#551 - The Hammer Hands Killer - Yankton, South Dakota

Summary

Small Town Murder - Episode #551: The Hammer Hands Killer - Yankton, South Dakota

Introduction In episode #551 of Small Town Murder, hosts James Pietragallo and Jimmie Whisman delve into the chilling case of Tamara Fram Boise, a 45-year-old woman from Yankton, South Dakota, whose tragic disappearance and subsequent murder shook the quiet community. Combining meticulous research with their signature comedic flair, the hosts explore the complexities of small-town life, the harrowing journey of the investigation, and the enigmatic figure at the center of the crime.

Case Background Tamara Fram Boise, born on December 7, 1972, had a tumultuous life marked by frequent relocations during her childhood. Moving from Albuquerque to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, and later to Aberdeen, S.D., and Washburn, Wisconsin, Tamara exhibited a pattern of adaptability and charm, effortlessly making friends wherever she went. Despite her outgoing nature, Tamara struggled with methamphetamine addiction, leading to multiple arrests and probation violations. Her mother, Mary, remained deeply concerned about her daughter's well-being, especially as Tamara's behavior became increasingly erratic.

Disappearance and Investigation On March 1, 2019, Tamara failed to show up for her scheduled shift at the Humane Society in Yankton, prompting her mother to report her missing on March 5. Surveillance footage from Walmart showed Tamara exiting the store and entering a pickup truck driven by her boyfriend, Steven Falkenberg. Falkenberg, a physically imposing man with a history of brain injury from a car accident in 1993, presented a conflicting narrative about the events leading to Tamara's disappearance.

Notable Quotes:

• James Pietragallo [07:00]: "Yankton is commonly referred to as the River City due to its proximity to the Missouri River and the importance of the river in the whole area."
• Jimmie Whisman [11:30]: "The whole river right up your ass and in your back door."
• James Pietragallo [28:15]: "This story begins with a mother that can't find her daughter... she's been missing for four days."

Steven Falkenberg's Role Steven's involvement became the focal point of the investigation. Initially described as non-confrontational and hardworking, Steven's broken hand raised suspicions. Upon deeper scrutiny, it became evident that his explanations about injuring his hand were inconsistent, aligning more with physical altercations rather than accidental falls or punching icicles. Witness testimonies revealed that Steven could dismember a body with his bare hands, a claim supported by forensic evidence indicating tool markings consistent with power tools.

Trial and Verdict The trial was marked by graphic details of Tamara's dismemberment, which occurred post-mortem, complicating the determination of the exact cause of death. The prosecution argued that Steven acted with a depraved mind, disregarding human life, to conceal the murder. Despite his defense team's attempts to attribute his actions to methamphetamine-induced impairments and his traumatic brain injury, the jury found Steven guilty of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter on January 13, 2020.

Notable Quotes:

• Jimmie Whisman [60:20]: "She tried to kick the glass out of the squad car as well."
• James Pietragallo [125:45]: "You gotta be kidding me. But it's, that's 60 hours, man."
• Prosecutor Douglas Barnett [128:11]: "The night's actions indicate a pattern of deceit and concealment, revealing a depraved mind."

Community Reactions and Aftermath The verdict elicited mixed emotions within Yankton. While some expressed relief that justice was served, others grappled with the gruesome nature of the crime and Steven's previously unblemished reputation among acquaintances. Tamara's mother and children remain devastated, seeking closure and the return of Tamara's missing body parts to achieve peace according to their cultural and personal beliefs.

Notable Quotes:

• Mary Fram Boise [140:00]: "They not only have to deal with the loss of their loved one, but the progress of the criminal case."
• Prayer Vigil Organizer Francis Zephier [142:39]: "What I saw today was a man that has no remorse. What I saw said, 'I always think when you walk into a courtroom, you'll see what a monster looks like.'"

Conclusion Small Town Murder episode #551 presents a harrowing account of Tamara Fram Boise's life and untimely death, highlighting the intricate interplay between personal struggles, small-town dynamics, and the relentless pursuit of justice. Through detailed narration and insightful commentary, James and Jimmie shed light on the darker undercurrents that can surface in seemingly tranquil communities.

Notable Quotes:

• James Pietragallo [162:15]: "Thank you so much, everybody. You guys are the fucking best and you're always there for us."
• Jimmie Whisman [163:35]: "We have to do this."

Key Takeaways:

• The case underscores the impact of substance abuse on personal relationships and community safety.
• Steven Falkenberg's physical prowess and complicated personal history played a pivotal role in both the crime and subsequent investigation.
• The graphic nature of the dismemberment presented challenges in legally establishing the cause of death, yet ultimately led to a conviction based on the pattern of Steven's actions.

Final Thoughts This episode serves as a stark reminder of the hidden turmoil that can exist beneath the surface of small-town life. It also emphasizes the importance of thorough investigations and the complexities involved in prosecuting crimes that cross jurisdictional boundaries. James and Jimmie’s blend of detailed storytelling and humor offers listeners a comprehensive yet engaging exploration of one of Yankton’s most disturbing cases.

---

Listener Advisory: This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence and may not be suitable for all audiences.

Transcript

[James Petrigallo]

Audible's best of 2024 picks are here. Discover the year's top audiobooks, podcasts and originals in all your favorite genres, from memoirs and sci fi, mysteries and thrillers. Audible's curated list in every category is the best way to hear 2024's best in audio entertainment, like a stunning new full cast production of George Orwell's 1984 heartfelt memoirs like Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's lovely one. The year's best fiction like the Women by Kristin Hannah and Percival Everett's brilliantly Sub. Right now I'm listening to Starkweather by Harry N. Maclean about the murderer Charles Starkweather. It's pretty good. I can recommend that to you as well. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Go to audible.com smalltownmurder and discover the years best waiting for you. Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co founder of angie and one thing I've learned is that you buy a house, but you make it a home. Because with every fix, update and renovation, it becomes a little more your own. So you need all your jobs done well. For nearly 30 years, Angie has helped millions of homeowners hire skilled pros for the projects that matter, from plumbing to.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Electrical roof repair to deck upgrades. So leave it to the pros who.

[James Petrigallo]

Will get your jobs done well. Hire high quality Certified [e-mail] Hey everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you about Uncommon Goods. Spark something uncommon this holiday with just the right gift from Uncommon Goods. The holiday season is busy and it's here. And Uncommon Goods makes it less stressful with incredible handpicked gifts for everyone on your list. All in one spot. When you shop at Uncommon Goods, what you're doing is supporting artists, small independent businesses. You know, people like us. Yeah, yeah, good people. Many of the handcrafted products are made in small batches. So shop before they sell out. Cause these things sell out. Small things. It's not a big giant manufacturing thing. And looking around on the site, I already found things. Good presents for this holiday? Absolutely. Gonna have some stuff made for people. I think. Let's make it personal here. It's perfect.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Ye.

[James Petrigallo]

And with every purchase you make at Uncommon Goods, they give back $1 to a nonprofit partner of your choice. You even get to pick. They've donated more than $3 million to date. To get 15% off your next gift, go to uncommongoods.com smalltownmurder that's uncommongoods.com SmallTownMurder for 15% off don't miss out on this limited time offer uncommon goods. We're all out of the ordinary.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petrigallo]

This week in Yankton, South Dakota, a woman's disappearance raises red flags, especially when her boyfriend shows up to talk to police with a broken hand and a story that doesn't quite add up. Welcome to Small Town Murder. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yay.

[James Petrigallo]

Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co host.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm Jimmy Wissman.

[James Petrigallo]

Thank you so much for joining us today on another crazy edition of Small Town Murder. We got some more weirdness here. We're going to the, I guess the upper plains there. We're going to South Dakota for some weirdness up there. Well, you know, we don't go to the Dakotas very often because there's not a lot of people and not a ton of murders. So when we are there, you know, it's a crazy one. And it is today. I'll tell you that much for sure. Definitely head over to Shut up and give me murder.com if you're listening here. Definitely get your tickets, last minute tickets here to the live shows in Tarrytown and in Boston. Get those right now because they're just about gone. So get in there and be a part of a giant. Shut up and give me murder. Tarrey Town. We're filming as well. So get your voice heard and get in there. And we will be, I believe it's a week or sometime in the next week, week and a half. We will be coming out with the 2025 tour dates and you can buy the tickets and everything like that. So we can't wait for that. Lots of new cities that we didn't get to this year. So fantastic. Can't wait for that. Patreon is something else you need.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

Patreon.com Crime in sports is where you get all of the bonus episodes. You say, why is it Crime in Sports, that's our other podcast that you should listen to. But either way, anybody, $5 a month or above, you get hundreds of back episodes, hundreds of ones you've never heard before, released to you immediately upon subscription with new ones every other week. One Crime in Sports and one Small Town Murder. And you have it all. Just take it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You do.

[James Petrigallo]

You take it. We don't want to talk about it. Just take it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We don't want to parse about it.

[James Petrigallo]

$5. Just have it all. We don't care. Have the whole Thing this week, what we have for crime and sports. We're going to talk about a United Kingdom soccer sex abuse scandal. Yeah, yeah. Think Penn State over the on the other side of the ocean. Gross. Stop. Then for small town murder. We're going to talk about a little bit of the lifestyles involved in the cult baby murder trial participants here. Polygamy, pee drinking.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's bizarre.

[James Petrigallo]

It's wild. It's the most bizarre thing you're ever going to hear about. So we'll talk.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Weird choices were made.

[James Petrigallo]

He talks. The guy keeps talking about physics. Physics, pee drinking. It's too much polygamy. All the peas are here. It's going to be wild stuff. Talk all about it. That is patreon.com/crime and sports. That said, disclaimer time. It's a comedy show. First and foremost, we are comedians. So there's going to be jokes here. Now, that doesn't mean that the story is less real or anything like that. Unfortunately, every last detail of these stories is real. That's the scary part. But there is so much murder in the world, you know, however you want to look at that sadly happens a lot that once in a while they're insane. And we talk about those. So that's how that works here. And what we do is we go out of our way not to make fun of the victims or the victims families.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Why, James?

[James Petrigallo]

Because we're assholes.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yes, but.

[James Petrigallo]

But we're not scumbags. That's how that goes. See, that's nice stuff. So if you think true crime and comedy though, never ever should go together, maybe we're not for you. I don't know. That's why we're warning you ahead of time. Either way, no complaining. You've been warned. What are you doing here? But for the rest of you that want to hear just an unbelievably weird story, as always, I think it's time to sit back, everybody. Let's all clear the lungs, let's say, and arms to the sky. And let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Here we go.

[James Petrigallo]

Let's go on a trip, shall we?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

Oh, boy. We are going on up to South Dakota today, right? Going to Yankton, which if you've watched Deadwood, you've heard the word, you've heard the name of that town about 7 trillion times. Because everything, it was the center of the kind of Territorial Dakota where all the political power was. So everybody had to always go to Yankton to get stuff done.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Always worried about what was happening in Yankton.

[James Petrigallo]

Always. What are they doing in Yankton? What are they talking about?

[Jimmy Wissman]

We can't. We can't get word back to Yankton about what we're doing over here.

[James Petrigallo]

That son of a bitch in Yankton's trying to screw me over. That's all it ever was. So this is in South Extreme now. The Pinkertons are coming from Yankton to bother us. Great. Watch Deadwood if you haven't everybody. Fuck. It's good. So this is in extreme southeastern South Dakota. Way over in the southeast part of the state. It is. Closest city here, really is about two and a half hours to Omaha, which is Nebraska. Yeah, no, Omaha up there. It's about six and a half hours to Lemon, South Dakota, which is our last South Dakota episode, which was Twin Marrying Madness. That was crazy. That's where the guy married one twin, got divorced, married her again, then got divorced, then married her twin sister. And somehow that ended up with murder. Shocking, right? Very surprising. That was a crazy story. This is in Yankton County. It is area code 605. And the motto of this town. They have a motto or a nickname, I should say. Mother City of the Dakotas. Oh, yeah. That's a claim. That's quite the claim. It all comes forth from me just from here. According to Deadwood, though, like we've discussed, it sounds like it was. It was. Right? So it's.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, it's the place that started everything or at least was in charge of everything.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah. Yankton is commonly referred to as the River City due to its proximity to the Missouri river and kind of the importance of the river in the whole area. Because, as we know, everybody settled near water first pretty much because they needed to be able to get other places and, you know, by water. They're send their goods away. They call it the mother city of the Dakotas due to the early important role it played in the creation and development of the territory which. The Dakota Territory, which then became the 39th and 40th states of north and South Dakota. Here they started. Apparently the early exploration of this place was of Fort Hayes limestone to. For. They made cement there. I guess it was cement manufacturing. And that would shipment. They would ship cement to the construction of the Panama Canal. At one point, they made so much cement there. Yank, did you know.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Did you know, James, that that's the. The largest construction project ever that had the most casualties?

[James Petrigallo]

Oh, I know. So many people died.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So many.

[James Petrigallo]

So many people. There was no. Yeah. That made the Hoover Dam look like nothing. There was nothing. No, that was international shit, people. Just. Who do you have that we can. Who do you have that we can throw in a deep hole and no one will miss is what it was. It was crazy. That shit was wild. So, yeah, Yankton, at one point, not only was it the mother city of the Dakotas, it had the nickname of Cement City.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

Which doesn't sound attractive at all for, like, a picturesque place up there. So in 1861, the territorial government was established with the city of Yankton and designated as the first capital of Dakota territory. So it was the capital. During. Until it became an actual state, it was the capital. That's why all that shit in Deadwood was going through there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What's the capital now?

[James Petrigallo]

South Dakota. Pierre. Pierre, I believe. Yeah. Pierre. Yeah. Because Bismarck is North Dakota. They published their first newspaper, the Weekly Dakotan, there as well. And the steamboat trade flourished there until 1873 when the railroad line connected. Shit. And then they were like, why are we using steamboats? This is so inefficient here. They also have the nfaa, the National Field Archery association moved its headquarters from Redlands, Redland, California, to Yankton, South Dakota. And they have some very weird Ted Nugent Kids archery weekend there every year. Send your kid to hang out with Ted Nugent for a weekend. A weird thing to do in the Dakotas. Nope. But this is where archery is. So reviews of this town, they range. Let's just say that here's five stars. It is fantastic. Exclamation point.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

Even though there isn't much to do in the winter times, you can always look forward to having the river nearly in your back door. Not at your back door. It's in your back door. A whole river.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The whole river right up your ass.

[James Petrigallo]

Right up your ass and in your back door. Next one is four stars. It's long, but this person's. I love their first sentence, so we have to use it. Four stars, quote, I have no social life, but still feel content here. I think that sums up a lot of what you know, not a lot to hang out and do. There's a combination of old and young people. The sky is blue during the day like this versus just.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, just being alive right there.

[James Petrigallo]

Where is there not a combination of old and young people? It is a very calm, easygoing place where anyone and everyone is usually helpful. It's hard to get lost as it's a small, well connected community. There is diversity in shopping centers. Right. Meaning different strip malls that you can get. One has a Panera Bread. While the other has a target. You know, like, it sounds great.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sounds like there's a little of something for everybody.

[James Petrigallo]

Apparently that's what this person's trying to say. Choices for dining out or in are innumerable. Just too many to even count. The roads are well maintained. Houses are kept up. The town is expanding at a steady pace. There is natural parks and lakes for all sorts of activities. Outside, the weather is nice almost all the time. There are miles of empty roads waiting to be explored. The wifi is usually good. The whole town is not responsible for your wifi, dude. Nothing to do with it. No frequent outages. Residents are usually calm and don't riot. It's a small town in South Dakota. What the.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What were you expecting?

[James Petrigallo]

I'm gonna. Spoiler alert. There's about 15,000 people in this town. How many 15,000 person towns have riots? There's barely enough people for a riot. You need more than that for a riot, don't you? Holy shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

If the Internet goes down, you better watch out, James. All 15,000.

[James Petrigallo]

Oh, that's why the wifi strong. Keep them occupied so they don't riot all the time.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Keep them distracted.

[James Petrigallo]

Wow. Local stores are nice and usually kept well inside and out. All sorts of personality. A minimum security jail for petty crimes is nearby. Holidays sparkle with life. Residents love to decorate and celebrate the holidays with neighbors. The local swimming pool was recently renovated and can now accommodate all. All of them, as opposed to who was allowed there before. We even take. We even take Jews and minorities and such now. What are they talking about? I understand it's probably handicap access now, is what they're getting.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Nerds, ropes and shit.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, everything. People who like, you know, licorice. It doesn't matter. Even black licorice people, they can come too, which I don't mind. Black licorice. I know that's controversial. A lot of people hate it. Yeah, I don't mind it. Not bad. Two stars here. There isn't much around here. The town of Yankton has around 17,000 people. There's a Walmart, a Kmart, and a Walgreens, and that's about it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's not good.

[James Petrigallo]

No. We have a mall, but there are probably nine stores in it. There are more fast food restaurants than our sit down restaurants. So this is very different from what that other person told us.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And when was that posted? Because I thought the last Kmart just closed down.

[James Petrigallo]

That was posted in 2018. So they could have. They could. You know what? Who knows where the. Where the Kmarts ended up. The last Kmarts are probably in places like this, like in the middle of nowhere. Finally, one star. Yankton has a serious all caps drug problem.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Does it?

[James Petrigallo]

It is nicknamed Crank Town.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petrigallo]

Or Crankton would probably be better, but they needed to put that W in there. Employers used to have a zero tolerance on drugs. Now the policy is one positive test and you get a slap on the wrist. This site listing for housing and rent prices is ridiculous and way too low. We use a different site. Don't worry. Wages stink and turnover is over 35%. People move here thinking it's a great place and move back to where they came from. After six months, there's nowhere to shop. Kmart closed. As did Pennies.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It did?

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, it did. It closed. Kmart and the Pennies are both closed. Gas prices are usually at least a dime higher than surrounding communities. Oh, no, not a dime. Geez. Next thing you know, let's not talk about the price of stamps going up. This guy's gonna head's gonna blow up. Some houses have junkyards in front of the house and the city does nothing. Drive down Broadway, the main highway through Crank Town, and look at the dilapidated houses lining the street. Utility bills are outrageous. He's just picking comp. Just angry shit out of the air.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This is a man that doesn't want to. Or a woman that doesn't want to spend a dime on anything.

