Speaker 1: If they are connected every angle of the case of
Speaker 1: the six women found at a cross Oregon and Washington
Speaker 1: in the recent month. Now, while most of these women
Speaker 1: have been identified, authorities have only been able to determine
Speaker 1: the cause and manner of death in only one case.
Speaker 2: All right, let's get to an updates on just a
Speaker 2: horrible and tragic story from Washington State where three young
Speaker 2: sisters they were found dead in a remote campground.
Speaker 1: Not umphy verdicts for all three Tacoma, Washington police officers.
Speaker 3: The Pacific Northwest is a geographically diverse region of the
Speaker 3: US and Canada characterized by its majestic mountains, dense forests,
Speaker 3: and rugged coastlines.
Speaker 4: But it has also been the home of many who kill.
Speaker 4: I'm Carmita and I'm c J and we are the
Speaker 4: hosts of Murder in the PNW.
Speaker 3: This is Murder in the PNW, a true crime podcast.
Speaker 4: This is dark cast Network, the best at indie podcasts.
Speaker 4: Check out all of the amazing dark cast shows at
Speaker 4: darkcastnetwork dot com. Hey there, I'm Alana of Castles and
Speaker 4: Cryptids and you are listening to Rainbow Crimes with hopefully
Speaker 4: some Unicorn justice.
Speaker 5: Hey, they're warriors it's me CJ Woo, my little City's
Speaker 5: pride in the park this past weekend, I was so
Speaker 5: busy the entire time. I sold four hundred dollars worth
Speaker 5: of my shirts, and my daughter made just under one
Speaker 5: hundred and fifty in jewelry sells. It was definitely profitable.
Speaker 5: Plus I got to meet and talk to a bunch
Speaker 5: of really cool people.
Speaker 2: I talked up.
Speaker 5: Dark Cast Network like my life depended upon it, and
Speaker 5: I talked to some who are already Rainbow Warriors and
Speaker 5: listened to this show Woo Woo, shout out to you
Speaker 5: and to some that said they'd listen. Kennedy, who was
Speaker 5: in the booth next to me, was really cool too,
Speaker 5: and she had a two hour drive to go camping.
Speaker 5: She said she planned on listening to me on the
Speaker 5: way there because she loves to listen to true crime. Jessica,
Speaker 5: who I met last year, said she'd gotten stickers from
Speaker 5: me last year and put them on her longboard. And
Speaker 5: because when my hearing aids stopped working when I fell
Speaker 5: last week, I thought she said she put him on
Speaker 5: her lawn mower. I kept picturing her pushing a lawnmower
Speaker 5: around her yard with my stickers. She finally got through
Speaker 5: to me that it was her long board a skateboard. Duh.
Speaker 5: I'm starting to feel better. My knee still has scrapes
Speaker 5: on it and it's a bit swollen, and walking downhill
Speaker 5: is definitely a challenge. But all the abrasion scabs from
Speaker 5: road rash have peeled off my face and my nose
Speaker 5: bruised across the bridge. It's barely noticeable anymore. There's still
Speaker 5: a little bit of swelling on my left forehead, but
Speaker 5: other than that, I don't think you can really tell
Speaker 5: I took a tumble anymore.
Speaker 3: So that's all good.
Speaker 5: Armida hosts a Missing in the PNW and I We
Speaker 5: have five episodes out of the podcast that we co host,
Speaker 5: Murder in the PNW. We've been a little slow with
Speaker 5: that show, but we're trying to FORGEWN. We're doing our
Speaker 5: darnedest to try to get an episode out every two weeks.
Speaker 3: And I think the more of them we do.
Speaker 5: The more comfortable we'll get with working with one another.
Speaker 5: For me, I think it's been awkward because I've always
Speaker 5: worked solo and never with a co host.
Speaker 3: It's it's tough to.
Speaker 5: Know when to shut up and listen and when to speak.
