Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music.
Download the Amazon Music app today. On April 18th, 1992, a person in California turned their shower on and waited until the steam was rising up out of the stall before they stepped inside.
Once under the water, this person grabbed a can of shaving cream and applied it to their entire body.
And slowly, they began shaving off every hair on their body except for the hair on their head.
After they were done, they hopped out of the shower, they toweled off, got dressed, and then began the next phase of their prep, packing their backpack with things like latex gloves and plastic sheets.
After they were done, they climbed into bed and set their alarm for very early the next morning.
They were nervous about what was going to happen the next day, but they were confident that they were ready.
24 hours later, and what this hairless person had done was all over the news.
But before we get into that story, I want to tell you about my absolute favorite storytelling show.
It's called Bedtime Stories, and it's truly one of the most entertaining and mind-bending, terrifying shows I have ever heard.
And they have a truly incredible storyteller.
And here's a bit of exclusive news. It's been handpicked by me to become our very first non-Mr. Ballin hosted podcast under the Ballin Studios banner.
And the show is live right now with the first three episodes.
You can listen to Bedtime Stories right here on Amazon Music.
So if that's of interest to you, right before the Amazon review button lays down to go to bed, put on my new favorite show, Bedtime Stories, and scare the absolute crap out of it.
Okay, let's get into today's story. Are you searching for a romantic summer getaway?
Escape with Rich Girl Summer, the new Audible original from Lily Chu.
The phenomenally talented Philippa Soo returns to narrate her fifth Lily Chu title.
This time, Philippa is joined by her real-life husband, Steven Pasquale.
Set in Toronto's wealthy cottage country, aka the Hamptons of Canada, Rich Girl Summer follows the story of Valerie, a down-on-her-luck event planner posing as a socialite's long-lost daughter while piecing together the secrets surrounding a mysterious family. and falling deeper and deeper in love with the impossibly hard-to-read and infuriatingly handsome family assistant Nico.
Caught between pretending to belong and unexpectedly finding where she truly fits in, Valerie learns her summer is about to get far more complicated than she ever planned.
She's in over her head and head over heels.
Listen to Rich Girl Summer now on Audible.
Go to audible.com slash richgirlsummer. On Friday, April 17th, 1993, 59-year-old millionaire Dale Ewell was flying his Beechcraft Bonanza single-engine airplane thousands of feet above Fresno, California.
Dale was a handsome man with blue eyes and dark hair that was starting to turn gray.
He was flying his plane from where he lived in Fresno to a small airport about 45 minutes away because he was going to meet his wife and kids at the family's beach house for Easter weekend.
In the cockpit, Dale looked out at the clear blue sky and listened to the hum of the plane's engine, and suddenly any stress he might have been dealing with just kind of disappeared.
Airplanes had been a huge part of Dale's life for almost 40 years, and he never felt better than when he was flying.
In the 1950s, Dale had flown twin-engine turboprop planes as a member of the United States Air Force, and then after he left the military, Dale had gotten a job selling small airplanes to private pilots and California ranchers for a company owned by a man named Frank Lamb.
Frank had taken Dale under his wing and taught him everything he could about the airplane industry, and Dale had turned out to be a very gifted airplane salesman.
Part of Dale's skill as a salesman was that he was very charming and he felt comfortable talking to all kinds of people.
But really the main reason Dale had been so successful at selling planes was because his love of being a pilot really rubbed off on people.
And when he talked to potential clients about the peace and the awe he felt when he was flying, they wanted to experience the same thing.
And so Dale had quickly moved up the company ladder, and when Frank had stepped away from the business 20 years earlier, Dale had taken over and become the owner and president of the company.
Once Dale was in charge, he had started making a lot of money, and he invested that money really well.
So in 1992, as Dale approached his 60th birthday, he was worth about $8 million, which would be over $17 million in 2023.
When Dale got to be about 20 miles away from the airport where he was going, he radioed air traffic control and got clearance to make his final approach.
Dale descended to an altitude of about 2,000 feet and then started the landing procedure.
And when he touched down on the runway, he was already looking forward to flying again in a couple of days.
But first, he was eager to spend some time relaxing with his family.
Dale got into a car that he had arranged to have waiting for him at the airport, and then he drove a few miles to Pajaro Dunes, a small, upscale beachfront community in Northern California.
He made his way down a secluded street, past large homes that looked out onto the Pacific Ocean, and then finally he pulled up to his own beach house, he parked his car, and stepped outside.
His wife, Glee, and his daughter, Tiffany, were sitting on the porch waiting for him.
Glee and Tiffany had driven to the beach house together the day before.
