Episode 306

22:29It's real food made in real kitchens. Nothing is hidden behind labels, and that kind of transparency says a lot. Nothing to hide, everything to love. Go to JustFoodForDogs.com and get 50 % off your first order. It is Ryan Seacrest here. There was a recent social media trend which consisted of flying on a plane with no music, no movies, no entertainment. But a better trend would be going to ChumbaCasino.com. It's like having a mini social casino in your pocket. Chumba Casino has over 100 online casino-style games, all absolutely free. It's the most fun you can have online and on a plane. So grab your free welcome bonus now at ChumbaCasino.com.

23:06Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW group void. We're prohibited by law. 21 plus terms and conditions apply.

23:25Mike Boudet:22-year-old twin brothers Brian and Brandon Allen had been found wrapped in plastic and bedsheets, then set on fire and left burning on the side of a highway in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The twins shared a condo with their adoptive sister, Linda, and another former foster kid, Julian Catherill. Everyone in the house agreed on one thing. Brandon was trouble. He had people in Jacksonville after him, and it got so bad that he abandoned his newly purchased apartment there and fled to Palm Beach. Linda had told the police that she overheard him talking about buying a gun. Even the Allen kids' legal guardian and executor of their inheritance, LaVon Starks, had agreed.

24:11Mike Boudet:This murder had something to do with Brandon. As she sat with police, she offered more clarity into the lives of these former foster children. I just want to go all the way back to how you became the executor of their estate, you know, who the parents are, you know. First of all, I'm like, how did I ever get involved? I mean, what was your relationship? My first cousin. Okay. My first cousin. Is who? Flora Davis. Flora Davis. Yes. Okay. She's the one that adopted them. Mm-hmm. How old were they when they were adopted by Flora? I think she got them at three. Okay. Okay? They lived in California.

24:51Okay. And in 1995, obviously, she made this decision to make me the executor of her will, which I had no clue about. She passed away in 2011, February 2011. It was then when, right before death, she kind of explained to me, I want you to take care of my daughter, is what she really said.

25:11Mike Boudet:On her deathbed, Mrs. Allen was most concerned about Linda. She wanted to make sure that she wouldn't be out there in the world alone. own. After Mrs. Allen died, Linda, Brian, and Brandon continued to live with their father, but LaVon became involved with the family. Well, I kind of stepped in just a little bit to help him out because she did all the bills. So I kind of stepped in and kind of set up, you know, direct deposit. I mean, you know, making sure the bills got paid. I mean, I've always kind of talked to them, kind of been in their lives in a sense when they moved to Florida because I taught at Palm Beach State up in Belgrade.

25:50So on my way back, I was stopped in La Sahaja and kind of helped them out with their homework and stuff that they had to do. So I've kind of always been the one that's been involved.

26:00Mike Boudet:Despite LaVon stopping by to help them with their homework and other things, they still went astray. All it lies, they've really been on some type of medication, you know, like an ADA or something. But when their mom passed away, I think they all took themselves off, probably off. I think at the time of adoption, I don't know if the parents were into drugs or drugs related. So they, both Linda and the boys, were kind of in that situation when my cousin got them. Then Mr. Allen got sick and died. That's when LaVon became the sole parental figure in their lives, whether she wanted to or not. He passed away in 2015.

26:43Okay, so at this point, I went to the lockbox, got a copy of the will. So I kind of read it and muzzled over it, you know, tried to figure out, you know, what role am I going to play in all this?

26:56Mike Boudet:Linda, Brian, and Brandon were all 18 years old when both their adoptive parents died, the ones who had rescued them from foster care. Brandon dropped out at 10th grade. Linda dropped out, I think, 9th grade. Brian is on his way to graduation from high school. So the rest of them had not finished school. That was, I mean, to me, they just didn't do what they were supposed to do with parents. LaVon had her opinions on how they were brought up. And she was clear. The Allens were not good parents. Brian was the only one on track to finish high school under their watch. But this wasn't acceptable to LaVon.

27:38Mike Boudet:So she helped coach Brandon, and with her guidance, he eventually got his GED. Brian was enrolled at Palm Beach State College, and Brandon was at college in Jacksonville studying aeronautics. But Brandon fell off the achievement wagon fast. And soon, he dropped out and started getting into trouble. So I said, well, here's the deal. Okay, you gotta go to work. I mean, there's no option, no other options. You gotta work. So for Brandon, his condo that was purchased, I said, all you got to do is pay your life bill. That's it. I'm taking care of everything else, the taxes, everything else, the second care of through the estate.

28:19So I don't know what he did. When I bought the condo, he was there. It was his. I mean, I'm on the mortgage. I mean, not the mortgage, but the deed. But it was his. Okay. You know, he's called me a couple of times with issues, you know, like, you know, I need, I had some money set up for them. I set up each one of them a count, you know, a separate account. It was$8 ,000 for each one of them. This is yours when you turn 21. Brandon? $8 ,000 for each one when they turn 21. That was what, a year ago? They just turned, last year they turned 21. Quick question. So was there anything, if something happened to each one of them, would that money that they have just go into the estate for the next, whoever's left?

29:06So Linda would get the entire cell.

29:09Mike Boudet:The Allen children had money, fully paid off condos, and only their electric bills to manage. That's all they had. Very little responsibility in life. But while you would think this would be a privilege, a upper hand, a starting point, that was better than most, in this case, it was a recipe for failure to Brandon and Linda, who dropped out of high school and were only pushed to succeed when LaVon stepped in. Without basic life skills, the money and homes were little more than fragile bandages. One wrong move and everything falls apart. The boys, is it normal for you to not talk to them for a while?

