330. The Murder of Bootlegger’s Cove - The Murder of Bethany Correira

Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is murder with my husband. I'm Pete Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband.

And I'm the husband. Welcome back. And if you're listening, thank you for watching. We love you guys. We're just out here.

Hey, ends. And going through it, pregnancy is tough. Like crazy. How you filming? Tell me.

I feel like I wasn't prepared. Like, not prepared for, but I feel like there's so much that goes on that no one talks about.

“Like, I think you hear the typical like morning sickness and being uncomfortable and hot.”

But it's like, no, there is so much more physically going on that is uncomfortable and painful.

That like, I had never heard about.

Yeah. I just wasn't prepared for. I wasn't prepared for the fact that I would like, it would hurt to lift my leg because of the hormone shooting through my hips. I mean, I couldn't imagine.

I can imagine. I hate, I don't like being uncomfortable, not a fan. Every time I put my undies on, I have to lean against something because lifting my leg hurts, like, I'm guaranteed I've been doing all my exercises and stuff. And I also think every pregnancy is different.

Some girls like work out through their whole pregnancy. I've just been doing like pelvic floor stuff. But yeah, there's so much about it that I'm just like, no one told me she was just going to like tickle my bladder all day and like, I heard about kicking and it's not even like a kick.

It's like a real stop. I'm going to pee my pee and say, if you can do that. She moves a lot. I can feel her move all the time all day every day. She's moving.

Some people have pregnancies where their babies don't move much or they don't feel it. It's she moves 21st seven.

“I can feel her kick basically any time like she's just going for it.”

I don't think she loves the tightness of the womb because every time we get at ultrasound she's pushing against like all corners. She's like this. Like she really stretched out. She's like, get me out of here.

Yeah, I don't think she loves the confined.

Like she's never just crawled in a ball.

Fun fact, Garrett was born really early. Well, if this is the second episode of the row, you spoke third person in the intro. Well, now they know Garrett is. So fun fact, Garrett was born really early because I said, I want out of there. I went out of there.

You didn't say that. You were a bat. You were small. Yeah, I was like three pounds or something crazy. Both my siblings were preemies and also sir was even more preemies than Garrett.

But I was born somewhat normal. So I guess we'll see and we've been, you know, checking up everything looks okay so far. I'm sure it'll be normal. Hopefully. So we're pregnant.

We're having a girl. If you didn't know in case you didn't see Peyton's stomach over here on Netflix. It takes you to see that I've turned into a full blown NFL linebacker. No. That's not true.

Not true. Ow. I've been getting these headaches. Sorry to switch over for a second, but we went to the doctor for it. He has a neurology.

I have a neurology appointment. Ah, they just, they get size so zingy. Crazy. I'll see what's going on.

I've always had like I in like head issues and I've always done a bunch of tests and a bunch

of things. But we'll see what happens. Maybe I'm a superhero. Maybe you have like a special power I just don't know how to harness it yet. It just hasn't come to fruition.

Yes. And so maybe this is helping it come to fruition. Like pretty soon you're just going to grow horns out of your head. Yeah. They can like make you invisible.

It's like Wolverine. Except this is the spiky helmet. Sure. I'll take it. And you just must have had but everyone.

I need people be scared though. That was those coming out of your head. Yeah. That was the same effect. Thanks for being here.

We love you all. Remind you if you want bonus episodes. You can check that on Apple podcast or Patreon or Spotify. Those on Netflix. Thank you for listening.

Thank you for watching. For those on audio. Thank you for being here. Oh, geez. It's been so fun to just do this every week.

So here we are. Six years. Six years. It's kind of crazy. It's been in this for six years, guys.

It feels like two and at the same time. I don't actually think it feels that long but six years is a long time. Baguishops no open for almost three months now. Oh. That feels like it's been 10 years.

Oh my gosh. That feels like it's been a lifetime. Yes.

“That's how you know, that's how you know the podcasts is just, you know.”

That's the less stressful. Yes. Yeah. I'm working a lot. But that's okay.

Here we are. Got a grind.

Okay. Let's hop into this week's episode.

“Our sources for this episode are ADN.com and BCNews.com frontiersman.com.”

Find the grave.com. Maybe see News Medium. Case law. Find law. Comment.

Crimeraven.com. Quick disclaimer. This episode includes discussions of suicide and suicidal ideation. So if you are someone you know is struggling with this, please contact the suicide and crisis lifeline by dialing 988 or text strength to the crisis text line at 741-741.

You can also go to 988lifeline.org.

And as always, please listen with care.

