Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay and choo-choo. Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petrogallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another wild, crazy adventure.
that we like to call Small Town Murder Express. Ten pounds of murder in a two-pound bag is how we like to put it, because it's a lot, and we're going to cram it into an hour, and we have a wild story for you this week, as always. Before we get to that, definitely head over to ShutUpAndGiveMeMurder.com and get your tickets for live shows. Also, merch is all over the place, too. Everything from coffee cups to skateboards. But you definitely want to get your tickets. Let's see, May 1st, Salt Lake City, that's sold out. But Denver, May 2nd, tickets left for that one still. And Buffalo on May 29th also sold out. But Royal Oak, Michigan on May 30th, you can do that. And we're going to drive it. Just outside of Detroit. Yeah, even if you're in Buffalo and you want to go and it's sold out, go to Detroit. We're driving it.
We'll caravan it. Let's go. Get in the trunk. Get in the trunk. We got backseat room. So do that and come see us. That is shutupandgivememurder.com. Definitely get yourself some Patreon. That's the thing here. Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all of the bonus material. And there's a lot of it. As soon as you subscribe, you're going to get hundreds of back bonus episodes you've never heard before. So that's a whole thing to binge on its own.
Then you get new ones every other week. One crime and sports, one small town murder, and you get it. How much do they get? Every damn bit of it. All of it. That's right. So this week, what you're going to get for crime and sports, we're going to talk about the craziest names in sports history, which sounds weird, but it's going to be fun. Legal names. Legal or whatever they're called. Yeah. And not just a nickname, but yeah, something that's weird names and things like that. Little bios. It's going to be fun. And then for small town murder, we're going to talk about Stockholm syndrome, not the actual.
Syndrome, which is, you know, you start to identify with your captors if you're held hostage or something. But the incident that made the term Stockholm Syndrome, it's the craziest story ever. So I can't wait to get into that. So that is Patreon.com slash Crime in Sports. So get in there. You also get everything that we put out, all the shows, all ad-free with your Patreon as well. Crime in Sports, your stupid opinions, both small-town murders. And you get a shout-out at the end of the regular show, too. Jimmy will mess your name all up for you. Don't you worry about that one bit. That said, I think it's time, everybody. What do you say? I think it's time to sit back. Let's clear the lungs here. Arms to the sky. And let's all shout.
Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody. Okay. Let's go on a trip, shall we? I'm over here punching my mic, doing a good job with that. I got a little carried away with the shut up and give me murder. I got carried away. You know, I get into it, man. Let's go on a trip. It's part of it, yeah. Let's go to New York, everybody. Let's do it. We're going way out in western New York here.
This is Pembroke, New York. P-E-M-B-R-O-K-E. Pembroke, New York. Or Pembroke. Way out in... I don't think it's Pembroke. Yeah. No, this isn't West Virginia. Just make that O&I. We're not doing that. It's Pembroke. They do Pembroke, right? Pembroke and Pembroke and Pembroke. I'm sure there's... Who gives a shit? All over the place. This is in Western New York. It's about 35 minutes outside of Buffalo. Yeah. About two hours to Syracuse, if you want to be hip-deep in snow. And then eight hours to our last...
New York episode. It's pretty much as far as you can get. It was in East Hampton, which is at the far end of Long Island, and this is Western New York. So an eight-hour drive to East Hampton, New York, episode 643, The Electrician Executioner, which was a bunch of dead people in that one. That was a crazy episode. I remember that. That was a full length, and it was wild. This is in Genesee County. Area code 585. Population here, not a big place, 4261. So pretty small town there. Near the river, then, yeah? Near the river? Genesee River? I'm sure there's so much water up here, because you're outside of Lake Erie. There's a lot of lakes and a lot of rivers and streams.
Genesee, there's a lot of Genesee stuff. That's a person, right? Yeah, I think so. Pennsylvania has a lot of Genesee stuff, too. There's that Genesee beer. That area is where the person was at. Probably. It had to be. Probably a mayor. It's probably worked for the railroad, as we find out, most of the time. The median household income here, $73,917. So it's just above the national average. But the median home cost, very low. People think of New York, and they think of the whole place as New York City. Oh, no, no, no. Basically, there's from me down, and then there is the rest of New York, which is enormous.
And what you just said, it's eight hours from this place to Long Island. It's a big state. And there's still further west to go through New York. New York is a very big state. People don't know it. It's a big state. Median home cost here, $193,800. So people think New York is expensive and all that. Not in the middle of nowhere. You can go to central New York. You can get a mansion for $200,000. My aunt has a home near the Canadian border in New York. She has acres upon acres of land. And it's not worth $300,000. No, that's what I mean. And there's a house on it. Yeah, that's how it is. It's up there. There's a lot of land to go. Forever.
history of this town, Pembroke. It was known as Ohage, Ohage, which means on the road. That's what the Indians called it, apparently. It was settled in 1804 by David Goss. Okay. It was established originally as part of the town of Batavia, which has been separated from them. It was set off from the town in 1812 and had, it was like part in the town of Darien and part in the town of Alabama, which they have the town of Alabama up here and the town of Oakland. They really need to come up with some, some new, a little more unique. Maybe it's just the West and South got to get more unique. It was probably here first, right? Maybe. I'm not sure. But either way, once there's a state, we go, come on, what are we doing here? So, uh, yeah. So there's a bunch of little towns here and that's kind of how it works. I got reviews of this town cause we've never been here.
I don't know anything about this place. So here's four stars or has four stars total on niche. That's its rating. Here's a five star. I love how much country there is. Right. I don't know if they mean around here or just in general. Music or. Sounds like Borat came here and saw wide open space and goes, I love how much country there is. Look, it's beautiful. Look at the beautiful country. There's a lot of open fields for riding wheelers and snowmobiles.
Get your wheelers out, everybody. Hell yeah. Man after my own heart. Let's go Hillville. Having some fun. It's in the snow, though, usually. I'd love to snowmobile. That sounds awesome. Oh, it's fun. Fun shit. Snow is fun to fuck around now. Everyone in town knows you, and you're always welcomed by the people in the town. I like how small the school is because there's more one-on-one between teachers and students. That's not good these days. That's going to be... We need 30 kids in the classroom as witnesses. You know what I mean? More eyes. In case something happens. More eyes makes the trial easier. Yeah, it's much easier with more witnesses. This is a flea bargain. Yeah, you figure 20 of the kids will be on their phones. They're not going to see any diddling going on.
That still leaves 20 more eyes. You never know. Here's four stars. When I choose my heaven, my hometown would be the place with all the people I met and lived with there. What the fuck? They are happy now. They could die happy as long as they could stay here. That's wild. If I could choose my heaven, this is it? This is it. The coffee shop, the same assholes I went to high school with. That's my heaven. Wow. Okay. Here's three stars. Well, there isn't much crime in violence. I think he means and probably. And violence in my area, such as the occasional DUI and speeding tickets. That's not really much crime. However.
There was a man who shot at firefighters responding to a house fire, but that was probably the worst crime that was committed that I can recall at the moment. That's a pretty horrific crime. That sounds terrible. Yeah, they come to, you start shooting at them, that's awful. I mean, that's the worst. Yeah, that is the worst. That's terrible. It's pretty bad. It's pretty goddamn bad. Shooting at first responders? Jesus Christ. Did you set the fire, too, to draw them in? That's even better. That makes it worse. Was it to kill the firemen or to stop them from discovering what you've lit a fire? Yeah, is there a corpse in there, a meth lab or something? Things to do, the Kiwanis Club Car Cruise and Fall Festival.