Speaker 5: Plus there's a whole lot going on with the network
Speaker 5: right now, all good things. Hopefully I'll be able to
Speaker 5: share that with you soon too. With that, let's go
Speaker 5: ahead and get into our main case this episode. Fifty
Speaker 5: six year old Zafara Malwanee and fifty seven year old
Speaker 5: germal Or Teas were longtime Chicago, Illinois residents. They were
Speaker 5: married in twenty fifteen and lived in the Oak Park
Speaker 5: neighborhood of Chicago for decades before they decided to relocate
Speaker 5: to Mexico City, Mexico. This was in October of twenty
Speaker 5: twenty five, so pretty recently. Their decision wasn't based on
Speaker 5: wanderlust or the need to live somewhere different, or even
Speaker 5: a retirement plan. The couple had a very happy life
Speaker 5: in Chicago. No, the husband's made this choice so they
Speaker 5: could be closer to Zaphar's ailing mother, who had Alzheimer's
Speaker 5: and needed care. While the men would miss the lives
Speaker 5: they created for themselves in Chicago, they were also very
Speaker 5: excited about the next chapter of their lives in Mexico.
Speaker 5: The first thing friends and family would tell you about
Speaker 5: Zafar and Guillermo is that These two men were kind
Speaker 5: and they would go beyond and above to help anyone
Speaker 5: who needed it. Almost every picture I've seen of them,
Speaker 5: and there's quite a few, they were smiling brightly, so
Speaker 5: they truly did seem very happy. Zafar had been described
Speaker 5: as intelligent, thoughtful, and deeply devoted to his family. Caring
Speaker 5: for his mother wasn't an obligation to him, but rather
Speaker 5: something he wanted to do. Zafar's mother was a single
Speaker 5: mother who raised him, and he was very devoted to her.
Speaker 5: Zafhar was all so calm under pressure. He would quietly
Speaker 5: do nice things for others and never expect anything in return.
Speaker 5: Guillermo was the outgoing one. He enjoyed bringing people together,
Speaker 5: and he was his happiest when surrounded by those he loved.
Speaker 5: For a while, the men spent time back and forth
Speaker 5: from Mexico City to Chicago. But when in Mexico City
Speaker 5: they were preparing their home for Zafhar's mother to come
Speaker 5: live with them. One of the top things they needed
Speaker 5: was a stair lift. For those who are not sure
Speaker 5: what that is, I believe it's one of those seats
Speaker 5: for someone who may have trouble going up and downstairs.
Speaker 5: The seat moves up and down the wall next to
Speaker 5: the stairs, so that the person needing assistants can just
Speaker 5: ride the seat up and down safely. At this rate,
Speaker 5: I might need one of those soon, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 5: Zafar and Guiermo went to a social gathering in Mexican
Speaker 5: Cocity in April of twenty twenty six. While they were there,
Speaker 5: they spoke with multiple people who said that they were
Speaker 5: contractors and could install stairlifts and homes. The next few days,
Speaker 5: after the parties, Zafar and Guillermo were in contact with
Speaker 5: the businesses who gave them quotes and mock ups for
Speaker 5: the installation process. Three people from one of the companies
Speaker 5: even came out to Zafar and Guerrimo's home and they
Speaker 5: did some measurements. This visit led to a finalization meeting
Speaker 5: with the company on May twentieth, twenty twenty six. The
Speaker 5: company representatives said that the meeting was mandatory in order
Speaker 5: to move forward with the project. Before heading out for
Speaker 5: their finalization meeting, Zafar and Gueramo shared their location with
Speaker 5: a close friend as a just in cases, which I
Speaker 5: think is always the smart thing to do in this
Speaker 5: day and age. My kids have my location notification on
Speaker 5: at all times, and I have theirs. I send my
Speaker 5: sister my location when I go on long trips. It's
Speaker 5: smart because who knows if something might go askew when traveling,
Speaker 5: even on short trips. Zafaran Guillermo's friend became worried when
Speaker 5: the location finder on her phone didn't seem to be
Speaker 5: working anymore. Later that day, on May twentieth, she tried
Speaker 5: to call and text them, but she couldn't reach them
Speaker 5: that way either. The men were headed south just outside
Speaker 5: of Mexico City that evening. Their phones were dead silent,
Speaker 5: as if they'd been powered off. Two days later. Zafar
Speaker 5: and Guillermo had not been seen or heard from since
Speaker 5: the twentieth, but some odd and unauthorized cash withdrawals and
Speaker 5: large bank transfers were being made from their bank accounts.
