Speaker 1: Pushkin. I still haven't stopped trembling. I can hold my
Speaker 1: fingers up right now and they're slightly shaking. I am stalling.
Speaker 1: I don't want to type about June twenty second, but
Speaker 1: I know I need to. A week or two after
Speaker 1: the first season of Lost Hills wrapped up, I met
Speaker 1: a woman named Stacy Seborn. This is her reading from
Speaker 1: her journal. My dreams are starting to interfere with my memory.
Speaker 1: My days are mixing up, colliding with one another. I'm
Speaker 1: in a state of haze. It's hard to see what
Speaker 1: I'm looking at. It is literally hard to hear clearly.
Speaker 1: Stacy wanted to give me a firsthand account of the
Speaker 1: fear and chaos that erupted in the campground at Malibu
Speaker 1: Creek State Park on the morning that Tristan Boudette was
Speaker 1: killed sleeping beside his two little girls, Friday four thirty three,
Speaker 1: AM awoke to four to five gunshots, all in a row.
Speaker 1: Panic my brain, Oh my god, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,
Speaker 1: fuck fuck. Stacy was right there, just across the road
Speaker 1: from Boudette's campsite, in a tent with her eight year
Speaker 1: old daughter, Amelia and Amelia's best friend Sophia. I grabbed
Speaker 1: myself one and turned it on. The light turned on. Shit.
Speaker 1: I pressed it into the blanket. The sound of it
Speaker 1: turning on startled me. Fuck. I covered it hard with
Speaker 1: my hands. I knew I needed to be quiet. I'm
Speaker 1: waiting to hear the crackling of twigs footsteps up to
Speaker 1: our tent. We are going to be shot next. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, help us. I can hear the baby crying, Daddy, daddy, daddy,
Speaker 1: over and over and the most mournful, slow cry. My
Speaker 1: heart sinks. I want to help the baby. Amelia, my daughter,
Speaker 1: speaks up for the first time, and in a whisper,
Speaker 1: she says, Mommy, what was that. I answered back in
Speaker 1: a whisper. It was Firecracker's baby. Go back to sleep.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, fuck fuck fuck. I'm on full alert
Speaker 1: and listening. Did the father kill his family and then himself.
Speaker 1: Is that baby hurt? Is someone consoling that baby? Is
Speaker 1: that baby alone? Is he out there waiting to shoot
Speaker 1: someone else? Is there a random shooter out there? Sophia
Speaker 1: is still sleeping? Oh my god, fuck fuck fuck. I'm
Speaker 1: listening and waiting for footsteps. We need to be quiet.
Speaker 1: I fight the urge to run. I'm Dana Goodyear and
Speaker 1: this is a Lost Hills bonus episode. The eyewitness do
Speaker 1: you want me to get a mask? It's early on
Speaker 1: a Saturday morning, and I'm at Stacy's house in a
Speaker 1: quiet suburban neighborhood in Orange County. We sit down in
Speaker 1: her TV room and the first thing Stacy does is
Speaker 1: grab her laptop. She starts flipping through pictures of the
Speaker 1: camping trip, starting with the drive out to Malibu Creek
Speaker 1: State Park. The girls were goofing around in the car.
Speaker 1: They have smiles plastered on their faces. This is the
Speaker 1: very beginning. We loaded up the car and those are
Speaker 1: my that's my daughter Amelia and her best friend Sophia,
Speaker 1: who they've been best for instance first grade, so that's
Speaker 1: five plus years now. They're just like sisters. So we're
Speaker 1: very excited. This was our first time out camping alone.
Speaker 1: My daughter and I decided, um, we're going to give
Speaker 1: it a try. We loved camping, nature and hiking and
Speaker 1: just being out there, so we thought, well, mald was
Speaker 1: pretty close. Um. I did my research. I looked online,
Speaker 1: I looked through the state parks. It looked very safe,
Speaker 1: and I was very excited because I offered a lot
Speaker 1: of things to campers. They have the mash site there
Speaker 1: that was very intrigued about. They had a rock pool,
Speaker 1: which I had no idea what that was. And you know,
Speaker 1: if the girls could get wet and have fun and
Speaker 1: it was hot, that was, you know, a great alternative.
