“Open & Shut” Murder Case Blown WIDE Open By What They Found: Who Killed LaNell Barsock?

LaNell Barsock was found shot to death in the garage of her home in Palmdale, California. Suspicion quickly fell on her boyfriend, and investigators initially believed they had an open-and-shut case. But as they examined the evidence, inconsistencies began to emerge, leading detectives down an entirely different path. Correction! LaNell's tragic death occurred on the 16th of June 2010, not the date stated in this episode. This episode is sponsored by: Merit Beauty: Save up to 25% sitewide! On November 21st and 22nd, Merit is giving you the chance to shop the sale before everyone else. Head to metirtbeauty.com http://metirtbeauty.com and use code TCKR at checkout. Quince: Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to quince.com http://quince.com. Rocket Money: Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at rocketmoney.com/KENDALLRAE http://rocketmoney.com/KENDALLRAE. Warby Parker: Our listeners can buy one pair of glasses and get 20% off any additional pairs at WarbyParker.com/TCKR http://WarbyParker.com/TCKR — and using our link helps support the show. #WarbyParker #ad Check out my foundation: Higher Hope Foundation: https://www.higherhope.org/ Watch my documentaries: 530 Days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjUWkmOjNLk Apartment 801: https://bit.ly/2RJ9XXr True Crime with Kendall Rae podcast: Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3rks84o Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jC66pr Shop my Merch! https://kendallrae.shop https://kendallrae.shop/ Check out my other podcasts: Mile Higher (True Crime) @milehigherpod YouTube: https://bit.ly/2ROzJcw Instagram: http://instagram.com/milehigherpod The Sesh (Current events, a little true crime, pop culture, and commentary) https://bit.ly/3Mtoz4X @the_seshpodcast Instagram: https://bit.ly/3a9t6Xr *Follow My Social!* @KendallRaeOnyt Instagram: http://instagram.com/kendallraeonyt Facebook: https://bit.ly/3kar4NK True Crime TikTok: https://bit.ly/3VDbc77 Personal TikTok: https://bit.ly/41hmRKg REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://zfrmz.com/yg9cuiWjUe2QY3hSC2V0 Form for people directly related/close to the victim: https://zfrmz.com/HGu2hZso42aHxARt1i67 Join my discord to chat with other viewers about this video, it’s free! https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN C O N T A C T: For Business Inquiries - [email protected] Send me mail: Kendall Rae 8547 E Arapahoe Rd Ste J #233 Greenwood Village, CO 80112

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

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• 1:08Kendall Rae?

  On the evening of June 10th, 2016, a barefooted woman named Lorraine Austin ran into the local sheriff's office in Palmdale, California. She was frantic, she was covered in blood, and between her gasping for breath, she explained that she had just found her best friend of 10 years, LaNell Barsock, murdered inside her garage. And she didn't know what happened, just that she came back to her house after leaving LaNell and her boyfriend alone to argue for a few hours, only to discover that her friend was no longer alive. And what she explained was only the start of what investigators would soon uncover. And when they went to her home, it was very obvious that something horrific had occurred there

• 1:53Kendall Rae?

  and that someone clearly tried to get away in a hurry. But the question was, who? The murder of LaNell Barsock is one that no one could have seen coming. And her case really does serve as a reminder that what you see is not always what you get. Today's case is one that truly had me in shock at every single turning point as I was researching. And I am a huge consumer of thriller books. I love them. And it reminded me of one of my thriller books. But the thing is, that's so devastating, is this is not a thriller book. This is not fiction. This is someone's real life, and her life is now over. Before getting into this episode,

• 2:36Kendall Rae?

  I just wanted to thank you all for listening to and supporting my show, and also any of the Mile Higher Media shows. Your support makes it possible for us to continue funding grants through my foundation, Higher Hope, which supports victims of violent crimes, their families, and like-minded nonprofits. All right, let's get into the details of this case. And of course, I want to start out by telling you more about LaNell. And right off the bat, I gotta say, LaNell is one of the most delicate, elegant, and beautiful names I've truly ever heard. It just really does something for me. And it really was a fit for her because she was a very beautiful person. Her full name is LaNell Crystal Barsock. And she was born on July 27th, 1980, in South Los Angeles, California, as the middle child of five.

• 3:20Kendall Rae?