Glee, who had short brown hair and a big smile, stood up and kissed her husband when he stepped onto the porch.
Glee and Dale had been married for 31 years.
And when they had started making a lot of money, Glee had really committed herself to community service and philanthropy.
And so as a result, back in Fresno where they lived, Glee was admired as a community leader.
But Glee had a past that most people in Fresno didn't know anything about.
She was extremely smart and she had a talent for speaking foreign languages.
And in the late 1950s, before she and Dale had gotten married, Glee's skills had landed her a job in South America as a translator for the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA, which is a federal agency in the United States that specializes in foreign intelligence.
Glee's children thought it was exciting that their mom had once worked for the CIA.
But Glee thought about her time in South America like it was from a different life.
On the porch, Glee and Dale's daughter, Tiffany, got up and hugged her dad.
Then she opened the door and they all went inside the beach house.
Tiffany was 24 years old with cropped blonde hair and a smile that was almost identical to her mother's.
She was quiet and reserved around people she didn't know, and in fact, she'd been named the shyest person in class when she was in college.
But Tiffany's family and her few close friends knew she was funny and sweet and a great person to talk to once she'd let her guard down.
So Dale, Lee, and Tiffany spent a lot of that day just talking to each other, and their main topic of conversation was the youngest member of the family, Dana, and his new girlfriend, Monica Zent.
The two had met at their dorm at Santa Clara University, which was a little over an hour from the beach house.
And the next day, Dana was supposed to bring Monica out to the beach house to meet the rest of his family.
The following morning, 20-year-old Dana Ewell pulled up to the front of the beach house in his gold Mercedes-Benz, and he, along with his girlfriend, Monica, got out of the car and walked towards the front door.
Dana was tall and thin with dark brown hair, and this day he wore a t-shirt and jeans, but that outfit was actually kind of unusual for him.
Most of the time when Dana went anywhere, even to his college classes, he wore a tailored Armani suit, which is very fancy.
Dana looked up to his father, and he really wanted to be successful like his dad was, and so he thought it was important to dress the part.
Dana and Monica walked inside the beach house, and Dana right away called out for his parents.
Monica looked around the large front room and listened to the sound of the ocean just outside, and she was kind of in shock.
Monica's father was an FBI agent, so she had not grown up around people who had as much money as Dana and his family.
So the gold Mercedes, the beachfront property, the airplanes, and the whole lifestyle the Ewells led was just all so new to her.
Dale, Glee, and Tiffany came into the front room from the kitchen and said hello to Dana and Monica.
Then Glee asked Monica to go on a tour of the beach house, really just so Glee could get to know her son's new girlfriend a little bit better.
And later that day, while Monica was spending time with Glee and also with Tiffany, Dana and Dale went to play tennis on a court that was reserved just for residents of this small beach community.
As they played, Dale talked to his son about the airplane business, but he really wanted to hear about how Dana was doing at school.
Dana said classes were going great and that he really liked his girlfriend, Monica, so he was excited that the family was finally getting to meet her.
Dana also said that he really hoped the entire family would get to spend more time together as a whole once this semester was over.
And then the two of them started talking about their favorite topic, flying.
Dana said that he wanted to get into piloting helicopters, so his dad, Dale, said they should find a good place for him to take lessons that was not too far from school.
They played tennis for a bit longer and then they headed back to the beach house.
Later that night, a few hours after dinner, Dale and his wife Glee were lying in bed and they began talking about how lucky they were to have this beach house, this really nice place where the whole family could go and spend time together and just kind of be away from everything for a little while.
Glee said that she knew the kids were growing up and they had their own lives and interests, but she just hoped that Dana and Tiffany would keep coming to the beach house even when they were older and had families of their own.
On April 19th, the following day, Dale helped his wife and his daughter load up Glee's gray Cadillac with these suitcases and cooler of food that they had brought to the beach.
Dana and Monica were going to have Easter dinner with Monica's parents, so they had already left.
Once Glee's car was loaded, Dale gave his wife and his daughter a kiss and told them he'd see them when he got home.
Then Dale got into his own car and drove to the airport so he could fly his plane back to Fresno.
Tiffany climbed into the passenger seat of the Cadillac, and Glee got behind the wheel, and then a couple of minutes later, they began their drive back home.
It would take them three hours to complete the drive, but they made a pit stop about halfway through and grabbed some food at a fast food restaurant called Foster's Freeze, which was Tiffany's favorite place to get a milkshake.
Finally, at about 5 p.m., Glee and Tiffany pulled into the driveway of their large ranch-style house in a secluded, wealthy neighborhood in Fresno.
