Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / Serial Killer Documentary - A House of Horrors： Stewart Weldon

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Serial Killer Documentary - A House of Horrors： Stewart Weldon · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:11
Speaker 1: I did what I did, nobody guilty but me, you
0:15
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying?
0:15
Speaker 2: If she were here now, I would start by telling
0:19
Speaker 2: her that I'm sorry and that I love her.
0:22
Speaker 1: I would tell her I need my big sister back.
0:29
Speaker 3: He chose a certain category of victims who he believed
0:34
Speaker 3: he could victimize without repercussions.
0:38
Speaker 4: This is a person who was on a path at
0:40
Speaker 4: an early age and just progressed and became somebody who
0:45
Speaker 4: was a danger to everybody around him.
0:48
Speaker 5: I can only imagine the fear that is felt at
0:52
Speaker 5: this time.
0:55
Speaker 3: I would characterize it as evil. I would characterize it
0:58
Speaker 3: as subhuman. I think he's a monster.
1:04
Speaker 6: Every day, I am haunted by memories and images I
1:08
Speaker 6: will never be whole again.
1:48
Speaker 4: Stuart Weldon was born in 1977. He grew up in Jamaica, Queens,
1:53
Speaker 4: New York, which was an area that was known for
1:56
Speaker 4: having a lot of drug activity.
1:59
Speaker 7: His father died when he was a teenager.
2:02
Speaker 8: There was indications that he was sexually assaulted, that he
2:05
Speaker 8: was experimenting with drugs, and was introduced to pornography at
2:09
Speaker 8: an early age.
2:12
Speaker 9: In 1990, just after his father's death, Stuart Weldon's mom
2:16
Speaker 9: moves them out of the city to Montclair, New Jersey,
2:20
Speaker 9: a safer neighborhood with a lower crime rate.
2:24
Speaker 5: No mother wants to see their child involved in criminal activity.
2:29
Speaker 5: So what is often done is let us move to
2:33
Speaker 5: a more suburban.
2:34
Speaker 1: Life and we can start all over.
2:38
Speaker 5: That was probably the intent of this caring mother trying
2:41
Speaker 5: to move her son to a different way of life.
2:47
Speaker 9: But Stuart Weldon's difficult start to life continues when he
2:50
Speaker 9: reaches high school.
2:52
Speaker 4: He seemed to have some pretty significant learning problems. He
2:56
Speaker 4: was diagnosed with severe ADHD. He apparently had dyslexia. I
3:03
Speaker 4: think when a child has some learning challenges, how that
3:08
Speaker 4: child does depends on a couple of different things, not
3:11
Speaker 4: just the severity of their disabilities, which is important to know,
3:15
Speaker 4: but also how the school handles those. So are they
3:19
Speaker 4: getting diagnosed early? Are they getting appropriate treatment? And it
3:23
Speaker 4: sounds like that he ended up having a pretty limited education.
3:33
Speaker 4: In 1996, Stuart Weldon is at a mall, and he
3:36
Speaker 4: and his buddy basically pick up three girls, are gonna
3:40
Speaker 4: go out and party. They end up taking two of
3:42
Speaker 4: them home. But the third one, they end up kidnapping
3:46
Speaker 4: and sexually assaulting.
3:50
Speaker 8: At the age of 19, when he was in New Jersey,
3:52
Speaker 8: he was charged with sexual offenses as well as a
3:55
Speaker 8: weapons charge. He was picking up women that might have
3:59
Speaker 8: been drug involved, mental health issues, involved in prostitution.
4:05
Speaker 3: We often see a progressive nature of criminal offenses for
4:08
Speaker 3: those who commit very serious crimes.
4:13
Speaker 5: Issues of violence often have their foundation in control. That
4:19
Speaker 5: if I'm able to violently get you to do what
4:22
Speaker 5: I want, I have control over you.
4:26
Speaker 4: He's not starting out painting graffiti, or even loitering in
4:32
Speaker 4: places where he's not supposed to be, or being on
4:35
Speaker 4: top of the school when he's not supposed to be
4:37
Speaker 4: on there. Things that we might think juveniles are exhibiting
4:40
Speaker 4: poor judgment. and they're gonna grow out of it. This
4:44
Speaker 4: kind of crime is not like that.
4:49
Speaker 5: Another step up the ladder of engaging in criminal activity,
4:54
Speaker 5: engaging in violence.
4:56
Speaker 3: Especially when you see sexually related or sexually involved offenses,
5:00
Speaker 3: you know, typically that's a red flag. Sometimes those behaviors
5:04
Speaker 3: are innate and they repeat. Sometimes they get progressively worse.
5:11
Speaker 4: It suggests premeditation. It suggests violent behavior. It is violent behavior.
5:18
Speaker 4: It suggests predatory behavior. And those are things that are
5:23
Speaker 4: oftentimes predictors of future violence and future sexual offenses. When
5:32
Speaker 4: we look at serial killers, we often do expect them
5:35
Speaker 4: to come from the most horrendous backgrounds. and have parents
5:38
Speaker 4: who don't love them, don't care about them, abuse them,
5:41
Speaker 4: take advantage of them. And then you find parents who,
5:44
Speaker 4: for whatever reason, indulged their children, were permissive, and basically
5:49
Speaker 4: prevent that child from developing a sense of right and
5:51
Speaker 4: wrong that's internal.
