A Gray Shame – David Crowley’s Last Days

“Even though you may be killed resisting, the act of resistance on a metaphysical level has value.” – David CrowleyArticle CoverIn a YouTube interview by Sean Wright, David Crowley commented on Danny August Mason’s impartial approach of searching for the truth, “Like Danny said, that was the best thing he did, was taking that impartial approach to saying ‘Go do the research yourself,’ which is exactly what I did. And of course, once you go down that road you can’t come back.” David Crowley met Danny August Mason in 2010 and eventually the two created the story of Gray State. David Crowley then wrote the first version of the feature-length film. After his best friend’s death, Mitch Heil wrote a lengthy post on social media, hoping to “clear up some questions” people had about the double murder-suicide. In his post, Heil wrote about the 2012 Gray State trailer, calling it the “largest and most intense small production” he’s ever been a part of. “It was basically the three of us doing all the planning. David and Danny doing the writing, scripting, story boarding, ect. I did more of the logistics and technical stuff.” Mitch Heil “officially split ways from Gray State in mid/late 2013 or so,” but he still remained involved with David Crowley’s other businesses, Hot Head Productions and Bullet Exchange. “This wildly different view on life is what eventually broke off my relationship with the Gray State project,” wrote Heil.gray-state-cheat-sheetDavid Crowley completed a revised script of Gray State on June 2nd, 2013 and gave it to a select group of people to review and give feedback on. Also in 2013, a rough cut of the documentary film Gray State: The Rise was given out to several people, including one of the hosts of The Rundown Live, Mike Paczesny. Two days after the bodies of David, Komel, and Rani Crowley were found, Mike Paczesny was asking some serious questions on his show, “How is this possible that David, with all these contacts and friends, who I messaged a month ago on Facebook by the way, to try to get a hold of him, you know, how does this happen? How does a guy go unnoticed for a month? How does his wife go unnoticed for a month? How does the daughter go unnoticed for a month? You know, where are their families? Where are their friends? What happened here?” On January 20th, 2015, Mike posted the rough cut of Gray State: The Rise onto his YouTube channel, stating, “The public deserves to see the movie and that’s what’s happening with the documentary.” Later that day, Mike removed the video, “Out of respect for family & contributors, I will be removing the film.”

On October 23rd, 2013, David Crowley posted on Twitter that the rough cut of Gray State: The Rise was finished and ready for review, “Exporting the rough cut now. So stoked!” On December 9th, 2013, Crowley added, “6 months working on Gray State: The Rise. It’s finally taking its final form, but holy moses, what a shitty shit ton of work.” David, Komel and Rani Crowley moved into their new home in Apple Valley, Minnesota on December 13th, 2013. Days later, David posted on Facebook that he had lost a “crucial hard drive” during the move to 1051 Ramsdell Drive. On December 18th, 2013, David posted, “The only real loss after moving to a new house last weekend was a crucial hard drive for The Rise. I guess the next few weeks will be spent salvaging everything that was lost.” The following day he wrote, “File recovery sucks, but it’s better than not having files to recover. This could take a few weeks.” By December 27th, 2013, the documentary film was getting back on track, “Finally getting back on track with The Rise. She’s been teaching me patience by making me work for the 660 missing clips that remain, and crashing at least six times a day.”

The fictional movie, Gray State, was going through some revisions of it’s own on January 15th, 2014. “Some seclusion writing this weekend,” David Crowley wrote on Facebook. “For those of you who read the GS script – it’s about to get gutted for the necessity of a clear, concise, entertaining, and effective film. For all the chewy details that are going to get cut – well, there’s always the novel.” Five days later, on January 20th, 2014, the story had completely changed, “After two years of trying to extract the Gray State story, I think I finally may have done it. The story has completely changed, is working beautifully, and the new outline was completed in only the last three days. With this new story, it will not be hard to attract funding.” The following day, David Crowley explained he had rediscovered Gray State’s ending, “It’s a strange experience finally feeling genuine love for characters I’ve created. The most painful part of writing the conflict for these people who are precious to me – is that I must now torture them, punish them, and drag them through the dirt to reveal their essence of form. Yesterday morning I rediscovered Gray State’s ending, and the final feeling captured was of such gentle sadness, I’ve been stuck in it ever since.”

On January 22nd, 2014, David was still getting settled in to his new home, “Spending today building two big fucking new desks to create a mancave megadesk, then relocating ALL of The Bullet Exchange inventory to my basement.” On February 2nd, 2014, David explained the plot of the fictional film, Gray State, “Gray State: a wounded veteran leads the insurgency against a corrupt government after his city is put under martial law.”

“The use of force,” David Crowley posted on March 7th, 2014, “no matter the context, should be a shameful last resort, indicating an utter defeat of intelligent faculty. This is the difference between men and children, and also why our childlike society celebrates violence in its exercise of authority.” On March 8th, 2014, David Crowley wrote that “Sean Stone (yeah that one, @csstone5) apparently wants a role in Gray State.” Two days later David Crowley was “happily unsubscribing from liberty and conspiracy feeds on fb and twitter. Too much of the backbiting derision they claim to oppose. See ya, guys, it’s been fun. You’ll still like Gray State though.” The following day on March 11th, 2014, David Crowley asked the question, “You know what liberty feels like? Unsubscribing from hundreds of LIBERTY OR DEATH FUCK THE NWO pages and twitter accounts.”

The movie script was steadily progressing on March 19th, 2014, “Today, in place of thousands of post-it notes,” David Crowley wrote on Facebook, “pages of scribbles, and 30 feet of plot-points, I have a 118-page script/outline hybrid that may be only days away from a solid draft 1. The original Gray State story took 8 months of solid work. This story took less than 2, and is better in every way.” On March 22nd, 2014, Komel was reading the first draft of the new script for Gray State.

Aside from the Gray State movie, David Crowley also had plans for six more films. On May 15th, 2014, David “spent a very welcome morning laying the groundwork for another 6 films I’ve been having ideas for. It’s nice to finally be free from Gray State, boy howdy.” On May 22nd, 2014, David Crowley’s dream had finally come true, “It just happened. I’m not sure how many details I can divulge at this point, but Gray State will be optioned in the next two weeks at a major budget and connected with a-list talent. We are connected with a producer who above all else wants to preserve the film’s pro-liberty ideals. This is all we could have hoped for and more. Thank you all for being our strongest selling point. Let’s make a movie.”

