63 - The Environmentalist

[00:00:04] At the intersection of true crime and real estate, you'll find Crime Estate. I'm Heather.

[00:00:09] And my name is Elena. As real estate agents and true crime junkies, we view crimes through

[00:00:14] a different lens. So walk through the door of some of the most notorious true crimes with

[00:00:18] us and discover how sometimes the scene of the crime has its own story to tell.

[00:00:27] Hey y'all, welcome to today's episode of Crime Estate. I'm Heather, joined as always by Elena

[00:00:33] and Melanie. And you know, it is that time of year again that all of us are crazy busy

[00:00:39] with end of year family events, parties, Christmas decorating and planning for some time off work,

[00:00:45] school, oh my gosh, all the school events.

[00:00:47] All the things.

[00:00:48] And even podcasting. And so for this week, we're flipping the script and Melanie, our fabulous

[00:00:54] producer, is giving Elena and I the week off and is going to be telling us about our crime.

[00:01:01] Thanks. Even though I have an inside view into the research process that you do, I have to admit,

[00:01:08] as I prepared for this week, I had no idea how hard it is. You ladies make it look so easy. So,

[00:01:16] apologies to everyone. But I have had a story that I've been wanting to cover since last year. In fact,

[00:01:23] my mom actually first brought it up to me.

[00:01:27] We love when our family members and listeners give us suggestions. It makes it so much easier.

[00:01:31] Yeah, absolutely. So keep bringing on the ideas.

[00:01:35] Okay. So when I researched this story, and even more importantly, when I saw the pictures of the amazing

[00:01:41] house at the center of this crime, I knew it would be perfect for crime estate. And for this story, we stay,

[00:01:48] once again, in our frequent crime home of California. But this time we move up to Northern California,

[00:01:54] in particular, the town of Santa Cruz. Now, my mom is from Santa Cruz. And you know, I grew up kind of in

[00:02:00] lots of different places. My dad grew up in many different places. So Santa Cruz is the kind of the one family

[00:02:06] location that sort of feels like the family background. My mom is from Santa Cruz. And actually,

[00:02:12] her family dates back in the area to the 17th century, as they were the Los Californianos.

[00:02:19] You say that so well.

[00:02:20] I pretend. My grandmother used to always speak about this. She was a big founding member of the Los

[00:02:26] Californianos Society. And the Californianos were the children of the early Spanish military expeditions

[00:02:33] that came from Spain into the northern reaches of the California. And according to Wikipedia,

[00:02:38] they established the Presidios, you know, the forts of California, and they subsequently enabled the

[00:02:44] foundation of the California mission system.

[00:02:47] Well, that's a fun little history lesson. I had no idea. Did you?

[00:02:50] Yeah, that's neat.

[00:02:51] Yeah. Like if you go back and look at kind of like the family tree, it, you know, it goes back really far,

[00:02:57] like a lot of the governors of California when it was still part of Spain were the Arguelles, my family.

[00:03:05] And if you go to a bunch of the missions, it's all in like University of Santa Clara.

[00:03:10] There's all the old family, like way, way back family tree. So that's cool.

[00:03:15] Yeah. And my parents married in Santa Cruz in 1969. And my father had been in the Air Force and he was

[00:03:23] stationed in nearby Monterey, California. So if you imagine kind of Monterey Bay, there's it's a sea.

[00:03:30] And at the bottom of the sea is Monterey, which is really kind of Carmel, think Pebble Beach.

[00:03:36] And then at the top of the sea is Santa Cruz. Let's talk about Dr. Victor Ohada.

[00:03:41] And he was a first generation Japanese American, which really is kind of cool if you think about it in this time period,

[00:03:49] because, you know, he grew up just after World War Two, where Japanese Americans were not treated well in America.

[00:03:56] And he was born randomly and raised in Montana to Japanese immigrants.

[00:04:03] And he received his medical training in Chicago and then he served in the Air Force.

[00:04:09] And that's how he landed in California. So his story is really a true rags to riches tale.

[00:04:17] Now, around town in later years, he was well liked and known as quite the fancy dresser.

[00:04:24] He would wear colorful, fancy silk scarves and tailored suits.

[00:04:30] And I could just picture, you know, these silk scarves.

[00:04:33] You know, he wore them instead of wearing like a necktie.

[00:04:35] You know, he was just a little flamboyant.

[00:04:37] He like reminds me about Thurston Howell III.

[00:04:40] Oh, yeah.

[00:04:41] With the, with the, do you know?

[00:04:43] I don't know who that is.

[00:04:45] I'm just a few years older than you.

[00:04:48] From Gilligan's Island?

[00:04:49] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:04:50] Okay.

[00:04:50] Yeah.

[00:04:51] That's perfect.

[00:04:52] Very dapper.

[00:04:52] Yes.

[00:04:53] He's dapper, but not in an understated way.

[00:04:57] It sounds like he liked to be a little more overstated.

[00:05:00] Yes.

[00:05:00] Like, yes.

