Beautiful and athletic, Lisa Berlanger grew up in a tight-knit religious family in Midland, Texas. A wonderful, sweet, nice person with a nice family. From a young age, Lisa knew two things: one, that she wanted to serve others, and two, that she was gay. Lisa would eventually find happiness in both areas of her life.
Enlisting in the US Coast Guard and falling in love with fellow petty officer Anna Trubnikova, her soon-to-be wife.
But being gay in the military came with its challenges. At that time, it was still “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
So, to a particular degree, they kept the fact hidden.
After serving in California and Louisiana, Lisa was sent to a very different climate — the frozen tundra of Kodiak, Alaska.
Her new boss: Adrian Loya.
Adrian Loya grew up in Texas, where he attended high school before enlisting in the Coast Guard as an information technology specialist.
“He was a Coast Guardsman through and through. He did a fine job at it.”
Lisa and Loya became fast friends. They did things together, whether it be watching television shows, playing video games, even spending holidays together.
The Thanksgiving before Lisa married Anna, Lisa invited Adrian to join them at Thanksgiving dinner.
“So Adrian met the family, broke bread with them, had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.”
Months later, the happy couple tied the knot.
But Anna made it clear she wasn’t keen on sharing her new wife with Adrian Loya.
“Anna couldn’t really accept their friendship.”
Despite Anna’s feelings about Loya, he and Lisa remained co-workers and friends.
And one night, while Anna was out of town, Lisa invited Loya over to watch TV and a bit more.
When Loya arrived, he realized that Lisa had been drinking.
“She made a move on him and tried to kiss him. It made him very uncomfortable.”
“She eventually went into her bedroom and he heard a thump. He went to check on her and she again made a sexual advance at him.”
“Lisa sits down on the bed and says to her buddy, ‘Why don’t you come to bed with me, Adrian?’”
“And I believe she even reached out and touched him on the arm.”
“From that point on, he believed that he was sexually assaulted by her.”
Sexually assaulted?
A misunderstanding, right? Or an awkwardly drunken night between friends?
Not for Loya.
A month or two passed, and he wrote her a long email saying what she had inflicted on him.
“I believe it was 26 pages.”
She didn’t immediately respond, but what did he do?
He sent the email to poor Anna.
Lisa told Adrian:
“Stay away from us. We don’t want you anywhere near our lives.”
Adrian took it even a step further.
He went to the authorities and told Coast Guard investigators what had transpired that night.
“The Coast Guard found that he shouldn’t have been in that situation because he was Lisa’s superior, and both of them were reprimanded.”
Months later, Loya was transferred to a base in Portsmouth, Virginia.
Lisa and Anna eventually relocated near Bourne, Massachusetts.
All had gotten on with their lives.
Or had they?
Turns out, while the women had put Loya in their rearview mirror, Loya’s issues surrounding Lisa and the alleged sexual assault seemed to be following him into the future.
“A disciplinary letter was put in his file.”
“When he transferred to Virginia, his new boss brought up the incident and he felt that it caused him to lose a promotion.”
Feeling violated and defamed, Loya was now on a mission, needing to right a wrong, dedicating himself to one thing: taking out the evil that had infiltrated his life.
The evil?
Lisa Trubnikova.
“She must receive her day like he did.”
“He was victimized. It was time for her to be victimized.”
Not just victimized.
Dead.
“Revenge is the motivating factor.”
“United States Coast Guardsman Adrian Loya is out for blood — Lisa Trubnikova’s blood.”
“He wanted Lisa to die, and it was based on the alleged sexual assault.”
Loya wrote about his obsessive thoughts and feelings about Lisa.
It was a blueprint for murder.
He called it “Loya War.”
“Loya Wars is a 250-page manifesto describing Loya’s relationship with Lisa and why he wanted to kill her.”
In the last chapter, entitled “Operation Purple Rebel,” Loya wrote a 13-point plan of how he would get his revenge.
“Detailing the mission as a basic assassination mission.”
“‘Confront Lisa any way I can and terminate her.’”
“‘Make sure Lisa knows that it’s I taking her life and why.’”
“‘This should be very interesting how it actually plays out. I am excited.’”