Speaker 5: Family of the missing men filed missing persons reports with
Speaker 5: the Mexico City's Attorney General's office at the end of May.
Speaker 5: By mid June of twenty twenty six, several people were
Speaker 5: arrested by Mexican authorities as being linked to the missing
Speaker 5: couple of Zafariguiermo. One of them was a former female
Speaker 5: Mexican cop named Yusinia. And by the way, resources never
Speaker 5: give the last names of any of the apprehended individuals,
Speaker 5: only first names. If they are criminals, they shouldn't have
Speaker 5: privacy rights. In my opinion, Yessenia is believed to be
Speaker 5: the mastermind behind a criminal cell that kidnaps and robs people.
Speaker 5: She feels her wealthy easy marks. On June seventeenth, during
Speaker 5: her interrogation, Yessenia admitted and confessed to murdering four people.
Speaker 5: She led investigators to the mountains outside of Mexico City.
Speaker 5: This is where her crime cell buried four people. Zafar
Speaker 5: and Guerrima were two of the bodies unearthed. Their autopsy
Speaker 5: report has not been publicly released, only that they died
Speaker 5: a violent death. This holds true for the unnamed second couple.
Speaker 5: The second couple aren't named publicly, but they are Mexican
Speaker 5: citizens and that's fine. Mexico don't name the victims, but again,
Speaker 5: why con seal the names of the killers. Along with Yessenia,
Speaker 5: Gabriel and Roberic, two Venezuelan nationals, were also arrested for
Speaker 5: the immediate crimes. Soon after, four others were arrested as
Speaker 5: well Aiden, Selina, Jesus and Daniel for having a part
Speaker 5: in the scheme. Because this case is so new, the
Speaker 5: assailants have not had a court hearing as of yet,
Speaker 5: so we don't know what the results will be. It's
Speaker 5: another case I'll have to keep my eyeballs on for
Speaker 5: a resolution. Friends have honored the men by posting their
Speaker 5: pictures across social media platforms. They want to keep Safar
Speaker 5: and Guerrimo fresh in people's minds, but they don't want
Speaker 5: the couple remembered for their tragic and violent ending. They'd
Speaker 5: like them remembered for the happy, loving couple that they were,
Speaker 5: for their compassion towards others, their generosity, and for how
Speaker 5: much love they gave to everyone. Rest in power is
Speaker 5: Afar and Guiermo. Our true crime quikie is from San Francisco, California,
Speaker 5: in twenty twenty three, and I must say it's a
Speaker 5: case that the tables turned on a similar situation that
Speaker 5: we've already discussed a couple of times. Check this out.
Speaker 5: You know how we've had two true crime quickies where
Speaker 5: a trans woman sex worker performs an act on a
Speaker 5: cisgendered man and then for one reason or another. The
Speaker 5: man demands his money back and if he doesn't get
Speaker 5: it back, he murders the transwoman. Well, this is one
Speaker 5: of those stories, but this time the roles were switched
Speaker 5: sort of, and I was shocked by it. In November
Speaker 5: twenty twenty three, twenty one year old Lenaiah Butler, who
Speaker 5: is a black trans woman, was working as a sex
Speaker 5: worker in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. The Tenderloin
Speaker 5: is pretty well known for its LGBTQ population, and it's
Speaker 5: especially known as being the transgender District, which was founded
Speaker 5: by three transwomen of color. One of the founders is
Speaker 5: Honey Mahogany, who if you're a drag race man you
Speaker 5: might recognize her name. The other two founders are Janetta
Speaker 5: Johnson and Arisaid. Anyway, the Tenderloin is a pretty well
Speaker 5: known area for transfolk and for trans sex workers. On
Speaker 5: November twelfth, twenty twenty three, Lanaya was working in the Tenderloin.
Speaker 5: A thirty two year old man in a car approached her.
Speaker 5: His name was Homza Walapupu. That's Pupu, not poo poo.
