American Monsters: Lance Robert Mueller
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Sources:
https://973thedawg.com/greg-fleniken-death-true-crime-mystery-body-in-room-348-vanity-fair/ https://thecinemaholic.com/greg-fleniken-murder-where-is-lance-mueller-now/ https://medium.com/illumination/room-no-348-mystery-man-smashed-to-death-with-no-major-external-injuries-b0217bbf0837 https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/wife-of-man-found-dead-at-mcm-elegante-proceeds-4725451.php https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/05/true-crime-elegante-hotel-texas-murder
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Zevon Odelberg is a true crime podcast host and disability advocate. Zevon has cerebral palsy and he wants Kinda Murdery to be welcoming community for people with disabilities and for people living with challenges of any kind. Life can be hard, but being together makes it better.
Speaker 1: Warning. Kind of Murdery contains adult themes, explicit language, and
Speaker 1: descriptions of violence. It is not suitable for anyone, and
Speaker 1: we recommend you stop listening. Now.
Speaker 2: True crime with a dash of the paranormal, the garish,
Speaker 2: the strange, in the darkly comic. I'm Zevan Odelberg, host
Speaker 2: of Kind of Murdery, a podcast that's about more than
Speaker 2: just murder. It's my very own pocket dimension, home to
Speaker 2: a curated collection of bizarre and compelling stories, the unsolved,
Speaker 2: the unsettling, and the unbelievable. I cover it all just
Speaker 2: so long as it's kind of murdery. Like it says
Speaker 2: in the intro, I am Zevan Odelberg, and this is
Speaker 2: kind of murdery. If you're ready, please join me as
Speaker 2: we uncover what truths we can and solve what mysteries
Speaker 2: we may. Kind of Murdery Murder at the Elegante Hotel
Speaker 2: starts now. Glenn Flannagan had the art of road life
Speaker 2: down to a science, a methodical approach carved from years
Speaker 2: of travel. His rolling suitcase wasn't just luggage. It was
Speaker 2: a mobile drawer, a symbol of a transient existence, but
Speaker 2: one that he had mastered. In this hotel room, as
Speaker 2: in so many before, each item had its designated place,
Speaker 2: a floor for the soiled garments, a closet rod for
Speaker 2: the shirts still fit for public view. His toiletries occupied
Speaker 2: their own compartment in a cloth case, hanging ceremoniously on
Speaker 2: a bathroom towel rack like a banner of daily rituals.
Speaker 2: And let's not overlook the worn brown leather boots seasoned
Speaker 2: by countless journeys, alide near the suitcase, Like guardians at
Speaker 2: a temple. These boots had stories embedded in their scuffs
Speaker 2: and creases, an unspoken chronicle of where they'd been and
Speaker 2: what they'd seen. They held more than just the contours
Speaker 2: of Greg's feet. They held fragments of his life's mosaic.
Speaker 2: His faded genes cast aside spoke of labor and longevity,
Speaker 2: No glamour, just grit. They were shed like a second
Speaker 2: skin at the end of each taxing day. In their stead,
Speaker 2: he donned cotton pajama bottoms, a transition as symbolic as
Speaker 2: it was literal. In his shift from hardwearing genes to
Speaker 2: soft pajamas, he hung up the roles and responsibilities of
Speaker 2: his waking hours It was a curtain call of sorts,
Speaker 2: an actor stepping off stage, shedding a character to embrace
Speaker 2: his authentic self, if only for a few hours of rest.
Speaker 2: In the quietude of his hotel rooms, surrounded by the
Speaker 2: artifacts of a life spent on the road, Greg Flinniken
Speaker 2: found his order in chaos, his stability in flux. That
Speaker 2: is what makes this story so harrowing, as a story
Speaker 2: of a sanctum that provided no sanctuary at all, a
Speaker 2: story about how a life so meticulously arranged could still
Speaker 2: harbour invisible perils waiting to shatter the fragile equilibrium. For now, though,
Speaker 2: the room is silent, the boots in their place, the
Speaker 2: toiletries hanging from the rack, and Greg is in his
Speaker 2: cotton pajamas here in the sanctuary, in this brief moment
Speaker 2: of stillness, all seems right in the world. But as
Speaker 2: anyone versed in the capriciousness of fate would know, appearances
Speaker 2: can be dangerously deceiving. For Greg Flannigan, most evenings unfolded
Speaker 2: like a well rehearsed play, each act predictable yet comforting.
Speaker 2: In the confines of Room three four eight at the
Speaker 2: MCM Elegante Hotel in Beaumont, Texas, he had all he
Speaker 2: needed to sequester himself from the world. He'd kick the
Speaker 2: air conditioner into high gear. Its hum a soundtrack to
Speaker 2: his solitude, its chill a metaphorical barrier between him and
Speaker 2: the world outside. He'd sit propped up by pillows, leaning
Speaker 2: against the headboard of a bed that wasn't his but
Speaker 2: felt close enough. A clean white hand towel served as
Speaker 2: his tableaux, a miniature stage upon which the artifacts of
Speaker 2: his evening were carefully arranged ashtray, cigarette pack and lighter, BlackBerry,
Speaker 2: TV remote, and candy bar. Each object had its role
Speaker 2: in the performance of his evening. It's not just that
Speaker 2: he was watching TV, mind you. He was engaged in
Speaker 2: a solitary ritual as deliberate as a tea ceremony, as
Speaker 2: intimate as confession, smoking a cigarette, breaking off pieces of
Speaker 2: a rhese's Crispy Crunchy bar, sipping root beer. Each act
Speaker 2: was a quiet celebration of the mundane, a slow dance
Speaker 2: with routine. The movie of the night was Iron Man two,
Speaker 2: a tale of a hero wrestling with identity and responsibility,
Speaker 2: themes that might have resonated with Greg. On September fifteenth,
Speaker 2: twenty ten, ensconced in his hotel sanctuary, munching a candy bar,
Speaker 2: drinking a root beer, and smoking a cigarette, Greg Flinnickan
Speaker 2: started watching Iron Man two. Then comes the unnerving part.
Speaker 2: He missed the ending. Think about that a man so
Speaker 2: wrapped up in rituals, so intent on finishing what he started,
Speaker 2: didn't get to see how the story closed. It's like
Speaker 2: reading a novel and finding the last page torn out.
Speaker 2: For Greg, this wasn't just about missing the climax of
Speaker 2: a blockbuster movie. It was a break in the ritual,
Speaker 2: an unforeseen interruption that, unbeknownst to him signaled a more
Speaker 2: ominous cut off. In a room chilled to his preference
Speaker 2: among possessions meticulously placed, Greg Flinnickan found himself in a
Speaker 2: storyline that he didn't write, couldn't control, and wouldn't see
Speaker 2: to its end. This was the night when his carefully
Speaker 2: orchestrated solitude was shattered when the plot took a turn
Speaker 2: he couldn't have scripted. The room may have been cool,
Speaker 2: but the events that unfolded were anything but. What happened
Speaker 2: that evening in Room three forty eight long remained an
Speaker 2: unsettling mystery, A jarring deviation in a life measured by consistency.
Speaker 2: The story didn't finish the way that Greg expected, and
Speaker 2: therein Liza tail as gripping as it is tragic. In
Speaker 2: the realm of quiet men who make their mark, Greg
Speaker 2: Flinnickin stands out. His early years were defined by vast,
Speaker 2: untamed oceans as he worked as a chief engineer on
Speaker 2: seafaring vessels. But life is a series of acts, and
Speaker 2: Greg transitioned to his second act seamlessly. He became a
Speaker 2: landman in South Texas, facilitating the uneasy relationship between landowners
Speaker 2: and oil companies. He was good at it, joining forces
Speaker 2: with his brother Michael to carve out a prosperous niche
Speaker 2: in a city just east of Houston. Every Monday, the
Speaker 2: call of his responsibilities had him drive a two hour
Speaker 2: stretch from Lafay At, Louisiana to Beaumont, Texas. The journey
Speaker 2: was an unremarkable parade of roadside Americana, punctuated by industrial
Speaker 2: bohemoths like the Conico Phillips Refinery. His home away from
Speaker 2: home was the mcm Elegante Hotel, specifically a room in
Speaker 2: the Kaban, a three story wing that gave a nod
Speaker 2: to leisure with its swimming pool and potted plants. On
Speaker 2: the evening of that faithful Wednesday, September fifteenth, twenty ten,
Speaker 2: life seemed to follow its routine script. He received an
Speaker 2: email from his wife, Susy, updating him on tax matters.
Speaker 2: His reply, you're doing good, babe, might have suggested a
Speaker 2: moment of satisfaction, a brief digital exchange that bridged the
Speaker 2: miles between them, then irony with a sinister edge. Greg
Speaker 2: was watching Iron Man two, a film punctuated by fabricated
Speaker 2: high stakes violence, unaware that his own life was about
Speaker 2: to be punctuated by a very real and catastrophic event.
Speaker 2: During the film's climactic battle, Greg was blindsided by a
Speaker 2: blow so violent, so brutally real, that it severed his
Speaker 2: narrative right there. This blow wasn't a plot in a film.
Speaker 2: It was a shattering assault on Greg himself. As if
Speaker 2: propelled by sheer will, Greg managed to stagger off the bed.
Speaker 2: He aimed for the door, perhaps a subconscious attempt to
Speaker 2: escape the inexplicable horror unfolding, but his body gave out
Speaker 2: and he fell, his face meeting the green rug in
Speaker 2: a final grim encounter, By that point, Greg Flinnickan was
Speaker 2: likely already departed from a world he had navigated with
Speaker 2: such deliberate care. It's a disconcerting thought. Greg had survived
Speaker 2: the unpredictability of the high seas, navigated the complexity of
Speaker 2: oil rights, and built a life composed of routines and
Speaker 2: familial bonds. Yet in a room surrounded by the trappings
Speaker 2: of his chosen solitude, a vicious blow tore through that
Speaker 2: carefully constructed life like a rogue wave, leaving everyone to
Speaker 2: grapple with the unsettling mystery of his untimely end. The
Speaker 2: cruel irony is inescapable that a man so grounded, so
Speaker 2: tethered to his routines and responsibilities, would meet such a
Speaker 2: violent and mysterious end. The tale of Greg Flennecan is
Speaker 2: a haunting paradox, a narrative abruptly cut short, leaving us
Speaker 2: the audience of his life's story, with a set of
Speaker 2: difficult questions that have surprising answers. The ripple effects of
Speaker 2: Greg Flannikan's sudden death emanated far beyond room three four eight.
Speaker 2: For a man who valued his routines, failing to call
Speaker 2: his wife Susie in the morning, was more than an oversight.
Speaker 2: It was an alarm bell. His silence set a series
Speaker 2: of events into motion. Concerned co workers, unanswered knocks, and
Speaker 2: unlocked door. These were the first steps to unraveling what
Speaker 2: had happened in that room. Susie had been expecting a
Speaker 2: routine call, but instead she set off a cascade of
Speaker 2: inquiries that led two of Gregg's co workers to his
Speaker 2: hotel room. Once the door swung open, what they found
Speaker 2: was a diorama of stillness, of life interrupted. Greg lay
Speaker 2: prone a cigarette arrested in its journey to his lips.
