Deadly Influence: The Social Media Murders 1x6

1. What her job had to say was, everybody was welcome here.

2. They all took care of each other.

3. She recognized how important social media could be and would be.

4. Energy clear.

5. But people can connect online in the exact same way.

6. That evil can propagate.

7. Hello, Denver.

8. In the tattoo industry, there is just

9. so much competition.

10. There's people who just didn't want to see us succeed.

11. Then the echo chamber getting louder and louder,

12. and louder and driving me crazy

13. until you... snap.

14. It was the manifestation of the devil himself.

15. Do you want me to show 'em to you?

16. Yes. What is it that you have there?

17. So, this right here, what I'm looking at is

18. one of the first business cards of Twisted Sol.

19. It has a picture of Alicia.

20. Yeah, this is the...

21. It's really good for me to hold onto this.

22. Just remembering where it all started.

23. One day, I just needed a job. I was probably, like, 17 I think,

24. and stumbled across a tattoo shop.

25. And the owner, they gave me a job working the counter.

26. Being that young in that industry,

27. it was really cool.

28. And that's when I met Alicia.

29. She was a piercer there.

30. She had this bright, red hair, bright red eyebrows

31. and you know, she definitely stood out wherever she went.

32. Her energy, the way that she carried herself.

33. She was a magical human.

34. We were like brother and sister.

35. We would joke and we would be like,

36. if I was a guy, I would be you

37. and if you were a girl, you'd be me.

38. At that time, it was very rare to see

39. people of color, couple of indigenous people in the business.

40. The tattoo industry was run by like Hell's Angels, by biker gangs.

41. And so, you just had to really make yourself small,

42. kind of look the other way

43. with a lot of the conversations that were going on.

44. There was a lot of sexism and racist talk.

45. At times, like the odds were definitely against us.

46. But none of that was gonna stop us.

47. Alicia just had a great vision.

48. We can be something different and something better,

49. and it doesn't have to be like this.

50. And so, she opened up her first shop.

51. This is Alicia and I at Twisted Sol.

52. I was there from the beginning.

53. I started piercing right away.

54. What her shop had to say was, everybody was welcome here.

55. Alicia and I first encountered each other

56. when I was hosting Cafe Nuba, "But it's hot and it's black".

57. That was a once a month poetry venue.

58. We both happened to be young people

59. who were coming up in the scene

60. and kind of, just forging our way.

61. Alicia represented her Chicana and Chicano culture.

62. And that's what really attracted me to her.

63. I had been around her shop and she wanted to be

64. very blatantly clear, we are not tolerating

65. classism, racism, misogyny, misogynoir.

66. So I knew that that was gonna be a safe space for me.

67. Word just got out, like, crazy.

68. That we were doing something different.

69. People were very impressed.

70. They definitely told their friends.

71. We got busy, and then it just never stopped.

72. But there's people who just didn't want to see us succeed.

73. Someone threw this rock through this big window of ours.

74. It was a threat.

75. Like, watch your back,

76. or we're watching you, or just, you know.

77. It didn't make you feel good, for sure.

78. The backlash was because of all the diversity.

79. It is heartbreaking, but don't tell us we can't do something

80. because we're not the right color.

81. Because then we're gonna proceed to prove you wrong.

82. After a couple of years into it, you know, we just started

83. to figure out our flow.

84. And it just got to a point where people were just there to come see us.

85. One day, someone comes into the shop,

86. he got some work done.

87. His name was Lyndon McLeod.

88. He would talk to people, he would talk to Alicia.

89. After a while, they became friends.

90. They just started seeing each other

91. as romantic partners.

92. He was charismatic.

93. Everyone that she's dated is charismatic to some degree.

94. You know, if you're here to come

95. and share space with us, then just come with respect.

96. But if you were the type to not be that way,

97. you would very quickly find out that

98. that place was not for you.

99. It soon became apparent that he was toxic.

100. Like, why isn't nobody laughing at my racist joke that I just said?

101. She would definitely be like, look, man,

102. you can't act this way.

103. Like, you can't say these things here.

104. You can't behave this way.

105. She gave him chances.

106. There were opportunities for him to improve.

107. But he wasn't willing to change or grow.

108. Alicia had a conversation with him

109. and told him that he's not welcome there anymore.

