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- [00:00]
A
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A
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B
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- [01:11]
A
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B
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- [02:57]
A
I'm Anya and today we're going to be talking about a tragic case out of Indiana where a homeowner shot a woman working as a housekeeper through a door due to just. I guess we'll get into it. So content warning. This episode includes discussion of violence and murder. So this is some breaking news today in this case. And this, of course, what we're talking about today is the case of Maria Velasquez. This was a woman, a hard working woman working as a house cleaner. And she reported to an address in Boone County, Indiana, specifically In Whitestown, on November 5, 2025, early in the morning. And the homeowner shot her through the closed and locked door because he thought that she and her husband were breaking in. Charges have been filed against the homeowner, a man named Kurt Anderson. And we have the probable cause of a dated crime.
- [04:00]
B
So let's talk about it.
- [04:01]
A
Let's get into it. My name is Anya Cain. I'm a journalist.
- [04:05]
B
And I'm Kevin Greenlee. I'm an attorney.
- [04:08]
A
And this is the Murder Sheet.
- [04:10]
B
We're a true crime podcast focused on original reporting, interviews and deep dives into murder cases. We're the Murder Sheet.
- [04:17]
A
And this is Extra, Extra. The shooting of Maria Velasquez, charges filed.
- [05:08]
B
The key thing in this case to remember is Indiana has a castle doctrine, which basically means if you fear for your life and someone is coming into your home or your residence, you basically have the right to stand your ground and use reasonable, even deadly force to protect yourself. Now, we all agree that in this case, this woman was just there to clean the home. She wasn't posing any threat or danger. So there was no real reason to fear. But I think the question that's ultimately going to be at the heart of this is, is the question whether or not a person has a reasonable fear or whether that person just has any fear at all. And with that in mind, do you want to go into this document?
- [06:01]
A
Yes, absolutely. Before we begin, I will Just say this. This woman who lost her life, Maria Florinda Rios Perez de Velasquez is her full name. She was 32 years old and she had four children. She died in her husband's arms. This is an immense tragedy. I think what Kevin just mentioned here, this is a moral outrage. This is a moral wrong. And I think if, you know, if this is legal in Indiana, seems like the prosecutor doesn't think it is, in Boone county at least. But if this is determined by a jury to be within the realm of the law in Indiana, then the laws in Indiana need to change.
- [06:34]
B
Agreed.
- [06:35]
A
This is unacceptable. But what is moral and what is acceptable is not always necessarily what is legal. Times change, things change. So that is what you said. We're going to be talking about the legal side, too, about how strong is this case and what. What this information tells us might be, you know, things that defense attorneys who are going to work on this case might be looking at. So, as we mentioned, this all took place on Mae's Lane in Whitestown, Indiana. November 5, 6:50 is when the Whitestown Metropolitan Police Department got the dispatch about a residential burglary in progress. The homeowner called them and they found.
- [07:14]
B
That would be Mr. Anderson.
- [07:15]
A
Yeah, that's Anderson. And they send in Sergeant Klinger and Officer Thomas. They find a large pool of blood on the front porch of this residence. They find a bullet hole in the door. And then a man named Mauricio Perez Velasquez kneeling down, holding his wife. And that is Maria. And they're by the front door. And she immediately looked deceased to these officers. By the way, this probable cause affidavit was from Detective Christopher A. Fisher with the Whitestown Metro Metropolitan Police Department. So that's where this is coming from. He's the detective on this case. And so immediately, police are confronted with the issue that Kurt Anderson, the homeowner, refused to leave the home. Law enforcement is calling for him come out essentially, and he's not coming out. Medics respond. They try to treat Maria. She's pronounced deceased at the the scene.
- [08:10]
B
But before they. They really treat her, they have to move her, because the fact of the matter is this man is not coming out of the home. And so all the first responders know is there is a person in this house who fired a shot that has seriously injured, if not killed someone. This person refuses to leave. Will we be in danger if we go and try to treat the person? So Mr. Anderson's refusal to cooperate with the lawful orders of police to leave the residence caused A great deal of stress and consternation for the first responders because then they had to move the victim of this case before they could even treat her.
- [08:48]
A
Well said. And to be clear, in terms of her wounds, single gunshot wound to the head. That is what killed her.
- [08:53]
B
Yes.
