Jennifer and Michael Blagg - Part 2

0:00 Hi. I'm Tina and I'm Rich. And if there's one thing we've learned in over twenty years of marriage. It's that some days you'll feel like killing your wife. And some days you'll feel like killing your husband. Welcome to love, Mary, Kill, Hey Rich, Hey Tina, how are you? You know? I couldn't be better? That's amazing me, too good. Same Friday weekend is upon us. Beautiful fall day in Michigan. Yep, all my sports teams are doing well. Oh god, and I get to be here with you. Yeah, I get to hear the rest of this intriguing case.

0:43 I am looking forward to telling you the rest. And I'm guessing you have a snack for me. I do have a snack for you. Hang on a second. This is kind of a funny story. Not funny, haha, but just like, oh my gosh, I'm a cottonheaded nini money. Okay. I was at Costco and I like to get Costco snacks because you know, Costco, even though every Costco is a little different that you know, people can just pick things up and it's always nice to hear because the bags are so big, like if you don't like them, then it's really wasteful. But because we're doing a Colorado case, I saw this the Boulder Canyon Chips, and I was like, oh, that's perfect because it said and I just picked up and looked at the back of the bag and it says their journey started in Bowler, Colorado in nineteen ninety four. And I was like, awesome, perfect. Yeah, And then I also made you because they're chips. And then I made you this French onion dep. Okay, homemade French onion dep that's supposed to be healthier because it has Greek yogurt in it. But then I just opened the bag and I realized it's cheeseballs.

1:38 It's it looks like chips on the cover. Okay, thank you, that's what I thought, too kind of. I mean, now that I look at it and I know that it's cheeseballs, I was like, oh, it's a cheese ball. I would have thought this same thing. Wasn't going to try them until you know, we got here. So well, we got cheese balls dipped in French onion dep. Well, then I did bring a few fridos because you can't really dip a cheeseball. I could, but anyway, but they are Canyon Poppers aged white cheddar, and I really should have known because it says corn based snack right on it. But that's all right. But I did bring you a few fridos if you want to try the onion dip. And then I also brought a crisp honey crisp apple. Oh my god. We can't get enough of those. And we really do eat the snacks when we're taking breaks and whatnot.

2:20 Yeah, for sure. All right, let's take a break and then you can rate my snacks. All right, So what did you think of the snacks today? I thought they were good. I like the Canyon Poppers. I'm not the biggest like puffed cheese fan, but they were really good. And the French onion dip was great. Really you liked it? Yeah? It was good. Because you're not a big sour cream cream cheese guy. I'm not, but I've always liked French onion dip. The recipe for the caramelized onion dip came from One Lovely Life. We will post a link to the recipe and show notes. I did make one substitution instead of using Worcestershire. Don't ask me to say we're Worcestershire. I don't know, Okay.

3:01 Instead of using that, I use gochu jang, which is brown rice red popper paste if you've never used it before. We put it in a lot of like Korean dishes, and I make spicy mayo with it. It's a really interesting it's spicy but then it's sweet. It's just a really it worked. It worked well in the French French onion dip. Yeah, I really like it a lot. Yeah. So I would give the French onion dip a ten out of ten. And I don't know the what are. They called, the Canyon Poppers. The Canyon Poppers I think i'd give. If you like a cheese snack, I would give those ten out of ten too. I'll give the Canyon poppers seven out of ten. I'll give the French onion dip eight out of ten. Those are good ratings, all right.

3:45 Today's episode maybe disturbing for some listeners. It contains discussions or pornography, domestic abuse, sexual situations, suicide, and the death of a child. Please listen with care. We recorded part one of Jennifer and Michael blag week ago. Do you remember what happened? I have some vague memories. Yes, do you want to read the synopsis real quick? Yeah. So, days before his tenth wedding anniversary, Mike Blagg's wife, Jennifer, and their daughter Abby disappeared from their home. The only evidence left behind was a significant amount of blood in the primary bedroom. After following several false leads, investigators narrowed in on Mike as the prime suspect. Mike and Jennifer met when he was a helicopter pilot in the Navy.

4:28 He loved his ordered life in the military, but after Jennifer had a difficult pregnancy and mounting health issues, he retired. But he had a hard time adjusting to civilian life, and he was constantly searching for a better position, which prompted the Blags to move several times in a few years. Days before she and Abby disappeared, Jennifer and Mike fought about another possible move. And remember when we left off, the bodies were nowhere. To be found, right. That's what's so mysterious about this, at least so far, is that they found all this blood, but there was no bodies found, and there wasn't really a trail of blood kind of leading out of the house. There was some they found in the car, I think like some droplets and things like that. But yeah, very intriguing.

5:11 Let's go over the timeline before we get any further in the case. On November twelfth, at eight pm, Marilyn, who was Jennifer's mom, was expecting her to call so they could pray together before her cancer treatment the next day. Marilyn was going through some sort of cancer treatment. Jennifer and her mother, Marilyn, were very close. They talked on the phone nearly every day. They had visited a month before Jennifer and Abby disappeared, and Marilyn was so glad that she had one final visit with her beloved girls. But around eight pm, Jennifer did get a phone call from her neighbor about having lunch together. So maybe that's why she didn't call Marilyn because she was on the phone with her neighbor. Okay, so we know that at eight pm Jennifer is alive and well. On November thirteenth, Mike woke up at about six am. He got dressed in the half bathroom. He said that he got dressed every morning in a half bath so he wouldn't disturb Jennifer, which I thought was a little weird, but he left for work at his usual time. Abby and Jennifer usually woke up around six thirty am, but when Mike called at seven and at seven oh five, Jennifer didn't answer the phone. Remember Mike would call her.

6:19 Like multiple times throughout the. Day every tonight, and I believe was the range. The cameras at Amateech where Mike worked, show him arriving for work at five point fifty six am, so there is a discrepancy there. How far away is his work from his home. Probably about ten to fifteen minutes. Okay, No one recalled Mike leaving any time during that entire work day. At eight forty five, Diana Shirley, Jennifer's best friend, called and got the answering machine. Around nine am, Abby was marked absent from Bookcliff Christian School. Around three pm, a neighbor noticed a van approaching the Blag's house. She thought it was Jennifer's van, but she didn't see the driver, but this would prove to be false sighting. At four pm, Mike left Amtech, which was a little suspicious because remember that there was It was a big day for him and they were packing up this big assembly line to ship to Mexico, and that job wasn't complete, and.