Speaker 2: The room was suffocatingly warm, in contrast to Gregg's preference
Speaker 2: for a cool environment. Interdetective Scott Apple, a man who
Speaker 2: looked like he was molded from the clay of law
Speaker 2: enforcement culture itself. His initial assessment of the scene found
Speaker 2: little that seemed suspicious or out of place. No forced injury,
Speaker 2: no signs of struggle, and Gregg's wallet filled with cash
Speaker 2: still in his pocket. There was nothing to suggest anything
Speaker 2: but natural causes, a notion that even Gregg's wife, Susy
Speaker 2: was prepared to accept. Greg was a man who'd lived
Speaker 2: life on his own terms. His disdain for authority and
Speaker 2: modern health culture were well known. He'd chained smokes since
Speaker 2: his teens. Perhaps, as Detective Apple mused, this was just
Speaker 2: a man meeting the end his lifestyle had long promised.
Speaker 2: But that's the deceitful thing about appearances. They simplify complexities,
Speaker 2: they mask the inexplicable. On the surface, everything looked routine,
Speaker 2: a term that in the context of Gregg's meticulously structured life,
Speaker 2: had always offered comfort. Now it veiled an unsettling mystery.
Speaker 2: While the police may have seen the incident his routine,
Speaker 2: treating it almost like a procedural formality, there were elements
Speaker 2: that defied explanation. Why was the room so warm when
Speaker 2: Greg liked it cool? What could cause a man so
Speaker 2: attuned to his environment to drop dead without warning or reason.
Speaker 2: The initial phase of the investigation concluded with the perfunctory
Speaker 2: click of a camera, capturing images that would serve as
Speaker 2: the last record of Greg's life and surroundings. His body
Speaker 2: was then taken for an autopsy. On the surface, it
Speaker 2: seemed like a closed case and a fair needing only
Speaker 2: medical rubber stamping. But those who knew Greg and the
Speaker 2: life he had built couldn't shake the feeling that the
Speaker 2: story was incomplete. Susy found solace in the idea that
Speaker 2: Greg had died as he lived on his own terms.
Speaker 2: Yet there were unanswered questions, ones that neither the police
Speaker 2: nor the routine photos could put to rest. While Detective
Speaker 2: Apple may have initially categorized this as a quote natural
Speaker 2: causes thing unquote, the situation whispered more than it revealed.
Speaker 2: For a man so steeped in routine, what broke the cycle?
Speaker 2: What script when awry? It seemed like a minor medical
Speaker 2: mystery at the outset, but the real puzzle was just beginning.
Speaker 2: The tension between what appeared routine and what could be
Speaker 2: deeply mysterious sat heavy in the air, like a note sustained,
Speaker 2: waiting for the next chord in a dissonant song. As
Speaker 2: far as investigating death in Beaumont, Texas, is concerned, medical
Speaker 2: examiner Doctor Tommy Brown was an institution speedy, methodical, and
Speaker 2: deeply knowledgeable. He carried himself with the air of someone
Speaker 2: who had navigated the landscape of mortality more times than
Speaker 2: he could count. Each autopsy was conducted with precision, forty
Speaker 2: five minutes of inspecting, measuring, and dictating notes. His quick
Speaker 2: spoken demeanor and seemingly eccentric appearance only heightened his credibility
Speaker 2: in the professional community. In Jefferson County, Texas. His conclusions
Speaker 2: were treated as gospel. So when the body of Greg
Speaker 2: Flinnickan lay on the table before him, the expectation was
Speaker 2: for another routine case. At first glance, the man appeared
Speaker 2: healthy for his age, so obvious signs of trauma or degradation,
Speaker 2: just a lifeless shell of what was once a vibrant being.
Speaker 2: But as doctor Brown delved into the nitty gritty, an
Speaker 2: anomaly stood out. A half inch laceration on Greg's scrotum
Speaker 2: with accompanying discoloration and swelling. It was a jarring discrepancy
Speaker 2: amidst an otherwise unblemished physique. Beyond the laceration, there was more.
Speaker 2: The bruising expanded, rising through the groin and fanning out
Speaker 2: across the right hip. These signs didn't square with the
Speaker 2: early theories of natural death, and it wasn't just a
Speaker 2: matter of inconsistent details. It was a stark contrast that
Speaker 2: screamed for an explanation. What had struck Greg with such
Speaker 2: force and why a small abrasion on the left cheek
Speaker 2: from his fall to the rug seemed inconsequential. By comparison,
Speaker 2: here was a case that defied expectations. It seemed to
Speaker 2: ask more questions than it answered, poking holes in the
Speaker 2: theory of a natural death. Detective Scott Apple may have
Speaker 2: entered Room three five forty eight thinking he'd find answers easily,
Speaker 2: but Doctor Tommy Brown's findings pointed to something more complex,
Speaker 2: possibly sinister. The inconsistencies made the mundane elements, the room temperature,
Speaker 2: Gregg's unresponded emails, the undisturbed items on his towel all
Speaker 2: the more unsettling. What had started as a routine inquiry
Speaker 2: now treaded into uncharted territory. In a room where a
Speaker 2: man had seemingly built his own fortress of habits and preferences,
Speaker 2: something had violently intruded. The more doctor Brown discovered, the
Speaker 2: more the narrative seemed to unravel. Doctor Brown was no
Speaker 2: stranger to the baffling and inexplicable, but this mystery was
Speaker 2: a doozy even for him. Here was a man who,
Speaker 2: by all accounts, should not have met the fate that
Speaker 2: befell him in such a jarring and violent manner. As
Speaker 2: doct moved through his forty five minute routine, it became
Speaker 2: increasingly clear that this was anything but a routine case.
Speaker 2: What looked like just another post mortem on doctor Brown's
Speaker 2: table had evolved into a profound mystery. This was not
Speaker 2: just a question of how Greg Flinnickan died, but a
Speaker 2: question that dug deeper, unsettling all who delved into it.
Speaker 2: What exactly happened in Room three forty eight. The palpable
Speaker 2: tension between what was seen and what was found couldn't
Speaker 2: be ignored. It seemed as though the very room itself
Speaker 2: held its breath, awaiting a resolution to its newly enshrouded mystery.
Speaker 2: When doctor Tommy Brown cut into the torso, the narrative
Speaker 2: of a simple or natural death was immediately dismantled. What
Speaker 2: lay before him was a gruesome scene of internal destruction,
Speaker 2: lacerations on essential organs, broken ribs, and a hole in
Speaker 2: the heart, an injury most often seen in cases of
Speaker 2: fatal stabbings or gunshot wounds. What should have been a
Speaker 2: routine autopsy had suddenly escalated into a dire revelation, uncovering
Speaker 2: a theater of violence inside a seemingly undisturbed body. The
Speaker 2: trauma was too severe to be a mere accident. Something
Speaker 2: or someone had inflicted this. Gregg's injuries weren't just isolated
Speaker 2: or random. They were interconnected in a pattern of violence
Speaker 2: that had unfolded in a chillingly brief period of time.
Speaker 2: He would have bled out internally in less than half
Speaker 2: a minute, his life leaking away before he even had
Speaker 2: a chance to understand what was happening to him. It
Speaker 2: was an agonizing, shocking end for a man whose room
Speaker 2: bore no signs of intrusion or struggle. Brown's findings couldn't
Speaker 2: be shrugged off as an unfortunate medical event. This was intentional,
Speaker 2: gruesomely violent, and enacted with a precision that left hardly
Speaker 2: any external marks. The severity of Flennikan's internal injuries was
Speaker 2: a grim testament to the calculated brutality of the act.
Speaker 2: Doctor Brown didn't hesitate. The evidence was overwhelming, almost screaming
Speaker 2: at him from the autopsy table. When he filled out
Speaker 2: manner of death on the official form, there was only
Speaker 2: one word that could encapsulate the horror of what he
Speaker 2: had found, homicide. At that moment, the stake skyrocketed. Flennigan
Speaker 2: was not a man who had died. He was a
Speaker 2: man who was killed, and it begged the question, how
Speaker 2: could a murder so violent leave behind a crime scene
Speaker 2: so immaculate? What kind of person or force could enact
Speaker 2: such precise devastation without leaving a trace. The revelation that
Speaker 2: this was a homicide not only rocked the investigative team,
Speaker 2: but also turned Room three hundred and forty eight from
Speaker 2: a mundane hotel space into a chilling crime scene. Room
Speaker 2: three four eight had safeguarded its terrible secret until doctor
Speaker 2: Brown's scalpel laid it bare for all the world to see.
Speaker 2: Detective Apple was a seasoned officer, but nothing in his
Speaker 2: experience had prepared him for this. When he got a
Speaker 2: call from doctor Brown, it wasn't just a plot twist.
Speaker 2: It was a seismic shift in the landscape of the cave.
Speaker 2: Doctor Brown likened the internal injuries he had found to
Speaker 2: those usually seen in victims of catastrophic car crashes or
Speaker 2: industrial accidents, not in a man found alone in an
Speaker 2: undisturbed hotel room. Now, Beaumont, Texas wasn't a hotbed of
Speaker 2: criminal ingenuity. They averaged about ten murders a year, and
Speaker 2: most of them were straightforward. The motives transparent and frankly,
Speaker 2: the perpetrators careless. Typically, the clues lined up like a
Speaker 2: simple equation that just needed solving. But this, this was
Speaker 2: something else. Apple knew he had entered rarefied terrain, the
Speaker 2: kind of case that could define a detective's career either
Speaker 2: as a triumph or as an eternal question mark. For weeks,
Speaker 2: then months, Apple turned over every piece of evidence, interviewed
Speaker 2: every potential witness, and even revisited the scene multiple times,
Speaker 2: hunting for that elusive piece of the puzzle that would
Speaker 2: make sense of the nonsensical. The intrigue of a once
Speaker 2: in a career mystery soon gave way to fatigue and
Speaker 2: a harsh reality. Hard cases are hard for a reason.
Speaker 2: The conundrum was maddening. The scene of room three four
Speaker 2: eight bore no evidence of the ferocious violence that had
Speaker 2: shattered Funnican's insides, no signs of a struggle, no broken furniture,
Speaker 2: no marks on the walls, just an eerie silence that
Speaker 2: contradicted the story told by the dead man's battered internal organs.
Speaker 2: And the impossibility was compounded by a lack of any
Speaker 2: commotion heard by neighbors. Could such a horrific assault really
Speaker 2: leave everything and everyone around it so untouched. The questions
Speaker 2: stacked higher and higher. How does a man endure a
Speaker 2: beating so severe that his inner body resembles a car
Speaker 2: wreck without showing comparable exterior damage? How do you reconcile
Speaker 2: a lethal, clearly intentional attack with a crime scene that
Speaker 2: stubbornly refused to look like one. It was as if
Speaker 2: Flennakin had been killed by a ghost, a specter capable
Speaker 2: of inflicting deadly harm without leaving a trace. Apple was
Speaker 2: stuck in a made with no visible exit, casting shadows
Speaker 2: in a case that defied all conventional wisdom. And the
Speaker 2: weight of that paradox wasn't just professional, It was profoundly human.
