58. Trust Broken: The Fatal Betrayal of Mark Irwin

In this episode of The Lethal Library, Dani and Stephanie cover a 2016 Boise case that starts with Mark Irwin disappearing under deeply suspicious circumstances: mail piling up, a running AC, missing bedding, and his van gone. Very quickly, two people close to him pop up trying to pawn his property, leading to a wild police encounter and a much bigger investigation. The hosts walk through how law enforcement connected the dots, what was found in the Boise Foothills, and how a planned theft spiraled into something far darker, including disturbing details about concealment and the long wait for answers. They also discuss Mark’s life and friendships, the ripple effects on families, and the messy courtroom aftermath that followed.

Contact The Lethal Library at TheLethalLibrary@gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok!

Transcript

Dani 0:00

In August, 2016, a Boise man vanished, leaving behind a home that showed signs he had not planned to be gone. Within days, two people connected to him were arrested while trying to pawn his belongings and attempting to flee from police. The discovery of his body in the foothills exposed a planned theft that escalated into a killing and a prolonged effort to conceal what had been done.

Stephanie 0:30

I have to ask, is there drugs? Lots of drugs. Okay. Because it, you can just sense it. You can, you

Dani 0:37

can kind of, you're picking up

Stephanie 0:38

the vibe. What do the kids say? Clock it. Clock it. Yeah. Um, also, I was gonna tell you something about Staples body, but now I can't remember, but I just still love her.

Dani 0:50

No, loving. They redid the store for her

Stephanie 0:54

as they should.

Dani 0:55

They should.

Stephanie 0:56

Because if she's gonna get millions of views, it better be looking nice.

Dani 1:00

Yeah.

Stephanie 1:01

Let's, let's get a little,

Dani 1:02

she got a new break. A

Stephanie 1:02

little remodel.

Dani 1:03

Let's go. A

Stephanie 1:04

little update.

Dani 1:04

That's Staples Plain, right?

Stephanie 1:07

Mm-hmm.

Dani 1:07

That's a corporation being like, you do you We love it. And she better be making like Staples better be paying her like fucking$45 an hour at this point.

Stephanie 1:17

They need to be paying her and I hope that they let her keep it authentic too. Yeah.'cause that's what I worry about is you can al always feel when it, it becomes planned.

Dani 1:27

Yeah.

Stephanie 1:28

And she's so good and has not had any fuckups to this point that I'm aware of where it's like painted the company in a bad light or, you know, no, no. Fuckups let her do the store her thing,

Dani 1:41

pay her lots of money and let her keep doing what she's doing.

Stephanie 1:44

Yeah. People can sense inauthenticity and meet most people. I know that I can. Yeah, I know many people can. It just feels fake. And so many, like makeup influencers have done that. And Mikayla and the eyelash, I didn't even need to

Dani 1:59

say

Stephanie 1:59

it. I

Dani 2:00

didn't

Stephanie 2:00

even, I'm not even a makeup girly and that was all over my shit and I was like, okay. Kim Kardashian. Oh my god.

Dani 2:11

Mic shake.

Stephanie 2:13

I, I held off, but I digress. All right everyone. Welcome back to The Lethal Library. I'm Stephanie.

Dani 2:54

And I'm Danny.

Stephanie 2:55

And we are here today to tell you yet another true crime tale straight out of Tater land. for those of you that might be new, we are a true crime podcast and we like to cover cases in Idaho, specifically death row cases. We've done a lot of those by now. So these are not all death row cases, but there's a lot of pretty notable cases in Idaho that haven't ever gotten national media attention. Some have. But, it's our state and so super interesting to us and maybe you can learn a little bit more about the good old land of potatoes that you didn't know. So we hope you enjoy. Danny.

Dani 3:34

Sources used today are articles from the Idaho Statesmen, KTVB and

Stephanie 3:40

K-B-O-I-K-B-O-I-I love that call. Sorry.

Dani 3:45

Uh, yeah. I had to, uh, stretch out a little bit, uh, from just my newspaper articles. Um, always up in the

Stephanie 3:53

game.

Dani 3:55

There was some good stuff out there and I'm like, Hmm, I'm gonna use that. So, this is a little bit more recent, so 2016, newspapers are a little bit more respectable now. Yeah.

Stephanie 4:07

They used to be very much leaning. A little bit more tabloid ish.

Dani 4:13

Yeah. So, let's get into it and talk about some drugs.

Stephanie 4:18

Yep. It definitely was wreaking of that from like the first few sentences. So let's see where it takes us.

Dani 4:27

On August 18th, 2016, Brenda Mitchell filed a missing person report for her brother Mark Irwin, after she and her family had not heard from him for more than two weeks.

Stephanie 4:39

Mm.

Dani 4:41

Brenda went to Mark's residence and found his mail piled up his air conditioner, running their microwave door open and bedding missing from his bed,

Stephanie 4:53

not a good sign.

Dani 4:55

His 1985 Toyota van was also missing. Brenda told police that Mark had been spending time with Francis Francie March. When contacted March. Told Brenda and the family she hadn't seen Mark either. On August 20th March again contacted Brenda. Saying she had not seen Mark for a while and she was concerned mm-hmm. And provided detailed information about Mark and the last time she saw him.

Stephanie 5:27

So now she's reaching out, being like,

Dani 5:29

Hey, still haven't heard from my bud. Where's my friend? Police began an investigation and obtained a warrant to search Mark's house, which is, I'm glad they did this, because you don't always see this. Mm-hmm. So like, he's a grown ass man.

Stephanie 5:49

Make that his own choices.

Dani 5:50

We, he's, there's nothing, you know,

Stephanie 5:54

yeah. We've touched on this, that we all have had a friend that this could be them in Paris for a week and it wouldn't be, you know, I'd rather someone's house not,'cause when they search a house, they don't always do it respectfully, which I've never understood the chaos. Of ransack, especially

Dani 6:13

if it's somebody you think that's a victim.

Stephanie 6:15

Yeah. I feel like everything should be organized and cataloged. And sometimes when they search a house, it's like they look like they're ransack themselves and I don't feel like that's helpful for evidence collection side brand.

Dani 6:29

And what was that one that we did where they didn't even like put in the, um, the bloody bra and, but like that's evidence,

Stephanie 6:38

bro.

