Hello! Hello!
Welcome back to another episode of Diagnosing a Killer. I'm Koel.
And I'm Kenna.
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Yeah.
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Today we're going to be talking about Daniel Wozniak.
Okay I think I've heard the name but it's not really come into mind the story.
We shall see.
Okay.
Dun dun dun.
Content warning this episode contains descriptions of sexual assault, gruesome murder and PTSD.
But this episode is not for you.
We encourage you to check out another one of our episodes.
Remember that your mental health comes first and we love you.
Love you.
Bye.
Daniel Patrick Wozniak was born at March 23rd in 1984 in Long Beach, California to parents
Darryl and Marianne Wozniak.
He was the youngest of three having two older brothers, one of which being Tim who was a
middle child and was 10 years older than Daniel.
He had like a pretty big gap between him and his older brothers.
The family was raised in a Catholic household and both of his parents worked and the family
seemed pretty well off.
They usually took vacations and the affluent family resided in a pretty big house.
Most of the time Daniel and his brothers would spend their afternoons with their grandparents
as both of their parents worked full time.
Dan seemed to have an early affinity for making people laugh even at a young age.
He was seemingly very outgoing and performative and always loved to put a smile on people's
faces.
Sounds like a real Jim Carrey.
He wasn't necessarily the coolest kid growing up, but he was able to make friends by being
the goofy guy and even dabbled in magic tricks in order to entertain his peers.
I know some people like that like in high school.
He was in the honor roll and teachers and students alike seemed to get along well with
Dan.
He never caused any trouble all throughout his grade years and in later years, Dan's
eldest two brothers seemed to be quite satisfied with the family's success and therefore they
never really felt the need to venture out or go to college.
They were just homebodies.
Don't tell your kids they're perfect because they're never going to try to achieve anything
more.
They're never going to do anything.
Yeah, they were really just like, oh this is stability enough.
Dang.
The pressure was then left to Dan to create something of a life for himself.
That's right.
What do you think?
If you feel like, oh okay, like my brothers aren't going to do shit so I have to be the
one to be the successful one.
Yeah.
And how much pressure that must be.
Probably a lot.
After graduating high school, Dan decided that he wanted to begin attending local theater
at the Orange County Community Theater and he decided to try out after visiting a few
times.
The theater.
I'm a philanthropist.
No, not a philanthropist.
What is it?
I don't know.
A festian.
That's what it is.
A fest.
I said that to Cliff the other day too.
It was like, you know, like a philanthropist.
I mean, a thespian.
That's the way those two words are completely opposite.
They are.
So again, although it's not really his dream to be a major Hollywood actor, Dan found that
acting came very naturally to him.
He had even started mentoring young actors who did look towards being successful in Hollywood
one day.
Former castmates of his would describe Dan as outgoing and kind of the life of a party.
The class clone.
His voice would carry and he was not afraid to really go for it on stage.
He kind of just was one of those people that enjoyed being kind of outlandish.
I'm not that person.
Me neither.
Like I do not want to be the center of attention at all.
He loved to be the center of attention.
Here is where he met Rachel Buffett at the local theater.
The young starlet did have aspirations of becoming a famous actress and she was quite
talented.
Dan and Rachel had it off and were often casted as the major love interests in the local
theater's plays.
They would quickly began a romance of their own and to everyone's shock were engaged
within just a short amount of time and the two would move into a nice apartment complex
in Costa Mesa.
We always hear this, right?
The two would quickly get married.
The two would quickly marry.
Or they'll quickly get engaged or quickly have children.
Or quickly get divorced.
The two planned on being married in a lavish wedding come that summer in 2010.
This was only odd since the two seemed like complete opposites.
Rachel was a pretty reserved person and took her acting career very seriously and was almost
rigid at times where Dan seemed to be more comfortable on stage.
The couple were committed to the idea that they were eventually going to be full-time
actors so the two eventually stopped looking for other means of income.
Oh gosh, that's not smart.
And while getting closer to the wedding, the two were officially struggling financially.
Great.
I wonder how people, like this is just a personal thing for me.
Like I don't think I could date someone that was an actor because I would be like seething
with jealousy if they had like any sort of romantic scene with any other character.
But then also, I don't know if you've noticed but I've noticed like some characters at
least in like a long series or I've seen them in multiple things and they're never intimate
with like the opposite sex.
It's just like, it's almost like they signed a contract like okay if I'm going to be an
actress or an actor, I'm not going to do any romantic scenes with another cast member.
