Aug. 26, 2024

Molly Watson and James Addie

Molly Watson and James Addie
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Molly Watson was about to get married to the love of her life, James Addie, and she couldn’t have been happier. The two had been together for almost seven years before Molly finally popped the question and James said yes. But Molly would not live to see the big day. Two days before the wedding she was found dead, with a single bullet through the back of her head, on a desolate dirt road in rural Monroe County, Missouri. The investigation into her death would uncover secrets that would forever change the lives of everyone in James’ and Molly’s orbit.

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Today’s snacks: Cabot Seriously Sharp Popcorn and Crunchmaster Rice Poppers

Sources:

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Hi, I'm Rich and I'm Tina.

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And if there's one thing we've learned, and over twenty

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years of marriage, some.

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Days you'll feel like killing your husband and.

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Some days you'll feel like killing your wife.

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Welcome to love, Mary.

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Kill, Hey Tina, Hey Rich?

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How are you?

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I've been better? How are you?

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You have been better? I'm doing all right. I'm hanging

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in there, but I feel bad for you.

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How is your vacation? We had two different vacations.

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We kind of did have two different vacations. We just

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got back last night. Yeah, from Maine where we spent

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a week and you spent a lot of it in bed.

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Yeah. I got COVID and you didn't, and neither did

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the kids. So I'm happy to take one for the team.

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And I hope you guys don't get it. But we

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did make the crazy decision to record today, but we

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are as distanced as we can be in this room.

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Yeah. Well, you are a trooper. You win a gold

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star for the day for showing up, so I appreciate it.

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Well, I didn't want to let you down, and I

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know a lot of people look forward to our Monday episodes,

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so I didn't want to leave anyone hanging and our patrons.

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You know, they usually get early access, and I feel

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really bad that they're not getting early access this week

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because we didn't have an episode ready to go, which

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we should have before we left.

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Well, we will talk a little bit more about our

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vacation at the end of the episode, but before we

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get into the episode, I do have a snack for you.

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I ran out to the gas station this morning because

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I know we just got home and we didn't really

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have any.

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No food in the house. I also want to give

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a shout out to Tim, who stayed at the house

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with our cats.

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Yeah.

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Tim doesn't listen to our podcast, I don't think, but

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his mom Asha does, so huge thank you to him

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because we were Cosmo still isn't quite back to himself

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and we were really nervous to leave him. So a

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big thank you to Tim. Yeah, that was super nice

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staying at the house and taking care of the babies.

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Yeah. Do you want to know what snack I brought you? Yes,

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I made you a lobster roll. Oh god, not just kidding.

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I went to the gas station and I bought some popcorn,

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some cheddar cheese popcorn, Cabot brand. Seriously sharp cheddar cheese.

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I want to try it?

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Sure?

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All right? What did you think about the Cabots brand?

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Seriously sharp cheddar popcorn?

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And I'm a big fan of Cabbot cheese in general.

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I think it's good stuff. But that was just kind

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of okay for me. I have not lost my sense

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of smell or taste gratefully, but I have no appetite,

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so that could be part of it.

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I do love it either, I was just sort of

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like it was. The flavor was good.

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But the generally I'm not a big fan of bagged

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popcorn because I like fresh pop popcorn.

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Yeah.

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Well, I'm going to give it a six out of ten.

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What do you think?

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Oh, I'm sure six out of ten. Okay, I think

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I probably would go five at it because it's it's

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just average to me.

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The thing, well, how about we get to today's case

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so we can get you back to bed and resting.

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Okay.

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Mollie Watson, age thirty five, was getting married to the

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love of her life, James Addie, fifty one, and she

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couldn't have been more excited. The two had been dating

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for over six years before they finally got engaged. The

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wedding arrangements were all set for Sunday, April twenty ninth,

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twenty eighteen, at the Stony Creek Hotel in Columbia, Missouri.

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On Friday the twenty seventh, two days before the big day,

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everything was nearly finalized. The final guest list was sent

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to the event coordinator, seating charts were locked in, and

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the caterer was ready with the menu for the event,

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a choice of barbecue or prime rib for dinner and

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fruit cobbler for dessert. Molly had designed and made the

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centerpieces herself, hummingbird candles in a glass hurricane on a

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base of wood. On that Friday, James stopped by the

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venue to drop off some decorations and to make a

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four thousand dollars payment, which nearly finished paying for the

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wedding and the reception. The event coordinator asked James if

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he was getting excited for the wedding. He just said

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that Molly was driving him crazy. Not surprising, though, I'm

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sure a lot of brides to be drive their future

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husbands a little crazy before the big day. In our case,

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of course, but I've heard that that happens.

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I thought I was the calmest bride.

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Ever you were actually, but Mollie would not live to

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see her special day. That Friday night, she was found

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dead on a desolate dirt road in rural Monroe County.

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The investigation into her death would uncover secrets that would

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forever change the lives of everyone in James and Molly's orbit.

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Mollie Watson grew up in Monroe County, Missouri, a rural

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area an hour north of Columbia, about midway between Kansas

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City and Saint Louis, best known as the birthplace of

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Mark Twain. Monroe County was mostly nature, rolling farmland, the

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Mark Twain National Forest, and the Missouri River, which forms

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its eastern boundary, lots of dirt roads, and not many people.

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The entire county has only about nine thousand people, and

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eighteen hundred of them are prisoners in the Moberly Correctional Center,

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which is also the area's biggest employer. Molly's older brother

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Tim described her as his best friend. He said that

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he actually was the one who suggested the name Molly

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to their parents. She was a completely authentic and genuine person,

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if maybe a bit naive and too trusting. It didn't

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matter who she was around, she was just herself, happy, bubbly,

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outgoing and always laughing. But why don't we let Molly

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introduce herself. This is from a video she made in

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twenty seventeen, about a year before her death, for a

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vlog that she started.

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I figured I would just kind of give a little

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bit of background on me, so you kind of get

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to know me. I am thirty four. I work in

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education right now. I have two degrees in socology, a

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bachelor's and a master's. I'm working on a third, not

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a well a third degree second masters in counseling. And

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I am very much a huge geek. I hate being

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called a nerd because, as I have always heard it,

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put nerds know geeks do, so I am very much

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a hands on geek. I like most things geeked them.

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I'm a huge fan of things like let me get this,

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Marvel and is Day for that matter. I love video games.

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I love especially. Two of my favorites are the Legend

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of Zelda franchise and the Metroid franchise. I do like

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to do cosplay. I took about a ten yearish hiatus

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and I'm getting back into it now.

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I am what.

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Is was formerly known as.

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Asperger syndrome.

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It's a form of Now they refer to it as

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high functioning autism. So if I seem awkward in the videos,

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now you know why. So I'll catch you guys later

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and bye.

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Well Molly sounds great, Yeah she does. I didn't know

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the difference between a geek and a nerd.

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I didn't.

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Oh you didn't.

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No, I didn't believe it or not.

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Do you identify as either neither?

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No, I'm a cool guy.

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Oh, okay, you're right right, I'm sorry.

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Molly got married in her early twenties. We don't know

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much about this first marriage other than it ended in

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divorce after a few years. Before the divorce was final,

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in two thousand and seven, Molly met a woman named

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Amber Brady. I should say that she re met Amber

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because they had actually known each other in kindergarten. They

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didn't like each other at that young age, but when

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they ran into each other around two thousand and seven,

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they became friends, and soon that friendship turned to romance

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and love. Amber was also married to a man at

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this time, but both Amber's and Molly's marriages were on

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their way to ending. Dating another woman was a new

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experience for both Molly and Amber. Soon after they started dating,

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Molly found out she was pregnant from her estranged husband.

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She and Amber moved in together. Molly gave birth to

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a baby boy, Declan, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy,

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and the three became a family. About five years into

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their relationship, Molly got a job at the Moberly Correctional

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Center as a corrections officer. There, she met James Addie,

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who was a lieutenant on the corrections team. Despite the

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age gap of more than fifteen years, James and Molly

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grew close and eventually started an affair. Amber Berg began

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to suspect that something was up, and one day she

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followed Molly to a motel where she caught Molly and

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James during one of their trysts. Amber was heartbroken and

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dumped Molly on the spot. Molly and Decklan moved out

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and back into her parents' home, Molly and her son

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living on one side of the house and her mom

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and dad on the other. She was sad about the

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way things ended with Amber, but she was looking toward

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the future because she was head over heels in love

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with Jim Addie.

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James Addy was born on July fourth, nineteen sixty six,

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which was fitting because he was patriotic and loved his country.

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After high school, he joined the Marines and served during

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Desert Storm. After his military service was complete, he held

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various jobs. He worked as a mechanic and spent some

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time working in a factory before finally getting the job

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at the correctional Center. He was well liked there and

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eventually worked his way up the ranks to become a lieutenant.

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James had been married four times before he and Molly met.

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We don't know anything about his first three marriages, but

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his fourth marriage was to Melanie Shepherd, who became Melanie

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Addie when they got married in nineteen ninety five. James

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and Melanie had two kids together, a boy named Ben,

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followed a few years later by a girl named Emma.

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When Mollie started seeing James, she told her friends that

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he was in the process of getting a divorce from Melanie,

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But when Melanie and James went to get their marriage license,

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he put down his divorce date from Melanie as October

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twenty seventeen, which would mean that he had still been

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married to Melanie for the first five to six years

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of his relationship. With Mollie, but maybe it was a

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situation where they were separated and they just took a

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long time to follow through with the paperwork. As we

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said earlier, Mollie was head over heels for James and

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he was also in love with her. They took trips together,

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one to Cancoon and one to Disney World, and they

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took lots of photos that Mollie would compile into albums.

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There were many pictures of the couple smiling together, swimming

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with dolphins, having the time of their lives. James would

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send Molly cards with romantic notes written inside, like you

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are the love of my life. Molly's nickname for James

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was Sweetness. Well, her name in his phone was beautiful.

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How am I in your phone?

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My beautiful wife?

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Did I put that in there?

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I did? But I think you may have, you know,

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mentioned something I think you.

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Had, like my name, like my full name, And I

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was like, oh, that's so romantic. You are a darling

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husband and my phone aw, And I don't think you

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did that. Jim would tell people that he could share

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anything with Molly. Not everyone was happy about Molly and

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James's relationship, though Molly's family and some of her friends

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didn't much care for James. Part of it was the

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age difference, but as Molly's brother Tim would later say,

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James gave off bad vibes. He wouldn't look you in

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the eye when he spoke to you. He didn't spend

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much time with Molly's family either, so they felt like

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he wasn't making much of an effort. Those close to

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Molly knew not to disparage James in front of her, though.

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When Mollie fell in love, she fell hard. She was stubborn,

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and any negative comment about the love of her life

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would just make her mad and push her closer to James.

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Her family and friends knew she would choose James if

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it came down to it. The couple dated for just

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over six years before she finally popped the question to

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him in twenty seventeen. He said yes, let's get married,

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and Mollie was over the moon.

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Making plans for the wedding, Molly was happier than she

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00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:42.120
had ever been. She talked about the wedding to friends

241
00:12:42.200 --> 00:12:45.960
and family constantly. They set the date for Sunday, April

242
00:12:45.960 --> 00:12:49.279
twenty ninth, twenty eighteen, and booked the Stony Creek hotel

243
00:12:49.399 --> 00:12:53.279
in Columbia, Missouri, a little over an hour from Monroe County,

244
00:12:53.320 --> 00:12:57.080
where they both lived. Mollie wanted a Disney themed wedding

245
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with burgundy and gold as the primary colors. She designed

246
00:13:00.679 --> 00:13:04.320
the centerpieces herself and planned everything down to the smallest detail.

247
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Hass's Market, a well known restaurant in Columbia, was catering.

248
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Molly had three different wedding dresses that she was going

249
00:13:11.519 --> 00:13:14.879
back and forth between. The wedding planner at the Stony

250
00:13:14.879 --> 00:13:17.480
Creek Hotel said that Molly was her primary point of

251
00:13:17.519 --> 00:13:20.279
contact for the planning, but she met with Molly and

252
00:13:20.360 --> 00:13:23.799
James together a couple of times. She described Molly as

253
00:13:23.919 --> 00:13:27.279
very bubbly and talkative, while James was mostly quiet and

254
00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:30.679
seemed a little stand offish. There were some bumps in

255
00:13:30.720 --> 00:13:34.039
the road to their wedding. Molly's brother, Tim, who described

256
00:13:34.039 --> 00:13:37.279
Molly as his best friend, refused to attend the wedding

257
00:13:37.320 --> 00:13:41.399
because of his feelings about James. Three days before the wedding, though,

258
00:13:41.440 --> 00:13:44.639
and the night before her death, Molly texted him begging

259
00:13:44.759 --> 00:13:46.840
him to be there. She said it wouldn't be the

260
00:13:46.840 --> 00:13:50.279
same without you, and Tim relented, promising he would do it.

261
00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:54.200
For Molly. Leading up to the big day, Molly's anxiety

262
00:13:54.279 --> 00:13:56.720
started getting the best of her, and she was worried

263
00:13:56.759 --> 00:13:59.519
that James was going to back out. A week or

264
00:13:59.519 --> 00:14:05.519
so before their wedding date, they had the following text exchange.

265
00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:05.919
Are you sure you still want to marry me with

266
00:14:05.960 --> 00:14:06.799
my anxiety?

267
00:14:07.279 --> 00:14:09.639
Yes? Dear? Why would you ask me something like that?

268
00:14:10.159 --> 00:14:12.720
Because when you were talking earlier you sounded like you

269
00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:14.360
were starting to doubt your decision?

270
00:14:14.840 --> 00:14:17.559
Not even close, dear? Are you changing your mind?

271
00:14:17.799 --> 00:14:18.559
Not at all?

272
00:14:19.080 --> 00:14:19.279
Then?

273
00:14:19.320 --> 00:14:23.120
What what worries me about that you were changing yours?

