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00:10a farmer is found shot to death in what appears to be a planned hit I didn't know the smell
00:18of
00:18gunpowder in your house and that's a smell I will never forget he had extensive trauma to the left
00:26and middle of his face there was a perfect angle from the front porch down to the couch in the
00:34basement we also found tracks around the house it truly was as much of a hit as I have ever
00:43seen
00:44but in this small midwest town anyone could be the wolf in sheep's clothing
00:50the investigation reveals a toxic family dynamic and the measures one person would take to conceal
01:10their misdeeds he had been threatening to turn them in for welfare fraud two days before the
01:19homicide he was texting I promise you he will not make it till Monday morning
01:48March 10th 2014 it's just after midnight in Barron
01:54Wisconsin when police receive an urgent 911 call
01:59Tiffany Workman called 911 reporting her boyfriend Daniel Raven had injuries to his shoulder
02:13I remember talking to the emergency lady and she said does he have a heartbeat and I remember
02:19putting my cheek on his forehead and I couldn't feel anything I said he was still warm
02:40our dispatchers immediately sent an ambulance but also officers because the caller was very hysterical
02:47at the time Tiffany tells the deputy she and Dan had an argument that night so he'd gone to sleep
02:55on the couch in their game room
03:01a short while later she was awakened by a loud noise
03:06I remember hearing a slam and I walked out and the glass on the screen door was broke
03:15she said why is there blood everywhere she went downstairs and saw Mr. Raven on the couch and when she
03:24approached him she could see that there was definitely something wrong with him
03:27I'm not a hunter I didn't know the smell of gunpowder in your house and that's a smell I will
03:35never forget
03:41the deputy escorts EMTs inside where they find a bloody scene
03:47the first responder determined immediately that Dan Raven was deceased
03:55it was obvious that he had extensive trauma to his upper left bicep and there were also significant injuries to
04:03his face
04:05several more deputies are dispatched to secure the area
04:12on the ground outside the broken glass doors they find two empty shell casings
04:20the spent rounds were obviously from a long rifle versus a pistol or a shotgun
04:27we knew with the casings outside and the victim downstairs it was going to be a homicide investigation
04:35I didn't realize that he was actually dead I didn't know
04:41I was under the impression that you guys are here to help him
04:44you're going to get him out of here and you're going to save him and he's going to be fine
04:54Daniel Raven had lived nearly his entire life in rural Wisconsin
05:00he was born February 16th 1981 the youngest of three children raised on a dairy farm
05:07we were all close we had lots of friends lots of family
05:12we spent many hours in our barn just working playing we'd go camping we'd go fishing we'd play out in
05:21the pasture
05:22we lived on a farm so you made up your own fun
05:26Dan's dad was a hard worker he instilled that in Dan because Dan was an extremely hard worker as well
05:33Dan's first job I believe he was a sophomore in high school and he worked as a dairy's aide
05:40basically milking milking cows
05:47between work and his studies Dan was extremely busy
05:52but he made time for a beautiful young woman named Trista Rayback
05:57like Dan she'd grown up in the area in a close-knit family
06:03Trista was in our social circle in high school and that's how we all kind of started hanging out together
06:10they eventually started dating they would go hiking and four-wheeling and just they loved to be together
06:19she just had a way about her she could she could get anything she wanted
06:27a few years later Trista announced that she was pregnant
06:32he was surprised and and very happy his daughter was actually born a couple months
06:39before my oldest daughter and a couple years later then come
06:43little boy and Dan was happy he was very happy
06:51after seven years together and two children
06:55Dan and Trista decided to make it official in 2005.