Yeah. In all my 45 years, I still haven't figured out what the fuck the Kiwanis Club is. I have no idea. I just remember Hunter Thompson used to joke about him all the time. And people would say, like, are you this or you that? He'd go, hey, man, don't look at me. I'm Kiwanis. And they'd go, oh, because no one knows what that is. Nobody has a fucking clue. Yeah, people would say all this stuff. He'd go, don't play me, man. I'm Kiwanis. And people would go.
Okay, and then they'd stop talking to him. Leave him alone. The man's going on. He's going on. He's crazy. Not a lot going on there. Last year, we had a little over 500 vehicles and filled 96 vendor spaces. It's $100. Rain or shine, by the way. Take your car out there. Then there's the Oakland Labor Days, D-A-Z-E, of course. $100 to enter your car or to participate? Food vendor space. The boots are, and then there's boots for $25. The Oakland Labor Days is a family-friendly music festival with many fun-filled, alcohol-free events. Oh, that sounds awful. How do you have fun?
How do the adults have fun? Jesus Christ. Well, that's why. They have live music, food vendors, children's activities, community worship service. Yeah. 5K race, car cruise, parade, firework show. Let's see what we have here. We have a band called the Skycats will be there. Skycats, I think this is a Christian thing. Hazard County will be there. Wonder what they play. Shocking there. The Dave Veteran Music Group, the Christian Music Hour at 9 a.m. Imagine being woken up and dragged to a park to listen to Christian music at 9 a.m. No.
Fucking like a nightmare. The Songbirds, the Russ Peters Group, which sounds like an investment business. Invest with the Russ Peters Group. Solid investments for your future. I don't know. And then there's Russell Peters, the comedian, of course. Dark Horse Run. Nerds Gone Wild will be there. Yeah. I'm going to show you their trombone. I'm going to show you my slide. The Batavia Swing Band. The Public Water Supply.
What? That's a band name? That's a bad name because they play both nights. Public Water Supply. I was like, what do they have? Like a speech from the water guy? No, it's just the utility guys that all work together and put together a band. And they have like a two-hour set. So I'm like, that's got to be music. And then the Floyd Concept Basket and Raffle. Oh, the Floyd Concept. That's, I assume, a pink Floyd cover band. And then the Basket and Raffle drawings when I had the word running together. Floyd Experience Basket Raffle. That's what you're doing. That's a great band. It's my favorite band. But you know what? With a...
Small town festival, you never know. Who knows? It might be the flag concept basket and raffle drawing band. We've heard weirder names. That's the thing. Yeah. Oh, man, that's hilarious. So that said, let's talk about some murder. What do you say here? We got some wild stuff. Okay. Got to give credit, by the way, to the Batavia Daily News, which is obviously a newspaper online deal there because they covered this very, very well, which is understandable why they would want to because it's crazy stuff, man. Okay. Let's start out and talk about a guy here. All right. We're going to start out in 2009, so not too far back here. Basically, everything's the same except you don't have Instagram. That's about it.
So we got, I guess we, yeah, we didn't do it. No, still got an iPhone in your hand still or whatever. Android still, you know, same shit. Uh, Scott Franklin doll. We're going to talk about D O L doll. Oh, um, he's 46 years old in 2009. He grew up in the, and lived in the village of Corfu.
C-O-R-F-U, which I've never heard of. C-O-R-F-U, bitch. No F-U. That definitely sounds like a code. Yeah. Shit. It's a really small place, less than 1,000 people, all that kind of shit. Okay. His family has run a grocery store there for 40 years. Nice. So everybody knows them. They're the town grocery store in a town of less than 1,000 people. That's called the Dolls Super Duper. That's what it's called, the grocery store. He's a volunteer firefighter when he grows up. He attends the same church his entire life. Everybody says he is.
reliable. He's a real Corfu. Everybody knows who he is, what he's going to do, where he goes. On Sunday, you can look over. Scott Dahl's going to be over. That's his spot. He's there every damn week. You know what I mean? There's a fire. He's going to have his little uniform on there. He becomes a corrections officer.
Really? A lot of these western and central and all over New York towns, that's the only work around there. That's the big work, huh? That's the work. Yeah, if you want to make anything, I mean, you know, 40 grand a year back in the day or whatever and have benefits and stuff, that's the job. It's either that or who knows around there. Run your parents' grocery store. It's difficult. And the way the system works, too, some of the people that, like, are up there, then they get, like, stationed somewhere else. Oh, they get transferred, huh? Yeah, you don't necessarily, when you become a prison guard in New York or whatever corrections officer, you don't necessarily, you don't work where you are.
You can be moved. You can be moved. They'll just send you around like you're in the army, which is crazy. And you have no choice. They just say you're going to go to Pennsylvania. Well, no, no, New York. You're going to Sing Sing now. So you could be going seven hours away from where you live, which is brutal. It's only New York. I don't know. I think it's my state. I'm sure other states have it in a similar way, but I'm not sure. Because in New York, the corrections officers are technically the same as police officers. Oh, okay. Yeah, like off-duty, they can make arrests and shit. Oh. Yeah. It's interesting. They're supposed to carry a gun and all that crap. Sworn and everything. Yeah. I think California is like that, too, because you've got to be a prison guard before you become a sheriff. You have to be a...
CO before you're a sheriff. That's wild. To be able to be a cop, you have to go through that, which just makes you think everyone's a criminal since you were in a place where everyone's a criminal. Then you get out on the street and treat everybody like you did in prison. Really not the best plan, I don't think. It's a fascinating plan. It's a weird plan. So way off of that, he becomes a corrections officer and he does that for almost 25 years, as we'll talk about here. Imagine you just want to give speeding tickets and then you get shanked in the fucking throat. That's fucked up, man. To do that, you got to do that, I guess. It seems odd, but those seem like very separate skill sets. It's a weird through line. Dealing with people on the outside and dealing with people who are in there already is definitely way different. So he was the supervisor in the special...
needs unit at the wendy correctional facility in erie county which is a maximum security prison that houses inmates with iqs of 90 or below oh boy so i just saw jimmy doing math and going jesus that's not good i'm real close because you're always saying it's the only reason why i brought it up it's not great you just went oh shit that's bad i don't want to be a special deal with a bunch of me they can't read all day jesus christ it's bad enough to be in prison but it's like you're not only can you not be in society but even in prison you need a little extra thank you down you need a little extra help in prison Amongst a smaller group of people. That's tough. That you can carry on conversations. That's tough, man. That's a tough road for a criminal. Tough road to hoe, babe. That is. So by 2009, he's earning $75,000 a year in salary from the New York State Department of Corrections. He's also doing the volunteer firefighting. And he also started a business where him and a partner buy cars at auction and sell them. We'll use car business as well. Yeah. We'll cash on the side. So early 2009.
He is three months away from his 25th anniversary in service with the corrections department there, which makes him eligible for full retirement benefits at that point. Dude, started at 21. That's incredible. So he's 46 now and he's ready to do that. He's also in a shitload of debt. Well, not a shitload, but a shitload for him. I mean, compared to some people, but he's in about $28,000 of debt. That's great.
Isn't bad, but in 2009, and if you're making 75 grand a year, that's still, you're chipping away at that. That's not, you can't just pay that off. Unsecured though, it's not easy. No, and a lot of it's from his divorce too. He's got like debts from the divorce and shit like that. So, you know, that doesn't make him happy. His side business is called SF Enterprises. Enterprises with a Z, of course.
