Case Review: Doug McMillin AI transcript and summary - episode of podcast Culpable

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Episode: Case Review: Doug McMillin

Author: Tenderfoot TV, Resonate Recordings & Audacy
Duration: 00:38:42

Episode Shownotes

Doug McMillin was a spirited young man who developed a sense of independence early in life after moving out and getting an apartment of his own. As a young 19-year-old, this newfound freedom was like a breath of fresh air to Doug. No one could have imagined that a short

time later he would be gunned down inside his apartment in an apparent robbery gone wrong. 15 years later, little is known about what happened to Doug and his killer is still at large. His brother James believes he knows who was responsible, but what do the authorities believe? And why does his case remain unsolved? Follow Culpable on our socials @CulpablePodcast Visit the website at culpablepodcast.com For early access and ad-free listening, subscribe to Tenderfoot+ at https://tenderfoot.tv/plus To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Summary

In this episode of 'Culpable', host Dennis Cooper examines the unresolved murder of Doug McMillin, a 19-year-old who was shot during a robbery in March 2009. Doug's brother, James, reflects on their difficult childhood and his ongoing desire to uncover the truth about Doug's death, which remains a cold case fifteen years later. The episode explores Doug's life, his struggles with authority and drugs, and the chaotic circumstances surrounding his murder, while emphasizing the emotional toll on his family and their hope for closure and justice.

Go to PodExtra AI's episode page (Case Review: Doug McMillin) to play and view complete AI-processed content: summary, mindmap, topics, takeaways, transcript, keywords and highlights.

Full Transcript

00:00:00 Speaker_00
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Culpable Case Review episodes are released on Friday. To binge the entire installment ad-free, subscribe to Tenderfoot Plus at tenderfootplus.com or on Apple Podcasts. Now, let's start the show.

00:00:48 Speaker_11
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the individuals interviewed and participating in the show and do not represent those of Tenderfoot TV.

00:00:57 Speaker_11
All individuals described or mentioned in this podcast should be considered innocent until found guilty in a court of law.

00:01:04 Speaker_11
This podcast contains subject matter such as violence and other graphic descriptions which may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

00:01:19 Speaker_02
I would love to be able to call Doug and let him know what's going on in my life. I miss that brotherly closeness, that deep sense of continuity of having someone that you've known that long and so many shared experiences with.

00:01:38 Speaker_04
This is James McMillan, the brother of Doug McMillan, the victim in this story.

00:01:44 Speaker_04
19-year-old Doug McMillan was quite the free spirit and never one to be contained, so it's no surprise that he moved out of his parents' house and got his own place at the first opportunity.

00:01:54 Speaker_04
But Doug was also quite the homebody, so this is where he'd end up spending a lot of his time. On the chilly, snow-covered night of March 8, 2009, he was at home, hanging out with a group of friends, when suddenly, the unthinkable happened.

00:02:09 Speaker_04
Two masked intruders barged through the front door. A fight ensued. And in a flash, Doug's life was taken.

00:02:18 Speaker_02
I was 17, kind of piecing this all together. Doug's dead, you're never going to see him again. You're just in this bizarre state of shock. You want to be there for your family, but you're barely there for you.

00:02:31 Speaker_02
And just, yeah, one of those events that comes up in life that just changes everything in an instant.

00:02:41 Speaker_04
Fifteen years later, Doug's case remains unsolved. But his family hasn't given up hope. James believes that sharing his brother's story and everything he knows about the circumstances surrounding his murder could help make a difference in this case.

00:02:56 Speaker_02
I think the bottom line here is the truth of really what happened. While a lot of that is really uncomfortable, to brush any of that under the rug is to do a disservice to Doug.

00:03:10 Speaker_02
And I think owning our mistakes, getting truth out, whatever that might be, is the right thing to do from here on out. This is a culpable case review of Doug McMillan. Yeah, James McMillan, Doug's brother.

