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Deadliest Female Murderers Caught By Police · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to today's Deep Dive. And let me tell you,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: we have a really fascinating stack of sources for you today.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: You really do.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, we are looking at a gripping collection
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: of raw materials provided by the Law and Crime Network.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Right. Some truly intense stuff.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Exactly. We've got police body cams, 911 calls, and interrogation
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: room transcripts.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: And we're focusing on four distinct criminal cases today.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Right. All involving female perpetrators. And the core theme we're unpacking,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: the thing you really need to keep in mind as
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: we go through this, is how everyday disputes can just
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: tragically spiral into fatal violence.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: It's so true. I mean, we're talking about a high
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: school argument, a family disagreement over housing, a marital spat
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: after the bar.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Just normal things that suddenly turn deadly.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And what's fascinating here is how in every single case,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: the subjective narrative spun by the suspect violently collides with
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: the objective truth.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: The objective truth being, you know, eyewitnesses, digital forensics, surveillance footage.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all of that. So for this deep dive, our listener,
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: you're going to have to play detective with us.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Right. You really have to read between the lines of
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: what is said versus what actually happened.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Because the gap between those two things is where the
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: real story lives.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Definitely. So let's jump right into the first case.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Let's do it.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: We're looking at the illusion of self-defense. This is the
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: case of Brianna Beresini.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: This one is.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: It's a perfect example of sudden escalation.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: It really is. I mean, how does a scheduled fistfight
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: between former friends turn deadly?
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Well, let's set the scene. It's March 2023 in Columbus, Ohio.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Right. And it all goes down in a parking lot.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah. The victim is 17-year-old Haleah Culbertson.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: And the suspect is 20-year-old Brianna Beresini.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: So the inciting incident actually happens inside a local smoke shop.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Right, before they even get to the parking lot. Brianna
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: and her friend were getting drinks... And Halia was already
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: in there with an unidentified male.
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  Speaker 2: And they confront each other. Yeah.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: And the specific trigger here is crucial. Brianna called Halia
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: a cokehead.
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  Speaker 2: Which is just a massive escalation.
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  Speaker 1: Right. Because Halia was a recovering addict. We need to
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: emphasize that.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Using that word, it wasn't just a casual insult. It
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: was a deeply personal explosive strike at her vulnerability. Yeah.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: That's the kind of thing that completely bypasses any logical de-escalation.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Exactly. So they head outside to a silver Jeep to,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: you know, fight it out.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: They have this bare knuckle brawl.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Right. But we have a digital witness to this fight.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: We do. A witness was standing just 10 feet away
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: recording the whole thing in full HD on an iPhone.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Okay. So let's unpack this. Because Brianna claims self-defense later.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Oh, heavily. She says she was attacked. Yeah.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: She claims she was dragged by her hair, pinned down,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: had blood in her eyes.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: She even says she didn't know what was going on.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Right. But what does that 1080p video actually show?
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: The video completely destroys her narrative.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: It really does.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: When you look at the objective footage, it shows Brianna
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: actively backing up.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Backing away from Helya.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Yes. But while she's retreating, she pulls out a folding
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: pocket knife.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: A butterfly knife, I think they said. Right.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Or a switchblade.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And she manually opens it and swings it directly at
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Helya's neck.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: While moving backwards.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Exactly. It wasn't blind panic on the ground. It was
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: a targeted sweeping strike to the most vulnerable part of
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: the body.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Wow. And the aftermath is just heartbreaking.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: It really is. Haley, his friend, the one recording, he
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: drops everything to try and stop the bleeding.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: From her chest and neck, right?
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, with his own mother's shirt. And he's yelling about
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: his past trauma. You know, losing his brothers to gun violence.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Just begging the police to save her because he didn't
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: put pressure on it fast enough last time.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: It's a horrific scene. And tragically, Haley ultimately succumbs to
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: those injuries.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Which is just so sad. And meanwhile, what is Brianna doing?
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Oh, she doesn't stick around in a state of shock.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: She goes home.
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  Speaker 1: Right. She goes home, takes a shower, and literally hands
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: off the knife and her clothes.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: She tries to sever all ties to the physical evidence.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Right. When they get her in the interrogation room, she
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: plays dumb. She admits to holding the knife defensively, but
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: claims she just threw the stuff on the ground.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: But police later find the murder weapon and her shoes
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: hidden in a crawlspace at her house.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: You don't just accidentally toss a bloody knife into a crawlspace.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: No, that requires intent. That's a deliberate act of concealment.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Exactly. So it's like that saying, bringing a gun to
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: a knife fight.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: But in this case, it's bringing a lethal weapon to
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: a bare-knuckle brawl. So at what point does backing away
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: turn from self-defense into an offensive strike?
