Blackout Drinking, a Packed Party Bus and a Murder Mystery in a Bar | Joel Lovelien

**Annie Elise** (0:00)
Heather Eastling and her boyfriend, Joel Lovelien, were putting on costumes. But that evening inside the Broken Drum, they were completely unprepared for the most frightening night of their lives.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:11)
Nightmare on the Merchant, please.

**Annie Elise** (0:12)
Alright, we got an emergency at the Broken Drum.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:14)
Evil exists, evil dwells in people, and it comes out, and things like this happen.

**Annie Elise** (0:24)
Hey, True Crime Besties, welcome back to an all new episode of Serialously.
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialously with me, your host, Annie Elise, here to break down another case with you. I'm gonna be honest with you, this one is kind of like, not kind of, it is a mystery.
And it has a lot of scary elements, like different Halloween costumes, different stories and versions of events, like what really happened, what's the truth, and it's fucking nutty, okay? It is a weird one, like I hate this term, you know, I hate this expression, but like a real who done it kind of case. And so I knew that this was gonna be a perfect one for me to come on here and share with you guys just because, you know, we're all family here. And I feel like I can really express myself accurately with this case without needing to censor myself, like YouTube loves me to do. So I wanna share it with you today. And like I said, it's a weird one, there's a lot of mystery behind it.
And I am going to be so, so curious to see your comments and know what you think about it. Because I feel like I have my thoughts and ideas, but you know, what do I know? It's just little old me. So I'm gonna stop talking and let's kick this case off. Now, as we all know, Halloween is one of the biggest party holidays of the year, especially in college towns. The streets are flooded with people who are decked out in full costumes, bars are packed, parties are going, the whole night is filled with excitement and chaos and drinking, sometimes drugs. I mean, lots of things. Now, in Grand Forks, North Dakota, that is exactly what Halloween weekend looked like on Saturday, October 27th, 2007 College students and locals were packing into the bars. People were dressed as all kinds of movie characters and monsters, you know, just all these costumes and people roaming the streets. People drifted from one party to the next. And it was kind of like one of those nights where it's easy to lose track of your friends. Everybody's raging and partying together. You're going in and out of bars, of houses, things like that. And just like people get lost during all of the chaos. Everybody was out. Everybody was having a good time. But by the end of the night, someone wouldn't make it home. Someone who had tried to do the right thing, but was found beaten to death. And there were multiple potential suspects, okay? One of whom was found covered in blood. Yet somehow, this case still left more questions than answers in the grand scheme of things. With the main question of course being, what really happened that night? That night, a 38 year old IT tech named Joel Lovelien and his fiance, Heather Eastling, had met up with some friends at the Broken Drum Bar in downtown Grand Forks. Now Joel and Heather had been doing this long distance relationship type thing for quite a while at this point. However, Heather had recently made the move from Texas. So now they had a lot to celebrate. It wasn't just Halloween weekend, but her moving there, no more long distance, which if you've ever been in a long distance relationship, ugh, it sucks balls. And they were ready to just like party and have fun. Now Joel was a very big ice hockey fan. So he was wearing a bright green jersey repping the University of North Dakota, while Heather was dressed up as a mechanic. So they were having a really fun night out, laughing, drinking, and just enjoying being together, finally, together in person. Joel was seen puffing on a cigar, playing blackjack, and it just felt like the perfect night out. It would really be a Halloween to remember. However, for all of the wrong reasons. Pretty soon, a party bus pulled up to the bar, and about 40 to 50 people, mostly people in their 20s, just came stumbling out of this party bus. Clearly wasted, had been drinking, maybe even day drinking for quite some time at that point, who knows, but obviously drunk and wasted out of their minds and ready to keep the party going. Now, if you don't know what a party bus is, let me break it down for you. It's basically a nightclub on wheels, okay? It's like some of them are decked out with stripper poles inside of them. They have like the disco lights, the strobe lights, loud music, you know, bench seating, not traditional party bus type seating, but like bench seating all around the perimeter. And it's like you have bars on the side, like a traditional limo, not bars, but you know, like ice chests where you can hold drinks. And like everybody's partying and hanging and talking and listening to music. And some of them have like flat screen TVs in them. I mean, they're really fun. So the whole idea is that, oh, while you're in route to the next location, you're able to keep the party going on this bus, drinking, not being risky by driving and just enjoying your time. Now these party goers who arrived were obviously in costume because it was Halloween after all. So that piece of it didn't feel off or unusual. It was just another group out celebrating. So the night continued on like that with people coming and going, drinks flowing, music playing.