274
00:14:23.600 --> 00:14:25.679
I wasn't good.

275
00:14:26.799 --> 00:14:29.039
In perhaps the biggest bump in the road, a couple

276
00:14:29.080 --> 00:14:31.879
of weeks before the big day, James told Molly that

277
00:14:31.960 --> 00:14:34.879
his ex wife, Melanie, the mother of his two children,

278
00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:37.600
had gotten into a serious car accident and was on

279
00:14:37.639 --> 00:14:40.840
life support, and less than a week before the wedding,

280
00:14:40.960 --> 00:14:43.639
she was dead. They had made the decision to take

281
00:14:43.679 --> 00:14:47.200
her off of life support. This was obviously weighing heavily

282
00:14:47.240 --> 00:14:50.080
on James's mind, which made Molly wonder if they should

283
00:14:50.080 --> 00:14:53.399
postpone the wedding, but James said no, let's move ahead

284
00:14:53.399 --> 00:14:56.440
with our plans. But for the final walkthrough with the

285
00:14:56.480 --> 00:14:58.879
event coordinator in the week leading up to the wedding,

286
00:14:59.279 --> 00:15:01.799
normally done with both the bride and the groom present,

287
00:15:02.200 --> 00:15:04.679
Molly was on her own because James had to make

288
00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:08.759
funeral arrangements. On Wednesday, a day or two after that

289
00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:13.039
final walkthrough, Molly emailed the event coordinator. While they had

290
00:15:13.080 --> 00:15:17.799
originally estimated seventy wedding guests. In her email, Molly said, quote,

291
00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:20.919
James had not actually called his people to make sure

292
00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:23.240
of whether they were coming or not as of last night.

293
00:15:23.759 --> 00:15:26.080
I talked to him after the meeting and he did so.

294
00:15:26.799 --> 00:15:30.679
This has affected our numbers considerably. For total guests. We

295
00:15:30.759 --> 00:15:34.919
now have forty three expected to attend. Unquote. As you

296
00:15:34.919 --> 00:15:37.600
can imagine, the caterer was not pleased with the last

297
00:15:37.679 --> 00:15:40.960
minute change. That's a dramatic like they were expecting seventy

298
00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:43.840
and then forty three, So that's pretty significant.

299
00:15:44.200 --> 00:15:45.159
Yeah.

300
00:15:45.519 --> 00:15:48.120
On Friday morning, two days before the wedding and the

301
00:15:48.200 --> 00:15:51.440
day that Molly was killed, James and Molly exchanged the

302
00:15:51.480 --> 00:15:55.720
following text messages. The funeral is tomorrow. I love you.

303
00:15:56.320 --> 00:15:59.720
I'm sorry, sweetness, I love you so so much. Is

304
00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:04.240
that while you were getting sick earlier, No, Are you okay? No,

305
00:16:05.200 --> 00:16:06.120
please talk to me.

306
00:16:06.759 --> 00:16:09.080
My nerves are shot. I'm getting ready to head to

307
00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:11.240
the airport in Saint Louis to pick people up for

308
00:16:11.279 --> 00:16:15.519
the funeral. On that same day, James stopped by the

309
00:16:15.519 --> 00:16:18.279
event venue to drop off some decorations and to make

310
00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:21.360
a four thousand dollars payment on his credit card that

311
00:16:21.399 --> 00:16:23.519
would pay off the balance of the wedding except for

312
00:16:23.559 --> 00:16:26.200
a small three hundred dollars fee that was still remaining.

313
00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:29.840
The wedding planner asked if James was excited, and all

314
00:16:29.879 --> 00:16:33.799
he said was, Molly is driving me crazy. And yet

315
00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:37.120
another bump in the road came on that Friday. Molly

316
00:16:37.200 --> 00:16:40.519
had been planning on having James's seventeen year old daughter Emma,

317
00:16:40.600 --> 00:16:42.600
stand up in the wedding and they were going to

318
00:16:42.600 --> 00:16:45.200
get their hair and makeup done together on Sunday morning,

319
00:16:45.759 --> 00:16:48.480
but then James told Molly that Emma had decided to

320
00:16:48.519 --> 00:16:51.279
do her hair and makeup with a friend instead, so

321
00:16:51.399 --> 00:16:53.720
Molly called her stylist to let her know it would

322
00:16:53.759 --> 00:16:57.039
just be her. The last email that Molly sent was

323
00:16:57.080 --> 00:17:00.840
to the event coordinator on Friday at eight seventeen with

324
00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:05.279
the final guest list. Monroe County Road nine thirty is

325
00:17:05.319 --> 00:17:08.039
about as rustic as it gets. In the area where

326
00:17:08.039 --> 00:17:09.920
we live. There are a lot of dirt roads, but

327
00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:13.000
this is a whole other level. County Road nine thirty

328
00:17:13.160 --> 00:17:15.279
is not much more than a two track a little

329
00:17:15.279 --> 00:17:18.319
over a mile long. Two cars trying to pass each

330
00:17:18.359 --> 00:17:21.039
other can be a delicate operation as there isn't much

331
00:17:21.079 --> 00:17:24.039
space on either side of the road. There's also a

332
00:17:24.079 --> 00:17:26.440
creek that runs over the road at one point where

333
00:17:26.480 --> 00:17:28.599
you have to drive through a foot or two of water.

334
00:17:30.839 --> 00:17:32.960
This is rustic. If there's been a lot of rain,

335
00:17:33.039 --> 00:17:35.200
you wouldn't even want to attempt it. It was not

336
00:17:35.279 --> 00:17:38.559
a well traveled road, obviously, although it wasn't unusual for

337
00:17:38.599 --> 00:17:40.880
people to hang out down by the creek and party.

338
00:17:41.720 --> 00:17:44.599
For Glenn mcsparrin, though, County Road nine thirty was a

339
00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:47.400
shortcut that he would sometimes take to his mom's house.

340
00:17:48.039 --> 00:17:51.240
On Friday evening April twenty seventh, Glenn was taking his

341
00:17:51.359 --> 00:17:54.200
daughter over to his mom's house and decided to take

342
00:17:54.240 --> 00:17:57.640
the shortcut because they were both tired. As he crossed

343
00:17:57.640 --> 00:18:00.759
the creek, he saw a car's headlights facing in his direction.

344
00:18:01.720 --> 00:18:03.640
At first, he thought the car was trying to get

345
00:18:03.720 --> 00:18:06.359
past him. So he pulled over as far as he could.

346
00:18:07.079 --> 00:18:09.839
Then he saw another car behind the first one, facing

347
00:18:09.839 --> 00:18:12.680
in the opposite direction, so he thought maybe one of

348
00:18:12.680 --> 00:18:15.960
the cars was stuck. He couldn't see either car very

349
00:18:15.960 --> 00:18:18.279
well because it was dark out and the headlights were

350
00:18:18.319 --> 00:18:21.440
shining right at him, but he described the car closest

351
00:18:21.480 --> 00:18:24.799
to him as a quote, bigger, four door, dark colored

352
00:18:24.839 --> 00:18:28.640
Grandma car. Unquote. The other car he couldn't see at all.

353
00:18:29.480 --> 00:18:31.720
Then all of a sudden, he pulled up down closer

354
00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:34.839
to us. I rolled my window down just a little

355
00:18:34.880 --> 00:18:37.000
bit and I stuck my head over next to it.

356
00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:39.559
And right about then the guy got out and come

357
00:18:39.599 --> 00:18:42.119
through the end of his door. And I couldn't hardly

358
00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:46.000
seem because of all the glare, and I just kind

359
00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:47.640
of turned my head towards the wind, and I said, Hey,

360
00:18:47.759 --> 00:18:51.559
is somebody stuck down there? And how did he say that?

361
00:18:51.599 --> 00:18:54.519
He said, I don't know where they're at. It's going

362
00:18:54.599 --> 00:18:55.119
to be a while.

363
00:18:56.119 --> 00:18:58.079
I don't know where they are. It's going to be

364
00:18:58.119 --> 00:19:01.000
a while. So Glenn was confused by the comment, but

365
00:19:01.279 --> 00:19:03.200
he assumed that it meant that help was on the

366
00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:06.920
way for whatever problem the folks were having, So not

367
00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:09.279
being able to get around them, he backed his pickup

368
00:19:09.279 --> 00:19:11.920
truck up and went the other way, taking the long

369
00:19:11.960 --> 00:19:15.160
way around to get to his mom's. After hanging out

370
00:19:15.160 --> 00:19:17.440
with his mom and brother for a bit, Glenn got

371
00:19:17.480 --> 00:19:20.640
the nagging feeling that something about the whole situation wasn't right,

372
00:19:21.240 --> 00:19:23.319
so he decided to go back and see what was

373
00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:26.880
going on. He returned to the same spot, arriving around

374
00:19:26.960 --> 00:19:30.279
ten pm this time. As he crossed the creek, he

375
00:19:30.359 --> 00:19:33.759
saw just one car facing towards him, and he saw

376
00:19:33.799 --> 00:19:36.799
a woman lying motionless on her back directly in front

377
00:19:36.839 --> 00:19:40.480
of the car's front driver's side tire. Without getting out

378
00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:44.839
of his truck, he called nine one one.

379
00:19:43.839 --> 00:19:45.319
What's the address of your emergency?

380
00:19:45.880 --> 00:19:48.119
I am at the hand of a round hand of

381
00:19:48.200 --> 00:19:50.799
one thty one and the woman laying on the ground

382
00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:52.799
in front of a norm. I don't know what the

383
00:19:52.799 --> 00:19:53.680
hell is going on here.

384
00:19:55.160 --> 00:19:59.319
Glenn must have felt so badly that he left and

385
00:19:59.400 --> 00:20:00.319
came back, and.

386
00:20:00.920 --> 00:20:04.079
Badly, I'm sure, but also terrified. I mean, you know,

387
00:20:04.119 --> 00:20:06.039
he must have realized that he had come upon the

388
00:20:06.119 --> 00:20:09.359
scene where somebody was about to kill somebody else, or

389
00:20:09.640 --> 00:20:12.759
maybe had already killed someone else. Right the nine to

390
00:20:12.799 --> 00:20:14.759
one to one operator asked Glenn to get out of

391
00:20:14.799 --> 00:20:16.839
his truck and go check on the person he saw

392
00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:20.240
lying there. As you can imagine, Glenn was freaked out,

393
00:20:20.359 --> 00:20:22.400
knowing that he had just seen a man there about

394
00:20:22.440 --> 00:20:25.480
thirty minutes ago. His heart was beating fast as he

395
00:20:25.559 --> 00:20:28.400
slowly approached the woman. He told the nine to one

396
00:20:28.519 --> 00:20:30.960
one operator that her eyes were open, but he could

397
00:20:31.000 --> 00:20:34.680
tell that she was gone. The police quickly arrived at

398
00:20:34.680 --> 00:20:38.720
the scene. Based on the car's registration, they tentatively identified

399
00:20:38.720 --> 00:20:42.119
the body as that of Molly Watson. An autopsy would

400
00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:44.480
later show that she had died from a single bullet

401
00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:46.960
wound to the back of the head, with the gun

402
00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:49.400
having been fired right up against the back of her head.

403
00:20:50.119 --> 00:20:52.920
The caliber of the bullet couldn't be determined, however, because

404
00:20:52.960 --> 00:20:56.119
the bullet that had killed Molly was crushed beyond recognition.

405
00:20:56.799 --> 00:20:59.599
They believed it was a small caliber bullet, though something

406
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:03.599
two caliber or less. Molly was lying on her back

407
00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:06.440
directly in front of her car, wearing pajama pants and

408
00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:09.720
a tank top. Her dirty bare feet were sticking out

409
00:21:09.839 --> 00:21:12.039
just to the left of the front driver's side tire,

410
00:21:12.559 --> 00:21:15.240
and a pair of slippers was found nearby along with

411
00:21:15.279 --> 00:21:19.079
a pair of glasses. Molly had her diamond engagement ring

412
00:21:19.119 --> 00:21:21.799
on her left hand. Her purse was found behind the

413
00:21:21.839 --> 00:21:24.480
car with two hundred and thirty five dollars cash in it.

414
00:21:25.640 --> 00:21:28.960
Near Molly's car, investigators found a perfect tire print from

415
00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:32.200
a car that wasn't Molly's. There were two parts to

416
00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:35.079
the tire print. On the embankment on the side of

417
00:21:35.079 --> 00:21:37.200
the road was an impression from the side of the

418
00:21:37.279 --> 00:21:40.119
tire that had been pressed up against the embankment.

419
00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:41.039
It was a.

420
00:21:40.960 --> 00:21:44.640
Perfect imprint of two letters ohoh, kind of like the

421
00:21:44.759 --> 00:21:47.440
OO in the logo that could be found on the

422
00:21:47.519 --> 00:21:51.200
side of Goodyear brand tires. Of course, that wouldn't narrow

423
00:21:51.240 --> 00:21:54.319
things down much, but on the road itself was also

424
00:21:54.440 --> 00:21:58.119
a perfect imprint of the tire tread. Investigators made a

425
00:21:58.160 --> 00:22:01.160
cast of the tire print. What was not found at

426
00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:04.599
the scene was Molly's cell phone. Investigators made note of

427
00:22:04.640 --> 00:22:07.119
its absence they would need to do some searching to

428
00:22:07.119 --> 00:22:10.079
try to locate it. During the course of the crime

429
00:22:10.119 --> 00:22:12.960
scene investigation, one of the officers had to use the

430
00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:15.720
restroom and decided to drive back to the Monroe County

431
00:22:15.759 --> 00:22:18.200
Sheriff's office. I don't know why he drove back to

432
00:22:18.279 --> 00:22:20.880
the Sheriff's office when they were out in the wilderness,

433
00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:23.799
but that's what he decided to do. On his way

434
00:22:23.799 --> 00:22:25.920
back to the crime scene, about a third of a

435
00:22:25.960 --> 00:22:28.440
mile away from it, he happened to see a bright

436
00:22:28.519 --> 00:22:31.799
white T shirt lying in the road. He initially drove

437
00:22:31.839 --> 00:22:33.960
past it, but then he thought that's kind of odd,

438
00:22:34.160 --> 00:22:37.119
maybe it's related to the crime, so he went back,

439
00:22:37.240 --> 00:22:39.160
picked it up, and tossed it into the back of

440
00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:41.920
his car. It turned out to be an important find,

441
00:22:42.039 --> 00:22:45.640
as we'll see later. In the front passenger seat of

442
00:22:45.640 --> 00:22:48.680
Molly's car, they found a few items that indicated Molly

443
00:22:48.759 --> 00:22:51.680
had a wedding coming up, including a marriage license with

444
00:22:51.759 --> 00:22:55.160
her nim on it. Along with James Addies. One of

445
00:22:55.160 --> 00:22:57.759
the officers did a quick Internet search and found Molly

446
00:22:57.839 --> 00:23:01.440
and James's wedding registry on the bed Bath and Beyond website.

