11x03 - I Will Always Be Scared Of Him

[bunniefuu]

David scares me.

And I know he likes the fact
that he scares me.

When I think of David,
I think of hate,

and he definitely hated me,
and there's nobody that ever

convinced me differently.

I will always be scared of David
as long as he's alive.

I can tell you that I've never
met a child as evil as David.

What went wrong
in this guy's head?

Why is my brother
sitting in jail right now

for effectively the rest
of his life?

When I look back
at David's life now,

David strikes me as just
somebody who

was just born into
this world angry.

When I first told
people that there's something

seriously wrong with him,
and he needs help,

he's gonna end up k*lling
somebody someday,

some people thought I was crazy.

I feel that I can shed
some light on

what David's about.

That is Del in his uniform
taken at

the Alliance Police Department.

From the looks of it,

I would say it's probably...

in the '90s.

The first time I met him,

it was the first week of March
in 1978,

and I was starting to work at
the court clerk's office.

He was extremely charming,

okay, very personable,

had a great smile,

and I just found him
very attractive.

And then, as I got to know him,

he was a very big romantic.

Since we worked
in the same building,

he would show up with gifts
and flowers frequently.

After we've been going out for
probably a month,

he asked me if I wanted to
meet his children.

At that time in my life,
I was 30 years old.

I had recently been divorced,
and I had two small children.

He had been divorced
for a couple of years.

His wife had left him
and the three kids with him.

Everyone!
Come say hello!

We went in, and he
introduced me to all of them.

- This is Deborah.
- Hello.

Here's a little girl
with her hair

all, you know, like, crazy,

like she hadn't combed it
in six weeks

and a smile on her face.

- It's very nice to meet you.
- Aw.

I definitely felt,
oh, poor thing,

she needs a mother.

And this is my eldest, Thom.

The first time I met Debbie,

there was just something
different about her.

She took a deep interest in
myself and my brother

and sister.

She was fun, funny,

and Debbie did not appear
to be one

of these other women
that my dad had dated.

Debbie was... and is...
A very intelligent woman.

And you must be David.

It's really nice to meet you.

David was the next one.
He's the middle child.

David.

Deborah is talking to you.

Hello.

The first time I met them,
I thought they were very cute,

you know, and they were
very friendly,

and they made a good
impression on me.

But David Shafer, he is

unlike anybody I've ever met.

I've called him a sociopath
for many years.

Something is wrong with him.

We dated probably a year
before I moved in.

I noticed that David wasn't
like the rest of the kids.

The thing that really
stuck out to me

with David was you couldn't
believe anything he said.

When Debbie moved in,
now you have to follow rules.

You come home from school,
you do your chores,

you do your homework,
you study for an hour.

And David did not take
to that very well.

There were problems.

David, what are you doing?

Watching TV.

If you ask him,
"Did you do your homework?"

He would say,
"I did it already."

"Oh, really?

Yeah, okay.
Bring it to me."

"Well, I'll do that
after dinner."

I said, "No, you can do it
right now."

Go get it.
I want to see it.

And he brought it down,
and obviously no homework,

and he lied to me.

He never even touched it.

What is this?

He would stare at
me like he didn't even see me there.

He was just looking
straight through me,

and it made me
feel uncomfortable.

You told me this was finished.

It was almost
an eerie feeling.

Sometimes goosebumps

like I'm having right now,
just talking about it.

To me, it looked like he was,
in his mind, was saying,

"I don't care what you say.
I don't care what you think.

I'm gonna do what I want."

Well, you're just gonna
have to finish it now.

Nah.

And I said, "Well, you go to
your room and finish it."

So he walked outside
and went out to play.

David, you know the rules.

I said, "No."

He would do anything

but what he was told to do,
period.

I had to take into consideration
that their mother

had left them, and I thought

David might be projecting
his anger towards his mother,

who had left, onto me.

But these other two kids
went through

the same thing he did,
and they're not doing it.

