Three's a Crowd (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

0:00Late on a June evening in 2000, a detective with the Easton, Pennsylvania Police Department sat in his car on a darkened neighborhood street, watching a house right nearby and waiting patiently. After what seemed like an eternity, finally somebody emerged from this house and in their hands were a couple of bulky trash bags. The detective tensed up, but they didn't move. The detective kept watching as this person placed the trash bags on the curb for pickup in the morning, and then this person went back inside the house. And right then is when the detective flung open his car door, and as quickly as he could, he darted across the street towards the house, but instead of going in to confront this person, he just grabbed their trash bags at the curb.

0:41Then, with these bags, he ran back to his car, stuffed the bags in his trunk, and he drove away. And as he drove away, he knew he was about to solve his murder case. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've 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, please sneak into the Follow Buttons home and superglue all their doors shut. Okay, let's get into today's story.

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2:25On May 28, 2000, an 18-year-old woman named Devin Guzman stood on a beach on the island of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. She squinted her eyes from the sunlight as a tropical breeze blew lightly through her shoulder-length hair. Standing facing her was her girlfriend, Michelle Hetzel, who was also 18 and who was holding a pair of gold and diamond rings in her hand. Devin almost began to tear up as Michelle slipped one of the rings onto her ring finger. And then Devin reached out and did the same, placing the other ring on Michelle's ring finger. Then the young women held hands and recited vows to each other.

2:59Now, there was no priest or marriage officiant present, but for Devin, it didn't matter. She was spiritually and emotionally pledging to spend the rest of her life with Michelle. And in this moment, she couldn't imagine she could ever be happier. Their private little makeshift wedding ceremony during their Memorial Day weekend vacation almost felt like a fantasy. St. Croix was hundreds of miles away from Northampton County in Pennsylvania, where Michelle and Devin both lived. Michelle lived in a city called Easton, and Devin lived nearby in Forks Township. But life had been full of exciting changes recently for Devin.

3:34In the last four months, she'd moved out of her mom's house, gotten her own car, and started a full-time job as a cleaning technician for a company that repaired and restored property damage. And now, getting married to the woman she loved on a beach in the Caribbean felt like a romantic and fitting way to end a whirlwind couple of months. Now, Devin took Michelle's hand and the two walked through the warm sand to a tourist trap bar to celebrate with some cold drinks. However, after they got a table and the afterglow of exchanging vows began to fade along with the late afternoon sun, reality began to set in for Devin.

4:09Getting married to Michelle in a tropical paradise was one thing, but dealing with the repercussions back home from this marriage was going to be something else entirely. It wasn't homophobia that she was worried about. In 2000, there was still some social stigma associated with being a member of the LGBTQ community, but Devin was confident and outspoken, and so this didn't bother her. What Devin was worried about, though, was the very complicated romantic situation that was waiting for her back home. Because despite the fact that Devin had just gotten, you know, spiritually married to Michelle here on this beach, she was actually already living with her other girlfriend, whose name was Carrie Renner.

4:48And that wasn't all. Her other girlfriend, Carrie, was actually also married to someone else, a man. Although Carrie and her husband had actually been separated since he had left for the army to go to basic training. But Devin's relationship with Carrie was a lot different than her relationship with her new spiritual wife, Michelle. Devin and Carrie fought a lot, and their fights often became physical. Sometimes the police would have to come to break them up. Devin looked down at the pager clipped to her waist and she was actually a little surprised that Carrie had not been paging her non-stop.

5:22Devin was planning to break up with Carrie as soon as she got home and she really was not looking forward to the fight that that would almost certainly cause. But she decided that for right now, she wasn't going to think about any of that. Instead, she looked up and clinked her glass against Michelle's and took a sip of her cocktail. Later that night, Devin and Michelle were relaxing back in their hotel room. They were preparing to head back home the next day, and they were both sad and kind of stressed that their trip was almost over. Because going back home wasn't only going to be complicated for Devin.