110. She learned and she let go.

111. He was gone.

112. We're done then, right?

113. And that was that.

114. And we didn't see him for forever

115. and he just kind of disappeared after that.

116. Twisted Sol ran till about 2010.

117. And then it became Sol Tribe.

118. Little bit of a bigger space.

119. Over the years, Alicia's words and her personality

120. and her attitude continued to just, like,

121. spread like wildfire.

122. She was really, really respected.

123. Everybody just knew who she was.

124. She was building a good community

125. and good friendships.

126. Hi, y'all.

127. Alicia got Sol Tribe on Facebook.

128. Hello, Denver.

129. She recognized how important social media could be and would be.

130. She used social media to honor the skills

131. of the artists that she respected,

132. to get them out there, to publicize.

133. Sometimes, I would see the amount of people

134. that liked her posts or what she was saying

135. and I was like, wow, okay,

136. people like us.

137. People wanna get work done here.

138. If it wasn't her doing her social media thing,

139. probably a lot of other people might've taken a lot longer

140. to find our place.

141. It really blasted forward.

142. In business, you do need people liking your stuff.

143. You do need people sharing your stuff

144. that is important.

145. But she was very much trying to lead by example,

146. trying to say, let's speak out against these things.

147. She a respected voice.

148. So people definitely did listen to her.

149. Sol Tribe was insanely different.

150. You don't see someone BIPOC,

151. you don't see a woman,

152. and then you don't see someone so calmly

153. navigating these choppy waters of this industry.

154. So after my apprenticeship,

155. the first place I beelined it to was Sol Tribe.

156. I sat down with Alicia and it was probably the kindest let down.

157. It was essentially, like, you know,

158. I want you to have more experience.

159. I was like, okay.

160. Message received. Like, I'm gonna do that

161. and then I'm gonna circle back.

162. There was a posting for All Heart Industries.

163. There was the opportunity to actually run this studio.

164. I've never heard of it before, but I was still kind of new

165. to the Denver tattoo scene.

166. So I was like super interested.

167. I remember showing up a little nervous.

168. This man introduced himself as Lyndon.

169. He was just like super relaxed

170. and kind of, like, the cool uncle you wanna hang out with.

171. You know, I shook his hand.

172. I said I wanna work at the shop for you.

173. And he was like, okay.

174. And just like, really built me up.

175. Like, positive, words of affirmation,

176. just like, really supportive.

177. And he goes, so, both our names are gonna be on the business license.

178. And that way we're in it together.

179. And I loved that. I felt like he was investing in me.

180. So I was sold. I was in.

181. I showed up on Monday

182. and no one was there to let me in.

183. Didn't see him for weeks after that.

184. There was no one there to support me.

185. I was all on my own.

186. I had a lot of questions. I've never run a shop before.

187. The lack of communication or contact was starting to

188. become a little concerning.

189. Then I started discovering things

190. in the back of the tattoo shop.

191. There was a partition where Lyndon's tattoo station was.

192. And it was full of melted candles

193. and different animal bones, like, specimen parts.

194. I don't think I had one client that didn't say,

195. "Is he around still?"

196. Like, a little uncomfortable back there.

197. So I remember the first time

198. since I had that interview with him,

199. him showing up.

200. He was just stone face. He was like,

201. "Just coming in to make sure everything's okay.

202. I heard there's questions."

203. Uh, yes, there are questions and I was just wondering about your station.

204. Maybe I can just clean it a little better.

205. He like, whipped and locked eyes with me,

206. and he was like, "No, don't look at my don't touch my."

207. The ferocity of that was incredible.

208. He had this

209. smile where he just loved it.

210. He just became this very aggressive person.

211. And when I said "became,"

212. he actually just started to show who he was.

213. Lyndon started calling me all the time,

214. being like, hey, I'm just calling.

215. I'm just checking in, what's going on?

216. Can you give me a report?

217. What's going on over there?

218. He would call my personal cellphone.

219. And then he would start calling the shop phone.

220. And then there was a day where he actually

221. alternated between phones.

