← Sword and Scale
Sword and Scale
Episode 301
00:57:56
It was a quiet Shabbat Saturday in Boca Raton, Florida. The Jewish community was shut off from the world for their holy day of rest, but inside Tzvi Allswang’s house on Larkspur Trail, one social worker was trapped in every woman’s worst nightmare.
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- [00:00]
Mike Boudet
Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
- [00:12]
Kate
And that's when he grabbed me really fast to yank me back in there and I got really startled and scared and so I screamed.
- [00:24]
Mike Boudet
Not as excited about episode 301. Doesn't have that nice round number to it, you know. Nevertheless, this is going to be a good one. So welcome episode 301 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. So apologies for giving you the wrong description of the SNS TV episode that's currently available. I. I'm losing track of what's what because there's so much going on, but you know, we're just trying to produce as much true crime content as possible for you and it all starts to blend together at some point. Regardless of my horrible salesmanship. You should go on over to swordscale.com and check out Sword and Scale Television. We have 15 full length episodes, they're each about an hour long and tell an incredible tale of murder and mayhem in only the way we can here at Sword and Scale. It was July of 2022 in a little place we like to talk about a lot called Florida. This time Boca Raton, a place named after the mouth of a rat on a suburban street where crime was low and the Tesla count was high. Along with a few vandals, I'm sure. A group of friends in their mid-20s were standing outside a big yellow stucco house in Larkspur Trail before sunrise. One of the friends in the group was a woman who we will refer to as Annie and her girlfriend, who we will call Kate, had been missing for over 12 hours. Annie had this feeling that Kate was inside the yellow house and one of the things that clued her into that was the fact that her car was sitting in the driveway. The night before, she had received some strange messages from Kate's phone that did not sound like her. Maybe Kate was at a hotel like the text messages claim, but that didn't seem right and Annie wanted to be sure. The friends had rallied around the house in Larkspur Trail while the cops did their due diligence, knocking on doors and windows, announcing themselves to the property owners. But they are met with silence. By the looks of it, no one was home. It was hard to tell what was going on. The house on Larkspur was in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood and the day in question was Shabbat, which is the holy day of rest for the Jewish people. Shabbat starts at sunset on Friday and ends 24 hours later at sunset on Saturday. And during this time, Jewish people are not allowed to use any forms of technology. Orthodox Jews take Shabbat very seriously. And everyone in this neighborhood was on their day of rest. Like the good Lord. The cops continued knocking and calling out property owners, but no one responded without cause. They couldn't just break in. I mean, do you want cops breaking into your house without permission? So the police left, but Kate's friends did not. They were convinced that the police had made a big mistake. So one of them called the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office again.
- [04:46]
Annie
There were officers outside of the house of the missing person, and they refused to go inside to retrieve her. So I'm just trying to get reconnected with those officers, if possible, because they literally hung up on me when I asked for their name and badge number. And if you can't reconnect me, then I would like the officers who were dispatched to that call, and I would like their name and badge numbers, please.
- [05:07]
Dispatch Operator
Okay, hold on just a second. I never spoke with you, so let.
- [05:09]
Annie
Me read this question. I completely understand. I'm jumping.
- [05:14]
Mike Boudet
The scene was tense. Annie had already reported Kate missing to the police department near their home, which was in another jurisdiction.
- [05:22]
Dispatch Operator
Okay, what's your name?
- [05:24]
Annie
That's irrelevant, ma' am. I just want to know the. The officer's name and back numbers to the ones who are dispatched.
- [05:29]
Dispatch Operator
Were you the one that called for that address?
- [05:32]
Annie
Yes, ma' am, we were. We were the same ones who called.
- [05:34]
Dispatch Operator
Okay, well, what is your name?
- [05:35]
John Doe
So I can verify that, or I.
- [05:37]
Dispatch Operator
Can'T give you any information?
- [05:40]
Kate
Ma' am.
- [05:40]
Annie
Ma' Am, I'm sorry, but you don't need to ask me irrelevant questions. I'm asking for the office or dispatch to that call. You're a public servant. I am a part of the public, and I'm asking you a question. I need you to answer it, please.
- [05:50]
Dispatch Operator
I'm not answering any questions related to that address because I can't verify or know if you're the one who called.
- [05:56]
Mike Boudet
The dispatch operator had a point, but so did the caller. And things only escalated from there, as they tend to do when one party is emotionally charged.
- [06:08]
Annie
Like I just said, we have a missing person who's sitting inside of that house with a mentally ill patient. But if you want my name, my name is John Doe. Now, please tell me the officers who are dispatched to 22147 Lakesburg Trail, and. And. And don't ask me another bullshit, okay?
- [06:23]
Dispatch Operator
I can't give you any information because I don't show that name listed on the person who called.
- [06:28]
Annie
Oh, so. So if I called on a star six seven number, you guys got got that on fire, right? Come on, man. Let's not play this game. I. I don't do this like. Like there's a missing person right here. This is our friend. This is our loved ones, okay? And I'm trying to help you.
- [06:43]
Dispatch Operator
Listen, no one's here.
- [06:44]
Annie
No, you're not. No, you're not. You're playing some game with me. Don't play the game with me. C2 147 Lakesburg Trail. Which officers were were dispatched to that call?
- [06:55]
Dispatch Operator
Are you at the location right now?