I'll be the funny person or I'll be the single friend or whatever.
For example, Melissa McCarthy I feel like has very minimum romantic scenes and when she
does it's usually with her actual husband.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, but how do you get into that?
I guess she just has to be Melissa McCarthy.
Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder started dating after Edward Scissorhand.
That's what I'm saying.
Like they obviously felt that romantic connection because of their characters.
Or Johnny and Amber Heard and Rum Diaries.
Or Johnny Depp and anyone really.
But that's what I'm saying.
Like I couldn't watch even if it's acting, I couldn't watch that and then I would be
fearful that like oh they have this chemistry like outside in the real world, you know?
There's an episode of Friends where Joey is, is it Joey?
Oh no, it's Chandler is dating an actress, right?
And the actress has like these really steamy scenes with her co-actor, whatever you call
it, co-cast member.
And Chandler gets really, really jealous and Joey's like don't worry about it.
Like if there's heat then that means that there's tension.
But when there's no tension, it means that they banged because they've already gotten
it out, right?
Yeah, and so it's like one, like one, I guess like the next time they go to a play and he
goes to see Kathy there's like no chemistry and he's like I know you're cheating on me
blah blah blah and she's like I would never cheat on you or whatever and he's like I saw
it up there, there was no sexual tension between you two and she's like oh so now you're insulting
my acting.
Like it's really bad.
She ends up cheating on him anyways.
Spoiler.
From 1997.
Ugh, anyways.
On the verge of eviction, the couple would ask various friends and family for money.
Most of these loans went to down payments for the wedding however.
Oh my god.
Photographers, music, catering and the wedding was quickly approaching and in just one week
the two would say their vows.
How about like postpone the wedding until you can afford it?
No.
It's gotta be big, it's gotta be lavish, it's gotta be, he's gotta be the successful son.
That's true, yeah.
It's gotta be the, the Santa.
Juri or Julie Kimbushi was born on Valentine's Day 1987 to her parents, June and Masa.
Julie started dancing at age five and the Japanese American was described as bubbly and
goofy.
She never met a stranger and would always quickly make friends wherever she went.
Her parents said that they never worried about her getting into trouble and she was well
liked by everyone around her.
As silly as she was, she was always respectful of others but especially to her parents.
After high school, Julie began attending Orange Coast College and began studying fashion.
In one of her classes, she met a man by the name of Sam Hur.
Sam had served in the military and did a tour in Afghanistan.
Sam actually volunteered to be at one of the toughest camps overseas.
At any given time there could be hours of combat.
Oh my god.
Sam was trained to keep the camp's various generators going so even while in combat,
he would have to run from generator to generator in order to keep them functional.
That's terrifying.
Like the dangerous job.
The dangerous camp, the dangerous job.
Yeah.
He had come back from service in order to gain an education and hopes to return to service
and continue to climb the ranks.
Sam was exceptionally close with his parents, especially his father Steve.
He was described as a great guy and although he was a big guy, he was also described as
a teddy bear.
Friends and family always saw him laughing, that is until he came back from service.
Sam had begun to show signs of PTSD.
His college roommate remembers Sam sometimes crying out in the night saying he was stuck
in foxholes.
Oh my god, that's terrifying.
That is terrifying.
I'm actually working on a, just a side note, my final paper for one of my courses right
now and the entire paper is about getting post-military veterans, not post, but veterans
immediate access to mental health help right when they come back because a lot of the time,
and I have 16 different studies that I'm pulling from, but a lot of the time the macho mentality
almost can prevent men specifically from coming back and seeking help because it's like,
oh, I'm more tough than that, it's kind of like not looked down on, but it's just not
as frequent and that can affect their spouses.
They can start getting residual mental health symptoms if the original diagnosis or not
diagnosis goes untreated and it's just, it's a vicious cycle because it's like, yeah,
they have things like the VA and they have things that are available, but there's not
enough resources and a lot of people are going untreated and harming themselves or others.
I can't imagine how it must be to go through this whole process of boot camp and then being
assigned and you're taught kind of like mind over matter, like you have to work for a greater
good than more than just yourself and that the things that you're going through probably
aren't as important as other things and so when you come back and you're all just in
an individual again, it's got to be really hard to feel like the need to take care of
yourself.
It's hard to transition back into that role for sure, role of society and they actually
say that from what I've been reading, the number one problem of getting help is like
getting back into the workplace and then getting back on your feet essentially financially
and that can cause a lot of things to come to the surface like mental health wise.
