PYF unnerving article or story: Why is everything always so fucking weird - The Something Awful Forums

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The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > PYF unnerving article or story: Why is everything always so fucking weird

Sarcopenia: May 14, 2014

Parakeet vs. Phone posted:

The Casefiles podcast covered the Lawernce Haggert case a few weeks back.

https://casefilepodcast.com/case-162-lawrence-haggart/

The murder itself was awful enough, but drat did the family draw the short straw on the investigation. I, uh, thought I was a little numb to awful police stuff, but hearing that a cop almost certainly planted a hammer at the family's home to try and set up the victim's 12-year-old brother for the murder was something else.

Their entire claim was that obviously the two of them had a fight. And obviously, his younger brother ambushed him with a hammer, as one does in a family fight. The he mutilated his brother's unconscious body by marking and carving strange numbers into it. Like you do after a fight. Then he started two fires to hide the evidence. Then he went back to bed and just kind of hoped that his other brother would wake up before they all died from the smoke.

Such a flawless theory compared to investigating whoever was breaking into houses to sexually assault other teen boys in the region. They talked to the likely killer but he had an airtight alibi of being a town over having anonymous sex, so they were sure it wasn't him for years.

Just terrible.

Reminds me of Michael Crowe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Stephanie_Crowe

quote:

He was singled out by Escondido police because the crime scene seemed to suggest an inside job, and because he seemed "distant and preoccupied" after Stephanie's body was discovered and the rest of the family grieved

quote:

On the day the body was discovered, the police also interviewed Richard Raymond Tuite, a 28-year-old transient who had been seen in the Crowe's neighborhood on the night of the murder, knocking on doors and looking in windows, causing several neighbors to call police reporting a suspicious person. Tuite had a lengthy criminal record, habitually wandered the streets of Escondido, and had been diagnosed as schizophrenic.[8] Police questioned Tuite, confiscated his clothing, and noticed scrapes on his body and a cut on his hand. However, they did not consider him a suspect, since they considered him incapable of murder and they had already focused on Michael Crowe as their prime suspect.

quote:

....blood was found on two shirts that he was wearing when contacted by police the next day.

:downs:

I remember seeing parts of his police interview in some true crime doc series years ago. It was incredibly sad.

# ? Dec 16, 2020 08:42

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# ? Jun 4, 2024 15:21

Kitfox88: Aug 21, 2007; Anybody lose their glasses?

Yeah, Casefile is one of the better ones about it but like was said there�s always something in the back of my head going �the cops just didn�t get caught when framing THIS guy.�

# ? Dec 16, 2020 08:45

Sarcopenia: May 14, 2014

Kitfox88 posted:

Yeah, Casefile is one of the better ones about it but like was said there�s always something in the back of my head going �the cops just didn�t get caught when framing THIS guy.�

You've heard In The Dark? It's basically only about how scummy cops are and how they love framing people.

# ? Dec 16, 2020 08:57

Kitfox88: Aug 21, 2007; Anybody lose their glasses?

Get frustrated at my own powerlessness about the evils of the world that are perpetrated by supposed guardians enough already but thanks for the offer. :v:

:v:

# ? Dec 16, 2020 10:19

Sarcopenia: May 14, 2014

Kitfox88 posted:

Get frustrated at my own powerlessness about the evils of the world that are perpetrated by supposed guardians enough already but thanks for the offer.

I Feel you buddy. :smith:

:smith:

Second season actually helped free a dude from deathrow but it's not exactly feel good that a dude sat in prison for almost 30 years despite getting acquitted multiple times due to some shithead prosecutor.

# ? Dec 16, 2020 12:37

Grunch Worldflower: Nov 16, 2020

Kitfox88 posted:

Yeah, realizing ACAB really puts a damper on true crime stuff to say the least.

Getting into true crime was the beginning of radicalizing me against cops, honestly. Theres just too many stories where the cops were incompetent, negligent, complicit, or the actual criminals

# ? Dec 16, 2020 12:47

Tehdas: Dec 30, 2012

Grunch Worldflower posted:

Getting into true crime was the beginning of radicalizing me against cops, honestly. Theres just too many stories where the cops were incompetent, negligent, complicit, or the actual criminals

That�s possibility due to how it�s pretty boring to do cases where the cops bring their A game and solve the case pretty quickly. When they bring their C game, then you get longer, more interesting cases.

# ? Dec 16, 2020 14:04

Skelicopter: Feb 19, 2013; More like Prince Alarming

Tehdas posted:

That�s possibility due to how it�s pretty boring to do cases where the cops bring their A game and solve the case pretty quickly. When they bring their C game, then you get longer, more interesting cases.

Yeah sometimes cops bring their A game, sometimes they bring their C game. Then sometimes they'll bring their A game again. And after that? Their B game.

# ? Dec 16, 2020 20:44

Everett False: Sep 28, 2006; Mopsy, I'm starting to question your medical credentials.

The best episodes of Forensic Files are the ones where incompetent cops get caught by actual evidence.

(Also the Laffy Taffy guy and the Letter From My Dead Wife guy, but those go without saying.)

# ? Dec 16, 2020 23:02

ewe2: Jul 1, 2009

Grunch Worldflower posted:

Getting into true crime was the beginning of radicalizing me against cops, honestly. Theres just too many stories where the cops were incompetent, negligent, complicit, or the actual criminals

I hear you, but it's also true that cops reflect the wider culture. As anyone who gets their hit of That Chapter will tell you, the frequency with which cops get monomania about certain criminal types or marginalized social groups isn't accidental, it's because they're the easiest to blame. Because bad cops are predators just like the worst criminals.

