Pod Insights The Binge Cases: Doctor Billions Killer Story | 3. Paradise Ruined About this episode With dogged determination, Lyndal follows up on the clue that might be the key to her search.
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Transcript 4,130 words · 13 speakers
0:02 Speaker 00 Fall never arrives all at once. First the air, then the light. And slowly, the things you love begin to find each other. A jacket meets a dress. A hoodie slips beneath a blazer. An old cap finds a new scarf. Because you don't simply step into the season. You create it, layer by layer, until it finally feels like fall. Find fall your way at Ross.
0:30 Speaker 01 Listen to all episodes of Killer Story ad-free right now by subscribing to The Binge. Visit The Binge channel on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page, or visit getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. The Binge: Feed your true crime obsession.
1:05 Speaker 02 This woman tells me that her niece is missing.
1:09 Speaker 03 And I said, "We don't do missing persons."
1:11 Speaker 02 I was just like, "Oh, hey, you know, he'll be okay." I'm like, "No, this is not okay. This is not okay."
1:19 Speaker 04 I could feel that it was going to have an impact on her for the rest of her life.
1:25 Speaker 05 I was glad somebody was investigating it. And I remember being glad somebody believed us.
1:30 Speaker 02 She said that a nurse went out there. And I went, "What? Why would a nurse go and see her?"
1:52 Speaker 01 When a dead body can't be identified and is declared a Jane or John Doe, the local cemetery gets a call. Sabrina's body was, for years, a Jane Doe. It was fished out of the Colorado River. The closest cemetery was in Kingman, Arizona.
2:12 Speaker 06 It's not like a normal cemetery, you know, where there's grass and things. It is the Arizona desert.
2:18 Speaker 01 This summer place is managed by a peppy woman, Nikki Rowe.
2:23 Speaker 06 It kind of like the old western movies, how they're all kind of like red and then the sand color and then there's the dark black color rock. You can't see anything but sky, just sky and trees. Arizona cypresses, they give this certain desert smell and it's just, it's such a strong, just beautiful smell. I don't know how to explain it.
2:48 Speaker 01 Nikki likes the quiet of the place.
2:51 Speaker 06 I usually just hear the birds. I hear the birds and the rustling of the trees if there's a breeze. And then, of course, just the gentle sound of cars coming by and it's nice.
3:04 Speaker 01 Unidentified people have their own spot in the cemetery.
3:08 Speaker 06 So they do have a headstone. A lot of them are the black granite, which is beautiful.
3:14 Speaker 01 The headstones are engraved, but not with the deceased's name, not with their birth date or their date of death.
3:22 Speaker 06 It's either a Jane or John Doe and then the date on what they were found.
3:27 Speaker 01 And this is where Sabrina's body would rest for years alongside other Jane and John Does, unnamed and unclaimed.
3:38 Speaker 06 We just have the low-railing device set up. They did do the pine caskets, like an oval top with just a square body bottom.
3:49 Speaker 01 The service for Sabrina was modest, no family, no friends. They weren't even sure if she was alive or dead at that point. Just the graveyard staff attended. They were the last to say goodbye to her, not knowing who she was or had hoped to be.
4:06 Speaker 06 And then we all, we will load the casket, we'll all stand around, say a prayer for the deceased, you know, because we don't, we don't have a name. So we say a prayer for the deceased. Father God, please take care of the soul, let their family come forward, let their killer be found and let their name be known.
4:25 Speaker 01 If a family comes forward, they put a name on the gravestone. Would Sabrina's family ever get that chance?
4:36 Speaker 01 Sabrina's family wouldn't know for years where she'd gone or how she'd got there. They'd had clues pointing them in the right direction, but they didn't know it. It would be up to Lyndle to put the clues together and discover what happened to their kin. This is Killer Story. I'm Steve Fishman. Episode Three, Paradise Ruined.
5:16 Speaker 00 Fall never arrives all at once. First the air, then the light. And slowly, the things you love begin to find each other. A jacket meets a dress, a hoodie slips beneath a blazer, an old cap finds a new scarf. Because you don't simply step into the season. You create it, layer by layer, until it finally feels like fall. Find fall your way at Ross.
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6:04 Speaker 01 New York, 1991. Four years after Sabrina was buried as a Jane Doe, Lyndle's at the current affair office. It's late, and Lyndle's wondering about the nurse that visited Sabrina. The zoo has finally quieted down, so Lyndle goes ahead and dials Sabrina's soft-spoken mother, Bobby Sue. Sabrina's disappearance has worn down her mother. Lyndle listens as she drifts off, turns maudlin, tearful.
