A Dark Past /// Part 1 /// 114 | Forensic Files

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[Music] this is true crime garage and this is the case of a dark past [Music] what if you thought you knew someone's
secrets what if you had learned about someone's past a very dark past [Music] and you suspected that person of murder
multiple murders [Music] but this person this evil dangerous person is not in prison
he is not tucked away Behind Bars Society is not safe from this killer and you and I are not safe because this
monster is still walking the streets maybe he's living in your neighborhood where you work where your kids go to
school you know his secrets what would you do would you act on what you know what if you could not just turn him in
what if the police knew what you knew but they had no proof would you confront the man
would you confront a killer how close would you get [Music] we're talking with Gina frenzel a
licensed private investigator in the state of Texas Gina can you take us through your typical work week oh
oh betting everything that we have to do the most common cases that that we work
are what we call domestic cases you know cheating spouses child custody those types of things
that's kind of our cash flow to keep the the business going and then I am one of the few that Branch out and
try to volunteer for missing persons families that can't afford cases uh to be you know to hire a pi to work
on cases especially missing persons I like the cold cases the best I like the historical aspect of
it but commonly I mean those are few and far between if if families have the money they'll come to us you know ask
for the services but most families don't have a lot of money and that's part of the reason unfortunately why they end up
being cold cases so I try to choose a case or two during the year to work on and reach out to a family usually it's a
Texas case because I can get a lot of the work done you know locally but sometimes like
right now I'm working on a missing person case out of Washington state for a family the case that we're going to be
talking about it goes back a ways I believe it starts in 1962. how did you get involved in this this is
and I was traveling with a colleague of mine and I decided to download some stuff on my Kindle to read
you know because you have down time and and during during the conference there's
down time and also and I'm a big reader so I'm looking I kind of blame the whole
thing on Amazon I'll be honest with you because I'm looking at my suggested reading list now
God forbid somebody uh you know pick up my Kindle and look at my reading list they would probably need therapy when
they're done I read all true crime stories the only uh fictional author that I read is John Grisham the rest of
them are all true crime and and there's no filter on anything I'm pretty uh morbid when it comes to my reading list
so Amazon of course clues in on that and at the very bottom there was this 99 cent book
and it was called gone and I was like oh 99 Cents I'm cheap too so yeah I'll take
the 99 cent book you know and it's a short read I think it's like 30 pages or something this is the book Gone by Jerry
Mitchell and it's about Felix Vail who is a suspected serial killer so on and it was just fascinating and I'm one
of these people that something is really interesting to me I don't just read the book and be like oh
that was cool and lay the book down I get online and I start researching and I want to know the ups and downs and lefts
and rights of every little detail about it you know and this guy I don't know what it was there was
something with Annette and and which was one of the missing women that really just connected with me and so I just
started researching it well I I'm still in Dallas and I Google his name and it pops up that he is
living in Canyon Lake well that's like an hour and a half from where I live so on my way home I just kind of cruised
through the area and saw you know being a private investigator you get the privilege of
you know databases proprietary databases and so I just ran his name through there
and figured out where he lived and drove by and and of course he was outside at the time it was kind of funny
he yelled at me for driving by that was an interesting little interaction and then I get home and about a week
later I thought man this is this guy is still out there obviously there's a question of his guilt or
innocence I wonder if Jerry Mitchell would need any help because Jerry's in Mississippi
so I just sent him an email and I offered my services I just said hey this is me this is what I do
I'm literally in the guy's backyard um if you need any you know research work done or anything like that I'd be
happy to help because I do want to help the families get closure and there was a fire on the property
that he was living on it had nothing to do with Felix at all okay so on the property where Felix veiled the
suspected serial killer lives there had been a fire previously that had caused some damage and
in Fire and that's how I got involved and then I had zero intention of talking to Felix at all you know I treated that
just like I would any other case and your your suspect or your prime target you usually either never talk to them or
they're the very last person in the chain of investigation that you talk to um like at the very end of your
investigation that's when you you know kind of blow your wads so to speak and you because once you talk to them it's
over everybody knows that you're talking to everybody else and you know the whole
thing and and if you talk to that person sometimes it Spooks them and they take off so you're in the neighborhood you're
talking with fire investigators you're almost pretending to be investigating this fire but you have no intention of
speaking with the owner of the property Felix Vail I had zero intention of talking to Felix
