Episode 97 - Off the Cuff

John To listen ad free visit. Since podcasts starting at two point nine nine a month, you'll also get access to our exclusive bonus content episodes when you join through Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Thanks for supporting the show!

Shaun Welcome to our first episode of Off the Cuff conversations with Sean and John about Vegas news, strange headlines, case updates, and whatever else we feel like talking about. I'm your host, Sean.

John And I'm your co-host, John.

Shaun If this is your first episode of Sins and Survivors, I feel like I need to apologize because this is a departure from what our episodes usually sound like. We've received really good feedback of the style of our bonus episodes, our Swing Shift episodes where John and I just kind of talk about what went into making the episode. So we thought this could be a great way to do case updates or talk about headlines that come up in the news that we'd never make into a full episode either, because they're not really one hundred percent true crime related. They're not on topics we would normally cover on the podcast. Um, and if we recorded a just like a short five minute episode, I think our hosting company would probably put as many ads in the episode as they would. Yeah. And it would just kind of drown out that content. So John and I kind of put our heads together, and we said it would be easy for us to find the time during, you know, during the month to record one episode where we just kind of keep track of different things that have come up for us that we want to talk about and we updates we want to share with you. So this is our our first one. So yeah.

John This is that.

Shaun This is that if you are like I said, if you're new to sins and survivors, um, I recommend you listen to the previous episode that came out about Linda Wise or the episode we did at the beginning of the month about Susie.

John Or literally any other.

Shaun Or literally almost any other episode.

John How many now? Um, a lot. Ninety five?

Shaun Yeah. To get a sense of what our typical case coverage is. But we expect to do one of these maybe once a month. And we do have some case updates for you and some other true crime related stories in this episode. So, um, I guess we'll get started. And, um, I'm, I'm sure I sound much happier than usual because John and I are still very much riding the high. Um, today when we're recording this, it's October eleventh. And, John, you want to share with the people what happened last night in.

John Las Vegas last night. So we are Las Vegas Aces season ticket holders. So we go to most of the home games. I think we only missed one or two, maybe two.

Shaun Yeah.

John Of this year's, um, home games. So we are big fans of the Las Vegas Aces. And last night, for the third time in four years, they won the WNBA championship. Ship and we are pretty darn excited for them. So if you are from another WNBA city, specifically Minnesota, New York, or God help us. Phoenix.

Shaun Phoenix.

John Our thoughts and prayers are with you. If you're from Phoenix, we're sorry about that. But it was a great series and we really, really enjoy watching them. We're excited for next year.

Shaun Yeah, absolutely.

John All right. So should we get into our first.

Shaun Yes. So this was something that you looked into and you wanted to share with me. So I'm gonna let you talk.

John Yes. So the first thing is that recently in August of twenty twenty five, Nevada state government was hit by a major ransomware attack. Originally, it was just called a cyber attack, but they specified later that it was actually a ransomware attack. There was no information about what ransom, if any, was demanded or if it was paid, but it took out many of the websites in Nevada state government phone lines. It took down somehow state services. And it is the one of the largest state level cyber incidents that we've seen recently. And they did confirm that data has been stolen from the various different agencies. So we're going to talk about what happened, what's known about the stolen data, what you can do to protect yourself, and where to find various updates. We set up a link so you can see the recovery effort on the Nevada government page at. Recovery. So you can click that and see the latest updates there. So what happened was, uh, they had discovered the attack on the weekend of August twenty fourth and twenty fifth when the IT Department for the state noticed unusual activity and shut down systems to stop all that stuff from propagating. So it took down websites, as we said, phone systems and internal agency tools across Nevada. So that included the DMV. I believe whic payments were interrupted. Yeah, it was a huge problem and they called it a ransomware style intrusion. So files were encrypted and data was removed from the servers. Um, so that's not good. So they didn't just lock up our systems. They actually stole information. So like I said, DMV, Department of Insurance and Licensing and administrative departments confirmed that they all had disruptions. All sorts of online portals and scheduling systems went down statewide. You couldn't get a new license. The DMV was literally shuttered. They could not do anything.

Shaun And they just wouldn't even let people come to the locations because they couldn't even they couldn't do anything for folks.

John As they recovered, they started doing things, um, using paper and oh, that was.

Shaun Oh my.

John Gosh. Yeah. So they had limited services like issuing new licenses and things like that, but mostly it was completely shut down. Governor Lombardo activated what? Apparently they have, uh, emergency IT protocols and created a public recovery hub, which is that site that I mentioned before. Federal partners, including the CTIa, which is the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, joined the investigation and the online recovery. So we do know that data was stolen, and ninety percent of the public facing websites were restored by late September.

