U.S. Phenomenon with Mario Magaña
Welcome to "U.S. Phenomenon" with Mario Magaña, a riveting podcast that dives deep into the unexplained and the extraordinary. Join Mario, the host as he explores the most intriguing paranormal events, alien encounters, and mysterious sightings across the United States. With his unique blend of real-life experience and passion for the unexplained, Mario brings you thrilling stories and expert insights in every episode. Whether it's alien abductions, ghostly apparitions, or cryptozoological creatures, Mario's engaging storytelling will captivate and keep you on the edge of your seat. Tune in to "U.S. Phenomenon" and embark on a journey into the unknown that will have you questioning everything you thought you knew.
U.S. Phenomenon with Mario Magaña
Unveiling Hidden Truths: Megachurch Wealth, Urban Surveillance, and Social Unrest Election Addition
What if the church you've always respected was hiding a financial empire behind its holy facade? Join us as we welcome Photog Steve 81, who bravely uncovers the opulent lifestyles and murky dealings of megachurch leaders like Kenneth Copeland in his upcoming documentary, "The Religion Business." Steve's gritty experiences in the field provide an eye-opening account of the intense encounters and challenges faced in revealing the truths behind these powerful religious figures, prompting us to question the societal impact of such institutions.
Our journey doesn't stop there. Navigate with us through Seattle's complex urban landscape, where the city's pervasive surveillance culture meets the stark reality of its homelessness crisis. We'll explore the intriguing story of a charismatic influencer entangled in legal troubles, raising concerns about privacy and public safety in an era of ubiquitous cameras. Discover how Seattle grapples with safety on Third Avenue, and reflect on the stories of those living on the streets, seeking either independence or a fresh start amidst the challenges the city faces.
As political tensions rise, we examine the potential for civil unrest amid recent and upcoming elections. From the arrest incidents in Arizona, Vancouver, and Portland to Governor Inslee's response, the podcast sheds light on the contrasting political reactions and media's role in amplifying unrest. We delve into Washington's dark history, the unsettling realities of internet crimes against children, and the complex psychological factors contributing to such issues. Through these discussions, we emphasize the importance of civic duty, awareness, and supporting victims while safeguarding their dignity.
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Welcome to US Phenomenon, where possibilities are endless. Put down those same old headlines. It's time to expand your mind and question what if? From paranormal activity to UFOs, bigfoot sightings and unsolved mysteries, this is US Phenomenon?
Speaker 2:From the Pacific Northwest in the shadow of the 1962 World's Fair, the Space Needle. Good evening, I am your host, mario Magana. This is US Phenomenon. Welcome to another episode of US Phenomenon, as we are just days away from the election. The state of Washington, as we'll call this podcast, this episode. For those who are listening to us on terrestrial radio, I'm telling you you got to get the exclusive. Make sure you go to my website on air mariocom to subscribe to the podcast so you can hear the entire interview tonight. Our guest needs no introduction. You can find him all over social media, terrestrial radio stations, running up a muck across the country trying to trace, chase down all types of ah, what would we say? These? Uh evangelical, uh, mega church priest? Uh, it is our good friend. And uh, photog, steve 81, steve, welcome back to us.
Speaker 3:Phenomenon man thank you for having me back okay, steve.
Speaker 2:Uh, so the state of washington as we know, the election is just days away. Uh, I know that you've been working on some really hot stories the last couple months and I know we haven't had you on for a while. But what's interesting to me right now is that there's so much going on within the state of Washington Crimes. I know that you've done some traveling for some documentaries that you've been working on, which is quite interesting to me because you know tongue in cheek I mean there's a lot of believers out here. But it's so funny to me when you see these mega churches that are like, if you're not a Christ subscriber or follower and you're not digging deep down and you know these mega church, you know preachers are saying you know, it was just, it's so cheap for me to buy these, these airplanes, it's just, it is just so sad. Steve, I know you're working on so many stories. What's what's been your, what's been, something that you've been working on that you've just been having fun with?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know the one you've just been talking about. It's been a big one. It's consumed a lot, lot of my time. I'm actually going back in a couple of weeks for another run, so it's. It's called the religion business. It'll be on amazon uh early next year. It looks like we're going to have the teaser out here in november.
Speaker 3:I'm working uh kind of in a couple narrow paths. So I'm in the production side, I'm one of the producers, but I'm also one of the camera guys, and the reason I originally got involved in this project was the storytelling took the show's creator, nathan Atfield, to Seattle and they needed a camera person. A relatively short notice. And in my line of work, as you know, in the news business everything's kind of you wake up, you don't know what you're doing and you find out very quickly where you're going. So they hit me up, needed somebody. 48 hours I was able to fill that void. They then realized that one of my specialties or verticals is chaos and places of unrest or hostile areas. So I've been to different parts of the world, to war zones. I've also been to protests and civil unrest and there was this component specifically in Texas. The series goes all over the world. It looks like here in a couple of months for the series, I'll be going to Turkey and Israel. We don't just look at Texas megachurches. That's just been a big component that my role has played in, because they are some hostile people when you go and ask them questions, sure.
Speaker 3:And so one of the ones we went to was Kenneth Copeland, and for those of you if that doesn't spark an image instantly, if you Google him, you'll know him instantly. He hit kind of social media gold here not that long ago because he owns multiple private planes, one of which he bought from Tyler Perry, and Entertainment Tonight, of all publications, was able to corner him at a private airfield where he was getting in his car after flying and questioned him about it, and what most people would say looks like a demonic response. He got very unhappy about the questions, almost started growling. He was so unhappy and then made it clear that they should not question him. He considers himself not a pastor.
Speaker 3:We have others, we'll call Pastor Ed Young. He considers himself a prophet and that he is anointed, and he made it very clear that they should not be questioning him, and so we went out there some months ago earlier in the summer did some recon, went to one of the services, which was an interesting experience in itself then went back with the intent to try and dive deeper on some of his past real estate dealings, because he keeps raising capital significant amounts of capital, millions of dollars and then not building the project and then just coming up with a new project that he wants to raise for. And my background in real estate, that's another thing that you know is kind of my core competency and I can understand kind of hey, how'd we get here? What point should he if the project was not viable, told his people it wasn't viable and when was it still possibly just being figured out? And ended up getting trespassed off his property last time when we managed to get to his airfield. Went back again to Pastor Ed Youngs just a couple of weeks ago, got trespassed.
Speaker 3:The show's creator got arrested and it's been a lot more volatile than I expected, I think the public sentiment so far, because one of the benefits if you're creating a documentary and you want to be able to kind of get the public pulse of involving somebody like me in your production, is I have a platform so we can kind of test some stuff out, throw out some things happening and say see well, how is the public responding to this? The public response has been really good and in scale. You know we've gotten now millions of views on some of the stories, just little bits of the story that will ultimately be in the series in full. And you know I've dealt with stories where you're dealing with gang or mob or organized crime components and there may be a couple defectors along the way, but generally those groups are pretty tight-knit.
Speaker 3:This is unique in that these megachurch pastors who have these large productions they have many people on staff. The amount of them who, while still working for them or have worked for them in the past, are willing to bring us documents, recordings of voice conversations with that pastor discussing intimate details of their business operations, where the money goes, getting tax returns on these people I've never seen anything like it. I've never seen anything like it. The amount of people willing to come forward with real information who said you know, I worked there for five plus years. The last year and a half I was extremely conflicted and so I started recording our conversations and I'm willing to give you those recordings, and I started collecting documents. I'm willing to give you those documents. I've never seen anything like it.
Speaker 2:I mean, steve, you might have to change your hashtag, your at sign, to like chaos creator or something of that nature. You know, it's interesting for a lot of people, like you were saying, who may not know. Uh, he's kind of in the same genre as, like, jimmy swagger, and he kind of came up in that era, right, but he was more late, on the opposite end of like, when jimmy swagger and all those guys were getting pinched. He still was kind of making his way up through the uh, the church, uh, mega church scene. Uh, as I recall, uh, as a younger kid.