but being the smart ass that I am I was talking to Jerry on the phone and I said
well I'm just coming up you know empty I'm not really getting anywhere with this fire thing and I said I'm just down
the road from where Felix lives I'm just gonna go knock on his door and I laughed
I literally laughed and Jerry comes back and said oh don't worry about that he won't he won't talk to you he doesn't
talk to anybody he doesn't even open the gate he wouldn't even talk to law enforcement I tried nobody he will not
talk to anybody of course because he's hiding from a murder investigation in my mind I'm like oh really you want to bet
so I took it as a personal challenge and just drove over there and his gate was open I
think if his gate wasn't open I probably would have never got never got with him you know as far as
visiting or anything like that but his gate happened to me unlocked he probably regrets that but I just walked in and
knocked on his door and then it went on from there you read a story telling you that this guy is probably a multiple
murder you suspect him of killing at least three people now you decide to go to his property you're on the property
inside the gate and you're just gonna knock on the door what is the interaction like with
with the serial killer with with the suspected serial killer oh [ __ ] oh [ __ ] it's the prime target you know
it's the suspect in the case and anybody no matter how long you've been investigating or if you've never
been in that situation before you're going to be nervous and it's it's a good thing because it keeps you alert driving
over there I'm thinking to myself what am I going to say to this guy to get him to talk to me I mean
obviously if I just walk up and say hey I read a book and read that you killed three women possibly and obviously he's
not going to talk to me so I needed a story I needed a cover story so I used the fire on the property and said that I
was investigating the fire and technically it wasn't a total lie but you know it it morphed from there and I
had my camera with me because I was using it for another case that I was working so I just got out with my camera
bag and told them I said hey the insurance company is investigating this buyer even though it happened a few
years ago they've reopened the investigation they want me to come out and take pictures because there's this
big concrete slab where this house burned down and there's still Scorch marks on the slab so
and then a burnt tree you know and just kind of weird stuff so I said they wanted me to just kind of photograph
everything so it was about a 20 minute interaction and it was rainy and cold and and
he was kind of put off in the beginning you know he didn't want to mess with it and rightfully so I mean if somebody
came to my house I would probably wouldn't want to mess with it either you know but he eventually about five or ten
minutes into the conversation kind of let down his guard a little bit and we were walking around and I'm snapping all
these random useless photos he said something during that first 20 minutes that he he spoke about a girlfriend not one
of the three women but a girlfriend that actually I met later on that was I guess they had a falling out obviously
and and he had said something along the lines of personal response nothing significant but when I left there I
thought to myself that he he let down his guard enough to allow me to come back for a second time to see if
I can get him to really talk to me and because the whole the whole first part of the conversation he was just like you
know the attitude of take your pictures and get off my property but as soon as we started getting chatty and he kind of
let his guard down I knew I could go back at least one more time during this first interaction with Felix were you
recording your conversations I was recording the first one um I was wearing the sundress because it
was late March early April and it was it started out as a hot day of course it turned chilly in that evening but uh so
I wasn't dressed prepared to go and talk to him but it was a sometimes in the industry
you have to dress a certain way for certain situations and another case that I was working on
there was a gentleman that I needed to talk to and the only way I knew he was going to
talk to me is if I showed a little cleavage for lack of a better way of putting it and so I dressed that way
well if I would have hindsight I would have never dressed that way going to talk to Felix in the first place however
it probably helped but the problem with that is usually I will put the recorder that I used I
would put down in my bra and I didn't have one on that day and I'm like ah crap you know what am I going to do
where I got to record this this could be the only conversation I ever have with this man it has to be recorded and I'm
wearing and so my next option usually is my boot well I wasn't wearing boots I was wearing sandals so it promptly went
down into the front of my panties and sat there the whole time while I was walking around with them picked it up
great you know I was that's the first time I'd ever used that spot to hide my recorder but it worked I was a little
worried and I thought okay if I sit down you know because it's just a little Olympus digital recorder and I thought
if I sit down it could very well push a button I've had that happen before and it stops it and it could mess up the
recording you know there's all kinds of things that could happen but in that first interaction I didn't
sit down I didn't have a reason to sit down so I was uh grateful for that it goes better than you had expected better
than planned now you're back in your car you're driving away you probably start to feel some that you're safe again you
can shake off the nervousness but now it's time to call Jerry the author of Gone and let him know that that you just
