All language subtitles for The.Curious.Case.of.S02E04.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH[EZTVx.to]

My name is Dawn DaLuise.

I was a celebrity esthetician
for 30 years.

[Edward] Dawn's studio was in
West Hollywood.

It really was holy [bleep].

[Dawn] I noticed a new skincare
business opened next door to me.

[Gabriel]
The name's Smooth Cheeks.

You know,
it's a double entendre,

cheeks and cheeks.

[Dawn] And I'm thinking there's
trouble in our midst.

I noticed a slashed tire
one night.

My face had been Photoshopped
on a woman with her legs spread

wide open
and the crotch showing.

[Dawn's friend]
And there were people
actually banging on her door,

"I'm here to rape you."
-It just kept getting worse.

[Dawn]
The only thing I did know

was who I felt was
responsible for it,

and it was Gabriel Suarez.

So Dawn had sent me a text
message saying that she had

found somebody
to take Gabriel out.

[Chris] And I was just like,
"I can't believe this lady

has this many problems."

[siren wailing]

[Edward]
He ended up arresting her for
solicitation to murder Gabriel.

And they released that mugshot,
which was a very rough mugshot.

I was in the dark completely
about how she hated me.

She's dangerous.

[Beth] "I could even have lured
Gabriel to my home.

I would have shot him."

That is all troubling.

No, we keyed Gabriel's car.

Nick and I also posted
Craigslist ads

with her phone number
and a Photoshopped face

of a woman in various
sexual positions.

[somber cello plays]

[theme music ends]

[reporter]
Dawn DaLuise is locked up behind
bars on a million-dollar bond.

Right now, as we speak,
she is in jail.

[Dawn] While I was in jail,
my landlord managed to send

an eviction notice to the jail

that I hadn't made my rent
in a month.

And then the same thing
happened with my clinic.

And I just had to watch my life
fall apart in slow motion.

Nothing I could do about it.

This is my jail uniform
that I wore...

when I was in
LA County Jail.

♪♪

I'd always been active,

and it was very important
to stay fit.

What this originally was
was the backing of a bra.

The two bras actually, not
unlike what they have in gyms

when you want to do
some strength training.

I needed these things to
basically feel like I was still

a woman, still feminine,
not just a number,

not just an inmate.

I was shocked when I learned
how Nick and Ed generated this

whole campaign
of denigration against me.

By the time I was in jail,
by the time I'm learning that,

well, these two men are
stalking you, it was so

devastating to me.
I was numb.

Somebody could have
pushed me over a building

and my heart wouldn't
have even gone up

before I splattered on
the pavement.

So the flyers that were
distributed had Dawn's face

Photoshopped on somebody else's
body in a sexual situation with

some catchy taglines --
"First time free."

"Sex party tonight"
was a good one.

We had flyered her office

and we had flyered
her apartment building.

It really got crazy, right?

[Beth] So Dawn's friends,
the ones she confided in,

they're the ones
behind all this abuse.

The whole context for
her anger, outcry against

Gabriel Suarez was orchestrated,

was manipulated by Nick and Ed.

Meanwhile, Dawn's facing
charges of solicitation

of murder,
about as serious as it gets.

Prosecutors offered her
plea deals,

but she wouldn't take them.

So now this case
is headed to trial.

[Dawn] Every time I laid my head
on the pillow at night,

I knew I was innocent.

I was never gonna concede to
something I didn't do.

Why in the world would I say

I was trying to have
someone murdered?

Just so that
I could go home early?

Hell no, no!

[Jim] This story,
it's got everything.

It's got Hollywood,
it's got revenge,

it's got betrayal, intrigue.

The public, eager to find out
what really happened,

is going to get an answer.

We had kind of heard tidbits
about it as we were getting

called for jury duty,
and you could tell

this was gonna be kind of
a salacious case.

[Christine] Dawn DaLuise made
a series of really bad choices.

And the more
she dug her heels in,

deciding that Gabriel Suarez
was her nemesis

and she needed to get revenge,

the more trouble
she got herself into.