I watched a youtube documentary about the serial killer John Ackroyd called Ghosts of Highway 20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilj8fZroRw0 where the strong possibility is that had his rape victim been taken seriously he may not have gone on to murder his known and unknown victims. And not only is his M.O. is part of a well-known opportunistic pattern of serial-killing that took advantage of forested highways and grooming vulnerable targets, people who knew Ackroyd admitted that they had also discounted the kind of people he made his victims, mostly young, marginalized women. The men he worked with blamed women for all the troubles in the world. The women who called him "the perv" never gave a second thought to his victims at the time because they were just kids, themselves not being much older and not caring very much anyway.

Eventually there were cops who did want to catch this guy but it took a very long time, time in which he continued to kill how many we will never know.

# ? Dec 17, 2020 18:02

Sarcopenia: May 14, 2014

I think Gilbert Paul Jordan is one of the creepiest serial killers ever because he knew that his method of killing his victims would insure indifference to their deaths.

# ? Dec 18, 2020 10:18

Kanine: Aug 5, 2014; by Nyc_Tattoo

Sarcopenia posted:

I think Gilbert Paul Jordan is one of the creepiest serial killers ever because he knew that his method of killing his victims would insure indifference to their deaths.

this doesnt seem very unique?

jesus christ imagine how many serial killers have been uncaught specifically because of this

# ? Dec 18, 2020 12:36

Sarcopenia: May 14, 2014

Kanine posted:

this doesnt seem very unique?

jesus christ imagine how many serial killers have been uncaught specifically because of this

Not in the sense that of course they almost always chose already at risk victims that society deem less valuable and deserving of humanity no.

# ? Dec 18, 2020 14:34

One More Fat Nerd: Apr 13, 2007; Mama’s Lil’ Louie; Nap Ghost

If i remember the interviews right, Ted Bundy thought of serial killers who preyed on sex workers as cowardly losers because of how much easier it was to get away with it.

Gatekeeping behavior, even in the sex murderer world.

# ? Dec 18, 2020 14:57

AlbieQuirky: Oct 9, 2012; Just me and my 🌊dragon🐉 hanging out

Sarcopenia posted:

I think Gilbert Paul Jordan is one of the creepiest serial killers ever because he knew that his method of killing his victims would insure indifference to their deaths.

Because it was forced alcohol overdose and people were prone to believe that all Indigenous Canadians and sex workers were alcoholics?

I guess, but preying on Indigenous and Native women, and sex workers, and members of racial/ethnic minority groups is pretty standard serial killer fare. The forced alcohol overdose was certainly his own twist on it, though.

# ? Dec 18, 2020 20:03

Slippery: May 16, 2004; Muscles Boxcar

ChickenOfTomorrow posted:

IMHO this is rad, rather than unnerving:

https://twitter.com/Dennis_Rodkin/status/1329586938387591177
(it's a thread)

They're not gonna divvy your ashes up among shitposters no matter what your will says

Sorry just kidding couldn't help it

# ? Dec 18, 2020 22:24

Slippery: May 16, 2004; Muscles Boxcar

Halloween Liker posted:

Wonder how many wills have "And my corpse goes to X to be legally hosed"

Be the change, etc

# ? Dec 18, 2020 22:25

Sarcopenia: May 14, 2014

AlbieQuirky posted:

Because it was forced alcohol overdose and people were prone to believe that all Indigenous Canadians and sex workers were alcoholics?

I guess, but preying on Indigenous and Native women, and sex workers, and members of racial/ethnic minority groups is pretty standard serial killer fare. The forced alcohol overdose was certainly his own twist on it, though.

Read my post above.

And I remember reading that with a lot of them being sex workers/alcoholics was inferred from their method of death (alcohol poisoning and "having had intercourse" shortly before their death), not it being actually true but I might be remembering wrong.

Sarcopenia has a new favorite as of 05:43 on Dec 19, 2020

# ? Dec 19, 2020 05:32

Hackers film 1995: Nov 4, 2009; Hack the planet!

Skelicopter posted:

Yeah sometimes cops bring their A game, sometimes they bring their C game. Then sometimes they'll bring their A game again. And after that? Their B game.

nice

# ? Dec 20, 2020 03:24

HelleSpud: Apr 1, 2010

One More Fat Nerd posted:

If i remember the interviews right, Ted Bundy thought of serial killers who preyed on sex workers as cowardly losers because of how much easier it was to get away with it.

Gatekeeping behavior, even in the sex murderer world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Rifkin posted:

In early 1994, it was reported that Rifkin had engaged in a jailhouse scuffle with mass murderer Colin Ferguson. The brawl began when Ferguson asked Rifkin to be quiet while the former was using a prison phone. The Daily News reported the fight escalated after Ferguson told Rifkin "I killed six devils and you only killed women," to which Rifkin responded "Yeah, but I had more victims." Ferguson then punched Rifkin.[18]

# ? Dec 21, 2020 06:45

Wasabi the J: Jan 23, 2008; MOM WAS RIGHT

They really are the ones that want to get caught. They seem like they enjoy being prima donnas of human scum.

# ? Dec 21, 2020 09:01

Solice Kirsk: Jun 1, 2004; .

Kinda freaks me out that there's probably been way more prolific serial killers that we'll never know about because they just flat out weren't doing it for attention or didn't want to be caught.

# ? Dec 21, 2020 17:32

Pick: Jul 19, 2009; Nap Ghost

Solice Kirsk posted:

Kinda freaks me out that there's probably been way more prolific serial killers that we'll never know about because they just flat out weren't doing it for attention or didn't want to be caught.

Oh, absolutely.

# ? Dec 21, 2020 17:32

Pick: Jul 19, 2009; Nap Ghost

I think back to the Forensic Files episode where an old farmer couple were killing transients as part of a bad checkwriting scheme to acquire cattle. Who even knows how many people they killed, but how many other people were doing this and pulled it off.

# ? Dec 21, 2020 17:34

Rascar Capac: Aug 31, 2016; Surprisingly nice, for an evil Inca mummy.