It is one of those things, it's like it was a routine for so long and then you come back
and you have almost more free will and it's like, what do I do with my time?
For sure.
And again, I'm no expert in it but I absolutely believe that there could be more facilities
and more funds pushed towards taking care of veterans when they get back.
People give their lives and their mental health to the government and you come home and the
government doesn't give you shit and it's rough.
It's rough for sure.
Again, I'm no expert on it, I would not know the numbers but yeah.
Now Sam is somewhat adjusting to his life in Orange Coast College and it's here where
he would meet Julie.
The two shared a class together and quickly became friends.
They fit off each other's passion for knowledge and continuing education.
Julie is the dancer?
Yes.
They spent a lot of time around each other but told friends and family that they were
just friends and it was completely platonic, which it was.
Sam lived in a well off apartment complex close to school and this complex was known
to be full of college kids so lots of parties on the weekends and ragers and often times
the groups would end up in the apartment pool.
On one such occasion, Sam, Julie and some friends were down in the pool when they met
Sam's neighbors for the first time, a couple by the name of Dan Wozniak and his fiancee
Rachel Buffett.
Oh no.
Cool.
To change the course of his life forever.
Everyone seemed to get along and Dan mentioned that the couple's financial troubles were
getting to him.
Sam talked of his military service and when questioned by Dan about his own finances,
Sam didn't hesitate to bring up the amount of money that he had been saving.
Oh no.
Fuck.
The group would hang out into the night but eventually everyone retires.
On the night of May 21st, 2010, Julie had plans to meet up with her brother to discuss
her brother's upcoming wedding over dinner.
There, Julie's brother asked her to be part of his upcoming wedding, placing a tiara on
Julie's head and almost crowning her for the occasion.
Aw, that's cute.
It's really cute.
Sometime during the meal, Julie's phone began to blow up.
It's Sam.
Earlier in the day, Sam and Julie were texting back and forth as normal, being silly and
even flirtatious at times.
First he states that he is helping his friend Dan Wozniak move some furniture.
Quote, helping Dan then headed to the folks for the weekend.
And quote.
God, oh god, oh god, oh god.
A few hours later, while Julie is sitting down to dinner, the texts begin to become
more frantic.
Quote, can you come over tonight at midnight alone?
Very upset, need to talk.
I'm hurting with some bad family crap.
I can't be alone.
No sex.
Julie reassures him, I'm here for you like family.
More texts come in.
Can you come by?
Please come over, but please don't tell anyone.
Oh my god, it's not even him.
What happened?
The next morning, Julie's mom, June, noticed that her daughter's door was open.
When she cracked the door even further, she called out to Julie, but with no response.
Looking around the room, it was obvious that Julie had not come home the night before.
Julie's mother, June, begins to call Julie's phone, but all of her calls would eventually
go to voicemail.
Sam's family had also grown concern as Sam was supposed to visit his parents for the
weekend, as he mentioned in the text.
And by Saturday, May 22nd, they still hadn't heard from him.
Sam's father, Steve, began to call Sam's phone, but similar to Julie's mom, his phone
seemed to be disconnected or go to voicemail.
Steve, sensing that something was off, decides to drive to Sam's apartment in an effort to
locate his son.
When Steve arrives, the door is open.
He enters his son's apartment to find that nothing seemed out of place until he gets
to his son's bedroom.
Oh my god, stop, that's so scary.
There Steve found a body lying on the ground, blood everywhere.
He quickly realized that this body, however, was not the body of his son Sam, but of a
woman.
The woman was partially closed, suggesting that she had been sexually assaulted.
Steve quickly called 911 to report his findings.
When police arrive, they find the woman's purse in the kitchen, confirming that the
woman who was at the scene was Julie Kabushi.
Okay, but like, this makes no sense.
Like, I know you're gonna get into it, but as far as I can tell right now, it's like
Dan, and he went to Sam's place to kill him for his money.
So why would he like lure Julie there, unless he had some secret fetish about her, or he
knew that she would call the police if she realized that Sam's missing.
And so he was like, I gotta get rid of her too.
But it's like, in my mind, someone doesn't just become a double murderer.
You know what I mean?
Like, over money.
So what does it just become?
I don't know.
It's just, it's just funky.
I'm sure you'll tell everyone.
We see it all the time.
People, people become double murderers all the time.
