David and the Shoe Bandit

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Discretion is advised. This is ten
minute murder. On the evening of September

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twenty eighth, two thousand, Davidkam
was on his way home from playing basketball

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with a group of his friends.
By the time he entered the garage of

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the family home, he knew that
something was wrong, really wrong. His

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wife, Kim was unresponsive on the
garage floor in a pool of her own

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blood. She had been shot in
the head, and immediately David knew that

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she was dead. Next to Kim's
body, the passenger door of the family

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truck was open. David searched the
vehicle frantically for their two children, seven

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year old Brad and five year old
Jill. He didn't have to look for

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long. Jill was in the back
seat of the truck, her seat belt

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still tightly buckled. Just like her
mother. She had been fatally shot in

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the head. Brad was lying motionless, leaning against the back of the driver's

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seat, as if he had been
trying to escape from the attacker. David

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realized that his son's skin was still
warm to the touch, despite the bullet

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wound in his chest. Hoping that
he could at least save one of his

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family members, David dragged Brad out
of the car and laid him on the

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garage floor, then attempted CPR.
At that time, he had no way

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of knowing that the bullet had passed
through Brad's chest, severing his spinal cord.

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After several minutes, he gave up
and called the police. David cam

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knew the police well. He'd actually
worked as a state trooper until a few

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months before this day, when he'd
retired to work for his family's business instead.

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It was why, in his state
of panic, that he completely bypassed

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nine one one and called on his
former co workers. Get everybody out to

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my house now, he screamed in
the phone. My wife and kids are

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dead. In his grief, David
never stopped to consider the thought that his

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old colleagues might not be his allies. He didn't consider the first theory that

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the police would want to look into. If only one person survives of family

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annihilation, they are almost always the
killer. The evidence stacked up against him.

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Forensic testing of his clothes revealed that
his shirt was spotted with his daughter,

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Jill's blood. During Jill's autopsy,
signs of trauma were found on her

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genitals. The medical examiner said that
there were two possible explanations. Either Jill

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had recently fallen onto something which had
caused bruising to her genital area, or

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she had been sexually assaulted. David's
mother in law, Janie, was sure

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that Jill would have told somebody if
she was being molested, unless the person

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molesting her was her own father.
Investigators were also suspicious about how David behaved

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after finding the bodies. They thought
it was strange that he'd called his old

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co workers instead of dialing nine to
one one, and despite David's explanations,

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they couldn't understand why he had left
Jill and Kim's bodies where he found them,

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but he tried to revive his son
with CPR. Then bombshell when they

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discovered that David had been cheating on
Kim with multiple women. It just added

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even more fuel to the fire.
That following Sunday, the police asked David

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to come in for further questioning.
When he got there, he never left

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the station. Shortly after his arrival, he was arrested and charged with first

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degree murders of Kim, Brad and
Jill. He wasn't allowed to attend the

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funeral, but the police permitted him
to view the bodies of his family.

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During the five minute long viewing,
he was supervised by fifteen officers and kept

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in handcuffs. By the time David's
trial began, members of his family were

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being threatened by members of the public
who were convinced that he was guilty.

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Somebody found his brother's phone number and
left a message saying, quote, if

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your brother gets out of jail,
I've got a bullet for you, a

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bullet for your uncle, a bullet
for your attorney, and a bullet for

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him. All eleven people whom David
played basketball with the day of the murders

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testified at the trial. Each of
them insisted that David had been his normal

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self that night. They had not
noticed any blood stains on his clothes,

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and they were certain that he had
not snuck away from the basketball court at

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any point. Several women whom David
had slept with also testified about the affairs

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they had with him, affairs that
the state argued were the motive for the

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killings. David decided to take the
stand and testify himself, but the evidence

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was stacked against him. At the
conclusion of the trial, he was found

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guilty of three counts of first degree
murder and sentenced to almost two hundred years

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in prison. He appealed the sentence, and the Indiana Supreme Court ended up

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agreeing with his argument. The only
thing the state had proven is that he

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was a terrible husband that had been
unfaithful to his wife. The charges were

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filed against David again, and the
county prosecutor made an announcement he planned to

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reinvestigate the case with fresh eyes.
David's own family, who still believed he

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was innocent, were relieved. While
reinvestigating the case, officers discovered one thing

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that evidence technicians had failed to test. A sweatshirt had been found underneath Brad's

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body belonged to any of the Kam
family members. In fact, they had

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never seen it before that night because
it was a Department of Corrections sweatshirt.

