Episode 306

What this episode is about

The discussion centers on the detrimental impact of fatherlessness on young men, exploring how the absence of paternal guidance can lead them to seek toxic influences and make perilous life choices, ultimately culminating in violence and crime. It highlights a specific case from March 2017 in Florida, emphasizing the broader societal issue of young men lacking positive role models and the consequences that follow.

Key takeaways

• Fatherhood deficit: the invisibility cloak male crime rates hide behind.
• Too many cooks in Florida and Ohio kitchens spoil murder-free records.
• Male mentors in fast cars may lead lost youths astray faster.
• Family ties: sometimes tangled webs of mystery rather than bonds of DNA.
• 'Fix your states, people': Florida's eerie game of hide-and-seek with normalcy.

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 10:00: Linda Allen, Palm Beach Gardens, Alice Allen, Allen family
2. 10:00 – 20:00: Leavonne, Allen family, Leavonne Starks, toothbrushes
3. 20:00 – 30:00: Leavonne, Aaron Allen, aeronautics, bed sheets
4. 30:00 – 40:00: Darren Bird, Toyota, Darren's girlfriend, Julian's girlfriend
5. 40:00 – 50:00: Toyota, Darren's girlfriend, Allen Children's Executive of the estate, Brandon Allen
6. 50:00 – 1:00:00: Shotgun, Aaron Allen
7. 1:00:00 – 1:10:00: Darren's girlfriend, bed sheets, Leavonne, pleaded the fifth
8. 1:10:00 – 1:20:00: Brian Allen, Darren's girlfriend, Toyota, 13th Street

Notable quotes from "Episode 306"

• It was a muggy Florida night. Yes, we're talking about Florida again in Palm Beach Gardens in early March of 2017.

  about Palm Beach Gardens · at 2:55

• Two bodies wrapped in sheets and plastic hidden within the dying fire. By morning, the discovery had been leaked to the local media. Helicopters swarmed overhead and news crews parked as close.

  about plastic · at 3:48

• In a way, Linda, Brian, and Brandon were like triplets. The Allen family adopted them all when they were small children in California. The Allens then migrated to Florida, where Linda, Brian, and Brandon were raised. The three siblings.

  about Allen family · at 5:31

• Julian Catherell had accompanied Linda to the police station. She told the cops that he was her god brother and he lives there with you. Like he doesn't like he comes over every now and.

  about Julian Catherell · at 6:25

• Linda's condo and analyzed them. When the results came back, they called Leavonne Starks, the legal guardian and executive of the Allen family will start. So, I know you've…

  about Leavonne · at 16:42

• Do you know anything about Darren Bird? That's another person that was living in the apartment.

  about Darren Bird · at 31:11

• Mortgage. She was only responsible for the electric bill. Following the details of his girlfriend's red Toyota made it easy to find Darren. Darren met his girlfriend while…

  about Toyota · at 37:26

• Linda's apartment was nice, so it was lined with cameras and a guard who worked the front gate. Darren's girlfriend's red Toyota had been seen backing into the garage on the…

  about Darren's girlfriend · at 38:33

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Linda — Person · 33 mentions
• Leavonne — Person · 20 mentions · first at 16:48
• Darren's girlfriend — Person · 8 mentions · first at 38:39
• Brandon Allen — Person · 4 mentions · first at 4:54
  The news and got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Her nephews Brian and Brandon Allen had not shown up to work at Chick-fil-A. Brian and Brandon were 22-year-old twin…
• Darren Bird — Person · 4 mentions · first at 31:11
• Linda Allen — Person · 3 mentions · first at 5:02
  Work at Chick-fil-A. Brian and Brandon were 22-year-old twin brothers living with their adoptive sister, Linda Allen, in a condominium in Palm Beach Gardens.
• Julian Catherell — Person · 3 mentions · first at 6:25
• Julian's girlfriend — Person · 3 mentions · first at 32:00
  Cracks in their timeline began to appear. Linda insisted that they'd stayed at Julian's girlfriend's house on the Tuesday before Brian and Brandon were found burning on the…
• Leavonne Starks — Person · 2 mentions · first at 16:48
  Linda's condo and analyzed them. When the results came back, they called Leavonne Starks, the legal guardian and executive of the Allen family will start. So, I know you've…
• Aaron Allen — Person · 2 mentions · first at 23:46
  Then Mr. Allen got sick and died. That's when Leavonne became the sole parental figure in their lives whether she wanted to or not.
• Brian Allen — Person · 2 mentions · first at 1:14:11
  He was sentenced to life in prison for the deaths of both Brandon and Brian Allen. Darren's trial took place in 2024.
• Alice Allen — Person · 1 mention · first at 4:47
  Scratch. As news of the bodies traveled around the south of Florida, a woman named Alice Allen was at home watching the news and got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.…
• Detective Pi — Person · 1 mention · first at 6:05
  All right, so thanks for coming in. I don't know that you met my partners over there, Detective Pi and Detective Drake. So, I just wanted to, get a little bit of information…
• Detective Drake — Person · 1 mention · first at 6:08
  I don't know that you met my partners over there, Detective Pi and Detective Drake. So, I just wanted to, get a little bit of information from you. And I saw a gentleman came here with you. Who is that? My god brother.
• Flora Davis — Person · 1 mention · first at 21:54

Companies & orgs

• Marshalls — Company · 3 mentions · first at 29:35
  Linda works, too. She does. What does she work at? She said Marshalls. She says that Marshall.
• Palm Beach State College — Company · 2 mentions · first at 24:58
  Brian was enrolled at Palm Beach State College and Brandon was at college in Jacksonville studying aeronautics.
• Medical examiner's office — Company · 1 mention · first at 4:26
  Murder mystery. They discovered two burned unidentified bodies. They were taken to the medical examiner's office to try and figure out the cause of death and for positive…
• Palm Beach Sheriff's Department — Company · 1 mention · first at 37:42
  Girlfriend while studying at Palm Beach State College. Her father was a sheriff with the Palm Beach Sheriff's Department, which was investigating the Allen twins murder. Darren…

Products & tech

• condominium/condo — Product · 8 mentions
• plastic — Product · 3 mentions · first at 3:48
• bed sheets — Product · 2 mentions · first at 20:44
  22year-old twin brothers Brian and Brandon Allen had been found wrapped in plastic and bed sheets, then set on fire and left burning on the side of a highway in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
• loaded gun — Product · 2 mentions · first at 34:46
  The detectives kept pressing him, but Julian got tight lipped, locking up like the safety on a loaded gun.
• Shotgun — Product · 2 mentions · first at 53:56
  There was even more tension in the house. And that's when Brandon asked Darren to help him buy a shotgun.
• Toyota car — Product · 2 mentions
• toothbrushes — Product · 1 mention · first at 16:40
  All right. Cool. Julian and Linda gave DNA samples. The analysts then collected Brian and Brandon's toothbrushes from Linda's condo and analyzed them. When the results came…
• lock box — Product · 1 mention · first at 23:58
  He passed away in 2015. Okay. So at this point and I went to the lock box, got a copy of the wheel. So, I kind of read it and muzzled over it, tried to figure out, what role am I going to play in all this?
• Toyota Corolla — Product · 1 mention · first at 41:29
  Obligation to share her phone, so she didn't. But the cops had her car, and they zeroed in on Darren. The red Toyota Corolla told them everything they needed to know. And when…
• luminal — Product · 1 mention · first at 42:42
  The police had searched Linda's house from top to bottom. After using luminal, they found blood stains in the foyer and garage. There were also a pair of sneakers in Linda's bedroom with blood on the bottom of them. Darren, I can't.
• semi-automatic pistol — Product · 1 mention · first at 1:13:10
  In the storm drain, the police pulled out the old semi-automatic pistol that Brandon had sold Julian, the same one he used to murder the Allen twins. It was wrapped in a plastic bag and thrown in the gutter. They found pictures of the.
• plastic bag — Product · 1 mention · first at 1:13:21
  Brandon had sold Julian, the same one he used to murder the Allen twins. It was wrapped in a plastic bag and thrown in the gutter. They found pictures of the gun in the deleted images on Julian's cell phone.

