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The Woman Who Claimed a Masked Man Kidnapped Her Child TWICE _ Paula Sims · This is monsters

0:07
Speaker 1: When Officer Bob Igen showed up at the address of
0:10
Speaker 1: a reported kidnapping in Alton, Illinois on April 29, 1989,
0:15
Speaker 1: he had no idea what he was walking into. When
0:18
Speaker 1: the victims introduced themselves as Robert and Paula Sims, the
0:22
Speaker 1: names didn't immediately ring any bells. The panicking parents explained
0:27
Speaker 1: that a masked man with a gun had attacked Paula
0:30
Speaker 1: and taken their six-week-old daughter, Heather. It was a serious case,
0:34
Speaker 1: and Officer Eichen immediately called for backup so they could
0:37
Speaker 1: find the missing infant. It wasn't until Rob said, quote,
0:41
Speaker 1: this happened to us before, that the officer realized who
0:45
Speaker 1: Robert and Paula Sims were. In 1986, their 12-day-old daughter, Lorelai,
0:52
Speaker 1: had been kidnapped and murdered by a masked man with
0:55
Speaker 1: a gun. Three years later, they were claiming that exact
1:00
Speaker 1: same thing happened again. This is Monsters. Paula Blue was
1:31
Speaker 1: born on May 21, 1959, in Freeman, Missouri. She was
1:36
Speaker 1: the third and final child born to Orville and Nyleen Blue.
1:40
Speaker 1: She had two older brothers, Dennis and Randy. Orville worked
1:44
Speaker 1: for Amoco Oil Company as a pipeliner, which meant he
1:47
Speaker 1: maintained and operated the oil pipelines. When the company began
1:52
Speaker 1: building a new pipeline in northern Missouri, a company transfer
1:56
Speaker 1: caused the family to move to La Plata when Paula
1:58
Speaker 1: was seven. Paula was described as quiet and shy in
2:02
Speaker 1: her youth, and people who knew her said she was
2:05
Speaker 1: a bit of a tomboy. She grew up spending more
2:08
Speaker 1: time playing sports and riding motorbikes. As she got older,
2:13
Speaker 1: she became more outgoing, especially when it came to standing
2:16
Speaker 1: up for herself. She would never back away from a
2:19
Speaker 1: fight with both boys and girls. When she got old
2:23
Speaker 1: enough to earn some extra money, she opted to mow
2:25
Speaker 1: lawns instead of babysit. People would later say that she
2:29
Speaker 1: didn't really have an interest in children, which would cause
2:32
Speaker 1: many discussions later in life after she was convicted. Paula
2:37
Speaker 1: had good relationships with both of her brothers. Her oldest
2:41
Speaker 1: brother Dennis had suffered from a bad case of measles
2:44
Speaker 1: when he was three years old that left him with
2:46
Speaker 1: a seizure disorder. His seizures were severe and frequent enough
2:50
Speaker 1: that he couldn't be left alone. Paula was protective of
2:54
Speaker 1: Dennis and spent time with him on walks and at
2:56
Speaker 1: the movies. Other students would make fun of him for
3:00
Speaker 1: having seizures because, you know, that doesn't make you a
3:03
Speaker 1: cruel person. But as long as Paula was around, nobody
3:06
Speaker 1: teased them. By contrast, Randy, a few years younger than Dennis,
3:11
Speaker 1: was quite popular in school. He was well-liked by his
3:14
Speaker 1: classmates and dated regularly. He and Paula would play basketball
3:19
Speaker 1: together and she began gravitating towards his friend group. They
3:23
Speaker 1: would drink and smoke marijuana and there were rumors of
3:26
Speaker 1: harder drugs, but nothing that was ever verified. One boyfriend
3:31
Speaker 1: would later tell the police that they did do LSD
3:33
Speaker 1: when they could get it and Paula would occasionally steal
3:36
Speaker 1: some of Dennis' seizure medication, which can cause a calming effect.
3:41
Speaker 1: That boyfriend was a friend of Randy's and one night,
3:44
Speaker 1: Paula and Randy went out for a drive. It's been
3:47
Speaker 1: speculated that Randy was unhappy about Paula dating his friend
3:51
Speaker 1: and he wanted to talk to her about the relationship.
3:55
Speaker 1: They were speeding down a road on the west side
3:57
Speaker 1: of the city when Randy lost control of the car,
3:59
Speaker 1: hit an oncoming car head-on, and then bounced off a tree.
4:04
Speaker 1: Randy's skull was crushed and he died on the scene
4:06
Speaker 1: at 19. Paula was hospitalized with severe facial injuries. A
4:13
Speaker 1: toxicology report would find that Randy was intoxicated at the
4:16
Speaker 1: time of the accident. After the crash, Paula was never
4:20
Speaker 1: the same, which shouldn't be a surprise. Being severely injured
4:24
Speaker 1: in a car accident alone can change someone. Having lost
4:28
Speaker 1: your brother in that car accident, too, is emotionally damaging.
4:32
Speaker 1: A state trooper who had been on the scene of
4:35
Speaker 1: the accident would end up spreading a rumor that Paula
4:38
Speaker 1: and Randy had been in a sexual relationship. He told
4:41
Speaker 1: other people that another officer on the scene told him
4:44
Speaker 1: that he had once caught the siblings having sex in
4:47
Speaker 1: a parked car. That claim was never confirmed at the time,
4:51
Speaker 1: and after Paula's later crimes, the FBI would interview everyone
4:55
Speaker 1: who had worked in law enforcement in La Plata in
4:58
Speaker 1: 1975 and 1976, and not a single one of them
5:02
Speaker 1: claimed to have caught the siblings in the act. Paula
5:06
Speaker 1: became withdrawn and distant. She stopped playing basketball altogether. Her mother, Nyleen,
5:13
Speaker 1: also took the loss hard, again, understandably, and people said
5:17
Speaker 1: she began spending all of her time at Randy's grave. So,
5:21
Speaker 1: a month after Randy's death, the Blues moved to the
5:24
Speaker 1: area of Alton, Illinois, where Amico had a refinery. They
5:29
Speaker 1: settled into an area called Cottage Hills, just north of Alton,
5:32
Speaker 1: and Paula finished her education at Civic Memorial High School.
5:37
Speaker 1: The few friends that Paula had in Illinois would say
5:39
Speaker 1: she was quiet and never fought or showed any signs
5:42
Speaker 1: of aggression. She still smoked pot occasionally, but never drank
5:47
Speaker 1: and didn't party. Paula's closest friend at the time, June Bland,
5:51
Speaker 1: said that she really wanted to have children, especially girls.
5:56
Speaker 1: That would be another curious detail later in Paula's life.
6:00
Speaker 1: That friend would also say that when the Queen song
6:02
Speaker 1: Lorelai came out, Paula said she was going to name
6:05
Speaker 1: her first daughter that. After graduating from high school in 1977,
6:11
Speaker 1: Paula and a friend both enrolled at Lewis and Clark
6:14
Speaker 1: Community College, planning to study computers, a pretty new and
6:17
Speaker 1: exciting field at the time. Unfortunately, neither of them completed
6:22
Speaker 1: the program, and Paula started working at a grocery store
6:25
Speaker 1: in town. She worked there for years and her co-workers
6:28
Speaker 1: would not have fond memories of her. They said she
6:32
Speaker 1: was standoffish and it seemed that her aggressive nature had returned.
6:36
Speaker 1: She had multiple confrontations with co-workers as well as customers.
6:41
Speaker 1: She remained pretty solitary and didn't date much until about
6:45
Speaker 1: 1980 when she met a man named Robert Sims, who
6:48
Speaker 1: went by Rob. Paula still spent time with June occasionally
6:52
Speaker 1: and they often went to parties at June's cousin's house.
6:56
Speaker 1: One of the people that attended those parties was Rob.
7:00
Speaker 1: He had invited June's cousin to a concert and she
7:03
Speaker 1: couldn't go, so she suggested he ask Paula. He did
7:07
Speaker 1: and she said yes. A year later, Rob asked Paula
7:11
Speaker 1: to marry him and again, she said yes. They were
7:15
Speaker 1: married on May 2, 1981. Paula was 22 years old
7:16
Speaker 1: and Rob was 29. Robert Sims was born on April 20, 1952,
7:25
Speaker 1: in Carbondale, Illinois, to Troy and Wilma Sims. He was
7:30
Speaker 1: the fourth of five children born to the couple. He
7:33
Speaker 1: had an older sister who was born prematurely and died
7:36
Speaker 1: within a day of her birth. He also had two
7:39
Speaker 1: older brothers and a younger sister. The family moved to
7:43
Speaker 1: Alton in 1958 when Troy became an elementary school teacher.
7:48
Speaker 1: Troy also taught music, and Rob played the tuba in
7:51
Speaker 1: Marching Band. Troy would later say that Rob lived a
7:55
Speaker 1: fairly sheltered life and was pretty average academically. He didn't
7:59
Speaker 1: go to college after high school, but instead became a
8:02
Speaker 1: debt collector for a local credit union. He did try
8:06
Speaker 1: to take some classes at Southern Illinois University, but dropped
8:09
Speaker 1: out and joined the military. He enlisted in the United
8:13
Speaker 1: States Navy in October of 1972 and spent most of
8:17
Speaker 1: his three years enlisted at a naval air station in Brunswick, Maine.