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It contained the DNA of an unknown
man, which had not been analyzed before

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the trial. How do you miss
something like this unless you already had your

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mind made up who the killer was. It's almost as if they investigated not

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to find evidence of who killed David
Kam's family, but to find evidence to

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support their thought that David was the
one that annihilated his own family. The

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DNA and the sweatshirt belonged to a
felon named Charles Boney, who had been

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nicknamed the Shoe Bandit for his habit
of taking shoes of the women that he

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assaulted. It matched a strange detail
about the scene of the Kam family murders.

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Kim's shoes had been taken off of
her feet and placed on top of

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the truck. The word backbone was
written on the inside of the sweatshirt's collar.

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It was what Charles Bonney's fellow convicts
had called him during his time in

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prison. After serving his eleven year
sentence, Charles had been released less than

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a year before the Cam family was
killed. An unknown handprint on the side

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of the truck also matched Charles,
placing him at the scene of the crime.

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When Charles was questioned about the case, he tried to insist that he

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had never in his life met the
Cams. After realizing that he had left

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both a piece of clothing and a
handprint at the scene of the crime,

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he tried a different tactic. This
time, he gave a statement about how

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he'd met David several months beforehand.
Because David asked Charles to buy him a

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gun. Shortly afterwards, David asked
for a second gun. Then the two

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men had met at the cam family
home shortly before the murders took place.

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Charles said he handed over the gun, which he had wrapped in his own

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sweatshirt, and shortly afterwards he heard
the sound of David shooting Kim, Brad

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and Jim. It wasn't the exoneration
that David and his family had hoped for.

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Now David was still being charged with
the murders, but so was Charles.

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In their simultaneous trials, Charles the
shoe bandit was found guilty and received

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a two hundred and twenty five year
prison sentence. Meanwhile, the prosecution are

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now arguing that David hadn't killed his
family because of infidelity. He killed him

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because his wife found out that he
was molesting his daughter. For the second

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time, David was found guilty,
but the verdict was overturned due to lack

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of proof that David molested his daughter. David's third trial began in August of

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twenty thirteen. This time the state
wanted it to be final, so the

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judge forbade anybody from testifying about either
Jill's supposed molestation or David's infidelity. Instead,

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the prosecution focused on the eight spots
of Jill's blood that had been found

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on David's shirt. Charles Boney giving
the same story about how he'd handed David

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the gun and then David had turned
and shot each of his family members one

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by one. He added that after
the murders, David had come out of

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the garage and tried to shoot him
as well. This time, the jury

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only took ten hours to reach their
decision. After three trials and thirteen years,

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David Kam was found not guilty of
murdering his family. He wore his

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wedding ring for a month after his
release and then finally removed it for good.

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Eventually, David was employed as a
caseworker for a non profit organization that

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advocates for people who have been wrongly
convicted of a crime. In twenty twenty

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two, the state of Indiana paid
out a four point six million dollar settlement

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in response to David's claims that he
had been maliciously prosecuted and wrongfully imprisoned.

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David's family and the State of Indiana
have agreed that he is innocent of the

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murder charges. Kim's family have never
changed their minds to this day. They

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believe that he was the killer and
that the man who murdered Kim, Brad

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and Jill is now walking free.
That's ten minute Murder for today, brief

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and bingeable true crime. I'm Joe, that's my name. I'm the host,

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and thank you so much for listening. And I know what you're thinking

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already. This episode seems a little
different. It sounds a little bit different,

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then, yeah, it does.
The reason is I got a new

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mouse pad. I spilled a drink
on the other one and it got sticky.

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It was a soda, so I
replaced it. Now all good.

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It didn't affect the sounds. I'm
just making that part up, but I

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did get a new mouse pad,
and I am also if it pleases the

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court cutting back on soda. I've
been mixing in a lot more water into

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what I'm drinking. I'm told that
helps to make you feel better, look

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better, and be better. The
jury is still out on that one,

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but I'm happy to give it a
try. And hey, if you're brand

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new to listening to ten Minute Murder, maybe this is your first or second

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episode. Welcome please hit subscribe wherever
you're listening right now, and know that

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if you're listening on YouTube, not
all the episodes are there. Some of

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them are there, most of them
are there, but not all of them

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there are. We're approaching four hundred
now. I think that could be a

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made up number, but I think
that's about where we are. Getting closer

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to four hundred episodes, and every
one of them are going to be on

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podcasts, listening apps like Apple,
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listen to them on Audible and incidentally
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feedback if you'd like. Positive feedback
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rating and review on any of those
platforms anyone that it's possible. Honestly,

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anyway, I feel like I'm talking
in circles. Now. That's the end

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of the episode. Thank you so
much for listening to ten Minute Murder. Goodbye,