Speaker 1: You're listening to Psychology of the Strange, a podcast exploring
Speaker 1: the psychology behind fear, folklore, the uncanny, and the unexplained.
Speaker 1: This show is brought to you by the dark Cast Network.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the dark Side. This winter, the world gets
Speaker 1: a little stranger Season two of Psychology of the Strangers.
Speaker 1: Here we're traveling into the season of long nights, distorted shadows,
Speaker 1: and the old stories people used to whisper to survive
Speaker 1: the dark. This time we're exploring winter born omens, creatures
Speaker 1: that came from the shoreline, mischief spirits who slip into homes,
Speaker 1: and the ancient ritual that blurred the line between the
Speaker 1: living and the dead. And as always, we'll step inside
Speaker 1: the psychology beneath the folklore, Why certain stories survive, why
Speaker 1: winter changes perception, and what these legends reveal about fear,
Speaker 1: identity and the edges of the human mind. If you're
Speaker 1: ready for a season of liminal spaces, uncanny children, hollow shadows,
Speaker 1: and the strange logic of the cold months, then welcome back.
Speaker 1: Psychology of the Strange. Season two begins.
Speaker 2: Now. Welcome to dark Cast Network, the best of indie podcasts.
Speaker 2: I'm Jackie and I'm Jenna of stop who does that?
Speaker 2: And you're listening to Rainbow Crimes with hopefully some Unicorn justice.
Speaker 3: Hey guys, it's me CJ. Not a whole lot to
Speaker 3: report here on the Oregon Coast, So if it's okay
Speaker 3: with you, I'm just gonna get into our main case
Speaker 3: this episode. Philip Arthur Wahlstead was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona.
Speaker 3: His birthday February twenty fifth, nineteen seventy eight. He was
Speaker 3: a Pisces. His family described Philip as always being kind
Speaker 3: with a quick wit. He was easygoing. He preferred listening
Speaker 3: to music, then being outside and playing rough and tumble
Speaker 3: with other boys and girls in his neighborhood. As Philip
Speaker 3: was growing up, he was particularly close with one of
Speaker 3: his female cousins. He was several years older than he was.
Speaker 3: In Tucson at the time, the city was pretty conservative.
Speaker 3: In fact, I saw it said somewhere that today Tucson
Speaker 3: is considered a liberal island in a sea of conservative
Speaker 3: Actually sounds like my city. So being gay was a
Speaker 3: little bit scary, or it just wasn't spoken of. But
Speaker 3: around the age of fifteen, Philip decided to come out
Speaker 3: to his family his cousin he was close to wasn't
Speaker 3: bothered at all by his admission, although his parents weren't
Speaker 3: very happy about it, nor were they supportive of his
Speaker 3: sexual identity. Sometime between the ages of sixteen and eighteen,
Speaker 3: Philip moved out from his parents' home and he didn't
Speaker 3: have much contact with them for a while. Philip did
Speaker 3: remain in Tucson. However, during Philip's eighteenth year of life,
Speaker 3: he met a man named Jonathan. They met outside a
Speaker 3: mostly gay club and Tucson called Ibts. Jonathan found Philip
Speaker 3: wiser than his years. He thought he was confident and
Speaker 3: well put together, and this combination made Jonathan insanely attracted
Speaker 3: to Philip. Plus, Philip had boyishly good looks. Jonathan. I
Speaker 3: could not pin down an age on but from photos
Speaker 3: of the two of them together, I would say Jonathan
Speaker 3: was maybe eight to ten years older than Philip. Thankfully,
Speaker 3: the heart doesn't see age as a barrier, and the
Speaker 3: two fell in love. They adored spending time with each other,
Speaker 3: cuddling while watching movies at home, grocery shopping, running errands,
Speaker 3: et cetera. All of that was fun for them as
Speaker 3: long as they were together. Jonathan even encouraged Philip to
Speaker 3: reach out to his parents to try and mend their relationship,
Speaker 3: which Philip did not. Long after that, Philip and Jonathan
Speaker 3: were being in vine To holidays at Philip's family home,
Speaker 3: the relationship between Philip and his parents seemed to become stronger.
