Author of grief book charged with husband’s murder; Dismembered and scattered woman is identified

a word of warning this podcast explores graphic and disturbing stories and includes some strong language it therefore may not be suitable for our young listeners or other folks who may find it disturbing hello and welcome to True Crime daily the podcast covering high profile and under the radar cases from across the country every week I'm your host Anna Garcia our cases this week are about spouses accused of killing their spouses a wife in Georgia is found murdered her body dismembered and found scattered on a hunting property well she's finally been identified and her husband has been arrested in connection with her death but for months police did not know who the woman was because apparently she was never reported missing so investigators had to use her DNA and genealogy sites to try and ID her turns out her husband was an officer in a naval court but based on the arrest warrant he's no gentleman but first a grieving Widow and mother of three who wrote children's book about coping with grief is now charged with killing her husband the father of those children you know the ones who are grieving police in Utah say the wife made her husband a cocktail a Moscow Mule allegedly laced with fentanyl we're recording this on Wednesday May 17th of 2023 Our Guest today is Gerald Griggs a criminal defense attorney who also handles a lot of civil rights cases out of Atlanta Georgia he's a very busy man because we know he's got a meeting with Big Time senators and so he's got a heart out today we'll we're just happier here Gerald because trying to get you on the show is like a moving Target well I'm excited to be here with you Anna it's always a pleasure yes I am very busy but never too busy to not talk about True Crime so I'm here let's let's jump right into it all right let's okay our first case has really all the ingredients for one of those Lifetime movies if what police are saying is true Gerald police in Utah say that a woman who wrote a book book about grief following her husband's death is the one who allegedly killed him okay you can't make this stuff up right you just you just can't no it's straight out of a movie straight out of Lifetime straight out of own uh you know who would have thought that a wife would poison her husband but that seems to be what the police are saying yep and the person charged here is 33 year old Corey Richards now police say that she killed her 39 year old husband Eric Richards Eric was found dead in the couple's bed back in March of 2022 so more than a year ago Eric died of a fentanyl overdose which police say the wife put in his drink now although he died more than a year ago she has only now been charged in this case now here's what I find you know really interesting you always love to hear people in their own words and I'm always very curious when the person who speaks on camera or does TV interviews ultimately ends up being charged or at least suspected in a case it's you know the kind of stuff the defense attorneys probably don't like just be quiet do not say a word absolutely you should be quiet I mean you know exercise your right to remain silent and typically those uh type of statements come back to haunt you well this one we cannot get enough of because here's what happened one month before she was arrested you know police were watching this Corey went on TV to promote this new book of hers which is all about coping with grief okay I want to play a clip from good things Utah that's the ABC station that has this show and I want you to hear from the wife in her own words Lori I want to start with your story what happened in your personal life so my husband passed away unexpectedly last year so it's March 4th was a one-year anniversary for us and he was 39 it completely took us all by shock yes no doubt it took Everyone by shock especially when one month after that interview Corey ends up getting arrested and charged with her husband's murder you just can't make this up this stuff up Gerald script writes itself and and you know typically um these type of cases don't end well um when you're out there doing TV interviews when there's a possibility you might be the prime suspect because many times law enforcement just gives you enough time to tie the Noose around your own neck so it's very unfortunate and you know I look forward to hearing more facts of this but you know you really shouldn't write a book you really shouldn't do interviews you really should just focus if if you truly are grieving on Grief and not profit so what happened here well investigators say that context is everything in this case so I always like to look at cases chronologically if we can because it helps people figure out what was going on at the time and what possible red flags there were because there were a few in here but again she is charged presumed innocent and so you know we're hearing this from the police investigators and also we're hearing from the victim's family and all of this to fill in the pieces and so this is where the information is coming from so the couple reportedly had some Financial disputes and were allegedly arguing on the night that he died they were arguing around the purchase of a two million dollar property which Corey wanted to flip she was in real estate and apparently Eric thought it was the kind of deal they might lose money on and he didn't want to go through with the deal so supposedly that's what was going on hours before he died a little bit on the couple here so Eric and Corey had been married for nine years they have three boys Eric had a successful Stone and masonry business and the couple liked to flip houses that was what Corey liked to do now according to the Salt Lake Tribune the couple had all sorts of financial issues now this is all coming from Eric's family which is very important but then again Gerald A lot of times family members do have access to information Financial records so we cannot discount what the family's saying here no we can't and it gives context to the possible motive and as you said earlier everyone's Presumed Innocent to proven guilty Beyond A Reasonable Doubt but you also have to make sure that during the course of