Candace Hiltz /// Part 1 /// 140 | Forensic Files

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talk some true crime [Music] foreign [Music] Candace hiltz was found dead August 15
2006. she was shot seven times total six in the head and one in the chest three guns might have been used to kill
Candace hilts a shotgun a small caliber gun and a bullet from a medium caliber gun
the paths of the bullets are steeply downward back to front and left to right the autopsy does not present evidence
that the guns were fired at close range or the order she was shot Candice was shot in the head once with a shotgun and
then five times in the back with a gun of a small caliber she was also shot once in the chest from
the front with a gun of a medium caliber someone had broken into the home of Candace hilts and murdered her that
afternoon with the gun evidence was it one person using three guns or two killers
or possibly more this is just the first of many strange twists in the murder of 17 year old Candace
Hills and this is true crime garage [Music] foreign [Music] was born on December 22nd 1988 in Canon
City Colorado Candice was born into a large family she was the only girl and the youngest child she had nine older
brothers unfortunately Candace was only five years old when her father passed away
at a very early age it was obvious that Candace was extremely intelligent Dolores hilts is Candace's mother and
she describes her daughter as candy was a gift and noted that Candace was doing calculus at the age of 11. Candace's
sister-in-law this is Heather hiltz said the two were close growing up and grew even closer when she married into the
family and saying Candace was outspoken smart funny and would readily tell you what she thought even if you didn't like
what she was saying sounds like somebody I know yeah sounds like somebody I'm sitting next to uh
sit next to yourself she grew up to be a strong young lady who could give her nine older brothers a dressing down if
she thought they needed it now we mentioned that Candace was very smart uh this is how smart she was when most kids
her age were in high school she was enrolled at Brigham Young University when Candace was 16 she was halfway done
with college but then she got pregnant and then gave birth to a baby girl and named her Paige this is in September of
2005. Paige was born with an illness this is a hydrocephalus which is basically fluids or buildup of fluids on
the brain or in the brain this meant that Paige would not likely live a very long life
Candace questioned her mother about how she could afford to continue to go to college and also care for her ill
daughter Dolores and Candace decided that they would figure out something and Candace's mom never told her that she
should drop out of school and just get a job intend to the baby no Dolores told her daughter that college was you know
her daughter's dream and that they would figure something out so by the age of 17 Candace was a mom
and still a college student but now taking classes online through BYU she was looking to fulfill another goal
after BYU she had just received an acceptance letter to Stanford law school so by the age of 18 she was going to
graduate from BYU and then go on to Stanford law school her dream was to be a Supreme Court Justice on August 10
2006 the sheriff's department is going to show up at the health home and they have questions because they're looking
for Candace's brother yeah and this is uh officer Robert Dodd from the local sheriff's department he's at the hilt's
home now we have to set this up a bit before we get into this stuff so the hilt's home is located in Fremont County
in Colorado which is policed by the Fremont County Sheriff's Department Candace and her daughter Paige lived at
Dolores hilt's home remember this is Candace's mother I've read several newspaper accounts of this and I'm still
a bit fuzzy on who was all living at the home for reasons it will become clear as
we go but according to the newspaper accounts they are quoting Candace's mother Dolores Candace and Paige lived at her
home along with a couple of her older brothers of those older brothers is James hiltz who is a very big part of
our story James suffered from some pretty severe mental illness his mother describes this as he is very delusional
and fearful of interaction with other people and this fear or phobia of other people extended to his own family
James's mother says that at this time in August of 2006 James was living in a tent in the woods behind the hilt's home
now this is a very rural area so to be a little bit more clear James was living deep in the woods behind their house so
maybe something a little bit deeper than just anxiety maybe some sort of schizophrenia possibly that's what I
would believe and the reports I've read it sounds like they would often not see James for days
uh Dolores said James would rarely interact with anyone in the hilt's family he didn't have any close friends
because he had this fear of interacting or being around other people the Lord said James believed that some other
woman was his actual mother and this of course only distanced him further from the family
it sounds like this was a pretty long-term condition that they had been dealing with for a long time because
it's often reported that Candace stood up for her older brother because unfortunately a lot of times people can
be mean so anyway back to the Sheriff's Department Officer Robert Dodd was sent to the hilt's home he was there to
question James the reports are for trespassing and stealing some items James entered somebody's home and took
some of their property well of course James is not there for officer dot to question him because he's living in the
woods so officer Dodd talks to Dolores and Candace FYI I should throw this out there we would only end up with one
version of this story this would later come from Dolores for some reason Candace becomes upset with the officer
there could be a multitude of reasons for her becoming upset with him maybe she didn't like like the questions maybe
it was possible things that were said about her brother that she didn't like yeah and while she's also pretty young
and even though she's doing these more adult activities by going to college and stuff doesn't mean that she is mature
for her age or or what I you know what I think is probably most likely Captain if
this story is in fact true it's probably the way the officer was treating Candace's mother Dolores that's my guess
