Latest / Crime and Horror / Never trust the members of a SECRET SOCIETY - MrBallen

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Never trust the members of a SECRET SOCIETY - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to tell you two stories that both
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Speaker 1: have very unexpected killers. But before we get into those stories,
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Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious
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Speaker 1: a week. So, if that's of interest to you, please
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Speaker 1: gift the like button a brand new signed copy of Mr.
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Speaker 1: Ballin's brand new graphic novel, Where Nightmares Live. but make
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Speaker 2: Okay, let's get into today's stories.
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Speaker 1: On the morning of September 12, 2007, 20-year-old Ashley Wallace
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Speaker 1: was in her dorm room at Bryant & Stratton College
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Speaker 1: in Buffalo, New York, getting ready for her very first
1:01
Speaker 1: day of classes. And this was really exciting for her.
1:04
Speaker 1: I mean, she had just moved out on her own
1:05
Speaker 1: for the first time. You know, it feels like she's
1:07
Speaker 1: an adult here. And so today was a big day.
1:10
Speaker 1: You know, she looked herself in the mirror and made
1:12
Speaker 1: sure her look was just right. She gathered up all
1:14
Speaker 1: her books and her journals and all the stuff she
1:16
Speaker 1: would need. And then once she was ready, she began
1:19
Speaker 1: heading towards the door. But before she got there, she
1:22
Speaker 1: heard a knock on her door. And Ashley felt sort
1:24
Speaker 1: of confused, like she hadn't lived here long enough for
1:28
Speaker 1: people to actually know she lived here.
1:30
Speaker 2: So who would be coming to visit her? And she
1:32
Speaker 2: certainly didn't have any plans to see anybody today.
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Speaker 1: And so she's thinking, like, I have no idea who
1:39
Speaker 1: could be at my door right now. So she walks
1:41
Speaker 1: to the door, she opens it up, and she is
1:44
Speaker 1: truly shocked now to see who's standing there. But her
1:46
Speaker 1: shock quickly turns into fear. So there were two police
1:50
Speaker 1: officers standing in the hallway looking right at Ashley. And
1:53
Speaker 1: the looks on their faces were very serious. Now, Ashley,
1:56
Speaker 1: the reason she felt so scared when she saw these
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Speaker 1: police officers was not because she had, you know, done
2:01
Speaker 1: something wrong. It was because in her life, you know,
2:04
Speaker 1: before she got to college, she had experienced some pretty
2:07
Speaker 1: severe trauma. So her father had passed away when she
2:10
Speaker 1: was 13, a sudden heart attack. And it had been
2:13
Speaker 1: very traumatic for her. It sort of threw the family
2:15
Speaker 1: for a loop. And then her mother had remarried and
2:19
Speaker 1: her stepfather who had, you know, raised her from that
2:21
Speaker 1: point on, he had sort of struggled with depression on
2:24
Speaker 1: and off.
2:24
Speaker 2: And it seemed like he was doing okay, but not long.
2:28
Speaker 1: After her biological father had suddenly died, her stepfather took
2:32
Speaker 1: his own life. And so once again, you know, Ashley
2:35
Speaker 1: and her family's lives were turned upside down. And so
2:37
Speaker 1: in many ways, Ashley had not really recovered from those
2:40
Speaker 1: two losses. You know, those happened not that long ago.
2:43
Speaker 1: And now she was out here on her own trying
2:45
Speaker 1: to be an adult, you know, trying her best to
2:48
Speaker 1: stay composed. But she just had this awful feeling when
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Speaker 1: she saw these police officers that they were there to
2:54
Speaker 1: tell her that, you know, somebody else close to her
2:56
Speaker 1: had died. But when the officers actually began speaking to Ashley,
3:00
Speaker 1: it was clear they were not here to notify her about,
3:03
Speaker 1: you know, a new death.
3:04
Speaker 2: But they were here to talk about her family.
3:06
Speaker 1: They told her that they were there to speak to
3:08
Speaker 1: her about her father, her biological father, who had passed
3:11
Speaker 1: away seven years earlier.
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Speaker 2: And so when they said that to Ashley, she was like, okay.
3:16
Speaker 1: You know, what do you mean? What do you want
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Speaker 1: to know about my dad? And they told her that,
3:20
Speaker 1: you know, Ashley, we exhumed your father. And it turns
3:23
Speaker 1: out he very likely did not die of a heart attack.
3:27
Speaker 1: We think he was murdered. About 30 minutes later, when
3:30
Speaker 1: these officers had finally left Ashley's room, Ashley was left
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Speaker 1: feeling completely distraught. I mean, number one, she just found
3:37
Speaker 1: out that there is suspicion that her father was killed
3:40
Speaker 1: by somebody. But worse than that, was these two officers
3:43
Speaker 1: who had been here were not here to console Ashley.
