Open Door Policy (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

0:00In the fall of 2009, a very anxious college student was sitting inside of a crowded lecture hall in Southern California, listening to his professor give a talk, when suddenly the doors to the building opened up and in walked three campus police along with a man in a suit. And so everybody goes quiet, the professor as well, and these men, they walk down to the front and they whisper something to the professor. At which point, the professor, who looks confused himself, he goes to the podium, and he leans into the mic, and he looks up at the anxious college student. And the professor just says, they want to talk to you.

0:37But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place because that's all we do. So if that's of interest to you, please invite the follow button to come with you on a fun, long road trip. And at some point, when you're out on the road, when the follow button has to use the bathroom, pull over to a rest stop and let them out. But then before they come back out again, just leave. Okay, let's get into today's story.

1:22The story of Southern New Hampshire University started in 1932 above a small storefront. Almost a century later, SNHU offers over 200 degree programs online. There are no set class times, so learning fits around your schedule, and courses are career-focused to help strengthen your skills. But the best part of the story? SNHU's online tuition rates are some of the lowest in the entire country. This could be your next chapter. Visit snhu.edu slash Mr. Ballin today. Auto insurance should not be one-size-fits-all, especially for people whose lives definitely aren't. That's why USAA Auto Insurance offers coverage designed for the military and their eligible families.

2:05When your life demands precision, USAA gets the details right, like helping you find savings on auto insurance when you switch. Visit usaa.com slash auto quote to see how much you could save. Membership eligibility and product restrictions apply and are subject to change. USAA means United Services Automobile Association and its affiliates, San Antonio, Texas. On the morning of Thursday, October 22, 2009, a 41-year-old man named Damon Nicholson opened the double doors to a hotel ballroom in Laguna Beach, California. Damon was an event planner at the hotel, and today he was giving a tour to a recently engaged couple who wanted to use the space for their wedding.

2:46So event planning was like the perfect job for Damon because he loved a good party and he'd always been great with people. And in fact, by the time he'd shown this couple the ballroom and then led them out onto the veranda to show off the hotel's amazing beachfront views, they were all chatting and laughing like they were longtime friends. And the couple was now dead set on using this space. Just then, Damon felt a cell phone buzz in his pocket. So he politely excused himself, he stepped away, and when he pulled his phone out, he saw he had gotten a text message from a college student who he had just recently begun dating.

3:22The guy's name was Alan Caulfield. And Alan was texting Damon just to make sure they were still on for their date that night. After reading this message, Damon found himself not really sure how to respond. After all, I mean, right now, he was feeling really tired. because the night before, he had been out late, having a good time, and actually the night before that as well, he'd been out late. So he's like really tired from all the partying he was doing. Laguna Beach was known for having this really big gay community, and Damon liked to date around quite a bit. He'd grown up in a much more conservative family, and his sexual orientation had always been a source of a lot of pain in his life.

3:59But here, in Laguna Beach, he felt fully accepted and free, and he was really enjoying his life. But his lifestyle could also get kind of wild sometimes with partying so hard. And like, he even got involved in some of these anonymous group sex parties. I mean, he really was just living it up. And in fact, this week, in addition to being tired from all the partying he had been doing, also all this staying out late and partying had gotten him behind on his work. And so in seeing this text from Alan, he's thinking, not only physically do I sort of feel depleted and don't really feel up for another night of that, but also like I really need to be responsible and like do my work tonight.

4:41But he really liked Alan. He didn't want to give off the impression that, you know, he wasn't interested. And so he ultimately was like, you know what, I'll go out with him. So Damon just sent a text confirming the date back to Alan. And then he put the phone back in his pocket and walked over and continued the tour. Later that same night, around 10 p.m., Damon stood on the porch of his first-floor apartment, watching Alan's car pull away from the curb. They'd spent a few fun hours together, but Damon had actually cut the night short. He had really enjoyed, you know, having his time with Alan, but even though it was late, he did need to get some work done, and so he figured that's what he would do before going to bed.