Speaker 2: A man had been murdered, and the absence of answers
Speaker 2: was its own form of injustice, a secondary victimization that
Speaker 2: compounded the tragedy of Greg Flinnickan's incomprehensible death. The nagging
Speaker 2: question mark that loomed large over the investigation was simple,
Speaker 2: but vexing. Why Why would anyone target a man who,
Speaker 2: by all accounts, had not a single enemy in the world.
Speaker 2: What was the motive? Greg Flinnecan had a life that
Speaker 2: was a study in reliability, his home life, especially with Susie,
Speaker 2: was the bedrock upon which he built everything else. They
Speaker 2: were a pair stitched together by destiny, so much so
Speaker 2: that they'd walked down the aisle twice in one lifetime. Susie,
Speaker 2: with her unique blend of Southern warmth and rock and
Speaker 2: roll spirit, was the last person who deserved to be
Speaker 2: plunged into this chasm of uncertainty and pain. Her voice
Speaker 2: was a medley of emotions, heartbreak intermingled with fierce resolve.
Speaker 2: It's the voice of a woman who can extend a
Speaker 2: gracious invitation with one hand while holding a line in
Speaker 2: the sand with the other. Anyone listening could sense the
Speaker 2: duality of her emotions, part grieving widow, part lioness ready
Speaker 2: to pounce at the merest sniff of a clue that
Speaker 2: might lead to her husband's killer. To say she adored
Speaker 2: Greg would be an understatement. Their rekindled love story had
Speaker 2: the hallmark of a fairy tale. When they reconnected years
Speaker 2: after their initial marriage, Susy called Greg, and when he
Speaker 2: answered and realized who it was, he said immediately, I've
Speaker 2: been waiting for you to call. It's the kind of
Speaker 2: sentiment you can't fake. It has to come from a
Speaker 2: place of true devotion. Their love was, in its way,
Speaker 2: evidence evidence that Greg was not a man of conflict,
Speaker 2: but a man of deep connections. Detective Apple had to
Speaker 2: recognize the anomaly of this case. The victim's profile clashed
Speaker 2: with the very idea of being a target. Greg was
Speaker 2: a man who managed to navigate life's complexities with a
Speaker 2: kind of quiet grace that made him universally liked, even respected.
Speaker 2: The circumstances were more than puzzling, they were nearly paradoxical.
Speaker 2: The nature of Greg's injuries indicated a violent struggle, a
Speaker 2: battle that left its scars deep within his physical body.
Speaker 2: Yet the setting, the elegante hotel room, offered no corroborating
Speaker 2: signs of such a brutal confrontation. And Susie, well, she
Speaker 2: was a reminder of all that had been inexplicably lost,
Speaker 2: a human emblem of the case's deep, seemingly unanswerable questions.
Speaker 2: Greg's life was marked by the absence of the very
Speaker 2: elements that often play into violent crimes. No vices well
Speaker 2: except for cigarettes and candy bars, no dark secrets, no
Speaker 2: list of enemies. Yet the man who had waited years
Speaker 2: for a single phone call had met an ind so
Speaker 2: violent that it defied logical explanation. The case was not
Speaker 2: just a profession challenge for Detective Apple, it was an
Speaker 2: existential one. The absence of a clear motive struck at
Speaker 2: the core of his understanding of crime and justice. In
Speaker 2: a world that often seeks to categorize events as comprehensible
Speaker 2: or incomprehensible, the death of Greg Flennickan remained hauntingly in
Speaker 2: the second column. Greg Flennecan was a beacon of stability
Speaker 2: and decency. Those who knew him, his brother, his colleagues
Speaker 2: could attest to his commendable character. He kept to himself,
Speaker 2: usually retreating to his room at the Elegante early in
Speaker 2: the evening. He didn't haunt the hotel bar, nor did
Speaker 2: he engage in the sort of behaviors that usually attract trouble.
Speaker 2: Greg was not a drunk, not a womanizer, and certainly
Speaker 2: not a man prone to fights. He was, by all accounts,
Speaker 2: the kind of man most people inherently trust and like.
Speaker 2: Now this raises a glaring, unsettling question. Why would anyone
Speaker 2: target such a man for murder? It defies logic, Yet
Speaker 2: the grim reality was someone had Detective Apple waited through
Speaker 2: this murky mystery as the leaves of fall gave way
Speaker 2: to winter's chill in twenty ten. He turned over every
Speaker 2: possible stone, traced every conceivable line of inquiry. One notable
Speaker 2: event did catch Apple's eye, a small but potentially significant incident.
Speaker 2: On the evening of Gregg's death. While preparing a simple
Speaker 2: bag of microwave popcorn, greg had accidentally tripped an electrical circuit,
Speaker 2: causing a temporary power outage. The outage wasn't just confined
Speaker 2: to his room, it also affected room three four nine
Speaker 2: next door and the rooms below. He'd reported this to
Speaker 2: the front desk, even humbly admitting his mistake to the
Speaker 2: maintenance man who restored the power. The electrical mishap gave
Speaker 2: rise to two theories for Detective Apple, two theories that
Speaker 2: plunged the investigation into even murkier depth, amplifying the sense
Speaker 2: of urgency and despair. One moment, you're looking at a
Speaker 2: popcorn mishap, the next you're diving into the grim intricacies
Speaker 2: of human behavior. It was as if the darkness was
Speaker 2: easy to unfurl its secrets, but not without demanding its
Speaker 2: due in diligence and agony. So the power outage led
Speaker 2: Detective Apple to two competing theories. Theory number one, a
Speaker 2: deviant obsession. The maintenance man at the Elegante was no
Speaker 2: stranger to the darker allies of human behavior. His criminal
Speaker 2: record listed him as a sex offender. It was a
Speaker 2: glaring red flag, one that became even more ominous when
Speaker 2: you considered Gregg's peculiar injuries a puncture wound to the
Speaker 2: scrotum and internal traumas. Could a long screwdriver have been
Speaker 2: the instrument of a sadistic, sexually driven assault. Detective Apple
Speaker 2: engaged in exhaustive conversations with the man, dug into his past,
Speaker 2: but found no definitive evidence to substantiate this grim hypothesis.
Speaker 2: Like a mirage, this theory shimmered with dark promise before
Speaker 2: dissolving into the realm of unconfirmed speculation. Theory number two
Speaker 2: an unplanned confrontation. The second path of inquiry led to
Speaker 2: union electricians men who were bunked in room three four nine,
Speaker 2: just next door to greg These men were no mere travelers.
Speaker 2: They were in town for an extended period doing work
Speaker 2: for an oil company. By nightfall, they congregated in one
Speaker 2: another's rooms, perhaps with bottles opened and conversations flowing. What
Speaker 2: if the electrical outage had interrupted their nightly gathering. What if,
Speaker 2: fueled by alcohol and annoyance, they had confronted Greg in
Speaker 2: the hallway, an altercation escalated and things spiraled out of control.
Speaker 2: But you'd sure think there would be some evidence of
Speaker 2: disarray if that was the explanation, and the electricians, when questioned,
Speaker 2: presented a unified front. No one had seen, or heard
Speaker 2: or interacted with Greg from Room three forty eight. Each
Speaker 2: theory had presented its own set of questions, its own
Speaker 2: horrific scenarios, but neither bore the fruit of conclusion. Still,
Speaker 2: the painstaking inquiry led by Detective Apple refused to let go.
Speaker 2: It persisted, it nod, clinging to the slim hope that
Speaker 2: the veil would eventually lift to reveal the harsh, yet
Speaker 2: necessary truth. As the investigation soldiered on the question of
Speaker 2: why remained hanging in the air like a haunting melody.
Speaker 2: Could a simple electrical fault unravel into such calamitous events?
Speaker 2: If anything, the journey so far has taught us that
Speaker 2: in the most ordinary settings, the potential for extraordinary evil lurks.
Speaker 2: Often where we least expect it. Nine days after the
Speaker 2: murder of Greg Flannigan, as the questions continued to mount
Speaker 2: and the mysteries unfertile, Detective Apple donned a hidden camera
Speaker 2: and revisited the Commanda's wing, third floor with a fellow officer.
Speaker 2: Their mission to re question the same electricians, gauge their reactions,
Speaker 2: catch any inconsistencies, if there were any. What happened to
Speaker 2: that guy? Anyway? Lance Mueller broke the silence. His features
Speaker 2: were sharp and his dark hair was losing its battle
Speaker 2: with age. Clad in a T shirt and blue jeans,
Speaker 2: he and Tim Steinmanch were the occupants of room three
Speaker 2: four nine. Hell, I don't know, admitted Apple. That's precisely
Speaker 2: what I aimed on earth. It's as though some enormous
Speaker 2: weight toppled onto him. We're fishing for witnesses, sounds, whispers
Speaker 2: in the wind, anything, really. Mueller and Steinments were reservoirs
Speaker 2: of silence, except for one trivial clue they'd heard coughing
Speaker 2: from the adjacent room. As for the theory that something
Speaker 2: heavy had struck Greg, Mueller expressed the same bewilderment as Apple.
Speaker 2: There's nothing in these rooms heavy enough he insisted, the
Speaker 2: lingering questions continued to ferment like wine forgotten in a cellar.
Speaker 2: Weeks turned into months. Despite Apple's dogged pursuits and Greg's
Speaker 2: family offering a fifty thousand dollars reward, answers remained elusive.
Speaker 2: Private investigators came and went. The riddle of Room three
Speaker 2: four eight remained intact, an inch in the mind of
Speaker 2: every person who touched the case of the three electricians.
Speaker 2: Now being interviewed by Detective Apple, Trent Pisano, Thomas Elkins,
Speaker 2: and Scott Hamilton. It's Thomas Elkins who paints a surreal picture,
Speaker 2: revealing his initial thought upon seeing the body on the
Speaker 2: gurney in the elevator. He had presumed it to be
Speaker 2: caterers delivering either a large cake or an expansive food tray.
Speaker 2: Detective Apple ruefully acknowledged the happier interpretation, saying that's a
Speaker 2: better thought. Trent Pisano then admits that he was present
Speaker 2: in the room with Miller and another colleague named Steinmitz
Speaker 2: that fateful evening, Yet he adamantly asserts that he saw
Speaker 2: nothing out of the ordinary, And here the investigation hits
Speaker 2: another bewildering wall, a man who was in the room
Speaker 2: across the hall from a murder, claims that he neither
Speaker 2: saw nor heard anything unusual. It seems an unlikely statement,
Speaker 2: but Detective Apple has heard others Professor Sis similar ignorance,
Speaker 2: and so it does nothing to help solve the case.