- [06:57]
Annie
Yeah, I am.
- [07:01]
Dispatch Operator
That are on scene if you're there.
- [07:03]
Mike Boudet
But the police had left. However, this caller was too heated to relay that.
- [07:09]
Annie
Ma' Am, are you gonna hang up on me too? Are you.
- [07:12]
Dispatch Operator
Is there anything else I can help you with? I'm not giving you enough.
- [07:15]
Annie
Absolutely there is.
- [07:16]
Dispatch Operator
Okay? You can contact the records. You can contact the records division during normal business hours to get that information. I'm not going to give you.
- [07:32]
Annie
Hold on, hold on. No, ma' am. You. What are you doing right now? You're acting like. Like I'm not following. Like with emotion and care right now because I care for one of my friends. You're acting like I'm another random robot in the world. Like, can you please help me right now? And we are trying to help her and the officers outside of her house who refused to go in there and literally save her from this mentally ill person hung up on me. So can you please help me?
- [08:05]
Mike Boudet
Why not just say your name if it's the emergency you say it is? I mean, say your name right. The dispatch operator told the caller that she would contact an officer and have him call them back. That was all she could do from the 911 line. I mean, you can't just call up 911 and start obtaining personal information about prior calls. There are rules and procedures for a reason, to protect the public. That's when a calmer friend took over the phone and gave his number to the operator. Then they waited. As intense as it was, that 911 exchange worked because more officers were soon sent back to the scene. This time they heard something that made them second guess if Annie and her friends had been right.
- [08:52]
Officer
We were dispatched to this location approximately 6:45 this morning, sometime roughly in reference to assisting Lantana PD in recovering a missing person from their jurisdiction. I arrived here with my trainee, deputy parent. We arrived here and met with the complainant who filed the original missing person's report with Lantana Police Department. I cannot recall her name right now. She told us that she believes her girlfriend is inside that house. And she did report her, in fact, with Lantana Police Department last night. Esther, how does she know she's in there? She goes, well, her car is here. Okay. Originally, we're trying to gather as much information as we can. Kind of things were not really that clear. But it became clear later on when other deputies arrived that she is a therapist and she came here to meet a client.
- [09:50]
Mike Boudet
Kate was a social worker who had been sent to the yellow house on Larkspur by her boss to check on a client. Soon, the officers found themselves walking around the perimeter of the house, knocking on doors and windows repeatedly.
- [10:03]
Officer
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Got no answer. We did notice that the window to the door was obscured with something. We didn't know that was ours. We had that conversation. But anyhow, we went.
- [10:15]
Kate
The window in the house.
- [10:16]
Officer
Oh, the front door. Okay, because we're trying to look in the glass. I gotta see if we can see anything in the house. But the obvious front windows had the blinds closed. We continued around the outside of the house to see if we could look in. See if we could see anything that would indicate people inside the house. As we're going around the house, we're at the rear of the house now on the pool deck, there is a big sliding glass. It's a double sliding glass door. We kind of pulled on that. Hey, you know, try to see if it's open. And when we were off the door, I don't remember, because at the moment we pulled it or let go or whatever, we heard a very loud scream, Female, clearly from inside the house. And that's all we heard. And we confirmed. We checked. Hey, did you hear that? Yeah, I heard that. I heard that. Came back to the front of the house. The complainant from who filed the missing person report. I go, did you hear that? She goes, I heard that. Did you guys hear that? So she heard the scream also some from inside the house. Kind of confirmed we all heard something come from inside the house. It was before we came around the front of the house. My training got on the radio and made an announcement that we heard a scream come from inside the house.
- [11:23]
Mike Boudet
Upon hearing the scream, the officers immediately called their sergeant, who drove to the scene. As Annie and her friends huddled on the sidewalk watching, the officers briefed one another.
- [11:36]
Sergeant
Tell me all the details they have. And then they said, we've looked in all the windows, we can't see in the windows. There's a section where they could see them but you couldn't see anything. I think it was a hallway or something. We're looking for phone numbers, all that. I said, all right, we're talking about the scream again. So we're trying to hash out is this a healthy screen? Because now we have more information that there was something about a 22 year old. I don't think we had that this was a patient. I'm not, I don't remember what the time frame was, but I don't think we had that right away because I think that's what we were trying to figure out is who's the parents, where are they at? There's two kids that live in the house. It's a 26 year old female, 22 year old male. So we had that. So the conversation we're having where we're standing at the front door is, it's the saint call final or is this an affair? She got caught and it's that.
- [12:26]
Mike Boudet
Hours passed and more details began to unravel as the day broke. Kate was a 26 year old social worker and the client she had gone to meet was a 20 year old man who lived on the house at Larkspur. But the cop was right. There were many ways this could play out and one of them could have been an affair. Still, something about this still wasn't right. And there was another option.
- [12:55]
Sergeant
It's a call for note. You can write that shit up. I said, we'll fucking kick the goddamn door at you.
- [13:01]
Mike Boudet
The officer who originally heard the scream confirmed that it sounded off. So the sergeant called his lieutenant and the two decided to have fire and rescue come break the door. That way, if it did turn out to be a false alarm, the homeowners would be left with minimal damage.