[James Petrigallo]

No, there's no congruity to any of these complaints. Just as they come free. Yep. They always list household income. Not saying it is at least three different jobs to exist in Crank Town. Though the drugs flow freely and the paper arrest reports always include arrests for drugs and probation violations. Okay, I don't. I don't get that guy at all. Okay. Population of this town. People. 15,332 people. Few more males than females. It's like the opposite of what's normally. It's over 51% male. I think there's a lot of like, outdoor jobs going on here. Median age is 40. It's a little older than 38, which is the average. Few less married people here than usual. Everything else is pretty on the money, though. Divorce rate, widow rate, Everything is pretty normal. Race of this town, 85.2% white, 1.8% black.2% Asian, 3.9% Native American, which, that's a lot actually of Native American in the whole country. It's 0.6% Native American.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So it's like 4%.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah. And then 6% Hispanic here. 68.2 of the percent of the people here are religious, which is wow, very. It's approaching like small town Mississippi numbers here and the most, the highest. There's a lot of Lutherans first of all, as this area. Yeah, Minnesota is a lot of Lutherans.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That sort of thing.

[James Petrigallo]

33.3% are Catholic. Didn't know that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's high.

[James Petrigallo]

I don't understand that. Apparently Catholics are the Baptists of the mid northern plains region. I don't fucking know. That is wild Grain Baptist. Grain Baptist, 0.0% Jewish though that we do know. Cost of living here overall here, 100 is regular. Average here it is 82.7. So healthcare is really expensive here. Housing is actually cheaper though. Median home cost here, 238,800 bucks. Which is still pretty steep for what you get. Yeah. When I tell you about this. And you know what, maybe you're going to move here, you're going to reopen that Kmart. You can do it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There's a market open.

[James Petrigallo]

There is a big place for a spirit Halloween store to go to. We have for you the Yankton, South Dakota real estate report. Your average two bedroom rental here. Very much cheaper than the rest of the country. $830. So yeah, about two thirds of the rest of country here is. This house is crazy. It's a one bedroom, one bath. So I guess t bowl for each and every B hole, I suppose for just your 1B hole. 418 square feet. It's not. It's a house.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's a house.

[James Petrigallo]

That's an actual. And it's not like a new fangled fucking tiny house like from HGTV. This was built in 1920. So they were making tiny houses in 1920. And it's this one, it's this little tiny box and then it's got a little one car garage that looks like it's the same fucking size as the house. It's crazy. It's like you just have two houses kind of.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It. It's kind of a dream, you know what I mean? Like where you have nobody and have nothing.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, that's not a dream. It's a very simple life to have nobody or anything. Yeah, that's a very.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Have nobody nothing. Just you and your truck.

[James Petrigallo]

Just that you might as well live in a truck. It's nearly the same size. It says welcome to your new haven. This quaint, well maintained home is perfect. Quaint means extremely tiny. Well maintained home is perfect for first time buyers or those looking to downsize. I would say downsize a lot. Just get out of prison looking to downsize. We have something for you then. They say it's featuring a cozy layout. There's no other way to make that but cozy. It's 400 square feet. Your bed's on top of your stove.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Stretch out. Are not. Are not things you can do.

[James Petrigallo]

Shit. No 93,000 bucks for that though. It is yours for under 100,000.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So you can do that any land at all?

[James Petrigallo]

Oh no, no, no. Real tiny little lot that it barely fits on. Here is a five bedroom, two bath, 22 four square foot house here on 36 acres. So a decent sized lot built in 1917. A lot of these houses are old, old, old. It sits nice. It says there's plenty of room to play catch or fetch. That's how they describe the yard. Front porch is perfect for relaxing with a friend and enjoying the weather. Not your kids, not your relatives, only a friend. What a weird real estate listing. So strange. I was like what is that? Relaxing with a friend. It needs some serious updating on the inside. It's got. It's old in there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

1917, shit.

[James Petrigallo]

Not quite that but 1989 maybe. It doesn't look great in there. 229,000 bucks for that though.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's not bad.

[James Petrigallo]

Not bad for a decent sized house. And finally four bedroom, five bath. T ball for all your B holes. Each and every B hole. 6,227 square feet. Huge. It backs right up to Lewis and Clark lake.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They must have been there.

[James Petrigallo]

It's apparently so it's on 1.50 acres. Yeah definitely when they came up there. Because I remember all their stories of the natives in that area. 1.5 acres. So nice. Really nice inside too. It's pretty. It's done really. It's not done cheesy or it's done like rustic with like nice beams. Big giant stone fireplace in the living room that looks like it's in a lodge or something. It's really nice. Big giant circular driveway around it. 1,649,000 bucks. So. But it's little pricey.

[Jimmy Wissman]

7,000 square feet of house.

[James Petrigallo]

It's a lot of house. That's a lot of houses and a lake and there's nothing around it. There's like no next door neighbor on top of you. It's. You're by yourself. It's pretty nice. Pretty nice place. There things to do in this town. This is the thing. Every review almost had talked about this event I had. So I had to get rid of those because we were going to talk about it the Yankton Riverboat Days and Summer Arts Festival.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They got a riverboat, huh?

[James Petrigallo]

They got a riverboat. They're all about the river there. And one of the things they have on the website is these two just middle aged people standing there with captain's hats on. And they're a man and a woman and they're the 20, 24 captain and bell captain and his bell there, it says, congratulations to our new captain and bell, Tom and Kelly Holstrom.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Congratulations.

[James Petrigallo]

Let's all do it together, everybody. Congratulations, Tom and Kelly Holstrom. This year's Riverboat Days theme is a journey through history. The magnificent Meridian, coinciding with the hundredth anniversary of Yankton's Meridian Bridge. Now, in this there is a kiddie centipede train, which I don't like that at all. That makes Kitty Human. Centipede does not sound good at all. I think that's going to be bad. The Dakota Dance Association Cancan.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

All right, and then let's get to the entertainment. Here we have Elizabeth Jo.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What does she do?

[James Petrigallo]

What do you think she does? Well, she sings. It says. What do you think she sings, Elizabeth Jojo? It says she grew up on a farm right outside of Tabor, South Dakota, and attended Bonhomme High School. She was influenced by country music at a young age with influences such as. What do you think?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Joe Lambert.

[James Petrigallo]

Boom. That's one. She has three listed, Martin. No, no, no.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The other chick from American Idol. The blonde. Gary Underwood.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, that's two. Two out of three. Miranda Lambert, Gary Underwood. One more. You can do it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Taylor Swift.

[James Petrigallo]

No, no, no.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Shit.

[James Petrigallo]

She's a little. These are Martina McBride.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How are you going with Martina?

[James Petrigallo]

Maybe her mom listened to her. I don't know. She started playing guitar and writing her music around the age of 12. Now she's ready to go here. While in Nashville, she's played at such bars as Tootsies, Honky Tonk Central.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petrigallo]

Kid rocks on Rippies and Rippies on Broadway.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, she's played in all the bigs.

[James Petrigallo]

And she even recorded and released her first single, ride Away Cowboy. It was streaming on all platforms. Take a hike, asshole. Then there is. Clayton Mullen will be there. West coast born and east coast raised, it says. It wasn't until Clayton found himself in the heart of the Texas music scene that his musical journey began. Started writing songs in his college frat house. This sounds very country, doesn't it?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

West coast, east coast, frat house. Holy shit. Opening for artists like Chris Lane, Corey Kent, Warren Zeter's Randall King, Adam Doliak and the Josh Abbott Band.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Very nice.

[James Petrigallo]

Okay, Sounds great.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They're headliners now. He's. He's done it.

[James Petrigallo]

That's what he opened for, I would hope. They're fucking headliners. So. Yeah, he's doing all of that. There's also Randy Hauser.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, yeah. He's the worst.

[James Petrigallo]

Racked up over a half a dozen hits and a billion streams.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

His How Country Feels album topped the charts with the title track, Running out of moonlight and Good Night Kiss. And he earns.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Those are enormous songs, James.

[James Petrigallo]

And it's hilarious because I've never heard of them. I might as well be reading in Swahili right now. I have no fucking idea what I'm talking about. To me, this is just. Sounds like.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I love hearing you say how country feels.

[James Petrigallo]

I don't know. I don't know any of this. I've never been more out of my element. It's like I took you to my relative's house and everybody was talking in Italian. You'd go, what's happening right now? What are they saying? Is it about me? That's how I feel. I don't get it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And running. Because there's no G on that. Running out of moonlight.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, Running out of moonlight. That I know it's on there. Running out of moonlight. That's why I made sure to. Running. Because it's written like that. It's written like that. He even was a nominated CMA song of the year. Like a cowboy. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's his best song. Truly.

[James Petrigallo]

Like a Rhinestone. Not that one. No, not that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No.

[James Petrigallo]

It's the only one I know. I don't know.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's gonna ride in James like a cowboy.

[James Petrigallo]

I'm sure he is. I'm sure he's just like a cowboy. Christ.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

Get the fuck out of here. Also, they are. What is this? Lit will be headlining Saturday night. Yeah. Along with Diamante at the. I don't know who the fuck that is either. Here they really are.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I think that's a big one, though.

[James Petrigallo]

They're talking about Lit a lot. Hard charging hits. Like. We know those. We know they are actually, you know. You know, Lit. Diamante spent her teenage years cutting her teeth at local gigs on the Sunset Strip. Okay.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Poor thing.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, no shit. She's been groped. Probably. That's not good.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She's heard some awful things.

[James Petrigallo]

Awful, awful stories. Awful stories. That said crime rate in this town.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Here we go.

[James Petrigallo]

Well, we are interested here. Property crime is a little bit above average, actually. Which is it's 17,000 people. It seems like there shouldn't be that much property crime and then violent crime, murder, rape, robbery, and of course, assault. The Mount Rushmore of crime is right at the national average. Oh, I don't know what's going on up here, why these people are doing so much crime, but seems like a lot for a small town that's like in the middle of nowhere. This isn't like outside Memphis or something. Like a. Like a cowboy. They're going to tear this place apart. Holy shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

That said, let's talk about some murder.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Here we go.

[James Petrigallo]

All right. This story, man. Holy shit. This story begins with a mother that can't find her daughter, her adult daughter, her 45 year old daughter, as a matter of fact, very much adult daughter can't find her. It is in 2019, March 5, 2019. This mother calls the cops because she has not talked to her daughter since March 1, 2019, which is four days.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

And they usually talk constantly. So there's. The mother doesn't like that. She can't get a hold of her. And she's even. They've looked for her. This woman's. The mother's the daughter who's missing or she thinks is missing. This woman's son has a key to her apartment. So she goes over and he goes over twice a day to check and see if she came back or if she's there. You know, the mother is calling and texting all of her daughter's friends trying to find anything out. So it's not like she just disappeared. And people are like, oh, I'm worried for no reason, like no one had seen her. And her mother is in New Mexico at the time. Oh, she can't even in Albuquerque. No, she's doing all this by phone trying to find her daughter here. She said that last time she heard from her daughter, her daughter called her from work at Wilson Trailer Company where she does machine work there. And yeah, her daughter had called her and she said hasn't heard from her since. Hey, everybody, just gonna take a quick break from the show and tell you more about our safest sponsor, Simplisafe. If you ever worry about the safety of your home and family, there's no better time to act than right now. Simplisafe is the home security that we trust. That is a fact. We've been using it for, I think seven years now. And it brings great peace of mind. It's fantastic. You know, your stuff is protected. You knowing your home is protected 24,7 by SimpliSafe is a huge relief. Get 50% off today just by visiting simplisafe.com small it's your last chance to protect your home at Simplisafe's lowest prices of the year. Simplisafe's Active Guard Outdoor protection changes the game by preventing crime before it even happens. If someone's lurking around or acting suspiciously, those agents see them in real time, talk to them directly, set off your spotlights, and even call the police before anybody's had a chance to get into your house. That is awesome. Simplisafe is extending its massive Black Friday deal for our listeners this week only. You can get 50% off any new system with a select professional monitoring plan. This is your last chance to claim their best offer of the year. Head to simplisafe.com Small that's SimpliSafe. S I M P lisafe.com Small there's no safe like Simplisafe.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petrigallo]

This show, Small Town Murder, is sponsored by BetterHelp. BetterHelp is fantastic. And you know what else is fantastic? The holidays. I love it. I love the holiday season. I love December. I love lights. I love trees. I like cold. I like it all. I want it all. The snow. I want all of it. That's right. It's nice and cozy. There's a thing here, though. Therapy is a good way to bring yourself discomfort that never goes away. It's not just one month out of the season. It's all the time. We are proponents of BetterHelp because we're big proponents of therapy and big proponents of. Something is eating you up. What should they do? Jimmy?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Go get help.

[James Petrigallo]

Go get help. Talk to somebody about it. It's not gonna hurt. It's gonna be better for you. Absolutely. And if you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. Do it up. It's entirely online. It's super convenient. It's flexible. So find comfort this December with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com smalltownmurder today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp. H E L P.com SmallTownMurder now back to the show. And they said, well, you know, anybody to talk to here for us? Any leads? And she said, I mean, she's had kind of a turbulent relationship with her boyfriend, but nothing crazy. And, you know, he says he doesn't know where she is either. So I don't know what to do here. So the cops have to try to find her, and they're Looking all over the place. Because there are. When we talk about her lifestyle, her daughter kind of could be anywhere type of thing. It's one of those deals. So we'll talk about it right now. And her daughter that's missing is Tamara, who. I don't know how to say this. LA from boys. I'm going to say la, F, R, A, M, B, O, I, S, E. I know that's like Boise, but. Yeah, LA from Boise. I don't know if that's what it is or if it's laugh from block. I don't fucking know. Tamra is what we're going to call Tamara here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We'll go with that.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, we'll go with Tamara. She's born and the mother tells the cops, giving her the rundown of who she is. She's born December 7, 1972, and she was born in Mo Bridge, South Dakota, or Mobridge, I don't know. Mo Bridge, South Dakota. She's the only child of her mother, too. So that's it. And her mother's getting up there in age as well, so, you know, she'd like to know where her daughter is, obviously. So she's the only child of Mary, who is her mother. She grew up kind of mainly in Aberdeen, S.D. here. We did an episode there. Yeah, we did an episode there. We're like, why are you naming it after that? So now Tammy and her mother Mary, moved to Albuquerque when she was a month old. When Tamara was a month old, her and her mom moved there to Albuquerque where her mother was going to school, her mother was going to college there. So then her and her mother returned to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation while Tamara was still a preschooler. And she started going to elementary school at Standing Rock, the school there. So she. They're also Catholic. They take her to Communion and do all that stuff. She. The family then moved to Aberdeen, where Tammy continued to go to school. She went to a Catholic school there, the Ron Collie Catholic School, then transferred to Aberdeen public schools, and she attended Central High her sophomore and junior year and Ron Collie High in her freshman year. She moved around a lot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No kidding.

[James Petrigallo]

And then in her senior year, she's somewhere else. She's in Wisconsin that we'll talk about. She transfers to Washburn High in Washburn, Wisconsin, where she graduates. So three different high schools is a lot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. Four years. You're only there for a little bit.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Link, why are you moving so much?

[James Petrigallo]

You don't really.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Two is understandable if a parent gets relocated.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, yeah. Third's a lot. That's getting to be a lot for a kid. And another state too, in Wisconsin, socially, it's. That's hard to get your footing, I would imagine. She's real outgoing, though. There's no, like, no worry about her from anybody that, you know, she's gonna go to a new school, she'll have no friends. Nobody thinks that about her. She's like outgoing, bubbly, making friends. She shows up somewhere the next night, she's got 20 friends. That's kind of how she is friendly. She attended college, Tamara did, at the University of Minnesota for her freshman year, but then she moved to California. She left the University of Minnesota, went to California, where she had a bunch of different kind of jobs to make ends meet while she was figuring out what to do for school, as a lot of kids do, they might. You think you're going to do a certain thing, and then they go to school for the freshman year and they go, I don't want to do this anymore. What the hell am I doing? And some people just say, well, I guess this is what I'm doing now. And they proceed. And then they just hate whatever they're doing for the next 40 years. But some people go, hold on hard, stop. I'm going to figure this out. I don't know what I'm doing here. So she ends up being ready to return to college at some point. And she goes to the American River College in Sacramento. It's a college that teaches about nothing but rivers. That's all it's about. River talk. That's all they have there. Exactly. Now she eventually transfers to the University of California at Davis. So UC Davis she goes to. To pursue a degree in environmental biology. Oh, yeah. So she's smart, too. That's the other thing. She's not a dumb, dumb young lady here by any stretch. She graduated from UC Davis in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science degree. So there you go. Got a BS from there. Both of her children were born while she was attending college because she. I think, yeah, what if she's 20? She's like 29 when she graduates.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So she's fun.

[James Petrigallo]

So, yeah, she's having a good time in college. She's doing the work.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No kidding.

[James Petrigallo]

A good enough time to spit kids out, but still graduates. Not bad. That's fun. She has two children. Ron Jr and Sydney is our other kid here. And she. Everybody is a friend to Tammy. Like I said, she can walk into a room and make friends with everybody immediately. She's always, oh, I got New friends. I'm going here, I'm going there. She, they said too, you could fuck her over and she'd forgive you. She just had a lot of friends and didn't lose any because she could manage to keep them like that. She's big into the underdog. Always, always trying to find a cause to fight for which would piss her mother off. Her mother, will you just concentrate on yourself? Her mother describes her as such. She was a very bubbly, intelligent, happy, go lucky, friendly person. I don't think there were many people that she met that didn't like her. Meaning when she was younger, she just got along with people. She also volunteered at the Humane Society.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petrigallo]

And really liked animals and all the people at the Humane Society and she liked people adopting animals and shit like that. She's really nice. Now. When she was a college student. This is wild. She had her, her college schedule. She also has a kid, or at the time then another kid. She still managed to train for marathons.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petrigallo]

I don't know how you can have two babies and college and train for a marathon. That seems.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And take care of dogs and shit.