the investigation you look for all of the circumstances that could lead to a person being the prime suspect they claim that Corey may have been taking money secretly from their bank accounts to bolster her real estate career the family claims that Corey took about a hundred thousand dollars out and then charged more than thirty thousand dollars to Eric's credit cards now this is where I would say and I always find this so interesting Gerald when married couples don't seem to realize that the money is gone especially if money is in joined accounts I'm not we're going to get to a point where apparently it may not have been that's the part I always find interesting it's like how do you not know that a hundred thousand dollars is missing well sometimes you don't check every um every account and like you said it doesn't seem that they had a joint account and so this may have been money that you know secretly she was you know ferreting off into other accounts and she may have only been taking a thousand here a thousand there and so you may not notice it over time but once you get to that hundred thousand dollar Mark you know at that point you may notice it's gone Eric's family also says that Corey allegedly borrowed two hundred fifty thousand dollars by allegedly forging power of attorney documents so they are making those claims that there was some fraudulent business deals going on here where Corey was allegedly accessing money that she shouldn't have all right that's part of it now here's the other thing so friends and family say that Eric told them the following again this is what they're saying and if the police can produce evidence of this it goes beyond he told me she told me correct exactly if they can back it up with with documents and records business records then they can substantiate this because right now it would just be hearsay but you have to make sure that you can corroborate the hearsay correct so this is what family and friends are saying Eric shared that he thought that his wife tried to poison him specifically on Valentine's Day before his death that now we've had several cases on the podcast where we have had spouses who thought that they were being poisoned by their spouse didn't leave the relationship and what happens they end up dead yeah so people this is a warning right now this is like our third case if you truly suspect your partner your business partner your significant other your spouse is poisoning you you must get out of this relationship or move or get out that seems very simple listen if he or she is trying to kill you they don't love you leave the relationship there we go family therapy from Gerald Griggs everyone because being an attorney also means being a therapist part-time yeah we're counselors at law end of the heart and of the heart now here's the other thing family Eric's family says that she Erica did not know that Eric secretly changed his will before he died to make sure that Erica was not the beneficiary and that she didn't know that what does that tell you that tells you he did strongly suspect she was trying to kill him and instead of leaving he made sure that he took precaution that she wouldn't benefit from his death what would have been better is for him to leave and not die correct absolutely I agree with you there but you know and this is the thing that we can never figure out but when you have three children involved you have a family um what you know I would say you take the kids and you run and you go to the police and you tell them what your fear is and and you know see where it goes from there but to just simply stay is crazy yeah it doesn't make sense but again you know having three three children you may even think about the children uh but you have to you know make sure that you make the right decisions not only for them but for yourself and if you thought enough that she was trying to kill you that you would change your will you should have contacted police and got a divorce attorney yes absolutely now according to the Daily Mail in January of 2022 remember he died in March okay so beginning of the year so two months before his death Corey allegedly made sure that she was the beneficiary of his life insurance policy through work so family and friends are claiming that she went online into the HR System or wherever you find this stuff you all know all these portals that we have when we work and whatever okay she goes in there she makes sure that she's the beneficiary of the life insurance policy but the reports are that Eric got notified because anytime you change your status you change anything you know in any of your pensions or you get an email sometimes you even get a letter in the mail telling you was this you who made this change on this day and he gets an email alerting him so now he knows so he's got another piece of the puzzle that is alerting him that she's making sure she's the beneficiary of course then Eric changes it back because she's not the one who's going to get the notification about that so she thinks she's very smart according to her to his family but she ultimately is not the beneficiary okay so there's more here so we talked about how he thought that he had been poisoned on Valentine's Day got violently ill after eating something that she prepared um we're going to get into the details of that but now I want to go to the eve of his the evening before he died so the couple they were fighting according to all reports and according to the police and Corey wanted to finish this deal this two million dollar mansion that they wanted to buy and flip and Eric said no we're going to lose money on this so then this is what Corey tells police that at 9 00 PM that night March 3rd 2022 she and Eric celebrated the closing of this deal so from her perspective no problem she tells police we're celebrating that we're going to close this deal she allegedly told authorities that she made Eric a Moscow Mule as part of their celebration and that she prepared the drink in the kitchen before bringing it up to her husband who was in bed in their bedroom and that he drank the Moscow Mule while sitting in the couple's bed I of course you know for me it's all about logic who drinks an icy cold Moscow Mule in March in Utah when it's