D.C. Mansion Murders /// Part 1 /// 299 | Forensic Files

[Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to true crime garage wherever you are whatever you were doing thanks
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round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [Music] may 14th 2015 at 1:24 p.m. the
Washington DC Fire Department received a call that a large home in the city's most exclusive neighborhood was on fire
neighbors saw smoke and flames coming from the homes second-story and called authorities the fire department quickly
descended on the home a firefighter kicked in the front door and the firefighters entered the downstairs the
house wreaked of gasoline firefighters searched for occupants on the ground level but saw no one
then firefighters braved the upstairs which seemed to be the epicenter of the conflagration and saw one bedroom and a
bathroom area were completely engulfed in roaring flames the temperature made the room
impenetrable in an adjacent bedroom firefighters crawled blindly along trying to avoid the smoke dodging slate
tiles from the roof falling through the ceiling on top of them one firefighter bumped against a chair lying tipped on
its back he tried to move it out of the way but to his horror with his hands he felt a body in the chair the firefighter
dragged the body into the hallway and saw what he called a bloodbath then they found another body
then a third lying on the floor one of the victims still had a heartbeat and the firefighters extracted her and
rushed her to an ambulance despite life-saving efforts by doctors at Georgetown University Hospital
sadly she soon died when firefighters managed to extinguish the incredibly hot flashover fire in the adjacent bedroom
which was burned down to the beams new horrific sights awaited them a firefighter entered the blackened still
smoking room he couldn't see very well and he started to fall on the buckled floor he grabbed on to what was left of
the bed which was so badly burned that it was bared down to the charged springs and frame and had melted into the floor
the floor had partially collapsed into the room below the firefighter accidentally grabbed a body on the bed a
child's body which had no discernible features or arms or legs an adjacent bathroom was also burnt to a crisp
clearly the fire started in this bedroom and it did not appear to be an accident
several people were dead and someone burnt this house down after the fire police arrived on the scene
observing the removal of several bodies by paramedics law enforcement quickly observed victims that appeared to have
suffered extensive trauma to their bodies the fire did not kill these people who was responsible for the
unimaginable horrors that took place inside this home this is true crime garage and this is a case of the DC
mansion murders [Music] [Music] before we get into this case we need an understanding of the Savalas family
Savas of Ovilus was 46 years old he was born in a suburb of DC his father Philip
and a partner started up a very successful company American ironworks Sava went to Springbrook high school in
Silver Spring Maryland this is where he started dating Amy Martin who would later become his wife
Amy says she was an army brat born in Massachusetts she spent her childhood moving around Europe in the u.s. Saba
and Amy both went on to the University of Maryland Sabo was good-looking popular and outgoing amy was blond
pretty and more reserved than Saba yeah they're gonna get married in 1994 after he graduates from law school instead of
practicing law Sava went on to the family business headquartered in nearby Hyattsville his father Phillip
eventually stepped down and Sava took over the company American ironworks thrived under his direction the company
was involved in building the National Stadium yeah that's Washington's baseball stadium they also revitalized the DC
Center and were involved in rebuilding the Pentagon after 9/11 yeah that's a big contract right there Sava also
headed up a hedge fund sigma investment strategies located in Puerto Rico where he often traveled Saba and Amy were
doing very well in 2001 they purchased a 3.5 million dollar 8,000 square foot mansion on Woodlawn Drive in DC's
Woodley Park neighborhood this is a very exclusive residential neighborhood the average home cost about 4 million
dollars the neighborhood is considered extremely safe Saba was a good businessman with a strong work ethic by
most accounts he was a wonderful boss a gentle soul and a good friend he had an open door policy for his employees and
often wore jeans to work amy was a stay-at-home mom to the couple's three kids sisters Abigail and
Katharina were followed seven years later by a baby boy named Philip after Savas father all three kids were
educated at DC's most exclusive private schools and they were both involved in the Greek Orthodox Church they did a lot
of charity work they hosted fundraising galas and donated generously yeah everyone describes both Sava and Amy who
was age 47 at this time as lovely people a golden couple devoted to each other and their family in 2012 Sava and Amy
and their young son Philip took a year off and moved to their second home in the US Virgin Islands just enjoying life
in the tropics when they got back to DC in 2013 Sava continued to enjoy the fruits of his labors by collecting some
of the finer things in life they had a very expensive wine collection a renowned art collection well we have a
very nice beer collection well Sava loved collecting automobiles too that's when you know that you're