yeah you know the officer when told why Dolores could not produce her son James for questioning you know I can't tell
you where James is except he's living in a tent somewhere in the woods but you know probably sounds strange and weird
to the officer almost like he's she's hiding right before she's lying uh so anyway Candace gets loud with the
officer there is there's now a lot a loud argument going on between Candace and officer Dodd one sometimes you
become pretty protective of individuals that are very protective of you so that could be apparently at some point Dodd
threatens to arrest Candice and she for what well you know how these things probably go down when an officer is not
getting the answers that they want I can just kind of picture this thing working
out in my head right he shows up he's looking for James he questions the mother I can't tell you
where he is except for he's living in the woods sounds like a made-up Story the officer gets upset with the mother
probably threatens her with some kind of obstruction of justice situation then we
have Candace stepping in to defend the mother and I'm guessing he probably threw that obstruction of justice idea
out to Candace well apparently Candace kind of threatened him back because she's basically telling him go ahead and
arrest me this is a tactic that they get with their handbooks right I I hope not
no they do it's a the handbook is called cops with small dicks handbook and when
they feel threatened by you know a 16 17 year old female uh they have to pull out
these you're obstructing justice I'm going to arrest you yeah I mean I mean I usually have the police backs but this
situation sounds to me like a bully tactic yeah like I've run out of I've run out my brain is small so so I've run
out of ideas now I'm just going to throw this well I'm going to arrest you idea yeah no no I look I love cops I love
anybody that is willing to sign up to protect and serve but again that those those two words are not happening here
who's he protecting he's not protecting Candace or the mother and he's not serving the the public by threatening
people that he's questioning well here's an idea if you really want to find James
okay yes he's he's a thought to have broken into some homes and stolen some pretty small items that are not
extremely valuable if you really want to catch James isn't your best bet befriending the mother and family
members of this guy who's potentially living in the woods rather than going in there and disrupting the whole situation
and upsetting everybody well and I also think you know you you have to show respect to get respect and so I think a
lot of these times you know that you know they I think a lot of times people of authority will come in not just cops
but they'll come in with the attitude that you I deserve respect it's like well look show them some respect show
them that you actually care look this isn't so much about your son breaking into somebody's home because that's bad
but these little items that they sold we can replace those but what's going to happen when you're when your son that
has some mental illness breaks into a home with a with a gun owner and then the gun owner protects their their
property and protects himself and rightfully so and then your son ends up dead because of this and if I think if
you approach it in that manner then you're going to get some answers right right and and maybe we need to just keep
it as we'd like to talk to your son we don't know if he's guilty of anything at all but again that goes back to Serve
and Protect because then you're trying to explain to them hey we're trying to serve the community but we're also
trying to protect your son in the process here's the thing when Dodd gets threatened back by Candace she basically
tells him to go ahead and arrest her because says according to Dolores Candace says that she tells Dodd that
she had seen him on several occasions accepting envelopes from known drug dealers and she would gladly tell others
at the Sheriff's Office what she had witnessed once he brings her in on this arrest hmm very very
interesting play yeah Candace should should be should have been a poker player um officer Dodd she was interested in
law so there's there's possibility too that you know she saw in law enforcement and she's like bring it I've been
studying this my whole life officer Dodd eventually leaves the hilt's home that evening he never ends up speaking to
James uh and he arrests no one that night now with within a few days of this incident with officer Dodd the hilt's
family dog goes missing of course as we said this is a rural area and that means you know there's
about a 50 50 shot that this dog was an outside dog you know lived outside right
I have several friends that live out in the country with outdoor dogs and well sometimes outside dogs take off on a
little adventure for a day or so and I know my friends don't really become alarmed until the dog is gone for like
three or more days okay uh so this it's hard to say if this set off any alarms or any red flags with the family okay we
had to take a little bit of a break there Captain apparently they're chopping down forest around the garage
so if you hear some noise in the background that is not me feeding the captain into a wood chipper uh that's
just that's just some people taking care say something so that people know that you're still here I'm here all right
he's here I'm one limb short but no they're chopping down a tree or something and they're going to toss it
into the grinder but we don't have time to waste that's right so now of course Captain there are cases that we have a
he said she said situation this case well this case is a he said she said they said she said and oh yeah nobody's
talking about this so with all of that it makes it extremely tough to piece together this story but we're going to
sift through this thing together my friends throw it all into the mix stir up the pot and see what we're left with
so with that in mind we continue and I want to throw out here that some reports state that the family was alarmed that
and concerned about the missing family dog while other reports simply state that the family believed it's the
country we've lived in the country for a long time this was not a concern okay so
let's recap real quick on August 10th while the sheriff's department was looking for James hiltz officer Dodd
gets into an argument with Candace at her mother's home in front of her mother then a couple days later the hilts
noticed that their dog is missing there's one new newspaper report stating that Candace went to the Sheriff's
