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Fiery-crash-s-DARK-SECRET-revealed-in-a · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: In the fall of two thousand and four, an undercover
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: police officer in Texas was standing in line inside of
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: a fast food restaurant when he turned around to scan
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the room. Now, he acted like he was just kind
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: of nonchalantly looking.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Around, kind of people watching the way people do when
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: they're waiting in lines, but he really wasn't doing that.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: In reality, what he was doing was taking a quick
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: glimpse of two people eating by the window inside of
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: this restaurant that he had been following all day that day.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: But when he took this quick glimpse of these two people,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: he noticed something.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Totally bizarre that he had not caught earlier in the day.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: And as soon as he saw.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: It, the hairs in the back of his neck stood up,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: and almost unconsciously, he reached down and put his hand
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: on his concealed gun underneath his shirt, and then he
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: tapped his partner, who was also undercover right next to him,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: and then the two of them walked.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Straight over to the two people.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: But before we get into that story, if you're a
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: then you've come to the right place, because that's all
• 1:00
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  Speaker 2: Our weekly uploads.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into today's story. On the evening of
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: June seventeenth, two thousand and four, a twenty one year
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: old woman named Molly Daniels pulled into the driveway of
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: her little home that she shared with her husband and
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: two kids in suburban Texas. It had been a long
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: day for Mollie at the home remodeling business where she
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: worked as a receptionist, and so now that she was home,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: the last thing she wanted to do was go inside
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: and make dinner for her family. And so, after turning
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: off her car, Mollie just sat there in the driveway
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: for a couple of minutes, just zoned out looking out
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: the window. But eventually she kind of snapped out of it.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: She gathered up her things. She got out of the car,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: and she made her way up to the front door,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: and as soon as she stepped into her home, that
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: bad mood she was feeling from work was wiped away
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: and replaced with happiness, because the first thing she heard
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the second she was in her home was the sound
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: of her four year old son, Caleb, hysterically laughing. And
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: so Mollie walked into the back room and she found
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: her son, along with her husband Clay, rolling around on
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: the ground, tickling each other, and next to them was
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: their one year old daughter sitting on the rug, laughing
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: as well and clapping and watching along. And so as
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: soon as Mollie walked into the room, Clay, who was
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: underneath Caleb, stopped for a second and grinned up at Mollie.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Mollie smiled back, and then Clay and Caleb went back
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: to wrestling, and the one year old continued to laugh
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: and play along, And so Mollie suddenly felt so caissent
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: with her life.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: It was so incredible to have a family of her own,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: and so.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: With a big smile on her face now, she headed
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: off into the kitchen to make dinner. Life had been
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: tough financially for the Daniels family recently. The city where
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: they lived, called Leander, was located just north of Austin, Texas,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: and it was getting more and more expensive every single year. Clay,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: who was two years older than Mollie, he was twenty three.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: He was a mechanic, but he'd been out of work
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: for months and so he had just been staying home
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: with the kids. As for Mollie, she had her job
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: as a receptionist, but it paid very little and so
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: ultimately the family was just barely scraping by. But despite
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: the financial hardship they were under, Mollie was so thankful
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: that she had a husband in.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Clay that was so good with their kids.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Especially Caleb, the four year old son, because Caleb was
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: actually Mollie's son from a previous relationship, and she was
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: worried that maybe Clay wouldn't necessarily treat him like his
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: own but Clay had totally stepped up to the place
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: and become Caleb's father, and Caleb definitely viewed Clay as
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: his dad, and so that relationship was as close as
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: if they were biologically related, and so Molly just felt
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: so grateful for that. That evening the family sat down
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: and had dinner together, and then afterwards Molly and Clay
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: got the kids off to bed, and then Molly and
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Clay stayed up and watched TV together. But after a while,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Mollie said she was tired and she was going to
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: go to bed. Clay said he'd be staying up for
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: a bit longer, and so the couple kissed, said good night,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: and Molly made her way upstairs. At around ten forty
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: five pm that night, So about fifteen minutes after Molly
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: went upstairs, she was laying in bed, drifting off to
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: sleep when she heard the sound of their front door
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: open and then shut, and then she heard the sound
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: of their car being turned.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: On and leaving the driveway.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Now this was not a big deal for Molly, because
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: earlier that night Clay had mentioned kind of off handedly
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: that he wanted to go see his mom that night,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: that he might swing over there and say hello. He
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: had a couple of paperback books that he wanted to
