Episode 356

In 2008, University of Wisconsin–Madison student Brittany Zimmermann was murdered in her apartment in the middle of the day, and then the trail went cold. An unlikely informant leads the police to search for two mystery men, a theory that would steer the investigation for years. As time passed and leads fell apart, the case slowly faded from view. Twelve years later, detectives discovered the truth wasn’t buried; it had been right in front of them all along. Get instant access to all episodes, including premium unreleased episodes, commercial-free at swordandscale.com

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

• 0:00Mike Boudet?

  Buy smart, drive for less and trade for more. That's Toyota Fortability. And it all starts with a great deal on a truck from your local Toyota dealer. Make a smart buy on the off-road-ready Tacoma or half-ton Tundra, two of Toyota's most capable and long-lasting trucks. Built with the strength for the tough jobs, the tech to power your next big adventures, and the rugged style for everything in between. Or discover Toyota's off-road lineup, including the iconic 4Runner and Land Cruiser, designed to go beyond the everyday. And with Toyota's proven reputation for quality and reliability, plus available hybrid power

• 0:43Mike Boudet?

  on many models, you can get more for every mile and drive for less along the way. And long after you leave a lot, your Toyota keeps delivering with great resale value. So you can trade in for more when you're ready for your next Toyota. From a great deal today to a great value tomorrow, a Toyota is right for you. Shop toyota.com for deals and details, or stop by your local Toyota dealer today. Toyota, let's go places.

• 1:14Speaker 01

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• 1:44Speaker 02

  Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

• 1:59Speaker 03

  Madison, small. I mean, I'd take off. I mean, if I would've killed her, I would've been gone. You guys would've never found me this day. Right, right. I would've never even went back to my apartment.

• 2:07Speaker 04

  I mean, that seems logical, right?

• 2:09Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:14Mike Boudet?

  This is season 13, episode 356 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real.

• 2:59Mike Boudet?

  Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it all starts with a great deal on a truck from your local Toyota dealer. Make a smart buy on the off-road-ready Tacoma or half-ton Tundra, two of Toyota's most capable and long-lasting trucks. Built with the strength for the tough jobs, the tech to power your next big adventures, and the rugged style for everything in between. Or discover Toyota's off-road lineup, including the iconic 4Runner and Land Cruiser, designed to go beyond the everyday. And with Toyota's proven reputation for quality and reliability, plus available hybrid power on many models,

• 3:43Mike Boudet?

  you can get more for every mile and drive for less along the way. And long after you leave a lot, your Toyota keeps delivering with great resale value. So you can trade in for more when you're ready for your next Toyota. From a great deal today to a great value tomorrow, a Toyota is right for you. Shop toyota.com for deals and details, or stop by your local Toyota dealer today. Toyota, let's go places.

• 4:28Mike Boudet?

  It's an overcast day in March 2018. The winter's snow is finally giving way as the weather warms. Kevin and Jean Zimmerman sit in their living room with lights, a camera, and a local reporter staring back at them.

• 4:44Speaker 05

  Does time sort of stop for you on that day, on April 2nd?

• 4:48Speaker 06

  Absolutely.

• 4:49Speaker 05

  In 2008? Like, do you feel like you can... you know, that it is 10 years later?

• 4:56Speaker 07

  No.

• 4:58Speaker 07

  I don't...

• 4:58Speaker 06

  No.

• 4:59Speaker 07

  No.

• 4:59Speaker 06

  No.

• 5:00Speaker 07

  It's quite unbelievable.

• 5:02Speaker 06

  That it's 10 years already?

• 5:03Speaker 07

  It's completely unbelievable.

• 5:06Mike Boudet?

  They've done countless interviews over the years and are willing to do thousands more, anything to keep their daughter's case alive.

• 5:15Speaker 07

  How often do you think about that day?

• 5:18Speaker 06

  Every day. Every single day.

• 5:22Speaker 07

  We thought it was gonna be solved right away. We didn't even consider that this... that we'd be here 10 years later.

• 5:30Mike Boudet?

  Three days after this interview would mark 10 years since their daughter Brittany was killed. In that decade, the case had passed through three police chiefs and four lead detectives. Years of work with little to show for it. Only once did they think they were close.

• 5:48Speaker 05

  Why do you think there hasn't been an arrest? Or even seemingly like a person of interest? Or a major break in the case?

• 6:01Speaker 07

  I mean, we thought there was. You know, it was two and a half years ago, Chief Cobal came to our door on my husband's birthday and said, "We believe we have the person responsible for killing your daughter, December 9th."

• 6:15Mike Boudet?

  That moment came in 2016, but two years later, there was still no arrest. All the Zimmerman's could do was hold on to hope.

• 6:24Speaker 06

  That's all we have is hope. We can hope.

• 6:26Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 6:27Speaker 06

  But realistically, I'm not real sure that they're ever gonna solve this, at least not the way it's being handled right now. I just don't believe it.

• 6:40Mike Boudet?

  When parents lose a child, they're powerless to do anything but wait. Justice moves on its own timeline. And in the Zimmerman's case, that timeline stretched endlessly. These interviews, these small acts of advocacy, were all they had control over. If speaking publicly could help or speed up catching Brittany's killer, they'd do it every day for the rest of their lives to make that happen.

• 7:08Speaker 07

  What would you really tell people about why they should rack their brains?

• 7:14Speaker 06

  Because if it was your child, you'd want everybody in the world to rack their brains for you.

• 7:19Speaker 07

  Put yourself in our shoes, just for a second.

• 7:23Speaker 06

  Just for a second. Put yourself in our shoes.

• 7:26Speaker 07

  And what we've been through.

• 7:27Speaker 06

  And knowing what this little girl meant everything to us. And, you know, she was never there to hurt anybody. She was always there to help people.

• 7:36Mike Boudet?

  Photos of Brittany still lined every wall of their home. A family scarred by tragedy, frozen in time, clinging to whatever hope remained and wondering whether the case would ever be solved. Meanwhile, the police department continued to work on their decade-old investigation.

• 7:55Speaker 04

  This is not what I would consider been relegated to a cold case. This still has active leads that are worthy.

• 8:03Mike Boudet?

  The Zimmerman's knew little about the leads detectives were chasing. They only knew that two years earlier, the police chief had told them they had the guy. But there had been no arrests. They were completely in the dark.

• 8:20Speaker 04

  If I had the probable cause based on the totality of the evidence I had... Don't you think I would have made an arrest?

• 8:30Mike Boudet?

  It turned out that the chief had spoken too soon. It was one of many missteps in an investigation that had been plagued by setbacks from the start. One of the biggest was losing the longtime lead investigator. The emotional toll of the case eventually became too heavy to bear.

• 8:48Speaker 04

  He was convulsing at one point. And then I was convulsing.

• 8:58Speaker 04

  And I realized, we can't continue to assign cases this way.

• 9:04Mike Boudet?

  The chief swore that, moving forward, a team of investigators would carry the case. He was confident they would solve it, eventually.

• 9:13Speaker 04

  The old-school cop in me still hopes now that Luke's lips will sink ships. Someone's gonna say something to somebody about this case in a bar or overheard.

