Crimson Rituals and the Flight of the Teen Vampires

Step beneath the shadow of a normal suburban home with us, and you'll find a world where the lines between reality and nightmare blur. In this macabre episode of Murder and Mimosas, we untangle the Wendorff family murders—a chilling tale of gothic subcultures, blood rituals, and a deadly romance. As we recount the night Jennifer Wendorff's existence was torn apart by a grisly discovery, we probe the depths of her sister Heather's involvement with the sinister Vampire Clan and its charismatic leader, Rod Ferrell. Their descent into darkness serves as a cautionary tale of how dangerous obsessions can lead to devastating consequences.

The saga turns frantic as we trace the teen vampires' desperate flight, led by Rod, the so-called ancient vampire, and his right-hand man Scott. Their chaotic escape to New Orleans is a journey into the heart of cult madness, fraught with power struggles and a refusal to sink further into criminal abysses. We dissect the conflicting nature of these youths, seemingly lost to their fantastical identities yet shying away from continuing their spree. As we navigate their tangled web of choices, we paint a portrait of minds caught between delusion and a haunting reality.

Finally, we step into the eerie home life of Rod Ferrell, where normalcy is as foreign as daylight to the undead. I share unsettling insights into his family's occult practices, and his mother's twisted love for the cult's leader. Our conversation winds through the toxic underbelly of cult dynamics, the psychological damage they inflict, and the grim origin story of Rod's descent into darkness. So, as you sip your mimosa, join Shannon and me for a harrowing expedition into real-life horror, cloaked in the guise of vampire mythology.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Darkcast Network. Welcome to the dark side of podcasting. Welcome to Murder and Mimosas, a true crime podcast brought to you by a mother and daughter duo. Bringing you murder stories with a mimosas in hand.

Speaker 2: 0:18

Just a quick disclaimer before we get started. Our show is Murder and Mimosas. It's a true crime podcast. This means that we do discuss crimes including, but not limited to, disappearances, murder and sexual assault. All our episodes are told with the respect of the victims and the victims' families in mind. We strive to ensure that we provide factual information, but some information is more verifiable than others.

Speaker 1: 0:56

With that, grab your mimosas and let's dive in. Welcome back, I'm Shannon and I'm Danica. Today we're going to cover the tragedy of the Wendorffs. So grab your mimosas, you sip while we share.

Speaker 1: 1:10

November 25th 1996, 17-year-old Jennifer Wendorff is getting home late. Her curfew is 10 o'clock but she went to hang out with her boyfriend after work and lost track of time. She's trying to sneak in around 1125 that night without alerting her parents. Her dad, 49-year-old Richard Wendorf, is on the couch and she tiptoes past him in fear of getting caught. She goes to her room to call her boyfriend to let him know she made it home. She walks into the kitchen to see blood everywhere and then her mother, ruth, is bludgeoned to death on the floor. With fear and confusion she runs to the living room where she thought her father was on the couch asleep and now sees that he's not asleep but he has been beaten to death. She's not sure where her 15-year-old Heather is. So I mean, has she been kidnapped? Was she killed? Who knows? So she calls the police right away and while she hopes and prays, whoever did this is not hiding in her house still this is a terrifying sight to walk into, especially as a teenager.

Speaker 2: 2:15

You know like is this a robbery gone bad someone have out for, like your family, what is?

Speaker 1: 2:21

going on. Yeah, this sounds like a horror movie, so the master bedroom is staged to look like a robbery, but the only thing they can tell was that what was stolen was a 1993 Ford Explorer.

Speaker 2: 2:37

Okay, I mean, have they been targeted like as a family or something?

Speaker 1: 2:43

well, let's jump into that. So heather windorf had an odd group of friends, or at least in my opinion. Jennifer says she began to notice heather change in junior high when she met her friend janine claire. Jennifer started wearing her golf top clothes and dyed her hair black. She decorated her room with gargles and had a witch's bowel, lots of books about vampires and had recently declared she was a vampire. So even more alarming is that she stopped eating, which showed maybe an eating disorder, and had started cutting herself showed maybe an eating disorder and had started cutting herself, so talked about this a little bit.