Quickly.
Julie had been shot in the head, and she was still wearing the tiara that her brother
had gifted her.
Okay, that's really sad.
That's really fucking sad.
Oh god, no.
Okay, I'm okay.
On the back of her shirt was written in, I think it was like Sharpie.
It said, quote, all yours fuck you.
End quote.
Sorry?
Right?
What does that fucking mean?
I don't know.
It's like Charlie Manson and like Pig, or like Race Four or whatever he was, yeah, whatever
he was writing in Blood on the Walls.
It seemed, like I said, this is so ominous.
This is such a fucking like jump.
It's like, all of a sudden they're like homies in the hot tub, and then now he's like this
sadistic killer.
Like it's weird.
Sam's car was missing, and so was his passport.
Looking further into Sam's past revealed that maybe Sam was capable of hurting Julie.
After all, he too had once been tried for murder.
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According to People vs. Romero, on January 15, 2002, Victor Flores, aged 20, was found
murdered in the streets of Santa Clarita.
He was a part of the Brown Familia gang and was killed within the gang's own territory.
That night, several of the gang members gathered in an apartment to discuss what had happened
to their fallen member.
Sam Hare was in the apartment as well, although he was not affiliated with the gang.
During the discussion, it was determined that possibly one of Sam's own friends could
have been involved in the slaying.
Sam agreed to participate in luring this man, 19-year-old Byron Benito, into his car, along
with two other accomplices, and drove them to a local trailer park.
Sam also agreed to go along with a surprise carjacking, acting as if he was caught off
guard as well by the random attack.
When the young men arrived at the destination, the car was attacked, each man being pulled
from the car.
The gang of 15-20 violently beat, kicked, and stabbed Byron Benito for 15 minutes until
he lay dead.
Holy shit, the group leaving his body behind.
Police would soon apprehend all of those who were involved, and although 11 would only
be officially taken to trial, only five were convicted of Byron's murder.
Six would be let go completely free of charge, including Sam Hare.
That's crazy.
Oh my gosh.
I found one article that talked about this, or not one article, but it's actually the
court documents.
Yeah.
It was the only thing I could find on it.
I was reading another piece that said, oh, he was previously tried for murder, but he
was let go, and I was like, wait, we're just going to gloss over that here?
I don't think so.
Pepper that in there real quick.
So yeah, he, and here's the thing is, in my opinion, okay, and this sounds horrible,
but in my opinion, I think he was there.
He probably knew people that were there.
He happened to be around when this conversation was going on.
They suspected his friend, and they're like, you're going to lure him, and what is he going
to do?
There's 14 to 16 other people in that house.
He's going to be like, I'm not going to do that.
They would have killed him right there.
They would have killed him.
And I wholeheartedly believe that.
And so I- That's so awful to imagine being in that situation.
Yeah, you pick up your friend and drive him to his death.
Or you get killed.
Or you get killed for not doing it.
Yeah, that's awful.
It is awful.
So was it so far fetched that Sam would also lure Julie in order to assault her, murder
her, and then leave her body behind just like he did by Ren?
But I feel like he would have gone to his parents' house if that was the case.
Like, nothing happened.
That's true.
You know?
Just here for the weekend.
You would think you would just do a better job of covering it up, is that what you mean?
Yeah.
Well, like, I'm saying if he was this mastermind, right?
Like, hmm, just go on about what your plans are.
Because you already texted her saying you were going to your parents' house.
Not showing up if you are the perpetrator is suspicious.
Exactly.
I know what you mean.
Taking all of this into account, police made Sam the top person on their suspect list.
Interestingly enough, at the crime scene, there were no signs of a struggle.
Nothing was out of place.
The apartment was well kept and maintained for a bachelor pad.
A few empty beer cans were on the balcony table.
But overall, this did not look like the two drank heavily and then a struggle ensued after
becoming intoxicated.
There's no, like, ransacking of the place.
No.
Nothing was out of place.
Police needed to find Sam in order to ask him what really happened that night.
So police put out a be on the lookout or a burlow on Sam, given the disruption of his
vehicle and put that up to the media.
In his military background and his PTSD, police also included in the bulletin that Sam was
likely armed and dangerous.
Which is like, especially for Steve, he's like, I know my son.
Armed and dangerous.
Police also interviewed Sam's neighbor, the one talked about in that text message, Dan
Wozniak.
Dan did admit that Sam was in his apartment the night previously, but there was also a
third man with Sam.