Speaker 2: All three electricians willingly provide their identification, offer their mobile
Speaker 2: contact information, and declare their availability for future questioning. As
Speaker 2: they'd be in town for a few more months. We're
Speaker 2: happy to help, they say. These amiable electricians simply carrying
Speaker 2: on their work, juxtaposed with the dark undercurrents of the
Speaker 2: unexplained death that occurred just a couple doors away, presents
Speaker 2: a stark contrast. Here are individuals caught in the web
Speaker 2: of a bizarre case, their routine existence suddenly tinged with
Speaker 2: a touch of the macabre. It begs the question how
Speaker 2: many of us go about our daily lives blissfully unaware
Speaker 2: of the mysteries and potential dangers lurking just a few
Speaker 2: steps away. As weeks stretch into months, the supremely dedicated
Speaker 2: Detective Scott Apple exhausts every possible avenue of inquiry, ruminating
Speaker 2: on various theories that might shed light on the case.
Speaker 2: He doesn't rule out anyone, even entertaining the idea that Susie,
Speaker 2: the wife of the deceased, could have orchestrated her husband's
Speaker 2: untimely demise. The same intense objective scrutiny is applied to
Speaker 2: Michael Flannigan, Gregg's brother and business partner. Yet these avenues
Speaker 2: of investigation reach dead ends. There's not a shred of
Speaker 2: evidence pointing to either individual. The quest for resolution becomes
Speaker 2: more than an investigation. It becomes an existential dilemma for
Speaker 2: its human nature to yurine for answers to find comfort
Speaker 2: in the logical and explainable. A mystery solved not only
Speaker 2: restores order to chaos, but also alleviates that nagging itch
Speaker 2: for moral equilibrium. By contrast, the unresolved nature of this
Speaker 2: case remained a perpetual irritant, like that proverbial stone in
Speaker 2: the shoe of Detective Scott Apple. And so by the
Speaker 2: end of twenty ten, the detective is utterly stymied. The
Speaker 2: needle of the investigative compass is spinning aimlessly. In a
Speaker 2: desperate bid to generate new leads, Gregg's family raises the stakes.
Speaker 2: They offer a fifty thousand dollars reward in November, hoping
Speaker 2: to entice someone, anyone with information that could crack the
Speaker 2: case wide open. The result a deafening silence, no takers,
Speaker 2: no revelations. Gregg's brother, Michael, even hires a private detective
Speaker 2: from Houston, a former FBI agent, no less to collaborate
Speaker 2: with Scott Apple. Yet after reviewing the case, the private
Speaker 2: detective vanishes from the narrative, leaving Apple once again in
Speaker 2: solitary pursuit of elusive answers. But in a surprising twist,
Speaker 2: a new character enters the mystery. His name is Ken Brennan,
Speaker 2: and he picks up Susie's call while on a golf course,
Speaker 2: startling her by answering the phone himself, Ken Brennan speaking,
Speaker 2: he says, immediately establishing an air of authority, Susie has
Speaker 2: taken aback. She'd expected layers of intermediaries, but Brennan is
Speaker 2: refreshingly direct. Though Susie's not feeling well, she manages to
Speaker 2: narrate the convoluted tale of Gregg's death, the baffling findings
Speaker 2: of the coroner, and the investigation that hit a wall.
Speaker 2: Brennan cuts to the chase, requesting pertinent files and say
Speaker 2: suggesting that she send them as soon as she can.
Speaker 2: Then he adds something that strikes a different cord, well,
Speaker 2: you need to fucking take care of yourself. The blunt advice,
Speaker 2: delivered in a gravelly New York accent, is both a
Speaker 2: command and a moment of unexpected tenderness. It immediately endears
Speaker 2: Brennan to Susie So. Who is Ken Brennan. He's a
Speaker 2: former Long Island police officer and deea special agent now
Speaker 2: working as a private detective in Florida. The golf course
Speaker 2: location in February isn't a vacation, it's a testament to
Speaker 2: his successful practice. Brennan is in his late fifties, still
Speaker 2: physically imposing. He's styled in a way that fits the
Speaker 2: South Florida milieu, tan ruggedly handsome and fashionably attired. His
Speaker 2: choice of clothing emphasizes his well built physique, and he
Speaker 2: isn't shy about wearing gold accents at neck and wrist.
Speaker 2: Rings adorn several of his fingers, and his mostly white
Speaker 2: hair is styled in a low key pompadour, imparting an
Speaker 2: air of cocky but dignified confidence. Here, then, is a
Speaker 2: fresh pair of eyes, armed with years of experience and
Speaker 2: an unyielding personality, stepping into a mystery that has stumped
Speaker 2: even the most tenacious investigators. Brennan's injury into the murder
Speaker 2: investigation offers a glimmer of hope. Will his seasoned perspective
Speaker 2: and no nonsense approach finally provide the missing pieces to
Speaker 2: the intricate puzzle. Whether they do or they don't, it's
Speaker 2: a turn of events that reinvigorates the case, injecting new
Speaker 2: energy into a story desperate for resolution. In April, Ken
Speaker 2: Brennan arrived in Lafayette, Louisiana to dig into the cold case.
Speaker 2: Greg had lived in Lafayette when he wasn't on the road,
Speaker 2: and Brennan's first meeting was with Susie. He grilled her
Speaker 2: with pointed questions. He probed into the dynamics of their relationship,
Speaker 2: Greg's fidelity and any insurance arrangements that could hint at
Speaker 2: a motive. Finally, he said, let me ask you one
Speaker 2: more thing. Was there anything about the crime scene that
Speaker 2: didn't seem right to you? That seemed I don't know off?
Speaker 2: Susie mentioned something that piqued Brennan's interest. She found it
Speaker 2: odd that the hotel room was warm when Greg's coworkers
Speaker 2: entered The next next morning, Greg preferred to keep the
Speaker 2: ac blasting and the room chilled. Armed with this information,
Speaker 2: Brennan prepared for a second trip, this time to Beaumont.
Speaker 2: He arranged to meet Detective Apple at a local sports bar.
Speaker 2: Over a meal, Brennan laid out his philosophy for working together. Listen,
Speaker 2: I'm not a maverick. I don't do things half cocked.
Speaker 2: If I decide we're gonna do this, we're gonna do
Speaker 2: it as a team. There's nothing I'm gonna do that
Speaker 2: you're not gonna know about, and there should be nothing
Speaker 2: that you're gonna do that I don't know about. The
Speaker 2: one thing I won't do is fuck up your case.
Speaker 2: I've been doing this a long time, but I also
Speaker 2: know that you're the guy in charge here, so it's
Speaker 2: your case. In the meeting with Detective Apple, Brennan was
Speaker 2: not just sharing his approach to the case, but also
Speaker 2: evaluating Detective Apple. As Brennan would later say, I don't
Speaker 2: like to work with somebody I don't like. Brennan has
Speaker 2: a knack for quickly assessing people's character, a skill honed
Speaker 2: over years of dealing with both sides of the law.
Speaker 2: In this instance, he found detective Apple to his life.
Speaker 2: The feeling was mutual. Apple would later sum it up succinctly.
Speaker 2: Ken he said, has good people skills. With each season
Speaker 2: detective approving of the other, the stage is now set
Speaker 2: for a collaborative venture between them. Each brings to the
Speaker 2: table a unique set of skills and perspectives. Brennan, with
Speaker 2: his fresh viewpoint and no nonsense approach, compliments Apple, the
Speaker 2: local authority who's wrestled with this puzzling case for far
Speaker 2: too long. The sense of renewed hope is palpable as
Speaker 2: both investigators gear up to unravel the perplexing mystery that
Speaker 2: has confounded the authorities for months. What comes next could
Speaker 2: either break the case wide open or add another layer
Speaker 2: to its already complex history. Both men can feel it.
Speaker 2: The tension is building and the stakes are higher than ever.
Speaker 2: In this critical moment, Brennan synthesizes the disparate details into
Speaker 2: a plausible scenario, providing a glimmer of clarity in a
Speaker 2: case rife with uncertainty. As Apple listens, you can almost
Speaker 2: hear the gears of his bloodhound's mind clicking into place,
Speaker 2: Brennan wastes no time placing a crucial call to Susie
Speaker 2: to clarify certain specific habits of her late husband Greg.
Speaker 2: Was he left handed or right handed? And when he smoked?
Speaker 2: Which hand did he prefer? These seem like inconsequential details
Speaker 2: to an outside observer, but for a detective of Brennan's caliber,
Speaker 2: they are important pieces of the puzzle. With Susie's confirmation
Speaker 2: that Greg was right handed and that he always smoked
Speaker 2: with his right hand, Brennan starts to lay down conclusions.
Speaker 2: The answers to these questions serve as foundational building blocks
Speaker 2: to support his theory, bridging gaps in Apple's initial investigation.
Speaker 2: This was about more than just validating an idea. It
Speaker 2: was about looking at the case through a different lens,
Speaker 2: a fresh pair of eyes. Remember how Susie mentioned Greg's
Speaker 2: pennant for cranking up the air conditioner. That detail now
Speaker 2: becomes pivotal. Brennan concludes that the AC had been turned
Speaker 2: off when the circuit breaker tripped. Hotel records showed the
Speaker 2: repair man had last seen Greg alive around eight thirty PM,
Speaker 2: and it was likely that Gregg simply forgot to turn
Speaker 2: the air conditioner back on after the power issue was resolved.
Speaker 2: In a few short minutes, the room would have warmed up,
Speaker 2: and by then, tragically, Greg was already dead. In September,
Speaker 2: it's hot as fuck in Beaumont, Texas, Brennan states, cutting
Speaker 2: through the cloud of confusion, the room being warm wasn't
Speaker 2: an oversight. It was a haunting clue that helped pinpoint
Speaker 2: the time of Greg's death. The details were like breadcrumbs
Speaker 2: leading to a larger, unsettling revelation. Take that cigarette, seemingly
Speaker 2: innocuous but undeniably out of place. Greg, a right handed man,
Speaker 2: had it in his left hand, a peculiarity, you might think,
Speaker 2: but Brennan saw it as something more. It told him
Speaker 2: that Greg had shifted the cigarette to his left hand,
Speaker 2: probably as he rose from the bed and moved towards
Speaker 2: the door. It's an action you or I might take
Speaker 2: without thinking if we were about to grasp a door handle.