Speaker 2:But it's interesting when you go back and you watch jimmy swagger now and some of these guys, uh, that are now selling survival food, it's quite interesting, it's quite entertaining, um, but, uh, when we talk about you know the state of affairs of what's going on and you're working on these other projects, uh, I was just thinking about what's been going on around here locally. I saw that the guy from the Hellcat, dodge Todger Hellcat guy, has been seeming to be making the news again and I guess he was arrested recently. What's interesting to me about the Hellcat guy is like, I mean, is it just a generation of stupid individuals now that like aren't learning their lessons, or is the money so damn good in social media that it just you got to continue to go steve what I mean, what? Yeah?
Speaker 3:I, I don't think. I don't think I think he is an anomaly. Um, I have spent time with him on a personal level. I went to go and try and actually put a story together on this guy and give him a chance to explain his side. So, full disclosure. We went out for a night. I got to meet a lot of people in his circle. It was an entertaining night. You know, he actually I think he has something very unique. Before I get into kind of let's start here and then let's get into the kind of legal side, yeah, I think he does have a unique ability to engage with people. I saw him do crowd work when I was out. He wasn't very recognized. He was wearing a shy ste on that night and so and sometimes he would take it up. A lot of people have never seen his face, so it's not like he went around going, I'm the hellcat right, but he was you know the way he worked a crowd.
Speaker 3:what caught me off guard is that, oh, this guy actually has a star ability. If he really wanted to hone this into a true business, I think he's one of those few who could really do it. To be becoming an influencer as cliche as that sound, is not as easy as people think. You really have to have something there Now. Since then he didn't follow through with any of the interview. He wanted to try and get footage that we shot, um just given to him and and I said, hey, you know, we can give you stuff, but we really need to finish up the part that I'm already invested and I've already brought camera people. I've invested time and money into this and he just wouldn't follow through, and so that was kind of where it sat and I, you know I was okay with it, kind of just dropping there because I didn't really know what the story would be, but I was intrigued to do it.
Speaker 3:Since then, you know, he's got kind of a multitude of different legal issues here. So he's got the car and that's what most people know him for and know about. Then there is a domestic violence charge and that was what he was just arrested on her. That was an emphasis push for an old domestic violence charge he had with his mother from months ago and they had a large warrant out for him on that. Then he's got a third that involves with a previous girlfriend a stalking allegation and it sounds like also a revenge porn allegation. I haven't gotten a lot of documents on that. There have been some, but a lot's been redacted just to try and keep her name out of the public.
Speaker 3:He then works. You know we don't really know what he does. I suspect he works at his mom's nonprofit, which makes it also kind of interesting. And then you know, as far as kind of how he interacts with the public, he's unapologetic. He feels that, hey, this attention is not a bad thing. So I think for those who think he's unfairly picked on, stop. This is his game. He knows it Is the story bigger than it should be, maybe, but the public has decided that this guy should be in the spotlight and at least from a pop culture standpoint, if not a truly critical what's going on here? Standpoint.
Speaker 2:He's like the modern-dayific northwest uh like fast and the furious, yeah, as much, as that franchise is still hanging on for dear life after all these geez decades. Uh, it's, it's. It's unbelievable to me. Now, as we get through some of these other stories. Steve has has a crime around the pacific northwest. What's?
Speaker 2:What's really going on on the beat of the street right now, seattle wise, I know that there's still a lot going on with third avenue. Do we feel like that's places become a little, should we say, cliche? I know I saw someone post recently about bringing their family or some friends into town and he was like I'm gonna take him to the most popular place and he said I'm gonna take him to third avenue, which was crazy to me because I think everyone from the pacific northwest or from anywhere who knows about seattle says I'm not going there. I know that people who live in the suburbs say seattle's dead. Um, we, I still hear a lot of that.
Speaker 2:Uh, people who live in the suburbs say Seattle's dead. I still hear a lot of that. Someone who lives in West Seattle, I mean the waterfront's fine. You're starting to see more of these automated little tin can with the scopes and the four cameras and the blue flashing lights. You're starting to see more of the Uncle Sam and the spy cameras watching everybody. Now you know Big Brother spending more time, you know, doing surveillance on people than you know, I guess what you would say patrolling the streets. Who's watching those cameras?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so a lot of those are privately owned. I find this we could get in a whole another conversation at some point too, just about government surveillance and some of the push for systems like flock and such to make it to where the police can identify movement of people that they've identified as potential criminal criminals. But you know you, anywhere you walk in the city, whether you know it or not, you are probably on anywhere from one to eight cameras at one time. Some are Seattle Department of Transportation, so government big brother, many are Ring. Then there's these trailers that go around that are privately owned, privately funded. They are leased by these businesses. The businesses generally have to go through a fair amount of steps to even get access to the footage. I've done stories in the past where there was one down in Hunts Point, kind of just outside of Federal Way, and there was a fire truck that had been broken into and a bunch of equipment stolen and it was right by one of these trailers and I could not get the footage, no matter what I did to try and show the public to see if we could identify these people, these companies. I wouldn't say it's a sham, but it's not. These trailers, I think are more optics than anything. And then they also now a lot of them now do an audible every three minutes. They remind you that Big Brother's there watching you, so don't mess around.
Speaker 3:Third and Pike, which definitely is cliche, is still doing what it's always done. It's a relatively isolated area. I always push back on the Seattle's dead narrative because the numbers just don't show it. I guess it depends on what is dead. Is grunge dead? Yes, grunge has been gone for some time. Right, old school 90s Seattle that a lot of us remember. Yeah, that's gone. And in the 90s I'm sure there was some era that people were frustrated, were gone and was gone in Seattle too. Right, that's the cyclical motion that always happens. Outside of that, in particular cultural movements, the numbers show Seattle is thriving just as much as it ever has. Yes, there are people who have moved out, and during the pandemic they found out that they could be remote and so they moved to the other side of the state, another state altogether, whatever. Multiple people came in to try and take their spot. Housing values show that, the job market shows that. Traffic shows that, everything shows that. So is it what we all remember? No, but I also think we somehow glorify what it once was. It's not like this place. You know, if you really want to get into history beyond just the last couple of decades, seattle's always been kind of a rough place. You know. It was founded as an area, as really a shipping area, and the streets were pretty rough back then. It's continued to do so. It has its ups and downs. Right now I think people are able to be more aware of it. I certainly contribute to that ecosystem of making sure people are aware of what's going on, so I'm just as guilty as anybody of feeding into that. But I think you know, hopefully people, if they want to actually know what's going on, want to get aware, get into the statistics, get into a better understanding. Don't just take it at face value. And this place never.
Speaker 3:I remember I skipped school back in high school and it was me and a few friends. We went to Seattle for the day and our parents found out and we didn't know. You know, back then there was, he couldn't call me on my cell phone or something, right, sure. So we had no idea the shit storm we were coming home to, right, we get home in the afternoon or whenever, and our parents have already talked. They figured out. Somebody had said where we went and my dad and this was in like 1998 maybe was screaming at me about you know, you went to seattle. Somebody will come up and just cut you and bleed you out on the street and I always think about that when people go oh man, it's not like it used to be. It was like I mean, obviously we skipped to go there, we wanted to be there. It was a big place, it was a place people wanted to be. It was basically you get stabbed and bled out, man. It's always kind of been that.
Speaker 2:It's. It's interesting when you say that because, like when, when I did this I mean when I was doing my high school english project back in 97 for my senior year project and it was called this project, we called helping the homeless we went down, we did, we did a whole thing. We recorded with the big old camera, we recorded everything. We got interviews of people, we got homeless people to in to do interviews with us and a lot of them said this and this stuck to me and to this day it's like they said seattle's a great place to be, the weather is mild, uh, the services are great here. And this was 97, so that was a long time ago, and it's just continued to be such. And what he said to me was there are some of us who just want to be left alone, that we want you don't want help from anybody, we just want to be our own and do our own thing. And there are others who want to kind of rebuild themselves and go back, and so, uh, it just stuck with me throughout all these years and now decades, that and it's crazy to say that that that this homeless guy that I remember just to the to the t saying look, not all of us want help right fast forward.
