Doctor Couple Becomes Target Of A Delusional Killer Who Thinks They’re In A Love Triangle Together

it is very difficult to be a co-worker to someone who has probably most likely genuinely lost their goddamn minds if it isn't already bad enough to avoid co-worker bonding sessions co-workers are asking you if you want to go out with them after work but you would literally rather go home and not think about work but this this is worse because brenda is not a normal co-worker she's already complained to every single person at work that her and her dermatologist boyfriend had broken up but now she's dragging her co-worker erin to this very random very specific bar in dallas after work when erin gets there the bar is packed brenda guides her to the bar and there's about three stools left that's how packed it is i mean there's people everywhere so they take up two of the three stools they both take a seat and there's only one empty chair at the bar left finally a woman walks in and says hi to her co-worker and she says hi to her co-worker and walks in and the only available seat is right there so she takes it she sits down and she starts texting on her phone erin notices that brenda is like zeroed in on this random woman who just walked in and brenda oddly uses this moment to get up walk behind her co-worker erin and start playing with erin's hair almost as if she's trying to braid it but it's very clear to erin just judging by the finger work it's not really like she's trying to braid her hair or do anything nice to her hair and when she looks up at brenda brenda is zeroing in on this woman's phone seeing what she's doing on the phone it's clear from the moment that she saw brenda all dolled up that this was one of brenda's crazy plans brenda pretends to play with erin's hair while she watches the woman next to her and right there you see this woman texting a man named ricky ricky never ends up coming into the parking lot to go into this bar his date and he sees his ex-girlfriend's car in the parking lot he texts his date to reschedule or to head to a different bar and he doesn't even know that none of this was a coincidence this was a setup by brenda we would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for rotten mango to support dentists who care a non-profit that provides free urgent dental care for uninsured children and adults provided by volunteer dentists across the rio grande valley in texas this episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support rotten mango's team of dedicated researchers and we'd also like to thank you guys for your continued support as always full show notes available at rottenmangopodcast.com and we'll see you next time on rotten mango podcast today's case has brief mentions of gun violence stalking relational violence and a very brief description of stress related to immigration status viewer discretion is advice statements and quotes may be condensed for brevity and with that said let's begin if you guys haven't already listened to audio part one of this podcast or this case please go listen we went over um who kendra hatcher was and why it was so puzzling to detectives when a 35 year old pediatric dentist was found shot dead in her luxury apartment parking lot there's so many weird leads that occur with this case you have a man named jose seeing his jeep on the bolo he comes in and he tells the police yes that's my car that was my car that was used as the getaway car for when kendra was murdered but i don't know kendra then he brings up that his friend had borrowed his car her name is brenda brenda has an alibi then investigators are like you know what maybe we should look back into kendra's boyfriend at the time ricky who is also a doctor he's a dermatologist and he's a doctor who's been in the hospital for a long time and she's a dermatologist then they find out that ricky and brenda used to date and everything is falling apart and in the interrogation room detective barnes just wants one thing from ricky they already heard what he was doing he was in the apartment prepping for their trip then he went to go grab tacos they already saw the messages on kendra's phone and now they know that ricky's ex-girlfriend one of the people that he reached out to for support is brenda his ex-girlfriend tiny wrist jeep brenda but because of that connection authorities want his phone so that they can run a very quick data dump nothing serious they tell him just give us a copy of your entire cell phone and we can rule you out and be on your way ricky completely understands it's just that he got a new phone huh detective barnes seems a little taken aback after kendra died he got a new phone what but ricky is like wait hold on though like why are you taking it back you're the one that told me to do that there was a bit of miscommunication i guess you could say ricky says he thought that's what barnes told him to do was to get a new cell phone because he started getting calls from media just badgering him for comments yeah legacy media is like hey give me a statement right now and so he told barnes that barnes is like yeah you should probably get a new number barnes is like what are you talking about i said get a new number not a new cell phone because technically even if you get a new phone you still have the same phone number you're still gonna get calls from the media like what is happening how are you doing what are you doing what are you doing what are you doing what are you doing hello are the dots not connecting ricky apologizes he says he honestly thought that that's what he meant which to be fair i will