Shaun So that was like a month. They were down for a month.

John They were down for weeks, like things were down for weeks.

Shaun I know they announced that there was going to be a waiver of fees, like if it was your car registration was due and it was late, like they were giving people like a moratorium or whatever on.

John Waive all those sorts of fees because people did like if your registration was expired, you.

Shaun Couldn't do.

John It. You start getting fees accrued. So they did waive those, which was nice. And as far as the scope of data that was taken, it was from the DMV. So we're not sure whether it was Social Security numbers, driver's license data, addresses, insurance information. We don't know how many records were affected or how many people were affected. And we still don't know the identity of the attackers. Hackers, but I do suspect that we will eventually know the identity of the attackers, because we just learned recently the identity of the attackers of the MGM cybersecurity, although that young man turned himself in eventually.

Shaun Yeah, he did.

John Um, so eventually we do tend to catch these people, so hopefully we will catch that person. But because it was the DMV and insurance systems, we suspect that the stolen data likely includes PII, personally identifiable information like names, addresses, driver's license, vehicle registration details. Always not sure exactly what people want with that and maybe insurance related records. So the state's recovery portal continues to update to let you know what the agents recovery status is and the status of all the systems. It looks like everything is back online now and some internal databases are still offline for security audits.

Shaun I know this directly affected us and our work on the podcast because we couldn't access any court records.

John Oh, yes, we.

Shaun Could, we couldn't.

John Judicial district site was down as well.

Shaun And also the the inmates, the list of inmates in custody at the state level. Do you know if that came back up? I'm going to look right now.

John I don't know if it came back up, but you can check it out. So the eighth Judicial District is where we get a lot of our court records for criminal cases. And then of course, we look suspects up who are in Doc custody. Uh, so there's a site for that. And it was down.

Shaun Yeah. It's finally back up.

John Oh. That's good. Um, but the state officials did warn that a full forensic analysis will take weeks or months, and the public disclosure of details will only come after investigators confirm which systems were breached and what data was stolen. So no information about a ransom payment or a hacker group responsible has been publicly identified as of this month. And as far as what you can do to protect yourself, you can always review the envy hack recovery envy recovery to see the status of what's going on with the websites. I would recommend changing your passwords if you have a login to one of these sites. Um, there's not much you can do about other public information if it's been if it's been compromised. You know, unless you want to move or something. But I wouldn't really recommend that. If there's multi-factor authentication available, I recommend that the the DMV site here in Nevada doesn't use a password, um, user ID password system. It uses a license number. And then you enter your license number and then they email you a code to log in. So there's no password. So that changes every time. So you don't have to worry about that. But if there's a site you use that uses multi-factor authentication, definitely recommend um leveraging that. Always also monitor your credit and financial accounts. So we always review our credit reports from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, and you always have the option of temporarily freezing your credit to prevent new accounts from being opened under your name. We always do that as well, so my credit is always frozen because it doesn't need to be frozen unfrozen for anything unless I'm out, you know, buying a car or applying for a mortgage or something. So that's always locked. And I kind of recommend that. Also, be alert for scams and phishing in your email. So emails that look suspicious and, you know potentially are trying to get your information. Um, you see a lot of those I get a lot of text messages like that. Like the California Department of Transportation wants to let you know that you are overdue for a payment. Click here to enter your information to pay your, you know, to pay your overdue fees. Always be on the lookout for phishing attacks like that. You can consider enrolling in credit or identity monitoring. That's something we also do. And then report suspicious activity. So you can go to identity theft gov or the FBI's IC3 gov portal. If you notice identity misuse or fraud attempts.

Shaun Awesome. That's really helpful.

John So going forward I guess expect more detailed disclosures once they finish their forensic analysis. And they may announce a credit monitoring program for specific people that are affected. That's pretty common. If your data gets stolen, you usually can get free data monitoring for two years from like one of the major credit unions. That's pretty common. And the best way to track information is to check out since Podcast Recovery. The next update we want to share is about Leslie Palacio.

