Crime Junkie: MURDERED: Sasha Samsudean

Hi, Crime Junkies, I'm your host Ashley Flowers, and I'm Brett, and the story I have for you

today is about a young woman who was attacked in the one place she should have felt safe.

This is the story of Sasha Samplestadine.

It's the morning of Saturday, October 17th, and a guy named Anthony Roper is sitting at a restaurant waiting for his friend, 27-year-old Sasha Samplestadine.

They're supposed to be meeting for breakfast, as they had done so many times before, to dish about everything that they had gotten up to the night prior.

You see, they'd gone to an Orlando City soccer club match and then ended up at a nightclub called The Attic,

and by all accounts, it had been a great night, but today, she's a no-show.

Right away, he's concerned. It's not like Sasha to bail on him.

And when his calls and texts go unanswered, he knows something is up.

According to Anthony's interview from an episode of See No Evil titled No Place Like Home, hours tick by with no word from Sasha, and before he knows it, too much time has passed.

Anthony reaches out to her close friends, Katie and Megan, to see if either of them have heard from her, but they haven't either.

And that's when the alarm bells really start going off for him. Something is seriously wrong here.

So he, along with Katie and Megan, decide to go to Sasha's apartment to make sure she's okay.

I mean, they seem pretty worried, even with it being less than 24 hours. I'm guessing that going MIA isn't really the norm for Sasha?

Yeah, and it's not just because she didn't show up and didn't answer her phone, which is weird and is making them concerned.

But they know that she is an avid social media user, and they actually had went and checked her social media, and she hadn't been active on any of her accounts all day.

So when they finally go to her apartment complex, they spot Sasha's car sitting in the parking garage.

But they're anything but relieved when they take a look inside her car, because through the window, they can see this gift that she had bought for a baby shower sitting in the back seat.

And they know that that shower happened earlier that day, and Sasha was planning on attending after breakfast.

So the fact that the gift is still there puts this, like, pit in everyone's stomachs.

So hoping against hope that she was maybe just too hungover or feeling sick, they slip into her building behind another resident,

because it's the kind where you have to have your, like, fob or whatever to get in.

So they slip behind someone else, they go knock on her door, but there is no answer.

And that is really the last straw for them, because right then and there, they call the Orlando Police Department to report her missing.

Orlando PD sends officers over to her apartment right away, and they're at her front door that evening by 8pm, listening to her friends recount the last time that she was seen.

They say that she left the attic at about 12.30am, and they assumed she was going home.

The club is less than a mile from her apartment, so her friends weren't all that worried about her making it home safely.

Did she leave the club by herself?

She did.

But the thing to note is, like, Sasha's super social.

Anthony tells the police that she had a lot of friends, so it actually wasn't uncommon for her to meet up with other people after she left,

like, one group she maybe go hang out with another.

But if she did meet up with anyone else, they have no idea who that would be or when that happened, because none of them had talked to her after she left.

So once officers are, like, all caught up, they agree that her going MIA is concerning, and the first thing that they want to do is get into her apartment.

So with the help of the apartment complex staff, they are let in.

According to an episode of Lies, Crimes, and Video titled Horror in Apartment 345, when police open the door, everything looks normal.

Lights are on, living room is tidy, and same goes for the bedroom and bathroom.

At first glance, there aren't any red flags.

But there are a few things that they note, though.

For instance, they see that the toilet seat is raised, which you wouldn't expect for a young woman living by herself, but hey, maybe she was cleaning, you know, who knows.

And they do notice this chemical bleachy smell in the air.

The only other weird thing is that in the bedroom, her comforter is rolled, kind of like you would roll up a rug or something, but that's it.

They start to think that maybe Sasha just stepped out for a second because her purse and her cell phone aren't there either.

So maybe she'll be back any minute.

I mean, that or she never even made it back to her place.

Well, just as an officer is about to clear the bedroom, something catches his eye.

It's some dark hair and a hand peeking out of the rolled up comforter.

And when he takes a closer look, he realizes it's Sasha.