447
00:23:02.079 --> 00:23:04.920
They tracked down James's address and then headed over to

448
00:23:04.960 --> 00:23:07.119
his house in the wee hours of the morning to

449
00:23:07.240 --> 00:23:11.480
notify him that his fiancee was dead. James ADDIE's house

450
00:23:11.599 --> 00:23:14.400
was about thirty minutes away from the crime scene. It

451
00:23:14.519 --> 00:23:17.680
was around two forty five am when Master Sergeant Bradley

452
00:23:17.759 --> 00:23:21.640
Reim knocked on his door. James answered in his bathrobe.

453
00:23:22.200 --> 00:23:24.559
Reim introduced himself and said, I need to talk to

454
00:23:24.640 --> 00:23:27.960
you about Molly Watson. Can I come in? Addie opened

455
00:23:27.960 --> 00:23:31.160
the door and let Sergeant Ream in. As they were

456
00:23:31.160 --> 00:23:33.480
walking down the hallway to go sit in the dining room,

457
00:23:33.880 --> 00:23:36.200
a woman poked her head out of a doorway and

458
00:23:36.400 --> 00:23:39.720
asked what was going on. Reem was not expecting this.

459
00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.480
He asked, who are you. The woman replied, I'm his wife.

460
00:23:45.079 --> 00:23:46.640
What yes.

461
00:23:48.079 --> 00:23:52.119
Melanie Shepherd met James Addie in the early nineties when

462
00:23:52.119 --> 00:23:55.160
she was working at a convenience store. James came in

463
00:23:55.240 --> 00:23:59.200
regularly and finally asked her out. After six months of dating,

464
00:23:59.279 --> 00:24:02.119
James popped the question and the two were married in

465
00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:05.559
March nineteen ninety five. Soon after they were married, their

466
00:24:05.599 --> 00:24:08.920
son Ben was born. Then Emma came along about five

467
00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:11.519
years later. They didn't have a lot of money, but

468
00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:14.200
they made it work. Melanie was a stay at home

469
00:24:14.200 --> 00:24:17.400
mom and loved it. Once the kids got older. Around

470
00:24:17.400 --> 00:24:20.400
twenty sixteen, Melanie went back to work as a teacher's

471
00:24:20.400 --> 00:24:25.359
assistant in the Mexico, Missouri public school system. Over the years,

472
00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:27.640
she said there were some problems in the marriage, but

473
00:24:27.880 --> 00:24:31.440
nothing out of the ordinary for most married couples. Arguments

474
00:24:31.440 --> 00:24:34.759
over money, conflicts between James and their son during his

475
00:24:34.880 --> 00:24:38.480
teenage years. Any problems that came up, they worked through

476
00:24:38.559 --> 00:24:42.319
them together. By the time of Mollie Watson's death, Melanie

477
00:24:42.359 --> 00:24:45.680
and James had been married for just over twenty three years.

478
00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:50.480
According to Melanie, her husband was charming and sweet. I

479
00:24:50.519 --> 00:24:53.480
wonder if she called him sweetness too. He was home

480
00:24:53.559 --> 00:24:57.000
every night, always loyal and steady, and they got along well.

481
00:24:57.839 --> 00:25:01.039
He also seemed to have no tolerance for were affairs

482
00:25:01.160 --> 00:25:04.559
when he heard of other people having them. She would

483
00:25:04.559 --> 00:25:07.599
never have suspected Jim of cheating on her, much less

484
00:25:07.640 --> 00:25:11.240
of having a seven year affair and plans to marry

485
00:25:11.279 --> 00:25:15.200
another woman. Their daughter, Emma, would attest to the fact

486
00:25:15.240 --> 00:25:18.000
that their dad was a good man. He was close

487
00:25:18.039 --> 00:25:20.400
to his kids, involved in their lives, and a good

488
00:25:20.440 --> 00:25:23.960
father like her mom. This was the last thing that

489
00:25:24.079 --> 00:25:28.319
she would have expected. So had Mollie not met the children.

490
00:25:28.799 --> 00:25:30.920
She had met Emma one time, and we're going to

491
00:25:30.960 --> 00:25:32.480
talk about that in a few minutes.

492
00:25:32.640 --> 00:25:35.519
So one time in seven years she met one of

493
00:25:35.519 --> 00:25:39.720
the children. Yes, wow. After Melanie Addie popped her head

494
00:25:39.759 --> 00:25:42.400
into the hallway and told Sergeant Reem that she was

495
00:25:42.519 --> 00:25:46.319
James's wife, remasked her to go sit in another room

496
00:25:46.400 --> 00:25:49.839
so he could question them separately. James came clean and

497
00:25:49.839 --> 00:25:52.519
told the detective that yes, he had been seeing Molly

498
00:25:52.599 --> 00:25:56.680
Watson for the last seven years, and yes they had

499
00:25:56.680 --> 00:25:59.960
been planning a wedding for the last year. Yes, they

500
00:26:00.119 --> 00:26:02.559
were scheduled to be married in less than two days.

501
00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:07.279
Yes he was already married to Melanie Eddie, and they

502
00:26:07.319 --> 00:26:10.559
had been married for twenty three years. And perhaps the

503
00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:13.920
understatement of the year, he said, quote, I got myself

504
00:26:13.960 --> 00:26:17.920
involved with something I shouldn't have, you think James. But no,

505
00:26:18.200 --> 00:26:23.160
he claimed he absolutely did not kill Mellie. In the meantime,

506
00:26:23.319 --> 00:26:25.960
Melanie Eddy was sitting in the other room with no

507
00:26:26.079 --> 00:26:30.160
idea what was going on or Melanie. She couldn't hear

508
00:26:30.160 --> 00:26:32.559
the conversation in the other room and she felt like

509
00:26:32.640 --> 00:26:35.359
she was being left in the dark. All she knew

510
00:26:35.359 --> 00:26:37.920
at this point was that they were investigating a death,

511
00:26:38.039 --> 00:26:40.200
so she could only assume that it had something to

512
00:26:40.240 --> 00:26:43.880
do with James's work in the prison. When officers finally

513
00:26:43.880 --> 00:26:46.359
wanted to speak with Melanie, they asked if she knew

514
00:26:46.400 --> 00:26:50.799
someone named Mollie Watson. She said no. Then they informed

515
00:26:50.839 --> 00:26:53.440
her that her husband had been seeing this woman for

516
00:26:53.480 --> 00:26:56.079
the past seven years and they were scheduled to be

517
00:26:56.200 --> 00:27:01.359
married in less than two days. That's just crazy and

518
00:27:01.400 --> 00:27:05.319
in a Disney wedding. Yeah, no less, Melanie said, this

519
00:27:05.519 --> 00:27:08.319
is crazy. Are you sure you have you don't have

520
00:27:08.400 --> 00:27:12.359
the wrong person. Sergeant Rheim said, oh no, we're sure.

521
00:27:12.839 --> 00:27:16.720
As you can imagine, Melanie was reeling in disbelief. Her

522
00:27:16.759 --> 00:27:20.799
whole world felt like it was crumbling around her. During

523
00:27:20.799 --> 00:27:24.319
their questioning of James that night, he was forthcoming and cooperative,

524
00:27:24.680 --> 00:27:29.759
although he was obviously stressed. He started sweating profusely during

525
00:27:29.799 --> 00:27:32.880
the interview, at one point opening a window and putting

526
00:27:32.880 --> 00:27:35.960
a box van in it to cool himself. He shared

527
00:27:35.960 --> 00:27:39.240
with investigators that he had a purple cell phone, which

528
00:27:39.240 --> 00:27:42.119
he used only to communicate with Molly, a phone that

529
00:27:42.160 --> 00:27:45.440
Melanie wasn't aware of. She only knew of his regular

530
00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:49.319
orange phone. He gave detectives the purple phone and showed

531
00:27:49.319 --> 00:27:52.680
them the texts and calls between Molly and himself, including

532
00:27:52.680 --> 00:27:55.519
a call from Molly at eight thirty pm that evening,

533
00:27:55.920 --> 00:27:59.279
lasting almost twenty three minutes. He said that was the

534
00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:02.200
last time he spoke with her. He sent her three

535
00:28:02.240 --> 00:28:05.559
text messages later that night, and nine thirty five pm

536
00:28:05.759 --> 00:28:09.200
quote what did you eat for supper? Four minutes later,

537
00:28:09.680 --> 00:28:13.079
I love you so much, and at ten fifty three pm.

538
00:28:13.319 --> 00:28:15.640
Night night, sweetheart, I'll talk to you in the morning.

539
00:28:16.440 --> 00:28:19.440
There was no reply to any of these messages. He

540
00:28:19.519 --> 00:28:23.079
also made four unanswered calls to her that night. They

541
00:28:23.119 --> 00:28:25.480
asked James about the car he drove, and he took

542
00:28:25.559 --> 00:28:28.160
them to the garage so they could see his maroon

543
00:28:28.359 --> 00:28:30.160
Mercury Sable, which is the.

544
00:28:30.119 --> 00:28:32.720
Type of car that one might describe as a Grandma car.

545
00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:35.920
Okay, the Sable had the hood up and was covered

546
00:28:35.960 --> 00:28:39.400
in dust inside and out. To be fair, there are

547
00:28:39.440 --> 00:28:42.240
a lot of dirt roads in the area, so I

548
00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:44.319
mean it could be dusty from just riding around on

549
00:28:44.359 --> 00:28:44.920
the dirt road.

550
00:28:44.960 --> 00:28:45.079
Right.

551
00:28:45.759 --> 00:28:48.240
The police took the Goodyear tires from the car to

552
00:28:48.279 --> 00:28:52.960
be analyzed by the lab. Oh Goodyear tires, you say, well.

553
00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:55.960
I mean most cars probably have good your tires, I don't.

554
00:28:56.599 --> 00:28:59.160
I think it's probably the biggest brand, but I don't know.

555
00:29:00.440 --> 00:29:01.880
We'll be back after a break.

556
00:29:09.359 --> 00:29:10.799
You came back for part two.

557
00:29:11.880 --> 00:29:14.599
Well, I haven't moved. I made you go to the

558
00:29:14.640 --> 00:29:18.720
kitchen and get me a better snack. Yeah, and you

559
00:29:18.880 --> 00:29:20.880
brought back. And I did buy these for the podcast

560
00:29:21.039 --> 00:29:26.119
from Costco. They're called crunch Master rice Poppers, sweet and Salty.

561
00:29:28.480 --> 00:29:31.279
And did you try them? Had you had them before?

562
00:29:31.440 --> 00:29:32.480
No, I haven't had them before.

563
00:29:32.720 --> 00:29:34.519
Okay, what did you think they're?

564
00:29:34.559 --> 00:29:34.880
All? Right?

565
00:29:34.960 --> 00:29:37.519
I don't. I don't love those either, but they're kind of.

566
00:29:37.519 --> 00:29:39.200
Tastes like a breakfast cereal almost.

567
00:29:39.240 --> 00:29:41.079
Yeah, they kind of do. It's a really good good

568
00:29:41.119 --> 00:29:42.839
way to put it, I think good.

569
00:29:42.960 --> 00:29:44.640
Before we would have vacation, I was like, oh, these

570
00:29:44.640 --> 00:29:47.440
are really yummy, but I'm not liking them right now.

571
00:29:47.519 --> 00:29:49.960
Maybe it's just my I.

572
00:29:49.920 --> 00:29:52.039
Would give those also a six out of ten.

573
00:29:53.119 --> 00:29:56.119
I mean right now, i'd give them a too. But

574
00:29:56.480 --> 00:29:58.359
I did like them when I first opened them and

575
00:29:58.359 --> 00:30:01.359
bought them. But they're still around the pantry.

576
00:30:01.079 --> 00:30:03.079
So I'll go get you another snack.

577
00:30:04.400 --> 00:30:06.799
I mean, I don't know what I don't know what

578
00:30:06.839 --> 00:30:10.079
I want though, I'm sorry for being hymint.

579
00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:15.240
It's okay, you're entitled. Shall we get back to our story?

580
00:30:15.359 --> 00:30:15.720
Mm hmm.

581
00:30:16.559 --> 00:30:19.240
James told the police that on that Friday evening. He

582
00:30:19.279 --> 00:30:21.960
had left home around seven pm to go visit a

583
00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:25.440
friend from work, Jamie Lunsford, who lived a forty five

584
00:30:25.480 --> 00:30:28.799
minute drive from James and Melanie's home in Mexico, Missouri.

585
00:30:29.640 --> 00:30:31.319
James said that he was going to pick up an

586
00:30:31.359 --> 00:30:36.400
avocado plant, but Jamie wasn't home, so James returned, arriving

587
00:30:36.440 --> 00:30:39.759
back home around eight thirty pm, at which point he said,

588
00:30:39.799 --> 00:30:42.599
Molly called him and they talked for twenty three minutes.