A CIA-backed death squad had been targeting boys as young as 8 in Afghanistan:

https://theintercept.com/2020/12/18/afghanistan-cia-militia-01-strike-force/

# ? Dec 21, 2020 20:41

Comrade Koba: Jul 2, 2007

Rascar Capac posted:

A CIA-backed death squad had been targeting boys as young as 8 in Afghanistan:

https://theintercept.com/2020/12/18/afghanistan-cia-militia-01-strike-force/

quote:

Before long, a crowd had gathered, and one by one, the bodies were moved outside and driven away. Assad Khan and Jamshid, the brothers whose father had promised to bring them new shoes, were among the dead.

Their father, Mahmoud, was still in Kabul when his wife called in a panic. She didn�t say what was wrong but told him to come home straight away. On his way out of Kabul, he stopped at a bazaar and bought two pairs of children�s shoes. He arrived home mid-morning, not long after the bodies of his sons.

�May Allah destroy them all,� he said, recalling the moment he saw his sons dead. There were many bullet wounds. In accordance with Islamic custom for martyrs killed in war, they were buried unwashed, wearing the clothes in which they had been executed.�

quote:

Whenever he sees police or Afghan soldiers, he attacks them with whatever weapon is within reach. He has been beaten several times for his trouble. But his greatest fury is reserved for Americans. �If I take revenge,� he says, �if I kill at least two or three of them, the fire in my heart will end.�

His wife, Malika, has taken to rituals. On Thursday evenings, Mahmoud says, she lays the two silk turbans her sons wore at the madrassa on pillows and tells the room, �Today, my sons are coming home.� And, every morning and every night, she cleans the shoes Mahmoud brought home from Kabul and lays them out for her boys.

jfc

:smithicide:

# ? Dec 21, 2020 21:03

Kitfox88: Aug 21, 2007; Anybody lose their glasses?

America!

# ? Dec 21, 2020 21:33

Pick: Jul 19, 2009; Nap Ghost

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/khpfgw/the_mystery_of_the_bakersfield_3_two_friends/

quote:

The Mystery of the Bakersfield 3: Two friends disappeared, a third died in a drive-by shooting. Their families suspected the crimes were linked. How did Baylee Despot, Micah Holsonbake, and James Kulstad end up in the middle of an arms trafficking and murder plot in their California city?
Disappearance
Over the course of 34 days in the spring of 2018, three unsettling crimes played out in the city of Bakersfield, California. The families of the three victims realized their children all knew each other and ran in the same circles, and they began to suspect that all three crimes were connected. But what began as a crusade for justice among grieving parents took a shocking turn when investigators discovered that the so-called Bakersfield 3 were embroiled in a criminal underworld of black-market weapons smuggling, the Hells Angels, unspecified ties to drug cartels, torture and kidnapping, and a convicted felon nicknamed �The Boogeyman of Bakersfield.�

This is a genuinely bizarre case, and while I�ve never written up a case for this sub before, I�ve been following this story closely for the past couple years. The last time it was mentioned on here over a year ago, but there have been some huge recent developments in the last year that I thought deserved as comprehensive a telling as possible. And despite all that, it's nowhere near resolved. So without further ado...

Part 1: Missing

On March 23,2018, Micah Holsonbake, 34, went missing in East Bakersfield near the intersection of Flower Street and Mount Vernon Avenue. Micah was a clean-cut dad who worked in finance, a former high school debater who loved karaoke despite not being any good at it. He was presumed endangered missing until August 22, 2018, when teenagers swimming near a local park found an arm in the Kern River that was identified as his. The rest of his body has never been found.

On April 18, 2018, James Kulstad, 38, was murdered on a quiet block in Southwest Bakersfield. A father of two daughters, James was a serial entrepreneur described as the type of man who �could sell a dollar bill on the side of the road for a million dollars if he could just get 5 minutes with you.� His brother Ryan heard the gunshots from the next street over, but didn�t see the shooter, and he claims he held James as he died in his arms.

On April 25, 2018, Baylee Parrent-Despot, 20, disappeared from Rosedale, the upper-middle-class neighborhood in Northwest Bakersfield where she�d grown up. Baylee described herself as a �flower child� who had been born in the wrong generation. After facing a number of serious challenges, she was struggling to get her life back on track, and was said to be pregnant and trying to leave her boyfriend when she went missing. She has never been heard from again.

Local media christened Micah, James, and Baylee the �Bakersfield 3� after the victims� families discovered that all three victims knew one another. In the wake of the links between all three disappearances coming to light, Micah�s father told a local news reporter, �Just to be blunt, something happened to Micah� and a month later something happened to Baylee, and I think it�s because she knew what happened to Micah.� And in between them, there was James Kulstad, who ran in the same drug-fueled circles as Baylee and had helped Micah move just weeks before they both were killed. Bakersfield is a city of half a million people, but on a social level, it can feel as insular as any small town � you�re rarely more than one or two degrees removed from anyone you meet � and even in a city where everyone seems to know everyone, it�s hard to buy three friends all going missing within the space of a month by sheer coincidence. But as time went on with few official developments in the investigation, it seemed like people largely lost interest in the case by late 2019.

Then, in 2020, the Kern County District Attorney�s office charged three people with a total of 34 different charges, ranging from first degree murder, torture, kidnapping, assault with a firearm, and illegal manufacturing of assault weapons. Two of the defendants were already in custody � and the third may not even be alive.

Part 2: Some Local Context

By every metric, Bakersfield is just a flat-out terrible place to live. It�s my hometown, I left for a reason, and the reason is that it sucks. Kern County suffers from a slew of serious socioeconomic and public health problems, the largest of which is probably related to economic and income inequality. A fifth of the population is under the poverty line, and crime rates are sky-high, especially drug-related ones. Opioid abuse is rampant, though it still falls second to methamphetamine, the most widespread drug in the area. There�s a significant issue with white supremacist gang violence. When I was 16, my 70-year-old next-door neighbor got stabbed in a biker gang fight at a tattoo parlor by a Hells Angel called �Delano Mike.� A high school chemistry teacher was literally arrested for trying to make meth in his classroom three months before Breaking Bad even premiered. This is a region with a lot of serious problems that go deeper than any one symptom, but suffice it to say, there�s a reason I moved away as soon as I tuned 18.

