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Il est important de noter la durée (02:00:47s), le titre (5 True Crime Stories You Shouldn’t Fall Asleep To « Drift into uneasy sleep with this haunting collection of real-life crime stories — told in a calm voice under steady rain. No music, no dramatics — just true events that expose betrayal, jealousy, violence, and the quiet horror behind closed doors. 5 True Crime Stories You Shouldn’t Fall Asleep To

Each case unfolds slowly, wrapping you in a chilling atmosphere where every whisper feels too close. The rain masks the silence, the crimes unfold in shadows — and the truth always lingers. Perfect for late-night listening when you need something real, dark, and still.

Whether it’s a mother’s final decision, a family wiped out for inheritance, or a missing person who was never really missing — these stories will stay with you long after the rain stops.

Let the storm cover the screams. Let the silence speak.

Stories in this video:
Alex Murdaugh — A powerful lawyer, a double homicide, and the fall of a Southern dynasty.

Sandra Melgar — A woman found tied up in a closet. Her husband stabbed 31 times. Was it robbery — or something else?

The Pastor’s Wife — Faith, infidelity, and a deadly lie inside a preacher’s home.

The Landry Family — A father shot, a mother vanished, a daughter under suspicion. No one really knows what happened.

Ashley Fallis — A gunshot in the night, a broken marriage, and a question that still divides: murder or accident?

Hashtags
#TrueCrime #CrimeDocumentary #RainSounds #SleepCrimeStories #MurderMystery #CrimeUnderRain #AlexMurdaugh #SandraMelgar #CrimeStorytime #RealCrimeStories #WhisperedCrimes ».

Grâce à sa portée mondiale, YouTube permet à chacun de découvrir des vidéos captivantes traitant de multiples thématiques tout en garantissant un environnement sécurisé. C’est une plateforme idéale pour explorer des idées originales et dialoguer de manière constructive.

Éclairer la notion de chasteté selon les normes actuelles. Décrypter la chasteté selon les critères actuels.

Au cœur de la chasteté se trouve le contrôle de soi en matière de désirs sexuels. Il ne s’agit pas seulement d’abstinence, mais de réguler les désirs sexuels avec une intention morale ou spirituelle. Dans le contexte actuel, la chasteté implique plus que la suppression des désirs; elle oriente ces désirs vers des objectifs plus élevés. Pour les hommes contemporains, la chasteté n’implique pas le renoncement au plaisir, mais la possibilité de vivre la sexualité selon ses propres termes.

La chasteté : Une valeur à redécouvrir pour les hommes actuels.

Dans le monde actuel, la chasteté est perçue comme une vertu taboue. Pour ceux qui choisissent de la pratiquer, la chasteté offre un chemin vers une paix intérieure accrue, des relations renforcées et une connexion spirituelle plus profonde. La chasteté, jadis, était plus fréquemment acceptée et abordée. Le concept de chasteté est le point centraldans cet article qui aborde le sujet de la chasteté. À travers divers angles, cet article explore la chasteté et offre aux hommes des conseils pour comprendre et appliquer cette vertu dans leur quotidien.

Étudier les bases historiques et culturelles de la chasteté.

La chasteté est enracinée dans de nombreuses traditions religieuses et culturelles. Le vœu de continence des prêtres et religieux est souvent lié à la chasteté dans le christianisme. L’islam, de même que les Églises catholique et orthodoxe, valorise la chasteté comme une vertu importante, aussi bien pour les religieux que pour les laïcs, particulièrement avant le mariage. L’Antiquité attribuait à la chasteté le rôle de préserver l’intégrité personnelle et la pureté morale. La chasteté, donc, transcende les âges et les cultures, restant une vertu vénérée et respectée.

La chasteté renforce le cheminement spirituel.

La chasteté est considérée comme une pratique spirituelle importante. Dans le christianisme et d’autres religions, la chasteté est une manière de se rapprocher de Dieu. La gestion des désirs sexuels contribue à un meilleur bien-être intérieur. La chasteté est vue comme un acte de respect divin et une offrande de soi. La chasteté est perçue comme un choix pour élever l’âme et non comme une simple privation. Les perspectives religieuses sur la chasteté sont diverses et variées. Dans le christianisme catholique, la chasteté est considérée comme une vertu clé pour les prêtres. Les règles de chasteté dans l’islam sont strictes et régulent la sexualité. La chasteté est couramment observée par les ascètes dans l’hindouisme et le bouddhisme pour rechercher l’illumination. La chasteté est une quête partagée qui dépasse les barrières religieuses.

Mesurer l’influence de la chasteté sur les relations avec les autres et les relations au sein de la famille.

En outre, la chasteté a un impact bénéfique sur les relations interpersonnelles. En choisissant de vivre avec une cage de chasteté, un homme renforce ses compétences en séduction et modifie son comportement vis-à-vis de ses partenaires éventuels. Durant l’acte, les capacités physiques et sexuelles de l’individu deviennent plus puissantes puisqu’elles sont sollicitées moins souvent. Il est possible de pratiquer la chasteté sans nécessairement informer ses partenaires, en gardant le secret. Dans le cadre du mariage, pratiquer la chasteté peut approfondir les relations entre les époux, en favorisant un amour plus pur, éloigné du plaisir physique.

Les bienfaits de la chasteté se reflètent dans une amélioration du bien-être personnel et moral. Il est crucial d’examiner l’impact de la chasteté sur le bien-être personnel et moral.

La conscience dans la pratique de la chasteté a un effet majeur sur le bien-être personnel. La chasteté permet d’améliorer la maîtrise de soi, la clarté mentale, ainsi qu’une paix intérieure résultant du respect des convictions morales. La chasteté favorise une relation plus harmonieuse avec son propre corps ainsi que ses désirs. En développant la maîtrise de soi, la chasteté permet une plus grande liberté en éloignant les pulsions et les pressions sociales sur la sexualité. La chasteté assure un sentiment de pureté morale, améliorant la dignité et l’estime de soi. Les impacts de la chasteté sur la santé mentale sont importants. La pratique de la chasteté permet de renforcer la confiance en soi et de faire face plus efficacement aux défis.

Maintenir la pratique de la chasteté tous les jours.

Pour ceux qui veulent vivre la chasteté, il existe plusieurs approches possibles. Il est important de faire une introspection pour cerner ses propres valeurs et motivations. Éviter les situations qui pourraient stimuler des désirs incontrôlés, telles que les contenus à caractère sexuel, peut être utile. Pour maintenir sa pratique de la chasteté, un mentor ou un groupe de soutien avec les mêmes convictions peut être précieux. Dans une société saturée par la sexualité, pratiquer la chasteté peut présenter des difficultés. Parmi les défis, on trouve la pression sociale et les tentations constantes. Affronter ces défis exige une discipline personnelle rigoureuse. Si des difficultés surviennent, il faut persévérer et redémarrer avec une volonté nouvelle. Atteindre la chasteté n’est pas une question de perfection mais de cheminement avec patience et persévérance. Pour conclure, la chasteté, une fois intégrée dans la vie, peut offrir une plus grande liberté, une maîtrise de soi accrue et un profond épanouissement spirituel. Même si la chasteté peut paraître restrictive dans un monde où la sexualité est souvent valorisée davantage que la spiritualité, elle offre une voie vers une existence plus sincère, conforme à ses valeurs et croyances.

FAQ : Tout ce que vous devez savoir sur la Chasteté.

La chasteté concerne-t-elle uniquement les personnes dévouées à la religion ? Non, la chasteté n’est pas réservée aux seuls religieux, elle peut être pratiquée par des individus de tous horizons. Comment la chasteté se distingue-t-elle de l’abstinence ? L’abstinence est un choix de ne pas s’engager dans des activités sexuelles. La chasteté, en revanche, peut inclure des dispositifs comme des ceintures ou cages et s’inscrit dans une démarche de progrès personnel semblable à celle d’un sportif. Comment la chasteté se manifeste-t-elle dans les relations matrimoniales ? Dans le cadre du mariage, la chasteté est en général partagée, c’est-à-dire que si le mari suit un coaching pour la chasteté, cela est su et discuté avec son épouse. Quelle est la place de la chasteté dans la doctrine de l’Église ? L’Église valorise la chasteté car elle la voit comme une vertu fondamentale pour suivre les principes de la foi chrétienne. Quel est l’impact de la chasteté sur l’épanouissement personnel ? La chasteté favorise l’épanouissement personnel en offrant un meilleur contrôle de soi, une clarté mentale accrue et une paix intérieure.