3:46
Speaker 1: They were here to effectively interrogate her. They were looking
3:49
Speaker 1: into the family to see if, you know, Ashley was
3:51
Speaker 1: involved in what happened to her father. And so for Ashley,
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Speaker 1: this had really caught her off guard. She felt like
3:57
Speaker 1: she was stammering and confused in all of her answers,
4:00
Speaker 1: which only made her seem more suspicious. And it was like,
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Speaker 1: Every little misstep she had, the police would dial in
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Speaker 1: and ask even more pointed questions. And by the end
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Speaker 1: of it, she was just sobbing and telling them like,
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Speaker 1: I didn't do this.
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Speaker 2: I didn't hurt my dad. I have no idea who
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Speaker 2: would do that.
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Speaker 1: And so eventually the police had gotten up and left,
4:17
Speaker 1: but they told Ashley they were going to be in
4:18
Speaker 1: touch and then they were gone. And so Ashley's just
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Speaker 1: left there in her room wondering what she's supposed to
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Speaker 1: do now. She thought about, you know, sucking it up
4:25
Speaker 1: and just going to class, but she's thinking like, how
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Speaker 1: can I possibly focus on class right now when I've
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Speaker 1: just learned what I've learned and had this horrible experience
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Speaker 1: with the police. And so Ashley ended up calling her mother,
4:37
Speaker 1: and her mother was obviously very upset when she picked up,
4:40
Speaker 1: even before Ashley said anything. And Ashley quickly learned that
4:43
Speaker 1: her mother also had a sort of similar experience with
4:46
Speaker 1: police that day, that she had also been told that,
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Speaker 1: you know, her husband apparently had been killed, and they
4:52
Speaker 1: were now investigating her to see if maybe she had
4:54
Speaker 1: something to do with it. And so the two women
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Speaker 1: just sort of cried on the phone, and they began saying, like,
4:59
Speaker 1: I just don't understand, like, who would want to hurt him?
5:02
Speaker 1: It just doesn't make any sense. Like they've got to
5:04
Speaker 1: be wrong. Like none of this makes any sense. And
5:07
Speaker 1: so eventually Ashley's mother, whose name was Stacy, just told
5:10
Speaker 1: her daughter to come home, forget about classes. We can
5:13
Speaker 1: deal with that stuff later. Just come home, be with
5:15
Speaker 1: your family. Ashley agreed that was the most reasonable thing
5:18
Speaker 1: to do here. And so she grabbed her stuff. She
5:20
Speaker 1: left the dorm, hopped in her car, and she drove
5:23
Speaker 1: the hour back to her mom's place. And when she
5:25
Speaker 1: gets there and she goes inside, The first person she
5:28
Speaker 1: sees is actually her younger sister.
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Speaker 2: Bree, who was 16 years old. And Bree's eyes were red.
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Speaker 2: She obviously had been crying.
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Speaker 1: And, you know, in the first couple of seconds they spoke,
5:37
Speaker 1: it was clear that Bree, too, had had a sort
5:39
Speaker 1: of rough interaction with police as well that day. And
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Speaker 1: so it's like the whole family has been thrust into
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Speaker 1: this chaotic moment that none of them can make any
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Speaker 1: sense of. On the one hand, it's like, who would
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Speaker 1: want to hurt dad? But on the other, it's like,
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Speaker 1: did this really happen?
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Speaker 2: Is this a mistake?
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Speaker 1: Like, Why did they exhume his body in the first place? Like,
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Speaker 1: what's going on here? There was just so much unknown.
6:00
Speaker 1: And so that afternoon, Ashley, her sister Bree, and their
6:03
Speaker 1: mom just retreated to their mother's kitchen. And there they
6:07
Speaker 1: mostly cried together and just sort of talked through this
6:10
Speaker 1: horrible situation. But eventually, later in the day, when the
6:13
Speaker 1: tears had sort of stopped flowing and reality had set
6:16
Speaker 1: in that this was now a very complicated situation, if
6:19
Speaker 1: nothing else, I mean, basically they were all under investigation
6:23
Speaker 1: for the potential murder of their father slash husband. And
6:26
Speaker 1: they sort of didn't know what was going to happen next,
6:28
Speaker 1: but there was a lot of stress around, you know,
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Speaker 1: the next couple of days, you know, they didn't know.
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Speaker 1: And so under all this stress, Stacey, the mom was like,
6:36
Speaker 1: you know what? I'm getting a drink. Do any of
6:38
Speaker 1: you guys want a drink? And Bree was only 16
6:41
Speaker 1: and she declined, but Ashley said, sure. You know, she
6:44
Speaker 1: was 20, not 21 yet, but you know, she was
6:46
Speaker 1: drinking at this point. And so she said, yep, I'll
6:48
Speaker 1: take a drink. And so Stacy mixed some drinks for
6:50
Speaker 1: her and Ashley, as well as a non-alcoholic drink for Bree.