The plan that he had written out in his manifesto really started taking shape that October.
As the autumn leaves were falling, Loya, armed with Lisa and Anna’s home address, drove 10 hours from his home in Chesapeake, Virginia, to theirs in Bourne, Massachusetts.
He was doing a dry run.
“So October, he does reconnaissance.”
“He even set up these cameras outside — hunting cameras, some refer to them as — to verify that the two women lived there.”
They did.
In one video, Lisa was seen taking their dog out for a walk, and in two others, Lisa and Anna were seen leaving the house together.
But for Loya, there was still more to do, including casing the women’s neighborhood and recording it all on video.
“He needed to see where he was going to be fighting, his vantage points.”
While driving, Loya had a panic attack.
He turned the camera around to record it in real time.
“All right, I’m gonna pull over. I was having…”
“Ooh… I’m having a… I don’t know…”
“I got a panic attack. I started hyperventilating.”
“I feel paralyzed. I can’t move.”
Then he pulled over to say more.
“It was bad.”
“My whole body was tingling. A weird tingling sensation.”
“I realized I was getting into an accident or something.”
“I wasn’t able to control the car anymore.”
“So I slowed down, pulled off to the side of the road, turned on the hazards, and that’s why I started the video because I knew this was big and people need to know about it.”
“I guess also for my records, to see what happens.”
“This helped out a lot.”
“Walking out, it’s really pretty out here. Looking gorgeous this time of year.”
“I’m going to start heading to the car.”
“So yeah, this is for myself. It’s for the investigators.”
“No more secrets like this.”
“Thank you for listening.”
Loya went home after that.
But just four months later, he was back in Bourne, ready to carry out his savage mission.
“Loya Wars” would come to fruition.
The day he had chosen?
His 31st birthday.
But first, under cover of darkness, Loya set up a camera again.
He needed confirmation Lisa and Anna were home.
“Then hours later, he took the camera down, went out to his car, played it on his laptop, verified they were in the home.”
Lisa and Anna were there, oblivious to what was happening right outside their door.
Oblivious to the horror that was about to come.
It was now 2:00 a.m.
Loya was prepared for battle.
“He was dressed in black tactical gear with a mask over his face.”
First, he employed several diversionary tactics, starting with a fire.
“Loya set his car on fire to block the entry to the condominium complex.”
“So now the car is on fire.”
“He sets up the boom box or stereo system outside of the vehicle.”
“The music playing? The theme from Star Wars.”
“Remember, this was good against evil.”
Loya was just getting started.
Next to that, he made what appeared to be an explosive device with a cell phone connected.
He set up another device a bit up the road.
As the neighborhood slept, a nightmare was unfolding.
He was now advancing on the condominium.
As Loya walked down the snowy street, he was armed with four guns, a knife, and two pairs of handcuffs, and he was wearing a body cam.
Loya wanted everything that was about to happen recorded.
He placed a .22 caliber rifle in the snowbanks near the house.
Then he walked up to Lisa and Anna’s front door.
Two shots were fired.
The door was breached.
“He made his way in.”
“There’s no lights on.”
“He went up the stairs and burst into Lisa and Anna’s bedroom.”
Moments later, multiple shots were fired.
Then there was silence.
A warning: what you are about to hear is incredibly graphic.
“911, this line is recorded.”
“911, how may I help you?”
“I love you. There’s a shooter. My wife and I are both shot.”
“Do you know who shot you?”
“Yes. His last name is Loya. He shot both of us, me and my wife.”
“What?”
“His name is Loya.”
“Is he related to you?”
“No, he’s in the Coast Guard.”
“He’s in the Coast Guard?”
“Yes.”
“Ma’am, okay, we got a report of two gunshot victims and a female on the phone asking for help.”
“Unknown on the male, last name Loya.”
“Do you have anything on the guy, Mike?”
“Negative, just a name.”
“And Loya, the one who shot you, where’s he at?”
“Why are you taking so long?”
“We’re on our way there, ma’am. We’re right down the street.”
“There’s a car fire. We’ve got to move the car out of the way to get to you.”
“Please hurry up.”
