It's hard to believe it's been nearly a year since I started a life of
social distancing. I remember when all of this started last March. My boyfriend
and I couldn't imagine it going on longer than the summer. Boy, were
we wrong. One of the running jokes in the true crime community was how
long it would take before someone used the coronavirus as a murder cover up.
When I started researching for the second half of this season, I knew I
wanted to look up COVID nineteen murders, and sadly was not shocked when I
discovered a story that took place maybe a month after America started locking down murderers.
If they used their brains for good, we might have a cure for
cancer instead of unsolved crimes and domestic terrorism. Flashback to Jupiter, Florida on
March twentieth, twenty twenty. It was another long week at work for the
fifty one year old greutg and Anthony. Specific details haven't emerged about what she
did for a living, but we know it was with the Florida Utility Company.
Oh. I don't know about you, Grudge, but I am beat.
You. Better rest up tonight. Honey, because I canceling our lunch
plans tomorrow. Oh you'll know. I'll be there. Girl. You have
to fill me in on the divorce so you can tell all the other gals
about it. Of course, Oh you're patty, But of course I'll tell
you everything. God, David's crazy. You got out at a good time.
Cheryl told me about his arrest last week. What sicko approaches fifteen year
old girls, David exactly. That's why you never go for the sexy,
tall, athletic ones. They always have some dark secret. Mine is his
criminal past. Oh well, he's out of your life now, hopefully for
good. I don't know, though, Jennifer. I'm terrified of him coming
back or something. Don't let him bother you anymore. You're safe. See
you tomorrow. But Gretchen wouldn't show up for lunch, and when Monday rolled
around she skipped out on work two. Her coworkers and boss began to worry
because that wasn't like her at all. Jennifer, have you heard from her?
Nothing? God, I hope she's okay. Maybe she forgot to call
him sick Ah, here we go. She just sent an email. Let's
see out sick. Sorry I ain't called sooner. I got a small fever
this weekend and woke up this morning short of breath. I went to the
Jupiter Medical Center for a COVID test and they told me I got an acute
case there oh wrong version of there. Put me under the care of his
CDC task force and I'll be quarantine for two weeks. Poor thing. That's
so scary. It's a lie. She hasn't been to that doctor's office since
two thousand and eight, and that's not how Gretchen talks. You're right,
something's off about this. I'm calling her mother and the police to check in
on her. Hopefully we're both being crazy. Spoiler alert, they weren't.
Gretchen Anthony did not have COVID nineteen, nor was she the first person whose
attacker used an illness. Welcome to Deadtime Stories, a weekly podcast where I
Skyler Fastonel take you through a true crime event and the style of an old
fashioned radio show. If you're a fan of our show and you want to
support us even more, head on over to Patreon dot com slash og Deadtime.
We'll be back with our program after these brief messages. Come on and
buddy, welcome home. Oh hi, Lenny, come here and give me
a hug. Lenny was a young boy growing up in New York during the
eighties and nineties. His parents had both passed away recently, and so his
older cousin had adopted him. Do you want to cry? Go ahead and
cry. It's okay, Carol. Why did mommy and daddy both get aids?
Carol, whose name has been made up by the way, looked at
her husband nervously. He slowly nodded, it's okay. He's a smart kid,
and he knows his dad used to party. Well, sweetheart, Sometimes
terrible things happen to good people. But while you're living with us, we
are going to have the best time. We're going to the hot Fudge Sundays
and watch a movie, go to baseball games or the theater, whatever you
want. Pal, I like those things, but I never never gonna get
AIDS. I don't want to die and make my kids sad. Hello,
mister Royale, we need you to come in to discuss your recent test results.
Oh my god, why is everything okay? It'll be best if you
come in, mister. No, no, no, no, no.
You guys always tell me it's negative on the phone. If I have to
come in, it's something terrible. So what is it, mister Royale.
It will be better, Bodocks lady, just tell him what he's got.
He's scared after death. I'm so sorry, mister Royal, but your HIV
test came back positive. Now in his thirties, Lenny felt like his life
was over. He couldn't think about his success as a celebrity makeup artist or
how he journeyed around the world to Brighton, England. To him, this
was his death sentence. Thank you for coming in, mister Royale. I
wish I could have told you something different. It's all right. I have
a few pamphlets here and we can talk about treatment. We have a bevy
of cocktails that can bring you down to undetectable. The other thing, and
this might be a wee bit awkward, but we need to talk about your
sexual partners. They need to be notified in case they don't realize they have
it right. The reason I got tested to begin with was because of the
Scottish guy. The nurse sat up straighter. I don't normally do this,
but can you tell me more about him? Yeah? Sure, he stood
Daryl, What how are you? You gave me your address, dumb ass.
