Welcoming Peer
Previously: The investigators interview Sebastian Podesta.
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11:26 AM - Sunday, November 2, 2014
Flood Mansion, Pacific Heights, San Francisco
Jeannie heaved a sigh and gave a long look at Seb Podesta. There had been boys like him in her class at Xavier too: handsome, athletic, academic, promising, and completely messy. Unrealized potential.
“Well, Sebastian, you seem to be a very busy fellow.” She said flatly. Seb looked at her and it was as though all that promise in his eyes was dimming in front of her. “I will give you credit though — you do seem to realize that this is an extraordinarily tragic situation and you are right in the middle of it, aren’t you?”
“Yes.” The kid whispered. The Jesuit Dean next to him had gone completely pale in the last few minutes.
“Good. Because while you’re free to go now, we will be talking with you again. And in the meantime, I hope you find some clarity…on a few things.” He flinched slightly as she said it. Jeannie looked at Mark who stood to say thank you to Seb and the Dean. Seb stood mechanically and moved slowly to pick up his phone before heading back out into the hall. Jeannie didn’t breathe fully until the door had closed behind him. Her ears were ringing and she suddenly felt tears starting to well up but immediately stifled it. She looked at Paco across the room who was staring at her; he nodded at her slightly.
“You did good Jeannie.” He said.
“Downright scary.” Mark added quietly. She chuckled darkly.
“I thought you were pretty scary yourself.” She said standing to stretch. This led to her walking the perimeter of the room. She didn’t know why, but her body just needed to move. She felt like a terrier and almost wanted to sniff the corners. “We didn’t ask him about the wolf masks, but I doubt he’d remember anything about them.” Jeannie found herself looking out the open window at the Bay for a few long seconds; a moment of much-needed rest. A few sailboats dotted the water below and she envied people not working on a Sunday.
“I think we need to talk to Carolina,” she said, turning back to Mark and Paco.
Mark went out to call Carolina into the room. The girl’s face was puffy and pink when she appeared in the doorway, all long bare legs and an oversized Georgetown sweatshirt. The Academy Headmaster sat next to her as she scooted the chair closer to the table. Mark made introductions, took her through the consent form, and started the recording.
Transcript of Interview Recording, November 2, 2014, 11:34 AM
FBI GREENBERG: Carolina, for expediency, I’m just going to ask you a few questions and you can answer yes or no, okay?
C. PARKER: Sure
FBI GREENBERG: Do you verify that your name is Carolina Parker and that your date of birth is February 16, 1997?
C. PARKER: Yes
FBI GREENBERG: And you are currently 17 years old and a senior at Academy Prep?
C. PARKER: Yes
FBI GREENBERG: Where are you planning to go to college next year? Georgetown?
C. PARKER: Um, no - this, this is my brother’s. I’m hoping to get into Cal. I want to study architecture.
SFPD HAGEN: Wonderful. Are you a fan of Maybeck1 or Morgan2?
C. PARKER: Both, actually. But we live in a Maybeck, so I guess that’s mostly why.
SFPD HAGEN: Well, both of them also studied at the Beaux Arts in Paris — Morgan was —
C. PARKER: The first woman to receive a certificate in architecture there, I know.
SFPD HAGEN: And the first woman to be admitted to the school. But I’m sure after Cal you’d get in there no problem.
C. PARKER: Maybe. I - I wanted to go to Spain. Actually, Alexa and I were talking about doing our third years in Spain together. But…
SFPD HAGEN: I’m so sorry about your friend, Carolina. Can you maybe tell us how you met?
C. PARKER: I was Alexa’s welcoming peer - it’s, it’s a role they have to help new kids when they come into the school.
ACADEMY HM: The role of Welcoming Peer is assigned to someone in excellent academic standing with strong activities. They are encouraged to contact a new student ahead of the school term, meet with them, and be there to advise or answer any questions they may have as they enter the Academy environment. Carolina was kind enough to fill this role for Alexa Thomas.
SFPD HAGEN: I see. Thank you. So, when did you first contact Alexa?
C. PARKER: I guess it was around Christmas last year? She came to the school in mid-year in January, so I think I emailed her around then, but we didn’t meet until the Thomases moved here around New Year’s. We got a coffee on Fillmore and then she invited me over the next day even though they were still moving into their house. She was still setting up her room, but we hung out and talked. Her room is really cool - she has a whole space for her to do her design and sewing and things and put a whole big bulletin board up on one wall to put up pictures and ideas and colors and things. It was like a real studio.