589
00:30:43.279 --> 00:30:45.640
After that, he watched a bit of the movie Schindler's

590
00:30:45.680 --> 00:30:48.400
List on the TV before showering and going to bed.

591
00:30:49.519 --> 00:30:53.400
Melanie couldn't help the police confirm or contradict James's alibi.

592
00:30:54.039 --> 00:30:56.119
She told them that she had finished at her job

593
00:30:56.160 --> 00:30:59.000
as a teaching assistant at three o'clock on that Friday,

594
00:30:59.519 --> 00:31:01.920
then met Jim in town to run a few errands.

595
00:31:02.119 --> 00:31:04.519
It was his day off of work. They went to

596
00:31:04.559 --> 00:31:07.759
a Mexican restaurant ate supper, and then Melanie did some

597
00:31:07.799 --> 00:31:11.319
more shopping as Jim headed home. She got home around

598
00:31:11.359 --> 00:31:14.680
five o'clock. Jim was home when she got there, along

599
00:31:14.720 --> 00:31:17.880
with their daughter, Emma, who was a junior in high school.

600
00:31:18.519 --> 00:31:22.440
Their son Ben was away at college. Around seven PM.

601
00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:24.839
She said that Jim told her he was going to

602
00:31:24.839 --> 00:31:28.079
see a friend in kro but she didn't remember the name.

603
00:31:28.799 --> 00:31:31.519
Melanie went to bed around seven point thirty and didn't

604
00:31:31.559 --> 00:31:35.720
hear James come home. One other note from Melanie's interview

605
00:31:35.720 --> 00:31:38.559
with the police. When James left the house at seven,

606
00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:41.279
she said that he was wearing a black jacket that

607
00:31:41.359 --> 00:31:44.559
had belonged to her dad. She looked, but she never

608
00:31:44.599 --> 00:31:47.640
found that black jacket in the house again after that evening.

609
00:31:48.880 --> 00:31:51.519
Although they didn't have a lot of direct physical evidence

610
00:31:51.559 --> 00:31:54.400
tying James to the crime at this point, they felt

611
00:31:54.400 --> 00:31:57.799
like they already had enough to arrest him. In Missouri,

612
00:31:57.839 --> 00:32:00.400
once you arrest someone, you have twenty four hours to

613
00:32:00.400 --> 00:32:03.759
either charge them with a crime or release them. In

614
00:32:03.880 --> 00:32:06.319
James's case, they must have felt like it wouldn't take

615
00:32:06.359 --> 00:32:08.480
long to build their case, so they took him into

616
00:32:08.480 --> 00:32:11.440
custody at four eleven AM, only an hour and a

617
00:32:11.480 --> 00:32:14.240
half after arriving at his place to notify him of

618
00:32:14.319 --> 00:32:15.079
Molly's death.

619
00:32:16.160 --> 00:32:18.880
So Melanie is not helping Jim out at all here.

620
00:32:19.559 --> 00:32:22.079
Well, she's not helping or really hurting him either, because

621
00:32:22.160 --> 00:32:24.279
basically she said, I have no idea what time he

622
00:32:24.319 --> 00:32:28.200
came home. The next morning, Emma Addie woke up with

623
00:32:28.279 --> 00:32:31.160
no idea what had transpired during the night. Like any

624
00:32:31.200 --> 00:32:34.519
normal teenager would, she slept through the whole thing. When

625
00:32:34.519 --> 00:32:36.680
she got up, she saw that her grandma was there

626
00:32:36.720 --> 00:32:40.680
with her husband and everyone was really quiet. She overheard

627
00:32:40.680 --> 00:32:42.920
her mom say something like, how am I going to

628
00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:46.400
tell her? Melanie decided not to tell Emma about the

629
00:32:46.440 --> 00:32:49.160
affair yet. She just said that a woman had been

630
00:32:49.240 --> 00:32:51.920
murdered and her dad had been taken in for questioning.

631
00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:56.039
Emma's junior prom was that evening. She and her friends

632
00:32:56.039 --> 00:32:58.839
had been eagerly looking forward to the big evening and

633
00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:02.039
all the plans were in place. When Emma heard the

634
00:33:02.039 --> 00:33:04.200
news about her dad, she asked her mom what was

635
00:33:04.240 --> 00:33:07.559
going to happen. Melanie said, I don't know, but let's

636
00:33:07.599 --> 00:33:10.039
focus on your prom. We need to get your hair done,

637
00:33:10.160 --> 00:33:13.400
get your shoes, and make sure you're ready. Melanie helped

638
00:33:13.400 --> 00:33:15.720
her get dressed and they took pictures with her friends,

639
00:33:15.880 --> 00:33:18.119
focusing on that to try and get through the day.

640
00:33:18.720 --> 00:33:21.000
Emma would later say she was in a fog through

641
00:33:21.039 --> 00:33:24.200
it all. Emma was still in the dark after prom,

642
00:33:24.240 --> 00:33:26.400
but then a friend showed her an article that someone

643
00:33:26.440 --> 00:33:29.400
had shared on Facebook. That's how she found out that

644
00:33:29.480 --> 00:33:31.799
her dad had been having an affair and was under

645
00:33:31.880 --> 00:33:35.680
arrest for that woman's murder. Not only that, but seeing

646
00:33:35.680 --> 00:33:39.240
Molly's picture, she realized she had actually met Molly about

647
00:33:39.240 --> 00:33:40.119
a year earlier.

648
00:33:41.279 --> 00:33:42.400
A couple of years ago.

649
00:33:42.640 --> 00:33:43.160
It was.

650
00:33:44.680 --> 00:33:48.279
Twenty seventeen. I believe my friend and I were going

651
00:33:48.359 --> 00:33:53.720
to this convention and we needed costumes made. And Dad

652
00:33:53.759 --> 00:33:56.079
said that he knew somebody who did that kind of thing,

653
00:33:56.440 --> 00:34:00.720
and he took me, and that person was Molly, and

654
00:34:00.839 --> 00:34:03.680
he took me to go meet her, and she made

655
00:34:03.720 --> 00:34:04.559
a costume for me.

656
00:34:05.920 --> 00:34:07.039
Do you know what the costume was?

657
00:34:07.559 --> 00:34:09.360
I don't. I do know that it was a comic

658
00:34:09.480 --> 00:34:11.920
con that Emma and her friend were going to, but

659
00:34:11.960 --> 00:34:14.920
I don't know what the costume was. Emma thought that

660
00:34:14.960 --> 00:34:17.719
Molly was really nice and helpful. There didn't seem to

661
00:34:17.719 --> 00:34:20.760
be anything strange or awkward about it. But now that

662
00:34:20.800 --> 00:34:23.440
she knew the truth about her dad's relationship to Molly

663
00:34:23.480 --> 00:34:26.559
and what he was accused of doing, she grew disgusted

664
00:34:26.599 --> 00:34:30.320
and angry at her dad. When the police questioned Emma,

665
00:34:30.559 --> 00:34:34.039
James's alibi began to fall apart. Emma had been home

666
00:34:34.079 --> 00:34:36.840
the evening that Molly was murdered, and she was watching

667
00:34:36.840 --> 00:34:39.320
the clock closely because she had some homework that had

668
00:34:39.360 --> 00:34:42.719
to be turned in online that night. She confirmed that

669
00:34:42.800 --> 00:34:45.840
her dad left the house around seven, saying he was

670
00:34:45.880 --> 00:34:49.119
going to see a friend, but she distinctly remembered him

671
00:34:49.400 --> 00:34:52.320
getting home closer to ten pm, not eight thirty as

672
00:34:52.360 --> 00:34:55.400
he had claimed. She remembered him coming into the living

673
00:34:55.440 --> 00:34:58.199
room where she was finishing up her homework. He asked

674
00:34:58.239 --> 00:35:00.679
her what she was still doing up said she was

675
00:35:00.719 --> 00:35:03.039
just turning in her homework, then told him that she

676
00:35:03.119 --> 00:35:05.719
was going to bed. He hugged her, kissed her on

677
00:35:05.760 --> 00:35:08.679
the forehead, and said I love you. Nothing seemed out

678
00:35:08.679 --> 00:35:11.280
of the ordinary to Emma. She went to bed and

679
00:35:11.360 --> 00:35:13.639
that was the last time she saw her dad until

680
00:35:13.679 --> 00:35:17.480
his trial about three years later. If I'm a story

681
00:35:17.639 --> 00:35:21.000
was accurate, that meant that James's whereabouts were unaccounted for

682
00:35:21.119 --> 00:35:25.519
between seven and ten pm that night. Jamie Lunsford, the

683
00:35:25.559 --> 00:35:27.519
friend that James said he was going to see that

684
00:35:27.639 --> 00:35:31.280
night to pick up an avocado plant, also contradicted James

685
00:35:31.239 --> 00:35:32.079
ADDIE's alibi.

686
00:35:32.440 --> 00:35:35.679
That's such a random excuse, I'd going to pick.

687
00:35:35.599 --> 00:35:38.239
Up an avocado plant. How many times have we heard

688
00:35:38.239 --> 00:35:42.079
criminals use that? He said that he never really hung

689
00:35:42.119 --> 00:35:44.519
out with Jim outside of work, and that they never

690
00:35:44.559 --> 00:35:46.880
talked on the phone. In fact, they didn't even have

691
00:35:46.960 --> 00:35:50.119
each other's cell numbers. The only time James had been

692
00:35:50.159 --> 00:35:53.039
to Jamie's house was to pick up a table saw

693
00:35:53.079 --> 00:35:55.719
that Jamie had given him, and they had never talked

694
00:35:55.719 --> 00:35:58.760
about getting together that evening. He did say that they

695
00:35:58.760 --> 00:36:01.000
had talked at one point about James picking up an

696
00:36:01.039 --> 00:36:03.400
avocado plant from his house. I guess they were both

697
00:36:03.559 --> 00:36:06.800
avid gardeners, but they never had made plans for that.

698
00:36:07.280 --> 00:36:10.000
Jamie said that he wasn't home that Friday evening, so

699
00:36:10.119 --> 00:36:13.360
it is possible that James Addy stopped by without him knowing.

700
00:36:14.480 --> 00:36:19.320
The day after James's arrest, Melanie was still reeling understandably,

701
00:36:20.039 --> 00:36:21.920
she went out to have a look around the garage,

702
00:36:21.960 --> 00:36:25.920
which was primarily James's domain. She didn't go out there much.

703
00:36:26.280 --> 00:36:29.199
In the loft area above the garage, she saw several

704
00:36:29.239 --> 00:36:32.639
boxes on the side and black magic marker was the

705
00:36:32.719 --> 00:36:37.840
name Mollie Watson. Opening the boxes, she first mostly saw

706
00:36:37.880 --> 00:36:42.039
household items, some kitchen things, and other possessions. It seemed

707
00:36:42.079 --> 00:36:44.760
like Mollie was preparing to move in once she and

708
00:36:44.880 --> 00:36:48.679
James were married, and James was storing her things until then.

709
00:36:49.639 --> 00:36:53.280
Then Melanie found a chest containing photo albums of James

710
00:36:53.360 --> 00:36:56.800
and Mollie together. There was a photo album other trip

711
00:36:56.880 --> 00:37:00.519
to Disney World, filled with pictures of the couple smiling

712
00:37:00.559 --> 00:37:03.840
together and having a good time. Then there was a

713
00:37:03.880 --> 00:37:07.480
similar album of James and Molly's trip to Cancuon together.

714
00:37:08.360 --> 00:37:12.519
Melanie started thinking back. She knew about both of those trips.

715
00:37:12.760 --> 00:37:15.480
For the trip to Florida, James had told her that

716
00:37:15.559 --> 00:37:18.559
his work was sending him there for a sniper training.

717
00:37:19.280 --> 00:37:21.760
They do sniper training Disney World.

718
00:37:21.960 --> 00:37:25.880
Well in Florida, maybe not Disney World, definitely not Disney World.

719
00:37:26.199 --> 00:37:28.719
At the time, she had seen a document printed out

720
00:37:28.840 --> 00:37:32.400
on their computer desk on what looked like official Moberly

721
00:37:32.519 --> 00:37:37.360
Correctional Facility letterhead with all the details of the training, logistics,

722
00:37:37.440 --> 00:37:40.920
information and so on. Not only that, but he had

723
00:37:40.960 --> 00:37:44.320
a certificate hung on his wall for being an Advanced

724
00:37:44.440 --> 00:37:50.840
Scout Sniper and another for Marine Rifle Expert Sniper Qualified.

725
00:37:51.480 --> 00:37:55.440
Oh details, details matter, yeah, for sure. Before the trip

726
00:37:55.480 --> 00:37:58.599
to Mexico, Melanie remembered James being on the phone with

727
00:37:58.639 --> 00:38:01.960
her friend and he said something like no, of course

728
00:38:02.000 --> 00:38:05.960
I can't go. I'm married. After the call ended, Melanie

729
00:38:05.960 --> 00:38:09.480
asked him what that was about. He said, some friends

730
00:38:09.519 --> 00:38:12.400
when work were planning a trip to Mexico. She said,

731
00:38:12.519 --> 00:38:15.360
just because you're married doesn't mean you can't go. You

732
00:38:15.360 --> 00:38:18.280
should go and have fun with your friends. Little did

733
00:38:18.320 --> 00:38:20.800
she know she was encouraging him to go have a

734
00:38:20.880 --> 00:38:22.239
vacation with his girlfriend.

735
00:38:22.320 --> 00:38:24.920
Pretty clever of him, really to take that approach like,

736
00:38:25.039 --> 00:38:28.239
oh no, I can't go, like he let her like.

737
00:38:28.320 --> 00:38:30.159
He must have known she was going to talk him

738
00:38:30.199 --> 00:38:32.599
into it and say, go have fun.