say that ricky is this is the time period where you're in a state of shock and grief so it's a bit more understandable and detective barnes is like okay well it's fine but do you have it with you the old phone no i mean he doesn't have he he just has his new phone he does have the old phone but it's not with him right now and also detective barnes is like i'm not saying no by any means okay it was literally just midnight i was up talking to my sister and we were talking and there's just something that we don't know to the point where we're just like i mean we just i don't know what to do with it i don't know what to do with it i what what does this have to do with the phone ricky continues kind of rambling i mean i just have like i mean the people that i know are more i mean i'm more of like a physician lawyer and this is like a recorded interview yes and so they were just almost you know like scared on my you know what i mean like i wasn't even really thinking about that and they're like no you really you really have to that's a big deal and i i just don't know if you want to get involved and again i'm not saying no i'm just saying i just need to ask somebody who can maybe help guide me a little i'm so confused is he rambling completely he's rambling completely and at this point i will say i do understand the hesitation by ricky i would be incredibly hesitant to hand over a copy of my phone to a police officer even if i had zero guilt there was nothing that i've done that was even remotely inappropriate i would probably fight it right so he he's hesitant of giving away his phone got it yes and if history tells us anything like you should probably fight it too and get an attorney first i'm not saying that you should fight a search warrant i'm just saying i don't know if you should immediately consent to it and offer it up on a silver platter ricky then asked barnes what he would do if he were in his position and detective barnes responds in a way that's as surprising as the earth is round detective barnes is telling him i would just be like hey here you go here's my phone he reassures ricky like look we do this stuff with phones all the time he says he understands you know phones are super important he sees all sorts of phones though like we don't really expect anything more than like a goofy selfie here or there but it's just very standard stuff ricky doesn't directly respond to what detective barnes just said he instead runs his hand through his hair he scratches the back of his head and he almost kind of asks sheepishly like and just from a professional standpoint am i being recorded right now they are in an interrogation room and well i mean it's all part of the investigation everything that we do in this building is recorded and that's why i asked you to bring the notes so that i can get it recorded ricky says yeah yeah again i wanna i feel like i should maybe just talk to someone which okay that's another thing don't ever be so passive with police officers just say i want a lawyer because detective barnes is like no you don't you don't want to talk to anybody basically that's what police have to do even if you say you want to talk to a lawyer they're going to be like yeah sure we'll get you a lawyer don't worry about it ricky is like i don't want to talk to i'm happy to talk off the record i mean part of the reason why i mean because last night when i was thinking about it i wasn't sure if i should even contact you to reschedule he starts rambling more almost about how he at least wanted to come in and talk to detective barnes but he barely slept the past few days he actually used to pull 30 hour shifts and this somehow feels a lot worse he knows from the start that he probably shouldn't make important life decisions when you're that tired but like does detective barnes get that detective barnes reassures ricky i totally understand totally but ultimately he informs ricky that his responsibility is to kendra's family and to do everything to find out all the details and to look at the whole picture and the whole picture being whatever ricky might have on his phone ricky responds with kind of an interesting response that really i think only a dermatologist might have in this situation he expresses a lot of concern that okay so he took a picture of a patient um to show the condition of their skin but he sent it to a colleague who's also a dermatologist and a doctor to get a second opinion which he says technically he's not supposed to do that from a professional standpoint because the other physician is not their doctor so you can't just without consent send a picture of their skin even if there's no identifying markers or anything okay it seems like he's trying to say he doesn't feel comfortable with that and now this is going to be on police record to which detective barnes tells him straight up i honestly couldn't give a shit less about a mole basically he's like i don't care about moles i don't care if you've got patients mole pictures up in there because it's like a picture of a mole that he wanted a second opinion on he says i'm concerned with the people responsible for killing kendra hatcher which then moves ricky to his next train of thought yeah yeah so then i'm a suspect then detective barnes in the most roundabout law and order way neither confirms nor denies anything just says he wants the full picture once more can i speak to you about it off the record can i do that no we have to record anything that we do has to be recorded and has to be recorded and i understand you have a professional status that you're trying to uphold i