6:04
Speaker 9: Stuart Weldon's criminality reaches a new level Now 28 years old,
6:09
Speaker 9: he commits assault with a deadly weapon and receives a
6:12
Speaker 9: three-year prison sentence. When he's released, he moves with his
6:20
Speaker 9: mother again, this time to Springfield in Western Massachusetts. They
6:29
Speaker 9: live in a property made of two separate apartments. It
6:32
Speaker 9: would hide some chilling secrets.
6:37
Speaker 3: Springfield is the largest city in Western Massachusetts and the
6:41
Speaker 3: largest city in Hampton County.
6:45
Speaker 8: There's a lot of poverty here, a lot of crime,
6:46
Speaker 8: a lot of drugs. Essentially, it's an old industrial town
6:50
Speaker 8: that has been kind of overtaken by.
6:52
Speaker 1: Crime and drugs.
6:55
Speaker 4: It's essentially like a distribution center of heroin between Boston
7:01
Speaker 4: and New York. This kind of underbelly of criminal activity
7:06
Speaker 4: is something that is appealing to him.
7:08
Speaker 7: He kind of.
7:09
Speaker 4: Gravitates to it, and I think he feels like he
7:12
Speaker 4: fits in and he understands it.
7:14
Speaker 8: A narcotics detective once told me the only reason we
7:16
Speaker 8: don't have methamphetamine moving into the Springfield area is because
7:19
Speaker 8: heroin is so cheap here.
7:21
Speaker 4: It's likely that his mom thought she was moving him
7:24
Speaker 4: to a better place. What she doesn't realize is she's
7:28
Speaker 4: basically moved him from the frying pan into the fire.
7:37
Speaker 4: There's a road in Springfield that is essentially known for
7:41
Speaker 4: sex workers to hang out, for people to be looking
7:45
Speaker 4: to make money in exchange for drugs.
7:48
Speaker 7: And for Stuart Weldon, who.
7:51
Speaker 4: Is very involved in criminal activity, this would be like
7:55
Speaker 4: a candy store. He could just drive down and pick
7:58
Speaker 4: and choose whatever he wants.
8:01
Speaker 3: Weldon became very well known in circles involving women who
8:06
Speaker 3: were prostituting themselves. Became very well known in certain criminal circles,
8:15
Speaker 3: in particular an area of High End School Street in
8:17
Speaker 3: the city of Springfield.
8:20
Speaker 1: He became sort.
8:22
Speaker 3: Of embedded in a particular criminal aspect here in the
8:26
Speaker 3: city of Springfield.
8:30
Speaker 4: When you have kind of a subculture, of criminal behavior
8:34
Speaker 4: in a community. It is easier to get away with
8:38
Speaker 4: things because people kind of look out for each other
8:41
Speaker 4: in a way, and you don't stand out.
8:48
Speaker 9: Stuart Weldon's respect for the law deteriorates further. He breaks
8:54
Speaker 9: into someone's home, and when apprehended, he violently attacks a
8:58
Speaker 9: police officer. He receives a two-year prison sentence.
9:04
Speaker 4: This is somebody that really strikes me as he doesn't
9:08
Speaker 4: care about anything. He doesn't care about himself that much.
9:12
Speaker 4: He puts himself at all kinds of risk. He pulls
9:14
Speaker 4: a knife on a police officer. I mean, he could
9:16
Speaker 4: have been shot by police for legitimate reasons on many
9:20
Speaker 4: different occasions. So he's somebody who doesn't care about anybody
9:24
Speaker 4: or himself. And I think that is scary. That is
9:27
Speaker 4: something you don't often see. Stuart Weldon was very involved
9:50
Speaker 4: in the drug world and he was dealing drugs which
9:53
Speaker 4: made it very very easy for him to encourage and
9:56
Speaker 4: entice women who were struggling with addiction into his car.
10:02
Speaker 4: Weldon used that as a way to lure them.
10:05
Speaker 7: To his house.
10:12
Speaker 8: A lot of the times he would get women into
10:14
Speaker 8: a car with an offer of, hey, I've got some drugs,
10:16
Speaker 8: let's go do them. And then as they got closer,
10:19
Speaker 8: maybe a negotiation took place about a sex act that
10:22
Speaker 8: ended up going too far. But in a lot of cases,
10:25
Speaker 8: women went to his apartment thinking they were going to
10:27
Speaker 8: hang out. And then when they got there, they would
10:29
Speaker 8: find out it was far more involved than just smoking
10:32
Speaker 8: drugs together. It was more about physical controls, slaps, punches,
10:38
Speaker 8: ordering them around. forcing acts on them that they did
10:42
Speaker 8: not agree to. He was kind of pushing the boundaries
10:45
Speaker 8: to see what he could get away with.
10:48
Speaker 3: He subjected the victims of his crimes to experiences that
10:52
Speaker 3: could only be termed as near-death experiences.
11:09
Speaker 9: Stuart Weldon, now aged 40, already has a criminal history
11:13
Speaker 9: spanning kidnap, burglary, sexual offenses, and assault with a deadly weapon.
