Delusional Killer Targets Doctor Couple Thinking They’re In A Love Triangle

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2:27But now she's dragging her co-worker, Aaron, to this very random, very specific bar in Dallas after work. When Aaron gets there, the bar is packed. Brenda guides her to the bar and there's about three stools left. That's how packed it is. I mean, there's people everywhere. So they take up two of the three stools. They both take a seat and there's only one empty chair at the bar left. Finally, a woman walks in and the only available seat is right there. So she takes it. She sits down and she starts texting on her phone. Erin notices that Brenda is like zeroed in on this random woman who just walked in.

3:05And Brenda oddly uses this moment to get up, walk behind her co-worker Erin and start playing with Erin's hair. Almost as if she's trying to braid it. But it's very clear to Erin, just judging by the finger work, it's not really like she's trying to braid her hair or do anything nice to her hair. And when she looks up at Brenda, Brenda is zeroing in on this woman's phone, seeing what she's doing on the phone. It's clear from the moment that she saw Brenda all dolled up that this was one of Brenda's crazy plans. Brenda pretends to play with Erin's hair while she watches the woman next to her. and right there you see this woman texting a man named Ricky.

3:48Ricky never ends up coming into the bar because he pulls up to the parking lot to go into this bar, his date, and he sees his ex-girlfriend's car in the parking lot. He texts his date to reschedule or to head to a different bar and he doesn't even know that none of this was a coincidence. This was a setup by Brenda.

4:27we would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for rotten mango to support dentists who care a non-profit that provides free urgent dental care for uninsured children and adults provided by volunteer dentists across the rio grande valley in texas this episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support Rotten Mingo's team of dedicated researchers and we'd also like to thank you guys for your continued support. As always full show notes available at RottenMingoPodcast.com. Today's case has brief mentions of gun violence, stalking, relational violence, and a very brief description of stress related to immigration status.

5:00Viewer discretion is advice. Statements and quotes may be condensed for brevity and with that said let's begin. If you guys haven't already listened to audio part one of this podcast or this case please go listen. We went over who Kendra Hatcher was and why it was so puzzling to detectives when a 35-year-old pediatric dentist was found shot dead in her luxury apartment parking lot. There's so many weird leads that occur with this case. You have a man named Jose seeing his Jeep on the bolo. He comes in and he tells the police, yes, that's my car. That was my car that was used as the getaway car for when Kendra was murdered, but I don't know Kendra.

5:37Then he brings up that his friend had borrowed his car. Her name is Brenda. Brenda has an alibi. Then investigators are like, you know what? Maybe we should look back into Kendra's boyfriend at the time, Ricky, who is also a doctor. He's a dermatologist. Then they find out that Ricky and Brenda used to date and everything is falling apart. And in the interrogation room, Detective Barnes just wants one thing from Ricky. They already heard what he was doing. He was in the apartment prepping for their trip. Then he went to go grab tacos. They already saw the messages on Kendra's phone. And now they know that Ricky's ex-girlfriend, one of the people that he reached out to for support, is Brenda, his ex-girlfriend, tiny wrist Jeep Brenda.

6:19But because of that connection, authorities want his phone so that they can run a very quick data dump. Nothing serious. They tell him, just give us a copy of your entire cell phone and we can rule you out and be on your way ricky completely understands it's just that he got a new phone detective barnes seems a little taken aback after kendra died he got a new phone what but ricky is like wait hold on though like why are you taking it back you're the one that told me to do that there was a bit of miscommunication i guess you could say ricky says he thought that's what barnes told him to do was to get a new cell phone because he started getting calls from media just badgering him for comments yeah legacy media He is like, hey, give me a statement right now.

7:04And so he told Barnes that. Barnes is like, yeah, you should probably get a new number. Barnes is like, what are you talking about? I said get a new number, not a new cell phone. Because technically, even if you get a new phone, you still have the same phone number. You're still going to get calls from the media. Like, what is happening? Hello? Are the dots not connecting? Ricky apologizes. He says he honestly thought that that's what he meant. Which, to be fair, I will say that Ricky is, this is the time period where you're in a state of shock and grief. so it's a bit more understandable. And Detective Barnes is like, okay, well, it's fine, but do you have it with you, the old phone?