Department It is believed this would be to file some sort of complaint the report does not state where this
information came from if a report was actually filed or by whom they got this information so we cannot verify that and
then there is August 15th this is just five days after the argument with officer Dodd Dolores is out running an
errand and at home are her daughter Candace and granddaughter baby Paige Dolores says that she left the home
around noon she returned to the home a little after 3 30 PM that same day when she arrived she does not see
Candace instead she sees an obvious sign of a struggle she hears her granddaughter crying and she makes her
way through the house Dolores notices blood she gets to her daughter's her granddaughter's room and Paige is in her
crib crying there is a bed in this room and the bed appears to have been propped
up there is something underneath of it Dolores investigates it's a large comforter stuffed under the bed and she
pulls and tugs on the comforter pulling from out under the bed as she pulls on it it starts to unravel inside the
comforter she discovers the lifeless body of her 17 year old daughter Dolores knows that it is Candace but due
to the injuries she she sustained in her death Candice is unrecognizable her face
and head are a bloody mess at some point the authorities are called the Fremont County Sheriff's authorities
responded more than one hour later it took him a whole hour well what's confusing here is what time was the call
placed okay um because Dolores says that when she found her daughter that she you know she
was stricken by grief you know shocked at the discovery and she she basically fell to the floor and laid there holding
uh Candace's hand for some time I'm unclear as to who called 9-1-1 um and and at what time that play that
call was placed but the reports that we can see state that sometime about an hour to a little more than an hour after
Dolores returned home is when the sheriff's department arrived on the scene we have uh we have deputies
Briscoe and Dodd the Fremont County coroner this is Dr Dorothy twillman uh followed shortly behind this was an
obvious homicide from from the get-go the first report to come out in the newspapers had little real information
and was wrong uh it simply stated a girl's body was found dumped in a remote area of the county even though there's a
lot of reasons to speculate and question a lot of things in this case I don't find this as anything of importance more
than more than likely what happened is the sheriff's department offered little in the way of information and the paper
just ran with the story right they just went with speculation instead of fact yeah the reporter was probably just told
that they had found an unidentified girl who had been murdered the next reports were accurate with no you know with with
again no real detail simply stating Candace hilt's 17 died of multiple gunshot wounds on August 15 2006 in the
family home in Copper Gulch Area 25 miles Southwest of Canon City well you're telling me earlier too that a lot
of reports reported Candace at 16. yeah like they couldn't even get the age right yeah there's several reports that
say she's 16 and some saying she's 17. years later Candace hilt's mother Dolores hiltz discussed with the Daily
Record about her daughter's murder describing how she was the one who had found her daughter and that it was
something she will never forget stating that she had found her wrapped in a blanket underneath of the bed it was
after Candace hiltz was found that authorities began searching the area and they found the family dog
um unfortunately the Thor the authorities found the dog tied up to a tree in a place that quote you wouldn't
have seen him uh the dog was tied to a tree and killed with possibly an ax or some kind of hatchet
now detectives are working on a new Theory after having found the family dog tied up to this tree in the woods behind
the house that someone had either targeted the hilt's house for a possible burglary or targeted Candace for murder
the killer or Killers who had done this took the dog and killed it a day or a couple days before forcing their way
into the home and killing Candace they meditated okay yeah they they also yeah premeditated break-in or premeditated
murder they had also found that someone had forced their way into the home using
a crowbar or pry bar on a door forcing it open to gain entry into the residence at some point detective uh Bruce Briscoe
told Dolores that authorities believed her son James hiltz was a person of interest in the case and they mounted a
search to find him I have a newspaper report saying that he was 28 and again some saying he's 29 not
a big deal but it seems to be a common um you know Common occurrence in this case yeah errors uh but anyway he's in
his late 20s and at this time and he's over 10 years older than Candace at the time of her murder the family is ordered
out of the home this whole place is a crime scene Dolores is brought to the Sheriff's Department for questioning
during a four-hour interview Dolores hiltz said she was repeatedly asked who her son was hanging out with she
answered of course no one he won't even talk to his brothers it was then discovered by the authorities that James
was suffering from a psychotic episode or psychotic episodes and he had been released early from a mental health
facility and was living off the land apparently he was getting like you know you know how mothers are
um even even when well you have a mother and yeah you you were a guy that claims
to know a lot of mothers so we're going to bring that up again yeah so you are an expert I don't need to tell you this
but you know how mothers of the the best and here's why mother most of the time no matter what you do yeah maybe there
might be some distance between the two of you but they'll still try to help you out any way that they can and here's a
good example of that I don't I don't think you've met my mother apparent apparently uh James was getting
food and water from a camper outside of the hilt's home that his mother was stalking she was keeping it stocked with
food and water for him okay so he would go and retrieve these items take it back
to wherever he was camping in the woods and she wouldn't have to worry about him
starving to death out there right and then should also know if he took the food yeah that's that's smart I didn't
even think about that uh she told detectives that James uh didn't come to the house wouldn't come to the house
