scrutiny is applied to Michael Flannigan, Gregg's brother and business partner. Yet these avenues of investigation reach dead ends. There's not a shred of evidence pointing to either individual. The quest for resolution becomes more than an investigation. It becomes an existential dilemma for its human nature to yurine for answers to find comfort in the logical and explainable. A mystery solved not only restores order to chaos, but also alleviates that nagging itch for moral equilibrium.

31:34 Speaker 2: By contrast, the unresolved nature of this case remained a perpetual irritant, like that proverbial stone in the shoe of Detective Scott Apple. And so by the end of twenty ten, the detective is utterly stymied. The needle of the investigative compass is spinning aimlessly. In a desperate bid to generate new leads, Gregg's family raises the stakes. They offer a fifty thousand dollars reward in November, hoping to entice someone, anyone with information that could crack the case wide open. The result a deafening silence, no takers, no revelations.

32:09 Speaker 2: Gregg's brother, Michael, even hires a private detective from Houston, a former FBI agent, no less to collaborate with Scott Apple. Yet after reviewing the case, the private detective vanishes from the narrative, leaving Apple once again in solitary pursuit of elusive answers. But in a surprising twist, a new character enters the mystery. His name is Ken Brennan, and he picks up Susie's call while on a golf course, startling her by answering the phone himself, Ken Brennan speaking, he says, immediately establishing an air of authority, Susie has taken aback.

32:42 Speaker 2: She'd expected layers of intermediaries, but Brennan is refreshingly direct. Though Susie's not feeling well, she manages to narrate the convoluted tale of Gregg's death, the baffling findings of the coroner, and the investigation that hit a wall. Brennan cuts to the chase, requesting pertinent files and say suggesting that she send them as soon as she can. Then he adds something that strikes a different cord, well, you need to fucking take care of yourself. The blunt advice, delivered in a gravelly New York accent, is both a command and a moment of unexpected tenderness.

33:14 Speaker 2: It immediately endears Brennan to Susie So. Who is Ken Brennan. He's a former Long Island police officer and deea special agent now working as a private detective in Florida. The golf course location in February isn't a vacation, it's a testament to his successful practice. Brennan is in his late fifties, still physically imposing. He's styled in a way that fits the South Florida milieu, tan ruggedly handsome and fashionably attired. His choice of clothing emphasizes his well built physique, and he isn't shy about wearing gold accents at neck and wrist.

33:48 Speaker 2: Rings adorn several of his fingers, and his mostly white hair is styled in a low key pompadour, imparting an air of cocky but dignified confidence. Here, then, is a fresh pair of eyes, armed with years of experience and an unyielding personality, stepping into a mystery that has stumped even the most tenacious investigators. Brennan's injury into the murder investigation offers a glimmer of hope. Will his seasoned perspective and no nonsense approach finally provide the missing pieces to the intricate puzzle.

34:17 Speaker 2: Whether they do or they don't, it's a turn of events that reinvigorates the case, injecting new energy into a story desperate for resolution. In April, Ken Brennan arrived in Lafayette, Louisiana to dig into the cold case. Greg had lived in Lafayette when he wasn't on the road, and Brennan's first meeting was with Susie. He grilled her with pointed questions. He probed into the dynamics of their relationship, Greg's fidelity and any insurance arrangements that could hint at a motive. Finally, he said, let me ask you one more thing.

34:47 Speaker 2: Was there anything about the crime scene that didn't seem right to you? That seemed I don't know off? Susie mentioned something that piqued Brennan's interest. She found it odd that the hotel room was warm when Greg's coworkers entered The next next morning, Greg preferred to keep the ac blasting and the room chilled. Armed with this information, Brennan prepared for a second trip, this time to Beaumont. He arranged to meet Detective Apple at a local sports bar. Over a meal, Brennan laid out his philosophy for working together.

35:16 Speaker 2: Listen, I'm not a maverick. I don't do things half cocked. If I decide we're gonna do this, we're gonna do it as a team. There's nothing I'm gonna do that you're not gonna know about, and there should be nothing that you're gonna do that I don't know about. The one thing I won't do is fuck up your case. I've been doing this a long time, but I also know that you're the guy in charge here, so it's your case. In the meeting with Detective Apple, Brennan was not just sharing his approach to the case, but also evaluating Detective Apple.

35:45 Speaker 2: As Brennan would later say, I don't like to work with somebody I don't like. Brennan has a knack for quickly assessing people's character, a skill honed over years of dealing with both sides of the law. In this instance, he found detective Apple to his life. The feeling was mutual. Apple would later sum it up succinctly. Ken he said, has good people skills. With each season detective approving of the other, the stage is now set for a collaborative venture between them. Each brings to the table a unique set of skills and perspectives.

36:16 Speaker 2: Brennan, with his fresh viewpoint and no nonsense approach, compliments Apple, the local authority who's wrestled with this puzzling case for far too long. The sense of renewed hope is palpable as both investigators gear up to unravel the perplexing mystery that has confounded the authorities for months. What comes next could either break the case wide open or add another layer to its already complex history. Both men can feel it. The tension is building and the stakes are higher than ever. In this critical moment, Brennan synthesizes the disparate details into a plausible scenario, providing a glimmer of clarity in a case rife with uncertainty.

