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Peyton Moreland (12:47)

We found love in an open.

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Peyton Moreland (13:10)

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So treat your closet to a little summer glow up with quints. Go to quince.comdark for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Quince Q U I N C E dot com dark to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.comdark so all the police know for sure is that there is a murderer on the loose. And it's enough for them to immediately issue a shelter at home order in Ron's neighborhood. They warn all of the neighbors, do not go outside because they could be in danger. And while they're getting the word out, they actually speak to a security guard who works on the street. Must be nice. Must be nice to just have a security guard working your street in this beautiful neighborhood. And the guard tells the officers that a third person lives in the house with Ron and Valerie, and that is their son Cameron. Now, the police haven't seen Cameron since they arrived in the neighborhood. They have no idea where he is. But they get to thinking, if Valerie was killed by a family member and her son Cameron is missing, then he could be the killer, right? I mean, if he lives there and she was killed by a family member, according to Ron. So one officer at this point pulls Ron aside and he points at Valerie's body and says, did your son Cameron do this? And Ron nods. So the sheriff's deputies decide that Cameron, at this point is their number one suspect. Their top priority is to find him and catch him. They call for lots of backup, asking officers from other police departments to come to the scene. And they also arrange for search teams to fly overhead in helicopters and keep an eye on everything from above. Now, this is in part Because Ron and Valerie's property is so huge and dark, there is no way for the deputies to cover all of this ground on their own. They don't want to risk Cameron getting away or setting up some kind of ambush. So within the hour, the reinforcements arrive and there are police officers everywhere. And some of them actually take Ron to the hospital. He doesn't seem to be seriously hurt, but given his age and the possibility of complications from the stroke and the trauma, they want to make sure that he's being taken care of. Now, once Ron is gone, the house is empty. So a few officers spend the rest of the night searching it there. This is a crime scene after all. So while people are looking for Cameron, they are looking at the crime scene and they find a lot of disturbing evidence. There was a huge kitchen knife in the living room tucked between the cushions on the couch, like someone hid it there in case they need it later to attack. The officers find another knife in one of the bedrooms. It's in a drawer, but there's a lot of blood on the bedding in that same room. And there's more blood in the garage. Droplets are scattered all across the ground under a shelf where another knife is hidden. And a fourth knife is wedged in the dirt by the tennis court, like someone purposely jammed it into the ground. This one again is also surrounded by blood. It's honestly kind of hard to make any sense of this. According to the police reports, they do actually managed to find Cameron after about 30 minutes of searching. It's around 9:40pm when a pair of sheriff's department deputies are walking along the side of the house on their way to the backyard. They're very nervous on, you know, they're on edge. It's dark outside, the lights are still off. There's a lot of trees and bushes lining the walkway. They can't see very well. And then out of nowhere, a 30 year old man rounds the corner and just starts walking up to them from the backyard. He is covered in blood. He seems to have injuries on his thighs. Right away the police officers realize this is the person we're looking for. This is our suspect, Cameron. The deputy's statements say that one of them points a flashlight at him and orders him to get on the ground. The other investigator calls for backup because he doesn't like the idea of being alone with this killer in this dark unlit walkway. Now, right away, Cameron lies down on the ground. He is not resisting arrest, and he's still down. When two more officers from the sheriff's department Rush over responding to that call for backup. So there are now four police officers surrounding Cameron, who is on the ground. And all four police officers do have their guns drawn. This is their main suspect. They believe he just murdered someone. So the officers look him over to see how severe his injuries are. And it looks like there are knife wounds on his legs and neck, maybe from Valerie's attempts to fight him off while he was killing her. And the whole time, the police are shouting things like, don't get up. Stay down. Well, in spite of their warnings, Cameron reportedly lurches to his feet randomly without warning. According to the police officers, he then shouts, I have a gun. And he allegedly reaches into his waistband while running toward them. Now, the officers all say that they're afraid he's about to attack them or shoot them, so they fire first. All four officers strike Cameron multiple times, leaving him with 22 gunshot wounds. The bullets rip apart the tattoo on his back, so it's actually impossible to even know what it was. But somehow it doesn't kill him right away. He drops to the ground after being shot 22 times, but he's still alive. Even once. Cameron is down, hurt and bleeding out. The officers want to be careful. None of them are hurt, but they know that could change if he really does have a gun, especially because Cameron lands with his right arm still tucked under his body. So they don't know if he actually got to the waistband, if he has it in his hand. And when they order him to shift his position and show what he's holding, Cameron doesn't respond. The police don't want to let the paramedics get close until they're sure that Cameron is unarmed and that he doesn't pose a danger to anyone. So they go up to him and tug Cameron's arm out from under him just to see that he isn't holding anything. They still put him in handcuffs just to be safe. And afterward, they search him and find that he's completely unarmed. There's no gun, there's no knife. There's nothing else that he could have used as a weapon. He does have a bag of cocaine, along with some playing cards, keys, his phone, and just random other small