It was obviously a sign
that something was wrong.

David was going to do
what he wanted to do.

He wasn't gonna let some
new woman

just stroll in there
and start giving orders.

He wasn't gonna have it.

He was a loner
and a troublemaker.

Seemed like the only time
he was happy was

when he was tormenting somebody

or lying or manipulating.

Take, for instance,
we had a pet pig.

When he got big enough,
we were gonna butcher it.

One of the kids loved the pig.

So we didn't tell her...
We told her Mr. Pig went away.

One night, we sat down,
and we're having pork chops.

When he was thinking something
to do to hurt somebody,

you could tell in the eyes, they
almost have a sparkle in them.

She went to take a bite of
this pork chop.

He smiled.

I thought, "Oh, no."

And then he blurted it out
before I could say anything.

You want to know
what you're really eating?

He just looked at her
and laughed and said,

"You're eating Mr. Piggy."

And she said,
"No, I'm not."

That's not true!

He said,
"Oh, yes, you are."

And, of course, Del and I
couldn't deny it.

David.

She was maybe seven years old
at the time,

and she was devastated that
this pig got butchered.

She left the table crying,

and he thought
that was so funny.

What is
the matter with you?

Why would you say something
like that?

He just sat there at the table
and just laughed.

He absolutely enjoyed
that moment.

He enjoyed anything
that would upset somebody.

I would say most of
David's happiness

came from making anybody
miserable that he could.

And the older he got, and
the more this stuff happened,

the more serious
I thought the problem was.

If the other children had
misbehaved, and they got

punished, say take
the television away,

the phone away,
phone privileges,

or they get grounded,
it worked with them,

but it did not work with David.

We sought the counseling from
a pastor.

He suggested that maybe
a smack on the...

On the butt would bring
him around.

And so he made a little paddle
for him and said,

"This is particularly
for David."

But David, I don't think
anything worked.

I don't even think
spanking helped.

Of course I'm sure...
I always keep it right here.

And you really think it
was David?

If I'd get extra money,

I would hide this money
inside a sock.

Well, one day,
I was gonna go shopping,

and I go in, and no money there.

Everybody, get in here!

When I found out the money
was missing and I told.

Del, he lined up his kids
and asked where the money was.

Does anybody want to tell
me what

happened to the money in
Debbie's drawer?

No?

- No one?
- And they all said no.

They didn't know anything
about it.

And then finally, somebody
broken, and it was David,

said he... he took it.

I think you and I both know
who it was.

Yeah, it was me.
So what?

David got a beating that day.

It didn't even faze him.

He was like, "Oh, well,"
you know, it didn't matter.

He didn't cry, he didn't...
He didn't do anything.

It was like a defiant look in
his face and just saying,

"Go ahead and beat me.
I'm not gonna react."

And the more it went on,

the more intense it got, and
the more intimidating it got.

He just looks right through you.

It was shocking to me,
because I never

saw anybody look at me
that way before.

Especially a child.

When David was disciplined,
it just

seemed like he just got
more angry.

David was really defiant
towards Debbie.

I never did understand
his level of defiance

towards the simplest things.

It was intimidating,

but I didn't think of him as
a violent person at that time.

That came later.

Later on, I realized
he was a sociopath.

I just never, never imagined it.

Now I'm getting emotional.
I don't know why.

I don't know.

I guess he does terrify me.

Okay, this picture,
right after our wedding.

Everybody else
just smiling nice,

but he has to make a face.

That was the way David was.

If some stranger was
looking at this picture,

they'd just think that
David was being a clown.

I see orneriness
and his defiance.

Everybody told him to smile,
and he didn't smile.

I did not think at
that point that he would be

like he was,
that he would be a k*ller

or even that he would
be as devious

and manipulative
as he came to be.

But after the wedding, I noticed

a shift in David's behavior,
and especially towards me.

After Del and I got married,

David seemed to instigate
arguments or fights between us.