07:01when I heard they were getting married I went up to Dan and asked him are you sure
07:07from what Dan told me they fought quite a bit
07:10and argued and he said yeah I you know wanted to start a family but you know he already had
07:15kids
07:16with her
07:17Dan loved his kids he he would take them hunting and fishing and tried to spend as much time as
07:24he
07:24could with them
07:26a few years later Dan and Trista embarked on a new venture together
07:32running a cafe within the local livestock auction building
07:37it was uh the the restaurant's uh bullwhip cafe at the uh sales barn in uh baron wisconsin
07:46i believe they got it from her parents or her mother had ran it and they did good there for
07:52a while
07:58now in their early 30s the stress of running a restaurant and raising a family took a toll on
08:05Dan and Trista's marriage there were many times he would call upset or i could tell he was upset
08:14because he'd struggle most married people do they all have their their problems but the more he tried
08:22the more difficult everything became it just it wasn't working
08:30them fighting not seeing each other making amends getting back together it was just a cycle off and on
08:39i thought that that was the final straw and Dan would finally be like this this woman doesn't love me
08:44he wasn't happy and then he moved out he got his own place after eight years as a married couple
08:54Dan
08:55and Trista divorced in 2013.
09:01they shared custody of their children but Dan was saddened by the limited time he got to spend with them
09:09Dan managed the turkey barns he was up from sunup to sundown that farm was all he ever did he
09:16didn't get a
09:17chance to do a whole lot because he was always at the farm he went through uh a period of
09:24depression
09:26then he went through a period of you know drinking kind of heavily um towards the end of it but
09:33he was sad
09:35about the whole thing
09:40Dan's life seemed to take a turn for the better when he met tiffany workmen
09:46i met dan through work um we kind of built a friendship through there he kind of grew up in
09:52a
09:53kind of a similar farm background life we just kind of hit it off when he met tiffany it was
10:00nice to
10:00see him uh feeling good and you know just being happy with life like dan tiffany was divorced with
10:09two children of her own they moved into a house together on the farm where they worked he was always
10:18equal with my kids just the same as he was with his and i think that was amazing we kind
10:23of blended really
10:24well she was doing wonders on him because he was so happy and i don't know he just seemed to
10:30be
10:31back in his groove the storm was over
10:39but tiffany has just found dan shot to death and detectives are analyzing the scene to determine what
10:46happened there was a perfect angle from the front porch that you could see down to the couch in the
10:55basement somebody walked up to the outside of the door did not attempt to make entry fired two rounds
11:03through the door making what would be perfect shots at a victim lying defenseless we also found tracks
11:15leading up from the roadway and around the house where the person appeared to be trying to observe the
11:21residence before moving into position and making the shots it also showed us that the person parked out
11:30on the roadway and walked up along a tree line to conceal their identity
11:42after inspection of the house uh it was our belief there was some sort of connection between the shooter
11:48and the victim it wasn't random it truly was as much of a hit as i have ever seen tiffany
11:56was the
11:57first one on scene the only one awake in the residence
12:06they bring tiffany to the station for further questioning
12:11they started asking me all questions like what happened what did what did you do and it's like
12:16what did i do i didn't i didn't even know what's going on
12:22i informed her that dan was in fact deceased where she began sobbing and crying and became very
12:30emotional and it was quite apparent she was not aware that he had passed away
12:39i just wish this was a dream sometimes people can be pretty good actors but in her case she was
12:45really distraught and based on her reaction to what happened it really didn't seem like
12:50she was the person who was involved or had anything to do with it but she never really know
12:58coming up police question tiffany about the events leading up to dan's murder who do you think is
13:08capable of this and evidence surfaces of a scheme at play
13:15shortly before he got killed dan showed me a stack of papers about this thick that he had on her
13:39the baron county sheriff's department is investigating the murder of 33 year old
13:44turkey farmer daniel raven with his girlfriend tiffany ruled out as a suspect they hope she can offer further leads
13:57they asked her to describe what happened the evening before the shooting