The other thing you need to know is that despite being one of the most conservative cities in California, there�s a widespread distrust of law enforcement outside of the police and courts themselves � and, frankly, for good reason. Corruption in the justice system is widespread, and basically a local tradition dating back to the tenure of longtime district attorney Ed Jagels, perhaps best known for ramming through 36 false convictions of ritual child abuse at the height of the satanic panic. (34 were eventually overtured, and the other two people convicted died in prison and never saw justice.) Jagels� history of prosecutorial misconduct is also the subject of Mean Justice, a 600-page doorstopper by Pulitzer-winning author Edward Humes about the wrongful conviction of Pat Dunn, who is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife despite a wealth of evidence that would suggest his innocence. In 2002, Jagels� protege, an assistant district attorney named Steve Tauzer, was murdered by a former Bakersfield police deputy, Chris Hillis, after Hillis allegedly learned that Tauzer had a sexual relationship with Hillis� 22-year-old son, an addict in recovery; facing first-degree murder charges, he pled out to manslaughter and received a 12-year prison sentence.

In 2015, The Guardian published an in-depth expos� about how widespread corruption within the local law enforcement community led to Kern County having the highest rate of police killings in the country: the deadliest cops per capita. And over the past several years, the Kern County law enforcement community has been mired in a police corruption scandal in which members of the BPD abused asset forfeiture laws to illegally seize guns, drugs, and money from suspects, which they in turn trafficked for personal gain. All this is to say that Bakersfield cops and prosecutors have not engendered much public trust outside of their own communities. In a city with high rates of violent crime, law enforcement has consistently put its own interests above public safety, justice, or victims� rights. That's just something to keep in mind while reading.

Part 3: Down the Rabbit Hole

Micah

In the weeks and months prior to Micah Holsonbake�s disappearance, his family could tell that something was troubling him. Lance and Cheryl Holsonbake both recalled their son behaving erratically in the days before he vanished. But none of it seemed to make any sense coming from someone like Micah, whose family described him as intelligent and hard-working. He had a comfortable upbringing in Rosedale and worked his way into a lucrative career as a financial advisor despite only one year of college. In the photo his family circulated following his disappearance, he wore the suit and tie and placid smile of someone posing for a corporate headshot. But Micah was going through a dark time following a rocky separation from his wife and family, and had been struggling with a painkiller addiction for the past two years. The year before, he�d been laid off from his job after going on disability leave due to depression.

According to court documents, Micah owed drug-related debts to members of the Hells Angels as well as �the cartel.� One friend of Micah�s told police his life seemed to be headed in a downward spiral after he lost the ability to see his son, and often got in fights with others at bars. In one witness statement, an unidentified woman told police of a prior incident when she and Holsonbake were kidnapped at gunpoint and driven to an orchard in west Bakersfield. Holsonbake bolted from the vehicle as it was moving, she told police. That account was corroborated by a friend of Holsonbake's who told police that he said he had been kidnapped at gunpoint. He told his parents that he feared for his life, frequently thought he was being followed in his car, and rambled about various people he believed were out to get him, but they mostly wrote it off.

James

Micah had been hanging around with James Kulstad for some time before he disappeared. It�s not clear when they first met, but it appears they become friendly through the drug scene. Like Micah, James first became addicted to prescription painkillers after being hit by a car, before progressing to fentanyl patches and eventually heroin. He�d been a single father to his daughters Camryn and August. His obituary characterized him as a free-wheeling surfer who held a patent for an action sports product and earned the nickname �Joe Vegas� for his love of gambling and table games. Camryn, now 19, says she and James had an especially close relationship after her mother died when Camryn was an infant, and James often warned her against getting involved with drugs and partying in a clear-headed way, which made it even harder to watch him spiral downward in the years before his death. �I felt like I lost him before I even lost him, but I worked so hard,� she told a reporter. �I was working so hard on everything I could do to make him get better� I was hanging onto hope and whoever killed him took that away from me. I don�t have that anymore, I don�t have hope.�

In the wake of her father�s death, Camryn says that a number of stories and rumors about his life surfaced, further complicating her grief. �Some of the stories I�ve heard is that he was a really bad person these last 3 years,� she said in 2019. On the night of his murder, James reportedly drove to an acquaintance�s home in Southwest Bakersfield where his brother Ryan Kulstad was hanging out. Ryan claims that the homeowner allegedly owed money to James and told Ryan that if James came over to his house, he�d �call his boys and they�d come over there strapped,� which Ryan says he didn�t interpret as a serious threat. Ryan and James reportedly argued about this on the phone, and James showed up at the house a couple hours later. Ryan says he had just returned from driving someone else home and noticed a driver in a silver sedan behaving suspiciously as he returned to the house. Moments later, Ryan and his unidentified male passenger heard gunshots on the next block: an unknown gunman opened fire on James from another car, causing him to crash into a parked trailer. The same silver sedan was seen speeding away from the scene.

The owner of the home where this all took place was Dr. Sukhjeet Bajwa, who at the time was a chiropractor with a local practice. Bajwa lived in a quiet subdivision in Southwest Bakersfield. It was an unlikely setting for a drive-by, and according to initial news reports, police were at a loss for the motive behind the killing, or what James was even doing in the neighborhood at all. Then things began to unravel: Bajwa, it turned out, had been arrested twice in 2016 and 2017 after driving while impaired, and in addition to liquid heroin, Xanax, and hydrocodone, police also found two unregistered, loaded guns in his car, an AR-15 and a .22LR semi-automatic rifle with a fake silencer attached. All of this was detailed in a disciplinary complaint filed by the California Board of Chiropractic Examiners, and after Bajwa�s name began repeatedly surfacing in connection with the shooting, a rumor began to circulate about a black-market gun and drug trafficking ring in which Bajwa was supposedly a central figure.