[James Petrigallo]

And then do dog stuff too. She eventually ran seven marathons and even qualified for the Boston Marathon.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, is that right?

[James Petrigallo]

So, yeah, she's not even bad at it. She's pretty decent at it. So not too shabby. She even taught boot camp at a local athletic club. Like a, you know, workout boot camp. She's athletic, she's petite, you know, real outgoing. Yeah. And the chick who runs that. You know what? You know that lady, you know what I mean? She talks and she's got boundless energy. And you show up at 5:30 and she's already like fucking doing jumping jacks and you're like, oh, God, kill me.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Half shirt. Her abs are out.

[James Petrigallo]

Fucking kill me. Kill me. You please kill me. This is terrible. She served as vice president of her son's football league as well.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petrigallo]

So she gets around to doing things and she's responsible. She started, got a job and started with the U.S. bureau of Reclamation in Sacramento, California. I did not know we had a Bureau of Reclamation. But we do, apparently.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Reclamation water, that kind of shit.

[James Petrigallo]

I assume so, yeah. Because it's all about water shit. Because I found in a lot of newspaper searches, I found her name attached to articles about water rights and water things. And it would say, you know, to voice your opinion, contact her and it would have her for more. Here it is. For more info, email her T la framboysmp. USBR Gov and tell her what you think?

[Jimmy Wissman]

So reclamation water is a terrific project too, because, I mean, it's not good. It's not potable water, so.

[James Petrigallo]

Potable?

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't know.

[James Petrigallo]

Potable. Potable.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't know how it said.

[James Petrigallo]

I don't know.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They. They take the chunks out of it and send it on down. So it's like, it's. It's really great for, like, fertilization.

[James Petrigallo]

Took your poop out.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. Poop apron ponds are gone.

[James Petrigallo]

That's it. That's it. And that's all. So, yeah, so we got that. She's. She's doing all this. That's. So she probably had. You know, that's the type of thing where some people have very strong opinions about something and don't. So I'm sure she got tons of emails that were not friendly to have to deal with. So she ends up moving from Northern California and taking her kids back to Albuquerque where her mom lives. So she's going there while she's in Albuquerque. I don't understand what went wrong. Something had to go wrong because she's living in the Sacramento area, she's got a good job, and then she moves to Albuquerque, which is not a move that you make on purpose, generally, unless you're going there for employment or something. Oh, I got a job offer in Albuquerque. She goes there and works as, like a waitress, which makes no sense why somebody with a college degree and was using that college degree in the career she had would then be like, I'm moving to Albuquerque with my mom and I'm gonna just wait tables. Like, something had to happen. She worked as a waitress, also an apprentice electrician, and like a phone rep, a customer service rep on the phone, and even a laborer. She even just did labor work. Problem is, and I think I figure out. I think it's easy to figure out what happened is she has. Starts to have real problems with methods. That's the issue. Yes. And this is not the person you would expect to get into meth. This isn't somebody who's, you know, 18 and hanging out with their friends.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This is choice.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah. This is an adult woman with a. With children and like, a college degree and a good job and all this. And the next thing you know, there's meth and her life just imploded and she's waiting tables in Albuquerque, living with her mom. So that's how fast meth can fuck it up. And she has some struggles, as a matter of fact, in. She's arrested quite a few times for really not Just meth and drug possession. But the things that come from that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petrigallo]

Being crazy out in public, doing wild things, you know, loitering, things like that. She's always being. Having problems here. She gets arrested on. What is this? November 12, 2012, here. For an attempt to commit a felony. Possession of a controlled substance, methamphetamine. So that's a problem there. That's one of her arrests. She has many to a point where she's on probation, and she's got that over her head now, too. So that's tough. That's a tough one. Here in the summer of 2000. This is. There is. I believe I'm going to think it was 2015 is when she came here, because it's. There's some. Just some.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Albuquerque.

[James Petrigallo]

No, no. Came to Yankton. She came to Yankton. I believe it's 2015 because there's definitely some, like, contrasting facts here, whether it was 2015 or 16. But I'm going to think it was 2015. She decided to visit a friend in Yankton is what the official story is. She ended up staying in Yankton and getting a job, and she made friends, as she always does and does all that kind of thing. Now, there is different stories, like I said. One story says she came to Yankton to visit a friend and liked it and stayed. Got a job and stayed. Of. The other narrative, and I believe this is from her mom, is that she came to try to make a fresh start after struggling with meth addiction in New Mexico, which New Mexico has a lot of meth. And if you've ever been to New Mexico, you go, man, I could use some meth to hang out here. This place sucks. Makes you want to do meth. Albuquerque. So she then moves there. And apparently she's. At first, she's pretty successful in Yankton. Here she works at a few different businesses, makes a lot of friends, and she actually buys a Harley, which was her lifelong dream.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Lifelong.

[James Petrigallo]

She's always wanted a Harley. Wow, she's a tiny. She's real petite, too. So, yeah, she's getting a Harley, and that's what she loves. Her mom said she thought she was a biker chick. She wasn't, but she thought she was and wanted to be. And she got a job at Wilson Trailer, as we all try to do. Everybody wants a job at Wilson Trailer here. She began her job there in late 2015, lived in an apartment on Deer Boulevard in Yankton County. And Tamara's daughter here stayed, said that she had stayed with her mom for months, leaving to Go home to Albuquerque in early 2019. So she came later on, stayed with her mother for a while. She said that she noticed while she was there that her mother was definitely struggling with the meth addiction here. So this is going on for years now, and your 40s is just too late to do methods.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's not the time. It's.

[James Petrigallo]

Meth is a young man's drug. You know what I mean?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Your body's not as resilient as it used to be.

[James Petrigallo]

Dude, I can't imagine doing, like, recovering from, like, two days of a meth jag right now. My body would be fucked up. No good. Your 40s is not your time for meth, so.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No.

[James Petrigallo]

She said no, she's. Her daughter said, though she never in front of her, displayed violent violence or any changes in her demeanor. Like, she wouldn't smoke meth and then pull a knife on you until you hand over your wallet or anything. She wasn't like that. She's chill. She just wants to do her meth and be a decent person left alone. Yeah, a lot of people say that she's nice on meth, off meth, whatever it is. She's a nice person. You gotta like her, you know, so very happy to be around others and all that kind of thing. Now, her son Ron noted that yes, his mother did struggle with meth use, but he said the biggest change he noticed about her wasn't a change in behavior. When she was on meth, her voice would change.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, she becomes a different person.

[James Petrigallo]

Her voice. But she was the same. But her voice would, like, she would sound different after she did meth. So that's real weird. I don't know if it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Deeper?

[James Petrigallo]

I think so. I think it maybe. I don't know if it constricted vocal cords or whatever the fucking deal is, but he said, like, helium for her. Yeah. Hey, guys, that's how meth should make your voice sound.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I mean, the pick marks on your face really give it away. But if you got pick marks and the high voice, that's it right there.

[James Petrigallo]

But you should absolutely do just a big old smoke and then just be like, whoa. That shit was crazy, man. Damn.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Whoa.

[James Petrigallo]

What are you gonna do? All right, all right, all right. Let's take apart the television and put it back together again. What do you say?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay, great. Christopher, Lloyd and Roger.

[James Petrigallo]

Yes, exactly. Oh, my God. What do you say? Let's just walk. You know what we do? We'll walk to New Jersey and then come right back. What do you say? Cool. Good. Let's do it. Okay, I want to go. I want to find out what it looks like. Maybe the road's fun. Let's go. That would be awesome. We need fucking voice changing meth. Put helium. Anybody out there manufacturing meth? Find a way to infuse it with helium, please.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's helium in there.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, that was a good hit. So she's still very warm. And she made a friend while she is up here. She makes a boyfriend, as a matter of fact. And this guy is an interesting cat. He's a contradiction in many ways here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How so?

[James Petrigallo]

Well, he's got a girlfriend. He has an ex wife. We know about that. Then he's got a girlfriend that he stops seeing when he's seeing Tamara. But then he's also got a fiance. So I don't understand it. Like Wally seeing Tamara. He's also got a fiance at the same time. But like he's. This is his girlfriend. He goes around with her.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't know what's he in the field and stuff?

[James Petrigallo]

Apparently he is. Yeah. This is Steven Falkenberg. F A L K E N B E R G Falkenberg. He's born in 1974. Falkenberg is. He's like a year younger in age than her. She's born in late 72. He grew up in Menominee, Michigan.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Menominee.

[James Petrigallo]

Menominee. As soon as I said that out loud. Sarah did that too, yesterday. It's like, everybody. Yeah, that's the first thing I thought of. And then it was gone. And then she said it. I was like, God damn it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Anytime anybody writes that on a return address, you got to say that.

[James Petrigallo]

I think they probably. I think they probably do, if I'm being honest here. Is that the whole town, just people with high meth voices going.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The postman just sings it all day, all day long.

[James Petrigallo]

Every fucking time he looks at an envelope. So that's where he grew up. Now he has two kids. By the time he meets Tamara, he's got Sebastian. And Marissa is I guess technically a stepdaughter from a previous marriage. But I think that he was around when they're young because later on she's just referred to as his daughter always. And she's around him long. I mean, him and his and her mother have been long divorced and she's still hanging around him. So must be something to that here. Now, Steven had a severe traumatic brain injury from a car accident in 1993. He's a teenager here. He was 19 years old. He recovered from the accident, though. You can Tell looking at him that he was in a fucking accident. He's got sloth from Goonies eyes.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He wears it on his face.

[James Petrigallo]

He's got sloth from Goonies eyes, you know, that's, you know, where one's a little higher than the other one and looks like it's looking in another direction too. Like the eyes aren't. Not only are they not even like. Yeah, you know, across, but they're also not the same depth in his fucking skull either. I don't know if they're not plumb or flush or whatever the fuck the term is, but I think it's. I think he's not plum or flush. I think he's. I think it's all sorts of problems going on there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's sloth from Goonies mixed with sloth from icing.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, two of the different ones. He's got like kind of wild blonde hair and he's like. He's an interesting guy, man. He's a very interesting guy. The way he's described. And he doesn't do drugs. I think his brain injury is enough drugs for him. He's like, I see colors anyway. I don't need to deal with any of that shit. So he recovered from the accident and became. Got into the construction business. And one of the few places that will hire sloth from the Goonies is a construction site. They don't care. Long as you can. Yeah, go ahead. And he's a pretty big guy too. He's six foot tall and stocky and big. And the strength of his that he has is incredible. That his son describes from him. Okay. His son Sebastian said that he could. He's kind of a wild guy sometimes and stuff like that. But he said he's also very non confrontational. And he said that he never spanked the kids or anything like that. He's not an angry, raging type individual in the house, which is good for a guy with a head injury. It's nice. He said that he never showed any signs of violence toward him. Anybody else in the family or anybody that he's ever known really. There's never, you know, heard of a story of his dad coming in the door pissed off because he had to knock a guy out at the local bar or some shit. Never any of that stuff. Marissa said the same thing. She said that he always made it known. He was very proud of me and he was a good father, he says. She said that he wasn't abusive and never witnessed him getting into an argument with anybody or even an argument she Never saw him get into with anybody. She said if anything, he was like non confrontational. If you tried to start an argument with him, he would kind of diffuse it and go a different direction. He would diffuse it with calmness. That was the way he did things. He is described, and this is funny, as shit. He's described as a very physically powerful man. Very physically powerful. And I'll give you a construction worker and I'll give you an example of the powerfulness that we're talking about here. His son Sebastian describes that he, quote, uses his hands for everything. All the time. Yeah. Which makes him. Sounds like he's just hitting people. That's what that sounds like. But it's not. No, no, no. He means for the purposes when he does his general contracting, you, you know, jobs and shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Hand in hand, pounding fucking nails with hands.

[James Petrigallo]

His son said, quote, instead of using hammers, he would just pound the nail in with his hand.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No, he wouldn't.

[James Petrigallo]

Several people said this from work. He was famous for it. He would pound nails in with his fucking hands. With his hands.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I can't believe it.

[James Petrigallo]

What the fuck is that? Can you imagine?

[Jimmy Wissman]

No. You with his hands. You would have holes in your hand.

[James Petrigallo]

That's a fucking. Imagine how calloused your skin would have to be to be able to pound. And you got to do it with, I assume, the heel of your hand.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The heel? Yeah. You can't. Or the side with a face.

[James Petrigallo]

The side. You one of those or you punch it. Hulk pounding nail.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He can't do that.

[James Petrigallo]

He's doing this in the 2010s, bro. You could have famous YouTube. If there's a video of a fucking guy. Imagine a video series of a guy going, I'm gonna build this whole house without a hammer. Who the fuck wouldn't watch that?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, you can't.

[James Petrigallo]

He would be so famous. You know that guy on YouTube that pounds in fucking nails with his hands and just builds a whole house. It's crazy. You gotta see that shit. He'd be a millionaire.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Ton of money. He can afford a hammer. He just doesn't do it.

[James Petrigallo]

He's a fucking owns his own contracting company. But he does it because people. It's a trick that he does and he says it's just. It's more convenient to just use his hand.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Unbelievable.

[James Petrigallo]

Than to pick up a hammer and have to deal with that. Wow. I really would wish this guy would be a YouTube sensation. This is imagine like on TikTok. This guy would crush.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, he'd make so much money.

[James Petrigallo]

Imagine the Views a guy would get.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, just.

[James Petrigallo]

Just one nail. Just pow, pow, pow. And be like, holy shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There's a man that builds house his own place in the desert. He's just super tattooed. Does it with all tools and people watch that pussy. Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

Using hammers. He's got a nail gun. Fuck out of here. Nail gun. This guy laughs if you throw a nail gun. He is a human nail gun. So that is insane. He just pounded in with his hands. That's who we're dealing with here now. He doesn't do drugs. He never really gets in trouble either. The only.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He does that sober.

[James Petrigallo]

Sober, he's not. Doesn't do drugs. Doesn't really drink much. He's got a head injury that apparently makes it easier for him to do these things. I don't know, man. The only thing I could see him find him getting in any trouble for was in 2007, he exceeded the speed limit by 20 miles an hour or more. So he got in trouble for that, and he pled guilty for that. That was about it. So that's all we got. He's got places to be. So this is our couple.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

The human hammer and like a social meth butterfly together. Very odd couple.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Two fascinating people.

[James Petrigallo]

They're both extremely fascinating. That's. I mean, both these people, it's like, I want to know so much more.

[Jimmy Wissman]

More Fascinating couple doesn't exist.

[James Petrigallo]

It really doesn't. Here. There is some turbulence in their relationship. Okay. Now, a lot of people, like I said, everybody that knows Stephen Robert Falkenberg says that he's laid back and nonviolent. And there is apparently, he's like, fucking Bam Bam from the Flintstones. Like, he doesn't know his own strength sometimes, apparently. Because, like, there's a video of. In this video, Tamara is shown rubbing her right hip and saying, it still hurts, but, like, kind of laughy and says, steve, you gotta stop pushing me. She says, so apparently he'll just, like, joke around, shove you, and you'll fly through the drywall. Like it's one of those things. He's like, that's all right. I'll hammer a new piece in right now. Don't worry about it. Yeah, give me a piece of drywall and five nails.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petrigallo]

So it's very interesting. Now, Stephen's daughter Marissa said that her initial impressions of Tammy were positive, but they kind of changed after that. She said that Tammy displayed strange behavior to the point that her father was occasionally afraid of her, which is just meth. That's all it is here now. Sebastian, the son, Ross, Steven's son, said that he never personally observed Tammy using method, but that she could be. He knew that she could be prone to violence when she was intoxicated as well. So one guy here, Travis Peterson, who's a friend of Stephen's, said that Tamara had a reputation in the whole community. She's only been there a couple years, but she had a reputation for being very violent and irrational. When she's obviously on drugs, she's not rational, which, again, it's method. So I've never heard of anybody go, you know, the guy's kind of wild, but you get him on some meth and he becomes very rational after that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Figures it all out, really.

[James Petrigallo]

Just take. Brings it all together. So. And once this man said he observed an argument between the two at Falkenberg's shop. You know, his construction deal there, where Tamara, quote, wore herself out hitting Steven while he just smiled and laughed at her a little. He's this giant guy, so she can't really hurt him physically with her fists. Basically, he's pounding nails in. He's adorable. He's a giant callus, this man. His whole body is a callus. Even his fucking head is all met. You can't even make him uglier. There's no way to hurt this man.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's got Nothing to lose.

[James Petrigallo]

June 7, 2016. Okay, Tamara has some problems here. According to Brandon Frey, who is a Yankton police officer, this is what went down. Tamara was, quote, intoxicated and out of control. He put in his report, and this was. Yeah, I don't know if it was alcohol. I believe it was alcohol and meth possibly together.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petrigallo]

He was called. The cop was called to the rounding third bar, which is a really. You're just saying it. Come here and get laid is what that says. That's exactly what that says. About to get your dick in there, is what that means. I mean, dick out.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. What is third base? Is that fingering or is that like oral?

[James Petrigallo]

I think nowadays it's oral. I think with the kids now, it's oral. When we were. When we were teenagers, anything. Anything that resulted in you coming was considered a home run. That was home base. If you came. Yeah. Everything up to that. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Put one on the board.

[James Petrigallo]

I'd say any. In any fashion. It didn't matter how it happened. That wasn't the concern here. So rounding third sounds terrifying. It sounds like everyone's running out of there, like, taking their clothes off. Honestly, when the cop arrived, Tamara was being restrained by two people.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petrigallo]

They had. They were trying to, like, hold her down here. She made death threats against the officers who showed up. They were just trying to get her to leave. And then she started making I'll fucking kill all of you type shit to the cops. So they went, okay, well, now we have to arrest her. She just threatened to kill cops, so. Shit. Yeah, now she's getting arrested.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Travis.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah. Come on, Randy, let's go. Let's go, Billy Joel, get on over here. She then tried once. They got her in the squad car and in the back, and they're outside talking to people and getting statements. She tried to kick the glass out of the squad car as well. She was laying there fucking kicking glass out. And they had to hog tire and all that kind of shit. So she is having a day, let's just say here. She refused to give a urine analysis. And according to the report, they had to arrange the urinalysis. They had to get it without her cooperation via catheter at the hospital.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, Jesus.

