S7, Chapter 2: Bruised Blood

0:01 I had to open the bruise up and let some of the blues blood come out to show them, come out to show them. Tapes from the Dark Side contains descriptions of violence and sexuality. Listener discretion is advised. On April ninth, nineteen eighty seven, at eleven thirty eight pm, Sue to Walt, who was the investigating officer, interviewed Brenda Valerie Lundein, mother of Jacob Lundeine, at the University of New Mexico Hospital. In this interview, Brenda stated she doesn't know what happened to Jacob, but she doesn't know anyone who would want to hurt him. She said her living boyfriend John seemed to care for Jacob and took good care of him in her presence, and then she went on to discuss the relationship between her six year old son Eric and his brother, nine month old Jacob. Quote. Brenda's six year old son Eric is extremely jealous of the baby and has been mean to the baby in the past. When Jacob was first brought home from the hospital after he was born, Eric would shake the crib and wake him up. Approximately five weeks ago, she noticed Jacob's ear had been hurt. She took him to the doctor in Sikora, who told her the injury was not serious. Eric finally admitted that the baby had been crying and he took the baby out of the crib and dropped him. John was watching the two boys when this occurred. Approximately

1:36 two weeks later, Brenda's mother noticed a large, soft lump on the side of Jacob's head. They took Jacob to see the doctor who treated the injury. The doctor told her the injury was due to a blow in the head. In questioning Eric, he admitted he had kicked the baby in the head. At this time, she called Eric's father, who lives in California, and requested he'd take custody of Eric. She felt that perhaps Eric was not receiving enough attention, which was causing him to hurt Jacob. By removing Eric from the home, she felt Jacob would be safe. On April tenth, nineteen eighty seven, at approximately twelve forty seven am, sued to Walt interviewed Merlinda Crawford, mother of Brenda Landine and grandmother to Jacob and Eric. This interview also took place at the University of New Mexico Hospital Jacob would pass away just a few hours after this interview. This is directly from Sue to Walt's notes quote where Linda said Eric had been extremely jealous of Jacob ever since Jacob was born. For the first three months after Jacob's birth, Brenda, Eric and Jacob lived with her. She saw that every time Eric would walk past the baby, he would hit him or kick him. She talked to Eric about it, and she thought he had stopped. There were other events that occurred showing how jealous Eric was. Eric once made a comment that Jacob had a pretty name and he had an ugly name. Merlinda stated she has not

3:09 seen bruises or any other indication of child abuse on Jacob. She said she looks over him very carefully because she has heard lots of stories about boyfriends abusing children. She also stated that John does not take care of Jacob very often. I stated at the beginning of this episode that my goal when approaching this story specifically, was to recognize my bias and try to remain neutral, and so when faced with this information, I was suddenly confused about how to proceed, and I finally decided that if Eric was my friend, the best thing to do would be to approach him directly. I sent Eric Facebook message and was relieved to discover he was open to talking about this. So we scheduled a time to talk and I gave Eric a call. Mer Linda is your grandmother on your mom's side, so she's Brenda's mother. In the statements on Sue to Waltz police report, she said that Eric had been extremely jealous of Jacob ever since Jacob was born. Now, I know you said you were very excited to have a brother before he was born, and I knew you were only six, so it's very normal to have jealous emotions. But do you remember him being born in like some of that excitement dissipating or how would you describe it. I think that as he got older and I started to

4:44 notice that people were definitely more interested in him. You know, I'm going from an only child to a second child, was I think probably challenging for me and my limited emotional capacity at the time. I don't remember being jealous of Jake to the point that I wanted to hurt him. I remember being jealous of his name. I remember thinking that he had a prettier name than I did, and it's possible, you know, that I was that jealous of him. It's possible that I did pinch him or hit him. I don't recall doing that. I was very small, but it's possible. I mean, kids do get jealous of other kids. Yeah, definitely, that's one. That's the other thing I was going to say. She said that when Eric would walk past the baby, he would hit her or kick him.

