Fatal Fantasy | 4. The Springtime War

Turns out, the leader — whom they call the Lord of Chaos — and creator of the Underworld game, directs players to fight a fatal battle against their enemies. One man finds it hard to tell fantasy from reality, with frightening consequences. Binge all episodes of Fatal Fantasy ad-free today by subscribing to The Binge. Visit The Binge 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. Fatal Fantasy is brought to you by Sony Music Entertainment and M. Williams Phelps LLC. 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

• 0:04Speaker 00

  Welcome to The Haunted Library. Join me, Colin Morgan, as I read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. A story of science and ambition, loneliness and longing, and what it truly means to be human. Listen to The Haunted Library wherever you get your podcasts, or find us on YouTube.

• 0:31Speaker 01

  Listen to all episodes of Fatal Fantasy 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.

• 0:54Speaker 02

  Hello, this is a prepaid call from...

• 1:04Speaker 03

  I am the Kyle.

• 1:06Speaker 02

  An inmate at Virginia Department of Corrections, Buckingham Correctional. To accept this call, press zero. To refuse this call, hang up or press one.

• 1:20Speaker 01

  Once he was locked up, Kyle Ullbert began calling and talking me through his version of what happened. It's more or less what he also confessed to Loudoun County investigators. Incidentally, Kyle's signature way of introducing himself, as you heard, "I am the Kyle," is his rather narcissistic way of saying, "There is only one Kyle in this world," and that he is that person. By December 12, 2001, Kyle, his best friend, Mike Foal, and Mike's girlfriend, Katie Inglis, were in custody. Kyle was the last of the three to be picked up by investigators and hadn't revealed a

• 2:04Speaker 01

  whole lot about what happened that night. Then, as I mentioned in the last episode, Katie decided to fully cooperate and cut a deal, which kind of pissed Kyle off.

• 2:20Speaker 03

  Because of the way she talked and the way she made out like she and Michael knew everything, and this is one of the things I wanted to get clear on the record, this is one of the things I really want you to make sure that you air for people. First thing she did when she found out she was in trouble, she made a deal with people. So she's got the incentive to come up with whatever bullshit that's now convincing to them to secure their case so that she doesn't get any fucking time.

• 2:40Speaker 01

  Talking to investigators, Katie said on that night Kyle was dressed in his signature black trench coat with a samurai sword tucked in a scabbard attached to his hip, and that the three had driven to the house, but that Kyle approached the Schwartz's front door by himself. Katie went on to say his motive partly had to do with his concerns about Clara's volatile relationship with her father. Apparently, both Kyle and Mike were convinced that Dr. Schwartz was hurting his daughter. To deal with it, Clara had written in her father as the villain in the underworld game,

• 3:22Speaker 01

  an arch-nemesis they all called the OG or old guy. I asked Associated Press journalist Heather Greenfield about this.

• 3:32Speaker 04

  So she referred to him both in the role-playing games and in real life as the old guy, but I mean, I think that's typically, nicknames like that are meant to dehumanize people, unfortunately.

• 3:47Speaker 01

  That Clara made him the villain of her game brought up a lot of questions about her actual relationship with her dad.

• 3:55Speaker 04

  It sounded like they had a lot of conflict. There was a lot of yelling back and forth. If you look at both the relatives and what she was telling her friends, it sounded like kind of a higher level than the average trouble between a teenager and their parent.

• 4:11Speaker 01

  Kyle told me one of the reasons he was so moved by Clara's complaints about her father was that he also had a bad relationship with his father, whom he accused of bullying and abuse.

• 4:27Speaker 01

  Here's what Kyle told investigators really happened. It began with what Mike, Katie, and Kyle referred to as an event Clara had named "The Springtime War," a major narrative plot point in the underworld game.

• 4:45Speaker 03

  I remember a lot of cryptic references to people that I imagine were part of the game, like so-and-so will be keeping a closer eye on so-and-so. This one might be an agent for the other side.

• 4:58Speaker 01

  By "agent," Kyle took it to mean a fictional bad guy within the game. At this time, Kyle was struggling to differentiate fantasy from reality. He'd long suffered from mental illness and had been in and out of group homes. The underworld game was a place where he could be that knight in shining armor he'd always aspired to be, and also the kind of bomb he'd long been for his younger sister in the face of a difficult father. When Clara asked Kyle to play the underworld, a game that had names and places mirroring

• 5:38Speaker 01

  actual life, he wasn't totally sure anymore what was real and what was fantasy. What was clear was how Kyle desperately wanted to be the kind of prince charming to swoop in and save the princess, the guy who helped people in need, the hero. When he met Clara, Kyle already had the Samurai sword he bought the day after he was emancipated. She knew he wore that sword on his hip 24/7 and was eager to use it. Befriending Clara and the others, Kyle told me, solidified his purpose in life.