222. So it's just constantly ringing

223. and being disruptive while I'm tattooing.

224. He definitely be really aggravated that I didn't answer his call.

225. "When I call you, answer. We're in this together.

226. This is our business, together.

227. I don't know why you would disrespect me like that."

228. It absolutely felt like he had to be in control of everything

229. and you could definitely feel the vice grips.

230. It was getting harder and harder to work there.

231. I started to ask more questions.

232. Is this just me?

233. He never brought up his relationship with Sol Tribe.

234. And he never brought up his relationship

235. with any of the artists that worked at

236. All Heart Industry before me.

237. I really just wanted some advice.

238. But in the tattoo industry,

239. there's so much competition that no one's speaking to each other.

240. And Lyndon knew that no one's gonna wanna talk to me,

241. especially once I hitch my wagon to his horse.

242. But I knew I had to get out.

243. And then we had our annual check in

244. from the health department.

245. They did a check and there wasn't a license.

246. He let it lapse.

247. I knew I had a legal out with Lyndon

248. and he came unglued.

249. The boom of his voice on the phone was incredible.

250. It was just like, how dare you give up on me,

251. we're in this together, how dare you forget

252. both our names are on that business license?

253. And he's finally like,

254. if you leave, I'm gonna destroy you.

255. And I was like, you know what, Lyndon?

256. I just can't stay.

257. They shut it down.

258. Ryane had no way of knowing that this had happened

259. to those working at the stop before.

260. All Heart Industry, had been there for a couple of years.

261. Lyndon had earned himself a rather negative reputation around the community.

262. His very aggressive and divisive,

263. and judgmental behavior scared a lot of the staff.

264. As a result, there was quite a high turn around

265. in All Heart Industry and many people cut ties with Lyndon.

266. And instead of taking accountability for that,

267. he blamed others instead.

268. He felt that he'd been betrayed

269. and usurped by those in the tattoo community.

270. After he'd lost his business, his friends, his reputation,

271. he decided to move up into the mountains.

272. Lyndon built a tiny home out of shipping containers

273. and ostracized himself from everyone around him.

274. He had no geographical community.

275. Instead, he built one online.

276. And it's at that time that he found the manosphere.

277. The manosphere is a set of forums

278. and websites that actively discuss feminism

279. and how apparently detrimental it is to men.

280. He would post pictures and videos of himself

281. in a hot tub smoking cigars.

282. Using his assault rifles and his firearms on trees.

283. A lot of the comments, remarks he made

284. highlighted a very aggressive and unequal perspective

285. between men and women.

286. Many people who looked in at his life

287. would see a man that was self-sufficient, strong,

288. very masculine.

289. And that influenced other people

290. to follow his ethos and his philosophy.

291. With all of this support around him,

292. that's where his mindsets and views started to perpetuate and worsen.

293. I'd been expressing to Alicia

294. that I kind of wanted to do my own thing

295. and I kind of wanted my own shop.

296. So we came across this space.

297. It was previously another shop.

298. And it got closed down.

299. I didn't know that Lyndon had

300. something to do with the previous shop.

301. It's been like over ten years.

302. So he'd fallen off my radar.

303. I'd completely forgotten about him.

304. The expansion of Sol Tribe really came from the fact that

305. she knew and she wanted Jimmy to have his own space.

306. Our Aztec dance group came and we danced and prayed,

307. and did a good cleansing of that shop

308. before we opened our doors.

309. It's when I first met Alyssa.

310. Alyssa and Alicia were friends.

311. Alyssa, who had asked Alicia about me

312. and from what I understand, she kinda had a crush on me for a little bit

313. and then I think, like, after a few times

314. of her being tattooed there,

315. she just finally worked up the courage

316. to come and try to start hitting on me.

317. I'm sure she knew that I wasn't gonna say no.

318. She knew what she was doing.

319. This is for a piercing that I did on Alyssa.

320. Says, "Cute philtrum piercing performed by me

321. "on this beautiful soul.

322. Do yourself a favor and take one of this girl's classes."

323. She's the bomb.

324. Really, all of yoga and most of life

325. is a play between doing and being,

326. movement and stillness.