It was the type of conspiracy theory most people instinctively write off as too bizarre to be credible. But it must have rung a bell to Lance Holsonbake. Before Micah�s disappearance, he told his father that he was �putting together guns for people,� according to a 2019 interview. Lance said he reacted in disbelief to this confession, because the idea that Micah would risk his career by getting involved in illegal gun manufacturing just didn�t make sense. �If you�re this afraid, just stop,� Lance recalls telling him. �And he�d say, �I can�t do that I can�t do that.� He was afraid he did that they would hurt his family.� He wrote it off as paranoia exaggerated by his son�s drug use, and didn�t know how much of it was real and how much was in Micah�s mind. According to Lance, Bakersfield police initially suggested that Micah had left town of his own volition after getting mixed up in criminal activity and, from what I can tell, didn�t make much of an effort to investigate. Though the family says he was last seen on March 23, 2018, Bakersfield police claimed he wasn�t reported missing until April 4, and it appears they waited until April 13, when he�d been missing for almost a month, before BPD made its first public statement regarding his disappearance. After James was murdered a few days later, the Holsonbake and Kulstad families grew increasingly frustrated with the apparent lack of interest in investigating either case, and told the media later that as they began digging into the circumstances surrounding both cases, one name kept coming up with everyone they talked to: Baylee Despot. And within a week, Baylee Despot had also gone missing in Bakersfield.

Baylee

Baylee Parrent-Despot was 20 years old when she was reported missing in April 2018, and the families say that it was her disappearance that finally motivated the police and local news to start investigating the links between all three cases, for reasons that seem obvious to anyone who has ever seen the media react to a pretty white 20-year-old going missing. Her sister, Katelyn Parrent, describes her as �a girl that�s grown up in a good neighborhood, raised by good parents, had a good childhood, could�ve had everything she ever wanted,� much like James and Micah. And beneath the surface, she was as troubled as either of the men: after graduating high school, she�d run off to Vegas to marry her boyfriend, but their rocky relationship turned into an abusive marriage that ended just a year later in 2017. In the aftermath, she wrecked her car, lost her job, and in her mother�s words, �Her life just spiraled out of control.�

In July 2017, Baylee was arrested for disorderly conduct in front of her friend Micah Holsonbake�s house. This came as a surprise to her sister, who had at one point been friendly with Micah herself � she didn�t realize he and Baylee even knew each other. But even though he was 14 years Baylee�s senior, Katelyn remembered him as a clean-cut guy who worked at a bank, and their mother, Jane Parrent, says Micah helped her get a restraining order against an abusive ex-boyfriend. They didn�t see any cause for concern. Still, Baylee�s life continued to spiral out of control. The following month, she was drugged and gang-raped at an acquaintance�s apartment complex. She disappeared for days at a time and resurfaced with �horrible stories� or pleading phone calls begging to be picked up. On one occasion, Katelyn remembers, �She had none of her belongings, no shoes� A couple nights after that there were two vehicles that came to pick her up and we could tell by the look on her face that she didn�t want to go, but if she didn�t go, we didn�t know what would happen.�

Matthew

Not long after that incident, Baylee had a new boyfriend. Matthew Queen was 43 years old, a convicted felon, and an all-around bad dude. Not much is known about his background, with one major exception: in the early 2000s, he plead guilty to one count of making a false statement to a federal firearms dealer after he used a false address, but his real name, to purchase $11,000 in guns from dealers in Indiana. Many of those guns were later recovered at crime scenes in Detroit and Chicago. If you want an idea of what type of criminal mastermind we�re dealing with here, I recommend reading just the final ruling on that case from the 7th Circuit court of appeals:

�We reject Queen's argument that gun buyers may lie about a street address so long as they live within the state where the gun is sold . . . Queen in fact had once lived in an apartment at 2072 Egret Court, but he did not live at this address when he completed the forms and bought the guns because he was evicted on December 18, 2000, for nonpayment of rent."

Great. Sounds like a great guy.

Lest you assume Matthew Queen might have hypothetically seen the error of his ways and cleaned up his act after this early foray into gunrunning, he absolutely did not. In December 2017, just a couple weeks into Matthew and Baylee�s relationship, they were arrested after police found four unmarked, unregistered, loaded assault rifles in Matthew�s car during a traffic stop. Neither he or Baylee said a word to the police, but while Matthew (who, as a convicted felon, was prohibited from carrying any guns or ammunition at all) was charged with several felonies, while Baylee pled no contest to a lesser misdemeanor and received three years probation. Later that month, she moved in with Matthew, his mother, and his estranged wife. Baylee�s family saw and heard even less from her. And in April, a month after Micah�s disappearance and just one day after she and Matthew attended a court date for the weapons charges, Baylee went missing. Her mother believed she was pregnant with Matthew�s child and was trying to leave him at the time. Matthew told police that she had connections through her father's side of the family with a Mexican drug cartel and believed they had something to do with her disappearance.

Local interest in the case reached an even greater frenzy after Micah�s severed arm was found in the Kern River in Hart Park on the east side of town, not far from from where he was last seen. It was positively identified in late December 2018. By this point, the family of the Bakersfield 3's investigation had amassed around 10,000 followers on Facebook and another 5,000 in a private group, and the story was a fixture on local news. Another curveball came around this time too, when a former friend of Baylee�s named Sara Wedemeyer, 21, filed a restraining order against Baylee�s mother, Jane Parrent. As it was reported, Sara had moved in with Matthew mere weeks after Baylee disappeared, and she was four months pregnant with his child when she attempted to take out legal action against Mrs. Parrent, whom she claimed was harassing her and her �fianc� by hanging up missing person fliers in their neighborhood. The restraining order wasn't granted, but Queen allegedly began making disturbing social media posts about Baylee, Micah, and the Parrent family, with Mrs. Parrent as the primary target. And in mid-2019, the investigation seemed to grind to a halt.

