This week Rachel gives us a locked room mystery. Kiki tells us about the disappearance of Toni Padilla. We also gab about dragons, our mutual distaste for certain tropes, Colin Firth, and our New Year's resolutions.
Our next book is "Among the Bros: A Fraternity Crime Story" by Max Marshall. We will discuss the book in episode 8, which will go live on January 31, 2024.
Here's and interview with Max Marshall:
Crime Reads (https://crimereads.com/max-marshall-among-the-bros-interview/)
Sources:
NBC Dateline (https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/missing-in-america/family-desperately-searching-silver-city-new-mexico-woman-toni-padilla-rcna93624)
New Mexico Missing Persons (http://missingpersons.dps.state.nm.us/mpweb/)
If you have information:
Call - New Mexico Missing Persons 1-800-457-3463
Call - Silver City Police Department at 575-388-8840
Death of Greg Fleniken:
Redhanded Podcast - Episode 322
"The Body in Room 348" by Mark Bowden (Vanity Fair)
"What Caused This Man's Mysterious Death in a Texas Hotel Room?" (ABC News)
"Greg Fleniken Murder" by Sounak Sengupta (The Cinemaholic)
This week Rachel gives us a locked room mystery. Kiki tells us about the disappearance of Toni Padilla. We also gab about dragons, our mutual distaste for certain tropes, Colin Firth, and our New Year's resolutions.
Our next book is "Among the Bros: A Fraternity Crime Story" by Max Marshall. We will discuss the book in episode 8, which will go live on January 31, 2024.
Here's and interview with Max Marshall:
Crime Reads (https://crimereads.com/max-marshall-among-the-bros-interview/)
Sources:
NBC Dateline (https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/missing-in-america/family-desperately-searching-silver-city-new-mexico-woman-toni-padilla-rcna93624)
New Mexico Missing Persons (http://missingpersons.dps.state.nm.us/mpweb/)
If you have information:
Call - New Mexico Missing Persons 1-800-457-3463
Call - Silver City Police Department at 575-388-8840
Death of Greg Fleniken:
Redhanded Podcast - Episode 322
"The Body in Room 348" by Mark Bowden (Vanity Fair)
"What Caused This Man's Mysterious Death in a Texas Hotel Room?" (ABC News)
"Greg Fleniken Murder" by Sounak Sengupta (The Cinemaholic)
What are we doing?
Speaker 2:We're doing our intro.
Speaker 1:We're Fleniken.
Speaker 2:We're going to do our intro at episode five.
Speaker 1:I'm Kiki and I'm Rachel, and this is. Details Are Sketchy. A true crime podcast.
Speaker 2:Now what? And today we're going to talk about the mysterious death of Greg Fleniken, a man who died under mysterious circumstances in a hotel room in Texas in 2010. So, we're going to talk about his death.
Speaker 1:And I've got a missing person, and then we'll do some gossiping.
Speaker 2:I guess Talk about some bullshit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Okay, I start right. Yes, Okay. So my missing person is Tony Annette Padilla. She's been missing since July 3rd 2020 from Silver City, New Mexico. Her age now would be 61. She is a white female, brown hair, brown eyes. Her weight is between 100, 120 pounds. She has a scar on her right calf and a bunch of tattoos. On her right arm she has the names Jasmine and Jessica on her left name the arm Katrina. On her left hand she has a rose. Her left ankle has a rose vine and across her chest is a faded tattoo they didn't give specifics and her left, pinky, has a small cross tattoo. She also has a small birthmark above her right eyebrow and both of her eyebrows are also tattooed on as well. She was last seen wearing a long blue blouse and black Capri pants with a photo of Marilyn Monroe and a red rose on them. She is also wearing flip flops and carrying a big gray purse.
Speaker 2:Okay, Well thanks for telling us that information, kiki, and we'll learn more about her later on. Okay, so let's dive into our mystery. So Greg Flenigan Flenikin I hope I'm saying his name right was a 55-year-old businessman who was found mysteriously dead in his hotel room at the MCM Elegante in Beaumont, texas, on September of 2010. His death I said on September, like I had the exact date, but I didn't write it down so in September of 2010,. His death will leave detectives and medical examiners stumped until one private investigator made a startling discovery. So let's give you a little background on our victim, gregory Joseph Flenikin.
Speaker 2:Greg, to his friends and family, was born on December 26, 1954 to his belated parents, carol J Flenikin and Jane N Flenikin. I couldn't find information about his childhood, but as a young adult he worked as a chief engineer on oceanic vessels and he spent many months at a time at sea, which sounds like a really fun job and very adventurous. But as Greg approached middle age, he became a more landlocked and he went into the oil business in south Texas. His job involved quote facilitating the utilization of mineral rights on private land for gas and oil enterprises, end quote. So Greg partnered with his brother, mike Flenikin, and they went into business together, brokering the leasing of oil rich lands to big oil companies. From my understanding, the city of Beaumont, texas, which is a small city east of Houston, was the main base of their operations. However, greg lived with his wife, susie, flenikin and Lafayette, louisiana. So every week Greg would make the two hour drive westbound on Interstate 10 to Beaumont and during the week he would stay at the conveniently located MCM Alagante Hotel, mm fancy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sounds fancy, but Probably not yeah, I don't think it was fancy. Based on some of the stuff they say about it, it seemed like I think it was a normal. Yeah, it seemed like they maybe housed a lot of people who did kind of long term business like that. So maybe like one of those like long term you know what I mean?
Speaker 1:Hotels, yeah, hotels, situations.
Speaker 2:So this wasn't his first time staying at this hotel. This was something that he did every week. Greg was a very efficient traveler and he was a man of routine. He traveled light and neatly and he liked to stick to his routine. He would usually go to work, he would come home and have a quiet evening in his hotel room and watch a movie before going to bed. So that evening Greg was enjoying his usual habit of a quiet evening in his hotel room and a movie. After his day's work. He was relaxing in bed with a snack of a candy bar, which I found out was a Reese's Krispy Crunchy Bar. I don't think they make those anymore, but I remember when A what Say that?
Speaker 2:again Reese's Krispy Crunchy Bar. I think that was one of those. You remember when those were really popular, all those candy bars, when they took like Reese's and Butterfingers and all of those bars and made them into like layered bars or like layers of like crispy wafer in between, and they did that to like every damn candy bar that they could get their hands on. Do you remember when?
Speaker 1:that was the thing I don't, but I might not have been here in the state. Well, no, this was in 2010,. So I was here. Maybe I was just ignoring it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was popular for a while, but I don't think they make those anymore. So it would have been like a candy bar with like a Reese's filling and then like kind of like a wafer, like a Kit Kat almost, but with Reese's filling Interesting, yeah.