Starting a new chapter is scary. And it's even more unnerving when you're doing it on your own. When you're moving to a new city, starting at a new school, having to find a new home,

“a new job, great new relationships, it honestly takes a lot of courage to put yourself out”

there in the world and just be open to a fresh start. It requires a lot of trust, trust in your new environment, trust in yourself and trust in the people around you. Because not everyone is looking out for your best interest. Some people are actually very prepared to take advantage of the new guy in town.

And a lot of times, the ones that seem the warmest and most welcoming are the ones you might need to watch out for the most. So today we are headed north west to a place we don't travel often on the show and that is Alaska. We are going to the town of Talkitna.

This is the gateway to Mount Denali, which is known as the highest mountain in North America. And it's actually a big summer vacation spot in Alaska where Taurus go to hike, mountain climb, you know, be outdoors. But in the winter, when all of the visitors leave, Talkitna becomes a quiet little spot

“with a tight knit community of only about 800 people.”

It's also where the Chorera family has lived since the 1970s. In this little Alaska town, now Billy and Linda Chorera settled it down and built their own little log cabin in the 70s right along a pond.

It's basically this little storybook home.

It's where they raised and homeschooled their kids. They had two sons and two daughters, one of them being their daughter Bethany. Now up until eighth grade, being homeschooled, Bethany hadn't seen much of the world outside of Talkitna her little town. It wasn't until high school and she stopped being homeschooled and joined the rest of

the kids in town that she kind of like broadened her version of life. But Bethany fit in quickly. She was athletic. She played volleyball, basketball, she ran track. She also loved everything outdoors, which was perfect for where she lived.

She loved camping, biking, snowboarding, sailing. Home school was definitely character building for Bethany. She learned how to be self-sufficient because of the way she grew up. And it also made her extremely curious about the world around her. Any new, there was a lot out there that she still needed to explore and she found a way

to do that through the Christian church. So after graduating high school in Alaska, Bethany entered something called the Master's Commission in an effort to connect deeper with God. And the program was a discipleship that took her to both Thailand and Nepal. And so it kind of awakened a whole new sense of adventure in Bethany.

She's basically traveling abroad with this Christian group.

And after the year-long program, Bethany found another job that would take her to even more new and exotic places. She got work as a nanny, working for a doctor and his family as they sailed around the south Pacific. She even worked at some of the base camps near Mount Denali, helping climbers prepare for

their journeys. So basically, Bethany lived more life in 21 years than most people get to experience in 100. And yet, she still had so much ahead of her. In May of 2003, Bethany has done all of this and decides she's ready to embark on her

next chapter. So after some time off, she was ready to go back to school and she wanted to pursue a degree in medicine. And the destination she chose was the University of Alaska Anchorage. Yeah.

So this was about 113 miles south of her hometown. And Anchorage is the biggest city in Alaska by population. I would love to go to Alaska. Would you like to go to Alaska? I think so.

Yeah. I feel like you would just be so beautiful to like see, but I'm not very outdoorsy person. So I don't know how much I could do besides just like sit on a boat. Yeah, I, I, I think could be fun. I, I don't know.

I'd love to see like all the big trees and I could definitely like get off the boat and walk to a tree. Okay. But I'm like not hiking. I get that.

I'm not snowboarding or skiing or fishing. I'll just write on it. I like a snowmobile. I don't know. There's a lot of serial killers in Alaska.

What? There is. Really? Yeah. Okay.

Are you sure? Yeah. Because it's out there in the middle of nowhere with such vast land and like small, small towns. But it just killed people. Like weird prolific serial killers in Alaska.

I guess feel about that.

Paying basically said Alaska is so boring.

There's so many serial killers. No, that's not what I said. Oh. I think Alaska is beautiful.

“And I think people who live there just live a different life than me.”

They like hiking. They like being outdoors. I love being outdoors, but more in a like relaxing. I'm a fairy. Okay.

I'm not like a-- I respect it. Put on my hiking boots. I'd rather go barefoot in the forest, you know. So her moving to Anchorage for college is pretty different from where she grew up despite

it still being Alaska. But Bethany was prepared though maybe a bit nervous about this next chapter. She was leaving her boyfriend, Joe Tamblin behind where she previously worked in Alaska and met him. It was at an airline office.

But she planned to spend the summer in Anchorage before starting classes in the false issues. Going to move there, hang out there for the summer, get to know people, and then start school. She'd already picked out all of her college courses and was excited to find a part-time

job that could help her make a little cash outside of her studies. So that spring 2003, Bethany went out to the city and found a little apartment in the neighborhood of bootleggers, cove, right on the water, downtown. And it's beautiful.

And after meeting her apartment manager, she got her first job offer.

It was cleaning out vacant apartments and actually getting them ready for rental. So she's going to work at the same place she lives. And her apartment manager told her if all went well, he could train her on how to show the apartments as well to potential tenants soon. So this is perfect, she's going to work where she lives, she's going to clean out apartments,

maybe even eventually show them off to people, everything is falling into place for Bethany. But just a few days after moving into this apartment, building in downtown Anchorage, her family noticed that something wasn't quite right.