Hell yeah. It's 2009. We're down, man. It's 2009, but he thinks it's 95. So he's like, yeah, with a Z, man. Still wearing lugs with a Z. So they know we got an edge. You know what I'm saying? That's what it is. So they operate that out of three Corfu Plaza. That's the business address there. They purchase used cars at the Odessa, Odessa, whatever it is, Odessa auction in Clarence. And then they fix them up and they sell them locally. His friend that he runs it with is an old friend from the Wyoming Correctional Facility, which is in New York, obviously. A guy named, obviously.
A guy named Joseph Benequist is his business partner. And he's 66 in 2009, 20 years older. But they've known each other through work. He's a corrections officer, too. He's retired now, Benequist, but that's what he did. So he retired from the work. They both were at the Wyoming Correctional Facility when they became friends in the mid-90s, you know, when Z's were cool. And they worked the same shift. So they became buddies and they had coffee in the morning and ate lunch together and talked as they walked out at the end of their shift and all that kind of shit. You know, work friends. Pals, yeah. Pals. Now, Joseph lives.
Benequist here, he kind of lives out kind of in the middle of nowhere a little bit. Yeah, on a road called Knapp Road, and his nearest neighbor is at least 100 yards away. Nice. So, I mean, not middle of nowhere, middle of nowhere, but definitely not. You're not hearing shit from your neighbors. That's a football field away. It's a pretty good distance. Now, he has many kids. Let's see, one, two, three, four kids. Looks like three daughters and a son. Benequist? Yeah, Benequist does. He's got a couple of stepfathers. He's got nine grandchildren by 2009. Wow. So, yeah, he's pumping them out here.
January 26th, 2009 is the Corfu Republican caucus. Now, trust me, there's nothing to do with politics here. It's just that's what happens. Not a contentious one up there in Corfu. I mean, we're talking about a very few people. This is 2009. Well, this is the caucus for mayor, not for anything national. Yeah. So this is the mayoral caucus, the local caucus, the mayoral caucus. And they endorse Scott Dahl to run for mayor.
How about that? Yeah, he's a firefighter corrections officer. His family is well-known. Everyone in town knows him since he was a little kid. Public servant his whole life, James. Yeah, he's a well-known guy around the village, so he's got a good shot here. He has no prior government experience and had recently moved back to the village from other places. No prior. He was it. He's the guy, though. Take the top dog job as a first foray. In a town of 800 people. I guess that's not so bad. Yeah, that's not bad. Not very. I mean, people run eBay businesses that are bigger than that. You know what I mean? It's not that difficult.
So early 2009, Joseph Benequist buys a car here. He buys a Pontiac G6. Oh, yeah. Have you ever seen that? Yeah, that's a good car. Whoa, not this one. No? No, look up a 2006 Pontiac G6. It's not good. Is it different from... I mean, they don't make it anymore. There's a good reason. Pontiac G6 was like the... They don't make Pontiacs anymore. Did Pontiac quit? Like 15 years ago. Yeah, it's been a long time. Long time Pontiac. The G6 was like the answer to the GTO. No, I guess it's not. I guess it's the small GTO. Yeah, it's not cool. Oh, the G8 is the cool one. Yeah, G6. All right, the G6. Yeah, it's just... I mean, it's like a Mazda 6. It's just a little family car. It's a little car. It's probably good on gas.
Yeah, yeah. So he and Joseph buys this at the Odessa auction for personal use. Not to sell. He pays $10,000 toward a $13,300 purchase price. Now, the way it works is it's from the company that he's paying the money because they have the account to pay the thing. So that's what he's supposed to do. But apparently, Scott Dahl never forwarded the $10,000 to the financing company like he's supposed to. So it just didn't go there for some reason. We're not sure why he didn't do that, but he didn't pay them for it, which is odd because that's where they get all their cars. So they have to stay on good terms with those people. So it's strange. Now, February 16th, 2009.
Benequist here. Now, he's fixing this car up a bit, too, so he's put some money into it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's got a flat tire on the old G6 that night. Oh, boy. Not good. So, apparently, he has a bunch of cars in his driveway, Benequist. There's a Nissan Altima also. So, he goes home to get the jack from the Nissan Altima to change the tire. The G6 doesn't have a jack in it. Doesn't have a jack, or he doesn't have one either, right. So, apparently, Joseph Benequist and Josh Dahl, who is Scott's son, take the G6. They were going to take the G6.
to the Odessa auction that night. I don't know if he's going to sell it or what, or if he's going to drive it there. I think he's just driving it there. But the jack that he went to get from the Altima turned out to be broken. God damn it, what a night. All these cars broken to jack, flat tire. Very annoying. So late afternoon, early evening, Josh Dahl and Benequist don't end up at the auction as they were supposed to. They were supposed to go there. Scott Dahl says he was trying to reach them but couldn't get a hold of them.
Also to see what was going on. So apparently what he says, Scott Dahl's driving his mother's Ford Windstar minivan. Hot ride. It keeps getting worse. If you buy and sell cars, you can't have a better car than that lying around you could drive. You got to borrow mom's Windstar. I got to be honest. A G6, a Windstar, an Altima. An Altima that has a bad jack. This is a terrible group of cars these people have. If the jack's broken, think about the rest of the fucking automotive reliability of this thing. No shit, man. He's driving a Windstar. They don't like that either anymore. Probably not. They don't. I wouldn't think so.
I don't see a lot of minivans out there. No, the minivan market really shit the bed, didn't it? Just changing the crossovers, that's all. Well, I mean, you've got the Odysseys and the Siennas of the Toyotas and the Hondas, but SUVs of various sizes. I think the Quest is what did it. The Nissan Quest. Fucked the whole market. Well, they became a punchline for so long. Yeah. And they tried to make it cool with that dumb commercial with the swagger wagon shit. And being a dad is not fucking cool. I think the Pontiac Aztec killed the minivans. It just said, okay, this is the best idea. We were out of ideas with the minivans. Scratch it. That's the start of the crossovers. Everybody saw that and was like, oh, we could certainly do better than that, right? God awful. God awful. So apparently he is, Scott Dahl says he was going to head over to
Look for Joseph Benequist and Josh Dahl is what he's doing that night. That's what's going on in the early evening. Now, that sets the table as far as we don't really know where Joseph and Josh are. They're supposed to be at an auction, but they're not. Flat tire, broken jack. Scott Dahl's out in the Windstar looking for him. Oh, boy. So 841 p.m. this night, February 16, 2009. This is on North Lake Road in Pembroke. The Genesee County Sheriff's Dispatch receives a call reporting a suspicious person walking along North Lake Road. Yeah.
OK, the caller is a firefighter who just happened to be passing by. Luckily, no one was shooting at him. That's good. Yeah. He notices a guy and then watches the man who, by the way, is dressed entirely in camouflage and wearing a white hood.
I don't know what that is. A Klansman who blends into the... The white hood also kind of takes away from the camouflage. Look at that. I don't see anything. Wow, there's just a strange white head sitting floating above that group of bushes. Otherwise, it's just a very recognizable person floating. You don't want that either. If you're wearing camouflage, the idea is to be disappeared. I would think so. No, I don't know if this is a hoodie that he's wearing under the camouflage and has the hood on, or he's got a Klan hood. I'm not sure exactly how this works. But apparently, the firefighter watched this guy duck out of the road, turn away, and crouch between two parked cars to hide when this firefighter slowed down to take a look at him.