[00:05:01] And I mean, if you think about it, he grew up to Japanese American immigrants right after

[00:05:06] World War II in Montana.

[00:05:07] Like, you know, he maybe didn't come from this, but he got there.

[00:05:12] And in addition, he drove a red Rolls Royce.

[00:05:16] I mean, good for him.

[00:05:18] He liked to stand out for sure.

[00:05:19] Yeah.

[00:05:19] Yes.

[00:05:19] He was not a wallflower.

[00:05:22] And his wife drove a black and gold Lincoln Continental.

[00:05:26] And they lived in this amazing mansion.

[00:05:28] And I don't know exactly what the definition of mansion is, but this was a beautiful home

[00:05:34] in the mountaintops above Soquel, just south of Santa Cruz.

[00:05:40] Ooh, tell us more about the house.

[00:05:41] Yeah.

[00:05:42] Okay.

[00:05:42] So this is how I first learned about the story was I looking at the house and then I researched

[00:05:47] the background of it.

[00:05:48] And over 50 years later, this custom stunning mid-century home at 999 North Rodeo Gulch Drive

[00:05:57] is still known today as the Ohada house, which is really cool that like, and I don't think

[00:06:03] it was, you know, it's not known for what comes next.

[00:06:06] It really is that because it was a custom built at his request.

[00:06:10] And at the time it was a $300,000 home in 1970s money.

[00:06:16] And it was built in 65 and designed by Aaron Green.

[00:06:20] Now I didn't know who Aaron Green is, but he was a protege of Frank Lloyd Wright.

[00:06:25] All right.

[00:06:26] So again, you know, I love how our stories often unintentionally relate to one another

[00:06:32] because we covered the amazing story of Frank Lloyd Wright's house, Taliesin and the murders

[00:06:38] that happened there in his family home.

[00:06:41] I think that was episode 15.

[00:06:43] So if you love mid-century moderns, if you love Frank Lloyd Wright, or if you just love the

[00:06:48] rest of this episode, you should check out episode 15 as well.

[00:06:51] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:06:53] Yeah.

[00:06:53] So Aaron Green apparently is still very well known and there are tours of the homes and the

[00:07:00] buildings that he made.

[00:07:01] And so he's quite remarkable.

[00:07:04] And I actually read this morning that some architectural enthusiasts said that this home reminds them

[00:07:10] of a smaller Taliesin.

[00:07:13] So yeah, I think when you look at the pictures and maybe you're going to say this, but it's

[00:07:17] sort of built into a hill like Taliesin is.

[00:07:19] Yeah.

[00:07:20] Yeah.

[00:07:20] Very built into the surroundings.

[00:07:22] It's the style plus built into the, yeah, exactly.

[00:07:24] Like it's not a house that you would replicate just anywhere.

[00:07:28] I mean, it was of the location.

[00:07:31] And it's very private.

[00:07:33] It has six bedrooms, three bathrooms, over 4,000 square feet of light filled space.

[00:07:39] So think about all the light and the sun coming into this home, overlooking the deep wooded ravines,

[00:07:45] but also of the Pacific Ocean.

[00:07:47] This home is mainly made of sandstone masonry.

[00:07:51] And in keeping with the era, it also boasts lots of dark woods, teak and redwood, and just

[00:07:57] like, you know, that built in cabin tree that you a lot of times see in some of these mid-century

[00:08:01] modern homes.

[00:08:02] And it's an 11 acre hilltop estate, as I mentioned, overlooking the ocean and had and continues to have this like free form

[00:08:13] lagoon like giant pool on the outdoor terrace, tennis courts, wine cellar, and you know, a Japanese garden, which also reminds me of Taliesin.

[00:08:24] Yeah.

[00:08:24] Yeah.

[00:08:24] Well, we said we don't know exactly what makes a mansion, but I think anytime you have a tennis court or a Japanese garden, you're in that category for sure.

[00:08:32] It's a gorgeous house.

[00:08:34] You'll have to check out our socials to see the pictures.

[00:08:36] It really is beautiful.

[00:08:38] And I can absolutely see why Victor and his family were drawn to this picturesque home and its specific site location.

[00:08:47] But yeah, sadly, that is exactly why they died.

[00:08:52] Why they died?

[00:08:54] Yeah.

[00:08:55] Yeah.

[00:08:55] So this is, you know, really kind of going back to the name of our podcast, Crime Estate.

[00:09:01] This is a case where the scene of the crime is the exact focus.

[00:09:05] They, you know, this event occurs because of the home and the home is not incidental to the storyline.

[00:09:14] But before I get to the crime, let me tell you a little bit more about the Ojada family.

[00:09:48] It occurs to the names.

[00:09:49] And his wife was an Anglo-Saxon, you know, kind of white woman.

[00:09:53] And he was, you know, Japanese-American.

[00:09:56] Like, just a really interesting story.

[00:09:58] Like today that is so normal, but that's really cool for that era.

[00:10:01] And the Japanese-American community in Santa Cruz is, you know, very strong.

