The Quiet Neighbor

WEBVTT

1
00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:27.719
On August sixteenth, two thousand and
five, Sean Hine pulled up outside his

2
00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:32.119
girlfriend's house with a pit in his
stomach. He'd only just seen her the

3
00:00:32.200 --> 00:00:35.560
night before, and had even dropped
her off at the front door at around

4
00:00:35.560 --> 00:00:39.840
midnight, but since then, Alicia
Ross had not been answering her phone.

5
00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:44.320
He'd only called twice, But when
the twenty five year old woman didn't show

6
00:00:44.399 --> 00:00:48.679
up for work the next morning,
Shawn knew that something was definitely wrong.

7
00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:53.520
Alicia's car was still parked outside of
her house, but she did not answer

8
00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:58.439
the door. Then, even more
agitated and on edge after seeing all this,

9
00:00:58.840 --> 00:01:02.320
Sean called Alicia's parents to ask if
they'd seen or heard from her.

10
00:01:02.840 --> 00:01:07.560
The answer was no. Sean then
called the police to report Alicia missing,

11
00:01:07.879 --> 00:01:11.760
and her parents rushed over to their
daughter's home to find it already crawling with

12
00:01:11.879 --> 00:01:18.560
investigators. Alicia's mother, Sharon later
wrote in Alicia's room where her cell phone,

13
00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:22.439
her purse, her cigarettes, her
keys, her bed had not been

14
00:01:22.480 --> 00:01:26.000
slept in, her laundry lay folded
ready to be put away. Her ring

15
00:01:26.120 --> 00:01:30.680
was by the bathroom sink. The
backyard was strown with Alicia's shoes, a

16
00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:34.959
glass, a cigarette, and the
backyard gate had been left open. A

17
00:01:36.040 --> 00:01:40.719
sickness fell over us. It was
now clear that Alicia had made it home

18
00:01:40.760 --> 00:01:44.599
the night before. According to the
items left at the scene, she'd gotten

19
00:01:44.599 --> 00:01:49.680
herself ready for bed and was potentially
having a late night cigarette when something had

20
00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:53.640
happened to her. It looked like
she'd been swept away into the night,

21
00:01:53.079 --> 00:01:57.799
and with all of her personal belongings
left in the house, it was unlikely

22
00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:01.719
that Alicia had actually planned on leaving, or that she had gone willingly.

23
00:02:02.799 --> 00:02:07.759
Investigators immediately found the scene suspicious and
launched a search of the area to see

24
00:02:07.759 --> 00:02:12.960
if they could pick up on Alicia's
trail. They were quickly flooded by locals

25
00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:15.719
and volunteers who wanted to help,
so much so that they had to limit

26
00:02:15.759 --> 00:02:20.439
the number of volunteers that they could
work with to one hundred at one time.

27
00:02:21.400 --> 00:02:25.000
Several days passed with nothing dimming the
fire and the hope that Alicia would

28
00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:30.560
be found alive, But then the
investigators honed in on a potential suspect.

29
00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:35.159
He was the very last person to
have seen Alicia alive, her boyfriend,

30
00:02:35.479 --> 00:02:40.400
Sean Heine. Thus began the game
of cat and mouse. Sean wasn't named

31
00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:46.280
an official suspect in the investigation,
but the police canvassed his neighborhood and asked

32
00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:50.639
his neighbors if anyone had actually seen
him during the hours that Alicia had disappeared.

33
00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:53.960
The authorities were tracking Sean's movements,
trying to trip him up and see

34
00:02:53.960 --> 00:02:59.000
if he would crack. The idea
behind it being that it was unusual that

35
00:02:59.080 --> 00:03:04.000
someone would race to fill in a
missing person's report after only two missed phone

36
00:03:04.039 --> 00:03:07.400
calls. That was, of course, unless they knew something that the police

37
00:03:07.479 --> 00:03:13.680
did not. Shawn then refused to
cooperate with the investigators any further, including

38
00:03:13.759 --> 00:03:17.639
refusing to take a polygraph test,
but he also did not crack. With

39
00:03:17.719 --> 00:03:23.000
no new leads to go on,
the investigation then began to lose steam.

40
00:03:23.400 --> 00:03:29.199
Resources, volunteers, and media coverage
trickled out, and Alicia's trail officially went

41
00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:35.319
cold until this case had a startling
and unexpected turn of events. About a

42
00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:39.520
month after Alicia first disappeared, a
man turned himself into the police, saying

43
00:03:39.560 --> 00:03:45.879
that he had murdered Alisha and had
hidden her body. The investigators followed his

44
00:03:45.960 --> 00:03:51.120
directions to a wooded location about fifty
miles away from Alicia's house, and there

45
00:03:51.159 --> 00:03:55.000
they found the remains of a young
woman. Alisha was dead and had been

46
00:03:55.039 --> 00:04:00.479
dead this entire time, and her
killer had been right under everyone's ease noses.