Shaun I think any of our long time listeners are familiar with Leslie Palacios story. Leslie was killed on August twenty ninth of twenty twenty and the one and only suspect in her murder, Eric Rangel Ibarra. He fled the country shortly after Leslie was killed, and he was recently extradited back to the US. He was arrested in August of twenty twenty twenty four, just extradited last this this August, so August of twenty twenty five. And if you haven't listened to the full case coverage, we did a flashback episode with with updates, uh, just a couple of months ago when he was finally extradited. And you can find that at. Leslie is spelled l e s l y. So Leslie, flashback where we left off with Eric. He pleaded not guilty to murder and destroying evidence, and he's being held without bail. But we learned in late September that when Leslie was killed, he was already on probation. So Eric had been pulled over in twenty eighteen for speeding and driving erratically, and when they pulled him over, the cops noticed he was doing something weird and like the side panel of his car, his car door. And they discovered that he was trying to conceal a gun. Eric is what's considered under American immigration rules. He's considered a dreamer. Um, so his family brought him to the US when he was a young child. And his citizen status is, um, they call it DACA, DACA, deferred action on child, on children. Uh, so he is not a full US citizen. And on some level he's undocumented. So because of that, I did not realize that this was part of US immigration law. He's not allowed to own a gun, period. And he didn't have a permit for it anyway. So when he was pulled over in twenty eighteen, he was charged with, you know, having a gun without a permit and due to those violations, in twenty nineteen he was put on probation and as a condition of that probation, he was ordered to do a bunch of things, one of them being comply with anything Ice was telling him to do, but he was also ordered to hold a job but abstain from drinking and using drugs, drinking alcohol, and using drugs. So the judge just last month, September of twenty twenty five, found that Eric had violated his parole by drinking the night of Leslie's murder. There there is that footage of him in the casinos, and he's he's drinking. It's known that he had been drinking. So based on that alone, she sentenced him to a year in jail right now, which he's currently serving, which doesn't really matter, because he's already being held without bail pending Leslie's trial. But, um. Yeah, I just found that interesting that he. I don't think we talked about that in the early episodes that he had. I don't even want to call it a criminal history because, I mean, so many people speed or don't don't seem to change lanes erratically or whatever. And his immigration status hardly matters when it comes to what happened to Leslie. It's not really relevant.

John Only in that it made him made it so that he was on parole when he committed this crime. Yeah. And probably, I'm guessing, when this happened, he said, you know, his family said to him, you're already on parole. And that's why he ran. Possibly.

Shaun Possibly. Yeah.

John That even.

Shaun Yeah. Even if. Yeah. So, um, that's kind of where Eric, Eric and Leslie's trial start stands right now. He is being held without bail. He'll have another appearance in front of the judge in December. Kind of to check trial readiness. But the trial is set to begin in August of twenty twenty six. And we all know in all the cases we've covered on the podcast, the likelihood of it starting in August of twenty twenty six, a year after is is slim. There could be more continuances. There could be a plea. A lot can happen between now and then. But his immigration.

John See him pleading guilty, just like his dad did to some lesser charge, possibly.

Shaun Right. And we already know we've talked about this before. With extradition. He can't be sentenced to life. He's not going to be sentenced to life.

John Obviously.

Shaun Know that. Yeah. And with the immigration situation in the United States right now, I think he will probably likely be deported once his sentence is served anyway as well.

John I would not be surprised.

Shaun Yeah. Given that he has this he had this violation when he was already on a conditional permission to stay in the US. And now he's has this. I don't um, yeah. So I wanted to share that update because I thought that was kind of an interesting situation that technically, right now Eric is is in prison for things that happened, you know, on the night that Leslie was murdered.

John But he's still being held, um, for the murder. And when he does finally get sentenced, he will get some number of whatever days, years. What have you in jail. And he will be given credit for time served for the time he is held. That is not because of his parole violation. Yeah. And then likely we suppose he will be released and then probably deported.

Shaun Yeah. It's it's sounding that way.

John So the next one we want to cover is about Samari Norris Johnson. We covered him back in April of twenty twenty four. And what happened to him? The link for that is Sins Podcast twenty five. If you want to go back and listen to that original episode. We also did a flashback episode on that where we updated a little bit probably, I think a year later, kind of every October we tend to bring this one up again. So it's been a year and a half since the episode and two years since, you know, the incident, what happened to him and his family still waiting for answers. So we will review a little bit about what happened, who he was, and update you on where the case stands. Samari was a seventeen year old Desert Pines High football and track star. Incredibly well loved. Tons of friends. We went to his memorial on the anniversary on Halloween of last year, last year and it his like the number of people that were there his schoolmates, his girlfriend, his mom, you know, his family. He had a huge amount of people there for him. He was so well loved. He was just the kind of person that people loved and followed. They moved to Las Vegas in twenty sixteen and he was kind of a fixture in their community as sort of a sports star, an up and coming sports star. On Halloween twenty twenty three, he was shot and killed in North Las Vegas. He was out with some friends, trick or treating, and there was some sort of an incident with another group of trick or treaters. We're not really sure exactly what happened, but possibly Samari and his friends were being teenagers and running around, and maybe they frightened someone who was who they knew who was trick or treating. We don't really know. And it led to gunfire. And unfortunately, Samari was killed on the scene. Um, there are a lot more details which we won't cover here, but, um, you know, we did cover that in our original episode in January. We talked about this in our update, January twenty twenty four. A sixteen year old was arrested in connection with the shooting, but he was only charged with discharging a firearm at an occupied vehicle and possession of a firearm by a minor and carrying a concealed weapon, but no homicide or murder charge has been reported publicly and since he was a juvenile, we have no information about that. And in fact, we originally covered this as a part of Victims Rights Week. And one of the rights of victims families is to get information about their the case of their family member who's affected by violence and they are not being given those rights. And I think the, the, the state is hiding behind the fact that this sixteen year old is a juvenile. So we don't know his name. We don't know anything about him. But they say that North Las Vegas says the case is still active and ongoing. And that's really where the updates stop.