Speaker 2: 3:30

on last week's episode. You know everyone wants to fit in and you know middle school, junior high, high school that's all a very hard time on kids. You're trying to figure out who you are as a person, where you fit in, you know, and that means you can have friends. That may not be the best of influences and we've seen so many times people long for that acceptance from wherever they can find it, even if it's not the most healthy or positive influence on their lives.

Speaker 1: 3:58

All right and Janine began seeing 16-year-old Rod Farrell. Rod liked both girls. He wears all black, his hair is dyed black, he's wearing chains and has his face made up, like the character from the movie the Crow, which I've not seen that movie, this doesn't even make me want to see that movie.

Speaker 1: 4:20

I was going to say I looked it up just to see what it looked like because I'd never seen the movie. Rod claimed to be Vesigo, a 50-year-old vampire 50? A 500-year-old vampire Even had the name tattooed on his back. Rod would end up moving back and forth between Kentucky and Florida with his mother living with her at times and at times with his grandparents. So in the 80s we have Dungeons and Dragons that many associated with Satanic Panic. In the 90s there was a game out called Vampire the Masquerade. It was a board game about vampires and Rod was living with his grandparents at the time. They called and asked his mother could he stay out all night to play this game? Although his grandparents didn't approve of any of this, she gave him permission and, just like some took Dungeons and Dragons a little too far, rod did the same with this game. He wanted to live out the game.

Speaker 1: 5:26

So janine and a friend of rod's named matt had gone to ron's rod's house once and, uh, his mother had walked in. She says that rod's arms had an alarming amount of blood draining from them. She yelled for them to get out. She was frantic but due to the amount of blood she had saw and asked Rod after they left what's going on, and he said they were doing a cell exchange. They all cut themselves and sucked each other's blood was what he told his mother. He seems very nonchalant about that. No joke, I mean I'd be at the ER or something. I'd be at the ER or something.

Speaker 1: 6:03

So Heather also did this with Rod at another time so she could be part of the so-called clan and they refer to themselves as the Vampire Clan. And Danica, I know you love a good pulse story. Oh, yes, I do. So Rod and his mother moved back to Kentucky. He and Heather stayed in touch. Rod's mother complained about the phone bill and one month it was actually turned off because the phone bill was $1,000. So Rod began to call her collect, which didn't sit well with her parents when they got their phone bill. In fact, they forbid her to talk to him anymore when they got their phone bill.

Speaker 2: 6:45

in fact, they forbid her to talk to him anymore, and we know normally how well that works when a parent forbid a strong-willed child from doing something Right, and that was the case here too.

Speaker 1: 7:00

She would talk to Rod about how horrible she felt her home life was. She alluded to being abused by her parents and sexually abused by her father. According to Rod, rod is in his black getup and black trench coat when he gets to Kentucky. I mean he really stands out, but let's be honest, he probably would have stood out anywhere in this getup. True, he's looking to find friends like him and finds a guy named steven murray, who goes by the name of jayden, who also participates in vampirism. Steven isn't sure fraud is a rival vampire clan, but the two become friends and steven says he's the sire and they suck each other's blood after cutting themselves.

Speaker 2: 7:44

Okay, first of all, how many clans can there be to have a rival? I don't know. There's probably enough of you in the United States just to make one clan. You don't even have to have a rival. And number two, what's a sire exactly.

Speaker 1: 8:00

So for vampire purposes, it's a vampire that has transformed a human into another vampire. So it's edward cullen got it? Yes, so from what I can gather, he was the ruler of this vampire, if you will. So ron is used to being in control and he starts recruiting people for yet another plan he's making. Oh no.

Speaker 2: 8:25

There's a rival clan in town.

Speaker 1: 8:26

Yes, he says later in the interview, he looked for people that didn't have anyone, so Misfits in a way, that were just wanting to be part of something, to have friends. And, danica, you have a lot of information on cults, so what would you say all cult leaders seem to possess?

Speaker 2: 8:46

Okay, so there's actually a lot of research on this, because I've been interested in what exactly is considered a cult and what exactly a cult leader should possess to be considered a cult leader, or what a cult has to possess to be a cult. Are you trying to be a cult leader Like?

