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Impact x Nightline - Season 4 - Episode 06: Evil: Manson Killers Freed?
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00:08this is burning man an epic gathering of creativity community and radical self-expression
00:16every year tens of thousands converging here on nevada's black rock desert it's flat it's like
00:23salt very light dust and it's really beautiful the pinnacle the burning of the man itself
00:29an effigy set ablaze symbolizing release and rebirth but this year a dark twist the events
00:37first recorded homicide now to this homicide investigation at the popular burning man
00:42festival police say that he was found lying in a pool of blood you find a body where the throat
00:48is slashed in all likelihood a homicide beyond that they don't have much a 37 year old artist
00:54found dead he was very soulful person very passionate very high conscious being when the
01:02party ended the investigation began they find a man laying in a pool of blood with a knife sticking
01:08out of his neck they don't know who he is at the time but they know that this looks like
01:13foul play
01:13you don't have camera you don't have witnesses you have this having occurred in a remote area
01:20of burning man everything is working against the authorities here with shock and surprise from
01:26people on social media what glow stick twirling monster was out there and did this it's a whodunit
01:35at burning man if you went to burning man this year there is a chance you have crucial information
01:40that law enforcement and this victim's family is asking for this is a cowardly wantum act of violence
01:46violence and we demand justice for our friend for our brother leaving some burners wondering how could
01:51something so violent happen here of all places that's not a thing that we are used to in that
01:57community and if there's any community that would help make sure that that person or persons were
02:03brought to justice it would be this one
02:27when burning man starts in late august this street can be backed up for miles it can take some burners
02:32almost 10 hours to get into the pop-up city that's because this street is the only way for almost
02:3880 000 burners to get into black rock city black rock city is what burners have dubbed a full-blown
02:48pop-up metropolis in the black rock desert about 120 miles north of reno
02:56the annual gathering at the end of summer typically filled with parties dj sets meditation
03:01even an orgy dome i've never been in the orgy dome i swear to god i've never been
03:07part spiritual journey part endurance test taking place on this dried lake bed dubbed the playa
03:16the famous burning of the man happening on the penultimate night the festival drawing some of the
03:22hottest djs in the world like john summit who performed this year celebrity burners include
03:29susan sarandon heidi klum and katie perry all of them posting their burning man adventures on instagram
03:36also making the pilgrimage to the playa tech titans of silicon valley influencers like amanda farree
03:42and preston smiles also flocking there sharing everything from their carefully curated outfits
03:50to the seemingly endless dance parties
03:55burners are so many different types of people i have met elderly people i've met grandparents and
04:00aunts and uncles and i have met small children at burning man burning man began as a picnic on
04:05san francisco beach in 1986 the founders burned a driftwood statue of a man on baker beach attracting
04:12hundreds annually before moving to black rock desert in 1991
04:20in 1997 nightline visiting the playa then in its early years i used to be really shy really reserved
04:27i had trouble meeting people i thought if i came out here in such an open atmosphere
04:32i could really be myself the community guided by the 10 principles of burning man which include leaving
04:38no trace and radical self-reliance almost all commercial trade is forbidden money is not a thing
04:45that we exchange at burning man it's not even a thing you even think about the whole point of
04:50burning man is to gift somebody at the very least at least one person with your art with your expression
04:59there's no store for you to go to at burning man to get the thing you know the duct tape
05:04or the
05:04scissors whatever and so it encourages a preparedness and a as they say radical self-reliance the city is
05:13set up like a horseshoe with street names corresponding to the positions on the clock
05:18if you've seen burning man from above it's a half circle there are streets that run through the town
05:24that kind of are in like a rainbow shape then you have the man directly out from that in the
05:30middle of
05:31the playa and that's where all these art installations are and people ride bikes through
05:34the art a hallmark of its aesthetic among those who felt the spirit of burning man calling to him
05:4037 year old vadim kruglov a russian-born resident of washington state and new york city going for
05:47the first time this year with his dream in the desert but turned into tragedy the night that celebrates
05:54rebirth and renewal the same time the namesake man was burned i saw in our telegram chat about someone sent
