The game has only just begun. Radio Silence directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillette are back for round two with their new horror comedy film, Ready or Not 2, Here I Come. Samara Weaving returns as Grace, the battle-worn and bloody bride, and is joined by stars Catherine Newton, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sean Haddesey, Nestor Carbonell, David Cronenberg, and Elijah Wood. After Grace marries into a mysterious family and is forced to play a life-or-death game of hide-and-seek. She emerges victorious, but what she didn't know is that by winning, she triggered a whole new twisted battle. This time with her estranged sister Faith at her side. The duo faces a shadowy group of rival devil-worshipping families who control the world, and they must fight to the bloody death for the ultimate prize. Two times the kills, two times the satanic rituals, and two times the human combustion. Don't miss the full tilt insanity Ready or not to, here I come When it hits theaters, March 20th Hi, it's Trevor from the Acquisitions Department of the Antiquarium Here to tell you about another room in the shop We wanted you to have the opportunity to discover Through a secret passage into a bookcase in the basement Is the Archivum Malorum It's a collection of the incomprehensible and unexplained Tales of true crime into the bazaar It does, however, come with a warning Due to the graphic content, a visit to this particular part of the shop may not be for everyone. While the Antiquarium prepares its next consignment for you, here is a descent into the darkness with a look at the first case file. If it compels you and you wish to go further, follow the Antiquarium of Documented Atrocities on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. We present now a taste of that darkness with Case A001. Visitor discretion is advised. Three days before Christmas, 1990. In the mountains outside Oakley, Utah, a deputy steps into the remains of a burned A-frame cabin. snowmobiles sit outside their tracks still sharp in the fresh powder inside the air is heavy with smoke and a chemical scent of accelerant the fire has burned across the upstairs rooms below the scene is in one investigator's words a mini war zone By the time responders arrive, the facts are grim and immediate. Two women dead inside the cabin. A wounded father who escaped to seek help. And two daughters missing. Last seen when their family arrived for what should have been a holiday weekend. Amid the wreckage, investigators recover the family's camcorder. In it, a videotape. When they press play, they do not see the TeeDee family at all. Instead, they see two strangers. Relaxed. Laughing. Unhurried. Opening the TeeDee's wrapped Christmas gifts. Hours before the family returned to the cabin. I don't know. Okay. I don't think I got all of this. I don't know. How am I supposed to find out? What is it? Okay. Let's see a couple of them. Boom, back, boom. Show him this way. Turn him this way. The tape will become one of the most significant pieces of evidence collected in the case. A question hangs in the cold air of the burned cabin. Simple and terrible. What happened here? Three days before Christmas. What you are about to hear describes real events, some of which may be unsettling. Listener discretion is advised. Good evening. You've reached the quiet end of the antiquarium. Tonight we step briefly into the back room I keep closed to the passing crowd. I call it the Archivum Malorum. A simple name for a simple purpose. A private archive of documents, reports, recordings, and the grim accounts of human darkness that history tries to misplace. This is case number A-001. The Christmas Cabin Murders Welcome to the Antiquarium of Sinister Happenings and Documented Atrocities The documents place us in Summit County, Utah. in the winter of 1990. The TeeDee family, Rolf and Kay, their daughters, Linnae and Tricia, and Kay's mother, Beth Potts, are getting ready for Christmas. Their tradition? A drive up to a cabin near Beaver Springs, outside the mountain town of Oakley, where winter closes the roads and snowmobiles become the only way in and out. Something Linnae recalls fondly. That was our family dream. We looked forward to that every year to be able to spend our Christmas vacation together in the mountains with our family. Rolf TeeDee was, by every account, a hardworking family man, a German immigrant. He had come to the United States as a child and eventually built a successful metal recycling business in Utah. The cabin in the mountains was part of the life that work had bought, a place of snow for quiet, for family holidays. Kay, in her late 40s, was described by relatives as a devoted mother, strong-willed, loving, and deeply involved in her daughter's lives. Her mother Beth Potts was in her 70s and close to the family She often joined them at the cabin The daughters 20 Lene and 16 Tricia were at very different stages in life One a young adult the other still in high school. But both firmly rooted in a close-knit extended family. In their later interviews, they would describe their father as their hero, and their mother and grandmother as the center of the family's celebrations. The setting is important here because it helps explain both the danger and the illusion of safety. The Oakley cabin was remote, set amid snow-covered hills and trees. In winter, access was by snowmobile along a private road and trails. The remoteness made it idyllic And as the documents