All language subtitles for Murder.In.The.Wicked.West.S01E01.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG

We'd received a phone
call at the sheriff's office

that Rex and June
were missing.

I thought maybe
they'd just gone off
on a party with somebody.

Sheriff Stansfield
picked me up

and we went to try to see
if we could figure out
where Rex and June were.

They were living
in what we call
the old Ivy House.

It's only
a few miles away
on the Strawberry River.

First thing
we noticed,

her car was still out
in the parking lot.

We went to the house
and knocked on the door,

nobody answered.

We pushed on the door,
it opened right up.

We went in.

The house
was in kind of disarray.

It became immediately
apparent something was amiss.

Her driver's license
is there on the bed.

The purse is there.

I noticed
June's dentures...

and I know June,
and I know

she was very conscientious
about her dentures.

There was evidence
of struggle.

Blood stains.

And then what really hit me
the hardest was Rex's hat

was laying on the floor.

To a cowboy,
that is an essential tool.

You simply do not leave
your hat.

That is as known
as the knuckles on your hand.

Duchesne, Utah
is high desert country.

If you were to scratch
the surface just a little bit,

you would find a very much
the spirit of the Wild West.

People are independent,
hard working.

They don't like a lot
of outside influence
in their lives.

Deals are made on a handshake.

An honest day's work
for an honest day's pay
is kind of the...

the theme of life here.

You're only as good
as your word

and you're only as good
as your work.

Well, in 1998,
I was a detective sergeant

with Duchesne County,
Sheriff's Office,

and I'd grown up
in that area.

And I knew every canyon,
every trail,

every valley like it was
my own backyard.

When Rex and June
went missing,
it was a huge surprise.

Rex Tanner was my dad.

Dad was working
at John Pinder's,
he was a ranch hand.

He's a old cowboy,
that rugged, dusty,
dirty look.

That was my dad.

If you ever watched Westerns,

them old cowboys
that lived out on the range

with the herd,
that was Rex.

June was a friend of his.

They were both single.

They lived alone.

They ate dinner together.

Just somebody to do something
with, so they weren't alone.

In 1998, I was editor
of the Uintah Basin Standard.

We would cover everything
in Duchesne County.

June Flood was a bookkeeper,
took care of paperwork

and so forth.

She was several years
older than Rex.

They formed a friendship.

Rex was
my older brother.

He was eight years older
than me.

All of us was born cowboys.
We didn't know any better.

Me and Rex,
we was pretty tight.

I was actually down
to my uncle's house

and one of his friends
called us, says,

"I haven't heard
from June nor Rex."

We felt something
was definitely wrong.

It just was not Rex to...

um, not at least call
if he couldn't make it.

In 1998,
I was the sheriff
of Duchesne County.

I grew up on a ranch
not far from here.

I have spent
all my working days
policing the county,

so I know these people
very well.

Pinder Ranch
is about ten miles
from Duchesne City.

It's at, what they call,
the Strawberry River area
of the county.

Just a typical farming
and ranching operation.

It's tough country.

John Pinder was running
the ranch at the time.

John was a young guy
in his early 40s.

He's kind of wild.

He did crazy things.

I think he thought he could do
what he wanted to do

whenever he wanted to do it.

John Pinder
was very well known

for having a full grown male
African lion named, Simba.

He lived in the home
in the ranch house

with John
and his sister, Jenny.

It was a sleepy
little town.

One day, I'm patrolling
on Main Street

and here comes a big
blue Ram truck with a lion.

And I'm not talking
a small lion,

I'm talking
a full-grown African lion
sitting in the back.

And it's getting
towards the afternoon.

Kids are getting
out of school.

He's just laughing.

And I go, "John, you need
to take the lion home."

That's John Pinder
and Simba.

That's John and Simba
laying on the couch.

I worked on the Pinder Ranch
at that time.

I was there for pretty near
seven or eight months.

I did have dealings with John,

but I was told to stay away.

My brother-in-law said
he's strange and don't go
near him. Don't...

Just stay away from him.

