Episode 306

Summary

Sword and Scale Episode 306 Summary

Introduction

In Episode 306 of Sword and Scale, titled "Fatherless," the host delves into the tragic true crime case of twin brothers, Brian and Brandon Allen, whose lives were violently cut short in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. This detailed account explores the dark underbelly of familial bonds, mental health struggles, and misplaced loyalties that culminated in murder.

Discovery of the Crime

The podcast opens with a vivid description of a muggy Florida night in early March 2017. Responders extinguished a recent fire along Beeline Highway, only to discover two bodies hidden within burning weeds.

• News Reporter (04:23): "They discovered two burned unidentified bodies. They were taken to the medical examiner's office to try and figure out the cause of death."

As media attention swarmed the scene, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office launched an investigation to identify and locate the victims.

The Allen Family and Their Background

The victims, Brian and Brandon Allen, were 22-year-old twin brothers living with their adoptive sister, Linda Allen, and two other former foster children, Julian Catherill and Darren Byrd, in a condominium in Palm Beach Gardens. Their adoptive parents had passed away, leaving Linda, Brian, and Brandon in possession of a condo and financial resources but lacking essential life skills.

• Narrator (00:52): "If young men grow up without fathers, they're left searching for guidance, often pledging loyalty to the wrong people."

Investigation Begins

Alice Allen, a concerned family member, suspected the bodies might be her nephews after noticing they failed to show up for work at Chick-fil-A. She reached out to Linda, who promptly cooperated with the investigators.

Interrogations and Findings

Detectives Pajek and Drake began interviewing Linda and her associates. Questions about the household dynamics and recent changes revealed underlying tensions, especially concerning Brandon's erratic behavior and alleged threats from individuals in Jacksonville.

• Linda Allen (09:21): "He talked about getting a gun... I even tried to tell him, like, I don't want no gun."

Brandon had a history of bipolar disorder and had discontinued his medication following his adoptive parents' death, exacerbating his instability. His move from Jacksonville to live with Brian and Linda introduced new conflicts, particularly over financial debts related to a gun purchase from Julian.

Motives and Escalation

The investigation uncovered that Brandon owed Julian $150 for a shotgun he purchased. When Julian failed to repay the debt, tensions escalated. Linda and other household members grew increasingly fearful of Brandon's volatile behavior and the potential danger he posed.

• Julian Catherill (15:22): "It's someplace he owed money... he's afraid of street stuff."

Evidence Uncovered

DNA testing confirmed Brandon and Brian's identities. Further evidence linked Julian and Darren to the crime, including blood stains found in Linda's condo and a bloodied pair of sneakers belonging to one of the victims.

• Detective Drake (41:27): "We believe your cars may have been used in the commission of a crime that Darren was present during."

A critical piece of evidence was a short video capturing a mysterious woman's voice amidst the sounds of the burning bodies, adding an element of unresolved mystery to the case.

Arrests and Trials

Julian Catherill and Darren Byrd were scrutinized heavily. Julian maintained his innocence but faced mounting evidence, including his past criminal record and behavior inconsistencies. Darren's loyalty to Julian initially shielded him, but mounting pressure and evidence led him to cooperate partially, pointing investigators towards Julian.

• Detective Drake (66:19): "You're saying you didn't do something. Tell me what you saw."

Ultimately, Julian was convicted of the murders in 2022 and sentenced to life in prison. Darren faced charges for tampering with evidence and second-degree murder but was acquitted of Brian Allen's murder.

Unresolved Questions

The episode concludes with lingering doubts regarding the mysterious voice in the recovered video, which does not match any known individuals involved in the case. This unresolved element suggests the possibility of additional undisclosed parties or further complexities within the investigation.

• Narrator (75:12): "A video was recovered from the night the bodies were burned. In the background, you can hear the fire crackling... a woman was there watching as the bodies were unloaded and set ablaze."

Conclusion

Episode 306 of Sword and Scale highlights the catastrophic impact of inadequate familial support and mental health issues. The tragic deaths of Brian and Brandon Allen serve as a stark reminder of how fragile life can be when young men are left without proper guidance and support systems. The episode underscores the importance of addressing mental health and providing stable mentorship to prevent such devastating outcomes.

Notable Quotes

• Linda Allen (09:21): "He talked about getting a gun... I even tried to tell him, like, I don't want no gun."
• Narrator (00:52): "If young men grow up without fathers, they're left searching for guidance, often pledging loyalty to the wrong people."
• Detective Drake (66:19): "You're saying you didn't do something. Tell me what you saw."

Closing Remarks

The episode emphasizes the complexities of criminal investigations, the influence of personal relationships on legal outcomes, and the enduring quest for justice in the face of ambiguous evidence. It leaves listeners pondering the unseen facets of human behavior and the enduring impact of our choices.

Transcript

[Target Advertiser]

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[Customer]

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[Target Advertiser]

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[Narrator]

To school at Target.

[Detective]

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. So you're gonna let. You're gonna let this little punk over here dictates your life? There's blood on your shoe. You're in the house the night that this murder happens. You can't play stupid.

[Narrator]

If you want to know what the most detrimental thing in a young man's life is, it's not having a father. You can be a father and still be absent, still leave a void in a young man's life. And since the majority of crime is committed by males, this should be a problem that we all focus on. When young men grow up without fathers, they're left searching for guidance, often pledging loyalty to the wrong people. In the absence of a steady, strict hand. They idolize whoever steps in, no matter how toxic they are. We've seen that, haven't we? With a certain set of brothers over in Romania is it? And their onlyfans empire, where they flash their fancy cars and homes and chains and things to all the eager young men out there that are desperate for a little taste of that life and too rudderless to know how to get there, that end up screwing up their own lives because of bad advice. That misplaced loyalty can lead to devastating choices in life, the kind of choices that we talk about here on Sword and Scale. Sometimes those choices lead to murder. This is episode 306 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that sometimes the worst monsters are fatherless and very real. It was a muggy Florida night. Yes, we're talking about Florida again. In Palm Beach Gardens in early March of 2017. I mean, are you surprised, really, at this point, we're gonna talk about either Florida or Ohio every week. So I don't know. Fix your own states, people. On this particular night, the sky was black. The highway was eerily quiet. And the quiet was only broken up by the occasional whoosh of a car off to the side of the road. Flames flickered in a patch of overgrown weeds. Smoke curled up into the air as if trying to keep a secret. Fire trucks arrived, blazing, their lights slicing through the dark. It didn't take long to extinguish the flames, but what they uncovered left the responders frozen. Two bodies wrapped in sheets and Plastic hidden within the dying fire. By morning, the discovery had been leaked to the local media. Helicopters swarmed overhead and news crews parked as close as they could to the team of investigators from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office working the scene.

[News Reporter]

That's right. And crime scene investigators have been busy all morning. You see them there behind me? They are on the northeast side of Beeline Highway. They have been focused on a 20 to 30 yard grassy area. They are looking for potential evidence. And into this murder mystery. They discovered two burned unidentified bodies. They were taken to the medical examiner's office to try and figure out the cause of death. And for positive identification, the Violent Crimes Division has taken over the investigation. Anyone with information about this homicide is asked to call the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.

[Narrator]

The detectives would be starting from scratch. As news of the bodies traveled around the south of Florida. A woman named Alice Allen was at home watching the news and got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Her nephews, Brian and Brandon Allen had not shown up to work at Chick fil a. Brian and Brandon were 22 year old twin brothers living with their adoptive sister Linda Allen in a condominium in Palm Beach Gardens. As soon as Alice hung up the phone with Chick Fil A, something inside her questioned if these bodies on the highway were could be them. Maybe she was thinking the worst, but maybe not. Alice was a worrywart, a naturally anxious person. So she called the boy's sister and roommate, 22 year old Linda Allen. In a way, Linda, Brian and Brandon were like triplets. The Allen family adopted them all when they were small children in California. The Allens then migrated to Florida where Linda, Brian and Brandon were raised. The three siblings lived together in a newly renovated condominium in Palm Beach Gardens. Linda Allen came down to the police station willingly. She wanted to find out what was going on and to see if the dead boys were her brothers.

[Detective Pajek]

All right, so thanks for coming in. I don't know that you met my partners over there, Detective Pajek and Detective Drake. So I just wanted to get a.

[Target Advertiser]

Little bit of information from you.

[Detective Pajek]

And I saw a gentleman came here with you. Who is that?

[Julian Catherill]

He's like my God brother.

[Detective Pajek]

Okay. Not a boyfriend.

[Target Advertiser]

God. Okay.

[Narrator]

Julian Catherill had accompanied Linda to the police station. She told the cops that he was her godbrother.

[Detective Pajek]

And he lives there with you?

