EP26 | Cracked
On a warm April morning in North Dakota, employees arrived to a scene of chaos—one that would leave four dead and a town searching for answers. What first looked like rage soon revealed something far colder: a calculated ambush hiding in plain sight.
On an unusually warm day in April of 2019, employees of RJR Maintenance and Management in Mandan, North Dakota, pulled into work expecting the usual routine. Instead, they were met with caution tape, blasting sirens, blood-stained floors, and the horrified faces of coworkers.
Employees Robert Fakler, Adam Fuehrer, and William and Lois Cobb were dead; their blood stained the floors of the work bays, the carpet of the main office. Their personal items were strewn throughout the office, their bodies riddled with stab wounds.
Investigators conducted interviews, photographed the crime scene, and struggled to get shoe print casts from melting snow. The victims’ loved ones were in shock, minds scrambling after motives. Dark secrets scattered into the light like the bullets that fell from the victims’ wounds.
Robert, Adam, William, and Lois were slaughtered in a rage. Yet surveillance revealed a cold calculation, a thought-out deviance. This wasn’t a sudden act; it was an ambush.
In this episode of Sword and Scale, we follow a small town as they confront the chaos of a depraved mind, mourn the loss of four beloved, and chase down details that brought some closure to their nightmare.
Crew
Host - Mike Boudet
Creator & Director - Ash Patiño
Director of Photography - David Patiño
Cinematographer - Zack Placencia
On-Site Producer: Chelsy Ciavarella
Producer - Tyann Sells
Sound & Music Credit - Zapsplat
Additional Crew Listed on Episode