273: Five Friends Horrifically Terrorized | The Wichita Massacre

This week on Serialously with Annie Elise, it started as an ordinary night among friends—but ended in one of the most harrowing and brutal crimes in modern history. In December 2000, five friends in Wichita, Kansas were suddenly ambushed in their own home by two armed intruders. Over the course of several hours, they were terrorized, humiliated, and forced to do the unthinkable to one another, all while being driven to their own execution. What unfolded was a chilling display of cruelty and control, known today as the Wichita Massacre. Why were they targeted—and how did one survivor live to tell the story?🔎Join Our True Crime Club & Get Exclusive Content & Perks 🔎 Join The Club: https://www.patreon.com/annieelise🎧 Need More to Binge? Listen to EXTRA deep dive episodes every week on Apple!https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/serialously-with-annie-elise/id1519456164🌸 SPRING MERCH IS OFFICIALLY HERE! 🌸Shop now at https://annieelise.com/collections/shop-allDon't miss out before your faves sell out! 🛒🌷Follow Annie on Socials 📸 🩷Instagram: @ _annieelise💜TikTok: @_annieelise🗞️ Substack: @annieelise💙Facebook: @10tolife⭐️Sponsors ⭐️Chime Financial: Open your account in 2 minutes at http://CHIME. COM/SERIALOUSLY. Everyday Dose: Get 45% off your first subscription order of 30-servings of Coffee+ or Bold+. You'll also receive a starter kit with over $100 in free gifts including a rechargeable frother and gunmetal serving spoon by going to http://everydaydose.com/AE or entering AE at checkout. RoBody: Head to http://Ro.co/AE for free insurance check. Shop Annie’s Closet & Must-Haves! 👗Poshmark: https://posh.mk/Tdbki6Ae0RbShopMY: https://shopmy.us/annieeliseAmazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/10tolife?ref_=cm_sw_r_apin_aipsfshop_BKN1ZMCMEZHACVFQ2R75&language=en_USDisclaimer ‣ Some links may be affiliate links, they do not cost you anything, but I make a small percentage from the sale. Thank you so much for watching and supporting me.🎙️ Follow the podcast for FREE on all podcast platforms! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/serialously-with-annie-elise/id1519456164Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/6HdheEH8WeMTHoe5da34qUAll Other Platforms: https://audioboom.com/channels/5100770-serialously-with-annie-eliseGet Involved or Recommend the Case 💬 About Annie: https://annieelise.com/For Business Inquiries: [email protected] Sources 🔗AP NewsCrime LibraryRacerealist.comThe U. S. Supreme CourtThe Wichita EagleWikipedia*Sources used to collect this information include various public news sites, interviews, court documents, FB groups dedicated to the case, and various news channel segments. When quoting statements made by others, they are strictly alleged until confirmed otherwise. Please remember my videos are my independent opinion and to always do your own research. ••••••••••••••••••Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this video are personal and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Assumptions made in the analysis are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the creator(s). These views are subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time and are not to be held in perpetuity. We make no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information on this video and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis. It is the reader’s responsibility to verify their own facts.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Annie Elise?

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• 0:42Annie Elise?

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• 1:07Speaker 01

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• 1:31Speaker 02

  Over the course of six days, the Carr brothers embarked on a reign of terror that culminated in the heinous murders of five people.

• 1:39Speaker 03

  Someone was seeking shelter from these sub-zero winter temperatures. She was completely naked and bleeding from the head.

• 1:45Speaker 02

  The level of violence, randomness, and cruelty of their actions shocked not only the city of Wichita, but the entire country.

• 1:52Speaker 04

  The brothers decided they were going to go on a crime spree in Wichita, Kansas.

• 1:57Speaker 05

  Because the actions of the two men had escalated substantially in a matter of days, they were likely to strike again and again, with their crimes getting worse and worse each time.

• 2:06Speaker 02

  Their crimes highlighted the fragility of everyday life, showing how quickly one can become a victim of senseless brutality.

• 2:14Speaker 05

  So begins one of the most brutal acts of violence in the history of Kansas.

• 2:24Annie Elise?

  Hey true crime besties, welcome back to an all-new episode of Serial Asleep.

• 2:48Annie Elise?

  Hey everybody, welcome back to an all-new episode of Serial Asleep with me, Annie Elise. I hope you guys all had a great weekend, that you are having a nice start to your week, getting ready to, you know, whatever you're doing, whether you're working out, whether you're driving to work right now, maybe you're at home cleaning, whatever it is you're doing. I hope that you had a great weekend and you are like, ready to kick this week's ass. Now, let me just tell you, okay, this Monday over here is starting off a little rough, because the case we're talking about today is one of those cases where it like, not only creeps me out, but it's almost like one of my worst fears realized, because it feels like a true horror movie that has come to life. And there's been certain cases

• 3:31Annie Elise?

  that just stick with me, okay, whether it's a case I've covered, or a documentary I watched, but there have been certain cases over the years that stick with me so much to where I have nightmares about them, and even when I'm awake in bed at night, like sometimes I like, think about them, and almost put myself in the victim's shoes for a moment, to where it just terrifies me so badly, and I'm doing probably a horrible job explaining right now, but let me give you an example, because it literally just happened to me last night. But I was laying in bed, and it was like, 2:00 in the morning, and I like, woke up because something happened with my kids, they woke up, and I was putting them back to bed, and then I was like, sitting there, awake in bed, my mind just started going to the Idaho murders. And, look, I get it, nobody has been convicted yet, of course Brian Koberger is the main suspect, but he hasn't been convicted yet, however,

• 4:16Annie Elise?

  my mind went to those murders, and went to that night. And like, as I was laying there, and I'm gonna try to explain this as best as I can, I started thinking what that must have been like for those girls and for Ethan, to be in bed, late at night, in your home, where you feel like you should be safe, and then hearing somebody break in, if you even were awake, seeing them at your doorway, because this is what I started then picturing, and like, how you would react, what you would do, what that fear must feel like, where it just paralyzes you.

• 4:48Annie Elise?

  And it like, there's certain cases, again, like that, that just really affect me in a way to where it truly terrifies me. And today's case is one of them. So it's probably not the best way to start the week off, right? It's probably not good for mental health. But you know what? We are here to talk about it because it is a wild one.

• 5:06Speaker 06

  We need the ambulance.

• 5:07Annie Elise?

  Okay, what's going on there?

• 5:09Speaker 06

  Oh, we got a criminal that just came in on our tour. And she's naked and bleeding. And she said her friends have been shot.

• 5:19Speaker 07

  These two men broke into our house and they held us and they took everything. And they executed my four friends and I've been shot in the head. I need an ambulance.

• 5:28Annie Elise?

  It started out like any ordinary night. There were five friends together. They were just hanging out at home, watching TV, eating food, talking with each other like friends do, just a really normal evening. Then everybody headed to bed. But after that, out of nowhere, two men burst through the door. They were strangers, but they were armed. And within minutes, this entire night that started off so normal, so regular with friends, it took a horrific turn that nobody could see coming. And here's what's so scary about it. This house wasn't targeted or picked for revenge, for money, for anything like that. It was just chosen at random. By chance, it could have been anybody inside this house. The perpetrators

• 6:09Annie Elise?

  didn't care. And what happened next was straight out of a horror movie. Because over the next six hours, the five friends who were inside this house, they would be subjected to something that would be somebody's worst nightmare. I am talking they were terrorized, they were robbed, they were threatened, they were forced to commit very degrading sexual acts, not only with these intruders, but also with each other in front of people. I mean, pure terror. And it didn't stop there. Before the night would even end, all of these friends were then forced into a car. Most of them, by the way, mostly naked. And then they were driven to a soccer field on the outskirts of town in the middle of winter. This is

• 6:49Annie Elise?

  the story of the Wichita massacre. And trust me, it only gets worse from here. Wichita, Kansas, used to be the kind of place where people Didn't even lock their doors until they went to bed. And even then, maybe they wouldn't. It's a quiet midwestern city that's big enough to where there's always something going on, yet it's small enough that people still smile at each other in the grocery store. Or if they're walking, they'll give, you know, a friendly little wave and nod when you pass them on the street. Now today's case takes us back to December in the year 2000. So the holidays were right around the corner. And all of the Wichita storefronts were full of Christmas lights, full of decorations, last minute shoppers. I mean, just busy and bustling, right? The college kids in town were all finishing up their finals before heading home for the holidays.