[Target Advertiser]

He doesn't like. He comes over every now and then. Okay.

[Narrator]

Linda was big and soft around the edges, dressed in baggy cargo shorts, scuffed combat boots and a loose hoodie. Julian Was tall, slick and handsome. They didn't make sense as a couple, but the detectives had to ask. They were like siblings. Linda explained.

[Detective Pajek]

So who lives over off Millbrae court with you?

[Target Advertiser]

It was me and my two brothers.

[Detective Pajek]

Okay.

[Julian Catherill]

And I had let another friend move.

[Target Advertiser]

In, but he was moving out.

[Detective Pajek]

Okay, and your two brothers are Brandon and Brian?

[Target Advertiser]

Yes.

[Detective Pajek]

Okay, and how long have you lived there?

[Target Advertiser]

Since March 31st of last year. At first it was me and Brian just staying there. Okay.

[Detective Pajek]

And then who else? When who else moved in? Was it Brandon or your other friend?

[Target Advertiser]

It was Julian. At first. He came to stay for a while. Okay. But then he had to go too, because Brian didn't agree with it. Okay. And then he wanted our brother to move in there because of a situation in Jacksonville. Okay.

[Detective Pajek]

How long ago was that that Brandon moved in?

[Target Advertiser]

It was sometime in December. I know. It was around Christmas time.

[Detective Pajek]

Recent. This past Christmas. Okay, so only a few months. He's coming down. You say situation in Jacksonville. What do you know about that?

[Target Advertiser]

I wish they would have told me more. I felt like they weren't telling me the whole truth.

[Narrator]

Linda was the owner of the condominium. After Mr. And Mrs. Allen had passed away, Linda, Brian and Brandon had inherited a nice little nest egg. And their parents had made sure that the executor of their will had set them up with a place to live. The executor bought Linda a newly renovated three story condo and Brian moved in as well. Brandon, who had always been a bit of a troublemaker, had stayed in Jacksonville. That is, until he came down and wedged his way into the house. Brian couldn't say no to his twin brother, his only blood relative. But Linda wasn't happy about it. Neither was their other roommate, Julian. Word around the house was that Brandon had enemies in Jacksonville who were after him.

[Target Advertiser]

He wasn't telling Brian the whole truth, and I wasn't. So it's like since he wasn't getting Brian the whole truth, I didn't know either. So I wasn't so sure. Gotcha. Like it was just really a big cloud mystery. Like I don't know what was going on.

[Narrator]

Brandon only confided in his brother Brian. Brian filtered information to the rest of the house members until Linda overheard a phone call that scared her.

[Target Advertiser]

Yeah, that's why when he moved down here, I told Brian, do you think it's a good idea? Do you think that him coming down here will cause a problem for us? Like, right. I was only like more fearful for the fact that Brandon talked about getting a gun okay. Like, I overheard him on. I don't know who he was on the phone with, but he talked about getting a gun. And it's like, I just want, like, I didn't get a chance to tell him. I even tried to tell him, like, I don't want no gun. This house.

[Narrator]

Right.

[Detective Pajek]

How long ago was that, do you think? This was like two weeks ago.

[Target Advertiser]

Okay. He said that he was going to get his permit to carry. He's going to have it regardless.

[Detective Pajek]

Okay. But he didn't mention why.

[Target Advertiser]

That's what I was trying to figure out. Like, what makes you feel like you need to get a gun? Do you want to talk about this? Do you need to call somebody? Like, right.

[Narrator]

Tensions had been rising in the home over Brandon's fear of his enemies. In Jacksonville. Brandon had bipolar disorder and had gone off his medication when his adoptive parents passed away. But remember, folks, as I'm often told to repeat verbatim, people with mental illness are more likely to become victims than they are perpetrators. Is that good? Can I go now?

[Target Advertiser]

There was some 904 number that called my phone and he said, hey, is Brandon there? And I was like, yeah, sure. So I put the phone on speaker. It's not like I was trying to eavesdrop or nothing. It's just that, you know, and I knocked on the door. I'm like, hey, Brandon, someone want to talk to you. So he just looked at the phone, was like. He had that face like, dang, I did not want this dude. Like. So he just waited and then waited and then waited and then hung up.

[Narrator]

The suspicion that these bodies might be Brian and Brandon had spread through the Allen family after they hadn't shown up to work at Chick Fil a. Linda said that she assumed they were just out with friends. Then 24 hours turned into a few days and the fire appeared on the news.

[Detective Drake]

We hadn't seen him since Sunday and now it's Thursday. Didn't have any. Had they ever been gone that long?

[Target Advertiser]

No. That's why I was starting to worry, like. And I just had Julian stay, like, stay with me. Because staying in that house by myself, it was like, creepy. I was like, do you know if they, like, if they talk to you or anything like. Cuz I don't have none of their friends phone numbers. So I call Brian's phone and it goes straight to voicemail.

[Detective Pajek]

So are you biologically related to Brian and Brandon?

[Narrator]

No.

[Target Advertiser]

Okay.

[Narrator]

The main thing that detectives had to do was figure out if the bodies were actually Brian and Brandon. But it would be Tough, seeing as they had no living blood relatives that anyone knew about.

[Detective Pajek]

What I'd like to do is I'd like to, I'm going to do consent to search. It's just going to be. I'm going to have the other detective that brought you over here go and collect maybe their toothbrush or some spoons or something with their DNA on it so I can compare it and see if it is in fact the two people that we have. Because we have to since there's no, there's no biological family. So I can't get DNA from, from you or any other family to compare. I don't have dental records because we don't know the dentist right now.

[Narrator]

Linda agreed to the search and gave samples of her DNA. She went into the hallway and waited while the police decided if they could extract any information from Julian, Linda's so called godbrother. Unlike Linda, 22 year old Julian exuded confidence and swagger. He sat down, easing into the chair as though he was taking a seat at his favorite barbershop. Smiling the whole time.

[Darren Byrd]

I like this room.

[Julian Catherill]

Why?

[Darren Byrd]

It's my favorite color.

[Detective Pajek]

Blue.

[Darren Byrd]

Yeah, I feel so comfortable in here right now.

[Detective Pajek]

That's like a big thing.

[Detective Drake]

I want walls like this, man. Nice and soft so on here.

[Narrator]

In all of my years doing this, I've never heard someone compliment a police department's hideous gray felt walls and rubbed them with his hand. Weird. Julian said that he and Linda had been like family since they met at a lab class while trying to get their GEDs together. Linda never completed hers, by the way. Julian also grew up in foster care, so he and Linda bonded over being children of the state. Unlike Linda, Brian and Brandon, Julian hadn't been adopted into such a fortunate family and was on his own at age 18. No longer under the state's guardianship. He had been staying part time with his girlfriend and part time with Linda. His relationship with the twins wasn't close.

[Darren Byrd]

I personally, as far as Brian and Brandon, it's like a high and by type thing.

[Target Advertiser]

Okay.

[Darren Byrd]

They're very to themselves.

[Target Advertiser]

Okay.

[Darren Byrd]

That's all I really know about them. But I mainly, you know, I mainly stick to hanging with Linda.

[Detective Pajek]

Okay. How would you describe them? Not physically, but just their personality.

[Darren Byrd]

Personality wise they got very like, from what I noticed just by seeing them with each other, they got very like goofy personalities.

[Target Advertiser]

Okay.

[Darren Byrd]

Very goofy personalities. Brian more friendly, Brandon more aggressive.

[Target Advertiser]

Okay.

[Detective Pajek]

So Brian's like the real nice, kind of more social one and the other one's kind of okay. Any issues that you've had with them.

[Target Advertiser]

We.

[Darren Byrd]

We've had, like, the only issue we ever had was the disagreement about dishes.

[Target Advertiser]

Okay.

[Detective Pajek]

That's not normal roommate stuff.

[Detective]

Yeah.

[Detective Pajek]

Anything physical? No, just.

[Target Advertiser]

Okay.

[Narrator]

But he said the same thing as Linda. Things got dicey when Brandon arrived, and they'd all been worried about these enemies he felt he needed protection from.

[Darren Byrd]

I'm gonna be honest. I've heard them, like, not me trying to eavesdrop or anything. I've eavesdropped on, like, probably, like, two phone calls from Brandon. And it was just something about guns.

[Target Advertiser]

Okay.

[Darren Byrd]

Something about guns, man. And I just. Just the type of how he has anger problems. He gets angry quicker than Brian.

[Target Advertiser]

Okay.

[Darren Byrd]

So I just went. You know, that's. That's just one thing that stuck out to you.

[Narrator]

Yeah.

[Target Advertiser]

What?

