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