Charity Powell Beallis and Dr. Randall Beallis

0:00 In December 2025, police were called to do a welfare check at the home of Charity Powell Bialis, and she didn't show up to sign her divorce decree. The responding officers found her dead along with her six-year-old twins. Charity's death was soon ruled a suicide and the children's deaths homicides. Charity's estranged husband, Randall, a local physician, had been arrested earlier that year for assaulting her and was under investigation for allegations that he had abused their children. Police did not publicly name Randall as a suspect, but Charity's loved ones came to a very different conclusion. I'm Rich. And I'm Tina. Welcome to Love, Marry, Kill.

0:40 Love, Marry, Kill. Hey, Rich. Hey, Tina. How are you? I am doing good. How are you? Haven't seen you much today yet. No, not yet. It's good to see you. It's Labor Day. We're recording. We're a week ahead. So we're recording this on Labor Day. You are not wearing any white. I can confirm. Are your shoes white? I don't have shoes on. Okay. Do you have socks on? No. Wow. I don't see them. Nothing white. It's a beautiful day here in Southeast Michigan. It feels very summery. Yeah, it is really nice.

1:20 But we had some pretty severe weather. We really did have some bad storms and our power was out for like over two days. But we do have a whole house generator, so don't feel bad for us. Yeah, don't feel bad for us at all. It wasn't that big of a hardship, but it was pretty crazy that, you know, the whole area was out of power for more than 48 hours. But Michigan had their first game on Saturday and all day you were like, that power better come back on. Yeah, because it wasn't. Because their cable was out. Yeah, but it came back on just in time. And how was that game? There's been a little bit of controversy that I'm going to need you to address. I think a little bit of controversy is vastly understating it.

2:02 I have heard people say that Western Michigan is the best football team in Michigan right now. Well, I don't know about that, but it was. So, yeah, Michigan played Western Michigan, which should be like Michigan was favored by 28 points, something like that. And Western Michigan outplayed Michigan the entire game. And you admit that. Oh, totally. Michigan played really not well at all. But somehow Michigan was five points behind as the game was winding down. And they had one chance. They tried a Hail Mary pass, didn't succeed. It looked like the clock was down to zero. Western Michigan started celebrating. They reviewed it and they came back and said, nope, there's one second left on the clock. Hmm.

2:46 And so Michigan had another Hail Mary attempt. This time they made it. So they won the game with no time left on the clock. And people are going crazy because you can see that the clock is down to zero on TV. But apparently the replay officials have a different clock. So I was working. I didn't watch the game. You watched it on your own. And you were pretty angry as you get sometimes when you're watching football. I mean, they played so bad. It was just, yeah. But after the game, you came up. Well, you texted me at one point. You're like, oh, it's over. We're done. And then you texted me and then you were like, no, you know, they won. And you were really surprised. But you originally were like, yeah, I don't I don't think they should have, which I thought was big of you to admit. But then later yesterday, you were like, well, well.

3:31 A win is a win. I mean, you got to take it even if we didn't deserve it. So you backpedaled and. Well, originally you thought the time there was zero time, but now you're like there was a fraction of a second left. It definitely looked like on the TV that there was no time left. Again, the replay officials apparently have a different clock that is the official clock. They have released the video of that and it clearly shows a second left. So there's still controversy, but you know. You'll take it. A win is a win. I'll take it. Sorry if you do not like football, but we are in football season, which is Rich's time to shine. For sure. Well, I did bring you a snack today. Oh. And our snack might be a little controversial, too.

4:11 Oh, no. I've seen other snack fluencers. Snack fluencers. Oh, are we snack fluencers now? I don't think we really are. But I brought you three different kinds of Oreos. Oh, my. We're having a problem at our house lately. There's only two of us. The cats don't eat Oreos. No. Our kids come once in a while. But we need someone to come help us eat snacks. We really do. We've been throwing away way too much food. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so I brought you deep-fried Oreos, which are fried dough-flavored cookie and cream, artificially flavored. Then I bought banana pudding Oreos, which I love banana pudding, but I don't love artificial banana. And chicken and waffle-flavored Oreos. They were all three together, and I felt like we had to try all of them.

4:55 All right, well. All right, we'll be right back. All right. So this is genius marketing by Oreo. You're supposed to buy all three packages, and then you're supposed to vote which one you like the best, and Oreo will keep that flavor. Oh, interesting. So can you rank them? I actually thought the fried dough and the chicken and waffles were both really good. I have a hard time between the two of them. I think I'm going to go with the fried dough as my favorite. The banana pudding, I didn't care for at all. Wow. So banana pudding was the only one that I finished. The only one I went back and had a second bite of. I didn't understand the deep fried Oreo at all.

5:39 I don't know what that flavor profile was supposed to be. For me, it just tasted really muddy. The chicken and waffle was interesting. Like if you were only going to buy one and you have kids at home that might, I feel like your kids would probably get a kick out of it because you do get a taste of chicken in there, which wasn't entirely unpleasant. Yeah. Yes, surprisingly, it was much better than I expected. So your vote is for. I'm going with the fried dough. Well, Oreo voting will be open until October 12th. No purchase necessary. So let us know if you've tried these Oreos, which one is your favorite. This case was recommended to us by Jessica, who is LMK's MVP this week. She went above and beyond for us, and I will explain that when we get to the end of the case.

6:22 I do need to give a content warning. This episode includes discussions of domestic violence, suicide, and the violent deaths of children, so please listen with care. Before we begin, we want to make something very clear. Randall Bialis has not been charged with or publicly named as a suspect in the deaths of Charity, Eliana, or Maverick. The Sebastian County Sheriff's Office has said that the evidence gathered in its investigation is consistent with the medical examiner's findings that Charity died by suicide, and the twins were victims of homicide. Randall's attorney has also stated publicly that Randall is not a suspect and not involved in the deaths in any way. In this episode, you will hear allegations and suspicions raised by Charity's family and others. This should not be taken as proof that Randall was responsible for these deaths. I say this because Randall has threatened to sue anyone who states otherwise. In November 2015, 46-year-old Randall Bialis married for the fourth time. His bride was 30-year-old Charity Powell, but this was actually their second time marrying each other. Charity, born in March 1985, and Randall had first married in May 2012, just four months after the death of Randall's second wife, Shauna Jeanette Graham Bialis. That marriage fell apart quickly.

7:40 Charity and Randall separated in October 2012 after only about five months of marriage, and their divorce was finalized in the following month. Three years later, they married again. Charity was both Randall's third and fourth wife. Their relationship likely overlapped with Randall's marriage to Shauna, his second marriage. We'll come back to Shauna later, but there appears to have been some overlap in Randall's previous marriages as well. His first wife, Donna, was also a doctor, and together they had three children, Melissa, Ryan, and Emily. Their divorce was finalized in 2010. By 2025, Randall had no relationship with any of his three older children. In 2017, Charity and Randall purchased a large home in Bonanza, Arkansas for $ 435, 000.

8:24 The house, which has frequently been described in the media as a mansion, sits on 40 acres with a pond, swimming pool, and horse barn. By the time of Charity's death, the property was valued at approximately $ 750, 000. Wow, 40 acres. That's quite a property. Now, was Charity married at all before, or was Randall her first marriage? That is a good question and I wish I had the answer to it. I don't think she was married before, but she did have previous relationships. Unfortunately, I couldn't dig up a lot of background information about Charity. Bonanza is a tiny community in western Arkansas just a few miles from the Oklahoma border and about 12 miles south of Fort Smith. Fort Smith, with a population of nearly 90,000, is the regional hub in one of the largest cities in Arkansas. It's where Randall practiced medicine and where much of the family's life took place. Bonanza has fewer than 600 residents and today is largely a quiet residential community for people who work in and around Fort Smith. Once a bustling coal mining town, Bonanza has a troubling racial history.