Rex was the cowboy.
He liked to ride.

He liked to farm.

He liked to mechanic.

He done a little
of everything.

Rex was a good farmhand.

In our county,
we hadn't had a homicide
in 18 years.

But that day we went
to Rex and June's house,

we knew in our gut something
bad had happened.

You don't leave your hat,
you don't leave your purse

and you damn sure
don't leave your teeth

if you're going to town
or going partying somewhere.

That just was wrong.

Something was very wrong.

And as we drove away
and we're starting
to kind of realize

we're headed into the unknown.

And that's when I saw
a man named, Dave Brunyer.

Now Dave Brunyer worked
for John Pinder on his ranch.

He was chopping wood
at another piece
of Pinder property

where John's sister Jenny
was living.

And I remember saying,
Oh, well, we know Dave.

He'll... We'll talk to him
and see what's going on.

He came walking
over to us real fast.

- Fast.
- Real kind of nervous.

I rolled down
the window

and we told him we was looking
for Rex and June and...

- Yeah.
- ...and asked him
if he had seen them.

And he told us no.

He acted like he didn't know
who we was even talking about.

And then Jenny was kind of
back and forth and in and out,

and it was the oddest thing.

He asked me, he said,
"Can you give me a card?

And if I hear anything,
I'll call you."

Now Dave Brunyer,
he knows my number.

I think that the reason
he was being secretive

or acting strange
was because of the presence
of Jenny Pinder,

who was kind of hovering
in and out.

I remember trying
to act along with him

and so I got him
a card and said,

"Yeah, if you... if you hear
of anything, let us know.

I remember the hair
on the back of my neck

standing up thinking,
"Oh man, this is..."

It was a bad feeling.

And I remember telling
the sheriff, we need to go.

And I'm telling him
something is wrong

and Dave Brunyer knows
about it.

So right up here ahead of us
is the main Pinder Ranch.

But I'll tell you what.

This is probably as close
as I'm comfortable
going right now.

There's a chance
that Jenny is there.

She's known
to be very volatile.

She does not like me.

I've had opportunity
to arrest her before

and interact with her before.

Jenny Pinder
is a lady that likes to drink.

Jenny and her boyfriend got
in a fight up there one night.

He wanted to leave,
so he just packed up
and headed out,

jumped in his truck,
went to turn the key on,

and she shot him right through
the wrist with a 30-30 rifle.

So when it comes
to the Pinders,

it's pick your poison.

John and Jenny were both
wild and unpredictable.

In those days,
the Pinder Ranch was known

as the Tower of Power

because anything
and everything went
on up there.

Party girls, drugs,
criminal, BS.

If you wanted to get high,
you wanted to get drugs...

go see John Pinder.

And June and Rex,
they were both party people.

At the time,
John and his wife, Beverly,

were going through
a very acrimonious divorce.

John was worried
that he was going
to lose the ranch,

and that is something
that he was not about
to... to let happen,

not even lose a part
of the ranch.

We hadn't really
made a connection
with John Pinder at all.

We were just realizing
something has happened
with Rex and June.

He told us a story

that he had been kind of
associating with the Pinders,

partying a little bit,
a little handyman work,

part-time work
on occasion, um, had...

had done drugs with him.

They told us
basically crazy [bleep].

I shouldn't say that.

It was... It was unbelievable.

He described body parts

for hundreds and hundreds
of feet

scattered all around
the area...

and said that
he had been cleaning up

body parts
for the last three days.

You could feel
the... the trauma coming
out of his voice.

He was as purely horrified
as anybody I'd ever seen
when he was describing it.

The first order of business
was to try to confirm something

that Dave Brunyer had told us.

We put him in the back
of my patrol car

and covering him up
with a blanket

because he didn't want
to be seen by anybody

that he might be
the informant.

And we drove up Lake Canyon.

Now,
I'll never forget.

We got out of the vehicle...

and walked just a matter
of maybe four or five steps
and right there

in kind of a driveway
pull-out area,

hard-packed bare ground...

there was a femur ball

attached to a piece of femur
bone just laying there.

