Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / Serial Killer Documentary - A House of Horrors： Stewart Weldon

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Serial Killer Documentary - A House of Horrors： Stewart Weldon · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:11
Speaker 1: I did what I did. Nobody guilty but me.
0:15
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
0:18
Speaker 3: She were here now, I would start by telling her
0:19
Speaker 3: that I'm sorry and that I love her.
0:24
Speaker 1: I would tell her and you about Big Sister, that.
0:29
Speaker 4: He chose a certain category of victims who he believed
0:34
Speaker 4: he could victimize without repercussions.
0:38
Speaker 5: This is a person who's on a path at an
0:40
Speaker 5: early age and just progressed and became somebody who was
0:45
Speaker 5: in danger to everybody around him.
0:48
Speaker 6: I can only imagine the fear that is felt at
0:52
Speaker 6: this time.
0:55
Speaker 4: I would characterize it as evil. I would characterize it
0:58
Speaker 4: as subhuman. I think he's a monster.
1:03
Speaker 7: Every day I am a haunted by memories and images.
1:08
Speaker 1: I will never be whole again.
1:48
Speaker 5: Stuart Weldon was born in nineteen seventy seven. He grew
1:50
Speaker 5: up in Jamaica, Queens, New York, which was an area
1:55
Speaker 5: that was known for having a lot of drug activity.
2:00
Speaker 8: Died when he was a teenager.
2:02
Speaker 9: There was indications that he was sexually assaulted, that he
2:05
Speaker 9: was experimenting with drugs, and was introduced to pornography at
2:09
Speaker 9: an early age.
2:12
Speaker 10: In nineteen ninety, just after his father's death, Stuart Weldon's
2:16
Speaker 10: mom moves them out of the city to Montclair, New Jersey,
2:20
Speaker 10: a safer neighborhood with a lower crime rate.
2:24
Speaker 6: No mother wants to see their child involved in criminal activity,
2:29
Speaker 6: so what is often done is let us move to
2:33
Speaker 6: a more suburban life and we can start all over.
2:38
Speaker 6: That was probably the intent of this caring mother, trying
2:41
Speaker 6: to move her son to a different way of life.
2:47
Speaker 10: But Stuart Weldon's difficult start to life continues. When he
2:50
Speaker 10: reaches high school.
2:52
Speaker 5: He seemed to have some pretty significant learning problems. He
2:56
Speaker 5: was diagnosed with severe ADHD. He apparently had dyslexia. I
3:03
Speaker 5: think when a child has some learning challenges, how that
3:08
Speaker 5: child does depends on a couple of different things, not
3:11
Speaker 5: just the severity of their disabilities, which is important to know,
3:15
Speaker 5: but also how the school handles those So are they
3:19
Speaker 5: getting diagnosed early, are they getting appropriate treatment? And it
3:23
Speaker 5: sounds like that he ended up having a pretty limited education.
3:33
Speaker 5: In nineteen ninety six, Stuart Weldon is at a mall
3:36
Speaker 5: and he and his buddy basically pick up three girls
3:39
Speaker 5: or had to go out and party. They end up
3:41
Speaker 5: taking two of them home, but the third one they
3:44
Speaker 5: end up kidnapping and sexual assaulting.
3:50
Speaker 9: At the age of nineteen when he was in New Jersey.
3:52
Speaker 9: He was charged with sexual offenses as well as weapons charge.
3:57
Speaker 9: He was picking up women that might have been drug involved,
4:00
Speaker 9: mental health issues involved in prostitution.
4:05
Speaker 4: We often see a progressive nature of criminal offenses for
4:08
Speaker 4: those who commit very serious crimes.
4:12
Speaker 6: The issues of violence often have their foundation in control.
4:18
Speaker 6: That if I'm able to violently get you to do
4:22
Speaker 6: what I want, I have control over you.
4:26
Speaker 8: He's not starting out painting graffiti.
4:31
Speaker 5: Or even loitering in places where he's not supposed to be,
4:34
Speaker 5: or being on top of the school when he's not
4:36
Speaker 5: supposed to be on there, or you know, things that
4:38
Speaker 5: we might think juveniles are exhibiting poor judgment and they're
4:42
Speaker 5: going to grow out of it.
4:44
Speaker 8: This kind of crime is.
4:45
Speaker 6: Not like that, another step up the ladder of engaging
4:52
Speaker 6: in criminal activity, engaging in violence.
4:56
Speaker 4: Especially when you see sexually related or sexually involved the fences,
5:00
Speaker 4: you know, typically that's a red flag. Sometimes those behaviors
5:04
Speaker 4: are innate and they repeat.
5:07
Speaker 1: Sometimes they get progressively worse.
5:11
Speaker 5: It suggests premeditation, It suggests violent behavior is violent behavior,
5:18
Speaker 5: It suggests predatory behavior, and those are things that are
5:23
Speaker 5: oftentimes predictors of future violence and future sexual offenses.
5:32
Speaker 8: When we look at serial killers, we.
5:34
Speaker 5: Often do expect them to come from the most horrendous
5:37
Speaker 5: backgrounds and have parents who don't love them, don't care
5:40
Speaker 5: about them, abuse them, take advantage of them. And then
5:42
Speaker 5: you find parents who for whatever reason, indulged their children,
5:47
Speaker 5: were permissive, and basically permit that child from developing a
5:51
Speaker 5: sense of right and wrong that's internal.
