WTBL - Walking the Blue Line

Note of Transcription - There were various parts of the recorded conversation with Robin that could not be transcribed or did not pick up properly, so unfortunately this Transcript is not fully complete.

WTBL (00:00)
Hello everyone, this is Yvonne and Lyle. Welcome to our True Crime Podcast today.

WTBL (00:10)
Hey, welcome back everyone that joined us for the first episode of the milkshake murder. And for those that you haven't been here before, please go look at our last episode. This will be part two. And I think last week we left off from the interview with David Pettis. Yes, we did. So today we're going to bring you a bit of.

Robin's interview and it was a phone interview so no video with this either. Yeah and you know I realized that some of the conversation is a little hard to understand. The bad part about police interviews is they don't happen in a sound studio quality recordings so you get a little bit of that.

That's not too It's evident in this one is because she was just on the phone and it was recorded with just a little tape recorder. yeah, hopefully you guys can make it out. but let's go back and recap a little bit of David's interview because there was several things that were said in the few minutes that when you start looking at it, really kind of.

actually brings more suspicion than it does answers. Yes, it does. There's a lot of little things, even a few things that Robin says that eventually comes to believe him for the most part, but she had her suspicions as well. Right. So going back to David's interview about Peggy. he was saying that in 2016

she was gored by a hog and that's when she started taking pain medication. she passes away in 2018. So we got a two year period.

Right when there was also some mention of two years before that her mom had some of the hydrocodone and Peggy had supposedly been taking that as well according to what he had to say. Right so again trying to put that in perspective

When we looked at what Peggy had gotten, she'd gotten like one prescription for a very small amount of hydrocodone. And then he was saying that she bought what three bottles home from her mom's that were 90 count But again, with her mom passing away in 2014, that would have been about four years altogether. Right. Right. So wouldn't have lasted very long. No, not at three pills a day. A 90 counts only going to last you 30 days. Right. So how does

pain medication from four years ago, you know, that long if you're taking that much of it. Now, Dave also had a prescription, but it wasn't a very large amount either. And it was quite some time before all that. so what Dave had to say about the hydrocodone isn't really adding up. Dave talks about

her handling all the bills and being the account manager for the business? Yeah, he says that he didn't have anything to do with that and that she was forgetting to make payments. But when it was looked into, it wasn't so much that she wasn't making payments, but there was a lot of bounced checks and, you know, non-sufficient funds that was really going on. Yeah, they're like a lot of families. They're just getting by paycheck to paycheck, right? Yeah, yeah.

So it was basically her income from being a bus driver and he had a dump truck, was it? Well, it sounds to like he had a couple of different trucks over the years. One of them was a logging truck and maybe a dump truck. And so he had a driver and he was doing a little bit of the driving and that was where their money was coming from.

But even at that, so she's working as a bus driver and I think her coworkers had some interesting things to say as well. Yeah, they were speaking about how they would see her take some Tylenol and she would take a couple of those every once in while and she had absolutely no problem swallowing pills and she didn't take anything more than that, just the Tylenol.

Right, I mean, it seems kind of in conflict with what Dave is saying, especially being a school bus driver and having a CDL license. you can't really do that if you've got memory problems. He was saying that she was struggling with her memory. She was in a lot of pain and we both have had parents that had, memory issues. And I know that if she was struggling the way he was saying.

I don't think she'd be driving a bus up until almost the year that she died. mean. Right. And on top of that, all we've talked about is hydrocodone, but she has to take occasional. Drug test. Random drug tests, you know? So what about the possibility of losing her job if she's taking medication the way that he's

WTBL (04:42)
So another part that Dave kind of contradicts himself about is this relationship, his dad and his son, he says, are not talking to him. Right, there's one point where he says they're not talking and then there's another point where he's like, hey, go talk to him. But we should explain that his dad is not really his dad. He had two sets of sort of like foster parents that weren't really.

parents or his foster parents. There were people that helped him when his mom left him and his dad and took him in when he was much younger. And now they've come to live with Dave and Peggy and they've been there for like the last 16 months. Right. And one of the fathers has passed away and that's who he went. Supposedly that's what he went to New York for in November was for the funeral. But this set is now living with him has been there since.