• 9:25Mike Boudet?

  But even if they did, even if the killer was finally behind bars, the Zimmerman's knew it would bring them little comfort. What they wanted most was the one thing that no investigation could return.

• 9:40Speaker 04

  She would be a doctor right now, that she wanted to be. And we would be proud of her. And we could go visit her on her animal farm and everything she wanted because she loved animals. That's what we wish, you know, that she could live her life the way she wanted to.

• 10:00Mike Boudet?

  They had thought the case would be solved quickly. By 2018, they simply hoped it would be solved at all. Their nightmares started on April 2nd, 2008, when their daughter was attacked inside her apartment in the middle of the day. The mistake started almost immediately. And to understand how this case remained open for a decade, you have to go back to the start.

• 10:24Speaker 07

  Monday will mark 10 years since a brutal murder that rocked downtown Madison. It's been five years since Freddie Zimmerman was

• 10:31Speaker 06

  Friday will mark the two-year anniversary of the Madison murder of Brittany Zimmerman.

• 10:38Mike Boudet?

  It's April 2nd, 2008. Jordan Gonerring hops on his moped and heads towards the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. His fiancee Brittany is already in class. She had a big test that morning. He rides a short distance to campus from their apartment enjoying the sun. "It wouldn't feel so cold if it weren't for the wind," he thinks to himself.

• 11:04Mike Boudet?

  He gets back to campus at around 11:30. He goes out on one of the balconies of the Van Hy's building and scans the quad for Brittany. She turns her phone off in class, but he knows she'll be coming out of the bacteriology building. Then, he spots her. She stands out with her golden hair and the collar of her lime-green pea coat pulled up around her neck. He calls her name. She looks around for a moment before looking up to the balcony. A smile spreads across her face when she sees Jordan. He points to his phone and she remembers her phone is off. She turns it on and it rings instantly. Jordan asks her how her parasitology test went.

• 11:50Mike Boudet?

  She sighs, but says it went fine. They have a quick conversation, just touching base before their dinner plans that night. They finish their phone call and Jordan starts heading to his Russian literature class, which starts at 12:05. After class ends at 12:55, Jordan walks back to his moped and hops on. He weaves through the campus and onto his street. He gets home, parks his bike on the side of the house, and walks to the front door like he always does. Then, he stops. The lock on the outside security door is busted. It looks like somebody kicked it in. He can't remember if it was always like this.

• 12:35Mike Boudet?

  He stares at it for a moment, thinking, but dismisses it and starts to go inside. He reaches to open the closed door and notices it's unlocked. He thinks, "That's weird." But he also knows their landlord was supposed to show the apartment that day, so he assumes that's why. He walks inside and takes off his backpack, his jacket and his shoes. Usually their three cats would greet him at the door, but today, they were nowhere to be found. Jordan takes a few steps towards the back of the small apartment and freezes. On the floor in the bedroom is Brittany. Just for a second, he thinks she's pranking him.

• 13:20Mike Boudet?

  But as soon as he inches close, he sees blood. Jordan would call 911 at 1:08 PM.

• 13:29Speaker 05

  911, what's the address of the emergency? 911, what's the address of the emergency?

• 13:37Speaker 03

  Hello?

• 13:38Speaker 05

  This is 911, what's the address of the emergency?

• 13:41Mike Boudet?

  His phone barely holds a connection. He manages to give the address on West Doty Street before the call cuts out.

• 13:49Speaker 03

  The flap.

• 13:51Speaker 05

  It's what? You're cutting out. Can you hear me? Hello?

• 13:59Speaker 03

  Hello.

• 14:00Speaker 05

  Okay, your phone's cutting out. Did you say upper or lower flap?

• 14:03Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 14:05Mike Boudet?

  The dispatcher tries again. Their voices break in and out, tangled and static.

• 14:11Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 14:12Speaker 03

  Ambulance is needed.

• 14:13Speaker 05

  Okay, what is your name?

• 14:15Speaker 03

  Jordan Garner.

• 14:16Speaker 05

  Okay, tell me exactly what happened.

• 14:18Speaker 03

  I just came home, the door was busted in, and my girlfriend's in shock.

• 14:26Speaker 05

  Stay on the phone with me, okay?

• 14:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 14:29Speaker 05

  Are you with her right now?

• 14:30Speaker 03

  Yes, I am.

• 14:31Speaker 05

  How old is she?

• 14:32Speaker 03

  She is nineteen, no, she's twenty-one.

• 14:35Speaker 05

  Twenty-one?

• 14:37Speaker 05

  Is she conscious?

• 14:38Speaker 03

  No, she's not.

• 14:40Speaker 05

  Is she breathing?

• 14:41Speaker 03

  No, she's not.

• 14:43Mike Boudet?

  Up to this point in his life, the most serious thing Jordan has faced was final exams. Now he's kneeling beside the woman he planned to marry, trying to save her life. The dispatcher checks to make sure the attacker is no longer there, all while relaying information to officers already en route.

• 15:02Speaker 05

  The caller has no idea. He just walked in and found his girlfriend like this.

• 15:08Speaker 05

  Caller has no idea who would have done this. Is there any serious bleeding?

• 15:14Speaker 05

  Okay. There is serious bleeding.

• 15:17Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 15:17Speaker 05

  Okay, we're, I'm sending an ambulance to help you. I want you to stay on the line with me so I can tell you what to do next, okay?

• 15:23Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 15:23Speaker 05

  Did you say she is or she is not breathing?

• 15:25Speaker 03

  She's not breathing.

• 15:27Speaker 05

  She's not breathing. Okay, stay on the phone with me so I can tell you how to help her, okay? Are you right by her now?

• 15:35Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 15:35Speaker 05

  All right, I want you to lay her flat on her back on the ground.

• 15:38Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 15:38Speaker 05

  Remove any pillows.

• 15:40Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 15:40Speaker 05

  Okay. I need you to kneel next to her and her mouth, look in her mouth for any food or vomit. Is there anything, is there anything in her?

• 15:48Speaker 03

  Just blood, just blood.

• 15:49Speaker 05

  Just blood?

• 15:51Mike Boudet?

  Brittany isn't breathing. Her airway is filled with blood. And she has no pulse. The dispatcher talks Jordan through CPR, but she knows it might already be too late. And when Jordan rolls Brittany onto her back, he notices something he cannot make sense of.

• 16:11Speaker 05

  Did you think she did this herself?

• 16:13Speaker 03

  No, she couldn't have.

• 16:17Speaker 05

  She couldn't have done it herself. And there's no weapon nearby?

• 16:20Speaker 03

  No, no. It's a gunshot wound.

• 16:23Speaker 05

  You're inside with her? You're inside with her?

• 16:25Speaker 03

  Yes, I am.

• 16:26Speaker 05

  It might be a stab wound?

• 16:28Speaker 03

  Yes, I'm not sure. They're piercing. They're small piercings.

• 16:33Mike Boudet?

  The dispatcher stays with him, guiding him, reassuring him, while also coordinating the incoming police units. She switches between comforting Jordan and delivering updates to officers racing towards the scene.