6:04
Speaker 10: Stuart Waldon's criminality reaches a new level. Now twenty eight
6:08
Speaker 10: years old, he commits assault with a deadly weapon and
6:12
Speaker 10: receives a three year prison sentence. When he's released, he
6:19
Speaker 10: moves with his mother again, this time to Springfield in
6:25
Speaker 10: western Massachusetts. They live in a property made of two
6:30
Speaker 10: separate apartments. It would hide some chilling secrets.
6:37
Speaker 4: Springfield is the largest city in western Massachusetts, in the
6:41
Speaker 4: largest city in Hamdy County.
6:45
Speaker 9: There's a lot of poverty here, a lot of crime,
6:46
Speaker 9: a lot of drugs. Essentially, it's an old industrial town
6:50
Speaker 9: that has been kind of overtaken by crime and drugs.
6:55
Speaker 5: It's essentially like a distribution center of Heroin Boston and
7:01
Speaker 5: New York, this kind of underbelly of criminal activity is
7:06
Speaker 5: something that is appealing to him. He kind of gravitates
7:10
Speaker 5: to it, and I think he feels like he fits
7:12
Speaker 5: in and he understands it.
7:14
Speaker 9: The narcotics detective once told me, the only reason we
7:16
Speaker 9: don't have methamphetamine moving into the Springfield area is because
7:19
Speaker 9: heroin is so cheap here.
7:21
Speaker 5: It's likely that his mom thought she was moving him
7:24
Speaker 5: to a better place. What she doesn't realize is she's
7:28
Speaker 5: basically moved him from the frying pan into the fire.
7:37
Speaker 5: There's a road in Springfield that is essentially known for
7:41
Speaker 5: sex workers to hang out, for people to be looking
7:46
Speaker 5: to make money in exchange for drugs, and for Stuart Weldon,
7:51
Speaker 5: who is very involved in criminal activity, this would be
7:55
Speaker 5: like a candy store.
7:56
Speaker 8: He could just drive down and pick and choose whatever
7:58
Speaker 8: he wants.
8:01
Speaker 4: Weldon became very well known in circles involving women who
8:06
Speaker 4: were prostituting themselves. Became very well known in certain criminal circles,
8:14
Speaker 4: in particular an area of high end School Street in
8:17
Speaker 4: the city of Springfield. He became sort of embedded in
8:23
Speaker 4: a particular criminal aspect here in the city of Springfield.
8:30
Speaker 8: When you have kind.
8:31
Speaker 5: Of a subculture of criminal behavior in a community, it
8:36
Speaker 5: is easier to get away with things because people kind
8:40
Speaker 5: of look out for each other in a way, and
8:42
Speaker 5: you don't stand out.
8:48
Speaker 10: Stuart Weldon's respect for the law deteriorates further. He breaks
8:54
Speaker 10: into someone's home and when apprehended, he violently attacks a
8:58
Speaker 10: police officer. He receives a two year prison sentence.
9:04
Speaker 5: This is somebody that really strikes me as he doesn't
9:08
Speaker 5: care about anything. He doesn't care about himself that much.
9:12
Speaker 5: He puts himself in all kinds of risks. He pulls
9:14
Speaker 5: a knife on a police officer. I mean, he could
9:16
Speaker 5: have been shot by police for legitimate reasons on many
9:19
Speaker 5: different occasions.
9:22
Speaker 8: So he's somebody who doesn't.
9:23
Speaker 5: Care about anybody or himself and I think that is scary.
9:27
Speaker 5: That is something you don't often see. Stuart Weldon was
9:49
Speaker 5: very involved in the drug world, and he was dealing drugs,
9:52
Speaker 5: which made it very very easy for him to encourage
9:56
Speaker 5: and entice women who were struggling with addiction and to
9:59
Speaker 5: his car. Well then use that as a way to
10:04
Speaker 5: lure them to his house.
10:12
Speaker 9: A lot of the times he would get women into
10:14
Speaker 9: a car with an offer of hey, I've got some drugs,
10:16
Speaker 9: let's go do them, and then as they got closer.
10:19
Speaker 9: Maybe a negotiation took place about a sex act that
10:22
Speaker 9: ended up going too far. But in a lot of cases,
10:25
Speaker 9: women went to his apartment thinking they were going to
10:27
Speaker 9: hang out, and then when they got there they would
10:29
Speaker 9: find out it was far more involved than just smoking
10:32
Speaker 9: drugs together. It was more about physical controls, slaps, punches,
10:38
Speaker 9: ordering them around, forcing acts on them that they did
10:42
Speaker 9: not agree to. He was kind of pushing the boundaries
10:45
Speaker 9: to see what he could get away with.
10:47
Speaker 4: He subjected the victims of his crimes to experiences that
10:52
Speaker 4: could only be termed as near death experiences.
11:09
Speaker 10: Stuart Weldon, now aged forty, already has a criminal history
11:13
Speaker 10: spanning kidnap, burglary, sexual offenses, and assault with a deadly weapon.