9:30 In 1904, racial violence drove most of the town's black residents from the community. Bonanza later became what historians call a sundowntown, a community where Black people were effectively prohibited from living or remaining after dark. In April 2019, Charity and Randall welcomed twins, a daughter, Eliana, and a son, Maverick. It was a second chance at motherhood for Charity, and she was thrilled. She adored the twins. Wait, so you said a second chance at motherhood? Yeah, we'll get to it in a little bit, but she has an older son named John. Ah, okay. On February 16th, 2025, police were called to the Biala's home after a violent confrontation between Charity and Randall. Charity said she was getting ready for bed when Randall became angry that she was taking too long in the bathroom and accused her of talking to someone on the phone.

10:19 She was talking to her father, Randy. In her handwritten statement to police, Charity explained that she had reconnected with Randy earlier that day after what she described as years of no communication. I think it was as many as 10 years. Oh, wow. Both were thrilled to have rekindled their relationship. Charity had been spiraling since Randall had told her a week earlier that he was leaving her to find someone who loved him in the way he deserved. We have Randy in this case and also Randall. Randy is Charity's father, and Randall is her husband. Randall actually also goes by Randy, but to avoid any confusion, we're calling him Randall in our story. Gotcha. According to Charity, Randall slammed her head into the bathroom counter, choked her, pulled her by the hair, and dragged her down the stairs in front of their then five-year-old twins, Eliana and Maverick. Randall was arrested and charged with aggravated assault on a family or household member. third-degree domestic battery, and two counts of third-degree endangering the welfare of a minor.

11:20 Randall denied choking Charity, although he acknowledged using physical force during the confrontation. Charity photographed injuries she said that she suffered during the assault, including red marks on her neck, chest, arms, and wrists. After that night, Randall secured an apartment in Fort Smith and took a voluntary leave of absence from his work as a doctor. Less than three weeks later, on March 5th, Charity filed for divorce. She sought full custody of the twins and also sought a protective order alleging a history of violence in the home and saying the children were afraid of their father. Charity alleged that Randall had a history of substance abuse, including using heroin, and requested that he undergo drug screening, a psychological evaluation, and anger management classes. Randall countersued Charity for divorce in September.

12:09 In October, Randall pleaded guilty to third-degree domestic battery after the other charges were dropped. He received a one-year suspended sentence and a $ 1, 500 fine. The judge cautioned him to stay away from Charity and her family members. Digging into Charity's past, we found that in August 2013, when Charity was 28, she was arrested for aggravated assault after pointing a gun at a man's chest. That man was Randall Bialis. Charity's father bailed her out of jail. This was after Charity and Randall's first divorce. Her son from a previous relationship, John, was 11 or 12. Randy and his wife, Sonia, became John's guardians after the incident until Charity took him back about two years later. On August 28, 2015, another family confrontation took place at the Sebastian County Fair. Sonia was excited to see John and approached him while he was with Charity and Randall. an altercation followed involving Sonia and Randall.

13:09 Sonia was arrested for assaulting Randall, although the charge was later dismissed. By then, there was considerable bad blood between Charity, Randall, and Charity's parents, and the 2013 gun incident would resurface more than a decade later during Charity and Randall's second divorce. Randall and his attorney pointed to it as evidence that Charity had a history of unstable and violent behavior and and the judge considered the incident when deciding custody of the twins, although Charity had also accused Randall of pulling a gun on her multiple times. The February 2025 fight is pivotal. That's when Charity files for divorce and the custody battle ensues. But I think the timing is interesting because it seems like the impetus of the fight was that Charity reconnected with her father, Randy, who she hadn't talked to in about 10 years. And it makes me wonder if there's a lot of control going on in the relationship.

14:06 So that wasn't just a coincidence, you think? You think that may have actually triggered the fight that she was talking to her father again? Well, she did admit that she was in the bathroom for two hours. And I think she was texting with her dad and she was distracted from... Randall, and when he found out, I think, that she was texting her dad, he did blow up. It seems like overall these two had a very volatile relationship. It seems like the kids are really in the middle of everything, and, you know, I hate that for them. Yeah, this happens way too often. Born in February 1969, Randall B. Ellis is a doctor of osteopathic medicine who graduated from the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1995.

14:50 He was previously licensed in Florida and Illinois before becoming licensed to practice medicine in Arkansas in June 2008. After the deaths of Charity and the twins, 5 News requested Randall's records from the Arkansas State Medical Board. The station received an 88-page file containing everything from positive letters written on Randall's behalf to complaints, criminal charges, and allegations of abuse. Several former associates spoke highly of him. One wrote, Another wrote that Randall had, quote, But there were also problems documented in the file. One involved Randall writing an opioid prescription for charity following surgery. Randall acknowledged that doing so was inappropriate and apologized to the medical board. In 2018, the board chose not to discipline him and instead kept documentation of the incident in his file for future reference.

15:59 So I imagine most doctors probably write prescriptions for their family members, so we're not going to hold this one against him too much. Randall was back before the board in April 2021, this time because of a May 14, 2020 incident involving his stepson John. Randall had been charged after slashing all four tires on John's 2005 Ford F-150 truck while holding one of his infant children. He told the medical board that he had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. The board reviewed the case, added the information to his file, and again voted to take no disciplinary action. We will talk more about this incident in a few minutes. Then came the February 2025 assault on charity that we talked about earlier. After Randall's arrest, Charity contacted the medical board herself. She wrote, I am his wife. I had to call 911 on Sunday night for choking and beating me up. My two six-year-olds saw everything. We are traumatized.

16:59 You guys need to know about this. When Randall learned that Charity had contacted the board, he sent his own account to the board. He denied choking her and said the confrontation began when he took Charity's phone from her hand and she responded by hitting him. According to Randall, he used physical force only because Charity was blocking him from leaving the bathroom. But the police report recorded a somewhat different account from Randall's. He reportedly told officers that he pushed Charity against a wall and into a sink, and that when she ran outside, he chased her, caught her, and took her phone. Just to be clear, this is very different than Charity's account of the events. She said that he strangled her and, you know, was hitting her and grabbing her by the hair.

17:44 It was much more intense than he is. Admitting to here. And so Randall has given two different accounts, one to the police, one to the medical board, and Charity has given a different account to the police as well. Charity contacted the medical board again in April. She told them that she and the children had undergone extensive interviews at a local advocacy center and that allegations involving the twins were now being investigated by the Arkansas State Police Crimes Against Children Division. On March 31, allegations that Randall had abused Eliana and Maverick were reported to the Crimes Against Children Division. After an investigation, the agency issued its findings on July 15. Using a preponderance of the evidence standard, investigators determined the allegations were true. The findings included abuse with or without physical injury involving both children and threat of harm involving Maverick. The agency recommended that Randall's name be placed on the Arkansas Child Maltreatment Central Registry. Randall denied abusing the twins.