  Her mom, Bobby, says that she was more of a quiet kid. And her brother, Jerome, describes her as really having been the glue to their family. She's also described as very bubbly, always smiling, you know, positive energy, never failed to bring joy to those around her. And it also sounds to me like LaNell was really the peacemaker in the home, which I think a lot of middle children kind of end up being that type of person in their family, playing that sort of role. And I swear, all families need someone like that, right? And she was also known to be incredibly driven, very motivated from a young age. And that was especially apparent in her academics. She was on the honor roll in both elementary and high school.

• 4:05Kendall Rae?

  And after graduating from Crenshaw High in 1998, her academic pursuits did not stop there. And what she ended up getting into really fits her personality. As I was sort of explaining, people describe her as also incredibly caring towards others and just was always looking out for other people. And so it came as no surprise that LaNell wanted to become a nurse. And she did. First, she became a vocational nurse, which is an entry-level healthcare position. However, LaNell wanted to take her education a step further and become a registered nurse. And so she went back to school to make that dream come true. And it was actually at that school where she ended up meeting the guy that she would eventually start dating and buy a house with. And his name is Louis.

• 4:47Kendall Rae?

  And the story of how they met is very LaNell-coded. So at this point, it was 2006, but a year prior, Louis had immigrated to the United States from Haiti. And he happened to attend the same school as LaNell, but he was there to improve his English. Well, anyway, she saw him sitting at a bus stop one day, and she recognized him from campus. And like the kind-hearted person she was, she offered him a ride. And people say that from that point forward, their relationship just blossomed really quickly. Now, the reason I say this is very LaNell of her is for two reasons. One, obviously, like I've said, she was always doing kind things for other people. She just had that type of heart. And two, she also seemed to really have a soft spot for people who came to the United States seeking better opportunities.

• 5:32Kendall Rae?

  Another example of that is one of her closest friends, Marcel, had also immigrated to the United States, and he came from Cameroon, Africa. And he says that she always went out of her way to make him feel welcome and comfortable. He says that she helped him integrate into society. She would loan him textbooks, and she even bought him three pairs of shoes. And so as you can tell, LaNell was just a good, you know, salt-of-the-earth type of person, who genuinely got a lot of joy out of helping others. As I was saying, though, she picked up Louis at the bus stop, and that was really the beginning of their relationship. And things moved pretty quickly after that. And within a few years, they were living together. And then in 2009, they purchased a home in Palmdale, California, which is about 60 miles north of LA.

• 6:16Kendall Rae?

  And from what I've seen, this was a really big and beautiful home. It had a handful of bedrooms and bathrooms. It was in a great neighborhood. And actually, LaNell's goal was to one day turn it into an adult care facility, which is also so LaNell-coded, right? And I'm not sure if Louis had that same goal, but that was definitely something on her mind. But unfortunately, by 2010, the two of them were going through a pretty rough period in their relationship. The details are somewhat vague, and I'm sure there's a lot more to it than what's been put out there, of course. But from what I've gathered, LaNell really, you know, she was a really motivated person. And I think it bothered her that Louis didn't really seem to have a whole lot of drive,

• 7:00Kendall Rae?

  a whole lot of ambition when it came to his career, and just wasn't matching her in that way. He was a maintenance worker for the city of Hawthorne. And according to her friend, Marcel, he said that the two of them would often argue over finances and Louis not managing his money very well. And he also said that LaNell told him that she and Louis were no longer intimate, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to maintain their relationship. And I guess before these feelings came up and they were going through this rough patch, there was some discussion of marriage and a future together. But at this point in time, LaNell's heart just wasn't really in it anymore. But of course, with the way that they are intertwined at this point, it wasn't as simple as just breaking up. I mean, they obviously owned a house together,

• 7:43Kendall Rae?

  and that's not an asset that you can just easily split with someone. And so ultimately, after a couple months of the two of them growing apart and trying to figure that out, LaNell did start seeing other people. There was this one guy named Ike, who she met on a website called fling.com. And the two of them began secretly dating. He was a flight nurse up in Sacramento, which was quite far away. But apparently, he would go down and see her in Palmdale whenever he could and whenever Louis wasn't around. And so just imagine where detectives' minds are going right off the bat after hearing all of this from LaNell's best friend. I mean, here they have this woman who was violently murdered in her own home, and there's all these issues going on in her relationship.

• 8:27Kendall Rae?

  They have a partner who seems to have one hell of a motive to want her dead. And then you look at the crime scene, and it's a similar story. On that night, June 10th, 2016, when detectives and first responders arrived at LaNell's home, this scene was incredibly upsetting, very, very disturbing. They found her body in the garage, laying next to her car with a plastic bag over her head. And it wasn't obvious right away how she had been murdered, but the amount of blood told them that she had suffered some kind of injury to her skull. And putting the bag on her head is something that I have seen other killers do in the past. And there are a couple of reasons why someone would do this.

