She Solved Her Own Attempted Murder? | The Case of Dianna D’Aiello | Forensic Files

hi crime junkies I'm your host Ashley flowers and I'm Brit and the story I have for you today is about a woman who
was attacked as she lay in bed in her own home in just a 20 minute window while her husband ran out for fast food
she is beaten so severely that she has no memory of the attack when she first wakes up but then one day she's sitting
in the dentist office like flipping through magazines waiting for her mom and she comes across this picture of a
baby and it makes all of her memories come rushing back she knows who attacked her that night and it was the same man
she was living with now while she recovers her husband except that's not the whole
story and it would take over a decade for the full truth to come out a truth that led police to a serial killer this
is the story of Diana Dello [Music] so let me set the scene we're in Tustin California September 30th 1979 it's
around 2:00 in the morning when a 19-year-old named Judy is startled awake by the sound of a voice calling her name
and it takes her a second to like get her bearings like she even wonders if she is dreaming but it sounds like her
downstairs neighbor 20-year-old Diana green so she goes to the window to see if she can like see anything out in the
yard but she doesn't see anything it's like too dark so she crawls back into bed next to her husband and what feels
like 15 minutes later she hears another voice this time a man's voice and she hears the man say something like I leave
you alone for 10 minutes half an hour this is what happens to you so she kind of just lays in bed and listens in
silence probably holding perfectly still and not wanting to even breathe too loud
just trying to figure out what's going on and it's the man she hears again next Judy Judy please wake up and this time
she knows she's heard it so she goes to the window again and outside she sees Diana's husband 21 y- old Kevin green
and he's running like in and out the back door of the Green Apartment just in this Panic crying out for help and at
one point she looks through the Green's open kitchen door and she sees him making a phone call now Judy's first
thought must likely be oh this must be the baby because you see Diana is pregnant two weeks past her due date
with her and Kevin's first child together a girl that they plann to name Shantal Marie so Judy and her husband
both quickly get dressed they Rush downstairs to help and that's when Kevin screams that Diana has been attacked and
what he says next makes Judy's blood run cold he says that Diana has been shot in
the head Kevin found her when he got home from a late night fast food run and though she is still alive she needs help
right away if she's going to make it so Judy jumps into like go mode to flag down the ambulance that Kevin called
because it keeps like passing by the complex and when she leads paramedics inside the apartment Judy is stunned by
what she sees there is blood everywhere Diana is laying in bed naked in a pool of her own blood and she is struggling
to breathe and I mean Brett it is so bad literally her brain is exposed so paramedics Rush Diana to the hospital
where her family is waiting cuz Kevin had called them too and he's probably like chomping at the bit to get there as
well but the officers who also responded to the apartment say they need him to stay behind because you know like they
got to talk to him he's clearly distraught but he cooperates cuz he wants police to do their jobs and find
whoever did this to his wife so police asked Kevin to walk them through his day leading up to finding Diana and we
actually got to speak with him and he gave us the full rundown of that day too which we kind of cross reference with
case records Diana's held on to that she shared with us and according to police records Kevin and Diana were home
watching TV with his brother who actually lived with them until around 6 when a friend of Kevin's came over with
his wife around 7:45 Kevin told us that he and his friend went to go buy weed and the friend's wife stayed behind with
Diana and then they got back at around 10:30 how far did they have to go for this weed run so like 20 minutes or so
and it's worth noting Kevin told us like he didn't smoke weed that day like it just took so long he said because they
got lost so exactly who is the weed for if not for Kevin he claims it was for that friend who came over so I don't
know they go on this long weed run anyway Kevin came home his friends leave Kevin left again to take his brother to
go meet friends which only took like 15 minutes or so and then he came back at around 10:45 and then he and Diana laid
on the couch and watched a movie on the TV now before midnight he says that he and Diana had sex then they moved the TV
into their bedroom so that they could finish the movie in bed and after about an hour Kevin left to go get cheeseburg
From a Jack In The Box across the street like thinking he'd be right back he said
that he just left the kitchen door unlocked but then when he got to the Jack in the Box it was packed Kevin told
us he was in a hurry to get back home he didn't want his wife to wait so he went
to the next closest one which was like 3 miles away now arriving back home he noticed that the front door was open a
crack so he pushed it open with his foot went inside and that's when he found Diana and then he makes note of
something something that stood out to him and stands out now to investigators in an episode of on the case with pazan
a detective remembers Kevin telling him that on the way out like when he was going to Jack In The Box he noticed
quote a Blackman standing next to a black van now he didn't think much of the guy at the time but he was still
there standing by the van when Kevin got back and found Diana so now Kevin is thinking that maybe that that guy could
have hurt his wife and is that guy still there like did he go out and try to get