- [13:19]
Sergeant
And then we start getting more details. And one of the details was that the doctor who is caring for this kid. So now we know it's the kid is the patient, the 22 year old is the patient. The doctor who's caring for the kid sent her here on assignment at 6pm last night. And I don't know if it was him or the girlfriend. Somebody told us they got a text message saying, I made contact. I think it was a doctor. I made contact, he let me in the house. So now we have that information.
- [13:52]
Mike Boudet
After realizing that Kate was potentially inside the house with a mentally ill patient, the cops knew they had to get in immediately.
- [14:00]
Sergeant
We're getting a fire rescue at the lock is what it was. So that's what we're planning for Lt Cohen shows up. So at this point we're pinging the phone. So now we're, we're kind of doing like the extra like, hold on, let's just make sure this isn't some 26 year old that ran off with a 22 year old. So we're pinging phones, we're getting, trying to get everybody's number this whole time, you know. Hey, you. A deputy's being tasked with get the parents on the phone. We can't get the parents or we know. The neighbors told us the parents are out of town. And it's. I don't know what holiday or what, what Saturday is to the Jewish religion, but something about on Saturday they can't use phones. So we, we knew that. Oh, they don' they don't use phones. Okay.
- [14:39]
Mike Boudet
Remember that it was Saturday of Shabbat. So the all swings weren't permitted to use technology. So no one could reach them on their cell phones.
- [14:49]
Sergeant
And while we're pinging the phone, K's on the way. Drones on the way. We get. Dispatch says her telephone number came at 7am in Deerfield Bench. So that kind of put the brakes on that switch. I regret doing that. I'm just mad at the way they did. And it's nobody's fault. Just checking boxes.
- [15:14]
Mike Boudet
So they waited. They followed the protocol like the sergeant said, checking all the fucking boxes. But time was ticking and Kate was potentially inside the house. No one had heard a peep from inside since the first scream. Then they received information that the cell phone ping was off. Finally it was time to go in.
- [15:39]
Sergeant
So once everybody gets into the house, and I'll be honest, I don't even know how many people went in there because it ended up being everybody. Once they get into the house, myself and Sergeant Agaris go into the house. So stick teams in front of us. Okay, so you went in? Yes, and now I'm in the front door. There was a room to the right. I did not go into it. At this point, I have my gun out. We're kind of sneering behind them, opening closet doors as they're making their way through.
- [16:06]
Mike Boudet
The officers began thundering through the quiet house, opening closets and checking rooms with their weapons drawn and their shields ready.
- [16:16]
Sergeant
And then I start making my way to the other side of the house and they start saying, hey, we got a locked door. We got a locked door at the.
- [16:22]
Mike Boudet
Back of the house off a bedroom. The cops found a locked door and Knew the scream had to have come from inside. A female officer opened the door and was stunned at what she saw hiding in the back of the closet.
- [16:39]
Female Officer
At first I was like, okay, you kind of do that, like, glance like, oh, it's clear. Nothing in here. Then I'm like, no, no, no. Assessing. No, there's people in here. I now see a man and a female at. When I saw them. I'm now trying to figure out what I got. At first it looked like he. He just was like choking her.
- [16:56]
Mike Boudet
Out at the back of the closet was C. All swing, the 20 year old patient. And he had Kate in his grasp. C. What a name. I guess his parents didn't like vowels.
- [17:10]
Female Officer
So they're. They're now talking to me. What do you got? What do you got? What do you got? I'm trying to access processing. I'm like, okay, I see he's. He's got her, you know, and then I'm like, okay, now I'm seeing the knife. I'm like, knife, he's got a knife. At this point, as I'm talking, Nagara slides in.
- [17:28]
Kate
Where was the knife?
- [17:29]
Sergeant
Shiny in relation to her body?
- [17:31]
Female Officer
Neck. Got it at her neck.
- [17:33]
Mike Boudet
What was she doing? Did she say anything?
- [17:35]
Female Officer
No, she was dead silent. She was staring at me like, scared.
- [17:40]
Mike Boudet
Did he say anything?
- [17:41]
Female Officer
No, he's just there, not moving.
- [17:45]
Sergeant
She has her hands up, like chest, maybe like even in her throat, like kind of doing this. And like, like her thumbs are against her throat. And the knife was either on the thumb or right above it. It was right there. And Will starts giving him commands.
- [18:02]
Female Officer
You don't want to do this. You don't have to do this. You know, there's a better way. He's talking.
- [18:05]
Sergeant
Knife, drop knife. Then he starts to communicate. Come on, man, just talk to me. Just talk to me. Just talk to me. And literally, as I'm behind him, I see the knife and me. And I'm thinking this to myself, I shouldn't. I'm thinking this myself. I'm like, yeah, this fucking thing's gonna cut throat. And shot, okay. Shot the guy in the head. He dropped. We go in.
- [18:28]
Mike Boudet
It all happened in a flash. The shot rang out a hundred times as loud in that tiny closet. It hit Z and he dropped to the ground. Kate was free.
- [18:42]
Female Officer
She was grabbed, taken out of the room. Couple deputies took her out of. Out of the house. People moved in.
- [18:49]
Mike Boudet
I handcuffed the subject at that time. He starts speaking. I can't tell you what he was saying. It's not because I Don't know. I just don't remember. And it wasn't like it was gurgling. He was actually communicating words.
- [19:01]
Kate
He was saying something.
