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Poisoned Love: A Doctor's Betrayal · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Imagine for a second that you finally meet the perfect partner.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, you are 33, you are ready to settle down.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: And then almost like magic, someone walks into your life
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: who shares your exact passions.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that absolute dream scenario that everyone talks about.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Exactly. He understands the unique stress of your career and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: things just click. Within a month, he moves in.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Which is incredibly fast, by the way.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Oh, super fast. But you're swept up in it. You're
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: spending your weekends taking care of his kids. Then you
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: find out you're pregnant.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: And he responds perfectly, right? Right.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: He promises you this beautiful barefoot sunset wedding on a
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: distant beach. He even buys a massive $ 320, 000 brick house
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: for your new family. It is the absolute picture-perfect dream.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: But obviously, we wouldn't be talking about this if it
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: stayed a dream.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, unfortunately. Because there is a horrifying catch. The person
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: you are building this entire future with is secretly and
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: methodically trying to physically poison you.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: It's just, it's terrifying to even think about being in
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: that position.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: It really is. Today, we are looking at a transcript
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: from the classic true crime docuseries, Forensic Files. Specifically, Season 7,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Episode 18.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Aptly titled, A Bitter Pill to Swallow.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: That's the one. Our mission for this deep dive is
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: to examine this terrifying intersection of blind trust... the immense
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: weight of medical authority, and amateur detective work.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Because she really had to take matters into her own
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: hands here.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: She did. We are going to look at how an
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: ordinary woman, when the medical and legal systems literally could
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: not immediately protect her, used her own intuition and a
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: hidden camera to outsmart a highly educated medical professional.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: It's an incredible story of survival.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack this dynamic between these two people, because
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: the way this relationship begins is the blueprint for everything
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: that goes wrong.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have to look at this beyond the lens
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: of just a standard true crime narrative. What happens to
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Michelle Baker in Huber Heights, Ohio, is a profound study
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: of the patient-doctor dynamic being dragged into a romantic relationship.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Right, because their professional lives bled directly into their personal lives.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Exactly. We are looking at the halo effect here, that inherent...
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Almost biological trust we place in a professional title. And
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: how a predator can use that halo as a shield
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: for deadly intentions.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: So let's set the scene in Huber Heights. It's the
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: late 90s, early 2000s. Michelle Baker is 33, and she's
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: working as a firefighter and a paramedic.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Which is an incredibly high-stress, demanding job. Oh, absolutely.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: And a friend introduces her to a new doctor in town, Dr.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Maynard Munsing II. He's also 33. They are both divorced,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: and they both work in emergency medicine.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: So on paper, they look like a perfect match.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: They really do. And within 30 days of meeting, Dr.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Munsing moves into Michelle's small home. She steps right into
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: this maternal role for his two kids on the weekends, too.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: That's a huge commitment right out of the gate.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Well, hold on a second. If a guy wants to
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: move into your house after 30 days and immediately has
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: you playing stepmom to his kids on your days off,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, my first instinct isn't, wow, what a fairy tale. No.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: What's your first instinct?
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: My first instinct is this guy is desperate for a
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: free babysitter and a place to crash. How does a smart,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: highly trained paramedic completely miss that massive red flag?
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Well, you have to look at it because of the
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: environment she operates in every single day. Look at the
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: psychological comfort of fighting someone in an adjacent high-stress field.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: You mean the emergency medicine connection.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Michelle deals with trauma... split-second decisions, and high adrenaline
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: all the time. Paramedics are literally trained to defer to
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: doctors in the field. They execute the life-saving measures that
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: doctors direct.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow. I never thought about that professional hierarchy.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Right. So when she meets Maynard, that professional deference seamlessly
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: bleeds into her personal life. She doesn't see a guy
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: rushing a relationship.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: She just sees a colleague who operates at the same
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: high-stakes speed she does.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: Precisely. She assumes they speak the same language.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: And shortly after they move in together, Michelle finds out
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: she's pregnant. Maynard responds with this grand romantic promise of
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: a barefoot sunset wedding in Key West, Florida.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: It sounds incredibly idyllic.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: It does. They book the trip. They fly down. But
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: on their very first night in Florida, he suddenly hits
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: the brakes.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Just out of nowhere.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Completely out of nowhere. He tells her he wants to
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: postpone the wedding, claiming he suddenly realizes he wants his
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: family there to see it.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Notice the phrasing he uses there. He doesn't say he
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: has doubts about marrying her. He frames it entirely around
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: family values.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Oh, that is so manipulative.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: It is. He leverages his apparent reasonableness to control the
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: pacing of the entire relationship. If Michelle argues against it,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: she looks like the unreasonable one who doesn't care about
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: his family.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: So she's basically trapped into agreeing with him.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Exactly. It is a masterful, subtle establishment of control over
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: her emotional state.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Well, that emotional whiplash is brutal. But it's instantly followed
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: by a physical crisis. That same night in Florida, they
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: go to the Hard Rock Cafe to sort of salvage
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the evening.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Try to make the best of a bad situation, yeah.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Right. Maynard goes up to the bar and brings drinks
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: over to their table. Sometime after they leave the restaurant,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Michelle starts experiencing severe cramps and light bleeding.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Which is terrifying for any pregnant woman.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Put yourself in Michelle's shoes for a second. You
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: are away from home... You just had your wedding postponed.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: You are pregnant and now you are bleeding.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: And who is standing right there to manage the crisis?