The house had a sprawling front yard that was beautifully landscaped with huge trees and a stone fountain in the center of the yard.
Glee opened the garage door and pulled the Cadillac inside.
Dale's car wasn't there, but that didn't surprise her.
Even though the flight Dale had made was short, Glee knew he would spend some time at the airport making sure everything was alright with his plane.
Tiffany got out of the car. She was carrying her drink from Foster's Freeze.
Glee went around to the back seat, grabbed the cooler, and then followed Tiffany into their house.
Once they were inside, Glee stopped to put the cooler down, but Tiffany kept on walking, and she disappeared down a hallway that led to the kitchen.
Then Glee thought that she heard something fall onto the floor down the hall, so she called out to Tiffany, but Tiffany didn't call back.
So Glee walked into the hallway where Tiffany had just been, and when she did, she screamed, turned around, and started running.
That night, Dana sat at the dinner table with his girlfriend Monica and her parents at Monica's parents' house.
They had just finished a large Easter dinner, and Dana thanked Monica's parents for letting him spend the holiday with them.
Then, not long after that, Dana and Monica drove back to their college campus in Dana's car.
When they got to Dana's dorm room, he called home, but nobody answered.
Dana thought it was odd that they were not picking up because he figured by now his family would be back from the beach.
But Monica told him that they might have gone out for Easter dinner or maybe they had all been worn out from the trip and just went straight to bed.
But the following afternoon, Dana called home again after his classes and there still was not any answer.
So Dana called his father's office. and his father's assistant said that Dale had not checked in with her that day, but she thought it was possible that maybe Dale was just taking another day off after Easter.
Dana said it seemed really strange to him that his dad had not even called the office to let her know.
Dana finally hung up the phone, and then he went to find Monica in her dorm room.
And as soon as Monica saw him, she knew something was wrong.
Dana was pacing back and forth and he had a really worried look on his face.
Monica asked what was going on and he told her that he still couldn't get ahold of his parents or his sister.
Monica stood up and walked over to him and put her hands on his shoulders and tried to get him to calm down.
And she said if he was really worried, he could totally call her dad because he was an FBI agent and he would know what to do.
Dana said he really was worried, so Monica did call her father and then handed the phone over to Dana.
Dana thanked Monica's dad for talking with him, and then he told him what was going on with his family.
And Monica's dad pretty much immediately urged Dana to just stay calm, and then he also told Dana that he would be happy to look around on his end to see if he could learn anything about what was going on with them.
Later that day, Monica's dad would call Dana back.
And even though he didn't have much information, what he did know was the Ewell's home security alarm company had not gotten any indication that the alarm had gone off or that anything out of the ordinary had occurred at the house.
After hearing this, Dana did feel a bit more relaxed and Monica would say to him that, you know, probably he just missed his family at the house when he had called.
Dana figured she was right and he told her that he would just try to get a hold of them in the morning if they still had not contacted him by then.
The next day at 9 a.m., so this was April 21st, two days after Glee and her daughter Tiffany had gotten back to their home in Fresno, the Ewell's housekeeper walked up to their front door, unlocked it with a key that she had, and she went inside.
She was surprised that the alarm didn't beep when she walked in.
The family was usually gone when she was there, and they almost always set the alarm when they left.
So the housekeeper called out for Glee to see if she was home, but nobody responded.
Then the housekeeper walked through the foyer into the living room that had high vaulted ceilings, and she got scared. cushions from the couch were on the floor and pictures had been pulled off the wall the housekeeper called out to glee again but still nobody responded and so the housekeeper took a breath and tried to calm her nerves but when she walked into the hallway that led to the kitchen she immediately screamed and ran back through the house out the front door and when she got out there she just happened to see a man walking towards her and she began screaming out at him The man tried to figure out what was going on.
He would say that he was the Ewell's neighbor and that their son, Dana, had called him that morning because Dana was worried about his parents.
The housekeeper just shook her head, started to cry, and pointed to the Ewell's front door.
The neighbor would go inside and he would see the house was a total mess.
Then he too stepped into the hallway and immediately he ran to the phone and dialed 911.
A few minutes after that 911 call, the sound of police sirens cut through the quiet morning in the Ewells' wealthy Fresno neighborhood.
Lead investigator John Souza of the Fresno County Sheriff's Department parked his car in front of the Ewells' house and stepped outside.
It was a warm spring day, about 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
Souza was short, with dark hair and a thick mustache, and it was bright out, so he had his sunglasses on.
From behind his glasses, he could see that the police sirens had already attracted a crowd.
People up and down the street were now standing on their lawns, just staring over at the Ewell's house, wondering what was going on.