- [19:02]
Mike Boudet
Then he starts hitting the ground. An officer grabbed a towel and pressed it on Z's gunshot wound as they handcuffed him to the gurney and wheeled him out of his parents $1.5 million bungalow outside. Kate's friends rejoiced. But now it was time to take her to the hospital and find out exactly what happened on Lark's Port. TR.
- [19:28]
Sergeant
Sam.
- [19:57]
Mike Boudet
Palm Beach County Sheriffs had spent the early morning hours in a SWAT style takedown at a home in a Jewish Orthodox neighborhood in Boca raton. A missing 26 year old social worker had been trapped inside with her 22 year old client Z Alswang for the last 15 hours or so. The social worker's girlfriend Annie had reported her missing the evening before, but it took until the next morning to find Kate and get into the Allswangs house. When they did, the police found Kate trapped in a closet being held at knifepoint by Zee. When he refused to comply, an officer shot him and saved Kate's life. It was an incredible and terrifying scene. Now Kate was in the hospital recovering from the kidnapping and was ready to tell police what happened to her inside that house. Kate's identity had been protected and since we want to honor that, the details of her exact employment status will remain confidential. Despite what you might have heard on certain forums where people who spend all of their time online hang out, we do not dox victims and if we do make a mistake we typically correct it within 24 hours. Anyway, back to the story. You just need to know that she was finishing up her degree to become a counselor and she worked for a mental health practice of all things that had Z all swing as a client. She was tasked to help him find employment and to help him figure out how to exist in the adult world because obviously he was having trouble doing it. Z wasn't a normal 22 year old despite his privileged upbringing and resources. Z he was floundering. Kate had a big morning at work and the last client of the day was Zee.
- [21:49]
Kate
Everything was kind of smooth sailing, went through and saw the rest of the clients for the day and then I had SVI scheduled for originally 4, 5, 30, SPI pushed it back to 6pm he didn't have a particular reason, but I was willing to be flexible because it's been a challenging start for him to accept therapeutic services and this is something that's not uncommon, especially in case Management to have some clients that might be really stuck in life or really struggling to need additional support in order to get them on track and everything.
- [22:31]
Mike Boudet
Kate drove up to Z's parents house like she had done for the last month. She'd been working with him. She met with Z there and they would have their session in the den while his parents stayed in the living room. Kate only had about four or five sessions with him, so she didn't know him all that well just yet. But what she did know was that he was socially off.
- [22:55]
Kate
I guess what I would say that would be unusual with SVI was that he was a little off at times, meaning that SPI was not fully able to be present in conversation and engage. And this was something that dad was particularly concerned about in terms of there being any cognitive deficits that might be present along with the clinical team. In addition to that, dad would always make remarks to Courtney who was his primary, who is his primary therapist and I was the case manager on the case, would mention to Courtney that spies dad was very scared of spie and wouldn't necessarily give any context to it. Then I started speaking with dad a little bit more often because he's a very, you know, overprotective and involved parent in spi's life. And he had disclosed that SPI had a history of sexual assault as a minor where he was convicted and the case was ultimately sealed and resolved in the sense that he did his service, he did his community service, that he did his, you know, time, he went to court mandated counseling and the therapist at that time had given him a clear bill of health. Spi, however, had never opened up about that side of the his history, even when directly asked about it.
- [24:28]
Mike Boudet
So Zee had a history of assault on his record, but it was sealed and obviously no one thought it was too big of a deal to deny him home visits. Kate waited at the front door for someone to answer. Z swung it open and led her inside the cool air conditioned Florida home.
- [24:49]
Kate
So, you know, I go in with him and right off the bat he's a little bit more talkative than he normally is. He's a little bit more engaged, he's asking a lot more. SPI's asking a lot more questions about me to get to know me. And I looked at it from a perspective of okay, we can focus on rapport building.
- [25:14]
Mike Boudet
Kate was a little surprised by Z's new attitude, but saw it as positive. Then they sat down for their usual.
- [25:21]
Kate
Meeting while we were meeting for our regular case management discussion, which was rapport building job discussion, and a little bit more about getting to know each other. Zvi had gotten up a few times either citing that SPI needed to go to the bathroom, that SPI needed to go get some water. And I didn't think anything of it at the time. So then when I got up to leave when our time was over, he kept trying to persuade me to stay and saying that he wanted me to help him with more things.
- [25:59]
Mike Boudet
Kate kept it professional and told him that she had to go. They could schedule another time to meet next week. As she walked towards the door, she noticed that all the blinds in the house had been shut. In that moment, her stomach flipped. She picked up her pace towards the front. Front door and realized that it had now been covered with black plastic and duct tape.
- [26:21]
Kate
And as I was about to get to the door, which I never made.
- [26:25]
It to.
- [26:27]
He put his arms around me and put his body weight on me. And he was squeezing me really tight. And I kept saying, speed, what are you doing? What are you doing? And he was trying to kiss my neck. He was trying to overpower me. He started dragging me back into the living room. And at that point I was resisting, and he didn't like that. So he started grabbing my hands like this with his really tightly. And I have, you know, sand marks here from it. And I tried to struggle and break free multiple times, to which was met with his first round of beating me, which included punches in the face, being kneed in the gut just to get me to calm down and be compliant.
- [27:31]
Mike Boudet
Kate fought as hard as she could, but Z was strong, tall, and overpowered her.