Shaun Yeah.

John So they've got nothing from North Las Vegas police or the district attorney's office. We have reached out to the D.A. ourselves.

Shaun Uh, yeah. And the state attorney general.

John Or the AG, right. Oh, was.

Shaun The AG we reached out to, I did and I don't think I, I asked that they please, um, reach out to his mom and just whatever it is, I think a lot of times people who are survivors and victims of these crimes, they just want to talk to somebody. They just want to feel heard. And I had hoped that someone from the office would reach out to her. But as far as I know, that didn't happen. I did reach out to her myself just last week, just to see how she was doing and send our love, because not only did Samari was Samari murdered in October, but his birth date also is in October.

John Right.

Shaun So it's a very heavy month for his family and we're just always thinking about them. It's hard not to think about them this time of year, especially high school football seasons in full swing.

Shaun And yeah, this was a real loss for our community.

Shaun The juvenile who was arrested is probably no longer a juvenile, and he's probably served his time and is probably moving on with whatever happened.

John Yeah, if only we knew.

Shaun If that if that boy was just was even responsible for the shooting. It's. I don't even know if that's even clear. He was like you said, he wasn't charged with assault or not.

John To.

Shaun Be murder. Second degree murder. Voluntary. Like anything homicide related. It's hard to know what really happened. And we probably won't. And I think that's just devastating for Samori's mom and girlfriend. All his loved ones, his grandpa.

John But if anyone out there does happen to know anything about this shooting, definitely come forward to the North Las Vegas Police Department or Crime Stoppers where you can remain anonymous. And remember, these people aren't just numbers and statistics. Samari deserves justice. And his family deserves answers.

Shaun So we're thinking about you, Samaria's loved ones and all his friends and the his high school buddies. Everyone is just a tough time of year.

John The next one we have is a case that involves some domestic violence, but we're not really focusing on that aspect of it. Interestingly, this is the case of an incident where Henderson police officer shot a dog. So the incident happened Friday night, September fifth, around nine p m, near Patty Ann Woods Drive and Mission Drive in Henderson. That's right off of. So not too far from where we live. And what happened was Rebecca Bobowski, who owns this dog named Bruno, was not at home that night, so she was estranged from her significant other, her partner Nick Dornan. They had had some domestic violence incidents in the past. They had broken up. She was staying with her brother, so she was not home that night. He was there with their three kids and the two dogs. So inside the house were the two dogs Bruno, a white and brown boxer. Dogo Argentino Mix, who was around one hundred pounds, and a smaller gray pitbull named Pepper. Around seven o'clock, Rebecca received a text from Nick saying that he had fallen down. She texted him back and didn't get any answers, so she got worried. So she knew that sometimes he drank heavily and she thought he might have hurt himself. And the kids were in the house, so she was concerned. She called nine hundred eleven and asked for a wellness check, and she told the dispatcher that there were two dogs in the home, but they were friendly. She even gave specific instructions to the dispatcher that if the dogs barked or got loud, just call their names Bruno and Pepper and they would calm down. Dispatch told them not to worry that responders were used to dogs. The fire department arrived first, followed by the police department, including Officer Christian Salas. They made contact with Nick and he was intoxicated and belligerent and refused medical assistance. And because of a prior domestic violence incident in June, there was a no contact order between Rebecca and Nick, so she wasn't even supposed to be there, but she was already on her way because she was concerned about the scene. In the official account. It says that after refusing help, Nick told the officers to leave and they walked outside. Officer Salas wrote in his incident report that as he was reaching his car, he heard a door open and the thumping footsteps of a dog running up behind him, and he claims he saw Bruno sprinting toward him, aggressively snarling and lunging, and he thought he couldn't outrun the dog. So he jumped into the road and shot the dog. And they said that Bruno died almost immediately.