[00:10:06] My cousin attended Japanese language school her entire childhood.

[00:10:15] My, and they're not Japanese.

[00:10:17] These are just really involved in the community and just really kind of like an interesting thing.

[00:10:23] Every summer she went to Japanese camp.

[00:10:26] You and her family and language.

[00:10:28] Yeah.

[00:10:28] It's wild.

[00:10:29] It has not really hit my children.

[00:10:33] So now, nearby, in nearby Santa Cruz, and SoCal is sort of like that unincorporated town, like, you know, next to Santa Cruz.

[00:10:42] You and I would not know any difference.

[00:10:44] Lived a gentleman named John Lindley Frazier.

[00:10:48] Oh, he has three names.

[00:10:49] That's not good.

[00:10:49] I mean, it really is interesting how often the bad guys have three names.

[00:10:57] Now, Frazier had also grown up in the Santa Cruz area and dropped out of high school as a freshman in 1961.

[00:11:03] He got work occasionally as an auto mechanic, but after a car accident in the late 1960s, he became deeply religious and came to believe that God was telling him to commit murders.

[00:11:14] Because in his own words that he relayed to friends, God had chosen him to save the environment.

[00:11:21] Now, he actually was married to Dolores and had a young child of his own.

[00:11:26] But Frazier became hyper-focused on retribution to whomever he considered to be materialist.

[00:11:34] Frazier focused his attention on Victor Ohada, drawn by this gorgeous mansion in the hills and the fancy cars and his attire about town.

[00:11:42] Frazier believed that Ohada was abusing the natural environment.

[00:11:47] And, crazy enough, and I don't think the family knew about this, he often broke into the Ohada family home when no one was home.

[00:11:55] That's crazy.

[00:11:55] Yeah.

[00:11:56] This all kind of comes out later on.

[00:11:59] Frazier told his friends that Ohada needed to be, and I use air quotes, snuffed out.

[00:12:05] Threats that later became his undoing when the friends told the police.

[00:12:09] If I ever tell you guys that God is speaking to me and telling me to commit murder to save the environment, please have me committed.

[00:12:17] Like, don't even pretend.

[00:12:19] Like, just call the authorities immediately.

[00:12:21] Yeah.

[00:12:22] Yeah.

[00:12:22] Yeah.

[00:12:23] I'm with you.

[00:12:23] That's messed up.

[00:12:24] Okay.

[00:12:25] So, now we're going to go back to the scene of the actual crime.

[00:12:28] And as I mentioned, it was on the night of October 19th, 1970, firefighters were called to 99 North Rodeo Gulch Road in SoCal.

[00:12:36] And when they arrived, a fire chief, you know, he was looking for a fire hydrant or even was thinking about using the water from the pool to fight the fire.

[00:12:46] And while swinging his flashlight, because it's dark at this point in time, he saw something floating in the pool.

[00:12:52] And on closer inspection, he saw a body.

[00:12:56] Actually, multiple bodies.

[00:12:58] How many bodies?

[00:13:00] Five in total.

[00:13:01] So, Dr. Ohada, his wife, Virginia, sons, Derek and Taggart, and Dr. Ohada's secretary, Dorothy Caldwell.

[00:13:11] And, you know, I really want to make sure and specifically call out Dorothy because stories of this crime often, you know, over-locurate because, you know, they talk about it being the Ohada family mansion murders.

[00:13:21] And Dorothy was also a victim.

[00:13:24] She was 39 year old.

[00:13:25] She was his secretary, had worked for him for like eight plus years.

[00:13:29] She was a mother, married.

[00:13:33] And, you know, her husband kind of called out some of the publicity afterwards going, hey, my wife was a victim too.

[00:13:40] And, okay, luckily, remember the two daughters were out of town at school, but the rest of the family and Dorothy were bound with Dr. Ohada's colorful silk scarves.

[00:13:53] Wow.

[00:13:54] Yeah.

[00:13:54] So, that all comes back to the silk scarves.

[00:13:57] Everyone was killed execution style with Dr. Ohada having been shot twice in the back of the neck and once in the arm and everyone else shot once.

[00:14:05] And with the blood spatter, it appeared that everyone had been shot just in that sun deck next to the pool.

[00:14:11] Now, stacks of kindling were piled up throughout the house, highlighting it was very obvious that this fire was intentionally set.

[00:14:22] Robbery was quickly and easily ruled out as the motive as the family was wearing expensive jewelry and there was, you know, electronics and stuff throughout the home.

[00:14:31] In the driveway, the family's Rolls-Royce was parked with a typewritten note sticking out behind the windshield wipers.

[00:14:39] There was a couple of really good Time Magazine articles from shortly after the crime in 1970 and one of them quoted the article as saying, Halloween 1970.

[00:14:50] It read,

[00:14:52] It read,

[00:14:52] Today, World War III will begin as brought to you by the people of the free universe.

[00:14:57] From the day forward, anyone and or company of persons who misuses the natural environment or destroy same will suffer the penalty of death by the people of the free universe.