739
00:38:32.639 --> 00:38:36.000
I's familiar when you were going an Olympic, so you

740
00:38:36.000 --> 00:38:37.159
weren't going to stay for the Olympas.

741
00:38:37.199 --> 00:38:39.400
I was like, oh, you did talk into that.

742
00:38:40.079 --> 00:38:43.199
Interesting, I'm gonna have to go search for some pretto.

743
00:38:43.199 --> 00:38:47.480
Well even worse, a year later, James and Melanie took

744
00:38:47.519 --> 00:38:50.519
a vacation to the same area. James would take her

745
00:38:50.559 --> 00:38:53.320
to different places around Cancun and say things like, oh,

746
00:38:53.400 --> 00:38:55.280
we should do this. I did it last year when

747
00:38:55.280 --> 00:38:57.400
I came with my friends and it was really fun.

748
00:38:58.400 --> 00:39:00.519
She also started thinking back to the fact that James

749
00:39:00.599 --> 00:39:03.440
usually got off work around three, but often didn't come

750
00:39:03.440 --> 00:39:06.760
home until five or so. Sometimes she would ask him

751
00:39:06.760 --> 00:39:09.079
why he was so late, but he would get irritated

752
00:39:09.119 --> 00:39:13.320
with her for asking, so she stopped. She never suspected

753
00:39:13.320 --> 00:39:16.679
he was having an affair. Seeing the photo albums made

754
00:39:16.679 --> 00:39:20.199
it all very real for Melanie. She knew that what

755
00:39:20.239 --> 00:39:23.199
the police told her was true, and she believed that

756
00:39:23.280 --> 00:39:26.840
James had probably killed Mollie. She realized that James was

757
00:39:26.840 --> 00:39:29.559
a selfish person and could see how he might kill

758
00:39:29.599 --> 00:39:33.480
someone to try and fix a problem. She became angry

759
00:39:33.519 --> 00:39:36.440
and decided to go see James in jail so they

760
00:39:36.480 --> 00:39:39.440
had hurt. His family had stayed away the time since

761
00:39:39.480 --> 00:39:43.960
his arrest. She deserved answers and wanted to know everything.

762
00:39:44.559 --> 00:39:47.760
During their visit, James admitted to the affair and apologized,

763
00:39:48.239 --> 00:39:50.519
but he didn't have a clear answer for why he

764
00:39:50.559 --> 00:39:53.480
had done it. He said he hadn't realized that they,

765
00:39:53.760 --> 00:39:57.039
meaning Melanie and James, had such a perfect life, but

766
00:39:57.159 --> 00:40:00.920
he insisted that he did not kill Mollie. If she

767
00:40:01.000 --> 00:40:04.000
was leaving, Melanie told him, I think they're going to

768
00:40:04.039 --> 00:40:06.639
get you for this, and a few days later she

769
00:40:06.760 --> 00:40:09.760
filed for divorce. Good for you Melanie.

770
00:40:09.880 --> 00:40:13.559
Yeah, let's get back to the evidence. We mentioned earlier

771
00:40:13.599 --> 00:40:16.440
that police hadn't found Malli's cell phone at the scene.

772
00:40:16.960 --> 00:40:19.400
They contacted US Cellular, who did a ping of her

773
00:40:19.440 --> 00:40:21.800
phone showing that it was several miles away from the

774
00:40:21.800 --> 00:40:24.599
crime scene, but they still weren't able to locate it.

775
00:40:25.199 --> 00:40:28.400
They made a second attempt using a cell site simulator.

776
00:40:29.199 --> 00:40:32.599
Cell site simulators are sometimes used by law enforcement to

777
00:40:32.679 --> 00:40:36.000
locate a cell phone when they know the unique identifier

778
00:40:36.039 --> 00:40:40.400
for that phone. Cell site simulators send transmissions as if

779
00:40:40.440 --> 00:40:43.760
they were a cell tower. Devices in the proximity of

780
00:40:43.800 --> 00:40:47.360
the simulator device then transmit a signal back to the simulator,

781
00:40:47.719 --> 00:40:52.280
telling it its identity. Once the cell site simulator identifies

782
00:40:52.360 --> 00:40:56.000
the specific cellular device with the unique identifier that the

783
00:40:56.039 --> 00:41:00.199
police are looking for, it obtains the signaling information only

784
00:41:00.239 --> 00:41:03.480
for that particular phone. It can then tell the relative

785
00:41:03.559 --> 00:41:06.400
strength and the general direction of where the phone is,

786
00:41:06.920 --> 00:41:09.360
which helps investigators narrow down the location.

787
00:41:10.360 --> 00:41:13.199
I'm a little confused by that. I'm a little slow

788
00:41:13.239 --> 00:41:14.519
on the up tap.

789
00:41:15.360 --> 00:41:18.159
Basically, it's just it's a device that acts like it's

790
00:41:18.199 --> 00:41:21.760
a cell tower, and so then you know devices that

791
00:41:21.800 --> 00:41:24.199
are in the vicinity of a cell tower, pying off

792
00:41:24.239 --> 00:41:27.519
of that cell tower, and they send their like very

793
00:41:27.559 --> 00:41:30.679
basic information about the cell phone, like their unique identifier.

794
00:41:31.239 --> 00:41:34.119
So when the simulator sees the unique identifier that they're

795
00:41:34.119 --> 00:41:37.159
looking for, then they can get more information from the

796
00:41:37.239 --> 00:41:40.000
phone about like the strength of its signal which tells

797
00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:43.280
them how far it is, and the direction of the signal,

798
00:41:43.320 --> 00:41:45.800
so that tells them which way it is. It just

799
00:41:45.800 --> 00:41:48.639
helps them narrow down the location of it. Using the

800
00:41:48.679 --> 00:41:51.639
cell site simulator, they were able to find Molly's phone

801
00:41:51.679 --> 00:41:54.000
by the side of the road several miles from where

802
00:41:54.000 --> 00:41:57.239
her body was found. Also near her phone, they found

803
00:41:57.280 --> 00:42:01.400
an empty twenty two caliber AMMO box. Molly's cell phone

804
00:42:01.559 --> 00:42:05.800
was an important find as it contained valuable evidence. Most importantly,

805
00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:08.559
she had an app on her phone called drive Sense,

806
00:42:08.679 --> 00:42:13.159
which is provided by Assurance. The app tracks your trips

807
00:42:13.159 --> 00:42:15.960
and your driving habits to determine whether you're eligible for

808
00:42:16.039 --> 00:42:19.679
a safe driver discount. The app showed that on Friday,

809
00:42:19.719 --> 00:42:22.960
April twenty seventh, Molly drove from her home to the

810
00:42:23.000 --> 00:42:26.679
site of her murder, leaving at eight thirty pm. The

811
00:42:26.760 --> 00:42:30.320
drive lasted twenty two minutes. The time and duration of

812
00:42:30.320 --> 00:42:33.960
the drive coincided exactly with the time of Molly's and

813
00:42:34.079 --> 00:42:37.599
James's phone call that evening, so she was on the

814
00:42:37.639 --> 00:42:41.039
phone with James as she was driving to this remote location.

815
00:42:42.519 --> 00:42:45.960
Another key piece of evidence was the tire impression. When

816
00:42:46.000 --> 00:42:48.719
investigators compared the cast that they'd made of the tire

817
00:42:48.760 --> 00:42:51.840
track at the crime scene, it appeared to match exactly

818
00:42:51.920 --> 00:42:56.800
the tire tread from James's Mercury sable. Lastly, remember the

819
00:42:56.840 --> 00:42:59.199
T shirt that the officer found about a third of

820
00:42:59.199 --> 00:43:02.280
a mile away from the crime scene. He didn't know

821
00:43:02.320 --> 00:43:04.079
if it had anything to do with the crime, but

822
00:43:04.199 --> 00:43:06.920
he tossed it into the back of his car. When

823
00:43:06.960 --> 00:43:09.239
they tested it, they found that it had traces of

824
00:43:09.280 --> 00:43:13.360
both gunshot residue and blood on it. DNA taken from

825
00:43:13.400 --> 00:43:17.400
the blood was consistent with Molly's DNA, However, it didn't

826
00:43:17.400 --> 00:43:21.400
test positive for james Addis DNA. The T shirt was

827
00:43:21.480 --> 00:43:24.679
white with a Skills USA Missouri logo on the front

828
00:43:24.719 --> 00:43:28.400
of it. Skills USA is a nonprofit organization that helps

829
00:43:28.440 --> 00:43:33.639
prepare students for careers in trade, technical, and skilled service occupations.

830
00:43:34.159 --> 00:43:36.679
When they showed the T shirt to Melanie and Emma,

831
00:43:37.039 --> 00:43:41.320
Emma recognized it immediately. She recognized it because she had

832
00:43:41.360 --> 00:43:45.119
actually made it as an assignment for a graphic design class.

833
00:43:45.199 --> 00:43:47.480
Everyone in the class had to print some T shirts

834
00:43:47.920 --> 00:43:50.719
with the Skills USA Missouri logo on it in a

835
00:43:50.760 --> 00:43:54.320
certain way. Emma printed three or four and the logo

836
00:43:54.440 --> 00:43:57.239
came out crooked on all of them. She was the

837
00:43:57.239 --> 00:43:59.199
only one in the class that had an issue where

838
00:43:59.199 --> 00:44:02.159
the logo printed crooked, and so she ended up taking

839
00:44:02.199 --> 00:44:04.280
them home and giving them to her dad to use

840
00:44:04.320 --> 00:44:07.199
as rags in the garage. She knew that it was

841
00:44:07.239 --> 00:44:09.360
one of the T shirts that she had printed because

842
00:44:09.400 --> 00:44:10.800
the logo was crooked.

843
00:44:11.000 --> 00:44:12.719
Oh good clue.

844
00:44:12.760 --> 00:44:15.079
While Molly was head over heels in love with James

845
00:44:15.159 --> 00:44:17.360
and seemed to have every intention of going through with

846
00:44:17.440 --> 00:44:20.679
the wedding, there are some signs that she started to

847
00:44:20.760 --> 00:44:25.360
doubt James's honesty right before her death. First, Molly's brother

848
00:44:25.400 --> 00:44:29.119
Tim had done some internet sleuthing on James Addie. Tim

849
00:44:29.199 --> 00:44:31.440
felt from the beginning that James may have been a

850
00:44:31.480 --> 00:44:35.000
con man. On Missouri's case net website, you can look

851
00:44:35.079 --> 00:44:39.199
up court cases, including divorce filings. At some point before

852
00:44:39.239 --> 00:44:42.920
Molly's death, Tim tried to verify that James and Melanie

853
00:44:42.960 --> 00:44:46.320
were divorced, but he found nothing on the case net website.

854
00:44:47.000 --> 00:44:49.800
He encouraged Molly to look for herself, but she didn't

855
00:44:49.840 --> 00:44:53.280
want to hear it. However, Mollie did seem to harbor

856
00:44:53.320 --> 00:44:56.599
some doubts about James's story of his ex wife, Melanie's

857
00:44:56.639 --> 00:45:00.159
death just two days before their wedding. The night before

858
00:45:00.199 --> 00:45:03.320
she was killed, Molly did some Google searches for things

859
00:45:03.440 --> 00:45:09.920
like Columbia, Missouri obituaries, Melanie addy obituary, and deaths at

860
00:45:10.079 --> 00:45:15.239
m U Missouri University Hospital. Perhaps Molly started to suspect

861
00:45:15.239 --> 00:45:18.440
the truth and confronted James when they met that Friday night.

862
00:45:19.039 --> 00:45:22.639
We'll never know for sure. James's bail had been set

863
00:45:22.679 --> 00:45:25.880
at five hundred thousand dollars. He couldn't pay it, so

864
00:45:25.960 --> 00:45:28.519
he sat in jail until his trial finally began on

865
00:45:28.599 --> 00:45:32.239
April twenty sixth, twenty twenty one, nearly three years to

866
00:45:32.280 --> 00:45:36.360
the day since Molly's murder. The prosecution's case was simple,

867
00:45:36.679 --> 00:45:39.280
James got involved with another woman and let things get

868
00:45:39.320 --> 00:45:42.360
out of hand. His double life started on a collision

869
00:45:42.440 --> 00:45:44.800
course the day that Molly asked him to marry him,

870
00:45:44.840 --> 00:45:47.960
and he said yes. Things were coming to a head

871
00:45:48.000 --> 00:45:51.360
and he had to do something either come clean or

872
00:45:51.400 --> 00:45:54.280
get rid of either Molly or Melanie. He chose to

873
00:45:54.360 --> 00:45:58.400
kill Molly. The prosecution argued that Molly was just hanging

874
00:45:58.440 --> 00:46:01.360
out at home that Friday evening, probably doing some final

875
00:46:01.360 --> 00:46:05.039
wedding preparations, when James called and asked her to meet him.

876
00:46:05.719 --> 00:46:08.440
She put on some slippers and a jacket and headed out.

877
00:46:09.039 --> 00:46:11.199
She called James as she left and talked to him

878
00:46:11.239 --> 00:46:14.599
the whole way to the remote location about halfway between

879
00:46:14.639 --> 00:46:17.119
their homes, where he would kill her in cold blood.

880
00:46:18.320 --> 00:46:20.719
The defense, on the other hand, wanted to convince the

881
00:46:20.800 --> 00:46:24.639
jury that there were too many gaps in the prosecution's case. Yes,

882
00:46:24.840 --> 00:46:28.239
James had an affair, he readily admitted it. That caused

883
00:46:28.320 --> 00:46:30.679
law enforcement to jump to the conclusion that he had

884
00:46:30.760 --> 00:46:34.000
killed Molly before they knew all the facts, as shown

885
00:46:34.039 --> 00:46:36.679
by their arrest of James so quickly after showing up

886
00:46:36.719 --> 00:46:41.320
at his house. Further, James had cooperated, fully admitting to

887
00:46:41.360 --> 00:46:44.280
the affair, volunteering that he had a separate cell phone,

888
00:46:44.800 --> 00:46:49.199
showing them his car, and consenting to searches. James loved Mollie.