• 16:47Speaker 05

  The address is 517 West Doty. 517 West Doty Street. It's apartment number one, the lower flat. The female is T and B, and he's now saying that it could be a stabbing wound rather than a gunshot.

• 17:03Mike Boudet?

  Then she has to jump right back into the fray with Jordan.

• 17:07Speaker 05

  Okay, no idea who might have done this at all, right?

• 17:09Speaker 03

  I have, I have no idea. I have no idea. Absolutely no idea.

• 17:12Speaker 05

  Okay, can you feel or hear any breathing at all?

• 17:14Speaker 03

  No, I can't. I've checked for a pulse and I can't feel anything.

• 17:21Speaker 05

  Okay. Okay, just so you know, there's, there's an ambulance on the way and the officers are on the way as well, okay?

• 17:27Mike Boudet?

  She tells him help is coming. But in moments like this, seconds stretch into hours. Finally, officers arrive and usher Jordan inside.

• 17:40Speaker 03

  1314 and our 10 are inside the building. It's clear and she is 10-7.

• 17:47Mike Boudet?

  Police reach the apartment at 1:10 PM, less than two minutes after dispatch. They check on Jordan, then clear the house, room by room, upstairs and downstairs, making sure the attacker isn't still inside. Only then do they move toward Brittany. It was too late to help her. The officers informed dispatch that the victim was deceased and the call became a homicide investigation.

• 18:16Mike Boudet?

  When detectives arrived at the scene, they were confused. There was forced entry, but nothing was stolen. Brittany most likely was working on her computer, filing out federal grant forms, when someone interrupted her. Her desk was messy with tax documents. From the doorway of their bedroom detectives saw blood on the bed and the floor. Further checking revealed her cellphone. The battery was missing, and it looked like someone had deliberately damaged it. They found it hidden under other garbage in the trash can. Who would want a 21-year-old microbiology student dead? And why?

• 19:00Mike Boudet?

  It was a broad daylight murder with no clear motive. And it would take 12 years for Madison Police to uncover the truth.

• 19:27Mike Boudet?

  Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota Fortability. And it all starts with a great deal on a truck from your local Toyota dealer. Make a smart buy on the off-road-ready Tacoma or half-ton Tundra, two of Toyota's most capable and long-lasting trucks. Built with the strength for the tough jobs, the tech to power your next big adventures, and the rugged style for everything in between. Or discover Toyota's off-road lineup, including the iconic 4Runner and Land Cruiser, designed to go beyond the everyday. And with Toyota's proven reputation for quality and reliability, plus available hybrid power

• 20:11Mike Boudet?

  on many models, you can get more for every mile and drive for less along the way. And long after you leave the lot, your Toyota keeps delivering with great resale value. So you can trade in for more when you're ready for your next Toyota. From a great deal today to a great value tomorrow, a Toyota is right for you. ShopToyota.com for deals and details, or stop by your local Toyota dealer today. Toyota, let's go places.

• 20:42Speaker 07

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• 21:22Mike Boudet?

  The midday murder of their only daughter had a devastating effect on the Zimmerman's. They wouldn't see her graduate or get married. She would never have a career, a family, or a life. The date of her death would replace her birthday for her parents, and they would spend the next 12 years fighting for justice for Brittany. Her fiance, Jordan, found her lifeless body on their bedroom floor and called 911. The police made a mad dash to the crime scene. When it was determined that Brittany was deceased, the investigation started. The entire street from intersection to intersection was cordoned off. Officers secured the scene.

• 22:07Mike Boudet?

  They started to make contact with the neighbors and left dash cams running to capture anyone walking in the area. Jordan had just seen her at 11:30. What could have happened in the last hour and a half? They hoped whoever killed her was still in the area, so they started canvassing. Quickly, dispatch uncovered some investigation that might have been related.

• 22:33Speaker 07

  Police and fire? Hi, I was just calling to report a suspicious incident that just happened at my house because I thought I should tell someone. Just in case something happened. What was the incident? Um, some guy walked into my house and was, um, he just opened our door and came in and was asking me for money and he like came up our stairs. Okay, and when, how long ago was this? About maybe 10 minutes, tops.

• 23:05Mike Boudet?

  The caller lived on West Washington Avenue, two blocks away, and a straight shot down an alley from Brittany's apartment at Doty Street.

• 23:14Speaker 07

  Okay, and you don't know who this person was? No, I have no idea. He said that him and his wife had a flat tire on East Washington Ave and that he needed $40 to buy a tire. Okay, did he, did he walk into your apartment? Yes, he walked into our house and came up the stairs. Okay.

• 23:29Mike Boudet?

  The possibility that this man with a flat tire could be involved couldn't be overlooked. With no idea who killed Brittany, anyone was a possible suspect, especially a middle-aged man going from door to door asking for money.

• 23:43Speaker 07

  For units on this channel, this is really disinformation for you. I don't know if it has anything to do with your call or not. 525 West Washington Avenue, 525 West Wash. Our caller there says that about 10 minutes ago, a complete stranger walked into her house without any permission, asked her for money for a flat tire, white nail, 50s, gray hair, gray t-shirt, red sweatshirt tied around his waist.

• 24:10Mike Boudet?

  That call would give a new theory on who killed Brittany. While she was an extraordinary person, her life was otherwise rather unremarkable, aside from her academic achievements. She didn't have enemies wanting revenge or jealous friends. She didn't owe anyone money and didn't have any to steal. She hadn't wronged anyone in any serious way. But considering the other 911 calls in the area, the idea that the murder was committed by a stranger at random became very likely. Then, there was another 911 call.

• 24:49Speaker 07

  911, what's the address of emergency?

• 24:51Speaker 03

  Um, sorry, this isn't an emergency. I don't know, um, if you can transfer me to a non-emergency line or if I should tell you.

• 24:58Speaker 07

  This is fine. What's the problem?

• 25:00Speaker 03

  My neighbor's dressed the across the street. There is some kind of old men, I think, drinking from a bag, sitting on the porch and looking in the windows. And I was just worried that there may be a, a, potentially a burglary or something like, among those lines.

• 25:16Mike Boudet?

  This caller was a college student like Brittany and Jordan. He was waiting for the bus to take him to school when he noticed some suspicious activity.

• 25:24Speaker 07

  How many of, how many people were there?

• 25:27Speaker 03

  Uh, just two older men. I figured they're just taking a break or something, but I was worried they were looking in the mailbox or something like that, too.

• 25:37Mike Boudet?

  To be clear, this call was about two other men, not the man with the flat tire begging for money. These two men were sharing a drink from a paper bag while looking through windows and rifling through mailboxes. It was certainly suspicious and with the early theory that a stranger murdered Brittany, it was even more so. But to understand the obstacles in the investigation into Brittany's death, you have to know about the neighborhood she lived in. She lived on West Doty Street, just off South Bassett Street in the Bassett neighborhood. Is it Bassett or Basset? I guess it's the same difference between Boudet and Boudette. Who gives a shit?

• 26:21Mike Boudet?

