Thanksgiving Day 2012: How Byron Smith Executed Two Teen Burglars

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You're listening to 10 Minute Murder.

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64 years old, retired security engineer, been burglarized so many times that he's sleeping

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with a gun.

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Then on Thanksgiving 2012, two teenagers break into his basement.

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Byron Smith was ready.

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He'd moved his truck to make the house look empty.

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He was armed with two guns, and he turned on his audio recorder.

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But that recording captured would seal his fate for life.

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Byron Smith was 64 years old in 2012, retired from the US State Department where he'd

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worked as a security engineer, setting up security at American embassies in places like Bangkok,

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Cairo, and Beijing.

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That professional background becomes crucial because the prosecution would argue that someone

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with his expertise couldn't claim pure panic.

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Smith had real reasons to be scared.

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In the months before Thanksgiving 2012, his house in Little Falls, Minnesota got hit repeatedly.

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Theaves took $4,000 in cash.

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His video camera, chainsaw, gold coins, but losing his father's POW watch devastated

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him.

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Irreplaceable sentimental value.

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Something deeply personal gets violated when a thief takes that from you.

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Neighbors testified Smith looked terrified in those final weeks, sleep deprived, even

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visibly upset.

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He started wearing a holstered gun around his own house.

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He began stashing water bottles and granola bars in the basement, preparing for an extended

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standoff.

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These actions became legally significant because they show preparation rather than spontaneous

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reaction.

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Nicholas Brady and Haley Kuifer were cousins.

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Brady was 17.

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Haley was 18.

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Police had linked Brady to at least two prior burglaries of Smith's property.

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He stole that cash, the video camera, the chainsaw.

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Brady had an accomplice named Cody Casper who'd actually done odd jobs for Smith.

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Yard work cleaning up around the property, those types of things.

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These teens had insider knowledge about what Smith owned and where he kept them.

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The day before Thanksgiving, Brady and Kuifer got connected to another burglary where they

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stole prescription medications.

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Investigators found those stolen pills in the cars the teens were driving on Thanksgiving

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day.

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Smith knew Brady had burglarized him.

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He felt targeted and believed law enforcement had done nothing to stop it.

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Thanksgiving morning 2012, Smith drove his truck away and parked it at a neighbor's home.

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He wanted his house to look unoccupied.

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Then he went back into the basement and positioned himself in a chair with a clear view of the stairway.

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He armed himself with two weapons, a Ruger Mini-14 rifle and a high standard 22 caliber revolver.

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Then Smith turned on his audio recording system.

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Six hours and 25 minutes of recording time.

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Maybe he thought this would prove his innocence.

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Instead, that audio became the prosecution's most powerful evidence.

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Byron Smith also unscrewed the light bulbs in the basement.

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Intruder's would be descending into darkness while he maintained tactical advantage.

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In legal terms, what he was doing was called "lying in weight."

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Prosecutors argued he created conditions designed to lure intruders into a lethal trap.

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On 12.30 pm, Nick Brady broke in through a bedroom window.

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The audio captures breaking glass than footsteps.

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Smith waited 12 minutes in silence.

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Then Brady started down the basement stairs.

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Smith opened fire.

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Two shots hit Brady as he descended.

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Brady fell, groaning and wounded.

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Medical examiner testimony confirmed these initial shots were serious, but wouldn't have

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immediately killed him.

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Smith's rifle jammed.

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He switched to his 22 caliber revolver and fired a third shot.

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Close ranged through Brady's hand into his right temple.

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That headshot became the fatal wound.

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The audio captures Smith saying, "You're dead."

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Then the sound of Byron Smith dragging Brady's body, wrapping him in a tarp, putting him into

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a workshop, heavy breathing, Smith reloading his weapon.

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Then he waited.

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10 full minutes pass on that recording.

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Haley Kyfer entered the basement approximately 10 minutes after her cousin.

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That time gap matters enormously.

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10 minutes provides time to call 911 to secure the scene to make different choices.

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Those 10 minutes eliminate any argument that Smith acted in continuous panic.

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The audio captures Kyfer softly calling Nick.

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As she starts down the stairs, Smith fires.

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He falls.

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His gun jams.

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The recording captures him saying, "Oh, sorry about that.

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Sarcastic and mocking."

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Then Kyfer screams, "Oh my God."

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Smith fires multiple times, six shots in total.

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Between shots he tells him, "You're dying."

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He called her a bitch multiple times.

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Smith dragged her into that workshop and placed her on top of Brady's body.

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Haley was still breathing.

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And Smith delivered one final shot under the chin.

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He would later describe this to police as, "A good, clean finishing shot."

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Those five words became the most damning evidence.

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That's execution language.

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The audio later captured Smith's voice reflecting on what he'd done.

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He referred to both teenagers as "Vermin."

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He described the killings as his civic duty.

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He said, "I don't see them as human."

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Judge Douglas Anderson blocked most of the evidence about Brady and Kyfer's criminal

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histories.

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The judge ruled that Smith didn't know who was breaking in when he started shooting.

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The trial focused on what Byron Smith did after the initial threat was neutralized.

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The prosecution had his own recording.

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The ten minute wait between shootings, the taunting, the close range headshots delivered

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to wounded teenagers no longer capable of harming anyone.