06:03a post and some social media about murder and uh people found a person who already
06:14died and then like cops where is vadim guys please can you help me to find it
06:22vadim and the burning man spirit seemed like the perfect match friends say he was vibrant fun-loving
06:29and creative a part-time artist who studied engineering and worked in i.t vadim was so creative
06:35brave and honest person he all-time positive all-time helping people
06:42sophia sherbakova and anna rode are friends and influencers this was their first trip to burning man
06:52when i arrived to black rock city it was like oh my god i'm in another planet it was not
07:00yet camps just
07:02empty desert beautiful view beautiful sky and calm very calm
07:13sophia anna and vadim setting up camp together vadim who they met through the close-knit russian
07:19community helped build a signature piece of art for their campsite luminary love called mirror heart
07:28you come you have money you know have any roles you're just a normal person and first we wanted
07:36to make art and then vadim one day he made a beautiful design
07:43you know we knew each other not too long but when you're an adventure and when you make something
07:53big together you almost like uh many years already you become connected yeah you're connected
08:00as the nine-day event kicked off vadim sophia and anna all first-time burners adapted to their new
08:07temporary city for the first six days we see photos of vadim enjoying burning man making art partying
08:13with friends dancing drinking having a good time exactly what you'd expect and want from a burning
08:19man festival there's no way to actually understand burning man until you've gone the group discovered
08:24a world of self-proclaimed burners expressing themselves through art music fashion and exotic custom
08:30vehicles people feel really free to wear clothes or not wear clothes and have like incredible fashion or
08:36nothing at all on the seventh day of burning man saturday august 30th almost everyone gathers for
08:43the climactic torching of the effigy that night i mean there's definitely a buzz in the air when you
08:47know the man is going to burn that night it's the burning man they just light the thing on fire
08:52it takes a while to burn like as the thing gets going it gets more and more and more and
08:56more
08:56festive and energetic and there's just a lot of like cheering and celebration as the thing finally
09:02comes down to the ground but after the fire died down vadim's friends noticed he was missing i asked
09:10guys where our friend why he not there but in burning man it's okay when you go in different camps
09:18you communicate with people you can come to one camp and stay with another do you told people hey why
09:25haven't we seen vadim but everyone said hey this happens yes sophie calm down everyone just enjoys the
09:33moment but i like guys no it's not normal because person not come back he has his tent his baggage
09:41and he not back i feel something strange word it spread something was seriously wrong we were given a
09:51report of a body found uh possibly deceased quite a few streets away from where the majority of the
10:02population was when police arrived the report of a body was confirmed found in the far reaches of the
10:08camp a burner flags one of the law enforcement officers at the festival down and they find a man
10:15laying in a pool of blood with a knife sticking out of his neck they don't know who he is
10:20at the time
10:21but they know that this looks like foul play sergeant nathan carmichael works for the county where black
10:27rock city sits he was one of the first officers on the scene nobody there except for our victim
10:33everybody had already left the area to go partake in the burning of the man meanwhile anna and sophia
10:43were worried vadim hadn't returned to their campsite that night there is he everyone okay let's find
10:50but you know how to find if you in dessert there is no communication you just told yourself hopefully
10:58nothing bad happened yeah hope i just like i didn't believe in that but dean's body hasn't been identified
11:06as yet but it's starting to get around that something has happened something nefarious soon the worst was
11:13confirmed on september 1st the persian county sheriff's department announced a homicide was committed
11:20two days later authorities identified the body as vadim's
11:30on monday i got a lot of messages about murder like anna do you know about this tell your followers
11:38about this murder you need to share this post we had can keep in touch with the sophia and after
11:44maybe
11:44six seven hours she called me like you can't imagine the vadim was murdered how'd you react what
11:51was going through your head i was shocked because he's russian like it's a first murder from burning
11:57man first the burning man alive for almost 40 years vadim's killing sending shock waves through the
12:05russian-american community and the wider world of burning man
12:18black rock city which sits on federal land in nevada is under the jurisdiction of persian county
12:23hq'd here in the smaller town of love lot the county usually has a population of less than 7 000.