you just spoke to Felix and not only that but Felix went into this personal information and now Jerry just kind of
brushes this off but you realize the importance of this because Felix has left the door open for another visit I
said I'm going to try to go back and he was like you're crazy and I was like yeah I am and nice to meet you you know
I mean he was new so he didn't know and uh I said I'm gonna try to go back and see what he does another day so then I
go home and your adrenaline is just you know when you're I've never jumped out of an airplane I
never would I'd rather sit in a shed with a serial killer than jump out of an airplane I'll be real honest with you
but those people that jump out of airplanes you know that that do that for the adrenaline rush it's the same type
of feeling I can imagine and but then when when it comes down you just crash you know I swept it off like literally
10 hours and I never sleep that long and when I got up the next day I called Jerry and I was like okay I've got to
figure out a plan and he said how are you going to go back you have no reason to go back what are you going to tell
them I said I'm going to tell them that my pictures were [ __ ] and I need to take
better pictures you've developed a plan to get back there and talk to Felix again but now speaking with a suspected
multiple murder once is is nerve-wracking but to go back there a second time is just crazy you know I
didn't I didn't know what I was going to be up against so you prepare your body your physical body like you're going to
be on surveillance for the whole night which you know you load up on protein you stop drinking water you know so you
don't have to go to the bathroom you know the whole thing and which was a good move on my end because he didn't
have a bathroom and uh I told Jerry it's about you know two o'clock in the afternoon or
something that's okay I'm going in I'll just leave me be I'll talk to you when I'm
done I was in there for six hours talking to him second time six hours it was crazy so now you're in Felix's
run-down house it's like a storage shed almost and Felix he's elderly at this point correct yeah he was I think 73 72
at the time yeah but on your first visit you didn't go into his home I still asked in a jacket but I didn't get a
good look and it's a storage shed it's actually a storage shed that he lives in like a two-room storage shed it wasn't
very big at all probably the whole thing was probably 500 square feet you know yeah it sounds like he lives like the
captain I and I mean the guy had serious Bo it was horrible it was gagging but he's very
he's very neat and clean in a sense his body was not clean but his stuff was very well I mean almost to the point of
OCD you know very well organized and clean and everything had its own little place and compartmentalized it was very
interesting so not a home at all this is not a house at all this is a storage shed does he have electricity does he
have running water no know that he had water and electricity there so you have like this concrete slab where This Old
House was there's nothing there anymore it's I don't know a half an acre and then right behind it was a storage shed
well the storage shed still existed so he converted that into a glorified bedroom
and there was electricity to the storage shed but of course there's no running water so he would just go to the
bathroom in the yard that's easy enough if you're doing a number one but what about a number two pretty sure he would
just dig a and take a crap in the yard I'm not I'm not kidding um he he was like that you know
and so but while I was there in that six hours he offered me wine and I'd take it I
mean you have to in those situations and I didn't want to but I I did and and I thought to myself okay milk this because
hey you don't want to obviously get you know drunk or anything and two you don't
want to have to go to the bathroom and at one point he said I'm going to step out and go to the bathroom and I
said okay and he said do you need to go and I was like no I'm good and he said well I can help you with that if you
need to and I'm thinking to myself no you can't but thanks for the offer you know if I would have had to have gone I
still would have done it anyway you know your options repeat your pants or go out
in the yard and have a serial killer watch you pee whatever I'm gonna go squat in the yard well you're nervous on
that first visit but during the second visit I mean are you scared at all because now you're inside the guy's home
I don't know if I terrified but I was I was anxious and nervous and a little scared because
it the main thing was when you sit in that storage shed at the time there was only one way in
and one way out and that was at one door and he was in between me and that door and so
there are double doors that opened but they were blocked with boxes and crates and things like that you know you think
that's of course it's in my nature when I walk into a building I always look at this Escape Route you know how am I
going to get out of here the fastest way possible and so of course that's running through my
mind the whole time and then I realized I mean he's he's back in the day he could easily kick
anybody's ass I'm sure he worked out a lot he he tries to eat healthy and he was probably pretty strong however
I probably outweigh him by about 75 pounds you know I'm a big girl so I thought to myself okay this guy's 73 and
yeah he's he still works out he's still eating healthy in the whole thing but I could probably take him
enough to get out of the building if I needed to yeah because this guy could just get extremely violent very quickly
I mean you have to watch his mannerisms try to pick up on on what he's doing on his character what read into him is this
guy just some Rampage you know if I said the wrong thing he's just gonna snap and
you know try to kill me right there or what's what's the situation so that's always in the back your mind but then