Speaker 2:Here we are through the pandemic and it and it just seems to have to multiply and it's something that is continuously happening. Obviously they're, you know it's like they're moving around and like, even you know, coming driving down i-5, I saw uh, you know where was? I was just by passing soto on five, heading south, just before the rainier brewery, what's coming up through the freeway Fire. I was like, oh okay, well, something's going on. Things don't seem to relatively have changed in regards to you're seeing the city is trying to do their best to clean the city up. In regards to move people kind of. I know we saw that during the world cup or the world was it all-star week where they kind of cleaned up everything. You know kind of tidied up. You know let's put all our trash somewhere. You know it's like, it's like as kids, you know remember, when you're like clean your room, your parents are like clean everything put everything underneath the bed, yes, and and.
Speaker 2:So when you think about this, I I know that the city is trying to do their best to continue to, you know, clean and put you know all the stuff and you know dot is trying to, you know, cover up, paint and spray paint all the other graffiti and things of that nature. Now, as we continue to see some of these still hot zones of um homeless camps, are we seeing a trend right now like south park by the south? You know you still had there was some stuff going on down there. I know there was a huge fire back in the late september maybe it was august or something like that huge fire. Some trailers or something burned down. Um, but it's almost like they just let it go. You know what I mean? That's just a kind of clean up and quotations to let things just kind of like happen on their own. Are we still seeing a lot of crime through that stuff right now with these homeless? Yeah, I mean there's.
Speaker 3:There's definitely a point where they go. We don't have all the things in place to whether that be offer assistance, which generally we have enough to offer assistance, but to get people to take assistance. And so since we're not going to do involuntary confinement things like that, we have to. You know, it's kind of like all right, we're going to leave it alone over here till it hits a certain point.
Speaker 3:The jungle, which has been around for forever really, and we could go into some of the history of Mayor Ed Murray when the jungle was first kind of eradicated, and mayor ed murray, when the jungle was first kind of eradicated and then all of a sudden, boom, there was homeless everywhere. Everybody thought it exploded. It was around, you used to see it, but the home, the jungle, just got cleared out again because, uh, there were two shooting. There was a shooting with multiple victims on a sunday. It was then decided and this is in september. It was decided then, okay, we got to clear place out. There also had been an odor out there of a dead body for some time. My background in the first responder world and for any of you watching, you know that smell of a dead body is different than anything else than any other kind of animal. It's in the calciums and stuff we consume. It's just a very different type of odor, and so there was a thought there was a body, and what they ended up finding was a woman inside of a suitcase, wrapped inside those purple bags that they go and leave out there that have the phone number so you could just call the number and get your trash picked up for free if you're living in an encampment. She had been kept out there, according to the medical examiner, as far back as June, and the leader of that camp, who is now in custody his name's Stephen Wynn is the one accused of killing her. He led that camp and had a hatchet on him most all times. It looks like he used the hatchet to end her life and then decided to put her in a suitcase and then put it under his framed-up structure Not buried just underneath his framed-up structure until they did that sweep.
Speaker 3:And so you know what finally pushed it to sweep time was a shooting, and then another body's found, and so you know it's one of the challenges with these is I get the concept, and as I go back to Mayor Ed Murray, you know we didn't realize the homeless situation was so bad until they decided, you know, he wanted to get more money for homeless outreach and obviously there's a lot of debate on whether money is what's going to solve this but that was what he believed. He couldn't get the public's will and so he cleared out the jungle and he said it was to try and cut down on crime. My suspicion is he thought, hey, if I push this out, and in front of everybody, they're going to, okay, now we'll, now we'll support what you want to do. Um, he couldn't, still couldn't get the support.
Speaker 3:And all of a sudden there's people living in between the north and south freeway in downtown seattle. There's people living out on the sidewalk which we hadn't really seen before, that we would see panhandlers and stuff. Now they didn't have anywhere to go. Now does that mean it got worse, or does or does that mean all of a sudden you couldn't look the other way? And that's one of the challenges with these is the jungle's a nice, convenient place to have it over there, where nobody really sees it, but then when you have to clear that out, then it goes down into a more populated area. Neither one really solves the problem. It's just a change in tactics at that time.
Speaker 2:It's just a change in tactics at that time. It's just interesting because, when you think about this, two sweeps inside of a, uh, an area which is, I don't know, half mile long, maybe a mile long underneath you know, um, terrifying you, I mean anybody who's like, anybody who's anybody, just if you have an opportunity. I know that, uh, I know that there have been many stories out there that have covered this jungle piece and it's terrifying, it's like another world. It's almost like I guess I'm looking for the word like underground world. It's like night and day. You go in there and you're like what the hell is?
Speaker 3:it is especially in an area that's so concerned about environmental impact. You know you're not able to use gas leaf blowers yeah which, okay, fine, I don't know.
Speaker 3:I'm not trying to go and debate the glass, get in the glass. Gas leaf blower debate, sure, but to lay out policy for that and leave this alone for anybody concerned about those other types of environmental impacts go visit one of these spots. It will blow your mind the amount of debris, toxic waste, needles, as well as just normal bio-organic trash in there. It is feet deep and you can sit in these. I wanted to go in and take a photo a couple times because I used to do a lot of outreach in these spots and I could stand in a spot where, through the trees, you could see the beautiful skyline of seattle at night, where the the lights are shining and there's just this beautiful overcast and go how, while you were sitting in something that you would never let your children near, that you would never want to go in without protective gear on, and yet we pretend to be this such environmentally conscious area and it's very frustrating to me.
Speaker 3:I think that you know I wish we could get people to see that and go. Okay, we need to get behind this Now. Not only do you have human suffering, do we need to find a solution with the environmental impact, all those things layered on top. We need to solve this. It would be of great benefit to this area to get serious about this and figure out what other options can we do. And it's not just housing. Amazon didn't go do this, it's a multitude of things. It's addiction is at the core of this issue, then, sure, housing and other issues along the way to get somebody from the bottom of this problem all the way through to the other, the bottom of this problem all the way through to the other side.
Speaker 2:But I think people just want to say, well, it's just this or it's just that you're not serious at that point for those who have been living downtown and I know I saw this recently somewhere, uh, in this one was probably from the mainstream news, but if you've been a part of second avenue and you and we know that there's some, some hot spots, there was a fantastic mexican restaurant that had been, that had been around for decades and this family had owned this. I know that it went. It changed hands a few times. I know that it tragically suffered, uh, during the pandemic.
Speaker 2:I know I used to go there to get my tortillas because they would just make them fresh, but mama's uh kitchen, which shut down, turned into like again, kind of like the same thing as you're talking, but all in a smaller footprint, where people were going in to the abandoned building and and then basically it turned into a cesspool. I mean it basically a biohazardous and toxic environment. You cannot. I mean the place been run down clearly and then being overtaken by squatters. What intel do you have on that spot and what?
Speaker 3:on that one specifically, I don't. I believe, though, that that building has been marked as seattle fire had gone through and identified. I believe 40, though, that that building has been marked as Seattle Fire had gone through and identified. I believe 40-something buildings that were of high concern. If they catch fire, they will watch them burn. Since that list has come out last year, I have been on those when they have caught fire and they watch them burn. They try and keep it from spreading Sure, and that's where I think people don't get the true level of financial impact.
Speaker 3:When these things happen. When you have a spot like that, it's easy to say well, we only have this much resource to throw at it, or we don't want to authorize money for that. You will pay one way or the other. I don't care how you look. Whether that is in loss of revenue from people willing to come and shop in these areas and patronize these areas, willing to come and shop in these areas and patronize these areas, whether this is in first response services having to go out repeatedly to address these areas, whether it be from a scene of violence or a fire burning to the ground. Then there's the cleanup component to these, the layers of money in this is massive, and I think that when they tell us what the numbers are, it's not a complete picture. I don't know that they are intentionally not disclosing as much, as it may just be more complicated for them to try and analyze it. But it is massive.
Speaker 3:Dollars, millions of dollars, goes into this stuff that does not end up in these budgets that then are left to be approved. They had come out recently with the homelessness budget. I mean, it was a number like we'd never seen before. It was, I think, five or six times what it had ever been historically. People freaked. I didn't look through it so I can't tell you a certainty, but I wonder if some of those things had actually been accounted for in this, saying hey, wait a minute, we're spending it already. Even if you didn't see it here, it's being spent here, here, here and here. You just don't know it because it's not now in inherently in those operating budgets. But I think it's going to take that to get a real serious solution our guest tonight, photog steve, who's been traveling.
