Full Transcript for The Grindr Killer PART ONE | Police Caught Him Lying. Then Two More Men Died.

that they will never be able to unsee. 00:04:55.120 --> 00:05:01.680 Stephen Port was born in South End in 1975, and he grew up in Dagenham. 00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:08.480 His father worked as a council cleaner, his mother at a supermarket checkout, and he had an older sister, Sharon. 00:05:08.800 --> 00:05:12.000 He went to art college before training as a chef. 00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:21.279 By the time of these events, he worked at a West Ham bus depot and lived in his apartment on Cook Street, where he had moved in 2006. 00:05:21.439 --> 00:05:26.800 And those details tell us where he came from and what a person meeting him might have seen, right? 00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:30.560 A working man with an address in an apartment, a job. 00:05:30.879 --> 00:05:33.600 He's got a sister, he's got a family, he's got routines. 00:05:33.759 --> 00:05:39.279 They do not contain some secret origin scene that explains how he became a murderer. 00:05:39.439 --> 00:05:42.480 Frankly, there's not really anything to look at in his upbringing. 00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:47.839 I'm not going to look at an art college application and announce, like, yes, those were the warning signs here. 00:05:47.920 --> 00:05:48.079 Okay. 00:05:48.319 --> 00:05:49.519 Like, there's nothing, none of that. 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:51.680 Sometimes there is in true crime, a lot of times there is. 00:05:51.839 --> 00:05:53.360 There's not really anything here. 00:05:53.600 --> 00:06:05.120 Sometimes a biography makes a predator seem like reassuringly ordinary because ordinary is how we got through a first conversation with someone who ends up harming you. 00:06:05.279 --> 00:06:09.600 What matters is the pattern of encounters that port was creating. 00:06:09.759 --> 00:06:14.160 There is a crazy pattern here that for some reason police just look over time and time again. 00:06:14.319 --> 00:06:23.920 So he met men online, often younger men, and used names and profiles that did not always tell them much about who was waiting at the other end. 00:06:24.160 --> 00:06:28.240 A first meeting can feel awkward even when nobody means you harm. 00:06:28.319 --> 00:06:33.759 Like you make small talk, you decide whether the person seems comfortable, maybe you accept a drink. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:37.040 Like that social choreography matters here. 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:39.680 It's very innocent in the beginning. 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:50.079 Port's later victims did not walk through the door to confront a figure out of a crime documentary, somebody in a mask or an outfit or chasing them down the street. 00:06:50.240 --> 00:06:54.720 They encountered somebody who could appear polite, who appeared normal. 00:06:54.879 --> 00:07:03.040 The danger lay in what he was willing to do once another person trusted him enough to be alone in his apartment with him. 00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:12.160 We know about some of the earlier encounters that people had with Port because men survived them and later described what

had happened. 00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:14.079 And that distinction is vital as well. 00:07:14.319 --> 00:07:20.879 They have their own experiences, not simply a supporting role as like, oh, there's some red flags here and there. 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:23.839 These aren't just red flags in a story about men who died. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:27.199 Some of these encounters are absolutely insane. 00:07:27.360 --> 00:07:30.240 Like he should have been locked up for life just from some of these. 00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:39.920 So in 2012, this first encounter that we are aware of, a 19-year-old student connected with port through Grinder and went to his Cook Street apartment. 00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:45.040 He later recalled an initially relaxed conversation and a glass of red wine. 00:07:45.199 --> 00:07:50.879 Near the bottom of his glass, he noticed that there was a residue that made him suspect that something had been added. 00:07:51.040 --> 00:07:53.519 He became dizzy and confused. 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:58.399 He described losing the ability to resist as Port sexually assaulted him. 00:07:58.560 --> 00:08:02.079 The young man later told a friend and then sought medical advice. 00:08:02.319 --> 00:08:10.639 Now, for the sake of everyone listening and myself, we do not need to replay more of that assault to understand that the act at its center was terrible. 00:08:10.879 --> 00:08:19.519 One person had control over what went into that drink, and the other person was robbed of the ability to give or refuse consent. 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:22.560 And he lived, luckily, to describe it. 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:30.000 And at this stage, in our chronological story that we're telling, it is his account of that evening. 00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:36.480 His survival matters in its own right, because it is going to add a lot of context and information later. 