00:00:15
Speaker 1: Pushkin.
00:00:24
Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
00:00:51
Speaker 3: There's been a major development in the investigation into the murder of a father who was killed while camping with his two young daughters in California last June.
00:01:00
Speaker 4: On the first Monday in January 2019, while he's still finishing out his sentence for the probation and weapons violations, Anthony Rauta is charged with a series of crimes in Malibu.
00:01:10
Speaker 3: Anthony Rauta was charged yesterday with one count of murder. He also faces 10 counts of attempted murder and five counts of burglary over a string of shootings. They date back to 2016.
00:01:23
Speaker 4: I expected this. You could see it coming a mile away. But it's still pretty shocking. For months, the cops have been saying that they can't connect the various crimes. All those near misses, the murder, the armed burglaries. Now they're saying not only that they're connected, but that they were all committed by the same person, Anthony Rauta. So that's one count of murder, Tristan Beaudet, ten counts of attempted murder, including Beaudet's two young daughters and all the victims of the near misses. The charges don't say much about the weapons or ammunition used in the crimes, but news reports confirm the rumor I've been hearing, that Beaudet was killed with a 9mm round, the same kind of ammunition that Rauta was arrested with. Rauta pleads not guilty at the arraignment. And he's confident. He wants to proceed to trial as quickly as possible. Every time I see Rauta's father, Ozzy, he says, I hope he didn't do this. But he also repeats what Rauta is telling him. He's saying he's innocent, Ozzy tells me. He said, I didn't even want to be around people. People cause problems. So how can they say I did this? I try to schedule a visit with Rauta, but it's abruptly canceled.
00:02:44
Speaker 5: Finally, he does.
00:02:44
Speaker 4: In subsequent letters, he writes... I know people must feel I'm guilty, but I suffer every day. I suffered sometimes when I was free. I know I'm innocent, but I can't prove that because of the emotions that are involved. There's nothing I can say to clear my name. There's nothing I want to say. Okay, fine. But I noticed something about his writing, a kind of parallel he's setting up between himself and, of all people, Tristan Beaudet. He refers to Beaudet as an innocent person, and he says that he, Anthony Rauta, is also an innocent person. They're both victims.
00:03:50
Speaker 2: In his view.
00:03:52
Speaker 4: He writes, if you feel the family of Mr. Beaudet needs some closure, I can try to help that. That's definitely a surprise. And so is this, quote, the Beaudet family and friends can blame the sheriff's department for his death. That's where the justice is at. I'm Dana Goodyear, and this is Lost Hills.
00:04:19
Speaker 5: Lost Hills.
00:04:47
Speaker 4: Episode 3.
00:04:49
Speaker 2: Lost.
00:04:53
Speaker 4: Ever since her husband, Tristan Beaudet, died, Erica Wu has felt like she's trapped inside a never-ending dream.
00:05:02
Speaker 5: You know, the moment my sister told me what had happened, I feel like I was just watching myself for the rest of the day in a way, you know? Live out this horrible sort of... nightmare. And I still feel that way sometimes, like it's so unbelievable. This isn't real, that this is some sort of dream or nightmare or movie or something that I'm just watching happening to my family, to myself and to my family.
00:05:31
Speaker 4: She woke up alone that morning at home in Orange County, getting ready to take her medical exam. The whole reason why Tristan had taken the girls camping and she'd stayed back. Then somehow her oldest sister was at her door, then driving her to Malibu.
00:05:46
Speaker 5: I mean, it's such a blur, but they told me what little they knew at the time was that Tristan had been shot and that he was dead, but that the girls were safe. And, you know, in the hours that it took me to get there, I was not believing any of it, you know. I didn't believe that he was really, you know, like it was just so unbelievable to me. And I remember... arguing on the phone, just how do you know that he's dead? Like, why isn't he at the hospital? Like, who said he was dead? Like, how do they know? And then when they told me the girls were safe, I mean, I just remember thinking, like, what if they're not? Are you just saying that? Are you just waiting until I get there to tell me? It was just, I mean, like, it just, gosh, it just, really messes with your mind you know hearing that that information so I think I was all over the place I tried to go to the campground and I think it was one of the um rangers or somebody there that said something like that to me that this never happened you know this kind of stuff never happens here which just you know at the time it was sort of like, okay, well, that's good to know that that kind of stuff never happens here, but also just happened, you know, like it just happened. Like, uh, yeah.
00:07:20
Speaker 4: And it would come out that in fact, many similar things without being anywhere near catastrophic in the way that it was with Tristan, but there've been a lot of near misses.
00:07:36
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:07:37
Speaker 4: People knew.
00:07:39
Speaker 5: Yeah, and that was something that I didn't find out until much later on. Yeah.
00:07:49
Speaker 4: I'm at Erica's new house in the Bay Area. This is not the home she and Tristan were going to move into. It's a different place that he never saw. A townhouse in a row of identical townhouses near the medical center where she works. She asked me to come here for a reason. She doesn't want to talk about the night of Tristan's death, the investigation, the charges against Anthony Rauta, or the impending criminal trial. The words Rauta and Malibu feel like they exist on some other planet, light years away from her grief. I want to tell Tristan's story, she says. I want to tell our story. This neighborhood is so friendly and nice.
00:08:31
Speaker 5: It's lovely.
00:08:32
Speaker 4: Are you guys settling in? Yeah, we're settled, as settled.
00:08:36
Speaker 5: As you can be.
00:08:38
Speaker 4: Before we get started, she shows me around. Do you want us to leave our shoes down here?
00:08:42
Speaker 5: That's fine.
00:08:44
Speaker 4: There's a tiny kitchen, a breakfast nook, a cozy living room. Every inch of the house, down to the balcony, is filled with kids' toys. One wall is devoted to framed paintings that Clara made with Tristan.
00:08:57
Speaker 5: Isn't this the best? Like, this is my favorite. So she would do this thing where she would draw... just, like, do this, like, freehand draw, and she would fill in all the colors, and Tristan got her to do it on a canvas. So this was actually Mother's Day last year. They gave me this and that coffee machine.
00:09:13
Speaker 4: And everywhere, there are pictures of Tristan, smiling on a hiking trail at Yosemite at Glacier National Park, carrying Clara in his arms and Evie in a frame pack on his shoulders.
00:09:26
Speaker 5: I'm really happy.
00:09:27
Speaker 6: Yeah.
00:09:31
Speaker 4: You guys... went out into the wilderness a lot.
00:09:35
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah I mean that was all Tristan he loved to do that stuff um took me a long time to be able to put up the pictures of him but yeah you know obviously sorry it's a balance between still wanting to see pictures um of him and wanting the girls to be able to see pictures of him but balancing that was uh just still being really hard for me yeah I mean, we have a ton of like family pictures and stuff like that that I haven't been able to put up yet.
00:10:05
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:10:07
Speaker 6: Sorry. Yeah.
00:10:11
Speaker 4: The pictures are painful, but she knows they're important. And that pretty much captures her reason for talking to me. She wants to create a portrait of Tristan that is something other than his violent death. Erica and Tristan both grew up in Fresno, California, in the Central Valley, a mid-sized city in the middle of farm country, where the credit card was invented, and the modern landfill. Erica was the fourth of five girls, serious, a little bit reserved. In her senior year, she met Tristan, this happy, exuberant guy bursting with confidence.
00:10:49
Speaker 5: We met because we had a mutual friend who was trying to find him a date for a winter formal. So it was January of our senior year in high school that we met.
00:11:00
Speaker 4: And did you have a, do you have an impression from that night or something you remember?
00:11:05
Speaker 5: Uh, he was, yeah, I mean, he was a happy guy and he was very sort of just uncomplicated, you know, like he sort of just wore everything on his sleeve.
00:11:24
Speaker 4: I think it's a testament to both of you that that was not a super awkward night.
00:11:29
Speaker 5: It was probably awkward. I'm sure it was awkward. But he was definitely like his first serious boyfriend. I mean, yeah.
00:11:42
Speaker 4: After high school, Erica went to Stanford. Tristan went abroad for a year and then to UC San Diego. At his graduation, he surprised everyone. He had the highest GPA in his college.
00:11:56
Speaker 5: He was one of those, it just like came very easily to him. Kind of every, you know, what he was good at in terms of like chemistry. Like I feel like for me, like I've always, you know, like I have to study a lot to know what I know. But he just like knew it and it would click. And he was, yeah, he was the smartest person I knew.
00:12:22
Speaker 4: Then he was at Berkeley for grad school in chemistry, and she was in San Francisco for medical school. They moved in together and then got married in 2008, when she was 26 and he was 25. Right away, Tristan made himself an indispensable part of Erica's family.
00:12:38
Speaker 5: Tristan's personality was just, you know, he got along with everybody. You know, he was one of those people where he had like zero social anxiety.
00:12:46
Speaker 4: With four sisters, Erica had a pack of brothers-in-law, and Tristan became their ringleader. He loved to plan a 20-person family dinner, a trip to Hawaii, and especially any kind of outdoor adventure. And once he became a father, his love of nature took on a whole new dimension.