Speaker 1: Plus the beach was right there. So we had a
Speaker 1: lot planned. You know, I had a lot of fun
Speaker 1: expectations going into this park. They were assigned to Site fifty.
Speaker 1: I pulled in and my first thing is to always
Speaker 1: just observe what are my surroundings. And you do that
Speaker 1: naturally when you camp, because you want to know where
Speaker 1: to set up your tents, whereas the table to go.
Speaker 1: But being alone with little girls, I also was keeping
Speaker 1: an eye on my neighbors and who was around me.
Speaker 1: So we got out of the car. We stretched, We
Speaker 1: looked around um at our spot and I said, okay, girls,
Speaker 1: where are we going to put the tent? And there's
Speaker 1: an obvious flat place next to where our parking was,
Speaker 1: and there's a picnic table. But the girls wanted to
Speaker 1: go up the hill a little bit up the embankment
Speaker 1: between some trees and there was this tiny little area.
Speaker 1: I had lots of twigs and rocks, and I said,
Speaker 1: I said, okay, you know, I was a little reluctant,
Speaker 1: but that's what they wanted to do. And you know,
Speaker 1: I felt like, Okay, this is their trip, Let's do
Speaker 1: whatever they want. So we went up there. We swept
Speaker 1: out our area, we propped up the tent, loaded it up,
Speaker 1: and then began our our fin adventure. The Bodettes pulled
Speaker 1: in and and then I ended up walking over and
Speaker 1: talking to them a little bit because I saw they
Speaker 1: had their kids and they had a bunch of equipment
Speaker 1: that they're kept taking out of the cars, you know,
Speaker 1: for the kids, bicycles and stuff. They were very kind
Speaker 1: and so I felt even more comfortable being there with
Speaker 1: my little girls. And that was another reason why I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk to them too, since they were my viewpoint.
Speaker 1: You know. The other campers to the sides of me
Speaker 1: were behind trees and stuff. Okay, this is behind our tents.
Speaker 1: The sun was going down and it was the Golden
Speaker 1: Magic hour. I'm like, girls, get up there, I want
Speaker 1: to get your picture. So this was a little incline
Speaker 1: that I was telling you about. And this was dinner.
Speaker 1: They made us dinner. They cut vegetables and brought out
Speaker 1: soup and heated it up. The girls did. This was
Speaker 1: their trip, so I let them do it. That was
Speaker 1: actually my first fire that I made all by myself.
Speaker 1: I was very proud of it. Okay, this is bedtime, Yeah,
Speaker 1: this was okay, girls, lights out, go to sleep. The
Speaker 1: next thing, Stacy knew she was being startled awake by gunfire.
Speaker 1: I knew they were gunshots, and I didn't know where
Speaker 1: the gun man was, and there was someone out there shooting.
Speaker 1: So we just held tight. We laid low. We were
Speaker 1: real quiet, and I was listening. I was listening for
Speaker 1: any movement. That was the scariest thing, thinking that, you know,
Speaker 1: we were sitting ducks at no defense and I had
Speaker 1: my little girls with me. We just listened. I had
Speaker 1: my phone on and in the meantime, I'm listening to
Speaker 1: what's happening around us. And this man yelled for help
Speaker 1: a few times. The man with Scott McCarty, Tristan's brother
Speaker 1: in law. But in the confusion, Stacy was afraid it
Speaker 1: was a ruse. Maybe the shooter was luring victims from
Speaker 1: their tents. I heard a baby crying, and she was
Speaker 1: crying in the most mournful sound. Calling for daddy over
Speaker 1: and over again, Daddy, Daddy, and I still hear the
Speaker 1: baby crying in my head. It's it was the worst,
Speaker 1: and not being to help the family next to me.
Speaker 1: They hollered back to the man yelling and said, we
Speaker 1: have extra chairs up here, bring the baby up here.
