Episode 344

On a frigid Saturday afternoon in late March 2023, Englewood, Colorado police responded to a 911 call from 81-year-old Reginald McLaren. He claimed to have found his wife and daughter murdered in their luxury apartment at Art Walk at City Center, stuffed headfirst into oversized rolling trash cans in the living room. What began as a suspected intruder homicide quickly unraveled through inconsistencies in McLaren's story and accumulating physical evidence.

Initial Response and Crime Scene

Dispatchers noted oddities in McLaren's call: he misstated his wife's age as 17 and daughter's as 34 (actual ages: Bethany McLaren, 70, and Ruth, 35); claimed the killer tried to trash the bodies but failed; and named two nephews, Rajin Bitcha and Milan Kawas, as gang-involved suspects who fled. Officers found McLaren frail and jacket-clad in the silent hallway, seemingly uninjured but dazed. Inside unit N-308, neatly packed moving boxes contrasted with gore: two black trash cans containing the contorted, bloody bodies; blood-spattered walls and sofa; a blood-soaked pillow; hair-strands on an axe in a utility closet; a handsaw nearby; and hair-blood in the kitchen sink. Neighbors reported a quiet family—immigrants from India/Nepal who cooked fragrant meals with doors open—but no recent sightings of the women, only McLaren. One saw him locking up and heading to his white SUV around 3:55 p.m