Latest / Crime and Horror / This television exec was attacked in his sleep - MrBallen

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This television exec was attacked in his sleep - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: In October of nineteen ninety nine, a nine to one
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: to one dispatcher in Austin, Texas was nearing the end
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: of a long night shift when a strange call came in.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: The caller was a man who just said his guts
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: had been blown out of his stomach. The dispatcher asked
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: him to explain what actually happened, but the caller wouldn't say.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: He just kept saying that he had woken up and
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: his guts were hanging out, and now he's holding his
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: guts in with his hand, and he needed an ambulance
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: right now. But before we get into that story, if
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered
• 0:31
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• 0:34
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• 0:42
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• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into today's story. On the night of
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: October first, nineteen ninety nine, a seventy five year old
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: man named Steve Beard sat on the patio of his
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: mansion in Austin, Texas, sipping on a cocktail, and it
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: was a great night, warm evening, the leaves rustling in
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: the trees all around his property, and behind his house
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: there was this creek that was flowing along, and in
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: the house he could hear his wife, Celeste, washing the dishes.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: So Steve had met Celeste only about six years ago.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: It was actually shortly after his first wife, Elise, had
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: died of cancer. And Steve had been with his first
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: wife for forty five years and they'd raised three kids together,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: and he'd just been totally lost after she had passed away,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: and really after she had died, he had spent a
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: lot of nights just sitting alone at the Austin Country Club,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: where actually Celeste had been working as a waitress. Celeste
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: was only thirty years old at the time, which meant
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: she was almost forty years younger than Steve, but there
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: had been an immediate spark between them, and they gotten
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: married just over a year later. Now, some of Steve's
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: friends and family had immediately assumed that, you know, given
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: this age gap, that Celeste was simply after Steve for
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: his money.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Steve, after all.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Had made a fortune as a business owner and a
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: TV station executive, and he was worth about.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Ten million dollars.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: But Steve knew that money could not possibly be the
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: only thing Celeste saw in him. I mean, he knew
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: that he took great care of Celeste, and also he
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: took great care of her twin teenage daughters. I mean,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: he really helped give Celeste and her girls the stability
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: that they desperately needed. However, despite that stability, one thing
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: that Celeste had always struggled with for much.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Of her life was depression.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: And in fact, earlier that year, it had gotten so
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: bad that Celeste had actually tried to end her own life.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: And you know, she had failed.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: She had lived, but as a result of that attempt,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: she had spent a few weeks in a psychiatric hospital. Now,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: of course, that was a really traumatic and awful thing
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: for the family, but from Steve's perspective, the upside of
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: this was that Celeste was put on some new medication
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: as a result of this hospital stay. She had made
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: some good friends actually while she was at the hospital,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: and to Steve, it just seemed like you know, maybe
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: now things were starting to maybe turn around for Celeste
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: and to Steve. The fact that Celeste appeared to be
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: on the right path again was great timing because recently
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Steve had actually been dealing with health problems of his own.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Twice in the past few months, Steve had passed out
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: and actually had to be hospitalized himself. The doctors told
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: him he had high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and he
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: had some heart and kidney issues, but they actually couldn't
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: quite figure out why he was fainting.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: They just knew he had, you know, several symptoms going on.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Now, Steve thought it was very likely stress related and
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: he just needed to relax. So in fact, in two
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: days for now, he was going to be taking Celeste
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: on a three week vacation around Europe. After everything Celeste
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: had been through that year, and also you know, Steve
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: had been through as well with his own medical issues,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: he felt like they both could use some time away,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: just the two of them. But now, when Steve got
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: up from a seat out on the patio of his
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: home and he put the empty cocktail glass down on
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: the table, and he turned and he opened the glass
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: door that led into the bedroom, he saw that even