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: get of her, and so Mollie knew there was a
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: chance he could be doing that, and so she assumed
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: that had to be what she was hearing, and so
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: she forgot about it and fell asleep. The next morning,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: when Molly woke up at six am, she rolled over
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: and she saw Clay was not in bed with her. Now,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: she wasn't immediately alarmed by this, because it wasn't unusual
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: for Clay to get up really early, and so Mollie
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: climbed out of bed. She made her way over to
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the window, and she looked down at the driveway, expecting
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: to see their car back, meaning Clay would be downstairs somewhere.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: But she looked in the driveway there was no car.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: And so, suddenly, feeling kind of panicked, Mollie went downstairs
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: and looked around the house. Clay wasn't there, and so
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: she picked up the phone and she called Clay's mother,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: And when Clay's mother picked up, Mollie said, Hey, is
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Clay with you? He said he was stopping by last night.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: I heard him leave.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Is he with you? And Clay's mother would say, no,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: he's not here.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: And in fact, I didn't even know he was going
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: to be stopping by last night. I haven't heard from him.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: The drive from Mollie and Clay's house to Clay's mother's
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: house was four miles of twisting, fairly dangerous highway. Now
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Clay regularly made this trip to and from his mother's house,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: and so Mollie was never that worried about him going
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: on this forty mile stretch. But suddenly, without saying it,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: both Mollie and Clay's mother were thinking the same thing.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Did Clay get into a car accident last night on
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: the drive to his mother's house. And so at some point,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Clay's mom on the phone tells Mollie to stay calm,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: stay at the house with your kids.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: I'm going to get in the car.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I'm going to drive the route that Clay would have
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: taken back to you, and we'll see if we can
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: find him. And then as soon as the two women
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: hung up, Clay's mother ran to her car, she jumped inside,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: she turned it on, she peeled out of the driveway
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  Speaker 1: and began speeding those forty miles back towards Clay and
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Molly's house. And she had only gotten about halfway along
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: this trip when up ahead she saw all these flashing
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: blue and white lights. She saw crime scene tape across
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: the whole road. This was a section of the highway
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  Speaker 1: that was heavily forested on either side, and she could
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: see traffic was backed up very far on the other end,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: and as well on her side, and so of course
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Clay's mother is thinking, this is my son. He's been
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: in an accident right here, and so she pulls over
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: to the side of the road, she throws it in
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: the park. She gets out and runs to the nearest
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: police officer and begins frantically asking them what's happened here?
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: What's happened?
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: And as she's talking to the officer, she notices behind
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: him there's all this smoke coming up from the forest.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: There's a fire down in the forest, and so she's
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: craning her neck to look down and see what it is.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: And the officer tried to stop her, but finally she
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: pushed past him and she looked and she saw there
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: was a car on fire that clearly had flown off
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: the road. And so, in a total panic, she begins
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: asking the officer, do you know who it is?
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: Is it my son? Is it Clay?
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: The officer told her to please calm down. We have
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: no idea whose car this is. We're trying to figure
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: it out. The fire department hasn't even put the fire
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: out yet. We don't know enough to tell you anything.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: But at this point Clay's mother could not wait any
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: longer for answers, and so she turned around, she ran
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: back to her car, She hopped in it, and she
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: made her way around this big police barricade and sped
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  Speaker 1: the rest of the way to Clay in Molly's house,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: and there she picked up Mollie. She drove her back,
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  Speaker 1: and when they got there, both women are totally hysterical,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: but they run right up to the police tape and
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: they looked down in the direction of where this fire
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: had been, which now had been put out. There was
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: just smoke coming off of this car frame that had
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: been totally burned out. And immediately when Mollie looked down there,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: she recognized the car, or i should say she recognized
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: the shape of the car, because the fire had totally
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: eviscerated the car.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: But Mollie, she was seeing the.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Frame was about the right size, and she was seeing
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: that strewn around this burned out car or all these
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: paperback books that had been burned up partially in this fire.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: And she knew that Clay had likely been on his
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: way to his mother's house with all these paperback books
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: inside of the vehicle, and so she knew this had
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: to be Clay. And at the same time that Mollie
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: is having this horrible realization, the fired apartment down below
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: was able to actually get into the burned out vehicle.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: They opened up the door and they found right away
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: there was a body in the driver's seat. And so
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: between the size of the body, all the paperback books
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: that Mollie said, you know, that would be something Clay