Speaker 1: 9:13

what's going on? Let me finish my statement. Okay, I just like to know stuff. Okay, you sound like you were trying to be a cult. Start your own plan.

Speaker 2: 9:17

I'm trying to get my own vampire. Okay, I'm on my own vampire clan, all right. So one big thing is charismatic. I'm not real sure if rod fits that, but guess, if he can convince people to cut themselves open and suck blood. He has to have some level of charisma, uh dominant, which he doesn't want to. He wants to be the leader. So this clearly has that. They generally tend to be sociopaths or psychopaths I can't say he doesn't fit that and they tend to be exploitative. They tend to easily be able to exploit people, which is kind of what the whole cult is one person exploiting a lot of people and from him saying he tries to find people that are alone or don't have friends, he's looking to exploit that thing, um, and kind of going in hand with that. They tend to be manipulative as well, um, so for the most part, I'd say that he he's right on par.

Speaker 2: 10:22

He's taking a lot of boxes, if you know what I mean okay.

Speaker 1: 10:25

So we know that he recruited scott anderson and he says he got him because he didn't have any friends. He was poor, he lived in the projects and he wanted to belong. He recruited donna cooper because she was overweight, probably have poor self-esteem, both of them actually wanting to belong, just wanting to have friends in general. So then there was also his girlfriend in Kentucky, in Kentucky, in Kentucky, in.

Speaker 2: 10:57

Kentucky. She's not naming it something else. I try to make your own Kentucky cult. Well, we need one. I don't know.

Speaker 1: 11:08

Rod seems to have his uh, you know territory yes, so her name was charity keecy, if I'm saying that right. So rod had introduced the group, and when I say group, I can't really confirm the group other than Scott Anderson, don Cooper and Charity Kesey. I say that to say this that Rod says there was about 30 members in the clan, but that can never be confirmed.

Speaker 2: 11:36

I mean there may have been, but I don't know that I'd come forward after the fact and be like I was in with that dude. I was in all my own world, dude.

Speaker 1: 11:44

Right. So we only have three confirmed, but supposedly there's 30. So Rock has decided the plan should move to New Orleans First. They're going to go pick up Heather and get her out of this horrible home life she has. Rock tells her to meet him down the road at a cemetery.

Speaker 2: 12:02

Seems fitting.

Speaker 1: 12:03

Everybody wants to meet up at cemeteries, so once there they do some kind of blood ritual, sucking each other's blood. He tells her to pack her clothes and meet them later. Down the road she does and she leaves a note for her parents saying she's leaving. She's fine, don't look for me. She meets the gang in the car and realizes she's forgot something. I don't know how they decide Rod and Scott should go get whatever it is she left behind, but they do. Before going, rod says you talk about wanting your parents dead all the time. Do you want me to kill them while they're there? I mean, is this something you really want? So she claims. She said no, leave my parents alone. And he says okay.

Speaker 2: 12:46

and so they sit parked waiting on them to come back I mean, let's be real, how many kids have said they wish their parents were dead or something to that effect? Sorry mom. So you know you have tons of dramatic teens, especially when it comes to girls, and you think your parents are the worst. Sorry mom, even if she said it just like you know, in passing, I doubt that she likely meant it, but we also do plenty of podcasts when that is definitely what they meant, so it could really go either way, that is true.

Speaker 1: 13:22

I mean, I feel like most teens have said that at some point, because they think their parents are the worst. But you're right, we have done plenty of podcasts where they definitely want their parents dead. So who knows? So I mean, obviously parents are just a bug's kill. So Rod plans on killing her dad when he gets there and Scott is going to kill her mother. Rod finds a crowbar in the garage and the garage door was unlocked, so that's how they get in the house. Her father was on the couch watching tv and they come upon him and he glances at Rod right before. Rod strikes him in the head with the crowbar and he does this continuously. He told the police it took about 20 minutes to kill him and he was starting to wonder if he was immortal or something. This is crazy. The police would later recount it as looking at like hamburger meat when they saw his face.

Speaker 2: 14:20

Why are we always referencing food or people? Why are we always referencing food and people? I would like to eat again in my lifetime.