On June 30th, 2014, posting as the Gray State page on Facebook, David Crowley gave an update on the Gray State movie, “The past month I’ve been meeting with some LA-based producers, crew, and other industry contacts, and together we are building the team that will combine our passions and talents and belief in Gray State to optimize its message and reach of its exposure. This has been a truly exhilarating experience! My attorney and I are reviewing the option contract this week, and once that sucker is signed this whole Gray State thing is going to finally, irretrievably, and monstrously take off for the stratosphere – and in such a way that the message will be preserved – and perhaps even continue in sequels, TV series, and video games. Seriously. Talk about taking over the main stream. This has been my life’s work for nearly 4 years, and it is extremely gratifying to be backed by such a raging horde of super-fans. Thanks for your patience guys. See you at the premiere.”

On September 30th, 2014, David Crowley spent some time on Facebook answering questions from his supporters, “It seems like there are a lot of questions and expectations about this project. For the next 20 minutes or so I will answer your questions directly!” Several times David Crowley wrote about releasing Gray State: The Rise for free online. There are two very important posts from David Crowley that were either deleted or have been hidden from public view; one post was made on December 9th, 2014, and the other was dated September 30th, 2014. The missing post from September included a question by a supporter, as well as an answer by David Crowley (posting as Gray State). In this post, David Crowley mentioned his plans for “rebuilding a trustworthy team.” Asked what his biggest hold up was with the fictional movie, Crowley responded, “I’m doing this myself. I say “we” and “team” a lot, but when it comes to nuts and bolts work, writing, and leveraging the project into securing Hollywood money, it’s just me. I hope to change this by reinvigorating the process and rebuilding a trustworthy team.” We still do not know who removed or hid this post from the Gray State Facebook page, or why. Hopefully the post will reappear one day.

Responding to a question about when Gray State: The Rise was going to be released, David Crowley responded, “The Rise suffered a catastrophic hard drive loss earlier this year. I am working to get it back together (hopefully for a FREE online release, you guys deserve a little something). I really have to be careful though, because a mishandled doc release could absolutely SINK production on the film or series. I am treading carefully, making sure that everything works out to the best.” September 30th, 2014, was an important day, as David Crowley had big plans for 2015, “Today’s posts represent the first visible beginnings of the Gray State resurrection. I can’t get into too much too soon, but with the right amount of hard work, strategy, and miracle juice, the beginning of 2015 should see some amazing progress.” Crowley also wrote about a “new revamped website coming soon” and many of his last known conversations involved plans for the future of his projects.

Over and over again on September 30th, 2014, David posts about his vision for the Gray State franchise, “A series, which could be produced and released way faster than a film, has the potential to subvert the system. How can it not? Sorry guys but Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones, while entertaining, lack a real-world purpose. Gray State will not fail you. How could it?” Creating the Gray State franchise was David Crowley’s full-time job, and he was doing everything he could to ensure the success of the franchise, “It’ll either be a great success story, a spectacular, highly visible failure, but either way, I guess we all put in our best shot, right? I guess that could be said about where the country is headed too.”

The questions kept coming, and David Crowley answered as many questions as possible within those dedicated twenty minutes. Crowley was attempting to reach out directly to his supporters and doubters in order to address the criticism the project received for its multiple delays in production. Starting a Kickstarter campaign for future production costs is more evidence that David Crowley was actively planning for the future, “We want to run a Kickstarter (due to popular demand), but if we do, it’ll be for a very specific purpose, like hiring a behind the scenes crew to document production, run live broadcasts, and give constant updates to the fans. I never wanted the fans to fund this. That’s like making your kids pay for their own Christmas presents.”

David Crowley was still trying to get “big budget” funding for Gray State in September of 2014. I believe this shows David was not defeated by his earlier failures in Hollywood, as some have claimed. His words seemed like those of a rejuvenated artist who had a story to tell, and who wasn’t going to stop until his concept for Gray State became a reality, “Hopefully the strength of this project as a whole, and what it represents with the people, will help me get a big budget without sacrificing my intent. But hey, if I can’t, then I will take it back to low-budget indie, like the 2012 trailer.” During a 2012 interview with David Crowley and Danny Mason, host Alex Jones told the Gray State creators they didn’t need Hollywood’s help to make their film a success.

So even if Hollywood wasn’t interested in his project, Crowley knew it was possible to make the film without their help, with only a small budget. “New developments have enhanced the projects honesty and dedication to its origins. This is going to be brutal.” Crowley also reminded people to “stay tuned for updates. We will keep the entire production process as wide open as possible.” In response to the comment that it’s been three years since Gray State was first developed, Crowley responded, “No, it’s been a lot longer! And there are years to go.” In a separate comment, Crowley confirmed his long-term plans, “The film is ready to go, but it might take forever, and then still fail at any point in production. A series might be immediately tangible, and instead of interfering with the film…set it up for success a year or two down the road. Big picture stuff.”

David Crowley’s most challenging thing about the project was “trailblazing the timeline. It’s been either a very small team or just me alone working on this thing for years, trying to make it work. I do not just want this movie done so the fans can see it online. I want millions to get blind-sided by it in theaters.” David’s future plans for the movie were clear, “We’re talking to producers about it. If we can’t tease a producer into splitting $15-30 million (which is still our goal), then we will take it back and do it independently. The point is we want Hollywood money but not Hollywood politics.”

One month later, on October 27th, 2014, David Crowley contacted David Kirk West on Facebook, “I like your operation, ethics, friends, and location. When I put together the Gray State web-series and shoot nation-wide, would you want to produce for the northwest?” On a consistent basis, David Crowley was planning for the future of his franchise, and moving forward to see his life’s work become a reality. David Crowley severed ties with David Kirk West on social media sometime between November and December of 2014. West believes David Crowley also “unfriended” many people on social media “for seemingly no reason.”

By November 18th, 2014, there was no doubt as to whether or not Gray State: The Rise would be released for free, “Gray State: The Rise will be made available online for free as soon as possible. This is our non-fiction contribution to fight for liberty. Gather your strength.” David Crowley was working “every day” to complete Gray State: The Rise and on November 26th, 2014, he told a potential donor to “use that money on something for your girl instead. The Rise is going to be free.” Crowley was “rushing The Rise to a free online release. It’ll be worth your wait.”

