Pod Insights The Binge Cases: Doctor Billions Killer Story | 6. Perfect for Television About this episode The trial against Tom Preston reveals there’s more than we thought — to our villain, the heroine and the crime.
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Transcript 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.
1:01 Speaker 01 Previously on Killer Story.
1:05 Speaker 02 A dusty missing person file was quickly turned into a murder investigation with one suspect, Tom Preston.
1:14 Speaker 03 I can't help but think, man, that he's got something to do with both of these. I was scared to death.
1:19 Speaker 04 There was no witness to the murder.
1:21 Speaker 02 I got a phone call. She just said, "I know that man hurt Sabrina."
1:37 Speaker 01 It's one thing to arrest a person for murder. Another thing entirely to prove that person is a murderer beyond a reasonable doubt. And that's where we are now. We're in court, the state of Nevada versus Thomas Lankor Preston Jr. Why are we here? Because Thomas Lankor Preston Jr. insists he's not guilty. He is not the person he's been taken for.
2:05 Speaker 05 I've never lied in my life.
2:07 Speaker 01 The case had been entirely circumstantial. But then a call came in from a woman who claimed she was there the night Sabrina was pushed into the Colorado River.
2:19 Speaker 06 Yeah, just her arms and legs were tied together behind her back.
2:30 Speaker 01 This is our final episode and we're going to get to the bottom of some things. Like how Sabrina ended up floating in a clear, cold river. And also, did Lindell get the revenge she was seeking?
2:46 Speaker 01 This is Killer Story. I'm Steve Fishman. Episode six, Perfect for Television.
3:06 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.
3:35 Speaker 01 A note before we start. Actors reenact some court proceedings. All right, let's have a trial.
3:49 Speaker 01 Nevada versus Preston starts on Valentine's Day, 1994. Yeah, the wheels of justice turn slowly. It's seven years since Sabrina disappeared. Three years since Lindell got on the case. Today is supposed to be a day devoted to love. But no one in the courtroom is feeling much love. The prosecutor wants the jury to think about a grisly scene, about how a defenseless Sabrina met a violent end.
4:20 Speaker 07 This is a case where a young woman was choked around the neck until she became life-
4:29 Speaker 01 Choked until she became lifeless. Preston's team, The Defense, isn't feeling much love either. Their view is that the case has been concocted for the benefit of TV viewers.
4:43 Speaker 07 I'm very, very disappointed with Metro Police Department. Allowing this program for affairs to be the tail to wag the dog of Metro.
4:56 Speaker 01 The tail wagging the dog of Metro, as in Metro Police. The attorney goes on, "If not for a current affair, this poor, older man would be free to support his family."
5:13 Speaker 01 Okay, let's start with this poor, older man, 53-year-old Tom Preston, the defendant. Now, you know defendants don't usually testify. It opens them up to too many questions on cross-examination. But a self-confident Preston is bucking the conventional wisdom. He lumbers to the stand. He's been in jail awaiting trial for almost two years and has lost 50 pounds. He's 300 pounds now, still in terrible health. On the stand, Preston looks comfortable. He sports a graying, shaggy goatee and wears business attire, a dark blue suit. He has a deep, gentle voice.
5:58 Speaker 01 He's clearly someone who believes in his powers of persuasion. As far as I can tell, the defense's strategy is to paint Preston as an endearing character, likable, helpful, grandfatherly. Tom Preston, he just isn't the type to do something dastardly. Lyndle is sitting in the spectator section, and she's worried.
6:22 Speaker 02 He had good defense, and he had the gift of the gab. And he gave his own testimony. And if you were a jury member that believed him, only one of them had reasonable doubt, this guy would not have gone to jail.
6:36 Speaker 01 She means that if even one juror believes Preston's story, there won't be a guilty verdict.