00:13:05
Speaker 5: Clara would ask a question like, you know, where do the clouds come from? Or where is the rain coming from? And he would give, like, a scientifically accurate answer that she could understand, you know, at three or four. Yeah. One of the things I loved was that he used to teach the girls stuff like that, you know, like he knew that kind of stuff.
00:13:25
Speaker 4: The days before Tristan died are bright in Erica's memory, super saturated. First, there was Father's Day.
00:13:32
Speaker 5: So it was just a couple days before he passed. We went to the beach because that's what he said he wanted to do. And I remember we, it was like a really beautiful day and it was super sunny and Tristan set up like a little sunshade um and the girls were playing in the waves they were letting the waves chase them and I remember running after them and Tristan running after them and I remember sort of um looking at them the three of them and just thinking how lucky I was you know to have them.
00:14:09
Speaker 4: Um After Father's Day, they started getting ready for their move up to the Bay Area. Erica was really busy. She had her big exam on June 22nd and was studying nonstop in between shifts at the hospital.
00:14:34
Speaker 5: So he was like, oh, you know, it's perfect. I'll get them out of the house Thursday night. You'll have, you know, you'll be able to focus on the test, do whatever you need to do.
00:14:42
Speaker 4: But Evie was a little sick that week, and Erica was secretly hoping they would just stay home. She hated it when they left. She always worried. They waffled until the last minute. But it was their last week in Southern California. Maybe their last chance. Tristan decided to go for it.
00:15:04
Speaker 5: We all woke up a little bit late and he made the girls breakfast. And I remember sort of helping them get out the door, getting the girls dressed and braiding their hair. You know, like I remember Tristan, the one thing Tristan couldn't do was anything with their hair. So I remember braiding both of the girls' hair and I'm just like, okay, just leave it like this until you guys get back. And, you know, he was just in such a good mood. He, you know, like I said, his, the trip for him started as soon as he started planning it. So he was getting all the gear together and, um.
00:15:36
Speaker 6: Loading up the car.
00:15:37
Speaker 5: And I remember he put the bikes on the roof, you know, and we both thought it was super cute that my daughter's bike was next to his. I remember girls putting their shoes on and my older one helping the little one put her shoes on so that they could get out the door and they were just so excited to, you know, to go on this.
00:15:59
Speaker 2: Trip with daddy.
00:15:59
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I know it's like in retrospect, but I think part of me that like was a little bit anxious saying bye to them and I remember feeling that way as they were leaving um but he loaded the girls first and then he came back and sort of held open the garage door to say bye to me and um I just remember saying telling him to be careful um I was always worried about the girls again I just thought he was so untouchable um but I remember just saying you know be careful with them drive safe you've precious cargo in your back seat um.
00:16:40
Speaker 4: Come back.
00:16:44
Speaker 1: Um I would always say stuff like that you know like I said I was like worried or something like bring them back to me you all come back you know you come back together um you know he just you know did what he always said be like Erica don't worry we're gonna be fine you know nothing can happen you know being out there that was like his sanctuary you know like he didn't think something he would never believe that something like that could have happened um.
00:17:13
Speaker 5: And i just remember him saying i just go study take your test by the time you're done we'll be back we'll celebrate um and then he just you know kissed me on the cheek and he's gone Gosh, and I feel like I can still remember what he felt like standing there. You know? He was just so there one minute and then so gone the next.
00:18:34
Speaker 4: Tristan sent her texts and pictures throughout the day. The last one was late, just before bed.
00:18:41
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think he said Evie was maybe having a hard time. I mean, she was two. But he would send me, like, thumbs up. You know, I think he sent me, like, a thumbs up, and he said, you know, study hard, you know, what he would always say. Mm-hmm.
00:19:02
Speaker 4: Losing Tristan, Erica feels she lost everything. Not just her husband, but herself. That Erica. The Erica that was Tristan's wife is gone. And the girls, who they were when their father was alive, they're gone too. The family as it was, it disappeared forever.
00:19:26
Speaker 5: God. Losing him in front of them, um, How that, what kind of impact that has on them, you know, in a way. I feel like that sort of family that I had died too, you know, like part of me, part of them.
00:19:56
Speaker 4: Life with Tristan was in full color. Now the three of them are surviving in the grayed out time after. From the minute Erica set foot in Lost Hills Station on the morning of Tristan's death, She says she's struggled to get information about the case. The Sheriff's Department keeps citing the ongoing investigation, telling her only the bare minimum. There was only one way to get answers, she tells me. A few months before I met her, she filed a $ 90 million claim with the county. She names Anthony Rauta as liable in her husband's death, but he's almost an afterthought. The Sheriff's Department and California State Parks She alleges they acted with deliberate indifference and negligence. They willfully created the conditions for the shooting to occur. There was a danger, they knew about it, she claims, and they didn't tell anyone. It's their fault, she says, that her husband is dead. History is made in the race for L.A. County Sheriff. In winning, Villanueva ousted the incumbent sheriff, Jim McDonald, a feat that has not been accomplished in more than 100 years. The upstart, the outsider. Alex Villanueva retired at the rank of lieutenant. He never even ran a station. And in November of 2018, he's elected the new sheriff. Here are the basics about the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. It's not the LAPD. LAPD wears dark blue. Sheriff's deputies wear the khaki shirts and green pants and have a big star on their chests, Old West style. The LAPD polices the city of L.A., while the Sheriff's Department patrols the dozens of cities in the county that don't have their own forces, like Malibu and Calabasas, as well as the county's unincorporated areas, like where Malibu Creek State Park is. In all, it has something like 10,000 deputies who cover an area of nearly 3,000 square miles. They also work the jails and the courts. One more thing. For decades, the L.A. Sheriff's Department has been mired in scandal. Maybe you heard of Lee Baca, two sheriffs back? He's in prison now, as is his undersheriff, Paul Tanaka, for obstructing an FBI investigation into the treatment of inmates in the jail system. Alex Villanueva? says he's going to clean it all up. That sounds ambitious and, frankly, all-consuming. And you wouldn't think it would have much to do with sleepy old, fancy old Malibu.
00:22:55
Speaker 7: May I have your attention and please give a warm round of applause for our sheriff, Sheriff Lemon-Weba.
00:23:03
Speaker 4: But here he is at Duke's, a surfer-themed restaurant on the beach side of Pacific Coast Highway, talking about fixing Malibu's problems, too. Good afternoon, everyone.
00:23:13
Speaker 7: I want to thank CeCe Woods and the mayor and everyone for coming, for being in attendance here.
00:23:20
Speaker 4: It's all thanks to CeCe Woods, the Malibu activist who broke the story of the near misses, and has been calling out the Lost Hills cops for, as she sees it, lying to the community. She was a vocal cheerleader for Villanueva during his outsider campaign. She used her social media feeds and her website, The Local, to celebrate him. and run down his opponent, who she blamed for the problems at Lost Hills.
00:23:44
Speaker 7: And now it looks like CeCe's support is being rewarded. There she is, in the front row, in a leopard print dress, listening to Villanueva. And now let me segue to our homeless expert.
00:24:13
Speaker 4: He sits back down and I see she wasn't kidding. She has the sheriff's ear. Literally, she's leaning over, whispering into it. I wonder what this all means. Will Cece, with her access to the new sheriff, be able to find out what no one seems to know? What really happened in Malibu? How the shootings could go on for so long, unchecked, until finally... someone got killed. Anthony Rauta's case is creeping through preliminary hearings, and the prosecutor says that the sheriff's department is still working on ballistics. Also, they discovered seven electronic devices in Rauta's camp. That's a lot of cell phones and computers and Kindles for a hermit who doesn't want to talk to anyone. They all need to be analyzed, which is going to take even more time. But Cece Woods doesn't need to wait. She's getting a constant stream of information about the investigation. Not just from her new highly placed friends in law enforcement, but from her tea leaf reader. No, no, no.
00:25:36
Speaker 8: I used to go like every six months. And then there was like a year and a half break, maybe. And then all of a sudden, the last city council election and my marriage going down the tubes.
00:25:50
Speaker 2: I'm like, time to call Monica.
00:25:52
Speaker 4: Monica's source. Cece's psychic source. Cece doesn't think Rauta did it. And she wants to find out who did. And more important, what the cops did wrong.
00:26:04
Speaker 8: I have literally had more than 49 readings since.
00:26:09
Speaker 1: Which is so not the norm.
00:26:11
Speaker 8: But now, since she's seen that every time I have a reading, new information comes up, now she doesn't ignore me. She knows shit's going down. And so she better text Monica, emergency, it's urgent. Shit's going down.
00:26:26
Speaker 4: I've got to see this. One day, Cece lets me tag along.
00:26:30
Speaker 9: My psychic-ness started through dreams. I do have a spirit guide that works with me. He's actually the one who does the reading, and he speaks to me. He's a Virgo. He's very, you know, because he's kind of quirky, and sometimes it's like a riddle, you know, and you have to kind of figure it out, or it comes up in a quirky way. You know, it'll show up, like, for instance, one time I said to somebody, I see Howard Stern in your cup, and they're like, what? And then a couple of weeks later, she bumped into him in a 7-Eleven.