Speaker 2:And a root beer, which is a fine and delicious American beverage, sure, is One of my favorites, so I couldn't find out why brand of root beer. And it does make a difference. Barks is the best root beer. And smoking. So Greg was a chain smoker. I would have thought that smoking in bed is pretty gross, but apparently Greg was known to be very tidy and so he would lay down a hand towel and then he would put his ashtray on top of the hand towel so that he didn't make any kind of mess or get any kind of ashes or anything on the bed.
Speaker 2:So, that's nice, that's helpful. Yeah, it was considerate, and I also thought that hotels don't usually allow smoking these days, but I guess in Texas they do.
Speaker 1:The land of the individual? Yeah, probably.
Speaker 2:Or the style of hotel.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that could be it too, if they cater to long term residents.
Speaker 2:But anyway, since Greg was a smoker, that would have been something important to him. So yeah maybe that was a consideration when he chose the hotel. Okay, so he liked to crank up the air conditioning and prop up on his pillows. He would have his phone and the remote handy. In short, Greg knew how to treat himself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he sounds like someone I get along with. Yeah, except for the smoking.
Speaker 2:This is a man who worked hard and relaxed hard. I can respect that I wrote. That evening he was watching Iron man 2. But unfortunately he would never see the end of the movie. At around 7pm, greg responded to an email from his wife updating him on her application for a tax exemption. Greg responded you're doing good, babe. But sometime later, while Greg was still chilling on the bed watching his movie, he would have experienced a sun, hot and searing pain. No doubt startled, hurt and confused, greg stood up and started towards the door, probably seeking help, but he didn't make it there before he collapsed face down and died right there on the floor of his hotel room, still holding his lit cigarette in his hand.
Speaker 2:The next morning, greg's wife, susie, started to become worried when Greg didn't make his routine call to her that he made every morning that they were apart Because, like I said, greg was a man of habit. So when Greg not only didn't call Susie, but then he failed to respond to her calls to him, she knew that something wasn't right. Then, furthermore, he didn't show up to work, and so his colleagues also became concerned, and two of them went down to the hotel to check on him. So Greg was known to be reliable, and so everyone close to him knew that it wouldn't be normal for him to not answer the phone or to not show up to work. After not getting a response, after knocking on his door and calling out to him, greg's coworkers convinced the hotel management to unlock Greg's room, and we already know. But of course, what they found was their colleagues body sprawled out on the floor. His cigarette was still in his hand and his skin had taken on a blue cast. His hotel room number 348, was warm and stuffy.
Speaker 2:Detective Scott Apple was assigned to the case. However, he didn't find any obvious signs of foul play. There was no sign of a break-in or a struggle. Nothing appeared to be missing or stolen or out of place. Greg's body didn't appear to have any obvious signs of injury and there is no blood at the scene. His wallet was even still in his back pocket, with a stack of $100 bills of cash inside. Detective Apple searched Greg's bags, anticipating that he might find some pills, maybe even some drugs, or that maybe he had possibly overdosed on medication, but he didn't find anything, and apparently Greg didn't believe in the doctor and he didn't ever go to the doctor.
Speaker 1:Oh no.
Speaker 2:Men Right. Apple then questioned the guests in nearby rooms, but nobody reported hearing anything suspicious. It was probably natural causes, he told them. The police viewed the death as a routine and did not treat it as a homicide. At that point there didn't seem to be any evidence of that. Some routine photographs of the scene was taken and Greg's body was taken to the Jefferson County Medical Examiner for autopsy.
Speaker 1:So wait, hold on. There was no blood, Nope, no blood Interesting.
Speaker 2:When Susie was informed that Greg had passed away, she was greased, stricken, but she accepted the loss. Like I just said, Greg was notoriously suspicious of doctors and refused to seek medical care. He'd been a chain smoker his entire adult life. He wasn't known to exercise, and while he didn't excessively drink or eat unhealthy food, he also wasn't particularly cautious about either. So it was easy to believe that his lifestyle had simply caught up with him. Susie even took some comfort in the thought that his death had been sudden. She recalled that when confronted with the son death of others, he had remarked more than once lucky bastard. That's how I want to go. At first it seemed as though Greg had gotten his wish. At the Jefferson County Medical Examiner's office, Dr Tommy Brown was slated to perform the examination of Greg's body. Dr Brown was an experienced medical examiner with a routine procedure for autopsy that took him only 45 minutes. I put per patient Question mark. Are they called patients?
Speaker 1:Wait, the coroner only took 45 minutes.
Speaker 2:That's what he said I wonder if that's normal. I don't know. It seems real fast, doesn't it? It does. He touts it to being so experienced and efficient. Okay, seems like it would take a while.
Speaker 1:I mean, if it only takes 45 minutes, then I don't think other places that have more homicides then wouldn't be as backed up as they are.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I question that, but what do I know?
Speaker 2:I'm not a coroner, they didn't have a lot of homicides in this area. Well, apparently we'll get to that, but apparently it is double the national average. But it's not high because it's not a lot of people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I just meant that if it only takes 45 minutes to do a body, then some place with a really high number wouldn't be as backed up as they all are it wouldn't take as long.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wonder what that number 45 minutes is compared to what the average. Yeah, yeah, but anyway, do you know, or is the person who's being examined the deceased person? Are they called patients? What are they called? I have no idea. That's a good question.
Speaker 2:This examination included an external examination, an internal examination, measuring in, weighing organs and describing the results of his findings. So, upon external examination, dr Brown found a one inch abrasion on Greg's left cheek and a half inch laceration on his scrotum, which was strangely swollen and discolored. The bruising had spread across his groin area up to his right hip and there was a small amount of fluid around the wound area. Then, when Dr Brown began his internal examination, things started to get even more complicated. He discovered a lot of internal bleeding and damage. Greg's intestines were lacerated and partially digested food was leaking out. He also had lacerations in his stomach and liver. He had broken two ribs and a hole in the right atrium of his heart.
Speaker 2:Dr Brown concluded that these injuries had been caused by extensive trauma and concluded that Greg had been beaten or blooded to death or had something large fall on him. He reasoned that the injury to his groin was caused by a probable very hard kick. These were the types of severe internal injuries that the doctor more typically associated with car crash injuries or blunt force trauma from a heavy falling object. But what would have fallen on him, right? Dr Brown listed the cause of death as homicide. Bone-worn averages about 10 murders a year, or 10 on record anyway, is what the no-eye put, because his spine probably had an CDs사를 쌍네. I have to say I don't entirely trust low numbers because you don't know how many cases go undetected. People are everywhere and apparently we're pretty murderous, and although that number is still around twice the national average per capita and I wrote we could check that up to Texas.
Speaker 1:Let's not upset the people in Texas.
Speaker 2:Sorry, texans, we're from New.
