Mike the Furnace Guy | Ep.2

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The Talent Transformation Podcast, redefining Talent, one conversation at a time. This podcast explores themes of stocking, violence against women, rape, and murder. It includes explicit dialogue. Listener discretion is advised. Please note some of the voices you hear in the series have been performed by actors.

Previously, on Mind of a Monster, the Hollywood Ripper.

“"I just always remember feeling like on edge, you know, you never kind of knew what”

he was going to do." The jury was showing the photos from her apartment and it was just covered in blood. Just everywhere.

And over her bedspread, in her hallway where she crawled out of.

They were in such shock that eventually the police had to take both of them to the hospital because of their horror and but they had discovered. From ID and Eromedia, I'm criminal psychologist Dr. Michelle Ward in this is Mind of a Monster, The Hollywood Ripper. Chapter 2, Mike the Furnist Guy.

It's August 1993, and the 18-year-old sister of one of Michael Garzulu's best friends has been stabbed to death on her doorstep. The town of Glenview, Illinois, goes into collective shock. Trisha Picaccio was one of their brightest stars.

Cooked County PD, caught in off the scene, they began gathering evidence but there's

precious little left behind by the killer. Detectives find a shoe print near Trisha's body but it turns out to belong to her dad, Rick. The Picaccio family moves out and it'll be years before they can face moving back home. Patricia's fingernail clippings are collected for DNA, a forensic examination shows that Trisha has not been sexually assaulted, small comfort to her distraught family.

Detectives interview dozens of people, neighbors, family members, classmates, teachers, and friends. Michael Garzulu isn't friends with Trisha but he's friends with Doug, her younger brother and he lives nearby, so Michael is also interviewed. Peter Leslie Dobson is a clinical and forensic psychologist who has studied Michael's

file. Together, Dr. Dobson and I will pry open Michael's mind and motivations throughout the series. If he killed her, he was only 17 at the time. Is that kind of young for a stalker turned killer?

Not with his history, I mean if he genuinely had conduct disorder, there's a lot of anger

“out there, so I think his impulsivity and his rage was starting to peek around that age.”

In my record review of serial killers and stalkers and rapists, I've seen behaviors as earliest five years old with the mutilation of animals with the curiosity of what their organs look like. How about specifically to stalking? Do you see that in the background?

I have seen young young children become obsessed with people and often times they don't have the means or the resources or the cognitive ability to stalk, so they become very obsessed with characters with actresses. That's so fascinating, so some of these stalkers are exhibiting kind of an obsessive tendency in childhood and what do you think of the way that Trisha was killed?

What does that tell us about her killer?

“And I think we can assume it's a he, given the vast majority of murderers in the U.S.”

or male. To me, it tells me that there's a higher level of sick off with the present, because he means a hell of a lot of stimulation to meet his needs. He is timing this where he has minutes to get it done and to get out. He's very, very careful.

And that's an important thing for our audience to understand, is that psychopaths generally

They're kind of bored.

“Their heart rate doesn't go up easily, especially when anticipating fear.”

They don't really experience anticipatory fear, so they often are sensation seekers. They're looking for a thrill, so not only is the killing thrilling, the stalking thrilling, but as you mentioned that window that he has to operate in. That adds to the thrill. He killed her on the steps outside.

That is so risky. That is, can you imagine, you know, he's, he's so confident that she's not going to scream. He's so confident in his ability to brutally murder somebody. I mean, it screams of an experienced serial killer, not a 17 year old.

So here's what I'm thinking after talking to Leslie Dobson.

First of all, we don't know why Trish has been killed. It could be a robbery gone wrong, could be a sheltered boyfriend, a jealous girl, could be a serial killer, but we don't know.

“We can, however, tell a few things from the crime scene, and I've got to say, this killer”

is either incredibly lucky or incredibly skilled. There is such a short window in which this crime could have been committed, and it's committed right outside of Trish's home. Her parents are inside, and her brother Doug didn't even go to bed until midnight. Trish has killed her on one AM, anybody could have woken up, and neighbor could have seen

it. So it's tricky.

