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Rachel Buffett’s former friend recalls disturbing remark before double murder

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A month before Juri “Julie” Kibuishi and Samuel Herr were murdered, Rachel Buffett was planning her bachelorette party when she encouraged a former friend to take ecstasy, according to the woman, Audrey.”Well, if I slipped it in your drink, you wouldn’t know about it,” Buffett told her, Audrey claimed.Audrey, who also recounts the exchange in the Investigation Discovery true-crime series, “A Killer Among Friends,” said it was the last straw.SLAIN DAD’S DAUGHTER KNEW ‘BLACK SWAN’ EX-BALLERINA SHOT HIM AFTER ONE CALL: ‘SHE KILLED HIM, DIDN’T SHE?’ Rachel Buffett, the former fiancée of convicted killer Daniel Wozniak, looks and listens along with her attorney David Medina (right) as Junko Kibuishi, the mother of murder victim Julie Kibuishi, speaks in Orange County Superior Court just prior to sentencing in Santa Ana on Nov. 8, 2018. Buffett was sentenced by Orange County Superior Court Judge Sheila Hanson to two years and eight months in jail for accessory after the fact. (Orange County Register)”When Rachel and [her fiancé] would get mad at each other, and they were drunk, they’d yell at everyone,” Audrey recalled to Fox News Digital. “Of course, he’s yelled at me when he was drunk before. But it wasn’t until that night that I decided to end our friendship.”Audrey said Buffett’s remark about secretly drugging her didn’t feel like an empty threat.”I really believed Rachel would have drugged me at her bachelorette party because she thought it would be fun,” she said. Audrey, a former friend of Rachel Buffett’s, speaks out in the episode “Staging a Murder” premiering Aug. 10, 2026, at 9 p.m. on ID. (Investigation Discovery)Audrey walked away from the friendship. Buffett later reached out by text, inviting Audrey to be a bridesmaid and asking if she could come over.About a month after Audrey ended the friendship, Kibuishi was found shot to death in Herr’s apartment, while Herr was missing.Buffett, an actress, was not accused of carrying out the murders or helping her then-fiancé, Daniel Wozniak, commit them. In 2018, an Orange County, California, jury found her guilty of two felony counts of being an accessory after the fact after prosecutors accused her of lying to and misleading investigators.FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X Rachel Buffett is the ex-fiancée of Southern California man Daniel Wozniak, who’s on death row for a double-murder. (Investigation Discovery)Fox News Digital reached out to Buffett for comment about Audrey’s allegations. The case is explored in the episode “Staging a Murder” airing Aug. 10.”Rachel and Dan loved each other, but they also got on each other’s nerves,” said Audrey. “It was fine when they were sober, but then when they got drunk, they were always more aggressive. They would argue and fight. I remember one time when he was drunk, I yelled ‘F— you’ to him, and I threw my shoe at him, hitting him in the back.” Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy alleged Rachel Buffett “lied, dodged questions and changed her story” while being interviewed by detectives who believed Daniel Wozniak was involved in two slayings. (Investigation Discovery)Audrey’s friendship with the couple wasn’t always tumultuous. She met Buffett in college while they were studying theater.”I just remember her being fun and bubbly,” said Audrey. “I thought, ‘That’s the type of person I want to hang out with.'”At a party, she crossed paths with mutual friends Kibuishi, a dancer, and Herr, a U.S. Army veteran.SIGN UP TO GET THE TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTER Sam Herr was murdered on May 21, 2010. He was 26. (Investigation Discovery)”I just remember them being delightful, funny, warm and loving,” said Audrey. “They were good people. You could tell they were good people.”The buzz among the friend group was Buffett’s engagement to Wozniak, a community theater actor. They planned to get married on May 28, 2010. A week before the wedding, Kibuishi and Herr were killed.Herr’s father, Steve Herr, became worried because his son wasn’t answering his phone and had failed to show up for a planned visit. He went to his son’s apartment and let himself in. Everything appeared normal until he reached the bedroom and discovered Kibuishi’s body. She was partially clothed and had been shot in the head. Herr was missing. Steve Herr, Sam Herr’s father, is interviewed in ID’s “A Killer Among Friends.” (Investigation Discovery)”By then, I wasn’t invited to the wedding because I stopped being friends with Rachel and Dan,” said Audrey. “I told her I didn’t want to be in the wedding. But when I heard the news, I was so confused. My brain couldn’t wrap around the idea of what happened.””I thought, ‘What did they get themselves mixed up in?’” said Audrey. “Maybe they got drunk. Maybe they got blackout drunk.” Wesley Freilich, who knew Daniel Wozniak, spoke out about the case. (Investigation Discovery)At first, police thought Herr had killed Kibuishi before fleeing. But that theory began to unravel when investigators discovered someone was still withdrawing money from Herr’s bank account.GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB Raquel Herr, the mother of murder victim Samuel Herr, embraces Junko Kibuishi, the mother of murder victim Julie Kibuishi, outside the courtroom after Orange County Superior Court Judge Sheila