Speaker 2: But it's a detail that speaks volumes in a situation
Speaker 2: where details are scant and enigmatic. This simple observation shifted
Speaker 2: the existing case theories on their axis. Forget the notion
Speaker 2: that Greg had been severely beaten elsewhere and then transported
Speaker 2: back to three four eight. No assailant could or would
Speaker 2: have positioned a cigarette so naturally between Greg's fingers, and
Speaker 2: given the extent of the internal injuries, Greg sustained, it's
Speaker 2: unlikely he could have returned to his room, calmly lit
Speaker 2: a cigarette and then keeled over that cigarette in a
Speaker 2: left hand. It wasn't just an anomaly, it was a clue,
Speaker 2: an intimate look at Greg's final moments. This new trajectory
Speaker 2: of facts suggests that whatever violence befell Greg occurred within
Speaker 2: the confines of that room, and it adds a new
Speaker 2: layer of complexity. How does a man suffer such catastrophic
Speaker 2: internal damage in a room that looked virtually untouched, a
Speaker 2: room where not a single thing seemed out of place
Speaker 2: except for that cigarette and the lifeless body of the
Speaker 2: man who held it. It made the urgency of finding
Speaker 2: answers not just a quest for justice, but a compelling
Speaker 2: need to understand a deeply perplexing series of events. Brennan
Speaker 2: navigates this maze of inconsistencies with caution, adhering to a
Speaker 2: principle he's found invaluable patience in criminal inquiries, every detail
Speaker 2: counts rush, and you risk overlooking the piece that could
Speaker 2: complete the puzzle. With this in mind, Brennan posits an
Speaker 2: unsettling notion. Greg had to have been killed quickly in
Speaker 2: his own room, under circumstances that defy logic and confound
Speaker 2: forensic scrutiny. And so the electricians suddenly come back into focus,
Speaker 2: their room equally affected by the electrical outage that had
Speaker 2: also plunged Gregg's into darkness. And this, Brennan realizes, isn't
Speaker 2: a new angle for Detective Apple. It's a thread that
Speaker 2: Apple had considered but hadn't been able to pull tight
Speaker 2: enough to make a knot. Could these electricians, perhaps in
Speaker 2: an intoxicated state, have confronted Greg right in his doorway
Speaker 2: and in a chaotic and brutal moment, ended his life.
Speaker 2: Re Asking this question reopens pathways that seemed to have
Speaker 2: reached dead ends, and in doing so breathes new life
Speaker 2: into an investigation that had refused to yield simple answers.
Speaker 2: You questioned the electricians, Brennan asks, Apple, Yeah, they were
Speaker 2: nice guys. See anything hinky No, No, replies Apple, Well,
Speaker 2: I'm sure that if they were drinking they had to
Speaker 2: talk about it to each other. Brennan says, so somebody
Speaker 2: knows about them, Probably one or two of their close
Speaker 2: friends or their coworkers are going to know about this.
Speaker 2: Next Brennan and Apple visit doctor Brown, this is the
Speaker 2: question on their minds. Could Gregg's puzzling injuries be the
Speaker 2: result of a severe beating. Doctor Brown doesn't dismiss the idea.
Speaker 2: In fact, he even suggests that the brutal injury to
Speaker 2: Greg's scrotum could be the work of a forceful kick,
Speaker 2: especially if the assailant was wearing steel toed boots. Notably,
Speaker 2: steel toed boots are the very kind that the union
Speaker 2: electricians next door were known to wear freshly armed. With
Speaker 2: this medical perspective, Brennan sees another potential avenue in the investigation.
Speaker 2: It's one they've visited before, but now it demands a
Speaker 2: return trip. The avenue those very same electricians. He asks
Speaker 2: Apple to take the next step and interview the men
Speaker 2: who worked with the electricians the previous summer. Someone among
Speaker 2: their colleagues or friends may hold a clue. Perhaps some
Speaker 2: overlooked or disregarded detail could unlock the case. After outlining
Speaker 2: the plan, Brennan immerses himself in an exhaustive review of
Speaker 2: the hotel's surveillance footage. It's a grind watching the tedious
Speaker 2: movements of the evening in question, searching for something, anything,
Speaker 2: that might qualify as suspicious. The footage shows Greg arriving
Speaker 2: back from work. It shows the Electricians making various trips
Speaker 2: to their vehicles in the parking lot, but no anomalies
Speaker 2: leap out. In a case clouded by a multitude of
Speaker 2: baffling facts, Brennan and Apple soldier on. For them, this
Speaker 2: isn't just about merely connecting elusive dots. It's a grim
Speaker 2: search for justice. It's about accounting for every detail, no
Speaker 2: matter how minor, in a world that has proven its
Speaker 2: capacity for sudden and senseless violence. Brennan and Apple were
Speaker 2: seven months into the investigation, or the reinvestigation, if you will,
Speaker 2: and during this period, the Electricians had long since departed Beaumont.
Speaker 2: Despite their efforts, no fresh evidence had been unearthed. When
Speaker 2: they spoke to a crew foreman named Aaron Bork. Bork
Speaker 2: initially confused Gregg's case with another, mentioning something about a
Speaker 2: gun going off in a boarding house. Apple corrected him
Speaker 2: emphasizing that they were investigating a fight at the Ellegonte Hotel.
Speaker 2: Bork had no recollection of such an incident. Yet, Bork's
Speaker 2: unintentional reference to a gun ignited a fire in Brennan's mind,
Speaker 2: whose instincts, a sort of silent guidance system developed over
Speaker 2: years in law enforcement, led him back to room three
Speaker 2: four eight at the Elligante Hotel. Armed with flashlights, he
Speaker 2: and Apple meticulously scoured the room, searching for something, anything,
Speaker 2: that they didn't already know. After a period of fruitless searching,
Speaker 2: Brennan's attention shifted to an innocuous looking indentation on the
Speaker 2: wall next to the door. It was the sort of
Speaker 2: blemish that would normally be dismissed as wear and tear,
Speaker 2: but a simple test with the door handle revealed that
Speaker 2: it didn't align. That's when Brennan said to Apple, come on, Scott,
Speaker 2: let's take a look at the other side. The detective's
Speaker 2: accessed room three four to nine. There on the wall
Speaker 2: was a small hole, discreetly filled with dried toothpaste. But
Speaker 2: this wasn't just a hole. It was a bullet hole,
Speaker 2: and its alignment with the indentation in room three four
Speaker 2: eight was perfect. A laser test by crime scene investigators
Speaker 2: confirmed the trajectory. A bullet had passed through the wall
Speaker 2: right to where Greg had been sitting on his bed.
Speaker 2: Brennan broke the tension with a somber conclusion, This motherfucker
Speaker 2: was shot. The pieces fell into place, cracking open a
Speaker 2: layer of the mystery that had stumped investigators for months.
Speaker 2: It wasn't assault, a beating that claimed Greg's life. It
Speaker 2: was a bullet, a sinister force that passed through the wall,
Speaker 2: apparently unseen and unheard until it reached its fatal destination.
Speaker 2: Remember doctor Brown, the coroner. While doctor Brown was a
Speaker 2: man with an illustrious career, a guardian of scientific accuracy
Speaker 2: in the realm of forensic pathology, his office was a
Speaker 2: chaotic collection of papers, books and files, but it was
Speaker 2: also the nerve center of his work. So when detectives
Speaker 2: Brennan and Apple came to him with a new theory
Speaker 2: that contradicted his initial findings, Brown was, to put it
Speaker 2: mildly skeptical. His professional opinion had been that Greg Flennickan
Speaker 2: died from a beating, not a gunshot, and to change
Speaker 2: that narrative, well, Brennan and Apple would have to get
Speaker 2: past doctor Brown first. You guys saw the case yet,
Speaker 2: Doctor Brown asked, no, we're not there yet. Brennan responded
Speaker 2: cautiously with diplomatic finesse. He began laying out their newly
Speaker 2: discovered evidence, the bullet hole, the trajectory, the alignment. Doctor
Speaker 2: Brown was kurt in his response, You're trying to tell
Speaker 2: me that this man was shot. I'm telling you he
Speaker 2: wasn't shot. He immediately dismissed the notion of exuming the body,
Speaker 2: citing it as both insensitive and impractical, but mostly impractical
Speaker 2: since Gregg's body had been cremated. Brennan was undeterred by
Speaker 2: the incredulous doctor and by the lack of a body.
Speaker 2: He navigated the situation with the steady assurance that years
Speaker 2: of investigative work had imbued in him. Let's just go
Speaker 2: through the autopsy photos, he proposed. As they flipped through
Speaker 2: the grizzly snapshots, Brennan directed the conversation towards specific injuries,
Speaker 2: methodically interpreting them through the lens of the bullet's trajectory.
Speaker 2: Tell me, doc, could all this damage have been done?
Speaker 2: I mean, besides the blunt force trauma, could a bullet cause.
Speaker 2: The same Brown remain steadfast, upholding his original diagnosis. This
Speaker 2: man was beaten, but Brennan was onto something. Doc. That's
Speaker 2: a bullet hole, he declared. As they studied a photograph
Speaker 2: of Gregg's heart. Brown was silent, his eyes scrutinizing the
Speaker 2: image before him. His mind was a battlefield, weighing years
Speaker 2: of professional experience against the daunting possibility of a grave error.
Speaker 2: At last, he conceded, Yeah, that's a bullet hole. His
Speaker 2: voice was tinged with a reluctant mixture of defeat and discovery.
Speaker 2: The media is going to kill me on this, he added.
Speaker 2: The gravity of the revelation sinking in Brennan Napple had
Speaker 2: effectively turned the case on its head, altering its course
Speaker 2: and thrusting it into uncharted territory. But for doctor Brown,
Speaker 2: the epiphany came at the cost of questioning the very
Speaker 2: competence that had defined his career. Yet the sobering fact remained.
Speaker 2: Greg Flannagan's death was not the result of a drunken
Speaker 2: brawl or a spontaneous fight. It was a bullet, a
Speaker 2: deadly force that had cut through both walls and the
Speaker 2: deeply held professional convictions of doctor Brown to reveal a new,
Speaker 2: harsh piece of the elusive truth. The atmosphere felt almost
Speaker 2: congenial in the Chippewa County Sheriff's Department interview room, where
Speaker 2: detectives Apple and Brennan were interviewing Tim Steinmitz, one of
Speaker 2: the electricians who had been staying in the room next
Speaker 2: to three four eight along with his friend Lance Mueller
Speaker 2: on the fateful night when Greg Flinnigan was killed. Steinmanz
Speaker 2: likely felt a sense of relative ease given the formal,
Speaker 2: yet non aggressive demeanor of the Texas detectives. He settled
Speaker 2: into a swivel chair on his side of the wooden table.
Speaker 2: Across from him, the detectives sat with their notebooks, laid
Speaker 2: open files within easy reach, all elements of a conventional
Speaker 2: investigative process. Graciously, they thanked Steinmitz for his cooperation, emphasizing
Speaker 2: that this was all standard procedure, but beneath the thin
Speaker 2: veneer of routine the weight of an unresolved death, a
Speaker 2: puzzle that had led these officers across state lines, chasing
Speaker 2: leads that had grown cold over the past seven months.
Speaker 2: Steinmanz may have reassured himself that, sticking to his pre
Speaker 2: rehearsed story would keep him insulated. After all, no one
Speaker 2: likes to think of themselves as part of someone else's tragedy.
Speaker 2: Yet here he was unavoidably connected to the fate of
Speaker 2: a man who had died just a wall away from
Speaker 2: him in a Texas hotel. Although it's likely that Steinmanz
Speaker 2: found comfort in the detective's polite professionalism, it was this
Speaker 2: very courtesy that could be the most disarming. The officers
Speaker 2: were trained to walk the tightrope between comfort and confrontation,
Speaker 2: setting the stage for what could become a pivotal moment
Speaker 2: in a perplexing case. Tension hung heavy in the air,
Speaker 2: palpable yet unspoken, as the detectives began their questioning. Its
Speaker 2: settings like these, where rehearsed stories meet the crucible of scrutiny,
Speaker 2: where a person's words can either bring resolution to a
Speaker 2: grieving family or dig a deeper hole of missis And so,
Speaker 2: with notebooks open and Penn's poised, the detectives began. On
Speaker 2: one side of the table, Steinmitz had his story straight
Speaker 2: buttoned up, but on the other side, the detectives had
Speaker 2: a puzzle with missing pieces, and they were determined to
Speaker 2: find them. The question was would the words spoken here
Speaker 2: today fit into the puzzle or below? The case wide open?