“We’re right down the street, ma’am. We’re on our way right now.”
“Seriously.”
Thirteen long minutes into the call:
“The male that shot you — he’s not in the house, is he?”
“All right, tell me about him. What does he look like?”
“He’s not making me talk.”
“Where’s he from?”
“From the Caymans.”
“He’s going to kill you.”
“Yeah, we’re coming as fast as we can get there.”
Then came the terrifying sounds of gunfire.
Heavily armed US Coast Guardsman Adrian Loya was carrying out his mission to kill.
He had burst into married fellow officers Lisa and Anna Trubnikova’s house, shooting them both.
“Is he still in the house?”
“I don’t know.”
“Ma’am, what’s that last name? Can you spell it for me?”
“L-O-Y-A.”
“And your first name, ma’am?”
“Anna.”
“Okay, Anna, we’re right there. We’re going to be right there.”
“Can you please hurry?”
Again, a warning: you are about to hear graphic details.
As Anna lay shot in the house, she had been on the phone with 911 for almost 20 minutes, desperate for help to arrive.
“Please.”
“Anna, we’re coming, all right?”
“Please.”
“Yes, we are.”
“Please.”
Not far away from Anna and Lisa was Bourne Police Patrolman Jared MacDonald.
But with Loya’s whereabouts unknown, getting to the women was hard.
“I really had no idea where the shooter was.”
“Be advised, we just had somebody run towards your location from the back of the building.”
“I was concerned of an ambush.”
Then, moments later:
“I hear gunshots.”
“Shots fired at the house.”
That was Officer MacDonald on the radio telling fellow officers he had been hit.
“I knew I had been shot almost instantaneously.”
“I heard the gunshots. I recognized the sound.”
“For a split second, I lost track of everything, but regained it quickly enough that I felt myself hit the ground.”
“My right leg didn’t work at all.”
“I had a strange feeling throughout my body.”
“So as quickly as possible, I pulled myself with my hands back behind the car for cover.”
“Anna, are you still there?”
“Yes, please.”
“Okay, hang on.”
“I’m breathing.”
“Hang on, now we got shots fired. One of our guys got hit. Jared got shot.”
“Once the shooting stopped, I remember trying to process everything and remembering how quiet everything was.”
In the silence, MacDonald holstered his gun.
But Officer Andrew Leisewitz, who was taking cover next to him, said:
“Take your gun back out. You’re still in the battle. It’s not over.”
By now, Anna had been on the phone an excruciating 36 minutes.
“I know where Lisa is. She’s right next to you.”
“Where is she shot?”
Lisa Trubnikova, Loya’s original target, had been shot 11 times and was dead.
And Anna was fighting for her life, lying next to her wife’s bullet-riddled body.
She was petrified Loya would return to finish the job.
“If he comes back, he might come back for me. Hurry.”
“He’s not going to come back, okay? We have plenty of officers in the area.”
Then, just minutes later, Adrian Loya appeared.
“He came walking down, and that’s when I heard them giving him commands.”
Loya laid his guns and body camera down and surrendered.
“That’s when they were able to take him into custody.”
“Okay, they have him in custody now, ma’am.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. They just told me.”
The rescue missions could resume.
Officer Nathan Montero jumped in to get his comrade to safety.
“He just immediately grabbed me and put me over his shoulder and ran up to the ambulance.”
Police were now just steps away from Anna, who had been on the phone with 911 for an unimaginable 53 minutes.
Her condition was getting more dire by the second.
“I can’t breathe.”
“Anna. Anna, keep talking to me.”
“I need somebody.”
Then, just in time, after 56 minutes, help arrived.
“I hear people.”
“They’re coming in now.”
“Are the police in the room with you?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have the victims?”
“You have one victim that needs attention, one that does not.”
Anna Trubnikova and Officer MacDonald were rushed to the hospital.
Anna had been shot four times.
“Anna was shot in both arms, her thigh, and her chest.”
Officer MacDonald had been shot once in the back.
“The round struck just below my vest, right next to my spine.”
“It struck my kidney and my liver and stopped just under my skin in my stomach.”
When Officer MacDonald’s wife, Carrie, learned he had been shot, she was stunned.