Speaker 1: 14:27

So Ruth was in the shower and then they went in the kitchen, and then she went in the kitchen I'm sorry for a cup of coffee, not knowing that there are two deranged lunatics in her house. Vampires, Vampire clan Sorry. Scott says. After the first blow to Richard, he knew that he couldn't do this. Ruth walks up on them and asks what they want. That's what I would do to two vampires.

Speaker 2: 14:52

I thought vampires couldn't enter your home unless they were invited. Isn't that a vampire?

Speaker 1: 14:58

rule. I mean, I saw that on one vampire movie, but I don't know if I've seen it on all of them. I don't know if that's a vampire.

Speaker 2: 15:05

I thought that was a vampire girl. It could be, I'm not. I don't think they were invited in, so I think they broke like a very big vampire.

Speaker 1: 15:13

I'm not real versed in vampires, so Rod said they weren't going to kill her, but she threw a cup of coffee on him and this made him very angry. This isn't.

Speaker 2: 15:26

they're not witches. This isn't Wizard of Oz. You need a steak or something, I think.

Speaker 1: 15:31

I don't know Well, she kind of knew he was a vampire at the time, or she wouldn't have tried the coffee. She would have been like the Dornton garlic or something. There you go, that would have been good. So Rod brings the crowbar down on her head, beating her to death as well. Rod and Scott take their clothes off and burn them. They grab a credit card, any money they could find, and the couple sport explore in the garage and leave. They didn't say what they put on, so that's a little fuzzy. I mean they walked around.

Speaker 2: 16:05

I don't know. I'm wondering if they got the thing that they even went in there for. I don't know. I do that every time I walk into a room, pretty much going into a room for something, and I'm not killing two people, so it's true. I want to know if being a vampire means you remember what you went in for I have no idea.

Speaker 1: 16:20

So the explorer drives up behind the girls flashing the lights and Heather's a little confused and saying Are my parents here? Did they find me?

Speaker 2: 16:29

Oh yeah, no for sure. She's definitely got to be confused, because I would be confused if I were her.

Speaker 1: 16:37

So she realizes pretty quickly that Rod has their explorer because they're dead.

Speaker 2: 16:44

That's a major lead yeah like oh, not, they stole it just like oh, they're dead, definitely dead he did offer to you know, offer parents. So yeah, right before he walked in.

Speaker 1: 16:57

So I mean I guess that's fair, that makes sense yeah, so this is a group of teenagers on the way to New Orleans. They have hires and the emperor Sorry, not that On their way to New Orleans, and they call themselves the so-called family, but since they are in fact, teens Question. Can we call them that if one of them is 500 years old?

Speaker 2: 17:19

Supposedly Since they're teen looking.

Speaker 1: 17:28

Teen-esque, I mean mean, if you were 500 years old and look like a teen, I want whatever you're taking, it's apparently other people's blood.

Speaker 2: 17:32

Are you prepared for that? Okay, maybe you don't want that. Maybe you decided you don't okay fine.

Speaker 1: 17:38

So, um, being young and old, whatever the heck they are, whatever they are, they don't have the greatest thought process. They're not thinking things through. The bloodsuckers, right? Don't have Interesting. Okay, so they don't have jobs, they don't have money. Roth leads them to a house that he robs and he steals his shotgun and he holds it. He's carrying it in front seat, holding on his lap, and he's like hey guys, um, if any cops come up and arrest us, I'll just shoot them.

Speaker 2: 18:14

I'm wishing a shotgun sounds like a vampire thing to say. Actually it's a very redneck thing to say. But maybe they're the same, I don know. But I'm sure that the whole shotgun thing in the front seat is also a manipulative tactic to kind of keep them in submission and under his thumb. We see that a lot with cult leaders when they're afraid that maybe there'll be some people who try to defect from the cult. So it's just a way to kind of scare them into submission, which I mean I don't know. He just murdered people. I felt like they're probably maybe a little scared.

Speaker 1: 18:51

I mean I'm going to be shaking in my boots but I don't know. So back at the house, police are questioning Jennifer. Obviously, heather's gone. Jennifer tells them how she changed and tells them about her friend. Obviously, heather's gone. Jennifer tells them how she changed and tells them about her friend Rod.

Speaker 2: 19:11

They get in touch with the police in Kentucky and they put out a bolo which is to be on the lookout for the group of teen vampires. Just imagine that bolo like teeth and yeah.