- [27:39]
Kate
I bit his hand at one point, you know, I tried to kick him out in his scrotum. I really tried everything I could. And he let me know that there wasn't anything you can do and that he was much stronger than me while there was this struggle going on. And he was trying. Putting his body weight on me and trying to subdue me and trying to. And hurting me. He kept wanting me to sit on his lap. And at this point, he had obviously had.
- [28:17]
He had a hard penis.
- [28:21]
And he kept wanting me to sit on his lap, pulling me on his lap.
- [28:27]
Mike Boudet
It was so quiet in the house. Just the sound of the air conditioner humming and Z's grunts and struggles as he yanked Kate back. Every time she tried to get away, he would squeeze her towards his body and smack her anytime she fought. So Kate dug into her social worker tool kit and tried another approach.
- [28:48]
Kate
So that's when I switched to the Rapport building, you know, just to try to talk to him, get to know him more, figure out what, you know, his game plan is here. And then I moved next to him, which he let me do while he was holding, when he was. He was really, really angry at me. And he seemed really odd at this point to a place where SPI was sounding, you know, delusional. He was unable to listen to any logic. He was unable to listen to any reason, and he couldn't comprehend or try to see my perspective or engage in a rational discussion. And he said that the reason he was so angry at me and was doing all of this was because at our previous meeting, he had told me by accident that he had applied to a job in Pennsylvania. So I reported to Dattery that he had applied to a job in Pennsylvania. And then SPI had corrected himself and said, oh, never mind. It wasn't a job in Pennsylvania.
- [29:54]
And I had not followed up with Spis dad about that.
- [29:58]
But Spis dad confronted Spi about this miscommunication about the location of jobs he was applying to. And SPI thought that I was doing that to make him look bad, to steal his family's money and to ultimately try to make SPI need to spend more time with me.
- [30:18]
Mike Boudet
He held Kate's wrists tightly, like a human handcuff, and he explained all this to her. She was terrified, and she started pleading.
- [30:27]
Kate
You know, if you need to, you can, you know, look at the text messages if that's what you want, you know, but that would require you to give me my. Oh, at this. Sorry. It's okay. I see pieces here. It's okay. You're doing good. You are doing good. At this point, he had taken my phone. And that was what much of the struggle ensued on was when he originally was first dragging me into the room. He was very methodical in wanting to take my bag and my phone away from me. And that's where he started calling me a dumb bitch and telling me that I'm like, you know, just a hoe that wants money and asking me how much I make and asking me, you know, what I like to do with that money. You know, at that point, I just. I really focused on a very calm and collective tone, saying, speak like what you're talking about. Like, that doesn't fit right now. And he, like, couldn't hear any of that.
- [31:33]
Mike Boudet
So that was his reasoning. He was mad that Kate had reported something he felt was incorrect to his father. That's how sick and delusional this Kid was Kate kept trying to talk to him, but it wasn't working.
- [31:49]
Kate
He went to go grab duct tape, and me with my hands like this behind my back, and he put a lot on, you know, telling me that he didn't want me to be able to get loose and that he knows all the tricks I could pull and that he thought this through. And at that point, I was like, I'm gonna be in this for a while. And then after that, while I was bound, he got my phone and was trying to convince me to give him my. Give him my phone password. And I didn't want to give him my phone password. So I, you know, I lied or tried to give him the wrong ones and tried to have him, you know, type in the wrong ones enough times so that it would disable my phone. And he told me he knew my tricks, he knew what I was doing, and. And that's when he started to beat me again.
- [32:49]
Mike Boudet
Z beat Kate again until she was face down on the floor. Still want to be a social worker? Yeah, I'm talking to you.
- [32:56]
Kate
And when he had me overpowered on the floor, my knees were on the floor, and he put my hand into the couch, and he put his hand on the back of my head, and he said, you know, what would happen if I smashed this revere? You know, you would be dead. Throughout this process, throughout the struggle, he is trying to grope me. He is rubbing me over my pants, on my vagina. He's grabbing my ass. All of this is mixed into the struggle. So I knew at some point that that was most likely coming. He was really well planned at times.
- [33:38]
And other times, it just seemed like.
- [33:40]
He didn't know what was going on or he wasn't totally there, or things just weren't connecting or adding up. It was really strange and scary because it was so volatile and unpredictable.
- [33:52]
Mike Boudet
Part of his plan was to make sure that no one could reach Kate.
- [33:55]
Kate
He wanted to wrap our phones in tin foil and put them on airplane mode. I noticed on his phone, he was using this vpn. He was saying, you know, strange things about how his, like, location could be tracked or pinged. He was talking about, you know, odd things related to people watching him and being able to see him and hear him. Like, for example, like, he did let me go to the bathroom if he.
- [34:23]
Took me in there and watched me, but he wouldn't let me flush the toilet because that would make too much.
- [34:28]
Noise, and he would cover my mouth.
- [34:31]
If I started to speak any louder.
- [34:33]
Mike Boudet
Than a whisper back at Kate. And Annie's house. Annie was beginning to become worried when Kate never came home.
- [34:40]
John Doe
She's supposed to be home by like 6:30. When it was 7:30, that's when I texted her, where are you? And the message didn't go through. It went straight to like the green text bubble. So then I was sending just like question marks. And then I was like, are you good?