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Retranscription des paroles de la vidéo: Hey, welcome to Sleep Crime Stories. Before we begin, let me ask where are you watching from and what time is it there? A quick comment and a subscribe go a long way. It really helps. Now, turn down the lights and let’s begin tonight’s case. On June 7th, 2021 at 10:05 p.m., the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division received a call that two people were shot dead at a residence in Islington, South Carolina. Alex Meadow called 911 to report that his 52-year-old wife, Margaret Meadow, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, had been shot in the dog kennels on their family’s 1,770 acre hunting lodge, the Moselle. Based on this cell phone data, investigators believe the killings happened between 8.49 and 9:06 p.m. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division sled officers arrived on the scene to a distraught Alex standing in front of the kennels. Inside were the bodies of his youngest son and wife. They had suffered multiple gunshot wounds from different weapons. When the police asked Alex why anyone would want his family dead, he told them about the strange threats his son Paul had been receiving. A boating accident had occurred earlier that year, and their handling of the situation might have earned the family some enemies. This is a long story. My son was in a boat wreck months back. He’s been getting threats. The news of the murders of one of Hampton’s most beloved families rocked the sleepy town to its core. Despite the tragedy gaining national attention, it would take more than a year for law enforcement to make their first arrest. While the police worked in the background, the question on everybody’s mind was who killed Maggie and Paul and why. However strange the murder might have seemed, what followed after was far more bizarre. Their death triggered a series of events that unearthed the secrets of Alex Mardaw and led to what the media have come to call one of the most high-profile and sensational cases in South Carolina legal history. Richard Alexander Alex Marddaw was born into a legal dynasty on May 27th, 1968. The Mardaws are a respected and well-connected family of lawyers who have dominated South Carolina low country’s legal system for over 100 years. Three generations of the family have served as district attorneys of the 14th Judicial Circuit from 1920 to 2006. Their reign came to a startling end with Alex Mard. The Mards laid the foundation for the titan they would become today when Alex’s great-grandfather Randph Mard senior founded the law firm Peters Mardaw Parker Elroth and Amp Dietrich PMPD. Over the decades their influence grew so great the Hamptons became known as Marduk County. Alex Mardaw tried to follow in his family’s footsteps when he was old enough and pursued a law degree from the University of North Carolina. There he met his beautiful wife Margaret Maggie Bransletter. They started seeing each other in 1991 and wed 2 years later on August 14th, 1993 at the Second Presbyterian Church in South Carolina. Alex and Maggie had two sons, Richard Buster Mardaw and Paul Mardau. Alex Mardaw became a personal injury attorney with his family firm PMPD, trying to continue his family’s legacy. However, unlike the generations of Mardaw that’s come before, Alex abused the power and influence his family’s ferm gave him, using it to cover up financial crimes, theft, and some have even speculated murder. His underhanded dealings would go unnoticed for over a decade until his youngest son, Paul, was involved in a boating accident that left the girl dead. Paul’s boating accident was just the latest in a long line of suspicious deaths surrounding the Mard family. People speculate that these accidental deaths were not so accidental and were part of a larger coverup. Given the Mard family history and resources, the theory seemed likely, especially with how they handled the death of Mallerie Beach. Paul Mardaw drove the family boat to a party on Puka’s Island on February 23rd, 2019. Fresh out of high school, Paul and his girlfriend Morgan Dowy, Anthony Cook, Mallerie Beach, and Miley Alman were hankering for a party and an unsupervised night of fun. The plan was to kick the night off with a house party and the oyster roast on the island. Parties were a non-starter without alcohol, so Paul scored some beer and hard liquor using his older brother’s identity card. They departed from the Mardo Riverhouse by 700 p.m. By midnight, they were raring for even more fun. So Paul insisted on driving the boat to downtown Buffer, where he and Connor down two rounds of shots. At around 1:00 a.m., they headed back to the boat. And on their way back, a surveillance camera captured a tender moment between Anthony and Mallalerie as they made their way back. By this point, Paul had a lot of alcohol in his system, and according to the other passengers, he started acting strange. At 1:15 a.m., they were on the water again, and the situation spiraled out of control. The group started arguing with Paul when he started driving in circles and acting drunk. Miley said that Anthony demanded he let him out on a nearby rock, but he refused. Morgan later said that Paul left the boat’s steering wheel more than once to argue with her, and Mallerie was terrified. According to GPS footage drawn from the onboard Garmin GPS, the boat sped up at some point, and although Paul denies ramping up the boat speed, he was steering. The boat crashed into Arker’s Creek Bridge at 2:20 a.m., and Mallerie was ejected into the water. The rest of the teens did not come out untouched either. Connor had a broken jaw while Morgan’s hand was badly injured. Connor called 911 and help arrived shortly after. The teenagers were in utter mess when the Bowford County Deputy Sheriff arrived. And the first thing he noticed was how distressed Anthony was. He reported that he actually tried to rush through him to get to Paul after he saw the ladder smiling. The police reported that he saw blood in the main compartment of the boat and a large split from the hull on impact. All the teens were grossly intoxicated and all of them except Anthony were fed to the hospital to be treated. Everybody agreed to be treated except Paul, who was very agitated and had a blood alcohol level of 0.243 times higher than the legal limit. Alex, Paul’s father, was seen that night shuffling from hospital room to hospital room, trying to calm them down and control the situation. It took the search party 8 days to find Mallalerie’s body. The coroner said she died of blunt force trauma to the head and drowning. Despite multiple witnesses, including Morgan, Paul’s girlfriend, claiming Paul was out of control at the steering wheel that night, he would not be arrested or even charged. This fueled rumors that Alex Mto had somehow greased the wheels of justice to get his son free. In March 2019, the MTO family was slapped with a wrongful death lawsuit. Mallerie’s family alleged that Paul’s mother, Maggie, knew her son was drunk when the group went boarding and knew that Buster had supplied them the ID they needed to purchase alcohol. It wasn’t until April 18th, 2019, on Mallalerie’s 20th birthday, that Paul was charged with three felonies for boating under the influence, causing the death of Mallalerie and seriously injuring two other passengers. Paul pleaded not guilty and was released on a $50,000. Unfortunately, Paul’s day in court did not come. He passed on before the courts gave one. Another seemingly accidental death people have linked to the MTO was the murder of an openly gay teenager, Steven Smith. He was found dead on July 8th, 2015 in the middle of the road in Hampton County, South Carolina. The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and was initially ruled as a hitand-run incident with no suspect arrested. However, the boy’s mother believed he was the victim of a hate crime. Steven had been a classmate of Alex Meadow’s oldest son, Buster, back in high school, and the rumor was they were in a relationship. Some speculate that Buster might have been involved in Steven’s death and that the hit-and-run story was a lousy cover up. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, SLED, reopened the case on March 22nd, 2023 and revealed that his death was a murder, but no suspects have been named. Gloria Satderfield was a longtime housekeeper for Alex Midd’s family. Her death was another seemingly innocent, though unfortunate passing on February 2nd, 2018. Gloria suffered a severe head injury when she fell down the stairs at the family’s Moselle residence. She passed away on February 26th, 2018 due to various complications. Alex Mto had claimed that his dogs had gone to greet Gloria at the top of the stairs, but the housekeeper accidentally tripped over them, causing her to fall backward and hit her head. After her passing, there was strangely no autopsy to confirm Alex’s version of events. On her death certificate, the cause of death was ruled natural causes. The Sons of Gloria Satderfield initiated a wrongful death lawsuit over their mother’s death in 2018 and were awarded a $4 million insurance policy settlement in October 2020. However, the settlement they won never arrived. Moto had allegedly hatched a scheme to steal the insurance payout. He approached Gloria’s sons and encouraged them to sue him and even went as far as introducing a lawyer, Cory Fleming, to them. Cory Fleming was a longtime friend and godfather to one of Alex Meadow’s sons. The two conspired to steal the Satderfield’s payout. The money was diverted to Alex’s bank account, and they never notified the Satderfields of receiving the insurance settlement. Satderfield Sons then initiated a new civil lawsuit on September 15th, 2021 against Alex Meadow. On the same day, state investigators opened a criminal investigation into Gloria Satderfield’s death. The reason investigators gave for opening the case was to determine any criminal liability for the death. The decision was based on a request from the Hampton County Coroner, who found Gloria’s manner of death inconsistent with natural causes. Her family later permitted state authorities to exume her body for further investigation. By late September 2021, Alex Mto was facing multiple financial and embezzlement charges. Before the Satderfield brothers filed their first lawsuit against Alex Muddo, he’d been embroiled in financial schemes, fraud, and embezzlement for nearly a decade. Alex was allegedly involved in a money laundering and painkiller ring which lasted from October 7th, 2013 to September 2021 with his distant cousin and eventual partner in crime, Curtis Smith. On September 4th, 2021, the pair cooked up another sinister scheme. Alex gave Curtis a gun and directed him to shoot him. Alex’s only surviving son, Buster, would receive his life insurance policy when he passed. Curtis pulled up to where Alex had staged a fake flat tire and shot at him as instructed. However, the bullet only caused superficial injuries to Alex, and he was even able to call 911 himself. The moment local law enforcement inspected the scene, they smelt foul play, but they weren’t quite able to prove it. It wasn’t until days later that MTO confessed. He admitted to conspiring with Curtis and staging the shooting. His lawyers announced that he was going through a tough time and unsavory elements were taking advantage of his state of mind. They claimed Alex wanted to end his life so that Buster could cash on a $10 million life insurance policy. Alex surrendered himself when he heard a warrant was out for his arrest. He was charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and filing a false police report. Just 2 days after the incident, another perplexing news broke. Alex Mu announced that he would be resigning from his position in his family’s law firm, Peter’s MTO Parker Elroth and MDRI, PMPed, and entering rehab for treatment once he left the hospital. He was quoted saying, « Made a lot of decisions that I truly regret. » Another bombshell dropped just hours later when his firm released an official statement alleging MTO had misappropriated $792,000 of company funds. The firm’s CFO had confronted him earlier about the missing money and then reported him to relevant authorities. The South Carolina Supreme Court indefinitely suspended Alex’s law license in September 2021. Investigators dug deeper into Alex Meadow’s life. They began to uncover several financial crimes, tax evasions, embezzlements, and misappropriation of funds from clients and his law firm. Alex left rehab on October 14th, 2021, and was arrested again upon release. He was charged with two felony counts of obtaining property by false pretenses. The arrest was made based on an investigation into the misappropriation of investment payout from the wrongful death case of Gloria Satderfield. This time, Alex was denied bond. This was only the beginning of Alex Meadow’s legal wos. On November 18th, 2021, he was indicted on 27 counts of financial misconduct. He was accused of stealing money from his clients, other lawyers, and the family of his late housekeeper. On December 9th, 2021, even more charges were brought against him. Another 21 counts were added to the tally, bringing the total to 48. The charges at the time included one count of forgery for counts of money laundering, seven counts of computer crimes, nine counts of breach of trust with fraudulent intent, obtaining signature or property by false pretenses. It was estimated that Alex had stolen more than $6.2 million from his victims. The state’s investigation into MTO’s business dealing took months to untangle. with new charges brought against him almost daily. By June 2022, the charges against him totaled 81. By the time Alex was formally disparred on July 13th, 2022, he was already facing 84 criminal charges and 11 lawsuits. The mother of the 19-year-old Mallerie Beach was among the many who brought a legal claim against the estates of Margaret and Paul Muddo. The enormity of these financial crimes raised questions about the character of the once prominent attorney. Could he be hiding something even more sinister? Perhaps the murder of his wife and son? So, what could have possibly been his motive? The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, SLED, decided to revisit what they knew and had accepted as facts about the double murder. They considered new information they gathered while investigating the numerous financial crimes of Alex Meadow. One of the first facts investigators realized was that all was not well in Alex and Maggie Meadow’s marriage. The couple had hit a rough patch. Maggie was living apart from her husband in the family’s beach home on Edestto Island, more than an hour away from the Moselle property. Mary and Proctor, Maggie Meadow’s sister, told law enforcement agents that Mary had not even planned to see her husband on the night of the murders. Alex reached out to Maggie on the fateful day, asking her to meet him at the family lodge. He asked Maggie to accompany him to visit his father, who was terminally ill and could pass away at any time. She was reluctant to go initially and was said to have messaged a friend saying that her husband’s behavior was fishy and that he was up to something. She suggested that they meet at the hospital instead. Ultimately, she agreed to drive to the Moselle property before heading to the hospital to visit Alex’s ailing father. Unfortunately, she was murdered before she had the chance to visit her father-in-law. Maggie and her younger son were shot dead at their Moselle property. The 1 700 acre hunting lodge estate contained the mudd house, dog kennels, a cabin, and stretches of swampland. Maggie and Paul were found near the dog kennels, and they had been shot several times. Paul was shot twice with a shotgun, and Maggie had five gunshot wounds. She’d been killed with a different weapon, which ballistic analysis determined was a blackout 3000 ammo from an AR- style rifle. Alex Muddo claimed that he had a long nap that day before leaving to see his ailing mother who suffers from dementia. He said he was away for about 45 minutes to an hour and a half. And when he got back, he saw his wife and younger son dead on the floor near the dog kennels. Alex’s timeline for the night had been laid down during a series of interviews with law enforcement. I knew something was bad. While Alex was a person of interest in the eyes of law enforcement, there was still something missing, a motive as to why a prominent and influential lawyer would decide to kill his family. It wasn’t long before they found what they were looking for. The South Carolina law enforcement division, SLED, discovered that weeks before the murder, the state grand jury had subpoenaed Alex Meadow’s finances. It was concerning an obstruction of justice investigation connected to a fatal 2019 boat crash involving Paul Meadow. Alex Muddo was scared that all his financial wrongdoings would be exposed following the hearing which was scheduled for June 10th, 2021. To make matters worse, his law firm had discovered his misappropriation of company funds. Gene Settinger, the law firm CFO at the time, had confronted MTO about the missing money on June 7th, 2021. The day of the murder, state authorities claimed that the financial pressure had Alex rattled and he feared his world would collapse. So, he hatched a daring plan that would divert attention from his financial crimes, which were beginning to go public and help garner sympathy for him in the public eye. July 14th, 2022, 13 months after the fatal shooting of Maggie and Paul, Alex Meadow was charged with the murders of his wife and son. the start of the murder trial of Alec Murdoch, the once prominent South Carolina. MTO was charged with two counts of murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. The prosecutors claimed that MTO had shot and killed his wife and son at close range with a shotgun and an AR- style rifle. The murder weapons were never found. MTO’s defense team argued that two shooters carried out the shootings due to the different weapons used. Expert witness for the defense also stated that based on the trajectory of the bullets, the likely height of the shooters was between 5’4 in and 5’2 in. Alex stood at the proud height of 6′ and 4 in which disqualified him as a suspect. Shot was 5 to2 to 5 to 4. That is the most likely explanation. Yes, the expert witness under cross-examination was grilled by the prosecutors and later admitted that there were other possibilities apart from the height scenario. painted that could have caused the trajectory of the bullet. Ballistic determined that Maggie was shot with a 300 blackout ammo from an AR- style rifle. Investigators found a box of 300 blackout ammo in the MTO family estate. State prosecutors argued that MTO killed his wife and son to gain sympathy and escape accountability for his string of financial crimes. MTO’s lawyers ridiculed the idea, asking why he would shift a financial investigation away from himself in order to avoid scrutiny by putting himself in the spotlight of a murder investigation. In the course of the trial, it was revealed that Alex Mto had been a person of interest since the start of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division sled investigation into the murders. According to Dick Harput, Meadow’s lawyer, he had an ironclad alibi for the night in question and also had no reason to kill Maggie and their younger son, Paul. He described Alex and Maggie’s marriage as full of love. The prosecutors then presented two videos recorded of Alex on the night of the murder, taken a few hours from each other. One was a Snapchat video taken off Paul’s phone, and the other was a body cam of one of the law enforcement agents at the scene of the crime. The footage you’re seeing is from a Snapchat video that was taken off of Paul’s phone earlier in the night before the murders. Now, compare that to what Murdoch is wearing later on in the evening after the killings. Something immediately stood out. The outfits in the two videos were different. The blue shirt is seen in the Snapchat video that was taken roughly 1 hour before the murders and was different from what Alex was wearing. As seen in the body cam recording of the officer, the investigators claimed a search for the blue shirt was unsuccessful. It was nowhere to be found. Prosecutors suggested that MTO tried to influence the key witnesses accounts by asking her if she remembered the shirt he was wearing that night. He was pacing back and forth in the living room. And he said, « I got a bad feeling. There was a video that was out and he said, « You remember the shirt I was wearing? That Vinnie Vine shirt? » In my mind, I was saying I don’t remember Vinnie Vine’s shirt. It was the polo shirt. I didn’t really know whether he was trying to get me to say that that was the shirt he was wearing. Cell phone data from MTO’s phone showed he was at his mother’s home for only 15 to 20 minutes. This was further corroborated by the testimony of Alex Meadow’s mother’s caregiver, who stated he stayed for only 15 to 20 minutes before leaving. Mto claims to have stayed for at least 45 minutes. I was probably gone an hour and a half from my mom’s. How long did he stay in the room with y’all? I say y’all, for the record, you and Miss Libby, I apologize. About 15 to 20 minutes. 20 minutes. The most crucial piece of evidence was found late in the investigation. When going through Paul’s phone, which was recovered at the scene, they found a video that Paul recorded at 8:44 p.m., minutes from the time investigators believed the murders happened. The murder occurred between 8:49 to 9:06 p.m. According to state authorities, the video on Paul’s phone was recorded in the dog kennels. The audio featured three distinct voices. Family and friends were called to identify the voices. There’s a chicken. The voices were determined to be Paul’s, Maggie’s, and Alex’s. This placed Mauo in the vicinity when the murders occurred. At this point, the ironclad alibi that MTO relied on was completely destroyed. He had claimed he was never at the dog kennels that night. During the fifth week of the trial, MTO took the stand and reiterated that he could never have intentionally hurt his wife and son. He testified, « I didn’t shoot my wife or son. » He admitted that he had lied about his alibi. Moto’s new story was that he had an opioid addiction at the time and was prone to paranoia and that was the cause of his lie to the law enforcement agents. Prosecutors suggested that after MTO killed his wife and son, he then took her phone and made a series of calls and texts to the device to help build his alibi. One text read, « Call me babe. » It was sent at 947. Cell phone data also showed that MTO and his wife’s phone locked within seconds of each other. Another piece of evidence presented to the jury based on data from Alex’s cell phone was that within the time frame of when the murder occurred, Alex suddenly took a lot of steps. Prosecutors attribute this to him trying to hide or dispose of evidence that would link him to the murder. MTO’s lawyers discredited this claim by pointing out that the steps recorded on Alex’s phone did not match that of his wife’s. So, it is wrong to think he picked up his wife’s phone after the shootings. Ultimately, the video Paul recorded at the dog kennels provided the decisive evidence by which the case was determined. The jury reached a verdict in 3 hours on March 2nd, 2023. The jury found Alex Mto guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to two life sentences to run consecutively without the possibility of parole. The jury also convicted him of two counts of possession of a weapon during a violent crime, which added another 5 years to his sentence. MTO pleaded guilty to 22 counts of financial crimes as part of his deal, but continues to stand by his claim of innocence in the murder of his wife and son. On March 9th, 2023, he filed a notice to appeal his double murder conviction. In a surprising turn, Moto’s lawyers filed a motion seeking a new trial after allegedly uncovering evidence of jury tampering by Rebecca Hill, which she has now denied. Rebecca was a Cullletton County Clerk of Court and was accused of tampering with the jury by advising them not to believe Meadow’s testimony and other evidence presented by the defense, pressuring them to reach a quick guilty verdict and even misrepresenting critical and material information to the trial judge in her campaign to remove a juror she believed to be favorable to the defense. A hearing would be convened for MTO’s lawyers to present evidence and witnesses to support their claim. However, a judge is yet to be selected to preside over the hearing. With MTO’s appeal, over 100 financial and drug crime charges, and multiple pending lawsuits, we can be sure that we have not heard the last of Alex Mu. Still with me? Good. That means you’re ready for the rest. Don’t forget to hit subscribe if you want more cases just like this one. On June 5th, 2002, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart slept in her bed in the affluent town of Federal Heights in Salt Lake City, Utah. Elizabeth and her sister, Mary Catherine, shared a bedroom at the time. However, their peaceful slumber would soon be shattered. As the night progressed, a soft-spoken man forced open a window in the girl’s room, armed with a knife. This intrusion awoke Mary Catherine, but she pretended to be asleep, hoping to protect her sister. The man then turned to Elizabeth and ordered her to be quiet or else he would harm her. Terrified, Elizabeth complied with his demands, putting shoes on before being taken outside the home. Meanwhile, Mary Catherine lay still, waiting for 2 hours before finally waking their parents. Ed and Lois smart. She told them someone had taken Elizabeth, but her parents initially didn’t believe her. Ed and Lois dismissed her claims, thinking that perhaps Mary Catherine was dreaming. However, as events unfolded, they took their daughter’s story seriously. After inspecting Elizabeth and Mary Catherine’s bedroom, Ed and Lois discovered a cut window screen confirming Mary Catherine’s story. Worried about Elizabeth, Ed and Lois immediately contacted the authorities. The police arrived at the Smart family home and questioned Mary Catherine about the man who had abducted Elizabeth from their bedroom. Mary Catherine described the man as having dark hair and noticed dark hair on his arms and the backs of his hands. Despite speaking quietly to Elizabeth throughout the incident, Mary Catherine was still able to identify his voice as somehow familiar. However, she struggled to remember any specific circumstances she could have heard before. About three and a half hours after Elizabeth was taken, the authorities utilized the Rachel alert system to broadcast information about her abduction to the public. The Rachel Alert was named after another Utah girl who was abducted and murdered. By utilizing this alert system, the authorities could quickly reach a wide audience and enlist the public’s aid in locating Elizabeth. Because Ed and Lois Smart had put their house up for sale before Elizabeth was taken from her bedroom on June 5th, 2002. The police looked at people who tooured the house as possible suspects in Elizabeth’s abduction. In addition to the house tour, the police also searched the smart family’s computer. They wanted to uncover any online interactions Elizabeth may have had with strangers, as this was a common tactic used in child abduction cases. By examining her computer records, they hoped to determine if she had come into contact with anyone who may have known or been involved in the abduction. The day after Elizabeth was kidnapped, her parents went on national television and pleaded for her safe return. In a heart-wrenching and emotional appeal, Ed Smart addressed the perpetrator directly, imploring them to bring their daughter home. His voice filled with desperation and love. He pleaded with the person responsible for taking Elizabeth to have mercy and return her safely. Tears accompanied Ed’s plea as he spoke about his immense love for his daughter and his unwavering commitment to finding her when the police spoke to Elizabeth Smart’s neighbors in Federal Heights. None of them reported seeing or hearing anything suspicious on the day Elizabeth was abducted. This lack of information surprised the police as they had hoped to gather more information to assist with the investigation. Shortly after Elizabeth’s abduction, the mayor of Salt Lake City, Rocky Anderson, made a public announcement offering a $10,000 reward for her safe return to her family. However, the reward was soon raised to $250,000. Nearly 1,200 volunteers joined Elizabeth Smart’s family and friends to search for her. At a news conference, police told the public despite the thousands of tips they were receiving. They were making little headway in Elizabeth’s abduction. The authorities in Salt Lake City called in help from other police departments across the state. However, without evidence like a vehicle description, there wasn’t a lot of information to go on. With no leads in Elizabeth’s disappearance, the police began to get frustrated with the lack of progress in her case. Scott Atkinson, the captain of the Salt Lake City Police Department, told the public that everyone was still a suspect in Elizabeth’s abduction. Yet, he reiterated Elizabeth’s family was not the focus of the investigation. One of the 1,200 volunteers searching for Elizabeth alerted the police to a suspicious man she saw while she was looking through a wooded canyon for Elizabeth. The volunteer described the man as being in the area and acting suspiciously. This information prompted the police to begin a search for the man. The search lasted all night long, but despite their efforts, the police were unable to locate the suspicious individual. As a result, they ruled the tip out and determined that it was not credible. Another tip received by the police regarding Elizabeth’s abduction came from the local milkman in Federal Heights. The milkman claimed to have witnessed a man driving an older gray Honda or Nissan on Elizabeth Street a day or two before her disappearance. He told the police that he had a peculiar feeling about the driver of the car and decided to write down the license plate number. When the police thoroughly searched their vehicle database for that specific license plate number, they came up empty-handed. Unable to find any relevant information or leads, they dismissed the tip as not viable. The police officers investigating the abduction of Elizabeth Smart encountered a significant challenge due to the large number of individuals who showed up at the Smart residence in the hours following her abduction. By the time the police arrived at the scene around 4:00 a.m., the home was already filled with numerous individuals, causing potential contamination of any possible evidence that may have been present. As the search for Elizabeth Smart continued, the police questioned a man who had contact with Elizabeth at a social function before her abduction. However, they soon released this person and determined they had no connection with Elizabeth’s disappearance. The search efforts intensified and over 20 volunteer pilots in their private planes searched the Salt Lake area from the skies. Yet, their efforts yielded no results. Tracking dogs indicated they had smelled something in Redbute Canyon. several miles from Elizabeth’s home. Police searched that area, but it turned out to be a dead end. Elizabeth’s father, Edmart, had reached the point of exhaustion during the search for his daughter. He collapsed from the strain and had to be taken to the hospital. However, a few hours later, he was released and determined to continue looking for his daughter. Ed Smart and his wife had not been able to sleep and were utterly exhausted by the ordeal. In a media interview, Ed Smart expressed his frustration and determination to find his stating that he and his wife were barely holding it together. Despite Elizabeth’s parents’ exhaustion while they looked for her, Ed and Lois Smart held out hope their daughter was alive, they firmly believed in their unwavering belief that Elizabeth was going to come home to them. This conviction was instilled deep within their hearts. Elizabeth’s mother, Lois Smart, expressed her love and commitment to her daughter through the media. She said in a powerful and emotional statement, « Elizabeth, if you can hear us, we love you, » Elizabeth’s loved ones held a candlelight vigil, praying for her to return home safely. In response to the abduction, the police requested Elizabeth’s father, Ed, to take a polygraph test. Ed willingly complied with the request, demonstrating his family’s commitment to aiding the authorities in finding their daughter. Her family was more than willing to do whatever was necessary to help the investigation. The investigation into Elizabeth’s abduction ruled out the possibility that she had staged her disappearance, and they determined that she had not run away. Mark Clauss, whose daughter was kidnapped and murdered in California in October 1993, reached out to Elizabeth’s family to offer his support. He traveled to Utah to speak with Ed and Lois Smart, sharing his own experiences and insights to help them navigate the challenging circumstances they were facing. During an interview with the media, Mark Clauss highlighted how the internet had benefited Elizabeth’s disappearance. He stated that with the internet, the police were able to quickly and effectively spread the word about Elizabeth’s missing person flyer, as this allowed them to reach a wider audience and alert people in different states, increasing the chances of finding her. The police soon received information that a man named Brett Michael Edmunds had been cited in Federal Heights around the time Elizabeth was abducted. This information led detectives to seek Brett for questioning. However, their search for Brett proved unsuccessful as they could not find him anywhere. As the investigation continued, the police discovered that Brett had relocated to New Mexico and Texas. A chase ensued and authorities eventually apprehended a man they believed to be Brett at a department store. The individual was arrested on charges of autotheft and shoplifting. However, upon further investigation, it was determined that he was not Brett Michael Edmunds. Despite the physical similarities, the man was determined to have had no connection to Elizabeth’s case. Eventually, the police found Brett Michael Edmunds in West Virginia, where he was admitted to the hospital due to an overdose and liver failure. Brett’s health was so critical that the authorities feared he might not survive. However, his condition allowed for the possibility of questioning him regarding Elizabeth’s abduction. Brett was conscious, alert, and able to speak, which presented an opportunity for the police and FBI agents working on the case to interview him. He was cooperative with the police, and the police concluded that Brett had nothing to do with the abduction. After Brett Michael Edmonds was cleared as a suspect in Elizabeth’s abduction, the police turned their attention to 48-year-old Richard Albert Richie. Ed Smart, Elizabeth’s father, informed the police that he had employed Richard at his home for 2 months the previous year. According to Ed, because Richard did not own a vehicle, they worked out a deal where Ed would give Richard his 1990 Jeep Cherokee in exchange for his labor. However, Edmart was unaware that Richard Richie was a career criminal, and he later stated that he would not have hired Richard if he had known about his background. Richard Richie’s criminal history dates back to 1973 when he was convicted of secondderee felony burglary. This robbery marked the beginning of a string of offenses over several decades. In 1981, Richie was again convicted of burglary for a separate incident. His most serious crime occurred in 1983 when he was sent to prison for aggravated robbery and attempted murder. The conviction resulted from an incident where he wounded a police officer during a gunfire exchange with authorities during a drugstore robbery. Additionally, Richard Richie was convicted of theft in 1996 for stealing about $2,500 worth of food from a food pantry in Richfield. According to corrections records, Richard Richie was parrolled in September 2000. In an interview with the media, Ed Smart expressed his doubts about Richard Richie’s involvement in his daughter’s abduction. Ed stated that despite Richie’s criminal history, he initially found Richie to be a capable worker. On June 14th, 2002, Richard Richie was arrested on a parole violation, and the police were unable to confirm his whereabouts on the day Elizabeth was abducted. However, Richard Richie denied any involvement in Elizabeth’s abduction. Through a statement from his attorney, Richard Richie informed the public that the police conducted an exhaustive search of his home, even digging up his garden. However, no evidence related to Elizabeth’s abduction was found. Richard Richie claimed that he cooperated fully with the police, providing them with blood samples for DNA comparison, and sat through 26 hours of interviews. He also surrendered his vehicle to the police for investigation. By July 2002, Elizabeth Smart had been missing for a month, and her family desperately longed for her to return home. They thought their prayers were answered when police received a report of a girl who matched Elizabeth’s description being cited in Nebraska under suspicious circumstances. A witness at a gas station claimed to have seen a crying girl between the ages of 12 and 14, who seemed to be held against her will in a minivan. The witness provided a detailed description of the girl which matched Elizabeth’s appearance. This new development sent shock waves through the Smart family as they eagerly hoped for any lead that might lead to finding their missing daughter. However, the police investigation into the report revealed that it had nothing to do with Elizabeth’s abduction. After a thorough search, the police found insufficient evidence to connect the sighting to Elizabeth’s case. This disappointing discovery left the Smart family grappling with a mix of emotions as they continued to hope for Elizabeth’s safe return while acknowledging the potential for false leads. Despite the setback, the Smart family remained steadfast in their determination to find Elizabeth. They maintained a cautious optimism, stating that while they were not ruling out the possibility that the girl at the gas station could be Elizabeth, they needed to keep an open mind. The family spokesperson expressed, « We’re not necessarily holding out hope it is Elizabeth. If it is Elizabeth, we’d be elated. » Meanwhile, the main suspect in Elizabeth’s disappearance, Richard Reachi, was charged with theft and burglary. He pleaded not guilty to the charges. These charges were filed in two incidents involving residences in the Federal Heights neighborhood and the Smart family home. Richard Reichi was accused of committing burglary, a secondderee felony and theft, a class A misdemeanor, in the theft of items from a Federal Heights house on April 4th, 2001. Additionally, Richard Reachi was charged with theft, a thirdderee felony, in the robbery of items from the Smart House on June 6th, 2001. The stolen items were not related to Elizabeth’s kidnapping investigation. Salt Lake District Attorney David Yokum held a press conference to announce the charges. He stated that the stolen items from the Smart House included jewelry and a perfume bottle valued at approximately $3,500. When Ed Smart confronted Richard Reichi about the theft, Richard denied the allegations and was subsequently fired. Unfortunately, the police investigation into the abduction of Elizabeth Smart suffered a significant setback in August 2002 when their best lead, Richard Reachi, passed away from an irreversible injury to his brain stem that caused hemorrhaging. Richard Reach’s condition deteriorated significantly, and he eventually lost the ability to communicate or breathe on his own. As a result, his family made the difficult decision to remove him from a ventilator. In an effort to save Richie’s life, doctors operated to remove a blood clot in his brain and alleviate the pressure on his brain stem. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done and the efforts were unsuccessful. Despite the loss of Richard Reichi, the authorities continued their efforts to locate and apprehend those responsible for the abduction. However, Richi’s death presented a significant challenge in the investigation and the search for Elizabeth Smart’s abductor. The loss of the prime suspect hindered the progress of their case and cast doubt upon the viability of other leads. In August 2002, an 11-year-old girl was sexually assaulted and beaten after she was taken from her bedroom. Severity of her injuries was unimaginable as doctors at the hospital discovered that every bone in the middle of her face had been broken. She had to undergo surgery, but unfortunately her condition remained critical. Following the assault, police arrested a close friend of the girl’s father, Javier Sichler. He was charged with aggravated burglary, aggravated assault, and attempted murder. According to Javier Sichler, he recalled knocking on the front door of the victim’s home, but claimed that he blacked out afterward. However, despite the initial similarities with the abduction of Elizabeth Smart, the police determined that Javier Sichler had nothing to do with her kidnapping. As the months continued to pass and Elizabeth Smart remained missing, the police investigating the abduction turned to unconventional methods in their attempt to find her. Among these methods was the use of psychics, individuals who claimed to be able to use extra sensory perception to gain information about the missing girl’s location. The psychics provided information to investigators, suggesting that Elizabeth could be found intombed in a crypt in the foothills above Salt Lake City. This tip prompted officials from a company in Seattle to report that more than a dozen of its members had located Elizabeth’s body through a special psychic process called technical remote viewing. According to the members of the Seattlebased group, their psychic abilities allowed them to determine Elizabeth had been killed within hours of her abduction. However, upon arriving at the designated tomb, the officers found no signs of Elizabeth’s disappearance. In November 2002, a man by the name of Walter Kenneth Holloway was arrested and accused of extortion. Walter Holloway had contacted the Smart family and the Salt Lake Police Department, claiming to be the kidnapper of their daughter, Elizabeth. He demanded $3 million from Ed and Lois Smart for the safe return of their daughter and threatened to harm Elizabeth if he did not receive the money. However, the police were able to track Holloway to South Carolina and determined that he had no involvement in the abduction. Ed Smart later stated that he was sickened by the extortion scheme and felt furious because it diverted the police’s attention away from finding his daughter. The false kidnapping allegations had hindered their efforts and dedicated resources that could have been better utilized in finding Elizabeth. In October 2002, Elizabeth’s smarts sister, Mary Catherine, suddenly realized that the abductor’s voice was that of an unemployed man the family knew as Emanuel. The family had hired Emanuel to work on the roof and rake leaves in their yard for a day. However, the police officers were skeptical due to the short time Emanuel had worked for the family, the long time that elapsed between the abduction and the revelation, and the limited time Mary Catherine had heard the abductor’s voice. Despite the doubts, the family had a sketch artist draw Emanuel’s face from their descriptions. The sketch was eventually released in February 2003 and featured on several television shows, including Larry King Liv and America’s Most Wanted. The drawing of a suspect that was released by the police was recognized by relatives of a man named Brian David Mitchell, who provided the police with contemporary photographs of him. These photographs helped authorities confirm that the sketch was indeed an accurate depiction of Brian David Mitchell. On March 12th, 2003, two couples in Sandy, Utah spotted Brian David Mitchell with a woman and a girl. They recognized Brian David Mitchell from the photos they had seen on the news which depicted him as the missing girl’s abductor. The woman accompanying Brian David Mitchell was later identified as his wife, Wanda Barzy. One of the couples called the police immediately after recognizing them. The police department was immediately notified and dispatched police officers to the location. Upon questioning, Elizabeth Smart, the missing girl from Salt Lake City, was identified. The officers rescued her and arrested both Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barsy. After Elizabeth was rescued, her testimony revealed a shocking account of her abduction, abuse, and captivity. Elizabeth was taken to an encampment outside of Salt Lake City when Brian David Mitchell took her out of her home. The camp consisted of a makeshift shelter surrounded by dense foliage to provide camouflage. Here she first met Wanda Barzy, Brian David Mitchell’s wife, who would play a significant role in her captivity. According to Elizabeth Smart’s testimony, Wanda Barzy initially played the role of a maternal figure, offering her comfort and warmth. However, as the days turned into weeks, Wanda Bars’s demeanor began to change. She began to exert control over Elizabeth, demanding that she adhere to their bizarre religious beliefs. Wanda Barzy would force Elizabeth to pray, read scriptures, and participate in religious rituals. One of the most traumatic experiences Elizabeth faced during her captivity was being forced to marry Brian David Mitchell. Wanda Barsy threatened Elizabeth with physical harm if she did not comply with their demands. The wedding ceremony, which Mitchell described as a ceremony of eternal love, was a sham. It had no legal standing and served only as a symbol of Brian David Mitchell’s control over Elizabeth. Following the forced marriage, Brian David Mitchell proceeded to assault Elizabeth. He justified his actions by claiming that he was a Davidic king who had been commanded to kidnap virgin brides in order to fight against the antichrist. Brian David Mitchell insisted that Elizabeth was the first of many virgins he would abduct and that she would accompany him as he battled this mythical figure. Elizabeth Smart endured unimaginable abuse during her captivity. In order to prevent her from escaping, she was shackled to a tree with a metal cable, which severely limited her mobility outside of the tent she occupied. This constant confinement prevented her from seeking freedom and left her feeling trapped and helpless. In addition to the physical restraint, Elizabeth was also subjected to psychological torment. She was forced to take a new name and chose the name Esther after Esther of the Old Testament. The name change was a symbol of the loss of her identity and the manipulation and control exerted over her by Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzy. One of the most disturbing aspects of Elizabeth’s captivity was the repeated sexual assault she survived at the hands of Brian David Mitchell. She was forced to endure these assaults multiple times a day, leaving her traumatized and fearful. In addition to sexual abuse, Elizabeth was made to look at explicit magazines, further exacerbating her trauma and degradation. Elizabeth was constantly threatened with violence and even death. Brian David Mitchell regularly threatened to kill her, leaving her in a constant state of fear and anxiety. The constant fear and uncertainty only intensified the abuse she endured, leaving her feeling overwhelmed and helpless. In order to further weaken her resistance, Mitchell often forced Elizabeth to drink alcohol and take drugs. These substances were used as a means to lower her resistance and make it easier for him to control her. The constant intoxication left her disoriented and vulnerable, making it easier for the abusers to carry out their horrific acts. Elizabeth was also starved and fed garbage by her capttors. After her rescue, Elizabeth called Wanda Barzy the most evil woman she had ever met. After years of legal proceedings, Wanda Barzy pleaded guilty to all the charges stemming from Elizabeth’s abduction and was sentenced to concurrent terms of 15 years in state and federal prison. In 2016, her federal imprisonment was terminated and she was transferred from the federal medical center Carwell in Fort Worth, Texas to the Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah to begin serving her state prison sentence. Elizabeth Smart protested the release of Wanda Barzy in September 2018, but Wanda Barzy was still let out. Elizabeth Smart, who by the time of Wanda Bars’s release was an advocate for child safety, stated that she believed Wanda Barzy still had the potential to harm others. She argued that Barzy had not demonstrated remorse for her actions or any signs of rehabilitation. Her protest garnered attention in the media and highlighted the ongoing concerns surrounding the release of convicted criminals. After a long legal battle that spans several years, Brian David Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison for the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart. During the sentencing hearing, Elizabeth had the opportunity to address her kidnapper directly. In a powerful and emotional statement, she expressed the pain and trauma he had caused her. She told him that the 9 months she spent in captivity had taken away a part of her life that she could never regain. Despite this ordeal, Elizabeth showed remarkable resilience and determination. She assured her kidnapper that she would lead a good life despite the darkness he had brought into her life. Elizabeth’s words reflected her strength and determination to overcome her challenges. On May 5th, 2009, just before 3:00 a.m., the Coleman family, known for their seemingly perfect life, was found brutally murdered in their own home. Let’s piece together the events of that fateful night of a crime that left an indelible mark on the hearts of many. Chris Coleman met his wife Sherry when he was in the Marines and she was in the United States Air Force. It was love at first sight for Sherry. She knew right away that Chris was the guy she wanted to be with for the rest of her life. Within a few months, Sherry was pregnant with their first child, Garrett. Because Chris and Sherry were devout Christians, they married before Garrick was born. Chris called his dad, Ronald Coleman. To break the news, they were now married and expecting a baby. Ronald was surprised but happy to hear that Sherry was expecting a baby. After Garrett was born, it wasn’t long before Chris and Sherry had their second son, Gavin. Gavin was their wild child, while Garrett was more laid-back like his father, Chris. Both boys had bubbly personalities and were good little boys. Sherry lived and breathed for her sons, and she was like a mama bear. If you stepped on one of her children, you better watch out. Chris was a very good father, and they made a great family. They laughed, played together, and cherished every moment with their sons. Once the Coleman’s left the military, they relocated to Waterlue, Illinois, a small town. Their house was situated in an upscale neighborhood, the result of a successful new job that Chris landed. Chris became the head of security for the renowned TV evangelist Joyce Meyer, the CEO of one of the largest Christian ministries in the world. However, Joyce’s multi-million dollar income and opulent lifestyle sparked controversy among certain individuals. Critics accused her of being a greedy con artist who exploits the fears of her followers. They claimed that her financial success and lavish lifestyle were at odds with her religious teachings. Chris served as a bodyguard and personal security guard for Joyce. One of his primary responsibilities was to monitor and safeguard against hate mail and letters sent to Joyce’s church. These threats were often aimed at Joyce’s life with people expressing their intentions to find and cause harm to her. Joyce’s ministry based in St. Lewis, Missouri, allowed Chris to earn a living as a bodyguard. He made a substantial salary of $100,000 per year, which provided financial stability for his family. In addition to his role as a bodyguard, Chris often accompanied Joyce on his travels around the world. Wherever she went, he followed closely. This constant presence allowed Chris to provide additional security for Joyce. However, it meant that he was away from home for extended periods. Sherry confided in a friend that one year while Chris was working for Joyce, he had been gone 260 days out of the year. She was stressed out because the boys, Garrett and Gavin, missed their dad. The boys hated when he was gone, and they would mark off each day on a calendar until he came back from his trip. Garrett and Gavin, would stare at those days until they were up, eagerly waiting for their dad to return. However, by the time Chris did finally get home, it wasn’t long before he had to leave again. This constant cycle of absence caused a lot of tension in Chris and Sherry’s marriage. Sherry was tired of doing everything alone, sick of being both the mom and dad. She felt overwhelmed and underappreciated, and the constant juggling act was taking its toll on their relationship. In October 2008, Chris traveled to Tampa, Florida, where Sherry had attended high school. Sherry reached out to an old friend, Tara Lintz, and asked if she would be able to check in on Chris while he was in town. Chris eventually got in touch with Tara after settling in Tampa, and they decided to meet up. Tara graciously showed Chris around the city. On November 14th, 2008, at approximately 11 p.m., Chris received an email that stood out. The email address was destroy Chris@gmail.com, and the subject line and content terrified him. This email stated that Chris should stop working for Joyce Meyer, or else he or his family would be killed. As the hours passed by, more aggressive emails arrived at the ministry from the same email address, reiterating the threat and indicating a specific time and date when the attack on his family might occur. The sender of these emails knew Chris Coleman’s schedule and knew that he would be traveling out of the country. Chris informed Sherry about the email threats he had received, and the following Monday, he reported the emails to the local police. He explained that he was not home much because he had traveled with Joyce Meyer Ministries. The police offered to conduct patrols around the residence when Chris was not home. But despite the increased police presence, Sherry continued to fear for her family’s safety. Sherry once asked a friend to stay with her because she was not comfortable staying alone in the house with Chris away. She made it clear that she was deadly serious about protecting her family and willing to take whatever measures necessary to ensure their safety. To show her friend that she was serious, Sherry revealed that she had a gun and demonstrated how to hold it in case someone broke into the home and she was not present. 2 months after the death threats began reaching the Coleman family, an unmarked handdelivered letter arrived abruptly in their mailbox. The letter written in bold letters demanded immediate action. It read, « Deny your God publicly or else. No more opportunities. Time is running out for you and your family. » This threat was ominous and explicit, stating that if the Coleman’s failed to comply with the request, they would face dire consequences. Sherry was deeply shaken by the unsettling message. This intrusion into her private space, coupled with the explicit threat to her and her family, left her feeling genuinely frightened. Throughout the ordeal, Sherry’s fear intensified with each passing day. The letter served as a reminder of the potential danger lurking around the corner, waiting for an opportunity to strike. After receiving a death threat in the mail, Chris and Sher Coleman decided to take extra precautions to protect their family. As a part of this effort, Chris installed surveillance cameras outside his home. These cameras captured footage of the surroundings and were sent to a screen in the basement office of their home. Additionally, the footage was saved on a digital video recorder, allowing Chris to have a permanent record of the incident. He hoped that the surveillance cameras would help him identify the culprit responsible for the threats against his family. Shortly after, Chris installed the security cameras outside his house. The threats against the Coleman family stopped. Life returned to normal for Chris, Sherry, Garrett, and Gavin. For a while, things were quite good. In April 2009, Sherry told everyone that she was feeling better about her marriage and was determined to do whatever it took to make it work. She expressed relief that the death threats had stopped arriving, and she felt a sense of happiness. However, her optimism did not last for long. Another letter arrived at the Coleman home, this time containing an ominous warning. It stated that her worst nightmare was about to come true. Chris, Sherry’s husband, was disturbed by the contents of the letter. He decided to examine the footage captured by their security camera from the previous night. To his surprise, he noticed the silhouette that caught his attention. However, the identity of the figure remained a mystery. This new development brought back the fear and concern for Sherry and her children’s safety. Once again, she found herself living in constant fear of the unknown. The reassurance she had gained from the temporary lull in threats had vanished, and she felt that her worst nightmare was imminent. The local police increased their efforts in response to the escalating threats against the Coleman family. One neighbor, Justin Barlo, a detective sergeant with the nearby city of Columbia Police Department, took a special interest in the case. Detective Barlo took it upon himself to personally reach out to Chris through telephone. During their phone conversation, Detective Justin Barlo informed Chris that he noticed Chris’s absence from home for work. The detective offered assistance, stating that his cell phone number was available if Chris needed anything or had any concerns. Detective Barlo reassured Chris that he could respond more quickly than the police if there were an emergency since he lived in the neighborhood. Detective Justin Barlo, who lived across the street from the Coleman family, set up video cameras to monitor their driveway over several weeks. The footage captured by Detective Barlo’s cameras depicted the Coleman family going about their daily routines, but it did not capture the person who had left death threats for them. Despite Detective Barlo’s efforts, the videos failed to provide any clues or information about the person behind the messages. Chris headed to the gym at 5:45 a.m. on May 5th, 2009. Approximately 1 hour after leaving, Chris dialed his home phone number to ensure that Sherry and the boys were up and ready for school. However, no one answered the call. Alarmed by the lack of response, Chris called his neighbor, Detective Justin Barlo, at 6:45 a.m. Chris explained to Detective Barlo that he had left home around 5:30 a.m. and traveled to the gym in St. Louis County. While exercising, he made calls to Sherry’s phone to ensure she was awake. However, to his surprise, she was not answering. This growing concern prompted Chris to ask Detective Barlo to check on Sherry and his sons. Detective Justin Barlo grabbed his essential items, including his weapon, handcuffs, flashlight, and radio before heading out to secure the Coleman residence. As he waited for the dispatcher to send a unit to assist him, he had one goal, making contact with Sherry and ensuring everything turned out okay. With a mixture of anticipation and apprehension, Detective Barlo approached the door of the Coleman residence. He knocked firmly, hoping he would get a response. However, the silence that greeted him sent shivers down his spine. The lights inside the house were off, and there was no movement as far as he could tell, which gave him a bad feeling. Within minutes of Detective Justin Barlo arriving at the Coleman home, a patrol vehicle pulled up with another officer to help him. The second officer was sent to the rear of the house to see if he could peer through a door or a window or make contact with Sherry or the boys through the back of the house. However, as soon as the second officer got there, he found signs of forced entry into the basement. This discovery immediately caught the attention of Detective Barlo, who began to think that someone in the house was in danger. The detective was deeply concerned about the safety of Sherry, Garrett, and Gavin. After discovering the signs of forced entry into the Coleman home, Detective Justin Barlo and the second officer decided to enter the premises through the basement. As they announced their presence, they received no response. Conducting a thorough search in the basement, they stumbled upon a disconnected video cable at the computer desk. This discovery led them to conclude that the camera’s digital video recorder had gone missing. Detective Justin Barlo and the second officer worked their way up the steps of the Coleman home from the basement. As they ascended the steps, the officers noticed a strong whiff of aerosol spray paint. The smell grew stronger as they approached the main level of the home. After climbing the stairs, they saw the wall was painted with spray paint. The messages scrolled across the surface were derogatory and directed at Chris, Sherry, and their sons. 13 minutes after Chris called Detective Justin Barlo. Chris returned home from the gym. Detective Justin Barlo told Chris to wait outside as they searched his home. Chris did not try to come in or ask any questions. Instead, he sat down on the porch quietly. At the same time, a third officer arrived at the Coleman home. The three officers knew they needed to search the rest of the house for Sherry and the boys. As they made their way upstairs, they came across more heat-filled spray painted messages on the wall. Upon reaching the second story of the Coleman home, Detective Justin Barlo entered the bedroom of Garrett, the oldest Coleman son, only to find him seemingly asleep. However, upon closer inspection, the detective realized that Garrett was not alive. Signs of life were nowhere to be found, and his body was cold to the touch. Ligure marks were visible around his neck, indicating that the young boy had indeed been murdered. The discovery of Garrett’s lifeless body sent shock waves through the detective’s mind. In the next room, the second officer walked in to check on Gavin. But to his horror, he discovered that the boy was also deceased. Just like his brother, Garrett, he had liature marks around his neck, indicating that he had been strangled. The killer had even spray painted an obscene message on the bed sheets, adding an extra element of horror to the scene. The third officer entered the master bedroom and found himself confronted by a disturbing sight. Sherry, deceased like her sons, lay lifeless across the bed. Her hair was strewn across her face, concealing her features. It was clear to the officer that Sherry had been murdered. As the officer examined the room, he noticed several bruises on Sherry’s body. These injuries seemed to indicate that she had put up a fight, defending herself and trying to protect her sons. After Detective Justin Barlo and the officers found the dead bodies of Sherry, Garrett, and Gavin, they heard Chris enter the house. Having been waiting outside for news about his family, Chris announced himself unaware of the seriousness of the situation. Detective Barlo had to break the devastating news to Chris that his entire family was gone, murdered. This news was too much for Chris and he took it hard. Detective Barlo took Chris outside with the intention of providing him with some privacy to process the news. However, as the reality of the situation sank in, Chris reaction was overwhelming. Chris started to feel sick and his body seemed to collapse. He curled up in a fetal position, unable to contain the wave of emotions washing over him. The shock of what had just unfolded was too much for Chris to comprehend. Chris couldn’t believe that his family had been taken away in such a violent way. In a moment of despair, Chris made a desperate attempt to reach out to his father, Ronald. He called Ronald and told him that something had happened to Sherry and the boys. Upon receiving the news, Ronald immediately realized that Chris was in shock. Ronald couldn’t believe that such a tragedy had happened to his family. News of the shocking murders of Sherry, Garrett, and Gavin quickly spread throughout the community of Waterlue, Illinois, where the Coleman family resided. As neighbors woke up to the grim news, they were devastated and terrified. The Coleman family had always been seen as a perfect American family. with their charming sons, Garrett and Gavin, admired by everyone. One of the neighbors expressed the sentiment that everybody would want their children to be like Garrett and Gavin, as they were always polite, helpful, and had hearts of gold. For Sherry’s brother and mother, the harsh reality of the brutal crime was impossible to accept. Chris was taken to a nearby police station for questioning after his wife and two sons were discovered murdered. Detective Justin Barlo asked Chris if he could shed any light on the killings. He expressed a lot of regret for leaving to go to the gym and leaving Sherry and the boys alone in the home. When detective Justin Barlo asked Chris if he had any idea who could have killed his family, Chris claimed that he had no idea. However, there were several things that stood out to the detective during the interview that seemed suspicious. One of the initial issues was the fact that Chris never asked how his wife and sons were killed. This lack of curiosity seemed odd to the detective considering the gravity of the situation. It seemed as if Chris was not genuinely interested in finding out the details of how his family was murdered. Furthermore, the detective noticed that Chris was trying to hide scratches on his arms during the interview. He asked for a blanket in the room even though it was warm to conceal the injuries. These scratches raised a red flag for Detective Barlo. As the detective knew that Sherry, Chris wife, had fought her killer for her life. When the detective asked Chris how he got the scratches, he said it was from putting up a satellite dish the day before. During the interview with the detectives at the police department, Chris adamantly denied having a relationship outside of his marriage. However, Chris did admit to having a close friendship with a woman named Tara Lent, a cocktail waitress and high school friend of his wife’s who lived in Florida. Chris admitted that his wife would not have approved of their conversations, but he insisted that he had no intention of leaving his wife for Tara. He claimed that he would never consider betraying his family in that way. However, a different story emerged when one of the detectives reached out to Tara in Florida. According to Tara, her relationship with Chris was more than just friendship. She alleged that they had been in a full-blown affair since November 2008. Tara provided the police with her phone and laptop computer, which contained extensive evidence in the form of emails, explicit pictures, and videos that she and Chris had sent to one another throughout their relationship. When the detectives confronted Chris with the information Tara had provided them, Chris admitted that he had been seeing Tara more frequently than he had initially confided in the detectives. Further investigation revealed that Chris and Tara devised the system to meet up at locations where he worked for Joyce Meyer. They met in secret, often traveling to exotic destinations like Hawaii to enjoy time together away from their families. Chris insisted that his relationship with Tara was not considered an affair, stating that an affair implies a deeper level of commitment and involvement than he and Tara had. However, the detectives discovered some interesting information from Tara’s cell phone and computer. Tara had a calendar marked with a wedding to Chris and scheduled vacations. She appeared to be under the impression that Chris was planning to leave his family for her. This evidence raised suspicions among the detectives as it contradicted Chris’s assertion that their relationship was not a serious affair. Chris’s father, Ronald, was stunned to learn their son had an affair. However, Ronald insisted that Chris relationship with Tara had nothing to do with the murders of Chris wife and son. Ronald said that Chris had always been gentle and would never commit such heinous crimes. He emphasized that Chris was a quiet man who exhibited no signs of violence. Detectives believed that Chris affair with Terencece was a strong motive for murder. However, their preliminary investigation determined insufficient evidence to charge him with the crime. So, after six long hours of questioning, Chris walked out of the police department without any charges being filed against him. Terara Lent became a person of interest in Sher Garrett and Gavin’s murders. However, she was cleared as a suspect when the detectives determined that she was in Florida the morning of May 5th, 2009 when the family was killed. The murders of the Coleman family sparked one of the largest murder investigations in Illinois history. A task force consisting of 25 detectives was assembled to track down the killer. For 15 days straight, they worked 20our days calling in professionals to assist with the case. One of the key focuses of the task force was determining the origin of the hate-filled email sent to Chris Coleman. Every threatening email the Joyce Meyer Ministries received over the past year was meticulously examined, leading the team to locations all over the country. Each person who emailed Joyce Meyer was tracked and interviewed, but none of the individuals who sent those threats appeared to be responsible for the Coleman family murder. A computer forensic team was brought in to investigate the murder of Sher, Garrett, and Gavin. The detectives who requested their assistance were hoping to uncover any digital evidence related to the crime. This team began by analyzing the email account desterris@gmail.com. By conducting analysis, the computer forensic team discovered that the email address was created on November 14th, 2008, just days before the first email was sent. One of the more surprising discoveries made by the team was the fact that the death threats sent to Chris Coleman’s family originated from the IP address associated with Chris himself. The detectives continued to investigate the Coleman family’s murder by conducting a meticulous examination of both the spray-painted messages found at the crime scene and Christopher Coleman’s handwriting. To gather evidence, they took photographs of the spray painted messages at the crime scene and collected samples from Christopher Coleman. These samples were then sent to a handwriting expert for analysis. After comparing the two samples, the expert concluded that the handwriting matched the spray painted messages. This finding led the detectives to conclude that Christopher Coleman was the one who wrote the messages on the walls of his home on the day of the murders. A chemical analysis identified the brand color of the spray paint as Rustoleum Candy Apple Red. After being informed of Chris Coleman’s purchase at a hardware store days before his family was killed, one detective decided to reach out to the manager of the store, the manager confirmed to the detective that Chris had made a purchase at the store, and the specific product he had purchased was Rustoleum Candy Apple Red Spray Paint. This discovery was significant as it linked Chris Coleman to the same type of spray paint that was used in the murder scene. During the investigation into the Coleman family murders, the time of death became a significant aspect. Chris initially told investigators that he had left his home around 5:45 a.m. on May 5th, 2009, the morning his family was murdered. However, the medical examiner confirmed that Sher Garrett and Gavin were killed around 3:00 a.m., which meant Chris was home at the time of his family’s murder. Two weeks after the discovery of the bodies, Chris Coleman was arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree murder, the prosecution argued that these crimes were driven by greed, selfishness, and narcissism. Chris Coleman, it seemed, had decided it was time for a fresh start and his family was in the way. In April 2011, Chris Coleman was put on trial for the murder of his wife, Sherry, and their two sons, Garrett and Gavin. The state alleged to the jury that Chris had killed his family because he wanted to be with Tara Lent but couldn’t divorce his wife Sherry because he would lose his well-paying job with Joyce Meyer Ministries since they did not believe in divorce. During the trial, Chris defense attorney argued Chris was innocent of murdering his family and alleged an intruder walked into the home on May 5th, 2009 and killed them. Two years to the day of the murders of Sher Garrett and Gavin, Chris Coleman was found guilty of their murders. The judge sentenced Chris to life in prison without parole, even though he was eligible for a death sentence. This decision was because the state of Illinois had recently repealed the death penalty, which was scheduled to come into effect just a few months after the murders. Sherry’s family and friends were determined to ensure that she, Garrett, and Gavin would never be forgotten, and they wanted to do something meaningful to honor their memory. They decided to raise money for victims of domestic violence, a cause that was near and dear to their hearts. Carile, Ohio was home to many families, including the Richardsons. The Richardson family consisted of Kim and Scott Richardson, who were both actively involved in their children’s lives. Their son, Jackson, was passionate about playing football, while their daughter, Brook Skyler, or Skyler as she was known, was a cheerleader. Skyler suffered from an eating disorder that ruled her life from a young age. Her mother, Kim, first noticed her daughter’s struggle with her eating habits when she was in the sixth grade. At just 12 years old, Skylar’s obsession with food and exercise became apparent when she refused to purchase gum if it had more than 5 calories. Because Skylar was a flyer on the cheerleading squad, she needed to be light and easy to toss. This pressure to maintain a certain weight made her battle even harder. She had become consumed by her body image and the constant fear of gaining weight. Skyler’s struggle with her weight and body image began during cheerleading season. In an effort to maintain her body weight, she started throwing up after meals. However, this destructive behavior only exacerbated her issues when cheerleading season was over. After the end of cheerleading season, Skylar’s struggle with her weight intensified. She would experience periods of binge eating where she would consume excessive amounts of food in a short period. These episodes would often be followed by periods of starvation where Skylar would restrict her food intake or engage in extreme diets. Skyler’s parents noticed her changing behavior and were concerned for her well-being. They tried to approach her about their concerns, but Skyler would shut down whenever the topic was raised. She never wanted to talk about it, and any attempt to address her weight was met with resistance. Frustrated, Skylar’s parents sought professional help from various doctors and therapists. They hoped that these interventions would provide some relief for their daughter. After an evaluation, Skylar was eventually diagnosed with body dysmorphia. This condition involves an obsessive focus on a perceived flaw in appearance, often leading to significant distress and impairment in daily functioning. July 2016 marked the summer before Skyler’s senior year when she decided to begin dating a friend’s cousin. However, the relationship did not last for long, and by January 2017, Skyler had moved on to a new boyfriend, a high school student named Brandon. Skyler was genuinely happy and seemed to be gaining weight. Her parents, Kim and Scott, hoped that their daughter’s eating disorder was under control. They noticed that she looked healthy and appeared genuinely happy. In February, Skylar excitedly picked out her prom dress. It was a tightly fitted dress that required her to be laced into it. By mid-March, Skylar went on vacation with her family. During the trip, she wore a two-piece bathing suit. Her mom thought she looked wonderful. Kim, knowing that her daughter and Brandon were heating up, wanted Skylar to start taking birth control pills. She believed that this would protect her daughter’s health and help prevent any unwanted pregnancies. In mid-April 2017, Skylar visited her mother’s gynecologist to obtain a prescription for birth control. Skyler’s mother, Kim, waited outside the doctor’s office while Skylar met with the doctor. Upon exiting the examination room, Skylar emerged with tears streaming down her face. Kim immediately asked her daughter why she was so upset to which Skylar replied that it was a traumatic experience for her. She believed her daughter was telling the truth unaware of the real reason behind the tears. The truth was that during Skylar’s visit to the OBGYn, the doctor informed her that she was approximately 8 months pregnant. Skyler requested the doctor not to tell anyone about this as she was not ready to share the news with her loved ones. Nine days later on May 5th, Skylar and her boyfriend Brandon went to the prom. Despite her advanced pregnancy, Skylar managed to fit into her prom gown. 2 months after Skyler went to prom on July 14th, 2017, the Carile police showed up at Richardson home. They informed Skyler’s parents, Kim and Scott, that they needed to speak to the teenager about something she may have witnessed. The police officers assured the parents that Skyler was not in trouble and took her at their word. Scott decided to drive Skyler to the police station. Unsure of what awaited them. The police wanted to question Skyler regarding a call they received from a gynecologist’s office. This OBGYn reported that one of their patients had given birth to a baby and buried the