Speaker 1:Mexico, so we have to make fun of you A little bit.
Speaker 2:Usually, the homicide cases they dealt with, though, in Beaumont, were pretty straightforward affairs, but not this one, and six months into the investigation, detective Apple was stuck. Every lead he seemed to follow was a dead end. Nobody had been seen with Greg or any suspicious activity had been seen around the hotel. No suspicious activity, I should say, was seen around the hotel. Nobody had heard Greg being assaulted. Nobody could find a motive for somebody wanting to hurt Greg. He didn't have any known enemies.
Speaker 2:His marriage had been healthy and his relationship with Susie was a long one. They had met originally when Susie was in her 20s. She was the lead singer of a rock band. They had been married twice, once when they were quite young. Their first marriage ended in divorce, but years later they rekindled their romance and they had remarried, and the second time around they had been together for the past 15 years.
Speaker 2:Happily, greg didn't go out to bars and party. He didn't do drugs, sleep around, he didn't pick fights. He went to work. Then he went back to his hotel and enjoyed a quiet evening. He was a man of routine and he didn't cause trouble. He had a good relationship with his brother and with his employees.
Speaker 2:Also, detective Apple had to question if someone had assaulted him, why do you still have the cigarette in his hand, which I'd continue to burn down after his death? Even if it had been planted, it would have had to been been smoked on for a bit in order for the flame to be strong enough to burn all the way down to the filter without extinguishing. And how could he have sustained such a beating without having any external bruising or lacerations? Okay, detective Apple ended up with two possible explanations for what could have happened.
Speaker 2:The hotel's maintenance records show that on the night of Greg's death he had tripped the circuit breaker while microwaving some popcorn and I had to put a note in because I listened to the Red Handen's podcast on this same subject and they had complained that American hotels have microwaves but not kettles and that they would rather die than microwave their tea. I've heard that before, but I would also like to point out that American hotels have coffee pots and that you can boil water in a coffee pot. So not every hotel that I've been in has a microwave, but I've never been in an American hotel room that didn't have a coffee pot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we run on coffee.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and you can boil water in a coffee pot.
Speaker 1:You can make ramen in a coffee pot too.
Speaker 2:I learned that in college. Any number of hot liquidy things can be made from a coffee pot. But yeah, a coffee pot is essentially the kettle, but you can drip coffee through it if you choose to. Anyway, I digress. So a maintenance worker had come by to fix Greg's electricity and Detective Apple determined that this man was a person of interest in the case. His suspicions were raised when he looked into the maintenance man's backgrounds and found that he was a registered sex offender. Now, what kind of sex offender he was, I couldn't find out.
Speaker 1:Wait, who's a sex offender?
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, mr the maintenance man who came to fix the electricity, gotcha, gotcha, which I do think matters, because you could be registered as a sex offender for as little as your naming in public, or you could be a serial rapist, and so I think it is permanent and I couldn't find out that information. I think that we should probably revamp our how we register sex offenders, but anyway, that's another podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure is.
Speaker 2:So Detective Apple hypothesized that perhaps Greg had been the victim of some kind of bizarre sexual assault involving a long, narrow weapon such as a screwdriver inserted in up poor Greg's scrotum. Fortunately, that turned out not to be the case, yes, but Apple spent a lot of time interviewing the maintenance worker and investigating the single, but it didn't pound out. His second theory involved a group of union electricians who had been staying next door to Greg on the night of his death. Apple hypothesized that maybe they had been rowdy and that Greg had knocked on their door and asked them to keep it down and this may have resulted in an altercation between them, and then maybe they had dragged Greg's body back to his room.
Speaker 1:Wait, wouldn't it be screaming in either of these? Oh, certainly Cases. So why wouldn't anybody hear it in a hotel? I mean, you can hear everything in a hotel.
Speaker 2:Great question, okay, but they don't have a lot to go on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I know he's grasping, I understand.
Speaker 2:However, some of the electricians had been interviewed on the day that Greg's body was discovered. They had denied having any interaction with him, and nine days after Greg's death, apple and undercover co-worker returned to the cabana wing of the MCM elegante to interview the same men again. They were there for an extended stay, for a work contract, which is why I got the idea that this is that kind of place.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Greg did that. They were doing that. The men they interviewed appeared cooperative, friendly and had an appropriate level of curiosity about the situation. One of the men they interviewed a tenant of the adjacent room, room 349, was a man named Lance Mueller. He shared the room with another electrician named Tim Steinmetz. What happened to that guy anyway, mueller had asked? Apple responded hell, I don't know. That's what I'm trying to find out. It's almost like something fell on him or something. We're just trying to see if somebody heard some, or maybe if somebody knows somebody who heard some, or maybe if someone messed with him.
Speaker 1:Wait, that reminds me, I'm sorry I don't forget on my case for the next episode. When I was watching the stuff, they put in some clips of the trial and I don't know if it was the prosecutor or the defense. I think it might have been the defense, but he had like an accent kind of like that and he was like so who in the Sam Hill did whatever? And I was like God, I haven't heard that in a long time.
Speaker 2:It's the way they wrote. Hell, I don't know. I was like I can just picture that in my head.
Speaker 2:The two men reported they may have heard Greg coughing in his room as they returned from the bar, but that was all they could report. The three electricians in the other room down the hall all similarly had no insightful information. One of them said when you saw them carrying out Greg's body on a gurney he had thought that there was a catering event. The men all handed over their driver's license numbers and phone numbers willingly so Detective Apple could keep in touch with him. Months went by with no new leads in the case. Greg's wife put up a $50,000 reward for information regarding her husband's death. Greg's brother even hired a private investigator that had been a former FBI agent, but the case still went nowhere. Greg Fleniken's case was bound for the cold case files when a lawyer friend of Suzie's had read about another well-known case that a man named Ken Brennan had solved. Was that the case of the vanishing blunt? It sure was.
Speaker 1:I was just about to say that, sorry, I spoiled it. Got you back for the last episode.
Speaker 2:It was the case of the vanishing blunt, a famous Miami cold case from 2005. And Suzie? So Suzie had heard about his reputation for solving these kinds of difficult cases and she told Suzie. I said Suzie knew about his reputation, suzie's friend knew about his reputation. I think I was supposed to put the friend's name in but I didn't and I wrote Suzie again.
Speaker 1:That's okay, it happens.
Speaker 2:She told Suzie, quote you have to call this guy, the one I told you about. Just call him. Brennan could be found online, but because of his reputation, he was often overwhelmed with offers of cases. He's reported that he to Vanity Fair that he tries to take only those cases that both interest him and where he believes that he can make a difference. Quote I am in the business of giving people false hope. End quote. He told Vanity Fair this guy's a real character. He decided to take Greg Fleniken's case because he was intrigued by the mystery and because there were so many avenues of investigation left open to explore.