00:26:57
Speaker 5: But, I mean, quirky.
00:26:59
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah.
00:27:01
Speaker 4: Monica Source lives with a roommate in a cookie-cutter stucco house on a four-lane road in Burbank. She does her readings in a tiny paneled room. There are owls everywhere. Big, small, ceramic, stuffed, perched, peering, sharp-beaked. Like the world's creepiest bed and breakfast. Her two dogs, Wolfman and Bandit, suffer from anxiety, she says. So during readings, she holds them in her lap.
00:27:29
Speaker 9: Cece, pick your tea and put two teaspoons in your cup.
00:27:32
Speaker 4: The table is set with a red checked tablecloth, blue and white china, and glass jars filled with loose leaf tea.
00:27:39
Speaker 9: And then when she gets her tea in there and drinks it, she's going to stir it three times. Three is the magic number. Three is a magical number.
00:27:46
Speaker 4: Cece has two cell phones out, one for taping, one for taking notes. She's on the edge of her seat.
00:27:53
Speaker 2: Okay, you done? Good.
00:27:54
Speaker 9: Now do you remember what to do?
00:27:55
Speaker 4: Cece puts the saucer on the cup and inverts it, like she's flipping a cake out of a pan. One hand on the cup, the other spinning the saucer.
00:28:03
Speaker 8: Am I at three yet?
00:28:04
Speaker 5: Yeah, relax.
00:28:06
Speaker 9: Embrace it, embrace it.
00:28:07
Speaker 4: Monica Source lifts the overturned cup off the saucer and stares into the dregs left on the plate. It looks like tea leaves to me, but she starts channeling her spirit guide. The dogs get anxious.
00:28:22
Speaker 5: Gotcha. Okay.
00:28:23
Speaker 4: Here we go.
00:28:25
Speaker 9: I'm getting some initials around you. Of course, I'm getting the J's. I'm getting the S's. It is actually spelling out cops. So you're definitely going to be around cops.
00:28:38
Speaker 4: She's getting Italian energy and Celtic energy and some Hispanic energy and some strong Asian energy. She's getting a Rob and a Joe.
00:28:49
Speaker 9: Is he bad cop, good cop?
00:28:51
Speaker 2: I haven't run into him yet.
00:28:53
Speaker 9: Okay, because I'm getting morals. So bad guy, you think?
00:28:57
Speaker 4: Could be. Okay.
00:28:59
Speaker 9: And then it's simply spelling out proof. So there is going to be proof. You are going to prove some things that are going down, and you have the proof.
00:29:08
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll find the proof.
00:29:09
Speaker 9: And this patrol, do they do patrol by horses around there too?
00:29:13
Speaker 4: Malibu Creek State Park. Okay, because that's what I'm getting.
00:29:15
Speaker 9: The patrol is like by someone on a horse.
00:29:19
Speaker 8: Okay, so that could still be involved with Malibu Creek State Park because Rauta did not do it.
00:29:25
Speaker 9: I'm telling you, Rauta did not do it. Josh, I don't know if we got Josh before, but I'm getting like a Josh.
00:29:30
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:29:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, we got that.
00:29:32
Speaker 8: I just actually heard an issue with a Josh today.
00:29:37
Speaker 4: Cece does not observe the psychic firewall. So sitting in on her session with Monica's source is an opportunity for me to hear what she's picking up from her other sources in law enforcement about what's going on inside Lost Hill Station. You're kidding.
00:29:53
Speaker 2: A cop.
00:29:55
Speaker 9: Yeah, something's coming in with the cop, for sure, for sure.
00:29:57
Speaker 5: Okay.
00:29:58
Speaker 9: And I'm also getting Tuesday or.
00:29:59
Speaker 2: Thursday being significant. You got that before?
00:30:01
Speaker 8: Tuesday or Thursday.
00:30:03
Speaker 9: Oh my God, CIA.
00:30:03
Speaker 4: I have to admit, she's losing me.
00:30:07
Speaker 8: Yeah, but isn't CIA like global shit?
00:30:09
Speaker 4: Tuesday? Thursday? The CIA?
00:30:13
Speaker 2: Why would they call it the CIA? Yeah. Who knows?
00:30:15
Speaker 8: I could stumble upon something that may be, I mean, right?
00:30:19
Speaker 9: Now, the T people. Who are the T people?
00:30:22
Speaker 8: Well, there's a couple T people. There is Sergeant Tui Wright.
00:30:26
Speaker 4: But now, a snap to attention. Sergeant Tui Wright. He's the guy who took me on the helicopter ride. Good cop, bad cop?
00:30:35
Speaker 5: Uh, uh.
00:30:35
Speaker 8: I think Tui is a bad cop.
00:30:38
Speaker 4: She thinks Sergeant Wright's a bad cop?
00:30:40
Speaker 9: Yeah, because one of them, it looks like it's not looking too good for them either.
00:30:43
Speaker 3: How great was that?
00:30:54
Speaker 4: After the session's over, I sit in the car with Cece for a minute. It's clear how little she thinks of the Lost Hill Sheriff's Station. But now I find out something new and alarming.
00:31:05
Speaker 8: Alex wouldn't even know this shit was going on.
00:31:07
Speaker 2: If we didn't tell him.
00:31:10
Speaker 4: Hold on a second.
00:31:11
Speaker 5: Alex?
00:31:12
Speaker 4: Alex Villanueva?
00:31:14
Speaker 5: The new L.A.
00:31:15
Speaker 4: County Sheriff?
00:31:16
Speaker 2: They're a bunch of lost mofos.
00:31:19
Speaker 8: They need some direction.
00:31:22
Speaker 5: Well, hopefully they're going to get it now from Alex.
00:31:24
Speaker 8: I mean, and that's why we voted for him. Because we want him to succeed. We want him to turn this damn department around.
00:31:34
Speaker 5: Yes.
00:31:34
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:31:41
Speaker 4: It sounds like Cece's feeding the sheriff information, possibly from her tea leaf readings. And just like him, she's gone from being a total outsider to a total insider. Cece and I don't share methods, not at all. But there are ways of finding out if someone is a bad cop. The sheriff's department doesn't like to share personnel records. You basically have to sue to get them. I put in a public records request, and they tell me, essentially, get in line. But the district attorney's office does keep files on cops with histories of misconduct, cops they've been asked to investigate. And they're supposed to keep these records, even if they never file charges. That's because if a cop is called on to testify in court and has a history of misconduct, the defense is entitled to know that. It's considered exculpatory. So I submit a series of requests to the DA, asking about every name I can find involved with the Malibu case. I also try to get to know Sergeant Tui Wright, the Lost Hills detective who seems to be the center of the Rauta investigation. All right, are you ready? Can you say who you are?
00:33:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, remember, you've got to speak up loud because I'm hard of hearing.
00:33:25
Speaker 4: After hounding him for months, I got him to give me that helicopter tour of Malibu's killing zone. And today, he's sitting down with me to do an interview. Sergeant Wright is, by his own description, not totally at home in the culture of the Sheriff's Department. He's an ex-Marine and a vegan and a bow hunter who grew up in Topanga Canyon, a hippie-trippy enclave in Lost Hills jurisdiction. He's also gotten dozens of awards and commendations, especially for his work leading the Malibu search and rescue team. He's conflicted. He loves the Sheriff's Department, devoted his life to it. But he says he wants to tell me the real story. The truth about what went on behind the scenes at Lost Hills Station before and after Tristan Beaudet was killed. I've got so many questions. There were three shootings in Malibu Creek State Park in late 2016 through January 2017. I'm imagining because it is a small community and Malibu, Lost Hills... Sheriff's Station is just a few miles from the park, that you would have heard about those shootings in the park, right?
00:34:42
Speaker 2: Well, I did eventually hear about those shootings. I had only heard about them when the state park supervisors called Lieutenant Royal and told them that they had a series of crimes that they wanted him to weigh in on.
00:35:02
Speaker 4: Near Misses 1 through 3, Sergeant Wright tells me, all happened on state park property, so it was the Rangers' responsibility to investigate.
00:35:11
Speaker 2: California State Parks is a separate law enforcement agency. They investigate the majority of their own crimes, and they make arrests. They're full peace officers in the state of California.
00:35:22
Speaker 4: The shootings were in state parks jurisdiction, but they didn't get solved, and the problem didn't seem to be going away.
00:35:30
Speaker 2: When you have three shootings in a particular period of time in the same area and with the same type of weapon at the same time of day, it makes you think. I mean, these are an unknown assailant that fired from the dark and disappeared into the night. Always one shot.
00:35:50
Speaker 4: Lieutenant Royal was Sergeant Wright's supervisor, and they were both concerned. But when they took the information to their bosses at the station, Sergeant Wright says, the bosses blew them off.
00:36:00
Speaker 2: I was told by the captain that it was a state parks problem. And obviously, Lieutenant Royal talked to him and I talked to him about it. And there was concern on our part because it's right down the street. It might technically be in the state parks jurisdiction, but who's to say it couldn't spill out into ours? It just didn't seem like there was much interest in it at the supervisory levels above us.