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: though he'd already packed his suitcase for this European trip,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: you know, several days ago, Celeste's suitcase was still empty
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: in the closet, and Steve couldn't help it feel like
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: it seems like Celeste might be getting cold feet about
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: this European vacation, like she should have been packed already,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: and she's clearly putting it off. So Steve left the
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: bedroom and he went down the hallway and went into
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: the kitchen, where he found Celeste cleaning up. And when
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: he got in there as gently as he could, he
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: told Celeste, Hey, you know, when you get a chance,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: you really ought to pack, and she told him, oh,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: don't worry about it.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: You know, she'd just been busy all week. She'd get
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: to it.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Steve nodded, but wasn't really convinced that she actually intended
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: to pack soon. But he said okay, and then he
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: looked over at the clock, and even though it was
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: barely nine pm, he felt exhausted. So he told Celeste
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: he was going to go to bed, and she told
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: him that she actually intended to stay up for a
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: bit longer. One of her daughters was having a sleepover
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: at the family's lake house that night, and she said
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: that she might go over there and just check on
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: them later. Selesse told Steve that when she returned from
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: doing that, she would sleep in a different room to
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: avoid waking him up. Steve thanked her and gave her
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: a kiss good night, and then he turned and walked
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: back down the hallway back.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Into the bedroom.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: He got ready for bed, climbed into bed, and then
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: he put on his oxygen mask because he had sleep apnea,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: and then he pulled the covers up and he drifted
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: off to sleep. Hours later, around three am, Steve woke
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: up and immediately he felt this horrible pain in his stomach,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: and even though it was dark in his room, he
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: looked down. You know, he's got the mask still on
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: his face, and he could tell there was something on
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: his stomach, and he reached down instinctively and abed at
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: his stomach, and he felt something wet on his hands,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: and so in a panic, he ripped off his mask
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: and he kind of sat up to look down at
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: his abdomen. But as he did, just the pain he
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: felt intensified so much just by trying to sit up
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: that he fell back down, and so he reached over
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: and he clicked on the light and he looked down
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: and there was blood all over his stomach, like all
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: over the sheets, everywhere, And so he begins screaming out
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: for Celeste. And as he's screaming like, the pain is
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: only getting worse and worse, and Celeste is not coming
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: in the room, she's not even responding. And so as
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: he's looking down like completely panic stricken, watching all this
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: blood coming out of his gut, he has no idea
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: how this is happening. He just reached over and grabbed
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: the phone and he dialed nine one one. Just minutes later,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: a squad car from the Travis County Sheriff's Department pulled
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: up outside of Steve's house with its lights flashing. Deputy
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Alan Howard climbed out of that car and he saw
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: a fire captain and another pair of deputies on the
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: front step pounding on the door. All Deputy Howard knew
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: was that a man in this home had called in
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: with some kind of medical emergency, but the dispatcher had
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: not quite understood what was wrong with him, and so
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Howard just ran over to the front door, and there
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: the other deputies told him that so far, nobody was
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: answering their knocks. Howard knew at this point, you know,
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  Speaker 1: time is of the essence.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: They had to get in and make.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Sure this person was okay, And so he didn't want
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: to just sit out here and wait any longer. So
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: he left the front porch and he went along the
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: side of the house to see if there was maybe
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: another door that was unlocked somewhere else. And so as
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Howard went around to the side of the property, the
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: other deputies followed him, and then Howard. He eventually found
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: this flight of stairs that went up to a patio
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: attached to a bedroom, and so up Howard.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: Went, the deputies followed.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: They got up there and they looked into the house
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: and they saw a light was on, and.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Then through the glass door they could all see there.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Was an elderly man laying in bed with a telephone
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  Speaker 1: receiver in one hand and his other hand appeared to
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: be just covered in blood. Howard walked up to the
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: door and tried to open it, but it was locked.