doing very well when you collect automobiles and some of these were like race car it depends it depends on what
kind of car and or where they parked are they in a garage or then your front yard
well and Tsavo was really into martial arts he had a samurai sword collection in his home and was scheduled to open up
his own dojo sabado karate like many wealthy women Amy took on a pet cause that was near and dear to her heart
after her daughter suffered concussions on the sports playing fields she became something of an expert in concussions
and became a major fundraiser for the National Children's Medical Center's concussion education project it's a very
wealthy family very successful family we know that conclusion of the fire but let's start with the details of the day
before the fire yes this was Wednesday May 13th Savva went to check out the process at
the new dojo he was planning to open yeah Amy and little Phillip 10 years old were both at home
they have two housekeepers one who worked for the family for like 20 years this is Nellie Gutierrez she was not at
the home that day she was working at the new dojo cleaning and preparing for the
grand opening the following weekend housekeeper Veera Figueroa who worked for the family for about five years was
at the house when either Veera or Nelly worked at the home their routine was to finish up and leave for the day around
3:00 or 3:30 in the afternoon Amy took Phillip to a 9:30 a.m. doctor's appointment Amy's car entered the
parking garage at Chevy Chase Center at 9:09 a.m. there is video footage of Amy and Phillip near the doctor's office Amy
is wearing white pants and a blue top her Range Rover left the parking garage at 11:08 a.m. at 3:14 p.m. the director
of reservations at a local doggie daycare place called the Cevallos family regarding an upcoming Memorial Day
weekend appointment for the family's dogs bear and ginger what she said was unusual was she called the house phone
as always but got the indication that the phone had been disconnected since the cevapi Lass's were regular customers
they had a me cell phone she said she called the number at 4:20 p.m. and left a voicemail Amy called back twice once
right after the voicemail but there was no sound on the call and it quickly disconnected then Amy called back about
10 to 15 minutes later so likely around 4:40 p.m. Amy said she would be keeping the appointment for the dogs later it is
said that Amy didn't sound like herself she sounded tired groggy or under the weather and she rushed through the call
when she would normally be very friendly and chatty and she sounded like the captain a friend of Amy's told police
that she saw Amy walking in their neighborhood heading toward her home around 3:25 p.m. now Amy was a coffee
lover and it's believed that bass on her friends sighting of her that she went on a Starbucks run around that time
yes but we are noting here that she was not in the house at 3:25 p.m. right according to Nelly Gutierrez who was
with Sava at the dojo ami called Sava at 5:30 p.m. and asked that he come home to
stay with Philip because she had plans about a half an hour later Saba packed up and left the dojo for home he asked
Nellie to close up for him once she was finished he didn't act in any way like this was an emergency at some point that
evening Sava made a call to the family's home security company the Savalas they had as new system installed 6 months
earlier that included surveillance cameras outside the home and glass break sensors in the kitchen this system sent
the surveillance footage and records of alerts directly to a computer that was stored in a utility room on the third
floor of the home so this security footage was not live monitored but it was stored for review if an alert was
sent right although the system would of course alert the family if the alarm was
set and was triggered but this system was brand-new and it had some bugs that they were trying to work out and because
of this the system was not fully activated and according to the vice-president of the security company
on the 13th the system was not armed yeah Sava is gonna make a phone call about 8:00 p.m. to debbie Masur somebody
that works for him this call comes from his cell phone he wanted her to figure out a way to get him cash for a
construction equipment auction that was being held the next day this was actually common for Sava he would he
would go buy machinery at a discount at these auctions so Sava wanted 35 to $50,000 in cash a bit of cold hard cash
well the request for cash was actually the unusual part of the request as he normally would just get a cashier's
check so Debbie well Don I just want to go over this again so at the auction you
could use a check you don't have to use cash and that was normal protocol right so so he's he's not normally calling her
saying I want 40 50 grand in cash right so Debbie and Ted chase made arrangements for Sabo to electronically
draft and sign a check that Ted would then collect at the bank the following morning Debbie said Sava sounded totally
normal on this phone call sometime around 8:00 p.m. Saba called Jordan Wallace this is his driver and general assistant
and left a voicemail Savas message told Jordan there was a change of plans for the next day and
instructed Jordan to meet Ted Chase at the American Iron Works office first thing the next morning to pick up a
package in his message Sava almost sounded jovial and at 8:30 p.m. Jordan Tex Sava I'll call you when I get the