Speaker 2: The weight of unspoken truths loomed as the interview commenced,
Speaker 2: and Tim Steinmanz no doubt felt the gravity of the moment,
Speaker 2: whether he showed it or not. Up until the moment
Speaker 2: that Steinmanz signed his statement, he probably thought everything was fine.
Speaker 2: The atmosphere in the room was almost friendly. The detective
Speaker 2: seemed satisfied his statement had been diligently written, corrected, initialed,
Speaker 2: and notarized. Steinmitz might even have felt a modest sense
Speaker 2: of relief as he prepared to leave. Is that it,
Speaker 2: he asked, rising from his seat, Hang on a second.
Speaker 2: Detective Brennan's voice shifted dramatically. It was until you signed
Speaker 2: that statement, But now you've got a problem. Suddenly the
Speaker 2: room was transformed. The congeniality vanished, replaced by palpable tension.
Speaker 2: Even fear Steinmanz had unwittingly crossed an invisible boundary, the
Speaker 2: signed statement had furnished the detectives with the leverage they
Speaker 2: needed to demand more from him. Signing a false statement
Speaker 2: to the police can be prosecuted as a felony for
Speaker 2: steinmans the stakes were now perilously higher. Feeling hornered, he
Speaker 2: sat back down, suddenly aware that he was ensnared in
Speaker 2: a situation far more precarious than he'd originally thought. All
Speaker 2: of the detective's friendliness had evaporated, like a puddle a
Speaker 2: cat piss on a summer sidewalk in Texas. The signed
Speaker 2: paper before him became a weight, pulling him into a
Speaker 2: reality far more grave, and then, like a dam breaking,
Speaker 2: the real story spilled out, a narrative far darker and
Speaker 2: more fraught than his initial testimony. This was not a
Speaker 2: simple tale of men in a hotel room. It was
Speaker 2: a scene fraught with imminent danger, fuel by alcohol and recklessness.
Speaker 2: The electricians had all been hanging out at Room three
Speaker 2: four nine, drinking after work when Lance Mueller, three sheets
Speaker 2: to the wind, began brandishing a nine milimeter Ruger handgun
Speaker 2: as if it were a toy, His judgment obviously impaired,
Speaker 2: perhaps obliterated by alcohol. In that moment, a chilling sensation
Speaker 2: washed over Steinmitz. He felt an immediate surge of adrenaline
Speaker 2: and dread as Mueller aimed the gun at him. He
Speaker 2: hit the floor instinctively, cursing at Mueller for his senselessness.
Speaker 2: Trent Pizzano, also President, felt a cold shock run down
Speaker 2: his spine, unsure in that moment whether he would be
Speaker 2: shot as Mueller pointed the gun in his direction, and
Speaker 2: then it happened, the deafening sound the concussion of a
Speaker 2: gun firing. A bullet punched through the room, narrowly missing
Speaker 2: Pisano and lodging itself into the wall, or so they thought. Mueller,
Speaker 2: perhaps coming to grips for the first time with the
Speaker 2: gravity of his reckless actions, was panic stricken. He scurried
Speaker 2: to his car to return the gun, leaving behind a
Speaker 2: room filled with shock and indignation. Pissano, disgusted and unnerved,
Speaker 2: retreated to his own room. The incident was not just
Speaker 2: a cautionary tale, but a damning episode that exposed a
Speaker 2: life threatening lapse in judgment. It was a moment that
Speaker 2: underscored the perilous conjunction of alcohol, firearms, and human fallibility.
Speaker 2: After returning the gun to his car in a panic lance,
Speaker 2: Mueller was desperate to erase any evidence of his reckless behavior,
Speaker 2: and he decided to patch the bullet hole, but he
Speaker 2: didn't use plaster or any other conventional materials because he
Speaker 2: didn't have those on hand. Instead, he used toothpaste. With
Speaker 2: a sense of urgency, driven by the haunting realization of
Speaker 2: just how badly things could have turned out, he slathered
Speaker 2: the toothpaste into the hole, smoothing it out in an
Speaker 2: amateur attempt to make it disappear. It was a moment
Speaker 2: that symbolized the feudal efforts to cover up actions that
Speaker 2: had become dangerously consequential. Toothpaste, a mundane item typically associated
Speaker 2: with daily routine, was now part of an unsettling narrative,
Speaker 2: a flimsy cover over a gaping wound. Both literally and metaphorically,
Speaker 2: it was a desperate, almost childish act that belied the
Speaker 2: gravity of the situation. Patching the bullet hole with toothpaste
Speaker 2: was a metaphor for the broader failure of judgment that evening,
Speaker 2: a cover up poorly executed and unlikely to hold up
Speaker 2: to any real scrutiny, although, as we now know, hold
Speaker 2: up it did for many months. When Tim Steinmanz finally
Speaker 2: spilled the beans on what really happened that fateful night,
Speaker 2: including Mueller's attempt at playing handy man with a tube
Speaker 2: of toothpaste, it underscored the absurdity and the horror of
Speaker 2: the entire situation. It wasn't just about a bullet hole
Speaker 2: in a wall. It was about holes in their stories,
Speaker 2: their judgment, and perhaps the fabric of their moral compasses.
Speaker 2: And all these holes couldn't be filled with a tube
Speaker 2: of crest. The true story was out, and Steinmann's demeanor
Speaker 2: was a mix of relief in trepidation as he leaned
Speaker 2: back in his chair, staring at the notepad where his
Speaker 2: second statement, the true statement, was laid out in black ink.
Speaker 2: He had reached the point of no return when he
Speaker 2: and Mueller had heard that soft cough from the room
Speaker 2: next door after returning from the bar past midnight. They
Speaker 2: had become aware of the presence of their neighbor for
Speaker 2: the first time, and then when the man had died,
Speaker 2: they kept their activities to themselves, secretly worried about the consequences.
Speaker 2: When Steinmann saw the police presence and the gurney being
Speaker 2: rolled out of room three four to eight the next morning,
Speaker 2: his heart sank. I thought he'd killed that guy, Steinman's
Speaker 2: confessed to Brennan. His voice was tinged with a sense
Speaker 2: of regret and a palpable concern over the gravity of
Speaker 2: their actions, now starkly manifest in the tragedy that had
Speaker 2: unfolded next door. What had started as an evening of
Speaker 2: friends getting sloshed and blowing off steam after a hard
Speaker 2: day's work had spiraled into a horror show of reckless behavior,
Speaker 2: amplified by the irresponsible handling of a loaded gun, and
Speaker 2: then escalated into something darkly irrevocable, the murder of an
Speaker 2: innocent man. Now burdened by this revelation and its weighty implication,
Speaker 2: Steinmitz understood that there was no going back. The recklessness
Speaker 2: that had once seemed thrilling was revealed for what it
Speaker 2: truly was, a dangerously negligent act that had altered lives forever.
Speaker 2: The line between mischief and morality had been perilously thin,
Speaker 2: and they'd crossed it. No, they'd obliterated it. Steinmitz had
Speaker 2: laid his cards on the table. There was that one
Speaker 2: minor detail, a detail that neither Brennan nor Apple seemed
Speaker 2: too keen on. It was a nagging discord and an
Speaker 2: otherwise harmonious narrative, the cough from behind the closed door
Speaker 2: of Room three four eight. This seemingly innocuous sound had
Speaker 2: the weight of implication. For if, in fact it was
Speaker 2: true that Steinmitz had heard the cough, it suggested that
Speaker 2: greg had clung to life far longer than any medical
Speaker 2: theory had accounted for. This piece of information was unsettling
Speaker 2: for both the detectives and Tim Steinmitz, albeit for different reasons.
Speaker 2: For the detective it was an incongruity they were willing
Speaker 2: to overlook book. Their primary objective was to reconstruct the
Speaker 2: chain of events that led to Gregg's demise, not to
Speaker 2: determine his exact time of death. Moreover, Steinmitz and his
Speaker 2: friends were intoxicated on the night in question, further compromising
Speaker 2: the reliability of their memory. But for Steinmanz, clinging to
Speaker 2: the detail of the cough was akin to holding onto
Speaker 2: a lifeline an ounce of exoneration. It may not have
Speaker 2: mattered legally, but morally ethically, while that was a different story.
Speaker 2: As Steinmanz sat there grappling with the realization of his
Speaker 2: own failure to act to knock on the neighboring door,
Speaker 2: the weight of it all loomed over him. He was
Speaker 2: halfway through a personal reflection, musing on what he could
Speaker 2: or should have done differently. When the atmosphere in the
Speaker 2: room shifted palpably. Brennan and Apple had another task for him,
Speaker 2: something else they wanted Steinman's to do. The moment of
Speaker 2: introspection was cut short. It was as if the room
Speaker 2: had collectively decided that there was a line of ethical
Speaker 2: questioning that would remain uncrossed for now. Steinman's unfinished thigh
Speaker 2: lingered in the air, a haunting reminder of the human
Speaker 2: dimensions that lurk behind the sterile facts of a criminal case.
Speaker 2: It felt like two outs in the bottom of the
Speaker 2: ninth in a one run baseball game, bases loaded full
Speaker 2: count three and two, pitcher and batter wiping sweat from
Speaker 2: their brows. Everyone on the edge of their seats, hollowed, dread,
Speaker 2: gnawing away at their stomach lining. The detectives had given
Speaker 2: steinmans a task. He dreaded their instruction, and yet had
Speaker 2: no choice but to comply. And so Tim Steinmanz picked
Speaker 2: up his cell phone to call Lance Mueller. Hey, Lance,
Speaker 2: what's up, he asked, his voice warbling with tension and dread.
Speaker 2: Not much, said Mueller, just sitting around. Well, I just
Speaker 2: got back from down there, said Steinmitz. How to go
Speaker 2: Steinmitz hesitated, his conscience at war with instincts for self preservation. Finally,
Speaker 2: he fessed up, Well, I told him the whole story,
Speaker 2: you know, what happened that we were sticking to there.
Speaker 2: You know, what's that? You know, the story that we
Speaker 2: were sticking to that we got home late that night,
Speaker 2: you know, and the guy coughed and whatever. Right, and
Speaker 2: Steinmen's voice faltered, and I was fixing. I was just
Speaker 2: going to leave it there, but because your lawyers said
Speaker 2: it would be okay, right, you know, right, And when
Speaker 2: I left it there, they said, okay, you know, tell
Speaker 2: us the truth. So you know, I told him the
Speaker 2: truth to what really happened. Silence ensued on the other
Speaker 2: end of the line, a cavernous, echoing void that hung
Speaker 2: heavily in the air. It was as if time itself
Speaker 2: had frozen. You mean about the gun going off and
Speaker 2: all that, you oler finally asked, breaking the silence, yep.
