Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / Pregnant Woman Murdered After Love Triangle with Brothers: “We All Knew Right Away...”

Transcript

Pregnant Woman Murdered After Love Triangle with Brothers: “We All Knew Right Away...” · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the deep dive. Today, we're looking into a
• 0:03
  case of betrayal. That's just it's so intimate, so complex.
• 0:07
  It really ripped apart two families that were already deeply connected.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, our mission today is to try and understand how
• 0:14
  this quiet Long Island suburb, you know, the kind of
• 0:17
  place you think nothing happens, became the scene of a
• 0:20
  murder fueled by decades of well sibling rivalry and some
• 0:24
  really devastating secrets.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: We are dissecting the murder of Susan Ambrosino. This is
• 0:29
  back in February two thousand and five. She was only
• 0:32
  twenty six, a young mother.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: What makes it just incredibly tragic is where she was
• 0:36
  found in the trunk of her own car, and she
• 0:39
  was four months pregnant at the time, with a little
• 0:41
  boy she had already decided to name Gerard.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: The person responsible wasn't some stranger either, That's the chilling part.
• 0:47
  It was someone woven right into the fabric of her life.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Steven Ciavone. He was Susan's secret lover, yes, but maybe
• 0:52
  even more significantly, he was the older half brother of
• 0:55
  her ex husband, Keith Ambrosino.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: So this goes way beyond infidelity. It's like direct hit,
• 1:00
  a familial sabotage.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: The layers here are just they're staggering. I mean, think
• 1:06
  about it. When Stephen killed Susan, she was pregnant with
• 1:09
  his child, right, but his immediate reaction, his like lethal panic,
• 1:14
  wasn't just about that. It was because his other partner,
• 1:18
  his living girlfriend, Kim, was also four months pregnant with
• 1:21
  his child too.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Wow. So two women both four months pregnant with his
• 1:26
  kids at the same time exactly.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: He was juggling this incredibly precarious double life, and Susan
• 1:32
  deciding to keep her baby, deciding to tell Keith that
• 1:36
  was the fuse.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: That absolutely sets our focus. Then we need to dive
• 1:39
  deep into those family dynamics, how they allowed this situation
• 1:43
  to even develop, and.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: The investigation itself it only took seventy two hours to unravel.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Pretty remarkable, right, Well, look at that, the investigation, the
• 1:49
  courtroom drama that followed, and the bigger themes. This case
• 1:53
  really forces us to.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Confront things like sibling jealousy, how destructive it can be,
• 1:57
  and this really disturbing element of reproductive coercion.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: And that initial reaction from Keith, the ex husband, It
• 2:03
  just hangs in the air. He apparently said, we all
• 2:05
  knew right away.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah that quote, we all knew right away. It's just
• 2:09
  something wasn't right for a long time, doesn't It Like
• 2:11
  there was this underlying conflict, this mistrust, just waiting for
• 2:15
  a spark.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: So to understand why Keith might have felt that, we
• 2:18
  really need to go back back to the beginning.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Let's start with Susan. Susan Debts she grew up in
• 2:25
  Franklin Square along Island, part of a.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Very close knit Italian American family. Her parents were Josephine
• 2:31
  and Anthony Debts, and.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Her background really tells you a lot about her. You know,
• 2:35
  strong family values, described as resilient, warm, just a really
• 2:40
  caring person.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Friends and family always said she was loving, caring, with
• 2:44
  good energy. Her whole identity seemed wrapped up and looking
• 2:47
  after people, especially her daughter.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: She met Keith Ambrosino. He was born in seventy five,
• 2:51
  when she was just eighteen.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Pretty young. They got married in nineteen ninety seven, seemed
• 2:55
  like a typical young couple starting out.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: And their daughter, Taylor was born the same year in
• 2:59
  nineteen ninety seven, So building that picture perfect family life
• 3:03
  or so it seemed.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: But then the military came into play. Keith enlisted in
• 3:07
  the Army as a private.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Right and that meant relocating. They moved to Colorado, and
• 3:12
  for Susan, who was so used to having her big
• 3:14
  family nearby for support, this was really hard, a major isolation.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it wasn't just moving house. It was like an
• 3:20
  emotional distance opened up to Keith himself even said later
• 3:24
  she hated being away from her family.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: That distance, both physical and emotional. It kind of it
• 3:29
  created the space for things to do wrong later.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Definitely, by nineteen ninety nine, Keith was potentially facing deployment
• 3:36
  to Bosnia. That was the breaking point.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Susan moved back to New York with Taylor. They got
• 3:40
  divorced amicably at first, it seems, but their lives stayed separate.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: And by late two thousand and four, Keith was stationed
• 3:47
  way over in Hungary, so he's completely out of the
• 3:50
  picture physically, which left.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: This huge vacuum in Susan's day to day life, a
• 3:54
  vacuum that Keith's half brother Stephen was perfectly positioned to fill.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's talk about Steven Ciovoni then born May thirteenth,
• 4:03
  nineteen sixty nine, so a fair bit older than Keith.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, six years older. He was a big guy, six
• 4:07
  foot three, former marine. He was working as a warehouse
• 4:10
  manager at the.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Time, and critically, he's Keith's half brother, linked through their
• 4:15