about halfway through that first long meeting that six hour meeting um I just was pissed off
and your demeanor changes a little well what did he do to get you pissed off you
know I was at minutia and but you're when you're under cover you're in a position to where you can't
just be like hey dude shut up and get to the point you know you can't do that especially with Felix of all people you
cannot do that because he'll shut down and you're done and that's it and I wanted to leave that door wide open
because we didn't know how big our window was good what was some characteristics that you were picking up
from him I and on top of that he's used what he perceives as his Superior mental state
of everybody as the way he views himself to take the lives of these women and that just it just pissed me off you know
so my demeanor changed a bit I had to keep it intact but my demeanor changed a bit about halfway through and
then from then forward it was just like I'm on a mission and this son of a [ __ ]
is going to talk to me whether he wants to or not you know type of attitude yeah
because after all of these years we're talking about a guy that was married twice he's intimately involved with
another woman we have this situation where the first wife is found dead and the other two are just simply missing
you know he gave me great detail about his relationship with Annette just a pretty good detail about his
relationship with Sharon he never really talked about Mary at all um just very very briefly you know in
this and all of like 90 of all this information came in that six hour time time frame that that that meeting but he
never would say uh my lover Annette my wife Annette he never would say that he would just say this girl you know the
girl I met I mean he gave me detail from how they met all the way to just kind of fizzled out and and even
though he's talking about his past relationships he's not telling you what you need to know what happened to these
women at some point during that comfort conversation I think okay this is my this is where I'm going to get my
Smoking Gun how do I you know ask him questions without grilling him so to speak plus I have to be oblivious
to all this information he can't know that I know everything already he's telling me the last thing you can say to
a man like this is well what happened to her because that projects a a an accusatory tone towards him I could say
it to you all day long you'd be like well what happened to her was XYZ not with him what do you mean what happened
to her are you saying I did something to her that's how he would react and now you're walking a very fine line because
you can't ask him specific questions very direct questions without him shutting down you still need information
and all he's willing to say is that these relationships well they just fizzled out I said well do you ever see
her again this was the weirdest this is the single most strangest thing that has
ever happened to me in my entire life ever it's this moment when I said to him oh that's sad it sounds like you really
you know had a deep love for her do you ever see her anymore and I knew damn good and well he didn't
because you know he murdered her but there's no doubt in my mind but his you know how they talk about oh
so-and-so's eyes just turned black and their demeanor just changed in an instant the whole thing and I always
thought to myself okay whatever you know I'm I'm very skeptical I don't trust anybody and I'm just like whatever
whatever I saw that happen in that very moment and that was the only time that I
was truly for the lack of a better term terrified in his presence because he was he was standing up for
whatever reason I can't remember and I was sitting down so I'm immediately more vulnerable in the physical ratio and
I said Oh I thought to myself I'm going to provoke him and get him to talk about
the end of their relationship because like I said he just kind of Fizzles out oh we just went our separate ways okay
what a great love story that is and you know all the detail I had to hear Do you
ever see her anymore and has he turned to me and mind you he's like four feet away from me turns to me and he steps
towards me when he turned his eyes were black and he's got blue eyes you've seen the
pictures he's got blue light his eyes were black and he took a step towards me and he was
just no no I don't see her anymore and he immediately starts talking about something else and it made me nervous to
her I was almost physically shaking I was like oh my God this is this is the part where I die all right I don't have
time to text I'm gonna die and here we go [Music] foreign [Music] we're talking with Gina frenzel a
private investigator in the state of Texas who is investigating the suspected serial killer of Felix Vale and Gina who
do you believe is his suspected victims uh in technical terms I think his first victim
his story Felix's story is that they were out on the boat and he had a stump their trot line fishing you know
at night like at dusk and he hits a stump and she falls in water and he Dives down to find her he
can't find her and you know her body's found three days later but I think what happened based off of
I based this information off of what what he's told me what other people have said that you
know had first-hand information from Felix and then things that I've seen and read
be it in his journals or you know letters that he had kept and you know just all the pieces of the puzzle I
think what happened was that they went he took her out on the boat made her go out on the boat with him she
didn't she was terrified of water at night and um took her out there strangled her hit her in the head I
think he might have hit her in the head first with one of the oars put her into the boat drug her in and put her into
the boat drove out to where he dumped her body which was a couple miles down the river
