In short
Podcast Notes: 48 Hours - A Crime Before Christmas
Episode Overview
- Release Date: March 9, 2013
- Description: The episode recounts the harrowing events of December 22, 1990, when sisters Linae and Tricia Tiede were held hostage at their family cabin in Utah. The episode highlights the tragic loss of their mother, father, and grandmother, and emphasizes the heroic actions of their father, Rolf, which ultimately led to the sisters' survival.
Key Themes Family and Community
- The Tiede family cabin, described as "Tita's Tranquility," symbolizes peace and togetherness until it becomes a site of horror.
- Community support plays a critical role post-tragedy, with relatives stepping in to offer emotional support.
Survival and Heroism
- Rolf Tiede's bravery is central to the sisters' survival as he confronts the intruders.
- The siblings exhibit resilience and courage, demonstrating a strong bond throughout their ordeal.
Crime and Justice
- The episode delves into the investigation of the crime, the complexities surrounding it, and the eventual prosecution of the assailants.
- Discussion of the judicial outcomes, including the differing sentences of the two perpetrators, explores themes of justice and accountability.
Key Events
- Initial Encounter: The sisters and their family are attacked by two armed intruders upon arriving at the cabin.
- Brutal Assault: The episode describes the violent confrontation, resulting in the deaths of their mother and grandmother and serious injuries to Rolf.
- Escape: Linae and Tricia manage to escape from the cabin on snowmobiles, navigating a treacherous situation.
- Police Response: A high-speed chase ensues, leading to the arrest of the suspects thanks to the quick actions of law enforcement.
- Trial and Sentencing: The trials of the suspects, Vaughn Taylor and Edward Dele, showcase the legal complexities and emotional challenges faced by the Tiede family.
Key Takeaways
- Impact of Trauma: The sisters recount their struggle with grief and trauma in the years following the events, highlighting the emotional toll on survivors.
- Forgiveness and Healing: Linae's journey towards forgiving Dele is presented as a pivotal moment in her healing process, demonstrating personal empowerment.
- Legacy of Loss: The narrative emphasizes the significance of remembering lost loved ones while continuing to celebrate life and family traditions.
Complexities of Crime
- The episode discusses the motivations and backgrounds of the perpetrators, presenting them not merely as "monsters" but as individuals with troubled pasts who made devastating choices.
- The legal intricacies of determining culpability highlight the challenges faced by investigators and prosecutors.
Conclusion The episode encapsulates themes of horror, survival, and the quest for justice while providing a platform for the Tiede sisters to share their story. It serves as a reminder of the resilience of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable adversity and the importance of community support in healing. The legacy of loss and pain transforms into a narrative of strength and continued life, as the family rebuilds and honors those they lost.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:10My family owns a beautiful cabin in Oakley, Utah.
0:18The sound of the river, the horses that are down in the pasture, the birds. It's absolutely heaven on earth to me.
0:34My mom had given it a name, Tita's Tranquility, because of the serenity and peace. The cabin was an awesome place to go to. As a young child, I loved going up there, bringing aunts and uncles and cousins.
0:52The cabin was about two and a half miles off the road. You have to snowmobile in during the wintertime. It was an escape from the world for our family. It was winter of 1990. I was 20 years old, and my little sister was 16. It was Christmas time. We're off for the holidays. There's a large Christmas tree with lots of gifts around it. I have great memories of spending Christmas with my mom and dad. My mom even had our Christmas stockings hung under the fireplace mantel, ready for Santa to come. Three days before Christmas, our family had to finish up our Christmas shopping and head back up to our family cabin.
1:41My mom and Grams and I arrived at the cabin first, and my hands were freezing.
