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- [00:00]
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- [00:36]
Liam Luxon
Hey, everyone, this is Liam Luxon, host of Tenderfoot series Status Untraced. Welcome to a very special episode of Culpable, the first bonus episode of the season. And I'm here with none other than the voice of Culpable. Dennis. How are you, man? It's been a while.
- [00:48]
Dennis (Voice of Culpable)
Hey, Liam. Pretty good, man. Yeah, long time no see.
- [00:51]
Liam Luxon
Well, I'm thrilled to be talking with you today about this new season of Culpable. I know that we just started getting into Danny Violet's case, and I'm sure there's a lot in store for us over the next several weeks, so we're gonna do our best to avoid spoilers. But that being said, there may be some sneak peeks waiting for you in this interview. Let's kick things off and why don't you give us a brief summary about Danny's case?
- [01:12]
Dennis (Voice of Culpable)
Sure. Yeah. So Danny Violet, he's a 17 year old living in a small Ohio town called Willard. And in the fall of 98, he vanished. He was missing for roughly 11 days and then was found dead in a cornfield on the outskirts of town under suspicious circumstances. He had what appeared to be a ligature mark around his neck and what appeared to be tire tracks across his bare torso. And then there was some additional evidence found in that field the following day that also lent itself to the possibility of foul play. And so, you know, long story short is it's been over 25 years now and his case remains unsolved as. And it was one that, when I heard about it, just initially intrigued me and just thought it could be a neat challenge as well to take on a much older case than the last two I worked on.
- [02:10]
Liam Luxon
You covered this case a few years ago in your case review series. Now that we have a full length investigation on it, I assume there are some new things that you've learned.
- [02:18]
Dennis (Voice of Culpable)
Absolutely, yeah. So when we first did that episode, there was like, nothing known about this case, and I just spoke with his brother Drew, and, you know, did the best we could to cover it and put a spotlight on it. Just because all the attention had died off after so many years and nobody there was. Was talking about it, one thing led to another, and it's ballooned into something much bigger than that.
- [02:41]
Liam Luxon
Well, can you give us a teaser of any of the. Any of the stuff that you found?
- [02:45]
Dennis (Voice of Culpable)
Well, without giving too much away, what. What I'll just say is that at the time, pretty much nothing was known about it. I interviewed Danny's brother, Drew, and he did his best to just kind of tell me what he had heard and. Or learned over the years. And turns out actually a lot of the stuff that he thought he knew was actually not even true. You know, there were some inaccuracies there, which just goes to show the importance of doing these types of deep dives, because since then, we've gotten much more lost in the weeds of this case, and again, without giving away too much, have learned way more information than what was known then, and that I think really anybody in that town and even Danny's family have known after all these years.
- [03:31]
Liam Luxon
So this is actually your third season hosting Culpable, and I'm sure a lot of people listening are familiar with your work, but can you give us a little bit of your background of how you got into podcasting?
- [03:42]
Dennis (Voice of Culpable)
Yeah, so I always say, like, my background is kind of odd. It did not, I don't feel like, in any way lead me to where I'm at now. That said, you know, it does match a lot of my interests. I've always been into true crime, even since as a child, you know, remember watching crime shows with my parents growing up. And on top of that, I've always loved writing as well. So, you know, those two things kind of cross into the mold of podcasting, and it's probably why it was such a good fit for me. But the path that led me here was not one that I really pursued. I got married and had kids at a young age and was just trying to find anything I could do to provide and just find the next good job and have worked in all sorts of different fields that are far away from. From what podcasting is. But a friend of mine launched a podcast production company. You know, podcasts were booming, and I was getting into them myself, and it was something that was like, I would love to do that sort of a bucket list thing, but right now, I just need to keep working my 9 to 5 and just kind of the stars align. He learned about a story in Mississippi that would end up becoming season one of Culpable. And, you know, I just kind of pitched to him like, I'd really like to try to turn this into a podcast. Could you kind of help with that? And met the family and, yeah, the rest is history. And that's. That's essentially what. What bird is culpable. But in a lot of ways, if I'm being honest, I really just kind of stumbled into this. But ultimately, I'm happy that I did.
