Latest / NO FILTER / The strange case of Elizabeth Sullivan [True Crime Documentary](MP3_160K)

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The strange case of Elizabeth Sullivan [True Crime Documentary](MP3_160K) · NO FILTER

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: When Elizabeth Sullivan was reported missing in the autumn of
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, the San Diego police suspected foul play. Over
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the following days and weeks, suspicions only compiled, but the
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: evidence of what, if anything, had befallen the young mother
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: was sparse. Friends insisted that something horrible must have happened,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: but her family wasn't so sure. Elizabeth Sullivan was a
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: complicated and capable woman. It was possible that her disappearance
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: had been by design. Maybe Elizabeth didn't want to be found.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Hi everyone, I'm Kevin and welcome to Just Thought Lounge.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Today's case takes a look at a missing person with
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: a chaotic history. It took years to piece together the story,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: and when it did reach its conclusion, the truth was
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: just as messy. Let's take a look. Thirty one year
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: old mother of two, Elizabeth Sullivan was a force of nature.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: According to her closest friends, she was not just charismatic, fashionable,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: and funny. What was most striking about the young mother
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: was her intelligence. Friends and acquaintances alike were drawn to
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth because she was smart, well read, and creative. In
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: the autumn of twenty fourteen, Elizabeth was living in the
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Liberty Station neighborhood in San Diego, California. She shared a
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: home with her husband, Matthew, and their two daughters, aged
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: two and four. The neighborhood is a former naval training center,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: and the home that the Sullivans rented was a spacious,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: multi level house. Living in California was still new for Elizabeth.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: She had relocated from her home state of Virginia only
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: a few years before after falling for husband Matthew, who
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: was in the US Navy. Matt was transferred from the
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: large base in Norfolk, Virginia, to California, only months after
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: the two began dating. Nonetheless, Elizabeth packed up and went
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: with him. They went and welcomed their first daughter shortly after.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Once settled in San Diego, the young mother found a
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: new routine. Matthew's career saw him deployed for short periods
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: of time, then sometimes much longer. Once in his absence,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth did her own thing. She made friends. She maintained
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: an active social life. That is until the fourteenth of October,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: when the San Diego Police Department the SDPD, made an
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: announcement Elizabeth Sullivan was missing. It was Elizabeth's good friend,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Nathan Character, who had notified police with concern when he
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: was unable to reach her. Nathan would recount later that
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: he just had a bad feeling that something could have happened.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth had last been seen at her home the day
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: before by her husband, Matthew, who was back in San
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Diego between deployments. The SDPD Missing Person Section found that
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth's car was still at home in the garage. The
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: family home was a bit messy, but they found nothing
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: that overtly alarmed them or that indicated foul play. Matthew
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: pointed out that one of the family suitcases appeared to
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: have gone missing. Missing persons Investigators also found that just
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: the day before, Elizabeth had transferred over the full balance
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: in her and Matthew's joint bank account over one thousand
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: dollars to her personal one. Perhaps these were signs that
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: she had decided to leave of her own volition. Seeking
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: insight into the life and mind of Elizabeth Sullivan, investigators
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: poured over the thirty one year old journals. In them,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: they discovered her creative flare fictional stories of a woman
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: swept off of her feet by a dashing navyman, a
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: white Knight, as she called him in her story, The
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Knight and his love began a life in California and
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: welcomed a beautiful baby girl. The parallels in Elizabeth's story
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: to her own life were clear. In her fantasy, the
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: female protagonist disillusioned with her new life and white Knight
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: abandons her life and starts again was the fantasy, once
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: again mirroring reality. Elizabeth had last sent a text message
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: from her phone the day before, on the thirteenth of October.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: This would be the last contact she would have with
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: her friends and family. Days later, Elizabeth Sullivan's phone was
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: turned off. Matthew, for his part, was concerned, but not
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: shocked by his wife's absence. It seems that amongst the
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: quirks in Elizabeth's vibrant personality was a tendency to, on occasion,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: become emotionally unstable. Briefly home from deployment, her husband had
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: just invited his mother, Michelle Sullivan, and her partner to
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: come live with them in San Diego. Certain that his
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: mother's help with the two kids would be gratefully received,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: he purchased the plane tickets and ready for their arrival,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: but Elizabeth was not pleased. She did not get on
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: with her mother in law and was insistent that they
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: not live under the same roof. Only a few days
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: before Nathan reported her missing, Elizabeth, upset with her husband,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: had left the house and failed to return home all night.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Matthew explained to the SDPD that such behavior from his
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: wife was not uncommon. He was concerned. She had always
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: come home in the past, but this time their argument
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: had been a bit maybe this time he thought she
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: had left for good. As unlikely as Matthew's explanations seemed
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: to investigators, they had no concrete evidence that a crime
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: had taken place, and the more that they waded into
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: the life of Elizabeth Sullivan, the more murky the waters.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Speaking with friends and family members, they learned that Elizabeth
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: and Matthew had been mostly living two separate lives for
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: years after multiple long term absences while he served in
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: the Navy, Elizabeth had come to adopt the life and