29:54Oh, absolutely. Oh, man, they were... I live a stress-free life. I block out anything that's negative. and they were, oh, they immediately served notice on me. I was not their parent. And I accepted that. I did not ask for this. I'm going to honor your parents' wishes, but trust me, I am not going to be my new daddy right now.

30:17Mike Boudet:Though LaVon made it clear that she wasn't interested in babysitting them, there were a few stipulations with the condo set up for Linda and Brian. First off, Brandon was not allowed to live there. Period. Second, no other roommates. I mean, those are pretty clear instructions. So when LaVon heard Brandon and Linda's friend Julian moved in, she was pretty pissed. She was pissed that they lied to her and pissed that she was stuck dealing with these irresponsible, stunted adults. Do you know about all the roommates they have there? Just found out yesterday. I am livid. Who told you? Linda. Who did she say was living there with her?

31:03Well, I specifically asked the question because I went by there yesterday when I came in, and I found something belonging to, but anyway, this friend that Linda has always had. I saw something belonging to him, and I was like, when was he there? Well, we let him rent, come in and rent, and I was very specific. I mean, when I moved them in there, they had a checklist that they had to sign off on. No overnight gas. So I had to put rules in place because I know they are not responsible. So I put rules in place. She violated that. And I told her, I'm totally disappointed right now.

31:40Mike Boudet:The person she was talking about was Julian. Lavon was not a fan. I know the kid. I met the kid before, but I know he's not good for Linda. And I told her that. Julian. Have you met him before? Of course. Linda was heavily influenced by Julian. Maybe she had a bit of a crush on him, but whatever he said, she did. She really adored him more than she did her own brothers. She called him her god brother, her broski. I know, I know, I'm sorry. I haven't cringed that hard in a while either. Linda works too? She does. What does she work at? She said marshals. She says that marshals? She says marshals?

32:26Oh no, she's at marshals. No, she's at Marshalls. Oh, no, no, no. Which Marshalls? Is it the one on Okeechobee? The one on Okeechobee, yes. No, she'd been there for a while. Okay. Yeah, yeah. But she's not working, working like that. She's like part-time, part-time. Yeah.

32:40Mike Boudet:Linda had given up on her GED with only a few courses left. Now she worked one day a week at Marshalls in the charity program and followed Julian around like a puppy dog. Sounds like a viable future. Does Linda have a boyfriend? a girlfriend? a girlfriend? stop needs to be answered though I know I don't know does she have any significant other that she I don't think so she's a loner I mean I've always known her to be a loner I mean only reason we ask is just you know we were at the house and you know we did look around and in her bedroom there's you know a lot of male mail, mail, mail's correspondence.

33:29There was also, I mean, I noticed there was two chargers plugged into the wall and to the, you know, they were strung underneath each pillow. They were different chargers. So it appears to me that somebody is sleeping in that bed with her.

33:43Mike Boudet:As LaVon looked over her binder of the Allen children's documents, birth certificates, adoptive papers, inheritance records, and photographs, the detective asked a question that made her eyes bug out. Do you know anything about Darren Bird? That's another person that was living in the apartment. You know anything about it? I've never even heard that name before, really? LaVon had never heard of Darren Bird. But Linda told police he'd also been staying at the house. That meant that Linda had three people causing trouble. Brandon and Darren and Julian. The cops needed to dig deeper. Who was this Darren Bird, and had he been staying in Linda's bedroom?

34:34Mike Boudet:Both Linda and Julian handed over their DNA and phones, but as the police interviewed them separately, cracks in their timeline began to appear. Linda insisted that they'd stayed at Julian's girlfriend's house on the Tuesday before Brian and Brandon were found burning on the road. But Julian claimed he'd been out with friends without Linda. Then came the discovery of a cryptic text buried in Julian's phone. When the police confronted him about it, his easygoing attitude suddenly went cold. Your message in there that you sent about you needing to get out of your house and that you were in danger.

35:18What's that all about? Oh, no, it was with some other guys that I love. Tell them about it, because it was just the other day. No. It's like, it's dead. It's a dead situation. Well, tell us. It's not really important. I really not. Well, let me just say this. You're in the homicide unit right now. This is serious.

35:40Mike Boudet:When they pressed him about the text, his confidence fractured, replaced by a defiance that screamed louder than any lie he could tell. My situation is on some other street stuff. Okay. Tell us about that, because maybe it's related that you don't even know it's related. It's basically somebody that I owed money, and I didn't pay him the money back on time. So it was just like, you know, just threats. How much? Like 150. 150 and you get threats that you don't feel safe? In the streets, it's different. You know what I'm saying? So when you know somebody has guns and stuff like that, you don't feel safe.

36:21You know what I'm saying?

36:23Mike Boudet:Julian tried to deny the severity, but the text on his phone said he was scared for his life because of the$150 he owed somebody. $150. $150. That is the price that some lives matter. And some aren't even worth that much, apparently. Anyway, it wasn't clear who he owed this money to. It was just somebody from the streets. He explained to the detectives that there was a code of conduct on the street. No snitching. I'm afraid that if I do say something about my situation, I'd rather pay my situation off and say anything and my life become a danger because... Do I hear what you're saying? I'm only 21.

37:09I've watched the streets longer than you've been in the streets. And the fact is, people do say shit every fucking day, depending on what's convenient or beneficial to them. They'll rat people out, they will turn people in, anything. So there is no street code. That's a bunch of bullshit you may believe that for a moment.