• 6:22Speaker 01

  He said not long after they met, Clara took him out to dinner one night, not fast food, but an entree at a sit-down restaurant. During dinner, she'd bend his ear about her troubles.

• 6:34Speaker 03

  That's not what I wanted to eat. I'm used to, you know, I'm used to spending, you know, $2 on McDonald's or something and, you know, thinking I'm lucky. And here we are, the waiter's offering to foot the bill and I'm like trying to be polite.

• 6:48Speaker 01

  As they waited for their meals, Clara brought up her father, specifically how much she loathed the guy. Then her steak arrived at the table, and something weird happened.

• 7:04Speaker 03

  She took a bite and then she was like, there's something wrong with us. She was convinced that something had been done to it. She wanted it sent back.

• 7:11Speaker 01

  Poison, she whispered to Kyle after the waiter left. My father is a scientist. It would be easy for him to poison me. She had such a hold on Kyle and the others that they actually took her seriously. At one point in November, just weeks before the murder, Clara convinced Kyle to sleep in his tent on the Schwartz property because, according to him, she was scared the OG was going to do something to her that weekend. With Kyle now designated as her protector in the underworld, he also needed to be there in case Clara called

• 7:50Speaker 01

  on him. Kyle went along with the game. While out in the woods, Kyle came up with a plan to confront Dr. Schwartz. With Kyle that morning are two of his childhood friends, Saba and Nicodemus. And what about Saba and Nicodemus? What are they telling you about it?

• 8:11Speaker 03

  She's in danger. We don't know what to do at this point.

• 8:15Speaker 01

  Saba and Nicodemus began to taunt Kyle. Wake her up. He's hurting her. That convinced Kyle that Clara's father was doing something filthy to her and he needed to step in and confront the man. So with his sword secured safely in its scabbard on his hip, Kyle took off running toward the Schwartz residence. The knight on the move to rescue the princess, with Saba and Nicodemus following close behind.

• 8:45Speaker 01

  So you, you know, you show up at the door. I mean, what does he say?

• 8:49Speaker 03

  Uh, first thing, first thing, uh, what?

• 8:55Speaker 03

  And looking at it now, it's like, yeah, I just got woke up at seven o'clock in the morning after a week of working from this strange fucking creepy fucker at my door. Yeah, I'm not gonna be in the best happy, happy, joy, joy mood. Like, I guess he saw me and was like, clearly you're one of her friends, you know, kind of idyllic, but like, yeah, it's just, it was more the look than anything. I was like, hi, I'm, I'm here to, you know, my usual, you know, I'm the Kyle, you know, cheerful self, you know, I'm here to pick up Clara, you know, and it's like, she's still asleep. And then I was like, oh, okay, I guess I'll come back later.

• 9:27Speaker 01

  Dr. Schwartz stared into Kyle's eyes. A steely gaze, this intense squint, and posed the question. That sword on your hip, what in the hell is that all about?

• 9:40Speaker 03

  I told him I carried it with me everywhere. It's not like it's hidden, it's right there on my hip where it can be seen.

• 9:46Speaker 01

  Saba and Nicodemus are there at the door with Kyle as well. They are telling him to turn around. Leave. Don't. Do it.

• 9:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, they're not feeling good about this. They, you know, there's a lot of danger here. There's a lot of factors that we can't control.

• 10:01Speaker 01

  Dr. Schwartz couldn't see Saba or Nicodemus, however, because, well, after all,

• 10:10Speaker 01

  they are not real.

• 10:14Speaker 01

  Both are voices inside Kyle's head, which he had listened to, along with many others, since he was six years old.

• 10:25Speaker 01

  Kyle sometimes gets the help he needs as a diagnosed schizophrenic, like medication, but at this point in his life, he has refused to take his meds. So the voices are very real to him. And right now, Kyle was arguing with those voices over what to do next.

• 10:46Speaker 03

  What am I, what am I doing? How is, how am I doing this? What is this supposed to be? You know, because I, I don't know.

• 10:56Speaker 03

  I mean, in my mind, this was the first real thing I've ever done. You know, I'm actually protecting somebody.

• 11:03Speaker 01

  Standing in front of Dr. Schwartz, Kyle took a deep breath and realized now is not his moment. He told the good doctor, once again, he'll be back later to pick Clara up. And he left.