One day, it was winter,

and Del starts screaming
at me, and I'm like,

what in the world
are you upset about?

What the hell is wrong with you?

What are you talking about?

Why would you do that to him?
He's just a child.

And then he starts
to tell me this story

that David told him.

He told his dad that I locked
him out of the house

in freezing weather with no coat

and wouldn't let him in,
and he was out there for like

three hours after school.

Well, that's not true.

I don't know why he said that
to you,

but he's lying, Del.

Oh, so now my son's a liar, huh?

I had no idea
what he's talking about.

No idea.
I said there was no way

that I locked him out of
the house.

Del was angry with me
because he believed David.

He almost always believed David.

He actually got physical
with me.

It's freezing out there,
Deborah!

How dare you?

When Del would lose
his temper with me,

he would have pull my hair
or grab me or shove me up

against the wall and just,

you know, yell in my face.

You know, you've had it for
him since the second you

- got here.
- That is not true!

Del, let go of me!

Then why did I find him outside,
shivering in the cold?

I don't know, Del,
but I'm telling you,

I would never do that.

And David was just
sitting there, grinning.

He wanted me gone.

Because I was the intruder.
I was the threat.

He loved the chaos
between my dad and Debbie.

He just seemed to thrive on it.

He wanted to hear them fighting.

And so I just asked him,
I said, "Why are you doing

all this?

And his response was, "I do it
because I can do it."

Why would you tell dad
she did that?

Because I hate her,
and I want her gone.

"I want mother back.

"I don't like this
b*tch, Debbie.

I'm getting her out of here."

He was going to make sure,
one way or another,

that they weren't gonna
stay married.

I felt vulnerable every day

that David was in my home.

I would worry about what is
he gonna do next?

You know, what is the next
story gonna be?

You know, and is Del believe me,

or is he gonna believe him?

But I wasn't giving up.
I was not giving up.

He manipulated
his father into fighting

with me every chance he got.

One day, I had just
gotten home from work,

and the next thing I hear,
Del's yelling at me.

- Deb? Deb, is that you?
- Yeah, Del, I'm home.

I said,
"What is your problem?"

And he said,
"How dare you?"

And I said, "What are you
talking about?"

And he says, "You kicked David
down the basement stairs,

"and then you went down
and kicked him in the gut

and his back while
he was on the ground."

David told me
what you did to him.

I'm like, unbelievable!

I realized David was
lying to him immediately.

And I told him that.
He's lying to you again.

Not this again.

You don't really believe him,
do you?

Then how do you explain this?

He says, "Well,
how come he's got a bruise?"

And I said, "I have no clue.

But I did not touch him."

He could have fallen,
hit himself, you know,

fell down on the playground.
Who knows?

Or maybe he did this to himself.

Did you ever think about that?

Del blamed it all on me.

And, of course, I got
slapped around that day.

Del!

You never should have
touched him!

David enjoyed the fact that
his dad physically abused me.

This was about the time
that I told Del, there's...

There's something seriously
wrong with him, and he's gonna

end up k*lling somebody someday.

Del was a very, very
good detective.

He was 24 years on
the police department.

He could see through other
people and the criminals,

but he could not, for anything,

see... even see clearly,
his own son.

One day, out of the blue,
David's mother called Del

and asked if David could
come live with her.

It was one of
the happiest days of

my life, and I know that
sounds horrible,

but it was just, like, the
hugest relief off my shoulders.

Del told me what was going on
with David.

But other than that, I did not
keep in touch with David.

He was gone.
That's all I cared about.

He was gone.

We were both in our early


I moved out to Pennsylvania
in the late '80s, and the first

person I called was David.

For a while, when he moved with
my mom, he was doing well.

He was in construction.

He did roofing.

He built, um, he built decks.

I thought at the time he could
absolutely get it together.

But there was an occasion
back in, uh, 1991

where my mother and I
were in the kitchen,

we got a phone call.

Hello?

It was the police,
looking for my stepfather.