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  Speaker 2: So he pulled out his heavy duty.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Flashlight and he broke the glass, reached in, unlocked it,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: and slow the door open. Then Howard ran into the
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: bedroom and when he got right next to the bed,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: he looked at this man who was still conscious, but
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: he had a gaping hole in his stomach, like his
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: intestines were literally spilling out, and that's why his other
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: hand was so covered in blood. It was like he
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: was trying to hold his intestines inside of himself. Howard
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: asked the guy what happened, and the old man just
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: said he had no idea.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: He'd just woken up and his guts were coming out.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: At this point, the fire captain came into the room,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: and while he knelt down with his first aid kit
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: to try to bandage up this man's wounds, Howard began
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: looking around the bedroom for any clue about what was
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: going on here, and he noticed something that was round
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: and yellow lying on the carpet, so he'd bent down
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: to get a better look, and he saw that the round,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: yellow thing was a shotgun shell. And so at this
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: point it seemed fairly obvious that this man has been
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: shot in the stomach with a shotgun. But Howard's also
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: realizing that whoever pulled the trigger.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Might still be in the house.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: So at this point Howard drew his own weapon and
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: he crept slowly out into the hallway, and as Howard
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: began searching the rest of the house, he didn't find anybody.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: But what he did find is there were lots of
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: other entry points into the home, lots of doors and windows,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: And eventually, when he found his way into the living room,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: he saw there was another set of sliding glass doors,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: and he walked right up to it and he found
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: they were unlocked. Howard also saw that a table lamp
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: in this living room was overturned, suggesting that somebody might
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: have knocked it over while coming in or out.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Of the house.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: And so Howard continued searching the living room, and then
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: he found his way into the dining room and then
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: the kitchen, and then he went down a hallway into
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: another wing of the house, and there he opened another
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: door to a bedroom and he found there was a
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: woman inside sleeping in her bed, totally sound asleep. At
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: this point, Howard lowered the weapon and he flipped on
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: a light, and the woman immediately startled awake, and she
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: was about to ask, like, what's go went on here,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: but Howard just stopped her, and he told her that
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: he was with the sheriff's department and they were here
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: responding to a nine to one one call, and he
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: told her that the man in the other room was
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: very badly injured and he had called.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Nine to one one.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: And so the woman, you know, as she's processing what
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: she's being told, she began sobbing hysterically and then just
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: begged Howard not to let her husband die. And then
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: a second later, in the midst of all this chaos,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: this teenage girl comes running in the room and goes
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: right to the woman, and she she grabs her the
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: way a child would grab their mother, and they're sort
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: of like holding each other. And Deputy Howard like he's
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: looking for potentially a shooter in the house. But just
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: from the looks of it, it appeared very much like
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: this is a woman who's very shocked, very shaken up
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: by this. The girl, the teenager, as well, appears equally shocked.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: But just to be sure, Howard asked this woman to
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: identify herself, and through tears, she would say that her
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: name was Celeste Beard, and that very likely the victim here,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: the person you're talking about, the man, is her husband,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Stephen Beard. And then she also said that the teenage
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: girl was her daughter. And so now Howard feeling pretty
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: confident that these are just victims.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: He told them to.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Just stay put, that he was going to search the
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: rest of the house and just make sure that the
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: house was safe. And so Howard he leaves the room.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: He can still hear them crying behind him, and he searches.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: The rest of the house. Huge house, but he searches every.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Room and there's nobody there, and so it appeared that
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: whoever had shot Steve was gone.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: This is a paid partnership with ZocDoc.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: We spend a lot of time researching cases where things
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: went wrong, where people ignored warning signs and told themselves
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: everything was fine until it wasn't. Unfortunately, health can be similar.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Most of us know we should go to the doctor more,
• 11:52
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• 11:55
  Speaker 1: I've definitely put off appointments before, not because they weren't important,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: but because finding a doctor and checking insurance and getting
• 12:04
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• 12:05
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  Speaker 1: the description to book today. Thanks to ZocDoc for partnering
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: with us. Around five thirty am on October second, nineteen
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: ninety nine, so about two and a half hours after
