One Foot Out The Door (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

0:00Just after 7 p.m. on June 16, 2010, an employee at the Palmdale, California Sheriff's Department tapped his fingers on the desk inside. The department was usually pretty busy, but this night had been very slow, and so the shift was totally dragging. But as the employee aimlessly moved around some paperwork and shifted in his seat, he suddenly heard something that made him look up. The sound was coming from outside the front doors, and it was muffled, but it sounded like somebody yelling. And then seconds later, a young woman charged through the front doors. She was frantically screaming for help, and she was covered in blood.

0:34But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, on the next really hot day, please offer the follow button a nice ice-cold lemonade, but only offer them a soggy, crumpled-up paper straw to drink it with. Okay, let's get into today's story.

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2:16Around 9.30 a.m. on June 16, 2010, a 29-year-old woman named Lanelle Barsock lay in bed in her house in Palmdale, California. It was a Wednesday, and Lanelle had the day off from her job at a health center in Los Angeles. But she didn't really have time to relax, because she was also a college student. She was working on becoming a registered nurse, and she knew she had to get up and go study. But she just didn't feel like it. Plus, she could hear her boyfriend, Louis, moving around in the kitchen downstairs. And just knowing Louis was down there was another reason to stay put. So, Linnell and Lewis had been together for about four years.

2:51They'd met in college and immediately hit it off. Now, they own this house together. A five-bedroom home that they had scraped together all their savings to make a down payment on. At the beginning of their relationship, Linnell and Lewis had been completely in love and on the same page about building a life together. But, over time, Lewis had become this incredibly jealous and possessive person that was just really volatile. and it really just kind of scared Linnell and was beginning to drive her away. And then, just a few months ago, they'd gotten into this huge screaming fight when he had heard her talking to another guy on the phone.

3:25That fight had gotten so bad that she had tried to drive away, but Lewis had literally chased her in his truck, which led to both of them crashing. Even now, as she laid in bed months later, Linnell still felt traumatized by that whole thing. They had eventually made up, but it was hard to look at Louis in the same way. It was like she couldn't see a future with him anymore. All she saw now was this volatile, controlling guy. And so lately, Linnell was seriously considering ending things with him. But just then, Linnell's phone buzzed on the nightstand, interrupting her thoughts. It was a message from her friend Lorraine asking if she was up.

4:02And as soon as she saw it, Linnell just kind of sighed because she actually had forgotten that she had plans with Lorraine, who would offer to do Linnell's hair that day. So, resigned, she texted Lorraine to come on over, then Lanelle got out of bed. About 30 minutes later, Lanelle sat on a bar stool and ate breakfast at the kitchen island with Louis. The stools were actually some of the only furniture in the whole house. It had already been a year since they'd moved in, but Lanelle so far had not had time to decorate. As she ate, Lanelle tried to keep her chit-chat with Louis to a minimum. They'd been fighting so much lately that she didn't want to accidentally start an argument.

4:39But Lanell was a naturally bubbly and talkative person, and so just sitting here being quiet was kind of awkward. So she was actually relieved when she heard the front door open and her friend Lorraine walked in. Lanell smiled. Lorraine lived right in Palmdale, and so it was nice for Lanell to have a friend so close by. The rest of Lanell's friends and family were in L.A., about an hour and a half away. Lorraine walked over and gave Lanell a hug, and the two of them began talking while Louis got ready to leave. He was going to have his truck worked on actually by Lorraine's boyfriend, who lived near LA, and would do the work for a low price.

5:14It was a long drive, but it was worth it for the savings. Louis ultimately left without even saying goodbye. And then at that point, Lorraine worked on Linnell's hair, while Linnell vented about Louis and how tense things had gotten. And just talking about everything actually made her feel better, even though she had no idea how she was actually going to solve any of these big problems in her relationship. But about an hour later, Lanelle suddenly heard tires screech into the driveway outside. Seconds later, Lewis burst into the house looking absolutely furious. He was holding a cell phone above his head and waving it around in the air.

5:50And Lanelle immediately recognized this phone. Because it was her secret phone that she'd actually gotten from her other boyfriend. That guy she'd been talking to on the phone with the day she and Lewis got in that big fight about it that ended with the car crash? Well, the truth was, you know, Lewis had a reason to be upset because she was talking to another guy who she was involved with. It was this other boyfriend. That other boyfriend's name was Ike, and Linnell had met him about four months ago on a dating website. Both of them were seeking careers in nursing, and they had a ton in common.

