Aug. 12, 2025

Chapter 112: In Cold Blood-The Death of Dr. Eric Garcia w/ Chris Connelly

Chapter 112: In Cold Blood-The Death of Dr. Eric Garcia w/ Chris Connelly
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Interviews

In March 2017, the quiet Alaskan town of Ketchikan was rocked by the sudden death of beloved surgeon Dr. Eric Garcia. Found in his home under suspicious circumstances, his death would devolve into a mystery that was truly stranger than fiction.
 Journalist Chris Connelly, host of Cold Blooded: Mystery in Alaska, joined me to discuss his investigation and shared what it was like to walk the streets of Ketchikan, speak with Dr. Garcia’s grieving loved ones, and sit face-to-face with the detectives who brought his killer to justice. From Alaska to Washington, Chris told me all about the twists and turns in a case that, on the surface, had seemed so straightforward, and how a remote community still grapples with the loss of one of its own.

You can hear all about the murder of Dr. Eric Garcia, including details not shared today, by listening to Cold Blooded: Mystery in Alaska every Tuesday, wherever you get your podcasts.

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WEBVTT

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Every story has a beginning, but not everyone has an ending.

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In the shadows of headlines and buried police reports lay

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the voices of the missing, the murdered, and the forgotten,

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waiting to be heard and have their stories told. This

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is The Book of the Dead, a true crime podcast

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where we remember forgotten victims of heinous crimes, reopen cold cases,

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re visit haunting disappearances, and uncover the truths buried beneath

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the years of silence. I'm your host, Courtney Liso, and

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every week we turn to another chapter, one victim, one mystery,

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one step closer to justice. Brought to you by Darkass

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Network Indeed Podcasts with the Twist. Hello, Hello, Welcome to

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the next chapter in the Book of the Dead. Today

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we have a special episode. In the small town of Ketchikan, Alaska,

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a respected doctor, Eric Garcia, was found dead in the

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home he lived in all alone, his death shaking the

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tight ning community to its core. While at first doctor

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Garcia's death presented as a suicide, it was quickly apparent

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to police that things weren't adding up. The case is

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as complex as it is disturbing, but at the center

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of uncovering its many layers is journalist Chris Connolly. In

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his new podcast, Cold Blooded Mystery in Alaska, Chris takes

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listeners deep beyond the headlines of this case, speaking directly

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with doctor Garcia's loved ones, the officers who worked the investigation,

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and the locals still reeling in the aftermath. Today, he

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is joining me to talk about what it was like

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to walk the same streets trying to make sense of

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a killing that seemed at first to have no rhyme

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or reason at all. Chris, thank you so much for

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joining me today. I'm very, very thrilled to have you.

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Thank you so much for talking to me, Courtney, I

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appreciate it.

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Can you give us a brief overview of who doctor

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Garcia was, not just professionally but personally. You know, we

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know he's a doctor, he's a surgeon, but what did

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you learn about him through your reporting in this case.

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Well, you start by thinking of doctor Eric Garcia as

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almost a heroic figure. He's a man who comes from

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Puerto Rico. He's dedicated from the very beginning to becoming

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some sort of medical figure. His grandmother had a lingering

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heart problem, and this evoked something strong in him growing up.

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He wanted to take care of her, and so this

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became kind of a guiding light for him as he

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proceeded quite successfully through school and coming an eagle scout

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and things like that, always wanting to be a doctor.

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So he wound up doing a lot of his training

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and stuff in Chicago, and then became a surgeon and

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wound up on the Rio Grande just this side in Texas,

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taking care of indigenous people down there and looking out

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for people who didn't always have the ability to pay.

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Becoming an elite surgeon in all areas, doing every kind

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of surgery and really becoming kind of a key figure

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as he was so good at this. But he liked

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to take cruises, you know, he liked to see the world.

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He traveled so much already, but he loved seeing the world.

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And at one point he took a cruise up to Alaska,

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as many people do. Out of Seattle or out of Vancouver.

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Your first stop is the town of Ketchikan, about eight

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thousand people. It's remote by any normal sense of the world.

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You can't drive there, if you fly there, you have

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to take a ferry to get to the town. But

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doctor Garcia was captivated by Ketchikan is physically so beautiful,

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the landscape, birds, the outdoors, the animals, the seals. It

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takes your breath away everywhere you look, and so he

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always kept it in mind. So when a recruiter happened

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to call him months later and said there's an opening

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for a general surgeon in ketcha Can, he thought it

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was fate, and so he went up there and took

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the job. And so here's this, here's this talented general surgeon,

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one of only two in the town, coming to a

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town that's so far away on the map from where

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he started, right as an outsider in a place where,

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you know, where people have been there for a long time.

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But doctor Garcia became a beloved figure in ketcha Can,

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not just because he was a talented surgeon, I think anyway.

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You know, surgeons are amazing human beings. They do incredible things,

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but sometimes they're technicians, right, Sometimes they just are really

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good at, you know, the physical. But doctor Garcia was

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more than that. He was seen as a wonderful diagnostician,

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and he really cared about his patients. You know, when

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you're up in Ketchiken, you're dealing with people who you know,

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have everything, but from cancer surgeries to intestinal matters, to

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accidents that take place in the rugged wilderness that Ketchikin,

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you know, provides. So he had to do it all,

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and he became a very beloved figure from his coworkers,

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to his friends, to the people in town. When I

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spoke to his brother, Saul Garcia, Saul remembers visiting his

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brother Eric in Ketchikan, and he remembers a trip to

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the grocery store. He said, we almost couldn't get out

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of the grocery store for people stopping my brother and

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thanking him for having taken care of their sister, their aunt,

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their child, and he understood the cases and checked in

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with them and all the rest of it. So he

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became this key figure, very beloved again reaching out to

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the indigenous community in Alaska to making sure they had

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health care as well. But just someone who really created

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a warm feeling around people he was with, even though

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as a human being he was somewhat shy, and I

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think that also kind of endeared him to the population there.

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You know, he kept to himself a little bit emotionally,

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I guess you would say, but that made him even

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more lovable in a way. And so he was this

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treasured figure and someone who really made a difference in

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this town, and everyone he touched from a professional standpoint,

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had a good thing to say about him. As we

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discovered when we were up there.

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That's wonderful he based on my research into him, he

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did just seem so profoundly kind and it's evident in

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all of the people that loved him so much. So obviously, Keajukan,

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as you said, is very small community's only eight thousand people.

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When you arrived to cover this case initially, you know,

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what kind of atmosphere did you encounter. How were the

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people where the residents kind of reacting to what had

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happened to him.

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I mean, the people are amazing. The people are so

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warm and just so great. You know, so many of

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them work so hard that some of them have multiple jobs.

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You try to keep money coming in and stuff, and

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the town exists on time on kind of two timeframes.

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It's like there are the winter months, you know, where

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everybody kind of bunks down and it can be a

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challenging period I think winter in Alaska, and then there

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are the summer months when the cruise ships come to

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town and the cruise ships transform the city. You're talking

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about tens of thousands of people stopping there and sort

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of going through the town to shop or to stretch

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their legs or something on an ongoing basis. So it's

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an enormous economic influx to the town. And you'll notice

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that around where the cruise ships are docked, there's the

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kind of shopping opportunities you would imagine for a situation

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like that, and a lot of people in the town

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make their money sort of tending to those things. And

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then behind that there's the town that's there all the time,

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with the ruggedness and the beauty and all the rest

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of it. So by the time we got there, this

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case had gone on for some time, delayed by a

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number of venue changes and the predations of COVID and

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things like that. But what hadn't changed, as you allude to,

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is the way that people felt about doctor Garcia. It

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still burned in them like how special he was. He

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had not been forgotten, and people went out of their

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way to tell you the kind of human being he was.

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From Don Hank, who was his kind of you know,

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aid de camp at the hospital, but who also became

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his close friend to nurses who had just worked alongside him,

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to the man Bobby Jackson, who sold him that house

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on the hill that he lived in alone. People couldn't

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stop telling you what a swell guy he was, and

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they wanted you to know, you know, that he was

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more than someone who died, he was someone who lived there.

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When you were speaking with the locals about the case,

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what was kind of your interpretation of their thoughts on it.

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Were they hesitance talk about it? You know? Were they

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fearful of talking about it because it you know, it

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originally started out as being a perceived suicide and I

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think very quickly that was realized to be not the case.

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I think they wanted people to know how special doctor

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Garcia had been in their lives. You know, they really

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felt like that was a message they could they could

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get across. The thing that's so striking about this case,

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and you've done such a wonderful job with the ones

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that you've done. And I don't know if you feel

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this way, but there's some cases where the twists and

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turns of the evidence are amazing. Right. You have You're

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presented with one thing and all of a sudden a

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revelation comes up and it takes the investigation in a

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different direction and their incredible revelations and secrets that have

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been buried for years and they get you know, they

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get opened, and it's just it's an amazing investigation. This

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case has that. Then for me a lot, there are

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the emotions of the people involved, and some cases present

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as a sort of situation where the emotions of those

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close to the deceased are very strong and powerful, and

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they're what move you, you know, the sense of loss

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or the way that they touched people's lives or what

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their lives have been like since somebody has been gone.

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This story has that too, and that makes it that

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much more compelling. And then in a third sense, if

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you follow crime fiction or if you watch Agatha Christie

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movies or things, you know how that final act, whether

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it's Nine Perfect Strangers or Death on the Nile, is

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everybody gathered together. Right, Everybody who is somehow touched by

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their connection to the deceased is together, and each of

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them has sort of a different story, and there's drama

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in what happens when they gather and what each of

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them knows and isn't telling right, And that happens in

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this case too, except that instead of it happening at

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the end, as it does in fiction, it happens almost

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at the beginning, and those three elements, I think make

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this a really gripping story.

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Absolutely there, and I want to expand on that a

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little bit, because at first glance, you know he's there.

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The police come, they do a welfare check on him.

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A couple of times. There are a couple of welfare checks.

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I believe they do a welfare check on the house.