• 11:18Speaker 01

  It's 11 days before Kyle will return to confront Dr. Schwartz one final time.

• 11:47Speaker 01

  My name is M. William Phelps. I'm an investigative journalist and the New York Times bestselling author of dozens of true crime books. From Sony Music Entertainment and M. William Phelps, LLC. You are listening to Fatal Fantasy.

• 12:07Speaker 01

  Episode 4, The Springtime War.

• 12:36Speaker 01

  As investigators listen to Kyle explain his relationship with Clara Schwartz, they wonder if Kyle is trying to sell her out. So far, all he's said is that Clara was a child who had issues with her father, none of which Kyle had any tangible proof of. Investigators ask themselves, why trust his word? What evidence do they have against Clara having anything to do with this plot to kill her father? What they do know is that Kyle might have killed this prominent scientist, and Clara Schwartz was actually 200 miles away.

• 13:21Speaker 01

  The investigation into the savage murder of Dr. Robert Schwartz had already taken many turns in its first week. While Kyle had decided to give them a complete confession, hinting that Clara Schwartz was also involved, investigators tried figuring out if these three young people acted alone or Clara had prior knowledge of what went down that night. Then, out of nowhere, a new witness stepped forward, blowing this case wide open.

• 14:02Speaker 05

  Young man Patrick House, who had dated Clara in August of 2001, came forward to the sheriff's office with information that he had been a participant in this underworld game in which Clara was the lord of chaos and the queen, and that she often assigned different tasks to members playing the game. And that one of the tasks that was assigned to Patrick was to "tay," which was Clara's word for kill, the OG, which Clara referred to as either the old guy or the old geezer.

• 14:46Speaker 01

  I reached out to Patrick for both my book and this podcast, and he showed no interest in talking to me. Patrick was 20 years old, straight-laced, shortly-cropped brown hair, clear, pale skin. He came across more as an accountant than a medieval role-playing gamer. Patrick met Clara through Mike after Mike bumped into Patrick inside the office waiting room of a psychiatrist one day in 2000. Later, their paths crossed again at Walmart, and they started hanging out. Clara would tag along. Clara found Patrick a bit odd, like her, and they seemed to bond over a shared interest in the gaming world.

• 15:31Speaker 01

  Patrick once spoke of how he cast a spell that had killed 13 people who were trying to kill him. Reporter Jason Chirkus wrote in a Washington City paper article. When Clara heard that, she realized Patrick was speaking her language. In the underworld game, he had been selected to be the Queen's assassin long before the group had even met Kyle. When they began playing Clara's underworld game, Patrick viewed it as nothing more than make-believe, a fantasy to deal with the stressors of reality. But as time went on, Patrick noticed that Clara became more serious whenever she talked about her father.

• 16:16Speaker 01

  In fact, one day, while speaking to Mike, Patrick said, "I'm going to kill Clara's father." Clara despised her father and wanted him out of her life forever, and had a good reason, she told Patrick. Here's Detective Greg Locke.

• 16:35Speaker 05

  Clara claimed that her father was physically and mentally abusing her, and more specifically that it involved meat, steak, and that he was poisoning the steak to poison her.

• 16:56Speaker 01

  Loudoun County investigators had not found any evidence of this whatsoever. Patrick told them that as the Thanksgiving holiday approached, Clara began pressuring him, asking, not hinting anymore, for help in getting rid of her father. Knowing her as well as he did, Patrick considered that maybe her comments weren't just part of the fantasy she'd created in the underworld, but that she had actually wanted him to kill her father. Clara sat in her dorm room day after day without leaving. From her computer, she directed everyone in the game, initiating plotlines she had written,

• 17:40Speaker 01

  facilitating the ongoing narrative of the underworld through instant messaging. She'd scripted a general narrative in a journal and would then talk through it in person with all of them. But for the most part, she expedited the game via her computer. Patrick showed investigators emails and instant messages with Clara from earlier in the year. The chatter focused on taking out the OG. Here is one example Patrick shared with Detective Locke. And although I am having an actor read Clara's instant message chats and journal entries,

• 18:22Speaker 01

  all of the words you'll hear throughout the podcast are taken directly from Clara's texts.

• 18:30Speaker 06

  If a guy puts Hemlock in a drink and drinks it, will police think it's suicide or murder?

• 18:38Speaker 01

  There is a pause in the message as Patrick kind of, struck by what she just said, doesn't answer. So Clara continues, sensing his concern perhaps, while trying to reel the comment back in.