The comforter is positioned in a way where he can just see inside and right away he can see she's deceased.

Like her arm is bent behind her back and there are what looks like strangulation marks on her neck.

So the officers call for backup and as they're waiting, they break the news to her friends who are shocked and devastated because they can't imagine who would want to hurt Sasha.

She was well liked by everyone.

She was doing great in her career, which was helping people find their dream home.

And in fact, she had just recently moved to this apartment complex thinking that she had found her own dream apartment.

And she hadn't even lived there long enough to make enemies, not that she would have.

So by all accounts, she was one of those people who truly everyone liked.

It's not too long before crime scene technicians arrive and start processing her apartment.

And as they're going through, one question sticks out in everyone's minds.

How did whoever killed Sasha get into her apartment in the first place?

Because remember, her apartment was locked. It's not like the door was busted open.

And more than that, there isn't even like a traditional lock on her door.

It's one of those keypad systems.

And she's on the third floor, so it's unlikely that someone would have gotten through like a window or something.

So really, she either let the killer in or they knew her code?

Yeah, or the only other thing I could come up with is that maybe she was like coming home and someone like followed her.

And like as she's opening the door, they push their way in.

Like that's the only third option.

But however this person got in, they're hoping that whoever killed her left something behind that would identify them.

Well, the toilet feels like a gold mine then since it seems like it was used.

Yeah, and the cabinets under the bathroom sink, I guess, were left open.

So between those two things, they're hopeful that they're going to have some fingerprints of some kind.

Yeah, and they're probably leaning towards this being a male perpetrator at this point, right?

Because of the toilet seat being up?

I think so. I mean, maybe not just for that reason.

Statistically, like, you know, they think they're looking for a male, but they don't know for sure.

So when they dust for prints, sure enough, there is a fingerprint on the lid of the toilet.

There are also a few other prints, including one next to her bed,

and they have shoe prints around the apartment that they collect as well.

When investigators uncover Sasha from the comforter, they find that her murder was even more brutal than they initially thought.

Her shirt and bra are ripped open and she is nude from the waist down.

They also discover where that strong chemical smell had been coming from.

It was coming from the comforter and Sasha herself, because whoever killed her poured chemicals directly on Sasha's genitals.

And an autopsy would later reveal just how brutal her murder was.

According to an article by Emily Speck for Click Orlando, her cause of death is confirmed to be strangulation.

But the Emmy notes in his report that he had never seen a neck fracture as severe as this one.

Sasha also had bruising on her arms, on her chest and her thighs, she had defensive wounds.

And even though the Emmy can't officially say that she was sexually assaulted because of all of the bleach,

it's obvious that this was a sexually motivated attack.

While police continue to process the scene, they also start putting together Sasha's last movements in the hours before her death.

Unfortunately, the apartment complex that she lived in has a security guard at night.

And there are cameras covering all of the entrances and exits, so they're hoping they can see when she got home.

And more importantly, if anyone was with her or following her or whatever.

But the problem is...

Oh my God, they weren't working.

No, no, no, they actually were.

But the problem is the footage is stored off site.

So getting it is going to take some time.

It's not something they can just go view right in this moment.

So while they wait, the police interview the security guard that was on duty that night.

The security guard is 33-year-old Stephen Duxbury, and he tells police that he actually remembers seeing Sasha that night.

According to an article for Spectrum News 13, Stephen says that when Sasha arrived at the complex,

she couldn't have her key-fop to get into the building.

And she couldn't use the call box because the call box would ring to her cell phone, which she also didn't have with her.

Which tracks with police not finding her cell phone during the search of her apartment.

Now, she seemed, he said, really intoxicated, and she couldn't verify who she was or even that she lived there.

So he told her, like, I can't just let you in.

But apparently, while he was distracted, Sasha had slipped into the building behind another tenant.

And at some point, he, like, saw her do this.

So he says he went after her, and when he found her, he says that she was walking around the building just, like, stumbling and bumping into the walls.