Concepts & topics

• inheritance/estate — Concept · 9 mentions
• executive of the will — Concept · 6 mentions
• Allen family — Concept · 5 mentions · first at 5:34
• foster care system — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 37:14
  In the system his whole life. That's where he met Julian. Darren aged out of the foster care system at 18 and enrolled in college. He used whatever little money he got from the…
• street code (no snitching) — Concept · 2 mentions
• violent crimes division — Concept · 1 mention · first at 4:32
  To try and figure out the cause of death and for positive identification. The violent crimes division has taken over the investigation. Anyone with information about this homicide is asked to call the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
• permit to carry — Concept · 1 mention · first at 9:46
  He said that he was going to get his permit to carry and he's going to have it regardless.
• direct deposit — Concept · 1 mention · first at 22:51
  Did all the bills. Okay. So, I kind of stepped in and kind of set up, direct deposit. making sure the bills got paid.
• aeronautics — Concept · 1 mention · first at 25:03
  Brian was enrolled at Palm Beach State College and Brandon was at college in Jacksonville studying aeronautics.
• Allen Children's Executive of the estate — Concept · 1 mention · first at 47:28
  Linda, and two other products of the foster care system, Julian Catherell and Darren Bird. Everyone, even the Allen Children's Executive of the estate, thought the murder had something to do with Brandon and his enemies in Jacksonville.
• pleaded the fifth — Concept · 1 mention · first at 1:01:40
  Discovered his motive for murder, and he knew it. So, he shut his mouth and pleaded the fifth. Julian was the only seasoned criminal in the bunch. When the murder was done, he…
• forensic voice analyst — Concept · 1 mention · first at 1:15:19
  Girlfriend or Julian's girlfriend who had a low voice or Linda. But who am I to say? I'm not a forensic voice analyst. I don't know. Is that a job?
• 1995 — Concept · 1 mention

Places & events

• Palm Beach Gardens — Place · 5 mentions · first at 2:58
• Beline Highway — Place · 1 mention · first at 4:13
  They are on the northeast side of Beline Highway. They have been focused on a 20 to 30 yardd grassy area. They are looking for potential evidence into this murder mystery. They discovered two.
• Milbury Court — Place · 1 mention · first at 7:00
  So who lives over in off Milbury Court with you?
• Westfall — Place · 1 mention · first at 18:44
  And so I said he can't live. Here's his two-bedroom, and if he wants to come back to Westfall, we're going to do two things. We're going to sell the unit there in Jacksonville…
• 13th Street — Place · 1 mention · first at 1:12:53
  Darren was taken out of jail to get in a police car and drive to the corner of Windsor Avenue and 13th Street in West Palm Beach. up here at the stop sign on the right. Down at the bottom, there's a great right down here. You see it?
• West Palm Beach — Place · 1 mention · first at 1:12:53
  Darren was taken out of jail to get in a police car and drive to the corner of Windsor Avenue and 13th Street in West Palm Beach. up here at the stop sign on the right. Down at the bottom, there's a great right down here. You see it?
• Windsor Avenue — Place · 1 mention · first at 1:12:53
  Darren was taken out of jail to get in a police car and drive to the corner of Windsor Avenue and 13th Street in West Palm Beach. up here at the stop sign on the right. Down at the bottom, there's a great right down here. You see it?
• Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard — Place · 1 mention · first at 1:13:50
  Darren led police to a spot on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, where Julian had thrown Brandon's cell phone. Despite his cooperation, Darren was still charged with murder and a slew of other.
• Belgl — Place · 1 mention
• Okeechobee — Place · 1 mention

Sponsors

• Toyota — Sponsor · 8 mentions · first at 36:33

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

0:12 So, you're going to let you're going to let this little punk over here dictate your life? There's blood on your shoe. You're in the house the night that this murder happens. You can't play stupid. If you want to know what the most detrimental thing in a young man's life is, it's not having a father. You can be a father and still be absent, still leave a void in a young man's life. And since the majority of crime is committed by males, this should be a problem that we all focus on. When young men grow up without fathers, they're left searching for guidance, often pledging loyalty to the wrong people. In the absence of a steady, strict hand, they idolize whoever steps in, no matter how toxic they are. We've seen that, haven't we, with a certain set of brothers over in uh Romania, is it? and their only fans empire where they flash their fancy cars and homes and chains and things to all the eager young men out there that are

1:35 desperate for a little taste of that life and too rudderless to know how to get there that end up screwing up their own lives because of bad advice. That misplaced loyalty can lead to devastating choices in life. the kind of choices that we talk about here on Sword and Scale. Sometimes those choices lead to murder. This is episode 306 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that sometimes the worst monsters are fatherless and very real.

2:55 It was a muggy Florida night. Yes, we're talking about Florida again in Palm Beach Gardens in early March of 2017. I mean, are you surprised really at this point? We're going to talk about either Florida or Ohio every week. So, I don't know. Fix your own states, people. On this particular night, the sky was black. The highway was eerily quiet, and the quiet was only broken up by the occasional whoosh of a car. Off to the side of the road, flames flickered in a patch of overgrown weeds. Smoke curled up into the air as if trying to keep a secret. Fire trucks arrived blazing, their lights slicing through the dark. It didn't take long to extinguish the flames, but what they uncovered left the responders frozen.

3:48 Two bodies wrapped in sheets and plastic hidden within the dying fire. By morning, the discovery had been leaked to the local media. Helicopters swarmed overhead and news crews parked as close as they could to the team of investigators from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office working the scene.

4:09 That's right. and crime scene investigators have been busy all morning. You see them there behind me. They are on the northeast side of Beline Highway. They have been focused on a 20 to 30 yardd grassy area. They are looking for potential evidence into this murder mystery. They discovered two burned unidentified bodies. They were taken to the medical examiner's office to try and figure out the cause of death and for positive identification. The violent crimes division has taken over the investigation. Anyone with information about this homicide is asked to call the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.

4:40 The detectives would be starting from scratch. As news of the bodies traveled around the south of Florida, a woman named Alice Allen was at home watching the news and got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Her nephews Brian and Brandon Allen had not shown up to work at Chick-fil-A. Brian and Brandon were 22-year-old twin brothers living with their adoptive sister, Linda Allen, in a condominium in Palm Beach Gardens. As soon as Alice hung up the phone with Chick-fil-A, something inside her questioned if these bodies on the highway could be them. Maybe she was thinking the worst, but maybe not. Alice was a worry wart, a naturally anxious person. So, she called the boy's sister and roommate, 22-year-old Linda Allen.

5:31 In a way, Linda, Brian, and Brandon were like triplets. The Allen family adopted them all when they were small children in California. The Allens then migrated to Florida, where Linda, Brian, and Brandon were raised. The three siblings lived together in a newly renovated condominium in Palm Beach Gardens. Linda Allen came down to the police station willingly. She wanted to find out what was going on and to see if the dead boys were her brothers.

6:00 All right, so thanks for coming in. Um, I don't know that you met my partners over there, um, Detective Pi and Detective Drake. So, I just wanted to, um, get a little bit of information from you. And I saw a gentleman came here with you. Who is that? My god brother.

6:21 Okay. Um, not a boyfriend. God. Okay. Julian Catherell had accompanied Linda to the police station. She told the cops that he was her god brother

6:33 and he lives there with you. Like he doesn't like he comes over every now and then.

6:37 Okay. Linda was big and soft around the edges, dressed in baggy cargo shorts, scuffed combat boots, and a loose hoodie. Julian was tall, slick, and handsome. They didn't make sense as a couple, but the detectives had to ask. They were like siblings, Linda explained.

7:00 Um, so who lives over in off Milbury Court with you? It was me and my two brothers.

7:08 Okay. And I had let another friend move in, but he was moving out. Okay. Um, and your two brothers are Brandon and Brian. Yes.

7:15 Okay. Um, and how long have you lived there? Since March 31st of last year. At first it was me and Brian just staying there.

7:23 Okay. And then um who else when who else moved in? Was it Brandon or your other friend?

7:29 It was Julian. At first he came to stay for a while, but then he had to go too cuz Brian didn't agree with it.

7:35 Okay. And then he wanted our brother to move in there because of a situation in Jacksonville.

7:40 Okay. Um how long ago was that that Brandon moved in? It was sometime in December. I know. It was around Christmas time. recent this past uh Christmas. Okay. So, only a few months he's coming down. Um you say situation in Jacksonville.

7:56 What do you know about that? I wish they would have told me more. I felt like they weren't telling me the whole truth.

8:02 Linda was the owner of the condominium. After Mr. and Mrs. Allen had passed away, Linda, Brian, and Brandon had inherited a nice little nest egg, and their parents had made sure that the executive of their will had set them up with a place to live. The executive bought Linda a newly renovated three-story condo and Brian moved in as well. Brandon, who had always been a bit of a troublemaker, had stayed in Jacksonville. That is until he came down and wedged his way into the house. Brian couldn't say no to his twin brother, his only blood relative. But Linda wasn't happy about it. Neither was their other roommate, Julian. Word around the house was that Brandon had enemies in Jacksonville who were after him.