put her in the water and turn around left and if you look at the pictures of her
body coming out um I mean all of that there's so much that indicates that you know she's got a
head a head wound and her there's oil and stuff on her on the front part of her body
her her panties are actually pulled out of the back of her pants and but to me it just indicates you know I'm moving
somebody across and the docks that he that Shell Beach boat docks where he kept his boat
so many that was dark there were no there was no night light there or anything like this and I've I've talked
to several people that grew up in the area and knew the docs well and you know if your boat motor was
broken or whatever you just set them there on the dock and you'd work on it and there was oil and all kinds of
things you know just on the dock so it and it was clear that she had some kind of oily substance all over her the front
of her clothes so also the scarf around her neck um back in the day of course the ladies
Ward scarf and they would wear it over their hair to keep their hair you know from blowing in the wind but it was
shoved three or four inches four inches down into her throat so you don't get that from accidentally
drowning but what would be Felix's motivation for killing his wife she you know you know and
she thought she might have been pregnant again she was not turns out she was not she
had female problems that caused some issues that would mimic her being pregnant and
Felix is documented telling someone that he didn't want to have the first kid much less the second kid and
yeah I think his words where I fix that [ __ ] to where she'll never have another
kid you know that kind of thing you had mentioned to me that that Felix had some
mommy issues what did you mean about his his family and his mommy issues he in in
my undercover work with him he claims now keep in mind out of that six hours of just
dredging on about everything you know he's very Transcendental Meditation type of
product of the 60s you know just your stereotypical person like that well so out of that six hours probably four
of it is him talking about all this just crap that just but you have to endure it and during the
course of that he's talking about he claims to have you know he he asked me what the
earliest memories I have and you know I said I don't know if you're four years old I can't remember and he claims to
have memories of him in the womb he says that he remembers as a newborn breastfeeding and he talks about he's
fascinated with breastfeeding and even through his journals it's just weird and he talks about breastfeeding on his mom
and playing with her nipples to the point of stimulating her sexually and it's just
it's just weird but then you have of course there's there's the all the siblings and he's
the second son or the I'm sorry he's the first son and his brother I can't remember the age difference but
he's got his younger brother Ronnie and they're close you know they stay close but
apparently Felix was very very close to his mother in a bizarre way you know just in a weird way unnatural and of
course he touched on that you know with me what I just explained to you but then
throughout his adult life you know it was I got the impression that his mother was oh Felix can do no
wrong you know Felix is he will he is the perfect child he is whatever he does wrong mommy's gonna
cover up for him too or turn a blind eye so to speak now I'm not saying that he she knew that he did something and
she hid the truth I don't think that was the case I think what it was is she probably thought okay he's done
something poorly and or you know he's done something deceived deceiving and so we're just gonna act
like it didn't happen and we're not gonna bring it up and we're not going to talk about it of course you have to
attribute some of that to the generation too but all these years of course we didn't
learn this until like a year later but all these years he has all these journals and the man writes down every
freaking thing he's done everything I'm not kidding you he writes down everything
but the journal start January 1st of 1985. you know and that disappeared in 1984. so where are the rest of the
journals well then later we learned that he kept them in the Attic of his mom's house well you can't tell me his mom
didn't obviously she knew he kept things up there and there was probably a pretty
strong chance that she might have read a journal or two throughout the years who
knows but he he led such a nomadic lifestyle that his prize possessions that he didn't have with him always stayed at
his parents house what do you know and think about his second victim was was she a wife or a girlfriend Sharon was
his second victim and she Sharon Hensley and she was a girlfriend she's a long time term girlfriend but according to
Felix she took off in a boat sailed away with a couple at one point in a letter he wrote to her
mom she took off with John and Vanessa and then at another point he wrote in something else to
somebody else that he took off with uh another another name you know a couple but he took off with another name and
nothing is consistent except the fact that she was in a boat and she took off with this couple he
claimed that they both did pornography films I don't know that he obviously could
have performed in that kind of setting however I think she probably did she was a stripper and
I think that evolved into maybe one or two pornography films and I think what happened was sometime
at some point in 1973 they go to the Florida and to do pornography I mean he told me
that's what they did they went over there to do that and I think there was a different man I
think Vanessa is actually Sharon when he refers to Vanessa in these letters I think Vanessa is actually Sharon and
this guy John I think is probably somebody that she either was in the pornography industry with or met