And camouflage in a white hood, you couldn't be wearing a more suspicious outfit probably also. And then behave suspiciously on top of it. You're drawing attention to yourself. Yeah. If you just put on like a pair of Dockers and a polo shirt and walk down the street normal, the guy wouldn't have looked at you twice. He wouldn't even have slowed down. He wouldn't even have noticed you. He would have just blended into the side. You would have looked like a fire hydrant at that point. But instead, you're like, let me get the most conspicuous outfit ever and then act real weird when anybody sees me. I wouldn't have even noticed a dude. No. And on top of that, he was carrying a lug wrench and a large screwdriver and a car jack.
I mean, weapons and car breaking into equipment. Heavy metal things he's carrying around with them dressed like that, which is odd. So about 9 p.m. that night on North Lake Road, the cops arrive. Deputy James Deal responds to the dispatch call and finds, it's Scott Dahl in the camouflage in the hood. That's what he's doing right now. So they're like, okay. He said, quote, he was wearing a camouflage hunting outfit and a white hood. He dropped a metal object when approached. He pulled a lug wrench from his pocket. He had what appeared to be wet blood stains on his knees, thighs, hands, and shoes.
Knees, thighs, hands, and shoes. I just figured out how you could look more suspicious than wearing that outfit. Also be covered from head to toe in blood or from like your waist down in blood. From hand to toe. Hand to toe in blood. Now he tells the deputy, oh, I'm wearing my deer butchering clothes because they're warm. That's why I'm, because this is February and way upstate New York. There's a butcher with tire jacks and watches. Well, when I'm going out to do things, I guess his excuse is it's cold. So I wore my warmest outfit. It happens to be covered in blood while I'm doing what I'm doing, which is still. Last time I wore it was.
dough season. I was chopping some shit up. Yeah. Um, so he apparently, uh, so he said, yeah, I wore my deer butchering clothes to keep warm. And they go, well, what are you doing out here? Yeah. And he said, I'm out walking to lower my blood pressure. I'm keeping warm. And I have to keep warm. Why would you bring all your tools to take a walk? Maybe he's weighing himself down. He doesn't have any of those little, I didn't have a, I didn't have a weighted vest. Yeah. Or those little like two pounders of women used to do with aerobics in the eighties, you know, none of those. He says, I have a doctor's appointment in the morning. So, you know, I'm working on my blood pressure now, the night before. Cause it's probably going to spike 6am. That's how it goes.
So the guy, the cop says, you know, what's all the blood, homie? Like, what you got going on there? And he just says, you know, it's my deer butchering outfit. He goes, yeah, but it's wet and fresh. That's wet blood. And he goes, I don't know. He just has no response to that. I don't know. I don't know. They're like, okay. He's described by the cop in his report as evasive this whole time. All he would say is, you know, I'm out walking. I have a blood pressure thing and I don't want to go to the doctor with high blood pressure. Well, for me, November. By the way, that's not the right town. Different town. Otherwise, we're going to get to that. You jumped it, but that's fine. Totally fine. So when he's asked for ID.
He pulls out his New York State corrections officer identification card, which kind of helps him a little bit. So the cop now treats him differently because he's one of the crew there. So at about 9 to 9.30 here, this cop agrees to give Scott Dahl a ride to his van. You, okay. Yes. You be wearing a camouflage outfit covered in fresh blood and a white hood and have a bunch of weird tools on you at night in a small town and have a cop come up to you and at the end of it, have it end with him giving you a ride to your car. Do you think that's going to happen without an ID? Without the corrections officer ID? This cop is a dummy. Who goes for a drive to go for a walk? That's the thing. Well, yeah, I parked my car. What? Yeah. So Dahl says he parked his car, or his Windstar van, at a gas station on the corner of North Lake Road and Route 5.
At this point, the firefighter who placed the original 911 call comes to the scene. He's probably got a scanner. He comes to the scene and tells the deputy, this is the guy I saw crouching between two cars to hide. Right. Somehow the cop didn't put together that they called. Someone called about a guy in this outfit crouching. Being suspicious. Being suspicious. He showed up, found the guy and said, must have been somebody else that was suspicious. Not this guy. There must have been another. Keep your eyes out, Mr. Dahl. There's a suspicious man out here. In camouflage, a hood and fucking bloodstains. He can't be the suspicious guy they were talking about. Carrying a wild shit. It's not you. I know that. So at this point, finally, the deputy detains Dahl.
It's this much to do it. Handcuffs him. Places him in the patrol car. He's initially charged with trespassing for parking his van at the gas station. That's just to hang on to him for a minute to find out what's going on. So the cop then, with Scott in the car, drives to the van.
Yeah. We're at the van now. Okay. Now, when they get to the van, there's blood all over the fucking van. Everywhere. Inside and out? Or just inside? The outside is covered in blood. There's bloodstains. There's spatter on it. The inside of it, bloody as shit. Just covered in blood. What the fuck? Really crazy. And there's also a pair of bloody gloves found nearby. Yeah. Right by the van. Just a pair of latex gloves covered in blood. The jack is missing from the van. It's the same jack that he's carrying. Fits right in the spot there. The van is parked approximately 17 minutes walking from where we're going to talk about in a minute here, as we'll get to. Now.
9 o'clock to the 1.30 area. So it's about 9.30, that's all going on. Now until 1.30 in the morning, the investigators basically, they believe Dahl is covered in human blood. They're like, it's not a deer. Because you would have said, I just butchered a deer, and you didn't. Right. Inside the van. Yeah, they believe based on how much blood there is, both on him and all over the van, that somewhere somebody could be injured and in need of help. Someone's got a problem, obviously. You're not supposed to lose that much blood. So they don't read him his Miranda rights, but they question him. Now this also falls under something legal that's going to happen later called the emergency doctrine.
this is the uh this is like the uh you know basically uh someone's there's a bomb that's gonna go off so we're gonna work this guy over till he tells us where it is that kind of shit like Exigent circumstances. But if you're trying to find somebody and trying to save a life, you don't have time to do all the other shit. And that's okay at that point. Okay. So because there's so much blood and somebody could be in dire need of help. Yeah. We'll skip those few sentences in the interim. We'll get to it later. You show up and there's a guy in the front lawn with a knife and it's got blood all over it. And, you know, there's a trail of blood coming from the house. You don't have to read that guy his rights before you say, is there a victim in the house? You know what I mean? That we can possibly save. So I think that's the general deal, how that works. So they start calling Scott Dahl's family members and acquaintances, which is the weirdest investigative measure I've ever heard in my life.
Who's your wife? I'm calling. Who's your mom? Yeah, they look kind of like his phone. They're just calling people to find out why he might be there.
and who he might have been with. Where's the blood? Because Scott won't say shit. So he refuses to answer questions while the police are searching all around. They're just driving around. And all Scott will say is that he can't talk about what's happened. I can't talk about it. I can't talk about it right now. Nothing happened. I can't talk about what's happened. So for four hours, he's in the car with this deputy while he drives around the area, trying to get information out of him while calling his relatives while he's in the backseat. Wow. Which is wild at that point. Eventually, they end up on Knapp Road at Joseph Benequist's house. Okay. Okay.
which is, by the way, a 17-minute walk from where Scott was originally found. Okay. Okay. Police had called all of Scott's relatives to ask why he might be in Pembroke, since he doesn't live there, and they said, well, his business partner, the Benequist guy, he lives that way. He lives out in Pembroke. Maybe he's visiting him. So they gave the cop the address, and the police end up pulling up to Joseph Pembroke's house here. This is about 1.30. Or Benequist. Yeah, Pembroke is the town.