[Detective Pajek]

I know you're not gonna remember the conversation by heart, but, like, what verbiage did he use or what kind of. What did he say, if you could remember?

[Darren Byrd]

It was like he was on the phone with somebody. It's like he was trying to keep his voice down. He came from Jacksonville.

[Target Advertiser]

Okay.

[Darren Byrd]

And when he was in Jacksonville, I guess he's had some problems with some people that ran him out of a condo.

[Target Advertiser]

Okay.

[Darren Byrd]

Like, $100,000 condo. And he was on the phone, like, just. I guess I think it was somebody that was selling guns or something.

[Narrator]

The police were starting to get a clearer picture of Brandon and Brian, but again, the DNA had to be confirmed before they could go down this rabbit hole of what happened to Brandon in Jacksonville.

[Detective Drake]

So you know how you're sitting in that chair right now? Well, during our investigation, we may have come to a time that we need to eliminate you and people that belong in an area from an object or place.

[Narrator]

Okay.

[Detective Drake]

So can we give a sample of your DNA?

[Narrator]

Yeah. All right, cool. Julian and Linda gave DNA samples. The analysts then collected Brian and Brandon's toothbrushes from Linda's condo and analyzed them. When the results came back, they called Lavon Starks, the legal guardian and executor of the Allen family. Will.

[Target Advertiser]

Hi, Ms. Starks.

[Detective Pajek]

So I know you've been in contact with him. This is our first time speaking.

[Julian Catherill]

I know you're a little up to.

[Target Advertiser]

Date, but we did submit DNA, and it came back to Brian and Brandon. I'm so sorry.

[Narrator]

Oh.

[Julian Catherill]

We kind of figured this might change since they've been missing. Didn't come back.

[Detective Pajek]

Yeah. We'd like to get some information, if you have any, for us. Some backgrounds on them, what their daily activities are, Anything that maybe you could.

[Narrator]

Possibly think Of Lavon wasn't surprised. She, like the rest of the Allen family, had a feeling the twins were dead. She crossed her legs and sat back in her chair, preparing for what she knew would be a long conversation with detectives.

[Detective Pajek]

When you heard this, is there anything.

[Julian Catherill]

That may have popped in your head.

[Detective Pajek]

Or something that you'd been worried about?

[Julian Catherill]

Well, Brandon, okay, he was living in Jacksonville, and him coming down here, and I'm not real sure why he was down here, but that really concerned me.

[Narrator]

Like Linda and Julian, Lavon saw Brandon for what he was, A magnet for chaos. Trouble clung to him, swirling around and dragging others into its orbit like a cloud of dust that never settles. Levan explained that Brandon had his own apartment in Jacksonville, which had been purchased for him. The idea was to keep Brian and Linda as far away from him as possible. So when Levon heard through the family grapevine that Brandon was crashing with Linda and Brian, he was livid.

[Julian Catherill]

Cause Brandon was a bad influence on both of them. He has been all their lives. You know, he's just been a bully all their lives. And so I say he can't live here. It's his two bedroom. And if he wants to come back to West Vaughn, we're gonna do two things. We're gonna sell the unit there in Jacksonville, and then we're gonna buy him something here by himself. Yeah, because I definitely never wanted them ever together.

[Narrator]

Lavon was the cousin of the kid's adoptive aunt. Although she wasn't emotionally close to them, after their parents died, she became the default parental figure responsible for dividing the inheritance. She said that Brian was a good kid. He went to work, he was going to college, and he was level headed.

[Julian Catherill]

He's definitely the innocent bystander in all of this. I just can't imagine him being caught up in us.

[Detective]

What do you think Linda would have anything to do with this?

[Julian Catherill]

Not at all. Like I said, it's my core belief that this has everything to do with Brandon.

[Narrator]

The cops kept hearing the same thing. Brandon was trouble, and his trouble stretched all the way to the north end of Florida. But as Lavon sat in that interrogation room, her story started to expand. Little details, what you may call throwaway comments, started to nudge the investigation in a direction that no one could have expected. 22 year old twin brothers Brian and Brandon Allen had been found wrapped in plastic and bed sheets, then set on fire and left burning on the side of a highway in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The twins shared a condo with their adoptive sister Linda and another former foster kid, Julian Catherill. Everyone in the house agreed on one thing. Brandon was trouble. He had people in Jacksonville after him, and it got so bad that he abandoned his newly purchased apartment there and fled to Palm Beach. Linda had told the police that she overheard him talking about buying a gun. Even the Allen Kidd's legal guardian and executor of their inheritance, Lavon Starks, had agreed this murder had something to do with Brandon. As she sat with police, she offered more clarity into the lives of these former foster children.

[Detective]

I just want to go all the way back to how you became the executor of their estate. You know, who the parents are.

[Julian Catherill]

You know, first of all, I'm like, how did I ever get involved?

[Detective]

But, I mean, what was your relationship with the.

[Julian Catherill]

My first cousin.

[Detective]

Okay.

[Julian Catherill]

My first cousin is who? Flora Davis.

[Detective]

Flora Davis, yeah. Okay.

[Julian Catherill]

She's the one that adopted them.

[Detective]

How old were they when they were adopted by Florida?

[Julian Catherill]

I think she got them at three. Okay, okay. They lived in California.

[Narrator]

Okay, okay.

[Julian Catherill]

And in 19, in 1995, obviously, she made this decision to make me the executor of her will, which I had no clue about. She passed away 2011. February 2011, it was then when right before her death, she kind of explained to me, I want you to take care of my daughter is what she.

[Narrator]

Really said on her deathbed. Mrs. Allen was most concerned about Linda. She wanted to make sure that she wouldn't be out there in the world alone. After Mrs. Allen died, Linda, Brian, and Brandon continued to live with their father, but Lavon became involved with the family.

[Julian Catherill]

Well, I kind of stepped in just a little bit to help him out because she did all the bills.

[Detective]

Okay.

[Julian Catherill]

So I kind of stepped in and kind of set up, you know, direct deposit. I mean, you know, making sure the bills got paid. I mean, I've always kind of talked to them kind of being in their lives in the sense since when they moved to Florida, because I taught at Palm Beach State up in Belgade. So when I on my way back, I would stop in Losahatchee and kind of help them out with their homework and stuff that they had to do. But so I kind of always been the one that's been involved.

[Narrator]

Despite Lavon stopping by to help them with their homework and other things, they still went astray.

[Julian Catherill]

All their lives. They've really been on some type of medication, you know, like a ADA or something. But when their mom passed away, I think they all took themselves off, completely off. So I think at the time of adoption, I don't know if the Parents were into drugs or drugs related. So they both. Linda and the boys were kind of in that situation when my cousin got them.

[Narrator]

Then Mr. Allen got sick and died. That's when Lavon became the sole parental figure in their lives, whether she wanted to or not.

[Julian Catherill]

He passed away in 2015. Okay, so at this point, now I went to the lockbox, got a copy of the will. So I kind of read it and muzzled over it, you know, tried to figure out, you know, what role am I going to play in all this.

[Narrator]

Linda, Brian and Brandon were all 18 years old when both their adoptive parents died, the ones who had rescued them from foster care.

[Julian Catherill]

Brandon dropped out at 10th grade. Linda dropped out, I think 9th grade. Brian is on his way to graduation from high school. So the rest of them had not finished school. Dad was. I mean, to me, they just didn't do what they were supposed to experience.

[Narrator]

Lavon had her opinions on how they were brought up, and she was clear the Allens were not good parents. Brian was the only one on track to finish high school under their watch. But this wasn't acceptable to Lavon. So she helped coach Brandon, and with her guidance, he eventually got his ged. Brian was enrolled at Palm Beach State College, and Brandon was at college in Jacksonville studying aeronautics. But Brandon fell off the achievement wagon fast. And soon he dropped out and started getting into trouble.

[Julian Catherill]

So I said, well, here's the deal, okay? You gotta. You gotta go to work. I mean, there is no option, no other options.

[Target Advertiser]

You gotta work.

[Julian Catherill]

So for Brandon, his condo that was purchased, I said, all you gotta do is pay your light bill. That's it. I'm taking care of everything else. The taxes, everything else that's taken care of through the estate. So I don't know what he did. When I bought the condo, he was there. It was his. I mean, I'm.

[Narrator]

I'm on the.

[Julian Catherill]

On the mortgage. I mean, not the mortgage, but the deed. But it was his.

[Narrator]

Okay.

[Julian Catherill]

You know, he's called me a couple of times with issues, you know, like, you know, I need some money. Well, I had some money set up for them. I set up each one of them account, you know, separate account. It was 8,000 for each one of them. And this is yours.

[Detective Pajek]

Return 21.

[Julian Catherill]

Brandon.