14:04tiffany said on sunday evening around 6 30 7 p.m she had picked up her two children from her
14:13ex-husband who
14:14had visitation over the weekend when she came back to the residence daniel is downstairs watching television
14:24he had a few drinks he had a few drinks we'd had an argument earlier that day which was wild
14:28because
14:29we never argued before and i remember thinking this is just weird like something weird is going on
14:35and he's like i'm not coming down yet
14:41she reported that was the last time she's seen him alive
14:50the evidence appears to support tiffany's claims
14:56we could not find a gun in the residence nor were there tracks that would indicate it may have been
15:02taken taken somewhere and dumped if it wasn't her who could it be what has been going on
15:10who do you think is capable
15:15you know of this the only person i know that i would think is capable
15:24him and i had a lot of rough patches i guess would be the best way to say it we
15:32had domestic issues
15:34i was scared of him she stated that he was working typically out of state
15:40but and stated that he had been in baron county on the weekend of this homicide
15:48but tiffany says she isn't the only one who has a disgruntled ex
16:04she described the contentious divorce and child support hearings between dan raven and
16:11the attorney and the attorney had sent a letter in a court hearing to requesting a change in support
16:22because dan was paying i think 256 dollars a month and wanted it reduced because trista
16:28had been making more money than she reported
16:33the plan was is he was supposed to go to court with trista that week
16:37and they were going to bring that all forward because he had talked to a lawyer he had everything
16:41all lined up and that was upsetting trista when dan had brought trista to court he had told me you
16:51know tiff if anything ever happens it's her it's trista following the interview police find plenty of
17:02evidence to back up tiffany's claims dan and trista had a lot of ongoing small complaints about each other
17:13violations of the child custody and contacting each other in a negative sense
17:21he had custody 50 50 custody of the kids with trista he also paid child support
17:29but dan claimed trista went to extreme lengths to get more dan had told me she was falsifying records
17:38to make it look like she wasn't making any income to continue to try to bleed him as much as
17:44she could
17:45shortly before uh he got killed dan came up and showed me a stack of papers about this thick that
17:52he had
17:52on her food stamps lying on taxes he was accusing her of under reporting and non-reporting income to the
18:03court
18:04which forced dan raven to get an attorney and hold more hearings
18:09daniel was killed before the issue could go to court and trista was never charged with any crime
18:19daniel's loved ones are devastated to learn of his death and they all agree with tiffany
18:26everyone consistently kept mentioning trista's name and trista having something to do with this crime
18:35but before speaking with trista detectives first want to rule out tiffany's ex-husband tiffany's ex told
18:44us that he had the kids on the day prior to the the homicide and he dropped the kids off
18:50with tiffany
18:51in the afternoon and then from there just out drinking around 2 2 30 in the morning he turned in
18:56for the
18:56night he was adamant that he had no involvement we then followed up with all the names and establishments
19:05that the ex-husband provided and all of the leads that he gave us panned out for him
19:14tiffany's ex is officially ruled out and of their three possible suspects detectives are now left with one
19:23and what tiffany said and the history that officers already knew we definitely believed we knew we had
19:31to look at trista very closely
19:50before approaching trista rayback about her conflict with dan raven over child support
19:57investigators speak with his family to learn more about their history
20:02dan had called me up and he was cleaning out his blazer and he found a sawed-off shotgun under
20:09the seat
20:11that he believes and i believe that she planted there to try to get him into trouble
20:16dan had a felony in his past so he would get caught for a felon in possession of a firearm
20:23which could have easily sent him to prison for two years
20:30the incident wasn't reported formally so no charges were pressed against trista however dan had responded
20:39by threatening to turn trista in for what he claimed was criminal fraud regarding the misapplication of food
20:46stamps he told me she was using food stamps wisconsin food stamps to pay for food for the restaurant after
20:56they had broken up and that's the only way she couldn't afford to keep the restaurant going
21:03daniel claimed trista had not been reporting that income
21:08i think a lot of it was just empty empty threats about turning her in for that stuff it was