• 9:08Kendall Rae?

  For one, it obviously could have been to try and stop the blood from spreading everywhere. But killers also do this because they can't stand to see the face of the person they hurt. It's just too much for them mentally. The guilt starts to kick in. And obviously, that would only happen if you are personally connected to that person. Or for the most part, that's when it would be used, right? Like, you have killed someone that you at one point cared about or maybe still care about. And it's painful for you to look at them and know what you did. And they sort of feel like they're being watched by them, which, yeah, indicates a personal connection.

• 9:49Kendall Rae?

  And the scene also told them that someone had clearly tried to clean things up. LaNell's car was parked in the garage with the trunk wide open, and it was filled with bloodstained bedding. An additional plastic sheeting and they were sort of half in, half out of the trunk. And Lorraine said that she had actually slipped on it when she came in and found her friend, which as you can imagine, would have been very traumatizing for her. And then also in the trunk, they found a pillow with what appeared to be a bullet hole through it, which indicates that it was used as a silencer of sorts. And then her autopsy would later confirm that she was in fact shot in the back of her head and that her killer took her by surprise.

• 10:30Kendall Rae?

  Another thing they found in the car was a large rolled up area rug, which when it was unrolled, revealed blood stains and a bloody footprint. They also found black latex gloves, which they believe her killer wore to try and conceal their identity, of course, as well as a plastic pitcher, which thankfully had a single bloody fingerprint on it. And as they continued to make their way through the house, there were additional signs of a cleanup attempt. Their house was set up in a way where their laundry room was the first room you entered when you come through the garage, which is a very common setup, right? And when they went in there, there were a handful of bloodied towels on the ground. There were also clean towels on top of the dryer that looked like they had been disturbed.

• 11:12Kendall Rae?

  And then in the kitchen, detectives found cleaning supplies out by the sink. And in the living room, they could easily spot the area where the rug I mentioned had been removed, as well as some blood spatter on the wall and a single shell casing on the couch. What they didn't find though, were any signs at all of this being some kind of robbery gone wrong. And also, what's important to understand is Lanell and Louis were still very much moving into this house. It didn't have a whole bunch of furniture and it wasn't entirely decorated, but still there was nothing to suggest that a stranger came in and did this. This was clearly done by someone close to her, someone who knew the house and someone who made a very poor attempt to cover it up.

• 11:55Kendall Rae?

  And as you've probably guessed, the person that detectives suspected was of course, her boyfriend Louis. And Lorraine, who was obviously very shaken up, spent the entire night at the sheriff's office explaining to them, you know, everything that she knew. And the more details she gave, the more they became suspicious of Louis.

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• 15:29Kendall Rae?

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• 15:40Kendall Rae?

  Now let me rewind a little bit because the entire day of the 10th has context that really matters. So here's the full story of that day. Okay. Earlier in the day, Lorraine said that she arrived at Lanell's house sometime after 9:30 a.m. to finish doing her hair. She had been there the day before too, but she didn't finish, so she came back to get the rest of it done. However, shortly after being there, she said that Lanell and Louis began arguing. And he had actually left that morning to drive down to LA to spend time with her boyfriend, also getting car parts to fix up his truck. But he ended up turning around and came home when he discovered that Lanell was still using the secret phone that Ike had given her. So here's some quick backstories. I'm sure you're a little confused there, right?

• 16:25Kendall Rae?

  Louis was a very jealous person. He had been suspicious of Lanell for a few weeks and for a little while there, he was checking her phone, showing up at her work to see who she was going to lunch with and even calling her employer to see if she went to work like she said she was. And yes, his suspicions were right. Lanell was being unfaithful to him, but I also don't think that warrants his behavior either. And according to Lanell's mom, and of course, I don't have confirmation of this, but this is coming from her mother, but she said there was an incident somewhat recently where she had tried to break up with Louis and he got in his car and chased her off the road.

• 17:07Speaker 03

  She called me on the phone. She said Louis tried to run me off the road, mama. And she was screaming, screaming.

• 17:13Kendall Rae?

  And it's also important to note that in April of that year, there was a domestic disturbance call made to their home. However, it didn't result in any charges and I believe that call came from Ike. And he was on the phone with Lanell when he overheard Louis screaming at her and he became worried for her safety and called the police. All that to say, Louis had left that morning for LA and he had taken the phone that Ike had once given her. The thing is though, Lanell had promised him that they were no longer communicating, that it was over with him and that the phone didn't have any minutes on it. So it didn't work. Well, I guess someone had put minutes on it and Louis discovered that and drove back home to confront her.