We don't know enough yet, and what it's that intimate of a killing, it does kind

of smack of either someone who's experiencing rage, or someone who's experiencing thrill seeking, but because we don't know what the motivation is, we can't make those kinds of statements nor draw those kinds of conclusions yet. If Michael was interested in Trisha, he certainly kept it well hidden from everyone. Michael's girlfriend at the time, Allison Moseffy, says Michael was not romantically interested

in Trisha, but who's watching the watcher? We don't have a lot of evidence of Michael coveting Trisha, stalking Trisha. To me, that means that we just don't have anybody saying it, nobody was watching, but

“do you think he probably was stalking her for some time before he actually killed her?”

Definitely, and he lived so close. He's stalking her probably during school. He was probably building this fantasy in his mind about her, and she did sound like an incredible

human being, and somebody that he will never ever be able to date or be.

So let's kill her. We're speculating. Michael Garciulo has not been convicted of Trisha Picacho's murder, however, he has been charged, and in September 2024 was extradited to Illinois, he is currently awaiting trial. Michael tells police that on the night of the murder Friday the 13th of August, he was hanging

out with his girlfriend, Allison. They picked up Doug Picacho and another friend, Jonas. They wanted to see a movie, but it wasn't playing in the theater, so the couple took Doug and Jonas back to the Picacho's, and then they went for a pizza before Allison dropped Michael back at his house between 10 and 10 30 p.m.

Years later, when Michael's on trial for the two other murders, Allison would reveal something else that Michael told her. She says that the day after Trisha's murder, Michael seems nervous, and tells her he has to get rid of some knives. Trisha's parents Rick and Diane Picacho also noticed Michael starts acting out of character.

Picacho sent times journalist Frank Maine has been covering the Picacho case for more than 15 years. Tell me about Michael's behavior toward the Picacho's after the murder. He didn't really know the parents very well, and they were surprised, thought it was weird, that he sent flowers to their house after Trisha was killed.

He even buys Trisha's dad Rick a shirt, is he feeling remorse, or is he trying to act innocent? Either way, the Picacho's find it weird. Cook County PD's investigations stalls, no arrests are made, days turn into weeks, and it's agony for those left behind.

People in Glenview wonder why the investigation isn't moving forward. I go back to the call with Michael's teenage friend. The Glenview police in my opinion were wildly ill-equipped, I don't think they ever thought something like that could ever happen, and obviously, I wouldn't have thought it either. A year passes.

In 1994, when Michael is 18, he finishes his education in a continuation program, which is for kids who are no longer in mainstream school. He's not going to college, unlike most of the neighborhood kids. Journalist Frank Mayne Most of the kids are upwardly mobile and heading to good universities.

school.

“So, she was kind of following the path that a lot of kids from that area would follow,”

which is to either go to one of the big 10 schools, or Ivy League schools.

When his parents move 150 miles west to Galena, Michael is left to his own devices back in Glenview. His relationship with Alison Bezaffee is on and off. The following summer of 1995, Michael starts dating a 17-year-old named Suzanne. He's 19, they date for three months.

During that time, he shows her a copy of the anarchist's cookbook, which is an illicit guide to bomb making, drug manufacturing, and hand-to-hand combat. It is a beloved read of both extremists and revolutionaries, but that's not all. Suzanne says that after they break up, Michael picks her up one day and takes her back to his house, where he handcuffs him rapes her.

She doesn't report the rape to police until years later because she's terrified of Michael. He's very scary and has a terrible temper, she says. The attack has a profound impact on her life in relationships for years to come. While those who's aunt doesn't report her attack at the time, Michael is on the Glenview police radar soon enough.