• 18:53Speaker 06

  Odd question. Not sure whether I was imagining something or whether it was a vision.

• 19:01Speaker 01

  Well, according to modern law, Patrick finally taps back. Suicide is murder one. Does it make a difference? Clara taps back immediately.

• 19:13Speaker 06

  But suicide, you can't prosecute.

• 19:18Speaker 01

  That exchange, in all of its darkness, became a turning point for Patrick.

• 19:26Speaker 05

  So in Patrick's mind, as the game progressed, he believed that Clara was serious about killing the OG, her father, and this was no longer a game.

• 19:45Speaker 01

  At the time, Patrick placates his girlfriend, suggesting that with all the mental fury the OG has caused her, Clara could make his death look natural.

• 19:59Speaker 01

  This is Patrick stepping away, realizing she is serious about wanting her father dead. Clara continues.

• 20:10Speaker 06

  Okay, have you found a natural way?

• 20:14Speaker 01

  "I may have," Patrick says.

• 20:17Speaker 06

  Interested. Go on.

• 20:20Speaker 01

  "No, I am not going to tell you how," Patrick writes back.

• 20:26Speaker 06

  Okay, any hints?

• 20:29Speaker 01

  "I am not going to tell you," he says.

• 20:31Speaker 06

  Okay, guess it's better that I not know. I just wish he'd go away. I'm so sick of fighting.

• 20:39Speaker 01

  Days later, after coming up with a new idea, Clara gives Patrick a direct order in the form of a new underworld narrative she just created.

• 20:51Speaker 06

  Path, or someone should put a gun to him, tell him to write the note, then put it in the drawer of the desk and point a gun at him while he pours the vial in his milk and drinks it, watches him die, and then leaves.

• 21:09Speaker 01

  Path was Patrick's name in the underworld Clara had come up with. In her dorm a few days after that instant message exchange, Clara tells Patrick her father will be, from that point on, known under a new code name: The Target.

• 21:28Speaker 01

  She further explains there is now no separation between the underworld OG and the real OG. No more fuzzy lines or ambiguous references. Clara is not the lord of chaos asking Path to fulfill his role in the game. She is the girlfriend asking the boyfriend to murder her father.

• 21:53Speaker 01

  She no longer appeared to be inside the game. It appeared to be all reality to her by then, Patrick tells Detective Locke.

• 22:04Speaker 01

  Clara has one final question for Patrick during that specific exchange.

• 22:10Speaker 06

  When are you going to tell my father? When? Patrick!

• 22:24Speaker 01

  Patrick has heard enough. He stops messaging with her. The relationship is over. For investigators, Patrick coming forward changes everything. His story fits with Mike, Katie, and now Kyle's version of events leading up to the night Dr. Schwartz was murdered. And Clara Schwartz, the doctor's own daughter, now becomes their number one mark as the mastermind behind Dr. Schwartz's murder.

• 23:09Speaker 07

  Observe: The North American Dad. 50s, great polo collection. He enters his vehicle information on Carvana. An offer appears in minutes. Remarkable. He squints, reads it again, smiles and says, "Dang, that's a good offer." The highest form of approval. No haggling, no hassle, no one called him "boss." He's still on the couch. Astonishing. Sell your car today on carvana.com. Pickup fees may apply.

• 23:39Speaker 08

  Hello, I'm Elizabeth Day, the creator and host of How To Fail. It's the podcast that celebrates the things in life that haven't gone right and what, if anything, we've learned from those mistakes to help us succeed better. Each week, my guests share three failures, sparking intimate, thought-provoking, and funny conversations. You'll hear from a diverse range of voices, sharing what they've learned through their failures. Join me Wednesdays for a new episode each week. This is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment original podcast. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

• 24:12Speaker 01

  The problem investigators face is that all of these people knew one another. And so, at least in theory, they could be ganging up on someone they now disliked for whatever reason. Or they all just felt like killing someone and chose Clara's father. But Patrick House coming forward entirely changed the narrative.

• 24:39Speaker 05

  We also found that once Patrick House had somewhat distanced himself from Clara, and she later met Kyle Halbert in October, that she started telling Kyle the same things that she had been telling Patrick House, in the sense that her father was trying to poison her, he was physically abusive, he was mentally abusive, again unfounded.

• 25:07Speaker 01

  What it looks like is that when Patrick House retreated and ran from Clara the moment he realized this was no damn fantasy, Clara simply found another stooge in Kyle and used Kyle's insecurities and mental illness to manipulate him.