items. And once they empty his pockets, they finally let the medics try to treat him. But at this point, it is too late. Cameron dies of his gunshot injuries. Now, anytime a police officer kills a person, that triggers an official investigation. It is standard practice, a way to determine if the homicide was justified or if it could have been prevented. Now, while this investigation is going on all four of the officers involved with the shooting are put on administrative leave. Then the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's office reviews their reports, body camera recordings, and all of the other evidence. And in the meanwhile, Valerie and now her son Cameron, who they believed killed Valerie, are both getting autopsies. And Cameron's show that in addition to his 22 gunshot wounds, he's also been stabbed in the neck, wrists, and thighs. On top of that, before he died, he was actually suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, otherwise known as CTE. Now, CTEs have been in the news a lot. They're a specific kind of brain injury that can make a person act more violent or unpredictable. They're caused by repetitive blows to the head and multiple concussions. Specifically, people who play tackle football are at an increased risk for CTEs. And sure enough, Cameron played football when he was enrolled at Harvard. So the investigators figure, okay, he must have just received brain injuries while he was in college. And this could have led to erratic, dangerous behavior later on. It could have even triggered a fit of violent paranoia in which he stabbed his mother to death. In fact, it doesn't take long for the police to realize that Cameron was the one who placed that first 911 call, the one where he said that his mother had attacked his father and that he had stepped in to defend him. Now, the authorities figure Cameron was probably delusional or hallucinating. Valerie probably never was hurting Ron. But Cameron might have really believed he needed to kill his mother to defend his dad. Police say this is all just a horrible tragedy. And to support that theory, the detectives talked to Cameron's sisters and his father. And sure enough, they acknowledged that before the attack, Cameron had been exhibiting behavior that was very odd. Apparently, for years, he had been having intense mood swings, emotional outbursts. His mental health was bad enough that Sometime around late 2018, he did move back home with his parents, which is why he was even living there. By the time of the murder in 2019, it was clear to everyone in his family that he was not in a state to take care of himself and that he really couldn't be left alone. But in mid October of 2019, just a few days before Valerie's murder, Cameron took a sudden and dramatic turn for the worst. That's when, according to everyone, he began having delusions and feeling very paranoid. It was actually bad enough that Valerie had called one of her daughters to ask for advice about what to do with Cameron. I'm not sure which daughter it was, but on that call, she supposedly told Valerie that she wasn't sure how to help. She didn't even feel safe. Coming over to the house to see her brother and try to help felt too risky, like he might try to hurt her. So instead she thought that her mom, Valerie, should call the police. From the sound of things, Valerie was convinced after talking to her daughter, she was all ready to call the cops and ask them to help her with her son. But this is when her husband Ron intervened. He convinced Valerie to put off the call for just a few more days. He wanted to see if the rest of the family could come by and get through to Cameron first. This is where the story gets really tragic. That phone conversation reportedly happened just a few hours before Cameron stabbed Valerie to death with a knife. Everyone could tell that Cameron's behavior was getting worse and he was violent and paranoid. And his autopsy showed that he did have cte. So based on all of this, the county's district attorney's office concludes that Cameron was a dangerous to himself and others. He wasn't thinking logically, which led him to murder his mother. And after the fatal stabbings, his actions were still erratic. He threatened police officers, charging them while pretending he had a gun. So the officers on the scene had a good reason to fear for their lives. And their decision to fatally shoot him was justified, according to the investigators. Except you may remember there is one surviving witness to Valerie's murder. Ron saw everything that happened when Cameron stabbed his wife. And after the district Attorney's office releases their findings, Ron communicates that he disagrees with their conclusions. Now, given Ron's physical limitations, it's difficult for him to go public with what he knows. It's still hard for him to talk. So instead he works with his daughters Kirsten and Caitlyn to get his story out there. And Ron, Kirsten and Caitlyn all agree that nobody actually needed to die. On October 15, I have a podcast that I know my listeners will enjoy called Fear Thy Neighbor. On Fear Thy Neighbor from id hear true stories from the victims of deadly neighborhood disputes. Most violent crimes that capture the public's imagination are about serial killers or crimes of passion. But what happens when the person you fear the most is living right next door? Each episode focuses on a different town where neighbors fall out over what should be minor and resolvable issues, like when a neighbor borrows a lawnmower but returns it damaged, which sets off a violent course of events. Or how a man in Vancouver moves into a new building, finds himself helping out an elderly neighbor neighbor. Then they had several disagreements and a falling out that leads to his death. Hear these true stories told by the victims, their families and their neighbors. Featuring real 911 calls and surveillance archives. One of my favorite episodes is called Blizzard of Blood. A single woman and her two young sons believe they have found a perfect new apartment on a quiet street with an on site landlord. And soon after the lease is signed, the landlord begins to exhibit controlling and obsessive behavior, frequently monitoring the comings and goings of his tenants. Flying into a rage over perceived parking infractions, the family's once idyllic living situation turns into a living hell of arguments and intimidation that finally ends in bloodshed and two shocking murders. Listen to Fear Thy Neighbor wherever you get your podcasts.