I ask Glenview police for Michael's rap sheet, and a few weeks later, they email this attachment. Some of the entries are typed and some are handwritten by police and even by Michael. There are details that are adapted with thick black lines that there's enough here to give me some flavor.

So around this time, he's mainly involved in small vehicle crime, like stealing from cars, really small stuff, but a couple of the entries do stand out. One is March 1996. He's 20 an unemployed, and he walks into the Glenview police station to complain that he's being followed by police from multiple agencies.

Now that seems kind of paranoid, unless, of course, you've killed someone. He is arrested, and he spends a night in jail because another police force is looking for him because of a vehicle related crime. And then in May 1997, he gets in a fight in the parking lot of Glenbrook South High, strange because he's 21.

What is he doing, hanging out at his old school to pay him off in the afternoon, and then punching someone in the face.

“Here's the thing, according to the police report, he first threatened the man who is not”

identified, and he says, "Do you know who I am? I could have you killed." Now that is chilling.

Four years after Trisha's death, the Bacaccio's finally have this strength to move back home.

That's when they get an unexpected visitor. Michael is at the door. Journalist Frank Main. He shows up at their house and asks to come inside and asks if her dad is there. And I think he actually may have even won up going inside and sitting in the kitchen and

one of the talk to them, and members of Michael Garzelos family came to the house and just kind of physically brought it, took him out away from the house before he was able to say anything. And I think that they found that that was extremely strange.

“I think that they might have thought that he was about to say something, say what he knew”

about the killing. I find that so fascinating, because it opens a store, was he about to confess? And if he had what would that have meant for all these other victims? It may not be fair to say, but these killings in Los Angeles would have happened that he was in prison in Illinois.

So yeah, that was a kind of a pivotal moment in the universe in this case. That to me is such a game-changing moment. Yeah, I love the word you use, Pivotal, that's exactly what it is. Forensic psychologist, Dr. Leslie Dobson, agrees. He sat in the kitchen with the parents, and the parents felt like he was about to say

I murdered her, and then the family rushed in and took him out of the house. So it's like there was almost this moment where he could have been saved. These girls could have been saved. Season three of the talent transformation podcast is here. Join Aviture CEO Dmitri Boylan, as he talks with HR leaders, who are leveraging disruption

to stay ahead. After from the brilliant minds behind the talent strategies at IBM, Siemens Energy, Transcom, and many more.

Subscribe now so you never miss an episode.

For example, the shop on your website, this is in social media, and over-edats vision.

That's the music for your ears. Videos of recent vendors, with Shopify, can be made to a real help. Start your tests for one of your own promontal. Off Shopify.de/record. Hmm, quite Michael, be that super rare thing, a serial killer with a conscience.

Although studies show that only two to three percent of male serial killers turn themselves in, it can happen. And when they do, generally it's because they don't trust themselves and they don't want to do any more harm. So they need some sort of external control because they fear their own actions.

But was this really an almost confession, or is it just playing in games with the pecotchios, like twisting the knife and wanting to see their agony up close and personal?

“I mean, they think he's about to confess because that's how any normal person would interpret”

this interaction, but Michael's not a normal person.

So it's hard to say, and he's never admitted to any of these killings, and he denies them

to this day. He's yet to be tried for a Church of Piccotchios murder. The Piccotchios call Cook County PD to tell them what just happened, but when detectives go looking for Michael, he's nowhere to be found. And that's because almost immediately after this encounter in 1998, Michael moves 2,000 miles

away to a new life in Hollywood, California. It's where his older brother lives. Michael's girlfriend from home, Allison Mazephy, joins him too. Michael and Allison are now engaged. They've been together on and off since they were sophomores.

“They live in an apartment on North Orchid Avenue, a few blocks from Hollywood Boulevard in”

the Walk of Fame. Just now, 22, he's about six foot two, athletic, with dark brooding features. And like a lot of young people in Hollywood, he's looking to break into acting. This gives Dr. Leslie Dawbson another insight. I would think he peaks a little bit higher on narcissism.