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: mindset of a single mother. It became more and more
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: difficult for Matthew to integrate back into his marriage and
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: family life when he returned back home. By autumn of
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, friends reported that it had not been a
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: happy marriage for some time, and they had not been
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: married for very long. Had been accusations of domestic abuse,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: and police had been called out to the house on
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: more than one occasion. To cope with these stresses, Elizabeth
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: was known to over medicate, and not only with her
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: prescription drugs. She also began a relationship with a man
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: that she had met on Tinder. It was as though
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth Sullivan was living two lives at home. She was
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: a wife struggling to hold things together, as well as
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: a loving mother to her girls. But the other Elizabeth,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: the one that investigators were learning more and more about.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: She had a boyfriend and some dangerous habits. On October nineteenth,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: police confirmed there had been a sighting of Elizabeth reported
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: at the soccer fields at Liberty Station, two days after
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: she was reported missing. The SDPD told the media that
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: the sighting had actually been made by two off duty
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: deputy They had been at the park that morning to
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: watch their child play soccer, and that's not all. The
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: deputies spoke with Elizabeth directly. She appeared to them disheveled
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: and possibly under the influence of something. Elizabeth told them
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: that she had not been home the night before. She
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: had also lost her phone. The deputies helped her look
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: for it, but they were unsuccessful. After being missing for
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: one full week, police confirmed yet another sighting of Elizabeth,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: this time she was spotted near the San Diego International Airport.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: I feel like she's in trouble, and I've come out
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: here from Virginia to look for her, to let her
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: know we're here. It can happen to you, and when
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: it does, it gets very personal and it takes on
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: a whole new light when it happens to you, and
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: you get a strength like you never had before. Because
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: that's my daughter I'm bringing home.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: We are going to let Les go.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: By November of twenty fourteen, one month after being reported missing,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: there had been no further sightings of Elizabeth. That month,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Matthew decided to give an interview about his wife's disappearance
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: to People magazine. He told the publication, I'm running on
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: fumes right now. I don't know where to look. I'm
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: always looking around the neighborhood trying to catch a glimpse
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: of her. He stated that I think about her constantly.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: I can't stop. The girls are my biggest concern right now.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: I have to keep going, try to do what I
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: have to do for them and keep praying. By that time,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: the Missing Person's investigative team had looked into the sighting
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: of Elizabeth near to the airport and found it was
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: a false report. However, they still believed the eyewitnesses who
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: had placed her in the park. They continued to circulate
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: her image and description to the public should there be
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: any further sightings. SDPD investigators were also keeping tabs on
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: the behavior of the outwardly distraught husband. While Matthew told
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: People magazine that he was getting by with the support
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: of the Navy community, friends of elizabeths noticed that that
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: was not the only support he was receiving. Within a
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: month of Elizabeth's disappearance, Matthew was back on the dating scene. Indeed,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: only months later he moved his girlfriend into the house
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: at Liberty Station. Ten months after she vanished, police said
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: there was still no sign of Elizabeth Sullivan and her
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: case had gone cold. On October fourth, twenty sixteen, one
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: week shy of the two year anniversary of Elizabeth's disappearance,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: a woman's body was found floating in the channel near Liverty.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: The San Diego County Medical Examiner confirmed that they had
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: found Elizabeth Sullivan. Her body showed signs of sharp force trauma.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: In other words, Elizabeth had been stabbed to death. The
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: case was finally handed over to the SDPD homicide Unit
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: to take a thorough look. On the day that Elizabeth
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: was found, Matthew Sullivan had been packing up and moving house.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: He and his new girlfriend were expecting a baby and
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: they required more space. Despite the shocking development in Elizabeth's case,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Matthew nonetheless moved forward with his plans undeterred. Three days
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: after she was pulled from the water, Matthew moved out
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: of state. With the certainty that she had in fact
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: been murdered, facts from the early days of the investigation
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: began to take on new significance. Side detectives followed up
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: on Elizabeth's accounts and transactions. They found that the one
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars balance that she had moved into her personal
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: account remained there untouched. Elizabeth had been killed before she
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: had a chance to spend it. There was one transaction, however,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: on her credit card that stood out. That was a
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: payment made to an attorney, a divorce attorney. The writing
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: had been on the wall separate bedrooms. Calls to police
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: her stress over her mother in law moving in. Then,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: roughly a month before she went missing, Elizabeth had admitted
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: to her husband that she was having an affair. At
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: that point, the two began arguing over custody of the children.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Matthew evidently believed that Elizabeth intended to make false accusations
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: against him to law enforcement in order to have him arrested.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: She would then gain sole custody of the children. On
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: the day, Elizabeth vanished, and Matthew called nine one one
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: to report his concerns.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: Mayo believes is a salony. Hi, I have concerns. My
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: wife is trying to have me.