6:45 Speaker 01 This is how Preston presents himself in court. First, as a selfless member of the community. I'm quoting from Preston's statements here. "I was the humanitarian of the year in Las Vegas. I saved, single-handedly, a bus from being hijacked. I was mascot for the cheerleaders. Everybody loved me." Then, he presents himself as highly trained. "He was a surgical nurse, worked in law enforcement for the district attorney. He brought along a badge to show the jury. He worked for the US Department of the Treasury as well." And, he's a respected businessman.
7:26 Speaker 01 When Sabrina lived with him, he was managing sales across five states and overseeing security for an international company. All this from the comfort of a couch in his own home.
7:39 Speaker 01 So this is Preston's version of who he is. Preston also talked about his devotion to his troubled son, Tommy. He'd raised Tommy since kindergarten, mostly on his own. But Tommy became a monster on drugs and Preston's second wife said, "It's Tommy or me." To which Preston said, "I couldn't bring myself to throw my son out." Preston's wife left.
8:04 Speaker 05 And Tommy was all I had.
8:06 Speaker 01 Is it really possible that this devoted father is a heartless killer? Lyndall stared at Preston.
8:14 Speaker 02 I looked at him, and I absolutely hated him.
8:19 Speaker 02 I looked at him and he made me feel ill.
8:22 Speaker 01 Preston tells the jury that the only reason he's in the courtroom, the only reason this whole thing is happening, is because of a current affair. This sleazoid electric tabloid, as he refers to it, was hunting for ratings.
8:38 Speaker 02 What he was saying was that it was all about me wanting to, you know, advance my career or some bullshit like that. And he used to piss me off because he used to get my name wrong and he called me that Lyndall Marx.
8:55 Speaker 01 Next, the prosecutor gets a turn with the accused. He opens with a trap.
9:02 Speaker 07 Mr. Preston, if you had been killed, Sabrina Kidd, would you tell us in this courtroom this?
9:09 Speaker 05 Yes, sir.
9:12 Speaker 05 Why wouldn't I, sir?
9:17 Speaker 05 I've never lied in my life.
9:19 Speaker 01 Never? Seems to me Preston fell into the prosecutor's trap. Not to get too far ahead, but the facts may be unfriendly to Preston's view. The prosecution contends that Sabrina was strangled to death in Preston's house in the hour between 8:30 and 9:30 on the morning of September 18th. So between the time her friend Jennifer says she dropped her off at Preston's and the time her friend Crystal says she stopped by to pick her up for work. Where were you at that time, Mr. Preston? His response? Something we haven't heard before. Preston claims he was not at home that morning. He was at a clinic for his heart.
10:02 Speaker 01 His bad ticker, as he calls it. But that's not the version Jennifer told us, nor the version she tells the court. He claims he wasn't there that morning.
10:15 Speaker 06 Yeah, well, he was. We both know he was. That's why me and Crystal were like, he's fucking lying.
10:26 Speaker 01 The prosecution believes the facts will convict Preston. But a murder isn't a dry math problem. The prosecution needs the jury to feel the case. And so they call Bobby Sue, Sabrina's mother, to testify. The prosecutor picks up a blue bag marked "personal belongings." It contains Sabrina's clothes, those she was wearing when she was fished out of the river. He places the dark pants, the bra, in Bobby's hands, asks her to identify them.
11:02 Speaker 02 She was so fragile and sad and just, you know, really a mess. Her hands were trembling. They were clasped very, very tightly. And her face was barely composed. Her grief just kept breaking through.
11:16 Speaker 01 Bobby Sue regains her composure, and here's the story she tells the jury about the time she banged on Preston's door demanding answers. It's November 1987, two months after Sabrina disappeared. No one yet knows she's dead. One evening, she shows up at Preston's home unannounced. She comes with reinforcements: Sabrina's grandmother, her aunt, her friends Jennifer and Crystal, and Crystal's mom. Preston wasn't expecting them, but he's hospitable. He invites them in. Then he notices Jennifer and gets furious. "That lying bitch," he says. Jennifer leaves.