  This area was sometimes called the Student Triangle because of the proximity to the university campus, only six blocks away. The neighborhood was a mix of students and apartments, families in small houses, and a few long-term, low-income tenants. Oh, and transient foot traffic. The downtown area had homeless shelters, drop-in shelters, and a bus depot. With a mix of college students and transients, the area had a high call volume, so the police were there often. At the same time, there were roughly 1,400 service calls a year, and one-third of those were for panhandling and other loitering complaints.

• 27:05Mike Boudet?

  So, when all the evidence at the scene of the crime pointed to a random person murdering Brittany, the police knew they had a difficult investigation on their hands.

• 27:16Mike Boudet?

  But the man with the flat tire entering people's homes uninvited was their first possible lead.

• 27:23Speaker 03

  What were the timeframes of when she called and when we had done the call to 51 Center?

• 27:30Speaker 05

  It was about a five-minute lapse between the calls, so it's actually about fifteen altogether.

• 27:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, that description for second detailers, I want you to check in the area. I want a couple of you to go down to State Street and check around that area, and then just, you know, three, four, five block area, circling the area looking for that party. Once you're done doing that, then I need folks to respond down to Bassett and Dodie Street.

• 27:57Mike Boudet?

  In police work, coincidences are rare. So the idea of a man walking into someone's home within 15 minutes of a home invasion and murder set off alarm bells. The police would quickly locate the man with the flat tire. He was known to the department as an active panhandler. David Call would walk around the neighborhood asking people for money at random with some made-up story to elicit sympathy. Turns out, this homeless guy had exhausted his entire friends and family list for help. They had all had enough

• 28:37Mike Boudet?

  of him and said, "No thanks." And now, society was left to deal with him. By the time they had an official interview, he was already in jail on a probation violation.

• 28:51Speaker 05

  Um, 500 WI failure to register because I was homeless at the time, I had an address, and borrowed money from folks, pre-juice. Okay, all right. And that was to have to do with the houses downtown, that kind of thing? No, that was, uh, I was borrowing money like from businesses and stuff. Okay. Asking the same thing panhandling. Oh, okay, all right.

• 29:16Mike Boudet?

  Call had a lengthy criminal record, stretching over 16 years at this point. He had a couple of counts of manufacturing and delivering a controlled substance in 92. In 93, he was charged with theft and second-degree sexual assault. In 2002, he was charged with possession of THC. In 2006, he was charged with failure to register as a sex offender. Are you exhausted yet? Because it's getting old. Anyway, a few days after that, he was charged with his fifth OWI, or operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. That kills people, you know?

• 29:57Mike Boudet?

  But after learning about his history and talking to his parole officer, they didn't see him as a suspect. They saw him as a source, for some reason.

• 30:09Speaker 05

  Detective Woods and I are investigating a number of different things, okay? And we're not, we're not here to jam you up any further than what you already are, okay? That's not our, that's not our purpose in life and with this interview, okay? I already know, you know, I know about all the downtown stuff, you know, going to the houses and that kind of thing. As well, like I said, I talked to your PO this morning. He says you've always been decent, you know, with him and that he didn't expect for me to have any difficulty talking to you today. And I don't have any reason to believe, you know, that you're involved in anything right now. I think that maybe you might be a witness to some things that you can help us out with.

• 30:48Mike Boudet?

  David Call shifted in his seat with a blank expression. He was 42, but his white stubble beard and quickly graying hair made him look older than he was. His receding hairline didn't help matters either. He was of average height, but a little on the thin side. He grew up on his parents' dairy farm and considered himself a farmer. But he never graduated high school. And since 1992, when he was 26, he'd been in trouble with the law and spent several stints in prison. It didn't sound like he was much of a farmer. But, he was a perfect informant.

• 31:29Speaker 05

  What I'd like to do, if it's okay with you, could I show you some photographs and you tell me if you know any of these people and how you know them? Okay. Okay. We're talking about, we're talking about people that were doing, you know, were out in the street like you were, um, you know, maybe with some scams, maybe going into houses and things like that, over the course of time.

• 31:48Mike Boudet?

  He looked at each picture the officers showed him. They were all people who frequented the area around Brittany's home. Some he recognized but didn't know, or couldn't place. Most he didn't know at all.

• 32:02Speaker 05

  Next photograph is gonna be number nine zero zero six nine eight nine six. Again, nine zero zero six nine eight nine six.

• 32:15Speaker 05

  That's Dawn. I know her. Yeah? Where did you, where do you know Dawn from? I was walking around with her the other day. Okay. When, when the police contacted you, or? Uh, before. Before the police contacted you? Okay, where? Probably from like eleven till about three o'clock I was with her. Uh huh.

• 32:36Mike Boudet?

  Finally, he recognized some. He said that, the day Brittany was murdered, he was with a woman named Dawn. Together, they teamed up and started going door to door, asking for money. The police had already talked to Dawn, but she couldn't or wouldn't cooperate. Which was fine, because police were more interested in the other two men they crossed paths with, that day.

• 33:00Speaker 05

  Uh, can you describe to me the couple of guys that were with her? Those were, uh, supposedly Mitchell or Michael. Uh huh. And then Hank. So, Mitchell or Michael. And Hank? Yeah, and those are the guys I gave the description of. Okay, uh huh. And can you, uh, just in one more time for us, can you describe Mitchell or Michael for us?

• 33:22Speaker 05

  Uh, Mitchell has long blonde hair, ponytail, it was tied back, he's got a scar on the right cheek.

• 33:29Speaker 05

  And a Kurt Douglas dimple right here. Okay, and so then can you describe Hank to us? Hank is black. Okay.

• 33:39Speaker 05

  Short, real short curly hair. It's even got like, it's not even like an Afro to me. Uh huh. You know, it's short and curly, but it's like spaces in between it. Okay, so do you think it's all thinning or where, or where do you think? Thin. Thinning, okay.

• 33:56Mike Boudet?

  The reason they were so interested in these two men was that while Cull's MO was to ask for money for a flat tire, they had other methods.

• 34:06Speaker 05

  Those guys look like for open windows climbing to and stuff like that. Like in an alley, they'll walk in between two houses that have windows open and climbing. That's their kind of scheme. Okay, so just looking for open windows? Open windows, knocking on doors. And I don't know what their also was. Mine was like I say for a flat tire. Uh huh. But I remember earlier that day, me and Dawn walked down, you know, it was Dolly and Street over. There was like two different girls down there. Mm hmm. And I remember her telling them guys, because I got my forty dollars out of the girl, but the girl had a lot of money. Mm hmm. And I remember she telling them guys at such and such address down there, they got more money. Uh huh, okay.

• 34:45Mike Boudet?

  Cull said the other two men were in the habit of burgling people. They would knock on the door and if no one answered, look for open windows. Once inside, they would steal everything worth money. Laptops, cameras, cash, anything. The police started to wonder if these two men entered Brittany's home without realizing she was inside. And then, the worst happened.

• 35:10Speaker 05

  Dawn told them, the guys right away, well, let's go back and rob them. I ain't into robbing nobody. I was in a scam. Right. And I mean, they wanted to go back to robbing them anyway. And I was like, I ain't into that shit. There you go. Because Dawn's like, man, she has like two, three hundred dollars more, you know? Let me, let's try to do this. But I know when I left that dumb guys were gonna go back down to see if they could get some money. Okay. And that's when I knew I better hit it because they were being stupid to go back in this thing. Absolutely.