889
00:46:49.519 --> 00:46:53.079
All the texts and cards and photos demonstrated that, and

890
00:46:53.199 --> 00:46:55.519
he had just dropped off a four thousand dollars check

891
00:46:55.559 --> 00:46:57.920
for the wedding that day, so why would he kill her?

892
00:46:59.159 --> 00:47:02.239
His defense proved explanations for some of the evidence that

893
00:47:02.280 --> 00:47:06.039
the jury would hear. Tire track matching was junk science.

894
00:47:06.079 --> 00:47:10.480
They argued, there is no widely accepted scientific principle behind it.

895
00:47:11.239 --> 00:47:13.519
The t shirt found it the scene that his daughter made.

896
00:47:13.920 --> 00:47:16.440
Maybe James had given it to Molly. It had her

897
00:47:16.519 --> 00:47:19.920
DNA on it, but not his. Also, there was no

898
00:47:20.039 --> 00:47:23.679
murder weapon. The investigators couldn't identify what type of bullet

899
00:47:23.719 --> 00:47:26.760
was used and what gun it came from. James did

900
00:47:26.800 --> 00:47:29.039
have a lot of guns in the house, but they

901
00:47:29.039 --> 00:47:31.280
weren't able to really figure out what gun was actually

902
00:47:31.400 --> 00:47:33.599
used to kill Molly, so that didn't really help them

903
00:47:33.679 --> 00:47:37.360
very much. And what about James's daughter claiming that he

904
00:47:37.440 --> 00:47:40.320
got home around ten pm instead of eight thirty pm

905
00:47:40.360 --> 00:47:43.480
as he had said. Maybe he was working in the garage.

906
00:47:43.960 --> 00:47:46.360
Emma admitted that her dad spent a lot of time

907
00:47:46.400 --> 00:47:49.679
in the garage working on cars, and the mercury sable

908
00:47:49.880 --> 00:47:53.519
was found with its hood up in the garage. So basically,

909
00:47:53.519 --> 00:47:57.079
the defense was arguing that the prosecution's case was entirely

910
00:47:57.119 --> 00:48:01.239
circumstantial and there wasn't any hard evidence tying James to

911
00:48:01.280 --> 00:48:04.519
the murder. What do you think about the evidence against James.

912
00:48:05.360 --> 00:48:09.119
I think he looks very guilty. Who else had a

913
00:48:09.119 --> 00:48:10.360
motive to kill poor Molly?

914
00:48:10.639 --> 00:48:14.840
Yeah? There were a few interesting texts sent by James

915
00:48:14.880 --> 00:48:18.599
that were revealed at trial. First, at twelve fifty four

916
00:48:18.679 --> 00:48:22.039
pm on the day of Molly's murder, James texted her quote,

917
00:48:22.199 --> 00:48:25.079
I think I'm going to see you tonight unquote. The

918
00:48:25.119 --> 00:48:28.800
prosecution argued that that showed that Molly's murder was planned.

919
00:48:29.760 --> 00:48:32.880
Later that day, before he left home, he sent several

920
00:48:32.920 --> 00:48:37.239
texts to himself between five and six pm. The first

921
00:48:37.440 --> 00:48:41.320
was have a meeting tonight at eight normal place. A

922
00:48:41.400 --> 00:48:44.840
little later you have to be there. The third said

923
00:48:45.159 --> 00:48:49.039
don't be a bleep again, and finally let's go man.

924
00:48:49.639 --> 00:48:52.519
It sounded like someone trying to psych themselves up for something,

925
00:48:53.400 --> 00:48:55.960
and the text that said don't be a bleep again

926
00:48:56.519 --> 00:48:58.639
made it sound like he had planned to kill Molly

927
00:48:58.719 --> 00:49:00.920
once before but didn't follow through with it.

928
00:49:01.360 --> 00:49:03.280
With the text literally said don't be.

929
00:49:03.239 --> 00:49:05.639
A Yeah, I don't know, well I didn't say bleep.

930
00:49:05.639 --> 00:49:07.280
I don't know what the word was that he used,

931
00:49:07.559 --> 00:49:09.880
so with time running short, he didn't have time to

932
00:49:09.880 --> 00:49:13.639
put her off again. The most dramatic witnesses for the

933
00:49:13.679 --> 00:49:18.960
prosecution were James's daughter, Emma and his now ex wife Melanie. Emma,

934
00:49:19.079 --> 00:49:21.559
twenty years old at this point, hadn't seen her dad

935
00:49:21.639 --> 00:49:24.320
since the night of Molly's murder three years earlier, when

936
00:49:24.360 --> 00:49:26.480
he kissed her on the forehead, told her good night

937
00:49:26.639 --> 00:49:29.519
and that he loved her. She said after the trial

938
00:49:29.559 --> 00:49:32.880
that she intentionally didn't look at him while testifying because

939
00:49:32.920 --> 00:49:35.840
she knew that she would have broken down. She did

940
00:49:35.880 --> 00:49:38.119
look over at him when she was done and saw

941
00:49:38.119 --> 00:49:40.800
that he was crying, the only real emotion that he

942
00:49:40.840 --> 00:49:44.639
showed during the trial, Melanie testified that she had no

943
00:49:44.719 --> 00:49:47.280
idea her husband had been leading a double life for

944
00:49:47.360 --> 00:49:50.599
seven years. She also testified that she had not been

945
00:49:50.639 --> 00:49:53.519
in a serious car accident, hadn't been on life support,

946
00:49:53.920 --> 00:49:56.800
and hadn't in fact died. In April of twenty eighteen,

947
00:49:58.199 --> 00:50:01.119
the prosecution presented two witnesses who had been locked up

948
00:50:01.159 --> 00:50:03.840
in the Monroe County Jail at the same time as James.

949
00:50:04.559 --> 00:50:06.880
A group of inmates were sitting in the common room

950
00:50:06.960 --> 00:50:10.519
watching TV and chatting the subject of bail came up,

951
00:50:10.599 --> 00:50:13.280
and James mentioned that his had been set at five

952
00:50:13.360 --> 00:50:17.559
hundred thousand dollars. That got the other inmates' attention. They

953
00:50:17.559 --> 00:50:19.559
asked him what he had done to deserve such a

954
00:50:19.599 --> 00:50:23.119
high amount. He told them he had quote put someone

955
00:50:23.239 --> 00:50:27.239
face down in a ditch unquote. The state interpreted that

956
00:50:27.440 --> 00:50:32.119
as a jailhouse confession. On cross examination, though James's defense

957
00:50:32.159 --> 00:50:34.760
attorney got the inmates to admit that they weren't sure

958
00:50:34.880 --> 00:50:39.159
exactly what he had said. The defense opted not to

959
00:50:39.199 --> 00:50:43.079
call any witnesses. This isn't uncommon, as the defense doesn't

960
00:50:43.079 --> 00:50:46.760
need to prove anything. Their reasoning was that the prosecution

961
00:50:46.920 --> 00:50:50.480
didn't present enough compelling evidence to prove James's guilt beyond

962
00:50:50.480 --> 00:50:51.440
a reasonable doubt.

963
00:50:51.519 --> 00:50:53.800
It always surprises me when that happens, though, it just

964
00:50:53.840 --> 00:50:55.480
seems like you could at least try.

965
00:50:55.880 --> 00:50:59.400
Yeah, it does seem that way. The jury, however, disagreed.

966
00:50:59.679 --> 00:51:02.360
After deliberating for only two and a half hours, they

967
00:51:02.400 --> 00:51:05.039
came back with the verdict guilty of murder in the

968
00:51:05.079 --> 00:51:08.760
first degree and guilty of a second charge of armed

969
00:51:08.800 --> 00:51:12.039
criminal action, which is basically the intent to commit a

970
00:51:12.079 --> 00:51:16.199
crime while carrying a loaded weapon. James was later sentenced

971
00:51:16.199 --> 00:51:19.119
to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus

972
00:51:19.159 --> 00:51:23.679
ten years for the armed criminal action conviction. So James

973
00:51:23.679 --> 00:51:25.960
had spent the last several years working at a prison

974
00:51:26.079 --> 00:51:29.039
as a correctional officer. Now he would spend the rest

975
00:51:29.039 --> 00:51:31.519
of his life seeing things from the other side.

976
00:51:31.920 --> 00:51:35.599
That is an interesting point. I know, wasn't it the

977
00:51:35.599 --> 00:51:36.159
same prison?

978
00:51:36.199 --> 00:51:36.360
Though?

979
00:51:36.800 --> 00:51:38.800
That the prison he worked at was like a minimum

980
00:51:38.840 --> 00:51:41.840
security prison, so I'm guessing he ended up at a

981
00:51:41.840 --> 00:51:44.760
little bit more of a high security location.

982
00:51:44.960 --> 00:51:47.639
I imagine that most of the time that they wouldn't

983
00:51:47.679 --> 00:51:50.079
send you to the same prison that you worked at.

984
00:51:50.199 --> 00:51:52.440
No, that's true. Yeah, And I would imagine that he

985
00:51:52.480 --> 00:51:55.199
probably didn't tell anyone that he worked as a corrections

986
00:51:55.199 --> 00:51:59.280
officer in prison. James hadn't said a word at his

987
00:51:59.360 --> 00:52:02.920
trial and hadn't testified in his own defense, but in

988
00:52:02.960 --> 00:52:05.440
a hearing a couple of months after his sentencing, he

989
00:52:05.519 --> 00:52:08.280
had a lot to say. He told the judge that

990
00:52:08.320 --> 00:52:10.320
Molly was the love of his life and that he

991
00:52:10.360 --> 00:52:13.480
would have done anything to keep her happy. Not only that,

992
00:52:13.559 --> 00:52:16.000
but he believed he knew who the real killer was.

993
00:52:16.679 --> 00:52:18.960
He said that Molly had an ex who had been

994
00:52:18.960 --> 00:52:21.559
stalking her and had a motive to do her harm

995
00:52:21.599 --> 00:52:25.400
as her wedding was approaching. Indeed, Molly had posted to

996
00:52:25.440 --> 00:52:28.920
Facebook less than a year before her death accusing someone

997
00:52:28.960 --> 00:52:31.199
of trying to hack into her bank account using her

998
00:52:31.239 --> 00:52:35.119
personal info. She didn't say who, but she said quote,

999
00:52:35.559 --> 00:52:38.760
I suspect it was the unstable individual who attempted to

1000
00:52:38.800 --> 00:52:42.039
intimidate me with their service weapon by pointing it at

1001
00:52:42.039 --> 00:52:45.360
me and threatening me when I left the relationship unquote.

1002
00:52:46.639 --> 00:52:49.159
James also argued to the judge that his lawyer had

1003
00:52:49.159 --> 00:52:53.239
been ineffective. He hadn't listened to James, didn't call any witnesses,

1004
00:52:53.360 --> 00:52:56.840
and in general just didn't do his job. James filed

1005
00:52:56.880 --> 00:53:00.440
an appeal asking for a new trial. The primary basis

1006
00:53:00.440 --> 00:53:03.119
for the appeal was that the tire print expert from

1007
00:53:03.159 --> 00:53:06.679
the Missouri Highway Patrol shouldn't have been allowed to testify

1008
00:53:07.119 --> 00:53:11.199
because the science of tire print analysis isn't reliable or proven.

1009
00:53:11.480 --> 00:53:15.079
In late twenty twenty two, an appeals court upheld his conviction.

1010
00:53:15.960 --> 00:53:19.039
So a couple things I wanted to talk about here. First,

1011
00:53:19.280 --> 00:53:21.840
the fact that James was able to lead a double

1012
00:53:21.880 --> 00:53:25.119
life for seven years without his wife or kids knowing it.

1013
00:53:25.159 --> 00:53:27.800
How do you think he got away.

1014
00:53:27.599 --> 00:53:30.599
With that, maybe told his wife he was going on

1015
00:53:31.280 --> 00:53:36.920
trips to Paris and the Olympics and things like that. No,

1016
00:53:37.039 --> 00:53:40.039
I mean that was my question too. Remind me again

1017
00:53:40.079 --> 00:53:41.599
how he and Molly met.

1018
00:53:41.760 --> 00:53:44.599
They met They worked together at the correctional pace, and

1019
00:53:44.679 --> 00:53:46.519
she only worked there I think for a couple of years,

1020
00:53:46.559 --> 00:53:48.039
and then she left to do something else.

1021
00:53:48.079 --> 00:53:50.760
But they kept dating, So no one at the prison

1022
00:53:50.840 --> 00:53:52.519
knew that they started seeing each other.

1023
00:53:52.920 --> 00:53:54.480
I don't think so, not that I know of. And

1024
00:53:54.679 --> 00:53:57.679
I think, like I said, she left there probably relatively

1025
00:53:57.719 --> 00:54:00.400
soon after they started dating, so it may not. People

1026
00:54:00.400 --> 00:54:02.719
that worked with him may not have known that he

1027
00:54:02.760 --> 00:54:03.280
was seeing her.

1028
00:54:03.320 --> 00:54:06.519
Was he not friends with his coworkers? Did they not

1029
00:54:06.599 --> 00:54:08.079
know much about his personal life?

1030
00:54:08.320 --> 00:54:09.880
I don't really know for sure. The only one we

1031
00:54:09.920 --> 00:54:13.239
really know about is Jamie Lunsford, which was interesting because

1032
00:54:13.239 --> 00:54:16.039
that was James's alibi and Jamie's like, I don't even

1033
00:54:16.079 --> 00:54:17.960
know him that well, Like we don't even have each

1034
00:54:17.960 --> 00:54:21.119
other's phone numbers, so that it sounds like maybe James

1035
00:54:21.199 --> 00:54:24.840
wasn't overly close to anyone at work. So I know

1036
00:54:24.880 --> 00:54:27.320
you already said you're pretty certain that James did it,

1037
00:54:27.360 --> 00:54:29.679
But do you think there is any reasonable doubt in

1038
00:54:29.719 --> 00:54:31.079
your mind in this case.