6:22Ike was also way calmer, more successful, and more motivated than Lewis. He lived over 300 miles away in Northern California, but whenever he had time off and Lewis wasn't home, he came down to Palmdale to see Lanelle. On the day of Lanelle and Lewis's huge fight, Lanelle had promised Lewis that she would never talk to Ike again. But that had been a lie, and now Lewis had caught her. And so Lewis started yelling, demanding to know if Lanelle was still cheating on him, and Lanelle felt her heart start racing. The last time Lewis had gotten like this, their fight ended with a literal car crash. She didn't want that to happen again, so she decided the best way to handle this was to just remove herself from this situation.

7:03So she just walked over and grabbed the secret phone out of Louis' hand and then ran out the door with Lorraine while Louis kept on screaming at her. Lanelle and Lorraine jumped into Lanelle's car and sped out of the neighborhood. Lanelle couldn't stop shaking because she knew Louis was furious and she didn't really know what was going to happen next. and so she and Lorraine decided that they would just go kill some time by going to a beauty store to get some more products, and hopefully by the time they got home, Louis would be gone. The two of them got to the store around noon. Lanelle and Lorraine went inside, and Lanelle walked around the aisles grabbing products.

7:39Her heart was still hammering in her chest, and when she checked out at the counter, she found herself just staring into space, trying her best to, you know, not think about Louis, but she couldn't help herself. But by the time she actually had her products paid for and put in a bag, She was starting to calm down just a little bit. Then she headed outside with Lorraine. However, as soon as she stepped out of the shop, she gasped. Because right there on the sidewalk was Louis. He was waiting for her. Louis demanded to know if she was still seeing Ike. And at first, Lanelle was just super defensive, like she always was when they fought.

8:12But as Louis continued to rant and accuse her, her head just started to pound. And then suddenly, it was like all of her fear and stress about this relationship just disappeared. This weird sense of calm came over her, and she knew this was it. This was the last straw. She was done, and she just wanted Louis out of her life. So she exhaled, handed Louis her second phone, and then just stormed back over to the car with Lorraine. About 15 minutes later, Linnell parked her car in the driveway at home. When she'd gotten into her car and driven away, she'd thought that maybe she had lost Louis, and she'd hoped that he had just driven somewhere far away to cool down.

8:52But apparently, that hadn't happened, because his truck was parked right outside the house, which meant Louis was inside, waiting for her. Linnell wanted to scream. She glanced at Lorraine, who just reached over and squeezed her hand, trying to give her a bit of encouragement. Then, Linnell just took a deep breath. She knew what she was doing with Ike was wrong, but she was sick of all the fights, and of Louis trying to control everything about her. I mean, the relationship had died months ago, she just needed to end it now, officially. She wished she had more time to plan out how to do this, but after today, she felt like she had no choice.

9:26She just had to go in there and tell him this was done. So, Linnell got out of her car and headed towards the house.

9:38Over six hours later, around 6.45 p.m., Linnell's friend Lorraine was staring down at her silent cell phone and starting to feel nervous. Lanelle hadn't called her after whatever final fight she had had with Louis, and Lorraine had a bad feeling about the whole thing. She knew that Louis and Lanelle's fights had the possibility of getting completely out of hand. I mean, they had before. So now, Lorraine was back at Lanelle's house, just making sure her friend was okay. But as she walked through the living room, she noticed their house was unnaturally quiet. Louis was not there, and it didn't seem like Lanelle was there either.

10:14That morning, Lorraine had been afraid, you know, when Louis was chasing them all around town, and now she was starting to get that same nervous sense that maybe Louis was nearby, about to spring out at her. But she told herself to just settle down and focus. However, when she passed by the laundry room, she felt this wave of panic so intense come over her that she had to grasp the wall just to steady herself. Because there, on the laundry room floor, was a pile of bloody towels. And then beyond the laundry room, there was a door that led into the garage and it was partially open. And so Lorraine was very nervous, but still she felt like she had to investigate.

10:49And so she walked over to the door and she pushed it all the way open. Now it was dark in the garage, so she couldn't see much. And so she just stepped forward. And when she did, she stepped onto this plastic bag that was slick and it caused her to trip and fall to the ground. And then when she looked at what she had fallen in, she realized it was blood. She stood up as quick as she could and then just stood there staring at the garage, like waiting for movement, but there was no one in there. And then as her eyes slowly adjusted, she saw Lanelle's car. It had been backed into the garage and was now sitting there with its trunk open.

11:22And when she looked at the ground by its back wheels, she saw something sticking out from behind the car. And the longer she stared at it, the more the image clarified. It was a pair of feet. At this point, Lorraine turned and ran.