  mother remarrying, shared a grandmother, but not the same parents, and.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Whatever bond might have existed there, it was apparently completely
• 4:23
  overshadowed by this profound and lifelong rivalry. That's how people
• 4:29
  described it.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Lifelong rivalry, that's intense. What was that really about? Not
• 4:32
  just childhood squabbles, presumably.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: No, it counts much deeper. People close to them said
• 4:37
  it stemmed from Stephen's intense jealousy. Keith was younger, he
• 4:41
  was in the military, and crucially, he'd married Susan. Apparently
• 4:45
  Stephen had feelings for Susan even back then.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Wow, So Keith's life choices were like a constant source
• 4:51
  of envy for Stephen.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Keith put it very bluntly. He told the New York
• 4:54
  Daily News, me and him have fought since I got
• 4:56
  on this earth. Just a brutal assessment. Family members called
• 5:00
  Stephen extremely jealous, especially of keith youth and his marriage.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: So Susan and her marriage. They almost became like a
• 5:07
  prize in this long running competition Stephen had going with
• 5:10
  his brother, a competition that initially had nothing to do
• 5:13
  with her exactly.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: It really elevates the later affair beyond just infidelity. It
• 5:18
  starts to look like a deliberate move.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Against Keith and adding another layer to that betrayal. Stephen
• 5:23
  wasn't just some guy hanging around. He had this official,
• 5:26
  trusted role.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Right during Susan and Keith's marriage. They actually asked Stephen
• 5:31
  to be Taylor's godfather godfather.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: That's huge. It cements him as this permanent, trusted figure
• 5:38
  in Susan's life, in Taylor's life.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: So he wasn't an outsider trying to get in. He
• 5:42
  was already inside, excepted, trusted.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Which made it seamless. When Susan moved back to Franklin
• 5:48
  Square after the separation, she was living in a parent's basement,
• 5:51
  needed support.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: And there was Steven stepping right into that helpful uncle role.
• 5:57
  Keith's overseas can't be.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: There physically, but doting on Taylor, driving her to school,
• 6:02
  helping out around the house, providing stability.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: And critically emotional support. Susan's landlady even mentioned how he
• 6:09
  seemed like a stable figure for the baby for Taylor.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: That mix of practical help and emotional closeness, it's easy
• 6:15
  to see how lines could blur there.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Susan's own brother, Anthony Dettz, noticed it. He said
• 6:20
  he saw how Stephen and Susan took to each other
• 6:22
  in her husband's absence, especially later in two thousand and four,
• 6:26
  when Keith was far away and hungry.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: The need for support slowly morphed into something else, into romance.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: And that romance had very real, very fast consequences. By
• 6:37
  early two thousand and five, Susan found out she was
• 6:39
  pregnant with Stephen's.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Child, and unlike Steven, she was apparently thrilled, excited about
• 6:45
  having this baby boy, already picking out the name Girard,
• 6:48
  she told her family.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: But yeah, what was joy for Susan was well, it
• 6:51
  was pure terror for Stephen, because that pregnancy meant his
• 6:54
  whole double life was about to implode.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: And that's when the clock really started ticking down fast.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Especially because Keith Amberston came back from Hungary right around then,
• 7:01
  early two thousand and five.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: What was he hoping for when he came back reconciliation.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Definitely, despite the divorce. He felt like he was finally
• 7:10
  ready ready to be a husband again. Wanted to give
• 7:12
  it another shot with Susan, start fresh.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: But he walks into this weird atmosphere right, Susan's distant,
• 7:18
  and he starts noticing Steven is just always there, lingering
• 7:23
  too much.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: The suspicion must have been building, but the mung that
• 7:27
  it clicked, the real confirmation. It came from the most
• 7:31
  innocent source.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Imaginable, his daughter Taylor.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Keith overheard little Taylor calling Stephen father, not uncle father.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Oh Man, that one word it just lays bare of
• 7:44
  the whole affair, And.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: For Keith it must have instantly reignited that lifelong rivalry,
• 7:50
  that deep seated resentment.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Because Stephen had finally done it, He'd taken something truly
• 7:54
  precious from Keith. You mentioned a family friend, Napolitano, right.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: He quoted Keith describing that raw pain anger. Keith told
• 8:01
  me he'd only come back into town because he wanted
• 8:03
  to get back with Susan, and then his brother ruined
• 8:05
  this all.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Stephen got what he wanted in a twisted way. He won,
• 8:09
  but now he had a much bigger and much more
• 8:11
  immediate problem than just Keith's anger.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Exactly, the problem was the pregnancies both of them. Susan
• 8:17
  decided to keep the baby. That was the absolute trigger
• 8:19
  for Steven's panic.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: He immediately told her she had to get an abortion immediately.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: He was terrified if Keith found out about the baby,
• 8:28
  it would destroy everything, not just the potential reconciliation, but
• 8:32
  Steven's whole standing that.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Susan wouldn't do it. Her family was clear she wanted
• 8:37
  to keep the baby. She stood her ground.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: In that refusal, that assertion of her choice, her right.