00:03:50 Speaker_02
We grew up between Illinois and Wisconsin, two or three years apart. Grew up with Doug, had that immense pleasure and gift in my life. I now live in Boulder, Colorado. You know, Doug's death, I guess, was a part of that.

00:04:07 Speaker_02
I wanted to get pretty far away from Wisconsin, and Colorado kind of offered a fresh start to me.

00:04:15 Speaker_04
In the year 2009, while James was still reeling from the recent murder of his older brother, Doug McMillan, he looked to Boulder, Colorado as an escape from all the trauma.

00:04:25 Speaker_04
But after attending Colorado University and starting a career operating an e-commerce business, he eventually decided to make it his home.

00:04:33 Speaker_04
And while the Centennial State has offered James some space for healing, the pain of losing his brother still feels fresh to this day.

00:04:41 Speaker_04
Prior to the move, James was living with his family in Green Bay, Wisconsin, just minutes from where the tragedy took place. But this story actually begins in Rockford, Illinois, where James and Doug were born and raised.

00:04:54 Speaker_04
I asked him to take me all the way back to Rockford and tell me about his older brother, Doug. His lead-in was not what I was expecting, but it's one of his earliest memories, and it happened to be a pivotal moment in the brothers' lives.

00:05:09 Speaker_02
My father was killed in a plane crash when we were both pretty young. I was three and Doug was five. So Doug was, I guess, a lot more aware of that loss than I was. But the loss of our father really impacted Doug in a big way.

00:05:28 Speaker_02
You know, I don't think we could really talk about his life trajectory without that, I guess.

00:05:35 Speaker_04
It was a freak incident, he says. The one you might imagine when boarding a plane, but you shrug it off because that would never happen, right? Well, sadly, this was one of those incredibly rare times.

00:05:47 Speaker_04
Their father was returning from a business trip on a commercial flight set to land in Chicago's O'Hare National Airport when their arrival was postponed due to inclement weather.

00:05:57 Speaker_04
The plane was battered with freezing rain as it circled in a holding pattern for over an hour, about 65 miles southeast of the airport, causing the autopilot system to disengage. The pilots lost control and the plane crashed, killing 68 in total.

00:06:13 Speaker_04
James says losing their father created a lot of bitterness and resentment over the years, especially for Doug. For a long time, it was just Doug, James, and their mother Paula.

00:06:23 Speaker_04
And while life was far from easy for the boys, they managed, thanks to their mother Paula, who did her absolute best to raise them without a father figure around.

00:06:32 Speaker_02
I was so young, it's very difficult for me to compare before and after, but it made my mom, my brother, and I very close. We did everything together, it was just always the three of us. But yeah, it definitely strained my mom.

00:06:48 Speaker_02
I mean, she's always been a very soft-spoken, feminine, person, and I think losing the very masculine man that my father was, she had to fill both of those roles.

00:07:04 Speaker_02
And Doug being the kid that he was, I mean, he really needed, I think, a strong masculine hand and guidance to really say no and put up boundaries when it was necessary.

00:07:19 Speaker_04
James tells me that while there was a lot of love in the home, things were far from perfect, which really isn't a surprise. Paula was on her own, providing for and raising two young boys, who also happened to be pretty rambunctious, as James admits.

00:07:33 Speaker_04
But his older brother certainly took the cake. As far as James remembers, Doug was always a handful.

00:07:39 Speaker_02
I mean, everyone who came into contact with him either loved him or hated him. He was very polarizing, but he was certainly unforgettable. He had no concern for how he'd be regarded.

00:07:52 Speaker_02
So he wasn't worried about how he'd come off, what you'd think about him later. He was just gonna be him. Just a really unique, creative, kind of artistic, generous, curious, brilliant person.

00:08:09 Speaker_04
Doug was one of a kind, with a tall, lanky frame, curly brown hair, and glasses. He had his own unique style that wasn't influenced by his peers. He was his own person, something James always admired about him.