“Sorry, haven't you seen that movie with Ryan Reynolds and to put that proposal?”

Yeah. Like, that was really pretty in Alaska. Yeah. Yeah. Especially in the house.

But I mean, like, I feel like there's people have some money there. To the window. Yeah. Sorry, I interrupted it a weird time, but I just came to mind. That movie is actually what makes me so scared of Daisy getting picked up by a bird.

Valid. It had to be a pretty big bird for Daisy because she put on some chunk. Yeah, she got a little bit of bare hibernation going on right now. But still possible. Yeah.

On May 3rd, 2003, Bethany was supposed to meet her brother at the Anchorage airport. Again, this is just like right after she's moved in. But when he gets off the plane and out to baggage claim, his sister, Bethany isn't there.

She never showed up to pick him up.

And he knew this wasn't like his sister to just blow him off without even a phone call. When he talks to his mother, Linda, she's like, listen, there's probably a good excuse. She told him not to worry. She was just going to make the two-hour drive from home to Anchorage, the following morning to go furniture shopping with Bethany.

So she was also going to Anchorage and she's like, I'll see her then. We'll figure out what's going on. All right, guys. We're jumping into an outer real quick, and it is all the, we love all the. We love Daisy.

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“Everything, Peyton, I've both used it a ton and I think my favorite thing is you can”

get appointments fast, right? I hate when trying to call and try to make an appointment and it's like, oh, yeah, I can see you in four weeks. It's like, okay, one, four weeks, I'm probably going to be dead. So no thank you, but anyways, Peyton, I love zok-dok, big fans of it.

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That's zok-dok, z-o-c-d-o-c.com/husband. So the following day may 4th rolls around and Linda, the mom, makes the drive all the way to Bethany's apartment and knocks on her door, but there's no answer. So she tries the door because this is obviously her daughter's place and it's unlocked. So Linda lets herself in and immediately she sees Bethany's bike is in there and so is

her purse, her cell phone, her keys. So she's like, okay, she obviously hasn't gone far, maybe she's just out for a jog. So she sits down in the apartment and waits, but Bethany doesn't return.

And finally, Linda decides, okay, I'm just going to go to the garage cell that we were

planning to attend. Bethany is just there, but she's not and when Linda goes back to the apartment, 21 year old Bethany, her daughter still isn't home. Okay. So Linda, I mean, her daughter has just moved here to go to college, she's starting

to get nervous and later that day, she calls the police.

“They gave her the same song and dance that we've heard before.”

Bethany's an adult, she's 21, she can go out and do whatever she wants, so probably back soon. So this is when Linda calls her husband Billy and she's like, get to encourage immediately something's wrong. Now, meanwhile, a detective in the Anchorage Police Department named Glenn Cleancart,

here's about the call and things. Someone tried to report their 21 year old daughter missing today. Something just didn't feel right because earlier that morning, something else had happened right next to Bethany's apartment. So apparently a neighboring building, a fourplex, was on fire that morning, a paper delivery

person called it in and the firefighters and Anchorage got there and time to put out the blaze and save the building, but the inside of it was pretty much gutted. And so when detective Cleancart hears that, wow, a girl right next door to the building that was on fire is also missing right now, he's like, I don't know. I don't think she's just gone off.

This feels connected. I don't know. He's like, I just have a bad feeling. So that night, detective Cleancart actually on his own heads over to Bethany's apartment to speak with her mother, who had called to try to report her missing.

And he quickly agrees with Linda. The way her things are still just kind of strewn about the apartment, unlocked her cell phone on the kitchen counter, her bed, unmade a book turned over and half red, like she was like marking her spot because this doesn't look like someone who just willingly up and left.

This looks like something happened. Here's a thing. No one leaves her phone anywhere at these days. Keys phone. Wall in anywhere.

I granted, I know it's not 1026, but no one leaves her phone anywhere. Also, like, she was supposed to pick her brother up the day before, she was meeting her mom

She had full blown plans.

Yeah.

“Why would she just disappear and not say anything?”

But the detective doesn't notice any necessarily foul play inside her place. And as for the building next door, the fire, Cleancart looks into that almost immediately. The fire department reports back they found no signs of a body or any evidence of a crime. And even though they hadn't completed their investigation yet, they were like, we actually think this fire at this four plex was accidental, probably due to an electrical problem.

So I was like, okay, maybe they're not connected, but I still feel weird about this missing person's case, mainly because this feels a little like deja vu. According to detective, Cleancart in Alaska, and we're very much getting into like Netflix detective series TV series right now, like it's very like, it's off of like, I don't want to say vibes, but like feeling and like, it can feel something's wrong.