The December 9th, 2014, post by David Crowley has since been removed. We do not know who has access to David Crowley’s Facebook account, or why the post and its comments were removed or hidden from David’s personal Facebook wall. Here is what David Crowley wrote, “Can you believe it? The Rise is almost done. I’m serious. She’s coming out to be quite the looker; can’t wait to show you all, but I have to comb her hair for a few more weeks. Anyway, I’m quite serious about giving this film away. I have come to abhor the AJ model of peddling DVDs as truth and cashing in on suckers. I have given this film years of my time and I am delighted for the opportunity to “burn it down” by giving it away, and I hope you all share the feeling. You’ve all given this project a lot of attention and I thank you. Soon it will be time to go live, and we’ll get to watch it all unfold.” Why would someone remove or hide this post from David Crowley’s Facebook account? Various screen-shots are all that remain of this post and several comments made the same day.

The first comment came from David, “You guys are friggin’ sweet, I hope the film makes you all proud. I would try to do a private screening or something exclusive, but hearing the news every day I don’t think we have the time.” Two people post comments in response. The first writes, “It’s taken a lot out of you I’m sure. The iron is hot, waiting for you to strike.” The second person to leave a comment is Sean, who writes, “You need to call me. I’m all good with getting out free intact. I brought that up initially. But if it’s released before my court you may send me to prison instead of beating my case. For real though David Crowley call me.” Sean also put his phone number in the comment. David responded, “I don’t have any of your tax talk in there Sean my man, don’t sweat it. This movie is meant to send other people to prison.”

Sean was worried that the release of Gray State: The Rise could possibly send him to prison. I believe this is the same Sean who contacted me after David’s death, encouraging me to stop asking questions and just accept that David Crowley was guilty of a double murder-suicide. Sean’s “tax stuff” is in the leaked version of Gray State: The Rise (rough cut). In a conversation with investigative researcher Dan Hennen, Sean told him, “The reason David said he took the tax stuff out of [Gray State: The Rise] is I’m currently in court for tax issues and that’s a big reason the rough cut was never to be public.”

During a December 17th, 2014, email exchange with Los Angeles-based producer Jason Allen, obtained by the Pioneer Press, David Crowley relayed his plans for releasing the documentary film in a few weeks, “When you see The Rise, and the new trailers for the Gray State series, you’ll know what I mean when I say I have followed my heart at every step.” I have no idea how much money is going to come together when this kicks off here in a few weeks, but it might be enough to get started on a series, then independent features running a common storyline.” David Crowley met with Jason Allen in Los Angeles some time in September of 2014 and was “very much excited about releasing this documentary,” according to what Allen said in a Pioneer Press news article.

The email exchange also revealed the rising interest in the Gray State projects, “Gray State fans are growing at a rate of 100-200 per day even now,” wrote Crowley, “and when I get started I can only expect they’ll keep coming.” David asked Jason Allen to be an executive producer for Gray State, but before Allen could respond to the request, the deceased Crowley was already being accused of a double murder-suicide. Allen found it hard to believe that David Crowley would murder his wife and child before taking his own life, “David had this consistency and this very steady way about him. In many ways it felt very contradictory to the actions of a murder-suicide. I truly saw an optimism to it.” Komel Crowley was helping her husband “build a database of professionals, actors and other industry contacts interested in the project,” according to Nick Ferraro’s Pioneer Press article.

In the first hour of December 25th, 2014, Gray State: The Rise posted a link to “The Patriots Guild” Faceboook page with the following comment, “An excellent group/page run by some real patriots that are close friends of ours. Make sure to give them a like. They have a lot of great things on the horizon!” This is possibly David’s last post before he died, if it was David Crowley who was posting as Gray State: The Rise at that time. In the comment section, when asked when the move is coming out, Gray State: The Rise responds, “Make sure to follow this page, “Gray State” for updates on filming.” In a separate comment Gray State: The Rise wrote, “And it’s not an easy feat when trying to maintain the stories integrity without selling out, and having such a small team.”

According to Pat Pheifer of the Star Tribune, on December 26th or 27th, 2014, Dan Crowley went to his older brother’s house to drop off Christmas presents. Mason Hendricks, a friend of David Crowley, said Dan Crowley saw Paleo, the family dog, pop his head up through the large front window. Dan dropped off the Christmas presents by the front door and tried contacting his brother several times afterwards, but David never responded to his phone calls or text messages. Dan and David’s father, Daniel Crowley, also tried to contact David and Komel but was unsuccessful. Daniel Crowley also told local news media he “hadn’t heard from his son and daughter-in-law over the holidays.”

Colin and Judy Prochnow lived next door to the Crowley family and had recently returned from an out-of-town visit when they noticed packages piling up near the front door of the Crowley home. A few days before the bodies were found neighbors noticed the lights inside the Crowley house were on all day and all night. The curtains were wide-open, which was unusual according to neighbors. Mr. Prochnow said he had shoveled the snow in the Crowley’s driveway a few times, a common courtesy in Minnesota, because he hadn’t seen the Crowley family since before Christmas. He assumed the family was out of town. Mr. Prochnow told local news media he heard a noise that sounded like a gunshot some time in December, but the actual date of the noise is unclear. On January 17th, 2015, Colin Prochnow rang the doorbell of the Crowley home and instantly heard the dog barking aggressively, but no one answered the door. So he peered through the front window.

At first, Mr. Prochnow was not fully certain that what he saw through the Crowley’s front window were three deceased bodies. Initially, he told the Star Tribune, the bodies looked like dummies or mannequins, “To me, they just didn’t look human.” Mr. Prochnow then returned to his home and told his wife what he saw. “He came home and said there were dummies [mannequins] on the floor,” Judy Prochnow said in the article. The Prochnows returned to the Crowley house and upon a second look into the front window, police were called to the scene.