understand that but also we have to document things right can i talk about things yeah okay because i mean again i just want to be able to focus on i mean i can't even i can't even focus on the fact that my girlfriend got shot detective barnes has given ricky the benefit of the doubt but at this point he still has a gunman that he's looking for and ricky's hesitation it's almost it's kind of a little on the nose it's i'm sure it's unsettling he also got a new phone he's nervous to turn in the old phone maybe because ricky knows brenda quite well actually intimately because they're exes and also they remained friends after that and she's a friend that he texted about his girlfriend being shot the night that kendra died right so it seems like they had some sort of close friendship afterwards she's also the one that was his sister remember so not only that but ricky also knows jose what he just doesn't know why that's important yet ricky has no clue so maybe he's hesitant to give over his phone because he knows that the three of them met up a month prior to kendra's death because ricky needed to get some work done on his truck ricky jose and brenda met up a month before kendra's death ricky's truck started making noise and eventually it became just like this hunk of metal sitting outside kendra's building that's why he ubered back to his house and he was like oh my god i'm so sorry i'm so sorry his apartment remember yeah it wasn't even drivable so brenda ricky's ex is like hey you could take it to the dealership or you could bring it to my friend jose and he'll get you a really good deal so she connects them and that guy is jose jose with the jeep brenda gives him a ride to and from jose's shop on two different occasions to try and fix his truck so it would make sense technically by any investigator standpoint which is like raw intelligence work that perhaps ricky is involved because the boyfriends the husband and the wife are both in the same car and they are often very much involved but detective barnes probably knows at this point it's never that easy okay the more he digs into ricky detective barnes realizes i don't think this guy is involved at all like ricky was honestly just confused and in shock and he almost instantly snaps out of it so he does seem like he was really nervous about the professional and the mole thing because immediately after he's like you know what just yeah here's my phone the old phone yeah you give it up okay he's like i just i was nervous you know basically he also gives detailed pages of notes and dates verifiable dates along with detailed bank statements ricky does what detective barnes wants and more like he goes the extra mile he even details in depth his relationship with not just kendra but also with brenda and while i normally like to remain incredibly skeptical of people especially partners when their partner ends up dead i do really think it's just initial shock and confusion the rest of the investigation ricky and even his mom are there just trying to help investigators with pretty much everything they ask and more i do think that he was really nervous about the picture of the mole yeah and he was probably in a state where he couldn't think correctly and he was in shock ricky's mom even sends the detectives a 14 page document of everything she knows along with timelines that the detectives use to their benefit but most importantly i would say ricky's alibi does check out he's on cctv camera the whole time throughout the day and he's like i don't know what to do with this i don't know what to do with this i don't know what to do with this i don't know what to do with this i don't know what to do with the murder his movements match exactly what he was describing there's nothing in his digital footprint that would indicate any sort of connection to anything in fact everything he said is just there's evidence for it every text messages not even to just kendra but to brenda everything is there and there is no way that ricky is the shooter let alone is involved he's just a doctor grieving the loss of his girlfriend and this is a girlfriend that they found in his digital evidence that he really wanted to marry so if ricky is clear about the fact that he's married if jose doesn't know kendra and didn't even have his jeep the day of the shooting if brenda has an alibi via her receipt for three chilleritas from chiles then who the hell is the killer who drove the jeep into the parking lot and shot kendra dead one name keeps coming up crystal so it's time for detective barnes to talk to crystal and i don't know if they have a washing machine at this police station but when it's cold in the interrogation room the officers pass the interviewee pink blanket i've seen it so many times in this case i don't know if they wash it each time or if it's just because it's cold in the interrogation room the officers pass the interviewee pink blanket and she just like carries with it the ambient smell of confessions because now 23 year old crystal cortez is sitting in the interrogation room she's snuggling up to this pink blanket and she's actually quite enthusiastic to help officers and in her mind this is really good this is actually like too good because the photo of the jeep the bolo that it seems like half of dallas has seen at this point it's very blurry you can't exactly make out who the driver is but if you look super close you squint one eye and if you know the truth like that it's the one driving the jeep she straight up tells the officers yes so that's me in the car that's me in the jeep i was driving the jeep but i wasn't