- [08:55]
A
And so at some point, Kurt Anderson and his wife, Yoshi Anderson, leaves the residents and they are taken off for interviews. And in addition to that, we got more information because David Whiten, who works with Ryan Holmes, which is Maria's employer, you know, this is a building company, they built the windswept farm subdivision which was located to the east of Miami's Lane. She was supposed to clean one of those model homes. That was what she was there to do. And we'll get into more of this later, but there seems to have been a mix up where they went to the wrong house.
- [09:39]
B
And I want to highlight a paragraph. It's actually paragraph number 35. You and I talked about this document a little bit before we started recording. And this paragraph was one that you told me you felt was quite important. I'm going to read it. Investigators confirmed that the front door was locked at the deadbolt and handle and there was no sign of forced entry. Specifically, the exterior of the front door had a layer of dust that was undisturbed. There were no handprints or any evidence of forceful contact with the structure of the door itself. Further, there were no evidence or scratches around the latch and or door frame, end quote. What does that information tell you?
- [10:22]
A
That information tells me that this couple, the Velasquez's, were not banging on the door. They were not doing anything to the door to cause structural damage or even disturb the layer of dust on it. There was nothing that would indicate that they were about to break down the door. In other words, in a situation where we're looking about, was a person's actions reasonable, something becomes more reasonable if you are in immediate fear of someone about to bang down the door, kick it in, pound it, you know, so that it like breaks. I don't know that that's something where if there's evidence of that, then things start looking more reasonable. If there's no evidence of that, then that's, you know, a point against Kurt Anderson in this situation where they're going to be looking at like, why were you so scared?
- [11:14]
B
Yes. There doesn't seem to be any evidence that the victim and her husband were doing anything especially violent to try to gain entry into the home. Nothing that should make a person see, oh, there's a big threat That I need to use deadly force to protect myself.
- [11:30]
A
Yes. They're imminently about to enter the house and I need to take action. That's. That does not appear to be supported by at least this piece of physical evidence.
- [11:40]
B
Are we ready to get to Mr. Kurt Anderson's story?
- [11:44]
A
Yes, I believe so, yes. So this is from the interview with Kurt Anderson?
- [11:49]
B
Yeah, he gave an interview with them and he was advised of his Miranda rights. I'm going to read what he told police, or rather this summary of what he told police. If there's anything that you feel is worth commenting on, just tell me to shut up.
- [12:05]
A
Oh, I'm not gonna tell you to shut up. I love you. But I will awkwardly raise my hand.
- [12:10]
B
Which I'm not gonna see because I'm looking at the screen.
- [12:12]
A
Great. I will wave my hand around in a manner that will attract your attention.
- [12:16]
B
Quote Kurt stated that he and his wife Yashi have lived in this home together for four years. Kurt stated he and Yoshi sleep on a futon in the loft area on the second floor of the residence. The loft area has a window on the east wall of the room. Kurt said he sleeps on the side closest to the stairwell which leads directly down to the first floor and the front door. And Yashi sleeps on the other side of the futon.
- [12:45]
A
Um, I mean, you have a comment? I know, I'm. That's not a comment. I'm not making fun of anyone. I'm just more of curious. You know, I've never heard of middle aged people necessarily like who have their own home and whatnot, sleeping on a futon. I'm just curious like was there stuff under construction? Like I just be curious about like what the circumstances in living in that situation would be. Were they just prioritizing rooms for other things? I'm not judging, I'm more of asking of like. Because I think that struck you as a little bit not something you hear all the time. Yeah.
- [13:17]
B
In my admittedly limited life experience, the, the people I've known who have slept on futon have been like college students.
- [13:24]
A
Yes. That's what young people starting out, you know. So I'd be curious, was this, was this like normal for them? Was this just normal for right now? And I just, I just would be curious to learn more about these people at the center of this.