• 7:33Annie Elise?

  And it was kind of just that time of year when everything felt a little more relaxed, a little more joyful, and a little more like you could just slow down. You could enjoy the upcoming holidays with your friends, your family, and everything just was going to be on pause. You know, you would take a break from school, maybe even take a break from work and just have a moment of peace, a moment of rest. Now, at the time, Wichita wasn't really a city that you would ever associate with violent crime. I mean, sure, bad things did happen there like anywhere else, but for the most part, it felt safe. This was a place where all of the neighbors would look out for each other, where families lived there for generations and generations, and, and where life sort of felt predictable in a good way.

• 8:13Annie Elise?

  I mean, on any given week, the biggest news in town was usually something like a high school football rivalry game, or, you know, a debate over a new construction site, something small like that, nothing scary. People were now, too, it was December, they were focused on their holiday plans. So in addition to it never really being somewhere where you could feel, you would feel unsafe or worrisome, they definitely weren't looking over their shoulders, wondering who somebody was that they had never seen before. And Wichita was kind of just that place that had a really welcoming vibe to it. So even though it was the holidays, it's still, even if it wasn't the holidays, wouldn't have been abnormal for people to be coming in, to be warm and welcoming to each other, there to be tourists, visitors, things like that. That was just kind of the vibe of the city. But all of that changed on the night of December 8th, 2000.

• 8:58Annie Elise?

  Andrew Schreiber, who was just 23 years old at the time, was a local guy who was just going about his night like he always did. He was six feet tall, he had blonde- hair, blue eyes, and at the time, he was an assistant baseball coach at the nearby high school. So on the evening of December 8th, he stopped at a local convenience store. He had done this a bunch of times before, but then this time, when he stopped by there, things went a lot differently than they usually did. Because after Andrew got back into his Ford Expedition, a man appeared at the driver's side window, and he was pointing a gun at Andrew directly through the glass, telling him, "Move over to the passenger seat, I'm getting in." Clearly, a carjacking, right? So before Andrew could even react, there was a gun just pointed directly at his face.

• 9:40Annie Elise?

  And as Andrew moved over into the passenger seat, this other guy gets in the car and then takes the back of his gun and just whacks Andrew in the back of the head with it. Then he took Andrew's phone, his wallet, and he drove to a nearby alley. But then, the same thing happened again. A second man appeared, this time, again, pointing a gun at Andrew, but this time through the passenger side window, like people were coming at him from both sides. Now, this person on the passenger side was yelling at Andrew, telling him to get in the backseat of the car, and, just like before, he took the back of his gun and whacked Andrew in the back of the head with it. So these guys, both of them, were armed, they were aggressive, and they clearly wanted something. But it didn't end there, because then, they started driving.

• 10:22Annie Elise?

  And that has to be a very terrifying moment, because not only are you getting robbed, carjacked, but now, the vehicle is on the move, and you're inside the vehicle. And, I don't remember what the exact statistic is, but I do know for a fact that it is a widely-known fact out there, which if you don't know this fact, listen carefully, that if you are ever attacked for any reason, if you are ever held at gunpoint, robbed, anything, never get in a car with somebody and go to a second location. Whether you think that you're just trying to placate them, appease them, that you can play nice, and then you'll be let go, the chances, if you get to a second location, of coming out of that situation unharmed are very slim. And of course, in this situation, Andrew didn't have a choice, right?

• 11:07Annie Elise?

  He was already in the vehicle. But, just food for thought, and a little PSA, if you ever, unfortunately, find yourself in a situation like that, the professionals all say, "You need to kick, scream, yell, fight like hell, just do not get in the car." So now, back to my point, before I went off on that tangent, is Andrew not only is being robbed and held at gunpoint, but now the vehicle's on the move, and they're going to a second location. And not just a second location, a third, a fourth, a fifth, which I'll get to. And that has to be a very terrifying realization because now you truly are at their mercy. You have no control. So Andrew wasn't just being robbed. At this point, he was sort of in a hostage situation. And these two men were very clearly calling the shots.

• 11:50Annie Elise?

  They were telling him what to do, where they were taking him, and he was just going along for the ride. He had no choice. And the men drove to three separate ATMs nearby. And when they got to each one, they made Andrew withdraw as much money as he could, all still while a gun was pointed at his head. Then, once he withdrew the money, they grabbed the cash and took the money. So the whole time, Andrew had absolutely no idea how this was going to end. He kind of was just left to wonder if they were gonna let him go, or if something worse was going to happen, like if they were going to kill him. And he was also hit at least one more time in the head as well. So by the third ATM, the two gunmen had finally taken almost every last penny that belonged to Andrew that was in his bank account.

• 12:33Annie Elise?

  They left him with, I think it was like eight dollars and some change, something really small. They even laughed about it, being like, "Oh, here, you can at least have this." Eventually, they went and picked up a second car too. Then, they drove both of these cars to a remote spot. And when they did, they kicked Andrew out of his own car and then fired three shots into one of the tires of the Expedition, the car that they were in. Then, the men hopped into their car, that second car, and they kind of just disappeared into the night, leaving Andrew behind. I mean, thankfully, Andrew wasn't seriously injured, and he was able to drive home even on that bad tire that they tried to shoot out. But, talk about, I mean, just terrifying. Once he was away from them, he called 911 and he reported the entire thing to the police. Now, I will say, when he reported this to the police,

• 13:17Annie Elise?

  the cops found this crime to be pretty strange. I mean, just the fact that it was so random and seemingly out of nowhere, because remember, Wichita wasn't really known for carjackings, for violent holdups, for violent crimes, things like that. So even though Andrew reported it to the police and gave them as many details as he possibly could, they didn't really have a lot to go off of to get a clear picture of who these criminals could be, who they were, and nobody was immediately arrested for it. There was some security footage- Yes, at these ATMs, but it was really hard to see these two guys' faces. So what happened to Andrew was terrifying for sure. But at the time, it seemed kind of like a one-off type of thing, a one-off type of crime, just sort of a freak crime that wasn't going to be reported.

• 14:01Annie Elise?

  But then, three days later, something really out of the ordinary in that area happened again. And this time, it was more violent. And this time, the victim was a librarian, somebody who could not have been more harmless. Anne Wollanta was the definition of community. She was a 55-year-old woman, a well-spoken, well-respected librarian, and super talented at cello and played in the local symphony orchestra. Her life was full of music, books, family, and she was the kind of person who really was admired and liked by everybody who knew her. Anne and her husband lived in a very peaceful upscale neighborhood in a cozy, single-story house. And it was the kind of house and the kind of neighborhood and place where people felt safe and where crime seemed like something that happened somewhere else.

• 14:46Annie Elise?

  But then on December 11th, 2000, so just a couple of days after this incident that happened with Andrew, Anne pulled into her driveway just after 9:30 PM. She was just getting home from a rehearsal for the local symphony orchestra. She had spent the entire evening doing what she loved, playing music, surrounded by her people, bringing beautiful sounds to life, just really, you know, having a wonderful evening. And like Andrew thought just a few days before, she had no reason to think that this evening was going to be any different than all of the other times she had done this same thing. Especially because, remember, at this point, she was home. She was home, safe, in her own driveway. So as Anne sat in her SUV, you know, gathering up some things before heading inside for the night, a man appeared at her window. He walked right up to her car and said that he needed help.

• 15:30Annie Elise?

  But something about this whole thing, it felt off to Anne because her gut was telling her that something bad was about to happen. And she felt like she had to trust these instincts. She wanted to trust her gut. So Anne threw her SUV into reverse. She hit the gas and she tried to get away from this person as fast as possible. But in that moment, everything changed because the person who was standing outside her car shouted at her not to move. And then he pulled out A gun and he shot at her multiple times. Anne was seriously hurt, but she managed to push down on her car's horn as sort of like a last ditch effort cry for help. And thankfully, a neighbor heard all of that commotion that was going on outside, so they called 911. The paramedics quickly arrived and they found Anne barely alive.