Speaker 3: It's believed his parents could see how happy Philip was
Speaker 3: with Jonathan and the sexuality of their son, it really
Speaker 3: no longer mattered, not nearly as much as Philip's happiness mattered.
Speaker 3: Jonathan knew he was in a relationship that he wanted
Speaker 3: to last forever. He loved Philip so much, and Philip
Speaker 3: loved him. Philip lived in his own apartment for a
Speaker 3: time while they dated, and then he moved in with Jonathan.
Speaker 3: Philip also nailed down a job with American Airlines as
Speaker 3: a reservationist. He was excited because this job allowed him
Speaker 3: to fly places places he had never been but only
Speaker 3: dreamed of, and the best part, he could fly for
Speaker 3: free or at a reduced rate. For a couple of years,
Speaker 3: Jonathan Andhilip would take trips to other countries together and
Speaker 3: they would have the time of their lives. Some of
Speaker 3: the trips they were taking, they were even able to
Speaker 3: fly first class, perks of Philip's job. One thing, however,
Speaker 3: for Philip, that was not a perk of his job
Speaker 3: was having to deal with angry customers, but he did so.
Speaker 3: He would also sometimes have to work very late shifts,
Speaker 3: not getting home until midnight, and when he'd get home,
Speaker 3: his usual routine was to check in with Jonathan, who
Speaker 3: normally was in bed by midnight. Then Philip would have
Speaker 3: a beer and take a walk in the neighborhood. He
Speaker 3: did this to unwine from his workshift. Philip loved the
Speaker 3: quiet of the night. It somehow relaxed him. On June eleventh,
Speaker 3: two thousand and two, Philip, who was now twenty four
Speaker 3: years old, came home from work around midnight. He greeted
Speaker 3: a sleepy Jonathan with a kiss. Then he drank a
Speaker 3: beer and told Jonathan good night and that he was
Speaker 3: going for a walk. Nothing out of the ordinary for them,
Speaker 3: and Jonathan fell back asleep. It was now after midnight
Speaker 3: on June twelfth, two thousand and two. Jonathan awoke after
Speaker 3: the sun came up. Philip wasn't there and it looked
Speaker 3: like he had never come to bed. Philip's car was
Speaker 3: in the driveway, but there was no sign of Philip anywhere.
Speaker 3: Jonathan became very worried. While on his midnight walk, Philip
Speaker 3: came across the young couple sitting on a tall gate
Speaker 3: of a white truck. The couple was a young female
Speaker 3: and her twenty year old friend, possibly boyfriend, David Higdon.
Speaker 3: Now you should know that Philip was of a slender build.
Speaker 3: He might have been clockable as a gay man, just
Speaker 3: from some video that I've seen of how he carried
Speaker 3: himself and walked not overly flamboyant, but a little effeminate.
Speaker 3: So as Philip is walking by this couple, they all
Speaker 3: apparently started talking to one another. Soon the girl goes
Speaker 3: and sits in the cab of the truck, and now
Speaker 3: David and Philip are at the talgate of the truck,
Speaker 3: still talking. A few moments later, David grabs a baseball
Speaker 3: bat and he starts swinging it Philip. He knocked Philip
Speaker 3: to the ground almost immediately. The girl looked into the
Speaker 3: sideview mirror and she watched in horror as David did this.
Speaker 3: I truly don't think she expected David to lose his
Speaker 3: shit the way he had, But David doesn't stop at
Speaker 3: one swing, he continued to hit Philip. Philip was screaming.
Speaker 3: He got up and he ran around the corner with
Speaker 3: David chasing him. David caught up to him, and he
Speaker 3: repeatedly swung the bat into Philip's face, into Philip's head,
Speaker 3: and into Philip's body. Although the girl in the truck
Speaker 3: couldn't see what was going on anymore, she could hear.
Speaker 3: She heard David tell Philip to just go to fucking sleep.
Speaker 3: As Philip lay on the ground, beaten, bloody, David checked
Speaker 3: Philip's clothing and he robs him of anything he had
Speaker 3: on him. Then David runs back to his truck. He
Speaker 3: gets into the driver's side, and he and the girl
Speaker 3: drive away. A man walking by that same area hours
Speaker 3: later called nine one one, saying that he saw a
Speaker 3: man lying in the middle of the street and it
Speaker 3: appeared the man had been run over by a vehicle.
