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

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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: In October of 1999, a 911 dispatcher in Austin, Texas
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: was nearing the end of a long night shift when
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: a strange call came in. The caller was a man
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: who just said his guts had been blown out of
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: his stomach. The dispatcher asked him to explain what actually happened,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: but the caller wouldn't say. He just kept saying that,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: you know, he had woken up and his guts were
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: hanging out and now he's holding his guts in with
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: his hand and he needed an ambulance right now. But
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: before we get into that story... If you're a fan
• 0:29
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• 0:32
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• 0:52
  Speaker 1: into today's story. On the night of October 1st, 1999,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: a 75-year-old man named Steve Beard sat on the patio
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: of his mansion in Austin, Texas, sipping on a cocktail.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: And it was a great night. Warm evening, the leaves
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: rustling in the trees all around his property, and behind
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: his house there was this creek that was flowing along.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: And in the house, he could hear his wife Celeste
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: washing the dishes. So Steve had met Celeste only about.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Six years ago.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: It was actually shortly after his first wife, Elise, had
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: died of cancer. And Steve had been with his first
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: wife for 45 years, and they'd raised three kids together.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: And he'd just been totally lost after she had passed away.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: And really, after she had died, he had spent a
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: lot of nights just sitting alone at the Austin Country Club,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: where actually Celeste had been working as a waitress. Celeste
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: was only 30 years old at the time, which meant
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: she was almost 40 years younger than Steve. But there
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: had been an immediate spark between them, and they got
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: married just over a year later. Now, some of Steve's
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: friends and family had immediately assumed that, you know, given
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: this age gap, that Celeste was simply after Steve for
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: his money. Steve, after all, had made a fortune as
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: a business owner and a TV station executive, and he
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: was worth.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: About $ 10 million.
• 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 1: end her own life.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: And, you know, she had failed, she'd lived.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: But as a result of that attempt, she had spent
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: a few weeks in a psychiatric hospital. Now, of course,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: that was a really traumatic and awful thing for the family.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: But from Steve's perspective.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: The upside of this was that Celeste was put on
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: some new medication as a result of this hospital stay.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: She had made some good friends, actually, while she was
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: at the hospital.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: And to Steve, it.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Just seemed like, you know, maybe now... things were starting
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: to maybe turn around for Celeste. And to Steve, the
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: fact that Celeste appeared to be on the right path
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: again was great timing because recently Steve had actually been
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: dealing with health problems of his own. Twice in the
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: past few months, Steve had passed out and actually had
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: to be hospitalized himself. The doctors told him he had
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and he had some heart
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: and kidney issues, but they actually couldn't quite figure out
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: why he was fainting. They just knew he had, you know,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: several symptoms going on. Now, Steve thought it was very
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: likely stress-related, and he just needed to relax. So in fact,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: in two days from now, he was going to be
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: taking Celeste on a three-week vacation around Europe. After everything
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Celeste had been through that year, and also, you know,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Steve had been through as well with his own medical issues,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: he felt like they both could use some time away,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: just the two of them. But now, when Steve got
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: up from his seat out on the patio of his home,
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  Speaker 1: and he put the empty cocktail glass down on the table,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: and he turned, and he open the glass door that
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: led into the bedroom, he saw that even though he'd
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: already packed his suitcase for this European trip, you know,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: several days ago, Celeste's suitcase was.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Still empty in the closet.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: And Steve couldn't help but 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 Celeste cleaning up. And when he got in there,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: as gently as he could, he told Celeste, hey, you know,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: when you get a chance, you really ought to pack.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: And she told him, oh, don't worry about it. You know,
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  Speaker 1: she'd just been busy all week.
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  Speaker 2: She'd get to it.