- [05:08]
Liam Luxon
Now we're three seasons later. What motivates you or continues to motivate you to investigate these kind of cases and tell these stories? Is it the writing aspect of it or.
- [05:18]
Dennis (Voice of Culpable)
Yeah, I think, you know, one thing is definitely the writing aspect. But I think, again, I've also always been into true crime. And a reason for that is just that itch that those stories give you to want to try and solve them. And then ultimately, like, a big reason again, why I got into this is also, like, I just wanted to sort of be a voice for the voiceless. When I first learned about Christian's story in season one, it kind of gave me a taste of, like, what families who lose loved ones go through. Sometimes there's a lot of attention around it, and sometimes there's not. And then these families are kind of left with their hands out. Like, where do I go? What do I do now? And so seeing that made me kind of want to help be that voice for those people in a lot of ways and help get these stories out and help get a spotlight on him, because these stories deserve to be heard. These victims deserve to be remembered, not forgotten. And ultimately, the goal of obtaining justice for them should never expire. So that's always, I think, been a driving force for me as well.
- [06:31]
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- [06:54]
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- [08:07]
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- [08:59]
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- [09:12]
Liam Luxon
Tell us a little bit about your process about how one you find a case that you really want to go dive into and hopefully, you know, make a difference on and really the creative process of how it then gets made.
- [09:25]
Dennis (Voice of Culpable)
Yeah, so definitely have not figured out the art of finding a case. All the cases I've covered thus far have found me. The first one came through a true crime convention. The second one came from a friend of mine. It was a case in their hometown. And then this most recent one came from a listener, an email that she sent in to us which had very little about the case but was enough to intrigue me. You know, it mentioned the same things I mentioned at the beginning of this about the ligature mark around his neck and the tire tracks across his torso. It was very short and sweet and for whatever reason, it scratched that itch and made me think, there's gotta be more here. Right? Like it can't be the whole story.
- [10:08]
Liam Luxon
Did you think you could maybe solve it as well?
- [10:11]
Dennis (Voice of Culpable)
No, I didn't necessarily think that I could solve it, but I think I just really wanted to learn more, you know, the creative process for this season has been a rather odd one because of the way things started. The intent was never to make a full season on this until a few things aligned and there was a shift and things started going that direction. But still though, to get into that creative process that you asked about, I always like to start with speaking with the family and or who's closest to the story, learn what I can from them, which is what I did in this case by talking with Drew initially. You know, from there you request documents, you maybe do a couple more follow up interviews. You know, you want to put in a little bit of legwork before you ever commit to doing a story or before you get too far into production. And then from there I'll always try to outline it. You know, how many episodes might this be? What's kind of the story arch there? But in that knowing that it's not going to stay the same through the end, it never does. It will always change in some way, shape or form. But that's what's neat about doing this sort of more live in the moment investigative type of podcast. It's that you really don't know, like, what each day will bring and what might change along the way. And then from there you just keep on keeping on, keep digging, keep doing your interviews, you know, from there the show slowly comes together. But a lot of that, you know, I can't take credit for. I like to give credit where it's due. And I have some amazing folks. I work with producers John and Jamie, and then of course my engineer Dayton, who can take my words that I utter into a mic and paste everything out in that score and make it sound like almost like a movie. Just a very immersive experience. And that's something that makes this unique that I don't take for granted. So I'm thankful for the people I've surrounded myself with. So, yeah, I'm fortunate to have a team around me.
- [12:04]
Liam Luxon
Yeah, big shout out to our tenderfoot team. What's that balance look like of sensitivity to the victim, their family, and various people that become featured in the show?