7:14 He was he was overseeing that. He was like the plant manager that day. Probably shouldn't have left. At four twenty Mike returned home from work but didn't find Abby or Jennifer, and that's when he called nine one one. We read that call the last episode, and police arrived minutes later, as did Mike's pastor. At five pm, police canvas the Black's neighborhood. No one had seen Jennifer Abby all day. Mike went to the police station for an interview and stayed until the early hours of the morning. At that time, he was not named as a suspect. A criminalist came into the interrogation room and used an ultra violet light. He searched Mike's clothing for any evidence of blood, and he was clean. Investigators were still after weeks of no new leads, and brought in retired FBI profiler Ron Walker to assist with the case.

8:06 Michael Blagg was the prime suspect, but there was frustrating little evidence linking him to the disappearance of Jennifer and Abbey. Walker assured the investigators that they were looking at a planned and staged domestic homicide. He said that a typical home invasion looks as if a tornado had passed through it. The Blag's home was tidy except for the primary bedroom. Remember how her purse and jewelry box were on the floor. Walker also said that Jennifer was the target of a well planned attack and Abby was an ancillary victim. By removing the bodies from the home and with them crucial evidence, the murderer had made it much harder to solve the case. Jennifer left behind a journal. It was two hundred pages long and covered the last three years of her life.

8:51 It was largely used to communicate directly with God. Jennifer often thought God was punishing her or rewarding her for her devotion. Never complained about Mike in her journal or wrote about the pornography issue. Cay remember that thousands of images of pornography had been found on Mike's computing Oh right, yep. Jennifer often blamed herself or Satan for their marital disputes. In one entry, Jennifer listed her blessings. She said that she was especially blessed for her quote adoring husband. However, since their move to Colorado, Jennifer did complain about communication breakdowns with Mike. She took the blame, wondering if she put too many responsibilities on him because of her health issues.

9:33 Days before her disappearance, she wrote that she and Mike had a very serious argument. On November ninth. She called her friend in South Carolina and told her that she needed to come see her and she had something important to tell her she couldn't talk about over the phone. Jennifer told her that just she and Abby would make the trip, which surprised the friend because Jennifer never traveled without Mike. On Christmas, Mike bought and wrapped gifts and put them under the tree in his new townhouse and hopes that Jennifer and Abbey would be home to open them. He showed the gifts to reporters who were still following him, gold hoop earrings for Jennifer and a Barbie nightgown for Abbey. The police were still watching Mike closely four officers were assigned to trail him. After Christmas, he made some major purchases valued at six eight hundred dollars or twelve thousand dollars. Today, he bought a big screen TV, a new computer, and stereo equipment. He had received a sizable settlement of thirty thousand dollars from the insurance company for Jennifer's missing jewelry.

10:34 So this is January and Jennifer had just gone disappearing like six weeks before, and already he's received his settlement. Yeah, that seems really Jennifer is. Missing, she's not been declared dead. So I thought that was really strange that insurance companies settled that claim so quickly. That is very odd. Thirty thousand dollars. That's a substantial amount, right, jewelry. In February two thousand and two, while the police were surveilling Mike, they witnessed him pulling up to the rear of the Amtech building near the loading dock in a borrowed company pickup truck. He picked up a paper shredder, a workbench, and a desk. He took them back to his townhouse in the company truck. He drove back to Amtech later in the evening and returned the truck. The next morning, was Saturday. Mike returned and again borrowed the pickup truck and took a table. Police were granted a search warrant and searched Mike's residence while he was at work.

11:27 They found the stolen items. They left behind a copy of the warrant for Mike to see. The value of the stolen goods totaled about five hundred dollars. So he stole these things from his work. That's really weird. And it was because the police were surveilling him and I think they had a camera set outside his townhouse. Okay, they knew that he was up to something. Did he have any history of stealing from his work before? And people had seen him put the items on the loading dock the day before and they were like, why is he putting that paper shredder that's still in the box on a loading dock, But they just left it there. Really strange. Mike had just received that thirty thousand dollars settlement and he made a good salary, like in today's money it would be two hundred thousand dollars. There was no reason for him to steal those items.

12:14 Yeah, that's very very odd. He had possibly gotten away with one crime and maybe it gave him a sense of entitlement. M Yeah, that could be later that evening. They asked him Mike to come to the station for a polygraph test, and he agreed. For the first three months of the investigation, police had treated Mike as a team member. They talked to him almost every day. He was treated with kindness and empathy. He often met up with the detectives to have a cup of coffee together to discuss case updates. But that changed after February fifth, two thousand and two. Investigators were angry that he had taken advantage of their kindness when he stole the furniture from Amtek. During the interrogation, they pleaded with Mike to tell them what had happened on the night that Jennifer and Abby went missing and where he had left their bodies. Mike was at the station for ten hours. He remained firm that he had nothing to do with their disappearance or deaths. On February fifth, two thousand and two, Mike took another polygraph test. The test took two hours, and this time he failed.

13:16 In the first episode, we talked about how Mike had taken a polygraph test because he had military training, that it's possible that he was able to mask his guilt. Yeah, so he passed that first polygraph. Test as the first one. During the ten hour interview, he admitted that he might have an internet porn addiction. He said that Jennifer knew about it, and sometimes they watched together so that they could find creative ways to have sex because of Jennifer's medical condition vulvar vestibulitis. Mike said that they had recently argued about his porn consumption and just a warning, this next part is a little bit graphic. They argued, when Jennifer found two collages that Mike had made of men receiving oral sex and ejaculating on women's faces.

14:00 That was his preferred porn content. Okay. He also admitted that on November ninth, they disagreed about another potential move. Mike had grown increasingly dissatisfied with his career. He missed the Navy. He seemed to harbor resentment towards Jennifer for making him leave the military. The interrogation continued until two thirty a m. The investigators could feel Mike loosen and become more vulnerable. Tell us what happened to Jennifer and Abbey. They implored. Mike was softly crying and placed his head on an investigator's shoulder. I can't, I can't tell the truth, he cried. He said he wanted to pray. He then told the officers that if he told the truth, he wanted a lawyer present. The interview ended after he requested a lawyer. Mike's AMATECH supervisor called Mike at the police station to tell him that he was suspended until an investigation was completed into the stolen items. He was officially terminated a week later. As he left, the officers told him that if he planned to take his own life, could he please leave them a note and tell them where to find Jennifer and Abby's bodies. That's an interesting request to make.