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:46.879 So on New Year's Eve, 2012, another man, a former partner of Port's, said that Port had plied him with alcohol and paupers and sexually assaulted him. 00:08:47.039 --> 00:08:50.320 He also described other occasions of this exact same thing happened. 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:54.879 That remained a reported allegation rather than a separate proved offense. 00:08:54.960 --> 00:08:57.519 And I am labeling it that way deliberately. 00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:01.840 The man was describing an experience he said had happened to him. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:07.039 It does not become like an on-air conviction because I want the plot to move faster, right? 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:19.600 Both his report and the 2012 student's account concern the same frightening possibility that the ordinary beginning of an encounter could become a situation in which a person was incapacitated. 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:22.320 Now, these two people didn't know each other's stories. 00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:27.519 In a carefully plotted fictional thriller, all the characters get a shared like bulletin board, right? 00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:28.879 They start connecting the dots. 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:35.600 But these two people, unfortunately, had no idea what had happened to the other, so there was no red flags for them to see. 00:09:35.759 --> 00:09:40.879 Life, as usual, is like, you know, considerably less helpful than a thriller film. 00:09:41.279 --> 00:09:46.000 Then came June 4th, 2014, at Barking Station. 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:49.360 Port was with a young man in visible distress. 00:09:49.519 --> 00:09:52.320 He was unsteady, incoherent, and sick. 00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:55.919 Port suggested the man had taken a drug, commonly called G. 00:09:56.559 --> 00:10:04.320 The young man later described having accepted a drink from Port and then feeling himself lose control of his body. 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:10.159 Luckily, he survived the encounter that was obviously serious in its own right. 00:10:10.399 --> 00:10:21.279 People had called and said that there was a man at the station who was visibly either very drunk or under the influence of drugs and was being assaulted. 00:10:21.440 --> 00:10:30.720 Now, this also tells us something about the state Port had seen another person enter after a substance was administered. 00:10:30.879 --> 00:10:35.519 So this is what, the third time that he's drugged somebody and seen how they react. 00:10:35.679 --> 00:10:44.879 The distance between that night at the station and the arrival of Port's first murder victim, Anthony Walgate, was only about two weeks. 00:10:45.039 --> 00:10:52.480 So if you are listening for a dramatic moment when Port suddenly transforms into a killer, there is no Thundercap. 00:10:52.559 --> 00:10:58.559 There is a series of private choices, and another person left struggling to stay conscious. 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:00.399 Now, let's talk about G for a second. 00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:06.000 GHB and its closely related form GBL, which I've actually never even heard of. 00:11:06.080 --> 00:11:09.200 They are central to all of these crimes. 00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:13.279 In a small amount, GHB can produce intoxication. 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:17.919 A larger amount can rapidly cause unconsciousness and even death. 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:23.840 The margin is dangerously narrow, and combining it with alcohol can increase the risk. 00:11:24.080 --> 00:11:28.480 Port used the substance to incapacitate men so he could assault them. 00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:35.840 That is a description of what he did, not a judgment about anyone else's consensual sex life or drug use. 00:11:36.080 --> 00:11:36.960 That's what he did. 00:11:37.200 --> 00:11:41.600 Several people he targeted had made clear they did not want drugs. 00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:48.799 When the person you are with cannot meaningfully agree to what is happening, the issue is not a wild night gone wrong here. 00:11:48.960 --> 00:11:57.200 Although sometimes when there's crimes like this, the police love to just say it was drugs, it was, you know, a

