Latest / Crime and Horror / Never trust the members of a SECRET SOCIETY - MR BALLEN

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Never trust the members of a SECRET SOCIETY - MR BALLEN · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to tell you two stories that both
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Speaker 1: have very unexpected killers. But before we get into those stories,
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Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious
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Speaker 1: delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place,
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Speaker 1: brand new graphic novel Where Nightmares Live, but make sure
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Speaker 2: Okay, let's get into today's stories.
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Speaker 1: On the morning of September twelfth, two thousand and seven,
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Speaker 1: twenty year old Ashley Wallace was in her dorm room
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Speaker 1: at Bryant and Stratton College in Buffalo, New York, getting
1:00
Speaker 1: ready for her very first day of classes. And this
1:02
Speaker 1: was really exciting for her. I mean, she had just
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Speaker 1: moved out on her own for the first time. You know,
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Speaker 1: it feels like she's an adult here, and so today
1:09
Speaker 1: was a big day.
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Speaker 2: You know. She looked herself in the mirror and made
1:12
Speaker 2: sure her look was just right.
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Speaker 1: She gathered up all her books and her journals and
1:16
Speaker 1: all the stuff she would need, and then once she
1:18
Speaker 1: was ready, she began heading towards the door. But before
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Speaker 1: she got there, she heard a knock on her door,
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Speaker 1: and Ashley felt sort of confused, like she hadn't lived
1:27
Speaker 1: here long enough for people to actually know she lived here,
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Speaker 1: so who.
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Speaker 2: Would be coming to visit her?
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Speaker 1: And she certainly didn't have any plans to see anybody today,
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Speaker 1: and so she's thinking, like, I have no idea who
1:39
Speaker 1: could be at my door right now. So she walks
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Speaker 1: to the door, she opens it up, and she is
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Speaker 1: truly shocked now to see who's standing there. But her
1:46
Speaker 1: shock quickly turns into fear. So there were two police
1:50
Speaker 1: officers standing in the hallway looking right at Ashley, and
1:53
Speaker 1: the looks on their faces were very serious. Now, Ashley,
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Speaker 1: the reason she felt so scared when she saw these
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Speaker 1: police officers was not because she had, you know, done
2:01
Speaker 1: something wrong. It was because in her life, you know,
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Speaker 1: before she got to college, she had experienced some pretty
2:07
Speaker 1: severe trauma. So her father had passed away when she
2:10
Speaker 1: was thirteen, a sudden heart attack, and it had been
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Speaker 1: very traumatic for her, sort of through the family for
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Speaker 1: a loop. And then her mother had remarried and her stepfather,
2:19
Speaker 1: who had you know, raised her from that point on,
2:22
Speaker 1: he had sort of struggled with depression on and off,
2:24
Speaker 1: and it seemed like he was doing okay. But not
2:27
Speaker 1: long after her biological father had suddenly died, her stepfather
2:31
Speaker 1: took his own life, and so once again, you know,
2:34
Speaker 1: Ashley and her family's lives were turned upside down. And
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Speaker 1: so in many ways, Ashley had not really recovered from
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Speaker 1: those two losses. You know, those happened not that long ago,
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Speaker 1: and now she was out here on her own, trying
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Speaker 1: to be an adult, you know, trying her best to
2:48
Speaker 1: stay composed, but she just had this awful feeling when
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Speaker 1: she saw these police officers that they were there to
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Speaker 1: tell her that, you know, somebody else close to her
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Speaker 1: had died. But when the officers actually began speaking to Ashley,
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Speaker 1: it was clear they were not here to notify her about,
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Speaker 1: you know, a new death, but they were here to
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Speaker 1: talk about her family. They told her that they were
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Speaker 1: there to speak to her about her father, her biological father,
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Speaker 1: who had passed away seven years earlier. And so when
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Speaker 1: they said that to Ashley, she was like, okay, you
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Speaker 1: know what do you mean, what do you want to
3:17
Speaker 1: know about my dad?
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Speaker 2: And they told her.
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Speaker 1: That, you know, Ashley, we exhumed your father and it
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Speaker 1: turns out he very likely did not die of a
3:26
Speaker 1: heart attack. We think he was murdered. About thirty minutes later,
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Speaker 1: when these officers had finally left Ashley's room, Ashley was
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Speaker 1: left feeling completely distraught. I mean, number one, she's just
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Speaker 1: found out that there is suspicion that her father was
3:40
Speaker 1: killed by somebody. But worse than that was these two
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Speaker 1: officers who had been here were not here to console Ashley.