5:55Michelle also had a difficult set of relationships waiting for her back in Pennsylvania. Just like Devin, Michelle was also married to someone else, a man named Brandon Bloss. Michelle had actually used Brandon's credit card to pay for this St. Croix trip. But, also just like Devin, Michelle was planning on breaking up with Brandon right when they got back home. However, Devin and Michelle had come up with a plan to make their transition into their new life of spiritual marriage together easier. And now, sitting on the hotel bed together, Devin put this plan into action. She picked up the hotel phone and called her father, Rick Guzman, who lived near her in Pennsylvania.

6:34When her dad answered, Devin told him about how she and Michelle had just gotten, you know, spiritually married and that she was planning to break up with Carrie. And then she asked if she and Michelle could come move in with him for a bit. Rick immediately said yes. And Devin knew just from the sound of his voice that he was actually thrilled with her news because he knew all too well that her relationship with Carrie was sort of a nightmare. So Devin thanked her dad and said she loved him very much and hung up. Then she and Michelle went to sleep feeling happy.

7:09A few weeks later, at around 6.30 p.m. on Thursday, June 14th, Devin and Michelle were hanging out and drinking at Devin's father's house in Pennsylvania, like they often did these days. However, Devin and Michelle were not actually living there yet, like they had planned to do way back in St. Croix. And this was because neither of them had actually broken up with their other partners yet, or had even told them about their spiritual wedding with each other. I mean, basically, they had kept everybody in the dark. And as this night wore on, and Devin and Michelle drank more and more, this fact started to become a point of contention between them, and they started to bicker.

7:45Both of them were mad at the other for not fully committing. And so a little after 9 p.m., Devin and Michelle each left the house feeling really mad. And they got into their own cars, and they drove off to their own homes. A few minutes later, Devin stumbled drunkenly up the stairs and towards the door of the apartment that she still shared with Carrie that was right above a bar in Forks Township. She paused before she walked in. She was dreading the confrontation she knew was waiting for her inside. Devin looked down at the palm of her hand, at a cut that had not quite finished healing yet. Only weeks earlier, after she had come home from St.

8:22Croix, she had tried to tell Carrie she did want to break up, But before she could say very much, Carrie had threatened to kill herself with a knife. And then when Devin had tried to wrestle that knife out of her hands, Devin had gotten this big cut on her hand, which required a trip to the emergency room. And so eventually, Devin took a deep breath, then reached down and turned the doorknob and walked inside. As expected, Carrie was waiting, and she was very upset. Devin couldn't hide the fact that clearly she had been out drinking. and also she couldn't hide who she had been out drinking with.

8:56And so naturally they began to argue. And for the first time, Devin told Carrie that she and Michelle had exchanged wedding rings during their trip to St. Croix. And this made Carrie fly into a rage. And so she hit Devin and Devin hit her right back. And then before it could turn into a full-blown physical altercation, Devin's pager suddenly went off. She picked it up and saw that Michelle had actually been paging her non-stop. She just hadn't noticed. And so quickly, she just walked away from Carrie and went into another room to call Michelle. And then a few minutes later, she just came back into the living room where Carrie was still standing there fuming.

9:34And Devin told Carrie that, hey, you know, Michelle's not feeling well. And so I'm going to go over to her house and check on her. And Carrie was sort of caught off guard and just said, well, I'm going with you. And Devin, not wanting to argue anymore or have this escalate any further, told Carrie that fine, she could come as long as she stayed in the car the whole time. So at around 10.30 p.m., Devin pulled her car up to Michelle's house in Easton with Carrie sitting in the passenger seat. Devin reminded Carrie to remain where she was. And then Devin got out of the car and walked up to the front door.

10:08Devin knocked and Michelle's husband, Brandon, answered. And unsurprisingly, he said he would not let Devin inside. However, the reason he gave was because his wife, Michelle, was upset that Devin had come here with Carrie. And so he told Devin that if you want to come inside, you first have to bring Carrie home. And so Devin just turned around, walked back to her car, got inside, and informed Carrie that she was going to have to drive her back home and that she really didn't want to fight about it. And surprisingly, Carrie just sort of agreed because she didn't want to fight either. And at around 11.30 p.m., Devin dropped her off back at the Forks Township apartment.