Dani 6:39

Yeah.

Stephanie 6:39

Huge evidence. That's not even like something that is a tiny detail that can help later. No, we, we need, we do need the bloody articles of clothing. I don't know why we have to say that, but,

Dani 6:53

so, uh, kudos to the police actually taking this. Mm-hmm.

Stephanie 6:57

Taking an action,

Dani 6:58

missing person seriously and going to do some investigating. Mm-hmm. Let's investigate.

Stephanie 7:05

Yeah.

Dani 7:05

Doesn't always happen. Uh, with missing adults.

Stephanie 7:08

A hundred percent true.

Dani 7:11

While officers were conducting the search, they learned that March and Anthony Barclay were at a pawn shop attempting to pawn a 22 caliber gun that belonged to Mark.

Stephanie 7:24

Stupid.

Dani 7:25

So Francie and her buddy Barclay. It literally why the house is getting searched

Stephanie 7:34

down here at the pawn shop. Yeah. Uh, we know why you're there. How Absolutely desperate and stupid

Dani 7:44

drugs officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop after these two left. The the pawn shop.

Stephanie 7:54

Oh, they were there live. That's amazing.

Dani 7:57

It's amaz balls.

Stephanie 7:58

Oh my god.

Dani 8:00

Uh, but they fled.

Stephanie 8:04

What row

Dani 8:04

March jumped out of the vehicle and into the Boise River

Stephanie 8:11

and I said, desperate before hearing this. Like, I need another, gimme my thesaurus because what the fuck?

Dani 8:18

Uh, but they eventually, they, they got her and both, both of them were taken into custody during police interviews, both admitted. Can you just what,

Stephanie 8:30

I'm sorry. I'm just think like, how do you fish someone out of the river? Like did she get in a situation where she's like, okay, I'm drowning. I do need help out though, and then I'll go with you. Like,'cause you know how the Boise River, it is a very easy river, but if you get up in those sides Yeah. Like with all the trees and stuff, it can become dangerous, quick. Like wish as she was inebriated. I'm sure.

Dani 8:54

High. Yeah. At least. But I mean, at what point, how far do you walk? Are you walking in? I wish I knew. Uh, did you walk

Stephanie 9:01

in a police officer in full gear?

Dani 9:02

Did you walk up to your knees? March? Did you, how

Stephanie 9:06

far, far? I wanna know the procedure. Is there police like trunks where they're like changing into your trunks? Like, because I sure as shit would not wanna be going in there. Fully clothed, bulletproof vests, full tactical belt of gear.

Dani 9:21

I kind of, this is how I, this is my total imagination. I think she was out in the water, probably not doing anything too idiotic. Uh, this is in August, so the water's a little lower.

Stephanie 9:38

Lower, yeah. So you can, you probably stand in just about the whole, so, so she's

Dani 9:42

probably in the middle of the river standing and the cop pulls his gun and says, get your ass over here. And she's like, okay.

Stephanie 9:49

Or he says, I gotta get my ankles wet. Up to my knee. Yeah, maybe. Uh, I bet you she just came back. I mean, where are you really gonna go? Yeah. You wanna be, I I

Dani 10:01

Who jumps into the river? What fucking idiot. If

Stephanie 10:03

only we had a body cam in this day and

Dani 10:07

there probably is body cam, but we can't afford to get it. So there's that. Thank you.

Stephanie 10:12

Help me. I'm poor

Dani 10:12

vodka. Sponsor us. Yeah. Cheers. So both of them were taken into custody and during police interviews, both admitted to breaking into Mark's home several times, stealing several, several stealing items and pawning them. They gave different accounts about the last time they saw Mark and declined to answer further questions requesting the counsel. You said, attorney, attorney. I need my attorney. Need my

Stephanie 10:46

lawyer.

Dani 10:49

On August 26th, 2016, a Boise County deputy reported seeing a van matching the description of Mark's vehicle along Rocky Canyon Road in the Boise Foothills, just across the Boise County line. God, the Boise County line

Stephanie 11:09

gets it

Dani 11:09

every

Stephanie 11:10

time It, it has really caused a shit show in several ways from our cases. So for those of you that have been with us for a while,

Dani 11:17

you probably know that. Just across the Boise County line. It makes things messy and well. Boise County's just really tiny and they just can't afford to do, they don't

Stephanie 11:30

have the funds.

Dani 11:31

No,

Stephanie 11:32

I bet they, I'd be like, can we move this line? I'm really sick of y'all dumping crimes over here.

Dani 11:38

Quit em. Bodies like girls

Stephanie 11:39

like that. You guys can handle this way better. Leave us alone.

Dani 11:43

Yeah. Yeah. officers responded to the area and as they approached, the van detected a very strong odor.

Stephanie 11:53

Never. Good. I think we all know where this is going.

Dani 11:56

When officers opened the sliding door, they discovered a decomposing body inside covered with a tarp. After obtaining a warrant and examining the contents more closely.

Stephanie 12:10

Good job on getting the warrant. And that's one thing that I've always been curious about. Maybe we can go over it more in another episode because I know if there's extenuating circumstances, you can go in without a warrant. I don't know if that only means that someone is in danger. Like I believe

Dani 12:31

when they do these kind of things and we can go into it and I can do some research, but I feel like they're dotting their, their i's their, and I

12:38

appreciate

Stephanie 12:39

that.

Dani 12:39

Uh, so we don't have an appeal on the evidence collected and

Stephanie 12:42

we Yeah, we

Dani 12:43

know how that could be.'cause there was nothing that could be, and you're gonna hear, there's obviously if there's a decomposing body, there's nothing that they can immediately do, step back, call a judge, get a warrant so that you're just protecting the evidence that can be admitted.

Stephanie 12:58

Yeah.

Dani 12:58

And so if you have time to do that, I think it's a very wise choice. I mean. I, it would be nice if they could be like, oh yeah, we saw this and we went in and did it, and blah, blah blah. It's just better.

Stephanie 13:11

Mm-hmm. And I think it's good for a good practice to have them step back anyway if there is no danger.

Dani 13:19

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie 13:19

Because then you make sure all the parties that need to be involved are involved. You're not making mistakes and contaminating evidence. That's really, you have a good game plan. So I like it. I just know that we've had other cases where if they see a body, they're going right in and they fuck it up and they ha the bloody bra. I think that that was a similar thing.