• 35:39Mike Boudet?

  He was incredibly forthcoming, sharing everything he did and everywhere he went that day. He even openly admitted to any petty crimes he committed.

• 35:48Speaker 05

  Now, am I being charged for this? Uh, no, not, not the things that we're talking about here today, okay? What I'm trying to do is place you in particular locations at particular times and trying to help your memory so that we can try to find out who was in certain areas in that downtown area at different times, okay? Um, no, I'm not, like I said, I didn't come here today to, you know, to hang out with that. Uh, and certainly you've never done anything in a violent way to these people. There's no evidence of that whatsoever and that's what's, that's sort of why we're here talking to you today because we know that violence is not your, violence isn't your way to, to go ahead and get money. You were, you were being successful enough on your own. I did this, uh...

• 36:31Mike Boudet?

  Call had an easygoing demeanor with detectives. He was extremely polite and even all the people he panhandled from described him as such. He reviewed all the pictures the police provided and helped create a timeline of his movements that day to determine where other transients were and when.

• 36:52Speaker 05

  You know, you've been honest, honest with us here today. I mean, you're certainly not, you're certainly not, uh, not a suspect in any of those cases. Um, well, we'll, we'll, we'll try to drum up, uh, Mitchell and Hank and, uh, if you hear anything in here when you get back into population about other people that might know them or whatever and you could give us a, give us a tip on that.

• 37:13Mike Boudet?

  The interview ended with Call providing a buckle swap for DNA testing. The detectives left with a new direction, finding Mitchell, or Mark, the man with the ponytail and the Kurt Douglas dimple, and Hank, the black guy with thinning hair. They would search for months with no luck. If these guys were responsible, they were lying low. April faded and May turned into June. Before detectives realized it was July. In September, when there was still no arrest, Brittany's mother even used money set aside for her wedding in Hawaii to help fund a reward.

• 37:57Mike Boudet?

  During that time, a crime lab was processing DNA from the scene. Now, this is 2008, when DNA testing wasn't as advanced as it is today. The samples taken from Brittany's crime scene were mixed, meaning they included two or more DNA profiles. Even so, they quickly found a match. The bad news was that it matched a DNA profile from an unsolved burglary at the Blue Moon Bar and Grill back in June. A link to another unsolved crime didn't help, and it only made the theory of a transient stranger committing the murder even stronger. So, they went back to talk to Call again.

• 38:40Speaker 03

  Nothing has changed with you, Dave. I can't be, I can't be more explicit with you, okay? We're, we are not considering any other charges against you, no matter what you tell me, tell me and Sam today in this interview regarding the personal stuff about what you were doing. We don't care about that. Okay. Our focus is who killed Brittany. I thought you caught the guy.

• 39:00Speaker 07

  No, that was on the Moreno one, the guy that was on West Shore that got killed like in January. We did catch him.

• 39:06Speaker 03

  Somebody was saying something on the news or something, that they already caught the guy or something.

• 39:10Speaker 07

  They caught that guy. This is the girl.

• 39:13Speaker 03

  I thought they had DNA too or something, on a knife or something. That was from the Moreno case, the guy that got killed back in January, a couple of months before the one we're working on. Okay, because they said they also found DNA or whatever, and supposedly arrested somebody on the. Yeah, they're mixing the cases.

• 39:30Mike Boudet?

  Call seemed even more eager to talk with detectives than last time. He casually talked about the case, even cracking jokes. He'd been in jail for a few months by now. He had plenty of time to think about that day, to remember.

• 39:46Speaker 03

  Do you know what the victim's name is? Do you remember without me telling you? Brittany. Okay, do you remember seeing the house that Brittany lived in? Yeah, it's easy. At some point earlier that day or any other time, did you knock at that door? I have no idea. Okay. No recollection, because I was bouncing from street to street, house to house. Do you remember how many houses on her street that day, Dave, you might? Probably almost all of them.

• 40:11Mike Boudet?

  Out of all of them, do you have any recollection of how many you might have had people home? That came to the door when you knocked or rang?

• 40:17Speaker 03

  There wasn't a whole lot of people home.

• 40:20Mike Boudet?

  The conversation turned to Hank and the other guy. Detectives brought in a new set of photos to see if Call recognized any of them. He didn't. Then the conversation turned to Dawn.

• 40:33Speaker 03

  Is she any helpful at all?

• 40:37Speaker 03

  I mean, she's busy, I know that, but I mean...

• 40:39Speaker 04

  What could we use against her to get her to be more cooperative? If she wasn't being cooperative?

• 40:45Speaker 03

  I don't know.

• 40:45Speaker 04

  Anything that...

• 40:46Speaker 03

  You have to have something, charges or something on her probably.

• 40:49Speaker 04

  Charges would help me.

• 40:52Speaker 04

  There's no chance that Hank can Mitchell her in that book?

• 40:54Speaker 03

  No.

• 40:54Speaker 04

  Absolutely not.

• 40:55Speaker 03

  No, I don't know their faces yet.

• 40:57Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 40:58Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 40:59Speaker 04

  You sure?

• 40:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'd tell you, because I'd rather have you talk to them.

• 41:02Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm, they keep bothering you.

• 41:05Speaker 03

  If they did do something like that, like I say, they did mention about robbing a few people at night point.

• 41:11Mike Boudet?

  Strangely engaged, Call was asking more questions than the detectives.

• 41:16Speaker 03

  Was she raped at all?

• 41:19Speaker 04

  Can't tell you that. Why? What does that tell you?

• 41:23Speaker 03

  I just was wondering.

• 41:24Speaker 04

  Any instincts on that, or?

• 41:27Speaker 03

  I just was wondering if she was raped or not.

• 41:30Speaker 04

  Just something we can't come out, but...

• 41:32Mike Boudet?

  You understand we keep a lot of, we try to keep a lot of information.

• 41:36Speaker 03

  Because I figured that's another reason why they picked me up too, because I had a sexual assault.

• 41:42Speaker 03

  Do you guys have anything at all? I mean...

• 41:45Mike Boudet?

  Yeah, we've got a bunch of stuff we're working.

• 41:48Speaker 04

  And every day new stuff comes in, but still.

• 41:52Speaker 03

  Do you think it was Hank and Lawrence?

• 41:55Speaker 04

  Until we can find them and talk to them, we can't eliminate them, so that's what, we need to find out who they are, if you can...

• 42:01Speaker 03

  Has any of the homeless people on the sketches identified them and said that they've seen them?

• 42:07Speaker 03

  Because I mean, if I committed a murder, I sure as hell get out of Madison. Madison's small. I mean, I wouldn't want to stick around in Madison. Yeah.

• 42:17Speaker 03

  I mean, I'd take off. I mean, if I would have killed her, I would have been gone. You guys would never have found me that day. Right, right. I would never even went back to my apartment. I mean, that seems logical, right? Yeah.

• 42:26Mike Boudet?