36:54 Speaker 2: As Apple listens, you can almost hear the gears of his bloodhound's mind clicking into place, Brennan wastes no time placing a crucial call to Susie to clarify certain specific habits of her late husband Greg. Was he left handed or right handed? And when he smoked? Which hand did he prefer? These seem like inconsequential details to an outside observer, but for a detective of Brennan's caliber, they are important pieces of the puzzle. With Susie's confirmation that Greg was right handed and that he always smoked with his right hand, Brennan starts to lay down conclusions.

37:29 Speaker 2: The answers to these questions serve as foundational building blocks to support his theory, bridging gaps in Apple's initial investigation. This was about more than just validating an idea. It was about looking at the case through a different lens, a fresh pair of eyes. Remember how Susie mentioned Greg's pennant for cranking up the air conditioner. That detail now becomes pivotal. Brennan concludes that the AC had been turned off when the circuit breaker tripped. Hotel records showed the repair man had last seen Greg alive around eight thirty PM, and it was likely that Gregg simply forgot to turn the air conditioner back on after the power issue was resolved.

38:04 Speaker 2: In a few short minutes, the room would have warmed up, and by then, tragically, Greg was already dead. In September, it's hot as fuck in Beaumont, Texas, Brennan states, cutting through the cloud of confusion, the room being warm wasn't an oversight. It was a haunting clue that helped pinpoint the time of Greg's death. The details were like breadcrumbs leading to a larger, unsettling revelation. Take that cigarette, seemingly innocuous but undeniably out of place. Greg, a right handed man, had it in his left hand, a peculiarity, you might think, but Brennan saw it as something more.

38:40 Speaker 2: It told him that Greg had shifted the cigarette to his left hand, probably as he rose from the bed and moved towards the door. It's an action you or I might take without thinking if we were about to grasp a door handle. But it's a detail that speaks volumes in a situation where details are scant and enigmatic. This simple observation shifted the existing case theories on their axis. Forget the notion that Greg had been severely beaten elsewhere and then transported back to three four eight. No assailant could or would have positioned a cigarette so naturally between Greg's fingers, and given the extent of the internal injuries, Greg sustained, it's unlikely he could have returned to his room, calmly lit a cigarette and then keeled over that cigarette in a left hand.

39:24 Speaker 2: It wasn't just an anomaly, it was a clue, an intimate look at Greg's final moments. This new trajectory of facts suggests that whatever violence befell Greg occurred within the confines of that room, and it adds a new layer of complexity. How does a man suffer such catastrophic internal damage in a room that looked virtually untouched, a room where not a single thing seemed out of place except for that cigarette and the lifeless body of the man who held it. It made the urgency of finding answers not just a quest for justice, but a compelling need to understand a deeply perplexing series of events.

40:00 Speaker 2: Brennan navigates this maze of inconsistencies with caution, adhering to a principle he's found invaluable patience in criminal inquiries, every detail counts rush, and you risk overlooking the piece that could complete the puzzle. With this in mind, Brennan posits an unsettling notion. Greg had to have been killed quickly in his own room, under circumstances that defy logic and confound forensic scrutiny. And so the electricians suddenly come back into focus, their room equally affected by the electrical outage that had also plunged Gregg's into darkness.

40:34 Speaker 2: And this, Brennan realizes, isn't a new angle for Detective Apple. It's a thread that Apple had considered but hadn't been able to pull tight enough to make a knot. Could these electricians, perhaps in an intoxicated state, have confronted Greg right in his doorway and in a chaotic and brutal moment, ended his life. Re Asking this question reopens pathways that seemed to have reached dead ends, and in doing so breathes new life into an investigation that had refused to yield simple answers.

41:14 Speaker 2: You questioned the electricians, Brennan asks, Apple, Yeah, they were nice guys. See anything hinky No, No, replies Apple, Well, I'm sure that if they were drinking they had to talk about it to each other. Brennan says, so somebody knows about them, Probably one or two of their close friends or their coworkers are going to know about this. Next Brennan and Apple visit doctor Brown, this is the question on their minds. Could Gregg's puzzling injuries be the result of a severe beating. Doctor Brown doesn't dismiss the idea.

41:44 Speaker 2: In fact, he even suggests that the brutal injury to Greg's scrotum could be the work of a forceful kick, especially if the assailant was wearing steel toed boots. Notably, steel toed boots are the very kind that the union electricians next door were known to wear freshly armed. With this medical perspective, Brennan sees another potential avenue in the investigation. It's one they've visited before, but now it demands a return trip. The avenue those very same electricians. He asks Apple to take the next step and interview the men who worked with the electricians the previous summer.

42:19 Speaker 2: Someone among their colleagues or friends may hold a clue. Perhaps some overlooked or disregarded detail could unlock the case. After outlining the plan, Brennan immerses himself in an exhaustive review of the hotel's surveillance footage. It's a grind watching the tedious movements of the evening in question, searching for something, anything, that might qualify as suspicious. The footage shows Greg arriving back from work. It shows the Electricians making various trips to their vehicles in the parking lot, but no anomalies leap out.