Dani 13:41

Also, the motorcycle gang, they fucked that one up so bad. Uh, that's episode 13 and 14. It's really one of my favorites'cause it's just such a fucking shit show.

Stephanie 13:53

Absolute shit show.

Dani 13:54

Uh, but the, they did not collect the evidence correctly in that.

Stephanie 14:00

And then you fuck

Dani 14:01

things up for years,

Stephanie 14:02

then

Dani 14:02

paid for several. There was nothing that they could do to help those people. They were already dead. Mm-hmm. They would've just stood back called the appropriate people, meaning forensics. Right. A real, a real investigative team. Not the, not some sheriffs that are out here pulling people for Dewey and, you know.

Stephanie 14:24

Yeah.

Dani 14:26

Anyway, you get the point. Yeah.

Stephanie 14:27

So, but yeah, I think the pause probably helps more than just about anything else.

Dani 14:34

No, it's good. There's nothing, look, if, if he was breathing and was alive, but

Stephanie 14:40

literally, yeah. Jump in there. Try if we've got the odor, and I'm sure you can see this was in August in the summer in a closed, it makes me

Dani 14:53

so sad.

Stephanie 14:54

It's terrible. So you, I'm just, I'm, the only reason I'm saying this is not to be glory, but just like I'm sure that they understood that there was nothing to be done at that point. Right.

Dani 15:06

So take the hour, they're calling a judge. Take the'cause you can get a warrant. Mm-hmm. Pretty fast. Oh yeah. Especially during the day. Especially for something like this. Judges

Stephanie 15:15

are there for

Dani 15:16

Yeah. I can never be a judge.'cause I'd wanna get trashed sometimes. And then

Stephanie 15:20

like, what was the judge that wanted, was it the judge that wanted to go to Reno? No, it was a lawyer that was like,

Dani 15:26

I can't help you can't make these dates.

Stephanie 15:29

But yeah, no, if I was a judge too, I'd be like, do you get a backup? Call my bud.

Dani 15:34

Yeah. You're like

Stephanie 15:35

on call. He's covering for me.

Dani 15:36

You're on call

Stephanie 15:38

his outta office message. Hey, I'm in The Bahamas.

Dani 15:42

Um, I'm playing poker with my boys tonight and I'm drinking whiskey and smoking cigars. If you don't want, can't make legal

Stephanie 15:49

decisions.

Dani 15:50

It's the law. Call Judge Smith. Thank you.

Stephanie 15:52

Mm-hmm. Is that the law? I wonder if there is a law or can they be trashed and be like,

Dani 15:59

yeah, we're out there. Right Steph, you're giving me lots of tasks. Sorry

Stephanie 16:04

to research. I'm

Dani 16:05

full

Stephanie 16:05

of ideas today. TBD, just, and maybe one of y'all know out there

Dani 16:11

if you guys know is No,

Stephanie 16:13

you're smarty pants. Yeah. Tell us.

Dani 16:17

So after they obtained the warrant, they examine the contents more closely and investigators found that the body and tarp were strapped to a yellow children's slide. What positioned similarly, similarly to a backboard used to move a medical patient. So they use the children's slide as a. Gurney. Yeah. Like,

Stephanie 16:44

oh my gosh, I am

Dani 16:46

just right. Is that the right word? I'm gurney.

Stephanie 16:48

Gurney stretcher. Like a handheld.

Dani 16:49

Yeah. A stretcher would probably be better. Gurney I think has wheels. I don't know. You get

Stephanie 16:52

whichever one doesn't have wheels that you, this is so disgusting. And crack headedly done.

Dani 17:03

Uh, well there's the kids slide in the back. We can just go.

Stephanie 17:06

The crackhead ingenuity is just, this is the type of shit that you see where it's like innovation on meth. Truly. Truly. Where they're like, what about that kid slide is the same color. We can each grab a side. Let's go. Why not do that's?

Dani 17:23

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie 17:24

We could do it if we slap him to the slide. Awful.

Dani 17:30

The body was in an extensive state of decom decomposition August.

Stephanie 17:36

Mm-hmm.

Dani 17:37

How was face down on the slide? Inside the tarp. The head was wrapped in a bedsheet and over that were two plastic grocery bags tightly taped around the neck area with clear packing style tape. The hands are bound behind the back with a red patterned rope. Another red patterned rope was loosely around the neck, beneath the other layers. The knees were bound together with a belt, and the ankles were bound with a bungee cord. They had to go and wrestle up. They were using any

Stephanie 18:17

type of bonding, like material or medium that you could, they were searching again, the crack head innovation.

Dani 18:30

I got a couple of bungees in my trunk, like,

Stephanie 18:32

what about this belt I found in the closet? And I just, especially when someone covers another's face. That's so indicative of knowing the person, because I don't know if that's how he died or not, but people don't want to look at people as they're having to clean up the, a crime scene. It's really typical that if someone knows someone else, that they'll cover the face because, and

Dani 18:59

this

Stephanie 19:00

is, you don't wanna see that.

Dani 19:01

And I also feel like they, they, this is what I, I feel like that they thought that they could put'em on the slide and move'em, and then realized that it was very difficult and then they had to go back and find all the items

Stephanie 19:17

and secure everything because, no, because they're trucks. Yeah. This is a tough one. This is really just to, when you see people in the links, they're willing to go to and put, put

Dani 19:32

over

Stephanie 19:32

a friend, a friend through. Or at least what they probably thought was a friend, the victim.

Dani 19:40

I think he thought of them as a friend.

Stephanie 19:41

Yeah. It's just, it's insane.

Dani 19:44

There's fucking bad people, dude. Uh, due to the extent of decomposition, identification was made through dental records, which confirmed the body was Mark. And I'm sure, I mean, that's just the confirmation, but it, it w

Stephanie 19:58

Yeah,

Dani 19:59

he have to, was missing, he was in his own van, like found a

Stephanie 20:02

body. Well he had that with needs though, where missing. Can't find same, same height and weight. But at the time, there was nothing they could do as far as dental records, fingerprints

Dani 20:13

because their head was gone.