Yeah, you keep it straight. I'm going to do my best here. God damn it, I'm too dumb for this shit. So about 1.30 a.m., this is when this happens. They show up at Benequist's house on Knapp Road. There's a sergeant, Steve Mullen. He approaches the driveway and uses a flashlight to see Joseph Benequist on the ground between two vehicles. Oh, no. He's frozen, by the way.
Really? He's been here a bit. Yeah. He's frozen over. He has frost on his eyebrows. He's like the end of The Shining, it looks like. There's a large pool of blood around him, and his skull is noticeably damaged from blunt force trauma is what it looks like. He's laying on the ground between two parked vehicles, the Pontiac G6 with a flat rear tire and the Altima with a broken jack behind its front passenger wheel. Okay. So that's what we got.
The sergeant observed what he describes as a large pool of blood and visible damage to the skull. He has to call for an ambulance anyway. That's protocol here. So they have to get confirmation of the death from a city of Batavia unit. So he cordons off the scene with yellow crime scene tape, and that's that. Joseph also has defense wounds on his hands as well. So it looks like he was attacked, beaten with a blunt object, and just left to die and freeze in his driveway, essentially. It looks like he's been hit a lot, though. He's been pummeled here pretty good. Now, they said that...
The medical examiner, after they check him out, says that his ability to talk or move would have deteriorated rapidly from the attack. But he could have lived from one to four hours. Oh, Jesus. Laying there suffering, lying on it, just bleeding out. Yeah, just bleeding. They said as he was being beaten, he tried to save himself. He put his hands up to block his head. But they said the injuries to his hands were consistent with getting beaten with a blunt object also. Oh, boy. So they call for the deputy chief here and another investigator. They call for whoever's in charge, basically. And they said, we did as thorough a search as we could in the dark.
which does not instill confidence. No. I mean, we did, I think we got, I don't know. We had flashlights. It was dark. Yeah, we didn't bring in the, you know, the 5Ks or anything. We didn't bring in like, you know, lights. Yeah, the generator trailer with the lights on it. We just didn't have that. This was done by Maglite. This is the Maglite investigation. So, I mean, if you might find some extra shit in the morning, let us know if you see anything. So, in his pocket, in Benequist's pocket, in the watch pocket, the small pocket of your jeans, there, the fifth pocket, he's got black jeans on. In there is a piece of paper with the name Dave and a phone number in there.
Yeah. So they find that. So like, OK, maybe that's a clue. Now, they question the neighbors, but they all live far away. The closest one's 100 yards away. Nobody heard shit. Nobody heard anything. So 3.30 a.m., we're at the Genesee County Sheriff's Office. And there is a lady there named Teresa.
It's Alaska wicks. I think oh it's a it's got so many Z's and K's and s's in it. It's why all sorts of shit. There's one of those one of those in there She's a retired corrections officer and a friend of Scott doll. She got a text from Scott dolls girlfriend So she drives over here She drives to pick up Scott dolls girlfriend in Corfu and then drive to the sheriff's office with his girlfriend So now he's got a word old work friend and his girlfriend are also at the sheriff's department where Scott's coming to She talks to Dahl. She wants to talk to Dahl. The Teresa, not the girlfriend, the ex, the coworker. They say no. She asks again, saying, come on, it's a professional courtesy. I'm a corrections officer. He's a corrections officer. Let me talk. And they go, okay. And they let her in. They're doing a bang up job so far. The investigator in there sits in the room and takes notes while she does this, by the way. She wasn't asked by the cops to do this. This is her idea.
Okay. So now Scott's talking to his friend, the directions officer, not the detective. He's not under interrogation because she's talking to him, but the investigator's sitting there taking notes on whatever he says. Anything you say is certainly going to be used against you. Yeah. Now, he says, Scott says to his friend, because his friend was saying, is that deer blood all over you? What's going on? He says, the case did not involve an animal.
He said that I was there, but I didn't do anything. And then he said, the case is open and shut and I'll be going to jail and probably I'll get what I deserve. That's what he said. So that's an odd statement to make. It sounds pretty incriminating. Yeah, it doesn't help you. No, not at all. So let's find out what Joseph Benequist, what happened to him, his injuries. There's a minor abrasion in the middle of his back and more abrasions on his right shoulder. His face was scraped in places and there were at least six large gashes on his head, including a large one across his forehead.
And the medical examiner said any one of those injuries could potentially lead to a person's death. Wow. They're all brutal. They said his hands were obviously defensive wounds. There's gashes on the inside of one hand and one finger cut down to the tendon, which is rough and cuts on the outside of the other hand. The internal trauma consisted of two skull fractures, multiple bruises on his swollen brain and blood pooling inside the skull cavity.
Brain hemorrhaging. They said he was struck at least seven or eight times. They said he might have had seizures. He might have been able, not able to move or speak somewhere in between this attack. Really bad attack. Just fucked his brain up. Just absolutely, you know, hard-boiled egged his brain. Just beat that fucking shell right off of it.
Then, here, they go and they notice some things. They had taken photographs. They go back and take some photos again the next morning. And they had photos from the night before and then photos from when there's more light. They found the G6 is in the driveway with a flat tire. The Altima's got the non-functional jack. A large flashlight is visible in the photograph, which nobody tested, by the way. What? This is the thing. I don't know if maybe cops got confused and thought it was another cop's flashlight or something. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it's dark and these guys don't seem like the most crack squad of homicide detectives in this little town. Yeah, probably everybody's got one out there.
Not sure. So either way, nobody ever tested that. And there was a chunk of wood in front of the tire that appeared in one photograph, but then wasn't there. There was never one where he had an evidence marker. So it never got, somebody moved it and never got put into evidence. Somebody like kicked it aside or something, possibly. No weapons ever recovered. They conclude from the nature of the skull trauma that a blunt object had been used, which they never identified what that object was or where it went. I'd start with the lug wrench in his pocket, probably.
Yeah. And go from there. And then work back to that chunk of wood in the driveway. To the tire jack that he was carrying and a chunk of wood. The flashlight. Anything heavy. There's a lot of blunt things here. You would think. The fingernails of Joseph were photographed in plastic bags, which is standard procedure. A lot of places they use paper because they say plastic can get moisture built up in there. This is to preserve DNA from under the nails. But the forensic testing on the hands were never requested and never done. Oh, my word. So he's obviously fighting and might have something under there, but they don't ever test that. He's got lacerations on him. Jesus. So the next morning, the Genesee County Sheriff has a press conference.
And announces that, you know, they have in custody Scott Dahl from Corfu in charge of second degree murder. And, you know, we're holding him there. And they were colleagues and business partners. And, you know, the home was an isolated place. And he just gives kind of the thing. The Department of Corrections has to make a statement also. This is one of theirs. It's one of ours. This is the statement. We don't know what triggered this. We're still trying to piece this together. They don't understand. We don't know. We're not positive. They said that Dahl has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the case, though. Oh, wow. Without pay. Without pay. Wow. So that's what it takes to get suspended without pay. Without pay.
That's so much for due process, right? Due process. He's on fucking, he's up on a murder charge. If you worked at like state farm insurance agency and you're up on a murder charge, they would fire you immediately. You're done. They're like, well, I don't know. We'll see what happens. You know what? No pay. How's that? I'm sorry. I thought we lived in America. That's fucking funny. Well, I guess it's because it's not a private. It was a private company. They chickened him immediately. Oh, for now. Yeah. Because it's a government job. They're probably, that's why they're doing that. They're giving him a break. Just suspended. If he comes, if he comes back and quitted.