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Speaker 1: They were here to effectively interrogate her. They were looking
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Speaker 1: into the family to see if you know, Ashley was
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Speaker 1: involved in what happened to her father. And so for Ashley,
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Speaker 1: this had really caught her off guard. She felt like
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Speaker 1: she was stammering and confused in all of her ante,
4:00
Speaker 1: which only made her seem more suspicious. And it was
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Speaker 1: like every little misstep she had, the police would dial
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Speaker 1: in and ask even more pointed questions. And by the
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Speaker 1: end of it, she was just sobbing and telling them like,
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Speaker 1: I didn't do this, I didn't hurt my dad.
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Speaker 2: I have no idea who would do that?
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Speaker 1: And so eventually the police had gotten up and left,
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Speaker 1: but they told Ashley they were going to be in touch,
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Speaker 1: and then they were gone, and so Ashley's just left
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Speaker 1: there in her room wondering.
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Speaker 2: What she's supposed to do now.
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Speaker 1: She thought about, you know, sucking it up and just
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Speaker 1: going to class, but she's thinking, like, how can I
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Speaker 1: possibly focus on class right now when I've just learned
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Speaker 1: what I've learned and had this horrible experience with the police.
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Speaker 1: And so Ashley ended up calling her mother, and her
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Speaker 1: mother was obviously very upset when she picked up, even
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Speaker 1: before Ashley said anything, and Ashley quickly learned that her
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Speaker 1: mother also had a sort of similar experience with police
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Speaker 1: that day, that she had also been told that, you know,
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Speaker 1: her husband apparently had been killed and they were now
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Speaker 1: investigating her to see if maybe she had something to
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Speaker 1: do with it. And so the two women just sort
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Speaker 1: of cried on the phone, and they began saying like
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Speaker 1: I just don't understand, like who would want to hurt him?
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Speaker 2: It just doesn't make.
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Speaker 1: Any sense, Like they've got to be wrong, Like none
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Speaker 1: of this makes any sense. And so eventually Ashley's mother,
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Speaker 1: whose name was Stacy, just told her daughter to come home.
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Speaker 1: Forget about classes. We can deal with that stuff later.
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Speaker 1: Just come home be with your family. Ashley agreed that
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Speaker 1: was the most reasonable thing to do here, and so
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Speaker 1: she grabbed her stuff, she left the dorm, hopped in
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Speaker 1: her car, and she drove the hour back to her
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Speaker 1: mom's place. And when she gets there and she goes inside,
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Speaker 1: the first person she sees is actually her younger sister, Brie,
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Speaker 1: who was sixteen years old.
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Speaker 2: And Brie's eyes were red.
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Speaker 1: She obviously had been crying, and you know, in the
5:35
Speaker 1: first couple of seconds they spoke, it was clear that
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Speaker 1: Brie too had had a sort of rough interaction with
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Speaker 1: police as well that day. And so it's like the
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Speaker 1: whole family has been thrust into this chaotic moment that
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Speaker 1: none of them can make any sense of. On the
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Speaker 1: one hand, it's like, who would want to hurt Dad?
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Speaker 1: But on the other it's like, did this really happen?
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Speaker 2: Is this a mistake?
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Speaker 1: Like why did they exuome his body in the first place?
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Speaker 1: Like what's going on here? There was just so much
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Speaker 1: un known, and so that afternoon, Ashley, her sister, Brie,
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Speaker 1: and their mom just retreated to their mother's kitchen and there,
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Speaker 1: they mostly cried together and just sort of talked through
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Speaker 1: this horrible situation. But eventually later in the day, when
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Speaker 1: the tears had sort of stopped flowing and reality had
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Speaker 1: set in that this was now a very complicated situation
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Speaker 1: if nothing else. I mean, basically, they were all under
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Speaker 1: investigation for the potential murder of their father slash husband,
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Speaker 1: and they sort of didn't know what was going to
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Speaker 1: happen next. But there was a lot of stress around,
6:30
Speaker 1: you know, the next couple of days. You know, they
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Speaker 1: didn't know, and so under all this stress, Stacy, the mom,
6:36
Speaker 1: was like, you know what, I'm getting a drink. Do
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Speaker 1: any of you guys want a drink? And Brie was
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Speaker 1: only sixteen, and she declined, but Ashley said sure, you know,
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Speaker 1: she was twenty not twenty one yet, but you know,
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Speaker 1: she was drinking at this point, and so she said, yep,
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Speaker 1: I'll take a drink. And so Stacy mixed some drinks
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Speaker 1: for her and Ashley as well as a non alcoholic
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Speaker 1: drink for Bri and so for the rest of the night,
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Speaker 1: the girls just sat in the kitchen having their drinks
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Speaker 1: and trying hard not to let this horrible situation totally
7:00
Speaker 1: wreck them. The next morning, when Ashley woke up inside
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Speaker 1: of her mother's house, she found she was really hungover. Now,
7:07
Speaker 1: she obviously had had some drinks the night before with
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Speaker 1: her mom and her sister, but she was thinking to
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Speaker 1: herself like the level of hungover she was feeling felt disproportionate,
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Speaker 1: like she was really hungover despite a relatively small amount
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Speaker 1: of alcohol. But Ashley was wondering if maybe part of
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Speaker 1: the reason she felt so bad was not just a hangover,
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Speaker 1: maybe it was like this emotional fallout from this horrible
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Speaker 1: thing that happened the day before. And so Ashley, she's
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Speaker 1: laying in bed, feeling so bad, and she's just convincing
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Speaker 1: herself that I just need to get up, I need
7:38
Speaker 1: to go to my classes, I need to sort of
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Speaker 1: treat the day like a normal day and sort of
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Speaker 1: get my life back together and be ready to potentially
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Speaker 1: deal with police or you know, whatever else is going
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Speaker 1: to happen here.