[James Petrigallo]

She was so uncooperative to the point where she would rather get catheterized.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Catheterized.

[James Petrigallo]

Than just pee in the cup and tell them what's in there. And a reason for that is because she's on probation, so she doesn't want to give her pee and show that she's got meth in her system. So the cops said that she was intoxicated and out of control the entire time. Not just, of course, not just at the bar, not just in the car, at the hospital, at the jail, everywhere. She just was losing her shit. It took four officers to hold her down. Four large people. It took to hold down one petite woman because she had met strength going on here for them to do the catheterization here. So she was arrested on drug charges and assault related charges also because she was just racking them up the whole time because she's kicking at cops, she's acting nuts and trying to headbutt people. So later on, apparently the assault charges were dropped, though also a needle was found in her possession that tested positive for methamphetamine. This isn't even smoking or sniffing. This is.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She's. She's shooting it.

[James Petrigallo]

Once you're shooting something that is way beyond the pale, man. That's. That's the last step to being really fucking out there. So there's another incident here when she was arrested shortly after that for attacking a man's truck with a garden hoe and smashing his windshield.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What?

[James Petrigallo]

She attacked the guy? Apparently the guy was in the truck she was upset with him for whatever reason, and she attacked his truck with a garden hoe and smashed out his windshield.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's a fascinating choice.

[James Petrigallo]

That is literally whatever's closest is what that is. What's that? Yep. That looks harder than my fist.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She's mad.

[James Petrigallo]

Yep. Hey, everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show to tell you a little bit more about Aura frames. Best gift you could possibly give somebody in your family, your friends, anybody you're close to. From big events to the silly moments you capture every day. Doesn't it sometimes feel like all your favorite photos are just stuck on your camera roll? You have to scroll back so far to get them. They're pretty much gone forever. That's how it feels. Wouldn't it be better and great and awesome to have an easy way to share and enjoy them with your friends and family? So these pictures that you took that are important to you actually get scene. That is where aura comes in and they come in huge here. Everyone I know has one of these because I have given them to them because they're phenomenal. They're awesome. And we keep doing this. Like, I'll get pictures of the kids when I go to Arizona and stuff. And they're on my dad's before I'm even back in New York. They're on my dad's frame. They're on people's frame. Save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com to get $35 off. Or as best selling carver matte frames. And they're beautiful too. By using promo code smalltownmurder at checkout. That's a U R A frames.com promo code small townmurder. This deal is exclusive to listeners, so get yours now in time for the holidays. Terms and conditions apply.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petrigallo]

Hey, everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show to tell you a little bit about Sono Bello. Here are three reasons why fall is the perfect time to go to Sonobello. Number one, summer's over and the kids are back to school. Number two, you've earned some me time. That's right. This long summer. And number three, Sonobello's friends and family fall savings event is on. Friends and family here. This whole thing. Our friends at Sono Bello are offering you guys their best deal. You're now included in their friends and family fall savings event. You'll get the same price that Sono Bello doctors, nurses and staff receive. But appointments are limited. So please get on it now get into this Sono Bello doctors are masters in microlaser fat removal. You want that? A brilliant technique that removes stubborn fat permanently. Wherever your problem areas are. Tummy, love handles, thighs, arms, whatever you got that you want to change, they can help you out there. It's gone in one comfortable visit. Eating healthy and workouts are great. Keep doing that. But if you want to lose that stubborn fat in one visit, check out Sono Bello Save Big during Sono Bello's Friends and Family fall savings event. Schedule your free consultation [e-mail] Small TownMurder that's s o n o b e l l o.com SmallTownMurder.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Christmas is coming up, James. Did you know that?

[James Petrigallo]

It is coming up. That's very important. You know what people should do around Christmas? Oh, you need shopp. And the thing is, sometimes you're gonna find money in places you never thought like where, like subscriptions that you're paying for that you don't need to pay for because you don't even know you're paying for them, but yet they're coming out of your account every month.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How can you fix that?

[James Petrigallo]

Rocket Money is what helped me out. That's the thing. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that finds and cancels your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so that you can grow that savings. Rocket Money will they negotiate lower bills for you? They can do that by up to 20%. All you have to do is submit a picture of your bill. Rocket Money. They take care of the rest. They'll deal with customer service. You don't need to be on hold for two hours. Rocket Money will take care of it. It's wonderful. Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year. When using all the apps, features. Stop wasting money on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to Rocket Money.com Small Town Murder. That's Rocket Money.com Small Town Murder. Rocket Money.com Small Town Murder.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petrigallo]

So after she'd been arrested here, Stephen Falkenberg visited her in jail.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

And to try to help her secure a lawyer. He was trying to help her during the visit. He became frustrated with her because she was wouldn't. Wouldn't focus and wouldn't pay attention. So he was seen as saying, fucking listen to her. Yelling, fucking listen at one point, and then yelling that he was, quote, fucking sick of her. Yeah. So that's that's a lot. But that was, that's the most anybody's ever seen him like yell at her. And that was literally while trying to get her a lawyer for her fucking violence for attacking a guy with a garden hose. So makes sense here. So she was convicted of ingestion of methamphetamine in 2016 and placed on probation in South Dakota. She was required as a condition of her supervision to submit to regular and random urinalysis to ensure her ongoing sobriety. Sure. Her probation required her to check in daily with her probation officer.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, she's a problem.

[James Petrigallo]

She had to call every day.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

And see if the probation officer wanted her drug tested that day. She had to call and go, hi, I'm here. Yeah, you know, still fine. And he would do that. And Tamara, by the way, for like a while here, it seems like she does not have a working phone.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petrigallo]

She'll have like a phone that's not hooked up or bill's not paid, that sort of thing here. So because she didn't have a working phone, Stephen would make the calls for her to the call in number to determine if she'd been selected to test that day. You call, you enter your inmate. Yeah. And they tell you whether you won the lottery or not that day. So 2017. Now, like I said, everybody, you know has all these stories of him being nonviolent and her attacking him, even Tamara attacking Steven. The only time ever, anybody ever saw Anything was a 2017 brief encounter with his ex wife, Jennifer Becker, which there was no physical, you know, problems. There was no punches thrown or anything. But it was enough of a heated exchange that cops were called to physically separate them. No one was arrested or anything like that, but they were told to go their separate ways, so. And that was their divorced already. Who knows what the hell they were arguing about or what happened or. No idea. So March 1, 2019. This is the day that the last time that Mary talks to Tamara here. 2019. Did I say 15?

[Jimmy Wissman]

No, 19.

[James Petrigallo]

Okay, 19. All right. So Tamara was scheduled to finish her shift at work as a machine operator at the trailer place there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That is so fascinating.

[James Petrigallo]

Her shift ends at 2am oh, boy. Second shift, which is the worst man, isn't it? I think third is overnight.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't know, 2am they close?

[James Petrigallo]

I think it's a 24 hour place.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, you might be right. Somebody might be working 2 to 10.

[James Petrigallo]

When my dad worked third shift, it was like 10am to 6 in the morning or 10pm to 6 in the Morning or some Shit. I remember back in the day when I was a little kid. So I think it's.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'll bet somebody's working two to 10.

[James Petrigallo]

Someone. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

10 to six.

[James Petrigallo]

Six to two, probably. Or they have them overlap a little, maybe. Who knows? Whatever. So now, just before midnight, while she's still at work, Tamara gave her debit card to Javier Gonzalez, a coworker who was getting off of his shift. So, yeah, they probably overlapped them. So they're not everybody doesn't come on and get off at the same time.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sure.

[James Petrigallo]

She said, hey, before you go home, do me a solid, take my debit card and go grab beer for me from Walmart before their liquor sales end for the evening. So I'm gonna get out too late to get me a taste.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Or too early.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah. So he ran to the store. He did. He ran to the Walmart. He put the beer and the receipt and her debit card in a male coworker's pickup truck. So he could just stop in the parking lot, not have to go in now because she has no phone still, for years, she borrowed a friend's phone at work around 1:30am to call her mother in New Mexico. She's really getting a lot done.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No kidding.

[James Petrigallo]

Buy beer, call my mom. Fucking make some trailers. What are you doing here? What's happening? Tamara and her mother were very close, and they spoke on the phone just about every day. This is an expected thing. And it's earlier in New Mexico, so this is normal. Now, Stephen picks her up from work at about 2am is a Ford F250 pickup, picks her up there and to take her to her apartment because her vehicle was in the shop at the time. Anyway, first, though, Falkenberg drives to Walmart at her request so she could get an alarm clock. Apparently she doesn't have an alarm clock.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

So her phone isn't. Just not hooked up. I think it's broken, probably.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't think it exists.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Threw it off a cliff.

[James Petrigallo]

She got mad and threw it through someone's windshield or something. So she was seen at 2:17am coming out of the Yankton Walmart with Walmart with an alarm clock and two bags of chips.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petrigallo]

Walmart surveillance video shows her exiting the store and getting into Steven's pickup truck with an open bed, mind you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

Nothing covering the pickup truck. No cat, no anything, and driving by. So there we go. That's where we see them. They drive off. And the video at Walmart is just before she entered the store. You see his pickup and you see her get out, and then she gets into the pickup when she leaves. And surveillance. That's all surveillance footage here. The plant manager where she works said that she Left work at 2am Never returned. He also got surveillance footage from the plant that shows Tamara getting into a pickup truck, which was Falkenberg's, at the end of her shift. Now, later on that day, because this is Friday, March 1, is, you know, 2:00am on March 1. Later on that day, she's supposed to be at the Humane Society and working a shift, and she never shows up at the Humane Society, which is odd for her. So mom is looking for her now. She can't find her. She tried to call Tamara on March 2 and couldn't get a hold of her, which is the next day. So after that, she started texting Stephen to try to contact her daughter. Because she's like, you know. And you never know. That's the thing if your kid has a drug problem. You never know if they're just what they're doing. They could be. They could be in trouble, or they could be just off on a drug jag and they don't want to talk, or they could. There's a lot of different things. So he. She contacts Steven to, you know, fucking figure it out, because she knows they're dating. Steven said that he doesn't have any idea where she is. Tamara meaning, but said that he and Tamara had a verbal disagreement at her apartment on the morning of March 1, after he went to her apartment to tell her that she didn't have to test today because he called up and showed up and was like, hey, you don't have to do your test today. She told him to leave, is what Stephen said. Now. He said, listen, I think she was just like that because of lack of sleep. I don't think she hadn't slept all night, so she was just tired, I think. But now her mom, Mary, still can't contact her. So she texted Falkenberg again on March 4th to say, any update here? Have you seen Tamara? He said he hadn't seen her, but he had. He said, but I've got my own shit going on, so I haven't been looking for her.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm busy.

[James Petrigallo]

He said he's been dealing with doctors all day. He said he feel the other day, meaning fell the other day. Feel the other day, and my finger hurt. Feel. That makes it sound like he felt something in his finger. That's a weird statement. It got. Yeah, maybe that's what it is. His fingers were in heavy use at that point, it's busy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

He said it got swollen, the hand so bad I had to go to the doctor, end up breaking two fingers. So now I dealt with not a surgeon, but bone doctor today. That's his response. I don't think she cares about any of that shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's the kind of guy that slaps fucking nails through boards. Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

He's just telling you all the shit. And she's like, I just asked where my daughter was. I don't give a shit. So Mary said she understood feel to mean fell. And she subsequently asked, is she alive? To Steven, is she alive? And he replied, she was when I left. And said, she was. She was when I left. What is the appropriate answer for is that person alive if you haven't talked to her?

[Jimmy Wissman]

I hope so.

[James Petrigallo]

Why would you ask? Okay, that must be it. Because my response was, I fucking hope so. I would hope so. But then I thought maybe, maybe that would be considered. Why would you have to hope so? You know what I mean? I don't know. But my immediate response would be, I fucking hope she's alive. Yeah, I don't know. I haven't talked to her, but I hope that didn't kill her. Me not talking to her for a couple days.

[Jimmy Wissman]

All the best. Jesus.

[James Petrigallo]

And so he said that, yes, she was when I left, and then asked Mary to keep him informed. If Mary comes up with Tamara somewhere, let me know if she's alive and well. So she's got to keep looking. So she does. She contacts Tamara's son Ron to check in on Tamara as Mary's becoming worried and she can't do shit from Albuquerque, which has really got to be frustrating. Ron, like we said earlier, had his spare key to his mother's apartment and searched for her there, but could not find her there at all. So he continued to check her apartment twice per day. And the one thing he always saw that he didn't like seeing was that there's a bag that she always carried with her when she was out and that was still in her apartment. Oh, she's got her going out bag. It's still home and it's still in the apartment.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She's gone home. She's gone home.

[James Petrigallo]

She's gone. And the problem is she has no goddamn phone. So cops can't do location checks. They can't see when it was last active social. There's nothing you can do to find her. This is like she went missing in 1982 at this point.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

Which is so rare.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Some apps on the phones I can look at where my kids are.

[James Petrigallo]

Absolutely. You know, exactly. There's also. We've really gone a long way with that. Police work now is half. Check the cell phone company first. Find out where they were, who they talked to, when. We'll look through all that and then figure out what to investigate, because you can get a, you know, kind of an outline of what's going on here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Up to and including what apps are on their phones and what's linked to their bank account. We can see where the fuck they.

[James Petrigallo]

Are, where they are, deal with their spending. Yeah, it's incredible now what you can do. Oh, they fucking put a Facebook post up from Omaha. You know what I mean? You can tell they got an Uber.

[Jimmy Wissman]

From this place to this place. They know where they're at.

[James Petrigallo]

It's not like. But she's basically like, she's living in the 1982, paying with cash and no phone and living in another universe here. So he couldn't find her. He continued to check, though, Ron, and that's all he found, was the bag. So March 5th at 2:53pm is when Mary finally reports her missing to the police. I feel like. I know what. It's a little late, but I get it. I get it from Mary. Think about it. She's got a daughter who has had a drug problem for a good amount of time now.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. But she's not unreliable with the drug problem.

[James Petrigallo]

No, But I think over the course of the last 15 to 20 years or so, when this, probably 15 years, this drug problem has been a thing. Tamara's disappeared for a couple days now. And then I think. I think she's disappeared and then come home, you know, a few days later, probably often, I would dare to say, yeah, just because of the drugs. That's what happened.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Give her three, four days, 72 hours, and we'll start calling.

[James Petrigallo]

We'll start calling. So March 5th is like, okay, that's about enough now where you know all of that, and especially with the son finding the bag there. And she didn't like that. So, yeah, she tells the cops haven't talked to her since I talked to her at work four days ago. And that's when she said, the only thing I can tell you is that she is in a relationship. Because they were like, does she have a boyfriend? Because that's the first thing you look for. Or an ex boyfriend? Even better. And she said she has a kind of a turbulent relationship with Steven Falkenberg. So obviously he's the first person they want to talk to. Because they go to her work, too, and they said, well, the video shows this guy picking her up. So there you go. So Deputy Darren Moser interviews him, and Falkenberg said he had just got back from Michigan here on the 5th when they talked to him and he was working in his shop. And. Yeah, they show up at a shop and he's like, yeah, just got back from Michigan. And they said, when's the last time you talked to her? And she said. He said. The morning of the 1st, the deputy noticed he had a soft cast on his right hand.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

Which. That's a big nail. It must have been.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

He also noticed a big one. He was trying to. He was like. He's laying track. That's the problem. Wrote all the live long day. Look at this hand. He's like a cartoon character, this guy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Fascinating. This is Blutus.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, Brutus. Blutus, whatever the fuck it was. Yeah, Bluto.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Bluto, yeah, Bluto and Brutus. Who's Brutus?

[James Petrigallo]

Who's Brutus? I don't know.

[Jimmy Wissman]

One of them is Popeye.

[James Petrigallo]

I thought that was. I thought that was Bluto was Popeye.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I think Brutus was Mickey Mouse bad guy.

[James Petrigallo]

Beefcake, maybe. Yeah, I think it was. So he's got a soft cast on his right hand. The officer also notices several baseball bats located in the corner of the shop that are covered in dust, cobwebs, and shit on them. So this cop leaves the shop and with the other officers, they go to Tamara's apartment, which is only a block away from the shop, by the way. Small town, very convenient. He looked around. They did a general look around, and there's nothing out of place. There's no. Doesn't look like it's been rifled through. Drawers aren't open with shit strewn. Not seeing any noticeable anything broken, knocked over. There's not a pool of blood on the living room carpet. It just looks like somebody left their apartment. So they have nothing. No suspicious anything right now. But later on, he said he reviewed the photos of the apartment because when you're in a strange place you've never been before, it is impossible to notice everything.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You don't know what's missing because it's not there.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, you're just taking in everything. So there's a lot of stuff you might miss because you're. I think that's why they have those like, escape rooms, because you're in an uncomfortable environment that's not yours. So your brain isn't working right. Because later on, when he reviewed the photos that he Took. He noticed an overturned lamp in one of the rooms that he didn't see when he was walking. He took a picture of it, but didn't see it when it happened. Later on, he saw it on the. On the photo. So a special agent with the Dakota, South Dakota Department of Criminal Investigation said that his department recovered five baseball bats from Falkenberg Shop and that he observed them in an undisturbed state covered with dust. And later on, this will make sense, but no bats, no baseball bats are found in Tamara's apartment. Okay. Now, they said the police do. When they first approached Stephen the day after she was reported missing. He said he last saw her around 8:15am on March 1, when they had coffee in her apartment and she told him to, quote, get the fuck out.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So I did.