SFPD HAGEN: It sounds like she was proud of it.
C. PARKER: She was…. Was. (audible sigh) She was really good at design. The dress she made for Halloween was so cool. She kind of ran out of time though with all of the butterflies so I came over last week and helped her glue them on - it was taking too long to sew them.
SFPD HAGEN: And what was your costume on Friday night, Carolina?
C. PARKER: I was a flapper like the other girls, but I was in green. Tally was silver, I was green, Zizi was purple and MJ was red.
SFPD HAGEN: How often did you and Alexa hang out?
C. PARKER: All the time, I mean, at school, and her house or mine. And we were on soccer together too.
SFPD HAGEN: Any classes together?
C. PARKER: Sure, we have Spanish together and um, this cool class called “Myth and Modern Culture” - it’s a new class for seniors that’s sort of like exploring, like, themes from Greek and Roman myths and how they’ve been interpreted in culture.
SFPD HAGEN: And last year?
C. PARKER: Yeah, we had Spanish and history together last year.
SFPD HAGEN: So it sounds like you two were good friends.
C. PARKER: (sound of crying) We were. She’s great.
SFPD HAGEN: Did you ever spend time with Alexa and her friend Ryan Dominguez?
C. PARKER: Sometimes. Ry-Ryan, sometimes we’d all go to the thrift stores on Haight or we’d go get brunch at Rose’s sometimes to see him. Ryan’s nice. We would see him more at Alexa’s - he didn’t come out much. He was helping glue the butterflies to her dress too. He has a glue gun so he brought it over.
SFPD HAGEN: That sounds fun. And anyone else that Alexa spent a lot of time with?
C. PARKER: What do you mean?
SFPD HAGEN: I mean, we know she broke up with Seb after July 4th - did she have her eye on anyone else?
C. PARKER: Not-not that I know of. Why?
SFPD HAGEN: Hmmm, well, we’ve been hearing some rumors that Seb was trying to get back together with her, so we wanted to know if that was likely.
C. PARKER: (scoffing noise) I doubt it. Do you know what he did to her?
SFPD HAGEN: We heard some of the story. You were there?
C. PARKER: Yeah.
SFPD HAGEN: Can you tell us what you remember?
C. PARKER: Um…I - I was with Charlie that night.
SFPD HAGEN: Charlie Dagonet?
C. PARKER: Yeah. Um, we dated in freshman year? And he had just gotten back to California in late June and was going to start at Academy. So, when Tripp put out the invite, he was included. I hadn’t seen him in maybe two years although we kept in touch on email and Zoom sometimes, but it was the first time we’d gotten to hang out and talk, so we stayed up talking almost all night. And then what I remember about Alexa was that in the morning, I got up to do some yoga kind of early? It’s my thing in the mornings. I remember I kind of just looked out the window at the lake and Alexa was on the beach and she started to wade into the water. Something about it was a little weird - it was still kind of dark outside and she was going in the water. But, like, she’s a great swimmer, so I guess it didn’t occur to me? I mean - that maybe something was wrong? I went into the bathroom for a few minutes and then when I came out, Charlie was gone. But I figured he went to his room or the bunk room where the guys were supposed to be. A while later, after I did some sun salutations - I don’t know how long - I came back and saw them sitting together on the end of the dock. It was still early, but the sun was out.
SFPD HAGEN: So then what happened?
C. PARKER: They came inside and she went right into the bathroom to take a shower - she was super upset. Kind of crying, but maybe it was shock? Charlie told me that something had happened the night before with Seb, and that Alexa wanted to leave right away. So we packed, and we left. She didn’t really tell me anything until a few days later after we got home and we were alone, but even then, she didn’t get into it much.
SFPD HAGEN: So you, Alexa, and Charlie left. Did you leave together?
C. PARKER: Yeah, in Charlie’s car. And Tally came with us too. And then I heard pretty much everyone else left too.
SFPD HAGEN: Interesting. We’ve heard…well, some conflicting information about Charlie.
C. PARKER: What do you mean? Charlie… I know he can seem sort of stand-offish, but he’s the best one of all of them. He’s been through a lot, but like, he’s - he’s doing so well now.
SFPD HAGEN: Are you and Charlie dating again?
C. PARKER: No. Not at all. Things have changed. He’s one of my best friends though.
SFPD HAGEN: And Charlie goes to Academy now too?