[00:15:08] The note was signed with a fortune teller tarot card names, one name to align, knight of wands, knight of cups, knight of pentacles, and knight of swords.

[00:15:19] Hmm.

[00:15:20] Okay, I'm going to go on record too, Elena, as saying also if you feel like you need to write a manifesto, your friend should lock you up.

[00:15:27] Yeah, totally.

[00:15:28] If God is talking to you and telling you to do bad things or you think it's necessary to write a manifesto, things are not going to end well for you.

[00:15:36] Call someone.

[00:15:37] All right, but I'm curious.

[00:15:40] Have you ever had like tarot cards?

[00:15:42] Is that something you would do?

[00:15:44] Because you're so like aware of the spiritual.

[00:15:49] I thought I would do it, but I was at an event with a friend a couple of weeks ago and her son did tarot cards.

[00:15:57] He's little.

[00:15:59] Like he had his cards read?

[00:16:00] He had his cards read, yeah.

[00:16:01] And the woman who was doing it was like, I'm not.

[00:16:05] She's like, first of all, she said, I'm not going to tell you everything that I see.

[00:16:09] And then she was like, there was something else she wouldn't do in regards to the tarot cards for him because she thought it opened portals.

[00:16:16] And so up until then, I thought that that was something I would be open to.

[00:16:19] But she took it so seriously and was like, I'm not doing this and I'm not doing this because of portals.

[00:16:26] I'm not.

[00:16:26] And we know that you do not like the portals.

[00:16:29] Not messing around with portals.

[00:16:31] Listeners, if you've listened to a few of her, I think our earlier episodes, I think her fear of portals has come up.

[00:16:38] And attachments.

[00:16:39] No attachments.

[00:16:39] Oh, yes, attachments.

[00:16:40] Yeah.

[00:16:41] Yeah.

[00:16:42] Okay.

[00:16:42] Well, I was just curious.

[00:16:43] What would you?

[00:16:45] I don't know.

[00:16:46] I think it's sort of icky.

[00:16:47] I don't want to know the future.

[00:16:48] It stresses me out.

[00:16:49] I do think people have those powers.

[00:16:50] Like I think, I don't know if powers is the right word to use.

[00:16:53] The insight.

[00:16:54] I don't know.

[00:16:54] I do feel like people can do that stuff.

[00:16:56] Like they just know.

[00:16:58] You might be right.

[00:16:59] I don't know.

[00:16:59] Mm-hmm.

[00:17:00] Melanie, you wouldn't do it then?

[00:17:02] Or for fun?

[00:17:03] I would do it for fun.

[00:17:04] I think I did it once a long time ago, like on my bachelorette party in New Orleans.

[00:17:09] But I don't even remember what it said.

[00:17:11] It was your bachelor party in New Orleans.

[00:17:13] We probably were drinking a lot.

[00:17:14] Yeah.

[00:17:16] Yeah.

[00:17:17] I think if somebody started talking about portals and things like that, then it would kind of go from fun to a little creepy.

[00:17:25] I think it's interesting, though, that he said God was talking to him, but then he signed it with tarot card.

[00:17:31] Like to me, those two don't equate.

[00:17:33] But maybe in 1970s, like hippie California, the two are, you know, a little more spiritual openness.

[00:17:38] So that's interesting.

[00:17:40] Okay.

[00:17:41] So they find this note on the car window.

[00:17:43] Okay.

[00:17:44] Okay.

[00:17:45] And later that day, local railroad workers found the Ohada's third car that we hadn't spoken about, their 1968 Oldsmobile.

[00:17:54] And it kind of cracks me up.

[00:17:55] We're talking about their Lincoln Continental.

[00:17:57] We're talking about the Rolls Royce and their Oldsmobile.

[00:18:01] So the assailant took the Oldsmobile to leave the scene of the crime and abandoned and burned it in a railroad tunnel in Henry Cowell Redwood State Park, which I go to every time I'm in Santa Cruz.

[00:18:16] Investigators theorized that the assailants had escaped the home in the car.

[00:18:21] At the time, they thought because of the number of people involved, it had to be more than one person.

[00:18:26] It was unknown exactly when the murders occurred.

[00:18:29] But Victor and Virginia had been expected to attend a charity hospital dinner that evening at 715.

[00:18:36] And there was some speculation that maybe Dorothy was there to babysit the younger sons, although her husband denied that.

[00:18:43] She had worked, you know, as I mentioned, at the medical office.

[00:18:46] So sadly, it might just have been a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

[00:18:50] And based upon the clothing they were wearing, the assumption is that they were killed mid-afternoon.

[00:18:56] They hadn't changed for their night out.

[00:18:59] Now, recall this is Santa Cruz in 1970.

[00:19:02] And we joke in my family that my mom was a hippie.

[00:19:06] And to some extent, that's probably true.

[00:19:08] But also, truthfully, she was from a military family.

[00:19:11] And, you know, my father was military at the time.

[00:19:15] But Santa Cruz was definitely at that time, and honestly, still to some extent, a beautiful, hippie-ish, very environmentally focused area.