• 16:15Annie Elise?

  However, there was absolutely no gunman in sight. He had fled. She was immediately rushed to the hospital where doctors were working incredibly hard and fast trying to save her. Because it turns out, she had been hit multiple times by this gunfire. The damage to her body was seriously bad. And even though Anne was clinging to her life in the hospital, she was able to talk with the police and she was able to give a description of the person who shot her. Now, because it was dark, she couldn't see much, but what she did know was that the man who shot her was black. So after this incident with Anne, the police now were feeling like, okay, maybe her and Andrew's attack could have been related. However, again, they didn't know exactly who they were looking for. I mean, obviously, they were hoping to catch whoever these criminals were before they struck again.

• 17:00Annie Elise?

  I mean, it seemed like the attacks were escalating and getting worse and worse, but they didn't really know where to start. They didn't have great descriptions, they didn't have good footage, it was all grainy, it was difficult to see their faces, like, where do you even begin with that? The news about what happened to Anne, it shook the city of Wichita. I mean, the random carjacking that happened to Andrew, that was one thing. That was scary, yes, but that was one thing. Now, a brutal, unprovoked shooting? That was another. People were starting to get very fearful. Was this the start of something bigger? Was there somebody out there hunting strangers? How do you even know if you're safe if they're approaching you at your own home? People were worried. And as it turns out, two people had just arrived in Wichita a couple of days before Andrew's carjacking.

• 17:44Annie Elise?

  But the question was, were they just passing through? Or did they come to Wichita specifically for something more sinister? Their names were Reginald and Jonathan Carr. And they had spent most of their lives kind of bouncing between everything. I mean, different homes, different jobs, you name it. Both of them were born in Dodge City, Kansas, which is a few hours west of Wichita. And life hadn't been super easy for the Carr brothers. Their childhood was far from normal. They had gone through a lot of loss, a lot of hardships, and just generally not knowing what was going to come next for them or for their family. Jonathan and Reginald's mother Janice Harding even spoke out about how her sons grew up in what she describes as a very cold, unloving home. She was pretty honest about not being,

• 18:27Annie Elise?

  you know, a huggy, kissy type of person. She also said that the family never celebrated the holidays, never made a big deal out of them, and it was just very cold in general. But what hit them all really early on was a family tragedy, because Jonathan and Reginald's sister Regina passed away from leukemia when she was only three years old. And with all of that, the environment, the family home, it was just kind of in turmoil. It was pretty chaotic. Violence in the house also wasn't uncommon. Janice herself has even talked about how when she and the boy's dad fought, it would oftentimes get physical. She even admitted to picking up a bat and using it against him in one of their fights. Apparently, sexual

• 19:08Annie Elise?

  abuse was also very common in the home. One of Reginald and Jonathan's sisters claimed that their father not only had molested her, but that the boys had been abused as well. Then, after their parents divorced, Jonathan and Reginald's dad just disappeared from their lives. But even then, things still didn't improve much. Janice's second marriage was also violent. I mean, her new husband once even put a gun to her head. Just constant toxic behavior and toxic relationships throughout their lives. And these experiences would be obviously a lot for anybody to cope with, right? I mean, let alone young people who are still trying to find their place in the world, still trying to calibrate what they're seeing, what they're experiencing, and what they've been through.

• 19:51Annie Elise?

  Naturally, all of this left scars on the boys, physically and mentally. Reginald started getting into a ton of fights at school. Jonathan, when he was only 16 years old, even attempted suicide by drinking antifreeze. I mean, these boys were going through it. Sometimes Jonathan and Reginald would go and stay with their grandmother, but even that wasn't really a safe haven. Because according to their mom, their grandmother was very unpredictable. I mean, flipping from calm to angry, just back and forth, one minute to the next, all without warning. And by their late teens, both of the brothers found themselves constantly getting into trouble. And this time, it wasn't just kind of like the "you're grounded, I'm taking away your phone, I'm taking away this, that" kind of trouble. It actually started involving the law.

• 20:33Annie Elise?

  First, it started small, little petty thefts here and there, fights, minor offenses, things like that. But as they got older, the crimes got bigger. Reginald started going in and out of jail for different things like robbery, burglary. Jonathan even followed a similar path, though his rap sheet, I will say, was a little less aggressive than his brother's. But it almost seems like neither one of them had any real direction, anyone to really learn from, to look up to, and not a lot of repercussions for their behavior, right? When you grow up in that unstable of an environment, sometimes you're just in survival mode all the time. And that, of course, is no excuse to commit violent crimes, to steal, to do all these things, to fight people.

• 21:16Annie Elise?

  But it does give a little clarity as to their upbringing and what could have, you know, formed them into those kinds of people. So this was kind of a rinse, repeat cycle for them. They would get in trouble, they would then escalate, they would do something worse, they would be arrested, they would be let out, all, like, on and on and on. And by the time that they landed in Wichita in December 2000, the brothers were just kind of looking for their next move. And it's not super clear if they planned on staying long-term or not, because they didn't really come to Wichita with much of a plan at all, or at least a plan that anybody knew about. They weren't looking for work, they didn't really know anybody super well in the area. It was just two guys coming to town who were in their twenties, looking for, I don't know, I guess you could say some kind of adventure or something. But here's the thing, even with that, as I say it out loud,

• 22:01Annie Elise?

  The Carr brothers, their definition of adventure probably differed a lot more than what ours would be. I mean, my definition of adventure might be like a vacation, maybe trying out a new restaurant, maybe going on a hike, because that's not really in my normal realm of things that I do. But for these brothers, adventure meant a violent crime spree. And little did everybody know, that Wichita's nightmare was only just beginning. And for five friends who lived in the area, the worst night of their lives was about to begin.

• 22:39Annie Elise?

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• 23:24Annie Elise?

  that has become my new favorite, especially in the morning. I know you're not supposed to have dessert in the morning, but for me, it feels like I am having a little sweet treat to start my day. And I think it's great when you're craving something sweet and salty, but for me, it's like, a great way to start my morning routine. I love it. Embrace your salty side. Go to kachava.com and use code AE for 15% off your first order. That's kachava, K-A-C-H-A-V-A dot com, code AE.

• 23:51Annie Elise?

  Okay, can we just talk about holiday gifting for a second? There's nothing like having those pieces in your closet that you absolutely love, that you know you can count on for any occasion. For me, it's like this nice little silk two-piece jumpsuit. It's like a pant and a nice little like top blouse, because I'm not really a dress person. And I feel like the best part is like, maybe give somebody else that feeling, having that staple to go to in their closet that is high-quality, that looks great, that they can wear for any occasion. So this holiday season, I've not only found those pieces for myself in the past at Quince, but I am paying it forward and I am gifting the gift of Quince this season. Everything there is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands,

• 24:34Annie Elise?

  because they work directly with ethical factories and they cut out the middleman. So you're giving luxury quality, but without that luxury price tag. I've told you before too, if like you wanna maybe not branch out and do clothes, because that's a little bit personal of a gift, their cashmere throw blanket, I'm telling you, you will be the favorite daughter-in-law, favorite son-in-law, favorite friend. It is the best gift you could give. Cashmere throw blanket, mark my words. So go ahead, go check it all out at quince.com, give the gift of quality this holiday season. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too.

• 25:18Annie Elise?

  And when Quince asks you where you heard about them, let them know that it was Serial Sli that sent you. It is the best way to support the show.

• 25:32Annie Elise?

