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This television exec was attacked in his sleep - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: In October of nineteen ninety nine, a nine to one
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: to one dispatcher in Austin, Texas was nearing the end
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: of a long night shift when a strange call came in.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: The caller was a man who just said his guts
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: had been blown out of his stomach. The dispatcher asked
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: him to explain what actually happened, but the caller wouldn't say.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: He just kept saying that he had woken up and
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: his guts were hanging out, and now he's holding his
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: guts in with his hand, and he needed an ambulance
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: right now. But before we get into that story, if
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered
• 0:31
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• 0:34
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• 0:42
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• 0:53
  Speaker 1: today's story. On the night of October first, nineteen ninety nine,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: a seventy five year old man named Steve Beard sat
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: on the patio of his mansion in Austin, Texas, sipping
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: on a cocktail, and it was a great night, warm evening,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: the leaves rustling in the trees all around his property,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: and behind his house there was this creak that was
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: flowing along, and in the house he could hear his wife, Celeste,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: washing the dishes.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: So Steve had met Celeste only about six years ago.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: It was actually shortly after his first wife, Elise, had
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: died of cancer.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: And Steve had been with.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: His first wife for forty five years and they'd raised
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: three kids together, and he'd just been totally lost after
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: she had passed away, and really after she had died,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: he had spent a lot of nights just sitting alone
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: at the Austin Country Club, where actually Celeste had been
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: working as a waitress. Celeste was only thirty years old
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: at the time, which meant she was almost forty years
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: younger than Steve, but there had been an immediate spark
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: between them, and they gotten married just over a year later. Now,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: some of Steve's friends and family had immediately assumed that,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: you know, given this age gap, that Celeste was simply
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: after Steve for his money. Steve, after all, had made
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: a fortune as a business owner and a TV station executive,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: and he was worth about.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Ten million dollars.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: But Steve knew that money could not possibly be the
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: only thing Celeste saw in him. I mean, he knew
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: that he took great care of Celeste, and also he
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: took great care of her twin teenage daughters. I mean,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: he really helped give Celeste and her girls the stability
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: that they desperately needed. However, despite that stability, one thing
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: that Celeste had always struggled with for much of her
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: life was depression. And in fact, earlier that year, it
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: had gotten so bad that Celeste had actually tried to.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: End her own life. And you know, she had failed.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: She had lived, but as a result of that attempt,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: she had spent a few weeks in a psychiatric hospital. Now,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: of course, that was a really traumatic and awful thing
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: for the family, but from Steve's perspective, the upside of
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: this was that Celeste was put on some new medication
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: as a result of this hospital stay. She had made
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: some good friends actually while she was at the hospital,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: and to Steve, it just seemed like you know, maybe
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: now things were starting to maybe turn around for Celeste
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: and to Steve. The fact that Celeste appeared to be
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: on the right path again was great timing because recently
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Steve had actually been dealing with health problems of his own.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Twice in the past few months, Steve had passed out
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: and actually had to be hospitalized himself. The doctors told
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: him he had high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and he
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: had some heart and kidney issues, but they actually couldn't
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: quite figure out why he was fainting. They just knew
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: he had, you know, several symptoms going on. Now, Steve
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: thought it was very likely stress related and he just
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: needed to relax. So in fact, in two days from now,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: he was going to be taking Celeste on a three
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: week vacation around Europe. After everything Celeste had been through
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: that year, and also you know, Steve had been through
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: as well with his own medical issues, he felt like
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: they both could use some time away, just the two
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: of them. But now, when Steve got up from a
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: seat out on the patio of his home and he
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: put the empty cocktail glass down on the table, and
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: he turned and he opened the glass door that led