package and around 9 p.m. Amy is gonna order Domino's pizza yeah she ordered two pizzas and a soda
Amy paid over the phone with a credit card and said that she was nursing a sick child and that the delivery man was
to place the pizzas on the front stoop when the delivery driver got to the house they say all the lights were off
except for the one over the front door and the house was silent very strange he rang the doorbell left the pizzas and
then drove off Sava Savalas left a voicemail that evening for the regular housekeeper Nellie his voicemail said
it's Sava I hope you get this message Amy is in bed sick tonight and she was sick this afternoon and Vera offered to
stay and help her out so she's going to stay the night here he went on to explain that Vera's phone was dead and
they didn't have a compatible charger for it you can hear part of this voicemail online Saba's voice sounds
totally normal on this call Nellie didn't listen to this voicemail immediately I point that out because she
might have questioned it as she heard earlier from Sava that Amy had plans at night which
didn't mesh with what she was being told now of Amy being ill yeah and just going
back to the cache getting the ordering the cache then that night and telling people to get it in the morning to go to
the bank and ask for 40 to 50 grand in cash it is a big deal and and sometimes banks don't have that cash on hand
because they don't they can deal with somebody coming in and robbing a teller and getting a couple thousand bucks but
they don't carry that much cash on them anymore because they're afraid of takeovers mm-hmm well and remember we
mentioned that at some point on that evening Sava got in contact with his security company asking questions about
the security camera footage yeah so on well later that evening this was after 11:00 p.m. the security company text
Sava back stating I believe your outdoor surveillance camera records our motion you know he was asking how the cameras
were activated so he he was in contact with this security company during this time now that leads us to Thursday May
14th at 7:11 a.m. Sava called Jordan his assistant and the two spoke just going back over the plan for the package
pickups and delivery and an unknown time on the morning of the 14th Sabha again spoke with Eric he's from the home
security company trying to get a handle on how his system stored recordings now Eric later said that these phone
calls were strange because he had already gone over with Sava how the system worked at approximately 9:00 a.m.
the sprinkler company showed up at the Savalas home the sprinkler guy knocked on the door but when no one answered he
went on to his next appointment at 9:09 a.m. Amy called to cancel the sprinkler maintenance appointment because her son
she said got injured and she had to go to the hospital yeah sometime early this morning it's
not clear when Debbie Masur again talked to Sava he told her to draw up the check
for $40,000 and that Ted would collect the cash and give it to Jordan his assistant and
Jordan would deliver it to him once the check was drafted and printed Debbie sent Saba and email confirming that it
was ready sometime between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. on the morning of the 14th Saba called his business banking specialist
at Bank of America Savas company American ironworks was one of their top clients so this person was
very familiar with his voice and recognized it right away Saba told them of this unusual request
for $40,000 in cash right so they had to find a bank branch that had that much cash on hand where Ted Chase could cash
the company check yeah and sometimes they wouldn't do this for certain clients but you're talking about he is a
huge client yes yeah and somebody that they want to keep happy right so they locate a branch that's able to fill the
request and called Sava back and at this point he seemed rush on the rushed on the phone and he told her that his CFO
Ted Chase would go pick up the money using a stamp of Savas signature Nellie Gutierrez tried to call her friend Vera
at 8:30 a.m. and then again at 8:46 a.m. but her calls went straight to voicemail
now meanwhile around 9:30 on the morning of the 14th Vera's husband Bernardo showed up at the
house on woodland drive it was not only unusual but unheard of for Vera to stay over with the family and further Nellie
never listened to the voicemail from Saba explaining that Vera was staying over so as far as Bernardo was concerned
his wife just never came home the night before he had no success reaching her on
her phone it continually went straight to voicemail even though he had called her nine times
between the previous night and Thursday morning he knocked on the door and even though no one answered he said that he
got like a really strange feeling that someone was standing on the other side of that door yeah he thought he heard a
noise like a chair scraping the floor he started to walk toward a window to look
in when his phone rang and it was Sava Kali Sabha apologized for not calling him earlier he told him the ami was ill
and Veera went with her to the hospital in his car meanwhile Vera's daughter claudia was waiting and while she killed
time she took a picture of the family's blue Porsche parked in the driveway and she sent it to her boyfriend who was
into cars so we know that the Porsche was at the home around 9:30 a.m. right around 9:40 a.m. Jordan Wallace and Ted
case went to the Bank of America and Kenilworth Chase and the bank manager signed some paperwork while Jordan hung