00:36:30
Speaker 4: Five months after Sergeant Wright and Lieutenant Royal learned about the three near-misses in the park, there was another shooting, this time in Lost Hills jurisdiction, the white Porsche on the Canyon Road at 4.30 a.m. That was the one where the driver had to drive himself to the station to make a report, even after calling 911. Near-miss number four. Six weeks after that, near-miss number five. A teenager driving her mother's white BMW on her way to a surf competition with a friend. Same road, same time. Something hit the car, blowing out a back window. Fearing for their lives, the teenagers sped away. And when they got to Surfrider Beach, they saw that the back of the car was riddled with holes. Pellets from birdshot. Lodged in the rear lights.
00:37:23
Speaker 2: We went out and investigated that, and I personally went out and looked at the scene, and we searched for evidence, and I found a shotgun wadding that I believe came from the shot, and I believe it gave me an indication of where the shot was fired from.
00:37:44
Speaker 4: By then, July 2017, 11 months before Tristan Beaudet was killed, there had been five near-misses. three in the park, and two on the road. There was a puzzling, if distinct, pattern. Location, time, ammunition, a single shot.
00:38:03
Speaker 2: Well, certainly the crimes, the shootings occurred in the wee morning hours just before dawn. So that was one thing that was consistent in his M.O., The other was, of course, as you know, in the beginning, a shotgun was used. So same weapon, and one shot fired. That was pretty consistent. And the location was a huge issue. Inside the state park and one particular campground. The state park is huge, but one particular campground, not spread all over. One spot within a few camp spaces of another. And then finally, on the highway... adjacent to the campground in the same spot. So those were consistent patterns that I think indicated a serial shooter. I think there's only common sense to be able to see that.
00:39:04
Speaker 4: Sergeant Wright says he and Lieutenant Royal were frustrated and fearful. When Sergeant Wright told me in the helicopter that it was, quote, our greatest fear that the shooter would kill someone, He meant it was his and Lieutenant Royal's greatest fear. But they couldn't get traction with their theory.
00:39:20
Speaker 2: To be told by other investigators or the department there was no evidence or there was not enough information to link these crimes, I just thought it was ridiculous. It wasn't my opinion.
00:39:33
Speaker 4: But while the investigation was sputtering along, word of a shooter got out among the deputies.
00:39:39
Speaker 2: We all knew where the shooting ground was. And I had heard rumors that patrol cars, some patrol cars would go by there at high speed with their guns out the window pointing in that direction. And I believe people that knew warned their family members. not to drive by there.
00:40:01
Speaker 4: This might be the most outrageous thing Sergeant Wright has told me. The threat was real. The deputies knew there was a shooter in the area and that he might kill someone. They were scared, but the department still didn't warn the public. And then the shooting stopped. For the next 11 months, there was a lull, which, if anything, Sergeant Wright says, made him more nervous.
00:40:27
Speaker 2: We were wondering during the gap what the heck was going on. And I had told Lieutenant Royal that I believed we had a serial shooter. I actually told him I thought we had a serial killer that had not killed yet in our area that we knew of.
00:40:44
Speaker 4: A serial killer in Malibu. The lull in the shootings was shattered in June 2018 when the white Tesla was hit on the Canyon Road near Miss No. 6. Four days later, Tristan Beaudet was killed in his tent. After the murder, the detectives from Homicide and Major Crimes showed up.
00:41:10
Speaker 2: After the murder, obviously, the department was taking note and there was more interest.
00:41:19
Speaker 4: Sergeant Wright says that his search and rescue team was told to keep assisting with the investigation. They knew the area. They could be helpful. And as far as he's concerned, they were.
00:41:30
Speaker 2: We were there the day of the murder. And later, Homicide went back with one of their volunteer teams to try and find shell casings. And they were unable to do so. When I heard that they found nothing, I asked them if they wanted me to take a crack at searching with my team. And they said, by all means.
00:41:56
Speaker 4: A week after Beaudet was killed, he says, his search and rescue team used metal detectors and found five 9mm shell casings in the campground. It looked like multiple rounds had been fired, though it was hard to say for sure. Two of the casings were so rusted their head stamps were illegible.
00:42:13
Speaker 2: And that was a great find. Homicide was ecstatic. They came out to the scene. They were very happy.
00:42:20
Speaker 4: Later, Sergeant Wright decided to go looking for the actual bullets. Only one, the one that killed Tristan Beaudet, had ever been found, lodged in his right shoulder blade. But the tent showed a second entry hole and an exit hole. Sergeant Wright and one of his search and rescue guys went out to the campground. Their idea was to position themselves where the 9mm casings had been found and aim a laser toward Beaudet's campsite. The laser beam pointed at a small hill in the distance. Sergeant Wright and his team member dug into the hill and pulled out a spent 9mm bullet. Sergeant Wright says he also helped Major Crimes investigate the rash of burglaries that happened around the park after Beaudet was killed.
00:43:05
Speaker 2: Major Crimes certainly came in at some point after the burglary started. And they do specialize in burglary, serial burglary investigations. And there seemed to be more interest in that than the shootings, which is strange. But we work closely with Major Crimes. Major Crimes expected that help, and they deserve that help from the locals that know the area.
00:43:32
Speaker 4: He says that after he and one of his trackers found those boot prints leading up into the hills, he was the one that proposed a search.
00:43:40
Speaker 2: Major Crimes was not doing anything in that particular spot or area. So it was off the radar. Everything else they were doing was sort of random, you know, stumbling around looking for clues. I was able to convince Detective Berry that we needed to go back there. And he said, OK, Tui.
00:44:00
Speaker 4: Ty Berry, the major crimes detective. Gray hair, beard, chick kickers. He's the guy I saw at one of Rauta's early hearings for his probation and weapons violations.
00:44:11
Speaker 2: So it was a combined Lost Hills team with two major crimes guys added, and they went back there. We stumbled upon Rauta, and we captured him.
00:44:20
Speaker 4: Lieutenant Royal was on that team too, part of the Rauta capture. And I would expect that even though it was late in coming and even though it came after a terrible tragedy, this was a great victory for Lost Hills to have arrested this suspect.
00:44:39
Speaker 2: It was a great victory, and I mean, we had captured a non-burglar, but I happened to start to believe that Rauter could be the suspect in the murder at that point because of the particular firearm he had. And it was such a great victory that the station captain bought dinner for everybody.
00:45:04
Speaker 4: In the beginning, he says, the department was treating him and Lieutenant Royal like heroes.
00:45:09
Speaker 2: I was told at some point that some of those involved in the arrest and the investigation were going to get a medal. I was supposed to get a medal, and Royal was supposed to get a medal, along with others involved. I don't know who.
00:45:24
Speaker 4: In January of 2019, when Rauta was charged with the murder, the near misses, and the burglaries, Sergeant Wright and Lieutenant Royal's efforts to solve the case were vindicated. Their theory that the crimes were connected was seemingly now validated by the sheriff's department and the DA. The suspect they had tracked and helped capture in the hills, he turned out to be the one. It was right around that time, Sergeant Wright tells me, that everything changed. No medal for him. No medal for Lieutenant Royal. Kind of the opposite. Suddenly, they were under investigation.
00:46:08
Speaker 2: I've never had an internal affairs investigation before, certainly that I know of. I've never been in trouble. And all of a sudden, in January, we get told that we're the subjects of an internal affairs investigation.
00:46:24
Speaker 4: Sergeant Wright was transferred out of Lost Hill Station, expelled, given freeway therapy, a long commute, a loss of seniority, public shame. His new job? Patrolling city walk at Universal Studios out of the West Hollywood station. Finally, he just retired, which is why he was willing, for a little while at least, to talk to me. And Lieutenant Royal, Sergeant Wright's supervisor? The same thing happened to him. He got transferred out of Malibu.
00:46:57
Speaker 5: Demoted.
00:46:58
Speaker 4: Shamed. This is all very strange. Is Sergeant Wright telling me the truth? Because if he is, if he basically solved this case, then why would he be under investigation? I asked the DA about every sheriff's department name I could find associated with the Rauta case to see if any of them had a history of misconduct. Sergeant Tui Wright and Lieutenant James Royal don't. But two of the detectives who took over the case from them, they're dirty. Daniel Morris, the homicide detective who oversaw the chain of custody on the murder evidence and was a witness at Beaudet's autopsy, he's got a record of dishonesty. And Ty Berry, the major crimes detective, he's been accused of planting evidence, fabricating police reports, and lying. It's so bad that the sheriff's department fired him for dishonesty back in 2003. He only has his job because he sued to get it back. So the homicide detective and the major crimes lead both have histories of dishonesty. And the two local guys who'd been trying to solve the case when their bosses didn't seem to believe there was anything to solve, they're under investigation? Is there anyone here I can trust? I know what I need to do. I need to go see it for myself. I need to go out there. Where it all happened. Malibu Creek State Park.