00:08:22 Speaker_04
Growing up just two years apart, the brothers had a close relationship.

00:08:25 Speaker_04
James says he's fortunate to have countless memories of his older brother and the time they shared, tinkering with Lego and K'Nex together, and getting mercilessly beaten in Super Smash Brothers, a video game they often played.

00:08:37 Speaker_04
But even when he was losing to his brother, he was still a joy to be around. He says one of his favorite things about Doug was that he had this distinct belly laugh, something that anyone who came into contact with him would appreciate.

00:08:48 Speaker_04
He'll never forget the time they broke out in laughter while riding a roller coaster at Six Flags. You know, one of those times where it gets so uncontrollable that you forget why you were laughing in the first place?

00:08:58 Speaker_04
But James admits it wasn't always fun and games with Doug. Sometimes being the younger brother meant being somewhat of a punching bag.

00:09:05 Speaker_04
He says the playing field evened out a little more when the two of them got into martial arts, which happened to be a great way for them to channel some of that boisterous energy they had in abundance. And it did help rein them in, some.

00:09:16 Speaker_04
But the thing about Doug was no one out there was really equipped to rein in his free spirit.

00:09:22 Speaker_02
He was just always pushing the envelope. And I think, yeah, that made him unforgettable to a lot of people. Just ended up with so many stories that are kind of unbelievable.

00:09:34 Speaker_02
I guess one example was he ended up going to a boarding school at one point in California. Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit went to the same school. When he got there, they told him, oh, no one's ever been kicked out of here. And he took that as a challenge.

00:09:52 Speaker_02
He was like, oh, that could be something that I could do. I could be the first one to get kicked out of here. So there's just dozens of stories of breaking all the rules, being as difficult and obnoxious as possible.

00:10:06 Speaker_02
And, you know, just to make a point, he just wanted to prove something, I guess. And he was just that kind of guy.

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00:12:02 Speaker_04
While Doug was often the source of joy and laughter in the home, he could also be the source of a lot of tension. And as one might expect, the older he got, the more difficult things became.

00:12:12 Speaker_04
And this would spill over into what you could consider the second half of Doug's short life. After years of living in Rockford, Illinois, their mother met and remarried a man named Fred, who had a child of his own, a daughter.

00:12:25 Speaker_04
And with that, the McMillan family would move to Green Bay, Wisconsin, now as a blended family. This is where the boys would live through high school.

00:12:33 Speaker_04
And if growing up in Rockford with just the three of them was hard, living in Green Bay as a blended family with teenagers was a straight-up challenge. Knowing Doug's personality, it's not hard to imagine why.

00:12:45 Speaker_04
Even James, the more easygoing of the two, felt the strain.

00:12:49 Speaker_02
We were kind of always compared to our stepsister, you know, and she was a well-behaved, followed all the rules of the household, was very close with, you know, Fred.

00:13:01 Speaker_02
And Doug, as someone who's gonna challenge authority, I mean, was constantly on Fred's bad side. They never got along. And I was probably somewhere more in the middle. The chaos in the household has always been a stressor for me.

00:13:13 Speaker_02
I was always trying to smooth things over, just make it peaceful. You know, it was a pretty tumultuous household, I guess. Doug was always seeking some kind of masculine guidance and influence.

00:13:29 Speaker_04
Looking back, James believes this void in Doug's life only made things worse as the years passed, eventually culminating into a lifestyle of drugs and partying as he entered his late teens, behavior that would only stir up more trouble in the home.

00:13:43 Speaker_02
He was probably, I guess, maybe 15 or 16. He would just come home smelling like cigarettes or smelling like weed or both. And, you know, my mom picked up on it. Their relationship started getting more frictiony.

00:13:59 Speaker_02
And Doug was really, I guess, completely unapologetic. And it just started causing a lot of problems in the household between

00:14:09 Speaker_02
Doug and my mom, and then between Fred and my mom, which then kind of passed on to Doug, I guess it was kind of like, hey, you know, your kid's bringing drugs in the house, like you better get a handle on it.