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: into the bedroom, he saw that even though he'd already
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: packed his suitcase for this European trip, you know, several
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: days ago, Celeste's suitcase was still empty in the closet,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: and Steve couldn't help it feel like it seems like
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Celeste might be getting cold feet about this European vacation,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: like she should have been packed already, and she's clearly
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: putting it off. So Steve left the bedroom and he
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: went down the hallway and went into the kitchen, where
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: he found.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Celeste cleaning up.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: And when he got in there as gently as he could,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: he told Celeste, Hey, you know, when you get a chance,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: you really ought to pack, and she told him, oh,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: don't worry about it.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: You know, she'd just been busy all week. She'd get
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: to it.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Steve nodded, but wasn't really convinced that she actually intended
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: to pack soon. But he said okay, and then he
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: looked over at the clock, and even though it was
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: barely nine pm, he felt exhausted. So he told Celeste
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: he was going to go to bed, and she told
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: him that she actually intended to stay up for a
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: bit longer. One of her daughters was having a sleepover
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: at the family's lake house that night, and she said
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: that she might go over there and just check on
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: them later. Selesse told Steve that when she returned from
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: doing that, she would sleep in a different room to
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: avoid waking him up. Steve thanked her and gave her
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: a kiss good night, and then he turned and walked
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: back down the hallway back into the bedroom. He got
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: ready for bed, climbed into bed, and then he put
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: on his oxygen mask because he had sleep apnea, and
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: then he pulled the covers up and he drifted off
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: to sleep. Hours later, around three am, Steve woke up
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: and immediately he felt this horrible pain in his stomach,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: and even though it was dark in his room, he
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: looked down. You know, he's got the mask still on
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: his face, and he could tell there was something on
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: his stomach, and he reached down instinctively and abbed in
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: his stomach, and he felt something wet on his hands,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: and so in a panic, he ripped off his mask
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: and he kind of sat up to look down at
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: his abdomen. But as he did, just the pain he
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: felt intensified so much just by trying to sit up
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: that he fell back down, and so he reached over
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: and he clicked on the light and he looked down
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: and there was blood all over his stomach, like all
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: over the sheets, everywhere, And so he begins screaming out
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: for Celeste. And as he's screaming like, the pain is
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: only getting worse and worse, and Celeste is not coming
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: in the room, she's not even responding. And so as
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: he's looking down like completely panic stricken, watching all this
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: blood coming out of his gut, he has no idea
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: how this is happening. He just reached over and grabbed
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: the phone and he dialed nine one one. Just minutes later,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: a squad car from the Travis County Sheriff's Department pulled
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: up outside of Steve's house with its lights flashing. Deputy
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Alan Howard climbed out of that car and he saw
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: a fire captain and another pair of deputies on the
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: front step pounding on the door. All Deputy Howard knew
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: was that a man in this home had called in
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: with some kind of medical emergency, but the dispatcher had
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: not quite understood what was wrong with him, and so
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Howard just ran over to the front door, and there
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: the other deputies told him that so far, nobody was
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: answering their knocks. Howard knew at this point, you know,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: time is of the essence.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: They had to get in and make.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Sure this person was okay, And so he didn't want
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: to just sit out here and wait any longer. So
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: he left the front porch and he went along the
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: side of the house to see if there was maybe
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: another door that was unlocked somewhere else.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: And so as Howard went around.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: To the side of the property, the other deputies followed him,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: and then Howard. He eventually found this flight of stairs
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: that went up to a patio attached to a bedroom,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: and so up Howard went, the deputies followed. They got
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: up there and they looked into the house and they
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: saw a light was on, and then.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Through the glass door they could all see there.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Was an elderly man laying in bed with a telephone