37:27Mike Boudet:The detectives kept pressing him, but Julian got tight-lipped. locking up like the safety on a loaded gun. I'm not willing to give those names. Let me ask you this. Yeah. One of those people came to the house and you just happened to be there and they decided they were going to get money out of your roommates instead. Then you don't think it's your issue then? I'm just not willing to speak about it. I'm sorry. Respect is not weakness. Do you understand that? Yeah, of course. So what were you going to say just now? No, I was saying like normally, personally, I don't talk to police officers just because of my opinion.

38:00personal experiences. Sure. You know what I'm saying? So any like further questions, man, I'm going to just have to, I'm not saying anything without an attorney present or anything like that. So that's what I'm going to have to take up.

38:12Mike Boudet:And with that, Julian took back his phone and stopped talking. He wanted a lawyer. Before the male detective left, he had one more thing to say to Julian. You made me very concerned with your statement. Linda, on the other hand, was still talking. I guess she wasn't from the streets, you know? She explained that Darren was staying there temporarily. Who else has been in the house lately, whether they're friends of them or friends of yours? Past few days. Just me? And Julian came by to visit for a couple hours and then you left. No one else has been by at the house at all? No, not that I know of.

38:53You know, every time someone comes and goes, it's logged at the gate. Yeah. Well, there was Darren, but we all went to Julian's girlfriend's house. Did Darren come to the house? He didn't come inside. But he came to the house? Yeah. Okay, well, I need to know that in the house. What kind of car does Darren drive? He doesn't drive. How'd he get there? His girlfriend. What kind of car does his girlfriend drive? A red Toyota.

39:21Mike Boudet:It's like pulling teeth with some people, interrogating them. Bad teeth with lots of cavities. Darren Bird was an 18-year-old kid who had grown up in foster care with Julian. He was also the only white kid living in the condo. Darren's biological father was a low-life, deadbeat career thief with a record that was a mile long. After a domestic violence episode in 1997, court records allude that young Darren had been put into foster care. He'd been in the system his whole life. That's where he met Julian. Darren aged out of the foster care system at 18 and enrolled in college. He used whatever little money he got from the state to pay for Linda's electric bill instead of rent.

40:10Mike Boudet:If you recall, Linda didn't have a mortgage. She was only responsible for the electric bill. Following the details of his girlfriend's red Toyota made it easy to find Darren. Darren met his girlfriend while studying at Palm Beach State College. Her father was a sheriff with the Palm Beach Sheriff's Department, which was investigating the Allen twins' murder. Darren repeated the same story about Brandon that Julian and Linda had. I'm really going to lie. After I heard that, like, that they were missing, like, I tried not to go back there. It's because I'm scared. Yeah, because you don't know, right?

40:49I said, like, whatever, whatever's going on, like, that this is not, like, it's not normal stuff. You know what I'm saying? And it kind of, it freaks me out, you know what I'm saying? It's just, like I said, it's not a movie. This isn't a movie. I haven't even went back to the house because I don't know what's going on. I'm, like, I'm afraid to get new clothes, you know what I'm saying? I hear you. I've been wearing the same fucking clothes for, like, three days now. Okay.

41:19Mike Boudet:Linda's apartment was nice, so it was lined with cameras and a guard who worked the front gate. Darren's girlfriend's red Toyota had been seen backing into the garage on the night the police assumed that the twins had been murdered. The car waited for 21 minutes, then took off. The police had towed Darren's girlfriend's car from the college for evidence. When she showed up to meet the police, she was not happy.

42:15Can I leave? Leave. You can do whatever you want. Okay.

42:22All right. The only thing I asked was for what happened to the call? It's going to be here for a long, long time. Why? Because we believe it was used in a crime. So unless you can kind of help me figure some things out. But how am I supposed to help you figure things out? Because you know exactly when you talk to Darren. You know exactly where he was at on such and such days. You can't tell me you don't.

42:44Mike Boudet:Darren's girlfriend clenched her lips and sat down in a huff. The cop needed to know what happened last Monday night. Monday night, if you could look at your... Oh, well, we text each other on a daily basis. Okay. What I'm saying, if you're texting somebody at, say, 10 o 'clock on Monday night, obviously you're not with him, right? So if you were to go back through your phone, you could say, Oh, yeah, Monday night I wasn't with him. I was texting him at 10 o 'clock. He must have been somewhere else. Would that jog your memory if you were to do that? Probably not, because I delete my phone numbers and my messages.

43:26Okay. Like on a weekly basis. Okay. So. All right.

43:32Mike Boudet:No problem. What 18-year-old college student do you know deletes their entire phone history on a weekly basis? Come on. I believe you're not telling me all the truth. That's what I'm just trying to tell you right now. Well, I just feel like you're not understanding my truth. Okay, tell me then. Would you have a problem letting us download your phone to get your deleted text messages from him? Yes. You would have a problem? Yes. Okay. Darren's girlfriend refused to hand over her deleted texts, citing privacy concerns. She wasn't under any legal obligation to share her phone, so she didn't. But the cops had her car, and they zeroed in on Darren.

44:17Mike Boudet:The red Toyota Corolla told them everything they needed to know. And when they opened the trunk, the blood they found was confirmed by DNA to belong to Brandon. Forensically, we've done a lot of investigation in this case. There are two people that are dead. This is not going to go away. we are confident that you are lying to us now and you know more so let's go back to when you actually last saw the brothers and be honest okay be honest i told you the last time i saw the brothers because like i said i didn't see them except the night like on sunday you know what I'm saying? And then Monday when I left for school is the last time I seen one of them.

45:09That's not true. And I know that's not true. Because forensically and other ways that we do things, we know that that's not true. So I need you. If you know the truth, then, because I'm trying to tell you what I know.