12:32persian county is really a small community rural agricultural when burning man gets here every
12:39year it increases the population by more than tenfold
12:46bryce shields is the district attorney he's gotten used to the controlled chaos of burning man
12:52how do you maintain law and order sure yeah yeah we're dealing with a sheriff's office that has
12:58to cobble together enough law enforcement officers to police an event of 80 000 people
13:07as investigators search for vadim's killer the extreme nature of the festival posing a challenge
13:13does that complicate this investigation given that this is a desert where the crime scene is no longer
13:20we're dealing with a city that's ephemeral right i mean it evaporates a day or two after the burning
13:26of the effigy there's no fixed addresses there's no infrastructure people at the event it's tradition
13:33the event not to use your real name they use apply a name anybody has any investigative knowledge
13:40if you could imagine the worst case scenario for an investigation that is it between
13:46the wildest festival going on the amount of dirt the amount of exchange of dna the amount of
13:55people that are going in and out of these camps the first question police ask these days are are there
14:02cameras are there security cameras around is there something else we can use to give us clues here you
14:09have a situation where you don't have security cameras even to get a car to get a license plate
14:17anything here you got nothing the sheriff's department stating that vadim was killed from a stab
14:24wound to his neck by a kitchen knife providing a photo of the type of knife used no suspects have
14:30yet been
14:31named and no arrests have been made they have the murder weapon that's very important in an investigation
14:37let's go see whose dna is on it well who knows could they have 10 people's dna could they have
14:44a
14:44thousand people's dna and if they have a thousand people's dna on it does that mean that any one of
14:50those people is the murderer it could just be that those people used the knife which was used as a
14:56communal
14:56knife the burning man organization cooperating with investigators releasing an official statement
15:03reading in part our hearts go out to vadim's family and friends and we grieve the loss of a community
15:09member
15:10burning man project is doing everything we can to assist the sheriff's investigation
15:14so the perpetrator can be caught and brought to justice just because it seems like they don't have
15:21any suspects and don't have any leads doesn't mean they don't have any suspects or any leads
15:28it could be that they're just not talking about some of them publicly and that would be the hope
15:34the hope would be that the authorities actually know more than they're sharing and they're doing that
15:41on purpose but vadim kruglov's friends and family aren't giving up his father posting a video on social media
15:51from russia asking for help district attorney shields is not giving up either friends and family
15:58of vadim believe that he was in fact murdered what's your message to them given where we are now
16:05first and foremost i would have to convey
16:10i would convey my condolences
16:17to his family i would promise them that we're going to do our very best to solve this crime and
16:26to hold that person accountable and get justice for vadim vadim's death the first homicide at burning
16:34man has been shocking it's not the first time burning man has made headlines
16:42it's horrible so we they shut the water down many hours of rain in 2023 70 000 burners were stranded
16:51for days due to heavy rain which turned the fine alkaline silt of the black rock lake bed
16:56into a ferociously sticky clay i was there it completely shifted the atmosphere um and it really
17:05became about not what party we're going to next but like what do we fucking do like what are we
17:12gonna do
17:13and what if we are stuck out here in the desert in perpetuity organizers ordering a driving ban and
17:21urging people to conserve food water and fuel and shelter in a warm safe space people trudging around
17:28in shopping bags porta potties overflowing among the stranded diplo the grammy-winning electronic music
17:39producer behind hits like major lasers lean on
17:49he was there performing sharing some of his sets on instagram
17:55as the rain fell we walked three miles now we got i think five more
17:59the dj said he led a group of celebrities out of the mud including chris rock his trek
18:05posted on social media cindy crawford and randy gerber and chris rock kaya gerber austin butler
18:11chris rock was kind of pacing with me and we just got to a truck that was stopped for a
18:15second like
18:15oh diplo we love your music so we had like 10 of us jumped in the back of his truck
18:19and we took
18:19us the last two miles diplo also chronicling their odyssey on instagram and the story going viral
18:25we will begin with the scene at burning man tens of thousands of people trapped at the event in
18:30nevada over the weekend rains flooded roads make it just impossible to leave festival goers have
18:36been stuck in the mud since friday every year it's something different i was up for the adventure i had
18:41a big crew with me with some celebrities and some regular people and we just kind of wandered off and
18:46made it made it work for us you know everywhere we went we got help the rain and mud testing
18:51the limits
18:52of one of burning man's ethos the first rule of burning man is radical self-reliance so your job is
18:57to
18:57make sure you get in get out with all your equipment and make sure you have enough to
19:01survive but if you don't people are there to help you extreme weather has long plagued burning man
19:06from dust storms to excessive heat burners have often endured biblical-like weather i think it's
19:13definitely more physically challenging than most events you can be in pretty gnarly conditions