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Peyton Moreland (28:38)

Of them, Valerie could have been saved after the stabbing, but the police officers mishandled the situation. The Ely family argues that the story I told earlier where the police came in and found Valerie already dead wasn't true. So now we're getting two sides to the story. The police and then Ron. He said when the police arrived on the scene, they didn't even bother to check Valerie's Pulse or perform CPR. They waited 40 minutes to call for paramedics and declare her dead. So Ron and his daughters wonder if maybe she was still alive when the police got there and they had called for an ambulance right away, could she have survived? In fact, they find a doctor who's actually willing to testify that Valerie's injuries were actually survivable, but only with timely treatment. It seems that the officers didn't consider the possibility that she could be alive or could have been saved or even really cared about Valerie's well being. According to the family, while they were investigating the scene and gathering evidence, I guess they just kept stepping over her body like she was an inanimate object. The family believes that the police were treating her with a lot of disrespect. And the Ely family also thinks that Cameron didn't need to die either. They argue the police should have found a way to resolve the situation without shooting him. Now, I will acknowledge Ron, Kirsten, and Caitlyn don't have any specific examples of what the police could have done differently with Cameron. Frankly, none of them were at the scene at the time of the shooting. Ron was already in the hospital, and the girls weren't home at all that day. Still, they have a general sense that things maybe could have played out very differently. It is hard to hear that your family member was shot with absolutely no weapon on them by four police. So the family are actually so sure about this that they decide to sue the sheriff's department, the four officers who shot Cameron, and Santa Barbara county for two wrongful deaths, both Valerie and Cameron's. As part of the legal process, the department is supposed to release the body cam footage from Cameron's shooting. It is key evidence which will show exactly what happened that day. Except at this point for this lawsuit, the department says that the footage doesn't exist. According to the sheriff's department, all four officers body cams were turned off at the time of the shooting. So none of them captured any video of their encounter with Cameron. They do have audio, though. The microphones are on a different system from the cameras and they were on. So the department sends out these audio recordings. And when Ron, Kirsten, and Caitlyn listen to them, they realize that these audio tapes do not really match what the officers said happened that night.

Sleep Number Advertiser (31:26)

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Peyton Moreland (31:33)