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: receiver in one hand and his other hand appeared to
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: be just covered in blood. Howard walked up to the
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: door and tried to open it, but it was locked.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: So he pulled out his heavy duty.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Flashlight and he broke the glass, reached in, unlocked it,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: and slow the door open. Then Howard ran into the
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: bedroom and when he got right next to the bed,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: he looked at this man who was still conscious, but
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: he had a gaping hole in his stomach, like his
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: intestines were literally spilling out, and that's why his other
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: hand was so covered in blood. It was like he
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: was trying to hold his intestines inside of himself. Howard
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: asked the guy what happened, and the old man just
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: said he had no idea.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: He'd just woken up and his guts were coming out.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: At this point, the fire captain came into the room,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: and while he knelt down with his first aid kit
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: to try to bandage up this man's wounds, Howard began
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: looking around the bedroom for any clue about what was
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: going on here, and he noticed something that was round
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: and yellow lying on the carpet, So he bent down
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: to get a better look, and he saw that the round,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: yellow thing was a shotgun shell. And so at this
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: point it seemed fairly obvious that this man has been
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: shot in the stomach with a shotgun. But Howard's also
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: realizing that whoever pulled the trigger might still be in
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: the house. So at this point Howard drew his own
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: weapon and he crept slowly out into the hallway, and
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: as Howard began searching the rest of the house, he.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Didn't find anybody.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: But what he did find is there were lots of
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: other entry points into the home, lots of doors and windows,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: And eventually, when he found his way into the living room,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: he saw there was another set of sliding glass doors,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: and he walked right up to it and he found
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: they were unlocked. Howard also saw that a table lamp
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: in this living room was overturned, suggesting that somebody might
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: have knocked it over while coming in or.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Out of the house.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: And so Howard continued searching the living room, and then
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: he found his way into the dining room and then
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: the kitchen, and then he went down a hallway into
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: another wing of the house, and there he opened another
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: door to a bedroom and he found there was a
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: woman inside sleeping in her bed, totally sound asleep. At
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: this point, Howard lowered the weapon and he flipped on
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: a light, and the woman immediately startled awake, and she
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: was about to ask, like, what's going going on here,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: but Howard just stopped her, and he told her that
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: he was with the Sheriff's department and they were here
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: responding to a nine to one one call, and he
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: told her that the man in the other room was
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: very badly injured and he had called.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Nine to one one.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: And so the woman, you know, as she's processing what
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: she's being told, she began sobbing hysterically and then just
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: begged Howard not to let her husband die. And then
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: a second later, in the midst of all this chaos,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: this teenage girl comes running in the room and goes
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: right to the woman, and she she grabs her the
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: way a child would grab their mother, and they're sort
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: of like holding each other. And Deputy Howard like he's
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: looking for potentially a shooter in the house. But just
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: from the looks of it, it appeared very much like
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: this is a woman who's very shocked, very shaken up
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: by this. The girl, the teenager, as well, appears equally shocked.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: But just to be sure, Howard asked this woman to
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: identify herself, and through tears, she would say that her
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: name was Celeste Beard, and that very likely the victim here,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: the person you're talking about, the man, is her husband,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Stephen Beard. And then she also said that the teenage
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: girl was her daughter. And so now Howard feeling pretty
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: confident that these are just victims. He told them to
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: just stay put, that he was going to search the
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: rest of the house and just.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: Make sure that the house was safe.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: And so, howard he leaves the room, he can still
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: hear them crying behind him, and he searches the rest
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: of the house. Huge house, but he searches every room
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: and there's nobody there, and so it appeared that whoever
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: had shot Steve was gone.