[00:19:25] And in a world just after the Manson murders, during the Vietnam War, the residents of the surrounding area quickly pointed their fingers for the murders at the local hippie communes that apparently dotted the hills near the Ohada family custom-built mansion.

[00:19:43] So it was just, they're easy, like, these are the people that we don't like right now.

[00:19:49] Obviously, they were involved.

[00:19:51] Yes.

[00:19:51] Exactly.

[00:19:52] And there was a lot of fear.

[00:19:53] I read one article that said, until they caught the assailant, that local gun sales increased, like, 500%.

[00:20:03] Wow.

[00:20:03] Yeah.

[00:20:04] And, but to be honest, you know, the local, quote, unquote, hippies were equally horrified by the murders and actually helped us to solve the investigation.

[00:20:16] From the same Times Magazine article, at 3 a.m. one morning, a group of hippies, and I love how they just would call people hippies.

[00:20:25] Like, that's not, you know, we kind of jokingly use that as a term today, but, like, that was in the Time Magazine.

[00:20:30] A group of hippies came to Chang to report.

[00:20:36] A group of hippies came to report on John Frazier, the 24-year-old former auto mechanic.

[00:20:43] He had dropped out of the straight world and attempted to join the Santa Cruz hippie community, but he was considered a real freak.

[00:20:50] No, the hippies turned him away.

[00:20:53] And he was paranoid about ecology.

[00:20:56] Acting on a tip, the investigators learned that Frazier had lived for several months in a six-foot by six-foot shanty, half a mile from the murdered family's home, as he descended into a case of paranoid schizophrenia.

[00:21:11] Two days before the slayings, he had abruptly moved out.

[00:21:16] And, yeah, kind of to get back to what you were saying earlier, he had become so reclusive, obsessively studying the Bible and pointing fingers at rich people who were destroying the natural world.

[00:21:29] He had convinced himself that he was actually the John, because, you know, his first name's John, referred to in the New Testament's Book of Revelations.

[00:21:38] Another red flag.

[00:21:39] You think you are somebody in the Bible.

[00:21:42] You're not.

[00:21:43] Yeah.

[00:21:43] At this time period, though, other people knew that he was devolving.

[00:21:48] And his wife and even his mother had actually been really trying to get him to seek therapy, and he had rejected them.

[00:21:55] So, like, people were trying to help him, although I don't think anybody saw what was going to happen.

[00:22:01] Yeah, because, you know, presumably he would have left his home to live in this six-by-six shanty.

[00:22:06] His wife and daughter weren't living there with him.

[00:22:08] Yeah.

[00:22:09] Okay.

[00:22:09] Not at all.

[00:22:10] That's sad.

[00:22:11] And so, armed with all this information from the quote-unquote hippies, four days after the murders, the police were able to lay in wait, staking out the shack for John Frazier.

[00:22:22] And eventually they were able to arrest him without a struggle.

[00:22:25] Okay.

[00:22:27] Once arrested, he admitted that he had targeted the Ojada home because he was personally offended by the ostentatiousness of the hillside home.

[00:22:36] During his prior break-ins of the home, he was upset to find what he thought was an animal blanket on one of the beds.

[00:22:43] And not that it actually matters at all, but it was fake fur.

[00:22:48] It's interesting to me that he burned the car he stole.

[00:22:52] If he was so worried about the environment and, you know, excessive use, it's like, oh, well, you just took this really good practical car and then destroyed it.

[00:23:02] Heather, God told him to do that.

[00:23:03] Oh.

[00:23:04] I mean, let's be clear.

[00:23:05] He was not in his right mind.

[00:23:06] Yeah.

[00:23:06] Yeah.

[00:23:07] He was not making logical choices.

[00:23:09] That's probably the fewest of all the concerns at this point.

[00:23:13] I think you're being a little practical.

[00:23:15] Yeah, I am.

[00:23:15] I am.

[00:23:16] He was not making practical choices.

[00:23:18] Now, he told investigators the exact method of how he killed each member of the family and Dorothy in stages and just in front of each other.

[00:23:28] Chillingly, he asked the women, do you believe in God?

[00:23:31] And when they said yes, he pushed them into the pool and shot them and said, it's a good thing you do.

[00:23:38] Oh, man.

[00:23:39] Not surprisingly, he was convicted of the five counts of death.

[00:23:43] There was a move to charge him with being not guilty due to insanity, which, I mean, I kind of feel like there was probably a strong argument.

[00:23:52] Apparently, like, he even came to court with, like, half of his head shaved and the other half long.

[00:23:58] But he was deemed fully sane.

[00:24:02] He was sentenced to death in November 1971, a sentence he supposedly welcomed.

[00:24:08] But, and I think we might have talked about this previously, but the death penalty was abolished in 1972 in California.

[00:24:17] It was later put in.

[00:24:20] But at that point in time, it was abolished.

[00:24:22] So his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

[00:24:25] And there he remained until, there he remained in prison until 2009 when he committed suicide.