• 17:58Kendall Rae?

  And according to Lorraine, that fight got pretty nasty, so much so that the two women left the house to go to a nearby beauty supply store and to buy something that they needed and to get some space from him. The problem though, was that he followed them there and continued to confront her. Now Lanell must have taken the phone back from him at the house, but she ended up just letting him have it again, hoping it would be enough for him to calm down, but it wasn't. By the time the three of them got back to the house, Lorraine said that the fight continued and it got so bad that she decided to leave the house around 1:25 p.m. and just walk to a nearby park, you know, just to give them some space.

• 18:42Speaker 04

  I told her, I said, look, y'all have some issues and y'all need to talk. And I don't want to be here.

• 18:48Kendall Rae?

  Then, when she returned several hours later, around 6:30 PM, quite some time, that's when she found Lanell's body.

• 18:56Speaker 04

  And then I turned around, it was like plastic bags and I like slid on the bags. I'm looking at the blood and then when I looked, I saw her lips. And then I walked around the car, she had a barrel in her head and I'm sitting there like, oh my god.

• 19:08Kendall Rae?

  And then after this, Lorraine said that she heard a noise coming from inside the house. And when she went in there, she spotted Louis at the top of the staircase. And obviously, anyone in that situation would feel really scared. So when he started coming down the stairs towards her, that's when she ran outside. And she said that in the chaos of it all, she couldn't find her phone. So she ended up just hopping in her car and driving straight to the police station. And then she also mentioned that Louis also got in his car and began chasing after her. But then he turned around once he realized that she was on her way to get help.

• 19:44Speaker 04

  And then I heard him like walking upstairs. And he was like pulling down the stairs and I looked and I threw his bread off the door. Do you know the guy's name? Y'all didn't know his name?

• 19:52Kendall Rae?

  And hearing this story and knowing what you know about the crime scene, the obvious suspect to detectives was clearly Louis. Lorraine had also shared with them all of the details about Lanell and Louis's deteriorating relationship, which she said Lanell had told her personally over all of the years of their long lasting friendship. And so therefore, Louis became suspect number one. They definitely considered Ike too, which makes sense, of course. But he actually had a rock solid alibi for that day. Turns out, he was interviewing for a job up at UC Davis. So yeah, very quickly, Louis was their sole focus and it was not hard to find him.

• 20:34Kendall Rae?

  He was actually at Lanell's mom's house down in LA, which apparently wasn't uncommon. And if any of you are familiar with Southern California geography, then you know that Los Angeles is closer to Hawthorne than Palmdale is. So on the days that he worked, Louis would often sleep at Bobby's house to avoid the longer commute. Makes total sense, right? So they went there without telling him exactly what happened, thinking he knows exactly what happened. And then they brought him into the station for questioning. Now, from the bits and pieces that I have been able to listen to from his interrogation, he sounded very, very confused. They didn't want to reveal to him right away that she had been murdered. They wanted to, you know, wait and see what they could get out of him beforehand.

• 21:18Kendall Rae?

  But he swore that he didn't know why they were even interrogating him. He seemed totally lost. And he did admit to fighting with Lanell that day. And even that he followed the two women to the beauty supply store. But he was adamant that afterwards, he drove the 90 minutes down to LA to go to auto supply stores and also work on his truck with Lorraine's boyfriend. But detectives still were not buying his story, especially because when he was asked about he and Lanell's relationship, he said that everything was good between them, no issues, everything's fine.

• 21:54Speaker 05

  What's your girlfriend's name? Nina Bus. What happened to her? She was killed. You don't know? I need the house, Eddie. Go fix my car. Tell me about your, your relationship, Eddie. Yeah. Your relationship is good? Honestly, true. Okay. With her. Is she okay with you? She's okay with me. She's been telling me, she loving me all the time.

• 22:17Kendall Rae?

  But as we know, that was not the full truth at all. So they were giving him major side eye. Plus, they also noticed that Louis had a scratch on his cheek. And when he was asked about this, he said that it came from Lanell, that she was upset because she thought he was Facebook messaging with another woman.

• 22:36Speaker 05

  You got a scratch on your face, where did you get that? This one? Yeah, the one right across your cheek. Who scratched you? Oh, that was the one across me.