[Narrator]

Eight.

[Detective]

8,000 for each of them.

[Narrator]

When they turned.

[Detective]

When they turned 21, that was what, a year year ago?

[Julian Catherill]

They just turned. Last year, they turned 21.

[Detective Pajek]

Quick question. So was there anything, if something happened to each one of them, would that money that they have just go into.

[Julian Catherill]

The estate for the next, whoever's left. So Linda would get the entire estate.

[Target Advertiser]

Okay. Yeah.

[Narrator]

The Allen children had money fully paid off. Condos and only their electric bills to manage. That's all. They had very little responsibility in life. But while you would think this would be a privilege, an upper hand, a starting point that was better than most, in this case it was a recipe for failure. To Brandon and Linda, who dropped out of high school and were only pushed to succeed when Lavon stepped in. Without basic life skills, the money and homes were little more than fragile bandages. One wrong move and everything falls apart.

[Detective Pajek]

The boys, is it normal for you to not talk to them for a while?

[Julian Catherill]

Oh, absolutely. Oh, man. They were kind of. I live a stress free life, you know, I block out anything that's negative and they were. Oh, they immediately served motives on me. I was not their parent and I accepted that. I did not ask for this. I'm going to honor your parents wishes, but trust me, I am not going to be mommy and daddy right now.

[Narrator]

Though Lavon made it clear that she wasn't interested in babysitting them, there were a few stipulations with the condo set up for Linda and Brian. First off, Brandon was not allowed to live there, period. Second, no other roommates. I mean, those are pretty clear instructions. So when Lavonne heard Brandon and Linda's friend Julian moved in, she was pretty pissed. She was pissed that they lied to her and pissed that she was stuck dealing with these irresponsible, stunted adults.

[Detective Pajek]

Do you know about all the roommates they have there?

[Julian Catherill]

Just found out yesterday. Okay, I am living Linda.

[Detective]

Who did she say was living there with her?

[Julian Catherill]

Well, I. No, I specifically asked the question because I went by there yesterday when I came in and I found something belonging to. But anyway, this friend that Linda's always had, I saw something belonging to him and I was like, when was he there? Well, we let him rent come in and rent. And I was very specific. I mean, when I moved them in there, they had a checklist that they had to sign off on. No overnight guests. So I had to put rules in place because I know they are not responsible. So I put rules in place. She violated that. And I told her, I'm totally disappointed right now.

[Narrator]

The person she was talking about was Julian. Lavon was not a fan.

[Julian Catherill]

I know the kid. I met the kid before, but I know he's not good for Linda, and I told her that.

[Target Advertiser]

Julian.

[Detective Pajek]

Have you met him before?

[Julian Catherill]

Of course.

[Narrator]

Linda was heavily influenced by Julian. Maybe she had a bit of a crush on him. But whatever he said she did, she really adored him more than she did her own brothers. She called him her godbrother, her broski. I know, I know. I'm sorry. I haven't cringed that hard in a while either.

[Detective Pajek]

Linda works, too.

[Julian Catherill]

She does?

[Detective Pajek]

Where does she work at?

[Julian Catherill]

She said Marshall's.

[Detective Pajek]

She says that Marshall. She says Marshall's.

[Julian Catherill]

Oh, no. She's at Marshall's. No, she's at Marshall's. Oh, no, no, no.

[Detective]

Which Marshall's is it? The one on Okeechobee.

[Julian Catherill]

Okeechobee? Yes. No, she been there for a while.

[Target Advertiser]

Okay.

[Julian Catherill]

Yeah, yeah. But she's not working. Working like that. She's like, part time.

[Target Advertiser]

Part time? Yeah.

[Narrator]

Linda had given up on her GED with only a few courses left. Now she worked one day a week at Marshall's in the charity program and followed Julian around like a puppy dog. Sounds like a viable future.

[Detective]

Does Linda have a boyfriend?

[Julian Catherill]

No. No.

[Detective]

A girlfriend.

[Julian Catherill]

Stop.

[Detective]

Needs to be answered, though.

[Julian Catherill]

I know. I don't.

[Detective]

Does she have any significant other than she.

[Julian Catherill]

I don't think so.

[Target Advertiser]

She.

[Julian Catherill]

She's a loner. I mean, I've always known her to be a loner.

[Detective]

I mean, only reason we ask is, you know, we were at the house, and, you know, we did look around, and in her bedroom, there's, you know, a lot of male.

[Julian Catherill]

I was wondering what that was.

[Detective]

Male. Male, males. Correspondence. There was also. I mean, I noticed there was two chargers plugged into the wall, into the. You know, they were straight. Underneath each pillow, there were different chargers. So it appears to me that somebody is sleeping in that bed with her.

[Narrator]

As Lavon looked over her binder of the Allen children's documents, birth certificates, adoptive papers, inheritance records and photographs, the detective asked a question that made her eyes bug out.

[Detective Pajek]

Do you know anything about Darren Byrd? That's another person that was living in the apartment.

[Julian Catherill]

I don't even know anything, but I've never even heard that name before. Really?

[Narrator]

Lavon had never heard of Darren Byrd, But Linda told police he'd also been staying at the house. That meant that Linda had three people causing trouble. Brandon and Darren and Julian. The cops needed to dig deeper. Who was this Darren Byrd, and had he been staying in Linda's bedroom? Both Linda and Julian handed over their DNA and phones. But as the police interviewed them separately, cracks in their timeline began to appear. Linda insisted that they'd stayed at Julian's girlfriend's house on the Tuesday before Brian and Brandon were found burning on the road. But Julian claimed he'd been out with friends, without Linda. Then came the discovery of a cryptic text buried in Julian's phone. When the police confronted him about it, his easygoing attitude suddenly went cold.

[Detective Drake]

You got a message in there that you had sent about you needing to get out of your house and that you were in danger. What's that all about?

[Darren Byrd]

Oh, no, it was with like it was with some other guys that.

[Detective Drake]

Tell me. Cause it was just the other day.

[Darren Byrd]

Nah, it's like that's. It's dead. It's a dead situation.

[Detective Drake]

Well, tell us.

[Darren Byrd]

It's not really important. I really not. It's dead.

[Detective Pajek]

Let me just say. Say this. This is. You're in the homicide unit right now. This is serious.

[Narrator]

When they pressed him about the text, his confidence fractured, replaced by a defiance that screamed louder than any lie he could tell.

[Darren Byrd]

My situation is on some other street stuff. Okay, you know, tell us about that.

[Detective Drake]

Because maybe it's related that you don't even know it's related.

[Darren Byrd]

It's basically somebody that I owed money and, you know, I didn't pay him the money back on time. So it was just like, you know, just threats. That's so much like 150.

[Detective Drake]

150. And you get threats that you don't.

[Darren Byrd]

Feel safe in the streets. It's different, you know what I'm saying? So when you know somebody has guns and stuff like that, you don't feel safe, you know what I'm saying?

[Narrator]

Julian tried to deny the severity, but the text on his phone said he was scared for his life because of the hundred and fifty dollars he owed somebody. Hundred and fifty. That is the price that some lives matter. And some aren't even worth that much, apparently. Anyway, it wasn't clear who he owed this money to. It was just somebody from the streets. He explained to the detectives that there was a code of conduct on the street. No snitching.

[Darren Byrd]

I'm afraid that if I do say something about my situation, I'd rather pay my situation off and say anything and my life become in danger because.

[Detective Drake]

Well, I hear what you're saying, elder.

[Darren Byrd]

I'm only 21, okay?

[Detective Drake]

I've watched the streets longer than you've been in the streets. And the fact is people do say shit every day, depending on what's convenient or beneficial to them. They'll rat people out, they will turn people in, anything. So there is no street code. That's a bunch of bullshit. You may believe that for a moment.

[Narrator]

The detectives kept prompt, but Julian got tight lipped, locking up like the safety on a loaded Gun.

[Darren Byrd]

I'm not willing to give those names.

[Detective Drake]

Let me ask you this.

[Detective]

Yeah.

[Detective Drake]

All those people came to the house and you just didn't happen to be there and they decided they're gonna get money out of your roommates instead. Then you don't think it's your issue then?

[Darren Byrd]

I'm just not willing to speak about it. I'm sorry.

[Detective Drake]

Respect is not weakness. Do you understand that?

[Darren Byrd]

Yeah, of course.

[Detective Drake]

So what were you gonna say just now?

[Darren Byrd]

Now I was saying, like, normally, personally, I don't talk to police officers just because of my personal experiences.

[Target Advertiser]

Sure.

[Darren Byrd]

You know what I'm saying? So any, like, further questions, man, I'm gonna just have to. I'm not saying anything without an attorney present or anything like that, so I have to take up.