12:03 Speaker 01 Preston leads Bobby Sue and the rest of her troupe to the living room, which is just a dozen or so feet from where, according to the prosecution, Sabrina was strangled. Tommy's there and sits next to his dad, but doesn't say much. Bobby Sue comes to the point: "What happened to my daughter?"
12:26 Speaker 06 He just told me that he didn't know what happened to Sabrina.
12:29 Speaker 01 But Bobby Sue has come for some answers.
12:32 Speaker 06 What's an old man like you trying to take care of a young girl like that? And he said that he just wanted to be her model agent and her friend.
12:44 Speaker 01 Cue the resume. Preston claimed experience in nursing, security, law enforcement. And now, he adds, "He had vast theatrical experience." That's his phrase: "vast theatrical experience." He claims he'd been in the TV business, in the motion picture business. He'd owned studios. He'd been a theatrical agent, a casting agent. And Bobby Sue, he owned modeling agencies, plural. Bobby Sue's reaction on the stand?
13:16 Speaker 06 She was not a model. She was just a kid, a lost kid.
13:22 Speaker 01 One of the things Preston didn't mention was some experience he may have had in photography. He'd been investigated in the 70s for creating and distributing pornography. Makes me think of those photos of Sabrina in lingerie. Hmm.
13:42 Speaker 01 And then the prosecutor moves Bobby Sue to the main point of her story. Something he wants the jurors to focus on. She tells the jury of a question she put to Preston in his living room.
13:56 Speaker 06 I asked him, how did he come about making a $400,000 life insurance policy on my daughter since he hadn't even known her for a month? And why did he think he could have that large sum of money on my daughter when she was only 17? Then he said, well, that she took a lot of chances, that she rode on the back of motorcycles, and that she was daring. And he just wanted to make sure he was covered in case there was an accident or something with her.
14:27 Speaker 01 Preston had his own explanation.
14:29 Speaker 05 I said, you know, it takes a lot of money to launch somebody's career. If you're gonna, you know, I don't care who it is. And I said, can't put out anything. And, and, and, and have you busted up in little pieces on the back of somebody's motorcycle and everything is poof? That was certainly a logical, basic thing. If you're gonna have a pretty girl, you don't want her wiped out.
14:55 Speaker 01 But to Bobby Sue, Preston's explanation seems suspicious. After all, he'd only collect if Sabrina died. Facing Preston in the living room, Bobby Sue won't let it go.
15:08 Speaker 06 And I kept asking him over and over, well, how could you take such a large sum out on my daughter? And he didn't really answer me. He just talked about how beautiful she was one time, the next time what a slut she was.
15:23 Speaker 01 A grim irony. Two weeks after Sabrina went missing, State Farm denied the application for life insurance. The insurance, if it was a motive for murder, was misguided.
15:42 Speaker 01 Bobby Su's testimony offers the jury a different side of Preston. That sudden angry outburst at a teenager? Plus, he seemed evasive. And that insurance policy? Why would he apply for insurance? The jury has to wonder. And then the prosecution calls its key witness. The one who claims to know exactly how Suprina's body got in the Colorado River. But is she to be believed? She does have some challenges. Like, for instance, she's an admitted liar. She will tell the court as much.
16:23 Speaker 06 I lied on my testimony. The part where I said I didn't know anything.
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17:10 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. Find fall your way at Ross.
17:49 Speaker 01 The prosecution's star witness is Denise Day, Tommy's girlfriend. Denise is a jailbird. She'd visited jail more than a dozen times. In fact, she was in the TV room of Mojave County Jail when she caught Lindell's segment on a current affair, the segment that reported Tom Preston was in custody, the segment which freed her to come forward. The prosecution has a lot riding on Denise, maybe everything. In court transcripts, her testimony is cinematic. The words she speaks are emotional, dramatic. Though when I asked Lindell, she said Denise's tone didn't match the words.
18:35 Speaker 02 She's not very comfortable with authority, so she was very, I don't know, almost robotic in her responses. She spoke like someone completely haunted.