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  Speaker 1: Steve nodded, but wasn't really convinced that she actually intended
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: to pack soon.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: But he said, OK.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: And then he looked over at the clock. And even
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: though it was barely 9 p.m., he felt exhausted. So
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: he told Celeste he was going to go to bed.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: and she told him that she actually intended to stay
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: up for a bit longer. One of her daughters was
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: having a sleepover at the family's lake house that night,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: and she said that she might go over there and
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: just check on them later. Celeste told Steve that when
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: she returned from doing that, she would sleep in a
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: different room to avoid waking him up. Steve thanked her
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: and gave her a kiss goodnight, and then he turned
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  Speaker 1: and walked back down the hallway, back into the bedroom.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: He got ready for bed, climbed into bed, and then
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: he put on his oxygen mask because he had sleep apnea,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: and then he pulled the covers up, and he drifted
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: off to sleep. Hours later, around 3 a.m., Steve woke
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  Speaker 1: up 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
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  Speaker 1: his face, and he could tell there was something on
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  Speaker 1: his stomach. And he reached down instinctively and he grabbed
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: at his stomach and he felt something wet on his hands.
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  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
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  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 2: That he fell back down. And so he reached over
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: and he.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Clicked on the light and he looked down and there
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  Speaker 1: was blood all over his stomach, like all over the
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: sheets everywhere. And so he begins screaming out for Celeste.
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  Speaker 1: And as he's screaming, like the pain is only getting
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  Speaker 1: worse and worse. And Celeste is not coming in the room.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: She's not even responding. And so as he's looking down,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: like completely panic stricken, watching all this blood coming out
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  Speaker 1: of his gut, he has no idea how this is happening.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: He just reached over and grabbed the phone and he
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: dialed 9-1-1. Just minutes later, a squad car from the
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Travis County Sheriff's Department pulled up outside of Steve's house
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  Speaker 1: with its lights flashing. Deputy Alan Howard climbed out of
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: that car and he saw a fire captain and another
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  Speaker 1: pair of deputies on the front step pounding on the door.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: All Deputy Howard knew was that a man in this
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  Speaker 1: home had called in with some kind of medical emergency.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: But the dispatcher had not quite understood what was wrong
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: with him. And so Howard just ran over to the
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: front door and there the other deputies told him that
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: so far nobody was answering their knocks. Howard knew at
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  Speaker 1: this point, you know, time is of the essence. They
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: had to get in and make sure this person was okay.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: And so he didn't want to just sit out here
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: and wait any longer. So he left the front porch
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: and he went along the side of the house to
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: see if there was maybe another door that was unlocked
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: somewhere else. And so as Howard went around to the
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: side of the property, the other deputies followed him. And
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: then Howard, he eventually found this flight of stairs that
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: went up to a patio attached to a bedroom. And
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  Speaker 1: so up Howard went, the deputies followed, they got up there,
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  Speaker 1: and they looked into the house and they saw a
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: light was on. And then through the glass door, they
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: could all see there was an elderly man laying in
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  Speaker 1: bed with a telephone receiver in one hand, and his
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  Speaker 1: other hand appeared to be just covered in blood. Howard
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  Speaker 1: walked up to the door and tried to open it,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: but it was locked. So he pulled out his heavy-duty flashlight,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: and he broke the glass, reached in, unlocked it, and
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: slid the door open. Then Howard ran into the bedroom,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: and when he got right next to the bed, he
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: looked at this man, who was still conscious, but he
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: had a gaping hole in his stomach, like his intestines
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: were literally spilling out. And that's why his other hand
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: was so covered in blood. It was like he was
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: trying to hold his intestines inside of himself. Howard asked
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: the guy what happened. And the old man just said
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: he had no idea. He'd just woken up and his
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: guts were coming out. At this point, the fire captain
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: came into the room and while he knelt down with
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: his first aid kit to try to bandage up this
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: man's wounds, Howard began looking around the bedroom for any
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: clue about what was going on here. And he noticed
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: something that was round and yellow lying on the carpet.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: So he bent down to get a better look and
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: he saw that the round yellow thing was a shotgun shell.
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  Speaker 1: And so at this point, it seemed fairly obvious that
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: this man has been shot in the stomach.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: With a shotgun.