1039
00:54:31.639 --> 00:54:35.000
So I believe that I must have watched the twenty

1040
00:54:35.039 --> 00:54:37.400
twenty episode or whatever on this case or listen to

1041
00:54:37.440 --> 00:54:43.159
it as a podcast, and I remember her, Molly's ex girlfriend,

1042
00:54:43.199 --> 00:54:45.400
being a suspect for a while, Is that true.

1043
00:54:46.039 --> 00:54:48.679
I think they may have looked at her, especially because

1044
00:54:48.679 --> 00:54:51.239
of that Facebook post, but I don't think. I don't

1045
00:54:51.280 --> 00:54:53.360
think they had any other suspects. I mean, they arrested

1046
00:54:53.440 --> 00:54:56.159
James an hour and a half after they got there

1047
00:54:56.239 --> 00:54:59.199
to tell him about Molly's death, So I don't think

1048
00:54:59.199 --> 00:55:02.000
they ever really looked seriously at any other suspects.

1049
00:55:02.960 --> 00:55:05.920
So you think there's a possibility at someone.

1050
00:55:05.679 --> 00:55:08.000
Else, No, I am one hundred percent sure he does.

1051
00:55:08.480 --> 00:55:12.119
But I will say there's not a lot of strong

1052
00:55:12.159 --> 00:55:14.519
evidence in the case. I mean, I think the strongest

1053
00:55:14.559 --> 00:55:17.840
evidence is just the fact that he was he was

1054
00:55:17.840 --> 00:55:19.559
about to get married to this person and he was

1055
00:55:19.599 --> 00:55:24.079
already married, so he had to do something to me. Yeah,

1056
00:55:24.119 --> 00:55:28.119
and the tire tracks. They you know, it is not

1057
00:55:28.719 --> 00:55:31.559
the most well established science, but honestly, I've looked at

1058
00:55:31.559 --> 00:55:35.519
the pictures of the cast that they made and James's tire,

1059
00:55:35.920 --> 00:55:38.559
and yeah, they look like the tread is exactly the same,

1060
00:55:38.679 --> 00:55:42.239
So to me, it would be pretty odd. You know,

1061
00:55:42.320 --> 00:55:45.159
if another car had that exact tread was there that night.

1062
00:55:45.599 --> 00:55:49.679
Why is it such junk science just because two tires could.

1063
00:55:49.440 --> 00:55:52.519
Have Yeah, I think so. It's not like fingerprints or

1064
00:55:52.800 --> 00:55:55.400
other types of science or DNA or things like that.

1065
00:55:56.360 --> 00:55:58.719
Do you think One thing I was thinking about is

1066
00:55:58.760 --> 00:56:04.079
whether James had considered killing Melanie, whether she maybe dodged

1067
00:56:04.079 --> 00:56:06.079
a bullet in this case too, because I think if

1068
00:56:06.079 --> 00:56:09.599
you're James, you've you know, you're on this collision course,

1069
00:56:10.079 --> 00:56:12.320
you've got to do something about it. And obviously he

1070
00:56:12.360 --> 00:56:15.039
wasn't going to come clean and just admit what a

1071
00:56:15.519 --> 00:56:18.719
what a slinball he was. But I wonder if Melanie

1072
00:56:18.800 --> 00:56:19.440
was also.

1073
00:56:19.199 --> 00:56:20.960
In danger, he must have considered it.

1074
00:56:21.239 --> 00:56:24.000
Yeah, And I wonder how she felt afterwards about that too.

1075
00:56:24.039 --> 00:56:26.400
It must have been really scary to think about it.

1076
00:56:26.599 --> 00:56:28.639
She seemed, you know, she divorced him right away and

1077
00:56:28.679 --> 00:56:29.880
she seemed pretty angry.

1078
00:56:30.400 --> 00:56:33.679
Yeah. I thought it was interesting that nobody in his family,

1079
00:56:33.800 --> 00:56:36.480
like his daughter, his wife, they didn't stand by him

1080
00:56:36.519 --> 00:56:38.679
at all. They were like, nope, he did this, and

1081
00:56:39.639 --> 00:56:40.599
we're going to help the police.

1082
00:56:40.599 --> 00:56:44.320
However we can, so Mollie must have asked very little

1083
00:56:44.360 --> 00:56:45.199
of James.

1084
00:56:45.519 --> 00:56:46.800
Yeah, that's kind of the impression.

1085
00:56:47.199 --> 00:56:48.920
Like, you know, he must have been home for dinner

1086
00:56:48.960 --> 00:56:50.760
most nights and never went.

1087
00:56:50.679 --> 00:56:53.880
Over to his place. Seven years dating someone, you never

1088
00:56:53.960 --> 00:56:54.320
go over.

1089
00:56:54.199 --> 00:56:57.239
To their house and you don't really know the children

1090
00:56:57.280 --> 00:56:59.079
at all that are going to be your step children.

1091
00:56:59.320 --> 00:57:03.039
Yeah, and even when he did bring Emma over, he

1092
00:57:03.159 --> 00:57:06.400
must have told Molly, don't tell her that we're dating

1093
00:57:06.519 --> 00:57:08.840
or something, because it's true. Yeah, that would have blown

1094
00:57:08.880 --> 00:57:13.400
its cover right. At James's sentencing hearing, Molly's brother Tim

1095
00:57:13.559 --> 00:57:16.320
spoke about the impact of Molly's loss on their family.

1096
00:57:16.880 --> 00:57:20.199
This horrible tragedy caused my mom to go over the

1097
00:57:20.320 --> 00:57:21.840
edge before she passed away.

1098
00:57:22.960 --> 00:57:23.480
This year.

1099
00:57:24.199 --> 00:57:28.480
She was diagnosed with severe psychological trauma from Molly's murder.

1100
00:57:29.719 --> 00:57:32.159
My dad had been taking care of my mom for

1101
00:57:32.239 --> 00:57:35.239
over two years, dealing with the stress of a murdered

1102
00:57:35.280 --> 00:57:39.280
daughter and a wife of fifty years. This sometimes couldn't

1103
00:57:39.320 --> 00:57:43.159
recognize him. The stress from that took his life in

1104
00:57:43.199 --> 00:57:49.000
September of twenty twenty of a heart attack. The heartache

1105
00:57:49.079 --> 00:57:51.559
and stress of it all has taken a toll on

1106
00:57:51.719 --> 00:57:56.000
all of us. Molly had the world in front of her.

1107
00:57:56.440 --> 00:57:59.719
She was taken from us way too soon. I truly

1108
00:57:59.719 --> 00:58:03.920
believe if he had of chose to break up with

1109
00:58:03.960 --> 00:58:07.599
her instead of murder her, I would still have my sister,

1110
00:58:08.000 --> 00:58:10.079
my mom, and my dad with me.

1111
00:58:11.119 --> 00:58:13.519
It's so sad. I mean, you know, he lost almost

1112
00:58:13.559 --> 00:58:14.280
his whole family.

1113
00:58:14.400 --> 00:58:16.320
Yeah, that's heartbreaking, it is.

1114
00:58:16.400 --> 00:58:18.360
I mean, it's a it's a stark reminder that when

1115
00:58:18.400 --> 00:58:21.000
you decide to take someone's life, you're affecting so many

1116
00:58:21.039 --> 00:58:22.639
more people than just your victim.

1117
00:58:23.679 --> 00:58:28.119
Molly also James's family too, like they were Melanie sounds like,

1118
00:58:28.239 --> 00:58:29.920
you know, she really was a good wife and mother

1119
00:58:30.119 --> 00:58:33.519
and his children. I mean you know they've suffered.

1120
00:58:33.639 --> 00:58:36.159
Oh yeah, greatly too. Absolutely.

1121
00:58:36.480 --> 00:58:40.239
I don't think you can ever, you know, if a

1122
00:58:40.280 --> 00:58:43.440
family member is murdered or your family member is a murderer,

1123
00:58:43.480 --> 00:58:47.119
either way, I don't know how you had from that.

1124
00:58:47.239 --> 00:58:51.239
Yeah. Molly's son, Declan, who I believe was around thirteen

1125
00:58:51.320 --> 00:58:54.440
years old at the time of James's sentencing, wrote a

1126
00:58:54.519 --> 00:58:57.719
letter directed to James that was read during the sentencing hearing.

1127
00:58:58.280 --> 00:59:01.639
Here's part of that letter. My mom was an amazing,

1128
00:59:01.800 --> 00:59:05.360
smart and beautiful person and sure She wasn't a perfect person,

1129
00:59:05.400 --> 00:59:08.320
but nobody is perfect, and she wasn't a perfect mom.

1130
00:59:08.480 --> 00:59:11.760
But being a mom isn't about being perfect. It's about

1131
00:59:11.800 --> 00:59:14.480
making good decisions for your child. And that's what she did.

1132
00:59:15.079 --> 00:59:18.239
And I believe she only ever made one real wrong decision,

1133
00:59:18.400 --> 00:59:21.760
which was believing in and trusting you, and you just

1134
00:59:21.880 --> 00:59:25.280
kept lying to everyone around you. The only reason she

1135
00:59:25.360 --> 00:59:27.840
believed you was because she loved you and looked past

1136
00:59:27.880 --> 00:59:30.320
your flaws and was probably willing to walk to the

1137
00:59:30.400 --> 00:59:32.760
end of the earth for you. And you couldn't be

1138
00:59:32.760 --> 00:59:35.519
a little bit honest with her or anyone for that matter.

1139
00:59:36.400 --> 00:59:38.239
That means that you are the kind of man who

1140
00:59:38.320 --> 00:59:41.480
is a coward, who has no regrets about his past actions,

1141
00:59:41.760 --> 00:59:43.519
and you are willing to move on to the next

1142
00:59:43.559 --> 00:59:46.440
person like they are just an object. And my mother

1143
00:59:46.599 --> 00:59:49.400
was no object. She was more important to me than

1144
00:59:49.440 --> 00:59:52.119
you can ever imagine, and I was more important to

1145
00:59:52.159 --> 00:59:55.000
her than you ever were. So in a way, you

1146
00:59:55.079 --> 00:59:57.400
took something from both of us. You took away my

1147
00:59:57.519 --> 01:00:00.480
mom from me, you took away her son from her.

1148
01:00:01.119 --> 01:00:03.519
Here's the bottom line. You now have to face the

1149
01:00:03.559 --> 01:00:06.480
consequences of your actions, and I hope you have to

1150
01:00:06.519 --> 01:00:08.519
face them every day of your life.

1151
01:00:09.360 --> 01:00:11.920
Wow, what a smart young man.

1152
01:00:12.119 --> 01:00:15.719
Yeah. I am not sure what Declan is doing now,

1153
01:00:15.760 --> 01:00:18.119
but I hope he is doing well and getting the

1154
01:00:18.119 --> 01:00:20.880
support that he needs. I'm also not sure what has

1155
01:00:20.920 --> 01:00:24.199
become of James's ex wife Melanie or their adult children

1156
01:00:24.239 --> 01:00:26.880
Ben and Emma, but I also hope that they've been

1157
01:00:26.880 --> 01:00:28.719
able to pick up the pieces of their lives.

1158
01:00:29.000 --> 01:00:29.400
Me too.

1159
01:00:30.119 --> 01:00:31.320
Rest in peace, Mollie.

1160
01:00:32.199 --> 01:00:35.199
Mollie deserved much better than what she got.

1161
01:00:35.400 --> 01:00:44.199
Yes, for sure. Should we tell our listeners a little

1162
01:00:44.199 --> 01:00:47.639
bit about our vacation? Sure about my and the kids

1163
01:00:47.760 --> 01:00:48.519
vacation and.

1164
01:00:48.599 --> 01:00:51.079
No, I mean's I had a couple of days.

1165
01:00:51.159 --> 01:00:53.079
Yeah, you did have a couple of couple of good days.

1166
01:00:53.119 --> 01:00:56.400
But we went to Maine and we stayed not far

1167
01:00:56.440 --> 01:01:00.559
from Acadia National Park, which was amazingly beautiful.

1168
01:01:00.719 --> 01:01:02.360
We see it a great airbnb.

1169
01:01:02.880 --> 01:01:03.199
Yeah.

1170
01:01:03.239 --> 01:01:07.559
It was called Eagles Irie E Y E R I

1171
01:01:07.599 --> 01:01:10.639
E and Hancock, Maine. Our host was Joscelyn and she

1172
01:01:10.800 --> 01:01:13.760
was amazing. Yeah, if you would like bore details, d

1173
01:01:13.920 --> 01:01:16.960
M me and I am happy to give you those details.

1174
01:01:17.000 --> 01:01:19.519
I would highly recommend it. I thought it was I

1175
01:01:19.559 --> 01:01:20.199
thought it was great.

1176
01:01:20.280 --> 01:01:22.760
Yeah, it was a really beautiful locations right on the

1177
01:01:22.760 --> 01:01:24.519
water too, So there was they had a couple of

1178
01:01:24.599 --> 01:01:27.960
kayaks out back and we went. I took the kids

1179
01:01:28.000 --> 01:01:30.079
and we went kayaking one day, which was really cool.

1180
01:01:30.159 --> 01:01:31.920
We went out to like there's a little island out

1181
01:01:31.920 --> 01:01:35.199
in the water, which our daughter Emma and I went to,

1182
01:01:35.880 --> 01:01:37.719
but there was like a bald eagle on the island

1183
01:01:37.880 --> 01:01:40.880
who was making really scary noises and so so we

1184
01:01:40.920 --> 01:01:41.920
got out of there. Cool.

1185
01:01:42.199 --> 01:01:42.920
You got to see it.

1186
01:01:42.920 --> 01:01:46.320
It was, Yeah, it was really cool, but yeah, it was.