6:35 Speaker 02 She felt like she had not done the right thing by her daughter.
6:40 Speaker 01 On tonight's call, like on most of their calls, Bobby Sue's refrain is, "I want my baby back." Lyndle's patient, to an extent, but she tells Bobby Sue that to help, she needs information.
6:54 Speaker 02 Did Sabrina ever say anything to you that you thought was strange?
7:02 Speaker 01 Bobby Su and Sabrina's aunt weren't great when it came to producing actionable information. To Lindell, they weren't facing reality.
7:10 Speaker 02 They were thinking along the lines of sex trafficking, which she was just missing. They were, they were looking around the country. They were trying to find her, scouring different newspapers.
7:22 Speaker 01 Lindell asked Bobby Su to think back to the time just before Sabrina disappeared. Back then, mother and daughter spoke regularly by phone. Sabrina refused to live with her mother, but she still liked hearing her voice. Lindell asked Bobby Su, did Sabrina say anything unusual? She needed a clue, a lead, something.
7:45 Speaker 02 They're not journalists.
7:47 Speaker 01 Bobby Su thought for a minute. There was one thing, a life insurance policy. Lindell perked up. That would explain the nurse's visit. Insurance companies often require a physical when applying. Why was Lindell just hearing about this now?
8:07 Speaker 02 These are simple, loving, kind women who hadn't been trained, who didn't know how to look for clues, whose instincts were about, you know, family, not about what's going on.
8:23 Speaker 01 In other words, to Sabrina's mother and aunt, this insurance policy just hadn't seemed notable. To Lindell, it was notable.
8:32 Speaker 02 You know, my brain always goes to something evil's happening.
8:37 Speaker 01 But this insurance policy, Bobby Su didn't take it out. So who did? Who'd take out a life insurance policy on a 17-year-old girl? Lindell's spidey sense tingled. Who would benefit if something happened to Sabrina? Lindell needed to see the policy. Bobby Su wasn't any help. She didn't have a copy. She didn't even know the name of the carrier.
9:03 Speaker 02 The insurance was what I really wanted to set my sights on.
9:09 Speaker 01 And so Lindell begins systematically calling every insurance company in the vicinity. It's days of tedious, fruitless calls. I'll spare you the real-time details. Instead, here's the movie version. You know, quick cuts, lots of sound effects.
9:27 Speaker 01 Open on Lindell thumbing through phone books. This is back when there were phone books. She's dialing lots of phone numbers. We see Lindell crouched on the floor of her office. It's after hours. She's got the Las Vegas Yellow Pages in her hands. It's a thick book. She drops it. It's a very thick book. That sound should be louder.
9:50 Speaker 01 Lindell continues riffling through the Yellow Pages, which contain phone numbers of every business in the area. She flips to the I's, to insurance companies, makes a list of 20 or so, and continues dialing. Lindell's rehearsed a spiel. It's crafty and effective.
10:09 Speaker 02 You have to either determine to tell a story and to find ways to do it.
10:15 Speaker 01 And?
10:16 Speaker 02 And not always do it above board. And I did not say I was from a current affair. And I said, there's a missing girl and her mother's very upset.
10:26 Speaker 01 She asks the company rep if they write life insurance policies. If so...
10:31 Speaker 02 Would you send a nurse out to do a physical? Some company said yes, some said no, we don't do that.
10:36 Speaker 01 She makes call after call, whittling down the list. That's supposed to be the sound of whittling. If Lindell comes across an uncooperative person, she might add a little menace to her pitch.
10:50 Speaker 02 There could be legal ramifications for you if you don't give us information. The mother wants information.
10:57 Speaker 01 Lindell gets a lot of the same kind of no's. And then she reaches an insurer whose tone is strikingly different from the others.
11:07 Speaker 02 When I got onto State Farm, they said, we're not going to do anything without any information from the mother.
11:15 Speaker 01 Why even say that? The company's answer is simultaneously direct and evasive, like the agent is hiding something. At least, that's what Lindell surmises. And so she thinks she's found the company that wrote the insurance policy on Sabrina.
11:33 Speaker 02 State Farm had it. Because they engage with me a little bit longer.
11:38 Speaker 01 State Farm won't talk to Lyndall. Insurance records are private. But they will talk to Sabrina's mom. So Lyndall gets Bobby Sue to call State Farm.
11:50 Speaker 02 Bobby Sue actually spoke to them and they did say, yes, we, we think we might have something with the name Sabrina Kidd.
11:59 Speaker 02 And so Bobby Sue then sent them, faxed them, information about Sabrina.