• 22:43Kendall Rae?

  And then they asked Louis about Ike and his answer was very suspicious to them because he claimed to be unaware of any romantic relationship between Lanell and Ike. And he said he thought they were just friends. And right off the bat, detectives did not believe him, not only because of what Lorraine had told them, but also because of something that they found at the scene. Near the refrigerator, on the ground, they had discovered a Dear John letter, which read, Dear Louis, I'm leaving you for Ike. He makes more money, so you can do whatever you want to do with this house. I am moving out of the state with Ike, so that's why I gave you that phone. We're getting married, so just leave me alone.

• 23:27Kendall Rae?

  You can have everything in the house. I have been sleeping with him for four months now and he's the one that pays my car note. So good luck in life. P.S. I'm taking one of the TVs and it's signed, goodbye Lanell. So they tell him about the note, they show it to him, which is a pretty wild note. But when Louis hears about it, when he sees it, he says he has never seen it before.

• 23:49Speaker 05

  What are they doing? I'm talking about the little letter who's telling you she's going bye bye. I don't know. Who is this guy named Ike? Who is he? Okay. Ike? Ike. I can tell Ike is your friend.

• 24:03Kendall Rae?

  And detectives not believing him just continued after this because they had actually already found out from Bobby that her son saw Louis earlier that night on the computer, making a bank transaction and also looking up flights to Miami. So in their minds, they thought that he was attempting to run, you know, possibly go back to Haiti or something. And of course, because of that, there was no way in hell that they were going to release him. Now, before finishing their interrogation with him and booking him into county jail, they finally decided to tell him what happened, that Lanell had been killed. And he immediately broke down, promising up and down that he didn't do it. He was absolutely shocked, he sounded like he was in a ton of pain.

• 24:47Kendall Rae?

  And he even begged them to find the person responsible.

• 24:52Speaker 05

  Someone shot her. Oh my god, it was that guy? What she is, why no? She's at the coroner's office, sir. She did not survive her wounds. What is it? Oh my god, that's not why you understand. That's not me, that's not me, that's not me. Why didn't you not do that? Oh my god.

• 25:12Kendall Rae?

  And of course, we see this all the time, okay? This is a very common reaction from someone who is trying to seem innocent, right? And once again, detectives were not buying it. So he got booked into the county jail. And meanwhile, they continued to forensically process the scene. And that, of course, included performing luminol testing all through the house. And it told a horrific story. Like they suspected, the blood evidence showed that Lanell was shot in the back of the head while she was in the living room. From there, her killer dragged her body through the kitchen and laundry room and into the garage, where whoever killed her attempted, but failed to load her into the car. And so at that point, they were really just waiting for the results of the testing

• 25:55Kendall Rae?

  to come back to tie Louis to the attack. And in the meantime, while they're waiting for that, they got a search warrant for his truck and they followed up on his alibi as well. And this is when the entire case flipped upside down. When they were searching his car, detectives found receipts for auto parts stores in LA, which were time stamped right around the time they believed Lanell was shot and killed. And remember, it was a 90 minute drive from LA to their house. And that's 90 minutes without traffic, okay? We all know the traffic in California is absolutely absurd. So who knows how long it actually could have taken him? And they suspected that she was killed right around 2:30 PM,

• 26:39Kendall Rae?

  but those receipts proved that he couldn't have done it. Plus, surveillance footage from three separate stores showed him physically there in LA. So it wasn't like he could have gotten the receipts from someone else. Also, when they dug into his phone records, they ruled out the possibility that he was working with an accomplice. Lanell called him just around 2:30, right before she died, and he had no other communications. Not to mention the fact that Louis didn't even own a gun. But if you remember, Lorraine said that she saw him in the house and that he chased her in his car. And clearly, that couldn't have happened. So I'm sure you're starting to see where I'm going with this, right?

• 27:21Kendall Rae?

  Detectives immediately were like, oh shit, we have the wrong guy. He certainly couldn't have been in LA and in Palmdale, right? That doesn't make any sense. And he never came back that evening, they were able to prove that. He went right to Bobby's house. So obviously, they need to backtrack here. They need to fix a couple of things and first things first, they need to let him out of jail immediately. And I really, really enjoyed learning this, I found this quite interesting. But of course, they were afraid that Louis was going to be pissed. I mean, they wrongly accused him of murder. But instead of being angry and even possibly suing them, which they really thought he might do,

• 28:03Kendall Rae?

  he instead hugged them and thanked them for letting him free. He explained to them that back in Haiti, if you get arrested, they just throw up the key and that is that, you are done. But the fact that they had taken time to uncover the truth here was something that he really appreciated.