  So three days after Anne, the librarians attack, these brothers decided they were going to take evil to a completely new level. Because now, what they were about to commit, it was going to be a crime that the city was never going to forget and never was going to recover from. And honestly, it's one of the most brutal things that I personally have ever heard of. December 14th, 2000 was just another cold and snowy, ordinary Thursday night for most people who lived in Wichita. But inside one of the units at a triplex on East Birchwood Drive, five friends were spending an evening together, completely unaware that their lives were about to change forever. Now, this triplex, it looked like a regular house from the outside, but two other ranch

• 26:15Annie Elise?

  style homes were connected to it by shared walls. It was a beige house that had dark trim, and it looked really well-kept and very inviting. And the unit that we're talking about was basically a two-story, three-bedroom apartment. Inside this apartment was Jason Beaufort, a 26-year-old high school teacher and junior varsity basketball coach. He lived there with two guys named Brad Haka, who was 27-years-old, and Aaron Sander, who was 29-years-old. Now, Jason had built a very solid career. He was very well-liked by his students. He was also in a serious relationship with his girlfriend Holly G., who also was a teacher, and she was 25-years-old, and she was at Jason's house that night, too. Holly also had brought her dog with her, a little schnauzer named Nicky.

• 26:58Annie Elise?

  And Holly and Jason were super excited about their relationship. They were actually starting to figure out what their future was gonna look like with one another. Jason had even already purchased an engagement ring, yet he was still deciding how he wanted to propose to Holly. He wanted to make sure that it was really special for both of them. Apparently, he even bought a book on how to propose, which I've never even heard of that, but again, it was the year 2000, so it's before, you know, the internet was booming, blogs, vlogs, all of that, Instagram, so maybe, I don't know, I would need to look that up, but a book on proposing, he had that, which I think that's really endearing, really cute. And Brad, he was this really analytical guy. He was a director of finance at a local company. He had worked incredibly hard to get where he was in his career, too, and he had even bigger ambitions for the future.

• 27:41Annie Elise?

  Now, as for Aaron, the third guy in this apartment, he had recently left his corporate job as a financial analyst because he was feeling called to do something bigger than himself, bigger in life. So much so that he decided he was going to study to enter the priesthood. Now, also at the home that night was their friend Heather Muller, who was 25-years-old and also a teacher, but a preschool teacher, at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School. Heather was incredibly kind to everybody who knew her, not to mention she literally had the patience of a saint, which I think you have to be to be a preschool teacher. That is not for the faint of heart. Now, what's interesting is Aaron, one of the guys who lived there, and Heather, the friend who was there, had actually recently broken up.

• 28:23Annie Elise?

  And the reason they broke up was all rooted in his decision to become a priest. But even so, they still remained really good friends. And actually, coincidentally, or not, I guess you could say, Heather also was considering becoming a nun. So they had a ton in common, and they were still happy to support one another in whatever life choices they were going to make, or whatever career changes they were going to make. So overall, it just sounds like a really nice group of people, right? They were all driven, they were well-liked, they were ambitious, they had careers, they knew what they wanted in life, and they were all really good friends to one another. So all five of them spent the night eating dinner, watching TV, just talking, hanging out like friends do. And then when the night started winding down, they just slowly kind of each started disappearing

• 29:07Annie Elise?

  into their own rooms, or wherever they were going to be sleeping that night. Then, around 11:00 PM, Jason and Holly were in bed together on the second floor, when they noticed a porch light come on outside. They could also hear Aaron talking to somebody, which they assumed that it was probably just Brad. So Jason was actually a little bit annoyed, because, I mean, he was getting ready to go to sleep, he and Holly were both tired, who wants to get out of like, your bed when you're really exhausted and go turn off a light and when people are talking? I get it, it's annoying. But before he even got a chance to get out of bed and go turn this light off, one of the Carr brothers barged into Jason's bedroom with a gun. Jason screamed as literally the covers were being pulled off of the bed. And at the same time, the other brother dragged Aaron into the room and then threw him on

• 29:51Annie Elise?

  the bed, right where Holly and Jason were laying. Holly's dog Nikki knew that something was off. She knew that something was going on, so this dog just starts barking and barking, but they didn't like that, obviously. So they yelled to Holly and said, "Hey, you better shut this dog up, or I'm gonna kill it." Like, get it under control, stop the barking. Then, once that was taken care of, they listed their next demand. And they said they needed to know, right now, who else was in that apartment. Now Holly and Jason were obviously terrified, but they also knew they needed to comply with what they were being asked to do because if they didn't, there was no way that they were going to make it out of this situation. So they gave the brothers the names. They said Brad and Heather. Now, at the time, Brad had been asleep downstairs and Heather was sleeping in one of the other

• 30:36Annie Elise?

  upstairs bedrooms alone by herself. So right away, one of the brothers went and grabbed Brad and Heather and brought them back into Jason's room. So all five of these friends now are all in this single bedroom. Which imagine that you're all just going to sleep, a group of friends in your respective bedrooms, and then a stranger bursts down your door, rips you out of your bed, and then throws you in this other room where your friends are. It's terrifying. And as if things weren't already scary enough, they were about to even get way more horrifying. Now, at first, it seemed like maybe the Carr brothers were just going to rob everybody because they started yelling about getting their ATM cards, about wanting to know where the money was in the home. So it seemed like a robbery and that that was the motive here, which the group of friends had no problem giving over their bank cards, whatever cash they had on them.

• 31:20Annie Elise?

  Because again, they just wanted this whole ordeal to be over. They wanted to get out of this situation without being hurt. But Reginald and Jonathan, they had a very different idea of how this night was going to go. And I just want to throw out a very quick trigger warning that we are about to get into some very graphic details. First, the Carr brothers told all five of the friends that they needed to take their clothes off. Then they made everybody just sit on the floor of Jason's bedroom, telling them they could not say a word, they needed to be quiet, and they were threatening them that if they spoke, they would shoot them. Then, while they were demanding that everybody stays quiet, they pulled Heather and Holly up. They said, "You two, come with us, we're going into the living room." And when they got into the living room with the two girls, they made these girls perform sexual acts on one another.

• 32:05Annie Elise?

  Specifically, they forced these two women to perform oral sex on each other and to also penetrate each other with each other's hands. All while they sat there and watched and, in some perverse way, did this for their own sick enjoyment. But that wasn't it. Because then, they forced Brad to come into the room, and they forced him to have sex with Holly. And as they were doing this, they were continuing to use their guns to threaten them, saying, We're not taking no for an answer. You do this, or we shoot. And then they did the same thing with Jason, then the same thing with Aaron, and it was just absolute humiliation. Now Aaron refused. He was not going to do that. But they, of course, did not take no for an answer, and they were not happy with his answer.

• 32:47Annie Elise?

  So they took something. I'm not sure what, but they hit him over the head with something. Then, once this nightmare was over for Holly, who literally just had all of these people assault her, they went and sent her into the closet with Jason and Brad, told them, "Sit down, be quiet, don't say a word." Then, Reginald and Jonathan forced Aaron and Heather to have sex. However, Aaron, given the circumstances, wasn't able to perform. And that was something that kept happening, actually. Which completely makes sense, because these guys were being terrorized. I mean, obviously, they didn't want to have sex under these circumstances. It's revolting. They were absolutely, you know, horrified. Not to mention, they were being forced to have sex with somebody who wasn't their partner. So they were all having trouble performing, if you get what I mean.

• 33:32Annie Elise?

  But this just made the brothers even more angry. So they hit all of these guys and threatened to shoot them. And this whole thing was just so twisted, because they were all forcing all of these friends to have sex with one another, to switch partners, almost like this big orgy situation, all for their own enjoyment. And after they were done with Holly, they then did the same thing with Heather, and they kind of kept the closet almost as like the holding cell for the friends. One guy would come out, would have to have sex with Heather, he would go back into the closet, the next guy would come out, almost like a revolving door. And it wasn't just for the sexual acts. It was for any sort of torment that they wanted to inflict. They would just throw all of the friends at one point in this closet, and just choose one at random and bring them out,

• 34:15Annie Elise?

  and torment them, hurt them, and just inflict this true horror over them. But then they took it a step further. And this time, when they brought Heather and Holly out of the closet, the brothers now wanted their turn to assault them. So they each took turns with both of the girls, all while these men were inside that closet and they could hear everything. Now, at some point, while Holly was being assaulted, she noticed that one of the brothers had set their Gun down off to the side. And she really did debate if she was gonna grab it, if she was gonna try to reach for it, make a move to save all her and her friends. But as you can imagine, she was fearful, she was paralyzed in that moment, she was scared, what if it doesn't work out, what if I miss fire, what if they catch me and they get it sooner, I could put all of us in more danger.