11:19
Speaker 10: He's served two prison sentences. He's now luring vulnerable women
11:26
Speaker 10: to his basement, where he's torturing them almost to the
11:31
Speaker 10: point of death. Despite this increasingly alarming behavior, he isn't
11:39
Speaker 10: drawing police attention.
11:42
Speaker 5: These women are vulnerable on a lot of different levels,
11:44
Speaker 5: not only in terms of getting into a car with
11:47
Speaker 5: somebody they don't know, not only desperate perhaps in terms
11:54
Speaker 5: of looking for drugs to kind of feed an addiction,
11:57
Speaker 5: but also their relationship with the police is very difficult,
12:01
Speaker 5: and so you know, Stuart Wlden knows this. He knows
12:06
Speaker 5: that most often when a sex worker is raped or
12:10
Speaker 5: beaten up, either she's not going to go to the
12:13
Speaker 5: police because she's afraid she's going to be arrested for
12:17
Speaker 5: what she's been doing, or that she's not going to
12:20
Speaker 5: be believed, and all too often that's exactly what happens.
12:27
Speaker 9: These are women who sometimes fall out of touch with
12:28
Speaker 9: their families for periods of time and live very transient lifestyle,
12:33
Speaker 9: so sometimes not being around wouldn't be noticed. It was
12:36
Speaker 9: actually the women who hung out and hind School Street
12:40
Speaker 9: who are the first ones to realize, we haven't seen
12:42
Speaker 9: this person for a while. But even they said that's
12:44
Speaker 9: not uncommon. Sometimes people go to rehab, they get clean,
12:48
Speaker 9: or they try to move on, or simply find another
12:50
Speaker 9: area and move in with a man, things like that.
12:53
Speaker 9: So these are people whose disappearances might not go noticed
12:57
Speaker 9: right away.
13:02
Speaker 6: It is almost a matter of you haven't punished me,
13:05
Speaker 6: so why should I stop committing the crimes or maybe
13:10
Speaker 6: even escalating those crimes. I think we see the latter
13:18
Speaker 6: in this case. You haven't punished me severely I am
13:22
Speaker 6: going to continue doing these crimes, and since the system
13:27
Speaker 6: is not stopping me or deterring me, these crimes will continue.
13:33
Speaker 5: He does not have some of the normal restraints that
13:36
Speaker 5: most people have, and that makes people afraid of him.
13:44
Speaker 5: They're aware that he'll do whatever he's intimidating. He'll fight cops,
13:51
Speaker 5: he'll run from cops, he'll fight anybody. I mean, this
13:54
Speaker 5: is somebody who truly seems to have no restraint when
14:00
Speaker 5: it comes to getting what he wants or doing what
14:02
Speaker 5: he wants to do.
14:05
Speaker 9: A lot of these women described feeling like their life
14:07
Speaker 9: was durning away. They were losing vision and unable to speak.
14:12
Speaker 9: Having that complete and utter control over someone's life, essentially
14:15
Speaker 9: having the power over whether or not they live or die,
14:17
Speaker 9: and being able to see their face react to the
14:20
Speaker 9: situation that they're in.
14:22
Speaker 5: It's just astonishing, to say, the fact that he's doing
14:24
Speaker 5: all these things, not hiding them, not seeming to care
14:27
Speaker 5: about the consequences.
14:45
Speaker 10: America Leiden is a thirty three year old mother who's
14:49
Speaker 10: just completed a drug rehabilitation program. Forty seven year old
14:58
Speaker 10: Ernestine Ryan's has lived her whole life in Springfield. She
15:03
Speaker 10: is a mother and soon to be grandmother. Kayla Escalante,
15:10
Speaker 10: a twenty six year old mom from neighboring Ludlow, struggles
15:16
Speaker 10: with drug addiction and has lost touch with her family.
15:22
Speaker 10: Police have no idea where these three vulnerable women are,
15:25
Speaker 10: or even if they're alive. It's not until five months
15:31
Speaker 10: after America Leiden is reported missing the authorities suspect Weldon
15:35
Speaker 10: is involved.
15:40
Speaker 9: The first time I learned about Stuart Weldon, he was
15:43
Speaker 9: pulled over for a routine traffic stop, essentially by some detectives.
15:49
Speaker 9: The car took off and mister Weldon had just taken
15:52
Speaker 9: off in the middle of the stop, which obviously the
15:54
Speaker 9: officers gave chase to him.
15:57
Speaker 6: The traffic stop allows for the police officer with probable cause,
16:03
Speaker 6: with probable cause to do a search of the vehicle,
16:08
Speaker 6: to check out the welfare of the individuals inside the vehicle,
16:13
Speaker 6: and perhaps to ask questions if there is any speculation
16:17
Speaker 6: of criminal activity taking place.
16:21
Speaker 5: This isn't somebody who's sophisticated and trying to hide his
16:25
Speaker 5: criminal activities.
16:26
Speaker 8: He's doing whatever he wants to do. Right Then.
16:31
Speaker 6: A chase occurs, and at the end of the chase,
16:36
Speaker 6: the police officers find that there is a woman tied
16:40
Speaker 6: bound in the backseat of the car.
16:47
Speaker 4: It's really the case of outstanding police work. Police officers
16:51
Speaker 4: being observant, aware of their surroundings and people of interest
16:57
Speaker 4: in the area, probably saved a life, and it probably saved.