00:14:22 Speaker_02
So it just ended up creating a lot of negativity in the household. I didn't totally understand it all, but I guess it just expanded from there.

00:14:36 Speaker_04
As the conflict in the home escalated to the point that positive interactions were becoming a rarity, there seemed to be only one solution that would appease everybody, including Doug.

00:14:46 Speaker_02
You know, I think the situation between Fred and my mom was you either figure this out or the relationship ends. At least that was my sense. And so I think for them, the solution was, hey, let's get Doug an apartment. He can have his own space.

00:15:04 Speaker_02
He's going to do this stuff no matter what. We'll get him his own space to do it and take the strain off the household.

00:15:12 Speaker_04
James knows that there was a lot of love between their mom and Doug, but the older and more unapologetic he got, the more difficult it was to foster that relationship.

00:15:21 Speaker_04
The way James sees it is, there was an acceptance that Doug, now 17, was practically an adult and was set in his ways. No one was going to change him. So they chose to let him live his life and be there to support him whenever he needed it.

00:15:36 Speaker_04
And with that, Doug moved into his own apartment, a change that would only empower his recreational drug use. And after turning 18, and taking on more responsibility as an adult, he'd quickly turn to dealing.

00:15:50 Speaker_02
I guess I don't recall all the details, but I do remember when he was 18, things changed a bit. For him, I think it was a natural transition to get into selling drugs.

00:16:00 Speaker_02
I mean, you're 17, you get your own apartment and you're using it as a party house, and then you turn 18 and maybe it's not getting paid for anymore. What are you going to do to pay for it? Like, hey, it's easy.

00:16:13 Speaker_02
You can just sell some drugs to the people who are already coming over and you're already doing drugs anyway. So I think it was just a very kind of obvious thing for him to do from his perspective.

00:16:28 Speaker_04
And Doug would continue down this path, living a carefree life of partying and selling weed while gradually experimenting with even harder drugs.

00:16:36 Speaker_04
For a while, James thought his brother was just being a typical young adult, having fun, looking for thrills, which is probably true to some extent.

00:16:44 Speaker_04
Now he sees that Doug was trying to self-medicate, hoping to fill the void of losing his father at such a young age. Eventually, Doug moved out of his apartment, but that didn't put a stop to things or change his lifestyle in any way.

00:16:58 Speaker_04
From there, he upgraded to a duplex in Alloway, Wisconsin, which would turn into a true party house. He also shared the place with a couple of roommates. One of those roommates was Matthew.

00:17:10 Speaker_12
My name is Matthew Sandsburn, and everyone calls me Sandman, and Doug was my best friend. We met in school, became really good friends, eventually became roommates, and that lasted pretty much till the day he died.

00:17:24 Speaker_04
For the sake of this story, I'm going to refer to him as Matthew, but as you can tell, he takes great pride in the clever nickname Doug bestowed upon him, Sandman, because he notoriously slept in class.

00:17:36 Speaker_04
Although Doug was known to do the same thing, he says. While the two started as casual friends, sharing a few classes together at school, over time they become best friends.

00:17:46 Speaker_12
Yeah, I don't know. We pretty much just hit it off right off the bat and got closer and closer over the years. Ended up going on, you know, ski vacations, camping, going to concerts, and yeah, we just fit two peas in a pod.

00:17:59 Speaker_12
He was a really good, loving person. You know, like if you did him wrong, he didn't mind slacking you upside the head, but if you didn't do him wrong, he had your back no matter who you were.

00:18:09 Speaker_04
Doug was known for his loyalty, at least to those who earned it. So it's no surprise that when Matthew needed a place to call home, Doug was there for him.

00:18:18 Speaker_12
Doug had this two-bedroom, it was actually a duplex, and he had an open room, so he invited me to go live with him. So, you know, best friends, of course, I took him up on it.