11:19
Speaker 9: He's served two prison sentences. He's now luring vulnerable women
11:26
Speaker 9: to his basement, where he's torturing them, almost to the
11:32
Speaker 9: point of death. Despite this increasingly alarming behavior, He isn't
11:39
Speaker 9: drawing police attention.
11:42
Speaker 4: These women are vulnerable on a lot of different levels,
11:44
Speaker 4: not only in terms of getting into a car with
11:47
Speaker 4: somebody they don't know, not only desperate perhaps in terms
11:54
Speaker 4: of looking for drugs to kind of feed an addiction,
11:57
Speaker 4: but also their relationship with the police is going to
12:00
Speaker 4: be very difficult.
12:01
Speaker 7: And so, you know, Stuart Walden knows this.
12:05
Speaker 4: He knows that Most often, when a sex worker is
12:09
Speaker 4: raped or beaten up, either she's not going to go
12:12
Speaker 4: to the police because she's afraid she's going to be
12:15
Speaker 4: arrested for what she's been doing or that she's not
12:20
Speaker 4: going to be believed. And all too often, that's exactly
12:24
Speaker 4: what happens.
12:27
Speaker 8: These are women who sometimes fall out of touch with
12:28
Speaker 8: their families for periods of time and live very transient lifestyles.
12:33
Speaker 8: So sometimes not being around wouldn't be noticed. It was
12:36
Speaker 8: actually the women who hung out in High End School
12:39
Speaker 8: Street who were the first ones to realize we haven't
12:41
Speaker 8: seen this person for a while, but even they said
12:44
Speaker 8: that's not uncommon. Sometimes people go to rehab, they get clean,
12:48
Speaker 8: or they try to move on, or simply find another area,
12:51
Speaker 8: move in with a man, things like that. So these
12:54
Speaker 8: are people whose disappearances might not go noticed right away.
13:02
Speaker 5: It is almost a matter of You haven't punished me,
13:05
Speaker 5: so why should I stop committing the crimes or maybe
13:10
Speaker 5: even escalating those crimes? I think we see the latter
13:18
Speaker 5: in this case. You haven't punished me severely. I am
13:23
Speaker 5: going to continue doing these crimes. And since the system
13:27
Speaker 5: is not stopping me or deterring me, these crimes will continue.
13:34
Speaker 4: He does not have some of the normal restraints that
13:36
Speaker 4: most people have. And that makes people afraid of him.
13:44
Speaker 4: They're aware that he'll do whatever.
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Speaker 7: He's intimidating. He'll fight cops. He'll run from cops. He'll
13:53
Speaker 7: fight anybody.
13:54
Speaker 4: I mean, this is somebody who truly seems to have
13:58
Speaker 4: no restraint when it comes to getting what he wants
14:02
Speaker 4: or doing what he wants to do.
14:05
Speaker 8: A lot of these women described feeling like their life
14:07
Speaker 8: was draining away. They were losing vision and unable to speak.
14:12
Speaker 8: Having that complete and utter control over someone's life, essentially
14:15
Speaker 8: having the power over whether or not they live or
14:17
Speaker 8: die and being able to see their face react to
14:20
Speaker 8: the situation that they're in.
14:22
Speaker 4: It's just astonishing to see the fact that he's doing
14:24
Speaker 4: all these things, not hiding them, not seeming to care.
14:27
Speaker 7: About the consequences.
14:46
Speaker 9: America Lydon is a 33-year-old mother who's just completed a
14:49
Speaker 9: drug rehabilitation program. 47-year-old Ernestine Ryans has lived her whole
15:00
Speaker 9: life in Springfield. She is a mother and soon-to-be grandmother.
15:09
Speaker 9: Kayla Escalante, a 26-year-old mom from neighboring Ludlow.
15:16
Speaker 9: Struggles with drug addiction and has lost touch with her family.
15:22
Speaker 9: Police have no idea where these three vulnerable women are
15:25
Speaker 9: or even if they're alive. It's not until five months
15:31
Speaker 9: after America Lydon is reported missing that authorities suspect Weldon
15:35
Speaker 9: is involved.
15:41
Speaker 8: The first time I learned about Stuart Weldon He was
15:43
Speaker 8: pulled over for a routine traffic stop, essentially, by some detectives.
15:49
Speaker 8: The car took off, and Mr. Weldon had just taken
15:52
Speaker 8: off in the middle of the stop, which obviously the
15:54
Speaker 8: officers gave chase to him.
15:57
Speaker 5: The traffic stop allows for the police officer, with probable cause,
16:03
Speaker 5: with probable cause, to do a search of the vehicle,
16:08
Speaker 5: to check out the welfare of the individuals inside the vehicle,
16:13
Speaker 5: and perhaps to ask questions if there is any speculation
16:17
Speaker 5: of criminal activity taking place.
16:21
Speaker 4: This isn't somebody who's sophisticated and trying to hide his
16:25
Speaker 4: criminal activities.
16:26
Speaker 7: He's doing whatever he wants to do right then.
16:32
Speaker 5: A chase occurs, and at the end of the chase,
16:36
Speaker 5: the police officers find that there is a woman, tied, bound,
16:41
Speaker 5: and the backseat of the car.