C. PARKER: Yeah - and we have that class with him - Myth and Modern Culture. He knows so much about music and film.
SFPD HAGEN: I see. Okay, Carolina - can you tell me about the party on Friday night? Did you have anything to drink?
C. PARKER: (audible sigh) Yes, I had some of that terrible orange punch that was spiked, and then one of the little Tito’s.
SFPD HAGEN: When did you have a Tito’s?
C. PARKER: Um, I don’t know I think Dash gave me one right when we were all leaving for Inspiration Point.
SFPD HAGEN: Did you walk to Inspiration Point with anyone?
C. PARKER: Yeah, I went with Alexa - we were kind of a block behind Dash & Seb.
SFPD HAGEN: Did Tally walk with you?
C. PARKER: No. No, she stayed at the house a bit longer - I don’t know why. She was talking to Tripp for a bit.
SFPD HAGEN: And Charlie? We heard he was DJ’ing that night.
C. PARKER: He was. So he was packing up his DJ stuff as we were leaving. I thought he’d come to Inspiration Point, but he never showed.
SFPD HAGEN: Okay Carolina, and this may sound random, but do you remember anyone wearing a wolf mask at Inspiration Point? I understand the party was kind of crazy, but wanted to see…
C. PARKER: Oh yeah. Of course. The boys were wearing them - trying to scare all of us. They were the wolf pack.
SFPD HAGEN: Which boys?
C. PARKER: Definitely Dash and Tripp, I think Vin Parisi was one of them, and maybe someone else.
SFPD HAGEN: Not Sebastian Podesta?
C. PARKER: No - Seb was pretty out of it pretty quickly. He - he kept trying to talk to Alexa and she kept dodging him. Talk and kiss, actually. He sort kept like, reaching for her one way or another and she would just dance away from him. I don’t know why he can’t take a hint.
SFPD HAGEN: When was the last time you remember seeing Alexa that night?
C. PARKER: (long pause) I - I don’t know. Um, I went up to the parking lot because I thought maybe I’d missed seeing Charlie arrive, so I thought I’d see if I could find his car, but I didn’t. And so I came back down the stairs and I was a little buzzed, but not crazy buzzed, but I don’t know, it just all seemed kind of wild - like people running around, there was screaming, people laughing and falling. The wolf pack was running all over the place. (Long pause.) I - I saw Zizi get sick, and then she and MJ made their way over to the golf club across the road, but the whole time I was looking around and I didn’t see her. I went back up to the parking lot and I saw Seb passed out on one of the benches, and of course Jen found him and was sitting on him. (Audible sigh.) But no, I didn’t see Alexa.
SFPD HAGEN: Okay, that’s okay Carolina.
C. PARKER: (audible crying) No - I - I should have found her. I wish I had seen her. I didn’t know she - I didn’t know she’d gone anywhere.
SFPD HAGEN: How did you get home, Carolina?
C. PARKER: Um, Tally was there sort of suddenly. I don’t remember seeing her at Inspiration Point, but there she was, and said we should go back to Tripp’s and get an Uber. So we did.
SFPD HAGEN: Do you remember what time that was?
C. PARKER: No - no I don’t.
SFPD HAGEN: And did you feel okay yesterday? Any hangover or headache?
C. PARKER: No.
SFPD HAGEN: Okay Carolina. Thank you so much - you’ve been very helpful. You’re free to go, but we may need to follow-up with you later.
Bernard Maybeck - an architect of the Arts and Crafts era, who taught engineering drawing and architectural design at UC Berkeley. Most of his structures are found in the Bay Area, especially in Berkeley and San Francisco. He designed the Palace of Fine Arts, Bohemian Grove Clubhouse, and the Swedenborgian Church, among countless others, including many private homes.
Julia Morgan - a graduate of UC Berkeley, and former pupil of Bernard Maybeck. Morgan was the first woman to receive a B.S. degree in engineering from Cal. Maybeck mentored Morgan and other young architects in his home in Berkeley, with Morgan joining his firm for a year before moving to Paris. She went on to be the first woman admitted to study architecture at the École de Beaux Arts in Paris, and the first woman to receive a certificate from the school. In 1904, she was the first woman to receive an architecture license from the state of California. She went on to create many works in the Bay Area, but is most famous for her buildings created for William Randolph Hearst, including Hearst Castle in San Simeon, CA.