Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
On May 21, 2010, Wozniak shot and killed his neighbor, Private First Class Samuel “Sam” Herr, a 26-year-old Afghanistan War veteran, at a Los Alamitos theater. At the time of the murders, Wozniak was deeply in debt and unemployed but planning a lavish wedding and honeymoon.
O.C. the definiton of idylllic southern california living.beautiful weather ,georgeous people and …
caller: ” there´s a boddy in my son´s apartement.
operator: “there´s a what?
caller:” a body. a dead body.
operator: a deas body?
This is a diabolic as murder gets a shocking crime that sends police on a manhunt for a trained killer served in afghanistan,combat veteran.plice were looking for an armed man who who may be suffering from PTSD but the odyssey to find their man will unravel a deaceitful and deadly plot that no one would see coming. this guy´s a monster ,he was colder than an iceberg no feeling s no emotion. the ripple effect and the people that were hurt by this it goes out forever .
like the tides of the ocean , it all comes back to the shores of Orange County california. inside costa mesa police dispatch when that 911 call comes in.
caller: there´s a body in my son´s apartment.
operator: there´s a what?
caller: a body . a dead bodyd.
operator: a dead body? is it someone that you know, sir?
caller: no, i have no idea who she is….god, i don´t know what´s going on.
operator: does your son know who it is?
caller: he´s not here .jesus, honey…
operator: do you know where your son is?
caller :no , i don´t.
costa mesa police rush to an apartement complex where they make a brutal and bloody discovery.
Sam Herr’s apartment where Daniel Wozniak told police he killed Julie Kibuishi is pictured here.
a young feamle desceased with a gunshot wound to the back of her head. she was in the bedroom lying partially on the bed and h er legs on the floor and there´s more.and it´s personal .there´s things written on the back of her shirt .it really loocked lik it was a run- of -the mill. domestic violance murder.a purse and wallet near the body revealed the victim´s identity
her name is julie kibuishi.23 young women and she loved dance and very talented but now julie is the victim of a violent murder and the prime suspet is the tenant of thje appartement.
his name is sam herr, a war veteran. the police zeroed i on sam pretty quickly.it seemed pretty obvious this girl wsas found in his apartement.he seemed like someone who could be capable of killing someone .
text recovered from julies sell phone at the secene suggest a violatile romanic,relationship.the phone is blowing up between two of them where he is apparently sending a message saying
sam text ” i am having a hard time i need a friend can you come over tongiht at midnight alone, going out for a bit. very upset . need to talk .please don´t tell anyone. please. please no sex. i need to talk to someone , i´m really not doing well.
julie text ” yeah,that´s fine sam i´m here for you like family.
authorities believe they´ve solved the who-dun-it part of the case. now , they just need to find sam.
they question sam´s father who discovered the body and made the 911 call.
mr Herr was in in dispelief repeatedly saId
” no my son couldn´t be involved in this there´s no way.
but bringing in their fugitive won´t be easy. he´s an army veteran. trained kiler and he´s been accused of murder before. sam herr had a criminal history that led the poilice to believe that he was a suspect in this crime. when dectetivs run sam ´ herrs ,record, they shocke to discover that eight earlier, he was arrested and charged with capital murder. this pretty quickly got police thinking sam was the killer and they started looking for him as their number -one suspect
It´s an all -point bulletin on the lookout for sam. then polis get a tip from sam´s bank. his ATM card is being used at one of the branches and it appears they´re wanted man is close ,by. sam herr is basically on the run from this homicide case and police are tracking his credit-card activity and they see that this credit card being used in longbeach area.
investigators pull the bank´s surveillance cameras expecting too see sam. but they don´t. who is this person using sam herr´s ATM card and where sam? minutes later a second ATM swipe this time at pizza place. police arrived just in time to catch the delivery driver on route.police were able to stop the pizza delivery guy several blocks away confirm that , the it was sam herr´s crediut cars.
now cops plan to make their own delivery.costa mesa police detectives are on a manhunt for army veteran sam herr.investigators believe his killed his lover julie kibuishi and now he´s on the run.police wer´re looking for an armed man who maybe suffering from PTDS who might have murdered this young in his apartment. cops are trying to track his every move, they turn their focus on his ATM ,and hit gold. herr´s just ordered a pizza on his card, the pizza delivery is headed to a home adress in longbeach,california.