wouldn't talk to anybody in the family also telling them that uh he's delusional and he thinks that Dolores is
not his mother and some other woman has replaced her so with any mental break one could assume that almost anything is
possible but uh what doesn't add up here is okay one how is he getting this crowbar to break into the house and
wouldn't he know a better way to get into the house and then also where is he coming up with these three guns do we
have any evidence that he has through guns there's a lot of questions here uh and we can get back into this right
after this quick beer break foreign [Music] we're back and I think they stopped cutting that tree down all right so we
are hunting for James hilts the Fremont County Sheriff's Office announced that they were searching for James hiltz
stating deputies and additional law enforcement search teams were searching for James calling him a person of
interest in the death of Candace hilts deputies and other law enforcement Searchers were looking for James hiltz
in the area of deer mountain and copper Gulch they described him as 5 foot 10 inches tall 155 pounds with blonde hair
and blue eyes he was believed to be in possession of at least two Firearms he was of course considered to be armed and
dangerous they had not filed any murder charges against James at this time however and a couple of officers off the
Record stated that they did believe that James had murdered his sister well they found him on Friday just a
couple days later and we'll back up a little bit because I mean you know again what was their proof that
he had guns well if if they're calling him a person of interest in this Murder She was
obviously killed uh by way of gun um so they're assuming he has guns correct but I think you know what I'm
getting at is that law enforcement obviously has the responsibility of protecting the public but also by saying
that this individual that has guns that we have no evidence he has guns and he's
mentally ill you might be setting him up for a situation where somebody runs into
him and they don't catch him alive is what I'm saying and then if and if they don't catch him alive well then we can
just pin this on him and move about our day well yeah and you're right they do have they certainly most certainly have
that obligation we have this situation here where they're looking for the the older brother of a murder victim
somebody that they were already looking for on unrelated charges days before her
murder and now you have a situation where if you think he is a suspect and they they never call call him to my
knowledge they never call him a suspect just a person of interest if you have a Person of Interest Who you
believe may have committed this crime but at the same time you also believe that they have committed you know
unrelated break-ins wow you have to find this guy very quickly because if this is something
he's escalated to we have a whole bunch of people that are in a considerable amount of danger now well and I don't
mean to throw a law enforcement under the bus here because they might have more knowledge of his priors because I
don't have any knowledge of his priors other than these you know accusations of him breaking and entering people's
houses but no accusations or no charges on violence you're exactly right he had several run-ins with the law all of them
were non-violent offenses all of them were pretty Petty crimes um but I'm just saying that law
enforcement in the small town also might know of you know oh he got in a fist fight here or there they might know
about some things that we aren't aware of his family when they were looking for him were they were saying you know from
the get-go we don't we don't believe he did this for several reasons but one of those being he had no previous History
of Violence uh even toward the family you know sometimes things happen within a family and it's not always reported to
the authorities but they're saying he was not a violent man but the problem is at the same time when you're telling me
that your son is not a violent man and you're also telling me that he might not even know who he is anymore
um if if what you're telling me is the truth and and Dolores and family you believe that to be the truth he doesn't
believe you are his mother this guy is not what I would what I would call delusional this is what I would call
he's had some kind of break with reality uh he might be in his own isn't that what a delusion is yes yeah it probably
is but but I I mean I don't think delusional is a big enough word for what I think this kid is experiencing
um I think he's had a break with reality I don't think he fully knows what's going on or who the people around him
may be this could present a problem because if you have a person who has become afraid for reasons we might not
be able to comprehend he could become a dangerous person and now if he's capable
of breaking into other homes like I said we have a huge problem on our hand thankfully thankfully he is located and
they found him on that Friday in the rugged copper Gulch Iron Mountain Area this is southwest of Canon City just
three days after the sheriff's deputies found Candace hiltz dead at her mother's
home now after his arrest I want everybody to Let's listen carefully to the charges
okay if you weren't listening before start listening now that's right everybody listen carefully okay James
hiltz has been charged with first and second degree burglary and criminal trespassing no all of these are
considered felonies he is also being charged with theft and criminal mischief authorities say that he broke into a
home and stole hatchets and flashlights Sheriff Jeff Beaker said searches have been conducted at the hilt's home and
people are being interviewed in connection of the homicide James hiltz was scheduled to appear in the Fremont
County court on August 31st he remained at the Fremont County Jail on five hundred thousand dollars Bond until that
time well okay let me just wrap my head around all this mess right so he's charged with all these felonies right
and what did he still flashlights and hatchets yes that's what's reported and we could assume that
he's stealing these items for survival correct flashlights hatchets and uh we know that he's mentally ill and we place
a bond on him for 500 000 half a mil on a mentally ill person and I understand that maybe he's a person of
interest and a murder but this is no justice at all this is a mentally ill individual