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  Speaker 1: But Howard's also realizing that whoever pulled the trigger might
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: still be in the house. So at this point, Howard
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: drew his own weapon and he crept slowly out into
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: the hallway. And as Howard began searching the rest of
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: the house, he didn't find anybody.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: But what he did find.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Is there were lots of other entry points into the home,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: lots of doors and windows. And eventually, when he found
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: his way into the living room, he saw there was
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: another set of sliding glass.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Doors, and he walked right up to it and he
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: found they were unlocked.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Howard also saw that a table lamp in this living
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: room was overturned, suggesting that somebody might have knocked it
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: over while coming in or out of the house. And
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: so Howard continued searching the living room, and then he
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: found his way into the dining room, and then the kitchen,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: and then he went down a hallway into another wing
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: of the house, and there he opened another door to
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: a bedroom, and he found there was a woman inside,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: sleeping in her bed, totally sound asleep. At this point,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Howard lowered the weapon, and he flipped on a light,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: and the woman immediately startled awake, and she was.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: About to ask, like, what's going on? 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 911 call. And he told her that
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: the man in the other room was very badly injured
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: and he had called 911. And so the woman, you know,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: as she's processing what she's being told, she began sobbing
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: hysterically and And then just begged Howard not to let
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: her husband die. And then a second later, in the
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: midst of all this chaos, this teenage girl comes running
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: in the room and goes right to the woman. And
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: she grabs her the way a child would grab their mother.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: And they're sort of like holding each other. And Deputy Howard,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: like he's looking for potentially a shooter in the house.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: But just from the looks of it, it appeared very
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: much like this is a woman who's very shocked, very.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Shaken up by this.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: The girl, the teenager as well, appears equally shocked. But
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: just to be sure, Howard asked this woman to identify herself.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: And through tears, she would say that her name was
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Celeste Beard and that very likely the victim here, the
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: person you're talking about, the man, is her husband, Stephen Beard.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: And then she also said that the teenage girl was
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: her daughter. And so now Howard, feeling pretty confident that
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: these are just victims, he told them to just stay put,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: that he was going to search the rest of the
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: house and just 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 2: And there's nobody there.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: So it appeared that whoever had shot Steve was gone.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: This is a paid partnership with ZocDoc. We spend a
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: lot of time researching cases where things went wrong. where
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: people ignored warning signs and told themselves everything was fine
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: until it wasn't.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, health can be similar.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Most of us know we should go to the doctor more,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: but the process of finding one is its own ordeal.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: I've definitely put off appointments before, not because they weren't important,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: but because finding a doctor and checking insurance and Getting
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: something scheduled just felt like a bigger hassle than it
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: should have been. ZocDoc is a free website that changes
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: the way you find and book doctors. Search for local
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: in-network providers, filter by insurance, read verified patient reviews, and
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: see appointment openings all in one place. No phone calls,
• 12:23
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• 12:27
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• 12:34
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• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Don't wait for a warning sign to become something worse.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Your health matters. Head to ZocDoc.com slash Mr. Ballin or
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: click the link in the description to book today. Thanks
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: to ZocDoc for partnering with us. Around 5.30 a.m. on
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: October 2nd, 1999, so about two and a half hours
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: after Steve Beard called 911, Sergeant Paul Knight walked through
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: the waiting room at a hospital in Austin, Texas. Knight
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: was a criminal investigator for the Travis County Sheriff's Department,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: and he'd been called in to lead the investigation into
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: this shooting. Knight stopped at the front desk, and he
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: spoke to a nurse, who told him that Steve Beard
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: was in critical condition, so questioning him would not be
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: possible right now. Sergeant Knight nodded and gave the nurse
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: his card and asked them to give him a call
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: 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 30s as well as
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: a teenage girl. The deputy waved to Knight 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 pleasantries... 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.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: Sort of conversation here.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: And Celeste looked really surprised and asked if she was
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: a suspect. And Knight explained that really at this point,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: everybody was a suspect. And so swabbing them for gunpowder
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: would be the quickest way to rule them both out.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: So Celeste, who was still.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Very clearly shaken up, she just put both her hands out.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: And Knight ran a test strip across both of them.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: And then after that, Christina put her hands out, and
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: he tested her hands as well, and then he waited
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: for the test strips to develop. And about a minute later,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: he confirmed that they were both negative, meaning neither of
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: them had fired a gun recently. And so with this
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: test out of the way, Knight's entire demeanor sort of softened,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: and he asked Celeste to just walk him through what
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: had happened that night. She told him that her husband, Steve,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: had gone to bed around 9 or 9.30, and shortly
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: after that, She had left their home and driven over
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: to the family's lake house to check on her other daughter, Jennifer,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: and her friends who were having a sleepover there.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: She said the lake house was about a half an
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: 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 Steve,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: because Steve had gone to bed earlier and she had
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: told him she didn't want to wake him up if
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: she came home late. And so she was doing him
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: a courtesy by sleeping in this other room. Knight asked
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: Celeste if she knew anybody who might be mad at
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: her husband or who might want to hurt him for
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: any reason.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: And she said no.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: But she did say that the previous afternoon, her husband
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: had gone out and cashed a really big check. He
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: 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. And so
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: Knight and Celeste spoke for a little bit longer.