• 8:43
  Stephen couldn't handle it. It was a direct challenge to
• 8:45
  his control, absolutely.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: And the stakes were sky high for him because of
• 8:49
  the other pregnancy Kim, his living girlfriend.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Kim also four months pregnant with his child. She apparently
• 8:55
  knew about the affair with Susan that had technically ended
• 8:57
  their romantic relationship, but she was still living with him
• 9:00
  for stability.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Stability that depended entirely on Susan's staying quiet.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: So Stephen's trying to hide not just an affair from
• 9:07
  his half brother, but a whole second, simultaneous pregnancy from
• 9:10
  his live in partner and trying to stop Keith finding
• 9:14
  out his own brother got his ex wife pregnant. The
• 9:17
  potential humiliation was massive.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: The fear of that complete exposure that became the motive.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: That's what the police concluded. On February twenty first, two
• 9:26
  thousand and five, Susan made her move. She told her
• 9:30
  brother Anthony, I'm telling Keith everything tomorrow.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Wow. She drew a line, she.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: Did, and she scheduled one last meeting with Stephen for
• 9:38
  that evening to talk about the pregnancy, her decision how
• 9:41
  things would proceed.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: So not just a casual chat. This was Susan basically saying,
• 9:45
  your secrets are coming out. She was taking back control.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: And Stephen clearly saw it as a declaration of war.
• 9:52
  A police official later stated it plainly, Stephen did not
• 9:55
  want to anger his stepbrother by revealing the affair and
• 9:58
  the baby.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: So avoiding Keith anger, avoiding that final exposure in their
• 10:02
  rivalry that was worth more than Susan's life.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: Apparently, so the calculation in his mind became horrifyingly simple.
• 10:10
  Exposure was worse than murder, and before he went to
• 10:12
  meet Susan that night, he got a gun A point
• 10:15
  three to eight zero caliber semi automatic.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: He armed himself before the meeting. That'sps volumes about premeditation,
• 10:20
  doesn't it driven by that fear?
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: Okay, let's walk through that night. Monday, February twenty first,
• 10:25
  two thousand and five, Susan's day started normally, drop Taylor
• 10:28
  at school, Ransom Aarn's.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Then around seven pm, she meets Stephen at a pizza
• 10:32
  place on Jamaica Avenue in Queen's.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Witnesses saw them said initially they seemed okay, maybe even
• 10:39
  laughing a bit, but you could feel the tension underneath.
• 10:43
  This was it the conversation she knew she had to have.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: They leave the pizza place, get into Susan's car, a
• 10:49
  red Nissan Ultima, Steven gets in the passenger seat.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: And as they're driving down Jamaica Avenue, the argument starts,
• 10:56
  the inevitable one.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Susan confirms it, I'm keeping the baby, I'm telling Keith tomorrow.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: And that's the moment Steven pulls out the gun, the
• 11:05
  point three toy a he brought with.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Him, and shoots her. Prosecutors later confirmed he shot her
• 11:10
  while she was sitting in the passenger seat, just like.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: That, a single shot to the back of her head.
• 11:15
  It's just brutal, an execution, purely to silence her, to
• 11:19
  keep his secrets buried.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: What did he do right after the immediate after wrath?
