Latest / Crime and Horror / This McDonald's run tore their family apart - MrBallen

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This McDonald's run tore their family apart - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: On a cold night in November of 2013, a woman
0:03
Speaker 1: sat in a hospital waiting room, wondering if her new
0:06
Speaker 1: husband would survive until the morning. It was a cruel reversal,
0:09
Speaker 1: because just months ago, she had actually told him that
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Speaker 1: she was dying. And in fact, it was her terminal
0:15
Speaker 1: diagnosis that defined their marriage from the start. But now,
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Speaker 1: it looked like she was the one who'd be preparing
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Speaker 1: for a funeral. But before we get into today's story,
0:26
Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious
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0:53
Speaker 2: Okay, let's get into today's story. Around 8 p.m.
1:16
Speaker 1: On November 3rd, 2013, 45-year-old Will Walker taped up a
1:21
Speaker 1: cardboard box in the master bedroom of his home in Cleveland, Ohio.
1:25
Speaker 1: He labeled it with a Sharpie and then stacked it
1:27
Speaker 1: with a bunch of other moving boxes in the corner
1:29
Speaker 1: that he had also made up. Will was in the
1:31
Speaker 1: middle of moving his family out of their current place
1:34
Speaker 1: in the city to a bigger house in the suburbs.
1:37
Speaker 1: And even though it did sort of seem like an upgrade,
1:40
Speaker 1: he had mixed feelings about it, in part because... He'd
1:43
Speaker 1: invested a lot in this community, in the city. He'd
1:47
Speaker 1: raised kids here with his first wife, and he also
1:50
Speaker 1: worked here as a lieutenant firefighter. But Will knew it
1:53
Speaker 1: was time for a big life change, because his beloved
1:56
Speaker 1: new wife, Euloma Curry Walker, had recently been diagnosed with cancer.
2:01
Speaker 2: And realistically, she.
2:02
Speaker 1: Actually didn't have very long left to live, and so
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Speaker 1: Will wanted her to spend the time that she had
2:07
Speaker 1: left in a neighborhood that was more comfortable and more
2:10
Speaker 1: quiet than this one. As Will began to pack one
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Speaker 1: of those moving boxes he had made, he felt his
2:16
Speaker 1: stomach growl.
2:17
Speaker 2: He was hungry.
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Speaker 1: So before getting into really heavy packing, he stopped and
2:22
Speaker 1: he headed down the hallway to the living room where
2:24
Speaker 1: he found his wife laying on the couch wrapped in
2:26
Speaker 1: a blanket. And she was clearly on the phone with
2:29
Speaker 1: her 17-year-old daughter, Jackie. So Will and Euloma both had
2:33
Speaker 1: previously been married and they both had kids from their
2:36
Speaker 1: previous marriages.
2:37
Speaker 2: But most of them.
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Speaker 1: Were adults and they had moved out and they were
2:40
Speaker 1: living their own lives. Except for Jackie, the girl that
2:43
Speaker 1: was on the phone with Yoloma right now. She actually
2:46
Speaker 1: still lived with Yoloma and Will. But this evening, she
2:49
Speaker 1: was across town at her boyfriend's place, but for the
2:52
Speaker 1: time being, she was just chatting with her mom on
2:54
Speaker 1: the phone. As Will approached the couch, Yoloma looked up
2:57
Speaker 1: at him and she waved and she smiled. And as
2:59
Speaker 1: she continued chatting with Jackie on the phone, she began coughing.
3:03
Speaker 2: Just a small dry.
3:04
Speaker 1: Cough, but immediately Will was on edge because anytime he
3:08
Speaker 1: heard his wife coughing or just acting like she was sick.
3:11
Speaker 1: He worried that like this was the start of the end.
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Speaker 1: Is this her dying? You know, he was just so
3:15
Speaker 1: worried about her. But luckily the coughing passed and she
3:19
Speaker 1: just kept on chatting away with Jackie. And so Will,
3:22
Speaker 1: he walked up to her and he sort of gently
3:24
Speaker 1: interrupted her and just said, hey, you want me to
3:26
Speaker 1: run out and grab us both some dinner?
3:28
Speaker 2: I'm pretty hungry. Yoloma, she nodded and she.
3:30
Speaker 1: Smiled and she covered up the phone and said, yeah,
3:32
Speaker 1: I'd love to get some McDonald's. And then she just
3:35
Speaker 1: went back to her call with Jackie. Will, he bent
3:38
Speaker 1: down and he kissed her on the top of the head,
3:39
Speaker 1: he grabbed his keys, and he headed out the door.
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Speaker 2: McDonald's sounded great.
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Speaker 1: A half an hour later, at 8.30 p.m., Will pulled
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Speaker 1: back into his driveway and parked in front of the garage,
3:50
Speaker 1: he cut the engine, and then he grabbed the McDonald's
3:53
Speaker 1: bag off the passenger seat. As he stepped out of
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Speaker 1: the car, though, he paused and intentionally looked back out
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Speaker 1: toward the street, just to make sure the coast was clear.
4:02
Speaker 1: So Will had lived on this block for decades, and
4:05
Speaker 1: it had always been sort of a rough neighborhood. But lately,
4:08
Speaker 1: it just seemed to be getting a whole lot worse.
4:11
Speaker 1: Less than a month ago, Will had actually gotten into
4:13
Speaker 1: this really heated argument with a guy right here in
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Speaker 1: his driveway. And it had been so heated that Will
4:19
Speaker 1: had actually brandished a gun to get the guy to leave.
4:22
Speaker 1: Will was still very much on edge about that, sort
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Speaker 1: of worried this man would come back to exact his
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Speaker 1: revenge or something. And in some ways, this was another
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Speaker 1: reason why he felt like maybe it really was time
4:33
Speaker 1: to move out of here and get to the suburbs.
