Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need

support, please contact your local crisis centre.

For suggested phone numbers for confidential support and for a more detailed list of content

warnings, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website.

At around 2 a.m. on Tuesday, March 19, 1985,

32-year-old David Brown got out of bed, put on some clothes, and then headed outside to his

Honda Prelude, which was parked in the driveway.

David got into the car and backed out into Ocean Breeze Drive, the wide residential street

in Garden Grove, Southern California, where he lived with his family.

The mood at the Brown residence had been somewhat tense that evening.

David's parents had come over to have dinner with David and his 23-year-old wife, Linda.

David and Linda had argued about how best to parent their eight-month-old daughter, Ashley,

not her real name, as she had been crying a lot lately.

David didn't think this was normal and he wanted Linda to rock Ashley to sleep to prevent

her crying at bedtime.

Linda wanted Ashley to learn how to self-soothe and said it would be fine to let her cry herself

to sleep. This had resulted in a

quarrel between the couple. When David asked his parents whether Ashley's crying was normal,

they reassured him that it was, and he subsequently apologized to Linda. That hadn't been

the only unpleasant aspect of the evening.

David had a 14-year-old daughter named Cinnamon from a previous relationship who lived with him

and Linda.

...