He couldn't remember the man's name, just that he had had a black hat on.
Rachel, his wife or fiance, I'm sorry, soon to be wife, confirmed that her fiance story
was true, that she also saw this man in a black hat.
What?
I'm sorry, if someone's coming into my home, I'm knowing your name.
Well, I don't think he came into the home.
I think Sam showed up to dance and then when he left, he was with a guy in a black hat.
Oh, okay.
It's like, sorry.
Meanwhile, Steve, Sam's father, began doing his own investigation and while digging into
Sam's bank statements, sees what Sam withdrew money the night that Julie was killed.
Hmm.
Strangely though, the withdrawal happened about 20 minutes from Sam's place in Long
Beach, not Costa Mesa.
Steve finds a bank, the bank's location and decides to make the drive himself in hopes
of finding his son without immediately alerting police.
Yeah.
Steve has this blowout saying that he's armed and dangerous if he calls the cops.
Who knows, right?
Steve arrives at the ATM location and doesn't immediately notice anything at the time, but
Steve does not go home.
He posts up in the area and even rented a nearby hotel room in order to catch his son or some
kind of information regarding the whereabouts of his son.
The following day, a new notification pops up on Sam's banking information.
Steve sees that Sam's card is being used at a local pizza place.
Dumbass.
Steve rushes to the card's location, but while circling the parking lot, he does not
see Sam's car anywhere.
Costa Mesa police had also been tracking Sam's bank information at this point and noticed
that there were four total withdrawals from two separate ATMs since Sam's disappearance.
Police retrieved footage from these ATMs and were shocked to find that it was not Sam withdrawing
this money, but a young man with a skateboard no more than 16.
What?
Yeah.
I was gonna say you don't say, but what?
You don't say?
It's that board.
Darn.
A washnick.
No, it's not.
It's a 16-year-old with a skateboard.
Okay, well, he obviously knows Dan.
Simultaneously as Steve is in the pizza place parking lot, that's hard to say, pizza place
parking lot.
Police, there's another one, pizza place parking lot.
Police descend on its location in hopes to catch the person who charged pizza to Sam's
card.
The pizza place notified police that it was not a dine-in, but a delivery, and they were
able to provide the address to police.
Oh, shit.
You're even more dumb.
Yeah, you're even more dumb.
Yeah, this is where I'm staying.
Leave your fucking phone number and your name on my wash.
Well, he has 16, so.
With swat and helicopters in tow, police kicked down the resident's door only to find 16-year-old
Wesley Frillick, munching away at that freshly delivered pizza.
Damn, that sucks.
He's like, can I just eat my pizza?
Bro, I just want to eat my pizza.
Like it just got here, I'm starving.
You want a slice?
Wesley was taken to the ground, and the home was searched in an effort to locate Sam, but
Wesley was home alone.
What the fuck?
When questioned about the card and why he was taking money out of this account, he claimed
that it was his theater mentor, Dan Wozniak, that instructed him to, because he remember
he mentored kids.
He's such a great guy.
I figured he knew Dan.
Figured he knew Dan.
Wesley went on to say that Dan told Wesley that Sam was in legal trouble, and that Sam
had given his debit card to Dan in order to withdraw money in order to pay a bail bondsman.
Why wouldn't he just withdraw it himself?
Right, exactly.
But I think that Dan was like, oh, Sam's in jail or something.
Okay.
He's not so dumb.
It is.
And he just trusted me, a neighbor I've known him for a few months.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, the kid doesn't know that.
Yeah.
The kid's a kid.
Dan even provided him with false paperwork proving that this was legit.
Dan was like, oh, see, here's all the paperwork that Sam gave me.
I refuse to believe that Dan went from normal, outlandish, center life of the party to criminal
mastermind.
I really just refuse to believe that.
Well, he's not on mastermind.
I wouldn't have thought of that, giving him false paperwork.
That's a lot of effort to make yourself look innocent.
That's a lot of effort, though.
Well, he's obviously not a mastermind because he gets caught, but still.
Dan Wozniak was now the prime suspect in the murder of Julie.
Police called Dan to casually ask him to come down to the station, but Dan was like, sorry,
unfortunately, I'm at my bachelor party.
So...
That is such a funny reason to not go down to questioning.
I'm trying to party.
It's my bachelor party.
Police were able to track down where the bachelor party was being held, which was at a local
sushi place, and police arrived to tell Dan that he had no other choice but to come with
them.