5:33 It's what Merlinda said. I have a hard time believing that she meant that literally every time you would walk past him, right, And so do you think that that's I mean, I'm sure there were times where I hit him or you know, pinched him or something. There were times where he pulled my hair, you know. So I don't know. I mean, I don't remember having this kind of like jealous rage. That seems to be like the theme of what people are saying here or what my grandmother's saying. But maybe maybe I did. I don't know. John had left you to babysit Jacob at six years old, and then I guess he came back and claims that you took him out of the crib and dropped him. Yeah, that's a strange one. I don't remember that happening. But I find it really hard to believe that any responsible parent would leave a six year old in charge of a six month old baby, Like, I don't see that as something normal. It's pretty objectively negligent abusive. Yeah, definitely negligent. It's definitely negligent. Yeah, so I don't recall that happening. According to his story, I was alone with Jacob, and Jacob was crying and I picked him up out of the crib and he fell, and that's how he fractured

7:05 his skull and had fluid building up on his brain. So, yeah, did he ever? Did he or even your mom ever explained why if they had suspicions that you were doing this, why they would have left you alone with Well, that's the thing, right, Well, my mom wouldn't left me alone. My mom was at work, so it would have just been him, And so that's that's the question. If you're so concerned about me hurting Jacob, then why would you leave me alone with Jacob? And that's not even the worst Why would you leave me alone? Like I'm six years old? Why would you leave me alone with Jacob? Yeah, that's the worst one. But the secondary one is definitely that. The thing that's important to understand is that crib was very tall. I mean it must have been.

7:57 The rails must have been up to like five foot tall. So in order for me to get Jacob out of there, I would have had to have moved a chair I suspect up against the crib and then tried to pick him up. He was a big baby. He weighed ten pounds when he was born. By that point he was probably twenty pounds. I would have been lucky if I was forty. So, yeah, you know, physics alone, Let's say I do manage to get him out of there. Okay, maybe I could have dropped him off the chair. I don't know. I don't recall that happening. I feel like I would have, right, And then there was one other incident, and this is the last thing in regards to this, but Jacob in the medical report had a bruised rib.

8:48 Yeah. I don't know if it was fully broken. I think it's a broken heeled, broken heeled, right. Yeah, and you had one memory of kicking or correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you said you had a memory of kicking Jacob one time. Yeah, you do you can you tell us what you remember from that. We were laying on the floor and he was kind of clawing on my leg and so I kicked and like it wasn't very hard. I don't think I would have had strength to fracture his skull, but I do remember my leg kicked out and it did it did him, you know, on the top of his not the top of his head, but like his forehead. And this was a separate time than the crib incident or this alleged crib alleged right right, yeah, yeah, okay, so this was not anything to do with a rib a rib though, no chest, oh no. And from that rib do we have any was there any ever, ever, any um hypothetical situation put forth like the crib or the kicking that anybody to explain the no, none of them.

10:03 Nobody really knows when that happened or or how long it had been. He had been fussy a lot, and it makes sense now knowing how much paint he was in. He was pretty fussy shortly after he started we started living with John. After talking with Eric, there were parts of the story that were still a little fuzzy. But I felt like I understood the situation much better. What sounded like to me was this was a case of pretty typical back and forth between siblings. Eric admitted that he had been jealous of Jacob, but that's fairly normal, especially for a six year old. The incident in which Eric kicked Jacob in the head sounded like a pretty typical physical back and forth between two brothers, granted one was six and one was nine months old. But what it didn't sound like to me it was a case of child abuse, at least not from Eric towards Jacob. Another thing that I felt was very telling in my interview with Eric was not what he remembered, but what he didn't remember. He didn't remember ever taking Jacob out of the crib and dropping him on the ground intentionally. He doesn't remember ever hitting Jacob in the ribs, and he never remembered ever intentionally hurting Jacob except for that single incident when he kicked him in the head, which seemed like more of a reflex from Jacob pulling his hair. Most of all, from what I