- [12:14]
Dennis (Voice of Culpable)
Yeah, so that's always like a tightrope. Right? Because I want to have a connection with the family. So Long as they want to put this story out. The way it's worked so far is the three stories I've told. The families have all been all for this, but their involvement has all looked quite different. Everybody just kind of has a different approach. The interesting thing about Danny's case is that so much time had passed. All the kids have grown up and started their own lives and have their own kids, and everybody's busy. They'll all admit that this wasn't really something that they talked about earlier over the years. They didn't really know how to handle it when they lost Danny. And they have all described it as sort of like this blur. Like, everything just became a blur after it happened. And, you know, yeah, they talk about him on his birthday and his anniversary and stuff like that, but for the most part, they kind of shied away from digging into the nitty gritty of, like, what might have happened to him and trying to piece that together. They put a lot of faith in law enforcement to do that, and law enforcement worked this case and investigated it pretty hard, but unfortunately, it never led to anything. So when I got connected with them, you know, the interesting thing there was they're not really of that, like, bulldog mentality of, like, you know, let's do whatever it takes. Let's get to the bottom of this. But they want answers. I think they. They're more at a point where they were just exhausted and, you know, getting older, and they just wanted some information. They had been left in the dark throughout his entire investigation. You know, back to your question about balancing the sensitivity and all that. You know, it's hard because these families have to essentially trust you with their loved one's story, and you have to tell it honestly. You know, we can't, like, sugarcoat it or make a victim to be out to somebody that they're not. And then with that connection to the family, a lot of families can obviously have their own bias and. And whatnot, and so you want to hear them out, but you. You have to form your own opinions at the end of the day and work this case kind of separately from them, which can always be a challenge. It hasn't been as much in this season because, again, they're happy to remain mostly hands off with this, and so that's made a little bit easier. But, yeah, that's always a challenge with all these stories. And I'm a firm believer, again, in giving a voice to those people and having a lot of heart in these stories, because I think that can move people and helps it not just become, like, a salacious story of, like, oohs and ahs and wow moments. I do want some of that heart to be captured in the stories that I tell. So, again, it's a challenge, but I'd like to think I've gotten it down pretty well.
- [14:50]
Liam Luxon
Yeah. And from my personal experience tracking Justin Alexander and his story, I know how life encompassing these stories can really become. What was that moment that you knew this case was the right one for you to make a full season on? Like, if one moment really stands out.
- [15:08]
Dennis (Voice of Culpable)
With Danny's case, I would say one thing that really drew me to it was I kind of got the sense that maybe he was misunderstood in that town. His family would be the first to tell you he was far from perfect. He struggled with addiction. He was also bipolar, so he had mental health struggles as well. He didn't always make the best decisions, but interestingly, amongst his friends, he was seen as spotless. You know, they. Nobody saw him for those things. They. They love Danny by all accounts. You know, you'll hear in the show that he had no enemies. He only had friends. And, you know, on top of that, even the mistakes that he made in life, they're really not too different from what your average teen in a small town is probably doing. I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. It's nowhere near as small, but the teenagers around here tend to follow those same paths. I know that I did. And so it was easy to put myself in his shoes in that kind of way and talking with people around that town, you know, and maybe this is a product of the amount of time that's passed or some of the elements that you'll hear come into this story as far as, like, his addiction and his mental health. The popular theory around town, like, really seemed to be that this was some kind of freak accident. You know, maybe an overdose, maybe a bad reaction to his prescribed and illicit drugs that he took, and even the possibility that this was a suicide. Right. Because he had a ligature mark around his neck. And. And so it really just seemed like the consensus was it's just this weird, unexplained mystery. Some freak accident must have happened. And it's just really sad. And while I didn't know a whole lot about it at first and wasn't able to gather a whole lot from his brother Drew in that first interview I did, like I said, at the same time, I couldn't help but look at it and see immediately, to me, there seems like there's signs of foul play here. Don't want to jump to conclusions, you know, would like to speak with maybe some experts before I reach that. But just at a glance, to me, it seemed like he can't end up in that position, in that field and in the condition he was found in without there being some degree of foul play to this. And so, you know, I think a part of me felt sort of compelled to make sure and get the truth out there to whatever extent in that town and make sure and sort of correct that narrative in a way, if that was people's common misconception of what happened to him.
