Strawberries and Oceans - EPISODE 4 (The Bakersfield Three) | Forensic Files

the Monday after James kad's murder was a busy day for me at work my assignment was to cover a particularly deadly
weekend in Bakersfield where within a 24-hour period three separate shootings took the lives of four people I started
out that morning going to an area of town where historically shootings happen semi often in the front yard of a small
home a young man and a young woman had been shot they weren't a couple but maybe on their way to be they were just
getting to know each other really when gunshots rang out killing both of them now their two families were learning
about each other in the worst way imaginable afterwards my photographer and I headed to the second shooting
location it was outside a home in a different neighborhood but one that was still no stranger to Crime particularly
gang violence there I did the most dreaded thing a crime reporter will ever do I went and knocked on the door of the
house where theur murder took place and inside was the victim's family I remember when the door opened I
could see how dark it was crowded with people who were almost in a zombie like state of grief but my knock at the door
had awoken the anger inside of them as the bright light from the outside Shone in their eyes they had a look of
disbelief that I was there that I would try to speak with them when the death of
their loved one was still so fresh I remember hearing scream dreams to get out but before I could a young man from
the back of the room began to Lunge at me before older men inside grabbed him and tried to hold him back the pain in
his eyes was so raw I'll never forget it even though that day I felt like the furthest thing from an ally to The
Grieving family later on I built a relationship with the victim's father he explained to me that the young man who
charged at me was his son and the twin brother of the murder victim they were only 16 years old when they were hanging
out that Saturday night in their front yard when someone drove by and opened fire one twin was killed quickly his
identical brother who was also shot laid there next to him screaming for help begging for his brother to hold on as he
watched him slip away the day I came to their door the twin brother still had a bullet in his leg that hadn't been
removed yet after that experience I vowed to find a more respectful way to do my job without further traumatizing
victim's loved ones by the time my photographer and I got to the third shooting location where
James was killed the afternoon hours were getting away from us and we had a deadline to make we needed to make it
quick but as soon as we arrived to the neighborhood we both sort of said huh the scene felt very different than
most 17's Olivia Lavo reports tonight two of the homicides took place in areas where crime is not uncommon but in one
case murder is the last thing anyone expected to see in their neighborhood it's a quiet safe
neighborhood and all the neighbors look out for each other here's James's mom die you would never suspect like that
James when you drive through that neighborhood think that somebody was shot and killed there you know you just
wouldn't dream of it the neighborhood was quiet and considered safe particularly the culdesac James colad
was driving out of when he was shot through his car numerous times the homes were big and occupied almost exclusively
by families except for one though the house was large and nice from the outside like others inside the things
going on were quite different it was almost like a metaphor for James's life at the time of his murder a lot of
people told me that to the outside world James had it all together and then some
that he worked hard to give off that image but inside everything was not okay I'm Olivia Lavo and this is the
Bakersfield 3 [Music] [Music] he was just always bright and cheerful and mischievous sometimes as a little
boy and that's his mom die again all the girls loved him he was tall and handsome
and loved surfing at 65 James had big blue eyes and sort of an effortless coolness to
him but the laid-back Surfer was just a small part of him his mind was always going 100 m an hour James had a lot of
ideas ideas for different inventions he loved thinking and designing and making new things which led to a couple of his
products and patents one of James inventions came from his love of skateboarding and video games on one of
the games Flames would shoot out of the skateboard so James decided to make that
a reality and designed a board with wheels that would create a spark when grinded into the pavement another one of
his inventions was a special baby bib to help reduce the mess when feeding your little one he loved creating things and
it made him good money in his 20s he bought a condo on the beach in an upscale area of San Diego he split his
time between there and Baker field but perhaps the most significant event in his early adult life was falling in love
for the first time her name was Amber that was kind of love at first sight for both of them as his mother die puts it
James had met his match very jealous of each other's Beauty Amber gave James a run for his
money you know he was tall she was tall and she was fiery and they they would fight and then make up and fight and
make up like so many young lovers they were consumed by their relationship it was
passionate with highs and lows and moved quickly especially when Amber found out
she was pregnant Amber and James welcomed a baby girl and were building a life together they were engaged and soon
to be married until one Saturday morning they had an argument they were supposed
to attend her friend's wedding together he didn't go and that was the last time he saw her
after the argument Amber went to the wedding alone on her way home to James and their baby she got into an accident
Amber's death sent James into a tail spin I would have to say that was the first time that I really noticed that he
was consuming alcohol I think he probably stayed drunk for the first year and then
brought himself out of that to where he wasn't drinking at all undoubtedly what or rather who helped him out of the the
tail spin was his baby girl Cameron he was my best friend but I also was his best friend Cameron split her time
living with her dad and her maternal grandmother after her mother died she said life with her dad was always an
adventure I don't want this to sound the wrong way but my dad was just really cool like he was
just really really cool and I know that sounds cheesy but like he was really cool and he was a surfer and I just
looked at him with a like I looked at him like he could do no wrong I mean he really was my best friend her loved ones
will tell you Cameron should be most wellknown for her Amazing Heart her beauty on the inside but when people see
her for the first time it's hard to not focus on her looks she has her mother Amber's long strawberry blonde hair