00:48:37
Speaker 8: The End
Speaker 1: Pushkin.
00:00:24
Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
00:00:51
Speaker 3: There's been a major development in the investigation into the murder of a father who was killed while camping with his two young daughters in California last June.
00:01:00
Speaker 4: On the first Monday in January 2019, while he's still finishing out his sentence for the probation and weapons violations, Anthony Rauta is charged with a series of crimes in Malibu.
00:01:10
Speaker 3: Anthony Rauta was charged yesterday with one count of murder. He also faces 10 counts of attempted murder and five counts of burglary over a string of shootings. They date back to 2016.
00:01:23
Speaker 4: I expected this. You could see it coming a mile away. But it's still pretty shocking. For months, the cops have been saying that they can't connect the various crimes. All those near misses, the murder, the armed burglaries. Now they're saying not only that they're connected, but that they were all committed by the same person, Anthony Rauta. So that's one count of murder, Tristan Beaudet, ten counts of attempted murder, including Beaudet's two young daughters and all the victims of the near misses. The charges don't say much about the weapons or ammunition used in the crimes, but news reports confirm the rumor I've been hearing, that Beaudet was killed with a 9mm round, the same kind of ammunition that Rauta was arrested with. Rauta pleads not guilty at the arraignment. And he's confident. He wants to proceed to trial as quickly as possible. Every time I see Rauta's father, Ozzy, he says, I hope he didn't do this. But he also repeats what Rauta is telling him. He's saying he's innocent, Ozzy tells me. He said, I didn't even want to be around people. People cause problems. So how can they say I did this? I try to schedule a visit with Rauta, but it's abruptly canceled.
00:02:44
Speaker 5: Finally, he does.
00:02:44
Speaker 4: In subsequent letters, he writes... I know people must feel I'm guilty, but I suffer every day. I suffered sometimes when I was free. I know I'm innocent, but I can't prove that because of the emotions that are involved. There's nothing I can say to clear my name. There's nothing I want to say. Okay, fine. But I noticed something about his writing, a kind of parallel he's setting up between himself and, of all people, Tristan Beaudet. He refers to Beaudet as an innocent person, and he says that he, Anthony Rauta, is also an innocent person. They're both victims.
00:03:50
Speaker 2: In his view.
00:03:52
Speaker 4: He writes, if you feel the family of Mr. Beaudet needs some closure, I can try to help that. That's definitely a surprise. And so is this, quote, the Beaudet family and friends can blame the sheriff's department for his death. That's where the justice is at. I'm Dana Goodyear, and this is Lost Hills.
00:04:19
Speaker 5: Lost Hills.
00:04:47
Speaker 4: Episode 3.
00:04:49
Speaker 2: Lost.
00:04:53
Speaker 4: Ever since her husband, Tristan Beaudet, died, Erica Wu has felt like she's trapped inside a never-ending dream.
00:05:02
Speaker 5: You know, the moment my sister told me what had happened, I feel like I was just watching myself for the rest of the day in a way, you know? Live out this horrible sort of... nightmare. And I still feel that way sometimes, like it's so unbelievable. This isn't real, that this is some sort of dream or nightmare or movie or something that I'm just watching happening to my family, to myself and to my family.
00:05:31
Speaker 4: She woke up alone that morning at home in Orange County, getting ready to take her medical exam. The whole reason why Tristan had taken the girls camping and she'd stayed back. Then somehow her oldest sister was at her door, then driving her to Malibu.
00:05:46
Speaker 5: I mean, it's such a blur, but they told me what little they knew at the time was that Tristan had been shot and that he was dead, but that the girls were safe. And, you know, in the hours that it took me to get there, I was not believing any of it, you know. I didn't believe that he was really, you know, like it was just so unbelievable to me. And I remember... arguing on the phone, just how do you know that he's dead? Like, why isn't he at the hospital? Like, who said he was dead? Like, how do they know? And then when they told me the girls were safe, I mean, I just remember thinking, like, what if they're not? Are you just saying that? Are you just waiting until I get there to tell me? It was just, I mean, like, it just, gosh, it just, really messes with your mind you know hearing that that information so I think I was all over the place I tried to go to the campground and I think it was one of the um rangers or somebody there that said something like that to me that this never happened you know this kind of stuff never happens here which just you know at the time it was sort of like, okay, well, that's good to know that that kind of stuff never happens here, but also just happened, you know, like it just happened. Like, uh, yeah.
00:07:20
Speaker 4: And it would come out that in fact, many similar things without being anywhere near catastrophic in the way that it was with Tristan, but there've been a lot of near misses.
00:07:36
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:07:37
Speaker 4: People knew.
00:07:39
Speaker 5: Yeah, and that was something that I didn't find out until much later on. Yeah.
00:07:49
Speaker 4: I'm at Erica's new house in the Bay Area. This is not the home she and Tristan were going to move into. It's a different place that he never saw. A townhouse in a row of identical townhouses near the medical center where she works. She asked me to come here for a reason. She doesn't want to talk about the night of Tristan's death, the investigation, the charges against Anthony Rauta, or the impending criminal trial. The words Rauta and Malibu feel like they exist on some other planet, light years away from her grief. I want to tell Tristan's story, she says. I want to tell our story. This neighborhood is so friendly and nice.
00:08:31
Speaker 5: It's lovely.
00:08:32
Speaker 4: Are you guys settling in? Yeah, we're settled, as settled.
00:08:36
Speaker 5: As you can be.
00:08:38
Speaker 4: Before we get started, she shows me around. Do you want us to leave our shoes down here?
00:08:42
Speaker 5: That's fine.
00:08:44
Speaker 4: There's a tiny kitchen, a breakfast nook, a cozy living room. Every inch of the house, down to the balcony, is filled with kids' toys. One wall is devoted to framed paintings that Clara made with Tristan.
00:08:57
Speaker 5: Isn't this the best? Like, this is my favorite. So she would do this thing where she would draw... just, like, do this, like, freehand draw, and she would fill in all the colors, and Tristan got her to do it on a canvas. So this was actually Mother's Day last year. They gave me this and that coffee machine.
00:09:13
Speaker 4: And everywhere, there are pictures of Tristan, smiling on a hiking trail at Yosemite at Glacier National Park, carrying Clara in his arms and Evie in a frame pack on his shoulders.
00:09:26
Speaker 5: I'm really happy.
00:09:27
Speaker 6: Yeah.
00:09:31
Speaker 4: You guys... went out into the wilderness a lot.
00:09:35
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah I mean that was all Tristan he loved to do that stuff um took me a long time to be able to put up the pictures of him but yeah you know obviously sorry it's a balance between still wanting to see pictures um of him and wanting the girls to be able to see pictures of him but balancing that was uh just still being really hard for me yeah I mean, we have a ton of like family pictures and stuff like that that I haven't been able to put up yet.
00:10:05
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:10:07
Speaker 6: Sorry. Yeah.
00:10:11
Speaker 4: The pictures are painful, but she knows they're important. And that pretty much captures her reason for talking to me. She wants to create a portrait of Tristan that is something other than his violent death. Erica and Tristan both grew up in Fresno, California, in the Central Valley, a mid-sized city in the middle of farm country, where the credit card was invented, and the modern landfill. Erica was the fourth of five girls, serious, a little bit reserved. In her senior year, she met Tristan, this happy, exuberant guy bursting with confidence.
00:10:49
Speaker 5: We met because we had a mutual friend who was trying to find him a date for a winter formal. So it was January of our senior year in high school that we met.
00:11:00
Speaker 4: And did you have a, do you have an impression from that night or something you remember?
00:11:05
Speaker 5: Uh, he was, yeah, I mean, he was a happy guy and he was very sort of just uncomplicated, you know, like he sort of just wore everything on his sleeve.
00:11:24
Speaker 4: I think it's a testament to both of you that that was not a super awkward night.
00:11:29
Speaker 5: It was probably awkward. I'm sure it was awkward. But he was definitely like his first serious boyfriend. I mean, yeah.
00:11:42
Speaker 4: After high school, Erica went to Stanford. Tristan went abroad for a year and then to UC San Diego. At his graduation, he surprised everyone. He had the highest GPA in his college.
00:11:56
Speaker 5: He was one of those, it just like came very easily to him. Kind of every, you know, what he was good at in terms of like chemistry. Like I feel like for me, like I've always, you know, like I have to study a lot to know what I know. But he just like knew it and it would click. And he was, yeah, he was the smartest person I knew.
00:12:22
Speaker 4: Then he was at Berkeley for grad school in chemistry, and she was in San Francisco for medical school. They moved in together and then got married in 2008, when she was 26 and he was 25. Right away, Tristan made himself an indispensable part of Erica's family.
00:12:38
Speaker 5: Tristan's personality was just, you know, he got along with everybody. You know, he was one of those people where he had like zero social anxiety.
00:12:46
Speaker 4: With four sisters, Erica had a pack of brothers-in-law, and Tristan became their ringleader. He loved to plan a 20-person family dinner, a trip to Hawaii, and especially any kind of outdoor adventure. And once he became a father, his love of nature took on a whole new dimension.