19:20obviously it can be really beautiful but it can be extremely hot it can be extremely cold
19:25tragedy has also struck before in 2017 an attendee broke through the security barrier
19:31and ran into the effigy while it was on fire dying by suicide but there is new life as well
19:39this year one new burner came into the world the mother was 35 weeks pregnant but actually did not
19:46know until she went into labor she did not look pregnant not one bit what used to be an underground
19:52event has slowly made its way into popular culture the simpsons famously end up at burning man on a
19:59family camping trip approach the burning man i mean blazing guy we're here malcolm in the middle
20:08taking a detour to the gathering as well best hamburgers and dogs you've ever tasted are on me when
20:14get this baby fired up what's he doing it's performance art even south park parodying the playa it's burning
20:24man biggest party in the world baby now the wild days and nights of burning man shared with the masses
20:32on
20:33social media preston smiles has gotten a burning man every year since 2011 including this year the
20:44thing that people don't understand about burning man is how big it actually is it is miles miles and
20:50miles and miles and so something can happen seven miles away that you never hear about because there's
20:57also 70 000 people in their own experience he didn't learn about vadim until he got home and so
21:05i didn't see anything i didn't hear anything until i got back that there was something that occurred to
21:10this young man preston feels deeply for vadim's family and community and hopes his death won't deter
21:16others from coming to burning man for him the gathering is about community expression and freedom
21:23the idea that one person dying and i feel for his family in the way that they did and if
21:30somebody
21:30did murder him i hope that they are brought to justice and if there's any community that would help
21:36make sure that that person or persons were brought to justice it would be this one preston smiles who
21:43lives outside austin texas as a life coach feed the beast train the beast love the beast i'm a connoisseur
21:51of the human experience i help people remember who they are fill their cups and then give from the
21:58overflow what is within you what you bring forth will save you burning man for me is community it's
22:08expression at the highest heights it's boundary pushing it's everything you want it to be like
22:15anything you want is there and it just disappears he says he tries to personify the principles of
22:23burning man in his daily life yeah i think there's two types of people that go to burning man there's
22:29people who live it and there's people who visit it and i am one of those people who lives this
22:36this is
22:37my art amanda fari a la-based fashion entrepreneur has gotten a burning man the past three years
22:44including this year like preston she didn't hear about vadim's death till she got home i think it's
22:51very unfortunate i think it's awful i mean obviously don't think it should happen just totally goes
22:58against everything that burning man i think is committed to her trip to burning man this year a
23:04joyful experience shared with friends it's really impressive what humans are capable of in terms
23:09of like building and developing and the creativity is like mind blown right like art on like another
23:16level like the the camps on like another level this is the first homicide at burning man and it is
23:25striking and horrible that someone lost their life in this way i don't think that people are going
23:29to be dissuaded from going back just the passion and love and the environment that is burning man
23:35will probably bring more and more people to come for years i think burning man culture is very very
23:41strong but obviously it puts an idea in people's heads that wasn't there before
23:46for vadim kruglov's friends the pain of their loss still wrong will you guys go back to burning man
23:53you think you know it's hard to answer you after this hard conversation yeah it's tough yeah i i think
24:00so
24:01i want to come back and make a beautiful art for vadim's memory and go to temple maybe with friends
24:11who knows him also and put his uh photo yeah because and burning man they have own temple there's a
24:20sacred
24:20space for those who've lost people and the things they love the temple a place where burners go to reflect
24:27and remember it is a structure that's built specifically for people to grieve their loved ones
24:33who've passed on it's like a watering hole for the collective grief that people have been holding
24:39and a permission slip for them to feel that grief with others
24:50at a russian orthodox church in new york friends of vadim gathering for a service
24:56the tight-knit group remembering his energy style and sense of humor while marking 40 days since his
25:04passing he was a very kind person he was very heavily involved in volunteering initiatives for
25:10example he would dress up as santa claus to bring the children joy and he would cook for the parishioners
25:16he was very uh soulful very vivacious gregarious you know he had a very bright smile he lived freely
25:24vadim was such a bright and unique authentic personality that life was brimming
25:33from him that's the heartbreaking part because i think he was such a tremendous potential
25:40vadim's community keeping candles lit for him and still hoping to find answers to what happened in
25:46that desert 3 000 miles away that took their friend from them far too soon he's very old school russian
25:54you know he worked hard he played hard and he prayed hard i still feel like he's very alive
26:02such a living soul not many people who are living right now are so alive as he was
26:36he's very close to him and oh
26:57Transcription by CastingWords
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