- [13:38]
B
And we get back to it. Quote Kurt said he and Yashi are night owls and normally go to bed at 2am or 3am most nights. Kurt said they went to bed on the morning of this incident. 11-05-2025, at approximately 2 or 3am Kurt stated that he woke up because he had heard something, but wasn't sure since he was still waking up, what exactly he was hearing. Kurt said he was thinking to himself, I've only been to sleep like three, three and a half hours. Kurt said he then stood up and heard a commotion at the door. Kurt said at first it was subtle, but the commotion intensified and he heard what appeared to be some type of keys, tools or instrument being used on the front door of the residence. Kurt said he then reached over to grab his glasses, which were hanging on the charging cord plugged into the wall to the rear of the futon. Kurt said that this commotion scared him because he realized this commotion was not his imagination and that someone was trying to get into the front door. Kurt said he then went toward the top of the stairwell where he was at the landing of the stairwell looking down towards the front door. The stairwell goes straight down to the front door, and the front door can be seen from the top of the stairwell as well as to the side where a landing is located. Kurt said he could see two individuals outside the front door through the top and side windows at the side of the front door. Kurt said when he saw those individuals, he said, oh, no, this is happening and they are going to get in. Kurt said to himself, what am I going to do? It's not going away and I have to do something now. Curt mentioned previously to reporting detective that he had thought out about how to plan for someone breaking into his home and where to keep him and his wife safe. Kurt said that he'd watched videos before and that at this moment, he didn't want any part of this or to hurt anyone. Kurt stated he then went to what he called his safe room, which was also his music room. This is a room directly to the rear of the futon, which would have been the southeast corner room of the second floor of the residence. I'm gonna stop there.
- [15:58]
A
Yeah.
- [16:01]
B
I think. If you have a designated safe room in your house, does that indicate that you have a certain level of fear?
- [16:11]
A
Yes.
- [16:13]
B
I don't really know if I know any people who have a safe room.
- [16:18]
A
I don't know of anyone who has a safe room. Maybe not that they've told me about. I think. I mean, listen, like, I don't want to say nobody should be. It makes sense to be situationally aware and certainly have a, you know, a plan for if something happens. Right. I think I wouldn't decry that in anyone, but I guess what we're going to learn here. And maybe what we can pause on later is that, like, there's a diff. There's being kind of like, frankly paranoid and not really having that much of a plan or not that much of a concrete plan. And then there's being like, aware, adept in using a gun, aware of gun safety issues so that you can be a responsible gun user and owner.
- [17:01]
B
Yeah, I don't think of this area as an area where there's a lot of. It's not a lot of home invasions.
- [17:05]
A
It's not okay for everyone wondering who's not from Indiana. Boone county is located to the northwest of Indiana. Bad things can happen anywhere. I don't care how safe your community is. A home invasion, a horrific murder, something can happen. But there's also a difference between something being a bolt from the blue rarity and something being like part of something that, you know, tends to happen in a more. In an area that suffers from more violent crime. And this is not an area where I would say it suffers from a lot of violent crime. And it's, it's again, that, you know, you should still be aware and you should know that things can happen anywhere. But I think there's a difference between the level of safety awareness that you might need in a big city or in a rural area that has more violent crime, perhaps related to drinking, versus, like the Indianapolis suburbs, your home should be your refuge. But as true crime podcasters, we can tell you that criminals are out there willing to violate your peace and security for whatever their insidious motive is. It's a real danger, and it's probably one of the scariest things that can happen to a person or a family.
- [18:10]
B
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- [18:35]
A
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- [18:57]
B
We've used our SimpliSafe home security system for years. It's a brand we trust. It's become a part of our lives and given us peace of mind. As true crime podcasters. We've gotten threats, so we take security seriously. We trust SimpliSafe to protect our family from burglars, criminals, and anyone who might do us harm.
- [19:16]
A
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- [19:32]
B
Back to it, Kurt stated he went straight to the top of his music stand in the corner of the room, grabbed his keys to his Pelican case, which contained his Glock 48 9mm handgun. Kurtz said he had purchased this handgun in September of this year when he traded in his Sig handgun he had since 2023. Kurtz had the Sigma. The Sig handgun was the first gun he had owned that he had bought it for the protection of his home but never carried it outside his home. When asked during the interview, Kurt said he has never shot either of these handguns when he owned them, not even at a range. Kurt said the only time he shot a gun before it was when he worked for the Navy. Kurt said that he was a psychiatric RN in the Navy and worked for the Navy 20 plus years. Yeah, I'm going to stop, but you want to stop too. I think if you own I'm not a gun guy, so I'm not a gun guy so don't come to me to ask me for how you should handle guns. But based on conversations I've had with people who own guns, if you own guns, you should use them regularly, keep up to date on how to use them, go to the range, make sure you know what you're doing. Don't just buy a gun and stick it in a drawer.