5:22So Damon watched Alan's car disappear around the corner, and he turned and went back inside of his apartment, leaving the sliding glass door open just a few inches. Then he walked over and sat down on the couch. He opened up his laptop and it took him a minute to sort of get focused again. But once he did, he got in the zone and he sort of lost track of time. And he'd been working for a while when he heard footsteps out on the porch outside. And he looked up just as the door slid open. At 2.30 p.m. the next day, a woman named Lindsay Scott got out of her car and walked over to Damon's apartment.

5:59Lindsay worked with Damon at the hotel, and she was worried because he hadn't shown up to work that morning. So now, after calling him multiple times with no response, Lindsay had decided to just go over to Damon's place and just check on him during her break. As she stepped onto the porch, Lindsay saw the sliding glass door leading into Damon's apartment was open. But Lindsay actually was not that surprised because she had been to parties at Damon's place, and she knew he had this kind of open-door policy where his friends would just drop by unannounced. So Lindsay just poked her head through the open door and called out for Damon.

6:34When he didn't answer, she stepped inside, but immediately frozen shock at what she saw. Then right away she turned, ran out of the apartment, she grabbed her phone, and she called 911.

6:50About 30 minutes later, Detective Larry Bammer of the Laguna Beach Police Department parked his car outside of Damon's apartment building. It was a small building, and it was located about a block away from the beach. And this was a pretty quiet area. In fact, in Bammer's experience, this area really didn't see much crime at all. And a homicide, like the one Bammer had been brought in here to investigate, was basically unheard of. Bammer made his way over to the building. He ultimately climbed up the steps to the wooden porch. He ducked under the yellow crime scene tape that was blocking the doorway, and he stepped inside of Damon's apartment.

7:24The small apartment was already crowded with crime scene techs who were taking photos and dusting everything for prints, and the body of a man was slumped over right on the couch, fully dressed and also partially covered in pillows. Bammer walked over to get a better look, and when he did, he realized he actually recognized the victim. It was Damon Nicholson, the event planner, who for years had coordinated the police department's annual Christmas party. Bammer shook his head because, you know, in his experience, Damon had always seemed like a really nice guy. You know, he couldn't think of, you know, how he could get wrapped up in something that would turn into him getting murdered.

8:02But, you know, Bammer was here to do a job. And so despite the personal connection, he leaned in and got to work. And right away, he noticed that the back of Damon's head was covered with blood, like he'd been struck with a blunt instrument. But there were no obvious contenders for the murder weapon anywhere in sight. Like, nobody had brought anything up that could have been used to kill him. Additionally, Bammer didn't see any blood anywhere else in the room he was in, aside from obviously the blood on the victim and also on the couch. So that likely meant Damon likely died where he was right now.

8:37Next, Bammer looked at the throw pillows that had been piled up on Damon's legs. From how they were positioned, it was obvious that Damon had not put them there himself. Bammer knew that killers sometimes covered up the victim's bodies, and it was usually a sign of shame or remorse after the fact. So that could mean that the killer knew Damon personally, and after killing him, they felt bad and covered him up or something. But the pillows were definitely not definitive by any means. Once he'd seen enough of the body, Bammer walked around the rest of the apartment before ultimately making his way over to the forensic team lead.

9:13And she confirmed that there were no signs of forced entry and that according to the woman who had called 911, Lindsay Scott, the door had been open when she arrived. Lindsay had also said that Damon had a habit of leaving the door open whenever he was home, which meant that any stranger could have seen the open door and wandered in off the street. Now, the apartment didn't appear to have been ransacked or anything, but there was a pile of loose garbage sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor, right next to the trash can. The lid was lying on the floor beside the can, and there was no trash can liner inside.

9:46It was like an empty trash can. So Detective Bammer guessed that what likely happened here is the killer took the liner that had been in there, pulled it out of the can, dumped out the contents, but then used that same bag, probably to hold the murder weapon or maybe some bloody clothes and brought it with them on their way out. And then also, despite the police not being able to know what actually had been in the apartment before the attack, it did look like a few things had been taken. For example, there was a computer mouse that was on the coffee table, but no computer or laptop anywhere in the apartment.

10:23And also the forensics team had not found Damon's cell phone anywhere. So it looked like the motive maybe could have been robbery. But that bothered Bammer. Because robbery was impersonal. And those pillows piled on Damon's legs and his body, those felt personal. On top of that, killing someone with a blunt instrument took a lot of strength and determination. And in Bammer's experience, that was the kind of violence that typically came from a serious grudge — someone with a personal connection to the victim. So Bammer couldn't be sure if Damon had been killed by someone he knew, or a stranger who had just walked in off the street.