Hanson sentenced Rachel Buffett, the former fiancée of convicted killer Daniel Wozniak, to two years and eight months in jail for accessory after the fact in Santa Ana, Calif., on Nov. 8, 2018. (Staff Photographer)Police traced the transactions to teenager Wesley Freilich, who told investigators that Wozniak had given him Herr’s ATM card and instructed him to withdraw money. Police arrested Wozniak at his bachelor party. After repeatedly changing his story during questioning, Wozniak confessed. Asked why he committed the murders, he replied, “Money and insanity.” Daniel Wozniak tried to frame victim Sam Herr (pictured here), for Julie Kibuishi’s murder. (Investigation Discovery)”From what I found out, he was racking up tons of credit card debt,” said Audrey. “That’s a poor excuse. There’s no excuse to do what he did.”Despite their falling out, Audrey said she called Buffett after Wozniak’s arrest. Actress Rachel Buffett told NBC’s “Dateline” after her ex-fiancé’s arrest that she was innocent. (MediaNews Group via Getty Images)”Even though I had completely lost trust in her as a human, I was still expressing sorrow for the difficult hardship she must have been going through, knowing that the love of her life that she was going to marry and spend the rest of her life with did something atrocious,” she said.”It’s a life-shattering thing to have happened. But then she responded, ‘You just want to talk to me because you want your five minutes of fame. You don’t really care about me.’” Junko Kibuishi, mother of murder victim Julie Kibuishi, speaks in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, California, on Nov. 8, 2018. (Mark Rightmire/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)”Is that what you are thinking right now?” said Audrey. “It was mind-boggling. There was such a disconnect. I was completely taken aback by that reaction. To me, that is not the reaction of a woman who just found out her fiancé was a murderer.”CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP In 2010, a week before Rachel Buffett and Dan Wozniak were supposed to get married, authorities said Wozniak killed and dismembered 26-year-old Samuel Herr of Costa Mesa. Wozniak also shot Herr’s friend, 23-year-old Julie Kibuishi. (Investigation Discovery)Buffett has maintained that she had no advance knowledge of the murders.”We were close for so many years,” said Audrey. “No matter what I thought, I was still going to treat her like a human being. At that point, it had only been a few months since we ended our friendship.” Daniel Wozniak was sentenced to death in 2016 for the double murder of Samuel Herr and Juri “Julie” Kibuishi. (Investigation Discovery)SIGN UP TO GET THE LATEST TRUE CRIME NEWSProsecutors said Wozniak killed and dismembered Herr as part of a plot to steal $62,000 he had saved from his military service. They said Wozniak then killed Kibuishi and tried to frame Herr for her murder. Hours after killing Herr, Wozniak performed in the musical “Nine” at a community theater. Orange County Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy speaks during a news conference as Steve and Raquel Herr, parents of murder victim Samuel Herr, listen after Orange County Superior Court Judge Sheila Hanson sentenced Rachel Buffett to two years and eight months in jail for accessory after the fact in Santa Ana, California, on Nov. 8, 2018. (Staff Photographer)”I’m innocent, and that’s what hurts me most in this whole situation is they’re trying to say I’m something I’m not,” Buffett told NBC’s “Dateline.”In 2012, Buffett was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory after the fact. Prosecutors later said she lied to police and misled investigators while trying to protect Wozniak. Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy said Google searches from Daniel Wozniak’s computer in 2010 showed queries like “how load shotgun” and “how to hide a body.” (Investigation Discovery)LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MOREWozniak was sentenced to death in 2016. In 2018, Buffett was sentenced to 32 months in jail following her conviction on two felony counts of being an accessory after the fact.RETIRED LAPD DETECTIVE SAYS SCOTT PETERSON DESERVES A NEW TRIAL, CLAIMS POLICE OVERLOOKED CRITICAL WITNESSES Rachel Buffett sits in superior court with her attorney David Medina during opening statements in her trial on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Santa Ana, California. (MediaNews Group via Getty Images)GOT A TIP?Audrey said she still wonders who sent the text messages she received from Buffett’s phone after their friendship ended.LISTEN TO THE NEW ‘CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO’ PODCAST”Were they really from her? Or did Dan use her phone? I don’t know.”GET BREAKING NEWS BY EMAILThe experience also changed how Audrey chooses her friends. Audrey told Fox News Digital this was her first on-camera interview about the case involving Dan Wozniak and Rachel Buffett. (© 2026 Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. or its subsidiaries and affiliates. All rights reserved.)SEND US A TIP”It’s OK to be nice and respectful to people without inviting them into your life,” she said. “I [remember] the quote from ‘Into the Woods’: ‘Nice is different than good.’ And I think that is something to think about when you’re out there making friends. Nice is different than good.” Stephanie Nolasco is an Entertainment Reporter for Fox News Digital.

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