16:47
Speaker 3: It's really the case of outstanding police work, police officers
16:51
Speaker 3: being observant, aware of their surroundings and people of interest
16:57
Speaker 3: in the area. It probably saved a life, and it
17:02
Speaker 3: probably saved more than one life.
17:05
Speaker 8: The woman who was in the front passenger seat began screaming,
17:08
Speaker 8: and it became very obvious at that point she was
17:10
Speaker 8: significantly injured.
17:13
Speaker 5: She immediately tells them she has been held captive for
17:17
Speaker 5: one month, that she has been unsafe, unwell, that she's
17:21
Speaker 5: been kidnapped and taken by Weldon.
17:26
Speaker 3: The police officers see some odd and very serious injuries.
17:32
Speaker 1: She complains to them about pain.
17:36
Speaker 3: The victim then communicates with police officers about how Mr.
17:40
Speaker 3: Weldon had been abusing her and striking her with an object,
17:44
Speaker 3: and she had injuries on her body very consistent with
17:47
Speaker 3: this sort of abuse.
17:50
Speaker 8: She was giving this information in a very hysterical way
17:53
Speaker 8: that was sometimes difficult to follow, a little rambling. She
17:56
Speaker 8: was in obvious trauma and distress, essentially saying that he'd
17:59
Speaker 8: been holding her against her will in his house for
18:01
Speaker 8: the past 30 days. He had been beating her, tying
18:04
Speaker 8: her up, things like that. She claimed that he had
18:07
Speaker 8: been beating her with a hammer in the leg and
18:09
Speaker 8: the injuries to her leg were obvious. It was very
18:12
Speaker 8: clear that she'd been receiving abuse on that leg for
18:14
Speaker 8: quite some time and she had to be rushed to
18:16
Speaker 8: the hospital where she was actually almost in danger.
18:18
Speaker 1: Of losing that leg.
18:23
Speaker 9: Weldon is charged with kidnapping, threatening to commit a crime,
18:28
Speaker 9: carrying a dangerous weapon, and resisting arrest. Despite the claims
18:33
Speaker 9: of his victim, Police don't have enough evidence to search
18:37
Speaker 9: his house. Mr.
18:41
Speaker 8: Weldon was brought to court, and the next day, and
18:44
Speaker 8: I handled the arraignment on that case. He was charged
18:46
Speaker 8: with kidnapping and a variety of other assaultive charges. I
18:51
Speaker 8: believe at that time we requested a high cash bail,
18:52
Speaker 8: and he was held on a million dollars cash bail
18:54
Speaker 8: for giving the kidnapping and the serious allegations, which we
18:57
Speaker 8: later came to find out was only the tip of
18:59
Speaker 8: the iceberg. We didn't have probable cause, at least in
19:02
Speaker 8: my opinion at that time, to go and search his home.
19:04
Speaker 8: That came a few days later on. Springfield police received
19:15
Speaker 8: a call from his adoptive mother who was complaining about
19:19
Speaker 8: a smell in the basement. The way she described it
19:22
Speaker 8: to police officers on that call was she was worried
19:24
Speaker 8: about potentially there being a dead animal in the basement
19:27
Speaker 8: and she was afraid to go and check it out.
19:32
Speaker 3: A number of uniformed Springfield police officers entered the home
19:36
Speaker 3: and immediately were struck with a very strong and vile
19:41
Speaker 3: odor that they were familiar with as either decomposing human
19:45
Speaker 3: remains or animal remains.
19:48
Speaker 5: For those of us who have been involved in investigation,
19:54
Speaker 5: there is a distinct smell you do not forget.
20:11
Speaker 3: At this point, it was dark out. It was 8.30
20:14
Speaker 3: or so. I recall getting onto the driveway of the home.
20:22
Speaker 3: I remember smelling an odor that I was somewhat familiar
20:25
Speaker 3: with at the time, even a great distance from the home,
20:29
Speaker 3: probably 50 feet at the end of the driveway. I went,
20:35
Speaker 3: accompanied by police officers, into the home and down the stairs.
20:38
Speaker 3: I remember at that point, the smell was very, very strong.
20:43
Speaker 3: And then I was taken into a bathroom area, and
20:46
Speaker 3: I witnessed a body there that was at that point
20:50
Speaker 3: pretty severely decomposed.
20:56
Speaker 5: When you find that it is a human being, There
21:00
Speaker 5: is a drop in your heart and your stomach because
21:04
Speaker 5: that was someone's mom, dad, brother, sister, family member. And
21:10
Speaker 5: when you find that the death has occurred, that's an
21:14
Speaker 5: awful lot to take.
21:18
Speaker 8: The victim in the bathroom we believe was the most
21:20
Speaker 8: recent victim went missing sometime April or May of that year.
21:27
Speaker 9: A distinctive ankle tattoo and fingerprints allow police to identify
21:31
Speaker 9: the first victim as missing 27-year-old Kayla Escalante. Her body
21:39
Speaker 9: was bound and gagged.
21:42
Speaker 8: The first body was just in a basement bathroom that
21:43
Speaker 8: anyone could have really walked down to.
21:48
Speaker 3: I then walked outside and I was brought down to
21:50
Speaker 3: the garage area down at the end of the driveway
21:53
Speaker 3: by police officers.
21:54
Speaker 1: Again, the smell was very strong, even being.