slender figure her height comes from both her parents and her full lips and green bluish eyes are from her father
James her striking looks were tough for him to handle I remember the first bikini picture I posted he was like
calling everybody D her to take that down she can't do that and I was like Dad I'm 14 years old and at the time I
really felt like I was adult and he was like yeah no that's not happening and then into high school I started
obviously looking more and more like an adult and no he couldn't handle it he couldn't handle it nope camon remembers
One Night in particular not long after her 16th birthday I think he had cooked dinner um we ate and then I get up and
I'm like okay I'm going to go hang out with my friends I think we're going to go to a
party mind you my dad to me is like the coolest person in the world so it wasn't
really like I asked I more just said I was going to go and he was like no you're not I'm like what do you mean I'm
not well first of all you're not going anywhere looking like that second of all because I said so and I'm like okay
well I'm going I will come back later he was like cuz my dad had never told me no
before are you kidding me like I said everything was a vacation everything was like candy for dinner okay like he
didn't care so I'm like oh so now now you care he's like well you know we're spending the weekend together I'm like
no I'm going got into a huge yelling match but like just me yelling he's laughing and when someone's laughing at
you when you're yelling it makes you Furious and that memory is just one of the best memories because
what I would give to scream at him like looking back it was so parent likee and I didn't get much of that growing
up that's what I want like if I could have him back for 5 more minutes I'd probably spend it
yelling at him but in the best most loving way possible because it just meant so much to me to be able to have
I'm like oh he is my dad he's my best friend but he is my father first and he's just looking out
for me he cared about me deeply everyone agrees that what James was most proud of in life was being a
father he took a lot of pride Di and being his daughter's best friend he was also very proud of his career his
dedication to his health and fitness but James also had a secret he was very private person he didn't want you to
know that he was down he was going to as people would say suck it up and present to public everything is
everything's great when actuality it wasn't James mom D was one of the first people after James his brothers to find
out what was going on one of the most difficult things that I had early on was admitting in public
that James had a substance abuse problem James on that aspect would have been mortified because he tried so hard to
not let people know because that wasn't him because he was into health and happiness and and being addicted to
opiates he did not want people to know D is talking about it now for a few reasons one she wants people to know
what happened to James could happen to anyone she also knows it undoubtedly played a role in his murder I don't
think his addiction started until he was hit by a car on his birthday the story of his addiction
started out like so many others being seriously injured and as a result prescribed opioids to manage the pain D
says when it was time for doctors to wean him off of the high dose of painkillers it would make James feel
like the pain from his accident was back and worse than ever but really it was his body suffering from
withdrawal what he explained to me was he was just trying to feel normal to get you know as his addiction progressed
just to be able to function during the day D say James didn't want anyone to know about the painkillers to the public
he kept up his image of being a health nut with lots of extra exercising and clean eating and so that was the
contradiction the opiates are definitely aren't a clean substance to put in your
body so he was trying to counteract that with how he took care of himself a lot of people never knew that James was
struggling but in time Cameron his daughter could tell something was different this is how Cameron says she
thought of her dad for most of her life he loved to be seen loved the way he looked he loved himself and in the
most not cocky way possible he never treated anyone bad you know but he was just a love he was just a love he was a
love to love and he loved to love like it was amazing but in the last year of his life
Cameron says suddenly he wasn't as social he wasn't doing the things he was passionate about he just wasn't him it
was like drugs have a hold on you that much all the things you love to do like you're
selling you're selling your toys like your surfboards and your skateboards what I just I can't and I still don't
understand this man was so adventurous and fearless and so for him to throw that all
away I could never imagine you know I just drugs are horrible I mean they are that bad they
will turn the best people into the saddest and then then there's no way out today many of us understand
addiction is an illness a battle that only people in it can truly understand but until really learning about the
opioid crisis I still thought of the root of drug abuse as starting with a choice a choice to try drugs whether you
intend to become addicted or not it might seem harsh because it insinuates that addicts put themselves in that
situation but I think it's comforting in a way for people to explain it like that
because it makes us feel in control it makes us feel like so long as we make what our parents and teachers consider
good choices and not try addictive drugs that will be okay it makes it seem simple
but there are millions of people in the United States hooked on the most addictive and dangerous drugs who never
understood they were making a choice to try something that would ultimately make
them addicts people like James like Micah who simply took pills their doctors said would alleviate their
pain because James had been successful and so driven from a young age many people who knew James for a long time
have told me it's still hard to wrap Minds around that he battled addiction it's like his mom puts it it's such a
contradiction to the happy healthy driven person they knew somebody else I love and who was also my best friend is
still affected by this which is Ryan perhaps no one understands the contradiction the drugs created in James
like his brother Ryan James and I were always you know always together their mother Dy has a set of
twin boys boys who are not Ryan and James but if you asked people who her twins were many would probably assume it
was the two of them a lot of people would confuse us for each other and a couple times I looked through pictures
and I was like I don't remember taking that picture and then actually realized wait a minute that's not me that's
James it wasn't just their looks it was their Mutual interests their Fierce Bond
