You're listening to the Men's Rhea podcast, and this is the story of Vincent Costello, Morgan Costello, and Damian Monahan.

If you found yourself in Holland and were to make your way slightly north and east from the center of the Hague to the coastline, you would find yourself in scavenging them, an upmarket seaside district.

It boasts a long sandy beach and an abundance of bars and restaurants, making it one of the most popular seaside resorts in the Netherlands, favored by both Dutch nationals and tourists alike.

Just before 3 a.m. on Saturday, April 29, 2000, a resident of a luxury apartment complex, overlooking scavening a beach, noticed a smell of burning in the building.

The man alerted the caretaker and together the pair began a search of the high-rise building to try and identify the source of the smell.

When they reached the fifth floor, they saw thick smoke pouring into the hallway from under the door of apartment 1058.

The caretaker notified the fire service who arrived on the scene within minutes, evacuating all of the fifth floor residents.

As the sprawling 14 floor complex was home to almost 1,000 people, the fire crew knew they needed to contain the blaze as quickly as possible to minimize the risk of mass casualties.

Upon entering the apartment, they found the fire raging throughout.

The firefighters began their primary search, making their way through the rooms as they looked for any sign of human life.

All of the main living areas and the bedrooms were empty. However, when they came to the small bathroom at the rear of the apartment, they found a gruesome site.

Lying in the bath were multiple human bodies, all completely engulfed in flames.

On closer inspection, the firefighters saw that there were fireworks scattered around the bodies and throughout the living space.

For this reason, they called in experts to come and help them safely deal with the incendiary devices.

It was also noticed that gas from the kitchen was leaking into the apartment, and it seemed like they had narrowly avoided what could have been a massive explosion.

Once the fire had been extinguished, an examination of the apartment began.

Dutch police were notified, and they set about investigating the fire.

The bodies in the bath were horrifically burned, making it impossible to determine any identifiable features.

Investigators initially thought that there were two deceased individuals, but as they processed the scene, they found the remains of a third body at the bottom of the pile.

Strune throughout the cluttered living room was a cache of guns, ammunition, cocaine, ecstasy, and viagra.

Despite the suspicious circumstances surrounding the blaze and the illegal items that were uncovered in the apartment,

officers initially assumed that the fire was somehow accidental, and that the three people had died as a result of smoke inhalation or burning.

...