When Apple Valley police officers arrived at 12:56 pm, an officer looked through the front window and told police dispatch, “There’s several obviously deceased bodies in the front.” According to police dispatch audio released by Minnesota Police Clips, one officer was at the back of the house and told dispatch, “Rear slider is unlocked, slightly ajar.” Another officer said, “We’re gonna make entry as soon as [inaudible] can get here and get this dog.” Based on the dispatch audio, the officer responsible for removing the dog from the house is told to go to the back of the house when he arrives. On January 18th, CapitolBay.com reported that police were calling the deaths “suspicious” but their article still revolved around the “apparent murder-suicide” theory given to them by police.

Apple Valley Police Captain John Bermel was certain to tell the media there were no signs of forced entry or foul-play. “If there was a scuffle, you’d expect to find maybe something broken, maybe something knocked over. There was nothing like that,” Captain John Bermel told Nick Ferraro of the Pioneer Press. Captain Bermel apparently did not address the rear slider being unlocked and slightly ajar at that time. Perhaps in the future he will. When asked about conspiracy theories surrounding the deaths, Bermel said, “We deal in facts.” If that is true, then Captain Bermel should have no problem telling the public why his office told the media David Crowley was guilty within a day of finding the bodies at 1051 Ramsdell Drive. So far, because the investigation is still on-going, police have not released any “facts” to suggest David Crowley is guilty of a double murder-suicide. Captain Bermel told KAAL, “We will establish a timeline and try to piece together what happened in that house.” Once the investigation is complete, I truly hope his timeline will be available to the public.

Paleo, the family dog, was found alive but had torn up part of a sectional couch in the living room. An alleged friend of David Crowley, someone posting as Mason Norsk Hest, told independent investigator Dan Hennen, “Paleo destroyed David’s body…David did try to kill the dog…body parts were all over the house. The dog left Rani’s body alone.” The dog was taken to a local animal shelter, Mason Norsk Hest later posted, “All will be revealed soon. The dog is ok. I saw him yesterday. David’s brother will be taking him. I, along with some friends, will be going to his house on Thursday after the living room is cleaned up and to try to make sense of the note that was left.”

Mason Hendricks told the Star Tribune about the note that David left behind, “It’s very short. It’s very puzzling. Honestly it doesn’t [explain what happened]. It doesn’t put much into perspective. It’s two sentences. That’s all it is.” Mason Norsk Hest also told Dan Hennen, “You, nor anyone, will ever know what the note said. It was his handwriting…David left a password list for the authorities…David left a note on his computer that said, “To my family, I loved you with all my heart.” He took the password protection off of his computer. David’s finger prints were on the computer.” According to what Mason Hendricks posted on his MNH Foto website, Mason Norsk Hest is his nickname. On his website Mason Hendricks explains, “Mason Norsk Hest is a nickname that was given to me some years ago and it is the name I have come to go by.” Still, I cannot verify if the person posting as Mason Norsk Hest on Facebook is the same Mason Hendricks mentioned in various news articles about David Crowley’s death.

On January 18th, 2015, the host of Silence Is Compliance, Anthony Antonello, started off the show with a phone conversation with Mike Paczesny. Mike Paczesny would later post Gray State: The Rise onto his YouTube channel for the entire world to see. “It’s really sad that it came to this,” Mike told the host, “if this is really true, and I believe it is. You know? That’s really sad.” Anthony Antonello had his own suspicions, “I don’t want to jump right out there and yell, ‘conspiracy, conspiracy,’ but you gotta ask questions, man…things like this just stink, man.” Keep in mind that Anthony is just learning about what happened at the Crowley house as the show begins. As he is speaking with Mike, he and his research partner are scouring the internet looking for articles, information and videos of David Crowley and anything related to the alleged double murder-suicide.

Anthony has a hard time believing the official narrative and by the end of the show the host doesn’t seem to believe the official story, “I’m not buying it. Not buying it whatsoever…I don’t know what happened. Am I suspicious? Of course I’m suspicious.” Mike Paczesny added, “We’re gonna get demonized for this. Everybody that was a part of the Gray State project, which is a lot of alternative media, a lot of the listeners, a lot of the people that know who we are, we were behind this. I got a banner on my website right now. What? Am I supposed to take it down?…Yes! You do. That’s what you do now. I don’t know. What the hell? I’m just being honest.”

Also on January 18th, 2015, musical artist Jordan Page expressed his thoughts about the death of his friend, “David Crowley, the screenwriter and director of an upcoming film about the NWO takeover Gray State is dead. All I can say is he was my friend, he was a visionary, a patriot, and a good man. I will miss him, and this movement has lost a crucial member who was poised to wake up millions. God bless him and his wife and their little girl.” More notable is the comment Jordan Page wrote later that day, “The film was about to start production with a $30 million budget from a major Hollywood studio.” Local actor Charles Hubbell had been trying to reach Crowley for over a month. Hubbell told KAAL (ABC 6 News), “I was absolutely crushed. This is not the David that I know. This is nowhere near the David I know. He was proud of his service. He was proud of his expertise.”

On January 19th, 2015, the creators of the Justice for David Crowley of Gray State Facebook page and the Justice for David Crowley & Family Facebook group were both contacted by various people requesting administration rights. On the March 3rd, 2015 edition of Wake Up To The Truth with Mike Serour and Eric Wilkinson, Dan Hennen explained why he started the Justice for David Crowley & Family Facebook group and addressed the many requests for administration rights to his group.