• 34:58Annie Elise?

  So ultimately, she decided not to grab the gun. Now, at some point during these sexual assaults, the brothers ended up sort of splitting up. One of the brothers started taking each person outside, one by one. And he would instruct them to then get into the car, that they would be driven to the ATM, they would need to take out money, and they would need to hand that money over to him. Meanwhile, the other brother would stay behind at the house, basically keeping the others in this like hostage type situation in this closet. Make sure that they didn't try to call for help or try to escape. Now, this next part really infuriates me, and it probably will anger you as well, but when it was Holly's turn to go and drive with one of these brothers to the ATM, she kinda straight up asked him, she's like, are you gonna kill all of us? Which, he said, no, I'm not.

• 35:42Annie Elise?

  But he even had the fucking audacity to say, you know what? I wish we met under different circumstances, cuz I think you're really cute. I wish we could have met under, you know, in different, in a different way, under different circumstances, which, are you just completely psychotic, delusional? Like, what are you even talking about? You're meeting under circumstances that you are the one responsible for. So to say, ah, I wish, after you just sexually assaulted this girl, to be like, ah, I just wish we met under different circumstances, you're so cute, like, get out of here, get a grip. So they go back and forth, taking these friends, one by one, to the ATM. But the only person who was not taken to the ATM that night was Heather. So at this point, just to keep the timeline straight, it's a little after midnight.

• 36:25Annie Elise?

  And now, all five of the friends are back at the house. The Carr brothers are still there, too. Now, at one point, one of these brothers started making a whiskey drink, maybe trying to unwind or take the edge off, who really knows? But they continued to ransack the home and look for things to steal. Remember, it was also almost Christmas, so they even went to the Christmas tree and started unwrapping some of the gifts under the tree, seeing what they could take with them. And eventually, sure enough, they came across the engagement ring that Jason was saving for Holly, and they stole it. And remember, Jason hadn't even proposed yet, so this ended up being how Holly found out that he was even planning on proposing. Which, that just kind of mentally takes this to a whole nother level too, because they were robbing these people of so much.

• 37:08Annie Elise?

  They robbed them physically, they robbed them financially, they robbed them emotionally, they robbed them sexually, and now they were robbing Holly of what was supposed to be a beautiful moment with her partner, something that she would never forget, but now tainting not only that future memory, but whoever she ends up getting engaged to in the future. It's like this will always be burned in the back of your mind. But these brothers, they did not care at all. They even made Holly hand over her diamond earrings that she was wearing, even though she said, "These aren't even real, they're fake." They were like, "I don't care, pass them over." They were literally taking everything they could. And she was starting to panic. Holly was getting very, very anxious, yet she was trying to remain as calm as possible because she knew she didn't want to upset them.

• 37:52Annie Elise?

  However, the brothers could tell that she was on edge, so they decided they wanted to say something to her to try and calm her down, but in reality, what they said to her, it did the complete opposite. It shook her to her core, because what the brothers told Holly was, "Relax, we're not gonna shoot you, yet." So now, after hours of torture, and hours of just doing unthinkable things to this friend group, the brothers decided they've had enough being at this house, it was time to go on the move, it was time to go to the next location. So they ordered Brad, Jason, and Aaron to all get in the trunk of Aaron's Honda Accord. Heather was also forced in the backseat of the car, and, mind you, everybody was still pretty much naked at this point.

• 38:34Annie Elise?

  Then, because this car wasn't going to fit everybody, the other brother got into Jason's truck, and he told Holly she needed to get in the truck with him. So at this point, Holly was separated from her boyfriend, her friends, and just on her own with one of these brothers. Which I can only imagine that added to how scared and terrified she was, especially after everything that she had gone through. Then, when Holly asked him where they were all being taken to, where they were going, he said, we're gonna take you somewhere far away from the crime scene and we're gonna drop you off. That way, even if you try to run, call for help, we will have, you know, some lead time to get away and we're pulling you far away from the crime scene so that it'll take longer to get them help. So both of these brothers just start driving. They're driving and driving and driving and eventually they came to a rundown

• 39:19Annie Elise?

  soccer field in the middle of the night. And that is where they stopped both of the cars. Both the brothers popped the trunk open and they ordered everybody to get out. Then they instructed all five of the friends to kneel down in the snow. And in that moment, a sense of pure, straight up panic fell over everybody. They all had this gut feeling of what was coming next. And even though the brothers had said they weren't going to kill them, they knew that they were lying. So one by one, each of these friends just kind of in this line, they all had to watch as the friends before them were shot in the head execution style, just waiting for their turn when they were up and when they were going to be shot. But that wasn't enough. Even after shooting all five of the friends

• 40:02Annie Elise?

  in the head, these brothers wanted to make sure that they were truly dead. So they jumped back in Jason's truck and they ran over the bodies just to make sure that they were dead and then they sped away. Once the brothers drove off, all five of these friends' bodies were just laying there in the snow, on the ground, bullet wounds and motionless. But then, one of them moved.

• 40:29Annie Elise?

  All right, I feel like we need to just have an honest conversation here in the circle of trust. Can we talk about how literally everything seems to be getting more expensive? Groceries, gas, rent, you name it. And apparently, your wireless bill wants to join in on that party too. But here's the thing, it doesn't have to. Mint Mobile is making it so much easier to stop overpaying for wireless with plans starting at just 15 bucks a month. And you're not sacrificing quality either. All plans include high-speed data, unlimited talk and text, and access to the nation's largest 5G network. You can also use your current phone and your current phone number. You just sign up online and you are good to go. Now, I changed carriers probably a year and a half ago at this point to Mint

• 41:13Annie Elise?

  Mobile. And when I tell you, not only was it the best decision of my life, I now have like service in places my husband doesn't even have service, but it was so easy. It took me 15 minutes, kept my phone, kept my phone number. It was the best. So for a new wireless plan, starting at 15 bucks a month, go to mintmobile.com/ae. That's mintmobile.com/ae. $45 upfront payment required, equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three-month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details.

• 41:44Speaker 01

  Time for a quick break to talk about McDonald's. It's the tangiest time of the year. For a limited time, head to McDonald's and get a McRib sandwich. Make it a meal by adding a medium fries and a soft drink like an ice cold Diet Dr. Pepper. So grab a McRib sandwich and embrace the tang. Save time by ordering ahead on the app. At participating McDonald's for a limited time. Dr. Pepper is a registered trademark of Dr. Pepper 7-Up Inc.

• 42:16Annie Elise?

  One of these friends that had been shot in the head was still alive. Holly had somehow miraculously survived this. It turns out that the bullet that hit her head actually deflected off of a plastic butterfly hair clip that she had in her hair. And you may remember the kind from the early 2000s, right? It's the tiny little colorful butterflies. People would like put it all around, almost like a headband in their hair. Well, it bounced off of that and didn't hit her. She was alive. It was a complete miracle. So Holly starts yelling out to her friends, "Guys, guys, guys." But nobody answered her. Holly then turned to Jason and she rolled him over so that she could get a better look at his wounds. But it became clear to her right away that he needed serious help. He wasn't responding. There was blood pouring out of his face, all around his eyes.

• 43:01Annie Elise?

  And she did the best that she could to try and stop the bleeding. And she even tied her sweater around his head, trying to make it as like a tourniquet. And it was really the only piece of clothing she even had on at this point. But she, of course, wanted to save him and wanted to do what she could. So she took it off and wrapped it around his head. Holly then went and checked on her other friends too, because nobody was responding. But quickly she realized that this was way more serious. She needed to get them help as soon as possible, because these wounds were very, very serious. Holly was scared, shaking, she was in pain. And at this point, she had been surviving on pure adrenaline. So with this, she just kind of went into survival mode. She started looking around, hoping to see something, anything in the distance where she could go get help.

• 43:44Annie Elise?