a hold of the guy after he found Diana I don't know if he makes the connection that this guy could have been the
attacker like in that moment I don't think he's like really thinking about it until he's talking to police and in the
moment he was probably so frantic trying to like tend to Diana and get her help he's not like that guy goes completely
out of his mind right now all in all he says he was gone for about 20 minutes tops and Kevin's story seems to check
out because the bag of warm food is literally still like sitting on the table that he just went and got now when
he found Diana lying in bed it was dark he said that she was making a sound almost like she was fake snoring so at
first he thought she was just like kind of messing around with him but when he turned on the lights he saw this just
massive hole in her forehead which is what made him think that she'd been shot with he says he thought it was like a
large caliber weapon at close range like was exactly what he said that feels really specific how would he know that
well because Kevin is a marine Corporal who serves at a local helicopter station
in the tool shops I mean he probably like knows his way around a gun and what he eventually realizes that like fake
snoring sound was actually her trying to breathe through pooling blood so Kevin says he forced her mouth open to help
her breathe better but she like bit down on his fingers when he did and that is when he called police he says that she
was moaning which to Kevin meant that she was still breathing so looked around to the apartment to see if anything was
missing he didn't notice anything like while he's waiting for police but here's what's so interesting police don't agree
with Kevin that Diana was shot cuz to them they're like neighbors would have woken up to a like the sound of a
gunshot right and about 20 minutes after Diana is rushed to the hospital police get a call confirming that they're right
doctors say that Diana was hit in the head with a blunt heavy object something like a m maybe a baseball bat and and
they're saying someone broke in and did that in this 20 minute window yeah according to Kevin that's all she was
alone for so police start searching for something that could be the weapon they don't find anything though so they do
finally let Kevin go to the hospital to be with his wife and there all Diana's family can do is stare at two heart rate
monitors one for Diana one for her baby and they're just they're both fighting for their lives I can't imagine being in
that head space where you know in the days leading up to this you're like oh like I can't wait to go to the hospital
to see their new baby their new grandchild and now they're wondering you know their first granddaughter too oh my
God and now they're at the point where like are we going to have one or both of them right they could lose both of them
it had to have been like a very surreal moment and doctors tell them that they're actually holding off on
performing an emergency C-section to deliver the baby which is normally what they would do if it were just the baby
in danger but with Diana's head trauma like both her and the baby could die if they put her body under any more stress
and for right now the baby's heart rate is steady and they're working to stabilize Diana they do this for about
12 hours but at about that point after she's admitted one of the monitor's flatlines Kevin and Diana's parents are
by her side when doctors rush into the room they Usher the family out and when doctors come back out they have a
heartbreaking update they lost Shantal Marie and now they have to rush Diana into emergency surgery to stop the
swelling in her brain so when police arrive at the hospital Kevin fills them in on everything that has happened and
they brace themselves now not just for an investigation into an assault but an assault and now a homicide and it's a
homicide charge for Shan Paul yes so that's the charge that they hope to eventually hit someone with but they
they got to find that someone first though as Diana goes on to make a slow recovery cuz she does get out of surgery
she is stable police begin to wonder if the person who did this to her the one that
they're looking for is right there in her hospital room because Kevin is like saying and doing just some weird like
first right when they get to the hospital Kevin tells police that Diana's doctor told him that she was sexually
assaulted but when they go talk to that doctor he actually can't confirm this and in his opinion he says he doesn't
think she was second when Diana does eventually wake up this is about 10 days after she's in this coma her significant
brain damage leaves her unable to speak she has what's called Aphasia and her memory is just wiped completely gone she
doesn't remember her friends her family she doesn't even remember Kevin and officers who had been at the hospital
throughout her coma noticed Kevin's reaction to this like he almost seems relieved that Diana can't remember
anything and then finally Diana and Kevin's friends tell cops that at one point someone said they hoped that Diana
recovered enough to name whoever attacked her and Kevin's response was I don't now to be fair Kevin went on to
say that he didn't want d to have to relive the trauma again and that friend took that to mean that he was concerned
for her wellbeing so I I don't even think at the time they necessarily were like concerned by it but like couple all
of this together especially with what they were learning in the field as they were investigating and Kevin starts
looking real bad hi crime junk I'm your host Ashley flowers and I'm Brit and every week we
cover all kinds of True Crime cases from the most infamous to mysterious deaths and disappearances even cases you've
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episodes you can find crime junkie wherever you get your podcasts so the night of Diana's attack
neighbors say that they heard yelling in the complex followed by a woman screaming and this was around 2:00 a.m.