  While the police continued their search for the two mystery men, the public wanted answers. They needed to know that they were safe in their own homes. That's when the public backlash started. The news media started requesting public records, but when the requests were fulfilled, some records were withheld, others delayed, and most were redacted. The news media smelled something fishy and pushed back, requesting more and more records. They requested 911 call logs, dispatch records, audio recordings, dispatcher notes, and even internal reviews or audits related to the 911 call center. When that too failed, they filed suit.

• 43:11Speaker 06

  There were substantial revelations that brought into the public domain as a result of this lawsuit.

• 43:20Mike Boudet?

  The public was in fear and suddenly realized the police were withholding things from them. What revelations were made public, you might be asking?

• 43:30Mike Boudet?

  Well, settling the lawsuit forced the city to release another 911 call.

• 43:36Speaker 06

  Including the fact that the tape did contain sounds of a struggle and screaming.

• 43:44Mike Boudet?

  The 911 call had been marked as incomplete or misdialed. In other words, the operator didn't hear anyone on the line, but the call in question came from Brittany's home.

• 43:55Speaker 07

  911, what's the address of the emergency?

• 44:01Speaker 07

  Hello, 911?

• 44:03Mike Boudet?

  The police were aware of this very early on, but didn't inform the public. They said the state of the phone systems at the E911 center made it so that the operator did not hear the scream. It was only after they pulled the recording that they noticed.

• 44:41Mike Boudet?

  In the recording, it was clearly a woman screaming. Then, they heard what sounded like someone saying "stop", along with the sounds of what could only be... an assault. Then the line disconnected. Per protocol, the operator called the number back.

• 45:03Speaker 03

  Hello?

• 45:04Speaker 07

  Hi, being coming 911 calling. Your phone called us?

• 45:08Speaker 03

  911, no.

• 45:10Speaker 07

  Were you just using the phone?

• 45:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 45:13Speaker 07

  Okay.

• 45:14Speaker 03

  It's, uh, 911, oh. Oh, we may have pressed that red button on there. Oh, that was an accident! Yeah, that was an accident, yeah.

• 45:24Speaker 07

  Okay, alright. We just have to check then.

• 45:26Speaker 03

  Yeah, okay, thanks.

• 45:28Speaker 07

  Come on, bye-bye.

• 45:29Speaker 03

  Bye-bye.

• 45:31Mike Boudet?

  But this forced transparency caused outrage. Not only were two men on the recording, but Brittany called 911 nearly an hour before her fiance, Jordan, found her. This revelation would lead to the Zimmerman's filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the city in 2009. They would settle the suit the following year and put all the money towards a scholarship fund in Brittany's name. They said it wasn't about the money. It was about not letting this happen to anyone else. The E911 Center would undergo many equipment upgrades and dispatcher training. A lot of covering your ass after the damage is done.

• 46:15Mike Boudet?

  But while the police were dodging the public outrage, they received an anonymous letter in late 2009. The letter was from the Fox Lake Correctional Facility. It claimed an inmate with the initials of FR and his friends killed Brittany. The detectives investigated this anonymous tip, but nothing came out of it. Around this time, the case also lost its first lead detective, who transferred out of the department. With his departure, the next detective would have to start all over again.

• 46:51Mike Boudet?

  The new detective revisited all the evidence, including the DNA. They resubmitted the samples and they reprocessed them. By 2011, the mixed samples were degraded, but the technology had improved. When they got the results back, they knew they needed to speak with David Call yet again.

• 47:12Speaker 03

  You were going door to door in Brittany's neighborhood that day, right?

• 47:16Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 47:17Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 47:17Speaker 05

  Me and Don and them other guys.

• 47:19Speaker 03

  Other guys, meaning these two guys we're talking about? Okay.

• 47:24Speaker 03

  There's some evidence, I mentioned to you some evidence that came up. As you can imagine, the homicide, we had the crime line processed, everything. DNA was developed on some things that Brittany had on at the time she was killed. And that's the main reason Detective Luke and I wanted to sit down and talk to you today. That DNA is consistent with your DNA. And that was just developed recently. Can you explain why your DNA would be on in her house even?

• 48:03Speaker 05

  I have no idea unless it was one of the houses that we were breaking into that day.

• 48:10Speaker 03

  How many houses did you break into?

• 48:12Speaker 05

  Well, me and them guys, like I say, we'd go in there and we'd break in. You know, go through stuff, looking for jewelry, by our tops.

• 48:21Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 48:22Mike Boudet?

  While Call's story had been consistent for years, this time he revealed more. He had been with two other men, helping him burgle homes for items to sell. He offered this up as a possible explanation to how his DNA could have even ended up at Brittany's house.

• 48:40Speaker 03

  The DNA that we have could not have gotten there by you being in simply her apartment. It would have been, it's there because you touched her, she touched you, okay? Okay, that's what I'm saying to you.

• 48:53Speaker 05

  Well, my

• 48:54Speaker 03

  Being charged with anything yet? No, absolutely not. Why, I mean, I don't know what to say to you, I mean, you know. I cooperated all the way with you guys. You have, and we appreciate that, and that's why, that's why we asked you to come back. Now you're saying you got DNA from me, I mean. And we're trying to figure that out. Yeah. Yeah. So I best talked to a lawyer, I mean, when you approached me, you said the only way to get there is if I touched her or something. So that's pretty fucked up right there.

• 49:29Speaker 03

  I mean, whether I shook her hand that day, like I say, I remember now because of the pictures and the faces, you know what I mean? And being on the news. But at that day, when everything happened, I have to remember if that was from the people that I hugged or...

• 49:47Mike Boudet?

  He said maybe he did ask Brittany for money that day, but he didn't recall it. If he did, maybe he shook her hand or gave her a hug. But after that, he thought it wise to consult a lawyer. The reason he wasn't being charged then and there is that police were hoping for a confession. The reprocessing of DNA didn't provide a match. Call wasn't a perfect match, but he couldn't be excluded either. Remember, DNA samples were mixed and degraded. This is the best the lab could do.

• 50:25Mike Boudet?

  The district attorney's office wouldn't prosecute with so little evidence. Without a confession and call lawyering up, the case started to stall. The next year in 2012, another detective took over the case. It continued to drift. In 2014, the department got a new chief. With the regime change, the department underwent restructuring. 2015 provided no new leads either. Then, in 2016, a tip came in. A man named Scholes said that Call confessed to him while in prison together. This would have cinched the conviction, except that Scholes was leveraging this information

• 51:09Mike Boudet?

  to obtain a pardon. Jailhouse snitches with a motive are rarely credible. This claim wasn't immediately considered a reliable lead. It got stuck in internal administrative channels before ever going to detectives. That same year, the new detective met with Call. The interview lasted only two and a half minutes before he politely shut it down.

• 51:35Speaker 03

  David, we have an interest in having a conversation with you.

• 51:40Speaker 03

  We are not here for any reason that you are currently here. But before doing so, we have to make sure you understand that you have rights. Okay? I know you had your rights read to you in the past. Do you know how many times you've had your rights read to you in the past? Not often. Okay, have you had your rights read to you in the past? Yeah, two times. Okay.

• 52:00Mike Boudet?