[Gabriel]
It would never dawn on me that
we're competitors

because I predominantly wax.

Little did know that
she was festering all this

behind my back,
and I had no idea.

[juror #12]
In one hand, we're being
presented this white,

privileged lady who has
friends in high places,

and maybe she just got fooled.

And then on the other side,
you're being presented this

monster of a person
who went after somebody.

I was very confused,
to be honest.

[Beth] So we know that Dawn told
the police that if she could

have lured Gabriel to her house,

she would have shot him
and argued self-defense.

So she had
the capacity to kill.

She could have done that,
but instead she went up to

Big Bear, and she found this
big, beefy former NFL player

who listened to her...

tell her sob story
about the harassment.

And it was terrible harassment.

[Christine]
She texted to Ed Feinstein,

"I found someone
who will take Gabriel out."

Yes, Dawn DaLuise
was in fact victimized by

her so-called friends.

However, you don't get to take
the law into your own hands.

You don't get to
become a vigilante.

[Jamon]
The lead detective was making
this seem like a slam-dunk

solicitation for murder,
but the gentleman that

they were claiming that
Ms. DaLuise was soliciting

for murder, he was not arrested.

He gave no indication that
he was, in fact, solicited.

[Chris] I was sitting on
my couch, and the phone rang.

He said he was a detective,

and I thought someone
was pranking me.

You know, I said,
"Come on, who is this?"

You know, this is funny.
Ha ha ha, OK?

And he said, "You might want to
turn on the television."

And I was like,
"What the heck's going on?"

The media was saying that I was
hired by Dawn to be a hit man

against this skincare guy,
which was ludicrous.

The most that I ever said was
that I would show up with

her arm-in-arm and walk by.

That's it.
That way I'd be a deterrent.

Of the 6,000 messages,
there were two messages that

they tried to say connected
her to this solicitation.

And even those were not
conclusive of trying to solicit

somebody to murder Mr. Suarez.

[Dawn] I didn't think clearly
when I sent those texts out.

I was just blowing off steam
and blowing up phones with,

"If I could just kill this
[bleep] with my bare hands,
I would.

I can't stand him."

You know, "I'm going to copy
these Craigslist ads and send

"men to his home to rape him.

"And I'm going to use
the same language.

"We're gonna put
a blindfold on you.

"And this [bleep]
son-of-a-bitch, douchebag,

you know, I'm gonna kill him
with my bare hands."

And then I would say
in that same thread

to Edward Feinstein,
"Oops, I'm running late for work

and have to get
my oil changed first."

[Christine]
Ms. DaLuise, even through all
of this turmoil and all these

things that she thought
he was doing,

she never marched
20 feet down the hall and said,

"Gabriel, WTF?

What's going on?
Why are you doing this to me?"

That never happened.

Instead, she communicated to
Chris Geile via text,

"Is the Aryan Brotherhood
only in prison?

"I can't believe I can't find
some white supremacist who'd

want to do harm to a double
minority, a gay Mexican."

It was a decidedly disturbing
text message that she'd sent.

And I think the jury from
initially was looking at me

kind of like, "Why are you
on this case?"

[juror #12]
I think as jurors, we were all
pretty disgusted at the time of

hearing these things
being said.

She was talking about people
that, you know,

represented people in the jury,
and it affected me.

I was definitely upset.

Is this a woman in distress,
or is this a woman who's just

racist and doesn't care about
anyone else but herself?

Dawn said she was trying to
find somebody to take out

a double-minority Mexican gay.

Take him out where?
I mean...not dinner.

[Gabriel] Dawn sent my picture
to Chris Geile.

"This is what
Gabriel looks like.

This is where he lives."

That's not an innocent person.

[Chris] She may have shown me,
like, his Facebook page

or something like that.

Anything else,
that was all in her head.

[Jamon]
Just merely sharing a photo of
someone is not solicitation.

Now, if she would have shared
a photo and then there's

a discussion of when,
where, and how this is gonna

be done, then, of course,
that photo would be

damaging information.

[Christine]
Geile didn't have to say,
"Oh, yeah, she promised me

the moon if I would
kill this guy."