6:53
Speaker 1: And so for the rest of the night, the girls
6:55
Speaker 1: just sat in the kitchen having their drinks and trying
6:58
Speaker 1: hard not to let this horrible situation totally wreck them.
7:01
Speaker 1: The next morning, when Ashley woke up inside of her
7:04
Speaker 1: mother's house, she found she was really hungover. Now, she
7:08
Speaker 1: obviously had had some drinks the night before with her
7:10
Speaker 1: mom and her sister, but she was thinking to herself, like,
7:13
Speaker 1: the level of hungover she was feeling felt disproportionate. Like
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Speaker 1: she was really hungover despite a relatively small amount of alcohol.
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Speaker 1: But Ashley was wondering if maybe part of the reason
7:23
Speaker 1: she felt so bad was not just a hangover. Maybe
7:27
Speaker 1: it was like this emotional fallout from this horrible thing
7:30
Speaker 1: that happened the day before. And so Ashley, she's laying
7:33
Speaker 1: in bed feeling so bad and she's just convincing herself
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Speaker 1: that I just need to get up. I need to
7:38
Speaker 1: go to my classes. I need to sort of treat
7:41
Speaker 1: the day like a normal day and sort of get
7:43
Speaker 1: my life back together and be ready to potentially deal
7:46
Speaker 1: with police or, you know, whatever else is going to
7:48
Speaker 1: happen here.
7:49
Speaker 2: And so Ashley sort of wills herself out of bed.
7:51
Speaker 2: She's got a blinding headache.
7:53
Speaker 1: She feels horrible, but nonetheless, you know, she takes a shower,
7:57
Speaker 1: she gets herself together. And before long, she's saying bye
8:00
Speaker 1: to her mom and sister and she's driving back to
8:02
Speaker 1: the campus. And when she gets there, she still feels terrible,
8:06
Speaker 1: but you know, she goes to her classes and and
8:08
Speaker 1: she does her best to focus, which really turned out
8:10
Speaker 1: to be a gargantuan.
8:11
Speaker 2: Task, but she did it. And then finally, at the
8:14
Speaker 2: end of the day.
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Speaker 1: During her last class, Ashley began to sort of break
8:18
Speaker 1: out of this fog, this hangover fog that she was in,
8:21
Speaker 1: and she began sort of feeling normal again. And so
8:24
Speaker 1: by the time she left the lecture hall and was
8:26
Speaker 1: done for the day, she actually felt good enough that
8:28
Speaker 1: she hopped.
8:29
Speaker 2: Right back in her car and drove right back to
8:31
Speaker 2: her mother's house.
8:31
Speaker 1: And that night, again, just like the night before, she,
8:35
Speaker 1: her sister, and her mom just sat in the kitchen,
8:38
Speaker 1: just sort of having this cathartic moment together, you know,
8:40
Speaker 1: crying together, talking about their dad, sharing memories, sharing theories,
8:44
Speaker 1: and also having a few drinks. And again, Bree did
8:47
Speaker 1: not have any alcohol, but Ashley and her mother did.
8:50
Speaker 1: The next morning, when Ashley woke up, once again, her
8:54
Speaker 1: head was pounding. She was so hungover, way.
8:57
Speaker 2: Worse than the day before.
8:59
Speaker 1: Except when she opened her eyes and kind of looked around,
9:02
Speaker 1: that really was not the first thing that hit her.
9:04
Speaker 1: The first thing that hit her is, I don't know
9:07
Speaker 1: where I am. the room looked different. And as she
9:09
Speaker 1: kind of adjusted and looked around, she realized she was
9:13
Speaker 1: in a hospital room. And so Ashley began to panic
9:15
Speaker 1: and began looking around for her family or anybody she recognized,
9:19
Speaker 1: but nobody that she knew was in there. There were
9:21
Speaker 1: just these two police officers sitting against the wall in
9:24
Speaker 1: her room. And these two officers, when they saw Ashley
9:27
Speaker 1: coming to, they got up and they walked over to
9:30
Speaker 1: her and they explained to her that she was very
9:32
Speaker 1: lucky that her mother had actually found her in her
9:35
Speaker 1: bed at her mother's house that morning then Ashley had
9:38
Speaker 1: been unresponsive. And so her mother had called an ambulance
9:41
Speaker 1: and they had rushed her here. And, you know, luckily
9:43
Speaker 1: she was stabilized now, but apparently she was very close
9:47
Speaker 1: to full-blown organ failure.
9:49
Speaker 2: Like she almost died. It was very lucky she got
9:51
Speaker 2: here when she did.