8:22
Speaker 1: He would later tell Paula that he was having nightmares
8:25
Speaker 1: about his time in Vietnam, but there's no record of
8:28
Speaker 1: him serving in any combat, especially not Vietnam, since the U.S.
8:32
Speaker 1: was pulling out of the conflict in March of 1973,
8:36
Speaker 1: which would have been around the time Rob was completing training,
8:39
Speaker 1: depending on his job. While in Maine, Rob met and
8:44
Speaker 1: married a young woman named Martha Smith, and when he
8:46
Speaker 1: left the Navy, she returned to Illinois with him. Except
8:50
Speaker 1: he didn't choose to not re-enlist. He was classified as
8:54
Speaker 1: ineligible for re-enlistment due to a negative attitude toward the Navy.
8:59
Speaker 1: He had no disciplinary record, but his superior seemed to
9:02
Speaker 1: notice that he wasn't fit for duty. When Rob returned
9:07
Speaker 1: to Alton, he went back to his job as a
9:09
Speaker 1: debt collector. His co-worker said he was different after returning
9:13
Speaker 1: from the Navy. He was moody and he clearly had
9:16
Speaker 1: a problem taking directions from a woman. Then, one co-worker
9:21
Speaker 1: started experiencing harassing behavior at work and at home. In
9:25
Speaker 1: the office, her lunch would get vandalized and then her car.
9:30
Speaker 1: Things escalated to her home being vandalized, and then she
9:33
Speaker 1: got a letter in the mail that contained a paper
9:35
Speaker 1: with a picture of a nude woman with her breasts
9:38
Speaker 1: and genitals cut out and ransom-style cut-out letters saying, quote,
9:43
Speaker 1: this could happen to you. After receiving a number of
9:47
Speaker 1: hang-up calls, the phone company put a trap on her line,
9:50
Speaker 1: and after two more hang-up calls, they were traced to
9:53
Speaker 1: Rob's home phone. When the police went to the Sims' home,
9:57
Speaker 1: Martha claimed that she had found the number with Rob's
10:00
Speaker 1: stuff and called it twice without saying anything. The case
10:04
Speaker 1: was closed, but Rob's employer let him go. He worked
10:08
Speaker 1: for another credit union for a short time before becoming
10:11
Speaker 1: a laborer at the paper mill. That wouldn't end his
10:14
Speaker 1: problematic behavior, though. His co-worker said that he complained constantly
10:19
Speaker 1: and filed baseless grievances with the company frequently. One co-worker
10:24
Speaker 1: would describe Rob harassing a black woman who worked at
10:28
Speaker 1: the company by putting a cockroach and a used condom
10:31
Speaker 1: in her sandwich. Rob's father would later say that he
10:34
Speaker 1: believed his son was prejudiced against black people and that
10:37
Speaker 1: he had a temper, which likely caused more problems in
10:41
Speaker 1: his life. Rob and Martha's marriage didn't last, and Martha
10:45
Speaker 1: moved back to Maine, saying Rob was too domineering. They
10:49
Speaker 1: were divorced in 1978. After Rob and Paula were married,
10:54
Speaker 1: they lived in Alton for a few years. They bought
10:58
Speaker 1: a house in Alton, but after living there for less
11:00
Speaker 1: than two years, they ended up getting their money back
11:03
Speaker 1: because they complained that the house's condition had been misrepresented.
11:08
Speaker 1: After that, they bought a house in a rural area
11:10
Speaker 1: in the town of Brighton. It was about 15 miles
11:14
Speaker 1: or 24 kilometers north of Alton. After moving, Paula told
11:18
Speaker 1: her friends that, since they had a house and were
11:21
Speaker 1: financially stable, despite Paula having been fired from the grocery store,
11:25
Speaker 1: they were ready to start a family. Now, outside of
11:29
Speaker 1: Paula having said she wanted girls when she was younger,
11:32
Speaker 1: it seemed that Rob wanted boys and he was seen
11:35
Speaker 1: as someone who made sure he got what he wanted.
11:38
Speaker 1: It was always believed that he had coerced his first wife, Martha,
11:41
Speaker 1: into taking the rap for him when he was caught
11:43
Speaker 1: harassing the co-worker. Paula had become good friends with her neighbor,
11:47
Speaker 1: Minnie Gray, who lived next door with her husband, Don.
11:51
Speaker 1: They had two grown sons, and neither Minnie or Paula worked,
11:54
Speaker 1: so they would regularly hang out during the days in chat.
11:58
Speaker 1: Minnie was one of the first people Paula told when
12:01
Speaker 1: she was pregnant. After Lorelai was born on June 5th, 1986,
12:05
Speaker 1: Minnie visited the newborn the following day. She said that
12:10
Speaker 1: Paula seemed extremely happy with her new daughter. On June 17th,
12:16
Speaker 1: 12 days after Lorelai was born, at just before 10.30pm,
12:20
Speaker 1: Dawn and Minnie were getting ready to go to bed
12:22
Speaker 1: when a woman started yelling outside of their front door.
12:26
Speaker 1: Minnie peeked out the window and saw her neighbor Paula
12:29
Speaker 1: frantically begging to be let into their house. Many opened
12:33
Speaker 1: the door, and a hysterical Paula ran in and started yelling, quote,
12:37
Speaker 1: Help me! Help me! They stole my baby! They stole
12:40
Speaker 1: my baby! Paula hysterically told the Grays that she was
12:44
Speaker 1: watching television in the basement living room when a masked
12:48
Speaker 1: man came in, pointed a gun at her, and ordered
12:51
Speaker 1: her to lay on the floor for ten minutes. She
12:54
Speaker 1: did as she was told, thinking the man was going
12:56
Speaker 1: to ransack the house and steal valuables. But when she
12:59
Speaker 1: heard him leave, she got up to see that the
13:01
Speaker 1: baby was missing from her bassinet. She explained that she
13:05
Speaker 1: had run outside where she could hear footsteps running down
13:08
Speaker 1: the long gravel driveway, and she gave chase, but when
13:11
Speaker 1: she got to the road, the man was gone. When
13:15
Speaker 1: Dawn entered the room, he would later say that Paula
13:17
Speaker 1: was clearly upset, but there was no sign that she
13:20
Speaker 1: had been crying. He went to the phone to call
13:23
Speaker 1: the sheriff's department and, at the same time, Paula said
13:25
Speaker 1: she needed to call Rob. Rob did shift work at
13:29
Speaker 1: the paper mill and had been working night shifts at
13:31
Speaker 1: the time. Paula said she didn't have the number on her,
13:34
Speaker 1: so she ran outside back toward her house. Minnie chased
13:38
Speaker 1: after her, wanting to make sure her friend was okay.
13:41
Speaker 1: By the time Minnie threw on some jeans and made
13:43
Speaker 1: it to the front door of the Sims house, Paula
13:45
Speaker 1: was already on the phone with Rob. He told her
13:48
Speaker 1: he would come home right away. When Paula hung up,
13:52
Speaker 1: the women discussed how the intruder might have gotten into
13:55
Speaker 1: the home, and that's when Minnie saw a cut in
13:57
Speaker 1: the screen door to the front of the house. Paula
14:00
Speaker 1: said she had locked the screen door, but someone had
14:02
Speaker 1: made a cut in the screen just big enough to
14:05
Speaker 1: reach in and unlock it. The call from Don came
14:08
Speaker 1: into the sheriff's station at 10.27 p.m. When he hung
14:12
Speaker 1: up the phone, he grabbed a flashlight and stood at
14:15
Speaker 1: the end of the Sims driveway to signal to the
14:17
Speaker 1: approaching authorities. Deputy John Hazelwood called the Brighton Police Department
14:23
Speaker 1: and radioed the Illinois State Police with information of the
14:26
Speaker 1: kidnapping so they could prepare a bulletin. The deputy arrived
14:30
Speaker 1: at the house just after Brighton Police Officer Chris White,
14:33
Speaker 1: and not long after that, the sheriff, Frank Yocum, also
14:37
Speaker 1: arrived on the scene. Children being kidnapped by strangers is
14:41
Speaker 1: a rarity in the U.S., and infant-stranger abductions are even
14:45
Speaker 1: less common. But it happens, and the authorities have to
14:48
Speaker 1: take every report seriously. Because of that, Sheriff Yochum called
14:53
Speaker 1: in help from the State Police's Division of Criminal Investigation,
14:57
Speaker 1: or DCI. They would be able to send them more
15:00
Speaker 1: investigators and even a canine unit to help search for
15:03
Speaker 1: the missing infant. Still, there were a lot of red
15:07
Speaker 1: flags about the case right off the bat. Minnie would
15:10
Speaker 1: later say that she was surprised that the intruder was
15:13
Speaker 1: able to get into the house and all the way
15:15
Speaker 1: down the stairs without the Sims' dog noticing. Paula had
15:19
Speaker 1: once told Minnie that their large collie named Shadow would
15:22
Speaker 1: hear any little noise and always notified her when someone
15:25
Speaker 1: was approaching the house. When Minnie asked her where Shadow
15:29
Speaker 1: had been during the kidnapping, Paula shrugged it off and
15:32
Speaker 1: said she must have been in one of the other
15:33
Speaker 1: rooms in the basement. When the bassinet that Lorelai was
15:37
Speaker 1: supposedly in when she was taken was inspected, inside there
15:41
Speaker 1: was a blanket folded up, which seemed out of place.