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: would have, along with several other personal effects that were
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: found inside of the car, like Clay's prized Harley Davidson
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: pin that he always wore in his hat, it was
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: obvious that this was Clay. When words spread about Clay's death,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Molly's neighbors and friends in Leander jumped into action. People
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: loved Mollie in Leander. She was this very sweet, very
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: kind woman who was a little bit socially awkward, but
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: they had found ever since she had married Clay, she
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: had really found some more confidence and just seemed happier.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: And so it was totally devastating to see Clay be
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: pulled from her life like that, and so very quickly
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: the community in Leander raised one thousand dollars and they
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: gave it to Molly and her kids, and then also
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: neighbors began dropping off food and stalking their fridge with groceries,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: and even though Mollie couldn't even eat she was so
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: grief stricken from the loss of Clay, she still very
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: much appreciated.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: The effort that people were making to comfort her.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: But as the community rallied around Molly and her kids
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: to get them through this difficult time, the police were
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: starting to ask some questions about how exactly this crash
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: that had killed Clay actually happened, because there were some
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: oddities about the scene of the accident, the biggest being
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: there were no skid marks on the road, which meant
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Clay had not hit the brakes before swerving off the
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: road and crashing down in the trees below. And secondly,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: they didn't really understand how the fire that had started
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: after this crash had gotten so incredibly hot that it
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: basically had completely melted away every part of the vehicle
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: save for the frame, and also Clay's body had been
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: totally destroyed. I mean, the authorities had seen fires after
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: car accidents, but nothing like this. This looked very unique,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: and so investigators started to wonder if if they were
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: really dealing with a car accident or if this was
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: a murder, and on June twenty second, just four days
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: after Clay was found, investigators would learn from the crime
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: lab that their suspicions had been correct. We did a
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: merch drop last year and the gear was awesome. We
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: were so happy with it, but the shipping times were
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: ridiculously long.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: We had big shipping issues.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: We actually had to shut down that merch drop early
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: to deal with those issues. Well, we fix those issues
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: and so shipping will no longer be an issue for
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: us now or in the future. And so as a
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: token of our appreciation for you all in putting up
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: with the shipping issues in the first drop, we've decided
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: to do a massive sale for context. This sale is
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: going to lose us money, but it's the only way
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: to do it because you all deserve it.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: You're awesome. Thank you.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: As of this videos release, Shop mister Ballan dot com
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: is officially back open for business and everything signature flannels, hoodies, hats, bells,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: canyon t shirts, posters, all of it are fifty percent
• 12:07
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• 12:08
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• 12:17
  Speaker 1: until supplies run out, thank you. It would turn out
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: there was lighter fluid found all over the front seat
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: of the car, so that was the reason the fire
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: had gotten so big. And then during the autopsy, Clay's
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: lungs showed that he had not ever inhaled any soot,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: meaning he was dead when the fire started, and so
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: very likely Clay was murdered and the car accident was staged.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: And interestingly, when words started to get out in town
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: that Clay's death seemed suspicious and that maybe he was murdered,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: it turned out nobody was surprised because even though Molly
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: adored Clay and thought he was a great father, most
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: other people in Leander hated him. He was known around
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: town to be this totally short tempered guy who would
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: just pick fights with people out of the blue. In fact,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: at Clay's own funeral, his literal best friend stood up
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: to eulogize him, and during this he said, I think, honestly,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: the world is a better place without Clay. And so
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: investigators began looking into Clay's background to see if they
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: could find connections with people that might have a grudge
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: or some reason.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: To be mad.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: At Clay who might want to do him harm, and
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: very quickly investigators found something. Just ten days before Clay
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: was found, he had pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: seven year old girl, but the sentence he received was
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: incredibly light. He was given thirty days in jail, which
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: he had not served yet, and probation. Now, the father
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: of the victim, the seven year old girl, was absolutely
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: furious about Clay's light sentence, and in fact, just a
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: couple of days before Clay died, the father threatened to
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: kill Clay. So investigators quickly tracked down this father and
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: then they brought him in for questioning. But very quickly,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: this father made it clear to police that yes he
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: hated Clay, yes he had threatened to kill Clay, but no,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: he had nothing to do with what happened to Clay,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: and the father had an alibi to.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: Back that up.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: And so after confirming his alibi, the police somewhat reluctantly
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: allowed the father to leave, even though to a lot
