The True Crime Author Whose Greatest Mystery Was Her Own Daughter's Death

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When your daughter calls to say she's breaking up with her boyfriend and then never makes it home that night

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Every parent's worst nightmare becomes reality

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But when you're best-selling author Lois Duncan and the police decide your daughter was randomly targeted

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You don't accept that answer. You write a book about it. You hire private investigators

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You become your daughter's voice when everyone else has moved on

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This is the story of what happens to 18 year old Caitlin Arquette in 1989 and why it took 32 years to get answers

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In the summer of 1989 18 year old Caitlin Arquette at her whole life mapped out

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She graduated from high school at Highland High and Abercurkey as an honor student and one clear goal in mind

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She was going to become a doctor. She'd already been accepted at the University of New Mexico

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I was taking summer courses while working as a supervisor at Pier 1 imports

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Then came a car accident that initially looked like a setback but turned into an opportunity

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The insurance payout was substantial enough that she could afford to move into her own apartment with her boyfriend

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Dung Winn

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Caitlin's parents had met Dung several times and found him to be polite, respectful and

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refreshingly different from typical teenage boys

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Don Arquette and his wife Lois Duncan the famous author of "I know what you did last summer"

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appreciated that he wasn't a partier or a drinker

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Most importantly their daughter seemed genuinely happy with him

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But happiness can be deceiving

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Six weeks after moving in together everything changed Caitlin called her mother with news that would have made any parents heart sink

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She and Dung have been having serious problems

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The truth was they'd never really gotten along very well and living together had only magnified their incompatibility

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But Caitlin had a plan she already asked the friend to move in with her and she was going to break up with Dung and ask him to leave

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She needed some time to get her affairs in order and let things settle down first

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At this point the story takes sort of an ominous undertone

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Caitlin specifically asked her mother to lie if Dung called looking for her

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She didn't want him to know that she'd be spending the evening at a friend's house

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worried that he might show up and ruin everything

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She was determined not to spend another night alone in that apartment with him

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On July 16th 1989 Caitlin followed through with her plan

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She made arrangements to sleep at her parents house that night and headed to her friend's house for dinner

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She arrived around 9.30 pm and according to her friend Caitlin was absolutely furious with Dung

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She didn't elaborate on the specifics, but she made it clear

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She was angry enough to in their relationship for good

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Caitlin left her friend's house at 10.45 pm heading toward her parents home

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She stomped at a red light on Lomas Boulevard and another car pulled up beside her

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What happened next would destroy multiple families and launch a decades-long search for answers?

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Someone in the other vehicle opened fire the bullets were small caliber and Caitlin was struck twice in the head

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The injuries weren't immediately fatal

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But they caused her to lose control of her car which veered into

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Oncoming traffic before crashing into a light pole

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Shortly after the shooting Caitlin's parents received a phone call that would change their lives forever

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They were urged to get to the hospital as quickly as possible

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When they arrived they discovered their daughter hadn't been in a traffic accident at all

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She'd been shot and the injuries had put her into a coma the prognosis wasn't good

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Through their shock and anguish the parents were able to tell investigators about Caitlin's living situation and her recent relationship troubles

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Despite everything that had been happening between Caitlin and Dung neither Dung nor Lois believed he could be involved in what happened to their daughter

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Five hours after the shooting police arrived at the apartment to find Dung alone

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His reaction appeared genuine. He seemed shocked, confused and devastated upon learning Caitlin was in a coma

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He told officers he'd spent the evening with friends and claimed he had no idea that Caitlin had been planning to break up with him or ask him to move out

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Police tested his hands for gunshot residue which came back negative and Dung was free to go to the hospital to be with Caitlin and her family

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They all sat together as Caitlin fought for her life and they were all present when she passed away the next day

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Dung's grief appeared overwhelming

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Five days later he attempted to take his own life by stabbing himself in the stomach

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He told people he couldn't see any reason to live without Caitlin and believed everyone blamed him for her death

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Here's what made his statement strange. No one was actually blaming him

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He had an alibi his hands tested clean for gunshot residue and there was no evidence pointing in his direction

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Yet he seemed convinced that people suspected him

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Six months later the Aberkirkie Police Department announced their conclusion

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Caitlin had been the victim of a random act of violence

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Case closed as far as they were concerned

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Lois Duncan wasn't buying it things weren't adding up starting with boyfriends behavior

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A couple months before Caitlin's death she and Dung had taken a road trip to California

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That's where Caitlin had gotten to the car accident that resulted in her insurance windfall

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But Lois suspected that there was more to that California trip than a simple vacation

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Lois believed Dung had introduced Caitlin to his friends during that California trip and she was convinced these friends were members of a Vietnamese

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Criminal organization that specialized in insurance fraud

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Here's how the scam allegedly worked a member of the organization would rent a car and then intentionally cause an accident with another member's vehicle

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The rental car driver would flee the scene leaving the victims behind

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Each victim would then claim soft tissue injuries to the neck and lower back

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Confirmed by a doctor who was also part of the organization

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The rental car insurance would pay out settlements to everyone involved

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According to this theory Caitlin and Dung received $1,500 for their participation in such a scheme during their California trip

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If this theory was accurate it raised an obvious question

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Why would the organization turn on Caitlin? She'd been a willing participant and had been paid for her involvement

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The theory goes that when Caitlin threatened to break up with Dung the other members of the organization saw her as a potential liability

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She knew their names their faces their methods

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If she decided to expose them they could all face serious legal consequences

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But were they concerned enough to commit murder and if so what role did Dung play in the decision?