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: That is the exact legal hurdle here. The law requires proportionality.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Meaning you can't just use deadly force for a slap.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Holia did initiate physical contact by slapping Brianna first.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Right. The video shows that.
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  Speaker 2: But you cannot legally respond to a slap by pulling
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: a concealed blade and slashing someone's jugular.
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  Speaker 1: It's completely disproportionate.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: Right. But after a year of litigation, Breonna actually pleaded
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
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  Speaker 1: And she only got a three-year sentence.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, three years.
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  Speaker 1: Which sounds crazy for stabbing someone in the neck. Why
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: would a prosecutor accept that plea?
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Well, trials are risky. The prosecutor sees a disproportionate kill.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: But a defense attorney sees a young woman retreating from
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: an aggressor who struck first.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: So they lean into the chaos of the fight.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The involuntary manslaughter plea acknowledges she was reckless and
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: caused death. But it avoids trying to prove malicious premeditation
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: to a jury.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, so if that first case was about a
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: fight gone wrong, this next one is about a horrifyingly
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: calculated plan.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: A completely different type of psychology here.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we are looking at premeditation and the so-called sociopath defense.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: This is the case of Christina Adams.
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  Speaker 2: We are moving to Ocala, Florida, 8 a.m.
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  Speaker 1: Right. Police arrive at a home to find a man
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  Speaker 1: and his wife brutally stabbed.
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  Speaker 2: It's a bloodbath. And the crucial piece of evidence happens immediately.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: The father's dying declaration.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: Yes. With his last breaths, he identifies his 33-year-old daughter,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Christina Adams, as the attacker.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: He even describes her silver Ford Taurus so they can
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: track her down.
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  Speaker 2: Which they do very quickly. They intercept Christina and her
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: wife in the car.
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  Speaker 1: Now, the wife was totally oblivious, right? She was at
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Publix and Racetrack getting iced.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Completely in the dark. She had no idea what her
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: wife had just done.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: So Christina gets pulled into interrogation. And here's where it
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: gets really interesting.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Her initial alibi is just bizarre.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she tries to construct this hyper-mundane morning.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Right. She claims she woke up, fed her cats, started
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: some laundry.
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  Speaker 1: And she even says she was on Duolingo learning High Valyrian.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: The language from Game of Thrones. I mean, who.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Includes that specific detail when trying to cover up a murder?
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: It's cognitive load theory in action. She's fabricating this huge lie,
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  Speaker 2: so she latches onto mundane, verifiable truth fragments to make
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: it sound authentic.
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  Speaker 1: Right, but it completely clumbles. The detectives don't even need
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: forensic evidence to break her.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: No, they just use basic logic.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they point out the logical flaws in her timeline. Like,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: she claimed they were driving around doing a second round
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: of errands.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Right, and the detective just looks at her and says,
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: so you're driving around in the Florida heat with a
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: melting bag of ice in the car.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Exactly. The melting bag of ice logic totally corners her.
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  Speaker 2: You can just see her realize that her timeline is
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: physically impossible.
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  Speaker 1: So she abruptly shifts gears. She just drops the innocent
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  Speaker 1: act and confesses.
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  Speaker 2: But she frames the confession in this really clinical way.
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  Speaker 2: She literally says, I'm a sociopath.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, she blames extreme stress and emotion, saying other forces
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: were controlling her actions.
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  Speaker 2: If we connect this to the bigger picture... Using the
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: word sociopath like that is fascinating.
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  Speaker 1: Is it genuine or just manipulative?
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's highly manipulative. She's trying to claim a severe
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: personality disorder to absolve herself of agency.
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  Speaker 1: Right, like saying, my body did it, but my mind
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: was hijacked.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Exactly. She wants the legal protection of a fugue state
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: while acting completely detached.
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  Speaker 1: But the motive makes that impossible to believe. Let's unpack
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: why she actually did it.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: It was over an eviction. Her parents asked her to
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: move out.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they gave her six weeks at first. And she
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: was complaining about her criminal record from 2009.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: For theft and drugs, making it hard to get a job.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Right. She felt like a total victim. She said her
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  Speaker 1: parents just didn't care and wanted her gone.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: The breaking point was a note they left on her thermostat,
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: telling her to be out by the next day.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Okay, but she claims she just snapped under extreme emotion.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: But changing into murder clothes while doing laundry implies cold calculation.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: How do investigators reconcile those two things?