Stephanie 20:14

Yeah. And hands

Dani 20:16

and whole

Stephanie 20:17

arms. Yeah. And so it's seems like a silly box to have to check, but if you don't,

Dani 20:25

because that's what their defense was in that last case we

Stephanie 20:28

did. What's a reasonable doubt comes from? So

Dani 20:30

Jesus seems silly, but you gotta do it. Toxicology identified substances in his system, including amphetamine, THC, ethanol, cilantro, pram, and oh, I'm gonna butcher this opine.

Stephanie 20:55

Where is that?

Dani 20:56

Q-U-E-T-I.

Stephanie 21:00

It looks like Q opine.

Dani 21:04

It is a atypical anti-psychotic that could render someone unconscious and could be fatal in high doses.

Stephanie 21:18

Yeah. One I've never heard of, but just adds some more question

Dani 21:22

mark. It's it's antipsychotic drug though. Yeah. And the autopsy concluded that his death was consistent with asphyxiation due to air obstruction by a plastic bag.

Stephanie 21:34

Oh my gosh.

Dani 21:36

That's

Stephanie 21:36

horrible.

Dani 21:37

That is a ter

Stephanie 21:39

terrible

Dani 21:40

Gimme the drugs

Stephanie 21:41

way. Yeah.

Dani 21:41

Yeah. Investigators determined that he had been killed several weeks earlier

Stephanie 21:51

per mark. And just when you realized like the deception and the ability of people to be like, Hey, you called me about, hi your brother. I was just wondering if you heard about him.'cause I was so worried. Crack heads dude. And that they just went and like ransacked his house several times.'cause he is, you know, they're like, what else could we find? And they do, they be combing through the carpet. I guess, I mean, it wouldn't have surprised me if that was one of the activities that happened there.

Dani 22:30

officials confirmed that Mark had been reported missing the previous month and that he had been found dead near the boundary of ADA and Boise County police did not release the details about when or exactly where the body was located and the cause of death had not yet been determined, pending toxicology re results. They didn't wanna give that out.

Stephanie 22:54

Mm-hmm.

Dani 22:55

They're keeping very hush

Stephanie 22:56

hush. And I do just wanna clarify'cause some might have not listened to our earlier episodes. there's a lot of counties in Idaho and Boise County does not include the city of Boise.

Dani 23:13

Thank you for

Stephanie 23:13

that. Boise, the city is in Ada County. That's why this county line has come'cause. Into question several times. Mm-hmm. Because it's kind of city of Boise, but it's not per the county line. And Boise County does not have the funding that the main, most populated city of actual Boise, AKA ADA county has. So I just know that I never understood why Boise wasn't in Boise County.

Dani 23:45

Uh,

Stephanie 23:45

ADA

Dani 23:45

County's the big boy of the state.

Stephanie 23:47

It's the big boy.

Dani 23:48

Uh, that's where Kohlberg was tried. Mm-hmm. Uh, did they bring, Debell was tried here.

Stephanie 23:55

Yeah,

Dani 23:55

they, it, it's, and those were in other counties that, that happened?

Stephanie 23:59

Yes.

Dani 23:59

And, uh, I mean, for Coberg, I mean, that's like a fucking six hour drive.

Stephanie 24:04

It's from the top to the bottom

Dani 24:06

of I, and you know, we're talking three hours for the difference in the county for the day be shit show. Uh, but they were, that's like. Ada County is really,

Stephanie 24:18

it's the heart of Idaho. Yeah. It's the most populous place. Most of Idaho, if you really look at it, is like BLM Land Bureau of Land Management.

Dani 24:31

When we look, it was like, aren't we 62% public lands?

Stephanie 24:34

It's a lot. And so the populations are in little pockets and Ada County that houses the city of Boise and Meridian, some of what Eagle.

Dani 24:47

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie 24:48

Other places. That's where most of the population is. The next most populous county is Canyon.

Dani 24:54

The two C.

Stephanie 24:55

The two C. Remember, we, for those of you that listened to our last episode, you now know the handy little county song that you can learn. I to that

Dani 25:05

it was

Stephanie 25:05

so sweet. If you're a weirdo like me and you wanna know if you're in Idaho, what county someone's coming from. I just today. Just today.

Dani 25:14

Did you have to sing it to yourself?

Stephanie 25:15

Some, no. I, I didn't. And here is why someone cut me off and I am very forgiving'cause I commute so much. You, you, you learn. You just gotta let people in. Like people don't know what they're doing. They're panicked.

Dani 25:28

Yeah. Do you,

Stephanie 25:28

and, and how much was I I would say 80% of the time I am, I am calm now and I just let it go. But this person, it was a very egregious one and I looked at that license plate. You wanna know what it was? A w there's only one W County and that's Washington. I'm watching

Dani 25:49

you, Washington County. And I said it, I said, okay, Washington. I know it's Washington, but I always just say Weezer because Weezer's in Washington. Um, and uh, on the travels, uh, I hate driving through Washington County, uh, on the way to the cabin.

Stephanie 26:09

Why are they like that?

Dani 26:11

It's literally 65 and they're doing 45.

Stephanie 26:14

Why are they like that?

Dani 26:16

I don't know. Hey, anybody wanna give us some insight? Mm-hmm. Some Deb? Yes.

Stephanie 26:21

Well, and let's just say this person merged unsafely into my lane. Their lane was stopped. Mine was going about 40. I saw them try to do it to someone else. I, I have like a sixth sense of mergers and I'm like, he's gonna try to do it to me. Sure did. I was prepared, so it wasn't a big deal. Again, I'm like, whatever, dude. But he got over and then immediately tried to get back. He was not, he was confused. He or she, I don't know.

Dani 26:52

I will

Stephanie 26:53

say I couldn't tell, but it was like you did all that. You almost caused a wreck. Another driver wouldn't have noticed that you were going to jump out from a stop to someone doing 40. And now you need to get back in the lane that you just fought so hard to get up what is happening. It's because they still had an hour before they got home maybe, but it did them no good. The merge did them no good. They had to stop my lane to get back. They, because they, they needed to not be in my lane.

Dani 27:25

I might, I might have struck a cord there.