Now stationed outside the house, SWAT teams prepare to take down a vilolent mentally deranged combat veteran. but when they knock on the door.a schocker!
it´s a pimple -faced teenager who´s scared to death. the 16 teenager is immediately ruled out as a suspect in the morder of julia kibuishi.infact the teenager dosen´t even know sam herr.
but ihi does know this man,Daniel wozniak. the 16 year old teenager told police that dan wosniak would give him the credit card and, he just been there a couple hours earlier and he had picked up 400 dollars. but who is daniel wosniak? and what´s his connection to sam.daniel wozniak was a community theater actor ,he lived in costa mesa right the OC.
across the university . he was engaged ,he had hard time holding a job.he´s a young guy he´s in various plays.apparently in community theater .he didn´t want to work ,he kept getting fired from job after job and he wanted to maintain this lifestyle where he´s got a pretty young fiance they´re about to get married .
daniels acting partner rachel buffet. their wedding is less than 48 hours away . by all account he´s living the highl life ,in fact he was at his bachelor in huntingon beach .but his world was about come tumbling down,homicide detectives break up the party with an arrest warrant.
one team went in the front entrance,sergeant keith davis , lieutenant ed everett ,went in the rear so no one could flee the resturant . they went in into kind of private party room opened the curtan and dan wosniuak and several his friends were in this room .lietneant ed everett finally lays eyes on the elusice daniel Wozniak. cops halt wosniak in and back at the costa mesa police headquarthers.
daniel denies any involvement in julie´s murder.he claims his only crime was a credit card scam that he and sam had concocted basically came up with some scheme about using the creditcard and he was gonna give the credit card to the 16 years old wesley and they were gonna pull alll this money out of sam´s accoount and then sam would report that he was a victim of theft. but before daniel could cash in he claims sam made a startling confession
daniel: i want to say it was about . 8:00..8:30 in the morning.i opened the door . it was sam. he´s like. ” there is dead body in my apartment., he ´s like, ” ok. basically .. as soon as you left me i started doing some drugs and drinking because i was very depressed about my family. . i said what did you do? he´s like , ” i got a gun.” he asked her for sex um … he was very ****up.she said no , and then he just shot her to times in the head.
daniel claims after the confession ,he dropped sam off at a local shopping center and never saw hin again. but police believe daniel is covering for sam so they turn up the theat during their interrogation and demand a DNA sample. once DNA is collected daniels memory starts to sharpen at that point he became visibly nervous that´s when he started to add more detals to the story and make som changes .
daniel: i now i was in sam´s …apartement friday afternoon.
detective :ok.
daniel: and i know i …i did use the bathroom.
detective: you did use the bathroom?
daniel: i used the bathroom.um, and i went…i´m not sure if i went…out ton the patio or not ,most of the time i do but … that day i don´t know if i did or not.
detective: ok. ok.
but the detectives are starting to get the impression that daniel is worried his DNA will show up in sam´s apartment.but why?
detective: i think you know a little more about this thing you´re divulging to us.
daniel: no, i dont.
detective: i think there´ss a little more..a whol lot more.
daniel : there may be… but please question me on any gaps that i…i want to fill , absolutely.
detective: as far as your participation….in this thing?
daniel: as far as my participation?
detective: yeah!
daniel: ok. yesas , i helped him get away.yeas . i knew that he killed someone and yeas i knew that i…
detective: stop, stop right there.
detectives remind him, they have his DNA.
Detective: we got your DNA.
Daniel: yeas.
detective: ok? where´s that DNA going to show up?
daniel: um … uh, in sam´s car.
detective: what about on julie?
daniel: no, it wouldn´t be on julie.
detective: your sure about that?
daniel:yes. i´m positive about that.
detective: did you see julie…. dead in the apartment?
daniel: no, i did not. no . i did not.no.
at that point he basically is now saying ” yeah i was in the apartment , i may have touched these things and this and that “,but again it´s not indicating any real contact with julie. detectives still suspect daniel iss holding something back. they decide it´s time for a little good god cop bad cop first up. bad cop.
daniel: so i´m staying here?
detective: absolutely your are. you´r arrested.for murder . ok? accessory to murder. that´s what´s you´re being arrested for.you don´t want to talk to us….tell us any more… that´s…that´s it. then we´re done.
daniel: ok. hold on.. whoa , whoa, whoa ,whoa.
detective: we´re done.unles you want to talk to us… we´re done.
daniel: i will talk to you about anything …if it gets me to my wedding on friday. that´s what i will promise.
enter good cop lieutenant ed everett.
everett: dan, you´ve got the answers. you can help us.
daniel: i don´t know what else…you want me to say.i don´t know! i don´t know!
everett: tell us the truth. your´not that good of an actor.
daniel: ok,fine.. you know what? he didn´t come down. he came down and said ,”help me! and i went upstairs and yes. i saw the **** body! is that what your want to hear?
everett: no, we want to hear the truth.
daniel: that is the truth.