[James Petrigallo]

He's like, so I haven't been since, you know, get the fuck out. It's pretty strong. He later said that, though. Later on he says, actually, I picked her up that morning. I had picked her up earlier. He said, I dropped her off at her apartment during the early morning hours. And that's when he later on was like, oh, I did go back, though. I did go back several times, by the way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah. Before the coffee, he said on his first trip, he arrived about 6am and he told the cops that he knocked on the door and heard an alarm clock ringing. As he was knocking, she had it going off. She hooked it up and got it going. He received no answer, so he just left. Because he doesn't have a key and she doesn't have a phone. So if you knock and she doesn't come to the door, it's like, well, that's all I got. So he said he returned a second time at approximately 8:15 that time she answered the door, had coffee with him and told him to get the fuck out, obviously. So he said that she became angry at him and demanded he leave. Told him to get the fuck out. And he said that he did. He just threw his hands up and said, fine. And he said that was the last time he had any contact with her was that morning.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petrigallo]

Now, Steven's fiance enters the picture here. Yeah, I don't know who she is here, but this is. Yeah. Steven's fiance's coworker says that for the last few days, because they're talking to her on, like, March 6th. She said for a few days she babysat his dogs while he traveled back from Michigan around the same time that Mary. That Tamara had gone missing. So he's been out of town that's that we know. So where the. Where the fuck was he after this?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Where?

[James Petrigallo]

Okay, well, Cindy Roberts, who is a convenience store clerk who knows Tamara and Stephen, said that Stephen filled his truck with fuel at the store on March 1. In the early afternoon, she noticed the truck bed was covered, which she had never seen his truck bed covered before because normally he had his dogs in the back of his truck. His dogs ride in the truck bed. So today the truck bed is covered up. And she was like, that's weird enough for her to notice it. That's interesting. So she also noticed that he had a swollen right hand at the time. So this person asked Steven about his hand. He told her he injured it by, what do you think?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Slapping nails? I don't know.

[James Petrigallo]

Punching an icicle.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petrigallo]

Which is how you're supposed to get rid of them, I believe. Right? That's what they tell you. Get the icicles off your house, just punch them. Which is fucking interesting. And this is all, it's not the wrong time. He was there. It's definitely early afternoon on the 1st, because they have surveillance video and everything of him in the store. So he left Yankton and started driving in the direction of Michigan, where he used to live here. Now, his half brother Paul still lived in the area in Menominee, Menominee and Menominee county and owned a farm nearby. And Falkenberg's mother also lived in Menominee. He's headed that direction. But later that Evening on the 1st, Faulkenberg checks into a hotel in Tomah, Wisconsin, which we've done an episode about Toma, Wisconsin, which is directly along the route from Yankton to Menominee. All right. This night. And there's a reason why probably he stopped. It's very icy, snowy and windy outside. Not a good night for driving.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So it's a great night to be punching icicles.

[James Petrigallo]

It's perfect. Yeah. There's going to be so many to punch.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's icicle punching weather right there.

[James Petrigallo]

The hotel clerk that checked him in noticed that he used his left hand to sign paperwork because of his swollen right hand. So you could tell he wasn't left handed. You know, he was right and fucking goofy. So he ends up, even though it's cold and icy and snowy out, he goes and sits in the hot tub and chills does Steven. And he has food delivered to him to the hot tub. So probably ordered Domino's or something, whatever. Has some food delivered to his hot tub where he sat like a king and ate his food sick day. So Then he continued from Tomah toward Michigan. Later that day, he arrived in Michigan on the second. That's when he sought medical assistance for his hand injury. It's like, this isn't getting better. Fuck. During his first visit, medical records indicate that Falkenberg attributed his injury to punching an icicle. All right. Then he saw a second medical provider on March 4. During the second appointment, he reported he injured his hand when he braced for a fall on ice with a clenched fist. So he fell on his fist, basically.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Big, big icicle. It's all over the ground.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah. Boom. Bow everywhere. So he was seen by two physicians and an occupational therapist and had several X rays taken on his hand before it was placed in a cast. And that's where we found him later on. Now, here's something interesting that happened in Menominee. Michael Leverich, who's a manager for an automotive sales and repair business in Menominee, said that on March 4, the same day where he was seeing those other doctors and saying he fell on the ice instead of punched it, Falkenberg showed up at this guy's job. And this guy knew Falkenberg because he saw him a couple times a year and talked to him when he did. He knew the family. It's a small town, so Faulkenberg said he was driving his mother's car at the time. This guy said that Stephen seemed real nervous and then asked to use the businesses dumpster.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh.

[James Petrigallo]

Which. If someone's real nervous and then asks you to use their dumpster, maybe. No.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Or go look in that dumpster after they leave, see what's something.

[James Petrigallo]

Because there's. That's weird. He said he had a small amount of garbage in his mother's car because I've been driving around for a few days. And he wanted to jump it all out before he. Now, it's also odd if you had, like, some McDonald's wrappers and like a, you know, a fucking large fucking Pepsi cup or some shit in your car, would you ask someone if you could use their dumpster for that? Or would you just throw it in there?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Just throw it in there.

[James Petrigallo]

It's just paper products. Yeah, I would say, can I throw out this fucking 73 El Camino engine? Can I use your dumpster for that? Because otherwise that's going to take up some space. Can I use it for my love seat that I'm not using anymore? So he does that, and the guy said he reluctantly allowed it. I guess you can use my dumpster. I mean, shit, really, this guy's a Real fucking dumpster Nazi. Here, let me use your dumpster. What the hell? But he said he didn't observe what Stephen placed in the dumpster and didn't check up on it either.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petrigallo]

Later on, though, he'll contact the sheriff's department about it. Now, Steven continues to not know anything about where Tamara is. According to him, he says he has no idea what's going on. So that's when a deputy obtained surveillance footage from the Walmart and photographs of several people. But the footage doesn't really do much because he said that they did that that wasn't really disputed. He didn't say, I didn't pick her up from work. He said, I picked her up from work, took her to Walmart, dropped her off, came at 6, came at 8. So that doesn't help that much. But it's still. It's a timeline you're building now. Then the deputy returned to Falkenberg's shop and asked Falkenberg about a photograph of an individual named Javier who had used Tamara's debit card to purchase beer. Do you know this guy? Because at this point, she's just missing and some guy has her debit card. That's a suspect, certainly. Yeah, for sure. So, yeah, Falkenberg tells the deputy that he did not know this guy, but he said he was suspicious that Tamara could be involved with another man besides him. And that, quote, maybe that's the male that she's going to see. Like, maybe that's where she is. Maybe she's off, you know, hanging out with that guy. So Sebastian, Stephen's son, asked his dad if he'd seen Tamara, to which he replied that he had, quote, no idea what happened to her. I have no idea what happened to her. I don't know. Marissa, his daughter, same thing. Sent him a text message after hearing that Tamara was missing to see if he knew where she might be staying. And he responded that he, quote, couldn't think about it right now. So it's just too much to even consider.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm overwhelmed.

[James Petrigallo]

It's just difficult. Yeah. Couldn't think about it. So this keeps going on for another 10 days. Where's Tamara? I don't know. Where do you think? I don't know where she has this one seen or nobody's seen.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Too much.

[James Petrigallo]

It's too much for me. Yeah. My hand's throbbing. It's too much. I can't even pound nails with my right hand now. This is crazy. So, March 16, 2019. This is off the number five road in Menominee. Township number five road tells you that's rural is what that is. Yeah. Not enough people live around there to even bother naming it after one of them.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There's so few roads out here, it's numbered and single digits.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, that's the other thing too. Yeah. Single digit road here. This is right over the little river in Menominee Township. And when I say the little river, it is a little fucking river. Like, you picture a river, you picture something big. I picture like the Hudson, you know what I mean?

[Jimmy Wissman]

The Mississippi, the Missouri, the Idaho, the Snake.

[James Petrigallo]

Yes. This river, at least in this area, is smaller, is less wide than the creek behind my house. Oh, yeah. Which is a pretty good sized creek, don't get me wrong. But it's not a river, you know what I mean? This is a river though. This is called the little river. In Menominee Township. There's two boys walking a dog. How American is that? Two boys with a dog walking down the number five road. They're going to throw a stick, he's going to catch it and run it back to him. It's just, you can see it, they got cut off shorts and like carrying an apple and chewing on a thing of hay. It's a Norman Rockwell picture.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Throwing a stick. Yep.

[James Petrigallo]

Baseball gloves on their hands, ready to go catch a sandlot game there, some shit like that. So anyway, that's what they're doing. They're walking, having an all American day when they look over the bridge into the river and they see what looks like a person in the river. The river's frozen, by the way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh boy.

[James Petrigallo]

So this is sitting on top of the ice. It looks like a face down human being with tattoos on their torso. So these kids take the dogs and run back home to get an adult, luckily here. And they go get one of the dads here, Gregory Thorsten Westby, he found. He goes over and finds what he says is a nude tattooed torso of a small woman lying on top of the ice in the little river near his home. This area is very wooded and really nobody lives there. It's unpopulated as shit. So this guy went to the spot the boys identified, saw the body on the ice right below the bridge here and called the cops, obviously here. So a detective from the Menominee County Sheriff's office responds and saw that the body is not only decapitated, but also missing its hands and feet.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What?

[James Petrigallo]

Yes. Like the Russian guy from the wire killed them?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

You know what I mean? That's.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This is wild.

[James Petrigallo]

That's. Yeah, that's like a mob hit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Dakota. It's not a place that that happens.

[James Petrigallo]

No. Especially at the little river in Menominee off the number five road. That's fucking crazy. So the direct. The detective had received a bulletin from South Dakota mentioning a missing person with tattoos.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

So he said, I wonder if this is that person that's missing from South Dakota.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petrigallo]

So they. They recover the body out here. This body, by the way, is located 1.4 miles from Steven's half brother's property, which is a little too close, I would say, if. If you were like, if you knew, if you were at her apartment in South Dakota and then her body ends up a mile from your brother's house in Michigan, which is a 10 hour drive, by the way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right, right.

[James Petrigallo]

A little too coincidental, I think, at that point, I would say. So they're number one. Trying to find her hands and feet and head. That's a big priority here. Her hands, feet and head are never recovered.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is that right?

[James Petrigallo]

Never, never, never recovered. They never find them.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's horrible.

[James Petrigallo]

So, yeah, during this time, the Yankton County Sheriff's sergeant here was looking for Tamara, knowing that Tamara had a romantic relationship with Falkenberg, who had family in Michigan. That's why he sent this missing person report to the Menominee law enforcement on the chance that maybe she went there, because he has connections there. And he sent basically missing person reports to Albuquerque, to Menominee, to anywhere where she might have connections, Sacramento, anything like that, friends, anywhere she might have visited. So an investigator who responded called a nationwide recall to nationwide law enforcement bulletin about a missing person. So they said that as well and said, yeah, that led to people contacting the officials at Yankton. They said that the divers also searched the river for several hundred yards downstream to determine if there were any other evidence that might be in the river. And they didn't find anything.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petrigallo]

So they photographed the body after it was removed from the frozen creek bed and testified that they observed tool markings and horizontal striations on the bones where the head, hands, and feet had been cut off. Oh, my God. Somebody used power tools on this. Yeah, somebody put a circular saw on this bench. I don't mean this bitch there. I meant, like, use a circular saw for this shit. That's. Fuck. This poor girl. Oh, my God. Her. Poor woman. Jesus Christ. So the doctor, when they get him in, confirmed that there were tool markings on Tamara's body, evident around the cut surfaces on the neck and forearms and feet. Now they have to. So at this point, they have no facial recognition here. They have no fingerprints to run. So luckily, tattoos are a really good form of kind of identification at this point. A lot of people are being identified by tattoos, and this helps a lot. They found tattoos on different areas of the body. The right forearm was a deck of playing cards. Left shoulder across left forearm, a puma. The upper left part of the back, an eagle on a branch. The upper right part of the back, three hearts with wings. And left ankle area, a spider web. And right calf, a banner. I don't know what the banner said, but a banner of some kind. So that's her general tattoo. So people, if they knew who. What her tattoos are, it's probably not nobody else with that combination of tattoos, you know what I mean? So, yeah, it's less than a mile and a half from the farm, which is very interesting. So Falkenberg hears that she's been found. He drove to meet with his son and daughter, Sebastian and Marissa, after that. And he. To tell her. Tell them a story that he has. Basically, he talks about that. He says that she was cheating on him, and then it goes from there. So we'll get to that. The autopsy performed. The chief medical examiner for Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, this guy performed the autopsy. He said his examination revealed that Tamara's body was frozen no more than two days after her death and dismemberment after. And. Oh, I'm sorry. Was frozen no more than two days after her death and dismembered after. She was frozen.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, she was ice.

[James Petrigallo]

She was frozen, then dismembered, then dumped in the creek.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petrigallo]

And frozen. Kind of stayed frozen out there. Yeah, so he said. He formed this conclusion because the body, despite its missing parts, still contained blood in the vessels, which shows she didn't lose a lot of blood when she was killed. Yeah, but she still had all of her blood in her body, so that means that she was frozen in there. So an external exam was conducted. The body was allowed to thaw, and 24 hours later, he performed an internal exam. They had to Frankie Carbone him. They had to let the body thaw. Blood oozing from the stumps left behind from her dismemberment indicated she'd been dismembered after being frozen. The fact that there was so much blood still in the body indicated that she'd not lost very much blood at time of her death. There was also no evidence of trauma to her remains, and her heart and organs were all in excellent health, even though she did meth a lot, which is crazy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They said that that's just not fair.

[James Petrigallo]

That's not fair.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's not fair.

[James Petrigallo]

Later on, they call her heart remarkably healthy. And I'm like, oh, fuck you. Are you 47 years old, doing meth all the time? Your heart's remarkably healthy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm going to see a specialist.

[James Petrigallo]

Jesus Christ. Every time I eat a cheeseburger, I'm grabbing for my fucking. I'm grabbing for my chest. Later on that night, just in case. Am I gonna get pains? What's going on? I'm gonna die tonight.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I can't believe this.

[James Petrigallo]

It's just fucking unbelievable. Right? There's. God damn it. Maybe we should have done that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There's justice in the world, man.

[James Petrigallo]

We should do meth. Maybe. Maybe that'll help. Shit, man. So the fact that she was dismembered and dumped required the. Required the doctor to determine the cause of death as homicide by unspecified means.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I have no idea how she died.

[James Petrigallo]

Must have been something done to her head, because I don't have that. And everything else is fine. That's the only other place. They also showed that she had 350 nanograms per milliliter of methamphetamine in her blood as well. She was on meth when she was killed, so she probably heard she didn't have to test that day, and that was that. So the same day that the body was found, that's when Faulkenberg called his son Sebastian to arrange a meeting with Sebastian and Marissa at Marissa's house around 10pm during the meeting, he explained he needed to go to Michigan and talk to the cops. But I wanted to talk to you first. He says, listen, you're the kids wanted to talk to you first. So Sebastian said that Stephen told them that he confronted Tamara at her apartment on the morning of March 1. He said when he arrived, she was dressed. Dressed up, as he put it. She was dressed up and there were empty beer cans in the trash.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Now, so she went out last night.

[James Petrigallo]

His thing is, he asked her if she was cheating on him. Now, meanwhile, she had beer for her. So, I mean, that could have been that. He stated that they had argued during this about him accusing her of cheating, and she got upset about that. So she. Or he says that she grabbed a bat and came at him. That's why there was no bats found in her apartment. We found out. So she grabbed a bat. And then he explained how he had to defend himself. So Sebastian said that Steven told him that Steven said he pushed Tamara away, just shoved her away, and quote, she Hit the wall and that was it. That's what he. That was his quote that Steven said she hit the wall and that was it. Which is a real hard into the wall. That's like a nail.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Nothing we could do.

[James Petrigallo]

There was nothing we could do. So he said he admitted he pushed her. And knowing right away that she was dead. You know how hard you have to push somebody to kill them?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

An adult, healthy person.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. Hear their body break and then crumple to the ground.

[James Petrigallo]

Fucking meth won't kill her. But no, a one shove does.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petrigallo]

Marissa asked was it self defense or what the fuck? And he said, yeah, it was self defense. Tamara got a bat that I was afraid of. I don't want to get hit by a bat. So I shoved her. And that's what happened. Now Marissa acknowledges that she will tell different stories to the cops at a grand jury and then at a trial later that she will say that she didn't tell the grand jury that her stepfather said that he was hit with a bat the first time she said that later. So knowing that the body was found in Michigan and was dismembered, Marissa was like, okay, that doesn't. Shoving her doesn't tell me how, you know, her head would fall off and she'd end up 10 hour drive from here. How does that work?

[Jimmy Wissman]

She hit the drywall so hard her head and hands and feet popped off.

[James Petrigallo]

Popped off. You've seen people's shoes fall off when they're hit real hard, sometimes their feet will just come right off.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petrigallo]

So when asked here, she said, quote, this is what she asked her stepfather, what's with the cutting situation? Which is maybe the weirdest way you could ask that question.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I mean, it's a way to minimize the shit out of it.

[James Petrigallo]

What's a stranger way to ask that than the cutting situation? Isn't that fucking weird?

[Jimmy Wissman]

I guess your inventory, you're trying to be like.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah. You're trying to be like tiptoe around it. And that would be just. How do I ask this? What's with the cutting situation happening to Bodi on. I see river woman like you just start saying words.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Trimming schedule.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah. What are you doing there? And Marissa said that Stephen said it involved her identity. So he admitted to her that he dismembered her for. To try to try to hide her identity.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Keep that away from me.

[James Petrigallo]

Marissa said, well, what did you do with the tools you used? Like, what's going on with that? And he said that basically just told her that they're gone. Gone Just gone. There's nothing they could do, nothing we could do. So, like Joe Pesci, his answers are.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Just as bizarre as the question.