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: I don't know if victed or arrested from my house
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: and take my children away from me.
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: I mean she took my.
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: Personal credit card used it to hire a lawyer against me.
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: I haven't been served with any papers yet, but I
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: know she's called your department earlier this morning, and I
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: think that's where she's headed now to try to get
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: me detained.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: And she said that she took all the money out
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: of your shared saying account. I just checked, it's all gone.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: There's nothing, maybe sixteen cents left. I'm still here with
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: my children, and I don't know what she's doing. She
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: comes back and has some problems where you can call
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: us back when.
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: She's there, okay.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: After Matthew had moved out of state, the SDPD performed
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: yet another search of the Liberty Station home. This time,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: they knew what they were looking for. In the attic
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: space above what had been at Matthew's bedroom, Police pulled
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: insulation from the beams and searched in every corner in Crevis.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Their efforts paid off. Uncovered from that space was a
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: military style folding knife. Testing revealed blood DNA from Elizabeth Sullivan.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Matthew's DNA was on the handle. The knife was the
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: key piece of evidence they needed. On January thirty first,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, Matthew Sullivan was arrested outside of his new
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: home in Wyoming, Delaware. He was later extradited to California
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: as the state whar their case. They needed to reconcile
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: one seemingly inexplicable fact. Two medical examiners had reached conclusions
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: regarding Elizabeth's death after she had been pulled from the water,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: and both experts agreed based on decomposition, it appeared that
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth had not been deceased for two full years, but
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: rather only two months. The state of California believed that
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: her husband had killed her on the night of October thirteenth,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, the last day that she had been heard
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: from by friends and family. If that was true, they
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: needed to account for the results of the autopsy, and
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: they did so. When the home was searched, cadaver dogs
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: were alerted to a large, freestanding freezer. It was empty,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: but police believed it indicated that there had been a
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: body inside it previously. Looking back on the first search
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: of the home, investigators recalled that the same freezer had
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: been plugged into the power socket in the garage next
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: to Elizabeth's car. When they opened the freezer at that time,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: it had also been empty. The state now believed that
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Matthew had filled it. He had used it to keep
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth hidden for nearly two years. Then, as the time
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: approached for his move to Delaware, he finally disposed of
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: her body, hoping she would stay hidden in the water.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Zarah belief that give Anixchul show to defend it.
• 16:27
  Speaker 6: Tell Elizabeth I stabbing her lifting night.
• 16:30
  Speaker 7: He then hears a body.
• 16:33
  Speaker 6: It's an incredible loss. They have two beautiful children. They
• 16:35
  Speaker 6: have a long storied history. And mister Sullivan, as I
• 16:40
  Speaker 6: stayedd in court, he as a Navy veteran who's tabled
• 16:43
  Speaker 6: the world defending freedom, and it is now going to
• 16:46
  Speaker 6: be his chance to be served by the institutions that
• 16:49
  Speaker 6: he defended.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Matthew Sullivan's murder trial began on February twenty first, twenty twenty.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Matthew's defense attorney argued that Elizabeth had been unpredictable, that
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: she often took off without telling anyone, and that she
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: abused drugs. They argued that the freezer theory was just
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: that a theory. There was no real evidence that Elizabeth
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: had ever been held in the freezer. Law enforcement had
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: searched the home on more than one occasion and failed
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: to find Elizabeth there. Matthew had also lived in the
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: house with his children and then later his mother, her partner,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: and his new girlfriend, yet no one discovered Elizabeth.
• 17:31
  Speaker 7: The evidence will show that Elizabeth's family and her friends
• 17:35
  Speaker 7: will report a history.