Speaker 2:He's been covering stories uh, the election's coming up, man. Um, I know I've. I mean, we're talking about some things that, for those who are listening on terrestrial radio, uh, the election has already happened. Uh, for those who are listening on terrestrial radio, the election has already happened. For those who are listening to the podcast, who, exclusively? If you're listening to the terrestrial radio, you should go to my website on airmariocom to subscribe to the podcast so you can get this before it comes out for terrestrial radio.
Speaker 2:Steve, I know that things are uh hot right now. It not only just in washington. Well, washington seems to be. I will say that this is the most intrigued I've been in decades in regards to since my being able to vote, since 96. It is quite interesting because I know that in my voting history I've gone to the ballot box or gone to the ballot poll. I did that multiple years before they went to mail-in ballot. It blows my mind that we are seeing ballot boxes in Vancouver and Portland being burnt or catching fire or arson or whatever the case may be. How crazy is it for you to like hear about these stories and cover them now?
Speaker 3:yeah, it's been a while and I'll say for those listening on terrestrial radio, as you said, uh, hope it's over, hopefully it's over, hopefully, hopefully it's over and that we have a defined winner and we are moving forward. I don't know that we will. Yes, I think I don't think it's going to be over for some time, but, uh, I I'm very curious to see, when they finally get a person in custody on that, what the motive will be. This also happened in arizona around the same time, within 48 hours of vancouver and portland, at least within 48 hours, and that person was taken into custody and it turned out he was just an agent of chaos. He had wanted to get arrested. He thought if he did a federal crime that he would get more time of government housing, if you will. This doesn't have that type of feel to it, so I don't want to minimize it and say it's just somebody out there just creating chaos, but, um, I think we'll get a better understanding then.
Speaker 3:Uh, there's a lot of now. Governor inslee has activated limited resources with the national guard that are going into effect, I believe, tomorrow and are expected to stay in place, tomorrow being monday. Uh, stay in place through thursday and then it could be extended from there. I've seen a lot of comments of people saying, well, they didn't do that during the chas chop days. Now they are. They did. There was, there was a sure national yeah, there absolutely was for those.
Speaker 3:Again, short-term memory, people just want to feel like they're the victim of the circumstance and moment that they're in and not be realistic about the history. But, um, you know, I think people may be surprised to see what will happen here because I think, well, this, this state's so defined right. We usually, kind of always go one way sure it's not a very controversial.
Speaker 3:This is not a swing state by any means, um, but there is a lot of people who want to make a statement out here and we've seen it in a lot of other instances people shutting down the freeway and such. There was a concern yesterday about the freeway getting shut down. That did not materialize, but State Patrol were putting resources together to go address that. I am hoping. I guess I'll put my own opinion on this. I am hoping that this is all just an abundance of caution and that it's not going to materialize. It will somewhere. I hope it doesn't here. Somewhere across the country. Some chaos is going to happen and I'm sure those who are listening to this post-election how naive we sound here on a Sunday night saying you know, oh, here's what might happen, but you know, I think I'm hoping it will be pretty isolated here.
Speaker 2:It's interesting because I did on Instagram and then also on the on the ticket, tiki talker. This is what I asked. Someone asked me when I was watching the Husky football game who do you think is going to be more upset? Is it going to be Democrats, because they lost and they're going to be the ones out rioting? Or is it going to be republicans, who have voted for donald trump and you know, and, and they saw an outcome that wasn't in the favor of them? Obviously we're talking about a podcast, a radio show that will air, but since you know, and clearly there'll be some information, that'll be, uh, you know, who knows knows what will actually happen. Will we have a defined winner? Is it going to be a landslide? Because I will tell you right now from watching on social media, steve, people in the international district, people who look like they could barely speak English and this, are voting for Trump. They're voting for trump. They're voting for trump. Uh, I know that hispanics typically tend to be more conservative, so to me, it seems like it's pretty defined that this could be a straight landslide.
Speaker 2:Now the polls show completely different and we know how polls are. Are we going to see people in regards to in states with ballot boxes, like we did in the past where there were armed, and in the state of washington you don't have to, you can open carry in the state. So I know that there was one time during the pandemic where I was at Chipotle and a guy didn't want to wear his mask and so he was open carrying. So if someone asked him about his mask which no one was going to ask him about his mask, but in the situation you got a guy who's caring, and then you got the guy next to him who has no clue what's going on, and then there's me, you know, waiting like well, this could be my last Chipotle bowl. Are we going to see more people like that at the ballot boxes for like intimidation factors? I mean, are you seeing any of that in any of your?
Speaker 3:I'm sure it's going to happen. I'm hoping, though's going to happen. I'm hoping, though, you know, I think the most of us really are not interested in participating in those type of activities. The vast majority of us, vast majority of us, are not interested in participating in those type of activities. Sure, but this is a big country and so it will happen. It will then be amplified. If it happens here locally and I get that story, believe me, I'm going to put the story out, I'm going to amplify and go hey, here's what's happening here, right? So that's kind of what the role of press and media is, is to show what's going on out there.
Speaker 3:I think, you know, we've seen in the past where there's this fear that whichever side loses that well, one side's really well armed and the other side isn't. Both sides are certainly capable of a lot of unrest, and we've seen instances, whether you know that be from january 6th or that be from other types of civil unrest outside of, uh, voting, outside of political cycles. Every side is capable of it. I don't know how many people are really going to be interested in participating in that in scale unless there becomes some sort of a concerted effort, which I'm sure there will be on some point to say, hey, the election was stolen. That seems to be what really works people up.
Speaker 3:It's not the loss if the loss was agreed to and concise, that'd be one thing. But also when you say, landslide, what's even a landslide? You could have, uh, the electoral college be a landslide and the popular vote not be a landslide. So that's where I think people too, you can have you go. Hey, this is a decisive win. This is a decisive win. And it's still the minority of people who voted for it. That right, there is a making of a lot of unrest, sure, even though that is a decisive win right, it will be interesting to see, uh, what happens.
Speaker 2:I, I, I probably will go live. The one thing that I always think about and to me, when you, when you talk about, like you know, the riots and things of that nature, it's interesting to me because it goes back to one individual who no longer is around, who it is his birthday week, um william cooper, who wrote behold the pale horse, and this book, rent was, has been been the controversy of many of those that are out there. This individual had a disdain, dislike for, as he called a nuisance of, you know, alex jones and called art bell. You know, horrible things and things of that nature. Now, was william cooper a great individual? No, but what's interesting is that when you talk about some of these individuals, like an alex jones, like, uh, these different uh groups that have, you know, congregated together to move towards um gathering and taking, it was interesting to me how much has been taken out of this book and used over the decades, something that was written in the 90s. The guy you know had some interesting insights to even the 9-11 stuff, but you know him thinking that you know the world is, you know, you know big government is going to get you and things of that nature.
Speaker 2:And and for those who are out there, I mean this could be one of those situations where if one side believes that this election was stolen from them you know, maybe it was a popular vote, you know one and then clearly the you know college, electoral said nope, it's going to go this way, this way, and hopefully that the voting, the, the electoral college, does the right thing in regards to whoever the popular vote is. You'll do the right thing. Just say, okay, they were the winner, the people spoken, we're going to do our job. Boom boom, boom boom. You know it's not always that easy, but again, these is this is where a lot of people start to get upset and, like you were saying, they're going to either protest, they're going to show dislike, be out in the streets, and I know there was some of that during Trump's first inauguration and I know that there were a lot of people that were upset. I remember I was in Charleston people crying during that time. I mean it was four years that when you look back, it was a blur. Um.
Speaker 2:I remember doing some interesting shows. I remember, you know, doing a covid show about him thinking, oh man, this is, this is the beginning of covid. You know, when they had that big super spreader party, you know everyone got sick. You know, uh, and and at that point, there was a lot of people that could have died, you know, because it was still relatively still a newer, you know, element where people were still dying and and obviously they were all taken care of and things of that nature. But will we see, I mean, are you you're going to be on the streets? Do you know where you're going to be on election night? Are you going to be towards the city? Are you going to be near, like, maybe, some of these old 2020 locations? I mean, I mean, do we have I would assume in the city.