Speaker 2: And what do they say, Well, that I would be trouble,
Speaker 2: in trouble, you know if I didn't tell him. The
Speaker 2: grew thicker. Another long silence. So Tim, what did they say? Well,
Speaker 2: not much. I mean, I don't know if they're going
Speaker 2: to get a hold of you, or or tranter or
Speaker 2: what the hell they're gonna do. Mueller sighed audibly, a
Speaker 2: noise resembling the death rattle of a wounded animal. Then
Speaker 2: he groaned, what do they mean by that? I mean,
Speaker 2: tell us the truth. Did they say anything about the
Speaker 2: gun prior to that or what? No? No, they just
Speaker 2: said they knew exactly what happened. They told me to
Speaker 2: stop fucking lying. They were pretty pissed. And then I
Speaker 2: told them exactly how everything went down and what really
Speaker 2: truly happened? Are you shitting me? Tim? Mueller's voice had
Speaker 2: a dangerous edge. No, No, I'm not. Oh my god,
Speaker 2: are you kidding me? Are you serious? Right now? I'm
Speaker 2: serious as a heart attack. Lance. Here, the human mind's
Speaker 2: capacity for self deception reveals itself in Mueller's incredulity. Despite
Speaker 2: all the evidence stacking up against him, Mueller refused to
Speaker 2: connect the dots between the gun and the man's death.
Speaker 2: Doesn't make sense, Tim. At first the coroner ruled that
Speaker 2: it was a heart attack. Then they started saying something
Speaker 2: that something fell on him. There's no way, there's absolutely
Speaker 2: no way that that guy was killed by a bullet.
Speaker 2: How you doing, Lance, Steinmitz asked, how you feeling, how's
Speaker 2: your state of mind? How am I doing? Mueller shot back,
Speaker 2: not good tim I need to drink some more beers.
Speaker 2: As the weight of the revelations had begun to sink in,
Speaker 2: Mueller resorted to a familiar coping mechanism booze. Then later, inebriated,
Speaker 2: he called Brennan, mumbling his desire to make a statement.
Speaker 2: You'd drunk. Brennan told him, hang up the phone and
Speaker 2: call your fucking' attorney. And so this tale unravels layer
Speaker 2: by disturbing layer. The dissonance between Steinmitz and Mueller reveals
Speaker 2: a fraught psychological landscape where truth wrestles with illusion and
Speaker 2: moral choices clash with self interest. The tragic irony here
Speaker 2: is that these men had an opportunity, however late, to
Speaker 2: act on their conscience. Yet it seems that they chose
Speaker 2: the path of least resistance, rationalizing their actions until the
Speaker 2: grim truth cornered them. The choices we make in the
Speaker 2: shadows always find their way into the light. As Brennan
Speaker 2: sat in the courtroom, he could feel a sense of
Speaker 2: unease settling over him like a dense fog. The judge's
Speaker 2: initial words seemed to dismiss the gravity of the situation,
Speaker 2: characterizing it as a terrible accident. It was October twenty ninth,
Speaker 2: twenty twelve, and Brennan had traveled to Beaumont, joining Susie
Speaker 2: Flannickan Scott Apple, and others from Greg's inner circle. They
Speaker 2: were all gathered for a solemn purpose to hear the
Speaker 2: sentencing of Lance Mueller, the electrician, who had entered a
Speaker 2: no contest plea to manslaughter. The words terrible accident hung
Speaker 2: in the air, charged with unsettling tension, and, in Brent opinion,
Speaker 2: not near enough truth. Was this what it had come
Speaker 2: down to? Years of investigation, unraveling truth's layer by excruciating layer,
Speaker 2: only for the conclusion to be framed as a mere accident.
Speaker 2: Brennan's thoughts turned to Greg's family and friends present in
Speaker 2: the courtroom. How would they perceive this? How would they
Speaker 2: feel about this? What would it mean for them? For
Speaker 2: justice and for the larger narrative of personal accountability. To Brennan,
Speaker 2: the judge's words struck a dissonant chord, like a child
Speaker 2: mashing piano keys at random. This wasn't just a terrible accident.
Speaker 2: It was an event that had unfolded due to a
Speaker 2: series of choices, some passive, some active, but choices nonetheless,
Speaker 2: choices that irrevocably altered the course of multiple lives. Calling
Speaker 2: it a terrible accident almost seemed to minimize those choices, and,
Speaker 2: by extension, the life that had been lost and the
Speaker 2: lives that had been impacted. It suggested an absence of intent,
Speaker 2: a mitigating circumstance. But what of the mitigating circumstances for Greg,
Speaker 2: for his family, and his friends. They were absent, replaced
Speaker 2: by stark, irreversible reality. Brennan's apprehension could have been the
Speaker 2: apprehension of anyone who ever sought justice, ever looked to
Speaker 2: the legal system for some form of closure. Could the
Speaker 2: sentence capture the intricate layers of morality, of human failure
Speaker 2: and frailty woven into this tragedy? Or would it miss
Speaker 2: the mark? Settling for an explanation that skirted the uncomfortable complexities,
Speaker 2: You could cut the tension in the room with a
Speaker 2: butter knife. The stakes were high. Whatever the judge's final
Speaker 2: words would be, they had to service the concluding chapter
Speaker 2: of a story that had been fraught with suspense, drama,
Speaker 2: and heartbreak. It was a story that had started in
Speaker 2: the cold anonymity of a hotel room and had led
Speaker 2: everyone present in the courtroom on a grim journey through
Speaker 2: the mazes of human behavior and now justice. As Brennan
Speaker 2: awaited the judge's next words, he was confronted with the
Speaker 2: reality that sometimes the system could only provide so much
Speaker 2: clarity or solace, and as the courtroom held its collective breath,
Speaker 2: the weight of that reality pressed heavily on all present.
Speaker 2: This was the moment that would answer the lingering questions,
Speaker 2: bring closure, or perhaps leave an unfillable void in the
Speaker 2: hearts of those seeking justice for Greg, just like his
Speaker 2: absence would leave a void that would be unfilled forever.
Speaker 2: When the judge parted his lips to speak again, Brennan's
Speaker 2: pulse quickened, his thoughts, echoing the collective anxiety that filled
Speaker 2: the courtroom. Oh fock, he found himself silently exclaiming, Ereic goes,
Speaker 2: don't tell me, this guy's gonna get a fucking year
Speaker 2: or something. But then plot twist. The judge began an
Speaker 2: articulate recitation of the recklessly irresponsible choices that had created
Speaker 2: the entire tragedy. Every decision was laid bare, each one
Speaker 2: scrutinized under the cold light of judicial review. This is
Speaker 2: more like it, Brennan thought, and the tightness in his
Speaker 2: chest eased ever so slightly. Finally, there was acknowledgment of
Speaker 2: the casual sequence, the chain of human errors and wilful
Speaker 2: neglect that had culminated in an irreversible tragedy. There was
Speaker 2: no glossing over, no sanitation of the uncomfortable facts. The
Speaker 2: cataloging of irresponsible choices acted like a bridge connecting the
Speaker 2: legal proceedings to the raw emotional reality that Greg's family
Speaker 2: and friends had been grappling with. It seemed to say,
Speaker 2: this wasn't just something that happened, This was something that
Speaker 2: was caused, and now there must be accountability. For Brennan,
Speaker 2: that moment was redemptive in its own way. It was
Speaker 2: an affirmation that their efforts, tireless investigations, countless interviews, and
Speaker 2: the arduous journey through the maze like legal system were
Speaker 2: not in vain. This was not a simplistic rendering of
Speaker 2: events as a quote terrible accident unquote, but rather a
Speaker 2: nuanced understanding that situated the tragedy in a context of
Speaker 2: avoidable human failure. As the judge continued speaking, there was
Speaker 2: a collective, albeit quiet exhale in the courtroom. It was
Speaker 2: as if everyone had been holding their breath waiting for
Speaker 2: this very moment, when the system, often seen as coldly analytical,
Speaker 2: showed a glimpse of its humanity By recognizing the gravity
Speaker 2: of the mistakes made Brennan almost wanted to get up
Speaker 2: an applaud, and so as the long list of irresponsible
Speaker 2: choices was delineated, one couldn't help but feel a subdued
Speaker 2: sense of vindication. It was a sobering acknowledgment that actions
Speaker 2: have consequences, that choices matter, and that in the final analysis, justice,
Speaker 2: however imperfect, seeks to reconcile the scales that were so
Speaker 2: tragically tipped. As the gavel struck, the court room seemed
Speaker 2: to inhale a collective breath of finality. The judge had
Speaker 2: sentenced Lance Mueller to ten years, only half of the
Speaker 2: maximum penalty that the law permitted. Mueller's court room apology,
Speaker 2: which seemed tinged with genuine remorse, felt to many like
Speaker 2: a feudal act of contrition, too little, too late. From
Speaker 2: the beginning, Mueller had been running an insidious game of
Speaker 2: calculated risks, or perhaps uncalculated risks. But still, his reckless
Speaker 2: decision to play with a firearm while in a drunken
Speaker 2: state was not just irresponsible, it was criminally so. Even
Speaker 2: his coworker Steinmitz had admitted that they had suspected that
Speaker 2: Mueller's wayward bullet might have played a role in the
Speaker 2: demise of the man in Room three four to eight,
Speaker 2: even if Gregg's death had originally been classified as a
Speaker 2: heart attack, which of course it wasn't, But even if
Speaker 2: it had been, the disorienting shock of a bullet tearing
Speaker 2: through the wall could easily have been the trigger. And
Speaker 2: yet after the coroner had initially ruled blunt Force's trauma
Speaker 2: as the cause, Mueller had comfortably settled into the narrative,
Speaker 2: however implausible, that something else had killed greg even went
Speaker 2: as far as to patch the bullet hole with toothpaste,
Speaker 2: a ludicrous attempt to paint over the cracks in his
Speaker 2: moral landscape, and a half ass attempt to cover the evidence,
Speaker 2: that's for sure. The gun was hastily hidden first in
Speaker 2: his car and then with a friend, before finally being
Speaker 2: handed over to an attorney for safe keeping. All this
Speaker 2: justed one thing. Mueller was concerned, if not downright afraid,
Speaker 2: that the bullet from his gun had done terrible, irreparable damage.
Speaker 2: Had he come forward at any point before detectives Brendan
Speaker 2: and Apple had cracked the case, a painstaking process that
Speaker 2: we know took nearly eight months, it's possible that Mueller
Speaker 2: might have evaded a manslaughter charge or even imprisonment. Instead,
Speaker 2: he gambled. He banked on the hope that his connection
Speaker 2: to Greg's death would remain forever shrouded in mystery. And
Speaker 2: let's not overlook the fact that initially the odds seemed
Speaker 2: to favor him. Even after the connection was revealed, the
Speaker 2: county District attorney's office had been hesitant to escalate the
Speaker 2: case to a felony. The lesson here, albeit one learn
Speaker 2: too late for Mueller, is that the intricate mechanisms of justice,
Speaker 2: despite their occasional inefficiencies, do grind slowly but exceedingly fine.