• 17:38
  Speaker 8: Of finding a man finding independence, deciding abroadly to turn
• 17:45
  Speaker 8: the paid up her life, and not necessarily sharing with
• 17:49
  Speaker 8: everybody who would otherwise be included.
• 17:52
  Speaker 7: Normally in such a decision. Her father will tell you
• 17:58
  Speaker 7: about this.
• 17:58
  Speaker 8: Pattern, her friends will tell you about this pattern, her
• 18:02
  Speaker 8: friends from Virginia, and her friends from San Diego. You're
• 18:06
  Speaker 8: not going to hear one minute evidence of Matthew Sullivan
• 18:12
  Speaker 8: trying to secret away parts of his home.
• 18:16
  Speaker 9: And at the end of the day, when the evidence
• 18:18
  Speaker 9: is all put through after several ways, is it will
• 18:23
  Speaker 9: not be able to divert your attendant from the fact
• 18:26
  Speaker 9: that the evidence is consistent with the life that Elizabeth
• 18:30
  Speaker 9: Sullivant led to that point, and that while her passing
• 18:35
  Speaker 9: wall tragic cannot be intributed to Matthew Sullivan.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: By the time of the trial, the off duty officers
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: that had reported speaking with Elizabeth at the park now
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: thought that they had confused their dates. The encounter had
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: taken place but a few days before she was reported missing,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: not after this fact was confirmed when investigators found that
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth had spent the night of the eleventh at a
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: homeless shelter instead of going home, supporting the statements she
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: had made to the deputies in the park the next
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: morning on the twelfth, Elizabeth went missing two days later.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Although these early sightings were dismissed, there remained evidence that
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth could have been alive and well after October fourteenth.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Her boyfriend, Steve Sutton, had initially refused to cooperate with
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: law enforcement. He hired an attorney and then refused to
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: take a polygraph test. Eventually, after being ruled out as
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: a potential suspect, Steve told investigators that weeks into the
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: search for Elizabeth, he had been in contact with someone
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: claiming to be her. Messages from an email address that
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: he did not recognize were signed off by someone claiming
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: to be Elizabeth. As a test, Steve had asked the
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: writer of the emails to identify what was on the
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: keychain to the hot tub where they had spent time together. Somehow,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: the writer had answered him correctly. Matthew's defense team argued
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: that this was a fact that only Elizabeth could have known,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: but Steve Sutton could not produce the emails. He had
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: already deleted them, he said, was.
• 20:19
  Speaker 7: No longer gaining as a selman. Did you make any
• 20:22
  Speaker 7: communication with her?
• 20:25
  Speaker 10: Yeah, there would be every now and then text her,
• 20:30
  Speaker 10: you know, she would reach out when she's killing only
• 20:35
  Speaker 10: or something like that, and would have answered her.
• 20:42
  Speaker 6: What was it was her or her?
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Tea lady.
• 20:46
  Speaker 7: She seemed happy and you and she talked about what
• 20:52
  Speaker 7: she was doing and what her plan was with respect
• 20:54
  Speaker 7: to Matthew and her marriage.
• 20:58
  Speaker 10: Yeah, she told me she was kidding.
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: She said she was.
• 21:04
  Speaker 10: Restraint.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: The state believed that Elizabeth's affair with Steve and her
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: plans to get a divorce were the motive for the murder.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth's closest friends testified about the state of the marriage.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: It seems we're just not good at home.
• 21:22
  Speaker 7: Matt apparently was making her feel really guilty about it, and.
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: She was just a rack.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth's best friend from Virginia, Calandra Harris, spoke with her
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: on the phone daily.
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: We would have to end our conversations because matt was
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: either coming listening. She was afraid he was coming, did
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: she Yes, she was going to pack her things. She
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: met with an attorney, so far as I know, she
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: met with an attorney, and she was trying to figure
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: out what her rights were, what she could and couldn't do.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: And yes, she was going to go to a hotel.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Calandra and Elizabeth were speaking on the phone on the
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: night of October thirteenth. Elizabeth was at home and so
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: was her husband. He knew about the affair he knew
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: about the divorce. Matthew was angry.
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: I told her to lock herself in her room or
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: her girl's room, have a glass.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Of wine, and we just needed to make it to morning.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: What was a response to that.
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: She said, I have my vino and I'm going to
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: lock myself in my room. I then said, if you
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: feel that seriously about it, if it doesn't get any better,
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: call the police in San Diego.
• 22:52
  Speaker 10: And did she respond to that?
• 22:54
  Speaker 5: She said, hold on a sack, and then she said,
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: gotta go quietly.