- [20:48]
A
I think it's important, you know, I mean, like I I we know a lot of gun owners, we know a lot of gun owners who I think are very responsible and they'll talk to us about, you know, what they do to keep their gun safe and to be safe when they're handling their gun. Whether that's just for fun if they're hunting, or if it's, you know, they're going to the range and, you know, practicing and things like that. I mean, it's. It's something that you want to, even if you're not. Even if it's really more for a safety measure. I think it's just important to educate yourself on how to use it safely. Now it sounds like he had some experience with firearms from his military service. And that's. And that's certainly good. It didn't sound like he was frequently using this. And, and again, that's kind of the difference between I feel like someone who's responsible and safety aware of saying, okay, here's the plan, here's the safe room, here's the gun, here's what I'm gonna do if this or that happens. I think most gun owners, when I've talked to them about this case, when people have reached out to us to share their own thoughts, a lot of them are gun owners and they're like, I would never shoot through a door because that's just I.
- [21:48]
B
You.
- [21:49]
A
You, a gun owner who is. Is up and up on everything, knows the devastating effect a gun can have. And they almost are like, more aware of that than people like us, where we're just kind of like, think about them hypothetically.
- [22:02]
B
One thing gun owners tell me is you never fire your gun unless you know exactly what you're aiming at.
- [22:08]
A
You never point your gun at anyone for any reason in joking, even if you know it's not loaded, because you never know it's all very serious. And you have very serious about using it to use it safely. And it just sounds like in this case, this guy maybe had some. Some thoughts on like, okay, I need to be prepared for this. But it, it doesn't really sound like he was.
- [22:30]
B
I'm gonna get back to it is. Kurt was opening the case, which had two small padlocks on it. He said he was hearing the commotion of the front door of the residence get more and more aggressive. Kurt stated that hearing this terrified him, that they were going to beat him. Before he returned, gained entry to his home and that his wife was still out in the loft. Kurt explained that he had to put the gun together by loading the magazine. As the gun is stored unloaded. Kurt said he had loaded the magazine into the handgun and racked the slide, but it slipped and he had to re rack the slide chamber around. After Kurt loaded the weapon, he said he proceeded out of the safe room towards the top of the stairwell. Kurt stated as he was moving toward the top of the stairwell, he told his wife, yoshi, who was still in the loft area to get in the safe room. Kurt said as he approached the top of the stairwell, he could hear and see that the individuals outside were still trying to get into his home. Kurt said he was positioned slightly off to the side of the stairwell at the top and could see two individuals from the same windows of the front door. Kurt described the individuals were thrusting at the front door to get in with what he described as becoming or getting more and more aggressive. And I want to stop there to point out that the physical evidence we discussed earlier does not indicate that they were being the least bit aggressive.
- [23:55]
A
It. Maybe it's possible they were, like, leaning down to try to get at the keys. I mean, I know, like, some. I'm terrible with keys. I can. I can, like sometimes if I'm in the dark or whatever, it's like, what am I doing wrong? Or, you know, like. Like you might, like, bend over or look at it more carefully. I don't know. I. It's. Here's the thing. When you're. When you're extremely scared, when you're extremely scared, every piece of information going into your brain is going to be reading as threat, threat, threat, threat. You're going to be looking at things that might be perfectly innocuous and still thinking, this is the threat. So you're interpreting it through that lens. So it's possible he was seeing something that he thought was real, but that the people outside are having a completely different experience. And Maria and Marisa are just like, hey, why is this not working? This is weird. You're like, let me try the key. Like. Like, it just shows you, like, this is why extreme fear plus firearms is. Is. Is equals tragedy.
- [24:50]
B
Back to it for a moment. Kurt referred to the moment the shot was fired as, quote, the incident and not as firing a shot. Kurt confirmed that the front door did not open prior to the incident occurring. And I'm going to stop there because I. I think it's an interesting example of he's trying to distance himself from what he did. He's not referring to it as when I fired the shot or when I shot the gun. He's just calling it the incident. That's a distancing tactic.
- [25:16]
A
Yeah. The incident could be something that someone else did. I mean, for. I mean, like, it's that vague. And it sounds like the wife also said that, you know, like, at. Like, he shot through the front door.
- [25:29]
B
Yeah, we'll get to her story. I'll get back to it. The reporting detective asked Kurt how long it Was after he retrieved his gun and was at the top of the stairs until the time he fired the round. And he said it was about 10 to 15 seconds. When asked, Kurt said he did not announce himself or say anything to the two individuals prior to firing the round. Lt. Minton stated to Kurt, I'm assuming you fired one round towards the door. To which Curt nodded his head yes. When asked after he fired the round, did he hear anything or did the commotion stop? Kurt responded that he heard a man crying out and weeping. Kurt said that he didn't know what he was hearing and if maybe he just scared them or something.