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Speaker 2: And so Ashley sort of wills herself out of bed.
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Speaker 1: She's got a blinding headache, she feels horrible, but nonetheless,
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Speaker 1: you know, she takes a shower, she gets herself together,
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Speaker 1: and before long she's saying by to her mom. And sister,
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Speaker 1: and she's driving back to the campus and when she
8:03
Speaker 1: gets there, she still feels terrible, but you know, she
8:06
Speaker 1: goes to her classes and she does her best to focus,
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Speaker 1: which really turned out to be a gargantuan task, but
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Speaker 1: she did it. And then finally at the end of
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Speaker 1: the day, during her last class, Ashley began to sort
8:18
Speaker 1: of break out of this fog, this hangover fog that
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Speaker 1: she was in, and she began sort of feeling normal again.
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Speaker 1: And so by the time she left the lecture hall
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Speaker 1: and was done for the day, she actually felt good
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Speaker 1: enough that she hopped right back in her car and
8:30
Speaker 1: drove right back to her mother's house. And that night, again,
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Speaker 1: just like the night before, she her sister and her
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Speaker 1: mom just sat in the kitchen just sort of having
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Speaker 1: this cathartic moment together, you know, crying together, talking about
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Speaker 1: their dad, sharing memories, sharing theories, and also having a
8:45
Speaker 1: few drinks. And again, Breed did not have any alcohol,
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Speaker 1: but Ashley and her mother did. The next morning, when
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Speaker 1: Ashley woke up once again, her head was pounding.
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Speaker 2: She was so hungover.
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Speaker 1: Way worse than the day before, except when she opened
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Speaker 1: her eyes and kind of looked around that really was
9:03
Speaker 1: not the first thing that hit her. The first thing
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Speaker 1: that hit her is I don't know where I am.
9:08
Speaker 1: The room looked different, and as she kind of adjusted
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Speaker 1: and looked around, she realized she was in a hospital room.
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Speaker 2: And so Ashley began to panic and.
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Speaker 1: Began looking around for her family or anybody she recognized,
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Speaker 1: but nobody that she.
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Speaker 2: Knew was in there. There were just these.
9:22
Speaker 1: Two police officers sitting against the wall in her room.
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Speaker 1: And these two officers, when they saw Ashley coming too,
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Speaker 1: they got up and they walked over to her, and
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Speaker 1: they explained to her that she was very lucky that
9:33
Speaker 1: her mother had actually found her in her bed at
9:35
Speaker 1: her mother's house that morning, and Ashley had been unresponsive
9:39
Speaker 1: and so mother had called an ambulance and they had
9:42
Speaker 1: rushed her here, and you know, luckily she was stabilized now,
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Speaker 1: but apparently she was very close to full blown.
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Speaker 2: Organ failure, like she almost died. It was very lucky
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Speaker 2: she got here when she did.
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Speaker 1: But before Ashley could ask any questions, you know, like well,
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Speaker 1: what was it that was causing my body to shut down?
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Speaker 2: Like what's going on here?
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Speaker 1: Two police officers kind of looked at each other and
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Speaker 1: then one of them pulled a piece of paper out
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Speaker 1: of their pocket and they handed it to Ashley and
10:07
Speaker 1: they said, you need to explain yourself. It would turn
10:10
Speaker 1: out the way Ashley's stepfather had taken his own life
10:14
Speaker 1: was by drinking anti freeze. At least that was the
10:16
Speaker 1: initial theory, but pretty quickly investigators started to say, like,
10:20
Speaker 1: why would somebody take their own life that way? Drinking
10:23
Speaker 1: anti freeze is slow and painful, Like that's not a
10:26
Speaker 1: good first choice if you're going to take your own life.