7:39Well, no. I mean, he doesn't have, he just has his new phone. He does have the old phone, but it's not with him right now. And also, Detective Barnes is informing Ricky that they still need to do a data dump on this phone, whether or not he brings it in. Detective Barnes is like, I can get a search warrant if you want. It's really up to you, Ricky and what he means by that is it's really not up to you Ricky at all Ricky however wants to cooperate but he says I'm not saying no by any means okay it was literally just midnight I was up talking to my sister and we were talking and there's just something that we don't know to the point where we're just like I mean we just what what does this have to do with the phone ricky continues kind of rambling i mean i just have like i mean the people that i know are more i mean i'm more of like a physician lawyer and this is like a recorded interview yes and so they were just almost you know like scared on my you know what i mean like i wasn't even really thinking about that and they're like no you really you really have to that's a big deal and i i just don't know if you want to get involved and again i'm not saying no i'm just saying i just need to ask somebody who can maybe help guide me a little i'm so confused is he rambling completely he's rambling completely and at this point i will say i do understand the hesitation by ricky i would be incredibly hesitant to hand over a copy of my phone to a police officer even if i had zero guilt there was nothing that i've done that was even remotely inappropriate i would probably fight it right so he's hesitant of giving away his phone got it yes and if history tells us anything like you should probably fight it too and get an attorney first i'm not saying that you should fight a search warrant i'm just saying i don't know if you should immediately consent to it and offer it up on a silver platter ricky then asked barnes what he would do if he were in his position and detective barnes responds in a way that's as surprising as the earth is round detective barnes is telling him i would just be like hey here you go here's my phone he reassures ricky like look We do this stuff with phones all the time.

9:51He says he understands, you know, phones are super important. He sees all sorts of phones, though. Like, we don't really expect anything more than like a goofy selfie here or there. But it's just very standard stuff. Ricky doesn't directly respond to what Detective Barnes just said. He instead runs his hand through his hair. He scratches the back of his head. And he almost kind of asks sheepishly, like, and just from a professional standpoint, am I being recorded right now? They are in an interrogation room. and well I mean it's all part of the investigation everything that we do in this building is recorded and that's why I asked you to bring the notes so that I can get it recorded Ricky says yeah yeah again I wanna I feel like I should maybe just talk to someone which okay that's another thing don't ever be so passive with police officers just say I want a lawyer yeah because detective Barnes is like no you don't you don't want to talk to anybody basically that's what police have to do even if you say you want to talk to a lawyer they're gonna be like yeah sure we'll get you a lawyer don't worry about it Ricky is like I'm happy to talk off the record I mean part of the reason why I mean because last night when I was thinking about it I wasn't sure if I should even contact you to reschedule he starts rambling more almost about how he at least wanted to come in and talk to Detective Barnes but he barely slept the past few days he actually used to pull 30 hour shifts and this somehow feels a lot worse he knows from the start that he probably shouldn't make important life decisions when you're that tired.

11:18But like, does Detective Barnes get that? Detective Barnes reassures Ricky. I totally understand. Totally. But ultimately, he informs Ricky that his responsibility is to Kendra's family and to do everything to find out all the details and to look at the whole picture. And the whole picture being whatever Ricky might have on his phone. Ricky responds with kind of an interesting response that really, I think, only a dermatologist might have in this situation. He expresses a lot of concern that, okay, so he took a picture of a patient to show the condition of their skin, but he sent it to a colleague who's also a dermatologist and a doctor to get a second opinion, which he says technically he's not supposed to do that from a professional standpoint because the other physician is not their doctor, so you can't just without consent send a picture of their skin, even if there's no identifying markers or anything okay it seems like he's trying to say he doesn't feel comfortable with that and now this is going to be on police record to which detective barnes tells him straight up i honestly couldn't give a shit less about a mole basically he's like i don't care about moles i don't care if you've got patient's mole pictures up in there because it's like a picture of a mole that he wanted a second opinion on he says i'm concerned with the people responsible for killing Kendra Hatcher, which then moves Ricky to his next train of thought.