4:36
Speaker 1: But for now, you know, looking out to the road
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Speaker 1: and the sort of surrounding areas, he didn't see anything
4:41
Speaker 1: or anyone that concerned him. So he closed his car
4:44
Speaker 1: door and with his McDonald's bag in hand, he crossed
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Speaker 1: the driveway towards the back door of the house. However,
4:51
Speaker 1: when he slipped his key into the lock on the door,
4:54
Speaker 1: he heard footsteps coming up behind him. And as Will turned,
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Speaker 1: there was a deafening noise.
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Speaker 2: Bang.
5:00
Speaker 1: Inside the house at the same time, Euloma heard the
5:03
Speaker 1: sound of what sounded like four gunshots echoing from outside. Instinctively,
5:09
Speaker 1: she leapt off the couch and ran over to the window,
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Speaker 1: still clutching her blanket tight around her. And when she
5:14
Speaker 1: looked outside, she saw her husband's car in the driveway,
5:18
Speaker 1: but she didn't see her husband or anyone for that matter.
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Speaker 2: Nobody was outside.
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Speaker 1: Then she heard the sound of someone moaning in pain,
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Speaker 1: and it was like instinctively she immediately knew it had
5:28
Speaker 1: to be Will. And so she ran to the back door.
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Speaker 1: She's frantic.
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Speaker 2: She opens it up. And there he was.
5:35
Speaker 1: Thirty minutes later, around 9 p.m., Detective Tom Lynch of
5:38
Speaker 1: the Cleveland Police Department stood outside of Will and Euloma's
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Speaker 1: back door, staring down at a pool of blood on
5:45
Speaker 1: the ground. Behind him, an officer was cordoning off what
5:48
Speaker 1: was now a crime scene, while detectives and forensic specialists
5:52
Speaker 1: searched the area for evidence. Lynch had reached the scene
5:55
Speaker 1: only about 10 minutes ago, but already he had pieced
5:58
Speaker 1: together some basic facts. Will Walker, the victim, was a
6:02
Speaker 1: 45-year-old lieutenant firefighter, and he had been shot four times
6:06
Speaker 1: in his own driveway. His wife, Euloma, had found him
6:10
Speaker 1: bleeding out by the back door and immediately called 911,
6:13
Speaker 1: and Will had been rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.
6:16
Speaker 1: He was obviously very badly hurt, but apparently he was
6:19
Speaker 1: still alive. Now, Lynch knew that because Will Walker, the victim,
6:23
Speaker 1: was a respected member of the community, he was a
6:27
Speaker 1: long-time firefighter, that very likely there would be increased pressure
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Speaker 1: on Lynch and his team to.
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Speaker 2: Figure out who did this.
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Speaker 1: But in a neighborhood as rough as this one, Lynch
6:39
Speaker 1: knew that was not going to be an easy task. Now,
6:41
Speaker 1: as Lynch studied the outside of the crime scene, his
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Speaker 1: gaze traveled from the pool of blood where Will had
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Speaker 1: been found to the bag of fast food lying a
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Speaker 1: few feet away and then up to the keys that
6:52
Speaker 1: were still dangling from the lock on the door. It
6:55
Speaker 1: looked like Will had been ambushed while walking from his
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Speaker 1: car to the house. It was a very short distance,
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Speaker 1: which meant the shooter would have only had maybe a
7:03
Speaker 1: few seconds to make their move. Lynch heard someone call
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Speaker 1: his name from behind him, and he turned around to
7:08
Speaker 1: see another detective just a few feet away pointing to
7:11
Speaker 1: something in the grass. And so Lynch walked over and
7:14
Speaker 1: then crouched down and saw that what they were pointing
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Speaker 1: to was a nine millimeter shell casing. Then the detective
7:20
Speaker 1: pointed out another shell casing and then another and another.
7:24
Speaker 1: And they all led in a straight line toward the
7:27
Speaker 1: back corner of the garage. Not inside the garage, but
7:30
Speaker 1: like the back exterior of the garage. And so Lynch,
7:34
Speaker 1: he followed the line of shell casings towards that corner.
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Speaker 1: And he found there was this small gap between the
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Speaker 1: back of the garage and the back fence. In this area,
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Speaker 1: there were no lights. It was very well shielded from
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Speaker 1: the street. Like if you were back here, nobody could see.
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Speaker 2: You, really. And so this was like a perfect hiding
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Speaker 2: spot for the shooter.
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Speaker 1: As Lynch took in all this new information, he tried
7:55
Speaker 1: to visualize what might have happened here. He pictured the
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Speaker 1: shooter waiting right here behind the garage, not coming from
8:01
Speaker 1: the street, but over here waiting. And then Will comes
8:04
Speaker 1: into the driveway. He gets out of his car. He
8:06
Speaker 1: makes his way towards the door, at which point the
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Speaker 1: shooter comes out and starts shooting. It was an ambush,
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Speaker 1: which suggested that, you know, especially based on the location
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Speaker 1: of these shell casings, like This was truly somebody waiting
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Speaker 1: for Will.
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Speaker 2: This was not like a botched robbery. This was not random.
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Speaker 1: This was someone who likely knew Will was going to
8:25
Speaker 1: be back soon, and they waited.
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Speaker 2: For him, and then they shot him.
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Speaker 1: And so at this point, Lynch felt pretty confident that
8:31
Speaker 1: this was a premeditated murder, or at least attempted murder,
8:35
Speaker 1: because at that point, it was believed that Will was
8:37
Speaker 1: still alive at the hospital. And if he was still alive,
8:41
Speaker 1: Lynch hoped he'd be able to identify the shooter. Two
8:45
Speaker 1: hours later, around 11.30 p.m., Lynch followed a nurse down
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Speaker 1: a hospital corridor. Will Walker was still in surgery, so
8:53
Speaker 1: in the meantime, Lynch was going to speak with Will's wife, Yoloma.