cold in bed that's what I would say you know why not a hot cocoa and why is she not drinking to celebrate as well you know first thing you would think is if she's preparing a drink for celebration there would be two and it would definitely be a warm drink if it's Utah in the wintertime that's what I would think but you know everybody celebrates their own way this of course is not a crime by any means it's just one of those things I find interesting okay Corey claims that she gave her husband Eric the drink and that she went to bed she claims that one of the children had a nightmare she wakes up she goes to their bed and she fell asleep in the son's bed and then when she woke at three in the morning and said huh what am I doing here in my son's bed and all of us who are parents we know we've always fallen asleep in our kids beds and we're like oh my God where are we right you know I have to make lunch um she goes back to her bedroom she says and that's when she finds that her husband is cold to the touch and calls 9-1-1 okay this to me is very interesting tell me what you think about this counselor according to published reports Corey said and she's telling the 911 operator that I'm giving him CPR I'm trying to save his life but when the paramedics arrived they noted that Eric had blood in his mouth and so they found it very hard to believe she could have tried that form of resuscitation I mean if he's already cold to the touch you're not going to try to perform CPR and then of course the blood is a Telltale sign um that no CPR no attempts at recitation actually occurred so there are already issues with her statement um of the chronological order of things and the evidentiary proof of what she is trying to relate to law enforcement Eric is dead at the scene and this is the part that honestly that I find so suspicious again this part is not a crime but it really says a lot to me okay the man is dead Eric is dead the next day after his death according to friends and family Corey throws a party this is the Widow to celebrate the sale of that project going through nothing says grief like a party I think that's a chapter in her book you know foreign logic you know you you know you've been with um your husband for a substantial amount of time you have children you you've built a life together he passes away the day before and now you're partying to celebrate um the business uh deal that he was not in favor of that you allege that he celebrated with you on the night that uh he drank the Moscow mule and subsequent succumb to that it's a lot of issues a lot of red flags here yeah and you know I think we could say well is it possible that let's just say you know the police are wrong here okay let's just say that and that he really was in favor of this project and they had as a couple they had worked hard to get to this point and when the deal closes because the deal goes through which I find hard to believe that it would still go through if the man is dead you know one of them but okay maybe there's something in the contract there and that maybe at that moment when you feel like wow I finished this project I did it for us and maybe you hold a glass up and you just you honor the moment and you honor the man but that's not what this is according to friends and family no and I mean I'm sure you had Witnesses at the party that said that it didn't turn into you know for all lack of a better term awake or some type of celebration of life uh this was an actual party and no one who loves their spouse is going to throw a party the day after their spouse passed away so there are a lot of red flags and of course we can always play Devil's Advocate or defense attorney I'm a defense attorney all day long but there's some serious concerns here uh that are pointing in One Direction forget that when she went on TV to sell her grief book and we saw that clip she going on and on about how sudden it was and it was so shocking well I guess the shock wore off you know in a few hours for you to be able to pull off the deal and to once again celebrate now the autopsy is very interesting and here I'm gonna ask you Gerald if maybe this would you know Point things in a different direction not necessarily murder because the autopsy revealed that Eric died from orally ingested an overdose of Fentanyl and that he had five times the lethal dose in his system investigators use this information then to serve search warrants on the home also for all their digital devices the computers all of that stuff so I would say to you Eric at this point in the investigation to overdose on fentanyl isn't it possible that this was an accident and I have no idea if this was something that they were using drugs I I have no idea but as investigators and as the defense attorney doesn't this couldn't this look more accident than murder yeah I mean there's an argument that this was an accidental overdose but you're going to have to substantiate that it's accidental I mean you don't have to prove anything in a criminal case but the jury is going to want to hear a different side so you would say their witnesses that say you know he had a prescription for fentanyl or he had access to fentanyl using the Digital Data or something like that to say this probably was an accidental overdose or something like that you got to give the jury an alternate hypothesis save the guilt of the defendant so I think that's a road that they might go down but the other circumstantial evidence is going to be hard to overcome namely the business dealings the attempts to transfer money or transferring money the changing of the life insurance policy those are going to be issues that you have to address if you go the accidental overdose route so because of the warrant um this is what's interesting remember she said that she went to her child's bed she fell asleep because the child was having a nightmare well now as a result of the warrants that they have they're able to look at phones phone activity and police are claiming that Corey told them she left her phone charging at the bed stand when she went to care for the child and fell asleep for a few hours however police say that Corey's phone data they claim shows that her phone was unlocked several times during those hours