Transcript
A (0:00)
Hey, everyone, it's Adam Rittenberg and Kyle Bonagara, co host of the Unforgotten Season three, Finding Dolores Wolf. We're here to look back at episode three, this Way to the Murderer's House, which. Which dropped earlier this week. And Kyle, this is an episode that both of us were looking forward to having out in the open, just because of all the details. And, you know, I think. I think what, you know, the way we start the episode, let's kind of begin there. Because you and I were actually in woodland together back in March, we felt the need to kind of retrace some of the important parts of the story. And we were fortunate enough that a guy by the name of Darrell Ersman, who was a neighbor and a friend of the Wolf family, specifically the Wolf children, was in the area and willing to show us around. And so, you know, we met Darryl back in March and went around town. And the most significant site we visited was the house on Hillcrest Drive where Dolores Wolf was last seen on the night of July 31, 1979. You know, Darryl had made contact with the current owner of the house, Joel Burton, who was nice enough to let us onto the property and inside the house, which was the first time you and I had actually been inside the house. It was the first time Darryl had been inside since 1979, which is pretty amazing because he was essentially the fifth wolf sibling, was always around. So when you think about just that experience of being together, being with Darryl, being in the house, seeing everything and kind of experiencing that with him, what kind of jumps out for you?
B (1:42)
It was a really interesting experience because we started reporting the story back in 2020, has spent a lot of time on it many years at this point, rehashing all the details, and to be there inside the know where the family lived and where Dolores was last seen, it was a little bit surreal, right? You kind of build something up to. To look like whatever it is inside your head. So to be in there, to walk from from hall to hall to bedroom to bedroom was a really surreal experience. And there's been some renovations done, so the layout wasn't exactly the same, but I felt like we had a really good sense of what it probably felt like to be there back in 1979. Obviously, a long time has passed since then, but it was no longer a house in the abstract. It was a real place that we had a great fortune to visit. Big thanks to both Joel and Daryl for their parts in making that happen. It was a really interesting day. And moving on from the house and experiencing all of Woodland as well.
A (2:39)
Right. And even driving with Darryl along Hillcrest Drive, and he's pointing out all the locations where law enforcement folks lived back then. And you and I kind of being shocked that the house was surrounded by the guy who ran for sheriff and a CHP officer and others, that possibly this horrible crime took place, you know, within yards to the residences of other law enforcement. This episode, episode three is very much about Woodland and the things that happen in Woodland, especially in the immediate aftermath of Dolores disappearance. And we were able to dive into what Dolores relatives, especially a group of cousins. They called themselves the Foot Soldiers. You've heard from them quite a bit already in this podcast series. Tony Rocha, Debbie Baker, namely, and some others as well, who were involved. And what they did to Carl Wolf as the official investigation was taking place, moving kind of slowly as it does sometimes, those cousins and that family are. Were not willing to sit idly and just let this thing play out. And as we explore in the episode, there were some meetings, there were some potential violent actions that were discussed, but ultimately not taken. Although I would argue, Kyle, that some of the things that Dolores family did to Carl Wolf or just went right up to that line of physical violence. And this is certainly something that we wanted to feature in this project and. And this episode. We certainly did.