The Murder of Za'Zell Preston

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[SPEAKER_00]: Warning check the locks podcast is a true crime podcast and may contain graphic descriptions of violence, murder, sexual assault, and more.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Check the locks podcast is not appropriate for all listeners.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Listener discretion is strongly advised.

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[SPEAKER_01]: A brutal act of domestic violence leads to murder on Christmas Eve.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And what the killer would do next would leave an entire family traumatize, using both a mother and a daughter.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Join me, John Connor, as we discuss the murder of Zazzel Preston.

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[SPEAKER_01]: This is Check The Locks Podcast.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to Check The Locks Podcast.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Before we get started, I just wanted to say, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I hope it was filled with just great times with friends and family and good food and everybody got to get enough to eat and hang out together.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So.

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[SPEAKER_01]: My Thanksgiving was great, spent a lot of time with the family, ate some good food, played some games.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It was a really good time.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, again, just hope yours went just as well.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And again, you got some really good time with those loved ones.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I cannot believe it.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It is December 1st.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So, we are heading in to the last month of the year, about to come up on 2026.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And if you know anything about me, you know that when it comes to this podcast,

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[SPEAKER_01]: I love a theme.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm going to try to do some Christmas themed December cases that we have not done in the past, but before I get into that, I did want to take a moment just to read a Spotify comment from last week's episode, the season two kickoff, the monster of Allentown.

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[SPEAKER_01]: This actually comes from Laura on Spotify.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And she said, keep up the great work, John.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm still here with you.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm pretty sure I've never heard of this one before.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Definitely attend for me.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a single woman with another single woman roommate.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We check the locks twice every night and whenever we are home.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So, just wanted to say thank you Laura for taking time to leave that spot of eye comment.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I am with you after going through last week's case.

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[SPEAKER_01]: If you have not listened to it, go ahead pause this episode.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Go back to last week and then come back to this one.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, yes, the home invasion aspect of that I know I talked about it before, but uh, is definitely one of those ones that really gets to me, it gets onto the skin.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so I just want to say again, thank you for taking time to leave that comment.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, and if you'd like me to read your comment on the podcast, uh, again, you can leave us a Spotify comment.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Leave us an Apple podcast review.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I'd love to read those as well.

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[SPEAKER_01]: You can also drop us an email at contact at checkthelockspod.com.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I love hearing from the listeners and want to engage with the end and get your feedback and things of that nature.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So again, Laura, thank you so much for taking the time to leave that comment.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And with that being said, let's go ahead and pivot on into what we're going to be talking about this week.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm going to be very honest with you.

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[SPEAKER_01]: This is not a super long case.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But it is very disturbing, and so I'm kind of surprised that, you know, we've never covered it before, and again, it's Christmas time true crime.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm trying to stick with the theme here.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I do want to give everybody a heads up.

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[SPEAKER_01]: There is definitely a domestic violence component to this, and I know for a lot of people that can be something that's very triggering.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So if that is something that is hard for you to get through this may not be the episode to listen to,

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[SPEAKER_01]: as opposed to

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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you learning about it as we go through, but I, like I said, this case, not one that I was familiar with.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to be very interested to see where it falls on the devil test for our locksmiths, the listeners, and to see if this is a case that you are familiar with.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So with that being said, let's go ahead and get into this week's case.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It was Christmas Day 2011 in Anaheim, California.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The man on the other end, in a calm and collected manner, said his wife needed medical attention, claiming that she was unresponsive.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The 911 dispatcher tried to instruct the man on how to perform CPR, but the line went dead.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Paramedics were dispatched to the couple's residence, and when they arrived, they walked into a disturbing scene.

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[SPEAKER_01]: There, slumped over on the couch and wearing sunglasses, was the body of 26-year-old Zazzel

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[SPEAKER_01]: Heramedics attempted to resuscitate the woman, but it was of no use.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Saazel Presson was dead, and first responders quickly turned their sights to the man who called.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Her husband, 29-year-old William Wallace.

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[SPEAKER_01]: According to the man, his wife had fallen and hit her head on a glass coffee table, but something didn't seem right to paramedics on the scene and the police were notified.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Now, investigators had to put together the pieces to help determine what led to Zazel's tragic death.

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[SPEAKER_01]: They began by looking into the couple's background.