What 16 months right but they said that the reason that they aren't talking to him is because they don't quite believe his story either right they were there the night that Peggy passed away right and they've had the opportunity to observe all the rituals from the previous 16 months such as preparing medication and and they said they don't remember seeing any of that and they don't

Remember, Peggy really drank it much at all. Right. They describe Peggy as a teetotaler to some degree, very rarely consumes alcohol. Which makes sense if you're a bus driver. Right. And they knew that she experienced a little bit of pain, but not the amount that Dave is expressing. Not three pills of hydrocodone with alcohol. Right. So now his dad and his son won't talk to him.

basically they've separated ties because they don't trust him. Right. They just don't believe his story and they don't trust him. But during the interview now he tells us to go talk to them like they're going to vouch for him. the stories, like I said, start getting a little weird.

WTBL (06:41)
now, turning to that part of the interview where we talked about Peggy's health and going for the physical, for the life insurance, Dave kind of scoffed at that point, and I hope some of you maybe caught it. He said something to the effect of, if that's what you call it. Right. He made it seem like that they went there because Peggy was having memory problems. But when the doctor was questioned, she was like, well, no,

That's not what the appointment was really for. was for this physical so she could get insurance. Exactly. And that's the insurance policy that ends up only taking effect three days before she passes away. Passes away. And I think the doctor said also that she didn't notice any memory issues with her. Right. And she wasn't in that much pain. They had mentioned something about a sciatic hurting,

but nothing like what Dave was trying to portray. And so, you know, then the conversation with Dave also turned to the relationship with Robin. Right. And he admits in the interview that he has feelings for this woman or that he had feelings for her for the past 40 years. Yeah. significant. And in the interview, Robin will say that.

They were friends in high school and that he was her best friend and there was a couple of times she wanted to beat him up or whatever kind of jokingly, but that they had reconnected though recently through Facebook about a year and a half before And they had talked a little bit back and forth and that she had talked to Peggy once on the phone. Right.

But more so, Dave says during his interview that Peggy basically gave her blessing for him to have an extramarital affair with Robin. Right, and Robin tries to tell it in a nice way of how that came about.

WTBL (08:30)
So as well as saying that Peggy gave her blessing to a relationship, Dave admits that he and Robin slept in the same bed. Now, he basically says that nothing happened, but she rubbed his back and tried to comfort him and those kind of things. But it definitely shows the intensity of their

WTBL (08:51)
the other thing that he talked about in his interview were the life insurance policies. And he said that there were two and that one of them was 150,000. And I but he made it seem like it wasn't going to be that big of amount. And so that people saying that he killed her for the money, he said, if it would have been like a larger amount, he could understand people coming to that conclusion. Like I think he said specifically,

500,000 to a million dollars he could understand well what came out was that there were more than two policies there was actually about five policies so the amounts Actually added up closer to five hundred thousand now it turns out I don't know that all five were actually active at that time, but it right, but we had paperwork showing that

They had multiple and he didn't disclose any of that. So you might say a a lie through omission. Yeah, something like that. But the funny thing is, is when he's in this interview, he goes, well, I would understand if I was getting this big amount. But he Could get that amount right. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure that he was hoping. Yeah, he was hoping for it for sure, because that comes into another play of the part. Right.

WTBL (10:04)
So one of the final things we'd like to point out about Dave and what he was saying in his interview was. The conversation that he had with Robin, he created this lie telling her he had cancer. mean, he kind of proved to her right there how easy it was for him to lie to her. Right, he actually called his son and told his son to call him at Robin's house and then he would take the

call and. Right. He created this big scene instead of just saying, I want to go home I think the visit wasn't going exactly the way he planned and he was starting to feel uncomfortable. And I actually think Robin was feeling uncomfortable. I think really it more goes to that Dave likes to play the victim. So by.

saying, hey, I got cancer now, he's going to get Robin to feel sorry for him. And that kind of plays out with a lot of things that Dave does.

WTBL (10:59)
Now we're gonna listen to what Robin has to say in her phone interview.