Remember you're on grinder begging me to come over and fuck your tight little
bussy, so I'm here to beat it up. You also didn't want to
use a condom, and I told you I didn't like it. Bear,
Yeah, yeah, sure, I thought about it some more, and you're
right. That's reckless and jerking off to that tight pink hole isn't as nice
as fucking it. So I'll wear a condom, all right, Fine,
come in. Lenny led the twinkie man into his bedroom and grabbed a condom
from the nightstand. Darrel looked down at the shiny wrapper and frowned. Come
on, Bear, is better. That's not what we agreed on. If
you don't wear a condom, then you're leaving. Okay, fine, bloody
hell. You're gonna watch me put it on too, Absolutely there. It's
hard to stay hard when you're being a right piece of shite. Oh oh
yeah. I had just ended a twelve year relationship and thought I'd had sex
with the first person who came along to help me move on. Oh bloody
hell, that was great, better than I could have imagined. Oh cool,
you want to watch YouTube. I'm not really a blow and goal kind
of chap. Sure, Daryl, why not? Great? There's this really
nice video about jeezing I want to watch. I like to have a big
glass of juice after my yoga sessions. I don't even know what we watched
because I didn't care. Eventually I kicked him out because I had dinner plans.
Then he became psycho. Hello, how dare you block me? Stupid
American? You can't get rid of me. You're gonna burn. I ripped
the condom. You're so stupid, shit, Daryl, leave me alone.
I hope you enjoyed my toxic load. I thought he was just slashing out
at me for blocking him on social media, But when I got sick two
weeks later, I decided to get tested. It had to be him,
right. The nurse looked down, clearly troubled by something. Is everything?
Okay? I wouldn't normally say this, but you're the fourth man to tell
me this story, Scottish guy and all. Fuck. If he's done this
to at least four, how many more has he hurt or planning on hurting?
The police need to know about this and notify police. Lenny did What
he didn't know was he wasn't the first to contact them. The timelines are
a little hard to match up since most of the men who came forward had
their identities protected for life, but one of the men who spoke publicly,
Stuart, met with investigators in November twenty fifteen. Stuart nervously sat down with
police, shaking his boyish face with embarrassment. Can you give us your story
again? Sure, Daryl and I had sex last summer. You have come
on in. I'm waiting for you. His flat was absolutely filthy, which
should have been my first sign to leave. We had sex, and after
I want to throw the condom away. Hey, Daryl, you use the
condom right? Didn't look like there was any seeming inside. Are you one
of these paranoid people? Yes, I had a condom on. Hey.
Check out this Pokemon video. It's absolutely hilarious. So we watched for about
fifteen minutes, and then then I made some excuse to leave. I have
to walk my pup bye. He kept harassing me after asking if I liked
having sex with him. I ignored it until he sent me this You're a
fucking revolting jackass. Crying, laughing, emoji, ha ha ha, I'd
taken the condom off and then you got tested. Yes, sir, didn't
feel any symptoms at first, but then my blood test came back. And
anyway, I gave you his address and phone number. What have you been
doing? We need all the evidence we can get if you want to successfully
arrest him. See, it's nearly impossible to prove someone was deliberately trying to
infect another person with HIV, but we can get him for culpable and reckless
conduct. Oh, we need to prove Darryl knew he was HIV positive,
he knew how to spread HIV, he had unsafe sex. You got haysh
ivy from him, and you didn't know he was positive? Well, I
certainly didn't know, he added, And I think the fact the condom was
empty shows we had unsafe sex. And those screenshots of his messages show he
clearly knew he was positive if his doctor told him how to spread haysh ivy.
Everyone knows you get a sexually transmitted infection from sex. We're still examining
the medical records closer to see if you two have a similar strand of HIV.
Do whatever you need to do, but please make it quick. On
February fifth, twenty sixteen, after seven men came forward, Darrell was hunted
down and arrested for suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm with intent. Why what
do you think you're doing? Oh? And they found him in bed with
VIC the number eight. Get his mobile shaved? There's any more more more?
What can I put on my fucking knickers? First? Fuck this leg?