And I knew I wasn't gonna
get that out of him.

[Jamon]
They tried to make it seem
like it was the facials in lieu

of the financial compensation.

But the thought that somebody
would murder somebody for

free facials is just a hard pill
to really swallow.

I know it looks like I need
a lot of facials, but still,

I would never
do anything like that.

I don't care what the price is.

[Jamon] The alleged victim,
Gabriel Suarez, came off as

somebody that was trying to
publicize his business.

And the cameras are there,
and he has the hat on with

"Smooth Cheeks" giving
an interview where

he's smiling,
where he's laughing,

where he doesn't come across as

somebody that's concerned that
he almost died.

It started to seem like
a little circus, and it lost

its value that this is
a potential murder.

I mean, this reminds me of
Natalia Grace's story.

Well, I didn't know
who to believe.

Everybody seemed
to have a motive to lie,

not be completely
forthcoming.

It's, like, my head was spinning
in that story,

and it's starting to spin
in this one, too.

[Jim] This case took less than
40 minutes for the jury to

determine that there was
no murder for hire,

that Dawn DaLuise was in fact
not guilty of soliciting murder.

I felt like a weight had been
taken off my shoulders.

[Gabriel] How is this possible?

She was trying to take me out
as a double minority,

a Mexican gay, which I think
should be a hate crime.

She gets off scot-free

and continues to
play the martyr.

The system failed.

[Christine]
The jury, I think they were
driven by a sympathy for

her because of this stalking
that was happening to her.

[juror #12] It felt good to know
that we were going to be sending

an innocent woman home that
maybe made some bad choices,

maybe trusted the wrong people,

maybe said the wrong thing
at times,

but who hasn't in their life?

I mean, really, Chris Geile
is a patsy in this whole thing.

And in the end,
he's collateral damage.

He got hurt by
this whole thing, never charged,

but he paid a price.

[Christine]
Dawn's never reached out
to me or just to say,

"Hey, I'm sorry," or anything
like that because of this text

she sent to her best friend.
It's still on the internet.

Me and "hit man" on
the headline -- I hate that.

It's a shame.
It completely ruined me.

So.

[Beth]
After spending almost a year
in jail, Dawn walks free.

Not guilty is not a finding of
innocence, OK?

Not guilty just means
you didn't prove your case.

And now here's where things
get even more surreal.

The same prosecutor's office
that charged Dawn with

solicitation for murder now
begins to prepare its case

against Ed and Nick for
the harassment that seemed to

push Dawn over the edge
in the first place.

And like almost every element
of this story, nothing is as

straightforward
as it first seems.

♪♪

[Edward] I heard a faint knock
at the door...

when the door then exploded
off the hinges...

[dramatic music playing]

...and it was the Sheriff's
Department SWAT team.

That was a holy [bleep] moment.

[laughing]

But I have to say,
for a SWAT team,

they were all very old
and very out of shape.

It was, like, two flights of
stairs, and they were...

[panting]

[chuckles] "You guys OK?"

So anyway, I was handcuffed.

Detective McCauley said,
"Well, you know, we're going to

arrest you for stalking Dawn."
And I said, "Well, OK."

I wasn't happy with my mugshot

because I just had a facial
like two days before.

So I had a big,
like, zit right there.

So it wasn't a very
flattering one.

Not ideal.

[Beth] And looking at the level
and sophistication of

the cyber stalking
and harassment of Dawn
by Nick and Eddie,

it strikes me that
she's not their first victim.

It's targeted.
It's multilayered.

It's sinister.

There's no way this is

their first run around
the criminal block.

♪♪

So, there's a birdhouse
straight up this driveway.

[David] But that's just kind of
an odd place for a birdhouse.

So, I would imagine
there's a camera in there.

So, my name is David Torres.

I'm a retired detective
with LAPD.

I was assigned to
North Hollywood Division
Property Crimes.

[Beth]
So in 2009, Detective Torres
was handed a file about

a West Hollywood business that
had been the victim of multiple

incidents of fraud perpetrated
by a former employee

named Ed Feinstein.

