Death by Ice Axe: The Murder of Katie Pham

Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan

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True Crime

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2023

⏱️ 32 minutes

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Summary

Kathryn Pham, 21. had been dating Daniel Gunnarsson, 23, hardly a month, but the 23-year-old's obsession with Pham grew quickly. He would get angry if anyone else had the young woman's attention. Gunnarsson confided to his stepfather that he thought Pham was breaking up with him. The stepfather's advice? Apologize.

Gunnarsson did and somehow convinced Pham to go with him to his stepfather's home. Once there, painters were on the scene. The couple went in to the garage. Soon after the painters hear screaming, but wait an hour before going to check. Inside the garage, Kathryn Phan is laying on the floor, naked and bloodied. Daniel Gunnarsson struck Pham with an ice axe at least 10 times.

Join forensic expert Joseph Scott Morgan and co-host Dave Mack as they look at the destruction and mayhem caused by one tool.

Time Codes-highlights

00:00:00 Joseph Scott Morgan discusses what it's like to receive a jury duty letter in the mail only to find the possible case is murder.

00:02:29 An ice axe is not a tool found in most homes. Usually it is only in locations with colder temperature. How could it be used for murder?

00:04:14 Description of an ice axe

00:06:50 Dating relationship between Daniel Gunnarsson and Katie Pham introduced

00:07:56 Daniel Gunnarsson red flag behavior details.

00:09:06 Katie Pham's trip to Gunnarsson's stepfather's garage

00:09:38 Painters start hearing a girl's screams. Body is discovered. Scene described.

00:12:28 Katie Pham's injuries described

00:15:56 Injuries occurred in the upper body, the chest, the neck and the head. .

00:20:08 Dead body touched in sexual manner

00:21:34 Suspect was wearing gloves.

00:24:45 Jurors had to hear details of an ice axe murder.

00:25:34 Victim was struck at least 10 times.

00:28:36 Is it possible to determine the order of injuries?

00:29:41 Defense strategy was that someone else snuck into the garage.

00:31:01 Jurors wept

00:31:20 Daniel Gunderson was found guilty.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bodybags with Joseph Scott Morgan. How many of you have ever walked out to the mailbox and cracked it open and looked inside and there was
0:27.6	that envelope. Most of the time it's a white envelope. It's got a little window on it, you know a little plastic window and when you look at the
0:37.4	plastic window it's got your name in there displayed prominently and then you look up in
0:42.2	the top left hand corner and this
0:46.2	piece of mail has been sent to you from the kind folks down at the clerk of
0:51.8	court's office your local courthouse.
0:55.0	And most of the time, the news that it bears to you is to inform you that you have been selected as a winner for the
1:08.4	jury pool and you're going to be heading downtown and you're going to sit in a big room with a lot of other
1:13.4	people listening to cases perhaps if you get selected and then making a
1:19.3	determination about what shall happen to a person at the end of a trial.
1:27.0	But just for a moment, think about this,
1:30.0	you're going about your life, mind in your own, doing everything you can to obey the law, and
1:36.3	suddenly you've been selected for jury duty. It turns out that it's a homicide. And this homicide is going to beat
1:47.2	everything you could have ever imagined as far as what one human being would do to another. Today we're going to
1:59.6	talk about the brutal murder of a young woman who was just getting started out in life,
2:10.0	a young woman whose life was ended at the hands of a man wielding an ice axe.
2:21.5	I'm Joseph Scott Morgan and this is body bags.
2:25.0	Dave, I know that you're from California originally, but's face it we've adopted you as
2:35.2	our own here in the south you've been here long enough I'm southerner I don't
2:40.8	think that if I if I ever came over to your house and said, gee Dave, can you lend me your
2:48.3	Isaacs?
2:49.7	First off, you might look at me and say, have you lost your mind? And secondly, you might say have you lost your mind and secondly you might say what's an
	...

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