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[eerie music playing]
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[conversation over call]
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[opening music playing]
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[man 1 speaking]
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[man 2 speaking]
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[man 3 speaking]
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[man 4]
The thing inside of me,
it's like...
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The appetite,
it's like a wolf that's
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beyond the hunger.
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[opening music concludes]
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[call recording playing]
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[Balcer chuckles]
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[Dr. Sahni] Given that
it was Halloween,
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I think it's always
in the mind of dispatch
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that there may be
a prank or a hoax
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when a phone call comes in
that is shocking,
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and extraordinary,
and outside of what
they might normally expect,
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particularly in
a small community
in a small town in Maine.
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And pretty quickly, I think,
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the detective realizes that
this is likely not a hoax.
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It starts to give us
a very early indication that
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Andrew Balcer has
a lot more going on to him,
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psychologically, than what may
meet the eye, initially.
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[Balcer chuckles]
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[Dr. Tussey]
Balcer sounds jovial.
He's laughing.
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You can almost
see him smirking
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even though you can
only hear him.
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The detective is trying to
keep Balcer on the phone
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to give him some time
to figure that out.
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Determine if there are
any other potential
victims nearby,
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and to decide how best
to move forward.
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[male reporter 1]
It is an all-too-real
Halloween horror story.
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A Winthrop teen is now charged
with murdering a couple.
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[female reporter] State police
say they found the bodies
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of 47-year-old Alice Balcer
and her husband Antonio Balcer
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inside their home on
Pine Knoll Road in Winthrop.
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They're a very generous,
kind people.
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Antonio was a retired
Coast Guardsmen.
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Alice worked at
the Winthrop Veterinary
Hospital just down the road.
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[female reporter]
The couple's 17-year-old son
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has been charged
with their murders.
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[woman] He was a great kid.
Smart, brilliant,
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good in school, um,
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focused, uh, he was
planning going to college.
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Uh, so it doesn't make sense.
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It's a shocker that
this could happen.
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[audio recording playing]
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[Balcer chuckles]
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[Dr. Fox] He self-admits that
he's not really connected
to other people.
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He really lacks that ability
to form inter-personal
relationships.
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It could be
because he doesn't have
the empathy to do so.
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He just doesn't have
even the motivation
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to have that kind of, uh,
inter-personal interaction
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that most of us
all crave and want.
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He doesn't desire it.
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[knocking on door]
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[door opens, closes]
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[audio recording resumes]
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[audio recording playing]
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At this point,
he's completely dissociated
from what's going on.
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He has this clarity
when it comes to
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what he did after he
took a shower, specifics.
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But as soon as
it comes to the murder,
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it's all blurry
and he doesn't remember.
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"And I assume that
I commit the murder
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'cause I had
a knife in my hand."
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These are things that
somebody is doing
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to try to distance themselves.
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It seems like he's trying to
come up with a reason why
he's not responsible
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or trying to
defer responsibility,
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but he doesn't
quite know it yet.
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[audio recording playing]
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[Det 2] Yeah.
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[high-pitched ringing]
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[audio recording resumes]
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So, it's unclear if he's
starting to lay the grounds
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for being incompetent,
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and that maybe he's hearing
auditory hallucinations.
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Or if he's talking about
this tone as
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it's a symptom of tinnitus
or some medical condition
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and it has a parallel
to him feeling agitated.
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We just don't know.
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But what is also
very interesting to hear
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and shows that he has some
self-awareness and insight
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is that he's saying
to the detectives that
he should feel bad.
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He understands that
what he just did
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was significant
by society's standards,
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but he's admitting
he doesn't feel anything.
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[audio recording playing]
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[Dr. Tussey] So,
just a few moments ago,
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we heard him describe
being unclear of the details
of the night.
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Saying that it was, "blurry."
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But as they're unfolding now,
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they actually seem
crystal clear.
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Balcer sounds excited
about recounting the story.
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Almost proud of
an accomplishment,
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like he's talking about a fish
he caught in a tournament,
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but he's describing
killing his mother.
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[audio recording playing]
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[Dr. Sahni]
While there are aspects
of Balcer's decision-making
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that seem premeditated,
planned,
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there's an impulsivity,
overall, to what he's done.
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He's acknowledging that
there really wasn't anything
specific that set him off
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on that specific evening
at the specific time.
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When Balcer talks
about his parents as,
"these effing people,"
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what that may give
us is a glimmer into
how Balcer sees himself
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relative to most human beings.
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That may be
because of his intelligence
and his academic performance
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and accomplishments
he's smarter than most people.
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He may feel he's smarter
than both of his parents
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and disregards them
accordingly.
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And this starts to show us
some of that narcissism
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that we see sometimes
in psychopathic individuals,
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where they think that
they are above everybody else.
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[audio recording playing]
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[audio recording playing]
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So, Balcer is starting to,
you know,
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show his true side again here
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in how he's failing
to accept responsibility.
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See, he's really
blaming the victim here,
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and saying that his mother
was condescending.
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But at the same time,
it makes me wonder
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if there was some
narcissistic injury
that he suffered.
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Like, he has such
a high perception of himself
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and he's so superior,
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that when she
interacted with him,
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perhaps it came off
as condescending.
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And he didn't like that
because it insulted his ego.
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[audio recording playing]
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[Balcer laughs]
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[Dr. Sahni] He acknowledges
he doesn't read people
very well.
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But the disconnect there
is that he can't consider
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or contemplate that
it's possible
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his feelings of contempt
and annoyance at what he saw
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of his mother
being hypocritical,
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or hypercritical towards him,
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were possibly
just his perceptions
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and not actually
based in fact.
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He can't draw that link
even though he acknowledges,
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"I don't read people
very well."
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And as a result,
he makes a decision
based on his rage.
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[audio recording playing]
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[audio recording playing]
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[indistinct]
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Yeah, it's...
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[chuckles] Uh...
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[indistinct
background chatter]
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[Dr. Sahni] What you
never hear from Andrea Balcer
is any acknowledgement
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about truly the seriousness
of this when she's making
light of it
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by drawing parallel
to cookies and milk.
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It's misplaced, it's not
an off the cuff statement.
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It really is
some indication that
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Balcer might use the words
of remorse,
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but really has no clue
what that's about.
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[Dr. Tussey] She says,
"Well, I'm not happy
this happened,"
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as if she has suffered
in this scenario.
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When in fact, again,
she's the one that
inflicted the harm.
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[Dr. Sahni] While it's
not uncommon for adults
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who have been
abused as children
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to avoid disclosing
that abuse,
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the timing
of Balcer's disclosure
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doesn't really support that
that is what happened.
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That there was
a delay in reporting.
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It's important to remember,
at the outset of this
investigation,
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detectives asked Balcer
if there were ever
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any experiences
of trauma or abuse.
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And Andrea's words were,
"Not that I can think of."
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It suggests that,
more consistent with how
psychopathic individuals
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lie and fabricate information
to try and gain an advantage,
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Balcer's now decided
this is the newest version
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of what happened
during the crime
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in the hopes that the court
will give a more lenient
sentence.
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[male reporter 2] One by one,
family and friends spoke up
in court.
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They say Ali and Tony Balcer
were kind, caring, and loving.
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[reading]