And he says that he told her, like, look, you either need to get into your apartment if you really live here or you need to go.

You can't just, like, wander the halls.

And that's when she's like, oh, okay, I have an idea.

I'm going to go to the parking garage because maybe my keys are in my car.

But again, just a side note, her keys couldn't actually open her front door.

Remember, it just has that keypad.

But when she tries to do the keypad, the problem is she can't remember the code.

So I think her going to get her keys was probably just, like, drunk logic in her mind at this point.

But anyways, she asked even to, like, walk her to her car, and he agrees.

But just as they got to the parking garage, she said, oh, I remember my code now.

Okay.

So the two of them go back to the building, and they head over to Sasha's apartment.

But by the time they get there, she can't punch in her code.

Like, she was just kind of clumsily struggling to punch it in.

And by that point, Stephen says he needed to go make his rounds around the building.

But before he left, he's like, listen, I'm going to let you keep trying.

But if you're not in your apartment by the time I get back, like, we got to figure something else out.

So he just left her there?

Yes.

But he says by the time he got back, she was gone.

So he assumed that she finally was able to, like, punch in her code.

She remembered it or whatever.

And she got in.

But he also says that may have not been the last time he saw Sasha,

because he tells police that a little after three in the morning,

he saw a woman that he thought looked a lot like her,

kind of canoodling with this guy in the hallway.

Now, he didn't get a great look at this girl.

Like, he says he wasn't, you know, like staring at this couple.

And the woman he saw may have been wearing different clothes

than what he remembered Sasha wearing.

But he assumed that both of these people lived there.

So he didn't even bother approaching them.

And that was pretty much all the security guard had to offer.

So after his interview, they shift their focus to tracking down who that guy in the hallway

or who this couple could have been if it wasn't Sasha.

Because maybe even if it's not her, maybe they saw something,

or if it was her, they definitely need to talk to this guy.

Now, since they're still waiting on the security footage,

they turn to the public to help find this man and to help fill in some gaps.

Again, they want to know who this guy was, if anyone else saw her that night.

And according to an article published for WFTV9,

police pass out flyers on Tuesday and ask people to come forward with information.

And that works.

Two women contact police and say that on Friday night as they were walking,

they saw Sasha stumbling down the road by herself with some car

like full of guys trying to get her attention.

And they say that they could tell that she seemed super intoxicated,

which made them super nervous.

So they decided to get an Uber and make sure that she got home safe.

Yes, I love that.

Yes, like women looking after women.

I love it too.

And they were right to be concerned because they say that Sasha couldn't remember

even the name of her complex.

Now, granted, I said she had moved there recently, but like she was intoxicated.

But she was able to tell them that she knew she lived close by.

And sure enough, when their Uber stopped at this random red light,

it happened to be like the corner by her complex.

So she's like, oh, okay, this is it.

This is where I live.

And the girls even get out with her.

They walk her to the door and that's where they left her to go inside by herself.

I guess I'm confused why her friends back at the club weren't more concerned about her.

I mean, we have a strict crime.

You come together, you leave together a role, which I think is especially important

if she's so intoxicated, she doesn't remember where she lives.

I mean, at the top, you said they were like, oh, yeah, she left like 12 30.

She's only a mile from her apartment.

No, Biggie.

I'm sorry.

No, that's a huge biggie when your friend is this wasted.

I again, if strangers are noticing, I had the same kind of thought.

As far as I can tell, at least from all of the source material I have,

like her friends haven't addressed this.

But to be fair, they could have been just as intoxicated as she was.

Though I agree, she shouldn't have been left to fend for herself.

And I think that's a crime-drinking role we stand by.

You come together, you leave together, you got to watch out for one another.

So to go back to these people she's with now, so they leave her at the door.

And even though these girls were able to give police some more context for the evening,

they don't have any other useful information.

So they end up kind of being a dead end, right?

Because they already know she made it to her apartment.

And there was nothing like significant from the time they got her in the Uber

to when they dropped her off.