1:51It was a bitter cold winter that year. I asked my mom to hurry and unlock the door. I needed to run in and run my hands under some water, and I would be right back down to help her. I got to the top of the stairs and saw a gray flash go behind the refrigerator. And the first thought that popped in my mind was, oh, a cousin's here already, and was going to jump out and say, boo. It didn't turn out that way. Behind the refrigerator came a frizzy-headed man in a gray sweatshirt with his pistol pointed at me. I assumed that he would want to just rob us and be on his way. As soon as my mom came to the top of the stairs, out from the back bedroom, another robber with thick Coke bottle glasses on was pointing a gun at my mother.
2:48My mom was saying to him, what is it you want? Why are you here? I'll give you anything. Seconds after she had said that, gunfire started imploding, exploding, explosion from everywhere. I saw my mom go down. I turned at that point and looked over my shoulder to my grams and saw her get shot in the head and blood spray everywhere. I heard her gasp for some breath, and then it was just dead silence. I felt pretty certain that they were dead. My thoughts were turned to knowing that within minutes my dad and sister would be coming. I can remember hearing snowmobiles coming in the distance and my heart sinking to my gut, knowing that that was my dad and sister.
4:03It felt like slow motion and quick all at once.
4:11I can remember the screams and Grahams falling off the stool and my mom reaching over her chest saying, I've been shot.
4:28I started to plan ahead. I knew that there was a car. I knew my dad left the car keys underneath the mat. If I got these men out of the cabin and into the car, my dad and my sister would be safe. As the noise of the snowmobiles became closer, the man in the gray sweatshirt grabbed me from behind, around the neck, put his gun to my back. Dad and I arrived at the cabin and as soon as we got off the snowmobiles, a man jumped out from the garage with a full ski mask on and a gun and demanded that we come inside right away.
5:11Don't move, don't move. Don't move, don't do anything. My dad could see tears in my eyes and it was an unspoken communication and he knew at that point that something awful had happened to Mom and Grams. The men asked my dad if he had any money. He reached into his pockets and pulled out what he had and threw it down to the ground.
5:39The man in the Coke bottle glasses was instructed by the other to shoot my dad. He pulled back the hammer. I heard it. And he refused to fire. So then the other man restraining my sister pulled his gun out, pointed it at my dad, pulled the trigger once, click, no fire, twice, click, no fire. And then the third one went off. That blast was so close I could feel it. I had no doubt in my mind that he was dead just like mom and grams
6:27I was terrified to just think that the trauma would not stop it kept going
6:38didn't make any sense to me I had no idea what was happening or why
6:45These men that were in the cabin, I knew that they had been there for a while. There was food eaten, there was Christmas presents open. It wasn't just that we walked in and startled them or scared them, they had actually waited for our family to return home. Their plan was to destroy their evidence and burn it to the ground. There was always gas cans full of gas for the snowmobiles. They immediately got busy doing things. They poured gas everywhere and set the cabin on fire. I can remember hearing the smoke alarms going off as the fire was already blazing inside the cabin. There was a sense of urgency.
7:32They began telling us, we've got to hurry and load the snowmobiles and get out of here. I had this feeling inside of me that we needed to listen and do what they said until the moment came to where Lene and I could make our escape. My sister and I drove these awful men on the snowmobiles out of the cabin. I drove one man behind me and my sister drove the other man behind her. I had all kinds of different plans of how to wreck the snowmobile, how to throw him off into a tree, how to get rid of him.
8:08But all I could think of is I couldn't leave my sister.
8:14I can remember wanting to stay close enough that I could still see my sister. I felt a sense of security, knowing that she was still there.
8:31there was no one to help us there was nowhere to go we were in the middle of the mountains on snowmobiles
8:41we headed up to the main gate and saw my uncle Randy I seen the snowmobiles come up the trail two snowmobiles and I go oh look there's my nieces
9:01I knew it was the girls with two people on the back. And I go, wow, they got boyfriends. I walked over there and tried to greet them and say hi. And I waved my hands in there and they just drove by me. And I go, hmm, that's weird. That's not my nieces. They don't do that to me. I saw my uncle. My uncle pulled up and he waved at us and we just kind of looked at him and turned back. And the men said, who was that? Somebody that must live up here just being nice. I knew his life could be in danger. I knew if these men knew Randy was our uncle there, that they would have killed him.
