Killer Story | 3. Paradise Ruined

With dogged determination, Lyndal follows up on the clue that might be the key to her search. Binge all episodes of Killer Story ad-free today by subscribing to The Binge. Visit The Binge Cases on Apple Podcasts and hit ‘subscribe’ or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access. From serial killer nurses to psychic scammers – The Binge is your home for true crime stories that pull you in and never let go. Join our free newsletter at Patreon.com/TheBinge. The Binge – feed your true crime obsession. Killer Story is brought to you by Sony Music Entertainment and Orbit Media. Find out more about The Binge and other podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• 0:02Speaker 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.

• 0:30Speaker 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.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  This woman tells me that her niece is missing.

• 1:09Speaker 03

  And I said, "We don't do missing persons."

• 1:11Speaker 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."

• 1:19Speaker 04

  I could feel that it was going to have an impact on her for the rest of her life.

• 1:25Speaker 05

  I was glad somebody was investigating it. And I remember being glad somebody believed us.

• 1:30Speaker 02

  She said that a nurse went out there. And I went, "What? Why would a nurse go and see her?"

• 1:52Speaker 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.

• 2:12Speaker 06

  It's not like a normal cemetery, you know, where there's grass and things. It is the Arizona desert.

• 2:18Speaker 01

  This summer place is managed by a peppy woman, Nikki Rowe.

• 2:23Speaker 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.

• 2:48Speaker 01

  Nikki likes the quiet of the place.

• 2:51Speaker 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.

• 3:04Speaker 01

  Unidentified people have their own spot in the cemetery.

• 3:08Speaker 06

  So they do have a headstone. A lot of them are the black granite, which is beautiful.

• 3:14Speaker 01

  The headstones are engraved, but not with the deceased's name, not with their birth date or their date of death.

• 3:22Speaker 06

  It's either a Jane or John Doe and then the date on what they were found.

• 3:27Speaker 01

  And this is where Sabrina's body would rest for years alongside other Jane and John Does, unnamed and unclaimed.

• 3:38Speaker 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.

• 3:49Speaker 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.

• 4:06Speaker 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.

• 4:25Speaker 01

  If a family comes forward, they put a name on the gravestone. Would Sabrina's family ever get that chance?

• 4:36Speaker 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.

• 5:16Speaker 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.

• 5:44Speaker 07

  Ally here with cash when you need it. You know, for the taxi that saved you, the guy who helped you move. Wait, are you supposed to tip at the car wash? Don't be in... Ally's 75,000 fee-free ATMs mean you always have cash when you need it. Ally Bank Member FDIC.

• 6:04Speaker 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.

• 6:35Speaker 02

  She felt like she had not done the right thing by her daughter.

• 6:40Speaker 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.

• 6:54Speaker 02

  Did Sabrina ever say anything to you that you thought was strange?

• 7:02Speaker 01

  Bobby Su and Sabrina's aunt weren't great when it came to producing actionable information. To Lindell, they weren't facing reality.

• 7:10Speaker 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.

• 7:22Speaker 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.

• 7:45Speaker 02

  They're not journalists.

• 7:47Speaker 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?

• 8:07Speaker 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.

• 8:23Speaker 01

  In other words, to Sabrina's mother and aunt, this insurance policy just hadn't seemed notable. To Lindell, it was notable.

• 8:32Speaker 02

  You know, my brain always goes to something evil's happening.

• 8:37Speaker 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.

• 9:03Speaker 02

  The insurance was what I really wanted to set my sights on.

• 9:09Speaker 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.

• 9:27Speaker 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.

• 9:50Speaker 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.

• 10:09Speaker 02

  You have to either determine to tell a story and to find ways to do it.

• 10:15Speaker 01

  And?

• 10:16Speaker 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.

• 10:26Speaker 01

  She asks the company rep if they write life insurance policies. If so...

• 10:31Speaker 02

  Would you send a nurse out to do a physical? Some company said yes, some said no, we don't do that.

• 10:36Speaker 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.

• 10:50Speaker 02

  There could be legal ramifications for you if you don't give us information. The mother wants information.

• 10:57Speaker 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.

• 11:07Speaker 02

  When I got onto State Farm, they said, we're not going to do anything without any information from the mother.

• 11:15Speaker 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.

• 11:33Speaker 02

  State Farm had it. Because they engage with me a little bit longer.

• 11:38Speaker 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.

• 11:50Speaker 02

  Bobby Sue actually spoke to them and they did say, yes, we, we think we might have something with the name Sabrina Kidd.

• 11:59Speaker 02

  And so Bobby Sue then sent them, faxed them, information about Sabrina.

• 12:05Speaker 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.

• 12:37Speaker 08

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• 13:10Speaker 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.

• 13:33Speaker 00

  Find fall your way at Ross.