• 16:08
  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 3.30 in the morning
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: when she had woken up to police lights flashing outside
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: her window. And as she continued to tell her story
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: of what happened, Knight noticed that she was being really
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: careful about what she was saying. Not like she was
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: trying to remember some concocted story, but rather... It was
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: like she was literally trying her best to actually remember,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: like she was struggling to remember just what amounted to
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: a pretty traumatic and very, you know, chaotic night. But
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: before Knight could ask any more follow-up questions, another girl,
• 16:55
  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
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: and hug her. And when the two girls pulled away
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: from each other, Knight noticed that both of these girls
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: were sobbing, and they really were just, like, identical. Christina
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: introduced this new girl as her twin sister, Jennifer. And
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: then just a few seconds after that, two teenage boys
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: came through the hospital door and they hurried over to
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: join the group. And as they all sat down, Christina
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: explained that the two boys.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: Were her and Jennifer's boyfriends.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: After Christina briefly updated her sister Jennifer and the two
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: boyfriends about the condition of her stepfather, Knight turned to
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Jennifer and just asked her to please walk him through
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: where she had been, you know, the previous night. And
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Jennifer would say, you know, she had been at the
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: family's lake house. She was there with her boyfriend and
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: one other friend.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: She'd been there all night.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: And then when they had found out something had happened
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: to Steve, they had all rushed here as soon as
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: they could. And so Knight, he asked the girls if
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: either of them knew anyone who might want to harm
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: their stepfather. And as soon as he asked that, Knight
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: noticed the two teenage girls, they shared this quick knowing
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: look between themselves. At this point, Christina turned back to
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Knight and said, There was only one person she could
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: think of who would do something like this, a woman
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: named Tracy Tarleton. She explained that Tracy was a friend
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: of her mother's, and they'd met earlier that year at
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: a psychiatric hospital where they had both been patients. But
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Christina said there was just something off about their friendship.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Tracy seemed like really unstable, and Christina got the feeling
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: that she was actually in love with their mom. And
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: as soon as she said this, all four of the
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: teens just sort of nodded knowingly, like this was something
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: they definitely had talked about internally. And then they all
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: began to agree out loud that Tracy very likely was
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: the one who did this. And then a minute later,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: a fifth teenager came running into the hospital and they
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: joined the group and Jennifer introduced her as another friend.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Her name was Amy Cozart and she had been the
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: other friend sleeping over at the lake.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: House that night.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: And Amy, who literally had just joined and heard, you know,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: no context to this point about anything the other teenagers
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: had said, you know, when she was asked pretty much
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: right away by Knight, if she knew of anyone who
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: might have wanted to hurt Steve, she didn't hesitate.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: She just said, oh, Tracy Tarleton.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Later that afternoon, around three o'clock, Sergeant Knight knocked on
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: the front door of Tracy Tarleton's very unassuming ranch-style house
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: in a working class part of Austin, Texas. While running
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: a check on Tracy to confirm her address, he'd also
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: discovered that she had a weapons permit for a 20-gauge shotgun,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: the same caliber as the casing that was found inside
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: the crime scene. Tracy answered the door pretty much right away,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: as if she had been waiting for someone to come by.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: And Knight, after introducing himself, told her that Steve Beard
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: had been shot. And when he said this, he didn't
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: notice any shock on Tracy's face. Instead, Tracy asked, actually
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: looked scared. Knight asked Tracy if she had any idea
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: who might have shot Steve. And she said no, but
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: then she asked if she needed a lawyer. And Knight said, well,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: that's up to you. And then before she could really
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: react to that, he asked her if he could come inside.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: And Tracy just sort of turned and let him into
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: the living room. Knight walked in, he sat down, and
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: he just continued talking to Tracy. And so he asked
