True Crime for the Short on Time: Major League Murder

WEBVTT

00:00.732 --> 00:08.746
[SPEAKER_00]: Warning, check the locks podcast as a true crime podcast and may contain graphic descriptions of violence, murder, sexual assault, and more.

00:09.167 --> 00:12.052
[SPEAKER_00]: Check the locks podcast is not appropriate for all listeners.

00:12.432 --> 00:14.336
[SPEAKER_00]: Listener discretion is strongly advised.

00:45.411 --> 00:48.972
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back to Check The Locks Presents True Crime for the short on time.

00:49.012 --> 00:50.492
[SPEAKER_02]: As always, I'm John Connor.

00:50.852 --> 00:55.853
[SPEAKER_02]: Saying thank you for joining us this week as we dive in the other truly terrifying bite size true crime case.

00:56.354 --> 01:00.775
[SPEAKER_02]: Before we get into this week's episode, you may notice that again, it is just me hanging out here.

01:01.255 --> 01:05.296
[SPEAKER_02]: Olivia is traveling out of the country, but never fear.

01:05.456 --> 01:07.096
[SPEAKER_02]: We're still going to be delivering an episode.

01:07.496 --> 01:10.377
[SPEAKER_02]: And we're actually doing a little bit different before Olivia left.

01:10.797 --> 01:13.318
[SPEAKER_02]: She actually got a chance to record the story and send it over.

01:13.358 --> 01:15.638
[SPEAKER_02]: So we're gonna hear from her in this episode.

01:15.658 --> 01:20.039
[SPEAKER_02]: So even though she's not technically here with me, she is with us in spirit.

01:20.399 --> 01:23.860
[SPEAKER_02]: But before we jump into the case, as always, if you're listening, we hope that you're doing well.

01:24.200 --> 01:25.240
[SPEAKER_02]: Hope your family's a great.

01:25.300 --> 01:28.781
[SPEAKER_02]: Just hope that, you know, everything is going as good as it can for you.

01:29.461 --> 01:30.961
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a crazy time in the world.

01:31.461 --> 01:33.842
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, we just hope that everyone who's listening is

01:34.402 --> 01:36.083
[SPEAKER_02]: feeling some love and then feeling good.

01:36.223 --> 01:45.407
[SPEAKER_02]: So I just want to let you know that we appreciate you and really do appreciate you coming and hanging out with us for this week's case, even though it is a little bit different than the way that we normally do it.

01:45.467 --> 01:49.909
[SPEAKER_02]: So again, thank you so much for joining us and spending some time with that.

01:49.969 --> 01:56.192
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to quit the Gabby Gabby because I don't have anybody to Gabby with and we're going to jump right into the stabby stabby.

01:56.532 --> 02:00.674
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to dial out to Olivia and let's get into this week's case.

02:01.335 --> 02:02.095
[SPEAKER_02]: Take it away, Olivia.

02:02.910 --> 02:04.151
[SPEAKER_01]: It was after six a.m.

02:04.251 --> 02:11.874
[SPEAKER_01]: on June fifth, twenty-twenty-one when Placer County dispatch received a nine-one-one hangup from a million dollar home in the town of Homewood.

02:12.455 --> 02:18.698
[SPEAKER_01]: Deputies responded to the residents of Gary Spore and Wendy Wood, a retired couple well-known in the community.

02:19.940 --> 02:21.860
[SPEAKER_01]: Inside they found a horrifying scene.

02:22.641 --> 02:27.041
[SPEAKER_01]: Gary's Poor Seventy had been shot in the back of the head and was pronounced dead at the scene.

02:28.002 --> 02:32.922
[SPEAKER_01]: Upstairs his wife, sixty-eight-year-old Wendy had been shot twice in the head and once in the hand.

02:33.663 --> 02:34.903
[SPEAKER_01]: She survived the attack.

02:36.123 --> 02:39.984
[SPEAKER_01]: Investigators quickly realized this wasn't a robbery or a random break-in.

02:40.604 --> 02:42.764
[SPEAKER_01]: There were no signs of force and tree or theft.

02:43.324 --> 02:46.105
[SPEAKER_01]: This was something far more personal and it had been planned.

02:47.333 --> 02:49.655
[SPEAKER_01]: Gary and Wendy were respected and beloved.

02:50.275 --> 02:53.397
[SPEAKER_01]: They had built a quiet life of wealth and comfort in Lake Tahoe.

02:54.398 --> 03:00.842
[SPEAKER_01]: But tension existed beneath the surface, particularly with their daughter Erin's estranged husband, Daniel Seraphini.