10:46Devin did go into the apartment with Carrie for a little while, but then at about 12.15 a.m., she went back outside and left to return to Michelle's place.

10:59About 30 minutes later, around 12.45 a.m. on that Friday morning, the phone at Devin and Carrie's apartment began to ring. Carrie answered and heard Michelle's voice on the other line. and Michelle sounded really upset. She was demanding to know where Devin was. Carrie told Michelle to slow down here. She said Devin wasn't home because she had gone to your place. And when Michelle heard that, her voice turned frantic. She told Carrie that Devin had not returned to her house that evening, and that she'd been paging Devin over and over again, but Devin still had not called her back. Now, to Carrie, this seemed like classic Devin behavior.

11:38Devin had a habit of storming off dramatically and disappearing for a while and not talking to anybody, but she always came back. And so Carrie tried to reassure Michelle that, you know, Devin would turn up soon. However, trying to reassure Michelle only made Michelle mad. Michelle began accusing Carrie of lying and started insisting that Devin must be with Carrie right now, and that Carrie was selfishly keeping Devin from seeing her. Then, very abruptly, Carrie heard Michelle slam the receiver down to hang up the phone. Carrie thought that was going to be the end of it. But about an hour and a half later, at about 2.30 in the morning, there was a loud knock on her door.

12:17And when Carrie answered, she found herself face-to-face with Michelle. And just as Michelle had done over the phone, she once again began to aggressively accuse Carrie of literally hiding Devin in the apartment. But Carrie told Michelle she had nothing to hide. and to prove it, she let Michelle come in and look around for Devin. Carrie figured, you know, once Michelle searched her apartment, she would chill out and realize Carrie was honestly telling the truth here, but Michelle did not chill out. Instead, after searching the apartment and not finding Devin, Michelle took out her phone and called 911.

12:55Hours later, still on that Friday morning, Carrie woke up in bed, where she'd finally collapsed after being awake most of the night. The cops had come to her place after Michelle called 911, but they seemed totally uninterested in the fact that Devin could be missing. And since it hadn't been 24 hours since she'd been seen or heard from, they really couldn't even file a missing persons report. Instead, the cops issued what's called an attempt to locate report, which as far as Carrie could tell was basically the same thing, but just way less urgent. And before Carrie could even begin to sort out all her thoughts, there was another knock on her door.

13:31And so Carrie got up and she opened it up and once again there was Michelle. And she looked like she literally hadn't slept. And then she would say that yep, she'd been up all night and all morning just calling Devin's pager over and over again and just not getting an answer. Carrie rubbed her eyes and told Michelle to please calm down, that she was just making herself crazy here. But Michelle ignored her and suggested they should both drive around together and see if they could literally just go find Devin. since it was obvious the cops were not going to be much help here. Carrie did not really want to go drive around with Michelle, but she figured, you know, at the very least, it would get Michelle out of her apartment.

14:08So Carrie got dressed and got into Michelle's car, and the two of them drove around town scouting all the usual places they would go to with Devin. But realistically, Carrie was barely paying attention. She thought the whole thing was a big waste of time and that Devin was sure to turn up soon on her own. That is, until around 1 p.m., when they arrived at a place called Canal Park, which was this gravel parking lot in Easton right next to a river. Because as they pulled into the lot, Carrie saw Devin's car, a silver Pontiac Sunfire with a rainbow sticker on the bumper. And so as soon as Michelle came to a stop, Carrie jumped out of the car and ran over to Devin's car and tried to open the door, but it was locked.

14:49She banged on the window in frustration and tried to look inside, but the windows were too tinted so she couldn't see anything. But then she remembered she actually had a spare key in her pocket. So she pulled it out, unlocked the door, opened it up, and when she did, she screamed.

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18:28A half an hour later, Detective Barry Golazeski of the Easton Police Department stepped out of his cruiser at Canal Park. As he slipped under the yellow police tape that cordoned off the area, Golazeski mentally ran through what dispatch had told him. Two women had discovered the body of their friend, another young woman named Devin Guzman. He looked over and saw two crying women in the park and figured those must be the two women who found the body. Golazeski just shook his head, Easton was not the kind of place where you would expect to find a dead teenager in a parking lot. Nonetheless, he walked over to the car to get a look for himself, peering in through the open rear door.