There's a history in this place, type thing, like we're figuring out what's happening. And this town. So this detective Cleancart is like, the reason I even went out of my way to show up

“to this girl's apartment despite the fire was, there's a case he had seen years ago”

that felt familiar and it was actually one that happened to his very own family. So again, we're getting into the, well, my sister went missing and now this girl's missing. And I'm wondering if it's the same part, you know, that's type of feeling. So back in 1981, Detective Cleancart was 15. He and his family went away for Easter to visit his grandparents and his 16-year-old

sister Dawn had convinced his parents to just let her stay home alone. Now while they are visiting grandparents for Easter, 16-year-old Dawn is at home throwing a party. This is one that Cleancart, her little brother, knew about, but he didn't total tell his parents, he didn't want to router out, and it would become one of the biggest regrets

of his life because on Easter morning, the Cleancart's got to call his parents. There had been a fire at their house, Dawn had been inside apparently when it happened and she didn't survive. Okay. But that wasn't the end of the story.

“Gosh, that's, you stay home alone and then your daughter dies in house fire.”

There's two things that, oh, I mean, like drowning and burning alive, both just absolutely, I mean, it's not necessarily, I guess, burning alive because usually you're going to pass out beforehand because of, you know, like the smoke, lack of oxygen, all that, but crazy. So, this wasn't the end of the story, though. It wasn't like she just died in this random house fire.

They learn after more investigating, again, this is his sister who's a year older than him at the time. One of the 19-year-old party goers had left the party and then returned later that night knowing that Dawn was home alone and he snuck into Dawn's room. He sexually assaulted her and then murdered her and set fire to the house.

So that was the real story. It wasn't like she just died in a house fire. So she looked, okay, that's insane. She had been murdered and while the man was ultimately caught in sentence to 75 years in prison,

this is obviously something that never leaves a little brother at 15 years old.

It's what inspired him to go into law enforcement. So now you're understanding why Bethany going missing a fire going on right next door was so alarming to him, so triggering for him, so like I'm completely invested in this missing person's case. So after that day, clean cartonoo, he had to get to the bottom of this.

This wasn't just another case he was taking on. This was personal, it just hit a little deeper. Maybe he was trying to hit some of his own wounds. And one of the first people, clean cart went to look at, was Bethany's boyfriend who lived in a completely different place where she used to work Joe Tamblin.

Now Joe seems like a pretty unlikely suspect, not only was he over an hour and a half flight away from Anchorage, as an airline pilot, he was literally flying in the air at the time Bethany disappeared. He did claim, however, that he had actually spoken to Bethany that morning. All Bethany said, though, was that she was going to meet up with her apartment manager that

day, so she could start training for her job, basically.

He was going to teach her how to show apartments. So Joe was quickly ruled out, but police also had to consider his own personal life. Joe was actually currently separated from his wife and dating Bethany, who his wife he was separated from openly talked about, not liking Bethany. Her husband's new girlfriend.

But when police look in her, they find she's not a viable suspect either.

to get to Bethany that day.

Both of their allies checked out, and the pool of people Bethany, who in Anchorage was pretty small, like I said, she'd only been there a few days at this point.

“So the next question is, is this a completely random crime?”

Well, it's like also they haven't found anything, there's no body, like there's nothing found yet. It didn't appear to be a robbery with no forced entry, no signs of foul play inside her apartment, but because of just how chilling this situation was, it didn't take long for news to spread throughout Anchorage, and the way people came together to help solve

Bethany's case was pretty heartwarming. Just a day or two after Bethany's disappearance, many of her friends and family members came down from her hometown to help in the search effort. They left their jobs and responsibilities behind, and they literally camped out intense, along bootlegger's code, which is where she lives.

And when they weren't searching every square inch of Anchorage, they were going around spreading the word, posting missing person's flyers all over town. So by then, everyone in Anchorage knew who Bethany Quarera was. In fact, Bethany's case became the biggest missing person's search in Anchorage history at that point.

“People back in her hometown came together to raise $40,000 for a reward, leading to any”

information about her disappearance, a local jeweler and Anchorage cleaned up and repaired Bethany's jewelry for her family to have. A 12-year-old boy started taking the bus to the local police station after school to help in turn on the investigation. I mean, the way this community came together in their own little ways.

I mean, it's pretty amazing for a girl who had just moved to the area a couple days earlier.

But this mystery was proving much harder to solve than the police initially thought. And the more time went on, the more confident they felt that Bethany had met foul play. There was no usage on her accounts or credit cards. In a sense, I mean, she'd kind of already, she's moved there a couple days before she'd already started fresh.