fucking gay fiasco. 00:11:57.279 --> 00:12:02.559 But like if someone's administering those drugs and somebody doesn't want them, we've got a bigger issue here. 00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:08.559 This is very clearly someone making the decision and taking away the other person's choice. 00:12:08.799 --> 00:12:17.679 Now, keep that in mind every time an object near a body appears in this story to suggest that the man that is dead put himself in danger. 00:12:17.840 --> 00:12:18.799 That happens a lot here. 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:25.120 Objects obviously can be positioned and consent cannot be invented after the fact. 00:12:25.279 --> 00:12:32.879 So by the middle of June, Port still had his job, he had all of his online profiles, he had his apartment on Cook Street. 00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:39.120 Nothing visible from outside explained what could happen inside of it. 00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:45.919 Anthony, the first victim, first murder victim, meanwhile, had a life in London and a future that he was working towards. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:52.240 He had friends that he trusted enough to share his plans with, and he was very careful about who he met. 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:55.279 The next chapter here belongs to him. 00:12:55.519 --> 00:13:06.480 Not because his death provides a convenient opening for Port's story, but because he was a person who made choices to protect himself and went to an appointment expecting to come home. 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:10.240 So the date is June 17th, 2014. 00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:15.120 The route is toward Barking, that fucking place that I hate the name of. 00:13:15.279 --> 00:13:18.080 That is where we're gonna follow Anthony. 00:13:19.759 --> 00:13:23.440 So part two, not surprisingly, Anthony Walgate. 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:26.399 Now Anthony was 23. 00:13:26.559 --> 00:13:29.840 He was from Hull and he was studying fashion in London. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:35.200 His mother, Sarah, remembered a shy child who found confidence when he moved to the city. 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:40.399 He loved dressing the way he wanted to and dreamed of becoming a famous fashion designer. 00:13:40.559 --> 00:13:45.600 He called home very often, bring in gossip, stories, and a dry sense of humor. 00:13:45.759 --> 00:13:47.440 What gay cannot relate to that? 00:13:47.679 --> 00:13:50.000 To the people close to him, he went by ant. 00:13:50.320 --> 00:14:02.000 And I want to spend a minute with that ordinary, like affectionate little name because the case label that I've been saying, first victim, first murder victim, obviously strips out something essential. 00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:13.759 He was somebody's son in the middle of building an adult life with his ideas and fashion drawings and friends who knew him very well and knew this flourishing version of him. 00:14:13.919 --> 00:14:17.919 The night that we're about to describe doesn't erase any of that. 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:21.360 It ended the chance for him to keep doing all of that. 00:14:21.600 --> 00:14:25.440 Anthony sometimes worked as an escort to help support himself. 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:29.519 He was selective about appointments and he took a lot of precautions. 00:14:29.759 --> 00:14:36.480 He obtained an address, a photograph of the client, and he shared those details with his friends. 00:14:36.639 --> 00:14:39.519 That was like a very practical response to meeting a stranger. 00:14:39.759 --> 00:14:41.039 Been there, done that. 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:47.919 If I when I used to go on dates before I was, before I was not single, I would always say, like, this is the bar I'm meeting them at. 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:48.799 This is a picture. 00:14:49.039 --> 00:14:52.080 If I disappear, you better go get those motherfuckers. 00:14:52.240 --> 00:14:58.720 And that also means because he shared this information, like he didn't just vanish into the internet without leaving a trace here. 00:14:58.799 --> 00:14:59.120 Okay. 00:14:59.360 --> 00:15:00.960 He left the trail. 00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:05.679 And on June 17th, he had agreed to an overnight booking for eight pounds. 00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:09.360 And he made that booking on a website called Sleepy Boy. 00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:12.559 I guess a right, a hookup escort website. 00:15:12.639 --> 00:15:14.879 And of course, the client was Port. 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:19.519 Anthony made sure that others knew who he was going to meet and where. 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:24.799 And before he left, he could reasonably expect to do the appointment and return home the next day. 00:15:25.039 --> 00:15:31.679 The fact that he was doing sex work does not alter the duty that port owed him not to harm him. 00:15:31.840 --> 00:15:37.840 It should not alter the amount of attention that we give to the plans he made to stay safe either. 00:15:38.080 --> 00:15:40.159 Like he did his due diligence. 00:15:40.320 --> 00:15:42.960 The problem here is Port not being a sex worker. 00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:43.919 Let's be clear about that. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:45.919 That's probably another topic for another episode. 00:15:46.080 --> 00:15:52.480 But we can place Anthony's arrival at Barking Station on his way to meet Port shortly before 10:15 p.m. 00:15:52.879 --> 00:15:56.240 And we can place him there through his travel and his phone records. 00:15:56.480 --> 00:16:00.799 After that, the story loses the kind of detail that like a narrator would love to have. 00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:02.320 I would love to have all the information. 00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:10.320 There is like no witness that can describe each minute of what happened or anybody that really saw them heading to Port's apartment. 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:16.879 And, you know, we're not going to invent some last conversation or or any other interactions. 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:18.559 Nobody has any clue. 00:16:18.720 --> 00:16:25.039 We know that he went to the address that he had shared with his friends and that he never contacted them