21:57
Speaker 3: in the open air, walked into the garage just a
22:01
Speaker 3: few steps and could see at that point a severely
22:04
Speaker 3: decomposed body. The smell was very strong. There were black
22:07
Speaker 3: flies present.
22:09
Speaker 8: We believe the victim found in the garage was abducted
22:12
Speaker 8: sometime in April.
22:15
Speaker 9: The second victim is confirmed as missing 47-year-old, soon-to-be grandmother,
22:20
Speaker 9: Ernestine Ryans. Her body was dumped and loosely covered with cardboard.
22:28
Speaker 3: I knew that we had a very serious situation on
22:29
Speaker 3: our hands. I made some phone calls to members of
22:32
Speaker 3: my staff, called Assistant District Attorney Max Bennett and asked
22:36
Speaker 3: him to respond to the scene.
22:40
Speaker 8: At that point, it looked like we had two bodies
22:42
Speaker 8: that had just been kind of left. The following day,
22:56
Speaker 8: after detectives had noticed disturbed dirt underneath a wooden shed
23:00
Speaker 8: in the backyard and a state police cadaver dog had
23:03
Speaker 8: alerted on the area, detectives began digging there where we
23:08
Speaker 8: unearthed the body of the third victim, bound with internet cords,
23:15
Speaker 8: computer cables, and almost completely decomposed in a skeletal fashion
23:21
Speaker 8: with very little tissue left. Based on our investigation we
23:26
Speaker 8: pieced together, we believe she went missing sometime in September.
23:31
Speaker 9: Investigators need to use dental records to identify 34-year-old America Lydon.
23:40
Speaker 3: It certainly presents, in my experience now, as a very
23:43
Speaker 3: unique crime scene and a very unique set of circumstances that,
23:51
Speaker 3: you know, at the time we're were startling, were scary,
23:54
Speaker 3: were horrifying, and now stand out as some of the
23:59
Speaker 3: more heinous crimes and really egregious scenery that I've seen
24:08
Speaker 3: in my years in law enforcement.
24:12
Speaker 8: Women that were in the home while his mother was
24:14
Speaker 8: around or present in the home, they walked out alive.
24:18
Speaker 8: When his mother would leave the house or be gone
24:20
Speaker 8: for long periods of time, That's when we believe the
24:22
Speaker 8: murders occurred.
24:29
Speaker 1: We do believe that Mr.
24:30
Speaker 3: Weldon has been living up until the time of his
24:34
Speaker 3: arrest at this address. This is a largely residential area with,
24:41
Speaker 3: you know, sort of middle-class families who take pride in
24:44
Speaker 3: their homes and who go to work every day.
24:46
Speaker 1: You know, children lived in that neighborhood.
24:49
Speaker 3: So there was a lot of shock, especially from that
24:51
Speaker 3: area of the city of Springfield, that, you know, this
24:54
Speaker 3: kind of behavior that became national and international news was happening,
24:59
Speaker 3: you know, just yards away from their homes.
25:10
Speaker 9: Weldon is now charged with the murders of America Leiden,
25:14
Speaker 9: Ernestine Ryans, and Kayla Escalante. along with the previous charges
25:21
Speaker 9: related to the kidnap and attempted murder of the victim
25:24
Speaker 9: found in his car. With Weldon off the streets, other
25:30
Speaker 9: victims now feel able to report what he's done to them.
25:35
Speaker 5: So here you have Weldon in police custody, and police
25:40
Speaker 5: work now shows that a series of rapes that had
25:44
Speaker 5: been ongoing in that same city also stopped. Police work
25:50
Speaker 5: then puts two and two together to look at Weldon
25:54
Speaker 5: perhaps being the suspect for those rapes.
26:00
Speaker 4: He was incredibly brutal in his rapes. And I think
26:06
Speaker 4: that he didn't really care if they lived or not.
26:11
Speaker 7: I can certainly see.
26:13
Speaker 4: That once somebody died in his care, how that would
26:18
Speaker 4: become an additional fun thing for him.
26:22
Speaker 7: And then it would continue.
26:25
Speaker 3: Even if something was reported to police, you know, prosecuting
26:29
Speaker 3: a case involving a person with serious mental health issues
26:33
Speaker 3: and serious addiction issues who's homeless and transient really presents
26:38
Speaker 3: very difficult circumstances for prosecutors to maintain.
26:41
Speaker 1: You know, these cases are very challenging.
26:46
Speaker 8: It wasn't until a lot of these women realized that
26:49
Speaker 8: women they knew had been killed in that house, that's
26:51
Speaker 8: what brought them forward. It was doing it for other
26:53
Speaker 8: people and realizing this was a lot more serious and
26:56
Speaker 8: they had to stand up for these women that no
26:57
Speaker 8: longer had a voice. He's looking for people who are
27:02
Speaker 8: less likely to go to the police. He made several
27:05
Speaker 8: statements to some of them. Go tell someone, no one's
27:07
Speaker 8: going to believe you. And quite frankly, that's the exact
27:11
Speaker 8: mentality of the women that he was seeking out, people
27:13
Speaker 8: who didn't think they'd be believed, who didn't think it
27:15
Speaker 8: was worth coming forward and would just be happy to
27:17
Speaker 8: move on with their lives after the fact, having escaped.
