Rob Handy
Appearances
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
We're getting a little desperate. We're running out of things to do that we're going to solve this case.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
Criminals often mask their trophy tapes in the middle of videos that are even commercially made. You're watching a movie, and then all of a sudden it switches right to pornography, and it's clearly grainy, different quality. It's dubbed in, and then it dubs back to the commercial video.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
It was done in such a way as to, like, conceal it.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
In the middle of the hardcore pornography video was a home video.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
He was emotional and upset.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
No one thought he would be capable of doing that.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
We decided we were kind of running out of room, and let's see what we can get.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
Basically, we had the one day to put it together. It was a scramble.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
Five minutes later, I'm leaving with a $10,000 check made out to me, and my boss is like, just bring me back receipts.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
We literally called people that morning and said, hey, go home, get a change of clothes, get gear to hike in the canyon, and be back at work in like three hours.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
We had people hiking down into the Grand Canyon to get down ahead of him.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
We used an airplane because you couldn't use a helicopter over the Grand Canyon.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
Well, we felt an obligation to protect Warren.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
We knew if we could just get the right circumstance, he would confess to Warren. If Warren would continue. Warren was fragile. He was not comfortable in any of it. We have no communication directly with Warren.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
Warren pulled into that parking lot, and we pulled in behind him. And Warren got out.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
He was crying, emotionally broke down, got in his car. And then I just left. We're like, oh, geez. We couldn't get back fast enough and try to figure out what we had.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
This is it. We got him. Everybody was just overwhelmingly relieved and happy and excited that this was going to come to an end. There's a lot of people that put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in that case.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
We just methodically searched every square inch of the house. These cops are thorough. Every drawer, every nook, every cranny, every couch cushion, everywhere.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
We were looking for accelerant or a diary or, you know, diagrams or maps of the preserve. We didn't find any of that. There was newspaper clippings of the fire coverage and stuff like that.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
Nothing completely damning to him at all.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
The pornography was interesting because it was extreme.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
We found boxes of printed pornography, and it was all organized in systematic files, printed on the backsides of scrap paper.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
There was a book in the house, Helping Your Loved One Overcome a Pornography Addiction, something like that.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
There was a theory that developed during the search that somehow there was a connection.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
He kept talking about what a great guy Mark was, like a second dad to his daughter, that kind of stuff.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 5: The Confession
We told him, look, help us prove it's not him. Help us prove his innocence. You need to get to the bottom of it too here, Warren. Help us out.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
There was an IT-related issue with the cameras. Something was amiss.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
We missed him. We missed our opportunity.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
Here we come up with a perfect plan, put it all in motion, and we fumbled it.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
Oh, it was devastating. It's like fumbling on the goal line, ready to score the winning touchdown, and the other team picks it up and runs the other way and wins. That's really what it felt like. It was horrible. I was irate. Terry was upset.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
That was probably the one time where I, you know, melted down a little bit. We've worked so hard to get to this point. We looked at so many things to get to this point, and now we missed our one opportunity we're gonna get. We were getting sloppy. We'd lost our focus on details. I brought everybody in a room and chewed everybody out and was ticked.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
We were missing important things. And in hindsight, that was my fault. At the time, I didn't realize that. I was mad at everybody else. I just said, how many more ways can we fuck this thing up?
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
And I said, what? And he said, there's infinite ways we can F this thing up. And then everybody laughed, and the whole temperature came down.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
Several weeks went by, no activity on the cameras.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
We decided to come up with a sign to try to entice him again.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
This big, massive mansion that was going to take up the whole lot.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
Coming soon kind of a thing.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
He was reporting the news, reporting a story and didn't feel any obligation to help us identify the person and felt it was against his journalism standards.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
I got called in the middle of the night. We all went and met out there, and we just set up a command post and started working it from there.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
Oh, yeah. We were angry. We were frustrated. For sure.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
We looked into James quite a bit. Not as a suspect out there lighting the fires, but we saw James as facilitating and promoting criminal activity.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
We looked into everything we could about him. Did you surveil him at any point? Sure. We're going to try to figure out, was there a relationship there? Did he actually get a tip? How did this work?
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
We did several search warrants on the New Times. We did all kinds of things.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
We surveilled every New Times jewelry truck, and we surveilled all the New Times stands in the Phoenix area we could.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
We followed a few people that picked up papers. We'd get their plate number or figure out who they were or get them ID'd, and they'd go on our list.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
We were searching for needles and haystacks, and we were literally grasping at anything we could.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
Oh yeah. There were things in there that we felt were probably truthful.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
We dissected every word of that article.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
His confident demeanor suggests he's ambitious and educated.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
there was some special affinity for the area around the Lee Benson fire. We felt that that area was very special to that person.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
If we set a trap in that area, they may come there.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
We're trying to put together a group to do surveillance, and it was going around to different squads in the precinct asking for volunteers.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
I was trying to get, like, one volunteer off every squad.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
They wanted to know the hours. They didn't want to be flexible. They wanted to know if they were getting overtime and all these things. I'm like, look, I have no idea. I don't have any idea how this is going to work. I'm just looking for people who might be interested. No takers.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
And I'm like, sure, Kerry, you're in.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
She's working with the FBI. She's working at the FBI office. She's doing all kinds of fun things.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
You didn't volunteer. I got my volunteer. You're not bumping her now that it's fun and that she's making money and having a great time. We're not doing that, you know?
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
We all would sit in a room once a week and get on a whiteboard and try to refocus and re-strategize.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
We'd sit in those meetings and talk, and then all of a sudden somebody would come up with a theory. We'd all walk out of there thinking, yeah, it's one guy. And then we'd meet the next week after we worked the leads for the week, and we'd be like, yeah, it's a group.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
The haystack's getting bigger and bigger, but the needle's still the same size.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
But whoever did, it was a great idea. We started penciling it out on a whiteboard. How does this look? What can we do? All of us felt like this has got a good chance of working.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
— While we were doing that, the tech people at the FBI were setting up surveillance cameras in the desert for us.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
Cameras that were transmitted over the cell frequency then were very new and they weren't real advanced. So we had to have people sit in these connex boxes and watch cameras all night, every night.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 4: The Bait
The fence was supposed to go up like on Friday and the surveillance was supposed to start that night.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 6: Behind the Facade
We were a little fearful that he'd be like a trapped criminal at that point. We weren't sure what he would do when he knew we were coming for him.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 6: Behind the Facade
Had he been charged in local court, he'd have been charged with that too.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 6: Behind the Facade
I did. Yeah? Yeah, I felt it was fair.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 6: Behind the Facade
Essentially, commodities were purchased, transported across state lines to build a home, and he disrupted that process.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 6: Behind the Facade
It is getting creative with the statute for sure.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 6: Behind the Facade
So if this would have turned out to be an ecoterrorist group, then the FBI has jurisdiction, and there's a lot of federal statutes that apply to that.