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Pure panic, it seems, in a really clumsy cover up attempt.
• 11:26
  He stops the car, drags Susan's body she's bleeding, out
• 11:29
  of the driver's side, shoves her into the truck.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: The forces her into the truck, slams.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: It shut, and then just bolts runs off on foot,
• 11:36
  leaving the Altamo right there on the street. No thought
• 11:39
  about witnesses, cameras, anything, Just get away. His first call
• 11:43
  to his friend Tim begging for a ride somewhere near
• 11:46
  Jamaica Avenue. And that's his first big mistake, he confesses,
• 11:50
  tells Tim, I did something stupid.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: Oh wow. He ropes Tim in immediately.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: Needs an accomplice, needs help. He doesn't just ask for
• 11:57
  a ride. He hands to him the gun, the murder weapon. Says,
• 12:00
  hold on to this for me, trying to get rid
• 12:02
  of the key evidence and Tim.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: What did Tim do well.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: In that moment? Probably shocked, confused, maybe loyalty. He took
• 12:10
  the gun and initially he gave Stephen a fake alibi
• 12:13
  said they were together watching TV at home from nine
• 12:16
  pm onwards that night.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Well, all this is happening back in Franklin Square, Susan.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Doesn't come home her parents, Josephine and Anthony. They start
• 12:22
  to worry. By ten pm, the dread is real. They
• 12:25
  report are missing.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: So the investigation kicks off right away and the focus
• 12:29
  naturally falls on the two key men in her life.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Keith, the ex husband, and Steven, the half brother with
• 12:35
  the close relationship. Keith, though he cooperated completely fully, he
• 12:39
  was apparently devastated, emotional talking about how he was just
• 12:42
  realizing he was ready to try again with Susan. His
• 12:44
  grief seemed genuine, His timeline checked out. Detectives cleared him
• 12:48
  pretty quickly.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: So the attention shifts squarely to Steven, and that alibi
• 12:52
  tim provided starts to look.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Shaky, very shaky. The break came fast. The next day,
• 12:57
  February twenty second, someone finds and Susan's purse just lying
• 13:01
  on a street in Queen's id keys.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Everything and the car wasn't far away.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: Nearby the abandoned red Ultima police opened the trunk. Yeah,
• 13:11
  curled up, shot in the head, obviously pregnant, the awful
• 13:14
  truth right there.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: That discovery must have accelerated everything absolutely.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Now they have a body, a crime scene, and Steven's alibi.
• 13:22
  The watching TV story it completely falls apart. How soon
• 13:26
  records they play Stephen's phone right there on Jamaica Avenue
• 13:28
  queens around the time the murder likely happened, exactly where
• 13:32
  he and Tim swore he wasn't.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: The objective data just blew the alibi out of the water, so.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Detectives pulled him back in second interrogation. The pressure's on
• 13:40
  now the phone records contradict his story. Any caves he
• 13:43
  breaks admits Stephen confessed, admit Stephen gave him the gun
• 13:48
  and asked him to hide.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: It, and he tells them where it is, leads.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: Them right to it, hidden in some woods. Ballistics check
• 13:53
  comes back, it's a match, it's the murder weapon.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: That's it. Then game over for Steven pretty much.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Just seventy two hours after Susan was reported missing, February
• 14:04
  twenty fourth, Steven Steubeny is arrested, charged with second degree murder,
• 14:09
  weapon possession, tampering with evidence.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: The Queen's DA Richard Brown, called it vicious and brutal.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: Which it absolutely was. The speed of it all though,
• 14:18
  seventy two hours, Yeah, it really highlights how often the
• 14:20
  killer is someone close, someone known the trail was right there.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Okay, so he's arrested. Let's talk about the legal side.
• 14:26
  The trial started in April two thousand and seven.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and facing that mountain of evidence, the phone records,
• 14:32
  Tim's testimony about the confession and the gun, the gun itself,
• 14:35
  the motive becoming clear. Stephen knew a conviction was likely
• 14:39
  second degree murder carried what twenty five to.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Life a long time, so he didn't fight it.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: No. Day one of the trial, he took a deal,
• 14:46
  pleaded guilty to first degree manslaughter.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Manslaughter that's a significant step down from murder too.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: It is legally it implies intent to cause serious physical
• 14:56
  injury resulting in death or acting under extreme emotional to disturbance,
• 15:01
  rather than a direct intent to kill. It allowed him
• 15:04
  to avoid that potential life sentence.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: How did he act when he made the plea.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: Reports say it was chilling, just stood there, monotone voice,
• 15:12
  flat effect, no emotion, no remorse, visible, just stated the facts.