again. 00:16:25.200 --> 00:16:27.360 His phone was never used again. 00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:37.679 We would later learn that Port administered GHB, that he sexually assaulted him while he was unconscious and gave him a dose that killed him. 00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:40.960 The exact moment of death could never really be figured out. 00:16:41.039 --> 00:16:50.879 And it's important to say that aloud, even in a deeply documented case, the last private hours of a person's life do not become a screenplay with complete dialogue and camera angles. 00:16:50.960 --> 00:16:55.840 We have no idea what exactly went on, what was consented to, what was not consented to. 00:16:55.919 --> 00:16:59.919 So we're really just sticking with the facts, not some hypotheticals. 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:03.679 So for a while, Anthony's body did remain in the flat. 00:17:03.840 --> 00:17:04.480 We know that. 00:17:04.799 --> 00:17:12.640 Port the next day went to his late shift at work, which is obviously weird, but like picture that, right? 00:17:12.880 --> 00:17:15.279 Like a man is dead. 00:17:15.519 --> 00:17:24.799 You killed a man in your apartment, and you continue going about your daily routine as if it is just an ordinary work day. 00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:27.440 That's, I guess, what a psychopath does. 00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:35.519 By the early hours of June 19th, he had moved, Port had moved Anthony outside the communal entrance of his building. 00:17:35.680 --> 00:17:46.559 Anthony was positioned up against a wall, his mobile phone was gone, a small bottle containing GHB was placed with him, making the scene look as though the drug belonged to Anthony. 00:17:46.720 --> 00:17:49.039 So remember when I said things are going to be placed beside the bodies? 00:17:49.200 --> 00:17:50.160 That's number one. 00:17:50.400 --> 00:17:57.359 A man found outside with drugs nearby is a different story from a man who entered the flat to meet Port and did not leave alive, right? 00:17:57.440 --> 00:18:01.279 This looks like somebody just overdosed there versus you killed him. 00:18:01.440 --> 00:18:03.279 And obviously Port knew what he was doing here. 00:18:03.440 --> 00:18:04.640 Port thought that he did. 00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:08.000 He was arranging what the next person would see. 00:18:08.160 --> 00:18:17.039 And at 4 05 a.m., Port called emergency services without giving his name and said that he had found a young man collapsed on Cook Street. 00:18:17.200 --> 00:18:20.319 The call sounds like the beginning of like a rescue story, right? 00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:23.920 The man on the pavement is unfortunately already dead. 00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:28.799 The caller is the person who invited him there and the person that killed him. 00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:33.039 Port initially presented the encounter as complete chance. 00:18:33.279 --> 00:18:41.119 This makes Anthony just look like a stranger outside of Port's building rather than the person who had arrived there for this alleged hookup. 00:18:41.359 --> 00:18:45.440 The bottle at the scene offers another ready-made explanation. 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:50.720 Anthony's missing phone removes a way of seeing who he did and did not contact. 00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:55.440 One body, one account from a apparently helpful caller on the phone. 00:18:55.680 --> 00:18:59.359 Port had created a story before anyone else even got to tell theirs. 00:18:59.519 --> 00:19:03.920 There were signs on Anthony's body that his final hours had not been ordinary. 00:19:04.079 --> 00:19:07.680 His jeans were fastened, but the fly was open and broken. 00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:10.480 His underwear had been put on incorrectly. 00:19:10.559 --> 00:19:12.480 It was inside out and backwards. 00:19:12.640 --> 00:19:16.240 And he was wearing a t-shirt that was like far too big for him. 00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:28.480 Bruising was visible beneath his arms, and I am including these details because they just, you know, they tell us what it meant for another person to handle his body and attempt to make this scene even look plausible. 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:38.400 Now, what Port didn't know is that Anthony's friends still had all that information that he had left with them: the address, the photograph, the client's details. 