baby in the backyard. Upon receiving this information, the police promptly took Skyler into custody and brought her to an interrogation room. Skylar’s father was not allowed in the room with her. Before initiating the interview, the police read Skyler her rights. They then proceeded to disclose the details of the call from the doctor’s office. According to the caller, the doctor had informed them that on April 26th, Skylar had discovered that she was pregnant. However, when Skylar returned to the office, she reportedly disclosed that the baby was not alive and she buried her in the backyard. During her interview, Skylar admitted to the police that she had given birth to a stillborn baby girl on May 7th, 2017. Skyler stated that she had delivered the baby in the bathroom and noticed that the infant was not breathing and had no heartbeat. She explained that she felt the need to bury the baby and decided not to tell anyone about the incident. According to Skyler, she silently walked downstairs and retrieved a small garden shovel. She then dug a shallow grave in her backyard where she buried the baby to mark the spot in the memory of her child. Skyler placed a vase with a flower in it at the burial site. After questioning Skyler, the police informed her parents, Kim and Scott, about the real reason she had been brought to the station. Kim and Scott were shocked to learn that she had been pregnant as they had no idea. They saw her everyday and believed that she was unaware of her pregnancy. Upon hearing the news, Kim was heartbroken to discover that her daughter had faced this difficult situation alone. She expressed her sorrow at the fact that Skylar had to deliver the baby in the bathroom without anyone there to support her. Skyler informed her parents that she had named the baby Annabelle and claimed that the child’s father was a close friend’s cousin, whom she dated briefly before Brandon. Crime scene investigators arrived at the Richardson home to conduct a search for the baby’s remains. During the search for the baby’s remains in the Richardson backyard crime scene, investigators removed weeds and brushed the ground to uncover the skeletal remains. The police were meticulous in their approach, carefully removing any debris that could hinder their investigation. Despite the challenges posed by the overgrown vegetation, they were able to uncover a significant amount of evidence. After removing the weeds and brushing the ground, the police discovered several bones, including pieces of the skull. These remains were meticulously collected and placed in small body bags to preserve any evidence. The investigators took great care to ensure that the integrity of the bones was maintained. One investigator later testified that the remains smelled. Another investigator confessed that the bones were so small that it was difficult to determine if they were collecting rock or bone. The coroner confirmed the discovery of hair and very small fingernails, but no organs or other identifiable items. After more than 5 hours of questioning, Skylar and her parents were allowed to return home. However, 6 days after the incident, the police contacted Skyler and informed her that she needed to come back again. They assured her father, Scott, that she was not in trouble. However, during the interview with Skyler, the police informed her that they had received new damaging information from the coroner’s office. They claimed they had discovered more about the story than what Skyler had initially shared. The medical examiner who analyzed the remains stated that there was evidence to suggest that the baby’s bones may have been burned. Skyler was bewildered when confronted with the statement that the baby was burned. She adamantly denied setting a fire, stating that she would never harm her child. The police, however, remained determined to get Skylar to admit to killing her baby girl and burning her remains to hide the evidence. In an attempt to elicit an admission, the police suggested that perhaps Skyler had tried to cremate the baby in order to keep the ashes off the premises. This suggestion only further confused Skyler, who was adamant that she did not burn the baby. However, suddenly Skylar changed her story and told police she did have a lighter and may have used it to try and cremate her baby’s remains. Additionally, Skylar stated that there is a possibility that the baby was born alive as she made a gurgle or a noise and possibly even heard her cry at one point. Skyler admitted to holding the newborn too tight, which may have contributed to the baby’s death. During the hour-long interrogation, the police gathered sufficient evidence to arrest Skyler on a charge of reckless homicide. Their theory was that Skylar suffocated the baby. After presenting the case to a grand jury, she was eventually indicted and arrested for aggravated murder, a charge that carries a mandatory life sentence in Ohio. Skyler pleaded not guilty to the additional charges of voluntary manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, and danger to children at her arraignment. She spent the weekend in jail until her family was able to secure a $50,000 bond. Skyler found herself at the center of a media firestorm following the tragic death of her child. From the moment her name emerged, the public judged and scrutinized everything she and her family did. The constant judgment and scrutiny took a toll on their well-being, leading them to retreat into the safety of their own home. However, the threats they received made it difficult for them even to step outside. Members of the public would take pictures of them, further fueling the frenzy and adding to the immense pressure they were under. The relentless public scrutiny became unbearable, engulfing every aspect of their lives. Despite her attorneys believing that Skylar gave a false confession and that her infant death was not intentional, the prosecution remained steadfast in their approach. Despite mounting evidence contradicting their initial assessment, they pressed forward with their case. One of the key pieces of evidence in the prosecution’s case was the initial report from the medical examiner who stated that the remains had been burned. However, upon further examination, the medical examiner retracted her initial assessment. After carefully reviewing the baby’s body, she declared that there was no evidence whatsoever of burning. Despite this new revelation, the prosecution’s approach remained unchanged. They clung to Skyler’s admission that she had attempted to cremate the remains, even though the evidence contradicted their theory of a burned body. This approach highlighted the state’s determination to secure a conviction regardless of the evidence. Throughout this tumultuous period, Skyler’s family endured immense stress and fear. The public scrutiny and threats made their lives unbearable, and they struggled to navigate a world where every move they made was under the microscope. Skyler’s defense attorneys worked tirelessly as the trial approached to defend her against the charges. Skyler’s family was able to raise the $50,000 bail amount to secure her release on bond. However, as a condition of her release, she was ordered to wear the ankle bracelet to monitor her whereabouts. As a result, Skylar remained primarily confined to her home and avoided going out in public. She found herself isolated and preferred to spend most of her time with her family’s dogs. Over 12 months, Skylar’s life took on a different path. Her plans to attend the University of Cincinnati were put on hold as she awaited trial for the murder of her baby. The charges were serious and the defense filed a motion to move the trial to a different county. However, the request was denied, leaving Skyler to continue facing the trial in the original jurisdiction. During this time, the weight of her circumstances weighed heavily on Skyler. She grappled with the emotional and psychological impact of the allegations against her as well as the isolation she felt from the outside world. Spending time with her dogs provided solace and a sense of comfort. It became her main companionship and support as she awaited her trial. Skyler’s family stood by her side throughout this difficult period, offering unwavering support and encouragement. They stood by her, believing in her innocence and hoping the truth would come to light. Despite the challenges she faced, Skylar remained determined to fight for her freedom. In July 2019, the state approached Skyler’s defense attorney with an unexpected offer. The offer stated that if Skyler pleaded guilty to the remaining charges, which carried a sentence of 15 years, the state would withdraw the charge of aggravated murder. Skyler’s parents were conflicted about this decision and wondered if she should accept the plea deal. After carefully considering the offer, Skylar decided to turn down the plea deal. This decision terrified her parents who questioned if she made the right choice. However, they knew it was Skyler’s choice, not theirs. On September 3rd, 2019, Skylar went on trial for the murder of her newborn baby girl. The state began its opening statements by presenting a text message that Skylar had sent to her mother. In this message, she expressed how happy she was, stating that her belly had returned to its normal size. She added that she would never allow it to get like it was again. This message was sent just a few hours after Skyler gave birth. I am literally speechless with how happy I am. My belly is back. OMG, she texted her mother. The prosecution told the jury during the second day of Skylar’s trial. During the state’s opening arguments, they alleged that Skylar had sent more text messages to her mother and boyfriend less than 24 hours after she had killed her baby. These messages, according to the state, suggested that Skylar was thrilled about her baby’s death and pointed to these texts as evidence that she played a role in the baby’s death. In one message, Skylar texted her mom. I’m so excited for dinner to wear something cute. Yay! My belly is back now. I am taking this opportunity to make it amazing. This message was interpreted as an attempt to hide her guilt and excitement about not having a baby anymore. The state argued that Skylar’s use of the words excited was indicative of her pleasure in the baby’s death. Additionally, the state alleged that Skylar had sent a message to her boyfriend stating last night was like the worst ever, but I feel so much better this morning. I’m happy. According to the state, this message was proof that Skylar had felt relieved after the baby’s death. The state asserted that Skylar had no intention whatsoever of ever having her baby. They admitted that they could not provide concrete proof that the baby was born alive. However, they presented evidence indicating that Skylar had confessed to it during an interview with the police when Skylar stated that she had heard the baby gurgle and cry after discovering she was pregnant. The state alleged that Skylar conducted a search on the internet for how do I get rid of a baby. In addition, it was claimed that Skyler’s mother, Kim, had informed Skylar that her life would come to an end if she became pregnant. This revelation reportedly instilled fear in Skylar. The prosecutor said she was determined to keep her secret. When she could conceal her daughter no longer, she took her daughter’s life. On the third day of Skylar’s trial, the doctor who performed the autopsy on her baby and ruled the cause of death as violent homicide took the stand to testify. However, the doctor stated that she was not able to determine whether the fracture she found on the skull of the baby occurred before or after the death of the baby. Instead, she made her opinion on the cause of the fractures based on statements made by Skyler during her police interrogation. Skyler’s defense attorney challenged the doctor’s findings, arguing that she may have suffered from confirmation bias. The attorney argued that the doctor had already formed an opinion and was unlikely to change it. During cross-examination, the doctor admitted that she never examined the remains of the deceased baby under a dissecting microscope. The defense attorney then asked the doctor if she consulted with an obstitrician. The doctor responded that she had not. Furthermore, the attorney asked if the doctor had looked at photos of the burial site or the backyard of Skylar’s residence. The doctor again stated that she had not. Another doctor, a fetal medicine specialist, testified in the afternoon portion of Skylar’s trial, mostly under examination by the prosecution. This doctor cast doubts on Skyler’s baby being stillborn, stating that all she had was one screening. Given the margin of error of funal height measurements during the third trimester of pregnancy, which the doctor said are off 60% of the time, she was probably carrying a healthy baby. The doctor added that Skylar had admitted feeling her baby moving inside of her and a deceased baby does not move. He also cast doubt on the reports from a doctor who filed a report for the defense that said Skyler’s baby likely had growth issues. During cross-examination by Skyler’s attorney, the doctor was asked if the prosecution was paying him. He replied that he was given an amount of $5,000 a day because that’s what it costs the practice if they have a doctor who’s not there. As the prosecution presented their case against Skyler, shocking and heart-wrenching evidence unfolded in the courtroom. Among the various pieces of evidence shown, the most impactful were the pictures of the deceased baby’s remains displayed on the television screen. These images left a lasting impact on Skylar, as revealed by her reactions during the trial. When the pictures of her baby’s remains appeared on screen, Skylar’s initial reaction was to stare straight ahead. She avoided looking at the photos, seemingly unable to bear the sight. Skyler’s stoic demeanor contrasted with the previous day when she visibly trembled when the judge sat down before jury selection. When Skylar’s defense attorneys presented their case, they argued that Skylar’s life was far from perfect, even before the accusation of murder. They claimed that much of what the prosecution presented were halftruths and argued that some of the texts presented in court were taken out of context. The defense argued that Skyler’s frequent use of such text language did not imply that she committed the heinous crime of murdering her daughter. The defense attorneys also emphasized Skyler’s mental health struggles, specifically highlighting her battle with an eating disorder since she was 12 years old. They presented evidence indicating that Skyler regularly visited a psychologist and nutritionist to address her eating disorder. To support their claims, they showed the jury pictures of Skylar depicting her at various stages of weight and appearance. These pictures included images of her looking rail thin, as well as those where she appeared slightly heavier. According to her attorney, Skylar cradled the baby for hours while bleeding on the ground in the bathroom. They said despite her physical state, she remained steadfast in her commitment to comfort and care for the lifeless body. After enduring unimaginable pain, Skyler’s attorney said she made the decision to bury her baby in the backyard. Skyler’s attorney explained to the court that Skylar had intended to notify her family about her upcoming pregnancy, but unfortunately, she never had the opportunity to do so. According to her doctor, Skyler was told that she would deliver a baby within 8 to 10 weeks. As a result, she assumed she would have enough time to attend the prom and graduate high school before addressing the situation with her mother, whom she knew would not be supportive. During the defense turn, an obstitrician testified that the baby was still born. The doctor argued that Skylar did not admit to cutting the cord, suggesting that it may have become detached before or during birth. The doctor also pointed out that Skyler’s description of the baby’s appearance was noteworthy as she said the baby was really white. The obstitrician stated that this did not indicate a healthy newborn. He said in his experience, a newborn is usually a purplish color. Furthermore, the obstatrician noted that Skylar only gained 15 lbs throughout her pregnancy. He suggested that her eating disorder may have restricted the baby’s development in the womb. This testimony aimed to cast doubt on the validity of Skylar’s statements to the police regarding the baby’s well-being. The defense’s argument was that Skylar only told the police what she wanted to hear during the interrogation and that she did not witness or engage in any harmful behavior toward the baby. They aimed to cast doubt on the credibility of her testimony and suggest that other factors may have contributed to the baby’s death. Skyler Richardson’s trial lasted for one week before the jury was sent to deliberate. After just four hours, the jury returned with a verdict. They acquitted her of aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter, and child endangerment. However, she was convicted of abuse of a corpse, a felony that carried up to one year in prison. The judge ordered her to be held in jail until her sentencing hearing. One day later, her sentencing hearing took place. Skyler apologized for her actions and acknowledged the gravity of what she had done. During Skyler’s sentencing hearing, the judge did not spare any leniency when he admonished Skylar for her role in the tragic loss of her baby. The judge firmly believes that if Skylar had made better decisions throughout her pregnancy, her child would still be alive today. The judge’s admonishment was stern and unwavering. He expressed his disappointment in Skyler’s actions and made it clear that the choices she made had severe consequences. The judge emphasized that the decisions she made led to the death of her baby. After expressing his dissatisfaction with Skylar’s actions, the judge handed down a sentence of 3 years probation for abuse of a corpse. This sentence served as a reminder that Skylar’s actions were morally reprehensible and against the law. In November 2020, a judge granted a request from Skylar’s attorneys to terminate her probation 2 years early. During the hearing, Skylar expressed her desire to return to a normal life and stated that she no longer required the supervision of a probation officer. The judge acknowledged her progress and agreed that there was no longer a need for the probation department’s resources to be invested in her case. The judge emphasized that a sentence of probation is not designed solely as punishment or rehabilitation. Instead, it provides an opportunity for individuals to demonstrate why they should not be sentenced to prison. Since her acquitt, Skylar has taken full advantage of this opportunity. She has completed two semesters in college and has been working part-time at the law firm that represented her. Despite being acquitted, Skylar has faced challenges in finding additional employment. According to her attorneys, she has been rejected from various job opportunities due to her probationary status. Despite these setbacks, Skylar remains determined to pursue her career goals. She has expressed interest in attending law school and becoming a public defender. On July 11th, 2013, 21-year-old Jordan Lyn Graham led a car with her foster brother Michael and her close friend Hannah up going to the Sun Road, a 30-m stretch of narrow winding path leading up to a treacherous mountain overlook in search of her husband who’d gone missing on July 8th, 2013. Following a mysterious hunch by a suspect Gmail account, Carmen Tony 607. They were searching Glacier National Park for signs of Cody Johnson, who some unnamed friends have supposedly seen, go off a cliff. The message read, « They are positive he fell and he is dead. » Jordan. Cody’s relatives and friends searched the park alongside the potential widow. combing through over 1,500 square miles of wilderness filled with winding trails, swift flowing rivers, cliffs, mountain lions, and grizzly bears. Of all the cliffs and all the roads, Jordan led them up that particular one, claiming she had a feeling, ignoring numerous location suggestions from Michael and Hannah. At the very top, they stopped at a parking lot and hiked up the loop trail. It was an extremely steep trail leading up to a 200 ft cliff overlooking a deep ravine. Jordan navigated her way to the top with practiced ease and hopped past jagged rocks to the very edge of the cliff. Overlooking the ravine, peering over it, she threw a rock off and said, « I think he’s down there. » It took a particularly brave FBI agent. tying himself to a tree and leaning over the edge and the aid of several emergency services and a helicopter to confirm and extract the body at the bottom of the ravine. The body belonged to Cody Johnson, a newlywed car enthusiast, businessman, and a pillar of the community. How did Cody end up here? And what did his wife and the mysterious Carmen Tony 607 have to do with it? And who were the mysterious out of town friends that were with Cody when he fell? These were the questions that hounded the Callispel Police Department for days to come. Cody Johnson was born on April 8th, 1989 in San Jose, California, and he grew up with his mother, Sher Johnson, whom he was intimately close to. They moved to Callispel in northwestern Montana in 2002. It is a small tourist town in Flathead Valley, located between a lake with the same name and Glacier National Park. Cody spent most of his childhood exploring the great outdoors, driving on long trails with his friend, and kindling his lifelong obsession with all things cars. According to Cody’s friends and family, he was real. He was personable, charismatic, and selfless. He was one of those rare types of people who wouldn’t hesitate to go the extra mile to help you once they got to know you. Cody was also lucky enough to grow his lifelong interest in cars into a thriving business. It started with modifications and souping up cars for racing in his teenage years, but it did eventually evolve to include commercial cars. Cody was a custom commercial car builder, but he also had a job at Nomad Communications, where he worked with his uncle and several of his car-loving friends. It also didn’t hurt that his childhood best friend, Cameron Frederickson, was his boss. Life was pretty much perfect for Cody. The only thing missing was somebody to share that life with. At 23, Cody was in the market for a life partner. He talked to his friends about wanting to marry a church girl. And on Halloween 2011, he met Jordan, the woman who’d changed his life forever. Born in August 1991, Jordan Lyn Graham lived in Callispel all her life with her family. She grew up deeply religious and attended the Faith Baptist Church where she babysat children and worked with families. Her whole life revolved around her faith. All her friends were in church, and it was her dream to one day become a stay-at-home mother and raise a family. Jordan and Cody hit it off when they met on Halloween 2011. She was initially shy before she opened up and they got to talking. She told Cody about her dreams of starting a family and how much she loved nature and the outdoors. Jordan liked Cody, but she was only 20 years old at the time and was not looking to start anything serious. They went on a few dates but remained just friends. All that changed when Cody began to seriously pursue her. He joined her church, First Baptist, and began to move in the same circles as she did. It wasn’t long before their casual relationship evolved into something more, at least for one of them. They started dating officially in November 2011, and Cody was entirely taken by her. He adored her and wanted to be with her day and night. According to Sher Johnson, Cody was sure he wanted to marry Jordan a few weeks into their relationship. Even when Jordan told him she wanted to maintain her chastity until marriage, he didn’t change his mind. The people who knew the couple well, however, noticed that Jordan didn’t seem to feel as passionately for Cody as he did for her. Some chalked it up to her shy nature, but others were a bit more apprehensive of the lopsided relationship. They were not affectionate in public, didn’t hold hands, or even flirt. Most of Jordan’s friends were surprised when she said yes to Cody’s proposal that followed one year later in December 2012. They thought she was not serious enough to get married after one year of dating, but were happy for her nonetheless. In an Instagram post, Jordan flaunted her new ring with the caption, « He proposed, best early Christmas present ever. Smiley face. The marriage was slated for June 29th, 2013, and immediately started planning. Cody was heavily involved, as was Kimberly Martinez, Jordan’s best friend and matron of honor. However, it was Jordan who seemed the most interested in the wedding planning. She even performed a song the couple hired a professional songwriter, Elizabeth Sheay, to write. The lyrics of the song seemed chillingly prophetic in hindsight. When Kimberly or anybody else broached the topic of actually being married to Cody, however, her mood soured. She asked her matron Kimberly several times over if she was doing the right thing. And on her wedding day, her true feelings about the union were impossible to hide. She was a nervous wreck. She was looking down a lot and didn’t seem like she wanted to make eye contact with her husband. When it was time for wedding photos, Jordan seemed to have recovered well enough. And by the time they had their first dance, she was entirely focused on Cody. However, this bliss would not last for long. The morning after their wedding, she texted her friend from the hotel they were honeymooning from. She hadn’t consummated their marriage and turned her husband away the first night of their wedding and the six other nights following that. I just know he’s going to want to do stuff and I’m not really wanting to. And another using the my period started spiel tonight. I freaking hope it works because if I’m forced to do something, I’m going to freak out. Turned out that Jordan was deathly afraid of sex. A combination of her faith and her true feelings towards Cody made her nervous about being intimate with him. Pressure continued to mount until July 7th, 8 days after their wedding. Cody was supposed to go golfing with friends, but he canled at the last minute because Jordan had a surprise for him. After church and some alone time on the lake, the couple sat down to a communal dinner with a few of their friends at the local Dairy Queen. Cody went home with Jordan, and that was the last time anyone saw him. Cameron Frederickson was the first to notice Cody’s absence. He was a model employee and always arrived before the workday started. When Cody hadn’t turned up far into the workday, Cameron stopped by Cody’s new house that he bought with Jordan before their wedding. After knocking for a while with no answer, he got a little worried and let himself in. No one was in, so he searched the house looking for hints as to where Cody and Jordan could have disappeared to with very little success. Cameron’s worry morphed into fear when he found Cody’s phone in the garage. Immediately, he knew something was wrong. Cody went everywhere with his phone. Leaving it behind could have been a sign that something horrible might have happened to him. Several calls later, Cameron discovered that no one had seen him since the dinner at Dair Queen at 8.30. Cameron went to the police station immediately to file a missing person’s report, and the authorities took the case seriously from the get-go. Cameron’s distress made it difficult not to. Officer Chaz Zimmerman was one of the first people to question Cameron. He found it strange that it was his boss who reported him missing, not his wife. Later that day, Kimberly finally got a hold of Jordan. And when she asked what happened, Jordan said the following. She said that she’d seen him leave with some buddies in a black car washing templates. She told them that on their way back from the restaurant, he got a phone call that made him very upset. So, she decided to give him some space. However, later that night, she went to the garage to get her phone charger that she supposedly left in their car. On her way back from the car, she got a text from Cody that said the following. I got a message saying that he was going to go for a ride with some of his out of town buddies that were visiting. I had no idea who they were, but he always told me this one thing when his friends came to visit. He would take them to Glacier Park. She told the police what she told Kimberly and expanded further. She told them she didn’t recognize any of the men and they hadn’t fought that night. As for the reason for his disappearance, Jordan claimed she thought Cody was likely joy riding with his out of town friends. When the police pressed about why she didn’t report the disappearance, she claimed she didn’t want to upset him by filing a missing person report if he was going to come back in a few hours. 48 hours after the disappearance, Cody and Jordan’s friends and families had gathered in their family home and at this point expressed confusion at Cody’s behavior. It didn’t sound like him to abandon his wife and tell no one where he was going. Still, Jordan stuck to her story until Kimberly confronted her. The longer the impromptu meeting went on, the more uncomfortable she seemed to get. Eventually, Jordan got so agitated that she threw her wedding ring across the room. Some thought it was her odd way of coping, but Kimberly was convinced there was something else going on. She called her friend when she got home. The next day, Jordan was called into the station and confronted by the officers about her inconsistent accounts. Sher Johnson also saw the police sometime that day, armed with Cody’s phone records from the day of the disappearance. She was worried about her son and hoped the mysterious man Cody called would shed some light on his whereabouts, but it ended up being a car friend calling to return a tool to Cody. He was immediately eliminated as a suspect because he had a rock-solid alibi. His wife was in labor when Cody disappeared. With all of their leads exhausted, the police turned their attention back to Jordan. She clearly had a story to tell, but it wasn’t adding up. The break in the case they were desperate for came on July 10th. A mysterious message came from an email, Carmen Tony 607, and it declared that Cody was dead and they could call off the search. Hello Jordan. My name is Tony. There is no bother looking for Cody anymore. He is gone. Jordan approached Hannah with the email face devoid of emotion and told her about what Carmen Tony 607 said happened to Cody. He’d supposedly slipped and fell off a cliff in Glacier National Park with his mysterious friends. Hannah nearly lost it when she read the message and she had to push a lethargic Jordan to go to the police. And I’m like freaking out like what are you talking about? And I read the email and it says Cody’s gone. Jordan any emotion? No, she wasn’t crying at all. She was just showing me this email and I start shaking. I told her to go to the cops and she did go. But I was kind of just like rushing it like go move like what are you doing? Don’t just stand here looking at me. Instead of putting the police investigation to rest, the email only made them more paranoid. It seemed very convenient that an anonymous email would provide the information they were desperately searching for and advise them to call off the search. What alarmed Detective Cory Clark more than the particulars of the message was Jordan’s lack of emotion. She didn’t seem affected by a message basically confirming her husband’s death. Based on the information in that email, Jordan decided to go to Glacier National Park with her close friends and family to search for Cody. Hannah described Jordan as strangely chippered the entire ride up the park. The drive up there was her waving her hand out the window. They found nothing by the end of the first day and resumed their search on the second. And it was then Jordan miraculously found Cody’s body. We stand there and she’s like, I think he’s down there. And I was like, what are you talking about? Why would he ever be going down there? Why would anybody do that? This wall is here for a reason. The coroner said that his head and arms took most of the damage from the fall. Cody’s family and friends were devastated at the loss, but Jordan was relieved. According to Hannah, now that a body was found, the police would stop investigating. But the problem was the police still had no idea who Carmen Tony 607 was. When Jordan was initially questioned about the message, she pointed them at Tony Stalkup, a fellow car enthusiast and acquaintance of Cody. He hadn’t seen Cody in several months, but he was so concerned for him that he allowed them full access to his accounts. They did not find the email address they were looking for, and both Jordan and Cody’s phone records did not reveal much. So, they had to reach out to Google to subpoena the IP address of Carmen Tony 607. penning the arrival of the information, the police reintered Cody’s family and friends. And it was then Kimberly finally told the police about Jordan’s fragile mental state leading up to the marriage. She asked her several times if she should marry Cody and expressed horror and fear at the thought of having sex with him. She regretted marrying Cody and wished she could take everything back. When Kim told her to tell Cody how she felt, she messaged her. I should be happy, but I’m not. If I tell him, it’s going to break his heart. Two days before Cody disappeared. She typed this. He held me down the other night and he was in my face. And then on July 7th, they uncovered this exchange. She’d intended to talk to him and was terrified of how he’d react. Later that day, she ended up at Kim’s house and told her how the talk with Cody went. Not well. She said Cody got really angry and freaked out and she decided to leave so that he could cool off. She spent the night at her steparents’ home. When the police learned about this, Jordan became an even more likely suspect, and the information from Google arrived around the same time. It confirmed that Carmen Tony 67’s email address was generated from a computer at her stepfather’s home. A short interview with each member of the Graham family painted Jordan as the creator, but that was not damning evidence enough. Cody and Jordan’s cell phone records were. The cell towers put them at Glacial National Park the night of Cody’s disappearance. CCTV cameras also captured pictures of the couple entering Glacial Park at 9:17 p.m. after she denied being with her husband that night. Only one person knows the answer to that. That’s Jordan Graham. On July 18th, 2013, the police called Jordan in and when they presented her with evidence, she broke down into tears. She finally told the detective her version of what happened on the 8th of July. According to her, she confessed how she felt about their marriage to Cody and they got into a huge argument. They both decided to go on a trip to Glacier National Park and headed for the loop. Jordan finishes the story in her own words so he would have fallen face first down the hill. Why did you continue to turn around and then push him off? I think it’s because emotions were running so high. I was frustrated. I was angry. I was I was every emotion I could ever think of all at once. Her comment at the blindfold had the detectives eager to make a connection between a stray scarf at the bottom of the confession Jordan gave. Nothing was eventually proven. Jordan also claimed that Cody’s death was accidental and that no part of her planned the assault she would later come to receive. There was no planning on your part to kill Cody. Well, okay. You hadn’t planned that until this whole thing just kind of happened and it heated heated the emotion and the passion of that situation. When asked why she pushed her husband Cody off the bridge, she said the following. She stated that he had turned his back to her. He was facing the cliff and that’s when she went up to him and with both hands pushed him in the back off the off the cliff. Jordan also confessed to creating Carmen Tony 607 at her stepfather’s house and sending the messages. Jordan walked out of the police that day. Surprisingly, still a free woman. The police did not charge her and wouldn’t charge her until July 22nd at Cody’s funeral where she was texting on her phone. This one act of disrespect evaporated any sympathy anyone had left for Jordan. She was on her phone whether it was texting or a mobile app. Rumors had been circling that Jordan had killed Cody to escape their marriage because it was the only way she could take back her decision without disgracing herself and her family. The Cody were dead. She wouldn’t need to divorce him. Her attitude at his funeral all but confirmed those rumors. People were beginning to question whether Jordan ever loved Cody. Jordan was charged with first seconddegree murder and making false statements. The jury also added the charge of premeditated first-degree murder after reviewing her case. Her trial finally started on December 9th, 2013. The prosecution ruthlessly came after Jordan the moment the trial started. And a few days in, things were not looking good for her. They picked apart her story, raising vital questions like why she lied and led Cody’s friends and family on whether she was innocent and remorseful about her actions. The testimony from Cody’s family and loved ones certainly didn’t help her case. It painted her as a callous and unfeilling wife who murdered her husband to get out of sleeping with him. Her defense tried to argue self-defense, but it didn’t look like they’d win. So, Jordan went for a plea deal for secondderee murder. She would get 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole in exchange for the prosecution dropping the charge of firstdegree murder. However, before her sentencing, Jordan changed her mind and tried to retract her plea when she heard the prosecution plan to go after her for premeditated first-degree murder. It carried a maximum sentence of 50 years, and it was up to US District Judge Donald Malloy to decide whether to honor her plea or start a new trial. On December 13th, 2013, Jordan Lyn Graham was sentenced to 30 years and five months in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $16,910 in restitution to Cody’s family. She took the stand during her sentencing hearing to apologize for killing Cody. She claimed to be in shock when it happened. I wasn’t thinking where we were. I just pushed, she explained to the judge. Over the years, Jordan would try over and over to get a reduced sentence on several grounds. Her final one was in 2016, but her case was never reopened or reviewed. The federal prosecution was determined to make a statement of her case. The sentence today is going to send a message that if you kill someone and are subject to federal jurisdiction, you will be prosecuted swiftly and severely punished for your crime. Jordan will not be leaving prison until she is over 52 years old. If you made it this far, thank you for staying with me until the end. I hope the stories gave you something to think about or dream about. Sleep well, stay safe, and don’t forget to subscribe. Good night. .