they couldn't say for sure that the sound was coming from The Greens Apartment but they assumed that it was
an argument between Kevin and Diana because apparently that was a pretty common occurrence and it's worth noting
that Kevin told us and police said in an on the case with paulaz on episode that
police had gotten domestic violence calls to The Greens Apartment pretty regularly leading up to the night of the
attack so after some kind of argument screaming whatever a few people heard a door slam then a car speed away which is
not quite the peaceful night in watching TV that Kevin had originally told police
about if all of that commotion was Kevin but I mean it's possible that Kevin did
leave quietly and then what they heard was her attacker but I keep coming back to
remember that thing Judy heard I leave you alone for 10 minutes half an hour and this is what happens to you well
another neighbor remembers hearing that same exact thing and they thought it was
Kevin who said it which if so would be like a pretty weird response to have if you come home you find your spouse in a
actual pool of blood you're like upset that they're hurt yeah this is what happened I leave you alone like yeah and
that doesn't seem to be lost on police because in their notes they wrote down that quote like or what people heard him
say like word for word twice and more and more the people they speak with who knew the couple say that
there was a known history of domestic violence according to their statements Kevin is a heavy drinker so much so that
one of his friends considered reporting him to his commanding officer for alcoholism and his drinking caused
tension throughout their roughly year-long relationship is that what they fought about or did the drinking lead to
fighting about other things I don't really know I mean probably all of the above like Kevin chalked some of their
fighting up to just them being really young and their story never really having a like fairy tale beginning you
see they met at a bar when Diana was 18 and Kevin was 19 and then soon after they started dating Diana moved in with
Kevin and got pregnant now Diana told us that she didn't know at the time but Kevin was still married to another woman
who she said she eventually actually became friends with but it was really messy before that now we talked to that
ex-wife and even though Kevin told us the relationship was over she was very much under the impression it was not so
you got like both women saying kind of the same thing so things were very Rocky especially as Diana's pregnancy went on
and Kevin's abuse got worse and friends tell police that at one point Diana actually asked them to help her move out
and when she did she had a bruise over her right eye that extended down her cheek but that same night that her
friends helped her move her stuff so she could get out she must have had a change
of heart she convinced herself that Kevin was going to change once the baby was born so she went back to the
apartment but here's the wild part when she goes back to the apartment that night she found Kevin with his ex-wife
no yes and his ex told us that they were still legally married when Diana found her there she was actually pregnant with
Kevin's child around the same time that Diana was and she gave birth to to a girl about a month before Diana was
attacked now according to an LA Times article by HG Reza at some point in March of 1979 so this is when Diana was
already pregnant Kevin divorced his previous wife and then married Diana Now Kevin says he didn't abuse Diana that
the only time he ever laid a hand on her was when she came home and found his ex
there he said that she had kicked him in the head as he was sleeping on the floor
he like jumped up he didn't know it was her he fought back but that seems to be contradicted by his own words cuz in an
episode of on the case with paulon and in an episode of Forensic Files he told those producers that at some point in
her pregnancy he had slapped Diana hard enough to leave bruises so now that they know all of
this police bring Kevin in for an interview to sus out what he knows about the weapon used in Diana's assault I
think they're probably hoping he's going to say too much but he stays calm through the whole thing later he even
agrees to take a polygraph that he passes but police can't shake this feeling that something isn't adding up
but does that mean he tried to kill her the idea that a roaming psychopath just happened upon their apartment in the
exact small window that Kevin went out to get food seems almost unbelievable except for the fact that at this very
time there was a roaming psychopath attacking women in almost the exact way that Diana had been attacked and just a
week into the investigation of Diana's case police get word of another brutal attack a 24-year-old named Deborah
Kennedy is found by her sister bludgeon to death inside their shared apartment now authorities determined in that case
that Deborah had been sexually assaulted and the similarities in the victim profiles are hard to ignore both Diana
and Deborah are young white living in the same neighborhood attacked the same way both in first floor apartments and
these two attacks actually fit a much larger pattern because for 2 years police have been responding to assaults
all across Orange County California and at least 10 other women who lived in first floor apartments with either
unlocked windows or unlocked doors had been attacked in the middle of the night they'd all been beaten with some kind of
blunt object mostly fatally and some were sexually assaulted now police believe that they all the work of a
serial killer that they're calling the bedroom Basher and for some reason it takes until Deborah's murder for police
to finally form a task force to investigate this is Diana the only Survivor no so there are others
definitely one that we know of who was attacked in July of 1979 she she had to have like a
tracheotomy because of her injuries and has difficulty speaking and all she remembers about her attack is hearing
noises in her apartment hallway before a man grabbed her told her to shut up and
it doesn't seem like any description of her attacker was ever shared by police so I'm not sure if she couldn't remember
what he looked like if her because of her injuries maybe she never saw him I don't know so for a while again Diana's
still recovering she doesn't remember anything so they're like really trying to dig into this line of inquiry hunting
down a potential serial killer but along the way they get hundreds of tips with conflicting information which kind of
leads them to wonder if they're right like is this a serial killer or are these a bunch of different people
because to them it seems so farfetched like really how could one guy commit all of these horrible assaults so closely
together and just fly completely under the radar I mean it's 1979 this is literally like the time to do that I'm
with you like I don't think it's that wild but at the time it was and then there's another attack on October 21st