and you're charging them with these crimes where he was not attacking anybody he was not violent towards
anybody and he was stealing stuff surviving you know trying to survive why he's going through this delusional state
or possible mental break like you called it where's the Justice there well Captain I'm afraid I might have to
disagree with you if you're saying what I think you're saying um I I sympathize with what you're
saying and I sympathize with his condition as a as a citizen you know if I were living in the area or if he were
in my area and this went down here's the way I got to look at it he's arrested he's picked up on a Friday uh they he
probably didn't get any type of court hearing until the following Monday uh so that Bond I'm guessing of 500 000 is set
just six days after the murder of his sister now I understand that these are lower level crimes that he's being held
on however I do want to remind you some of those are considered to be felonies and one thing that would be presented to
the judge at the time is he is involved in a homicide investigation uh we are talking to him about this we're talking
to his family about this seeking information um and furthermore um he could be a Flight Risk and what I
mean by that is well no I'm not look I'm not arguing with the idea you know look
the you set a bail I get it but what I'm saying is the initial charges are kind of ridiculous anyways I understand that
he committed that crime I'm I understand that he might possibly admit to that crime but I think there needs to be a
better system in place to you know you're going to take a mentally uh unstable individual and then put them in
the system for breaking and entering so they could survive in a delusional State
I mean that's what I have more of an issue with and the reason why I say he's a Flight Risk is he's living in the
woods he's he's some kind of survivalist right he's been on FL they caught him in
Flight right um you know and when they did catch him I do want to say that uh they caught him
he surrendered without incident you know he didn't attack any of the people that
were arresting him he didn't have any guns on him at the time of course he didn't he he had some kind of knife the
newspapers reference a knife I don't know that that means that he was a violent person I think no that means
you're living in the woods if I were living in the woods I would do full like Davy Crockett mode and I would have I
would have knives and the coonskin cap and everything else going on okay um actually actually you know what
Captain I think I'm gonna do are you just like dressing up I'm getting a lot of a lot of phone calls to my to my cell
phone lately that that I don't want I'm thinking about using this story here to update my voicemail greeting saying I'm
sorry I missed your call I'm now living in the woods Davy Crockett that's right so here's the
thing I I think I think it's reasonable the 500 000 Bond just because this is where my head's no no that's fine but
what I'm saying is you know once the bond is done and stuff you're possibly putting somebody into a system that
they're not going to be able to get out of not going to be able to get adequate care for with their mental illness I I
think they're look I think we we have the justice system and I think we have to have an another system in place when
it when we're dealing with the mentally ill and I agree with that but I I agree with the 500 000 Bond because my opinion
is let's set this thing a little high so we can hold him for a certain amount of
time until we get this straightened out maybe he's not our guy but I'm with you maybe maybe sitting in a jail cell or
sitting in a jail amongst other people waiting for trial is not the best location for this young man to be housed
while we're waiting to get to the bottom of this so anyway James was charged with
unrelated burglary charges he was never charged with the homicide we have to do some fast forwarding here but eventually
James was found not guilty on the burglary charges but this was by reason of insanity he was eventually committed
to the Colorado Mental Health Institute in 2008. okay so I go on this whole rant
and they basically did the right thing yeah I think he ended up in the right place but I'm with you maybe jail
especially with his Affliction well they probably put him in a Cell by himself I
hope so yeah but that the problem there is you know he wasn't under any treatment so at least they said look
we're gonna drop these charges we know he's mentally ill let's put him in the hospital and let's get him the treatment
that he needs or try to get him the treatment that he needs and I did mention that they had no he had no
firearms in his possession when he was arrested of course it was suspected that he could have had one or two with him
presumably guns that he would have used to in his sister's murder I'd like to know if they did the test to see if he
fired a gun that's a good question because we could assume that he's not taking showers well we have you know we
have some listeners that are involved in forensics and things like that I would love to hear and see on the blog if
anybody could clear this up because he was he wasn't captured until three days after her after her murder is this
enough time I don't know I don't know the uh the ins and outs of this whole situation but I imagine it washes off at
some point yeah I heard it's anywhere between like 24 and 48 Hours okay again I would wonder but you know how how much
does it stay on the body depending on how much you wash you know if you fire a gun can you can you wash yourself uh
two or three times and get rid of this residue um we'll get back to James situation as far
as whether he makes a good suspect or not because I think there's a lot to talk about there after the arrest of of
James the remaining members of the hilt's family was now allowed back in their home but when Dolores hiltz
returned home she was shocked when she did Dolores has maintained for years that the investigators botched this
investigation Dolores hiltz has discussed with media how the investigators did not take all the
evidence with them that bullet casings were left behind as well as the blanket her daughter was wrapped in she said
that they left evidence in there for three days adding that the Sheriff's Office investigators didn't even tape
off the house so so Captain they didn't they could have anybody could have gotten there they didn't secure the home
um they left evidence uncollected and they left a door wide open yeah but that right but now is there evidence of this