11:35 gleaned in my interview with Eric was that he was completely open and honest about any question I threw at him when he didn't remember something. He told me that he didn't remember when his memory of his motives seemed unclear. He admitted that. And I don't think that this is just my bias. When I asked myself in my Heart of hearts if Eric was being completely honest answer that question, at least from my point of view, that he was. My full conversation with Eric we actually recorded as an after show and it will be posted to the main feed. We went on to talk about some of the resentments that John had towards Jacob. But first I asked Eric about something that Merlinda had said, which was that John doesn't look after Jacob very often, which from everything I had seen, it sounded like John actually was watching Jacob quite often. And so I posed this question to Eric. And another thing that Merlinda said, this is not about the abuse, but she said John doesn't take care of Jacob very often. Is that true, because it seemed like he was actually taking care of Jacob. Yeah, So what she's talking about is after I was sent to California to be with my dad, my mom really stopped allowing Jacob to be alone with John for extended periods of time, and and so that one night, when there was no other person laughed,

13:05 she had to leave him with him for an hour. That's when he died. That's but it had been weeks. It had been like maybe nine or ten weeks where he hadn't been alone with Jacob. And did you I mean you were in another city and you were only six, So maybe in retrospect, did you ever hear from your mom was he upset that it seemed like he wasn't being trusted with Jacob anymore. I don't know that he was upset. I would have to ask my mom that. That's not a question I've ever asked her, because I could see his personality from what I've gleaned from reading the reports and talking to you, that perhaps that made him mad and maybe he had some resentment towards Jacob for that. He definitely resented Jacob.

13:58 I mean, there were times where he screamed at my mom for turning down the radio because Jacob was sleeping. You know. There were just several incidents where he kind of burst out and broke through his facade and yelled and got kind of scary. But I think those were the only times that he gave any indication that he had some like anger or rage issues, and there was an incident where it seemed like he went to hold Jacob. Jacob had a very negative reaction and started crying. Yeah. So one of the things about Jacob is he was adventurous. He was a daredevil. He liked crazy things. He liked to play Superman, you know. He liked when people put him over their heads and pretended like he was flying. And he liked to grab the front legs of the baby swing so that the whole thing would fall backwards. He was a crazy kid. And then his personality changed.

15:03 He stopped liking people putting him over their heads. My grandmother pointed out to my mom and said, look, he's acting really weird. Normally he likes me to do this, Now he doesn't. And so she shows my mom and he's trying to jump out of her arms to go into my mom's arms, and he's crying and screaming and clawing at my grandma's hair. And so my mom goes to John and says, you are you hurting Jacob? Like, what's going on? He's acting really weird. He's afraid of things that he's never been afraid of before, and John picks him up and says, no, all I do is this and starts to put him over his head, and Jacob again is freaking out, trying to jump out of his arms into my mom's arms, and my mom tells him, like, don't ever do that again. Doesn't like it, stop doing that to him. On the night of April ninth, nineteen eighty seven, Susan Dwalt signed a police hold placing Jacob Lendin under protective custody, which prevented him from being returned home until their larger investigation was completed. But tragically, this order never needed to be enforced. Just a few hours after it was signed, in the early morning hours of April tenth, nineteen eighty seven, and approximately three fifty eight am, Susan Duwald received a phone call from doctor Benny McWilliams advising that Jacob Lendein had died during surgery at three thirty five am. In the days following

16:44 Jacob's death, Susan Duwald continue to investigate this case. She talked with Sue Holland, who was a social worker in charge of overseeing Jacob's case. Sue Holland said that at one point she received an anonymous complaint from a neighbor alleging that the boyfriend was hitting Jacob, and then, on the afternoon of the same day as Jacob's death, Eric was interviewed by Sue to Walt. It appears to be the shortest interview she conducted, with only two brief paragraphs in her notes quote. I talked briefly with Eric at the State Police office in Albuquerque. He stated that John had never struck him, although he acted like he was going to hit or kick him. Eric also stated that at one time John told him he'd better be quiet or else he would hit Eric with a belt. When I asked Eric about the incident that caused the previous head injury to Jacob, he became very agitated and stated he had not heard Jacob.