Speaker 3: Police in EMT arrived at the scene. The only thing
Speaker 3: left on Philip was his bloody clothing. Even his shoes
Speaker 3: were gone, and then with his clothing, the EMT had
Speaker 3: to cut it off of him to attend to Philip's
Speaker 3: injuries before they took him to the hospital, but emt
Speaker 3: couldn't identify Philip's most life threatening injury due to all
Speaker 3: the blood. They did determine from his head injuries that
Speaker 3: this was not a hit and run accident, but Philip
Speaker 3: had been assaulted, although there was nothing on the victim
Speaker 3: to identify it was Philip. Police canvas the area looking
Speaker 3: for witnesses. They couldn't find any because it happened so
Speaker 3: early in the morning, the neighbors in the area were asleep.
Speaker 3: They looked for anywhere that might have surveillance cameras to
Speaker 3: show them what happened, but again nothing turned up. They
Speaker 3: looked for evidence, but all there was was what belonged
Speaker 3: to the victim, clothing and blood. While detectives in a
Speaker 3: forensic unit were at the scene doing their investigation, they
Speaker 3: were informed that the victim had died at the hospital
Speaker 3: from his injuries. A detective went to the hospital to
Speaker 3: take a look at their victim, and that detective arranged
Speaker 3: to get the victims his fingerprints taken to see if
Speaker 3: they could identify him that way. Detectives also had pictures
Speaker 3: taken in Philip's face to show around and see if
Speaker 3: anybody could identify them. Should the fingerprints not be in
Speaker 3: their database. The problem with the pictures was that they
Speaker 3: didn't look anything like Philip. His eyes were swollen shut
Speaker 3: from the beating, and he was black and blue all
Speaker 3: over his face. Philip had been hit nearly twenty times
Speaker 3: with the baseball bat in his face alone. Investigators got lucky. Somehow,
Speaker 3: they got a hit for Philip's fingerprints and they were
Speaker 3: able to identify him that way. I guess Philip was
Speaker 3: put in the database due to some traffic violation. Now
Speaker 3: I'm guessing it might be a dui or a wet
Speaker 3: and reckless because people generally aren't fingerprinted for a routine
Speaker 3: traffic stop. Again, that's just my theory. Anyway, detectives were
Speaker 3: able to track down Philip's parents and they let them
Speaker 3: know that their son was found deceased. Philip's mom told
Speaker 3: them that he was living with his partner, Jonathan, in
Speaker 3: downtown Tucson. Jonathan had heard from a cousin who was
Speaker 3: listening to a police scanner about the murder of a
Speaker 3: man just blocks from where he and Philip lived. The
Speaker 3: cousin asked if Philip was all right, and Jonathan said no,
Speaker 3: because Philip didn't return home from his walk last night.
Speaker 3: At that moment, Jonathan went to the police station and
Speaker 3: he found out that the murdered victim was his Philip.
Speaker 3: For several days, police put surveillance out on Jonathan with
Speaker 3: the thought that if someone ends up dead, it's usually
Speaker 3: their partner. Jonathan went back to the police station and
Speaker 3: he talked with detectives. They told him Philip was probably
Speaker 3: beaten with the two by four. Although detectives seemed to
Speaker 3: know that the damage to Philip had been done by
Speaker 3: a baseball bat, it appeared they were trying to see
Speaker 3: what reaction Jonathan might have had. As the discussion went
Speaker 3: on for about an hour, detectives were starting to realize
Speaker 3: Jonathan loved Phillips so much and he was most likely
Speaker 3: not their suspect. Jonathan did, however, fill in some gaps
Speaker 3: for them, and he created a tighter timeline for the investigation.