there was movement suggesting that she was moving around at the time that she said she was asleep in the child's bed and also police claim that at in this time period when she said she was asleep that there were multiple text messages that were coming and going at that time pesky Digital Data and digital evidence that can refute any statements and that's why you should not give statements if there was activity on the phone and it's her phone and it has to have an unlock code they're probably only two people that have the unlock code and one of them's dead so again that's why it's important not to give statements and with the growth of Technology you know people can Geo locate phones and typically the phone is wherever you are so if you're moving and you're not asleep you're going to have to explain that to a jury yeah so things are definitely suspicious definitely suspicious now in the search here's the other stuff that they found in the phone records this part I find fascinating I I don't you'll tell me where it goes toward evidence so police claim and this is all in the court records they claim that there were multiple messages going back and forth between Corey this is over a period of time with someone who is identified only as with the initials c l who made multiple um I guess she did multiple business dealings with this CL over controlled substances and we'll get into that now again according to interviews and according to the court records the police say that Corey met up with cl to buy drugs on at least three occasions and these purchases seem to line up with incidents such as the Valentine's Day poisoning allegedly and Ultimate Death so sometime between December of 2021 and February of 2022 Corey allegedly texted CL requesting pain medication for a client with a back injury seems to me that your client with the back injury could maybe go to the doctor herself or himself absolutely and just the thought yeah why are you transacting drug payments on an iPhone or an Android not a good idea never good if somebody has a back injury they just go to a doctor get a prescription and go to the pharmacy and get the Pharmaceuticals they don't need a middle person no no certainly not someone in the real estate business without a medical license but okay so according to the court records CL OT her the Hydrocodone pills and the deal took place at a house that was currently being flipped by Corey again all of this is coming from the court records Weeks Later Corey allegedly contacted CL for something stronger citing this is quote some of the Michael Jackson stuff well Batman was taking propofol that was being administered by a medical doctor okay not supposed to be happening in someone's home and not for the purposes of sleep but I don't know what she's thinking here now you you definitely don't don't want to um get those type of very strong narcotics without a doctor or a doctor actually being the one that administers that and even when a doctor administered it it ended up in a criminal allegation and a conviction so yeah that's that's troubling it is so according to CL Corey asked explicitly for Fentanyl on February 11th CL obtained 15 to 30 fentanyl pills from a dealer which CL then sold to Corey for nine hundred dollars two days later on Valentine's Day Eric becomes seriously ill after eating a sandwich prepared by his lovely wife Eric after eating this broke out in hives had trouble breathing Eric allegedly used a combination of his son's EpiPen and Benadryl to stop the reaction and then reportedly passed out for hours but survived remember this is the incident that he said he turned to someone and said wow I think she may have poisoned me I think so it's a good thing Eric knew how to use the uh EpiPen I mean who who would have thought to use Benadryl and the EpiPen to revive you from a potential poisoning so Eric you know has to have had some type of um pharmaceutical training or something that's not in the common course of of you know people's normal activity but wow uh that that's that's wow so he survives this right Eric survives this but sadly he would not live another day because there would be allegedly according to police another attempt on his life and one thing we know for sure is that he is dead I mean but how and it and if he was murdered is a whole other investigation so about two weeks after that Valentine's Day incident Corey allegedly contacted CL once again this time for more fentanyl pills 900 according to police CL got another round of pills on February 26th Corey allegedly told Seattle to leave the pills in the outdoor fire pit of a house that she was flipping and that she reportedly left cash for this deal Eric was found dead of a fentanyl overdose six days later on March 4th that sounds like a drug deal to me you know we're going to pay in some covert manner I'm gonna pick it up uh from a house that's not people not living in the house and you know we're just going to do this in a way that doesn't seem like the ordinary course of business to buy pharmaceutical drugs but Gerald isn't it possible that Corey could say I bought the drug yeah I'm not going to deny it and yeah we were taking the drugs and sadly he died she could make that she could say that and again that would be a strong defense but for the circumstantial evidence that you were looking into his life insurance policies and making other Financial transactions and the family would come in and testify you were having financial trouble so it could go either way there but it is a defense isn't it also perhaps an even stronger defense if she says yes maybe I did take that money I took that money because I am a drug addict and I had to pay for this and I didn't want my husband to know what was going on and how bad it was I mean she could say that well then how did your husband end up with the drug overdose if you were the drug addict she could now speak for the dead and say well he had a problem too except mine was worse and that's why I was taking the money I mean it is the irrevincible it's defensible only in the sense that sadly many of us do know people with serious addictions and we know the lengths that they go to and the things that they do against their loved ones such as stealing right taking money