03:01.863 --> 03:05.685
[SPEAKER_01]: Daniel was once a promising MLB pitcher and had fallen on hard times.

03:06.758 --> 03:12.641
[SPEAKER_01]: after a lackluster career that ended in two thousand and seven by a suspension for performance enhancing drugs.

03:13.342 --> 03:21.586
[SPEAKER_01]: He had burned through his fortune and lost millions to bad investments, accrued massive debt and relied heavily on financial support from his in-laws.

03:22.147 --> 03:25.769
[SPEAKER_01]: That support had reportedly ended and the family dynamic had grown strain.

03:26.799 --> 03:30.920
[SPEAKER_01]: Investigators combed through the scene and reviewed footage from the home security system.

03:31.540 --> 03:32.800
[SPEAKER_01]: What they found was chilling.

03:33.560 --> 03:38.441
[SPEAKER_01]: Hours before the attack, a hooded mass man carrying a backpack with scene entering the garage.

03:39.181 --> 03:42.942
[SPEAKER_01]: He waited inside the home for nearly five hours before the shooting occurred.

03:43.742 --> 03:48.303
[SPEAKER_01]: He was then seen calmly leaving the house moments after the nine-one-one call was placed.

03:49.523 --> 03:55.744
[SPEAKER_01]: Police began analyzing the figure's walk, height, and clothing, and started comparing it to Daniel Seraphini.

03:57.116 --> 04:02.757
[SPEAKER_01]: experts would later testify in court that the way the man walked in the footage matched Dan's movement framed for frame.

04:03.537 --> 04:04.438
[SPEAKER_01]: But that wasn't all.

04:05.158 --> 04:07.478
[SPEAKER_01]: Forensic evidence painted a darker picture.

04:08.598 --> 04:13.880
[SPEAKER_01]: Five shell casings were found at the scene, and the autopsy revealed Gary was killed instantly.

04:15.240 --> 04:20.321
[SPEAKER_01]: Investigators discovered that Wendy had somehow survived despite being shot multiple times in the head.

04:21.563 --> 04:25.327
[SPEAKER_01]: Further digging led to phone records and text messages that hinted at a motive.

04:26.267 --> 04:33.674
[SPEAKER_01]: In one text to a confident, Seraphini reportedly called his in-laws, quote, wealthy pieces of shit, and said he wanted to kill them.

04:34.475 --> 04:36.057
[SPEAKER_01]: The financial motive was clear.

04:36.617 --> 04:39.740
[SPEAKER_01]: The couple's estate was worth over twenty three million dollars.

04:40.501 --> 04:46.527
[SPEAKER_01]: Dan believed that if Gary and Wendy were gone, his estranged wife Erin might come into money he could have access to.

04:47.762 --> 04:51.644
[SPEAKER_01]: as they trace Dan's whereabouts around the time of the murder and name kept coming up.

04:52.265 --> 04:53.165
[SPEAKER_01]: Samantha Scott.

04:54.206 --> 04:58.509
[SPEAKER_01]: She wasn't just a friend of the family, she had been Aaron and Dan's babysitter for years.

04:59.289 --> 05:03.392
[SPEAKER_01]: But investigators soon learned that Samantha and Dan were in a romantic relationship.

05:04.367 --> 05:13.190
[SPEAKER_01]: In October, twenty twenty three over two years after the crime, both Seraphini and Scott were arrested in Nevada and charged in connection with the Lake Tahoe shootings.

05:14.191 --> 05:16.152
[SPEAKER_01]: Under pressure Samantha took a plea deal.

05:17.032 --> 05:20.413
[SPEAKER_01]: She admitted she was Dan's accomplice and the details she gave were chilling.

05:21.434 --> 05:24.335
[SPEAKER_01]: She said she drove him to the spores home the day before the murder.

05:25.095 --> 05:29.657
[SPEAKER_01]: She watched him assemble a makeshift silence or using PVC pipe and witnessed him tested.

05:30.950 --> 05:34.572
[SPEAKER_01]: While he waited inside the house for hours, she stayed in the car nearby.

05:34.592 --> 05:39.496
[SPEAKER_01]: And after the shooting, she helped him dispose of the weapon, clothing, and even his shoes.

05:40.837 --> 05:45.360
[SPEAKER_01]: She also testified that Sarah Fini told her, I shot Wendy in the head twice.

05:45.880 --> 05:46.981
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't want her to suffer.

05:48.230 --> 05:52.593
[SPEAKER_01]: Though he never directly admitted to shooting Gary, prosecutors said they didn't need him to.

