00:00Okay, let's dive in. Picture this. October 13th, 2024. It's the afternoon in Bernalillo County,
00:07New Mexico. A neighbor dials 911, hearing multiple gunshots coming from the Mistra family's house
00:14next door. Yeah, when deputies get there, it's clear pretty fast that something truly awful
00:20has happened. Right at the center of it is 24-year-old Adley Mistra, and the things he
00:24first said to the deputies, they were just deeply unsettling. Bizarre, really. Totally bizarre.
00:30He apparently said his family rushed him with weapons, but then almost in the same breath,
00:34he's saying their wounds had healed. And then he apparently mentioned shooting them in the head
00:39and watching them convulse. It makes no sense from the get-go. Exactly. It's just this immediate
00:43jarring contradiction. So we've been trying to piece together what we can about this case.
00:48Our main source for this deep dive is a YouTube video. It's from the Explore With Us channel
00:53called Cops Make the Worst Discovery of Their Lives. And it includes police records,
00:58some footage that apparently hasn't been widely seen before. We should also maybe mention the title
01:03for today's deep dive. It comes from the Dark Stories podcast. Good point. So our goal here is
01:09really to unpack the details we have from these sources, try to understand the sequence of events.
01:14And, you know, it's crucial for everyone listening to remember this is an active investigation.
01:19Adley Mistra is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Absolutely.
01:23So let's start with that 911 call. The neighbor, Daniel, I think his name was,
01:28he said he heard five or six shots first. Right. But that was apparently like an hour and a half
01:32before he actually called 911. Yeah, which is odd. Then he heard one more shot about 10 minutes later.
01:37He also mentioned trying to text and call the family first, even honking his horn outside their house.
01:42That delay. It does add a strange element to the timeline, doesn't it?
01:47It really does. So deputies finally arrive. It's about 2.50 p.m. And the first person they see
01:52is Adley. And his interaction is, like you said, just weird from the start. He tells them his
01:57family rushed him in his room, his dad with a knife, his sister with a sledgehammer.
02:01And then he says, I killed it. That specific phrasing, it.
02:07Followed immediately by that claim about finding their bodies, but their wounds having healed.
02:12It's just impossible. That's the thing. That detail is so far removed from reality.
02:17It immediately flagged something as being terribly wrong, even before they see any evidence.
02:22You can see why the deputies would be, you know, extremely cautious. They also noted blood on his
02:26hands. Right. And his explanation for that was apparently that his father rushed him. He hit him.
02:31And then his mother said something like, you need to die.
02:34So they secure Adley in their vehicle and then head inside the house.
02:37And what they find inside. Well, it tragically confirms their worst fears.
02:41The video footage shows pools of blood, smears of blood on the floor going up the stairs.
02:47Just grim evidence of extreme violence.
02:49And more than just blood, they find shell casings, a knife and a mop that's covered in blood.
02:56And there was some suggestion, wasn't there, about bleach maybe being used on the mop.
03:00Yeah. The video mentioned that possibility.
03:02Yeah.
03:02Which, if true, could point to, you know, an attempt to clean up afterwards.
03:06There's also the really sad detail about the family dog.
03:10It was found injured.
03:11Yeah. Injured by gunshots, unfortunately.
03:13Yeah.
03:14It had to be euthanized later, which is just heartbreaking.
03:17It is. And it also raises that grim question.
03:21Could some of the blood they saw initially have been the dogs?
03:25It just speaks to the chaos of the violence.
03:29It does. Another victim, really.
03:30But the most horrific discovery was still to come when they searched the backyard.
03:36That's where they found drag marks.
03:37Exactly. Drag marks leading away from the house.
03:40And at the end of those marks, they found the bodies of Adlai's father, David, his mother, Nancy, and his 17-year-old sister, Brill.
03:49So his earlier statement about burying them, which must have sounded like just more rambling.
03:53Tragically, it turned out to be true.
03:55He had apparently dragged their bodies outside.
03:57Which leads us to Adlai's interrogation.
03:59The part shown in the source video, his behavior just gets more and more erratic.
04:04Oh, definitely. He starts talking about seismic waves and cell towers, referencing landmarks like Big Ben, top of Seattle.
04:14Yeah.
04:14Targets.
04:15Yeah. And just these really disjointed stories, helping a woman pull coins out of her, well, out of somewhere private.
04:22Mentions of submarines, his family bowling and losing consciousness.
04:27It's like a word salad, almost.
04:29Completely disconnected from the reality of why he's there.
04:32He also apparently claimed he saw a major catastrophe happening on police cameras and thermal imaging.
04:38It just paints a picture of someone whose mind is, well, somewhere else entirely.
04:43Experiencing a profound break, it seems.
04:45Absolutely. And it makes sense that the detective decided, look, we need to Mirandize him right now.
04:50Given his state, ensuring his rights were protected was critical.
04:53Even after the Miranda warning, his explanation for the killings remained deeply disturbing and, frankly, illogical.
04:59He said he had to kill them, but only after they lost consciousness, which, again, makes no sense.
05:04And then that incredibly chilling, incomprehensible phrase, something like raising that, like, half an hour eating body.
05:12Yeah. Just horrifyingly bizarre. And he also admitted to shooting the dog during this.
05:18Adding to the physical evidence back at the house, they also found a bloody meat tenderizer.
05:22Right. So the investigation moves forward, the victims are formally identified, and then comes the task of delivering this devastating news.
05:30To Adlai's older sister, Nancy Jr., and also to Daniel, the neighbor who made the 911 call.