15:10 They were very aggressive with him at this point. He was on the cusp of saying, right, what happened, and he clammed up. Yeah, very angry about that. That's got to be so frustrating for an investigator when you know that you've got somebody and they're so close to breaking and then it just gets interrupted. During the ten hour interrogation, an officer from the Mesa County Sheriff's Department had traveled to see Marilyn Conway Jennifer's mother in Texas. She sat down with Marylyn and patiently told her that Mike was the only viable suspect and backed it up with evidence. She was able to convince Marylyn that her son in law was the one responsible for Jennifer and Abby's deaths and that she should help the police with the case. They asked her to phone Mike and record the calls to try to get him to tell her more information. She left several messages is on Mike's answering machine.

16:01 Quote Mike, it's mama. I would like it if you would pick up the telephone. I've seen information no mother should see from the Sheriff's office unquote. And in another message, she said, quote Mike, I would appreciate it if you would give me any information that you feel in your heart that you can possibly give me as to where my girls are. If you have any information in your heart about my girls, would you please relay it to me, Mike unquote. It was all a lot for Maryland to navigate, and she was still frail from her cancer treatment. She had loved Mike as a son. Isn't it sad? That's really sad. The next day, February sixth, two thousand and two, officers went to Mike's townhouse to retrieve the stolen items from Amatech.

16:44 They knew that he had to be home because he'd been suspended the day before. When he didn't answer the door. After several attempts, officers contacted the building manager to gain entry, they found Mike unconscious in the bathtub with his wrist slit boy. The photo of Jennifer and Abbey lay near by, along with the Bible. The detectives weren't going to let Mike die without a confession. They shouted at him, Where's Jennifer, Where's Abby? Mike's reply was barely audible over the approaching sirens of the ambulance. I don't know, he said. He was rushed to the hospital. Mike did leave a suicide note. It said, quote, God love you all. I have tried to do the right thing throughout my life. I have made many mistakes along the way, and I am sorry for any of those mistakes that have harmed any of you out there. Mike wrote in the note that the Sheriff's office was going to say many things about him in the coming weeks, and that he wasn't perfect, but neither was he a murderer. He said, I love my wife and daughter, and I planned to see them in heaven one day. The investigators have led me to believe that Jennifer and Abbey are dead. I cannot live on this earth without them. I am sorry for all of you, but without jenn and Abbey, I am incomplete. I love you all. P s. My Lord of hope and peace is now my Lord of comfort. Investigators questioned the timing of Mike's suicide attempt. They had told him that they'd stop by at some point during the day to pick up the stolen items from Amattak.

18:13 I wondered about that if he was if he knew they were coming, and that was why. He sounded on this stage. I mean, I hate to say that, but what the Bible and the picture and however, Mike was admitted to the hospital in critical condition by the next day, though he was upgraded to serious condition. Some took Mike's suicide attempt as an admission of guilt. Others said that the police and their harsh tactics had driven him to it. The pastor of Mike's church encouraged people not to rush to judgment, Mike had waning support from friends and family. The news of Mike's theft at Amtek, combined with the suicide attempt, was enough to turn the Grand Junction community against him. For months, they had lived in fear of a dangerous lunatic in their midst only to discover that Mike had likely deceived them all alone long when the spring thaw came in April two thousand and two, where the two thousand people gathered in Grand Junction to search for Jennifer and Abbey. Most were locals, but some came from as far away as Texas. Jennifer and Abbey's disappearance had touched many people, the hope of finding them alive had gradually diminished. The search was a recovery mission to bring them home to their family, to bury them in their final resting place. Ravine's gullies and forested areas, both public and private, were searched. The terrain was rugged and challenging. Dozens of areas of interest were tagged that looked as if a fresh grave had been dug, but many of these turned out to be animal graves.

19:40 At least so many people go out to the woods to bury their pets. Yet, further investigation revealed that Mike got to work on November thirteenth, much earlier than he'd initially told police, and much earlier than what was typical for him. When an employee arrived at Amtek at five a m. The door was already open and she was surprised to see Mike. On the side of the Amtech building is a large industrial dumpster equipped with a self contained compactor. When trash is placed inside the compactor, it's crushed with great force and then pushed further into the dumpster. The top of the dumpster is locked, preventing anyone from seeing the contents until it's emptied by the hauler at the landfill. And I believe you need a key to operate the dumpster, and only a few people in the plant had a key to the dumpster. Guess who one of those people?

20:34 I guess Mike. Have you did that make sense to you the description of the dumpster? Yeah? I think so. Yeah. Now I'm a little worried about what that dumpster might have been used for. Phone records showed an Amateech employee had called the waste management company to request an additional pickup on November thirteenth, two thousand and one. Initially, detectives thought that Mike had made that call, but later it was revealed that it was a different employed. When the dumpster was picked up and emptied on November fourteenth, its contents weighed nearly two tons. The dumpster was returned to Amatech and later sprayed with luminol, but there was no evidence of blood. On May thirteenth, six months after the disappearance of Jennifer and Abbey, police requested a search warrant for the Mesa County landfill. Two days later, Mike relocated to his mother's house in Warner Robbins, Georgia. Previously, he said I will not leave until their bodies are found.

21:35 This move was suspicious to police, of course, and they kept him in their sights. Mike claimed he went to find work in Georgia because he was no longer employable in Colorado. Work of the landfill was tedious, as hundreds of tons of trash needed to be sorted and combed through, but the meticulous records kept and GPS helped to pinpoint the search area. Each day, about one hundred tons of trash were sifted through. Each bag was opened and its contents raked through a newspaper was found from November thirteenth. Newspapers and mail, when found at a landfill, can be an invaluable resource because it tells them that they're on the right track right nearby. Trash from AMATEK was identified from their distinctive fluorescent green circuit boards, which gave the weary investigators hope that they were getting closer.