[Narrator]

And with that, Julian took back his phone and stopped talking. He wanted a lawyer. Before the male detective left, he had one more thing to say to Julian.

[Detective Drake]

You made me very concerned with your statement. Thank you.

[Narrator]

Linda, on the other hand, was still talking. I guess she wasn't from the streets, you know. She explained that Darren was staying there temporarily.

[Detective Drake]

Who else has been in the house lately? Whether they're friends of them or friends of yours past few days, guess me.

[Target Advertiser]

And Julian came by to visit for a couple hours and then he left.

[Detective Drake]

No one else has been by at the house at all?

[Target Advertiser]

No, not that I know of.

[Detective Drake]

You know, every time. Every time someone comes and goes, it's logged at the gate.

[Target Advertiser]

Yeah, well, there was Darren, but we all went to Julian's girlfriend's house.

[Detective Drake]

But didn't Darren come to the house?

[Target Advertiser]

He didn't come inside, but he came to the house.

[Narrator]

Yeah.

[Detective Drake]

Okay, well, I need to know that when I ask. Okay. What kind of car does take Darren drive?

[Target Advertiser]

He doesn't drive.

[Detective Drake]

How's he get there?

[Target Advertiser]

His girlfriend.

[Detective Drake]

What's the kind of car his girlfriend drives?

[Target Advertiser]

A red Toyota.

[Narrator]

It's like pulling teeth with some people interrogating them. Bad teeth with lots of cavities. Darren bird was an 18 year old kid who had grown up in foster care with Julian. He was also the only white kid living in the condo. Darren's biological father was a low life 10 deadbeat career thief with a record that was a mile long after a domestic violence episode in 1997. Court records allude that young Darren had been put into foster care. He'd been in the system his whole life. That's where he met Julian. Darren aged out of the foster care system at 18 and enrolled in college. He used whatever little money he got from the State to pay for Linda's electric bill instead of rent. If you recall, Linda didn't have a mortgage. She was only responsible for the electric bill. Following the details of his girlfriend's red Toyota made it easy to find Darren. Darren met his girlfriend while studying at Palm Beach State College. Her father was a sheriff with the Palm Beach Sheriff's Department, which was investigating the Allen twins murder. Darren repeated the same story about Brandon that Julian and Linda had.

[Customer]

I'm not even gonna lie after I heard that. Like, that they were missing. Like, I tried not to go back, guys, because I'm scared.

[Detective Pajek]

Yeah, because you don't know, right?

[Customer]

Like I said, like, whatever. Whatever's going on, like that, this is not. Like, it's not normal stuff. You know what I'm saying? And it kind of. It freaks me out. You know what I'm saying? Just like I said, it's not a movie. This isn't no movie. I haven't even went back to the house because I don't know what's going on. Like, I'm afraid to get new clothes. You know what I'm saying?

[Detective Pajek]

I hear you.

[Customer]

I've been wearing the same clothes for like three days now.

[Detective Pajek]

Okay.

[Narrator]

Linda's apartment was nice, so it was lined with cameras and a guard who worked the front gate. Darrin's girlfriend's red Toyota had been seen backing into the garage on the night the police assumed that the twins had been murdered. The car waited for 21 minutes, then took off. The police had towed Darrin's girlfriend's car from the college for evidence. When she showed up to meet the police, she was not happy.

[Julian Catherill]

You still haven't told me why my car is being towed.

[Detective]

Well, we believe your cars may have been used and used by Darren to do something.

[Target Advertiser]

Okay.

[Detective]

We believe your car was used in a commission of a crime that Darren was present during.

[Julian Catherill]

Okay.

[Detective]

Okay. So that's why your car is in our custody.

[Julian Catherill]

Okay. So now that I know the truth, can I leave?

[Detective]

Leave? You can do whatever you want.

[Target Advertiser]

What? Okay.

[Narrator]

Thank you. All right.

[Target Advertiser]

The only thing asked was for what happened to the car.

[Detective]

Oh, it's going to be here for a long, long time.

[Julian Catherill]

Why?

[Detective]

Cuz we believe it was used in a crime. So unless you can kind of help me figure some things out.

[Target Advertiser]

But how am I supposed to help.

[Julian Catherill]

Me figure things out if.

[Detective]

Because you know exactly. When you talk to Darren, you know exactly where he was at on such and such days. You can't tell me you don't.

[Narrator]

Darren's girlfriend clenched her lips and sat down in a huff. The cop needed to know what happened last Monday night.

[Detective]

Monday night? If you could look at your.

[Julian Catherill]

Oh, well, we text each other on a daily basis.

[Detective]

Okay, but if, I'm saying, if you're texting somebody at say, 10 o' clock on Monday night, obviously you're not with him, right? So if you were to go back through your phone, you could say, oh yeah, Monday night I wasn't with him, I was texting him at 10 o'.

[Narrator]

Clock.

[Detective]

He must have been somewhere else. Would that jog your memory if you were to do that?

[Target Advertiser]

Probably not, because I delete my phone.

[Julian Catherill]

Phone numbers and my messages.

[Narrator]

Okay, Like.

[Target Advertiser]

Like on a weekly basis.

[Narrator]

Okay, so.

[Detective]

All right, no problem.

[Narrator]

What 18 year old college student do you know deletes their entire phone history on a weekly basis? Come on.

[Detective]

I believe you're not telling me all your truth. That's what I'm just trying to tell you right now.

[Target Advertiser]

Well, I just feel like you're not understanding my truth. Okay, tell me then.

[Detective]

Would you have a problem letting us download your phone to get your deleted text messages from him?

[Target Advertiser]

Yes.

[Detective]

You would have a problem?

[Detective Pajek]

Yes.

[Detective]

Okay.

[Narrator]

Darren's girlfriend refused to hand over her deleted texts citing privacy concerns. She wasn't under any legal obligation to share her phone, so she didn't. But the cops had her car and they zeroed in on Darren. The red Toyota Corolla told them everything they needed to know. And when they opened the trunk, the blood they found was confirmed by DNA to belong to Brandon.

[Detective Drake]

Forensically, we've done a lot of investigation in this case. There are two people that are dead. This is not going to go away. We are confident that you are lying to us now and you know more. So let's go back to when you actually last saw the brothers and be honest, okay? Be honest.

[Customer]

I told you the last time I saw the brothers because like I said, I didn't see them except the night, like on Sunday, you know what I'm saying? And then Monday when I left for school is the last time I seen one of them.

[Detective Pajek]

That's not true. And I know that's not true because forensically and other ways that we do things, we know that that's not true.

[Customer]

So I need you because I'm trying to tell you what I know because I don't want to know the truth.

[Detective Drake]

I mean, do you have that picture of the truth?

[Narrator]

The police had searched Linda's house from top to bottom after using luminol. They found blood stains in the foyer and garage. There were also A pair of sneakers in Linda's bedroom with blood on the bottom of them.

[Detective Drake]

Darren, I can't impart on you how important it is that you just come out with what you know, what you saw, not this distancing thing that you're doing right now. Let's show you some photos. I'm going to show you a picture of a shoe before we can go further in this.

[Narrator]

The detective leaned forward, gray hair disheveled, his frustration barely contained. It could have been Darren's father with that worn, determined look. But Darren sat there, arms crossed, stubborn as a mule. The detective pulled out a photo and slid it across the table.

[Detective Pajek]

What size shoes do you wear?

[Target Advertiser]

Me? Yeah.

[Customer]

I wear a size nine and a half to ten.

[Target Advertiser]

All right.

[Detective Pajek]

Do you have a pair of shoes similar to that?

[Customer]

Yeah.

[Julian Catherill]

You do?

[Customer]

Yep.

[Target Advertiser]

Okay.

[Detective Drake]

What would you say if I told you I had you on a video?

[Julian Catherill]

A video?

[Detective Drake]

I'm not gonna tell you this. Am I gonna tell. Well, that would support us knowing that you have some more knowledge than you're saying.

[Customer]

I would like to see that video then.

[Narrator]

The video they had showed Darren pulling up to Linda's condo gate and his girlfriend's red Toyota the day after the bodies were discovered. He saw a cluster of flashing police vehicles outside Linda's driveway, pulled a U turn and took off.

[Detective Drake]

So there was never a time you came through that gate and you saw law enforcement down in front of your house. That's not true. We saw you turn around in your girlfriend's car and go back out the gate, and you were checking. Hold on, hold on. I'm just gonna give you this little Easter egg. Security told us that you were there. They were watching for you. They saw you come down. We saw you. I actually saw you turn around and go back out in the girlfriend's car. So you're not telling the truth.

[Customer]

Darren, if you saw that, then I know that didn't happen.