Déroulement de la vidéo:

0.24 Hey, welcome to Sleep Crime
0.24 Stories. Before we begin, let me ask
0.24 where are you watching from and what
0.24 time is it there? A quick comment and a
0.24 subscribe go a long way. It really
0.24 helps. Now, turn down the lights and
0.24 let&;s begin tonight&;s case.
0.24 On June 7th, 2021 at 10:05 p.m., the
0.24 South Carolina Law Enforcement Division
0.24 received a call that two people were
0.24 shot dead at a residence in Islington,
0.24 South Carolina. Alex Meadow called 911
0.24 to report that his 52-year-old wife,
0.24 Margaret Meadow, and their 22-year-old
0.24 son, Paul, had been shot in the dog
0.24 kennels on their family&;s 1,770 acre
0.24 hunting lodge, the Moselle. Based on
0.24 this cell phone data, investigators
0.24 believe the killings happened between
0.24 8.49 and 9:06 p.m. The South Carolina
0.24 Law Enforcement Division sled officers
0.24 arrived on the scene to a distraught
0.24 Alex standing in front of the kennels.
0.24 Inside were the bodies of his youngest
0.24 son and wife. They had suffered multiple
0.24 gunshot wounds from different weapons.
0.24 When the police asked Alex why anyone
0.24 would want his family dead, he told them
0.24 about the strange threats his son Paul
0.24 had been receiving. A boating accident
0.24 had occurred earlier that year, and
0.24 their handling of the situation might
0.24 have earned the family some enemies.
0.24 This is a long story. My son was in a
0.24 boat wreck months back. He&;s been
0.24 getting threats. The news of the murders
0.24 of one of Hampton&;s most beloved
0.24 families rocked the sleepy town to its
0.24 core. Despite the tragedy gaining
0.24 national attention, it would take more
0.24 than a year for law enforcement to make
0.24 their first arrest. While the police
0.24 worked in the background, the question
0.24 on everybody&;s mind was who killed
0.24 Maggie and Paul and why. However strange
0.24 the murder might have seemed, what
0.24 followed after was far more bizarre.
0.24 Their death triggered a series of events
0.24 that unearthed the secrets of Alex
0.24 Mardaw and led to what the media have
0.24 come to call one of the most
0.24 high-profile and sensational cases in
0.24 South Carolina legal history. Richard
0.24 Alexander Alex Marddaw was born into a
0.24 legal dynasty on May 27th, 1968. The
0.24 Mardaws are a respected and
0.24 well-connected family of lawyers who
0.24 have dominated South Carolina low
0.24 country&;s legal system for over 100
0.24 years. Three generations of the family
0.24 have served as district attorneys of the
0.24 14th Judicial Circuit from 1920 to 2006.
0.24 Their reign came to a startling end with
0.24 Alex Mard. The Mards laid the foundation
0.24 for the titan they would become today
0.24 when Alex&;s great-grandfather Randph
0.24 Mard senior founded the law firm Peters
0.24 Mardaw Parker Elroth and Amp Dietrich
0.24 PMPD. Over the decades their influence
0.24 grew so great the Hamptons became known
0.24 as Marduk County. Alex Mardaw tried to
0.24 follow in his family&;s footsteps when he
0.24 was old enough and pursued a law degree
0.24 from the University of North Carolina.
0.24 There he met his beautiful wife Margaret
0.24 Maggie Bransletter. They started seeing
0.24 each other in 1991 and wed 2 years later
0.24 on August 14th, 1993 at the Second
0.24 Presbyterian Church in South Carolina.
0.24 Alex and Maggie had two sons, Richard
0.24 Buster Mardaw and Paul Mardau. Alex
0.24 Mardaw became a personal injury attorney
0.24 with his family firm PMPD, trying to
0.24 continue his family&;s legacy. However,
0.24 unlike the generations of Mardaw that&;s
0.24 come before, Alex abused the power and
0.24 influence his family&;s ferm gave him,
0.24 using it to cover up financial crimes,
0.24 theft, and some have even speculated
0.24 murder. His underhanded dealings would
0.24 go unnoticed for over a decade until his
0.24 youngest son, Paul, was involved in a
0.24 boating accident that left the girl
0.24 dead. Paul&;s boating accident was just
0.24 the latest in a long line of suspicious
0.24 deaths surrounding the Mard family.
0.24 People speculate that these accidental
0.24 deaths were not so accidental and were
0.24 part of a larger coverup. Given the Mard
0.24 family history and resources, the theory
0.24 seemed likely, especially with how they
0.24 handled the death of Mallerie Beach.
0.24 Paul Mardaw drove the family boat to a
0.24 party on Puka&;s Island on February 23rd,
0.24 2019. Fresh out of high school, Paul and
0.24 his girlfriend Morgan Dowy, Anthony
0.24 Cook, Mallerie Beach, and Miley Alman
0.24 were hankering for a party and an
0.24 unsupervised night of fun. The plan was
0.24 to kick the night off with a house party
0.24 and the oyster roast on the island.
0.24 Parties were a non-starter without
0.24 alcohol, so Paul scored some beer and
0.24 hard liquor using his older brother&;s
0.24 identity card. They departed from the
0.24 Mardo Riverhouse by 700 p.m. By
0.24 midnight, they were raring for even more
0.24 fun. So Paul insisted on driving the
0.24 boat to downtown Buffer, where he and
0.24 Connor down two rounds of shots. At
0.24 around 1:00 a.m., they headed back to
0.24 the boat. And on their way back, a
0.24 surveillance camera captured a tender
0.24 moment between Anthony and Mallalerie as
0.24 they made their way back. By this point,
0.24 Paul had a lot of alcohol in his system,
0.24 and according to the other passengers,
0.24 he started acting strange. At 1:15 a.m.,
0.24 they were on the water again, and the
0.24 situation spiraled out of control. The
0.24 group started arguing with Paul when he
0.24 started driving in circles and acting
0.24 drunk. Miley said that Anthony demanded
0.24 he let him out on a nearby rock, but he
0.24 refused. Morgan later said that Paul
0.24 left the boat&;s steering wheel more than
0.24 once to argue with her, and Mallerie was
0.24 terrified. According to GPS footage
0.24 drawn from the onboard Garmin GPS, the
0.24 boat sped up at some point, and although
0.24 Paul denies ramping up the boat speed,
0.24 he was steering. The boat crashed into
0.24 Arker&;s Creek Bridge at 2:20 a.m., and
0.24 Mallerie was ejected into the water. The
0.24 rest of the teens did not come out
0.24 untouched either. Connor had a broken
0.24 jaw while Morgan&;s hand was badly
0.24 injured. Connor called 911 and help
0.24 arrived shortly after. The teenagers
0.24 were in utter mess when the Bowford
0.24 County Deputy Sheriff arrived. And the
0.24 first thing he noticed was how
0.24 distressed Anthony was. He reported that
0.24 he actually tried to rush through him to
0.24 get to Paul after he saw the ladder
0.24 smiling. The police reported that he saw
0.24 blood in the main compartment of the
0.24 boat and a large split from the hull on
0.24 impact. All the teens were grossly
0.24 intoxicated and all of them except
0.24 Anthony were fed to the hospital to be
0.24 treated. Everybody agreed to be treated
0.24 except Paul, who was very agitated and
0.24 had a blood alcohol level of 0.243 times
0.24 higher than the legal limit. Alex,
0.24 Paul&;s father, was seen that night
0.24 shuffling from hospital room to hospital
0.24 room, trying to calm them down and
0.24 control the situation. It took the
0.24 search party 8 days to find Mallalerie&;s
0.24 body. The coroner said she died of blunt
0.24 force trauma to the head and drowning.
0.24 Despite multiple witnesses, including
0.24 Morgan, Paul&;s girlfriend, claiming Paul
0.24 was out of control at the steering wheel
0.24 that night, he would not be arrested or
0.24 even charged. This fueled rumors that
0.24 Alex Mto had somehow greased the wheels
0.24 of justice to get his son free. In March
0.24 2019, the MTO family was slapped with a
0.24 wrongful death lawsuit. Mallerie&;s
0.24 family alleged that Paul&;s mother,
0.24 Maggie, knew her son was drunk when the
0.24 group went boarding and knew that Buster
0.24 had supplied them the ID they needed to
0.24 purchase alcohol. It wasn&;t until April
0.24 18th, 2019, on Mallalerie&;s 20th
0.24 birthday, that Paul was charged with
0.24 three felonies for boating under the
0.24 influence, causing the death of
0.24 Mallalerie and seriously injuring two
0.24 other passengers. Paul pleaded not
0.24 guilty and was released on a
0.24 $50,000. Unfortunately, Paul&;s day in
0.24 court did not come. He passed on before
0.24 the courts gave one. Another seemingly
0.24 accidental death people have linked to
0.24 the MTO was the murder of an openly gay
0.24 teenager, Steven Smith. He was found
0.24 dead on July 8th, 2015 in the middle of
0.24 the road in Hampton County, South
0.24 Carolina. The cause of death was blunt
0.24 force trauma to the head and was
0.24 initially ruled as a hitand-run incident
0.24 with no suspect arrested. However, the
0.24 boy&;s mother believed he was the victim
0.24 of a hate crime. Steven had been a
0.24 classmate of Alex Meadow&;s oldest son,
0.24 Buster, back in high school, and the
0.24 rumor was they were in a relationship.
0.24 Some speculate that Buster might have
0.24 been involved in Steven&;s death and that
0.24 the hit-and-run story was a lousy cover
0.24 up. The South Carolina Law Enforcement
0.24 Division, SLED, reopened the case on
0.24 March 22nd, 2023 and revealed that his
0.24 death was a murder, but no suspects have
0.24 been named. Gloria Satderfield was a
0.24 longtime housekeeper for Alex Midd&;s
0.24 family. Her death was another seemingly
0.24 innocent, though unfortunate passing on
0.24 February 2nd, 2018. Gloria suffered a
0.24 severe head injury when she fell down
0.24 the stairs at the family&;s Moselle
0.24 residence. She passed away on February
0.24 26th, 2018 due to various complications.
0.24 Alex Mto had claimed that his dogs had
0.24 gone to greet Gloria at the top of the
0.24 stairs, but the housekeeper accidentally
0.24 tripped over them, causing her to fall
0.24 backward and hit her head. After her
0.24 passing, there was strangely no autopsy
0.24 to confirm Alex&;s version of events. On
0.24 her death certificate, the cause of
0.24 death was ruled natural causes. The Sons
0.24 of Gloria Satderfield initiated a
0.24 wrongful death lawsuit over their
0.24 mother&;s death in 2018 and were awarded
0.24 a $4 million insurance policy settlement
0.24 in October 2020. However, the settlement
0.24 they won never arrived. Moto had
0.24 allegedly hatched a scheme to steal the
0.24 insurance payout. He approached Gloria&;s
0.24 sons and encouraged them to sue him and
0.24 even went as far as introducing a
0.24 lawyer, Cory Fleming, to them. Cory
0.24 Fleming was a longtime friend and
0.24 godfather to one of Alex Meadow&;s sons.
0.24 The two conspired to steal the
0.24 Satderfield&;s payout. The money was
0.24 diverted to Alex&;s bank account, and
0.24 they never notified the Satderfields of
0.24 receiving the insurance settlement.
0.24 Satderfield Sons then initiated a new
0.24 civil lawsuit on September 15th, 2021
0.24 against Alex Meadow. On the same day,
0.24 state investigators opened a criminal
0.24 investigation into Gloria Satderfield&;s
0.24 death. The reason investigators gave for
0.24 opening the case was to determine any
0.24 criminal liability for the death. The
0.24 decision was based on a request from the
0.24 Hampton County Coroner, who found
0.24 Gloria&;s manner of death inconsistent
0.24 with natural causes. Her family later
0.24 permitted state authorities to exume her
0.24 body for further investigation. By late
0.24 September
0.24 2021, Alex Mto was facing multiple
0.24 financial and embezzlement charges.
0.24 Before the Satderfield brothers filed
0.24 their first lawsuit against Alex Muddo,
0.24 he&;d been embroiled in financial
0.24 schemes, fraud, and embezzlement for
0.24 nearly a decade. Alex was allegedly
0.24 involved in a money laundering and
0.24 painkiller ring which lasted from
0.24 October 7th, 2013 to September 2021 with
0.24 his distant cousin and eventual partner
0.24 in crime, Curtis Smith. On September
0.24 4th, 2021, the pair cooked up another
0.24 sinister scheme. Alex gave Curtis a gun
0.24 and directed him to shoot him. Alex&;s
0.24 only surviving son, Buster, would
0.24 receive his life insurance policy when
0.24 he passed. Curtis pulled up to where
0.24 Alex had staged a fake flat tire and
0.24 shot at him as instructed. However, the
0.24 bullet only caused superficial injuries
0.24 to Alex, and he was even able to call
0.24 911 himself. The moment local law
0.24 enforcement inspected the scene, they
0.24 smelt foul play, but they weren&;t quite
0.24 able to prove it. It wasn&;t until days
0.24 later that MTO confessed. He admitted to
0.24 conspiring with Curtis and staging the
0.24 shooting. His lawyers announced that he
0.24 was going through a tough time and
0.24 unsavory elements were taking advantage
0.24 of his state of mind. They claimed Alex
0.24 wanted to end his life so that Buster
0.24 could cash on a $10 million life
0.24 insurance policy. Alex surrendered
0.24 himself when he heard a warrant was out
0.24 for his arrest. He was charged with
0.24 insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit
0.24 insurance fraud, and filing a false
0.24 police report. Just 2 days after the
0.24 incident, another perplexing news broke.
0.24 Alex Mu announced that he would be
0.24 resigning from his position in his
0.24 family&;s law firm, Peter&;s MTO Parker
0.24 Elroth and MDRI, PMPed, and entering
0.24 rehab for treatment once he left the
0.24 hospital. He was quoted saying, "Made a
0.24 lot of decisions that I truly regret."
0.24 Another bombshell dropped just hours
0.24 later when his firm released an official
0.24 statement alleging MTO had
0.24 misappropriated
0.24 $792,000 of company funds. The firm&;s
0.24 CFO had confronted him earlier about the
0.24 missing money and then reported him to
0.24 relevant authorities. The South Carolina
0.24 Supreme Court indefinitely suspended
0.24 Alex&;s law license in September 2021.
0.24 Investigators dug deeper into Alex
0.24 Meadow&;s life. They began to uncover
0.24 several financial crimes, tax evasions,
0.24 embezzlements, and misappropriation of
0.24 funds from clients and his law firm.
0.24 Alex left rehab on October 14th, 2021,
0.24 and was arrested again upon release. He
0.24 was charged with two felony counts of
0.24 obtaining property by false pretenses.
0.24 The arrest was made based on an
0.24 investigation into the misappropriation
0.24 of investment payout from the wrongful
0.24 death case of Gloria Satderfield. This
0.24 time, Alex was denied bond. This was
0.24 only the beginning of Alex Meadow&;s
0.24 legal wos. On November 18th,
0.24 2021, he was indicted on 27 counts of
0.24 financial misconduct. He was accused of
0.24 stealing money from his clients, other
0.24 lawyers, and the family of his late
0.24 housekeeper. On December 9th, 2021, even
0.24 more charges were brought against him.
0.24 Another 21 counts were added to the
0.24 tally, bringing the total to 48. The
0.24 charges at the time included one count
0.24 of forgery for counts of money
0.24 laundering, seven counts of computer
0.24 crimes, nine counts of breach of trust
0.24 with fraudulent intent, obtaining
0.24 signature or property by false
0.24 pretenses. It was estimated that Alex
0.24 had stolen more than $6.2 million from
0.24 his victims. The state&;s investigation
0.24 into MTO&;s business dealing took months
0.24 to untangle. with new charges brought
0.24 against him almost daily. By June 2022,
0.24 the charges against him totaled 81. By
0.24 the time Alex was formally disparred on
0.24 July 13th,
0.24 2022, he was already facing 84 criminal
0.24 charges and 11 lawsuits. The mother of
0.24 the 19-year-old Mallerie Beach was among
0.24 the many who brought a legal claim
0.24 against the estates of Margaret and Paul
0.24 Muddo. The enormity of these financial
0.24 crimes raised questions about the
0.24 character of the once prominent
0.24 attorney. Could he be hiding something
0.24 even more sinister? Perhaps the murder
0.24 of his wife and son? So, what could have
0.24 possibly been his motive? The South
0.24 Carolina Law Enforcement Division, SLED,
0.24 decided to revisit what they knew and
0.24 had accepted as facts about the double
0.24 murder. They considered new information
0.24 they gathered while investigating the
0.24 numerous financial crimes of Alex
0.24 Meadow. One of the first facts
0.24 investigators realized was that all was
0.24 not well in Alex and Maggie Meadow&;s
0.24 marriage. The couple had hit a rough
0.24 patch. Maggie was living apart from her
0.24 husband in the family&;s beach home on
0.24 Edestto Island, more than an hour away
0.24 from the Moselle property. Mary and
0.24 Proctor, Maggie Meadow&;s sister, told
0.24 law enforcement agents that Mary had not
0.24 even planned to see her husband on the
0.24 night of the murders. Alex reached out
0.24 to Maggie on the fateful day, asking her
0.24 to meet him at the family lodge. He
0.24 asked Maggie to accompany him to visit
0.24 his father, who was terminally ill and
0.24 could pass away at any time. She was
0.24 reluctant to go initially and was said
0.24 to have messaged a friend saying that
0.24 her husband&;s behavior was fishy and
0.24 that he was up to something. She
0.24 suggested that they meet at the hospital
0.24 instead. Ultimately, she agreed to drive
0.24 to the Moselle property before heading
0.24 to the hospital to visit Alex&;s ailing
0.24 father. Unfortunately, she was murdered
0.24 before she had the chance to visit her
0.24 father-in-law. Maggie and her younger
0.24 son were shot dead at their Moselle
0.24 property. The 1 700 acre hunting lodge
0.24 estate contained the mudd house, dog
0.24 kennels, a cabin, and stretches of
0.24 swampland. Maggie and Paul were found
0.24 near the dog kennels, and they had been
0.24 shot several times. Paul was shot twice
0.24 with a shotgun, and Maggie had five
0.24 gunshot wounds. She&;d been killed with a
0.24 different weapon, which ballistic
0.24 analysis determined was a blackout 3000
0.24 ammo from an AR- style rifle. Alex Muddo
0.24 claimed that he had a long nap that day
0.24 before leaving to see his ailing mother
0.24 who suffers from dementia. He said he
0.24 was away for about 45 minutes to an hour
0.24 and a half. And when he got back, he saw
0.24 his wife and younger son dead on the
0.24 floor near the dog kennels. Alex&;s
0.24 timeline for the night had been laid
0.24 down during a series of interviews with
0.24 law enforcement. I knew something was
0.24 bad. While Alex was a person of interest
0.24 in the eyes of law enforcement, there
0.24 was still something missing, a motive as
0.24 to why a prominent and influential
0.24 lawyer would decide to kill his family.
0.24 It wasn&;t long before they found what
0.24 they were looking for. The South
0.24 Carolina law enforcement division, SLED,
0.24 discovered that weeks before the murder,
0.24 the state grand jury had subpoenaed Alex
0.24 Meadow&;s finances. It was concerning an
0.24 obstruction of justice investigation
0.24 connected to a fatal 2019 boat crash
0.24 involving Paul Meadow. Alex Muddo was
0.24 scared that all his financial
0.24 wrongdoings would be exposed following
0.24 the hearing which was scheduled for June
0.24 10th, 2021. To make matters worse, his
0.24 law firm had discovered his
0.24 misappropriation of company funds. Gene
0.24 Settinger, the law firm CFO at the time,
0.24 had confronted MTO about the missing
0.24 money on June 7th, 2021. The day of the
0.24 murder, state authorities claimed that
0.24 the financial pressure had Alex rattled
0.24 and he feared his world would collapse.
0.24 So, he hatched a daring plan that would
0.24 divert attention from his financial
0.24 crimes, which were beginning to go
0.24 public and help garner sympathy for him
0.24 in the public eye. July 14th, 2022, 13
0.24 months after the fatal shooting of
0.24 Maggie and Paul, Alex Meadow was charged
0.24 with the murders of his wife and son.
0.24 the start of the murder trial of Alec
0.24 Murdoch, the once prominent South
0.24 Carolina. MTO was charged with two
0.24 counts of murder and possession of a
0.24 weapon during the commission of a
0.24 violent crime. The prosecutors claimed
0.24 that MTO had shot and killed his wife
0.24 and son at close range with a shotgun
0.24 and an AR- style rifle. The murder
0.24 weapons were never found. MTO&;s defense
0.24 team argued that two shooters carried
0.24 out the shootings due to the different
0.24 weapons used. Expert witness for the
0.24 defense also stated that based on the
0.24 trajectory of the bullets, the likely
0.24 height of the shooters was between 5&;4
0.24 in and 5&;2 in. Alex stood at the proud
0.24 height of 6&; and 4 in which disqualified
0.24 him as a suspect. Shot was 5 to2 to 5 to
0.24 4. That is the most likely explanation.
0.24 Yes, the expert witness under
0.24 cross-examination was grilled by the
0.24 prosecutors and later admitted that
0.24 there were other possibilities apart
0.24 from the height scenario. painted that
0.24 could have caused the trajectory of the
0.24 bullet. Ballistic determined that Maggie
0.24 was shot with a 300 blackout ammo from
0.24 an AR- style rifle. Investigators found
0.24 a box of 300 blackout ammo in the MTO
0.24 family estate. State prosecutors argued
0.24 that MTO killed his wife and son to gain
0.24 sympathy and escape accountability for
0.24 his string of financial crimes. MTO&;s
0.24 lawyers ridiculed the idea, asking why
0.24 he would shift a financial investigation
0.24 away from himself in order to avoid
0.24 scrutiny by putting himself in the
0.24 spotlight of a murder investigation. In
0.24 the course of the trial, it was revealed
0.24 that Alex Mto had been a person of
0.24 interest since the start of the South
0.24 Carolina Law Enforcement Division sled
0.24 investigation into the murders.
0.24 According to Dick Harput, Meadow&;s
0.24 lawyer, he had an ironclad alibi for the
0.24 night in question and also had no reason
0.24 to kill Maggie and their younger son,
0.24 Paul. He described Alex and Maggie&;s
0.24 marriage as full of love. The
0.24 prosecutors then presented two videos
0.24 recorded of Alex on the night of the
0.24 murder, taken a few hours from each
0.24 other. One was a Snapchat video taken
0.24 off Paul&;s phone, and the other was a
0.24 body cam of one of the law enforcement
0.24 agents at the scene of the crime. The
0.24 footage you&;re seeing is from a Snapchat
0.24 video that was taken off of Paul&;s phone
0.24 earlier in the night before the murders.
0.24 Now, compare that to what Murdoch is
0.24 wearing later on in the evening after
0.24 the killings. Something immediately
0.24 stood out. The outfits in the two videos
0.24 were different. The blue shirt is seen
0.24 in the Snapchat video that was taken
0.24 roughly 1 hour before the murders and
0.24 was different from what Alex was
0.24 wearing. As seen in the body cam
0.24 recording of the officer, the
0.24 investigators claimed a search for the
0.24 blue shirt was unsuccessful. It was
0.24 nowhere to be found. Prosecutors
0.24 suggested that MTO tried to influence
0.24 the key witnesses accounts by asking her
0.24 if she remembered the shirt he was
0.24 wearing that night. He was pacing back
0.24 and forth in the living room. And he
0.24 said, "I got a bad feeling. There was a
0.24 video that was out and he said, "You
0.24 remember the shirt I was wearing? That
0.24 Vinnie Vine shirt?" In my mind, I was
0.24 saying I don&;t remember Vinnie Vine&;s
0.24 shirt. It was the polo shirt. I didn&;t
0.24 really know whether he was trying to get
0.24 me to say that that was the shirt he was
0.24 wearing. Cell phone data from MTO&;s
0.24 phone showed he was at his mother&;s home
0.24 for only 15 to 20 minutes. This was
0.24 further corroborated by the testimony of
0.24 Alex Meadow&;s mother&;s caregiver, who
0.24 stated he stayed for only 15 to 20
0.24 minutes before leaving. Mto claims to
0.24 have stayed for at least 45 minutes. I
0.24 was probably gone an hour and a half
0.24 from my mom&;s. How long did he stay in
0.24 the room with y&;all? I say y&;all, for
0.24 the record, you and Miss Libby, I
0.24 apologize. About 15 to 20 minutes. 20
0.24 minutes. The most crucial piece of
0.24 evidence was found late in the
0.24 investigation. When going through Paul&;s
0.24 phone, which was recovered at the scene,
0.24 they found a video that Paul recorded at
0.24 8:44 p.m., minutes from the time
0.24 investigators believed the murders
0.24 happened. The murder occurred between
0.24 8:49 to 9:06 p.m. According to state
0.24 authorities, the video on Paul&;s phone
0.24 was recorded in the dog kennels. The
0.24 audio featured three distinct voices.
0.24 Family and friends were called to
0.24 identify the voices. There&;s a chicken.
0.24 The voices were determined to be Paul&;s,
0.24 Maggie&;s, and Alex&;s. This placed Mauo
0.24 in the vicinity when the murders
0.24 occurred. At this point, the ironclad
0.24 alibi that MTO relied on was completely
0.24 destroyed. He had claimed he was never
0.24 at the dog kennels that night. During
0.24 the fifth week of the trial, MTO took
0.24 the stand and reiterated that he could
0.24 never have intentionally hurt his wife
0.24 and son. He testified, "I didn&;t shoot
0.24 my wife or son." He admitted that he had
0.24 lied about his alibi. Moto&;s new story
0.24 was that he had an opioid addiction at
0.24 the time and was prone to paranoia and
0.24 that was the cause of his lie to the law
0.24 enforcement agents. Prosecutors
0.24 suggested that after MTO killed his wife
0.24 and son, he then took her phone and made
0.24 a series of calls and texts to the
0.24 device to help build his alibi. One text
0.24 read, "Call me babe." It was sent at
0.24 947. Cell phone data also showed that
0.24 MTO and his wife&;s phone locked within
0.24 seconds of each other. Another piece of
0.24 evidence presented to the jury based on
0.24 data from Alex&;s cell phone was that
0.24 within the time frame of when the murder
0.24 occurred, Alex suddenly took a lot of
0.24 steps. Prosecutors attribute this to him
0.24 trying to hide or dispose of evidence
0.24 that would link him to the murder. MTO&;s
0.24 lawyers discredited this claim by
0.24 pointing out that the steps recorded on
0.24 Alex&;s phone did not match that of his
0.24 wife&;s. So, it is wrong to think he
0.24 picked up his wife&;s phone after the
0.24 shootings. Ultimately, the video Paul
0.24 recorded at the dog kennels provided the
0.24 decisive evidence by which the case was
0.24 determined. The jury reached a verdict
0.24 in 3 hours on March 2nd, 2023. The jury
0.24 found Alex Mto guilty on all counts. He
0.24 was sentenced to two life sentences to
0.24 run consecutively without the
0.24 possibility of parole. The jury also
0.24 convicted him of two counts of
0.24 possession of a weapon during a violent
0.24 crime, which added another 5 years to
0.24 his sentence. MTO pleaded guilty to 22
0.24 counts of financial crimes as part of
0.24 his deal, but continues to stand by his
0.24 claim of innocence in the murder of his
0.24 wife and son. On March 9th,
0.24 2023, he filed a notice to appeal his
0.24 double murder conviction. In a
0.24 surprising turn, Moto&;s lawyers filed a
0.24 motion seeking a new trial after
0.24 allegedly uncovering evidence of jury
0.24 tampering by Rebecca Hill, which she has
0.24 now denied. Rebecca was a Cullletton
0.24 County Clerk of Court and was accused of
0.24 tampering with the jury by advising them
0.24 not to believe Meadow&;s testimony and
0.24 other evidence presented by the defense,
0.24 pressuring them to reach a quick guilty
0.24 verdict and even misrepresenting
0.24 critical and material information to the
0.24 trial judge in her campaign to remove a
0.24 juror she believed to be favorable to
0.24 the defense. A hearing would be convened
0.24 for MTO&;s lawyers to present evidence
0.24 and witnesses to support their claim.
0.24 However, a judge is yet to be selected
0.24 to preside over the hearing. With MTO&;s
0.24 appeal, over 100 financial and drug
0.24 crime charges, and multiple pending
0.24 lawsuits, we can be sure that we have
0.24 not heard the last of Alex
0.24 Mu. Still with me? Good. That means
0.24 you&;re ready for the rest. Don&;t forget
0.24 to hit subscribe if you want more cases
0.24 just like this
0.24 one. On June 5th, 2002, 14-year-old
0.24 Elizabeth Smart slept in her bed in the
0.24 affluent town of Federal Heights in Salt
0.24 Lake City, Utah. Elizabeth and her
0.24 sister, Mary Catherine, shared a bedroom
0.24 at the time. However, their peaceful
0.24 slumber would soon be shattered. As the
0.24 night progressed, a soft-spoken man
0.24 forced open a window in the girl&;s room,
0.24 armed with a knife. This intrusion awoke
0.24 Mary Catherine, but she pretended to be
0.24 asleep, hoping to protect her sister.
0.24 The man then turned to Elizabeth and
0.24 ordered her to be quiet or else he would
0.24 harm her. Terrified, Elizabeth complied
0.24 with his demands, putting shoes on
0.24 before being taken outside the home.
0.24 Meanwhile, Mary Catherine lay still,
0.24 waiting for 2 hours before finally
0.24 waking their parents. Ed and Lois smart.
0.24 She told them someone had taken
0.24 Elizabeth, but her parents initially
0.24 didn&;t believe her. Ed and Lois
0.24 dismissed her claims, thinking that
0.24 perhaps Mary Catherine was dreaming.
0.24 However, as events unfolded, they took
0.24 their daughter&;s story seriously. After
0.24 inspecting Elizabeth and Mary
0.24 Catherine&;s bedroom, Ed and Lois
0.24 discovered a cut window screen
0.24 confirming Mary Catherine&;s story.
0.24 Worried about Elizabeth, Ed and Lois
0.24 immediately contacted the authorities.
0.24 The police arrived at the Smart family
0.24 home and questioned Mary Catherine about
0.24 the man who had abducted Elizabeth from
0.24 their bedroom. Mary Catherine described
0.24 the man as having dark hair and noticed
0.24 dark hair on his arms and the backs of
0.24 his hands. Despite speaking quietly to
0.24 Elizabeth throughout the incident, Mary
0.24 Catherine was still able to identify his
0.24 voice as somehow familiar. However, she
0.24 struggled to remember any specific
0.24 circumstances she could have heard
0.24 before. About three and a half hours
0.24 after Elizabeth was taken, the
0.24 authorities utilized the Rachel alert
0.24 system to broadcast information about
0.24 her abduction to the public. The Rachel
0.24 Alert was named after another Utah girl
0.24 who was abducted and murdered. By
0.24 utilizing this alert system, the
0.24 authorities could quickly reach a wide
0.24 audience and enlist the public&;s aid in
0.24 locating Elizabeth. Because Ed and Lois
0.24 Smart had put their house up for sale
0.24 before Elizabeth was taken from her
0.24 bedroom on June 5th, 2002. The police
0.24 looked at people who tooured the house
0.24 as possible suspects in Elizabeth&;s
0.24 abduction. In addition to the house
0.24 tour, the police also searched the smart
0.24 family&;s computer. They wanted to
0.24 uncover any online interactions
0.24 Elizabeth may have had with strangers,
0.24 as this was a common tactic used in
0.24 child abduction cases. By examining her
0.24 computer records, they hoped to
0.24 determine if she had come into contact
0.24 with anyone who may have known or been
0.24 involved in the abduction. The day after
0.24 Elizabeth was kidnapped, her parents
0.24 went on national television and pleaded
0.24 for her safe return. In a
0.24 heart-wrenching and emotional appeal, Ed
0.24 Smart addressed the perpetrator
0.24 directly, imploring them to bring their
0.24 daughter home. His voice filled with
0.24 desperation and love. He pleaded with
0.24 the person responsible for taking
0.24 Elizabeth to have mercy and return her
0.24 safely. Tears accompanied Ed&;s plea as
0.24 he spoke about his immense love for his
0.24 daughter and his unwavering commitment
0.24 to finding her when the police spoke to
0.24 Elizabeth Smart&;s neighbors in Federal
0.24 Heights. None of them reported seeing or
0.24 hearing anything suspicious on the day
0.24 Elizabeth was abducted. This lack of
0.24 information surprised the police as they
0.24 had hoped to gather more information to
0.24 assist with the investigation. Shortly
0.24 after Elizabeth&;s abduction, the mayor
0.24 of Salt Lake City, Rocky Anderson, made
0.24 a public announcement offering a $10,000
0.24 reward for her safe return to her
0.24 family. However, the reward was soon
0.24 raised to
0.24 $250,000. Nearly 1,200 volunteers joined
0.24 Elizabeth Smart&;s family and friends to
0.24 search for her. At a news conference,
0.24 police told the public despite the
0.24 thousands of tips they were receiving.
0.24 They were making little headway in
0.24 Elizabeth&;s abduction. The authorities
0.24 in Salt Lake City called in help from
0.24 other police departments across the
0.24 state. However, without evidence like a
0.24 vehicle description, there wasn&;t a lot
0.24 of information to go on. With no leads
0.24 in Elizabeth&;s disappearance, the police
0.24 began to get frustrated with the lack of
0.24 progress in her case. Scott Atkinson,
0.24 the captain of the Salt Lake City Police
0.24 Department, told the public that
0.24 everyone was still a suspect in
0.24 Elizabeth&;s abduction. Yet, he
0.24 reiterated Elizabeth&;s family was not
0.24 the focus of the investigation. One of
0.24 the 1,200 volunteers searching for
0.24 Elizabeth alerted the police to a
0.24 suspicious man she saw while she was
0.24 looking through a wooded canyon for
0.24 Elizabeth. The volunteer described the
0.24 man as being in the area and acting
0.24 suspiciously. This information prompted