8:53 He wasn't telling Brian the whole truth and I wasn't. So it's like since he wasn't giving Brian the whole truth, I didn't know either. So I wasn't so sure. Gotcha.

9:01 Like it was just really a big cloud of mystery. Like I don't know what was going on.

9:06 Brandon only confided in his brother Brian. Brian filtered information to the rest of the house members until Linda overheard a phone call that scared her.

9:17 Yeah, that's why when he moved down here, I told Brian, "Do you think it's a good idea? Do you think that him coming down here will cause a problem for us?" Like and

9:25 I was only like more fearful for the fact that Brandon talked about getting a gun.

9:28 Okay. Like I overheard him on I don't know who he was on the phone with, but he talked about getting a gun. And it's like I just want like I didn't get a chance to tell him. I even tried to tell him like I don't want no gun in this house.

9:40 Right. How long ago was that do you think? This was like two weeks ago. Okay. He said that he was going to get his permit to carry and he's going to have it regardless.

9:48 Okay. Um but he didn't mention why. That's what I was trying to figure out. Like what makes you feel like you need to get a gun? Do you want to talk about this? Do you need to call somebody like Right.

9:59 Tensions had been rising in the home over Brandon's fear of his enemies in Jacksonville. Brandon had bipolar disorder and had gone off his medication when his adoptive parents passed away. But remember folks, as I'm often told to repeat verbatim, people with mental illness are more likely to become victims than they are perpetrators. Is that good? Can I go now?

10:25 There was some 904 number that called my phone. Mhm. And he said, "Hey, is Brandon there?" And I was like, "Yeah, sure." So I put the phone on speaker. It's not like I was trying to ease drop or nothing. It's just that, you know, and I knocked on the door. I'm like, "Hey, Brandon, someone want to talk to you." So, he just looked at the phone was like, he had that face like, "Dang, I did not want this dude." Like, so he just waited and then waited and then waited and then hung it up.

10:50 The suspicion that these bodies might be Brian and Brandon had spread through the Allen family after they hadn't shown up to work at Chick-fil-A. Linda said that she assumed they were just out with friends. Then 24 hours turned into a few days and the fire appeared on the news.

11:09 You hadn't seen them since Sunday and now it's it's Thursday. You didn't have any. Have they ever been around that long?

11:17 No. That's why I was starting to worry like and I just had Julian stay like stay with me cuz staying in that house by myself was like really creepy. I was like, "Do you know if they like if they talk to you or anything?" Like, cuz I don't have none of their friends phone numbers. So, I call Brian's phone and it go straight to voicemail.

11:37 So, are you biologically related to Brian and No. Okay. The main thing that detectives had to do was figure out if the bodies were actually Brian and Brandon. But it would be tough seeing as they had no living blood relatives that anyone knew about.

11:55 What I'd like to do is I'd like to um I'm going to do consent to search. It's just going to be um I'm going to have the other detective that brought you over here go and collect uh maybe their toothbrush or some spoons or something with their DNA on it so I can compare it and see if it is in fact the two people that we have cuz we have to since there's no there's no biological family so I can't give DNA from from you or any other family to compare. I don't have dental records cuz we don't know the dentist right now. Linda agreed to the search and gave samples of her DNA. She went into the hallway and waited while the police decided if they could extract any information from Julian, Linda's so-called god brother. Unlike Linda, 22-year-old Julian exuded confidence and swagger. He sat down, easing into the chair as though he was taking a seat at his favorite barber shop, smiling the whole time.

12:54 I like this room. Why? It's my favorite color. Blue. Yeah. I feel so comfortable in here right now.

13:02 That's like a big thing. I I want walls like this, man. Nice and soft. In all of my years doing this, I've never heard someone compliment a police department's hideous gray felt walls and rub them with his hand. Weird. Julian said that he and Linda had been like family since they met at a lab class. while trying to get their GEDs together. Linda never completed hers. By the way, Julian also grew up in foster care, so he and Linda bonded over being children of the state. Unlike Linda, Brian, and Brandon, Julian hadn't been adopted into such a fortunate family and was on his own at age 18. no longer under the state's guardianship.

13:51 He had been staying part-time with his girlfriend and part-time with Linda. His relationship with the twins wasn't close.

14:00 I personally, as far as Brian and Brandon, it's like a high and type thing. Okay.

14:07 They're very to themselves. They don't that's all I really know about them. But I mainly, you know, I mainly stick to hanging with them.

14:16 Okay. How would you describe them? Not physically, but just their personality. Personality wise,

14:22 um, they got very like, from what I noticed just by seeing them with each other, they got very like goofy personalities. Very goofy personalities.

14:32 Brian more friendly, Brandon more aggressive. Okay. So, Brian's like the real Yeah.

14:38 nice kind of more social one, and the other one's kind of Mhm. Okay. Um, any issues that you've had with them? We we've had like uh the only issue we ever had was the disagreement about dishes.

14:52 Okay. That's the only normal roommate stuff. Anything physical? No, just Okay. But he said the same thing as Linda. Things got dicey when Brandon arrived and they'd all been worried about these enemies he felt he needed protection from.

15:07 I'm going be honest. I've heard them like not me trying to ease drop or anything. Like I've each dropped on like probably like two phone calls from Brandon and uh it was just something about guns.

15:22 Okay. Something about guns, man. And uh I just just the type of how he has anger problems. He gets angry quicker than Brian. So

15:33 I just went, you know, that's that's just one thing that stuck out to you. What um I know you're not going to remember the conversation by heart, but like what verbiage did he use or what kind of what did he say if you could remember?

15:45 It was like uh he was on the phone with somebody. It's like he was trying to keep his voice down.

15:50 He came from Jacksonville. Okay. And when he was in Jacksonville, I guess uh he's had some problems with some people that ran him out of a condo.

15:59 Okay. Like a $100,000 condo. And he was on the phone like just I guess I think it was somebody that was selling guns or something. The police were starting to get a clearer picture of Brandon and Brian. But again, the DNA had to be confirmed before they could go down this rabbit hole of what happened to Brandon in Jacksonville.

16:19 So, uh, you know how you're sitting in that chair right now? Well, during our investigation, we may have come to a time that we need to eliminate you and people that belong in an area from an object or place.

16:31 Okay. So, can we get a sample of your DNA? Yeah. All right. Cool. Julian and Linda gave DNA samples. The analysts then collected Brian and Brandon's toothbrushes from Linda's condo and analyzed them. When the results came back, they called Leavonne Starks, the legal guardian and executive of the Allen family will start. So, I know you've been in contact with him. This is our first time speaking. I know you're really up to date, but um we did submit DNA and it came back to Brian and Brandon. I'm so sorry.

17:07 Well, we kind of figured as much. Yeah. It was a big miss thing that didn't come back.

17:13 Yeah. Um we'd like to get some information if you have any for us. Um some backgrounds on them, what their daily activities are, anything that maybe you could possibly think of.

17:26 Leavonne wasn't surprised. She, like the rest of the Allen family, had a feeling the twins were dead. She crossed her legs and sat back in her chair preparing for what she knew would be a long conversation with detectives.

17:41 When you heard this, is there anything that may have popped in your head or something that you've been worried about?

17:45 Well, Brandon. Okay. And he he was living in Jacksonville. Mhm. And him coming down here and I'm not really sure why he was down here, but that really concerned me.

17:58 Okay. Like Linda and Julian, Leavonne saw Brandon for what he was, a magnet for chaos. Trouble clung to him, swirling around and dragging others into its orbit like a cloud of dust that never settles. Leavonne explained that Brandon had his own apartment in Jacksonville, which had been purchased for him. The idea was to keep Brian and Linda as far away from him as possible. So when Leavonne heard through the family grapevine that Brandon was crashing with Linda and Brian, he was livid

18:35 cuz Brandon was a bad hung both of them. He has been all their lives. You know, he's just been a bully all their lives. And so I said he can't live. Here's his two-bedroom, and if he wants to come back to Westfall, we're going to do two things. We're going to sell the unit there in Jacksonville and then we're going to buy him something here by himself. Yeah. Because I definitely never wanted them ever together. Leavonne was the cousin of the kid's adoptive aunt. Although she wasn't emotionally close to them after their parents died, she became the default parental figure, responsible for dividing the inheritance.

19:13 She said that Brian was a good kid. He went to work. He was going to college. And he was levelheaded.

19:21 He's definitely the innocent bystander and all of this. I just can't imagine him being caught up in this.

19:29 What um do you think Linda would have anything to do with this? Not at all. Like I said, it's my core belief that this has everything to do with Brandon.

19:40 The cops kept hearing the same thing. Brandon was trouble. And his trouble stretched all the way to the north end of Florida. But as Leavonne sat in that interrogation room, her story started to expand. Little details, what you may call throwaway comments, started to nudge the investigation in a direction that no one could have expected.