27:22
Speaker 3: His objectives with these women, his propensity to rape and
27:26
Speaker 3: commit acts of violence, are things that have no place
27:29
Speaker 3: in our society. Those rapes, we believe, became more and
27:34
Speaker 3: more violent, involved strangulation, involved the use of various sort
27:42
Speaker 3: of tools or machinery to carry out these rapes and
27:46
Speaker 3: to carry out the violence that was a part of
27:49
Speaker 3: this experience for Mr.
27:50
Speaker 2: Weldon.
27:52
Speaker 3: Some cases, murder becomes a product of one's desire not
27:56
Speaker 3: to be apprehended.
27:58
Speaker 1: But we believe in Mr.
27:59
Speaker 3: Weldon's case, it was truly a sexual murder in which
28:02
Speaker 3: the murder became a part of his fantasy and carrying
28:06
Speaker 3: out his desires.
28:09
Speaker 7: Stuart Weldon was a sexual sadist. in many respects. So
28:14
Speaker 7: it wasn't just the murder.
28:15
Speaker 4: This isn't somebody who's raping women and then killing them
28:19
Speaker 4: to avoid capture.
28:20
Speaker 7: This is somebody that I think, given the.
28:22
Speaker 4: Level of torture that he inflicted on his victims, who
28:27
Speaker 4: got sexual satisfaction from that torture, from hurting them, from
28:33
Speaker 4: seeing them cry or beg or plead.
28:49
Speaker 9: Eight cases of rape are added to Weldon's charges thanks
28:52
Speaker 9: to the testimony of survivors who are granted anonymity.
28:57
Speaker 3: A rape by its very definition is a vile act,
29:00
Speaker 3: one of the most heinous crimes that we know in
29:04
Speaker 3: our criminal justice system. But certainly Stuart Weldon's behaviors as
29:08
Speaker 3: we came to know them were particularly dark and focused.
29:14
Speaker 3: where he brought them to a level of violence where
29:17
Speaker 3: they were strangled, where they were beaten, and.
29:20
Speaker 1: So on and so forth in very, very severe ways.
29:25
Speaker 4: This guy is not just a menace to sex workers.
29:30
Speaker 4: This guy is a loose cannon to everybody in his life.
29:36
Speaker 4: This is somebody who's been known to threaten to shoot
29:39
Speaker 4: up a bar because he's angry to assault a woman
29:43
Speaker 4: on the street and yet this is somebody who's engaging
29:46
Speaker 4: in all of these activities in any other neighborhood this
29:51
Speaker 4: guy would be in jail and then prison for any
29:54
Speaker 4: one of these and yet he seems to be operating
29:57
Speaker 4: with few consequences if.
29:59
Speaker 9: Any Weldon pleads not guilty to all charges. As prosecutors
30:06
Speaker 9: prepare for trial, they fear the nature of the crime
30:10
Speaker 9: scene and the accounts of some survivors may allow Weldon
30:14
Speaker 9: to plead insanity.
30:17
Speaker 8: So at that point, it was my concern that this
30:19
Speaker 8: is going to bode poorly for us trying to prove
30:21
Speaker 8: that he was able to conform his conduct, the fact
30:23
Speaker 8: that he would leave rotting bodies out like this.
30:35
Speaker 1: There was a.
30:35
Speaker 8: Description by one victim of him essentially putting candles on
30:40
Speaker 8: the floor in a pentagram. Another one indicated that he
30:44
Speaker 8: had motioned to an area underneath the basement stairs and
30:47
Speaker 8: said that a demon lived there and he threw salt there.
30:50
Speaker 8: Other times he would just maybe ramble about something satanic
30:54
Speaker 8: in a way that the victims couldn't really tell us
30:56
Speaker 8: exactly what he was saying, just that he was rambling
30:57
Speaker 8: on about satanic things.
31:01
Speaker 4: One of the things that I do wonder about Stuart
31:03
Speaker 4: Weldon is is whether he had some kind of brain
31:06
Speaker 4: impairment or brain damage that in some respects affected his impulsivity.
31:12
Speaker 8: That's a problem for us because one of the things
31:14
Speaker 8: we're gonna have to prove in this case is that
31:15
Speaker 8: he was sane and that he appreciated the wrongfulness of
31:19
Speaker 8: his actions and that he had the ability to conduct
31:21
Speaker 8: himself in a lawful manner. When you hear things like
31:24
Speaker 8: that or the fact that he was obsessed with a
31:26
Speaker 8: ghost detecting website, those are things.
31:29
Speaker 1: You're gonna need to explain.
31:41
Speaker 9: Stuart Weldon is in custody, pleading not guilty to three
31:46
Speaker 9: counts of first-degree murder and 49 other charges relating to
31:51
Speaker 9: a total of 11 victims. Prosecutors are working to prove
31:56
Speaker 9: he was criminally responsible for his actions, as they fear
32:01
Speaker 9: Weldon's defense may claim Weldon was insane or under the
32:04
Speaker 9: effects of a mental disorder at the time of the offenses.
32:10
Speaker 9: He's due to face trial in April 2020.