in the background the bank manager handed chase $40,000 in $100 bills once in the parking lot chase handed the cash
over to Jordan who placed the bills in a red backpack then the two men went their
separate ways yeah Jordan is actually gonna take a picture of the bag of cash open and then he sends it to his
girlfriend yeah and he later would delete these texts now Jordan drove to three 2:01 woodland drive right at 9:50
1:00 a.m. he called Savas cell and informed him that he had the package he had the cash Sava said great call me
when you're 10 minutes away and I'll give you instructions and 956 am ami texted her housekeeper Nellie telling
her not to come to the house that day at 10:15 a.m. Jordan called Sava again to tell him he was approaching the home
Sava told Jordan that he would be on a conference call and not to knock he instructed Jordan to enter the garage
which would be left open for him and placed the money on the driver's seat of the red sports car that
was parked inside the garage he then was to leave and Sabo would be right behind
him per his words Jordan found that the right-side garage bay was opened as promised and he put the money in a
manila envelope placed it on the driver's seat exited the garage closed the door and left
he sent sava a text around 1026 a.m. that said package delivered no response ever came this was the last
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all right cheers mates cheers to you captain well the next thing that we know the
house was in flames a contractor who was parked on the street saw the flames and pounded on the
front door and said that he could hear dogs barking and the smoke alarm going off he called 911 Wallace the assistant
received a phone call from an American Iron Works employee notifying him that the house was on fire he was told to
head over to the house pronto then Debbie received a call from a reporter for The Washington Post asking her if
she could confirm that four people were dead now poor Debbie did not know what was
going on at this time and she had just spoke to Saba that morning Jordan Wallace then called her distraught
saying the house was burned and he wasn't being allowed inside now we've already discussed the horrific murder
scene that the fire department discovered when they busted into the home but moving on to the investigation
and some further things that were found the furniture in the room that Philip was found in was completely incinerated
this indicating that the fire was ignited with some type of accelerant it's believed that the bed was where the
fire started a special accelerant k-9 was brought into the scene and indicated that an accelerant was present on the
stairs and in the two bedrooms upstairs where the victims were found these bedrooms were those of the two daughters
who were away at school matches were discovered at the top of the stairs speaking of dogs dog lovers will be
happy to hear that the family's dogs were discovered by firefighters unharmed after autopsies on all four victims the
medical examiner's report indicated as follows this according to the initial arrest affidavit filed by detectives the
three adults had been killed by blunt force and sharp force trauma they were beaten and stabbed to death
specifically Saba had been stabbed through the back of the neck Phillips cause of death was thermal and
sharp force injuries further there was evidence that all three adults had been restrained adhesive tape residue was
found on Amy's wrists and ankles and on Vera's wrist it was believed that Savas wrists and ankles were bound with
something with an edge like a zip tie Saba and Amy were both beaten with a baseball bat and stabbed and sava also
showed signs of strangulation Phillip likely was stabbed with a sword probably one of his father's kept as part of his
martial arts collection Amy's right middle finger was bruised injuries consistent with her attacker trying to
pull a ring off it was later speculated by authorities Vera had been stabbed in the neck but had the fewest injuries the
medical examiner concluded that she had also been strangled and that she had a history of heart disease and probably
suffered a heart attack during the incident now from the get-go this case was a big deal in DC within hours of the
fire the mayor and Police Chief were both at the house the Metropolitan Police Department's homicide unit was
called in to start their investigation assisted by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms jeffrey owens was
the lead detective from the metropolitan PD assigned to the case investigators began the process of combing through the
house to try to determine who could have done this and sorting through the fire debris for evidence here are some of the
more significant things that they discovered the phone lines to the house visible coming out of the utility boxes
outside of one of the back doors of the home work cleanly severed there was evidence of a struggle in the main entry
foyer and he talked about a Meegan's starbucks they have a picture of her starbucks
is placed on a sideboard in the entry hallway her Louis Vuitton handbag was on a chair hey red wheelie briefcase was on
its back with paper spilling out of it this belonged to Sava bookbag belonging to philip was spilled
open and its contents was like folders notebooks and papers were scattered about a letter opener was near the front
door the computer drive that stored the security system footage was gone Ryan the casing remained but the
important stuff was taken and the seven blue wires that powered it were cut Amy and Savas iPhones were gone