- [26:12]
A
Oh God. Let me just interrupt here. That's first of all heartbreaking but second of all I want to note like, I just want to say like in my opinion, reacting quickly and obtaining a weapon or a gun. If you believe that people might be who are not supposed to be there early in the morning or trying to get in your house, there's no problem there as far as I'm concerned personally getting a gun, being prepared. The problem for me here is that you're going from that to shooting through a door like that's an ins. Like that's an escalation that's boggles the mind.
- [26:50]
B
A more prudent step would have been.
- [26:51]
A
To call 911- call 911 and also alert whoever might be at your front door. I have a gun and the police are on the way. If, if they, I mean if they're savvy home invader burglars, they don't want any part of that and they will possibly leave. And if they for some reason decide to escalate by kicking down the door because all they want to do is kill you in this scenario, then you have a gun. I guess I'm just like there's certain steps here that you can understand and then there's just taking it to that thing where you do something as reckless as shoot through a door with in the matter of a minute without really knowing what's going on. That's where I'm like this is, this is really hard to believe.
- [27:31]
B
I'll get back to it. Kurt stated that after the incident happened he told yashi to call 91 1. Kurt said he stayed at the top of the stairs and Yashi grabbed her phone which was in the front southwest corner room of the second floor and down 91 1. Kurt said that Yashi came towards him and heard the dispatcher asking for the address and Yashi handed him the phone. Kurt told the dispatcher his address and said, please come, please come, please come. They are trying to get in. Kurt said he was holding the firearm in his right hand and the phone in his left hand. He did not know what to do with the gun. Kurt was asked about how long it was from the time he was awakened by the sound of the door until the shot was fired, and he replied that it was quick. It wasn't sure exactly how long. During the interview, Kurt drew the layout of the stairwell, front door of the loft and the rooms on the second floor. While on the phone with a 911 dispatcher, Kurt stated that the dispatcher told him the police had arrived. Kurt advised the reporting detective that while she told him that he told the dispatcher he still couldn't see the police at the time and said he was still scared of the individuals on the porch. While on the phone with 911, Kurt said the dispatcher told him he needed to put the gun down so Curt printed back on the spongy stuff on the gun case. Kurt said he wouldn't come downstairs because he still saw the individuals outside and was still afraid they might come in. Kurt said he saw a male on the phone and didn't know who he might be calling. This would have been when the husband of the victim was calling 911. Kurt said the dispatcher told him there were multiple officers on the scene and after some time, Kurt said he went to the southwest corner room on the second floor and peeked out the window. This is when he said he saw an officer outside the front with his gun drawn. He looked further out and saw all the police presence. Kurt said the dispatcher said he and his wife needed to come down the stairs with your hands up. Kurt told the dispatcher he was still scared of the individuals on the porch, that he wanted them off the porch to feel safe to come down. After some time, Kurt said he and his wife started to come down the stairs. Per the instructions from dispatcher. Kurt said he and his wife proceeded down the stairs with their hands up. As they got to the bottom of the stairs, Kurt said he saw an officer running across the street in the direction of the back of the house in a large police presence, so he felt more comfortable and knew they were going to be okay. Kurt said he told the dispatcher they were coming to the back of the house now. Kurt put the phone down on the kitchen table. Kurt said they exited the house through the backsliding door per instructions and were called back to the street where he and Yashi were detained by law enforcement officers. Do you Want to take over here?
- [30:17]
A
Yeah. Kurt told detectives that from the time he awoke to the. To the noise, to the incident occurring was over a minute after gathering the facts from Kurt, he was told of the outcome of his fired round, that the person that was shot was a female and part of a cleaning crew with her husband who had mistakenly went to the wrong address. Kurt became upset and immediately put his head down on the table. After some time, Kurt said he didn't mean for anything to happen to anybody. He also. He. I guess he was read his pertle warning for consent to search, and he was. He signed that and his iPhone 16 was forensically extracted by the WMPD Cyber Lab. So soon after the interview, Kurt was transported back to his home. There, at Kurt's request, he reenacted the events of the morning. This was video recorded by Lieutenant Minton.
- [31:03]
B
What's your takeaway?