17:02
Speaker 1: More than one life.
17:05
Speaker 9: The woman who was in the front passenger seat began
17:07
Speaker 9: screaming and it became very obvious at that point she
17:10
Speaker 9: was significantly injured.
17:13
Speaker 6: She immediately tells them she has been held captive for
17:17
Speaker 6: one month, that she has been unsafe, unwell, that she's
17:21
Speaker 6: been kidnapped and taken by Weldon.
17:26
Speaker 4: The police officers see some odd and very serious injuries.
17:32
Speaker 4: She complains to them about pain. The victim then communicates
17:37
Speaker 4: with police officers about how mister Weldon had been abusing
17:41
Speaker 4: her and striking her with an object, and she had
17:45
Speaker 4: injuries on her body very consistent with this sort of abuse.
17:49
Speaker 9: She was giving this information in a very hysterical way
17:53
Speaker 9: that was sometimes difficult to follow, a little rambling. She
17:56
Speaker 9: was an obvious trauma and distress, essentially saying that he'd
17:59
Speaker 9: been holding her against her will in his house for
18:01
Speaker 9: in the past thirty days. He had been beating her,
18:04
Speaker 9: tying her up, things like that, She claimed that he
18:07
Speaker 9: had been beating her with a hammer in the leg,
18:09
Speaker 9: and the injuries too he leg were obvious. It was
18:12
Speaker 9: very clear that she'd been receiving abuse on that leg
18:14
Speaker 9: for quite some time, and she had to be rushed
18:16
Speaker 9: to the hospital where she was actually almost in danger.
18:18
Speaker 1: Of losing that leg.
18:23
Speaker 10: Weldon is charged with kidnapping, threatening to commit a crime,
18:28
Speaker 10: carrying a dangerous weapon, and resisting arrest. Despite the claims
18:33
Speaker 10: of his victim, police don't have enough evidence to search
18:37
Speaker 10: his house.
18:41
Speaker 9: Mister Weldon was brought to court and the next day
18:44
Speaker 9: and I handled the arrayment on that case. He was
18:46
Speaker 9: charged with kidnapping in a variety of other assault of charges.
18:50
Speaker 9: I believe at that time we requested a high cash
18:52
Speaker 9: bill and he was held on a million dollars cash
18:54
Speaker 9: bail for giving the kidnapping and the serious allegations, which
18:57
Speaker 9: we later came to find out was only the tip
18:59
Speaker 9: of the iceberg. We didn't have probable cause, at least
19:02
Speaker 9: in my opinion, that time, to go and search his home.
19:04
Speaker 1: That came a few days later on.
19:13
Speaker 9: Springfield Police received a call from his adoptive mother, who
19:18
Speaker 9: was complaining about a smell in the basement The way
19:21
Speaker 9: she described it to police officers on that call is
19:24
Speaker 9: she was worried about potentially there being a dead animal
19:27
Speaker 9: in the basement, and she was afraid to go and
19:28
Speaker 9: check it out.
19:32
Speaker 4: A number of uniformed Springfield police officers entered the home
19:36
Speaker 4: and immediately were struck with a very strong and vile
19:41
Speaker 4: odor that they were familiar with as either decomposing human
19:45
Speaker 4: remains or animal remains.
19:48
Speaker 6: For those of us who have been involved in investigation,
19:54
Speaker 6: there is a distinct smell you do not forget.
20:11
Speaker 4: At this point, it was dark out, it was eight
20:14
Speaker 4: thirty or so. I recall getting onto the driveway of
20:19
Speaker 4: the home. I remember smelling and older that I was
20:24
Speaker 4: somewhat familiar with at the time, even a great distance
20:29
Speaker 4: from the home, probably fifty feet. At the end of
20:31
Speaker 4: the driveway, I went, accompanied by police officers into the
20:36
Speaker 4: home and down the stairs. I remember at that point
20:40
Speaker 4: the smell was very, very strong, and then I was
20:44
Speaker 4: taken into a bathroom area and I witnessed a body
20:48
Speaker 4: there that was at that point pretty severely decomposed.
20:56
Speaker 6: When you find that it is a human being, there
21:00
Speaker 6: is a drop in your heart and your stomach because
21:04
Speaker 6: that was someone's mom dad, brothers, sister, family member, and
21:10
Speaker 6: when you find that the death has occurred, that's an
21:14
Speaker 6: awful lot to take.
21:18
Speaker 9: The victim in the bathroom, we believe was the most
21:20
Speaker 9: recent victim, when missing sometime April or May.
21:24
Speaker 2: Of that year.
21:27
Speaker 10: A distinctive ankle tattoo and fingerprints allow police to identify
21:31
Speaker 10: the first victim as missing twenty seven year old Kayla Escalante.
21:38
Speaker 10: Her body was bound and gagged.
21:42
Speaker 9: The first body was just in a basement bathroom that
21:43
Speaker 9: anyone could have really walked down to.
21:48
Speaker 4: I then walked outside and I was brought down to
21:50
Speaker 4: the garage area down at the end of the driveway
21:53
Speaker 4: by police officers. Again, the smell was very strong, even
21:56
Speaker 4: being in the open air. Walked into the to the
22:00
Speaker 4: garage just a few steps and could see at that
22:02
Speaker 4: point a severely decomposed body. The smell was very strong,
22:06
Speaker 4: there were black flies present.