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One of Caitlin's friends later claimed that Dung had called her on the night of the shooting

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Hours before police supposedly broke the news to him

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According to this friend Dung screamed into the phone

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Kate's dead they shot her

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The timing of this would suggest Dung knew about the shooting before he should have known

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Lois Duncan had her own suspicions about Dung's level of knowledge

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After his suicide attempt she visited him in the hospital and confronted him directly

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She told him she believed he knew more about Caitlin's murder than he was revealing

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And that if he truly loved her daughter he would tell the police everything

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Dung's response was telling he went silent for several minutes and when pressed he said quote, "I know I'm deciding"

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When questioned again later however he maintained that he knew nothing about Caitlin's death

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Lois continued investigating and uncovered more suspicious details

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Phone records showed that on the night of Caitlin's death while everyone including Dung was at the hospital

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Three phone calls were made from Caitlin's apartment

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The landlord later confirmed that a group of Dung's friends had been in the apartment that evening

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The number they called belonged to a Vietnamese paralegal in Orange County

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Who was believed to be involved in organizing car accident scams

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While Lois Duncan was building her case for Vietnamese gang involvement

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The police investigation took a different direction

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They began focusing on a group of young men with 21-year-old juvenile Escabedo

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And 18-year-old Miguel Garcia as the primary suspects

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One member of their group claimed to have been in the car when Miguel opened fire on Caitlin's vehicle

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The testimony led to the arrest of the entire group on first-degree murder charges

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The case against these young men quickly unraveled

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Secret recordings from their holding cells showed them denying involvement when talking among themselves

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But claiming Miguel was the shooter when speaking to police

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Their stories became increasingly inconsistent

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And witnesses clarified they'd seen them at the scene before Caitlin was shot

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Not during

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All charges were eventually dropped

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For over 30 years Caitlin's case remained unsolved

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Lois Duncan continued to believe in the Vietnamese gang theory

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While police maintained their position that her daughter had been the victim of random violence

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The case was featured on unsolved mysteries and became the subject of Lois Duncan's 1992 book

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Who Killed My Daughter

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But answers remained elusive

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In July 2021, University of New Mexico police spoke with Paul Apodaca

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53 years old who told officers he'd committed murders and wanted to talk about them

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This confession would finally provide answers that had been sought for over three decades

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Paul Apodaca confessed to three cold case murders

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UNM student Athea Oakley in 1988

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13-year-old Stella Gonzalez that same year

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And 18-year-old Caitlin Arquette in 1989

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It turned out that Caitlin had indeed been the victim of random violence

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But not by the gang members who had been charged and released

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She'd been killed by a serial killer who had terrorized Albuquerque in the late 1980s

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In January 2024, Judge Cindy Leo's sentenced Paul Apodaca to a minimum of 45 years in prison

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After he plated guilty to charges of rape and murder

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The man who had taken Caitlin's life and shattered her family's world

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Finally, faced consequences for his actions

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The case that consumed Lois Duncan for decades was finally solved

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Though not in the way she'd expected

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It wasn't random violence in the traditional sense

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But Caitlin had fallen victim to a serial killer who terrorized Albuquerque in the late 1980s

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Tragically, Lois Duncan passed away in 2016

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Five years before Apodaca's confession provided the answers

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She'd spent decades seeking

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She never got to see justice served for her daughter

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But her relentless pursuit of the truth kept Caitlin's case and the public eye

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A Caitlin Arquette case reminds us both of the limitations of initial investigations

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And the power of a mother's determination to find answers

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Even when those answers come too late for closure

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Thanks for listening to Ten Minute Murder

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Bingeable True Crime Stories

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My name is Joe, I'm the host

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And I appreciate you listening

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If your new listener hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this right now

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Go to the website TenMinuteMurder.com

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And also in the show notes of this episode you'll find links

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To where you can follow along on social media

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Quick listener email, subject, this might be dumb but

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Hi Joe, do you think murderers listen to murder podcasts?

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And if so, do you think they take notes?

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Kira in Denver

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And Kira, I tried to, yes the answers yes

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But I try to not think about that

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I actively, anytime that thought pops in my head

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I try to go the other direction with it because I can't

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I don't want to think about that

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Yes I think they listen and yes I think they take notes

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And this isn't directly related to that

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But I guess it would be a cousin to what you just asked

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But I have had the family of killers that I talk about on this podcast

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Reach out to me before and one in particular that comes to mind

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When I read your email

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And it was a family that reached out asking specifically where I got certain bits of information

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I don't know where they thought I got it

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But I answered them, it's a place on the internet where I found this particular piece of information

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And they wanted to know where I got it

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I politely told them where I got it

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And that was the end of the correspondence

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It wrecked my whole afternoon

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They weren't rude or mean, they were very direct

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With their question and I was very polite back to them

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And that was the end of it

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But if I knew they were murderers listening to this taking notes

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I don't like that at all

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I don't like that one bit

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Alright Cara, thank you for your weird email

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And if you've got one you'd like to send me

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Joe@10minutemurder.com

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No murderers please

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And that's gonna 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

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See you next time