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Speaker 1: And so as suspicions rose around the stepfather, investigators thought, okay, well,
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Speaker 1: the biological father died just a few years before, and
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Speaker 1: apparently he died of a heart attack, but maybe we
10:40
Speaker 1: ought to make sure because we're basically suggesting that maybe
10:43
Speaker 1: somebody did this to the stepfather.
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Speaker 2: Is it possible somebody.
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Speaker 1: You know, killed the biological father. And so they exhumed
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Speaker 1: the biological father and during the autopsy they discovered anti
10:54
Speaker 1: freeze in his remains. And so now fast forward to
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Speaker 1: the hospital where Ashley has woken up. These officers have
11:01
Speaker 1: walked over to her, They've handed her a note and
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Speaker 1: told her to explain herself. And this note was effectively
11:07
Speaker 1: a confession. The writer of this note said, they killed
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Speaker 1: Ashley's biological father and then they also killed Ashley's stepfather.
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Speaker 2: But now because of.
11:16
Speaker 1: The blood on their hands, they're going to take their
11:19
Speaker 1: own lives. So this was a suicide note slash confession
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Speaker 1: and at the bottom of this note it was signed
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Speaker 1: by Ashley. Except Ashley did not kill her father or stepfather.
11:31
Speaker 1: Her mother did. Her mother used anti freeze to poison
11:35
Speaker 1: and kill both men. And then when police began poking around, saying,
11:39
Speaker 1: what's going on here? We think somebody killed this guy
11:41
Speaker 1: and maybe him too.
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Speaker 2: Well, what did Ashley's beloved mother do? She tried to
11:46
Speaker 2: poison her own daughter.
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Speaker 1: She laced those alcoholic drinks they were having in her
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Speaker 1: kitchen with all these painkillers to make it look like Ashley.
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Speaker 2: Had taken her own life because she felt so guilty
11:57
Speaker 2: about murdering these two men.
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Speaker 1: Except Ashley's mother called the ambulance a little bit too
12:02
Speaker 1: early the following day, you know, feigning that she had
12:05
Speaker 1: just found her daughter unresponsive. Because the ambulance they showed
12:08
Speaker 1: up and first responders, they saved Ashley's life narrowly. Apparently,
12:13
Speaker 1: she was within fifteen minutes of dying.
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Speaker 2: When she showed up at the hospital.
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Speaker 1: Stacy was convicted of two murders as well as the
12:20
Speaker 1: attempted murder of her daughter, and she was sentenced to
12:22
Speaker 1: fifty one years in prison. However, she would die behind
12:25
Speaker 1: bars in twenty sixteen. Around lunchtime on March thirty first,
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Speaker 1: twenty ten, a man in his mid fifties named John
12:42
Speaker 1: Schmeier was sitting at a table with a bunch of
12:44
Speaker 1: his friends inside of a Hooters restaurant in the small
12:48
Speaker 1: city of York, Pennsylvania. So John was a retired eye doctor.
12:52
Speaker 1: He'd had a very successful career, made a bunch of money,
12:55
Speaker 1: and his friends that were at this table with him
12:57
Speaker 1: were also, you know, pretty successful guys, sort of like
13:00
Speaker 1: to upper tier professionals with very successful careers too, But
13:04
Speaker 1: what they were doing today had nothing to do with career.
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Speaker 2: This was pure pleasure.
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Speaker 1: This group of guys, this specific group of friends, were
13:11
Speaker 1: very very close. They would meet up, you know, a
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Speaker 1: couple times a month at this particular Hooters.
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Speaker 2: They would sit at the same table, they would order
13:19
Speaker 2: the same things. They loved it.
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Speaker 1: It was sort of like their little clubhouse. And in fact,
13:23
Speaker 1: they had even come up with a name for you know,
13:26
Speaker 1: this group of friends they called themselves the Orange Shorts Society.
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Speaker 1: And so the reason they did that is because Hooters
13:34
Speaker 1: has a sort of vibe to it that if you've
13:36
Speaker 1: been there, you.
13:37
Speaker 2: Know exactly what I'm talking about.
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Speaker 1: If you haven't been there, basically, the waitresses dressed and
13:43
Speaker 1: very scantily clad clothing, and they all wear the sort
13:47
Speaker 1: of iconic white tank tops and orange shorts. And so
13:51
Speaker 1: basically these men were sort of joking that they were
13:54
Speaker 1: the Orange Shorts Society because of the shorts these women
13:58
Speaker 1: would all wear.