Stephanie 27:28

They, I'm telling you, Danny, there was, it was clear that either they didn't have like a GPS going, they were mistaken somehow thought they needed in my lane and then realized, no, I actually need, which I don't know with modern day GPS how that's an issue at this point. It, it talks to you, it shows you pictures. There's

Dani 27:51

maybe

Stephanie 27:51

they

Dani 27:51

didn't have CarPlay,

Stephanie 27:53

maybe they were being a little bit of a dipshit on the road. It was an unsafe decision that I graciously. I allowed them to merge like,'cause I, I could tell they needed to merge but then they needed immediately back where they were in their stopped line of traffic. Make it make sense. Did they have new plates? I don't think so.

Dani 28:20

Okay.

Stephanie 28:21

It looked like, I know it, I think it was a Nissan Ultima, which those cars have their own lore of just mm-hmm. Don't get in a fight with a Nissan Ultima. They have nothing to lose. The folks that are drive Nissan Ultimas and respect. But I'm not getting in a fight with someone in an Nissan Ultima. Mm-hmm.

Dani 28:47

Okay.

Stephanie 28:47

I'm letting you go. Good to know. You need you, you need to get to your location that more than I do. I have a feeling I'm gonna let you get there. Anyway. Huge side rant, but. We do want to know Washington County. What's happening?

Dani 29:02

What the fuck's up? Chuck,

Stephanie 29:03

give us the tea. We're in the same state. We wanna know. I know it's not all of you. What's going on?

Dani 29:22

On October 22nd, 2016, Boise Police announced that Francis March 45 had been charged with first degree murder in Mark's death. The announcement came nearly two months after the body was discovered in the Boise foothills. Mark was known within the International Film Festival community as a projectionist and a disc jockey. John Quackenbush described him as. Absolutely one of a kind, adding. He had a sense of humor all his own, and he had a way of speaking a cadence. I would liken it to Paul Lind, who's a 1960s per TV personality that I don't know who that reference is. friends, I have been waiting for information about what had happened, but details about how or why he died still had not been released. Police stated that Mark knew both March and Barclay and that the crime was not random. Both remained in the ADA County jail on burglary and grand theft charges related to the property taken from Mark. So they were already in jail for the burglary, and then they're like, here, you can take this charge too. First degree murder.

Stephanie 30:44

Just a little sprinkle on top just to add insult to injury.

Dani 30:49

And dad, I'm dead to rights on the property.

Stephanie 30:51

Yeah.

Dani 30:52

Like we literally

Stephanie 30:52

caught you Hoking shit. We, we saw you live and then you ran from us and jumped in the river.

Dani 30:57

John has said he had met Mark about 14 years earlier and had worked with him at Sundance and at film festivals in Nantucket, Dubai.

Stephanie 31:09

Hello,

Dani 31:10

Mr. Worldwide. He explained that earlier projectionist work declined around 2005 as the industry shifted to digital projection. So I think this was a craft, an art. Mm-hmm. Right.

Stephanie 31:23

Yeah, no, it was for sure

Dani 31:26

leaving film festival work as the primary opportunity for Mark. mark continued working in the AV community, assisting with productions. John described, Mark's life as that of a pro or semi-pro skier, and said skiing and films were recurring themes in his stories. He said that he last saw Mark at Sundance two or three years earlier, but spoke with him several times a year. So these guys were lifelong friends.

Stephanie 31:55

No kidding.

Dani 31:56

When he had tried to reach out that summer and found his phone disconnected, he searched online and learned of his death. Oh. How that would fucking

Stephanie 32:05

suck. Oh my. That would be terrible.'cause the internet was still 16. It's 2016. It's okay. But you don't know whether to believe, I mean, still I feel that, but cross-referencing what's more challenging you're

Dani 32:22

trying to reach your friend, challenging that you, you know, we have those long distance friends. Yeah. I have a friend in Oregon that I talk to maybe two or three times a year, and then it's always like this really long conversation. It's one or two hours. Watch her on her social media. So I still feel like I know what's up, but I can't imagine. Like

Stephanie 32:40

going for that phone call being

Dani 32:41

made out and the phone disc connected and then I search and find out they're dead.

Stephanie 32:46

That's awful.

Dani 32:48

Ooh. Um, he said that Mark owned a house on Gage Street where he collected cars, motion picture equipment and other items, and including a 1960s era, Cadillacs and an El Camino.

Stephanie 33:02

Oh.

Dani 33:03

Quote. He described himself as a hoarder, John said, describing him as magnetic and entertaining. So, you know what I hear from that? Those crack heads thought there was a lot of shit there that they could

Stephanie 33:15

probably, oh, they probably thought he was like a millionaire.

Dani 33:19

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie 33:19

We're gonna find some hidden riches or some things from movies. Do you see all the, the

Dani 33:24

stuff he has?

Stephanie 33:25

Yeah. If we, if we can find some stuff from movies and. A crack head would love to look through a hoarder's place. And I, I wonder like how loosely that term is being used.'cause there's people that collect a lot of stuff that are extremely organized and I dunno that I'd call them a hoarder. So I wonder where the, where, where this person was in that because, well,

Dani 33:48

mark, he was saying Mark described himself as a hoarder. So it, it doesn't necessarily mean,

Stephanie 33:54

I feel like it was casual.

Dani 33:55

Yeah. It doesn't mean that he was like walking through, you know, five times of

Stephanie 33:59

garbage. I thought they thought they were gonna find priceless memorabilia. Yeah. Mm-hmm. They're like, he was in the movies. He's probably got autograph things that we could sell for$10,000 and they could only go to the pawn shop with that. Was it a gun? They had a gun

Dani 34:15

but they, 22. Yeah, they had pond other things. On January 11th, 2017, Barclay who's 19?

Stephanie 34:27

What a, what a dipshit that's so tragic

Dani 34:30

was hanging out with tragic. A woman in her forties drugs, uh, was charged with destruction of evidence and failure to notify authorities about a death. In addition to his burglary and grand theft charges March remained charged with first degree murder, destruction of evidence, and failure to notify. Both remained in custody on March 2nd, 2017. March pled not guilty and our trial was set for July 10th with efforts to consolidate multiple pending felony cases.'cause she's, they got her,

Stephanie 35:09

it's a shit show.

Dani 35:10

Investigators had identified a dugout hole near the van and believed she had intended to return to further dispose of the body.