18:49 I know it's frustrating, but we don't know much more about this situation. On August 7th, he appeared before the Arkansas State Medical Board to respond to the allegations against him. Randall claimed that Charity had instructed the children to make false allegations to police. Rather than take disciplinary action at the time, the board tabled the matter while the case in Sebastian County remained unresolved. Soon afterward, the board received an anonymous letter urging its members to take action against Randall. Included with the letter was documentation from the Crimes Against Children Division recommending that Randall be placed on the state's Child Maltreatment Central Registry. A second anonymous complaint arrived about a week later, accompanied by reports detailing allegations involving Charity and the children between July 2024 and February 2025.

19:43 So these anonymous complaints are likely from Charity, I'm guessing. Randall denied those allegations publicly. as well, saying they had no basis in reality. He wrote, quote, I hold the responsibilities of my profession with the highest seriousness and I remain committed to upholding both the standards of medical practice and the trust of the community I serve. When reporters later contacted Randall's attorney about the allegations contained in his medical board file, his attorney provided them with a chapter from Charity's 2019 self-published memoir, A Lifetime of Miracles, Transformation Through Tragedy. The Christian-focused book is 352 pages and is no longer in print. In it, Charity wrote about the 2013 incident when she pulled a gun on Randall. She wrote, The lie was that I had assaulted my husband with a firearm in self-defense. The truth is, I did it because that's what I had seen growing up as the best way to control people, fear. Charity also wrote that she regretted, quote, later she recanted the claim because Randall was heavily involved in the writing of the book. In her book, Charity talks about the sexual abuse she suffered as a teenager from her stepbrother. and the fractured relationship she had with her father. The book covered Charity's life only through 2017, eight years before the events that led her to file for divorce in 2025. Charity described the

21:16 purpose of the book on its back cover, writing that it was the true story of the hardships she had endured and her attempt to show others that people could change. She wrote about overcoming the past through God and his grace, describing change not as something that happens overnight, but has a journey that lasts a lifetime. I wish I could have found even some passages from the book, but I was not able to find any. The medical board considered Randall's case again in October, but once more tabled the matter. Less than a week later, Randall pleaded guilty to misdemeanor third-degree domestic battery for the February assault on Charity. He received a one-year suspended sentence and a $ 1, 500 fine. Randall Bialis' medical license remains active and is currently scheduled to expire in 2027. Despite the complaints about Randall's personal conduct, we found no substantiated allegations in the medical board file that he had abused or mistreated patients.

22:16 When I heard about this 88-page file, I thought, oh, there's going to be a lot of stuff in there and allegations from patients. But as far as I can see, his medical record is good, and it sounds like he... is a good doctor. But most of the things in the file were from his personal life. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. So everything that the medical board was considering here were things like police reports and other things that had happened between him and Charity. And the kids. A doctor having allegations of abuse against his children and wife, that's still pretty serious. Yeah, absolutely. We'll be back after a break.

22:58 Despite Randall earning a substantial income as a physician, reportedly about $ 400, 000 a year, money became another source of conflict in the divorce. Randall testified that he had been the primary breadwinner for the family while Charity stayed at home with the children. Charity did have a nursing degree, but I believe that she never was licensed. Charity and Randall had signed a prenuptial agreement before their second marriage that indicated that Charity would receive $ 10, 000 in cash from Randall if they divorced. It did not prevent her from receiving her share of any marital property they'd accumulated together. The house in Bonanza was considered marital property, and by 2025 it was worth approximately $ 750, 000, considerably more than the $ 435, 000 the couple had reportedly paid for it in 2017. So the prenup essentially left charity with.

23:53 Almost nothing. Isn't that crazy? That is pretty wild. But the house, it was considered part of their joint property. So that was the most significant thing that she could expect. Out of the divorce. But still, I mean, if he's making $ 400, 000 a year, that's a pretty paltry prenup. It's pretty insulting, really. Kind of, yeah. Charity raised questions during the divorce about the couple's finances. She claimed money was missing from their accounts and questioned Randall about a home equity line of credit taking against the house to build an addition. The addition was never built, and Charity said she didn't know where the money had gone. Court records show that Arvest Bank was subpoenaed during discovery, although the publicly available findings don't tell us what records were being sought or give us a clear picture of the couple's finances. Charity's father, Randy Powell, has claimed that Randall was hiding millions of dollars. There were other indicators that money had become an issue. By November, one of Charity's former attorneys had filed a lien stating that she owed the firm more than $ 6, 800. The 2024 property taxes on the Bonanza home were also delinquent, but Randall paid approximately $ 3, 000 towards the taxes after Charity's death when he moved back into the house. Money also became a possible motive.

25:08 Randy has claimed that Randall stood to benefit financially from Charity's death and that Randall had a life insurance policy on her. I can't verify the existence of that policy, its value, or its beneficiary, and we don't know whether there were also insurance policies on the children. Charity's death also complicated the division of the couple's property. At the December 2nd divorce hearing, the judge announced that the Bonanza home was to be sold at auction and all the proceeds divided evenly, but the final written decree had not been entered before Charity died. Charity did not have a will. On December 17th, John was appointed administrator of his mother's estate, putting him in charge of settling her affairs. But administering an estate and inheriting it are two different things. Because Charity and Randall were still legally married when she died, Randall potentially retained rights to some of her property under Arkansas law. Exactly what Charity owned, what belonged jointly to her and Randall, and how much her estate was worth have not been publicly established. As of this recording, it does not appear that the dispute over Charity's assets has been resolved. It does appear that there was some financial control in the marriage. Randall has said that Charity just spent too much money, so he controlled all the finances.

26:23 They had separate checking accounts, and he said every month or two he would just put $ 10, 000 in her account, and he implied that she would go through it quickly. Okay. It sounds like this whole thing is a mess, like very messy when you are separated, heading toward divorce, but legally you're still married and something like this happens and your finances are still all intertwined. It's just really messy. After filing for divorce, Charity became increasingly vocal on social media about her experience with domestic violence and her frustration with a system she believed had failed to protect her and her children. In the comments of a 5 News story about domestic violence, Charity wrote, I am living this battle right now. I am the victim, yet I have been treated like the problem, while the criminal, a local doctor, is being shielded by the very system that's supposed to protect us. I've tried to reach the prosecuting attorney, but he won't even accept a letter from me.

27:19 My voice as the victim has been shut out. This is not just about me. This is about a system that protects offenders and rejects victims. Lives are at stake, including the lives of young children. She added the hashtags Stop Corruption, Justice for Victims, Accountability Now, and Systemic Failure. Charity wanted to use what she was going through to advocate for other survivors of domestic violence and push for changes in a system that she believed was failing them. One of the articles Charity commented on was from the Daily Press. and it carried the unsettling headline, If a partner has ever strangled you, they will likely kill you. The article warned that if a woman has ever been strangled by her partner, her risk of being murdered by that partner increased by 750%. Within the next year, which I've heard that statistic before, but within the next year, I don't think I've ever heard it.

28:11 I know, that is really shocking to me. It is a warning that struck a chord with Charity after the incident that she had experienced in February. Charity didn't just share her thoughts on social media. She contacted government officials and agencies trying to get someone to listen. We talked about her repeated contacts with the Arkansas State Medical Board, but she also reached out to elected officials for help. Charity wanted to make a difference, but sadly she never got the chance. So these comments that she's making like on social media and so on, These all happened after they separated, like after he moved out and she filed for divorce? She filed for divorce on March 5th. It seemed like that was an awakening for her. She says that she had been under his coercive control for most of their marriage and that she woke up and she realized that she was in an abusive relationship.