21:14just
21:14kind of his way to kind of get back at her
21:21detectives soon receive a new lead
21:24the baron county sheriff's department was contacted
21:27by a caseworker from the department of health and human services
21:29she told the communication center that she had important information that might be relevant to the
21:35case the social worker says she was asked to interview trista rayback and her new live-in
21:42boyfriend ian shirley after a complaint filed by ian's ex-wife i had made a report
21:52against ian and trista shortly before everything happened just from things that my girls were saying
21:59just kind of ignored them when they were there like acted like they didn't exist
22:04i know that the girls had to sleep on the floor i was happy for my dad at first because
22:11he was really
22:12hung up on my mom for a long time afterwards so i was glad he was kind of moving on
22:17later on she
22:19started to i don't know really show that she didn't really like me and my sister
22:25just is very manipulative because your feelings aren't important to her really it's her way or
22:31no way she would try to hit my dad he wasn't allowed to defend himself she would come wake
22:37us up in the middle of the night and drag us into their fights
22:44it seems ian and trista's fights were about her ex-husband dan and during the interviews ian said
22:53something alarming as she was interviewing ian shirley about his actions living with
23:00trista rayback surely made an off-headed comment that the quickest and easiest way to end this
23:06conflict is to kill dan raven
23:13armed with this new information detectives subpoena phone records for both ian and trista
23:21while the request is being processed investigators track down the couple at a local restaurant
23:27two days after the shooting they pull ian outside to question him how did you guys get along with
23:35either tiffany or dan or i talked the only time i ever talked to dan was the very first time
23:44i ever
23:44met trista okay a little more than two years ago do you have anything to do with uh the murder
23:49of
23:49dan raven they all know they have better things to do ian claims he and trista were out together
23:59the night dan was killed on march 9th he interested went to a local bar he said at
24:06what i recall to be 8 30 9 p.m at night they were planning on traveling to
24:12rural new auburn which is approximately 20 miles away
24:20and we just walked out there and realized they stopped serving at 9. so we turn on one
24:24he told us if we check their cameras we could we could see that he had not left the residence
24:34ian also told us that he had only learned of dan raven's death at approximately 6 a.m
24:40the next morning when he said his phone blew up by everybody asking what happened
24:49after speaking with ian in the parking lot we went inside the cafe and met with trista in the back
24:57who all went out just the two of you just me and him we ran into one and then you
25:03go home
25:06and then what we did i'm talking for a while
25:11and then we did i'm talking for a while
25:33he was involved with dan's death she indicated there was no way that she would be responsible
25:42but detectives aren't convinced the story was too rehearsed if the story wasn't as rehearsed
25:51it would have made it more believable which did not take them off the suspect list it actually
25:58pushed them higher
26:15however investigators need more to be able to press any charges we didn't have the physical
26:21evidence to tie trista in without a confession at this time we needed more so when the cell phone
26:28records came in detectives immediately started combing through them we noticed immediately text
26:35messages between trista rayback and ian shirley that were relevant to this case
26:41they were chilling it was something i had never seen before
26:48coming up a murder plot unfolds the persuasion threats violence it was all spelled out
27:01and one of the co-conspirators decides to come clean
27:04all right
27:27within 48 hours of dan ravens murder baron county detectives have uncovered cell phone records
27:34implicating his ex-wife trista rayback and her boyfriend ian shirley
27:41the text records indicated that there had been multiple previous attempts
27:48where ian had went to the turkey farm to murder dan raven but it backed out
27:56with every failed attempt trista turned up the heat she was very upset to the point where
28:04she was threatening to leave him if he didn't go through with killing dan raven
28:09two days before the homicide ian was texting trista saying i promise you he will not make it till monday
28:18morning and trista replied by saying don't make me promises you can't keep
28:26the persuasion threats violence it was all spelled out in text messages that i've never seen before
28:38the texts are chilling but they also reveal another co-conspirator
28:44while we're analyzing the text messages um we identify a third suspect what we presume to be a driver
