MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Murder on the Answering Machine (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Mon, 09 Dec 2024
On a fall night in 1998, a woman walked into her kitchen after being out all day and tossed her keys onto the counter. She saw the light on her answering machine blinking, so she checked the message. At first, it just sounded like static noise, or maybe someone was breathing heavy. And she figured it was either a prank call or someone had just accidentally dialed her number. But then she heard screaming and crying and then it just went silent, and the message ended. For a moment, the woman just stood there, shocked. She tried calling the number back who had left the message, but it went straight to voicemail. Out of fear that this message she had been left potentially just captured the sound of someone being badly hurt, the woman called 911.For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What happened on the fall night in 1998?
On a fall night in 1998, a woman walked into her kitchen after being out all day and tossed her keys onto the counter. She glanced over at her answering machine and saw there was a light blinking, which meant she had a message. She walked over and pressed the button and as the message played, at first it just sounded like static noise or maybe somebody breathing heavily into the receiver.
And for a second, the woman thought maybe this was a prank call or maybe somebody had dialed her number by accident. But then right as she was about to turn off the message, she heard screaming and crying and then it all just went silent and the message ended. For a moment, the woman just stood there, shocked by what she had just heard.
She tried calling the number back who had left this message, but it went straight to voicemail. And so out of fear that this message she had gotten was the sound of someone actually being hurt, the woman picked up the phone and called 911.
But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please gift the follow button and all expenses paid vacation to a very special canyon, Bell's Canyon.
Okay, let's get into today's story.
Lamont Jones is shattered when his cousin dies just weeks after entering prison. The official report says natural causes, but bruises and missing teeth tell a different story. Wondery presents Death County PA, a chilling true story of corruption and cover-ups. Follow Death County PA on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
On Saturday, November 14th, 1998, 35-year-old Sarah Raris and her best friend Laura scanned the racks at a local clothing store in Howard County, Maryland. Sarah wasn't really looking to buy any new clothes, but she was desperate to distract herself from the horrible day she was having, and she hoped shopping might help with that.
This was one of the weekends that her estranged husband, Lorenzo, had custody of their one-year-old son, and Sarah hated every minute she was apart from her baby. Sarah and her husband were in the middle of a heated divorce and custody battle, and if she had her way, Lorenzo would actually never see their son again. Just then, Laura pointed out a shirt that she thought Sarah might actually like.
It would look great with Sarah's red hair, she said. Sarah forced a smile, but deep down she knew that this retail therapy was not having the desired effect. Sarah continued to walk around the store, but she just couldn't shake herself out of her bad mood. And this frustrated her because she'd always prided herself on being this really upbeat, positive person.
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Chapter 2: What was the voicemail message about?
And as he did that, he noticed that somebody had clearly ransacked the place. But Reddick immediately thought this was all just staged to look like a robbery. It looked like a VCR had been pulled off its stand and stolen, there were VHS tapes littered all across the family room floor, and the kitchen drawers had all been pulled open.
But Sarah's purse with cash and credit cards in it had been left behind on the coffee table, and so too had her jewelry and laptop, which were worth way more than a VCR. And so Reddick did not think this looked like a robbery gone bad. Also, just the brutality of the murder itself backed up his theory. As far as he was concerned, there was no way Sarah had been killed just by some random burglar.
After searching the house for well over an hour, Reddick reconvened with the rest of the team. Forensics technicians had found bloody handprints on the wall, but those just indicated that the killer had been wearing gloves. but they did find several bloody footprints leading from the family room to the broken window and into the front yard.
They would use these prints and the blood on the body, walls, and the floor to see if they could get any DNA samples that might belong to the killer. The officers who had been out canvassing the neighborhood said that unfortunately, nobody had seen or heard anything strange the night before. In fact, nobody had even noticed the shattered window at Sarah's house until the police arrived.
This surprised Detective Reddick. I mean, this was not a neighborhood that experienced much crime at all, and so he really hoped that somebody had heard that broken glass and maybe thought there was a break-in going on and went out to investigate, but clearly not.
But even still, the forensics team had plenty of samples for testing, and because of the brutal, sort of rage-filled nature of the crime, Reddick felt like he could start narrowing down potential suspects to only people who had a close, intimate relationship with their victim, Sarah.
Reddick also knew there was another huge piece of evidence that was not in the house, the voicemail message that her friend Laura got that might have recorded her murder. As late night turned into early morning, Detective Reddick arrived at Sarah's friend Laura's house. Laura was still wide awake, desperately waiting to hear any news about Sarah.
And so when she saw Rettig, she led him into her house and brought him into the front room, and when they got there, Rettig just told her she should sit down. Laura sat down on the couch and began shaking her head. It was like she already knew what was coming. Rettig told her that he was so sorry, but police had found her friend Sarah dead inside of her home, and she had clearly been murdered.
Even though Laura by this point had sort of been expecting the worst, she refused to accept this at first. She said there was no way Sarah was gone. It had to be a mistake. Rettig watched Laura completely break down on the couch, sobbing and just repeating that police must have made a mistake.
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Chapter 3: How did the police respond to the wellness check?
Generally speaking, spouses and intimate partners were always the first suspects in murder cases like this. But Laura told him it wasn't just that they were getting a divorce. It was also that Sarah and Lorenzo were in the middle of this nasty custody battle over their child. And Laura said that Sarah was just plain terrified of Lorenzo.
Laura told Reddick that Lorenzo had been living with his mother since he and Sarah had gotten separated. But one time, Lorenzo had shown up at Sarah's house and literally threatened to kill her. Sarah was so afraid that he would come back to hurt her and take their son far away from her that she kept a metal skillet under her bed as a weapon in case he ever showed up.
Now, Rettig would obviously have to follow up on this claim. He had no idea if Laura was telling the truth or not, but it definitely seemed like Laura was being truthful, and he felt like he needed to act fast in case there was a chance that Lorenzo really was trying to leave town and take he and Sarah's son with him.
And so Rettig asked Laura for her answering machine, that way police could study the message Sarah had left her. Laura said that was fine. She got up, unplugged the machine, and handed it to him. And then very quickly, he left her house with the machine and rushed out to his car.
On his way back to the station, Rettig called in to ask for any records they had on Lorenzo Rarris, and when he got back to his office, he found a file folder waiting for him on his desk. It would turn out Laura had been telling the truth. Sarah had called the police on her estranged husband, Lorenzo, a few months earlier, claiming he had threatened to kill her.
Police had removed Lorenzo from the premises, and there was still a court order in place forbidding him from returning to Sarah's house. After reading this report, Reddick didn't waste any time. He requested a search warrant for Lorenzo's mom's house, Lorenzo's car, and for Lorenzo himself. This warrant would allow police to demand fingerprints and DNA samples from Lorenzo.
Finally, Reddick sent two of his team members to Lorenzo's mother's house, where Lorenzo was living. They couldn't go into the house until the search warrant was granted, but Reddick wanted to have his eyes on Lorenzo, just in case he tried to make a run for it. By 10 a.m. on November 16th, so the day after Sarah's body was discovered, all of Detective Redding's warrants had been approved.
And so even though he had just worked through the night and he was starting to feel exhausted, he still gathered up several members of his team and they headed to Lorenzo's mom's house.
At about the same time, Lorenzo stepped out of the house and got into his car to head to work, but before he could make it down the street, the two officers who'd already been there staking out the place pulled him over and told him to leave his car behind, and then they drove him to the police station.
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