18:46 Speaker 01 The prosecution situates the action. Denise is in Preston's home. She explains she was living there with Tommy. One night, she says, she overheard an extraordinary conversation. Preston and his son were hatching a plan, a plan to kill Sabrina.
19:09 Speaker 01 A question from the defense attorney: What do you remember being said about the house and the fire?
19:16 Speaker 06 That he could set Sabrina on fire and catch the home on fire.
19:20 Speaker 01 Who was making the statement about catching her on fire?
19:25 Speaker 06 Big Tom.
19:26 Speaker 01 Preston has three mortgages on his house. He's in a money crunch.
19:32 Speaker 06 He was losing his house.
19:34 Speaker 01 The prosecution moves to the events of the day Sabrina disappeared, September 18.
19:41 Speaker 01 Preston allegedly strangled Sabrina in the morning. Denise says she and Tommy returned home in the afternoon.
19:50 Speaker 06 First thing, we walked in the door. He said Sabrina hadn't come home last night and that we needed to file a missing persons report on her, that he didn't want to be responsible if she got in trouble.
20:01 Speaker 01 Did you file the reports in person?
20:04 Speaker 06 I told you I don't know. I don't remember. I believe we filed reports with them.
20:10 Speaker 01 Keep in mind, this case could hinge on Denise's testimony. And yet, at times, her memory seems iffy. At times, her testimony doesn't seem coherent. At one point, the defense attorney asks, "Are you on drugs now?" Denise says she isn't.
20:31 Speaker 01 Here are the details, as Denise recalls them. It's evening, dark out, and Preston comes into their bedroom and asks her and Tommy a question.
20:42 Speaker 06 Mr. Preston asked us if we wanted to go to Laughlin, that he had to meet somebody down there.
20:47 Speaker 01 Laughlin is on the Colorado River, 95 miles to the south of Las Vegas. That's a 90-minute drive, minimum. Laughlin is a gambling center, second only to Vegas. Why did Denise and Tommy agree to accompany Preston on that long drive on the spur of the moment? In court, Denise tries out a few answers.
21:11 Speaker 06 We just agreed, because we liked the river. We'd live there for a while.
21:17 Speaker 01 Or for no reason, the pleasure of a long car ride?
21:20 Speaker 06 We just agreed, you know? Yeah, we'd like to go. It was unanimous, you know, to go.
21:29 Speaker 01 And then, a third try. Denise mentions gambling as a reason. Denise was a big fan of gambling.
21:38 Speaker 01 In any case, Preston drove his Oldsmobile, and Tommy followed in his pickup truck. Denise was in the truck's passenger seat. She says she and Tommy didn't talk, apart from Tommy complaining about his dad's slow driving. Preston cruised by the Laughlin exit, turned off the main road at a Budweiser sign.
22:04 Speaker 06 It was light. There was a full moon. We drove for a ways to reach the water. And we drove along the river on a dirt road. By this time, I was wondering what was going on.
22:17 Speaker 01 Preston stopped his car.
22:19 Speaker 06 And we stopped behind him. He got out of his car and he went to the trunk. As he was opening it, he said, "Tom, come help me."
22:28 Speaker 01 Tommy got out of the truck to help his dad.
22:32 Speaker 06 And there was a girl in the trunk. And she was tied up.
22:37 Speaker 01 And then the prosecutor asks, "Ms. Day, what did you see happen next?"
22:43 Speaker 06 I seen him pick up a girl out of the trunk.
22:46 Speaker 01 The prosecutor continues, "Who pulled the girl out of the trunk?"
22:51 Speaker 06 Mr. Preston and Tom started to help him. She was hogtied, with her hands and legs tied behind her back. And they scooped her out of the trunk. And she was wearing something dark. Her head was on the defendant's side. And little Tom had her legs part. And they...
23:08 Speaker 01 Prosecutor, was she on her back or face down?
23:12 Speaker 06 Face down. She had something on her mouth. It looked like tape, but I wasn't sure.
23:18 Speaker 01 Ms. Day, could you see the sex or gender of the body?