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  There have been so many subscriptions over the years that I have wasted money on. There were so many times where I signed up for free trials, even for things like apps, and then I just forgot to cancel them before they started charging me and I didn't realize it for a little while. Or there was some that, to be honest, I did know they were charging me and I wasn't using it, but I didn't want to deal with their customer service because it was such a pain and I hate dealing with customer service. But that hasn't been the case for me for over three years now because I started using Rocket Money and now I don't waste a single dime on a subscription that I am not actually using. And that's because Rocket Money can help you to track those subscriptions and gives you the ability to cancel the unwanted ones within the app with just a few taps, giving you an easy way to stop paying for things that you don't use.

• 29:10Kendall Rae?

  The app consolidates checking, savings, loans, and investments into one single beautiful dashboard that gives you a nice, clear view of your financial picture, which is great for someone like me who just has never done well with numbers. You know what I mean? If I can understand it, you can understand it. Rocket Money also provides transaction categorization across accounts, plus customizable categories and tags to reveal spending patterns. And this has been really helpful for us because we have so much going on between our business, our two kids, our nine pets, you know, household stuff. It's really nice to put it all into different categories based on what makes most sense to us. You can set budgets and goals and get personalized insights and regular reports. You can even receive real-time alerts for large transactions, upcoming bills. That one is really helpful.

• 29:54Kendall Rae?

  Refunds and low balances. And users who create a financial goal with Rocket Money tend to see really meaningful savings momentum within their first month. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps you find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps you lower your bills so that you can grow your savings. Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at rocketmoney.com/ KendallRay. That's rocketmoney.com/ KendallRay. Once again, rocketmoney.com/ KendallRay.

• 30:22Kendall Rae?

  So I know you can't see me right now, but I am currently wearing a pair of glasses that I got from Warby Parker and I love this pair of glasses because they are transition lenses. So when I walk outside, they turn into sunglasses. I never knew how much I would love a pair of transition glasses, but wow, what a game changer. And for so long, buying glasses to me always felt so complicated, so overpriced. I'm just trying to buy glasses at the end of the day. I don't need to feel like I need a spreadsheet just to understand what's going on. And honestly, eye exams were even worse. I feel like most people put them off way longer than you should because it just feels like this whole process, you have to find a doctor, book an appointment, figure out if they take your insurance, and somehow it always turns into more time and more money than you expected. And honestly, I've started looking at eye exams as part of my normal wellness routine

• 31:07Kendall Rae?

  now because of course your vision is part of your health too. And that's why I love Warby Parker. They didn't just make buying glasses or contacts or sunglasses easier, they made the entire experience easier. Now you can actually go into one of their stores, get an eye exam right there. No more running around to multiple stops, no guessing if your prescription is even up to date. And Warby Parker is covered by many major eye insurance plans. You just enter your information to see if you're eligible for benefits on frames, contacts, or eye exams, and if you are, they'll automatically apply them for you. And one of the best parts about Warby Parker, maybe the best part, is for every pair they sell, they also give a pair to someone in need. And Warby Parker has distributed over 20 million pairs of glasses to people in need through its Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program.

• 31:48Kendall Rae?

  Right now, buy one pair of glasses and get 20% off any additional pairs at warbyparker.com/tckr. That's 20% off any additional pairs when you purchase one pair at W A R B Y Parker.com/tckr. Hi, I'm Dr. Jay Goodman, host of Beyond the Script, the podcast where I sit down with pharmacists to answer the health questions you didn't even know you could ask at the pharmacy counter. GLP-1s are everywhere right now, but what should you know before taking one? In this episode, CVS pharmacist and district leader Victoria Motola joins me to break down side effects, costs, and what the treatment journey can look like.

• 32:29Speaker 03

  I remember a patient that was using a GLP-1 for the first time and experienced a lot of nausea and vomiting off the bat. They said, "I'm never taking a GLP-1 again. I feel awful." And at that point, they just didn't have the proper counseling of this is going to dissipate over time. So before the first dose, pharmacists and healthcare providers can review how the medications work, proper use, the common side effects, and what to expect as the treatment begins.

• 32:57Kendall Rae?

  Listen to new episodes of Beyond the Script on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 33:12Kendall Rae?