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Speaker 2: And so that afternoon, John and.
14:00
Speaker 1: The rest of the members of the Orange Short Society
14:03
Speaker 1: all sat around chatting and you know, bsing with each other,
14:06
Speaker 1: just being guys. And at some point John brought up
14:10
Speaker 1: a subject that the rest of the society was accustomed
14:14
Speaker 1: to him bringing up, and that was his ex wife, Monica.
14:17
Speaker 1: So all of his friends knew that John had been
14:20
Speaker 1: married to Monica for twenty years, but then they got
14:23
Speaker 1: divorced in two thousand and three, so seven years earlier.
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Speaker 1: But still Monica was a thorn in John's side because
14:30
Speaker 1: he had to pay her alimony, and you know, he
14:31
Speaker 1: understood that that comes with the territory of divorce.
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Speaker 2: It is what it is. But Monica had made.
14:37
Speaker 1: The way John paid her the alimony really cumbersome. And
14:42
Speaker 1: John was convinced, as he would tell his buddies in
14:45
Speaker 1: the Orange Short Society, that it was totally intentional that
14:48
Speaker 1: she had made it cumbersome. She wanted it to be hard.
14:51
Speaker 1: She didn't like John, and she was punishing him.
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Speaker 2: And so what Monica.
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Speaker 1: Did is she made John literally each week take cash
14:59
Speaker 1: out of an ATM, put it in an envelope, and
15:01
Speaker 1: then physically drive it to her house and drop it off.
15:05
Speaker 1: She would not accept payment any other way. And the
15:07
Speaker 1: reason she was able to do that is because she
15:10
Speaker 1: claimed she did not have a bank account, and she
15:12
Speaker 1: couldn't be forced to make a bank account. And so
15:15
Speaker 1: either John made these cumbersome payments in cash or he
15:19
Speaker 1: risked not making the payment at all, and then she
15:22
Speaker 1: could come after him legally. And so he was sort
15:24
Speaker 1: of trapped making this trek once a week to hand
15:27
Speaker 1: over cash to his ex wife, who he really couldn't stand. Now,
15:30
Speaker 1: their divorce was not super contentious. The two of them
15:33
Speaker 1: just sort of drifted apart. They stopped seeing eye to eye.
15:36
Speaker 1: And actually Monica really didn't like the whole Orange Short
15:39
Speaker 1: Society thing. She thought it was totally scummy, and that
15:42
Speaker 1: John and his buddies were just kind of gross for
15:44
Speaker 1: going to that restaurant and sort of making jokes about,
15:47
Speaker 1: you know what these women are wearing and making that
15:49
Speaker 1: part of their identity, the Orange short Society. She didn't
15:52
Speaker 1: like it, and so they just kind of drifted apart.
15:54
Speaker 2: That was all it was.
15:55
Speaker 1: But now it had become this sort of bitter feud
15:58
Speaker 1: between the two of them, and so at the same
15:59
Speaker 1: time that John and his buddies in the Orange Shorts
16:02
Speaker 1: Society are sitting in the restaurant and John is going
16:05
Speaker 1: on his tirade once again about Monica's alimony. Simultaneously, on
16:09
Speaker 1: the other side of town, police rushed to Monica's house.
16:14
Speaker 1: Minutes earlier, there had been a nine to one one
16:16
Speaker 1: call that came from Monica's house, but when the operator answered,
16:20
Speaker 1: there was no answer, and so by protocol, they had
16:23
Speaker 1: just sent first responders out to the house to see
16:26
Speaker 1: if whoever had called was okay. And so the police
16:28
Speaker 1: they get to Monica's house, they park, they go right
16:30
Speaker 1: up to the front door.
16:31
Speaker 2: They're knocking on the door. There's no answer. They're looking around.
16:35
Speaker 1: There's no sign of forst entry, no sign of anything
16:38
Speaker 1: really going on here.
16:38
Speaker 2: It's just a quiet day in the neighborhood. But they
16:41
Speaker 2: go to the door again.
16:41
Speaker 1: They knock a few more times, and when there's no answer,
16:44
Speaker 1: they try the doorknob and it's unlocked.
16:46
Speaker 2: So they open the door up and right away they look.