Ed Feinstein,
our "reliable" narrator.

Or is he unreliable?

[David] My victim, in my case,

she owned
a pet grooming company.

When a customer uses
their debit card or credit card,

they swipe it through
the machine.

And so, the funds will
eventually go into

your business account.

I think it was about
30-some-thousand dollars
before my victim understood

that money was no longer going
into her business account.

We had to find out
what account it went to,

and this came back
to Mr. Feinstein.

While I was working on that,
my victim complained of

a second instance.

Feinstein was in charge of
taking the checks

and the daily receipts,
but instead of depositing it

into her business account,

he was depositing it into
his personal account

to a tune of maybe
$100,000 or more.

That's when we arrested him.

He's a smart, intelligent guy,
so he really knows how to talk

to people,
but unfortunately, he used it,

in my opinion,
in the wrong way.

[Beth] Ed was convicted of
identity theft and grand theft

and sentenced to 16 months in
prison, and he served his time.

So, you know, it seems like
these crimes are motivated by

greed, but when Ed got out,
he returned to West Hollywood.

He's got a vendetta against
his former grooming business

employer, and that's where
we see the seeds of the MO

that he later unleashed on Dawn.

[David]
The same victim contacts me,
and she says that she's getting

text messages, pictures of
her house and her car coming

out of her driveway, with some
threatening messages,

basically saying, you know,
"I'm following you,

do you know who this is?"
And so forth.

She suspected it
was Mr. Feinstein.

I investigated, and based on
that, and he was gonna violate

on his parole, and sent him back
to prison for a little bit.

He doesn't let things lie,
you know?

He will harass you,
and if he feels you did him

wrong or you got him in
trouble, Eddie would definitely

make you crazy, thinking that
you're being followed,

thinking that
you're being stalked,

because he can lead
danger to your door,

and he doesn't hesitate
to do so.

[Edward]
I was young when everything
happened and unfortunately

ran with the wrong crowd.

And I might've gotten into
a little bit of trouble for

borrowing some money
that wasn't mine.

Served my time,
and it is what it is.

And what am I gonna do?

Lop off my hand and repent for
the rest of my life?

[Tamar]
To the outside world, it might
seem crazy that this is all

over facials and waxing.
This is LA.

Our facialist is just as
important as

our priest, our rabbi,

and our therapist.

I'm Tamar Arminak, and I am
an attorney in Los Angeles.

I was hired by Nick originally,

and that's how I got familiar
with the case.

[Beth]
Nick Prugo gained notoriety
as the head of a crew

of cat burglars in Los Angeles.

In fact, the most famous cat
burglars in the history

of Los Angeles.

Nick Prugo was part of this
LA bling ring crew.

And for several months,
they really terrorized

the LA celebrities.

The bling ring was a huge media
sensation who would break into

celebrities' homes like
Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton

and Orlando Bloom.

[Elissa] All of L.A.
was on high alert.

They were trying to figure out
who was behind this crime ring.

And it turned out that it was
basically a group of teenagers

from the Valley.

One of the members of
the bling ring was caught on

security camera.
She was picked up.

She turned in
Nick Prugo

and said,
that's the ringleader.

[Beth] The bling ring was
brought down in 2009.

Nick Prugo pleaded no contest

and was sentenced
to two years in prison.

[Edward] I met Nick through
mutual friends

a few years before Dawn
came into the equation.

Then he had gone to jail
and then we had picked up

the relationship
once he was out.

[Beth] And this is where
our two stories collide.

I remember exactly when Dawn
first mentioned Nick to me.

In 2013, she was doing well,
and she was looking to

leverage the connections that
she had acquired in Hollywood.

Celeb reality was kind of
the thing at the moment.

And she thought, you know,
why not take his notoriety

and try to see if it had any
value in the reality TV market?

And Dawn decided that she was
going to be Nick's manager.

So I guess in Los Angeles,

you can be
an agent-hyphen-facialist?