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: of them he just really seemed like the slam dunk
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: primary suspect, but he couldn't have been, and so with
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: him out of the picture, the police were kind of
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: back to the drawing board, and so they decided they
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: would actually go talk to Mollie and see if maybe
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: she could shed some light on who else might have
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: wanted to hurt Clay. Now, in their previous conversations with Mollie,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: police found her to be incredibly polite and also at
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: the same time very very upset about the death of
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: her husband. But this time when investigators showed up at
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Molly's house and she brought the into her kitchen where
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: they sat down to talk, it was like the police
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: got a totally different Molly. And it happened as soon
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: as they asked her, you know, hey, who do you
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: think could have hurt your husband? It was like Mollie
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: suddenly became impatient. She didn't have time for these questions,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: and finally she just said, you know what, I think
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Clay was depressed because he had that prison sentence that
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: was coming up that he didn't want to serve, and
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: so probably he just killed himself. I think that's what happened.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: And so now I need you guys to leave.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: And so the officers didn't make a fuss, they didn't
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: fight Molly on this. They just got up they left.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: But once they were back out in their car, they
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: looked at each other and they both agreed that Mollie's
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: behavior was very suspicious and it made them think, you know,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: maybe she actually knows more about what happened to Clay,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: and she's kind of trying to cover it up and
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: make the police go away. And over the next couple
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: of weeks, as police began investigating Mollie, they discovered quite
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: a bit of evidence that made.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: Them even more suspicious of her.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: For one thing, there was Clay's one hundred and ten
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars life insurance policy that Molly was entitled to,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: and Mollie had apparently been calling the insurance company nearly
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: non stop every day trying to get them to wire
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: that payment as soon as possible, and Molly apparently was
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: telling people in town how excited she was about getting
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: that money.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: Also, police learned after talking to.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Molly's neighbors that Mollie was starting to date again already,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: just three weeks after her husband has died. She's out
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: there on the dating scene, even bringing home one of
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: her boyfriends and having him live with her two kids.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: And according to Molly's babysitter, this new boyfriend that was
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: coming into the house was really upsetting Caleb, the four
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: year old who had been so close with Clay. The
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: babysitter would say that Caleb, who normally was a very
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: mellow child back when Clay was still alive, was now
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: very violent and emotional, and periodically he would just stop,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: look up into the sky.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: And scream, I love you, daddy.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: But when the babysitter brought this up to Molly and said, really,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: you should get your son some help here, Mollie got
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: angry and said Caleb was fine, it was none of
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: her business, and then she slammed the door on the babysitter.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: But despite how suspicious Mollie now seemed, there wasn't any
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: real evidence that actually linked her to Clay's death. And
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: so finally, in the fall of two thousand and four,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: so several months after Clay's death, and still the police
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: have not figured out who killed him, or how he died,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: and how he wound up in this inferno by the
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: side of the road, they decided to kind of reinvigorate
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: this investigation into Mollie. They really wanted to find evidence
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: that she was involved in Clay's death, and so they
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: decided to put a surveillance team on Molly twenty four
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: to seven, and at first the undercover police would report
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: that Mollie's behavior was incredibly routine. She basically did the
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: same things every single day. She got up, she got
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: the kids out the.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: Door, she went to work. Afterwards, she picked her kids
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: up from the babysitter.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: She went home, she fed her kids, and then they
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: all went to bed, and they did it all again
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: the next day. The only deviation from her schedule was
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: periodically she would go out after work to run some
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: errands like go to the grocery store. But then, on
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: December third, so six months after Clay was found, Mollie
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: would finally break her routine.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: On that day, Mollie, on her way home from work,
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: made a pit stop in this parking lot near several
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: local stores, so she parked her car.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: She got out, but then instead of walking into one
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: of these stores to run an errand or something, she
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: walked to a dark colored Mustang that was parked in
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: the parking lot as well, and a guy was driving
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: it the sky the cop didn't recognize with dark hair.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: Molly walked up to him and began.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Talking to the sky through the window and then at
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: some point, Molly began very suspiciously looking over her shoulder,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: like she was trying to see if anyone was watching her,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: and then she walked around and climbed into the mustang
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: with the sky She shut the door, and then the
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: two of them drove off together, and so the undercover
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: police officer followed after them, and eventually the mustang containing