[00:24:35] And sadly, as not too uncommonly, the five deaths were not the end of the story.

[00:24:44] And I mentioned earlier that there were the two sisters who had been away at school.

[00:24:47] One of them ended up committing suicide themselves seven years later, as well as Dr. Ohada's mother.

[00:24:54] She also died very shortly after the murders.

[00:24:59] That's awful.

[00:24:59] It's, I just can't even imagine losing your entire family like that.

[00:25:04] We talked about that in the all-day family murders where, you know, the mom was the only one left.

[00:25:10] And I just, the thought of losing one, much less everyone, it would be a real struggle to move forward.

[00:25:19] Yes, for sure.

[00:25:20] I didn't mean to interrupt.

[00:25:21] That's especially painful for the daughter who was left, like truly the sole survivor of the whole situation.

[00:25:28] Yeah.

[00:25:29] In a 1990 interview, daughter Lark, the sole remaining family survivor, she was quoted as saying,

[00:25:36] I heard that the killer felt that my parents were capitalistic pigs who raped the environment and needed to die.

[00:25:42] Yeah, my dad had expensive cars, but he cared about other people.

[00:25:46] He cared for their eyes for free, even if they couldn't pay.

[00:25:51] That's heartbreaking.

[00:25:52] Yeah.

[00:25:52] Well, I hope she went on to live a happy life despite that tragedy.

[00:25:58] Yeah.

[00:26:00] To wrap this up, let's just go back to the house.

[00:26:02] An older message board, and I love kind of going down the rabbit trails of some of these old, like, you know, message boards.

[00:26:09] Like the pre-Reddits.

[00:26:10] Yes.

[00:26:10] Of the unit.

[00:26:11] Yeah.

[00:26:12] Yeah.

[00:26:12] And it was dedicated to the architect, Aaron Green, and it was actually on the Frank Lloyd Wright Conservatory website.

[00:26:20] Reference news clippings that somebody had found in the Santa Cruz library that the house reverted back to the mortgage holder, Wells Fargo.

[00:26:29] I mean, you know, the survivors were young children.

[00:26:32] There was obviously nobody who could probably pay the mortgage.

[00:26:34] So it went back to the mortgage holder who actually tried to sell the house as is.

[00:26:39] You know, halfway burned down.

[00:26:42] Yeah.

[00:26:43] Okay.

[00:26:43] Yeah.

[00:26:44] So they were not.

[00:26:44] I forgot about the fire portion of the story.

[00:26:47] Yeah.

[00:26:47] They're on the same message board.

[00:26:50] There, you can see the pictures that were taken literally the day after all this went down where the house is halfway destroyed.

[00:26:58] It's crazy.

[00:26:59] But unsurprisingly, they were not able to sell it as is.

[00:27:03] So they ended up spending $70,000 the next year, which is a lot in those days, to kind of restore it in order to sell it.

[00:27:10] Right.

[00:27:11] Because you said the original purchase price was like $300,000 something.

[00:27:14] And that wasn't that long or that much earlier before this, like five, six, seven years.

[00:27:18] Exactly.

[00:27:19] A significant portion of the original investment of the home.

[00:27:22] Eventually, the home changed hands and it quite became, and it became infamous in this closed-knit community.

[00:27:28] There's a bunch of articles on how the home was at varying times on the market with one article titled, The Mansion No One Wants.

[00:27:37] Mm-hmm.

[00:27:38] But most recently, this incredible home sold to new owners in 2016 after being on the market for almost three years.

[00:27:46] Okay.

[00:27:47] Well, I have to tell y'all this.

[00:27:48] So I was looking up the last sale for Melanie on this this morning, and my husband walked into my office and he said, what are you doing?

[00:27:59] I was like, I'm working on crime estate.

[00:28:01] He was like, oh, is that a murder house?

[00:28:02] I think it is.

[00:28:04] That looks like a murder house I'd live in.

[00:28:08] And this house is 100% my husband's style.

[00:28:11] He loves a good, like, 70s modern, which is why we bought this monstrosity when we did.

[00:28:18] But the funniest part was he went on to say, he's like, but, you know, I don't really have high standards on murder houses.

[00:28:23] Because he lived in that, like, awful farmhouse murder house in Iowa.

[00:28:27] Anyway, we'll bring it, like, a little bit of levity and light and fun to this story with that.

[00:28:34] Well, I have to admit, I probably would live in it, too.

[00:28:37] I mean, spoiler alert.

[00:28:39] I mean, it's pretty nice.

[00:28:42] And originally listed, and this thank you, Heather, for all the research, originally listed at $4.45 million in 2016.

[00:28:50] The property eventually sold in 2019 for $3.5 million.

[00:28:55] And, you know, like many of these houses we cover, I'm like, you know, okay, it actually is sort of a good deal, I think, for, I mean.

[00:29:04] Was it 11 acres?

[00:29:06] Yeah, at least originally it was 11 acres.

[00:29:08] I mean, this is expensive real estate area where you can see the ocean.