[Dawn]
Since he was such an expert
burglar, the show might have

him talking about how people
can better secure their homes

so that, you know,
they don't get robbed.

And the catchphrase
was going to be

"Take it from me
before I take it from you."

But at the same time,
I was giving him facials

in my clinic because
he had terrible skin.

[Elissa] They were spending
a lot of time together.

They had formed
a personal friendship.

[Dawn] There were multiple times
Nick Prugo himself

had reached out
to his parole officer and said,

"Would you please start talking

"to this woman named
Dawn DaLuise?

She takes care of me.
I'm going to her for skincare."

Dawn claims that the
parole officer "deputized her"

as a parole agent to watch over
Nick, which...is that legal?

[Elissa]
Nick and Dawn's relationship
was starting to grow a little

acrimonious because
Dawn was sort of forsaking

her skincare business
in order to help sell the show.

[Dawn] He started to get
too full of himself.

He wasn't showing up
for meetings.

He was sort of blowing me off
in an indignant way.

He's not taking his urine tests
and he's been going to Vegas.

And I immediately called up
that parole officer

and told him that
because I says,

"I don't want to be accountable
for him anymore."

It's when I dropped him
that things got really bad.

Now, after Dawn reported Nick,

he went back to prison for
violating his parole,

which essentially
ended their friendship.

[Edward] When you're on parole,
you're not supposed to leave

the state, but, I mean,
we just went for the weekend

and we came back.

It's not like we were
committing crimes in Nevada.

I don't think that
that was something that...

she should have called
and tattled

because he ultimately
went to jail for it.

And according to Dawn,
this is the answer to

the question, "Why?"

Nick was so angry at
the perceived betrayal that

he and Ed gaslit Dawn into
believing that Gabriel was out

to get her, all while they were
harassing her in the shadows

in the name of revenge.

That's just
an [bleep] thing to do.

But I guess she got her karma

because she went to jail
for a year, so.

Dawn's version of this always
was that Ed and Nick were

behind all of this,
gaslighting her the entire time,

telling her that it
was -- it was Gabriel.

And she was acquitted
based on that.

That is not what this was.

[Edward] I feel like with Dawn,
the best analogy that I have is

she likes to say, "Well, you
know, I was found not guilty."

Well, you know what?

So was OJ Simpson, and we know
what really happened there.

So...

Sorry, Dawn.

She was in on it.

From the very beginning,
this is exactly the path that

Dawn wanted to go down.

She wanted the Craigslist
ads posted.

She wanted the flyers done.
She wanted the text messages.

[Tamar] She used Nick and Ed
to direct the setup of

Gabriel's harassment.

She's the one that came up
with everything.

Nick and Ed are innocent.

So Gabriel moved into
the complex to ultimately

poach her clients,
according to Dawn.

And she was just extremely
paranoid with him being

one door down.

And she really felt that
she needed to get him gone.

I had worked for a property
management company.

So she had asked, like,
"Hey, look, you know, I'm having

a problem with this guy,"
which was Gabriel.

"I need to get him
out of the building.

From your standpoint,
could I do that?"

And in the brief knowledge
that I had, I said,

"Well, if you have
a police report, I would assume

that your landlord
would have to do something."

Dawn had brought up the idea,
which was our downfall.

"Hey, boys, I don't really know
how to use

"the computer that well.

"Do you think you could
help me out, and I won't

charge you for facials?"

At $150 a pop,
couple times a week,

sure, yeah, I'll help you.

[Tamar] Ed went along with
the whole thing, was in for it,

just like Nick was.

That's got to be a really
good facial.

[Edward] At any time,
she could have told us, "Stop."

We would have stopped.
We had no reason to...

do it on our own.

She was our friend.

She was caught participating
in the stalking of herself.

[Beth] Here's the problem with
Ed's subversion

that they were just
doing this for Dawn.

It makes a lot more sense that
they engage in this harassment

for revenge and not for
a lifetime of free facials.

Nick and Ed both had prior
felony convictions.

And in California,
which is a three-strike state,

if you're smart, you don't want
to take any chances

because the third strike can
carry a life sentence.