16:49
Speaker 1: In and there's Monica and she's dead on the ground
16:52
Speaker 1: with the phone right next to her, and she's been
16:55
Speaker 1: shot in the head. Shortly after this discovery, the lead
16:58
Speaker 1: detective Douglas Demgon, along with the team, began to survey
17:01
Speaker 1: the crime scene and they quickly found a purse next
17:04
Speaker 1: to Monica's body, and inside was her license. That was
17:07
Speaker 1: how they identified her. And then they also found a
17:09
Speaker 1: thirty two caliber shell casing lying near the body that
17:13
Speaker 1: clearly seemed to be.
17:13
Speaker 2: From the round that struck her in the head and
17:15
Speaker 2: killed her.
17:16
Speaker 1: But perhaps the most unusual aspect of this crime scene
17:20
Speaker 1: had really nothing to do with the body. It was
17:22
Speaker 1: all the money that they found all over the house,
17:25
Speaker 1: specifically cash, cash in envelopes. There were these envelopes in
17:29
Speaker 1: trash cans and drawers on tables. I mean, it was
17:31
Speaker 1: kind of like all over the place, some out in
17:33
Speaker 1: the open, some hidden, but there was lots of money
17:36
Speaker 1: stashed in this hall. And so Demigaun and the other
17:39
Speaker 1: investigators began to wonder, if, you know, okay, maybe this
17:43
Speaker 1: was a robbery and Monica got killed in the process.
17:45
Speaker 1: But it's like, okay, if it was a robbery, why
17:48
Speaker 1: is there so much cash out in the open, literally
17:51
Speaker 1: packaged up in envelopes, easy.
17:53
Speaker 2: To you know, remove from the house. Why is it
17:55
Speaker 2: all here?
17:56
Speaker 1: It's almost like no cash was taken, or certainly not
17:59
Speaker 1: very much was taken, and also other valuables are still
18:01
Speaker 1: in place, you know. It just it didn't have the
18:04
Speaker 1: feel of somebody ransacking the house. It just sort of
18:07
Speaker 1: felt like somebody came in here and killed Monica. Detective
18:10
Speaker 1: Demigon and his team searched the whole house and they
18:13
Speaker 1: couldn't find any sign of forced entry. So basically, whoever
18:17
Speaker 1: came in here and did this either you know, just
18:19
Speaker 1: walked in because a door or window was unlocked, or
18:23
Speaker 1: maybe Monica let them in.
18:24
Speaker 2: Maybe she knew who they were, or they had a key.
18:27
Speaker 1: Detective Demigon asked the forensics team to begin sweeping the
18:30
Speaker 1: house for DNA to see if maybe they could find
18:32
Speaker 1: something that could show them who had been here lately.
18:35
Speaker 2: And so while that.
18:35
Speaker 1: Team got started, Demigon continued to walk around the house
18:39
Speaker 1: and he eventually found a rolodex, which is basically like
18:43
Speaker 1: a big book full of.
18:44
Speaker 2: Phone numbers and addresses.
18:45
Speaker 1: And as the detective was flipping through that book, that
18:48
Speaker 1: was how he discovered that Monica had an ex husband,
18:51
Speaker 1: John Schmeier. That evening, detective Demigon and another investigator rolled
18:56
Speaker 1: up to John Schmeier's house.
18:57
Speaker 2: They walked up to the front.
18:58
Speaker 1: Door and they knocked, and the moment later, the door
19:01
Speaker 1: opened and John was standing there looking very surprised. So
19:05
Speaker 1: in homicide cases, generally speaking, the spouse or ex spouse
19:09
Speaker 1: is always suspect number one, and so even though demign
19:12
Speaker 1: didn't really have any evidence linking John to the crime,
19:16
Speaker 1: he did have the fact that this was her ex
19:18
Speaker 1: spouse and so therefore he is suspicious. Before John could
19:21
Speaker 1: ask any questions, Demighon and his partner introduced themselves instead.
19:25
Speaker 1: They'd like to come in and speak to John, So
19:27
Speaker 1: John said, okay, come on in. So they walked inside,
19:30
Speaker 1: they sat down, and then once they were seated, Detective
19:33
Speaker 1: Demigon watched John very closely as he told him why
19:37
Speaker 1: they were there. Basically, your ex wife has been murdered
19:41
Speaker 1: and we're here to talk to you about it. Detective
19:42
Speaker 1: Demigon wanted to see if John would have a big
19:45
Speaker 1: reaction or maybe a subdued reaction. You know, whatever reaction
19:48
Speaker 1: he might have could be telling to how involved he
19:51
Speaker 1: maybe was or wasn't in this case. When Demigon told
19:55
Speaker 1: John that Monica had been shot to death, John's reaction
19:59
Speaker 1: was huge. His eyes went wide, he clutched at his
20:02
Speaker 1: chest like he was having a heart attack, and then
20:04
Speaker 1: he kind.