15:45
Speaker 1: Why would somebody take the baby, then fold up the
15:48
Speaker 1: blanket and leave it in the bassinet? As a matter
15:51
Speaker 1: of fact, outside of the cut in the screen door,
15:54
Speaker 1: nothing was out of place. The intruder went straight to
15:57
Speaker 1: the baby and took her, somehow knowing exactly where she'd be.
16:01
Speaker 1: Another noticeable detail about the house was the fact that
16:04
Speaker 1: the hinges on the screen door made a very loud
16:07
Speaker 1: squeak when you opened and closed it. As investigators, crime
16:11
Speaker 1: scene techs, and photographers repeatedly came in and out of
16:15
Speaker 1: the house, the screeching sound from the screen door was
16:18
Speaker 1: grating to DCI Captain Kosas. He asked the sheriff to
16:22
Speaker 1: go and try to open the screen door quietly, but
16:24
Speaker 1: he couldn't. No matter how slow he pulled the screen
16:28
Speaker 1: door open, the screeching sound was clearly audible in the
16:31
Speaker 1: basement living room. How had Paula possibly not heard that?
16:35
Speaker 1: Or the hyper-vigilant dog, for that matter? When Rob showed up,
16:40
Speaker 1: he ran from the car and asked Paula what had happened.
16:43
Speaker 1: The sheriff noticed that, while Paula was telling him that
16:46
Speaker 1: their infant daughter had been taken by an intruder, he
16:49
Speaker 1: didn't hug her or comfort her in any way. Then
16:53
Speaker 1: Paula said, quote, When Rob denied he was disappointed, Paula replied,
16:57
Speaker 1: When Robert noticed that people were listening, he leaned over
17:00
Speaker 1: and whispered something in Paula's ear. She stopped talking after that.
17:18
Speaker 1: Shortly after midnight, the state's police canine unit arrived on
17:22
Speaker 1: the scene with the captain of that area's DCI, Philip Kosas.
17:26
Speaker 1: Since it had been a few hours since the initial report,
17:29
Speaker 1: investigators hoped that Paula had calmed down enough to remember
17:32
Speaker 1: more details. They were wrong. She had no more answers
17:37
Speaker 1: than she had had immediately after the abduction happened. She
17:40
Speaker 1: said she didn't see or hear anything that could help
17:43
Speaker 1: them identify the intruder. Rob made some suggestions. He described
17:48
Speaker 1: a man sitting in a light blue Ford Falcon parked
17:51
Speaker 1: near the pond beside their house when he left for
17:54
Speaker 1: work earlier that evening. He said he stopped and told
17:57
Speaker 1: the man he couldn't fish in the pond. He said
18:00
Speaker 1: three days prior, a man in an old green pickup
18:03
Speaker 1: came to their door and asked about fishing in the pond,
18:05
Speaker 1: and when Rob told him he couldn't, the man got angry.
18:10
Speaker 1: So he returned three days later and kidnapped a baby?
18:14
Speaker 1: Seemed unlikely. He informed the investigators that a nurse at
18:18
Speaker 1: the hospital had said she was going to kidnap Lorelai,
18:21
Speaker 1: but then admitted he did believe she was joking. Then
18:24
Speaker 1: he said they had been getting hang-up calls since they
18:26
Speaker 1: returned from the hospital with the baby. If that was true,
18:30
Speaker 1: it would be a strange bit of irony. Rob also
18:34
Speaker 1: gave Captain Kosas more information about their past. He explained
18:38
Speaker 1: that he had an ex-wife in Maine who he hadn't
18:40
Speaker 1: spoken to since the divorce. He described his job and
18:44
Speaker 1: that he had been in some confrontations there. They were
18:47
Speaker 1: nothing the investigator saw as a motive for a kidnapping.
18:51
Speaker 1: Then Rob told Kosas about his workshop and the woodworking
18:54
Speaker 1: projects he had going on. The investigator would later say
18:58
Speaker 1: he was put off by the amount of attention Rob
19:01
Speaker 1: put into talking about his workshop, far more than he
19:04
Speaker 1: seemed to have about finding his daughter. The investigator said
19:08
Speaker 1: his conversation with Rob about the kidnapping made it seem
19:11
Speaker 1: almost like the man was bored. By the time the
19:15
Speaker 1: Sims had been re-interviewed, the canine units had come up empty,
19:18
Speaker 1: finding any trail leading away from the house. There was
19:22
Speaker 1: no sign that anybody had left the home in any direction.
19:25
Speaker 1: The baby had simply disappeared into the night. The next day,
19:30
Speaker 1: authorities brought in a boat and divers to search the
19:33
Speaker 1: pond next to the Sims' house. It was about 450
19:37
Speaker 1: feet or 140 meters long and about 200 feet or
19:40
Speaker 1: 60 meters wide. It was about 50 feet or 15
19:45
Speaker 1: meters to the east of their house. After hours of searching,
19:49
Speaker 1: nothing was found in the water. Dogs were also brought
19:52
Speaker 1: back in and were unsuccessful again, and a plane flew
19:55
Speaker 1: circles over the area around the house with an infrared
19:58
Speaker 1: camera in the hopes that the baby was still alive
20:01
Speaker 1: somewhere nearby, but again, they found nothing. One of the
20:05
Speaker 1: red flags that an investigator noted was when he saw
20:08
Speaker 1: Paula watching the divers in the pond. He told her
20:12
Speaker 1: she should go to the sheriff's station to make a
20:14
Speaker 1: formal statement and she told him no. She said, quote,
20:18
Speaker 1: I want to be here when they bring her body up.
20:21
Speaker 1: She must have noticed a shocked look on the investigator's
20:24
Speaker 1: face because she corrected herself and said, quote, I mean,
20:27
Speaker 1: my baby is still alive and I want to be
20:29
Speaker 1: here when they bring her onto the porch. That detective
20:33
Speaker 1: said he was so concerned about the statement that he
20:35
Speaker 1: made sure to immediately make note of it and inform
20:38
Speaker 1: the investigators in charge. Detectives went to Alton Memorial Hospital
20:45
Speaker 1: and interviewed all of the staff that was working in
20:47
Speaker 1: the maternity ward while Paula was there. Most of them
20:51
Speaker 1: said that everything seemed normal. The doctor said the birth
20:54
Speaker 1: went well with no complications. A couple of nurses said
20:58
Speaker 1: they noticed Rob seemed overly concerned with the birth certificate
21:02
Speaker 1: and said he seemed to scrutinize it quite a bit.
21:05
Speaker 1: One nurse admitted that she had said she wanted to
21:08
Speaker 1: take the baby home, explaining it was because she was
21:10
Speaker 1: so cute, but she did not say she was going
21:13
Speaker 1: to kidnap the baby. Detectives also interviewed a woman who
21:17
Speaker 1: shared a recovery room with Paula, and she explained that
21:20
Speaker 1: she had woken up to the sound of Paula crying
21:22
Speaker 1: on the other side of the curtains. She said she
21:25
Speaker 1: could hear her on the phone with Rob apologizing for
21:28
Speaker 1: having a girl. Investigators were not finding any direct evidence
21:33
Speaker 1: that Paula and Rob were involved in their daughter's disappearance,
21:36
Speaker 1: but too many things were just turning out to be strange.
21:40
Speaker 1: Paula finally went to the sheriff's station at almost noon
21:43
Speaker 1: the day after Lorelai was kidnapped to make her statement.
21:47
Speaker 1: She told her story again while a detective wrote it
21:49
Speaker 1: all down. The investigators continued to suggest that she knew
21:53
Speaker 1: more than she was saying, but she would not budge.
21:57
Speaker 1: Her statement read, quote, I went downstairs around 10 p.m.
22:01
Speaker 1: with the baby to watch the television news. I usually
22:04
Speaker 1: watch the 10 o'clock news on Channel 2. I had
22:08
Speaker 1: fed the baby and she was asleep in the bassinet
22:10
Speaker 1: near the foot of the stairs. I was sitting in
22:13
Speaker 1: my easy chair near the baby. I think the weather
22:16
Speaker 1: was on. The next thing I know, I saw a
22:19
Speaker 1: man on the steps. I didn't hear a thing. The
22:23
Speaker 1: man was white, wearing a dark ski mask pulled over
22:26
Speaker 1: his head. It had eye and mouth holes. His shirt
22:30
Speaker 1: was a dark t-shirt. He was wearing gloves and had
22:33
Speaker 1: a handgun. He stuck his arm out, pointed the gun
22:37
Speaker 1: at me, and said, Get on the floor, stay there
22:39
Speaker 1: ten minutes or I'll kill you. I laid down on
22:43
Speaker 1: the floor. My head was pointed toward the back door
22:46
Speaker 1: away from the baby. I thought, what is he doing here?