327. I went to one of her classes and it was just amazing, like,

328. her voice, the things that she talked about,

329. just the poses, all of it.

330. It's so strange because when that's your sister,

331. right, you know, like, you know how nerdy she was when she was little.

332. But then you would step into this space

333. where she really came into her own.

334. She was proud of herself for doing this work.

335. She wanted people to see that, too.

336. People were connecting with her,

337. being impacted by the stuff that she was posting.

338. I'd be at one of her classes

339. and it was like she was like a little celebrity.

340. She loved it and she had a following.

341. She was a wonderful yoga instructor.

342. She was goofy, she was funny, she was loving.

343. - Why are you laughing?

344. And I think people were just drawn to her.

345. And of course, you know, I'm gonna say that 'cause

346. I'm her mom, her proud mom.

347. Gently on your throat.

348. Back to your heart.

349. Shake it out.

350. Let it all go.

351. Energy clear.

352. She grew up in the suburbs.

353. There was not very many people who look like her

354. where she was raised.

355. I would always tell her, you know,

356. even if you have this much Mexica blood in you,

357. you should honor that.

358. You're still that, like, that's the blood that still runs through your veins.

359. It was wonderful that she found that through Jimmy.

360. Spirituality and wanting to know more

361. about her heritage and feeling like

362. she was part of the Indigenous community.

363. The more that I started to hang out with her,

364. I started to realize how passionate she was

365. about social justice.

366. She might have been posting on social media.

367. She might've been protesting at different events.

368. But she was also doing things every single day

369. to help alleviate those injustices in her community.

370. Alyssa and Alicia would use their social media platform

371. to let people know their opinions on these things.

372. Some people really liked what we said,

373. but there was also a lot of people

374. that really did not like our views.

375. I just remember, you know, we were sitting around one day

376. and someone comes into the shop.

377. Once I realized who it was, I was shocked.

378. It just was not the same person

379. who'd come into the shop many, many years ago.

380. Something was off with him.

381. He got bigger, cut his hair,

382. had this whole other militant look.

383. Everything about Lyndon just changed.

384. When Lyndon walked in there,

385. you can just tell he was a mad person, like...

386. Like a very aggro person.

387. That's how I found out that it had previously been his shop,

388. but up until that interaction with him, I didn't know.

389. He was trying to get re-involved in our business.

390. I don't know what he was expecting

391. or what his ideas were,

392. and the role that he was gonna play

393. in our shop and in our business,

394. but he was using his size and his muscle

395. to try to get what he wanted.

396. I was just like, no, you know, like,

397. I quickly shot that idea down and he did not like that.

398. So, he left.

399. Alyssa, she was really good for me.

400. We had a great relationship.

401. We laughed. We laughed a lot.

402. She asked to marry me and I just thought that was very beautiful.

403. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.

404. We decided that we were gonna go get married in Teotihuacan,

405. which is in Mexico.

406. And then, we were like, who's gonna marry us, you know?

407. Then right away, she was like, "Alicia."

408. She was enjoying a relationship that was really real.

409. Them against the world in lots of ways.

410. The pandemic shut everything down,

411. especially Alyssa's line of work.

412. All the yoga studios and stuff like that.

413. They didn't know when they were gonna open.

414. Alicia really wanted to support Alyssa.

415. So she just, pretty much, created a job for Alyssa

416. so she can come and work with us.

417. She moved into becoming the jewelry manager at Sol Tribe.

418. They kind of all took care of each other.

419. It was, sort of, like, we got this.

420. We're together. We're gonna get through it.

421. We're more concerned about our health and safety

422. than we ever have been before, which means that

423. you're also gonna be looked after.

424. Um, but we aren't gonna be

425. in full speed for quite a while.

426. My guest on the podcast today is author Roman McClay.

427. Roman is known for his new book series called Sanction.

428. A book started to make dark waves through the corners of the manosphere.

429. currently blowing up Twitter,

430. making a whole lot of noise online.

431. Roman McClay.

432. Essentially what the book was about

433. is that due to the rise in feminism

434. and the collapse of masculinity,

435. society was doomed to collapse.