He's talked two hundreds of men. We need to contact how low see
if they shagged. Darrell was placed in police custody for questioning and seemed rather
calm about the whole thing. Hello, Darryl, we need to talk about
your HIV status. Have you been tested recently? Not recently? No.
I had a relationship when I first got here and it was unprotected, so
I've not been tested after that. I'm a little bit worried about that.
I see. Do you know the severity of your untreated HIV? Darryl?
Yeah, it's a very scary thing. I think I'll get a test.
Then, medical records would show that Darrell had in fact been diagnosed for over
a year and his doctor had warned him about this seriousness of passing the virus
on to someone else, whether it was intentional or not, and his HIV
medication, Yeah, he didn't really take it. We have to put out
a public health warning. We can't say this wanker's name, but we'll post
if anyone has been shagging a Scottish man, please contact us. Come on
in love, that is going to run you a nice, warm bath and
I'll make you a cuppa. On April fifth, Daryl was bailed out under
the condition that he stayed with his foster parents, Jackie and Harry, and
immediately started his HIV medication back up again. Come up here, son,
Oh you look afraid the medication will do you good. Oh their love.
I don't want you mad mum. It's not your fault. I did this.
Jackie shot her husband a look as their foster son cried into his dad's
shoulder. Both had never known Darrell to be violent, so his actions confused
them. Oh no, one's planning you. Yeah, that bath and all
missaws your back. The months went by, and Darrell presumably followed his orders.
One afternoon, his foster mother flipped through a photo album and smiled down
at the memories. Oh there he is. When we first brought him in.
Remember that Harry bod Chap was covered in burns. I nearly cried when
they told us his mother scolded him with hot tea. Yeah, terrible family.
Oh there he is with his dolls, all a hundred and twenty of
them. He loved bathing them and brushing their hair. Oh, that'll be
supper. Then Darryl Jackie ascended the stairs and knocked on her store. Daryl's
supper time. Harry called the authorities. Daryl's gone. The original Dead Time
stories will be back after these short messages. Welcome back to our show.
Hi guys, this is my first attempt at making my YouTube video. I'm
vegan. I'm very passionate about treating my body well. You are what you
eat, and there's many things that I do that many people might think that,
Oh that's weird, that's not right. I don't drink, I don't
smoke, don't do anything like that. I use coconut oil to eat because
it's very good for your immune system, a lot of amino acids. In
April of twenty fifteen, just days after finding out he was HIV positive,
Darrell decided to start a YouTube channel dedicated to healthy living for what you need
going into veganism. Thanks, I'll see you in a week. The irony
of it all was Daryl was probably one of the least healthiest people out there.
When he stopped rolling his shitty phone camera, Darrell turned to a bottle
of cloudy yellow liquid and cringed as he drank it. A copy urine a
day makes the hive something that is totally made up. Fuck medication. Nothing
toxic is going inside my body, and it seemed that ideology hadn't changed for
Daryl. He ran away from his foster parents with the goal of reaching Pentland
Hills in Scotland. By now twenty two men had reported him to the police,
so a nationwide man hunt was underway. One day, they came across
an abandoned tent off for fuck's sake, man, there's some rubbish and Darrow's
medsine here. They're four. He's offered again, which means he's breaking bail.
Ain't could infect more men? Oh wonder how far he's gone. The
answer was Newcastle, which is about one hundred and nine miles or one hundred
and seventy five point four kilometers from Pentland Hills. Gary Cole Hi. Tom,
Wow, your eyes are twinklier in parison. Oh, oh, thank
you. And you're really into older gentlemen. Oh fuck yeah, daddy,
they're so much wiser than these fucking twins. Tom opened the door wider for
Darryl, who was now going by the name Gary, and eagerly let him
in. If you looked up the definition of kindness in a dictionary, Tom's
face would be there, alongside his three dogs. I really hate to impose
like this, but my friend and I have been having issues and I have
no place to stay. It's not imposing at all. I'm more than happy
to let my boyfriend stay here as long as you need. Boyfriend. Right,
where's my room? Tom showed Gary Slash Darrell to his bedroom and they
lived together for the next three months. Of course, it wasn't long before
Darrell became overly controlling, barring Tom from going into the outside world without him
hand just being a genuinely terrible person. During those three months, police for
both Scotland and England worked to track down Darryll and eventually found him, of
all places, on an escort website. Oh you know he's him, there's
no face, trust me, I've seen de Sammy Ja Darrell's polke sud on
nearly every victim's grinder. It's him. Yes, Perhaps for the first time
in history, police we're able to find a criminal because of his dick pics.