47
00:04:00.439 --> 00:04:04.240
The investigators had even talked to him. That very day Alisha was reported

48
00:04:04.280 --> 00:04:11.400
missing, and his name was not
Sean Heine but Daniel Sylvester. The community

49
00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:15.279
was speechless. With so much media
coverage and attention drawn to Alicia's boyfriend and

50
00:04:15.399 --> 00:04:19.839
supposedly the last person to have seen
her alive, no one had suspected her

51
00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:26.399
quiet and unassuming next door neighbor,
thirty one year old Daniel kept mainly to

52
00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:30.800
himself. He didn't really like people, and people didn't seem to like him

53
00:04:30.839 --> 00:04:33.920
either, and according to himself,
that's the way things had always been.

54
00:04:34.439 --> 00:04:38.920
He later said, it's not something
I want to admit to, but that's

55
00:04:38.959 --> 00:04:42.079
the way it is, and it's
very embarrassing and I wish it was different.

56
00:04:42.399 --> 00:04:46.079
I'm not someone who is compatible with
most people. I feel very nervous

57
00:04:46.120 --> 00:04:51.199
and apprehensive around people, especially in
large classroom settings. He was referring specifically

58
00:04:51.279 --> 00:04:56.360
to a time in school where he
claimed that the other children would constantly bully

59
00:04:56.439 --> 00:05:00.120
him and call him a loser.
In the time leading up to the that

60
00:05:00.279 --> 00:05:02.639
night with Alicia, the police had
been called to his house on at least

61
00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:08.240
one occasion when he'd threatened to kill
himself, and he was hospitalized on at

62
00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:13.120
least one other occasion. He described
himself as someone who suffered from many mental

63
00:05:13.120 --> 00:05:17.759
health problems and was a borderline alcoholic. In his taped confession that was later

64
00:05:17.839 --> 00:05:23.399
played in court, Daniel described what
happened on the night that he'd approached Alicia,

65
00:05:23.720 --> 00:05:28.079
shortly after Sean dropped her off at
home. According to Daniel, he

66
00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:32.600
and Alicia quickly had gotten into a
heated argument. She insulted me and called

67
00:05:32.600 --> 00:05:36.720
me a loser, and that's what
really got me going. He then slapped

68
00:05:36.759 --> 00:05:42.079
Alicia across the face and pushed her
to the ground. He then began kneeling

69
00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:46.839
on her chest over and over until
Alicia was winded and couldn't fight back anymore.

70
00:05:46.600 --> 00:05:50.600
He took her head and banged it
into the ground until Alicia was dead.

71
00:05:51.519 --> 00:05:56.279
Daniel then lined the inside of his
truck to make sure he wouldn't leave

72
00:05:56.279 --> 00:06:00.279
any evidence behind, and drove her
body to the wooded location she was later

73
00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:04.160
found in. He also discarded some
of her remains and other evidence in that

74
00:06:04.199 --> 00:06:10.360
same location three weeks after her death. When Daniel returned home that night,

75
00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:14.879
he cleaned up the scene and had
a shower. All actions that the prosecution

76
00:06:14.959 --> 00:06:19.399
would argue meant that Daniel had committed
murder when he'd killed Alicia. The prosecution

77
00:06:19.680 --> 00:06:24.199
was in a position to put this
to the court because Daniel wanted to plead

78
00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:29.120
to the lesser charge of manslaughter to
avoid going to trial. The courts found

79
00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:33.800
that they agreed with the prosecution.
Daniel's actions that night were underlined with cold

80
00:06:34.079 --> 00:06:40.560
calculations and chilling problem solving that had
left the investigators stumped. If he hadn't

81
00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:44.560
come forward himself, who knows if
the police would have ever turned their suspicions

82
00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:49.000
away from Sean and towards Daniel on
their own. At the trial, the

83
00:06:49.079 --> 00:06:54.959
video of Daniel's tape confession continued to
play. When asked to write a letter

84
00:06:54.959 --> 00:06:59.240
to Alicia and her loved ones,
Daniel then broke down and started crying.

85
00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:01.800
I would say I had no right
to take your daughter's life. I am

86
00:07:01.839 --> 00:07:08.000
beyond words. I cannot possibly express
how sorry I am for what I've done.

87
00:07:08.040 --> 00:07:11.480
Sharon Fortis, Aelicia's mother, sat
in the second row of the courtroom,

88
00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:16.759
watching the confession and crying into her
tissues. Daniel's mother, Olga sat

89
00:07:16.800 --> 00:07:20.160
in the very back, listening to
the words her son says. He spoke

90
00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:25.759
to her, her fingers around her
rosary as Daniel could be heard saying,

91
00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:29.879
I should have never been born.
I told her that I'd never do this

92
00:07:29.959 --> 00:07:32.439
to hurt you. I'd never put
you in this position, all the shame

93
00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:36.639
and humiliation you're going to have to
bear being associated with me. You know

94
00:07:36.680 --> 00:07:43.240
that she doesn't need that. She's
seventy one. At trial, Daniel appeared

95
00:07:43.399 --> 00:07:46.800
unmoved by the footage of himself,
but perhaps seeing the crying members of the

96
00:07:46.879 --> 00:07:51.360
jury had already clued him into what
was in store for him. When faced

97
00:07:51.399 --> 00:07:56.120
with the dilemma of whether Daniel had
meant to kill Alicia that night or not,

98
00:07:56.639 --> 00:07:59.920
the jury took three hours and forty
five minutes to think it through.