That is so funny.
Oh my gosh, imagine that.
He's probably wasted.
I don't know.
I'm fucking to reprimand him.
All of his friends and family, his brothers, his uncles, whatever, just be like, well,
what do we do now?
Did they keep partying without him?
Honestly, I probably would.
Yeah, I really would.
Bye, Sayonara.
Sorry.
This is all on Dan.
This is all on Sam.
Yeah.
Use the card, please.
Fuck.
That's awful.
So he responds with, quote, I'll tell you everything.
I'm sick of covering for Sam, end quote.
Okay.
I...
If I didn't already hate this guy.
Yeah.
And once at the station, Dan claims that Sam came over that night, May 21st, to discuss
Dan's financial troubles.
Dan had told Sam previously that he was struggling to make ends meet.
And with the wedding in seven days, he had no idea how he was going to pay for everything.
Sam, being the good guy that he was, offered to withdraw money little by little from his
own account and simply report his card lost or stolen.
Yeah.
Why would he just give you this money?
I don't understand.
Why wouldn't he just give him the money?
So essentially, Dan was like, everyone wins in this scenario, right?
After all, Sam had over $62,000 in his bank account and he would help out Dan, just as
like a favor.
Dan went on to say that he was performing in a play that night.
So on the way to the show, he stopped at an ATM and made the first withdrawal.
Wrong.
Because the kid did.
Yeah.
Wrong.
There's video footage.
Wrong.
He was there that night.
The two finished the show, went home, showered, then had sex and went to bed.
And he says it in the interview.
He's like, then we had sex.
It's like, are you trying to remind people that you have sex?
Yeah.
He's a fuck-cares.
Who cares?
Yeah.
Dan did say repeatedly that he had no idea where Sam went after Sam gave him his debit
card that night.
Detectives press Dan further and his story begins to morph a little bit.
Dan then comes out and says, all right, well, I did see Sam the next day too.
It was early in the morning and he came by to tell me that he had done something bad,
that there was a body in his apartment and that he shot someone after he flew into a
rage after using drugs.
And you wouldn't have just led with that?
No, he didn't lead with that.
By the way, oh, I just remembered this one small detail.
He totally killed someone.
He killed a kid.
How do you forget that?
So two points, he did this to one, create the illusion that Sam had to be alive after
the first withdrawal.
And that Sam was the one who killed Julie.
Dan went on to say that Sam threatened him if he were to talk.
This is a direct quote and I'm going to try to say it the way that he said it.
I said, dude, I'm not one to judge you, but you fucking got me into this.
And then he was all like, well, I know where you live.
And I said, yeah, you do know where I live.
And he's like, you rat me out.
I'm going to fucking kill you.
And better yet, I'm going to start with your wife end quote.
He's all doing this while he's like wringing his hands through his hair because he's like
trying to come up with something.
Yeah.
He's like, oh shit, like, no, now I have to phrase it like in case I use the self-defense
defense later, I'm going to say he threatened me now.
Yeah, for sure.
And then in case I want to go like a maniac again and kill my wife, then now I can play
it on Sam.
My laugh.
And then states that he gave Sam a ride to the mall.
He's like, oh, you got to get out of here because he murdered someone.
Let me take you to the mall.
And it's like, if he just killed someone, why would he go to one of the more popular
areas?
And then if he just killed someone and then threatened you, why would you get in the car
with it?
Yeah, why would you just like, oh yeah, let me give you a ride, friend.
Thanks for the money.
Yeah.
This is so silly.
Like, it makes no sense.
It's silly.
He's a bad liar.
When Dan returns home, he said that he feared his wife would be suspicious of him if he
revealed that he was the last person to see Sam alive.
So Dan made up the story about the man in the black hat in order to keep his wife from
suspecting him of any wrongdoing.
You just said you didn't do anything wrong.
Yeah.
He was like, well, but I don't want people to think I did something wrong.
And if Sam's missing, I certainly don't want my wife to think I had anything to do with
it.
So let me just tell her that I saw Sam with a dude in a black hat.
So he's like openly admitting that he's like making stories up to cover his ass.
Yeah.
So why wouldn't he be doing it right now?
Exactly.
He's essentially admitting to police right here and now that he's lied this whole time.
Yeah.
Whether or not this is actually factual or not, he's straying away from his original
story.
For sure.
Police confident that Dan had something to do with Sam's disappearance and Julie's
murder at this point take a DNA sample.