45:21Mike Boudet:If you know the truth, I mean, give that picture of that shoe. The police had searched Linda's house from top to bottom. After using Luminol, They found bloodstains in the foyer and garage. There were also a pair of sneakers in Linda's bedroom with blood on the bottom of them. Darren, I can't impart on you how important it is that you just come out with what you know, what you saw, not this distancing thing that you're doing right now. Let's show you some photos. I'm going to show you a picture of a shoe before we can go further in this. The detective leaned forward, gray hair disheveled, his frustration barely contained.

46:07Mike Boudet:He could have been Darren's father with that worn, determined look. But Darren sat there, arms crossed, stubborn as a mule. The detective pulled out a photo and slid it across the table. What size shoes do you wear? Me? Yeah. I wear a size nine and a half to ten. All right. Do you have a pair of shoes similar to that? Yeah. You do? Yep. Okay. What would you say if I told you I had you on a video? A video? I'm not going to tell you this. I'm not going to tell you. Well, that would support us knowing that you have some more knowledge than you're saying. I would like to see that video then. The video they had showed Darren pulling up to Linda's condo gate.

46:57Mike Boudet:in his girlfriend's red Toyota the day after the bodies were discovered. He saw a cluster of flashing police vehicles outside Linda's driveway, pulled a U-turn, and took off. So there was never a time you came through that gate and you saw law enforcement down in front of your house? Uh-uh. That's not true. We saw you turn around in your girlfriend's car and go back out the gate, and you were checking, hold on, hold on, I'm just going to give you this little Easter egg. You, security told us, that you were there. They were watching for you. They saw you come down. We saw you. I actually saw you turn around and go back out in the girlfriend's car.

47:35So you're not telling the truth. Darren, come on. If you saw that then, I know that didn't happen. Really? Yes, I do know that didn't happen because that, I'm thinking about everything, that never happened.

47:49Mike Boudet:Darren walked into the police station the day after the murders, unprompted, ready to give a statement. According to him, he'd tried to speak with someone but was told the detectives weren't available. A few days passed. By then, the police had already talked to Linda, Julian, and LaVon. They'd even tow Darren's girlfriend's Toyota into evidence. That's when they showed up at the college to pick him up. If I'm going to go in and make a police statement, can I please finish what I'm saying? Sorry to cut you off, but no, you're sitting there trying to put something, You're trying to say some crazy stuff right now, and I'm trying to help you.

48:28You know what I'm saying? If I seen detectives, and I'm going to see a detective anyways, why wouldn't I just go and get that out of the way so I'm not dragged out of school, made to look like a fucking criminal? Hey, Darren, on the night these two guys were murdered, you were seen at a location, okay? I won't tell you that much. Where? Where was I? I want to know what happened that night. I do not know, I said.

48:57Mike Boudet:Darren wasn't going to crack. His fight against the evidence was as solid as the table between them. The blood. The sneaker. The car. It was all closing in. He had an excuse for everything, but Darren wasn't staying strong in an attempt to only save himself. He was protecting someone else. Someone he loved way too much to betray.

49:50person was an appliance genius. She told me about their free install offer on Benchmark Appliances and it was a done deal for me. Wow, free install from the pros at Grand? That's a no-brainer. Agreed. They make it so easy. There you have it. Grand for the win. Check out grandappliance.com for full details. This is Chelsea Halner from Dear Chelsea. If you travel a lot with your dog like I do with Doug, feeding them well on the road can get surprisingly complicated, especially when you're touring 30 plus cities, staying in hotels, flying, driving, and basically living out of a suitcase. Frozen dog food sounds great until you realize you don't exactly have a freezer backstage.

50:29That's why I started bringing Just Fresh from Just Food for Dogs. It's real fresh dog food made with human grade ingredients with meat and vegetables you can see in the bowl, but the difference is it's shelf stable, which means I don't need a freezer or a cooler and there's no prep. So now I can throw a few packs in my bag and Doug still gets a healthy meal wherever we are. Doug absolutely loves it. And I like knowing I am feeding my baby something that's actually good for him. It's also the number one vet recommended fresh dog food made without preservatives or fillers. Go to justfoodfordogs.com and get 50 % off your first order.

51:05Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing. Another checkered flag for the books. Time to celebrate with Chumba. Jump in at ChumbaCasino.com. Let's Chumba! No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Voidware prohibited by law. CTNC's 21 Plus. Sponsored by Chumba Casino.

51:35Mike Boudet:Brian and Brandon Allen had been found murdered and left to burn on the side of a highway in Palm Beach Gardens. The Allen twins lived with their adoptive sister, Linda, and two other products of the foster care system, Julian Catherill and Darren Bird. Everyone, even the Allen Children's executor of the estate, thought the murder had something to do with Brandon and his enemies in Jacksonville. But new evidence had pointed to Darren and Julian. Julian first played it cool with the cops. Then they dug into his record. He was the only one with jail time under his belt and carried himself like a streetwise tough guy, a reputation he clearly enjoyed.

52:26Mike Boudet:In 2016, he'd been arrested for carrying a loaded gun without a license, and he was still on parole when the murders happened. But despite being on probation, Julian asked for a lawyer, and that was it. They had nothing to tie him to the crime. Then Linda was called back to the station. Like a lost little child, she slumped her head and arms on the desk and spoke softly. So you said you last spoke with Darren when? Saturday. Come on, give us a little more than that. You spoke about more than just a movie he watched. Yeah, because I was going to tell him that they, I didn't like, so they say they identified the bodies.