Come on back to work. Oh, you got to quit it on a Friday. Your Monday morning shift is waiting for you. You bet. Let's do it. And you're back in line for overtime. Yeah, you're up on the top of the seniority list still. February 20th, 2009, they search Scott's home. I don't know why it took them three days, four days to do that, but they search Scott's home on Main Street in Corfu, East Main Street. They find paperwork from the SF Enterprises car business. No book of registry. They find two MV50 books used for DMV vehicle transfers, all the business crap.
they don't find paperwork establishing a 2000 van as belonging to Benequist when it was supposed to. So they find paperwork that like, basically Joseph was supposed to have things that he didn't have. Scott, they think Scott might've been scamming him, I think is what they're thinking. Like, yeah, there's a van that's supposed to be titled in his name, but it's actually not titled in Benequist's name. He was supposed to pay that $10,000 to the auction house, but didn't. All that kind of shit. So they said that this is what they're looking over, that maybe it was a disputed car deal. Maybe Dahl was, you know, embezzling or something. And they're trying to look into that. March 18th, 2009.
It's election day, everybody. Yeah. It's election day. He's sitting in jail for fucking second degree murder, but he's still on the ballot. He is the Republican candidate for mayor of Corfu. There's a Republican Democrat independent. He's a murdering candidate allegedly at this moment. That's amazing. Wow. Sandy Thomas, who's the Corfu village clerk, said that you don't know how many phone calls I've had with people asking about that. I love when dead guys win. That's my favorite thing ever. That's so funny. I can't get enough of that. And you just get his wife is what they do usually. Is that what they do? When the dead guy wins, yeah. Because there's got to be somebody else. It's so strange when a dead guy wins. That's so awesome, though. He's waiting on it. He loses. He does get votes, though. He does not get shut out. That's the thing.
He gets votes. Do they just not know? It's got 800 people. You figure maybe what? 500 of them can vote. He did not lose 500 to nothing. He didn't. They have to know. It's a small town. The fucking guy running for mayor is sitting in a jail cell for murder. I was like, fuck, yes. Yeah, that sounds good. I didn't like that guy anyway. Maybe they didn't like Benequist. Who knows? It's crazy. Talk about. It's ridiculous. Yeah. That Benequist cut me off one time. Fuck him. I don't know. That's wild. So he loses and Mayor Todd Skeet wins. Todd Skeet. That was a bad name for politics. Oh my. There he is. Todd Jizz.
Todd Jizz, that's right. Todd makes it worse. It does, yeah. I don't know why, but Todd really ups the ante. So now, Scott, he's got a version of events of what happened. He said he arrived at Joseph's house on Knapp Road and found Benequist already wounded. Oh. He said, I don't know what happened. I showed up and he was like that. They said, well, how'd you get covered in blood? He said, well, I knelt beside him and held him as he died.
He did like in a movie where he's like, oh, man, the chopper's on the way. Hang on for one more minute. He's like, no, man, I'm going to go home. Just tell my mom I loved her. You know, that's what's going on. No, man, you're going to make it. And then he just, hold on, Beniquist. We're going to skip all this car sales. We're going to be shrimp boat captains. That's what we're going to do. You can make it, Beniquist. You can make it. That's what's going on here. So he said, I held him as he died. And he said his last words, Beniquist's last words as he laid dying in his arms were, the boy, the boy.
The boy. That's what he said. The boy. I guess that's who did it. Now, Dahl interpreted this as meaning his son Josh was the one who killed him. Oh. So this guy's sitting in jail trying to throw his son under the bus for murder. His own or Benequist? No, his own. Josh Dahl. That's who he's saying? What the fuck? He said Benequist said the boy, the boy, and he said, I think he means Josh. My kid. My kid. He said so. At that point, he panicked. He didn't call 911, didn't even attempt CPR, even though he's a corrections officer and very much trained in emergency procedures. We have to do that quite often. He said he just walked away. Who was he, OJ?
OJ's story wasn't I came upon the murder scene. Held Nicole in my arms and then said fuck it and left. That wasn't his story. His story was I was flying to Chicago. I was chipping on my green.
This is a terrible story. This is a terrible story is the point. It's a bad excuse. How are you? It's not good. And he just thinks that's the end of this and he's going to go home and... He thought he was going to win the mayoral race for Christ's sake. Never mind any of this. He's a delusional man. Yeah, he's very delusional. But I mean, his story is I showed up and held because he's kind of covered in his blood. He can't hide that. So he has to say how the blood got there. That's how he got there. And just, I panicked and walked away because I thought my son did it. It was probably my own son. That's what he said. So, you know, I didn't want to get him in trouble. Problem is the blood on his clothing, a lot of it is impact spatter.
It's not. Yeah. It's not in pooling contact. It's impact. Exactly. Which is, that's evidence that usually that spatter is on the person doing the hitting is the blood splashed from the body onto you rather than touching it. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, and there's, there's been lots of debate, debate on the science of blood spatter, but in general, the impact of it and the movement of it, you can get a pretty good idea here. And you don't want that as your only evidence of to, to convict somebody. Cause that's a real precarious situation. That's like bite marks. It's like, yeah, they can be read as your only evidence. No, they can be read different, but they, they always get convictions on it.
They always win. They always get convictions on bite. You bring a guy up there going, oh, they match up. People don't say, well, maybe that they just, well, that's a science guy. And he said, well, they don't do it anymore, right? Because of it. People still do it. They still do it. They try to rest a whole case on that shit. They will. They will. It's crazy, but they will. They'll try to do it. So they said the blood stains on the Pontiac G6, which had been parked in the driveway, were all transfer stains. The blood on one object transferring to another, like he got here and fell into it and bled on it. The puddle of blood found underneath the Nissan Altima, which was also parked in the driveway. They said that blood could have gotten there as a result of another person moving the body to that area.
Okay. Which it would have to be because his car is covered in the minivan's covered in blood. So something happened here. Like, did he start beating him in the van and then dumped him in the driveway? Started to run? That's, I mean, we don't know. Threw him in there, decided to take him somewhere, then said, no, fuck it, just leave him in the driveway. I'm not sure. They said the blood found on Dahl's overalls and on the Windstar van were a result of being in close proximity with Benequist during the assault. So either way. Around the car, one way or another. Yeah. Now, Scott's story here is that
Joseph Benequist and Josh Dahl were supposed to bring the G6 to the auction that evening. When they failed to show, Scott drove out to the house to check on the situation. He arrived to find Benequist already pummeled and dying and knelt down beside him and just walked away. So that's the story he's got. Bad story. It doesn't seem good. I'm not buying it. It's not that plausible. It really isn't. So the trial comes up and Dahl seeks to suppress the incriminating statements he made in front of police to his friend. Oh. The one where he said, yeah, it's not an animal and I'll probably be going to jail, which I deserve. That's what I deserve, yeah. And the judge denies it and lets it in though.
So that's going to be let in, which is real precarious. Yeah. Now, Joseph's son, Joseph Benequist's son, Michael Benequist, takes the witness stand here. They have a series of his checks written from the key bank here. The son agreed that all of his father's signatures on the checks were valid and had been signed by his father. However, the contract for the title of a 2006 Chevy Malibu, he said, that is not my father's signature on that one. So they're trying to say that Dahl was forging Benequist's signature so he could steal some shit here.
So then they show Benequist's son three videos from the Odessa auction camera. In the third video, the son was asked to observe a gentleman wearing a plaid jacket. And the video revealed the man speaking and standing next to another man. And the second man was recorded wearing a tan jacket and a baseball cap. They said they asked if the individual in plaid was your father. And he said that he wasn't completely sure, but it might be. The other two videos showed the man in the tan jacket wearing a baseball cap at the auction as well. They agreed that in two of the videos, his father's 2006 Chevy Malibu was passing by the camera. However, he testified that he couldn't recognize who the other man was wearing the tan jacket. They're trying to say that was dull.