22:09
Speaker 9: We believe the victim found in the garage was abducted
22:12
Speaker 9: sometime in April.
22:15
Speaker 10: The second victim is confirmed as missing forty seven year
22:18
Speaker 10: old soon to be grandmother Ernestine Ryan's. Her body was
22:24
Speaker 10: dumped and loosely covered with cardboard.
22:27
Speaker 4: I knew that we had a very serious situation on
22:29
Speaker 4: our hands. I made some phone calls to members of
22:32
Speaker 4: my staff, called Assistant District Attorney Max Bennett and asked
22:36
Speaker 4: him to respond to the scene.
22:40
Speaker 9: At that point, it looked like we had two bodies
22:42
Speaker 9: that had just been kind of left. The following day,
22:55
Speaker 9: after detective had noticed disturbed dirt underneath a wooden shed
23:00
Speaker 9: in the backyard and a state Police cadaver dog had
23:03
Speaker 9: alerted on the area, detectives began digging there where we
23:08
Speaker 9: unearthed the body of the third victim, bound with internet cords,
23:15
Speaker 9: computer cables, and almost completely decomposed in a skeletal fashion
23:20
Speaker 9: with very little tissue left. Based on our investigation we
23:26
Speaker 9: pieced together, we believe she went missing sometime in September.
23:31
Speaker 10: Investigators need to use dental records to identify thirty four
23:35
Speaker 10: year old America Leiden.
23:40
Speaker 4: It certainly presents, in my experience now is a very
23:43
Speaker 4: unique crime scene and a very unique set of circumstances
23:49
Speaker 4: that you know, at the time, we're startling, we're scary,
23:54
Speaker 4: we're horrifying, and now stand out as some of the
23:59
Speaker 4: more heinous crimes and really egregious, you know, scenery that
24:06
Speaker 4: I've seen in.
24:08
Speaker 1: My years in law enforcement.
24:12
Speaker 9: Women that were in the home while his mother was
24:14
Speaker 9: around are present in the home. They walked out alive.
24:17
Speaker 9: When his mother would leave the house or be gone
24:20
Speaker 9: for a long periods of time, that's when we believe
24:22
Speaker 9: the murders occurred.
24:29
Speaker 4: We do believe that mister Weldon has been living up
24:33
Speaker 4: until the time.
24:34
Speaker 1: Of his arrest at this address. This is a largely
24:38
Speaker 1: residential area.
24:41
Speaker 4: With you know, sort of middle class families who take
24:43
Speaker 4: pride in their homes and who go to work every day.
24:46
Speaker 4: You know, children lived in that neighborhood. So there was
24:49
Speaker 4: a lot of shock, especially from that area of the
24:51
Speaker 4: city of Springfield.
24:53
Speaker 1: That you know, this kind of behavior that.
24:55
Speaker 4: Became national and international news was happening, you know, just
25:00
Speaker 4: yards away from their homes.
25:10
Speaker 10: Weldon is now charged with the murders of America Leiden,
25:14
Speaker 10: Ernestine Ryan's, and Kayla Escalante, along with the previous charges
25:21
Speaker 10: related to the kidnapp and attempted murder of the victim
25:24
Speaker 10: found in his car. With Weldon off the streets, other
25:30
Speaker 10: victims now feel able to report what he's done to them.
25:35
Speaker 6: So here you have Weldon in police custody, and police
25:40
Speaker 6: work now shows that a series of rapes that had
25:44
Speaker 6: been ongoing in that same city also stopped police work.
25:50
Speaker 6: Then puts two and two together to look at Weldon
25:54
Speaker 6: perhaps being the suspect for those rapes.
26:00
Speaker 5: He was incredibly brutal in his rapes, and I think
26:06
Speaker 5: that he didn't really care if they lived or not.
26:10
Speaker 8: I can certainly.
26:11
Speaker 5: See that once somebody died in his care, how that
26:18
Speaker 5: would become an additional fun thing for him, and then
26:22
Speaker 5: it would continue.
26:25
Speaker 4: Even if something was reported to police. You know, prosecuting
26:29
Speaker 4: a case involving a person with serious mental health issues
26:33
Speaker 4: and serious addiction issues who's homeless and transient really presents
26:38
Speaker 4: very difficult circumstances for prosecutors to maintain.
26:42
Speaker 1: You know, these cases are very challenging.
26:46
Speaker 9: It wasn't until a lot of these women realized that
26:48
Speaker 9: women they knew had been killed in that house.
26:51
Speaker 1: That's what brought them forward.
26:52
Speaker 9: It was doing it for other people and realizing this
26:55
Speaker 9: was a lot more serious than they had to stand
26:56
Speaker 9: up for these women that no longer had a voice.
27:01
Speaker 9: He's looking for people who are less likely to go
27:03
Speaker 9: to the police. He made several statements to some of them,
27:06
Speaker 9: go tell someone, no one's going to believe you, and
27:09
Speaker 9: quite Frankly, that's the exact mentality of the women that
27:12
Speaker 9: he was seeking out, people who didn't think they'd be believed,
27:14
Speaker 9: who didn't think it was worth coming forward, and would
27:17
Speaker 9: just be happy to move on with their lives after
27:19
Speaker 9: the fact, having escaped.