And I had enough knowledge
to recognize that as a part
of the human anatomy.

We'd noticed a chipmunk
nibbling on something

which looked like
it was nibbling on the,

the flesh of the...
of the leg.

We found about
80 pieces of body parts.

This was the real McCoy.

I remember
going up to Lake Canyon area
to talk to the sheriff,

and there was a long line
of cars,

people curious about
what was going on.

So, news spread quickly.

And they told me,
"We have found parts
of two bodies."

The immediate fear was that

one of them could be
John Pinder's ex-wife,
Beverly.

The deputies
pointed out to us
on that hillside

that there was a leg there.

We had a pair
of binoculars
and you could tell,

the leg was laying there
with the sock still on.

- Striped gym sock.
- Right.

We knew
we had three people to locate.

Beverly, Rex, and June.

And Beverly is the only person
turned out to be alive.

Uncle Milt called, says,
"I need you to come out
to the house.

I need to talk to you."

I said, "Okay, let me get
the boys ready

and we'll be there."

He says, "No, don't bring
the boys."

He said, "Lori can come,
but don't bring the boys.

I just need
to talk to you."

I'm like, "Baby, what do you
think's going on?" you know?

What... "I wonder what Milton
needs to talk to us about
that the kids couldn't come."

Glen looked at me and he said,

"My dad's hurt or he's dead."

Filo was a ranch hand
that worked
at the Pinder Ranch with John.

He was his right hand man.

We had heard rumors

that he may
have been associated

with the Sinaloa cartel
from Mexico.

So we decided to give Filo
an interview.

And of course,
he didn't want to talk to us,

but we knew he was Catholic,

and so we hung a picture
of the Savior on the wall.

And we sit Filo in there

looking at the picture
of the Savior

and the little statues
of Jesus.

After sitting there
for 30 minutes
looking at the Savior,

when we went back in, he was
sobbing like a baby, crying.

And he talked.

What happened then?

And then he... he just
kind of just started
telling the story.

Do you remember
the Sunday night that,

that you guys went to Rex
and June's house?

Mm-hmm.

- Do you remember
that night?
- Sí.

Could you tell us about that?

What happened then?

Who said
we need to talk to you?

As we talked to Filo,

he said that John was paranoid

about Rex and June

taking money out
of the lion account.

Basically, the fund
was for buying the food,

doing things like that
for the lion.

So they killed them
on a Sunday night
and blowed 'em up.

But we thought
maybe he was lying,

trying to put the blame
on somebody else.

We'd heard rumors
that Filo was working
for a Mexican cartel...

and perhaps him and John
had had a falling out
over a drug deal.

They took the bodies...

and they piled them
on top of each other...

and blew them up.

My husband went off
the deep end.

I went to a dark place.

A very dark place.

It was a rough time.

Extremely rough time.

There is no forgiveness
in my heart.

Filomeno immediately
pointed the finger at John.

But John is nowhere
to be found.

He has disappeared.

When we started
looking for John,

we were told
by the ranch hands

maybe he was going to head
for the Mexican border.

Right off the bat
we thought, well,

these people are all scared...

of what John might do
if they talk.

There were employees
at the ranch
that would tell us,

"Well, you know,
he was here a few days ago

and then he left
and he left with a woman
named Barbara DeHart."

John met Barbara DeHart
in Idaho.

She was a married woman,

but she decided
to leave her husband

and she and John
became an item.

As far as the search
for John Pinder was going,

by now there are warrants
for his arrest
for double homicide.

We believed he was
in a blue Dodge pickup truck

because it wasn't
at the ranch.

That's the truck
he usually drove.

But we were not having
a lot of luck.

Until we got notified
by a Salt Lake City
news station,

KSL News reporter contacted me

and said that he had just
done an on camera interview
with John Pinder...

and that Barbara DeHart
was there.

And I... I was just...

stunned.

What is it
that's going on?

They're calling it
a heinous double murder.

We have two people
that they're saying

were blown up
and all this other stuff.

- Mm-hmm.
- They're saying

that they would at least like
to talk to you.