He wanted to be famous, he wanted to act. He wanted to have his face out there. Ah, so instead of retreating, he's hiding in plain sight. He signed by an agent and gets a small non-speaking role as a boxer in a student-short film. He floors his opponent in a matter of seconds.

Until Michael gets his big break, he's working as a balancer at the bow. The infamous Rainbow Bar and Grill of Sunset Boulevard, where 24-year-old Jim Potter is a regular in the mid 1990s. Everybody was very beautiful and daring and adventurous and fun.

“I think people across America, because they probably heard about the Rainbow Bar and Grill,”

it was a hangout for many, many famous people. But it's not what you think when you first step, it's not the glamour or spot that people imagine is it. No, it's just cool.

And the people that walked through there, you have, like, let me was always there playing

in his video games, and let me was the singer from Motorhead, he's the god of metal. There's so much history in the Rainbow from the '80s, and even before that, John Lutton would hang out there, and Ellis Cooper, they had the vampire club up in the attic there. So there's a lot, a lot of music history there. describe a typical night at the Rainbow Bar.

So you go in there, and there was steady, he's the door man. He was always working the door. And then you go in, and it's the lights are low, and you kind of walk around, and look at the tables, and if you know people, you join the tables, and then it begins. And the waitress comes over, and she'll give you a, not give you a bus, oh yeah, a huge gym

beam and ginger ale, enough to swim in. I don't know, I probably shouldn't say this, but sometimes there's more drug dealers than waitresses at the time, I mean, that was the time in the '90s. What do people wear? Well, Saturday nights we were lingerie, you know, Saturday night we really dressed fun, and then Thursday you kind of just like ripped up jeans and sexy

shirts and red lipstick, and you know, you dressed rock and roll it, you look good, you're hot, you're cool, it was fun. Jen says by the late 1990s, she's partying a lot. I was at the rainbow four or five nights a week, and in that lifestyle got me, I was

I was sky high, that's when she encounters the new door man, Michael.

“I was like, oh, who's that? He was, he was very nicely built, he was good looking, you”

know, it's like, okay, he's the new door guy, I've got to say, hey, this is get better, you know, I'm a little tornado, yeah, I'm a girl, so when I saw him and I approached him,

I had never ever felt that type of energy before it was cold, it was not friendly, it was

not welcoming, he kind of looked at me, and then he looked up and above me, like he was looking 50 feet away, weird, yeah, and I kind of still tried to get in there a little bit, like, hey, I was trying to be cute, trying to be funny, trying to be warm, loving, that's just who I am, and none of that worked, and wow, and I had goosebumps, and I actually that resonated with me for a lot after that initial contact, I was like, wow, that was

very strange, but I never thought about him being a serial killer, I just thought of him being a dick.

Were you attracted to him? Did you want to date him? Or I wasn't attracted to him at all,

but if he was different, if he kind of said, hey, who are you? What's your sign? You know, I might have said, hey, what are you doing later, be free for a drink, you know, because he was good looking and and built nice and working at the Rainbow Bar and Grill, you know, so he must be cool, you know, I had brief encounters with him because I kind of stayed away from him. When I observed him, he was stand-offish, he wasn't overly friendly with everybody.

I thought about it, and I still think about it to this day, because now, especially finding out he's a serial killer, makes me really think about it, because back that, and

I'm like, well, what if he was charming? What if he said, hey, Jen, let me give you a ride

home, hey, Jen, the chances, you know, I might have gone, the Jen Potter being wild and wacky and forgiving and having faith in whatever's going to happen next, could have, could have gone, left, you know? I mean, that's, it's way too close for comfort, especially when you find out that he's actually targeting people he sees frequently. Right, exactly. Has knowing about him being a serial killer and being in your orbit changed how you feel about

your Hollywood days and your partying days? Oh, absolutely. It's scariest shit to think that back in those days. I mean, dressing in lingerie, going to the rainbow after you drank half a bottle of bourbon and whatnot and extras, high as a kite, feeling like a brand new spring day just a little wobbly. Anybody could, you know, it's, it's the guard is definitely