29:02 But were there other issues that happened after they separated? I think there were, yeah, there were definitely some controlling things, but we're going to get to that a little bit. Randy and John Powell appeared on an episode of Nancy Grace. They told Nancy that police didn't notify them of the deaths of Charity and the twins. They found out through rumors on Facebook. Randy reached out to a friend who was a police officer, who then contacted the coroner, who confirmed the sad news to them. John Powell, 25, had lived with his mother and Randall as a teenager and witnessed firsthand what he described as an abusive and volatile relationship. But John's own relationship with Charity had also been strained, and so had Randy's. In May 2020, when John was 17, a fight over his failure to return text messages to his mother erupted into a bitter family feud. Charity demanded that John hand over his cell phone as punishment while threatening him with a knife. When he refused, the police report states that Randall, who was holding one of their one-year-old babies, went outside and angrily slashed at all four of John's tires. When Charity realized that John was filming the incident, she demanded, give me that phone. The video later went viral. We have a brief clip of that video, and if you listen closely, you can hear the air being released from the tires. Give me your phone. I'm shutting it off. Here comes the next one.

30:29 What are you going to do? I'll be in the parent book. My truck in my name. I paid for it. Give me that phone. I watched that video. It was pretty disturbing because Randall is holding their one-year-old child while he's got this knife and he's stabbing the tires on this truck. Yeah, and the knife, it's a pretty big knife, and it's kind of waving it around a little bit, and you shouldn't be holding a knife in a baby when you're that angry. Right. And Randall in the video says it's called being a parent buddy, and that flabbergasted me because it seemed like such an abusive situation, and your job as a parent is to diffuse the situation.

31:13 Yeah, I don't recall reading that in any of the parents' handbooks. Not that we never yelled at our teenagers because that is definitely not the case. Officers responded to the Bialyce residence, and Charity and Randall were both arrested. After the incident, John, who was two months shy of his 18th birthday, filed for and was granted legal emancipation from his mother. Randall pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal mischief. He received a one-year suspended sentence, was ordered to attend six months of anger management classes, and was forced to replace the tires on John's truck, which John had purchased by himself. In December 2025, after the deaths of his mother and two younger siblings, John spoke publicly about what he said had been happening inside of Charity and Randall's marriage. He told the media that after Charity filed for divorce, Randall stalked, cyber-stalked, and harassed her, and even hired private detectives to follow her.

32:09 John told KNWA that his mother had spent the last nine months of her life fighting to protect herself and the twins, but in his words, Nothing happened. Now all three of them are dead. He believed Charity would have fought tooth and nail to protect her children. Speaking to the Daily Mail, John described Randall as controlling and alleged that he had been mentally and physically abusive to him and his mother during the three or four years that John lived with him. According to John, other members of the family were afraid of Randall as well. He said Randall's three other children were frightened of him and claimed the family had repeatedly sought help. Every one of us has begged for help before. They just laugh and sweep us under the rug. John said he is now afraid for his own life. Randy made no secret of who he believed was responsible for the deaths. He told the Daily Mail that there was no doubt in Charity's mind that Randall was going to kill her, and said that he could think of no one else who had a reason to harm Charity or the twins. Randy believed Randall killed them out of hatred and for financial gain. He described the abuse Charity had suffered in graphic terms, saying, quote, he beat her like you've never seen a woman be beaten before. Two black eyes, marks from head to toe, beaten senseless. Randy said Charity had contacted everyone she could think of for help, including writing to her governor and senators.

33:32 According to Randy, Charity had already decided what she wanted to do once she was safely out of her marriage. She planned to spend the rest of her life advocating for survivors of domestic violence because, in Randy's words, she didn't get any help. So it sounds like Charity was doing everything she thought she could to get help for her and her family and to keep Randall away from the children. But she felt that people weren't listening. And that's when she had a strong calling to become an advocate for other women. Yeah. On December 3rd, 2025, around 9.30 a.m., the Sebastian County Sheriff's Office received a call requesting a welfare check at the home of Charity Powell Bialis. She was scheduled to appear in court that morning to sign her divorce decree and make it final. When Charity failed to show up, someone called the police to check on her.

34:20 So I'm really curious who made this call, and I think it makes a difference. I've heard differing accounts about who requested the welfare check. Some accounts say it was a family member and others say it was someone from the court. Interesting. Yeah, it would be good to know. When law enforcement arrived, they found the home locked. Two people working on the property let police in with a key. When officers entered the home, they initially didn't find anything amiss. It wasn't until they went upstairs that they found a horrific scene. 40-year-old Charity Powell Bialis and her two children, six-year-old twins Eliana and Maverick, had been shot to death. It appeared they had been there for at least 12 hours.

35:02 We don't know much about the scene. We don't know where their bodies were found, what position they were in, who was shot first, whether the shots were fired at close range, if there was stippling, or whether a weapon was found nearby. The Sebastian County Sheriff's Office is who responded to the Powell's home. And it's so frustrating that they have kept every bit of their investigation close to the vest. We know very little about what happened. Randy Powell has told us a few things, but even he doesn't know very much. He thought that the bodies were found upstairs and that they had been there since the previous evening. It makes sense for them to hold things close to the vest during an active investigation because they don't want to release details that potentially the killer might only know.

35:47 But it seems like in this case, they've come to the conclusion that this was a suicide. And so why not release some more of those details at this point? Exactly. The day before, December 2nd, Charity and Randall were both at their final divorce hearing, which lasted the entire day. Representing herself, Charity questioned Randall. She asked what his relationship with his three older children was like. He admitted that he had been estranged from all three for many years. He blamed his first wife, Donna, for systematically turning their children against him. It was the exact same thing he was accusing Charity of doing with Eliana and Maverick. Randall and his attorney also introduced text messages Charity had sent earlier in the year that suggested she wanted to reconcile with him. Charity acknowledged sending the messages, but said that at the time, she had been living under what she described as Randall's coercive control. By the December hearing, she said she saw their relationship differently and had no desire to continue in the marriage. Judge Shannon Blatt ordered the couple to begin sharing joint custody of Eliana and Maverick, but the schedule was favorable to Randall. The children would spend two weeks at a time with Randall, followed by one week with Charity. The arrangement would be re-evaluated after six months. Judge Blatt also gave Randall decision-making authority over the children's education and health care. Charity had been homeschooling the children, and Randall hadn't been happy with that decision,

37:19 accusing their mother of isolating them. So Charity must have been super devastated by this decision. She wanted sole custody and all of a sudden Randall has two-thirds custody. Yeah. The new custody arrangement was scheduled to begin that Friday, December 5th, when Charity was required to turn the twins over to Randall. It was a far cry from the outcome that Charity had hoped for. She had sought sole custody of Eliana and Maverick. The judge said she found Randall more credible than Charity and expressed concern that Charity had been manipulating the children against their father. And someone who interviewed the children said that they felt this way too. It wasn't that she was just pulling this out of nowhere.

38:01 The judge pointed to Randall's psychological evaluation that showed him to be dependable and of good mental health. Randall was ordered to pay $ 2, 600 a month in child support. After her day in court, Charity and the twins attended a Christmas event at their church. It was the last time that they were seen alive. Although Judge Blatt had made her rulings from the bench, the final divorce decree still needed to be signed and entered into the record. Charity was expected back on the morning of December 3rd to complete the paperwork. When she failed to appear, it was the first sign that something was wrong. A day after Charity and the twins were found dead, Randall's attorney filed a motion asking the court to dismiss the divorce. Randall's attorney argued that because the divorce had never been finalized, Randall remained Charity's husband and was now her widower. He's making this filing a day after his wife and his two children have died, which seems like really kind of an odd priority for him to have at that moment in time.