20:39 22year-old twin brothers Brian and Brandon Allen had been found wrapped in plastic and bed sheets, then set on fire and left burning on the side of a highway in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The twins shared a condo with their adoptive sister, Linda, and another former foster kid, Julian Catherell. Everyone in the house agreed on one thing. Brandon was trouble. He had people in Jacksonville after him, and it got so bad that he abandoned his newly purchased apartment there and fled to Palm Beach. Linda had told the police that she overheard him talking about buying a gun. Even the Allen kids legal guardian and executive of their inheritance, Leavonne Starks, had agreed this murder had something to do with Brandon. As she sat with police, she offered more clarity into the lives of these former foster children.

21:36 I just want to go all the way back to how you became the executive of their estate. You know, who were the parents are, you know,

21:46 first of all, I like how did I ever get involved? But I I mean, what was your relationship with the

21:50 My first cousin. Okay. My first cousin um is who? Flora Davis. Flora Davis. Yes.

21:56 Okay. She's the one that adopted them. Mhm. How old were they when they were adopted by

22:01 She got them at three. Okay. Okay. They lived in California. Okay. Okay. And in 1995, obviously, she made this decision to make me the executive of her wheel, which I had no clue about.

22:14 She passed away 2011. February 2011. It was then when, you know, right before death, she kind of explained to me, "I want you to take care of my daughter is what she really said."

22:25 On her deathbed, Mrs. Allen was most concerned about Linda. She wanted to make sure that she wouldn't be out there in the world alone. After Mrs. Allen died, Linda, Brian, and Brandon continued to live with their father, but Leavonne became involved with the family. Well, I kind of stepped in just a little bit to help him out because she did all the bills. Okay. So, I kind of stepped in and kind of set up, you know, direct deposit. I mean, you know, um, making sure the bills got paid.

22:56 I mean, I've always kind of talked to them, kind of been in their lives in a sense when they moved to Florida because I taught at Palm Beach State up in Belg. So, when I on my way back, I would stop in lots of hatch and kind of help them out with their homework and stuff that they had to do. that. So, I kind of always been the one that's been involved.

23:15 Despite Leavonne stopping by to help them with their homework and other things, they still went astray.

23:21 All their lives, they really been on some type of medication, you know, like ADA or something. But when when their mom passed away, I think they all took themselves off completely off. So,

23:31 um I think at the time of adoption, I don't know if the parents were into drugs or drugs related. So they both Linda and the boys

23:41 were kind of in that situation when they when when my cousin got him. Then Mr. Allen got sick and died. That's when Leavonne became the sole parental figure in their lives whether she wanted to or not.

23:55 He passed away in 2015. Okay. So at this point and I went to the lock box, got a copy of the wheel. So, I kind of read it and muzzled over it, you know, tried to figure out, you know, what role am I going to play in all this?

24:10 Linda, Brian, and Brandon were all 18 years old when both their adoptive parents died, the ones who had rescued them from foster care.

24:19 Brandon dropped out at 10th grade. Linda dropped out, I think, nth grade. Uh Brian is on his way to graduation from high school. So the rest of them had not finished school. Dad was I mean to me they just didn't do what they were supposed to parents.

24:37 Leavonne had her opinions on how they were brought up and she was clear. The Allens were not good parents. Brian was the only one on track to finish high school under their watch. But this wasn't acceptable to Leavonne. So she helped coach Brandon and with her guidance he eventually got his GED. Brian was enrolled at Palm Beach State College and Brandon was at college in Jacksonville studying aeronautics. But Brandon fell off the achievement wagon fast. And soon he dropped out and started getting into trouble.

25:14 So I said, "Well, here's the deal, okay? You got to you got to go to work. I mean, there is no option. No other options. You got to work." So u for Brandon, his condo that was purchased, I said, "All you got to do is pay your light bill." That's it. I'm taking care of everything else. The taxes, the everything else was taken care of through the estate. So, I don't know what he did. When I bought the condo, he was there. It was his. I mean, I'm I'm on the on the mortgage. I mean, not the mortgage, but the deed, but it was his.

25:44 Okay. Uh, you know, he's called me a couple of times with with issues, you know, like uh you know, I need some money. Well, I had some money set up for them. Uh, I set up each one of them account, you know, separate account. It was 8,000 for each one of them. This is yours when you turned 21.

26:00 Mhm. Brandon, 8 8,000 for each of them when they turn when they turned 21. That was what a year year ago?

26:07 They just turned last year they turned 21. Uh, quick question. So, was there anything if something happened to each one of them, would that money that they have just go into the estate for the next whoever's left? So, Linda will get the entire estate. Okay. Yeah. The Allen children had money, fully paid off condos, and only their electric bills to manage. That's all they had. Very little responsibility in life. But while you would think this would be a privilege, a upper hand, a starting point, that was better than most, in this case, it was a recipe for failure to Brandon and Linda, who dropped out of high school and were only pushed to succeed when Leavonne stepped in.

26:55 Without basic life skills, the money and homes were little more than fragile bandages. One wrong move and everything falls apart. the boys. Is it it's normal for you to not talk to them for a while?

27:08 Oh, absolutely. Oh, man. They were kind of I live a stress-free life, you know. I block out anything that's negative

27:16 and they were Oh, they immediately served motus on me. I was not their parent and and I accepted that. I did not ask for this. I'm going to honor your parents wishes, but trust me, I am not going to be mom daddy right now. Though Leavonne made it clear that she wasn't interested in babysitting them, there were a few stipulations with the condo set up for Linda and Brian. First off, Brandon was not allowed to live there. Period. Second, no other roommates. I mean, those are pretty clear instructions. So, when Leavonne heard Brandon and Linda's friend Julian moved in, she was pretty pissed. She was pissed that they lied to her and pissed that she was stuck dealing with these irresponsible stunted adults.

28:08 Do you know about all the roommates they have there? Just found out yesterday. Okay.

28:12 I am livid. I'm living. Linda, who did she say was living there with her? Well, I as No, I specifically asked the question cuz I went by there yesterday when I came in and I found something belonging to um but anyway, this friend that Linda has always had, I saw some things belonging to him and I'm like, when was he there? Well, we let him rent, come in and rent. And I was very specific. I mean, when I moved them in there, they had a checklist that they had to sign off on. No overnight guests. So, I had to put rules in place because I know they are not responsible. So, I put rules in place. She violated that.

28:51 And I told her, "I'm totally disappointed right now." The person she was talking about was Julian. Leavonne was not a fan.

29:00 I know the kid. I met the kid before, but I know he's not good for Linda. And I told her that Julian,

29:08 have you met him before? Of course. Linda was heavily influenced by Julian. Maybe she had a bit of a crush on him, but whatever he said, she did. She really adored him more than she did her own brothers. She called him her god brother. Her broki. I know. I know. I'm sorry. I haven't cringed that hard in a while either.

29:32 Linda works, too. She does. What does she work at? She said Marshalls. She says that Marshall.

29:39 She says Marshalls. Oh, no. She's at Marshall. No, she's at Oh, no, no, no. Which Marshalls? Is it the one in Okobee?

29:45 Okchobee. Yes. No, she been there for a while. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. But she's not working working like that. She's like part time.

29:53 Yeah. Linda had given up on her GED with only a few courses left now. She worked one day a week at Marshalls in the charity program and followed Julian around like a puppy dog. Sounds like a viable future.

30:09 Does Linda have a boyfriend? No no. A girlfriend. Stop. Needs to be answered though.

30:18 I know. I don't know. Does she have any significant other than she? I don't think so. She's a loner. I mean, I've always known her to be a loner.

30:28 I mean, only reason we asked is, you know, we were at the house and, you know, we did look around and um in her bedroom there's, you know, a lot of

30:37 male. I always wonder what male male males correspondence. There was also I mean I noticed there was two chargers plugged into the wall and to the you know they were strung underneath each pillow. There were different chargers. So it appears to me that somebody is sleeping in that bed with her. As Leavonne looked over her binder of the Allen children's documents, birth certificates, adoptive papers, inheritance records, and photographs, the detective asked a question that made her eyes bug out.

31:11 Do you know anything about um Darren Bird? That's another person that was living in the apartment. You know anything, but I never even heard that name before. Really? Leavonne had never heard of Darren Bird, but Linda told police he'd also been staying at the house. That meant that Linda had three people causing trouble. Brandon and Darren and Julian. The cops needed to dig deeper. Who was this Darren Bird? And had he been staying in Linda's bedroom? Both Linda and Julian handed over their DNA and phones, but as the police interviewed them separately, cracks in their timeline began to appear. Linda insisted that they'd stayed at Julian's girlfriend's house on the Tuesday before Brian and Brandon were found burning on the road, but Julian claimed he'd been out with friends without Linda. Then came the discovery of a cryptic text buried in Julian's phone. When the police confronted him about it, his easygoing

32:21 attitude suddenly went cold. Your message in there that you had sent about you mean get out of your house and that you were in danger. What's that all about?