show, it also made it vulnerable In December 1990, the TDs planned a full family Christmas at the cabin On December 22nd, they drove up from the valley With them were presents, decorations, and all the quiet expectations of a holiday away from the city They could not have known that two men had already set their own course toward that same cabin. The men who would intersect with the T.D. family's holiday were Vaughn Lester Taylor, then 25, and Edward Stephen Dele, 21. Both were parolees. Taylor had been convicted previously of aggravated burglary. Dele also had a criminal record. In December 1990, both walked away from a halfway house in Salt Lake City, where they had been placed as part of their supervision. Taylor and Dele stole a vehicle, traveled into the mountains, and eventually broke into the Tee Dee family cabin while the family was away in Salt Lake City. Once inside, Taylor made at least one phone call. A friend later testified that Taylor said he planned, quote, to shoot some people, end quote. The men held themselves to food and explored the cabin. At some point, they located the family's video camera, set it up, and recorded themselves opening the TD's wrapped Christmas presents. Copies of this tape later circulated among investigators and journalists It shows the men in no apparent distress about what they are planning to do Late that morning, the TeeDee family began to return to the cabin The first group to arrive was Beth Potts Her daughter Kay, and one of Kay's daughters, Linnae Taylor and Dele confronted them with firearms The three women were held at gunpoint In those first minutes, the power dynamic in the cabin shifted completely From family space to hostage scene Immediately after Mom and Grams were brought into the cabin Mom said to them, what are you here for? What do you want? My mother just began to have a conversation and the man immediately started to fire at her Lene watched as Taylor shot her mother in cold blood I see my mom go down and then seconds after that I look over to my shoulder and see my grandmother fall after her head had been blown off and then it was dead silence The timeline moves quickly At some point after the first group arrives Rolf and the younger daughter, Trisha, come back to the cabin as well. When they enter, they are walking into a crime scene already in progress. Two women dead, their surviving daughter held hostage, and two armed men in control. Trisha is terrified. My dad says, what do you guys need? What do you guys need? And I said, you want money, Dad, give him money. Yeah, yeah, we want money. And slowly my dad unzipped his snow vest and reached into his billfold and threw it on the ground. As soon as he did that, the one guy said, shoot him. Taylor holds Rolf at gunpoint, robs him of about $100 in cash, and shoots him in the face with a .38 caliber handgun. Tricia grabs hold of her sister. I just held her tight and I said, it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. And at that moment, the feeling to survive kicked in almost like an animal instinct. Something I never experienced and don't ever want to experience again. Gasoline is spread inside the cabin and near Rolf's body. Then the two intruders set it on fire. Taylor and Dele turn their attention to Linnae and Tricia. Each girl is made to drive a snowmobile with one of the gunmen riding behind her. A gun pressed into their backs as they leave the burning cabin and head down toward the main road. There is no one to help us. There is nowhere to go. We're in the middle of the mountains. On snowmobiles. As they ride, they pass a familiar figure near the gate. Their uncle, Randy Zorn, arriving for a holiday visit. He waves to his nieces. They don't wave back. Don't call out. And do not stop. A choice they will later explain as a desperate attempt to keep him from being shot as well. I seen the snowmobiles come up the trail. Two snowmobiles. And I go, oh, look, there's my nieces. They knew it was the girls. with two people on the back. And I go, wow, they got boyfriends. Coming up, we leave the walls of the cabin behind and follow what happened next. Two gunmen on the move and two sisters taken against their will. Welcome to the antiquarium of sinister happenings and documented atrocities. The Christmas Cabin Murders. Thank you. Before we return to the archive, a matter of public safety. The FBI is seeking information on the whereabouts of William Jr. Jordan. Wanted for the brutal murder of a man in Georgia on March 6th, 1974. After being apprehended and convicted in June of that year to life in prison, Jordan escaped from the Wayne Correctional Institution in Odom, Georgia on August 6th, 1984. and has not been seen since. He is described as a white male born September 18, 1942, with brown hair blue eyes six feet two inches tall weighing 135 pounds He has a tattoo of a skeleton on his right arm a spider on his right upper arm A cross with the word Sybil on his left forearm And the word Louise on his left leg. He has numerous scars on his forehead. He also goes by the alias Buddy. If you have information regarding his whereabouts, contact your nearest FBI field office or submit a confidential tip at tips.fbi.gov. Do not approach this individual. Now, back to the archive. With two young hostages, Vaughn and Edward make their escape on a pair of snowmobiles, leaving behind a family cabin engulfed in flames and three murdered. However, inside the cabin, Rolf TeeDee is very much alive. After being shot and set on