  And then step two, of course, is retracing their steps, looking at it again and seeing what clues they may have missed along the way. And it turns out, there were quite a few, and all the roads led back to one person. And I'm sure you're probably able to guess who that is at this point. Ding ding ding, Lorraine. Oh, Lorraine, Lorraine, Lorraine. What a damn fool, okay? And when she was first questioned, a lot of her emotion and her disjointed storytelling was excused by the fact that detectives thought that she was, of course, devastated and traumatized or just having found her best friend murdered, which is totally fair, right?

• 33:54Kendall Rae?

  And take, for example, her story about going to the park. If you remember, Lorraine said that she left their house for a few hours because Lanell and Louis were fighting and that she went to that nearby park. The more they thought about it, though, who in their right mind was going to walk over a mile to a park in the June California heat and then sit outside for five hours? So that was one thing, okay? And then another weird thing is they remembered that there were two bullets that they found in her purse. Of course, Lorraine's bag was searched that first day that she came in, and at the time, they didn't think much of it. But now, that seems strange, which I will say, I think that's a pretty damn big red

• 34:38Kendall Rae?

  flag right from the start. But hey, I'm not a detective, I guess. But yeah, their suspicions are really starting to grow here, and that's when they brought her in for questioning a second time and they asked her about it.

• 34:51Speaker 06

  The sergeant did interview you earlier as part of officer's safety, you know, because you have blood on you and you just came from a mercy, he had to make sure you don't have a gun in there that could shoot him. So he looked at your purse and he saw it.

• 35:01Speaker 04

  Let me backtrack.

• 35:02Speaker 06

  Yeah, think about it.

• 35:03Speaker 04

  That came from the...

• 35:06Kendall Rae?

  She continued by saying that she had found it outside near the house and just happened to pick it up. But when they asked her about the second bullet, she had nothing to say.

• 35:16Speaker 06

  Told you that there were two bullets in your purse.

• 35:19Speaker 04

  Two?

• 35:19Speaker 06

  Two.

• 35:20Speaker 04

  I don't, I don't know how there's two.

• 35:22Kendall Rae?

  And of course, she also could not explain how she saw Louis in the house if he clearly was never there, and there's proof for that. And then they just went ahead and straight up asked her, "Did you murder your friend Lanell?" And she said she had no reason to do it, that she loved her friend.

• 35:39Speaker 04

  I could prove Louis wasn't in the house when you said he was there. I got pictures of him. He wasn't anywhere near you. He wasn't anywhere near Comdale. My point is that I don't know where I was, I saw what I saw.

• 35:52Speaker 06

  Now, looking back, is there anything that you want to tell us that's different?

• 35:57Speaker 04

  All day, then I think any sex that anybody, that should have been good. Did you kill your friend? I did not kill my friend. I had no reason to kill my friend. I loved my friend.

• 36:07Kendall Rae?

  And if you thought the twists were done here, you would be wrong because Lorraine was anything but a friend to Lanell. After that first night of questioning following the murder, she had run into Lanell's mom, Bobby, in the hallway of the sheriff's office, and they exchanged a few words. Well, detectives soon found out that Bobby had no idea who the fuck she was. She had gone up to her mom, told her that, oh yeah, me and Lanell were friends since high school, and she even gave her mom a hug. But turns out, her mom had genuinely never seen this woman in her life.

• 36:45Speaker 03

  The detective, and this person walked out of the hallway. And the first thing I asked, I said, "How do you know Lanell?" And she said, "Um, we went to crush her together." I said, "Crush her?" I said, "I don't know you." And she hugged me, and she said, "You have my condolences." I told the detective, I said, "I don't know her."

• 37:02Kendall Rae?

  And there's even more of a twist here because... Not only did Bobby not know her that well, but Lanell also didn't know her that well either. That's right. These two women were not best friends for the last 10 years. Anything but that, in fact, because four months after her murder, detectives discovered via phone records that they had only known each other for a few months. It turns out that they actually had met on Craigslist after Lorraine posted a women seeking women ad, which Lanell responded to. They had been briefly intimate with one another, but only five days before her murder, Lanell texted her saying she wanted to focus on her relationship with Louis and wanted them to just be friends.

• 37:46Kendall Rae?