Speaker 2:Suzie was put in touch with Ken Brennan, who I think actually this paragraph was supposed to come before the other paragraph, that's okay. So his background is that he is a former Long Island police officer and a DEA agent who now owns his own private investigation business in Florida. So in April of 2011.
Speaker 2:Brennan had agreed to meet with Susie, but first he interviewed her extensively, asking a lot of difficult questions about their relationship, their insurance situation, whether there had been the infidelity or problems. He wanted to be satisfied that Susie wasn't a suspect. Finally, he asked her if there was anything about the crime scene that seemed off, something that didn't seem right to Susie. Susie responded the only thing that had stood out to her was how warm the room had been when Greg's body was discovered. Greg liked it cold and would crank the AEC up to the max at night. I hear that Greg Next Brennan made arrangements to visit Beaumont where he met Detective Apple and got to know him over a late night dinner at a local bar, which is probably really important for private investigators. Otherwise, police can really feel like they're getting their toes stuffed on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, feel threatened, but Brennan apparently seemed to have a way.
Speaker 1:Well, he was also a former detective, so I'm sure that helped?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it does help. So the two men seemed to take a liking to each other and the following morning Detective Apple picked up Brennan to bring him down to see the hotel room, along with all the photos from the crime scene, the autopsy report and all the reports of everything Apple had done in the investigation over the previous seven months. After carefully reviewing all of the evidence, Brennan casually announced I think I know how this guy died, I think I know when he died, I think I know who killed him and I think I know how we're going to catch him. Come on, Apple, yell.
Speaker 1:Totally, I would have said a whole lot more than that.
Speaker 2:Poor Apple he's trying to. Maybe he did say is saying more than that and it was redacted. Yeah, I can't imagine how Apple, bless the, felt in that moment to have the unsolved puzzle he had been agonizing over for months solved in a matter of hours.
Speaker 1:Oh God, I'd be so annoyed.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean glad, but also not.
Speaker 2:This guy is like was Matlock a PI or was he who Matlock? I think so. Was he a detective or was he?
Speaker 1:a wait, matlock, wait, wasn't he a lawyer? Was that the lawyer?
Speaker 2:In any case, this guy sounds like some kind of TV detective.
Speaker 1:Yes or PI, who just?
Speaker 2:can swoop, swoop in and right, so the case yes very true.
Speaker 2:However, in order to confirm Brennan's hypothesis, he had to confirm one thing first, which was that Greg Flaniken smoked his cigarette with his right hand. This cigarette had been found in his left hand on discovery of his body. Brennan was quickly able to confirm with Susie that Greg always held his cigarette in his right hand. After confirming this information, brennan felt confident in sharing his hypothesis with Detective Apple. I put a little Apple emoji there. According to Brennan, greg's love of AC helped to narrow down his time of death. Brennan reasoned the air conditioning went out when the rest of the power in Greg's room went out with when the circuit breaker blew. Hotel records indicate that there were a pair of man had come and left by 8 30, at which time Greg Flaniken was still alive. The movie started up again, but Greg hadn't realized that the air was out. The room hadn't started to warm up yet. It didn't take very long for a room like that to warm. Noticeably, by the time it did, greg was dead. That's why he had been found in a hot room. This cigarette eliminated the possibility that Greg had been beaten elsewhere and brought back into the room after wear afterwards, because there is next to no possibility that the attackers could have planted a silk burning cigarette delicately into Greg's cuphand that was curled under his body and given the severity of the injuries, greg would not have been able to sustain the beating and then have time and strength to just return to the room of his own volition and light up prior to collapsing. So Brennan hypothesized that Greg had lit the cigarette himself and then had gotten up out of bed, shifting the cigarette from his right hand to his left so he could reach for the door knob before collapsing on the floor. Brennan wasn't sure how, but he was confident that Greg had died in this room and that he had died rapidly after sustaining the injuries. He believed Greg had been minding his own business undisturbed moments before his death.
Speaker 2:Brennan also suspected that, however innocuously, electricians had seemed that they were probably suspects or knew more than they were letting on, and Brennan was sure that if they knew something, that one or more of them had told someone that what they knew. So next they talked to Dr Brown. Brennan wanted to know if the scrotal laceration could have been caused by a steel toe boot such as those worn by construction workers, or perhaps by electricians. It was possible, the doctor said. Brennan sent Detective Apple out to start interviewing people who had worked with the electricians on their job the previous summer. While Brennan reviewed the hotel security footage, which took a lot of time but ended up yielding little results, all they saw in the footage was the electricians making multiple trips to the parking lot, but that wasn't anything concrete and could mean anything or nothing. As Apple made the rounds to people associated with the electricians, he was coming up dry. Most people just had second or third hand accounts of the incidents, if they had any information at all, that is until he encountered a crew foreman named Aaron Burke who said he had heard about a gun going off in a boarding house. No, apple responded. That's not the same case. This is the one where a man got in a fight at the MCM Eligante. Burke said he hadn't heard about that. As Apple and Brennan drove away from interviewing Burke, brennan said he wanted to return to search the hotel room again. Apple was resistant to the idea because the room had already been searched twice by the police, initially when they found Greg, and again by Apple and Brennan when Brennan took the case. But Brennan insisted we're gonna look for a bullet, he announced.
Speaker 2:Back in room 348, apple and Brennan searched the room a third time with a fine tooth comb. They looked at the furniture, the walls under the furniture with flashlights, and in every nook and cranny they could think of. They found nothing at. Brennan, who was now convinced that a gun had been involved, was growing frustrated. They're about to give up. When Brennan spotted a small indentation in the wall near the closed door that led to the adjoining room, it was a cheap repair job that appeared to be right at the spot where the door to the adjoining room went. Swung wide would naturally hit the wall and cause such wear and tear over time. However, when Brennan did swing open the door, the indentation didn't quite align with the door knob. Let's take a look on the other side, brennan told Apple. When the two investigators I got hotel security to let them into room 349, what they found on the other side was a round, neat hole that had been filled in with dry toothpaste. When crime scene investigators excavated the hole and shined a laser through, they found a clear trajectory to the bed in 348 where Greg Fleniken had been chilling, smoking and having a snack when his life had abruptly, abruptly ended. This motherfucker was shot, brennan announced.
Speaker 2:The medical examiner, dr Tommy Brown, was not convinced. He examined Greg Fleniken personally and was highly experienced and a respected medical examiner. He didn't appreciate being second-guest in his own area of expertise. He could not believe that he would have missed a bullet wound. Of all things, brennan, with Detective Apple's help and cooperation, had worked hard to uncover the new evidence of a bullet hole in the hotel wall, matching the trajectory which just happened to fit the scenario of the crime. But without Dr Brown rewriting his coroner's report. They are dead in the water for progressing on continuing to pursue justice for Greg. You cannot argue in court that a victim had been shot when the coroner's report didn't find that he had been shot. It wouldn't hold up.
