Officer Eugene Brewer, eight years on the force, a good record all the way, had simply disappeared somewhere along the Imperial Highway near the San Pedro cut-off. His cruiser was found idling on the shoulder, lights still on, radio still working, with no sign of a struggle, no blood, and no footprints anywhere nearby. Two truck farmers had noticed the headlights sitting still in the dark but assumed everything was fine once they heard the radio playing. Brewer had simply stepped out of his car and vanished into the night.
The break came from an independent trucker named Nat Wolf, who’d helped tow a stranger out of the sand that same morning, a man who refused help with the chain and seemed determined to keep his face and his car out of view. Wolf noticed something stranger still: the man’s nearly-new Plymouth had been freshly painted in cheap black paint, right down to a blacked-out license plate It led them from a stolen car to a Hollywood cashier to a packed apartment building in Las Vegas, where Mike Lupino, a paroled ex-convict, was finally cornered. He’d killed a cop simply because Brewer had spotted his stolen car.
Episode Quotes
“He got tough. You didn’t have to kill him.” – Mike Lupino
“There ought to be two men in every patrol car.” – Inspector Ed Backstrand
Special Thanks to our sponsor: Tablet Pharmacy for supporting ThePulseCommunity.ca.
You’ll find all episodes of The PULSE Community Podcast on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeart, TikTok and YouTube Podcasts, as well as ThePulseCommunity.ca.
Check out Skookum Kid’s Stories on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeart, and YouTube Podcasts.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter of new podcast releases and contests!
#ThePulseCommunity #Dragnet #RadioArchaeology #ClassicRadio #ParksvilleQualicumBeach #VancouverIsland #VancouverIslandPodcasts
