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The views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the individuals providing them. Some names and identifying details have been changed.

Julia Villanueva

When I close my eyes and think about Lakecastle, the first thing I see is our lopsided family house. My dad built a garage addition onto the back, which didn't really go with the rest of the building. My mom found it exasperating, but it seemed kind of charming to me. On weekends, my dad would be in the garage fixing up his old boat, tinkering with machinery, lots of power tools, and wood shavings flying. I'd run around with the other kids on the block, rollerblading, playing ding-dong ditch. In the winter, I'd build snowmen and sled down the hill in the yard. In summer, my mom grew roads of vegetables and flowers. Across from our house was a vacant lot, a quiet wooded area where deer would peer out at us before leaping away. And beyond that, a bike path that followed a railroad to Duluth. When I was in high school, construction started up in the lot across from our house. It was a fancy prefab container home. Two sleek metal rectangles stacked like Legos with sliding glass doors. The walls of the lower level were also completely made of glass. Soon a couple moved in. Very clearly city people. They always wore button-down shirts. We could look out of our living room window and watch them cooking dinner or sitting on the sofa at night. My mom said it was like a zoo. One spring weekend, my dad was in the garage with the power tools going as usual, and the button-down shirt guy appeared on our doorstep. Soon I heard him and my dad in the backyard. Their voices raised. Something about neighborhood noise regulations and filing a complaint. My dad came in the house, muttering under his breath, slammed the door, and saw me sitting at the kitchen table. Julia, he said, There's an art to being a good neighbor. Remember that. From Sansrival, this is Lakecastle. I'm Julia Villanueva. Episode Two: The Whole Legal Thing.

Julia Villanueva

Back to that phone call between me and my mom in February 2022.

Mary Villanueva

I opened my mailbox and it was just sitting there.

Julia Villanueva

What does it say? Can you read it to me?

Mary Villanueva

I'm holding it in my hand right now. It's a check from Blue Orchard Farm LLC. Made out to me for $9,700 and zero cents.

Julia Villanueva

Is there anything on the memo line? Like what it's for?

Mary Villanueva

No.

Julia Villanueva

But we didn't ask them for $9,700. We didn't ask them for anything.

Mary Villanueva

I know.

Julia Villanueva

You haven't had any kind of communication with them at all, have you?

Mary Villanueva

What? No, of course not.

Julia Villanueva

Okay. Jeez, just asking.

Mary Villanueva

Why would I do that? I'm not stupid.

Julia Villanueva

Where did they come up with $9,700? It's like just under $10,000.

Mary Villanueva

I have no idea.

Julia Villanueva

Did they like calculate the average cost of cremation or something?

Mary Villanueva

Oh my god! We should have told them we were doing a full service. We could have gotten five figures.

Julia Villanueva

You can hear in our voices there. We didn't know how to react. It seemed like a joke. My mom put the check in a drawer in the kitchen where it still sits today. And we went ahead with the lawsuit. It made a great headline. Family sues Jonathan Lindeman after he offers them $9,700 in death of security guard at private compound. It was international news.

Julia Villanueva

You would think in this day and age, anti-billionaire sentiment would be fairly high. And it was, on social media. I stayed up way too late some nights, scrolling through hundreds of comments on news reports of the lawsuit. Some were as vitriolic as can be. Let me give a disclaimer here. The following opinions are those of the author's not a reflection of my own views. F that Lindeman piece of I hate his guts. The man is pure evil. Burn in hell. Jonathan Lindeman, you fing motherfucker, you should be cast into the sea. But for every anti-Lindeman post, there was one of these. This family is a bunch of money-grubbing lowlifes, ambulance chasers, frivolous, greedy, stupid. Wow, can I sue my employer too? Maybe if the guy had eaten less at McDonald's, he wouldn't have keeled over and died. I don't like Lindeman, but this lawsuit is ridiculous. I told my mom not to spend time online reading the news coverage, but I had a Google alert set up. I read everything. One night I jumped into a bunch of Reddit threads and told a ton of commenters to go f themselves. Anonymously, of course. In October 2024, my mom was walking to her car in the grocery store parking lot. There was some ice on the ground. Someone knocked her down from behind, yelled, get a life, and ran away, laughing. She was okay. When she called me about it, she was actually laughing. Just a couple of kids, she said. I was furious and I was shaken. Had they targeted my mom because she was an elderly Asian woman or because she was taking on Lindeman?

Julia Villanueva

In December 2024, a few months before we are set to go to trial, I get a call from our lawyer, Janice.

Janice

Hi, I have some news.

Julia Villanueva

Oh, okay.

Janice

We have received an offer to settle out of court.

Julia Villanueva

Okay, wow.

Janice

Which would mean dismissing all claims.

Julia Villanueva

Right.

Janice

Yeah, they know Vargas said that this has happened before, that there's been trouble navigating the snow in winter. They they know that cliff looks really bad. They do not want Lindeman to get up there in front of a jury, and the thing is, I don't know if I can get him in the courtroom. Or when.

Julia Villanueva

Right.

