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39-year-old Allan Godfrey, who was originally from Arizona but retired to spend the rest of his life as a cowboy, went missing in April 2015. In December of the same year, a local man discovered a human leg bone and informed the police. DNA reports showed that the leg bone belonged to Godfrey.
Further investigation revealed that he had been murdered by his landlord, Dale Brewster, 48, who was convicted of an assault in 1991 and was also accused of being violent by his former wife.
The case was uncovered in Investigation Discovery's series Murder in the Wicked West. The episode aired at 9 pm on January 2.
The synopsis of the episode reads:
"Cowboy rodeo rider Allan "Rick" Godfrey Jr., age 39, a resident of Phelan, California, mysteriously disappeared from a dusty town in the Mojave Desert. His family reported him missing on April 18, 2015. Law enforcement investigators discovered that he had seduced and swindled a long list of women. Could one of them have taken revenge and buried Rick Godfrey in the sand?"
Trigger warning: This article contains information about graphic violence.
Why did Dale Brewster murder Godfrey?
Godfrey was at his girlfriend Lisa Simonsen's place to help her with moving furniture when he received a text message from Brewster demanding him to come back immediately.
“And then the next morning, he was really upset because he had received a text message from his landlord, Dale, that he had to return the truck that he borrowed to move me,” said Simonsen.
Upon interrogation, Dale revealed to the police that the two got into a brawl after a neighbor had complained to him that Godfrey owed her thousands of dollars.
The landlord added that he beat Godfrey up the same morning, following which, the latter fled, never to be seen again.
“We got into a fistfight,” Brewster said. “I beat the living cr*p out of him.”
For months, the case remained unsolved as there was no conclusive evidence against anyone. It was being treated as a missing person's case until one day the human leg bone was found in Llano, California by a local man.
Investigators immediately put the landlord on the suspect's list for the altercation he had with the victim. Also, on the day Godfrey went missing, Brewster's phone location showed he was present in the same place where the victim had been buried.
However, Brewster got wind that the detectives would put him on the suspect's list so he left town along with his girlfriend Debbie Harris. After a long cat-and-mouse chase, the couple were found and arrested.
Brewster was sentenced to life imprisonment
Godfrey did not enjoy a good reputation among his peers due to his promiscuous lifestyle, and had been labeled as a swindler several times. Several people voiced their dislike for Godfrey on social media and celebrated his disappearance.
However, the landlord was found guilty of murdering Godfrey and was sentenced to life imprisonment. There were not enough charges against his girlfriend so she was released.
According to investigators, Brewster killed Godfrey in a fit of rage when his neighbor, Laura Vasquez, told him that he had an affair with his girlfriend, Harris.
The landlord allegedly strangled Godfrey to death with a duct tape on his mouth.