• 13:46Speaker 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.

• 13:57Speaker 02

  And of course, I had to get back to work, my job.

• 14:01Speaker 01

  She's always looking for a story with a twist.

• 14:04Speaker 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.

• 14:18Speaker 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.

• 14:39Speaker 02

  A real loner. My work is my friend. I've just found solace, comfort, reason in my work.

• 14:49Speaker 01

  But...

• 14:50Speaker 02

  I was a long way from home. I was a long way from my family. And Dan felt like home.

• 14:58Speaker 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.

• 15:19Speaker 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."

• 15:44Speaker 01

  And she did.

• 15:46Speaker 02

  Bang. We were engaged.

• 15:49Speaker 01

  Four months later, they were married.

• 15:52Speaker 03

  It's just one of those things that, you know, sometimes you meet someone and you just know it.

• 15:56Speaker 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.

• 16:08Speaker 01

  But even as Lindell finds romance, Sabrina is on her mind. She worries about Sabrina. Worry turns to fear.

• 16:17Speaker 02

  And I then thought, yeah, she's probably dead.

• 16:22Speaker 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.

• 16:42Speaker 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.

• 17:11Speaker 10

  I think she felt like her mom chose

• 17:13Speaker 01

  Her second husband.

• 17:14Speaker 10

  over her. And I think Sabrina rebelled really bad.

• 17:19Speaker 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.

• 17:29Speaker 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.

• 17:39Speaker 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?

• 17:51Speaker 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.

• 18:06Speaker 10

  She had a real good heart. She cared about people and she cared about things.

• 18:12Speaker 10

  She was sweet. I mean, even in her golf stages, she was never a mean person.

• 18:19Speaker 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.

• 18:30Speaker 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.

• 18:47Speaker 10

  Sabrina ended up hooking up with a guy that I knew was not a good guy. I knew he was a problem.

• 18:54Speaker 01

  And Sabrina decides to go home with this guy. He lives in a neighborhood locals call Naked City.

• 19:01Speaker 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.

• 19:15Speaker 01

  How did she explain it to you? What did she actually say?

• 19:19Speaker 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.

• 19:27Speaker 01

  So she was kind of a lost girl?

• 19:30Speaker 10

  Yeah.

• 19:32Speaker 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.

• 19:53Speaker 11

  She just told me they argued a lot.

• 19:59Speaker 11

  He just told her he didn't want her to leave him. He wasn't going to let her go.

• 20:05Speaker 01

  Was this boyfriend like Lindell's attacker back in Australia? Possessive, out of control, misguided? Bobby Sue thought he was capable of anything.

• 20:17Speaker 11

  I didn't know what was going to happen to her. I was worried about her. I was very concerned about her.

• 20:25Speaker 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.

• 20:43Speaker 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.

• 20:55Speaker 01

  So Bobby Sue was worried. When a fax arrives on Lindell's desk, that worry will turn to dread.

• 21:20Speaker 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.

• 22:02Speaker 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.

• 22:21Speaker 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.

• 22:31Speaker 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.

• 23:06Speaker 02

  This nice man giving Sabrina a room and board. Bobby Sue, that was like, you know, Christmas has arrived.

• 23:15Speaker 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.

• 23:41Speaker 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.

• 24:00Speaker 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.

• 24:15Speaker 10

  And I was just relieved we had made up.

• 24:18Speaker 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.

• 25:04Speaker 01

  As Sabrina exits the car, Dewana calls to her.

• 25:10Speaker 10

  I told her that she could come and stay with me. She said she needed to go to work.

• 25:15Speaker 01

  Sabrina has just landed that full-time job. She waves off her cousin's offer. Life is already good. She feels good.

• 25:31Speaker 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.

• 26:11Speaker 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.

• 26:21Speaker 02

  What the hell?

• 26:23Speaker 01

  Finally, Lindell has the document from State Farm in her hands. It's an application for insurance on the life of Sabrina Kidd.

• 26:39Speaker 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.

• 26:53Speaker 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?

• 27:15Speaker 02

  They sent that one page that says $400,000. The beneficiary, Tom Preston.

• 27:24Speaker 01

  Tom Preston, Sabrina's friendly landlord.

• 27:29Speaker 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.

• 27:56Speaker 01

  Lindell's now sure of it. Preston knows what happened to Sabrina.

• 28:01Speaker 03

  And at that point, I said, okay, go for it, but be careful.

• 28:06Speaker 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.

• 28:21Speaker 01

  Next time on Killer Story.

• 28:25Speaker 03

  Under no circumstances are you to talk to Preston without other people around.

• 28:29Speaker 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.

• 28:43Speaker 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.

• 29:22Speaker 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.

• 30:07Speaker 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.

• 30:23Speaker 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.