But police don't have to wait long for a new lead because it's around this time

that they're finally able to view the security footage.

And first things first, they want to confirm Steven's account of the night

since, as of now, he's the last person to see her alive.

Yeah, and honestly, the second you said security guard, I was like, well, he did it.

Yeah, everyone's favorite true crime trope is the husband did it,

but personally, mine is the security guard did it.

It's definitely a trend that I've seen in our episodes.

And listen, don't get me wrong, security guards are doing great work out there.

They're preventing people from being on our show.

So we don't get to highlight those, we just get to highlight the worst case scenarios.

But listen, I had the same thought and I feel you.

Though, seemingly, this might be the exception to our little rule

because it seems like the footage backs up his account.

The first time Sasha is caught on tape is at 1.46 in the morning

and you can see her walk into the complex.

And then about 20 minutes later, another camera captures her

running up a flight of stairs in the stairwell.

Running?

Yes.

I don't think it's anything sinister, though.

Like when you watch the footage, it doesn't look like she's running from anyone.

She's just kind of like, just like casually jogging up the stairs.

Also, in my youth, when I got more drunk than I safely should have,

for some reason, I was like always trying to run.

I don't know what was wrong with me, but like...

Okay.

I don't even think she was running.

Running was probably the wrong word.

She's like jogging up the stairs.

Okay, got it.

Anyways, running, jogging, whatever, that's not the interesting part.

She's being followed, unsurprisingly though.

Steven is seen following her shortly after.

Uh, so I was right after all?

Calm yourself.

He is following her to the parking garage, just like chatting and even laughing with

her, like as they walk.

Oh, so his story checks out.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So this is the stairwell to the garage, which he said like I went with her.

So far, everything is checking out, but what they're really looking for on this footage

is who is this mystery man that Steven says he saw her with later, like sometime after

three.

Did she have a boyfriend at the time?

Well, according to what I saw in an episode of Murdered by Morning titled Under a Watchful

Eye, she was single.

But I mean, this girl was beautiful.

She was friendly.

She had a large social circle.

She had some exes.

I know that they found out.

Police did end up tracking them down.

They even brought two of them in.

I think they brought in her most recent ex and then like a former boyfriend that she had

actually started talking to again lately, but they both were like, wasn't ever there.

Like that's definitely not me if she's with someone on footage or whatever.

And they were even both able to give a DNA sample with no problems.

They're like, take it.

I have nothing to do with this.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

DNA.

I assume because of the bleach at the scene, there wouldn't be any DNA to be able to match

against.

Ah, her killer tried to cover his tracks, but failed.

You see, it took a few days to process all the evidence from her apartment, but during

her autopsy, the medical examiner did find foreign DNA on one of Sasha's breasts.

So they have some pretty rock solid evidence to use to rule people in or out.

And they did.

They run the DNA on these two exes and they had nothing to do with it.

So we're back to square one.

Not exactly.

So remember how Sasha didn't have her phone with her when she got home that night?

Uh, yeah.

Please tell me they found it.

No, but Sasha did have an iPad at her apartment and what they find on that reveals the last

person to have contact with her actually wasn't the security guard at 146.

Text messages show that it was someone named Ben who was talking to her around 5 a.m.

So Britt, I have the interaction.

I'm going to have you read Ben's lines and I'll read Sasha's.

Okay.

I'm at a party.

Come over.

I'll pay for your Uber.

Let me know.

Ben?

Sasha, you okay?

Yes, of course.

Okay.

We should hang out when you're ready.

Ben.

And that's where it ends.

That last text, the one that she sent saying his name was at 512 a.m.

So police are thinking that she was probably still alive then and they should look for her

or Ben on that security footage.

Maybe he's that 3 a.m. guy.

But why?

Why what?

Oh, why do they think she was still alive?

I mean, those texts are so weird.

To me, anyone could have sent them.

I don't know.

Like nothing in the material explains why they assume it was her maybe because Sasha and

Ben have a history.

I'm also like assuming she's still pretty intoxicated at this time.