If Ed and Nick were doing this
out of revenge, well, people go

to all kinds of lengths
for revenge.

So was the harassment against
Dawn motivated by retribution

on the part of Nick,
with Ed helping his friend

in this situation?

This seems incredibly
risky, but possible.

[Edward] Three strikes?
[bleep] that.

You automatically get
two strikes for bad skin
in this town.

So another thing that Dawn kind
of claims is that all of this

kind of "harassment" that was
happening to her, happened after

the fact of her calling
the parole officer and Nick

ultimately going to jail for
a parole violation.

But that's not true.
Her timeline...

is very imaginatory,
and it doesn't line up

to -- to the facts.

We went through 6,000 messages
from Dawn's phone.

If there were messages
between her and Ed,

or between her and Nick,
stating,

"Let's set up this ruse,"
we would have seen those.

Stalking myself, slashing my
own tires so that I would have

a legitimate reason to murder
this business rival next door.

I was not doing any of that.

She never changed
her phone number.

I know if I was getting
hundreds of texts a day

and [bleep] pics,
I probably would change
my phone number, right?

That'd be number one.

There were never any recorded
calls of her calling 911,

saying somebody's trying to
break in.

She wasn't getting the response
that she needed from

the police department to get
Gabriel out of the building.

So she asked us to escalate it.

That is when there's
text messages

and there's phone calls
between Dawn and Ed

directed to terrorize Gabriel.

Do I have any proof?
I mean...

[laughing]

...what don't I have?

I have texts of Dawn talking
about how she's going to post

Craigslist ads for Gabriel to
have men come over

and potentially
assault Gabriel.

I have text messages where Dawn
asked us to key Gabriel's car.

[Gabriel]
My car got keyed twice.

I had a beautiful Audi
convertible

that I had just bought.

I believe that she was nudging
me, she was picking at me.

She wanted a reaction
out of me.

She was egging me on until
she got a confrontation to --

that she could tell people
that we had one.

We never had one.
I never gave it to her.

That's the real story.

In some of the text messages,
she had brought up that she was

going to lie to the police
and say that Gabriel was in

her apartment, that Gabriel was
gonna kidnap her.

And she sort of acted it out

for us in kind of a comical way.

She bound her wrist with some
scarves and gagged herself like

she was kidnapped and escaped
and looking for help.

[Edward laughing]

She was very much
orchestrating and directing

what Nick and Ed
were doing for her.

[Edward] We were laughing
and she was laughing.

And again, we never really took
anything serious because...

we knew what
was going on, right?

That video was
a big thing in court.

My attorney, Tamar, had asked,
"Hey, is there a video of

you tying yourself up,
pretending that you're
kidnapped?"

"No, absolutely not."

And then Tamar said,

"Hit the lights,
play the video."

And at that point,
I just feel like any

credibility that she had,
which was not much, was gone.

I can't -- it wasn't me
being tied up in video.

It wasn't, no, um --

if this is my apartment,
there was a window right there.

And one day I was sitting there

and a woman...

with a gag on
and her hands tied

is smashing against my window
and going, [nonsense muttering].

And it scared the crap
out of me.

This is before those men were
around or anything.

[nonsense muttering]

I thought it was a hostage that
had escaped from one of

the other tenants' area.

I go out there, and I see a man
and a woman pushing her into

one of the apartments.

And I learned later she was
a severely autistic relative.

She was just very,
very handicapped.

Whatever was wrong with
her made her like this

all the time, and she finally
had to have her hand.

And I was trying to tell them
this thing happened,

and it scared the crap out of
me, and I was pantomiming it.

Dawn was like a birthday clown
performing, right?

Like, everything that she said,
she was just caught in a lie.

[goofy music playing]

[Beth] Dawn's explanation to
our producers about why she was

tying herself up in a video
pretending to be kidnapped

raises serious questions
about her credibility.

We have learned during
the course of investigating

this story, and Dawn has
confirmed, that even before

Gabriel moved in next door
to her, there was

another facialist.

And she had problems
with that facialist.

I remember there was
a group of women.