investigators subpoenaed their cell phone records and those of the people they were known to have been in contact
with in order to reconstruct what had happened as far as phone activity goes a bloody baseball bat was recovered in the
room where the three adults were found the blood was both Amy's and Savas a second bloody bat was found downstairs
a bloody plastic bag and a large amount of blood were found in the room where the adults were also in the room
investigators discovered a bloody shoe print and the two pizza boxes delivered by Domino's the night before right some
of the pizza was gone consumed but there was one partial chewed piece of crust still left in one of the boxes a large
sharp samurai sword was recovered traces of Philips blood were found on it now there was a noticeable lack of foreign
fingerprints or DNA found in the home so whoever had done this they did it wearing gloves
they did find two foreign hairs and they're gonna send those off for testing duct tape was found sealing shut the
doggy door that led from the kitchen to the basement and one small piece of duct
tape was found in the driveway none of the duct tape net matched any of the rolls found inside the home mm-hmm a
kitchen knife was found propping open a basement window this is the kind of window that tilts open and closed yeah
and the window well is going to be covered by a grate it kind of reminds me just from hearing about it very similar
to the JonBenet Ramsay case where you have the window well it's covered by that great you have to open that up to
get to the window now a frisbee and a screwdriver we're also propping up other windows in the
basement it's unclear why these windows were propped open in this manner but one key
piece of evidence is something that was missing from the house so investigators quickly noted that the blue Porsche
primarily driven by a me you remember the vehicle that was photographed by Vera's daughter right was missing but it
turned up quickly it wasn't they found it engulfed in flames this was around 5:30 p.m. on the 14th hmm in a church
parking lot in New Carrollton inside the car they found a neon green construction
vest on the vest was a hair that was sent for testing as law enforcement located witnesses and surveillance video
a couple of additional things came to light one a witness reported seeing the Porsche around 1:30 p.m. on the day of
the fire which was being driven erratically by a short-haired african-american male wearing a neon
green vest this sighting was on New York Avenue in Northeast DC heading out of town toward Maryland in the direction of
where the Porsche was eventually found second surveillance footage from the church parking lot cameras showed an
african-american male wearing a dark hoodie and jeans and carrying a large construction type bucket walking in the
church parking lot so they have two hairs from the house they have the hair from the car we know that there was a
accelerant used in the house the car was burning so we're I'm assuming there's a
accelerant there and those are probably going to be tested to match those so this is you know a wealthy family
powerful in the community so this is going to be a very thorough investigation yeah massive investigation
and they want to talk to investigators want to talk to and interview everyone that they could possibly think of born
with the delivery of the money we have an idea of what the motive could be or the wealth of the family the power of
the family we have an idea of what the motive could be and but that you have to cast a very wide net hmm
because there's a lot of people that are motivated by money well going off of that they are going to very quickly come
to the conclusion that the family and Veera were the victims of a home invasion extortion plot and held hostage
for up to about 22 hours investigators actually believe that whoever done this was likely familiar with the family's
routines and must have been watching the house at least that day or possibly previous day's leading up to it right
investigators thought that the attack started once Amy left to walk to Starbucks and Veera and Phillip were
home alone now the question here becomes no one knows whether the perp knew that
Phillip who would normally be at school was actually in the home investigators knew that the phone lines were cut by
the time the doggy daycare center had called at 3:15 and also the ami was seen alive and well walking back toward her
home at 3:25 after Starbucks they knew that Jordan delivered $40,000 to the home on Thursday and that the money was
gone it was impossible to determine whether any other money was missing one thing investigators found was a file
cabinet drawer in the office containing four handguns and $13,000 in cash now they could only speculate that Sabah
hadn't give given the money to the perp because it would draw attention to these
guns located in the same spot this looked like a well-planned targeted plot to hold a family hostage for ransom
right clearly Sabah had been forced to request the cash from his CFO one thing that
police found interesting the home was full of expensive jewelry and artwork and these items were untouched
whoever did this was after one thing cash right was that the only motive if that were the case why killed the family
after the money was delivered so investigators did not have a lot to go on there were no fingerprints on the
baseball bat or anything else that it seemed that the perp might touch Riley he said probably use gloves