- [17:33]
Liam Luxon
Yeah. And that's something that I noticed when I was listening. I noticed a very similar sort of just normal teenage culture out there. So I totally understand the relatability and then the curiosity. So was your next step you just kind of, you know, reached out to some experts and decided that was. That made sense, or what was your next steps that solidified that this was going to be a full season.
- [17:58]
Dennis (Voice of Culpable)
So to fill in the gap there a little bit, what was funny about Drew was, again, one thing he made apparent to me early on is that, like so much of the story around what happened to Danny is just fueled by rumors. Small town rumors. Right. I mean, word travels fast and in a town that small. And so that's sort of what happened with him. Right. Because he, you know, his family and he didn't talk about it a whole lot. And so a lot of the information he'd gathered just by happenstance over the years was just things he'd heard about it. And he admitted that going into that, he was unorganized. He didn't know a whole lot. But his passion was there also, like this timing, a line there that he was just kind of reaching a point in his life where it's like, enough is enough. I've kind of put this to the side. I haven't made a focus. Like, I. I want to get to the bottom of this once and for all. And so he jumped at the opportunity to talk with me. And. And doing that, I told him, I got a bunch of work that I gotta go do. I got these other interviews I gotta do for these other cases, but keep at it. Reach out to some people around the town and see what else you can learn. And more than anything, start to get organized because I could tell that he did have some information. He just didn't know what was fact and what was fiction. And there was no rhyme or reason to the information he had collected on paper that he had brought with a binder to that interview. So that was the advice I left him with. And I just went back to the drawing board and kept working on other episodes. And it wasn't until that winter, like, six months later, that we got reconnected. And I found out, like, he had taken the advice and ran with it and had done all this digging and requested documents and was starting to finally learn a little bit more. Not a lot, but a little interestingly. In doing so, he also got connected with a woman by the name of Danielle. She was actually the woman who submitted his case to us. The email. She didn't know Danny. She wasn't from Willard. She heard about it from her husband and just had been interested by it and was a listener of our shows and sent it in. Somehow they got connected after. After he and I met, and she really helped him, you know, get organized and start digging into this. And it kind of just became a sort of a group effort between those couples, Drew and his wife, Andrea, and Danielle and her husband Eric. And so when I got reconnected in the winter, and I'm being told, hey, you know, we've learned some more stuff, this and that. I'm not really knowing what to expect. And I meet up with them and at Drew's house and was, like, blown away. They. They've really been busy over here. And so I think, for me, I, obviously, one saw that as a. As a unique opportunity. Now there's a ton of information. There's a lot more story to tell here. And a part of me felt an obligation to sort of finish the story and clear up any, you know, possible errors or inconsistencies in there. But on top of that, the final piece to fall was that they had learned from law enforcement that it wasn't really being actively investigated. They had other priorities to work on. And so he started making a push to close the case and get his brother's case file, because it felt like it's been so long. Not a lot of people know stuff or remember stuff very well. You know, how could we see the work from back in 1998 when this happened, or like, the couple years that followed, like, when it was fresh in people's minds. And that was his only real way that he solved doing that. And so the family came to an agreeance that, yeah, let's. Let's take that approach. It was not an easy choice by any means, but they did that. And it wasn't an easy road either. It wasn't just like a, hey, Huron county, you know, can we get Danny's case file. Like it took getting attorneys involved and fees and months and months and months of sending stuff. But all I have to say is eventually they got his case file released and shared that with me. And then it was like, then it became a no brainer because not only as like an investigator of sorts, but also as a storyteller. You know, in this role you don't always have that at your disposal. So. So that felt like a huge piece that could kind of make this different and kind of put people back in time way back to 1998, which has been kind of cool working in some of the audio that we acquired and those files from back in that time. So that was kind of the final piece that made me commit to doing the story. And that was all their work to give them the credit, not my own. What does possibility mean to you? Um, that's a hard question. Something that you can strive for. I'm able to do anything I set my mind to. You're confident in yourself and you believe in yourself. 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- [23:02]
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- [23:07]
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- [24:12]
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- [24:46]
Liam Luxon
27 years, I imagine, provides a whole lot of roadblocks. Were there any challenges that really, really presented themselves to you in starting to look into this? Was there ever a moment that really made you want to quit or give.