Speaker 1: 19:17

So this is where the information has been not really verified. There were some different things. So some say Charity called her grandmother in South Dakota and some sources say she called her mother in South Dakota.

Speaker 2: 19:32

Okay, female relative is in South Dakota.

Speaker 1: 19:34

Yes, and so whoever she called in South Dakota, she asked them could they wire her money? And they were like sure, let me wire you money to the Howard Johnson, because that's where people wire money, I guess. And murder, that is true, there is a murder at the Howard Johnson, yes, so that wasn't the case, though Whichever woman this was in her life didn't send the money there, but they alerted the police and Rod would later recount saying this felt like a setup, but they didn't really have any other means. So OK.

Speaker 2: 20:14

So they have no money and he feels like this is a setup. He's already committed murder and robbery. This is a setup. He's already committed murder and robbery. I'm curious as to why that's no longer an avenue of possibility to get money. You know, if they've done it once, why not do it again? And I'm not at all complaining and I'm not suggesting that they should have done that. They should have done it the first time, but I'm it just seems odd to me that they've done it and now they're like oh no, that's, you can't be doing that. That's awful, but it may have been too messy, I mean.

Speaker 1: 20:51

But you would think, if you're a vampire, you really like that blood. Yeah, you think I don't know, but I completely agree with you and get your thought process, because I had it too big and I would think I mean, honestly, I don't know, because the blood it too big and I would think I mean, honestly, I don't know, because the blood should be like a plus. I would be like, oh, this is so gross, I can't do it, I don't know, I really should really be a turn on for them. So I don't know.

Speaker 2: 21:12

I don't understand vampires well enough to understand any of this.

Speaker 1: 21:16

So Rod said he was going to shoot the police if they tried to arrest him, but he didn't. Once the police told them to get out, they did without incident. All five were arrested and Ron reminds me of Marilyn Manson in the pictures I see of the arrest. He's got this long wild black hair, some crazy eyes and many times in the camera when it's pointed at him he sticking his tongue out the vampire right.

Speaker 2: 21:46

Were there fangs in the picture?

Speaker 1: 21:48

no, I've heard no thing.

Speaker 2: 21:49

I feel like that's like a telltale sign of a vampire. So I don't know, but part of me, this small part of me, is feeling like maybe he's not really a vampire I don't know if he could hide.

Speaker 1: 22:01

I don't know't know. Do they go in?

Speaker 2: 22:03

It doesn't seem like he really wants to hide them.

Speaker 1: 22:05

I don't know.

Speaker 2: 22:06

I don't really think he wants to hide his vampirism, that is true. So I think he would have them like full show for the pictures. You know what I'm saying. So I don't know. Part of me feels like maybe he wasn't really a vampire, maybe more.

Speaker 1: 22:20

So they question the teens, vampires, vampires. And Rod doesn't deny anything. In fact, if you have the time to listen to his police interrogation, he seems really excited to relive what he did to the Wendorfs and tells it in very personal detail.

Speaker 2: 22:38

Is that a thing for vampires, maybe? Maybe they can't lie.

Speaker 1: 22:41

Maybe I don't know, or maybe he's psychotic, I don't know, or maybe he's psychotic, I don't know.

Speaker 2: 22:44

He's definitely that like that's for sure. He's trying to figure. I'm trying to figure out the rules in this vampire thing. I don't know okay.

Speaker 1: 22:53

So the rest are pretty tight-lipped until they tell them that rod has already confessed, except heather. When they question her, she repeatedly says she did not want her parents dead, had no idea her parents were going to be murdered and told rod specifically not to kill her parents. They have heather go before a grand jury and they decide she knew nothing about this and she's never charged with the murder of her parents. She later says it didn't matter um that she was, wasn't guilty. Everyone treated her like she was.

Speaker 2: 23:27

I don't know. I feel like they may have been alive if she hadn't been telling her. I don't even want to call them troubles because from what it seems like it was more like exaggerations or even just lies. Um to rod, who now had this like need to protect in order to keep her in his little cult. You know we need an outlet and she was only 15 but you really have to watch what you say, especially if it's not the truth. And, for starters, I don't know if what she said is the truth or a lie. If she was being abused or been sexually abused, it doesn't seem like it's been founded by anyone and it feels like if she believed that, then she would have been like coming out with that during all of this, coming out with that during all of this. Um. So you know you have to be careful what you say and who you say it to, and you know when they say your lies will come back to haunt you. This one came back to haunt her in a big way that's true.