39:07 And I think it was just so he wouldn't have to share any of Charity's part of the estate with John or any other family members. After Charity and the twins were found dead, Charity's father, Randy Powell, called the courthouse. According to a letter Judge Blatt later filed in the case, Randy was irate as he spoke with her clerk, blaming Judge Blatt for the deaths of Charity's Eliana, and Maverick. He said the judge, quote, might as well have pulled the trigger herself. Judge Blatt reported the call to police. Randy disputed the judge's account when he spoke with 5 News reporter Bo Russell. He said he believed the judge's complaint stemmed from something he had posted on Facebook, and maintained that he had called the court only to ask permission to see his grandchildren's bodies.

39:55 On December 8th, Judge Blatt ended the divorce proceedings because Charity had died before the divorce became final. That meant that despite the judge granting the divorce from the bench six days earlier, Charity and Randall were still legally married when she died. The following day, John Powell asked the court to make the divorce official. He argued that Judge Blatt had already granted it while his mother was alive and that only the final paperwork remained. Randall opposed John's request. On December 17th, Judge Blatt ruled that Charity's death had ended the case and she no longer had the legal authority to finalize the divorce. After nearly 10 months of fighting to end her marriage, Charity had finally been granted a divorce but died before it became legally final. Randall remained her husband. John also sought to be appointed administrator of his mother's estate and said he intended to continue the fight that she had begun. As of this recording, the dispute over Charity's estate and who is ultimately entitled to her assets appears to remain unresolved.

41:04 This situation seems a little crazy to me. Mm-hmm. Because the divorce was granted, they only had to sign that last piece of paper. Yeah, that does seem pretty. It seems really unfair that John has been not given any of the estate at this point. Yeah, that does really seem unfair. It's basically a legal loophole. They didn't have the final signature, and so... It. Just seems like Randall is winning here, and that just really bothers me. We'll be back after a break. A week after Charity and her children were found dead, information about Randall's second wife, Shawna Jeanette Graham Bialis, began to surface. Shawna was born in Big Spring, Texas in August 1977. She worked as a licensed practical nurse and had a young daughter, Bella Grace. Bella was still a toddler and according to Shawna's friends and family, was the center of her world. Shawna and Randall were married in May 2010, one month after his divorce from his first wife, Donna, was finalized. On January 5, 2012, 34-year-old Shawna was found dead in the couple's bedroom from a single, self-inflicted gunshot wound.

42:19 Her death was ruled a suicide. Randall found Shawna's body and called the police. When officers arrived, he opened the door and said, she killed herself. He was sobbing and the police report described him as hysterical. Randall told police that Shauna had called him at work that morning and said that she was feeling suicidal. He claimed that he could hear her fiddling with the trigger of a gun in the background. Randall came home, said he spent hours alternately soothing Shauna and arguing with her before eventually returning to work because he believed that he had calmed her down. He said that the stress had given him a bad headache. That afternoon, Shauna called Randall twice more at work, but he ignored the calls because he was busy and also angry with her. According to Randall, they frequently fought at about the same time every month, and Shauna had threatened suicide during previous arguments. He said that he had even replaced the bullets in her gun with red plastic dummy rounds.

43:19 If your significant other was struggling with thoughts of suicide, wouldn't you take the gun away? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Randall decided he needed to check on Shauna. He said he was nervous about entering the house, so he called his friend Freddy as he went inside the house at about 2.20pm. Freddy heard him scream, and then the call was disconnected. He called the police and sent them to Randall's home. Randall had found Shauna dead in their bed. Her head was resting on a pillow near the headboard, and she was covered from the waist down with a sheet and a blanket. There was a small gunshot wound in the middle of her forehead. Her elbows were bent at roughly 90-degree angles with both hands near her chest.

44:01 Beside her on her bed were her cell phone and two framed photographs of Shawna and Randall. Blood spatter covered much of the bedroom. Police noted that the rest of the house was disheveled. Partially filled packing boxes were scattered throughout the home. A plant had been knocked over, the coffee table was askew, and empty liquor bottles and dirty dishes littered the kitchen. Investigators also found an empty wine bottle and a glass on the kitchen table. An apparent suicide note was also found. In it, Shawna wrote that if anything happened to her, she wanted her daughter left with her parents, Lucky and Teresa Graham. She wanted her personal belongings and house left to them as well, and specifically wrote that she wanted nothing left to her husband, Randall B. Ellis. A small revolver was found on the right side of Shawna's body, near her neck, with her right thumb resting on the grip and the barrel and hammer against her cheek. The gun contained one spent. 38 caliber shell and four live rounds. Nearby, investigators found a 50-count box of ammunition containing 45 live. 38 special rounds and five red plastic dummy bullets. Randall told police that even though the situation appeared cut and dried, he wanted to speak with an attorney so nothing could be pinned on him. He also said that he wanted to stop divorce papers from being drawn up. Police took Shawna and Randall's phones and kept them from several days. This situation is very odd. His wife has taken her own life, allegedly,

45:33 and his concern is to call his attorney and to stop these papers that I guess he has asked to be drawn up. Okay, so that wasn't clear to me. He had already... And starting to draw up divorce papers or asked his attorney to. I guess so. And so now immediately after she's taken her own life, he's like, I need to call my attorney to stop this. Yeah. Yeah, that's very, very odd. Randall admitted that he and Shauna had been having problems in their marriage. He said that he had caught her in several lies and neither of them trusted the other. Shauna had accused Randall of using his on-call status as a doctor as an excuse to meet other women. Investigators found surveillance footage showing Shauna purchasing ammunition at Walmart on the day she died, and an employee confirmed the purchase.

46:20 A box of ammunition and the receipt were later found in her car. The Walmart employee told police that Shauna said that she needed ammunition for protection and asked him what he recommended. According to the salesperson's account, she wanted to know which ammunition would do the most damage if someone broke into her house. Investigators interviewed Shauna's ex and the father of her daughter, Brian White. This is a very confusing story. Brian had not been active in his daughter's life and said that he had not seen her in about two years. But about a month before Shauna's death, Brian received an unexpected phone call from a man who identified himself as Grace Jones and claimed to be a marriage counselor working for Randall. Brian said the caller began asking strange and intrusive questions about his past relationship with Shawna and whether Brian was protecting her. The caller also made bizarre claims about things Shawna had supposedly said about Brian, including that he was a hitman. Brian became uncomfortable, stopped answering the questions, and hung up. Shawna's autopsy found soot on her left hand and gunshot residue elsewhere on her body.

47:31 Investigators also collected a jacket from the couple's bedroom closet after noticing a small red stain that appeared to be blood. The jacket was sent to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory for testing, but the police reports do not include those results or Shawna's toxicology results. Ultimately, investigators found insufficient evidence to overturn the determination that Shawna had died by suicide. But in 2021, police took another look at Shawna's death after Charity's father, Randy Powell provided new information. According to a police report from that investigation, Randy claimed that Charity had told him that she was the person who shot Shawna and that she was glad detectives had not fingerprinted a wine glass that she had used at the house. What?

48:19 You just blew my mind here. Years later, after Charity's death, Randy disputed that account when he spoke with KNWA. He said he had never told police that Charity was involved in Shawna's death. Instead, he said only that Charity knew who killed her. This story just keeps getting more and more bizarre. So Randy calls the police and says that his daughter told him that she shot Randall's ex-wife. And then he recants that later and says, no, she didn't actually say that. Yeah. I mean, it's very bizarre. Yeah. And remember, the relationship between Charity and Randy is, I think it was pretty tense for several years, and I think it was regarding John and who had custody of John.