9:52
Speaker 1: But before Ashley could ask any questions, you know, like, well,
9:56
Speaker 1: what was it that was causing my body to shut down?
9:58
Speaker 2: Like, what's going on here?
9:59
Speaker 1: The two police officers kind of looked at each other,
10:01
Speaker 1: and then one of them pulled a piece of paper
10:04
Speaker 1: out of their pocket, and they.
10:06
Speaker 2: Handed it to Ashley. And they said, you need to
10:09
Speaker 2: explain yourself.
10:10
Speaker 1: It would turn out the way Ashley's stepfather had taken
10:13
Speaker 1: his own life was by drinking antifreeze.
10:16
Speaker 2: At least that was the initial theory. But pretty quickly.
10:18
Speaker 1: investigators started to say, like, why would somebody take their
10:22
Speaker 1: own life that way? Drinking antifreeze is slow and painful. Like,
10:26
Speaker 1: that's not a good first choice if you're going to
10:28
Speaker 1: take your own life. And so as suspicions rose around
10:30
Speaker 1: the stepfather, investigators thought, okay, well, the biological father died
10:35
Speaker 1: just a few years before, and apparently he died of
10:38
Speaker 1: a heart attack, but maybe we ought to make sure,
10:41
Speaker 1: because we're basically suggesting that maybe somebody did this to
10:44
Speaker 1: the stepfather. Is it possible somebody, you know, killed the
10:48
Speaker 1: biological father. And so they exhumed the biological father. And
10:52
Speaker 1: during the autopsy, they discovered antifreeze in his remains. And
10:56
Speaker 1: so now fast forward to the hospital where Ashley has
10:59
Speaker 1: woken up. These officers have walked over to her. They've
11:02
Speaker 1: handed her a note and told her to explain herself.
11:05
Speaker 1: And this note was effectively a confession. The writer of
11:08
Speaker 1: this note said they killed Ashley's biological father. Then they
11:13
Speaker 1: also killed Ashley's stepfather. But now, because of the blood
11:17
Speaker 1: on their hands, they're going to take their own lives.
11:20
Speaker 1: So this was a suicide note slash confession. And at
11:23
Speaker 1: the bottom of this note, it was signed by Ashley.
11:27
Speaker 1: Except Ashley did not kill her father or stepfather. Her
11:31
Speaker 1: mother did. Her mother used antifreeze to poison and kill
11:35
Speaker 1: both men. And then when police began poking around saying,
11:39
Speaker 1: what's going on here? We think somebody killed this guy
11:41
Speaker 1: and maybe him too. Well, what did Ashley's beloved mother do?
11:45
Speaker 2: She tried to poison her own daughter.
11:47
Speaker 1: She laced those alcoholic drinks they were having in her
11:50
Speaker 1: kitchen with all these painkillers to make it look like.
11:53
Speaker 2: Ashley had taken her own life because she felt so
11:56
Speaker 2: guilty about murdering these two men.
11:58
Speaker 1: Except Ashley's mother called the ambulance a little bit too
12:02
Speaker 1: early the following day, you know, feigning that she had
12:05
Speaker 1: just found her daughter unresponsive because the ambulance, they showed
12:08
Speaker 1: up and first responders, they saved Ashley's life narrowly.
12:12
Speaker 2: Apparently, She was within 15 minutes of dying when she
12:16
Speaker 2: showed up at the hospital.
12:17
Speaker 1: Stacey was convicted of two murders, as well as the
12:20
Speaker 1: attempted murder of her daughter, and she was sentenced to
12:23
Speaker 1: 51 years in prison.
12:24
Speaker 2: However, she would die behind bars in 2016.
12:37
Speaker 1: Around lunchtime on March 31, 2010, a man in his
12:41
Speaker 1: mid-50s named John Schmeier was sitting at a table with
12:44
Speaker 1: a bunch of his friends inside of a Hooters restaurant
12:47
Speaker 1: in the small city of York, Pennsylvania. So John was
12:50
Speaker 1: a retired eye doctor. He'd had a very successful career,
12:53
Speaker 1: made a bunch of money, and his friends that were
12:56
Speaker 1: at this table with him were also pretty successful guys,
12:59
Speaker 1: sort of like mid to upper tier professionals with very
13:02
Speaker 1: successful careers too. But what they were doing today had
13:05
Speaker 1: nothing to do with career.
13:07
Speaker 2: This was pure pleasure.
13:08
Speaker 1: This group of guys, this specific group of friends who
13:11
Speaker 1: were very, very close, They would meet up a couple
13:14
Speaker 1: times a month at this particular Hooters.
13:16
Speaker 2: They would sit at the same table. They would order
13:19
Speaker 2: the same things. They loved it.