23:23 Speaker 06 She was... I could tell it was a girl.
23:26 Speaker 01 The prosecutor, "Did you recognize who it was?"
23:30 Speaker 06 I believe it was Sabrina Kidd.
23:35 Speaker 01 Prosecutor again, "Why do you believe it was Sabrina Kidd?"
23:40 Speaker 06 Because of the haircut.
23:41 Speaker 01 What do you mean the haircut?
23:43 Speaker 06 She had on one side of her head was... Her hair was shorter on one side. The hair is... that made me think it was Sabrina Kidd.
23:54 Speaker 01 Prosecutor, "Ms. Day, could you tell whether or not the young woman you believe to be Sabrina Kidd was alive or dead?"
24:03 Speaker 06 No, I didn't. I did not know if she was or not.
24:07 Speaker 01 Preston and Tommy scooped the body out of the trunk. Preston on the head, Tommy on the feet.
24:14 Speaker 06 They headed down to the rocks and to the river. They put her face down in the water and took the ropes off and pushed her down into the water.
24:23 Speaker 01 Maybe they didn't take the current into account.
24:26 Speaker 06 The defendant pushed her out. He just pushed her and she didn't float. She kind of, she didn't float out. She came back in. So he had to push her out further and let her go. I just, after that, I was, my mind was elsewhere. I didn't pay attention to that. I was just praying to God.
24:58 Speaker 01 Preston denies this entire story. He denies the murder, denies disposing of the body. He says he knew Denise well and she wasn't trustworthy. She got his son into drugs. She was a thief and a liar. Preston says Denise had it in for him after he reported her for credit card fraud.
25:20 Speaker 01 And then Preston says pointedly, if I were to kill somebody, I surely wouldn't include Denise Day in a conspiracy. It's a reasonable assertion, though cold-blooded. Who brings any outsider along to a body disposal? Was Denise really great company? In Denise's telling, Preston regretted her presence. She says he offered her $5,000 to keep quiet and also threatened to kill her if she didn't.
25:52 Speaker 06 He threatened me and his son that the same thing would happen to us.
25:56 Speaker 01 The same thing that happened to Sabrina. Tommy was murdered the next year, just as he seemed about to confess to his best friend. Denise took that as a warning. That's why she'd initially told Detective Leonard she knew nothing.
26:13 Speaker 01 By the way, Denise says she didn't take the $5,000 from Preston.
26:19 Speaker 01 So, do we believe Denise? Denise's credibility may well determine if there's a conviction in this case. To me, for all her flaws as a witness, her memory troubles, her checkered past, Denise told a tale of such detailed horror, and told it up close and naming names. To me, it doesn't seem possible she made it all up. And yet, could Denise be so close to the crime and not involved? Here's the question I have. Was Denise telling the whole truth?
27:03 Speaker 01 The next witness addresses my question directly. She claims Denise omitted key details. This witness is called by the defense. The defense attorney asks, "Who were you referring to when you said it was a planned murder by all three of them?"
27:20 Speaker 06 Tom Senior, Tom Junior, and Denise Day.
27:23 Speaker 01 Question, was that statement based upon things that Denise Day said to you?
27:28 Speaker 06 Yes, it was.
27:30 Speaker 01 This is Kathy Simmons. How does Kathy know Denise? They moved in the same circles, followed similar paths. In other words, Kathy spent time in jail too. After Denise saw Lyndle's current affair segment on the jailhouse TV, she supposedly opened up to her cellmate. Denise's cellmate at the time, Kathy Simmons.
27:55 Speaker 01 Preston's lawyers hope Kathy's testimony will show that the prosecution's star witness, Denise Day, is a fabulous, a fancy way to say liar. If they succeed, then nothing Denise says should be taken as credible, right? That, anyway, is their hope. On the stand, Kathy seems confident. She's used to conflict with authorities and isn't easily intimidated. Kathy calls Denise "her dear friend" at one point, though it's pretty clear she doesn't like Denise much.