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The final finishing shots.

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Not captured on audio, Smith himself recorded.

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Byron Smith didn't call 911 on Thanksgiving.

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He kept both bodies in his basement overnight.

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At one point on the audio, he practices what he'll say to lawyers.

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He whispered, "In your left eye."

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Prosecutors noted Kyfer was ultimately shot in her left eye, suggesting Smith had been

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rehearsing the killing.

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Friday morning, Smith called the neighbor asking for lawyer recommendations.

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That neighbor contacted the Morrison County Sheriff's Office.

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When deputies arrived, Smith led them to the basement workshop where both bodies lay

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wrapped in tarps stacked on top of each other.

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Brady had three gunshot wounds.

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Kyfer had six.

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Smith told the investigators he'd "solved the break-ins in the neighborhood."

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He saw himself as solving a problem through violence because law enforcement had failed

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him.

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Smith's defense attorney made a strategic decision.

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He would not testify at his murder trial.

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This probably aimed to prevent cross-examination about those recorded statements.

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The prosecution played that audio recording.

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15 minutes of condensed audio.

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The jury heard breaking glass, the footsteps, and gunshots.

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Brady groaning, "Smith saying, 'You're dead.

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A body being dragged.

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10 minutes of silence.'

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Then Kyfer's voice, more gunshots, her screams, smiths mocking, and the final fatal gunshot.

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The courtroom sat in silence except for family members sobbing.

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The jury deliberated for three hours.

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April 29, 2014.

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Guilty on two counts of first degree premeditated murder.

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Guilty on two counts of second degree murder.

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Smith was immediately sentenced to two concurrent life sentences without parole.

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His appeals went nowhere.

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He petitioned the US Supreme Court in 2021.

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Denied.

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Currently, Byron Smith remains incarcerated in Minnesota.

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In 2024, 12 years after the killings, Smith filed a civil defamation lawsuit against Jeremy

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Luberts, a lead investigator who'd written a book about the case.

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More than a decade into a life sentence, Smith is still fighting to control the narrative.

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Still convinced, he was wronged.

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The Byron Smith case became a landmark.

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It defined exactly where Minnesota law draws the boundary between justified self-defense

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and criminal murder.

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Smith's security background worked against him.

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One with his training should have understood proportionate response.

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Should have recognized when a threat had been neutralized.

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Should have known to call law enforcement.

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The jury heard all of it.

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The preparation, the lying in weight, the multiple weapons, the reloading between victims.

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And above all, Smith's own voice documenting his malice.

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The castle doctrine protects your right to defend your life in your home.

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It doesn't grant you the right to become judge, jury, and executioner.

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Byron Smith crossed that line on Thanksgiving 2012, and his own recording provided undeniable

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proof beyond any reasonable doubt.

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"Cute.

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I'm sure she thought she was a real pro.

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I feel a little bit safer.

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I'm totally safe.

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I'm still shaking a bit, but a little bit safer.

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I refuse to live in fear.

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I am not completely armed, I'm wrong.

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I felt like I was cleaning up a mess.

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I was going by sitting dirty.

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Still more of a person's system would be dampened.

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I had to do it.

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I had to do it.

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I could see that as you.

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If I see that as vermin, this bed was going to go through her life, spoiling things for

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other people, stealing, robbing, drug use.

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I tried to be a good person.

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I tried it to, and I should be friends with other people, help them when I can.

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I tried to be a good citizen, and because I tried to be a decent person, they think I'm a

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taxi, I'm a sucker.

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They think I'm there for them to take advantage of.

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It's not the reward for being a good person."

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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, Bingeable True Crime Stories.

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I'm Joe, and here's a quick message from one of you that listens.

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It's a great podcast-related housekeeping.

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Joe, not a question, but I love when you talk about how you make the show.

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Stuff like editing, scripting, all that behind the scene stuff.

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Makes me appreciate the episodes even more.

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I just wanted to tell you that.

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Serena in Billings Montana.

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Serena, thank you for the email.

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I don't really talk about it that much, because in my opinion, that's the boring stuff.

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That's the stuff that you guys don't want to hear.

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What's that thing that you don't want to see how the sausage gets made?

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I may have just wrecked that, but you get what I'm saying.

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And yeah, right, there's a lot that does go into making the show.

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I do at least two episodes per week, sometimes three episodes per week, like this week.

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And there's an enormous amount that goes into it that I can't even describe to you.

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I need a whole podcast episode just to talk about how I go about making each one of these episodes.

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But I do appreciate people that understand that it takes a lot to make this happen.

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So thanks, Serena for saying that.

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Hey, if you're a brand new listener to the podcast, hit subscribe right now.

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Then you can go to the website 10minuteMurder.com.

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You're going to find links to all the places you can listen.

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We'll not all of them, sure.

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I'm sure I miss some links, but most of the places you can listen, the places that you can connect with the show on social media.

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There's a blog there, also a place for you to sign up for the newsletter.

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And you can email me.

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If you're an OG listener, happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

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Hope it's a great one.

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I appreciate you rating and reviewing the podcast, sharing it with your friends and your family.

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And that's going to do it.

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That's your episode for today.

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Thank you again for listening to 10 Minute Murder.