Speaker 1: 24:34

So um, and you know, she like now she's saying I didn't want my parents dead. But her sister actually told the police that she had mentioned before that she wanted to kill her parents well, I mean, yeah, we talked a little bit about that earlier.

Speaker 2: 24:51

You know, sometimes we think, say things when we mad, you know, not truly understanding the gravity of that statement. I mean, how many times we you said, oh, I could just kill him because you're frustrated, you know, and she's 15 now and has no parents to support her or care for her or even, at this point, annoy her. But you know, again, we've also had those kids on plenty of our podcast episodes of teens kids, vampires, whatever that did in fact want their parents dead.

Speaker 1: 25:26

Oh, that's true, so you know them. I mean what's going on in somebody's mind. So the other four teens are all charged with murder and all plead guilty.

Speaker 2: 25:38

Okay, hang on. Only two of them actually. That's confusing.

Speaker 1: 25:42

I know there are only two that actually. Well, they had the other break-in.

Speaker 2: 25:48

I don't think they killed anybody I don't know, but it says charged with murder yeah, I don't know why they're charged with murder and really it sounded like the other guy didn't ever hit the mother. He chickened out, so sounds like a weird way to say that?

Speaker 1: 26:03

Well, that is true.

Speaker 2: 26:05

He had some I don't know sense of morality and changed his mind, and Rod killed both of them. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 26:14

But all four of them plead guilty to murder. So there's not any trials for the murder, but of course there is the penalty phase and trials for the murder, but of course there is the penalty phase and if you aren't familiar with that, the defense will call witnesses to account as to you know what may have caused this behavior, characteristics, witnesses, et cetera, in hopes to lessen the sentence, mitigating circumstances.

Speaker 2: 26:39

Yes, yeah, that's a good way to put it, it's like they have a word for that.

Speaker 1: 26:45

So Rod's mother, sonda Gibson, takes the stand and this woman Wicklaught Winn Mother of the Year Award. So let's just say that. So we're going to go over some of her testimony. She had Rod at 17 and had a very religious Pentecostal family.

Speaker 2: 27:05

oh weird religious pentecostal family showing up again this episode. Yeah, we're having a lot of like parallels happening. Yeah, I'm sorry I shouldn't say that religious families are pentecostal families are weird. I just meant that it's weird to me that we've had them in both episodes. That may have come off wrong. I just want to clarify your religion is not weird. You believe what you want.

Speaker 1: 27:27

So she and Rod's father married briefly. That didn't work out and his father wasn't really in the picture. So she moves in and out with her parents over the course of her life and at one point she worked at a nightclub as a dancer. She did sex work to pay bills, but she had also held some I guess you would say regular jobs in HR over the years as well.

Speaker 2: 27:58

She abused drugs throughout the years. I feel like HR should tell you that you're not supposed to do that Right.

Speaker 1: 28:06

She met a man named Darian Craven at one point, and she married him. He claimed to be in the occult I'm not sure if he really was. He was very into playing Dungeons and Dragons as a family, I guess you would say and introduced Rod into the occult. Rod's room was black, with an upside down cross adorning the wall, and he also had an altar with a book of the undead placed upon it. Rod's mother wanted to be part of the vampire clan that Jaden had, so we talked about Jaden earlier. She too began dressing in all black and ended up getting herself in trouble for writing a letter to Jaden's 14 year old brother soliciting sex, and she was charged with three years probation. She was a sex worker. Three years probation, what? She was a sex worker at one time. Why is she having sex with you? Hey guys, I'm Tyler, I'm Thomas and I'm Jake, and this is A Call to Madness.

Speaker 2: 29:15

This is a comedy show where we have no idea where these topics are taking us. I have made it clear that I don't know anything about vampires, they're all around, straight madness. Learn with us grow with us and laugh with us every other Saturday at noon, central time. Clear that I don't know anything about vampires. Okay, that's awesome, I don't know, you're quite a bit about cults.