Knowing now that Dan's DNA might be found at the crime scene, Dan explains even further
before being asked that he was in Sam's apartment that night in order to use the bathroom, but
he never saw Julie that night.
Let me just volunteer this information.
Don't you love when they volunteer the information?
They just explain it away.
They try to.
They try to and it's like, but I didn't even ask you that.
So yeah.
Yeah.
At this point, Dan begins to raise his voice.
He starts speaking with very direct answers and it's almost like he's putting on a performance
for the detectives in the room.
He's like, I don't know what you want from me.
I don't know what happened to Sam or Julie.
Yeah.
It's very true.
I thought that was Julie.
Yeah.
It starts reciting Hamlet.
Cute.
He begins to beg detectives, quote, I'll tell you anything you want.
Just please get me to my wedding by Friday and quote.
Whatever.
That's what he's concerned about.
Well, I mean, if he did all this, he's got to make it worth it.
He's got to make that wedding.
Slowly, Dan begins to emit more and more.
He admits to helping Sam move Julie's body in order to help him escape, which then makes
him accessory after the fact.
Yeah.
So at this point, police tell him he's not free to go anywhere.
More pressure and 14 hours into the interview, detectives eventually coax Dan into a confection.
Confession.
They make him into a cupcake.
Into a cupcake.
Coax him into a confection of it.
Oh, no.
He says, quote, I'm crazy.
I did it.
I killed Julie and I killed Sam and quote.
So why didn't you start with that?
I'm obviously, he's got to make it to his wedding.
Yeah.
He can't be locked up.
Oh my God.
Dan said that he had asked for Sam's help moving some stuff into his place, sorry, from
his place to the theater as Dan was due to perform there later that night.
When Sam turned to pick something up, Dan pulled out a gun and shot Sam twice killing
him.
He said that the motive for this was to collect the money that Sam had in his bank account.
Yep.
Dan then grabbed Sam's phone to text Julie luring her into Sam's apartment.
But first, Dan and his fiance, Rachel went to the theater in order to perform their play.
In between this time.
In between killing each of them.
And did Rachel know?
Okay, she did.
Go ahead.
It wasn't until two hours later that Dan was in his apartment texting Julie, asking
her to come to Sam's apartment.
When he saw Julie at Sam's front door, Dan walked outside to chat with her.
He had had a key to Sam's place and Dan said that he was too worried about Sam as Sam had
also texted him that he was going through family matters as well.
Wow, how manipulative.
Right?
When the two got into the apartment, Dan shot her.
Dan said that the sole motive for killing Julie was to frame Sam.
Oh, okay.
I thought it was like she's gonna call the police if she realizes he's missing.
No.
So I need to get rid of her too.
As he's confessing, he's like, I don't know, I'm just crazy.
I just, I needed to cover up Sam.
That's insane.
I hate to use that word, but it's like, again, this seems like all of a sudden he's like
this crazed killer in this planning left and right.
I think it's just that he feels that he's such a good actor and he's so narcissistic
that he believes that he's gotta do something with this pressure.
It's like, I mean, to me, it's no different than like Scott Peterson, Chris Watts, because
he's got all this pressure to perform or be this person and the pressure becomes too
much and he's narcissistic enough to believe that he can get away with a murder.
Not really know what he's doing.
There's no real solid plan.
There's kind of a plan, you know, the same thing with Chris Watts.
There's kind of a plan, but no real follow through.
When detectives asked Daniel where Sam was, Daniel admitted that he dismembered Sam and
scattered his body in a nature center along Long Beach.
Holy shit.
Most of Sam's body was recovered after Dan led them to the site, but not all of them.
So my question is like where the sense kind of morbid, but like where did he dismember
him?
Where's all this evidence?
Is it in Dan's apartment or because it wasn't in Sam's apartment?
I don't think that the details of that have ever been released.
And I'm gonna say that because I very much wanted to find the court case for this and
I could not find anything.
There's no transcripts anywhere, at least from what I can tell.
And maybe like the statute hasn't been lifted yet when you can release those.
But as far as I can tell, any article that I saw didn't say whether or not he dismembered
him at the theater.
If he dismembered him at his apartment or Sam's apartment, but Sam's apartment looked
fine.
Yeah, I don't think it would have been that.
That's interesting.
Right.
And I'm not sure why.
I don't know if that's because...
It wasn't important.
Yeah.
Or maybe it was at the theater and they're like, didn't want to have a bad name, you
know?