Shaun So Bruno was a big dog.

John He was a hundred pound dog.

Shaun And I know you've talked before about how volunteering at the animal shelter helped you understand that just because a dog is big doesn't mean a dog is dangerous. And it seems like this. This poor dog was just like a victim of, like, his breed or his size.

John Yes. And it's not clear how he got out. Um, one of the neighbors, Amber Siddell, told investigators that she saw the incident, and Bruno didn't appear aggressive. Just curious. So she said, obviously the officer obviously knew nothing about animal behavior, and he shot and killed the dog because of his own fear.

Shaun Wow.

John Of course, Nick also disputed the account, saying Bruno had simply run up to the officer to play with him and he can be heard on a voicemail. Moments after the shot, calling Bruno's name confused and panicked, and a female officer can be heard in the background saying, why do you let the dog out? And Nick replied, he just slipped past me. He's not aggressive at all. And police detained him that night, citing intoxication and emotional distress, but he wasn't arrested. During all this, Rebecca is on her way to the house and when she gets there, the scene was taped off and she finds out that her dog has been shot by Henderson police. Rebecca told the reporters that Bruno was gentle and loving and protective of her children, especially patient around smaller kids and animals. His best friend was a duck named Abby, who lived in their backyard, and she had a whole wall of photos of him. When the reporters met with her, including his, including his ashes. So they created a whole memorial. They had pictures of him wearing a Christmas sweater and wearing a cowboy hat that said Sheriff on it and dressed as the Grinch. Henderson police have declined to comment, citing policy.

Shaun Not surprised.

John And they said body cam footage wouldn't likely be available until December of twenty twenty five.

Shaun How could that.

Shaun Possibly.

Shaun Be true?

John Well, they have to redact the footage and edit it to make it look.

Shaun Like.

John The officer wasn't at fault. I guess my guess I don't trust that footage at all. Their department policy allows deadly force against an animal if an officer reasonably believes, which is, of course, subjective, that the animal may cause great bodily harm if not controlled. Whether or not that standard met is under dispute and obviously really hard to prove.

Shaun Yeah.

John So as far as the shooting of dogs go, incidents like this are not at all isolated. These are very common. In twenty thirteen. Some of the statistics I found were that in twenty thirteen, North Las Vegas police reported using deadly force against nine dogs, seven of whom died. The Review-Journal documented multiple cases that led Nevada lawmakers to propose mandatory training for officers in animal behavior, and Metro logged five shootings in twenty eleven, one fatal and six in twenty twelve. We don't really have updated information past that, though. There are watchdog groups out there that estimate thousands of pet dogs are shot each year by law enforcement, often during welfare checks or minor calls.

Shaun So it's not just they think these dogs are aggressive or the homeowners are sending them out to attack people.

John No. Often they've been called specifically by a homeowner for a for some sort of minor thing, and they end up shooting the dog. This is another reason that I will not call the cops, right?

Shaun It seems like it's an issue of them being fearful of animal sizes or different breeds, and lack of training on their part, which is crazy to me because we have animal control officers that are under the police department and K-9 officers who work with dogs all the time. It seems like a very simple cross training moment.

John To.

Shaun Help everyone.

John Cross trained at all.

Shaun Yeah, it's apparent.

John And even the K-9 officers, there are cases in Las Vegas where officers have shot K-9 dogs.

Shaun Right.

John Obviously in the reports, large breed dogs like boxers, pit bulls, German Shepherds and Dogo Argentinos are disproportionately represented and not necessarily because they're more aggressive just because they look more intimidating. And officers often read misread canine body language, and they misinterpret curiosity or excitement as aggression. Especially, I can see they might mischaracterize excitement as aggression. Yeah. And most jurisdictions, including Nevada pets, are considered property. So legal recourse is limited to monetary value, not emotional loss.

Shaun Of course, that makes sense.

John Which of course, part of the outrage that follows these shootings. Families lose a loved companion and the law doesn't treat it like that. And you always see this contrast between the official narrative and the eyewitness accounts. The dog charged, the dog was aggressive, the dog was snarling. And the eyewitness accounts, which are the dog was curious and the dog was not aggressive, and there was no reason to shoot the dog. It's very often something like that. There's no transparency. They often fall back on the policy and they cover themselves with the language of the policy. Yeah, all of this started as a wellness check.