Speaker 3:But it's really going to depend on a lot of intel. So you know my line of work. You're working a lot of sources behind the scenes, sure, so it could be down to the capital. I don't think one I don't think will be um that volatile. Will be like the governor's race. I mean, reichert's campaign really didn't seem to get the traction that was necessary um what the heroes?
Speaker 2:not the green river, you know. Heroes not gonna win this thing he seemed to.
Speaker 3:I thought he was gonna go a a bit bigger in the beginning. It just didn't really seem to take off. So I think Ferguson's pretty much got it Now. There may be people who are not happy with that, but I don't think it's going to be this contentious outcome that's going to work people up and I don't think that state governor races usually amplify people to that level, so I don't know that it ends up in the Capitol.
Speaker 3:I think I even wonder if it'll be the night of. I feel like it's going to be day after. I think, as this thing continues to build and as the candidate specifically one candidate is going to be, it's going to use that pulpit pretty heavily in the hours after, and then I think that that's going to really work a lot of people up, and that's what I think my biggest concern is. You know, when you get that and let's say that candidate wins and we look at pulling back on Ukraine, doubling down on what's happening in the Middle East, there's going to be things for people to attach to. It's not going to be over just because, yeah, there was that that person did or didn't win.
Speaker 2:But if that person does win, we will have waves and waves and waves of this like we haven't seen in a long time and may have never seen before what's interesting, too, is that you know, uh, I had heard that there are people that are going to vote strike like not vote because they don't, you know, because of the palestinian and is and Israeli conflict right now war conflict, whatever you want to call it, and I'm like how about do your public service go out, vote first, and then we can deal with this and say you know, go vote, so that you can then go complain to your elected official and say, hey, by the way, that's what we do as Americans.
Speaker 2:Remember and I know that most of the stations that we're on are pretty conservative they're smart. I'm not saying that, you know, liberals are not smart, but be educated about what you're doing. You know, like, do your job. Your job is to vote for individuals, to work for you. That's what we elect these people to do. They, they have a job.
Speaker 2:You, you want to protest, do a hunger strike, for god's sakes, but make sure you get your vote out, so then you can say hey, by the way, dummy, go fix this thing, however that may be for you. And it's not that simple. This is, like you know that whole situation over there, the conflict I don't care if you're religious or not religious, it's a religious war about two individuals fighting about land that has been promised to them, that has been written in a book, one version, and the second in another, and I'll have a link to a theologian who speaks highly or gives a great clarity on what is going on for those who simply don't believe in a higher power or believe in that stuff, and if you don't believe in a higher power like that and and that's fine. But you know that's what they're fighting about. They're taught they're. They're fighting about promised land to them.
Speaker 3:So I think that too. Um, you know I spent time out there talking to people on both sides of it. It's easy to a lot of times I know 9-11 is used as an example here, but I think it's the best example we have of something that people can remember and relate to. For a lot of us who live through that, obviously it was one of the biggest things that ever happened in our life and some of us maybe distantly knew somebody out there. Some of us did have direct family or were directly involved, knew somebody whose life was ended or forever altered out there, but that wasn't the majority of us. The majority of us were just experiencing one of the biggest events that ever happened, and so on.
Speaker 3:When you go out to that area, every single person you talk to not only has a belief, not only has their historical version of it, but also has first person account of how it's affected them directly Family that they knew, whose lives were ended by something in this conflict over the last decade, two decades. Their land was taken over the last decade, two decades from and that goes from west bank, uh, as well as gaza, and so it wasn't like people saying oh, this is what I believe, because I've watched you go. No, my aunt, my uncle, my brother, my sister, my mother, my father all had this exact experience. That became a formative experience for me in my life. And so then to go out there and say, well, here's what you need to do to solve it.
Speaker 3:It's just that's not how humans work and it's not. It's. It's not about right or wrong, it's that's how ingrained it is on both sides of this thing, where in a lot of the stories that I would hear, we're not like oh, we just felt we were wrong, it's no, I, I have somebody who is in my family, who's no longer on this earth because of what I believe the other side is doing. Yeah, and it was not in the last, you know. Now we're a year and a month out. I'm talking going back years previous to that, decades previous to that, and it goes on long before any of that it.
Speaker 2:It is so sad to see human life extinguished over a conflict in regards to beliefs, and especially religious beliefs, which it can go back to the Protestants and the Catholics. They're like why are you guys fighting over? Like? You know what I mean. It's like crazy for those who may not understand, who may be a part of this, but go back to like when catholics and protestants were fighting in in, in, in is in, uh, israel, but in ireland, you know, it's like people like forget about these things. Like religion is ingrained in a lot of these, in a lot of people, and I know for that. There are a lot of people who don't believe in religion and that's okay, you're allowed to have that belief. But again, steve, you're you're talking about firsthand accounts of people who have, who are like damn, I've been, you know this sucks.
Speaker 3:Well, and over here we have hundreds of millions of people, so you know you're not going to have something that directly affects hundreds of millions of people's lives the same way Over there. Israel itself is the size of New Jersey. You can be from one end of the country and the other in a matter of hours. They are a huge player in the world stage, but this is not a large population of people. So a lot of a large, very large percentage, if not every single person, can have be directly affected by something like this. And then it becomes that visceral feeling and really, uh, nothing matters at that point it's. I know this because this is how it affected me and I'm not going to budge from this our guest tonight, photog steve.
Speaker 2:Uh, the state of washington, steve, I know there's so much been going on. Are we talking an uptick? I mean, I know, I know that everyone right now is, I, you still see it on every stupid platform, and I say stupid because I don't want to name them all, but all these different viewing platforms of movies and documentaries and docuseries of crime nets and podcast this and true crime that and social experiment, and you know, serial killer ted bundy this and blah, blah, blah, that. And we all know. Hey, I mean we take it, I don't know, maybe not a, I wouldn't say a badge of honor, but I know, per capita, that Washington seems to have produced a lot of serial killers. We're not looking at an uptick. I mean, is serial killers a thing of the past now that social media is out there and I think it's definitely a lot harder to for them to operate for years on end.
Speaker 3:You know, I think it's easy to say, well, it's because of our our gloomy uh, you know, sure weather patterns and so on. I think there's a couple things that were unique. Out here we have a lot of rural, and I don't mean rural like pasture, I mean, you know, forest land. Out here you can be in a very heavily populated area, commit the beginnings of your crime and then, within an hour, be in a very desolate area to get rid of the evidence, and I think that that makes this area unique than when you get to other parts like LA and you really have to go a ways to get rid of it. I think that's one of the things that the Gary Ridgeways of the world were able to operate out here because of the landscape out here. Go ahead.
Speaker 2:You know, recently I guess Gary decided to make. I don't know that he wanted to, but he made an appearance here in King County recently doing some. I don't know if it's visits, if he was here for a vacation from the state penitentiary. Do we have any intel on what his whereabouts and what he was doing?
Speaker 3:So I was working that when he came out here we realized he got transferred that morning and then we're out trying to find him. We had areas that they were taking him. It sounds like there was a belief that he might be willing to disclose some more locations of bodies. The bodies have not all been found, sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah right.
Speaker 3:He himself says there are more, he just can't remember where they are. But he seems to have these epiphanies every so many years and there's an interesting relationship between him and Dave Reichert. With Dave Reichert running for governor there was some thought that sometimes you find in these the investigators chasing and the person accused of the crimes. There becomes this odd kinship between them, especially years later, and there was an insinuation that maybe he was going to drop a few more bodies and that would help Reichert's campaign. It't seem to materialize, but they did go out and they looked for more.
Speaker 3:Um, I went and drove a lot of those areas that they were going to be on and you know I'm younger than he is and so I don't have the amount of decades that he was out driving around getting rid of bodies that I do. And I was thinking I don't know how you come out all these years later. Go for a ride and, first off, not just be blown away at the world around you. Second, recognize much of anything when you get out on those roads where so much has changed especially over the decades.
Speaker 2:I mean growing up in the 80s.
Speaker 2:I mean I lived just by the Green River, up in really close, and I remember the first body.