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10:38We were up there in the mountains. There was no one around. It was just my sister and I and two men that were dangerous that had a gun. there was a feeling of being completely vulnerable once we arrived at the family car they had two guns each of them had a gun and the dark-headed man loaded his gun in the trunk and as he loaded his gun in the trunk he pulled his jacket open and he had a knife and he looked at because don't worry i'm just as good with a knife as i am a gun and then i seen the lincoln come out across the street. And I go, well, there they are again. I was walking up to the car as they were pulling out, and I was actually looking in the back, and I think I seen Linnea in the back.
11:28I waved my hands again. I go, stop.
11:34I knew that if we were to call out or plead for help or act like we knew Randy, that Randy would be shot as well. So he was waving his arms, and my sister and I just pretended we didn't know who he was. The car just drove right by me. I knew something's wrong. I don't think it was a minute. I seen another snowmobile come up with this person on it, and I look and I look and I go, well, he's no coat on, you know, no gloves, no helmet. And I go, wow, who is this? And I look, and I go, oh, my God, it's my brother, Rolf. And his face is just huge and full of blood and just big. His eyes swole shut, blood sickles, because it was cold.
12:24He was in really bad shape. And he says, I've been shot. My wife has been killed, and my daughters have been kidnapped. I start heading down the canyon as fast as I could. I'm in panic. Rolf's in the back, full of blood, laying on the back seat. 20 years ago, your cell service did not work up there whatsoever in that canyon. And I kept trying and trying and trying. There were two things on my mind. Save the girls, get him onto life flight. I come up to the back of the Lincoln. I know the girls are kidnapped. I know the guys have got guns in the car there. You know, I'm going, what do I do? Do I run them off the road?
13:10Still trying to call out on the mobile. You know, and my mobile kicked in. I got 911. She says, tell me what direction they're going. We got police, we got people in the area. I go, well, they're turning on the road, they're heading towards Camas. I go, I need a helicopter, and the phone went dead. I pulled in the gas station, went over to the pay phone, and got 911 back on the phone again. I go, guys, I need a helicopter now. We noticed a cop car pass us and turn around and begin to follow us. Both men began to panic. I remember looking over at the speedometers going over 90 miles an hour. We turned right down towards the canyon and went another mile or so and then fell.
14:01The car fell off an embankment. I remember looking up because the car was at an angle and noticing the entire road above us we came down was full of maybe a couple cops, mostly people in common clothes, drawn down with pistols and shotguns and rifles at us. And I just remember how amazed I was that there were so many people there so fast.
14:27There was cops pointing guns at me, and my little sister says, no, no, that's my sister. And I don't think they'd received information that there was even hostages in the car. I reached back for my sister's hand and grabbed her hand and said, duck. And we both ducked, and we were praying and just squeezing each other's hand. We have always had a connection, even as little children, a special connection where we couldn't feel each other. She's always been a great comfort to me.
15:01The suspects were taken from the vehicle
15:07and then were secured by officers who'd arrived at the scene. These guys are obviously cowards. As long as they were in total control of a situation by use of fear and force, then they continued to function. And when that control went away, that's when it stopped, and they surrendered to authorities. The men were down on their knees with their arms behind their neck, and the cops were yelling at them to get down, get down, and surrender. And I started to yell at the cops to kill them. I said, kill them. They just killed my mom, my dad, and my grams. Kill them. Shoot them now. Kill them. I remember a feeling of not necessarily being safe, but have survived.
15:59We're no longer in the custody of those two evil men. The helicopter showed up. They got Rolf out of the back of my blazer and got him into care, and he was in pretty bad shape, critical condition. and when it lifted off, I'm just praying that he makes it.