00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:42.799 They had done what friends promise to do when somebody shares a plan. 00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:46.880 They keep it and act if he does not return. 00:19:47.119 --> 00:19:50.319 His mother still had a son who should have been calling home. 00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:56.319 And instead, the conversation that made up his London life had completely stopped. 00:19:56.559 --> 00:20:03.279 The small distance between Barking Station and Cook Street became the last route that we can follow him. 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:08.319 And if you notice, we know a lot about this night because Anthony prepared for it. 00:20:08.400 --> 00:20:10.960 Like he was smart, he was on it. 00:20:11.119 --> 00:20:16.559 You're hearing this stuff because he left this information for his friends. 00:20:16.720 --> 00:20:20.559 A young man took precautions, and those precautions mattered. 00:20:20.640 --> 00:20:27.680 You gotta make sure if you're gonna meet random ass people, that other people who love you and will come to your rescue know where you're at. 00:20:27.759 --> 00:20:28.000 Okay. 00:20:28.079 --> 00:20:29.519 I'll say it till I'm blue in the face. 00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:30.960 You can never be too paranoid. 00:20:31.279 --> 00:20:35.119 Unfortunately, those precautions did not save him from being drugged. 00:20:35.359 --> 00:20:43.599 So for now, there is a dead man outside of Port's building, a phone that has disappeared, and an apartment that Anthony entered for an appointment. 00:20:43.680 --> 00:20:48.240 There is also the fact that the man who made the call continued to live there. 00:20:48.559 --> 00:20:50.480 And weeks passed. 00:20:50.720 --> 00:20:55.839 London went on with

trains, work shifts, late night messages, like life just continued. 00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:03.039 And in August, a different young man was looking for somewhere to stay, and a stranger online offered him a room. 00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:07.599 The front door to that same apartment on Cook Street was about to open again. 00:21:07.839 --> 00:21:08.640 Part three. 00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:10.079 Gabriel Cavari. 00:21:10.480 --> 00:21:14.720 Gabriel Cavari was 22 and had come to London from Slovakia. 00:21:15.039 --> 00:21:22.240 His brother Adam described a thoughtful, ambitious person who loved language, wrote poetry, and illustrated his words with drawings. 00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:31.519 He was making a life away from home with the ordinary problems that come with it, like where to live, whom to trust, how to keep friends close when people are in different countries. 00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:36.559 I mean, I can relate to that, moving from Canada and living in LA and having friends from all over the world. 00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:38.960 He had and also looking for an apartment. 00:21:39.279 --> 00:21:42.240 He also had a partner who remained in Spain. 00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:47.200 Now, his relationships and plans extended beyond one neighborhood in London. 00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:52.880 Gabriel encountered Port through the site FitLads while looking for accommodation. 00:21:53.200 --> 00:21:56.319 Port offered him a place to stay at his Cook Street apartment. 00:21:56.400 --> 00:21:59.759 And on August 23rd, Gabriel moved in. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:06.240 He sent a friend photographs of the interior and a map pin to show exactly where he was. 00:22:06.400 --> 00:22:14.079 And this is one of those small digital gestures that becomes heartbreaking in retrospect, but also very important to the investigation. 00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:17.119 He was not documenting a crime scene at the time. 00:22:17.279 --> 00:22:22.559 He didn't know that was going to happen, but he was making sure that someone knew where he landed. 00:22:22.720 --> 00:22:31.359 And every time I see a true crime retelling describe a location pin as though a victim somehow knew the future, I'm like, that's not how this works. 00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:37.680 But maybe they did have an inkling, or maybe we're just true crime savvy and we just think about it ahead of time. 00:22:37.839 --> 00:22:38.160 I don't know. 00:22:38.240 --> 00:22:39.039 It's a weird thing. 00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:46.319 Now, from all accounts, Port was interested in Gabriel in a way that Gabriel did not appear to welcome. 00:22:46.559 --> 00:22:51.519 Messages indicate that Gabriel slept on a sofa and did not want to share Port's bed. 00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:55.440 I mean, all in all, it's a bit of a weird agreement, but like desperate times. 00:22:55.599 --> 00:23:02.000 Maybe, maybe Gabriel didn't have enough money for his own apartment and he was just gonna sofa surf, couch surf for a little bit. 00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:12.880 Like this is a crucial part of their relationship because a room offered for lodging did not entitle the host to the guest body, obviously, but like also agreeing to share the room. 00:23:13.039 --> 00:23:17.119 There's not a lot of information about it, but I it's just a little bit wishy-washy. 