Speaker 5: Lanayah got into the car with Homsa after they arranged
Speaker 5: their business deal, which was one hundred dollars for a
Speaker 5: blow job and intercourse. He then drove them twenty minutes
Speaker 5: away to Chrissy Field in San Francisco. And for those
Speaker 5: who have not been to San Francisco and don't know
Speaker 5: what chrissy Field is, it's a mile long beach front
Speaker 5: with trails in a sandy beach. It also has a
Speaker 5: beautiful view of the Golden gate Bridge. During the ride,
Speaker 5: Lanaya claimed to have felt uncomfortable with driving so far
Speaker 5: away from the Tenderloin, where she felt safe. She told
Speaker 5: Homsa that she wanted to pull over close to where
Speaker 5: he picked her up. However, he kept driving. When they
Speaker 5: got to chrissy Filled, she was paid and in turn,
Speaker 5: she performed the first act of the agreed upon transaction. Afterwards,
Speaker 5: before intercourse, Laniah revealed she was transgender, probably because Holmsa
Speaker 5: was about to see some things he wasn't expecting. Homsa
Speaker 5: got angry and he demanded all of his money back.
Speaker 5: He also ordered her out of his car. His hostility
Speaker 5: frightened Leaniah, who was refusing to get out of the
Speaker 5: car and refusing to refund his money. She pulled out
Speaker 5: a pistol she kept with her for protection, and as
Speaker 5: he started to get out of his car, presumably to
Speaker 5: pull her out of it, she shot Holmsa. Leniah pulled
Speaker 5: Holmsa's body from the car, leaving it in the parking
Speaker 5: lot at Chrissy Field. She hopped into the driver's seat
Speaker 5: and she peeled away from his body, leaving bloody tire
Speaker 5: prints behind. On her drive back to the city, she
Speaker 5: called her mom and she asked for help. Laniah drove
Speaker 5: to the Bayview Hunter's Point district in San Francisco to
Speaker 5: where her mother would meet her. She told her mom
Speaker 5: what had happened, and her mom helped her wipe the
Speaker 5: car clean of fingerprints, and they both removed Holmsa's personal
Speaker 5: belongings from the car. Then they left his car double
Speaker 5: parked in the Hunter's Point neighborhood. Lanaiah then offloaded her
Speaker 5: gun to an unnamed person. The women got into a
Speaker 5: black jeep driven by Lanaia's mom and they left Holmsa's car,
Speaker 5: not realizing that surveillance in a flock camera that captures
Speaker 5: license plates was in the Hunter's Point neighborhood. Lanaiah and
Speaker 5: her mom hoped Lenaiah had gotten away with the murder,
Speaker 5: but alas there was video footage of the two women
Speaker 5: cleaning Holmsa's car and leaving in the black jeep. The
Speaker 5: flock camera captured the black jeep's life plate and that
Speaker 5: led authorities to Lanaiah and her mom. Eight days after
Speaker 5: the murder, the FBI, who was now involved, rated Lanaiah's
Speaker 5: home and they took her into custody in the early
Speaker 5: morning hours. This would have been on November twenty at
Speaker 5: twenty twenty three, but before they could catch her, she
Speaker 5: escaped from a second story window and hid in the garage,
Speaker 5: where agents finally found her. All the while, Laniah was
Speaker 5: not helping her case any at all. She told authorities,
Speaker 5: I was not about to get out of that car,
Speaker 5: be stranded and cold as fuck, and there weren't no
Speaker 5: way I was given his money back. I wanted him
Speaker 5: to take me back to where he picked me up from,
Speaker 5: and he refused that whole trip to chrissy Field. I
Speaker 5: was prepared to use my gun if I had to.
Speaker 5: He didn't know I was strapped. He wanted to fight me,
Speaker 5: and I'm not fighting no man. You want to play
Speaker 5: you gonna get played. Prosecutors decided not to go after
Speaker 5: Lanaiah's mom as an accomplice after the fact. Instead, they
Speaker 5: called her as a witness for them. At Lania's trial,
Speaker 5: where she was on trial for second degree murder, she
Speaker 5: spoke on her behalf again, this time saying say that
Speaker 5: I apologize to anyone I hurt, but my life was
Speaker 5: in danger and I felt like I had to defend
Speaker 5: myself in that moment or it would have been me.