or is this this she said he said stuff um I mean there is evidence of this because she's collecting the evidence
and then and then sending it back to them so that would be the evidence of it okay yeah so here here's my thought on
the door being left wide open okay I don't think this was like uh oh some you know born in a barn situation forgot to
close the door I think this was probably the door that whomever accessed to enter
the home to break into the home it was probably busted up enough that it couldn't be just closed and locked
simply closed and locked but they could have boarded it up in some fashion so that people couldn't enter the home
while there's nobody there while they've told the family to vacate right but in law enforcement's defense I mean it
could have been one of those things where oh I pulled it shut and it seemed like it was going to stay shut
um but then wind opened up the door so it could be that case I mean my front door is the same way like if you go
outside and you shut the door behind you if you don't lock it it has a possibility of blowing open just from
the wind Dolores hiltz went to the Fremont County Sheriff's Office and asked to speak with
the chief or the deputies that were on the scene this is Dodd and Briscoe she was told that all of them all three of
them were too busy and she insisted on staying there until someone talked to her she said finally a young officer
came out and she told him about her concerns now her concerns are she's gone home the place was unsecured and there's
evidence still there that's what she's trying to report to them in person and she's she's getting nowhere with
this she tells the young officer her concerns and nothing happens so when no one called or no one came out to the
house well Dolores hiltz and her son this is her son Jonathan they went to a store to buy plastic bags and bagged up
bullet casings themselves to eventually take them to the officers she said in those three days the investigators that
were there searching the home they only took about 15 things in two envelopes and a they took a piece of paneling and
a piece of carpet and she said that's it now Jonathan hiltz this is her other son
had taken forensic crime classes so the two of them they put on protective booties and and gloves and they
methodically photographed and bagged all of the evidence that was left and placed
it in a plastic container with an Evidence log they they you know so they whatever they didn't take yeah you know
here's what they didn't take there was a white computer speaker with blood on it that had been used to prop
up the bed this was the bed she was found underneath the uh the blanket that Candace was found in where her body was
found uh was still at the home there was a shotgun casing in the baby's cradle uh
all the evidence they found as I said was tagged and bagged and it was put in a container later
Briscoe showed up with a search warrant and asked where the container of evidence was and Dolores gave it to him
okay now the Dolores has a very good quote uh when asked about this by the media she
said I'm I'm thinking seasoned cops don't leave evidence and these are not rookie officers
um that statement's very true right so but what is she implying by that what she's implying is that it it looks like
her and her son were able to find more evidence than what the the police left with
yeah no no I think that but I think there's maybe they left this on purpose right
right I'm sorry that's that's exactly what I believe she's trying to tell all of us is that she would have expected
some you know some do good boy scout cop to maybe show up and not know what he's
doing and Overlook some of these things the do good boy scout always be prepared
he would have collected the evidence that's right sorry about it yeah I apologize gonna throw the whole uh
weibelow Scouts under the bus I'm a rude person yeah you can feed me into the wood chipper you yeah I already lost the
limb it's now your turn my friend uh but I think you I think you're right on your
spot on there Captain she's she's pointing out these guys have been around the block too long they've been on the
job too long uh it almost seems like they weren't willing to take this stuff with them for whatever reason
who knows right so that kind of goes with the whole conspiracy theory about this case though is that you're if
you're looking for this individual that's breaking and entering into houses and stealing these little you know
flashlights and whatnot then um this young girl kind of runs her mouth to this cop and then the cop
decides hey you know what I'm going to teach this young girl lesson and that lesson is then we're going to murder you
for whatever reason and I think maybe the it wasn't just her running her mouth but did did what Candace said to that
officer did it strike a nerve now point this out so if she said okay well well I
know that you're taking money from drug dealers or I've seen this or I can prove
this and I have other eyewitnesses and then let's say there's more than one cop involved in this then that cop has to
tell his buddy cop and he tells another buddy cop and then they show up and they
go okay we're gonna get rid of her and guess what we got an easy person to pin this on her crazy brother and so when we
get to the scene oh well there's this evidence we don't really want to have that all collected because this this
evidence is going to start pointing you know you you can't hide certain facts just like
you know there was three guns used in this murder so how did that happen if it was just
one individual right you know it becomes a you know it doesn't make a lot of sense so you gotta connect the dots and
so by not collecting that evidence it goes more towards that conspiracy theory that maybe the cops were involved well
and one thing that is very telling so you bring up an interesting topic here because one of the big reasons why
Dolores will point out amongst other several other details why her son James should not be a suspect right is that he
he had no friends he had no people that he interacted with he didn't run around with anybody and like you said that this
this case well like I said earlier this case is very strange because you have two almost completely different stories
you have the the story of the sheriff's department and you have the story of the
hilts family the one place where they do match up is it seems to be that the sheriff's
department and the hilts family both can agree that two or more people committed