alone in the jeep my six-year-old son was in the back seat of the jeep and you'll never believe you will never believe what happened that day crystal starts sharing with detective barnes it's basically like one of those movies she's in the car driving her son is in the back just picked him up from school and because her son had requested that they go to the park she goes and parks inside kendra's apartment building she does not live she doesn't even have a friend that lives in this apartment building why is crystal in this apartment building she says well i know that they have free parking what and if you've been to like any nice apartment building yeah that makes no sense they like never have free parking yeah she knew that there was free parking so that she could park the car and then they could walk to the park but she's about to get out when she hears a gunshot and then all of a sudden one of the doors to the cars open and there is a guy wearing a mask demanding she essentially be the getaway driver he's like drive points the gun at her what is crystal to do she's to drive that's that's what this is a case of wrong place wrong time she just happened to drive directly into a murder scene that was her only fault detective barnes is intently listening to crystal's story of what happened that day even though he knows we know that this story is as believable as a cow on roller skates speeding down the highway but as any good listener detective barnes listens to her story lets her finish and then presents her with something fascinating so in the cctv footage the shooter gets out the jeep to shoot kendra that's crazy yeah then he gets back into the jeep and then the jeep takes off that is an honest misunderstanding crystal must have gotten confused what really happened is that she stopped at a stop sign before she entered the parking lot the gunman got in her car at the stop sign opened the door she didn't lock the doors you know demanding she drive into the parking lot he told her don't look at me don't say nothing you pull in this parking lot i will kill you i'll kill your son if you do something crystal starts adding a little bit more flair a little bit more details to this rendition i'm sitting there begging jesus i'm begging jesus my son please stay asleep please stay asleep please stay asleep right did you honk your horn there's really no point in crystal even responding because detective barnes has the footage from the parking lot not only did crystal never honk her horn once she never flashed her lights never made any motion to try and get help he tells her i'm telling you right now i don't believe this bullshit crystal reassures him this is in fact the truth even though what she said earlier is not true he tells her i'm telling you right now i don't believe this is obviously not the truth but she now knows in her heart this is the truth how can we be so sure about this crystal even offers you can polygraph me you can test me barnes straight up tells her if i would have polygraphed you then you would have failed because you were lying and you're lying now which by the way if the police ever ask you to do a polygraph maybe don't do it let alone offer it up to the police especially if you've already changed your story multiple times and that has less to do with the fact that you probably should never take a polygraph but more so to do with the fact that you just seem so dumb right now like what do you mean you already changed your story how are you going to take a polygraph now then we get to crystal's next version it's really hard to take anything out of crystal's mouth at face value but crystal does confirm a few things for investigators one ricky was definitely not the shooter or even involved in any way because he was the original target what he was the one that was supposed to be dead and crystal is just a woman with a job she was hired when you move in with a roommate there is a level of expectation to do things for the roommate that you might not have signed up for are you really going to be the petty one that leaves just one singular mug in the kitchen sink after doing your own dishes because that's your roommate's mug or the one who makes a 30 part tiktok story time about your roommate while quoting the mayor of new york city on your fire escape whilst crying. You know, there's some things that are expected when you move in with a roommate. For Jennifer Escobar, that probably would have been the better outcome, the fire escape videos. She probably would have taken that any day because she just moved in and her roommate is asking her for a small favor. Help me put someone in a coma. Or we could just beat him up. I already bought the bat and I have this needle. Jennifer Escobar has no idea what's in the needle, but her roommate says it can put someone to sleep. Look, I'll give you $2,000 in exchange if you help me. It's a horrendous offer if there ever was one, but Jennifer does not explicitly accept or decline. However, she makes plans to move out within two weeks of moving in. She's like, I'm not gonna live with this lady because her new roommate seems to have a few screws loose. She's also just actively going through Jennifer's belongings like her suitcase, which, you know, I will say is kind of funny because not funny, but funny in like the depressing way. When Jennifer talks to the detectives later about this, she's more upset that her roommate was going through her belongings than she is that her roommate is plotting to put someone into a coma. Yeah, but she is also plotting murder and she has this deep obsession, almost