fire, he forces himself up and makes it to the shower, turning on the water and tearing off his burning clothes. The photographs of the bathroom show a scorched interior, a small room that functioned as a makeshift refuge. Once he has put out the flames, Rolf faces another problem. He is alone, badly wounded, in a burning structure in sub-zero temperatures. He somehow manages to reach one of the family snowmobiles, start it, and drive down toward the main road despite his injuries. At the gate, Randy is still there. He has just seen his nieces drive past with strangers on the back of their machines. Now he sees another snowmobile coming down the trail This one driven by a man without coat, gloves, or helmet His face swollen and covered in blood When the man gets close enough, Randy recognizes his brother-in-law Rolf tells Randy what he can That his wife and mother-in-law have been shot That the cabin is on fire and that the two girls have been taken by armed men. Randy drives him to where they can reach a phone and calls 911. Rescue teams are dispatched up the mountain to the cabin. At the same time, law enforcement agencies in the area begin to coordinate a response on the roads below. They have two priorities. Secure the crime scene and locate the abducted sisters before the suspects can disappear into the larger road network. Rolf is airlifted to the hospital. Manhunts in official language often sound clinical. Officers established roadblocks. Pursuit ensued. Suspects were apprehended. The underlying reality is more chaotic. In this case, police know they are dealing with at least two armed men, one or more homicides, arson, and an active kidnapping. They set up roadblocks and begin searching for the TD's vehicle. On the mountain, the cabin burns, leaving behind a charred interior that will later be photographed in detail. Scorched walls. Melted furnishings. Structural damage from both fire and firefighting efforts. Investigators will recover ballistic evidence, the burned remains of Accelerant, and ultimately the bodies of KTD and Beth Potts. Down below, officers locate the TD family's bronco abandoned near the trailhead. Taylor and Dele have already forced the sisters into a second vehicle taken from a passerby. What follows is a brief but dangerous pursuit. The suspects driving at high speed along the canyon road, officers in pursuit. According to later court testimony, the chase reaches speeds approaching 80 miles per hour before the stolen vehicle leaves the roadway and crashes down a ravine. The impact disables the car. Taylor and Deli flee on foot into the surrounding terrain, leaving the sisters behind. Law enforcement moves quickly. The girls are recovered alive, and the two suspects are captured separately shortly afterward, ending the manhunt. then lenae was told something she did not expect to hear in the hallway my uncle was standing and embraced him in a great big hug and he just said to me sweetie your dad's alive and i just remember feeling so happy and ecstatic that my dad was still alive The legal aftermath of the TD Cabin murders is complex, and in some respects, unusual. It is this complexity that later leads 48 Hours and others to frame the case as two killers, two outcomes. Earlier in the proceedings, there was a quiet but striking moment when Rolf T.D. entered the courtroom to testify. Both Taylor and Dele appeared visibly stunned, like they had seen a ghost. They had no idea he had made it out alive. His survival, and the fact that he now stood before them able to give his account of exactly what happened and who pulled the trigger that day, became a defining turning point in the case. Vaughn Lester Taylor chooses to plead guilty to two counts of aggravated murder in May 1991. In exchange, lesser charges are dropped, but prosecutors retain the right to seek the death penalty. After a penalty phase, a jury unanimously recommends a death sentence, and the judge imposes it. Taylor selects lethal injection as his preferred method of execution As allowed under Utah law Edward Stephen Daly takes a different route He goes to trial on aggravated murder charges The state's theory is that he was not merely present But an active participant in the murders and kidnappings Daly's defense stresses that Taylor has admitted to pulling the trigger and argues that Dele did not himself shoot anyone. The outcome is effectively a compromise. Jurors cannot reach unanimity on aggravated murder for Dele. According to later reports, 11 jurors favor conviction on the capital charge, but one holds out, citing reasonable doubt that Dele personally fired a fatal shot. To avoid a mistrial, the jury convicts him instead of second-degree murder and related charges The judge then imposes seven consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole In the years that follow both men pursue appeals Dele argues that his seven life sentences are excessive and that the sentencing structure leaves no room for rehabilitation or eventual release. The Utah Supreme Court rejects his appeal in 1993 and upholds the sentence. Taylor's appellate path is longer. He challenges aspects of his representation and the handling of mitigating evidence. State and federal courts hear multiple rounds of appeals and habeas petitions. In 2017, a federal district court judge rules that Taylor's death sentence is flawed due to concerns about jury instructions in the way evidence was presented, effectively setting aside the death sentence while leaving the convictions