32:33 Oh, no. It was with like it was with some other guys that cuz it was just the other day.

32:38 No, it's like that's it's dead. It's It's a dead situation. Well, tell us. It's not really important. I really not

32:47 dead. Let me just say say this. This is You're in the homicide unit right now. This is

32:53 serious. When they pressed him about the text, his confidence fractured, replaced by a defiance that screamed louder than any lie he could tell.

33:04 My situation is on some other street stuff. Okay. you know, tell us about that because maybe it's related that you don't even know it's related.

33:13 It's basically somebody that I owed money and you know, I didn't pay him the money back on time. So, it was just like, you know, just threats. That's

33:22 how much? Like 150. 150. And you get threats that you don't feel safe. In the streets, it's different. You know what I'm saying? So, when you know somebody has guns and stuff like that, you don't feel safe. You know what I'm saying? Julian tried to deny the severity, but the text on his phone said he was scared for his life because of the $150 he owed somebody. $150. That is the price that some lives matter and some aren't even worth that much apparently. Anyway, it wasn't clear who he owed this money to. It was just somebody from the streets. He explained to the detectives that there was a code of conduct on the street.

34:10 No snitching. I'm afraid that if I do say something about my situ I'd rather pay my situation off than say anything and my life become in danger because

34:20 I hear what you're saying. How old are you? I'm only 21. Okay. I've watched the streets longer than you've been in the streets. And the fact is people do say [ __ ] every [ __ ] day depending on what's convenient or beneficial to them. They'll wrap people out. They will turn people in. Anything. So there is no street code. That's a bunch of [ __ ] You may believe that.

34:41 The detectives kept pressing him, but Julian got tight lipped, locking up like the safety on a loaded gun.

34:49 I'm not willing to give those names. Let me ask you this. Yeah. One of those people came to the house and you just happened to be there and they decide they're going to get money out of your roommates instead, then do you don't think it's your issue then?

35:00 I'm just not willing to speak about it. I'm sorry. Respect is not weakness. Do you understand that?

35:06 Yeah, of course. So, what were you going to say just now? No, I was saying like normally personally

35:12 I don't talk to police officers just because of my personal experiences. You know what I'm saying? So,

35:18 any like further questions, man, I'm going just have to I'm not saying anything without an attorney present or anything like that. So, going to have to take up.

35:27 And with that, Julian took back his phone and stopped talking. He wanted a lawyer. Before the male detective left, he had one more thing to say to Julian.

35:38 You made me very concerned with your statement. Thank you. Linda, on the other hand, was still talking. I guess she wasn't from the streets. You know, she explained that Darren was staying there temporarily.

35:52 Everyone else has been in the house lately, whether they're friends of them or friends of yours. Past few days.

35:57 Just me? It's back to your channel. And Julian came by to visit for a couple hours and then he left.

36:03 No one else has been by at the house at all. No, not that I know of. You know, every time every time someone comes and goes, it's logged at the gate.

36:12 Yeah. Well, there was Darren, but we all went to Julian's girlfriend's house. Did Darren come to the house?

36:19 He didn't come inside, but he came to the house. Yeah. Okay. Well, I need to know that when I ask. Okay. What kind of car does Darren drive? He doesn't drive.

36:29 How does he get there? His girlfriend. What's kind of car his girlfriend drove?

36:33 A red Toyota. It's like pulling teeth with some people, interrogating them. Bad teeth with lots of cavities. Darren Bird was an 18-year-old kid who had grown up in foster care with Julian. He was also the only white kid living in the condo. Darren's biological father was a low-life deadbeat career thief with a record that was a mile long. After a domestic violence episode in 1997, court records elude that young Darren had been put into foster care. He'd been in the system his whole life. That's where he met Julian. Darren aged out of the foster care system at 18 and enrolled in college. He used whatever little money he got from the state to pay for Linda's electric bill instead of rent. If you recall, Linda didn't have a mortgage. She was only responsible for the electric bill. Following the details of his girlfriend's red Toyota made it easy to find Darren. Darren met his girlfriend while studying at Palm Beach

37:39 State College. Her father was a sheriff with the Palm Beach Sheriff's Department, which was investigating the Allen twins murder. Darren repeated the same story about Brandon that Julian and Linda had.

37:54 I'm not even going to lie. After I heard that, like that they were missing, like I tried not to go back, guys, cuz I'm scared.

38:01 Yeah, cuz you don't know, right? Like I said, like whatever whatever is going on like that, this is not like it's not normal stuff. You know what I'm saying? And it kind of it freaks me out. You know what I'm saying?

38:17 It's just a like I said, it's not a movie. This isn't no movie. I haven't even went back to the house because I don't know what's going on. I'm like I'm afraid to get new clothes. You know what I'm saying?

38:28 I hear you. I've been wearing the same [ __ ] clothes for like three days now. Okay.

38:33 Linda's apartment was nice, so it was lined with cameras and a guard who worked the front gate. Darren's girlfriend's red Toyota had been seen backing into the garage on the night the police assumed that the twins had been murdered. The car waited for 21 minutes, then took off. The police had towed Darren's girlfriend's car from the college for evidence. When she showed up to meet the police, she was not happy.

39:06 You still haven't told me why my car is being towed. Well, we believe your cars uh may have been used in used by Darren to do something.

39:19 We believe your car was used in a commission of a crime that Darren was present during.

39:24 Okay. Okay. So, that's why your car is in our custody. Okay. Okay. So, now that I know the truth, can I leave?

39:31 Leave. You can do whatever you want. Okay. Mhm. All right. The only thing I asked was for what happened to my car?

39:41 Well, it's going to be here for a long, long time. Why? Cuz we believe it was used in a crime. So, unless you can kind of help me figure some things out.

39:49 But how am I supposed to help you figure things out if Because you know exactly when you talk to Darren, you know exactly where he was at on such and such days. You can't tell me you don't.

39:58 Darren's girlfriend clenched her lips and sat down in a huff. The cop needed to know what happened last Monday night. Monday night. If you could look at your

40:08 Oh, well, we text each other on a daily basis. Okay. But if I'm saying if you're texting somebody at say 10:00 on Monday night.

40:16 Mhm. Obviously, you're not with them, right? Mhm. So, if you were to go back through your phone, you could say, "Oh, yeah. Monday night, I wasn't with him. I was texting him at 10:00. He must have been somewhere else. Would that jog your memory if you were to do that?

40:31 Probably not because I delete my phone phone numbers and my messages. Okay. Like like on a weekly basis.

40:44 Okay. So, all right. No problem. What 18-year-old college student do you know deletes their entire phone history on a weekly basis? Come on.

40:57 I believe you're not telling me all your truth. That's what I'm just trying to tell you right now.

41:01 Well, I just feel like you're not understanding my truth. Okay, tell me then. Would you have a problem letting us download your phone to get your deleted text messages from him?

41:12 Yes, you would have a problem. Yes. Okay. Darren's girlfriend refused to hand over her deleted texts, citing privacy concerns. She wasn't under any legal obligation to share her phone, so she didn't. But the cops had her car, and they zeroed in on Darren. The red Toyota Corolla told them everything they needed to know. And when they opened the trunk, the blood they found was confirmed by DNA to belong to Brandon. Forensically, we've done a lot of investigation in this case. There are two people that are dead. Um, this is not going to go away.

41:52 We are confident that you are lying to us now and you know more. So, let's go back to when you actually last saw the brothers and be honest. Okay? Be honest. I told you the last time I saw the brothers because like I said, I was didn't see them except the night like on Sunday. You know what I'm saying?

42:17 And then Monday when I left for school is the last time I seen one of them. That's not true. And I know that's not true

42:26 because forensically and other ways that we do things, we know that that's not true.

42:31 So I need you. Do you know the truth? And then cuz I'm trying to tell you what I know. Do you know the truth? I mean,

42:37 do you have that picture of that shoe? The police had searched Linda's house from top to bottom. After using luminal, they found blood stains in the foyer and garage. There were also a pair of sneakers in Linda's bedroom with blood on the bottom of them. Darren, I can't impart on you how important it is that you're that you just come out with what you know, what you saw, not this distancing thing that you're doing right now, let's show you some photos and we're going to show you a picture of a shoe. And so before we can go further in this,

43:14 the detective leaned forward, gray hair disheveled, his frustration barely contained. He could have been Darren's father with that worn, determined look, but Darren sat there, arms crossed, stubborn as a mule. The detective pulled out a photo and slid it across the table.