42:50 Speaker 2: In a case clouded by a multitude of baffling facts, Brennan and Apple soldier on. For them, this isn't just about merely connecting elusive dots. It's a grim search for justice. It's about accounting for every detail, no matter how minor, in a world that has proven its capacity for sudden and senseless violence. Brennan and Apple were seven months into the investigation, or the reinvestigation, if you will, and during this period, the Electricians had long since departed Beaumont. Despite their efforts, no fresh evidence had been unearthed.

43:24 Speaker 2: When they spoke to a crew foreman named Aaron Bork. Bork initially confused Gregg's case with another, mentioning something about a gun going off in a boarding house. Apple corrected him emphasizing that they were investigating a fight at the Ellegonte Hotel. Bork had no recollection of such an incident. Yet, Bork's unintentional reference to a gun ignited a fire in Brennan's mind, whose instincts, a sort of silent guidance system developed over years in law enforcement, led him back to room three four eight at the Elligante Hotel.

43:56 Speaker 2: Armed with flashlights, he and Apple meticulously scoured the room, searching for something, anything, that they didn't already know. After a period of fruitless searching, Brennan's attention shifted to an innocuous looking indentation on the wall next to the door. It was the sort of blemish that would normally be dismissed as wear and tear, but a simple test with the door handle revealed that it didn't align. That's when Brennan said to Apple, come on, Scott, let's take a look at the other side.

44:24 Speaker 2: The detective's accessed room three four to nine. There on the wall was a small hole, discreetly filled with dried toothpaste. But this wasn't just a hole. It was a bullet hole, and its alignment with the indentation in room three four eight was perfect. A laser test by crime scene investigators confirmed the trajectory. A bullet had passed through the wall right to where Greg had been sitting on his bed. Brennan broke the tension with a somber conclusion, This motherfucker was shot. The pieces fell into place, cracking open a layer of the mystery that had stumped investigators for months.

44:59 Speaker 2: It wasn't assault, a beating that claimed Greg's life. It was a bullet, a sinister force that passed through the wall, apparently unseen and unheard until it reached its fatal destination. Remember doctor Brown, the coroner. While doctor Brown was a man with an illustrious career, a guardian of scientific accuracy in the realm of forensic pathology, his office was a chaotic collection of papers, books and files, but it was also the nerve center of his work. So when detectives Brennan and Apple came to him with a new theory that contradicted his initial findings, Brown was, to put it mildly skeptical.

45:34 Speaker 2: His professional opinion had been that Greg Flennickan died from a beating, not a gunshot, and to change that narrative, well, Brennan and Apple would have to get past doctor Brown first. You guys saw the case yet, Doctor Brown asked, no, we're not there yet. Brennan responded cautiously with diplomatic finesse. He began laying out their newly discovered evidence, the bullet hole, the trajectory, the alignment. Doctor Brown was kurt in his response, You're trying to tell me that this man was shot.

46:06 Speaker 2: I'm telling you he wasn't shot. He immediately dismissed the notion of exuming the body, citing it as both insensitive and impractical, but mostly impractical since Gregg's body had been cremated. Brennan was undeterred by the incredulous doctor and by the lack of a body. He navigated the situation with the steady assurance that years of investigative work had imbued in him. Let's just go through the autopsy photos, he proposed. As they flipped through the grizzly snapshots, Brennan directed the conversation towards specific injuries, methodically interpreting them through the lens of the bullet's trajectory.

46:42 Speaker 2: Tell me, doc, could all this damage have been done? I mean, besides the blunt force trauma, could a bullet cause. The same Brown remain steadfast, upholding his original diagnosis. This man was beaten, but Brennan was onto something. Doc. That's a bullet hole, he declared. As they studied a photograph of Gregg's heart. Brown was silent, his eyes scrutinizing the image before him. His mind was a battlefield, weighing years of professional experience against the daunting possibility of a grave error.

47:13 Speaker 2: At last, he conceded, Yeah, that's a bullet hole. His voice was tinged with a reluctant mixture of defeat and discovery. The media is going to kill me on this, he added. The gravity of the revelation sinking in Brennan Napple had effectively turned the case on its head, altering its course and thrusting it into uncharted territory. But for doctor Brown, the epiphany came at the cost of questioning the very competence that had defined his career. Yet the sobering fact remained. Greg Flannagan's death was not the result of a drunken brawl or a spontaneous fight.

47:49 Speaker 2: It was a bullet, a deadly force that had cut through both walls and the deeply held professional convictions of doctor Brown to reveal a new, harsh piece of the elusive truth. The atmosphere felt almost congenial in the Chippewa County Sheriff's Department interview room, where detectives Apple and Brennan were interviewing Tim Steinmitz, one of the electricians who had been staying in the room next to three four eight along with his friend Lance Mueller on the fateful night when Greg Flinnigan was killed.

48:32 Speaker 2: Steinmanz likely felt a sense of relative ease given the formal, yet non aggressive demeanor of the Texas detectives. He settled into a swivel chair on his side of the wooden table. Across from him, the detectives sat with their notebooks, laid open files within easy reach, all elements of a conventional investigative process. Graciously, they thanked Steinmitz for his cooperation, emphasizing that this was all standard procedure, but beneath the thin veneer of routine the weight of an unresolved death, a puzzle that had led these officers across state lines, chasing leads that had grown cold over the past seven months.