8:56
Speaker 1: The nurse led Lynch into a private waiting room for
8:58
Speaker 1: family members, and right away Lynch saw Yoloma sitting alone
9:02
Speaker 1: in one.
9:02
Speaker 2: Of the chairs.
9:03
Speaker 1: She was wearing a big coat and a scarf, but
9:05
Speaker 1: she kept rubbing her hands together and shivering like she
9:08
Speaker 1: was cold. Lynch nodded to the nurse to let her
9:10
Speaker 1: know that he could take it from here. and so
9:12
Speaker 1: she left to give them some privacy. Then Lynch went
9:15
Speaker 1: over to introduce himself to Yaloma. He sat down and
9:18
Speaker 1: he took out his notepad, and then he gently explained
9:21
Speaker 1: that he was leading the investigation into Will's shooting, and
9:24
Speaker 1: he needed to know everything she could remember about that night.
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Speaker 2: Yaloma, who was still clearly very cold and shivering, she.
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Speaker 1: Nodded, and in a weak voice, she explained that just
9:34
Speaker 1: before the gunshots, she'd been home alone. Will had been
9:37
Speaker 1: out getting them dinner, and her daughter Jackie was over
9:40
Speaker 1: at her boyfriend's place. Then at 8.30 p.m., she said
9:44
Speaker 1: she heard those four loud bangs. She'd run outside and
9:47
Speaker 1: found her husband bleeding out in the driveway, and so
9:50
Speaker 1: she called 911. Lynch nodded as he jotted down everything
9:53
Speaker 1: she was saying, but nothing she was saying was particularly revelatory.
9:57
Speaker 1: I mean, her story matched up with what he had
9:59
Speaker 1: seen at the crime scene and what first responders had
10:02
Speaker 1: told him about what they saw. So now Lynch flipped
10:05
Speaker 1: his notepad over and he asked the question that in
10:08
Speaker 1: some ways mattered the most in terms of what Yoloma
10:10
Speaker 1: could offer him. Did her husband have any enemies? However,
10:16
Speaker 1: before Yoloma could answer, there was a knock at the door.
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Speaker 1: And a second later, a pair of doctors came inside.
10:22
Speaker 1: And from their expressions, Lynch knew it was not good news. Instinctively,
10:27
Speaker 1: Lynch stood up and stepped out of the way as
10:29
Speaker 1: one of these doctors came over to Yoloma and then
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Speaker 1: took her hand and told her that her husband, Will Walker,
10:35
Speaker 1: was dead.
10:44
Speaker 2: Around 9 a.m.
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Speaker 1: The next morning, November 4th, Detective Tom Lynch stood in
10:49
Speaker 1: the rec room of a Cleveland fire station speaking to
10:51
Speaker 1: three firefighters who were co-workers of Will Walker, who had
10:54
Speaker 1: been shot to death the night before. Lynch's conversation with
10:58
Speaker 1: Will's wife, Yoloma, the night before in the hospital had
11:01
Speaker 1: understandably been cut short when she received the news.
11:04
Speaker 2: Of her husband's death.
11:06
Speaker 1: So now Lynch was trying to get information from anyone
11:09
Speaker 1: else who was close to Will before he ultimately went
11:11
Speaker 1: back and asked Yoloma that question about, you know, did
11:14
Speaker 1: her husband have any enemies? And so for now, he
11:16
Speaker 1: was here at the fire station to find out if
11:19
Speaker 1: maybe any of Will's co-workers knew about any conflicts Will
11:22
Speaker 1: had with anybody. But so far from speaking with the
11:26
Speaker 1: guys who worked with Will, it sounded like he was
11:28
Speaker 1: like the most popular guy at the station.
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Speaker 2: Everybody liked him.
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Speaker 1: These firefighters kept telling Lynch what a hero Will was
11:37
Speaker 1: and how Lynch needed to solve this case quickly because
11:40
Speaker 1: Will and his family, they deserve justice. The community deserved justice.
11:44
Speaker 1: So Lynch was naturally feeling a lot of pressure to
11:47
Speaker 1: deliver here. But he was actually kind of optimistic.
11:51
Speaker 2: For two reasons.
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Speaker 1: First, because DNA had been recovered from the shell casing
11:56
Speaker 1: from Will's driveway. Now, the DNA didn't match anyone in
11:59
Speaker 1: law enforcement databases, but this was still a really strong
12:02
Speaker 1: development because Lynch knew he'd be able to test any
12:06
Speaker 1: suspects against that DNA from the shells. And the second
12:09
Speaker 1: reason he was optimistic is because once he was finished
12:12
Speaker 1: here at the fire station, Lynch actually was heading to
12:15
Speaker 1: an interview with Yoloma. She'd had a little time to
12:18
Speaker 1: process the news, and now apparently she was ready.
12:22
Speaker 2: To speak to him again.
12:23
Speaker 1: A half hour later, Lynch was sitting across from Yoloma
12:26
Speaker 1: inside of an interview room at the Cleveland police station.
12:30
Speaker 2: She looked absolutely exhausted. And by now, Lynch.
12:33
Speaker 1: Knew that it was not just from having been up
12:35
Speaker 1: all night, very likely, you know, dealing with the grief
12:37
Speaker 1: of losing her husband. but also because, according to Will's co-workers,
12:42
Speaker 1: Yeloma had cancer. And in fact, it was her terminal
12:45
Speaker 1: cancer diagnosis that had ultimately pushed Will to marry her
12:49
Speaker 1: after eight years together. Prior to the diagnosis, Will and
12:52
Speaker 1: Yeloma had sort of taken their time in terms of
12:56
Speaker 1: how they would define their relationship because they'd both been
12:59
Speaker 1: married before and they didn't want to rush into anything
13:01
Speaker 1: because obviously their previous marriages didn't go well. But when
13:05
Speaker 1: Yeloma got really sick and it was clear she didn't
13:07
Speaker 1: have much time left, They decided, you know, enough waiting.