43:36 Uh, what size shoe do you wear? Me? Yeah. I wear a size 9 and 1 half to 10. All right. Do you have a pair of shoes similar to that?

43:43 Yeah. You do? Okay. What would you say if I told you I had you on a video? A video?

43:53 I'm not going to tell you this. I'm not going to tell. Well, that would mean that would support us knowing that you have some more knowledge than you're saying.

44:04 I would like to see that video. The video they had showed Darren pulling up to Linda's condo gate and his girlfriend's red Toyota the day after the bodies were discovered. He saw a cluster of flashing police vehicles outside Linda's driveway, pulled a U-turn, and took off.

44:25 So, there was never a time you came through that gate and you saw law enforcement down in front of your house?

44:29 Uh-uh. That's not true. We saw you turn around in your girlfriend's car and go back out the gate and you were check. Hold on. Hold on. I'm just going to give you this little Easter egg. You security told us that you were there. They were watching for you. They saw you come down. We saw you. I actually saw you turn around and go back out in the girlfriend's car. So, you're not telling the truth. Darren,

44:51 if you saw that, then I know that didn't happen. Really? Yes, I do know that didn't happen because that I'm thinking about everything that never happened.

45:03 Darren walked into the police station the day after the murders, unprompted, ready to give a statement. According to him, he tried to speak with someone, but was told the detectives weren't available. A few days passed. By then, the police had already talked to Linda, Julian, and Leavonne. They'd even towed Darren's girlfriend's Toyota into evidence. That's when they showed up at the college to pick him up.

45:32 If I'm going to go in and make a police statement anyway, can I please finish what I'm saying?

45:37 Sorry to cut you off, but no, you're sitting there trying to put something. You're trying to say some crazy stuff right now, and I'm trying to help you. You know what I'm saying? I If I was going to If I seen detectives, and I'm going to see a detective anyways, why wouldn't I just go and get that out of the way so I'm not dragged out of school? made to look like a [ __ ] criminal.

45:54 Hey Darren, on the night these two guys were murdered, you were seen at a location. Okay, I will tell you that much.

46:05 Where? Where was I? I want to know what happened that night. I do not know. I said

46:12 Darren wasn't going to crack. His fight against the evidence was as solid as the table between them. The blood, the sneaker, the car, it was all closing in. He had an excuse for everything. But Darren wasn't staying strong in an attempt to only save himself. He was protecting someone else. Someone he loved way too much to betray.

47:10 Brian and Brandon Allen had been found murdered and left burn on the side of a highway in Palm Beach Gardens. The Allen twins lived with their adoptive sister, Linda, and two other products of the foster care system, Julian Catherell and Darren Bird. Everyone, even the Allen Children's Executive of the estate, thought the murder had something to do with Brandon and his enemies in Jacksonville. But new evidence had pointed to Darren and Julian. Julian first played it cool with the cops. Then they dug into his record. He was the only one with jail time under his belt and carried himself like a streetwise tough guy, a reputation he clearly enjoyed. In 2016, he'd been arrested for carrying a loaded gun without a license. And he was still on parole when the murders happened. But despite being on probation, Julian asked for a lawyer and that was it. They had nothing to tie him to the crime. Then

48:18 Linda was called back to the station. Like a lost little child, she slumped her head and arms on the desk and spoke softly. So you said you last spoke with Darren when?

48:32 Saturday. Come on, give us a little more than that. spoke about more than just a movie he watched.

48:38 Yeah, cuz I was going to tell him that they ident like so they say they identified the bodies

48:43 and then he just kind of rambled on about a movie and it kind of just pissed me off like he just the way he is. It just made me mad. So I didn't really want to talk to him that long.

48:52 And you didn't I mean this is these are your brothers and you didn't have a conversation with Darren, one of your roommates about about your brothers. I mean

49:04 I mean come on straight up Jul don't hold back. I mean you said you you said you you're down here on your own. You must be down here because you're concerned. You want to assist us obviously in the in the murder of your brothers right? Yeah.

49:27 Yeah. Okay. So honestly, you know, I don't believe that you didn't talk to him about this.

49:35 Linda was weak. The detectives could tell that someone had fed her a story to repeat. And somewhere along the way, she messed it up. Now here she was, a ninth grade dropout who worked one day a week at Marshalls, being questioned about her involvement in the murder of her twin brothers. and we went into your apartment and there is a lot of evidence that we found in that apartment and I need you to be honest with me of what happened to your brothers cuz I know that you know. Hold on one moment. Okay, this is the situation. You're either part of what happened or you're simply someone that knows about what happened.

50:19 Those are the only two things that I believe that you are. We don't tell you of the evidence that we have, but I can assure you, you know, we went back in there. We got a search warrant and we recovered an amazing amount of evidence.

50:33 Linda pressed her hand to her forehead. She closed her eyes and shook her head like the information she knew would somehow magically fall out and disappear. Just

50:45 talking to me. Talking to everybody. I'm not going to discuss it. Where's your phone? Where's your phone? We have a search warrant for you.

50:53 We have a search warrant for your phone. Take the phone. I don't want it now. And I'm just going to explain how a search warrant works. We can take everything that you deleted in this phone and it will be recovered. We do it all the time. We're not playing. We're not going away.

51:09 Linda handed over her phone and the male detective left the room to extract what he could. Left alone with the female officer, Linda started to open up.

51:20 All right. say, but I know how this works. How what works? How would I say who did it without them saying that I told him? Like, if you guys do find out who did it, can you just say you guys cleaned up really bad and Linda doesn't know that? I'm not I don't tell Well, I'm not going to tell them that you said anything. Okay? I'm if if you are in fear for your life that something's going to happen to you, I'm not putting you in danger because then guess whose homicide? I'm going to be working. I don't want anything bad to happen to you. I want to put these people away so they can't hurt you or anybody else because what they did to your brothers is absolutely disgusting.

52:06 Linda looked down at her hands and then sighed. She knew she was safe to talk, so she did.

52:14 A long time ago, after her parents died, Brandon had um her dad's gun. And um cuz this this thing stems from years ago.

52:25 Okay. I didn't know how the whole payment thing went, but Julian had bought the gun from Brandon, I guess, for $150, and he never gave him the money for it. So, I made like a payment plan or something.

52:42 Along with the money and the apartments, Brandon also had inherited Mr. Allen's gun with his possessions. He sold it to Julian, who was eventually arrested for carrying it around without a license. But Julian never paid for the gun. So, when Brandon came down from Jacksonville, he wanted his $150. But Julian kept brushing him off. he'd pay him soon. The tensions mounted.

53:12 When Julian got off probation, the police, the sheriff's department came to search the house and they found Darren we bound it in Julian's backpack.

53:20 Okay. And then like Julian went to jail for it for 5 days and said it was all Darren's fault. So when when he was in jail, me and Sha were really the only ones concerned and trying to do something apparently to Julian. Darren wasn't trying to and that really pissed him off. He's supposed to be my so far.

53:38 Julian was like Darren's older brother. They were four years apart. They'd been shuffled from foster home to foster home in tandem. And they had stuck together through it all. Linda said that now there was even more tension in the house. And that's when Brandon asked Darren to help him buy a shotgun. Brandon came to Darren, okay, to buy a shotgun for $300 to basically do off of Julian because he didn't give him the money.

54:07 Julian found out Brandon was trying to get a gun to hurt him. And this weird gossip chain brought Darren and Julian back together. That's when they decided that Brandon was actually the enemy in the house. Meanwhile, Brandon was not shy about his plan to kill Julian over $150. Oh, I'll cut a [ __ ] throat and they sleep and you and this and that. And I'm like, wow, he used to try to do the same thing to me when we were kids.

54:33 Okay. And then it's like and then it's just like it kind of hit Julian there. It's like he put two and two together like, "Wow, he's really like that." And he's like, it was only then like they um they stopped [ __ ] with Brandon like period because they saw how he was and he eventually got $350 from Brian. He bought $350 from Brian to get the shot.

54:55 Brandon did. Yeah. Okay. And it's like everything was starting to come to light. So, and it made it even worse when Julian overheard Brandon on the phone talking to somebody about doing something to somebody and threatening people's lives and everything and getting a shotgun at a gun show.