They moved into the building,
and she was freaking out about

them potentially
taking her clients.

She said they were
causing problems.

She said that she was calling
the building manager a lot.

And eventually, the women were
just out of there.

I don't know if they got kicked
out or they just had enough.

I had problems with her because
she was accosting my clients.

And she was gone in no time
because of the landlord

kicking her out when he learned.

It was an odd after-hours sex
sort of thing.

Not only was it a brothel,
but it was also

a mini-transvestite, um...

gathering.

Sound familiar?

Maybe this is a pattern on
Dawn's part.

[Edward] This is exactly
what Dawn does.

She just has to go balls to
the wall to get him kicked out,

whatever she needed to do.

[Beth] So, Ed and Nick...

were charged with felonies
for stalking Dawn,

but they didn't go to trial,
because in the end,

they were offered misdemeanor
stalking plea deals

with three years probation and
350 hours of community service,

and they jumped at it because
they're both convicted felons.

And so they would have served
some significant state prison

time for what they say
they were just doing

because Dawn asked them to.

A lot of these allegations
can come down to,

really, a he-said, she-said.

There is corroboration for them,
but you've got to believe

their stories to believe one
side or the other, and both of

them have credibility problems.

In fact, Ed is currently

engaged in a situation with
his neighbor in Leona Valley

that includes allegations
of stalking.

[Carrie] Edward Feinstein.

Everyone knew that he was
someone to be leery of.

My name is Carrie Lynne,
and I'm at Medicine Horse Ranch

in Leona Valley, California.

Leona Valley is a small town.

We've only got two restaurants,
a store, a feed store.

So not a lot of us out here,

but those of us who are here
really love being here.

In the fall of 2019, I had
received a call from a friend

who had a new neighbor move in.

In Leona Valley, a lot of
the properties were divided

many, many years ago.

Most people, if the property
lines are off by a foot
or whatever,

we just agree to leave it that
way because it's a lot easier

than tearing down fences

and drawing a new line
a foot over.

That wasn't the case with
the new neighbor,

Edward Feinstein.

[Edward] I hired a surveyor.

The neighbor wasn't
happy about it,

and it kind of spiraled

into not a good situation.

Edward was very upset about
the property line and started

having a dispute with my friend
who is his neighbor.

He had gotten quite
vocal and threatening.

And so she looked him up and it
didn't take long for her to

discover that he had
quite a history.

So when she told me
what she had found,

his connections to the bling
ring guy and what happened

to the esthetician,

and how worried she was about
this neighbor,

so then I was intrigued.

And I looked up...

Dawn and found her contact
information and reached out to

her and asked,
"How much danger am I in?"

We agreed to meet in person
and have a chat,

and she wanted to learn
more about me

and tell me a little bit more
about her story with Edward.

I connected with Carrie,

and I really liked
her right away.

So, you know, we're comparing
notes and all that,

and she would tell me
horror stories about what

she would endure with him.

She had visited the ranch
a couple of times.

She was really trying to keep

as close to tabs on Edward as
she possibly could.

You know, it just made me
extremely uncomfortable

because Dawn is now coming

an hour and a half
out of her way,

passing my house,
knowing where I live,

what kind of vehicle I drive,

to go to this person's house
to, you know,

sit there and talk about me.

[Beth]
OK, so this neighbor reaches
out to Dawn and Dawn goes up to

visit and become friends with
somebody who did have

an issue with Ed?
That is just not smart.

Get on with your life,
rebuild yourself,

and just stay away from him.

Carrie just kind of went with
the Dawn story and told

everybody I was this awful
person, and that small town

kind of turned on me.

There was a number of us
ladies in town who formed

an email group about,
you know, let's -- let me know

what you discover, if anything
happens, because we just don't

know what kind of threat he is.

So this lady apparently thinks
that she's the town crier

because people don't mind
their [bleep] business when

things don't have
anything to do with them.

[Carrie] I was riding my horse
past his ranch one day,

and he had come out

of his gate quite aggressively
and approached me on my horse

and was threatening that
he has ways to destroy us

and my mortgage
could be in trouble.