49:03 Okay. Wow. The renewed investigation went nowhere, in part because evidence from the original case had been destroyed in 2014 after Shauna's death was ruled a suicide. Questions that might once have been answered through additional forensic testing may now be impossible to answer. Which is super frustrating. Four months after Shauna's death in May 2012, Randall married Charity for the first time. After Charity and the twins died, a relative of Shauna's told the media that Shauna's family had never believed that she would take her own life, particularly because of her young daughter Bella. The relatives said they believed Randall's status as a doctor had caused investigators to give him the benefit of the doubt. I'm curious where Shauna's daughter Bella was during this time. She was two or three, so I don't think she would have been in school. Like, was she there when her mom was killed?

49:56 Yeah, that's a really good question. All reports are that Shauna was a very loving, caring mother, and I don't think that she would have done that with her little girl in the house. No, I wouldn't think so either. I do. Look at the fact that she went out and bought ammunition. That seems pretty clear, because she was seen on the Walmart cameras. The clerk remembered her. So to me, that points to the fact that she most likely did take her own life. I'm guessing that she. But when she purchased the bullets, she said, I'm purchasing these for self-protection. Right, but you're not going to tell a clerk that you're buying bullets to end your own life. Another thing that gives me pause is she loved her little girl very much, but... She was covered with a blanket, which is also suspicious. And she has two pictures by her side. They're two framed pictures of her and Randall.

50:47 And neither with her daughter. Right. Yeah. And it's odd that she's covered with a blanket. And the bullet was in the middle of her forehead. And that happens. But most people, if you are going to take your own life, you do it in the temple or in the mouth. Yeah, that makes sense. And I'm guessing you don't know whether she was right-handed or left-handed because you said that there was soot found on her left hand. If she was right-handed, that would also be a very strange thing to pull the trigger with your left hand. I don't know that. The bodies of Charity, Eliana, and Maverick were sent to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory in Little Rock for autopsies. Charity's death was ruled a suicide and the twins' deaths were ruled homicides. The full autopsy reports have not been made public. The same medical examiner performed both Charity's autopsy and Shauna's autopsy nearly 14 years earlier.

51:40 That doesn't mean anything. I just felt like we should mention it. Yeah. The autopsy results, or lack of, leave us with so many unanswered questions. Where exactly were their bodies found inside the house? Where were they shot? Were they shot at close range? What kind of gun was used? Did Charity own a gun? Was the weapon recovered at the scene? There is simply a lot that we still don't know. Unlike in some states, autopsy reports conducted by the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory are not automatically public records. They are considered confidential under Arkansas law, although next of kin can request a copy. In homicide cases, release to the family generally requires authorization from the prosecuting attorney or a court order.

52:28 After the autopsies, Charity's body was released to her son John. Eliana and Maverick were released to their father, Randall. Randall's attorney, Michael Pierce, sent the following statement to 5 News. Mr. Bialis continues to recover from the tragic event that took his children from him. He would like to thank all of the law enforcement officials working on this case for their diligent efforts to find the truth. We were not surprised by the findings in the autopsy as we knew that Mr. Bialis was not responsible for the death of his wife nor his children. Further, the Sebastian County Sheriff's Office has made a clear statement that they have not found evidence indicating any conclusion other than those determined by the autopsies conducted by the crime lab. Please inform the public that continued defamatory and libelous false accusations and statements, including those made on social media against Mr. Bialis, will be reviewed and potentially pursued in the legal system.

53:28 So initially, this case got a lot of media attention, as you can imagine, like a beautiful mother and her two adorable children are killed. And after it was ruled a suicide, people were like, no, it wasn't. Yeah. I mean, I can definitely understand why. And this happens a lot in these cases, cases like this, where there is, you know, definitely some doubt, some questions, you know, unanswered questions about what actually happened. We'll read the next section and then you'll know why people were very confused about the suicide ruling. Charity's father, Randy Powell, has publicly challenged the conclusion that his daughter died by suicide. He told the Hidden Killers podcast that he viewed Charity's body at the morgue and saw what he believed were two gunshot wounds, one to her chest and another between her eyes. Randy was adamant about what he saw. Two gunshot wounds do not, by themselves, rule out suicide. Multiple gunshot suicides are uncommon, but they can occur when the first wound is not immediately incapacitating.

54:34 Without Charity's complete autopsy report, we don't know the trajectories of the bullets, the order of the wounds, whether either wound would have been immediately incapacitating, or even whether Randy correctly interpreted what he saw. And we do have reason to be cautious with Randy's account. Earlier, we talked about a 2021 police report in which Randy told investigators that Charity had admitted involvement in Shawna's death. After Charity died, Randy publicly disputed that account, saying he never told police Charity was involved. Instead, he said Charity had told him she knew who killed Shawna. That contradiction doesn't mean Randy is wrong about what he saw on Charity's body. It simply means his account has not been independently verified. Randy also told Hidden Killers that Charity's death certificate lists her cause of death as gunshot wounds, plural, but it's impossible to verify because, again, the death certificate is not publicly available.

55:36 Charity was laid to rest on December 29th. Her six-year-old twins were not buried with her, and Charity's family has continued fighting to have the children laid to rest beside their mother. John Powell told the Daily Mail, It's sickening. I was hoping to have them all in the same place as they deserved and how they would have wanted it. It's just been a lot. I don't even know if the kids have been buried or cremated or where they may be. I don't know anything at the moment because Randall has told me nothing. It's heartbreaking. It is heartbreaking that Charity was not buried with her twins. Yeah, it is. And I feel really bad for John. He's a fairly young man having to deal with all this. It's really hard.

56:18 You can tell he's in over his head and he's not at all comfortable talking in the media. The Sebastian County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigation Division led the investigation with assistance from the Arkansas State Police, the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and the U.S. Secret Service. A lot of different entities involved. Don't you think? Yeah. By December 9th, investigators had served six search warrants with another 12 in process. conducted multiple interviews, and received what authorities described as a voluminous number of tips. Randall Bialis has not been publicly named as a suspect and has fully cooperated with investigators. In March 2026, the SCSO, or Sebastian County Sheriff's Office, released its most detailed statement about the case. The Arkansas State Crime Laboratory had ruled Charity's death a suicide in the deaths of the twins' homicides, and the sheriff's office said it found no evidence pointing to a different conclusion. In support of that conclusion, the SCSO said Randall's Tesla had not traveled near the Bonanza home on the night of December 2nd, and his phone had not connected with cell towers in the area. Charity had deactivated her home alarm from her phone at about 10 p.m., and the security system recorded no doors or windows opening afterward. The next morning, the house was locked and investigators reported that the doors and windows they tested

57:50 were functioning properly. Taken together, that sounds very compelling. Randall's car wasn't there, his phone wasn't there, the house was locked, and the security system showed no doors or windows opening after 10 p.m. So do you think that this evidence exonerates Randall? I mean, so far, unless I hear something else that's going to change my mind, it seems. We've been doing this podcast for four years. Randall's Tesla wasn't there. It doesn't mean that he wasn't there. Right, but the house being locked. The house was locked, but okay, we have a security system. Is every door in the house, does it have a sensor on it? Does every window in the house have a sensor on it? No, not in our house. I feel like most people don't sensor every scene, maybe your doors, but not every window. And one thing about their house, I've looked at it, as many pictures of it as I can see, They have, just on the very front of their house, the face of their house, they have six doors. Wow. That's a lot of doors. That's a lot of doors. They have their front door, and then they have a balcony, and there are three doors on each level.