yeah and the perpetrator removed the security system and he took with him anything used to bind the victims well
this is a big house and there's multiple victims so then you start questioning is
it just one perpetrator or multiple perpetrators right now he did leave behind the duct tape on the doggy door
and one piece of duct tape that was reportedly found in the driveway but they didn't have any prints on them so
cops did have one thing one very important thing the pizza crust found in the box of leftover pepperoni pizza
there was a partially consumed piece but leaving behind the crust it could have been one of the family or veera of
course right or it could have been left by a perpetrator well that's going to give us possible DNA but also possible
bite impressions yeah the chewed part of the crust was carefully swab before the
evidence was even bagged and tagged and delivered to the ATF forensic lab for expedited testing when the lab ran the
swab they got a complete single source male DNA profile law enforcement ran that profile through CODIS and boom they
got a direct hit Darren Dylan went date of birth November 27th 1980 the chances that this DNA did not belong to him were
1 in 10 quintillion as for the hair found on the vest and the burned-out Porsche there were two DNA contributors
one was Savas and one was Darren went Darren went was also found to be the contributor of DNA found on the handle
of the knife that was propping open the basement window now it's believed that Darren went whoever he was had taken the
money and evidence from the home and drove off in Amy's Porsche which he had then torched in the parking lot where it
was found the church it turned out was just a few hundred yards from the apartment that Darren went sister
Samantha lived in in Prince George's County Maryland whyn't had listed as his home address
and where he had actually lived for a brief period of time police pulled out all the stops in the search for this man
they found evidence that he also torched a minivan that he owned hashtag banned the van yeah so who is
this Darren went right that's what we want another nun giant piece of [ __ ] he's a man that was recently kicked out
of his mother's apartment this after losing it in an argument over some dirty dishes and threatening everyone in the
apartment including his brother Stephane who also lived there Wendt was taken in
by his father and stepmother Pamela although this is not a long-term solution he had been told he needed to
be out by the end of the month Pamela told investigators and testified at trial that that everyday was pretty much
the same wint would get up and he would go look for work at 5:00 a.m. leaving the home right he would come home at
10:00 a.m. eat go to the gym and then he would spend the rest of the day on his phone Secret Service analysts pored over
his phone and social media history Wendt was found to have been active on social
media over 70 times a day between Facebook posts Facebook instant messages and Facebook voice messaging in the
months leading up to the murders but went went completely inactive online for a 36 hour period starting at 6:00 a.m.
on May 13th continuing until 559 p.m. on the 14th right during the time of the murders and the fire
Pamela later testified that he left the house on the 13th and never came home that night which was very concerning to
her and his father since he never stayed out whence sister and girlfriend both tried to contact him repeatedly during
this time period with no response he reappeared as 6:00 p.m. on the 14th driving his blue minivan and seemed
stressed out but did not say where he had been his social media blackout ended with a brief puzzling post at 7:30 3
p.m. that evening just five letters bt d uz he called his girlfriend to those again
bt bt d uz yeah it's very strange and any clue on what that means maybe it's just a butt-dial or a but text or i
think that this was this was intended for whatever reason it could have been some type of typo I'm very I'm kind of
clueless on what this means or what it could mean you've studied computer forensics so you figured I figured you'd
know what this means that's right after this he does call his girlfriend and he went out there
security footage of him and his brother Darrell at a Walmart at 10:24 p.m. where
went paid for purchases in $100 bills then they left but went later returned at 11:28 p.m. four more purchases what
did they buy do we know I think it was probably a bunch of insignificant items because I couldn't find a list of what
was purchased it could have just been somebody out on a bit of a spending spree is what what I'm guessing Pamela
said that went stayed home on the 15th and then disappeared late that evening this time the blue minivan that he owned
did not come home with him on the 15th on the night of the 15th the Kenilworth fire department found it in flames after
midnight on May 16th and determined that it was arson now police didn't put together that this vehicle belonged to
wint until May 20th this is a week after the home invasion yeah sometime after the 17th now we got to keep in mind here
that meanwhile while all this movement is going on bye-bye wint police have figured out who they're looking for
yeah because of the DNA testing so sometime after the 17th Darren went left for New York to visit his girlfriend
Vanessa pamela knew that he was there because he left her a phone number where he could
be reached he was anxious to hear whether he was going to get his green card which had expired and he was