stalkerish obsession with her ex-boyfriend. Jennifer says she would talk about him. She had his location, his emails, bank account, and everything about him. She was really obsessed over him. She basically had a second phone. She would know his locations and movements from that phone. Jennifer thinks that maybe it's the way the ex broke up with her roommate that has her spiraling into craziness. He did break up with her via email, which Jennifer can understand why her roommate is so obsessed, but this was like obsession level obsessed. She still had his house key, logins for his bank accounts, his Gmail. Jennifer ultimately moves out because it was just miserable. She would avoid going home at times because the roommate would be all pent up and angry at the ex-boyfriend. And then if Jennifer is not home, she would get mad at Jennifer because Jennifer is not home to help her. She doesn't get through her emotions. But before Jennifer moves out, she does facilitate what was an innocent gathering at the time. Jennifer invites a friend she's known since high school to the apartment pool and her roommate shows up to the apartment pool. So she introduces them. High school friend, meet my roommate. Roommate, meet my high school friend. It doesn't appear that they like hit it off or anything. It's just an introduction. Jennifer had no idea that Brenda and Crystal would stay in touch after that. Brenda sends a heated message to the only person she knows. The only person she wants to talk to right now. The message reads, quote, It almost sounds like the type of message that you would send to the backup on the roster who knows about your tumultuous relationship status. But all these desperate text messages are going straight to Ricky's mom. What? Yeah, Ricky's mom. For a year straight, Ricky's mom would field calls from Brenda on the regular where Brenda would just call her to cry uncontrollably that Ricky was cheating on her. So she was so devastated that she had to get Ricky back because she could not survive this, which didn't even sound like Ricky to Ricky's mom. Ricky's mom had never known him to be a cheater in a relationship, but Brenda would cry. Why is he acting like we're not together anymore? Quote, why is he on match.com when he has me? Several of my girlfriends saw him on match.com pretending to be single. He's cheating. How many young females are in residency with him? Do you know? Ricky's mom didn't even know during the initial call that Ricky and Brenda had already broken up. The whole year that she didn't know? Yeah. What? Ricky was not cheating. He was just moving on after the breakup. But every time Brenda would call Ricky's mom, Brenda made it sound like they were still together and he was cheating on her, which is already alarming. But it's even scarier because Brenda would constantly tell Ricky's mom that if Ricky doesn't come back to her, she will have nothing and she will not live a life without Ricky. She would rather self-exit. Then she would ask, does he call other girls when I'm not around? What can I do to make him want to be with me forever? Look, Ricky's mom has no reason to be an unpaid therapist for Brenda, but she did it because she felt compassion. And then Brenda would go and say something very creepy like, please pray every day that Ricky will commit himself wholly to me. Please pray for us. Please. Please pray for us to be okay. Ricky's mom says, quote, thus began, the theme of begging me to pray for them for over a year. And Ricky's mom does pray. She's so sweet. She does, in fact, pray for Brenda. She prays that Brenda find a kind, loving partner in her life, though it probably most likely will not be Ricky. Ricky's mom lightly suggests, if it's that bad, maybe you guys could try couples counseling or perhaps you should try individual counseling. Yeah, no. Brenda is not even remotely interested. She says that he's contacting girls to go on dates. So only prayer can fix this, not counseling, which, just to clarify, I don't think Ricky's mom knew the extent of their relationship while it was happening, but I don't think that she thought they were ever meant for each other. Ricky's mom later tells the investigators, from the very first date that Brenda had with Ricky, she found a way to insert herself into his life, even though he didn't really ask for it. Ricky would tell her he has his own way of doing things. He likes his routine. She bulldozed in and just started cooking, doing dishes, doing his laundry, cleaning his house for him. He never asked her to do any of it. That led to her leaving a toothbrush, then clothes, and eventually she stops being slick about it and just brings her entire dresser, like the furniture, into the apartment. If Ricky's mom was occupied and couldn't respond to a text or call, Brenda would freak out. Did Ricky tell you not to talk to me? Are you mad at me? Some of Brenda's text messages to Ricky's mom read, have you talked to Ricky? Does he say anything about me? Have you talked to his sister? Tell her to tell Ricky that he should get back together with me. Does Ricky's dad know that we broke up? Maybe he can talk some sense into Ricky. I miss Ricky. I love Ricky. And I miss you. And I love you. Are you mad at me? I can't stop crying. I'm devastated. I can't live without Ricky. Ricky is my whole life. I'm broken. I can't sleep. I'm depressed. I have panic attacks. I can't stand to think about Ricky with other girls. I can't concentrate on studying because all I do is think about wanting Ricky and I cry. Brenda calls Ricky's mom and wishes her a happy Mother's Day, but also reminds Ricky's mom