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There is a call that comes from out of states saying,

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I was supposed to be with doctor Garcia and I

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don't know where he is. I think you should go

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to his house and see what's happening. Officer Devin Miller

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goes to the house and he walks around, and he

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doesn't see anything remarkable. He can't get all the way

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around the house, but he looks in. The front door

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is locked and the lights are on in the sort

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of way that lights go on when somebody is going

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away on vacation. And it turns out that doctor Garcia

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has had a vacation planned. He's told people at the

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hospital he's going to Las Vegas for a medical convention.

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So that's what he understands. The story is about doctor

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Garcia and that's why he's not at the hospital. And

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then the other thing that Officer Miller notices is that

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his pickup truck is not there, and that checks out. Also,

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Ketch again, is not a place where you get an

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uber to the airport. You know, you drive your car

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to the lot and then you take the ferry and

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you go. So the fact that his pickup truck is

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in there indicates he's on vacation. He's must have driven

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his pickup truck and all the rest of it have

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done that, so it all checks out. But then these

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the same person keeps calling and asking for you know,

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for another welfare check. Says that he was supposed to

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be with doctor Garcia and he hasn't heard anything. Says

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that he's been concerned because doctor Garcia was depressed and

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you know, expressing some ideas about maybe suicide or something.

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These calls are coming in from a man named Jordan

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Joplin who's in Washington State. But they're not the only

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people now who are worried because don Hink, his best

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friend at the hospital, has not been hearing from doctor

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Garcia as she normally would during a vacation. She sent

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him pictures of her son at a parade or something

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and said, isn't this great? She says, usually on vacation

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she'd hear from him twenty or thirty times, nothing, so

231
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she's a little concerned too. Then Don gets a call

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from doctor Garcia's mother, who is also concerned. So now

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there is this level of concern in the town among

234
00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:40.799
people who know him. Finally, this caller from out of town,

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this Jordan Joplin, says, I still haven't heard from him.

236
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I have keys to the house. I'm going to fly

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from Washington to ketchikin and I want to go in

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the house and see what's going on. He asks the police,

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will you come with me? My attorney says this is

240
00:13:56.320 --> 00:13:59.360
what should happen, and the police say yeses. And so

241
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I think it's March twenty seventh, twenty seventeen. It's nine

242
00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:07.399
in the morning on a Monday, and you have what

243
00:14:07.559 --> 00:14:11.039
turns into a remarkable scene. You have two police from

244
00:14:11.039 --> 00:14:17.000
the Ketchikan Police Department outside doctor Garcia's fabulous home. You

245
00:14:17.159 --> 00:14:21.799
have Don Hinck, and then you have this Jordan Joplin

246
00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:25.639
turning up with a young woman with him, and he's

247
00:14:25.720 --> 00:14:29.480
driving doctor Garcia's car, which strikes people as a little unusual,

248
00:14:29.519 --> 00:14:33.360
but that's all good. Then the arrangements are made to

249
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open the door of the house, and what you will

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hear on our podcast is this exclusive extended audio of

251
00:14:41.279 --> 00:14:45.799
the body cam of the officers as they enter doctor

252
00:14:45.799 --> 00:14:49.039
Garcia's home and begin to call out for him. Their

253
00:14:49.120 --> 00:14:52.799
guns are drawn that standard procedure. They are calling out

254
00:14:52.840 --> 00:14:57.360
doctor Garcia Ketchikan Police. You know, they're looking around on

255
00:14:57.399 --> 00:15:00.440
the first floor and you hear them call calling out

256
00:15:00.440 --> 00:15:04.200
to him and saying things. They're not expecting to see anything.

257
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They told us later, they're not expecting anyone to be

258
00:15:07.759 --> 00:15:11.039
in the house. But they walk up the flights of

259
00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:14.960
stairs to the second story, which is a big vaulted

260
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living room, and you hear them, and all of a sudden,

261
00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:23.960
it gets quiet, and they stop yelling because they see

262
00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:29.279
doctor Garcia on the sofa and he's dead. And you

263
00:15:29.480 --> 00:15:32.080
even get the sense that it's kind of washing over them,

264
00:15:32.240 --> 00:15:37.799
that this is something eerie and strange. It's not entirely unusual,

265
00:15:37.960 --> 00:15:41.159
as I understand it, for police in Alaska to go

266
00:15:41.200 --> 00:15:43.759
in on one of these welfare checks and find someone deceased.

267
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You know, it's a it's a rugged part of the world.

268
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You know, doctor Garcia was in his late fifties, but

269
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they weren't expecting this. This is someone they know. For

270
00:15:53.919 --> 00:15:56.600
Officer Miller, he was treated by doctor Garcia. So this

271
00:15:56.720 --> 00:16:00.720
is a momentous thing. Plus they have people downstairs who

272
00:16:00.799 --> 00:16:04.840
don't know yet that they've discovered the body of doctor Garcia,

273
00:16:05.240 --> 00:16:07.120
and so it falls to one of the officers to

274
00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:10.240
come downstairs. And now a couple more people are there.

275
00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:13.679
I think Don Hank's husband, Will Hank is there too,

276
00:16:13.720 --> 00:16:16.000
although I think we're not one hundred percent sure about that,

277
00:16:17.159 --> 00:16:20.840
but Don Hank is there, Jordan Joplin is there with

278
00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:24.679
a female friend of his, and Bobby Jackson, who sold

279
00:16:24.919 --> 00:16:28.480
doctor Garcia that house, he's there now too. An Officer

280
00:16:28.559 --> 00:16:31.679
Cheatham comes down and says, there's no and you'll hear this.

281
00:16:32.279 --> 00:16:35.840
There's no easy way to say this, but doctor Garcia

282
00:16:35.919 --> 00:16:41.320
is dead. And it's a moment of you know, heartbreak

283
00:16:42.039 --> 00:16:46.519
and drama and what turns out to be very telling

284
00:16:46.679 --> 00:16:50.759
behavior on behalf of everyone involved. And you'll hear it

285
00:16:50.799 --> 00:16:52.000
all as it happened.

286
00:16:52.679 --> 00:16:57.120
Obviously, that is such a profoundly sad moment for everyone

287
00:16:57.159 --> 00:16:59.799
there because they all obviously they all know him, they

288
00:16:59.840 --> 00:17:03.399
all cared about him, they all loved him, and immediately,

289
00:17:03.679 --> 00:17:07.160
or at least initially, they believe it to be suicide.

290
00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:10.519
What were some of the things that kind of changed

291
00:17:10.559 --> 00:17:12.000
the police's thinking on that.

292
00:17:12.559 --> 00:17:15.799
Well, remember, because it's not so unusual, their first thought

293
00:17:15.839 --> 00:17:19.960
is that it's natural causes. When they pulled Don hinkover,

294
00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:23.079
one of the first questions they ask is what kind

295
00:17:23.119 --> 00:17:25.920
of situation was he medically, and she rightly says, he

296
00:17:25.960 --> 00:17:28.200
had heart trouble. You know, he had a history of

297
00:17:28.240 --> 00:17:30.960
heart trouble. He had been taken I think he'd been

298
00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:34.599
like almost metevacked at one point Seattle for a triple bypass,

299
00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:38.039
So there's a history of heart trouble there. At one

300
00:17:38.119 --> 00:17:42.440
point in Ketchikan, he experienced some sort of chest pain

301
00:17:42.519 --> 00:17:45.039
while he was in the oar and he was taken

302
00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:49.480
from the oar to the er because he was dedicated

303
00:17:49.519 --> 00:17:51.440
to his job by having some sort of heart trouble.

304
00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:54.400
So that's the first thing they're hearing. And remember that's

305
00:17:54.440 --> 00:17:56.680
kind of in keeping with something that they often see,

306
00:17:57.279 --> 00:18:02.400
so perhaps it's natural causes. And then some unusual aspects

307
00:18:02.440 --> 00:18:06.240
of what they see, as you allude to, make them

308
00:18:06.279 --> 00:18:09.359
start to wonder there's an empty pill bottle next to

309
00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:13.160
him for you know, the medication that we normally refer

310
00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:17.319
to his valim. There's a smell in the house that

311
00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:21.680
they immediately notice. It's a charcoal smell. And as they

312
00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:24.039
get up to the second floor, they look and they

313
00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:26.799
see that there is a door open, a door that

314
00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:29.920
Officer Devin Millard was not able to see when he

315
00:18:30.039 --> 00:18:32.880
first checked the house. It's a door and it's propped

316
00:18:32.920 --> 00:18:36.519
open with a pillow. And on the deck past the

317
00:18:36.559 --> 00:18:41.200
door is a charcoal grill. Why is a door propped

318
00:18:41.240 --> 00:18:43.920
open with a charcoal grill right next to it? And

319
00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:47.279
not only that, there is a charcoal briquette right next

320
00:18:47.359 --> 00:18:50.680
to doctor Garcia, right next to his body. There is

321
00:18:50.920 --> 00:18:53.559
a little charcoal residue, I think on his T shirt.

322
00:18:54.440 --> 00:18:58.160
There's maybe another little like stain up there too. So

323
00:18:58.359 --> 00:19:01.880
all that's kind of puzzling. You know, what does this mean?

324
00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:05.079
Is this a like you say, is this a you know,

325
00:19:05.599 --> 00:19:08.079
is this a suicide? Is it a heart attack? What

326
00:19:08.119 --> 00:19:12.160
it could be? And then they look up, as one does,

327
00:19:12.839 --> 00:19:15.519
and they see a remarkable site. They look up and

328
00:19:15.559 --> 00:19:21.720
they see braces for smoke detectors. But the smoke detectors

329
00:19:21.720 --> 00:19:26.440
themselves are not there. What could that mean that there

330
00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:30.319
are all these braces for smoke detectors and the smoke

331
00:19:30.359 --> 00:19:35.079
detectors aren't there. Here's the thing about doctor Garcia, wonderful

332
00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:40.720
guy dedicated to his work. The least handy man in

333
00:19:40.759 --> 00:19:46.119
Alaska literally had no sort of house, rugged outdoorsmen skills,

334
00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:50.160
not a kind of guy to like build himself something

335
00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:52.720
or anything like that. Not a kind of guy that

336
00:19:52.799 --> 00:19:57.079
anyone had ever seen on a ladder. So that makes

337
00:19:57.119 --> 00:20:02.759
people think also that grill. Nobody in Ketchikin would ever

338
00:20:03.480 --> 00:20:07.119
grill to the south I guess the Southwest. I'm trying

339
00:20:07.160 --> 00:20:09.400
to remember now because that's where the wind came from.