11:38A few minutes later, Lorraine sped into the parking lot at the Palmdale Sheriff's Department. Once she parked, she stumbled out of her car and began running towards the front doors. Once she got inside, she charged up to the employee at the front desk and just started yelling about how there was blood, so much blood, and how she had slipped in it when she tried to find her friend and her friend was just lying there and she knew she wasn't making a lot of sense, but it was like it was impossible to think. Finally, though, she was able to calm down enough that she just blurted out, my friend Linnell was murdered.

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12:52Later that night, around 11 p.m., two homicide detectives stood in the driveway of Linnell's home, looking up at the two-story house. Their names were Bob Kenny and Joe Espino, and they were veteran detectives who worked together all the time. They'd come all the way from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homicide Bureau, which meant they'd just driven about an hour and a half to get to Palmdale. But this actually wasn't out of the ordinary. Detective Kenny had been called to Palmdale more than a few times to investigate homicides there. Palmdale had gotten safer in recent years, but the murder rate was still higher than both the state and the national average.

13:27But as Kenny looked at his surroundings, this trip to Palmdale felt different. They were in an upscale neighborhood, and the house they were standing in front of looked nice. The detectives walked inside, and right away, Kenny noticed that the front door was undamaged, and a uniformed police officer who was standing in the entryway told them that there were no signs of forced entry at the back door either. Kenny had already been briefed that this home was owned by a 29-year-old woman named Linnell Barsock, who was found dead in her garage by a friend right after what sounded like a pretty intense fight with her boyfriend.

14:00Linnell shared the home with that boyfriend, Louis Bonaire, and Louis was nowhere to be found. So to Kenny, this was starting to look like a pretty straightforward case. Romantic partners, especially angry ones, were always the first suspects, and the fact that Lewis had apparently taken off made him look even more suspicious. There were already officers out canvassing the neighborhood and calling Lewis's friends and family trying to track him down. The uniformed officer led Kenny and Espino through the house towards the garage. As they walked, Kenny noted the strange emptiness of all the rooms.

14:35Some didn't even have furniture in them. But this didn't feel like robbers had come in and removed all the furniture. It just sort of seemed like the house was vacant. And on top of that, there really were no signs of robbery in general. I mean, the TV was there and nothing had been rifled through, but Kenny was more struck by the fact that there was so little to steal in the first place. To get to the garage, the detectives had to pass through a laundry room, and when he stepped inside that area, Detective Kenny saw bloody towels everywhere and smears of blood on the floor. It was immediately obvious that whoever had killed Linnell had tried and failed to clean up their mess.

15:12When Kenny and Espino stepped into the garage, they found there was a car there that had been backed in and had its trunk open. Next to it on the ground were more bloody towels along with large plastic sheets, and most of them were shoved to the side and in a big pile. But there was some bloody plastic sheeting that was up by the door to the laundry room where they were standing. Detective Kenny stepped into the garage around the bloody towels to the far side of the car, where he saw a pair of feet on the floor. It was Lanelle. Her face was covered by a black plastic bag, and so Detective Kenny knelt down and peeled back the plastic.

15:46He found her face and head were covered in blood, and when he tipped her head to the side, he saw the source, a bullet hole right in the back of her skull. He wondered if the killer had wrapped her head in plastic to try to, you know, clean up or contain the blood, or if they had felt some kind of remorse and couldn't bear to look at Lanelle's face. Detective Kenny stood and moved over to the trunk of the car. When he looked inside, he saw that it was full of garbage bags, which were packed with bloody sheets and bedding. It looked like the killer must have been trying to put all this evidence into the car and drive away with it, except they hadn't actually done that.

16:22Instead, they left the car behind along with everything else, which just didn't make any sense. Kenny wondered if maybe something like, you know, the arrival of Linnell's friend, Lorraine, had interrupted the killer before they could escape. But just then, a deputy stuck his head in the garage and excitedly told the detectives that they'd just found something. Moments later, detectives Kenny and Espino were standing in the kitchen. They were leaning over a piece of paper that lay on the floor, right beside a yellow evidence marker the crime scene text had placed. This piece of paper had messy handwriting on it.

16:55Kenny made sure it was photographed before he picked it up with his gloved hand to look closer. It was a letter, signed by Linnell, and addressed to Lewis, her boyfriend. The letter said she was leaving him for her other boyfriend, Ike. At this, Kenny raised his eyebrows. The missing boyfriend, Lewis, was already suspect number one, and this note certainly gave him a motive for murder. But it also gave Kenny a second suspect, this other boyfriend. Ike. Maybe, he thought, this case was going to be more complicated than he first expected. He looked around at the bare kitchen and the empty rooms beyond it, and it looked to him like neither of the people living in the house had actually committed to settling in and staying together.