Maybe there could have been a like they don't have her phone.

So I don't know how they would know this, but maybe there's like a code on her phone

or whatever.

But for whatever reason, all I know is that they felt confident that she sent those texts

at that time.

So anyways, they go back to the apartment security footage to see if there's any sign

of Ben before or after the 5 a.m.

Hour and officers are watching the footage closely, but there's no sign of Sasha or

Ben.

But just when they're sure they've got nothing once again, they see something that

they didn't notice before on the security footage at 6 36 a.m.

Security guard Steven is seen exiting the building into the second floor of the parking

garage with two trash bags in hand.

And then just a couple of minutes later, he comes back, sans trash bags, and then he's

seen ending his shift and leaving the property at 6 39 a.m.

Now listen, this wouldn't be a big deal on its own, but according to a segment of

Primetime Justice with Ashley Banfield for CNN, Steven was MIA on the camera footage

for over an hour before that.

And then he just like mysteriously appears with trash bags.

And by the way, taking out the trash is not part of his gig.

Not to mention that his shift ended at 6 a.m.

And so weird, he didn't report any overtime that day to his supervisor.

I see our trope is coming back around.

Now listen, this isn't a smoking gun or anything.

But when they take a closer look at the type of trash bags that he's seen carrying, police

can't help but notice that they match the same white bag with red handle that Sasha

kept in her apartment.

Now, naturally, the first thing they do is they confront Steven about this.

But he says he has an explanation.

He's like, I was just being a good person and taking out some trash left in the hallway.

The only problem with that is when police look at Steven's security logs, they can see

that he has this pattern, like he logs anytime there is trash in the hallway.

But what he doesn't have a habit of is picking up that trash.

Basically, if trash is left out, Steven notes it in the log and then he writes up the tenant.

So tonight, of all nights, he decides that it's time to take it out for them.

Not to mention, he doesn't make any note of this trash even existing in his security log of the night.

Cool, cool, cool, cool, not buying his story for a second.

And neither are police.

So they ask him to come to the station for another interview and the pressure is on this time.

They question him about the logs and his reasoning for not logging the trash or his overtime.

And he is giving them totally vague non-answers.

He's like, I just didn't.

Sometimes I don't log everything, blah, blah, blah.

Then, according to reporting by Tiffany Walden for the Orlando Sentinel,

detectives ask him if he ever entered her apartment unit, to which he replies, quote,

um, I'm not supposed to go into apartments.

Uh, that was not the question, Steven.

Mm-hmm.

And detectives say, okay, you're not supposed to, but did you?

That's the question.

Right.

And he says, no.

So they ask what type of shoes he was wearing that night.

And in the audio, you can hear just how nervous Steven sounds.

He can't even describe the shoes he was wearing in detail.

Instead, he's saying he doesn't really pay attention to what shoes he's wearing.

So police are like, okay, can you just go get the shoes and like bring them here if you can't describe them to us?

And so he does, he goes and gets the shoes.

And when he brings them to police, they check them against the unknown footprints found at the scene.

And they match.

And they're not a match.

But either way, like police are keeping the heat on, but he keeps denying over and over that he ever even went into her apartment, much less killed her.

Eventually he submits to a polygraph.

And during the polygraph, police strategically asked four questions right in a row.

Do you know if Sasha was poisoned?

Was she shot with a 22?

Was she stabbed?

Was she choked?

He replies no to all of the questions, but one of his responses makes the needle jump, indicating that it made him very, very nervous.

Do you want to guess which one?

Uh, the one where she was choked.

Bingo.

And no one outside of her killer and law enforcement at this point, I mean, we're like within the first couple of days, like, and no one but law enforcement, her killer would know that Sasha was strangled.

And listen, we said it a thousand times before, we know polygraphs aren't reliable, but I think those questions all in a row and only one eliciting a big response is telling.

Yeah.

And police seem to agree, because on October 23, 2015, they obtained a search warrant for Steven's home and his cell phone.