28:54the text message said tell rb that we'll give him an extra hundred dollars
29:00if we can get this done tonight ian had received a text message from rb
29:06at approximately 10 54 pm the night of the murder that he was on his way less than an hour
29:14and a half
29:15after this text message is received daniel is dead we take steps to try and identify who he is
29:22through his phone number ultimately he's identified as robert mcbane
29:27with no apparent connection to the current suspects investigators track him down
29:35detectives went and located him at his place of work in the village of cameron in barren county
29:40and initially robert mcbane denies being involved in the homicide but you know we're holding some
29:47pretty good cards with the text messages and so we start revealing some of that information to basically
29:52indicate that he's lying so he starts to give a little bit more information back
29:59he stated that he was friends with ian shirley and trista rayback he described how they would hang
30:06out together and have a few beers and drinks after work and on the weekends he recalled ian
30:14commenting several times while they were drinking that they wished dan was dead
30:37robert says he didn't think they were serious but eventually agreed to act as ian's driver
30:45he stated that he had actually went with ian shirley on at least six previous attempts to the turkey
30:51farm with intent to kill dan raven he said typically ian would back out but the night of march 10th
31:00when
31:00ian got out of the car robert says he looked determined
31:07what did ian do when you let him out there
31:11okay what did he have with him
31:17what kind of gun it looked like he admitted to hearing two gunshots
31:24i was like what the hell because now you realize he did it yeah i was like i never thought
31:31in a
31:31million years he'd actually do it
31:36after the shooting he had followed ian's directions where they stopped at a nearby bridge
31:41and had hidden concealed the rifle used in this murder mcbane told the story very believably
31:51about hiding the murder weapon underneath the bridge which detectives later found
32:00how much did you get paid and who paid you
32:04no bull aside
32:05no bull aside he gave me
32:10about 120. were you supposed to get more after it was done
32:22at the end of the interview mcbane was arrested and taken to the baron county jail
32:30or party to a crime of homicide
32:34after mcbane basically verified what we knew but was able to put himself at the scene and not just
32:41himself but ian shirley as the man who truly pulled the trigger it was then time to go back
32:47and meet with ian shirley again
33:08after damning text messages and a confession from the getaway driver
33:14detectives confront ian shirley about killing dan raven
33:19he knew he was he was done he knew that he was caught
33:23you gotta understand it for us to be able to help you
33:26you gotta be straight up with us okay well there ain't no help um yeah i did i'm screwed
33:38ian says trista was desperate to get rid of dan ian told us dan had been threatening to turn them
33:46in for
33:47food stamp and welfare fraud and trista was afraid she was going to go to federal prison
33:55so if dan is out of the picture that stuff stops is what you're saying his court case is dropped
34:04he described several different times of mcbane driving him to the residence getting dropped off
34:11but never actually pulled the trigger
34:14and go back home with some physical excuse of why i couldn't do it or whatever because i didn't want
34:20to
34:21do it but ian says trista didn't give him much choice um it was either that or she committed suicide
34:32and she jumped all over me and said yeah you know if anything about my warning i ain't going to
34:38work
34:38and by the time you get done i won't be here it was kill dan or lose her and he
34:46didn't want to lose her
34:52ian according to ian march 10th would be his last chance to get the job done trista knew her children
34:59wouldn't be there so he didn't have to worry about them he took a 30-06 rifle with open sights
35:06and they drove to the turkey farm shirley goes to the residence and sees raven sitting on a couch in
35:14the
35:14lower level ian says he went back to the car but knew he couldn't fail trista again this was his
35:33chance
35:34to say it didn't work but they went down the road he cleared what appeared to be a jam got
35:40the rifle
35:41ready to go and had mcbane drive him back after i reloaded and i went back up there i stood
35:48out the
35:48side of the door for a little bit and i didn't know what to do there so i just looked
35:55to shut my
35:56eye and let it fly he was unsure of where he struck daniel or if he struck daniel because of
36:03how nervous he was
36:08as they drove away ian says trista texted them updates as she listened to a police scanner