22:50
Speaker 1: The door is locked. He had a gun in his
22:53
Speaker 1: right hand. I didn't recognize the voice. It didn't appear
22:57
Speaker 1: too young or too old. The man didn't say a
23:00
Speaker 1: word after that. I didn't hear a thing and not
23:03
Speaker 1: even the baby crying. I heard the front screen door close.
23:08
Speaker 1: I got up right away, started running up the stairs,
23:10
Speaker 1: and as I passed the bassinet, I noticed she, the baby,
23:14
Speaker 1: was gone. I ran out of the door after the man.
23:18
Speaker 1: I couldn't see him, a car, or anything. I could
23:22
Speaker 1: hear what I thought was someone running on the driveway
23:24
Speaker 1: gravel as I was running toward the main road. I
23:27
Speaker 1: ran all the way to the end of the lane.
23:30
Speaker 1: I thought I would see a car or something, but didn't.
23:34
Speaker 1: I then ran to my neighbor's, the Gray's house, to
23:36
Speaker 1: have them call the police. I was going to have
23:39
Speaker 1: them call my husband at work, but didn't have his number.
23:42
Speaker 1: So I went back to our house to get the number.
23:45
Speaker 1: That was her entire statement. Without any more information to
23:50
Speaker 1: go on, the detectives asked if both she and Rob
23:53
Speaker 1: would take a polygraph test and they both agreed. Now,
23:56
Speaker 1: before you blow up my comments explaining how polygraph tests
23:59
Speaker 1: are bullshit, I know. I am not now nor have
24:03
Speaker 1: I ever suggested that they are legitimate. But they are
24:06
Speaker 1: part of this story. So I'm going to recount Paul
24:09
Speaker 1: and Rob taking the test and repeat what the detectives
24:12
Speaker 1: said about the results. That is not me endorsing polygraphs.
24:16
Speaker 1: It's me repeating the events of this case. I will
24:20
Speaker 1: remind everyone that polygraph tests are not admissible in court
24:24
Speaker 1: and the reason is because they are not reliable. They
24:27
Speaker 1: do not identify when someone is lying. They can identify
24:31
Speaker 1: when a human being's heart rate, breathing, and perspiration changes.
24:36
Speaker 1: Those changes can happen when someone lies, but they can
24:39
Speaker 1: also happen for other reasons, and someone can lie without
24:43
Speaker 1: those changes happening. So, unreliable. They were taken more seriously
24:48
Speaker 1: in the past, such as the 80s, when this case
24:51
Speaker 1: was happening. Ultimately, after the tests were administered, the detectives
24:56
Speaker 1: received news that both Paula and Rob had indicated they
24:59
Speaker 1: were being deceptive. When Paula was told the results, she
25:04
Speaker 1: simply said, quote, I don't care, it was the truth.
25:08
Speaker 1: Rob was equally as unfazed by the results, also insisting
25:11
Speaker 1: he told the truth. Back at the Sims residence, authorities
25:16
Speaker 1: brought in dogs one more time to hit some areas
25:19
Speaker 1: that were harder to get to on the first search.
25:22
Speaker 1: There was a steep hill with dense brush around the
25:24
Speaker 1: backside of the house, and a canine unit set out
25:27
Speaker 1: to ensure the area was thoroughly searched. As that detective
25:31
Speaker 1: headed into the area, Rob, who was on the back porch, said,
25:34
Speaker 1: The statement struck the investigators in the area as very odd.
25:37
Speaker 1: Why would a father be so much more concerned with
25:39
Speaker 1: a cop getting poison ivy than finding his missing daughter?
25:56
Speaker 1: It would become even more suspicious when the dog entered
25:58
Speaker 1: the wooded area and almost immediately hit on a location
26:01
Speaker 1: at the base of a tree about 100 feet or
26:03
Speaker 1: 30 meters down the hill. The detective made his way
26:07
Speaker 1: down to the area, secured the dog, and looked into
26:10
Speaker 1: the brush where he found a tiny human skeleton. Lorelei's
26:15
Speaker 1: remains were found on June 24, 1986, just down the
26:18
Speaker 1: hill behind the Sims house, the complete opposite direction from
26:22
Speaker 1: the way Paula claimed the intruder had run. There was
26:26
Speaker 1: a small spot on the back of her head where
26:28
Speaker 1: a bit of skin and red hair remained. The notification
26:32
Speaker 1: to Paula and Rob was no less strange than any
26:35
Speaker 1: other moment in the investigation. They heard that the skeletal
26:39
Speaker 1: remains had been found and they had no questions. They
26:42
Speaker 1: didn't request to see their daughter, they just accepted the news.
26:47
Speaker 1: The skeletal remains were eventually confirmed to be those of
26:50
Speaker 1: Lorelai Sims. The summer heat had caused rapid decomposition and
26:55
Speaker 1: it was impossible to determine a cause of death, but
26:58
Speaker 1: the coroner suggested suffocation. The day after the remains were found,
27:03
Speaker 1: the Sims hired an attorney and the police were informed
27:06
Speaker 1: they were no longer welcome on the property. Later that day,
27:10
Speaker 1: Paula and Rob left the house and stayed with Paula's
27:12
Speaker 1: parents in Wood River, just south of Alton. The Sims
27:16
Speaker 1: put their house up for sale and only returned to
27:18
Speaker 1: remove their belongings. Despite the suspicion of every investigator who
27:23
Speaker 1: worked on the case being on Paula and Rob, there
27:26
Speaker 1: was no physical evidence the district attorney could use to
27:29
Speaker 1: file charges against them. The only thing that was discovered
27:33
Speaker 1: after the Sims moved was that a woman that worked
27:35
Speaker 1: at a Hallmark card shop had seen Paula with Lorelai
27:39
Speaker 1: in the store on June 14th, which contradicted the couple's
27:42
Speaker 1: claim that they had never taken the baby out of
27:44
Speaker 1: the home after they brought her home from the hospital.
27:47
Speaker 1: But forgetting a single trip to a greeting card store
27:50
Speaker 1: isn't enough to put anyone on trial for murder. The
27:54
Speaker 1: case went cold and the Sims moved on with their
27:56
Speaker 1: lives in a new house in Alton. At their new house,
28:00
Speaker 1: the Sims kept to themselves. They had a five-foot high
28:04
Speaker 1: chain-link fence built around their front yard. That would be
28:07
Speaker 1: about a meter and a half and was taller than
28:09
Speaker 1: your standard fence. Most of the time, they're four feet
28:13
Speaker 1: or one and a quarter meters. The other unusual feature
28:17
Speaker 1: was that there was no gate. It crossed over the
28:20
Speaker 1: path that led from the sidewalk to the front door
28:22
Speaker 1: and completely blocked it off, making entry only possible through
28:26
Speaker 1: the back door. They put up a wood privacy fence
28:29
Speaker 1: on one side of the house, installed a light over
28:32
Speaker 1: the back side of the house, covered the windows with
28:34
Speaker 1: blinds or reflective film, and installed a heavy steel storm
28:38
Speaker 1: door on the back door. On February 1, 1988, Randall
28:43
Speaker 1: Troy Sims was born at the same hospital that his
28:46
Speaker 1: sister had been. He was named after Paula's late brother
28:50
Speaker 1: and Rob's father. Neighbors said that they never saw the
28:53
Speaker 1: boy outside. He didn't play at the park or even
28:57
Speaker 1: in his completely sealed front yard. His parents didn't take
29:00
Speaker 1: him out for walks. They kept him inside under lock
29:04
Speaker 1: and key and it seemed that their vigilance paid off,
29:07
Speaker 1: because Randy remained safe and sound at home with his family. Then,
29:12
Speaker 1: on March 18th, 1989, Paula gave birth to another child,
29:17
Speaker 1: a daughter they named Heather. A little more than a
29:20
Speaker 1: month later, that baby would also go missing, and Paula's
29:23
Speaker 1: story of what had happened would shock the community. At
29:29
Speaker 1: a little after 11 p.m. on April 29th, when Heather
29:32
Speaker 1: was six weeks old, a call came into the Alton
29:35
Speaker 1: police about a child abduction. The first officer to arrive
29:39
Speaker 1: on the scene... was Bob Ijen, and he was met
29:41
Speaker 1: by Rob frantically telling him to set up roadblocks. Then
29:46
Speaker 1: Paula approached and said the same thing. He asked her
29:49
Speaker 1: a few times if he saw a vehicle and she
29:51
Speaker 1: said no, which made the request for roadblocks unusual. Then
29:56
Speaker 1: he asked if she saw the person who took her
29:58
Speaker 1: child and she said yes, but she didn't remember much.