11:04It was like either one really could have happened here. Either way, if the killer had taken Damon's cell phone, they had made a huge mistake. Because Damon's phone could be tracked. And if the killer still had it, it would lead Bammer right to them.

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15:04Once inside, he crouched down and began sorting through the garbage. Bammer had tracked Damon's missing cell phone to this apartment building, so he knew it had to be somewhere nearby. But this building was enormous, and searching it unit by unit would take days. And on top of that, it just seemed unlikely that the killer would have led them straight to their home. There was a good chance that they had realized the phone could be tracked and had dumped it somewhere. So now Bammer and a dozen other officers were checking all the dumpsters before they resorted to going inside and canvassing the building unit by unit.

15:40By this point, for context, Bammer had reviewed the autopsy report for Damon Nicholson, and it confirmed that Damon had died from multiple blows from a blunt instrument probably sometime between 1 and 3 a.m. on October 23rd, so in the very early morning hours of the same day the body was found. The forensic team had found fingerprints inside of Damon's apartment. But they had found so many different fingerprints from so many people that, in essence, the fingerprints became useless. There was just too many of them. However, they had found DNA inside the lid of Damon's garbage can, which Bammer knew, or assumed, the killer had very likely touched when they dumped out the trash and took the trash liner.

16:24Now, Damon and his team had already sent that DNA sample to the crime lab for analysis, but those results would take a few weeks at least to come back. So in the meantime, finding Damon's missing phone was the best lead. And so now Bammer was still, you know, knee-deep in trash, sifting through the dumpster when he heard a door open nearby. He stood up and he turned to see this bearded man step out of the apartment building and he's looking over at Bammer inquisitively. Bammer showed the man his badge and explained the whole situation. And when he mentioned that they were specifically looking for a cell phone that they had tracked to this building, the bearded man replied that he knew exactly where they could find that phone.

17:05Because he had it. Minutes later, Detective Bammer followed the bearded man into a cluttered office on the first floor of the apartment building. The man, who gave his name as Rick Larson, explained that he was the building custodian and that he actually regularly checked the dumpsters to see if tenants had thrown out anything good. Then he opened up the top drawer of his desk and he took out a cell phone that he had found. And Bammer, when he saw it, he took out his own phone and he called Damon's phone number. And sure enough, a moment later, the trash can phone, the one that had been in Rick's desk, began to ring.

17:40So this was definitely Damon's phone. But now Bammer had to wonder if Rick's dumpster diving story was true or if it was just an excuse to explain why he was in possession of a murdered man's missing phone. So Bammer was pretty direct and just asked Rick point blank where he'd been between 1 and 3 a.m. on the morning of October 23rd. And Rick, when he heard this question, looked genuinely surprised and then sort of worried. And then he said he'd been here asleep in his own apartment. But when Bammer pressed him on this, you know, asked him, is there anybody else out there who could verify that you really were here?

18:18Rick just shook his head and said, no, he'd been alone. Just a little while later, Bammer left the apartment building, but now carrying two bags. One bag contained Damon's cell phone, and the other bag contained the DNA kit with Rick Larson's sample in it. Now, it would take time for the crime lab to compare Rick, the apartment building custodian, his sample that they had just gotten to the DNA from the crime scene. But in the meantime, Bammer did now have Damon's phone to go through. He still wasn't sure if Damon had been killed by a random burglar, or just a random stranger, period, or if maybe there was a personal component to the murder.

18:58And so now he wanted to try to dig into Damon's personal life and find out who he'd been spending time with before he was killed. And a way to do that was going to hopefully be through his phone. A few days later, just after lunch, Bammer sat inside of an interview room across from a professionally dressed man with a big gauze bandage wrapped around one of his hands. Bammer had spent the last few days reviewing Damon's phone records and also his online dating profile. And by now, he knew that Damon had been seeing a number of men before his murder. So Bammer was working through that list of men and bringing them in one by one.