and their desire to keep up appearances and block out any strugles and they both
found themselves in the same struggle at the same time that's how my addiction started you know it started with a
prescription together the brothers struggled with opioid addiction both used together both tried to hide it from
others together as much as possible but after James's murder appearances stopped
mattering to Ryan I've been on this this this [ __ ] self-destructive I don't care you know if I live or
die since this has happened my whole life is [ __ ] gone I'm like I'm never going to get it back my brother is gone
like the closest person to me the number one closest person to me since that night Ryan says he spent
much of his time trying to numb himself from the pain while also trying to remember key details he says he just
can't as he was there the night his brother was murdered the day started out with Ryan being at someone's house a
local chiropractor in the nice neighborhood where crime rarely occurs yeah the only reason why I would
hang out with that chiropractor would be just to you know just to do drugs and get high you know the chiropractor was
also someone who despite at one point seeming to have it all together owning a nice home and his own practice began
using opioids Ryan was at the chiropractor's house that day with a woman named Sarah not the Sarah who was
friends with Bailey and started dating Matt Queen the Sarah that Micah was hanging out with before he disappeared
we're calling her Sarah G in the next clip you'll hear Ryan mention Sarah G and his friend
Rick I genuinely had an interest in Sarah like I said when we first met her I was like oh who's that and then uh
Rick was just quick to like cling on to her and then she she had called me or texted me for something and then Rick
kind of got it like hey man what's my girl I'm like oh it's your girl dude like [ __ ] okay well go for it man
like don't get mad at me sometime after Sarah G and Rick first coupled up things
fizzled out and she started hanging out with Micah now a couple weeks after Micah was last heard from Sarah G was at
the chiropractor's house with Ryan Ryan says that's when the chiropractor brought up his brother James and then he
got really really irritated and said that you know I don't want your brother coming by here and this and that so I
was like okay well you know I'll tell him you know just kind of in one ear and out the other Ryan says he and James had
been arguing and weren't talking that day so he had no intentions of inviting James over but the chiropractor
continued to seem on edge about it he was like pacing the his house Upstairs Downstairs Outside
Inside and on the phone with whom I don't I don't know and then again you know your brother's calling saying he's
coming by and then at one point then it was like okay now he's really aggravated that Sarah's
there I mean she'd been there pretty much the entire time we were there but now it was time for her to to leave so
I'm the only one with the vehicle so naturally you know it's time for me to take her to wherever she has to go so
when we were leaving James was outside this is where things get a little convoluted and hard to follow we don't
know why the chiropractor suddenly didn't want Sarah G at his house but apparently that was the situation Ryan
says when he walked outside he saw his brother James outside the chiropractor's house after the chiropractor had made it
very clear he didn't want James coming over Ryan says initially he and James didn't say anything to each other Ryan
Ryan got in his car and started driving with Sarah G but she couldn't give him clear directions on where she wanted to
go and then Ryan says Sarah G apparently dialed 911 and quickly hung up multiple
times which then he chocked up to her being high on drugs confused and annoyed Ryan circled
back around and drove to the chiropractor's house James was still there just standing in the driveway Ryan
asked him if he knew where the house was that Sarah G wanted to get dropped off at and he said yeah it's just down you
know down the street hang a right and hang a left so I said all right thanks and I started backing up and leaving and
he said I don't know if you're going to be here tonight if you're going to be here later on tonight but things are
going to get real ugly and that was the last thing that he said I asked Ryan if he had warned James
at any point that the chiropractor said he better not come to his house that night I think I may have said something
along the lines like oh he doesn't want you here you know and he was more or less like oh I'm not trying to hang out
here I just want to you know conclude my business he owed a money and he was just
wanting to collect he gave him a check and he owed him for that for why did James give him a check
because he has a business account business account accounts can process third party checks you know long as
they're endorsed as someone who doesn't cover white collar crime this took me a minute
to get here's James's friend Jeremy who breaks it down pretty well and they were
using his chiropractor business to cast brulant checks that James was getting so
James would steal these checks and then take them to this chiropractor guy and the chiropractor guy would deposit him
into his business account and cash him here's Ryan again they have mailbox keys and access to incoming outgoing mail
that's what they were doing that's what this yeah that's this whole thing is is over is is greed it's
money you know credit cards and checks the name of the game was apparently to go through people's mail
to try to find checks evidently from there the chiropractor would cash them through his business and then they'd
split it when I spoke to a longtime friend of James about this and his involvement in the stolen checks she
told me it couldn't be right the whole male fraud I I was shocked I thought he looked down on stuff like that that was
Jessica you might recognize her voice because in addition to being close friends with James she was also good
friends with Bailey Jessica and others told me it seemed unimaginable that James would be involved in anything like
this now back to that night after James gave Ryan directions Ryan left to take Sarah G to to where she wanted to go I
dropped her off and then on my way back um my phone rang and the chiropractor and he's all like worked up and he's
like oh your brother's here and I'm like well my brother's been there dude you know and uh he's like yeah my your
brother's here and my boys are on their way and this and that and I'm like d calm down you know I'm taking care of
everything I just dropped Sarah off and I'm on my way back and as a matter of fact I'm coming into your neighborhood
right now and James is already leaving Ryan says as he pulled into the culde saac I did note that there was a car
parked with its headlights on he says all he can remember is that it was a silver sedan he says he saw James's car