17-year-old Deborah Senor is found dead by her roommate after leaving a party that they both went to earlier in the
night again Deborah's Costa Mesa apartment is on the first floor and there are no signs of a Breakin but even
with new evidence from this murder I mean they actually have handprints on the window sill and a seaman sample
police don't find any solid leads and they do end up disbanding the bedroom Basher task force by the end of October
they only give it a month less than that like from what I can tell like which I couldn't believe what's the point of a
task force for five minutes exactly and there's no real reporting explaining why
it was disbanded so quickly I don't feel like you could like get through all the
materials in that time or get on the same page as a task force yeah retire Detective Tom Tarpley who was with the
tus and PD he took over the Cold Case investigation he told us that bet in that time basically the task
force just like ran its course and with no new information coming in and like possible Staffing shortages like that
one seems most likely to be they just had to return the cases back to like their local jurisdictions and everyone
had to kind of work them separately so in Diana's case their last real remaining hope is that Diana will be the
one to solve her own case maybe she heals maybe her memory will come back and she'll be able to tell them who did
this to her and sure enough out out of the blue one day late in November they get a call from Diana's dad he says
Diana remembered something something really big so apparently Diana had tagged along to her mom Pat's dentist
appointment earlier that day and while waiting for her mom Diana is sitting in the lobby just kind of like flipping
through some magazines and as she's doing that she comes across this picture of a baby and that's when all of a
sudden the pieces start clicking into place I mean again at this point she remembers nothing but she sees this baby
and all of a sudden she remembers that she'd been pregnant and from there images of her Attack start appearing in
her mind and when Pat came out of her dentist office Diana was trying to tell her something but she was struggling to
find the words cuz again remember she was having to learn how to talk all over again it's not just her memory's gone
her basic skills are so she said something like Ivan hit me Ian hit me and to her mom Pat it sounds
like she's trying to say Kevin instead of Ivan so what they do is they take Diana to a speech therapist before
anyone even confronts Kevin with this because this is huge and when that person asked Diana who hurt you Diana
points to her wedding ring and the therapist asks her if she means Kevin and Diana says yes and that's all police
need to hear detective Tarpley believes that this is when they pulled Diana's out of the bigger bedroom Basher
investigation like in that moment I mean again they're all worked separately at that point but in that moment they're
like oh clearly this is something else and they like pull it out cuz they're like okay our surviving victim has just
told us who did this and there's no chance that it's all one in the same right like Kevin can't be the bedroom
Basher no they've ruled Kevin out on those other attacks based on his work schedule on loan so it was always just
two options either she was part of this serial killer spree and Kevin was innocent or Kevin attacked his wife and
her case nothing to do with the rest of them and it's clear to them now it is the ladder police believe they have
their guy he's been right there in front of them this whole time and on November
30th exactly 2 months after Diana was attacked they send a squad of patrol cars out to track Kevin down they find
him leaving a 7-Eleven and he is completely caught off guard when police arrest him on charges of murder
attempted murder and assault but 5 days after Kevin's arrest he's [Music] released two branches of the same
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now the da doesn't file charges against Kevin because of concerns about Diana's ability to testify against him at least
right now but they aren't just throwing in the towel to them it just means that they need to get more so while Diana
divorces Kevin and begins to work with her speech therapist to put words to what happened to her that night police
work on buttoning up their case they go back to the hospital and they find another nurse that they hadn't spoken to
to before who has even more stories about Kevin's strange Behavior while his wife was in the hospital she says that
after Diana woke up Kevin said what if she wakes up and doesn't remember who did this and thinks it was me which is
like not a great choice of words but the next thing that the nurse reports is even more disturbing at least to me the
nurse tells police that there was this time when Diana was restrained using a posy vest that's like this jacket used
for trauma patients so they don't like pull out their tubes or hurt themselves and the nurse left Diana alone with
Kevin while she checked on another patient and when she looked back through the window into Diana's room she saw
Kevin pulling the ties on Diana's vest so that when she stepped forward she would be like pulled backward and have
to sit down and the nurse claimed that Kevin was laughing while this was happening but Diana who was still
getting her speech back at this point seemed like completely frustrated which yeah that feels
so cruel and like unnecessarily cruel but that still just proves he's a shitty husband they need something more and
they might have the Ace in the Hole so there was a lot of speculation early on about whether or not Diana had been
sexually assaulted everyone seemed to have an opinion everyone was hearing different things from different people
in the early days but they had done a forensic exam while she was in the hospital just to be sure
and they had found semen now initially this wasn't a huge deal because part of Kevin's story to police was that he and
Diana had had sex that night to try and induce labor right so when they did antibody tests on the seen and found
that it came from someone with Kevin's O negative blood type it didn't really do
anything to prove or disprove his guilt about 7% of people are O Negative Kevin's in that 7% but still he's not
denying that they had had sex that night right but that totally changes when Diana is able to speak enough to tell
police her version of events that night because Diana told us that her speech wasn't all the way there yet when she
talked to police but they understood what she was trying to get across she communicated that Kevin was drinking and
smoking weed that Saturday which upset her because she was so close to her due date we talked to her she claimed she
even called him while he was out on that like long ass weed run because she was having contractions Now Kevin denies
this he's like you know if she was having contractions we would have gone to the hospital either way by the time