“When I first heard about the story,” Dan Hennen told the hosts, “my first search on Facebook was to search for a justice page or something to do with the family to get up-to-speed with the story. When I found that there wasn’t any, I decided to create one and start throwing in some of the articles, some links to the various articles, to have a spot as a forum for people to come and get information and gather information. I was just setting it up by myself, just as the owner of the page, and then after I did another search…I saw that there was another one up done by Thomas Lapp…his is actually a page and mine is a group. So they’re different in that aspect. So he set his up, and it wasn’t until the 19th of January that we started getting the requests for rights to the page; and I didn’t get any at first at all. But when corresponding with Thomas Lapp, we started to get the admin rights [requests] coming in from various people, and they all seemed to be from the Gray State team; which is fine. We thought it was odd because they’re going through the grief…the last thing they’d be doing is searching on the web and wanting to type and write things, but they wanted administrator rights to moderate. So that was the first thing. When it got a little goofy is when Thomas Lapp shot me an instant message saying, ‘I’m getting a lot of requests for administration rights and full access rights. Just be on the lookout if that comes your way,’ and just to be prepared. He didn’t tell me how to handle it, or what to do, he just says, ‘Just FYI.’ He gave the 411 that this might be coming…I said, well that certainly seems odd, but then he said [the requests] went from being admins to wanting full rights. Then once he did grant one person admin rights, a bunch of threads were soon deleted. So that didn’t go over. Being an admin is one thing…but Thomas wasn’t too happy when he found out that a hand-full of threads were deleted…so he had a bunch of requests that came in to be the administrator…Mike Paczesny, at the same time, while this was all going on, uploaded that YouTube video of [Gray State: The Rise] the rough cut, which really threw things into disarray because the Gray State was trying to put out that fire at the same time. They were trying to pull that down and deal with Paczesny, who evidently went rogue and just decided to publish it. But at the same time we were…trying to work with the Gray State team to get together a conference call for the next day…Brendon Jay spent a lengthy phone call – he’s from the Gray State team – Brendan Jay has been very good dealing with Thomas Lapp…they were putting together a conference call and invited me to get on too and wanted to get the three of us, the two pages and the Gray State team, to get together and put our heads together and see what would be the best way to either put together a video or a YouTube, or something to get it out there at the nation-wide level to really expose this case…I think it was when Joe Haggman got involved. He suggested even doing it for the show for that very night, if you bump it back an hour, ‘Instead of doing a conference call, you guys can just call in live on the Haggman and Haggman internet radio show and we can get this out there to a much broader audience.’ So we had agreed to do that for a 10 pm eastern-time show and everything was good. At that time, I believe the Gray State guys were putting out the fire of the rough-cut documentary. Then at 8:49 pm I get a contact from Thomas Lapp that says the show’s been cancelled; and he mentions that things have “gotten weird.” So he said the show’s cancelled. I’m not sure what’s going on now…it was at that point that Sean Wright – from the Gray State team – now was demanding full admin rights, and threatened he’ll terminate the page if he wasn’t granted those rights, and he’ll get it shut down, he’ll delete the entire thing. So, it went from asking for rights to help moderate a page to terminating, to deleting the page…then I got hit…with the requests for administration rights to my page, and I said no that’s fine, I’ll just keep it going here myself. I might need a moderator or two to help bring people in but I don’t want to give up the admin rights; certainly after what’s happened here the other day to the previous page. So, it really got nasty at that point. That was on January 20th, the evening…it was after declining the admin rights to be able to give to the Gray State guys when it all went downhill. It was surprising for Thomas and I because it was less than 24 hours [ago that] everything was going well. Information was getting out there. Brendan Jay said from the beginning, he’s like, I don’t buy it. I don’t buy this official story one ‘iota’…but then a hand-full of guys from Gray State say, no, this isn’t the case. They wanted to steer, they didn’t want conspiracy theories out there surrounding David Crowley.”

One of the people who wanted to become an admin for the Justice for David Crowley of Gray State Facebook page was Danny Mason. On January 20th, Danny Mason wrote to Thomas Lapp (who was posting as the Justice for David Crowley of Gray State Facebook page), “Could the admin or admins please contact me?” Mason asked. Thomas Lapp responded, “Hey Dan, the admins are myself (Thomas Lapp), Sean Wright and Brendan Jay. What can I do for you? By the way I also sent you a friend request. I can give you access to this page as well if you like.” Within minutes Danny Mason responded, “Yes please add me as admin since I’m trying to make sure David’s name and our projects are being protected. I’m just saying this since I haven’t met you in person, and lots of people coming out of the woods if you know what I mean.”

On January 21st, 2015, someone named Sam Wagner asked Dan Hennen if he could become an administrator for the Justice for David Crowley & Family group, “Hey can you add me as an admin for the Justice for Crowley? I was part of the admin team that did the social media for Gray State and we really need to stay on top of the trolling/keeping this group proactive, ect. Come on Dan.” Dan Hennen wrote back, “Hang in there Sam. In a case like this the first week is gonna be hard. Let me know when that news conference takes place today. I’m at work.” Wagner then asked Dan, “Why aren’t you letting others be admins? Because you created the group? Mods are not the same as admins, you must know that.” To all the people who asked for administrative rights to the Justice for David Crowley & Family Facebook group, it’s never going to happen so go start your own group and quit trying to control that one. Shame on you.

Also on January 21st, 2015, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office labeled Komel and Rani’s deaths as homicides and David’s death as a suicide. All three died from a single gunshot wound to the head. On January 22nd, 2015, David Kirk West wrote an article on why he didn’t think David Crowley was assassinated by the government, “I think that what happened is that “Gray State” was falling apart, Crowley was struggling financially, and between that and who knows what other factors he just snapped. I strongly suspect we will find out in the coming weeks that “Gray State” suffered a big setback, likely toward the end of October. I hope that everyone who is following this case and speculating on it will refrain from jumping to the conclusion that David Crowley and his family were assassinated and at least consider any evidence that comes out indicating a murder/suicide.” While David Kirk West clearly speculated that David Crowley might have “snapped,” he also asked everyone to refrain from jumping to the conclusion that the Crowley family was assassinated by the government. Of course we will consider any evidence that helps prove a double murder-suicide, and I hope Mr. West will consider the possibility that David Crowley is innocent based on the lack of evidence given by police.

Mitch Heil seemingly blamed Gray State for David’s death, “Conspiracy theorists are saying he was murdered by the government. He was murdered alright. He was murdered by the Gray State. He was no longer David. He was not the David we all knew and loved. He was Gray State and the Gray State killed David. It killed Komel, and it killed Raniya.”

Additionally on January 21st, 2015, Doug Hagmann, of the Hagmann & Hagmann Report, wrote about his conversation with David Crowley back in 2012. Hagmann explained that David Crowley “ominously confided that he had no intentions of committing suicide or otherwise becoming a statistic as he had so much to live for. “I’m not prone to suicide,” he told me.” Doug Hagmann also wrote, “What I don’t understand is the public’s acquiescence or resignation to the official narrative without question, especially considering the people whom we’ve lost to questionable, if not outright strange circumstances. There is something very wrong here. The death of David Crowley, his wife and daughter is more than a tragedy. It seems to fit a disturbing pattern. We need the complete truth about what happened, and not accept anything less. Although his death and the murder of his five year-old daughter and 28 year-old wife could have been by his hand, I’m not buying it. Others aren’t either.”