13:21
Speaker 1: It was sort of like their little clubhouse. And in fact,
13:23
Speaker 1: they had even come up with a name for this
13:26
Speaker 1: group of friends. They called themselves the Orange Shorts Society.
13:30
Speaker 1: And so the reason they did that is because Hooters
13:34
Speaker 1: has a sort of vibe to it that if you've
13:36
Speaker 1: been there, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If
13:39
Speaker 1: you haven't been there, basically the the waitresses dress in
13:43
Speaker 1: very scantily clad clothing, and they all wear these sort
13:47
Speaker 1: of iconic white tank tops and orange shorts. And so
13:51
Speaker 1: basically these men were sort of joking that they were
13:54
Speaker 1: the Orange Shorts Society because of the shorts these women
13:58
Speaker 1: would all wear.
13:58
Speaker 2: And so that afternoon, John and.
14:00
Speaker 1: The rest of the members of the Orange Shorts Society
14:03
Speaker 1: all sat around chatting and, you know, BSing with each other,
14:06
Speaker 1: just being guys. And at some point, John brought up
14:10
Speaker 1: a subject that the rest of the society was accustomed
14:14
Speaker 1: to him bringing up, and that was his ex-wife, Monica.
14:17
Speaker 1: So all of his friends knew that John had been
14:20
Speaker 1: married to Monica for 20 years, but then they got
14:23
Speaker 1: divorced in 2003, so seven years earlier. But still, Monica
14:27
Speaker 1: was a thorn in John's side because he had to
14:30
Speaker 1: pay her alimony. And, you know, he understood that that
14:32
Speaker 1: comes with the territory of divorce.
14:34
Speaker 2: It is what it is. But Monica.
14:37
Speaker 1: had made the way John paid her the alimony really cumbersome.
14:41
Speaker 1: And John was convinced, as he would tell his buddies
14:44
Speaker 1: in the Orange Shorts Society, that it was totally intentional,
14:48
Speaker 1: that she had made it cumbersome.
14:49
Speaker 2: She wanted it to be hard. She didn't like John,
14:52
Speaker 2: and she was punishing him.
14:53
Speaker 1: And so what Monica did is she made John literally
14:57
Speaker 1: each week take cash out of an ATM, put it
15:00
Speaker 1: in an envelope, and then physically drive it to her
15:03
Speaker 1: house and drop it off.
15:05
Speaker 2: She would not accept payment any other way.
15:07
Speaker 1: And the reason she was able to do that is
15:09
Speaker 1: because she claimed she did not have a bank account
15:12
Speaker 1: and she couldn't be forced to make a bank account.
15:15
Speaker 1: And so either John made these cumbersome payments in cash
15:19
Speaker 1: or he risked not making the payment at all.
15:21
Speaker 2: And then she could come after him legally.
15:23
Speaker 1: And so he was sort of trapped making this trek
15:25
Speaker 1: once a week, to hand over cash to his ex-wife,
15:28
Speaker 1: who he really couldn't stand. Now, their divorce was not
15:31
Speaker 1: super contentious. The two of them just sort of drifted apart.
15:34
Speaker 1: They stopped seeing eye to eye. And actually, Monica really
15:37
Speaker 1: didn't like the whole Orange Shorts Society thing. She thought
15:40
Speaker 1: it was totally scummy and that John and his buddies
15:43
Speaker 1: were just kind of gross for going to that restaurant
15:45
Speaker 1: and sort of making jokes about, you know, what these
15:48
Speaker 1: women are wearing and making that part of their identity,
15:50
Speaker 1: the Orange Shorts Society.
15:52
Speaker 2: She didn't like it. And so they just kind of
15:53
Speaker 2: drifted apart. That was all it was.
15:55
Speaker 1: But now it had become this sort of bitter feud
15:58
Speaker 1: between the two of them. And so at the same
16:00
Speaker 1: time that John and his buddies in the Orange Shorts
16:02
Speaker 1: Society are sitting in the restaurant and John is going
16:05
Speaker 1: on his tirade once again about Monica's alimony. Simultaneously, on
16:09
Speaker 1: the other side of town, police rushed to Monica's house.
16:14
Speaker 1: Minutes earlier, there had been a 911 call that came
16:17
Speaker 1: from Monica's house, but when the operator answered, there was
16:21
Speaker 1: no answer. And so by protocol, they had just sent
16:24
Speaker 1: first responders out to the house to see if whoever
16:26
Speaker 1: had called was okay. And so the police, they get
16:28
Speaker 1: to Monica's house, they park, they go right up to
16:30
Speaker 1: the front door, knocking on the door there's no answer
16:34
Speaker 1: they're looking around there's no sign of forced entry no
16:37
Speaker 1: sign of anything really going on here it's just a
16:39
Speaker 1: quiet day in the neighborhood but they go to the
16:41
Speaker 1: door again they knock a few more times and when
16:43
Speaker 1: there's no answer they try the doorknob and it's unlocked
16:46
Speaker 1: so they open the door up right away they look
16:49
Speaker 1: in and there's monica and she's dead on the ground
16:52
Speaker 1: with the phone right next to her and she's been
16:55
Speaker 1: shot in the head shortly after this discovery the lead
16:58
Speaker 1: detective douglas demagon along with his team began to survey
17:01
Speaker 1: the crime scene, and they quickly found a purse next
17:04
Speaker 1: to Monica's body, and inside was her license.