he got home Diana says they fought about this cuz she was upset she went into their bedroom slammed the door Kevin
came in apologized he wanted to have sex but Diana says she said No and when she
resisted Kevin violent sexually assaulted her and the last thing she remembers is Kevin picking up his key
caddy and striking her in the head with it which she believes knocked her out what's a key caddy um it's basically
like this key ring that sometimes like R tracks you can like put it on your belt
loop or whatever okay and I hate to ask this but with the head trauma how reliable is A's memory at this point and
you mentioned earlier that she had had some memory loss this is part of the theme right so told us he remembered
doctors warning him that Diana was pretty suggestible but the police reports that Diana sent us contain a
statement from her doctor saying that she only has issues with her speech now at this point not her memory now based
on the police reports her friends remember her telling them what she told police at the time that sex had gotten
too painful for her by that point and she was bleeding so she didn't want to have sex anymore though there is one
friend who remembers Diana saying that she and Kevin tried having sex to induce labor that day but it hurt too much so
she wanted to stop but that was even earlier in the night like it doesn't line up with Kevin's story and when he
claimed they had sex now Kevin claims they never even found any blood on his key caddy but none of the case files
that we have even mentioned the key caddy one way or another so I don't know about that part so they don't have any
kind of weapon we don't know if it's the key caty doesn't seem like it would be a
key CAD again remember her brain's exposed right but the da believes Diana and that means finding Sean that's
likely Kevin to them means he attacked her so in March of 1980 Kevin is arrested a second time and this time the
charges stick police add a spousal rape charge making Kevin one of the first people to be tried for that after
California had previously passed a law against it which is like why I bet you have to pass a law against it but they
did now in the months leading up to Kevin's trial Diana is determined to get Justice
for her daughter that she'd never got to see grow up the states case which has become Front Page News by this point
rests on her shoulders without much other evidence is Diana's account enough and what about the emotional and
physical demands of a trial is Diana up to testifying in court I me these are the questions hanging over investigators
who seem to have concerns about the strength of the case because according to an article in the Hanford Sentinel
they end up dropping the spousal rape charge at some point leading up to the trial I don't know exactly why but from
those records Diana sent us it seems like it was tough to establish whether or not
the sex was concentral or not like every rape case I mean like but they they're not they're not taking on that fight so
in October of 1980 just over one year after her attack d Diana takes the stand in front of Kevin and devastatingly
details an abusive marriage that culminated in an assault that caused permanent life-altering damage I mean
still she is partially deaf in one ear fully deaf in the other she's lost her sense of smell she has a plastic plate
in her head and she has had to relearn basic language skills from scratch Reading Writing speaking communication
that was once as easy as breathing is now a daily struggle for her after her emotional testimony Kevin's defense is
up next they can't introduce the polygraph that he passed into evidence the judge won't allow it so they put all
of their focus on discrediting Diana's memories they point out that in pre-trial hearings she said that her
attacker took off all his clothes but then at the trial she said he was fully clothed they have Kevin take the stand
in his own defense and he points the finger at the man who was standing outside the apartment someone he says
that police didn't look at hard enough especially while this bedroom Basher was roaming the streets and after a grueling
week and a half long trial the jury only deliberates for 3 hours before coming back with a verdict Kevin is found
guilty of Diana's attempted murder and the second degree murder of their daughter shant tal Marie and the judge
sentences him to 15 years to life in a Maximum Security Prison and to be clear no one's happy about any of this I mean
to Diana this verdict is a tragedy but I'm sure Kevin sentence finally makes her feel safe I mean she told us that's
when she could move on with her life that's when she got a job she went to beauty school and then two years after
Kevin's conviction she met someone new that someone she'll end up having a daughter with and
meanwhile Kevin's not exactly a model prisoner according to an article in the Deseret News he deals drugs he starts
fights which he told us is how he survived in prison now come 1989 Kevin is up for parole for the first time and
Diana remembers him showing up in Chains and she does she attends every single one of his parole hearings to make sure
he stays behind bars but in the DA's eyes Kevin seals his own fate at those parole hearings because he never takes
responsibility for the crime that he was convicted of he still claims that he's innocent and he still claims that the
guy outside his apartment is the one responsible for attacking Diana so not seeing any signs of remorse the DA's
office opposes Kevin's release but then a few years into his time in prison Kevin seems to turn his life around he
gets sober that same article in Deseret news reports that he earns a degree in computer science he gets a job as an
office clerk in the prison and that's actually where he meets his third wife and he and his daughter with his first
wife both told us that from that point he stays on track and he actually tries to be as present of a dad as he can be
from prison she and her mom told us they always believed in Kevin's innocence and
that he was never capable they didn't think he was capable of attacking Diana so brutally and actually a detective
working on one of those bedroom Basher cases in 1996 is about to find out that they're
right when you think of New England you don't think of this I'm Kylie low I'm an
investigator journalist and Storyteller each week I share homicides in missing persons cases from across the state of
Maine and greater New England this is my home these stories are my passion and this podcast is my platform to help
friends and families keep the memories of their loved ones alive long after the attention Fades this is dark down
east so with advances that come in DNA testing in like mid to late '90s Detective Tom Tarpley of the Tustin PD
starts taking a second look at all those murders that had once been attributed to
this elusive bedroom Basher those cases are all still unsolved and they were hoping to make progress on them years
later and one of those cases that he's looking into stands out Deborah Kennedy she's the one who was killed just a week