- [34:55]
Kate
Hello?
- [34:56]
John Doe
I'm concerned. And then I'm like, what the fuck?
- [34:58]
Kate
Hello?
- [34:58]
John Doe
Are you okay? Where are you? Are you okay? And then I was like, I'm going to have to call her boss. And then I was like, hello, please, are you okay? And then, then randomly it turned back to blue, like her phone went back on. And then I got the text message, quote, oh my God, I got pulled over on my way. Cop thought I was drunk, taking me to station. I'm going to take blood test there because the cop is a dick. Love you. See you later. What time was that at? That was at 9:13.
- [35:29]
Kate
At that point, he took me over into the bedroom closest to the front door. And that was the first time he forced me to have sex with him. I convinced him. Convinced him to wear a condom. Thank God. Tried to tell me his pull out game was strong. And then he put me on the bed and he put the condom on and like I was dry. Like it hurt. And I told him that I was like, this is uncomfortable. Like, I don't like this. This doesn't feel right, you know, like I'm not into it right now. And he like, was fixated on me calling him daddy and putting it in him anyway and putting it in me anyway. What you did, as I was lying down, he was barreling over me with his full body weight on top of me. I remember just thinking, when is this gonna be over? When is he gonna finish? Because this isn't gonna stop until he's done. So it did. At this point, he was tired and he wanted me to go to sleep. And I told him I was not gonna go to sleep, that I was too scared, that was too anxious, that, you know, I'm not hungry. I don't. He offered to give me like melatonin and like sleeping aids. And I told him I don't want any of that. I said, like, I can't sleep. Like, when are you gonna let me go? And this was something that I kept reiterating the whole time. When is he gonna let me go?
- [37:02]
Mike Boudet
After he raped her, Zee decided to follow up with Annie on Kate's phone.
- [37:07]
John Doe
So then I'm saying, what the hell is happening? Only three messages got delivered. And then the phone was turned back off. And then nothing. I just was, like, blowing up her phone, trying to see if anything got sent. Okay. And then I got a text message at 12:28am hey, sorry I never got back to you. I'm fine. They got me a hotel room for all the they put me through. I'm still kind of shook. I'm still staying here tonight. I'll see you tomorrow. I'm going to sleep now. Good night. Which just did not sound like her. That's not how she normally texts. Not. Not how she usually texts. In five and a half years, we've had three nights apart because we were on vacation. And also a cop. Like, the whole thing about going up for a blood test sounded sketchy to begin with because I. She was. She was coming from a client, you know, like, and she. If she did have one drink with someone and she was pulled over and she refused a breathalyzer, like, it just didn't make any sense to. To me. And then when she said that the cops got her a hotel room for all the trouble she caused, that was a major red flag. And I immediately called the police back. And then that's when I. Before then, I was calling just to see if she had been arrested for drinking and driving or if anyone had brought. Got brought in for, like, a field sobriety test or something like that. Did you call 911 or. What number did you call for the police? I was calling the Boynton Police Department. I called the Delray Department. I called the voca. I called the county office.
- [38:30]
Kate
Okay.
- [38:30]
John Doe
And the sheriff's office. And no one had any records of her.
- [38:34]
Mike Boudet
Z thought that his pathetic messages to Annie would keep her at bay. But Kate also did something smart. She never let Z know that Annie was her girlfriend. She told him that Annie was her roommate, which probably helped him underestimate how hard Annie would be looking for her.
- [38:54]
Kate
I told him I wasn't going to go to sleep. And we were back on the living room couch at this point, and he was ready for round two of sex. And I told him that I was still sore and in pain and that I wasn't in the mood. And then he said again, if you ever want to get out of here, if you want to be able to leave, then we're going to need to figure out something that works for us.
- [39:21]
Mike Boudet
This guy is such an unbelievable monster. Listening to this poor woman recount what undoubtedly is the most terrifying experience of her life is heart wrenching. This Young man deserves to be locked away for the rest of his life, regardless of any mental health issues he might have. Because it ain't an excuse if you act like an animal. You belong in a cage.
- [39:49]
Kate
And the same thing happened again, except this time he couldn't get it inside of me because I was just too dry and I was just wailing in pain. I told him I didn't want it, and then he said I needed to suck him off. So I sucked him off, you know, with his hands there. And then he came all over me in my hair, on my face, on my chest, on my sports bra. I have it on here right now, and my hair is out. And at this point, he wanted me to change into his clothes or shower. And I told him that I was okay, that I wanted to stay in these clothes. And then I really started after that to plead with him more about when he was gonna let me go. You know, it's hard for me to necessarily sequence because it comes in flat flashes. At some point within the beginning part of it, though, he had tried to use a heavy duty sex toy that he had on me to try to stimulate me, right? And I told him it hurt. And I told him, you know, that it hurt because he didn't know.
- [41:12]
Mike Boudet
While Kate was trapped in hell, Annie had rallied some support and was not giving up on finding her girlfriend, her boss.
- [41:21]
John Doe
He's also, like the rest of this community, Orthodox Jewish. So he does not use electronics. So all night I knew that, like, she was with her client. So I was trying to get in contact with him to just find out, like, if he heard anything that there was an issue with her boss or the client. The boss.
- [41:36]
Kate
Okay.