pull behind it and out of my peripheral as I was turning left it seemed like James was starting
to pull out from behind that car as if he was going to follow me and see where I'm going Ryan says he was pulling out
of the cold Des back and down into another part of the neighborhood and then once I got around
the corner then I I heard what you know was gunshots but it didn't sound like a typical pop pop pop you know it was like
a an echoing sound the sound wasn't just gunshots it was James crashing his car after it was struck by several bullets I
just left my car in the middle of the street and got out and you know grabbed James and I was like trying to tell him
get up I was like get up and he wasn't he looked like he was lost like he kept looking around like he
was lost and you think with all me like jerking him by his hand and calling his name
that he would have immediately you know responded but he didn't and then when he
finally did uh he looked at me and he he didn't take his eyes off me and he had just
looked like he was scared like he wasn't scared for for him it looked more like he was scared for me because he knew who
who shot him his brother Ryan called and said Mom hurry you need to come quick and the police had it roped off
about a half a block away and I just went crazy just started screaming I wanted to get
through I wanted to get to him by the time D got to the scene with her other son Steven it was total
chaos I tried to get through the caution tape I remember the police officer um telling Steven he need to try to control
me um I think they would probably would have arrested me um Steven bear hugged me and just held me as tight as he could
and just kept saying saying Mom calm down it's going to be okay you know and I just couldn't
breathe could barely stand up it was just my head was spinning kind of like it's starting to do
[Music] now I just wanted to get to him hold him at this moment Dy and Ryan were both
having the same thought I never dreamed that it would kill him you know I knew there was the
possibility but when I got there I expected him to still be alive I mean James has been through so
much I mean just been through a lot of uh you know injuries I guess you would say and has always came out you know on
top so I didn't think in my mind at all that this is a life-threatening situation Ryan continued to try to get
James to speak to stand up but he couldn't James just continued to stare into Ryan's
eyes when I saw the color of his his lips you know matching the color of his skin like all that you know I was
uh that's when I got emotional and I got down and I kind know stopped trying to get him up and then I just got down and
I just hugged him and [ __ ] told him you know I had my head against him and I was right in his ear just telling him
how much that I loved him and I was sorry we were fighting and hold on that help was
coming James died at the scene it happened the night of his daughter Cameron's senior prom this is a clip of
an interview I did with her while working at 17 news and I don't know how to deal with
it I don't know how to wake up in the morning and not think like was he scared like was he scared when that person was
shooting at the car like what was going through his mind back then the one-year anniversary
of James's murder was approaching and Cameron hoped to send a message to his killer I want that person to look at me
and see me and like really see me because that person took away everything from me
going on one year it seemed unimaginable then that an arrest hadn't been made yet
you would think that it would be just as plain and simple as the chiropractor said
that he was going to call somebody to come and they were going to come strapped you know as the words that he
used and that's exactly what happened but you know everything else didn't point to
that as Ryan said it seemed the case was open and shut But as time went on with no arrests people started pondering
other theories one involved Sarah G the Sarah that Micah had been hanging out with
before he went missing who was also there the night that James was killed first there was talk that someone killed
Micah over his relationship with Sarah G and then Ryan was told James may have been killed over her too
over some checks and over Sarah like over Sarah like really as it turns out Ryan also had
some involvement with her though Ryan says Sarah G quickly blew him off we hooked up and then I tried to like hang
out with her again and then she kind of like just you know and I felt like a chick like I feel so used Ryan says
James never told him that he also hooked up with Sarah G but it's been a longtime
rumor that most people say is true I think I even asked Sarah too I'm like come on you could tell me and she's like
no no you know but other people are convinced that they did so there was that theory that possibly both Micah and
James were killed by a jealous boyfriend of Sarah G's but it didn't stop there theories
kept coming people started thinking the case must not be as straightforward as it looks on the surface there must be
something more more to it maybe it wasn't an ambush by a stranger over money James would have never at 1:00 in
the morning pulled behind a car that he did not know even being in a safe neighborhood whoever was parked there he
knew it's a question that started to drive some of James's loved ones crazy the constant wondering who and why now
more than 5 years later James's daughter Cameron has tried to adopt a new outlook I just
just I had I had gotten to the point where I cared so much about who that person was that I
was losing sight in who my dad was they already took that person from me so I can't let them take the memories too I
have to remember all the good things there's so much more to unpack about James's murder and how it may or
may not tie into the disappearances of Bailey and Micah but for now I want focus on the way Cameron remembers her
father how today as a young woman she realizes she is who she is because of him so if I could only talk to him one
more time I would just tell him thank you over and over again I think about him when I look at the
stars I think about him when I hear birds chirping I think about him when I hear
ocean sounds I think about him when I see strawberries cuz he always brought me them there's all these reminders and
there's so many memories a little editor's note when I interviewed James's brother Ryan in
January 202 too he was in a dark place I just want to [ __ ] numb myself from reality he told me that day he was using
fentanyl the number one cause of Overdose deaths unable to afford rehab Ryan thought getting clean was hopeless
but a few months after that interview completely on his own Ryan got sober as of this writing he's been clean for over
a year and a half [Music] next time on the Bakersfield 3 you're going to end up either dead or you're
going to go missing that was the last I ever spoke to [Music] her for