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: her about her relationship with Celeste. And she said that, yes,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: they had met at a psychiatric hospital when they were
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: both being treated earlier that year for suicide attempts. And then,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: sort of unannounced, she told the detective that at first,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: when she had met Celeste, her feelings towards Celeste had
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: not been platonic.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: They had been romantic.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: She had been interested in Celeste as a partner. But
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: She then quickly clarified and said that was in the
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: past and that now they really were just friends. And
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: so Knight took stock of this and didn't really ask
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: too many follow-up questions on their relationship. And instead, he
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: just said, OK, well, where were you the night before?
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: And Tracy said she had been here at her house
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: 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. Knight asked her if she owned a gun.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: And Tracy said yes. But she only used it for
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: skeet shooting. Knight asked if he could see her gun.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: And so Tracy got up and she walked over and
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: opened up a closet and she pulled out a shotgun
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: in a zippered case. Knight asked her if he could
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: take her gun down to the ballistics department and Tracy
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: definitely hesitated for a moment, but then she was like, sure.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Later that same day, Sergeant Knight walked through the crime
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: scene at the Beard Mansion looking for any clues that
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: the investigators might have missed during the initial search. Celeste's
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: twin daughters, Christina and Jennifer, had actually come with him
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: to help point out anything that could be out of
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: place that he wouldn't necessarily notice. Inside of Steve's bedroom,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Knight saw that some of the drawers and closets had
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: been left open, as if they had been ransacked by
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: a burglar. But something about the whole scene just didn't
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: seem right. The drawers, they didn't appear to have been
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: like ripped open as if somebody was in a rush.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: They had been pulled out really carefully. And inside the drawer,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: things were basically pretty neat. And so tonight, this didn't
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: really appear to be a burglary. He suspected that someone
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: might have staged the crime scene to appear to be
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: a burglary to throw off the investigation. However, just for
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: good measure, he asked the twin girls to look through
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: all of these open drawers and closets to see if
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: you can identify anything that was missing. And so the
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: girls began looking around, and eventually Christina said that she
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: couldn't find Stephen's watch or his sapphire ring. Now, on
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: the one hand, this might give credit to the idea
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: that this really was a burglary gone wrong, you know,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: that Steve was just sort of in the wrong place
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: at the wrong time and got shot by the burglar.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: But tonight, this development that these two small items were
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: gone actually only seemed to confirm the idea that this
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: was not a burglary gone wrong because this whole house
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: was chock full of nice jewelry and antiques. There's so
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: many other things in the house that could have been
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: taken that were obvious that were not taken. And so Knight,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: he left the bedroom, walked down the hallway, and went
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: into the living room. And there he's looking around at
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: all this obviously very expensive furniture and vases and paintings
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: and all this stuff that's super valuable all over the place.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: He began to consider another possibility. That maybe somebody in
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: the family had killed Steve for the inheritance. I mean,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: this guy clearly is loaded. Now, Knight didn't know what
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Steve's will said yet. But he knew that along with
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: his two stepdaughters, he had three adult children from his
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: first marriage. And all of them very likely stood to
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: inherit millions of dollars when he died. And then there
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: was Steve's wife, Celeste, who was less than half his age.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: It was hard not to wonder if she'd simply married
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: him for his money. And so it wasn't really a
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: far cry to wonder if maybe she had been involved
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: in the shooting.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: Because if he dies, maybe she'd get all of his money.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: And so as Knight was thinking about this and wandering
• 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 long, he was in the attic.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: And up in the attic, he saw there was a
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: box 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, 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: 20-gauge shotgun. Knight knew this could be extremely important to
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: this case, so he immediately packaged up the box, picked
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: it up, and he carried it down the ladder back