According to the Lies Crime and Video episode, when they arrive at Steven's home, it is the complete opposite of Sasha's tidy and well-organized apartment.

This place is cluttered and messy, just filled with stuff everywhere.

But amongst all the clutter, police pretty quickly spot a box of shoes just sitting out.

One of the pairs of shoes, these black sketchers sneakers with a white bottom are just like the ones Steven can be seen wearing in the security footage.

And when they take those and compare those to the footprints found in Sasha's apartment, those are a match.

But, per the usual, Steven has an excuse for everything.

And he tells police those aren't even his shoes.

He says he lives with his wife and two roommates, and he says those are the roommate's shoes.

Whoa, this dude is married?

Yes, this dude is married.

But police aren't buying this whole, like, the shoes aren't mine thing.

Though, again, it's still not enough to, like, arrest him on because, again, in the court of law, like, you can make that argument.

They need something more.

Okay, hello, just test the DNA.

Oh, girl, they are.

They get fingerprints and a DNA sample, but they're still trying to build a rock solid case.

So while all of that is being processed, like, they're seeing what else they can get.

And so they go get Steven's cell phone.

And what they notice is that he performed a factory reset to, like, completely wipe his phone clean and almost certainly to cover up any incriminating evidence on his phone.

But unfortunately for Steven, experts are still able to recover some data.

And the data they recover is very damning for any kind of defense he'd be trying to build.

According to Emily Specks reporting for Clicker Lando, Google records show that around 5 a.m. on October 17, Steven spent seven minutes Googling how to defeat a keypad lock

just like the one Sasha had on her front door.

And remember, her last known communication with her friend Ben, that one at 512, it was that bizarre text, right?

That was just his name.

It kind of makes you wonder if Steven was, like, outside of Sasha's door at that very moment, right?

Like, Ben's talking about hanging out.

She's potentially hearing something, someone trying to, like, mess with her keypad.

Maybe that's why she texted that.

Maybe she was asking if it was Ben outside of her door.

Right, right.

If that wasn't enough.

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

Steven was able to hack into the keypad?

How did he get in?

Yeah, so apparently he figured out a way to bypass the code and unlock the door just by doing some digging on Google.

Well, that's f***ing terrifying.

Truly.

Like, I had no idea that was possible.

Like, I'm literally having a conversation with my little brother because he has one of those in his apartment and I'm, like, terrified for him now.

Baby David, no.

I know.

So to jump back to where police are, though, so they've got these Google records, about this time they also get the results of the DNA and fingerprints taken from Steven.

And to no one's surprise.

The fingerprint found on the toilet lid and the one found next to Sasha's bed are a match to Steven.

And the DNA found on Sasha's body also matches him.

So on October 30th, just 13 days after Sasha was found brutally murdered,

Steven Duxbury is arrested and charged with the murder and sexual battery of Sasha Samsadine.

He pleads not guilty to the charges and is held without bail awaiting trial.

Now, there are several hearings, a few attempts to suppress evidence,

but ultimately the trial is finally scheduled to begin two years later in November 2017.

I'm shocked he opted for a trial.

I kind of was too, yeah.

I mean, what in God's name was the defense's argument?

I mean, he really backed himself into a corner there by saying he never went into her apartment.

What could he possibly say for himself to explain any of this?

Well, his defense attorney's strategy is basically to just try and poke these, like, microscopic holes in the prosecution's evidence, which isn't a success.

And, disgustingly, they try to paint Sasha in a negative light insinuating that she was promiscuous and sexually aggressive and drank too much.

Oh, my God.

Quick reminder, everyone, women are allowed to drink and have sex.

I mean, how on earth is trying to bring her down a defense for killing her?

It's not.

Yeah.

I mean, it's like they're essentially saying, what, she deserved it?

Yeah, it's pretty apparent that they're just trying to, like, muddy Sasha's name because Stephen's case has no chance in hell.

Especially when the prosecution paints the picture of how they believe the night went.

And they believe that Sasha interacted with Stephen when she got back to the complex.