436. The book was very unapologetically violent.

437. It supported the ideas of racism and misogyny.

438. The author, Roman McClay had a very strong belief

439. in violence against those that had wronged you in the past.

440. Why don't you explain to us a little bit about

441. what the book is all about?

442. In the book, the main character

443. was called Lyndon.

444. People began to realize

445. that Roman McClay was Lyndon McLeod.

446. I put it inside a story for a very specific reason.

447. Lyndon described Lyndon as an extraordinarily gifted boy who was

448. born into an ordinary family.

449. Advanced AI decided that he was the perfect being

450. to have his DNA duplicated into 1,600,000 other men

451. to essentially accelerate mankind

452. into a better version of what it currently was.

453. You know, I say this with no pretention,

454. but just as a descriptor.

455. I consider myself an artist. So, I...

456. Lyndon's narcissism was definitely projected into that book.

457. And so, like I got my first reader

458. and he sent me a DM on Twitter.

459. "I've never read anything like this.

460. This is the greatest book I've ever read."

461. But a lot of his sentences didn't make much sense.

462. There were many holes to his story.

463. While Lyndon was posting online

464. under his pseudo name Roman McClay,

465. his following grew quite exponentially.

466. Although there was a large element of

467. fiction and make believe, and imagination,

468. the terrifying thing is that a lot of those names he used,

469. a lot of those characters in the book

470. were actually named after people

471. that he thought had hurt him in the past.

472. He included real names,

473. real people's personal details.

474. We are not machines. We're men.

475. And eventually, people will lose it.

476. Eventually, someone is going to snap.

477. In 2020, when the Black Lives Matter

478. movement was coming to a head and really bursting,

479. Alicia took on a lot of personal education of her clients.

480. But you gotta meet us halfway with the mask thing...

481. Also, other business owners, especially them being white,

482. employing them to get involved.

483. A very good friend of mine pressed upon me

484. how important it was that those of us

485. with lighter skin speak to our communities

486. directly and clearly

487. about the anti-Blackness that's happening around us.

488. The Alicia who's online is who she was in person.

489. She never posted it from a place of being trendy.

490. She spoke about it in a way that was personal.

491. And those things land. Those types of things stick.

492. It was just really important for all of us

493. just to go and show our support.

494. Alyssa was interested in identifying injustices and fixing them.

495. She was willing to go down to the capital

496. and post about it, and speak to her experience

497. as a woman of color.

498. I was proud of Alyssa, proud of her strength

499. and her bravery, and her ability to speak who she was.

500. It was actually a very vulnerable thing to do,

501. to expose yourself, to...

502. A, the support and also the backlash that could occur.

503. People would write me messages at the shop.

504. We were not gonna change what we were putting on

505. our social medias and things like that,

506. just 'cause others weren't happy with what we were putting on there.

507. We must love each other and support each other.

508. We must love each other and support each other.

509. In the manosphere and in his book,

510. Lyndon talked about purging the ills to make a better society,

511. to cleanse mankind, to have a stronger human race.

512. Some people bought the book on Amazon.

513. This review says, "This book is packed full of rants on diversity,

514. women and globalization.

515. There were fantasies of killing people involved in the BLM movement.

516. This book fetishizes violence as the great equalizer."

517. So he did meet disagreements.

518. He was always very aggressive

519. against those voices.

520. These tweets are all for one person that simply disagreed with him.

521. He's threatening someone with their life there.

522. Not just their own life, but their family's as well.

523. At that point, some of his followers

524. began to double take on him and his beliefs.

525. One of his followers started to see increasingly

526. aggressive, violent and erratic messages

527. and social media posts.

528. And that's what raised suspicion enough

529. for him to create a report against Lyndon.

530. This report was sent to the Denver police and the FBI.

531. It specifically said that Lyndon has a considerable motive

532. to take terrorist action on American soil.

533. Although the book is not political per se,

534. it could be read as an extreme right-wing manifesto

535. and a terrorist prophecy.

536. The Denver police department confirmed receiving the report

537. but never actually followed up with that.

538. There were rumors that allegedly, Lyndon was trying to get

539. people to do illegal activities with him.

540. He had now taken things too far.

541. And so, there was a general decline

542. in his community.