00:18:28 Speaker_04
You already get the gist of the place they were living in. It certainly wasn't your ideal living situation. But Matthew tells me it was perfect for two young, dumb kids. And it was nothing but good times in the year they lived together.

00:18:41 Speaker_04
But in early 2009, Matthew decided that he wanted to sober up, a nearly impossible feat, while living in that home. So, he moved out, still maintaining his friendship with Doug. It was undoubtedly the right move for him at the time.

00:18:55 Speaker_04
He never imagined that it could come back to haunt him. But sadly, that became a reality roughly a month later, on the night of March 8, 2009, when intruders broke into the house, and Matthew wasn't there to protect his best friend.

00:19:11 Speaker_04
It was a robbery gone wrong, so to say. Some of the details remain unclear. While there were several people inside the home during the incident, the lone victim was 19-year-old Doug McMillan. He was set to turn 20 just two days later.

00:19:25 Speaker_04
Matthew was one of the first people to hear about the news when he received a call from Doug's roommate, Kyle, around 4 a.m. the next morning.

00:19:34 Speaker_12
And it's kind of weird to get a phone call at four in the morning, you know? And so I just kind of had this weird feeling that something was wrong. And then he said he had to tell me something, but he wouldn't tell me over the phone.

00:19:44 Speaker_12
So that's usually a dead giveaway. Somebody's dead or in jail or something real fucked up happened. So he came by the house, picked me up, told me the story because he was there for the murder. And, uh, yeah, that's when I heard.

00:19:57 Speaker_12
So from what I understand is he was hanging out with his girlfriend all day and then he set up a pot pie to pick up a couple of pounds of weed.

00:20:06 Speaker_12
So he was sitting there with the guy that sold it to him and a couple of other friends and they were just sitting around smoking blunts.

00:20:14 Speaker_12
And apparently somebody kicked the front door down and two masked intruders came into the room with guns and pointed them and told everybody that was in the kitchen to get down on the ground. Everybody else complied, but Doug didn't.

00:20:31 Speaker_12
He tried to fight him back. So one of the intruders shot him, and then both of them panicked and ran out of the house. There was a chest shot through one of the lungs, so one of his lungs filled up with blood, and he basically drowned in his own blood.

00:20:46 Speaker_12
And unfortunately, it was in the middle of a snowstorm, so it took the cops like 15 or 20 minutes and the paramedics to show up. So it was far too long. Kyle tried to perform CPR, but he was unsuccessful. And Doug died on the floor.

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00:24:58 Speaker_04
There really hasn't been a lot of detail shared with the public since the shooting, but an article from WFRV's Local 5 News back in 2021 did shed some light on the matter.

00:25:08 Speaker_04
The Brown County Sheriff's Office said that on the night of March 8, 2009, two masked black men broke into Doug's home in Alloway, telling the group of young adults to put their hands up and get on the floor.

00:25:21 Speaker_04
Sergeant Zach Holschback described it as a quote, takeover-style robbery. But as Matthew said, Doug did not comply. Instead, he fought back, and as a result, he was shot once. The bullet pierced his lung, and he died before paramedics arrived.

00:25:36 Speaker_04
The two suspects fled the scene. The friends who were in the apartment, including Doug's girlfriend and roommate Kyle, fortunately made it out alive.

00:25:45 Speaker_04
After being questioned by police, Kyle broke the news to Matthew, and the two of them immediately reached out to Doug's family, who were still in the dark at this point. It was the middle of the night when they received the devastating news.

00:25:58 Speaker_02
You know, it's a little blurry, but my memory is that I was actually having a dream about Doug. You know, we were talking and he was kind of telling me about how he Couldn't come back or something like that. Like we couldn't keep talking anymore.

00:26:16 Speaker_02
And then I got woken up by my mom and I think she said something like, Matt and Kyle are here and have something important to tell you or something like that. And so I got up and went downstairs and they were actually the ones who came and told us.