Yeah, this is a few minutes of her one hour conversation. Right,

WTBL Walking the Blue Line (11:07)
like you, I've I gotta say that I questioned him over and over about this

because the circumstances were...

Just and, and I had doubts in my own mind.

And he had said to me, the next thing that's going to come out of your mouth is that you think that I had something to do with her dying. And I said, the thought did cross my mind ,and thats when he got upset with me and he left

Okay.

I did, talk to him afterwards and you don't have time to grieve. I've known, I’ve known David, I grew up with him in Neversink

he was my best friend.

And he was my neighbor and my best friend.

We started out as not best friends. I have to say that. There a few times I wanted to beat him up, but he was little bigger than me.

He has assured me that he had nothing to do with this. He has told me over and over again the same story. It's never...

He had no idea why I was asking him all these questions and I and I said to him when he got here when we had the agreement I said why do you think I've asked you a million times over what happened because it was just too I don't know it was just too odd the whole situation was too odd when he was here and

March, I believe at the end of February beginning of March

made the reservation and so I'm coming and I thought yay.

Yes.

Okay. ⁓

save it when David was younger, when David's mother left

He got in a little bit of trouble and they took him in and tried to teach him right from wrong wrong and we ended up going in the military.

I didn’t even know he was alive or anything until one time my mother, talking with my mom and she said he was living there in Spokane and he was a farmer, that’s all I knew. And I messaged him on Facebook years ago and just recently he started contacting me and we get to talking on and off. Like probably the past year and a half of so, I'm not even sure.

It was really odd when he came her in…February

Yeah, it was like end of February, beginning of March, because he seemed to think it was going to be fishing season. And I told him it was like winter at that time. It was winter, winter here. ⁓

I'm speaking to her

I texted her you know, just tell him that...

in my That if he comes her not to expect anything, and I receive the oddest text back I’ve ever received in my life.

David and then you.

which kind of left me sitting there with my mouth hanging open saying, what the hell is going on? He's not in the best of health. wasn't then. He's very overweight He lost a ton of weight.

until just recently. And when I talked to him, I finally realized, you know, it was just some stupid, crazy, bizarre twist. And...

And she's so, is.

got her foot caught in the cup in the sheets of the bed and fell down and hit her face.

⁓ And all he could say when he was here is that all he could see was her blue face when he rolled her over and did CPR

WTBL Walking the Blue Line (16:46)
I'm not sure if I believe it would have been during the visit at the beginning of March when David was there. Do you recall him getting a message from home talking about? yes, he a message from home. This was the freakiest part of the world.

This is when he ended up going home. You had to refresh my memory on this when you said that.

All right.

I was upstairs and he was upset.

He said, well, my son just called me.

All right.

Well, why does your son call? He said, well.

to.

it was the news

it up and he said he had colon cancer and it was stage three and he was gonna die.

Huh?

and it was stage three

that is weird!

I really thought it was just bizarre when he told me it was somebody else's results that got sent and I

You need to sue the fucking doctor!

You mean, you

Right.

hear her.

Okay. no. Gee.

It was bizarre and I still had doubts. ⁓

It's just bizarreness that...

he was supposed to stay longer. And then he came to New York for two weeks and he only stayed like three days because he was dying of cancer.

Yeah. It was just bizarre, you know? It was just a bizarre... and my daughter said, know, I just thought he moved it up so he could leave because I wasn't showing him the affection he wanted to be shown. Right.

I don't have money because

he went to go look at a house

Yeah.

maybe like go out and buy groceries for the house.

it's not chipping in.

and paying bills and he sent me a text telling how much money he had. Okay. So you will see that when you

I don't know what to

He was just straight, normal texting His focus was on what's happening right here.

WTBL (24:42)
it's kind of interesting because she starts off on saying how they were best friends. They grew up together. He was her neighbor. They've been Facebook friends for like 10 years and as recently as this last year and a half, he had started messaging her on Facebook and she was messaging back and they were also.

playing words with friends together, she was playing with both him and his wife, Peggy. Right, and the bad thing about text messaging is you never really know who you're talking to. No, you don't, and she said that when David been up there visiting her that she told him, don't expect anything, I don't want that kind of relationship.