17:06
Speaker 2: That was how they identified her. And then they also
17:09
Speaker 2: found a.
17:09
Speaker 1: 32 caliber shell casing lying near the body that clearly
17:13
Speaker 1: seemed to be from the round that struck her in
17:15
Speaker 1: the head and killed her. But perhaps the most unusual
17:18
Speaker 1: aspect of this crime scene had really nothing to do
17:21
Speaker 1: with the body.
17:22
Speaker 2: It was all the money. they found all over the house,
17:25
Speaker 2: specifically cash, cash in envelopes. There were these envelopes in
17:29
Speaker 2: trash cans and drawers on tables.
17:31
Speaker 1: I mean, it was kind of like all over the place,
17:33
Speaker 1: some out in the open, some hidden, but there was
17:35
Speaker 1: lots of money stashed in this home. And so Demogon
17:39
Speaker 1: and the other investigators began to wonder if, you know, okay,
17:42
Speaker 1: maybe this was a robbery and Monica got killed in
17:45
Speaker 1: the process. But it's like, okay, if it was a robbery,
17:47
Speaker 1: why is there so much cash out in the open
17:50
Speaker 1: and literally packaged up in envelopes, easy to, you know,
17:53
Speaker 1: remove from the house.
17:55
Speaker 2: Why is it all here?
17:56
Speaker 1: It's almost like no cash was taken or certainly not
17:59
Speaker 1: very much was taken. And also other valuables are still
18:01
Speaker 1: in place. You know, it just, it didn't have the
18:04
Speaker 1: feel of somebody ransacking the house. It just sort of
18:07
Speaker 1: felt like somebody came in here and killed Monica. Detective
18:10
Speaker 1: Demagon and his team searched the whole house and they
18:13
Speaker 1: couldn't find any sign of forced entry.
18:16
Speaker 2: So basically whoever came in.
18:17
Speaker 1: Here and did this either, you know, just walked in
18:20
Speaker 1: because a door or window was unlocked, or maybe Monica
18:23
Speaker 1: let them in, maybe she knew who they were, or
18:26
Speaker 1: they had a key. Detective Demogon asked the forensics team
18:29
Speaker 1: to begin sweeping the house for DNA, to see if
18:32
Speaker 1: maybe they could find something that could show them who
18:34
Speaker 1: had been here lately. And so while that team got started,
18:36
Speaker 1: Demogon continued to walk around the house, and he eventually
18:40
Speaker 1: found a Rolodex, which is basically like a big book
18:43
Speaker 1: full of phone numbers and addresses. And as the detective
18:46
Speaker 1: was flipping through that book, that was how he discovered
18:49
Speaker 1: that Monica had an ex-husband, John Schmeier. That evening, Detective
18:53
Speaker 1: Demagon and another investigator rolled up to John Schmeier's house.
18:57
Speaker 1: They walked up to the front door and they knocked.
18:59
Speaker 1: And then a moment later, the door opened. And John
19:02
Speaker 1: was standing there looking very surprised. So in homicide cases,
19:06
Speaker 1: generally speaking, the spouse or ex-spouse is always suspect number one.
19:11
Speaker 1: And so even though Demogon didn't really have any evidence
19:13
Speaker 1: linking John to the crime, he did have the fact that.
19:17
Speaker 2: This was her ex-spouse. And so therefore, he is suspicious.
19:21
Speaker 1: Before John could ask any questions, Demogon and his partner
19:24
Speaker 1: introduced themselves and said they'd like to come in and
19:26
Speaker 1: speak to John. So John said, okay, come on in.
19:29
Speaker 1: So they walked inside, they sat down, and then once
19:31
Speaker 1: they were seated, Detective Demagon watched John very closely as
19:36
Speaker 1: he told him why they were there. Basically, your ex-wife
19:39
Speaker 1: has been murdered and we're here to talk to you
19:42
Speaker 1: about it. Detective Demagon wanted to see if John would
19:44
Speaker 1: have a big reaction or maybe a subdued reaction. You know,
19:47
Speaker 1: whatever reaction he might have could be tell. to how
19:51
Speaker 1: involved he maybe was or wasn't in this case. When
19:53
Speaker 1: Demagon told John that Monica had been shot to death,
19:57
Speaker 1: John's reaction was huge. His eyes went wide, he clutched
20:02
Speaker 1: at his chest like he was having a heart attack,
20:04
Speaker 1: and then he kind of leaned forward and began sobbing.