00:13:05
Speaker 5: Clara would ask a question like, you know, where do the clouds come from? Or where is the rain coming from? And he would give, like, a scientifically accurate answer that she could understand, you know, at three or four. Yeah. One of the things I loved was that he used to teach the girls stuff like that, you know, like he knew that kind of stuff.
00:13:25
Speaker 4: The days before Tristan died are bright in Erica's memory, super saturated. First, there was Father's Day.
00:13:32
Speaker 5: So it was just a couple days before he passed. We went to the beach because that's what he said he wanted to do. And I remember we, it was like a really beautiful day and it was super sunny and Tristan set up like a little sunshade um and the girls were playing in the waves they were letting the waves chase them and I remember running after them and Tristan running after them and I remember sort of um looking at them the three of them and just thinking how lucky I was you know to have them.
00:14:09
Speaker 4: Um After Father's Day, they started getting ready for their move up to the Bay Area. Erica was really busy. She had her big exam on June 22nd and was studying nonstop in between shifts at the hospital.
00:14:34
Speaker 5: So he was like, oh, you know, it's perfect. I'll get them out of the house Thursday night. You'll have, you know, you'll be able to focus on the test, do whatever you need to do.
00:14:42
Speaker 4: But Evie was a little sick that week, and Erica was secretly hoping they would just stay home. She hated it when they left. She always worried. They waffled until the last minute. But it was their last week in Southern California. Maybe their last chance. Tristan decided to go for it.
00:15:04
Speaker 5: We all woke up a little bit late and he made the girls breakfast. And I remember sort of helping them get out the door, getting the girls dressed and braiding their hair. You know, like I remember Tristan, the one thing Tristan couldn't do was anything with their hair. So I remember braiding both of the girls' hair and I'm just like, okay, just leave it like this until you guys get back. And, you know, he was just in such a good mood. He, you know, like I said, his, the trip for him started as soon as he started planning it. So he was getting all the gear together and, um.
00:15:36
Speaker 6: Loading up the car.
00:15:37
Speaker 5: And I remember he put the bikes on the roof, you know, and we both thought it was super cute that my daughter's bike was next to his. I remember girls putting their shoes on and my older one helping the little one put her shoes on so that they could get out the door and they were just so excited to, you know, to go on this.
00:15:59
Speaker 2: Trip with daddy.
00:15:59
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I know it's like in retrospect, but I think part of me that like was a little bit anxious saying bye to them and I remember feeling that way as they were leaving um but he loaded the girls first and then he came back and sort of held open the garage door to say bye to me and um I just remember saying telling him to be careful um I was always worried about the girls again I just thought he was so untouchable um but I remember just saying you know be careful with them drive safe you've precious cargo in your back seat um.
00:16:40
Speaker 4: Come back.
00:16:44
Speaker 1: Um I would always say stuff like that you know like I said I was like worried or something like bring them back to me you all come back you know you come back together um you know he just you know did what he always said be like Erica don't worry we're gonna be fine you know nothing can happen you know being out there that was like his sanctuary you know like he didn't think something he would never believe that something like that could have happened um.
00:17:13
Speaker 5: And i just remember him saying i just go study take your test by the time you're done we'll be back we'll celebrate um and then he just you know kissed me on the cheek and he's gone Gosh, and I feel like I can still remember what he felt like standing there. You know? He was just so there one minute and then so gone the next.
00:18:34
Speaker 4: Tristan sent her texts and pictures throughout the day. The last one was late, just before bed.
00:18:41
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think he said Evie was maybe having a hard time. I mean, she was two. But he would send me, like, thumbs up. You know, I think he sent me, like, a thumbs up, and he said, you know, study hard, you know, what he would always say. Mm-hmm.
00:19:02
Speaker 4: Losing Tristan, Erica feels she lost everything. Not just her husband, but herself. That Erica. The Erica that was Tristan's wife is gone. And the girls, who they were when their father was alive, they're gone too. The family as it was, it disappeared forever.
00:19:26
Speaker 5: God. Losing him in front of them, um, How that, what kind of impact that has on them, you know, in a way. I feel like that sort of family that I had died too, you know, like part of me, part of them.
00:19:56
Speaker 4: Life with Tristan was in full color. Now the three of them are surviving in the grayed out time after. From the minute Erica set foot in Lost Hills Station on the morning of Tristan's death, She says she's struggled to get information about the case. The Sheriff's Department keeps citing the ongoing investigation, telling her only the bare minimum. There was only one way to get answers, she tells me. A few months before I met her, she filed a $ 90 million claim with the county. She names Anthony Rauta as liable in her husband's death, but he's almost an afterthought. The Sheriff's Department and California State Parks She alleges they acted with deliberate indifference and negligence. They willfully created the conditions for the shooting to occur. There was a danger, they knew about it, she claims, and they didn't tell anyone. It's their fault, she says, that her husband is dead. History is made in the race for L.A. County Sheriff. In winning, Villanueva ousted the incumbent sheriff, Jim McDonald, a feat that has not been accomplished in more than 100 years. The upstart, the outsider. Alex Villanueva retired at the rank of lieutenant. He never even ran a station. And in November of 2018, he's elected the new sheriff. Here are the basics about the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. It's not the LAPD. LAPD wears dark blue. Sheriff's deputies wear the khaki shirts and green pants and have a big star on their chests, Old West style. The LAPD polices the city of L.A., while the Sheriff's Department patrols the dozens of cities in the county that don't have their own forces, like Malibu and Calabasas, as well as the county's unincorporated areas, like where Malibu Creek State Park is. In all, it has something like 10,000 deputies who cover an area of nearly 3,000 square miles. They also work the jails and the courts. One more thing. For decades, the L.A. Sheriff's Department has been mired in scandal. Maybe you heard of Lee Baca, two sheriffs back? He's in prison now, as is his undersheriff, Paul Tanaka, for obstructing an FBI investigation into the treatment of inmates in the jail system. Alex Villanueva? says he's going to clean it all up. That sounds ambitious and, frankly, all-consuming. And you wouldn't think it would have much to do with sleepy old, fancy old Malibu.
00:22:55
Speaker 7: May I have your attention and please give a warm round of applause for our sheriff, Sheriff Lemon-Weba.
00:23:03
Speaker 4: But here he is at Duke's, a surfer-themed restaurant on the beach side of Pacific Coast Highway, talking about fixing Malibu's problems, too. Good afternoon, everyone.
00:23:13
Speaker 7: I want to thank CeCe Woods and the mayor and everyone for coming, for being in attendance here.
00:23:20
Speaker 4: It's all thanks to CeCe Woods, the Malibu activist who broke the story of the near misses, and has been calling out the Lost Hills cops for, as she sees it, lying to the community. She was a vocal cheerleader for Villanueva during his outsider campaign. She used her social media feeds and her website, The Local, to celebrate him. and run down his opponent, who she blamed for the problems at Lost Hills.
00:23:44
Speaker 7: And now it looks like CeCe's support is being rewarded. There she is, in the front row, in a leopard print dress, listening to Villanueva. And now let me segue to our homeless expert.
00:24:13
Speaker 4: He sits back down and I see she wasn't kidding. She has the sheriff's ear. Literally, she's leaning over, whispering into it. I wonder what this all means. Will Cece, with her access to the new sheriff, be able to find out what no one seems to know? What really happened in Malibu? How the shootings could go on for so long, unchecked, until finally... someone got killed. Anthony Rauta's case is creeping through preliminary hearings, and the prosecutor says that the sheriff's department is still working on ballistics. Also, they discovered seven electronic devices in Rauta's camp. That's a lot of cell phones and computers and Kindles for a hermit who doesn't want to talk to anyone. They all need to be analyzed, which is going to take even more time. But Cece Woods doesn't need to wait. She's getting a constant stream of information about the investigation. Not just from her new highly placed friends in law enforcement, but from her tea leaf reader. No, no, no.
00:25:36
Speaker 8: I used to go like every six months. And then there was like a year and a half break, maybe. And then all of a sudden, the last city council election and my marriage going down the tubes.
00:25:50
Speaker 2: I'm like, time to call Monica.
00:25:52
Speaker 4: Monica's source. Cece's psychic source. Cece doesn't think Rauta did it. And she wants to find out who did. And more important, what the cops did wrong.
00:26:04
Speaker 8: I have literally had more than 49 readings since.
00:26:09
Speaker 1: Which is so not the norm.
00:26:11
Speaker 8: But now, since she's seen that every time I have a reading, new information comes up, now she doesn't ignore me. She knows shit's going down. And so she better text Monica, emergency, it's urgent. Shit's going down.
00:26:26
Speaker 4: I've got to see this. One day, Cece lets me tag along.
00:26:30
Speaker 9: My psychic-ness started through dreams. I do have a spirit guide that works with me. He's actually the one who does the reading, and he speaks to me. He's a Virgo. He's very, you know, because he's kind of quirky, and sometimes it's like a riddle, you know, and you have to kind of figure it out, or it comes up in a quirky way. You know, it'll show up, like, for instance, one time I said to somebody, I see Howard Stern in your cup, and they're like, what? And then a couple of weeks later, she bumped into him in a 7-Eleven.