30:02
Speaker 1: Someone took your baby and only minutes later you couldn't
30:04
Speaker 1: remember much? What she did remember was that it was
30:08
Speaker 1: a man wearing dark clothes, a mask, and carrying a gun.
30:12
Speaker 1: Sound familiar? Soon, a canine unit arrived and started searching
30:18
Speaker 1: around the house trying to pick up a scent. You
30:21
Speaker 1: probably aren't going to be surprised to learn that they
30:23
Speaker 1: couldn't find one. While that was happening, Officer Eichen was
30:27
Speaker 1: trying to get the full story from Paula. He would
30:30
Speaker 1: note that, despite the couple acting frantic, they didn't seem
30:34
Speaker 1: genuinely worried. Paula said that, at about 10.30 p.m., she
30:39
Speaker 1: had walked out the back door to take a bag
30:41
Speaker 1: of trash to the bin. She would later add that
30:44
Speaker 1: Heather had been experiencing diarrhea and she wanted to get
30:47
Speaker 1: the bag filled with smelly diapers out of the house
30:49
Speaker 1: before Rob returned home from his swing shift. As she
30:53
Speaker 1: stepped off of the porch, a man in a mask
30:55
Speaker 1: pointed a gun at her and told her to go
30:57
Speaker 1: back into the house. She did as instructed, but once inside,
31:02
Speaker 1: he struck her on the back of the head. The
31:04
Speaker 1: next thing she knew, Rob was waking her up and
31:07
Speaker 1: it was 11.12 p.m. He had just returned home from
31:11
Speaker 1: work and found his wife laying on the floor near
31:13
Speaker 1: the back door. They realized that their baby, Heather, was
31:17
Speaker 1: missing from the bassinet in the dining room. When they
31:21
Speaker 1: ran upstairs to check on Randy, they found him sound
31:24
Speaker 1: asleep in his bed. I bet you're super surprised by that.
31:29
Speaker 1: The initial investigation was an exact copy of the first kidnapping.
31:33
Speaker 1: Paula could only give vague details, and to every other question,
31:37
Speaker 1: she said, I don't know. The officer paused the questioning
31:41
Speaker 1: until a senior officer arrived on the scene, but he
31:44
Speaker 1: noted that Paula looked at Rob and said, My son's
31:47
Speaker 1: all right. That's all that matters. I'm sorry, what? A
31:53
Speaker 1: second daughter has gone missing and could wind up dead
31:56
Speaker 1: and all that matters is your son's alright? When Sergeant
32:01
Speaker 1: Terry Lane arrived, he asked to examine Paula for injuries,
32:04
Speaker 1: but even though she was supposedly hit hard enough to
32:07
Speaker 1: knock her out, there wasn't a single mark anywhere on
32:10
Speaker 1: her head. There were also no injuries to her hands
32:13
Speaker 1: or arms that might have come from a fall forward either.
32:17
Speaker 1: Before detectives even arrived, Rob called his sister and then
32:21
Speaker 1: the sergeant overheard him say he needed to call his lawyers.
32:25
Speaker 1: When detectives got to the scene, Rob was tasked with
32:27
Speaker 1: going over the story again and it was immediately noticed
32:30
Speaker 1: that he seemed almost bored as he relayed the details,
32:34
Speaker 1: just like three years earlier. Almost every detail of the
32:38
Speaker 1: supposed kidnapping perfectly mirrored the kidnapping story of Lorelai. The
32:43
Speaker 1: bassinet was empty and it was perfectly made with the
32:46
Speaker 1: blanket folded and hanging over the edge, as if there
32:49
Speaker 1: had not been a baby in it any time recently.
32:53
Speaker 1: The rest of the house was in perfect order, with
32:55
Speaker 1: nothing out of place. The assailant had come into the house,
32:59
Speaker 1: went straight to the baby, took her and left. Nobody
33:03
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood had heard anything or seen a man
33:06
Speaker 1: or a vehicle in the area. One very noticeable detail
33:10
Speaker 1: of the house was that there were pictures of their
33:12
Speaker 1: son Randy all over the place, but not a single
33:15
Speaker 1: picture of either of their daughters. It was as if
33:18
Speaker 1: they had never existed. There was also no indication in
33:22
Speaker 1: the house that they even had a new baby. Randy's
33:26
Speaker 1: room was heavily decorated for a little boy, but the
33:28
Speaker 1: other room that should have been another child's bedroom was
33:31
Speaker 1: completely unused. It was not set up in any way
33:35
Speaker 1: to be a nursery, and it seemed that Heather just
33:37
Speaker 1: slept in the bassinet, which at the time of her
33:40
Speaker 1: kidnapping was sitting on the dining room table. A detective
33:44
Speaker 1: picked the trash bag out of the outside bin and
33:47
Speaker 1: took it back to the station. Once there, he found
33:50
Speaker 1: that the odor from the bag was not as strong
33:52
Speaker 1: as Paula had claimed. He also found that the bag
33:55
Speaker 1: was not filled with diapers. There were 15 diapers in
33:59
Speaker 1: the bag, 7 were the size that Randy wore and
34:02
Speaker 1: 8 were the size Heather wore. Out of all the diapers,
34:06
Speaker 1: only one was soiled with diarrhea and it was at
34:09
Speaker 1: the bottom of the bag. It was also noted that
34:12
Speaker 1: there were fewer smaller diapers than there should have been.
34:15
Speaker 1: A newborn should have gone through about twice as many
34:18
Speaker 1: diapers than a 15-month-old. The fact that there were fewer
34:22
Speaker 1: diapers than expected and that they were at the bottom
34:25
Speaker 1: of the bag indicated that Heather might not have been
34:27
Speaker 1: in the house for some time before she was reported missing.
34:32
Speaker 1: Paula was taken to the hospital so her quote-unquote injury
34:35
Speaker 1: could be documented. On the way, Paula told the detective
34:39
Speaker 1: escorting her that she knew this was going to happen
34:42
Speaker 1: because a neighbor had previously had her house broken into
34:46
Speaker 1: and that woman was tied up. Paula said then that
34:49
Speaker 1: she believed it must have been the same perpetrator. Detective
34:54
Speaker 1: McDooley informed her that they had already arrested the person
34:57
Speaker 1: responsible for that crime and it had been the woman's nephew.
35:01
Speaker 1: The detective said that Paula was shocked by the news
35:03
Speaker 1: and seemed deflated after hearing that. Then she started rubbing
35:07
Speaker 1: the back of her neck and moaning. By the time
35:10
Speaker 1: they got to the hospital, Paula was curled up in
35:13
Speaker 1: the fetal position in the backseat of the car. She
35:16
Speaker 1: was wheeled into an examination room in a wheelchair, and
35:19
Speaker 1: a nurse checked her for injuries and noted her range
35:21
Speaker 1: of motion and cognitive ability. Paula's vital signs were normal,
35:26
Speaker 1: she had a full range of motion, and she had
35:28
Speaker 1: no disorientation or confusion that usually followed a head injury
35:32
Speaker 1: that caused unconsciousness. The nurse noted some redness on the
35:37
Speaker 1: back of Paula's neck, which was likely caused by her
35:39
Speaker 1: rubbing it. It was also unusual for someone to be
35:43
Speaker 1: unconscious for 45 minutes after being knocked out by a
35:46
Speaker 1: head injury. A head injury causing a concussion can last
35:50
Speaker 1: up to 15 minutes. Anything longer than that is usually
35:54
Speaker 1: caused by moderate to severe traumatic brain injury, not from
35:59
Speaker 1: being whacked on the back of the neck by a
36:01
Speaker 1: hand as Paula had claimed. Detective Dooley told the doctor
36:05
Speaker 1: they needed an x-ray and a drug test for the investigation,
36:09
Speaker 1: and once those were complete, Paula was discharged. The detective
36:13
Speaker 1: noted that she hopped off the exam table and showed
36:15
Speaker 1: no sign of pain or injury after that. She also
36:19
Speaker 1: had not asked about Heather or the investigation at any
36:22
Speaker 1: point after they left her home. Paula was taken from
36:26
Speaker 1: the hospital to the police station where she was interviewed.