• 25:26Speaker 03

  This fit completely into my wheelhouse and just my own kind of fantasy world that I lived in. I think she recognized what was going on with me, and she fed into it because it worked for her. She had made a comment to Katie, and it was one of those cryptic comments of like, "I told you the one, you know, he would become..." Like, it had been given to her to know that they would send somebody into her circle. And that he wasn't, it turned out to be me.

• 26:01Speaker 01

  From there Clara started telling Kyle the OG would sneak into her room when she was at home and quote "finger" her, never taking it any further than that sexually. Then she made it seem like her father was a pedophile who regularly downloaded child pornography, both allegations factually disproven by law enforcement and I need to say in no way true. By then Kyle had told Clara that he had been sexually abused himself, so her allegations enraged Kyle. He felt for her and had no idea she was lying.

• 26:43Speaker 01

  One night after Clara showed Kyle several journal entries in which she describes in graphic detail the alleged sexual abuse, Kyle slammed the journal shut and proclaimed, "I'll protect you." They were no longer playing a game. This was for real. After Patrick House came forward Detective Locke went back to Katie Ingless and asked her additional questions. Katie tells them about a conversation she had with Clara just a few days before the murder. "I just wish he'd leave me alone and let me live my life," Clara tells Katie. "I wish he was dead."

• 27:28Speaker 01

  Katie doesn't know what to say. Clara then tosses out, "I stand to inherit a third of a million dollars, but I can only get it after he's dead." By December 6, 2001, just two days before the murder Clara amped up the urgency to get it done. She called Kyle. "You need to take care of this," she said, "now."

• 27:55Speaker 03

  And she tells me, "I just had a fight with my dad, an OG," is how she said it. "He told me that when we go to the Virgin Islands for Christmas vacation, he was gonna make sure I didn't come back."

• 28:09Speaker 01

  The investigators would be able to confirm that Dr. Schwartz had reservations for all of his kids and himself to spend Christmas in the Virgin Islands.

• 28:21Speaker 03

  She's distraught, and this is just, as you imagine, hitting all the right buttons for me is, you know, oh my God, I have to protect her. And, you know, she tells me I have to protect her. I can't let him hurt her. Remember those being her words? You know, you have to protect me, Kyle. You can't let him hurt me. When she hangs up, I put it on the phone and I'm sitting there trying to figure out, okay, this has just escalated from abuse to threats of actual bodily harm. I'm not sure what to do. Part of me wants to go over there right then and have it out with him. Michael and I and Katie planned to get together that weekend, so I figured, well, at the very least, I can go there and if he's actually this kind of bully, if I go there and I

• 29:06Speaker 03

  intimidate him and I threaten him to leave her alone, that somebody knows what's going on, then he'll leave her alone.

• 29:15Speaker 01

  A turning point comes. Kyle explains to Clara that he needs money. "Okay," she says, "how much?" "Sixty dollars." Clara herself admitted this early in the investigation.

• 29:30Speaker 05

  Clara told me about the sixty dollar check that she had overnighted to Kyle Halbert, and I inquired what the check was for, and she said a phone card, but on further elaboration, it came out that it was also for gloves and a do-rag.

• 29:53Speaker 01

  Clara overnighted a check written out to Kyle along with a note, handwritten in all caps, "What's needed and expected." Kyle was firm about saying he never asked Clara for money to kill her father. After all, sixty dollars is not exactly a murder-for-hire number. He claimed he told Clara the money was a payment for a porn site he liked. I've been involved in true crime for over 26 years. Kyle can tell me all day long, the money wasn't a payment going toward the murder. But come on, Clara overnighted the check and they cashed it the day before the murder.

• 30:44Speaker 01

  What is the talk among you and Katie and Mike?

• 30:48Speaker 03

  Nothing really. I mean, there really, I don't remember being much of any conversation about anything in particular. I knew I needed to go to the Schwartz's place to get her notebooks.

• 31:01Speaker 01

  Notebooks? Money for a porn site? How much are these people really believing what they are telling themselves and, in turn, telling the cops? In my opinion, they knew exactly what was going on here. All three of them. She told you, "You need to go get my books at the house?"

• 31:23Speaker 03

  It was, I knew that I wanted to go, I wanted to try to confront him.

• 31:27Speaker 01

  That statement, I think, tells us Kyle knew exactly why he was headed to Dr. Schwartz's house on the night of December 8th.