12:05 Speaker 01 State Farm says they'll reply by fax. And so Bobby Sue provides State Farm a fax number, a current affairs fax number. Whatever State Farm finds will go directly to Lyndall. Could this be the break in the case? The key to understanding what happened to Sabrina? Lyndall hopes so.
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13:10 Speaker 00 Fall never arrives all at once. First the air, then the light. And slowly, the things you love begin to find each other. A jacket meets a dress. A hoodie slips beneath a blazer. An old cap finds a new scarf. Because you don't simply step into the season. You create it, layer by layer, until it finally feels like fall.
13:33 Speaker 00 Find fall your way at Ross.
13:46 Speaker 01 It's still 1991 and Lindell presses pause on the investigation. The facts could be key, but she isn't about to drum her fingers on the desk while waiting.
13:57 Speaker 02 And of course, I had to get back to work, my job.
14:01 Speaker 01 She's always looking for a story with a twist.
14:04 Speaker 09 Elizabeth needed more than $20,000 to continue her studies. And instead of taking a student loan, she took a risky step. She started working as a call girl.
14:18 Speaker 01 Lindell is constantly thinking about the job, but Lindell also has something else going on in her life: romance with her boss, Dan. In Lindell's story, Dan is a plot twist. After she was attacked, Lindell lost faith in men. She wrote off romance.
14:39 Speaker 02 A real loner. My work is my friend. I've just found solace, comfort, reason in my work.
14:49 Speaker 01 But...
14:50 Speaker 02 I was a long way from home. I was a long way from my family. And Dan felt like home.
14:58 Speaker 01 Dan seemed to know all the iconic New York dates. Their first had been to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade to watch the balloons inflate. A month later, he escorted her to Rockefeller Center to see one of the country's iconic Christmas trees with dozens of ice skaters circling in the rink below.
15:19 Speaker 02 I am in heaven. I'm like, this is New York. This is like every movie I've ever seen. I'm in the city of my dreams. And here's the big Rockefeller Center tree. And I look down and Dan is on his knee. And he brought out a ring and he proposed right there. All these tourists were around going, "Yes, say yes, say yes."
15:44 Speaker 01 And she did.
15:46 Speaker 02 Bang. We were engaged.
15:49 Speaker 01 Four months later, they were married.
15:52 Speaker 03 It's just one of those things that, you know, sometimes you meet someone and you just know it.
15:56 Speaker 02 It just felt right. It felt right. It felt, this is, this is a guy that will be with me, will look after me.
16:08 Speaker 01 But even as Lindell finds romance, Sabrina is on her mind. She worries about Sabrina. Worry turns to fear.
16:17 Speaker 02 And I then thought, yeah, she's probably dead.
16:22 Speaker 01 But who would want to harm Sabrina? Let's forget the insurance policy for the moment. Was there anyone in her past who posed a threat? Turns out, there was one person. Her first cousin, Dewana, had some information about him.
16:42 Speaker 01 Okay, so we're back in time. It's 1987. It's the moment Sabrina arrives in Vegas. Her first stop is Dewana's family house. Sabrina's standing on the doorstep with her two suitcases. She's standing there because Bobby Sue has offloaded her. Bobby Sue's new husband and Sabrina were at odds. And Bobby Sue made a choice. Sabrina had to go.
17:11 Speaker 10 I think she felt like her mom chose
17:13 Speaker 01 Her second husband.
17:14 Speaker 10 over her. And I think Sabrina rebelled really bad.
17:19 Speaker 01 How would you rebel against a mother like Bobby Sue? A mother fastidious about looking good. Dewana hadn't seen Sabrina in a couple of years.
17:29 Speaker 10 I mean, she was a very beautiful young girl, but she just didn't care about her look. She became totally opposite than her mother.
17:39 Speaker 10 When I had seen her, I was just shocked. I mean, her hair was all butched off. She had gained weight. She was like in this golf look era. It was like, oh, my God, girl, what have you done?
17:51 Speaker 01 Sabrina had once told Dewana she just wanted to be loved. Well, looking for love can be a rough game. But at least here in Vegas, Sabrina had Dewana, someone who saw the best in her.
18:06 Speaker 10 She had a real good heart. She cared about people and she cared about things.
18:12 Speaker 10 She was sweet. I mean, even in her golf stages, she was never a mean person.
18:19 Speaker 10 She'd do anything to help somebody. I can't even remember Sabrina saying anything mean to me. Even when we had our disagreements, I don't remember her being mean.
18:30 Speaker 01 With Dewana in her life, maybe teenage Sabrina has a shot at finding her footing in Sin City. Unfortunately, that relationship is about to crash and burn. It starts with a party.