Shaun And ended with this. This poor family being traumatized and this dog being killed in the street.

John Yeah.

Shaun When police incidents where humans are shot and killed, the police fall back on their policies. It's always subjective of what the officer felt in the moment his or her life was in danger, that it was self-defense. The shooting was justified. It's not unexpected if human life is not given that respect and that scrutiny when there's a shooting. They would. It would never happen with an animal.

John One of the things you can do as a pet owner, if you're especially a large breed pet owner, is to have a plan for something like this. If the police or the fire department or paramedics come to your house. We, for example, have gates everywhere in our house. So if someone opens the front door and walks in, the dogs are twenty feet from them behind a gate. They cannot get to the officers. So you can put a gate around your door so they can't escape. Um, inadvertently. And apparently what happened was the dog just got past him and was curious and ran out. That happens all the time. That's how dogs get lost. And if there's someone in the yard, of course the dogs are going to run up to that person. Having a screen door. Having a gate in an area around your door. We have an air lock everywhere. So like we have a door to the garage, a gate on the laundry room preventing them from coming into the laundry room. So if the garage door is open and someone comes in through the garage. The dogs are not right there. They are a good few feet away behind a gate.

Shaun And if you if you don't have those gates, you could you should think about a kennel for your dog, like just a kennel that you keep by the door, just like scurry them, put them in. If someone needs to come in your house too. Yeah. And in the case of an emergency, you could do that.

John Absolutely. Although there have been cases of officers shooting dogs inside kennels. Sure. So I think the most important thing is to have a space where the dogs can be far away from the officers. Yeah. Um, that's going to reduce the likelihood, but it's not going to prevent them know, like if they if they see a dog they don't like and they think looks violent, they I can't imagine a cop will hesitate to discharge a firearm in your house and shoot your dog.

Shaun Yeah.

John They just don't care.

Shaun And we all know that even the best trained dogs can get aggravated when it's an emotionally tense situation. And there's strangers in your house, Right? I mean, that's just even the best trained dogs are going to have their moments. I'm very sorry for this family and for this woman. I mean, given that she was going through all of this with this DV situation and then also her trying to.

John Write, and that doesn't even touch on the DV situation. They were going through.

Shaun Her trying to do the right thing.

John Yeah.

Shaun I do wonder how much the DV situation colored how the officers arrived at the scene as well, because I think it's not uncommon for them to treat DV situations as being very, very dangerous and to come already at high alert thinking that this man has a history of being violent. So he's likely to be violent. And they're.

John Always on high alert.

Shaun Though.

Shaun I know you're right. I know you're right. But, um, thank you for.

Shaun Sharing.

Shaun That story. Goodness. Um, I don't think I wish I could feel that this, this woman and her family, that they would get some kind of recourse. But like you said, it's probably if they get anything at.

John All, the Henderson police won't even talk to them. They said no one will be made available to talk about the incident.

Shaun It's terrible.

John Yeah.

Shaun Do better.

John Do better. Henderson police do better.

Shaun Hopefully this next topic is a little lighter, but actually, as I think about it, it's probably not.

John The one with the murder.

Shaun Because. Because it does deal with the homicide. Cool. But, um, we were talking about Burning Man, um, a couple months ago. A couple months ago. And you said, what in the seven plagues is going on at Burning Man? And if I don't know who out there is familiar with Burning Man, this festival that happens at like, the end of August every year. Um, it's out in, like, the desert of northern Nevada. It's one hundred miles north of Reno. It's the middle of nowhere. And the folks who organize it, it's not even an exaggeration to say they like, build a city for the week of the festival and then take it right back down. So we're talking. I'm saying city seventy thousand, eighty thousand people in this area, in the desert. They set up the cities like horseshoe shaped. And then the man that they burn at the end of Burning Man, which is like a literal structure that they set on fire at the end, is like in the middle of that horseshoe, almost more like a like it's kind of shaped like you think like an arena or a, um, what do they call that in ancient Greece? Like, you know what I'm talking about? Yeah. An amphitheater. They have this. It's like an amphitheater with the with the Burning Man there. And then they name the streets almost like a sundial or a clock. So it's like two o'clock street. Three o'clock street, like to keep to make a city. And in twenty twenty five, the weekend when they were setting it all up and getting ready for the week to start, there were terrible storms. So there were high winds. Um, The orgy tent blew away and could not be reconstructed for the event this year. Um, I know you were like, wait a minute. They have an orgy tent. I don't know why. I was surprised that they'd have an orgy tent at Burning Man.

John I can't believe it's called the orgy tent.