  Lanell's message said, "I'm getting quite serious with my boyfriend, and I don't want anything sexual with you anymore. I enjoy your friendship and will like to keep it that way." Lorraine even seemed to agree and responded with, "I understand. I just seeking friendship as well. I think you're a cool person to hang out with." So that right there is your motive, people. Investigators believed, and this is what I believe happened too, that when Lanell ended things, it completely set Lorraine off and led her to do the unthinkable. By this point, they had learned that she was in a ton of debt. She was still living with her mom, and it seemed like she had become obsessed with Lanell and obsessed with the idea of becoming her. In fact, she had been dating other women and would tell these other women that her name was Crystal,

• 38:31Kendall Rae?

  which, as I said earlier, is Lanell's middle name. She also would tell these other women that she drove a BMW, which was Lanell's car. And if you're not convinced enough already, forensic testing confirmed that it was her bloody fingerprint on that picture found in the garage and her DNA on those latex gloves. Plus, her footprint matched to the bloody footprint found on the area rug, and a handwriting expert later determined that she wrote the Dear John letter. Also, despite the murder weapon never having been found, a nine-millimeter Smith & Wesson was registered to her name, and the bullets in her purse were, of course, a match to the type of shell casing found at the scene. And interestingly, and also concerningly,

• 39:15Kendall Rae?

  when they originally looked it up to see if any weapons were registered to her name, nothing came up. But within a short amount of time, that same database did show the gun purchase. And I guess because she had bought it just a few months earlier, it took the system some time to catch up with her. Again, that has me concerned. And her first plan was to put her body in the car and then dump her somewhere in the desert. And when that didn't work, her backup plan was to try and frame Louis. Now thankfully, that plan didn't work. But before you get too excited, her arrest didn't come easily. Lorraine knew by this point that Louis was out of jail, and that meant the clock was ticking for her.

• 40:00Kendall Rae?

  And so she ended up fleeing the country before they could grab her. And unfortunately, it took them a year before they could find her, and she was in Belize. And they only managed to do so after an episode featuring Lanell's case was aired on America's Most Wanted. Finally, though, in January of 2012, she was apprehended, and she was brought back to the States where she ultimately pleaded not guilty to the charges. And she even tried to call her Belize trip a vacation.

• 40:29Speaker 03

  How was my trip? And how did I end up?

• 40:31Speaker 06

  I'm just curious, was there anything else?

• 40:33Speaker 03

  Hmm, I went on vacation, you know? I knew what people would do, what story.

• 40:40Speaker 06

  What did it say? What did it say?

• 40:42Speaker 03

  Oh, what did it? Oh, that I was plotting on my friend for, um, what? Financial support or something like that? Or basically trying to move and that I might be moved on.

• 40:55Kendall Rae?

  But I'm happy to tell you some good news, okay? The jury found her the term guilty as fuck, but definitely guilty. And she was sentenced to two 25 years to life prison terms. And no surprise here, she did try to appeal her sentence, but that was unsuccessful. And I imagine that, and I hope, that she will be in prison for the rest of her miserable life. This case genuinely blew my mind. It's really one of the most insane and twisted ones that I have personally ever heard. And like I said at the start of the episode, I don't want the absurdity and craziness of this case, all of the details of it, to overshadow the person at the heart of this, which is Lanell.

• 41:39Kendall Rae?

  She was very clearly a wonderful person, someone who was really dedicated to helping others in her life. And she had already made such a big impact on so many people. Marcel, for example, called her his guardian angel in America. And since her passing, he actually named his daughter after her, which I thought was really beautiful. And then Louis, who was also one of Lorraine's victims in all of this, went on and luckily got married, and he has a child. And he said he never could have done all of that without the truth coming to light. And I'm so glad that it did and that at the end of the day, Lanell received the justice that she deserves. But it certainly doesn't take away from the massive amount of pain and trauma

• 42:23Kendall Rae?

  that her family has had to experience, all of her loved ones. I mean, so many people cared deeply for Lanell. And, you know, it's really just horrible thinking about all of the people that she would have gone on to help in her life and how she'll never get to do that. And those people will never experience Lanell. But I do just hope that with the justice having been served and the truth having come out, that it does at least bring an ounce of healing to their family and ease their pain just a little bit. Now, I definitely want to hear from you guys on this one. Definitely want to hear your thoughts. So let me know in the comments or on social media. You can follow me on Instagram at officialtckr, I think.

• 43:08Kendall Rae?

  I hope I have that right. I should probably check. Anyway, my Instagram, TikTok, all of those things will be listed below, but I would love to hear from you guys. Um, so if you're listening to this episode, then I think that's a great way to connect with me. Thank you so much for joining me today. As always, I appreciate you guys being here so much. I will be back next week to discuss another case, but until then, stay safe out there.

• 43:51Kendall Rae?

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• 43:56Speaker 06

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• 44:20Speaker 06

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• 44:47Speaker 03

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