05:35And their reactions, as you'd expect, were just shock, total disbelief.
05:40It underscores how sudden and unexpected this was for those who knew the family.
05:43Nancy Jr.'s comment was particularly heartbreaking.
05:46She apparently said she expected Adlai might die, given his issues, but not the rest of her family.
05:51Wow. That says a lot about the underlying stress and perhaps the known volatility there.
05:56And then there's Adlai, back in interrogation, giving directions to where he buried the bodies.
06:00Like, specific details about a trail? Gates?
06:04Followed by that nonsensical reason.
06:06Lost consciousness, take pictures.
06:09It's that mix, again, moments of clarity or detail.
06:12Then complete delusion.
06:14And Nancy Jr. apparently shed some light on Adlai's references to possession.
06:19Yeah. She said their mother had sometimes dismissed his problems using that term, possession.
06:24Which could suggest maybe a lack of understanding within the family about the true nature, the likely mental health nature, of his struggles.
06:31It certainly points to a potential disconnect, adding another tragic dimension.
06:35This leads us straight into his documented mental health history.
06:39Right. There was discharge paperwork from a hospital stay ending September 27th, 2024.
06:45So just a couple of weeks before the killings.
06:47And it's stated he'd been admitted for psychosis.
06:50He reported auditory hallucinations, men telling him to kill himself, women telling him to surrender.
06:55And he said these voices had been going on for years, but he had just been ignoring them.
06:59Which is wild.
07:00He also apparently believed police had some kind of secret intelligence about his reality and expressed wanting to join the police academy.
07:07It's a really concerning picture.
07:08And Nancy Jr., his sister, she confirmed he heard voices.
07:13She believed he wasn't taking his medication consistently.
07:16Yeah. She said she'd found his pills in the trash sometimes and described his issues as a kind of schizophrenic break that seemed to have been building up, causing a lot of stress at home.
07:26While he was left alone in the interrogation room at one point, his agitation just seemed to skyrocket.
07:31The footage apparently shows him talking to himself using names like Officer Angel and Bloodline Jesus.
07:39And then giving commands to someone or something that wasn't there, like Angel Opened the Door.
07:43Yeah. Suggesting he was actively hallucinating or experiencing delusions right there.
07:47It got worse, though.
07:49He became physically distressed.
07:51Extremely.
07:51He tried to urinate in the corner of the room.
07:54Then got really frantic, begging to be let out, saying he was afraid of soldiers.
07:58That increasing paranoia, the detachment.
08:01It's quite clear he was in deep distress.
08:04And that distress culminated in violence.
08:06He actually kicked a hole through the drywall in the interrogation room.
08:09Seriously.
08:10He tried to escape.
08:11Apparently so.
08:12Deputies had to apprehend him again.
08:14And because the holding room was now damaged and maybe inadequate, they decided to secure him in a police vehicle instead.
08:22It just shows the level of volatility they were dealing with.
08:25So when you think about why this happened, what could possibly trigger such an event?
08:31Nancy Jr.'s thoughts about family arguments, maybe specifically with his teenage sister Brill over his medication.
08:37That seems like a plausible stressor, especially given his mental state and her belief he wasn't taking his meds.
08:43And then you have the stark contrast between Adlai's initial claim self-defense they rushed him and the actual evidence.
08:49Yeah, the autopsy results really undermine that self-defense narrative completely.
08:53They really do.
08:54David, the father.
08:55Gunshot wounds to his arm, chest, and crucially, the back of his head.
08:59Back of the head?
09:00That's not typically consistent with self-defense against someone rushing you.
09:03Exactly.
09:04Nancy, the mother.
09:05A gunshot wound to her back, plus significant blunt force trauma to her face, and bruises almost everywhere.
09:12And Brill, the 17-year-old sister, a gunshot wound to her eye, and blunt force trauma to her hand and face.
09:20The sheer brutality and the nature of these injuries, it points towards something far more complex and violent than his initial story.
09:29So based on all this evidence gathered?
09:31Adlai Mistra was charged with, well, a lot.
09:33Three counts of first-degree murder.
09:36Three counts of tampering with evidence.
09:38Plus the animal cruelty charge for the dog.
09:40Right.
09:41Extreme cruelty to animals.
09:42And also escape from custody for the incident in the interrogation room and criminal damage to property for kicking the hole in the wall.
09:50And again, just to be clear, as stated in the source material, at the time that information was current, he hadn't been convicted or sentenced.
09:57These are the charges?
09:57Correct.
09:58Presumption of innocence applies.
09:59So, wrapping up this deep dive, we're left with just this incredibly disturbing picture.
10:05Adlai's bizarre behavior and his conflicting statements from the very beginning.
10:09The truly graphic crime scene.
10:10The documented history of severe mental health struggles.
10:14And the absolute tragedy of the Mistra family being wiped out like that.
10:18David, Nancy, and young Brill.
10:20It's devastating.
10:21And despite all the details we've gone through from the sources, there are still so many unanswered questions, aren't there?
10:27The full picture is elusive, leaving this profound sense of unease.
10:31Which kind of leads to a final thought, maybe for everyone listening to consider.
10:34When you look at this case, the complex mix of mental illness, family dynamics, the sheer horror of the violence, what does it tell us about, I don't know, the fragility of normalcy?
10:45Hmm.
10:46And maybe about how unseen crises, these pressures building beneath the surface, can just erupt with such utterly catastrophic results.
10:54Yeah.
10:54It really forces you to think about the multiple overlapping layers of tragedy involved here.
10:59It's a deeply unsettling story.
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