28:33 Speaker 06 She moved in with all different people. She's never been...
28:35 Speaker 00 Been real stable. Denise was selling drugs.
28:39 Speaker 01 So a drug dealer and drifter, and Kathy adds, always on the grift. Kathy says Denise grifted Sabrina's jewelry after she disappeared. According to Kathy, after the current affair segment aired, Denise had a crisis in the cell.
28:59 Speaker 00 She started getting hysterical and crying for, I thought, no reason. And I said, what's wrong with you? And she just started talking about it.
29:10 Speaker 01 Over time, Kathy says Denise's story evolved.
29:16 Speaker 00 In the beginning, when she first started talking about it, she actually told me she wasn't so involved. But then I guess her conscience was bothering her and she just said how she was involved. And she felt bad and Denise was crying.
29:31 Speaker 01 According to Kathy, Denise then talks about the plot to set the house on fire and with it Sabrina.
29:39 Speaker 00 In the middle of the conversation, she said, and I was supposed to be the one to do it. Burn her in the house. He wanted me to burn her in the house. And I said, who? And she said, Tom, Tommy's dad. I said, oh.
29:55 Speaker 01 Why would Denise even consider doing that? Well, Kathy says Denise told her straight out.
30:03 Speaker 00 Denise was saying that she was supposed to get 30% of the insurance money.
30:08 Speaker 01 But Denise didn't set the house on fire. She couldn't bring herself to do it.
30:16 Speaker 01 But the most important thing Kathy claims Denise told her had to do with Sabrina's actual murder. Kathy says Denise saw much more than she told the jury. Denise had testified she didn't know if Sabrina was dead or alive in the trunk.
30:32 Speaker 00 Well, she was alive the whole way there. And when she got out, they had her mouth taped and she tried to ask Denise for a cigarette when they took her out of the trunk. That's what Denise. She looked at her and she tried to ask for a cigarette. And Denise said, I felt bad and I just walked away. And I stood away while he did it.
30:53 Speaker 01 Quick question. Would Sabrina hogtied and with tape over her mouth, have as her first utterance, "You got a cigarette"? Maybe in a David Lynch movie.
31:09 Speaker 01 On What Happened Next, Kathy's version and Denise's version align, up to a point.
31:16 Speaker 00 All she can remember is Sabrina coming back up out of the water, looking at her. Her eyes were still open and that that's what keeps flashing in her mind.
31:26 Speaker 01 So Preston and Tommy fished Sabrina out of the water. Now, the two versions diverge.
31:32 Speaker 00 He got upset because she kept floating back in and he wanted her to drown. And he snapped her windpipe.
31:38 Speaker 01 They then threw her back into the water.
31:43 Speaker 01 Kathy says Sabrina's murder is about money. Preston wants Sabrina dead so he can collect insurance. And Denise wants in, which apparently is where Kathy draws the line.
31:56 Speaker 00 She was a dear friend of mine, but it's got to be greedy. To do something like this, you got to be greedy.
32:05 Speaker 01 According to Kathy's version, Denise is not just a spectator. She's a trusted member of the inner circle, which would explain why she's allowed to witness Sabrina's body being dumped in the river.
32:25 Speaker 01 So where do I think this leaves us? Preston's defense team brought in Kathy, hoping she'd discredit Denise. But even if Kathy's version is 100% accurate, and who knows? What's the bottom line? In both Kathy's version and Denise's version, Preston is the murderer. Whether he did it at river's edge or in the house, whether he did it inside of Denise or in the privacy of his own bedroom, both versions agree. Preston murdered Sabrina. And that's what's important.
33:09 Speaker 01 It's up to the jury now. The jurors will deliberate for about eight hours until 10 of 1 in the morning. I'm going to read what the judge said. "As I sit here and listen to you, you are very articulate. You appear to be very friendly and jovial. You look rather grandfatherly and like a nice guy. But under that facade, the jury believed, and the evidence presented here shows, you are an evil, heartless predator." We did jury in a bottom title case by defendant Tom Lancore Preston Jr., aka Tom Lancore Preston, guilty of murder of the first degree.