somewhere along the way in in relation to that and I think his jealousy took over
because Mary obviously he offered her because he didn't he didn't want the kid responsibility and there was a life
insurance policy that he was able to collect partially clicked on with chairman there was no fiduciary
gain for her her to be dead and Felix is very possessive and very jealous and very controlling I think
what happened was John whoever this John guy is and Vanessa being Sharon started an intimate relationship and it
was probably okay at the beginning but then he gets insanely jealous and you're not going to be if you're not
going to be with me then you're not going to be with anybody I think he rented a boat I think he drove off the
coast of the keys and kill them both dump them in the ocean and came back that's what I think
honestly happened to her um her body will never ever ever be found I think she and I think
there is potentially a male victim associated with her so Felix's first wife is found dead he
claims she drowned in the river and but her body's found three days later and it's obvious that it's suspicious
circumstances then he has this other relationship with a girlfriend and the mother is looking for the girlfriend
because she disappears he claims that she took off with another couple they left out in the middle of the ocean but
Felix doesn't stop with the relationships there does he he he he has another suspected victim yes third
victim was a wife Annette craverville she was 15 when they met and they they dated and traveled around
they met in a garage sale in Houston Texas of all places they date for a while he convinces Mary to sign off
paperwork so she can marry him claiming that we're driving we're traveling around and I and I think Annette even
said in a letter to her mom at one stage you know if we have to get married because
he's traveling with a minor and we love each other just let us get married and and Mary Annette's mother says at that
point she said you know if I don't allow her to get married then I'm probably never gonna see her
again it was it got to one of those situations so she said okay y'all get married they get married
Feel It Felix is a pedophile plain and simple I have zero doubt based off of all the
information that I have gathered during the course of my investigation Felix is a pedophile
so that partially to me in my mind explains why he would be attracted to a 15 year old girl anyway she was not
you know today you look at 15 year old girls and you're like what are they what are they putting in their milk you know
they're developed and they're like the guy's the ass and the boobs and you you're thinking you're not 15. and that
was not like that she was very thin frame she did not have big breasts you know um almost a boyish type of figure
and I Felix preferred little boys over little girls in his pedophilia well so to me in my mind that explains
partially explains the attraction to the net but from the very beginning he knew about Annette
getting an inheritance when she was 18. her father was killed in a car crash in Mexico and she was his only child
and her mom and dad were divorced but he had a life insurance policy that paid to a net that she would get when
she was 18. and again Felix Felix never really held down a job hardly ever so with the First with
his first wife we see the motive of not wanting to have the child but there's also the financial gain of the insurance
policy collecting a portion of that we later learned that that money that he received he used zero dollars of that to
pay for his own wife's funeral he didn't pay for her funeral at all now we have this situation where he puts himself in
a relationship with a young girl that he believes is going to receive money when
she turns 18 and so he can he can foresee the financial gain here all always financial gain he knew from
the very beginning she was going to get this money and then he just planned his course you know
he never gave up they they met each other they separated you know she was in Oklahoma he goes back he goes to
Oklahoma to find her her mom says no she's not there he tracked her down she was over in Bernie of all places which
is between here and Canyon Lake between where I am in Canyon Lake it's a little community and she was at this private
school there he tracks her down he was after her her money the entire time and when she disappeared
I think there was about 40 or 50 000 that was unaccounted for and there's no doubt it ended up in his
pocket so they get married they travel around and when she turns I mean it's just like
clockwork when she turns 18 they convince her mom her mom had bought this house with a back apartment a garage
apartment so that they could fix it up and have income a residual income while they were living
up in Oklahoma well he convinces Annette to convince her mom to sign the house completely over to
Annette and her mom did her mom Mary said that it was all but a threat it was basically
turn it over else type of thing and she was very intimidated by the whole situation and it all was
coming from Felix so she does she signs it over to Annette because if the money if I understand right the the money some
of the money used to buy the house was from Annette's inheritance from her dad's life insurance policy and so that
was the idea was Mary said look you know she's young she's she's very artistic uh you know the whole starving artist
mentality I want to set her up in a situation to where she can have some residual income and still be free to
explore her artistic side and not have to worry about you know Financial issues so it was a smart move in the onset
so she she signs it over to Annette and then just within two or three months later Annette signs it over completely
100 percent to Felix and then two months later and that disappears so yeah I mean come on yeah where is she