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: The doctor.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Her fiancé.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Right. He has her lay down, assesses her, and tells
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: her with absolute medical authority that there is nothing to
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: worry about. This is the ultimate weaponization of the halo effect.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Because she trusts him implicitly.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Exactly. If an accountant fiancé said, hey, don't worry about
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: the bleeding. A pregnant woman would likely call a hospital anyway.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: But when a doctor says it, you stay in the
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: hotel room.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Which is terrifying because his tactic works perfectly. They eventually
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: get back to Ohio and Michelle goes to see her
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: own physician, Dr. John Shee, just to follow up on
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: the incident.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: And what does he tell her?
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Well, Dr. Shee looks at her chart, looks at her symptoms,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: and attributes the scare entirely to her age. She's 33
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: with a first pregnancy and her known history of endometriosis.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Oh, so he gives it a completely normal biological explanation.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he essentially pats her on the head and tells
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: her the chance of a serious problem is remote.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: Because he's diagnosing a biological patient, not a crime scene.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: The entire medical system relies on the assumption that patients
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: live in generally safe environments.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Right. Doctors aren't trained to look for a murderer in
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: the exam room.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Exactly. A doctor is trained to look for a structural
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: or biological cause for bleeding, like endometriosis, which can cause
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: cramping and spotting anyway. Dr. Shi has no reason to
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: assume the patient's fiancé is secretly introducing a toxin.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: And Maynard knows this.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: He knows exactly how other doctors think. He knows her
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: medical history provides the perfect camouflage for his actions.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: So her body is physically sounding the alarm, but the
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: medical professionals are turning the alarm off. And while she's
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: dealing with this invisible physical threat, the financial and emotional
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: illusion of the relationship is accelerating.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: He doubles down on the commitment, right?
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: He does. Maynard doesn't just stick around. He buys a house,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: a $ 320, 000 brick house.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: In the year 2000 in Ohio, that is a massive
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: financial commitment.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: It's huge. It totally anchors Michelle to this vision of
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: a shared future. But the exact same time they are
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: closing on this family home, Maynard starts casually confessing that
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: he has lingering feelings for his ex-girlfriend, Tammy Irwin. Wow.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: Talk about make signals.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: I know, right? He describes his past with Tammy as
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: quote-unquote stormy. But why would you buy a massive house
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: with a woman if your ultimate goal is to get
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: rid of her and the baby? That seems totally contradictory.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: What's fascinating here is that it's only contradictory if you
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: look at it through the lens of a healthy person
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: planning a future. But if you look at it as
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: a manipulative tactic, it makes perfect sense. How so?
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: It just seems like a waste of money.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: The house is a financial cage. It buys Michelle's continued
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: trust and makes her dependent on him. while simultaneously he
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: brings up Tammy to destabilize her emotionally.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see. So he's locking her in while tearing
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: her down.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Exactly. He is trapping her financially while testing her boundaries
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: with blatant disrespect. It induces a state of profound cognitive dissonance.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: He successfully trapped her in this massive financial cage. You'd
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: think he'd lay low and just play the role of
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: the perfect fiancé for a while just to keep the peace.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: But he doesn't, does he?
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Not even close. This is where his psychological profile shifts
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: from calculated manipulator to reckless narcissist. And it happens over
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: a completely mundane local radio broadcast.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: The radio incident is honestly one of the wildest parts
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: of this case.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: It really is. So it is the 4th of July weekend.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Maynard packs a bag and tells Michelle he's going on
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: a fishing trip with a buddy about an hour away.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Classic excuse.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Yep. Michelle stays home. Later that night, she's listening to
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: a local radio station, Q92. It's an all-request hour. She
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: hears a caller asking the DJ to play the song
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Prisoner of Love.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: Okay, a bit cheesy, but sure.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Right, but then the DJ asks for the caller's name,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: and the caller says on live local radio, Maynard.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Oh my god.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: And Michelle knows instantly. It is unmistakably his voice.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: I mean, how many Maynards are calling into local Ohio
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: radio stations requesting love songs?