[00:29:14] You could be surfing, you know, in the afternoon time.

[00:29:18] Yeah, no, with the redwood trees.

[00:29:20] So $3.5 million for this kind of location.

[00:29:24] I think I read that it's, like, on a steep and windy road, which might be a good deal.

[00:29:29] And at the time, that listing description read,

[00:29:32] The home on the ridge of North Rodeo Gulch Road is something extraordinary to behold.

[00:29:38] Timeless, some have said.

[00:29:40] One of a kind.

[00:29:41] Nothing else like it.

[00:29:43] All true.

[00:29:44] But words are inadequate when it comes to describing the acquisite beauty of the site.

[00:29:49] The design.

[00:29:50] The materials.

[00:29:51] The construction.

[00:29:52] The sense that in any time, in any place, yesterday, today, tomorrow, it is one of the most unique creations of the imagination.

[00:30:01] I mean, guys.

[00:30:02] That is so good.

[00:30:03] Like, this is amazing.

[00:30:04] So good.

[00:30:05] Yeah.

[00:30:05] The architect, Aaron Green, an associate to Frank Lloyd Wright, was elegant, but an unassuming genius.

[00:30:11] He created a tribute to vaulting beauty, unpretentiously presented, where stone is stone, wood is wood, and glass is glass, where form and function are one joined in spiritual union.

[00:30:26] I mean, that may be the best listing description I've ever read.

[00:30:30] Whoever wrote that, the listing agent, is Mrs. Calling.

[00:30:33] I know.

[00:30:34] Should have been a novelist.

[00:30:35] It's really good.

[00:30:37] Like, it's almost a joke.

[00:30:38] You're like, really?

[00:30:39] Really?

[00:30:40] But when you look at pictures of this house, and then you read that description, it sort of gives you chills because it's right.

[00:30:47] It's so spot on.

[00:30:51] Yes.

[00:30:52] However.

[00:30:53] However, no mention of the deaths.

[00:30:55] Yeah.

[00:30:55] Or the crime that occurred there.

[00:30:58] But as you guys have completely informed me, remember in California, you only have to disclose if a murder occurred on the property in the last three years.

[00:31:09] Yes.

[00:31:09] Yeah.

[00:31:10] They were well outside that one.

[00:31:11] Yeah.

[00:31:12] And, I mean, let's be honest now.

[00:31:14] Anybody who Googled this house would quickly find it.

[00:31:17] I mean, this was on the front page of the New York Times back then.

[00:31:22] Just to give you a little, like, there was a lot of notoriety of this crime.

[00:31:25] Okay.

[00:31:26] Got ladies.

[00:31:27] Back to the how we end every story.

[00:31:29] Would you list it?

[00:31:30] Would you live there?

[00:31:31] Do you want to go first?

[00:31:32] Yeah, I'll go first.

[00:31:32] I feel like I would do both.

[00:31:35] I think I would live there.

[00:31:36] I would list it for sure.

[00:31:37] I think I would live there because that guy was crazy.

[00:31:40] He's not coming back.

[00:31:42] He was cray-cray.

[00:31:43] So, yes, I would live there.

[00:31:45] Yeah.

[00:31:46] I would list it for sure.

[00:31:48] And I would live there.

[00:31:49] It bothers me that the family's bodies were in the pool.

[00:31:54] Oh, I'd fill that in.

[00:31:55] Yeah.

[00:31:56] I don't think I could ever use the pool.

[00:31:58] Mm-mm.

[00:31:59] But, you know, I might turn the tennis court into a pool.

[00:32:02] But the fact that the murders occurred outside the house.

[00:32:04] It makes a difference.

[00:32:05] It really makes a difference.

[00:32:06] It really does.

[00:32:07] And this house is so mid-century perfect.

[00:32:11] I mean, it's fabulous.

[00:32:13] We know John would live there too.

[00:32:14] Well, and I would like for him to live with me.

[00:32:17] So, yes.

[00:32:18] That makes it good.

[00:32:20] So, ladies, it's the end of the year.

[00:32:22] Is this quiet in your real estate lives?

[00:32:25] Or are there people still buying things?

[00:32:28] I feel like there's always an end-of-the-year push.

[00:32:32] As a matter of fact, I sent out.

[00:32:33] We did a price reduction on a property today.

[00:32:35] And we were like, hey, you know, maybe a little Christmas bonus if it's, you know, closed by end of year.

[00:32:40] Because we've, you know, we're recording this.

[00:32:42] It'll drop a few weeks later.

[00:32:43] But we're recording this like early December, mid-December.

[00:32:47] So, there's still time if you want to pay cash.

[00:32:49] You can buy a house for the holidays.

[00:32:52] That'd be amazing.

[00:32:53] Yeah.

[00:32:54] From us.

[00:32:55] That'd be even better.

[00:32:56] That'd be great.

[00:32:56] But then do some people take their homes off the market during this time period?

[00:33:01] Yeah.