all these things I am not saying that that's her defense because there's a lot of information that's missing here but it certainly is plausible and again I'm not defending I'm just simply asking um you know how strong do you think this case is against her I think that it's a strong circumstantial case without a confession and I think that you know 12 individuals are gonna have to sort it out and the problem for the prosecution is what she's saying is viable and she doesn't have to prove Beyond a reasonable doubt that it happened the way she said it happened they have to prove Beyond a reasonable doubt it didn't yeah well and there are a lot of things going on I mean because we're going to get in into she's not only got a criminal case that she's defending herself against she is now contesting the estate the husband's estate and will and all of that she's contesting it as if you know it was taken from her and again that's from her perspective so you know think about it it's been a year the authorities have now have search warrants they're finding these text messages with someone named CL who apparently is communicating with them and giving them his or her version of events so they have some you know information coming in that way they're going through the finances and this is what's taking a year meanwhile she is busying herself writing this book to help children who are grieving which to me again this is the moral crime here this is the moral crime so she's very busy with her book she writes this book called are you with me question mark okay it's one year after Eric's death and as we said she appeared on that television show in Utah good things Utah on abc4 okay I wanna I wanna play yet another clip because you know in the first clip she talked about oh what a shock it was that her husband died this next one is about helping children with grief including her own let's play the clip we have three little boys ten nine and six and um you know we kind of my kids and I kind of wrote this book on the different emotions and grieving processes that we've experienced last year and you know hoping that it can kind of help other kids you know um deal with this and kind of you know find happiness some some way or another it's really amazing to listen to this interview now Gerald given everything that's happened since she did the interview yeah I mean you know since the the events that have transpired since the interview it calls into question everything that she's saying and so um it's going to be hard to sort this out with the eye towards it's a possibility that you cause the grief that your child your children are now going through and what actually really happened to your husband uh so it just brings out more questions and and things that have to be settled in a courtroom is troubling she is charged with killing the father of her children again innocent until proven guilty but then writes this book about helping those three children grieve the loss of their father if she is the one who is responsible for his death that is one twisted plot yes and it's going to make for one great Lifetime movie yes it will all right so the book itself has been removed from the marketplace what a surprise nobody wants this book Corey Richards is being held in the Summit County Jail her next court date is scheduled for May 19th and this aside as I gave a little tease about she's in the middle of a massive legal battle with her husband's family because he changed the will and he made sure that the beneficiary of his life insurance policy was not the wife as she apparently went in there and she's arguing and so everything is stuck in probate court because everything's being challenged and so the family's saying she's not going to get a dime and so Corey and her team are trying to get the probate the Civil Court to pause because she's now been arrested and charged with murdering the man who everyone is fighting over the estate and the family's like you know forget that lady we're going forward you deal with your criminal Parts what happens here what what happens civilly well civilly it's important for her to pause it because she'd be open to depositions to be deposed and now you have even more perilous Journey because you know even though a person cannot be forced or compelled to give testimony against themselves in order to prove her case on the civil side she's going to have to present evidence which would be her so she definitely needs a pause and I can understand the family saying no we don't want to pause because we want to know what actually happened so it was a catch-22 here when civil mixes with a Criminal matter and you have different burdens of proof and the need to produce evidence to meet your burden in civil court wow I wonder what the judge is going to do here that's really a mess I mean I don't I don't know part of me feels like how can you move forward with the will if if the person contesting it is in prison I have no idea I don't know what you do in them what does that and then there are three kids right father dead mother in jail they have to be taken care of so I suppose it's couldn't the judge possibly make an accommodation at least to make sure that the children financially are being taken care of yes and of course I don't practice you know wills and trust but you know from law school there's a doctrine of unclean hands and so it would be my understanding that it probably it should go at least temporarily to the children in a trust until all the other matters resolved oh so complicated this case yes it very very complicated and will make for a great movie Shameless plug to Lifetime need to pick this one up okay our next case is out of Georgia where a husband has been arrested and charged with his wife's murder for reasons which have not been made public or explained the wife was apparently not reported missing so when these human remains were found scattered at a hunting lodge it took authorities months to figure out who this person was so they had to gather DNA from the dismembered body parts and then run that through genealogy sites trying to figure out okay who is this person they even made Composites sketches based on the bone structure trying to figure out you know age and who it might