Stephanie 35:19

And then just

Dani 35:20

that is a crack head idea.

Stephanie 35:22

And then got crack headily distracted with all of her other priorities and missions that she needed to complete.

Dani 35:32

On June 9th, 2017, Barclay told a judge that he had, quote, relocated the body, attempted to conceal the killing and threw away stuff that was evidence,

Stephanie 35:44

all the things

Dani 35:46

he pled guilty to, failure to notify authorities of a death, destruction of evidence and burglary. He admitted to entering the home after Mark's death and told the court he aided and abetted the theft of someone's property. And these are all in little quotes here. Mm-hmm. Uh, additional charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement that did not require him to testify against March. That surprises the hell out of me.

Stephanie 36:11

Um, yeah.'cause I feel like a case could be made. A shaky case, but shaky cases get verdicts all the time. It's, it's a gamble a hundred percent.

Dani 36:25

But I'm just surprised that they didn't, they gave him a plea deal and didn't require him.

Stephanie 36:29

Yeah. Why not? That's what they're contributing in order to earn, we're not what he, he pleaded guilty to bur burglary. Who cares? Who is like, I really need him to have a punishment for stealing stuff, and I don't know. But I, if I was the family, I'd be like, yeah, well that should have been an open and shut case. He was at the pawn shop, admitted several things already. Why are we not using it as a bargaining chip anyway,

Dani 37:08

he faced up to 10 years in prison on the primary charges in five years for destruction of evidence. So he is looking at 15 years.

Stephanie 37:16

That still seems like a sweetheart deal to me

Dani 37:22

on March 9th, 2018 March appear. It is so weird. I'm like March. March.

Stephanie 37:29

Mm-hmm.

Dani 37:30

Uh, March appeared for sentencing after pleading guilty to first degree murder.

Stephanie 37:36

Okay. Interesting.

Dani 37:37

They, they had her, Brenda told the court that after her brother disappeared, she feared she would never know what had happened. Quote, my worst nightmare was that we would not find him or never know what happened to him. And that would be the worst thing as a family member. Yeah. I'm just saying you just

Stephanie 37:54

don't know that question and that trying to hope and not, you know, just be positive.

Dani 38:01

Are they, are they gonna come around? Mm-hmm. Like, you feel like you know somebody, but,

Stephanie 38:04

or if people have disappeared or if someone has them.

Dani 38:07

Right.

Stephanie 38:07

Hello, Savannah Guthrie's mom. Which

Dani 38:10

still missing Jesus. That's a. Uh, there's something wrong there with the police department. I'm just

Stephanie 38:16

feeling like they didn't do something right. I'm skeptical myself just of, and just with the whole situation, it's, it's so strange to me to be continued.

Dani 38:28

Uh, Brenda said if their plan had worked, I would be living that nightmare. Mm-hmm. Talking about not knowing what happened, prosecutor Brent Ferguson told the court that Mark and Barclay had targeted Mark as a part of a plan to steal his belongings. He said that they had recently reconnected and that Mark had allowed her to stay on his property,

38:53

being

Dani 38:53

a good friend. By early August, the relationship had deteriorated. The defendant and Mr. Irwin had been arguing Mr. Irwin's, mark, um, they had been arguing over property she had stored at her house. They had been arguing over the fact that she had been staying with him. And they weren't getting along. He said that they brought alcohol and strawberries as a peace offering, talking about March and Barclay to Mark. Unbeknownst to him, they had more than that.

Stephanie 39:31

That's such a strange gift, like as a sorry to alcohol and strawberries doesn't, isn't that more of a, more of a romantic themed gift, or is that what was on clearance at Albertson's?

Dani 39:46

Or maybe he liked

Stephanie 39:47

that or maybe they said, this is what the fancy people like.

Dani 39:52

Have you

Stephanie 39:53

ever seen pretty champagne and strawberries

Dani 39:54

seen pretty women?

Stephanie 39:55

Exactly. This is what the people wanna see. I'm just, I'm just spit balling here, but it's just like. Maybe again, the

Dani 40:08

crack headed energy is so palpable. Ferguson urged the court to impose the harshest sentence. She was part of a team that planned to poison rob and ultimately murder someone. He said she is exactly the type of person society must be protected from. Defense attorney John DiFranco argued for leniency and presented letters from March's children. Quote, I want to tell you all the wonderful things about my mom and why you should let her go Early. One wrote another wrote. I know it doesn't look like it now, but she is kind. I miss my mom and I want her to be free and come back and a third called out. Mom, I don't want you to ever give up. Okay? These kids are just another

Stephanie 41:02

victim. This is heartbreaking and this is so I'm glad that you put this in the story. Um, thank you, Danny, because this is sometimes things seem so black and white and I'm not saying that I'm asking for a leniency or anything.

Dani 41:21

There's other victims,

Stephanie 41:22

but crimes like this, yes. The ripple effect is felt so deeply and I think we can all remember being a kid and we'd probably feel the same way. You may not understand the full thing, and even if you did, that's not who your mom was to you. There are plenty of parents that are addicts that. Still care deeply for their children. And some of them are even really good parents. it doesn't touch that or doesn't touch it much of, and that's maybe a hot take. You know, some addicts are incredibly well-functioning for that side of their life, and then maybe the rest of their life is a shit show. So it's just

Dani 42:09

you feel bad for these children.

Stephanie 42:11

Yeah. Hearing it from a kid's perspective.

Dani 42:13

Yeah.

Stephanie 42:14

And just how they will be affected because of this crack headed behavior.

Dani 42:19

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie 42:22

It's, it's good to touch on to, to really know the, the depth and the gravity of what's happening. Yeah.

Dani 42:29

It, it, I mean, and Mark's family, you know, it's, that is a very, it's a horrible situation, but she also fucked over her own kids. Mm-hmm. By doing this.

Stephanie 42:41

Absolutely.

Dani 42:42

But they still love her.

Stephanie 42:44

Mm-hmm.

Dani 42:46

It's just,

Stephanie 42:46

and that's not the person that they saw right. Or experienced. Right. It doesn't sound like not to that effect, obviously,

Dani 42:53

but she's not a good person.

Stephanie 42:55

No.

Dani 42:55

So it's hard to, it's, it's hard. I feel bad for those children.