16:27I can't imagine what had been going through Dad's head after he'd been shot and then shot again. And he's laying there, playing dead, trying to breathe as shallow as possible. I later learned that Dad had actually been doused with gasoline and he caught on fire himself and he had to run into the shower and tear off his snowsuit while on fire. Having the strength to get on the snowmobile and race down that mountain to save my sister and I. How much blood he'd lost, how he couldn't see, getting down the mountain in freezing temperatures. My whole life my dad was my hero and that just put an exclamation point on that.
17:07My dad was the most amazing hero that I've ever known. beautiful, kind blue eyes. He was extremely kind and generous in every way.
17:21The number one concern in this particular case is rescuing anybody who might need assistance. Secondly is to preserve the evidence at the crime scene. One of the most significant pieces of evidence was a video camera. Inside the video camera was a videotape. We had no idea what might be recorded on that. So at a number of junctures in that film, I was saying, oh my God. Oh my God.
18:05Hundreds of crime scenes later, it still rakes right up there. You know, it's still very vivid to me.
18:17Probably when I got about maybe 10 feet from the door, I picked up a faint smell. It was kind of like burnt hair and maybe burnt fabric, like clothes burning. As I entered the garage, there was maybe a 12 to 18-inch puddle of blood that was fresh. As I started up the stairwell, I could see holes in the wall, bullet holes coming from one wall across the stairwell into the other wall. There was a blood smear on the wall. It looked like a bloody hand had wiped down the wall. And it almost looked like a mini-war zone. There was two bodies. I checked for a pulse, but I knew in my mind they was deceased.
19:25I actually walked into the smoke before I really realized that the top floor of that cabin was on fire.
19:35Then our mindset went to protecting the victim's property, because we thought the cabin was going to burn down.
19:47On top of the coffee table, there was a VCR camera and some tapes.
Read the full transcript
20:01There was a double funeral for my mother and grandmother. My grandmother's name's Beth Tidwell Potts.
20:11My mother's name is Kay Tidwell Tida.
20:18I remember just so many people and families that came to love us and help us feel their love and support. Aunt Claudia was my mom's older sister. When mom passed, Aunt Claudia stepped in letting us know that she was there and it gave us all a sense of that we weren't alone. I wanted to be there as much as I possibly could because they needed support. This was a horribly traumatizing thing for them and we were what they had left.
21:01Grams had a lot of energy. She was full of life. She was a very fun, vivacious, energetic, happy grandma. She would give me permanence in my hair and make it curly, awful.
21:22I remember mom called the aspen trees quakies. She loved the noise that the quaking aspen made in the wind. That was one of her fondest memories, and it is mine as well.
21:42My sister was one of the most devoted mothers that I have ever known. She would give up anything for her children. She was strong-willed, and they were strong-willed, and, you know, that relationship is not without conflict, but they always worked it out.
22:05The morning of the crime, I remember turning and walking over to give my mother a hug, as I always did. And she and I had gotten in a little argument earlier that morning over something silly. And she and I both looked at each other, and me at 16 years old, just turned and wasn't going to give her a hug. And I turned and walked the other way. and that's the last time I saw my mom alive.
22:50You tell me what's your justification for taking these lives and doing this to these people that you don't even know.
23:03When I watched the videotape that had been taken from the crime scene, I expected to see pictures of family talking, playing games, doing what family folks do. But as it turns out, there were the two suspects. I don't know. They were opening the family's Christmas presents. Oh, wow. What is it? Baseball card. I remember thinking of the pure malice and hate that these men must have.
23:46What heartless jerks. Why would you do this to our family? The two men were in their early to mid-20s. Both spent time at Utah State Penitentiary. Vaughn Taylor had been previously convicted of an aggravated burglary. What I gather is he was a normal kid, a very normal and decent family, but that at some point he got into some conflict with the law. I don't think I got all of this. I'm not aware of a violent history on Mr. Edward Dele. He had been convicted of an arson.
24:30They'd been released from the penitentiary to a halfway house facility. So apparently they were given the ability to go out and look for employment. At that point they just absconded. I later learned that these men had hitchhiked their way up there and chose that area because one of the men had family that had a cabin in the area. They'd robbed several cabins and eventually came to our cabin because they knew we were there. They wanted to find a way to get a vehicle and get out of the country. They waited for us all night long to return.