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Steve Beard called nine one one, Sergeant Paul Knight walked
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: through the waiting room at a hospital in Austin, Texas.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: Knight was a criminal investigator for the Travis County Sheriff's Department,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: and he'd been called in to lead the investigation into
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: this shooting. Knight stopped at the front desk and he
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: spoke to a nurse who told him that Steve Beard
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: was in critical condition, so questioning him would not be
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: possible right now. Sergeant Knight nodded and gave the nurses
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: card and asked them to give him a call if
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Steve's condition ever stabilized. As Knight turned to leave, he
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: quickly scanned the waiting room and he saw in the
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: corner there was a deputy speaking to a woman who
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: appeared to be in her thirties, as well as a
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: teenage girl.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: The deputy waved to Night and.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Called him over, and so Knight went over and he
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: introduced himself. The woman told Knight that she was Steve's wife, Celeste,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: and the girl was her daughter, Christina, and Knight, you know,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: he said hello to them, but he knew that he
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: had to do something that was going to come off
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: as pretty insensitive, but he really had to do it
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: as soon as possible. So after just you know, exchanging
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: some pleasant trees, he sat down and pulled out a
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: gunpowder residue test kit, and then he asked Celeste and
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Christina if he could swab their hands before they began
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: really getting into any sort of conversation here. And Celeste
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: looked really surprised and asked if she was a suspect,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: and Knight explained that really at this point everybody was
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: a suspect, and so swabbing them for gunpowder would be
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: the quickest way to rule them both out. So Celeste,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: who was still very clearly shaken up, she just put
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: both her hands out and Knight ran a test strip
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: across both of them, and then after that, Christina put
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: her hands out and he tested her hands as well,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: and then he waited for the test strips to develop,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: and about a minute later he confirmed that they were
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: both negative, meaning neither of them had fired a gun recently.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: And so with this test out of the way, Knight's
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: entire demeanor sort of softened, and he asked Celeste to
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: just walk him through what had happened that night. She
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: told him that her husband, Steve, had gone to bed
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: around nine or nine thirty, and shortly after that she
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: had left their home home and driven over to the
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: family's lake house to check on her other daughter, Jennifer
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: and her friends who were having a.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Sleep over there. She said the lake house was about
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: a half.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: An hour away, and so by the time she finally
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: came back after checking on Jennifer and the other girls,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: she said, it was about midnight, and you know, she
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: walked in the house and it was quiet, there was
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: nothing unusual, and she said she went straight to bed,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: and she said she actually chose to sleep in a
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: different room than Steve because Steve had gone to bed
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: earlier and she had told him she didn't want to
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: wake him up if she came home late, and so
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: she was doing him a courtesy by sleeping in this
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: other room. Knight asked Celeste if she knew anybody who
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: might be mad at her husband, or who might want
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: to hurt him for any reason, and she said no,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: but she did say that the previous afternoon, her husband
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: had gone out and.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: Cashed a really big check.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: He was going to give some cash to her twin daughters,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: you know, while she and Steve were going to be
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: in Europe. He wanted to give the kids some spending
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: money while they were away, and it was quite a
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: bit of money. And so she said, you know, maybe
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: somebody at the bank saw him cashing that check, knew
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: he had a bunch of money on him.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: Maybe they followed him home to rob him.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: And so Night and Celeste spoke for a little bit longer,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: and then when Knight was done questioning her, Celeste got
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: up and said she was going to go outside and
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: smoke a cigarette.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: And as she left, Knight turned to her.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Daughter, Christina, and asked her about what she'd seen and
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: heard from the previous night. Christina said she had been
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: asleep all night until around three point thirty in the morning,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: when she had woken up to police lights flashing outside
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: her window. And as she continued to tell her story
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: of what happened, Knight noticed that she was being really
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: careful about what she was saying, not like she was
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: trying to remember some concocted story, but rather it was
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: like she was literally trying her best to actually remember,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: like she was struggling to remember just what amounted to
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: a pretty traumatic and very chaotic night. But before Knight