- [31:06]
A
I just want to say this. Obviously, I don't. I mean, based on what was described here, I do not believe this man, like, set out to murder or kill anyone that day. He was frightened. That being said, I don't think anybody's extreme fear entitles them to take a life or to do things that sort of are so reckless that you could imagine they would take a life. And I would consider shooting a gun at anything that. It just seems this man should not have owned a weapon if he was not prepared to be a. A safe gun owner. Mistakes happen, okay? We get mailed to the wrong address. People might come to the wrong address. Like a kid might do a ding dong ditch. You know, like things that are innocuous might be here. Let me just tell you. The other day, I was listening to a video, kind of half paying attention in the background while doing something else. And suddenly I hear the doorbell ring. And I'm downstairs alone, and it's like 9pm 10pm it's late at night. Kevin's upstairs. I got really scared. I was freaked out because I was like, oh, my gosh, who would be coming this late at night? And I was scared I'm gonna go to the door and someone might try to push their way in. This is. I'm paranoid, right? I mean, like, this is. I. We do true crime. Like, I'm. This is how I think. And I'm kind of just like slowly trying to, like, look out the window in a way that no one can see and I don't see anyone. And I look outside, and then I realized, oh, my God. The doorbell sound was from the video.
- [32:33]
B
Yeah.
- [32:34]
A
So I was genuinely scared. But Then I try to, like, think about that situation, and it's like, would I. If I heard someone out there, or even if I didn't hear a doorbell, but I heard scuffling, would I ring the doorbell? I mean, would I not ring the doorbell? Would, like, would I shoot through the door? And the answer is no, because that would be insane. That would just be such a escalation. And I don't know what's going on. And I'm not saying you have to hesitate and wait to fire until someone's beating you or trying to kill you. Like, there's obviously, if someone kicked down the door and I had a gun, I would be completely justified in shooting them. But like, you, you can't just assume that that's what's happening.
- [33:15]
B
I think it's obvious here. The, number one, he was in fear of his life. But number two, that fear wasn't reasonable. So it goes back to what I said at the top of the show. The defense attorney says, it doesn't matter if his fear is reasonable or not. All that matters is that he had the fear. And the prosecutor says, no, it matters whether or not his fear was reasonable, and that's what it's all going to turn on. Does the law require that your fear be reasonable before you take deadly force? I hope that it does, because I don't want to live in a society or in a state where a person has license to kill other people just because they have a fear for their life, even if that fear is completely unreasonable.
- [33:57]
A
Here's the thing. We had trick or treaters recently. October 31st, Halloween. This was the first time we had trick or treaters in years because we've been. Every other year has been taken up by the Delphi case on Halloween. And so I was really excited and I got to give candy. We had a lot of kids come. It was awesome. What if I was. What if I was, like, a person where I see a kid approach dressed as a scary witch and I'm scared. Oh, no, maybe that's a real witch. Do I have. I mean, you know, if I'm the kind of person where I think that might be real. Do I. Am I justified to fire? I mean, through a door? No, like, there. There's. We need to like. And this is part of being a responsible gun owner, I think. Responsible gun owners who, like, look at this stuff. What. What. What will happen if I need to defend myself or my family and they're aware, at least. At least to a certain point, even if they're not like studying the laws they're aware of, like, what is self defense? And like, when is. When is that appropriate to do something that I can't take back. I can't take back shooting somebody. That's not a. You can. Like, if someone comes to your door and you yell, I will shoot you. If you come in and the police are on the way and they're still trying to force their way through, you can, you can bet that something's up and perhaps you will need to defend yourself. But if they're normal, like these people were, they were just trying to do their jobs, they're probably gonna back up and say, wait, wait, are we in the. Like, what's going on? Like, are we in the right place? I know I would. You have to give people a chance. You can't just shoot first and ask questions later. That's not a civilized society.
- [35:28]
B
And I'm also struck by the fact that he estimates that the time from the time he awoke to the incident was over a minute. That's not that long of a time. Can you think back to the last time you were asleep in the middle of the night and woke up, Some noise woke you up? Were you really doing your most. Your best thinking during that first.
- [35:51]
A
Oh, I was coming up with some great stuff. Kevin, you don't know. No, I mean, yeah, truly, it's like you have to take a breath and you have to. And I think that comes with experience and common sense and knowing what owning a gun, what responsibilities you have, and I think that comes with that. And I would say, you know, this is just seems like someone who was not prepared for that level of responsibility.