543. It began to fall apart.

544. And so, by 2021, he'd pretty much cut off

545. all ties to his friends, to his community, to his fans.

546. He seems to be hiding and regressing into himself.

547. Sol Tribe was never the end goal for Alyssa.

548. It was a transitionary period.

549. Alyssa was talking to me a lot about having children.

550. Really desiring that for herself and for her family.

551. She really wanted to have a baby.

552. We were saving money to buy a house.

553. You know, we were just trying to prepare for our future.

554. But there was this time, I had this feeling.

555. Just this something that I could not shake.

556. A very awkward, not good feeling

557. of not being safe there and I just remembered

558. telling her, like, we gotta get out of this shop. We gotta leave.

559. But I knew that we gotta work

560. and we gotta stick this out until we put ourselves

561. in a position that we need to be.

562. Sol Tribe was open after Christmas

563. and Jimmy and Alyssa gifted me new earrings.

564. Jimmy said, yeah, come in to the shop

565. and I'll put them in.

566. I left Jimmy a tip on the bench,

567. and as I was leaving, I said, "Did you get your money?"

568. And he goes, "No." And Alyssa said, "I have it."

569. And Jimmy said, "Oh, Alyssa, you take my heart and my soul

570. and now you're taking my money?"

571. Just teasing...

572. You know.

573. Being so cute and I hugged them both and left.

574. That was the last time I saw her.

575. I was in the back in my room.

576. Alyssa and Alicia were in the front.

577. I heard a noise.

578. I thought something had fallen.

579. And then I heard shots.

580. But when I saw him, I remember the feeling of pure evil.

581. Like, no soul, no nothing.

582. A hollow shell.

583. A manifestation of the devil himself.

584. He came in and then shot me.

585. I woke up pretty early.

586. And I had a text from my dad and it said,

587. "Call me when you wake up.

588. It's really bad."

589. I called him.

590. And I could hear Nancy in the background, crying.

591. Not crying, wailing.

592. He said, "It's Alyssa and Jimmy.

593. They were working and there was a shooting.

594. And she didn't make it."

595. I couldn't even...

596. comprehend it or process it.

597. I just screamed,

598. and screamed, and screamed.

599. Once I got out of surgery,

600. I was like, where's my wife?

601. How's my wife? Where is she?

602. It was a detective or an FBI agent, said, they're gone.

603. I-I just... I could not believe it.

604. The man had killed my wife and Alicia...

605. Just could not believe it.

606. Alyssa and Alicia had been murdered

607. in this crime spree.

608. I knew that I couldn't let...

609. us be broken.

610. I hope it's going to help you and ignite you

611. to do more work and change throughout our communities.

612. I couldn't stop what happened.

613. But I could help us get past it.

614. And I knew that's what she wanted me to do.

615. I knew that's what she wanted me to do.

616. So, um...

617. I miss you so much.

618. All the way to the hospital,

619. praying that it wasn't true.

620. My baby.

621. With so much to give and to do with her life still.

622. So much.

623. We start with breaking news tonight.

624. Four people are dead and three others are hurt,

625. including a Lakewood police agent,

626. after a shooting and crime spree

627. that started in Denver and ended in Lakewood.

628. The detectives are like,

629. do you know a Lyndon McLeod?

630. So much time had passed, but I knew who he was,

631. and I just, I didn't, like, I didn't understand why.

632. And that's just what made it really confusing for me

633. because it was somebody who we shared space with.

634. I think it just hits a little different when it's somebody you knew of.

635. The shooter killed people in one tattoo shop

636. after another that night.

637. It appears he was targeting the heart of Denver's creative community.

638. Following days, when we got home,

639. the FBI barge into our studio

640. and they're asking me, why were you on the phone with him

641. on the day of the 27th?

642. Lyndon called multiple times to our shop phone.

643. I felt immediately sick to my stomach

644. because he was calling to see if I was working,

645. to come into the shop that day.

646. So if my wife didn't have me go on vacation,

647. my wife and I probably would be dead.

648. Not probably. We'd be dead.

649. A lot of people are like, what did you do to make him mad?

650. Like, that mad seven years later?

651. Well, I don't know if it's because I was

652. a woman, queer, non-binary,

653. or he just never let it go that I left him.