attempting to reduce so he was even legally here while in brooklyn he waived around $100 bills and told Vanessa that
he had won $2,000 in the lottery and sold his van for cash [ __ ] he treated her to shopping meals and even
gave her $1,500 in cash and bought her a new iPhone around this time he also paid
$1,100 to an immigration attorney this was paid in cash on the night of May 20th went in Vanessa were lying in bed
in her apartment when Wentz wanted photo which was an old mugshot popped up on the screen why there in bed
yes she's trying to cuddle on him on the TV screens dirty ass and she's trying to
cuddle on him and that his ugly face pops up on the screen well when they see this they quickly left her apartment and
they went to a hotel this so they could not be found right now working with New York police DC authorities tracked went
to Brooklyn and arrived at Vanessa's apartment they just missed him eventually went called his father a DC
homicide detective was at Wentz father's home at that very moment and actually got on the phone with wint he informed
went that there was a warrant out for his arrest and went asked what for the detective replied murder well I just
think that he's lying in bed with this girlfriend quote-unquote and she has to be such a scumbag that she ends up going
to a hotel with him I got all Wallis uh you're wanted for something but hey let's go to the hotel and hang out it's
ridiculous well went left Brooklyn late on Wednesday May 20th or early on the 21st
this this is not really clear we don't have an exact time here but we do know that he paid a private company nine
hundred dollars in cash to drive him back to Maryland he left behind one of his phones which police had used to
locate him in New York this was left behind in possession with his girlfriend Vanessa she told police
that she believed went planned to turn himself in once he arrived back in Maryland police were able to trace went
to a Howard Johnson express in located at College Park the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force staked out
the parking lot and watched went and some others leave the hotel around 11:00 p.m. now Wendt was carrying a bag and
got into a 2012 Chevy Cruze which left the hotel accompanied by a box truck 20 undercover vehicles pursued the two
vehicles as they drove into DC one at some point the US Marshals are actually going to be able to get in between both
of the vehicles causing them to stop and they're actually gonna be able to make the arrest then yes they took went and
two other men one of whom was his brother Darrell yeah who was on the phone with detectives at the time he
warned the other cars passengers that they were about to be pulled over whence cousin George who owned the box
truck and two women who were with went in the Chevy Cruze they took all these people into custody without incident
in the car in which went was a passenger the bag went was carrying was found to contain money orders worth $10,000 one
of the women in the car her name is Chelsea who was there to hang out with the guys and buy pot from Darrell whom
she knew only buy his pot dealer named GU told police that GU had directed the purchase of the money orders and had
given Chelsey money to buy them in the truck authorities saw in plain view seven thousand three hundred and eighty
one dollars in cash mostly in $100 bills and more money orders for thirteen thousand three hundred dollars now I
want to point something out here captain because I do believe this is important and we will see why later okay the
arrest warrant issued for Darren went in May of 2015 it specifically states that
the officers omitting the affidavit in support for arrest believes that mr. wint and others
right held the Savalas family captive and then we have public statements made by authorities investigating the case
indicating that the family was targeted but police did not believe that went was
solely responsible for the slaughter of the family and for their housekeeper vera police including the chief said
repeatedly that the elaborate crime probably required the presence and assistance of more than one person and
that there were possibly other suspects yet they only arrested one that they charged with murder none of the other
people in the Chevy Cruze or the box truck were arrested for murder so Darren who is this vault puffer Darren went was
34 years old at the time of this arrest he was born in Guyana he is 5 foot 8 inches tall 155 pounds he has 6 siblings
3 brothers and three sisters he moved to the United States in 2000 when he was nearly 20 years old and he became a
permanent resident after obtaining his green card which was up for renewal in 2015 in the u.s. went also had two
half-brothers this is Darrell and Stefan Stefan and went shared a mother Daryl and went shared a father does that make
sense yes so went tried to be a marine for a while but that didn't really pan out and neither did PG County Community
College went found himself bouncing from job to job but he was trained as a welder so he did manage to find a job
from May of 2003 to April of 2005 this was at American Iron Works Sava Savalas was his boss at one time so you know but
you have to keep in mind Sava is the CEO of this company and went would have been
a welder it's very likely that they may have never have known each other went was
fired from American Iron Works in 2005 and Sava had apparently refused to take him back despite two follow-up attempts
by went to get his job back one of Wen's cousins also worked at American Iron Works and was fired in