27:22
Speaker 1: His objectives with these women.
27:24
Speaker 4: His propensity to rape and commit acts of violence are
27:28
Speaker 4: things that have no place in our society. Those rapes,
27:33
Speaker 4: we believe became more and more violent, involve strangulation, involve
27:39
Speaker 4: the use of various sort of tools or machinery to
27:45
Speaker 4: carry out these rapes and to carry out the violence
27:48
Speaker 4: that was a part of this experience for mister Weldon.
27:52
Speaker 4: Some cases, murder becomes a product of one's desire not
27:56
Speaker 4: to be apprehended. But we believe in mister Weldon's case,
28:00
Speaker 4: it was truly a sexual murder in which the murder
28:03
Speaker 4: became a part of his fantasy and carrying out his desires.
28:09
Speaker 5: Stuart Weldon was a sexual sadist in many respects.
28:14
Speaker 8: So it wasn't just the murder.
28:15
Speaker 5: This isn't somebody who's raping women and then killing them
28:19
Speaker 5: to avoid capture.
28:20
Speaker 8: This is somebody that I think, given the level.
28:23
Speaker 5: Of torture that he inflicted on his victims who got
28:28
Speaker 5: sexual satisfaction from that torture, from hurting them, from seeing
28:33
Speaker 5: them cry or beg or plead.
28:48
Speaker 10: Eight cases of rape are added to Weldon's charges thanks
28:52
Speaker 10: to the testimony of survivors who are granted anonymity.
28:57
Speaker 4: A rape, by its very definition, is a vile lacked
29:00
Speaker 4: one of the most heinous crimes that we know in our.
29:04
Speaker 1: Criminal justice system.
29:06
Speaker 4: But certainly Stuart Weldon's behaviors as we came to know them,
29:10
Speaker 4: were particularly dark and focused. Where he brought them to
29:15
Speaker 4: a level of violence, where they were strangled, where they
29:19
Speaker 4: were beaten, and.
29:20
Speaker 1: So on and so forth, in very, very severe ways.
29:25
Speaker 5: This guy is not just a menace to sex workers.
29:30
Speaker 5: This guy is a loose cannon to everybody in his life.
29:36
Speaker 5: This is somebody who's been known to threaten to shoot
29:39
Speaker 5: up a bar because he's angry, to assault a woman
29:43
Speaker 5: on the street, and yet this is somebody who's engaging
29:46
Speaker 5: in all of these activities. In any other neighborhood. This
29:50
Speaker 5: guy would be in jail and then in prison for
29:53
Speaker 5: any one of these, and yet he seems to be
29:56
Speaker 5: operating with a few consequences if any.
30:01
Speaker 10: Weldon pleads not guilty to all charges. As prosecutors prepare
30:07
Speaker 10: for trial, they fear the nature of the crime scene
30:10
Speaker 10: and the accounts of some survivors may allow Weldon to
30:14
Speaker 10: plead insanity.
30:17
Speaker 9: So at that point it was my concern that this
30:19
Speaker 9: is going to vote poorly for us trying to prove
30:21
Speaker 9: that he was able to conform his conduct. The fact
30:23
Speaker 9: he would leave rotting bodies out like this. There was
30:35
Speaker 9: a description by one victim of him essentially putting candles
30:40
Speaker 9: on the floor in a pentagram. Another one indicated that
30:44
Speaker 9: he had motioned to an area underneath the basement stairs
30:47
Speaker 9: and said that a demon lived there and he threw
30:49
Speaker 9: salt there. Other times he would just maybe ramble about
30:52
Speaker 9: something satanic in a way that the victims couldn't really
30:56
Speaker 9: tell us exactly what he was saying, just that he
30:57
Speaker 9: was rambling on about satanic things.
31:01
Speaker 5: One of the things that I do wonder about Stuart
31:03
Speaker 5: Weldon is whether he had some kind of brain impairment
31:06
Speaker 5: or brain damage that in some respects affected his impulsivity.
31:12
Speaker 9: That's a problem for us because one of the things
31:14
Speaker 9: we're going to have to prove in this case is
31:15
Speaker 9: that he was sane and that he appreciated the wrongfulness
31:18
Speaker 9: of his actions and that he had the ability to
31:21
Speaker 9: conduct himself in a lawful manner. When you hear things
31:24
Speaker 9: like that, or the fact that he was obsessed with
31:26
Speaker 9: a ghost detecting website, those are things that you're going to.
31:29
Speaker 1: Need to explain.
31:41
Speaker 10: Stuart Weldon is in custody, pleading not guilty to three
31:46
Speaker 10: counts of first degree murder and forty nine other charges
31:50
Speaker 10: relating to a total of eleven victims. Prosecutors are working
31:56
Speaker 10: to prove he was criminally responsible for his actions, as
32:00
Speaker 10: they fear Weldon's defense may claim Weldon was insane or
32:04
Speaker 10: under the effects of a mental disorder at the time
32:07
Speaker 10: of the offenses. He's due to face trial in April
32:12
Speaker 10: twenty twenty.
