Delusional Killer Targets Doctor Couple Thinking They’re In A Love Triangle

**Stephanie Soo** (0:03)
It is very difficult to be a co-worker to someone who has probably, most likely, genuinely lost their goddamn minds. If it isn't already bad enough to avoid co-worker bonding sessions, co-workers are asking you if you want to go out with them after work, but you would literally rather go home and not think about work. But this, this is worse, because Brenda is not a normal co-worker. She's already complained to every single person at work that her and her dermatologist boyfriend had broken up, but now she's dragging her co-worker, Erin, to this very random, very specific bar in Dallas after work. When Erin gets there, the bar is packed, Brenda guides her to the bar, and there's about three stools left. That's how packed it is. I mean, there's people everywhere. So they take up two of the three stools. They both take a seat, and there's only one empty chair at the bar left. Finally, a woman walks in, and the only available seat is right there, so she takes it. She sits down, and she starts texting on her phone. Erin notices that Brenda is like zeroed in on this random woman who just walked in. And Brenda oddly uses this moment to get up, walk behind her coworker Erin, and start playing with Erin's hair.
Almost as if she's trying to braid it. But it's very clear to Erin, just judging by the finger work, it's not really like she's trying to braid her hair or do anything nice to her hair. And when she looks up at Brenda, Brenda is zeroing in on this woman's phone, seeing what she's doing on the phone.
It's clear from the moment that she saw Brenda all dolled up that this was one of Brenda's crazy plans. Brenda pretends to play with Erin's hair while she watches the woman next to her. And right there, you see this woman texting a man named Ricky.
Ricky never ends up coming into the bar because he pulls up to the parking lot to go into this bar, his date, and he sees his ex-girlfriend's car in the parking lot.
He texts his date to reschedule or to head to a different bar, and he doesn't even know that none of this was a coincidence. This was a setup by Brenda.
We would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for Rotten Mango to support Dentists Who Care, a nonprofit that provides free, urgent dental care for uninsured children and adults, provided by volunteer dentists across the Rio Grande Valley and Texas. This episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support Rotten Mango's team of dedicated researchers, and we would also like to thank you guys for your continued support. As always, full show notes are available at rottenmangopodcast.com. Today's case has brief mentions of gun violence, stalking, relational violence, and a very brief description of stress related to immigration status. Viewer discretion is advised, statements and quotes may be condensed for brevity, and with that said, let's begin. If you guys haven't already listened to audio part one of this podcast or this case, please go listen. We went over who Kendra Hatcher was and why it was so puzzling to detectives when a 35-year-old pediatric dentist was found shot dead in her luxury apartment parking lot. There's so many weird leads that occur with this case. You have a man named Jose seeing his Jeep on the bolo. He comes in and he tells the police, Yes, that's my car. That was my car that was used as the getaway car for when Kendra was murdered, but I don't know Kendra. Then he brings up that his friend had borrowed his car. Her name is Brenda. Brenda has an alibi. Then investigators are like, you know what, maybe we should look back into Kendra's boyfriend at the time, Ricky, who is also a doctor. He's a dermatologist. Then they find out that Ricky and Brenda used to date and everything is falling apart. And in the interrogation room, Detective Barnes just wants one thing from Ricky. They already heard what he was doing. He was in the apartment prepping for their trip. Then he went to go grab tacos. They already saw the messages on Kendra's phone. And now they know that Ricky's ex-girlfriend, one of the people that he reached out to for support, is Brenda, his ex-girlfriend, tiny wrist Jeep Brenda. But because of that connection, authorities want his phone so that they can run a very quick data dump. Nothing serious. They tell him, just give us a copy of your entire cell phone, and we can rule you out and be on your way.
Ricky completely understands. It's just that he got a new phone.