13:11
Speaker 1: Let's just get married. And so now Lynch picked up
13:14
Speaker 1: with Yoloma where they had left off the night before.
13:17
Speaker 1: He asked her again, did Will have any enemies? And
13:20
Speaker 1: after spending the entire morning listening to Will's co-workers talk
13:24
Speaker 1: about what a good man Will was, Lynch expected Yoloma
13:28
Speaker 1: to say no.
13:29
Speaker 2: But instead, Yoloma nodded and said, yes, he did.
13:34
Speaker 1: But she also quickly said that it was definitely true
13:36
Speaker 1: that The vast majority of people loved Will.
13:39
Speaker 2: Her included.
13:40
Speaker 1: Like, he was a great guy. He was very popular
13:43
Speaker 1: at work, and he was beloved in the neighborhood. And
13:46
Speaker 1: he was very close with his kids and stepkids, and
13:49
Speaker 1: he was even on good terms with his ex-wife Rita. But,
13:52
Speaker 1: Yloma said she could think of at least two men
13:55
Speaker 1: Will definitely had not gotten along with. Yloma explained that
13:59
Speaker 1: the first man she suspected was actually her.
14:01
Speaker 2: Own ex-husband, Macklin Hines.
14:04
Speaker 1: Yeloma described Macklin as an ex-convict with an explosive temper.
14:09
Speaker 1: She said Macklin had always been very possessive towards her,
14:12
Speaker 1: even after they had gotten a divorce, and that possessiveness
14:16
Speaker 1: had only intensified after she had recently married Will just
14:19
Speaker 1: four months ago. Yeloma said she didn't know if Macklin
14:22
Speaker 1: was jealous enough to have committed murder here, but she
14:26
Speaker 1: knew he was definitely capable of violence, and she said
14:30
Speaker 1: that she had not heard from Macklin in several days.
14:33
Speaker 1: The second person that Yoloma said Will had issues with
14:36
Speaker 1: was actually a man from the neighborhood named Eugene Cray.
14:40
Speaker 1: According to Yoloma, Eugene was friends with their next-door neighbor.
14:44
Speaker 1: And whenever Eugene came by to pick up his friend,
14:48
Speaker 1: the neighbor, he would sit out in his car, smoking weed,
14:51
Speaker 1: blasting music, and blocking Yoloma and Will's driveway. And Yoloma
14:56
Speaker 1: said this had really bothered Will. And a few weeks
15:00
Speaker 1: before the murder, he'd finally lost his patience. One afternoon
15:05
Speaker 1: when Eugene had shown up again with his car, blocking
15:07
Speaker 1: the driveway, blasting his music, smoking his weed, Will had
15:12
Speaker 1: pulled out his handgun and stormed out of the house
15:14
Speaker 1: to confront him. Now, Yoloma said she hadn't seen what
15:17
Speaker 1: happened next, but she heard shouting.
15:19
Speaker 2: And then the sound of Eugene speeding away.
15:22
Speaker 1: And when Will came back inside, clearly amped up from
15:25
Speaker 1: this confrontation, he just told Yoloma that he had handled it.
15:29
Speaker 2: And Eugene would not be back.
15:31
Speaker 1: And so at this point, Lynch stopped for a second
15:33
Speaker 1: and just thought about what he had been told. In
15:35
Speaker 1: terms of this Eugene story, it sounded like Will had
15:38
Speaker 1: really lost his temper. And if he had maybe embarrassed
15:42
Speaker 1: or threatened Eugene, that was the kind of thing that
15:45
Speaker 1: could turn into a grudge that could lead to murder.
15:49
Speaker 1: And so at this point, to Lynch, Eugene was sounding
15:52
Speaker 1: like a really, really good suspect. Especially since his recent
15:56
Speaker 1: argument with Will had actually taken place in the same
15:59
Speaker 1: area where Will was ultimately killed. Three days later, on
16:03
Speaker 1: November 7th, around 6 p.m., Detective Lynch walked through a
16:07
Speaker 1: big candlelight vigil on Yeloma and Will Street. A massive crowd,
16:12
Speaker 1: hundreds of neighbors, firefighters, and police officers had come out
16:16
Speaker 1: to honor Will. Lynch scanned the crowd, and he eventually
16:19
Speaker 1: found Will's family, and they were clearly speaking with reporters.
16:23
Speaker 1: Will's two adult children were standing there beside this woman
16:25
Speaker 1: who Lynch guessed was Will's ex-wife, Rita Walker, And then
16:30
Speaker 1: a few feet away from them was Yloma, looking very
16:33
Speaker 1: frail as she leaned on her teenage daughter, Jackie.
16:36
Speaker 2: And for Lynch, I mean, seeing this vigil and seeing, you.