Speaker 5: I don't think I should say sorry to nobody because
Speaker 5: I don't feel sorry for smoking them. To be honest,
Speaker 5: I cringe some when I learned that she was on
Speaker 5: the stand. She's so blunt and bold with her statements.
Speaker 5: I'm really kind of surprised. Her defense counsel letter talk Now.
Speaker 5: Leanayah was facing a possible seventeen year prison term and
Speaker 5: a quarter of a million dollar fine for her second
Speaker 5: degree murder charge if she was found guilty. Her trial
Speaker 5: was in March of twenty twenty five and it lasted
Speaker 5: two weeks. The jury found her guilty, but not of
Speaker 5: second degree murder. They acquitted her of that and they
Speaker 5: found her guilty of manslaughter. And this is because the
Speaker 5: jury found that the fatal shooting occurred during a sudden quarrel,
Speaker 5: heat of passion, or out of an imperfect self defense,
Speaker 5: legally reducing the crime to voluntary manslaughter. She let the
Speaker 5: fuck out. Her defense pushed that the tenderloin is well
Speaker 5: known for transgender and gender non conforming sex workers, putting
Speaker 5: almost all of the blame onto the victim for approaching
Speaker 5: Lanaiyah where he did. Lanaiah was sentenced to five years
Speaker 5: of incarceration, with the time she waited for the trial
Speaker 5: counting as time served, so essentially she had about a
Speaker 5: year and four months taken off the fire sentence. She
Speaker 5: will still be young enough when she gets out to
Speaker 5: hopefully live her life without too many regrets. Although she
Speaker 5: was placed in an all male federal prison in Colorado
Speaker 5: where she was denied her hormone treatments and was assaulted
Speaker 5: and raped twice by two different inmates, her defense team
Speaker 5: petitioned for immediate compassion release. The petition was denied. However,
Speaker 5: in June twenty twenty six, US District Judge Susan Ilston
Speaker 5: granted an indicative ruling in favor of Lanaia's requests for
Speaker 5: compassion release. The court ordered probation officials to begin vetting
Speaker 5: halfway houses and residential programs, putting Lanaiah on track to
Speaker 5: leave the Colorado Federal Prison Facility early, and that she
Speaker 5: would complete her sentence in a community based setting. Rest
Speaker 5: in peace, Homza. But damn it, men who hit up
Speaker 5: sex workers, quit asking for your money back if you're
Speaker 5: in this situation. These girls are out there on the
Speaker 5: street taking risk too, just in order to pay their bills.
Speaker 5: I truly wish there was a safer way for sex
Speaker 5: workers and their customers to operate. Sex is a basic
Speaker 5: human need for most, not just a desire, and doing
Speaker 5: yourself doesn't replace the need for human touch of another. Yes, again,
Speaker 5: that's my opinion on the matter. I know my opinion
Speaker 5: isn't always popular, but there it is. Oh lordy, let's
Speaker 5: look for some sunshine. It's LGBTQ plus Global Majority Week,
Speaker 5: running from August third through the ninth, twenty twenty six.
Speaker 5: This international week amplifies and connects ethnically diverse LGBTQ plus
Speaker 5: voices worldwide. Very nice cities like El Paso, Texas continue
Speaker 5: you finding creative ways to wrap Pride flags around street
Speaker 5: lights after they've been forced to remove pride crosswalks. Good job,
Speaker 5: l PASO. And that's about it for this week, so
Speaker 5: I leave you with a few jokes. What's a lesbian's
Speaker 5: favorite Pokemon Squirtle? How do lesbian settle a fight rock paper,
Speaker 5: and then scissors? A trans lesbian married a bisexual, which
Speaker 5: makes them a BLT. And the last one a bunch
Speaker 5: of Trumps supporters were demanding to join the LGBTQ community.
Speaker 5: They said that they were non bidinary. I love you guys,
Speaker 5: you matter very much. Keep on keeping on, and remember
Speaker 5: it's not a crime to be gay or to live
Speaker 5: your truth, unless you're a murderer.