She doesn't make sense. She would then get up and run away. But the obvious suspects weren't panning out, so they had to start looking at every single person that had come across Bethany's life recently. And as you've probably picked up, there was one that stuck out to them.

The person Bethany's boyfriend mentioned. The building manager, who was going to help teacher how to show apartments for her job. This is the same apartment manager she has for her place. His name is Mike Lawson. So Detective Cleankhart goes to see Mike.

He's like, listen, the boyfriend said that you were seeing her that morning. And Mike is really cooperative. He tells Cleankhart how he his wife and his brother Bob all work for the same property, holding company that manages buildings and construction projects. He says he was the one who hired Bethany to help out with cleaning some units.

And yeah, he had talked to Bethany once or twice the day she went missing. He said the last time he had spoke to her was around AAM the morning she went missing. He described Bethany as a nice girl. I mean, he didn't know her that well. But said he had met her parents because she was young.

She was starting college. She was excited to start college. And he was really heartbroken to hear what had happened to her. Mike was in his 50s. He was a dad himself.

He had two grown children. Said he felt sympathy for the family. And when Detective Cleankhart asked him, okay, what did you and Bethany speak about the day she vanished? Mike was like, oh, she called me once or twice because she was having problems accessing

a specific unit, apparently there was some sort of mix up with the keys. And he said after that conversation, he just assumed Bethany had figured it out because he didn't hear from her again.

But he never saw Bethany in person that day.

He's like, all of this was just over the phone. Okay.

“So Cleankhart is like, okay, well, where were you that morning?”

You know, if you didn't see her, you weren't with her. And Mike says he was at home with his brother Bob. They were hanging out watching NASCAR basically all day. He only left one time to go by cigarettes at the local gas station. But Mike did mention something kind of strange.

When Cleankhart asked if he was planning to train Bethany on how to show apartments and not just clean them, he said, no, he had never mentioned that to her. That was his job. Why would I train her for something like that? Obviously, this sounds weird because this is something Bethany explicitly mentioned

a multiple people and seemed excited about like, oh, not only am I cleaning apartments,

But then Mike's like, no, that's literally my job.

“Like, why would I train someone to do my own job?”

It's convenient enough for the detective to verify Mike's alibi because his brother Bob, the one he was supposedly watching NASCAR with the day Bethany disappeared while he lives with Mike. So he's right there. And he admits, yeah, we didn't see Bethany that day.

Mike was here with me all day long. Then we went out to the bar with some friends that night. Now obviously we know an alibi from a family member saying you were home with them isn't really a solid alibi, but Cleankhart also had a weird feeling about these guys. The thing about it just seemed strange, for example, Bob kept looking at his brother

before he answered Cleankhart's questions.

They're like kind of in cohoots and apparently Mike's answers felt robotic like kind of rehearsed and little by little, Cleankhart starts to hear things about Mike Lawson as he's like trying to figure out who this guy is and it's things that don't really help his case. A few days after speaking with Mike, Cleankhart got a call from one of Mike's other

co-workers. It's a guy named Franco. Now Franco said Mike was complaining about Bethany before she disappeared. He claimed he heard Mike say something like quote, that a thing be word is giving me so many problems.

“Remember, this girl is just barely started working.”

Yeah. So when Franco heard about Bethany's disappearance, it definitely said off alarm bells when he remembered what Mike said. So Cleankhart sets up an appointment to go talk to Franco at his job site and it just so happens that Mike was working that day at that site too.

But Cleankhart sits down with Franco and he says, listen, me and Mike have worked together for a while. Mike's been going through some stuff lately. Apparently his fourth wife, the one he worked with at the property holding company, had just left him and it sounded like it was out of the blue, she just abruptly quit the

job. They worked together. She then told him she wanted a divorce and she left town. Franco said Mike had been taking it out on other women ever since his wife had left.

“Apparently Mike even told Franco he met a woman at a bar and quote, I did her the same”

time I was beating her. Oh my gosh. So Franco is literally like, hey, Bethany went missing. Let me tell you a little bit about my coat, my Mike, okay, let me tell you what I've heard on his way out, like after meeting with Franco, detective Cleankhart decides to take a

look at Mike's car, just a little peak, you know, he doesn't have a warrant, but just a peak. There was nothing immediately obvious, but Cleankhart knew he had to get a warrant. So he gets on that. But Mike obviously sees Cleankhart at his job site interviewing people and as soon as the detective

left, Mike started apparently acting really strange. He began circling his car trying to see what Cleankhart might have seen. He then told Franco that he was going to take a couple days off to find a lawyer and quote, take care of some stuff. Then he left for a few hours and when he came back, his car was spotless.