20:06
Speaker 2: But when he came back up again.
20:09
Speaker 1: The detective noticed there were no tears in John's eyes.
20:12
Speaker 1: It was just this sort of huge reaction, but Demogon
20:15
Speaker 1: couldn't really tell if it was genuine or not. He
20:17
Speaker 1: also didn't have a baseline for John. He didn't know
20:19
Speaker 1: if this was normal, but this seemed really dramatic, almost
20:23
Speaker 1: like he might be acting. So instead of trying to
20:25
Speaker 1: console John, Demogon just asked point blank, where were you
20:30
Speaker 1: earlier this afternoon at the time of the shooting? And
20:32
Speaker 1: when he asked this, John, who still was sort of
20:35
Speaker 1: rocking back and forth and grabbing his chest and acting
20:37
Speaker 1: very upset, he suddenly stopped, put his hands by his side,
20:41
Speaker 1: and just said, oh, I was at Hooters with my friends.
20:44
Speaker 1: A few days later, Detective Demogon went to the Hooters,
20:47
Speaker 1: where John and his friends would always meet up, and
20:49
Speaker 1: he asked the manager to see the security footage from
20:52
Speaker 1: the previous Wednesday, the day of the shooting. So by
20:54
Speaker 1: this point, Demogon had actually already interviewed all of the
20:58
Speaker 1: friends who had been at the Hooters with John. The
21:01
Speaker 1: so-called Orange Shorts Society had And he had asked them
21:04
Speaker 1: all about John.
21:05
Speaker 2: Like, had he really been there? What was he doing?
21:07
Speaker 2: What was he saying?
21:08
Speaker 1: And they all said John absolutely was there the whole time. Like,
21:11
Speaker 1: there's no way he could have left and done anything
21:14
Speaker 1: to Monica.
21:15
Speaker 2: He was here with us. I promise you he was here.
21:17
Speaker 1: Now, they would admit to the detective that, you know,
21:20
Speaker 1: John did speak disparagingly about Monica. He would talk about
21:23
Speaker 1: how mad he was about her alimony and definitely didn't
21:26
Speaker 1: like her very much.
21:28
Speaker 2: But that was it. That was the extent of his hatred.
21:30
Speaker 1: Now, despite how convincingly these friends said John was there
21:33
Speaker 1: the whole time, he couldn't have done this, Demogon still
21:36
Speaker 1: needed proof. He needed to really see that John had
21:39
Speaker 1: been here when he said he was here. So John
21:40
Speaker 1: went to the manager, they pulled up the security footage
21:43
Speaker 1: from the previous Wednesday, and wouldn't you know it, there's John,
21:47
Speaker 1: he comes in, he sits down, he's with his buddies,
21:49
Speaker 1: and he is there. the whole time during the time
21:53
Speaker 1: that Monica was killed. And so at this point, Demogon
21:55
Speaker 1: did feel like it sort of was impossible that John
21:58
Speaker 1: actually went and killed Monica. But given the contention between them,
22:03
Speaker 1: I mean, John apparently really doesn't like Monica.
22:05
Speaker 2: He hates making these payments to her.
22:07
Speaker 1: Like there's obvious friction that comes up at these orange
22:10
Speaker 1: short society meetings all the time. You know, maybe it
22:13
Speaker 1: was possible that John, who was pretty well off, had
22:15
Speaker 1: a bunch of money. You know, maybe he hired somebody
22:19
Speaker 1: to do his dirty work for him. Maybe he hired
22:21
Speaker 1: a hitman. And so over the next week or so,
22:23
Speaker 1: Demagon and his team began exploring this hitman lead. And
22:26
Speaker 1: they found that John had been taking out a whole
22:29
Speaker 1: bunch of cash.
22:30
Speaker 2: Over the last several weeks.
22:32
Speaker 1: But it sort of lined up with how much cash
22:34
Speaker 1: he owed Monica in the form of alimony. And they
22:37
Speaker 1: knew he had to, per Monica's orders... deliver this alimony
22:41
Speaker 1: payment in cash to her in these envelopes and they
22:44
Speaker 1: found all those envelopes of cash at Monica's house and
22:47
Speaker 1: so it seemed like that was all he was doing
22:49
Speaker 1: taking money out to give to Monica and so John
22:51
Speaker 1: was basically Demogon's only suspect at this point and there
22:55
Speaker 1: was basically no evidence against him and so Demogon knew
22:58
Speaker 1: he really needed to look into other leads here like
23:00
Speaker 1: the John lead kind of going nowhere and so he
23:03
Speaker 1: and his team began looking into local gang activity and
23:06
Speaker 1: you know, crimes in the area? Could this have just
23:08
Speaker 1: been random or something completely unrelated? But after three months
23:12
Speaker 1: of looking for any connection anywhere in the area, there
23:16
Speaker 1: wasn't one.