I have no idea why, but on January 23rd, 2015, Sean Wright contacted me, asking that I stop asking questions about the David Crowley case, “You think I would just be silent if I thought there was more to the story, if my best friends were murdered? Please think of the source of the info. Do you trust me?” After asking who “the source” was, Sean responded, “Me dude! Crowleys were my best friends. You think I would not start the revolution if they were murdered or assassinated?”

I asked when we will see the evidence. “I know the evidence,” he told me, “and will share when I can. The people I trust have been told what I can share. I know more than anyone. I’m mother fuckin’ Sean Wright. You think I didn’t trench everything before I accepted what happened. No one else would want this to be foul-play more than me. Just trust me. Save your credibility.” Even more bizarre were Sean’s statements about David and Komel dying on their own terms, “Truth is David, Komel and Rani are dead. They died on their own terms…They did everything how they wanted to insure no one would stop them and so no friends or fam would find the bodies.” I asked if he was trying to tell me this was a double suicide-murder, but he never elaborated on that statement.

Sean wasn’t the only one associated with the Gray State projects who claimed it was possible the deaths were a joint decision made by David and Komel Crowley. His irresponsible comments seem similar to the reported speculation Mason Hendricks told the Star Tribune, “Mason Hendricks, a close friend, said Crowley and his wife were amazingly close and in-tune and speculated that even their deaths had to have been a mutual decision.” Separately, Nick Ferraro quoted Mason Hendricks as saying, “I honestly believe — and this is all speculative — that this may have been a joint decision. He and Komel had a great relationship. They were like that couple that finishes each other’s sentences.”

On February 12th, 2015, someone posting as Mason Norsk Hest in the Justice for David Crowley & Family Facebook group wrote that the double murder-suicide was “terrible but poetic.” “I can tell you all this. David did it for certain. The father is meeting with the police this week and my friends Sean and Danny and Adam will be getting more info. David did this. That is 100% certain. It was not the illuminati or a government cover-up. It drives myself and his closest friends nuts to hear people speculate like this. No details need to be shared. There was no force, they all went together, it’s terrible but poetic. The whole thing is terrible and his brother Dan and I and our amazing friend Danny will be meeting with Komel’s sister soon to help her go through all of her sister’s stuff.”

Even though Mason Norsk Hest first stated, “I can tell you all this, David did it for certain,” it seems odd that he would also write, “There was no force, they all went together, it’s terrible but poetic” Even more confusing to me was one of the comments Mason Norsk Hest posted claiming, “It can still be joint if David used the gun.” Why would he state the murders could be a joint decision between David and Komel to end their lives and take their child with them even though David did the actual killings? It did not make sense to me, especially since the Hennepin Medical Examiner’s office listed Komel’s death as a homicide, not a suicide. A USA Today article mentioned Colin Prochnow using the word “they” when possibly referring to double murder-suicides in general, “You have something that happens like that next door and you don’t really know when it happened, and the little girl, why did they have to take the little girl with them when they do things like that?”

A few days after he contacted me on Facebook, Sean Wright called me, still trying to convince me to “free myself” from this case. Apparently, he didn’t have David Crowley’s phone number but he had mine, and I hadn’t talked to Sean in over a year or two. Even though I’ve never stated I believe David Crowley and his family were murdered by the government, Sean still felt it necessary to remind me that this wasn’t a government hit. He also told me “the property of Gray State was ours. It’s copyrighted. That’s why the videos keep getting pulled down, because we keep reporting it’s a copyright…you guys keep goin’ this route DHS and FBI’s gonna be on you. You don’t need that.” Again, I’m asked to “back off from it all.” Sean also told me he was probably one of the last people to see the Crowley family alive.

All I asked for was evidence that David was guilty, but Sean could not provide any. He did tell me, “I’m just givin’ you a call out of respect to see if you could just free yourself in this situation before it gets worse.” Asking questions will not make the situation worse and that’s all I will continue to do until I find the facts that prove David Crowley killed his wife, his daughter, and himself. If police have enough evidence to tell family, friends and local media David Crowley was guilty, how long will it be until authorities tell the general public the details of their theory? I still do not understand why Sean would try and discourage me from asking simple questions about the alleged double murder-suicide. It makes no sense to me.

There is also no reason for authorities to keep their findings from the public once their investigation has ended. I’m not concerned about being under a microscope. The gray shame has been exposed from my point of view. Any one trying to intimidate me or trying to steer myself and others away from this case should be ashamed of themselves. It’s a shame that some people want me and other researchers to steer clear of any notion of foul-play involved in this case. I will consider the possibility that David Crowley is guilty and I also will consider the possibility that he is not. I will continue to let the facts guide me towards the truth. It is now the responsibility of the Apple Valley Police Department to solve this case, based on facts.

Infowars.com reporter Joe Biggs was interviewed by Weaponized News.com on January 24th, 2015, “Right now it’s one of those things that’s up in the air,” Biggs said during the interview. “I’m looking into it as well, among many other things. When something like this happens, the first thing I do is I try to look on people’s Facebook pages…so I try to find the friends of the people, I add them, and then I look to see if there have been any posts. When you do research like that, you’ll see, over the past few days, all I’ve seen are people going like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve known this guy forever. He’s not someone who could have ever done this. This is mind blowing’…you also think about, they started this film like three years ago. They did some kind of crowd-fund thing or whatever. They raised $60,000 and ever since the trailer came out, there’s been nothing done. So for two years, production’s completely pretty much stopped from what I’ve heard and there’s been nothing done with it. So, did they stop making the movie and just start living off that money that was raised and then they ran out of money and he lost his mind? Or what else is there? There’s so many things that could have happened. Like I said, it’s so early into it. There was a leak of the documentary…and that was going to be used to raise more money to finish the actual feature film, Gray State.”