- [41:37]
John Doe
But he was not answering the phone because he doesn't use electronics during Shabbat.
- [41:43]
Kate
So.
- [41:44]
John Doe
But I didn't really care at that point. So I was just continuously blowing up his phone. And he finally called me back at 3am and I explained the situation. I was like, I need the address of the. Of the last client she was going to see. And he gave it to me. And that's this house. And then I called back the Lantana Police Department because at that point I had already filed a missing persons report. All right, so you did speak to Lantana. Okay, yeah. When her mom called Lantana, the police then came to my house, like my apartment, and we discussed everything. They went down and checked all the files to make sure she wasn't in any systems anywhere, and then came back up and then gave me the option to make a police a missing person.
- [42:27]
Kate
Report.
- [42:27]
John Doe
So that's what I did. And what time was that at did they come in? Probably around like 1:00am, 1:30.
- [42:33]
Kate
So at that point he started to express how he's had like a history of suicide and that he's not planning on letting me go. And I kept at this point trying to get him to turn on his phone just to maybe like see if you know, anyone's called or there's someone he can talk to and like figure out another way out of this like that it doesn't have to escalate this whole big thing. And then he said he's fucked and that he's sorry. And at that point he didn't have any hope anymore and he wanted to take us down together.
- [43:08]
Mike Boudet
Annie was frustrated. She had checked with every police station and filed a missing persons report. There was nothing left to do except go to Kate's last known address herself and knock on the door. So Annie, along with some friends, drove over to Z's house on Larkspur Trail at 4am and took matters into her own hands.
- [43:31]
John Doe
And what did you see or hear when you got here? Nothing. I saw her car in the driveway and I was just banging on the door and like walking around the house and my friend stopped me from using a rock to try to crack the window even though I probably wouldn't have done anything.
- [43:47]
Mike Boudet
Kate could hear the knocks and doorbell rings from inside the house. But Z had grabbed a large butcher knife from the kitchen and told her that if she made a sound, he'd kill Sa. Outside, Annie was calling Kate's name and waiting. Of course they couldn't break in, so they tried to talk to some neighbors.
- [44:42]
John Doe
Six o' clock I knocked on the neighbor's door just because I noticed that he had a ring camera. So I just wanted to know if like, because it's facing the street. So you would have saw her car drive past that house. So it's like, okay, we know she came here, but did she ever leave? So with the client, like how they were supposed to, or did she only ever get here? And he told me it was Shabbat.
- [45:02]
Kate
And he could not help me.
- [45:04]
Mike Boudet
I know religion is important to some people, but can you imagine if that was your loved one inside? As the knocks grew more frequent and police arrived on scene, Z began to freak out and dragged Kate into his parents closet. And that's when she let out that fateful scream.
- [45:23]
Kate
But that was the one time they kind of gave confirmation that it's like, hi, I'm here. I screamed when he was Taking me from the main part of the house with like the living room area and the bedrooms we had been in, over to his parents bedroom and closet. You know, at that point the cops were around and he was starting to get. He himself was getting really scared. At one point he asked me to feel heartbeat. But he was also getting weirdly turned on. And he kept asking me to fuck in the closet. And I kept telling him no, no, no, like I don't want this anymore. And I still had to cuddle him, you know, with his heartbeat up against me. Every time I try to move away while we were laying on the floor in the closet, he would pull me back in.
- [46:16]
Mike Boudet
Ms. Kate was being held in the closet with Z trying to rape her again. While the cops surveyed the perimeter of the house, Annie waited with her friends outside and talked with the officers. She was getting fed up.
- [46:29]
John Doe
I waited here and then they got, when they got back here, two of them showed up and I explained the situation and they did their little walk around and then they were in the back and they came up and me and all my friends heard it. We all heard a scream and they came in and they said, you guys heard that too? And we said yes. And then it still took three hours for them to get inside that house.
- [46:52]
Mike Boudet
So many things went wrong during those hours while the police figured out if they could get inside. Like the sergeant at the top of the episode said, just check in all the fucking boxes. But while they were handling protocol, Kate was stuck in a closet being held at knifepoint by a deranged 20 year old who had repeatedly raped her for the last 15 hours. I mean, fuck protocol.
- [47:16]
John Doe
They laughed and they told me and my friends to go get breakfast while we were sitting out here begging them to go inside. And then when I did get them, just briefly, for the two seconds she was telling me that the only thing that kept her going was hearing me yell at the cops outside to do something. So I just don't understand how this can be the correct way way to handle this situation to have your deputies be telling us that we should be going for breakfast and brunch when this was happening. And chit chatting with the neighbors who were outside drinking their coffee, watching us have mental breakdowns on the road because no one's doing anything.
- [47:50]
Mike Boudet
How could anyone have known what was happening inside that house? The cops had to play it safe to avoid being liable. And Annie was emotional and frantic, her gut firmly telling her that her girlfriend was in trouble and was behind those doors. But finally they got in and eventually.