Speaker 1: He said his kids are sleeping in the tent and
Speaker 1: someone shot his friend, and I believe he said. I
Speaker 1: didn't hear what the family was asking, but he said,
Speaker 1: my friend's no longer here. Trembling in her tent, listening
Speaker 1: for footsteps, braced for more gunfire, Stacy knew she had
Speaker 1: to do something, and as soon as I heard a
Speaker 1: man yelling for help, I dialed nine one one, because
Speaker 1: then I knew something was definitely wrong, and I whispered
Speaker 1: in my phone as quiet as I could, but I
Speaker 1: was articulating so that they could hear me. There have
Speaker 1: been gunshots at the campsite Malibou Creek State Park, and
Speaker 1: there is a man yelling for help, Come fast, come now.
Speaker 1: Inside the tent, Stacy was trying to stay calm. Amelia's friend,
Speaker 1: Mercifully was still asleep, but Amelia was wide awake, and
Speaker 1: she was scared. She asked me, Mommy, are we going
Speaker 1: to get shot too? And I told her, no, baby,
Speaker 1: we're fine, We're fine, just go back to sleep. But
Speaker 1: my heart, I am terrified, thinking that we are going
Speaker 1: to get shot next. It seemed like it took forever
Speaker 1: to get the police there, but when they did come in,
Speaker 1: they filled this entire street up with their police cars
Speaker 1: and I watched them through my tent. It was a
Speaker 1: very dark night that was extremely black. When the police
Speaker 1: pulled in, they had their flashlights out, and two of
Speaker 1: them came up into my camp spot and I was
Speaker 1: still so terrified, petrified and frozen. I was trying to
Speaker 1: get their attention. I wanted to leave so bad, and
Speaker 1: one officer I told them this, I'm really confused this.
Speaker 1: This place seemed like such a safe place to be,
Speaker 1: and he said I would never take my family here.
Speaker 1: And I remember feeling taken aback and confused. Well, and
Speaker 1: I told him, how am I supposed to know that?
Speaker 1: You know? Knowing now what I know, If I knew
Speaker 1: that then that there were shootings in that area, I
Speaker 1: would not have been there with my little girls. At
Speaker 1: what point did you realize that the victim and the
Speaker 1: person asking for help. Were the dads that you had
Speaker 1: been talking with earlier, m I knew it was them
Speaker 1: when the when the sun came up, I didn't know
Speaker 1: who was who, but I knew there were two fathers
Speaker 1: and kids, and then there was just the one father
Speaker 1: and the kids, so I knew at that time it
Speaker 1: was one father that had passed. Can you describe what
Speaker 1: the campground looked like as the sun came up and
Speaker 1: you had some vision back? It was misty, It was
Speaker 1: not a clear morning. I don't remember it being cold,
Speaker 1: but I know shaking all over. I think I shook
Speaker 1: for days. I think, you know, holding in all that
Speaker 1: fear of not knowing what was going to happen, and
Speaker 1: trying to protect my girls by not moving, you know,
Speaker 1: by holding still when all I wanted to do was run.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a it's a hard thing to do.
Speaker 1: I remember watching the paramedics pull up. It was starting
Speaker 1: to get light out, and the officer hollered at him,
Speaker 1: we don't need to. Stacy says she was desperate to
Speaker 1: get the kids to safety. She'd never seen the shooter,
Speaker 1: no one had. Was he hidden somewhere in the campground?
Speaker 1: Would he shoot again? After I gave my statement to
Speaker 1: the officer, and I started to leave. I got up
Speaker 1: to the front of the entrance and I, yes, I
Speaker 1: made it. We're leaving. And there was an officer who's
Speaker 1: taking caution tape and stretching it across my my exit
Speaker 1: right in front of me. And okay, so I told
Speaker 1: myself calm down. A lady officer came up to the
Speaker 1: window and I said, I gave my statement, I've been
Speaker 1: cleared to go, and she radioed back Stacy Seaborne gave
Speaker 1: a statement, is she free to go? And it took
Speaker 1: a while to get an answer, and when the answer
Speaker 1: came back, it was no, one is allowed to leave.
Speaker 1: My heart sank and I'm ready to just bust through
Speaker 1: that little strip of caution tape, but I realized I
Speaker 1: had reception. I put the car in park and I
Speaker 1: called my husband, who of course didn't answer because he's sleeping. It.