Speaker 2:We were going to a mexican restaurant which was on the other side of the green river bridge, by the um, by riverbend or whatever the golf course is, and we were driving home and we saw them pulling out the first bodies, uh, or the first body, um, you know back then and um, man, to this day, I remember being a kid getting on the bus and the bus driver playing, you, you know whatever it was, the radio and you'd hear, you know the news ticker and the Green River has struck again.
Speaker 2:They have another body found over, and you know, over by the Green River Gorge, and as a kid I had no clue because I had no information. You know, I was just thinking, I just thought the Green River Killer was just killing anybody at random. I didn't know that he wasn't looking for, you know, young boys, um, but he was going after young prostitutes or his victims on on a larger scale, which is terrifying to think this and very sad that that there is a population of individuals, women, who in the 80s would go missing either had gone into the night ladies of the night, you know became sex workers, or maybe they weren't even sex workers, but they were hitchhiking and then became a victim.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so he had gone through a lot of steps. Couple quick facts about him. So every time he would go get rid of a body he would get new tires on his truck and then make sure that the other tires had been destroyed. Um, he was known also to keep the bodies on the back of the truck for days after he would go to the kenworth plant and renton, then leave on his lunch, use those bodies for his own gratification, go back to work and then get rid of them later.
Speaker 3:Forensics took years to catch up. Eventually the reason it was even figured out was that job in Kenworth. They used a very specific spray paint, a chemical in a paint that if you were to have that on you which was on the victims, it could only come from that one place and maybe manufacture behind that. So that in itself says if he had tried this years later, I don't think it would have been as prolific. They probably would have found that sooner.
Speaker 3:That stuff takes time to catch up. I'm working on an ICAC story now where stuff is caught up. They're able to catch them later. These things move at a much faster pace now. So what makes a serial killer? Are there people out there wanting to be serial killers, probably. But I think that as you analyze these people who do it, they break that threshold. They're successful, they do it again, they're successful, and then it becomes something. I don't think that people like Gary Ridgway intended to go and put out those kinds of numbers, but they evolved as they continued to get away with it. So there's probably still people around us who are absolutely capable of it, but hopefully forensic science and DNA has helped keep that at bay.
Speaker 2:When we talk about serial killers, high crime, things of this nature. Obviously, ted Bundy was another one, and the list can go on forever, but we're not seeing an uptick. Are we seeing sex trafficking stories going on right now? Are we talking about? Are we seeing an uptick of this go on? I know that there's still that sludge of 99, and I say sludge, but that area where I don't want to call it skid road, but you know, like I don't want to call it candy cane lane either, but you know stripper, you know hooker they're not strippers. I know sex workers, things of that nature. Why is that still even a thing? I know that there are some laws that are have been changed. Are they going to really effectively start going after these young ladies?
Speaker 3:They seem to be posturing to, but it hasn't really gone on. It hasn't come, and there's been a bit of a transition over the last five years or so. So in the past there was generally going to be sex workers out there working on their own, and then there were some with pimps as well. Pimps have really got a stronghold out there, and so if you're not working with one, you're going to now be at risk from others until you align with one. And the makeup of the girls and I don't mean makeup, the makeup, just the physical makeup of them has changed. The brazenness has changed in recent years. I think we're a long ways away from seeing any shift in that happening. There has been definitely a shift in public sentiment too, as far as a tolerance of it, and I don't even know that they're okay with it as it is, but would be okay with it if there was a legal capacity available for it. So there's obviously been a shift in culture on that too for it.
Speaker 2:So there's obviously been a shift in culture on that too. It's crazy because when you think about it, I know that they're, they're still. You see these videos of you know these, these pimp wars where they're fighting in like straight up, like it almost looks like I don't even want to call south central, you know like 90s gang war, you know what I mean. You like you hear the car skidding out and you hear you da-da-da-da-da. I'm like what am I watching? And I know that that's. I've seen tons of surveillance cameras showing these. I don't know they're pimp wars or what you want to call them, but how terrifying is it to see that nothing is really being done in regards to like, hey, let's patrol this a little bit more and let's get some you know boots on ground.
Speaker 3:I think there's a difference to. You know, there's there's pimps who came in as pimps and then there's gang members trying to be pimps and a lot of the the more traditional pimps are not really interested in going out there shooting up blocks and getting into wars and so on. They pimps are not really interested in going out there shooting up blocks and getting into wars and so on. They're in it to just try and make money and continue to try and push the girls to get more money. Now that the gang violence has started to expand and is now getting into that, it's gotten a lot more violent. Now, whether or not that that is is good or bad, I don't want to say like, oh, we just need to get back to old, traditional pimps. That's not what I'm saying, but that's kind of where that transition is coming from. Is that evolution, uh, is coming from?
Speaker 3:So, uh, a lot of the guys that are out there participating there are pimps who've been out there for a long time seem to stay out of jail, um, stay off of law enforcement radar. And then there's some are out there just getting into it and shooting the place up and creating a lot of chaos and getting a lot more attention than the other ones want, and that's what's, I think, kind of amplified. A lot of that footage that you've probably seen online is footage I've gotten because I'm the only person who has a feed to all the S-Doc cameras and we have servers that grab all of that, so we get it and then put that out just to try and bring some level of awareness to it. But know, through public sentiment changing um lack of resources on the law enforcement side, there's some wild stuff going on in spd right now, just with their payroll system. Uh, that has them looking at some new staff issues that the news has not picked up on yet.
Speaker 2:I just don't see there being much change happening anytime soon in it I know you had been working a couple stories, uh, that that gentleman who was um, who is now unalive, who pulled out the gun in takwila, who was going to meet um, he was going to meet a woman's, two daughters, or whatever, and do have his way with them and clearly, when, uh, he pulled out the gun, they really uh, yeah, they definitely unloaded they. They made sure that they left no witnesses for that this is very true um, are we seeing more of these types of crimes going on right now?
Speaker 2:internet crimes, where we're seeing, uh, these types of things be more of a. I mean it's, it's, it's almost like an, almost like it's out of sight, out of mind. No one really talks about it, and I know that you've brought it to the forefront. Steve Photog81, if you want to follow him and all the stuff that he's got going on, steve, let's talk about this. I know it's not fun, it's not fun, it's not sexy, and I know that you've done a really good job to bring awareness to what is a very sensitive subject in regards to some very horrific things that have happened or that are happening out there that aren't being brought to the mainstream media attention, or they're not covering it or they're not doing. I'm not saying that they're not covering it. Maybe they just don't have the resources. I don't know what's going on. Don't work at the tv stations. Um, so, with you doing your due diligence, to have the ability to spend more time, as you have said, to investigate these uh stories, what's going on right now with some of these stories?
Speaker 3:so, yeah, the numbers are up. Start there. So the numbers are up, but not it hasn't been a very recent spike as much as social media has made more people available who can be victimized those same people who you know. When we were growing up and you were told about stranger danger and such you know, you didn't really hear of it actually happening. You just heard that it could happen and you know not to not to talk to strangers, right? It evolves so much now the amount of potential victims and the amount of children who have been victimized and then continue to live their life. I don't know if there was, would be a way to go back to our generation and find out how many victims there truly were. That just never recorded it. I'm sorry, recorded, reported it. But you know those the two things. Now that you have those people who used to be and I'm talking about the suspects they're isolated, they're in their basement, they're off the radar committing these acts. Now they have community that they can go reach out to through chat groups and they have file sharing sites they can go to and sharpen their skills and a lot of them I have found out I didn't know this, but a lot follow work of people like me, and so there is a real responsibility of people who want to go and actually report on this stuff to not overly disclose the ways and means of how they're being caught on this stuff, to not overly disclose the ways and means of how they're being caught. There is. So there's a task force called ICAC, i-c-a-c Internet Crimes Against Children. This is a funded program, funded by money that goes to law enforcement, but they also rely heavily on private donation and the stations. You know why they do or don't report on this stuff.
Speaker 3:I can't really say um, I can tell you some big challenges with reporting on it. It's extremely graphic. So how can you tell the story properly? And not either one if you're on social media, just trigger the guideline issues or two, um, go so much that you almost desensitize the public to it. That can be a big concern. As you start the beginning, it's so much and you hear it so much it starts to soften. I don't want to do that either. I also don't want to give out the ways and means. I also do not want to ever identify a victim.