12:40Yeah, yeah. So then I'm a suspect then? Detective Barnes, in the most roundabout law and order way, neither confirms nor denies anything, just says he wants the full picture once more. Can I speak to you about it off the record? Can I do that? No, we have to record. Anything that we do has to be recorded and has to be recorded. And I understand you have a professional status that you're trying to uphold. I understand that. but also we have to document things, right? Can I talk about things? Yeah. Okay, because I mean, again, I just want to be able to focus on, I mean, I can't even, I can't even focus on the fact that my girlfriend got shot.

13:18Detective Barnes has given Ricky the benefit of the doubt, but at this point, he still has a gunman that he's looking for and Ricky's hesitation, it's almost, it's kind of a little on the nose. It's, I'm sure it's unsettling. He also got a new phone. He's nervous to turn on the old phone maybe because Ricky knows Brenda quite well actually intimately because they're exes and also they remained friends after that and she's a friend that he texted about his girlfriend being shot the night that Kendra died right so it seems like they had some sort of close friendship afterwards she's also the one that was organizing a meal train with his sister remember so not only that but Ricky also knows Jose what he just doesn't know why that's important yet.

14:01Ricky has no clue. So maybe he's hesitant to give over his phone because he knows that the three of them met up a month prior to Kendra's death because Ricky needed to get some work done on his truck. Ricky, Jose, and Brenda met up a month before Kendra's death. Ricky's truck started making noise and eventually it became just like this hunk of metal sitting outside Kendra's building. That's why he Ubered back to his apartment, remember? Yeah, it wasn't even drivable. So Brenda, Ricky's ex, is like, hey, you could take it to the dealership or you could bring it to my friend Jose and he'll get you a really good deal.

14:33So she connects them and that guy is Jose, Jose with the jeep. Brenda gives him a ride to and from Jose's shop on two different occasions to try and fix his truck. So it would make sense technically by any investigator standpoint which is like raw intelligence work that perhaps Ricky is involved because the boyfriends, the husbands, the partners, they are often very much involved. But Detective Barnes probably knows at this point it's never that easy okay the more he digs into Ricky Detective Barnes realizes I don't think this guy is involved at all like Ricky was honestly just confused and in shock and he almost instantly snaps out of it so he does seem like he was really nervous about the professional and the mole thing because immediately after he's like you know what just yeah here's my phone the old phone yeah you give it up okay he's like I just I was nervous you know basically he He also gives detailed pages of notes and dates, verifiable dates along with detailed bank statements.

15:32Ricky does what Detective Barnes wants and more. Like he goes the extra mile. He even details in depth his relationship with not just Kendra, but also with Brenda. And while I normally like to remain incredibly skeptical of people, especially partners when their partner ends up dead, I do really think it's just initial shock and confusion. The rest of the investigation, Ricky and even his mom are there just trying to help investigators with pretty much everything they ask and more. I do think that he was really nervous about the picture of the mole. And he was probably in a state where he couldn't think correctly and he was in shock.

16:09Ricky's mom even sends the detectives a 14-page document of everything she knows along with timelines that the detectives use to their benefit. But most importantly, I would say Ricky's alibi does check out. He's on CCTV camera the whole time throughout the murder. his movements match exactly what he was describing there's nothing in his digital footprint that would indicate any sort of connection to anything in fact everything he said is just there's evidence for it every text messages not even to just kendra but to brenda everything is there and there is no way that ricky is the shooter let alone is involved he's just a doctor grieving the loss of his girlfriend and this is a girlfriend that they found in his digital evidence that he really wanted to marry.

16:52So if Ricky is cleared, if Jose doesn't know Kendra and didn't even have his Jeep the day of the shooting, if Brenda has an alibi via her receipt for three Chilleritas from Chili's, then who the hell is the killer? Who drove the Jeep into the parking lot and shot Kendra dead? One name keeps coming up, Crystal. So it's time for Detective Barnes to talk to Crystal. And I don't know if they have a washing machine at this police station, but when it's cold in the interrogation room, the officers pass the interviewee pink blanket. I've seen it so many times in this case. I don't know if they wash it each time or if it just like carries with it the ambient smell of confessions.