17:37Linnell apparently had one foot out the door already. As he read the note one more time, Kenny wondered what other secrets his victim might have been keeping.

17:50Detectives Kenny and Espino were still on scene when a uniformed officer came to tell them that they had gotten the lead on the missing boyfriend, Louis. Apparently, he had gone to Los Angeles, and he often stayed at Lanell's mom's house when he was there, since the drive back to Palmdale was so long. It was the middle of the night by this point, but that didn't matter. Kenny dispatched an LA police officer to wait outside of Lanell's mother's house as backup, and then he dialed the phone number for Lanelle's mom. After a few rings, a woman answered. When Detective Kenny introduced himself, she confirmed she was Lanelle's mother, Bobby Barsock.

18:26She sounded concerned and asked what was going on, but Kenny didn't tell her. Instead, he needed to speak to Louis. His decision not to explain himself was strategic. Neither Bobby nor Louis had been told explicitly that Linnell was dead, and Detective Kenny wanted to hold back that information for as long as possible. When he talked to Lewis, he wanted to see if Lewis would act confused, which would be the natural reaction if you really hadn't done anything, or if he would behave like a guilty person who knew exactly why the police were calling him in the middle of the night. Detective Kenny heard Bobby hand over the phone, and then a man came on the line and said he was Lewis.

19:06And right away, Lewis said, this is about Linnell. When Kenny finished the phone call a few minutes later, he was feeling good because now he had a definite number one suspect. Lewis had brought up Linnell without being told she was dead. And then he had been surprisingly cooperative when Kenny responded by giving him no information at all and just told him to go outside and get into the squad car in front of the house that's waiting for him. To Kenny, it seemed like Louis had been waiting for this call, and maybe even feeling guilty. He thought of the plastic that had been pulled over Linnell's face, like whoever had killed her couldn't bear to look at what they had done.

19:44After Kenny had told Louis over the phone to go get into the squad car, he had spoken to Linnell's mom, Bobby Barsock, again. And when he told her that her daughter was dead, Bobby just wailed in anguish into the phone. And then eventually, she told Kenny how controlling and jealous Lewis was, and she said she was coming to the sheriff's department to talk to them too. It would take more than an hour and a half for Lewis and Bobby to get to Palmdale, but that was fine by Kenny. He and his partner still needed to go talk to their first eyewitness, the friend Lorraine, who had reported the murder in the first place, was waiting for them at the sheriff's department.

20:21Around 6 a.m., Detectives Kenny and Espino walked through the same sheriff's department doors that Lorraine had burst through 11 hours earlier, saying that she had found her friend dead. Lorraine had already told her story to uniformed officers, but Kenny wanted to hear her story directly. He had read her statement, and it was clear that she had been in a state of pure panic when she had first arrived at the department. When Kenny and his partner walked into the interview room and sat down across from Lorraine, Kenny thought she seemed a lot calmer than her statement made her out to be, although she did still have blood in her clothes and looked exhausted and clearly shaken up.

20:56He started slowly, with general questions about her relationship to Lanelle. Lorraine said they were really good friends, and they hung out a few times a week, since they lived so close to each other. Then she went over what had happened the day before, how she'd gone to Lanelle's that morning to do her hair, but then Lanelle and Louis had gotten into a big fight, and he, Louis, had ended up chasing them all around town. Lorraine said that she and Lanelle had gone back to Lanelle's house at about 12.30pm, and Louis was there waiting for them. She said that she decided to leave and give the couple some space.

21:28Lorraine said the couple's fighting was typical, and that whole relationship honestly was toxic. But this fight in particular did seem worse, because Lanelle was cheating on Louis with a man named Ike, and Louis had found out about it. Kenny and Espino looked at each other. This information lined up exactly with that letter they had found at the scene. Lorraine said after she had left Lanelle's, she had gone to a nearby park, and there she just waited to hear from Linnell. But by early evening, she still had not heard, and she was starting to get worried. So around 6.45 p.m., she went back to Linnell's to make sure her friend was okay, and that's when she found Linnell's body.

22:07As Lorraine told this part of the story, her calm affect changed and she became much more emotional. Lorraine looked down at her stained clothes and just began to cry. Detective Kenny pushed a box of tissues across the table. He felt for Lorraine because no matter what, it was a trauma she would carry for the rest of her life to have found her friend dead. But there was one thing about her story that just kind of didn't sit right, and that was Lorraine's claim that she had been sitting in the park for five hours just waiting for her friend to call her back or text her. Kenny wasn't sure he believed that.