05:53.154 --> 05:54.975
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything else painted the full picture.

05:55.616 --> 05:59.078
[SPEAKER_01]: The trial began in May of this year in Placer County Superior Court.

05:59.839 --> 06:03.442
[SPEAKER_01]: The prosecution laid out six weeks of detailed methodical evidence.

06:04.182 --> 06:10.307
[SPEAKER_01]: Surveillance video analysis, cell phone pings, emails, text messages, lace with rage and resentment.

06:10.868 --> 06:14.590
[SPEAKER_01]: Autopsy findings and most critically Samantha Scott's testimony.

06:15.590 --> 06:19.614
[SPEAKER_01]: The defense attempted to cast out on the identity of the mass man in the video.

06:20.454 --> 06:26.900
[SPEAKER_01]: Erin Spore called to the stand, testified that she couldn't be sure if the figure was Dan, but the jury wasn't convinced.

06:27.981 --> 06:41.713
[SPEAKER_01]: On July, fourteenth, twenty twenty-five, they found Daniel Seraphini guilty of first-degree murder, attempted murder, first-degree burglary, and special circumstances of lying in weight and felony murder, along with fire-armun handsets.

06:43.279 --> 06:49.526
[SPEAKER_01]: Durer's later said that the surveillance footage and how closely at Matt Serimfini's gate was the final nail in the coffin.

06:50.287 --> 06:54.472
[SPEAKER_01]: His sentencing is scheduled in just a few weeks on August, eighteen at the time of twenty-five.

06:55.333 --> 06:59.358
[SPEAKER_01]: Seraphini faces twenty-five years to life, possibly life without parole.

07:00.400 --> 07:05.102
[SPEAKER_01]: Samantha's got under her plea deal await sentencing and could receive up to three years in prison.

07:05.862 --> 07:07.183
[SPEAKER_01]: But the damage was already done.

07:08.123 --> 07:12.805
[SPEAKER_01]: Sadly, Wendy Wood, who had survived the attack, struggled for years with the trauma.

07:13.465 --> 07:15.446
[SPEAKER_01]: She never returned to her home in Tahoe.

07:16.106 --> 07:18.407
[SPEAKER_01]: And in twenty twenty three, she died by suicide.

07:19.267 --> 07:23.309
[SPEAKER_01]: Her daughter Adrian called it a second murder, a wound that justice couldn't heal.

07:24.249 --> 07:28.431
[SPEAKER_01]: As the trial concluded, she said, we finally have the truth, but we will never have peace.

07:28.966 --> 07:31.249
[SPEAKER_02]: And thank you so much for that wonderful case, Olivia.

07:31.269 --> 07:33.792
[SPEAKER_02]: Again, we hope to share a great time on vacation.

07:33.812 --> 07:35.895
[SPEAKER_02]: We look forward to being back with us here real soon.

07:36.276 --> 07:39.259
[SPEAKER_02]: But let's go ahead and write down some thoughts about this week's case.

07:39.780 --> 07:45.648
[SPEAKER_02]: So for me, you know, Wendy's story just resonates with me so much.

07:46.462 --> 08:07.232
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I think about this woman who, you know, met her husband years and years and years ago and they had a family and worked hard and they were able to accomplish something and and build the life right and to be in a spot where they could help their children out and, you know, as a parent, you know, it's the ideal thing, right?

08:07.252 --> 08:11.835
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like you've done so well for yourself that you're able to help your kids out and

08:13.040 --> 08:41.878
[SPEAKER_02]: to think that there's somebody like Sarah Fini out there who's just trying to latch on right and just suck these people for the last penny that they're worth to the point where you're willing to murder them to get some money from your in-laws and you know it's just heartbreaking and thinking about Wendy who you know she went through this life with Gary and she built all this and had these kids and by all accounts a beautiful family just to have it ripped away at the end for money

08:42.723 --> 08:48.465
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, like it does not surprise me at all that she would end up taking her own life, you know, you've lost your partner.

08:48.545 --> 08:59.368
[SPEAKER_02]: You can't go back to your house because, you know, the place that's supposed to be or your security, right, that this place is supposed to be like your center of calm, like your space.

09:00.148 --> 09:02.530
[SPEAKER_02]: was violated and your husband lost his life there.

09:02.871 --> 09:21.648
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, so my heart just breaks hearing, you know, not just the story and and and Gary and Aaron losing her father and but just to think that, you know, at that late in life to lose your partner in such a horrific way is just absolutely

09:22.811 --> 09:28.556
[SPEAKER_02]: absolutely awful, you know, and then again, to think about like, what kind of guy this, this Daniel Seraphini is, right?