[James Petrigallo]

That's what I mean. They're weird questions, weird answers. So, yeah. So Marissa said that Faulkenberg did not know what to do, so he drove around on county roads and then decided to drive to Michigan. He's leaving out freezing someone, then fucking dismembering them so much, which is so calculated. Frozen, then dismembered. So, wow. He said that he advised that he had Tamara's body near their farm in Michigan. Marissa states her brother Sebastian had somehow learned that Tamara's body was dismembered. So that's when she brought up the dismemberment. And, you know, she said that she didn't know how Sebastian knew that Tamara had been dismembered, but he knew. So Marissa advised. Faulkenberg told her that he got rid of the tools and that he wore gloves when he dismembered Tamara. So he's just spilling it. All tools are gone. Yeah. It's like, I don't want you to hear this on the news. So check this out. Killed my girlfriend and fucking cut her up. So there's that accident, though. Sorry. Wow. March 18, 2019. Here they do a full search warrant of Tamara's apartment and find a. This is when they find this. The initial search, they didn't do this. But when they go through it with luminol and shit, they find what is later determined to be Tamara's blood on the west wall of the entryway of the apartment.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petrigallo]

They find some blood spatter. So that's not great, obviously. So they're going to go ahead and arrest Steven here. Doesn't matter what he says he did. He cut a woman up after he killed it. And this splash in your place, not great. So the chief assistant prosecutor in Menemonee county said that the charges against him have not been filed in Michigan. Because they were like, oh, here. He's like, no, no, no. We sent him away. He said it's believed that the murder occurred in South Dakota. So that's where the prosecution for the crime will take place. They said, we're still conducting a very thorough and elaborate investigation here. And if at some point additional charges are warranted here, those will be evaluated and pursued. And that's the other thing, because, like, disposal of a corpse is another charge, but can you charge that in South Dakota if it's a continuation of that crime, or do you have to charge that in Michigan.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. Because he crossed the state line with a dead body.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah. Which should be illegal anyway. No. Bringing corpses in your trunk in our state, that should be. That would probably help. States do that. You can be able to get a guy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't even like when somebody dies in a state and all the family plot is in another and they fly it back home. That gives me the heebie jeebies. And I know that they do that shit with commercial flights. So sometimes, James, when we're flying places, there's a dead body on board.

[James Petrigallo]

Oh, yeah. My grandmother flew all the way from Arizona to here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't like it.

[James Petrigallo]

What's the other option? Be buried in fucking Arizona? God damn it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Please put her ass on a train. I don't know. I don't.

[James Petrigallo]

I'm saying this publicly. I don't really care what you do with me when I die, but do not bury me in Arizona. That's all I ask. I'll be so miserable. I hate it so much. The fucking dry and the dirt. I can't do it. Termites getting into me. No. Can't do it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't know. I don't know what the answer is, but I don't like driving.

[James Petrigallo]

Maybe they should just put it on, like a train. You know what I mean? But that would take, like, days. That's the problem.

[Jimmy Wissman]

By the time it gets there, it might be no good anymore.

[James Petrigallo]

Grandma's a bit gamey. Sorry about that. Jesus.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Blame Amsterdam.

[James Petrigallo]

It's weird, though.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't know.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah. I don't know, man. They should pick up space.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wisman didn't want her on the Delta flight.

[James Petrigallo]

That's what it is. Wisman didn't want her on the 215 to. Fucking 215 to Detroit. So guess what?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sorry.

[James Petrigallo]

Sorry. So, yeah. The officials encouraged Menominee area citizens to be on the lookout for anything suspicious. You know, like a head or a random foot or anything like that. You see? Holy shit. Yeah. They said that they're. They're vigilant right now, but the whole body has not been recovered. Falkenberg is arrested and charged with a complaint of second degree murder. Here, right away. South Dakota Highway Patrol trooper here, who was also a volunteer cadaver dog handler with the Brookings County Canine Search and Rescue Team, had his certified dog, Ninja. That's the dog's name. Hell, yeah. Perform a free air sniff of Falkenberg's truck, which just sounds like a fun time for a dog. Just parade around and get some sniffs in.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Get in there and huff that Truck, buddy.

[James Petrigallo]

Come on. You can just see the dog sniffing in the air. Yeah, get it in. Sniff all that air. Free air. Snip. The dog indicated positively to the presence of human remains near the driver's door, at the seam of the truck where the cab and better joined. Okay, not good.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What does that tell you?

[James Petrigallo]

That she was in there. She was in his cab of his truck or right in the back, pushed up toward the front of the bed. Yeah. So they then want to search the dump in Menominee because once the body's found, the guy at the shop who let Stephen use his dumpster starts going, oh, shit. And calls the cops and went. The guy who murdered people with a, you know, missing head and hands and all that, he used my dumpster.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

Let's hope the head wasn't in there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He said he had a little bit of litter.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, more than a little bit. So the detectives and other law enforcement officers conduct a two day search of the local landfill of Menominee. Oh, gross. Huh? They end up recovering. They actually find. They actually find this shit. Can you believe that?

[Jimmy Wissman]

They find that grid system that they have set up.

[James Petrigallo]

It's pretty incredible.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's. It's really amazing.

[James Petrigallo]

It's wild. So they recover several pieces of clothing, including a yellow and gray Columbia coat that belonged to her, a black sequined hat, white pants, and a Harley Davidson shirt.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Heads in there too.

[James Petrigallo]

It's. We don't know. Tamara's friend Jennifer said that she occasionally sold Tamara clothing and that was her stuff. She identified the Columbia coat and the Harley shirt as items she sold to Tamara.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petrigallo]

Tamara's daughter as well. Sydney said that she was with her mother when she bought the black sequin hat from a thrift store. That the white pants were similar to a pair her mother wore.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This woman leads the most fucking impossible life to track. She's buying shit from friends, thrift stores.

[James Petrigallo]

No cell phone, no tower data, no social media presence. It's crazy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

A murderer's dream lady.

[James Petrigallo]

She is. She. But she is the only person you could that can disappear and left in the country. Have you ever found the house of your dreams only to learn it has dark secrets? Netflix new series no Good Deeds follows three families vying to buy a 1920s Spanish style villa that they think will solve their problems. But as the sellers discover, sometimes the home of your dreams can be a total nightmare. No Good Deed, starring Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano, launches December 12, only on Netflix. Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you A little bit more about Quince. Quince can help you with this pesky holiday shopping that we all have to deal with. It's so hard trying to get. It's hard picking gifts for people, people you love. You want them to have something nice, Check out quints. You can do it. Quince lets you treat your loved ones and yourself to true quality at an affordable price. Everyone's happy here. Something everyone needs in their closet here. Quince's iconic Mongolian cashmere sweaters. Always nice. A classic. They start at $50. We've used quints. I found very nice stuff on Quint at a great price. I got a jacket, sunglasses. Jimmy's got some pants he's rocking. It's good stuff. Gift luxury. This season without the luxury price tag. Go to quint.com smalltown murder for 365 day returns plus free shipping on your order. That's Q U N C.com smalltown murder to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quint.com smalltown murder now back to the show.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What a nightmare.

[James Petrigallo]

So the reactions around town are obviously, you know, mixed. Steven's chiropractor, Larry Jones, who's popped his neck in and out, said, first of all, you can't believe that somebody that you know that well would do something like this. So I've known him for more than 20 years, this guy. He said he's such a good guy. I had a fire in my office, you know, who came and helped me rebuild. Stephen. That's what a good guy said he was. He didn't even need tools. I was going out to the truck to get tools. He's. He had two by fours already in.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Place, literally slapped it together, slapped it.

[James Petrigallo]

He said he was always a friend of mine. I still consider. I don't know if this happened or not, but I feel sorry for him and especially for her, which is. I just. Yeah. What do you say at that point? Holy shit. The officials here. Who is this? This is one of the prosecutors said, quote, there have been some frankly gory details that have been released in this case. And I think it's important to remember that there's a human aspect to this case too. And that is that Mrs. La Fram Boise was the daughter of a woman, her mother, who still lives in New Mexico. She's the mother of two young adult children. They said, if you're a praying person, I'd urge you to consider keeping their family in mind over the next difficult days and weeks and months. They not only have to deal with the loss of their loved one, but the progress of the criminal case. Sure, yeah. Dealing with boats a lot. So an old friend here of Tamara's here, Dennis Paseka Pasica, said she had such a bright face and was always smiling. She was the last person you would expect to get caught up in something like this. I haven't actually seen her in over 30 years, but I haven't seen her since the ninth grade. But back then I said, she's the last person who's going to be on meth and murdered in South Dakota and thrown in a creek in Menominee. Right. That's a wild thing to say. He said, but to me, that would all probably hold true, that she's still like that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petrigallo]

Okay. Another woman here who kept in touch through Facebook, so apparently she had a Facebook account at one point, said, this is just horrible. She was a lot of fun, so upbeat and happy, always bubbly and outgoing and not shy by any means. And she said, I'm just devastated by the news and frankly, everything that's come out. She said, I heard the name and it caught my attention. My stomach just went upside down. And I said, oh, my God. And then they said it looked like foul play. And they were right, obviously. Tamara's mom here finally. I mean, she was the one who started the whole search. Said she, you know, Mary, she wishes that something would have. She at least wants some answers from Stephen. Basically, she said, I think we could truly move forward maybe more quickly if he would just tell us where he put her hands and feet and her head so we can rest.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, help us out, man.

[James Petrigallo]

He said, she is not at peace. We had a memorial service, but in our way, you're not at peace unless your whole body is there. Yeah, because they're native also. So that's part of it. There's a certain way that has to go.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

And without the parts, it doesn't work like that. So then there's some jail conversations here. That. Two jail conversations between Stephen and his visitors at the county jail during a visit with his ex girlfriend, Terry Thurman. First of all, okay, let's say your ex girlfriend, not the mother of your children or the father of your children or whatever the fuck, your ex is arrested for this murder, murdering their current partner and beheading them and dumping them in a creek 10 hours away. Are you going to visit that motherfucker in jail?

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't think so.

[James Petrigallo]

I'm going. Dodged a bullet there. Never talking to that guy again. And I'm telling everybody I know about that shit. Remember that guy? He fucking killed it. I remember. I told you. I told you he was a nut. Remember? He killed the lady, his fucking girlfriend there. So he mentioned that. Weird stuff. Weird stuff happened in Michigan the other day. This was on April 9, 2019. He said this. He said, not good. Not good at all, huh? Not good at all for me. So that's what he said. He said that the following day, he told two friends during a jail visit that they're doing some weird stuff in Michigan. Oh, we don't talk about it, but it's not good. That's when they were doing autopsies and finding the causes of death and all that kind of shit. It's not good because they were finding evidence against him.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, it's terrible.

[James Petrigallo]

Fucking awful. So it's wild. One person said here, the person who came to get a look at this guy in court, because they bring Stephen in to be arraigned and everything, so people want to just go in and catch a gander at him. Who would do this? And one guy here, Francis Zephier, who set up a prayer vigil outside the courthouse to support Tamara's family, said, what I seen today was a man that has no remorse. What I seen said, I always think when you walk into a courtroom, you'll see what a monster looks like. He said, it's. That's fucking wild. He said, it's difficult as a man and a father when you can't do anything. Right now, I'm holding back because I don't want to cry, but in my heart, it hurts real bad. That's another friend of the family. The prayer vigil person said her mother deserves to bury her daughter whole. And her head, I mean, as a woman, as a mother, I just couldn't imagine, you know, her head's missing. So he said, what that guy did there, that did nothing for humanity. Nothing for humanity.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What that guy did there.

[James Petrigallo]

What that guy did there. Beheading a woman did nothing for humanity like he expected it to. Like, he's like, the society's ills will be over now, right? Shit. Damn it. So they end up seeding. They bring in over 200 prospective jurors. They have to interview to try to get a jury that's not tainted because this is a big deal around here. This doesn't happen often around here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

200.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah. So they ended up getting finally 13 jurors out of the 200 that they could live with. So that's only one alternate, though. That's. That's rough. So they're going to proceed, though, with 13 jurors. They said, fuck it. Trial comes up here, okay? The prosecution is going to call 26 witnesses to the stand, including forensic pathologists, orthopedic hand surgeons, talking about what happened to his hand, possibly cops, everything else. They present evidence showing that Falkenberg was the last person to have contact with him, with her, and that evidence regarding his actions after his or her disappearance, going to Menominee, which is where the body was found. All that good shit there. Sure. So during the opening, the prosecutor, Douglas Barnett, he talks to the jury and he says that the night she was killed, there were two people present. One is dead and the other has engaged in a pattern of lying and deceit. Not good for him. Says that, you know, he thinks that he placed the body in the bed of his Ford F250, covered the bed, and drove to his brother's house in Menominee. On the way, he spent a night at the American Inn in Tomah where he lounged in a hot tub and ordered dinner while she was in the back of his truck, freezing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Frozen.

[James Petrigallo]

Frozen. And that's probably what froze her. I don't think he put her in a freezer. I think he kept her in the back of a truck in Michigan and fucking Wisconsin in the winter. I think that frozen.

[Jimmy Wissman]

When was it?

[James Petrigallo]

Was it March? March, yeah. It's fucking cold there, March. Oh, yeah, for sure. It still snows like a bitch there in March. And there was like an ice storm that night. A snow and ice storm that night. So the defense opening. That's a tough. This is a tough defense.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How do you.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, it's one thing if the cops came and she was laying on the floor next to the wall and he said, I pushed her and she died. Yeah, that's. You could work with that. You could say she came at me. You could say we were playing. There's a lot of lies you can tell that at least would minimize it to maybe where people might believe it. Her fucking head is gone, bro.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, that's not good.

[James Petrigallo]

And you have lots of power tools and her head and hands were removed. That's good. You're a construction guy. Not fucking good. This guy says that the state has to prove that he ended her life in a depraved and cruel state of mind. When in a while in a state of passion because it's second degree murder.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The bummer is you don't know how she died.

[James Petrigallo]

That's the problem.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We don't have a proof that he killed her. We Just have proof that. I mean, he certainly. We got proof that he desecrated the body, Right?

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah. Well, they're gonna try to link this with some other stuff and make it. And try to piece together what he did also.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Why would you desecrate and destroy a body if you didn't do it?

[James Petrigallo]

If you did. Yeah. Why would you. Anybody who just finds a body would call the cops or call the 911 or whoever.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. If you had nothing to do with this, then you're not. You're not gonna. I better dispose of this.

[James Petrigallo]

You're no. You're no. It's not somebody's fucking hamburger they left behind. Or somebody left half a bag of Skittles on my counter. I don't know how long they've been there. I better saw some.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm too close to it. I got to get rid of it now.

[James Petrigallo]

That's so weird. Yeah. Nobody disposes of someone who just dies by accident or, you know, has a.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Heart attack, stumbled upon the body.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, that's ridiculous. So the defense here, though, says that. Listen, the real villain in this case.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

It's not Tamara, of course, the dead person, She's a victim.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

It's not Steven. He's not the real villain here. The real villain in this case is methamphetamine. That's the real villain.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Meth.

[James Petrigallo]

Did. He said that chronic use increases the chances of death and violence. He said meth can cause untraceable cardiac arrhythmia, strokes and aneurysms as well.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Can it?

[James Petrigallo]

I don't fucking know. It can't be good for you. I mean, it's just battery acid and poison and fucking fertilizer and shit. Can't be good for you. Yeah. Can't be good. Just battery acid, Sudafed, that's all it's in there. Fucking Chinese newspapers, I'm sure some weird substance to hold it together. The autopsy, he said, found no evidence of a violent struggle here, but forensic testing did show that she was high on meth that night that she died. So. Just saying. The defense attorney goes on to say that Tammy became violent and irrational when on method, which can't be disputed, actually. I mean, there's. The whole police department witnessed that shit and a whole bar. The whole rounding third crew fucking figured that out. Ruined their whole slide in the home that night.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Not good.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, so he says that. Listen, she becomes irrational and violent. My client was trying to help her. Yeah, he's not a villain. He's a hero here. That's right. Good Guy, he said that she not only didn't want to be helped, she started threatening him and his family and the fam. The whole family. I'll kill everybody, goddamn it. I'll take my little fucking petite self over and kill your whole family. Then he said she attacked strangers. She's threatened to kill law enforcement officers before. She's dangerous. He says, my client, he doesn't do drugs. He doesn't do drugs. He just wanted to help her get clean. He said this man stood by Tammy and made her probation calls for her to see when she had urine screenings. He has no history of violence, nothing. But he instead would let Tammy hit him until she calmed down. That's how this would work. And even you're going to hear from his ex wife and his girlfriends, all of which who are going to say he's just a gentle soul, never laid a hand on him. Which might be true, but he did something here. Not 100% of the time, obviously. So the attorney for Falkenberg here argues that the evidence might prejudice a jury. If you show them these photos of the autopsy of a headless, handless, footless woman oozing blood.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's certainly not gonna.

[James Petrigallo]

Not gonna help any favors.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No.

[James Petrigallo]

But it's. It's. It establishes that she's dead and establishes what happened. And that's one of those. Every fucking court case. The defense tries to get the autopsy pictures thrown out or the crime scene pictures, and it never works out.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Never works. Never.

[James Petrigallo]

And most. The judge will say, you can't show, you know, five pictures of the genitals cut off. Only two pictures of the genitals cut off, not five. That's gratuitous. So, yeah, the defense attorney argued that dismemberment. This is what he said. You don't need to show the pictures because the dismemberment was performed days after the murder, and it does not serve to show intent. And that's really what we're looking for here, is intent.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay?

[James Petrigallo]

And the judge was like, get the fuck out of here. He cut a chick's head off. We're showing the jury that shit, bro. Like, you gotta be kidding me.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We have to.

[James Petrigallo]

We have to. So the state argued that the evidence was relevant to prove that Falkenberg's attempts to conceal the murder and prevent identification of the body, they said. As to the manner of death and Falkenberg's intent, the state argues that the evidence would be relevant to show that Falkenberg struck Tamara instantly, killing her, and it would show Falkenberg's motive for removing her head and concealing the crime. Further, the state argued that any prejudicial effect of the evidence would not be by illegitimate means. In other words, if they are prejudiced by this, they should be. Look at what the fuck he did. Basically, he deserves to be prejudiced by what he did. Here's his work. Let's show it. You don't want them to show his handiwork.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, here's his long division walk.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, you don't want. You just want to get the end of the algebra problem. You don't want to see the X and this and times three and four.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, he gets there.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, that's. No, no, no. We're going to see how he got there in the third day of the trial. It starts with a Sioux Falls orthopedic surgeon named Richard Blake Curd. Dickey Curd. His name is Dick Curd. C U R Dick Curd.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's magma.