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[SPEAKER_01]: At the time of repassing, Zazel had been taking classes at Cyprus College, hoping to become a domestic violence counselor.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She had two daughters from previous relationship, who were eight and three years old at the time.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Additionally, she and Wallace had just had a baby boy only seven weeks prior, and while it may have looked like a normal marriage from the outside, the truth was much darker.

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[SPEAKER_01]: William Wallace had a history of domestic abuse.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Three years prior, he had pleaded guilty to beating Zazel, and threatening to kill her.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But for reasons, I will never understand, Wallace only served 18 days in jail before returning to the family's apartment.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Investigators learned that Zazel and William had attended a neighbor's Christmas party on December 24th.

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[SPEAKER_01]: They would eventually leave him return home, but according to reports, multiple neighbors heard the couple fighting that evening.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And when the police arrived on Christmas day, they found blood throughout the apartment.

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[SPEAKER_01]: There were numerous holes in the wall, and a door appeared to be torn from its hinges.

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[SPEAKER_01]: All indicators that a violent act had occurred.

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[SPEAKER_01]: but the most shocking detail was yet to come.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Detectives learned that early Christmas morning, Wallace carried Zazzel's body downstairs, sitting her up right on the couch and placing sunglasses over her eyes.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And when the children woke up, they did what most children do on Christmas day, run downstairs to open presents.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But when they saw their mother sitting on the couch, they were curious.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And it was then that Wallace told the children, Mommy Roon Christmas, she got drunk and Roon Christmas.

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[SPEAKER_01]: He then proceeded to have the kids open their gifts, only feet away from their mother's lifeless body.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Later that morning, when he could no longer keep up a story, Wallace called 911, leading to his arrest.

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[SPEAKER_01]: In 2012, William Wallace was indicted by a grand jury for one felony count of murder.

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[SPEAKER_01]: being held on a million dollar bail.

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[SPEAKER_01]: However, his trial wouldn't begin until March of 2011, during which Wallace's defense team argued that Zazzel was a victim of a horrible accident.

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[SPEAKER_01]: claiming that the couple had come home drunk from the Christmas party.

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[SPEAKER_01]: They had argued and at some point she had fallen in hit or head on a glass coffee table.

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[SPEAKER_01]: According to his attorney, Wallace had picked up his wife and carried her to the bathtub because she had been bleeding.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Accidentally, hitting her head on something as he was carrying her.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But because he was so intoxicated, he wasn't in his right mind, and he didn't think to call 911.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But the prosecution had a different story, and they laid out what they believed happened to Zazel Preston on the night of her murder.

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[SPEAKER_01]: District Attorney Heather Brown called the evening a night of terror, saying that the home looked like a scene from the movie The Shining.

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[SPEAKER_01]: They described Wallace as a brutal and insecure man who would beat his wife if she were at the store for too long.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So on that Christmas Eve, he did what he had done before, beating his wife violently about the head, expecting her to survive as she had in the past.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But this time, Wallace had gone too far, taking Zazzel's life.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The prosecution was also quick to dispute the argument that Wallace himself was too drunk, pointing out that he had attempted to clean up the scene, and that he had also changed Zazzel's clothing before placing her on the couch on that Christmas morning.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The prosecution was also able to pull phone records.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Now, according to an autopsy, it appeared that Zazel had died around 1 a.m. from Bluntforce Trauma in multiple areas.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Phone Log showed that Wallace didn't call 911, but he did make an outbound call to his brother after his wife was dead.

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[SPEAKER_01]: In the end, William Wallace would be found guilty of second-degree murder.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Zazel's mother, Sidel Preston, would speak at his sentence in hearing, saying, he beat and tortured my daughter, and at the same time mentally assassinated her children.

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[SPEAKER_01]: He showed her no mercy.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Let's show him no mercy.

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[SPEAKER_01]: William Wallace would be sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the murder of Zazel Preston.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And though her killer is now behind bars, to those who love Zazel, no amount of justice may ever be enough.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And Christmas would never be the same.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So that is this week's case, and I did want to share some final thoughts, but before I go any further, I just want to let you know that if you are suffering from domestic violence and you're listening to this podcast right now, just please know that help is available.

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[SPEAKER_01]: You can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Again, that's 800-799-7233.