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: could ask any more follow up questions, another girl, another teenager,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: who looked exactly like Christina, ran into the waiting room,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: and immediately Christina got up to go over and hugger,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: and when the two girls pulled away from each other,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Knight noticed that both of these girls were sobbing and
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: they really were just like identical. Christina introduced this new
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: girl as her twin sister, Jennifer, and then just a
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: few seconds after that, two teenage boys came through the
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: hospital door and they hurried over to join the group,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: and as they all sat down. Christina explained that the
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: two boys were her and Jennifer's boyfriends. After Christina briefly
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: updated her sister, Jennifer, and the two boyfriends about the
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: condition of her stepfather, Knight turned to Jennifer and just
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: asked her to please walk him through where she had been,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: you know, the previous night, and Jennifer would say, you know,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: she had been at the family's lake house. She was
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: there with her boyfriend and one other friend. She'd been
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: there all night, and then when they had found out
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: something had happened to Steve, they had all rushed here
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: as soon as they could, and so night. He asked
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: the girls if either of them knew anyone who might
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: want to harm their stepfather, And as soon as he
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: asked that, Knight noticed the two teenage girls. They shared
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: this quick, knowing look between themselves. At this point, Christina
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: turned back Tonight and said there was only one person
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: she could think of who would do something like this,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: a woman named Tracy Tarlton. She explained that Tracy was
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: a friend of her mother's and they'd met earlier that
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: year at a psychiatric hospital where they had both been patients.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: But Christina said there was just something off about their friendship.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Tracy seemed like really unstable, and Christina got the feeling
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: that she was actually in love with their mom. And
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: as soon as she said this, all four of the
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: teens just sort of nodded knowingly, like this was something
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: they definitely had talked about internally, and then they all
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: began to agree out loud that Tracy very likely was
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: the one who did this. And then a minute later,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: a fifth teenager came running into the hospital and they
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: joined the group, and Jennifer introduced her as another friend.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Her name was Amy Cozart and she had been the
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: other friends sleeping over at the lake house that night.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: And Amy, who literally had just joined and heard no
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: context to this point about anything the other teenagers had said.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: You know, when she was asked pretty much right away
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: by night if she knew of anyone who might have
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: wanted to hurt Steve, she didn't hesitate.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: She just said, oh, Tracy Tarlton.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Later that afternoon, around three o'clock, Sergeant Knight knocked on
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: the front door of Tracy Tarlton's very unassuming ranch style
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: house in a working class part of Austin, Texas. While
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: running a check on Tracy to confirm her address. He'd
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: also discovered that she had a weapons permit for a
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: twenty gage shotgun, the same caliber as the casing that
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: was found inside the crime scene. Tracy answered the door
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: pretty much right away, as if she had been waiting
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: for someone to come by, and Night, after introducing himself,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: told her that Steve Beard.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: Had been shot.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: And when he said this, he didn't notice any shock
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: on Tracy's face. Instead, Tracy actually looked scared. Knight asked
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Tracy if she had any idea who might have shot Steve,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: and she said no, But then she asked if she
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: needed a lawyer, and Knight said, well, that's up to you,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: and then before she could really react to that, he
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: asked her if he could come inside, and Tracy just
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: sort of turned and led him into the living room.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Knight walked in, he sat down, and he just continued
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: talking to Tracy, and so he asked her about her
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: relationship with Celeste, and she said that yes, they had
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: met at a psychiatric hospital when they were both being
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: treated earlier that year for suicide attempts. And then sort
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: of unannounced, she told the detective that at first, when
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: she had met Celeste. Her feelings towards Celeste had not
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: been platonic. They had been romantic. She had been interested
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: in Celeste as a partner, but she then quickly clarified
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: and said that was in the past and that.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: Now they really were just friends.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: And so Knight took stock of this and didn't really
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: ask too many follow up questions on their relationship, and
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: instead he just said, okay, well, where were you the
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: night before? And Tracy said she had been here at
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: her house the whole time.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: She said that she had ordered pizza.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: And she'd had a few beers and then had just
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: gone to bed. Knight asked her if she owned a gun,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: and Tracy said yes, but she only used it for
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: skeet shooting. Night asked if he could see her gun,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: and so Tracy got up, and she walked over and
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: opened up a closet and she pulled out a shotgun