Speaker 3:I get a lot of these that come in where it's a family member and it could even be somewhat of a distant family member, but it's a family member. And I get a lot of people hitting me up saying, hey, I know somebody who did this and I would really like the story out. But the victim is still, is not 18, nowhere near 18. And this is somebody who they're related to. How can I tell that story and do it properly and not potentially out them? And I've even had some say well, you know, this will be good for them to know that there's nothing to be ashamed of. I'm not interested in making a decision for an 8, 9, 10, 12, 13-year-old child of what is best for them long-term in putting their story out there. And so those types of things start to weigh into this.
Speaker 3:Of what stories we can tell or not, the ones that I generally tell are the ones where the suspect has already admitted on some level what they've done or, if not fully admitted, the ones that are generally more brazen, because I think the public needs to know for a couple of reasons. One, I think there's this feeling that this just goes on and there's no consequence for it. There are real consequences for it and there are very dedicated professionals out there working in this space, day in and day out, doing work that you could not imagine the amount of emotional stress that comes with that. Every time they get a suspect in custody and this person has this war chest, if you will, or hard drives of stuff, they have to review every single thing in that and they have to review it in detail to find out. Number one there's a lot of this content that has been created over the years that continues to recirculate. There's new content that goes out and they need to try and identify these victims. They find out if these are new victims that have never been in the ecosystem before.
Speaker 3:A lot of this stuff is extremely methodical. There are um parents doing this to their children and then documenting the entire process of it to, because there's there's value in that in that community of people wanting to watch a child be broken from from the start over the weeks following and that change in that child's uh eye contact and their their, the way they interact with the world. This is much. This is very dark stuff, and so I think that the world needs to know that this goes on. I think they need to know that there's a group that they can support if they want it to go on, and I think the professionals who are doing this work making sure the world that they can see that the world does appreciate what they're doing, making sure that they can see that the world does appreciate what they're doing. There's good things in that, but there's a lot of responsibility that comes with this. That's much different than the normal overnight homicide stuff.
Speaker 2:We'll put a link to. You said it was ICAC.
Speaker 3:ICAC, that's right, internet Crimes Against Children and it's a multi-agency task force, local law enforcement to county. They all kind of culminate under this and they're the ones who handle those specifically.
Speaker 2:So we'll put a link in the podcast if you don't know where it's at and you want to support and you want to donate, I'm sure they could use all the resources and money and maybe that is available that you may have and you're like you know what? I want to make a donation to something. This is definitely a great thing. This is definitely a great thing. What's interesting to me, steve, and I know, as we talked about this, there was a story that you covered about a young lady who was a dancer who was murdered, and I think that she was involved with an individual, an older gentleman, who I believe maybe they had some type of relationship. If it was, you know, for hire or if it was, you know, some type of I don't know. Whatever the relationship was, it seemed to me a relationship that had ended wrongly. Do we have any updates on that, on that story?
Speaker 3:it still continues to go in the court process. So a lot of times I get, you know, people hit me up going, hey, we want follow-up on this. At this point, you know, once it goes past charging and it's down, that it can take years for this stuff to go together. He does seem to have had some financial resources so he can continue to drag this out. He's in custody. He's not getting out of custody anytime soon. Uh, he seems determined to um torch whatever financial legacy he could have left his kids on legal expenses for a case. I don't know that he will ever win.
Speaker 3:I haven't like to stand on but know he seems determined to do so and in our legal system you have the right to do that. Um, the young lady her name was Lilia, and it was a really sad story in that it sounds like there was some level of professional relationship to begin with um in that in exchange of money for relationship, but it seemed to transition over time from that. But I think he wanted more from her than she was willing to give and the way it appears is when she was no longer willing to give it, that he couldn't handle that and it was just a very bizarre case. And how it came together, how he then was in the home for some time before reaching, instead of calling 911, he called an attorney. It appears he just Googled an attorney. He didn't have an attorney on standby, which I was kind of surprised given his financial stature and his business ties, that he didn't have somebody he could go to.
Speaker 3:But he then gets an attorney in place and has continued down this path. I'm curious to see, as we get closer to trial, what their argument's going to be at this point. It's really just been we don't know what happened and you, the law enforcement, certainly can't figure out what happened based on us just trying to discredit you. So how do you know it was him? Obviously you got to get a little bit more of that by the time you get the trial so much going on out there right now.
Speaker 2:Steve, um, are there any stories that you're able to share, that you're working on that? Maybe you want to give an insight to um, to listeners who may be listening on terrestrial radio or on the stream, uh, on a podcast, something that you're like hey, this is something that's coming up that maybe people should be looking for yeah, so we're almost done with the zarell blue piece.
Speaker 3:zarell blue is, uh, somebody from more it it's kind of more Pierce County area who was a community organizer gaining a bit of social media clout but has a long list of women who say that he was assaulted them, stalked them, sexually assaulted them and just generally ruined their lives for years after trying to break off relationships with them. This one's taken a while because we've actually done, you know, victim impact interviews as well. There's going to be some ICAC stories. This week there is a man who went to a dollar store I think it's a dollar store or cash, some sort of like a dollar store type place in Kent off Pack Highway and, for lack of a better term, went into the store, found a six-year-old in the toy aisle and finished on that six-year-old and then left the store. And for those wondering what I what I mean by that, I'm meaning the thing you're thinking, that yeah sounds terrible, terrible and then that went into cold case and now, years later, through dna linking him through other cases, he's now been arrested.
Speaker 3:Good, he's, I believe, going to plead not guilty. So we'll frame it as that innocent until proven guilty. But dna doesn't lie. But it's an interesting one that generally these types of things I talked earlier about how these, there's this, the, the content that then becomes part of the ecosystem and they have to figure out is this new victim, old victim? This was one where they managed to get him years later.
Speaker 3:He was a joint base lewis mccord soldier as well, another one in icac, a gentleman here in kent. The reason he stuck out. So he he's in his 50s. He gets a knock at the door at 6 am, like most of these people who get hit by icac that's how it goes down is you'll get a knock at about 6 am. You'll most of these people who get hit by ICAC that's how it goes down is. You'll get a knock at about 6 am. You'll open it up and there'll be six detectives plus some local law enforcement out there who want to come in and have a conversation and at that point they know everything about you, everything. They know stuff about you you've probably forgotten in the last five years if it's anywhere in your digital footprint and they sit down with him he had been consuming large amounts of what's called CSAM, which is another way of saying child porn, because I think the term child porn has kind of been phased out because they don't want to.
Speaker 3:Pornography itself can have willing participants. This is not that. So what's different with him is he thinks it should be legal. He thinks that they are out of their minds to come and try and intervene. He thinks that these children from ages 5 to 10 enjoy it and that it's unfortunate that law enforcement is trying to intervene on this. So we'll be doing a story on him as well.
Speaker 2:These are stories that are not typically in the public news. Steve, these stories are horrific. These stories are even ear-piercing to hear for the first time of being a parent. It's wild because I think most of us who live our normal lives have no clue. It's just like as we were talking about the jungle. It's like we live in this world. If it's not in my lane, I it's like. Just like as we were talking about the jungle. It's like we live in this world, we. Just if it doesn't, if it's not in my lane, I'm kind of like and that's cool, if you stay in your lane, you're doing your thing, that's fine.
Speaker 2:It is our job to. I mean, sometimes not everything's a conspiracy, I'll tell you that but it is our job to make sure that we bring to light some of these horrific stories so that if someone has any type of information or two of these stories, they can help others. Um, get help. Um, if you're a victim and you need help. I'm trying to look up the the hotline now. I don't recall it off the top of my head, but we will have links to, you know, a domestic hotline if you need it. If you're, you know you've had issues, you need counseling. We'll put that in there. The trauma that some of these individuals go through. These are life life, these are life altering types of situations. But what made me think about what you were just saying about these individuals, these suspects, these individuals that you, these stories seem to have an interesting take to me, and it's not just been one, it's not been two, but it's been a few, steve, that are like, it seems to be that they're military based.
Speaker 3:Do we?
Speaker 2:feel that maybe that there is not a good transition out of the military that we're, you know. Obviously they train these individuals to be machines, to be whatever war killers, however you want to paint that but not to have a transition to be able to provide these individuals and god bless them for serving our country, because I don't want to diminish it in any of that but for those who are out there, are we talking about individuals that are just so messed up from? Are these, these? Some of these individuals are like decorated military people, like what is going on out there? Steve, like I'm asking you because it's wild to me, like you're, like I can't fathom this.