Thanks to technology, they were able to track where Darrell was when he
uploaded the pick to the site. I'm coming right, I'm coming all right,
sir. I'm doing a routine inspection of the neighbor. Are you the
only tenant in this flat? No, sir, um my boyfriends, can
you describe him for me? Um sure, he's about five foot ten Scottish
accent. Before Tom could finish, the officers rushed up the steps. Excuse
me, excuse me, what is this about? Cry morning? The windows
open? He must have jumped. Oh dear Daryl, you all right?
Oh god, oh my god. Tom ran outside with officers and to found
Darrel writhing in pain on the neighbor's deck. As soon as he had heard
police, Darrel leapt out of the window and down onto the first floor rooftop,
then tried to jump from there to escape. It didn't end well,
and he was arrested along with Tom. So it would he keep you writing,
But we needed to make show you weren't involved. I can't believe he
lied me and did it show easily too. And about the HUV test,
it's negative, sir, you're one of the lucky ones. Well, I
don't feel very lucky. Indeed, Tom felt sick to his stomach after learning
what Darrell had done. When police searched Tom's flat, they discovered a box
full of condoms that Darrell had broken to use on more victims. With the
serial attacker and their custody, Darrell was taken to trial. Judge Christine Henson
presided over the hearing and agreed to let all of Darrell's victims testify either over
video or behind a screen to protect their identities. Felicity Jerry represented Darrell,
and while she caused most of his victims to cry, Lenny approached her with
a bringing on attitude. So you enticed Darrow by sending pornographic pictures of yourself?
Yeah, I sent him a dippic. What else do you want to
know? Did you not think you should have known Darrow was HIV positive because
of his vegan lifestyle, your honor, we both know that this is an
absolutely ridiculous question. All she's done this trial is ask homophobic and absurd questions
to try and publicly shame the victims. I won't sit here unless she asks
relevant questions. Yeah so being blunt felicity. Jerry is an absolutely atrocious person
and I can't fucking stand her. By the end of the six week trial,
Darrel was found guilty on five counts of causing grievous bodily harm and five
counts of attempted grievous bodily harm. He was sentenced to life in prison with
a minimum of twelve years, and placed on a sex offenders register. Darryl,
the messages you sent make it crystal clear you knew exactly what you were
doing. As well as the physical offenses, it is clear for the victims
the psychological effects are immense. They describe living with a life sentence as a
result of your cruel and senseless acts. Many of those men were young men
in our twenties at the time they had the misfortune to meet you. I
can't see how and when you will no longer be a danger to gain men.
This sentence is not about stigmatizing anyone living with HIV, and that last
part was very important to note because there's still this stigma that HIV makes someone
dirty. A lot of people are very uneducated on this topic and think you
can get HIV from kissing or drinking after someone who has it, and that's
really much true. I'd also like to note that this isn't in eighteen ninety
two any more, and HIV is not a death sentence. Thanks to advances
in technology, there are a plethora of retrovirals which can severely decrease your chances
of catching and spreading HIV. The lives of Daryl's victims were forever changed,
and I really hope that they're able to overcome the psychological damage she caused them.
Daryl, it seems, hasn't overcome whatever damage he suffered, though,
though we still don't know the exact reason behind why he attacked these men.
Daryl has said the thing I really couldn't cope with was when I was talking
to or dating somebody and then they would just completely ignore me for no reason.
The messages came out with that at that point, it was about HIV.
That's the first thing that came to my head. I thought this will
get a reaction. It just got out of control. I would like to
say to the men in Scotland and in England that I'm saw you for being
so naive and so reckless, and that they are the ones now suffering for
that. But the main thing for me is that I hope they can forgive
me one day and that they can try and live a happy life and put
this behind them. When this recording was read for his victims on a BBC
documentary, it was clear that they couldn't care less about his apology. It
probably didn't help that he immediately started talking to his foster mom about the TV
shows he had been watching in prison. Those were some fast Ryan tears Daryl.
As mentioned earlier, Daryl wasn't the only one using an illness to attack.
After Gretchen's coworkers and family called in her bizarre texts, Jupiter police showed
up to her home on Sunshine Drive. Excuse me, are you here about
the attack Saturday morning? At tech? Oh yes, oh yeah. It
was a little after six when I heard a woman scream no, no,
it hurts. I'm almost positive it's Gretchen's ex husband, David. You know
he wrote the security camera right off my garage? Do you have that footage?
