Speaker 1: Hey, listeners, I just started listening to a new true
Speaker 1: crime miniseries from Wondery and Campside Media that I'm completely
Speaker 1: hooked on. It's called Suspect. It starts in October two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight. The residents of a Redman apartment complex
Speaker 1: were throwing a big Halloween party, dozens of people in costume, mingling, drinking,
Speaker 1: and dancing. But after the party started to quiet down,
Speaker 1: one of them was murdered in her home. The police
Speaker 1: spent weeks piecing together the night with hazy recollections, body
Speaker 1: DNA evidence, and dozens of party photos. Eventually they had
Speaker 1: a suspect. His story kept changing. His DNA was at
Speaker 1: the crime scene. When he finally came in for questioning.
Speaker 1: The detectives felt like they were breath away from a confession,
Speaker 1: but that didn't happen, and so the police decided to
Speaker 1: focus their attention on another man, a man with a
Speaker 1: criminal record whose deal was also found at the crime scene,
Speaker 1: and he just so happened to be the only black
Speaker 1: man at the party. Suspect starts out as a compelling
Speaker 1: who'd done it, and then becomes a story about cutting
Speaker 1: edge forensic science and mislaid justice, about race and policing,
Speaker 1: and ultimately the kinds of weighty decisions that cops and
Speaker 1: prosecutors make every day, decisions that once made change lives
Speaker 1: forever and are almost impossible to reverse. I'm about to
Speaker 1: play you a brief preview of Suspect, but while you're listening,
Speaker 1: make sure to follow Suspect on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music,
Speaker 1: or you can binge all nine episodes at free by
Speaker 1: subscribing to Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app.
Speaker 2: Wonder Campsite Media. At the time of the Halloween party
Speaker 2: in two thousand and eight, Jay was in his thirties,
Speaker 2: a successful programmer. He lived in the Seattle area, but
Speaker 2: he kept in touch with a lot of friends back home,
Speaker 2: including doctor Janaga, whose daughter had moved down the road
Speaker 2: from Jay to an apartment complex in Redmond.
Speaker 3: Very beautiful girl and very brainy, and above all, she's
Speaker 3: very kidding.
Speaker 2: I noticed that you speak about her in the present tense.
Speaker 3: Yes. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Three days after the costume party at the Valley View,
Speaker 2: Jay woke up, walked downstairs, checked his phone. He saw
Speaker 2: a bunch of missed calls from Arpana's dad. He called
Speaker 2: doctor Janaga back immediately and he could hear his friend
Speaker 2: was in a bad place. There was no sign of Arbana.
Speaker 2: She wasn't answering her phone. Her friends Sar and Malitha
Speaker 2: couldn't get in touch with her either. Jay hung up
Speaker 2: and tried Arpenhem's self. Nothing.
Speaker 3: I called him back and saying that he's going to
Speaker 3: Iceman and what do you want me to do? And
Speaker 3: he said, can you go and check on her?
Speaker 2: Jay had been d'arpin has placed once before, but all
Speaker 2: you remembered was that you had to walk up a
Speaker 2: set of stairs to the top floor.
Speaker 3: To be honest, I don't even know that you need number,
Speaker 3: So that's why I took the steps. Then I was
Speaker 3: knocking on the wrong door. I knocked for almost like
Speaker 3: thirty forty seconds, no one was there. Then I waited,
Speaker 3: then again knocked. No one knows to play. That's where
Speaker 3: I saw the gentlemen. I don't even know who he is.
Speaker 2: The guy Jay saw coming towards him was in his
Speaker 2: mid twenties with the goatee and sideburns, average build and height.
Speaker 2: It was Cameron Johnson arp In, his next door neighbor.
Speaker 3: And I asked him, do you know this girl? He said, yeah,
Speaker 3: I know, So I asked him, like, which he lives by?
Speaker 3: Then me and Cameron we both were standing just in
Speaker 3: front of that apartment.
Speaker 2: He Jay pushed gently on the door and a bolt
Speaker 2: fell off. Someone seemed to have bashed it in. The
Speaker 2: lock was broken and there were splinters all around the jam.
Speaker 3: Then I turned to Camp and I asked like, hey,
Speaker 3: it looks like somebody broke her apartment. What the hell
Speaker 3: is going on? Right? So can you come and help
Speaker 3: me out? And he said okay. Then we both went
Speaker 3: inside apartment. I was relating at her.
Speaker 2: Basically, Jay was yelling calling for Arpenau, but no one
Speaker 2: was answering. The two men crossed the threshold of the apartment,
Speaker 2: Jay noticed Arpina's motorcycle helmet was on the counter, which
Speaker 2: to him at least was notable. She wouldn't have ridden
Speaker 2: her bike anywhere without a helmet. She just too careful
Speaker 2: for that. So we speculated that either her bike, which
Speaker 2: had not been in the parking lot, was in the
Speaker 2: shop or Arpenau was still in the apartment. He headed
Speaker 2: down a short hallway towards the bedroom. That's when he
Speaker 2: saw a figure lying on the floor next to the bed.
Speaker 2: I've spent the past two years talking to everyone involved
Speaker 2: in the investigation into the murder of our Panaja Naga.
Speaker 2: The cops is somebody lying to conceal something that they
Speaker 2: didn't want to tell us. The lawyers, we get the
Speaker 2: police's version of events, and then we usually get their
Speaker 2: criminal history.
Speaker 3: But if those are the only facts, everyone would be
Speaker 3: guilty and.
Speaker 2: The man ultimately charged with her murder.
Speaker 3: They say things to scare you and be like, you
Speaker 3: need to just take this deal or we're going to
Speaker 3: give you one hundred years. There's bully tactics Man
Speaker 2: Follow Suspect on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or you can
Speaker 2: binge all nine episodes ad free by subscribing to Wondery
Speaker 2: Plus and Apple Podcasts, or the Wondery app.