• 31:48Speaker 01

  Mike Foal was easy prey for investigators. All they had to do was keep a boot on his throat, dangle life behind bars, or possibly, with the potential murder-for-hire aspect now involved, a death sentence. If they did all of that, Mike would tell them everything. Kyle explained to investigators that he told Mike Clara had instructed him to go to the house to grab her notebooks. Mike instead told Locke he was fully aware of what was about to go down, putting it into kind of a bizarre, almost childish manner, telling Locke, "Kyle went up to Schwartz's

• 32:32Speaker 01

  house. I stayed outside the house and prayed for Mr. Schwartz's soul to go to heaven. You can only get to heaven if you're dead." Mike knew.

• 32:44Speaker 03

  Meet up with Katie and Michael. I have to go here and I played out the conversation in my head a billion times. You know, like I just, every possible permutation of that I could think of of how that conversation would go.

• 33:00Speaker 01

  It's raining as they head to Schwartz's house in Mike's car. Important to note, I think, is that Clara is at James Madison University in her dorm alone.

• 33:12Speaker 03

  It wasn't pouring down rain like in Thunder, like a good horror movie should be, but it was overcast and sprinkling throughout the day. We're up to that night and the only thing I've gotten concrete in my head is I have to go here. I have to confront him. He needs to know that somebody knows what's going on and that he can't get away with it. And I know it's a damning statement, but it's the truth. I did not go there to kill him. I went there to confront him, but there was parts of me that knew that like if it came down to it, you know, her life or his.

• 33:44Speaker 03

  There was no contest.

• 33:50Speaker 01

  Katie, riding shotgun with Mike driving and Kyle in the backseat, approach Schwartz's driveway. Kyle tells Mike to stop.

• 34:01Speaker 01

  It's a long driveway. Kyle insists Mike and Katie wait inside the car there near the road. "I'll walk the rest of the way," he tells them.

• 34:13Speaker 01

  As Kyle sits with his hand on the door handle, preparing to step out and walk down the driveway, his mind races.

• 34:23Speaker 03

  I don't know how to describe you this sense of not knowing. It's like you're standing in the doorway. You're in the light and the room on the other side is pitch black. You don't even know there's a floor there.

• 34:35Speaker 01

  Kyle claims several voices return in this moment. Voices now sending him warnings.

• 34:42Speaker 03

  The best I can say is in hindsight, I guess Saban knew something I didn't. He was picking up on things that I wasn't paying attention to. Holes in her story, flaws in the way things were going, just how perfectly this all fit together.

• 34:57Speaker 01

  Kyle tells Mike and Katie he'll be right back.

• 35:02Speaker 01

  And then he begins walking down the driveway, placing one hand on his sword attached to his hip, and the other blocking the driving rain hitting his face. Then he reaches Dr. Schwartz's door and knocks.

• 35:21Speaker 03

  We're here now. Now, we're at the night. This is where it all happens. This is where I cross the line that can't be uncrossed. You know, this is for better or worse, this is my Rubicon. After this night, my life is going to be defined in two terms. Before this, then after this.

• 35:56Speaker 01

  Next time on Fatal Fantasy. As Kyle Yulbert steps inside Dr. Schwartz's house, we hear him describe in great detail what took place.

• 36:07Speaker 03

  And he just smiles at me. "I'm going to die here tonight." I catch him with an elbow. I taste blood.

• 36:18Speaker 01

  As he is fighting with Schwartz, the vampire Kyle claims to be seems to come out.

• 36:25Speaker 03

  Clara was in danger. I remember fighting rival vampires.

• 36:31Speaker 01

  And then, a shocking shift in the investigation.

• 36:37Speaker 06

  Jesus's disciples are extreme followers. They drank his blood and ate his flesh, which made them all vampires and cannibals. I look at satanic cults and see the future, bright and promising.

• 37:06Speaker 01

  Fatal Fantasy is a production of Sony Music Entertainment and M. William Phelps, LLC. Written and executive produced by me. From Sony Music Entertainment, the executive producers are Jonathan Hirsch and Catherine St. Louis. Our production manager is Samantha Allison. Jeremy Adair is my senior producer and script consultant. Matt Russell, my sound engineer. I use Epidemic Sound for music and SFX.

• 37:50Speaker 09

  The wilderness can hide a lot, but it can't hide the truth forever. I'm Delia DiAmber, host of Park Predators. And every week I investigate true crime cases hidden in national parks, forests, and beaches. I follow every lead, every clue, and every overlooked detail. Because even when a trail seems to disappear, the truth has a way of resurfacing. Listen to Park Predators wherever you get your podcasts.