340
00:20:09.960 --> 00:20:13.599
You'd never do that, now that you know. Was that

341
00:20:13.720 --> 00:20:18.920
like a low fi version of turning the car exhaust

342
00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:21.880
on in your garage? People are trying to figure out

343
00:20:21.880 --> 00:20:25.160
what it is next to his body. There's a slice

344
00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:29.240
of bacon, a slice of raw bacon. So you've got

345
00:20:29.240 --> 00:20:33.119
a slice of raw bacon, that charcoal grill, that one

346
00:20:33.160 --> 00:20:36.960
piece of briquette. These are odd things to be discovering.

347
00:20:37.480 --> 00:20:41.400
What do they all mean? It's a puzzle that doesn't

348
00:20:41.400 --> 00:20:45.039
seem to have an answer. So they go downstairs, and

349
00:20:45.119 --> 00:20:47.960
as we talked about, Jordan Joplin, appears to be just

350
00:20:48.160 --> 00:20:50.880
destroyed in grief. Each grabs his chest, he falls to

351
00:20:50.920 --> 00:20:54.960
the ground. Don hink is you know, insensate with grief,

352
00:20:54.960 --> 00:20:57.720
and she's sick to her stomach and she's telling police

353
00:20:57.720 --> 00:21:00.000
as we mentioned that doctor Garcia had some heart trouble.

354
00:21:00.680 --> 00:21:04.400
And then Bobby Jackson shows up. Remember Bobby Jackson is

355
00:21:04.400 --> 00:21:07.599
the guy who sold doctor Garcia his house. Bobby Jackson

356
00:21:07.759 --> 00:21:11.559
is a legend in Ketchigan. Great guy. I mean, you

357
00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:13.920
could talk to him forever about the history of Ketchigan.

358
00:21:14.039 --> 00:21:17.160
Just a wonderful, warm guy. He knows everything about the place.

359
00:21:18.279 --> 00:21:22.160
But while everybody else is grieving, and certainly Bob Jackson

360
00:21:22.200 --> 00:21:25.880
is too, he is agitated. He has a new energy

361
00:21:25.960 --> 00:21:28.319
out there, and he is agitated, and there is something

362
00:21:28.359 --> 00:21:31.440
that he wants to tell the police, and he's really

363
00:21:31.480 --> 00:21:34.839
like on fire about it. And it's as I imagine

364
00:21:34.839 --> 00:21:37.599
this scene, I think this must have been really remarkable,

365
00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:39.480
you know, for these people in grief, and all of

366
00:21:39.519 --> 00:21:42.079
a sudden, here's Bob going, I gotta talk to you.

367
00:21:43.079 --> 00:21:45.599
So Bob pulls one of the officers aside and you'll

368
00:21:45.599 --> 00:21:48.920
hear this too, because he's on the body camera and

369
00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:53.160
he goes, there are thousands of dollars of valuables in

370
00:21:53.200 --> 00:22:02.480
this house, thousands of dollars of valuables, sea, collected coins, liquor,

371
00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:06.480
all this kind of material, and it was a big

372
00:22:06.519 --> 00:22:10.519
deal for him to have it. Bob Jackson is inflamed

373
00:22:10.920 --> 00:22:13.640
with telling the cops you have to check to see

374
00:22:13.640 --> 00:22:17.079
if that stuff is there. He's got tens of thousands

375
00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:21.279
of dollars worth of luxury goods in that house. And

376
00:22:21.559 --> 00:22:26.000
the cops go, well, okay, I guess we will. And

377
00:22:26.079 --> 00:22:28.799
so they turn again to Jordan Joplin, who's got keys,

378
00:22:29.839 --> 00:22:32.160
because Bob Jackson goes, I know where he kept it.

379
00:22:32.559 --> 00:22:36.440
He kept it in this little storeroom under the stairs.

380
00:22:37.240 --> 00:22:39.319
So they turned it. Do you have keys to it? Well?

381
00:22:39.359 --> 00:22:39.720
I do.

382
00:22:40.319 --> 00:22:44.799
So the storage area is locked, right, they unlock it

383
00:22:44.839 --> 00:22:47.640
with Jordan Joplin's with the keys Jordan Joplin gave them,

384
00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:51.960
and they open it and it's empty. Nothing is there.

385
00:22:52.240 --> 00:22:56.759
It's gone tens of thousands of dollars in twenty year

386
00:22:56.759 --> 00:23:01.160
old whiskeys, and you know, prime spirits of all kinds,

387
00:23:01.759 --> 00:23:06.200
valuable coins, actual pieces of gold, all kinds of hard

388
00:23:06.200 --> 00:23:11.359
goods that doctor Garcia collected, monitored on his computer, had

389
00:23:11.400 --> 00:23:14.960
a spreadsheet for them, talked about to everyone in town,

390
00:23:15.759 --> 00:23:18.519
gave them away, sometimes as a gift because he was

391
00:23:18.599 --> 00:23:22.680
kind of profligate that way. They're all gone. So now

392
00:23:22.680 --> 00:23:27.640
what's going on. You have a dead person upstairs and

393
00:23:27.720 --> 00:23:32.000
you have a major theft. And so now the cops

394
00:23:32.119 --> 00:23:35.599
are faced with two things that they need to investigate

395
00:23:36.519 --> 00:23:39.960
the death of doctor Garcia and what's happened to his goods.

396
00:23:40.400 --> 00:23:43.039
You've got a major theft or is it a theft

397
00:23:43.519 --> 00:23:46.480
because doctor Garcia gave away so much stuff. Maybe doctor

398
00:23:46.480 --> 00:23:50.599
Garcia has given all this away. That's possible. Everyone in

399
00:23:50.640 --> 00:23:53.160
town knew that doctor Garcia would just give you stuff.

400
00:23:53.640 --> 00:23:56.400
He would give you like watches that were really expensive,

401
00:23:56.559 --> 00:23:59.960
just because he did that kind of thing. Don Hings,

402
00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:02.440
his husband, used to say to him, you know, Eric,

403
00:24:02.480 --> 00:24:04.960
you might want to slow down with givenness. Maybe you

404
00:24:04.960 --> 00:24:07.279
shouldn't have that piece of gold out there where the

405
00:24:07.319 --> 00:24:10.400
pizza delivery guy can see it. But it made doctor

406
00:24:10.440 --> 00:24:14.359
Garcia happy to give these sort of expensive gifts to people,

407
00:24:14.440 --> 00:24:18.000
even as he loved collecting them. The special coins, the

408
00:24:18.039 --> 00:24:23.400
pieces of gold, the luxury watches and the luxury liquors.

409
00:24:23.759 --> 00:24:26.400
He liked to give them away, and not always in

410
00:24:26.519 --> 00:24:29.839
the kind of like in way that they thought was

411
00:24:29.920 --> 00:24:33.119
kind of profligate and maybe maybe endangered his life a

412
00:24:33.160 --> 00:24:37.079
little bit. People knew that he had lots of stuff there,

413
00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:40.440
and so there were always concerns about that. Will Hank

414
00:24:41.039 --> 00:24:44.200
had even offered to kind of construct, you know, a

415
00:24:44.319 --> 00:24:46.559
safer place for some of this stuff to be stored

416
00:24:46.559 --> 00:24:49.920
in the house because they were worried about it. Bobby

417
00:24:50.079 --> 00:24:52.920
Jackson had gone to the bank with doctor Garcia to

418
00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:56.359
get his mortgage for this big house, and he wondered

419
00:24:56.400 --> 00:24:58.720
if he could use all those coins, as you know,

420
00:24:58.839 --> 00:25:01.240
as a way to pay them mortgage. So that's the

421
00:25:01.279 --> 00:25:04.519
dilemma that's facing police. You've got the death of a

422
00:25:04.559 --> 00:25:08.880
beloved surgeon and thousands of dollars in luxury items missing

423
00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:09.519
from his home.

424
00:25:10.200 --> 00:25:13.119
When you spoke to the police after the fact, did

425
00:25:13.119 --> 00:25:17.480
they share anything specific about like how complex this case

426
00:25:17.640 --> 00:25:20.160
was for them to investigate the challenges that they may

427
00:25:20.200 --> 00:25:22.279
have faced while they were working at.

428
00:25:22.240 --> 00:25:24.119
I think one of the things that Eric Mattson, the

429
00:25:24.200 --> 00:25:28.079
chief investigator, said was that stuck in my mind was

430
00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:32.039
we couldn't assume anything like. We couldn't assume that the

431
00:25:32.079 --> 00:25:34.279
death of doctor Garcia and the theft were in any

432
00:25:34.279 --> 00:25:37.759
way related. We couldn't assume it was a theft. We

433
00:25:37.839 --> 00:25:41.759
couldn't assume it was a murder. You know, we had

434
00:25:41.799 --> 00:25:43.720
to find We had to wait and see what everything

435
00:25:43.799 --> 00:25:47.799
was going on. But they had essentially two investigations. There

436
00:25:47.880 --> 00:25:50.599
was going to be a toxicology report on doctor Garcia

437
00:25:50.960 --> 00:25:53.519
that wouldn't come in for a while, but there would

438
00:25:53.559 --> 00:25:56.759
be the investigation into his passing, and then there would

439
00:25:56.799 --> 00:25:59.559
be the attempt to figure out what had happened to

440
00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:04.400
all these goods. And it was that second investigation that

441
00:26:04.599 --> 00:26:08.240
seemed to be more urgent and that took immediate flight,

442
00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:12.039
and that had some key developments right away, and so

443
00:26:12.599 --> 00:26:14.799
Eric Matson, you know, sort of took us through what

444
00:26:14.920 --> 00:26:18.839
those were and how that developed into a real race

445
00:26:18.880 --> 00:26:21.799
against time to figure out what had happened to these

446
00:26:22.400 --> 00:26:25.519
tens of thousands of dollars in luxury goods.

