Francis Wolke moved across the country to Silicon Valley with a dream – to join the ranks of the wealthy elite.
But instead the 30-year-old computer programmer went down a dark path and his name would become synonymous with one of the most gruesome murders in Bay Area memory.
On December 12, 2018, police found Wolke inside the Menlo Park home of 62-year-old Kathleen “Kathy” Hughes Anderson. The longtime arborist for the town of Atherton lay nearly decapitated in the basement with a ballpoint pen lodged in her eye.
Wolke, covered in blood, admitted to killing her. He later told investigators he believed he had to commit the murder and consume human flesh in order to join the “1%” and stay young forever.
That chilling claim, and the twisted journey that led Wolke from Cincinnati to California, is at the center of the first episode of The Tech Bro Murders, a new Investigation Discovery docuseries premiering Tuesday, September 9 at 10 p.m. ET /9 p.m. CT, with weekly episodes streaming on HBO Max.
A brutal crime with bizarre motives
The first episode of The Tech Bro Murders brings viewers directly into the crime scene through the eyes of Daniel Baggett, Anderson’s friend whom she dated after her husband’s death in 2007.
On the night of her murder, Baggett said he felt something pulling him to her house. When Anderson didn’t respond to his calls, Baggett decided to check on her. What he found has haunted him ever since – Wolke in Anderson’s house, covered in her blood.
According to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office, Wolke tried to strangle Anderson and when that didn’t work, he jabbed a pen into her eye and used a handsaw on her that nearly decapitated her.
He was interrupted by Baggett, who held him at knifepoint until police arrived. When police arrived, they found both men inside and placed them both under arrest.
Retired Palo Alto PD detective Sandra Brown, who appears on the docuseries to unpack the twisted cases, explains that finding two men holding knives at each other meant they were left asking: who was the killer?
One man had a previous relationship with her, but there was no known relationship or prior contact between Wolke and Anderson.
Wolke was quickly charged with the murder, and police believe Baggett’s presence at the home that night may have prevented Wolke from fleeing.
“He was the one who stopped Franis Wolke from getting away,” Brown said. “If Francis Wolke had gotten away, it’s possible we would’ve never found him.”
“I was never treated like a hero,” Baggett said with a shrug. “I just wish she was still here. I was just glad that I was able to do what I believe Kathy wanted me to do and that was to make sure he didn’t get away.”
“I believe what was pulling me to that house that night was her,” he added through tears.
Wolke pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and the dark motivations behind the murder began to come to light.
Wolke first moved from Cincinnati to Silicon Valley in 2014, with dreams of being the next Mark Zuckerberg. He had told his family that he had connections to important people in California.
He met Daniel Girshovich at a cryptocurrency convention and was invited to stay at his apartment. Girshovich later testified that Wolke was working on an operating system that would give users more control over their computers and spent all his time on it, rarely sleeping or eating.
He described Wolke as “eccentric, arrogant, stubborn, an extreme outlier,” due to his hostile behavior and his views on modern society, The Almanac reported. Tensions escalated in the shared apartment and Wolke was asked to move out after about six months.
Wolke was homeless for months before his parents sent him a bus ticket and he returned home for a short time. But just two days before the murder, he returned to California.
According to court testimony, on the night of the murder, Wolke was plagued by auditory hallucinations and delusions that the world’s wealthiest “1%” secretly maintained their power through ritual murder and cannibalism.
He told psychiatrists he wanted to become a “protein harvester,” believing he could join the elite by killing and consuming another human.
Wolke’s defense attorney Connie O’Brien told the court that Wolke had auditory hallucinations several times on the bus ride from Cincinnati back to the Bay Area.
He argued that Wolke was suffering from psychosis at the time of the murder and that he was unable to understand his behavior as morally wrong.
Dr. David Berke, a forensic psychologist who testified at the trial, said that Wolke believed “there exists a 1% of the population that kills people and eats their stem cells which gives them almost eternal youth,” and that “what he did would be approved of by the 1%.”
Berke also testified that Wolke stayed in Anderon’s home for hours after the murder and even took a nap – which meant that he did not fully understand the gravity of his actions, he said.
After a jury found Wolke guilty of murder, San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Garratt sentenced him to 26 years to life term with more than 1,600 days credit for time served, saying that the murder Wolke committed is “every woman’s worst nightmare.”
Investigation Discovery’s The Tech Bro Murders premieres Tuesday, September 9 at 10/9c, with new episodes airing weekly. Episodes will be available to stream on HBO Max.