22:27 I can't even imagine doing a landfill search like that. It's got to be so miserable, so so tedious. On June fourth, twenty three days into the search, an investigator spotted human remains a woman's right leg dangling from an excavator. Oh The next day, the rest of the mummified corpse was found amongst garbage from Amattek. Dental records confirmed that it was Jennifer. In life, she weighed about one hundred and thirty pounds. Her corpse weighed just seventy. She was dressed in an oversized T shirt that she often wore a and her retainer was in her mouth. Bullet fragments were found in Jennifer's brain. The entry point appeared to be her left eye. Stippling was present on her skin, indicating that she'd been shot at close range.

23:13 The bullet was a hollow point, likely from a nine millimeter handgun. The coroner ruled that Jennifer's cause of death was a gunshot to the head and the manner of death was homicide. Ah so sad I was. I didn't have a lot of hope. But boy, I'm just I'm just so shattered by that. Yeah, it gets worse. Marilyn Conway told the Fort Worth Star Telegram, quote, one of our prayers has been answered because we found one of our girls. We need to find Abby. I don't know why someone would do this. I don't know who would do such a thing. The operation at the landfill went from using large machinery to a much smaller, delicate operation In hopes of finding Abby.

23:54 The DA said, quote, instead of taking it out by the bucketful, they'll take it out by the spoonful. We have at least one human being to be treated with respect. End quote. The search continued and what one hundred degree temperatures, The stench of the landfill was almost unbearable for the investigators. Even when they left that landfill, they could still smell it strong forty mile per hour, winds blew dust and debris into the hot air. The search for Abbey continued for seven more weeks, but on day fifty three, after sorting through four six hundred twenty four tons of garbage, the search was abandoned. Sadly, her remains were never found. Ah, that's so tragic, and that's so siahd Yeah, and.

24:36 In the investigators, like the police have to do the search. They can't have anyone else do it, so it's all you know, at least they're doing that hard work. That's horrible. We'll be back after a break. Before we get back to the case, I just wanted to talk again about the people, the police officer that worked at the landfill and what heroes they were. There's just tons and tons of trash and it all ends up looking like this brownish gray color, and it's just such a horrible thing to have to do. Yeah, it's absolutely heroic doing that. And for days and weeks on end, I know, the.

25:18 Smell has to be like just horrible. It's tedious work and. They were just trying to find little Abby and they never found her. It's so sad, just devastating that. You know, that's probably likely her final resting place. Yeah. Memorial services for Jennifer and Abbey were held in Ardmore, Oklahoma, where Jennifer grew up, Simpsonville, South Carolina, the town where Jennifer loved living before the Blags moved to Colorado, and Grand Junction. Marilyn was devastated by the loss of her daughter and granddaughter. The Oklahoma pastor's words comforted her, quote, she is not missing, not missing from your heart, not missing from your memory, and not missing from the reach of God unquote. Mike's mother and sister came to the service in Grand Junction, which shocked many attendees. A memorial video was played of Jennifer's life, carefully edited to not include any pictures of Mike. Abby's first grade class sang at the memorial.

26:15 That must have been so sad. Yeah. The day after Jennifer's remains were found in the landfill, Mike was arrested at his mother's house in Georgia, still wearing his pajamas. He was charged with first degree murder, abuse of a corpse, and felony theft for defrauding his insurance company out of thirty thousand dollars for filing acclaim for Jennifer's missing jewelry. His bail was set at one million dollars, which his family wasn't able to pay. Mike's mother said he did nothing to hurt his wife and child. That I can tell you. It takes a lot for a mother to believe her son is guilty of murder. Yes, we've seen that over and over again. Warner Robin's residence were shocked by Mike's arrest. They thought he was such a nice guy. He went to church every week, and when he wasn't working his part time construction job, he was helping elderly people with home improvements. Mike was put on suicide watch at the jail. He refused extradition to Colorado until the governor became involved.

27:15 I believe the governor of Georgia said, if you stay here, Mike, we're going to make your life really, really difficult. He wanted to get rid of Mike at all costs, and I don't blame him. Once Mike was back in Colorado, he was put in solitary confinement and again put on suicide watch. Later, Mike was charged with two additional counts of theft for stealing items from Amateek. Although Colorado had only executed one person since nineteen seventy six. Prosecutors considered seeking the death penalty for Mike, but without Abby's body it was unlikely to stick, so he was not charged with Abby's murder up until this point no okay. At a pre trial hearing on Christmas Eve two thousand and two, the judge ruled that there was enough evidence against Michael Blagg to stand trial. At the same hearing, the judge agreed to cut his bail in half to five hundred thousand dollars. He was released on January eighth after his family posted bail. On the same day, he entered a plea of not guilty. Mike was allowed to return to Georgia to live with his mother while he awaited trial and worked part time. Mike had no savings and was represented by a public defender. He went to the office every day and worked on his case alongside his attorneys.

28:27 In March two thousand and three, they came forward with a new bombshell theory. They discovered that an employee of the Mesa County DA's office, a prosecutor, had been named as a suspect early in the investigation. What he had been stalking a neighbor of the Blags Deputy District Attorney Tammy Eritt. The defense claimed that the stalker or someone he hired, had killed Jennifer in a case of mistaken identity, and Abby had been killed after she had witnessed her mother's murder. A neighbor reportedly heard ma voices outside of the Blag home on the morning of November thirteenth. What do you think of that theory. It's an interesting theory, but to me, it seems unlikely, just because of the fact that Jennifer's body was found with her retainers in her mouth and in the shirt that she slept in, meaning that it seems like she was killed while she was sleeping, and the window of time that that could have happened after Michael left her work was pretty short, so it.

29:23 Seemed that they could have been waiting for Mike to go to work. But I don't think that makes sense either, because I believe Tammy was single and lived on her own. Potentially the person thought that she was sleeping with his guy, Mike, and he left the house and they went and killed her. So I mean, there's I can see a little bit. Of Jebby could have wandered into the room. There will be a little more evidence that we'll talk about that there was a possible intruder. Yeah, there were many pre trial hearings. The defense wanted to throw out certain evidence, including anything about Mike's porn addiction. They questioned the reliability of Luella Cross, a woman from Colorado Rural Legal Services who thought that Jennifer had come there seeking protection from her abusive husband. Luella hadn't gotten the woman's name and the date of her visit. The woman said that she didn't have any money and was tired of her husband's girlfriends, which the defense argued was not the situation in the Blag's marriage. Jennifer had access to money, and Mike had never had a girlfriend.