• 15:17
  I fired one shot, striking her in the back of
• 15:20
  the head, like he was reading a grocery list.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: That lack of remorse must have been agonizing for Susan's family.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: It was Susan's mother, Josephine deads actually cried out in
• 15:28
  the courtroom, just this raw pain. He killed my baby
• 15:31
  and his baby, capturing that double loss perfectly.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: So the sentencing happened May twenty ninth, two thousand and seven.
• 15:36
  What did he get?
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: Thirty years, which for a first degree manslaughter in a
• 15:41
  case like this, it was actually towards the lower end
• 15:43
  of the sentencing range. Just as Randall Ang, presiding called
• 15:46
  it disturbing, upsetting, a very emotional case. Acknowledged the gravity,
• 15:52
  but the sentence.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Was what it was, thirty years. He went straight to
• 15:55
  sing sing.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Yep remanded immediately. His department identification number is zero seven
• 16:00
  A two nine seventy nine.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: He's still there and parole eligibility.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: November tenth, twenty thirty, so he'll serve as substantial amount
• 16:07
  of that time, but he could potentially be released then.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Now you mentioned this case highlighted a legal gap something
• 16:13
  about the baby.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Yes, and this is really critical. At that time. Under
• 16:17
  New York law, Stephen could not be charged separately for
• 16:19
  the death of the fetus, the baby, Girard.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Why not he intentionally killed a pregnant woman knowing she
• 16:24
  was pregnant.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: The law then generally required a live birth for homicide
• 16:28
  charges related to a fetus to apply. In most circumstances,
• 16:32
  the fetus wasn't legally recognized as a separate victim in
• 16:35
  the context of murder law, unless maybe under very specific
• 16:39
  violent assault statutes. So his charge, his sentence, it only
• 16:43
  reflected Susan's death, not the death of her unborn child,
• 16:47
  whom he also killed.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: That seems like a huge oversight. Has that changed?
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: It has in many places. Cases like Susan's were incredibly
• 16:54
  important in pushing for changes to fetal homicide laws across
• 16:57
  the country, including eventually in New York, to better recognize
• 17:00
  the fetus as a potential victim in such crimes. Her
• 17:03
  case really underscored that legal shortcoming regarding violence against pregnant women.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Beyond the legal specifics, What else does this case tell us?
• 17:10
  You mentioned familial homicide.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a grim statistic, but the FBI notes violence
• 17:14
  occurs in about twenty percent of homicides within families. This
• 17:19
  wasn't just a lover's quarrel gone wrong. It was the
• 17:21
  absolute explosion of that lifelong sibling rivalry rooted in jealousy,
• 17:26
  perceived favoritism, maybe going way back to their childhood and
• 17:30
  Queen's Stephen saw Keith's life, Keith's marriage as things he
• 17:34
  was denied, things he envied.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: And the control aspect that seems central too.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: The reproductive coercion absolutely central Stephen's rage, his panic It
• 17:44
  ignited when Susan refused his demand for an abortion. Her
• 17:47
  decision to keep the baby was her asserting control over
• 17:50
  her own body, her own future.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: And he couldn't tolerate that loss of control exactly.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: His violence wasn't random, It was a direct response to
• 17:57
  her reclaiming your agency. His demand for the abortion wasn't
• 17:59
  about concern. It was about self preservation, protecting his reputation.
• 18:03
  His double life with Kim is fragile standing with Keith.
• 18:06
  When Susan said no, she took back the power. Yeah,
• 18:08
  and his response was lethal.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: It's such a clear, horrifying example of that. Dynamic advocacy
• 18:14
  groups talk about this all the time.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: The do the National Network to End Domestic Violence groups
• 18:19
  like that. They stress how common this is, trying to
• 18:22
  control reproductive choices, forcing or preventing pregnancy or abortion. It's
• 18:26
  a form of abuse. Susan's story is just a tragically
• 18:29
  public example of how quickly that can escalate when the victim.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Resists, and the trust factor makes it even worse. He
• 18:35
  used his position as the helpful uncle, the godfather.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: Use that intimacy, that trust he'd built, as leverage, and
• 18:42
  when she'd defied his ultimate demand, he eliminated the problem.