Speaker 2:Brennan tried to convince Brown to come around to his way of thinking, but Brown was insisted that Greg Fleniken had not been shot and anyway he refused to order his body exhumed. It was an expensive process, it caused a lot of work and always upset the family. And in this case he had it. It was impossible. Greg had been cremated and the cremation forges were hot enough to have destroyed any potential bullet fragments.
Speaker 2:However, brennan was both persistent and adaptable. He asked Dr Brown if he would please go over the autopsy photos with Brennan and allow Brennan to see if he could lay out his case. So reluctantly, dr Brown agreed and they sat down together, passing the photos back and forth between each other. Brennan gently and tactfully pointed out to him what looked like clear evidence of a bullet wound. Brennan asked Dr Brown Doc, could all of this damage have been done besides blunt force trauma? Could a bullet cause the same? The doctor admitted it could. Yes, dr Brown replied. But that's not what happened here. This man was beaten. Brennan found what appeared to be the track such as caused by a bullet, but once again Dr Brown asserted the same injury was consistent with beating also. Finally, brennan hit pay dirt. When I came to the photo of Greg's heart, it had a hole in it. That's a fucking bullet hole. Brennan announced.
Speaker 1:I just snorted.
Speaker 2:Although at first Dr Brown objected to that as well, on closer examination he had to agree. The hole in Greg Flanagan's heart had been caused by a bullet, the entry point, the half inch laceration found on Greg's scrotum. Because of the pliability of scrotal tissue, it had folded back over the entry wound, making it appear as a tiny laceration accompanied by the swelling and bruising of the tissue. So, in other words, not what you would expect to see from a bullet enter wound. Apple and Brennan called Tim Steinmetz, one of the electricians residing in room 349 on the night of Greg's death, in for another discussion on July 11th 2011. They only wanted to go for the details of the case. They assured him Before going in he talked to his room partner, lance Miller, on the phone, no doubt getting their story straight. The two investigators had come all the way down to Wisconsin to meet him at the Chippewa County Sheriff's Department headquarters. The men were friendly and cordial, assuring Tim this was just a routine follow-up. They went through similar questions. He had been asked before and Steinmetz gave them the same responses he had given previously. Brennan asked Steinmetz if he knew that Greg Flanagan had died. Steinmetz replied he had heard that, but he reaffirmed that he had heard anything at all from the room next door that night.
Speaker 2:Brennan and Apple took notes and wrote out Steinmetz's statement. Brennan then had Steinmetz read the statement back to them out loud, encouraging him to make any corrections needed. Then he had Steinmetz sign the statement and it was notarized by a local officer. Steinmetz stood up to go, but Brennan said he had a problem now. You just made a false police report, brennan said. Apple told Tim that they knew what had happened and instead of trying to be noble and protect his friend, steinmetz should come clean with him, otherwise he was going to face arrest for making a false police report.
Speaker 2:Steinmetz cracked In his statement, later corroborated by Trent Pesano, the third electrician from the room down the hall who had been partying with him that night. The three men had reported that they had been drinking beer that night. When they remembered that Mueller had some whiskey out in his car, mueller asked Pesano to go grab it, along with his nine millimeter Ruger pistol, because what better combination could there be than guns and alcohol? When Pesano got back, mueller took the gun and started playing with it. He aimed at Steinmetz, who dropped to the ground, swearing at him. Then he swung the gun in Pesano's direction when it went off, but it didn't hit Pesano, although Pesano initially thought he had been hit. When he realized he hadn't, he turned around and saw there was a hole in the wall behind him.
Speaker 2:They all freaked out and Mueller returned the gun to the car. When he got back, pesano had gone back to his room, wanting nothing more to do with him for the night. Mueller and Steinmetz then spent the rest of the evening down in the bar. Steinmetz said he hadn't known anyone that was in the room until the two men returned from the hotel bar after midnight and Steinmetz reported hearing coughing from the room, although what he must have heard was the TV, because Greg would not have been alive at that point.
Speaker 1:Right, he died like almost instantly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, brandon believes that Steinmetz may have also gotten the events of the night mixed up with another night, since the electricians in Greg had been hotel neighbors for a number of days, so it was possible that Steinmetz was remembering hearing Greg coughing from a previous night. It wasn't until the next morning when they saw the stretcher carrying Greg out in a body bag that the men realized what had happened. Did anybody knock on the door next door to check on that guy, brandon asked. Steinmetz admitted they had not. Later that evening, a desperate and drunk Lance Mueller, having been told what was happening by Tim Steinmetz, called Brandon. He wanted to make a statement. Brennan told him you're drunk. I suggest you call your fucking attorney.
Speaker 2:Yup, on October 29th 2012, ken Brennan joined Suzy Flinneken, scott Apple and Greg's other friends and family at Lance Mueller's Sentencing Hearing in Beaumont, texas. Brennan was worried that the judge was sentenced leniently because of Texas gun laws. Had Lance Mueller and his friends not lied to the police and obscured the truth of what actually happened to Greg Flinneken, they could have possibly gone away with no charges. But instead, not only had he lied, he had also stashed the gun and patched the hole with toothpaste, obscuring the evidence, so the death could have been ruled just an accidental death, with no charges laid against Mueller. But even with all of that, the lying and the patching the hole stashing the gun with his attorney, the DA's office had been reluctant to prosecute the case as a felony charge until Brennan and Apple put pressure on him to do so. As it happened, mueller entered a plea of no contest to the charge of manslaughter.
Speaker 2:When the judge started by saying that Greg's death had been a tragedy, brennan was worried that it was a sign that he intended to be lenient on Mueller. However, then the judge started listing all of the irresponsible and poor decisions that had led to Greg losing his life. The judge ended up sentencing Lance Mueller to 10 years, which is half of the maximum allowable sentence, but it's certainly better than nothing, although it does seem light, considering that there are people in our criminal justice system serving life sentences or multiple decades for things like possession or selling drugs. I guess we'll have to take the win where we can get it. Greg Flanagan's death is no longer a mystery. His killer has been revealed and justice can be served. So hopefully Greg can rest in peace, and although I don't believe in an afterlife, I like the idea of Greg getting to perpetually chill chain, smoke all he likes, drink all the root beer and eat all the candy bars and watch as many movies as he likes in heaven. Okay, so that's it. That's the case.
Speaker 1:Cool yeah, I remember reading that one in Vanity Fair.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah.
Speaker 1:Along with the case of the Vanishing Blonde.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's written by Mark Bowden.