- [36:13]
B
And this is kind of an unusual case in that the basic facts seem to be readily apparent and agreed to by all is just going to turn on how the law is interpreted.
- [36:24]
A
I do want to take a couple of gleanings quickly from the Mauricio Perez Velasquez interview. This is her husband.
- [36:30]
B
Before we get that, can we just quickly say his wife also gave a statement. Mr. Anderson's wife?
- [36:35]
A
Yes.
- [36:35]
B
And I think it largely just confirms his story. I don't think we need to go into that.
- [36:38]
A
I'll just say one thing. Mrs. Anderson stated that Kurt woke up and stated what's going on and oh, shit, break in. Mrs. Anderson stated that Kurt began to panic. I think this is a very accurate assessment. He began to panic and he made bad decisions and that was, you know, out of panic and fear.
- [36:55]
B
One more thing I want to quickly say is there was a moment in the PCA where Mr. Anderson, when he's, like, talking to the police and has a phone, it says he didn't know what to do with the gun. I think it's apparent he didn't know what to do with the gun at any time, period.
- [37:08]
A
This man had no business owning a gun. He had no business. And again, he had the right to own a gun, but he had no business owning a gun. Like, there's like, a difference, you know, like, like, if you're not going to be familiarizing yourself with the weapon. That's why I don't want to own a gun. I wouldn't know what to do. And I frankly don't have a lot of time to be, like, taking classes on it or, like, learning or being taught by somebody. Like, I just, you know, it's, it's. If I was going to do it, you'd have to take some responsibility and make sure that you're a safe person to be owning that gun and that you're handling it in a way that is safe.
- [37:38]
B
So I apologize, I interrupted you. You wanted to make some comments about the interview given by the husband.
- [37:44]
A
You know, I, I, I. So one thing, that one other thing from Yashi Anderson was that, quote, Kurt never attempted to go down the stairs. So he didn't, like, go out or anything like that. And, and what she heard was someone fiddling with a doorknob as if someone was trying to insert keys. So that was, that was what she heard. Now it's Maria's husband. He speaks, he's only, he only speaks Spanish. So he, he spoke Spanish to Officer Alanis, who then translated what he said. And they were both part of this cleaning crew. They, they got the address from their boss and they attempted to unlock the door with the keys their boss had given them for that model home they were supposed to do. And he, after the shot, he looked in the window to see if anyone was there, and then he looked back and Maria had been shot. So he tried to render aid. He gave them the, his cell phone to search and, like, look at everything. And he, quote, confirmed that the orders his boss sent him to, sent to his phone were still there and that he received them yesterday evening. He further explained that it was just a text message, not an email or paper document. Mauricio stated that he had the keys from his boss, that it was common practice to obtain them in advance. Mauricio added that sometimes they would be given the alarm code, et cetera, if they needed to gain access to the residence. End quote. So this was the first day going to this specific residence. Maria was the one with the keys. She was the one trying to gain access. They were trying to gain access for 30 seconds to a minute using different keys they had. They might have thought, oh, we must have put the wrong one in. I've been there, you know, like, if you're trying to get into a place, you know, and you're not, you're new to it, you might say, wait, was this the right key or is this the right key? Especially if they have a lot of these houses they have to do. He didn't ever heard anything inside. He didn't hear yelling, he didn't hear movement. Just the one shot that was, that was the first indication anything was wrong. He said they didn't bang on the door, they didn't knock on the door. They normally wouldn't do that because they're going into these homes that are usually like empty. They don't, like. They're instructed, just go in and go clean it. They didn't call the boss to inform him. I mean, again, they had 30 seconds to a minute to react to this. The homeowner never exited. They. Some of the houses they clean have furniture, some don't. They noticed this one had furniture inside through the window. And he never tried to open the door again after she had been shot through the head. And he said it took place around 6:50am on his phone there was a 911 call. And from that, the time they arrived until he called 911 was approximately two minutes. Think about that. That's a very short amount of time. He did not yell out or say anything to the people inside the residence. He was speaking to his wife after she was shot and he was crying. That's so heartbreaking. There were no vehicles in the driveway or on the street in front of the residence. According to him, there were no lights inside the residence. They were going to a model house, but his GPS kept sending them to the residents, the Anderson residence. He said to his understanding no one should have been living there because it was a model home and that he said that usually his boss sends him a link and that the GPS takes them to that residence. So they circled this home a few times. The GPS caped kept taking them back to that place. And apparently they looked at it and they saw that the address was for a new home east of that address. And I think we've all experienced something like that with gps, like where you're trying to get somewhere and for some reason Google Maps or Apple doesn't like it. Have you ever had that?