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: in a zipperd case. Night asked her if he could
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: take her gun down to the ballistics department, and Tracy
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: definitely hesitated for.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: A moment, but then she was like sure.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Later that same day, Sergeant Knight walked through the crime
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: scene at the Beard mansion looking for any clues that
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: the investigators might have missed during the initial search. Celeste's
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: twin daughters, Christina and Jennifer, had actually come with him
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: to help point out anything that could be out of
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: place that he wouldn't necessarily notice. Inside of Steve's bedroom,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Knight saw that some of the drawers and closets had
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: been left open, as if they had been ransacked by
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: a burglar. But something about the whole scene just didn't
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: seem right. The drawers, they didn't appear to have been
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: like ripped open as if somebody was in a rush.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: They had been pulled out really carefully, and inside the
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: drawer things were basically pretty neat and so tonight this
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: didn't really appear to be a burglary. He suspected that
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: someone might have staged the crime scene to appear to
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: be a burglary to throw off the investigation. However, just
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: for good measure, he asked the twin girls to look
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: through all of these open drawers and closets to see
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: if you can identify anything that was missing. And so
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: the girls began looking around, and eventually Christina said that
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: she couldn't find Steven's watch or his sapphire ring. Now,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: on the one hand, this might give credit to the
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: idea that this really was a burglary gone wrong. You know,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: that Steve was just sort of in the wrong place
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: at the wrong time and got shot by the burglar.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: But tonight this development that these two small items were
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: gone actually only seemed to confirm the idea that this
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: was not a burglary gone wrong, because this whole house
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: was chalk full of nice jewelry and antiques. There's so
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: many other things in the house that could have been
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: taken that were obvious, that were not taken. And so
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: night he left the bedroom, walked down the hallway and
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: went into the living room, and there, looking around at
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: all this obviously very expensive furniture and vases and paintings
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: and all this stuff that's super valuable all over the place,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: he began to consider another possibility that maybe somebody in
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: the family had killed Steve for the inheritance. I mean,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: this guy clearly is loaded.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Knight didn't know what Steve's will said yet, but he
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: knew that along with his two step daughters, he had
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: three adult children from his first marriage, and all of
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: them very likely stood to inherit millions of dollars when
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: he died. And then there was Steve's wife, Celeste, who
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: was less than half his age. It was hard not
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: to wonder if she'd simply married him for his money,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: and so it wasn't really a far cry to wonder
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: if maybe she had been involved in the shooting, because
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: if he dies, maybe she'd get all of his money.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: And so as Night was thinking about this and wondering
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: back down the hallway, he noticed a trap door in
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: the ceiling that led to an attic that he hadn't
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: noticed before.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: So curious, he reached up.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: And pulled open the door, and then he climbed up
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: the ladder that came down, and before he was in
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: the attic and up in the attic he saw there
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: was a box lying on the floor just a few
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: feet away, and you know where everything else in the
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: attic had been totally covered in dust and cobwebs.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: This box was not.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: It was perfectly clean, as if it had only been
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: put up here pretty recently. So he grabbed the box
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: and he opened the lid up and inside was a
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: twenty gage shotgun. Night knew this could be extremely important
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: to this case, so he immediately packaged up the box,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: picked it up, and he carried it down the ladder
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: back down to the main floor, and when he got
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: down there, he saw one of the twin girls, Jennifer,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: staring at him, looking really nervous. She rushed to explain
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: that that shotgun she had purchased as an anniversary gift
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: for her boyfriend, and she was just keeping it up there,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: out of sight until it was time to give it
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: to him. She swore the gun had never been fired,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: and she had not even taken it out of the
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: box yet. Now Knight heard what she said, but he
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: held onto the box because he still was going to
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: bring it back to the ballistics department right away to
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: have it tested. I mean, it seemed very odd to
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: him that Jennifer hadn't mentioned until now that there was
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: a gun in the house, and that it just happened
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: to be the exact same gun, same caliber as the
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: weapon that was used to shoot Steve.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: Now, Jennifer did have an alibi.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: She had been at the Lake House at that sleepover
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: thirty miles away on the night of Steve's shooting, but