to tell Ricky that she did that. But one of the strangest moments Ricky's mom remembers is Brenda crying, saying to her on the phone, saying, quote, I love him so much and he doesn't even care about me. In one month alone, Brenda texted Ricky's mom 114 times. That's not including the phone calls. Weirdly, Brenda even informs Ricky's mom that she lied to Ricky that she was seeing other people, but that's not true because she only wants him. She shares the story of how when she was leaving Ricky's after they broke up, two men had attacked her. She was at a stop sign and these two scary men tried to get in the car with her. She peddled, to the metal and barely escaped whatever they had planned for her. She told Ricky about it and he was very concerned and worried about her even after the breakup. So while she's crying and telling this to Ricky's mom, she suddenly stops and in a very agitated, faust and loud tone of voice, she tells Ricky's mom, Ricky's mom is Patricia, by the way. She tells Patricia, Mama Pat, I just can't believe it. Ricky broke up with me again. He says it's for good now. He's such a liar. He just got back together with me, but he knew that he was just going to use me and throw me away. He used me until someone better came along and now I'm just like, I'm broken all over again and I'm hurt. He already got a new girlfriend. How could he do this to me? I am so broken, but now I'm showing him. He will be the one that's hurting. I can tell every person I see in school and clinic that Ricky did me dirty. I tell everyone I talk to how bad he treated me, how he tricked me by saying that we were together again, but then he just threw me away and I'm so devastated. Ricky's mom asked Brenda, so are you saying that you say this to all your classmates and coworkers, the people that you work with? Yes. Everyone in the clinic. I even tell my patients, every single one of them. You tell your patients that Ricky did you dirty? Brenda is getting more and more agitated, not even realizing how crazy this all sounds. She just screams at Patricia. Yes, I tell my patients. I tell everyone I see. I want to ruin his reputation. Everyone thinks he's so good, but I want them to know how bad he treated me. Don't you agree, Mama Pat? Don't you? He did me so dirty, so now he's going to suffer like I am. Patricia responds, Brenda, that's my son. You're talking about. It's unprofessional to tell anyone, especially your patients, anything about Ricky. That is wrong. You need to think about that and stop doing that. I don't want to hear from you unless you stop talking about Ricky to other people that way. With that, their phone call ends, but their communications wouldn't because Brenda will just keep coming back, coming back to tell Ricky's mom that she texted Ricky hi and he responded, which made her heart melt. So Brenda, Patricia, is seeing how crazy Brenda is. Does Ricky know this side of Brenda or is it just the mom? Just Ricky's mom. Ricky's mom thought that she could try to calm Brenda down. She thought that she could try to help Brenda in the process of getting over the relationship because in between these phone calls, you know, she would try to encourage her to go out and meet new people. So she thought Brenda just crashing out from a breakup. Got it. And so at one point, Brenda sends Ricky mom just a string of crying emojis and sad face emojis. And in response, Patricia sends her the lyrics to the song I Will Survive and told Brenda that she will indeed survive. And it's just, she says, I thought that I would be able to get her to leave him alone and help her get her to a point that she could move on with her life. So out of the goodness of her heart, bless Patricia, she tries to help Brenda softly encouraging her to go out there, move on. Like, what do you even need a man for? And also, is my son really all that? Probably not. You probably could find better. she's probably just saying it but still and it appears her hard work was not in vain brenda informs her that she did start taking up workout classes oh yeah what kind salsa salsa like salsa dance lessons that her son ricky had just started taking at the same exact studio that's insane so the mom knew this yes so what was her reaction when she found out that brenda just started going to the same class brenda made it seem like it was a coincidence and patricia believed that no but ricky also thought it was a coincidence it was very hard to say anything otherwise you know then one day brenda tells ricky's mom that she's getting married to ricky but don't tell anyone not even ricky but brenda is so happy that patricia is going to be her mother-in-law soon what do you mean she just tells brenda's mom i'm marrying your son yeah but don't tell him that she's getting married to your son i'm not marrying your son i'm not marrying your son i told you and patricia just thinks she's crazy talking yeah august 25th was the last time ricky's mom ever heard from brenda just eight days before kendra is killed but what does any of this have to do with cartels detective barnes starts extracting a confession of sorts from crystal but it takes multiple hours over the course of multiple days and even then it's very hard to believe a single thing that comes out of this girl's mouth without hard evidence backing it up so first it's that i was kidnapped just to be a getaway driver then okay fine i was kidnapped at the stop sign and all of that centers around her kidnapper who she somehow managed to learn his name in this short little ride that she had with him his name is lamar how does she know his name i don't know