• 11:34
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• 11:36
  Speaker 1: We spend a lot of time researching cases where things
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: went wrong, where people ignored warning signs and told themselves
• 11:43
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• 12:00
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• 12:56
  Speaker 1: October second, nineteen ninety nine, so about two and a
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: half hours after Steve Beard called nine one one, Sergeant
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Paul Knight walked through the waiting room at a hospital
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: in Austin, Texas. Knight was a criminal investigator for the
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Travis County Sheriff's Department, and he'd been called in to
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: lead the investigation into this shooting.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: Knight stopped at the front desk.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: And he spoke to a nurse who told him that
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Steve Beard was in critical condition, so questioning him would
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: not be possible right now. Sergeant Knight nodded and gave
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: the nurses card and asked them to give him a
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: call if Steve's condition ever stabilized. As Knight turned to leave,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: he quickly scanned the waiting room and he saw in
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: the corner there was a deputy speaking to a woman
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: who appeared to be in her thirties, as well as
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: a teenage girl. The deputy waved to Night and called
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: him over, and so Knight went over and he introduced himself.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: The woman told Knight that she was Steve's wife, Celeste,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: and the girl was her daughter, Christina, and Knight, you know,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: he said hello to them, but he knew that he
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: had to do something that was going to come off
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: as pretty insensitive, but he really had to do it
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: as soon as possible. So after just you know, exchanging
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: some pleasantry, he sat down and pulled out a gunpowder
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: residue test kit, and then he asked Celeste and Christina
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: if he could swab their hands before they began really
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: getting into any sort of conversation here, and Celeste looked
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: really surprised and asked if she was a suspect, and
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Knight explained that really at this point, everybody was a suspect,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: and so swabbing them for gunpowder would be the quickest
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: way to rule them both out. So Celeste, who was
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: still very clearly shaken up, she just put both her
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: hands out and Knight ran a test strip across both
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: of them, and then after that, Christina put her hands
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: out and he tested her hands as well, and then
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: he waited for the test strips to develop, and about
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: a minute later he confirmed that they were both negative,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: meaning neither of them had fired a gun recently. And
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: so with this test out of the way, Knight's entire
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: demeanor sort of softened, and he asked Celeste to just
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: walk him through what had happened that night. She told
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: him that her husband, Steve, had gone to bed around
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: nine or nine thirty, and shortly after that she had
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: left their home and driven over to the family's lake
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: house to check on her other daughter, Jennifer and her
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: friends who were having a sleep over there. She said
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: the lake house was about a half an hour away,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: and so by the time she finally came back after
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: checking on Jennifer and the other girls, she said, it
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: was about midnight, and you know, she walked in the
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: house and it was quiet, there was nothing unusual, and
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: she said she went straight to bed, and she said
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: She actually chose to sleep in a different room than
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Steve because Steve had gone to bed earlier and she
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: had told him she didn't want to wake him up
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: if she came home late, and so she was doing
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: him a courtesy by sleeping in this other room. Night
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: asked Celeste if she knew anybody who might be mad
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: at her husband, or who might want to hurt him
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: for any reason, and she said no, but she did
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: say that the previous afternoon, her husband had gone out and.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: Cashed a really big check.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: He was going to give some cash to her twin daughters,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: you know, while she and Steve were going to be
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: in Europe. He wanted to give the kids some spending
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: money while they were away, and it was quite a
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: bit of money. And so she said, you know, maybe
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: somebody at the bank saw him cashing that check, knew
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: he had a bunch of money on him.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: Maybe they followed him home to rob him.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: And so Night and Celeste spoke for a little bit longer,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: and then when Knight was done questioning her, Celeste got
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: up and said she was going to go outside and
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: smoke a cigarette. And as she left, Knight turned to
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: her daughter Christina and asked her about what she'd seen
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: and heard from the previous night. Christina said she had
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: been asleep all night until around three point thirty in
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: the morning, when she had woken up to police lights
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: flashing outside her window. And as she continued to tell
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: her story of what happened, Knight noticed that she was
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: being really careful about what she was saying, not like
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: she was trying to remember some concocted story, but rather
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: it was like she was literally trying her best to
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: actually remember, like she was struggling to remember just what
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: amounted to a pretty traumatic and very chaotic night. But