“I remember grabbing my knees and kind of slouching down a little bit to catch my breath.”
“I then went into my mode of, okay, I needed to keep it together for my kids.”
“I needed to keep it together for Jared.”
Carrie rushed to the hospital, where she saw her husband.
He would be okay.
Then, a couple of hours later, she saw Anna.
“She told me she was sorry.”
“And I told her she had nothing to be sorry about because this wasn’t her fault.”
As Anna and Officer MacDonald were being treated for their wounds, Adrian Loya was at the police department.
And he was not only ready to talk — he was willing.
“I just want to let you guys all know I’m not going to lie at any point.”
“I’m going to tell all the truth.”
“So I can go through point to point to point.”
“So I know I’m already a dead man in all this stuff.”
“Do you have an idea of what you did tonight?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What was it that you did?”
“I murdered a woman.”
“And the way that you were going to murder her was how?”
“The initial plan was to do the breach with the shotgun.”
“And through that, in the middle of the night, that would scare them.”
“Provide fear that I had during that night at their house.”
“And then go up there.”
“I didn’t want to touch Anna at all.”
“I considered using the knife I had on my belt.”
“I wanted to use that to do some kind of quick…”
“I didn’t want anything gruesome.”
“As far as I knew, straight to the heart.”
“So you were going to take the knife and put it into her chest?”
“Correct.”
“And you just said put it into her heart?”
“Correct.”
“Okay. But that didn’t happen.”
“What did happen?”
Adrian Loya was about to tell Bourne police what really happened after he entered the door to Lisa and Anna Trubnikova’s house.
The endgame to his sadistic scheme detailed in his manifesto.
“What happened once you stepped inside?”
“I went up the stairs.”
“To my right, I knew that’s where their bedroom would be.”
Loya knew which bedroom because during his meticulous preparation, he had found a real estate website showing the exact layout of their place.
Loya said:
“On the landing outside their room, the cat came and pounced on me.”
“And that’s when I opened the door to the room and they were in there.”
“What happened when you opened the bedroom door?”
“I yelled out, ‘I’m going to kill you guys. Get down. Get down. Face down. Hands up.’”
“And what did they do?”
“They screamed and did not comply.”
Loya said he ripped the sheets off Lisa and Anna and told them to separate.
“And then what happened?”
“They wanted to know who this was.”
“Was this a thief trying to steal stuff?”
“But then I had a mask on and pulled it off.”
“Lisa asked me why I was there.”
“I told her why.”
“And what did you say to her?”
“I told her, ‘Here I am. This is what you did to me two years ago when you raped me.’”
“And though it’s not a physical rape, it was basically a rape of the mind from a sexual attack.”
“And then what happened?”
“She kept saying, ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry.’”
“I told her, ‘You had over two years to say you’re sorry.’”
After that, he said he turned around for a moment.
“That’s when I cleared the master bedroom.”
“What was your thought process then?”
“I had to complete the mission.”
“You discharged a firearm?”
“Correct.”
“And where did you discharge it?”
“In the direction that I knew Lisa was underneath the mattress.”
“And did the discharge of the firearm strike her?”
“I heard…”
“And what was Anna saying during this time?”
“I don’t remember her exact words. She was screaming.”
Anna had been shot too.
After completing his mission inside, he said he went outside to finish his “Loya Wars” plan.
“To engage in a firefight with officers only and keep fighting until I am stopped.”
But there was something he had not counted on.
Bourne police never fired one shot.
“How are you feeling now with everything?”
“I didn’t see the aftermath.”
“I just know I took a life.”
“But it was a life I wanted to take.”
“Job’s done.”
Adrian Loya was arrested and charged with 30 counts, including murder.
Drew Segadelli agreed to represent him.
In one of Segadelli’s many meetings with his client, he learned there was something that had almost prevented that deadly day.
“There was a Star Wars movie about to come out.”
“And he actually had second thoughts about committing this crime so he could see the new movie.”
After his arrest, police got a warrant to search Loya’s Virginia home.
They needed to proceed cautiously.
Even though the explosive devices he placed near his burning car turned out to be hoaxes, cops couldn’t be too sure.