00:23:17.279 --> 00:23:25.920 Now, Port referred to his new roommate in sexualized terms to someone else and suggested that he was taking good care of him. 00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:30.720 Like, and we don't know, we don't have any evidence to suggest that. 00:23:30.880 --> 00:23:31.920 Who the fuck knows? 00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:36.720 We don't have to accept Port's version of closeness just because that's like what he texts somebody. 00:23:36.799 --> 00:23:39.839 Like Gabriel's own messages point to a boundary. 00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:43.920 And we know that Port doesn't give a fuck about boundaries because he killed people. 00:23:44.079 --> 00:23:47.599 Like he had a place to sleep, not an agreement to do whatever Port wanted. 00:23:47.759 --> 00:23:49.920 An offer of shelter can be very generous. 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:57.680 And in the wrong hands, it can also place somebody inside another person's private space, dependent on the person who gave them the key. 00:23:57.839 --> 00:24:03.440 Now, Gabriel's last outgoing message was sent around five in the morning on August 25th. 00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:08.640 And what happened immediately afterward cannot be constructed, yet again, minute by minute. 00:24:08.720 --> 00:24:14.240 But we can assume that it is a very similar account to what happened to Anthony. 00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:18.400 Port administered a fatal amount of GHB and assaulted Gabriel. 00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:20.559 Gabriel did not leave the apartment alive. 00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:28.880 On August 26th, Port changed his phone number and began telling people that Gabriel had unexpectedly gone elsewhere. 00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:34.720 As the story developed, he suggested that Gabriel might have gone back to Spain to be with his partner. 00:24:34.960 --> 00:24:39.680 And those claims were not a trustworthy account of Gabriel's movements. 00:24:39.839 --> 00:24:41.680 There was zero evidence of that. 00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:50.079 The life that Gabriel had been building across multiple countries kind of gave Port an opening for any plausible disappearance. 00:24:50.240 --> 00:24:54.720 Perhaps he changed his plans, maybe he'd gone to see somebody else that he knew. 00:24:54.880 --> 00:24:56.480 Like the list could go on and on. 00:24:56.640 --> 00:25:04.720 And not surprisingly, a false story travels very well when it kind of borrows the shape of what a person's real life could be. 00:25:04.880 --> 00:25:12.240 Now, the next day, Port's sister Sharon called him and heard that there was a dead young man in his flat. 00:25:12.559 --> 00:25:18.799 Port had said this to her on the phone, which is kind of a weird admit it, a weird thing to

admit. 00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:28.240 She told him to go to the police, and she obviously couldn't see inside the room or know what happened, but like it gets that also gets a little wishy-washy why she didn't go to the police right away. 00:25:28.319 --> 00:25:38.400 What makes that call so unsettling is how close the ordinary family relationship comes when talking about there being a dead body in your apartment. 00:25:38.559 --> 00:25:46.480 Like a sister checks in, you, your brother tells you something horrifying, tells you to go to the police, and then what, just hangs up the phone? 00:25:46.640 --> 00:25:48.160 It's a little bit odd. 00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:54.480 But that does add to the timeline because it tells us that Gabriel's body was still inside. 00:25:54.640 --> 00:26:01.359 And Port would later try to explain the conversation very differently, but the timeline does not line up here. 00:26:01.599 --> 00:26:07.200 He said that he was referring to Anthony, his first victim, even though that had happened weeks before. 00:26:07.359 --> 00:26:11.440 And again, I don't know what his sister Sharon did and did not do. 00:26:11.599 --> 00:26:16.000 There was nothing I could find about it, but just like the fact of the call is kind of enough. 00:26:16.240 --> 00:26:22.799 And on the morning of August 28th, a woman walking her dog found Gabriel's body against a wall in the grounds of St. 00:26:22.960 --> 00:26:28.240 Margaret's churchyard, which was only about 400 yards from Port's home. 00:26:28.480 --> 00:26:31.680 His phone was gone, a small bottle was placed beside him. 00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:34.880 Anthony had been left outside of Port's building in June. 00:26:35.039 --> 00:26:38.319 Gabriel was left a short walk away in August. 00:26:38.559 --> 00:26:46.400 From the position of someone who like kind of knows these stories, obviously that resemblance is chilling, and it should be pretty easy to piece together. 00:26:46.480 --> 00:26:52.079 From the position of Gabriel's friends, what mattered first was that he had vanished and then been found dead. 00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:57.279 They were looking for a person, not composing a theory about like a serial killer offender. 