Detective Souza saw the Ewell's housekeeper and their neighbor, who had called 911, standing outside.
The housekeeper was inconsolable, and the neighbor looked like he was still in shock.
So Sousa walked up to them and tried to calm them down and told them everything was okay now and then at some point the neighbor told Sousa what he had seen inside of the Ewell's house.
Another squad car pulled up and Deputy Chris Curtis got out.
He was young and tall with light brown hair.
Sousa asked the neighbor and the housekeeper to please wait outside and he told them that other officers would arrive soon to ask them more questions.
Then Sousa took off his sunglasses and waved Deputy Curtis over to him, and then the two of them walked into the Ewell's house together.
Every room Sousa and Curtis walked through inside of the house looked like it had been totally ransacked.
Sousa had spent his early days in law enforcement in the robbery unit, and he told Curtis that in all his time investigating robberies, he'd never seen a house in this state.
It was like whoever had done this had opened and emptied virtually every cabinet and drawer and littered the floor with everything the Ewells owned.
Then Sousa and Curtis walked down the hall towards the kitchen and they found the first body.
Dale was lying face down, dead in the hallway.
A pool of dried blood had formed under his face, and several unopened newspapers were scattered across the floor.
Sousa thought it looked like rigor mortis had already started to set in on the body.
Rigor mortis is when muscles in a body stiffen after death.
And so Sousa wondered if Dale had been dead for days.
Sousa and Curtis walked further down the hall, they came to the kitchen, and they stopped again.
Because on the kitchen floor, they saw Tiffany lying face down like her father.
Blood had run across the kitchen floor, and a drink had spilled nearby.
Then they went back into the hall, walked into a home office, and found the third body.
Glee was lying on her side, and massive amounts of blood had pooled behind her.
Not long after Souza and Curtis found Glee, the forensics team arrived and started looking for evidence on and around the bodies.
And while they did that, Souza and Curtis searched the rest of the house.
The door to the main bedroom was open and Sousa could see that the bedroom looked even more torn apart than the rest of the house.
He and Curtis walked into the room and saw that every drawer of a large wooden dresser had been opened and clothes were all over the floor.
Sousa walked over to a vanity table and saw an open jewelry box that had been emptied.
It seemed clear that whoever had killed the Ewells had also stolen valuable items from this jewelry box.
So Sousa thought there was a chance this was just a robbery gone wrong, that the Ewells had just come home at the worst time, and when they walked in on the robbers, the robbers panicked and killed them all.
After doing an initial search of the house, Sousa and Curtis joined the forensics team near Dale's body.
Forensics officers had found Dale's wallet nearby, but it had been cleaned out, and that supported the idea that robbery could have been the motive behind these killings.
But then, forensics officers told Souza something that he was not expecting to hear.
Based on the wounds on the bodies, they believed the Ewells had been shot with a semi-automatic 9mm pistol.
But there was no murder weapon and not a single bullet casing had been left behind.
And they said the weapon used and the way in which the victims were killed was like something they had seen in professional hits carried out by drug cartels.
They also told Sousa that they found small yellow fibers on all three bodies, but they'd have to run tests on these fibers to know what they were.
Sousa didn't know what to make of any of that.
On the surface, nothing about the Yules led him to believe they were mixed up in drug smuggling or some criminal enterprise, but Sousa knew enough not to rule anything out.
So, as more members of his investigative team arrived, Souza sent them out to interview the Ewells' neighbors.
Then, Souza got word from his boss that Dana Ewell was on his way to the sheriff's station with an FBI agent, and Souza needed to go see them.
Hey, it's Mr. Ballin. I'm excited to tell you about something special.
For the first time, my show, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, has joined forces with Redacted, Declassified Mysteries with Luke LaManna, to tell a story so complex it required our combined storytelling styles.
This special episode is called A Redacted Medical Mystery.
In it, unexplained symptoms after a routine surgery quickly unravel into something much darker, leading straight to classified government operations hidden for decades.
To listen and uncover the truth alongside us, head to either the Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries or Redacted show pages right now.
Or search for A Redacted Medical Mystery in the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
If you're fascinated by unexplained medical stories, well, stick around on Medical Mysteries.
Every week, we dive deep into cases that will leave you questioning everything you know about the human body.
And if government conspiracies are more your style, Redacted is your go-to for stories that unravel secrets never meant to see the light of day.
Remember, you can listen to both shows early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus.
Hey, it's Mr. Ballin. For the first time, my show, Medical Mysteries, has joined forces with Redacted for a special episode.
A Redacted Medical Mystery uncovers how routine surgery leads to classified government operations.