16:39
Speaker 1: Know, Will's bereaved family just standing there in the middle
16:42
Speaker 1: of all this just sadness, it was heart-wrenching. And in
16:46
Speaker 1: part because he knew that despite his early optimism, the
16:49
Speaker 1: investigation into Will's killer was really not going particularly well,
16:54
Speaker 1: at least not so far. For the past couple of days,
16:56
Speaker 1: Lynch and his team had been trying to contact Eugene
16:59
Speaker 1: by phone and at his home, but he seemed to
17:02
Speaker 1: have just vanished. And to make matters worse, Lynch's other
17:06
Speaker 1: main suspect, Yeloma's ex-husband, Macklin Hines, hadn't panned out. It
17:11
Speaker 1: turned out there was actually an extremely good reason why
17:14
Speaker 1: nobody had heard from him for days around the time
17:17
Speaker 1: of the shooting. It was because Hines had actually been
17:20
Speaker 1: in jail on the night of Will's murder. Like, he
17:23
Speaker 1: literally couldn't have done this. Now, of course, it was
17:26
Speaker 1: still possible that he could have hired someone to do it,
17:29
Speaker 1: but as for now, it seemed like Macklin was not
17:33
Speaker 1: as good of a suspect as they once thought. And now,
17:36
Speaker 1: as Lynch stood there at this vigil among so many mourners,
17:39
Speaker 1: he knew that if his investigation didn't start delivering answers soon.
17:43
Speaker 2: A lot of people.
17:44
Speaker 1: Were going to be very disappointed. And to get those answers,
17:48
Speaker 1: Lynch knew they needed to find Eugene Cray. More than
17:53
Speaker 1: a month later, Detective Lynch was back inside of the
17:56
Speaker 1: police station's interview room, sitting across from a skinny, scowling man.
18:01
Speaker 2: This was Eugene Cray.
18:03
Speaker 1: And he'd walked into the station earlier that morning, demanding
18:06
Speaker 1: to know why the police were leaving flyers with this
18:08
Speaker 1: photo all over his block.
18:11
Speaker 2: And Lynch had actually been kind of.
18:12
Speaker 1: Amused that Eugene was acting so indignant, because for more
18:16
Speaker 1: than a month, police had been doing everything they possibly
18:19
Speaker 1: could just to contact this guy.
18:22
Speaker 2: They'd knocked on Eugene's door, they'd left messages, asked Eugene's.
18:25
Speaker 1: Neighbors for help. But there had not been one single
18:28
Speaker 1: peep out of Eugene that entire time. Almost like he
18:31
Speaker 1: didn't want to be found. But the flyers seemed to
18:34
Speaker 1: have flushed Eugene out, and now Lynch sat across from him,
18:37
Speaker 1: waiting for him to explain why he'd apparently been in
18:40
Speaker 1: hiding since the night of Will's death. But Eugene just
18:43
Speaker 1: folded his arms and said he didn't have anything to
18:46
Speaker 1: do with the shooting. He said he'd been at home
18:48
Speaker 1: in bed that night, listening to music with his headphones on.
18:52
Speaker 1: So he said he hadn't even heard the gunshots and,
18:54
Speaker 1: you know, he lived in the same rough area, so
18:56
Speaker 1: he would have, but.
18:57
Speaker 2: He didn't because he was in bed with headphones on.
18:59
Speaker 1: Now, Lynch thought this was a very poor alibi because,
19:02
Speaker 1: you know, Eugene didn't have anybody who could confirm that
19:05
Speaker 1: he had been at home, in bed, headphones on at
19:08
Speaker 1: the time of the murder. It was just his word
19:10
Speaker 1: against everybody else's. And so instead of trying to, you know,
19:14
Speaker 1: dig into the alibi, Lynch just asked Eugene to about
19:17
Speaker 1: that confrontation he had had with Will a few weeks
19:20
Speaker 1: before the shooting. And Eugene told him pretty much the
19:23
Speaker 1: same story that Yeloma had. That he had been outside,
19:26
Speaker 1: he had been sitting in his car, according to him,
19:28
Speaker 1: he was minding his own business, when Will suddenly appeared,
19:32
Speaker 1: you know, storming out of his house, waving a gun
19:34
Speaker 1: in the air, yelling for Eugene to turn down his music.
19:37
Speaker 1: And Eugene said, just from the look on Will's face,
19:41
Speaker 1: he seemed mad enough that he might actually use the gun.
19:44
Speaker 1: So Eugene said he just sped off as fast as
19:46
Speaker 1: he could. Lynch studied Eugene as he was saying this.
19:50
Speaker 1: And there was just something about this guy's demeanor that
19:53
Speaker 1: it seemed unlikely that Eugene would have let their conflict
19:57
Speaker 1: end right there. That, you know, Will came out, he
19:59
Speaker 1: yelled at Eugene, and Eugene drove off.
20:01
Speaker 2: And that was it.
20:02
Speaker 1: Like, the idea that Eugene was just going to go
20:04
Speaker 1: on with life and not be upset With Will, it
20:07
Speaker 1: just seems sort of far-fetched. And so he really wanted
20:10
Speaker 1: Eugene's DNA. That way he could just test it against
20:14
Speaker 1: the showcasing DNA and find out the truth. But Lynch
20:17
Speaker 1: knew that Eugene had a history of prior arrests and
20:21
Speaker 1: seemed to know his way around a police interview. So
20:23
Speaker 1: Lynch guessed that if he pressed for a DNA swab
20:26
Speaker 1: right now, Eugene would refuse and very likely lawyer up.
20:30
Speaker 1: But Lynch at the same time felt like he really
20:32
Speaker 1: did need this swab. Like he just, he had to ask. So,
20:36
Speaker 1: doing his best to not seem too eager, Lynch leaned
20:40
Speaker 1: back in his chair and, as casually as possible, asked
20:44
Speaker 1: if Eugene would submit a DNA sample, just so they
20:47
Speaker 1: could rule him out as a suspect.
20:49
Speaker 2: And to Lynch's surprise, Eugene just shrugged and said, okay.