Shaun It might. That might just be my what I call it. I don't know if everyone calls it that. Uh, but it's it's a it is a tent. And it is, it has mattresses in it and a lot of hand sanitizer and condoms. And it's very consensus.

John Article calls it the orgy dome.

Shaun Yes. I mean, this was called that's like the worst.

John Mad Max sequel.

Shaun So so so it's it's supposed to be a very sex positive space, and you have to come with a come with a partner or partners when you come into the tent and there's like, there's you're giving me this look, you sign forms, I, I've never been there. I don't really know. I'm not speaking.

John What my look was about.

Shaun But, like, I'm just just the, you know, so that gloves like they, they got it covered, but they I guess it was a very disappointing thing that the tent blew away in the storm this, this year and they, they could not have it. So they had two days of wind when they're trying to set it up there's dust. It's it's awful. The it took people hours to get in there. It's only a two lane road to get there. And you're talking about eighty thousand people trying to get to the same place. I think it was like nine hours people waited in traffic to actually get there because the weather was so bad, the visibility was bad. And then it started raining like a deluge, like the desert was flooded. The part that they call the playa, which to my understanding is like the the flat area of dirt in the middle of the kind of like the horseshoe. It felt like it was full of mud. It was just it was flooded. It was terrible for like the first two days, Monday and Tuesday, the weather was terrible. And then on Wednesday, the weather got better. People were all there, even after being stuck in traffic. And they're like, having this, this festival started. Everyone's enjoying themselves. And this woman from Salt Lake City, at her very first Burning Man ever, uh, goes into labor. She was having a cryptic pregnancy. She didn't even know she was pregnant. Like she did not have symptoms of pregnancy. Thank goodness. And this. I don't know why this would surprise me, but I guess Burning Man appeals to people of all professions, all walks of life. But there were several medical professionals like neonatal nurse, ob gyn, a pediatrician. We're all at Burning Man. And when this woman went into labor, they helped deliver the baby in her RV. The baby weighed only three pounds and she had to go and stay in the NICU. But all the reporting I found now is that the baby is home. They named her Aurora and she's fine.

John So when is her first burning? Second Burning Man.

Shaun I guess in August. I wonder if they'll come back with the baby. Um, we did have a friend that we've lost touch with who had gone to Burning Man. I don't know if we know anyone else in our life that has actually been there, but that she had always said that it was a very interesting environment because there's like a lot of cooperative.

John Who went to Burning Man.

Shaun Um. Holly.

John Oh. Oh, obviously.

Shaun There's a lot of, um, uh, cooperative ness that happens, a lot of trade. Like, it is like a city and it operates. And, um, one of the interesting, I don't want to say rules, but cultural phenomena, um, etiquette rules is that you don't ask people for water. You're supposed to bring your own water and be responsible for your own water. And if people are going around asking for water. I guess that's kind of like a suspicious thing. So I don't know, I get like a several different kinds of vibes from Burning Man, where it's like this woman goes into labor and needs help, and doctors and nurses show up to help her deliver her baby at the same time. It's like if you go around asking people for water, you're like.

John She probably had her own birthing tub.

Shaun They said she gave birth in the bathroom of the RV. I can, I just cannot I just.

John In.

Shaun The.

John Bathroom of the RV.

Shaun Probably because.

John If it's your RV.

Shaun Probably because you just wash, wash it all the way down the drain and nothing gets stained or.

John Oh my goodness.

Shaun But I can't, I don't know.

John Okay, well, okay.

Shaun We can move on from that part of it. Um, so I think there were this year there were reported forty four arrests at Burning Man. So there was like, of course this will shock you. Possession of controlled substances?

John No, not at Burning Man.

Shaun Sure, but also assault with a deadly weapon. Domestic battery, burglary and sexual assault.

John Oh, God.

Shaun So you put eighty thousand people in a place. There's none. Probably likely none to very little cell service there. Um, I don't know how they how they staff it with security and police. I don't know how that happens or what that looks like, but the city exists, and so the festival goes on. But then Saturday night, um, a thirty seven year old man originally from Russia named Vadim Kruglov was found dead. It was August thirtieth, the Saturday of the festival. He was apparently stabbed in the neck.

John Oh my.

Shaun God. And he died. And, um, they described where he was found as kind of being away towards, like the end of end of the festival, like on that kind of on the outskirts at his own or I don't know if it's his own, but like at a camp camping space.

John Okay.