30:24 On February twenty third, twenty four, twenty seven months after the murders, the trial began at the Mesa County Courthouse. The defense's motion to have the case moved had been denied. Jury's selection began from a pool of two hundred. It was difficult to find members of the community who had not already formed an opinion about Mike's guilt or innocence. I've formed an opinion. The Daily Sentinel obtained personal information about the jury and published an article giving very detailed information about the jurors, such as where they worked and if they were the owner of a business, which angered the judge greatly. That's awful. It was horrible. Yeah. It took seven days to seat the jury of twelve plus four alternates. They ranged in age from nineteen to eighty one.

31:11 It's a wide range. Each morning of the trial, Mike, now forty one, with graying hair, gave the jurors a smile and a nod, sometimes mouthing good morning to them. His mother, sister, and brother came to support him daily. He placed a picture of Jennifer and Abby on the defense table. Boy, it sounds so performative, doesn't it. Yes. The prosecution argued that the stress of his job, poor an addiction, and Jennifer's mounting health issues drove Mike to his breaking point. They believe that sometime after midnight on November thirteenth, Mike smothered Abby with a pillow so she wouldn't hear him shoot Jennifer. After he smothered Abby, he went to the primary bedroom put a pillow over Jennifer's head while she was sleeping and shot her through the pillow into her left eye.

31:57 I'm curious, do you know why they thought he put a pillow over because I remember you said that there was stipling on her wound, which to me would mean that the gun was very close to her. There were a couple of reasons. One that there was no blood spatter. Okay, remember like there was nothing on the ceiling or the walls or even the bed frame. The only blood was on the mattress and it had dripped onto the floor and yep. And the other reason, and I think we're going to talk about this in just a minute, but I'll just say it now, there was a blue red in her brain that they thought had come from the pillowcase. Okay, that would make sense. The bullet lodged in her brain, killing her quickly. Mike went to the garage and got a tarp and a red and black tent. He placed Abby and Jennifer on the tent, wrapped it securely, carried it to the garage and put it in the van. He cleaned the house and then drove to Amattak placed the bodies of his wife and daughter into the dumpster and started the compactor there was a bathroom with a shower at AMATTEK, and Mike like showered there and put fresh clothes on and disposed of his soiled clothes in the dumpster. He went back home, traded vehicles, and then returned to AMATEEC. Mike was really meticulous when he put the bodies into this tent and tarp and wrapped them up. Yeah, because there was really very little blood found anywhere.

33:19 Yeah. Several employees testified that Mike seemed nervous that day and had walked to the loading dock multiple times, something he typically didn't do. He even took his own trash out that day. But that day he also remember they were wrapping up that assembly line equipment and shipping it to Mexico. So it wasn't a typical day anyway, exactly. Yea in the five calls home were likely to create an alibi. The jury was shown some gruesome pictures of Jennifer's autopsy. Her head and body had been flattened and the land fell. It was impossible to determine if she'd been sexually assaulted. The bullet had pierced Jennifer's eyelid, so it was likely that Mike had shot her during her sleep.

34:02 The prosecution honed in on Mike's porn consumption. Six hundred and sixty eight pornographic photos were downloaded, He visited one eight hundred and seventy six porn websites and had one hundred and nineteen pornographic text files on his computers. And some of the images were graphic, and they were shown in court and we talked about what Mike's preferred type of porn was earlier. It's a lot of porn websites. I know, the images didn't strike me as like that's all. That's obviously a lot, but one thousand eight, Like, I'm very naive when it comes. To that many porn websites either. There's probably way more. Actually, during the sixth week of the trial, Marilyn Conway was called to testify. She talked about how she loved Mike and thought he was a wonderful husband and father. She had been Mike's most ardent supporter, that is until that dan court. She told investigators that Jennifer and Mike were very much in love and she was not aware of any domestic violence in their relationship.

35:03 But in the most damaging testimony of the trial, Marilyn revealed that in nineteen ninety one, when Jennifer and Mike lived in Corpus Christi, he was drunk one night and became violent. He cornered Jennifer and choked her. Michael hurt her in Corpus He hurt her. He hurt her in Corpus Yes, he did. And missus Conway said that Michael hurt Jennifer in Corpus Christie, Texas. Yes, sir, what do you remember about that? She called home one night and said that Mike had cornered her in the bedroom, and obviously he was drunk. I understood that he was trying to choke her.

35:44 You could tell the attorney questioning her there was surprised by her response. It kind of came out of the blue. Yeah, but good for her. Yeah, Usually in court, I think attorneys they always know what they're the person's going to say on the stand. But you could tell that was a little bit of a surprise. Well, it was controversial too, because it seemed like it was new evidence. And Marylyn said, well, I just remembered it, and then I wanted to mention a statistic I found about strangling. Researchers involved in a study determined that being strangled by a partner even one time increases a victim's risk of homicide by that partner by over six hundred percent. Wow. While most women murdered in domestic violence violence homicides are shot, strangulation is also the highest predictor of a homicide with a gun. So if your partner has ever tried to strangle, that is.

36:37 A big, big red flag it is. So please take that seriously. Yeah, because that's such a scary statistic, it really is. The night of the incident, when Jennifer called Marylyn, Marilyn demanded to speak with Mike. She made him promise that he would never hurt Jennifer again. Marylyn told him that if he ever wanted to get rid of Jennifer, that he should take her to the airport and she could come and live with her. After the event, Marilyn always made sure that Jennifer had a blank check of hers to use in a case of emergency. Jennifer's stepfather had even gone to the bank and added Jennifer as a co signer on their account. She sounds like a good mom, I know. Marilyn also testified that when she helped Mike pack up the house. She found a sapphire ring of Jennifer's that Mike had reported stolen. She gave it to Mike, and she didn't say anything interesting. The defense argued that some of the one thy, eight hundred and seventy six pornographic websites were just pop up ads. They disputed that Mike and Jennifer had fought over his porn addiction on November twelfth, but the last time he had downloaded porn on his computer was on October fourth. Records on his computer showed that his porn consumption had decreased somewhat significantly between October and November thirteenth. The defense attempted to embed reasonable doubt in the jury with several key pieces of forensic evidence.