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Exactly. But my question is, how does someone orchestrating this complex,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: biological manipulation trip himself up by calling a local radio DJ?
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: It's so stupid.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: It comes down to pathological hubris. When a manipulator, especially
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: one cloaked in the authority of being a doctor, successfully
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: controls the people around them for long enough, they begin
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: to feel completely invulnerable.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: So they just get sloppy.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: Worse than sloppy. They stopped perceiving their victims as actual
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: human beings with agency. In Maynard's mind, Michelle was so
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: perfectly managed, so thoroughly boxed into the domestic life he
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: built for her, that it never even occurred to him
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: she might step outside of that box and listen to
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: the radio.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: That is just absolute arrogance.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: It is a mistake born purely of his own ego.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Well, that mistake costs him. Michelle asks the neighbor to
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: drive her over to Tammy Irwin's house, which is right
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: in the local broadcast area.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: She doesn't waste any time.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: No. She pulls up and there is Maynard's car. He's
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: outside with Tammy. Michelle walks right up to him and says,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: fishing trip, huh?
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: I bet the look on his face was priceless.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: He tries the classic, it's not what it looks like.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: And she fires back, it's exactly what it looks like.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: Good for her.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah. She discovers he's been telling Tammy he was just
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: living with a friend this whole time. He has been
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: hiding his entire domestic life with Michelle. So she throws
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: him out of the house immediately.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: In an irrational world, kicking him out is the end
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: of the timeline. The deception is uncovered. The relationship is over.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: But his goal wasn't just to string two women along.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: Right. As we soon find out, his goal was the
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: elimination of a perceived problem. His need to erase his complications...
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: forces him to re-engage, which is what finally activates Michelle's
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: survival instincts.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: It's terrifying that he couldn't just walk away. Just a
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: few days after she kicks him out, he calls her.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: He is playing the deeply remorseful fiancé.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: Of course he is.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: He invites her to a local park for a picnic
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: to talk things through. And according to Michelle, he seems
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: incredibly sincere. While they are sitting there, he prepares a
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: drink for her.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: The pattern repeats itself. It does.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: About 40 minutes after she finishes the drink... Michelle's body
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: practically revolts. She suffers violent vomiting, severe diarrhea, and heavy bleeding.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: That is an extreme physical reaction.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: It hits her so fast and so hard, she can't
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: even physically leave the park restroom. She has to go
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: back to her doctor.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: And let me guess, the doctor finds nothing wrong biologically.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Once again, the doctor looks at the ultrasound, sees
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: no structural damage to the fetus, and blames her physical
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: reaction on anxiety. He literally tells her she's just stressed
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: from seeing her ex-boyfriend.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: This is a devastating commentary on how the medical system
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: often defaults to psychological explanations for women's unexplained pain.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: It's just so frustrating to hear. She's being poisoned.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: I know. But because the doctor couldn't see a biological
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: issue on the ultrasound, the default assumption was emotional instability.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: By attributing the violent physical symptoms of poisoning to a
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: woman's emotional state, The medical system inadvertently provided perfect cover
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: for the perpetrator.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: It isolated Michelle even further. She actually starts believing her
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: own body is failing her.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: Which is exactly what Maynard wanted.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: But she's not entirely alone. She talks to her twin sister, Melinda.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: And Melinda's the one who steps back and looks at
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: the timeline.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: Sisters are often the best reality checks.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, totally. Melinda asks Michelle one simple question. Don't you
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: find it odd that every time you're with him, after
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: he leaves, you're sick?