  "A few times" is an understatement. Call had spent the eight years since the death of Brittany in and out of jail for various charges. He knew the routine. And with the lingering fear of DNA and now the claim by Scholes, Call wasn't willing to cooperate.

• 52:20Speaker 03

  Having these rights in mind, do you wish to talk to us now? I'd rather not, but attorney advised me not to. Okay. He was up here a week or two ago and said, "Don't talk anymore." Okay. So, there you go. I've been cooperating, like I say, since the get-go. This is about that Brittany's a run.

• 52:42Speaker 06

  And then he asked me questions about Andrew Scholes. And I sent a letter, I think it was to Detective Miller, with Andrew Scholes calling me a rat, throwing him under the bus, and why he's gonna try to make a deal with you guys or something, supposedly. So, I, whatever, I remained silent. He said, "You just try to pin it on somebody, and anybody that you can get, you're gonna pin it on." So, I'm done cooperating.

• 53:15Speaker 03

  Well, we are only interested in the truth. I'll say that, not to you, but in general.

• 53:22Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 53:23Speaker 03

  Um, and, that is your right.

• 53:26Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 53:27Speaker 03

  Thank you very much.

• 53:29Speaker 06

  Yep, thank you.

• 53:31Mike Boudet?

  Another attempt at getting a confession from a man who consistently claimed he wasn't involved. The always polite call chose to remain silent. 2016 would end, and 2017 would start. With the new year came yet another new detective. A full review of the case started yet again. But before the claims of Andrew Scholes could be vetted or verified, he died in a motorcycle accident. By the time anyone considered the tip a viable lead, he was already gone. This brought investigators to the 10th anniversary of Brittany's death in 2018.

• 54:15Mike Boudet?

  Her family was still waiting for answers after 10 years. The community had largely moved on. The case had survived longer than the people assigned to it. What no one realized yet was that the piece of evidence that would finally break the case had been sitting in a storage locker for nearly a decade.

• 54:54Mike Boudet?

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• 55:38Mike Boudet?

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• 56:55Mike Boudet?

  For years, police had DNA, but not the kind that gives answers. The samples from Brittany's apartment were mixed. Her DNA was everywhere. Whatever the attacker left behind was tangled up with it. The testing could only rule people out, but it couldn't point to exactly one person. David Call could not be excluded. He could not be charged, either. As the years passed and technology improved, detectives kept trying. The results stayed the same. Too much doubt, not enough proof. Hell of a system.

• 57:37Mike Boudet?

  Until, one day in 2020, something finally changed. But before moving forward, police returned to the one man they had never been able to rule out: David Call.

• 57:50Speaker 03

  How much do you know about Brittany? Nothing, just that she was murdered. She was a college kid, she loved animals, and she wanted to go to med school, it was her major. She was a little one of the guys she was engaged to. And I'm not trying to pull at your heartstrings here, it's just I'm explaining to you why

• 58:10Speaker 03

  this is a serious case that the Madison Police Department in our office has kept looking at for so many years. Your story, you know, over time has differed, okay? And I think, I don't know how much you remember of different times, you've said things, and it's changed a little bit, and today's a little different. A couple of times I was drunk. Right. Running. Can I get that? Yeah. And your DNA does, based on how today's science books is telling us, that it's very likely that it's your DNA on Brittany's sleeves, as well as especially her jeans, okay?

• 58:47Mike Boudet?

  It had been 12 years since Brittany's murder, and Call had aged quite a bit. He was now 53 years old and looked every bit of it. He had gained weight, and what little hair he had left was even more gray. But he had been confronted with DNA evidence before, so he remained calm as he heard the detective out.

• 59:11Speaker 03

  Do you know more about what happened to her? And what you're worried about is that you're the person all the evidence points at, but you still aren't the most culpable person in terms of what actually happened to her. We're just trying to figure out if there are other people involved. Is there anything else you can think of that you can tell us? Or something that you haven't wanted to talk about that you feel is important that we know about what happened? Not just for Brittany's sake, but for your own sake in terms of, "I was there, something happened, but I'm not the person who strangled her and stabbed her." You know, she basically died of a really miserable death.

• 59:51Mike Boudet?

  Detective Nail reminded Call that he had previously admitted he was involved in burglaries that day. Call said he didn't remember that at all. 12 years is a long time to remember every detail of a story he gave, especially when it's just a story and not something that actually happened.

• 1:00:12Speaker 03

  If you guys had entered this place and maybe she came home and found you, or you guys surprised her? Again, I need to, I mean, that's what I need to know. Yeah, I wasn't in there. I borrowed money from her, I used her bathroom. I believe I had a glass of water. And then I left.

• 1:00:36Speaker 03

  You do remember being in Brittany's place, then? Yup. Okay.

• 1:00:41Mike Boudet?

  Suddenly, for the first time, he remembered being in Brittany's apartment. He even remembered specific details about using the bathroom and drinking a glass of water. Where was all this recollection all these years ago?

• 1:00:55Speaker 03

  Well, even getting a glass of water and using the bathroom, I'm not sure, I'm not sure how that gets your DNA on her pants.

• 1:01:08Mike Boudet?

  Even with flaws in his claims pointed out, Call stuck to it. He wasn't involved in Brittany's death. But the evidence said otherwise. After all these years, the detectives just wanted to put the Zimmerman's mind at ease.

• 1:01:24Speaker 05

  David, I gotta say, I'm sorry, but you love your mom, but Brittany has a mom out there who loves her so much, and she deserves to know even just a little bit of what you can tell us.

• 1:01:37Mike Boudet?

  Detective told him they believed they had enough evidence to implicate him, but they wanted to know whether anyone else was involved. Call, though, never cracked. He stuck to his newest version of events. He never confessed to anything.

• 1:01:53Speaker 06

  On April 2nd, 2008, almost 12 years ago, Brittany Zimmerman was killed in her downtown Madison apartment. Today, I can announce that criminal charges have been filed in her death. David Call, a 53-year-old male, has been charged in Dane County Circuit Court with first-degree intentional homicide as a party to a crime and with a dangerous weapon. In the years that have passed, her case never went cold and was never anything but a priority for MPD. Investigators worked tirelessly over the years, following leads, conducting hundreds of interviews,

• 1:02:33Speaker 06

  processing countless pieces of evidence, and producing thousands of pages of police reports. Brittany's parents, Kevin and Jean, have remained heavily invested in the case over the years. They've met regularly with MPD investigators and MPD leadership. They're asking for privacy during this difficult time.

• 1:02:56Speaker 06

  Call is currently incarcerated in the Wisconsin prison system on unrelated charges. At some point, he'll be transported to Dane County for proceedings in connection with this case. This was truly a senseless crime, taking the life of a young woman with a bright future. Nothing we do can change that. But my hope is that what happens today will be a significant step in the process to do justice for Brittany and for her family. Thank you.

• 1:03:28Mike Boudet?

  Finally, David Call was charged with first-degree murder, intentional homicide. When Detective Nail took over Brittany Zimmerman's case in 2017, he didn't start with suspects. He started with boxes, evidence bags, old reports, things that hadn't been touched in years. He didn't just review it, he reevaluated it. That's when he saw it. The anonymous letter from 2009 implicating an inmate by the initials F.R. The contents of the letter had been deemed unreliable and it was filed away in a box.