53:09And then he just kind of ran around about a movie and it kind of just pissed me off. Like, he just, the way he is, he just made me mad. So I didn't really want to talk to him that long. And you didn't, I mean, this is, these are your brothers. And you didn't have a conversation with Darren, one of your roommates, about your brothers? I mean, come on, straight up.

53:35Come on. Don't hold back. I mean, you said you, you said you, you're down here on your own. You must be down here because you're concerned. You want to assist us, obviously, in the murder of your brothers, right? Yeah or no? Yeah. Okay. So, honestly, you know I don't believe that you didn't talk to him about this.

54:00Mike Boudet:Linda was weak. The detectives could tell that someone had fed her a story to repeat. And somewhere along the way, she messed it up. Now, here she was, a ninth grade dropout who worked one day a week at Marshall's, being questioned about her involvement in the murder of her twin brothers. And we went into your apartment. And there is a lot of evidence that we found in that apartment. And I need you to be honest with me of what happened to your brothers, because I know that you know. Hold on, hold on, okay? This is the situation. You're either part of what happened, or you're simply someone that knows about what happened.

54:45Those are the only two things that I believe that you are. We don't tell you the evidence that we have, but I can assure you, you know, we went back in there, we got a search warrant, and we recovered an amazing amount of evidence.

54:59Mike Boudet:Linda pressed her hand to her forehead. She closed her eyes and shook her head like the information she knew would somehow magically fall out and disappear. Just when we were just talking to me. Talking to everybody. We're not going to discuss it. Where's your phone? Where's your phone? We have a search warrant. We have a search warrant for your phone. I'm going to take the phone. I don't want it now. And I'm just going to explain how a search warrant works. We can take everything that you deleted in this phone and it will be recovered. We do it all the time. We're not playing. We're not going away.

55:35Mike Boudet:Linda handed over her phone, and the male detective left the room to extract what he could. Left alone with the female officer, Linda started to open up. I would say that I know how this works. How what works? How would I say who did it without them saying that I told them? like if you guys do find out who didn't can you just say you guys cleaned up really bad and Linda doesn't know that I'm not I don't tell well I'm not going to tell them that you said anything okay I'm if you are in fear for your life that something's going to happen to you I'm not putting you in danger because then guess who's homicide I'm going to be working I don't want anything bad to happen to you.

56:22I want to put these people away so they can't hurt you or anybody else. Because what they did to your brothers is absolutely disgusting.

56:32Mike Boudet:Linda looked down at her hands and then sighed. She knew she was safe to talk, so she did. A long time ago, after her parents died, Brandon had dad's gun. because this thing stems from years ago. Okay. I didn't know how the whole payment thing went, but Julian had bought the gun from Brandon, I guess, for$150. And he never gave him the money for it, so he made like a payment plan or something. Along with the money and the apartments, Brandon also had inherited Mr. Allen's gun with his possessions. He sold it to Julian, who was eventually arrested for carrying it around without a license. But Julian never paid for the gun.

57:25Mike Boudet:So when Brandon came down from Jacksonville, he wanted his$150. But Julian kept brushing him off. He'd pay him soon. The tensions mounted. When Julian got on probation, the police, the sheriffs, the department came to search the house, and they found Darren's rebounding in Julian's back there. Okay. And then, like, Julian went to jail for it for five days and said it was all Darren's car. So when he was in jail, me and Shetna were really the only ones concerned and trying to do something, apparently, to Julian, Darren wasn't trying to, and that really pissed him off. He was supposed to be my so-called brother.

58:04Mike Boudet:Julian was like Darren's older brother. They were four years apart. They'd been shuffled from foster home to foster home in tandem, and they had stuck together through it all. Linda said that now there was even more tension in the house, and that's when Brandon asked Darren to help him buy a shotgun. Brandon came to Darren to buy a shotgun for$1 ,500 to basically do all for Julian because he didn't give him the money. Julian found out Brandon was trying to get a gun to hurt him, and this weird gossip chain brought Darren and Julian back together. That's when they decided that Brandon was actually the enemy in the house.

58:47Mike Boudet:Meanwhile, Brandon was not shy about his plan to kill Julian over$150. Oh, I'll cut a nigga through and they sleep and this and that. And I'm like, wow, he used to try to do the same thing to me when we were kids. Okay. And then it's like, and then it's just like, it kind of hit Julian there. It's like, he put two and two together. Like, wow, he's really like that. and he's like it was only then like they um they stopped fucking with Brandon like period because they saw how he was and he eventually got 350 dollars from Brian he bought 350 dollars from Brian to get the shot. Brandon did yeah okay and it's like everything was starting to come to light so and it made it even worse when Julian overheard Brandon on the phone talking to somebody about doing something to somebody and threatening people's lives and everything and getting the shotgun at a gun show.

59:40Mike Boudet:Darren and Julian thought that Brandon was going to kill them both. Or at least, that's what they told Linda. Meanwhile, Brandon steered clear of everyone and created fear in the house. Julian wasn't one to accept fear, especially from a kid his own age. Another alpha male trying to take his place in the house? No. No way. Ain't gonna happen. Julian had texted a photo of the gun that Brandon had sold him to his girlfriend. And she wrote, Looks used as fuck, lol. But that'll work. Julian wrote back, It is. Lol. But shit. As long as it knock a nigga off his feet. It's a quote, guys. Try controlling your emotions for once.

1:00:26Mike Boudet:But testosterone rage, resentment, and rumors swirled around Linda's condo until she just couldn't take it anymore. They called a roommate house meeting. I had him text at Brian and tell him, hey, we need to have a talk in the garage. And it was about Brandon. Linda, Darren, and Julian went into the garage and waited for the twins. Julian had the gun in his pants. Linda knew it, but said nothing. When the twins came in, the arguments started. Linda tried to play motherly mediator, but her desperate cries were ignored. And things escalated between Darren, Julian, and Brandon. You guys, please, I'm begging you to just listen to me, please.