be which is really surprising to me and you know I was digging around yesterday I found a thread on Reddit you know where some people said that they knew the victim and how surprised that they were that she hadn't been reported missing there has to be a reason why the authorities are not explaining that that component of this because that to me is a mystery absolutely and it means that that's a lead that they're following up on that they don't want to burn the lead so that's why they're holding that close to the best yeah because everyone's asking I mean people just don't disappear especially if you are the child of you have friends you have relatives you're active in in church plus you have a husband it would be and it's not like we're talking about a day or two we're talking about months here so uh I am very very curious about that so 40 year old Nicholas Cassidy's also known as Nicholas Killian Stark is accused of murdering his wife 40 year old Mindy mibane cassidies and scattering her body parts around her property in a Georgia hunting club which apparently straddle two different counties police used her DNA to try and figure out her identity now Mindy and Nicholas had married on October 9th of 2016 in Leesburg Virginia the couple moved from Alexandria Virginia to Savannah now there's some question whether she was actually alive at the time that the couple moved but we don't know so a little bit about them because it's kind of important because of what he he particularly does so Mindy received her ba from Armstrong State University as well as an M.A in public and internet National affairs from Virginia Tech Nicholas graduated with a ba from Boston University and his JD from Northeastern University okay this is important at the time of their marriage Nicholas was reportedly pursuing a masters of law at Georgetown University but here when they got married Nicholas was working as a reserve Judge Advocate for the U.S Navy so this whole do you remember that TV show Jag I never could understand what Jag stands for he was he rose to the position of Lieutenant Commander and that all ended on August of 2019. all the Navy says is that's the separation date I don't know what that means what is what what is a Jag officer is that or a judge that's a very important position right yeah typically they are lawyers in the um in in the Navy and so they participate in in the naval Court naval military court and so he was a high-ranking uh uh legal official in in the Navy and so it's the separation that that seems curious that seems it means something happened because you you typically aren't separated you're discharged or or you complete your commission or something like that so that definitely very curious of how he he left that position yeah very interesting we don't know more about it but we do know that this is someone who is schooled in the law you know and certainly had risen to a level of prominence within the naval court system so back to Mindy here okay so Mindy her remains were discovered by hunters on December 2nd 2022 and her body was scattered all over this the portal hunting club near Riceboro Georgia which is about 40 miles from the couple's home in Savannah authorities believe she may have been left there maybe even a week earlier initially Mindy's remains could not be identified so she was classified as a Jane Doe again with them making several appeals to the media through information Composites age all you know describing some of the clothes that she was wearing but it didn't lead to anything like they didn't get any leads so she was truly a mystery here and then um you know so there were a few rounds a few Composites so I'm gonna get to the point here where uh they go to the genealogy sites and they find a family tree that they think is close they go to one of the parents who they think could be her parent they do a DNA swab and it's a match so now remember found in December it's now May 11th and Mindy's remains are positively identified the very next day they go and arrest her husband in Lancaster Pennsylvania is that interesting but that's like boom straight where they go very interesting because currently we don't know how she died so how are you arresting somebody for murder if we don't know the cause of death and we just recently identified the person and there's no missing person report so definitely interesting yeah I think what's very possible is by the time they got to the tree you know police got to the tree and they know they're zeroing on a family they're probably seeing in the tree hmm is any have you have you talked to so and so yet you know while they're waiting on the DNA results I have a feeling at this point they were already they had an idea that she was a member of this family and who's in this family who's married when's the last time anybody talked to anybody and she's not responding so that is just my take on it so um he's awaiting extradition to Georgia on charges of malice murder felony murder aggravated assault tampering with evidence and removal of body parts from the scene of death or dismemberment his next court date will be May 19th and he is expected to waive extradition I know we are lacking a lot of details in this case but that's because the authorities and the family have not been talking so something there's something more going on here yeah I mean simply from the charges they're definitely more going on here namely she was not killed from the charges and from what I presume is into warrants she was not killed at that location she was killed somewhere else and then moved and the body parts were dismembered and spread in that location so there's clearly more evidence here but we have to wait for his extradition and then ultimately his preliminary hearing uh when they uncover what's in the war and give probable cause testimony but there's more here um that we have to fare it through so we have a quick update now for all of you you've been following this case and of course we're talking about Lori vallo dabel the doomsdayer mom who was convicted on all counts of murdering her two children we have covered this multiple times on the podcast we simply want to tell you what the what the results were of this trial for those of you who were not following