The next day on the Alex Jones Show, a caller named Rick asked Alex about the case, “I wanted you to let everybody know about David Crowley’s’ execution, the creator of the Gray State.” Alex Jones responded to the caller, “Well we did cover that last week and it looks like another assassination of somebody in the media. Just like the prosecutor in Argentina who said they’re trying to kill me, I’m about to give a speech in two hours proving that the President carried out staged bombings, and he was, now they admit, murdered.” Rick steers the conversation back towards David Crowley, “He was executed. He was shot in the head, all three of them; him and his wife and his daughter.” “I know,” said Alex Jones, “and so was the prosecutor, and the President said it was a conspiracy theory, but now they admit he was murdered, the prosecutor. A lot of people are getting killed right now…they’re just murdering people.”

In an interview released on January 27th, 2015, Ben Swann asked Gray State co-creator Danny Mason if David Crowley ever displayed symptoms or signs of PTSD over the years. Danny Mason responded, “Nothing that would, I guess, constructually fit the bill for diagnosis of PTSD. Not in the form with David, and that could have been masked with his creativity on it. Hindsight’s always 20/20 and especially in a moment like this. And I think to label that right away that [PTSD] was the sole cause of it, I don’t, personally I know that he mentioned that he did suffer from some forms of PTSD and I think that all of us, in some shape or form, could actually I guess in some form of diagnosis, have that…but nothing to the extent that…it’s black and white, he flipped out and kinda lost his mind. That diagnosis to explain the tragic events just doesn’t fit with it…there wasn’t really any kind of red flags that kind of went off that we should be really concerned about.” Separately, Mitch Heil “never saw signs of PTSD. He was not a crazed gun nut.”

Did Danny Mason and David Crowley ever have the “I won’t kill myself” conversation? “We’ve had that conversation early on, on it,” Danny Mason told Ben Swann, “and this is when, but then there was a period when David started putting distance between his friends and his family, on it…I know that he was going through a personal transition and I don’t know if he was battling a lot of the bigger…questions on spiritualism and his placement within society, and also as a film maker. So I don’t know that part, but the discussions that we had before, I know that he wouldn’t be suicidal ‘cause David was one of the strongest guys I’ve ever met before in my life; not only intellectually, but just physically, all around.”

“Truth is the truth and it will never die. You can’t destroy truth, ok. No matter what you do.” – Danny Mason

Three months after the bodies were found, we are still waiting for any evidence that proves David Crowley is guilty as accused. The Apple Valley Police Department will not release any evidence or discuss the case with me as long as the investigation is still on-going. Sgt. Jim Gummert promised he would respond to my list of questions once the investigation is complete.

One of the saddest turn of events throughout this case is the silence of many within the alternative media. I would like to personally thank Disaster Survival Magazine, 21st Century Wire, and the hosts of Wake Up To The Truth, Mike Serour and Eric Wilkinson for their continual interest and investigations into this case, and specifically for asking the questions that will help us all get to the truth. I would also like to thank everyone above ground and everyone underground who are following this case with an open-mind. We will find the facts.

The gray shame continues with each attempt to convince people that David Crowley is guilty without providing evidence. That is the true gray shame here. People can label me a conspiracy theorist because I choose to ask questions about this case instead of trusting the official theory is accurate without proof. Such accusations will always remind me of what David Crowley said back in 2012, “It’s no longer the conspirator or the conspiracy theorists who have to prove themselves because everything is so out in the open now.”

Greg Fernandez Jr.

(originally posted in Disaster Survival Magazine)

David Crowley – Unanswered Questions

Did David Crowley murder his wife and daughter before killing himself? Apple Valley Police Captain John Bermel believes so and is working to establish a timeline of events that led up to the alleged double murder-suicide. Within a day of finding the bodies inside the Crowley home, police were telling local media outlets they were investigating the case as a double murder-suicide. We will continue to reach out to the Apple Valley police officers involved in this case, in hopes of understanding what led them to rule this as a double murder-suicide so early into the investigation.

No Signs of A Joint Decision To End Their Lives

Despite what one person close to David Crowley speculated about David and Komel “dying on their own terms” and how “they did everything how they wanted to insure no one would stop them and so no friends or fam would find the bodies,” police have not revealed any evidence to suggest Komel Crowley died on her own terms. This irresponsible comment made by Sean Wright seems similar to the reported speculation Mason Hendricks made to the media. Star Tribune reported, “Mason Hendricks, a close friend, said Crowley and his wife amazingly close and in-tune and speculated that even their deaths had to have been a mutual decision.” A TwinCities.com article by Nick Ferraro has the direct quote from Mason Hendricks, “I honestly believe — and this is all speculative — that this may have been a joint decision. He and Komel had a great relationship. They were like that couple that finishes each other’s sentences.”

A USA Today article mentions Colin Prochnow using the word “they” when possibly referring to double murder-suicides in general, “You have something that happens like that next door and you don’t really know when it happened, and the little girl, why did they have to take the little girl with them when they do things like that?”

More recently, someone posting as Mason Norsk Hest in the Justice For David Crowley & Family Facebook group wrote that the double murder-suicide was “terrible but poetic” before removing the post.

Even though Mason Norsk Hest first states, “I can tell you all this, David did it for certain,” adding he’s 100% certain, he also wrote, “They all went together, it’s terrible but poetic.”

Even more confusing to me is one of the comments Mason Norsk Hest posted when asked if he thinks it was a joint decision between David and Komel to kill themselves and their child, “It can still be joint if David used the gun.”

The Hennepin Medical Examiner’s office stated in a press release that Komel Crowley’s death is listed as a homicide.