Listen now on the Medical Mysteries or Redacted feeds, or search A Redacted Medical Mystery wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey listeners, Mr. Ballin here. What if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories happening right now are all connected to what might be the biggest crime of our generation?
You know I'm always on the hunt for the most chilling and perplexing tales out there.
Well, I've discovered a new podcast that uncovers real-world mysteries unfolding right now. much like how another Ballin' Studios podcast, Redacted Declassified Mysteries, brings hidden government secrets to light, and it's called Lawless Planet.
Host Zach Goldbaum reveals how shocking tales of murder, coverups, and mysterious deaths are all part of something bigger, the systematic destruction of our planet.
From activists who vanish in the Amazon to whistleblowers uncovering billion-dollar environmental crimes, these aren't just stories about the environment.
They're real-life thrillers about people caught between powerful forces willing to kill to keep their secrets buried.
Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can listen to new episodes of Flawless Planet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus.
Ads shouldn't be the most nerve-wracking part of true crime.
To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to amazon.com slash ballin.
That's amazon.com slash b-a-l-l-e-n. Dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today.
At around noon, so three hours after the bodies had been discovered, Dana sat with his girlfriend Monica and her father, the FBI agent, in a small office in the Fresno County Sheriff's Department.
Dana had called his parents' neighbor to ask him to check on the house.
After the neighbor found the bodies and called 911, he had called Dana back and told Dana he needed to come home right now.
But when Dana asked what was going on, the neighbor just kept saying over and over that he just needed to come home.
Right after that, Dana had found Monica, and they called Monica's dad, the FBI agent.
Dana said he knew something had to be really wrong, even if the neighbor wouldn't say what it was.
And so using his law enforcement contacts, Monica's dad found out what had happened, and he had called ahead to the Fresno Sheriff's Department to let them know that he and Dana would be there soon.
Then Dana, Monica, and her dad had flown to Fresno and headed right to the Sheriff's Department.
In the office, Monica held Dana's hand tight.
Dana hadn't heard all of the details, but he knew his parents and his sister were dead.
Detective Souza and Deputy Curtis walked into the office fresh from the crime scene.
Souza told Dana right away how sorry he was about what had happened.
In a quiet voice, Dana asked if there was anything he could do to help.
And Souza said, well, you know, I know your father was a wealthy businessman.
Do you know if maybe he had any enemies in the corporate world?
Dana looked up in surprise and then looked at his girlfriend and then over at her father.
And then he looked up at Souza and said, as far as he knew, his dad did not have any enemies.
They talked a while longer, and any time Dana had questions about the investigation process, he would look to Monica's dad for help.
Monica's dad and Sousa both explained that it could take a while to figure out exactly what had happened.
So Dana said he would stay with his uncle, who lived close by, in case the police needed anything else from him.
Sousa thanked them all for coming in and said he'd be in touch soon.
But the following day, Dana would reach out to Sousa and he would tell him that he really needed to speak to the police again.
And when Sousa and Dana met for the second time in that same small office at the sheriff's department, Dana said he had not been completely honest the day before because he did not want to upset his girlfriend or his girlfriend's father.
Sousa was a little thrown off by this, but he said he understood and then he asked Dana to tell him anything that might help police in their investigation.
Dana told Sousa that his father, Dale, did have one enemy that he was aware of, and his name was Frank Lamb, the man who had mentored his father and who had owned the airplane business before handing it over to Dale.
Detective Souza thanked Dana for coming back in and for being honest with him.
And later that day, Souza discovered that Frank Lamb had not just walked away from his company in the 1970s and sold it to Dale.
It turned out Frank had been busted in a federal drug trafficking case.
And when he got sent to prison for three years, Dale had swooped in and taken the company out from under him.
A few days after the murder, Souza and Curtis went to meet Frank at his house.
Frank, who was very soft-spoken and polite, quickly welcomed the investigators inside.
Frank said he'd read about the deaths of Dale and his family, and regardless of whatever bad blood had existed between them, Frank was sad to hear about what had happened.
Souza and Curtis pressed Frank about his connection to known drug smugglers that had landed him in prison back in the 1970s.
Frank said he had no connection to any drug runners and that he had nothing to do with Dale's murder.
Then he smiled at Souza and said, you know, Dale was very selfish and a very hard guy to work with, so I wouldn't be surprised if Dale had made a lot of people angry over his career.
Souza and Curtis left Frank's house with not much more to go on than what they had arrived with.
Souza didn't necessarily trust Frank, but the idea that Frank had waited 20 years to exact some kind of revenge on Dale didn't seem right to Souza.
Still, there were details at the crime scene that made it look like the murders could have been carried out by a hitman from a drug cartel.