38:01 There were sixteen hairs from an unknown source found in the crime scene, along with unidentifiable DNA on the bedding in the primary bedroom. I'm not sure if the DNA was unidentifiable or insufficient to make a match. Okay, I think that's a fine line, and I'm not sure what. The so we don't know for sure if the DNA was someone else's DNA or if it just they just couldn't tell whose DNA is right. I read two books on the case, and neither of them were very clear on that point. Okay, But the defense also pointed to scuffs on the back fence and trampled grass in the Blacks yard as proof of a possible intruder. There were three unknown shoe prints and twelve unknown palm prints in the Black home, and a mystery bloodstain on garage steps that didn't belong to any of the Blacks. So there, you know, there is a little bit of reasonable doubt there. The defense also claimed that a child predator could have killed Jennifer and kidnapped Abby.

38:59 They said the police had tunnel vision and worked under the assumption that it's always the husband. Something that Mike said over and over to police was that, you know, I bet someone saw us out. Abby was such a cute little girl. They saw Abby and they wanted her, and they just came, and you know, they had to murder Jennifer to get to Abby. That was Mike's favorite theory. Over the twenty six days of the trial, the jury heard from one hundred and fourteen witnesses and viewed three hundred and fifty exhibits, some of them very disturbing. Once deliberations began, it took ten hours for the jury to reach a verdict. Ten hours is pretty quick for a five week trial. Yeah that is. Michael Blagg was found guilty on all counts, including the theft from his workplace. As the verdict was read, Mike shook his head in disbelief.

39:48 As to count one, we the jury find the defendant, Michael Blagg guilty of first degree murders to blag anything you'd like to say before your sentence. I can tell you, your honor, that I am in of these charges and I have nothing further to say. Thank you for the offense of first degree murder, which is a class one felony. The defendant a sentence to Colorado Department of Corrections for the remainder of his natural life. I haven't mentioned this, I don't think before, but I really dislike Mike. I really hate that guy. I don't like him either. It's probably one of the worst guys because he acts like such a nice guy, but he's clearly just disgusting. Yeah.

40:31 After the verdict was read, Mike's mother yelled, I love you, sweetheart as he was let out of the courtroom. In cuffs. She still was not convinced. I guess. Marilyn thanked the jurors for doing their best. Quote for years, Michael Blagg was a son in law to me. I loved him, My daughter loved him, and Abby dearly loved her father. God was with us through this whole thing, and I pray that he has been with the Black family. We've lost a son in law too, and I hope the Black family looks to the Lord. There's just nothing else. Four jurors were interviewed. They said that they couldn't get over three pieces of evidence. Jennifer's keys placed among the contents of her purse, the blood evidence, and a blue fiber that was found in Jennifer's brain, along with the bullet fragment, likely from a pillow that Mike placed over her head when he shot her. They believed that Jennifer was about to leave Mike. They didn't think Mike was a Christian man. They found his smiles directed at them insincere and inappropriate.

41:30 I love when a jury just can see through all the yeah yes and just get it right. The lead detective on the case, Steve King, said, quote, I think grand junction is a safer community without Michael Blagg, and heaven is a better place with Jennifer and Abbey unquote. When Mike arrived at the Lyman Correctional Facility, he was promptly beaten by his fellow inmates. I like that for him. I'm not mad about it. Later he was transferred to the Centennial Correctional Facility, where he worked as a library. In twenty fourteen, after ten years in prison, a judge threw out Michael's murder conviction, enrouled that he should receive a new trial. A juror in his trial, Marilyn Charlesworth, failed to disclose that she had been a victim of domestic abuse on the juror questionnaire. When you have to take those juror questionnaires seriously, they are completed under the penalty of perjury, meaning if you lie, you can be prosecuted, and as in this case, the whole trial had to be thrown out. Marilyn had filed a restraining order against her ex husband after he beat and threatened to kill her.

42:37 Michael's defense learned this information after she testified at a public hearing in twenty thirteen, where she openly talked about being a victim of domestic abuse. Charles Worth also failed to report that she has low vision on her jury questionnaire. She served ten days in jail and was fined ten thousand dollars. Michael awaited the second trial again in Georgia at his mother's house. A change in venue was granted. This time. The trial took place at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Golden, Colorado. Eighty witnesses were heard from over five weeks. Michael testified at this trial he had nothing to lose. He said he loved his wife and daughter with all his heart and never would have harmed them.

43:20 There were no cameras in the courtroom. I wish we had some audio to play here, but we don't. After seventeen hours of deliberation, the jury again found him guilty of first degree or I know in relief. Jennifer's mother, Marilyn, was there to see the verdict. Dread. Do you remember earlier in the case, Jennifer's mother had been going through cancer treatment, So I think that she survived, So that's good, she said. Quote those in this room know the devastation that occurred in November two thousand and one. From that time to this, the loss of two children at one time. Nothing compares, and I hope no one in this room ever experiences it. Next, David Loman, Jennifer's brother, spoke, the loss of his sister, who he called his best friend and niece, crushed him. David searched for Abby for years in and around the Grand Junction area before Michael's sentencing.

44:14 He said, quote, the devastation that one's decision has on someone else are incredible, and most of us don't think about that, and that's something that many of us need to start thinking about. Jennifer and David remained close until her death and always ended their phone conversations with I love you. David found great comfort after Jennifer's death that they had that role because he knew that his sister knew how much he loved her. Michael Blagg was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for a second time. Sadly, he has never been charged with Abby's murder. What do you think about that? I mean, I think it's too bad. You know, the fact that he's spending life in prison without the possibility of parole helps, but it would be nice to have justice for Abby's murder as well.

45:00 In twenty twenty three, and Blag's most reason appeal, a court appointed attorney argued for a new trial based on the following items. One evidence that the second trial was allowed from an unlawful search of his home. Two, an expert witness offered their opinion regarding Mike's guilt on the witness stand, which you're not supposed to do. Three evidence of an alternate suspect was excluded for his testimony was restricted, and five in proper cross examination was allowed. A three judge panel denied Mike's appeal and wrote in their opinion quote evidence showed that Blag had experienced personal, marital and work problems before the murder. Expert testimony indicated that it was unlikely that an intruder unknown to Blag's wife had broken into the home and killed her. The crime scene in the home appeared to be staged and to look like a robbery gone wrong. The family van was likely used to transport his wife's body and then returned to home end quote. The judges listed evidence they thought proved Mike was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, including the dumpster at Amtek being the place where the bodies were placed, Mike owned a gun similar to the one that was used in Jennifer's murder. She was found wrapped in a tent that Mike was known to own, and that Jennifer was found next to trash from Amtek in the landfill.