what is his explanation for where she's gone what does what is his story and his
story is so inconsistent like completely inconsistent with her he said that she took off
on a Greyhound bus in St Louis they're off there so she could go pursue this boyfriend
in Mexico and then then another story was that he put they were in St Louis camping they were on this you know road
trip camping and uh she met two people at the bus station and she decided she just wanted to take off with them she
didn't want to be married to him anymore and he's like fine here you go here's your here's your money and your your
stuff you hit the road um he claims that she signed the house over to him as a love offering what was
his words for being um a father figure and a lover and a teacher you know just very everything
was very much I'm so great she loved me so much because I'm so awesome she gave me this house you know that kind of
mentality and then he was I so those are his stories on her that she she just took off and and they made
the agreement and that was one of the things he told me but he said it numerous times over the years that they
agreed to see where each other were 10 years later and meet up and say hey and have a cup of coffee type of deal well
that's what prompted me in in my meetings with him was to say oh have you all seen each other you know that's when
he you know turned black what do you think the real story is in Ray or the week that he said she took
off on the bus and that was the last time anybody saw her two weeks later a approximately two
weeks later they they being Felix in the net were down in Louisiana in Sulfur Louisiana or Lake Charles area at the
county fair with his family and they testified to that and so of course that story doesn't hold
water then what happened oh I don't know I just have my dates wrong well what happened was they go down there to stay
with his family and they go down there to stay with his family and go to this County Fair and
the whole thing and then they say hey we're going to take off and go camping for a day or two
and he's they're gone for three days and he comes back by himself and his niece I think it's his niece
one of the family members said that he was acting weird and he was eating meat and Felix was not a big meat eater now
not to say he was 100 I never eat meat no he would eat meat but he wouldn't like you know give me a
steak every day I'm a happy girl that's not how he was he would selectively eat meat very very few times in his life
okay they said that he came back and he was acting strange and he was eating meat and just just bizarre just bizarre
I think what happened was yeah they went camping I think you know she was already
18 it was time for him to move on he was tired of her he tired of her and he killed her and as more of it as a
sound my gut tells me I can't explain it I have no proof of this whatsoever my gut tells me he chopped her up he threw
her in a bayou somewhere where he knew there were alligators he knew the area very well he lived there when he was
married to Mary his first wife and her body will never be found again I think that's what happened to Mayor I
mean Annette I think that's what happened to Annette so what happens when he comes back he comes back and a few
weeks later Annette's Mother Mary Hey where's Annette where's Annette where's Annette and he's oh he starts
spinning off the story that she took off on the that's when she immediately missing
person and reporting to the police and what he's saying is not right Mary never Mary Craver never never once
thought her daughter took off from the very beginning like within weeks of her disappearance
he she always said Felix killed her and disposed of her and I know he did and he's lying about it and she's always
been just diligent about you know never giving up and and of course that's what brought it took
50 years but it got us to this stage now but there were some signs you know there
were some red flags that went up things that her mother had seen regarding the turmoil in their relationship
mom and she had gotten pregnant and he made her have an abortion he didn't want kids
and then she he he beat her up chokes her you know not choked her out obviously they had a fight she comes back and
stays with her mom in Oklahoma and then he comes up there to come get her and she reluctantly goes back with him I
think her term was Felix was the smartest man I've ever known and you know it's the Love of All loves you know
that kind of thing so that being said um there was there was the domestic violence in that
relationship and after the fact it wasn't until probably a year maybe two years later
after his arrest after Felix's arrest that we found women in fact right up until the trial we were
getting tips and we talked to all these people we found several women that that same thing he beat me up he slapped me
one woman said she he was choking her in the shower and her brother came in and saved her you know
um and this was all from from The Disappearance of no it was right it went anywhere from
1968 all the way up to like 1980 you know and though that time frame and a lot of it in California but but the the
interesting thing about it is fast forward to the house in Oklahoma that he has owned up until
2013. literally has owned all these years and used it as a rental and there's this nice couple living there a
young couple and all of a sudden there's this room up in the attic and it's always locked
padlocked and it's Felix's room I'm the landlord that's where I keep my tools and whatever just don't mess with my
stuff but this couple um had a free range of everything else well they decide they're going to buy the
house from him and this is interesting enough this is all taking place it's all coming out
at the same time I'm under cover with him before he gets arrested it's all happening at the same time and of course