this crime committed this murder and the in verification of that is the sheriff's
department asking Dolores who does your son hang out with she's not you know it's not just where
is your son it's who does your son hang out with because they know early in the get-go this thing was committed by at
least two people well Dolores on the other end will say that's why he's not a good suspect because he had no friends
he didn't hang out with anybody he was afraid he had a phobia of being around other people of having relationships
with people it it's that that is an interesting point where they actually match up in
their beliefs right well part of the police right you know what I mean so I I think
that's where it gets odd there and and yeah it is it two or three people I don't know it certainly doesn't look
like one um and here's one of the other things that Dolores would point out when
they're they're worried about her son James um remember the the house was broken
into the hilt's home was broken into somebody used a breaker bar a pry bar crowbar whatever you want to call it to
break into this door and then gets into the home James hilts when he did come in the
house which apparently he did go back into the house on occasion but this would only be when nobody was at the
home right um supplies there was a butter knife that was hidden underneath a the front
step uh to the home and he would use this butter knife to pop open the front door yeah so he had no reason to you
know basically bust his way into that door yeah that doesn't exclude him though just because again if he is in some
manic state or some delusional state you know he might not even understand what he's breaking into so it wouldn't
be like oh well I have no clue what's happening oh I remember there's a butter knife here he could be so far gone that
you know he thinks he's breaking into a you know a castle or something and that's exactly right those are the
questions that come into my mind and these are reasons why I cannot exclude James as a good suspect I I think he's I
think he's right up there I think he's right up there there's there's questionable things going on in this
family there's questionable things going on in this household and I don't know that any of us have a clue what's going
on with James um here's here's the questions I I want to talk about okay we already talked
about that he he may not have had to have breaking into the home now he he he's already went into other people's
homes and he's stolen some items now we said that the dog appeared to have been killed with an ax or a hatchet well one
of the items or believed that he had stolen from these other homes was in fact a hatchet it's actually in one
report states that he had stolen more than one Hatchet so he has the means uh to do this uh regarding the dog yeah
um and it's a it's a very strange thing to do for for anyone to do and act like that but horrible act horrible if he did
in fact have a hatchet was he stealing it for more than one reason um or you know it to me it looks like he had
the means to kill the dog the problem well the other problem too with the break-ins
is you report that hatchet right but what if you have a legal weapon normally when somebody breaks into your
house and then let's say you had a shotgun that wasn't registered to you and somebody steals it you normally
don't repeat you don't report that to the cops right so so that's the other issue too then then you go okay well he
has these hatchets well that kind of puts him in the more likely that maybe he killed this dog scenario
and then well how did he get the guns well if he's breaking into houses and stealing guns and I I wonder if any of
those individuals would come forward and say well I actually did have a shotgun where I did have a 22. and that yeah and
that's why I questioned the statement that he did not have access to Firearms when you're busting into people's homes
and taking things you have access to a lot of things that you normally don't have access to uh the big question for
me on those on those other burglary charges I would love to know how he gained access into those homes right
because here's the thing it we can say all day long that he would not have broken into his own home that he would
not have busted open this door and went in there we can't say that if that is exactly how he was gaining access into
these other homes my suspicion is that my suspicion Captain is that he was not breaking into
these homes and the reason why I say that is when I look at the charges he's charged with first and second degree
burglary but charged with criminal trespassing meaning that he was in an area that he shouldn't be for reasons
that that were no good right and but you would expect to see a breaking and entering charge with with James which we
do not see so I'm wondering with this being a rural area is this just a simple situation of people leaving their doors
unlocked he knows nobody's home and he lives in the woods he can creep up on your house whenever he feels like it
check the doors and walk around your home and collect items that he believes he needs for whatever Survival game he's
playing in the woods yeah that's a very good point and also too I mean look if anybody knows the credit card trick
depending on where that your door latches like you can take a credit card or or a butter knife or anything and
just pop that door open and maybe that's what he's doing and then you wouldn't know if the door was locked or unlocked
anyways right so he obviously knows this little trick um and also you know once this trick
became more popular they started making sure that all the locks kind of go one way
um so but it's interesting it's it's definitely interesting and so if they're not reporting that he broke in then
again what else did he take that they're not reporting the other thing too is when when he's picked up when they find
him there's no report of them saying Oh we found a bloody hatchet with the guy right you know
um there was not what I would call any damning evidence against him other than he's misunderstood we we don't really
know what kind of Lifestyle he's living or what state of mind he is in at the time of that his sister is killed yeah
and I would say that with his mental state he has to be a suspect the one that I can't get over is then how did
this individual have three guns and then when they decided to you know Murder their sister they decided to use three
different guns on this on this individual and there is some speculation that some of the gunshot wounds happen