EPISODE 4/15

Strawberries and Oceans To the outside world, James Kulstad had it all. But after a shooting in a quiet neighborhood outside the home of a local doctor, secrets are revealed.

When two friends go missing back-to-back, and in between their disappearances, a third friend is murdered, their mothers begin their own investigation. As the connections between the three cases are explored, the mothers navigate devastating twists and turns, including one revelation that shakes the community to its core.

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The Bakersfield Three Podcast https://casefilepresents.com/the-bakersfield-three/

----- CREDITS

Writing & Narration – Olivia Lavoice Audio Editing - Anthony Telfer Production and Music – Mike Migas Animation - Mat Rydzik, Paulina Szymanska

Special thanks to the mothers and family of the Bakersfield 3 & KGET News Station

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Brief Summary

James Kad's murder reveals family struggles, addiction, and community violence in Bakersfield, impacting loved ones deeply.

Key points

The Day of the Shootings. A crime reporter covers a series of shootings, revealing the tragic impact on families.
James's Life and Inventions. James was a creative soul with a passion for invention, but struggled with personal demons.
The Impact of Addiction. James battled addiction, a struggle that contradicted his public persona of health and happiness.
The Shocking Betrayal. James's involvement in a check fraud scheme shocks those who knew him.
The Night of the Shooting. Chaos ensues as James is shot, leaving his family in despair.
A Mother's Heartbreak. D struggles to cope with the aftermath of her son's murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

You just wouldn't dream of it.

James's mom reflecting on the unexpected violence in their neighborhood.

3:24WatchMay 20, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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