I was unaware of it at the time but when you look back at the Timeline you see it
so Felix wants to own or Finance this house for this couple but what's in the room what's in the secret Felix room and
he said Hey I'm going to come up and I'm going to clean out that room and then you know I'll unlock it and the house is
yours so all the paperwork's done everything's done he goes up he gets his stuff he leaves and a few weeks later
the new owners of this house say hey we're going to go up in that room and clean out because he left some stuff
behind back in an old suitcase shoved up inside the suitcase is a is a bag and inside that bag is Annette's
clothing it's her belongings and it's all shoved in the suitcase and all shoved way back up and like tucked in
the corner of the eve of the house and they find it and they immediately call the police on
it and for the police to come and get it well at this point I I can't remember if he had been
arrested yet or not but they had heard the story about him and they're like whoa this is weird then when they see
this immediate red flag and the police come and get it well what is in this bag I'll tell you it's
it's a weekend bag first and foremost the most red flag of the whole bag is her birth control her birth control
is in the back okay I don't care who you are if you're taking off if you're whatever stage of life you're in as a
woman if you were on birth control because you're not going to have a kid and you're taking off you might leave
your shoes behind you're taking your birth control I'm going to tell you that right now
so her birth control's in there and there were three different forms of birth control okay
pill a sponge and a spermicide this girl was serious about not getting pregnant and from what I understand
the abortion rightfully so was probably one of the most horrible experiences you
know at that stage in her life so she didn't want to go through that again and she knew Felix didn't want kids so she
wasn't going to take the chance of getting pregnant so it's birth control swimming suit
a change of clothing and like a hat a pair of sandals I think I'm not sure some undergarments but
if I look at it as a female and I'm looking at that bag I say that is a weekend bag so my assumption on that is
if that was the bag that she had while they were down in Louisiana during the last time she was seen and he gets back
home after he kills her gets rid of her body goes back to his family's home stays there a night or two then goes
back home to Oklahoma cleaning out the car and he's like oh [ __ ] I got her bag I'm gonna shove it up
here in the corner and I'll take care of it later and he never did literally he totally
forgot about it because when he went up there he kept it padlocked this all these years
so when 30 years 40 years when he goes up there to get his stuff for the final time to turn the house completely over
to the new owners he forgets about that back and they find it stop [Music] all right
did you guys miss me do you miss me I'm still here I'm still here a lot of information there Captain
a lot of stuff covered regarding this Felix character and his past relationships
and talk about a creep factor I mean to be stuck in a shack with this guy that you believe has killed multiple women
and he's he's the thing between you and Freedom the door and she feels Gina feels like he wants some kind of
friendship or relationship with her and that's why he's allowed her in his home allowed her himself to open up and speak
with her and talk with her about his past and yet she she would fall right into his
victimology at that sense and if he were to slip or say the wrong thing or if she
were to act out of turn and ask the wrong question right well it could be lights out for Gina yeah like you said
either or I mean he could say something that he didn't want to say and now uh she has to die because of that all right
a lot more to dive into in part two of a dark past and for everything true crime
garage make sure you go to the website True Crime garage.com don't forget we have our pint glasses on there we have
T-shirts available old episodes bonus episodes available check those out as well I guess uh we'll see you tomorrow
yeah that's it for today we'll see you back in the garage tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't litter
thank you [Music]

A Dark Past /// Part 1 /// 114

Part 1 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

What if somehow you learned about someone's past? You know the secrets of a monster. What would you do? One murdered woman and two missing women all had one thing in common, they were married or had an intimate relationship with the same man. Tonight we chat with Private Investigator, Gina Frenzel. She got involved in the investigation of a serial killer but to do so she had to sit down with the monster.

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Brief Summary

Private investigator Gina Frenzel discusses her investigation of suspected serial killer Felix Vail and his missing victims.

Key points

A Dark Past. What if you suspected someone of murder, but they were still free?
Confronting a Killer. A private investigator shares her nerve-wracking encounter with a suspected serial killer.
The Terrifying Encounter. A moment of fear as the investigator realizes the suspect's true nature.
Felix's Dark Past. Exploring Felix's relationships and the suspicious circumstances surrounding his victims.
The Inconsistent Story. Felix's explanation for Annette's disappearance is riddled with inconsistencies.
Mary's Relentless Pursuit. Annette's mother never gave up on finding the truth about her daughter's fate.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What would you do? Would you act on what you know?

4:27WatchDec 7, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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