MrBallen

And then as they completed the final steps, they could feel sweat beating on their forehead because if they did anything wrong, the bomb would go off.

But the killer got it all done and they stood up very slowly and carefully and walked back out through the front door.

But before they could get in their car and drive away, they saw one of the neighborhood girls playing in the yard next door.

And the girl looked at them and waved and said hello.

And the killer, who felt like they belong there and no one will remember me,

they waved back.

Well, the little girl remembered that interaction, and she would tell Detective Shepard who she saw leaving Kem's house.

It was none other than Kem's ex-boyfriend and the father of her son, Dale Fostick.

Dale was very upset that Kem had broken up with him and was now seeing Kurt.

He had also heard from Cricket, who he was still very close with, that Kurt had talked about adopting his own son, and this enraged him.

He couldn't stand the idea that his own boy might grow up calling another man dad.

So he used the electronic skills and the tools he'd acquired from his hobby of building model airplanes to build a pipe bomb.

And so ultimately, Dale was caught because of his entitlement to feel like he could just stroll into Kemp's house anytime he wanted.

Because he did that all the time, despite her saying not to, he became a familiar face in the neighborhood.

And that's why that little girl remembered him.

After months of forensic work that tied Dale even more closely to the bomb, he was finally arrested and found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to 61 years in prison.

But he would only serve 14 of those years because in 2010, while still behind bars, Dale died of a sudden illness.

A quick note about our stories, they are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

The Mr. Ballin Podcast, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, is hosted and executive produced by me, Mr. Ballin.

Our head of writing is Evan Allen.