maybe they were doing some ice breakers in the car mid-kidnapping eventually detective barnes manages to break down this little jenga tower of lies until she admits okay fine i was hired i was hired for the job so was lamar we were hired by brenda the plan was we weren't going to kill kendra we were just going to rob kendra brenda reassured crystal that all she had to do was drive into the parking lot and lamar was going to take kendra's purse but he ended up killing her i thought she said that they were trying to kill ricky to begin with yeah but then they changed it to just robbing kendra oh so ricky was one of the stories now they're the new version is robbing brenda yeah okay now crystal mentions a detail the detectives pick up on and apparently whenever brenda would talk about ricky she would only refer to him as x crystal says brenda hired her saying yeah x has a girlfriend i'll pay five hundred dollars to take the girlfriend's purse her name is kendra crystal hesitated and she tells detective barnes i was like well i don't want to do that because i'm not going to be able to do that i'm not going to be able to do that i'm not going to have a kid brenda was like fine we'll pay a guy to come and take her purse and you just drive crystal is staring detective barnes deadpan like just staring at him as if this totally makes sense okay so brenda wants to pay you five hundred dollars to steal kendra's purse but you don't want to steal her purse so she's still gonna pay you five hundred dollars and then hire another guy to do what she was gonna pay you in the first place detective barnes is rightfully confused but crystal clarifies well brenda gave her a hundred dollars up front before any of the robbing was done so that she could go out and find the robber to do the robbing she's like a professional headhunter yeah put that in crystal's linkedin okay detective barnes asked so she gave you a hundred dollars to go right around oak cliff to find some guy to do a robbery yep so you let some guy that you don't know that is willing to do a robbery and you got your baby in the back seat yeah i know i feel like a bad person well just don't feel crystal you probably are okay crystal really should be hired as a person who's willing to do a robbery and you got your baby in the back seat yeah i know i feel professional headhunter for corporations because she finds the perfect candidate she further states that this random guy that she approached on the street lamar was gonna pull off this robbery right away he just so happened to have a mask on him like a covid mask no crystal describes it as it was a white and black one like a skull like a full Halloween yeah detective barnes is flabbergasted but he doesn't show it when you picked him up he already had his mask no yeah he did that was crazy that was crazy no i know you don't believe it nobody does finally she's like right about something i guess but it gets worse lamar pulls out this random skull mask gets in the car whips out a pair of gloves that he also had like the medical gloves you know starts putting them on he put the gloves on when he's in the car you didn't ask him why is he putting gloves on no i thought maybe he didn't want to get caught stealing her purse honestly i didn't think yeah i didn't think might be the thesis statement for crystal's entire interrogation like at no point was she ever thinking even during the conception of this crime realizing how bad all of this sounds crystal starts defending herself she tells detective barnes that even though what she did was wrong she did everything she could to get caught she wanted to get caught she was very intentional about it she says i wanted someone to see me so i drove in front of all the cctv cameras i didn't want nobody to not see me i purposefully parked there she's just like making up stuff as she goes yes and she is not bright the best way i can put it got it so no no afterthoughts no reasonings yeah just making up stuff as she goes and i don't say this as an insult to make it like a hee hee ha ha moment because there is no such thing as a hee hee ha moment in any case but it's like if you were to put evil people just really dumb evil people into a room and have them concoct a murder plan this is what they came up with but the terrifying part is it was to some degree effective they killed someone so it's just very scary to see that like you don't even need to have any sort of brains you just need to be evil they're they're evil ultimately crystal makes it out as yes i was there yes i was participating but i wanted to get caught because i didn't really want to do this even though i was going to get paid 500 for it but everything falls apart for crystal you know so she says when she stops the car lamar gets out and she hears a woman say no no no and she hears lamar saying shut up i'll kill you then a gunshot goes off crystal says he gets back into the car has kendra's purse and also has a gun on him she said she never knew that was part of the plan why a gun he shoots her crystal tells the detective that she starts freaking out at this point calling brenda telling her that they didn't just rob kendra they shot her she says brenda is also freaking out saying what what over the phone one of the first things detectives find in crystal's phone because yeah they're going to go through her phone one of the first things they find are pictures from the very next day september 3rd so this is the day after killing kendra it's nudes crystal's just out here taking nudes the day after kendra's murdered not even 24 hours later in brenda's bedroom wait