17:26Because now 23-year-old Crystal Cortez is sitting in the interrogation room. She's snuggling up to this pink blanket and she's actually quite enthusiastic to help officers. And in her mind, this is really good. This is actually like too good because the photo of the Jeep, the bolo that it seems like half of Dallas has seen at this point, it's very blurry. You can't exactly make out who the driver is. But if you look super close, you squint one eye. And if you know the truth, like Crystal knows the truth, then you know Crystal was the one driving the Jeep. She straight up tells the officers, yes, so that's me in the car.

17:58That's me in the Jeep. I was driving the Jeep, but I wasn't alone in the Jeep. My six-year-old son was in the backseat of the Jeep. And you'll never believe, you will never believe what happened that day. Crystal starts sharing with Detective Barnes. It's basically like one of those movies. She's in the car driving. Her son is in the back, just picked him up from school. And because her son had requested that they go to the park she goes and parks inside kendra's apartment building where she does not live she doesn't even have a friend that lives in this apartment building why is crystal in this apartment building she says well i know that they have free parking what and if you've been to like any nice apartment building yeah that makes no sense they like never have free parking yeah she knew that there was free parking so that she could park the car and then they could walk to the park but she's about to get out when she hears a gunshot and then all of a sudden one of the doors to the cars open and there is a guy wearing a mask demanding she essentially be the getaway driver.

18:52He's like, drive, points the gun at her. What is Crystal to do? She's to drive. That's what. This is a case of wrong place, wrong time. She just happened to drive directly into a murder scene. That was her only fault. Detective Barnes is intently listening to Crystal's story of what happened that day, even though he knows, we know that this story is as believable as a cow on roller skates speeding down the highway but as any good listener detective barnes listens to her story lets her finish and then presents her with something fascinating so in the cctv footage the shooter gets out the jeep to shoot kendra that's crazy yeah then he gets back into the jeep and then the jeep takes off that is an honest misunderstanding crystal must have gotten confused what really happened is that she stopped at a stop sign before she entered the parking lot the gunman got in her car at the stop sign.

19:44Open the door. She didn't lock the doors, you know, demanding she drive into the parking lot. He told her, don't look at me. Don't say nothing. You pull in this parking lot. I will kill you. I'll kill your son if you do something. Crystal starts adding a little bit more flair, a little bit more details to this rendition. I'm sitting there begging Jesus. I'm begging Jesus, my son, please stay asleep. Please stay asleep. Please stay asleep. Right. Did you honk your horn? There's really no point in Crystal even responding because Detective Barnes has the footage from the parking lot. Not only did Crystal never honk her horn once, she never flashed her lights, never made any motion to try and get help.

20:15He tells her, I'm telling you right now, I don't believe this bullshit. Crystal reassures him this is in fact the truth. Even though what she said earlier is obviously not the truth, but she now knows in her heart this is the truth. How can we be so sure about this? Crystal even offers, you can polygraph me, you can test me. Barnes straight up tells her, if I would have polygraphed you then, you would have failed because you were lying and you're lying now. Which by the way, if the police ever ask you to do a polygraph, maybe don't do it, let alone offer it up to the police, especially if you've already changed your story multiple times.

20:49And that has less to do with the fact that you probably should never take a polygraph, but more so to do with the fact that you just seem so dumb right now. Like, what do you mean? You already changed your story. How are you going to take a polygraph now? Then we get to Crystal's next version. It's really hard to take anything out of Crystal's mouth at face value, but Crystal does confirm a few things for investigators. One, Ricky was definitely not the shooter or even involved in any way because he was the original target. What? He was the one that was supposed to be dead. And Crystal is just a woman with a job.

21:23She was hired.

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23:54when you move in with a roommate there is a level of expectation to do things for the roommate that you might not have signed up for are you really going to be the petty one that leaves just one singular mug in the kitchen sink after doing your own dishes because that's your roommate's mug or the one who makes a 30-part TikTok story time about your roommate while quoting the mayor of New York City on your fire escape whilst crying you know there's some things that are expected when you move in with a roommate. For Jennifer Escobar, that probably would have been the better outcome. The fire escape videos.