49:08 Speaker 2: Steinmanz may have reassured himself that, sticking to his pre rehearsed story would keep him insulated. After all, no one likes to think of themselves as part of someone else's tragedy. Yet here he was unavoidably connected to the fate of a man who had died just a wall away from him in a Texas hotel. Although it's likely that Steinmanz found comfort in the detective's polite professionalism, it was this very courtesy that could be the most disarming. The officers were trained to walk the tightrope between comfort and confrontation, setting the stage for what could become a pivotal moment in a perplexing case.

49:43 Speaker 2: Tension hung heavy in the air, palpable yet unspoken, as the detectives began their questioning. Its settings like these, where rehearsed stories meet the crucible of scrutiny, where a person's words can either bring resolution to a grieving family or dig a deeper hole of missis And so, with notebooks open and Penn's poised, the detectives began. On one side of the table, Steinmitz had his story straight buttoned up, but on the other side, the detectives had a puzzle with missing pieces, and they were determined to find them.

50:14 Speaker 2: The question was would the words spoken here today fit into the puzzle or below? The case wide open? The weight of unspoken truths loomed as the interview commenced, and Tim Steinmanz no doubt felt the gravity of the moment, whether he showed it or not. Up until the moment that Steinmanz signed his statement, he probably thought everything was fine. The atmosphere in the room was almost friendly. The detective seemed satisfied his statement had been diligently written, corrected, initialed, and notarized.

50:46 Speaker 2: Steinmitz might even have felt a modest sense of relief as he prepared to leave. Is that it, he asked, rising from his seat, Hang on a second. Detective Brennan's voice shifted dramatically. It was until you signed that statement, But now you've got a problem. Suddenly the room was transformed. The congeniality vanished, replaced by palpable tension. Even fear Steinmanz had unwittingly crossed an invisible boundary, the signed statement had furnished the detectives with the leverage they needed to demand more from him.

51:16 Speaker 2: Signing a false statement to the police can be prosecuted as a felony for steinmans the stakes were now perilously higher. Feeling hornered, he sat back down, suddenly aware that he was ensnared in a situation far more precarious than he'd originally thought. All of the detective's friendliness had evaporated, like a puddle a cat piss on a summer sidewalk in Texas. The signed paper before him became a weight, pulling him into a reality far more grave, and then, like a dam breaking, the real story spilled out, a narrative far darker and more fraught than his initial testimony.

51:53 Speaker 2: This was not a simple tale of men in a hotel room. It was a scene fraught with imminent danger, fuel by alcohol and recklessness. The electricians had all been hanging out at Room three four nine, drinking after work when Lance Mueller, three sheets to the wind, began brandishing a nine milimeter Ruger handgun as if it were a toy, His judgment obviously impaired, perhaps obliterated by alcohol. In that moment, a chilling sensation washed over Steinmitz. He felt an immediate surge of adrenaline and dread as Mueller aimed the gun at him.

52:26 Speaker 2: He hit the floor instinctively, cursing at Mueller for his senselessness. Trent Pizzano, also President, felt a cold shock run down his spine, unsure in that moment whether he would be shot as Mueller pointed the gun in his direction, and then it happened, the deafening sound the concussion of a gun firing. A bullet punched through the room, narrowly missing Pisano and lodging itself into the wall, or so they thought. Mueller, perhaps coming to grips for the first time with the gravity of his reckless actions, was panic stricken.

52:56 Speaker 2: He scurried to his car to return the gun, leaving behind a room filled with shock and indignation. Pissano, disgusted and unnerved, retreated to his own room. The incident was not just a cautionary tale, but a damning episode that exposed a life threatening lapse in judgment. It was a moment that underscored the perilous conjunction of alcohol, firearms, and human fallibility. After returning the gun to his car in a panic lance, Mueller was desperate to erase any evidence of his reckless behavior, and he decided to patch the bullet hole, but he didn't use plaster or any other conventional materials because he didn't have those on hand.

53:34 Speaker 2: Instead, he used toothpaste. With a sense of urgency, driven by the haunting realization of just how badly things could have turned out, he slathered the toothpaste into the hole, smoothing it out in an amateur attempt to make it disappear. It was a moment that symbolized the feudal efforts to cover up actions that had become dangerously consequential. Toothpaste, a mundane item typically associated with daily routine, was now part of an unsettling narrative, a flimsy cover over a gaping wound. Both literally and metaphorically, it was a desperate, almost childish act that belied the gravity of the situation.

54:11 Speaker 2: Patching the bullet hole with toothpaste was a metaphor for the broader failure of judgment that evening, a cover up poorly executed and unlikely to hold up to any real scrutiny, although, as we now know, hold up it did for many months. When Tim Steinmanz finally spilled the beans on what really happened that fateful night, including Mueller's attempt at playing handy man with a tube of toothpaste, it underscored the absurdity and the horror of the entire situation. It wasn't just about a bullet hole in a wall.

54:43 Speaker 2: It was about holes in their stories, their judgment, and perhaps the fabric of their moral compasses. And all these holes couldn't be filled with a tube of crest. The true story was out, and Steinmann's demeanor was a mix of relief in trepidation as he leaned back in his chair, staring at the notepad where his second statement, the true statement, was laid out in black ink. He had reached the point of no return when he and Mueller had heard that soft cough from the room next door after returning from the bar past midnight.