20:54
Speaker 1: About three months after the murder, in February of 2014,
20:58
Speaker 1: Detective Lynch sat at his desk reading through a thick
21:01
Speaker 1: stack of financial documents. Now, by this point, the Will
21:05
Speaker 1: Walker murder investigation had pretty much stalled out because Eugene
21:09
Speaker 1: Cray's DNA did not match the DNA on the shell
21:12
Speaker 1: casings found at the scene. Still, Lynch had pressed on
21:15
Speaker 1: and questioned everyone he could think of, Will's neighbors, his co-workers,
21:20
Speaker 1: his kids, his stepkids, and even their romantic partners. Lynch's
21:24
Speaker 1: team had also poured through hours upon hours of security
21:28
Speaker 1: camera footage collected from the homes and businesses that were
21:31
Speaker 1: near Will's house. But even after all that effort, Lynch
21:35
Speaker 1: was nowhere closer to solving this case. So now, with
21:38
Speaker 1: really no other ideas, Lynch was just going through all
21:42
Speaker 1: of Will's financial records that he could get his hands on.
21:45
Speaker 2: Bank statements, loan documents, mortgages.
21:47
Speaker 1: And Lynch's eyes were starting to glaze over when.
21:50
Speaker 2: A stray form suddenly caught his eye.
21:53
Speaker 1: It was an addendum to a $ 100, 000 life insurance policy
21:56
Speaker 1: for Will.
21:58
Speaker 2: According to this.
21:59
Speaker 1: Form, to this addendum, in the event that Will died...
22:02
Speaker 1: That money would not go to Yoloma or his kids or, like,
22:06
Speaker 1: you know, his immediate family. It would go to his ex-wife,
22:10
Speaker 1: Rita Walker, who he hadn't been married to for nine years.
22:23
Speaker 1: The following afternoon, in February of 2014, Detective Tom Lynch
22:27
Speaker 1: led Rita Walker into an interview room at the Cleveland
22:30
Speaker 1: Police Station. And Rita seemed very confused about why she
22:34
Speaker 1: was being questioned again, three months after her ex-husband, Fire
22:39
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Will Walker, had been murdered.
22:41
Speaker 2: So immediately after the killing, Rita.
22:44
Speaker 1: Along with Yoloma and all the kids and stepkids, they
22:46
Speaker 1: had all been interviewed pretty much right away. And at
22:49
Speaker 1: the time, Lynch hadn't even considered Rita a suspect. So
22:53
Speaker 1: this time, when Lynch sat down with her, the questions
22:56
Speaker 1: were different. Because now, there appeared to be a clear
23:00
Speaker 1: motive behind for Rita to want to harm Will. So
23:03
Speaker 1: he began by asking Rita where she was on the
23:06
Speaker 1: night of the murder. And right away, Rita's expression sort
23:09
Speaker 1: of tightened. She paused and then said that she couldn't
23:12
Speaker 1: really remember all the details, but she said that she
23:14
Speaker 1: had stopped by Will and Yoloma's house around 1pm to
23:18
Speaker 1: pick up her son, who had spent that morning helping
23:21
Speaker 1: Will and Yoloma pack.
23:22
Speaker 2: And this information sort of caught Lynch off guard.
23:25
Speaker 1: I mean, he knew that You know, Will was shot
23:27
Speaker 1: at night, and Rita is describing being at Will's house
23:30
Speaker 1: in the afternoon, so hours before the shooting. But here
23:34
Speaker 1: she was, admitting that she was there on the day
23:37
Speaker 1: of the murder. She was at the scene of the crime.
23:40
Speaker 1: So Detective Lynch moved on to the real reason he
23:43
Speaker 1: had asked her to come down. And he asked about
23:45
Speaker 1: that life insurance policy that listed her, rather than Yaloma
23:49
Speaker 1: or anybody else in the family, as the beneficiary. And Rita,
23:53
Speaker 1: she sat back for a second and just stared at Lynch...
23:56
Speaker 1: And then she nodded and said, of course she knew
23:59
Speaker 1: about that. Because that was how it was meant to be.
24:02
Speaker 1: She explained to Lynch that Will had taken out that
24:05
Speaker 1: policy as a safety net for his kids. And he
24:09
Speaker 1: had named Rita as the beneficiary because he trusted her
24:12
Speaker 1: to divide the money between their kids. And to Lynch,
24:16
Speaker 1: he had to admit this did sort of make sense.
24:19
Speaker 1: But he also had a different theory. He suspected that
24:22
Speaker 1: Will had just never gotten around to.
24:24
Speaker 2: Updating the forms.
24:26
Speaker 1: But with his recent marriage to Yeloma, it was probably
24:29
Speaker 1: on his to-do list. And if Rita had figured that out,
24:32
Speaker 1: it might have pushed her to have Will killed before
24:36
Speaker 1: he could remove her from his own policy.
24:38
Speaker 2: But that was really just a hunch that he kept
24:40
Speaker 2: to himself.
24:42
Speaker 1: And Lynch also knew he really didn't have the evidence
24:44
Speaker 1: to charge Rita with anything here. And after almost half
24:47
Speaker 1: an hour of questioning, Rita was still very confidently sticking
24:51
Speaker 1: to her story. So eventually Lynch told her that she
24:54
Speaker 1: was free to go. Then Lynch, he got up and
24:57
Speaker 1: he walked Rita out to the front of the building.
24:59
Speaker 1: But as he watched Rita get into her car and
25:01
Speaker 1: pull out of the parking lot, his eyes narrowed because
25:05
Speaker 1: he suddenly realized he recognized Rita's car from somewhere. Lynch's
25:09
Speaker 1: mind immediately began to race as he ran back to
25:12
Speaker 1: his office and turned on his computer. And once the
25:14
Speaker 1: computer was on, he pulled up the security footage from
25:17
Speaker 1: Will's neighborhood. And after scrubbing through a dozen files, he found.
25:22
Speaker 2: What he was looking for.