447
00:26:25.559 --> 00:26:28.640
Did they ever express doubts to you that they were

448
00:26:28.680 --> 00:26:32.960
feeling during the investigation, whether it was how they were

449
00:26:33.119 --> 00:26:37.400
trying to understand the case or you know, looking for suspects,

450
00:26:37.640 --> 00:26:40.440
and just even in the terms of the missing goods.

451
00:26:40.720 --> 00:26:44.480
Oh gosh, look what is that bacon doing there? What

452
00:26:44.559 --> 00:26:47.000
is that slice of bacon doing there? There's a grilling

453
00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:50.319
but nobody there's no there's no barbecue tools out, Like,

454
00:26:50.400 --> 00:26:53.440
what does that mean? That's strange? Why is the door

455
00:26:53.480 --> 00:26:56.799
propped open? What is going on with those smoke detectors

456
00:26:56.839 --> 00:27:01.000
and the braces involved? Everything is a p and a mystery.

457
00:27:01.480 --> 00:27:04.839
Nothing seems to make sense. They do notice also that

458
00:27:04.880 --> 00:27:07.599
the computers down on the first floor seem to be gone,

459
00:27:08.279 --> 00:27:10.960
Like they notice that there are chords there, right, but

460
00:27:11.039 --> 00:27:13.440
the computers and the electronic equipment seem to be gone.

461
00:27:13.480 --> 00:27:16.440
So they note that as well. Why has Jordan Joplin

462
00:27:16.519 --> 00:27:21.200
shown up in doctor Garcia's car? That's surprising. Also, there

463
00:27:21.279 --> 00:27:25.119
is nothing but mysteries. One of my favorite mysteries, or

464
00:27:25.119 --> 00:27:27.079
one of the details it always sticks with me, is

465
00:27:27.400 --> 00:27:30.279
they look in the dishwasher and they find a red

466
00:27:30.319 --> 00:27:33.799
Solo cup in the dishwasher. A red Solo cup and

467
00:27:33.839 --> 00:27:37.680
a dishwasher. What does that mean? Don't you just throw

468
00:27:37.720 --> 00:27:40.359
out a red Solo cup? Why would you wash it?

469
00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:43.519
So they're trying to make sense out of all these details,

470
00:27:43.519 --> 00:27:47.400
but it is it is a real puzzle. What holds

471
00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:50.440
all these things together? What is this? What is this

472
00:27:50.720 --> 00:27:55.000
scene telling us that will answer the questions about how

473
00:27:55.119 --> 00:27:59.960
and why doctor Garcia died? And then they begin investigating

474
00:28:00.039 --> 00:28:03.759
doctor Garcia's life as well. And that's the other investigation.

475
00:28:03.880 --> 00:28:06.839
What do we need to know about doctor Garcia to

476
00:28:06.920 --> 00:28:09.480
help find out what had happened to him? So we

477
00:28:09.559 --> 00:28:12.759
have the investigation into the goods and then the investigation

478
00:28:12.839 --> 00:28:15.440
into the life of doctor Garcia and the things people

479
00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:17.799
knew about him and the things they did.

480
00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:24.359
Not when they were originally considering either natural causes or suicide.

481
00:28:25.079 --> 00:28:29.759
Were the people in his life convinced that suicide could

482
00:28:29.759 --> 00:28:32.359
have been a possibility at all? Was this something that

483
00:28:32.839 --> 00:28:37.440
they had thought that he was considering, Was there any

484
00:28:37.519 --> 00:28:41.799
inkling to that kind of thought process for him, or

485
00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:44.599
was this something that they were adamant that was absolutely

486
00:28:44.640 --> 00:28:46.359
not the case. He never would have done it.

487
00:28:46.720 --> 00:28:49.559
You make a good point, because no, they pushed back

488
00:28:49.640 --> 00:28:52.400
really hard on the idea that he was in any

489
00:28:52.440 --> 00:28:55.880
way suicidal or depressed that way. He had a festive

490
00:28:55.960 --> 00:28:58.279
shirt on the last day he was at the office.

491
00:28:58.799 --> 00:29:00.240
He was going to go to Las Veigs. I guess

492
00:29:00.240 --> 00:29:03.240
and't have a wonderful time. You know, he was looking

493
00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:05.880
forward to some big events in his family's sistory. I

494
00:29:05.880 --> 00:29:07.799
think there was a big birthday coming up for one

495
00:29:07.839 --> 00:29:10.519
of his parents. He had a couple of trips of

496
00:29:10.559 --> 00:29:12.960
his own plan for down the road. No, in no

497
00:29:13.039 --> 00:29:15.279
way did they find that he In no way did

498
00:29:15.279 --> 00:29:19.480
they believe he was depressed or suicidal, and this would

499
00:29:19.480 --> 00:29:23.200
become a big issue at trial, also going that far

500
00:29:24.039 --> 00:29:27.359
because what he was was something else, and this was

501
00:29:27.400 --> 00:29:30.759
something that his brother, Saul told me, struck him very

502
00:29:30.799 --> 00:29:34.799
hard because after learning of his brother's death, saal Garcia

503
00:29:34.960 --> 00:29:38.559
came to town and stayed in that big house where

504
00:29:38.559 --> 00:29:42.519
doctor Garcia lived alone. And Saalgarcia told me, and you'll

505
00:29:42.559 --> 00:29:45.920
hear him tell you as well, I just had to

506
00:29:45.960 --> 00:29:50.640
be there twenty minutes and I felt how lonely it was.

507
00:29:51.680 --> 00:29:54.880
I was overcome by how lonely it was. Remember, this

508
00:29:54.960 --> 00:29:57.960
house has the most beautiful views in the most beautiful

509
00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:04.160
place imaginable. Saul felt to be there alone was challenging,

510
00:30:04.960 --> 00:30:08.839
like it made you feel isolated. It made you feel

511
00:30:08.960 --> 00:30:12.480
kind of alone. That's not the same as suicidal or depressed,

512
00:30:13.599 --> 00:30:17.240
but there was this sense of isolation would certainly come

513
00:30:17.480 --> 00:30:20.839
to play with doctor Garcia in a big way. Throughout

514
00:30:20.880 --> 00:30:25.000
the throughout the investigation, they get two big breaks right away.

515
00:30:25.440 --> 00:30:27.839
One is somebody looks in the garbage can in the

516
00:30:27.960 --> 00:30:30.559
kitchen and it turns out there's a receipt there from

517
00:30:30.680 --> 00:30:35.599
Walmart for some big containers. Okay. And then they look

518
00:30:35.640 --> 00:30:37.960
at that pickup truck that's doctor Garcia's but that they

519
00:30:38.039 --> 00:30:41.480
saw Jordan Joplin driving, and there's a receipt in there

520
00:30:42.200 --> 00:30:46.119
for a shipping company. It's called AML, and it's the

521
00:30:46.160 --> 00:30:48.559
shipping company that if you want to send anything out

522
00:30:48.559 --> 00:30:52.839
of Ketchikin you use. And so now they have some

523
00:30:52.920 --> 00:30:55.440
places to check, and they go to the Walmart in

524
00:30:55.519 --> 00:30:58.519
town and they get the surveillance footage and they see

525
00:30:58.720 --> 00:31:05.359
Jordan Joplin buying huge amounts of container, a lot of containers.

526
00:31:05.559 --> 00:31:08.200
You can see him piling the containers into one of

527
00:31:08.200 --> 00:31:10.880
those carts and stuff and wheeling them out to the

528
00:31:10.920 --> 00:31:15.880
pickup truck. So that's significant. And then they go down

529
00:31:15.960 --> 00:31:21.200
to AML and they confirm that Jordan Joplin has shipped

530
00:31:21.279 --> 00:31:26.240
all this stuff, two tons of stuff, maybe more than

531
00:31:26.920 --> 00:31:31.519
forty four hundred pounds of stuff he's shipped to his house,

532
00:31:31.759 --> 00:31:36.000
just outside Seattle and Washington. So they want to look

533
00:31:36.039 --> 00:31:39.319
at the stuff. The police do and you know, the

534
00:31:39.359 --> 00:31:41.680
guys at the shipping con well, you're too late. We

535
00:31:42.079 --> 00:31:45.160
sent that out like nine or ten days ago. So

536
00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:48.240
now it's a race against time. Now, some of our

537
00:31:48.279 --> 00:31:50.640
investigators get on a plane and they go down to Seattle,

538
00:31:50.680 --> 00:31:53.519
and they've got to try to intercept that stuff before

539
00:31:53.559 --> 00:31:55.920
anybody else gets a look at it, because they want

540
00:31:55.920 --> 00:32:01.119
to see what's inside. And so the investigation into the

541
00:32:01.240 --> 00:32:04.880
stuff is revved up and ready to go. And so

542
00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:08.200
a couple of our guys from Alaska, you know, fly

543
00:32:08.279 --> 00:32:10.319
to Seattle, hook up with some of the local cops

544
00:32:10.319 --> 00:32:13.599
there who we also talked to, and they've developed kind

545
00:32:13.599 --> 00:32:15.839
of a two prong approach for what they're going to do.

546
00:32:15.880 --> 00:32:19.279
When they get to Washington. They want to search Jordan

547
00:32:19.400 --> 00:32:23.279
Joplin's house. You know, this friend of doctor Garcia is

548
00:32:23.279 --> 00:32:26.519
that nobody knows that much about in Ketchikin, that maybe

549
00:32:26.519 --> 00:32:28.519
had turned up in Ketchikin once or twice, but that

550
00:32:28.559 --> 00:32:31.640
doctor Garcia had not really talked about burying me. And

551
00:32:31.680 --> 00:32:34.799
they want to see what's inside those containers. And so

552
00:32:34.920 --> 00:32:37.759
that's the first level of drama. What will happen with

553
00:32:37.799 --> 00:32:40.839
things at the house, and what will happen when they

554
00:32:40.839 --> 00:32:42.559
get a look inside those contained.