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: before Knight could ask any more follow up questions, another girl,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: another teenager, who looked exactly like Christina, ran into the
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: waiting room, and immediately Christina got up to go over
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: and hugger, and when the two girls pulled away from
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: each other, Knight noticed that both of these girls were
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: sobbing and they really were just like identical. Christina introduced
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: this new girl as her twin sister, Jennifer, and then
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: just a few seconds after that, two teenage boys came
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: through the hospital door and they hurried over to join
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: the group, and as they all sat down, Christina explained
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: that the two boys were her and Jennifer's boyfriends. After
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: Christina briefly updated her sister, Jennifer, and the two boyfriends
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: about the condition of her stepfather, Knight turned to Jennifer
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: and just asked her to please walk him through where
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: she had been, you know, the previous night, and Jennifer
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: would say, you know, she had been at the family's
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: lake house. She was there with her boyfriend and one
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: other friend. She'd been there all night, and then when
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: they had found out something had happened to Steve, they
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: had all rushed here as soon as they could, and
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: so night he asked the girls if either of them
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: knew anyone who might want to harm their stepfather, And
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: as soon as he asked that, Knight noticed the two
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: teenage girls, they shared this quick, knowing look themselves. At
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: this point, Christina turned back Tonight and said there was
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: only one person she could think of who would do
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: something like this, a woman named Tracy Tarlton. She explained
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: that Tracy was a friend of her mother's and they'd
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: met earlier that year at a psychiatric hospital where they
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: had both been patients. But Christina said there was just
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: something off about their friendship. Tracy seemed like really unstable,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: and Christina got the feeling that she was actually in
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: love with their mom. And as soon as she said this,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: all four of the teens just sort of nodded knowingly,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: like this was something they definitely had talked about internally,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: and then they all began to agree out loud that
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Tracy very likely was the one who did this. And
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: then a minute later, a fifth teenager came running into
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: the hospital and they joined the group, and Jennifer introduced
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: her as another friend. Her name was Amy Cozart and
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: she had been the other friends sleeping over at the
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: lake house that night, and Amy, who literally had just
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: joined and heard no context to this point about anything
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: the other teenagers had said. You know, when she was
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: asked pretty much right away by night if she knew
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: of anyone who might have wanted to hurt Steve, she
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: didn't hesitate.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: She just said, oh, Tracy Tarlton.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Later that afternoon, around three o'clock, Sergeant Knight knocked on
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: the front door of Tracy Tarlton's very unassuming ranch style
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: house in a working class part of Austin, Texas while
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: running a check on Tracy to confirm her address. He'd
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: also discovered that she had a weapons permit for a
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: twenty gage shotgun, the same caliber as the casing that
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: was found inside the crime scene. Tracy answered the door
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: pretty much right away, as if she had been waiting
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: for someone to come by, and Night, after introducing himself,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: told her that Steve Beard.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: Had been shot.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: And when he said this, he didn't notice any shock
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: on Tracy's face. Instead, Tracy actually looked scared. Knight asked
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Tracy if she had any idea who might have shot Steve,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: and she said no, But then she asked if she
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: needed a lawyer, and Knight said, well, that's up to you,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: and then before she could really react to that, he
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: asked her if he could come inside, and Tracy just
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: sort of turned and led him into the living room.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Knight walked in, he sat down, and he just continued
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: talking to Tracy.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: And so he asked her about her.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: Relationship with Celeste, and she said that yes, they had
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: met at a psychiatric hospital when they were both being
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: treated earlier that year for suicide attempts.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: And then sort of unannounced.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: She told the detective that at first when she had
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: met Celeste, her feelings towards Celeste had not been platonic.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: They had been romantic. She had been interested in Celeste
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: as a partner, but she then quickly clarified and said
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: that was in the past and that now they really
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: were just friends. And so Knight took stock of this
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: and didn't really ask too many follow up questions on
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: their relationship, and instead he just said, okay, well, where
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: were you the night before? And Tracy said she had
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: been here at her house the whole time.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: She said that she had ordered pizza.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: And she'd had a few beers and then had just
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: gone to bed. Night asked her if she owned a gun.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Tracy said yes, but she only used it for skeet shooting.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Night asked if he could see her gun, and so