0.24 the police to begin a search for the
0.24 man. The search lasted all night long,
0.24 but despite their efforts, the police
0.24 were unable to locate the suspicious
0.24 individual. As a result, they ruled the
0.24 tip out and determined that it was not
0.24 credible. Another tip received by the
0.24 police regarding Elizabeth&;s abduction
0.24 came from the local milkman in Federal
0.24 Heights. The milkman claimed to have
0.24 witnessed a man driving an older gray
0.24 Honda or Nissan on Elizabeth Street a
0.24 day or two before her disappearance. He
0.24 told the police that he had a peculiar
0.24 feeling about the driver of the car and
0.24 decided to write down the license plate
0.24 number. When the police thoroughly
0.24 searched their vehicle database for that
0.24 specific license plate number, they came
0.24 up empty-handed. Unable to find any
0.24 relevant information or leads, they
0.24 dismissed the tip as not viable. The
0.24 police officers investigating the
0.24 abduction of Elizabeth Smart encountered
0.24 a significant challenge due to the large
0.24 number of individuals who showed up at
0.24 the Smart residence in the hours
0.24 following her abduction. By the time the
0.24 police arrived at the scene around 4:00
0.24 a.m., the home was already filled with
0.24 numerous individuals, causing potential
0.24 contamination of any possible evidence
0.24 that may have been present. As the
0.24 search for Elizabeth Smart continued,
0.24 the police questioned a man who had
0.24 contact with Elizabeth at a social
0.24 function before her abduction. However,
0.24 they soon released this person and
0.24 determined they had no connection with
0.24 Elizabeth&;s disappearance. The search
0.24 efforts intensified and over 20
0.24 volunteer pilots in their private planes
0.24 searched the Salt Lake area from the
0.24 skies. Yet, their efforts yielded no
0.24 results. Tracking dogs indicated they
0.24 had smelled something in Redbute Canyon.
0.24 several miles from Elizabeth&;s home.
0.24 Police searched that area, but it turned
0.24 out to be a dead end. Elizabeth&;s
0.24 father, Edmart, had reached the point of
0.24 exhaustion during the search for his
0.24 daughter. He collapsed from the strain
0.24 and had to be taken to the hospital.
0.24 However, a few hours later, he was
0.24 released and determined to continue
0.24 looking for his daughter. Ed Smart and
0.24 his wife had not been able to sleep and
0.24 were utterly exhausted by the ordeal. In
0.24 a media interview, Ed Smart expressed
0.24 his frustration and determination to
0.24 find his stating that he and his wife
0.24 were barely holding it together. Despite
0.24 Elizabeth&;s parents&; exhaustion while
0.24 they looked for her, Ed and Lois Smart
0.24 held out hope their daughter was alive,
0.24 they firmly believed in their unwavering
0.24 belief that Elizabeth was going to come
0.24 home to them. This conviction was
0.24 instilled deep within their hearts.
0.24 Elizabeth&;s mother, Lois Smart,
0.24 expressed her love and commitment to her
0.24 daughter through the media. She said in
0.24 a powerful and emotional statement,
0.24 "Elizabeth, if you can hear us, we love
0.24 you," Elizabeth&;s loved ones held a
0.24 candlelight vigil, praying for her to
0.24 return home safely. In response to the
0.24 abduction, the police requested
0.24 Elizabeth&;s father, Ed, to take a
0.24 polygraph test. Ed willingly complied
0.24 with the request, demonstrating his
0.24 family&;s commitment to aiding the
0.24 authorities in finding their daughter.
0.24 Her family was more than willing to do
0.24 whatever was necessary to help the
0.24 investigation. The investigation into
0.24 Elizabeth&;s abduction ruled out the
0.24 possibility that she had staged her
0.24 disappearance, and they determined that
0.24 she had not run away. Mark Clauss, whose
0.24 daughter was kidnapped and murdered in
0.24 California in October
0.24 1993, reached out to Elizabeth&;s family
0.24 to offer his support. He traveled to
0.24 Utah to speak with Ed and Lois Smart,
0.24 sharing his own experiences and insights
0.24 to help them navigate the challenging
0.24 circumstances they were facing. During
0.24 an interview with the media, Mark Clauss
0.24 highlighted how the internet had
0.24 benefited Elizabeth&;s disappearance. He
0.24 stated that with the internet, the
0.24 police were able to quickly and
0.24 effectively spread the word about
0.24 Elizabeth&;s missing person flyer, as
0.24 this allowed them to reach a wider
0.24 audience and alert people in different
0.24 states, increasing the chances of
0.24 finding her. The police soon received
0.24 information that a man named Brett
0.24 Michael Edmunds had been cited in
0.24 Federal Heights around the time
0.24 Elizabeth was abducted. This information
0.24 led detectives to seek Brett for
0.24 questioning. However, their search for
0.24 Brett proved unsuccessful as they could
0.24 not find him anywhere. As the
0.24 investigation continued, the police
0.24 discovered that Brett had relocated to
0.24 New Mexico and Texas. A chase ensued and
0.24 authorities eventually apprehended a man
0.24 they believed to be Brett at a
0.24 department store. The individual was
0.24 arrested on charges of autotheft and
0.24 shoplifting. However, upon further
0.24 investigation, it was determined that he
0.24 was not Brett Michael Edmunds. Despite
0.24 the physical similarities, the man was
0.24 determined to have had no connection to
0.24 Elizabeth&;s case. Eventually, the police
0.24 found Brett Michael Edmunds in West
0.24 Virginia, where he was admitted to the
0.24 hospital due to an overdose and liver
0.24 failure. Brett&;s health was so critical
0.24 that the authorities feared he might not
0.24 survive. However, his condition allowed
0.24 for the possibility of questioning him
0.24 regarding Elizabeth&;s abduction. Brett
0.24 was conscious, alert, and able to speak,
0.24 which presented an opportunity for the
0.24 police and FBI agents working on the
0.24 case to interview him. He was
0.24 cooperative with the police, and the
0.24 police concluded that Brett had nothing
0.24 to do with the abduction. After Brett
0.24 Michael Edmonds was cleared as a suspect
0.24 in Elizabeth&;s abduction, the police
0.24 turned their attention to 48-year-old
0.24 Richard Albert Richie. Ed Smart,
0.24 Elizabeth&;s father, informed the police
0.24 that he had employed Richard at his home
0.24 for 2 months the previous year.
0.24 According to Ed, because Richard did not
0.24 own a vehicle, they worked out a deal
0.24 where Ed would give Richard his 1990
0.24 Jeep Cherokee in exchange for his labor.
0.24 However, Edmart was unaware that Richard
0.24 Richie was a career criminal, and he
0.24 later stated that he would not have
0.24 hired Richard if he had known about his
0.24 background. Richard Richie&;s criminal
0.24 history dates back to 1973 when he was
0.24 convicted of secondderee felony
0.24 burglary. This robbery marked the
0.24 beginning of a string of offenses over
0.24 several decades. In 1981, Richie was
0.24 again convicted of burglary for a
0.24 separate incident. His most serious
0.24 crime occurred in 1983 when he was sent
0.24 to prison for aggravated robbery and
0.24 attempted murder. The conviction
0.24 resulted from an incident where he
0.24 wounded a police officer during a
0.24 gunfire exchange with authorities during
0.24 a drugstore robbery. Additionally,
0.24 Richard Richie was convicted of theft in
0.24 1996 for stealing about
0.24 $2,500 worth of food from a food pantry
0.24 in Richfield. According to corrections
0.24 records, Richard Richie was parrolled in
0.24 September 2000. In an interview with the
0.24 media, Ed Smart expressed his doubts
0.24 about Richard Richie&;s involvement in
0.24 his daughter&;s abduction. Ed stated that
0.24 despite Richie&;s criminal history, he
0.24 initially found Richie to be a capable
0.24 worker. On June 14th, 2002, Richard
0.24 Richie was arrested on a parole
0.24 violation, and the police were unable to
0.24 confirm his whereabouts on the day
0.24 Elizabeth was abducted. However, Richard
0.24 Richie denied any involvement in
0.24 Elizabeth&;s abduction. Through a
0.24 statement from his attorney, Richard
0.24 Richie informed the public that the
0.24 police conducted an exhaustive search of
0.24 his home, even digging up his garden.
0.24 However, no evidence related to
0.24 Elizabeth&;s abduction was found. Richard
0.24 Richie claimed that he cooperated fully
0.24 with the police, providing them with
0.24 blood samples for DNA comparison, and
0.24 sat through 26 hours of interviews. He
0.24 also surrendered his vehicle to the
0.24 police for investigation. By July 2002,
0.24 Elizabeth Smart had been missing for a
0.24 month, and her family desperately longed
0.24 for her to return home. They thought
0.24 their prayers were answered when police
0.24 received a report of a girl who matched
0.24 Elizabeth&;s description being cited in
0.24 Nebraska under suspicious circumstances.
0.24 A witness at a gas station claimed to
0.24 have seen a crying girl between the ages
0.24 of 12 and 14, who seemed to be held
0.24 against her will in a minivan. The
0.24 witness provided a detailed description
0.24 of the girl which matched Elizabeth&;s
0.24 appearance. This new development sent
0.24 shock waves through the Smart family as
0.24 they eagerly hoped for any lead that
0.24 might lead to finding their missing
0.24 daughter. However, the police
0.24 investigation into the report revealed
0.24 that it had nothing to do with
0.24 Elizabeth&;s abduction. After a thorough
0.24 search, the police found insufficient
0.24 evidence to connect the sighting to
0.24 Elizabeth&;s case. This disappointing
0.24 discovery left the Smart family
0.24 grappling with a mix of emotions as they
0.24 continued to hope for Elizabeth&;s safe
0.24 return while acknowledging the potential
0.24 for false leads. Despite the setback,
0.24 the Smart family remained steadfast in
0.24 their determination to find Elizabeth.
0.24 They maintained a cautious optimism,
0.24 stating that while they were not ruling
0.24 out the possibility that the girl at the
0.24 gas station could be Elizabeth, they
0.24 needed to keep an open mind. The family
0.24 spokesperson expressed, "We&;re not
0.24 necessarily holding out hope it is
0.24 Elizabeth. If it is Elizabeth, we&;d be
0.24 elated." Meanwhile, the main suspect in
0.24 Elizabeth&;s disappearance, Richard
0.24 Reachi, was charged with theft and
0.24 burglary. He pleaded not guilty to the
0.24 charges. These charges were filed in two
0.24 incidents involving residences in the
0.24 Federal Heights neighborhood and the
0.24 Smart family home. Richard Reichi was
0.24 accused of committing burglary, a
0.24 secondderee felony and theft, a class A
0.24 misdemeanor, in the theft of items from
0.24 a Federal Heights house on April 4th,
0.24 2001. Additionally, Richard Reachi was
0.24 charged with theft, a thirdderee felony,
0.24 in the robbery of items from the Smart
0.24 House on June 6th, 2001. The stolen
0.24 items were not related to Elizabeth&;s
0.24 kidnapping investigation. Salt Lake
0.24 District Attorney David Yokum held a
0.24 press conference to announce the
0.24 charges. He stated that the stolen items
0.24 from the Smart House included jewelry
0.24 and a perfume bottle valued at
0.24 approximately
0.24 $3,500. When Ed Smart confronted Richard
0.24 Reichi about the theft, Richard denied
0.24 the allegations and was subsequently
0.24 fired. Unfortunately, the police
0.24 investigation into the abduction of
0.24 Elizabeth Smart suffered a significant
0.24 setback in August 2002 when their best
0.24 lead, Richard Reachi, passed away from
0.24 an irreversible injury to his brain stem
0.24 that caused hemorrhaging. Richard
0.24 Reach&;s condition deteriorated
0.24 significantly, and he eventually lost
0.24 the ability to communicate or breathe on
0.24 his own. As a result, his family made
0.24 the difficult decision to remove him
0.24 from a ventilator. In an effort to save
0.24 Richie&;s life, doctors operated to
0.24 remove a blood clot in his brain and
0.24 alleviate the pressure on his brain
0.24 stem. Unfortunately, the damage had
0.24 already been done and the efforts were
0.24 unsuccessful. Despite the loss of
0.24 Richard Reichi, the authorities
0.24 continued their efforts to locate and
0.24 apprehend those responsible for the
0.24 abduction. However, Richi&;s death
0.24 presented a significant challenge in the
0.24 investigation and the search for
0.24 Elizabeth Smart&;s abductor. The loss of
0.24 the prime suspect hindered the progress
0.24 of their case and cast doubt upon the
0.24 viability of other leads. In August
0.24 2002, an 11-year-old girl was sexually
0.24 assaulted and beaten after she was taken
0.24 from her bedroom. Severity of her
0.24 injuries was unimaginable as doctors at
0.24 the hospital discovered that every bone
0.24 in the middle of her face had been
0.24 broken. She had to undergo surgery, but
0.24 unfortunately her condition remained
0.24 critical. Following the assault, police
0.24 arrested a close friend of the girl&;s
0.24 father, Javier Sichler. He was charged
0.24 with aggravated burglary, aggravated
0.24 assault, and attempted murder. According
0.24 to Javier Sichler, he recalled knocking
0.24 on the front door of the victim&;s home,
0.24 but claimed that he blacked out
0.24 afterward. However, despite the initial
0.24 similarities with the abduction of
0.24 Elizabeth Smart, the police determined
0.24 that Javier Sichler had nothing to do
0.24 with her kidnapping. As the months
0.24 continued to pass and Elizabeth Smart
0.24 remained missing, the police
0.24 investigating the abduction turned to
0.24 unconventional methods in their attempt
0.24 to find her. Among these methods was the
0.24 use of psychics, individuals who claimed
0.24 to be able to use extra sensory
0.24 perception to gain information about the
0.24 missing girl&;s location. The psychics
0.24 provided information to investigators,
0.24 suggesting that Elizabeth could be found
0.24 intombed in a crypt in the foothills
0.24 above Salt Lake City. This tip prompted
0.24 officials from a company in Seattle to
0.24 report that more than a dozen of its
0.24 members had located Elizabeth&;s body
0.24 through a special psychic process called
0.24 technical remote viewing. According to
0.24 the members of the Seattlebased group,
0.24 their psychic abilities allowed them to
0.24 determine Elizabeth had been killed
0.24 within hours of her abduction. However,
0.24 upon arriving at the designated tomb,
0.24 the officers found no signs of
0.24 Elizabeth&;s disappearance. In November
0.24 2002, a man by the name of Walter
0.24 Kenneth Holloway was arrested and
0.24 accused of extortion. Walter Holloway
0.24 had contacted the Smart family and the
0.24 Salt Lake Police Department, claiming to
0.24 be the kidnapper of their daughter,
0.24 Elizabeth. He demanded $3 million from
0.24 Ed and Lois Smart for the safe return of
0.24 their daughter and threatened to harm
0.24 Elizabeth if he did not receive the
0.24 money. However, the police were able to
0.24 track Holloway to South Carolina and
0.24 determined that he had no involvement in
0.24 the abduction. Ed Smart later stated
0.24 that he was sickened by the extortion
0.24 scheme and felt furious because it
0.24 diverted the police&;s attention away
0.24 from finding his daughter. The false
0.24 kidnapping allegations had hindered
0.24 their efforts and dedicated resources
0.24 that could have been better utilized in
0.24 finding Elizabeth. In October 2002,
0.24 Elizabeth&;s smarts sister, Mary
0.24 Catherine, suddenly realized that the
0.24 abductor&;s voice was that of an
0.24 unemployed man the family knew as
0.24 Emanuel. The family had hired Emanuel to
0.24 work on the roof and rake leaves in
0.24 their yard for a day. However, the
0.24 police officers were skeptical due to
0.24 the short time Emanuel had worked for
0.24 the family, the long time that elapsed
0.24 between the abduction and the
0.24 revelation, and the limited time Mary
0.24 Catherine had heard the abductor&;s
0.24 voice. Despite the doubts, the family
0.24 had a sketch artist draw Emanuel&;s face
0.24 from their descriptions. The sketch was
0.24 eventually released in February 2003 and
0.24 featured on several television shows,
0.24 including Larry King Liv and America&;s
0.24 Most Wanted. The drawing of a suspect
0.24 that was released by the police was
0.24 recognized by relatives of a man named
0.24 Brian David Mitchell, who provided the
0.24 police with contemporary photographs of
0.24 him. These photographs helped
0.24 authorities confirm that the sketch was
0.24 indeed an accurate depiction of Brian
0.24 David Mitchell. On March 12th, 2003, two
0.24 couples in Sandy, Utah spotted Brian
0.24 David Mitchell with a woman and a girl.
0.24 They recognized Brian David Mitchell
0.24 from the photos they had seen on the
0.24 news which depicted him as the missing
0.24 girl&;s abductor. The woman accompanying
0.24 Brian David Mitchell was later
0.24 identified as his wife, Wanda Barzy. One
0.24 of the couples called the police
0.24 immediately after recognizing them. The
0.24 police department was immediately
0.24 notified and dispatched police officers
0.24 to the location. Upon questioning,
0.24 Elizabeth Smart, the missing girl from
0.24 Salt Lake City, was identified. The
0.24 officers rescued her and arrested both
0.24 Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barsy.
0.24 After Elizabeth was rescued, her
0.24 testimony revealed a shocking account of
0.24 her abduction, abuse, and captivity.
0.24 Elizabeth was taken to an encampment
0.24 outside of Salt Lake City when Brian
0.24 David Mitchell took her out of her home.
0.24 The camp consisted of a makeshift
0.24 shelter surrounded by dense foliage to
0.24 provide camouflage. Here she first met
0.24 Wanda Barzy, Brian David Mitchell&;s
0.24 wife, who would play a significant role
0.24 in her captivity. According to Elizabeth
0.24 Smart&;s testimony, Wanda Barzy initially
0.24 played the role of a maternal figure,
0.24 offering her comfort and warmth.
0.24 However, as the days turned into weeks,
0.24 Wanda Bars&;s demeanor began to change.
0.24 She began to exert control over
0.24 Elizabeth, demanding that she adhere to
0.24 their bizarre religious beliefs. Wanda
0.24 Barzy would force Elizabeth to pray,
0.24 read scriptures, and participate in
0.24 religious rituals. One of the most
0.24 traumatic experiences Elizabeth faced
0.24 during her captivity was being forced to
0.24 marry Brian David Mitchell. Wanda Barsy
0.24 threatened Elizabeth with physical harm
0.24 if she did not comply with their
0.24 demands. The wedding ceremony, which
0.24 Mitchell described as a ceremony of
0.24 eternal love, was a sham. It had no
0.24 legal standing and served only as a
0.24 symbol of Brian David Mitchell&;s control
0.24 over Elizabeth. Following the forced
0.24 marriage, Brian David Mitchell proceeded
0.24 to assault Elizabeth. He justified his
0.24 actions by claiming that he was a
0.24 Davidic king who had been commanded to
0.24 kidnap virgin brides in order to fight
0.24 against the antichrist. Brian David
0.24 Mitchell insisted that Elizabeth was the
0.24 first of many virgins he would abduct
0.24 and that she would accompany him as he
0.24 battled this mythical figure. Elizabeth
0.24 Smart endured unimaginable abuse during
0.24 her captivity. In order to prevent her
0.24 from escaping, she was shackled to a
0.24 tree with a metal cable, which severely
0.24 limited her mobility outside of the tent
0.24 she occupied. This constant confinement
0.24 prevented her from seeking freedom and
0.24 left her feeling trapped and helpless.
0.24 In addition to the physical restraint,
0.24 Elizabeth was also subjected to
0.24 psychological torment. She was forced to
0.24 take a new name and chose the name
0.24 Esther after Esther of the Old
0.24 Testament. The name change was a symbol
0.24 of the loss of her identity and the
0.24 manipulation and control exerted over
0.24 her by Brian David Mitchell and Wanda
0.24 Barzy. One of the most disturbing
0.24 aspects of Elizabeth&;s captivity was the
0.24 repeated sexual assault she survived at
0.24 the hands of Brian David Mitchell. She
0.24 was forced to endure these assaults
0.24 multiple times a day, leaving her
0.24 traumatized and fearful. In addition to
0.24 sexual abuse, Elizabeth was made to look
0.24 at explicit magazines, further
0.24 exacerbating her trauma and degradation.
0.24 Elizabeth was constantly threatened with
0.24 violence and even death. Brian David
0.24 Mitchell regularly threatened to kill
0.24 her, leaving her in a constant state of
0.24 fear and anxiety. The constant fear and
0.24 uncertainty only intensified the abuse
0.24 she endured, leaving her feeling
0.24 overwhelmed and helpless. In order to
0.24 further weaken her resistance, Mitchell
0.24 often forced Elizabeth to drink alcohol
0.24 and take drugs. These substances were
0.24 used as a means to lower her resistance
0.24 and make it easier for him to control
0.24 her. The constant intoxication left her
0.24 disoriented and vulnerable, making it
0.24 easier for the abusers to carry out
0.24 their horrific acts. Elizabeth was also
0.24 starved and fed garbage by her capttors.
0.24 After her rescue, Elizabeth called Wanda
0.24 Barzy the most evil woman she had ever
0.24 met. After years of legal proceedings,
0.24 Wanda Barzy pleaded guilty to all the
0.24 charges stemming from Elizabeth&;s
0.24 abduction and was sentenced to
0.24 concurrent terms of 15 years in state
0.24 and federal prison. In 2016, her federal
0.24 imprisonment was terminated and she was
0.24 transferred from the federal medical
0.24 center Carwell in Fort Worth, Texas to
0.24 the Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah to
0.24 begin serving her state prison sentence.
0.24 Elizabeth Smart protested the release of
0.24 Wanda Barzy in September 2018, but Wanda
0.24 Barzy was still let out. Elizabeth
0.24 Smart, who by the time of Wanda Bars&;s
0.24 release was an advocate for child
0.24 safety, stated that she believed Wanda
0.24 Barzy still had the potential to harm
0.24 others. She argued that Barzy had not
0.24 demonstrated remorse for her actions or
0.24 any signs of rehabilitation. Her protest
0.24 garnered attention in the media and
0.24 highlighted the ongoing concerns
0.24 surrounding the release of convicted
0.24 criminals. After a long legal battle
0.24 that spans several years, Brian David
0.24 Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison
0.24 for the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart.
0.24 During the sentencing hearing, Elizabeth
0.24 had the opportunity to address her
0.24 kidnapper directly. In a powerful and
0.24 emotional statement, she expressed the
0.24 pain and trauma he had caused her. She
0.24 told him that the 9 months she spent in
0.24 captivity had taken away a part of her
0.24 life that she could never regain.
0.24 Despite this ordeal, Elizabeth showed
0.24 remarkable resilience and determination.
0.24 She assured her kidnapper that she would
0.24 lead a good life despite the darkness he
0.24 had brought into her life. Elizabeth&;s
0.24 words reflected her strength and
0.24 determination to overcome her
0.24 challenges. On May 5th, 2009, just
0.24 before 3:00 a.m., the Coleman family,
0.24 known for their seemingly perfect life,
0.24 was found brutally murdered in their own
0.24 home. Let&;s piece together the events of
0.24 that fateful night of a crime that left
0.24 an indelible mark on the hearts of many.
0.24 Chris Coleman met his wife Sherry when
0.24 he was in the Marines and she was in the
0.24 United States Air Force. It was love at
0.24 first sight for Sherry. She knew right
0.24 away that Chris was the guy she wanted
0.24 to be with for the rest of her life.
0.24 Within a few months, Sherry was pregnant
0.24 with their first child, Garrett. Because
0.24 Chris and Sherry were devout Christians,
0.24 they married before Garrick was born.
0.24 Chris called his dad, Ronald Coleman. To
0.24 break the news, they were now married
0.24 and expecting a baby. Ronald was
0.24 surprised but happy to hear that Sherry
0.24 was expecting a baby. After Garrett was
0.24 born, it wasn&;t long before Chris and
0.24 Sherry had their second son, Gavin.
0.24 Gavin was their wild child, while
0.24 Garrett was more laid-back like his
0.24 father, Chris. Both boys had bubbly
0.24 personalities and were good little boys.
0.24 Sherry lived and breathed for her sons,
0.24 and she was like a mama bear. If you
0.24 stepped on one of her children, you
0.24 better watch out. Chris was a very good
0.24 father, and they made a great family.
0.24 They laughed, played together, and
0.24 cherished every moment with their sons.
0.24 Once the Coleman&;s left the military,
0.24 they relocated to Waterlue, Illinois, a
0.24 small town. Their house was situated in
0.24 an upscale neighborhood, the result of a
0.24 successful new job that Chris landed.
0.24 Chris became the head of security for
0.24 the renowned TV evangelist Joyce Meyer,
0.24 the CEO of one of the largest Christian
0.24 ministries in the world. However,
0.24 Joyce&;s multi-million dollar income and
0.24 opulent lifestyle sparked controversy
0.24 among certain individuals. Critics
0.24 accused her of being a greedy con artist
0.24 who exploits the fears of her followers.
0.24 They claimed that her financial success
0.24 and lavish lifestyle were at odds with
0.24 her religious teachings. Chris served as
0.24 a bodyguard and personal security guard
0.24 for Joyce. One of his primary
0.24 responsibilities was to monitor and
0.24 safeguard against hate mail and letters
0.24 sent to Joyce&;s church. These threats
0.24 were often aimed at Joyce&;s life with
0.24 people expressing their intentions to
0.24 find and cause harm to her. Joyce&;s
0.24 ministry based in St. Lewis, Missouri,
0.24 allowed Chris to earn a living as a
0.24 bodyguard. He made a substantial salary
0.24 of $100,000 per year, which provided
0.24 financial stability for his family. In
0.24 addition to his role as a bodyguard,
0.24 Chris often accompanied Joyce on his
0.24 travels around the world. Wherever she
0.24 went, he followed closely. This constant
0.24 presence allowed Chris to provide
0.24 additional security for Joyce. However,
0.24 it meant that he was away from home for
0.24 extended periods. Sherry confided in a
0.24 friend that one year while Chris was
0.24 working for Joyce, he had been gone 260
0.24 days out of the year. She was stressed
0.24 out because the boys, Garrett and Gavin,
0.24 missed their dad. The boys hated when he
0.24 was gone, and they would mark off each
0.24 day on a calendar until he came back
0.24 from his trip. Garrett and Gavin, would
0.24 stare at those days until they were up,
0.24 eagerly waiting for their dad to return.
0.24 However, by the time Chris did finally
0.24 get home, it wasn&;t long before he had
0.24 to leave again. This constant cycle of
0.24 absence caused a lot of tension in Chris
0.24 and Sherry&;s marriage. Sherry was tired
0.24 of doing everything alone, sick of being
0.24 both the mom and dad. She felt
0.24 overwhelmed and
0.24 underappreciated, and the constant
0.24 juggling act was taking its toll on
0.24 their relationship. In October 2008,
0.24 Chris traveled to Tampa, Florida, where
0.24 Sherry had attended high school. Sherry
0.24 reached out to an old friend, Tara
0.24 Lintz, and asked if she would be able to
0.24 check in on Chris while he was in town.
0.24 Chris eventually got in touch with Tara
0.24 after settling in Tampa, and they
0.24 decided to meet up. Tara graciously
0.24 showed Chris around the city. On
0.24 November 14th, 2008, at approximately 11
0.24 p.m., Chris received an email that stood
0.24 out. The email address was destroy
0.24 Chris@gmail.com, and the subject line
0.24 and content terrified him. This email
0.24 stated that Chris should stop working
0.24 for Joyce Meyer, or else he or his
0.24 family would be killed. As the hours
0.24 passed by, more aggressive emails
0.24 arrived at the ministry from the same
0.24 email address, reiterating the threat
0.24 and indicating a specific time and date
0.24 when the attack on his family might
0.24 occur. The sender of these emails knew
0.24 Chris Coleman&;s schedule and knew that
0.24 he would be traveling out of the
0.24 country. Chris informed Sherry about the
0.24 email threats he had received, and the
0.24 following Monday, he reported the emails
0.24 to the local police. He explained that
0.24 he was not home much because he had
0.24 traveled with Joyce Meyer Ministries.
0.24 The police offered to conduct patrols
0.24 around the residence when Chris was not
0.24 home. But despite the increased police
0.24 presence, Sherry continued to fear for
0.24 her family&;s safety. Sherry once asked a
0.24 friend to stay with her because she was
0.24 not comfortable staying alone in the
0.24 house with Chris away. She made it clear
0.24 that she was deadly serious about
0.24 protecting her family and willing to
0.24 take whatever measures necessary to
0.24 ensure their safety. To show her friend
0.24 that she was serious, Sherry revealed
0.24 that she had a gun and demonstrated how
0.24 to hold it in case someone broke into
0.24 the home and she was not present. 2
0.24 months after the death threats began
0.24 reaching the Coleman family, an unmarked
0.24 handdelivered letter arrived abruptly in
0.24 their mailbox. The letter written in
0.24 bold letters demanded immediate action.
0.24 It read, "Deny your God publicly or
0.24 else. No more opportunities. Time is
0.24 running out for you and your family."
0.24 This threat was ominous and explicit,
0.24 stating that if the Coleman&;s failed to
0.24 comply with the request, they would face
0.24 dire consequences. Sherry was deeply
0.24 shaken by the unsettling message. This
0.24 intrusion into her private space,
0.24 coupled with the explicit threat to her
0.24 and her family, left her feeling
0.24 genuinely frightened. Throughout the
0.24 ordeal, Sherry&;s fear intensified with
0.24 each passing day. The letter served as a
0.24 reminder of the potential danger lurking
0.24 around the corner, waiting for an
0.24 opportunity to strike. After receiving a
0.24 death threat in the mail, Chris and Sher
0.24 Coleman decided to take extra
0.24 precautions to protect their family. As
0.24 a part of this effort, Chris installed
0.24 surveillance cameras outside his home.
0.24 These cameras captured footage of the
0.24 surroundings and were sent to a screen
0.24 in the basement office of their home.
0.24 Additionally, the footage was saved on a
0.24 digital video recorder, allowing Chris
0.24 to have a permanent record of the
0.24 incident. He hoped that the surveillance
0.24 cameras would help him identify the
0.24 culprit responsible for the threats
0.24 against his family. Shortly after, Chris
0.24 installed the security cameras outside
0.24 his house. The threats against the
0.24 Coleman family stopped. Life returned to
0.24 normal for Chris, Sherry, Garrett, and
0.24 Gavin. For a while, things were quite
0.24 good. In April 2009, Sherry told
0.24 everyone that she was feeling better
0.24 about her marriage and was determined to
0.24 do whatever it took to make it work. She
0.24 expressed relief that the death threats
0.24 had stopped arriving, and she felt a
0.24 sense of happiness. However, her
0.24 optimism did not last for long. Another
0.24 letter arrived at the Coleman home, this
0.24 time containing an ominous warning. It
0.24 stated that her worst nightmare was
0.24 about to come true. Chris, Sherry&;s
0.24 husband, was disturbed by the contents
0.24 of the letter. He decided to examine the
0.24 footage captured by their security
0.24 camera from the previous night. To his
0.24 surprise, he noticed the silhouette that
0.24 caught his attention. However, the
0.24 identity of the figure remained a
0.24 mystery. This new development brought
0.24 back the fear and concern for Sherry and
0.24 her children&;s safety. Once again, she
0.24 found herself living in constant fear of
0.24 the unknown. The reassurance she had
0.24 gained from the temporary lull in
0.24 threats had vanished, and she felt that
0.24 her worst nightmare was imminent. The
0.24 local police increased their efforts in
0.24 response to the escalating threats
0.24 against the Coleman family. One
0.24 neighbor, Justin Barlo, a detective
0.24 sergeant with the nearby city of
0.24 Columbia Police Department, took a
0.24 special interest in the case. Detective
0.24 Barlo took it upon himself to personally
0.24 reach out to Chris through telephone.
0.24 During their phone conversation,
0.24 Detective Justin Barlo informed Chris
0.24 that he noticed Chris&;s absence from
0.24 home for work. The detective offered
0.24 assistance, stating that his cell phone
0.24 number was available if Chris needed
0.24 anything or had any concerns. Detective
0.24 Barlo reassured Chris that he could
0.24 respond more quickly than the police if
0.24 there were an emergency since he lived
0.24 in the neighborhood. Detective Justin
0.24 Barlo, who lived across the street from
0.24 the Coleman family, set up video cameras
0.24 to monitor their driveway over several
0.24 weeks. The footage captured by Detective
0.24 Barlo&;s cameras depicted the Coleman
0.24 family going about their daily routines,
0.24 but it did not capture the person who
0.24 had left death threats for them. Despite
0.24 Detective Barlo&;s efforts, the videos
0.24 failed to provide any clues or
0.24 information about the person behind the
0.24 messages. Chris headed to the gym at