32:12
Speaker 8: We had to show that there was going to be
32:15
Speaker 8: some kind of organization to what's happening here, some kind
32:17
Speaker 8: of pattern rather than just random chaotic violence. I tell
32:21
Speaker 8: this to lots of new prosecutors, the most important witness
32:24
Speaker 8: and the most consistent witness in any murder prosecution is
32:26
Speaker 8: going to be your scene. We had to ask for
32:29
Speaker 8: an extension here because crime scene detectives spent days digging
32:33
Speaker 8: in that yard and then going through that house and
32:36
Speaker 8: being very careful to procure evidence DNA evidence, swabbing everything,
32:41
Speaker 8: looking for fingerprints, things like that.
32:44
Speaker 5: They were very careful in making sure that they're preserving evidence.
32:49
Speaker 5: This is preserving your crime scene. Are you keeping as
32:53
Speaker 5: many people out of the crime scene as possible? Are
32:56
Speaker 5: you thinking in the future, is there something that could
33:00
Speaker 5: change my crime scene? Whether, for example, We.
33:04
Speaker 8: Had to take a lot of small, disparate pieces of evidence,
33:07
Speaker 8: link them together to build a pattern that we could extrapolate.
33:12
Speaker 8: We found two bleach bottles there, which kind of indicated
33:14
Speaker 8: some kind of cleanup had happened. The ground was sticky,
33:17
Speaker 8: also indicating some kind of cleanup had occurred under there
33:19
Speaker 8: at some point.
33:28
Speaker 1: Yo, it's me, Jersey.
33:30
Speaker 10: I apologize if I ever.
33:42
Speaker 9: The video isn't a confession, but evidence of Weldon trying
33:50
Speaker 9: to cover his actions would help prove he was acting
33:53
Speaker 9: with intent. There were inconsistencies in his story, too.
33:59
Speaker 8: It became kind of known to me that he might
34:01
Speaker 8: be saying the victims were only bound... after they were
34:04
Speaker 8: killed so that they'd be easier to move. And so
34:07
Speaker 8: we had to look at the exact circumstances we found
34:09
Speaker 8: them in at that point. And the first victim, in
34:13
Speaker 8: discussions with the medical examiner, we were able to determine
34:15
Speaker 8: that she was bound in duct tape. And due to
34:18
Speaker 8: some of the lividity and the blanching of the skin,
34:21
Speaker 8: that medical examiner was going to be able to give
34:23
Speaker 8: us testimony saying that blood was still flowing at the
34:26
Speaker 8: time that those bonds were applied to the victim and
34:28
Speaker 8: that she was alive when that happened. There was a
34:32
Speaker 8: broken hyoid bone in the neck, and we knew that
34:35
Speaker 8: to mean that some force had been applied manually to
34:38
Speaker 8: the neck, most likely with hands. We got very lucky
34:42
Speaker 8: with a DNA hit from our second victim on one
34:46
Speaker 8: of the backs of the post there, which let us
34:48
Speaker 8: know her body had at some point been underneath those
34:51
Speaker 8: basement steps, and then we found her in the garage.
34:54
Speaker 8: That was very helpful because it brought back our theory, essentially,
34:58
Speaker 8: that the bad things were happening to these women in
35:00
Speaker 8: the basement And then the bodies were brought out, which
35:03
Speaker 8: showed an organized pattern. And that allowed us to start
35:06
Speaker 8: bringing in the stories of the survivors from his basement.
35:10
Speaker 8: And we were able to start applying what happened to
35:12
Speaker 8: them to what happened to the bodies that we found.
35:16
Speaker 7: Essentially, through all these.
35:17
Speaker 8: Pieces of evidence, it became very clear that Mr. Weldon
35:20
Speaker 8: knew who was a suitable victim for what he wanted
35:24
Speaker 8: to do. He knew where to procure them from and
35:26
Speaker 8: how to procure them without any resistance. There weren't reports
35:29
Speaker 8: coming in of him dragging women into his cars. He
35:32
Speaker 8: knew how to charm the men, and that he knew
35:35
Speaker 8: how far he could go with these women.
35:37
Speaker 1: If there was someone in the house, he.
35:38
Speaker 8: Knew he had to let them go. If he knew
35:40
Speaker 8: he had the house kind of completely unfettered for a
35:43
Speaker 8: long period of time, that's when we believe these killings
35:45
Speaker 8: were happening.
36:07
Speaker 4: When you have bodies buried in your basement, you know,
36:11
Speaker 4: one of the only options left is to plead insanity.
36:15
Speaker 4: And the fact that he didn't plead insanity likely means
36:19
Speaker 4: he was evaluated and was told, his attorneys were told,
36:22
Speaker 4: that he doesn't meet the insanity defense. He wasn't legally
36:25
Speaker 4: insane at the time he committed these crimes.
36:28
Speaker 8: This was definitely premeditated and well thought out by him.
36:33
Speaker 4: People evaluated him and said, bad news, you're not insane.
36:41
Speaker 3: To discover that a human being was capable of really
36:47
Speaker 3: torturing victims systematically in that home. And the deaths that
36:54
Speaker 3: those three women experienced and what Mr. Weldon did in, frankly,
37:00
Speaker 3: a ham-handed attempt to cover up his crimes.
37:05
Speaker 1: Is very unique.