Speaker 1: 29:28

I don't know, Just remember, guys, you cult but you only found madness.

Speaker 2: 29:39

There is a lot of adult sex minors in cults. That's very common. I guess that translates into vampire cults as well.

Speaker 1: 29:49

Okay, that is true, but let me read you the letter that she wrote to this kid that says I long to be near you, for your embrace, yes, to become a vampire, a part of the family, immortal and truly yours.

Speaker 2: 30:06

Okay I'm not all caught up on um vampires and I've made that clear. So essentially she wanted to turn him into a vampire but like, why not someone who was I don't know of age or maybe he is, maybe he is technically 500 and he's not even actually a minor. You know I this, there's a lot of moving parts in vampirism I don't really understand so we can't expect his mother to make sense at all, um, because she doesn't. She's no clear yeah yeah.

Speaker 1: 30:40

So, rod, I mean, if he's walking to your son's room and you see blood profusely coming from his arms and you're just like, what are y'all doing Also?

Speaker 2: 30:49

why'd she tell him to get out when she clearly knew what was happening? It was some sort of now. I see why she was in arms to run about it, though, because she was like get out.

Speaker 1: 31:05

And then he's like, yeah, we're doing, like we're just doing a thing, mom, it's just part of it. Who's the leader? And can I get with them Wild, I don't know? So Rod ends up being expelled from school for telling a teacher he would slit her neck. His mother never enrolled him in school again. She said he would end up all night playing his games and sleep all day. They asked was she aware her son was using heroin and LSD? And she said yes, she was aware. They asked what she did to get help from him and she said she did nothing. I mean, why would I do that?

Speaker 2: 31:38

She's like what help man? He's living life. What are you talking?

Speaker 1: 31:40

about. Why would I do anything? So she was eventually evaluated by a doctor before all this and she told him some odd things. But during testimony she would say she didn't recall saying that. And the attorney would show her the transcripts and she would say maybe he misunderstood her. Or she would say she didn't remember saying that, one being that steven would rape her repeatedly for ritual sessions.

Speaker 2: 32:09

But she also professed her love to steven in the hearing okay, uh, first of all, I thought like ritual sessions had to be done with virgins. She's clearly not. I don't know Again, my vampire knowledge is shaky at best. But All right, hang on. There's been a lot of different vampires happening. This is the leader of the vampire cult with territory in Kentucky, right, yes? And isn't he like? And isn't he like her son's age?

Speaker 1: 32:47

Yes, in fact. They ask her in the hearing how old Steven is, and she says she doesn't know. But she does know he is of age.

Speaker 2: 32:56

I mean right, 570 of age.

Speaker 1: 32:59

She was to have said that her son and his friend would drug her and gang rape her. In the hearing she said she didn't mean to say her son that the doctor probably misunderstood her. The doctor ended up diagnosing her with psychotic disorder.

Speaker 2: 33:19

Newsflash. Wow, that's a plot twist.

Speaker 1: 33:22

I saw coming a mile away which could be caused by several things, and one being drug use Is one of them. Sucking other people's blood. I did not see that in the round with what would cause psychotic disorder. I did not see. I didn't see that.

Speaker 2: 33:41

Obviously they have not studied a lot of the empire cults, so it's maybe a tussle.

Speaker 1: 33:47

So Rod tells the police and his doctor that his mother advised him. When he was five or six his grandfather took him fishing and raped him.

Speaker 2: 33:56

Okay is this the same grandfather that, like he, lived on and off with for years yeah, that would be the one.

Speaker 1: 34:03

She also told him that her father took him out in the woods to have his friends rape rod as part of a ritual for something called black mass. I do want to say that his grandfather was never charged with any of this, and I'm just giving you what was said.

Speaker 2: 34:20

I also want to say that sandra didn't mention this in the penalty face either okay, let's just go out on a limb and say that, um, you know, this didn't happen. Just gonna wildly guess that. And if it didn't happen, I still think that she's probably convinced rod that it has, and I'm sure that has put that seed of hate towards his grandfather and probably been confusing as to why his own mother would leave him there. If she has convinced him to believe this, he assumes she believes this, yet he's allowing her to, she's allowing him to stay.