I'll do it. The police officers order Cameron to get on the ground. They yell at him not to get up, just like what happened. But then on these audio tapes, police open fire immediately, mere seconds after Cameron gets down on the ground. You never hear Cameron yell, I have a gun. And get up and start charging. And frankly, the gunshots happen so quickly that it doesn't seem that there's enough time for Cameron to jump up to his feet after being on the ground, reach into his waistband, and threaten the officers. So to the Ely family, it sounds like Cameron was surrendering, getting on the ground, and the police officers shot him dead in cold blood. Now, the family's lawyer acknowledges that this could have been a terrible mistake. He doesn't believe that the sheriff's deputies meant to murder Cameron. Instead, he thinks that the sheriff deputies were nervous. It was dark, they were on high alert, looking for a murderer. And Once Cameron was on the ground, maybe he twitched or started moving. That could have been all it took for one anxious officer to panic and open fire. And then the other three joined in on instinct. By the time anyone calmed down enough to realize what was going on, it could have been too late to save Cameron. Now, even if the shooting was an accident, this is still not okay. No one should ever lose their life just because a police officer is nervous and impulsive. Yes, they are human, but this is their job. But the much bigger problem, according to the Ely family, was that the police lied about it. They allegedly made it seem like Cameron got up and charged them, saying he had a gun, just trying to threaten them. Plus, you may remember something I said earlier. According to the officers, they didn't let any paramedics treat Cameron until they were sure he was unarmed. Well, Ron and his daughter say that the doctor didn't get to Cameron until 13 minutes after the shooting. And in their mind, there is no way it should have taken the police 13 minutes to go up to someone they all four had just shot and search him, especially if he got shot 22 times. I mean, how injured is he? So the Ely family believes that the police actually may have intentionally withheld treatment or went slow on purpose just to make sure that he couldn't stay alive and say what happened. This is all to say, Ron, Kirsten and Caitlyn say, that the homicide was anything but justified. Now, even after this recording comes to light, the Sheriff's department still argues that their officers behaved appropriately. They still maintain that Cameron threatened the officers and claimed to have a gun. And as for why it didn't show up on the audio recording, they say maybe the equipment couldn't record that far away. It couldn't hear or pick up what Cameron was saying. So it clearly recorded the officers when they told Cameron to stay down and the gunshots themselves. But I guess it just managed to not capture Cameron yelling that he has a gun. Now, the Ely family obviously is not agreeing with these arguments. In one public statement, Caitlin tells the press, we urge everyone to listen to the truth. Listening to the audio only takes 19 seconds. That's how fast this happened, and you will know the truth. It's no wonder that they're making statements to the public and fighting this battle out in the public eye. Because while this is all happening in 2019 and 2020, you need to remember that there is a lot of public pressure on law enforcement officials this time. Many people were calling for police reform. But even though the Ely family has social pressure on their side and the evidence in the audio recordings, they lose their lawsuit. In October of 2022, the jury unanimously sides with the sheriff's department, the officers who shot Cameron, and the Santa Barbara County. They uphold the ruling that Valerie couldn't have been saved and that Cameron's shooting was justified. And sadly, that's the end of the road in Ron's fight for justice. On September 29, 2024, he passes away peacefully at age 86. When his daughters publicly announce his death. They also talk about how he's missed Valerie, his wife, every day since her murder. That he also never stopped grieving Cameron either. As terrible as his crime was, Cameron was still Ron's son and he loved him dearly. He wished they could have just gotten Cameron up and prevented the entire tragedy. In their eulogies for Ron, both of his daughters talk about his perseverance. He was the sort of man who always stood up for what was right, no matter how difficult it could be, which was why he'd spent the final five years of his life fighting for justice for his wife and son. Now that Ron has passed, his daughters are glad that he can finally rest and he can now join both Valerie and Cameron. But while Ron may have found peace, lots of other people are very unsettled by everything that happened. To this day, there is a lot of controversy about this case. It's pretty clear that Cameron did kill Valerie, most likely during a mental health episode. Everyone in his family was already worried and talking about calling the cops before the attack. Everyone agrees on that part, but it also seems like everything else in this case is debated. Some believe that Valerie could have survived if the police had behaved differently, while others think she was already dead when the officers got there. Some believe that Cameron's fatal shooting was justified and others don't. Ultimately, none of us were there and know for sure the entire story because we're all just piecing the facts together from what everyone has said and none of us have the complete truth. And that is the tragedy of the Ely family. Please let me know in the comments your thoughts on this case. It is a hard one. It is tough. I know. I have been on board for trying to figure out a different way to de escalate situations when mental health is involved. But it's also a very dangerous situation. It can be one of the most dangerous situations. Not everything is black and white, and that's what makes it complicated. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode and join me next week as we go further into the dark together. Goodbye.

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Peyton Moreland (38:15)

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