The medical examiner said, they asked them, this is the defense attorney. They said, could the injuries have been caused, or I'm sorry, the prosecution was asking this, setting it up. Could the injuries have been caused by a car jack, a car falling off a jack and onto him? And then bouncing eight times, crushing his skull. That happens. Those tires, they're so bouncy. They're so bouncy. Yeah, and then you oftentimes get defensive wounds trying to fight the car off. You do that, but it eventually overpowers you and just keeps pummeling you. That's what happens. Especially the 2006 Malibu. That's why they recalled it. Well, I hear the Ultima was...
Here the Ultima was really famous for that. So they stopped making Pontiacs. That's what happened. Very aggressive cars. One too many bodies on those things. They couldn't take it anymore. So they said, are the abrasions consistent with the body being dragged across a hard surface? And they said, even though the victim was fully clothed and had a jacket on. And they said, yes, it is. So he was dragged to this spot. Probably in between the cars so he couldn't be seen so easily. So he can bleed out. Yeah. So cross-examination, the defense attorney asked if one could distinguish between injuries on the hand stemming from striking against something or being struck by something. So could you tell if Joseph hit something or was hit with his hand injuries? Okay.
And the medical examiner said no, but when the injury occurs at or below the second knuckle, it's consistent with defensive actions. Which one's the second knuckle? I think in the middle, because that would be one on each side. Yeah. Would it be above that or below? That or below. I don't know. That's crazy. That's a confusing-ass statement. That's a very confusing statement. I'm very confused. So they asked if the abrasions on his back were the result of being dragged. We have that. And they said also, could they be the result of being dragged along or were they the result of him lying on his back and trying to fend off an attacker? Oh. And the medical examiner said there's no way to make that distinction. They're basically trying to say, you don't know what happened. That's what the...
That's what their defense is. All I know is that if you have injuries on the backs of your hands that are big gashes, 100%, that's defensive. Yeah, or even on the palms of your hands. Yeah. That stab wounds are usually palms of their hands. Yeah, yeah. But you don't do things with the back of your hands. No. You know what I mean? You do nothing with them.
Nope, not at all. Unless you're covering up and getting it. Oh, James, that's what he did. Covering up his skull. Nice work right there. Okay. That's exactly what he did. I think that's what he did. It seemed to make sense. 100%. Cover up. And then, yeah, if you've got wounds here, if you punch someone, it's not going to get on the back of your hand. It's never there. Yeah, it's never on the back of your hands. Nope. So they also said under cross-examination that it's difficult. Dang, that was great. We did it. We figured it out. We just cracked the case. We cracked the case. Jimmy, we're on it.
They said that they asked how much Benequist body could have been moved or whether he was able to speak or for how long. And they said they don't know. The attorney also asked if a murder victim's nails and matter underneath them typically undergoes forensic testing. The guy said yes. He said that was done in this case, too. And the data was submitted to the DA's office where they said the DA apparently opted not to include them in the case files.
which is you have to include that kind of shit in the case files. That's something the defense can use if you're doing it. Yeah. Yeah. They asked if there was a piece of paper with the name Dave on it and a phone number inside his pocket. And he said, yes, that was also submitted. There was also a sliver of silver like material embedded found near one of the victim's wrists. They said that those two submissions also didn't make it into the case file. So the Dave, this is not good. No, it looks like you're hiding shit when you do that.
That's bad. Especially when it's a man's name and phone number. Exactly. Who was that? Why was he supposed to be in contact with him? Was he selling? Yeah. Was that guy supposed to come and look at a car and this guy decided to kill him and rob him instead? Who knows? Private sales of cars historically have a terrible connotation for safety. I'm not selling anybody's shit. You can fuck off. I am not doing that. Throw it in the trash or donate it. Either I'll keep it or give it away to somebody. I'm not going to get stabbed in the face for $60 somewhere. I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. Nope. They bring in a blood spatter expert.
He agreed with the defense attorney that from looking at the autopsy report, there were a number of large cuts on the head. The cause of the blood spatter onto Dahl's shoes, overalls on the outside of the Windstar, they're trying to put that into question. So the defense attorney says, is it safe to say that if enough blood came down Benequist's head, it could have sprayed onto other individuals nearby? So how would it spray? If you hit it. If you maybe aspiration. Yeah. Or if the blood came down and you hit the puddle, that splashes, right? Maybe. Yeah, that's a good point. They said, which is called expiration, and it's blowing blood off from the nose, mouth, or wound pushed by an air source. Yeah, if you've got blood in your mouth, you go like that, and it sprays everywhere. So this guy agreed and testified that that was possible. So he's saying, so maybe while he was holding him, he was going and spitting blood. Okay, so you said expiration? Aspiration is when you breathe it in. Exactly, yeah. Yeah, yeah, expiration is out. So they said that...
the impact spatter of blood from a beating can have the same size and range as blood from coughing blood. So he said, though, but expirated spattered blood can appear similar to impact blood by size and range. He said, though, this is what he had on his clothing and vehicle were completely consistent with impact spatter that we notice in our case studies and experiments. So then the defense has a spatter expert who's saying, you know, this is, what are we talking about? This is blood getting breathed out, obviously, here. So what are we talking about? So then Scott testifies.
Got to. He's got it at this point. He's going to tell a story. He said, Joseph Benequist was my friend. When he's asked by his attorney if he's ever seen anyone die before, he said, yes, a family member. Then he began to tear up. And then Joseph Benequist. He's very sensitive. He fought back tears. And they said, did you kill Joseph Benequist? And he said, no, I did not. While he was crying, I did not. He said that he was with him when he died and that he interpreted the boy to mean his son Josh had been involved. So he even threw him under the bus in court. Verdict comes in here. So this could go either way.
Could it? Yeah, I mean, based on what they've done with the investigation, for sure. They look terrible, the prosecution, but the problem is his story is dog shit. Dog shit. His story of I showed up, saw him dying, held him for a minute, and then just shrugged and walked away and didn't call mine. It was fucking wild. I'm sorry. I nurtured him like a good dad would because I didn't for my son who murdered this man. I was going to say, like a good dad because I'm not a good dad. That's why my son's a murderer. Anyway, which is crazy. Yeah. So he is found guilty of second degree murder. Okay. That's what he was charged with. Sure.
People on the defense side, his friends and family, there's women sobbing and running out of the room. So he's got a big supporter section here. Now he's wearing his nice pressed suit and everything like that. They escort him to a holding cell and then they have to process him into the jail. When he's processed into the Genesee County Jail following the conviction, they discover that he's got a green balloon.
Where? Containing a, they don't say where. You can only guess. Yeah. If it's in a balloon, only in a balloon for one reason, because that shit's going to be in your colon, I feel like. He's got to protect it from being absorbed. Totally. So he found a balloon full of a white powdery substance. He was going to smuggle that in, huh? Yep. So that was sent to the lab for testing. He was charged with promoting prison contraband in the second degree. Promoting it. Promoting it. Yeah. He's like, hey, man, this contraband is the best shit. So cool. Followers, totally hit up this contraband. Smash that like button.
Yeah, at contraband. June 10th, 2010, his trial for contraband comes up. They said that his attorney said this on the drive to Batavia is only the sixth time he's seen daylight since being incarcerated because he's been transferred five separate times between prisons. Now they end up acquitting him of the charge in five minutes, the jury. Wow. He had a balloon full of shit. I don't get where the disconnect comes from, but.