It's the police.
Get on the other phone.

They wanted to know
if he owned this

particular firearm,
and he proceeded to tell us,

yeah, David had a loaded g*n.

He did what?

He got into a disagreement
with somebody,

and he went and took one of
my stepfather's g*ns

and threatened the guy

and was arrested.

No, that's... that's impossible.

He knows better than that.

When I heard that David
had done all this,

my first thought was, "Are you
out of your freaking mind?"

To take a loaded firearm
and go after somebody?

That, to me, is...
Is just insane.

My father, being
a police officer, raised us

to use g*ns properly.

It was a huge red flag for me.

But I didn't look
at it as, you know,

any kind of pattern of
behavior developing.

I just thought,
here's my idiot brother

doing something stupid.

He spent a couple of months
in jail over that incident.

I had hoped that David
spending some time in

jail would...

Would put him back on
the right path.

It did not turn out that way.

No, his life ended up
a lot worse.

This is a picture of my brother,

myself, and Debbie's son.

It's an open house at

the police department
where my father worked.

It was taken when David was
probably 13.

I never really looked
at it a lot

until he was sentenced.

When I look at this,
I see a happy kid.

I don't see somebody
who would eventually k*ll.

It's kind of ironic now,
because here

he is in a jail cell,
make believe.

Dad would say,
"If you don't behave,

this is where you'll end up."

But David didn't behave,
and that's where he ended up.

This is his life for real.

He's in the front of
this picture smiling,

but I don't think he's got
that expression any longer.

After the g*n incident,
he had nowhere else to go,

so he ends up at my place.

He didn't go to work.
He didn't look for a job.

He mooched money off my dad.

Ever think about finding
a job, man?

Don't need to...
Dad just sent me some money.

And David expressed
this view to me

of wanting my
father's belongings.

Once he's gone,
I'll get what I'm owed.

On numerous occasions

over the years, he would say to
me, "When dad dies,

I want this firearm and this."

"I feel dad owes me
a fishing boat.

"Dad owes me hunting gear,
because he allowed Debbie to

"come in, and he allowed her

to make all
these changes in our lives."

He won't be around forever.

And I would kind of be like,
what do you mean when he dies?

"Well, you know,
everybody's gotta go sometime."

And it just would make me
wonder, like,

why would you even talk
about that, you know?

Who sits there and says...
And thinks about

when their parents
are gonna be dead

and what they're gonna
gain from it.

He doesn't get the concept
of family.

He schemed.
He plotted.

He looked around and saw
what my dad had

and thought,
"This should all be mine.

How do I get it?"

As David got older,
he hated me more.

Del and I got divorced.

I stayed at the house,
and after the divorce,

I hoped I never had to deal
with David again.

But he started calling me in
the middle of the night,

threatening me.

A couple of years after
Del and I divorced,

I was woken in the middle of
the night by the phone call.

Hello?

The voice I heard on the other
end was David's, and he said to

me that he was going to slit
my horse's throat and then

come for me next.

David, is that you?

When I first heard it,
I thought,

did I hear that right?

There was no real emotion
to his voice.

It was just the same monotone
voice that

he always used,
and the words were frightening.

So I hung up.

Now mind you,
I'm out in the country,


by myself, and there's not

a house close to me...
Terrified,

I got up, I got my g*n, and, uh,
the phone rang again.

This time,
he didn't threaten me.

He just made funny noises.

Don't call here again, David.
This isn't funny.

I didn't know where
he was calling from.

He could have been calling me
from down the street.

The heart starts pounding.
You know, you're nervous.

Actually, I got up and started
pacing and looking out windows,

you know, making sure
all the doors are locked.

He must have called 15 times
that night.

I called
the Sheriff's department,

and they said,
"We can't do anything."

I did not sleep
for a few nights.

I was here all alone,

and it was... it was very scary.

I didn't know what he was
capable of at that point.

David was arrested for
burglary charges.