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: If we connect it to the bigger picture, that is
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: the immense power of the outside observer. When you are
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: inside the chaos, you just can't see it.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: You're just trying to survive day to day.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: Exactly. You're navigating the fake apologies, the gaslighting, the financial stress,
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: the physical trauma. You are the proverbial frog in the
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: boiling water. You need a Melinda standing on the outside
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: to point out the obvious causal link.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: That one single question completely shatters the illusion for Michelle.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: She looks back. Florida. Maynard brought the drinks to the table.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: The picnic. Maynard prepared the drink.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: It's all right there once you know what to look for.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Shortly after this realization, Maynard tells Michelle he's taking his
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: kids to Florida for a short vacation. But she doesn't
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: believe a word of it now.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: The trust is completely gone.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Fully gone. She drives straight to Tammy's house, and sure enough,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: his car's there. She sneaks up to an open window
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: and overhears them talking. Tammy asks Maynard, What he intends
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: to do about the baby.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: And this is where we see his true colors.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: It's so dark. Maynard casually replies that she shouldn't worry
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: about it because as far as he knew, it, quote,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: could have already been taken care of.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: Taken care of. The absolute detachment in that phrasing is chilling.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Like it's a chore. Yes.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: He is discussing the murder of his own unborn child
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: as if it's a minor administrative task he outsourced.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: It is horrifying. Imagine being the pregnant mother, standing outside
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: a window in the dark, realizing the man you loved
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: is casually implying he has successfully exterminated your child.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: Who would break most people.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: But Michelle pivots instantly. She goes straight to the police
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: department and tells them her fiancé, a respected local doctor,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: is trying to abort their child.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: But the police reaction isn't exactly what you'd hope for
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: in that moment.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Not at all. If you're wondering why the police didn't
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: just drive over and arrest him on the spot... It's
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: because her story sounded completely unbelievable to them.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: You have Detective Jeffrey Colvin, a veteran with 25 years
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: on the force, openly admitting that the story seemed quite
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: fantastic and beyond his dreams.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Meaning beyond anything he'd ever seen. Right.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: The concept of a doctor secretly poisoning a pregnant woman
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: was just too outside their standard operating parameters. They literally
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: couldn't process it.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: They want to believe her, but they actually ask her
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: to take a lie detector test first.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: Which is pretty standard when someone makes a wild claim.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: It is, but then they realize department rules prohibit polygraphing
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: pregnant women.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: Oh, right, because of the stress and heart rate anomalies
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: it could cause for the baby. Exactly.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: So Detective Sergeant Richard Mazey basically says, look, this guy
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: is a doctor. We need hard, physical evidence to prove
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: he is doing this. They essentially send her back into
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: the lion's den.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: Which highlights the immense unfair burden placed on victims. The
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: justice system, bound by strict rules of evidence, frequently requires
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: the victim to do the heavy lifting of gathering that evidence.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: While they are still in active danger.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: Exactly. They are telling her, we believe you might be
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: getting poisoned, but you have to go get the poison
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: for us. It's absurd.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: But Michelle realizes she has to bait her own trap.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: She enlists a girlfriend, and they take a small video
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: camera and hide it inside a silk plant on Michelle's
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: kitchen counter.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: Amateur espionage at its finest. Truly.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: She invites Maynard over for dinner. When he arrives, she
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: tells him she's going outside to check the steaks on
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: the grill and asks him to pour her a soft drink.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: And the camera's rolling.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: The hidden camera captures him pulling a vial from his
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: pocket and pouring an unknown substance into her cup.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: But having a video of him pouring something into a
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: cup isn't enough for a conviction, legally speaking.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Why not? It's right there on tape.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: Because a good defense attorney could argue it was vitamins
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: or sugar or antacids. She needs the actual physical substance
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: to prove intent.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: So when he hands her the drink, she takes it,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: excuses herself, and walks into the bathroom where she has
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: hidden a plastic container.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: She's thinking ten steps ahead.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: She pours the drink into the container and she sees
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: this massive amount of white sludge settled at the bottom.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Not a few grains of powder. An enormous amount of
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: thick sludge.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: He wasn't even trying to be subtle about the dosage. No.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: No. She rinses the cup, pours fresh, clean coke into it,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: hides the sludge, walks back out to the dining room,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: and sits down to eat a steak dinner with him.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: Here's where it gets really interesting. Think about the psychological
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: fortitude that requires.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: It's like a controlled demolition. She has to keep the
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: structural facade of the relationship perfectly intact while secretly wiring
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: the whole thing to blow, knowing one wrong look, one
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: shake of her hand, would trigger it early.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: It's like sitting across from a venomous snake pretending you
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: don't know it just bit you.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: How do you eat a meal with a man actively
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: trying to murder your child? It's unimaginable.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: She knew that any shift in her demeanor would tip
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: him off. He was a doctor. If he suspected he
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: was caught, he would have destroyed the evidence and covered
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: his tracks forever.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: So she just had to play it cool.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: She had to suppress every natural flight or fight response
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: in her nervous system to secure that biological proof.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: And to make that dinner even more torturous? The phone
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: keeps ringing. It's Tammy Irwin, looking for Maynard.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: He really couldn't keep his lies straight.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Finally, the dinner ends and Maynard leaves. But a little
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: while later, the phone rings again. It's Maynard.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: What did he want?