1:01:15I was begging God to let them just shut up and listen to me. For once, you guys don't ever listen to me every time I try to tell something. and then they just talked about how, like, whatever I say doesn't even go because it was Brian's house too and yada, yada, yada. So I threw my hands up.

1:01:31Mike Boudet:Linda started to make her way to the door. Then Julian pulled out his gun and fired it at Brian. I saw Julian up the pistol and I hit my dog. I could not believe I shot my gun in my stomach. Brian staggered backwards, his breath hitching as the bullet tore into him. He was the first to be shot. It was ironic, really, since he'd been the one man in this fight who'd barely had a voice. He got shot how many times? He got shot in the stomach. In the stomach? Okay. And did he die right away? No, he was a bit scared. I couldn't even think straight after that. I just saw my brother get shot. I don't know what to do.

1:02:21And it's like I heard a second shot and Brandon got shot in the arm. And I guess he tried to leave. I don't know how Darren got back inside. But Brandon tried to go back inside and Darren pushed him back down there. And I felt like I was in a horror movie. I walked out the back door, and I just kept walking. And I heard another gunshot, and I just kept walking.

1:02:56Mike Boudet:Paralyzed with fear, Linda burst out the back door and walked aimlessly through her condo complex. She walked and sobbed, pushing the tears angrily off her cheeks. She had nowhere to go, no one to run to. Brandon and Brian were dead. Julian was all she had left, so she turned around and walked back to her condo. I was barefoot that day. It was cold outside, and I didn't know where I was going. I just didn't want to be there. And then, around the time I got to the front door, everything was quiet. And me and me and Darren came down. I was shaking. I couldn't think straight. And then they said, come on, we have to get out of here.

1:03:48Linda followed Julian and Darren as they led her through the back of the complex over the gate.

1:03:54Mike Boudet:The three ran until they reached the back of a target. They waited until Julian said it was safe. And then they returned home. We went inside, but I didn't want to look inside the garage. I waited until the closed door and I went upstairs. I felt sick to my stomach and I wanted to go to sleep. I was really tired. I couldn't go to sleep. They were going to try and clean it up. And they talked about getting all the bedspreads and everything. And they were gathering up the bedspreads so they could wrap the bodies up and bring them upstairs. I didn't want anything to do with it after that. I was just praying to God to make the pain out of my heart.

1:04:38Mike Boudet:Julian and Darren told Linda to close her bedroom door and stay put. The boys worked together, stripping bedsheets to wrap the twins' lifeless bodies. One by one, they dragged them upstairs, the weight of their actions heavier with each step, and dumped them on top of each other in the master bathtub. up. Brandon and Brian's bodies mirrored how their lives started. Two brothers tangled together as they had been in the womb. As I was coming in the room after Stacy to death, the bathroom door opened. Darren looked at me and saw how hurt I was, so he closed the door. I was really angry, like I couldn't even express how angry I was.

1:05:24Mike Boudet:Although she was angry, Linda let Darren and Julian into her room after they had finished cleaning up the crime scene. The three curled up in Linda's bed together and fell asleep, knowing they would have to take this to the grave. My burdens were all I had left. And to be honest, I'm still kind of holding a grudge against me for that. The$150 that Julian owed Brandon was the alleged street business that Julian would not elaborate on for the detectives. In the vague text on his phone, they had discovered his motive for murder, and he knew it. So, he shut his mouth and pleaded the fifth. Julian was the only seasoned criminal in the bunch.

1:06:12Mike Boudet:When the murder was done, he told Linda and Darren to delete all their messages. He instructed them to use WhatsApp to text about anything having to do with Brandon or Brian. He thought he was clever enough to get away with murder. He scared Linda into silence, convincing her that if any of them went down, they'd all go down together. He thought she'd never talk. But when the cops gave her the option, she told the truth. Julian was never her godbrother. He was just an opportunistic user who took advantage of Linda, whether she saw this or not. The goodness still left in her made her tell the truth.

1:06:56Mike Boudet:Finally. So you told us all this because it's true and it's because your two brothers are murdered and you want the people that did it to come to justice? Yes? Or are you telling us because we've made you tell them to tell you? No, it's not fair to Brandon and Brian that they left like that. So you're saying this because you're terrible. I can see. It's just I feel like nobody understands how I feel right now. I don't know what you're feeling because my brother's not dead. It must be horrible. I don't know what you're going through. It's got to be terrible. And these are people that you more or less trusted.

1:07:34You feel betrayed, don't you? I didn't know he was going to do that. I don't know. You've been scared for a little bit, haven't you? After that, I barely had talked to him and Darren. I didn't even want anything. Have they contacted you today, either of them? No, just Darren. Not Darren, but Julian just asked, like, just said his usual, hey, good morning. Does he know you were going to come down here today? Did you tell him? I don't recall, and he hasn't asked, so. Don't. don't tell him that you came down here today.

1:08:09Mike Boudet:Linda said she was afraid Julian would kill her if he knew she told the truth. The detectives promised to get her on a plane to Georgia to be with LaVon as soon as possible. Linda sat shaking as the detectives took her phone again to extract the deleted evidence. Then she piped up with a question. But if you guys do recover anything, you guys aren't going to make it be deleted. that you guys can recover it, because there's some stuff that I deleted, I want it back. Yeah, and you can recover everything. Brian had texted me on my birthday and told me something that really made me happy. What did he tell you on your birthday?