Part 4: New Developments

On May 27, 2020, roughly two years after the first developments in the Bakersfield 3 case, the Kern County District Attorney held at a press conference to announce they believe Baylee Despot and Matthew Queen �deliberately and with premeditation" murdered Micah Holsonbake. Despot and Queen, along with a third man, Matthew Vandecasteele, were charged with the alleged kidnapping, torture, and first degree murder, as well as unlawful manufacturing of assault weapons, conspiracy relating to the murder and torture plot, and a slew of other assault and gun charges (34 in total). Queen and Vandacasteele were both in custody at the time the charges against them were filed, but even though Baylee still has not been seen or heard from since 2018, the DA�s office issued a warrant for her arrest, leading some to speculate she may still be alive.

According to court records, Matthew Queen allegedly believed that Micah Holsonbake had stolen a .44-caliber revolver from him. He and Baylee Despot kidnapped Micah, zip-tied him to a chair in Matthew Vandecasteele�s garage, and attempted to torture him in order to extract information from him. A blood stain in the garage matched Holsonbake�s DNA. Vandecasteele told police that he didn�t see or hear Micah on the night he was killed, but knew that the other two had brought him there to question him. After several hours, Baylee allegedly returned to the apartment seeming �flustered� and changed her clothes in a back bedroom. Before they left, �Queen told Vandecasteele that he had cleaned everything up and it was OK to go inside the garage.� The next day, Queen returned to Vandecasteele�s apartment and said he �needed help disposing of something� in a large black storage container in the trunk of his car. Vandecasteele claims he refused to help with disposing of the body, but according police reports, his Google history during that period of time included searches for �lye chemical formula,� �lye for sale� and �how long does it take to dissolve a human body,� as well as browsing for lye on the Home Depot and Lowe�s websites.

Queen, Despot, and Vandacasteele allegedly manufactured and sold AR-15s from gun build kits. Other witness testimony released by the courts described various kidnappings that witnesses allege Queen, known as �the boogeyman of Bakersfield,� committed. In one incident, Queen allegedly handcuffed one victim to a chair and put an electric dog collar around his neck because he believed the man had stolen a gun part from him. Another witness said that Queen and Vandacasteele showed up armed at his hotel room after the witness told Baylee where he was staying, and that he believed they intended to kill him because he�d been arrested �with a large quantity of narcotics that he was fronted or given without paying for them and the people who had gave him the narcotics could have been upset.� (According to the police report, surveillance footage from the hotel corroborates this account.)

It�s also believed that he made anonymous calls to the police tip line to misdirect the investigation away from himself: one such caller referred to Baylee as a �sugar momma,� a phrase which Queen reportedly used to describe her when he spoke to investigators in August 2019, and he also used the same pseudonym on the tip line that he did on social media. When police questioned him around this time, he denied being part of a criminal enterprise and claimed he could barely pay his bills. Then, while out on bail for unrelated gun charges in January 2019, Queen allegedly kidnapped another man at gunpoint and forced him to walk into the Kern River while Queen accused him of snitching to the cops. He�s been in custody since July of 2019 due to this kidnapping.

Part 5: No Body, No Crime

So where is Baylee Despot?

According to official statements from law enforcement, no one knows. After the warrant was issued for her arrest, a wave of speculation followed that she had faked her own death or fled to Mexico with the help of unspecified �cartel connections.� That story seems less and less likely as more details have emerged from court documents. Vandecasteele told the police that Despot was �falling apart mentally� after murdering Micah. He and Queen both suspected that she was cooperating with police on an investigation relating to the illegal weapons charges, called her a �snitch� in one interview, and told investigators he believed Queen �made her disappear.� In one interview, a female witness said Queen kidnapped her at gunpoint, took her to an orchard, and held an AR-15 to her head while he questioned her about whether Baylee was faithful to him.

When police questioned him about Baylee�s disappearance in July 2019, he said was depressed and off her medications, and she had said she wanted to die. When the investigator told Queen there had been allegations of domestic violence involving him and Baylee, some of which resulted in bruises, Queen said he never laid a hand on anyone. He told the detective she was clumsy. Despite all of this, Jane Parrent says that police have told her that they don�t consider Matthew Queen a person of interest in Baylee�s disappearance, and that there is "no known physical evidence that definitively confirms her possible death." She is now offering her own personally-funded $1000 reward for information about her daughter�s location.

The rest of Micah Holsonbake�s body has not been recovered, though according to court documents, investigators believe Queen may have buried him in the hills near Taft, a rural area about 45 minutes west of Bakersfield.

There have been no developments in the investigation of James Kulstad�s murder since 2018. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Bakersfield Police Department at (661) 327-7111, or the Kern Secret Witness program at (661) 322-4040. A reward of up to $10,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest in this case.

Ultimately, what really frustrates me about this case is that even after this avalanche of charges, so many questions remain unresolved, and not just what happened and who did it, but why. If the investigation concluded that James Kulstad�s death was unrelated to the disappearances of Baylee and Micah, who ordered his murder, and what was the reason? To what extent was the chiropractor involved with Queen and Vandecasteele�s trafficking racket? Was Sara Wedemeyer involved with Baylee�s disappearance, and if not, how�d she end up living with Matthew and expecting his child just two months after her �friend� went missing? Why did Sara and Matthew harass Baylee�s mother for months after the disappearance?

More than anything, I�m still lost as to Baylee Despot�s motivation for any of this. Did she just find herself in too deep with no way out? Did she actively make the choice to become a gunrunner? Did Matthew, looking to settle a grudge against Micah, seek out a relationship with Baylee with the intention of using her to get to him? Did he kill her because she was cooperating with the cops, because she attempted to leave him, or because he was just a sociopath who felt she was no longer useful?