555
00:32:42.359 --> 00:32:47.039
So obviously police now are looking at Jordan Joplin. As

556
00:32:47.079 --> 00:32:49.960
you said, no one really knows much about him in

557
00:32:50.119 --> 00:32:54.799
ketchac Can What were some of the things that police

558
00:32:55.119 --> 00:32:58.720
learn about him that make them more suspicious of him

559
00:32:58.839 --> 00:33:05.400
and his relationship with doctor Garcia looking past these shipping

560
00:33:05.799 --> 00:33:07.640
containers that he had sent to his home.

561
00:33:08.519 --> 00:33:12.799
They seem to have a quite a close relationship, you know,

562
00:33:12.920 --> 00:33:15.880
Jordan Joplin has been to They've spent a fair amount

563
00:33:15.920 --> 00:33:19.599
of time together, you know, both in Washington and in Ketchikan.

564
00:33:20.160 --> 00:33:24.200
Jordan Joplin is substantially younger than doctor Garcia is, and

565
00:33:24.240 --> 00:33:28.799
he has it turns out that he's had quite colorful past.

566
00:33:28.960 --> 00:33:31.039
He's involved in a lot of things. He wants to,

567
00:33:31.240 --> 00:33:36.400
you know, grow marijuana. He's been working in pornography, in

568
00:33:36.960 --> 00:33:40.559
gay porn and stuff. He has a whole bunch of

569
00:33:40.960 --> 00:33:45.720
various girlfriends that he's deodated more than once. He has

570
00:33:45.759 --> 00:33:48.920
a he has a fiance, he has the woman that

571
00:33:48.960 --> 00:33:52.759
he turned up in ketchikin with. He has other people

572
00:33:52.759 --> 00:33:55.319
who've spent time with him, you know, and he also

573
00:33:55.400 --> 00:33:58.079
works as a massewer, and this appears to be the

574
00:33:58.119 --> 00:34:00.440
way that the two of them first met. Remember when

575
00:34:00.519 --> 00:34:05.359
he had that triple bypass operation in Seattle. I think

576
00:34:05.400 --> 00:34:09.400
it's around that time that doctor Garcia meets up with

577
00:34:09.840 --> 00:34:13.639
Jordan Joplin to get a massage, and so I think

578
00:34:13.639 --> 00:34:16.960
he finds Jordan Joplin's name on a website somewhere online

579
00:34:16.960 --> 00:34:19.840
and he gets a massage. But the two stay in

580
00:34:19.920 --> 00:34:24.239
touch and they seem to build a relationship. And what

581
00:34:24.360 --> 00:34:29.159
seems to be clear is that to some degree, doctor

582
00:34:29.159 --> 00:34:34.880
Garcia has been funding Jordan Joplin's lifestyle. He's been giving

583
00:34:34.960 --> 00:34:38.719
him gifts of money and of objects and stuff over

584
00:34:38.719 --> 00:34:42.639
the years. And as they continue to probe, it appears

585
00:34:42.639 --> 00:34:45.079
that this relationship that they have is maybe more than

586
00:34:45.159 --> 00:34:49.880
just friends. That there seems to be intimations of an

587
00:34:49.880 --> 00:34:54.239
intimate relationship and a kind of romantic relationship between the two.

588
00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.679
And so you know, this attracts obviously the attention of investigators,

589
00:35:00.360 --> 00:35:02.960
and it's not something that the people in Ketchikan, although

590
00:35:02.960 --> 00:35:06.840
they might have suspected know about doctor Garcia, who did

591
00:35:06.840 --> 00:35:11.519
not discuss his personal life, who was very private about

592
00:35:11.559 --> 00:35:15.679
his personal life, which they respected. You know, although as

593
00:35:15.719 --> 00:35:20.400
the details about doctor Garcia's relationship with Jordan Joplin come

594
00:35:20.440 --> 00:35:23.880
to light, I do think that people I talked to

595
00:35:23.920 --> 00:35:28.679
who knew doctor Garcia felt a little sad that doctor

596
00:35:28.679 --> 00:35:31.360
Garcia couldn't share with them, or didn't feel like he

597
00:35:31.360 --> 00:35:35.360
could share with them the details of his relationship to

598
00:35:35.440 --> 00:35:39.800
Jordan Joplin. You know, they hoped that they didn't. They

599
00:35:39.840 --> 00:35:42.760
would have wanted him to know that they were supportive

600
00:35:42.800 --> 00:35:47.440
of whatever relationship he might have, But I think they

601
00:35:47.519 --> 00:35:52.480
worried that doctor Garcia worried that they would react, you know,

602
00:35:52.880 --> 00:35:56.320
in a particular way if he shared what his relationship was.

603
00:35:57.679 --> 00:36:01.039
While the police are looking at Jordan Joplin, was there

604
00:36:01.079 --> 00:36:05.840
anyone else that they were suspicious of during the investigation

605
00:36:06.239 --> 00:36:09.119
or dated center solely on Jordan.

606
00:36:10.280 --> 00:36:13.159
They were still waiting for toxicology reports to see what

607
00:36:13.280 --> 00:36:16.280
it was that had taken his life, and there was

608
00:36:16.400 --> 00:36:19.559
you know, there were any number of possibilities on that front,

609
00:36:19.599 --> 00:36:21.719
and they would determine sort of how that part of

610
00:36:21.760 --> 00:36:25.480
the investigation would go right. But the key thing was

611
00:36:25.519 --> 00:36:28.360
sort of finding out what was in those containers, at

612
00:36:28.440 --> 00:36:31.000
least on the theft side of things, or on what

613
00:36:31.119 --> 00:36:33.159
had happened to the stuff side of things. Let's put

614
00:36:33.159 --> 00:36:35.519
it that way. They wanted to find out what was

615
00:36:35.519 --> 00:36:38.800
going on with that stuff, and so they come up

616
00:36:38.800 --> 00:36:42.480
with kind of a ruse because they don't want Jordan

617
00:36:42.599 --> 00:36:45.239
Joplin at his home when they come to search him.

618
00:36:45.760 --> 00:36:47.880
Perhaps he'll have a weapon, or perhaps he'll be in

619
00:36:47.880 --> 00:36:51.119
an ill frame of mind. But Jordan Joplin is very

620
00:36:51.199 --> 00:36:53.559
keen to get his hands on his shipment, and he's

621
00:36:53.599 --> 00:36:56.960
been calling the port to ask if the stuff has

622
00:36:57.000 --> 00:37:00.400
come in yet or not. So they they come up

623
00:37:00.440 --> 00:37:03.519
with a way around this. They say, hey, there's been

624
00:37:03.519 --> 00:37:06.400
a little snaffoo with your stuff. You have to sign something.

625
00:37:07.199 --> 00:37:09.440
You have to come to Seattle and sign this. It's

626
00:37:09.559 --> 00:37:11.079
you know, I think he lives in a place called

627
00:37:11.239 --> 00:37:14.079
was it Maple Grove? Maybe an hour away. You got

628
00:37:14.119 --> 00:37:16.519
to come in and sign this stuff. So he goes, okay,

629
00:37:16.880 --> 00:37:20.280
So he drives to the port to what he thinks

630
00:37:20.360 --> 00:37:22.920
is to sign the papers. Now they know he's out

631
00:37:22.920 --> 00:37:25.800
of his house and the police have a search warrant

632
00:37:26.159 --> 00:37:29.960
to search the house, which they do, surprising his fiance

633
00:37:30.159 --> 00:37:33.400
who is just stepping out of the shower as they do. So,

634
00:37:33.400 --> 00:37:36.400
so he's driving there, and so this is a momentous

635
00:37:36.440 --> 00:37:40.199
time because they have gotten inside those shipments and it's

636
00:37:40.400 --> 00:37:45.880
all doctor Garcia's stuff, all those luxury goods we talked about,

637
00:37:45.880 --> 00:37:52.039
the coins, the gold pieces, the watches, the liqueurs, tens

638
00:37:52.119 --> 00:37:55.000
of thousands of dollars worth of stuff, and not just that,

639
00:37:55.920 --> 00:38:00.599
his passport, his cell phone in a faraday, which is

640
00:38:00.639 --> 00:38:03.280
that thing that keeps the cell phone from getting any

641
00:38:03.320 --> 00:38:08.639
signals from outside identification, a lot of those computers we

642
00:38:08.760 --> 00:38:12.440
talked about that we're missing from the It's all there,

643
00:38:13.320 --> 00:38:17.000
and so that really sets off their radar. They are

644
00:38:17.039 --> 00:38:21.440
ready to arrest him for theft in the case of

645
00:38:21.480 --> 00:38:24.000
all this stuff. So they begin to search his house

646
00:38:24.719 --> 00:38:26.840
and they find more of that stuff. They find more

647
00:38:26.880 --> 00:38:30.199
of his IDs and things like that around the house,

648
00:38:31.000 --> 00:38:33.280
and then when he arrives at the site to what

649
00:38:33.360 --> 00:38:36.079
he thinks will be a chance to sign, they arrest

650
00:38:36.119 --> 00:38:40.159
him for theft. So he's in custody after that. While

651
00:38:40.159 --> 00:38:43.760
they search his house, they find notes from doctor Garcia,

652
00:38:44.719 --> 00:38:48.800
and they are very affectionate notes, you know that they exchange,

653
00:38:49.320 --> 00:38:51.280
and one of them sort of stays in my mind,

654
00:38:51.280 --> 00:38:54.360
and I think stayed in the mind of the investigators.

655
00:38:55.159 --> 00:38:59.679
This was a high intensity relationship between two very different people,

656
00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:03.599
needless to say, and I guess at one point, doctor

657
00:39:03.639 --> 00:39:05.760
Garcia writes him a note saying, you know, I mean

658
00:39:06.639 --> 00:39:09.199
essentially saying, what you know, we have this crazy relationship,

659
00:39:09.199 --> 00:39:12.599
that kind of thing, and he says, you'll probably kill me.

660
00:39:13.400 --> 00:39:15.519
And so they are all these texts and back and forth.