00:26:31 Speaker_02
And it was, you know, in the middle of the night, you know, Doug was murdered. And then I remember just staying up, not being able to sleep, obviously, just kind of in shock. And then the cops arrived.

00:26:45 Speaker_02
And of course, we already knew, but it was pretty surreal.

00:26:51 Speaker_04
From here, an investigation would ensue. But James tells me that from the very beginning, it was handled poorly, starting with the crime scene itself.

00:26:59 Speaker_04
And when authorities finally showed a clear interest in the matter, Doug didn't appear to be their top priority. Because instead of catching a murderer, this would quickly turn into a drug bust.

00:27:10 Speaker_02
Police didn't mark this off as a crime scene, didn't prioritize the murder. They thought this was a great thing because it was flushing out all these drug users.

00:27:23 Speaker_02
And then here we are with still an unsolved murder, because it was really just never prioritized. And I suppose in their defense, all the interviews to follow, people lied about pretty much everything.

00:27:36 Speaker_02
how many people came, what they took, how things occurred, who was there, everyone was just trying to cover themselves. And so I think the police did have a really difficult time teasing apart what is true here, what do we follow up on, what

00:27:55 Speaker_02
is just somebody looking out after their own interests, but that's definitely not to excuse them. I mean, the incompetence and then again, you know, the just lack of prioritizing and really going after this as a drug case when it was

00:28:10 Speaker_02
was a bunch of 18, 19, 20 year olds smoking weed.

00:28:12 Speaker_02
I mean, you know, we've got weed legal in the majority of states now, not to say what they were doing was right, but to think, you know, that some of these kids got arrested and went to prison and changed the outcome of their lives because they were selling some weed or whatever.

00:28:28 Speaker_02
So just, yeah, really kind of tragic all around.

00:28:33 Speaker_04
One of those people who authorities put through the ringer was Doug's former roommate, Matthew, who wasn't even there when the incident occurred. Like with many drug busts, once authorities got people talking, they started flipping on one another.

00:28:46 Speaker_04
Matthew says it was actually his former roommate, Kyle, who snitched on him to reduce his own charges. But his arrest would be just one of several, turning this into a conspiracy case. And he and many others would end up serving time as a result.

00:28:59 Speaker_04
I can only imagine how frustrating and disheartening this must have been for Matthew. Your best friend is murdered. You're in total shock. All you're hoping for is an arrest. And before you know it, you're the one getting arrested.

00:29:12 Speaker_04
For something that only came to light as a result of you losing your friend. and then you're the one doing time, while the person who murdered your friend is free to live their life.

00:29:22 Speaker_04
And don't get me wrong, I'm all for getting drugs off the streets, but when you look at it from this perspective, it is kinda messed up, if I'm being frank.

00:29:29 Speaker_04
Now, 15 years later, those responsible for Doug's murder have yet to be held accountable, and his family are still left without answers. James admits he's never spoken with any of the people who were in the apartment that day.

00:29:42 Speaker_04
Sometimes he wonders what he could piece together if he started talking with them. But the thing with James is he's pretty confident he's got it figured out.

00:29:51 Speaker_04
He's had a strong theory for some time now, not just about what led to Doug's death, but also who's responsible.

00:29:58 Speaker_02
I've had so much time to mull this over and consider things, and when I look back on it, it took me many years, but I'm pretty confident that I have it figured out, and it adds another sort of negative or tragic element to the story.

00:30:19 Speaker_02
So I ended up developing a friendship, or what I thought was a friendship, with somebody in my high school class. He was from a pretty rough family situation, was kind of supporting himself. and naturally I think went to kind of hustling weed.

00:30:41 Speaker_02
We were hanging out quite a bit and I think I just made a connection of Doug sells weed, this guy's trying to sell weed, trying to hustle, I should connect them.

00:30:52 Speaker_02
So I brought this guy over to Doug's place one time, introduced him, they exchanged info and I kind of left it there. And we kept hanging out and everything. And he would ask some questions about Doug's selling from time to time.