58:55 Interesting. That doesn't include possible garage side or rear entrances. Right. And if Randall lived in that house, he would know where there was and wasn't a sensor, right? I guess the thing that struck me is all of the doors and windows being locked. Now, that doesn't mean necessarily you couldn't lock a door and close it as you left and leave it locked. I'm not sure, you know, different doors work different ways, different windows work differently. So I suppose that's not necessarily foolproof either. Right. And it says that Charity deactivated the alarm at 10 p.m., which... It's strange to me, too. She did it from her phone. That doesn't mean that someone else couldn't have been there who deactivated it from her phone.

59:39 Some of the other information the SCSO chose to highlight deserves a closer look. The sheriff's office said it had examined transcripts from Charity's deposition and the final divorce hearing on December 2nd, and that those records, quote, revealed that she wished to be reconciled Right. Hmm. The 221-page transcript of that hearing has since been obtained and reviewed by journalists covering the case. Katherine Townsend of Hell and Gone said she read the entire transcript and could not find anywhere in the December 2nd hearing where Charity said that she wanted to reconcile with Randall. And True Sunlight Podcast also has reviewed the transcript and said the same thing.

1:00:37 But there is evidence that Charity expressed an interest in reconciling with Randall earlier in the year, which may be what the lawyer was pointing to after the February assault. Remember that she had sent him some text message possibly in February or March. Right. The sheriff's office also noted that Charity had been represented by four different attorneys before representing herself at the final divorce hearing and that she had been ordered to begin sharing custody of the twins with Randall. I feel like them mentioning that she'd gone through four lawyers is trying to. Make her look bad. There's also an important question about the firearm used to kill Charity and the twins. Charity reportedly purchased a gun sometime before her death, telling her therapist that she bought it after hearing gunshots near their house. But the SCSO has not publicly identified the firearm recovered at the scene or established that Charity had recently purchased a gun. A local journalist said that a gun was not found at the scene, so a lot of people online have speculated as to whether a gun was found at the scene or not. I think I'm just trying to point out here that the Sebastian County Sheriff's Office, the information that they have released is so sparse, but it seems like it's purposely trying to paint charity in a certain light.

1:01:53 It does sort of seem that way, and it seems like if they wanted to, you know, quash any questions about this, they could easily do that by releasing some more of the information. I don't see any reason, if they've concluded it was suicide and that the twins were killed by homicide, I don't see any reason why they wouldn't release more information to put at rest some of the questions that people have. Right. And I understand the autopsy, why you need to keep most of it private, but whether or not a gun was found at the scene, whether or not she was shot multiple times. It's really hard to wrap your head around a mom. I know in today's world, everything is skewed and different, but a mom choosing to shoot her twins in the head or wherever they were shot, rather than poison or something. I don't know. It's just really hard to think about.

1:02:44 It is hard to think about. I mean, obviously it does happen, so you can't discount it. But again, my point is that If the sheriff's office has information that has led them to this conclusion, why not share that with people so that, you know. Well, I feel like that's why they released what they released, because they're just pointing to, like, see, look, everything is fine here. Right, but they haven't released things that would be very simple to release that would help answer some more of these questions. In the days after Charity and the children's deaths, a large black trash bag was found filled with items from their home, including framed family photos... medical paperwork, religious artwork, children's artwork, and a necklace of charities with her children's names on it. The items were found in a dumpster in Fort Smith, Arkansas, near the apartment complex where Randall lived, about 10 miles from the Bialys' family home. The woman found the items when she was putting her trash in the dumpster. She recognized Charity from the pictures and immediately called the police. While we don't know who put the trash bag in the dumpster, there was nothing incriminating in it, but...

1:03:48 And it's not illegal to throw things away, but I feel like it's not a good look for Randall. Do we know if Randall had access to Charity's home after they were killed? I mean, he must have. And Randall did move back into the family home after their deaths. When asked to comment, the SCSO said the finding was a red flag, but declined to comment any further. John Powell met with the woman who found the trash bag at his attorney's office, and she shared the story with him. When John contacted a detective about the items found in the trash bag, the detective replied, How did you find out? making it unclear whether they would have shared the information with him at all. Eliana and Maverick were sweet, smart children who had seen too much in their six short years. Eliana loved to paint, draw, and dance. John Powell said that his little brother was a genius and learned to play chess in just 45 minutes. At the top of the episode, I mentioned our listener Jessica. who suggested this case, she reached out on our behalf to Charity's friend Kayla, who said, quote, the most important thing to Charity was her faith and her personal relationship with Jesus. That next to her love for her children were the two most important pieces of her life and the biggest part of who she was.

1:05:04 She was generous and thoughtful, a deep thinker and a deep feeler. She loved animals and her people well, and she showed up when she was needed. She had a passion for writing and would write in her journal daily. She would write me thoughtful, encouraging texts. I miss her daily. Sometimes the pain of her great loss with no justice is unbearable. Rest in peace, Shauna, Eliana, Maverick, and Charity. That was a lot of information and I feel like this might not have been my best case the way I presented it because I was kind of all over the place because it was hard because it wasn't linear. But what do you think happened? Do you think that Charity's death is a homicide or do you think it could have been a suicide?

1:05:46 It's really hard to say because of the fact of what we spoke about earlier with the sheriff's office being so close to the vest on so much of the information. The thing that made me think that suicide was seemed likely was after you talked about the fact that she was disappointed or the ruling about the custody really didn't go in Charity's favor. Like she was expecting or hoping to get full custody of the kids. And really, it ended up being much more favorable to Randall. Which shocked me. That surprised me as well. But that also that made me think, OK, maybe she was thinking in her mind, you know, if I can't have the kids, I don't want him to have them either. But again, it's really just so hard to say what happened in this situation because we just are missing.

1:06:36 A lot of things. We just don't have a lot of information. I wish that I knew. So she went to church after the divorce hearing to some kind of Christmas event with the children. And I wish we had an account of someone who was at the event. What was her headspace? Was she relieved that the divorce was going to be finalized? Was she looking forward to life? Or was she really upset about the shared custody case? The shared custody was for six months. So it wasn't like it was, you know, until the end of the time they were going to reevaluate it after six months. Yeah. And the fact that she died, you know, a day before the divorce was supposed to be finalized or the day the divorce was supposed to be finalized. That makes me feel a little more suspicious that the timing, you know, sort of works in Randall's favor.

1:07:23 Right. Because he can now say, well, we were still legally married. And so that kind of points me in the other direction a little bit, but it's a tough one. Well, you have to wonder what Randall's motive was because he did win a generous joint custody agreement. So he kind of won, unless you think that his motive was financial. Yeah, that's a really good point. And if his motive for doing something would have been financial, why kill the children? That doesn't make a lot of sense there. That that would be the case. It's heartbreaking when you think about the kids. Oh, God, it's so heartbreaking. And they should still be here. Yeah.

1:08:03 One thing that struck me as very odd in this case is that there was an unusually large amount of law enforcement agencies involved. Yeah. And that makes me think maybe more towards suicide because I think the FBI, you know, they must have also analyzed the information unless they were just doing forensic testing or something and they weren't. that involved in the investigation. We're not really sure what their role was. Yeah, but still that is very, it does seem odd that that many agencies were involved in something like this. But again, without knowing more details, hard to say what that actually means. After Charity filed for divorce, she was granted a protection order for her and the children. And then the judge goes and gives Randall like two-thirds custody. It's really hard to wrap your head around that.