661
00:39:15.519 --> 00:39:16.840
I can't wait to see you. It's going to be

662
00:39:16.840 --> 00:39:18.599
so exciting. It's you know, all the rest of it

663
00:39:18.599 --> 00:39:24.239
that they exchange. Doctor Garcia seems incredibly devoted to Jordan Choplin.

664
00:39:24.519 --> 00:39:27.000
But Jordan Joplin's got a lot of stuff going on

665
00:39:27.039 --> 00:39:30.199
in this personal life, two or three women at a time,

666
00:39:30.519 --> 00:39:33.280
all kinds of things, and he certainly seems to be

667
00:39:34.039 --> 00:39:36.159
he's been living off of a lot of this stuff

668
00:39:36.159 --> 00:39:39.159
that doctor Garcia has given him, and he's begun a

669
00:39:39.159 --> 00:39:42.000
career in pornography, and he works as a stripper sometimes,

670
00:39:42.039 --> 00:39:45.159
and you know, he's taken steroids to try to bulk up,

671
00:39:45.199 --> 00:39:48.559
and so he's got a rich, full past to him,

672
00:39:48.559 --> 00:39:51.000
I suppose. And so all these things are going on,

673
00:39:51.039 --> 00:39:54.280
and they arrest him for the theft, and eventually I

674
00:39:54.280 --> 00:39:58.039
think extra item to catch again. Now you're wondering what

675
00:39:58.119 --> 00:40:01.719
happened to the toxicology report. Here we have even more

676
00:40:01.760 --> 00:40:05.559
of an enigma of some kind. One of the things

677
00:40:05.599 --> 00:40:08.039
that comes up is that doctor Garcia had a very

678
00:40:08.159 --> 00:40:12.599
elevated carbon monoxide count, like three or four times what

679
00:40:12.639 --> 00:40:17.239
the normal human being would have. Remember that charcoal grill outside,

680
00:40:17.280 --> 00:40:21.079
Remember those smoke detectors, It's like, what was going on

681
00:40:21.119 --> 00:40:23.880
with those? Well, he had I guess what you would

682
00:40:23.880 --> 00:40:27.880
consider it. I'm not, you know, expert in this. You know,

683
00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:32.599
a dangerously high level of carbon monoxide, okay, but that's

684
00:40:32.639 --> 00:40:36.679
not what killed him. What killed him was an overdose

685
00:40:37.320 --> 00:40:44.840
of morphine. Morphine morphine. There's no morphine in the house,

686
00:40:45.599 --> 00:40:50.599
there's no sign he's been injected anywhere. But he's dead

687
00:40:50.639 --> 00:40:55.480
from a massive overdose of morphine. How did that happen?

688
00:40:56.559 --> 00:41:01.400
What's the morphine from? What could it all mean? So

689
00:41:01.440 --> 00:41:05.000
while they're pondering that, they take another look at those

690
00:41:05.800 --> 00:41:10.079
That carbon monoxide thing is interesting on any number of levels.

691
00:41:10.480 --> 00:41:13.360
Remember those smoke detectors we talked about, Remember how all

692
00:41:13.400 --> 00:41:15.840
the braces were up on the wall. Why were the

693
00:41:15.840 --> 00:41:18.519
braces up on the wall and the smoke detectors weren't there?

694
00:41:19.400 --> 00:41:21.360
And nobody had ever seen doctor Garcia on a lad

695
00:41:21.519 --> 00:41:24.960
or anything like that. Well, remember saw Garcia. His brother

696
00:41:25.039 --> 00:41:28.400
is staying in that house. Remember he feels the loneliness

697
00:41:28.440 --> 00:41:31.000
of the house, the oppressive loneliness of the house. This

698
00:41:31.039 --> 00:41:33.079
is the kind of thing that only happens in real life,

699
00:41:33.159 --> 00:41:36.679
because you wouldn't believe it in fiction. Saul Garcia takes

700
00:41:36.679 --> 00:41:40.519
a walk around the neighborhood after he's kind of feels

701
00:41:40.559 --> 00:41:44.280
oppressed by the loneliness and isolation. So he's going down

702
00:41:44.360 --> 00:41:48.559
this hill and he's crossing across this beautiful like I

703
00:41:48.559 --> 00:41:51.239
guess it's a little ravine that has kind of a

704
00:41:51.280 --> 00:41:54.840
little bridge over it. You know, everything in Ketchikin is beautiful.

705
00:41:55.039 --> 00:41:56.960
But he's not looking at that. He's looking at his phone.

706
00:41:57.480 --> 00:42:00.519
So he's looking down at his phone because his phone off,

707
00:42:01.400 --> 00:42:03.920
and he looks down his phone. But as he's looking

708
00:42:03.960 --> 00:42:08.840
down crossing that ravine, something catches his eye. In the

709
00:42:08.960 --> 00:42:15.079
ravine below the bridge, it's something white, like maybe thirty

710
00:42:15.159 --> 00:42:19.719
or forty feet below. It's all these white things sort

711
00:42:19.760 --> 00:42:24.760
of masked under the bridge somewhere, and he goes, could

712
00:42:24.840 --> 00:42:31.199
those be the smoke detectors? And they are. Saul Garcia

713
00:42:31.280 --> 00:42:34.519
has found the smoke detectors. The cops show up, they

714
00:42:34.519 --> 00:42:37.960
collect them all. They match the serial numbers to the

715
00:42:38.039 --> 00:42:42.360
braces on the wall. That's where they are. Someone has

716
00:42:42.519 --> 00:42:46.840
dumped the smoke detectors from doctor Garcia's house into this ravine.

717
00:42:47.559 --> 00:42:48.679
The mystery continues.

718
00:42:49.199 --> 00:42:51.320
It's quite literally stranger than fiction.

719
00:42:51.519 --> 00:42:54.960
It really is. Right, Saul was sure that Eric was

720
00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:58.079
guiding him somehow. You know, it's as if he sort

721
00:42:58.079 --> 00:42:59.679
of I mean, I think Saul at one point told

722
00:42:59.719 --> 00:43:03.000
me Eric, we need we need help from you to

723
00:43:03.000 --> 00:43:05.639
figure out what happened to you. So the pieces fit

724
00:43:05.719 --> 00:43:08.079
together a little bit, don't they. You know, It's like

725
00:43:09.719 --> 00:43:14.960
it appears that it was staged to look like a suicide.

726
00:43:15.119 --> 00:43:18.800
There was the pillbab right, but there wasn't any appreciable

727
00:43:18.840 --> 00:43:24.480
amount of valium in his system. There was the charcoal

728
00:43:24.519 --> 00:43:27.480
thing that made it look like maybe he was gonna

729
00:43:27.639 --> 00:43:30.480
take his own life, but although the level was high,

730
00:43:30.519 --> 00:43:32.440
it was not enough to take his life. It was

731
00:43:33.400 --> 00:43:36.239
that pointed all the fingers at Jordan Joplin.

732
00:43:37.239 --> 00:43:39.800
When you spoke to the police and they were kind

733
00:43:39.800 --> 00:43:42.920
of telling you about the investigation, did they kind of

734
00:43:43.000 --> 00:43:48.280
explain Jordan's demeanor when they spoke to him after his arrest.

735
00:43:48.400 --> 00:43:55.079
You know, is there any indication that he was behind

736
00:43:55.280 --> 00:44:01.000
this elaborate plot to murder doctor Garcia st his belongings,

737
00:44:01.400 --> 00:44:03.679
because obviously it's very clear at the end of the

738
00:44:03.760 --> 00:44:08.079
day that's the motive was all of these belongings. But

739
00:44:08.519 --> 00:44:12.519
was there anything that he said or did or how

740
00:44:12.559 --> 00:44:16.119
he behaved that kind of gave them an idea of

741
00:44:16.719 --> 00:44:19.559
what was going on? How he could have come up

742
00:44:19.599 --> 00:44:20.239
with all of this.

743
00:44:20.840 --> 00:44:23.320
Remember we talked about at the very beginning, like the

744
00:44:23.440 --> 00:44:27.639
drama of that scene when they're outside the house and

745
00:44:28.199 --> 00:44:31.360
the death of doctor Garcia is revealed. And remember we

746
00:44:31.400 --> 00:44:35.480
talked about how Bobby Jackson was agitated right and mentioned

747
00:44:35.480 --> 00:44:38.480
the valuables and Don Hink was sick to her stomach

748
00:44:38.519 --> 00:44:41.360
and talked about the heart attack. Well, they spoke to

749
00:44:41.440 --> 00:44:44.679
Jordan Joplin on that occasion, and you'll hear that too

750
00:44:44.880 --> 00:44:47.719
on the Body Camp. And so right from the beginning,

751
00:44:47.840 --> 00:44:52.039
Jordan Joplin gives contradictory answers, did you know there were

752
00:44:52.159 --> 00:44:55.840
valuables in the house? And I think his first answer

753
00:44:55.880 --> 00:44:59.760
is no, and then like thirty seconds later it's like,

754
00:44:59.840 --> 00:45:01.920
so you know, one of the please, did you know

755
00:45:02.039 --> 00:45:04.079
there were valuables in the house. Oh yeah, oh yeah,

756
00:45:04.079 --> 00:45:06.639
I knew there were valuables in the house. And they

757
00:45:06.760 --> 00:45:09.159
went said, you know, you want to tell me the truth.

758
00:45:09.639 --> 00:45:13.360
Bob Jackson and Don Hink did not like the vibe

759
00:45:13.400 --> 00:45:17.440
they got from Jordan Joplin, you know whatever. His gnashing

760
00:45:17.480 --> 00:45:19.960
of teeth and rolling on the ground they did not like.