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: They don't have to.
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  Speaker 1: No.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Because the physical evidence proves premeditation.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she put on dark pants, a jacket, and gloves.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: You don't put on gloves during a blind rage. That's
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: a conscious decision to prevent evidence transfer.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Right, and she crept up behind her father at his computer.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: She stunned him with a wood-handled taser first.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Which she weirdly called a self-defense thing. And then she
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: stabbed him at least seven times with a knife.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: And when her mother came in to investigate, Christina stabbed
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: her in the chest too.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Just ruthless. And the post-crime cleanup was just as methodical.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Very methodical. She washed the knife with bleach in a bucket.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: She hid it in a chair bag in her car
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: right next to her wife's ice buckets.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: And threw her clothes in the washer with extra detergent.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: That is not a fugue state. That is a calculated execution.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And the outcome reflects that. The mother survived, thankfully,
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: but the father died.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: And Christina was sentenced to two life sentences.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Which is fitting, given the absolute premeditation involved.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Completely. Okay, so if the last case was about stone-cold
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: sobriety and premeditation, this next one is totally clouded by
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: extreme intoxication.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a complete fog.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Right. We are looking at the case of Mary Jane Terry.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Denial in the driveway.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: This takes us to late October in Forest County, Wisconsin.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: The scene starts... with a 911 call from a neighbor.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: Right. The neighbor sees a 50-year-old woman, Mary Jane, acting
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: frantic near a body in the road outside Barb's Bar.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: And the victim is her husband, Donald Britton Jr.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: When police arrive, Mary's initial narrative is just impossible to comprehend.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she claims she was safe inside her house, which
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: has this big window facing the road.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: She said she saw her truck stop, walked out, and
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: found her husband already laying injured in the road.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: And that she says she got scared and simply drove
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: the truck back up to her house.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: But the absurdity of the scene is just glaring.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Right. Her truck is sitting right there in her driveway
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: with massive, undriveable front-end damage.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: The hood is crumpled. The bumper is shattered.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: And she's standing there swearing to a deputy that she
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: didn't run him over.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: And this deputy, Billy... He's known the couple for 20 years.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Which makes it even more tragic. He's trying to talk
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: sense into her.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: But she just will not break from her story?
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: It's like a toddler with chocolate smeared all over their face,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: standing next to an empty cake plate, swearing they don't
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: know what happened to the cake.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: That's a perfect analogy.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: But in this case, the consequences are fatal. So what
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: did the investigation uncover about her state of mind?
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: Well, the intoxication evidence is overwhelming. She admits to drinking
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: Bud Light bottles at the bar she owns.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: She even says she was more drunk than usual.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: And surveillance footage from a gas station earlier showed her
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: buying a whole case of beer.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the field sobriety test is an absolute disaster.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: It's really hard to watch on the body cam. She
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: can't follow basic instructions.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: She argues with the deputies constantly.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: And when they ask her to walk and count her steps,
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: she just loses all sequential logic.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she starts rambling numbers like 1,004, 10,001. 13,400.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Her brain is just completely misfiring.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: And when they finally get her to blow into the
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: portable breathalyzer... She blows a.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: 298.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: Which is nearly four times the legal limit.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: At that level, most people are unconscious. Her tolerance was monumental.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: This raises an important question, though. How does the brain
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: construct such an absolute wall of denial when the evidence
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: is literally parked 10 feet away?