654. Or that, maybe, I was thriving

655. with my own studio that made him mad?

656. I don't know.

657. Three people killed that night

658. had previously worked at Lyndon or knew him

659. in the tattoo community.

660. After leaving Sol Tribe,

661. he traveled to Jeremy Costilow's home.

662. He had briefly partnered with Lyndon at All Heart Industry.

663. He was one of many people that experienced Lyndon's

664. aggressive and toxic behavior,

665. and as a result, cut ties with All Heart Industry years before.

666. Jeremy Costilow was attacked, but survived.

667. Lyndon then drove to another ex-colleague's house.

668. Michael Swinyard's, who used to work with him.

669. And shot him.

670. He then travelled to Lucky 13,

671. where he'd shot and killed Danny Scofield.

672. Danny was an exceptionally talented artist.

673. He was one of Lyndon's first workers.

674. But the personal grudge that Lyndon had against him

675. was when he left All Heart Industry.

676. Lyndon then travelled to the Hyatt hotel,

677. where he'd walked up to the receptionist

678. at the time, Sarah Steck.

679. Sarah was an aspiring artist,

680. known to be a very caring, compassionate person.

681. She was a stranger to him.

682. And still, he murdered her in cold blood.

683. By the time this man walked up to agent Ashley Ferris,

684. police say he had shot multiple people already.

685. Then he shot her in the stomach.

686. Although wounded on the ground

687. and losing feeling in her leg,

688. agent Ashley Ferris fires back and kills the shooter.

689. I'm sure in a million lifetimes,

690. he never thought it would be a woman to end his.

691. So, Agent Ashley, like, thank you so much

692. for what you did.

693. Let me re-emphasize or restate that

694. this individual was known to law enforcement.

695. He was on our radar.

696. We are sharing that we knew

697. of this individual, but there was...

698. The police were aware of various issues.

699. Prior to his time at All Heart Industry,

700. Lyndon had plead guilty to threatening

701. previous employees with a firearm.

702. Yet, two years later, he was able to

703. regain a firearm.

704. They were also aware of the death threats that were given online.

705. They were aware of the report that was sent a year prior,

706. but they never actually followed up

707. to discover that the names and details

708. of the victims who were actually in those books.

709. He described it to the T what he was gonna do.

710. He didn't even change our names.

711. Alicia's name was mentioned and others.

712. He wrote it out exactly how he carried it out.

713. He had been targeting Alicia for a while.

714. This had been planned.

715. What probably accelerated this process

716. was the social media.

717. I'm sure he was stalking her.

718. She was living her dream. She had her shop.

719. She had the community he needed.

720. She had the community he wanted.

721. It's so disgusting to hear these people, like,

722. "We had no idea. We had no idea."

723. Y'all never went deep and asked him,

724. "Why are you so hateful?"

725. He wrote books. Y'all didn't know about this?

726. He went into an echo chamber.

727. That's the most dangerous place.

728. There was no home, there was no warmth.

729. There was only an affirmation of his hatred.

730. A couple of weeks after the attack,

731. the US representatives of Congress

732. asked the Department of Justice

733. to look at their previous encounters

734. with Lyndon McLeod and open up an investigation.

735. This investigation is still ongoing,

736. despite it now being more than two years later.

737. So this is my favorite message that Alyssa sent.

738. She wrote to me, "I love you so much.

739. You bring my heart so much joy.

740. I had the best time naming our babies

741. and listening to music and loving you

742. forever, and ever, and ever."

743. This is a letter that one of Alyssa's closest friends wrote to her.

744. "Lyss, with your memory, give me the courage

745. to transmute anger into action,

746. then action into peace.

747. Even though your body is gone,

748. I feel you in the color blue,

749. in small acts of kindness.

750. Together, we were invincible.

751. And we would take on anything.

752. All the darkness in the world

753. cannot extinguish the light of a single candle."

754. Alyssa Gunn-Maldonado,

755. and Alicia Cardenas,

756. their legacy will live forever.

757. They will not be forgotten.

758. And they will continue.

759. Clear.