it that carefully so Lori and her fifth husband Chad dabell were both accused of murdering her two children along with murder and conspiracy charges related to the mysterious death of Chad's late Wife Tammy right this is the woman who died in her sleep she was you know quickly buried you know no one thought of anything that the thing I love about the Lori valo dabel case is that so many things were going on around her and her family and people were dying mysteriously but because they were happening in different jurisdictions over a period of time no one could step back and look at it and tie it all together and this is the beginnings of that absolutely this was a case we followed intently I followed it intently so many twists and turns of course the Doomsday cult part of it um the issue with so many dead people and I think something happened in Hawaii and then it happened over here and none of the jurisdictions were communicating with one another until ultimately Tammy passed right right and that made it possible for Lori to marry chat right and you know and Lori we've heard from so many family members and friends like you know Lori had these theories about zombies and that the kids had been taken over by zombies which is why she had to kill them you know and the drama in the courtroom oh my god when Lori valo said oh your honor please don't make me listen to the horrific ways that the children died I need to leave the courtroom give me a break lady you sit down and you listen yeah I mean we have to get to the bottom of the truth and you have a right to confront your accusers and listen to the evidence so um this was a very very disturbing case that took years to get through and ultimately the jury made the decision yes so uh Lori valo's youngest son JJ valo who was seven and her daughter Tyler Ryan 16 were last seen alive last seen alive September of 2019 before they were finally found buried in 2020 their remains were buried in the Idaho property owned by Chad dabel oh what a surprise look at this why do you Barry why do you bury people in the backyard of your property because no one ever find them there you know hey let's bury them in the backyard nobody ever think to look back there even the dogs go back there looking for stuff I mean come on come on now people the dog probably helped dig them up unbelievable so prosecutors allege that the couple shared these extremist religious beliefs that they were to to kind of rationalize their killings Chad and Lori believed that the these young children were possessed by evil spirits turning them into zombies and in the closing arguments prosecutors said you know what you know what the reason was it wasn't zombies it was sex money and power I don't know craziness it's all crazy there were so many freaking delays in this case because of her competency whether she was competent or not you know what please okay finally the trial goes through there's weeks of testimony 60 Witnesses all on the prosecution side explain this to me the defense doesn't call a witness the defense doesn't say anything the defense just rests there's no defense other than to say well the prosecution didn't reach their burden of proof well when you don't have a case sometimes that's what you argue and that you could not explain all of the things that were going on in this case so you said to the jury Hey listen they didn't prove their case and of course the jury came back and said they did um yes hello buried in the backyard how do you explain that oh my gosh it's just unbelievable well after the jury deliberated they found Laurie guilty two counts of first-degree murder three counts of conspiracy for the deaths of her children conspiracy to kill Tammy dabell she was also convicted of grand theft charges related to collecting the Social Security of the children in their benefit I mean it was just just a tangled mess anyway her sentencing has not been scheduled yet but she faces a life sentence on the conviction that seems probable she will never ever leave prison and then Chad daybell's trial is next I have a question for you do you think Chad dabell will stand trial or do you think he tries to get a deal well I think he's probably gonna try to get a deal and say you know Lori planned it all but I think the prosecution is going to proceed with a trial and in this case the only logical um defense that um you know Lori was going for is probably an appeal on her mental competency and that's maybe what her lawyers were looking to do but this this was a disturbing case from the very beginning and I saw this conviction coming a mile away oh we all did because there were never any answers when the kids were missing and the grandparents are the ones who asked for the welfare check and every time you're trying to find you know Lori she's in a different jurisdiction this all the times that the authorities said you must present the children and right and then they they get married they go to Hawaii then I mean where are the kids the kids hadn't been seen in Forever hadn't been seen in forever I I just it's a disgusting case um I'm I'm really I'm I'm sick to my stomach from this case and there's a part of me that doesn't want to hear it anymore like I just want her to go away yeah well we at least gonna have to hear one more time because again given the horrific nature of all of these killings um I think the prosecution is probably not going to offer Chad a deal yeah especially if he didn't help without with Lori's case what value does he have exactly that would have been the only reason why they would have given him a deal listen you testify against Lori then we'll offer you something you know less than you know life without the possibility of parole these are the crime cases you all are talking about on social media here's our producer will Updike hey Will hey how's it going Anna good good to see you Gerald good to see you will all right so this case uh we have a case of a doggone DUI this case comes out of Springfield Colorado where a man had a rough time talking his way out of an arrest after he was pulled over for speeding and tried to blame the entire incident on his dog so this happened just last Saturday that's May 13th around 11 30 p.m a Springfield Police Department