18:47 Speaker 10 Sabrina ended up hooking up with a guy that I knew was not a good guy. I knew he was a problem.
18:54 Speaker 01 And Sabrina decides to go home with this guy. He lives in a neighborhood locals call Naked City.
19:01 Speaker 10 That's just where all your drug dealers and all your gang bangers and everything else. The police don't even like to go back over there. It's just a really bad area. I begged Sabrina to come home with me at that time, but she wanted to stay there.
19:15 Speaker 01 How did she explain it to you? What did she actually say?
19:19 Speaker 10 That she cared about him and wanted to stay with him. She's known him for like a couple of weeks. He was kind of a psycho. She latched on to people.
19:27 Speaker 01 So she was kind of a lost girl?
19:30 Speaker 10 Yeah.
19:32 Speaker 01 And so Dewana, who's been like a big sister, cuts Sabrina off. The girls stop talking. And maybe that's why Sabrina confides in her mom about this guy, the one she'd moved in with in such a hurry. An actor voices Bobby Sue's words.
19:53 Speaker 11 She just told me they argued a lot.
19:59 Speaker 11 He just told her he didn't want her to leave him. He wasn't going to let her go.
20:05 Speaker 01 Was this boyfriend like Lindell's attacker back in Australia? Possessive, out of control, misguided? Bobby Sue thought he was capable of anything.
20:17 Speaker 11 I didn't know what was going to happen to her. I was worried about her. I was very concerned about her.
20:25 Speaker 01 By then Bobby Sue was in the process of leaving her husband. He was abusive, she said. He'd once been physically abusive to Sabrina, according to Bobby Sue. Now Bobby Sue worried that Sabrina would repeat her mother's mistakes.
20:43 Speaker 11 Because of what I was going through at the time, I didn't know what was going to happen to her. I was worried about her. I was very concerned about her.
20:55 Speaker 01 So Bobby Sue was worried. When a fax arrives on Lindell's desk, that worry will turn to dread.
21:20 Speaker 01 It's still 1987, we're still in Las Vegas. Sabrina has managed to escape that bad relationship with Mr. Naked City. And maybe that assertion of independence, maybe it's the catalyst. Because soon, things take a turn for the better. Soon Sabrina meets Jim, Mr. Motorcycle, swapping danger as a lifestyle for danger as a pastime. We know this part of Sabrina's story. She makes new friends and then she hears about a room for rent with friends. Sabrina happily lugs over her two suitcases.
22:02 Speaker 01 Sabrina's new landlord lives at the house, too. His son is Sabrina's friend. And Sabrina thinks of the landlord as her friend's dad. Life in the house is chill. Sabrina's friends, Jennifer and Crystal, are free to come and go. So is Sabrina.
22:21 Speaker 12 And when we were hanging out at his house, he wasn't like hanging out with us. If we were in the main living room or family room, he would be in the other room or back in his bedroom.
22:31 Speaker 01 Bobby Sue, who's still in Texas, knows that her daughter has been through some precarious living situations, on couches, in hotel rooms with boyfriends. She seems most comfortable with this new one. Sabrina's landlord seems completely respectable. He has an executive position, doing what he calls "brain work" from the comfort of his own home. Another good sign: he's devoted to his own troubled son, Tommy, who at 17 ran away, striking out on his own, just like Sabrina.
23:06 Speaker 02 This nice man giving Sabrina a room and board. Bobby Sue, that was like, you know, Christmas has arrived.
23:15 Speaker 01 With her new stability, Sabrina can think of things beyond the day to day. Her thoughts turn to the future and making things right, starting with DeWanna. The cousins have been out of touch for months. Sabrina misses her. It's been painful for DeWanna, too. DeWanna remembers that it was really nice when, after a long silence, her phone rang and it was Sabrina.
23:41 Speaker 10 She said that she wanted to see me and she wanted to talk and she was sorry about everything. And asked me if I would come and get her and I told her, yeah. I just remember when she got in the car, I told her that she looked pretty and that she looked a lot better, that I liked the improvements.
24:00 Speaker 10 She had grew her hair out some and it was back being blonde. And I could tell she had lost some weight. I mean, she was getting back to her normal self. She said, I'm, I've tried to get back to myself. I said, yeah, I'd like that.
24:15 Speaker 10 And I was just relieved we had made up.