- [41:26]
B
Yeah, all the time.
- [41:27]
A
All the time. And so it's like they were at the wrong address. Make no mistake, they were at the wrong address. This was not where they were supposed to go. But it sounds like there was just confusion and problems with Google Maps. And sometimes when you're dealing with that, you just kind of like, okay, maybe it is this. You know, like you kind of are like, well, I don't know. It keeps sending me here or near here. I don't see anything over there. So it must be this. So, I mean, I think what they did was understandable. I don't think they did anything super risky or wild or like they did anything wrong. It was just a mistake. It was an error and it should have been cleared up with a conversation. And if it was cleared up with a conversation and the Andersons then wanted to, like, chew out the bosses of the company and say, how dare you send people to our house like, early in the morning. This was really scary. Then it would just be something that would have passed over and everyone would have been okay. But unfortunately, Kurt Anderson made the choice to fire a gun through a door, a deadbolted, locked door. It sounded like in his mind he had all these, like, visions of like people with lock picking tools at his door doing all sorts of things. And he's just in a panic and I have to go to the safe room and I have to get the gun.
- [42:29]
B
I've watched all these videos for this.
- [42:31]
A
Moment and it's like, no, no, no, no. Like, you have to be a safe person. You can't do that. That's not safe. That's not good. You have to accept that sometimes people make mistakes and they don't deserve to die over that.
- [42:46]
B
Call 911 if you want to get your gun, get your gun, but call 91 1. You don't fire through a closed door in your mind.
- [42:54]
A
We've talked about how we weren't sure whether, based on the facts of the case, whether this was going to rise to the level of manslaughter. Obviously, the prosecutor of Boone county thinks now that, you know, this does rise to manslaughter.
- [43:10]
B
Yes.
- [43:11]
A
And do you agree with that?
- [43:13]
B
Yeah. As I say, the defense is going to argue that all that matters is that he was scared.
- [43:20]
A
Kent Eastwood is the prosecutor of Boone county. So he's, he's the one. There's been, you know, there's been times where he's been looking at this case and sort of time has passed in terms of making the determination of whether a crime was committed. He obviously thinks that man, voluntary manslaughter in this situation was appropriate. The defense certainly will argue, hey, he, it doesn't matter what, whether or not it's reasonable. It matters that he was, he felt it was reasonable and that it was, it was a scary situation which I, I, I grant you it would be scary for this to happen to anybody. The question is, is it so scary that it justifies shooting through a dead, bolted, locked door?
- [43:56]
B
And the defense attorney is an individual guy Ralford, who kind of specializes in second amendment and gun laws.
- [44:04]
A
Okay, so it's going to be sort of a gun, gun focused case about, you know, like is it, you know. Well, I guess we'll see. We'll see. Obviously a lot of outrage on this on the side of the Velasquez family. People are, we're very angry and we're going to see how this progresses going forward. But since we covered it on a cheat sheet recently, we just wanted to keep you all updated on the recent news. I know there was a press conference with the prosecutor recently, but we just figured focusing on the PCA is kind of giving us the most facts about what happened.
- [44:36]
B
So thanks for listening.
- [44:36]
A
Thank you.
- [44:38]
B
Thanks so much for listening to the Murder Sheet. If you have a tip concerning one of the cases we cover, Please email us murdersheetmail.com if you have actionable information about an unsolved crime, please report it to the appropriate authorities.
- [44:59]
A
If you're interested in joining our Patreon, that's available at www.patreon.com murdersheet if you want to tip us a bit of money for records requests, you can do so at www. Buymeacoffee.com murdersheet we very much appreciate any support.
- [45:22]
B
Special thanks to Kevin Tyler Greenlee who composed the music for the Murder Sheet and who you can find on the web@kevintg.com if you're looking to talk with.
- [45:33]
A
Other listeners about a case we've covered, you can join the Murder Sheet discussion group on Facebook. We mostly focus our time on research and reporting, so we're not on social media much. We do try to check our email account, but we ask for patience as we often receive a lot of messages. Thanks again for listening. We've run into some pretty creepy people in our true crime journey and we've even gotten some threats as a result. Safety is often top of mind for Kevin and I.
- [46:03]
B
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A
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A
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