55:14 Speaker 2: They had become aware of the presence of their neighbor for the first time, and then when the man had died, they kept their activities to themselves, secretly worried about the consequences. When Steinmann saw the police presence and the gurney being rolled out of room three four to eight the next morning, his heart sank. I thought he'd killed that guy, Steinman's confessed to Brennan. His voice was tinged with a sense of regret and a palpable concern over the gravity of their actions, now starkly manifest in the tragedy that had unfolded next door.

55:43 Speaker 2: What had started as an evening of friends getting sloshed and blowing off steam after a hard day's work had spiraled into a horror show of reckless behavior, amplified by the irresponsible handling of a loaded gun, and then escalated into something darkly irrevocable, the murder of an innocent man. Now burdened by this revelation and its weighty implication, Steinmitz understood that there was no going back. The recklessness that had once seemed thrilling was revealed for what it truly was, a dangerously negligent act that had altered lives forever.

56:17 Speaker 2: The line between mischief and morality had been perilously thin, and they'd crossed it. No, they'd obliterated it. Steinmitz had laid his cards on the table. There was that one minor detail, a detail that neither Brennan nor Apple seemed too keen on. It was a nagging discord and an otherwise harmonious narrative, the cough from behind the closed door of Room three four eight. This seemingly innocuous sound had the weight of implication. For if, in fact it was true that Steinmitz had heard the cough, it suggested that greg had clung to life far longer than any medical theory had accounted for.

56:50 Speaker 2: This piece of information was unsettling for both the detectives and Tim Steinmitz, albeit for different reasons. For the detective it was an incongruity they were willing to overlook book. Their primary objective was to reconstruct the chain of events that led to Gregg's demise, not to determine his exact time of death. Moreover, Steinmitz and his friends were intoxicated on the night in question, further compromising the reliability of their memory. But for Steinmanz, clinging to the detail of the cough was akin to holding onto a lifeline an ounce of exoneration.

57:20 Speaker 2: It may not have mattered legally, but morally ethically, while that was a different story. As Steinmanz sat there grappling with the realization of his own failure to act to knock on the neighboring door, the weight of it all loomed over him. He was halfway through a personal reflection, musing on what he could or should have done differently. When the atmosphere in the room shifted palpably. Brennan and Apple had another task for him, something else they wanted Steinman's to do. The moment of introspection was cut short.

57:50 Speaker 2: It was as if the room had collectively decided that there was a line of ethical questioning that would remain uncrossed for now. Steinman's unfinished thigh lingered in the air, a haunting reminder of the human dimensions that lurk behind the sterile facts of a criminal case. It felt like two outs in the bottom of the ninth in a one run baseball game, bases loaded full count three and two, pitcher and batter wiping sweat from their brows. Everyone on the edge of their seats, hollowed, dread, gnawing away at their stomach lining.

58:24 Speaker 2: The detectives had given steinmans a task. He dreaded their instruction, and yet had no choice but to comply. And so Tim Steinmanz picked up his cell phone to call Lance Mueller. Hey, Lance, what's up, he asked, his voice warbling with tension and dread. Not much, said Mueller, just sitting around. Well, I just got back from down there, said Steinmitz. How to go Steinmitz hesitated, his conscience at war with instincts for self preservation. Finally, he fessed up, Well, I told him the whole story, you know, what happened that we were sticking to there.

59:14 Speaker 2: You know, what's that? You know, the story that we were sticking to that we got home late that night, you know, and the guy coughed and whatever. Right, and Steinmen's voice faltered, and I was fixing. I was just going to leave it there, but because your lawyers said it would be okay, right, you know, right, And when I left it there, they said, okay, you know, tell us the truth. So you know, I told him the truth to what really happened. Silence ensued on the other end of the line, a cavernous, echoing void that hung heavily in the air.

59:46 Speaker 2: It was as if time itself had frozen. You mean about the gun going off and all that, you oler finally asked, breaking the silence, yep. And what do they say, Well, that I would be trouble, in trouble, you know if I didn't tell him. The grew thicker. Another long silence. So Tim, what did they say? Well, not much. I mean, I don't know if they're going to get a hold of you, or or tranter or what the hell they're gonna do. Mueller sighed audibly, a noise resembling the death rattle of a wounded animal.

1:00:16 Speaker 2: Then he groaned, what do they mean by that? I mean, tell us the truth. Did they say anything about the gun prior to that or what? No? No, they just said they knew exactly what happened. They told me to stop fucking lying. They were pretty pissed. And then I told them exactly how everything went down and what really truly happened? Are you shitting me? Tim? Mueller's voice had a dangerous edge. No, No, I'm not. Oh my god, are you kidding me? Are you serious? Right now? I'm serious as a heart attack.

1:00:46 Speaker 2: Lance. Here, the human mind's capacity for self deception reveals itself in Mueller's incredulity. Despite all the evidence stacking up against him, Mueller refused to connect the dots between the gun and the man's death. Doesn't make sense, Tim. At first the coroner ruled that it was a heart attack. Then they started saying something that something fell on him. There's no way, there's absolutely no way that that guy was killed by a bullet. How you doing, Lance, Steinmitz asked, how you feeling, how's your state of mind?

