Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / Little Miss Innocent - Passion, Poison, and Prison
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: On the morning of July twentieth, twenty fifteen, Mary Yoda,
- 0:04a sixty year old chiropractor who operated a successful practice
- 0:08in upstate New York, alongside her husband, William Yoda, appeared
- 0:13to be in excellent health. A friend who had seen
- 0:17her earlier that day noted that Mary exuded her characteristic
- 0:22warmth and tranquility. However, after lunch, her condition deteriorated. Mary
- 0:29began to feel unwell and had difficulty completing her scheduled appointments.
- 0:34That evening, she informed her husband that she suspected she
- 0:38was suffering from a stomach virus. The following morning, she
- 0:42was admitted to the hospital, where medical staff anticipated her
- 0:47discharge after a brief overnight observation. William Yoda reached out
- 0:53to their three children, asking them to come to the hospital,
- 0:57where Mary subsequently experienced cardiac recast. Her passing was both
- 1:02abrupt and distressing. What the hell happened? That was the
- 1:06question asked by Sharon Grower, Mary's longtime friend and client,
- 1:11as well as others in the tight knit community of Whitesboro,
- 1:15New York. An autopsy provided minimal insights, and further examination
- 1:21indicated that Mary may have been poisoned tests were conducted
- 1:26to detect various toxins, including arsenic cyanide and other common poisons.
- 1:33After several weeks, the results returned negative. A poison control
- 1:38specialist proposed the possibility of colchicine, a medication used for
- 1:43gout that has a narrow therapeutic range. This implies that
- 1:49the difference between effective and harmful doses is slight, with
- 1:53some doses potentially overlapping in its unadulterated form. Lesy informed
- 2:00producers that even a minuscule quantity can be fatal. In
- 2:04October twenty fifteen, laboratory analyzes confirmed that Mary Yoder, who
- 2:11did not suffer from gout, had a lethal concentration of
- 2:15colchicine in her bloodstream. Was it possible that she ingested
- 2:19something that was unintentionally contaminated or had she been deliberately
- 2:24administered the drug investigators concluded it was the latter. Detectives
- 2:30initiated their inquiry with William, who had known Mary since
- 2:34their college days in nineteen seventy five. They examined the
- 2:38victim's life insurance policies for any potential motives. However, the
- 2:44investigation yielded no incriminating evidence, leading to the dismissal of
- 2:49the insurance payout as a motive. Initially, William's developing relationship
- 2:54with his wife's widowed sister raised concerns, but investigators ultimately
- 2:59decided neided to explore other leads. In November twenty fifteen,
- 3:05the investigation took a significant turn when an anonymous letter
- 3:10was sent to the Oneida County Sheriff's Office implicating Adam Yoda,
- 3:15the son of William and Mary. The correspondence referenced colchicine,
- 3:21indicating that a vial of it could be located beneath
- 3:24the passenger seat of Adam's jeep. Authorities contemplated potential motives
- 3:30for Adam's alleged murder of his mother, with one plausible
- 3:34explanation being a financial inheritance. In December two thy fifteen,
- 3:40Adam was summoned for interrogation and refuted any involvement in
- 3:45his mother's demise. When investigators requested permission to search his vehicle, Adam,
- 3:51after conferring with legal counsel, consented to the search. Mark
- 3:55van Nami, an investigator with the Oneida County Sheriff's Office,
- 4:00informed killer motive host Troy Roberts that Adam was smoking
- 4:03a cigarette during the vehicle search, and when the colchiesine
- 4:07bottle was discovered, it nearly slipped from his lips. Investigators
- 4:12further examined Adam's activities surrounding the time of his mother's poisoning.
- 4:18Five days earlier, he had traveled to Long Island to
- 4:22visit one of his sisters and remained there until his
- 4:26father alerted him to his mother's critical health condition. Was
- 4:31the author of the anonymous letter attempting to frame Adam?
- 4:35Who might have such an intention? William Yoda emerged as
- 4:40a primary person of interest. However, the investigation took a
- 4:45turn when detectives interviewed Adam's intermittent girlfriend, Caitlin Conley, who
- 4:51was employed at the Yoda's chiropractic clinic. During her police interview,
- 4:56Conley confessed to being the author of the letter, fighting
- 5:00her fear of Adam as the reason. Nevertheless, her account
- 5:05raised concerns, particularly given Adam's strong alibi. Investigators faced challenges
- 5:12in establishing a direct link between Conley and the case,
- 5:17and they found it difficult to ascertain a motive. Mary
- 5:21Conley's employer was also a friend. Upon further examination of
- 5:26Conley's history, investigators uncovered that she and Adam had a
- 5:31tumultuous and at times unhealthy relationship. Additionally, it was revealed
- 5:37that in April twenty fifteen, Conley had provided Adam with
- 5:41supplements designed to enhance his focus, which ultimately caused him illness,
- 5:47as reported by the Utica Observer Dispatch in twenty seventeen.
- 5:54In February twenty sixteen, detectives sought the expertise of computer
- 5:59FORENSICSPS specialists. This investigation yielded e mails and prepaid gift
- 6:05cards linked to the purchase of Colchisine, which pointed to Conley. Furthermore,
- 6:11her DNA was discovered on the colchisceine vial found in
- 6:16Adam's jeep.