Episode 344

March 21, 2026·58 min·3 clips

Reginald McLaren tells a doctor, "So, you killed them? Both of them?"

1. Sword and Scale Episode 344 centers on the March 25, 2023 killings in Englewood, Colorado, at Art Walk at City Center. 2. The key people are 81-year-old Reginald McLaren, his wife Bethany McLaren, his daughter Ruth McLaren, and Officer Aloise with a trainee, who respond to the 911 call and process the scene. 3. The episode asks what happened in apartment N308 after Reginald said, "I found my wife and my daughter murdered," and why the apartment looked like a cleanup was underway. 4. Dispatch tells paramedics to stage at 901 Englewood Parkway after reports that two people may have been killed inside the apartment. 5. Officers find the apartment strangely orderly, with boxes stacked in corners and two large black rolling trash cans sitting in the living room. 6. Inside the bins, they discover both women stuffed headfirst with limbs bent unnaturally, blood pooled below them, and a towel partially covering one body. 7. The search also turns up a blood-soaked pillow, an axe, a handsaw, hair in the blade, and blood in the kitchen sink. 8. Reginald complains of chest pain and tells police he has a history of heart attacks and recent open-heart surgery, so medics take him to Swedish Medical Center. 9. Neighbors tell officers the family kept to themselves, often cooked with their door open, and seemed friendly when seen in the hallway. 10. One neighbor says she saw Reginald leave around 3:55 p.m. in a white sedan and then come back, which starts to undermine his timeline. 11. Detectives find an Xfinity bill, bank statement, IDs, driver's licenses, and Social Security cards cut up and discarded in the apartment dumpster. 12. A Home Depot visit confirms Reginald bought the two trash cans, a Stanley handsaw, and a Harbor Freight axe with cash on March 9. 13. Doorbell footage also shows Reginald wheeling the new trash cans back to the apartment and later leaving with Bethany and Ruth on the same day. 14. Body-camera audio from the hospital captures a doctor asking Reginald, "So, you killed them? Both of them?" and he answers by continuing into a calm explanation. 15. Reginald says he worked for HSS security, lost his job, had only $8,000, and feared he could not keep his family housed. 16. He says Bethany and Ruth were being evicted, that he had been planning for about 10 days, and that he could not bear the idea of them begging on the street. 17. The episode's tone is procedural and forensic, with police radio traffic, 911 audio, body-camera dialogue, and detective narration driving the pace. 18. The format alternates between the initial response, neighborhood canvassing, surveillance review, and the hospital interview that ties the timeline together. 19. Listeners interested in true-crime investigations, police procedure, and timeline reconstruction will likely follow this episode closely. 20. Listeners wanting a light, low-violence story will probably skip this one.

As heard by us

A stark police-call case built from procedural detail and immediate audio.

A quiet Saturday in Englewood gives way to a double homicide call at a luxury apartment complex, and the piece stays close to the stunned procedural rush that follows.

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Why you'd press play

You want a grim police-call case built around a March 2023 Englewood double homicide.

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