19:06Devin's body was curled up on the back seat, facing the rear of the car and covered by a green jacket. He slipped on a pair of disposable gloves and went in for a closer look. He peeled back the jacket, and right away he saw a gaping wound on the front of Devin's neck. But he noticed right away that there was very little blood for such a major injury. And her clothes weren't covered in blood either, which is what he would have expected. Instead, he just saw dirt and grass stains. He scanned the interior of the car and saw that it too was pretty clean, although one of the floor mats was missing.

19:39But the strangest detail was what Devin had clenched in her hand. She was holding a kitchen knife. Something about this didn't sit right to Golazeski. The knife in Devin's hand seemed to suggest she might have cut her own throat, but slitting your throat was a horrible way to die. Besides, there was almost no blood, barely any in the car and none on the knife. So to Golazeski, he felt like this was not a suicide. This was a murder staged to look like a suicide. Just then, the coroner's car pulled into the gravel lot, signaling to the detective that it was time for him to get a move on. Golazeski grabbed a cop standing nearby and told him to have both Devin's car and the car her friends had been driving when they found her impounded immediately.

20:25Devin's car for obvious reasons, but the friend's car as well because the women had driven it so close to the crime scene. Then Golazeski walked over to the two hysterical friends of his victim and told them he would give them a ride to the police station to get their statements.

20:42Around 3 p.m. that afternoon, Golazeski walked into an interview room at Easton Police headquarters and sat down across from Carrie, who had been crying so much that her eyes were red and bloodshot and her voice was hoarse. Golazeski started with the basics, asking Carrie how long she'd been friends with Devin. Now, in a homicide investigation, Golazeski knew that everyone connected to the victim starts off as a suspect, but neither Carrie nor the other friend, Michelle, seemed particularly suspicious, at least to him so far. That was until Carrie started talking. Because right away, she explained to Golazeski that she and Devin were not just friends, they were actually in a relationship together.

21:22Although she admitted she was also technically married to somebody else too. And Carrie didn't stop there. She told Golazeski that Michelle, the other friend who had been there when they found the body, was also in a relationship with Devin, but like Carrie, Michelle was also married to someone else, another man, and she was living with him. Golazeski could barely keep this straight, but he also just couldn't believe what he was hearing. In the first five minutes of his interview, he already had a list of four people, Carrie, her husband, Michelle, and Michelle's husband, who were all romantically linked to the victim.

21:57The potential for jealous rivalries here was through the roof, and so they were definitely all suspects. And so they were all going to need an alibi. So Golazeski told Carrie to slow down and asked her about the last time she had seen Devin. Carrie took a deep calming breath, then she said that she and Devin had been fighting recently, because Carrie was really upset about Devin's ongoing relationship with Michelle. She said that Michelle and Devin had recently gone to St. Croix together, and it just really upset Carrie. Golazeski nodded, but inside he was thinking this is sort of like textbook jealous rivalry here.

22:34However, Carrie went on to say that their most recent fight had not been as bad as some of their other fights. She admitted that on other occasions when they got into fights that she and Devin would get physical. But most recently, she said their fight had just been them yelling at each other. And then after this heated argument, Carrie said she had actually gone with Devin to Michelle's house where Michelle's husband had told Devin to take Carrie back home again. And so Carrie said Devin came back to the car and did drive her back to the apartment, and she got dropped off at about 11.30 p.m., and then Devin left again a little while later to presumably go back to Michelle's.

23:11But apparently she hadn't made it there because Michelle had called, asking Carrie, you know, where is Devin? And she said, I thought she was with you. When Carrie finished, Golazeski just sat there, trying to make sense of this very complicated story she had just told him. Of all the romantic partners in Devin's life, it seemed to Golazeski that Carrie was, physically at least, the closest to her, given that they lived together. And so that put her pretty high up on the suspect list. But on the other hand, she was being extremely candid about the ugly side of their relationship, which made him think, you know, she might not be trying to hide anything.