00:26:57.440 --> 00:27:00.960 Nobody had all these red flags to connect one to the other. 00:27:01.200 --> 00:27:10.079 Both of these victims had sent photographs, had sent a pin on a map, and the last messages gave them pieces of just like their very recent life. 00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:20.319 But of course, the families, friends of these two victims had no way to know, had no way of understanding that they both were experiencing the same thing. 00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:25.279 Now, another voice would soon start talking to people who cared about Gabriel. 00:27:25.440 --> 00:27:34.240 An online profile popped up called John Luck and offered information and appeared to know something about Gabriel's movements. 00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:40.000 That person was, not surprisingly, port

using a false identity. 00:27:40.079 --> 00:27:42.559 And think about the intimacy of that deception. 00:27:42.720 --> 00:27:56.960 He was not merely inserting himself into the story as a different person, like he was like joining the conversation of the people that were trying to understand where Gabriel had gone. 00:27:57.279 --> 00:27:59.920 He could answer the questions that they had. 00:28:00.079 --> 00:28:13.039 He offered explanations and like made himself seem helpful, made this John Luck seem helpful without presenting, obviously, at as the man who had offered Gabriel a room, an apartment to stay in. 00:28:13.119 --> 00:28:15.119 It's like really ugly. 00:28:15.279 --> 00:28:20.400 It's a weird way to take control of a person's death after you're the one who's caused their death. 00:28:20.559 --> 00:28:23.119 It's very, it's giving very Brian Koberger. 00:28:23.200 --> 00:28:24.400 If you know, you know. 00:28:24.559 --> 00:28:33.519 And what we will follow what that false voice said as we continue this story into September, because it did not just stop with Gabriel. 00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:46.079 And at the end of August, Gabriel's family had lost a brother, his partner had lost his love, and the place that Gabriel photographed as his possible home had become his last address in the place that he died. 00:28:46.160 --> 00:28:49.599 And Port just remained there, living in this apartment. 00:28:49.759 --> 00:28:58.960 And the next man that was going to make contact with Port and inevitably enter that apartment on Cook Street obviously had no way of knowing what had happened there. 00:28:59.119 --> 00:29:01.359 And his name was Daniel Whitworth. 00:29:01.519 --> 00:29:06.720 He had a partner, a career that he cared about, and a new opportunity coming into view. 00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:15.279 And between Gabriel's final messages that he sent and Daniel's journey to barking, there were only a few weeks in time. 00:29:15.519 --> 00:29:26.400 So when we return next Tuesday, we're going to follow Daniel's plans, the note that tried to rewrite his life, and the fourth man whose family would refuse to let the final explanation stand. 00:29:26.640 --> 00:29:29.839 I'm attempting to leave you on a cliffhanger here, okay? 00:29:30.160 --> 00:29:37.839 So, all in all, we have followed Port's earlier encounters that were quite terrifying and should have been enough to throw his ass in prison. 00:29:37.920 --> 00:29:42.480 And then Anthony's final appointment in June and Gabriel's brief stay in August. 00:29:42.640 --> 00:29:48.000 Anthony shared the address and photographs of the man that he planned to meet when he disappeared. 00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:53.599 Gabriel sent a friend images and a location pin from the flat where he was staying. 00:29:53.759 --> 00:29:55.759 Those are acts of precaution. 00:29:56.000 --> 00:30:03.759 And in this day and age, they're pretty ordinary acts of keeping in touch, and neither man should have needed them to become clues to his death. 00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:07.599 And but again, a clue is only a clue if the police are gonna follow the clues. 00:30:07.759 --> 00:30:13.440 And unfortunately, the next two deaths could have been avoided had police done their damn job. 00:30:13.519 --> 00:30:22.400 And in part two, we're gonna meet Daniel, we're gonna meet Jack, and then we're gonna ask how the four stories were finally connected and then what happened in court. 00:30:22.559 --> 00:30:26.799 And until then, make sure you're following me on Instagram and TikTok at underscore hotair pod. 00:30:27.119 --> 00:30:34.160 Visit my website, hotair with joshuarobert.com, to shop my merch, submit your listener stories and topic suggestions. 00:30:34.319 --> 00:30:39.839 And I'm gonna be back with some more spookiness, a conclusion to this true crime tale. 00:30:39.920 --> 00:30:41.759 Make sure you send your friend your location. 00:30:41.839 --> 00:30:42.640 Send them all the picks. 00:30:42.720 --> 00:30:48.400 If you're gonna meet somebody off grinder, you better send them all their picks, including their dick's picks, so they can identify that killer if you disappear. 00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:48.720 Okay. 00:30:48.880 --> 00:30:49.519 Let's be real. 00:30:49.680 --> 00:30:52.559 We need to be safe in this day and age. 00:30:52.880 --> 00:30:55.680 And I will see you next Tuesday.