00:26:57
Speaker 5: But, I mean, quirky.
00:26:59
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah.
00:27:01
Speaker 4: Monica Source lives with a roommate in a cookie-cutter stucco house on a four-lane road in Burbank. She does her readings in a tiny paneled room. There are owls everywhere. Big, small, ceramic, stuffed, perched, peering, sharp-beaked. Like the world's creepiest bed and breakfast. Her two dogs, Wolfman and Bandit, suffer from anxiety, she says. So during readings, she holds them in her lap.
00:27:29
Speaker 9: Cece, pick your tea and put two teaspoons in your cup.
00:27:32
Speaker 4: The table is set with a red checked tablecloth, blue and white china, and glass jars filled with loose leaf tea.
00:27:39
Speaker 9: And then when she gets her tea in there and drinks it, she's going to stir it three times. Three is the magic number. Three is a magical number.
00:27:46
Speaker 4: Cece has two cell phones out, one for taping, one for taking notes. She's on the edge of her seat.
00:27:53
Speaker 2: Okay, you done? Good.
00:27:54
Speaker 9: Now do you remember what to do?
00:27:55
Speaker 4: Cece puts the saucer on the cup and inverts it, like she's flipping a cake out of a pan. One hand on the cup, the other spinning the saucer.
00:28:03
Speaker 8: Am I at three yet?
00:28:04
Speaker 5: Yeah, relax.
00:28:06
Speaker 9: Embrace it, embrace it.
00:28:07
Speaker 4: Monica Source lifts the overturned cup off the saucer and stares into the dregs left on the plate. It looks like tea leaves to me, but she starts channeling her spirit guide. The dogs get anxious.
00:28:22
Speaker 5: Gotcha. Okay.
00:28:23
Speaker 4: Here we go.
00:28:25
Speaker 9: I'm getting some initials around you. Of course, I'm getting the J's. I'm getting the S's. It is actually spelling out cops. So you're definitely going to be around cops.
00:28:38
Speaker 4: She's getting Italian energy and Celtic energy and some Hispanic energy and some strong Asian energy. She's getting a Rob and a Joe.
00:28:49
Speaker 9: Is he bad cop, good cop?
00:28:51
Speaker 2: I haven't run into him yet.
00:28:53
Speaker 9: Okay, because I'm getting morals. So bad guy, you think?
00:28:57
Speaker 4: Could be. Okay.
00:28:59
Speaker 9: And then it's simply spelling out proof. So there is going to be proof. You are going to prove some things that are going down, and you have the proof.
00:29:08
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll find the proof.
00:29:09
Speaker 9: And this patrol, do they do patrol by horses around there too?
00:29:13
Speaker 4: Malibu Creek State Park. Okay, because that's what I'm getting.
00:29:15
Speaker 9: The patrol is like by someone on a horse.
00:29:19
Speaker 8: Okay, so that could still be involved with Malibu Creek State Park because Rauta did not do it.
00:29:25
Speaker 9: I'm telling you, Rauta did not do it. Josh, I don't know if we got Josh before, but I'm getting like a Josh.
00:29:30
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:29:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, we got that.
00:29:32
Speaker 8: I just actually heard an issue with a Josh today.
00:29:37
Speaker 4: Cece does not observe the psychic firewall. So sitting in on her session with Monica's source is an opportunity for me to hear what she's picking up from her other sources in law enforcement about what's going on inside Lost Hill Station. You're kidding.
00:29:53
Speaker 2: A cop.
00:29:55
Speaker 9: Yeah, something's coming in with the cop, for sure, for sure.
00:29:57
Speaker 5: Okay.
00:29:58
Speaker 9: And I'm also getting Tuesday or.
00:29:59
Speaker 2: Thursday being significant. You got that before?
00:30:01
Speaker 8: Tuesday or Thursday.
00:30:03
Speaker 9: Oh my God, CIA.
00:30:03
Speaker 4: I have to admit, she's losing me.
00:30:07
Speaker 8: Yeah, but isn't CIA like global shit?
00:30:09
Speaker 4: Tuesday? Thursday? The CIA?
00:30:13
Speaker 2: Why would they call it the CIA? Yeah. Who knows?
00:30:15
Speaker 8: I could stumble upon something that may be, I mean, right?
00:30:19
Speaker 9: Now, the T people. Who are the T people?
00:30:22
Speaker 8: Well, there's a couple T people. There is Sergeant Tui Wright.
00:30:26
Speaker 4: But now, a snap to attention. Sergeant Tui Wright. He's the guy who took me on the helicopter ride. Good cop, bad cop?
00:30:35
Speaker 5: Uh, uh.
00:30:35
Speaker 8: I think Tui is a bad cop.
00:30:38
Speaker 4: She thinks Sergeant Wright's a bad cop?
00:30:40
Speaker 9: Yeah, because one of them, it looks like it's not looking too good for them either.
00:30:43
Speaker 3: How great was that?
00:30:54
Speaker 4: After the session's over, I sit in the car with Cece for a minute. It's clear how little she thinks of the Lost Hill Sheriff's Station. But now I find out something new and alarming.
00:31:05
Speaker 8: Alex wouldn't even know this shit was going on.
00:31:07
Speaker 2: If we didn't tell him.
00:31:10
Speaker 4: Hold on a second.
00:31:11
Speaker 5: Alex?
00:31:12
Speaker 4: Alex Villanueva?
00:31:14
Speaker 5: The new L.A.
00:31:15
Speaker 4: County Sheriff?
00:31:16
Speaker 2: They're a bunch of lost mofos.
00:31:19
Speaker 8: They need some direction.
00:31:22
Speaker 5: Well, hopefully they're going to get it now from Alex.
00:31:24
Speaker 8: I mean, and that's why we voted for him. Because we want him to succeed. We want him to turn this damn department around.
00:31:34
Speaker 5: Yes.
00:31:34
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:31:41
Speaker 4: It sounds like Cece's feeding the sheriff information, possibly from her tea leaf readings. And just like him, she's gone from being a total outsider to a total insider. Cece and I don't share methods, not at all. But there are ways of finding out if someone is a bad cop. The sheriff's department doesn't like to share personnel records. You basically have to sue to get them. I put in a public records request, and they tell me, essentially, get in line. But the district attorney's office does keep files on cops with histories of misconduct, cops they've been asked to investigate. And they're supposed to keep these records, even if they never file charges. That's because if a cop is called on to testify in court and has a history of misconduct, the defense is entitled to know that. It's considered exculpatory. So I submit a series of requests to the DA, asking about every name I can find involved with the Malibu case. I also try to get to know Sergeant Tui Wright, the Lost Hills detective who seems to be the center of the Rauta investigation. All right, are you ready? Can you say who you are?
00:33:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, remember, you've got to speak up loud because I'm hard of hearing.
00:33:25
Speaker 4: After hounding him for months, I got him to give me that helicopter tour of Malibu's killing zone. And today, he's sitting down with me to do an interview. Sergeant Wright is, by his own description, not totally at home in the culture of the Sheriff's Department. He's an ex-Marine and a vegan and a bow hunter who grew up in Topanga Canyon, a hippie-trippy enclave in Lost Hills jurisdiction. He's also gotten dozens of awards and commendations, especially for his work leading the Malibu search and rescue team. He's conflicted. He loves the Sheriff's Department, devoted his life to it. But he says he wants to tell me the real story. The truth about what went on behind the scenes at Lost Hills Station before and after Tristan Beaudet was killed. I've got so many questions. There were three shootings in Malibu Creek State Park in late 2016 through January 2017. I'm imagining because it is a small community and Malibu, Lost Hills... Sheriff's Station is just a few miles from the park, that you would have heard about those shootings in the park, right?
00:34:42
Speaker 2: Well, I did eventually hear about those shootings. I had only heard about them when the state park supervisors called Lieutenant Royal and told them that they had a series of crimes that they wanted him to weigh in on.
00:35:02
Speaker 4: Near Misses 1 through 3, Sergeant Wright tells me, all happened on state park property, so it was the Rangers' responsibility to investigate.
00:35:11
Speaker 2: California State Parks is a separate law enforcement agency. They investigate the majority of their own crimes, and they make arrests. They're full peace officers in the state of California.
00:35:22
Speaker 4: The shootings were in state parks jurisdiction, but they didn't get solved, and the problem didn't seem to be going away.
00:35:30
Speaker 2: When you have three shootings in a particular period of time in the same area and with the same type of weapon at the same time of day, it makes you think. I mean, these are an unknown assailant that fired from the dark and disappeared into the night. Always one shot.
00:35:50
Speaker 4: Lieutenant Royal was Sergeant Wright's supervisor, and they were both concerned. But when they took the information to their bosses at the station, Sergeant Wright says, the bosses blew them off.
00:36:00
Speaker 2: I was told by the captain that it was a state parks problem. And obviously, Lieutenant Royal talked to him and I talked to him about it. And there was concern on our part because it's right down the street. It might technically be in the state parks jurisdiction, but who's to say it couldn't spill out into ours? It just didn't seem like there was much interest in it at the supervisory levels above us.