1:08:50You know, you're getting older and you've done a lot for this family and how much they appreciated it. And that meant a lot to you? Me and Brian, we went three years without talking to each other in the house once. You know, stuff like that makes me happy.

1:09:05Mike Boudet:Linda, Brian, and Brandon may not have had the best upbringings or parental figures, or they may not have even come from the same bloodline, but they were family. Now Linda would be out in the world alone. With Linda's confession in hand, the detectives turned back to Darren. They needed him to unravel enough to pin the murders on Julian. But Darren was as unyielding as he was devoted to the only brother he'd ever truly had. Maybe it was the guilt Julian piled on him over those five measly days in jail, or the endless need to prove he was worthy of Julian's respect. Maybe it was their age, their skin, or maybe something deeper.

1:09:56Mike Boudet:They were two fatherless boys lost in the shuffle, fumbling through life and trying to figure out how to be men in all the wrong ways. It's tough out there for young men in 2025. And don't you forget about it. Don't minimize it. Don't laugh about it. Don't pretend it isn't a problem. It is. So you need to step up and be honest with us because you're going to go down for somebody else's shit. And you don't have a criminal record. You do not have it. You're not a bad person. You're not a bad kid. You're saying you didn't do something. Tell me what you saw. I didn't see. I was not. I was not there.

1:10:40Mike Boudet:Three detectives questioned Darren for over six hours. He denied knowing anything. His ability to lie under pressure was impressive for an 18-year-old. But the detectives played Linda and Julian against him, saying those two had agreed that Darren committed the murders. They have done this to you. You got put in a position by this guy here. And you're not the bad kid. You're the loyal one. He brought you in here. And your misplaced loyalty? You're screwed. You're not giving yourself an out. Hey, I'm just giving you fatherly advice. If it was my son, I would want him fighting for himself in this, not sticking up for somebody else.

1:11:24Just saying.

1:11:26Mike Boudet:But Darren knew it wasn't true. He was loyal to his promise to Julian. The truth goes to the grave. Darren was free to go, and in the meantime, they found his girlfriend and served her a warrant for her cell phone. All right, is that your cell phone? Mm-hmm. Some warrant for your cell phone, okay? Here you go. There's a copy of it. We're taking your cell phone. Once we get it downloaded, I don't know if we're keeping it or not. I think after we clone it or copy it fully, then we'll be able to get it back to you. We'll have to consult with the attorney and see what's going on. But I'll do my best to get it back to you.

1:12:10Mike Boudet:Darren's girlfriend stood dumbfounded as the police confiscated her phone. You can't come here and give me a warrant if you never give me a heads up and say, hey, we're going to take your life. Like, who the hell am I supposed to call? Would you like me to call your dad and say, hey? No, because I think he's an asshole, and I don't know what you told him, but he's really bitching about, like, thinking I'm, like, the same thing that you told me. Okay, I'm telling the truth. He thinks I'm not telling the truth. If he asks again, tell him to keep his nose out of the investigation because it's not his place.

1:12:45Mike Boudet:Darren's girlfriend's phone revealed that she actually had no involvement. The night that the bodies were dumped, she was texting Darren crazy messages that read like novels. So angry that he was late returning her car. With the blood evidence, video footage, DNA, and Linda's confession, Darren and Julian were looking at murder and tampering with evidence. Only 14 days after Brian and Brandon were murdered, Darren and Julian were separately arrested. Julian stayed quiet, but Darren asked to talk to a detective one more time. What's going on, man? You asked to talk to me again, right? I have a question.

1:13:30So, I know how the shows are and stuff, but how does witness protection actually work? Can I just ask you why? Have you been threatened? That's out of the question right now. I'm asking, how does witness protection work? And let's say I did have something to say, I need assurance. You need assurance.

1:13:51Mike Boudet:The detective sat in his chair while Darren stood before him like a subordinate, getting the courage to ask his boss for a raise that he knew he didn't deserve. Do you understand that you're being charged with murder, correct? Do you understand that? Mm-hmm. Okay, so you're not going to be outside of the jail at all. Okay. Okay, you're going to jail. All right, so you've been charged with murder. But it hadn't dawned on Darren. He thought that if he finally told the truth, there may be some golden ticket of freedom for him on the other side. That was never on the table. Darren was going to trial and possibly life in prison.

1:14:36Mike Boudet:He was still terrified to tell the truth for one reason. Julian. I'm scared to talk. Nothing's going to happen to you. Oh, I know. All right? Nothing's going to happen to you. We're going to arrest Julian just like we arrested you. All right, so he's going to be also, you know, in jail, not able to get to anybody or do anything like that. Not. Okay, you guys will be separated, nobody will be next to each other, you're going to be in your own little area, he'll be in his own little, you're not in the same part of the story. No, you're not going to be anywhere close to each other. There's no way he's going to get to you.

1:15:18Mike Boudet:Julian had put the fear of God in Darren, and it showed. Sitting with the detective, Darren let the details of murder slip. He knew the type of gun. He helped clean up. He moved bodies and even drove his girlfriend's Toyota to the burn site. Toyota's a great car, by the way. Not just saying that because they're a sponsor, although they have been quite generous. It's good preservation of your car's value there on resale, usually, with a Toyota. Just saying. All right, anyway, sorry. Getting back to the story, he did drive that Toyota to the burn site and did a whole bunch of other stuff, but he just couldn't tell the whole story.