after Diana's attack so detective Tarpley submits a DNA sample that they have on file from Deborah's case to
codus and so soon he gets ahead the sample matches 41-year-old Gerald Parker who detective Tarpley learns has
been serving time in a prison for a parole violation and thank freaking God he did this testing when he did because
Gerald was scheduled to be released the next month his DNA was in codus because he was convicted of sexually assaulting
a 13-year-old girl after abducting her like he had grabbed her and thrown her into his van on on her way home from her
dad's funeral what I know so in June of 1996 detective Tarpley visits Gerald in prison and he's not alone police in
Costa Mesa have been looking into Gerald too cuz his DNA matched samples from three of their unsolved murders so the
Costa Mesa police go at him first were these cases known bedroom Basher cases or are they outside of that all three of
the Costa Mesa murders were and then we've got uh the and those include um Deborah senior so they were part of that
original task force so Gerald says he did have violent urges he heard voices but he says he's been prescribed
medication for those mental health issues and he can't remember assaulting anyone let alone he says he can't
remember the four women that they're talking to him about and at the time of the murders in Costa Mesa um he was
living at a Marine Corps Airbase working nights in a helicopter Squadron working
around helicopters like Kevin did Bingo and at the same time at the same base in
Tustin yeah and this is when like all the feelers go up because apparently so many years on even the
da had started making some rustlings like by this point he wasn't so sure that Kevin was their guy anymore I don't
think anything specific was being done yet in Diana's case to prove or disprove that feeling but a case that they once
thought was connected to Diana now being solved the killer having a connection to
where Diana's husband worked was just like a little too weird to write off yeah so when Costa Mesa police don't
really get anywhere with Gerald detective Tarpley goes in and tries his hand at questioning him and he shows
Gerald first a picture of Deborah and ask why would your DNA be at the scene of This Woman's murder but Gerald claims
he doesn't recognize her says he has no idea why his DNA would be there but he does admit that he had been in that area
where her apartment was and that's when detective Tarpley runs Gerald through Diana's attack and reminds him that
Kevin is serving time for it and Gerald not only admits that he read about the case but he gives up details only
someone who had been in the apartment should know like the street it was off of the layout of the bedroom Diana was
attacked in the fact that the door to the apartment was on the side of the building detective Tarpley is actually
Amazed by how much Gerald remembers after 16 years so he asked him if he knew Kevin while they were in the
Marines but he says he didn't I mean how I don't know I have no idea how many people served on that base or worked
like in that Squadron but it was like a 4700 acre facility so mean we're not talking something small but still it
feels like big coincidence like massive anyway Gerald asked detective Tarpley if
Kevin is on death row and detective Tarpley says he's not sure but hearing about Kevin's conviction seems to flip
some kind of switch in Gerald he's like lost in thought and detective Tarpley thinks that he's on a verge of a
confession so he makes one last plea for Gerald to do the right thing and that hits Gerald hard
he finally asked for Costa Mesa police to come back in because he's ready to talk and when everyone is back in the
room he says he believes an innocent man meaning Kevin green is on death row for
something that he did and out of all the murders all the assaults all the horrible things he's
done that's what's been eating away at him for almost two decades that's the only thing that's been eating away at
him that's all not concerned about the women he killed or left fighting for their lives this man who was in prison
for something he didn't do and though to even be clear like it's not like he did
anything once he saw that Kevin had been arrested and convicted right this has been decades on now it's when he's
confronted but now at least he is finally telling something resembling the truth Gerald likely was the man that
Kevin saw by the van when he left the apartment that day because Gerald says after a night of drinking he parked his
van near The Greens Apartment Complex and he was walking past their apartment when he heard Kevin and Diana arguing
and then he heard a door slam he heard a car drive away so Gerald says that he went back out for a drink for what he
thinks was an hour before coming back to the apartment now this is where like things don't totally add up because we
know that Kevin was only gone for like 20 minutes so the timeline is weird but Gerald does admit that he was high
during all of the murders so my only thought is that maybe what felt like an hour to him was 20 minutes or he even
got that wrong because I don't even know how he'd have time to go and come back anyway someone's timeline isn't quite
adding up but Gerald says he comes back to the apartment at some point and by that time he had gotten in the habit of
just checking if doors or windows were unlocked and Kevin remember had left that kitchen door unlocked so he says he
picks up a board like some kind of 2x4 piece of plywood that he found outside he went inside to where he found Diana
in the bedroom and he says that she actually like when he when when he walks in she like sits up in bed and like
stared at him before laying back down and Gerald says he thinks Diana this is why she thought it was Kevin she like
didn't realize it wasn't him I don't know if he was like backlit or something and like put the pieces together if
someone's in my room it's got to be Kevin yeah the guy that just like left and came back but as soon as she like
gets up lays back down Gerald says he rushed at her with the board striking her in the head before sexually
assaulting her so hold up Kevin has been telling the truth that this whole time yes he's telling the truth about
not being the one who attacked her okay the thing is like there's no version of Kevin's story that he's ever told where
him and Diana fight before he leaves but like that seems like that's what happened right like based on what
neighbors heard based on Diana's own account based even on what Gerald said that he witnessed do they ever try to
say that Kevin hired Gerald no I think they just take Gerald his word when he says that him and Kevin didn't know each
other and I mean after all this time like Gerald has never said that and it would have helped him right to say that
right and listen while it might be easy for someone to argue with this confession of a man who is a serial
killer like what you can't argue with is DNA and luckily the sexual assault test