[Detective Drake]

Really?

[Customer]

Yes. I do know that didn't happen. Because that I'm thinking about everything that never happened.

[Narrator]

Darren walked into the police station the day after the murders, unprompted, ready to give a statement. According to him, he'd tried to speak with someone, but was told the detectives weren't available. A few days passed. By then, the police had already talked to Linda, Julian and Lavon. They'd even towed Darren's girlfriend's Toyota into evidence. That's when they showed up at the college to pick him up.

[Customer]

If I'm gonna go in and make a police statement, Darren, I have. Can I please finish what I'm saying, sorry to cut you off, but no, you're sitting there trying to put something. You're trying to say some crazy stuff right now, and I'm trying to help you. You know what I'm saying?

[Julian Catherill]

I.

[Customer]

If I. It was gonna. If I seen detectives, and I'm going to see a detective anyways, why wouldn't I just go and get that out of the way so I'm not dragged out of school, made to look like a fucking criminal?

[Detective Drake]

Hey, Darren. On the night these two guys were murdered, you were seen at a location. Okay, I will tell you that much.

[Target Advertiser]

Where.

[Narrator]

Where was I?

[Detective Pajek]

I want to know what happened that night.

[Customer]

I do not know.

[Narrator]

I said Darren wasn't going to crack. His fight against the evidence was as solid as the table between them. The blood, the sneaker, the car. It was all closing in. He had an excuse for everything. But Darren wasn't staying strong in an attempt to only save himself. He was protecting someone else. Someone he loved way too much to betray. Brian and Brandon Allen had been found murdered and left to burn on the side of a highway in Palm Beach Gardens. The Allen twins lived with their adoptive sister Linda and two other products of the foster care system. Julian Catherill and Darren Byrd. Everyone, even the Allen children's executor of the estate, thought the murder had something to do with Brandon and his enemies in Jacksonville. But new evidence had pointed to Darren and Julian. Julian first played it cool with the cops. Then they dug into his record. He was the only one with jail time under his belt and carried himself like a streetwise tough guy. A reputation he clearly enjoyed. In 2016, he'd been arrested for carrying a loaded gun without a license. And he was still on parole when the murders happened. But despite being on probation, Julian asked for a lawyer. And that was it. They had nothing to tie him to the crime. Then Linda was called back to the station like a lost little child. She slumped her head and arms on the desk and spoke softly.

[Detective Drake]

So you said you last spoke with Darren. When?

[Target Advertiser]

Saturday.

[Detective Drake]

Come on, give us a little more than that. You spoke about more than just a movie he watched.

[Target Advertiser]

Yeah, because I was gonna tell him that they. I didn't like. So they say they identified the bodies and then he just kind of rambled on and buy a movie and. And it kind of just pissed me off. Like he just. The way he is, he just made me mad. So I didn't really want to talk to him that long.

[Detective Drake]

And you didn't. I mean, this is. These are your brothers. And you didn't have a conversation with Darren, one of your roommates, about your brothers?

[Target Advertiser]

I mean.

[Detective Drake]

I mean, come on, straight up. Come on, don't hold back. I mean, you said. You said you're down here on your own. You must be down here because you're concerned. You want to assist us, obviously, in the murder of your brothers, right? Yeah or no?

[Target Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Detective Drake]

Okay. So honestly, you know, I don't believe that you didn't talk to him about this.

[Narrator]

Linda was weak. The detectives could tell that someone had fed her a story to repeat, and somewhere along the way, she messed it up. Now, here she was, a 9th grade dropout who worked one day a week at Marshall's, being questioned about her involvement in the murder of her twin brothers.

[Detective Pajek]

And we went into your apartment, and there is a lot of evidence that we found in that apartment. And I need you to be honest with me, what happened to your brothers, because I know that you know.

[Detective Drake]

Hold on one moment. Okay? This is the situation. You're either part of what happened, or you're simply someone that knows about what happened. Those are the only two things that I believe that you are. We don't tell you the evidence that we have, but I can assure you, you know, we went back in there, we got a search warrant, and we recovered an amazing amount of evidence.

[Narrator]

Linda pressed her hand to her forehead. She closed her eyes and shook her head. Like the information she knew would somehow magically fall out and disappear.

[Detective Drake]

Just talking to me, talking to everybody. We're not going to discuss. Where's your phone? Where's your phone?

[Detective Pajek]

We have a search warrant for you.

[Detective Drake]

We have a search warrant for your phone.

[Target Advertiser]

Take the phone.

[Detective Drake]

And I want it now. And I'm just going to explain how a search warrant works. We can take everything that you deleted in this phone, and it will be recovered. We do it all the time. We're not planned. We're not going away.

[Narrator]

Linda handed over her phone, and the male detective left the room to extract what he could. Left alone with the female officer, Linda started to open up.

[Target Advertiser]

I won't say, but I. I know how this works. How what works? How would I say who did it without them saying that? I told them, like, if you guys do find out who did it, can you just say you guys cleaned up really bad and Linda doesn't know that.

[Detective Pajek]

I'm not. I don't tell. Well, I'm not gonna tell them that you said anything. Okay?

[Target Advertiser]

I'm. If.

[Detective Pajek]

If you are in fear for your life that something's gonna happen to You. I'm not putting you in danger because then guess whose homicide I'm going to be working. I don't want anything bad to happen to you. I want to put these people away so they can't hurt you or anybody else. Because what they did to your brothers is absolutely disgusting.

[Narrator]

Linda looked down at her hands and then sighed. She knew she was safe to talk. So she did.

[Target Advertiser]

A long time ago, after her parents died, Brandon had dad's gun. And because this, this thing stems from years ago, okay, I didn't know how the whole payment thing went, but Julian had bought the gun from Brandon, I guess for $150. And he never gave him the money for it, so. And made like a payment plan or something.

[Narrator]

Along with the money and the apartments. Brandon also had inherited Mr. Allen's gun with his possessions. He sold it to Julian, who was eventually arrested for carrying it around without a license. But Julian never paid for the gun. So when Brandon came down from Jacksonville, he wanted his $150. But Julian kept brushing him off. He'd pay him. Soon the tensions mounted when Julian got on probation.

[Target Advertiser]

The police, the sheriffs department searched the house and they found Darian Weed in Julian's background. Okay. And then like Julian went to jail for it for five days and said it was all Darren's fault. So when he was a young man, shut Nova the only ones concerned in trying to do something, apparently to Julian, Darren wasn't trying to. And that really pissed him off. He was supposed to be my so called daughter.

[Narrator]

Julian was like Darren's older brother. They were four years apart. They'd been shuffled from foster home to foster home in tandem. And they had stuck together through it all. Linda said that now there was even more tension in the house. And that's when Brandon asked Darren to help him buy a shotgun.

[Target Advertiser]

Brandon came to Darren to buy a shotgun for $300, okay. To basically do off of Julian because he didn't give him no money.

[Narrator]

Julian found out Brandon was trying to get a gun to hurt him. And this weird gossip chain brought Darren and Julian back together. That's when they decided that Brandon was actually the enemy in the house. Meanwhile, Brandon was not shy about his plan to kill Julian. Over $150.

[Target Advertiser]

Oh, I'll cut a throw in. They sleep and doing this and that. And I'm like, wow. He used to try to do the same thing to me when we were kids, okay? And then it's like. And then it's just like it kind of hit June and there it's like he put two and two together. Like, wow, he's really like that. And he's like. It was only then like they. They stopped with Brandon, like, period. Because they saw how he was. And he eventually got 300 from Brian. He borrowed $350 from Brian to get the shot. Brandon did. Yeah, okay. And it's like everything was starting to come to light, so. And it made it even worse when Julian overheard Brandon on the phone talking to somebody about doing something to somebody and threatening people's lives and everything and getting a shotgun at a gun show.

[Narrator]

Darren and Julian thought that Brandon was going to kill them both. Or at least that's what they told Linda. Meanwhile, Brandon steered clear of everyone and created fear in the house. Julian wasn't one to accept fear, especially from a kid his own age. Another alpha male trying to take his place in the house. No. No way. Ain't gonna happen. Julian had texted a photo of the gun that Brandon had sold him to his girlfriend and she wrote, looks used as fuck.

[Target Advertiser]

Lol. But that'll work.

[Narrator]

Julian wrote back, it is lol, but shit, as long as it knock a nigga off his feet. It's a quote, guys. Try controlling your emotions for once. But testosterone, rage, resentment, and rumors swirled around Linda's condo until she just couldn't take it anymore. They called a roommate house meeting.

[Target Advertiser]

I had texted Brian and told him, hey, we need to have a talk in the garage and it's about Brandon.