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Tracy got up, and she walked over and opened up
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: a closet and she pulled out a shotgun in a
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: zipperd case. Night asked her if he could take her
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: gun down to the ballistics department, and Tracy definitely hesitated
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: for a moment, but then she was like sure. Later
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: that same day, Sergeant Knight walked through the crime scene
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: at the Beard mansion looking for any clues that the
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: investigators might have missed during the initial search. Celeste's twin daughters,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Christina and Jennifer, had actually come with him to help
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: point out anything that could be out of place that
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't necessarily notice. Inside of Steve's bedroom, Knight saw
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: that some of the drawers and closets had been left open,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: as if they had been ransacked by a burglar.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: But something about the whole scene just didn't seem right.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: The drawers, they didn't appear to have been like ripped
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: open as if somebody was in a rush. They had
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: been pulled out really carefully, and inside the drawer things
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: were basically pretty neat and so tonight this didn't.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Really appear to be a burglary.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: He suspected that someone might have staged the crime scene
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: to appear to be a burglary to throw off the investigation. However,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: just for good measure, he asked the twin girls to
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: look through all of these open drawers and closets to
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: see if you can identify anything that was missing. And
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: so the girls began looking around, and eventually Christina said
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: that she couldn't find Steven's watch or his sapphire ring.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Now on the one hand, this might give credit to
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: the idea that this really was a burglary gone wrong.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: You know, that Steve was just sort of in the
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: wrong place at the wrong time and got shot by
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: the burglar. But tonight this development that these two small
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: items were gone actually only seemed to confirm the idea
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: that this was not a burglary gone wrong, because this
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: whole house was chalk full of.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Nice jewelry and antiques.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: There's so many other things in the house that could
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: have been taken that were obvious, that were not taken.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: And so night he left the bedroom, walked down the
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: hallway and went into the living room, and there around
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: at all this obviously very expensive furniture and vases and
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: paintings and all this stuff that's super valuable all over
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: the place, he began to consider another possibility that maybe
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: somebody in the family had killed Steve for the inheritance.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: I mean, this guy clearly is loaded.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Knight didn't know what Steve's will said yet, but he
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: knew that along with his two step daughters, he had
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: three adult children from his first marriage, and all of
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: them very likely stood to inherit millions of dollars when
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: he died. And then there was Steve's wife, Celeste, who
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: was less than half his age. It was hard not
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: to wonder if she'd simply married him for his money,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: and so it wasn't really a far cry to wonder
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: if maybe she had been involved in the shooting, because
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: if he dies, maybe she'd get all of his money.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: And so as Night was thinking about this and wondering
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: back down the hallway, he noticed a trap door in
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: the ceiling that led to an attic that he hadn't
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: noticed before. So curious, he reached up and pulled open
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: the door, and then he climbed up the ladder that
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: came down, and before he was in the attic and
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: up in the attic he saw there was a box
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: lying on the floor just a few feet away, and
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: you know where everything else in the attic had been
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: totally covered in dust and cobwebs.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: This box was not.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: It was perfectly clean, as if it had only been
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: put up here pretty recently. So he grabbed the box
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: and he opened the lid up and inside was a
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: twenty gage shotgun. Night knew this could be extremely important
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: to this case, so he immediately packaged up the box,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: picked it up and he carried it down the ladder
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: back down to the main floor, and when he got
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: down there, he saw one of the twin girls, Jennifer,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: staring at him, looking really nervous. She rushed to explain
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: that that shotgun she had purchased as an anniversary gift
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: for her boyfriend, and she was just keeping it up there,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: out of sight until it was time to give it
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: to him. She swore the gun had never been fired,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: and she had not even taken it out of the
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: box yet. Now Knight heard what she said, but he
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: held onto the box because he still was going to
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: bring it back to the ballistics department right away to
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: have it tested. I mean, it seemed very odd to
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: him that Jennifer hadn't mentioned until now that there was
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: a gun in the house, and that it just happened
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: to be the exact same gun, same caliber as the
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: weapon that was used to shoot Steve.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: Now, Jennifer did have an alibi.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: She had been at the lake House at that sleepover
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: thirty miles away on the night of steve shooting, but