Speaker 3: Jonathan and Philip's home was searched. Nothing of interest in
Speaker 3: this case was discovered there. An article in the weekly
Speaker 3: Tucson paper was put out about the murder of Philip,
Speaker 3: and flyers were distributed around the city, and almost a
Speaker 3: week later, a call came into the police department from
Speaker 3: a woman saying that her daughter had information about the
Speaker 3: young man who was killed. On June twelfth, a patrol
Speaker 3: unit picked the girl up and brought her to the
Speaker 3: police station for an interview. The girl was extremely distraught
Speaker 3: and tearful. The girl was the one who was with
Speaker 3: David Higden in his truck the night David killed Philip.
Speaker 3: She told detectives about the attack, and she said she
Speaker 3: didn't come forward sooner because she was scared of David
Speaker 3: and he had threatened to do the same thing to
Speaker 3: hern her kids that he did to Philip if she talked.
Speaker 3: What David had stolen from Philip was his watch, his shoes,
Speaker 3: his keys, in Philip's driver's license, and after David had
Speaker 3: beaten Philip, him and the girl went back to David's
Speaker 3: where he lived with an older brother and his dad.
Speaker 3: David asked his older brother for advice and how to
Speaker 3: get rid of the evidence he had. His brother told
Speaker 3: him how and that he should have never brought the
Speaker 3: stuff back to the house. But then David used Philip's
Speaker 3: driver's license to cut lines of cocaine. Once he was done,
Speaker 3: he kept the license in his toolbox. I'm thinking a souvenir.
Speaker 3: Maybe the girl ended her interview with the police by
Speaker 3: saying she thought David did this to Philip because Philip
Speaker 3: was gay, and that was the only reason. And that's
Speaker 3: why I mentioned earlier that Philip was somewhat clockable as
Speaker 3: being a gay man through his gait or mannerisms or
Speaker 3: the way he spoke to David. David knew. After detectives
Speaker 3: obtained a search warrant for the Higdon's residence, twenty year
Speaker 3: old David Higden was arrested at his home and he
Speaker 3: was charged with first degree murder. I guess David didn't
Speaker 3: take his brother's advice because the police found Philip Striver's license,
Speaker 3: a baseball bat with blood on it, clothing of David's
Speaker 3: with blood, and Philip's glasses. This guy, David was not
Speaker 3: a good cat. He had prior convictions and he had
Speaker 3: even serve some prison time. In fact, David had just
Speaker 3: recently been released from prison. His crimes were burglary, drug charges,
Speaker 3: and assault. He apparently has quite the temper too. While incarcerated,
Speaker 3: he was affiliated with the Aryan Brotherhood. He's a neo Nazi.
Speaker 3: David doesn't like Jews, people of color, or gaze. David
Speaker 3: has a number of neo Nazi type tattoos on his body,
Speaker 3: including a swastika. David was being held now in a
Speaker 3: local jail with a one million dollar bond to get out.
Speaker 3: His trials started in January of two thousand and five.
Speaker 3: It lasted only eleven days, but it took so long
Speaker 3: to get to the trial because there were so many delays,
Speaker 3: as often happened in these cases. He was found guilty
Speaker 3: at first degree murder and robbery. His sentencing trial was
Speaker 3: March of five, and David was sentenced to life in
Speaker 3: prison without the possibility of parole. I think it's important
Speaker 3: to remember that not just Philip's young life was taken
Speaker 3: by this complete ass wipe who showed no remorse for
Speaker 3: his actions, but Philip's family and Jonathan also suffered so much.
Speaker 3: When he was interviewed many years after the trial, Jonathan
Speaker 3: basically said that Philip was his person and he's come
Speaker 3: to peace with the fact he'll never be in another
Speaker 3: relationship again. Jonathan moved away after Philip's murder, but he
Speaker 3: was encouraged to come back and visit a memorial for Philip.
Speaker 3: The memorial is a bench and a small wall dedicated
Speaker 3: to Philip's memory, It's located at the park right across
Speaker 3: the street from where Philip and Jonathan lived. Visiting the
Speaker 3: site of the memorial was an extremely tough thing for
Speaker 3: Jonathan than to do. Looking at the house where he
Speaker 3: shared so much joy in love with Philip was also
Speaker 3: a very traumatic thing for him. Rest in Power, Philip
Speaker 3: our True Crime Quickie. This episode is from Apple Valley, California.