17:40 When asked who had done it, he said he didn't know. At this point, the police interviewed the doctors who had treated Jacob, doctor Lance and doctor McWilliams, and after these interviews, their suspicions towards John began to grow. On April tenth, nineteen eighty seven, approximately four four pm, I spoke with doctor Patton Lance, who is the pathologist who conducted the autopsy and Jacob lentein. Doctor Lance stated he found a broken rib, which was an old injury, and in addition to the older head injury, he found a recent trauma to the head. He said the skull had been fractured along a suture and the injury was probably caused by an open hand. There were no marks on the scalp and very little blood under the skin. He felt the onset of symptoms would have occurred no more than one half hour after the injury. He also found slight trauma to the buttocks. He is going to attempt to date the rib fracture. Doctor Lance says that the old injury was probably caused by an open hand, not a kick to the head. And then we have the interview with doctor mc williams in which we get an insight into John's reaction upon hearing about Jacob's death for the first time. You might expect upon hearing about the death of his stepson, John would be overwhelmed with grief, but that is now what doctor McWilliam says. From sued Walt's notes quote, Brenda became hysterical and ran out of the room. After she calmed

19:15 down and came back in doctor McWilliam spoke with both Brenda and John. He explained to them that the child was extremely sick and near death when he arrived at the hospital and they were not able to save him. At that time, the mother again left the room, and then doctor McWilliams spoke one on one with John. John seemed nervous and stated that this was going to make him look bad. Doctor McWilliams stated John felt like he was going to be blamed for the baby's death. He said he didn't have a good feel about whether John acted more concerned for himself or the child, and he said that John seemed to have more concern about being blamed than the average person he has dealt with. Doctor McWilliams was later interviewed by another officer, Patrick Apodaca, who was a detective investigating the death of Jacob. Again, doctor McWilliams recounts his interaction with John that night, quote, John appeared very nervous and stated this would make him look bad and people would blame him. John related to doctor McWilliams the story of the baby being found on the floor neck to the couch, and he appeared more concerned for himself than for the baby. John stated he had never hit the baby. Doctor McWilliams then stated to John that in his opinion, the baby could not have suffered the injuries by falling off the couch and striking the coffee table. He would have had to have fallen from a great height, approximately four stories to sustain that type of injury.

20:45 He said, it appears that the injury was caused by a severe blow from a blunt object, such as an open hand. If the baby would have struck the coffee table, of the laceration would have been more to find and there would have been bleeding under the skin area and then abruptly. At least according to the police notes, the case took a dramatic turn out of seemingly nowhere a confession had been obtained. We'll tell you everything we know right after this quick break. Stay with us. From the police records quote. At approximately nine pm on April twelfth, nineteen eighty seven, I was contacted by Detective pat Apadaca, who stated he had just completed an interview with John.

21:40 He stated John was still denying striking the child and he wanted to have a polygraph examination administered. John consented, and so a polygraph exam was scheduled for one PM April fifteenth, nineteen eighty seven. Was Sergeant John Cordova of the New Mexico State Police. The next century and Sue to Walt's report announce as an event that would have dramatic implications for the case. But at approximately four PM on April fourteenth, nineteen eighty seven, I was contacted by Detective pat Apodaca, who advised me the polygraph exam would be unnecessary insomuch as a confession had been obtained from John. On April twentieth, nineteen eighty seven, I spoke with Assistant Chief Johnny Trujillo, who advised me he had interviewed John on April fourteenth, nineteen eighty seven, at approximately ten thirty am, during which he obtained a confession. It had not just been a street cop or even a detective or investigator who had obtained the confession. It was the assistant chief of police. Now we know false confessions are a thing, but as long as there was no breaking of constitutional rights such as a miranda violation, this seemed like the break in the case that will put John away for good for killing Jacob. The next entry reads Trihio is evaluating the case and an arrest