32:13
Speaker 9: We had to show that there was going to be
32:15
Speaker 9: some kind of organization to what's happening here, some kind
32:18
Speaker 9: of pattern, rather than just random chaotic violence. I tell
32:21
Speaker 9: this lots of new prosecutors. The most important witness and
32:24
Speaker 9: the most consistent witness in any murder prosecution is going
32:27
Speaker 9: to be your scene. We had to ask for an
32:29
Speaker 9: extension here because crime scene detectives spent days digging in
32:33
Speaker 9: that yard and then going through that house and being
32:37
Speaker 9: very careful to procure DNA evidence, swabbing everything, looking for fingerprints,
32:42
Speaker 9: things like that.
32:44
Speaker 6: They were very careful and making sure that they're preserving evidence.
32:49
Speaker 6: This is preserving your crime scene. Are you keeping as
32:53
Speaker 6: many people out of the crime scene as possible? Are
32:56
Speaker 6: you thinking in the future, is there something that could
33:00
Speaker 6: change my crime scene?
33:02
Speaker 1: Weather?
33:02
Speaker 6: For example, we.
33:04
Speaker 9: Had to take a lot of small, disparate pieces of
33:07
Speaker 9: evidence link him together to build a pattern that we
33:10
Speaker 9: could extrapolate. We found two bleach bottles there, which kind
33:14
Speaker 9: of indicated some kind of cleanup had happened. The ground
33:16
Speaker 9: was sticky, also indicating some kind of cleanup had occurred
33:19
Speaker 9: under there at some point.
33:28
Speaker 2: Yos me Jersey. I apologize if I ever day by
33:35
Speaker 2: over and say.
33:38
Speaker 5: I was talking to did a better my life?
33:39
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
33:41
Speaker 3: But I'm tired of it.
33:43
Speaker 2: Man.
33:46
Speaker 10: The video isn't a confession, but evidence of Weldon trying
33:50
Speaker 10: to cover his actions would help prove he was acting
33:53
Speaker 10: with intent. There were inconsistencies in his story too.
33:59
Speaker 9: It became kind of known to me that he might
34:01
Speaker 9: be saying the victims were only bound after they were killed,
34:05
Speaker 9: so that they would be easier to move, and so
34:07
Speaker 9: we had to look at the exact circumstances we found
34:09
Speaker 9: him in at that point, and the first victim, in
34:13
Speaker 9: discussions with the medical examiner, we were able to determine
34:15
Speaker 9: that she was bound in duct tape, and due to
34:18
Speaker 9: some of the lividity and the blanching of the skin,
34:21
Speaker 9: that medical examiner was going to be able to give
34:23
Speaker 9: us testimony saying that blood was still flowing at the
34:26
Speaker 9: time that those bonds were applied to the victim and
34:28
Speaker 9: that she was alive when that happened. There's a broken
34:32
Speaker 9: highwid bone in the neck, and we knew that to
34:35
Speaker 9: mean that some force had been applied manually to the neck,
34:39
Speaker 9: most likely with hands. And we got very lucky with
34:43
Speaker 9: the DNA hit from our second victim on one of
34:46
Speaker 9: the backs of the posts there, which let us know
34:48
Speaker 9: her body had at some point been underneath those basement steps,
34:53
Speaker 9: and then we found her in the garage. That was
34:55
Speaker 9: very helpful because it brought back our theory essentially that
34:58
Speaker 9: the bad things were happening to these women in the basement.
35:01
Speaker 9: And then the bodies were brought out, which showed an
35:03
Speaker 9: organized pattern, and that allowed us to start bringing in
35:07
Speaker 9: the stories of the survivors from his basement, and we
35:10
Speaker 9: were able to start applying what happened to them to
35:12
Speaker 9: what happened to the bodies that we found. Essentially, through
35:17
Speaker 9: all these pieces of evidence, it became very clear that
35:19
Speaker 9: mister Weldon knew who was a suitable victim for what
35:24
Speaker 9: he wanted to do. He knew where to procure them
35:26
Speaker 9: from and how to procure them without any resistance. There
35:29
Speaker 9: weren't reports coming in of him dragging women into his cars.
35:32
Speaker 9: He knew how to charm them in, and then he
35:34
Speaker 9: knew how far he could go with these women. If
35:37
Speaker 9: there's someone in the house, he knew he had to
35:39
Speaker 9: let them go. If he knew he had the house
35:41
Speaker 9: kind of completely unfettered for a long period of time,
35:44
Speaker 9: that's when we believe these killings were happening.
36:07
Speaker 5: When you have bodies buried in your basement, you know
36:11
Speaker 5: one of the only options left is to plead insanity,
36:15
Speaker 5: And the fact that he didn't plead insanity likely means
36:19
Speaker 5: he was evaluated and was told is that attorneys were
36:22
Speaker 5: told that he doesn't make the insanity defense. He wasn't
36:25
Speaker 5: legally insane at the time he committed these crimes.
36:28
Speaker 9: This was definitely premeditated and well thought out by him.
36:33
Speaker 8: People evaluated him and said, bad news. You're not insane.
36:41
Speaker 4: To discover that a human being was capable of really
36:47
Speaker 4: torturing victims systematically in that home, and the deaths that
36:54
Speaker 4: those three women experienced in what mister Weldon did in
37:00
Speaker 4: frankly a ham handed attempt to cover up his crimes,
37:05
Speaker 4: is very unique. It's something that I have not seen
37:08
Speaker 4: otherwise and I hope to never see again.