Janice

Right?

Julia Villanueva

Right.

Janice

So so now it's a matter of negotiating the terms of the settlement and and making a counter offer. So there's still some back and forth to go.

Julia Villanueva

Yeah. Sorry.

Janice

It's okay. It's it's a big moment.

Julia Villanueva

God, I didn't. I thought this would feel a lot different.

Janice

Look, nothing can bring your father back, right? But at the end of the day, we want the best outcome in terms of honoring your father's life and bringing peace of mind for you and your mom. We are one step closer today. So the next step is sitting down with both of you and going over this offer together.

Julia Villanueva

As I mentioned in Episode 1, we never held a funeral service for my dad. His death had been so sudden. And my mom is a very private person. People grieve in different ways. My mom's approach was to try to move on with her life. An immigrant's survival instinct, it seemed to me. When I called her, she would never bring up my dad in conversation. And whenever I did, she would encourage me not to dwell on what had happened. Live your life now. Live for yourself, she would tell me. But in the weeks after we received the initial settlement offer, as negotiations dragged on and on, I couldn't stop thinking about what Janice said. Honoring my father's life. Peace of mind for me and my mom. But what about justice for Lindeman? How do I get any closure if Lindeman gets to walk free with no consequences? Lindeman isn't affected materially at all. He doesn't have to change what he does or self-reflect or come to grips with anything. His job, his livelihood, his security, his life is untouched. Meanwhile, my dad is gone. And like Janice said, nothing can bring him back. It's 3:30 in the morning on January 8th, 2025. I'm wide awake, sitting on my couch in the dark, like a psycho. It's been three years exactly. Since my dad died. I'm trying to remember the good things. How he played peekaboo with Chi-Chi. How he took me out to eat for a special dinner with just me and him. Before I moved away for college. Last month we entered settlement talks with Blue Orchard, and soon to the rest of the world, the story will be over. Case closed. Maybe it never will. I don't want to, but I have to. Uh hey, could you say that again? Uh I'm just gonna record this. Is that okay with you?

David

Yeah. Thank God for social media, huh? I'm glad I found your contact info. You showed up on my newsfeed, actually. Uh there was an article and a video with you in it.

Julia Villanueva

On February 20th, 2025, I got an email out of the blue. Dear Julia, I worked at Blue Orchard Farm with your dad. I'm so sorry for your loss. It was a short message. But when I read it, I was hit by a wave of emotion. All the regret about the distance between me and my dad towards the end of his life, how I wished I'd known him better. Now finally somebody could talk about my dad. Not as a minor news story, not as a dollar amount based on lost future income, but as a human being. We'll call the sender of this email David. Since he'd signed an NDA with Blue Orchard, he didn't divulge his real name to me. I asked David if he'd be open to talking on the phone. At this point, I had the vague idea of preserving my dad's memory somehow. And I wanted to collect stories about him.

David

Your dad, for reasons I will never understand, was a Bears fan.

Julia Villanueva

Yeah, I never understood that either.

David

We almost came to blows.

Julia Villanueva

Really?

David

No, no, no, no. I never would have picked a fight with your dad. He was a big guy. Big voice, big presence. He made cupcakes for us one time.

Julia Villanueva

He made cupcakes.

David

Yeah, yeah.

Julia Villanueva

What kind?

David

Chocolate, I think.

Julia Villanueva

How'd they taste?

David

They were pretty good.

Julia Villanueva

To my surprise, about half an hour into our conversation, David began talking about his job at Blue Orchard.

David

We patrolled different areas. Normally, Danny was on the north end of the property where the reservoir is, and I patrolled the south border. But we would communicate by radio.

Julia Villanueva

How did you find out about my dad's passage?

David

I found him.

Julia Villanueva

Wait. Wait, wait, you found him?

David

Yes. I went out to look for him that night. I didn't make it in time. I do think I acted as fast as I could once. I knew he was still out there, you know, uh in that storm, but when I saw him land there, I I knew it was too late. I knew that cliff was a bitch to climb.

Julia Villanueva

Sorry. Did you say lying?

David

Yeah, he was lying in the snow.

Julia Villanueva

Are you sure about that?

David

Yes, ma'am. He was face down. So I you might not want to hear this.

Julia Villanueva

No, go on. Please, this is helpful for me to hear.

David

Well, I I turned him over. He wasn't breathing, and I checked for a pulse, but I couldn't find one.

Julia Villanueva

So hold on, I I'm just trying to get a mental picture here. Did you perform CPR then at that point?

David

Well the medic did.

Julia Villanueva

The medic did.

David

Yeah, th there was a medic on site who attended him. There's always a medic when Mr. Lindeman is on the farm.

Julia Villanueva

So the medic revived him before he was sent to the hospital?

David

Oh, there was there was no pulse when he was put into the ambulance.

Julia Villanueva

When I heard David say this, my stomach dropped. Even listening back to this audio now gives me the same sensation. My heart starts racing, my palms sweat. It's a primal feeling. When was that, when he was put into the ambulance?