And it turned out Loya had been expecting them.
“The place was essentially bare.”
“He had spread oil on the floor, oil on the handrails to the stairs upstairs, and oil on the stairs so one would slip.”
Two and a half years later, the case went to trial.
“This wasn’t a ‘whodunit.’ It simply wasn’t.”
“So how else do you explain it?”
“How do you explain a man who has no criminal record, who is not a bad guy, committing such a heinous, awful act?”
Loya’s defense?
Not guilty by reason of mental defect.
“All of the mental health experts agreed that Loya suffered from some kind of mental health defect.”
“They didn’t agree on what defect, and they also didn’t agree that the defect interfered with his ability to conform with the law.”
On day six of the trial, an emotional Anna Trubnikova took the stand.
She described in detail the horror of being awakened by an armed intruder, and the moment that madman revealed his identity.
“Because Lisa kept asking, ‘Who are you?’ and ‘What do you want?’”
“He did take the mask off.”
“And did you recognize who it was at that point?”
“I did because she yelled out his name in shock.”
“Who was it?”
“It was Adrian Loya.”
“What’s the next thing that happened?”
“He mostly spoke to her.”
“He said, ‘See what you’ve done to me.’”
“‘You’re making me do this.’”
“‘This is what I’ve become because of you.’”
“And she was asking, ‘What did I do? Sorry.’”
“And he said, ‘It’s too late.’”
Anna said Loya fired one shot, then maybe seconds afterward there were more shots.
“I knew they weren’t at me. I didn’t feel it yet.”
“The sound also went to my left.”
“And at some point there were more shots and then I finally felt myself getting shot.”
“At some point the shots ceased.”
“I figured we only had seconds to live.”
“I turned to Lisa.”
“‘I love you.’”
“To which she responded, ‘I love you, too.’”
“Right after that, I heard a lot of gushing blood, gurgling almost.”
“She started choking, exhaled, and I knew at that point that she was dead.”
Then Anna said in the darkness she heard a voice.
“I was laying there after I figured she died, so I’m next.”
“I heard a man saying, ‘911, what’s your emergency?’”
“I realized that at some point she must have dialed 911.”
“And perhaps the phone was on the whole time.”
That call to 911, placed by Lisa, would end up saving Anna’s life.
Crime Watch Daily reached out to Anna Trubnikova.
Her mother told them Anna was not doing interviews.
“She’s trying to put this tragedy behind her.”
Just before the case went to the jury, and while lawyers were having a sidebar with the judge, Adrian Loya did something shocking.
Once again, his actions were caught on camera.
“He looked at the jurors and said, ‘I am guilty.’”
“I was never so upset.”
“I told him, ‘Do not sabotage this defense.’”
The judge wasn’t happy either.
“Mr. Loya, behavior of the sort that I have seen on the film clip is absolutely inappropriate.”
“If there is any repeat conduct on your part, I will consider removing you from the trial process.”
After two weeks of testimony and three days of deliberations, the jury came back with a verdict.
Guilty of first-degree murder.
“Adrian Loya was sentenced to life in prison without parole on the first-degree murder charge.”
“He was also convicted on firearms charges, assault charges, burglary, and many others.”
“Mr. Loya, what do you say to the victim’s family?”
“Very, very sorry.”
“He knows what he did.”
“He doesn’t necessarily see it as criminal or bad.”
“He was avenging the evil that was brought upon him, and that’s how he justifies it in his mind.”
Many people were deeply affected by Adrian Loya’s sick obsession and barbaric acts that day.
Carrie MacDonald said her husband, Officer Jared MacDonald’s life, was forever changed.
“I get a little emotional about it.”
“He’s had so much taken away from him.”
MacDonald, now retired from the police department, still suffers from severe pain and nerve damage.
He now has a service dog, Bullet, who helps him get around.
And as MacDonald struggles every day, a poignant moment he shared in the hospital with Lisa’s devastated family will stay with him forever.
“A very sweet family. A very loving family.”
“When Lisa’s mom hugged me, I wasn’t quite sure she was going to let go.”
“You could just feel her heart was broken.”