• 1:04:09Mike Boudet?

  But Detective Nail was thorough and sent the letter and its envelope for DNA testing. The test results proved that the letter had been penned, licked, and sealed by David Call. The DNA on Brittany and in her apartment wasn't a perfect match, but the DNA on the envelope was, without a doubt, a match. The Zimmerman's were beside themselves with relief and the odd sense that the emotions they had been dealing with for over a decade would soon be gone.

• 1:04:46Speaker 06

  I, and along with my parents, have become emotionally kind of scarred and numb. My family have been waiting 12 years

• 1:04:56Mike Boudet?

  ...in one day, or this, to be excited for us to be able to see this individual. During Call's arraignment, he stood silent, and a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf. But two years later, in 2022, he would agree to a plea deal and plead guilty.

• 1:05:17Speaker 07

  To count one first-degree intentional homicide, what is your plea? Guilty, Your Honor. Are you pleading guilty because you did intentionally cause the death of Brittany Zimmerman? Yes, Your Honor.

• 1:05:37Mike Boudet?

  Call admitted he killed Brittany. He saw her getting home from school and followed her, breaking into her apartment. He likely gave the usual spiel about needing money for a flat tire. You know the excuses you hear just outside Panera Bread, from the homeless man who you're gonna assign a Disney-like storyline to, whereas he's closer to a virus, a plague on society, something that rots it from within. But you do you, and you can be as generous as you like with your spare change. His family wasn't, his friends aren't, if he has any, but you can go ahead and think the best and hand over a couple quarters.

• 1:06:22Mike Boudet?

  Go right ahead. Enjoy. Brittany didn't fall for it, though. She refused to give him any money and started to call 911. That's when he snapped and attacked her. She fought back. Furniture was knocked around in the struggle, so he wrapped his sweatshirt around her neck and pulled it tight. He got up on top of her and stabbed her 19 times in the chest. Then he fled and spent the next 14 years pretending it never happened. Homeless people don't get homeless by accident, you know? It's rarely ever the sob story you hear

• 1:07:03Mike Boudet?

  on publicly-supported airwaves. Anyway, during the sentencing, Brittany's aunt addressed the court.

• 1:07:11Speaker 07

  We, as a family, have nothing but pain.

• 1:07:16Speaker 07

  We have nothing but daily reminders and we've had nothing but torture for 14 and a half years while he did his soul searching to decide to come clean. I think it takes a lot of audacity for someone in custody to request a transfer from the county jail to the state prison because he thinks he will get better medical care after he has stripped my family of an incredibly loved and amazing human who wanted to do nothing but good things in this world.

• 1:07:57Mike Boudet?

  Then David Call addressed the court and the family with an apology that was anything but sincere.

• 1:08:04Speaker 06

  I would like to apologize to everybody, especially the Zimmerman family. I took away Brittany's 21-year-old life, a family that she could have had. I just feel horrible.

• 1:08:24Speaker 06

  I was, I was just, I feel horrible. And I'm accepting the punishment that I got coming.

• 1:08:34Mike Boudet?

  The apology fell short of giving the Zimmerman's any comfort. David Call just seemed like an old man at the end of a rope. At the time, Call was seriously ill. His years of hard living had finally caught up with him. His plea agreement seemed to be more self-serving than anything else. In prison, he would get better medical care, being the parasite he was.

• 1:09:01Speaker 07

  You did finally take responsibility for what you did, and you did plead guilty.

• 1:09:08Speaker 07

  And as I say, you did spare her family and friends the agony of going through a public trial. But it does not negate the years of your obfuscation and obstruction regarding the investigation in this case. There is such a sense of loss and sadness and pain there. And the wait of almost 15 years to get to this moment was excruciating. It just was excruciating. So many lives have been tragically altered by your actions, Mr. Call. I do conclude, Mr. Call, that you must be removed from society for the rest of your life.

• 1:09:53Speaker 07

  The magnitude of your crime demands it, your character demands it, and the protection of the public demands it. It is the just and right thing to do.

• 1:10:07Mike Boudet?

  David Call was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release. After sentencing, the Zimmerman family held a press conference.

• 1:10:16Speaker 07

  We knew in between, basically, that he was going, that he had asked to stay there forever. Our thoughts on that were it was self-serving, as Kim had said. He only did it so that his family and his mother specifically would not have to hear the gruesome details of what he did to our daughter. That is our belief. I guess I can't talk for him, but that is my belief in why he did what he did. I don't think he, you know, had a come-to-Jesus moment, why he confessed all of a sudden 14 and a half years later, and he had to get it off his chest. I think he was scared to death. He knew, like, you know, it was that the walls were closing in. He had no choice.

• 1:11:01Mike Boudet?

  After years of suffering and wondering if their daughter's killer would ever be brought to justice, the Zimmerns could finally relax. But in Brittany's death, they found their voice, a voice to fight against injustice.

• 1:11:17Speaker 07

  What he did was unspeakable. And to not have the person responsible for that behind bars, it was unacceptable to us. So we were willing, and we did whatever we had to do. Our family has been our number one supporters. I mean, my sister's been at every single solitary thing with us. She is our speaker. This was every step, the lawsuit to the 911 center, etc. It was never about money. It was about doing the right thing for everyone else. So it was to make sure that there wasn't another parent who was going to lose their child to a dropped call.

• 1:12:00Speaker 07

  It was, it was always about trying to do the right thing, which was what Brittany's entire life was about, was doing the right thing. And that's in part what is so heartbreaking about the events of her murder is that she did everything right, and that wasn't met by people doing the right thing for her. And so that's been, it's, it's been the irony and the heartbreak of all of it.

• 1:12:25Mike Boudet?

  Justice didn't give the Zimmerman's their daughter back. It didn't give them the years they spent waiting or the milestones they'll never get to see. What it did give them was an ending and the knowledge that they never stopped doing the right thing. Over the years, that choice has cost them more than time. Brittany's mother used the money that had been set aside for her wedding to help fund the reward for information about her killer. They gave interviews. They relived the worst day of their lives over and over again and again.

• 1:13:04Mike Boudet?

  They refused to let the case and Brittany's voice go quiet. And because of cases like Brittany's, something did change. Wisconsin law was updated to expand the circumstances under which DNA is collected from people in the criminal justice system, a shift meant to prevent evidence from sitting in limbo, as it did in this case. It didn't come soon enough for Brittany, but it may mean answers come sooner for someone else. And isn't that all we can do on this rock, on this spin around the sun?

• 1:13:48Mike Boudet?

  Just make it slightly better for the next person. If you're homeless, you may not give a fuck, but if you care about the future of this thing, we are humanity, then you might want to do just that.

• 1:14:49Mike Boudet?

  That's going to do it for another episode of Sword and Scale. Thank you for joining us. If you have a technical issue, you can reach us at [email protected]. And if you have a complaint about our content and what I say, you can send that to our complaints department in your local trash bin. Otherwise, you can find everything else you want on our website and app. Go to swordandscale.com for more info and we'll see you next week. Why don't you go and stay safe. It's all bad.