“the guard. I'm back in my office, digesting Jen's story and here's the thing. We live in a”

time now where information travels easily and readily, but back in those days, we weren't on our smart phones constantly and we weren't updating our social media accounts. So we didn't necessarily hear about anecdotal murder stories and those we were reading the newspaper or watching the news. This environment is a perfect hunting ground for a predator like Michael Garjulo, an anonymous, excessive world. And as a balancer at the place to be, Michael's

got power over who gets in and who doesn't. Forensic psychologist Dr. Leslie Dobbson sees even more reasons for Michael to want to job like that. One, he's assessing for potential victims in doing that job too. He's getting the stimulation. I'm sure he was physically violent as a balancer, as well. Spot on, and it isn't long before Michael is allegedly fired from the rainbow for punching a customer. By 2000, Michael's relationship with Fiancé

Allison Mazafi has ended. Maybe she finds out he's cheating on her. I'm speculating I don't know why their relationship ends, but now he's dating Vilma Carillo. In McDonald's cashier, he met in an AOL chat room. He tells Vilma that he fled Chicago because the police are trying to frame him for a murder he didn't commit. He's full of tall stories. Like he studied forensics and came to California to train as an Olympic boxer. What might sound intriguing is that

“Michael can attract women, lots of women, but let's remember that most serial killers are”

charismatic and many are physically attractive. I'll be tracking Michael's many overlapping relationships across the series. As we know, the vast majority of serial killers are psychopaths and psychopaths don't experience remorse, guilt, or empathy, so why wouldn't they cheat?

much less Hollywood type of occupation, as an air conditioning repairman. This is how he

engineers are meeting with his next target, Ashley Ellorin. At Michael's trial in 2019, prosecutor Dan Ackman introduces Ashley Ellorin, one of the women Michael Garjulo is accused of murdering. Ashley Ellorin led a glamorous life, a beautiful 20-year-old fashion student. She socialized with a young Hollywood crowd. Ashley was very social and outgoing and soon attracted Garjulo's attention. Garjulo who lived within a short distance from Ashley's house,

and frequented the dog park across from her house, injected himself into Ashley's life. Ashley is a vibrant blonde 22-year-old who moved to Hollywood from Northern California to study fashion in September 2000. She runs a bungalow near Hollywood Boulevard and she's looking for a house smate. Jim Desisto, another Hollywood movie, happens to be looking for a place to live, and she

“hears about Ashley through a mutual friend. Just said it was like, you should come meet her. I think”

you guys would get along. She's from New Jersey, et cetera, et cetera. So within those next couple of weeks I went there, Ashley was Ashley, which meant, you know, she had a little bit of like a smart ass attitude, which I appreciate very much, and but we kind of had it the same, so we did really kind of hit it off rather quickly. It was nice. I was excited. I was very excited to move to Hollywood to see, you know, what my friendship with her would look like and all that stuff.

When you met her, what was your first impression other than her being a little sassy?

I mean, she was super cute. I mean, she was a beautiful girl, and she had definitely like a very great body. And was she one of those people who, like, she was in a room, you knew she was in a room very social as a person. Okay. She definitely have like that East Coast energy, and she, you know, she was very charming, very pretty, very funny. I'm like a lot of energy and a lot of light to her. So it was a good match. They're both in their early 20s, both moving in glamorous Hollywood adjacent

circles. Jen's a publicist for Italian agency. I mean, I was 23 years old. I had my own office, I had an assistant. I thought, I was in, I was in Century City in a high rise with my own office. I thought, I've made it. This is, you know, this is excellent. Before Jen moves in, they celebrate the end of 2000 with a group of friends. Tell me more about this New Year's Eve night. You guys. I made it like Bob Seager right songs about