33:53 Speaker 01 So Preston is convicted of premeditated murder. A good outcome for a current affair. The company won't be sued now. But Lindell has more immediate concerns. Lindell, the producer, hustles down the hallway, chasing Preston's lawyers for the reaction shot.
34:11 Speaker 02 There was little reaction from Tom Preston, so we asked his attorney, Roy Wolfter, to comment on the verdict.
34:19 Speaker 07 Excuse me, sir? I want to get kiss my [BLEEP]. You're the instrumental part of this whole situation.
34:28 Speaker 02 My reaction to that was no, thank you. And did we get that on tape?
34:32 Speaker 01 They did, and it was perfect for television.
34:51 Speaker 01 The verdict marked the end, almost, of a long journey for the characters in this story. Preston received a sentence of life without parole and died in prison, protesting his innocence for years.
35:06 Speaker 01 After the verdict, other victims came forward with reports of sexual assault. Turned out the supposed humanitarian of the year was a serial sexual predator. For me, the big remaining question is Lyndle. In a way, her involvement in this saga began with a violent attack on a porch in Australia when she was 19 years old. Getting justice for Sabrina was supposed to help her avenge that attack by proxy. Her attacker had gotten away unpunished, Sabrina's wouldn't. And that was supposed to help heal Lyndle, to help her find emotional closure. Well, did it?
35:52 Speaker 01 I called on some experts to weigh in.
36:00 Speaker 00 I'm Ellie. I'm Lyndle's daughter. I'm the youngest. I'm 24 years old. Grew up my whole life in Sydney, Australia. I want to go to medical school, so I'm applying to that this year. I'm Molly. I am Lyndle's oldest daughter. I'm 28 years old.
36:21 Speaker 01 I work in media and production, kind of following in mom's footsteps. And I train full time as an elite CrossFit athlete. The nerd and the athlete is the family shorthand. All three, Lyndle and her two daughters, live together in Los Angeles now. We brought them into the studio. Lyndle and Dan broke up after seven years of marriage. She hasn't been in a serious relationship since. So Lyndle and her girls are a self-contained trio. Luckily for the girls, mom is perfect. We had home-cooked pasta salad lunches every single day with a love note
37:05 Speaker 00 from kindergarten through year 12. Mom would drive us all around Sydney and beyond for softball tournaments every weekend. And it was all just kind of done. You know, we'd get there on time. Everything would just be sorted.
37:21 Speaker 01 Some kids rebel against parents, like Sabrina. Their heroes are outside the home, not these two. I want to start by saying that mom is my hero. Mom is truly in every way, shape or form. Absolutely my hero, the most incredible human on the planet.
37:42 Speaker 01 They were enthralled by her stories of journalism. Sabrina is the number one favorite.
37:48 Speaker 00 I feel like that story is, has been such a huge part of this family because I've just known that story for as long as I can remember. How many, how many people can say that their mum solved a murder and has done all this?
38:01 Speaker 01 But for a long time, the daughters didn't know about Sabrina's connection to their mom's own experiences. The attack was Lindal's secret. She kept it from her daughters until they were in college.
38:17 Speaker 02 I've always been very honest and open with them both. And that was the one thing I had never told them.
38:23 Speaker 01 Lindal, the TV producer, produced the encounter with care.
38:28 Speaker 02 I wanted to tell them in an intimate setting when it was just the three of us. We were out of Sydney, we're down south in this, this cute little kind of country town. I didn't want it to be anywhere that they would recognize that and, and, you know, combine that with this story.
38:48 Speaker 01 She sat them down at a cafe. I remember it was really cold outside. So I remember she was wearing one of her big, beautiful coats and she looked fabulous as she always does. Lindal told them she had a history they didn't know.
39:04 Speaker 02 Actually, there's, there's a big area that's been missing that you guys don't know about.