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: her sister Christina had been home the whole night, and
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Knight had to wonder if maybe the two sisters had
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: plotted together to kill their stepfather, maybe for his money.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: After all, it just seemed weirdly convenient that Jennifer, Christina,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: their boyfriends, their other friend Amy had all without any hesitation,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: named Tracy Tarlton as the suspect. It just seemed like
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: something here was not quite adding up. That evening, Detective
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Knight went back to the hospital and the nurse at
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the front desk told him that Steve was out of
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: surgery and was stable enough to finally have visitors.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: She gave him Steve's room number and then let him through.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: However, when he got down the hallway to Steve's room,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: he saw this handwritten sign taped to the door that
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: said no law enforcement personnel allowed to interview patient except
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: in the presence of his attorney. And as Knight was
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: processing this pretty surprising sign, out of nowhere, Steve's wife, Celeste,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: came rushing down the hallway and literally blocked him from
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: going into the room. She said that, for one, she
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: was not going to allow any further searches of her
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: and Steve's house, and if police wanted to speak to
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: her husband, they'd have to go through the family's lawyer.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: And Knight I mean, he was stunned by.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: This because in all his years on the force he
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: had never seen a victim hire a defense attorney. And
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: then more than that, Knight wasn't even sure if Steve
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: was the one who.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: Made this decision.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, Steve was stable now, but he really had
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: no idea if he was actually conscious.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: You know, was it Steve who decided to put up
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: this roadblock or was it Celeste.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: So at this point Knight really didn't know what he
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: was legally allowed to do here, and so, you know,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: using an abundance of caution, he just turned around and left,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: at least for now. And as he walked out of
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: the hospital, he tried to make sense of why Celeste
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: was suddenly being so defensive.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: You know, even if she was.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Not the one who made this decision, the way she
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: had just treated him in the hallway was just very aggressive.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: And then he began to wonder if maybe she had
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: heard about the gun that he had found in their
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: attic and was now trying to just protect her daughters,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: or maybe she was trying to protect herself. On the
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: afternoon of October seventh, so five days after Steve Beard
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: was shot, Sergeant Paul Knight looked through a folder of
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: interview notes at his desk.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: By this point, he'd spoken to all.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Three of Steve's own children, his adult children, but they
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: were all ruled out as suspects because they all lived.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: Hours away and had solid alibis.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: When Knight had asked one of Steve's sons if he
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: knew who might have done this, he had told the
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: detective to look into Celeste. I mean, after all, pretty
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: much they all thought she was in this marriage for.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: Money to begin with.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: But you know, Knight had tested Celeste for gunshot residue
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: right after the shooting, so he knew she literally could
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: not have been the one who pulled the trigger. And
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: so at this point tonight it just sort of felt
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: like the entire family was just pointing fingers at each other.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: But at the same time, Knight did feel like at
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: least one family member on some side of the family
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: was likely involved in the shooting. There was just frankly
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: too much money at stake here. In particular, it was
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: definitely suspicious that Celeste's daughter Jennifer had a twenty gage
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: shotgun in the attic, and on top of that that
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: she and her twin sister Christina and all of their
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: friends had immediately pointed the finger at Tracy Tarlton. And
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: then as for Tracy, I mean, she did have a
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: pretty weak alibi, and she did own a twenty gage shotgun,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: but despite that, she had absolutely no history of doing
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: anything violent like this, and she was remarkably cooperative and
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: had even handed over her shotgun for analysis without really
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: any fight at all. And so at this point Knight
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: knew he really just needed to speak directly to Steve,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: but the family's attorney was preventing the police from seeing him,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: and Night wasn't sure how stable his condition was or
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: really how much longer he would even be alive for,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: so like this was a very tenuous situation. But just
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: then Knight noticed something out of the corner of his eye,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: and he looked up and he saw there was another
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: detective in the doorway of his office, just sort of
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: leaning there with a big smile on their face. Knight
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: asked them what was going on, and the detective walked
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: over and handed him a Manila folder and he told
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: him this was a forensics report. They had just gotten
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: back a piece of evidence that had been found at