Speaker 3:So I think a couple of things. Let's kind of set some groundwork here. So number one what I have found in most of these that I have gone through when the suspect goes ahead and decides to open up and say, yes, I've done this and it's been a problem, most of them will then acknowledge that this was a desire they've had for a very long time. It may have been a desire that they fought when they were younger, and younger is relative right. But when you hit a certain point and so I don't know that there's that this somehow something happens in their life and they then turn to this. I think it's something that's kind of that's much more ingrained. Statistically I don't have any statistics to back whether or not military is higher or lower. A lot that I get, as I mentioned earlier that I don't do the story on, are when it's people abusing family loved ones. I have stacks of those absolute stacks and I pass on them because I don't know how to tell that story without harming the victim. When you get to coaches, I have one, a coach from Sumner high school who will be doing this week. Um, you know, I don't think he has any military background. He has a lot of access to to the boys that he was coaching. I've got one recently that I did in Renton that I'll be doing another one a high school teacher. There there's a lot of teachers and coaches and pastors that seem to be in that. I don't know what that kind of that villain arc is for them. Do they get into that line of work because there's some other level of attraction? Do they get into that line of work because they think that they'll be good at it, and how this then fits in? I've seen it in the youth pastor world more than I would have expected. Again, where you have people, I find youth pastor different. Same thing even with coaches. You know when you most people become a teacher because it's an early on plan when they're in school, that they then want to get into that Because you have to go through college. You have to do all those things, some of those other jobs you can decide in your 30s. I just want to do that and in six months I could probably be doing that. I don't need to get a master's degree, so I don't know what that story arc looks like.
Speaker 3:I have talked to some of the ICAC detectives out there saying you know what are some of the excuses that these generally men give, and some of them will say well, this wasn't something I really wanted, I was looking for something different. I wasn't really looking for that, but it was an evolution. I was getting online. I was looking for something crazier. The stuff that I used to like that was nowhere in this realm was no longer doing it for me, and then over years, I got to that. And then there are others who make it clear like, no, as early on as a teenager, this was something I wanted, and then, as the internet was able to feed it to me, it got worse and worse and worse. So there's a lot of psychology in it. There's a lot that get abused and then become abusers later.
Speaker 3:I've just started in this particular type of story in the last year, and so I'm trying to go down that path to get more educated and also not end up on a list when I'm getting online trying to understand this stuff more, because you want to go through and find, okay, what are case studies and so on.
Speaker 3:And then there's a story I'll probably do in a bit where there was a girl who was a local sheriff's deputy's daughter and the reason this one sticks out.
Speaker 3:I mentioned earlier about parents who then abuse their children and document that process for them, deciding this is what they're going to do to them kind of what those following weeks and months look like.
Speaker 3:And this person contributed a large amount to that ecosystem and the man in Kent actually was really into that story and this story goes back a couple decades and he had viewed a lot of that and I've tried to go and understand that story more, but so quickly because I know her name and a couple things about it. I can go to just Google that and a couple of things about. I can go to just Google that and look for articles written about it. Within 30 seconds you can be to the video. It's not as hidden as you would think, and so there's part of me that goes I don't want to go down that path because then you do end up on the radar of stuff. But it's like I want to be able to understand that story more, understand what the father was charged, but to be able to understand that story more, understand, uh, the father, what, what the father was charged, but to be able to go and look that up and to so quickly end up in a place you could actually view.
Speaker 2:The video was shocking to me our guest tonight, photog steve uh, 81, who is all over social media, but a lot of his work you can find on socials. It's on tiktok, it's on right, still on tiktok. Yeah, youtube, instagram for those who, uh, you know, frequent the instagrammer, that's where I find most of steve's stuff, because that's where I spend most of my time doom scrolling through the social media platforms.
Speaker 3:So the social post all the documents, all the investigation documents on riffsy, which is ryffc, so it's kind of like it's another version of twitter. So for those who want to see the work, I post all the documents. I pull the story from.
Speaker 2:And that's free for people to check out.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And that's what's great too. We'll post that in the podcast, steve, any last minute things before we go. I know we've been. We spent a lot of time just kind of going over to go over and over and so much, uh, so many different avenues and different things. I know the election has come and gone for those who are listening on terrestrial radio, but, um, for those who are listening to the podcast, uh, we're going to turn, we're going to try and get this turned around so fast so that it's going to be like, steve, I mean I can't. I will be interested to see. Either I'm going to turn on my tv, come home, and I'm going to be like, okay, I got to do a show, yeah, or I'm going to be like, oh, there's nothing to do, there's really nothing to kind of cover in regards to that, and that's really when the conspiracies really start to come, because think about.
Speaker 2:I mean, think about it, steve um, why can't I think of the, the, the q anons? I feel like they will turn on a switch on election day if something tragic doesn't go their way. And I don't know that there's so much and that when, when I talk about the q anons and I'm not saying that they're it's interesting to me because watching them and doing some research on them, they are very much. If you have not read the book Behold the Pale Horse, it is very much a play out of William Cooper's Behold the Pale Horse. I've read the book, I've done my research on it.
Speaker 2:He's a very interesting individual. He's very much one who had believed that the government was trying to make it a, you know, was trying to say that the government was coming after him. They will come after you, you will report to these camps. That's why the post office I mean, these are things that he would say in this book this is why the freeways were invented so that you could go, that they could interchange and move people through these different, these different camps which you would go to your local post office. I mean, it is wild, steve, that this is a book that people were reading and what was so interesting to me is that during the pandemic that that really had played a lot into it. So we'll see if that will play into the election for the 2024 election. So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out.
Speaker 3:It's going to be a wild week. I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to getting to some sort of conclusion yeah, me too.
Speaker 2:You know, I am too, although I I didn't put any money on the election either, because I was like, hey, I don't know that, I don't know that I feel good about betting on my politicians. Um, I didn't, you know, I did my, I. The joke that I do not say anymore is vote, vote early, vote often, and now that that can be taken out of contents, oh yeah, you know, and we're like oh, he's, he's telling everyone to buy, get extra ballots now you know and that's not the case by any means, but it's so interesting to see you know you're.
Speaker 2:You're watching a ton of social media platforms being pushed out there on all these different types of people going to the polls where they can vote early, and the touch screens, which is wild to me to see. And, um, hopefully one day it will be a universal platform so that everyone can vote the same way seems really silly to me, but seems like that should be an easy thing. But who knows?
Speaker 3:yeah, I don't know, as long as once there's a wire attached to it, I don't know. At least in this day and age, that's going to be difficult to do and not have somebody be able to tap in well, very true.
Speaker 2:So maybe, maybe it goes to. Uh, maybe it goes back to the old school when you were taking the asvab test or these hanging chad yeah, there's that too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the hanging chat. But just color in the bubble. Color in the bubble with your pencil or your 2.0 pen or whatever the hell that is these days. Steve, again, thank you so much for taking the time to hang out with us this evening. It's such a pleasure always to hang out, to chat, to have a good conversation with you. There's some crazy, scary stuff going on out there For those who want to be able to donate.
Speaker 2:You want to follow Steve. All of his stuff is available on his Instagram. You can find all of his links at photogsteve81. If you do not follow him, please do. His content is phenomenal. I have to say, man, you are like the dan, rathers the young dan, rather the young peter jennings, out here on the pavement doing stories without a political lean, and we know that nowadays everybody's got some type of agenda and everyone's pointing to say every. You know these media outlets have a lean somewhere. So it again, we appreciate what you do, steve. I know that it's not easy, so again, thank you so much for taking the time to hang out with us this evening thanks for having me on and I'm looking forward to doing it again soon from the pacific northwest.
Speaker 2:As we wrap things up, I want to thank our guest tonight. Uh, steve photog, steve 81. If you're not following him on instagram, please do so. Uh, for my entire staff, mark christopher, jeff jens and sofia magana be sure to look up at the sky, because you never know what you might see.
Speaker 1:Good night the northwest home for paranormal. You're listening to us phenomenon with your host, mario magana.