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: her sister Christina had been home the whole night, and
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Knight had to wonder if maybe the two sisters had
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: plotted together to kill their stepfather, maybe for his money.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: After all, it just seemed weirdly convenient that Jennifer, Christina,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: their boyfriends, their other friend Amy, had all without any hesitation,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: named Tracy Tarlton as the suspect. It just seemed like
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: something here was not quite adding up. That evening, Detective
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Knight went back to the hospital and the nurse at
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the front desk told him that Steve was out of
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: surgery and was stable enough to finally have visitors. She
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: gave him Steve's room number and then let him through. However,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: when he got down the hallway to Steve's room, he
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: saw this handwritten sign taped to the door that said
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: no law enforcement personnel allowed to interview patient except in
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: the presence of his attorney. And as Knight was processing
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: this pretty surprising sign, out of nowhere, Steve's wife, Celeste,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: came rushing down the hallway and literally blocked him from
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: going into the room. She said that, for one, she
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: was not going to allow any further searches of her
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: and Steve's house, and if police wanted to speak to
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: her husband, they'd have to go through the family's lawyer
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: and Knight, I mean, he was stunned by this because
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: in all his years on the force he had never
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: seen a victim hire a defense attorney. And then more
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: than that, Knight wasn't even sure if Steve was the.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: One who made this decision.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, Steve was stable now, but he really had
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: no idea if he was actually conscious.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: You know, was it Steve who decided to put up
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: this roadblock or was it Celeste.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: So at this point Knight really didn't know what he
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: was legally allowed to do here, and so, you know,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: using an abundance of caution, he just turned around and left,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: at least for now. And as he walked out of
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: the hospital, he tried to make sense of why Celeste
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: was suddenly.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: Being so defensive.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: You know, even if she was not the one who
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: made this decision, the way she had just treated him.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: In the hallway was just very aggressive.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: And then he began to wonder if maybe she had
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: heard about the gun that he had found in their
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: attic and was now trying to just protect her daughters,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: or maybe she was trying to protect herself. On the
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: afternoon of October seventh, so five days after Steve Beard
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: was shot. Sergeant Paul Knight looked through a folder of
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: interview notes at his desk. By this point, he'd spoken
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: to all three of Steve's own children, his adult children,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: but they were all ruled out as suspects because they
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: all lived hours away and had solid alibis. When Knight
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: had asked one of Steve's sons if he knew who
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: might have done this, he had told the detective to
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: look into Celeste. I mean, after all, pretty much they
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: all thought she was in this marriage for.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: Money to begin with. But you know, Knight had.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Tested Celeste for gunshot residue right after the shooting, so
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: he knew she literally could not have been the one
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: who pulled the trigger. And so at this point tonight,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: it just sort of felt like the entire family was
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: just pointing fingers at each other. But at the same time,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Knight did feel like at least one family member on
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: some side of the family was likely involved in the shooting.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: There was just frankly too much money at stake here.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: In particular, it was definitely suspicious that Celeste's daughter Jennifer
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: had a twenty gage shotgun in the attic and on
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: top of that that she and her twin sister Christina
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: and all of their friends had immediately pointed the finger
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: at Tracy Tarlton. And then as for Tracy, I mean,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: she did have a pretty weak alibi, and she did
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: own a twenty gage shotgun, but despite that, she had
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: absolutely no history of doing anything violent like this, and
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: she was remarkably cooperative and had even handed over her
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: shotgun for analysis without really any fight at all. And
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: so at this point Knight knew he really just needed
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: to speak directly to Steve, but the family's attorney was
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: preventing the police from seeing him, and Night wasn't sure
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: how stable his condition was or really how much longer
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: he would even be alive for, so like this was
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: a very tenuous situation. But just then Knight noticed something
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: out of the corner of his eye, and he looked
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: up and he saw there was another detective in the
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: doorway of his office, just sort of leaning there with
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: a big smile on their face. Knight asked them what
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: was going on, and the detective walked over and handed
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: him a manila folder and he told him this was
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: a forensics report. They had just gotten back a piece
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: of evidence that had been found at the crime scene
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: may have just cracked the entire case. Based on forensic evidence, confessions,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: and witness interviews, this is what police believe happened to