Speaker 1:He's a really good true crime writer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got a lot of my. I took a lot of sources from Vanity Fair, also ABC News, the Cinema Hallik and the Red Handed Podcast.
Speaker 1:That's scary. I mean, I've spent a lot of time in hotel rooms and hostels and I always, since I read that whatever in Vanity Fair, the article in Vanity Fair. I think about that every time I get on my bed in a hotel.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I mean you just lay and watch TV. I mean that's what you do when you're at a hotel. What else are you going to?
Speaker 1:do yeah Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you just. It's the last place on earth that you would expect to be shot to death, yeah, and yet it happened. Yeah, it does, and of course poor Greg didn't know what was going on. But just one minute you're just enjoying yourself, just chillin', and then boom dead. Yeah, awful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know. The case of Vanishing Blonde also took place in a hotel.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes. I did because the Red Handed covered more details about that case. I had thought about it but I didn't want to make. I knew that I was. If I had looked into that, I was going to do a deep dive and then we were going to have like a three hour podcast, yeah, so Well, you could always save it for one in the future. Very true, I thought that Ken Brennan is a amusing character. He is, and obviously very intelligent yeah.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like Sherlock Holmes yeah, a little bit Like a really gruff, really American.
Speaker 1:Sherlock Holmes yeah, I think he's been on TV and if I remember him correctly, he's like definitely like Long Island. You know what I mean? Like I mean, I didn't know Long Island, I thought someplace else, but I mean he has that distinctive thing about him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that the article may have mentioned that he had a Long Island accent. Yeah, but I don't think I could do a Long Island accent, no.
Speaker 1:I didn't attempt it. Okay, I guess then did you have anything?
Speaker 2:The only other thing that made me think of is the office. When they go for Pam's wedding and Andy Ingers who's scrotum? Doing this play, and he's like, oh my scrotum. And then Pam has to take him to the hospital and the next day at the wedding he's icing his scrotum. So if only it were that. But that is like the most random place from bullet entry point, yeah, and if it had penetrated any other place then the coroner would have known yeah. But because I guess scrotal tissue is so weird, yeah, that it just kind of ballooned up and it's all spongy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you just couldn't tell enough about scrotums.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I'm going to tell you some more about Tony Padilla. So on July 3rd 2020, tony's daughter, jessica, drove her to a friend's house at about 1pm. Tony said she'd call when she was ready to be picked up, and when she didn't hear from her mom, jessica drove to the friend's house and those friends said that she had left by walking at about 3pm, or I should say, by foot. The family waited, but then she missed events that she had planned, like a 4th of July thing with some family members, and so the family called around to hospitals, jails, places like that and they couldn't find her, and so on July 5th, they filed a missing persons report.
Speaker 1:The family continued and I think still continues to do periodic searches, but haven't found anything. The police have also done several searches. They followed every lead they've gotten. They've executed search warrants when they had probably caused to do so, but they also haven't found anything, and they do believe that the disappearance is suspicious. The Silver City Police Department has recently sent both Tony's oh, I shouldn't say both, because I'm not talking about the other one. There's another disappearance from Silver City that they are sending along with Tony's to be reviewed by the Rocky Mountain Information Network.
Speaker 2:Do they think that those disappearances are possibly related?
Speaker 1:I don't think so. No, so they are being sent to the Rocky Mountain Information Network to be reviewed. That network is an organization that provides investigative support to local, state, federal and tribal criminal justice partners in states along the Rocky Mountains, including New Mexico. Also, it's important to note her social media and bank accounts haven't been touched since the day she disappeared, july 3rd 2020. That's pretty telling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very so. The New Mexico Department of Public Safety Missing Persons hotline is a place you would want to call. If you have any information, it's 1-800-457-3463. And my sources is Missing in America from July 11th 2023, as well as the New Mexico Department of Public Safety website. Okay, so you already gave your sources.
Speaker 2:Yes, so what have we? What have you been watching? What have you been listening to?
Speaker 1:Nothing.
Speaker 2:You've been grading in the grading like bubble.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So like all of last week, through Sunday, I was grading because I had to have grades in early, or I wanted to have them in early, because something always happens when you try to do it on time. So I had those done Sunday, but this week I've just been. I don't know what I've been doing. I have been doing nothing. I have been laying on my bed doing that paint by numbers game on my phone.
Speaker 1:You have to decompress Well, but I do always have the TV on. Yeah, what am I saying? I do always have the TV on. So there have been several forensic files, marathons. I've kept those on in the background.
Speaker 2:Anything like a note or just kind of background.
Speaker 1:Background yeah, I mean, I've watched them so many times. I know them by heart, but I wasn't really paying attention. No, I hear you, and since I haven't driven anywhere, I haven't listened to any podcasts or anything Well that's not entirely true. Today, on my way to pick you up, I listened to small town dicks. They had just a short special. Are you laughing?
Speaker 2:at the name.
Speaker 1:Yes, sorry.
Speaker 2:I'm a perpetual juvenile.
Speaker 1:at heart it's alright, so they put out a special for Christmas. It's only like 11 minutes long and it's them reading how the Grinch stole Christmas. Okay, so there's three men. I'm really sorry I always forget the two of them, their names. One is Paul Holes, the famous Paul Holes who helped close the Golden State Killer case, and, yardly, I'm forgetting her last name, but she does the voice of.
Speaker 1:Lisa Simpson Probably sounds like it, but Paul Holes, if you're a fan, does the voice of the Grinch, which is possibly one of my new favorite names. So I did listen to that on the way to pick you up.
Speaker 2:I love how the Grinch stole Christmas. This is my favorite, dr Seuss.
Speaker 1:Mine too, mine too, and the older I get, the more I understand the Grinch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:I feel like I think we all do. Yeah, I feel like the Whovillians were bullies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a little bit. They kind of respect the Grinch's privacy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, although I might be mixing up the book with the Jim Carrey movie.
Speaker 2:That's true, yeah, and the movie there A little more More like invasive like going up into the mountain.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:In the book I think that he just changes his mind because Cindy Luke gives him the glass of water when he's stealing the presents. Yeah, yeah, but yeah. In the movie they're definitely like I believe that man alone. He just wants to lay in his recliner with his dog and chill. I know.
Speaker 1:What else? I haven't listened to it yet, but I'm very excited for Keith Morrison's rendering of the Night Before Christmas. Yeah, that'll be fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that sounds nice. I listened to Patrick Stewart's rendition of A Christmas Carol.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I forgot, he read, it right yeah.
Speaker 2:They had like an excerpt of it at the end of his memoir and I was like, well, that sounds delightful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. He was in A Christmas Carol, like a version of it, right, yeah?