Speaker 2: It also offers a scathing commentary on human fallibility and
Speaker 2: the moral perils of gambling with someone else's life. Mueller's actions,
Speaker 2: or more precisely, his lack of timely responsible actions, were
Speaker 2: a roll of the dice that had devastating consequences, not
Speaker 2: just for Greg and his grieving family, but for the
Speaker 2: very fabric of trust that holds communities together. It's an
Speaker 2: unsettling reminder that in the intricate web of human interaction,
Speaker 2: one reckless act can send ripples far and wide, altering
Speaker 2: the course of multiple lives. And while the courtroom verdict
Speaker 2: may have provided some form of legal closure, the moral
Speaker 2: questions surrounding the case remain unanswered, echoing in the corridors
Speaker 2: of conscience long after the courtroom doors have swung shut.
Speaker 2: But Detective Brennan wasn't the type to let the complexities
Speaker 2: of the law cloud the moral clarity of a situation.
Speaker 2: When he got win that the prosecutor initially had been
Speaker 2: considering a plea deal for Muller, he knew he had
Speaker 2: to intervene. He flew to Beaumont, putting himself directly into
Speaker 2: the fray between the forces of expediency and the demands
Speaker 2: of justice. There he found himself an immediate with Paul Noiola,
Speaker 2: an investigator for the DA's office, and Scott Apple. Noyola
Speaker 2: laid out the prevailing sentiments accidental gun discharges were not
Speaker 2: rare in Texas, and both judges and juries typically understood them.
Speaker 2: The Texas criminal Code was admittedly vague on accidental deaths,
Speaker 2: which made the case look more like an uphill battle
Speaker 2: than a straight path to justice. Brennan was incensed the
Speaker 2: stakes were higher than the inconvenience of a difficult prosecution.
Speaker 2: This wasn't merely about legal gray areas. It was about
Speaker 2: the glaring black and white of right and wrong, and
Speaker 2: so the seasoned detective orchestrated a move. He brought Susie
Speaker 2: flinnickin to Beaumont to sit face to face with the
Speaker 2: assistant district attorney who was handling the case. However, this
Speaker 2: was not just about how the district attorney felt or
Speaker 2: what he thought the easiest path to justice was. He
Speaker 2: was in fact facing complications of his own. Mueller's gun
Speaker 2: was still in legal limbo, held by a lawyer who
Speaker 2: seemed ready to put up a fight before turning it over.
Speaker 2: It was as if the physical gun ensconced in that
Speaker 2: lawyer's safe, was a metaphor for the moral and legal
Speaker 2: complexities that enshrouded the case. Yet for Brennan, it was
Speaker 2: about breaking through the administrative fog to reveal the stark
Speaker 2: reality of a life loss due to reckless irresponsibility. His
Speaker 2: aim was not just to solve a case, but to
Speaker 2: serve as a conscience for a system that could sometimes
Speaker 2: lose sight of its fundamental purpose justice. By bringing Susie
Speaker 2: Flinnick into that meeting, he was humanizing a case that
Speaker 2: seemed to be slipping into the abstract. He was making
Speaker 2: it impossible to ignore the devastating aftermath of one man's
Speaker 2: irresponsible choices. It's moments like these that challenge the judicial system,
Speaker 2: forcing it to weigh bureaucratic inconveniences against the incalculable value
Speaker 2: of human life. In the end, what Brennan represented was
Speaker 2: the unyielding voice of moral clarity amidst the murkiness of
Speaker 2: laws and codes. In a world where lines can often blur,
Speaker 2: Brennan's actions remind us that some boundaries should never be crossed.
Speaker 2: Brennan's actions speak to the need for vigilance for the
Speaker 2: ceaseless questioning of a system that well flawed remains our
Speaker 2: best mechanism for balancing the scales of justice, and sometimes,
Speaker 2: in that delicate balance, a single voice, even a rough one,
Speaker 2: with a new York accent, or perhaps maybe especially a
Speaker 2: rough one with a New York accent can tip the scales.
Speaker 2: The DA was reluctant to pick up the fight with
Speaker 2: Mueller's attorney to turn over the gun, but Brennan had
Speaker 2: had enough. I suggest you fucking go down there with
Speaker 2: a search warrant and a fucking blow torch and get
Speaker 2: the fucking weapon. Brennan furiously berated the district attorney. It's
Speaker 2: evidence of a capital crime. What the fuck are you
Speaker 2: talking about? This was more than just an outburst. It
Speaker 2: was a crystalline moment of moral clarity. When Brennan mentioned
Speaker 2: the blow torch and the search warrant, it was as
Speaker 2: if he was cutting through the red tape that so
Speaker 2: often shackles the wheels of justice. His words were not
Speaker 2: just an explicit call to retrieve physical acas evidence, but
Speaker 2: a figurative call to burn away the excuses, the delays,
Speaker 2: and the bureaucratic inertia that stood between the truth and
Speaker 2: its due consequence. The second part of Brennan's argument with
Speaker 2: the district attorney, which followed the pointed directive about the
Speaker 2: blow torture the search warrant, was equally impactful. Greg Flannigan.
Speaker 2: The victim was important to everybody here, Brennan said, gesturing
Speaker 2: around the table, his eyes lingering for an extra moment
Speaker 2: on Greg's wife, Susy. And we're not gonna let this
Speaker 2: thing get brushed under the rug like somebody takes a
Speaker 2: plea on this. This is not a fucking accident. An
Speaker 2: accident is when somebody comes in has taken off their gun,
Speaker 2: the gun discharges, and god forbid, somebody gets hit. That's
Speaker 2: one thing. It's completely fucking different when somebody fucking brings
Speaker 2: a gun that they shouldn't have into another fucking state.
Speaker 2: Shit face drunk fucking around with the gun. Even the
Speaker 2: people around them realized that something bad could happen. He
Speaker 2: discharges around, almost kills the guy he's with, and the
Speaker 2: and he does kill somebody on the other side of
Speaker 2: the wall. He knows that's something that could happen. It's
Speaker 2: an occupied hotel. And then and then he doesn't even
Speaker 2: bother to knock on the door next door to see
Speaker 2: if anybody's hurt. And after that, his answer to the
Speaker 2: whole thing is to go get drunk some more in
Speaker 2: the fucking hotel bar. And then when he sees a
Speaker 2: body being taken out the next day, and he's one
Speaker 2: hundred percent certainly kills somebody. He decides not to say anything,
Speaker 2: but to run to his attorney and leave the fucking
Speaker 2: weapon and a safe, and the fucking attorney doesn't say
Speaker 2: anything about it either. You want to know what that is.
Speaker 2: That is fucking murder. So if you think we're gonna
Speaker 2: forget about this whole fucking thing, think again, because that
Speaker 2: ain't fucking happening. It's crucial to understand here that Brennan
Speaker 2: was not merely venting his frustration. His words laid out
Speaker 2: a comprehensive indictment of both the act and the subsequent
Speaker 2: chain of negligence and irresponsibility. He dismantled the idea that
Speaker 2: it was a mere accident. Accidents are unfortunate incidents that
Speaker 2: happened despite responsible behavior. What Mueller did, by Brennan's account,
Speaker 2: fell squarely outside of this category. Mueller's actions were a
Speaker 2: cascade of deliberate, reckless decisions, each amplifying the risk to
Speaker 2: human life. The ensuing consequences were not just predictable, they
Speaker 2: were inevitable. Brennan's rhetoric served as an imperative challenging the
Speaker 2: very foundations of a criminal justice system that was considering
Speaker 2: treating the tragedy as a series of unfortunate events rather
Speaker 2: than a preventable crime. When he mentioned the phrase, that's
Speaker 2: fucking murder, it became clear that for him, this was
Speaker 2: not just about what could be proven in a court
Speaker 2: of law, but what was morally and ethically undeniable. He
Speaker 2: was dragging the tragedy out from the murky waters of
Speaker 2: legal gray areas and into the stark light of moral judgment. Finally,
Speaker 2: the tone of finality in his last sentence, because that
Speaker 2: ain't fucking happening left no room for misinterpretation. There would
Speaker 2: be no forgetting, no brushing aside, and no trivial plea deals.
Speaker 2: This case had carved out a place in the ethical
Speaker 2: consciousness of everyone involved, a place where it would stay
Speaker 2: until justice had been finally realized. Brennan's words were not
Speaker 2: mere expressions of anger. They were a compelling call to action,
Speaker 2: echoing through the walls of that room and resounding in
Speaker 2: the minds of everyone present. This was a moment of reckoning,
Speaker 2: and thanks to Brennan's unequivocal stance, it became a turning
Speaker 2: point in the pursuit of justice. In a courtroom packed
Speaker 2: with tension and raw emotion, Susie Flinnigan delivers a damning
Speaker 2: oration that encapsulates years of anguished frustration and injustice. I
Speaker 2: have waited over two years to look you in the face,
Speaker 2: eye to eye, and simply have the chance to speak
Speaker 2: directly to you, she says to Mueller. You would never
Speaker 2: have come forward with the truth. You murdered him. No,
Speaker 2: you didn't intentionally seek him out to murder, but you
Speaker 2: murdered him. And every lie you told, with every intentional,
Speaker 2: selfish deception, with every cover up, over and over again,
Speaker 2: you murdered him. You saw his body taken out of
Speaker 2: the room in a body bag. The next day. You
Speaker 2: knew you killed him. It meant nothing to you. The
Speaker 2: weight of these, every syllable, drenched in truth and irrefutable pain,
Speaker 2: reverberates through the courtroom. Mueller, taken aback, could only look shocked,
Speaker 2: an expression of surprise and dawning comprehension, as the walls
Speaker 2: of his constructed reality crumble around him. Susie's words carry
Speaker 2: the burden of justice long denied. She is the voice
Speaker 2: of a man's silence, too soon robbed of his life
Speaker 2: in the most inexplicable of circumstances. As she takes her
Speaker 2: leave from the courtroom, her statement lingers like a haunting refrain.
Speaker 2: You have met your match, she says, embodying the relentless
Speaker 2: quest for justice. I would have spent the rest of
Speaker 2: my life tracking you down, and I found you Gregg's murderer.
Speaker 2: I brought you to justice. It's a moment of grim
Speaker 2: satisfaction for detectives Brennan and Apple. They had pieced together
Speaker 2: the puzzle, faced bureaucratic hesitance, and fought against a culture
Speaker 2: that often dismisses accidental discharges of firearms as regrettable but
Speaker 2: essentially blameless acts. Over lunch, they consider the work that's
Speaker 2: been done and what lies ahead. Brennan orders a cocktail,
Speaker 2: a small but significant active indulgence in relief. Apple on
Speaker 2: duty of stain. They plan to play a round of golf.
Speaker 2: Return to normalcy, but a normalcy that's charged, this time
Speaker 2: happily with the awareness of a job well done. I'm
Speaker 2: Zevan Odleberg, and this has been kind of murdery.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to show, please subscribe to view and
Speaker 1: tell your friends. You can find us on social media
Speaker 1: at kinda Murgery or email at Kindomurdery at gmail dot com.
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