20:04
Speaker 2: Of leaned forward and began sobbing.
20:07
Speaker 1: When he came back up again, the detective noticed there
20:10
Speaker 1: were no tears in John's eyes. It was just this
20:13
Speaker 1: sort of huge reaction, but Demigone couldn't really tell if
20:16
Speaker 1: it was genuine or not.
20:17
Speaker 2: He also didn't have a baseline for John.
20:19
Speaker 1: He didn't know if this was normal, but this seemed
20:21
Speaker 1: really dramatic, almost like he might be acting. So instead
20:24
Speaker 1: of trying to console John, Demigun just asked point blank,
20:29
Speaker 1: where were you earlier this afternoon, at the time of
20:31
Speaker 1: the shooting. And when he asked this, John, who still
20:34
Speaker 1: was sort of rocking back and forth, and grabbing.
20:36
Speaker 2: His chest and acting very upset. He suddenly stopped, put
20:40
Speaker 2: his hands.
20:40
Speaker 1: By his side and just said, oh, I was at
20:43
Speaker 1: Hooters with my friends. A few days later, Detective demigon
20:46
Speaker 1: went to the Hooters where John and his friends would
20:48
Speaker 1: always meet up, and he asked the manager to see
20:50
Speaker 1: the security footage from the previous Wednesday, the day of
20:53
Speaker 1: the shooting. So by this point Demigonn had actually already
20:57
Speaker 1: interviewed all of the friends who had been at the
21:00
Speaker 1: Hooters with John, He's so called Orange Short Society, and
21:03
Speaker 1: he had asked them all about John, like had he
21:06
Speaker 1: really been there, what was he doing, what was he saying?
21:08
Speaker 1: And they all said John absolutely was there the whole time,
21:11
Speaker 1: Like there's no way he could have left and done
21:14
Speaker 1: anything to Monica.
21:15
Speaker 2: He was here with us. I promise you he was here.
21:17
Speaker 1: Now they would admit to the detective that, you know,
21:20
Speaker 1: John did speak disparagingly about Monica. He would talk about
21:23
Speaker 1: how mad he was about her alimony, and he definitely
21:26
Speaker 1: didn't like her very much. But that was it, that
21:29
Speaker 1: was the extent of his hatred. Now, despite how convincingly
21:32
Speaker 1: these friends said John was there the whole time, he
21:34
Speaker 1: couldn't have done this.
21:35
Speaker 2: Demigon still needed proof. He needed to really see.
21:38
Speaker 1: That John had been here when he said he was here.
21:40
Speaker 1: So John went to the manager. They pulled up the
21:42
Speaker 1: security footage from the previous Wednesday, and wouldn't you know it,
21:46
Speaker 1: there's John. He comes in, he sits down, he's with
21:48
Speaker 1: his buddies, and he is there the whole time, during
21:52
Speaker 1: the time that Monica was killed. And so at this
21:54
Speaker 1: point Demigon did feel like it sort of was impossible
21:58
Speaker 1: that John actually went and killed Mona. But given the
22:01
Speaker 1: contention between them, I mean, John apparently really doesn't like Monica.
22:05
Speaker 1: He hates making these payments to her, Like there's obvious
22:08
Speaker 1: friction that comes up at these Orange Short Society meetings
22:11
Speaker 1: all the time. You know, maybe it was possible that John,
22:14
Speaker 1: who was pretty well off, had a bunch of money,
22:17
Speaker 1: you know, maybe he hired somebody to do.
22:19
Speaker 2: His dirty work for him, Maybe he hired a hitman.
22:21
Speaker 1: And so, over the next week or so, Demigan and
22:24
Speaker 1: his team began exploring this hitman lead, and they found
22:27
Speaker 1: that John had been taking out a whole bunch of
22:29
Speaker 1: cash over the last several weeks. But it sort of
22:33
Speaker 1: lined up with how much cash he owed Monica in
22:35
Speaker 1: the form of alimony, and they knew he had to
22:38
Speaker 1: per Monica's orders deliver this alimony payment in cash to
22:42
Speaker 1: her in these envelopes, and they found all those envelopes
22:45
Speaker 1: of cash at Monica's house, and so it seemed like
22:48
Speaker 1: that was all he was doing, taking.
22:49
Speaker 2: Money out to give to Monica.