kit that was done in Diana's case has not been thrown out yet and it hadn't been ever tested for DNA remember just a
blood type right cuz it was back in like the late 70s yeah and in another just like weird coincidence Gerald and Kevin
have the same blood type but PCR tests confirmed that the DNA was Gerald's not Kevin's and just so like we're on the
same page these tests that prove that Kevin didn't attack Diana that Kevin wasn't the one who killed their daughter
those by this point had been available for like 12 of the 16 years he'd been in prison and did Kevin's defense ever try
to get these tested before Kevin said they tried he said they reached out to or he did at one point reached out to a
lawyer who was like one of the first in California to successfully defend a client using DNA but it wasn't feasible
that lawyer wanted like 10 grand to just look into whether there was DNA to test
and then like another 10 grand to actually do the test which he just didn't have but now all in all Police
use DNA to tie Gerald to seven bedroom Basher cases including five murders besid Shan Talmer
those are Sandra fry Kimberly Rollins Marilyn Carlton Deborah Kennedy and Deborah Senor and he's also identified
as a man who attacked a woman named Jane Pettingill who she's the one who is the
other Survivor who tried to describe him back in like 1979 to police but even though he's identified is that he's not
charged for that because the statute of limitations on that assault ran out which is always so wild to me that like
especially when the intent was to kill someone attemped murder like just because you failed like you get to
there's a there's a time limit on being able to be charg right so on June 20th 1996 this is nearly 16 years after Kevin
was sent to prison the New Evidence is brought in front of a judge and there a DA recommends that Kevin be declared
innocent the judge agrees with the recommendation and apologizes to Kevin for all the years he's lost to
imprisonment so finally Kevin's a free man but it takes time to sink in his ex-wife remembers him calling her from a
hotel terrified that police were going to send him back to prison like he can't even believe he's out now he has to
enter also a completely different world than he left I mean he spent almost half
his life behind bars but eventually the state of California passes a bill to compensate him $100 a day for each day
he served which comes out to about 600 $20,000 so when he leaves Kevin he flies to Salt Lake City then he goes to the
Midwest to reunite with his family to start over and finally he gets to be present for his daughter who goes on
actually to get a criminal justice degree and in most of the reporting that's where this story ends but Diana
told us that's not where it ended for her she tells the media how shocked she was by these Revelations I mean she's
like at the time struggling to reconcile her memories with Gerald's confession she ends up actually meeting with police
who show her a photo of Gerald but she has no idea who the guy is I honestly can't imagine how difficult that would
be to process like you said to reconcile what you feel like you know versus what
is known right and it has to feel I mean you went to trial you believe it in your
soul like something that happened to you and now she's like also in this place where she's having to like go through
that attack again and again trying to make sense of it but every time she's like sure she didn't mix up she is sure
she didn't remember another instance where Kevin had hurt her like he like had done so many times before so I mean
I'm sure someone was like oh maybe you're conflating this with something else and she's like no like I remember
what happened and as everything does slowly start to sink in police drop another bombshell they let her know that
Kevin has already been released so like as she's learning this she probably thinks he's like it's something that's
going to happen and she still has a sense of like safety or security as she's processing all this and then
that's just gone and then she has to jump into survival mode in an LA Times article by Renee Lynch and Dexter filk
and she says she is considering filing a restraining order against him at that point like that's truly just how scared
she was and she said like she kept I don't know like the way it was for her she kept calling police and like
asking them about specific details about the investigation like she's just keeps
trying to make things add up and she said finally police tell her like listen like we've told you everything like you
know what might be a good idea is for you to go straight to the source like maybe you should go talk to Gerald
before he goes on trial so they tell her to just talk to the serial killer who attacked her yeah and she does she goes
and talks to the serial killer who attacked her with her mom right by her side our world is full of natural
wonders but what happens when human Predators visit these Serene Landscapes with evil in
mind I'm taking you beyond the beauty of some of the most unique places on Earth
to explore the chilling stories that devastate these picturesque destinations because sometimes the most
beautiful places hide the darkest secrets listen to park Predators wherever you get your
podcasts Diana shared with us her mom Pat's super detailed handwritten account of that visit to Gerald which is dated
August 25th 1996 in a room divided by glass with one seat and a phone on one side and another
seat and phone on the other Gerald sat down across from Pat and Diana and Pat told Gerald that they wanted to confront
him and to get answers about what happened and according to this letter Gerald told them even more than they
expected he said that he was wandering around Diana's apartment complex when he heard Kevin and Diana arguing he didn't
know what caused the argument but he stood outside the window and watched Kevin and Diana and according to Pat's
account Gerald claimed that he couldn't make out what it was but that he saw Kevin reach over pick something up from
the dresser and hit Diana a few times did Gerald mention that in his original confession not that I could tell like we
weren't able to get the full transcript before the recording but Pat wrote that Gerald said when he went inside and he
found Diana she was like in this days remember this is when she like lifts her head looks at him before like flopping
back down and then the rest is what he told police but this meeting with Gerald is what reinforces Diana's belief that
Kevin hurt her before Gerald attacked her like in her mind both can still be true so while Diana leaves believing
that Gerald is responsible for attacking her she feels more convinced than ever that so did Kevin and it is incredibly
hard for her to wrap her head around the outpouring of public support that he's getting Diana and Kevin have never
spoken in the years since this Diana told us that he's never tried to reach out to apologize or to make amends and