0.24 5:45 a.m. on May 5th, 2009.
0.24 Approximately 1 hour after leaving,
0.24 Chris dialed his home phone number to
0.24 ensure that Sherry and the boys were up
0.24 and ready for school. However, no one
0.24 answered the call. Alarmed by the lack
0.24 of response, Chris called his neighbor,
0.24 Detective Justin Barlo, at 6:45 a.m.
0.24 Chris explained to Detective Barlo that
0.24 he had left home around 5:30 a.m. and
0.24 traveled to the gym in St. Louis County.
0.24 While exercising, he made calls to
0.24 Sherry&;s phone to ensure she was awake.
0.24 However, to his surprise, she was not
0.24 answering. This growing concern prompted
0.24 Chris to ask Detective Barlo to check on
0.24 Sherry and his sons. Detective Justin
0.24 Barlo grabbed his essential items,
0.24 including his weapon, handcuffs,
0.24 flashlight, and radio before heading out
0.24 to secure the Coleman residence. As he
0.24 waited for the dispatcher to send a unit
0.24 to assist him, he had one goal, making
0.24 contact with Sherry and ensuring
0.24 everything turned out okay. With a
0.24 mixture of anticipation and
0.24 apprehension, Detective Barlo approached
0.24 the door of the Coleman residence. He
0.24 knocked firmly, hoping he would get a
0.24 response.
0.24 However, the silence that greeted him
0.24 sent shivers down his spine. The lights
0.24 inside the house were off, and there was
0.24 no movement as far as he could tell,
0.24 which gave him a bad feeling. Within
0.24 minutes of Detective Justin Barlo
0.24 arriving at the Coleman home, a patrol
0.24 vehicle pulled up with another officer
0.24 to help him. The second officer was sent
0.24 to the rear of the house to see if he
0.24 could peer through a door or a window or
0.24 make contact with Sherry or the boys
0.24 through the back of the house. However,
0.24 as soon as the second officer got there,
0.24 he found signs of forced entry into the
0.24 basement. This discovery immediately
0.24 caught the attention of Detective Barlo,
0.24 who began to think that someone in the
0.24 house was in danger. The detective was
0.24 deeply concerned about the safety of
0.24 Sherry, Garrett, and Gavin. After
0.24 discovering the signs of forced entry
0.24 into the Coleman home, Detective Justin
0.24 Barlo and the second officer decided to
0.24 enter the premises through the basement.
0.24 As they announced their presence, they
0.24 received no response. Conducting a
0.24 thorough search in the basement, they
0.24 stumbled upon a disconnected video cable
0.24 at the computer desk. This discovery led
0.24 them to conclude that the camera&;s
0.24 digital video recorder had gone missing.
0.24 Detective Justin Barlo and the second
0.24 officer worked their way up the steps of
0.24 the Coleman home from the basement. As
0.24 they ascended the steps, the officers
0.24 noticed a strong whiff of aerosol spray
0.24 paint. The smell grew stronger as they
0.24 approached the main level of the home.
0.24 After climbing the stairs, they saw the
0.24 wall was painted with spray paint. The
0.24 messages scrolled across the surface
0.24 were derogatory and directed at Chris,
0.24 Sherry, and their sons. 13 minutes after
0.24 Chris called Detective Justin Barlo.
0.24 Chris returned home from the gym.
0.24 Detective Justin Barlo told Chris to
0.24 wait outside as they searched his home.
0.24 Chris did not try to come in or ask any
0.24 questions. Instead, he sat down on the
0.24 porch quietly. At the same time, a third
0.24 officer arrived at the Coleman home. The
0.24 three officers knew they needed to
0.24 search the rest of the house for Sherry
0.24 and the boys. As they made their way
0.24 upstairs, they came across more
0.24 heat-filled spray painted messages on
0.24 the wall. Upon reaching the second story
0.24 of the Coleman home, Detective Justin
0.24 Barlo entered the bedroom of Garrett,
0.24 the oldest Coleman son, only to find him
0.24 seemingly asleep. However, upon closer
0.24 inspection, the detective realized that
0.24 Garrett was not alive. Signs of life
0.24 were nowhere to be found, and his body
0.24 was cold to the touch. Ligure marks were
0.24 visible around his neck, indicating that
0.24 the young boy had indeed been murdered.
0.24 The discovery of Garrett&;s lifeless body
0.24 sent shock waves through the detective&;s
0.24 mind. In the next room, the second
0.24 officer walked in to check on Gavin. But
0.24 to his horror, he discovered that the
0.24 boy was also deceased. Just like his
0.24 brother, Garrett, he had liature marks
0.24 around his neck, indicating that he had
0.24 been strangled. The killer had even
0.24 spray painted an obscene message on the
0.24 bed sheets, adding an extra element of
0.24 horror to the scene. The third officer
0.24 entered the master bedroom and found
0.24 himself confronted by a disturbing
0.24 sight. Sherry, deceased like her sons,
0.24 lay lifeless across the bed. Her hair
0.24 was strewn across her face, concealing
0.24 her features. It was clear to the
0.24 officer that Sherry had been murdered.
0.24 As the officer examined the room, he
0.24 noticed several bruises on Sherry&;s
0.24 body. These injuries seemed to indicate
0.24 that she had put up a fight, defending
0.24 herself and trying to protect her sons.
0.24 After Detective Justin Barlo and the
0.24 officers found the dead bodies of
0.24 Sherry, Garrett, and Gavin, they heard
0.24 Chris enter the house. Having been
0.24 waiting outside for news about his
0.24 family, Chris announced himself unaware
0.24 of the seriousness of the situation.
0.24 Detective Barlo had to break the
0.24 devastating news to Chris that his
0.24 entire family was gone, murdered. This
0.24 news was too much for Chris and he took
0.24 it hard. Detective Barlo took Chris
0.24 outside with the intention of providing
0.24 him with some privacy to process the
0.24 news. However, as the reality of the
0.24 situation sank in, Chris reaction was
0.24 overwhelming. Chris started to feel sick
0.24 and his body seemed to collapse. He
0.24 curled up in a fetal position, unable to
0.24 contain the wave of emotions washing
0.24 over him. The shock of what had just
0.24 unfolded was too much for Chris to
0.24 comprehend. Chris couldn&;t believe that
0.24 his family had been taken away in such a
0.24 violent way. In a moment of despair,
0.24 Chris made a desperate attempt to reach
0.24 out to his father, Ronald. He called
0.24 Ronald and told him that something had
0.24 happened to Sherry and the boys. Upon
0.24 receiving the news, Ronald immediately
0.24 realized that Chris was in shock. Ronald
0.24 couldn&;t believe that such a tragedy had
0.24 happened to his family. News of the
0.24 shocking murders of Sherry, Garrett, and
0.24 Gavin quickly spread throughout the
0.24 community of Waterlue, Illinois, where
0.24 the Coleman family resided. As neighbors
0.24 woke up to the grim news, they were
0.24 devastated and terrified. The Coleman
0.24 family had always been seen as a perfect
0.24 American family. with their charming
0.24 sons, Garrett and Gavin, admired by
0.24 everyone. One of the neighbors expressed
0.24 the sentiment that everybody would want
0.24 their children to be like Garrett and
0.24 Gavin, as they were always polite,
0.24 helpful, and had hearts of gold. For
0.24 Sherry&;s brother and mother, the harsh
0.24 reality of the brutal crime was
0.24 impossible to accept. Chris was taken to
0.24 a nearby police station for questioning
0.24 after his wife and two sons were
0.24 discovered murdered. Detective Justin
0.24 Barlo asked Chris if he could shed any
0.24 light on the killings. He expressed a
0.24 lot of regret for leaving to go to the
0.24 gym and leaving Sherry and the boys
0.24 alone in the home. When detective Justin
0.24 Barlo asked Chris if he had any idea who
0.24 could have killed his family, Chris
0.24 claimed that he had no idea. However,
0.24 there were several things that stood out
0.24 to the detective during the interview
0.24 that seemed suspicious. One of the
0.24 initial issues was the fact that Chris
0.24 never asked how his wife and sons were
0.24 killed. This lack of curiosity seemed
0.24 odd to the detective considering the
0.24 gravity of the situation. It seemed as
0.24 if Chris was not genuinely interested in
0.24 finding out the details of how his
0.24 family was murdered. Furthermore, the
0.24 detective noticed that Chris was trying
0.24 to hide scratches on his arms during the
0.24 interview. He asked for a blanket in the
0.24 room even though it was warm to conceal
0.24 the injuries. These scratches raised a
0.24 red flag for Detective Barlo. As the
0.24 detective knew that Sherry, Chris wife,
0.24 had fought her killer for her life. When
0.24 the detective asked Chris how he got the
0.24 scratches, he said it was from putting
0.24 up a satellite dish the day before.
0.24 During the interview with the detectives
0.24 at the police department, Chris
0.24 adamantly denied having a relationship
0.24 outside of his marriage. However, Chris
0.24 did admit to having a close friendship
0.24 with a woman named Tara Lent, a cocktail
0.24 waitress and high school friend of his
0.24 wife&;s who lived in Florida. Chris
0.24 admitted that his wife would not have
0.24 approved of their conversations, but he
0.24 insisted that he had no intention of
0.24 leaving his wife for Tara. He claimed
0.24 that he would never consider betraying
0.24 his family in that way. However, a
0.24 different story emerged when one of the
0.24 detectives reached out to Tara in
0.24 Florida. According to Tara, her
0.24 relationship with Chris was more than
0.24 just friendship. She alleged that they
0.24 had been in a full-blown affair since
0.24 November 2008. Tara provided the police
0.24 with her phone and laptop computer,
0.24 which contained extensive evidence in
0.24 the form of emails, explicit pictures,
0.24 and videos that she and Chris had sent
0.24 to one another throughout their
0.24 relationship. When the detectives
0.24 confronted Chris with the information
0.24 Tara had provided them, Chris admitted
0.24 that he had been seeing Tara more
0.24 frequently than he had initially
0.24 confided in the detectives. Further
0.24 investigation revealed that Chris and
0.24 Tara devised the system to meet up at
0.24 locations where he worked for Joyce
0.24 Meyer. They met in secret, often
0.24 traveling to exotic destinations like
0.24 Hawaii to enjoy time together away from
0.24 their families. Chris insisted that his
0.24 relationship with Tara was not
0.24 considered an affair, stating that an
0.24 affair implies a deeper level of
0.24 commitment and involvement than he and
0.24 Tara had. However, the detectives
0.24 discovered some interesting information
0.24 from Tara&;s cell phone and computer.
0.24 Tara had a calendar marked with a
0.24 wedding to Chris and scheduled
0.24 vacations. She appeared to be under the
0.24 impression that Chris was planning to
0.24 leave his family for her. This evidence
0.24 raised suspicions among the detectives
0.24 as it contradicted Chris&;s assertion
0.24 that their relationship was not a
0.24 serious affair. Chris&;s father, Ronald,
0.24 was stunned to learn their son had an
0.24 affair. However, Ronald insisted that
0.24 Chris relationship with Tara had nothing
0.24 to do with the murders of Chris wife and
0.24 son. Ronald said that Chris had always
0.24 been gentle and would never commit such
0.24 heinous crimes. He emphasized that Chris
0.24 was a quiet man who exhibited no signs
0.24 of violence. Detectives believed that
0.24 Chris affair with Terencece was a strong
0.24 motive for murder. However, their
0.24 preliminary investigation determined
0.24 insufficient evidence to charge him with
0.24 the crime. So, after six long hours of
0.24 questioning, Chris walked out of the
0.24 police department without any charges
0.24 being filed against him. Terara Lent
0.24 became a person of interest in Sher
0.24 Garrett and Gavin&;s murders. However,
0.24 she was cleared as a suspect when the
0.24 detectives determined that she was in
0.24 Florida the morning of May 5th, 2009
0.24 when the family was killed. The murders
0.24 of the Coleman family sparked one of the
0.24 largest murder investigations in
0.24 Illinois history. A task force
0.24 consisting of 25 detectives was
0.24 assembled to track down the killer. For
0.24 15 days straight, they worked 20our days
0.24 calling in professionals to assist with
0.24 the case. One of the key focuses of the
0.24 task force was determining the origin of
0.24 the hate-filled email sent to Chris
0.24 Coleman. Every threatening email the
0.24 Joyce Meyer Ministries received over the
0.24 past year was meticulously examined,
0.24 leading the team to locations all over
0.24 the country. Each person who emailed
0.24 Joyce Meyer was tracked and interviewed,
0.24 but none of the individuals who sent
0.24 those threats appeared to be responsible
0.24 for the Coleman family murder. A
0.24 computer forensic team was brought in to
0.24 investigate the murder of Sher, Garrett,
0.24 and Gavin. The detectives who requested
0.24 their assistance were hoping to uncover
0.24 any digital evidence related to the
0.24 crime. This team began by analyzing the
0.24 email account
0.24 desterris@gmail.com. By conducting
0.24 analysis, the computer forensic team
0.24 discovered that the email address was
0.24 created on November 14th, 2008, just
0.24 days before the first email was sent.
0.24 One of the more surprising discoveries
0.24 made by the team was the fact that the
0.24 death threats sent to Chris Coleman&;s
0.24 family originated from the IP address
0.24 associated with Chris himself. The
0.24 detectives continued to investigate the
0.24 Coleman family&;s murder by conducting a
0.24 meticulous examination of both the
0.24 spray-painted messages found at the
0.24 crime scene and Christopher Coleman&;s
0.24 handwriting. To gather evidence, they
0.24 took photographs of the spray painted
0.24 messages at the crime scene and
0.24 collected samples from Christopher
0.24 Coleman. These samples were then sent to
0.24 a handwriting expert for analysis. After
0.24 comparing the two samples, the expert
0.24 concluded that the handwriting matched
0.24 the spray painted messages. This finding
0.24 led the detectives to conclude that
0.24 Christopher Coleman was the one who
0.24 wrote the messages on the walls of his
0.24 home on the day of the murders. A
0.24 chemical analysis identified the brand
0.24 color of the spray paint as Rustoleum
0.24 Candy Apple Red. After being informed of
0.24 Chris Coleman&;s purchase at a hardware
0.24 store days before his family was killed,
0.24 one detective decided to reach out to
0.24 the manager of the store, the manager
0.24 confirmed to the detective that Chris
0.24 had made a purchase at the store, and
0.24 the specific product he had purchased
0.24 was Rustoleum Candy Apple Red Spray
0.24 Paint. This discovery was significant as
0.24 it linked Chris Coleman to the same type
0.24 of spray paint that was used in the
0.24 murder scene. During the investigation
0.24 into the Coleman family murders, the
0.24 time of death became a significant
0.24 aspect. Chris initially told
0.24 investigators that he had left his home
0.24 around 5:45 a.m. on May 5th, 2009, the
0.24 morning his family was murdered.
0.24 However, the medical examiner confirmed
0.24 that Sher Garrett and Gavin were killed
0.24 around 3:00 a.m., which meant Chris was
0.24 home at the time of his family&;s murder.
0.24 Two weeks after the discovery of the
0.24 bodies, Chris Coleman was arrested and
0.24 charged with three counts of
0.24 first-degree murder, the prosecution
0.24 argued that these crimes were driven by
0.24 greed, selfishness, and narcissism.
0.24 Chris Coleman, it seemed, had decided it
0.24 was time for a fresh start and his
0.24 family was in the way. In April 2011,
0.24 Chris Coleman was put on trial for the
0.24 murder of his wife, Sherry, and their
0.24 two sons, Garrett and Gavin. The state
0.24 alleged to the jury that Chris had
0.24 killed his family because he wanted to
0.24 be with Tara Lent but couldn&;t divorce
0.24 his wife Sherry because he would lose
0.24 his well-paying job with Joyce Meyer
0.24 Ministries since they did not believe in
0.24 divorce. During the trial, Chris defense
0.24 attorney argued Chris was innocent of
0.24 murdering his family and alleged an
0.24 intruder walked into the home on May
0.24 5th, 2009 and killed them. Two years to
0.24 the day of the murders of Sher Garrett
0.24 and Gavin, Chris Coleman was found
0.24 guilty of their murders. The judge
0.24 sentenced Chris to life in prison
0.24 without parole, even though he was
0.24 eligible for a death sentence. This
0.24 decision was because the state of
0.24 Illinois had recently repealed the death
0.24 penalty, which was scheduled to come
0.24 into effect just a few months after the
0.24 murders. Sherry&;s family and friends
0.24 were determined to ensure that she,
0.24 Garrett, and Gavin would never be
0.24 forgotten, and they wanted to do
0.24 something meaningful to honor their
0.24 memory. They decided to raise money for
0.24 victims of domestic violence, a cause
0.24 that was near and dear to their
0.24 hearts. Carile, Ohio was home to many
0.24 families, including the Richardsons. The
0.24 Richardson family consisted of Kim and
0.24 Scott Richardson, who were both actively
0.24 involved in their children&;s lives.
0.24 Their son, Jackson, was passionate about
0.24 playing football, while their daughter,
0.24 Brook Skyler, or Skyler as she was
0.24 known, was a cheerleader. Skyler
0.24 suffered from an eating disorder that
0.24 ruled her life from a young age. Her
0.24 mother, Kim, first noticed her
0.24 daughter&;s struggle with her eating
0.24 habits when she was in the sixth grade.
0.24 At just 12 years old, Skylar&;s obsession
0.24 with food and exercise became apparent
0.24 when she refused to purchase gum if it
0.24 had more than 5 calories. Because Skylar
0.24 was a flyer on the cheerleading squad,
0.24 she needed to be light and easy to toss.
0.24 This pressure to maintain a certain
0.24 weight made her battle even harder. She
0.24 had become consumed by her body image
0.24 and the constant fear of gaining weight.
0.24 Skyler&;s struggle with her weight and
0.24 body image began during cheerleading
0.24 season. In an effort to maintain her
0.24 body weight, she started throwing up
0.24 after meals. However, this destructive
0.24 behavior only exacerbated her issues
0.24 when cheerleading season was over. After
0.24 the end of cheerleading season, Skylar&;s
0.24 struggle with her weight intensified.
0.24 She would experience periods of binge
0.24 eating where she would consume excessive
0.24 amounts of food in a short period. These
0.24 episodes would often be followed by
0.24 periods of starvation where Skylar would
0.24 restrict her food intake or engage in
0.24 extreme diets. Skyler&;s parents noticed
0.24 her changing behavior and were concerned
0.24 for her well-being. They tried to
0.24 approach her about their concerns, but
0.24 Skyler would shut down whenever the
0.24 topic was raised. She never wanted to
0.24 talk about it, and any attempt to
0.24 address her weight was met with
0.24 resistance. Frustrated, Skylar&;s parents
0.24 sought professional help from various
0.24 doctors and therapists. They hoped that
0.24 these interventions would provide some
0.24 relief for their daughter. After an
0.24 evaluation, Skylar was eventually
0.24 diagnosed with body dysmorphia. This
0.24 condition involves an obsessive focus on
0.24 a perceived flaw in appearance, often
0.24 leading to significant distress and
0.24 impairment in daily functioning. July
0.24 2016 marked the summer before Skyler&;s
0.24 senior year when she decided to begin
0.24 dating a friend&;s cousin. However, the
0.24 relationship did not last for long, and
0.24 by January 2017, Skyler had moved on to
0.24 a new boyfriend, a high school student
0.24 named Brandon. Skyler was genuinely
0.24 happy and seemed to be gaining weight.
0.24 Her parents, Kim and Scott, hoped that
0.24 their daughter&;s eating disorder was
0.24 under control. They noticed that she
0.24 looked healthy and appeared genuinely
0.24 happy. In February, Skylar excitedly
0.24 picked out her prom dress. It was a
0.24 tightly fitted dress that required her
0.24 to be laced into it. By mid-March,
0.24 Skylar went on vacation with her family.
0.24 During the trip, she wore a two-piece
0.24 bathing suit. Her mom thought she looked
0.24 wonderful. Kim, knowing that her
0.24 daughter and Brandon were heating up,
0.24 wanted Skylar to start taking birth
0.24 control pills. She believed that this
0.24 would protect her daughter&;s health and
0.24 help prevent any unwanted pregnancies.
0.24 In mid-April
0.24 2017, Skylar visited her mother&;s
0.24 gynecologist to obtain a prescription
0.24 for birth control. Skyler&;s mother, Kim,
0.24 waited outside the doctor&;s office while
0.24 Skylar met with the doctor. Upon exiting
0.24 the examination room, Skylar emerged
0.24 with tears streaming down her face. Kim
0.24 immediately asked her daughter why she
0.24 was so upset to which Skylar replied
0.24 that it was a traumatic experience for
0.24 her. She believed her daughter was
0.24 telling the truth unaware of the real
0.24 reason behind the tears. The truth was
0.24 that during Skylar&;s visit to the OBGYn,
0.24 the doctor informed her that she was
0.24 approximately 8 months pregnant. Skyler
0.24 requested the doctor not to tell anyone
0.24 about this as she was not ready to share
0.24 the news with her loved ones. Nine days
0.24 later on May 5th, Skylar and her
0.24 boyfriend Brandon went to the prom.
0.24 Despite her advanced pregnancy, Skylar
0.24 managed to fit into her prom gown. 2
0.24 months after Skyler went to prom on July
0.24 14th, 2017, the Carile police showed up
0.24 at Richardson home. They informed
0.24 Skyler&;s parents, Kim and Scott, that
0.24 they needed to speak to the teenager
0.24 about something she may have witnessed.
0.24 The police officers assured the parents
0.24 that Skyler was not in trouble and took
0.24 her at their word. Scott decided to
0.24 drive Skyler to the police station.
0.24 Unsure of what awaited them. The police
0.24 wanted to question Skyler regarding a
0.24 call they received from a gynecologist&;s
0.24 office. This OBGYn reported that one of
0.24 their patients had given birth to a baby
0.24 and buried the baby in the backyard.
0.24 Upon receiving this information, the
0.24 police promptly took Skyler into custody
0.24 and brought her to an interrogation
0.24 room. Skylar&;s father was not allowed in
0.24 the room with her. Before initiating the
0.24 interview, the police read Skyler her
0.24 rights. They then proceeded to disclose
0.24 the details of the call from the
0.24 doctor&;s office. According to the
0.24 caller, the doctor had informed them
0.24 that on April 26th, Skylar had
0.24 discovered that she was pregnant.
0.24 However, when Skylar returned to the
0.24 office, she reportedly disclosed that
0.24 the baby was not alive and she buried
0.24 her in the backyard. During her
0.24 interview, Skylar admitted to the police
0.24 that she had given birth to a stillborn
0.24 baby girl on May 7th, 2017. Skyler
0.24 stated that she had delivered the baby
0.24 in the bathroom and noticed that the
0.24 infant was not breathing and had no
0.24 heartbeat. She explained that she felt
0.24 the need to bury the baby and decided
0.24 not to tell anyone about the incident.
0.24 According to Skyler, she silently walked
0.24 downstairs and retrieved a small garden
0.24 shovel. She then dug a shallow grave in
0.24 her backyard where she buried the baby
0.24 to mark the spot in the memory of her
0.24 child. Skyler placed a vase with a
0.24 flower in it at the burial site. After
0.24 questioning Skyler, the police informed
0.24 her parents, Kim and Scott, about the
0.24 real reason she had been brought to the
0.24 station. Kim and Scott were shocked to
0.24 learn that she had been pregnant as they
0.24 had no idea. They saw her everyday and
0.24 believed that she was unaware of her
0.24 pregnancy. Upon hearing the news, Kim
0.24 was heartbroken to discover that her
0.24 daughter had faced this difficult
0.24 situation alone. She expressed her
0.24 sorrow at the fact that Skylar had to
0.24 deliver the baby in the bathroom without
0.24 anyone there to support her. Skyler
0.24 informed her parents that she had named
0.24 the baby Annabelle and claimed that the
0.24 child&;s father was a close friend&;s
0.24 cousin, whom she dated briefly before
0.24 Brandon. Crime scene investigators
0.24 arrived at the Richardson home to
0.24 conduct a search for the baby&;s remains.
0.24 During the search for the baby&;s remains
0.24 in the Richardson backyard crime scene,
0.24 investigators removed weeds and brushed
0.24 the ground to uncover the skeletal
0.24 remains. The police were meticulous in
0.24 their approach, carefully removing any
0.24 debris that could hinder their
0.24 investigation. Despite the challenges
0.24 posed by the overgrown vegetation, they
0.24 were able to uncover a significant
0.24 amount of evidence. After removing the
0.24 weeds and brushing the ground, the
0.24 police discovered several bones,
0.24 including pieces of the skull. These
0.24 remains were meticulously collected and
0.24 placed in small body bags to preserve
0.24 any evidence. The investigators took
0.24 great care to ensure that the integrity
0.24 of the bones was maintained. One
0.24 investigator later testified that the
0.24 remains smelled. Another investigator
0.24 confessed that the bones were so small
0.24 that it was difficult to determine if
0.24 they were collecting rock or bone. The
0.24 coroner confirmed the discovery of hair
0.24 and very small fingernails, but no
0.24 organs or other identifiable items.
0.24 After more than 5 hours of questioning,
0.24 Skylar and her parents were allowed to
0.24 return home. However, 6 days after the
0.24 incident, the police contacted Skyler
0.24 and informed her that she needed to come
0.24 back again. They assured her father,
0.24 Scott, that she was not in trouble.
0.24 However, during the interview with
0.24 Skyler, the police informed her that
0.24 they had received new damaging
0.24 information from the coroner&;s office.
0.24 They claimed they had discovered more
0.24 about the story than what Skyler had
0.24 initially shared. The medical examiner
0.24 who analyzed the remains stated that
0.24 there was evidence to suggest that the
0.24 baby&;s bones may have been burned.
0.24 Skyler was bewildered when confronted
0.24 with the statement that the baby was
0.24 burned. She adamantly denied setting a
0.24 fire, stating that she would never harm
0.24 her child. The police, however, remained
0.24 determined to get Skylar to admit to
0.24 killing her baby girl and burning her
0.24 remains to hide the evidence. In an
0.24 attempt to elicit an admission, the
0.24 police suggested that perhaps Skyler had
0.24 tried to cremate the baby in order to
0.24 keep the ashes off the premises. This
0.24 suggestion only further confused Skyler,
0.24 who was adamant that she did not burn
0.24 the baby. However, suddenly Skylar
0.24 changed her story and told police she
0.24 did have a lighter and may have used it
0.24 to try and cremate her baby&;s remains.
0.24 Additionally, Skylar stated that there
0.24 is a possibility that the baby was born
0.24 alive as she made a gurgle or a noise
0.24 and possibly even heard her cry at one
0.24 point. Skyler admitted to holding the
0.24 newborn too tight, which may have
0.24 contributed to the baby&;s death. During
0.24 the hour-long interrogation, the police
0.24 gathered sufficient evidence to arrest
0.24 Skyler on a charge of reckless homicide.
0.24 Their theory was that Skylar suffocated
0.24 the baby. After presenting the case to a
0.24 grand jury, she was eventually indicted
0.24 and arrested for aggravated murder, a
0.24 charge that carries a mandatory life
0.24 sentence in Ohio. Skyler pleaded not
0.24 guilty to the additional charges of
0.24 voluntary manslaughter, abuse of a
0.24 corpse, and danger to children at her
0.24 arraignment. She spent the weekend in
0.24 jail until her family was able to secure
0.24 a $50,000 bond. Skyler found herself at
0.24 the center of a media firestorm
0.24 following the tragic death of her child.
0.24 From the moment her name emerged, the
0.24 public judged and scrutinized everything
0.24 she and her family did. The constant
0.24 judgment and scrutiny took a toll on
0.24 their well-being, leading them to
0.24 retreat into the safety of their own
0.24 home. However, the threats they received
0.24 made it difficult for them even to step
0.24 outside. Members of the public would
0.24 take pictures of them, further fueling
0.24 the frenzy and adding to the immense
0.24 pressure they were under. The relentless
0.24 public scrutiny became unbearable,
0.24 engulfing every aspect of their lives.
0.24 Despite her attorneys believing that
0.24 Skylar gave a false confession and that
0.24 her infant death was not intentional,
0.24 the prosecution remained steadfast in
0.24 their approach. Despite mounting
0.24 evidence contradicting their initial
0.24 assessment, they pressed forward with
0.24 their case. One of the key pieces of
0.24 evidence in the prosecution&;s case was
0.24 the initial report from the medical
0.24 examiner who stated that the remains had
0.24 been burned. However, upon further
0.24 examination, the medical examiner
0.24 retracted her initial assessment. After
0.24 carefully reviewing the baby&;s body, she
0.24 declared that there was no evidence
0.24 whatsoever of burning. Despite this new
0.24 revelation, the prosecution&;s approach
0.24 remained unchanged. They clung to
0.24 Skyler&;s admission that she had
0.24 attempted to cremate the remains, even
0.24 though the evidence contradicted their
0.24 theory of a burned body. This approach
0.24 highlighted the state&;s determination to
0.24 secure a conviction regardless of the
0.24 evidence. Throughout this tumultuous
0.24 period, Skyler&;s family endured immense
0.24 stress and fear. The public scrutiny and
0.24 threats made their lives unbearable, and
0.24 they struggled to navigate a world where
0.24 every move they made was under the
0.24 microscope. Skyler&;s defense attorneys
0.24 worked tirelessly as the trial
0.24 approached to defend her against the
0.24 charges. Skyler&;s family was able to
0.24 raise the $50,000 bail amount to secure
0.24 her release on bond. However, as a
0.24 condition of her release, she was
0.24 ordered to wear the ankle bracelet to
0.24 monitor her whereabouts. As a result,
0.24 Skylar remained primarily confined to
0.24 her home and avoided going out in
0.24 public. She found herself isolated and
0.24 preferred to spend most of her time with
0.24 her family&;s dogs. Over 12 months,
0.24 Skylar&;s life took on a different path.
0.24 Her plans to attend the University of
0.24 Cincinnati were put on hold as she
0.24 awaited trial for the murder of her
0.24 baby. The charges were serious and the
0.24 defense filed a motion to move the trial
0.24 to a different county. However, the
0.24 request was denied, leaving Skyler to
0.24 continue facing the trial in the
0.24 original jurisdiction. During this time,
0.24 the weight of her circumstances weighed
0.24 heavily on Skyler. She grappled with the
0.24 emotional and psychological impact of
0.24 the allegations against her as well as
0.24 the isolation she felt from the outside
0.24 world. Spending time with her dogs
0.24 provided solace and a sense of comfort.
0.24 It became her main companionship and
0.24 support as she awaited her trial.
0.24 Skyler&;s family stood by her side
0.24 throughout this difficult period,
0.24 offering unwavering support and
0.24 encouragement. They stood by her,
0.24 believing in her innocence and hoping
0.24 the truth would come to light. Despite
0.24 the challenges she faced, Skylar
0.24 remained determined to fight for her
0.24 freedom. In July 2019, the state
0.24 approached Skyler&;s defense attorney
0.24 with an unexpected offer. The offer
0.24 stated that if Skyler pleaded guilty to
0.24 the remaining charges, which carried a
0.24 sentence of 15 years, the state would
0.24 withdraw the charge of aggravated
0.24 murder. Skyler&;s parents were conflicted
0.24 about this decision and wondered if she
0.24 should accept the plea deal. After
0.24 carefully considering the offer, Skylar
0.24 decided to turn down the plea deal. This
0.24 decision terrified her parents who
0.24 questioned if she made the right choice.
0.24 However, they knew it was Skyler&;s
0.24 choice, not theirs. On September 3rd,
0.24 2019, Skylar went on trial for the
0.24 murder of her newborn baby girl. The
0.24 state began its opening statements by
0.24 presenting a text message that Skylar
0.24 had sent to her mother. In this message,
0.24 she expressed how happy she was, stating
0.24 that her belly had returned to its
0.24 normal size. She added that she would
0.24 never allow it to get like it was again.
0.24 This message was sent just a few hours
0.24 after Skyler gave birth. I am literally
0.24 speechless with how happy I am. My belly
0.24 is back. OMG, she texted her mother. The
0.24 prosecution told the jury during the
0.24 second day of Skylar&;s trial. During the
0.24 state&;s opening arguments, they alleged
0.24 that Skylar had sent more text messages
0.24 to her mother and boyfriend less than 24
0.24 hours after she had killed her baby.
0.24 These messages, according to the state,
0.24 suggested that Skylar was thrilled about
0.24 her baby&;s death and pointed to these
0.24 texts as evidence that she played a role