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[SPEAKER_01]: You can also text the word begin, B-E-G-I-N to 8-8-7-8-8.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Again, that's the word begin to 8-8-7-8-8 for resources and help, and hopefully to assist you in getting out of that situation.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Unfortunately, we've done a lot of cases where I've had to give that information, and it always makes my heart hurt in a way that is kind of hard to put into words.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But to think that there's just people out there who hurt their spouses, or their children, or, you know, girlfriends, boyfriends that you could be capable of putting your hands on something like that, it's just truly unsettling.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, I think in this case, we see that

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[SPEAKER_01]: and abuse Zazel Preston, but then to take her body and to stage it and to place it on a couch where her kids would come down and open their Christmas presents just feet away from her lifeless body is a level of coldness and depravity that I'll be honest we've done a lot of

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[SPEAKER_01]: covered something like this, and any of the episodes that we've done before.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So this one really kind of got under my skin in some ways that some previous cases haven't.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And again, it's just heartbreaking, right?

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's like now these kids, not only do they have to grow up now without a mother, but they are growing up with the knowledge that they're last,

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[SPEAKER_01]: memory or like time with their mother was on this holiday and to think about how that's forever ruined, you know, and you know, maybe not, maybe forever ruined isn't the

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[SPEAKER_01]: The best way to look at it, my hope is as they grow older, you know, obviously my hope is that they get the therapy that they need and the help that they need and maybe they can use this holiday as a time to reflect on who their mother was and the good things about her and you know, she was going to college to be a domestic violence counselor like.

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[SPEAKER_01]: you don't do that unless you've got, you know, some skin in the game, right?

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[SPEAKER_01]: If it's something that you've been through, you've had a close family member go through it.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So Zazel just wanted to help people, you know?

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[SPEAKER_01]: And from the research, it seems like she wanted to help people not be in the kind of situation that she was in.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And again, just thinking of like the coldness

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[SPEAKER_01]: And to think about my wife being pregnant with my daughter and to think that I could ever, like I said, put hands on her physically hurt her in any way, is it's just something I would never be able to do when I look at people who do that, I don't understand the makeup, the wiring, the DNA, like what is it in you, what kind of,

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[SPEAKER_01]: evil or anger or whatever it is.

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[SPEAKER_01]: What is inside of you that can allow you to commit such a terrible act?

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[SPEAKER_01]: So again, this is just it's affected in an entire family.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Kids are growing up without a mother.

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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Zazzel's mother now does not have a daughter and again, Christmas is supposed to be a time of of being with your family and, and, you know, giving to others and

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's just, it's heartbreaking to think that this is what this family had to endure.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So from a deadbolt perspective, for me, this is going to be a 10, just me and a hundred percent honest with you.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the idea that he could carry her body down and then would have the audacity to tell such a terrible lie to these small children.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's just, it's sickening and it, like I said, it gets under my skin in a way that is very, very hard to put into words.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So

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[SPEAKER_01]: For me, this would be a 10, but as always, I want to put it out there to the listeners to the locksmith where it is the murder of Zazel press and fall on your devil test.

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[SPEAKER_01]: You can let us know, please reach out to us on Instagram and check the locks pod.

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[SPEAKER_01]: You can find us on Twitter and check the locks.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We would love to have you be part of our family, our community.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I've said it a million times before, but it is the best place on the internet.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And what absolutely love to have you be part of that community.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We talk about a bunch of different things.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's Christmas time.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So I want to want to see those Christmas trees here soon.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So I got a lot of things going on there.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We would love to have you be part of that community.

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[SPEAKER_01]: If you're interested, there is a link in the description in the episode that you're listening to right now.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And as always, if you like what I do here, you want to help support the show you can do so by becoming a patron, head over to patreon.com forward slash check the locks you can get signed up today.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I have a lot of great tiers, who's a benefit, stickers, things of that nature.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So if you love check the locks, you want to hear it a little bit sooner and you hate those commercials.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Patreon is the way to go.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So again, if you want to help me out, help you for the lights on that's patreon.com forward slash check the locks you

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[SPEAKER_01]: And if you can't financially support the show, I definitely understand just listening and sharing what we do here means just as much if not more, again, it is all about that grassroots growth.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And if you are someone who's been listening for a while, you know that right now this is a very transitional time for the podcast.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So just letting people know that it exists means absolutely the world.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So again, if you were letting people know that this show is out there, you're suggesting that they listen to it.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Just know that it means more to me than I could ever tell you and it helps us

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[SPEAKER_01]: That is all that I have for you for this week's case, but please make sure that you're subscribed to check the locks on your favorite podcast app so that you never miss an episode.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I will see you again next time, but until then remember, monsters are real.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So stay safe, stay smart, and don't forget to check the locks, see you next week.