55:14 Darren and Julian thought that Brandon was going to kill them both. Or at least that's what they told Linda. Meanwhile, Brandon steered clear of everyone and created fear in the house. Julian wasn't one to accept fear, especially from a kid his own age. Another alpha male trying to take his place in the house. No, no way. Ain't going to happen. Julian texted a photo of the gun that Brandon had sold him to his girlfriend, and she wrote,

55:46 "Looks used as [ __ ] lol. But that'll work." Julian wrote back, "It is lol, but [ __ ] as long as it knock a [ __ ] off his feet."

55:56 It's a quote, guys. Try controlling your emotions for once. But testosterone, rage, resentment, and rumors swirled around Linda's condo until she just couldn't take it anymore. They called a roommate house meeting.

56:10 I had um texted Brian, told him, "Hey, we need to have a talk in the garage." and Elizabeth.

56:17 Linda, Darren, and Julian went into the garage and waited for the twins. Julian had the gun in his pants. Linda knew it, but said nothing. When the twins came in, the argument started. Linda tried to play motherly mediator, but her desperate cries were ignored and things escalated between Darren, Julian, and Brandon.

56:45 You guys, please, I'm begging you to just listen to me, please. I was begging God to let them just shut up and listen to me for once. You guys don't never listen to me every time I try to yell something. And then they just talked about how like whatever I say doesn't even go cuz it was Brian's house, too. And yada yada yada. So, I threw my hands up.

57:05 Linda started to make her way to the door. Then, Julian pulled out his gun and fired it at Brian.

57:13 Julian, the pistol. I could not believe shot my brother in the stomach. Brian staggered backwards, his breath hitching as the bullet tore into him. He was the first to be shot. It was ironic really since he'd been the one man in this fight who'd barely had a voice.

57:38 He got shot how many times? He got shot in the stomach. In the stomach. Okay. And did he say did he die right away or No, he was scared. I couldn't even think straight after that. I just saw my brother get shot. I don't know what to do. And it's like I heard second shot and Brandon got shot in the arm and I guess he tried to leave. I don't know how Darren got back inside but Brandon tried to go back inside and Darren pushed him back down there and I felt like I was in a horror movie. I walked out the back door and I just kept walking and I heard another gunshot and I just kept walking.

58:30 Paralyzed with fear, Linda burst out the back door and walked aimlessly through her condo complex. She walked and sobbed, pushing the tears angrily off her cheeks. She had nowhere to go, no one to run to. Brandon and Brian were dead. Julian was all she had left. So, she turned around and walked back to her condo.

58:58 I was barefoot that day. It was cold outside and I didn't know where I was going. I just didn't want to be there. And then around the time I got to the front door, everything was quiet and me and Darren came down. I was shaking. I couldn't think straight. and Darren. They said, "Come on, we have to get out of here."

59:22 Linda followed Julian and Darren as they led her through the back of the complex over the gate. The three ran until they reached the back of a target. They waited until Julian said it was safe and then they returned home.

59:38 We ran inside, but I didn't want to look inside the garage. I waited until they closed the door and I remember the stairs. I felt sick to my stomach and I wanted to go to sleep. I was really tired. I couldn't go to sleep. They were going to try and clean it up and they talked about getting all the bed spreads and everything. And they were getting gathering up the bed spreads so they could wrap the bodies up and bring them upstairs. I didn't want anything to do with it after that. I was just praying to God to let the pain out of my heart.

1:00:12 Julian and Darren told Linda to close her bedroom door and stay put. The boys worked together, stripping bed sheets to wrap the twins lifeless bodies. One by one, they dragged them upstairs, the weight of their actions heavier with each step, and dumped them on top of each other in the master bathtub. Brandon and Brian's bodies mirrored how their lives started. two brothers tangled together as they had been in the womb.

1:00:46 As I was coming in the room, I could still see the death bathroom door open. Darren looked at me and saw how hurt I was, so he closed the door. I was really angry. Like, I couldn't even express how angry I was.

1:00:58 Although she was angry, Linda let Darren and Julian into her room after they had finished cleaning up the crime scene. The three curled up in Linda's bed together and fell asleep, knowing they would have to take this to the grave.

1:01:14 My brothers were all I had left. And to be honest, I'm still kind of holding a grudge against him for that.

1:01:22 The $150 that Julian owed Brandon was the alleged street business that Julian would not elaborate on for the detectives. In the vague text on his phone, they had discovered his motive for murder, and he knew it. So, he shut his mouth and pleaded the fifth. Julian was the only seasoned criminal in the bunch. When the murder was done, he told Linda and Darren to delete all their messages. He instructed them to use WhatsApp to text about anything having to do with Brandon or Brian. He thought he was clever enough to get away with murder. He scared Linda into silence, convincing her that if any of them went down, they'd all go down together. He thought she'd never talk. But when the cops gave her the option, she told the truth.

1:02:16 Julian was never her god brother. He was just an opportunistic user who took advantage of Linda. Whether she saw this or not, the goodness still left in her made her tell the truth. Finally.

1:02:32 So, you told us all this because it's true and it's because your two brothers are murdered and you want the people that did it to come to justice.

1:02:41 Yes. Or are you telling this cuz we've made you tell tell you? No. It's not fair to Brandon and Brian that they left like that.

1:02:50 So, you're saying this because you're terrible. I can see it's it's just I feel like nobody understands how I feel right now. I don't know what you're feeling because my brother's not dead. It must be horrible. I don't know what you're going through. It's got to be terrible. And these are people that you more or less trusted. You feel betrayed, don't you?

1:03:10 I didn't know he was going to do that. You've been scared for a little bit, haven't you?

1:03:18 After that, I barely had talked to him and Darren, I didn't even want anything.

1:03:23 Have they contacted you today? Either of them? No, Darren. Not Darren, but Julian just act like just said his usual, "Hey, good morning."

1:03:32 Does he know you were going to come down here today? Did you tell him? I don't recall. And he hasn't asked. So,

1:03:39 don't don't tell him that you came down here today. Linda said she was afraid Julian would kill her if he knew she told the truth. The detectives promised to get her on a plane to Georgia to be with Leavonne as soon as possible. Linda sat shaking as the detectives took her phone again to extract the deleted evidence. Then she piped up with a question.

1:04:05 But if you guys do recover anything, you guys aren't going to make it be deleted. You guys are going to recover cuz there's some stuff that I deleted. I want it back.

1:04:13 Yeah, we can recover everything. Ryan had texted me on my birthday and told me something.

1:04:20 Really made me happy. What he tell you on your birthday? you know, you're getting older and you've done a lot for this family and how much they appreciated it

1:04:29 and that meant a lot to you. Me and Brian, we went 3 years without talking to each other in the house once. You know, stuff like that makes me happy with it.

1:04:40 Linda, Brian, and Brandon may not have had the best upbringings or parental figures, or they may not have even come from the same bloodline, but they were family. Now, Linda would be out in the world alone. With Linda's confession in hand, the detectives turned back to Darren. They needed him to unravel enough to pin the murderers on Julian. But Darren was as unyielding as he was devoted to the only brother he'd ever truly had. Maybe it was the guilt Julian piled on him over those five measly days in jail. Or the endless need to prove he was worthy of Julian's respect. Maybe it was their age, their skin, or maybe something deeper.

1:05:31 They were two fatherless boys lost in the shuffle, fumbling through life and trying to figure out how to be men in all the wrong ways. It's tough out there for young men. in 2025. And don't you forget about it. Don't minimize it. Don't laugh about it. Don't pretend it isn't a problem. It is.

1:05:54 So, you need to step up and be honest with us because you're going to go down for somebody else's [ __ ]

1:05:59 and you don't have a criminal record. You do not have You're not a bad person. You're not a bad kid.

1:06:05 You're saying you didn't do something. Tell me what you saw. I didn't see. I was not I was not there.

1:06:14 Three detectives questioned Darren for over 6 hours. He denied knowing anything. His ability to lie under pressure was impressive for an 18-year-old. But the detectives played Linda and Julian against him, saying those two had agreed that Darren committed the murders.

1:06:34 They have done this to you. You you got put in a position by this guy here. And you're not the bad you're not the bad kid. You're the loyal one.

1:06:42 He pro he brought you in here. And your misplaced loyalty. You're screwed. You're not giving yourself an out. Hey, I'm just being giving you fatherly advice. If it was my son, I would want him fighting for himself in this, not sticking up for somebody else. Just saying.

1:07:00 But Darren knew it wasn't true. He was loyal to his promise to Julian. The truth goes to the grave. Darren was free to go. And in the meantime, they found his girlfriend and served her a warrant for her cell phone. All right. Is that your cell phone?

1:07:18 Mhm. Some warrant for your cell phone. Okay. Here you go. There's a copy of it. We're taking your cell phone once we get it downloaded. I don't know if we're keeping it or not. What is is

1:07:30 I think after we clone it or copy it fully then we'll be able to get it back to you.