  And when she was scanning everything, her eyes landed on a house that was off in the distance and it was lit up with Christmas lights. So to her, this was the only sign of hope that she had come across in hours. So Holly started running. She was running as fast as she could. She was barefoot, she was naked. Remember, there was even snow on the ground and it was colder than usual because the temperature was only four degrees that night, but she was working off of pure adrenaline. But as she was running, she then saw headlights coming toward her. And this freaked her the hell out because she could only think that it must have been these brothers. They were coming back, they wanted to finish the job. So in this situation, Holly did what anyone would have done, in my opinion, to survive.

• 44:25Annie Elise?

  Without even hesitating, she just threw herself into the snow trying to duck for cover, hide, and hope the car wouldn't see her. And she did this every single time she saw headlights while she was running towards this house in the distance. She would be running, she would see the headlights, she would drop into the snow, wait for the headlights to disappear, get back up, start booking it again, see the headlights, drop again, just back and forth, just, I mean, I can't even imagine. She was literally freezing and every single step was painful for her. Imagine that, four degrees in the snow, naked. But she knew, she knew she had to make it to that house because it quite literally was her only chance of survival. And remember, at this point, she didn't even know the extent of her own injuries. She just knew that she had survived.

• 45:09Annie Elise?

  And here's a recount of what else she had to go through while she was on this journey.

• 45:13Speaker 08

  She climbed over a barbed wire fence, naked. And she crossed the roadway, the highway.

• 45:23Speaker 09

  She covered a little over a mile in the snow. She got into this neighborhood and she came to that door. And knocked on the door.

• 45:37Annie Elise?

  Now meanwhile, as all of this is happening, the two brothers actually had gone back to Jason's apartment where that night of horrors first began. Apparently, the reason they went back is because they wanted to keep robbing the place. They wanted to make sure that they got their hands on every little single thing that they wanted. And as if these two creeps weren't evil enough, psychotic enough, sociopathic enough. After they were done stealing everything, they decided they wanted to commit one last act of horror. At least one last act of horror within this group. If you remember, Holly's dog Nikki was at this house. So these two monstrous brothers beat the crap out of this dog, just wailing on it. And then they eventually stabbed it to death.

• 46:22Annie Elise?

  I mean, what sick fucking freaks, truly. So while these brothers were continuing their disgusting violence and like just the cruelty to this animal. Holly had luckily made it to this house that she had seen in the distance with the Christmas lights on. And thankfully, a man and a woman answered the door. They were quite literally her saviors. Which just for a second, imagine their fear in that moment. They hear a knock on the door. They are woken up in the middle of the night to this knock on the door. They go and answer it. And when they open the door, they see this naked woman in the snow, covered in blood with what appears to be a gunshot wound to her head. And she's just begging for help on their doorstep.

• 47:03Annie Elise?

  I mean, you of course want to rush and help her 1,000%, but you don't know how far away the perpetrators are. You don't know if they followed her. You don't know if they're going to come into your house and you're going to be next. It would be terrifying. Now thankfully, these homeowners immediately called 911.

• 47:18Speaker 06

  We need the ambulance.

• 47:19Annie Elise?

  Okay, what's going on there?

• 47:21Speaker 06

  Oh, a jetty's ruined. It just came at our door and...

• 47:27Speaker 06

  Naked and bleeding and she said her friends had been shot.

• 47:31Annie Elise?

  Then Holly actually had the courage to take the phone from these two people and talk to the police herself and she explained exactly what had happened to her in her own words.

• 47:42Speaker 07

  These two men broke into our house and they held us and they took everything and they executed my four friends and I've been shot in the head. I need an ambulance.

• 47:51Annie Elise?

  And listening back, it's almost as if Holly was trying to get out her whole story as fast as she could, tell them exactly what happened, you know, as fast as possible in case she was going to die too. That way they would have all of the information. Just pure panic and chaos. So when the cops got to the scene of these executions, it was clear that Holly was the only survivor. Jason, Heather, Brad and Aaron, they were all dead at the scene. And this just really makes me feel for Holly because think about how grateful you are to have survived something like that, but then you're also trying to deal with the fact that you lost all of your friends, you lost your potential fiance, it's somebody who she was going to spend the rest of her life with possibly, that

• 48:33Annie Elise?

  they're all dead and that you're the one who survived. I would imagine that there's some survivor's guilt in that. And I think the same can be argued, and I've been saying it from day one, the Idaho four case, and I'm not going to go off a whole, you know, diatribe on it, but those two girls, Bethany and Dylan, have gotten so much crap in the online world for how they responded, how they acted, the delay in the 911 call, but we don't know what happened. We don't know why. We don't know what trauma they went through. And think about after the fact, think about the survivor's guilt that I would imagine that they are both feeling, that four of their friends and roommates were brutally murdered, yet they somehow survived. And my thought on that personally, and I

• 49:15Annie Elise?

  can go into this on a whole different episode, is I think that it's because Xana and Ethan weren't even the target that night. Heck, I don't even think that Kaylee was the target that night. I think Matty was. And I think that when he came downstairs, he was surprised by Xana since she was still awake, had ordered the DoorDash and was on TikTok, and that's why she fought back so much. But my point in saying all of that is survivor's guilt is a very real thing. And now that's something that Holly was going to have to deal with. So when the news started breaking the next morning, the entire city was on edge. I mean, everybody was scared because now not only were they hearing about this horrific quadruple execution, almost five people execution, but these cold-blooded killers, they were still on the loose. They still were out there. Anybody could be next.

• 49:58Annie Elise?

  Not only that, but as the dots were starting to be connected with all of the other crimes, it meant that these brothers had been on a crime spree for over a week. And a crime spree that clearly was escalating. It went from a carjacking and letting him go safely to a shooting, remember, shooting the librarian Anne in her own driveway. Now, this horrific execution-style mass killing and sexual assault of this group of kids. I mean, who's to say what was going to come next, right? So naturally, a manhunt began. Now, one of the biggest pieces of evidence that the police knew would help them track down the killers was the fact that Jason's truck was still missing. And remember, the brothers had driven it and they didn't leave it back at Jason's

• 50:42Annie Elise?

  house after they had returned there that night. So they had either taken it to drive it back home, or they had driven it to go and dump it somewhere. But if they could find the truck, that would at least be a lead and, you know, help them in their investigation. The entire city of Wichita was glued to the TV that day, looking for updates, looking at everything that they were sharing, all of the news. And one guy in particular, named Christian Taylor, was watching the news right when they showed the picture of Jason's truck. And all of a sudden, something just came over him, something dawned on him. He had seen that truck that the police were looking for. In fact, he saw it very recently. He saw it that morning, parked at his apartment complex. So Christian called the police and said, "Hey, I might have found Jason's truck. I think that it's parked where I live, at my apartment."

• 51:27Annie Elise?

  And he gave them the address so that they could come and check it out. Now, when the police arrived, there was another resident in that community who ended up telling the police that he helped a guy earlier that day carry a really big TV into their apartment. And sure enough, there was a really big TV missing from Jason's apartment. So this resident was able to point out the exact apartment to the police. Now, this apartment was on the second story. So when the police were looking up at this unit, they saw somebody go out onto the balcony. And what's crazy is this guy looked like he was going to jump from the balcony, not in a suicidal kind of way, but a, oh, holy shit, they caught me, I better run and get out of here type of way. And that guy was one of the brothers. It was Reginald Carr.

• 52:09Annie Elise?

  So when Reginald was now surrounded, there was a brief moment of hesitation, but then he went back inside, and that's when the cops started moving in. They knocked on the door, a woman answered, her name was Stephanie, and she said that she was Reginald's girlfriend, but once they entered, it didn't take them long to find Reginald, and as soon as they did, they slapped the handcuffs on him and were gonna bring him in. Now luckily, he didn't put up a fight, and when they searched him, they even found a gas card that belonged to Jason. They also found a watch that belonged to Heather, and a little under $1,000 in cash. Now, somebody else who was watching the news that day was Andrew Schreiber. And remember, Andrew was the very first victim in the carjacking. And when he saw the face of Reginald blasted all over the TV once he was arrested,

• 52:53Annie Elise?

  he called the police immediately and said, yeah, that's him, that's the guy, that's one of the guys who carjacked me. So now, the police had gotten one of the guys, but they still needed to get the other brother, Jonathan. And little did they know, they were about to get a tip from a woman named Toni, who would share exactly where Jonathan was. Now Toni had been working in the healthcare field, and that day, she was a little bit sick at work, so she went home early. When she got home, she was cleaning the house, she was listening to the news, and then something caught her attention because the news was giving a description of Jonathan Carr. And when she saw that, she's like, wait, wait, wait, this sounds an awful lot like the man who's asleep on my couch at this very moment. Which let me just explain how all of that came to be.