00:36:30
Speaker 4: Five months after Sergeant Wright and Lieutenant Royal learned about the three near-misses in the park, there was another shooting, this time in Lost Hills jurisdiction, the white Porsche on the Canyon Road at 4.30 a.m. That was the one where the driver had to drive himself to the station to make a report, even after calling 911. Near-miss number four. Six weeks after that, near-miss number five. A teenager driving her mother's white BMW on her way to a surf competition with a friend. Same road, same time. Something hit the car, blowing out a back window. Fearing for their lives, the teenagers sped away. And when they got to Surfrider Beach, they saw that the back of the car was riddled with holes. Pellets from birdshot. Lodged in the rear lights.
00:37:23
Speaker 2: We went out and investigated that, and I personally went out and looked at the scene, and we searched for evidence, and I found a shotgun wadding that I believe came from the shot, and I believe it gave me an indication of where the shot was fired from.
00:37:44
Speaker 4: By then, July 2017, 11 months before Tristan Beaudet was killed, there had been five near-misses. three in the park, and two on the road. There was a puzzling, if distinct, pattern. Location, time, ammunition, a single shot.
00:38:03
Speaker 2: Well, certainly the crimes, the shootings occurred in the wee morning hours just before dawn. So that was one thing that was consistent in his M.O., The other was, of course, as you know, in the beginning, a shotgun was used. So same weapon, and one shot fired. That was pretty consistent. And the location was a huge issue. Inside the state park and one particular campground. The state park is huge, but one particular campground, not spread all over. One spot within a few camp spaces of another. And then finally, on the highway... adjacent to the campground in the same spot. So those were consistent patterns that I think indicated a serial shooter. I think there's only common sense to be able to see that.
00:39:04
Speaker 4: Sergeant Wright says he and Lieutenant Royal were frustrated and fearful. When Sergeant Wright told me in the helicopter that it was, quote, our greatest fear that the shooter would kill someone, He meant it was his and Lieutenant Royal's greatest fear. But they couldn't get traction with their theory.
00:39:20
Speaker 2: To be told by other investigators or the department there was no evidence or there was not enough information to link these crimes, I just thought it was ridiculous. It wasn't my opinion.
00:39:33
Speaker 4: But while the investigation was sputtering along, word of a shooter got out among the deputies.
00:39:39
Speaker 2: We all knew where the shooting ground was. And I had heard rumors that patrol cars, some patrol cars would go by there at high speed with their guns out the window pointing in that direction. And I believe people that knew warned their family members. not to drive by there.
00:40:01
Speaker 4: This might be the most outrageous thing Sergeant Wright has told me. The threat was real. The deputies knew there was a shooter in the area and that he might kill someone. They were scared, but the department still didn't warn the public. And then the shooting stopped. For the next 11 months, there was a lull, which, if anything, Sergeant Wright says, made him more nervous.
00:40:27
Speaker 2: We were wondering during the gap what the heck was going on. And I had told Lieutenant Royal that I believed we had a serial shooter. I actually told him I thought we had a serial killer that had not killed yet in our area that we knew of.
00:40:44
Speaker 4: A serial killer in Malibu. The lull in the shootings was shattered in June 2018 when the white Tesla was hit on the Canyon Road near Miss No. 6. Four days later, Tristan Beaudet was killed in his tent. After the murder, the detectives from Homicide and Major Crimes showed up.
00:41:10
Speaker 2: After the murder, obviously, the department was taking note and there was more interest.
00:41:19
Speaker 4: Sergeant Wright says that his search and rescue team was told to keep assisting with the investigation. They knew the area. They could be helpful. And as far as he's concerned, they were.
00:41:30
Speaker 2: We were there the day of the murder. And later, Homicide went back with one of their volunteer teams to try and find shell casings. And they were unable to do so. When I heard that they found nothing, I asked them if they wanted me to take a crack at searching with my team. And they said, by all means.
00:41:56
Speaker 4: A week after Beaudet was killed, he says, his search and rescue team used metal detectors and found five 9mm shell casings in the campground. It looked like multiple rounds had been fired, though it was hard to say for sure. Two of the casings were so rusted their head stamps were illegible.
00:42:13
Speaker 2: And that was a great find. Homicide was ecstatic. They came out to the scene. They were very happy.
00:42:20
Speaker 4: Later, Sergeant Wright decided to go looking for the actual bullets. Only one, the one that killed Tristan Beaudet, had ever been found, lodged in his right shoulder blade. But the tent showed a second entry hole and an exit hole. Sergeant Wright and one of his search and rescue guys went out to the campground. Their idea was to position themselves where the 9mm casings had been found and aim a laser toward Beaudet's campsite. The laser beam pointed at a small hill in the distance. Sergeant Wright and his team member dug into the hill and pulled out a spent 9mm bullet. Sergeant Wright says he also helped Major Crimes investigate the rash of burglaries that happened around the park after Beaudet was killed.
00:43:05
Speaker 2: Major Crimes certainly came in at some point after the burglary started. And they do specialize in burglary, serial burglary investigations. And there seemed to be more interest in that than the shootings, which is strange. But we work closely with Major Crimes. Major Crimes expected that help, and they deserve that help from the locals that know the area.
00:43:32
Speaker 4: He says that after he and one of his trackers found those boot prints leading up into the hills, he was the one that proposed a search.
00:43:40
Speaker 2: Major Crimes was not doing anything in that particular spot or area. So it was off the radar. Everything else they were doing was sort of random, you know, stumbling around looking for clues. I was able to convince Detective Berry that we needed to go back there. And he said, OK, Tui.
00:44:00
Speaker 4: Ty Berry, the major crimes detective. Gray hair, beard, chick kickers. He's the guy I saw at one of Rauta's early hearings for his probation and weapons violations.
00:44:11
Speaker 2: So it was a combined Lost Hills team with two major crimes guys added, and they went back there. We stumbled upon Rauta, and we captured him.
00:44:20
Speaker 4: Lieutenant Royal was on that team too, part of the Rauta capture. And I would expect that even though it was late in coming and even though it came after a terrible tragedy, this was a great victory for Lost Hills to have arrested this suspect.
00:44:39
Speaker 2: It was a great victory, and I mean, we had captured a non-burglar, but I happened to start to believe that Rauter could be the suspect in the murder at that point because of the particular firearm he had. And it was such a great victory that the station captain bought dinner for everybody.
00:45:04
Speaker 4: In the beginning, he says, the department was treating him and Lieutenant Royal like heroes.
00:45:09
Speaker 2: I was told at some point that some of those involved in the arrest and the investigation were going to get a medal. I was supposed to get a medal, and Royal was supposed to get a medal, along with others involved. I don't know who.
00:45:24
Speaker 4: In January of 2019, when Rauta was charged with the murder, the near misses, and the burglaries, Sergeant Wright and Lieutenant Royal's efforts to solve the case were vindicated. Their theory that the crimes were connected was seemingly now validated by the sheriff's department and the DA. The suspect they had tracked and helped capture in the hills, he turned out to be the one. It was right around that time, Sergeant Wright tells me, that everything changed. No medal for him. No medal for Lieutenant Royal. Kind of the opposite. Suddenly, they were under investigation.
00:46:08
Speaker 2: I've never had an internal affairs investigation before, certainly that I know of. I've never been in trouble. And all of a sudden, in January, we get told that we're the subjects of an internal affairs investigation.
00:46:24
Speaker 4: Sergeant Wright was transferred out of Lost Hill Station, expelled, given freeway therapy, a long commute, a loss of seniority, public shame. His new job? Patrolling city walk at Universal Studios out of the West Hollywood station. Finally, he just retired, which is why he was willing, for a little while at least, to talk to me. And Lieutenant Royal, Sergeant Wright's supervisor? The same thing happened to him. He got transferred out of Malibu.
00:46:57
Speaker 5: Demoted.
00:46:58
Speaker 4: Shamed. This is all very strange. Is Sergeant Wright telling me the truth? Because if he is, if he basically solved this case, then why would he be under investigation? I asked the DA about every sheriff's department name I could find associated with the Rauta case to see if any of them had a history of misconduct. Sergeant Tui Wright and Lieutenant James Royal don't. But two of the detectives who took over the case from them, they're dirty. Daniel Morris, the homicide detective who oversaw the chain of custody on the murder evidence and was a witness at Beaudet's autopsy, he's got a record of dishonesty. And Ty Berry, the major crimes detective, he's been accused of planting evidence, fabricating police reports, and lying. It's so bad that the sheriff's department fired him for dishonesty back in 2003. He only has his job because he sued to get it back. So the homicide detective and the major crimes lead both have histories of dishonesty. And the two local guys who'd been trying to solve the case when their bosses didn't seem to believe there was anything to solve, they're under investigation? Is there anyone here I can trust? I know what I need to do. I need to go see it for myself. I need to go out there. Where it all happened. Malibu Creek State Park.
00:48:37
Speaker 8: The End