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: I didn't hear from anymore.
• 23:04
  Speaker 7: That's your last conversation. He is.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Inside her bedroom, where it is thought that Elizabeth was
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: hiding while on the phone with Calandra. Forensic teams tested
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: areas with luminol, a chemical used to detect blood. The
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: floor leading to the bathroom lit up from the testing.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: Inside the bedroom, more areas were found. The interior of
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: the bathroom door revealed spatter stains. Pulling up the carpet
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: revealed an even larger stain. Testing confirmed the blood had
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: been Elizabeth's. The exposed carpet had been cleaned thoroughly. The
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: jury was told that on the fourteenth of October Matthew
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Sullivan went to a home depot store and bought carpet cleaner,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: took his.
• 23:57
  Speaker 11: Rubber knute and a stab there out her again and
• 24:01
  Speaker 11: again and again and again.
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah, goodbye.
• 24:07
  Speaker 11: He hid the murder about it, cleaned up the prime scene,
• 24:09
  Speaker 11: and hid it. This is the bank record that shows
• 24:12
  Speaker 11: you his debit card purchase at Ace Hardware to buy
• 24:16
  Speaker 11: that carpet cleaner. This was the first time she'd left
• 24:20
  Speaker 11: that saying when she was going it wasn't the first
• 24:22
  Speaker 11: time she'd been down for night. Something only somebody who
• 24:27
  Speaker 11: had been in that experience, on that affair, in that
• 24:30
  Speaker 11: adventure could know the email and responded with the correct answer.
• 24:38
  Speaker 11: Something only Stephen Sutton and Elizabeth Sultan could have known.
• 24:44
  Speaker 7: She was found about two hundred yards from the park
• 24:49
  Speaker 7: that we know that she slept in on nights when
• 24:53
  Speaker 7: she would not be at home, married to a navy man.
• 25:01
  Speaker 8: Who had a secret life, who had a history of
• 25:05
  Speaker 8: behavior that was a rack, and who had a history
• 25:09
  Speaker 8: of leaving.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: When the jury was sent off to deliberate, they needed
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: to decide not only whether Matthew Sullivan had killed his wife,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: but also if they concluded that he had, they could
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: convict him of either first degree or second degree murder.
• 25:27
  Speaker 12: With the jury and the abob and title cost, find
• 25:29
  Speaker 12: the defendant Matthew Scott Sullivan not guilty of.
• 25:32
  Speaker 7: The crime of first degree murder.
• 25:34
  Speaker 12: With a jury and the above and title cause, find
• 25:36
  Speaker 12: the defendant Matthew Scott Sullivan guilty of the crime of
• 25:40
  Speaker 12: second degree murder.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: At his sentencing hearing, Matthew's defense lawyer argued for leniency
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: based on his history of service. He had served eight
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: years in the US Navy and had been honorably discharged.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: During those eight years, he had been the recipient of
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the Global Terrorism Cross, the Humanity Service Medal, and the
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Navy Good Conduct Medal. For those who knew and loved Elizabeth,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: there was no sentence that could make up for their loss.
• 26:16
  Speaker 7: No longer's sentence won't make the pain go away.
• 26:19
  Speaker 11: No, what will my recanting of this sorrow I've gone
• 26:21
  Speaker 11: through these last six and a half years make this
• 26:24
  Speaker 11: man feel any different things than he doesn't know.
• 26:26
  Speaker 13: Matt has caused a tremendous amount of pain to me,
• 26:29
  Speaker 13: Lizz's family, and friends. There are no words to describe
• 26:34
  Speaker 13: this pain that still sits in the pin of my heart.
• 26:38
  Speaker 13: I pray that matt never see or experience freedom again.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Matthew Sullivan was sentenced to sixteen years to life in
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: prison for second degree murder. According to the most recent
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: update of his California incarceration records, Matthew will be eligible
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: for parole in August twenty twenty eight. That was the
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: tragic case of Elizabeth Sullivan. Thank you again to everyone
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: that watches and supports us every week. I'm Kevin. This
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: is just thought lounge, and I'll see in the next.
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: One found out.
• 27:22
  Speaker 6: Just watch when the scene, Please tell me who the
• 27:25
  Speaker 6: screen saves. I can hear the crimes repeat. Gotta take
• 27:27
  Speaker 6: my time because these crimes get deep, but these stories
• 27:29
  Speaker 6: can't high.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Let me find my seat, Kevin, go ahead and settle in.
• 27:33
  Speaker 9: Gotta be selective and doing all the research, keeping it objective.