1:01:14 Speaker 2: How am I doing? Mueller shot back, not good tim I need to drink some more beers. As the weight of the revelations had begun to sink in, Mueller resorted to a familiar coping mechanism booze. Then later, inebriated, he called Brennan, mumbling his desire to make a statement. You'd drunk. Brennan told him, hang up the phone and call your fucking' attorney. And so this tale unravels layer by disturbing layer. The dissonance between Steinmitz and Mueller reveals a fraught psychological landscape where truth wrestles with illusion and moral choices clash with self interest.

1:01:51 Speaker 2: The tragic irony here is that these men had an opportunity, however late, to act on their conscience. Yet it seems that they chose the path of least resistance, rationalizing their actions until the grim truth cornered them. The choices we make in the shadows always find their way into the light. As Brennan sat in the courtroom, he could feel a sense of unease settling over him like a dense fog. The judge's initial words seemed to dismiss the gravity of the situation, characterizing it as a terrible accident.

1:02:22 Speaker 2: It was October twenty ninth, twenty twelve, and Brennan had traveled to Beaumont, joining Susie Flannickan Scott Apple, and others from Greg's inner circle. They were all gathered for a solemn purpose to hear the sentencing of Lance Mueller, the electrician, who had entered a no contest plea to manslaughter. The words terrible accident hung in the air, charged with unsettling tension, and, in Brent opinion, not near enough truth. Was this what it had come down to? Years of investigation, unraveling truth's layer by excruciating layer, only for the conclusion to be framed as a mere accident.

1:03:00 Speaker 2: Brennan's thoughts turned to Greg's family and friends present in the courtroom. How would they perceive this? How would they feel about this? What would it mean for them? For justice and for the larger narrative of personal accountability. To Brennan, the judge's words struck a dissonant chord, like a child mashing piano keys at random. This wasn't just a terrible accident. It was an event that had unfolded due to a series of choices, some passive, some active, but choices nonetheless, choices that irrevocably altered the course of multiple lives.

1:03:36 Speaker 2: Calling it a terrible accident almost seemed to minimize those choices, and, by extension, the life that had been lost and the lives that had been impacted. It suggested an absence of intent, a mitigating circumstance. But what of the mitigating circumstances for Greg, for his family, and his friends. They were absent, replaced by stark, irreversible reality. Brennan's apprehension could have been the apprehension of anyone who ever sought justice, ever looked to the legal system for some form of closure.

1:04:06 Speaker 2: Could the sentence capture the intricate layers of morality, of human failure and frailty woven into this tragedy? Or would it miss the mark? Settling for an explanation that skirted the uncomfortable complexities, You could cut the tension in the room with a butter knife. The stakes were high. Whatever the judge's final words would be, they had to service the concluding chapter of a story that had been fraught with suspense, drama, and heartbreak. It was a story that had started in the cold anonymity of a hotel room and had led everyone present in the courtroom on a grim journey through the mazes of human behavior and now justice.

1:04:43 Speaker 2: As Brennan awaited the judge's next words, he was confronted with the reality that sometimes the system could only provide so much clarity or solace, and as the courtroom held its collective breath, the weight of that reality pressed heavily on all present. This was the moment that would answer the lingering questions, bring closure, or perhaps leave an unfillable void in the hearts of those seeking justice for Greg, just like his absence would leave a void that would be unfilled forever. When the judge parted his lips to speak again, Brennan's pulse quickened, his thoughts, echoing the collective anxiety that filled the courtroom.

1:05:22 Speaker 2: Oh fock, he found himself silently exclaiming, Ereic goes, don't tell me, this guy's gonna get a fucking year or something. But then plot twist. The judge began an articulate recitation of the recklessly irresponsible choices that had created the entire tragedy. Every decision was laid bare, each one scrutinized under the cold light of judicial review. This is more like it, Brennan thought, and the tightness in his chest eased ever so slightly. Finally, there was acknowledgment of the casual sequence, the chain of human errors and wilful neglect that had culminated in an irreversible tragedy.

1:05:59 Speaker 2: There was no glossing over, no sanitation of the uncomfortable facts. The cataloging of irresponsible choices acted like a bridge connecting the legal proceedings to the raw emotional reality that Greg's family and friends had been grappling with. It seemed to say, this wasn't just something that happened, This was something that was caused, and now there must be accountability. For Brennan, that moment was redemptive in its own way. It was an affirmation that their efforts, tireless investigations, countless interviews, and the arduous journey through the maze like legal system were not in vain.

1:06:36 Speaker 2: This was not a simplistic rendering of events as a quote terrible accident unquote, but rather a nuanced understanding that situated the tragedy in a context of avoidable human failure. As the judge continued speaking, there was a collective, albeit quiet exhale in the courtroom. It was as if everyone had been holding their breath waiting for this very moment, when the system, often seen as coldly analytical, showed a glimpse of its humanity By recognizing the gravity of the mistakes made Brennan almost wanted to get up an applaud, and so as the long list of irresponsible choices was delineated, one couldn't help but feel a subdued sense of vindication.