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: He calls Michelle to casually ask if she wants to
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: know why Tammy was calling so much. Michelle plays along.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Maynard casually drops the bomb that he and Tammy had
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: legally gotten married that very week.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: Oh my god. The cruelty of that.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: It's unbelievable. He attempts to administer a fatal dose of poison,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: and his immediate follow-up action is to inflict maximum emotional cruelty.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: He is asserting total dominance over her reality. He wants
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: her to feel completely powerless.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: But she isn't powerless anymore. She takes the tape and
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the container of sludge straight to the police.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: But even with all that, a tape produced by a
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: victim and a sample secured by a victim isn't legally airtight.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Right, because of the chain of custody.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The investigation has to shift from amateur courage to
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: forensic science and police tactics.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: So forensic scientist Mike Wathen gets this sample of Coca-Cola
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: mixed with white sludge. And he is initially overwhelmed. There
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: are thousands of pharmaceutical drugs it could be.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: Standard toxicology screening without a target could take months. You
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: are searching for a needle in a stack of needles.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: And they simply didn't have months to wait. No.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: They needed answers immediately to protect her.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: So instead of blindly testing the sludge against every chemical
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: known to man, the police do something brilliant. They call
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: a local pharmacist.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: Which is such a smart, practical, investigative step.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: They ask one very specific question.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: And what medications out there would cause harm to a
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: fetus if taken by a pregnant woman?
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: And the pharmacist knows right away.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: The pharmacist immediately gives them a suspect, Cytotec. It is
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: a stomach ulcer drug, but it is known to be
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: used off-label to induce labor contractions. That phone call is
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: what saves the investigation. Because once they have a target drug,
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: the forensic lab can use a gas chromatograph and a
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: mass spectrometer to verify it.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Wait, break that down for us. I mean, what exactly
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: are those machines doing to the sludge?
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: Okay, so think of the gas chromatograph as a highly
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: sophisticated sorting machine. It vaporizes the sample, the coke and
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: the sludge, and pushes it through a long, coiled microscopic tube.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: So it turns the liquid into a gas.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And different chemical elements travel through that tube at
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: different speeds, which separates them out perfectly.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Okay, that makes sense.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: Once separated, those individual elements feed directly into the mass spectrometer.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: The mass spectrometer then bombards those elements with electrons.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: So it's literally blasting the sample apart at a subatomic
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: level to see what it's made of.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: That's a great way to picture it. It breaks the
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: molecules into fragments and measures their exact mass. Every chemical
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: compound shatters in a unique, predictable pattern, like a chemical fingerprint.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow. So they just compare the fingerprints.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: Yes. By comparing the molecular fingerprint of the sludge to
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: a known sample of side attack provided by a pharmaceutical company,
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: they get a perfect, undeniable match. The sludge is misoprostol,
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: which is the active ingredient in Cytotec.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: The science proves he's using an ulcer drug to try
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: and force an abortion. But the police realize they still
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: have a legal problem.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: Right, that chain of custody issue we talked about.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they are worried a sharp defense attorney will claim
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: that Michelle spiked her own drink with the Cytotec to
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: frame Maynard since she was the one who set up
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: the camera and handled the cup.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: And honestly, a good defense attorney probably would have tried
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: that exact angle. They need an unbroken chain of custody.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: The police have to observe the crime happening in real
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: time with their own equipment.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: So a few days later, the police go into Michelle's
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: house and set up their own sting operation. They hide
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: a camera inside a figurine on her kitchen counter.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: And the figurine itself is quite poetic.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: It really is. It's a figurine of a firefighter saving
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: a child. A deeply ironic nod to Michelle's own profession.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: So they are ready for him. They are.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: Michelle invites Maynard over for dinner one more time. Detective
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Colvin and Sergeant May are hiding out in the garage,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: watching a live video feed. Michelle goes out to check
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: the grill, just like before. And right on cue, Maynard
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: takes a vial from his pocket and spikes the drink again.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: This raises an important question about his psychology. His methodology
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: is chillingly consistent.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: He didn't change a thing.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: He was so convinced of his own superiority, so sure
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: of his routine, that he repeated the exact same crime
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: in the exact same way, without a shred of paranoia.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Well, the detectives burst into the kitchen right then and there.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: They arrest him on the spot. Sergeant May points up
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: at the firefighter figurine and says, right up there, you're
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: on camera.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: That must have been an incredible moment of vindication for Michelle.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: She finally gets to confront him to his face. She
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: tells him he didn't have to have anything to do
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: with the baby, but instead he tried to kill them both.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Does he deny it?