25:16This might appear to be a slam dunk case to some folks, but from an investigator's point of view, it was very complicated and very complex.
25:28Sure, it's not a whodunit.
25:33There's no question who committed the crimes, but being able to determine what criminal act each suspect committed, that was a challenge.
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26:31Vaughn Taylor and Ed Dehle very much each took their own separate part in murdering my mom and Grams. I do not feel one man in any way shape or form was more responsible.
26:46They were charged with the murders, the aggravated kidnapping, the arsons, the high-speed chase.
26:57I don't remember the exact number, but in addition to the murders, there were something like eight to ten felonies and some misdemeanors. I wanted them both to be sentenced to the death penalty. I wanted both of them to know that they were going to die.
27:20Approximately five months after these crimes, Vaughn Taylor pleaded guilty to two counts of capital murder, and the state dropped all of the other charges against him in exchange for that plea. I believe Taylor pled guilty to his crime because there was so much cold evidence against him that that was all that he could plea was guilty. Taylor was an evil man. He had no remorse, no regard for life whatsoever. You could see it in his eyes. You could see it in his countenance. from the moment we saw him to the last time we saw him in court. He just had this air about him of anger and zero remorse.
28:04Taylor opted to go to sentencing in front of a jury instead of in front of a judge. The jury sentenced him to a death sentence for both murders. So he has two death sentences. I felt relieved that Taylor would be put to death for his crime. Justice had been served.
28:35Short period of time after that, a couple of weeks I believed, and Mr. Dele went to trial. We were as prepared, if not maybe even a little bit more prepared, to go into the DELI trial as we were with the Vaughn Taylor trial.
29:04I felt a great burden. and I felt like they practically wanted me to be able to see the bullets coming out of the guns, that they expected me to point the exact gun in the direction of every bullet and where it hit at any given moment.
29:27I actually just had a whole epiphany of new thoughts come to that, that I don't think that that was helpful for a victim to have to put a weapon that they watched their family murdered with to even have to touch it. What is the point? The weapons were already on the table. Why would I have to touch it? Those trials are somewhat of a blur to me. I was 16 years old, and I wanted to go back and live that life I loved and not having to relive a nightmare. Delia's lawyer argued that he didn't do any of the shooting. These men were guilty. They committed a crime. They needed to be punished, and we needed to move on.
30:16Lene and Trish Tita were excellent witnesses. They were very sure about the things they had seen, and very articulate, able to relate these very, very sensational things in an unemotional way. So they were extremely valuable witnesses. But we had another survivor of the case.
30:40Mr. T just survived the assault and the attack. Incredible guy. I remember sitting and watching the look on Deli's face as he came in seeing my father. And it was very apparent to me that he did not know my father had survived. And the look on his face was just priceless. Like, he had been defeated. My dad survived. We won. He's lucky that they used the wrong gun when they shot him. They used birdshot. Very ineffective. They didn't know that. You know, I think his odds of having made it and survived an incident like that are probably one in 1 ,000. He was kind of an ace in the hole, and he brought the prosecution together in an outstanding way.
31:32I expected Edward Delly to be convicted of first-degree murder. The case had been thoroughly investigated, and the prosecutor's office had done an excellent job.
32:01I heard the verdict came out, second degree murder with life imprisonment, and I never really understood that. I said, something's wrong. It can only be them that did this. How can he be not sentenced to death? Daly was not convicted of first degree murder. He was convicted of second degree murder, and a death sentence was no longer an option. once that conviction came in. Edward Daly received second-degree murder instead of first-degree due to one jury member deciding to hold out.
32:42I felt like the courts did an injustice to our family. I felt like that he deserved to be on death row as well, just like Taylor. Daly murdered, Taylor murdered.