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Molly and this guy pulled into the parking lot of
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: a Taco Bell, a fast food restaurant, and so they stopped,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: they got out, and the undercover officer watched as the
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: two of them casually walked inside of.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: The Taco Bell.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: They ordered some food, and they sat down by the
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: window to eat. And so by this point, the undercover
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: officer he's not seen anything incriminating happening here, but what
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: he's seeing is such a break from her routine that
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: it just seemed really suspicious, and he wanted to go
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: inside and have a look, and so he called for
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: backup from another undercover officer who was part of the
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: surveillance team. He came into the parking lot, and then
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: the two of them, these two officers, who were wearing
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: plain civilian clothes, they both got out of their unmarked vehicles,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: and they casually walked into the taco bell and they
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: got in line to order food, and as they were
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: standing in line, one of the undercover officers casually turned
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: around in line and very nonchalantly scanned the room like
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: he was looking at nothing in particular, but in reality,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: what he was doing was taking a quick glimpse at
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Molly and the sky she was with. And when the
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: officer took this quick glimpse, he noticed something very strange
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: about the guy that Mollie was sitting with, something that
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: the officer hadn't seen before, but now that he was
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: up close, he could see it.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: And as soon as he.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Saw this strange thing, the officer tapped on his partner's shoulder,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: like all right, we're doing something here. The officer reached down,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: put his hand on his concealed gun underneath his shirt,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: and then he walked across the restaurant, not even pretending
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: to be undercover. At this point, he's basically giving away
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: that he's a cop. He strode right over to their table,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: and when he stopped in front of them, Mollie and
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: the guy she was with both looked up at him
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: in surprise and the officer just stared down at the guy,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: not at Molly, just at the guy. The strange thing
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: the officer had caught when he looked over at the
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: guy was that he recognized him. This was someone he
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: knew personally from being in law enforcement in the area.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: This guy was Clay Daniel, Mollie's supposedly dead husband. He
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: had just clearly dyed his blonde hair black. It would
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: turn out Molly and Clay had staged his death in
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: order to keep him from having to serve that prison
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: sentence for the sexual assault charge, and so they could
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: collect on the one hundred and ten thousand dollars life
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: insurance policy. The body that was found inside of the
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: burned out car was obviously not Clay's. It was the
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: body of an eighty one year old woman whom Clay
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: had dug up from some isolated cemetery, thrown inside of
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: his vehicle, and then pushed his vehicle off the road
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: and lit.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: On fire with lighter fluid.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: And so that was why there was no skid marks
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: up on the road, because again this was not a
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: car accident, it was staged. And so after Clay and
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Molly's staged Clay's death. It actually worked. People really believed
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: that Clay had died. They were questioning how he died,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: but nobody really thought it wasn't Clay, and so their
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: plan was working. But after three weeks of being a
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: part with Clay kind of hanging out by himself a
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: way from the town, Clay and Mollie just couldn't stand
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: to be a part any longer, and so Clay died
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: his blonde hair black. That was the only thing he
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: did to disguise his identity. And then he just moved
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: back into the home with Molly and the kids. And
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: so that was the new boyfriend that neighbors were seeing
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Molly with. She was not actually going out on new dates.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: She was just back with Clay and Clay's step son Caleb,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: the four year old. He immediately recognized that his father
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: was back, even though he had black hair, but Mollie
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: and Clay had convinced the little boy that Clay was
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: not really Clay. Instead, this was the new boyfriend, Jake.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: This is very likely why Caleb had begun acting out.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: He was old enough to understand that something wasn't right,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: but not old enough to understand that his parents were
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: lying to him. It's unclear why Mollie and Clay, who
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: lived together, shamelessly decided to have this weird rendezvous in
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: the parking lot inside of Clay's Mustang and then go
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: to Taco Bell and eat together. But regardless, it was
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: this secret meetup that ultimately led to them getting caught.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Molly and Clay were both charged with insurance fraud and
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: they both pled guilty. Molly was sentenced to twenty years
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: in prison and Clay was sentenced to thirty years in
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: prison plus twenty more years.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: For probation violations. Molly has since been parolled while Clay
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: is still in jail, So that's going to do it.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: If you've got something out of today's episode, be sure
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: to check out our podcast called The Mister Ballin Podcast,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: where we have hundreds more stories just like this one,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: except many of them are only available on the podcast.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: Again.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: It's called The Mister Ballin Podcast and it's available exclusively
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: on Amazon Music