So Sousa didn't want to totally dismiss Frank as a suspect.
But later that week, Sousa and Curtis made a discovery that seemed even more bizarre than the idea that the Ewells were connected to a drug smuggling operation.
They found out that Glee had once worked for the CIA.
Souza reached out to the CIA, but the CIA was not forthcoming with many details.
All Souza learned was that Glee had been a Spanish translator in South America for the CIA over 30 years earlier.
So all of a sudden, Souza and his team wondered if Glee had been the target, and if the murders were somehow retribution for something she'd been involved in during her time in the agency.
And that information about Glee's past somehow got out and the media jumped all over it.
Pretty soon, there were tabloid-style stories about the murdered millionaires with possible connections to international drug cartels and the CIA.
With all this media attention, the spotlight got even brighter on the Fresno Sheriff's Department, and Dana and other members of the Ewell family and some friends started to publicly question if Souza and his team were really up to the task here.
Dana got so frustrated with the lack of progress and the crazy rumors swirling around about his family that he publicly compared Souza and Curtis to Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street, the kids' show.
Dana thought these two would never find the person who had killed his parents and his sister.
Souza and his team tried to block out the noise and just stay focused on their investigation.
And as they continued to turn over all the evidence in front of them, they realized that despite the possible links to drug cartels and the CIA, Souza came to believe that the case might be a lot simpler than that.
The Ewells were rich, and their house had been ransacked.
But all the families in their neighborhood were rich too, and no other homes had been hit.
So Sousa wanted to focus on people who would have known how wealthy the Ewells were, and who had a direct connection to them.
But when Souza and his team shifted their investigation in this direction, it became clear that anyone who went to school with Dana would have known about his family's money.
Because not only did Dana walk around campus in expensive Armani suits, but his college newspaper had also done a story about him.
And in that story, Dana had talked a lot about the success of his father's business and his family's wealth.
So Souza and his team reached out to some of Dana's friends at Santa Clara University, and a few of them said there was one person who police really needed to talk to, a recent graduate named Joel Radovich.
They all said Joel was a loner and kind of a strange guy, and that he had always seemed a little obsessed with Dana.
On May 8th, almost three weeks after the murders, Souza drove two and a half hours from Fresno to Santa Clara to meet Joel Radovich.
And when Souza had talked to Joel on the phone to arrange this meeting, he just got an odd feeling about him.
Joel said he did not want police to come to his mother's house, so he would go to the motel where Souza was going to be staying.
But that wasn't really what had grabbed Souza's attention.
Before Souza had hung up, Joel asked him if he was going to be arrested.
Sousa had told Joel that, no, I really just want to talk to you.
But Sousa did think it was very odd that someone would jump to the conclusion that they were being arrested right off the bat.
Outside the motel, Sousa saw Joel pull into the parking lot in his black Honda CRX car.
Joel got out of the car and began walking over to Sousa.
Joel was 22 years old with bleached blonde hair.
He wore a baggy long sleeve shirt and baggy jeans.
Souza introduced himself and then led Joel to a small motel room and then they both sat down at a table that was pushed up against the wall.
And before Souza could even ask a question, Joel asked again if he was going to be arrested.
A look of surprise came across Souza's face and he asked why Joel was so worried about that.
Joel said that he'd actually been arrested years earlier for stealing furniture from a dorm at Santa Clara University.
And since then, he said the Santa Clara police were always harassing him.
Souza told Joel that he didn't have anything to do with the Santa Clara police or the stolen furniture.
But Souza made a note that Joel had just admitted to having committed a robbery in the past.
Souza asked Joel how he knew Dana. Joel said they had met in the dorm and hung out a few times, but that was really it.
Joel was a couple of years ahead of Dana in college so they weren't really close and Joel said he had not kept in touch with Dana or really anybody from school since he had graduated a year earlier.
Then Sousa asked Joel where he had been on Easter Sunday.
Joel immediately looked up at the ceiling like he was trying to remember something and then he looked down and he said that he'd actually been at a paint and body shop getting some work done on his car.
After chatting for a bit longer, Souza finally smiled and thanked Joel for driving all this way out to the motel to meet him, and then Joel got up and walked out of the motel.
But right after Joel was gone, Souza got in touch with members of his team.
He couldn't put his finger on it, but he thought Joel was hiding something.
He wasn't sure the kid was a killer, but he was almost positive Joel knew more than he was saying, so Souza wanted to learn as much about him as he could.
It would take months for the sheriff's department to get everything in place, but eventually they got clearance to conduct full-time surveillance on Joel.
And what police learned from that surveillance operation, and from digging deeper into Joel's life, convinced Souza the investigation was on the right track.