[Narrator]

Linda, Darren, and Julian went into the garage and waited for the twins. Julian had the gun in his pants. Linda knew it, but said nothing. When the twins came in, the argument started. Linda tried to play motherly mediator, but her desperate cries were ignored and things escalated between Darren, Julian, and Brandon.

[Target Advertiser]

You guys, please, I'm begging you to just listen to me. Please. I was begging God to let them just shut up and listen to me for once. You guys don't ever listen to me every time I try to tell something. And then they just talked about how, like, whatever I say doesn't even go because it was Brian's house too, and yada, yada, yada. So I threw my hands up.

[Narrator]

Linda started to make her way to the door. Then Julian pulled out his gun and fired it at Brian.

[Target Advertiser]

My Julian, at the pistol on the utenberg I could not believe. Shot my bullet in the stomach.

[Narrator]

Brian staggered backwards, his breath hitching as the bullet tore into him. He was the first to be shot. It was ironic, really, since he'd been the one man in this fight who'd barely Had a voice.

[Detective Pajek]

He got shot. How many times he got shot?

[Target Advertiser]

In the stomach. In the stomach. Okay.

[Detective Pajek]

And did he say anything? Did he die right away or.

[Target Advertiser]

No, he was. He looked scared. I couldn't even think straight after that. I just saw my brother get shot. I don't know what to do. And it's like I heard second shot. And Brandon got shot in the arm, and I guess he tried to leave. I don't know how Darren got back inside, but Brandon tried to pull back inside, and Darren pushed him back down there. And I felt like I was in a hole. Movie. I walked out the back door and I just kept walking. And I heard another gunshot. And I just kept walking.

[Narrator]

Paralyzed with fear, Linda burst out the back door and walked aimlessly through her condo complex. She walked and sobbed, pushing the tears angrily off her cheeks. She had nowhere to go, no one to run to. Brandon and Brian were dead. Julian was all she had left. So she turned around and walked back to her condo.

[Target Advertiser]

I was barefoot that day. It was cold outside, and I didn't know where I was going. I just didn't want to be there. And then around the time I got to the front door, everything was quiet. And Linda and Darren came down. I was shaking. I couldn't think straight. And they said, come on, we have to get out of here.

[Narrator]

Linda followed Julian and Darren as they led her through the back of the complex over the gate. The three ran until they reached the back of a target. They waited until Julian said it was safe, and then they returned home.

[Target Advertiser]

We went inside, but I didn't want to look inside the garage. I waited until they closed the door and I went upstairs. I felt sick to my stomach and I wanted to go to sleep. I was really tired. I couldn't go to sleep. They were going to try and clean it up. And they talked about getting all the bedspreads and everything. And they were gathering up the bedspreads so they could wrap the bodies up and bring them upstairs. I didn't want anything to do with it after that. I was just praying to God to let the pain out of my heart.

[Narrator]

Julian and Darren told Linda to close her bedroom door and stay put. The boys worked together, stripping bedsheets to wrap the twins lifeless bodies. One by one, they dragged them upstairs, the weight of their actions heavier with each step, and dumped them on top of each other in the master bathtub. Brandon and Brian's bodies mirrored how their lives started. Two brothers tangled together as they had been in the womb.

[Target Advertiser]

As I was coming in the room, I Could still see the bath, bathroom door open. Darren looked at me and saw how hurt I was, so he closed the door. I was really angry. Like I couldn't even express how angry I was.

[Narrator]

Although she was angry, Linda let Darren and Julian into her room after they had finished cleaning up the crime scene. The three curled up in Linda's bed together and fell asleep, knowing they would have to take this to the grave.

[Target Advertiser]

My burdens were all I had left. And to be honest, I'm still kind of holding a grudge against him for that.

[Narrator]

The $150 that Julian owed Brandon was the alleged street business that Julian would not elaborate on for the detectives. In the vague text on his phone, they had discovered his motive for murder, and he knew it. So he shut his mouth and pleaded the fifth. Julian was the only seasoned criminal in the bunch. When the murder was done, he told Linda and Darren to delete all their messages. He instructed them to use WhatsApp to text about anything having to do with Brandon or Brian. He thought he was clever enough to get away with murder. He scared Linda into silence, convincing her that if any of them went down, they'd all go down together. He thought she'd never talk, but when the cops gave her the option, she told the truth. Julian was never her godbrother. He was just an opportunistic user who took advantage of Linda. Whether she saw this or not, the goodness still left in her made her tell the truth. Finally.

[Detective Drake]

So you told us all this because it's true. And it's because your two brothers are murdered and you want the people that did it to come to justice? Yes. Or are you telling us because we've made you tell? Tell you?

[Julian Catherill]

No.

[Target Advertiser]

It's not fair to Brandon and Brian that they left like that.

[Detective Drake]

So you're saying this because you're terrible. I can see it.

[Target Advertiser]

It's just. I feel like nobody understands how I feel right now.

[Detective Drake]

I don't know what you're feeling because my brother's not dead. It must be horrible. I don't know what you're going through. It's got to be terrible. Terrible. And these are people that you more or less trusted. You feel betrayed, don't you?

[Target Advertiser]

I didn't know he was going to do that.

[Detective Drake]

You've been scared for a little bit, haven't you?

[Target Advertiser]

After that, I barely had talked to him and Darren. I didn't even want anything.

[Detective Drake]

Have they contacted you today? Either of them?

[Target Advertiser]

No, Dar, not Darren, but Julian. Just act like just said his usual. Hey, good morning.

[Detective Drake]

Does he know you were gonna come down here today. Did you tell him?

[Target Advertiser]

I don't recall, and he hasn't asked, so don't.

[Detective Drake]

Don't tell him that you came down here today.

[Narrator]

Linda said she was afraid Julian would kill her if he knew she told the truth. The detectives promised to get her on a plane to Georgia to be with Lavon as soon as possible. Linda sat shaking as the detectives took her phone again to extract the deleted evidence. Then she piped up with a question.

[Target Advertiser]

But if you guys do recover anything, you guys aren't going to make it be deleted. You guys can recover because there's some stuff that I deleted I wanted back.

[Detective Drake]

Yeah, we can recover everything.

[Target Advertiser]

Riley had texted me on my birthday and told me something really made me happy.

[Detective Drake]

What'd he tell you on your birthday?

[Target Advertiser]

You know, you're getting older and you've done a lot for this family and how much they appreciated it.

[Detective Drake]

And that meant a lot to you.

[Target Advertiser]

Me and Brian, we went three years without talking to each other in the house once. You know, stuff like that makes me happy.

[Narrator]

Linda, Brian, and Brandon may not have had the best upbringings or parental figures, or they may not have even come from the same bloodline, but they were family. Now Linda would be out in the world alone. With Linda's confession in hand, the detectives turned back to Darren. They needed him to unravel enough to pin the murders on Julian. But Darren was as unyielding as he was devoted to the only brother he'd ever truly had. Maybe it was the guilt Julian piled on him over those five measly days in jail, or the endless need to prove he was worthy of Julian's respect. Maybe it was their age, their skin. Or maybe something deeper. They were two fatherless boys lost in the shuffle, fumbling through life and trying to figure out how to be men in all the wrong ways. It's tough out there for young men in 2025. And don't you forget about it. Don't minimize it. Don't laugh about it. Don't pretend it isn't a problem. It is.

[Detective Pajek]

So you need to step up and be honest with us, because you're gonna go down for somebody else's shit. And you don't have a criminal record you do not have. You're not a bad person. You're not a bad kid.

[Detective Drake]

You're saying you didn't do so something. Tell me what you saw.

[Customer]

I didn't see. I was not. I was not there.

[Narrator]

Three detectives questioned Darren for over six hours. He denied knowing anything. His ability to lie under pressure was impressive for an 18 year old. But the detectives played Linda and Julian against him, saying those two had agreed that Darren committed the murders.

[Detective Drake]

They have done this to you. You got put in a position by.

[Detective Pajek]

This guy here, and you're not the bad. You're not the bad kid. You're not the loyal one.

[Detective Drake]

He brought you in here and your misplaced loyalty.

[Customer]

You're screwed.

[Detective Drake]

You're not giving yourself an out. Hey, I'm just giving you fatherly advice. If it was my son, I would want him fighting for himself in this, not sticking up for somebody else. Just saying.

[Narrator]

But Darren knew it wasn't true. He was loyal to his promise, to Julian. The truth goes to the grave. Darren was free to go. And in the meantime, they found his girlfriend and served her a warrant for her cell phone. All right.

[Detective]

Is that your cell phone?

[Julian Catherill]

Mm.

[Detective]

This is a warrant for your cell phone.

[Target Advertiser]

Okay.

