This podcast details true crime cases. It contains adult themes and may contain descriptions of violence.

It is not intended for children. Listener discretion is advised.

Thank you for joining me for today's episode of Once Upon a Crime. I'll be continuing where I left off last episode with the story of the

Pacific Heights dog mauling case. If you haven't heard part one, I urge you to do that first

to get the backstory of how this tragedy came to be. Last time, I told you the details regarding

Robert Noel and Marjorie Noler and how they came to own two Presa Canarios,

a rare and powerful breed of dog, popular with drug cartels, gangsters, and others due to their

strength, size, and ability to take down an enemy. Noel and Nolar, in collaboration with a

Pelican Bay inmate, a violent criminal named James

Corn Fed Schneider, planned to breed and raise these dogs for nefarious purposes, according to gang

investigators. In the meantime, two of the dogs, a male named Bain and a female named Hara,

were living in Noel and Nolars' six-floor Pacific Heights apartment, and causing concern among the residents. Several insolars were living in Noel and Nolars' 6th floor Pacific Heights apartment and causing

concern among the residents. Several incidents of aggression by the dogs towards neighbors and their pets

had already occurred, and it would all come to a shocking and tragic ending on January 26, 2001.

Join me as I pick up the story there. This is Chapter 2 of Wild Things,

the Pacific Heights dog malling case, part two. On January 26, 2001, Diane Whipple called her partner

Sharon Smith around noon at her office. She told her she was

coming home early and planned to do some grocery shopping, make dinner, and asked if she wanted to go

catch a movie. Sharon agreed, and Diane asked her to come home early if possible. About 4 p.m. Esther Berkmeier, who lived directly across the hall from Diane and Sharon,

heard dogs barking in the hallway. She'd had her own encounters with the dogs. A couple of months earlier,

she'd encountered Hera, unattended in the six-floor hallway. Hara came at her fast, and Berkmeyer froze. Hera sniffed her and then

walked away when Noler appeared outside her apartment door. She didn't call to the dog, but simply

...