at the same time yes there is speculation of that um it is it would be possible for one
person to use two or three guns on the same victim the reason why Captain I can't rule him out is I gotta paint a
picture for you okay we have we have a man um that is in need of some help in need
of some support he's living in the woods we do not know what's going through his
mind if if I try to put myself in his situation we know that he doesn't believe that his mother is his mother
can you imagine where you're waking up every day in the woods you're sleeping in the dark Forest every night and
you're waking up every day going you know what there's this house that's not too far from here and it's full of these
people that I've never met that I don't know who they are and they keep telling me that they're my family that this is
my mother my sister my brothers um it it's it's a it's a I could see somebody panicking and doing something
very strange in that situation it's almost it's almost like being you know he's had a breakup with reality and he's
thrown into a world that he cannot understand right therefore I don't know that we can
understand or put limits on what we think he is capable of or what he's not capable of right so you're you're
basically stating that your opinion is that the family's like he's not a violent individual so therefore he
couldn't have done this you know closed case on him let's throw a little other Theory out
there not saying I believe in this but just go with me on this right okay so this person that is not capable this
person that is not violent has a mental break with reality and you normally would see certain types of breaks of
reality with the same individual right like if somebody that you're caring for somebody that is in your family that has
mental illness right they have a normal Set uh the the way they break with that reality is normally
the same but what if this time was different right and then the family comes we got an hour window
from the time that they supposedly see the body and call the cops what takes place in that hour and then on top
of that remember how all this evidence that the police didn't collect that they then
collected and then then gave to was this created even after they left hmm you see what I'm saying right like it
starts creating some answers for some of these things that these questions arise
and so your thought would be okay what if you knew that he murdered her and then now you're you have two options
your daughter's already dead and and what is going to happen to him what is going to happen to your mentally
ill son and what's an easy way to cover this up if she is shot by multiple guns then
they're going to assume that she was killed by multiple people and guess what he doesn't have multiple people in his
life for multiple friends so look it's not a theory I believe in I'm just saying it does answer some of the weird
questions that we do have yeah I thought I was steering the ship in a unpopular Direction by saying I would still
consider him a suspect and man you drove it right into the right into the iceberg
there so this is not this is not what I this is not what I believe but not only could he be still a suspect but the
possibility of the family covering his tracks for him very interesting stuff and there's a lot more there's a lot
more strange twists and turns and icebergs along the way in this case yeah and let's just be clear that is not what
I think I'm just putting out the possibilities and I think when you're trying to get to the answers right when
you're trying to funnel everything down to get to the answers you have to look at every possible thing and where where
does the evidence point you know you so I I think that's that's all I'm doing and I think people should exercise that
right and exercise themselves in doing that more often with these cases you don't have to funnel into the truth no
you're you're exactly right because this is a case that requires everyone to put
on their thinking cap and you need a really big tall thinking cap for this this case because there's so many
possibilities and so many just weird stuff um yeah that's gonna get pretty I can't
really explain it any more than weird stuff all right so for more weird stuff we'll be back in the garage tomorrow and
hopefully there's no wood chipper foreign [Music] thank you guys so much for listening and
we'll see you tomorrow back in the garage until then be good be kind and don't litter
[Music] [Applause] thank you [Music]

Candace Hiltz /// Part 1 /// 140

Part 1 of 2

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Candace Hiltz, 17, was murdered on August 15, 2006. She was described at the time as a teen mother who had an 11-month-old daughter. Candace's family, said Candace had an altercation of some sort with an officer at the sheriff's office about a week before she was killed. Just days before her death the family's dog went missing. James Hiltz, Candace's older brother, was a person of interest in the murder but never was charged. Multiple family members who have spoken out all say James Hiltz was not the murderer and that he wouldn't have hurt his younger sister. Many suspect someone in law enforcement killed Candace. Candace's family continues to fight for justice.

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Brief Summary

Candace Hiltz was murdered in 2006; her brother James, mentally ill, became a suspect but was never charged with her death.

Key points

The Tragic Murder of Candace Hiltz. Candace Hiltz was found dead in her home, shot multiple times. Her case reveals shocking twists.
Candace's Early Life and Intelligence. Candace was a prodigy, enrolled in college at a young age and aiming for law school.
Confrontation with Officer Dodd. Candace argues with Officer Dodd while he investigates her brother, leading to a tense situation.
James Hiltz: Person of Interest. Authorities believe James Hiltz is a person of interest in his sister's murder, leading to a search.
Dolores Hiltz's Concerns. Dolores Hiltz expresses frustration over the investigation's mishandling of evidence at the crime scene.
The Conspiracy Theory Unfolds. The discussion dives into the conspiracy theory surrounding the case, questioning police involvement.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Candace was a gift.

Dolores describing her daughter Candace.

5:12WatchDec 2, 2022

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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