09:28.576 --> 09:44.570
[SPEAKER_02]: Like having an affair with a baby sitter and you're building PVC silencers and it's like the amount of effort that you would put in to murder somebody so that you didn't have to, you know, work for money.

09:45.211 --> 09:49.314
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just, it's a special kind of evil with a person like that.

09:50.155 --> 10:08.922
[SPEAKER_02]: If we're talking devil to us, something like this, you know, I don't know if I'm ever going to be in the situation where I've, you know, got somebody wanting to kill me for all the money that I have, but the idea that you could just be home, you know, and again, in this place that's supposed to be your sanctuary, the safe space and not know that somebody's been lying and waiting for you for hours.

10:09.543 --> 10:10.723
[SPEAKER_02]: That's definitely terrifying.

10:10.823 --> 10:12.164
[SPEAKER_02]: So for me, I'm going to go ahead.

10:12.204 --> 10:14.785
[SPEAKER_02]: I will put this probably right about a six.

10:15.665 --> 10:21.346
[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, again, just because I can't see it happening myself, but there are still elements of this that really get underneath my skin.

10:21.967 --> 10:30.709
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm going to put it at six, but as always, we want to hear from you, the listeners, the locksmiths, where does the murder of Gary and Wendy Sofer fall on your devil test?

10:30.729 --> 10:31.429
[SPEAKER_02]: You can let us know.

10:31.869 --> 10:34.069
[SPEAKER_02]: Reach out to us on Instagram, check the locks pod.

10:34.089 --> 10:35.670
[SPEAKER_02]: You can find us on Twitter, check the locks.

10:36.050 --> 10:38.970
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey, if you're not in our Facebook group, what are you doing coming out with us?

10:39.011 --> 10:42.011
[SPEAKER_02]: We'd love the opportunity to get to know you to spend a little bit of time with the end.

10:42.491 --> 10:44.832
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, again, just have you as part of our family and

10:45.852 --> 10:51.475
[SPEAKER_02]: Speaking of family, this is normally the part of the show where we talk about Patreon and things like that.

10:52.095 --> 10:54.296
[SPEAKER_02]: I actually wanted to skip that today.

10:54.876 --> 11:03.280
[SPEAKER_02]: And again, especially, you know, taking about family, I found out today that a mentor of mine has passed away.

11:04.220 --> 11:10.723
[SPEAKER_02]: Unfortunately, they found out around Christmas that they had stage four, calling cancer.

11:11.963 --> 11:22.408
[SPEAKER_02]: And I just got word today that they are no longer with us and this person really did a lot to motivate me and inspire me and Just you know, men a great deal to me.

11:22.448 --> 11:31.572
[SPEAKER_02]: They were you know, we met through a work thing and We're from the same kind of hometown area and things like that and

11:32.992 --> 11:42.338
[SPEAKER_02]: Again, just really pushed me at a time where I needed somebody to be there for me and be in my corner and kind of helped me believe that I was capable of something.

11:42.379 --> 11:56.047
[SPEAKER_02]: Again, it's just it hurts that they're not hearing anymore, but I wanted to take this opportunity instead of talking about the Patreon or anything like that, just to remind everybody to hug the people that you love, tell them that you love them.

11:57.068 --> 12:00.911
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, even relating it back to this week's case, you know, I know that

12:01.930 --> 12:09.137
[SPEAKER_02]: that that Gary and Wendy's children probably would have loved one more chance to give their parents a hug right and tell them they loved them.

12:10.098 --> 12:11.219
[SPEAKER_02]: And we have that chance.

12:11.279 --> 12:17.005
[SPEAKER_02]: If you're listening to this right now, you have the chance to, you know, hug somebody and tell them that they mean the world to you.

12:17.045 --> 12:19.768
[SPEAKER_02]: So I just want to put that in there as a reminder.

12:21.809 --> 12:32.375
[SPEAKER_02]: life is short and time is not infinite and I want to make sure you know we've got reminders out there just to use that time to let the people in your life who are important know that they're important.

12:33.176 --> 12:40.100
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's all that we've got for this week's case but please make sure that you're subscribed to check the locks and if you ever podcast absolutely never miss an episode.

12:40.640 --> 12:46.824
[SPEAKER_02]: We will see you next week with another truly terrifying bite-sized true crime case but until then don't forget to check those locks.

12:47.424 --> 12:48.124
[SPEAKER_02]: Be good to each other.

12:48.144 --> 12:49.025
[SPEAKER_02]: See you next week.