So you tell me
what's going on?

Well, let me start
right there.

They'd like to talk
to me. I'd...

be more than glad to go in
and talk to them

if I felt comfortable
with circumstances, uh...

concerning my life.

We are both afraid
of our lives right now.

He was aware
that he was a suspect
and stopped in

to basically claim
his innocence.

And that's why I'm here
is to try to protect myself

and let the public know
what's going on
with our system

and it is wrong.

We have bad, bad people
in there

that are supposedly supposed
to be protecting us

and I am one
of the very few that

will take the initiative,
step forward

and call [bleep] on it.

Despite what he was saying,

we knew John was behind it.

What we didn't know
is why he'd done it.

Barbara DeHart
and John went
on the run together.

Instead of being afraid of him

or ashamed
of what had happened,
she was in awe.

"Wow! Look at the guy
I'm with," you know?

And she even referred
to the two of them
as Bonnie and Clyde.

We had no idea
of what they were capable
of doing next.

Because of the media,
it was big news at the time.

We got contacted ultimately
by Barbara DeHart's
daughter, Melissa.

We had arranged to meet
with Melissa

to take a statement about
what her mother had told her.

And I... I will never
forget this as long as I live.

While we're preparing
to meet with Melissa

to take her statement,

Barbara DeHart showed up
at the house.

Now, what do you do?

We knew that Barbara DeHart

was an associate
of John Pinder's,

but we didn't know
if she had any complicity

in this crime
or not at that time.

Didn't want to tip our hand
right at that time.

So literally, we hid
in the bathroom.

And I... I remember
being so scared,
like, what the hell?

And sure enough,

we heard her tell Melissa
she had to use the bathroom.

And she's walking
to the bathroom

and Melissa just
said something

to the effect,
"Oh, it doesn't work.

You have to go to the store"
or something like that.

And she left and we got...
we got out of there.

The reason we couldn't really
take action is

we don't have
law enforcement authority
in the state of Idaho

and we didn't want her
to know we were up there
looking into her

with the fear she would
destroy or hide more evidence.

John Pinder was placed
on America's Most Wanted

while we were looking for him.

They had me
do an interview with them,

but they wanted you
to break down and bawl

and show your emotions,

which I'm worse now
than I was back then.

There was still no word
on where he is

until one day we got word
through his attorneys

that he had arranged
to surrender himself

at our neighboring county's
Sheriff's Office.

He did very much try
to blame everything
on an out of control Filo,

who was there trying
to take over his ranch.

His constant defense
was, "I was framed."

"Well, yeah, I did some of it,

but I only did it
because I feared for my life."

And that Filomeno was a member
of this Mexican mafia,

that he was to be feared.

And June and Rex were murdered

because they had dared
to steal money from Filomeno.

That type of behavior
is vintage John Pinder,

above reproach just
because he says he is.

You know, ignore my actions,
believe what I'm telling you

because that's the way
it is type person.

That's why we had
a lot of trouble
believing his story.

The evidence started
to point to John.

When we went down
to the ranch...

it was full of dynamite
and ammonium nitrate.

They have their det cord
and all of the makings
of an explosive device.

That's what they used
to blow them up with.

Pinders actually
have property

that adjoin me right here
on the Strawberry River.

John liked to blow things up.

Evidently, he was trained
in mining or something,

and so he always
had dynamite and stuff
there all of the time.

He used to shoot
and blast the hills
and things.

He blew a tank up one time,
a big old steel tank,

scattered it
all over the country

and it was pretty
common knowledge

that everybody knew he liked
to blow things up.

He loved dynamite.

That was the way John was.

John told me that
he could vaporize someone...

with dynamite and there
would be nothing left to find.

He dug his big tunnels
back in the hills up there
behind their house.

There's two great big caves,

probably 15, 20 feet high

and 30 feet deep,
back in just solid rock.

And they dynamited it all out
and cleaned it out.

What was John wearing
at the time?

Do you remember?

Okay.

So when you went to the lake,
he had the jacket on.