[James Petrigallo]

That's. As I say, when curds come out of your dick, you got problems. Go by Blake, man. Come on. He used his expertise to analyze X rays of Steven's right hand because several witnesses had seen his right hand was swollen enough that he had to use his left hand. According to this, Dr. Falkenberg told the medical personnel on one occasion he injured his hand punching an ar. Punching an icicle. Another visit, he said it was a fall. So the prosecutors asked this guy if punching an icicle or a fall would explain the injury. Could you get that injury from either of those? He said it would certainly depend on the icicle. It have to be a hell of an icicle.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It might fight back.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, that's pretty much what it is. So they test it. He's going to further testify that the metacarpals on his middle and ring fingers were fractured. That's what was broken. He explained this injury is very common in physical sports injuries and is known as a boxer's fracture or a fighter's fracture. Yeah, that's where you punch and that's where it breaks. He also said the metacarpal bones make up the skeletal structure for the palm of the hand, with the top of the metacarpal bone being referred to as the knuckle. Let's just give everybody a little roadmap of the hand. So he says, when describing how the two middle metacarpals could fracture this way, he explained that the injury was consistent with a fist impacting a stationary solid object such as a jaw, cheekbone, chin, or forehead, you know, or a wall or a pole or A car or, you know, tree.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It should be called the frat boys fracture.

[James Petrigallo]

The drunken frat boy fracture. The. My girlfriend won't text me back to in the morning frat boy fracture.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's the one.

[James Petrigallo]

That's the one right there. He said in his opinion the injury was not likely caused by a strike of a bat. So in case, he says, in case they try to say later, she hit me with the bat, broke my hand. She said that would result in a larger area of injury. This is very acute where you punch.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Shatter fingers.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah. That could break your whole hand.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

So when asked if the injury could be caused by punching an icicle, he said it was possible that. But that the icicle would have to be a very narrow one, one dimensional and robust. To break his hand in that way. It would have to be frozen so solid that it didn't give when it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petrigallo]

You know, when he hits it have.

[Jimmy Wissman]

To be an iceberg.

[James Petrigallo]

A huge. But also very narrow enough to only break those two.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petrigallo]

The most sturdy, but the most narrow as well, which is obviously doesn't really exist frozen science at all. So he said that he agreed that it was possible to break the hands by falling as well on ice when bracing with a clenched fist. He said that could happen. That could happen exactly like that. When Cross examined, he said that the two different recorded causes could have been the result in error in the records and did not necessarily mean that he told two different stories. Meanwhile, tons of witnesses say he told two different fucking stories. Now meth is part of the defense here as well. They were particularly interested in the levels of methamphetamine in her blood. At the time of her death, she had struggled with substance abuse and particularly meth abuse here. And a toxicology report showed the 350 nanograms per milliliter of meth in her blood. The doctor said that amount could cause an overdose. They said that specifically it could cause cardiac arrhythmia, which could not be traced. A stroke or an aneurysm, one or the other. However, that amount of meth typically would only kill a person weakened by heart or blood pressure issues. Your heart would have to be ready to go over and this could kick it over the side, but it's not going to cause a healthy person for their heart to explode. They said most overdoses of methamphetamine are from between 1000 and 7000 nanograms per milliliter of meth in the bloodstream.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Boy, oh boy.

[James Petrigallo]

Which is 20 times, fuck, 200 times what she had no. Is it that or. I think it's 200 times. Was it? No, it would be 20 times. 20 times 350. So it'd be 27,000. Would be 20 times what she had in her bloodstream. That's a lot. So they said the autopsy did not discover the cause of death with the body. With the part of the body I got to examine is what he said.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

Nothing came up in what I got. So when asked if methamphetamine in her system could result in death, he said levels this low generally are not fatal unless they have a vulnerable heart. And her heart was, quote, incredibly healthy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm fucking distraught that.

[James Petrigallo]

God damn it. I mean, not that I want her heart to be shitty, but I want to have a better heart than someone who's smokes meth all the time or shoots meth all the time. That's all. Is that a lot to ask?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Consistent intravenous methamphetamine use and the lifestyle.

[James Petrigallo]

That comes along with that. And the lifestyle that comes along with that. You know what I mean? That's.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Not fair.

[James Petrigallo]

That is a lot. Asked if having the head or other missing body parts would have aided in determining if a stroke or aneurysm had caused her death, he said would have helped.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

Can't hurt. You give me the head. You can't hurt. Like, I can figure out a lot more if I have a head. The defense continued with witnesses who showed that he was. Steven was on. Or. I'm sorry, that Tammy was on probation for her drug use and had violated that probation more than once as well.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petrigallo]

They're trying to say she's wild and capable of anything because she's on meth. Sure.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

Which is kind of like the West Memphis Three. As long as they're satanic, they're capable of anything. Like the Eccles and Baldwin trial. They had no evidence. They're just like. They're satanic. They could have done this. Those are the type of people that would do this. They're like, okay, this is kind of the same thing. She's on meth. Anything's possible.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

Let's see if that muddies the water. They also send in both sets of kids. His kids, her kids.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petrigallo]

All four were asked about the mention or presence of a baseball bat, which he had claimed that she attacked with both of her kids. Tammy's kids said that there was no bat in her apartment.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay. Not one she known about.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah. And Sebastian said his father didn't mention a baseball bat during the time they met. With him on March 16. And Marissa said she couldn't recall if her father said anything about being hit with a bat. But that self defense was brought up. They're trying to not put him in worse, basically. Now the defense case here, he's not going to testify. No, no. He's got brain damage and a fucked up head. You're not sending him up there on the fucking stand. You get a guy in a nice suit to speak for him, you know? Yeah, but then again, you might want to put him up there just so he doesn't sound like a monster. So he looks like a person.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

But then again, they're going to go through his whole thing. Well, when did you cut her up? When did you decide to cut her up? When does this. They'll probably let him go on the defense. Oh, self defense. Okay. Okay. Then get real deep into. So as you're sawing her head off, what's happening then?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petrigallo]

So a doctor, a forensic pathologist testified he thinks Tamara died while in the beginning phase of acute methamphetamine intoxication and was under the influence at the time of her death. That's medical testimony. Because Tamara had meth in her system, he could not rule out a cardiac arrhythmia, stroke, or brain aneurysm as cause of death. However, this doctor ultimately agreed with the first doctor's conclusion that the cause of death was likely homicide by an unknown case, but pointed out that not all homicides were criminal acts, such as in the case that of a killing that occurs when a person acts in self defense. This doctor is worth every cent of his hourly wage. He's even so far, he's not just defending the shit that he's supposed to be defending. He's jumping other shit. I mean, not everybody. Not all homicides are murder. You know what I mean? Could be a fine one. Wow. They bring in a defense psychiatrist who advances the theory that Falkenberg panicked after the death and because of his prior brain injury, was unable to consider options to summon aid, and instead threw her car in a truck, covered the truck bed, drove her to Michigan, dismembered her and disposed of her. He could put that together in his head, but he couldn't put together 911 or even go outside and yell help. None of that shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Or somebody, a friend's number, anything.

[James Petrigallo]

Nothing. Didn't think post it on Facebook. Something. Just fucking say something. He instead, they said, couldn't put those things together in his head and make a plan. But he could make a plan to do all the other shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petrigallo]

Which is wild. Here. This guy said he interviewed Falkenberg, performed a number of neuropsychological tests and spoke with those who knew him. And he, including family members, and reviewed his medical records from the treatment he received after his car wreck as well. Right. He testified that the 1993 brain injury caused massive trauma to his frontal lobe, which impaired his ability to, quote, multitask, think of alternatives, anticipate consequences, and his ability to problem solve. So although he was capable of managing his own construction company, the doctor also said that his impairment would worsen with age and would be more pronounced when under stressful situations.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How bad was this brain injury?

[James Petrigallo]

Oh, when you see his face, it's fucking bad.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really.

[James Petrigallo]

You can see it? His eye is over here. It had to be bad. If a fucking injury. If an injury relocates your eyeball to a place it shouldn't be, that's gotta be bad, I would think, right? Looks like his skull was broken. Frontal lobe damage. That's not good, man. Look, on our social media, it is wild. So the court instructs the jury now. Now we're at jury instructions. This is kind of important in a case like this because the. What the jury is instructed on is very. You know, that matters a lot. Because if they're instructed to ignore this or put particular emphasis on this or this doesn't count as that. That's what it is. So the judge says the concealment by the defendant does not create a presumption of guilt. Basically saying just because he dismembered her and threw her away doesn't mean you can say he's guilty of murder. He said, if you find that the defendant dismembered the body of Tamara or disposed of the tools and Tamara's clothing, this evidence may be considered by you as a circumstance tending to prove his consciousness of guilt. So you can use that, but just not directly. It has to be, in a roundabout way, his consciousness of guilt, which would mean that's his mindset, his depraved manner of thinking and all that shit he said you're not required to do. So you should consider this evidence in connection with all the other evidence in the case and give it as much weight as your judgment as is in your judgment, it's fairly entitled to receive, which is fair. Now, verdict comes in, he is found guilty of second degree murder and first degree manslaughter. Both.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petrigallo]

Which is odd because they sound like they would both be kind of the same.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It should be one or the other, I would imagine.

[James Petrigallo]

So. But he got both. Now at the sentencing hearing, not only is he going to get a lot of time here, but the state sought to recover costs of prosecution, restitution for expenses submitted by Tamara's family to the Crime Victims Compensation Commission and even $2,191.65 to Sidney the daughter for medical costs stemming from her attempts at self harm as a result of losing her mother. Wow. Yeah. So this is a lot. They're seeking $29,678.86 for prosecution and restitution here, and then the other 2500 for her or 2100. So in support of these requests, the state provided the court with receipts for prosecution costs and documentation from the commission, reflecting that it had awarded compensation for expenses of $4,856, 14 cost cents for funeral costs and $720 for transportation costs for Ron, contingent on submission of mileage compensation forms for her son and approval for 18 mental health sessions for Sydney, contingent upon receipt of documentation from the provider. With a set deadline of January 13, 2021, she gets 18 mental health. That's what they're going to give her out of this. Hope you can fix it in 18 sessions, my darling.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Once a month for a year and a half.

[James Petrigallo]

That's it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And then you're on your own.

[James Petrigallo]

Better be all fixed up by then. The state also submitted a document detailing a total restitution request for the Crime Victims compensation fund of $7625.10, which included the $4866.14 and the $720amounts awarded by the commission, as well as 1400 $80.96 request for a headstone and $586 counseling bill for Sydney. The state did not provide receipts or documentation supporting these two latter amounts. Just said, that's what it cost.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We need it.

[James Petrigallo]

The court then denied the objections of Falkenberg and awarded costs of prosecution and $2,195 to Sydney. Although not requested by the state, the court also ordered Falkenberg to reimburse the Crime Victims Compensation fund up to $15,000 for expenses awarded on claims submitted by the family and an additional restitution of up to $40,000 directly to Tamara's children or mother if they incurred counseling or medical expenses attributable to her death. So the state didn't even ask for that. The judge is just given that they're.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Just throwing money all over the place and telling him to pay it.

[James Petrigallo]

Tell him to pay it. Which when you hear a Sentence. I don't know how he's supposed to figure that out. Regarding the amounts ordered, the court said if there's any dispute, Mr. Falkenberg will have the right to a hearing after review of any document submitted in support of those requests. Okay. They said, the defendant, Stephen Robert Falkenberg, shall pay restitution to the Yankton County Clerk of Court's office. The total amount of $29,678.86. Wow. And then total. And then they break down the reimbursements here. It's not subject. They said the 29,678, 86 is, and the 2100 for Sydney is not subject to further hearings as the court ordered those amounts to be paid. So you can't appeal that. You can appeal the other shit, but not that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petrigallo]

And they also, you know, bring his kids up there to say, he's a nice guy, all the people that he knows, to say he's a nonviolent man. He's a nice man. He's calm. Tamara would freak out, and he would calm her down. All that kind of shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petrigallo]

The judge says, you, sir, may fuck off. Life in prison without parole.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Don't give a fuck how much you.

[James Petrigallo]

Give a fuck how nice you are. You were very not nice on this one day. Found today.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You are not.

[James Petrigallo]

He's like, but every other day, I'm a good guy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

What's up with that, man? You should let me go. So reactions here. The prosecutor said this was a horrific crime. I'm glad we could get justice for the family and keep South Dakota safe by taking this violent killer off the streets. You fucking asshole. You couldn't see what I mean. That shit annoys me. That shit annoys me. It's one thing to say is a horrible crime. He's a fucking monster for what he did to him. I'm glad he's gonna go away now because you can't kill people like that. This guy made it sound like he was walking the streets, drooling, looking for your children.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah. Unless your children got on meth and got in an argument with him when he accused them of cheating on her. I don't think he was gonna fucking do anything to anybody else. Probably. But you can't do this to anybody is the point. Tammy's mom said, somewhat of a relief, but at the same time, it was bittersweet. And it didn't bring my daughter back. I hope you didn't expect it to, because it's not gonna. It didn't bring my Grandchildren's mother back, and it left his children without a dad, even though they're adults. There were so many victims in this case, and that's the sad part. She wishes there would be some answers. She said again that I could be a little bit more at peace if she had all of her pieces. You know what I mean?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yes. That's huge.

[James Petrigallo]

That's the problem. Peace equals peace is what that is. So she does say, I appreciate all the work that the prosecutors did and all the investigators and all the people from Michigan. I appreciate it. And the jury, they did an outstanding job. So that's good. At least they're happy with that now. January, by the way, that was in the end of that trial, was the end of January 2020.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, wow.

[James Petrigallo]

So, yeah, this guy's whole life was definitely going to be way different.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No shit.

[James Petrigallo]

He's doing jail COVID lockdown also. January 2021. He appeals. He wants a new trial. That's the problem. He got screwed over. He said, yeah, lawyer fucked me. He lawyer fucked well. He said the circuit court erred in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal because before they sent the jury out every. In every single trial, they just do. Your honor, I don't think we even need to go to the jury. I'd like to do a motion for an acquittal from here where the judge can just go, yes, the prosecutor did not present adequate evidence. Dismissed. Everybody asked for that. Sarah Boone asked for that. While there's video of her killing a man that she made herself. So everybody asked for that. Whether the circuit court abused discretion by denying Falkenberg's motion to exclude evidence and testimony regarding dismemberment. He tried to get the photos and also them to not. Let's not mention that she didn't have hands or feet or a head. Let's just keep that out of this.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They found the body. Let's just leave it at that.

[James Petrigallo]

Has nothing to do with this man. That's the thing. Has nothing to fucking do with it. They said whether the court's restitution order violated Falkenberg due process rights and separation of powers doctrine. Now, I don't think it did that. But speaking of Sarah Boone, one of the things I found very interesting when they sentenced her to life in prison, by the way, the state, actually, because there's automatically all these restitution charges, the judge said, I'm gonna go ahead and probably think the prosecution agrees with this, and I'm gonna go ahead and get rid of all of those. She's going to prison forever. She can't pay anything back.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There's nothing to do.

[James Petrigallo]

Right. Rather than take her ramen noodles or something like that. They usually an apartment. Usually when you get life in prison, they will wipe the restitution away. Because unless you're like, a person who has a big war chest of money, which. How many murderers have that? So not as long.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

So. Yeah, they. They. Yeah, exactly. They're. Yeah, they usually fucking. OJ Would have had some cash they could have dealt with, but other than that, it wouldn't have worked. So he says that the prosecutor at trial focused on the dismemberment even though it occurred in a different state and after the victim was dead. So what? I don't give a fuck if it happened on Mars a year from now. You cut a lady's head off. That's why cut your girlfriend's head off is a certain.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The only reason it was in another state was because it was a place he was familiar with. Otherwise, if that boundary, that geographical boundary had been in visible line, it would have been there anyway.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, it's the. He drove her over there. It's different. Everybody would just kill someone and go do something somewhere else then. That's not how you do that shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

He said that they kept using the words cut, chop, sever, amputate, decapitate, dismember.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

Good vocabulary. They got the thesaurus out and fucking went to town. Yep. Went through the thesaurus and really worked it out. So they said that this catches the attention of people when it's being used throughout the trial. It's all they think about. He said words that, by their very utterance, elicit a visceral emotional reaction in a listener.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sure, sure.

[James Petrigallo]

You know how he could avoid it? Have avoided that was not dismember a human being. You could just leave her head attached to her.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Those things happening to anybody makes us fearful.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Nobody wants that to happen to them.

[James Petrigallo]

He's like, can you believe they're calling me out on this shit? What the fuck?

[Jimmy Wissman]

She was dead. She didn't feel it.

[James Petrigallo]

Wow. His lawyer admits that Faulkenberg caused his girlfriend's death in Yankton county and that he took her body to his family's farm in Michigan, where he then cut off her head, hands and feet before dumping her in a creek. So we don't know there's pigs on that farm. Those head, hands and feet could be long gone. You know what I mean? But this guy also. The lawyer also said that Falkenberg pushed The victim during an argument and she hit the wall and died. These circumstances might add up to manslaughter, but not second degree murder. He said that the state emphasized the dismemberment that occurred days later in a different jurisdiction, and by doing so indicated Faulkenberg had a depraved mind. An element of second degree murder.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

You'd have to have some kind of depraved something to dismember your girlfriend. That's a lot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. After there was blood spilled in the apartment, they found a splash.

[James Petrigallo]

So he hit her.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He hit her head really fucking hard.

[James Petrigallo]

With the theory is he punched her so fucking hard, he killed her in one shot. He fucking punched her because that's the one punch thing. So he said it's probably one shot. Hit her so fucking hard. I mean, he can pound nails in with his hands.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

Hit her so hard. She's a little petite woman. Probably broke her skull. Probably.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petrigallo]

Fucking killed her. Very easy to kill someone with a punch if you're big and someone small.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You know, I saw Brain Smasher.