2005 as well this cousin had then threatened to burn the place down American Iron Works went on to obtain a
restraining order barring this person from the premises right coworkers who remembered went from American Iron Works
told investigators that went hadn't gotten along with anyone that he worked with well he argues with everybody
argued with his family about dirty dishes whence paperwork indicates that he was
terminated for missing work went went on to work just sporadically after that well that's great you know III don't
show up for work and now I want you to take me back please take me back I want to come back to work but you didn't show
up to work oh please take me back ridiculous but not only that it sounds like he was like impossible to get along
with right when he did show up and then when he shows up everybody's going hey look the [ __ ] showed up no yeah yeah
we would have rather you not show up yeah I wasn't like he's gonna hey take me back and then they're going hey when
he shows up he's a hard worker all his co-workers like working with him it's like he doesn't show up and when he does
show up yeah he's douchebag so when actually had a somewhat long and somewhat violent
criminal history so this is why his DNA was registered in CODIS and came up right away when law enforcement ran his
DNA in the database after the murders the stuff that was found on the crust in 2009 he was convicted in New York of
assaulting a girlfriend in 2010 he pled guilty to malicious destruction of property after he threatened to kill a
woman and her infant breaking into her apartment stealing a TV and vandalizing her car he told the woman that he was
quote good with a knife and was not afraid of police he was sentenced to 60 days plus probation
seems like a little bit of a light sentence yeah you think also in 2010 he was arrested for sitting on a dumpster
while holding a two-foot-long machete and a BB gun this at a gas station this was pled down to possession of an
open container of alcohol I think the way that this story goes is he was drunk and being I can't say being violent but
being very threatening to people in the area as he sat on this dumpster refusing
to leave went also had a four previous arrests from New York State including multiple cases of assault harassment and
violating an order of protection records and Maryland's show that in the mid-2000s he punched a house mate over
loud music and threatened to drop a woman over a parking spot that's this is a this is a this is a violent aggressive
guy this guy's a awful piece of [ __ ] yeah the car hey that's my parking spot I'll drop you well and then in March so
this is March 23rd 2015 the same year as the murders right went was arrested in DC for receiving stolen property he was
pulled over in a blue minivan that wasn't registered at the time of that arrest he provided a false name to
police and he used the name of one of his half-brothers Stefan went just can't even just make up a name you have to use
one of your brother's names that's awful so it's easy to see a couple of items that are important to this case one he
had a lengthy record and that's why his DNA was already listed and registered with CODIS that's how they made the
match when they found his DNA at the crime scene of the quadruple homicide right the other thing that we should
point out here too is that given his arrest record they weren't going to renew his green card
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Source: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-p3hm5-afb83d

D.C. Mansion Murders /// Part 1 /// 299 Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com On May 14th, 2015 the Washington D.C. Fire Department received a call that a large home in the city’s most exclusive neighborhood was on fire. Inside firefighters discovered bodies. Several people were dead and someone burnt this house down. The fire did not kill these people. This week join us as we discuss a truly horrifying case- The D.C. Mansion murders. Beer of the Week - Coffee Red by Sibling Revelry Brewing Garage Grade - 4 out of 5 bottle caps Check out these friends of the garage - tell them Nic and the Captain sent ya! www.Noom.com/GARAGE - Sign up for a trial and start losing weight for good! www.ThirdLove.com/GARAGE - Get a perfect fitting bra and get 15% off your first order! www.BetterHelp.com/GARAGE - Get 10% off your first month with discount code GARAGE

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Brief Summary

The episode details the tragic DC mansion murders of the Savalas family and the investigation into their deaths, focusing on suspect Darren Wendt.

Key points

The DC Mansion Murders. A tragic fire reveals a horrifying crime scene with multiple victims.
The Sava Family's Success. Sava and Amy Sava were a golden couple, thriving in their careers and family life.
House in Flames. A contractor witnesses the house engulfed in flames, prompting a 911 call.
Murder Investigation. The investigation reveals the horrific murder scene and the use of an accelerant.
Cash as the Motive. Investigators discover that the family was likely targeted for their wealth.
DNA Evidence. A DNA profile leads investigators to a suspect, Darren Wendt.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Who was responsible for the unimaginable horrors that took place inside this home?

Introduction to the case

6:48WatchApr 30, 2019

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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