[00:33:01] I mean, I got to imagine I wouldn't, you know, when my house is all decorated or presents into the tree, it's not optimal.

[00:33:08] Yeah.

[00:33:08] And unless you have to buy a house, you're not buying a house right now.

[00:33:12] You're buying a, maybe an investment.

[00:33:15] Maybe it's a vacation house.

[00:33:17] Maybe, I mean, maybe you have to buy for whatever reason.

[00:33:19] But if you're just sort of looking to move up, this isn't the time of year.

[00:33:23] If it's optional.

[00:33:24] Right.

[00:33:25] So, there's a lot of shadow inventory.

[00:33:27] It's the things that went off the market that will go back on in the spring that all the agents are like, hey, if you have somebody, they'll still sell it.

[00:33:35] But we're going to reset, refresh in the spring.

[00:33:38] I agree 100%.

[00:33:39] And that reminds me of something that really bugs me in listing photos when the photographer's taking pictures during Christmas with Christmas decorations up.

[00:33:48] Yeah, I mean, I think that's fine if you're just going to do it for like the next two weeks.

[00:33:53] Exactly.

[00:33:53] And your house will sell in two weeks.

[00:33:54] But come like mid-January.

[00:33:55] It does not age well.

[00:33:56] It does not.

[00:33:57] Oh, this house has been on the market for six months.

[00:34:00] Yeah.

[00:34:00] June.

[00:34:01] Oh, I think that would pertain to any holiday seasonal decor.

[00:34:07] Yeah, but I mean, Christmas is the big, I mean, you can definitely tell it's the holiday season.

[00:34:10] Occasionally, you'll get the ones with like pumpkins on the front porch still in January or February.

[00:34:14] And you're like, maybe update that front photo.

[00:34:17] Well, are you ladies done with your Christmas shopping?

[00:34:20] Ish.

[00:34:21] I'm close.

[00:34:22] I have no reason.

[00:34:25] I completely understand that you are always done way early.

[00:34:31] I just, there's so much joy and gifting to me.

[00:34:35] I love thinking about what people want.

[00:34:38] I love, yeah, I make notes all year long about what I think people will like.

[00:34:44] I can see that.

[00:34:45] And I just, it's one of my love languages.

[00:34:46] So yeah.

[00:34:47] And I love the presents wrapped under the tree.

[00:34:50] It's like y'all came in today and almost everything's wrapped.

[00:34:52] But like to me, I like to get up and have my coffee of a morning and have the lights off

[00:34:56] and the Christmas tree on.

[00:34:58] And it's just, it's a magical time of the year.

[00:34:59] Yeah.

[00:35:00] Well, if you're like me and like Melanie, it sounds like, and you still have a little

[00:35:04] holiday shopping to do, don't forget that we have our favorite hostess gifts and favorite

[00:35:08] gifts for teen boys on crimeestate.com slash shop.

[00:35:12] Anything you purchase from our site helps the show, helps support the show.

[00:35:16] And let's face it, you all hear us give Heather a lot of grief for having an Amazon package

[00:35:20] or 10 on the porch every time I record an episode, but she's an amazing gift giver.

[00:35:26] And she curated those lists for your, and she curated these lists.

[00:35:30] So your family and friends are sure to love what we've picked.

[00:35:33] Yes.

[00:35:33] Our boys do think they're getting everything on that teenage boy wishlist and they're not.

[00:35:37] Poor baby.

[00:35:37] We just asked more like, what are the best and coolest things?

[00:35:40] Well, I also saw the large number of boxes that you have at your front door that, um,

[00:35:46] that you have arrived today.

[00:35:48] Yeah, I think a lot of that's dog food.

[00:35:50] I'm going to be really honest with you.

[00:35:51] Oh, don't tell me that.

[00:35:52] I want to imagine all those big boxes.

[00:35:55] All those big boxes are just random gifts for people, you know, in Heather's life.

[00:36:01] Yeah.

[00:36:02] All right, listeners, we want to say thank you to you all from the very bottom of our hearts

[00:36:07] for listening, following, and sharing your story ideas and telling your friends about the show.

[00:36:12] We have some really exciting things planned for 2025.

[00:36:16] We're already working on our episodes for January and we've got lots of new things coming your way.

[00:36:22] So please make sure you follow the podcast wherever you listen so that you get new episode alerts.

[00:36:26] And please go ahead and leave a five-star review.

[00:36:29] Don't commit any crimes or buy any houses without a great real estate agent.

[00:36:32] And we'll be back in the new year.

[00:36:34] Bye.

[00:36:35] Bye.

[00:36:38] Hey, y'all.

[00:36:39] Thanks for listening and being a part of our Crime Estate family.

[00:36:42] If you're curious about today's featured Crime Estate, you can find additional photos and details

[00:36:47] from today's episode online at CrimeEstate.com or on Facebook and Instagram by following

[00:36:52] at CrimeEstatePodcast.

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[00:36:56] Let us know.

[00:36:56] Shoot us an email at CrimeEstatePodcast at gmail.com.

[00:37:00] Until next week.

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