39:10 Speaker 01 And I think things kind of started to slow down as she started telling the story. Lindal was calm. She told them methodically about her ex-boyfriend, about the attack, about her face beaten to a pulp.
39:27 Speaker 00 She remained really composed. I think Molly and I were just like wide-eyed, jaw on the floor, like what is happening right now? It was just like, how dare someone do this to our mum? I was kind of upset, like, oh, I don't know this massive part of you.
39:49 Speaker 01 Ellie was crying, not Molly. The thought of anyone hurting my mum just like makes me so furious.
39:59 Speaker 01 Since then, Lindal has been the plus one, which was fine with her. She knew herself. She knew she couldn't bring herself to trust men. The girls had always wondered why their mum seemed closed to intimate partnerships. And then they found out. And now they have an idea for their mum.
40:22 Speaker 05 We both advocate strongly for therapy and how much it helps.
40:26 Speaker 00 I do not.
40:27 Speaker 05 That's for a different podcast.
40:28 Speaker 00 Yeah.
40:28 Speaker 05 We have tried to get mum into therapy.
40:30 Speaker 00 And what happens when I've spoken to someone?
40:32 Speaker 05 She thinks she's too smart for everyone, because she is. But that's not the attitude we need to have when we're going into therapy. We need to be open minded.
40:39 Speaker 00 Even though she's such a catch, like, I think.
40:43 Speaker 05 See, did you see that face she just made when Ellie said she's such a catch? That's the self doubt. She is such a catch and she doesn't realise it.
40:51 Speaker 01 And so, Lindal, how about the emotional closure that seemed promised when you jumped into the hopeless case of Sabrina Kidd?
41:00 Speaker 02 It didn't give me any emotional closure, no.
41:04 Speaker 01 But what it did give Lindal was something else, maybe something more important. Does a person really ever recover from the murder of a child or a vicious assault? Those things lurk inside. Grief is endless. But Lindal did find something. Molly said it first.
41:27 Speaker 05 I think it made us become closer as a little family unit because, you know, we knew everything and we knew more.
41:33 Speaker 01 About mum and we appreciated and understood mum more than we had before. Imagine that kind of closeness, that little community, even of just three. That's where meaning and compassion reside and healing too.
41:52 Speaker 02 In a way, it was a great relief sharing it with the two people that mean more to me than anybody else on this planet.
42:10 Speaker 01 This is the end of our story, almost. One last issue. There are those in our series who believe that Preston had something to do with the murder of his son Tommy. We have new information to share. It's after the credits. Please stick around.
42:31 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.
43:14 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 are Lynda Marks, Kevin Wardis, and Jonathan Hirsch from Sony Music Entertainment. Producers Jackie Pauly, Hannah Beal, and Austin Smith. Production coordinator and engineer is Austin Smith.
43:36 Speaker 01 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 Horowitz, Ben Davis, and a special thanks to Shelley Shinoi for voiceover casting. Our voice actors for our final episode are Raven Dunham as Denise Day, Ava Julian as Kathy Simmons, and Lindsay Smart as Bobby Sumay. And a special, special thanks to the inimitable Emile Klein.
44:39 Speaker 01 Tommy Preston is one of the saddest figures in this story. The troubled young man who loved a dad who was a psychopath. Jim and Denise thought that Tommy's father arranged for his murder once Tommy started to talk about the crime. But there's a twist. Someone else pleaded guilty to the murder. A man named Randy Waddell. He's dead, but we do have his court papers. And what they say leads us to a mystery. Waddell took an unusual guilty plea. It's called an Alfred plea. In this plea, you're not admitting guilt to the crime.
45:19 Speaker 01 You are admitting that you'd probably be found guilty if you went to trial. Waddell took an Alfred plea to avoid facing the death penalty. But in his allocution to the judge accepting his plea, Waddell insisted on one thing. His lawyer put it this way. "My client maintains that he was not the one who killed Tommy." We'll leave you to ponder that. Have a nice day. Lyndle says she's on the hunt for answers, too.
46:12 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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