00:31:09 Speaker_02
And they just seemed like out of place questions. I was probably naive. So I would share info that I didn't think was particularly dangerous information or whatever.

00:31:19 Speaker_02
And I'm pretty confident that this person was involved with two other specific individuals. They were kind of a tight knit group of the three of them.

00:31:30 Speaker_02
And I think that they were the ones who kind of put all this together and ended up robbing and killing Doug.

00:31:38 Speaker_02
I mean, that's been something that I've really wrestled and struggled with of thinking that I'm probably have some responsibility in introducing them to each other and providing some of the information that probably led to this event.

00:31:57 Speaker_02
And actually, he showed up at my house the morning following the murder.

00:32:06 Speaker_02
He and another person from my high school that I was, you know, I guess buddies with throughout the years, they knocked on my door, said, you know, kind of, oh my God, we can't believe what happened. We're so sorry. Do you know who did it?

00:32:20 Speaker_02
That kind of stuff. And we maintained a relationship and friendship for, I mean, at least the rest of my senior year at high school. And that was one of the things, I guess, that helped me make sense of all this in retrospect.

00:32:35 Speaker_02
We kept hanging out and this guy was really interested in the murder case of like, man, do they have any leads? Do you know who did it? Do they know what happened? You know, looking back, I think he was probably

00:32:48 Speaker_02
So anxious to get information and so scared of getting caught and charged and staying close to me and getting information was probably a way to, you know, ease his anxiety or something.

00:33:01 Speaker_02
I didn't have any idea at the time, but looking back, it's just all really obvious to me.

00:33:09 Speaker_04
In talking with Matthew, I learned that he also has the same theory and suspects in mind. In fact, the way both he and James put it, it's not really much of a secret. So my question was, do the police know about this?

00:33:23 Speaker_02
Yeah, I think they have a clear idea of what happened to, you know, and these guys have been arrested several times over the years for other drug-related charges. And I think the cops have had

00:33:36 Speaker_02
many opportunities to kind of use leverage, having these guys in jail. You know, I'm obviously biased and maybe want to see more action than there has been, but the law enforcement has just repeatedly demonstrated incompetency or disinterest.

00:33:57 Speaker_02
I think they really want this case kind of handed to them. They want someone to come out and say, I want immunity. I was involved and I'll tell you about it. something like that.

00:34:07 Speaker_02
But yeah, I think that they're actually aware of the situation, of who was involved, how things happened. I think they're pretty aware of all that.

00:34:18 Speaker_04
So if authorities know all this information, you have to wonder what they're doing with it and where their investigation currently stands.

00:34:25 Speaker_04
Again, not much has been said to the public over the years, and we weren't able to get them to comment on the matter.

00:34:31 Speaker_04
According to that same 2021 article I mentioned earlier from WFRV Local 5 News, the Brown County Sheriff's Office stressed that Doug's case has always been assigned and worked since 2009.

00:34:43 Speaker_04
Despite hundreds of tips and interviews, and more than a thousand man-hours, they're still without answers. But they claim that hasn't changed their handling of the case.

00:34:52 Speaker_04
Sheriff Delane with the Brown County Sheriff's Office says, And lead detective, Sgt. Holschback, echoed that same sentiment, saying,

00:35:07 Speaker_04
But until there's resolution, all the McMillan family can do is continue to keep Doug's memory alive in hopes that someday authorities are finally able to solve this and give them some answers.

00:35:19 Speaker_02
I would really appreciate just knowing the truth, getting some closure around that, like knowing exactly what happened.

00:35:27 Speaker_02
I think you could say that the people who killed Doug and were involved in his murder, they were young and dumb, probably didn't understand the full gravity of what they're doing.

00:35:36 Speaker_02
And then on the other hand, I mean, you know, they caused me and my family Just tremendous pain and suffering that I would never wish on anybody. So part of me wants someone to answer for that.