I don't know if they felt bad for him or what, but whatever. June 22nd, 2010, Dawn Doll. This is Scott's sister. She's 53. She's charged with a Class A misdemeanor after she sent a Father's Day card to a member of the sheriff's office.
Now, in this Father's Day card, she wrote, it's not from anybody, but she doesn't put up from. This is like, she's trying to throw the investigation off is what they're saying, I think, anyway. That's the accusation. It says in the card, oh, no, she sent a Father's Day card to the guy and then told a state trooper later on, I should have never done it. If I could take it back, I would. Why did she know the guy? I don't know. She sent a card. I think it was something sarcastic of, you know, whatever. His son won't get to see him. Something like that. Oh, yeah, got it. Thanks a lot. Since you took my father away, I'm going to send these to you kind of thing? Sister, sister. This is a sister. But, yeah, he has kids, too.
Who the fuck knows what they're thinking. Either way, there's a no-contact order now on her. July 2nd, 2010, murder sentencing. Here we go, baby. You, sir, may fuck off 15 years to life is what he gets. Wow. 15 years to life, and that's going to be in protective custody because he's a fucking CO, and that's going to be not great. So he's going to do 15 before the opportunity, but does he have to do 60% of that, or does he have to do all 15? We'll find out. All right. October 13th, 2013, Court of Appeals, and the whole Court of Appeals is whether the emergency doctor unjustified the warrantless detention and questioning of him.
The court rules that it does warrant that. They said that law enforcement's response to a serious and ongoing exigent situation under the emergency doctrine was reasonable. This ruling becomes a landmark case in New York for the emergency doctrine cases. So this is like the standard of it, apparently. Somebody's covered in blood. You should be able to, I think, right? They're covered in blood and they won't tell you where it came from. And they're not cut. Exactly. I get the other side of it is they're using that as an excuse to question you without your rights and all that shit. But it's also a good excuse to be able to say, we're trying to save somebody's life.
I mean, I think you're both being disingenuous saying, you know, I don't understand. I shouldn't talk to you unless I get read my rights. And you saying, I'm sure there's someone still alive, even though you have four people's entire bodies worth of blood on you. I'm sure there's living people out there I need to save. Also, all of this blood on me when I talk to them is certainly not going to be used against me. That's a crazy thought to have. Exactly. 2016, a single DNA sample obtained at the scene where Benequist was found does not match the DNA profile of Benequist and may not match Scott Dahl's, they said. What? So they want to check that out. But I mean, that just means someone else was in the driveway at some point.
It depends on where the DNA was at and where it came from. Yeah, they said the minor component of the DNA profile is insufficient to support an inclusion or exclusion and is therefore not suitable for comparisons. So that's that apparently on those. Andrew Dahl here said, quote, I feel there is something more than what's on the surface. There seems to be a lot more loose ends that need to be looked at. For the sake of both families, I hope we can get some kind of conclusion.
Dude, he said his story is terrible. I'm sorry. If he didn't have that story, maybe you could believe him. But when you come up with a story like that, you're getting convicted of murder. Sorry. It's crazy. So then they're talking about new DNA testing because there's a motion in 2016 to vacate evidence or to vacate the conviction. It was made on the discovery that no fingernail scrapings were taken from Benequist. They never took the fingernail scrapings in the beginning, even though the medical examiner said they did and sent it to the DA, which is not good.
New testing of the blood-spattered clothing from the crime scene was also ordered. That led to the discovery of DNA that apparently matches neither Dahl nor Benequist. What the hell? So whose fucking blood is that? So the jury didn't know that there was no fingernail scrapings taken from Benequist, and they didn't know about the possibility of third-party DNA at the crime scene. So they have a motion to vacate based on that. So anyway, they say it's not as clear-cut as Deal asserts as there was a third-party blood on Benequist's boot. They said they want a hearing so they can figure it out.
We'll find out what happens here. They end up getting nothing out of that. He's still in jail on the 23rd, on 2023. He's still in jail. He appeals again, trying to get out. October 2024, he has a parole hearing. The parole hearing's in June, but the decision comes then. This is what Dolph said in the parole hearing. He said he's been a member of the same church his whole life. He hopes the board would see him as a good person. He said, my whole life I've tried to be a good man. And for me to be accused of this, it's still, it's a deep scar with me. Deep scar. He said, every day I walk around, I have officers who look at me, you know, look at him. Just treat me like dirt sometimes. I always tried to be fair to everybody.
I always lent a helping hand, even in here. I've helped people. I paid mortgages for people that I've never even met. I just want to help people, and that's just my nature, and that's the way I've lived my life. Whether it's in the fire department, whether it's through the church or community, I've always stepped up and volunteered for everything. I didn't do it.
So he said when asked about losing his friend, he said, I've been through a lot of emotions. I feel crushed because of the fact that I'm sitting here and that I've not been cleared of this and that I've been accused of killing my friend. I'm devastated. He's devastated. He said, I'm a victim. I'm a victim. He said, I find it hard to believe in a system that can let somebody manipulate it, you know, like it was done. And that's, you know, the changing reports was the only part of it. Meaning the changing reports there of statements and things like that. He then says he was laying in a pool of blood. I knelt by him and I was with him when he took his last breath. I didn't know what to do and I didn't act right because I thought maybe.
Somebody was close to me that was involved in it. And I lawyered up and basically took they basically took it from there. And they convicted me by manipulating the system, basically. So blaming other people. This is not how you do a parole hearing, by the way. And sticking to your own story and putting yourself at the scene of the crime at the time of the death. But they're trying to claim innocence and then.
That you're railroaded and that you're a victim. This is crazy. He said that he suspected his son could have done it because they never got along. So he's blaming him here. His son was cleared because he had gone to the Home Depot that evening and security footage cameras saw him there. He said, I just couldn't think of anybody else who would have done it. That's why he thought his son did it. He said he didn't render aid. He didn't attempt CPR. He said, I didn't have a destination in mind when I walked away that I could think of at the time. I was just walking, trying to get my head around everything that transpired.
They said, well, you should express some remorse. Do you have any remorse? And he said, I do. I do feel remorse and I do feel sorry because again, there is things that I should have done. I'm not blameless. And this is as far as I should have done. I should have come forward and said, this is what I think happened, but I didn't. I let them run with the investigation. And you know, I guess I don't feel 100% blameless in this. Oh boy. So the board said, this panel was disturbed when you stated that you knew Joseph Benequist for many years and did not express any remorse for the loss of his life or the pain and suffering his family sustained. They said that you need to continue your rehabilitation so you can understand the harm you caused and develop empathy for your victim's family.
They said that his actions that night were an aggravating factor in their findings. They said you watched your victim die without attempting to render him any medical assistance. You stated that you left and just started walking. In doing so, you thought of yourself and acted in your own self-interest at the expense of your victim's humanity. Your release at this time would trivialize the tragic loss of life you caused and would therefore deprecate the serious nature of this crime as to undermine the respect for law.
They said, you did do nice in prison. You haven't fucking fucked up. You helped inmates get their GEDs. You completed a horticulture training program, which is growing produce for the food pantry program. Yeah. Congratulations, FFA. Fuck off. You're still a scumbag. Eat dicks. Go on. So he's out. He's still in prison, apparently, here. Still appealing the shit out of it. And he's got some good legal points, but he's got a better chance there than he does with the parole board, I feel like. Probably true. Yeah. That's what I feel like. Or at least a new trial. Something. So there you go, everybody. That is Pembroke, New York.
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