When officers looked over the recordings, they saw a tall man driving the
same truck Gretchen's ex's husband used to drive. After disappearing on the porch,
he was then seen dragging a motionless body with light colored hair. Gretchen,
I should mention was blonde. Oh, there was a real stinky stream of
water coming from her garage to smelt like terrible chemicals. The officers tried to
open Gretchen's garage, but found the key had been broken off in the lock,
so it couldn't easily be opened. We're working with a real genius here.
Now that we're in what have we found? Dogs? Smelled decomposition in
the garage and looks like, yeah, someone wiped the floor with bleach.
The master bedroom has some blood spatter, and I found these towels in her
dryer with specks of red. And the ex husband neighbor saw him on the
twenty third when he picked up his dog from her. Apparently he dropped off
a cat for Gretchen where because she was going to be quarantined? Yeah right.
Jupiter Medical Center said they haven't seen her in years, nor is it
their protocol to hand over COVID patients to the CDC. Again, working with
a real smart criminal. Here, guys, let's see if we can get
a ping on their cell phones. One of the phones pinged off a tower
in Pensacola on March thirtieth, which led investigators to a jewelry seller. Oh
yeah, I remember that guy sold me a bag of woman's jewelidity and said
he was his mom's or he stepmoms. I don't remember venturing a guess it
was his ex wives. Another ping came in on March twenty seventh from a
tower in Texas. This eventually led police to Los Cruses, New Mexico.
David parked his truck at a restaurant on Avania Damisia and got out to walk
his dog when an officer spotted him. The officer pulled in a few parking
spaces over and casually got out of the police cruiser. While checking David's license
plate, he noticed David changed the sixth to an eight with black electrical tape
and shook his head. Sorry about that. My stepdaughter probably did it because
she's twelve and likes to play with tape. Still crimesor you probably want my
information right my id right here in the truck. One second, David started
to reach for the floor and the officer pulled his weapon. Two more officers
had to show up before David finally sat down on the ground defeated. Of
course, before that, he smashed one of the officer's arms repeatedly in the
door. Had officer assault to his record while we're at it. David was
extradited back to Florida and his hearing was scheduled for December twenty first, twenty
twenty. Mister Anthony, we will listen the charges from first degree murder with
the possibility of death to second degree murder and kidnapping if you can provide us
with the location of Gretchen's remains by the end of the day. This was
mostly so Gretchen's twelve year old daughter and the family could receive closure and a
proper funeral. David agreed, and around three thirty that afternoon, Gretchen's remains
were found in a wooded area roughly three miles from her home. It appeared
she had been stabbed in the neck and torso david sentencing hearing was scheduled for
January fourteenth, twenty twenty one, and he was given thirty eight years in
prison. So there you have it. Less than a month after America started
shutting down, some dipshit decided to be ballsy enough to use COVID nineteen to
cover up a murder. Surprisingly, he was caught about a week after Gretchen
went missing, which unfortunately was not the case for Daryl Rowe, an equally
vile person who used an illness to his advantage. Though Darrell never killed anyone,
his crimes definitely left many psychological scars on his victims, which is something
that I cannot forgive. Catching the Love Bug was written, directed and edited
by me Skyler Fastenew and executive produced by Daniel Jones. Our voice talent was
provided by Ariel Dale, Taylor, Shirty Walker Barnes, Jeremy Staple, Maurissippa
Stone, Vince Perez, Rainy Blake, Matt McNelly, Helen Anthony Morion,
Jordan Catcher, Daniel Jones, Jeanette Zosh, and Sophia Sasne. Our gorgeous
theme music was performed by Tracy Zeals and cover artwork by Catherine Fastenell. Thank
you for joining us for another chapter of the original Dead Time story. While
you're listening, we would love it if you left us A five star rating
and reviews so others can find our show. You can also check out our
Patreon, dot com slash og Deadtime, as well as our Instagram, Facebook,
and Twitter accounts at the original Deadtime Stories. The links to those are
in the episode description. See you there. We will be back in one
week with another story for your eager ears, and I definitely would suggest listening
to our episode Lesson from a mocking Bird before this one premieres. Until then,
stay safe out there. I don't want you to become the next chapter's
topic on the original Deadtime Stories