Speaker 2:he did like a one-man play of it for a number of years, yeah, and he won like a special, like British award.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but he did like a movie version, didn't he? Because I remember watching it, or maybe a TV version or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think he may have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, although as much as I love Patrick Stewart, I think my favorite version will always be the Muppet one with Michael Cain.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, no, mine too, but be just because of the just nostalgia factor. Yeah, but no. So I listened to that and yeah, it was really delightful. Yeah, and I also let me see, I wrote down notes so I will know what I listened to. So I finished the audiobook of Iron Flame by Rebecca Eroes I think her name is I think we talked about that before this the second book of that fantasy series with the dragons and the drama.
Speaker 2:So I think the second book not quite as good as the first it was. It had some, it was pretty good, but it's a little too long and I think that some plot points didn't quite make sense, especially at the end. But I can't say because it was a spoiler, yeah. But there was something that happened that I'm like that doesn't quite make sense. It didn't really have to happen, but it seemed like the author wanted it to happen and so, yeah, made it happen.
Speaker 1:Right yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it was okay. And then there, the other thing that bugged me about this book is that in the first book she's presented as being, you know, even though she's not supposed to be like whatever, some great beauty or whatever that she is somebody who's very confident in herself and confident in her sexuality. And in this book she gets very jealous of, like the, her love interests as X and like there's likea magical reasoning behind that because they the X has like enhanced, like ability to enhance her emotions or whatever.
Speaker 1:But I kind of enhance her own emotions or other people's emotions to enhance other people's emotions, so she, so the X, enhances the violence emotions, so that you know her and like whatever little precus of insecurity or jealousy or out of control.
Speaker 2:Yeah, gotta hate the X storyline. Yeah, I hate that too. And I was like why did you bother Lenius know how chill and secure and confident she was in herself, only to undermine all of that work? In this book with all of these stupid tropes, yeah, and so that pissed me off. And then the couple had just shitty communication issues in this book and I'm like all of this drama. I hate the communication issues too.
Speaker 1:It drives me crazy. It's just fucking sit down and talk to each other. How hard is that.
Speaker 2:And then they have like basically the same fight numerous times in the book. I'm like this could be resolved with one discussion, right, you don't need to keep going over this again, no, anyway, so that irritate me about it. I'm like I'll have, I'll have the time for this. I guess some people love that whatever drama, yeah, drama and stuff like that. It irritates me.
Speaker 1:It irritates me as well.
Speaker 2:And yeah, but other than that, I liked the dragon parts.
Speaker 1:I still really like the dragon parts.
Speaker 2:The dragon storylines were good. I wanted more dragon information. Like I wanted to know more about the dragons, I want to know more about the griffins and the evil dragons, the wyverns. I want to know more about all of their backstories.
Speaker 1:So is it only a duology, or are there going to be more?
Speaker 2:There's going to be, like I heard, I saw in one review, somebody said there's supposed to be like three more, so like five books in total, and I was like holy shit, jesus, Because the books that are existing are so long. So anyway, we'll see. I think that I don't know if I can, I don't know if I want to continue for that many books.
Speaker 2:I think a trilogy is nice. I like a nice trilogy. Let's get it wrapped up. Some, when series go on for too long, I think it sometimes is done. Well, usually it's not, so we'll see, yeah, but so that was what I read or listened to. I read the audiobook, so I listened to it. What I? I also listened to the episode of true crime and cocktails holiday. Hoot and Annie it was mostly them goofing around being silly, and it was a lot of fun. Yeah, Actually, I, I enjoy it. They did have. They did have a little bit about true crime. It was like stupidest crime, like top 10 stupidest crimes, and that was really funny.
Speaker 2:So I watched Predators that's the 2010 one with Adrian Brody, so I forgot he was in that one. Yeah, I was trying to watch them all in like chronological order but the Alien vs Predator Requiem and the Predator, the 2018 one, are behind additional subscription paywalls and I'm like, oh, it's not worth it for all that. And so that wraps up all the Predator movies that are available for me to watch. And then so I was like I'm gonna start watching the Alien movies in chronological order. So then I watched Prometheus, and that I'm kind of stuck because I want to watch Alien Covenant but I don't have. I guess it's on Disney Plus now, which I don't have at the moment, so I'm putting putting that on on the back shell for now, and then I watched Love Actually.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, we had that, that group discussion Discussion slash argument. I don't know if it was really an argument.
Speaker 2:Well, I was the argument. I was the argument to do one A little bit yeah.
Speaker 1:So but I watched Just an FYI. Rachel definitely is not a Carl fan.
Speaker 2:No, I'm not a.
Speaker 1:Carl fan, and I'm not either, but I was trying to play Devil's Advocate, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm not a fan of the I'm not this after watching it again. I'm not a super fan of the Colin Firth character, oh, but I am a fan of Colin Firth, yeah, and so. I just even if his character is problematic, I just can't resist, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, he is forever, Mr Darcy coming out of the pond in his wet pirate shirt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Colin Firth forever. Yes, and I know that the whole movie is full of problematic things, but it's still. It's nostalgic, yeah, and so I still enjoy it and yeah, it was fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. No, I think it was one of the last movies I saw with my friend who passed away. Oh, yeah, so I think. So that's what I remember. She didn't pass away right after that. It was yours, but she had moved off to Canada.
Speaker 2:But that's an important memory that you have with her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, that brought it down, sorry. Yeah, it's all right, it's fine. It's a bittersweet thing, yeah, so is that it? Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2:Okay, we should talk about our book. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, among the bros.
Speaker 1:Oh shoot, I left that in the other room. So our next book is called Among the Bros by Max Marshall.
Speaker 2:You already. We don't even need the book in hand. You already know the information. That's true, I do? You can't see the book in our hand.
Speaker 1:That's true, it is a new book, just FYI. We will be talking about it in episode eight which will be. January 30,. I think we went through this last episode Somewhere around there. Yeah, it's the end of January. Yeah, I will put the definite date in the show notes.
Speaker 2:Okay, so if you're interested in reading along, that's what we're going to be discussing at the end of January, and if not, you can hear about the end of January.
Speaker 1:This is a short episode, dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I told you it was going to be short, I know, so, all right, is that it? I think that's it.
Speaker 1:So if you, oh wait, this comes out January 3rd. So new years, happy new year. Yeah, happy new year. Are you doing any resolutions? Do you have a few resolutions?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I kind of soft do resolutions Because then I kind of I'll kind of whatever set like soft goals, but I don't like to whatever hard set resolutions because I know that I don't know. I think my resolutions are to be healthier, to be productive to I don't know. Try and be my best self, yeah. I guess that's my resolutions and to, yeah, to try and do that, and to not, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's it. Yeah yeah Now. I didn't meet a single goal from last year, a single resolution, and I did soft ones. I did like just be a little healthier. But this is I have eaten out more this year than I have in any other year.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's probably my fault.