22:51
Speaker 1: And so John was basically Demigon's only suspect at this point,
22:55
Speaker 1: and there was basically no evidence against him, and so
22:57
Speaker 1: Demigon knew he really needed to look into their leads here,
23:00
Speaker 1: like the John lead kind of going nowhere, and so
23:03
Speaker 1: he and his team began looking into local gang activity
23:06
Speaker 1: and you know, crimes in the area. Could this have
23:08
Speaker 1: just been random or something completely unrelated. But after three
23:12
Speaker 1: months of looking for any connection anywhere in the area,
23:16
Speaker 1: there wasn't one, and the case kind of came to
23:18
Speaker 1: a stall. And so at this point Demigne decided that
23:21
Speaker 1: the only thing he could do, realistically was just kind
23:24
Speaker 1: of start over, go back to square one, and basically
23:27
Speaker 1: re examine all the evidence all over again. And that
23:30
Speaker 1: included going back and looking at the security footage from
23:34
Speaker 1: the Hooters on that Wednesday when the Orange Short Society
23:37
Speaker 1: was there, and so demigone.
23:38
Speaker 2: He sat down.
23:39
Speaker 1: He starts watching this tape over and over and over again.
23:42
Speaker 1: It's like the thousandth time he's looked at this grainy footage,
23:45
Speaker 1: and suddenly something stands out to him, something he missed
23:50
Speaker 1: all the other times he looked, And as he replayed
23:52
Speaker 1: the footage over and over again, he realized he now
23:55
Speaker 1: knew almost certainly what happened to Monica. It would turn
23:58
Speaker 1: out the footage of the Orange Short Society meeting did
24:02
Speaker 1: hold the secret to Monica's murder. John Schmeier did not
24:05
Speaker 1: kill his ex wife, nor did he hire a hitman
24:07
Speaker 1: to do it. He really had nothing to do with
24:09
Speaker 1: her death. The only thing he did do is, you know,
24:12
Speaker 1: at these Orange Short Society meetups, he would talk openly
24:15
Speaker 1: about how he didn't really like Monica. In particular, he
24:18
Speaker 1: resented the fact that she was making him deliver all
24:21
Speaker 1: this cash to her to pay his alimony payments.
24:24
Speaker 2: It just felt totally cumbersome. But that meant John, on.
24:28
Speaker 1: A regular basis, was telling these men in the Orange
24:31
Speaker 1: Short Society that Monica was flushed with cash.
24:34
Speaker 2: She was given her tons of cash every single week.
24:37
Speaker 2: This woman has so much.
24:38
Speaker 1: Cash at her house and Eventually, one of the Orange
24:41
Speaker 1: Short Society members, a man named Tim Jocoby, decided, you
24:45
Speaker 1: know what, I'm going to go to Monica's house and
24:48
Speaker 1: I'm going to take that cash. Demigun had been operating
24:51
Speaker 1: under the assumption that all the men who were present
24:54
Speaker 1: on that Wednesday meetup at Hooters the Orange Short Society.
24:57
Speaker 2: That that was the totality of the group.
25:00
Speaker 1: Those were all the members, because the way the men
25:02
Speaker 1: talked about their group was they all meet up every
25:05
Speaker 1: single time, same groups, same seats, same restaurant, and so
25:09
Speaker 1: Demigone assumed, Okay, then it's the same people.
25:11
Speaker 2: This is it.
25:12
Speaker 1: This is the totality of the group. Everybody is accounted for.
25:15
Speaker 1: But no, on the day of the murder, one regular
25:18
Speaker 1: member of the Orange Short Society was not present, Tim Jocoby.
25:23
Speaker 1: And that is the discrepancy that Demigone caught when he
25:26
Speaker 1: watched that footage for the thousandth time, he realized, wait
25:29
Speaker 1: a minute.
25:30
Speaker 2: There's another guy. I heard another guy's name, Tim Jocoby.
25:34
Speaker 2: He's not here.
25:36
Speaker 1: Police would later tie Tim to the crime scene with
25:38
Speaker 1: DNA evidence. They determined that Tim went to her house
25:41
Speaker 1: with the intention of robbing her, but when Monica fought back,
25:45
Speaker 1: He shot and killed her, and then fled without taking
25:48
Speaker 1: any money. Tim was convicted of first gree murder and
25:50
Speaker 1: sentenced to death. He's currently on death row in Pennsylvania.
25:59
Speaker 2: Thank you so much uch for watching. Let me know
26:01
Speaker 2: what you thought of today's episode in the comments.
26:03
Speaker 1: And remember, we have hundreds of videos for you to
26:06
Speaker 1: binge right now. But if you're looking for a recommendation
26:09
Speaker 1: for me of that one video that's worth your time,
26:13
Speaker 1: well it's this one right here, So give it a watch,
26:16
Speaker 1: all right, until next time, see y