Admin Access to Justice For David Crowley & Family Facebook Group

On Wake Up To The Truth with Mike Serour and Eric Wilkinson on March 3rd, 2015, Dan Hennen explained why he started the Justice For David Crowley & Family Facebook group, as well as the requests for admin access to his group. “When I first heard about the story,” Dan Hennen began, “my first search on Facebook was to search for a justice page or something to do with the family to get up-to-speed with the story. When I found that there wasn’t any, I decided to create one and start throwing in some of the articles, some links to the various articles, to have a spot as a forum for people to come and get information and gather information. I was just setting it up by myself, just as the owner of the page, and then after I did another search, after when I was done, I saw that there was another one up done by Thomas Lapp…his is actually a page and mine is a group. So they’re different in that aspect. So he set his up, and it wasn’t until the 19th [of January] that we started getting the requests for rights to the page; and I didn’t get any at first at all. But when corresponding with Thomas Lapp is when we started to get the admin rights [request] coming in from various people, and they all seemed to be from the Gray State team; which is fine. We thought it was odd because they’re going through the grief…the last thing they’d be doing is searching on the web and wanting to type and write things but they wanted administrator rights to moderate. So that was the first thing. When it got a little goofy is when Thomas Lapp shot me an instant message by saying ‘I’m getting a lot of requests for administration rights and full access rights. Just be on the lookout if that comes your way,’ and just to be prepared. He didn’t tell me how to handle it, or what to do, he just says, ‘Just FYI.’ Gave the 411 that this might be coming on the path. I said well that certainly seems odd but, and then he said it went from being admins to full rights and then once he did grant one person admin rights, a bunch of threads were soon deleted. So that didn’t go over. Being an admin is one thing…but Thomas wasn’t too happy then when he found out that a hand-full of threads were deleted…so he had a bunch of requests that came in to be the administrator…Mike Paczesny, at the same time, while this was all going on, uploaded that YouTube video of [Gray State: The Rise] the rough cut, which really threw things into disarray because the Gray State was trying to put out that fire at the same time. They were trying to pull that down and deal with Paczesny, who evidently went rogue and just decided to publish it. But at the same time we were…trying to work with the Gray State team to get together a conference call for the next day to get it to go public. Brendon Jay spent a lengthy phone call – he’s from the Gray State team – Brendan Jay has been very good dealing with Thomas Lapp…they were putting together a conference call and invited me to get on too and wanted to get the three of us, the two pages and the Gray State team to get together and put our heads together and see what would be the best way to either put together a video or a YouTube or something to get it out there at the nation-wide level to really expose this case…I think it was when Joe Hagmann got involved, he suggested even doing it for the show for that very night, if you bump it back an hour. Instead of doing a conference call, you guys can just call in live on the Hagmann and Hagmann internet radio show and we can get this out there to a much broader audience. So we had agreed to do that for a 10 p.m. eastern-time show and everything was good. At that time, I believe the Gray State guys were putting out the fire of the rough-cut documentary. Then at 8:49 p.m. I get a contact from Thomas Lapp that says the show’s been canceled; and he mentions that things have “gotten weird.” So he said the show’s canceled. I’m not sure what’s going on now…it was at that point that Sean Wright – from the Gray State team – now was demanding full admin rights, and said, and threatened he’ll terminate the page if he wasn’t granted those rights, and he’ll get it shut down, he’ll delete the entire thing. So, it went from asking for rights to help moderate a page to terminating, to deleting the page…then I got hit…with the requests for administration rights to my page, and I said no that’s fine, I’ll just keep it going here myself. I might need a moderator or two to help bring people in but I don’t want to give up the admin rights. Certainly, after what’s happened here the other day to the previous page. So, it really got nasty at that point. That was on January 20th, the evening…the bodies were found on the 17th, and the Gray State announced the deaths on the 18th. This is two days later, which I keep putting myself in that situation, if a close friend or a business worker, or a co-worker of mine [died], would I be on the internet two days later looking for admin rights? I don’t even think I would be on the internet…it was after that declining the admin rights to be able to give to the Gray State guys is when it all went downhill. It was surprising for Thomas and I because it was less than 24 hours…everything was going well. Information was getting out there. Brendan Jay said from the beginning, he’s like, I don’t buy it. I don’t buy this official story one iota…but then a hand-full of guys from Gray State say no, this isn’t the case. They wanted to steer, they didn’t want conspiracy theories out there surrounding David Crowley…”

Is Infowars.com Investigating This Privately?

Infowars.com reporter Joe Biggs was interviewed by Weaponized News.com on January 24, 2015 and stated, “Right now it’s one of those things that’s up in the air. I’m looking into it as well, among many other things. When something like this happens, the first thing I do is I try to look on people’s Facebook pages…so I try to find the friends of the people, I add them, and then I look to see if there have been any posts. When you do research like that, you’ll see, over the past few days, all I’ve seen are people going like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve known this guy forever. He’s not someone who could have ever done this. This is mind blowing’…you also think about, they started this film like three years ago. They did some kind of crowd fund thing or whatever. They raised sixty-thousand dollars and ever since the trailer came out, there’s been nothing done. So for two years, production’s completely pretty much stopped from what I’ve heard and there’s been nothing done with it. So did they stop making the movie and just start living off that money that was raised? And then they ran out of money and he lost his mind? Or what else is there? There’s so many things that could have happened. Like I said, it’s so early into it. There was a leak of the documentary…and that was going to be used to raise more money to finish the actual feature film, Gray State.”

On January 25, 2015, A caller mentioned David Crowley’s death on the Alex Jones show:

Rick: (in Wisconsin, January 25th, 2015. At 1:04:00) “I wanted you to let everybody know about David Crowleys’ execution, the creator of the Gray State.”

Alex Jones: “Well we did cover that last week and it looks like another assassination of somebody in the media. Just like the prosecutor in Argentina who said they’re trying to kill me, I’m about to give a speech in two hours proving that the President carried out staged bombings, and he was, now they admit, murdered.”

Rick: “He was executed. He was shot in the head, all three of them. Him and his wife and his daughter.”

Alex Jones: “I know, and so was the prosecutor. And the President said it was a conspiracy theory, but now they admit he was murdered, the prosecutor. A lot of people are getting killed right now…they’re just murdering people.”

Until the Apple Valley Police Department are able to prove their theory, that David Crowley killed his wife and 5 year old daughter before killing himself, questions will continue to be asked by the public.

The video below includes highlights from the timeline of events (draft 2) created by Dan Hennen; including information provided by (the presumed) Sidrah Alam, Komel Crowley’s sister. Also included is the post made by Mason Norsk Hest in the Justice For David Crowley & Family facebook group, who calls the deaths terrible but poetic and speculates on a mutual decision made by David and Komel to end their lives and take their child with them.

Visit the Justice For David Crowley & Family group on Facebook for more information or to share your thoughts on this case. For more information on this case, read 21st Century News Wire’s article, SHADES OF GRAY: Tragic Deaths of ‘Gray State’ Filmmaker David Crowley & Family Still a Mystery.

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