He had left and got his entire car detailed inside and out after seeing detective Cleankhart peaking at it. So Franco calls the police and is like, yeah, so I know I just told you everything, but also after you left, he went and got his car detailed that I just have to share this with you now.

So the warrant's probably not going to be as helpful. So by this point, Cleankhart pretty much has locked in on Mike Lawson. Now, it's just a matter of finding enough to make an arrest, which is why he starts digging deeper into Mike's background to see if there's anything that can help him build the case.

He finds a pretty scary track record, turns out Mike spent a year in prison for sexually

assaulting a young woman and he never registered as a convicted sex offender despite the

fact he was supposed to when they spoke to more people in Mike and Bob's orbit detectives also here of two other sexual assaults that like he had been rumored to happen. And one of those was the teenage daughter of one of Mike's co-workers. So someone he worked with, he sexually assaulted that guy's daughter. Now, the assault was never officially reported, but this is all just rumor, like he doesn't

have a very good reputation in town, but what's interesting is, apparently when the family confronted Mike about it, Bob, his brother stepped in and stood up for him, he said, your teenage daughter may be the entire thing up. My brother didn't do this. This isn't possible. And then there was like another incident with a bartender at a place that Mike was a regular at. She claimed there was one night

way there, he said he needed to stop by his office for something. And when they got there, she said, Mike took out a gun and forced both of the girls to get naked. Oh, my gosh. Now thankfully, another employee walked in on this and so Mike liked stuff the gun away and was like, oh, we're just hanging out or joking around the two women left, they didn't

report the incident to police, but this is again something that's been rumored something

“that's like common knowledge. So you have to wonder, how many other stories were there”

like this floating around about Mike Lawson? And he's the last person to, I guess, ever have spoken to Bethany apparently. So around the same time, clean card learning all of this, he also hears more about the fire, the one that started the morning of Bethany's disappearance. Again, the department initially ruled it as an electrical problem, definitely an accident, but after the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms flew their arson investigator

into take a look, they felt differently in a week later, the ruling was reversed. The fire next door was no longer an accident. It was arson and it had been sparked with an accelerant, which means clean cards and stinks that these two things were connected might have been right after all. So detective clean card keeps throwing every resource he has

“at this thing. He becomes so seriously invested in this case, he can hardly sleep at night.”

So digging deeper, he pulls Mike Lawson's cell records. He's focusing on the day Bethany disappeared and he noticed the morning, May 3rd, Mike Lawson used his cell phone to call his own home, like several times. Why are you calling your own landline if you're sitting at home with your brother watching NASCAR? Why are you literally calling the phone on your wall as you're sitting in your living your watching NASCAR with your brother? But those

records also tell a longer story than that shows that Mike's phone was hitting a cell tower close to Bethany's apartment that morning. Mike then calls Bob's phone from the same area and then Bob's phone starts moving from their house towards his brother's location in Bethany's apartment. A short while later, both their phones travel back to the home together and then an hour or so north. So a few hours later, they then begin traveling south again

back towards Anchorage. So basically, Mike is at Bethany's apartment that morning. He's calling

home, he's calling his brother, then his brother meets him towards Bethany's apartment, then they both get in a car, they drive home and then drive an hour out of town and now we're driving back into town into Anchorage. This feels pretty, yeah. It feels pretty obvious what was probably going on. It feels like it's me pretty open in a shot. Right. It appears as if the brothers took Bethany from her apartment and then left her out in the Alaskan wilderness.

Somewhere. It's insane. It's insane. Alaska's so vast. Like where do you even go? Yeah, we're talking hundreds and hundreds of miles of search area here and unless he could get one of these brothers to talk,

it seemed like he probably was never ever going to be able to find this body on his own.

“The only thing he could do now was try to apply a lot of pressure to the loss and brothers and get”

one of them to say where her body is. So for the next few weeks, officials get search warrants for their home and their cars, they put the brothers under surveillance, they placed a tracker on Mike's car, they had Franco, the like co-worker, where a wire to see if he could get Mike to talk and they interviewed everyone who had close contact with the brothers recently, including Mike's ex-wife, none of it helps both the brothers lawyer up. They stop cooperating with police. They're not saying

anything nine months go by. These detectives are waiting for a body. They don't feel like they

have enough concrete evidence to convict them of first-degree murder with just these like cell

phone records and the fact that that's the last person that they think she talked to. So there's little movement toward an arrest. So detective clean cards like I got to do something else. He figures, if either of the brothers are going to talk, it's probably going to be Bob because he's the one who like went and saved Mike. He's the one that seems to have more of a conscience, but he's not going to do it willingly. They're going to have to get him on something else first. So they take a fine

tooth comb to their finances figuring there's got to be something there that we can pull Bob in on and eventually they find it. Mike and Bob were close, so close that they work together. They had a business together. Bob even had an affair with Mike's third wife. Okay, but that's not what gets

criminal history. It's small, but not too small to get a warrant. So clean cart reports to the FBI.