- [25:02]
Dennis (Voice of Culpable)
Up to the point you just made? I think that's probably been the biggest challenge and I'll even kind of speak on that, you know, some in the podcast. As far as the amount of time that's elapsed, again, when I did Christian and Brittany's cases, they were much fresher compared to this one. I had never worked on a cold case as old as this. And so one thing I didn't really realize getting into it is how much time like that can play with people's memories of things. You know, hearing someone's account from 98 two weeks after it happened versus hearing it now all these years later and thinking which one is more reliable. You know, what, what do I believe here on top of that, like, with the passing of time, like, people pass away, they move on, they, you know, in some ways lose interest in this. You know, it's not like it just happened the other day and everybody's running around town with their hands up, freaking out, like talking about what happened. I mean, the conversation had really died off, like I said. So it doesn't feel as close to, to home anymore in a lot of ways. And so people aren't as eager to speak on it or aren't quite as passionate about it. So there's been a lot of challenges with that that, like I said, can all pretty much relate to the passing of time. Fortunately, we do have the case files, which has been a huge asset because of some of those challenges to be able to really put yourself back in time to days, weeks after it happened. And here people's accounts. I mean, detectives spoke with over 60 people. I think. Not all the audio is listenable. Again, another challenge with time. He's recorded on like VHS tapes and stuff. So thankfully a lot of them are good enough audio to play and hear what they're saying and whatnot. And then as far as like challenges that sort of made me want to quit. I haven't really reached that, I wouldn't say. But this has been definitely a tough case to work on for various reasons. It's kind of been up and down with, with law enforcement as far as, like, they weren't really involved early on in this, but fortunately there has been a little bit of a shift there recently and there's been some promise with them potentially getting involved in this and helping us with something that we're trying to pursue right now that the family is trying to pursue that could really help change the outcome of this case. So it seems like a corner has started to be turned there. You know, only time will tell. It's definitely a long and bumpy road, but one thing about this season is it's very much been like a group effort of sorts, and that's really helped to keep things moving along as far as some of the people involved in this, from Dani's family to again, Danielle and her husband Eric, who have stepped in and helped in a lot of ways, and then also a investigator of sorts who we'll be working with in this season as well, who has gotten involved and helped to learn some new things as well.
- [28:00]
Liam Luxon
So what can some listeners expect this season? Anything. Anything you want to drop to have.
- [28:06]
Dennis (Voice of Culpable)
Us look forward to what's cool about these types of stories and very live in the moment types of cases we're working is, you know, as we record this. I'm not even finished working on this season yet. That's the nature of it. Right. But, you know, I just received an update today, actually, that we had something kind of go our way that we've been working on for. For quite some time now that could really help with this case. And so I don't want to give away exactly what that is, but that's really exciting because that's something that's, again, been a long road to get there. A lot of back and forth, a lot of hearing crickets for some time to eventually get to this moment we're at now where it seems like finally we're going to get some movement there and some assistance from the sheriff's office. So. So that's exciting. You know, time will tell how that all pans out. But yeah, beyond that, I mean, I think, you know, one of the reasons I was drawn to it is because it's just a totally bizarre and perplexing story, which are always the types of stories or cases that I've been drawn to. My favorite show growing up was Unsolved Mysteries, and this is definitely a story that would fit perfectly into the mold of that show. Just because you really aren't going to know what to think at times. There's a lot of persons of interest to consider in this story. There's a lot of different theories both as to his cause of death, to also the manner in which he was found in that field and how he would have gotten there in that condition. Even as something as much as like, nailing down the last time he was seen has proven to be a challenge as several people kind of claim to have seen him in the hours after his disappearance from his home. So a lot of things to get into. But then on top of that, we have been able to learn a lot of information which will be exciting to follow along with. From, you know, my digging into this to a lot of digging that Danielle has done. And as well as Michael Curtis, you'll meet in the show who has helped us on the investigative side as well. It's been a real group effort. I don't want to give away too much, but I'll just say, like, if you like season one, there are definitely some parallels to that. There's this weird thing that happened the night before that's always kind of plagued this case. And I think for a certain reason, he was taking acid the night before with some friends, which we'll get into in the coming episodes. And that kind of sent the investigation for, like, a tailspin in the early days of it. That's similar to Christian's story in that, like, the whole gun night that happened the night before his death sort of played into his investigation on top of that. Again, it's just a suspicious death of a young man that nobody seems to be able to, like, give a perfect story for or a perfect explanation for. But I'm hoping that we'll be able to do that by the end of this or at the very least, present a compelling case to authorities that then they can take and run with from there. Because I do feel like we've really made some strong headway on this, which you'll get some of as you follow along in the series.