24:18 Speaker 01 Sabrina is eager to update Dewana. She tells her about her new living situation and her new boyfriend. Dewana happens to know Jim and approves of him. She has some gripes about her landlord, who she says is starting treating her like a teenager. Imagine that. Sabrina, though, is generally upbeat. For the cousins, it's really nice to be together again. And Dewana invites Sabrina to stay the night at her place. The next day, which will be just one day before Sabrina disappears. Dewana delivers Sabrina home in the afternoon. She wonders if maybe they can be roommates again. That would be nice.
25:04 Speaker 01 As Sabrina exits the car, Dewana calls to her.
25:10 Speaker 10 I told her that she could come and stay with me. She said she needed to go to work.
25:15 Speaker 01 Sabrina has just landed that full-time job. She waves off her cousin's offer. Life is already good. She feels good.
25:31 Speaker 01 Okay, so back to the future, to New York, to a current affairs headquarters. It's 1991. Lynda, recently married, is at her desk, a diamond ring on her finger. She's sifting through the details of Sabrina's life, reviewing what she knows and what she wishes she knew. She's focused on that insurance policy. Who took out that insurance policy on Sabrina's 17-year-old life? Lynda would like to know. As these thoughts are going through her mind, Lynda can hear the sound of a fax machine starting up in the adjacent room.
26:11 Speaker 02 I didn't see it come spitting off the fax machine. Somebody just came and it had my name on it and handed it to me and I looked at it.
26:21 Speaker 02 What the hell?
26:23 Speaker 01 Finally, Lindell has the document from State Farm in her hands. It's an application for insurance on the life of Sabrina Kidd.
26:39 Speaker 02 It was like this golden opportunity. It was like handing me first prize. I looked down, it was just looked like a document, a boring document. But then I saw $400,000.
26:53 Speaker 01 And Lindell saw the date, September the 8th. This insurance application was submitted just 10 days before Sabrina disappeared. A life insurance policy worth $400,000. That would be over a million dollars in today's currency. Who would apply for a policy like that?
27:15 Speaker 02 They sent that one page that says $400,000. The beneficiary, Tom Preston.
27:24 Speaker 01 Tom Preston, Sabrina's friendly landlord.
27:29 Speaker 02 This, right there, I realized there's motive, right there. It's like my blood at the same time boiled and went cold. I was elated and I was furious. And I went straight to Dan. I said, now we have to pursue this. We have to pursue this completely. We have to pursue this without, without stopping.
27:56 Speaker 01 Lindell's now sure of it. Preston knows what happened to Sabrina.
28:01 Speaker 03 And at that point, I said, okay, go for it, but be careful.
28:06 Speaker 01 Per her husband, Lindell, she will go for it. As for being careful, that's out of your hands, Dan. Maybe Lindell's too.
28:21 Speaker 01 Next time on Killer Story.
28:25 Speaker 03 Under no circumstances are you to talk to Preston without other people around.
28:29 Speaker 02 No one's going to tell me not to put a microphone on and go and ambush the killer. I'm sorry, no one's going to tell me not to do that.
28:43 Speaker 00 Fall never arrives all at once. First the air, then the light. And slowly, the things you love begin to find each other. A jacket meets a dress, a hoodie slips beneath a blazer, an old cap finds a new scarf. Because you don't simply step into the season. You create it, layer by layer, until it finally feels like fall. Find fall your way at Ross.
29:22 Speaker 01 Killer Story is a production of Orbit Media in association with Signal Company Number One. Creator and host is me, Steve Fishman. Executive producers: Arlindo Marx, Kevin Wardis, and Jonathan Hirsch from Sony Music Entertainment. Producers: Jackie Pauly, Hannah Beal, and Austin Smith. Production coordinator, Austin Smith. Series consultant, Emile Klein. Sound designer, Britt Spangler. Fact-check, Ryan Alderman. Our lawyers are at Claris Law. Special thanks to Emily Rassik, Steve Ackerman, Catherine St. Louis, Sammy Allison, Allison Haney, Fisher Stevens, and the glamorous Rhea Julian. We also thank our agents at WME, Evan Krassik, Marissa Herwitz, Ben Davis.
30:07 Speaker 01 And a special thanks to Shelley Shinoi for voiceover casting. Our voice actor for this episode is Lindsay Smart for Bobby Sumay. And a special, special thanks to the inimitable Emile Klein.
30:23 Speaker 00 Fall never arrives all at once. First the air, then the light. And slowly, the things you love begin to find each other. A jacket meets a dress, a hoodie slips beneath a blazer, an old cap finds a new scarf. Because you don't simply step into the season. You create it, layer by layer, until it finally feels like fall. Find fall your way at Ross.
Previous Killer Story | 2. Why a Nurse? Next Killer Story | 4. Dead Body Waking Page updated October 31, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated