From Cat Killer to Cannibal: How Online Sleuths Tracked Down Luka Magnotta

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In 2010, a video appeared online showing a man suffocating two kittens with a vacuum sealed bag.

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Thousands of people across the internet banned together to track down the killer.

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Convince'd he would escalate to human victims.

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They were absolutely right.

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What happened next became one of the most infamous cases of internet vigilantism meeting real world horror.

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And today we're diving deep into the twisted mind of Luca Magnata.

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[Music]

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When the video "One Boy Two Kittens" hit YouTube and Facebook in 2010,

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it wasn't your typical viral cat video.

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This clip showed something that made viewers physically sick,

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a young man playing with two adorable kittens before sealing them in a vacuum bag

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and slowly suffocating them to death.

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The video was deliberate, it was calculated, and absolutely designed to provoke the strongest possible reaction.

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And provoked it did.

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Within days nearly 4,000 people had joined a Facebook group called

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"Find the vacuum kitten killer for great justice."

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They were more than casual observers hitting like and moving on.

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They were determined individuals who felt compelled to act,

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analyzing every frame of the footage like digital forensic experts.

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They examined metadata, studied background details,

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and cross-referenced information with the dedication of professional investigators.

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Their amateur detective work paid off when the name Luca Magnata began surfacing in their discussions.

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Here was their prime suspect, and they were convinced that they had found their man.

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When they brought their findings to police, however, the response was underwhelming.

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After all, we're talking about cats here, not humans.

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How serious could it really be?

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The internet sleuths knew better.

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They understood something law enforcement seemed to miss.

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Escalation is real, and someone capable of torturing animals for entertainment and online

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infamy wouldn't stop there. Born Eric Clinton Kirk Newman, on July 24, 1982 in Scarborough,

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Ontario, the man who would become Luca Magnata enter the world under less than ideal circumstances.

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His parents, Anna Yorkin and Donald Newman were teenagers themselves.

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She was 16, he was 17, when they welcomed their first child into what would become

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a deeply dysfunctional family dynamic.

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Anna, who would later claim the home schooling decision was entirely her husband's idea,

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kept Luca and his siblings Conrad and Melissa isolated from traditional education until sixth grade.

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When they finally entered regular school, the transition proved brutal for Luca.

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Years of social isolation hadn't prepared him for peer interaction,

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and he became a target for severe bullying that ultimately led him dropping out before graduation.

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The home environment offered little refuge from this outside torment.

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Anna described her son as obsessively concerned with cleanliness,

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but would wear surgical masks herself and rubber gloves to run the house,

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compulsively washing her children's hands.

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Even more disturbing were her reported tendencies to lock the children out of the house or car

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as punishment, and her practice of putting their pet rabbits outside during harsh Canadian winters,

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leaving them to freeze to death. Donald Newman presented his own set of problems,

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Anna characterized him as a proud Nazi and described experiencing both emotional and physical abuse at his hands.

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The situation deteriorated further when Donald received a schizophrenia diagnosis in 1994,

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contributing to the couple's eventual separation.

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After the divorce, Anna eventually entered a new relationship with a man named Leo,

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and the family relocated to a Toronto apartment to a fresh start.

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Unfortunately for 16-year-old Luca, this change brought a new trauma rather than relief.

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Leo proved to be extremely abusive toward the teenager, both emotionally and physically,

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creating an environment so toxic that Luca was eventually sent to live with his maternal

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grandmother, Phyllis. Luca's later assessment of a stepfather was characteristically blunt.

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Quote, "He was, is, and always a complete waste of oxygen, and by far the most useless idiot I have

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ever encountered." With his grandmother, Luca finally found some stability and genuine affection.

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Phyllis treated him with kindness and made him feel valued in ways that his parents never had.

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However, this period of relative peace couldn't undo the damage that had already been done to his developing psyche.

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Despite Luca's claims later on that his childhood was perfectly normal and that the

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media reports exaggerated his trauma, the evidence suggests otherwise.

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It was Phyllis concerned about her grandson's increasingly erratic behavior, who first sought

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professional help for him around 1999. Luca was hearing voices, speaking loudly to invisible

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presences, and expressing genuine fear about threats that others couldn't perceive.

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The psychiatric evaluation resulted in a schizophrenia diagnosis, the same mental illness that

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had claimed his father's stability years earlier. By this point, Luca had already dropped out of

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high school and was receiving disability benefits. The severity of his condition led to placement

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in a psychiatric group home where his paranoid thoughts about government surveillance and phone

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tapping became regular topics of discussion with staff. Around 2002 or 2003, Luca began working as a

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stripper at Remington's, a Toronto nightclub, while also appearing in low-budget adult films to

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supplement his income. The work provided money but not nearly enough to satisfy his growing sense

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of entitlement and his belief that he deserved more than life was offering him. A fellow dancers

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suggest him to try escort work proved to be a turning point. This career change coincided with

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Luca's legal name change from Eric Clinton Kirk Newman to Luca Rocco Magnata, a deliberate

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reinvention that marked his transformation from troubled young man to calculated performer.

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The escort business proved lucrative beyond his expectations. Luca later boasted about serving five

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to six clients daily and earning six figures annually. Quote, "Extremely generous clients allowed

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me to make six figures easily. One even bought me a condo. It was a great life." However, this success

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came on a significant psychological cost. The sex trade exposed Luca to clients with dark fantasies

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and twisted desires, many of whom recorded their encounters and distributed the footage online.

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These experiences being exploited, recorded, and distributed without consent would later manifest

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in his own crimes, a disturbing cycle of victimization and perpetration. As 2010 turned to 2011,

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the Facebook group dedicated to identifying the kitten killer evolved into something more

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organized and determined. An 11-member collective calling itself the Animal Beta Project, or AB

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Project, emerged with a singular focus. Stop Luca Magnata before he killed again.

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Member John Green articulated their collective fear. Quote, "We felt he would continue that he would

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harm other animals and eventually move on to something even more violent, like hurting a person."

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Their persistence finally prompted police to open a file on Luca in February 2011. However,

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law enforcement's response remained limited. Despite the mounting evidence and the internet

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investigators warnings about escalation, authorities couldn't locate Magnata, and technically he hadn't

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threatened or harmed any human beings. The amateur investigators' frustrations grew as months

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passed without any meaningful police action. They had correctly identified their suspect and

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predicted his trajectory, but the system seemed unable or unwilling to intervene before the next

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inevitable escalation. The internet sleuths worst fears materialized over two days, May 2012.

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From May 15 to May 16, mysterious references began appearing online to a new video titled

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One Lunatic, One Ice Pick, that hadn't been released yet. Someone was building anticipation,

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creating buzz for what would become one of the most disturbing pieces of footage ever posted to

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the internet. When the video finally appeared on May 25, 2012, it confirmed every horrific

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prediction the online investigators had made. The 10-minute clip showed a naked young man bound to

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a bed initially alive but clearly in distress. What followed was a methodical, filmed murder that

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included stabbing with an ice pick, dismemberment with a knife, acts of necrophilia, and cannibalism.

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Three days after the video's release, the real world consequences became devastatingly clear.

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Body parts belonging to 33-year-old June Lynn were discovered in trash bags scattered across

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Montreal. Some had been mailed to government offices, while others were left near the apartment building

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where Luca Magnata had been renting a unit. CCTV footage showing June Lynn entering Magnata's

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building on the night of his murder provided the definitive evidence police needed. Finally,

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they issued a manhunt for the man internet investigators had been tracking for nearly two years.

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By then, however, Luca had fled to Paris. Remarkably, he traveled under his own name,

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making his movements relatively easy to track. As French authorities closed in, he took a bus to Berlin,

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turning the pursuit into an international cat and mouse game. The chase ended on June 4, 2012,

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in a way that perfectly encapsulated Luca's narcissistic personality. Police found him in a Berlin

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internet cafe, not planning his next move or researching escape routes, but googling his own name,

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to read about the international manhunt he had sparked. Luca was extradited to Canada,

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and in December 2014, after a 12-week trial, was found guilty of first-degree murder.

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His defense centered on mental illness and lack of criminal responsibility,

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with Luca claiming that voices in his head had commanded him to kill June Lynn.

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According to his testimony, when he met Lynn through Craig's list for what was supposed to be a

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sexual encounter, the voices became overwhelming. Tie him up, cut it, do it. He's from the government.

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However, several mental health professionals who examined Luca found his claims questionable.

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His behavior around the time of the murder was too organized, too deliberate for someone

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who was experiencing a complete psychotic break. Moreover, his immediate pivot to an insanity

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defense upon arrest, complete with a detailed recitation of symptoms and family history,

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seems rehearsed rather than genuine. The jury ultimately rejected his mental health defense and

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found him guilty on all charges, including first-degree murder, committing an indignity to a body,

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publishing obscene material, and criminally harassing government officials. He received a

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life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years. In 2017, Luca married fellow inmate,

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Anthony Jolene, in a ceremony at Port Cartier Prison, with his mother, Anna Yorkin, serving as

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witness. Jolene, who was serving his own life sentence for murder, met Magnauta after being transferred

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to the same facility. More than a decade after his conviction, Magnauta remains incarcerated,

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though his life behind bars has become somewhat controversial. In 2022, he was transferred from maximum

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security to medium security, a move that sparked parliamentary investigation and public outrage.

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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, Bingeable True Crime Stories. I'm Joe, I'm the host,

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and thank you for joining today. If you're a new listener, make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're

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listening. Go to the website 10minutemerder.com. You'll learn all about the podcast there and even

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send me an email if you want to do that. Speaking of, here is an email from one of you that listens.

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Hey Joe, I hope you're feeling better from your recent case of the flu. You mentioned that you were

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in Portland. Can you talk about your vacation? Was it something podcast related or just for fun?

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That's from Amy and Sacramento. Amy, thanks for the email. Thank you for the well wishes. You can hear,

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I don't sound fantastic. I'm still dealing with some symptoms. I don't get the flu very often,

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but when I do get it, it sticks with me for a while. It doesn't seem to let go right toward the end,

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and I am stuffy for a week or two afterward. That's what I'm dealing with right now. I feel a lot

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better than I did. The trip was completely for fun. Not podcast related at all. As a matter of

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fact, I tried to avoid murder topics while I was away. You can't completely because of what I do

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here in this podcast. I have to stay up on researching and things like that or I'll fall behind.

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So I did a little bit of that, but mostly it was just for fun. I'll tell you where I went. What I did.

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My partner, she is a travel writer, and she travels all over the world. Every now and then,

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I get to go with her. This trip, it was a place that I'd never been before. She'd been a little bit,

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but wanted to go explore a little bit more. We flew into Seattle, spent a couple of days there,

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loved Seattle, went over the ferry to Bainbridge Island. That's a gorgeous place itself. I traveled

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north and then west through Port Angeles. Cape Flattery went there and then came down south.

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And this is, by the way, over the span of like a week to ten days. It came south. It stayed in Forks,

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Washington for a couple of days. Found out that they didn't really film Twilight in Forks. That was

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a shocker to me. I was excited about seeing the different places they filmed the movies, but they

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didn't do that there. So it was still gorgeous. By the way, this is the most beautiful part of the

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country I've ever been to in my entire life. And I've been a lot of places. Gorgeous area. So out of

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Forks went south and then we went into Cannon Beach, Oregon, and then headed inland and we stayed

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in Portland for a couple of days. And that's where I got sick was in Portland. So I didn't get to spend

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a lot of time exploring there. It seems like a cool city, but I don't really know that much about

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it because I was in the bed. But yeah, it was 100% for fun. I mean, for me, it was for my partner. She was,

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you know, working kind of, you know, creating content as she does. But yeah, had a really good time.

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Thank you for asking. And that's going to do it. That is your episode for today. Thank you so much

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for listening to 10 Minute Murder.

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[Music]