“He's like, listen, I want these guys for murder, but they did, they did do this. So the FBI”

filed federal fraud charges against Mike and Bob. Nice. I'm talking about February of 2004, police descended on the brothers house making a huge spectacle of the arrest. Like it has been nine months. They're ready to get these guys. They kick the door in. They handcuff the brothers at gunpoint. They impounded Mike's truck and then clean cart and his team corner box. They were trying to scare him. They gave him two options. They're like, you didn't tell us everything you know about Bethany.

What happened with Mike and Bethany? What happened that day? Or you are going to jail on federal charges

because the FBI are involved. And slowly, what Shirley Bob begins to cave. And this is what he tells

police on the morning of May 3rd. The day before Bethany was discovered missing Bob got a call from Mike who was in at home watching NASCAR. By the way, saying quote, I'm in trouble. I shot somebody.

“He then asked Bob to come to the apartment complex and bring plastic and duct tape. Bob said”

he knew at this point that Mike was dealing with a dead body, but he didn't know who's. He just knew his brother had killed someone. And he said he refused to help him. Instead, Bob said he continued to question Mike over the phone about what happened. He's like, I'm not coming. No questions asked until he learned it was this new tenant and employee, a girl named Bethany. Now, when it came to motive, Bob said he didn't know why his brother had targeted Bethany other than the fact that he

hated women. This is what he tells police. Wow. He's like, I don't really know why he killed her other than the fact that he really hates women. Yeah. Bob tells police. He refused to help Mike that day. He says Mike eventually gave up asking for help said whatever. I'll just take care of the body and the crime scene on my own. He claims his brother then drove Bethany out to the woods left her there without her clothes, even put some leaves on top of her to cover her up and drove

away and then told Bob about it later on, which is how he knows these details. And the police are like, okay, if by any chance you did go like you're lying right now and you actually did go with him to get rid of the body. Can you tell us? And Bob's like, no, no, I didn't go. Mike did it all on his own. Now, obviously we know this is a lie. His cell phone data puts him driving out and then driving. So we know he's trying to like take I wasn't involved at all right now, but his cell phone

definitely wasn't involved. Tells another story. So then detective clean car is like, okay, I just gave you the chance to tell the truth again. But now I'm going to confront you. We know your cell phone was there. You're lying. And we are going to talk to Bethany's family later this day. Like, we're going to tell them that we have both of you that it's both your cell phones and Bob's like, okay, okay, I was there after Mike called him and told him he shot someone Bob went over to the

complex next to Bethany's apartment. He said, Mike, his brother was high out of his mind on cocaine. Bethany was naked and dead in the bedroom. Bob said, he helped Mike roll Bethany up in some plastic and together, they put her in Mike's truck. Their original plan was to drive her body up six and a half hours north to fair banks and leave her in a gravel pit that was on a friend's property. But once they got underway, Bob began to panic. Like, what if they got in an accident,

when if they got pulled over, that's a long time to have a dead body in a car. He's like, listen, we just need to get rid of the body sooner. So they stopped along parks highway at mile marker 129. Bob said, we tried to dig a grave, but the ground was too frozen. So we left her by a gravel pit and then headed back to Anchorage. He said, but the job wasn't done. They decided they

“had to burn down the complex where Mike shot Bethany. Because remember, he didn't shoot her at her”

apartment. He shot her at the building next door. They're like, let's burn it. Let's destroy all of the evidence. Bob was the one who set the blaze and left on May 3rd, but it seemed to go out before the building burned to the ground because the following day Mike goes back to the crime scene and lights

another fire because it didn't stick the first time. This is what's happening. This is the one

that gets reported. Apparently Bob knew a little more about the motive than he initially claimed to. He had just lied the whole time. He said, Bethany had walked in on Mike in the apartment as he was cutting up bricks of cocaine. And he said his brother then was holding her at gunpoint, trying to say, like, don't tell anyone and then the gun accident. Oh, yeah. I'm sure it's exactly what happened. Yeah. But remember, she was naked. Yeah. One Bob got there. Detectors are like,

that's what happened, why was she naked? And he said, he made her take her clothes off so she wouldn't run away because why would she run out of it? Whatever, whatever. Now, when detective Klinghart went to cooperate elements of Bob's story, he found a witness. Newspaper delivery driver who said they did see a YSUV nearby the fire on the morning of May 4th around 647 AM. They said a man was driving the SUV slowly watching the building burn. The description of the man in the truck or an exact