But Sousa's process was methodical and slow, and months went by without any new information getting out to the public.
So Dana and other people on the outside thought the cops just weren't doing anything.
And as the investigation stretched into months and then years, even Monica's dad, the FBI agent, questioned the Fresno Sheriff's Department's techniques.
But Souza, Curtis, and the rest of the team just kept blocking out the public attacks.
They were confident they had the killer in their sights, but they wanted to make sure their case was airtight before they moved in.
In early March of 1995, almost three years after the murders, Souza, Curtis, and local police officers approached a TGI Friday's restaurant in a town just outside of Los Angeles.
Souza went around back to where he had a car waiting, and Curtis and the others headed inside.
The music was loud inside and the place was packed and Curtis was surprised this was where the investigation had finally led.
But he and Sousa were sure that the bartender working at Friday's that night was the one person who could bring the Yule murder case to a close.
Curtis weaved around a few tables and moved out of the way of the server, but he never took his eyes off the bartender.
And the bartender eventually looked up and saw Curtis coming his way.
The bartender immediately began scanning around the room like he was looking for his exit, but he could tell there was just no way he could make a run for it.
So Curtis and the other cops walked up to the bartender and told him they needed to talk.
The bartender got a look on his face like he knew he'd been caught.
Then police led him out through the kitchen to a parking lot behind the restaurant and they put him in the car where Sousa was waiting for him.
And when Sousa was done talking to this bartender, police would finally know who had killed Dale, Glee, and Tiffany and how they had done it.
Based on information provided by the bartender, evidence found at the murder scene, and details from interviews carried out during the investigation, here is a reconstruction of what police believe happened the day someone murdered the Ewell family on April 19th, 1992.
On the night of April 18th, so the day before the murders, The killer watched steam rise from their shower.
While the hot water ran, the killer stepped into the shower and covered their body in shaving cream.
Then they reached down with their right hand, grabbed a disposable razor from the side of the shower, and ran the blade over the hair on their left forearm.
A few minutes later, they rinsed the razor off under the hot water, they bent down, and started shaving the hair on their left leg.
The process took a long time, but eventually the killer had removed all of their body hair except for their eyebrows and the hair on their head.
After they were done, they stepped out of the shower and dried off.
Before sunrise on April 19th, the following morning, the killer got dressed in all black, wore a knit hat to cover the hair on their head, and slipped on a pair of latex gloves.
The killer walked outside and put a large backpack as well as an unloaded semi-automatic 9mm gun in the backseat of the car.
Then the killer drove to the Ewells neighborhood.
When they arrived, they drove past the Ewell's house and parked their car a few blocks away.
They grabbed the backpack and the gun, got out of the car, closed the door, and moved quickly through the darkness to the Ewell's house.
Once the killer got there, they walked around to the backyard that was surrounded by a low cinderblock fence.
They dropped their bag and the gun into the backyard and then climbed over the fence, they grabbed their things, and then ran to a small shed in the backyard and stepped inside.
The killer had studied everything about the house and they knew there was a spare key on the floor of the shed.
So they pulled a flashlight out of their bag, they found the key, they grabbed it, and then darted across the yard towards the back door.
The killer unlocked the door and walked inside.
The house was dark, but the killer found their way to Dale and Glee's bedroom.
They turned on the light, opened their backpack, and pulled out a large plastic sheet and unrolled the sheet across the floor.
Then the killer put their gun down on the plastic sheet, they walked across the room to a jewelry box, they emptied it and put the stolen jewelry in their backpack.
The killer then sat down on the plastic sheet, they reached into their backpack again and pulled out ammunition as well as a homemade silencer made with PVC pipe and several tennis balls that had been cut in half.
The killer loaded their gun and attached the homemade silencer to it.
Then they sat there on the plastic sheet and waited patiently for someone to come home.
Several hours later, at about 5 p.m., the killer heard the garage door open.
The killer felt butterflies in their stomach and a jolt of nervous energy.
They grabbed their gun, they ran down the hall, and crouched down in a room that was across from the kitchen.
The killer could hear a door open and then also Glee and Tiffany talking.
The killer tried to control their breath and told themselves to stay calm and just wait for the right moment.
Then Tiffany walked past the killer in the hall and went into the kitchen.
The killer immediately sprung up from their hiding spot, walked down the hall after her, and then pointed the gun into the kitchen and fired.
The bullet hit Tiffany in the back of the head.
Tiffany's drink flew from her hand, blood splashed onto the walls and floor, and she fell face down.
Tiffany had died almost instantly. The killer heard Glee say something from another room, so they spun around in the hall.