Speaker 3: On September seventeenth, nineteen ninety eight, twenty two year old
Speaker 3: Lynette Jarvis and her partner Taysha Dody were hitchhiking along
Speaker 3: California Highway eighteen. This is located in southern California, in
Speaker 3: San Bernardino County. Now, I'm assuming this all took place
Speaker 3: in the evening after the sun went down. A man
Speaker 3: named David Vance pulled over to offer the women a ride.
Speaker 3: Not realizing the man was on a meth high, the
Speaker 3: women got into the car with David. As David began driving,
Speaker 3: Lynette and Tasha began noticing that their driver seemed kind
Speaker 3: of off. Soon, David was yelling at the women, demanding
Speaker 3: sex from them. Both women quickly turned David down, which
Speaker 3: made him even angrier. He braked and he stopped his car,
Speaker 3: and the two women were thankful to get away from
Speaker 3: the car and from David, but they were understandably scared.
Speaker 3: They ran and they hid in some nearby bushes along
Speaker 3: the roadway. Lynette and Tasha remained hidden for a while
Speaker 3: after David drove away. Soon they saw lights of another
Speaker 3: approaching vehicle and they came out of their hiding place
Speaker 3: to flag the car down. It was David again. He
Speaker 3: had driven up the road a bit and turned around
Speaker 3: when he saw Lynette and Tasha. David stopped his car
Speaker 3: and he emerged with a gun. He shot Tasha and
Speaker 3: he ran up to Lynette, shooting her point blank, killing
Speaker 3: her instantly. He shot Tasha again and then he got
Speaker 3: back into his car and he drove off. What David
Speaker 3: didn't count on was another passing motorists finding his crime
Speaker 3: scene and that Tasia was still alive. Tasha was rushed
Speaker 3: to the hospital. Her injuries were critical, but she would survive. Tasha,
Speaker 3: being the only living witness to David Vance's crime, was
Speaker 3: able to give a description of her and Lynette's assailant.
Speaker 3: The police were able to provide a lineup of suspects
Speaker 3: for Tasha, and she identified David Vance as their attacker.
Speaker 3: David was charged for the attack, for the murder of
Speaker 3: Lynette and for the attempted murder of Tasha. After his
Speaker 3: trial was over, he was found guilty of second degree
Speaker 3: murder and sentence. I couldn't see how long he was
Speaker 3: sentenced for, but even if it was a life sentence,
Speaker 3: he's most likely out of prison now. He's got a
Speaker 3: pretty common name. I wanted to see where he might relocated.
Speaker 3: I did see a few David A. Vance's obituaries listed,
Speaker 3: but I have no idea if it was the convicted
Speaker 3: man of this story. Rest in Power, Lynnette, Live Strong, Tasha.
Speaker 3: I do believe we need to check for some sunshine
Speaker 3: to end this episode on. It's been announced that the
Speaker 3: UK's Southampton will officially host UK's Pride in twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 3: Alrighty in ya Southampton. A Texas judge blocked the enforcement
Speaker 3: of a law attempting to ban LGBTQ plus student clubs
Speaker 3: in three Texas school districts, ruling that these clubs cannot
Speaker 3: be banned. Yes, nothing like these school districts taking it
Speaker 3: upon themselves to try and shut down the Constitution and
Speaker 3: the First Amendment. These kids have the right to peacefully assemble,
Speaker 3: and if it's via the Gay Lesbian Trans Alliance Club
Speaker 3: on their campus, so be it. USA Rugby just announced
Speaker 3: they will now have a men's, a women's and an
Speaker 3: open category. This will allow trans athletes to play competitive
Speaker 3: rugby should they want to. That's some good progress and
Speaker 3: that's about all for this week, except for a joker too.
Speaker 3: You know, having gay parents must be tough because you
Speaker 3: either get twice the dad jokes or stuck in an
Speaker 3: endless loop of go ask your mother why don't robots
Speaker 3: have brothers because they have trans sisters. Haha. That's it
Speaker 3: for this episode. I love you guys, and you matter
Speaker 3: so much. Remember it is not a crime to be
Speaker 3: gay or to live your truth, unless you're a murderer.