Stephanie 42:58

Absolutely.

Dani 43:01

DiFranco argued the killing was a robbery gone bad and said that she deserved mercy. The defense attorney,

Stephanie 43:11

I don't agree with that argument.

Dani 43:14

He said, Francie deserves greater mercy. Our justice system does not mimic the lack of compassion exhibited by the convicted.

Stephanie 43:24

Does it?

Dani 43:24

Dude does it though? No, he's the defense trying to be defensive.

Stephanie 43:30

Interesting technique because, okay. I don't know if historically or even presently, especially in Idaho, that that. The argument is factual.

Dani 43:45

Judge Steven Hitler rejected that argument stating that she had treated Mark quote like he wasn't human. He said he was treated frankly worse than roadkill, and told her, you left his family to suffer and worry what had happened to their missing brother, knowing all the while, even as you spoke and communicated with him, that he was rotting under a pile of trash in the hills.

Stephanie 44:11

And that is true and there's not gonna be any getting around that. But when you're messing around, none of this would occur to you.

Dani 44:23

No, you're not. Mm. The court sentenced her to life in prison with 27 years fixed. Well done snap. Following sentencing, the court addressed the factors considered in imposing the term. The court stated that protection of the community was a primary concern and that a lengthy sentence was necessary for general deterrence. I love that. Like we're just gonna try to deter everybody.

Stephanie 44:51

Yeah, we're trying. Doing it for

Dani 44:53

the community. A psychological evaluation diagnosed march with personality disorder with antisocial, borderline narcissistic and paranoid traits along with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar two disorder, panic disorder, and severe substance

Stephanie 45:15

use disorder. This is quite the laundry list, and I know that so many of these, diagnoses are really hard to get. So I'm skeptical that all of this is in the same bag, I feel like. And what part of her drug addiction played into those? All of them. Yeah. Right. And, and can you, can you accurately diagnose, again, we're not psychiatrists, but that just seems these are some of the hardest diagnoses to obtain. Even for those that are looking and feel that they themselves are displaying these characteristics, these are very hard to get in. All, all of these together makes me a little skeptical. I can see how they would work together, but. It's a lot. And this, and this is a psychiatrist that's been working with them for a short period of time.

Dani 46:13

Exactly

Stephanie 46:14

how many.

Dani 46:15

So I, this is just an evaluation and, and what I've typically seen in these evaluations is like a six hours or total or 10 hours total spending.

Stephanie 46:26

I don't get that. I'm sorry. If you wanted me to unpack all my mental bullshit, we'd need the course of a few weeks. And I'm not even saying that I lived in an especially traumatic life, right. But I am just, I'm really self assessing. And so I'd be like, I have a 72 slide PowerPoint presentation that I'd like you to go over with you, and then you let me know what you think. So if you're telling me an inmate that supposedly has all this, you're able to diagnose, this isn't a blood test and I'm not. Advocating for this person. Right. I'm not trying to argue on their behalf of like they're innocent, but how in the hell do you diagnose all that?

Dani 47:11

Well, they're trying to make this look better for her, right? Yeah. So, um, but the evaluation identified, uh, risk factors including poor emotional regulation, poor impulse control, substance abuse, manipulated behavior. And, but it stated she was a high, high risk to a re-offend.

Stephanie 47:33

Mm-hmm. And that's what it comes down to. That's the bottom line.

Dani 47:36

Yeah. An independent evaluation found her risk for nonviolent crime high, but assessed her violent behavior as an outlier. The court described her as a manipulative, self-indulgent narcissist who was cold calculating, playing the odds and the angles to benefit herself and rejected her claim that she was a bystander. Well, that independent one really got her. Yeah. And the, the bystander

Stephanie 48:07

one, why is he on a slide? So bar one is one person carrying a slide, even if you drag it, how are you getting it into a vehicle? No. Right. She was trying to throw

Dani 48:20

Barclay under the bus and he was just a kid. This was her gig. Mm-hmm. I really do believe that the court imposed a$10,000 fine and a$5,000 victim payment. She filed an appeal arguing the sentence was excessive. Was it though? Because Mark's dead. And was it, and you

Stephanie 48:40

not continued to just rot someone Not, but you let

Dani 48:43

him rot and his poor family,

Stephanie 48:47

his sister,

Dani 48:49

Ugh. And his friends

Stephanie 48:50

probably hoping for good. Can you imagine seeing that call come in and being like's his friend? She found him. And she's like, where is he? I know me.

Dani 49:01

I wish I knew. And then realizing the truth. A material submitted as part of the case proceedings. March stated that on August 5th, 2016, she and another person committed robbery and burglary that resulted in Mark's death. She's talking about Barclay. She wrote that she administered that weird medication. Thank you. That's psycho. That psycho?

Stephanie 49:29

Yeah.

Dani 49:29

Yeah. Uh,

Stephanie 49:32

it looks like it's

Dani 49:34

quit it

Stephanie 49:35

like Quetiapine. I don't know.

Dani 49:38

I'll take that to render mark unconscious. And attempted to strike him further to in, uh, incapacitate him. She stated that she wrapped one end of a rope around a door handle. While the other person increased pressure on the rope around his neck and maintained that she did not intend to kill Mark.

Stephanie 50:00

If you are trying to portray yourself as a bystander, I don't know how in the hell this helps you. This is not bystander behavior. Bystander behavior could be like, Hey, I was doing drugs in the other room for like six hours with some other friends. We thought something was weird, but we never went out to investigate'cause we were totally into doing drugs.

Dani 50:27

We thought maybe we were hallucinating.

Stephanie 50:29

Yeah,

Dani 50:30

we thought we heard a gun, but then we're like, no dude,

Stephanie 50:32

we're gun. And then we got scared and said maybe we shouldn't go out. We all got paranoid. That's a bystander. And then maybe you learned of it later and were like, shit, I'll never talk about this. I'm leaving. This is not a bystander active

Dani 50:46

participant. Hello. At the change of the plea hearing, she stated in the factual basis that Mr. DeFranco and I came up with, except for the last line of increasing pressure of ropes. That's correct. And that all fits with felony murder. So yes, we discussed it. It's just. It was just difficult. But yes, she said, I do understand that being convicted or being guilty of felony murder means you are guilty of murder. But that is different than my personal understanding of when you personally kill someone, she acknowledged the elements of the charge and said, right, so she's still making fucking excuses.