hold on crystal is taking nudes of herself in brenda's bed yes is brenda there too no but she's taking nudes 24 hours so she's saying we were never going to kill kendra wait is crystal and brenda like are they together no no she's probably sending it to someone else but she's sleeping over at brenda's or she was there for a day or hanging out who knows what yeah okay but this is shocking to detectives because crystal is trying to argue that she didn't know that they were going to kill kendra and if they killed kendra and she truly didn't know i mean probably she should go to the for sure but she should also be spiraling but instead less than 24 hours she's still hanging out with brenda and she's taking nudes like it's just the sheer lack of care there's no thought there's nothing they also find messages between crystal and who the police assume to be the shooter and it is not lamar it's a man named love christopher love christopher love who is lamar lamar is a random name she made up he doesn't even exist but christopher love is the guy is the shooter christopher love is a man of contrast he really likes to go by the nickname love but he also has a back tattoo of an ak-47 and the words one man army tattooed on top of it which i'm not saying that you can't love and it's an ak-47 though okay like that's unnecessary christopher mentions at some point in the interview with detective barnes that his looks probably don't help him in this case so he's sitting in the interrogation with barnes how did they find christopher love oh it was so easy he already had a warrant out for his arrest for something else oh okay and they just look up his name they look up his phone number gave gave up the name yeah or crystal did yes crystal yeah okay so they got him in the interrogation room and he's like look i got gold teeth and tattoos and dressed like a drug dealer like be serious detective barnes did not bring him in just because he has tattoos and self-admittedly seems to look like a drug dealer he brought him in because in his car they also find a gun the gun that was used to kill kendra so by the time authorities get to christopher it's been a month since kendra's murder and he's just kept the murder weapon in his car for the past month when they confront christopher with this information that's when he starts getting detectives barnes something he says it was just a hit job he was hired hired by who the cartels he says he was promised an ounce of cocaine and probably a quarter pound of weed to give you an idea of how much that is and this is not from my personal knowledge but apparently quarter pound of weed is enough to supply a good time to a few hundred people at a party of few hundred people who are very light smokers or if they're all heavy smokers about a hundred of your closest frequent weed smokers at a party is about a quarter pound or approximately four Wiz Khalifa's so either close to a thousand people a hundred people or four Wiz Khalifa's and if you really want to get technical with it okay Wiz Khalifa said on Jimmy Kimmel that he smokes about 30 joints a day which is about an ounce of weed so four ounces which is a quarter pound is enough to last him four days so yes four Wiz Khalifa's damn okay I don't I can't tell if this is a lot or this is not a lot I can't tell you either yeah and on top of his five ounces of drugs which reportedly has a value for the one ounce of cocaine it's about eleven hundred dollars about eight hundred dollars for the quarter pound of weed and a bit of cash to seal the deal reportedly around three thousand dollars so for a little less than five thousand dollars Christopher Love was going to kill Kendra but he's not shortsighted he said I'm not doing this for five thousand dollars he's doing this for the cartels he was approached by like a big boss in the cartel business by all descriptions she fits Brenda and uh the translator was Crystal and they were telling him that if he pulls off this hit job they're going to get him a lifetime supply of weed from the cartels in Mexico he is about to become the biggest dealer north of the border which cartel we don't even know he wasn't even given a name I don't know if he even asked so he was approached by Brenda and Crystal yes and they put up this whole thing where Brenda only knew how to speak Spanish because she's a cartel lady and Crystal is translating and Christopher Love is like you know what I'm gonna work for the cartel which cartel we don't know that seems like a good question I mean the cartels are at war with each other in Mexico and we're just not even gonna care which one it is that's like saying I've been hired by the mafia which one who but he knew this was a good deal so he took it Crystal can barely string together a coherent story in her police interview but we're supposed to believe that she's somehow involved in this massive cartel that operates across borders dominating North America Detective Barnes does not say that outright what he says it's much more intense he tells there's no cartel if this young lady was tied to a cartel she wouldn't have to come get a shooter from the hood somebody sold you a wolf ticket no lifetime supply of weed no cartel no drug lord empire all Christopher Love is gonna get is a lifetime supply of being behind bars and that is where I leave you with part two part three the audio version of this podcast is going to be up in a few days where we go through um the FBI's most wanted list because someone in this case ends up there and it just becomes an utter mess let me know what are your thoughts and I'll see you in the next one