Daniel wozniak was changing the story. he indicated he was in sam´s apartment at this point that´s kind of detectives ” aha ” moment that he´s involved in this more than what he´s leading on on to be. then detectives press hard ,they know daniel is about to break .so they bluff.
detectives tell daniel his DNA was found on julie´s body. even though those result wont be available for weeks.
Detective: how ´did your DNA get on her?
daniel: cause i was right over the body.
detective: what´s that?
daniel: cause i was right over the body.
detective: okej. so how´did your DNA get on her?
daniel: that i dont know.
detective: DNA doesn´t just fall off.
daniel: i don´t know.i didn´t touch her ,i didnt do anything.
district attorney matt murphy is watching in the next room ,he´s not impressed
murphy: he is very bad at improvise. great at memorizing his lines very,very bad at improvise,and these detectives are all about putting somebody to it . putting on their heels and seeing if the story ads -up.
detective: what ´did you see?
daniel:i saw two gunshot in her head and i saw her pants…like , ripped and cut . and i saw , like , **** you … written on the back of the shirt .
detective: where were the two….bullets wounds?
daniel:i dont know. sam said he shot her twice.
detective: ok, but you just …
daniel: i didn´t see .
detective: you just told us , you saw two bullet wounds. you were standing over …
daniel : no, no ,no.
detective: whoa., whoa ,whoa, stop. how did your DNA get on her ? ” i was standing over the body, i saw two bullet wounds to her head.”
detective#2: it´s exatly what you said ,dan.
detective: you can´t even keep your lies straight.
when daniel basically told the police he was in the apartment and saw two bullet two julie´s head they knew at that point he was lying.
there´s no second take for this actor ,daniel can´t keep his lines straight and his script has just been flipped by his own admission.
murphy: anybody that´s actually seeing a women who´s been shot in the back of the head, you can´t see how many bullet holes she had.she had long beautifull black hair. you can´t see how many bullet holes and that immediately, that is the moment that the investigation turned,because those detectives,who were there , who saw her ,they know that you couldn´t see two bullets holes.
Police detectives in costa mesa californien are grilling daniel wosniak,they believe he had something to do with julie kibuishi´s murder. but cops had no idea just how involved was
E.everett : his acting ability on the stage probably was better then in inrview room.
then
daniel: i´m done. then.
detective:you´re don?
daniel: done.
daniel refuse to talk, he wants to go back to his jail cell.while behind bars daniel calls his fiance ,rachel buffett.
M .murphy :he calls rachel,who´s just talked to his brother Tim and she´s learned that Tim has evidence relating to to the murder.she dosen´t know what it is but he´s got some evidence.
Jail-phone conversation .
rachel:what did you do?
daniel: i helped sam cover some stuff up , and helped him get som drugs .that´s it . i din´t murder murder anybody ..
rachel: my mom ´s working on cacelling all the wedding plans now, and i just talked to tim and i need to make a phone call to the detective now.
daniel: why?
rachel: tim says he has evidence with him . or , or he knew where it was. or something.
daniel: then i´m doomed.
rachel: what?
daniel: tim said that?
rachel: yeah . do you know that tim had some evidence?
daniel: yeah.oh, god. oh, god.oh, god.
rachel: well , this is , this is ridiculous and i have to go tell detectives the truth.
daniel: no, don´t. no, don´t. don´t, don´t. don´t. that cant be found.
E.everett : when we listen to those jail recordings it showed us that there was panic and in daniel wozniack voice that was the one of the few times that there were some emotion and it was emotion that he was going to be caught. rachel buffet was cool ,calm ,collected .
And currently out on bail for an accessory to murder charge,now rachel must choose between her fiance or freedom.
rachel: no,babe, i´m gonna do it.
daniel: listen to me.no.no.
rachel: what?
daniel: trust me? please? i have to tell the truth on what i did. and i think you now know what it is.and it´s bad.imagine the worst,and that´s what i did.
suddenly daniel is desperate to speak to detectives and spills his guts.
detective:you said you wanted to talk to me. what´s going on?
daniel: i´m crazy and i did it.
detective: you did what?
daniel:i killed julie and i killed sam.
detective: okej. alright. where´s the …
daniel: i killed them both.
detective: allright.
daniel: sam came first. it was all jsut about the money. that was it.one hundred procent.
and there´s more.much more. even veteran homicide detectives will be left speechless
daniel: sam is decapitated.
detective: ok.
daniel: he´s at the military base… in the theater ,if you go up the ladder from the theater… his head and hands… have been decapitated as well as his arm… that had a tatoo.
detective: and you did it?
daniel: yes.