this, right? Hollywood nights, Hollywood Hills? I know. I remember us all spending New Year's together. I remember my ex picking a saw up. We were like a crew and a range rover, popping around in the Hollywood Hills, going to parties, and going here, going there. And I just remember us all popping around. It was almost felt like muppets. It was like a muppet car, almost. But we were also excited. I mean, I think I was wearing like a beaded Valentino dress. I mean,

it was like, oh, oh, yeah. Girl, where did you get the money for a Valentino dress?

“We went to Barney's, remember the Barney's on Willshire? Of course. And what about Ashley?”

I remember her wearing glitter turquoise pants with like a short like rabbit for a coat. I mean, she, you know, she got it going on. But yeah, so we were all decked out. We were living like what appeared to be like the fancy life big time for sure. It was really fun. Jen to sister moves into the house on Pinehurst Road with Ashley Ellaren in 2001. So you move into this house, it's such an exciting time. But that area, that has a lot of

unhoused people. There's a lot of party and going on right there. There's a ton of tourists. Tell me about what the house looks like. The neighborhood was definitely not as bad as it is now there. But for sure, it was definitely transient. You're right. You know, you're right. I'm probably with Boulevard. But at that point, that to me was exciting. So, yes, you know, you don't think about all these like Dean Danger things. Now, I would, you couldn't catch me

that you couldn't pay me enough to live anywhere in that type of vicinity. They throw parties, actors and musicians attend, and the two housemates get to know each other. Both new to this intoxicating world. I would say we did have a close bond for people that knew each other for a

“short time because I think we were also both experiencing these things simultaneously, having been”

new there and all these things are flying at you and we would always talk in the kitchen and

talk about different things. Yeah, about the East Coast and, you know, she talked a lot about her family. You have close, they were. Of course, you talk about guys and she had no shortage of guys. Whether they were famous or not. One of those guys is actor Ashden Kutcher. He's a rising star

As far as we knew, it was just like a casual situation. I mean, he wasn't certainly the only, you know, person that she was like dating. A friend introduces Ashden to Ashlee. They hit it off and are planning a date in February 2001. Before that, another guy enters Ashlee's orbit. Someone all their friends only know as Mike the furnace guy. Season 3 of the talent transformation podcast is here. Join Aviture CEO Dmitri Boylan as he talks

with HR leaders who are leveraging disruption to stay ahead. Here from the brilliant minds behind

the talent strategies at IBM, Siemens Energy, Transcom and many more. Subscribe now so you never

miss an episode. The talent transformation podcast, redefining talent, one conversation at a time. This is how this all began, is that he pretended to stop and fix a flat tire for her. And this guy just shows up and is like, "Let me help you." Michael Garzuelo comes out of the dog park across from Ashlee's house and introduces himself as Mike. Uh-huh. And then he came and quings his friends. I'm at the girl, but I never really

hung out with her. I hung out with the boy, the guy. Chris had said at that time that, you know, Michael was like looking her up and down and, you know, staring at her, he got a very strange vibe out the gate. They get chatting and Mike says he fixes air conditioners. The that point then he went from fixing the tire to fixing, you know, the heating or whatever. He where he said he was doing that.

He was always very cold in that house. I don't think he was fixing much. Okay. And did you have

any interaction with Michael that you remember? You personally? No. Only seeing him at the dog park. I didn't know that she even really knew him. Maybe she told me in passing about someone fixing

“the thing because I was like, it's freezing here all the time. I think she did say in passing”

someone was feeling, but I didn't put it together with that was him, but I did notice him at the park. So soon he's in their house fixing the furnace in the basement and Ashley L. Ran being friendly invites him to one of their house parties. Do you think that invitation to the party came from that incident? Or did you think Michael and she interacted again after that? I think they had interacted again. I don't know the specifics that it wasn't something she ever mentioned

to me because I don't really think she thought much about it. I think he was disguising himself. It's like, you know, just here to help. Well, he was just meandering around and she threw out an invite to the party thinking he won't come. And not thinking, I don't think she