[James Petrigallo]

There you go.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's possible when Dice Clay did it.

[James Petrigallo]

Yes, I do.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That scene of the little Asian man with the fist imprinting.

[James Petrigallo]

Oh, God. Yeah. So prosecutors say that Falkenberg did give his victim more than a shove. The Attorney General says the defendant shoved Tammy against the wall and punched her in the face so hard he fractured his hand in two places. He also says Falkenberg later told some people he had punched an icicle and others he fell on ice. But the prosecutor says that his broken fingers resembled a boxer's fracture. His injury was most consistent with the strike to the chin, cheekbone, or eye socket is what the doctor said, quote, unquote. They said later in the same day he loaded up the body into a truck and drove 600 miles, part of the time in a blizzard to get to Michigan.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's what happened. That's how she froze.

[James Petrigallo]

That's how she froze. Yeah. In a blitz.

[Jimmy Wissman]

God damn.

[James Petrigallo]

He only stopped at the hotel because it was so shitty out. It was icy and shitty. So he's like, I'll just have a hot tub soak.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'll have a hot tub. And dominoes.

[James Petrigallo]

And some dominoes. Wow. They say that his actions were a continuous course of conduct, and his attempt to conceal his crimes indicates he had a guilty conscience. Now, the depraved mind thing. He's charged with the second degree murder. The statute is this homicide is murder in the second degree. If perpetrated by an act imminently dangerous to others and invincing a depraved mind without regard for human life, although without any predetermined desire. Premeditated design to affect the death of any particular person, including an unborn child. They say in order to successfully prosecute a suspect for murder under this statute, the prosecution must prove that the defendant's conduct established that he was acting with a depraved mind. This means involves less culpability than the element of premeditation required for first degree murder. Falkenberg contends that there's insufficient evidence exists to support the jury's verdict that he killed Tamara with a depraved mind. Yeah, he said that. He asserts that the postmortem acts such as dismemberment were used to retroactively establish an act invincing a depraved mind, and therefore the State's theory has no support in the record. He's like, if I cut her head off with a power saw to kill her, that would be a problem.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's what he thinks.

[James Petrigallo]

Later on, it was just dumping her, man. Yeah, that's not a depraved mind. But they're saying just because he waited a couple days doesn't mean it's not one continuous act. Yeah, he did it as soon as he could. He just could. He had to get there first.

[Jimmy Wissman]

To go back to the body and do worse is, I think, worse.

[James Petrigallo]

It's worse.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Absolutely.

[James Petrigallo]

It's way worse to do that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

To do more. Goddamn, man.

[James Petrigallo]

Fucking shit. That's crazy. In Falkenberg's view, his conviction hinged on exploiting the dismemberment. You don't really have to exploit dismemberment. It's right there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's dumb.

[James Petrigallo]

And the jury was encouraged to conclude that anyone who could dismember a body despite such an act indisputably occurring postmortem days later, without any connection to the cause of death, must have had a depraved mind. Further, Falkenberg argues that the state's theory that Falkenberg struck Tamara in the head hard enough to kill her in one blow did not rise to the act of evincing a depraved mind or the level of that. So, yeah, that wouldn't. But then when you add in dismemberment, I think that's pretty depraved. I don't know what else to fucking call it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Fucked up.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah. They said if a person is able to act with a lack of regard for the life of another, then that person can be convicted of second degree murder. They said that the court instructed the jury in this other case. That's precedent. That dangerous to others as often as used in the crime of second degree murder, meant as an act which was inherently dangerous, that puts the lives of others in jeopardy. You know, like punching a small woman in the face. The jury was further informed that in evaluating the evidence of depravity, it could consider not only the conduct itself, but the circumstances of its commission. They said the state relies on the direct and circumstantial evidence that Faulkenberg struck the fatal blow to Tamara's body without regard for her life. Falkenberg was 6ft tall, physically powerful construction worker with hands so strong he used them as a hammer. That's what it says in the fucking thing. Literally. Tamara was a small, petite woman. Falkenberg admitted to his children that he pushed her and knew right away she was dead. He Lenny'd her totally. This is like, that's what his story is. I threw a Lenny at her. Like, that's crazy. We previously observed in another case here cited by Faulkenberg, that a father's blows to the body or shaking that eventually resulted in his child's death were properly determined by a jury as acts committed with a depraved mind. Also another case here, which they said because Falkenberg severed Tamara's head and disposed of it purportedly to conceal her identity. Identity. The state argued that it did so. He did so to hide the evidence of his crime and the exact mechanism of the fatal blow. They're saying he could have beaten her head repeatedly till it was fucking jelly and then cut the head off. So we didn't know that. And that doesn't mean that that's not what happened, though. You know what I mean? You can't hide evidence and then use that as an excuse why there's no evidence because you hit it. So they said the state presented abundant evidence regarding the nature and timing of the hand injury that should link those things together. You know, the convenience store owner, everybody, him signing shit and everything like that. Also his truck having his truck bed covered when it was usually uncovered at that exact moment. So they said that. They talk about the doctor saying that the jury could also consider Falkenberg inconsistent explanations for his hand injury as possibly a lie and that he might have done it punching somebody. Although Falkenberg contends the state used his post mortem acts to retroactively establish he killed Tamara with a depraved mind, his actions in dismembering her Body and disposing of her head were relevant not only to show how he killed her, but also his resulting consciousness of guilt after the fatal blow. Talking about a 600 fucking mile journey and all that kind of shit. They said they, you know, talking about the photographs of everything like that. Then they talk about him talking about weird stuff happening in Michigan that was not good for him at all. Yeah, and all that kind of shit. Telling his kids that the cutting tools were gone. You know, all this murder cover up shit. The evidence of Falkenberg's efforts to conceal Tamara's identity and to permanently dispose of her head, hands and feet were highly relevant. Her missing body parts could have provided valuable clues to the cause of her death and Falkenberg's role in causing it. Because neither doctors could determine the exact manner in which she was killed. The dismemberment evidence was relevant to prove the state's theory that Tamara was killed on March 1 by a blow to her now missing head. Which is just a funny line, sad, but funny. Just for some reason that's in a court document somewhere. That's to her now missing head. So they said that he's got all his physical prowess. The dismemberment evidence was also relevant to show how the perpetrator of the crime attempted to conceal the identity of Tamara's body before disposing of it. When he admitted to his daughter after she said, what's with the cutting situation? Which is still the strangest thing anyone's ever fucking asked their father. The evidence was relevant here about the tool marks to show that it could have been someone familiar with power tools. That's why they. Because he said it was superfluous to show them these close ups of striations and shit, like it was a power tool. But they said it's someone that knows power tools and has power tools. You're a contractor? Yeah. You know, and have power tools? Yeah. You don't just. I mean, I know you can pound nails in with your hands, but that's not how you cut wood. You don't just karate chop it and it fucking breaks into the exact measurement you want it to be. I don't think so. They said that a contractor with his experience, ability and strength could make such cut. And they also used the frozen body thing that they talked about. They said in one area and one photograph the doctor referenced, he testified the skin on the body had a purplish area which is known as marbling or liver mortise. And he explained that this depicted that this, which is depicted in the photo was evidence of early decomposition, which is helpful in determining time of death. And it's also shows that lividity set in before he moved her.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, she wasn't frozen. Plus, I think it would have taken longer to freeze a human body than it takes for lividity to start to happen. So probably, yeah, you have to put them in. I don't even know how cold liquid hydrogen I would have to be. Yeah. Seven other photographs involved images of the different tattoos used to identify her body. So they said that providing an overview of the location of the identifying tattoos in the straight lines where her head, feet and hands were severed. Justices will consider the arguments here and find out if he want gets a new trial. Now his new trial is denied.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Good.

[James Petrigallo]

But still the state Supreme Court found that a restitution order covering future costs for the victim's family was not appropriate.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petrigallo]

Restitution means I'm paying you back, not I'm paying in the forward. Yeah, that's what they're saying. There's a reason why it's called restitution. And in the law, you have to look up legal definitions. And that is not I'll pay you later for some shit you haven't done yet.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There's no child support to be paid.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah. So the justices demanded that that decision for a restitution hearing in a new order, they said while compensation for prospective counseling and medical costs may be appropriate and necessary in cases involving significant harm to victims and their families, the state's request for reimbursement for certain identified expenses submitted to and awarded by the commission bore no relationship to the circuit court's award of up to $15,000 in reimbursement to the fund. So you don't have to pay that shit back.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They gave him a gift card to run up a bill on this guy.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, that's exactly what happened. So he doesn't have to pay restitution beyond the regular restitution, which unless he's got an estate or something like that, I don't know how the hell you pay $15,000 ever. In jail, they make like 12 cents an hour in there. Literally, like it's. You work days to make a Snickers bar. So it's not. I don't know how they expect any money out of these people, but like I said, Sarah Boone, they waived it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

So obviously you're not going to pay that. If you did have that money, you just buy all the wood bridge in the world. So what's the point here? So anyway, that Is Yankton, South Dakota, Golly, Just a fucked up, weird situation with strange. Everything's gross. Yeah. It's so weird because going into the story, you would imagine that, oh, Tamaruk might end up being a murderer here. She's erratic, she's this, she's that. And then you're like, oh, Mr. Nice Guy Murdered her. That's weird. What the fuck? Here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petrigallo]

Violence, death threats. Yeah, yeah, it's. His face is fucked up, man.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I've seen it. It's not good, man.

[James Petrigallo]

No, he's. He looks like. He looks like if Sloth fucked Sammy Hagar, that's the kid they'd have.

[Jimmy Wissman]

His wild hair is hilarious.

[James Petrigallo]

It's crazy. He's got crazy hair. He's all fucked up. Or he's like a Sloth version of Cody from Sister Wives. One of the two fucking weirdest.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Shit. That's fucking incredible.

[James Petrigallo]

His hair is great. Yeah, he's.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It looks like the hair that goes with the visor wig. You know, the visor and the hair, but there's no visor. It's just the.

[James Petrigallo]

No visor. Just the hair. He's a wild looking cat. People are going to want to see that picture on social media. So definitely follow us on social media. You can do that at Small Town Murder on Instagram, Small Town Pod on Facebook. You should do that as well as head over to Shut up and give me murder.com. and you should get your tickets for live shows that are not only the last two of this year in Boston and Tarrytown, New York, which Tarrytown were filming. Get your Shut up and give me murder heard. Everybody get in there and buy those last few tickets. Not only there, but when the new tickets come out within this month as they're going to new tickets for 2025 all cities we couldn't get to this year. So places everybody's been asking us to go that we're like, we're going to be there next year. We will be there next year in a couple places we've never been before that I'm excited about. So that's going to be a lot of fun. Can't wait. Shut up and give me murder dot com. Yeah, that's it. To sell us tickets and also merchandise on there. You definitely want to get Patreon.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, there it is.

[James Petrigallo]

You need Patreon is what you need. First of all, listen to crime and sports and listen to your stupid opinions. And when you're done with all that, get Patreon too. Patreon.com Crime in sports and I got. I guess I should spell it out every once in a while. P A T R E O N. Not on sports. Not and sports. Crime in sports. And you can get anybody $5 a month or above can get a giant ass load of bonus episodes back catalog hundreds and hundreds that you're going to get immediately and then also new ones every other week. One crime in sports and one small town murder and you get it all for one low price. This week we're going to talk about. For crime and sports, we're going to talk about a United Kingdom soccer sexual abuse scandal. That is pretty gross. Think Penn State. Sandusky overseas.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Vile.

[James Petrigallo]

Yeah, vile English Sanduskys. And then for small town murder we are going to talk about the lifestyle involved in the cult baby murder trial. We're talking about finding young ladies who ran away from home at bus stops and recruiting them to marry you and other women so you can have polygamist relationships and you can drink your own pee every day. It's fucking weird. I'm not even kidding. They explain why you should drink your own pee and use weird medical devices and shit like that. It's goddamn weird. We'll talk all about that. Patreon.com Crime and Sports is where you get that and you get a shout out at the end of the show. Which by the way happens right now. Jimmy, hit me with the names of the people who would never accidentally kill us and then dismember us. They would be nice enough to just leave us where we lay. Hit me with the names of those people right fucking now.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This week's executive producers are. Nikki Aus. Elena Zemel and her pup Sammy. She lost Sammy, the poor pop. 17. That's a good run.

[James Petrigallo]

Damn.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Gary Howard, Amy Barton, Amber Drew. Snap do snap Do Snap. Annette Hollywood. Eleanor Consolo, Adam Brewer's brother in law, Lucas. Happy birthday, Lucas. And also Stella. You guys are amazing. We can't do this without you. Polish your balls. I love you to death. You're the best. Other producers this week are Peyton Meadows, Liz Vasquez, Rachel Trevathan, Janice Hill, Don and Deanna in Deanna in Minnesota. Melissa with no last name. Justinian Wilsonian 420. Tracy with no last name. Eric Wright, Glennie Red, Todd Usher, Quentin Binkley, Cameron Hughes, Tasha Yarborough, Nick Fricka. Fricano Fracano. Fricka. Not gonna work here. Emily with no last name. Les Mo. Christine Schultz, Anthony Sicilone, Chichalone. Chichaloni. Chichaloni.

[James Petrigallo]

Right.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Casey Rath, Christopher Nicholas Quaid, Palm m West. Maxine Kroll. Jacob. Petra. Petra. Maria Cook. Tiffany Gonzalez. Learning DD7767. Why you. Why would you do that to me? Taylor Stansberry. Bradley Eggler. Tyler Wilmoth. Mandy Lowe. BB the letters B and B. Sarah Rucci. Mariella with no last name. Christopher Sullivan. Don with no last name. Michelle Jackson. Chris Elliot. Meg with no last name. Leslie Lawless. Lori Bailey. We Noblesse. We Nobles. I don't know. Lexi would know. Last name. Jackie with no last name. Claire with no last name. Jennifer Mills. Christian Wright. Dutch man with no last name. It's Betty Bish. Oh, Betty Bish. Whoever that is. Es show jumping. Perhaps show jump is show jumping in Aspen.

[James Petrigallo]

I don't know.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Karen. Oh, maybe just Karen Thomas.

[James Petrigallo]

Spanish programs.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Jared Parnell. Gay ass. Ben Jabriel. Monk Jabriel Gabriel. Maybe. Ray Travathan. Tommy Silcox. Kate Davis. Skip. Skip Hayford. Kiana Jackson. Cynthia R. Jeremy Clotier. Kristen Sanchez. Emily Ranger. Jason Cohen. Chelsea Shoemaker. Lamar win. Lamar when? Criti. Crit. Maybe Lamar when? That's a cool name.

[James Petrigallo]

Lamar when. I've never heard that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's mash. All right. Nadia Richards. On Tick. On Tic. Antique. I don't know. The pipe wielding dude. 86. The science walrus. Bethany Lafontaine. Wendy D. Sarah Coville. Rusty with no last name. Susan Wheeler. Jillian Arena. Jacqueline Yulford. That's a fascinating way of speaking. Jacqueline Heather Rush. Catherine. Oh, it's Karen. Karen Hamrock. Courtney. All right. Courtney Sullivan. This is really difficult. Ellis. Ellis McNeil. I swear, it's hard. Eric Seifert. Rodolfo Flores. Cody with no last name. Isabel Franchini. Daniel. Daniel Lindsay. Rebecca Reardon. Laura with no last name. Dina Sanders. Oh, boy. Rj, A, H, R, J. Elena Tomlinson. Emily. Emily Foles. Reuben Kessler. The Cuban wrestler. Kenneth Dobney. Jegan. Jegan. Is this Jen? J, E, G, H, N. Is that. That's Jen Starwitz, right? Audra Colston. Who knows? Pam Bennett. J.B. stallings. Jenna Lewis. Daryl Berry. Nick. Nick. Jocks. Jock. Scott Berryman.

[James Petrigallo]

Michael.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Michael Walutes. Alicia with no last name. Jace with no last name. Janae Fraley. Perhaps Ace's daughter. Darren. Darren Jenkins. John Roberts. Scott with no last name. Aaron Schaefer. Dylan Nielsen. Douglas. Douglas Woodson. Laura and Tim. Michelle O'Donnell. Eric Erica Moreno. Cheyenne Hobbs. Me s? I think Lauren Archer. Todd Horse Cochrane. Yep. Todd Horse. Cochran.

[James Petrigallo]

Horse Cochran.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Got it.

[James Petrigallo]

Immediately I'm like, well done, Todd, you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Son of a bitch. Gina Miller. The Duff. Rebecca Boulier. Boulay Danielle W. Warren McDonald. Jamie Becker. Benedict Cartson. Angela Connor. Kelsey with no last name. Joe Becerra. Cynthia Pasqual Bennet. Oh, the Badola family. Brenda Wagner. Jenny Jones. Crystal Leslie. Nope, Crystal Ali, like Ashley that played for the Broncos. Owen Eads. Emily. Emily Betts. Brooke Horn. Adam Wright. Donna Sweeney. Paula. Paula Thomas. Lucy with no last name. T.J. mooney. Monty. Monty White. Candace Donahue. Donahue. Maybe Jesse Alicio. Shailey Brook and Amber Blakely. And all of our patrons. You guys are the best. Thank you so much.

[James Petrigallo]

Thank you so much everybody. Thank you so much. We appreciate all that you do for us on a goddamn daily basis. You guys are the fucking best and you're always there for us. Thank you so much. If you want to follow us on social media, easy to do. Shut up and give me murder.com as a dropdown menu that'll take you wherever you need to go. And where you need to go is back here next week. Keep coming back because we'll be back. And until next week everybody, it's been our pleasure. If you like small town murder, you can listen early and ad free now by joining Wondery in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen early and ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short [e-mail] survey.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Harvard is the oldest and richest university in America. But when a social media fueled fight over Harvard and its new president broke out last fall, that was no protection.

[James Petrigallo]

Claudine Gay is now gone. We've exposed the DEI regime and there's.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Much more to come. This is the Harvard Plan, a special series from the Boston Globe and WNYC's on the Media to listen. Subscribe to on the Media wherever you get your podcasts.