- [31:13]
Liam Luxon
It sounds like you definitely have a preferred or hopeful outcome for the season of culpable. Is that anything you want to share right now or still want to keep that a little ambiguous?
- [31:24]
Dennis (Voice of Culpable)
With these cases, the ultimate goal is always to solve it. That's, I think, you know, why a lot of people are into this genre and get into this field even is for that exact thing, you know, wanting to solve it or at least Kind of help move the needle towards that. So that's always the ultimate goal. And you know, try to be as optimistic as possible about that, but also realize that, you know, you know, it is a long shot. If it was happening more common, I think you'd see even more people doing this type of work. It's not something that can really be expected, but it's something that can be strived for. And we are continuing to do that right now and pushing towards some new angles. Like I said, that could help change the outcome of this case. To me, that's the best end to the story, is solving it. And I don't think it's too late to make that happen. History has proven that there's cases older than this one that are being solved. But again, the interesting thing with this is like, it's really not even the way the family looks at this at this point, maybe because time's past, whatever it is, but, you know, in their heart, they've forgiven whoever played a role in this and in any capacity. What they really just wanted was a better understanding of it. Again, they had been kind of left in the dark on that for all these years and by not talking about it, not really pressing, you know, didn't really get any steps closer to knowing that truth. And so I can say with confidence that they have a much better understanding of this than they did over the past 25 years and are more in tune with this and advocating more for this than they once were. And I think I can take some rest just in knowing that because to them, it wasn't ever about getting an arrest or anything like that. At this point, they just wanted answers. And so we're getting there for sure.
- [33:14]
Mint Mobile Advertiser
Yeah.
- [33:15]
Dennis (Voice of Culpable)
And then beyond that is just I want to do right by the victim and tell an honest, compelling story that moves people and respects him and his family. And, you know, I'm happy with the work that we've done there for sure. And also just to be able to put a spotlight on this again. This case needed it desperately. There was some chatter around town for the first couple years, but for the better part of like the last 25 years, there wasn't really much of anything. And so, you know, it felt like an honor to kind of be the one to sort of break the story in a sense. And so, yeah, I'm fortunate to have been able to do that, but hopefully we can take it even further than that and we'll just kind of have to wait and see. Like I said, it's still a very active thing. A lot can change in the coming weeks, coming months. So I don't plan on stopping working on this anytime soon, no matter where the series may end at. So, yeah, we'll see what the future holds. But I think I definitely have a healthy degree of optimism of where this thing could go.
- [34:13]
Liam Luxon
Well, Dennis, I really appreciate you sitting down with me to talk about Danny's case, and I know there's a lot more in store over the next several weeks. Everyone is very interested to see where the story in your investigation goes, including myself. Thanks for making the time to sit down and tell us a little bit about it.
- [34:28]
Dennis (Voice of Culpable)
Thanks for having me. It's been a pleasure to talk with you about it. And, yeah, hope that gave you listeners enough to stick around and listen through the conclusion of this, because I think it's going to be an interesting ride for you.