36:16so she basically knew based off the scanner that he was deceased
36:27he said once back at his house he went through the woods and walked in this rear door that was
36:33out
36:33of view of the cameras he said that the surveillance cameras that he and trista had installed were
36:40actually a ruse he said they planned the installation and this walkway being out of view as part of their
36:47ruse so that it would support their alibi as to being home after hearing ian's confession he matched
36:55the crime scene caliber of the rifle recovered and the two bullet casings matched it matched footprints
37:01that originally we noticed in the snow along the edge of the driveway and where a vehicle had parked
37:06on the roadway alongside the driveway he was placed under arrest and subsequently charged with
37:14first degree intentional homicide of dan raven after the full confessions of robert mcbane and ian
37:21shirley trista raybeck was arrested and transported to the baron county jail
37:29didn't know why i could say bye to her first she she was already in the office
37:34trista raybeck was also charged with first degree intentional homicide of dan raven as party to the crime
37:42trista's initial response to officers when being arrested was why am i being arrested i didn't do
37:48anything but even with confessions from her co-conspirators prosecutors know holding trista
37:57accountable could be an uphill battle trista had her right to an attorney and had not confessed she
38:06beliefs because she didn't following their confessions ian shirley and robert mcbane plead guilty to
38:24second degree intentional homicide ian is sentenced to 20 years in prison and robert receives 15 years
38:33as we continued to interview the outlying people that were involved from bar patrons to friends to
38:41family the most consistent word i think i heard in interviews was evil and that's the word that people
38:50use to describe trista was evil ian's family provides some scathing testimony
39:03she was behind this you know ian pulled the trigger and he needs to be in trouble for that but
39:09this
39:09was not his idea never before i even knew who dan was and the car kids knew it too that
39:16she hated their
39:16dad she was pretty manipulative she had just changed who he was as a person anyone who knows him knows
39:25that
39:26he would have never done something like this he had moved out of his house he had sold everything
39:32that he owned and pretty much gave himself to trista it had gotten bad to her i don't think he
39:41seen much of a way out you know i've heard her threaten suicide a few times during their fights
39:48i think that's another manipulation tactic too both ian shirley and robert mcbane were easily manipulated
39:59ian had described dan raven as being a nice guy but was aware that trista did not like him and
40:06wanted
40:06him out of the picture robert mcbane said he had never even met dan raven personally but simply knew of
40:14trista rayback's hatred toward him it was apparent that trista rayback was actually the mastermind
40:24but without any direct evidence of trista's involvement prosecutors are worried she might be
40:30exonerated so they make a difficult decision there are always fears of taking your case to a jury trial
40:39especially since trista i had not confessed and was blaming ian for his actions and mcmaine just going
40:48along with it
40:52trista's attorneys seem equally concerned about risking a jury trial so they accept a plea deal
41:00in february of 2015 trista was sentenced to 15 years of initial confinement with 10 years on extended
41:07supervision when i heard my dad's sentence i wasn't surprised by 20 years but i think trista should
41:18have gotten at least the same as my dad at minimum the fact that you can plan and i can
41:24say that plan a
41:26murder like that and get people involved not just once but to try it multiple times and then you get
41:3315
41:33years in jail i mean what kind of joke is that i don't think any sentence would have been fair
41:40enough
41:40for me honestly it's not for me to judge it's not really even a judge to judge but i don't
41:47think it was
41:47fair
41:51every year me and you know my cousins my friends we get together we have a guys camping weekend where
41:59dan's
41:59the ashes are spread and just hang out with dan you know and talk about old times there's a memorial
42:05out there for dan and we go out there every year camping just to kind of spend time with them
42:12i feel like dan's been there for me a few times and i try to live as best as i
42:18can for him
42:19i feel like he's watching over me still
42:23i just want him to be remembered for not the hard times that him and trista went through
42:29but the good times i remember him and i will always remember him
42:52so
42:52so
42:52so
42:52so
42:53so
42:53so
42:54so
42:54so
42:54so
42:54so
42:54so
42:54so
42:54so
42:54so
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