And I was like,
"What the hell?"

And this was after
a couple months of him
flipping us the bird

every time we drive by.

There were a couple of
law enforcement people

that I spoke with who did
indicate that

I should be careful,

saying, watch yourself.

My concern was this person
who was able to do this to Dawn

now lived five doors
away from me and hated my guts.

We were [bleep] mortal enemies,

and I would not piss on her
if she was on fire.

[Carrie] I was diagnosed with
breast cancer early in
the spring of 2022.

And my friends were posting on
my Facebook and, you know,

wishing me luck and good health

and things as I was going
into treatment.

And I had gotten a friend
request from a local person

with just a cartoon picture,
very naive of me,

but this person had also
befriended a lot of

my other friends
in Leona Valley.

So I thought, "Oh, maybe
it's a new person."

And it was a woman's name.

And so I accepted
the friend request.

And it wasn't very long
after that.

There was a loose peacock
running down the road.

I had known Edward
had peacocks.

And I emailed him and said,
"Is this your peacock?"

I said, "I was just trying to
be neighborly."

And he said, "What would have
been more neighborly is you had

"to mind your own effing
business this whole
last two years.

And you deserve the cancer
that you have."

There is that saying that
for every action,

there is a reaction.

And she got a hell
of a reaction.

And it clicked in my head
because I thought,

how on earth do you know?

And then I thought about
this person, this unknown

Facebook friend, and I went back
and looked again, and it was

clearly a fake profile.

This is Edward.

[Edward]
First of all, don't add people
you don't know

or don't have social media.

Problem solved.

[Beth]
So when you look at all
the key players in this story,

Dawn and Ed
and Gabriel and Nick,

who's the most
reliable storyteller?

Who doesn't have
credibility issues?

Who doesn't have a record?

It's Gabriel.

Gabriel is the one who comes
out the most credible.

It's really astounding
the lengths people will take to

preserve the life
they've built.

Here it's Dawn and her business
in the highly competitive

skincare industry and how people
will do almost anything to have

beautiful skin,
like Ed and Nick.

Until, of course, things went
sideways with Dawn.

[Dawn]
It's always good to do dumpster
diving behind any kind of

salons, because you never know
what they will throw out.

[laughs]

I hope this isn't to parody me
as a fool.

Ugh.
[laughs]

I just hope there aren't any
rats in here that start to bite.

Hmm.

[laughs]

Let's see what this is.

Oh, my goodness.
You guys.

Dermalogical skin
hydrating mask.

Are you freaking kidding me?

This has got to be
at least about $90.

Just poking around in
here, right?

I promise I didn't plant
these things.

Oh, wait.
Wait.

Look.

What is this?
A skin perfecting primer?

I've actually needed one
of those.

Dawn has the brightest...

outlook on life, even with all
the tragedy that

she has suffered.

You guys, this is about $200
worth of stuff,

and it hasn't
been opened either.

Who would get rid of that?
You gotta wonder.

There is no -- oops!

There is no rhyme or reason,

there is no logic behind
throwing these things away.

Even though these horrible
individuals tried to ruin

her life, she is back to
the Dawn --

and looking fabulous --

that I always knew.

[Dawn]
Yeah, who knows what else I'll
find before the day is over.

Wow.

I live a very normal life,
and I keep to myself.

I'm not fixated on Dawn or
hacking into Carrie's Facebook

to find out what she's having
for dinner tonight.

I definitely think that Dawn
tracks me, and I definitely

feel like she's probably on my
Facebook under a fake account.

I mean, if she wants to know
what I'm up to,

she can definitely come pick up
a pitchfork and help me pick up

some horse[bleep] -- that would
be appreciated.

So, Dawn, if you're
watching this, call me

and I can put you to work.

You can keep your top on
this time.

There's a rumor that
a school principal

hypnotizes kids.

-It never seemed harmful
at first.

-And then the kids
fall into his lap.

Like he looked
like he was like...

-Who gave him the right
to be God?

I didn't.

-There's sinister people
in this world.