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Steve Beard in the early morning hours of October second,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine, around two thirty am. The killer turned
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: off their headlights as they drove toward the Beard mansion.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: They parked at the back entrance to the property, far
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: away from the house so the noise of their engine wouldn't.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: Wake anybody up inside.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: They got out of the car, slung a shotgun over
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: their shoulder, and began walking through the trees towards the mansion.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: And as the patio came into view, they stopped.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: They felt sick and they actually didn't want to go
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: through with this, but they had made a promise they
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: had to do it, so they swallowed their fear and
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: continued walking towards the mansion. And when they got right
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: to the steps that would lead up to the patio,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: they went to the right and they walked to a
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: separate door that led into the living room. That glass
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: door was unlocked, so they opened it up. They stepped inside,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: and then once inside, they navigated their way to the
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: main bedroom, and when they went inside the main bedroom,
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: they found Steve asleep in his bed.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: The killer walked to the foot of the bed.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: And just stared at Steve for a second, and then
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: when they were ready, they raised the shotgun and they're
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: shaking hands and they pulled the trigger and the blast
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: was deafening. Blood began pouring out of Steve's abdomen. Immediately,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: the killer reflexively racked the shotgun, ejecting the shotgun shell,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: getting ready to fire a second time if need be.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: But then, you know, Steve, he began fumbling for the
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: nightstand like he was maybe reaching for a weapon of
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: his own. And the killer at this point, they're reaching
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: down on the ground trying to find the spent shotgun
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: shell to take that with them, but they're so scared
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: that Steve's about to shoot them, and so they just
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: abandoned the shotgun shell, and then with their shotgun, the
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: killer runs out of the bedroom, down the hallway, back
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: out through the living room, back out the same door
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: they came in, knocking that lamp over in the process.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: They shut the doors.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: Behind them and ran to their car, and from there
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: they drove to a safe location where they washed their hands,
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: they threw their clothes into the washer, and then they
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: very thoroughly cleaned their shotgun, and then after it was
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: pristine again, they put the shotgun back into storage. The
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: killer was in fact Tracy Tarlton, Celeste's friend from the hospital,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: who all the kids had said she's the one who
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: did this.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: Well, it was her.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: The shell that was found on Steve's floor came back
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: from ballistics as an exact match for Tracy's shotgun, and
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: so she was arrested on October eighth, less than a
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: week after the shooting. And then after she was arrested,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: she confessed to the killing and said that ultimately she
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: had killed Steve because she was in love with Celeste
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: and she wanted Celeste all to herself. However, a few
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: months later, in January of two thousand, Steve actually died
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: from his injuries, and after that a news story began
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: to emerge. It turned out that Tracy's love for Celeste
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: was not one sided. The two women had been having
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: a full blown affair for months before the murder. In fact,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: Celeste had begun secretly slipping ever clear in Steve's cocktails,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: which is more than twice as strong as the vodka
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: that Steve thought he was drinking, and so basically, Celeste
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: would get Steve really really drunk and get him to
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: pass out, and then once he would pass out, Celeste
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: would go sneak off and spend the night with Tracy.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: According to Tracy, Celeste had asked her to kill Steve
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: so they could be together, and so for the first
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: few months after Tracy's arrest, Tracy kept her mouth shut
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: about Celeste's involvement. But then five months after Steve died,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Celeste got remarried to a man that she had just met,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: and that's when Tracy realized that Celeste was not really
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: in love with her. She had been using her to
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: get rid of Steve so she could inherit all his money.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: And so when this happened, Tracy was so hurt by
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: what Celeste had done that she began telling the real
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: truth with the authorities, and eventually she agreed to testify
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: against Celeste, and so, based on Tracy's testimony, Celeste was
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: arrested on March twenty eight, two thousand and two. She
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: was eventually found guilty of Steve's murder and sentenced to
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: life in prison. Tracy was also convicted of murder, but
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: because of her cooperation, her sentence was reduced to just
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: twenty years and she was actually released on parole in
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: twenty eleven.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: the comments, and remember, we have a whole playlist of
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: true crime episodes ready for you to binge right now,
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: so click here and give them a watch.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see ya,