46:21 That seemed like one of the strongest pieces of evidence to me. The fact that her body was found with the other things from Amtek and just that they can kind of trace that back to the compactor there. That seemed pretty irrefutable to. Me, right, and few people had a key to that compact. The members of the police force that had tirelessly searched for Abby and Jennifer were all given commemorative plaques and a little yellow toy excavator to thank them for their service. Sheriff Rick Clausen said, quote, the only thing about the case that haunts me is the thought that Abby might be out there and she just might not ever get recovered. In conjunction with a Laura Recovery Center, a Texas based nonprofit who had helped search for Abby and Jennifer, the Abbey and Jennifer Recovery Foundation was founded in hopes of helping other families find their loved ones. Jennifer's brother David was the president. They created a twenty four hour hot line with the intent of being able to begin searches as quickly as possible. Mike and his family had nothing to do with the foundation, but sadly, both the Laura Recovery Foundation and the Abbey and Jennifer Recovery Foundation later dissolved.

47:32 Abbey Blagg was a sweet, inquisitive child. She was friendly and she didn't shy away from talking to adults. The pastor of her church said that she seemed to have an understanding of God than a much older children child would have. She loved to sing and she loved ice cream. She liked to play with her baby dolls and barbies and take long hikes in the woods. Jennifer Blagg was a loving wife, mother, daughter, and friend. Her faith gave her great comfort in her life. She was funny, kind, and dedicated to helping others. Abby and Jennifer deserve to live full, happy lives. Rest in peace, Abby and Jennifer. Abby was a precious little girl. Yeah, I'm sure I have a hard time in this case with motive.

48:12 Yeah, I do too. I mean, it seemed like the only thing we've really talked about related to motive is the fact that he felt like he had to leave the military to help take care of Jennifer because of her health problems. And maybe he resented that, But that just doesn't seem like a big enough motive, right. He really enjoyed the structure of military life, and I think the military life also gave him It boosted his confidence and he felt important, and I think he didn't find that in civilian life. Yeah. Maybe a couple of Mike's coworkers had mentioned that he seemed a little down at work in the two weeks before Jennifer and Abby's disappearance. Shortly before her death, Jennifer wrote Mike the following letter, Dear Mike, I love you.

48:55 I enjoy getting to spend my life with you. We've had an almost ten years of marriage together. I truly wouldn't have wanted to be with anyone else than you. God just knew, That's all we can say. We didn't, but our Lord did. We don't know what the future holds for us, but I pray it's even better. However, we must live for him. We must crucify ourselves, pick up our crosses daily, and truly rely on him. Time and needs are earnest. I desire to always be there for you. However I won't be, but he will always. But until he says otherwise, I'm your beloved wife who adores you. Thank you for being my husband and for loving me. So that letter tells me that I think Jennifer was happy in our marriage.

49:38 It kind of seems that way. And that is related to a question I was going to ask. We haven't talked about any affairs or anything like that. We know for sure he was not having an affair. I don't believe there's any proof at all that he was having an affair other than remember he would go to Eda's lunch hour, he went to see a massage therapist, and then he asked for a happy ending. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of the cases that we've recently covered involved religion and men and women that are very religious and it's important an important piece of their marriage. And reading Jennifer's ladder there clearly God was an important part of their marriage. Yeah. Do you think that that could have been too much for Mike?

50:19 You mean that like he felt too much pressure to be had. To be good all the time. Yeah, And remember early on he did drink and party and Jennifer kind of warned him, like, you know, if you keep this behavior up, I might leave you, I think, and maybe that could be a possible motive that he just struggled with being so good all the time. I think it's a really valid point to make. I think that most people, whether you're religious or not, recognize that they are flawed, right, that they're going to make mistakes, they're going to sin if they think of it in that context. And I think, you know, religion allows for that right that if you sin, you can confess, you can be forgiven and all that. But maybe Mike just put so much pressure on himself that he felt like he had to be perfect, and maybe he repressed things, and maybe that caused him to act out in a violent way. I don't know.

51:10 I didn't read Jennifer's journal entries, but she was very hard on herself. She blamed herself for any problems in their marriage or whatever was, and she always was asking God for forgiveness and repentance, and it seemed like she was a little tortured. Yeah, and that made me feel really bad when you know, when I read those entries, right. Do you think that Mike's porn addiction played into this at all? And should it have been used as evidence in the trial? I mean, I think yes, it was valid evidence for the trial because the prosecution's theory was that that contributed to what he ended up doing to Jennifer and Abby. I mean, one of the theories is that Jennifer walked in on Mike watching porn and she got angry and that's what caused the argument.

51:56 Right, But didn't you say that he hadn't really watched any porn after it in the month or so. Before, unless he found like a way to do it privately or talking videos or you know, instead of things on the internet, he could have had physical videos or something. Right? Do you think porn is a precursor for abusive relationships? So I did read that there was some correlation between watching like violent porn or porn of a certain type. Right, there's a whole spectrum of porn. Yeah, exactly. I did read that there was some correlation there. But it's important to know that correlation does not equate to causation. For example, I happen to know this random fact that the number of movies that Nicholas Cage makes every year correlates to the number of people that die in swimming pools every year. That does not mean that if Nicholas Cage stopped making movies, fewer people would die in swimming pools.

52:49 It's a very, very correlation. I guess you've mentioned. I used to use that in my work because it's it is important to know that two things can be correlated, but doesn't necessarily mean that one causes the other. So the fact that somebody watches porn may correlate to being abusive in relationship, but it doesn't necessarily have a cause and effect relationship. I think when we're talking about porn, we're meaning like, very mild porn, not you know, there's some porn that I'm sure you know is showing abuse. Yeah, like you said, there is a broad spectrum. Yeah, let's move on. Okay. Why do you think that Mike chose to kill Abby?

53:30 I don't know. I mean, that's really just so sad and unnecessary, and. It breaks my heart every time, Like I just can't imagine. Yeah, you don't think there's any chance that Abby is still alive to you? I mean, it doesn't seem like it. But rationally no. But I yes, I hope she's alive somewhere. Yeah, it's so heartbreaking to think that had the land Philip and searched, you know, weeks or days after their disappearance, that she could have been found. Yeah, it would have been nice to have some closure. At least it must haunt all of those poor officers they had to do that search, and obviously Jennifer and Abbey's family, Right, what evidence did you find most damning in the case?