in place. For a time, that ruling raises the possibility that the case might move toward a new penalty phase or a reduced sentence. But in 2021, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reverses the lower court and reinstates the death sentence, finding that the original sentencing proceeding met constitutional standards. As of the most recent public records, Taylor remains on Utah's death row, and Dele continues to serve his life sentences in state prison. Alongside the criminal cases, there is a civil attempt at accountability. Rolf T.D. sues the state of Utah, arguing that the state's failure to adequately supervise or respond to the men's disappearance from the halfway house contributed to the murders. The Utah Supreme Court ultimately dismisses the suit in 1996, citing statutory immunity for the state in such circumstances. The law, in this instance, acknowledges harm, but offers no civil remedy. The official documents of the TD case end, as legal documents often do, with procedural language. Judgments affirmed, petitions denied, sentences upheld. They do not record how the survivors grow older and how they choose to live with what happened. For that, we look to later interviews and family accounts. In 2011 and 2013, Linnae and Tricia speak publicly in the 48 Hours Live to Tell episode Three Days Before Christmas and its follow-up coverage. They describe their father as their hero, the man whose decision to fight past the gunshot and the flames gave them a chance to survive. They also speak about their mother and grandmother in terms of love, not just loss. The cabin itself is rebuilt Photographs show a warm colored A-frame among aspens and snow The structure restored and, according to relatives, better than it was before For the sisters, returning to the cabin becomes an act of reclamation rather than avoidance They describe it as a place of healing, not merely a crime scene In 2011, Kay's sister, Claudia Tidwell Nelson, publishes a book titled Murder, Death, and Rebirth, reflecting on the murders and on her own process of grieving and rebuilding. The title itself suggests the arc the family has tried to follow, acknowledging the horror, but not allowing it to be the final word. From the standpoint of the archivum, this case is unusually well documented. We have court records, investigative files, national television coverage, and detailed retrospective reporting, including a recent article that revisits the crime under the stark headline, They opened the TD family's Christmas gifts, then killed mom and grandma and abducted the daughters. But even with that documentation, there are things the record cannot fully answer. We can read Taylor's statements about who fired which shots, and Dele's insistence that he never pulled the trigger, alongside the findings of the courts and the recollections of the sisters. We can see how the legal system resolved those conflicts. What we cannot do, ethically, is pretend to know more than the evidence reports about what either man felt in those moments. Their motives, beyond greed and callous disregard for life, remain largely within the realm of speculation. And speculation belongs outside this archive. What is clear is this. Two women, K. TeeDee and Beth Potts, were killed in their family's cabin days before Christmas A father, Rolf TeeDee, survived a shooting and arson through a combination of resilience, chance, and the presence of family nearby Two daughters, Linnae and Tricia, endured kidnapping and terror and went on to build lives that honor the people they lost In that sense, the Christmas Cabin Murders, as headlines sometimes label this case, are also, quietly, a story of survival and of a family's refusal to surrender their place in the mountains to the memory of two intruders. There is no tidy moral to extract from this. Only a reminder of how quickly an ordinary refuge can become a crime scene. How much depends on individual decisions. To walk away from supervision. To pick up a gun. To get on a snowmobile despite grave injury. To keep silent on a trail to protect an uncle. To return to a rebuilt cabin. And refuse to relinquish it to fear. For tonight, that is as far as the record will take us. I'll close the folder on this case, return it to its place in the Archivum Malorum, and lock the door behind us. Out there, caution is its own kind of protection. Walk wisely. Until next time. The Antiquarium of Sinister Happenings and Documented Atrocities. Case number A001, The Christmas Cabin Murders. Narrated by Stephen Knowles. Written and produced by Trevor and Lauren Shand. A presentation of Bloody FM. This episode contains short excerpts from Survivor interviews originally broadcast by A&E and CBS News 48 Hours. Presented here under fair use for purposes of reporting, commentary, and historical documentation. All rights to the original recordings remain with their respective copyright holders. The stories presented here are based on real events. While we research each case thoroughly, some details may be incomplete or dramatized in the telling. We intend no disrespect toward victims or their families. A portion of proceeds is donated to the National Center for Victims of Crime, an organization supporting individuals, families, and communities harmed by crime. For more, visit VictimsofCrime.org. Email DocumentedAtrocities at gmail.com. Follow at DocumentedAtrocities on Instagram. For ad-free episodes and to support the show, go to Patreon.com slash DocumentedAtrocities.