E.everett :he was colder than an iceberg. no feelings no emotion. um.just nothing there.
Finally daniel breaks down the timeline of the events in his diabolical murder plot. it begins with a simple favor. he asked sam to help moves some boxes in a theater attic at a local military base.
M.murphy: sam was doing a good deed when sam turned his back ,he gets down on his knees , wosniak produced his fathers´s gun , shot him in the back of the head but he wasn´t dead yet and he said , “oh , my gosh i´ve been shoot , i need help” and we asked him at that point , “what did you do next?” he ´said. “well i reloaded the gun and shot him in the back of the head again.
Then after kiling sam ,daniel does the unthinkable.
M.murphy: he murder sam herr and that afternoon goes to fullerton and acts in this play we got it on videotape. his laughing.his singing and he´s dancing and than he goes murderes julie later that evening.
cops say daniel sent a text from sam´s cellphone to lure julie over that night.
once inside the apartment
wozniack snuck up and shot her in the back of the head ,
then he stages the crime scene to frame sam.
next morning an act of pure evil.
M.murphy: it´s saturday morning , he g ets up hegoes back to the military base . he cuts off sam herr his head and his hands and throws them in a park and perhaps the msot depraved and callous act.
after committing double murder and decapitating and dismembering on of his victims …..
daniel returns to center stage
M.murphy: and then he goes down and he acts again in the play , singing and dancing and because the play was coming to a close they had this big cast party that night.
as evident in this cast party photo ,recovered by detectives.
M.murphy: daniel wozniak´s had a cast party with a beer in his hand laughing and joicking with other members of this play and i mean if a picture says a thousands words we´ve got a photo of him there showing the shaka sign with his girlfriend next to him at this cast party .
and the motive of this heinous crime. money.more than sixty thousand dollars sam got for serving serving in the military.
M .murphy: wozniak wanted money so that he could go on the royal caribbean´s cruise line and take an awesome cruise.like that´s he literally wanted this money for his honeymoon. he killed these two people so he could take a trip.
But before he could take his trip ,he needed get away with double murder and it would have been the performance of a lifetime if not for the detectives working the case.
M.murphy: he was so enamored with his own ability to act and his own ability to put on a show ,he had no doubt in his mind going into this if he was gonna be able to convice a bunch of dumb detectives that daniel wozniak was not resposible.wozniak thought he could convince the world that sam herr murded julie and he was somewhere out int the wind and he thought he´d fooled them but in reality we had a group of really good detectives. who werent believed in a word of it.
investigators managed to solve this murder case in less than a week with a full confession.
and daming evidence thanks to daniels brother.
M. murphy: tim was not a real sophisticated guy and he just had these instruction to get rid of this stuff and instead, what he did is he threw the backpack over a fence at his parents. house.
and when detectives open the backpack…..
m . murphy: it was a cornucopia of evidence , i mean DNA,expended shell casings the victims financial information ,it´s everything a prosecutor could ever want.and of couse that also let us to to the murder weapon itself .so that investigation was the home run of home runs in any case, the murder weapon ,and DNA. and blood ,credit cards.passports ,you can´t ask for more as a prosecutor.
and in one of the fastest deliberations in the history of orange county capital murder trials .
district attorney matt murphy
the jury takes just one hour to find daniel wosniak guilty of double murder and recommends the death penalty.
detectives claim rachel buffett knews about the murder and her case is still pending. she´s charged with three counts of accessory after the fact she´s pleaded not guilty
M.murphy:daniel wozniak is a poster boy for why the death penalty exists in certain states for a lot of murders there are extenuating circumstances but there are a few that ares so awful and unnecessary and the grief that they cause is so profound for the most trivial reasons,that they really should be subject to the ultimate punishment and this is one of those cases.
Daniel Wozniak. imprisoned at california medical facility
after more than five years of court porceedings ,wozniak went to trial and was convicted on two counts of first- degree murder. he was found guilty and sentenced to death in september 2016.
He was sentenced to death in September 2016 before California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a moratorium on capital punishment in the state
He was incarcerated at California’s San Quentin State Prison until July 2021, when he was moved to Salinas Valley State Prison as part of the Condemned Inmate Transfer Pilot Program.
In November 2012, Wozniak’s then-fiancée, Rachel Mae Buffett, was arrested
and charged with three felony counts of accessory-after-the-fact based on allegations that she had lied multiple times to police investigators.
On September 12, 2018, Buffett was convicted on two of those counts with a maximum possible sentence of 44 months and, on November 8, 2018, was sentenced to 32 months minus time served and good behavior. She was released from jail sometime in 2019.