99
00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:03.759
If it had been in accidents,
or at least not premeditated, Daniel would

100
00:08:03.759 --> 00:08:07.639
be found guilty of manslaughter and not
murder, and would be given a lesser

101
00:08:07.720 --> 00:08:13.560
sentence. The jury agreed with the
prosecution. The continued beating and kneeling on

102
00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:18.279
Alicia followed by the cold and calculated
way Daniel had taken care of covering up

103
00:08:18.279 --> 00:08:24.720
his crimes meant that it had least
been intentional to some degree. Maybe Daniel

104
00:08:24.759 --> 00:08:28.160
had not approached Alicia that night with
the idea or motive to kill her,

105
00:08:28.519 --> 00:08:31.679
but he had several points in time
where he could have stopped before things became

106
00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:37.360
irreversible. Daniel was found guilty of
second degree murder and sentenced to life,

107
00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:43.200
with the possibility of parole after sixteen
years. With his name now officially cleared,

108
00:08:43.639 --> 00:08:48.080
Alicia's boyfriend, Sean was able to
breathe a sigh of relief and start

109
00:08:48.120 --> 00:08:52.720
the process of healing. His father, Kenhein, spoke to the Toronto Son

110
00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:58.720
shortly after Daniel Silvester had turned himself
in and said that Sean was going through

111
00:08:58.759 --> 00:09:01.399
a lot of emotions and only just
coming to terms with the fact that his

112
00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:07.679
girlfriend was murdered and is not coming
back on behalf of the public. Calumnist

113
00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:11.759
Mike Strobel wrote an article in The
Toronto Sun apologizing to Sean Heine and what

114
00:09:11.879 --> 00:09:28.240
he had gone through during the course
of Felicia's investigation. That's ten minute murder

115
00:09:28.399 --> 00:09:33.720
for today, brief and binge able, true Crime. My name is Joe,

116
00:09:33.879 --> 00:09:35.919
I'm the host, and thank you
for taking the time to listen to

117
00:09:37.039 --> 00:09:41.440
ten Minute Murder and the story today
makes you wonder, makes you put yourself

118
00:09:41.480 --> 00:09:45.960
in shawn shoes. Man or woman. If you're in a relationship and your

119
00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:50.440
partner turns up missing, possibly murdered, what do you even do? You

120
00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:54.559
know for a fact that you had
nothing to do with it. You want

121
00:09:54.559 --> 00:09:56.240
to cooperate with the police, but
they want you to take a light detector

122
00:09:56.279 --> 00:10:00.799
test. And if you've listened to
this show at all, you know that

123
00:10:00.879 --> 00:10:03.200
I'm not on the side of lie
detector tests. They're a little better than

124
00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:07.679
a coin flip. They're basically a
tool for the police to try to pin

125
00:10:07.720 --> 00:10:09.919
something on you or try to get
you to admit something, and if you've

126
00:10:09.919 --> 00:10:13.200
done nothing wrong, there's no point
of taking that thing, you know what

127
00:10:13.240 --> 00:10:18.039
I mean. But you also want
to cooperate so that you can clear your

128
00:10:18.039 --> 00:10:20.639
own name and they can focus on
finding your girlfriend, or focus on finding

129
00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:24.320
who did something to your girlfriend or
boyfriend, whatever the case may be.

130
00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:28.879
It's difficult because you never really know
what you're gonna do until, like Sean,

131
00:10:28.919 --> 00:10:33.519
you find yourself in that situation.
So man, it's got to be

132
00:10:33.559 --> 00:10:35.799
tough, and I pray that none
of you have to go through that.

133
00:10:35.639 --> 00:10:39.039
But think about it, what would
you do if you were in Sean hein

134
00:10:39.159 --> 00:10:43.159
shoes in that situation? Hey,
make sure you follow the podcast on social

135
00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:46.120
media links from the show notes,
or you can go to ten minute murder

136
00:10:46.200 --> 00:10:50.840
dot com for all things related to
the podcast. You can also contact me

137
00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:54.200
there. There's a place you can
contact me on ten minute murder dot com

138
00:10:54.360 --> 00:10:58.879
or just as easily send me an
email Joe at ten minute murder dot com.

139
00:10:58.159 --> 00:11:01.360
And that's it. That's your episode
for today. Thank you so much

140
00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:03.080
for listening to ten Minute Murder.