He was breaking into homes
in the middle of

the night and stealing
whatever he could get

his hands on.

He was sentenced to state prison
for 6 and 1/2 to 33 years.

It's sad, but I also
looked at it like

maybe this is exactly
what he needs to get his

stuff together.

I was told by Thom
that he was charged

and convicted on 13 burglaries
and 13 receiving

stolen property.

I felt very relieved
that he was in jail

and not... not going to
bother me.

I really enjoyed the fact
when he's incarcerated,

'cause I know he's not gonna
come after me.

He's not gonna call me.

He's not gonna drive by my
house or anything like that.

He was paroled after


and he went to live with
my father.

Instead of allowing him
to go to a halfway house,

my dad stepped in and said, "No,

come home to dad.
I'm gonna take care of you."

When I heard that
David was out on parole,

and he was living in Del's
house, that I was

apprehensive about.

Uh, that meant he was close by.

I think Del's house is
maybe half an hour from mine,



I was worried about the fact
I know Del's got g*ns.

I know he's got tons of a*mo,

and, you know, there's David.

I was afraid he was going to
carry out his threats.

After we were divorced,
Del remarried.

It was on Sunday, the 14th
of January of 2018.

It was about, I don't know,


I received a text
from the 3rd wife,

and all the text said was,
"He's gone,"

with an exclamation point,
and I got the worst feeling.

The message said,
"He's gone!"

And I wrote back, "What?"
She sent another one.

She said, "Del is dead."

He was found dead in bed.
He wouldn't wake up.

I said, "Who found him?"

And she said, "David."

I was told that David
called 911.

Del was actually
taken to a funeral home.

They thought it was
natural causes.

Everybody thought it was
a natural death.

I just wrote back,
"David did it.

"I don't care what anybody says.

David k*lled him."

And she says,
"How do you know that?"

I said, "Because I know David.
He k*lled him."

This whole thing was a ruse.

"Poor me, come help me.

"Poor me, my dad's dead.

Poor me,
I had to find my dad."

What a joke he is.

I mean, it's pathetic,
the way he tried

to sound like
he was sympathetic.

But you notice the one thing
that caught my eye,

"How old is your dad?"

He was 71... in his mind,

he's gone, let's get him
out of here.

That's the way I hear it when
I hear that... that phone call.

It was a Sunday morning.

This is how I found out
my dad died.

Hello?

She said, "Well, I just wanted
to check up on you."

It made me raise an eyebrow,

and I said,
"What's going on?"

She said, "You didn't hear?"
And I said, "Hear what?"

What are you talking about?

And she said, "Your dad was
found dead this morning."

His cause of death,
as far as I knew,

was, um, he died in his sleep
of a heart attack.

I was devastated.
I just started crying.

But I really didn't have

any reason to suspect

that it was anything other
than natural causes.

It's my first time hearing it.

That doesn't sound right at all.

He doesn't sound panicked.

He doesn't sound like... there
doesn't sound like there's

any sense of urgency

or anything like
that in his voice.

Sounds staged.
That's what it sounds like.

He could be describing

a bad meal is what
it sounds like,

rather than being...
Being somebody

who's just found
their father deceased.

Yeah, I don't buy it at all.

When I called David,

and I said, "Hey, it's Thom,
how are you?

How are you holding up?"

Hey, just checking in.

And his words to me, and I...
And I quote, were,

"I suppose you're calling to
see how much money

you're getting."

And I said, "No.

I'm calling to see what the hell
happened to our father."

And he said, "Well, I don't
know what happened to him.

"I went, and I tried to wake
him up.

"He wouldn't wake up.

"But anyway, back to the money,
the will is

"in my name.

I'm the executor,
and it is non-contestable."

I was thrown to the floor
by that.

David, I don't care
about the will.

Why would you come right out
and say that to me?

Very first thing.

So that there raised
some suspicions.

I know something's not...
Something's not right.

The will stated for everything
that he owned to go to David.