Speaker 1: What time was I leaving? Five or six in the morning.
Speaker 1: I called my son, no answer, called the house phone,
Speaker 1: no answer. And as I was sitting at the exit
Speaker 1: trying to leave, desperately trying to leave, I saw a
Speaker 1: woman desperately trying to come in. I'm sorry, I think
Speaker 1: that might have been Scott's wife. Yeah, yeah, if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, she left and then came back. I was
Speaker 1: still sitting there trying to get out. She was still
Speaker 1: trying to get in. Stacy and the girls eventually made
Speaker 1: it out of Malibu Creek State Park and she started
Speaker 1: to drive home to Orange County. It was a long
Speaker 1: drive home. When I finally got home, actually sitting at
Speaker 1: the red light turning near our street, I texted my
Speaker 1: older daughter and I said, come get the girls and
Speaker 1: take them in the house because I knew I was
Speaker 1: just gonna was all coming out. So as soon as
Speaker 1: she the girls got into the car, my husband came
Speaker 1: out and I just crumbled. In the days that followed,
Speaker 1: there were no clear answers, just rumors and a creeping
Speaker 1: feeling that Stacy had, a feeling that still haunts her.
Speaker 1: Tristan was in Site fifty one, Stacy and the girls
Speaker 1: were in Site fifty. The shooter could just as easily
Speaker 1: have fired on their tent. I felt like it could
Speaker 1: have been us. I do believe there are certain things
Speaker 1: that had happened to keep us out of that spot.
Speaker 1: For instance, when the girls wanted to tuck the tent
Speaker 1: up and the trees and not in the open area.
Speaker 1: It was just a little whisper, little angels whispering in
Speaker 1: my ear. To let them do what they wanted to do.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be okay. It's not the ideal spot, but
Speaker 1: you know, this is their trip. Let them do it.
Speaker 1: And I look back at it thinking that it was,
Speaker 1: you know, a savings grace for us. I, you know,
Speaker 1: was a single parent in a tent with two young kids,
Speaker 1: and and so is Tristan a single parent with two
Speaker 1: young kids, and I just it's terrible. Stacy tells me
Speaker 1: she was able to find out the information for Tristan's
Speaker 1: memorial service, and she worked up the courage to go.
Speaker 1: I was very reluctant to go up to them at
Speaker 1: the service because I wasn't technically invited and I didn't
Speaker 1: want to intrude on the family's morning. But there was
Speaker 1: an opportunity where I think Scott recognized me, so I
Speaker 1: felt like it was okay to come up to him,
Speaker 1: and I was able to apologize to him for not
Speaker 1: helping him when he needed it, and he's so gracious
Speaker 1: and he did acknowledge that I didn't have anything to
Speaker 1: be sorry for. But I was able to give him
Speaker 1: a hug and tell him that I'm praying for his family,
Speaker 1: and I was just so sorry for the situation. The
Speaker 1: trip to Malibu Creek State Park, Stacy says, was supposed
Speaker 1: to be the beginning of something, a lifetime of mother
Speaker 1: daughter adventures. Instead, it marked an ending. I did keep thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry to you
Speaker 1: know what was I being so stupid thinking it was
Speaker 1: okay to do this. Unfortunately, it took away my m
Speaker 1: This incident took away my right to be able to
Speaker 1: enjoy nature in a peaceful way, a soul filling way.
Speaker 1: And I loved it so much prior to that, because
Speaker 1: it did fill my soul, you know, hearing the wind
Speaker 1: in the trees and watching the birds, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's just joyful. So I'm I'm relearning. I'm you know,
Speaker 1: relearning that, Stacy, thank you so much. Leaving Stacy's house,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about what pastor Phil told me that violence
Speaker 1: reverberates in all kinds of unexpected ways through generations. It
Speaker 1: tears people apart, but a shared trauma can also glue
Speaker 1: people together in unexpected ways. Stacy alone in her tent
Speaker 1: with two little girls, camp set away from Tristan alone,
Speaker 1: an attent with his