she firmly believes that he does have something to apologize for it's the reason that she's never been able to
forgive him while she says she has been able to forgive Gerald because he at least
apologized Now Kevin told us that he never reached out to her because he doesn't want to make things harder for
her but things were already pretty freaking hard for her I mean lingering effects of her physical attack itself
aside now that Kevin has been exonerated the media all but blames Diana for his wrongful conviction
so after Kevin's convictions overturned his lawyers say in that LA Times article
that nothing Diana says should be believed because her testimony at Kevin's trial has proven that she's not
reliable but if there's one thing that this story has taught me it's that memory is a complicated thing no matter
if you've suffered a brain injury or not like for example A friend told police that Kevin said that the reason he went
out for that cheeseburger at the Jack In The Box was because Diana was craving one Diana remembers it that way too but
when Kevin talked to us he said that he'd never craved anything in his life like that cheeseburger and Kevin told us
he didn't drink anything the night of the attack but multiple Witnesses remember him drinking that day and again
clearly there was some fight that took place that night but that's never been part of Kevin's
story and is it memory or is it trying to change our memory to make the truth better for certain people easier
now just to be clear nobody ever believes that Kevin is responsible for the crime he was wrongfully convicted of
he has been completely cleared and and my by cleared I mean ultimately exonerated of it he was proven factually
innocent in a court of law Kevin claims that some police officers called Diana and her mom the crazy ladies when the
story like really went public and I've said it before we as Society are quick to write women off as crazy but while
Diana has had to work hard to communicate her thoughts she speaks powerfully when she refle
on what she went through and she does just that when she takes the stand again this time to testify against Gerald when
he goes to trial in 1998 for the murder of her daughter and the murders of five other Orange County women ones that his
DNA was tied to and in that case the jury deliberates for less than two hours before returning a verdict of guilty on
all six counts of first-degree murder with a recommendation of the death penalty Diana told us that she felt a
sense of relief when Gerald was convicted of her daughter's murder because he's where he should be in
prison where he can't hurt anyone else but she still says she wouldn't call it closure she said that when she got our
call about speaking about her perspective of this she felt some hope that maybe talking about it talking
about what she went through like the real full story of what she went through maybe that will bring closure I mean
since the attack her life at times has been difficult and frustrating when she was in high school English was her
favorite subject and before the attack she loved writing poetry to put her innermost thoughts to paper but since
then she has had to work hard to find the right words to even express herself even in everyday
conversations but she has also surprised herself she recovered better than she ever hoped that she would like she only
had I don't know if you know this a 10% chance of survival in the hospital and now she is like the pillar of support
for her friends she drives them to doctor's appointments and keeps busy and goes on vacation with her grandkids and
she raised her daughter from a place of hope and never a place of fear so she lived she lived and we asked Diana what
she wants crime junkies to take from her story and she told us that she hopes that we'll look at her case in a
different way than everyone has in the past that there is more to her story than people think and more to her than
what she survived and there's no doubt in my mind that no matter what happened that night in 1979 Diana is a survivor
that is who she is at her core she survived a volatile relationship a heinous attack by an evil stranger
waiting in the shadows and the death of a child I mean her world was turned upside down again and again and again
she is strong and she is never stopped living so if you crime Junkies you or someone you know are experiencing
domestic violence you can reach out to the National Domestic Violence Hotline and 1
1800799 safe we're also going to link link to more resources in our show [Music]
notes you can find all the source material for this episode on our website crime junky podcast.com and you can
follow us on Instagram at@ crimejunkiepodcast make sure you hit subscribe so you see all of our video
episodes but know that we do have new episodes every week in our RSS feed wherever you get podcasts
[Music] oh [Music]

When a pregnant woman is found brutally beaten in her apartment, the race is on to find out whether she’s a serial killer’s latest target – or if her attacker is living under her very own roof. Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations.

For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/survived-dianna-daiello/

If you or anyone you know is experiencing domestic violence, you can reach out to the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE. Resources are available and can be found at this link.

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About Ashley Flowers Ashley Flowers is the top female podcaster in the U.S. and the host of Crime Junkie, the #1 podcast among women and the #1 true crime podcast globally. As the Founder of audiochuck, she has built a top-tier podcast production company that has garnered over 2.6 billion downloads, captivating audiences with its gripping storytelling through 10+ chart topping podcasts. Ashley and her team are dedicated to creating responsible true crime content that respects victims and their families.

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Brief Summary

Diana Dello was attacked by her husband Kevin, later revealed to be innocent; Gerald Parker was the real serial killer linked to multiple murders.

Key points

The Search for Truth. A decade-long journey reveals the truth behind Diana's attack and a serial killer.
Diana's Attack. Diana is brutally attacked in her home while her husband is out for food.
The Hospital Nightmare. Diana's family faces the grim reality of her condition and the loss of her baby.
Domestic Violence History. Neighbors reveal a history of domestic violence in Diana and Kevin's relationship.
The Serial Killer Connection. Police suspect a serial killer after a similar attack occurs shortly after Diana's.
Diana's Memory Returns. Diana recalls crucial details about her attack, leading to a breakthrough in the case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Is that guy still there?

Kevin's frantic thoughts after finding Diana.

6:31WatchFeb 1, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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