36:29
Speaker 1: Even though this case was in the neighboring county, Sheriff
36:32
Speaker 1: Yoakum showed up to the police station in Alton, as
36:35
Speaker 1: did DCI Captain Kosas. To nobody's surprise, Paula did not
36:39
Speaker 1: give any more details about the attacker. She had described
36:43
Speaker 1: the mask he was wearing as having eye holes and
36:45
Speaker 1: a decent-sized hole around the mouth, but when the investigators
36:49
Speaker 1: asked her what the man's skin color was, she backpedaled
36:52
Speaker 1: and said the holes weren't that big. They ensured they
36:55
Speaker 1: got her description of how the man had performed a
36:58
Speaker 1: karate chop to the back of her neck multiple times
37:01
Speaker 1: so they had it well documented. Paula was driven home
37:04
Speaker 1: and then Rob was brought to the station for an
37:06
Speaker 1: interview where he was equally unhelpful. Investigators searched wooded areas
37:12
Speaker 1: near the Sims' house and they brought in dogs, but
37:14
Speaker 1: they had no luck finding the missing infant. On May 3rd, 1989,
37:20
Speaker 1: Charles Sonder arrived at a public access area on the
37:23
Speaker 1: other side of the Mississippi River in Missouri at about
37:26
Speaker 1: 7 p.m. He fished for about 30 minutes, and as
37:30
Speaker 1: he was headed back to his car, he went to
37:32
Speaker 1: put some trash in a bin outside by the bathrooms
37:34
Speaker 1: when he noticed a black garbage bag in the bin
37:37
Speaker 1: that just struck him as odd. The bag was tied
37:40
Speaker 1: in a knot at the opening, so he pulled out
37:42
Speaker 1: his pocket knife and cut the bag open. Inside was
37:46
Speaker 1: the naked body of an infant lying face up. Charles
37:50
Speaker 1: immediately found a phone so he could notify the police.
37:54
Speaker 1: Local police could only assume the remains were those of
37:56
Speaker 1: Heather Sims, so the investigators of that case were called out.
38:01
Speaker 1: After a positive identification at the scene and some jurisdictional bureaucracy,
38:05
Speaker 1: the case was handed over to the Alton police. Unlike Lorelai,
38:10
Speaker 1: Heather's remains were in almost perfect condition. The detective that
38:14
Speaker 1: made the identification said it looked like she had just
38:17
Speaker 1: died an hour before. He knew that wasn't the case, though,
38:21
Speaker 1: because the lividity of her body was wrong. Lividity refers
38:26
Speaker 1: to how the blood settles in a dead body, which
38:28
Speaker 1: is visible through the skin. You can tell which part
38:32
Speaker 1: of the body was facing down after death because blood
38:35
Speaker 1: will settle there, causing a purplish discoloration on the skin.
38:40
Speaker 1: It was clear that Heather had been face down for
38:42
Speaker 1: a decent amount of time before she was placed in
38:44
Speaker 1: the garbage bin. There was also a red mark on
38:47
Speaker 1: her cheek that was believed to have come from freezer burn.
38:52
Speaker 1: As the news of the discovery hit televisions throughout the area,
38:55
Speaker 1: Paula packed up and took Randy to her parents' house.
38:59
Speaker 1: Just as she had done in 1986, she would never
39:02
Speaker 1: return to the house in Alton. At least, not to
39:05
Speaker 1: live there. The couple would end up eventually selling the house.
39:10
Speaker 1: The following day, Heather's autopsy was performed by a medical
39:13
Speaker 1: examiner in St. Charles County, Missouri. The autopsy revealed that
39:17
Speaker 1: the infant had been smothered, and it was confirmed that
39:20
Speaker 1: the body had been either refrigerated or frozen. Later that day,
39:24
Speaker 1: Rob and Paula were asked to come into the police
39:26
Speaker 1: station to talk about the discovery of their daughter's remains.
39:30
Speaker 1: While they were there, search warrants were carried out on
39:34
Speaker 1: both their house and the home of Paula's parents. At
39:38
Speaker 1: the Sims house, investigators collected two boxes that contained black
39:42
Speaker 1: garbage bags. They had collected garbage bags from the house previously,
39:47
Speaker 1: but they were white bags from the kitchen. These were
39:50
Speaker 1: larger black bags found in the basement that matched the
39:53
Speaker 1: bag that Heather's body was found in. They also collected
39:56
Speaker 1: two black bags of garbage from the side of the house.
40:00
Speaker 1: In the basement, they found a book called the Stash Book,
40:03
Speaker 1: which contained instructions on how to hide a number of
40:06
Speaker 1: things in your own home, including a body. At the
40:10
Speaker 1: Blues house, investigators found what looked like a blonde hair
40:13
Speaker 1: in their freezer, as well as a set of infant
40:15
Speaker 1: pajamas with bunnies on it, the exact thing Paula described
40:19
Speaker 1: Heather wearing when she was supposedly abducted. They collected a
40:24
Speaker 1: roll of black plastic garbage bags from there and a
40:26
Speaker 1: number of sets of shoes from both locations. At the
40:30
Speaker 1: police station, Paula and Rob showed up having been driven
40:34
Speaker 1: by a man named Herb Condray. Herb and Paula waited
40:37
Speaker 1: in the lobby as Rob was taken to a room
40:40
Speaker 1: where he was interviewed by an FBI agent. Then Paula
40:43
Speaker 1: was brought to a separate room where she was supposed
40:46
Speaker 1: to be interviewed by two female detectives who she had
40:48
Speaker 1: never dealt with before. After only a few minutes of questioning,
40:53
Speaker 1: Paula stood up without a word and walked out of
40:55
Speaker 1: the room. She started walking around calling for Rob, but
40:59
Speaker 1: other detectives managed to get her back to the lobby
41:01
Speaker 1: where they told her she was free to leave. But
41:04
Speaker 1: Rob was talking to an agent, and it was up
41:06
Speaker 1: to him if he wanted to continue or not. After that,
41:10
Speaker 1: Herb and Paula left the station without Rob. Rob talked
41:14
Speaker 1: freely to the FBI agent, insisting that everything he and
41:17
Speaker 1: his wife had said was true. It wasn't until Rob
41:20
Speaker 1: learned of the blonde hair and pajamas found at the
41:22
Speaker 1: Blues' house that he started to change his story. He
41:26
Speaker 1: said that he was sure that Paula would have never
41:28
Speaker 1: hurt their children, but it was possible he was wrong.
41:32
Speaker 1: When asked how she could have killed Heather and then
41:34
Speaker 1: dumped the body days later without him knowing, he explained
41:37
Speaker 1: that Paula's parents had been out of town during the
41:39
Speaker 1: time Heather disappeared. He said she could have taken the
41:42
Speaker 1: body to her parents' house while he was at work
41:45
Speaker 1: and then moved the body across the river while he
41:47
Speaker 1: was asleep. When he was asked about the garbage bags
41:50
Speaker 1: at his house, Rob got defensive, explaining that his fingerprints
41:53
Speaker 1: could be on a garbage bag if it came from
41:56
Speaker 1: his house. Rob was adamant that he had nothing to
41:59
Speaker 1: do with the deaths of either of his daughters, and
42:01
Speaker 1: he told the investigators that he was going to go
42:03
Speaker 1: home and talk to Paula. He said he could get
42:06
Speaker 1: her to confess and that she would confirm that he
42:08
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with it. Yeah, like you got
42:11
Speaker 1: your first wife to take the blame for the harassing
42:13
Speaker 1: phone calls. The following day, Rob failed to bring Paula
42:17
Speaker 1: to confess as he had promised and the media was
42:20
Speaker 1: notified that the Sims as well as some of their
42:22
Speaker 1: family members were the main suspects in the case. The
42:26
Speaker 1: next blow to the Sims came when authorities were ordered
42:29
Speaker 1: to take custody of Randy Sims as a safety precaution.
42:34
Speaker 1: Another piece of evidence came to the investigators when a
42:36
Speaker 1: woman who had shared a recovery room with Paula when
42:39
Speaker 1: Heather was born came into the station to make a statement.
42:43
Speaker 1: She said that they had been talking and Paula informed
42:45
Speaker 1: her that her first child had been kidnapped. The story
42:49
Speaker 1: she told was that she was taking out the trash
42:52
Speaker 1: when a man approached her with a gun and ordered
42:54
Speaker 1: her into the house. Once inside, he hit her on
42:57
Speaker 1: the head, causing her to lose consciousness. When she came to,
43:02
Speaker 1: her baby was gone. But that wasn't how Lorelai was kidnapped.
43:07
Speaker 1: It was how Heather would be kidnapped six weeks later.
43:11
Speaker 1: The story got even weirder when the woman explained that
43:14
Speaker 1: Paula had told her that Lorelai's body had been sent
43:16
Speaker 1: to a lab in Atlanta and never returned. Paula told
43:20
Speaker 1: her that she believed it wasn't really her daughter and
43:22
Speaker 1: that Lorelai was still alive. A strange thing to say,
43:26
Speaker 1: since the Sims had in fact buried Lorelai in a
43:28
Speaker 1: family grave at the Woodland Hill Cemetery, the same grave
43:32
Speaker 1: that Heather would be buried in. When detectives attempted to
43:35
Speaker 1: verify her story, the woman's mother said her daughter had
43:38
Speaker 1: told her about it the day after it happened. On
43:42
Speaker 1: July 5th, 1989, Paula was indicted for the murder of
43:46
Speaker 1: Heather Sims. Paula had already been arrested twice, once for
43:50
Speaker 1: withholding evidence in the case of Lorelei's murder and the
43:53
Speaker 1: other for withholding evidence in the case of Heather's murder.
43:56
Speaker 1: Both times she had been released on bond, paid by
43:59
Speaker 1: her father. This time, Paula was arrested and held without bond.
44:04
Speaker 1: After the initial hearings required in a murder trial, the
44:07
Speaker 1: prosecutor announced that they would be seeking the death penalty.