But then she said that she received a message from Peggy on words with friends that said that due to her age, she wasn't able to give Dave what he needed. And so that she hoped that he would have a good time when he is up there visiting her, which...

struck her and left her mouth hanging open wide she said definitely was very surprised by that yes and i think that that led into one of the very first things she says during her interview is just how suspicious she was after she heard of peggy's passing it was like she just found it really hard to believe that dave didn't have something to do with this based on timing and she did say though that she had had one phone conversation with peggy

And so in your interview with her, you asked her, did it seem like it went along with what, you know, the text messages had been. And she says, yes. Yeah. But family members didn't think that that sounded normal, though. So we don't know if she was actually talking to her or not. Right. Well, that, is the other thing is like you can talk to someone on the phone and it doesn't necessarily mean.

It's the person you think you're talking to. Exactly. And if she had never spoken to Peggy before, she wouldn't know her voice. So that that leaves a little bit of question. But then after Peggy's death, Dave makes a trip up to New York and he starts talking about buying a house. Right. it's weird because Robin talks about how she's living with her, daughter and son in law? Right. And they have a child and.

So when Dave comes to visit she wants to make sure that he has enough money to kind of help out Yeah, and she's not challenging him But she's basically wanting to know whether or not they're gonna have money to go do anything Outside of the house or are they gonna be expected to pay for all the meals and those kind of things But Dave doesn't take it that way. No, he kind of puffs up and goes I have plenty of money, right and it's odd the

dollar amount which he happens to mention yeah because it's one that's popped up before it's like 250 000 he tells her i have money right now in my bank account that i could go buy a 250 000 house but when robin challenges him on that and says well let me see yeah he he starts backing up a little bit backpedaling yep he gets all mad about that and then he kind of corrects his statement the following morning

Yeah, he goes, well, I have enough to put down a down payment. Right. Which also coincided with what financials we were aware of. Now, Dave did get the payout from Peggy's retirement and the life insurance that was associated with her work. But he hadn't received that two hundred and fifty thousand dollar policy. And he wouldn't because of the autopsy results pending.

So they're not gonna pay anything out So I think it kind of bent his plans with Robin and buying a house Yeah, There were some other things that were kind of a little confusing because She was saying that she had all these suspicions about Dave and you know the thought had crossed her mind that he had something to do with it because

The story that he told her was that Peggy was getting out of bed and got her foot caught in the sheets and fell and hit her face. And that's why she died. Right. And this kind of goes to some of the stories that he had told other people's That we mentioned very early in the previous episode, which is.

Dave had told some people how she'd gotten her leg tangled and she had fallen and other people, he's talking about water coming out of her mouth. Not to say that multiple things couldn't have happened in one incident, but none of that was consistent with the investigation. Nor the autopsy. yeah. Well, Dave has been placed under arrest at the end of our initial interview and he spent some time in

Spokane County Jail waiting for trial. he actually was released from jail and then didn't go back until later when they re-arrested him. Right. Well, there was some concern about the various evidence because as you can imagine from hearing this case, it's mostly all circumstantial. But

There was further analysis of the communications that he was having with Robin and how frequent they were versus like the communications he had with Peggy before her death. So all of those kinds of things had to be looked at. And then once the prosecutor was satisfied, they went ahead and issued a new arrest warrant.

WTBL (29:59)
David's trial was postponed a couple of times due to COVID and some other findings. But he was eventually tried in Spokane County Superior Court. And he was found guilty of first degree murder and he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

WTBL Walking the Blue Line (30:13)
I'd just like to say that while I was the original detective on this investigation, Detective Mark Melville of the Spokane County Sheriff's Office did a significant amount of the work on this case to take it to trial, and he was the final investigator when court did take place. So good work on his part, as well as a number of other detectives within the department that brought this case to a successful prosecution.

WTBL (30:39)
we hope that you've enjoyed today's episode, Milkshake Murder Part 2, with the conclusion of the death of Peggy Pettis and the finding of her husband guilty. please click like and subscribe. And we will catch you on the next one. Bye. Bye.