David

Uh if well let's see. If his shift ended at 7 p.m., it must have been eight. Nine? I can't remember exactly. Probably no later than 10 p.m., but I really can't say.

Julia Villanueva

Was he breathing at that point?

David

I don't know. I don't I mean, I I only know what I just told you.

Julia Villanueva

I'm confused. We were told he returned from his post and checked in with his supervisor, which is just n not not what I'm hearing from you, right? The time of death that we were given was 1 a.m. the following day. So did they resuscitate him?

David

Yeah, I I I really don't know. Uh the medic put him into the ambulance and he was taken off the premises. I just heard about his death a few days later when I came back into work.

Julia Villanueva

This is giving me goosebumps hearing you say all of this because there are lots of holes here. What you're saying is not lining up with what we were told.

David

Yeah. Uh you know, I I think they probably just got some of the details wrong when they talked to you.

Julia Villanueva

Well, that's a lot of details. Do you know the name of the medic or how I might be able to contact this person?

David

I don't. I'm I'm sorry. Uh hey, you know, I better hop off here in a second here.

Julia Villanueva

I think what would be really helpful is if you got on a call with my lawyer and me. And um and we talked through all this. Do you have time the next couple days to speak again?

David

Yeah, no. Uh tomorrow, sure.

Julia Villanueva

Oh, great. Um, around the same time, does that work? And I can call my lawyer and uh confirm with you.

David

Yeah, yeah, sure.

Julia Villanueva

Okay. Okay, great.

David

Real quick, um, can I give you some advice here? You seem like a nice young lady. What you're involved in now, the whole legal thing, it isn't about the facts. It ain't about finding the truth. It's about who can spin the best story. Everyone at Blue Orchard is gonna say what they're gonna say. They're gonna cover their asses. Understand? And and fighting a fight like this one, it'll take the life out of you. So, whatever they offer you, remember they can go higher, way higher. So you push them as high as they'll go. Take their money, and then put this in your rear view mirror. I don't want to sound cold, but I mean, your dad was a good guy. It was a goddamn shame that this happened to him and to you. I can't say much about my previous employment, but I've been on that property. I've seen a little of the Lindemans. What they're up to, up on that cliff. I moved away, I moved out of Minnesota. Now I live out of the shadow of the farm. And I sleep through the night. Out of sight, out of mind.

Julia Villanueva

Why, I asked myself as I thanked David for reaching out, why was this guy pressing me to move on? As I listened back to the recording the next day, I realized I hadn't picked up on two major details. One, David had said my dad had normally patrolled the northern side of the property, but the night he died, he had been transferred to the southern side, the side with the cliff. Why? Two, Lindeman had actually been on the property the night my father died. I texted David to set a time for a call with Janice and me. He didn't reply. I called, no answer. Janice reached out to him again and again over several weeks. We never heard from him again. I don't even know his real name, so I can't look him up. For months, we pressed the court to admit my recording of the phone call with David as evidence. Without going into too much detail, I will say that the court eventually ruled that David's remarks were inadmissible hearsay due to lack of corroboration and credibility. On paper, David was now a dead end. But I couldn't unhear what he told me. And the more I listened and re-listened to what he'd said, the more it freaked me out. According to David, Blue Orchard lied to us about the fact that both a medic and Lindeman himself had been on the compound on January 8th, 2022, about my father's time of death, and about his condition when he was found. And the big question that kept buzzing in my head was: why had my dad been transferred to patrol a hazardous location on the night of his death? By March 2025, I was getting fed up with, as David had described it, the whole legal thing. My father had been dead for over three years. We were mired in settlement talks with no end in sight. Meanwhile, I was left with more and more questions. I needed answers. For the first time since my dad had passed, I started making plans to return to Lakecastle. I needed to talk to more people, to hear firsthand for myself just what was going on at the farm. I couldn't just sit alone with all of this in my head. I needed to get it all out there, on the record. That's when I decided to make a podcast. On the next episode of Lakecastle, Jonathan Lindeman, his tech empire, and Blue Orchard Farm.

Abe Carter

Jonathan Lindeman is improving the quality of life in this town. And I'm glad he's here.

Wendy Watts

There is complicated history deeply embedded into this earth, going back thousands of years.

Matt Larsen

This isn't the first time someone has come here with a lot of promises for this town.

Sara Novak

But it's not really our business. I mean, he has the right to do what he wants.

Helga Grant

There is nothing that fascinates and enrages me more than when I know someone is trying to hide something from me.

Julia Villanueva

Lakecastle is produced by Isabella Dawis and Emma Lai. Directed by Desdemona Chiang. Sound design, mixing, and music by Dan Dukich. Special thanks to Kathryn Fumie, Lia Rivamonte, Sheena Janson Kelley, and Joel Liestman. You can listen to all our episodes and find out more about what's happening in Lakecastle at www.lakecastlepodcast.com. Support for Lakecastle comes from Butter Solutions, delivering the effortless results you crave. Butter, making life smoother. Lakecastle is a production of Sansrival.