- [48:10]
Kate
As more and more knocks started to come more frequently and he eventually heard the drill of the door or the saw of the door that was going to be knocked down, he wouldn't give me any answers, but he just told me he was like, I need you to do exactly what I say, you know, and telling me that I can't say a word in the I say a word that I'm gonna be dead. So he holds me up in the closet behind me, with me in front of him, and he pulls out the knife and he has it up to his, my neck. And then he says, wait a minute. And then he is going through his mom's clothing and he picks out a dress of hers and asks me to hold it up and hold it. And I tried to put the hook of it, you know, over my neck so that he couldn't, you know, cut it. But he picked up on that knee, lowered my hand and he held with his hand his arm down and put the knife up to my throat and waited for the cops to come. And he had been saying how hopeless he was. And at this point I was shaking and crying and just saying, please let me go. It doesn't have to be this way. We can do something else, like, please, I'm scared. Like, please don't hold the knife up to my throat.
- [49:29]
Mike Boudet
That's when the female officer broke in the locked door and found Kate and Zee huddled at the back of the closet, the long silver blade held tightly against her neck. Then all the police swarmed in.
- [49:43]
Kate
Within a matter of seconds a gunshot went off and I heard it in this ear and then a ringing came on. I couldn't look back and I was shuffled out of there.
- [49:55]
Mike Boudet
Z Alswang was shot in the front of the head. The bullet hit him right above his left eyebrow. It's not like it is in the movies. If you give them an opportunity, they will shoot you dead if you're threatening someone with a knife. This one was a near bullseye. And the most shocking thing of all was he survived. The 20 year old rapist and kidnapper would have to face what he did on that horrible Shabbat Saturday. Z showed up in court in a wheelchair with a plastic beige helmet on his head. He was charged with first degree attempted murder, kidnapping and several sexual battery charges. No one in his family attended his court appearances or spoke to the media on his behalf. Remember how Kate mentioned that Z had a previous sexual assault charge that had been sealed? It was also for rape and he served not a minute of jail time because the Victim's family did not press charges. He was let out, back into the free world. A rapist. Can you believe that?
- [51:05]
Reporter
Now these are the court papers right here that detail a 15 year old girl's accusation that Zvi Alswang raped her. Alswang was 16 at the time. And the victim's attorney told me tonight because of Allswang's age and his lack of criminal history, they decided to give him a break. It's a decision they'd all now like to have back.
- [51:24]
Mike Boudet
Even Zee's first victim's lawyer regretted underestimating how dangerous this man really was.
- [51:32]
Reporter
So because of his young age and the fact he had never been arrested before, Rotterman and the prosecutor agreed to ask the judge to go easy on Allswang.
- [51:41]
Sergeant
That we would agree to probation with the special conditions that he undergo an evaluation and any kind of follow up treatment.
- [51:48]
Reporter
The judge agreed and Rotterman says even the victim's family was on board with Allswang only getting probation.
- [51:54]
Mike Boudet
Z had planned Kate's attack out carefully. The police were able to obtain video footage of him buying plastic bags and other supplies from Party City of all places, before the kidnapping. And check this out. This is the part that should sound some alarm bells and teach a little bit of a lesson about how the world works. Z Alswang, this rapist chose Shabbat, a religious holiday because he knew that that no one in the neighborhood would be using their cell phones, ring cameras or any other electronic device. Shabbat meant the Jewish world was turned off. So even Z's parents would be out of communication and out of town. That bought him a lot of time, a lot of leeway and he knew it. Even Kate's boss was an orthodox Jew. Z knew this too. His sick plan would only work on this quiet holy day. What a sick fuck. Remember, Z was angry with Kate for relaying the wrong information to his father about a job application. Like that was a justifiable reason for anything. In his twisted mind Z thought that this was the perfect excuse to kidnap, rape and torture the woman who was assigned to help him. The judge showed Zee no mercy and thank God for that. He handed him down four life sentences for his crimes to make sure that he would never be able to hurt another woman ever again. Kate lived through a woman's worst fear. But she survived. I have to think that her education and social work helped her survive this situation. It must have. She used her compassion to her advantage and was wise enough to trick her kidnapper into thinking that the girl he was texting was Only a roommate, not her beloved girlfriend of five years. So many things went wrong in this story between the cops and Kate's friends and family. But the most important thing is that Kate should have never been allowed to be alone with Z. He had a history of sexual violence and rape. Men who do this are going to do it again. Letting Z off so easily the first time only told his underdeveloped brain that he could possibly get away with this kind of behavior again. But this time he took it too far and he underestimated Kate's story prowess and Annie's devotion. Despite the cops missteps. This truly is a story of love. Annie saved Kate. She never gave up. And she trusted her gut. Even when the cops were moving too slow or telling her that they just had to follow protocol, this was simply not acceptable. Annie's love for Kate is what saved her. And that, in its own way, is what makes this tragic story kind of beautiful. Well, I hope that by the time you hear this story, we're done with all that replacing cops with social workers bullshit. Perhaps we should stop listening to people that come up with really retarded ideas like that. But I'm sure those of you that believe that sort of nonsense will just complain and whine instead, like you always do. Maybe just leave the adulting to adults. Adults have a way of being able to keep you safe. Then again, the cops weren't really adulting, were they? I don't know. I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about. But I do think we need to stop making excuses for those with mental illness. Just because you have an illness doesn't mean you're not responsible for your actions. I think we need to stop selling that lie because even at the height of madness, you still have choices to make. And those choices say who and what you are fundamentally. So sorry if you don't like that and your kid's mentally ill. It's just the cost of living in a society the good of all outweigh.
- [56:51]
Sergeant
Sam.