Speaker 1: 35:03

That's got to be confusing I mean, I agree, and I'm also thinking pedophiles don't stop. And this didn't seem to be an ongoing occurrence, which makes me wonder hey, did this really even happen at all?

Speaker 2: 35:17

I mean, whether it did or not, this could be why Rod was so drawn to Heather and wanting to help someone out of his situation, because if she was in fact telling him she was being sexually abused, you know, is there any evidence that Heather had been abused in any way?

Speaker 1: 35:37

She tells the police and anyone who asks she was never abused in any way at all. She says she never told Rod she had been abused in any way. So you have to decide who you want to believe in that situation. Did she tell Rod that or did she go to the police and say she never told anybody? That? I don't know.

Speaker 2: 35:59

And I don't know. Also, with the amount of drugs that Rod is taking, it's very possible that he could misconstrue what she's saying and project some of his own I can't say experiences because I don't really know that they happened to him, but what he thinks happened to him on her and feel like he needs to be a savior.

Speaker 1: 36:20

True. Are you really going to take this road trip to save or supposedly save this girl for nothing? I mean, what do you need to go get her when you supposedly have 30 members in your clan, your vampire clan? Do you really need to go off road to get this girl and save her?

Speaker 2: 36:39

Well, we know he didn't have 30 members in the clan. So, yes, he needed her because his clan is not very big. So he needed to go save her and I don't know that he went there with the intention of killing her parents, because it just so happened. They went back because she forgot something and I think he saw an opportunity to be a savior and also put the fear of whatever vampires believe in since it's probably not God into the clan so that they would stay in submission for him.

Speaker 1: 37:11

That's true. Stay in submission for him? That's true. So rod's attorney does their best at his defense and the doctor gets promising and tells the jury that rod is diagnosed with asperger's syndrome. And it's uh, schizotypal I think it's a top one which is a personality disorder rather than a psychotic disorder like schizophrenia.

Speaker 2: 37:35

He's psychotic.

Speaker 1: 37:36

They have trouble with relationships and interactions. They are normally erratic. They believe they have special powers. His screwed up upbringing didn't have the best bearing and they hoped because he is sentenced to death at only 17. Wait, hey, you can stop that, let's just do it.

Speaker 2: 38:03

He screwed his screwed up upbringing.

Speaker 1: 38:04

He didn't have the bearing they hoped because, because he's sentenced to death at only 17 d. Dana is convicted of third degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon and sentenced to 17 and a half years. Charity is sentenced to the same thing but sentenced or sentenced to the same thing, but only sentenced to 10 and a half years. Scott is convicted of two counts of felony murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Speaker 2: 38:33

I'm still very confused by their sentencing in there. I don't know why they Like. I don't understand how Dana is convicted of murder. I don't understand how Charity is convicted of murder.

Speaker 1: 38:47

I don't know either.

Speaker 2: 38:49

I mean, it's a stretch to me that Scott, but at least he was in the house when it happened. The others were in a car and had no idea, and I think Charity was older.

Speaker 1: 39:03

I don't even know why they're sentenced.

Speaker 2: 39:04

I don't care how old they are. They weren't there.

Speaker 1: 39:06

I don't even understand why the years aren't the same. I don't know, and I don't know why they're sentenced to murder. I guess, other than just like yeah, I'll, I'll plead guilty.

Speaker 2: 39:17

I don't know well if they plead guilty. They had crap lawyers, but I mean, I also wouldn't want to be the lawyer that had to defend rod either. So we talked about this uh many times in this, uh about the supreme court ruling in 2005 that juveniles would not automatically be sentenced to life in prison, and so I'm assuming that both boys received new sentences.

Speaker 1: 39:41

Scott was re-sentenced to 40 years, but the circuit judge, richard Singletary, wrote that, based on the evidence presented, the court finds that he is very apparently corrupt and will still serve life in prison. So that's all we have for today.

Speaker 2: 40:03

All I can say is remember to choose your friends wisely and wear garlic.

Speaker 1: 40:21

We always recommend more bubbly and less OJ Cheers If you'd like to see pictures from today's episode.

Speaker 2: 40:30

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