By pieces of dynamite
hanging on a post,

we found
the American flag jacket

that John was wearing
the night that
the homicide happened.

But one thing became a fairly
crucial piece of evidence.

John Pinder and Barbara DeHart
showed up

at the KSL Television Studios
in Salt Lake City.

The defendant, Pinder,
said he wanted to set
the record straight.

After the taping
of the interview

and as they were getting
ready to drive away,

he rolled down the window,

the cameraman was still there.

And Mrs. DeHart leaned over,
looked out.

He was with me
all night that night.

Isn't that interesting?

How could she have known
what night

unless the killer told her?

Why did John Pinder do
what he did?

I think this is where you want
to hear the rest of the story.

John looked like
a businessman in court.

He looked calm
and self-assured.

One of the court dates
early on,

I remember John turning around
to Rex Tanner's brother

and mouthing to him,

"I didn't do it."

I knew he was guilty
and he tried to convince me

he wasn't guilty.

And I told him,
"You're a liar.
You're a liar."

And he just kept and I finally
said, "You're a [bleep] liar,"

in the courtroom
and of course,

nobody said anything.

I went
to the trial every day
because it felt right.

I felt like I owed it to dad.

But I just remember
John sitting there.

He acted like
there was nothing wrong.

Laughing and joking.

He's a smug[bleep].

He just thought
he could get away
with anything.

That's just the kind
of person he was.

He acted like
he was untouchable.

He would turn around
and look at...

look at the family
and just have this...

grin on his face.

All rise.

It became clear that Pinder's
defense was going to be,

I didn't do it
because someone else did

and that someone else
was Filo Ruiz.

John Pinder had ruled

his little portion
of Duchesne County
with an iron fist,

and Filo Ruiz was
his enforcer.

So it wasn't a surprise
to the jury
throughout the trial

that it was at John's behest

that Filo had done
any of these things.

The ultimate question
of why Rex and June

were killed was resolved
by the fact

that John simply
did not like them very much
and he was John Pinder.

He was the king
of the Pinder Ranch.

He also was in the process
of becoming divorced

from his wife, Beverly,
and it was not
a harmonious split.

John did not necessarily
want to give Beverly
a fair shake in the divorce,

and anyone who sided
with Beverly

would likely also be
on John's list
of unpopular people...

and that included June Flood.

John Pinder believed
that June had stolen documents

pertaining to his divorce
from Beverly,

and those documents would
cause him to lose the ranch.

And whether or not he thought
that Rex had a part in that.

In John's mind,
everybody was out to get John,

so he wanted both of them.

John and Filo burst
into Rex and June's house

and used a baseball bat
to break Rex's femur.

And then bashed June
in the mouth.

It was kind of
a violent home invasion

and they beat 'em
and tortured 'em in the house.

Took 'em from the Ivy House
to Lake Canyon.

They get them out
and then executes them both.

And then their bodies
were blown up.

The verdict in the trial
came back

John was found guilty
on all charges.

We were satisfied that
justice had been done.

Rex and June's death
had been vindicated.

Filo Ruiz had pled
guilty to murder.

He did serve
a prison sentence.

He was deported
back to Mexico.

John Pinder was convicted.

His ultimate sentence
was life in prison

with the possibility
of parole.

And 22 years later,
he remains in prison.

That's Rex and his grandkids,
it looks like.

There was a lot
of emotional damage
caused from all of it.

All these years later,

it's still very emotional
and very hard
for all of us to...

um, put it all behind us.

I have nothing
to say to John Pinder.

I was raised an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth.

I still feel the same,
but they assured me
he'll never get out.

As long as they keep him
where he's at, I won't
have to do my job.

I have been thinking
about scattering my dad's
ashes for a very long time.

He doesn't deserve
to be pinned up in a box.

Did you bring your drop
shot of whiskey for him?

Yep. I got his whiskey.

I can't do it.

Tell him goodbye, baby.

He took my dad from me.

He took my friend.

You've got
to stay right here.

It's okay.

- Bye, dad.
- Bye, dad.