44:11
Speaker 1: From that point, the prosecutor worked to come up with
44:14
Speaker 1: a probable timeline for what happened to Heather's body. The
44:18
Speaker 1: hair found in the Blues' freezer turned out to have
44:20
Speaker 1: been a carpet fiber, and the Blues had come home
44:23
Speaker 1: and used the freezer Sunday night, days before the body
44:26
Speaker 1: was found. What the prosecutor believed happened was that Paula
44:31
Speaker 1: smothered the baby and took her body to her parents'
44:33
Speaker 1: house Saturday evening, while Rob was at work. Then the
44:37
Speaker 1: baby was reported missing and their house was searched, including
44:40
Speaker 1: the freezer in their kitchen and the one in their basement.
44:44
Speaker 1: Sunday morning, Rob had called the Blues to let them
44:46
Speaker 1: know that Heather had been kidnapped and they said they
44:48
Speaker 1: would return from their trip then, which wasn't part of
44:51
Speaker 1: the plan. Shortly after, Rob was overheard telling Paula to
44:56
Speaker 1: go to her parents' house with Randy because there was
44:59
Speaker 1: nothing more she could do at home. It was strange
45:02
Speaker 1: because Paula had just been assaulted while alone with her children,
45:05
Speaker 1: and now it was suggested she go to her parents'
45:07
Speaker 1: house where she would be alone with her child. Wouldn't
45:10
Speaker 1: she feel more comfortable around other people? Of course, if
45:14
Speaker 1: the assault had actually happened. But it hadn't. Her parents
45:18
Speaker 1: were coming home early, so she needed to go retrieve
45:21
Speaker 1: Heather's body from their freezer and ended up putting it
45:24
Speaker 1: in their own freezer. The prosecutor checked every report from
45:28
Speaker 1: an officer that had gone back to the Sims house
45:30
Speaker 1: after that point, and none of them had done any
45:33
Speaker 1: further searches of the home. The medical examiner had given
45:37
Speaker 1: a wide window of when the body had been placed
45:39
Speaker 1: in the garbage bin, and there was a block of
45:41
Speaker 1: time within that window that Paula had no alibi. That
45:45
Speaker 1: timeline also meant that Heather's murder was timed to happen
45:49
Speaker 1: when the Blues were out of town, meaning it was premeditated.
45:53
Speaker 1: The FBI had matched the bag that the body had
45:56
Speaker 1: been found in at the manufacturing plant to having been
45:59
Speaker 1: made within 12 hours of the bags on the open
46:02
Speaker 1: roll found in the Sims' house. At preliminary hearings regarding
46:07
Speaker 1: the custody of Randy, a detail that the prosecutor suggested
46:10
Speaker 1: as the motive to Heather's murder was presented. Not long
46:14
Speaker 1: after the baby's body had been found, Rob had been
46:17
Speaker 1: interviewed by an FBI agent, and he mentioned that he
46:20
Speaker 1: and Paula's marriage had been strained before the kidnapping. They
46:24
Speaker 1: had been sleeping in separate parts of the house, with
46:27
Speaker 1: himself and Randy sleeping upstairs in bedrooms, and Paula and
46:30
Speaker 1: Heather sleeping in a makeshift bedroom in the dining room downstairs.
46:35
Speaker 1: Rob told the agent that, after Heather went missing, they
46:38
Speaker 1: started sleeping in the same room again. Then he added
46:41
Speaker 1: that they had recently had the best and longest-lasting sex
46:45
Speaker 1: they had ever had. It was a bizarre thing to
46:48
Speaker 1: say during the investigation of the murder of your child,
46:51
Speaker 1: and the prosecutor claimed that that was Paula's motive to
46:54
Speaker 1: murder Heather. The baby was getting in the way of
46:57
Speaker 1: their relationship. Then an FBI expert testified about the comparison
47:02
Speaker 1: between the bags found in the Sims' home and the
47:04
Speaker 1: bag Heather was found in. The manufacturing company was able
47:08
Speaker 1: to say they were made within 12 hours of each other,
47:11
Speaker 1: but the FBI analyzed the heat seal and perforation marks
47:15
Speaker 1: that leave specific microscopic markings due to dust buildup in
47:19
Speaker 1: the heat weld. He was able to say that the
47:22
Speaker 1: bags had been heat sealed within 10 seconds of each other. So,
47:27
Speaker 1: the bag Heather had been found in had come directly
47:30
Speaker 1: off the roll that was still in their house. At
47:33
Speaker 1: the conclusion of that hearing, the judge determined that he
47:36
Speaker 1: did believe Paula was lying about what had happened to
47:39
Speaker 1: her two daughters. But she didn't believe that there was
47:41
Speaker 1: enough evidence to prove that Rob was involved, and since
47:44
Speaker 1: Paula was the danger and she was in jail, she
47:47
Speaker 1: granted Rob custody of Randy. Paula's trial began in January
47:54
Speaker 1: of 1990, and the trial went as expected. The prosecutor
47:58
Speaker 1: had presented the evidence from the scenes of both murders
48:01
Speaker 1: and had all of the witnesses testify who could back
48:03
Speaker 1: up the idea that Paula had murdered her own daughters,
48:06
Speaker 1: not that they had been kidnapped and killed. There was
48:10
Speaker 1: one surprise testimony, though. She was the medical examiner who
48:14
Speaker 1: had performed the autopsy on Heather, but her testimony was
48:17
Speaker 1: not only about the victim. It also included information about Paula. See, Dr.
48:22
Speaker 1: Mary Case was board-certified in anatomical pathology, autopsy and surgical pathology,
48:29
Speaker 1: and neuropathology, the skill she was using for her testimony
48:33
Speaker 1: against Paula. Neuropathology is the study of the nervous system, brain,
48:38
Speaker 1: spinal cord, and muscles. She was testifying that Paula's story
48:43
Speaker 1: that she had been struck on the back of the
48:45
Speaker 1: neck was a lie, and the doctor explained that a
48:47
Speaker 1: blow to the back of the neck that caused 45
48:50
Speaker 1: minutes of unconsciousness would have affected the brainstem in a
48:53
Speaker 1: very specific way. She explained that it takes time for
48:57
Speaker 1: a memory to become permanent, and that's why, when you
49:00
Speaker 1: wake up from anesthesia after surgery, you generally have no
49:04
Speaker 1: memory of the 5-10 minutes before you were put out.
49:08
Speaker 1: It's called retrograde amnesia, and it's common during many head injuries.
49:13
Speaker 1: Being struck on the back of the neck as hard
49:15
Speaker 1: as Paula supposedly had would have caused the same effect
49:18
Speaker 1: which was important because Paula claimed she remembered getting hit
49:22
Speaker 1: on the back of the neck, something that would have
49:25
Speaker 1: been impossible. Her brain would not have had time to
49:28
Speaker 1: record that memory before she fell unconscious. When Robert Sims
49:33
Speaker 1: testified for the defense, he confirmed that Paula couldn't have
49:37
Speaker 1: been struck the way she had claimed, though not willingly.
49:40
Speaker 1: He testified that he had come home from work on
49:43
Speaker 1: April 29, 1989, and found Paula lying on the floor.
49:48
Speaker 1: When he woke her up, she was immediately alert, had
49:51
Speaker 1: an understanding of time, and was aware of her surroundings,
49:55
Speaker 1: such as that Heather should have been in her bassinet
49:57
Speaker 1: in the dining room. The doctor had explained that would
50:00
Speaker 1: not have been possible with an injury to the back
50:03
Speaker 1: of the neck that caused 45 minutes of unconsciousness. No
50:07
Speaker 1: human being can be hit in the head hard enough
50:09
Speaker 1: to be knocked out for 45 minutes and then be
50:12
Speaker 1: completely alert immediately when they wake up. They would be
50:15
Speaker 1: extremely disoriented. Rob had also changed his story about where
50:21
Speaker 1: he and Paula had been during the time Paula had
50:23
Speaker 1: previously had no alibi. He became the first and only
50:27
Speaker 1: person who claimed that Paula was with him at a
50:30
Speaker 1: friend's house during the window of time authorities believed she
50:33
Speaker 1: had moved the baby to the garbage bin, which turned
50:35
Speaker 1: out to be less than three miles from their house.
50:40
Speaker 1: When Paula Sims testified, she put on an act and
50:42
Speaker 1: talked about the dolls and dresses she had saved from
50:45
Speaker 1: her childhood so she could give them to her own
50:47
Speaker 1: daughter someday. When her lawyer asked her about the events
50:51
Speaker 1: of June 17th, 1986, she described the man who had
50:55
Speaker 1: ordered her to lay on the ground at gunpoint and
50:58
Speaker 1: then said something that stuck out. She said when she
51:01
Speaker 1: heard the man go out the front door, she got
51:04
Speaker 1: up and checked on Lorelai, but noticed she was gone.
51:07
Speaker 1: She claimed that she had even looked under the blanket
51:11
Speaker 1: in the bassinet. The same blanket that the neighbor Minnie
51:14
Speaker 1: Gray saw perfectly folded in the bassinet only minutes later.