• 53:34Annie Elise?

  Toni had a daughter named Tronda, and Tronda had been dating a new guy for literally about one week, the same amount of time as this crime spree had been going on. And it turns out that that guy was Jonathan Carr. Now Toni was obviously really spooked that whatever she was hearing on the news at this moment seemed a lot to be in line with the description of this person, her daughter's boyfriend who's sleeping on the couch. It matched the description, it seemed like it was him, but then the news also mentioned- The stolen engagement ring of Holly's. So she decided to creep over and start going through Jonathan's leather jacket, checking the pockets, seeing what's in there. And sure enough, she found the diamond ring that Jason had bought for Holly. And she knew that there was no way that this ring could be for her daughter. I mean, they had only been dating for a single week.

• 54:18Annie Elise?

  So Tony immediately went and grabbed her daughter and also a niece who was staying there at the time as well. And she's like, we have to leave. We have to get out right now. There is a wanted murderer sleeping in our house. So the three women left the house immediately. And I'm talking so fast that they didn't even put shoes on. They just got the hell out of there and went to a neighbor's house. And when they got to the neighbor's house, they called 911 and they said, you know, I think we have this Jonathan Carr guy at our house. I think he's asleep right now in my house. Now get this, as these women, after they called 911 from the cell phone and as they were approaching the neighbor's house, they looked back at their own house. And when they did, they saw Jonathan come out onto the porch. And things must have just clicked for Jonathan in that moment because at that moment, he's like, holy shit.

• 55:02Annie Elise?

  And he just starts running.

• 55:09Speaker 01

  Time for a quick break to talk about McDonald's. It's the tangiest time of the year. For a limited time, head to McDonald's and get a McRib sandwich. Make it a meal by adding a medium fries and a soft drink like an ice cold Diet Dr. Pepper. So grab a McRib sandwich and embrace the tang. Save time by ordering ahead on the app at participating McDonald's for a limited time. Dr. Pepper is a registered trademark of Dr. Pepper, 7-Up Inc.

• 55:41Annie Elise?

  So Jonathan took off and thankfully he wasn't running toward Tronda or Tony. It looked like he was trying to just flee the scene and get the heck out of there. But thankfully, the police arrived super fast and caught him just a couple of blocks away. And when they arrested him, they found over a thousand dollars in cash in his pockets. So now, once they had Jonathan secured in jail and in custody as well, they took a photo of him and showed it to the librarian, Ann. And at this point, she was still fighting for her life. She was still recovering from the injuries from a few days ago. And as soon as she saw Jonathan's photo, she said without a doubt that was the guy who attacked her. So now that both of the brothers had been arrested, it was time for the police to get all of the DNA evidence that they needed to make sure they would be locked away and never see the light of day again.

• 56:26Annie Elise?

  And it turns out that the brothers were incredibly sloppy about everything that they did. Their DNA was everywhere at the house and not to mention, the police had already found a ton of the belongings in the brothers' possessions that they had stolen. And as if that wasn't enough, remember, we also have the eyewitness accounts from Andrew, Ann, and Holly. They all said, yeah, these are the guys. However, unfortunately, Andrew and Holly were going to be the only survivors who could testify and finally see justice be had against these brothers. Because sadly, Ann died of her gunshot injuries right before the trial began. Reginald and Jonathan were both charged with felony murder, which that was for killing Ann. Then they were charged with four counts of capital murder, which is considered an incredibly serious charge because it means that it can result in the death penalty.

• 57:12Annie Elise?

  And usually, capital murder is reserved for cases where maybe like a child, a public official, or several people were killed, or when maybe there's torture involved before the killing. And from everything that we know about this case, that absolutely fits the bill, right? Because those five friends, I mean, they were put through pure hell before they were killed that night. Now, as for why the victims were chosen, don't worry, I'm gonna get to that, and it is truly terrifying. So in total, there were 113 counts against the brothers, and I'm not gonna list them all here, but some of these included robbery, rape, kidnapping, felony murder, and then of course, the capital murder charges. Now, when it came time for the jury to see the physical evidence in the case, there was enough to fill an entire room.

• 57:55Annie Elise?

  I mean, literally, the judge had to actually instruct people to watch their step so that they didn't trip over anything in the room. And when the trial started, both of the brothers were tried together, which one thing that everybody was curious about was how the heck the defense team was even gonna try to defend them for what they did. I mean, I know everybody deserves a fair trial, but this was such a horrific act, there was so much evidence, it was gonna be interesting to see what the defense came up with. But one thing that the defense tried to do was bring in a forensic psychologist named Dr. Preston. This psychologist testified about how the boys' childhood is what really messed them up. The doctor even said that he took a look at some brain scans that belonged to the brothers, and that when he looked at these scans, they looked abnormal.

• 58:38Annie Elise?

  According to him, both of the brothers had severe brain damage to their temporal lobes, which that's the part of the brain that involves risk evaluation and even short-term memory. The state of Kansas didn't bother to try to disprove any of the childhood stuff, but they did have an expert come in and look at those brain scans too. And this doctor said there was absolutely nothing abnormal about them. And essentially, the brothers were just trying to avoid the death penalty, and instead, they were hoping to get life in prison. Now, as all of this was going on, everybody was, of course, wondering what the motive was. Why did they go on this killing spree? And at first, people were suggesting robbery. But then, as all of the details came out, people were like, no, no, no, there must have been something more to this than robbery. Because yes, while they did rob these people, they also did other unspeakably horrific things to them.

• 59:23Annie Elise?

  So clearly, it was almost like they wanted to do something more disturbing, or maybe even go down in history as being the people who did something disturbing. I don't know. But get this, and this kind of goes back to, to like, always trust your gut. It's your first line of defense. If you see something, say something. Because how they picked Jason's house that night? This is very interesting. It turns out, it was all by chance. See, on the night of the attack, the brothers had been following a woman who was driving home from a restaurant in this very nice BMW. Her name was Jean Beck, and she lived right next door to Jason's house. So they're following her home, because she drives this nice BMW. They probably wanted to carjack her. But she noticed that she was being followed. And right when she noticed that, she got very suspicious,

• 1:00:07Annie Elise?

  and she called her daughter, saying, hey, open up the garage. I'm on my way home. I'm just gonna pull in. Then, once she got to her house, she stayed inside the car until the brothers passed her in their car. She had no idea who they were, but she had a bad feeling. She had a gut feeling that something was wrong, and she didn't want them to know where she lived. So she stayed, you know, tucked away to where they couldn't see. Eventually, they drove off and left the neighborhood, so that's when she finally went inside. However, they came back 10 minutes later. And when they did, they parked right in the driveway next door. The driveway belonging to Jason. So it was almost like they were looking for the BMW for that same house, and they were looking for whoever owned it. But instead, they ended up barging into the wrong

• 1:00:48Annie Elise?

  All by chance, which that as a parent and as a human is terrifying to think about because her and her daughter escaped what could have been their own night of horror. Well, they went into this other house by chance, by accident, and five friends had their lives destroyed forever. The trial was very rough and it would be hard to forget for anyone who was there and anybody who listened to the testimony for themselves, especially the testimony from the victims. At one point, a trauma surgeon even gave such a graphic reenactment of the librarian Anne's shooting that a 51-year-old juror straight up fainted and had to be taken to the hospital. That's how intense this testimony was. Thankfully, the juror was okay after being evaluated. But a lot of the testimony was brutal.

• 1:01:33Annie Elise?

