New Podcast Investigates Malibu Creek Shootings

MALIBU, CA — “Lost Hills” is a phrase heard often in Malibu, as common as “PCH” or “Las Tunas.” But when it’s the title of a true crime podcast covering both the police station and its reported failure to investigate a gruesome crime in those “lost hills”, the phrase suddenly becomes eerie, menacing, tragic.

That podcast, an eight-part series hosted by New Yorker writer Dana Goodyear, premieres Tuesday. It is based on Goodyear’s reporting of the 2018 shooting of 35-year-old scientist Tristan Beaudette, who was killed in Malibu Creek State Park in front of his two young daughters. There were no witnesses, but after Beaudette’s death, people started coming forward with stories of being shot at or near the same campground. Beaudette’s widow, Erica Wu, is now suing the Lost Hills Station for $90 million for allegedly failing to warn the public about the prior shootings at the campground.

Lost Hills Sheriff’s deputies arrested a drifter named Anthony Rauda, who claimed he was being framed, and still protests his arrest. Who is really responsible? Is there a serial sniper in Malibu? Could the police have prevented this?

The podcast features interviews with family members of Rauda and Baudette, a retired Lost Hills detective, and victims of the other shootings. The podcast claims it will “uncover secrets kept by law enforcement, new details about the crimes, and even smoking gun evidence missed by deputies that could prove to be the determining factor in this case.”

Goodyear, who also wrote an extensive piece for The New Yorker, has been covering California life for the magazine since 2005.

"Lost Hills" is produced by Western Sound and Malcolm Gladwell’s audio network Pushkin Industries and is available on Apple Podcasts or wherever listeners access podcasts.