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: the crime scene.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: May have just cracked the entire case.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Based on forensic evidence, confessions, and witness interviews. This is
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: what police believe happened to Steve Beard in the early
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: morning hours of October second, nineteen ninety nine, around two
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: thirty am, the killer turned off their headlights as they
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: drove toward the Beard mansion.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: They parked at the back entrance.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: To the property, far away from the house so the
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: noise of their engine wouldn't wake anybody up inside. They
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: got out of the car, slung a shotgun over their shoulder,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: and began walking through the trees towards the mansion, and
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: as the patio came into view, they stopped. They felt
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: sick and they actually didn't want to go through with this,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: but they had made a promise they had to do it,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: so they swallowed their fear and continued walking towards the mansion.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: And when they got.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Right to the steps that would lead up to the patio,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: they went to the right and they walked to a
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: separate door that led into the living room. That glass
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: door was unlocked, so they opened it up. They stepped inside,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: and then once inside, they navigated their way to the
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: main bedroom, and when they went inside, the main bedroom,
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: they found Steve sleep in his bed. The killer walked
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: to the foot of the bed and just stared at
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Steve for a second, and then when they were ready,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: they raised the shotgun and they're shaking hands and they
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: pulled the trigger and the blast was deafening. Blood began
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: pouring out of Steve's abdomen. Immediately, the killer reflexively racked
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: the shotgun, ejecting the shotgun shell, getting ready to fire
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: a second time if need be. But then, you know, Steve,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: he began fumbling for the nightstand like he was maybe
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: reaching for a weapon of his own. And the killer
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: at this point, they're reaching down on the ground trying
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: to find the spent shotgun shell to take that with them,
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: but they're so scared that Steve's about to shoot them,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: and so they just abandoned the shotgun shell, and then
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: with their shotgun, the killer runs out of the bedroom,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: down the hallway, back out through the living room, back
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: out the same door they came in, knocking that lamp
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: over in the process. They shut the doors behind them
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: and ran to their car, and from there they drove
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: to a safe location where they washed their hands. They
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: threw their clothes into the washer, and then they very
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: thoroughly cleaned their shotgun, and then after it was pristine again,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: they put the shotgun back into storage. The killer was
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: in fact Tracy Tarlton, Celeste's friend from the hospital, who
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: all the kids had said she's the one who did this.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: Well, it was her.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: The shell that was found on Steve's floor came back
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: from ballistics as an exact match for Tracy's shotgun, and
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: so she was arrested on October eighth, less than a
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: week after the shooting. And then after she was arrested,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: she confessed to the killing and said that ultimately she
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: had killed Steve because she was in love with Celeste
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: and she wanted Celeste all to herself. However, a few
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: months later, in January of two thousand, Steve actually died
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: from his injuries, and after that a news story began
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: to emerge.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: It turned out that Tracy's.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: Love for Celeste was not one sided. The two women
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: had been having a full blown affair for months before
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: the murder. In fact, Celeste had begun secretly slipping ever
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: clear into Steve's cocktails, which is more than twice as
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: strong as the vodka that Steve thought he was drinking,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: and so basically Celeste would get Steve really really drunk
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: and get him to pass out, and then once he
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: would pass out, Celeste would go sneak off and spend
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: the night with Tracy. According to Tracy, Celeste had asked
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: her to kill Steve so they could be together, and
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: so for the first few months after Tracy's arrest, Tracy
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: kept her mouth shut about Celeste's involvement. But then five
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: months after Steve died, Celeste got remarried to a man
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: that she had just met, and that's when Tracy realized
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: that Celeste was not really in love with her. She
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: had been using her to get rid of Steve so
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: she could inherit all his money. And so when this happened,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Tracy was so hurt by what Celeste had done that
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: she began telling the real truth with the authorities, and
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: eventually she agreed to testify against Celeste, and so, based
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: on Tracy's testimony, Celeste was arrested on March twenty eight,
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: two thousand and two. She was eventually found guilty of
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Steve's murder and sentenced to life in prison. Tracy was
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: also convicted of murder but because of her cooperation, her
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: sentence was reduced to just twenty years, and she was
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: actually released on parole in twenty eleven.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: the comments, and remember, we have a whole playlist of
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: true crime episodes ready for you to binge right now,
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: so click here and give them a watch.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see you