  It was graphic, it was very unsettling. But nothing gripped the courtroom quite like Holly's testimony did. She was called to the stand early in the trial and she walked everybody through the sheer horror of that night. She recapped the repeated assaults, the forced trips to the ATMs, and then of course, finally, the execution-style shootings. She talked about having to wait in that bedroom closet while these attacks were going on one by one with her friends. She explained how she heard all of it. She even said how she was so scared that she even urinated herself at one point. Then she described how she was forced to kneel in the snow right next to Jason, her potential future fiance. And she even said, quote, "As I was kneeling, there was a shot.

• 1:02:17Annie Elise?

  And I don't remember, we were all screaming, but I can remember hearing Aaron say, 'Please no.'" He used the word "sir." There was another one, and another one, and then another one, and then everything kind of went gray as I was shot. She said that she felt the bullet hit her and that she even saw stars from it, but she didn't fall forward, not until one of the brothers kicked her forward and kicked her over. She said she even felt the impact of the truck when they drove over her. Which, how she survived all of this, I will never know. It is a true miracle. And I want to read part of what she said in court, because here is her exact statement. "I speak on behalf of Brad, Aaron, Heather, Anne, Andy..." Jason and myself.

• 1:02:59Annie Elise?

  One of my favorite seven-year-olds lost her uncle on the fifteenth. This year, when her mom asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she replied that she had wings, and that if they were real, she could fly to heaven and she could see her uncle Jason and her papa. I wish life were that simple. I wish that I could put on a pair of wings and I could go see Jason. But we all know that these are wishes, and they are wishes that we will have to wish because of two soulless monsters. Every day, there is a memory or a scar that reminds me of that night. I wake up in sweats from my nightmares. I pace at night because of noises that I think are somebody breaking into my house. And every morning, I carefully blow-dry my hair so that I can cover up the spot that can no longer grow hair.

• 1:03:40Annie Elise?

  I look at my knees and I see the scars from the carpet burns that I got from the rape. And in the back of my mind, I wonder, will it happen again? At one point, Reginald's girlfriend Stephanie, who was at the house when the police first stormed it, she also testified. And her testimony didn't really help the brothers. She was kind of saying that they were deadbeats, they didn't have jobs, um, that they did come into a lot of money, though, recently, and she wasn't really sure how. He apparently lied, saying it was some sort of like pit bull fight, some underground fighting champion. I don't really know. She also testified how she allowed them to borrow her car, and how, when they returned it, they weren't very forthcoming with what they had used the car for. And all in all, the testimony just definitely did not paint them in a good light.

• 1:04:23Annie Elise?

  But also, her testimony directly tied him to the victims. Not only because he apparently brought several items into her home that were later identified as stolen from the victims, but there was one very disturbing connection. Stephanie said that Reginald had genital herpes, and that he had had them ever since she knew him. And then later, a medical expert testified and confirmed that Holly had contracted the exact same STD. She had contracted the STD after being raped by Reginald. That's, I mean, what a horrible reminder for the rest of your life, as if she didn't already have enough, right? And now, this disgusting, sicko monster gave her an STD as well? It's horrific. In the closing argument, prosecutor Kim Parker did not hold back.

• 1:05:07Annie Elise?

  She summed it up very plain and simple for the jury, saying, "This is a crime driven by greed and lust, by selfishness, and it's driven by twisted sexual gratification."

• 1:05:19Annie Elise?

  When it was all over, a jury of seven men and five women found both brothers guilty after they were deliberating for just seven hours. Reginald was convicted on 50 counts and Jonathan was convicted on 43 counts. They were both sentenced to death, and in Kansas, that means lethal injection. And on top of the death penalty, they also received a life sentence. Now, at one point, Jonathan actually had the nerve to ask one of the police officers if the lethal injection was going to hurt, which the cops sort of had like a coy response to it, saying, "We don't know. We've never been able to ask somebody. You die." You know, like, I'm assuming he does, but we don't know. Now, just because the trial was over, it didn't mean that the brothers were going to go quietly into their prison cells and just wait for their execution day.

• 1:06:03Annie Elise?

  Because they have been basically filing appeal after appeal and trying to get a new sentence and a new trial ever since.

• 1:06:09Speaker 10

  The Kansas Supreme Court upheld the brothers' guilty verdicts in 2014, but overturned their death sentences. The US Supreme Court overturned that decision two years later, sending it back to the state Supreme Court. So after hearing arguments in May, the state's high court released its decision today, upholding the death sentences.

• 1:06:31Annie Elise?

  Here's what the judge ended up saying after their most recent request.

• 1:06:34Speaker 11

  I don't think that I have jurisdiction to resentenze Mr. Reginald Carr or Jonathan Carr on either case, so the motion will be denied.

• 1:06:44Annie Elise?

  So currently, today, 25 years after these heinous murders, these brothers are still sitting on death row. The residents of Wichita and the victims' families will never forget that horrific crime spree that took place in December of 2000. And as for Holly, there are absolutely no words to even express what she went through. My heart goes out to her. It like, it bleeds for her. It cries for her. I just can't even imagine. I don't know where you go from that. I don't know how you recover. And I just, my heart breaks for her. Now here's something that I don't know if you would call this serendipitous, divine intervention, God's plan, what you would call it. But I do have some happy news to share in all of this because as it turns out,

• 1:07:27Annie Elise?

  Andrew, the guy that the brothers carjacked, the very first crime in their spree, it turns out Andrew and Holly ended up getting married. They're still together to this day and they have a beautiful life and a beautiful family. And don't get me wrong, I absolutely hate that they had to go through something so horrific in order to find each other, but I am so happy that they both got their happy ending in terms of finding a soulmate. And I don't know, would you call that divine intervention, serendipitous? Like, how does that happen? I don't think I've ever covered a case where I've seen something like that happen. The brothers are of course still alive as they're waiting for death, filing appeal after appeal, which I can't imagine that any of that's going to go through, but I guess we will see. What do you guys think?

• 1:08:08Annie Elise?

  But this is a tough one. It's a really tough case because it's not like it's somebody met a stranger online, that somebody was fixed up on a blind date, that they were followed home from a bar. These attacks literally happen in their own home or near their own home. So it's just a reminder that you don't know what kind of evil is lurking out there in the shadows and even more, and I feel like this is going to probably be my new sign off mantra because I just don't say it enough, but always trust your gut because your instincts and your gut is truly your first line of defense. It is there to protect you. It's there to watch over you. So don't ignore it. Don't be embarrassed. Don't try to make excuses for it. Listen to your gut.

• 1:08:50Annie Elise?

  And if you feel like something's wrong, say something, do something, and don't fall victim to that. I'm saying that more so for the neighbor who knew that something was wrong. She trusted her gut and unfortunately then they went and attacked Jason, which was the neighbor's house, but it just is a reminder that evil is out there. So lock your doors, get an alarm system, protect yourself however you feel best to do so because you never know what people are capable of. So thank you so much for hearing all of these victims' stories today, guys. I appreciate it. I know it was a graphic one and a tough one, but these cases are incredibly important to talk about, not only to raise awareness, but to continue to make sure that their voices are heard. So I appreciate it. I will be back with you, as you know, on Thursday.

• 1:09:32Annie Elise?

  I am every week where we are talking about everything going on in the true crime world. Headline highlights that comes out every Thursday. So I'll talk to you guys again very, very soon. But until that one, please stay safe, be nice and don't kill people. Lock your doors and just watch your back. All right, bye.

• 1:10:07Speaker 12

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• 1:10:17Speaker 07

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• 1:10:19Speaker 12

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• 1:10:21Annie Elise?

  Let's give these girls a show.

• 1:10:23Speaker 12

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• 1:10:36Speaker 01

  Time for a quick break to talk about McDonald's. It's the tangiest time of the year. For a limited time, head to McDonald's and get a McRib sandwich. Make it a meal by adding a medium fries and a soft drink like an ice cold Diet Dr. Pepper. So grab a McRib sandwich and embrace the tang. Save time by ordering ahead on the app. At participating McDonald's for a limited time. Dr. Pepper is a registered trademark of Dr. Pepper, 7-Up Inc.