37:06
Speaker 3: It's something that I have not seen otherwise and I
37:09
Speaker 3: hope to never see again.
37:21
Speaker 1: Please be seated. Course now in session. No talking, please.
37:30
Speaker 12: Your Honor, many of these women didn't come forward because
37:40
Speaker 12: they were terrified about what happened to them.
37:42
Speaker 10: Based on who they were, how.
37:43
Speaker 2: They lived, what they were going through.
37:45
Speaker 10: They didn't think anyone would believe them or care about
37:48
Speaker 10: what happened to them.
37:49
Speaker 12: The only good thing that comes from this case, Your Honor,
37:51
Speaker 12: is now they know that that's not true.
37:55
Speaker 10: When America, Ernestine, and Kayla were in his house, he
37:58
Speaker 10: knew he had that house to himself for an extended
38:01
Speaker 10: period of time. He knew he would not be interrupted
38:03
Speaker 10: or disturbed, and he would have time to do.
38:05
Speaker 12: What he needed.
38:08
Speaker 10: He tailored his lies in the cover-up about This case,
38:11
Speaker 10: depending on who he was talking to, he would explain
38:13
Speaker 10: the smell in a way that was designed to cause
38:15
Speaker 10: the least amount of alarm to his audience. He tailored
38:19
Speaker 10: these lies about the smell while searching the internet on
38:22
Speaker 10: how to remove the smell of dead animal carcasses, always
38:25
Speaker 10: careful to never.
38:26
Speaker 1: Search them as dead bodies.
38:28
Speaker 10: The intent for what he did here is all.
38:31
Speaker 1: Over this case.
38:44
Speaker 2: Kayla was a daughter, a sister, and a mother. She
38:49
Speaker 2: could light up a room with her smile, fill it
38:51
Speaker 2: with her laughter. Her love for her friends and her
38:54
Speaker 2: family never dwindled, but instead it grew every day. She
38:59
Speaker 2: could love with the power of a thousand hearts. She
39:01
Speaker 2: never gave up on the things that meant the most
39:03
Speaker 2: to her.
39:10
Speaker 13: There are no words to describe the pain in my heart.
39:13
Speaker 6: At the start of the day, I found out my.
39:15
Speaker 11: Mom was one of the defendant's victims. The feelings of hurt, sadness, confusion, loneliness, regret,
39:22
Speaker 11: and most of all, anger are just a few of
39:24
Speaker 11: my daily emotions now. I wake up every day hoping
39:29
Speaker 11: that this was all a bad dream and relive the
39:32
Speaker 11: horror when I realize it was real. They say time
39:36
Speaker 11: heals all wounds, but Your Honor, I don't feel like
39:39
Speaker 11: this is a wound that will ever heal. I miss
39:42
Speaker 11: my mom.
39:53
Speaker 13: For three months, I wondered every single day where she was.
39:57
Speaker 13: Is she okay? Having hoped we would see her again
40:01
Speaker 13: the day I gave birth, I still wasn't aware she
40:04
Speaker 13: was dead, laying alone in a dirty, dark garage.
40:09
Speaker 6: My life crumbled and stopped the minute the detectives came
40:14
Speaker 6: to my door. I'll never forget those moments. Every day,
40:20
Speaker 6: I am haunted by memories and images. I will never
40:25
Speaker 6: be whole again. The defendant took away my daughter, my sweet.
40:33
Speaker 1: Little angel, Kayla Jean.
40:38
Speaker 13: Take care of.
40:41
Speaker 10: Her.
40:41
Speaker 9: Mr.
40:41
Speaker 3: Stuart Weldon, in consideration of this offense, court orders that
40:46
Speaker 3: you be confined at MCI Cedar Junction for the term
40:50
Speaker 3: of your natural life. To give voice to people who
40:57
Speaker 3: are downtrodden, to give a sense of respect to people
41:02
Speaker 3: who have really been at the lowest rungs of society
41:05
Speaker 3: for a very long time, to give a sense of
41:08
Speaker 3: purpose and meaning to people who are suffering from addiction
41:12
Speaker 3: and are suffering from mental health issues, to give them
41:15
Speaker 3: worth through this process is really very special work. I
41:22
Speaker 3: want to give credit to our team, and in particular,
41:25
Speaker 3: Assistant District Attorney Max Bennett, who pieced together a case
41:30
Speaker 3: and worked with great compassion and great fortitude to give
41:38
Speaker 3: the murder victims' families and the living victims a sense
41:42
Speaker 3: of dignity, a sense of closure, a sense of justice.
41:48
Speaker 3: around the horrible things that happened to them or happened
41:50
Speaker 3: to their loved ones.
41:52
Speaker 1: There's nothing I could say that would ease the pain
41:57
Speaker 1: of the families of the victims in this case.
42:02
Speaker 4: Stuart Weldon's victims were at a very desperate point in
42:06
Speaker 4: their lives, and they were all battling addiction and trying
42:10
Speaker 4: to beat it. And it can be easy to forget
42:13
Speaker 4: that these were women who had children often, They were sisters.
42:20
Speaker 4: They were daughters. They had interest. They loved their families.
42:28
Speaker 4: And they really were much more than that snapshot of
42:34
Speaker 4: what they were struggling with when they died.