Then Glee came around the corner and saw the killer.
Glee screamed, she turned, and started to run away, but the killer fired off three shots in her direction, and Glee stumbled into the office nearby.
The killer ran down the hall to the office and saw Glee lying on her side and bleeding, but she was still breathing, so the killer aimed and shot Glee just below the eye.
The killer was breathing fast now. They walked away from Glee's body and went to hide in the room near the kitchen where they tried to calm down and got ready to wait some more.
About 30 minutes later, the killer heard the garage door open again.
The sound of the door had made them tense up and so they stood and raised their gun and got ready for the next killing.
The killer heard Dale walk into the house, and then when Dale walked down that hallway right past the killer, the killer stepped out of their hiding place, raised their gun, and shot Dale in the back of the neck.
Dale immediately crumpled to the floor and newspapers he'd picked up from the front yard scattered all around him.
Dale died in the hallway before ever seeing the bodies of his wife and daughter.
The killer walked forward, kneeled down, and got a close look at Dale to make sure he really was dead.
Satisfied, the killer grabbed Dale's wallet out of his pants pocket, slipped Dale's cash and credit cards into their own pockets, and then dropped the wallet back on the floor.
Then the killer rushed through the house, emptying drawers and cabinets, knocking stuff off of tables, and trying to make the scene look like a random burglary as much as possible.
Then the killer ran to the main bedroom, rolled up their plastic sheet, and put it in their backpack.
Then they walked out of the house through the backyard, put the key back where they had found it in the shed, and climbed over the fence away from the property.
The killer did their best to move fast through the neighborhood without drawing any attention to themselves.
They made it back to their car, they hopped in, and they sped away.
A few minutes later, they pulled onto the highway and left Fresno behind.
When they finally made it home, they sat down on their bed and waited for the phone to ring, because they knew Dana Ewell would be in touch soon.
Joel Radovich, the young man Souza had never trusted, murdered Dale, Glee, and Tiffany.
But Joel had carried these murders out at Dana Ewell's request.
It would turn out that despite what Joel had told Sousa, he and Dana were close friends.
In fact, some people said they were almost inseparable.
And according to some of their classmates, Dana and Joel seemed to lack any sense of morality.
They had convinced themselves there was no difference between right and wrong, and so any action, even murder, could be justified.
And Dana wanted to murder his parents and his sister because with all of them gone, he would inherit $8 million and his father's company.
Dana didn't just want to follow in his father's footsteps.
He wanted to replace his father. In fact, in the story Dana's college newspaper had written about him, Dana claimed to be the brains behind his father's successful airplane business.
And he even implied he was running the company while going to college.
So Dana had offered Joel $4 million of the inheritance he was sure to get if Joel would kill his family.
Dana had given Joel a layout of the house and said he would leave a key in the shed for him and told him how to disable the alarm system.
Joel had accepted the deal. Then he bought a book called Hitman, a technical manual for independent contractors, to help him plan the perfect murders.
The book had led Joel to shave off all of his body hair so he wouldn't leave any hair behind at the crime scene, which could then be used as DNA evidence.
And the book suggested using a gun and a homemade silencer that could not be traced back to the shooter.
But Joel needed help with that part of the plan, so he had turned to his good friend, the TGI Friday's bartender, who was an avid gun collector.
The bartender had given Joel a semi-automatic 9mm and he had helped Joel build the silencer.
The tennis balls used in the silencer had left these strange yellow fibers on all the bodies.
Then, after the murders, the bartender got the gun back, broke it apart, and buried the pieces in different places.
And while that was all happening, Dana Ewell had called his father's office and he had talked to his girlfriend's FBI agent father, all to throw off suspicion and to make people believe he, the son, was truly worried about his family and wanted justice for them.
And Dana's tactics had worked for a little while.
Because it turned out that Sousa was almost positive Joel Radovich had murdered the Ewells not long after they had met in the motel.
But it took some serious digging before the investigators became convinced that Dana Ewell was the person behind his family's murder.
And putting all the pieces together and getting an airtight case against Dana took a long time.
But finally, surveillance on Joel had led police to the TGI Friday's bartender, and after they cornered him at work, the bartender told police he knew everything about the murders and he admitted his part in them.
Then he led police to the place where he had buried the barrel of the gun that was used in the murders, and he agreed to testify against Joel and Dana in court.
The bartender was ultimately granted immunity for his testimony, and as of 2023, he works as an attorney in California.
As for Joel and Dana, they were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Dale, Glee, and Tiffany are all buried next to each other in Fresno.
The epitaph on all three of their headstones reads, together forever.
Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast.
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