Or is there a chance that law enforcement knows more than they�ve let on? When investigators told Mrs. Parrent that Matthew isn�t a suspect in her disappearance, was that an indication that she may, in fact, be alive?

Probably not.

+++

References posted:

Baylee�s page on The Charley Project: https://charleyproject.org/case/baylee-cheyanne-despot

First news story about Micah Holsonbake�s disappearance, 4/13/20: https://www.bakersfield.com/news/br...2ef30f031f.html

�Baylee Parrent-Despot reported missing for more than a month,� 6/8/18: https://www.turnto23.com/news/local-news/baylee-parrent-despot-reported-missing-for-more-than-a-month

�The Bakersfield 3: Reward offered in Baylee Despot case,� 9/18/18: https://www.kget.com/news/the-bakersfield-3-reward-offered-in-baylee-despot-case/

�Bakersfield 3 mothers recall their last contact with children,� news article dated 10/24/18 https://www.bakersfield.com/news/mo...a7fc8df3d1.html

�BPD: Missing man in Bakersfield 3 believed to have been killed, and his death shares similarities with disappearance of missing woman,� 10/20/18: https://www.bakersfield.com/news/br...e07813288b.html

�Mother of missing woman fights harassment claims stemming from her daughter�s disappearance,� 12/18/18: https://www.kget.com/news/mother-of-missing-woman-fights-harassment-claims-stemming-from-her-daughters-disappearance/

�Micah Holsonbake dead; DNA test confirms arm found in river his,� 12/20/18: https://bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/bpd-believes-a-man-missing-since-march-was-murdered

�Stories behind the Bakersfield 3,� 12/20/18: https://www.kget.com/news/homicide-news/stories-behind-the-bakersfield-3/1669785945/

Ryan Kulstad appearance on Dr. Phil, 1/14/19: https://www.drphil.com/videos/a-young-man-describes-what-led-up-to-him-holding-his-older-brother-in-his-arms-as-he-died/

�A closer look at the Bakersfield 3: Where is Baylee Despot?,� 3/5/19: https://www.kget.com/news/local-news/domestic-violence/a-closer-look-at-the-bakersfield-3-where-is-baylee-despot/

�A closer look at the Bakersfield 3: Who killed James Kulstad?� 3/6/19: https://www.kget.com/news/a-closer-look-at-the-bakersfield-3-who-killed-james-kulstad/

�A closer look at the Bakersfield 3: What happened to Micah Holsonbake?� 3/7/19: https://www.kget.com/news/a-closer-look-at-the-bakersfield-3-what-happened-to-micah-holsonbake/

�One year later, mothers of Bakersfield 3 continue their search for answers,� 3/23/19: https://www.bakersfield.com/news/on...d55ec3c32d.html

�One year since death of James Kulstad, one of the 'Bakersfield 3�,� 4/8/19: https://www.turnto23.com/news/local-news/one-year-since-death-of-james-kulstad-one-of-the-bakersfield-3

�Mother of missing Baylee Despot speaks out on arrest of kidnapping suspect Matthew Queen,� 7/15/19: https://www.kget.com/news/local-news/mother-of-missing-baylee-despot-speaks-out-on-arrest-of-kidnapping-suspect-matthew-queen/

�Investigating the mysteries of what happened to the Bakersfield 3,� 11/3/19: https://www.turnto23.com/news/crime/investigating-the-mysteries-of-what-happened-to-the-bakersfield-3

�Defendant in alleged kidnapping waives right to preliminary hearing,� 11/9/19: https://www.bakersfield.com/news/de...5cd4a35c9e.html

�More charges filed against accused kidnapper Matthew Queen,� 1/1/20: https://www.kget.com/news/crime-watch/more-charges-filed-against-kidnapping-suspect-matthew-queen/

Press release announcing charges filed against Queen, Despot, and Vandacasteele: https://www.kerncounty.com/home/showpublisheddocument?id=4595

�Matthew Queen makes a court appearance in connection to 'Bakersfield 3' case,� 6/12/20: https://www.turnto23.com/news/crime/matthew-queen-make-a-court-appearance-in-connection-to-bakersfield-3-case

��Bakersfield 3� member Micah Holsonbake believed killed by Matthew Queen over alleged stolen gun, defendant says in court documents,� 6/18/20: https://www.kget.com/news/crime-wat...ourt-documents/

�Documents suggest Micah Holsonbake was afraid of suspect Matthew Queen; suggest Queen attempted to mislead investigation,� 6/17/20: https://www.turnto23.com/news/crime...d-investigation

�Documents detail depth of investigation into suspected murder of Bakersfield 3 member,� 6/19/20: https://www.bakersfield.com/news/do...8ee0b03647.html

�Bakersfield 3 update: Matthew Queen appears in court, pleas not guilty to all charges,� 6/11/20: https://bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/bakersfield-3-update-matthew-queen-appears-in-court-pleas-not-guilty-to-all-charges

��Bakersfield 3� member Micah Holsonbake was afraid of murder suspect Matthew Queen, became increasingly paranoid before he disappeared, documents say,� 6/17/20

Appellate court decision against Matthew Queen: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/408/337/509670/

Obituary of James Kulstad: https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/bakersfield/obituary.aspx?n=james-john-kulstad&pid=188771330&fhid=6140

# ? Dec 22, 2020 04:02

RC and Moon Pie: May 5, 2011

Pick posted:

I think back to the Forensic Files episode where an old farmer couple were killing transients as part of a bad checkwriting scheme to acquire cattle. Who even knows how many people they killed, but how many other people were doing this and pulled it off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtc6tE95D9I

Dude was illiterate, but had the insight to pull an almost perfect bad checks scheme. If he hadn't let the one guy go, no one likely would have ever known.