“ever thought anything of it. I don't. I think she just saw it as like, if he was, you know,”

staring at her, I am up and down, probably most meant it. So what's, you know, what's really the difference? Michael's identified his target. And now he's in surveillance and planning mode. He engineers that random meeting at the dog park that helpful offer to fix the aircon, giving him a legitimate reason to scope out Ashley's house and then get himself invited to a party. The night of the party in February 2001 is captured with photos on a new digital camera.

There's a group shot, beautiful young people laughing into the camera. Ashley's at the front. She's wearing a white tank top and has a white flower pinned in her short blonde hair. Jan is next to her laughing, wearing red lipstick and yellow tinted glasses.

A moment, froze in in time. This fun picture will later become crucial evidence in Michael Gargulo's

trial in 2019 because they're lurking on the edge of the frame is Mike the furnace guy. Michael Gargulo is stalking Ashley Ellaren. Within weeks, he will kill her. Detective Tom Small will lead the investigation into Ashley's murder. He worked for LAPD's homicide

“team but is now retired. I worked murders for 21 years. I think our high year that I remember it”

was somewhere around almost 1200 murders in the city. I imagine there were several good-looking girls floating around these parties but he seemed fixated on her. Yeah, there were a tug. The girls that she hung out with were like the drop dead gorgeous, you know. And I don't understand why he would be so totally just focused on her. She was his target. A few weeks before Ashley's death,

Chevy pickup with the engine running and the passenger or the driver's window down. The truck is

“parked adjacent to the dog park and it's pointed right at the house. And he sees a guy in there”

kind of leaning back and it was him. It was Mike Garjula sitting in that truck. Oh boy, watching the house didn't even pay attention to Justin. He's just watching that house. Justin, he said he had a hard time sleeping and he kept getting up in the middle of the night looking in there. He's there all night. He's seeing Garjula in that truck all night long and he was just an nerd by this and he even called Ashley, who was out of town at the time. And she indicated to him that, you know, don't worry,

but he's harmless. So he's stalking that house, but she's not even there at that point. Right. But he might not have known that. So now come morning, Justin's up and he looks out the window and he sees the truck go by. It does the pass of the house. And that's a one-way street

dead-in. So now he's got to come back and he makes a second pass going the other way. Real slow.

Then he goes out of view. So now Justin is relieved. He's saying, oh he's gone. Probably 10 minutes later, there's a bang on the door. Oh, I'm scared. He opens the door. There's Stan's Mike Garjula. And he doesn't say hi, Justin. He says, "Where's Ashley?" I want to see Ashley. And he opens the door and he walks in. And he goes right to the bedrooms. I mean, he walks right past Justin.

This is really got him free. Justin says she's not here. I don't know where she's at. Why I need to talk to her. Well, I'll let her know you're here.

“That thing, but you need to go because I got errands to run. And Garjula, that's all he needs is all.”

Well, I'll go with you. Oh, no. Yeah. Oh, no. This is so scary. So he's been up all night watching, waiting for her to return. Can't take it anymore, knocks on the door the next day. Exactly. So Justin was kind of freaked by this. And for some reason Garjula puts his foot up on a stool or a chair or something and pulls up his pants leg and Justin spots a knife with a sheath strap to his ankle. That really freaked him out because there was no reason to do that. Wow.

Now that Michael's inserted himself into Ashley's life without alarming her, he can gather the information he needs and pick the right moment to strike. Ashley had a lot of parties and she had a circle of friends that, you know, mostly by imitation, but everybody knew Ashley had a party. But Garjula was not a member of that circle at all because when she had a party, he seemed to know about it. And people would see this guy

outside the house lurking. Sometimes just standing in front of the dog park looking at the house,

watch it who goes in and who goes out. Never engage anybody in a conversation on occasion.