0.24 in the baby&;s death. In one message,
0.24 Skylar texted her mom. I&;m so excited
0.24 for dinner to wear something cute. Yay!
0.24 My belly is back now. I am taking this
0.24 opportunity to make it amazing. This
0.24 message was interpreted as an attempt to
0.24 hide her guilt and excitement about not
0.24 having a baby anymore. The state argued
0.24 that Skylar&;s use of the words excited
0.24 was indicative of her pleasure in the
0.24 baby&;s death. Additionally, the state
0.24 alleged that Skylar had sent a message
0.24 to her boyfriend stating last night was
0.24 like the worst ever, but I feel so much
0.24 better this morning. I&;m happy.
0.24 According to the state, this message was
0.24 proof that Skylar had felt relieved
0.24 after the baby&;s death. The state
0.24 asserted that Skylar had no intention
0.24 whatsoever of ever having her baby. They
0.24 admitted that they could not provide
0.24 concrete proof that the baby was born
0.24 alive. However, they presented evidence
0.24 indicating that Skylar had confessed to
0.24 it during an interview with the police
0.24 when Skylar stated that she had heard
0.24 the baby gurgle and cry after
0.24 discovering she was pregnant. The state
0.24 alleged that Skylar conducted a search
0.24 on the internet for how do I get rid of
0.24 a baby. In addition, it was claimed that
0.24 Skyler&;s mother, Kim, had informed
0.24 Skylar that her life would come to an
0.24 end if she became pregnant. This
0.24 revelation reportedly instilled fear in
0.24 Skylar. The prosecutor said she was
0.24 determined to keep her secret. When she
0.24 could conceal her daughter no longer,
0.24 she took her daughter&;s life. On the
0.24 third day of Skylar&;s trial, the doctor
0.24 who performed the autopsy on her baby
0.24 and ruled the cause of death as violent
0.24 homicide took the stand to testify.
0.24 However, the doctor stated that she was
0.24 not able to determine whether the
0.24 fracture she found on the skull of the
0.24 baby occurred before or after the death
0.24 of the baby. Instead, she made her
0.24 opinion on the cause of the fractures
0.24 based on statements made by Skyler
0.24 during her police interrogation.
0.24 Skyler&;s defense attorney challenged the
0.24 doctor&;s findings, arguing that she may
0.24 have suffered from confirmation bias.
0.24 The attorney argued that the doctor had
0.24 already formed an opinion and was
0.24 unlikely to change it. During
0.24 cross-examination, the doctor admitted
0.24 that she never examined the remains of
0.24 the deceased baby under a dissecting
0.24 microscope. The defense attorney then
0.24 asked the doctor if she consulted with
0.24 an obstitrician. The doctor responded
0.24 that she had not. Furthermore, the
0.24 attorney asked if the doctor had looked
0.24 at photos of the burial site or the
0.24 backyard of Skylar&;s residence. The
0.24 doctor again stated that she had not.
0.24 Another doctor, a fetal medicine
0.24 specialist, testified in the afternoon
0.24 portion of Skylar&;s trial, mostly under
0.24 examination by the prosecution. This
0.24 doctor cast doubts on Skyler&;s baby
0.24 being stillborn, stating that all she
0.24 had was one screening. Given the margin
0.24 of error of funal height measurements
0.24 during the third trimester of pregnancy,
0.24 which the doctor said are off 60% of the
0.24 time, she was probably carrying a
0.24 healthy baby. The doctor added that
0.24 Skylar had admitted feeling her baby
0.24 moving inside of her and a deceased baby
0.24 does not move. He also cast doubt on the
0.24 reports from a doctor who filed a report
0.24 for the defense that said Skyler&;s baby
0.24 likely had growth issues. During
0.24 cross-examination by Skyler&;s attorney,
0.24 the doctor was asked if the prosecution
0.24 was paying him. He replied that he was
0.24 given an amount of $5,000 a day because
0.24 that&;s what it costs the practice if
0.24 they have a doctor who&;s not there. As
0.24 the prosecution presented their case
0.24 against Skyler, shocking and
0.24 heart-wrenching evidence unfolded in the
0.24 courtroom. Among the various pieces of
0.24 evidence shown, the most impactful were
0.24 the pictures of the deceased baby&;s
0.24 remains displayed on the television
0.24 screen. These images left a lasting
0.24 impact on Skylar, as revealed by her
0.24 reactions during the trial. When the
0.24 pictures of her baby&;s remains appeared
0.24 on screen, Skylar&;s initial reaction was
0.24 to stare straight ahead. She avoided
0.24 looking at the photos, seemingly unable
0.24 to bear the sight. Skyler&;s stoic
0.24 demeanor contrasted with the previous
0.24 day when she visibly trembled when the
0.24 judge sat down before jury selection.
0.24 When Skylar&;s defense attorneys
0.24 presented their case, they argued that
0.24 Skylar&;s life was far from perfect, even
0.24 before the accusation of murder. They
0.24 claimed that much of what the
0.24 prosecution presented were halftruths
0.24 and argued that some of the texts
0.24 presented in court were taken out of
0.24 context. The defense argued that
0.24 Skyler&;s frequent use of such text
0.24 language did not imply that she
0.24 committed the heinous crime of murdering
0.24 her daughter. The defense attorneys also
0.24 emphasized Skyler&;s mental health
0.24 struggles, specifically highlighting her
0.24 battle with an eating disorder since she
0.24 was 12 years old. They presented
0.24 evidence indicating that Skyler
0.24 regularly visited a psychologist and
0.24 nutritionist to address her eating
0.24 disorder. To support their claims, they
0.24 showed the jury pictures of Skylar
0.24 depicting her at various stages of
0.24 weight and appearance. These pictures
0.24 included images of her looking rail
0.24 thin, as well as those where she
0.24 appeared slightly heavier. According to
0.24 her attorney, Skylar cradled the baby
0.24 for hours while bleeding on the ground
0.24 in the bathroom. They said despite her
0.24 physical state, she remained steadfast
0.24 in her commitment to comfort and care
0.24 for the lifeless body. After enduring
0.24 unimaginable pain, Skyler&;s attorney
0.24 said she made the decision to bury her
0.24 baby in the backyard. Skyler&;s attorney
0.24 explained to the court that Skylar had
0.24 intended to notify her family about her
0.24 upcoming pregnancy, but unfortunately,
0.24 she never had the opportunity to do so.
0.24 According to her doctor, Skyler was told
0.24 that she would deliver a baby within 8
0.24 to 10 weeks. As a result, she assumed
0.24 she would have enough time to attend the
0.24 prom and graduate high school before
0.24 addressing the situation with her
0.24 mother, whom she knew would not be
0.24 supportive. During the defense turn, an
0.24 obstitrician testified that the baby was
0.24 still born. The doctor argued that
0.24 Skylar did not admit to cutting the
0.24 cord, suggesting that it may have become
0.24 detached before or during birth. The
0.24 doctor also pointed out that Skyler&;s
0.24 description of the baby&;s appearance was
0.24 noteworthy as she said the baby was
0.24 really white. The obstitrician stated
0.24 that this did not indicate a healthy
0.24 newborn. He said in his experience, a
0.24 newborn is usually a purplish color.
0.24 Furthermore, the obstatrician noted that
0.24 Skylar only gained 15 lbs throughout her
0.24 pregnancy. He suggested that her eating
0.24 disorder may have restricted the baby&;s
0.24 development in the womb. This testimony
0.24 aimed to cast doubt on the validity of
0.24 Skylar&;s statements to the police
0.24 regarding the baby&;s well-being. The
0.24 defense&;s argument was that Skylar only
0.24 told the police what she wanted to hear
0.24 during the interrogation and that she
0.24 did not witness or engage in any harmful
0.24 behavior toward the baby. They aimed to
0.24 cast doubt on the credibility of her
0.24 testimony and suggest that other factors
0.24 may have contributed to the baby&;s
0.24 death. Skyler Richardson&;s trial lasted
0.24 for one week before the jury was sent to
0.24 deliberate. After just four hours, the
0.24 jury returned with a verdict. They
0.24 acquitted her of aggravated murder,
0.24 involuntary manslaughter, and child
0.24 endangerment. However, she was convicted
0.24 of abuse of a corpse, a felony that
0.24 carried up to one year in prison. The
0.24 judge ordered her to be held in jail
0.24 until her sentencing hearing. One day
0.24 later, her sentencing hearing took
0.24 place. Skyler apologized for her actions
0.24 and acknowledged the gravity of what she
0.24 had done. During Skyler&;s sentencing
0.24 hearing, the judge did not spare any
0.24 leniency when he admonished Skylar for
0.24 her role in the tragic loss of her baby.
0.24 The judge firmly believes that if Skylar
0.24 had made better decisions throughout her
0.24 pregnancy, her child would still be
0.24 alive today. The judge&;s admonishment
0.24 was stern and unwavering. He expressed
0.24 his disappointment in Skyler&;s actions
0.24 and made it clear that the choices she
0.24 made had severe consequences. The judge
0.24 emphasized that the decisions she made
0.24 led to the death of her baby. After
0.24 expressing his dissatisfaction with
0.24 Skylar&;s actions, the judge handed down
0.24 a sentence of 3 years probation for
0.24 abuse of a corpse. This sentence served
0.24 as a reminder that Skylar&;s actions were
0.24 morally reprehensible and against the
0.24 law. In November 2020, a judge granted a
0.24 request from Skylar&;s attorneys to
0.24 terminate her probation 2 years early.
0.24 During the hearing, Skylar expressed her
0.24 desire to return to a normal life and
0.24 stated that she no longer required the
0.24 supervision of a probation officer. The
0.24 judge acknowledged her progress and
0.24 agreed that there was no longer a need
0.24 for the probation department&;s resources
0.24 to be invested in her case. The judge
0.24 emphasized that a sentence of probation
0.24 is not designed solely as punishment or
0.24 rehabilitation. Instead, it provides an
0.24 opportunity for individuals to
0.24 demonstrate why they should not be
0.24 sentenced to prison. Since her acquitt,
0.24 Skylar has taken full advantage of this
0.24 opportunity. She has completed two
0.24 semesters in college and has been
0.24 working part-time at the law firm that
0.24 represented her. Despite being
0.24 acquitted, Skylar has faced challenges
0.24 in finding additional employment.
0.24 According to her attorneys, she has been
0.24 rejected from various job opportunities
0.24 due to her probationary status. Despite
0.24 these setbacks, Skylar remains
0.24 determined to pursue her career goals.
0.24 She has expressed interest in attending
0.24 law school and becoming a public
0.24 defender.
0.24 On July 11th, 2013, 21-year-old Jordan
0.24 Lyn Graham led a car with her foster
0.24 brother Michael and her close friend
0.24 Hannah up going to the Sun Road, a 30-m
0.24 stretch of narrow winding path leading
0.24 up to a treacherous mountain overlook in
0.24 search of her husband who&;d gone missing
0.24 on July 8th, 2013. Following a
0.24 mysterious hunch by a suspect Gmail
0.24 account, Carmen Tony 607. They were
0.24 searching Glacier National Park for
0.24 signs of Cody Johnson, who some unnamed
0.24 friends have supposedly seen, go off a
0.24 cliff. The message read, "They are
0.24 positive he fell and he is dead."
0.24 Jordan. Cody&;s relatives and friends
0.24 searched the park alongside the
0.24 potential widow. combing through over
0.24 1,500 square miles of wilderness filled
0.24 with winding trails, swift flowing
0.24 rivers, cliffs, mountain lions, and
0.24 grizzly bears. Of all the cliffs and all
0.24 the roads, Jordan led them up that
0.24 particular one, claiming she had a
0.24 feeling, ignoring numerous location
0.24 suggestions from Michael and Hannah. At
0.24 the very top, they stopped at a parking
0.24 lot and hiked up the loop trail. It was
0.24 an extremely steep trail leading up to a
0.24 200 ft cliff overlooking a deep ravine.
0.24 Jordan navigated her way to the top with
0.24 practiced ease and hopped past jagged
0.24 rocks to the very edge of the cliff.
0.24 Overlooking the ravine, peering over it,
0.24 she threw a rock off and said, "I think
0.24 he&;s down there." It took a particularly
0.24 brave FBI agent. tying himself to a tree
0.24 and leaning over the edge and the aid of
0.24 several emergency services and a
0.24 helicopter to confirm and extract the
0.24 body at the bottom of the ravine. The
0.24 body belonged to Cody Johnson, a
0.24 newlywed car enthusiast, businessman,
0.24 and a pillar of the community. How did
0.24 Cody end up here? And what did his wife
0.24 and the mysterious Carmen Tony 607 have
0.24 to do with it? And who were the
0.24 mysterious out of town friends that were
0.24 with Cody when he fell? These were the
0.24 questions that hounded the Callispel
0.24 Police Department for days to come. Cody
0.24 Johnson was born on April 8th, 1989 in
0.24 San Jose, California, and he grew up
0.24 with his mother, Sher Johnson, whom he
0.24 was intimately close to. They moved to
0.24 Callispel in northwestern Montana in
0.24 2002. It is a small tourist town in
0.24 Flathead Valley, located between a lake
0.24 with the same name and Glacier National
0.24 Park. Cody spent most of his childhood
0.24 exploring the great outdoors, driving on
0.24 long trails with his friend, and
0.24 kindling his lifelong obsession with all
0.24 things cars. According to Cody&;s friends
0.24 and family, he was real. He was
0.24 personable, charismatic, and selfless.
0.24 He was one of those rare types of people
0.24 who wouldn&;t hesitate to go the extra
0.24 mile to help you once they got to know
0.24 you. Cody was also lucky enough to grow
0.24 his lifelong interest in cars into a
0.24 thriving business. It started with
0.24 modifications and souping up cars for
0.24 racing in his teenage years, but it did
0.24 eventually evolve to include commercial
0.24 cars. Cody was a custom commercial car
0.24 builder, but he also had a job at Nomad
0.24 Communications, where he worked with his
0.24 uncle and several of his car-loving
0.24 friends. It also didn&;t hurt that his
0.24 childhood best friend, Cameron
0.24 Frederickson, was his boss. Life was
0.24 pretty much perfect for Cody. The only
0.24 thing missing was somebody to share that
0.24 life with. At 23, Cody was in the market
0.24 for a life partner. He talked to his
0.24 friends about wanting to marry a church
0.24 girl. And on Halloween 2011, he met
0.24 Jordan, the woman who&;d changed his life
0.24 forever. Born in August
0.24 1991, Jordan Lyn Graham lived in
0.24 Callispel all her life with her family.
0.24 She grew up deeply religious and
0.24 attended the Faith Baptist Church where
0.24 she babysat children and worked with
0.24 families. Her whole life revolved around
0.24 her faith. All her friends were in
0.24 church, and it was her dream to one day
0.24 become a stay-at-home mother and raise a
0.24 family. Jordan and Cody hit it off when
0.24 they met on Halloween 2011. She was
0.24 initially shy before she opened up and
0.24 they got to talking. She told Cody about
0.24 her dreams of starting a family and how
0.24 much she loved nature and the outdoors.
0.24 Jordan liked Cody, but she was only 20
0.24 years old at the time and was not
0.24 looking to start anything serious. They
0.24 went on a few dates but remained just
0.24 friends. All that changed when Cody
0.24 began to seriously pursue her. He joined
0.24 her church, First Baptist, and began to
0.24 move in the same circles as she did. It
0.24 wasn&;t long before their casual
0.24 relationship evolved into something
0.24 more, at least for one of them. They
0.24 started dating officially in November
0.24 2011, and Cody was entirely taken by
0.24 her. He adored her and wanted to be with
0.24 her day and night. According to Sher
0.24 Johnson, Cody was sure he wanted to
0.24 marry Jordan a few weeks into their
0.24 relationship. Even when Jordan told him
0.24 she wanted to maintain her chastity
0.24 until marriage, he didn&;t change his
0.24 mind. The people who knew the couple
0.24 well, however, noticed that Jordan
0.24 didn&;t seem to feel as passionately for
0.24 Cody as he did for her. Some chalked it
0.24 up to her shy nature, but others were a
0.24 bit more apprehensive of the lopsided
0.24 relationship. They were not affectionate
0.24 in public, didn&;t hold hands, or even
0.24 flirt. Most of Jordan&;s friends were
0.24 surprised when she said yes to Cody&;s
0.24 proposal that followed one year later in
0.24 December 2012. They thought she was not
0.24 serious enough to get married after one
0.24 year of dating, but were happy for her
0.24 nonetheless. In an Instagram post,
0.24 Jordan flaunted her new ring with the
0.24 caption, "He proposed, best early
0.24 Christmas present ever. Smiley face. The
0.24 marriage was slated for June 29th, 2013,
0.24 and immediately started planning. Cody
0.24 was heavily involved, as was Kimberly
0.24 Martinez, Jordan&;s best friend and
0.24 matron of honor. However, it was Jordan
0.24 who seemed the most interested in the
0.24 wedding planning. She even performed a
0.24 song the couple hired a professional
0.24 songwriter, Elizabeth Sheay, to write.
0.24 The lyrics of the song seemed chillingly
0.24 prophetic in hindsight. When Kimberly or
0.24 anybody else broached the topic of
0.24 actually being married to Cody, however,
0.24 her mood soured. She asked her matron
0.24 Kimberly several times over if she was
0.24 doing the right thing. And on her
0.24 wedding day, her true feelings about the
0.24 union were impossible to hide. She was a
0.24 nervous wreck. She was looking down a
0.24 lot and didn&;t seem like she wanted to
0.24 make eye contact with her husband. When
0.24 it was time for wedding photos, Jordan
0.24 seemed to have recovered well enough.
0.24 And by the time they had their first
0.24 dance, she was entirely focused on Cody.
0.24 However, this bliss would not last for
0.24 long. The morning after their wedding,
0.24 she texted her friend from the hotel
0.24 they were honeymooning from. She hadn&;t
0.24 consummated their marriage and turned
0.24 her husband away the first night of
0.24 their wedding and the six other nights
0.24 following that. I just know he&;s going
0.24 to want to do stuff and I&;m not really
0.24 wanting to. And another using the my
0.24 period started spiel tonight. I freaking
0.24 hope it works because if I&;m forced to
0.24 do something, I&;m going to freak out.
0.24 Turned out that Jordan was deathly
0.24 afraid of sex. A combination of her
0.24 faith and her true feelings towards Cody
0.24 made her nervous about being intimate
0.24 with him. Pressure continued to mount
0.24 until July 7th, 8 days after their
0.24 wedding. Cody was supposed to go golfing
0.24 with friends, but he canled at the last
0.24 minute because Jordan had a surprise for
0.24 him. After church and some alone time on
0.24 the lake, the couple sat down to a
0.24 communal dinner with a few of their
0.24 friends at the local Dairy Queen. Cody
0.24 went home with Jordan, and that was the
0.24 last time anyone saw him. Cameron
0.24 Frederickson was the first to notice
0.24 Cody&;s absence. He was a model employee
0.24 and always arrived before the workday
0.24 started. When Cody hadn&;t turned up far
0.24 into the workday, Cameron stopped by
0.24 Cody&;s new house that he bought with
0.24 Jordan before their wedding. After
0.24 knocking for a while with no answer, he
0.24 got a little worried and let himself in.
0.24 No one was in, so he searched the house
0.24 looking for hints as to where Cody and
0.24 Jordan could have disappeared to with
0.24 very little success. Cameron&;s worry
0.24 morphed into fear when he found Cody&;s
0.24 phone in the garage. Immediately, he
0.24 knew something was wrong. Cody went
0.24 everywhere with his phone. Leaving it
0.24 behind could have been a sign that
0.24 something horrible might have happened
0.24 to him. Several calls later, Cameron
0.24 discovered that no one had seen him
0.24 since the dinner at Dair Queen at
0.24 8.30. Cameron went to the police station
0.24 immediately to file a missing person&;s
0.24 report, and the authorities took the
0.24 case seriously from the get-go.
0.24 Cameron&;s distress made it difficult not
0.24 to. Officer Chaz Zimmerman was one of
0.24 the first people to question Cameron. He
0.24 found it strange that it was his boss
0.24 who reported him missing, not his wife.
0.24 Later that day, Kimberly finally got a
0.24 hold of Jordan. And when she asked what
0.24 happened, Jordan said the following. She
0.24 said that she&;d seen him leave with some
0.24 buddies in a black car washing
0.24 templates. She told them that on their
0.24 way back from the restaurant, he got a
0.24 phone call that made him very upset. So,
0.24 she decided to give him some space.
0.24 However, later that night, she went to
0.24 the garage to get her phone charger that
0.24 she supposedly left in their car. On her
0.24 way back from the car, she got a text
0.24 from Cody that said the following. I got
0.24 a message saying that he was going to go
0.24 for a ride with some of his out of town
0.24 buddies that were visiting. I had no
0.24 idea who they were, but he always told
0.24 me this one thing when his friends came
0.24 to visit. He would take them to Glacier
0.24 Park. She told the police what she told
0.24 Kimberly and expanded further. She told
0.24 them she didn&;t recognize any of the men
0.24 and they hadn&;t fought that night. As
0.24 for the reason for his disappearance,
0.24 Jordan claimed she thought Cody was
0.24 likely joy riding with his out of town
0.24 friends. When the police pressed about
0.24 why she didn&;t report the disappearance,
0.24 she claimed she didn&;t want to upset him
0.24 by filing a missing person report if he
0.24 was going to come back in a few hours.
0.24 48 hours after the disappearance, Cody
0.24 and Jordan&;s friends and families had
0.24 gathered in their family home and at
0.24 this point expressed confusion at Cody&;s
0.24 behavior. It didn&;t sound like him to
0.24 abandon his wife and tell no one where
0.24 he was going. Still, Jordan stuck to her
0.24 story until Kimberly confronted her. The
0.24 longer the impromptu meeting went on,
0.24 the more uncomfortable she seemed to
0.24 get. Eventually, Jordan got so agitated
0.24 that she threw her wedding ring across
0.24 the room. Some thought it was her odd
0.24 way of coping, but Kimberly was
0.24 convinced there was something else going
0.24 on. She called her friend when she got
0.24 home. The next day, Jordan was called
0.24 into the station and confronted by the
0.24 officers about her inconsistent
0.24 accounts. Sher Johnson also saw the
0.24 police sometime that day, armed with
0.24 Cody&;s phone records from the day of the
0.24 disappearance. She was worried about her
0.24 son and hoped the mysterious man Cody
0.24 called would shed some light on his
0.24 whereabouts, but it ended up being a car
0.24 friend calling to return a tool to Cody.
0.24 He was immediately eliminated as a
0.24 suspect because he had a rock-solid
0.24 alibi. His wife was in labor when Cody
0.24 disappeared. With all of their leads
0.24 exhausted, the police turned their
0.24 attention back to Jordan. She clearly
0.24 had a story to tell, but it wasn&;t
0.24 adding up. The break in the case they
0.24 were desperate for came on July 10th. A
0.24 mysterious message came from an email,
0.24 Carmen Tony 607, and it declared that
0.24 Cody was dead and they could call off
0.24 the search. Hello Jordan. My name is
0.24 Tony. There is no bother looking for
0.24 Cody anymore. He is gone. Jordan
0.24 approached Hannah with the email face
0.24 devoid of emotion and told her about
0.24 what Carmen Tony 607 said happened to
0.24 Cody. He&;d supposedly slipped and fell
0.24 off a cliff in Glacier National Park
0.24 with his mysterious friends. Hannah
0.24 nearly lost it when she read the message
0.24 and she had to push a lethargic Jordan
0.24 to go to the police. And I&;m like
0.24 freaking out like what are you talking
0.24 about? And I read the email and it says
0.24 Cody&;s gone. Jordan any emotion? No, she
0.24 wasn&;t crying at all. She was just
0.24 showing me this email and I start
0.24 shaking. I told her to go to the cops
0.24 and she did go. But I was kind of just
0.24 like rushing it like go move like what
0.24 are you doing? Don&;t just stand here
0.24 looking at me. Instead of putting the
0.24 police investigation to rest, the email
0.24 only made them more paranoid. It seemed
0.24 very convenient that an anonymous email
0.24 would provide the information they were
0.24 desperately searching for and advise
0.24 them to call off the search. What
0.24 alarmed Detective Cory Clark more than
0.24 the particulars of the message was
0.24 Jordan&;s lack of emotion. She didn&;t
0.24 seem affected by a message basically
0.24 confirming her husband&;s death. Based on
0.24 the information in that email, Jordan
0.24 decided to go to Glacier National Park
0.24 with her close friends and family to
0.24 search for Cody. Hannah described Jordan
0.24 as strangely chippered the entire ride
0.24 up the park. The drive up there was her
0.24 waving her hand out the window. They
0.24 found nothing by the end of the first
0.24 day and resumed their search on the
0.24 second. And it was then Jordan
0.24 miraculously found Cody&;s body. We stand
0.24 there and she&;s like, I think he&;s down
0.24 there. And I was like, what are you
0.24 talking about? Why would he ever be
0.24 going down there? Why would anybody do
0.24 that? This wall is here for a reason.
0.24 The coroner said that his head and arms
0.24 took most of the damage from the fall.
0.24 Cody&;s family and friends were
0.24 devastated at the loss, but Jordan was
0.24 relieved. According to Hannah, now that
0.24 a body was found, the police would stop
0.24 investigating. But the problem was the
0.24 police still had no idea who Carmen Tony
0.24 607 was. When Jordan was initially
0.24 questioned about the message, she
0.24 pointed them at Tony Stalkup, a fellow
0.24 car enthusiast and acquaintance of Cody.
0.24 He hadn&;t seen Cody in several months,
0.24 but he was so concerned for him that he
0.24 allowed them full access to his
0.24 accounts. They did not find the email
0.24 address they were looking for, and both
0.24 Jordan and Cody&;s phone records did not
0.24 reveal much. So, they had to reach out
0.24 to Google to subpoena the IP address of
0.24 Carmen Tony 607. penning the arrival of
0.24 the information, the police reintered
0.24 Cody&;s family and friends. And it was
0.24 then Kimberly finally told the police
0.24 about Jordan&;s fragile mental state
0.24 leading up to the marriage. She asked
0.24 her several times if she should marry
0.24 Cody and expressed horror and fear at
0.24 the thought of having sex with him. She
0.24 regretted marrying Cody and wished she
0.24 could take everything back. When Kim
0.24 told her to tell Cody how she felt, she
0.24 messaged her. I should be happy, but I&;m
0.24 not. If I tell him, it&;s going to break
0.24 his heart. Two days before Cody
0.24 disappeared. She typed this. He held me
0.24 down the other night and he was in my
0.24 face. And then on July 7th, they
0.24 uncovered this exchange. She&;d intended
0.24 to talk to him and was terrified of how
0.24 he&;d react. Later that day, she ended up
0.24 at Kim&;s house and told her how the talk
0.24 with Cody went. Not well. She said Cody
0.24 got really angry and freaked out and she
0.24 decided to leave so that he could cool
0.24 off. She spent the night at her
0.24 steparents&; home. When the police
0.24 learned about this, Jordan became an
0.24 even more likely suspect, and the
0.24 information from Google arrived around
0.24 the same time. It confirmed that Carmen
0.24 Tony 67&;s email address was generated
0.24 from a computer at her stepfather&;s
0.24 home. A short interview with each member
0.24 of the Graham family painted Jordan as
0.24 the creator, but that was not damning
0.24 evidence enough. Cody and Jordan&;s cell
0.24 phone records were. The cell towers put
0.24 them at Glacial National Park the night
0.24 of Cody&;s disappearance. CCTV cameras
0.24 also captured pictures of the couple
0.24 entering Glacial Park at 9:17 p.m. after
0.24 she denied being with her husband that
0.24 night. Only one person knows the answer
0.24 to that. That&;s Jordan Graham. On July
0.24 18th, 2013, the police called Jordan in
0.24 and when they presented her with
0.24 evidence, she broke down into tears. She
0.24 finally told the detective her version
0.24 of what happened on the 8th of July.
0.24 According to her, she confessed how she
0.24 felt about their marriage to Cody and
0.24 they got into a huge argument. They both
0.24 decided to go on a trip to Glacier
0.24 National Park and headed for the loop.
0.24 Jordan finishes the story in her own
0.24 words so he would have fallen face first
0.24 down the hill. Why did you continue to
0.24 turn around and then push him off? I
0.24 think it&;s because emotions were running
0.24 so high. I was frustrated. I was angry.
0.24 I was I was every emotion I could ever
0.24 think of all at once. Her comment at the
0.24 blindfold had the detectives eager to
0.24 make a connection between a stray scarf
0.24 at the bottom of the confession Jordan
0.24 gave. Nothing was eventually proven.
0.24 Jordan also claimed that Cody&;s death
0.24 was accidental and that no part of her
0.24 planned the assault she would later come
0.24 to receive. There was no planning on
0.24 your part to kill Cody. Well, okay. You
0.24 hadn&;t planned that until this whole
0.24 thing just kind of happened and it
0.24 heated heated the emotion and the
0.24 passion of that situation. When asked
0.24 why she pushed her husband Cody off the
0.24 bridge, she said the following. She
0.24 stated that he had turned his back to
0.24 her. He was facing the cliff and that&;s
0.24 when she went up to him and with both
0.24 hands pushed him in the back off the off
0.24 the cliff. Jordan also confessed to
0.24 creating Carmen Tony 607 at her
0.24 stepfather&;s house and sending the
0.24 messages. Jordan walked out of the
0.24 police that day. Surprisingly, still a
0.24 free woman. The police did not charge
0.24 her and wouldn&;t charge her until July
0.24 22nd at Cody&;s funeral where she was
0.24 texting on her phone. This one act of
0.24 disrespect evaporated any sympathy
0.24 anyone had left for Jordan. She was on
0.24 her phone whether it was texting or a
0.24 mobile app. Rumors had been circling
0.24 that Jordan had killed Cody to escape
0.24 their marriage because it was the only
0.24 way she could take back her decision
0.24 without disgracing herself and her
0.24 family. The Cody were dead. She wouldn&;t
0.24 need to divorce him. Her attitude at his
0.24 funeral all but confirmed those rumors.
0.24 People were beginning to question
0.24 whether Jordan ever loved Cody. Jordan
0.24 was charged with first seconddegree
0.24 murder and making false statements. The
0.24 jury also added the charge of
0.24 premeditated first-degree murder after
0.24 reviewing her case. Her trial finally
0.24 started on December 9th, 2013. The
0.24 prosecution ruthlessly came after Jordan
0.24 the moment the trial started. And a few
0.24 days in, things were not looking good
0.24 for her. They picked apart her story,
0.24 raising vital questions like why she
0.24 lied and led Cody&;s friends and family
0.24 on whether she was innocent and
0.24 remorseful about her actions. The
0.24 testimony from Cody&;s family and loved
0.24 ones certainly didn&;t help her case. It
0.24 painted her as a callous and unfeilling
0.24 wife who murdered her husband to get out
0.24 of sleeping with him. Her defense tried
0.24 to argue self-defense, but it didn&;t
0.24 look like they&;d win. So, Jordan went
0.24 for a plea deal for secondderee murder.
0.24 She would get 30 years in prison without
0.24 the possibility of parole in exchange
0.24 for the prosecution dropping the charge
0.24 of firstdegree murder. However, before
0.24 her sentencing, Jordan changed her mind
0.24 and tried to retract her plea when she
0.24 heard the prosecution plan to go after
0.24 her for premeditated first-degree
0.24 murder. It carried a maximum sentence of
0.24 50 years, and it was up to US District
0.24 Judge Donald Malloy to decide whether to
0.24 honor her plea or start a new trial. On
0.24 December 13th, 2013, Jordan Lyn Graham
0.24 was sentenced to 30 years and five
0.24 months in prison and ordered to pay a
0.24 fine of
0.24 $16,910 in restitution to Cody&;s family.
0.24 She took the stand during her sentencing
0.24 hearing to apologize for killing Cody.
0.24 She claimed to be in shock when it
0.24 happened. I wasn&;t thinking where we
0.24 were. I just pushed, she explained to
0.24 the judge. Over the years, Jordan would
0.24 try over and over to get a reduced
0.24 sentence on several grounds. Her final
0.24 one was in 2016, but her case was never
0.24 reopened or reviewed. The federal
0.24 prosecution was determined to make a
0.24 statement of her case. The sentence
0.24 today is going to send a message that if
0.24 you kill someone and are subject to
0.24 federal jurisdiction, you will be
0.24 prosecuted swiftly and severely punished
0.24 for your crime. Jordan will not be
0.24 leaving prison until she is over 52
0.24 years old.
0.24 If you made it this far, thank you for
0.24 staying with me until the end. I hope
0.24 the stories gave you something to think
0.24 about or dream about. Sleep well, stay
0.24 safe, and don&;t forget to subscribe.
0.24 Good night.
.