25:23
Speaker 1: A security camera had captured footage of Rita's car just
25:27
Speaker 1: a few blocks away from Will's house right before he
25:30
Speaker 1: was killed. This was clearly not that afternoon visit that
25:34
Speaker 1: Rita had already told Lynch about. This was a second
25:38
Speaker 1: visit to Will's neighborhood that she had not mentioned at all.
25:42
Speaker 1: Less than half an hour later, Rita was back inside
25:45
Speaker 1: the interview room and Lynch was staring her down as
25:49
Speaker 1: she frantically tried to explain herself. Now that Lynch had
25:52
Speaker 1: confronted her with this footage... Rita had totally changed her story,
25:57
Speaker 1: admitting that she had actually gone back to Will's house
26:00
Speaker 1: that night. But she said it was just to pick
26:02
Speaker 1: up some shoes her son had left there and that
26:04
Speaker 1: she'd left long before Will's murder.
26:06
Speaker 2: But what Rita really.
26:07
Speaker 1: Couldn't explain was, if this was so innocent, why hadn't
26:11
Speaker 1: she mentioned it before? And so now, Lynch just stared
26:15
Speaker 1: at her, letting his silence pressure her to keep on talking.
26:19
Speaker 1: He was hoping Rita would slip up or crack or confess.
26:23
Speaker 1: But as the interview went on, Rita just kept insisting
26:27
Speaker 1: again and again that this was an honest mistake, that
26:30
Speaker 1: that second visit meant nothing, she was just getting shoes,
26:33
Speaker 1: and she didn't know why she didn't bring it up.
26:36
Speaker 2: And this was a problem for Lynch and the whole investigation.
26:40
Speaker 1: Because even though the facts did look quite bad for Rita,
26:43
Speaker 1: she had a motive, she had been at the crime
26:46
Speaker 1: scene close to the time of the murder, and she'd
26:48
Speaker 1: failed to tell the police about being at the crime scene.
26:52
Speaker 1: but Lynch knew that he still didn't have enough to
26:54
Speaker 1: charge her with anything. And so Lynch sat there hoping
26:58
Speaker 1: that Rita would, you know, offer up something that would
27:00
Speaker 1: allow him to charge her, like a confession or just anything.
27:04
Speaker 1: But she stuck to her story again and again, and eventually,
27:09
Speaker 1: once more, he had to let her walk out. Nine
27:12
Speaker 1: months later, in December of 2014, Detective Lynch was in
27:16
Speaker 1: his office when his phone rang. He answered, and the
27:19
Speaker 1: station receptionist said a man from Will Walker's neighborhood had
27:23
Speaker 1: just come into the precinct, claiming he had vital information
27:27
Speaker 1: about the murder. Apparently, this man was being escorted to
27:29
Speaker 1: an interview room, and Lynch could go question him when
27:32
Speaker 1: he was ready. Lynch said thank you and hung up
27:34
Speaker 1: the phone, but then he just sort of sighed and
27:37
Speaker 1: sat back and rubbed his forehead because he was not
27:40
Speaker 1: optimistic about this new lead. Because one month ago, the
27:44
Speaker 1: Cleveland Firefighters Union had announced a $ 24, 000 reward for information
27:50
Speaker 1: leading to the arrest of Will's killer. And ever since then,
27:53
Speaker 1: the station had been flooded with false tips. And so
27:57
Speaker 1: Lynch and his team, they'd spent weeks chasing down basically
28:01
Speaker 1: rumors that went nowhere.
28:02
Speaker 2: And it was really frustrating.
28:04
Speaker 1: So even though he figured that, you know, whoever this
28:06
Speaker 1: guy was waiting for him in the interview room.
28:08
Speaker 2: Was very likely going to go nowhere. It was going
28:11
Speaker 2: to be another dead end.
28:12
Speaker 1: He still felt like, you know what? I got nothing
28:14
Speaker 1: else to do. I'll go see, you know, what he knows.
28:17
Speaker 1: So he stood up, he left his office, he made
28:19
Speaker 1: his way down the hall, he walked into the interview room,
28:22
Speaker 1: and sure enough, there's this guy he didn't know.
28:24
Speaker 2: Who's sitting behind the table.
28:26
Speaker 1: And so Lynch, he sat down as well, and he
28:28
Speaker 1: just said, okay, what do you know about what happened
28:30
Speaker 1: to Will Walker? And this man, instead of saying anything
28:34
Speaker 1: in response to that question, just pulled out his phone,
28:37
Speaker 1: put it on the table, and hit play. And when
28:40
Speaker 1: Lynch realized what he was listening to, his eyes went wide.
28:45
Speaker 1: because the audio on this man's phone had just cracked
28:48
Speaker 1: the case wide open. Based on the evidence that was
28:54
Speaker 1: collected at the crime scene and on witness testimony, the
28:57
Speaker 1: following is a reconstruction of what police believe happened to
29:00
Speaker 1: Will Walker on the night of November 3rd, 2013. At
29:08
Speaker 1: around 8.30 p.m., the killer, who was very nervous, was
29:12
Speaker 1: hiding in the shadows behind Will Walker's garage. They were
29:16
Speaker 1: doing their best to try to calm themselves down, to
29:18
Speaker 1: be ready for what they were about to do, but
29:21
Speaker 1: they knew it was going to be very risky for them.
29:24
Speaker 1: Just then, the killer heard a car pulling into the driveway.