His beloved son, David.

Never heard Del say that
about David.

He may have favored him in
some areas,

but never "beloved."

The other kids weren't
even mentioned.

He would never leave
everything to David,

because I know how he felt
about the other kids.

And I know he had a will

before that, because I had it
made with me.

So I can understand him getting

a new will after
we got divorced,

but this will was just made
a few months

before he passed away.

Alarm bells went off.

I just don't imagine any way
that Delbert would have signed

this new will without somebody
forcing him to do it.

Well, the next thing I know,
I have a detective on

my doorstep.

The detective that came to
visit me said,

"I understand you think David
did it, and we do, too."

What we do know
for certain is that.

Delbert's death was not from
natural causes.

David apparently had told

the funeral home to cremate
the body.

And then when the mortician
goes to prepare the body says,

"Wait a minute.
This is not a natural death.

This man's been beaten."

According to our ME's report,

it was a very violent death.

And that's when he called
the coroner.

The coroner came and said,
"It's a homicide."

Then the police got involved.

They said he suffered greatly.

No less than six strikes to
the face.

Two strikes to the back of
his head.

He had six broken ribs.

He had a fractured sternum.

After he beat him,

he put him on this couch, and
then he waited until he died,

which was hours, I guess.

When he was finally dead,
he went to the ATM

and took $500 out of

his dad's account
and then called the EMTs.

It was like somebody
hit me with a brick.

I told the detective
that came to

visit me that... please find
justice for Del.

I received a copy of my
father's death certificate in

the mail.

After reading that, I felt like
I'd been punched in the stomach,

and then at the very bottom,
it says cause of death,

and I can... homicide.

And I... I lost it.

David was the only one there.

The only one.

That little son of b*tch
k*lled my dad.

I confronted him
over the phone.

When I asked him point blank,
"What did you do to our father?"

He told me to shut the F up
and never bring it up again.

I was greeted with a responsive,

"Don't you ever effing talk to
me about that again.

"That is a forbidden subject.

Don't you ever call
or talk to me again."

Now, an innocent man says, "I
didn't do anything to my dad.

I don't know what happened to
dad, Thom."

A guilty man says, "Don't you
ever bring that up again."

Then I knew he did it.

It was clear as day.

The little son of a b*tch
k*lled my dad.

I wanted him to feel
what my father felt.

Yeah, I wanted him to know
what it was like.

I want to find him, and I want

to just choke the life out
of him.

I had my keys, and I wanted
to get out of the apartment,

and my girlfriend said, "No,
because if you do something

"to him,
you're no better than him.

Let the courts handle it."

And that's all I could do.

This is David's mug shot
from prison.

This is after he was convicted
and sentenced.

When I look at this photo,
I see the evil in his eyes.

This picture reminds me
of his stare

that he stares at me mostly.

This time he's not smirking,
because he's on his way

to prison.

I don't ever want to see him
look at me again,

and I don't ever want to
see him again.

This is a guy that I'm
ashamed to say I'm related to.

I see a guy

who was sorry
that he got caught,

and I think he's angry at that.

I don't think he's angry
about k*lling my dad.

I think he's angry
that he's gonna have to

spend the rest of his life
in a jail cell.

He still calls

what happened to my dad
an awful, tragic accident.

This guy beat
my father to death.

That's the cold, awful reality.

The amount of time
he received for

this crime doesn't
sit well with me.

The sentence that I thought
would have been

appropriate for him would have
been life in prison.

If David ever
got out of prison, I...

I think Debbie should have
her head on a swivel.

When it comes to Debbie,

I don't think David
has ever forgiven her for

anything that he perceives was
done wrong to him.

I will always be scared
of David as long as he's alive.

I don't know why
he's got it out for me.

The only thing I can think of
is because I tried to bring

structure and discipline to
his life, and he's never

forgiven me for that.

You know, I said David
would be a k*ller,

but I never dreamed
it would be his dad.