I don't know.
It's true.
They might.
They might have buried that on purpose.
Right.
Daniel Wozniak would be charged for both the murder of Julie and Sam.
He was convicted of both counts of first degree murder and was sentenced to death in 2016.
He is currently incarcerated in California's medical facility due to an unspecified mental
illness, due to an unspecified mental illness, but has also spent time in Salinas and Sanquintin.
Rachel Buffett, his fiancé, would also be charged with accessory after the fact for lying
to investigators about her knowledge of Daniel's whereabouts than either the crime and for
perpetrating the lie that the man had, the man with the black hat, just existed.
She was sentenced to 32 months and was released in 2019.
And in another strange turn of events, Daniel's own brother, Tim, would also be arrested for
concealing their murder weapon and Sam's bloody clothing.
Oh my god.
He was sentenced to three years probation and mandatory drug rehab.
Damn.
He like rescheduled to his brother.
He's like, yo, look, I need you to take this for me.
I need you to take these things.
God.
But it's like you're dragging other people with you.
Like what the fuck?
Yeah.
Well, that's because he only cared about making his wedding.
Exactly.
You know, like he didn't care about the lives of two people and well, four people now actually
because his wife and his brother now are implicated.
I really think that Rachel probably knew more than that.
I think maybe she even assisted him with some things because I'm pretty sure she's just
as narcissistic as he is.
And I'm sure she wanted a nice big lavish wedding.
Or she probably just looked the other way, like ignorance is bliss.
You know, it's interesting how often that happens.
Like someone you love does something really, really bad and you're like, it'll be like,
you know, like, I love them.
Yeah.
Just don't say anything.
You know, well, that's the story of Dan Wozniak.
That's crazy.
I've never heard that story before and the recency of it is baffling to me because I've
never heard anything like that.
I thought the name sounded familiar, but so what unspecified mental disorder do you think
he might have had?
I think that he definitely had a narcissistic personality disorder or something like that.
Something that was a personality disorder with narcissistic tendencies.
Yeah.
It sounds like maybe a little bit of antisocial as well because he was so calm about this whole
thing, just so ready to like end the lives of two people just to get what he wanted and
a seemingly didn't have any feelings about it and then tried to blame the victim, you
know, make him out to be a murderer.
And then just casually at his bachelor party was like, fine.
Yeah, tired of covering for Sam.
Let's go.
You know, like no emotion about it.
He was totally willing to just let Sam take the fall for it.
But then it's almost like, like when he was confessing in the interrogation room, he keeps
saying like, I'm crazy.
I'm crazy.
And he would like laugh.
And I don't know if it's like maybe some hysteria that came on because of the anxiety he was
feeling, but it was very much like he realized, I think in that moment, he was able to kind
of put that guard down and just confess.
And again, I compared him to Chris Watts.
Chris Watts similarly did something like that.
He lied and he lied and he lied.
He was completely willing to blame Shanann for killing the children.
And then when it became too much, came too much, came too much, he kind of just shut
down and began to confess.
And then he used to confess.
And then it's almost like he never stopped confessing.
Yeah.
And after he was in jail, he was fine with giving, you know, FBI interviews detailing
more and more of the crimes.
And I mean, all the way down to like what the girls said and stuff.
So I don't know.
I don't know if there's like a, like you said, anti-social, but is it now I'm getting the
response that I've wanted and therefore I'm going to keep confessing?
I think so.
I think it might be, well, I think it might be like both anti-social, maybe narcissistic
as well because it's like, I've gotten all this attention now that I'm part of this,
but I'm a victim in it and now that I'm not getting that attention and I'm getting eyeballs
looked at me and I'm slowly starting to confess, now I'm getting more attention because I'm
confessing a little bit.
So I'm going to give them a little bit of time to keep relighting that candle.
Yeah.
And this giant confession is this big, you know, abundance of attention.
Yeah.
It's got to be like the ultimate like, oh my God, yes, they're really paying attention
to me now.
You know, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, I definitely think that's what Dan was going through when he started confessing.
Dang.
Well, that was a really good episode.
Thanks.
Thanks for bringing that.
Yeah.
You got anything else?
That's it.
All right.
Well, we will see you guys on Monday with another mental breakdown.
Go ahead and get your tickets for the True Crime and Paranormal Podcast Festival and be
on the lookout for another case as well next week.
Yeah.
All right.
Love you.
Bye.
Love you.
Bye.
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