51:19
Speaker 1: Paula claimed that she ran after the man and then
51:21
Speaker 1: went directly to her neighbor's house, so either she was
51:24
Speaker 1: lying about the kidnapping or she took the time to
51:27
Speaker 1: fold the blanket and put it back in the bassinet
51:30
Speaker 1: before running after the man who had just kidnapped her baby.
51:34
Speaker 1: Which one seems more likely? Paula also confirmed that she
51:39
Speaker 1: had definitely felt a blow to the back of her
51:41
Speaker 1: head during the alleged kidnap of Heather before being knocked unconscious,
51:46
Speaker 1: though she tried to shorten the time she was out,
51:48
Speaker 1: claiming it was possibly closer to 11pm when the assault happened,
51:52
Speaker 1: a detail that had never come up before in the case.
51:56
Speaker 1: Then she claimed that she kept a few black garbage
51:58
Speaker 1: bags on the kitchen counter which meant the kidnapper could
52:01
Speaker 1: have easily grabbed one. Well, what a convenient time to
52:04
Speaker 1: bring that detail up for the first time ever. Near
52:08
Speaker 1: the end of her testimony, she shocked the court by
52:11
Speaker 1: claiming she believed the man she saw during both kidnappings
52:15
Speaker 1: was the same man. That only made her story even
52:19
Speaker 1: more unbelievable. You have three kids and a stranger only
52:23
Speaker 1: kidnapped and murdered two of them, the girls, three years
52:27
Speaker 1: apart in different houses? No. In the U.S., a child
52:31
Speaker 1: being kidnapped by a stranger is already rare. Most kidnappings
52:35
Speaker 1: are carried out by someone the child knows. Then, out
52:39
Speaker 1: of all the child kidnappings, the victim being under one
52:42
Speaker 1: year old is also rare. So combining that makes the
52:45
Speaker 1: possibility of Paula's story being true pretty slim. One question
52:50
Speaker 1: that the prosecution had throughout most of the trial was
52:53
Speaker 1: why both Rob and Paula continued to deny that they
52:56
Speaker 1: had gone to the Hallmark store with Lorelai on June 14th,
53:00
Speaker 1: even when the owner told the police that she had
53:02
Speaker 1: seen the woman and baby there. When the prosecutor cross-examined Paula,
53:07
Speaker 1: he asked her about it again and she continued to
53:10
Speaker 1: deny that she had ever been there. But by then,
53:12
Speaker 1: the prosecutor had learned why they were so desperate to
53:15
Speaker 1: deny it. The prosecutor had interviewed the owner of the
53:19
Speaker 1: card shop, Gisela Rasp, and she said that Paula had
53:22
Speaker 1: definitely been in the shop that day and she had
53:25
Speaker 1: the baby wrapped in a blanket. Like many people do
53:28
Speaker 1: when they see a baby, she tried to get a
53:30
Speaker 1: closer look and take in all the new baby cuteness. Well,
53:34
Speaker 1: when Gisela took a peek at the baby, she said
53:36
Speaker 1: her eyes were half open and she was not moving
53:39
Speaker 1: at all. She said she thought it was strange at
53:42
Speaker 1: the time, but after finding out the baby was murdered,
53:44
Speaker 1: she believes the baby was dead when she was in
53:46
Speaker 1: the shop. When Paula left the shop, a man who
53:50
Speaker 1: fit Rob's description approached her and put his arm around her.
53:54
Speaker 1: The prosecutor believed that Lorelai had died on the 14th,
53:57
Speaker 1: which would explain why Paula would cancel her plans to
54:00
Speaker 1: visit her father, as that was Father's Day, and why
54:04
Speaker 1: the decomposition of the baby had been so advanced. He
54:08
Speaker 1: believed they wanted to have a witness that saw the
54:10
Speaker 1: baby on Saturday to give Rob an alibi and then
54:13
Speaker 1: have him be at work when the kidnapping was reported.
54:17
Speaker 1: For some reason, they changed their minds. The reason behind
54:20
Speaker 1: it would never be clear, but what was clear was
54:23
Speaker 1: that the Sims had lied. The defense tried to convince
54:27
Speaker 1: the jury that there was no evidence that showed that
54:29
Speaker 1: Paula Sims had killed either of her daughters, but the
54:31
Speaker 1: lies and holes in Paula's story were too much for
54:34
Speaker 1: the jury to accept. Paula Sims was found guilty of
54:37
Speaker 1: the first-degree murder of Heather Sims. She was also found
54:41
Speaker 1: guilty on two counts of obstructing justice and one count
54:44
Speaker 1: of concealment of a homicidal death. The next step in
54:48
Speaker 1: the trial was for the jury to decide whether or
54:51
Speaker 1: not Paula would be executed for her crime. After a
54:55
Speaker 1: short sentencing hearing and some statements from her family, the
54:58
Speaker 1: jury chose not to sentence Paula Sims to death. She
55:01
Speaker 1: was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
55:06
Speaker 1: Jurors would later say they were apprehensive about sentencing Paula
55:09
Speaker 1: to death because they weren't sure that Rob wasn't also
55:12
Speaker 1: involved in the murders. They didn't think it was right
55:15
Speaker 1: to execute her for a crime that someone else had
55:18
Speaker 1: also committed. There was some continued investigation into Rob, but
55:23
Speaker 1: it never went anywhere. He was never charged with any
55:26
Speaker 1: involvement in the murders of either of his daughters, and
55:28
Speaker 1: no charges were ever brought against Paula for Lorelai's murder.
55:32
Speaker 1: Despite that, many people find it very hard to believe
55:35
Speaker 1: that Rob was not involved in both murders. In July
55:39
Speaker 1: of 1990, Rob filed for divorce from Paula and had
55:42
Speaker 1: the word mom removed from the family headstone over where
55:46
Speaker 1: Lorelai and Heather were buried. It had originally said, quote, together,
55:50
Speaker 1: eternally in love, mom and dad. In 2015, Rob and
55:55
Speaker 1: Randy were on a church mission near Jackson, Mississippi, when
55:59
Speaker 1: their vehicle lost control, veered off an overpass, and crashed
56:02
Speaker 1: into the road below. They were both killed. They were
56:07
Speaker 1: buried in the family grave next to Lorelai and Heather.
56:11
Speaker 1: Not long after her conviction, Paula admitted that she had
56:14
Speaker 1: murdered both of her daughters, though the details about exactly
56:17
Speaker 1: what she said happened have not been released. She did
56:21
Speaker 1: say then that she committed the murders to please Rob,
56:23
Speaker 1: who was upset at having daughters instead of sons. In 2019,
56:28
Speaker 1: she tried to get a new trial, claiming postpartum psychosis
56:32
Speaker 1: caused her to murder her children. Her efforts to get
56:35
Speaker 1: a new trial were unsuccessful, but not because she was denied.
56:39
Speaker 1: In 2021, she was granted clemency from the governor of Illinois,
56:43
Speaker 1: which changed her sentence to life in prison with the
56:46
Speaker 1: possibility of parole. She was granted parole the same year.
56:51
Speaker 1: Experts have noted that the severe symptoms of postpartum psychosis
56:55
Speaker 1: that would cause a woman to murder her baby generally
56:57
Speaker 1: happen within the first two weeks after birth, but Heather
57:00
Speaker 1: was murdered six weeks after she was born. They also
57:04
Speaker 1: cause a break from reality, making it unlikely for her
57:06
Speaker 1: to plan out a murder ahead of time. Paula said
57:10
Speaker 1: she heard voices telling her to kill her children, something
57:13
Speaker 1: that never came up at any time in her case.
57:16
Speaker 1: It wasn't until she learned about postpartum depression and psychosis
57:20
Speaker 1: that she suddenly remembered hearing voices years earlier. Right. That
57:27
Speaker 1: story also didn't match the motive she gave when she
57:29
Speaker 1: confessed in 1990. Either way, Paula was released in 2021
57:34
Speaker 1: at the age of 62. She currently lives in Alabama.
57:40
Speaker 1: There are so many questions about this case that will
57:42
Speaker 1: never be answered. Did Rob only want sons? How involved
57:46
Speaker 1: in the murders was he? Did postpartum psychosis play a
57:50
Speaker 1: part in the murders? Many people believe that Lorelai and
57:54
Speaker 1: Heather were murdered simply because they were girls and Paula
57:57
Speaker 1: wanted to please her husband. Despite it being hard to
58:00
Speaker 1: believe that Rob didn't at least know about the murders,
58:04
Speaker 1: Paula was the monster who took their lives and she
58:06
Speaker 1: may be free, but at least she can't have any
58:09
Speaker 1: more children. Thanks for watching This is Monsters. New episodes
58:15
Speaker 1: are uploaded twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. There
58:18
Speaker 1: are occasional bonus episodes covering unsolved cases and criminal history.
58:23
Speaker 1: If you have a suggestion for a case you think
58:25
Speaker 1: I should cover, leave it in the comments. You can
58:28
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58:32
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