Stephanie 51:32

And you know, whether

Dani 51:34

that made no fucking sense to me. It

Stephanie 51:36

either. It did and that was a direct quote and that's why it was so wonky sounding.'cause she's trying to quote her of her actual words that she was trying to justify. I'm like,

Dani 51:45

I had to stop and like, let me look at this again because this is not making sense.

Stephanie 51:49

I looked at it and it hurt my brain and I'm such a stickler for like grammar and punctuation and sentence structure that I was like, mm, brain

Dani 51:58

brain shutting down. So that was all. That was all a solid quote. Thank you for

Stephanie 52:02

having my back. Bless you. Thank bless you. Bless you for reading it because it makes it hard to read. I'm just a weirdo like that. Um, no, but I think my best guess, and I don't know shit about fuck, but our brains are built to protect us. And I think we see that in a lot of like unhealthy coping strategies or especially as a child, the ways that you, you know, if something bad's happening to you, you rationalize it and that kind of thing. So this feels like her, she almost can logically make the connection that yes, this is murder, but like she can't get there with her brain.

Dani 52:45

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie 52:46

Of, I, I

Dani 52:48

didn't

Stephanie 52:48

really

Dani 52:48

murder

Stephanie 52:49

him, but not because it's not to my understanding of what murder is.

Dani 52:52

Right? Yep.

Stephanie 52:53

And it's push it, it was not a bystander thing. We've seen so many things where you could definitely say, yeah, someone could have done more, but it has the benefit of the doubt. Didn't know enough to take action. She certainly knew enough to take action in, in my opinion. And she took negative actions. It's not like she was just going along. You're telling me the 17-year-old teenager was the mastermind?

Dani 53:19

19? Yeah.

Stephanie 53:20

What? Yeah. No,

Dani 53:22

no,

Stephanie 53:23

I don't believe it.

Dani 53:25

and her statement to the pre-sentence investigator. She said she and Barclay planned to Rob Mark because he had been, quote, mean, she said a fucking child. She said they drugged him, searched for keys, open safes, and removed property. She said Barclay struck him with a hatchet when he began moving and that they restrained him with a rope and a belt. She said they dispose of the evidence returning to take additional items, sold property and attempted to prepare for the disposal of the body using lie and fuel. But that they did not complete that plan. Remember that whole?

Stephanie 54:07

Yeah. And And also they forgot about it for weeks. They were on new crack head missions, forgot about it for weeks. And what in the fuck saying all this, this is completely planned out and team worked. You are not a bystander at there against your will. Again, you said also

Dani 54:32

in sentencing. Barclay, the court considered his criminal history, substance, substance abuse, and his conduct after the killing, finding that he participated in actions that prevented discovery and contributed to the concealment of the body. He was sentenced to the custody of the Idaho Department of Correction and is eligible for parole on October 15th, 2032. March remains in the custody of the Idaho Department of Corrections at the South Idaho Correctional Institution and will be eligible for parole in 2043

Stephanie 55:11

as I think they should

55:12

be.

Dani 55:12

Yeah, maybe her and Lori can become besties when she actually gets back from, is she back from Arizona yet? I don't think so. I think she has

Stephanie 55:23

the pills over there. again. Crazy case. That wreaked of drugs from the beginning and I think we saw all the ways in which that showed up. All of the classic red flags and let's plan a murder and fucking botch it'cause we're crack heads and then have plans. I think it's so indicative of crimes with drugs, how they had thought up. All these ideas probably on the drive there. They're feeling great, they're, they're high as hell. They're thinking of ideas. We got this, we got the lie, we got this, we got our supplies. And then they put it up there and then it's outta sight outta mind. And they're onto their new crackhead adventures,

Dani 56:05

which is pawning guns.

Stephanie 56:06

And getting money for more drugs, doing, who knows what else? And they're just pushing it off and pushing it off. And I, it's not to say that those that aren't on drugs don't do the same thing, but I feel like it just so exacerbates it. And this is another just key hallmark of

56:25

drugs,

Dani 56:26

related cases.

Stephanie 56:27

Don't do drugs. Kids please don't. And especially don't. If you're on drugs, don't do a murder because then you're gonna end up on our podcast of how fucking stupid this shit is. Like and poor mark. Yeah. What a cool dude.

Dani 56:45

Yeah.

Stephanie 56:46

Very. Created a career for himself. Eccentric sounding. That's a

Dani 56:50

yes. I'm d He was probably very fun,

Stephanie 56:53

A cool, fun guy. Liked to dibble, dabble in some drugs. Who knows? Maybe he was also an excessive drug. It sounds like he was a functioning drug user no matter what.

Dani 57:01

Yeah, he dibble that. Lemme have some THC.

Stephanie 57:04

He, he had his life together. Some people are capable of being a user that can maintain their whole

Dani 57:11

life. But even if he was a complete fucking crap,

Stephanie 57:14

he didn't, not, you

Dani 57:14

deserve to be murdered. Do that shit for his stuff that he just collected.'cause he likes shit.

Stephanie 57:21

Mm-hmm.

Dani 57:21

So, uh, March you are a fucking bitch. Uh, go fuck yourself. And uh, shame on you for dragging some 19-year-old kid into your fucking Yeah. Schemey scammy bullshit. You fucking idiot.

Stephanie 57:37

Weird and gross.

Dani 57:38

Uh, and I'm not saying he's not, I'm not giving him a pass No. By any means. But, you know, this was her idea. She's like, oh, I know this guy and we can just drug him and we can go steal some shit and then we can go pawn it.

Stephanie 57:52

Drugs. Yeah. And then someone, someone with their frontal lobe not developed. And again, not an excuse, but people act way outta sorts at this age. And you can see why. Yeah, a whole bag of fuckery in this one, Danny. So thank you for researching and providing all the dates. If you have any of the answers to our questions, we asked the lethal library@gmail.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, YouTube. Yay. We're there for you. but yeah, we love you guys. Thank you for your support. Lots of interesting comments and emails in recent weeks, and that's why we do it. So, ten four River Ducky.

Dani 58:34

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie 58:34

Fuck yeah,