37:27
Speaker 6: We see the posting down in a session, they'll talk
37:29
Speaker 6: a leaven.
37:38
Speaker 11: Many of these women didn't come forward because they were
37:40
Speaker 11: terrified about what happened to them, based on who they were,
37:43
Speaker 11: how they lived, what they were going through. They didn't
37:46
Speaker 11: think anyone would believe them or care about what happened
37:48
Speaker 11: to them. The only good thing that comes from this
37:50
Speaker 11: case your honor. Now they know that that's not true.
37:55
Speaker 11: When America, Ernestine and Kayla were in his house, he
37:58
Speaker 11: knew he had that house to himself for an extended
38:00
Speaker 11: period of time. He knew he would not.
38:02
Speaker 3: Be interrupted, were disturbed, and he would have time to
38:05
Speaker 3: do what he needed.
38:08
Speaker 11: He tailored his lies and the cover up about this
38:10
Speaker 11: case depending on who he was talking to, He would
38:13
Speaker 11: explain the smell in a way that was designed to
38:15
Speaker 11: cause the least amount of alarm to his audience. He
38:19
Speaker 11: tailored these lies about the smell while searching the internet
38:22
Speaker 11: on how to remove the smell of dead animal carcasses, always.
38:25
Speaker 1: Careful to never search them as dead bodies.
38:28
Speaker 11: The intent for what he did here is all over
38:31
Speaker 11: this case.
38:44
Speaker 3: Kelly was a daughter, a sister, and a mother. She
38:48
Speaker 3: could light up her room with her smile, with her laughter.
38:53
Speaker 3: Her love for her friends and her family never dwindled,
38:56
Speaker 3: but instead it grew every day. She could love with
38:59
Speaker 3: the power of a thousand hearts. She never gave up
39:02
Speaker 3: on the things that it most of her.
39:10
Speaker 7: There are no words to describe the thing in my heart.
39:13
Speaker 2: That started the day I found out my mom was one.
39:15
Speaker 7: Of the defendants victims.
39:18
Speaker 2: The feelings of her sadness, confusion, loneliness, regret, and most
39:22
Speaker 2: of all, anger are just a few of my daily
39:25
Speaker 2: emotions now. I look up every day opening that this
39:29
Speaker 2: was all the bad dream, and lived there when I
39:32
Speaker 2: realized it was real. They they say timing of all wounds,
39:38
Speaker 2: but your own her.
39:38
Speaker 7: I don't feel like this is a wound that will
39:40
Speaker 7: ever heal.
39:42
Speaker 1: I missed my.
39:42
Speaker 2: Mom for three months. I wondered every single day where
39:57
Speaker 2: she was.
39:57
Speaker 10: Is she okay?
39:59
Speaker 2: I meant I would see her again. The dan Gaber
40:02
Speaker 2: that still wasn't aware she was playing alone in a dirty,
40:06
Speaker 2: dark rid.
40:09
Speaker 7: My life crumbled and stopped the minute the detectives came
40:14
Speaker 7: to my door. I'll never forget those moments. Every day
40:20
Speaker 7: I am haunted by memories and images.
40:24
Speaker 3: I will never be whole again.
40:28
Speaker 7: The defendant took away my daughter, nice, sweet little angel,
40:35
Speaker 7: Kila Jean.
40:37
Speaker 1: Thank your own, mister storre Welding.
40:43
Speaker 2: The consideration of this offense quote orders that you begin
40:46
Speaker 2: fine at MC I see inter junction for the term
40:50
Speaker 2: of your natural life.
40:55
Speaker 1: To give voice to people who are downtrodden.
41:00
Speaker 4: To give a sense of respect to people who have
41:03
Speaker 4: really been at the lowest rungs of society for a
41:05
Speaker 4: very long time.
41:07
Speaker 1: To give a sense of purpose and meaning to people who.
41:10
Speaker 4: Are suffering from addiction and are suffering from mental health issues,
41:15
Speaker 4: to give them worth through this process is really very
41:19
Speaker 4: special work. I want to give credit to our team,
41:24
Speaker 4: and in particular Assistant District Attorney Max Bennett, who pieced
41:29
Speaker 4: together a case and worked with great compassion, in great
41:35
Speaker 4: fortitude to give the murder victims, families and the living
41:40
Speaker 4: victims a sense of dignity, a sense of closure, a
41:46
Speaker 4: sense of justice around the horrible.
41:49
Speaker 1: Things that happened to them or happened to their loved ones.
41:52
Speaker 3: There's nothing I could say that he's the pain.
41:57
Speaker 1: Of the families of the victims.
41:59
Speaker 2: And this is.
42:02
Speaker 5: Stuart Wildon's victims were at a very desperate one in
42:06
Speaker 5: their lives, and they were all battling addiction and trying
42:10
Speaker 5: to beat it. And it can be easy to forget
42:13
Speaker 5: that these were women who had children. Often they were sisters,
42:20
Speaker 5: they were daughters, they had interest, you know, they loved
42:26
Speaker 5: their families, and they really were much more than that
42:32
Speaker 5: snapshot of what they were struggling with when they died
43:03
Speaker 6: There making a fe