23:17
Speaker 2: And the case kind of came to a stall.
23:19
Speaker 1: And so at this point, Demogon decided that the only
23:22
Speaker 1: thing he could do realistically was just kind of start over,
23:25
Speaker 1: go back to square one, and basically re-examine all the
23:29
Speaker 1: evidence all over again. And that included going back and
23:32
Speaker 1: looking at the security footage from the Hooters on that
23:35
Speaker 1: Wednesday when the Orange Shorts Society was there.
23:37
Speaker 2: And so Demogon, he sat down, he starts watching.
23:40
Speaker 1: This tape over and over and over again.
23:42
Speaker 2: It's like the thousandth.
23:43
Speaker 1: Time he's looked at this grainy footage and suddenly something
23:47
Speaker 1: stands out to him. Something he missed all the other
23:50
Speaker 1: times he looked. And as he replayed the footage over
23:53
Speaker 1: and over again, he realized he now knew almost certainly
23:57
Speaker 1: what happened to Monica. It would turn out the footage
24:00
Speaker 1: of the Orange Shorts Society meeting did hold the secret
24:03
Speaker 1: to Monica's murder. John Schmeier did not kill his ex-wife,
24:06
Speaker 1: nor did he hire a hitman to do it. He
24:08
Speaker 1: really had nothing to do with her death. The only
24:10
Speaker 1: thing he did do is, you know, at these Orange
24:13
Speaker 1: Shorts Society meetups, he would talk openly about how he
24:16
Speaker 1: didn't really like Monica. In particular, he resented the fact
24:19
Speaker 1: that she was making him deliver all this cash to
24:22
Speaker 1: her to pay his alimony payments. It just felt totally cumbersome.
24:26
Speaker 1: But that meant John, on a regular basis, was telling
24:30
Speaker 1: these men... in the Orange Shorts Society, that Monica was
24:33
Speaker 1: flush with cash.
24:34
Speaker 2: She was given her tons of cash every single week.
24:37
Speaker 2: This woman has so much cash at her house.
24:40
Speaker 1: And eventually, one of the Orange Shorts Society members, a
24:43
Speaker 1: man named Tim Jacoby, decided, you know what? I'm going
24:46
Speaker 1: to go to Monica's house, and I'm going to take
24:48
Speaker 1: that cash. Demogon had been operating under the assumption that
24:52
Speaker 1: all the men who were present on that Wednesday meetup
24:55
Speaker 1: at Hooters, the Orange Shorts Society meeting, that that was
24:58
Speaker 1: the totality of the group.
25:00
Speaker 2: Those were all the members.
25:01
Speaker 1: Because the way the men talked about their group was
25:04
Speaker 1: they all meet up.
25:05
Speaker 2: Every single time.
25:06
Speaker 1: Same group, same seats, same restaurant. And so Demogon assumed, okay,
25:10
Speaker 1: then it's the same people.
25:11
Speaker 2: This is it. This is the totality of the group.
25:14
Speaker 2: Everybody is accounted for. But no. On the day of
25:16
Speaker 2: the murder, one regular member of.
25:19
Speaker 1: The Orange Shorts Society was not present.
25:22
Speaker 2: Tim Jacoby.
25:23
Speaker 1: And that is the discrepancy that Demogon caught immediately When
25:26
Speaker 1: he watched that footage for the thousandth time, he realized,
25:29
Speaker 1: wait a minute.
25:30
Speaker 2: There's another guy. I heard another guy's name, Tim Jacoby.
25:34
Speaker 2: He's not here.
25:36
Speaker 1: Police would later tie Tim to the crime scene with
25:38
Speaker 1: DNA evidence. They determined that Tim went to her house
25:41
Speaker 1: with the intention of robbing her. But when Monica fought back,
25:45
Speaker 1: he shot and killed her and then fled without taking
25:48
Speaker 1: any money. Tim was convicted of first degree murder and.
25:50
Speaker 2: Sentenced to death. He is currently on death row in Pennsylvania.
25:59
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what
26:01
Speaker 2: you thought of today's episode in the comments.
26:03
Speaker 1: And remember, we have hundreds of videos for you to
26:06
Speaker 1: binge right now. But if you're looking for a recommendation
26:09
Speaker 1: from me of that one video that's worth your time, well,
26:13
Speaker 1: it's this one right here.
26:15
Speaker 2: So give it a watch. All right, until next time,
26:17
Speaker 2: see ya.