1:08:49 It's hard to reconcile those things. Because he pleaded guilty. Not to all the charges, but he pleaded guilty and acknowledged that, yeah, at times, you know, I was abusive to Cheney. Yeah, that is really hard to understand. We recently watched Death of a Pastor's Wife on Netflix, and this case reminds me of Micah Miller. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing as you were going. I mean, it's a very, it's got a lot in common with it. A suspicious death. Coercive control. Coercive control. A marriage that was very volatile, had a lot of issues going on. Yeah, it's very reminiscent. And, you know, it's the sort of case that feeds social media and people, you know, really putting out theories about what happened and speculating about it.

1:09:31 I still can't decide where I land in this case. I struggle with how does a mother who spent months insisting that she was fighting to protect her children end up killing those same children? And if she did take her own life and those of her children, do you think that she thought that they were safer in heaven than they were with Randall. At times she called him the devil. And in the last year of her life, I didn't really talk about this, I think she had always been Christian. But the last year of her life, I think she really kind of went back to that. It did cause some problems in her marriage too. I think she used to drink and do some recreational drugs. And when she stopped, I think Randall kind of looked at her like, oh, you're not as fun as you.

1:10:14 Used to be. Okay. Well, whatever ended up happening, I hope we know for sure someday what happened. Whatever ended up happening, it's just such a tragedy and so heartbreaking. Well, if Charity's story bothers you as much as it has us, we encourage you to keep checking for updates. The last public update we could find from the Sebastian County Sheriff's Office came in March. At this point, investigators said that they're still waiting on the results of electronic forensic search warrants. Months have passed, and we have not been able to find another public update explaining what those searches revealed, whether the investigation remains open, or whether it has officially been closed. In our show notes, we have included links to both the Sebastian County Sheriff's Office and the Sebastian County Prosecuting Attorney's Office. I think I'm going to reach out to them personally and ask them... why they haven't released more records and encourage them to do so to make it more clear to the public.

1:11:11 There should be transparency in this case, I think. I just want to give a big thank you to Jessica and Kayla for helping us out with this episode. During one of our breaks, I think you went to the Oreo website and you were registering to vote. I was going to vote. I didn't vote, though. You didn't vote because they asked for too. Much personal information. Right away, they asked for information like, oh, give us your name, your email, and we'll give you a discount or something. But I'm like, hey. We'll track your purchases for the rest of your life. Yeah, I just hate that. As a person who does marketing for a living, what do you think of that? I don't like it. I really don't. But you ask for people.

1:11:52 Well, I mean, I'm in like a business to business marketing. It's a little bit different than a consumer goods. But I do have like I don't like that aspect of marketing that you're really looking for people's information and that's really your currency. I've been trying to be more aware of how I use my time and who gets my attention. And especially on social media, you have to be really careful because it can consume so much of your time so quickly. And I'm just trying to be more cognizant of who gets my time and who doesn't. Trying to limit my time pretty severely on social media because I mean, I want to live my life doing things that I enjoy doing, not things that just consume my time.

1:12:36 That's very admirable of you to do that. Well, I'm struggling. Yeah, I mean, it's so easy to get sucked down a rabbit hole and just start scrolling and like flipping through videos. Well, you feel bad too if you're not watching your friend's content, if you're not liking or engaging, especially with other podcasters. I've kind of stopped engaging and I love so many of the people that we've met, but I just for my own... mental health, which is always kind of precarious. I just have to be really careful. My sleep is okay. I just don't want to complain too much, but my sleep has been really disordered lately. So tomorrow in Michigan is like the first day that kid, not for every school district, but like a lot of school districts, it's like the first day back to school and, you know, September, It's not New Year's resolutions, but it's time to make.

1:13:20 Back to school resolutions. Yeah. I'm not going back to school, but I am going to try really hard to have a better sleep schedule and just be more diligent about, you know, walk, taking walks outside. Is there anything I can do to help you? Do you want me to hold you to account? No, because you need to do the exact same things I'm doing. You're no, I mean, I don't think you're much better than I am. No, definitely not. Yeah. All right. Well, I will join you in your commitment then to making those kind of changes here. Well, I don't think we've really made that very clear yet, but we'll talk off here and we'll figure it out. Sounds good. So the Lindsay Clancy trial wrapped up and that was kind of a mess, but I don't really want to talk about the trial because I didn't really watch it, so I feel like I support.

1:14:03 There are a lot of strong opinions online. About this case. A lot of strong opinions. All I'm going to say is I was a psychology major and I do believe that psychosis is real. But... People were gambling on the outcome of the trial. How do you feel about that? I hate it. I hate this whole trend toward like these websites where you can basically bet on anything now. I really hate it. I really hate that sports betting has become such a big deal. Like I'm fine with people making wagers and I think people should be free to do that sort of thing. But it's kind of ruined a lot of things in sports like Every commercial you see now is for gambling websites. And I think it's not good for anybody, like all of this kind of gambling.

1:14:46 No, I don't think so either. And yeah, the idea like that you can bet on almost anything now is just asking for corruption and people to cheat. And it's just I really hate it. So you and I were reading the same book. We don't share, we both have our own Kindle devices, but we share an account. And I finished a book and then you had a book that you said, oh, you might like this. So I started it and I was going to finish it last night. I got to 90%. Oh. But I was really kind of annoyed. And you know what I'm annoyed at. I know. It's just not fair when it's kind of like a mystery suspense. Yes. And then suddenly the author reveals something that there was no clue about.

1:15:29 Yeah, there should be clues. Like if you want your listeners to be engaged, you can't just make anything happen. I know. But the book is called Summit Lake. Summit Lake by I think Charlie Donlia is the author's name. I really liked the book through most of it. And then it got to that part. And, you know, obviously we don't want to reveal everything. The twist, but it just felt like the author was just like, oh, I'm going to throw this twist in there that nobody could have seen coming. You had told me that there's something that you really were irritated by. And this is funny because in the months of September, especially September and October, this is a sports podcast first. But the author said something like, there are these... kids and they're all like in college and they're all trying to get into law school yeah and the one guy doesn't get into like the ivies and but he gets into u of m which of course i thought meant university of michigan and they're like that's such a crappy school blah blah that's your safety school blah i was like that's what made rich man no no but it was actually university of maryland which i'm sure is a fine school too but yeah i figured that would make you.

1:16:38 I did have to look that up when I saw that part of the book. I'm like, wait a minute. Are they talking about University of Michigan? Because University of Michigan has a very good law school. You don't know anything about University of Michigan's law school. I do. I know the law school is my favorite part of campus. It's a beautiful part of campus. I can't imagine it's not a great law school. Because it has green grass. It's a good school. No, not just green grass. It has beautiful old buildings, great architecture. There's no way somebody could be teaching law and not know what they're doing. That is a beautiful part of campus. It really is. Thank you guys so much for listening, for your support, your friendship. We love you so much. Connect with us and share your thoughts on social media. Go to our website, lovemarykill.com. Leave us a message there or send us an email at lovemarykill at gmail.com. Consider supporting us on Patreon at patreon.com slash lovemarykill. We just have one tier. For $ 5 a month, you get early ad-free access plus a monthly bonus episode.

1:17:36 Until next time. Don't kill your wife. And don't kill your husband. so so