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: down to the main floor. And when he got down there,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: he saw one of the twin girls, Jennifer, staring at
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: him looking really nervous. She rushed to explain that that
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: shotgun she had purchased as an anniversary gift for her boyfriend,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: and she was just keeping it up there out of
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: sight until it was time to give it to him.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: She swore the gun had never been fired, And she
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: had not even taken it out of the box yet. Now,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Knight heard what she said, but he held on to
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: the box because he still was going to bring it
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: back to the ballistics department right away to have it tested.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, it seemed very odd to him that Jennifer
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: hadn't mentioned until now that there was a gun in
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: the house and that it just happened to be the
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: exact same gun, same caliber as the weapon that was
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: used to shoot Steve. Now, Jennifer did have an alibi.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: She had been at the lake house at that sleepover
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: 30 miles away on the night.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: Of Steve's shooting.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: But her sister, Christina, had been home the whole night.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: And Knight had to wonder if maybe the two sisters
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: had 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 Tarleton as the suspect.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: It just seemed like something here was not quite adding up.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: That evening, Detective Knight went back to the hospital and
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: the nurse at the front desk told him that Steve
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: was out of surgery and was stable enough to finally
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: have visitors. She gave him Steve's room number and then
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: let him through. However, when he got down the hallway
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: to Steve's room, he saw this handwritten sign taped to
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: the door that said no law enforcement personnel allowed to
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: interview patient except in the presence of his attorney. And
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: as Knight was processing this pretty surprising sign, Out of nowhere,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Steve's wife, Celeste, came rushing down the hallway and literally
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: blocked him from going into the room. She said that
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: for one, she was not going to allow any further
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: searches of her.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: And Steve's house. And if police wanted to speak.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: To her husband, they'd have to go through the family's lawyer.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: And Knight, I mean, he was stunned by this because
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: in all his years on the force, he had never
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: seen a victim hire a defense attorney. And then more
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: than that, Knight wasn't even sure if Steve was the
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: one who made this decision. I mean, Steve was stable now,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: but he really had no idea if he was actually conscious.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: You know, was it Steve who decided to put up
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: this roadblock?
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: 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, you know, walked
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: out of the hospital... He tried to make sense of
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: why Celeste was suddenly being so defensive.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: You know, even if she was not the.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: One who made this decision, the way she had just
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: treated him in the hallway was just very aggressive. And
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: then he began to wonder if maybe she had heard
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: about the gun that he had found in their attic
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: and was now trying to just protect her daughters. Or
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: maybe she was trying to protect herself. On the afternoon
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: of October 7th, so five days after Steve Beard was shot,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: Sergeant Paul Knight looked through a folder of interview notes
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: at his desk. 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 1: hours away and had solid alibis. When Knight had asked
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: one of Steve's sons if he knew who might have
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: done this, he had told the detective to look into Celeste.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, after all, pretty much they all thought she
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: was in this marriage for money to begin with.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: But, you know, Knight had.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Tested Celeste for gunshot residue right after the shooting, so
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: he knew she literally could not have been the one
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: who pulled the trigger. And so at this point tonight,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: it just sort of felt like the entire family was
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: just pointing fingers at each other. But at the same time,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Knight did feel like at least one family member on
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: some side of the family was.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: Likely involved in the shooting. There was just frankly too
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: much money at stake here.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: In particular, it was definitely suspicious that Celeste's daughter, Jennifer,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: had a 20-gauge shotgun in the attic. And on top
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: of that, that she and her twin sister Christina and
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: all of their friends had immediately.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: Pointed the finger at Tracy Tarleton.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: And then as for Tracy, I mean, she did have
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: a pretty weak alibi and she did own a 20-gauge shotgun.