54:13 To me, the most damning evidence was the fact that her body was found near the Amtech stuff, because I think that pretty much links Mike to the crime. I mean, obviously could have linked somebody else at Amateech, but you know, that doesn't make any sense really, And ultimately, I just feel like he is the only one who had the means, the motive, and the opportunity, even if the motive was a little bit weak and questionable. There's nobody else that this would make sense for me. The email that he printed out at work minutes before he went home, I had forgotten and then tried to palm that off as Oh yeah, no, I gave that to her days and days ago, But it was folded up with her the contents of her purse. Yeah, that is pretty damning as well.

54:54 I read two books for this case, Taken from Home, A Father, A Dark Secret, and a Brutal Murder by Eric Francis and Killer Dad. By Robert Scott, Good Books. I believe I prefer the Eric Francis book. The facts just seemed a little more factual. Okay, some of these books seem like they're rushed to print a little bit. We've talked about a lot of the time. Yeah, like the timelines don't add up. Yeah, just some facts are just not quite. Or they're not edited maybe as good as they could be. Yeah, so yes, the Taken from Home, A Father, A Dark Secret, and a Brutal Murder definitely seemed like it was sharper.

55:40 If you're a regular listener of Love Mary Kill, you know that every month we donate at least twenty five percent of our earnings from advertising and from our patron program to a worthwhile cause. And because September is National Suicide Prevention Month, our donation for this month goes to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Health and suicide prevention are causes that we hold close to our hearts. Globally, between seven hundred thousand and eight hundred thousand people lose their lives to suicide each year, with around fifty thousand in the US alone. So we feel like this is a really important cause and we want to thank all of you who are listening because we could not do this without you, so thank you. We appreciate your support so much. When we started recording, I asked you, are you wearing a new shirt? And what did you say?

56:27 I said it might be I don't know which costs, but. I have really good news for you. Yeah, So, listeners, Rich has a uniform that he wears. He has like a summer uniform and like a fall winterform I do. Do you want to talk about what your different uniforms are. Well, my summer uniform is shorts and a T. Shirt right, usually like a V neck T shirt. Right, usually a V neck T shirt if there is a. Too low though, if there's no chains involved. Now, if there's an important game on, I will wear a logo wear for or whatever the supporting the team is that I'm supporting. In the fall and winter, my uniform is blue jeans and a like a half zip sweater or sweatshirt.

57:11 And today you it's today's a hard day. We're in the hard time of year where you have to very chilly in the morning at least twice. Yeah. Yeah, today, I think the high is going to be seventy. You have an M on your shirt. I have a Michigan sweatshirt. Is game on? There's a Michigan game, but there's also a Tiger's game, so it's a it's a tough you have to. Really dress layers. Yeah. So the thing I wanted to tell you is good news. Okay, because half zips are all the rage right now, are they? Yeah? Oh? Good? So I think that you probably single handedly reinvigorated the half zip market. I think you must be right. Every the other day I was, actually, where are you new one? Did you complimented me on it?

57:55 I did? You said I really like your shirt, and I said you inspired me. I listener, I am not exaggerating when we say that rich. I mean you literally every day of the winter where half sip. And then when I say sometimes like well, what do you want for Christmas? I could use a couple of your half SIPs. It's easy thing and it's been a long time I've been wearing them for a long time, and I've been waiting for them to come back into style, and so I'm. Glad they ever went out of style. And you always look very nice. I like the way they feel, I like the way they look. It kind of for like some women might know what I mean, But it just made life easier when I was like, all right, I can live with that.

58:36 I'm glad I can help make your life easier. But you do wear a hoodie once in a while too, so it's not exclusively like. To go a little crazy once in a while and get out of the box. Right is October, It is spooky season, and you are somewhat of a horror film. I don't know, buff would you say fan? Sure? For sure? Yeah? Do you want to give the listeners a couple of movies that you really like recommend? Sure? So a couple just that are top of mind right now for me. One is Salem's Lot, only because there's a new movie out which we haven't watched yet, but the original Salem's Lot with David Soul from Starsky and Hutch is really you old Rich, I am old, but it is really a good movie, is really terrifying and then the other one is also top of mind is No Sparatu because there have been a few versions made, and I think I heard that there was a new one coming out. I don't know if it's out yet or if it's coming soon, but the No Sperado version that was made in I don't know, the seventies, I think Okay with klaus Kinski is a really scary movie.

59:41 If you're into vampire movies, super scary. So you're not saying like Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the Thirteenth like those. I'm not as big into kind of your traditional slasher movies. I like them, I don't dislike them. I think like Halloween. The original Halloween is really. A classic, but you used to watch that every Halloween. Yeah. Yeah, But those are the two. They're just top of mind right now because I've heard news about them. Off the top of my head. I'm going to recommend The Great Pumpkin. Charlie Oh so scary. I like a scary movie. But Midsummer, Oh, Midsummer is pretty good. Some people hate it, but I thought it was. I thought it was super creepy.

1:00:21 I thought I was really creepy, and it was really like, well, like, the cinematography is really good. Black Phone I like and Not at the Cabin. Yes, not at the Cabin. I thought it was very well done. There's one movie that has stuck with me forever and ever saw it like a long time ago, and you're not allowed to talk about it. Oh you mean candy Man. Shut up? But we did watch it last Halloween, I think, with our kids, and I was like, you know what, it's not shut up. You can't see it again. Don't see it again. We're bad things are going to happen. Okay, But I didn't think it was as scary as scary the second time around, and wasn't it really made? And we watched the remake too.

1:01:02 I don't remember if it was a sequel or a remake, but yes it was. And get Out. I love get Out, get Out get Out like Super Scared, but Jordan Peel's first movie. I think it's beast movie. If you guys have a suggestion for us, let. Us know, Yes, definitely, let us know. Send us an email at Lovemarykill at gmail dot com with your horror movie recommendations or with any feedback or comments case recommendations. Snack recommendations, Yeah, leave us a five star review, and until next time, don't kill your husband and don't kill your wife.

1:02:16 Further investigation revealed that Mike got to work I November thirty. He told me to gesture in a little cardio