23:10 has not been made at this time. Case status active. This is where our case should wrap up, a confession which would inevitably be followed by an arrest and then most likely a guilty plea which would result in sentencing and closure for the victims. But the problem is none of that happened. After the confession. John was not arrested and no charges were brought. I remember reading this for the first time, and even to this day thinking about it, I find it hard to comprehend, and I began to just get a small glimpse inside the frustration that Eric Carter Lundine and as mother Brenda had been facing for the last three decades. I trying to find a copy of the confession in the police records. It says that it was audio recorded. It also says that there was a transcript and there were notes taken by the assistant chief.

24:12 But it's wow, we have a case file of dozens almost one hundred pages thick. This confession no longer exists in any form. There is no more audio recording, there are no notes, and there is no transcript. How is it that this person confessed and how is there no recording, How is there no transcript? How is there no summary of that confession? That's absurd to me. That's exactly what I wanted to ask you about, which is, on April twentieth, nineteen eighty seven, we had the first confession where a pol graphic examination was scheduled and they called it off. We're actually sorry. April fourteenth, nineteen eighty seven. And then on April twentieth, Sue de Walt talked with Assistant Chief Johnny Trujillo, who said that he obtained a full confession and do you have any have you received any explanation, because as per what you just said and what's in the episode, that confession summary, audio transcript, everything is missing. Do you have they given you any explanation of what happened. It's a really old case and things go missing all

25:45 the time. Two things I want to add here that I find quite peculiar. One is that John had friends in the Sekoro Police department. He used to play basketball together. Another is that as a maintenance man, John had keys to almost every business in the city, including the police department. Beyond that information, we don't have any evidence, but it seems peculiar that the smoking gun in this case that would have put John away conveniently when missing, but all hope was not lost. The polygraph exam, which was initially called off, was suddenly rescheduled for July ninth, nineteen eighty seven, and we do have a copy of that meeting in which John failed the polygraph test and then at least seemingly again confess to accidentally killing Jacob. We have the document containing the results of that polygraph exam and exactly what John told investigators on that day. On the next episode of Tapes from the dark Side, thank you for listening to Tapes from the dark Side. I've been your host t Z.

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28:51 you a promo from none other than Eric Carter lendin his show called True Consequences. I can't recommend it off. It's probably one of the leading shows as far as victim advocacy goes. Eric has been there, as you know, he's walked this path. He knows how to advocate for victims, but he also knows how to tell compelling true crime stories. I think you would enjoy a show. In fact, I'm convinced you would enjoy a show. Look it up True Consequences. Just search for it in your favorite podcast app. And now this is his promo. Are you tired of speculative, sensational, poorly researched and disrespectful true crime podcasts? Me too? Hi, I'm Eric Carter Lndein, and I'm here to introduce you to True Consequences podcast, an advocacy book as show that sets itself apart from the rest. You see True Consequences as a love letter from my baby brother, Jacob Londean, who was murdered nearly four decades ago, and he still needs justice. What sets my show apart is the deep dive research I do, the first person accounts I bring to light, and the emphathetic lens through which I approach each case.

30:04 I know what it's like to fight for justice for a loved one, and I'm committed to helping other families seeking justice. You can listen to True Consequences wherever you get your favorite podcast. Join me, Eric Carter Landeene on this journey to uncover the truth and advocate for justice. Together, we can make a difference. Don't settle for sensationalism. Choose True Consequences podcast for advocacy focused true crime. Subscribe now and be part of the movement for justice.