1:07:35 We'll have to uh consult with the attorney and and see what's going on, but we'll I'll do my best to get it back to you.

1:07:44 Darren's girlfriend stood dumbfounded as the police confiscated her phone. Um you can't come here and give me a warrant if you never give me a heads up and say, "Hey, we're going to take your your like who the hell am I supposed to call?" Would you like me to call your dad and say, "Hey, this channel."

1:08:01 No, because I think he's an [ __ ] and I don't know what you told him, but he's really bitching about like thinking I'm like the same thing that you told me. Okay, I'm telling the truth. He thinks I'm not telling the truth. If he asks again, tell him to keep his nose out of the investigation cuz it's not his place.

1:08:19 Darren's girlfriend's phone revealed that she actually had no involvement. The night that the bodies were dumped, she was texting Darren crazy messages that read like novels. So angry that he was late returning her car. With the blood evidence, video footage, DNA, and Linda's confession, Darren and Julian were looking at murder and tampering with evidence. Only 14 days after Brian and Brandon were murdered, Darren and Julian were separately arrested. Julian stayed quiet, but Darren asked to talk to a detective one more time.

1:08:59 What's going on, man? You asked to talk to me again, right? I uh I have a question. So, I know how the shows are and stuff, but how does witness protection actually work?

1:09:10 Why? Just can I just ask you why have you been threatened or I'm that that's out of the question right now. I'm asking how does witness protection work? And let's say I did have something to say. I need assurance.

1:09:23 I need assurance. The detective sat in his chair while Darren stood before him like a subordinate, getting the courage to ask his boss for a raise that he knew he didn't deserve.

1:09:36 Do you understand that you're being charged with murder? Correct. You understand that?

1:09:41 Mhm. Okay. So, you're not you're not going to be outside of the jail at all. Okay. Okay, you're going to jail. All right, so you've been charged with murder.

1:09:55 But it hadn't dawned on Darren. He thought that if he finally told the truth, there may be some golden ticket of freedom for him on the other side. That was never on the table. Darren was going to trial and possibly life in prison. He was still terrified to tell the truth for one reason. Julian,

1:10:16 I'm scared to talk. Nothing's going to happen to you. Oh, I know. All right. Nothing's going to happen to you. You know, we're we're going to arrest Julian just like we arrested you. All right. So, he's going to be he's going to be also, you know, in jail, not able to get to anybody or do anything like that.

1:10:39 Not okay. You guys will be separated. Nobody will be next to each other. You're going to be in your own little area. He'll be in his own little part of

1:10:47 No, you're not going to be anywhere close to each other. There's no way he's going to get to you.

1:10:52 Julian had put the fear of God in Darren and it showed. Sitting with the detective, Darren let the details of murder slip. He knew the type of gun. He helped clean up. He moved bodies and even drove his girlfriend's Toyota to the burn site. Toyota's a great car, by the way. Not just saying that because they're a sponsor, although they have been quite generous. Good preservation of uh your car's value there on resale usually with a Toyota. Just saying. All right. Anyway, sorry. Getting back to the story. He did drive that Toyota to the burn site and did a whole bunch of other stuff, but he just couldn't tell the whole story. Every few minutes he stopped, his words catching in his throat as if two voices were waring inside his own head, his own conscience and Julian's looming presence. Where did you clean the car at? You didn't come back to the apartment that night, did you? In that car.

1:11:57 Where'd you go after? I had to give her a car back. Where did you take it to give her a car back?

1:12:03 I met her where we were at. Where's Where's that? We were hanging out, you know, at a park.

1:12:09 Okay. You know what I'm saying? What park? I can't keep Why? Because, man, I need some assurance. Like, I'm already scared, bro. I've done.

1:12:22 I told you, man. I'm going to be fine. But things wouldn't be just fine. And Darren knew it. As he sat in jail awaiting trial and paralyzed with fear that Julian would befriend some goons to come kill him in his cell, he had a change of heart. All that time alone to think in his cell really worked. And on April 4th, 2017, Darren was taken out of jail to get in a police car and drive to the corner of Windsor Avenue and 13th Street in West Palm Beach. up here at the stop sign

1:12:59 on the right. Down at the bottom, there's a great right down here. You see it? This one right here?

1:13:06 Yeah. In the storm drain, the police pulled out the old semi-automatic pistol that Brandon had sold Julian, the same one he used to murder the Allen twins. It was wrapped in a plastic bag and thrown in the gutter. They found pictures of the gun in the deleted images on Julian's cell phone.

1:13:31 You know what he did with the shelings? Actually, I may know where one is. Oh [ __ ] Um I also may know where uh one of their cell phones is.

1:13:50 Darren led police to a spot on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, where Julian had thrown Brandon's cell phone. Despite his cooperation, Darren was still charged with murder and a slew of other felonies. Julian's trial went first in 2022. He was sentenced to life in prison for the deaths of both Brandon and Brian Allen. Darren's trial took place in 2024. He'd grown a thick blonde beard on his babyish face. Darren was sentenced to life in prison for tampering with physical evidence and seconddegree murder for Brandon Allen.

1:14:31 He was acquitted of the murder for Brian Allen. There's one last piece of this puzzle and we need your help to solve it. A video was recovered from the night the bodies were burned that's just 6 seconds long. In the background, you can hear the fire crackling, consuming what was left of the twins. Then a voice cuts through the night.

1:14:58 Yeah. I'm going to fly you right there. Booyah. The detectives can't figure out whose voice this was. It didn't quite match Darren's girlfriend or Julian's girlfriend who had a low voice or Linda. But who am I to say? I'm not a forensic voice analyst. I don't know. Is that a job? Not sure where you would even go to get a degree for that. But it sounds like a woman was there watching as the bodies were unloaded and set ablaze. Was it Linda? Was her entire story a fabrication? Or is it someone who has yet to face justice?

1:15:47 The only femaleowned cell phones the police had warrants for were Darren's girlfriend and Linda. You've heard both of their voices on this episode. Without knowing which phone the video came from, we'll never know. and detectives could not tell us when we asked for clarification. So, I'll leave it up to you, the listener. Whose voice was on that tape?

1:16:18 Yeah. I'm going to fly you right there. Booyah. Brian, Brandon, and Linda were rescued from foster care when the Allen family adopted them. But as Leavonne had said, their parents failed them where it mattered most. They gave Linda, Brandon, and Brian condos and bank accounts in their death, but neglected to instill basic life skills while they were still alive. But Darren and Julian were entirely abandoned by the system. Left to fend for themselves, they lack the guidance every kid needs. Maybe things would have been different if Darren's father had been a dad. Who knows? But instead, he had only Julian to love and fear, like a father. Brian also looked to Brandon with a certain authority, but I don't think it had anything to do with fatherlessness.

1:17:17 More so wanting to keep the connection to his twin. No matter how flawed Brandon was, he was still Brian's twin. And in the end, siding with Brandon was the reason he lost his life. Be careful where you place your loyalty. Sometimes the ones you idolize are just as misguided as you may be, still searching for their destiny, good or evil.

1:18:10 Well, I tried I tried to make sword and scale television available on other platforms like uh Facebook, for example, and uh YouTube, but I don't think I Can you see all this woke [ __ ] got me cancelled and uh there you are. We couldn't just be on Patreon and avoid the whole thing. I mean, I don't think you guys realize how much money it costs to build your own app. Not to mention how complicated it is. You never please everybody, but you know, we're doing the best we can here. So, if you like Sword and Scale, head on over to swordandscale.com.

1:18:48 Check out our website, download our app, and uh check out our TV show. I mean, there's uh a whole lot of it right now. 16 episodes, I believe. They're all very good. Very, very good. So, um here's your chance to be part of something. Help us fund it. Help us create it from scratch. Eventually, we'd like to have multiple seasons spanning many years that we can broadcast to you in some way, the general public, that is. Not sure if it's going to be on TV because the future of TV doesn't look very bright, if you know what I mean. But thanks for joining us once again and until next time, stay safe.

1:19:37 Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat up here. Heat

Questions about this episode

What is "Episode 306" about?

The discussion centers on the detrimental impact of fatherlessness on young men, exploring how the absence of paternal guidance can lead them to seek toxic influences and make perilous life choices, ultimately culminating in violence and crime. It highlights a specific case from March 2017 in Florida, emphasizing the broader societal issue of young men lacking positive role models and the…

What is mentioned in this Sword and Scale episode?

55 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Linda, Leavonne, inheritance/estate, Darren's girlfriend, condominium/condo, executive of the will. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Episode 306"?

The episode runs 1 h 22 min; the transcript is about 12,977 words in 264 timestamped sections.

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