24:23She probably would have taken that any day because she just moved in and her roommate is asking her for a small favor. Help me put someone in a coma. Or we could just beat him up. I already bought the bat and I have this needle. Jennifer Escobar has no idea what's in the needle, but her roommate says it can put someone to sleep. Look, I'll give you$2 ,000 in exchange if you help me. it's a horrendous offer if there ever was one but jennifer does not explicitly accept or decline however she makes plans to move out within two weeks of moving in she's like i'm not gonna live with this lady because her new roommate seems to have a few screws loose she's also just actively going through jennifer's belongings like her suitcase which you know i will say is kind of funny because not funny but funny in like the depressing way when jennifer talks to the detectives later about this she's more upset that her roommate was going through her belongings than she is that her roommate is plotting to put someone into a coma.

25:19Yeah, but she is also plotting murder. And she has this deep obsession, almost stalkerish obsession with her ex-boyfriend. Jennifer says she would talk about him. She had his location, his emails, bank account, and everything about him. She was really obsessed over him. She basically had a second phone. She would know his locations and movements from that phone. Jennifer thinks that maybe it's the way the ex broke up with her roommate that has her spiraling into craziness. He did break up with her via email, which Jennifer can understand why her roommate is so obsessed, but this was like obsession level obsessed.

25:54She still had his house key, logins for his bank accounts, his Gmail. Jennifer ultimately moves out because it was just miserable. She would avoid going home at times because the roommate would be all pent up and angry at the ex-boyfriend. And then if Jennifer's not home, she would get mad at Jennifer because Jennifer's not home to help her get through her emotions. but before Jennifer moves out she does facilitate what was an innocent gathering at the time Jennifer invites a friend she's known since high school to the apartment pool and her roommate shows up to the apartment pool so she introduces them high school friend meet my roommate roommate meet my high school friend it doesn't appear that they like hit it off or anything it's just an introduction Jennifer had no idea that Brenda and Crystal would stay in touch after that Brenda sends a heated message to the only person she wants to talk to right now The message reads quote Ricky cheated on me.

26:48I miss Ricky. I love Ricky I miss you. I love you. Are you mad at me? It almost sounds like the type of message that you would send to the backup on the roster who knows about your tumultuous relationship status But all these desperate text messages are going straight to ricky's mom what yeah ricky's mom for a year straight ricky's mom would field calls from brenda on the regular where brenda would just call her to cry uncontrollably that ricky was cheating on her so she was so devastated that she had to get ricky back because she could not survive this which didn't even sound like ricky to ricky's mom ricky's mom had never known him to be a cheater in a relationship but brenda would cry why is he acting like we're not together anymore quote why is he on match.com when he has me several of my girlfriends saw him on match.com pretending to be single he's cheating how many young females are in residency with him do you know ricky's mom didn't even know during the initial call that ricky and brenda had already broken up the whole year that she didn't know yeah what ricky was not cheating he was just moving on after the breakup but every time brenda would call ricky's mom brenda made it sound like they were still together and he was cheating on her, which is already alarming.

28:05But it's even scarier because Brenda would constantly tell Ricky's mom that if Ricky doesn't come back to her, she will have nothing and she will not live a life without Ricky. She would rather self-exit. Then she would ask, does he call other girls when I'm not around? What can I do to make him want to be with me forever? Look, Ricky's mom has no reason to be an unpaid therapist for Brenda, but she did it because she felt compassion. And then Brenda would go and say something very creepy like, Please pray every day that Ricky will commit himself wholly to me. Please pray for us. Please. Please pray for us to be okay.

28:39Ricky's mom says, quote, Thus began the theme of begging me to pray for them for over a year. And Ricky's mom does pray. She's so sweet. She does in fact pray for Brenda. She prays that Brenda find a kind, loving partner in her life, though it probably most likely will not be Ricky. Ricky's mom lightly suggests, if it's that bad, maybe you guys could try couples counseling or perhaps you should try individual counseling. Yeah, no. Brenda is not even remotely interested. She says that he's contacting girls to go on dates so only prayer can fix this, not counseling. Which, just to clarify, I don't think Ricky's mom knew the extent of their relationship while it was happening, but I don't think that she thought they were ever meant for each other.