[Detective]

Here you go. There's a copy of it. We're taking your cell phone. Once we get it downloaded. I don't know if we're keeping it or not, what it is.

[Detective Drake]

I think after we clone it or copy it fully, then we'll be able.

[Detective]

To get it back to you. We'll have to consult with the attorney and see what's going on, but I'll do my best to get it back to you.

[Narrator]

Darren's girlfriend stood dumbfounded as the police confiscated her phone.

[Julian Catherill]

You can't come here and give me a warrant if you never give me a heads up.

[Detective Pajek]

Instead, say, hey, we're gonna take your.

[Julian Catherill]

Your life. Like, who the hell am I supposed to call?

[Detective]

Would you like me to call your dad and say, hey?

[Julian Catherill]

No, because I think he's an. And I don't know what you told him, but he's really bitching about, like, thinking I'm, like, the same thing that you told me, okay? I'm telling the truth. He thinks I'm not telling the truth. If he asks again, tell him to keep his nose out of the investigation because it's not his place.

[Narrator]

Darren's girlfriend's phone revealed that she actually had no involvement. The night that the bodies were dumped, she was texting Darren crazy messages that read like novels. So angry that he was late returning her car with the blood evidence, video footage, DNA, and Linda's confession, Darren and Julian were looking at murder and tampering with evidence. Only 14 days after Brian and Brandon were murdered, Darren and Julian were separately arrested. Julian stayed quiet, but Darren asked to talk to a detective one more time.

[Detective]

What's going on? Man, you asked to talk to me again, right?

[Customer]

Yes, I have a question. So I know how the shows are and stuff, but how does witness protection have Just.

[Detective]

Can I just ask you. Why? Have you been threatened or.

[Customer]

That's out of the question right now. I'm asking how does witness protection work? And let's say I did have something to say. I need assurance.

[Detective]

You need assurance?

[Narrator]

The detective sat in his chair while Darren stood before him like a subordinate, getting the courage to ask his boss for a raise that he knew he didn't deserve.

[Detective]

Do you understand that you're being charged with murder? Correct. You understand that?

[Narrator]

Mm.

[Detective]

Okay. So you're not. You're not gonna be outside of the jail at all.

[Narrator]

Okay.

[Detective Drake]

Okay.

[Detective]

You're going to jail. All right, so you've been charged with murder.

[Narrator]

But it hadn't dawned on Darren. He thought that if he finally told the truth, there may be some golden ticket of freedom for him on the other side. That was never on the table. Darren was going to trial and possibly life in prison. He was still terrified to tell the truth for one reason. Julian, I'm scared to talk.

[Detective]

Nothing's gonna happen to you.

[Narrator]

Oh, I know. All right.

[Detective]

Nothing's gonna happen to you. You know, we're gonna arrest Julian just like we arrested you.

[Narrator]

All right?

[Detective]

So he's going to be. He's going to be also, you know, in jail, not able to get to anybody or do anything like that. Okay? You guys will be separated. Nobody will be next to each other. You're going to be in your own little area. He'll be in his own little. No, you're not going to be anywhere close to each other. There's no way he's going to get to you.

[Narrator]

Julian had put the fear of God in Darren, and it showed. Sitting with the detective, Darren let the details of murder slip. He knew the type of gun he helped clean up. He moved bodies and even drove his girlfriend's Toyota to the burn site. Toyota's a great car, by the way. Not just saying that because they're a sponsor, although they have been quite generous. Good preservation of your car's value there on resale, usually with a Toyota. Just saying. All right. Anyway, sorry, getting back to the story, he did drive that Toyota to the burn site and did a whole bunch of other stuff, but he just couldn't tell the whole story. Every few minutes, he stopped, his words catching in his throat as if two voices were warring inside his own head, his own conscience and Julian's looming presence.

[Detective]

Where did you clean the car? At you didn't come back to the apartment that night, did you? In that car? Where'd you go after?

[Narrator]

I had to give her a car back.

[Detective]

Where did you take it to give her a car back?

[Customer]

I didn't had her where we were at.

[Detective]

Where's that?

[Customer]

We were hanging out, you know, at a park.

[Detective]

Okay, what park?

[Target Advertiser]

I can't keep going.

[Detective Drake]

Why?

[Customer]

Because, man, I need some insurance. Like, I'm already scared, bro.

[Detective]

I told you, I've done. I told you, man. You're gonna be fine.

[Narrator]

But things wouldn't be just fine. And Darren knew it. As he sat in jail awaiting trial and paralyzed with fear that Julian would befriend some goons to come kill him in his cell, he had a change of heart. All that time alone to think in his cell really worked. And on April 4, 2017, Darren was taken out of jail to get in a police car and drive to the corner of Windsor Avenue and 13th street in West Palm Beach.

[Customer]

Up here at the stop sign on.

[Narrator]

The right, down at the bottom, there's.

[Customer]

A great right this one right here.

[Narrator]

In the storm drain. The police pulled out the old semiautomatic pistol that Brandon had sold Julian. The same one he used to murder the Allen twins. It was wrapped in a plastic bag and thrown in the gutter. They found pictures of the gun in the deleted images on Julian's cell phone.

[Detective Pajek]

You know what he did with the shelf patient?

[Customer]

Ooh, actually, I may know where one is.

[Narrator]

Oh, shit.

[Customer]

I also may know where one of their cell phones is.

[Narrator]

Darren led police to a spot on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard where Julian had thrown Brandon's cell phone. Despite his cooperation, Darin was still charged with murder and a slew of other felonies. Julian's trial went first. In 2022, he was sentenced to life in prison for the deaths of both Brandon and Brian Allen. Darren's trial took place in 2024. He'd grown a thick blond beard on his babyish face. Darren was sentenced to life in prison for tampering with physical evidence and second degree murder for Brandon Allen. He was acquitted of the murder for Brian Allen. There's one last piece of this puzzle and we need your help to solve it. A video was recovered from the night the bodies were burned. That's just six seconds long. In the background, you can hear the fire crackling, consuming what was left of the twins. Then a voice cuts through the night.

[Target Advertiser]

Ooo, yeah, we got a fire right there. Booyah.

[Narrator]

The detectives can't figure out whose voice this was. It didn't quite match Darren's girlfriend or Julian's girlfriend who had a low voice. Or Linda. But who am I to say? I'm not a forensic voice analyst. I don't know. Is that a job? Not sure where you would even go to get a degree for that. But it sounds like a woman was there watching as the bodies were unloaded and set ablaze. Was it Linda? Was her entire story a fabrication? Or is it someone who has yet to face justice? The only female owned cell phones the police had warrants for were Darren's girlfriend and Linda. You've heard both of their voices on this episode. Without knowing which phone the video came from, we'll never know. And detectives could not tell us when we asked for clarification. So I'll leave it up to you, the listener whose voice was on that tape.

[Julian Catherill]

Ooh, yeah.

[Target Advertiser]

I'm gonna fight you right there. Booyah.

[Narrator]

Brian, Brandon and Linda were rescued from foster care when the Allen family adopted them. But as Lavon had said, their parents failed them where it mattered most. They gave Linda, Brandon and Brian condos and bank accounts in their death, but neglected to instill basic life skills while they were still alive. But Darren and Julian were entirely abandoned by the system. Left to fend for themselves. They lacked the guidance every kid needs. Maybe things would have been different if Darren's father had been a dad. Who knows? But instead, he had only Julian to love and fear. Like a father, Brian also looked to Brandon with a certain authority. But I don't think it had anything to do with fatherlessness. More so wanting to keep the connection to his twin. No matter how flawed Brandon was, he was still Brian's twin. And in the end, siding with Brandon was the reason he lost his life. Be careful where you place your loyalty. Sometimes the ones you idolize are just as misguided as you may be still searching for their destiny, good or evil. Well, I tried. I tried to make sword and Scale television available on other platforms like Facebook, for example, and YouTube, but I don't think I can. You see, all this woke shit got me cancelled. And there you are. We couldn't just be on Patreon and avoid the whole thing. I mean, I don't think you guys realize how much money it costs to build your own app. Not to mention how complicated it is. You never please everybody. But, you know, we're doing the best we can here. So if you like sword scale, head over to swordandscale.com, check out our website, download our app, and check out our TV show. I mean, There's a whole lot of it right now. Sixteen episodes, I believe. They're all very good. Very, very good. So here's your chance to be part of something, help us fund it, help us create it from scratch. Eventually, we'd like to have multiple seasons spanning many years that we can broadcast to you in some way, the general public that is not sure if it's going to be on tv because the future of TV doesn't look very bright. You know what I mean? But thanks for joining us once again. And until next time, stay safe. Sa.