1:16:04Mike Boudet:Every few minutes, he stopped, his words catching in his throat as if two voices were warring inside his own head, his own conscience, and Julian's looming presence. Where did you clean the car at? You didn't come back to the apartment that night, did you, in that car? No. Where'd you go after? I had me give her a car back. Where did you take it to give her a car back? I didn't matter where we were at. Where's that? We were hanging out, you know, at a park. Okay. We'll park. I can't keep being in person. Why? Because, man. I need some insurance. Like, I'm already scared, bro. I told you. I've done.

1:16:47Mike Boudet:I told you, man. You're going to be fine. But things wouldn't be just fine. And Darren knew it. As he sat in jail awaiting trial and paralyzed with fear that Julian would befriend some goons to come kill him in his cell, he had a change of heart. All that time alone to think in his cell really worked. And on April 4th, 2017, Darren was taken out of jail to get in a police car and drive to the corner of Windsor Avenue and 13th Street and West Palm Beach. Up here at the stop sign, on the right, down at the bottom, there's a great right there. Can you see that? This one right here? Yeah. In the storm drain, the police pulled out the old semi-automatic pistol that Brandon had sold Julian.

1:17:41Mike Boudet:The same one he used to murder the Allen twins. It was wrapped in a plastic bag and thrown in the gutter. They found pictures of the gun in the deleted images on Julian's cell phone. You know what he did with the shelf patients?

1:18:05Actually, I may know where one is. Oh, shit. I also may know where one of their cell phones is.

1:18:16Mike Boudet:Darren led police to a spot on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, where Julian had thrown Brandon's cell phone. Despite his cooperation, Darren was still charged with murder and a slew of other felonies. Julian's trial went first in 2022. He was sentenced to life in prison for the deaths of both Brandon and Brian Allen. Darren's trial took place in 2024. He'd grown a thick blonde beard on his babyish face. Darren was sentenced to life in prison for tampering with physical evidence and second-degree murder for Brandon Allen. He was acquitted of the murder for Brian Allen. There's one last piece of this puzzle, and we need your help to solve it.

1:19:06Mike Boudet:A video was recovered from the night the bodies were burned. That's just six seconds long. In the background, you can hear the fire crackling, consuming what was left of the twins. Then, a voice cuts through the night. Ooh, yeah! We're gonna fly you right there. Booyah. the detectives can't figure out whose voice this was. It didn't quite match Darren's girlfriend, or Julian's girlfriend who had a low voice, or Linda. But who am I to say? I'm not a forensic voice analyst. I don't know, is that a job? Not sure where you would even go to get a degree for that, but it sounds like a woman was there, watching as the bodies were unloaded and set ablaze.

1:20:03Was it Linda?

1:20:04Mike Boudet:Was her entire story a fabrication? Or is it someone who has yet to face justice? The only female-owned cell phones the police had warrants for were Darren's girlfriend and Linda. You've heard both of their voices on this episode. Without knowing which phone the video came from, we'll never know. And detectives could not tell us when we asked for clarification. So, I'll leave it up to you, the listener. Whose voice was on that tape? Ooh, yeah! We're gonna fly you right there. Booyah. Brian, Brandon, and Linda were rescued from foster care when the Allen family adopted them. But, as LaVon had said, their parents failed them where it mattered most.

1:21:01Mike Boudet:They gave Linda, Brandon, and Brian condos and bank accounts in their death, but neglected to instill basic life skills while they were still alive. But, Darren and Julian were entirely abandoned by the system. Left to fend for themselves, they lack the guidance every kid needs. Maybe things would have been different if Darren's father had been a dad. Who knows? But instead, he had only Julian to love and fear, like a father. Brian also looked to Brandon with a certain authority, but I don't think it had anything to do with fatherlessness, more so wanting to keep the connection to his twin. No matter how flawed Brandon was, he was still Brian's twin.

1:21:52Mike Boudet:And in the end, siding with Brandon was the reason he lost his life. Be careful where you place your loyalty. Sometimes the ones you idolize are just as misguided as you may be, still searching for their destiny, good or evil.

1:22:35Mike Boudet:Well, I tried. I tried to make sword and scale television available on other platforms like Facebook, for example, and YouTube, but I don't think I can. You see, all this woke shit got me canceled. And there you are. We couldn't just be on Patreon and avoid the whole thing. I mean, I don't think you guys realize how much money it costs to build your own app. Not to mention how complicated it is. You never please everybody, but, you know, we're doing the best we can here. So if you like Sword and Scale, head on over to swordandscale.com. check out our website, download our app, and check out our TV show.

1:23:20Mike Boudet:I mean, there's a whole lot of it right now, 16 episodes, I believe. They're all very good. Very, very good. So, here's your chance to be part of something. Help us fund it. Help us create it from scratch. eventually we'd like to have multiple seasons spanning many years that we can broadcast to you in some way the general public that is not sure if it's going to be on TV because the future of TV doesn't look very bright you know what I mean but thanks for joining us once again and until next time stay safe

1:24:16Thank you.

1:24:43Thank you.

1:25:09Thank you.

1:25:57Hello, appliance fans. I'm here at Grand Appliance where Katie just bought a new Samsung laundry pair. Talk about your experience, Katie. My salesperson was amazing. He knew everything about appliances and was even able to get it on a delivery and install route for tomorrow. Wow, next day delivery? Yes, my laundry is piling up, so this is a lifesaver. There you have it, Grand for the win. Check out GrandAppliance.com for full details. Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing. Victory Lane? Yeah, it's even better with Chumba by my side. Race to ChumbaCasino.com. Let's Chumba! No purchase necessary. VGW Group.

1:26:37Void where prohibited by law. CT &C's 21 Plus. Sponsored by Chumba Casino.