33:04This was such a horrific experience for everybody here that I think we all didn't know what to say or buried it inside to where we didn't talk about this a lot. I went through periods of anger and frustration and not understanding why. and for years and years that follow I'd cry in silence. I spent a good 10 years hiding that pain and suppressing that pain. I went through trying to find happiness in areas where happiness doesn't exist. I went through fear, fear of putting my heart out there, fear of loving someone or letting someone love me that they would abandon me. I believe it was 2001 I received a letter from Delhi.
33:56I thought about it for many, many years and would go to write him a letter and it just never felt right.
34:12It took me over nine years to respond to Delhi's letter. I held on to the letter and I reread it probably 20, 30 times. I was just very careful and guarded with my feelings. I basically wanted to get a feel if he was truly sorry. Deli has shared with me that he has grown into a man, not the same evil boy that committed the crime. I believe that I gained my freedom back for myself by choosing to forgive Deli. For me, forgiving does not mean forgetting. I do not believe Edwardelli has a place outside of prison, but when I came to the place of forgiveness, I felt a tremendous burden, relief off my shoulders.
35:18I felt free. Lene is flawed perfection.
35:33Linda and I have been married a little over three years now. She's my best friend. She's everything to me. There is something in her eyes that is just, it's like pure. And she's as flawed as the rest of us, but she has this innocence that still is there that I just love. Nathan changed my life by opening his heart and sharing his true self and giving me the freedom to do the same. I have four kids and five beautiful stepkids. And I just feel like it's a beautiful start of a new beginning.
36:20For me to be a survivor has become a beautiful gift. I believe that I can share it with others.
36:41After the cabin had burnt, we went and rebuilt it and made it even better than it was before.
36:52I can remember my dad, he would say this to me quite often. He would say, Lene, I know lightning strikes. He says, but lightning never strikes twice in the same location. And I would find great peace in that.
37:13Sometimes, if I ever would have fear, I would just hear my dad say, Hey, Lene, you're going to be safe. It's fabulous. We love it there. We need to do a hike before I go down. We actually go up there and enjoy family and friends, and we play and we relax and we bond. They're not going to take away from us the things that we love and we enjoy in our life. They took our mom, they took our grams, but that's where it ends. The cabin's magical. The cabin is healing.
37:51When my father was diagnosed with cancer, our whole family came together, and that last six to eight weeks of his life were so absolutely incredible. He pulled me aside, spent about an hour and a half with me, just me and him, and probably gave me one of the greatest compliments I had in my life.
38:20And I'm still just a touch uneasy about it. That he knew Lene would be okay and that he could go... because he knew I would take care of her.
38:40When my father passed, it was very peaceful. I had the privilege of being right by his side as he took his last breaths, and his spirit has never left me. Anytime I need my dad, he's there. He comes in some of the most unique and special times. I very much still feel that my father is there. I have two beautiful little girls, and when I look into their eyes, I see both my mother and my father in everything that's loving and pure. I have an awesome life. I love my life now. I wouldn't say that the incident in 1990 defines me, but I would say it's helped make me who I am today. Can you hear the wind blowing through the trees?
39:34Can you hear the wind when it's talking to the leaves? I think my sister would be absolutely delighted if she looked down to see the healing that Lene and Trisha have gone through and what they've done with their lives. Let the wind blow Let the wind let it tell you where to go I feel very much so that this experience has changed me as a person. And I choose that it's a part of who I am. It's my life story. Because there's always demons behind every door. And if you let the wind blow, then the demons ain't there no more than let the wind. What we experienced together, that created a bond that obviously I couldn't have with anybody else.
40:30And I'm glad that we were there together. And I couldn't ask for more. Let the wind blow, let the wind blow. Just don't let the wind, don't let it blow you down.
From the publisher
On December 22, 1990, sisters Linae and Tricia Tiede were held hostage by two men when their family was spending Christmas at their Utah cabin. Their mother, father, and grandmother were shot and the two men planned to burn the house down. The sisters owe their survival to their heroic father, Rolf.
This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 3/9/2013. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+.
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