He actually came in. I did bite it. He would just kind of pick a spot in the house, sit down, and all he did was watch Ashley. And if she moved to another location of the house, he would change his position so he could see her. When he actually moved to another room and was mingling with a bunch of other guys, he took it upon himself to go scout all the rooms. So he got the layout of

“the whole house. So basically he was getting a schematic in my opinion. And somehow Michael has a key”

to Ashley's house. Now we know, Ashley had admitted to me, he had been in her house six times. He said, but he'd been in there a lot more than that. One day in early 2001, Ashley and her friend Monica are in the kitchen chatting. Monica tells Detective Small the story here's later. He walked in. The doors were locked. Both doors were locked. It was just Ashley and me in there. And when he got in, he had a key in his hand. Oh my God. And he looked startled. He wasn't expecting

two of us sitting there. So I'm thinking, I bet he was going to kill her then, but he didn't know Monica was there. How did Ashley react when he showed up there? She said, how did you get in?

the key and he ran down the street. And they just slammed the door behind him. They were really

“freaked by this. Do we know how he acquired a key? Probably in one of his ventures at the house.”

This is like I said, he went through the house. We'll see this time and time again with Michael. He does not respect boundaries and he'll walk into his neighbor's homes like he owns the place.

That's often the first thing that alerts people that there's something off about him.

Forensic psychologist Dr. Leslie Dobson says intrusion is a classic stalking behavior. When we think about risks and stalking, we have to have a bigger picture. We need to be looking at the nature of the overall relationship. Is this somebody who's groomed you? Has he built a comfort zone? Has he moved into your life in some way? Do you feel like you need him? Well,

“is there a note on your door saying, I am an air conditioner repairman? That's interesting.”

I actually do need my air conditioner repaired. No, no, no. You throw that note out. You go to

yelp and you choose somebody who has reviews. In this case with Michael, he was really intruding

himself into a group of friends. The least offensive part about Michael is he's a stalker. The worst part is he's a murderer. Most stalkers do not kill. And if they do kill, it's usually a former lover. Michael is, you know, the rare guy who stalked and killed. Let's talk about Ashley Ellerin. Do you think she was out of his league? Definitely. I mean, she was gorgeous. She was going places. She was about to go on a date with somebody who was just rising. Michael wasn't a part of

the cool crowd. And we're talking about a super cool crowd at the time, right? Ashston Coacher. I mean, he wasn't, he wasn't invited in. And that to me and rage to him even more. On February 21st, 2001, Ashley has her date with Ashston Coacher. He's taking her to the Grammys after party. That day, Jen Desisto is up early. She's working at the Grammys, shepherding celebrities on the red carpet. Afterward, exhausted from a long day and night,

“Jen gets home, but realizes she's forgotten her key. Her car was there. The lights were on.”

The the street gate was open. So I went to the door. Not to not to not. There's no answer. Where's Ashley? There's no sign of her. What Jen and her friends don't know is that Mike the furnace guy has been patiently biting his time over weeks, planning, watching, waiting. Next time, on Mind of a Monster, the Hollywood Ripper. I like went up to her and I touched her and she was like, you know, ice cold. That's when the shock set in. And she had what they

referred to as an lentil, occipital dislocation in simple terms decapitated. And the thing that occurred to me was, whoever did this must be getting off on kill. Someone goes into the house and comes out and they say, you know, you released a cease. I felt I was having an out-of-body experience. Mind of a Monster, the Hollywood Ripper, is produced by Arrow Media, a free mental company for ID. I'm your host, Dr. Michelle Ward. You can follow our show wherever you get your podcast and

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podcast, redefining talent, one conversation at a time. We're going to be a Hollywood Killman and you can see one new episode. That's fantastic. There's a lot of people here.