Deadly Mirage - Ep. 1: Death in the High Desert
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The body lay on the shop floor, the man's shaven head leaning against the front left tire of a service truck. There was a dime-sized hole in his chin and a pool of blood slowly congealing on the concrete floor. Scarlet stained the front of his shirt, which was stiffening in the dry desert air. A few feet away lay a bullet and a line of broken fluorescent glass, white and powdery, like a line of drugs. For more than an hour, silence hung over this scene of death and disorder. A quiet broken only by the occasional sound of a big diesel rig out on the highway. Then shortly before 7 p.m., a man scheduled to work second shift walked in. And that silence was replaced by screams.
This is the story of what happened that afternoon in 2014 and why. But it's also about much more.
It's about long shadows cast by old sins.
It starts as a Playboy Channel fantasy, but this is real life and there are real complications.
It's about the pairings of flawed souls, unholy alliances that spiraled out of control.
It had everything. It had sex, religion, the seemingly perfect, beautiful family that had all these secrets.
It's about faith and faithlessness, murder, and the thrill of moral escapism.
God's given us a purpose, and he's given us a chance with that purpose.
This murder was God's work. They spoke about that many times. They were doing God's work.
In this podcast, you'll hear from people who loved that man found lying on the shop floor in August 2014. He became my best buddy.
like everybody else is.
You'll hear from some who wanted him dead. I had a frank disgust for him that was developing and contributing to me being very dismissive of his life, ultimately.
And you'll hear from the newly minted homicide detective whose job it was to find the killer or killers responsible.
That was the first homicide that I had arrived to and was assigned as a lead detective.
It's a pretty big first case.
It is a big first case.
I'm Josh Mankiewicz, and this is Deadly Mirage, a podcast from Dateline. Life in the Mojave Desert can be tenuous. It's remarkable, really, that anything survives in this vast, dry version of nowhere. The sun, high and blinding. Bone-chilling nights. Days so hot, the highways seem to ripple and heave in the heat. Even at high speed, the Mojave looks formidable. Distant mountains seem to recede, Shimmering dry heat causes visions of water to appear on sandy plains in front of you. Nevertheless, thousands of people live here, many in communities scattered along the highway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. One of those towns, about two hours east of LA, is Hellandale. It's the primary setting for much of the story you're about to hear.
Hellendale is a city out in the middle of the desert. That's Michael Fleeman, a true crime writer whose book about this case is titled Better Off Dead. And within Hellendale is an oasis within the oasis, and that's called Silver Lakes. Sort of a bedroom community, stucco houses, golf course, two lakes, clandestine. clubhouse. It's this beautiful little bedroom community out in the middle of nowhere.
Yes, like a mirage. Lushly green silver lakes is about as genuine as a plastic Christmas tree in front of a chemical Yule log. Regardless, it's home sweet home to the retirees and young families who've chosen to live there.
It was sort of Palm Springs light, the big spacious houses, families with kids running around, bikes in the streets. It looked like kind of the American dream neighborhood.
Sounds kind of wholesome, doesn't it?
It is. And if you go there, it's almost something out of a Disney movie.
It's no wonder real estate boosters dubbed Hellendale as the happiest place in the high desert. And Silver Lakes? Well, it might have been the happiest place of all. You see, a dozen or so years ago, there was a close group of 30-somethings in Silver Lakes, and they liked to party hardy.
Yeah!
They called themselves the Wolf Pack, maybe because whenever they got together, they howled. When the Wolf Pack wasn't living it up at house parties, they hired babysitters and took the show on the road.
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