1:07:19 Speaker 2: It was a sobering acknowledgment that actions have consequences, that choices matter, and that in the final analysis, justice, however imperfect, seeks to reconcile the scales that were so tragically tipped. As the gavel struck, the court room seemed to inhale a collective breath of finality. The judge had sentenced Lance Mueller to ten years, only half of the maximum penalty that the law permitted. Mueller's court room apology, which seemed tinged with genuine remorse, felt to many like a feudal act of contrition, too little, too late.

1:07:53 Speaker 2: From the beginning, Mueller had been running an insidious game of calculated risks, or perhaps uncalculated risks. But still, his reckless decision to play with a firearm while in a drunken state was not just irresponsible, it was criminally so. Even his coworker Steinmitz had admitted that they had suspected that Mueller's wayward bullet might have played a role in the demise of the man in Room three four to eight, even if Gregg's death had originally been classified as a heart attack, which of course it wasn't, But even if it had been, the disorienting shock of a bullet tearing through the wall could easily have been the trigger.

1:08:29 Speaker 2: And yet after the coroner had initially ruled blunt Force's trauma as the cause, Mueller had comfortably settled into the narrative, however implausible, that something else had killed greg even went as far as to patch the bullet hole with toothpaste, a ludicrous attempt to paint over the cracks in his moral landscape, and a half ass attempt to cover the evidence, that's for sure. The gun was hastily hidden first in his car and then with a friend, before finally being handed over to an attorney for safe keeping.

1:08:59 Speaker 2: All this justed one thing. Mueller was concerned, if not downright afraid, that the bullet from his gun had done terrible, irreparable damage. Had he come forward at any point before detectives Brendan and Apple had cracked the case, a painstaking process that we know took nearly eight months, it's possible that Mueller might have evaded a manslaughter charge or even imprisonment. Instead, he gambled. He banked on the hope that his connection to Greg's death would remain forever shrouded in mystery.

1:09:28 Speaker 2: And let's not overlook the fact that initially the odds seemed to favor him. Even after the connection was revealed, the county District attorney's office had been hesitant to escalate the case to a felony. The lesson here, albeit one learn too late for Mueller, is that the intricate mechanisms of justice, despite their occasional inefficiencies, do grind slowly but exceedingly fine. It also offers a scathing commentary on human fallibility and the moral perils of gambling with someone else's life.

1:09:58 Speaker 2: Mueller's actions, or more precisely, his lack of timely responsible actions, were a roll of the dice that had devastating consequences, not just for Greg and his grieving family, but for the very fabric of trust that holds communities together. It's an unsettling reminder that in the intricate web of human interaction, one reckless act can send ripples far and wide, altering the course of multiple lives. And while the courtroom verdict may have provided some form of legal closure, the moral questions surrounding the case remain unanswered, echoing in the corridors of conscience long after the courtroom doors have swung shut.

1:10:37 Speaker 2: But Detective Brennan wasn't the type to let the complexities of the law cloud the moral clarity of a situation. When he got win that the prosecutor initially had been considering a plea deal for Muller, he knew he had to intervene. He flew to Beaumont, putting himself directly into the fray between the forces of expediency and the demands of justice. There he found himself an immediate with Paul Noiola, an investigator for the DA's office, and Scott Apple. Noyola laid out the prevailing sentiments accidental gun discharges were not rare in Texas, and both judges and juries typically understood them.

1:11:13 Speaker 2: The Texas criminal Code was admittedly vague on accidental deaths, which made the case look more like an uphill battle than a straight path to justice. Brennan was incensed the stakes were higher than the inconvenience of a difficult prosecution. This wasn't merely about legal gray areas. It was about the glaring black and white of right and wrong, and so the seasoned detective orchestrated a move. He brought Susie flinnickin to Beaumont to sit face to face with the assistant district attorney who was handling the case.

1:11:43 Speaker 2: However, this was not just about how the district attorney felt or what he thought the easiest path to justice was. He was in fact facing complications of his own. Mueller's gun was still in legal limbo, held by a lawyer who seemed ready to put up a fight before turning it over. It was as if the physical gun ensconced in that lawyer's safe, was a metaphor for the moral and legal complexities that enshrouded the case. Yet for Brennan, it was about breaking through the administrative fog to reveal the stark reality of a life loss due to reckless irresponsibility.

1:12:16 Speaker 2: His aim was not just to solve a case, but to serve as a conscience for a system that could sometimes lose sight of its fundamental purpose justice. By bringing Susie Flinnick into that meeting, he was humanizing a case that seemed to be slipping into the abstract. He was making it impossible to ignore the devastating aftermath of one man's irresponsible choices. It's moments like these that challenge the judicial system, forcing it to weigh bureaucratic inconveniences against the incalculable value of human life.

1:12:47 Speaker 2: In the end, what Brennan represented was the unyielding voice of moral clarity amidst the murkiness of laws and codes. In a world where lines can often blur, Brennan's actions remind us that some boundaries should never be crossed. Brennan's actions speak to the need for vigilance for the ceaseless questioning of a system that well flawed remains our best mechanism for balancing the scales of justice, and sometimes, in that delicate balance, a single voice, even a rough one, with a new York accent, or perhaps maybe especially a rough one with a New York accent can tip the scales.