1187
01:01:46.400 --> 01:01:48.840
It was beautiful area. I wish we I wish that

1188
01:01:48.920 --> 01:01:52.199
you hadn't been sick for a lot of it.

1189
01:01:52.559 --> 01:01:57.000
Yeah. We went to bar Harbor, Maine, and which is

1190
01:01:57.000 --> 01:01:59.440
where Acadia the National Park is, and that was really

1191
01:01:59.880 --> 01:02:01.960
I guess the focus at our trip, like we wanted

1192
01:02:01.960 --> 01:02:03.840
to you know, do a lot of hikes and things like.

1193
01:02:03.719 --> 01:02:06.119
That, and we ate a lot of lobster rolls.

1194
01:02:06.159 --> 01:02:09.159
Oh my gosh, I mean I was only I mean,

1195
01:02:09.199 --> 01:02:12.400
I guess I was down by Tuesday was when I

1196
01:02:12.400 --> 01:02:15.760
started feeling sick. After a hike. I was like, abnormally

1197
01:02:16.159 --> 01:02:18.519
it was kind of a hard hike, it was light

1198
01:02:18.559 --> 01:02:22.079
bowl does an easy hike, and I just felt like

1199
01:02:22.159 --> 01:02:24.360
jello after that, and then my throat started hurt. But

1200
01:02:24.639 --> 01:02:27.000
so yeah, from Wednesday on I was out and you guys,

1201
01:02:27.000 --> 01:02:30.480
but in that time, I mean I had at least

1202
01:02:30.519 --> 01:02:33.159
two lobster rolls and lobster bisk and I think by

1203
01:02:33.159 --> 01:02:35.679
that point I was lobstered out. Yeah, so you guys

1204
01:02:35.800 --> 01:02:36.639
went on to eat like.

1205
01:02:37.360 --> 01:02:41.079
I think our daughter ate like eight lobster rolls over

1206
01:02:41.119 --> 01:02:42.280
the course of a few days.

1207
01:02:42.239 --> 01:02:43.440
He is small but mighty.

1208
01:02:43.679 --> 01:02:46.119
Yeah, I mean they were really good. We actually learned.

1209
01:02:46.159 --> 01:02:48.920
So on one of the days you were not feeling well,

1210
01:02:48.960 --> 01:02:50.639
the kids and I went out. We took a little

1211
01:02:50.639 --> 01:02:53.079
boat tour around I.

1212
01:02:53.000 --> 01:02:55.039
Don't even know what you guys did. That's how like

1213
01:02:55.079 --> 01:02:57.440
little we've talked, and you guys actually got in trouble

1214
01:02:57.480 --> 01:03:00.400
from me because I was like, I'm high, I'm sick

1215
01:03:00.440 --> 01:03:04.199
of the Airbnb by myself and hungary.

1216
01:03:04.559 --> 01:03:06.559
Well, the boat tour that we took was really cool.

1217
01:03:06.599 --> 01:03:08.480
It was like a two hour boat tour and they

1218
01:03:08.480 --> 01:03:10.880
had like a narrator and we learned all kinds of

1219
01:03:10.880 --> 01:03:13.920
things about the lobster industry, which I hadn't known before.

1220
01:03:13.920 --> 01:03:17.039
It was really actually super interesting. But a couple of

1221
01:03:17.079 --> 01:03:19.599
things that were Well, one that was really interesting is

1222
01:03:19.639 --> 01:03:23.360
that there's a disputed area between the US and Canada.

1223
01:03:23.400 --> 01:03:26.599
It's the only border dispute that is left between the

1224
01:03:26.719 --> 01:03:29.039
US and Canada. There's this area and it happens to

1225
01:03:29.039 --> 01:03:32.559
be where there's great lobster fishing that both the US

1226
01:03:32.599 --> 01:03:35.880
and Canada claim as their own. And there's actually been

1227
01:03:35.920 --> 01:03:38.599
like all these conflicts and fights. And we actually watched

1228
01:03:38.639 --> 01:03:41.880
a documentary about it called Lobster War that night because

1229
01:03:41.880 --> 01:03:44.119
we were all so like fascinated by this. So that

1230
01:03:44.199 --> 01:03:47.320
was interesting. Then the other thing, this is really really sad,

1231
01:03:47.400 --> 01:03:51.679
but because of climate change, within twenty to thirty years

1232
01:03:51.679 --> 01:03:55.199
from now, there will be no more lobster around Maine,

1233
01:03:55.239 --> 01:03:58.039
like around the area right now where we were.

1234
01:03:58.599 --> 01:04:04.039
Because you ate that might That is really that is

1235
01:04:04.119 --> 01:04:06.519
devastating to hear. I know, it really is such a

1236
01:04:06.599 --> 01:04:09.039
huge part of their economy.

1237
01:04:09.159 --> 01:04:11.400
It is. I mean, they said that twenty five percent

1238
01:04:11.480 --> 01:04:14.280
of people's jobs are directly in Maine, the state of

1239
01:04:14.280 --> 01:04:17.199
Maine are directly tied to lobster industry. Oh my gosh,

1240
01:04:17.239 --> 01:04:18.039
in one way or another.

1241
01:04:18.159 --> 01:04:20.920
So twenty thirty years from now, statistic that eighty percent

1242
01:04:20.960 --> 01:04:22.039
of Maine is forest.

1243
01:04:22.559 --> 01:04:24.679
Oh wow, Yeah, I believe it. I mean it was

1244
01:04:24.719 --> 01:04:26.039
really very Katia.

1245
01:04:26.079 --> 01:04:27.519
It was just breathtaking.

1246
01:04:27.800 --> 01:04:28.360
Yeah.

1247
01:04:28.400 --> 01:04:31.199
It was funny that the days that I was there,

1248
01:04:31.280 --> 01:04:35.719
it was really rainy and like not rainy, but like misty. Yeah,

1249
01:04:35.760 --> 01:04:38.280
it was very foggy, foggy. So it was fun I

1250
01:04:38.320 --> 01:04:40.519
mean it we made it like very mystical and kind

1251
01:04:40.559 --> 01:04:43.000
of I don't know, romantic feeling.

1252
01:04:43.920 --> 01:04:45.519
It did take away from some of the sites though,

1253
01:04:45.519 --> 01:04:47.000
because there are a lot of places where you're up

1254
01:04:47.039 --> 01:04:49.400
on like a summit and you know, couldn't really see

1255
01:04:49.480 --> 01:04:51.760
much on those foggy days. I did hear I think

1256
01:04:51.760 --> 01:04:54.320
they said it on the boat tour two hundred days

1257
01:04:54.320 --> 01:04:56.800
out of the year in a Kadia are foggy.

1258
01:04:57.320 --> 01:04:59.000
So oh okay, So I wasn't sure if that was

1259
01:04:59.039 --> 01:05:00.800
an anomaly or not. It did seem like it was

1260
01:05:00.880 --> 01:05:04.039
just kind of damp, like the towels did, like things

1261
01:05:04.039 --> 01:05:05.440
didn't dry very well.

1262
01:05:05.599 --> 01:05:06.760
It's very damp and humid.

1263
01:05:07.519 --> 01:05:09.920
One thing for Maine that was just blew me away.

1264
01:05:10.039 --> 01:05:13.559
And this is silly, but the amount of bugs compared

1265
01:05:13.559 --> 01:05:15.480
to here was nominal.

1266
01:05:15.679 --> 01:05:18.840
Yeah, you have very very few bugs that were really pleasant.

1267
01:05:18.880 --> 01:05:21.760
Like if you want to hike here, I mean you're

1268
01:05:21.960 --> 01:05:24.880
you're gonna get bitten. There's you know, there's ticks and

1269
01:05:24.960 --> 01:05:30.039
mosquitoes and black flies and they really can ruin yeah ruined. Yeah,

1270
01:05:30.119 --> 01:05:33.039
hikes for us and trips for us. But main was

1271
01:05:33.559 --> 01:05:37.039
it was just really beautiful and pleasant and uh yeah, yes,

1272
01:05:37.760 --> 01:05:39.880
did you guys ever take that drive like the.

1273
01:05:39.960 --> 01:05:43.800
Kettle We did do the Cadillac Summit Drive. It's it's

1274
01:05:43.800 --> 01:05:45.840
something you have to actually reserve and pay like six

1275
01:05:45.880 --> 01:05:49.400
dollars that. Yeah, it was. It was amazing. I mean

1276
01:05:49.440 --> 01:05:51.920
some of the views I'll show you the picture picture,

1277
01:05:52.039 --> 01:05:54.360
but yeah, it was just incredible. I mean it's like

1278
01:05:54.400 --> 01:05:57.360
the highest point in a cadia, so you're basically at

1279
01:05:57.360 --> 01:05:59.639
the peak of this mountain and just looking out and

1280
01:05:59.679 --> 01:06:03.159
all directions that just amazing, amazing gistas.

1281
01:06:03.239 --> 01:06:08.199
And we did go to the ables. Yeah, that was

1282
01:06:08.280 --> 01:06:09.239
that was really good too.

1283
01:06:09.519 --> 01:06:11.440
That was good. I'm going to say the best lobster

1284
01:06:11.519 --> 01:06:15.000
roll I had was at just there was like a

1285
01:06:15.000 --> 01:06:18.440
little roadside shack that I stopped at with the kids,

1286
01:06:18.679 --> 01:06:20.760
I don't know on Thursday or Friday, and it was

1287
01:06:21.000 --> 01:06:23.880
it was just amazing. But they were all really good.

1288
01:06:23.880 --> 01:06:27.079
There was the saltines I had at the Airbnb were impeccable.

1289
01:06:27.880 --> 01:06:30.599
Well you are, You're a hero for.

1290
01:06:31.119 --> 01:06:33.400
I mean, I don't even want to talk about it,

1291
01:06:33.440 --> 01:06:36.559
but it was fine. You don't know me anything, but

1292
01:06:36.599 --> 01:06:38.519
I would like the kids, we're like, oh, we'll just

1293
01:06:38.559 --> 01:06:40.440
call it another ship and I'm like, with the budget

1294
01:06:40.639 --> 01:06:45.039
for the strip, was you know spent. So yeah, it's

1295
01:06:45.119 --> 01:06:45.800
kind of a bummer.

1296
01:06:46.000 --> 01:06:46.960
Yeah, for sure.

1297
01:06:48.079 --> 01:06:50.400
The best thing I ate actually was the pork belly

1298
01:06:50.599 --> 01:06:51.920
appetizer at that restaurant.

1299
01:06:51.960 --> 01:06:52.519
It was really good.

1300
01:06:52.760 --> 01:06:54.639
It was like the best thing I've eaten in a while.

1301
01:06:54.760 --> 01:06:56.559
Yeah, it was just some restaurant in bar Harbor that

1302
01:06:56.599 --> 01:06:57.280
we found and we.

1303
01:06:57.280 --> 01:07:01.199
Got Harbor was was. It was a cool place to

1304
01:07:01.320 --> 01:07:02.559
It was a little I.

1305
01:07:02.480 --> 01:07:04.679
Felt like it was a little overrated, like people.

1306
01:07:04.719 --> 01:07:08.360
Yeah, I was glad that you were staying in Hancock, yeah,

1307
01:07:08.400 --> 01:07:11.840
because it was just so peaceful there. Yeah, just really.

1308
01:07:12.559 --> 01:07:14.199
Harbor was cool. I mean, there are a lot of shops,

1309
01:07:14.199 --> 01:07:16.000
but it's it was basically.

1310
01:07:15.760 --> 01:07:17.320
Very similar to a shop guys.

1311
01:07:17.519 --> 01:07:20.880
So yeah, but it just felt very similar to touristy towns,

1312
01:07:20.920 --> 01:07:23.599
like even on like the West side of Michigan. Way

1313
01:07:23.639 --> 01:07:26.559
bigger than those towns, but still it just felt like

1314
01:07:26.679 --> 01:07:30.679
kind of touristy you know, coastal town type of Yeah.

1315
01:07:30.480 --> 01:07:31.440
It was lovely though.

1316
01:07:31.559 --> 01:07:31.800
Yeah.

1317
01:07:32.880 --> 01:07:36.360
Good luck to everyone going back to school this week

1318
01:07:36.679 --> 01:07:39.079
or next week, or if you've already gone back. I

1319
01:07:39.079 --> 01:07:40.239
hope everything's going well.

1320
01:07:40.440 --> 01:07:41.480
It's a fun time of year.

1321
01:07:41.920 --> 01:07:44.320
It's a crazy time of year, so for so many people.

1322
01:07:44.519 --> 01:07:47.199
Yeah, well, why don't we end it there? You go back,

1323
01:07:47.360 --> 01:07:51.320
get some rest. Thank you for joining me and doing

1324
01:07:51.400 --> 01:07:55.199
your best here. I appreciate it. Well, thank you, and

1325
01:07:55.280 --> 01:07:58.079
thank you all for listening, and especial.

1326
01:07:57.800 --> 01:08:01.639
Things to our patrons for your for in your patients

1327
01:08:01.880 --> 01:08:04.920
in allowing us to put this episode out a little later.

1328
01:08:05.679 --> 01:08:09.400
Please rate, review, follow and subscribe. Find us on social media,

1329
01:08:09.519 --> 01:08:13.159
or send us an email at Lovemarykill at gmail dot com,

1330
01:08:13.199 --> 01:08:17.399
and please consider supporting us on Patreon dot com slash Lovemrykill.

1331
01:08:17.840 --> 01:08:20.840
We have one tier five dollars a month for usually

1332
01:08:20.960 --> 01:08:24.880
early ad free access and a monthly bonus episode. Until

1333
01:08:24.920 --> 01:08:25.359
next time.

1334
01:08:25.800 --> 01:09:00.319
Don't kill your husband and don't kill your wife. The

1335
01:09:00.880 --> 01:09:01.800
Baking cont