“match for Mike Lawson and his SUV. Now, this confession is important because he gave them a”

location for the body, which then basically proves his confession true if it is true. So of course,

the first thing they're going to do with this confession is go try to find the body. And Bob Lawson actually offers to show them the exact spot they left her. But at this point, it's February and Alaska, there's several feet of snow. They were like, we can't even get to where you guys went. We're going to have to wait till we can drive on the ground to bring Bethany home. Meanwhile, Bob offered to help with the case in other ways. Since there was no concrete physical evidence that

Mike Lawson shot her outside of the cell phone data, they needed a confession. And they're like, Bob, brother, Bob, you are helping us get this. So you're going to call your brother and we're going to tap in and listen. Bob is super hesitant. He doesn't want to ride on his brother. He doesn't want to set him up. But Detective said, listen, there's a pretty good chance when we bring Mike and he's going to pin all of this on you. Like, we're going to bring him in and he's going to say,

“you know, you're the one who pulled the trigger. So you should probably get him to tell the truth first.”

So finally, in April of 2004, Bob gets Mike his brother on the phone. He tells him

what we did has been eating away at him. He's having to drink every night and he needed to talk about it with Mike. Like he's like, we need to talk about what happened. And at first, Mike isn't having it. He knew his brother had been talking to the police. He's like, I police are listening in on the call. But eventually, after getting Bob to swear on his mother's life, this call wasn't being recorded. Man, nothing like swearing on the mother's life. And lines every time.

And Mike starts talking. He's like, okay, brother, let's talk about it. And Bob gets him to admit the story again. It accidentally killed Bethany after she walked in on him, cutting up drugs. But he didn't sexually salt her. It was all an accident. Yet, this is all police need. Mike was arrested

“and formally charged with Bethany, Carrera's murder along with six other counts like Arson”

Evidence tampering. A month later, the weather had warmed up enough. Police spent the next few days searching the location. Bob said they left Bethany's body. And on May 3rd, 2004,

Detective Cleankhart and a fellow officer were out for the third day of the search when they

see something. A blue fleece jacket in the woods sitting near a puka shell necklace. One Bethany's boyfriend had actually gone her just a few days before she vanished. And then near that, they find some bones and hair. I mean, the remains have been scattered at this point by animals. That day was also the one year anniversary of Bethany's death. She was found on her one year anniversary. They had found Bethany and they tell her family. Now the prosecution spent the next three

years putting together the case to go to trial. And Bob Lawson was basically going to be the star witness in the trial against his brother. But in May 2007, this is just a few days before Bob was scheduled to testify detective Cleankhart got a phone call around three a year. Bob had killed himself. Bob Lawson had parked his car in his garage close the door and kept the engine on and had died of carbon monoxide poisoning. He probably just couldn't attest to fight against his brother.

The suicide note he left behind said he simply couldn't bring himself to testify against his brother. It's like I know what I'm talking about. It was a huge blow to everyone involved in the case, including the choreo family because the star witness is now dead. On top of that, the prosecution was not allowed to bring up Mike's former conviction of sexual assault, still between the cell phone data, the recorded confession, the evidence. There's no way you don't

find him guilty. But the jury didn't think it was premeditated. They believe that it was like a she walked in and he killed her because of it. Oh my God. No, there's no way. He texted her. Or he called her and said come meet me at the building. Get out of here. Like get out of here. In August of 2007, Mike was found guilty of second degree murder. How long in prison?

for one more charge. They hadn't included. It was being a felon in possession of a gun.

“And basically for this charge, his past conviction would be able to get mentioned, which is why”

they're going to do a separate trial just for this. It took them five minutes to come to the conclusion that he was guilty. Six months later, Mike Lawson was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Good,

nine more even gets the max for second degree murder. This is the same amount. He probably

“would have gotten if he got and convicted of first degree murder. That doesn't make it any better”

for the family. Of course, because they do think it's on a percent premeditated and that she was sexually assaulted. Bethany certainly came across the wrong person in any grudge. But she also found a really loving and supportive community too. One that was dedicated to solving her case, supporting her, no matter the emotional physical or financial cost. Detective,

clean cart said Bethany's case changed him in a way he never expected. Told depressed quote,

"I really have to think Bethany for a lot of things, including allowing me to kind of look back at my life and what happened to my sister and just be able to make amends." And that is the case of Bethany Krera. Once again, just another case where just senseless, completely senseless. Just a horrible human being, horrible person. It's a bad person. It's someone just like screw that.

“Like I just I hate that. I hate it. And I'm sorry, but I believe allegedly he learned her there.”

Yeah, I'm sexually assaulted. I don't like killing her. I believe it too. That's such a bull curve. I just am like there's just no way. Yeah. All right, you guys. Thank you for listening to today's episode, and we will see you next time with another one. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.