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: It's a combination of self-preservation and severe cognitive impairment. When
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: you have that much alcohol in your system, the hippocampus
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: just stops recording memories.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Like a corrupted hard drive.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Exactly. So when she sobers up enough to realize there's
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: a crisis, her brain has no file of the impact.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: It autofills a comforting lie to protect her from the
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: trauma of what she did.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Wow. But eventually, Deputy Billy has to inform her that
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: her husband died.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Yes. And she was initially charged with first-degree intentional homicide.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: But they couldn't prove intent because of the alcohol. Right.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: It's incredibly hard to prove a deliberate desire to kill
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: when the suspect is at a. 298 BAC.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: So she pleaded guilty to homicide by intoxicated use of
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: a vehicle.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: And she received 10 years in prison plus 10 years
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: of extended supervision.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: It's just a devastating reality of what alcohol can do
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: to truth.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Which leads us directly into our final case, building right
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: on that theme of alcohol and vehicular homicide.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: But this one adds the terrifying element of public rage
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: and surveillance footage. Right.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: We are looking at the tragic intersection of rage and
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: alcohol with Melissa House.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: We're at a Dollar General parking lot in Jefferson County, Illinois,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: just after 8 p.m.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: The scene here is visceral. 49-year-old Jeffrey House is pinned
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: underneath a vehicle.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: And the vehicle is being driven by his 54-year-old wife, Melissa.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: The rescue effort is intense. Firefighters and medics literally have
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: to jack the car off his body.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: And he's bleeding heavily from a head wound.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Melissa is pacing around, claiming total ignorance. She says,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: I don't even know why I got underneath my car.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: She keeps repeatedly asking for updates on her husband, playing
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: the concerned wife.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: But then she also tells officers she had, quote, too
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: much to drink, evidently.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Specifically, lemon drop martinis.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: So... What does this all mean? We have this confused,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: concerned wife act, but then we get the witness accounts.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: The witnesses paint a completely different picture.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's look at the lead up. The couple had
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: been drinking heavily and were actually cut off at two
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: different local bars.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Frosty's and 618 Tap. They were visibly intoxicated before they
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: even got to the parking lot.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Right. And a witness describes this massive altercation in the
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Dollar General lot.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there was a third party, a driver in a
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: white car. who had actually offered the couple a ride
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: home to be safe.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: But Jeffrey, fueled by alcohol and paranoia, starts arguing with
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: the driver, accusing him of having an affair with Melissa.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: So the white car just leaves, realizing they can't de-escalate it.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Leaving Jeffrey and Melissa alone in the lot.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: And this is where the unblinking eye of surveillance comes in.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there was a camera on a nearby apartment complex
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: that captured the objective truth.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: And it is gruesome. It shows Melissa aggressively shoving Jeff
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: to the ground.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Which matches the loud thump the witness heard. Right.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: Then she gets in the car, backs over him.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: The witness literally reported hearing his leg pop.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: And then she pulls forward again, dragging him, while a
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: bystander is screaming at her to stop.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: She leaves his body twisted underneath the car.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: It's a deliberate act of vehicular malice.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: But then when the police try to test her, she
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: completely shuts down.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she refuses all field sobriety and breath tests.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: She leverages her fake concern for her husband to avoid cooperating.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Until they finally just arrest her for aggravated DUI.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: I have to ask. She keeps saying, I love my husband.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: I don't know how we got here. Is this a
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: blackout like the last case? Or is this a highly
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: manipulative performance?
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: It's a chilling mix of both. The alcohol fractured her memory, sure.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: But her nervous system knew she did something horrific.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: So the hysterical wife routine is her trying to manipulate
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: the investigation.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Exactly. But the surveillance footage is the ultimate neutral arbiter.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: It doesn't care about her tears. It just shows the
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: brutal facts.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Right. And sadly, Jeff House tragically succumbs to his injuries
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: after being helicoptered to a hospital.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: With that undeniable video evidence, her narrative collapsed. She pleaded guilty.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: And was sentenced to 20 years for aggravated DUI and
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: first degree murder.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: A much stiffer penalty than our first case, largely because
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: the video proved undeniable evidence. Malicious intent despite the alcohol.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, so synthesizing all of this, we've journeyed through
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: four really tragic deep dives today.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: And the common thread is undeniable.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the subjective stories spun by the suspects. You know,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: it was self-defense. I'm a sociopath. I found him in
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: the road. I don't know how he got under my car.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: All of them were completely dismantled by objective evidence.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: HD, cell phone videos, surveillance cameras, forensic timelines. They all
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: broke the lies.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Exactly. And I really want to remind you, the listener,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: of the incredible burden placed on investigators here.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: It's massive.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: They don't just collect evidence. They have to patiently stand
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: there and sift through a suspect's reality distortion field in
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: real time.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: They have to listen to these fabricated stories while looking
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: right at the physical proof of guilt. It requires immense
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: psychological patience.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: It really does. But to wrap things up, we want
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: to leave you with a final thought to mull over.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Something that really stood out to me as we analyzed
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: these sources.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Go ahead.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: We live in an era where almost every public space
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: and many private spaces are monitored.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Cameras are everywhere. Right.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: And we often think of surveillance as a deterrent to crime.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: We assume people won't act out if they know they're
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: being watched.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: But based on these cases today, the presence of cameras
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: didn't stop a single one of these fatal acts of violence.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: Exactly. It didn't stop the knife in Ohio or the
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: car in Illinois. It only changed how the perpetrators were
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: caught and prosecuted.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: So does the modern world's lack of privacy actually change
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: human behavior in the heat of passion? Or does it
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: merely ensure that when the dust settles, the truth can
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: no longer be hidden?
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: It's definitely something to think about the next time you
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: see a camera pointed your way.