Officer did a traffic stop on a car that was traveling 52 miles per hour in a 30 mile per hour Zone if you know you're a little tipsy probably best to stick to the speed limit just off the bat but as the officer approached the driver who they still have not identified uh he allegedly attempted to switch places with his dog who was in the passenger seat so the officer pulled the man over reported he reportedly witnessed this entire seat exchange you know as they're coming up to the car or whatever and the man allegedly claimed that he wasn't at the wheel but he showed these clear signs of intoxication the officers said so when the officer asked him how much he had to drink the driver flees uh and the officer was able to apprehend him about 20 yards from the car so he's tried the dog switch he's trying to get away nothing's really working here um but according to to a statement from the police which is really all we have on this case so far the man apparently got lost while he was driving from Lost anemas to Pueblo Colorado and he ended up in Springfield somehow uh and police also learned that the alleged driver had two active warrants for his arrest out of Pueblo Colorado there so the Baca County Sheriff's Office arrived at the scene and they assisted with the suspect who was taken in the hospital he was medically cleared to be held deputies booked him into the bucket County Jail on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol and or drugs driving while ability impaired driving under suspension speeding 20 to 24 miles over the speed limit resisting arrest and of course these two other outstanding warrants uh now the I kind of love the way that the Springfield Police Department wrap this one up they noted that the dog was placed in the care of an acquaintance of the alleged driver here while its owner was in custody and according to police the dog does not face any charges and was let go with just a warning uh which you know you you love you love a good happy ending I'm glad the dog isn't facing any charges in this one um I yeah I don't know if you've done any defense in these sort of cases Gerald but I can't believe pointing the dog is is that strong of an option it's not unless you've seen that Viral image on Tick Tock of the dog driving the lawnmower or the Tesla there's the dogs there's the dog my question is when he came up to the car did the dog have his paws on the Wheel oh yeah yeah well we actually got a comment about that Brianna had to know can we please see the body cam footage which I don't know if this will ever be released but I would love to see a man trying to like move the dog over uh over into this driver's seat um you know an interesting excuse for this one April G said well instead of the dog ate my homework excuse now it's the dog was driving officer which yeah this is like in that line of really pretty lame excuses unless of course yeah you have a Tesla and maybe your dog can be behind the wheel I have no idea Anarchy never said sounds like the good boy wasn't the best driver but he's a mere doggo and doing the best he can which yeah I I you know I'm I'm glad the dog didn't face any charges he's super innocent in this one for all the stupid said nothing screams sober like I swear man the Dr the dog drives me home all the time I love this I I love like yeah how are you even in a scenario like where you think that this is going to work and that somehow yeah it's a normal thing for your dog to be driving you and then we got to end this on a pun as always Tinky W said I was positive I would have gotten away with this dog gone it which pretty good pretty good how did you get pretty good uh but yeah like I said just glad that the dog didn't face any charges in this one uh and I will update everybody on our YouTube Community page if we hear any more about this suspect that is going to do it for this week's comment section thank you everybody for sending those in as always you can reach out to us on our YouTube Community page we're also on Facebook Instagram Twitter uh snap Snapchat maybe I don't know we're not on Snapchat we're not on Snapchat uh but uh you can reach out to us on all those other things we are on Tick Tock that was what I was trying to think of uh but you know I'm old so uh that is gonna do it for this week's comment section thank you all so much and I'll see you next week a little programming note for everyone I know that the last few weeks all our episodes have been unbelievably dark I mean just like the war we've had like back-to-back episodes where children have been murdered next week I promise everyone we're getting a little break here we're gonna do a very special podcast on an incredible crime It's gotta rest it's got a bust it's got the IRS it's got everything you can imagine fraud Scandal everything but no one dies okay so I promise you next week we get a little reprieve from all the death and destruction that we have been covering because yes it does become kind of heavy after a while we need a break right Gerald thank you so much we know that you are one of the busiest people out there where can people find you follow you because you're always you know you're on top of everything Gerald well they can find me on all social media channels uh at attorneygriggs a t t o r n e y g r i g g s on Instagram Snapchat uh Tick Tock Twitter Youtube and uh on Google so please follow me I love being on this show it's great yes the dog did do it uh but he got away with it I'm just glad that the dog was not injured while this person allegedly right was speeding through town could have been intoxicated yeah thank goodness the dog was not injured you can find me at Anna G news Anna with 1n um I mostly do post about dogs and rescues a little bit about crime because I need a break in the rest of my life you can get this episode along with all our episodes wherever you get your podcast subscribe to our YouTube channel subscribe to our newsletter at truecrimedaily.com uh until next week I'm your host Anna Garcia this is true crime daily the podcast and as we always say don't do crime

Channel: True Crime Daily

Views: 296,543

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Id: q8GfUX946jY

Length: 54min 35sec (3275 seconds)

Published: Fri May 19 2023