761
00:45:21.039 --> 00:45:24.119
They distrusted him, and so right from the beginning he

762
00:45:24.360 --> 00:45:27.880
was I guess you would say squirrelly with the cops

763
00:45:27.920 --> 00:45:31.679
that way. You know, how had he come upon doctor

764
00:45:31.679 --> 00:45:34.199
Garcia's car so we could drive it in from the

765
00:45:34.199 --> 00:45:35.920
airport when he came to catch a him. I mean,

766
00:45:35.960 --> 00:45:39.400
it all sort of, it all puzzled them in many ways,

767
00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:42.519
and so there was always this kind of level of

768
00:45:42.639 --> 00:45:46.199
unease and suspicion connected with him a little bit. But

769
00:45:46.280 --> 00:45:49.039
I think the fundamental thing that really kind of broke

770
00:45:49.119 --> 00:45:52.039
the heart of the people who cared about doctor Garcia,

771
00:45:52.280 --> 00:45:56.280
and I think we can all understand this. Every day

772
00:45:56.320 --> 00:46:00.559
of his professional life in the operating room, doctor Eric

773
00:46:00.599 --> 00:46:06.239
Garcia showed great judgment and saved lives. That's why people

774
00:46:06.239 --> 00:46:09.920
loved him. But in his personal life, well let's call

775
00:46:09.960 --> 00:46:15.320
it his private life, did his perhaps his lack of

776
00:46:15.440 --> 00:46:19.840
judgment put his own life at risk. I think that's

777
00:46:19.880 --> 00:46:24.360
the fundamental heartbreaking thing. He'd had so little experience in data,

778
00:46:25.199 --> 00:46:28.360
nobody could remember really like someone special in his life

779
00:46:29.119 --> 00:46:32.599
of any kind, and by not talking about this, he

780
00:46:32.639 --> 00:46:35.199
didn't have anybody sort of to tell him, oh, this

781
00:46:35.920 --> 00:46:38.119
young person, this may not be, you know, someone you

782
00:46:38.199 --> 00:46:40.920
really want to like get involved with. Somehow, he was

783
00:46:40.960 --> 00:46:44.320
on his own on this. He was conducting this pretty

784
00:46:44.400 --> 00:46:49.280
much in secret, and so they worried his naivete, his inexperience,

785
00:46:49.920 --> 00:46:53.239
and that loneliness. We talked about that sense of isolation,

786
00:46:53.360 --> 00:46:56.679
that need to connect this man who was so beloved

787
00:46:57.719 --> 00:47:00.920
by this town, but who wanted, like we all knew,

788
00:47:00.920 --> 00:47:05.519
someone special. Could that have led him to endanger his

789
00:47:05.559 --> 00:47:07.760
life in a way that maybe other people could have

790
00:47:07.760 --> 00:47:09.679
warned him about but didn't have the opportunity.

791
00:47:10.800 --> 00:47:16.480
Absolutely, because it's it is. It's incredibly heartbreaking that it

792
00:47:16.920 --> 00:47:20.440
could have very easily been this profound loneliness that led

793
00:47:20.480 --> 00:47:23.960
him to overlook some of the warning signs that I'm

794
00:47:24.000 --> 00:47:26.159
sure Jordan Joplin was displaying.

795
00:47:26.639 --> 00:47:29.119
And he looked great, you know, and he had this

796
00:47:29.239 --> 00:47:31.679
kind of charisma that really did kind of put people

797
00:47:31.719 --> 00:47:33.360
in the red zone. You know, we talked to people

798
00:47:33.360 --> 00:47:36.039
who dated him and who knew him, and your first

799
00:47:36.079 --> 00:47:40.119
few meetings with Jordan Joplin could really like, you really thought,

800
00:47:40.119 --> 00:47:42.320
this is quite a guy. He'd worked at a food

801
00:47:42.360 --> 00:47:45.079
bank where one of his future girlfriends had worked, and

802
00:47:45.599 --> 00:47:47.480
he was doing all the good work. He was taken.

803
00:47:47.559 --> 00:47:49.519
You know, he was looking out for kids and doing so.

804
00:47:49.639 --> 00:47:52.480
He had qualities that really like drew you to him.

805
00:47:53.039 --> 00:47:56.320
But he also had this, I guess, this dark side,

806
00:47:56.440 --> 00:47:58.920
and obviously he was not he was not engaged in

807
00:47:58.960 --> 00:48:02.119
the same relationship to Garcia was engaged with with him.

808
00:48:02.519 --> 00:48:07.239
When you were speaking with the locals, especially as the

809
00:48:07.280 --> 00:48:11.920
trials going on and the aftermath of learning what happened

810
00:48:11.960 --> 00:48:15.800
to doctor Garcia, what was your impression of the locals

811
00:48:15.800 --> 00:48:19.599
do you think that were they I don't want to

812
00:48:19.639 --> 00:48:22.280
say happy with the outcome, because obviously there's there's no

813
00:48:22.360 --> 00:48:26.599
happiness in that. But were they okay with how the

814
00:48:26.639 --> 00:48:32.840
investigation panned out? Were they accepting of the resolution of

815
00:48:32.880 --> 00:48:33.360
the case.

816
00:48:34.079 --> 00:48:36.519
Well, they know these cops, you know, they're parts of

817
00:48:36.519 --> 00:48:40.199
the community. Everybody knows everybody there. Because of the change

818
00:48:40.239 --> 00:48:43.280
of venue, I think the trial took place in Anchorage,

819
00:48:43.280 --> 00:48:46.400
which is a long ways away. However you get there.

820
00:48:46.960 --> 00:48:50.719
We are from Ketchikan. The trial itself took place quite

821
00:48:50.760 --> 00:48:54.199
a ways away, you know, because so many people knew

822
00:48:54.360 --> 00:48:58.079
and cared about, you know, Eric Garcia. In Ketchikan, they

823
00:48:58.119 --> 00:48:59.760
decided to change a venue. I think it was a

824
00:48:59.800 --> 00:49:03.239
very juno and then they moved it to Anchorage, and

825
00:49:03.280 --> 00:49:05.800
then there was COVID and so years and years are passing,

826
00:49:06.079 --> 00:49:08.239
so you can imagine there's some frustration in the amount

827
00:49:08.280 --> 00:49:10.880
of time it's taking to get justice for doctor Garcia.

828
00:49:11.639 --> 00:49:16.400
But significantly after the verdict, after Jordan Joplin was found guilty,

829
00:49:17.239 --> 00:49:22.400
the sentencing returned to Ketchikhin so that the victim impacts

830
00:49:22.440 --> 00:49:26.199
statements came from the people in the community, And as

831
00:49:26.239 --> 00:49:29.760
you point out, or as you suggest, that was the

832
00:49:29.840 --> 00:49:32.960
moving moment for them, the chance to stand up in

833
00:49:33.039 --> 00:49:37.239
court and to literally put their eyes on Jordan Joplin

834
00:49:37.760 --> 00:49:40.360
and to tell the court what Eric Garcia meant to

835
00:49:40.400 --> 00:49:43.079
them and what they felt of the man who had

836
00:49:43.079 --> 00:49:47.320
taken his life. And so I think they were satisfied

837
00:49:47.400 --> 00:49:49.840
with the way that the legal system played itself out.

838
00:49:50.239 --> 00:49:53.119
But I think that was kind of an emotional climax

839
00:49:53.159 --> 00:49:56.519
for them, you know, and for Saul Garcia. As he

840
00:49:56.599 --> 00:49:59.000
told me and as you'll hear him say, he got

841
00:49:59.000 --> 00:50:01.480
to stand up and tell Jordan Joplin what he thought

842
00:50:01.519 --> 00:50:05.320
of him. He used the metaphor of a gambler to

843
00:50:05.400 --> 00:50:08.679
talk about all the things that Jordan Choplin had gambled

844
00:50:08.719 --> 00:50:12.639
away kind of and it's a powerful thing. It really

845
00:50:12.719 --> 00:50:13.760
kind of sticks in your mind.

846
00:50:13.800 --> 00:50:13.920
You know.

847
00:50:13.960 --> 00:50:18.000
They are not like fulesomely emotional, but it's very strong.

848
00:50:18.440 --> 00:50:20.480
And so they got to say exactly what they thought,

849
00:50:20.480 --> 00:50:22.400
and that was a big moment for them.

850
00:50:23.119 --> 00:50:26.840
I'm sure I was getting to to look him in

851
00:50:26.880 --> 00:50:30.920
the eye and say how terrible this impact had been

852
00:50:31.079 --> 00:50:34.679
on the community, and how he could have done something

853
00:50:34.760 --> 00:50:38.360
so terrible for something so selfish, or for a reason

854
00:50:38.440 --> 00:50:39.280
so selfish.

855
00:50:39.519 --> 00:50:41.960
That's the one of the great enigmas of this. It's like,

856
00:50:43.199 --> 00:50:45.239
you know, if you were if you were an associate

857
00:50:45.239 --> 00:50:47.679
of Jordan Joplins, you could say, why are you killing

858
00:50:47.719 --> 00:50:50.320
the Golden Goops? But you had a pretty much going

859
00:50:50.400 --> 00:50:53.960
your way, didn't you. You had these you had gotten

860
00:50:53.960 --> 00:50:57.239
this guy to provide you with with hard goods and

861
00:50:57.280 --> 00:51:00.599
financial support. Why did you need to take his life

862
00:51:01.320 --> 00:51:03.639
and take all of it in a way that in

863
00:51:03.679 --> 00:51:08.199
retrospect was fairly self evident to see. I think in

864
00:51:08.239 --> 00:51:12.280
court where he testified on his own behalf significantly, he

865
00:51:12.360 --> 00:51:15.199
tried to claim that doctor Garcia was playing to retire

866
00:51:15.280 --> 00:51:17.320
to Washington State, that he was helping him move his

867
00:51:17.360 --> 00:51:20.880
stuff down for retirement, that you know that some of

868
00:51:20.880 --> 00:51:23.760
these were gifts. If you looked at the situation, you

869
00:51:23.800 --> 00:51:26.519
would go, well, why did this have to happen at all?

870
00:51:28.639 --> 00:51:32.239
Absolutely, And I think people that experienced this like high

871
00:51:32.320 --> 00:51:35.159
level of greed. It's there's a lot of allure to that,

872
00:51:35.599 --> 00:51:38.360
and you need or you want more and more. And

873
00:51:38.440 --> 00:51:40.519
I think that was part of the problem, was that

874
00:51:40.760 --> 00:51:44.760
allure of the nice things that Eric Garcia had, it

875
00:51:44.800 --> 00:51:48.079
was he I at least in my opinion, I don't

876
00:51:48.119 --> 00:51:50.599
think he could ignore the draw of that, or Jordan

877
00:51:50.639 --> 00:51:51.840
couldn't ignore the draw of that.