29:28
Speaker 1: And as the engine cut off, the killer leaned out
29:31
Speaker 1: of their hiding spot and saw Will Walker step out
29:34
Speaker 1: of his car with a fast food bag in one
29:36
Speaker 1: hand and his keys in the other. The killer took
29:39
Speaker 1: a deep breath at this point. because they knew this
29:41
Speaker 1: was it. And as Will began walking across the driveway
29:44
Speaker 1: toward the back door, the killer drew their gun, rushed
29:48
Speaker 1: out of their hiding spot, and began shooting. And they
29:51
Speaker 1: ran as they shot. And as Will fell to the ground,
29:55
Speaker 1: a flash of red in the air told the killer
29:58
Speaker 1: that they had hit him. So without stopping to check
30:00
Speaker 1: for a pulse, you know, to make sure Will was
30:02
Speaker 1: actually dead, the killer turned and ran to the fence,
30:06
Speaker 1: climbed over it, and jumped down into the alley behind
30:08
Speaker 1: the house where the getaway car was waiting. The killer
30:12
Speaker 1: leapt into the back seat right as the driver began
30:14
Speaker 1: peeling out of the alleyway. And as they're speeding along,
30:18
Speaker 1: the person sitting in the front passenger seat turned around.
30:21
Speaker 2: And asked the killer... is Will dead?
30:24
Speaker 1: And when the killer, who was still laying in the
30:26
Speaker 1: back seat composing themselves, they nodded and said, yes, he was.
30:31
Speaker 1: The person in the passenger seat just turned back around,
30:34
Speaker 1: pulled out their phone, typed a text, and then hit send.
30:38
Speaker 1: That text message confirming the shooting went straight to the
30:41
Speaker 1: person who had actually orchestrated this hit on Will Walker.
30:45
Speaker 1: And when the text came through to the architect's phone,
30:50
Speaker 1: that person was actually standing over Will as he bled out.
30:54
Speaker 1: The architect was also the same person who called 911
30:58
Speaker 1: and who would cradle Will as he lay there dying.
31:01
Speaker 1: Because the mastermind of this murder was Will Walker's beloved
31:05
Speaker 1: cancer-stricken wife, Yeloma Curry Walker. Except Yeloma was not at
31:12
Speaker 1: all what she seemed. Starting with the fact that she
31:15
Speaker 1: didn't actually have cancer. From the very beginning, Yeloma's cancer
31:18
Speaker 1: diagnosis had been a big, elaborate lie. Police believe she
31:22
Speaker 1: fabricated the illness just to convince Will to finally marry her,
31:26
Speaker 1: because that way she could, one, be put on his
31:29
Speaker 1: health insurance policy, and two, if he were to die,
31:33
Speaker 1: she could collect on his life insurance policy. But Yeloma
31:38
Speaker 1: didn't realize that Will's life insurance policy was still in
31:42
Speaker 1: Rita's name. But despite that oversight, it did not stop
31:45
Speaker 1: Yoloma from putting a tremendous amount of planning into.
31:49
Speaker 2: The plot to murder Will.
31:50
Speaker 1: In fact, if you remember that phone call that Yoloma
31:53
Speaker 1: was having with her daughter Jackie that when Will walked
31:56
Speaker 1: in the living room, there was Yoloma, she's on the phone,
31:58
Speaker 1: and he asked her if she wanted dinner, and she's like, yeah,
32:00
Speaker 1: go to McDonald's. Well, that phone call with Jackie is
32:04
Speaker 1: the one that actually sealed his fate. Because the instant
32:07
Speaker 1: Will left the house to go get their dinner, Yoloma,
32:10
Speaker 1: who's still on the phone with Jackie.
32:12
Speaker 2: told her daughter that, hey, he just left.
32:15
Speaker 1: And Jackie, who knew the plan, she passed that message
32:18
Speaker 1: along to her boyfriend, Chad Padgett, who was sitting in
32:21
Speaker 1: a car right down the street from Will's house waiting
32:24
Speaker 1: for this message.
32:25
Speaker 2: And he was there along with his.
32:26
Speaker 1: Getaway car driver and the man he had hired to
32:29
Speaker 1: actually carry out the shooting. The shooter was Ryan Doherty,
32:33
Speaker 1: a young man from the neighborhood who had agreed to.
32:35
Speaker 2: Kill Will for $ 800 and some marijuana.
32:39
Speaker 1: And the getaway car driver was actually just a friend
32:41
Speaker 1: of Chad's who thought they were there to buy drugs.
32:44
Speaker 1: Yaloma had promised to pay Jackie and Chad for finding
32:48
Speaker 1: people to kill her husband for her. But Chad was
32:52
Speaker 1: very sloppy. And one of the people he offered the
32:55
Speaker 1: job to was later caught on tape talking about it.
32:59
Speaker 1: And that recording is how the investigators came to learn
33:02
Speaker 1: that Chad, Jackie, and Yaloma were all involved. And at first,
33:07
Speaker 1: I mean, they really couldn't believe it. Because Yoloma's performance
33:11
Speaker 1: as a cancer-stricken dying widow had been so masterful, no
33:16
Speaker 1: one had looked close enough to see who she really was.
33:19
Speaker 1: Yoloma Curry Walker was arrested on September 8, 2015, and
33:23
Speaker 1: she was ultimately sentenced to life in prison for her
33:26
Speaker 1: role in the murder plot. As for the people she
33:28
Speaker 1: convinced to participate in this plot, they were convicted on
33:32
Speaker 1: a range of charges and spent between two years and
33:36
Speaker 1: life in prison. And then as for Rita Walker, Will's ex-wife,
33:40
Speaker 1: she was not involved in the murder in any way,
33:42
Speaker 1: so her story was absolutely true. And she would eventually
33:46
Speaker 1: receive that life insurance payout, just as Will had planned.
33:54
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching.
33:56
Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
33:57
Speaker 1: the comments. And remember, we have a whole playlist of
34:00
Speaker 1: true crime episodes ready for you to binge right now.
34:03
Speaker 2: So click here and give them a watch. All right,
34:06
Speaker 2: until next time, see ya.