# ? Dec 22, 2020 05:36

Pick: Jul 19, 2009; Nap Ghost

Forensic Files II tries to be good but like 99% of forensics now is "checked cell phone" and "DNA"

It's like how Dead Men Do Tell Tales would be pointless to write today because, DNA.

I picked up Medicolegal Investigation of Death: Guidelines for the Application of Pathology to Crime Investigation, and it is a hefty sucker, but it's... a lot. The photos aren't color because they say they'll send color photos if you really need them but it's clearly to discourage gorehound acquisition. There's some really brutal stuff in there. Processing an airliner crash is a bad time.

# ? Dec 22, 2020 05:51

Pick: Jul 19, 2009; Nap Ghost

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_Arm_case

quote:

The tiger shark had been caught 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from the beach suburb of Coogee in mid-April and transferred to the Coogee Aquarium Baths, where it was put on public display. Within a week, it became ill and vomited in front of a small crowd, leaving the left hand and forearm of a man bearing a distinctive tattoo floating in the pool. Before it was captured, the tiger shark had devoured a smaller shark. It was this smaller shark that had originally swallowed the human arm.

# ? Dec 22, 2020 08:20

Halloween Liker: Oct 31, 2020; by Fluffdaddy

Solice Kirsk posted:

Kinda freaks me out that there's probably been way more prolific serial killers that we'll never know about because they just flat out weren't doing it for attention or didn't want to be caught.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Killing_Fields_(location)

quote:

The Texas Killing Fields is an area bordering the Calder Oil Field, which is a 25-acre patch of land situated a mile from Interstate Highway 45.

Since the early 1970s, 30 bodies of murder victims have been found within the Killing Fields area. They were mainly the bodies of girls or young women.[1] Furthermore, many young girls have disappeared from this area; the girls' bodies are still missing.

It is believed that many of the murders are the work of multiple serial killers. Most of the victims were aged 12�25 years. Some shared similar physical features, such as similar hairstyles.[2] Despite efforts by the League City, Texas police, along with the assistance of the FBI, very few of these murders have been solved, and those that have were confessed from prison or forced from police.

# ? Dec 22, 2020 08:24

Pick: Jul 19, 2009; Nap Ghost

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marybeth_Tinning

quote:

Marybeth Roe Tinning (born September 11, 1942) is an American serial killer. In 1987, Tinning was arrested and convicted for the murder of her ninth child, 4-month-old daughter Tami Lynne, on December 20, 1985. Laboratory testing indicated her death resulted from asphyxia by suffocation. Marybeth is suspected to be similarly involved in the previous deaths of her eight children.

quote:

Tinning, 76, was released on parole August 21, 2018. She served more than 31 years of her 20-years-to-life sentence before being granted parole. Tinning's husband, Joseph, who supported her throughout her incarceration, was there for her release. As part of her release, Tinning will remain under parole supervision for the rest of her life.[50] A Department of Corrections spokesperson stated Tinning lives in Schenectady County, in upstate New York.

He waited for her for 31 years!

# ? Dec 22, 2020 08:40

Inceltown: Aug 6, 2019

Pick posted:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marybeth_Tinning

He waited for her for 31 years!

They obviously had a lot of fun boning each other

# ? Dec 22, 2020 09:06

Kanine: Aug 5, 2014; by Nyc_Tattoo

This small German city was ground zero for a Cold War turned hot

Kanine has a new favorite as of 19:12 on Dec 22, 2020

# ? Dec 22, 2020 16:57

Solice Kirsk: Jun 1, 2004; .

Halloween Liker posted:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Killing_Fields_(location)

There's also that little section of a highway in NY where they found a ton of ditched bodies. I'm at work or I'd look it up.

# ? Dec 22, 2020 17:36

Watermelon Daiquiri: Jul 10, 2010; I TRIED TO BAIT THE TXPOL THREAD WITH THE WORLD'S WORST POSSIBLE TAKE AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS STUPID AVATAR.

long island serial killer?

# ? Dec 22, 2020 17:50

Solice Kirsk: Jun 1, 2004; .

That sounds right. It's like a little triangle of land between a highway and a beach and there was like decades of bodies in there. They also think it might have been the same dumping ground for two different serial killers.

edit:
I seem to remember reading a story on here once about two serial killers that were working the same area at the same time and one was so messed up that when he broke into one of his potential victim's houses and found them already dead he just figured he had already killed them and forgot. I can never find that story anywhere, so maybe I made it up or am misremembering?

# ? Dec 22, 2020 18:21

Edgar Allen Ho: Apr 3, 2017; by sebmojo

AlbieQuirky posted:

Because it was forced alcohol overdose and people were prone to believe that all Indigenous Canadians and sex workers were alcoholics?

I guess, but preying on Indigenous and Native women, and sex workers, and members of racial/ethnic minority groups is pretty standard serial killer fare. The forced alcohol overdose was certainly his own twist on it, though.

quote:

Jordan was known for drinking more than 50 ounces of vodka each day.

:aaa:

that's almost 1.5 litres per day. Not the worst thing about the man but damnnnnn

I went through a period of hard drinking where I could put down 1/2 to 2/3 of that on a bad day but I don't know how these people stay functional.

Edgar Allen Ho has a new favorite as of 18:26 on Dec 22, 2020

# ? Dec 22, 2020 18:24

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# ? Jun 4, 2024 15:21

christmas boots: Oct 15, 2012; To these sing-alongs 🎤of siren 🧜🏻‍♀️songs
To oohs😮 to ahhs😱 to 👏big👏applause👏
With all of my 😡anger I scream🤬 and shout📢
🇺🇸America🦅, I love you 🥰but you're freaking 💦me 😳out; Biscuit Hider

Pick posted:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_Arm_case

Australian Nesting Sharks

# ? Dec 22, 2020 19:30

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