Speaker 1:No, it's not your fault at all. My grandma and I eat out all the time.
Speaker 2:That's true. I see you guys without your bags.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, we're just lazy, we don't want to cook, we're not cookers, you're not lazy.
Speaker 2:You've been working two, three jobs over time. Lots of classes, that's true. So that's true, you only have so much to spread around. And you, we started this podcast. Yeah, that's taken a lot of energy, that's true.
Speaker 1:That's true, you can't do everything. What do you mean?
Speaker 2:I can't do everything, rachel, I know, I know we're women, we're supposed to. I know you should have like 10 kids by now and we should be on the cover of like better homes and gardens and yeah, what can we say?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're not that ambitious. I guess I'm certainly not. So what are my resolutions? I don't know. I actually haven't sat down and thought about it, but I did see something on maybe it was Instagram, I'm not sure, but this chick was talking about doing fun resolutions. So, like one year, she made it every time she saw a new fruit she would have to pick it up and try it and then Wikipedia the fruit and see what it's all about in the history and everything that sounded like a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:That does sound like fun, although I don't like fruit that much. If I did something like that, I would be like chocolate, which would not be good for me.
Speaker 2:I would do that, except for I would probably make exceptions. I'll be like I'll try all the fruit except for that fruit.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Like if I saw like a durian, I'm gonna be honest yeah, no, I'm not picking up that thing.
Speaker 1:If you don't know what that is it is an extremely stinky fruit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think I could. But yeah, I mean like eat more fruit.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:I love fruit, but yeah, I always. It's the waiting for it to be fucking ripe. That's what always gets me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:If I get like a fruit, like pears or something I love pears they're always hard at the damn store and you get them and you're waiting, waiting for them to be ripe, and then they're overripe and they're ruined, and so it's with my lack of attentiveness, it's difficult to remember, and I'll be waiting for that fruit to ripen and then I'll just forget it exists, yeah, and then I'll find it and it's gone. Bad, I'm like fuck.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, if I don't see it, I won't remember it's there. So like that's part of my problem with cooking. Like I will buy, you know, like, let's say, a couple of carrots and some celery for soup, yeah, for like a chicken rice soup or something, and I'm like, okay, I'll do this tomorrow, and I put the stuff away and then I forget it's even there, and then I don't make the soup and it goes bad.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely out of sight out of mind Out of mind, I will not.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So if I have to make something for dinner, yeah, I can't forget about that because I have to feed my children but if it's something that I put for, like myself to eat, or like lunch food that I don't like have a set whatever, like recipe or something like following, then half the time I forget it's there and half the time I forget to eat lunch, and then it'll be like whatever, like 334, and I'm like, oh, I gotta eat something. And then sometimes I have leftovers. I eat the leftovers and then I'll have whatever. My fruit or whatever it is has gone bad. I miss my opportunity, yeah. So, yeah, I'm sorry fruits. Yeah, I'm sorry your sacrifice was in vain.
Speaker 1:That reminds me. So Ray Bradbury had a show kind of like. Was it Friday the 13th? No Tales from the Crypto Keeper.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Or like what's the one with the zone Twilight Zone, twilight Zone, so it was kind of like stories like that. So he, at the beginning he would introduce this story that would be probably a little scary, but one of them was about a woman who went on a diet, but this diet you wore glasses, and so when you looked at food it would be alive, right, and it would say things like don't eat me, yeah. And so I think I don't remember the ending. I think maybe she starved to death, I'm not real sure, yeah. But every time I see certain fruits or vegetables I just think of that where it says don't eat me, yeah, and I'm like oh, I can't eat you, yeah. I mean it's ridiculous, but maybe that's because I don't really like things that are good for me. I've got to stop eating processed food.
Speaker 2:I like things that are good for me, but they are definitely more work to prepare them. Yeah, and things that are bad for you are so readily accessible.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's exactly it. It's so much easier to pop in a lame cuisine lasagna or something in the microwave for a few minutes than it is to cut up all the vegetables and preheat the oven or whatever and do the blah, blah, blah, and I have no patience, so I don't want to stand there and watch things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I've gotten worse about that. Yeah, I mean, if I have to stand there at the stove all day, I don't like it. Yeah, yeah, I want stuff that I can walk away from. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which is why a crock pot is great, yes, but I do love my crock pot. I need to find recipes that I like, because a lot of times the recipes are not things that I want. Yeah, like, every time I look up like chicken recipes, they're always like salsa chicken or whatever, which is fine, but I don't want salsa chicken, yeah, you know. And I don't want creamy. I don't like the creamy, creamy chicken sauce things.
Speaker 2:I almost never make chicken in the crock pot. Usually I make like a roast, like a pork roast or a beef roast or something like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because chicken, I think, does I mean I guess you can make like a soup, I think I mean. Well, you can make whatever in the crock pot, but chicken is in the kind of meat that I think takes to slow roasting or slow cooking as well as yeah, if you wanted to like fall apart when you touch it, then that's good, because that's what happens.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I made barbecue chicken the other day. It was good. I mean, don't get me wrong Putting it. You know, barbecue chicken in the oven is way tastier and way better. But if you just want something that tastes relatively good and you don't have to do anything, then that's a good one. Just put some chicken in a bottle of barbecue sauce and put it on for a few hours.
Speaker 2:I usually just make like chicken thighs or chicken parts and chicken parts. That doesn't sound appealing Instead of like making a whole chicken.
Speaker 1:Okay, now that we've complained about our. Well, we made our podcast longer. Yeah, we sure did. Now that we'vewe're done with that, I guess that's it Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, if you like our podcast if you like hearing us bitch about cooking and other bullshit in addition to a small section on Turcrime? Then check out our social media pages on Instagram and Facebook as well. You can email us if you have any comments or God forbid complaints at detailsr. That's a-r-e dot sketchy dot pod at gmailcom and we hope that you subscribe and we also.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I'm sorry, go ahead write and review our show.
Speaker 2:Yes, please do that. That would go a long way. So we love you and we appreciate you listening to our podcast.
Speaker 1:Yes, we willour eye will put up theall of the details for the social media and the show notes, including our personal Instagrams.
Speaker 2:We arewhenever we see that people are downloading our show, we are amazed. So we appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1:So happy Merry, no, happy New Year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, happy New Year.
Speaker 1:May it be great for you.
Speaker 2:And hopefully it won't fucking suck.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like the last three years.
Speaker 2:Yep like shit. Longer than that, since shit the last, what six years or so?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, okay, thank you, we'll see you next time. Bye, well, I'll see you.
Speaker 2:Talk to you, something to you. Yes, bye, bye.