• 28:52
  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 Knight wasn't sure how stable his condition was, or
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: really how much longer he would even be alive for. So, like,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: this was a very tenuous situation. But just then, Knight
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: noticed something out of the corner of his eye. And
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: he looked up, and he saw there was another detective
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: in the doorway of his office, just sort of leaning
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: there with a big smile on their face. Knight asked
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: them what was going on, and the detective walked over
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: and handed him a manila folder. And he told him
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: this was a forensics report they had just gotten back.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: A piece of evidence that had been found at the
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: crime scene may have.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: 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 2, 1999. Around 2.30 a.m., the
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: killer turned off their headlights as they drove toward the
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Beard mansion. They parked at the back entrance to the property,
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: far away from the house, so the noise of their
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: engine wouldn't wake anybody up inside. They got out of
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: the car, slung a shotgun over their shoulder, and began
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: walking through the trees towards the mansion.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: And as the patio came into view, they stopped.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: They felt sick and they actually didn't want to go
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: through with this, but they had made a promise.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: They had to do it.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: So they swallowed their fear and continued walking towards the mansion.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: And when they got right to the steps that would
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: lead up to the patio, they went to the right
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: and they walked to a separate door that led into
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: the living room.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: That glass door was unlocked. So they opened it up.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: 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 asleep 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 in their shaking hands and they
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: pulled the trigger.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: And the blast was deafening.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: Blood began pouring out of Steve's abdomen immediately. The killer
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: reflexively racked the shotgun, ejecting the shotgun shell, getting ready
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: to fire a second time if need be. But then,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: you know, Steve, he began fumbling for the nightstand like
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: he was maybe reaching for a weapon of his own.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: And the killer, at this point, they're reaching down on
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: the ground trying to find the spent shotgun shell to shoot.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: to take that with them, but they're so scared that
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Steve's about to shoot them. And so they just abandoned
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: the shotgun shell. And then with their shotgun, the killer
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: runs out of the bedroom, down the hallway, back out
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: through the living room, back out the same door they
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: came in, knocking that lamp over in the process. They
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: shut the doors behind them and ran to their car.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: And from there, they drove to a safe location where
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: they washed their hands, they threw their clothes into the washer,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: and then they very thoroughly cleaned their shotgun. And then
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: after it was pristine again, they put the shotgun back
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: into storage. The killer was in fact Tracy Tarleton, Celeste's
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: friend from the hospital who all the kids had said
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: 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 8th, 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 2000, Steve actually died from
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: his injuries, and after that, a new story began to emerge.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: It turned out that Tracy's love for Celeste was not one-sided.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: The two women had been having a full-blown affair for
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: months before the murder. In fact, Celeste had begun secretly
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: slipping Everclear into Steve's cocktails, which is more than twice
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: as 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 the.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: Night with Tracy.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: According to Tracy, Celeste had asked her to kill Steve
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: so they could be together. And so for the first
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: few months after Tracy's arrest, Tracy kept her mouth shut
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: about Celeste's involvement. But then five months after Steve died,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Celeste got remarried to a man that she had just met.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: And that's when Tracy realized that Celeste was not really
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: in love with her. She had been using her to
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: get rid of Steve so she could inherit all his money.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: And so when this.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: Happened, Tracy was so hurt by what Celeste had done
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: that she began telling the real truth with the authorities.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: And eventually, she agreed to testify against Celeste. And so
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: based on Tracy's testimony, Celeste was arrested on March 28,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: 2002 and She was eventually found guilty of Steve's murder
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: and sentenced to life in prison. Tracy was also convicted
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: of murder, but because of her cooperation, her sentence was
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: reduced to just 20 years, and she was actually released
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: on parole in 2011.
• 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
• 34:24
  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 2: So click here and give them a watch. All right.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: Until next time. See ya.