They say that at first it was pleasant and Stephen took notice of how intoxicated she was and that she was alone and didn't have her cell phone.

And so he saw an opportunity to pray on someone in a vulnerable state.

They then point to how he started Googling how to defeat her keypad.

Then he got inside her apartment where he began sexually assaulting her.

And while she was fighting for her life, he began beating her and strangling her so hard that he accidentally crushed her larynx.

So panic, they say, Stephen poured bleach on Sasha to try and destroy evidence.

He rolled her into her comforter as if he couldn't look at what he had done.

And then he cleaned up his mess, took out the trash and went home.

The rest of the trial goes pretty much as expected.

The prosecution outlines all of the evidence that they have against Stephen.

And there's no bombshells from the defense or any other theory laid out besides Stephen committing this crime.

The whole trial lasts just over a week and the jury only has to deliberate for half a day before returning a verdict.

Guilty of first degree murder, attempted sexual battery and burglary.

Stephen is sentenced to two life sentences plus 15 years.

Now he does appeal that verdict in 2019, but there's no basis.

According to the district court of appeals document, the court's opinion is quote,

There was competent substantial evidence to support a jury's verdict that a sexual battery with physical force had been attempted.

And that Duxbury was the perpetrator of that crime, end quote.

Stephen is currently serving those two life sentences at a Florida State prison.

Sasha made it home safely and probably never felt safer because she knew that there was a security guard who was supposed to keep danger out.

Instead, he betrayed that sense of safety in every sense of the word.

He broke into her locked apartment, assaulted her and took her life in the most horrific way.

And the longer I do this, the heavier these cases weigh on me because Sasha had this whole life.

She was somebody's baby and they watched her grow up.

They watched her learn how to walk and talk and they had to have had so many big dreams for her and they watched her develop her own dreams of all the things she wanted to do.

And for somebody to just like take that away and like rip open this hole in her family.

When you think about it, just so he could have sex or to feel power or or just to give into his own depravity one time.

That's it one time.

I just don't understand how a whole human life is reduced to that for someone.

And I want to make sure everyone listening doesn't do the same.

I remind you guys all of the time that we're talking about real people, not just a story.

And we can't reduce their whole lives to just this moment of entertainment.

I feel like I got a little window into who Sasha was because there's all these videos of her on camera for her job.

She was beautiful and intelligent and in all of the footage, she has this like near constant smile.

Even when she messes up her line on camera or when she feels awkward, she's smiling or pulling a goofy face.

It's just so clear that she was such a happy person.

And again, she should have been safe in her own home, but evil found its way in.

And you know, in every story, I want there to be some kind of takeaway.

We shouldn't have to go through these measures to protect ourselves.

But unfortunately, this is the world we live in.

And I can't tell you the number of emails we have gotten in the last five years from people who said that by following some of the tips that we've given,

like their lives have literally been saved.

So, like, I wanted to look at Sasha's case.

Like, how was he able to Google and get into her apartment?

And, Britt, it was terrifying. I know you said it was terrifying to you.

It was even more terrifying when I started digging into this because I just watched some YouTube videos.

When you found out you could do it, right?

Yeah, I just watched some YouTube videos.

And even though those keyless entries seem secure, they are still electronic.

They can still be hacked, especially if you know the specific brand.

So if you are living in an apartment with those locks, I highly recommend installing something else inside.

Some kind of chain lock or something to that effect.

You can absolutely do that.

And there are so many kinds. Do not let your apartment complex tell you you can't.

Nothing is perfect. Listen, nothing is 100%.

But sometimes even a small deterrent makes a big difference.

Get the extra lock.

You can also install security systems in apartments.

They're not just for homes.

And I hope you never need it.

But statistically, some of you listening will.

Don't think something like this could never happen to you.

I want all of you to stay safe and to look out for one another.

Crime Junkies.

You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com.

And be sure to follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast.

We'll be back next week with a brand new episode.

Crime Junkie is an audio chuck production.

So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?

Roooooooooooooow!

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.