Rachel Buffet’s case - A detailed case overview ahead of Dateline

Dateline revisits the Orange County double-murder plot that put actor Daniel Wozniak on death row and pushed his then-fiancée, Rachel Buffett, into a separate criminal case. The episode tracks how investigators moved from a missing-person lead to two homicide files and a parallel accessory case tied to post-crime statements.

A re-air on Oxygen is set for Friday, September 19. Two back-to-back Dateline episodes titled Plot Twist are listed at 3:00 am and 4:00 am ET. Local schedules can vary by provider.

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A detailed case overview ahead of Dateline

Julie Kibuishi was found shot inside Sam Herr’s Costa Mesa apartment during the initial response (Image via Pexels)

In May 2010, Sam Herr was shot at the Liberty Theater at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base, and Julie Kibuishi was shot in Herr’s Costa Mesa apartment. The investigation opened with Kibuishi being found shot in Herr’s apartment, and Herr was listed as missing.

Detectives later recovered Herr’s torso in the Liberty Theater attic at Los Alamitos and other remains at El Dorado Nature Center in Long Beach after a confession led search teams to those sites.

ATM withdrawals traced through a teenager led detectives to Daniel Wozniak (Image via Pexels)

Police linked ATM withdrawals from Herr’s account to a teenager who claimed Wozniak sent him to make the cash withdrawals. That break moved the focus onto Wozniak, who was detained at his bachelor party and interviewed about the banking activity and the texts sent from Herr’s phone.

After changing accounts in interviews, Wozniak ultimately admitted he shot Herr at the Liberty Theater and later shot Kibuishi to stage a diversion. He described staging to make it appear Herr had fled after harming Kibuishi, while he tried to access Herr’s savings. According to ABC News (May 2019), investigators said financial motive sat at the center of the case.

A jury convicted Wozniak of two counts of first-degree murder in 2015. The court imposed a death sentence in 2016. California announced a moratorium on executions in 2019, so the sentence remains in place while he serves time in state custody. ABC7 covered the penalty arguments at the close of the case, citing the prosecution’s money motive.

Jury convicts Wozniak of two counts of first-degree murder in 2015 (Image via Pexels)

Also read: Luke Homan's case - A detailed case overview about the 2006 murder ahead of Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice

Rachel Buffett’s criminal exposure came later and on a different track. Prosecutors said she lied to investigators during the early timeline, including statements about who was seen with Herr and what she knew about evidence after Wozniak’s arrest. A jury found Buffett guilty of two counts of being an accessory after the fact, tied to false statements given in separate interviews.

Sentencing followed in November 2018. The court imposed a 32-month jail term, crediting time served and conduct credits in accordance with local rules. The judge stated that the lies demonstrated planning and minimized the seriousness of the underlying crimes, as reported by the Los Angeles Times (November 2018).

The Orange County Register’s coverage of the same hearing added context to the families’ statements in court and the prosecution’s view that Buffett’s false accounts delayed the resolution that the victims’ relatives sought.

For completeness, prior broadcasts included interviews where Buffett denied prior knowledge of the killings. People reported her conviction and the allegation that she gave multiple inconsistent statements during the investigation.

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Where to watch Dateline

Oxygen lists two re-airs of Dateline Plot Twist on Friday, September 19, at 3:00 am and 4:00 am ET. Both are branded Dateline episodes and appear as Season 3 entries in the Oxygen schedule block.

Beyond the live slot, Dateline NBC streams on Peacock Premium, Peacock Premium Plus, fuboTV, and NBC, and with ads on The Roku Channel. Episodes are also available on Spectrum On Demand. Availability can vary by market and plan.

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Also read: Nicole Pietz's case - A detailed case overview ahead of Dateline

Edited by Preethika Vijayakumar