• 18:46
  It's the ultimate betrayal.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: The impact on the survivors, it's hard to even fathom. Taylor,
• 18:52
  Susan's daughter, she was only eight at the trial.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Eight years old. Yeah, she loses her mother in this
• 18:56
  horrific way. And the man who did it, her god,
• 19:00
  the guy who was supposed to protect her, who doted
• 19:02
  on her. The psychological trauma is just immense.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Keith got custody right, He raised her through all that.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Keith stepped up, raised Taylor while dealing with his
• 19:10
  own grief, the betrayal by his own half brother. He
• 19:13
  did remarry eventually, but you can imagine the scars are permanent.
• 19:16
  His description is Stephen, He's a sick individual. Yeah, it
• 19:19
  feels very final, very measured.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: And the other woman caught in the middle Kim Steven's girlfriend.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: She gave birth to Stephen's son, became a single mother overnight,
• 19:29
  basically raising a child whose father is in prison for
• 19:32
  murdering the mother of his other child, her life completely
• 19:36
  upended by his lies and violence, even though she wasn't
• 19:39
  the physical target.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Amidst all this darkness, the way Susan's family chose to
• 19:43
  remember her is quite remarkable. Her mother, Josephine.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: Josephine debts, instead of just being consumed by grief, she
• 19:51
  turned it into action. She started these annual remembering Susan
• 19:55
  baby showers.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: That's beautiful and so fitting given how much Susan apparently
• 19:59
  loved being a mother exactly.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: It honors Susan, honors the baby Gerard she lost. But
• 20:04
  it's not about anger or revenge. It's about compassion. They
• 20:07
  collect diapers, baby supplies, things new mothers desperately need, especially
• 20:11
  those struggling.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Susan's sister, Debra said it perfectly. She was very dear
• 20:15
  to motherhood. This charity just keeps that spirit alive.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: And even after Josephine sadly passed away from cancer in
• 20:22
  twenty sixteen, the tradition didn't stop. Her niece Mia Clark
• 20:26
  picked it up. It continues today. It's this incredible legacy
• 20:30
  ensuring Susan's light isn't forgotten, channeled into helping others.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: That's a powerful counterpoint to the tragedy the case itself,
• 20:37
  though it hasn't faded away entirely.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: No, it still gets sighted. The NY Daily News covered
• 20:41
  it extensively. Her secret pregnancy led to Sleigh was one headline,
• 20:46
  and it's said to be featured in a twenty twenty
• 20:48
  five Oxygen special Fatal Family Feuds. It stays relevant because
• 20:52
  the themes are timeless.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, domestic violence, hidden abuse, family conflict exactly.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: And the message from the family from advocates is consistent.
• 21:00
  Speak out, don't ignore the warning signs, don't dismiss that
• 21:03
  cut feeling. Keith's comment, we all knew right away. It's
• 21:07
  like this haunting reminder that sometimes the danger signals are there,
• 21:10
  even if facing them feels impossible.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: So wrapping this up, what are the key takeaways from
• 21:14
  this deep dive?
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: Well, I think it really shows the explosive danger when
• 21:19
  you mix deep seated sibling rivalry, that kind of lifelong
• 21:21
  jealousy with infidelity and this intense need for control Susan
• 21:26
  Ebersino's murder is just such a scark illustration of how
• 21:29
  fast seemingly stable family ties can turn deadly when those
• 21:33
  undercurrents are ignored and one person demands absolute dominance.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: And for you listening, it's a reminder that understanding these dynamics,
• 21:40
  recognizing these patterns, that knowledge is crucial. This wasn't random violence.
• 21:44
  It was calculated. It was about managing secrets, managing reputation,
• 21:48
  managing two families.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: Steves Keiovoni presented as the helpful uncle, the rock, the godfather.
• 21:54
  He's the ultimate example of the threat that can come
• 21:56
  from within, from the trusted insider. His demand for an
• 21:59
  abortion wasn't a request, it was an ultimatum, rooted in control.
• 22:03
  Her refusal triggered the violence.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Which leaves us with this final thought, tom all over,
• 22:08
  the person who inflicted this violence was the one carefully
• 22:10
  positioned as the stable, reliable force, the guy fixing things,
• 22:14
  driving the kids, offering support. So when that kind of
• 22:17
  loyalty that perceives stability is actually being used as a
• 22:21
  tool for coercion, specifically over something as fundamental as reproductive choice,
• 22:26
  how do we get better at seeing that threat, seeing
• 22:29
  the danger in those closest to us, the ones who
• 22:31
  seem to hold everything together before asserting one's own rights,
• 22:33
  leads to tragedy. Susan's story is a really profound warning
• 22:38
  that sometimes the deepest betrayals come from the bonds you
• 22:41
  trust the most