00:35:55 Speaker_02
You know, if they had left that house with everything in it, the value is so petty compared to a human life. And I know that anyone in my family would pay 10x, 100x, 1,000x, whatever it is to have had Doug in our lives.

00:36:16 Speaker_04
From the sounds of it, I think Matthew would do the same. He'd give anything to have his friend back. He thinks about Doug each and every day, and he wants nothing more than for someone to have to answer for his murder.

00:36:29 Speaker_04
Not so much for himself, but for Doug's family, who he also keeps in his thoughts.

00:36:35 Speaker_12
Needless to say, I know this story inside and out. It's not something you forget. Because, like, I've lost people in my family, and I can't imagine, like, the pain his mother's going through or his brother. Like, fuck, that's rough.

00:36:47 Speaker_12
I'm an only child, so I can't even imagine what it'd be like to lose your older brother. But that's fucking tough. I don't care who you are.

00:36:54 Speaker_12
I was the one that went to Doug's house to tell his family, because I didn't want to see him on the morning news. It's like hearing his mom scream and break down crying. James falling apart and shit.

00:37:06 Speaker_12
When you watch a family break apart like that, it gets ya. That's why I want him to solve this, is for them.

00:37:16 Speaker_04
In closing, I asked James what he misses about Doug the most, and he gave this touching response.

00:37:26 Speaker_02
Just having that person in your life to talk about whatever with. You know, we had that brotherly bond where could talk about anything and everything, could joke like friends. Because I lost my father, he was a father figure in some ways.

00:37:46 Speaker_02
You know, I know a lot of people want to and have kind of focused on the drugs, the murder, et cetera. That's such a small slice of his life, who he was. He was just a really amazing human. I'm really grateful that he was my brother.

00:38:08 Speaker_02
I miss him tremendously and I know I'm not the only one. He had a lot of people that knew how special and awesome he was.

00:38:20 Speaker_04
If you have any information about the murder of Doug McMillan, please call the Brown County Sheriff's Office at 920-391-7450, option 8. Or you can call anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 920-432-7867.

00:38:40 Speaker_04
There's a cash reward for any information that leads to an arrest or conviction. That's it for this episode. Thanks for listening.

00:39:03 Speaker_11
Culpable is a production of Tenderfoot TV in partnership with Odyssey, written and hosted by Dennis Cooper. Executive producers are Donald Albright and Payne Lindsey. Our senior producer is John Street. Our producer is Jamie Albright.

00:39:18 Speaker_11
Supervising producers are John Street and Tracy Kaplan, with additional production by Eric Quintana, Annie Rustin, and Jordan Foxworthy. Editing by Jaja Muhammad and Sydney Evans. Mixing, mastering, and sound design by Dayton Cole.

00:39:34 Speaker_11
Our theme song is by Dirk Pour Robbins, with additional scoring by Makeup and Vanity Set and Dayton Cole. Our cover art is by Drew Bardana. Sources for this episode include WFRV and the Green Bay Gazette.

00:39:48 Speaker_11
Special thanks to the teams at UTA, Beck Media and Marketing, and the Nord Group. You can follow us on social media at culpable podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please take time to follow, rate and review. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

00:40:04 Speaker_11
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00:40:42 Speaker_08
Thanks for listening to this episode of Culpable Case Review. Tune back in for additional episodes releasing each Friday. For ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content, subscribe to Tenderfoot Plus at tenderfootplus.com or on Apple Podcasts.

00:41:00 Speaker_09
They called it the happiest place on the high desert, home to a tight-knit group of 30-somethings who like to party. It starts as a Playboy Channel fantasy, but this is real life.

00:41:12 Speaker_09
Where passion leads to murder, and a killer seeks God's help with the cover-up. I'm Josh Mankiewicz, and this is Deadly Mirage, an all-new podcast from Dateline. Listen to new episodes for free each week, wherever you get your podcasts.