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: When the police question Maynard, he confesses. But in this
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: very cryptic, clinical way, he tells them he poisoned the
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: drink to, quote, remove the problem.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: Remove the problem. In fact, that detached administrative language.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah. The police ask him directly, did the problem mean
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: the baby? And he says yes. They search his car
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: trunk and they find a massive stash of cytotec.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: So the physical threat is neutralized. They have the confession,
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: the police tape, the chemical match, and the drugs.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: It seems like an open and shut case.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: But the biological damage had already been set in motion.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Right. This is where the story takes a really heartbreaking turn.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Michelle's doctors are monitoring her closely. She's getting high-resolution ultrasounds
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: every month.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: And things look okay at first.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: For a while, the fetus appears completely normal. But tragically,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: at 28 weeks into her pregnancy, Michelle gives birth to
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: a stillborn baby girl, who she named Michaela.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: That is just so incredibly sad.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Her family is there at the hospital. They all hold
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: the baby and say goodbye. But when the coroner examines
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: the placenta, he finds no trace of the drug cytotec.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: Because it had been weeks since the exposure.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Right. Because he cannot definitively prove the drug caused the
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: death at that specific moment, he is forced to rule
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: the cause of the baby's death as, quote, undetermined.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: This exposes a painful reality of the legal and medical systems. Sometimes,
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: even when we know the context, the biological proof eludes us.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Even with his confession? Yes.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: Even when we have a perpetrator who has admitted on
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: tape that he was administering a labor-inducing drug with the
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: intent to kill the fetus. The drug clears the system quickly.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: Without a scientifically isolated mechanism of death that satisfies a
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: coroner's rigid criteria, prosecutors face a massive hurdle in charging
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: him with murder.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Because the cause of death is undetermined, the prosecutors have
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: to make a really tough call. To spare Michelle and
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: her family the prolonged trauma of a massive public trial,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: where a defense attorney would undoubtedly attack her character and
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: the timeline... They strike a plea deal.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: It's often the safest route for a conviction, even if
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: it feels unjust.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Tammy, the new wife who actually filled the prescription for
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: the cytotec, pleads guilty and gets probation.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: And what about Dr.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Munson? Dr. Maynard Munson pleads guilty to contaminating a substance
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: for human consumption and attempted felonious assault. For trying to
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: poison his pregnant fiancée and abort their child, he receives
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: a sentence of five years in prison.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: Five years?
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Yes. And he is permanently stripped of his United States
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: medical license.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: Well, he destroyed his career, his freedom, and Michelle's life.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: So what does this all mean? We want you to
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: weigh this version of justice. Is five years in prison
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: enough for an orchestrated, repeated attempt at a forced abortion
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: that likely resulted in a stillbirth?
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: Legally, like we said, it was the safest bet for
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: a conviction without a coroner's definitive ruling. But emotionally, it
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: feels incredibly hollow.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: It really does. Michelle keeps Michaela's ashes in a beautiful
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: acrylic statue surrounded by angels. She lives with anger, hurt,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: and questions that no amount of counseling will ever resolve.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: It is a profound tragedy. But it is mitigated by
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: the fact that Michelle Baker's extraordinary bravery prevented him from
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: continuing his abuse.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: She stopped him.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: She did. And she ensured he would never practice medicine
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: and use that halo effect against another patient ever again.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: The trajectory of this story is just incredible. We see
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: the danger of the halo effect, how easily we trust
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: those in lab coats. We see the limits of the
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: medical and legal systems when it comes to believing women
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: reporting their own pain.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: And ultimately, we witness a woman who refused to be
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: a victim.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: She turned her own kitchen into a forensic sting operation.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: It's amazing.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: It leaves us with a lingering thought, something for you
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: to mull over. We build our entire modern society around
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: trusting certified experts.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: We have to, really.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: We do. We place our lives in the hands of doctors, pilots, paramedics, lawyers.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: But when the uniform comes off and the clinic doors close,
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: how do we train our own intuition to recognize when
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: the very person sworn to heal us is actually the
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: one holding the poison?
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: That is the question you have to ask yourself next
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: time you assume a title equals integrity. Thank you so
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: much for joining us on this deep dive. We'll see
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: you next time.