1:13:26 Speaker 2: The DA was reluctant to pick up the fight with Mueller's attorney to turn over the gun, but Brennan had had enough. I suggest you fucking go down there with a search warrant and a fucking blow torch and get the fucking weapon. Brennan furiously berated the district attorney. It's evidence of a capital crime. What the fuck are you talking about? This was more than just an outburst. It was a crystalline moment of moral clarity. When Brennan mentioned the blow torch and the search warrant, it was as if he was cutting through the red tape that so often shackles the wheels of justice.

1:13:56 Speaker 2: His words were not just an explicit call to retrieve physical acas evidence, but a figurative call to burn away the excuses, the delays, and the bureaucratic inertia that stood between the truth and its due consequence. The second part of Brennan's argument with the district attorney, which followed the pointed directive about the blow torture the search warrant, was equally impactful. Greg Flannigan. The victim was important to everybody here, Brennan said, gesturing around the table, his eyes lingering for an extra moment on Greg's wife, Susy.

1:14:27 Speaker 2: And we're not gonna let this thing get brushed under the rug like somebody takes a plea on this. This is not a fucking accident. An accident is when somebody comes in has taken off their gun, the gun discharges, and god forbid, somebody gets hit. That's one thing. It's completely fucking different when somebody fucking brings a gun that they shouldn't have into another fucking state. Shit face drunk fucking around with the gun. Even the people around them realized that something bad could happen.

1:14:56 Speaker 2: He discharges around, almost kills the guy he's with, and the and he does kill somebody on the other side of the wall. He knows that's something that could happen. It's an occupied hotel. And then and then he doesn't even bother to knock on the door next door to see if anybody's hurt. And after that, his answer to the whole thing is to go get drunk some more in the fucking hotel bar. And then when he sees a body being taken out the next day, and he's one hundred percent certainly kills somebody.

1:15:22 Speaker 2: He decides not to say anything, but to run to his attorney and leave the fucking weapon and a safe, and the fucking attorney doesn't say anything about it either. You want to know what that is. That is fucking murder. So if you think we're gonna forget about this whole fucking thing, think again, because that ain't fucking happening. It's crucial to understand here that Brennan was not merely venting his frustration. His words laid out a comprehensive indictment of both the act and the subsequent chain of negligence and irresponsibility.

1:15:49 Speaker 2: He dismantled the idea that it was a mere accident. Accidents are unfortunate incidents that happened despite responsible behavior. What Mueller did, by Brennan's account, fell squarely outside of this category. Mueller's actions were a cascade of deliberate, reckless decisions, each amplifying the risk to human life. The ensuing consequences were not just predictable, they were inevitable. Brennan's rhetoric served as an imperative challenging the very foundations of a criminal justice system that was considering treating the tragedy as a series of unfortunate events rather than a preventable crime.

1:16:23 Speaker 2: When he mentioned the phrase, that's fucking murder, it became clear that for him, this was not just about what could be proven in a court of law, but what was morally and ethically undeniable. He was dragging the tragedy out from the murky waters of legal gray areas and into the stark light of moral judgment. Finally, the tone of finality in his last sentence, because that ain't fucking happening left no room for misinterpretation. There would be no forgetting, no brushing aside, and no trivial plea deals.

1:16:53 Speaker 2: This case had carved out a place in the ethical consciousness of everyone involved, a place where it would stay until justice had been finally realized. Brennan's words were not mere expressions of anger. They were a compelling call to action, echoing through the walls of that room and resounding in the minds of everyone present. This was a moment of reckoning, and thanks to Brennan's unequivocal stance, it became a turning point in the pursuit of justice. In a courtroom packed with tension and raw emotion, Susie Flinnigan delivers a damning oration that encapsulates years of anguished frustration and injustice.

1:17:28 Speaker 2: I have waited over two years to look you in the face, eye to eye, and simply have the chance to speak directly to you, she says to Mueller. You would never have come forward with the truth. You murdered him. No, you didn't intentionally seek him out to murder, but you murdered him. And every lie you told, with every intentional, selfish deception, with every cover up, over and over again, you murdered him. You saw his body taken out of the room in a body bag. The next day. You knew you killed him.

1:17:57 Speaker 2: It meant nothing to you. The weight of these, every syllable, drenched in truth and irrefutable pain, reverberates through the courtroom. Mueller, taken aback, could only look shocked, an expression of surprise and dawning comprehension, as the walls of his constructed reality crumble around him. Susie's words carry the burden of justice long denied. She is the voice of a man's silence, too soon robbed of his life in the most inexplicable of circumstances. As she takes her leave from the courtroom, her statement lingers like a haunting refrain.

1:18:30 Speaker 2: You have met your match, she says, embodying the relentless quest for justice. I would have spent the rest of my life tracking you down, and I found you Gregg's murderer. I brought you to justice. It's a moment of grim satisfaction for detectives Brennan and Apple. They had pieced together the puzzle, faced bureaucratic hesitance, and fought against a culture that often dismisses accidental discharges of firearms as regrettable but essentially blameless acts. Over lunch, they consider the work that's been done and what lies ahead.

1:19:00 Speaker 2: Brennan orders a cocktail, a small but significant active indulgence in relief. Apple on duty of stain. They plan to play a round of golf. Return to normalcy, but a normalcy that's charged, this time happily with the awareness of a job well done. I'm Zevan Odleberg, and this has been kind of murdery.

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