Shaun Um, it took the police three weeks to uncover the likely murder weapon. So it wasn't until mid mid to late September that they actually recovered it. And as of now, there's no suspects because I as I said, they they build this city. It's it's made up of RVs and tents and temporary structures like the orgy tent. And then they break it all down and it's gone. So any evidence is was taken away. Everything was was cleaned up. They the people who go to Burning Man have a very big leave no trace. I read that even flicking your cigarette ash on the ground is frowned upon. Like you. You like very much leave no trace situation. So that's really hindered the police in investigating Vadim's death. Uh, he was like I said, he was thirty seven years old. He was a Russian citizen, born and raised in Omsk, which is a city of about a million people. It's in southwest Siberia. He moved to the US in twenty sixteen. Uh, and he lived in Washington state and he studied engineering and he worked in it, but he was also an artist, and he was a big lover of Burning Man. Um, and that whole, that whole vibe. And he, a friend of his, made a statement sending that this was the first time that he was ever able to go. And they want him to be remembered as the talented, bright and inspiring human being that he was. Let his memory remain as a creator, a dreamer, and a man who gave love. But as I said at this time, no one's been arrested. There is a reward. Crime Stoppers did a five thousand dollars reward, but the Burning Man project, like the folks behind the festival also contributed an additional five thousand dollars for info leading to the arrest of the person responsible, but he died on August thirtieth. You're listening to this basically on September or October thirtieth. And as far as I can learn, there haven't been any arrests made in his murder. Hmm. Rolling Stone interviewed a man named Tim Lavelle who's been to. I don't even know how many Burning Man's. He loves it. And he says, I take the long view on this. A life was born. A life was taken. In the grand scheme of things, I still think that the Blackrock city is safer than pretty much any other place on Earth.

John I mean, I guess.

Shaun Just forty four arrests. I they think this is the first time in the history of the festival that someone died as a result of a homicide, because, I mean, we've talked about it before. The desert can be dangerous.

John Yeah, yeah.

Shaun For sure. People people have accidents or people OD or people don't don't prepare heat stroke. Things like that can happen. The weather.

John Things do happen.

Shaun But this was the I think the first time that there was a homicide. And like I said, as of now, there's no suspects or anyone has been arrested.

John So I'm guessing if you were at Burning Man and you have any information about this, you should contact Crime Stoppers.

Shaun Yeah, contact Crime Stoppers or it's it's the Pershing County Police. Any tips are useful because they are still trying to figure it out. Like I said, they they don't have any, um, cell phone video or, um, you know, surveillance of the area because it's just not built. You know, that's not what we're talking about here. And the the city is gone, and the city will be back at the end of August. But but all that evidence is, is likely, is likely gone. Whatever evidence there was, um, that was that wasn't collected before everybody packed up. They did do investigation. But like I said, it took them three weeks to find the murder weapon. It was just a kitchen knife. So yeah, we'll see. We'll see what what happens if anything gets resolved. And we'll bring you updates. But that's the story of Burning Man in the seven plagues of Burning Man this year.

John Well, thank you for that.

Shaun And we know that next year will bring some other kind of calamities and another nine hours of of traffic of eighty thousand people trying to drive out of this rural, very rural space.

John So those were the cases we had for you for this week. We have two more cases that we are or two more topics that we're going to cover, but we're going to do it in our swing shift overtime episode. We have we're going to discuss the curious case of the seventy sets of human remains that were found in the Nevada desert, and also the curious case of someone who was stalking.

Shaun The governor.

John The governor.

Shaun Governor Joe Lombardo.

John Yes, someone needed to be closer to him. So we will. We will cover that in our our swing shift. So if you want to listen to that, head over to podcast, subscribe, sign up. And for only three bucks a month, you can listen to those. Yeah, but that's all we have for you for now.

Shaun So let us know what feedback you have on this episode.

John Let us know what you think.

Shaun And just remember what happens here happens everywhere.

John Thanks for listening. Visit podcast. Subscribe for exclusive bonus content and to listen ad free. Remember to like and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and threads at medicines and survivors. If you're enjoying the podcast, please leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice. You can contact us at Assassins and Survivors Comm.

Shaun If you or someone you know is affected by domestic violence or need support, please reach out to local resources or the National Domestic Violence Hotline. A list of resources is available on our website. Sends and survivors. Com sends and survivors a Las Vegas true crime podcast is researched, written and produced by your host, Sean and John. The information shared in this podcast is accurate at the time of recording. If you have questions, concerns or corrections, please email us. Links to source material for this episode can be found on our website. Survivors. Com.

John The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast creators, hosts and their guests. All individuals are innocent until proven guilty. This content does not constitute legal advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with legal professionals for guidance.