19:36The man with the bandaged hand that he was interviewing right now was a guy named Ethan Cooper. And from Damon's phone activity, Bammer knew that Ethan had gone on a date with Damon just two nights before the murder. Bammer did not need to tell Ethan that Damon was dead because clearly Ethan already knew. I mean, as it was, the murder was all over the news and it was an especially big deal for Laguna Beach's gay community. So by this point, it was like everybody knew, Ethan included. According to Ethan, his date with Damon a couple of days before the murder had been pretty straightforward. They'd gone out for drinks before heading back to Damon's place to watch a movie, and Ethan had wound up spending the night there.

20:16At some point, Bammer asked Ethan about the bandage on his hand, and Ethan explained that it was actually a spider bite. Bammer was surprised to hear this. I mean, spider bites, especially spider bites that require huge bandaging, are pretty rare. And so he just asked to see it. And Ethan clearly hesitated, but then he did unwrap the bandage and he held out his hand. And there definitely was a big wound on Ethan's hand. It was right in the center of his palm. But to Bammer, it did not look like a spider bite, or not like any spider bite he had ever seen. It didn't even look like a puncture of any kind.

20:53It looked more like a cut, like a laceration, the kind of wound that someone might get during a life-and-death struggle with somebody else. Ethan must have read Bammer's face because he quickly added that he had gotten this bite before Damon was murdered and that he'd actually shown the bite to his boss at work, who could vouch for him. Bammer said he'd take down the number for Ethan's boss, as well as contact info for anyone who could verify Ethan's whereabouts on the night of the murder. And while he had Ethan there, he said he'd like to get a DNA sample too. The next morning, Bammer was back inside the interview room with the next person on his list.

21:30This time, it was a middle-aged man in glasses named Todd Daniels. From reading all their messages to each other in Damon's cell phone, Bammer could tell that Todd and Damon had been friends for years, and that they had seen each other the night after Damon's date with Ethan, which was one night before Damon was killed. When Bammer asked Todd what he and Damon had done that night, so again, the night before Damon was killed, Todd seemed really uncomfortable. Todd explained that what he had to say about that night was extremely personal, but he was willing to share it with the police on the off chance that it could be relevant.

22:08Bammer told him he really couldn't make any promises in terms of what he did with the information he was going to get, but he would try to be discreet. So Todd, somewhat reluctantly, explained that he and Damon had not just been friends. They had actually been sexually involved. They'd been hooking up casually for years. and that their visits always tended to go the exact same way. Todd would show up at Damon's apartment and just let himself in through the sliding door that was often just left open. Todd said that inside, the lights would all be off in the apartment, and Damon would be waiting, wearing nothing but a ski cap, pulled all the way down to cover his face.

22:51Sometimes, Todd said it wouldn't just be him who was showing up to meet up with Damon. Todd would bring other partners to join in. Basically, it was, you know, anonymous sex. And Todd said he was pretty sure he was not the only one with this kind of arrangement with Damon. Damon clearly did this with other men, too. Bammer, after hearing this, just sort of sat there in silence for a moment. If Todd was right here, it meant that Damon had, you know, potentially for years, been letting an unknown number of strangers into his home. And that meant Bammer's pool of suspects had just gotten a whole lot bigger.

23:29On the morning of October 29th, so one week after the murder, Bammer was at his desk, still working tirelessly to get through all of Damon's contacts to figure out, like, who's even in this suspect pool. And so he leaned closer to his computer screen, and he's reading all this information, and he's just so frustrated because it just felt like this was an overwhelming amount of work. Since his interview with Todd, the man who brought up that Damon allowed strangers to come in and have sex with him, since that meeting, Bammer had spoken to more than a dozen men who had had casual sexual relationships with Damon, including some with arrangements that were in fact similar to the one that Todd had described.

24:11Now, Bammer had already collected DNA samples from most of these men he had spoken to, and he had sent those samples off to the lab, along with the ones he'd gotten from Rick and Ethan and Todd. But again, it's like it's just a waiting game. You've got to wait for the results to come back. And it's like the likelihood you're going to find a match is kind of low because there's just so many people now that comprise this pool. But Bammer now had another lead that did seem really promising. He finally had more details on a phone number that had called and texted Damon multiple times on the night he died.