878
00:51:52.519 --> 00:51:55.159
Here was somebody, you know, here was Jordan Joplin, just

879
00:51:55.159 --> 00:51:58.559
scrambling to make a living, like with lots of different

880
00:51:58.559 --> 00:52:02.679
things going on with the law once or twice, all

881
00:52:02.719 --> 00:52:07.679
these kind of side hustles, multiple intimate relationships. It was

882
00:52:08.280 --> 00:52:11.280
a chaotic kind of life. And here was this guy

883
00:52:11.280 --> 00:52:13.800
who was settled as settled could be in a lot

884
00:52:13.840 --> 00:52:17.440
of ways. Who was making very good money, no question

885
00:52:17.480 --> 00:52:21.679
about that, and who put that money into specific hard

886
00:52:21.719 --> 00:52:25.480
goods and travel, but like you know, didn't have dependence

887
00:52:25.559 --> 00:52:28.679
or anything, so really had sort of done that. But

888
00:52:28.800 --> 00:52:32.440
everybody knew Eric Carsia's heart. And that relationship that he

889
00:52:32.519 --> 00:52:35.239
had with Don Hink I always think is a really

890
00:52:35.280 --> 00:52:38.920
special one. It's that special kind of work relationship where

891
00:52:38.960 --> 00:52:42.960
you feel understood by somebody. It's not romantic, it's not inappropriate.

892
00:52:43.360 --> 00:52:46.519
It's just like they get you, you know, they get

893
00:52:46.519 --> 00:52:49.519
you for your flaws and they get you for your strengths.

894
00:52:50.039 --> 00:52:52.440
And there was such a connection between these two, like

895
00:52:52.960 --> 00:52:55.079
she looked up to him as a kind of father figure.

896
00:52:55.519 --> 00:52:58.000
She took care of everything in his life. You know,

897
00:52:58.039 --> 00:53:01.119
he was not the handy guy. All Garcia said once

898
00:53:01.199 --> 00:53:03.239
if his house was burning down, he would call you

899
00:53:03.280 --> 00:53:05.400
and go, can you call the fire department? Because I

900
00:53:05.400 --> 00:53:07.440
think my house is burning down. They're just things he

901
00:53:07.440 --> 00:53:10.519
couldn't do. But they were perfectly suited in a work

902
00:53:10.559 --> 00:53:13.760
relationship for them. And one of the most dramatic moments

903
00:53:13.840 --> 00:53:16.440
for me is Don who is worried sick about doctor

904
00:53:16.440 --> 00:53:21.679
Garcia and is there the moment when Jordan Joplin hands

905
00:53:21.760 --> 00:53:24.480
the keys to the house to one of the officers

906
00:53:24.719 --> 00:53:27.840
and the officer opens the house. Because Don looks at

907
00:53:27.880 --> 00:53:30.400
the keys, Jordan Joplin says he has a set of

908
00:53:30.480 --> 00:53:33.920
keys that doctor Garcia has given him. When that key

909
00:53:34.079 --> 00:53:40.440
passover happens outside the house in March of twenty seventeen,

910
00:53:40.960 --> 00:53:45.280
Don takes a look. It's the key ring that she

911
00:53:45.559 --> 00:53:50.480
gave doctor Garcia from her honeymoon. He would never give

912
00:53:50.559 --> 00:53:55.360
that to Jordan Joplin. She knew at that moment that

913
00:53:55.480 --> 00:53:59.239
something terrible was going to happen. It comes over her

914
00:53:59.320 --> 00:54:02.480
just in that moment. I know doctor Garcia, and he

915
00:54:02.480 --> 00:54:05.840
would never give that away to somebody. And it takes

916
00:54:05.840 --> 00:54:06.519
your breath away.

917
00:54:07.800 --> 00:54:11.199
Oh, it absolutely does. That's chilling her having almost like

918
00:54:11.280 --> 00:54:13.880
that almost like that premonition that she needs.

919
00:54:13.760 --> 00:54:15.559
It's like an epiphany.

920
00:54:15.239 --> 00:54:19.320
Exactly, Yes, an epiphany, having that epiphany that's something terrible

921
00:54:19.360 --> 00:54:20.760
was going to happen when they open that door, just

922
00:54:20.760 --> 00:54:23.159
based on that keychain, and you know, based on how

923
00:54:23.159 --> 00:54:26.880
well she knew him. If you could go back, now

924
00:54:26.960 --> 00:54:30.559
that the case is done, he's been convicted, the sentence

925
00:54:30.599 --> 00:54:34.599
has been passed. If you could go back and just

926
00:54:34.760 --> 00:54:38.639
ask one person one last question, or visit a moment

927
00:54:38.719 --> 00:54:39.960
in this investigation.

928
00:54:40.199 --> 00:54:43.559
What would it be you would love to tell doctor Garcia.

929
00:54:44.119 --> 00:54:46.559
These people love you in a way that maybe you

930
00:54:46.599 --> 00:54:49.480
can't even appreciate. You can tell them what's going on

931
00:54:49.559 --> 00:54:52.400
in your life and they'll want to help you. One

932
00:54:52.440 --> 00:54:54.480
of the most touching things I remember, because again it

933
00:54:54.559 --> 00:54:58.280
kind of reserved guy, but he loved dogs. Bob Jackson

934
00:54:58.320 --> 00:54:59.840
had a dog, and he said, when I want to

935
00:54:59.840 --> 00:55:02.880
think of doctor Garcia, I remember him literally getting down

936
00:55:02.920 --> 00:55:06.079
on the floor with my dog, just rolling around the

937
00:55:06.159 --> 00:55:08.159
floor with my dog and getting the hair all over

938
00:55:08.239 --> 00:55:11.320
him and laughing and laughing and laughing. When I want

939
00:55:11.360 --> 00:55:14.159
to summon up one image of doctor Eric Garcia, that's

940
00:55:14.199 --> 00:55:16.800
the image I get. I wish we still had that

941
00:55:16.840 --> 00:55:17.679
person among us.

942
00:55:18.039 --> 00:55:21.800
That's beautiful. That's a beautiful moment. What do you hope

943
00:55:21.880 --> 00:55:24.920
listeners take away from listening to the podcast? You know,

944
00:55:24.960 --> 00:55:27.840
what is the one thing that you hope they take

945
00:55:27.880 --> 00:55:28.199
from it?

946
00:55:28.599 --> 00:55:31.079
Well, it's a gripping story, and you get a census

947
00:55:31.159 --> 00:55:35.239
to the complexity of the investigation and how what looks

948
00:55:35.280 --> 00:55:40.199
like an unsolvable puzzle presenting itself to investigators, winds up

949
00:55:40.199 --> 00:55:43.760
being solved in a number of different and unusual ways.

950
00:55:44.119 --> 00:55:46.280
And we also take you inside the trial in a

951
00:55:46.280 --> 00:55:48.639
way that we weren't able to do so on television,

952
00:55:48.719 --> 00:55:51.079
and you really get to hear the drama of what

953
00:55:51.519 --> 00:55:54.320
the testimony back and forth was like. But I think

954
00:55:54.360 --> 00:55:57.480
what you'll leave with is the sense of, you know,

955
00:55:57.679 --> 00:56:00.199
a man from a different part of the world who

956
00:56:00.280 --> 00:56:03.719
came to town and was welcomed both for what he

957
00:56:03.760 --> 00:56:06.159
did and for who he was.

958
00:56:07.519 --> 00:56:09.320
Chris, thank you so much for joining me today. It's

959
00:56:09.320 --> 00:56:11.159
been a pleasure having you Gordeon.

960
00:56:11.159 --> 00:56:12.719
It's been great to talk to you. Thanks for you

961
00:56:12.840 --> 00:56:14.079
and continued success.

962
00:56:14.639 --> 00:56:18.239
Thank you. The murder of doctor Eric Garcia had a

963
00:56:18.400 --> 00:56:23.400
profound impact on his loved ones, his family, his friends,

964
00:56:23.599 --> 00:56:27.039
as well as Ketchikan as a community. A lot of

965
00:56:27.119 --> 00:56:30.480
mystery and questions surrounded this case from the very beginning,

966
00:56:31.039 --> 00:56:36.480
but now finally the story behind the headlines is being told.

967
00:56:37.880 --> 00:56:41.280
You can hear all about the murder of doctor Eric Garcia,

968
00:56:41.320 --> 00:56:45.599
including information and details and not covered here today, by

969
00:56:45.639 --> 00:56:49.679
listening to Cold Blooded Mystery in Alaska, which is available

970
00:56:49.800 --> 00:56:54.679
every Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts. To you, guys,

971
00:56:54.840 --> 00:56:57.719
Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you

972
00:56:57.880 --> 00:57:02.199
have a wonderful week. As always, I will see you

973
00:57:02.320 --> 00:57:08.239
in the next chapter. Bye, guys, Another page closed. But

974
00:57:08.320 --> 00:57:12.480
the story isn't over for the families left behind, the

975
00:57:12.519 --> 00:57:16.559
pain doesn't end when the headline's fade. And for the victims,

976
00:57:16.800 --> 00:57:20.800
we owe them more than silence for our on solved cases.

977
00:57:21.440 --> 00:57:24.280
If you have any information, please reach out to local

978
00:57:24.280 --> 00:57:27.760
authorities or visit our show notes for links and resources.

979
00:57:28.719 --> 00:57:34.880
Someone out there knows something, maybe it's you. Thank you

980
00:57:34.960 --> 00:57:37.599
for listening to the Book of the Dead. If this

981
00:57:37.679 --> 00:57:40.599
story moved or spoke to you in some way, talk

982
00:57:40.639 --> 00:57:45.760
about it, share it, keep their names alive. Until next time,

983
00:57:45.960 --> 00:57:52.199
I'm Courtney Liso. Stay safe, stay curious, and stay vigilant,

984
00:57:52.920 --> 00:57:56.639
and remember the dead may be gone, but their stories

985
00:57:56.679 --> 00:58:03.039
will not be forgotten. A