Wendi Davidson and Mike Severance - Part 1

0:00 Hi, I'm rich, and Tina. If there's one thing we've learned in over twenty years of marriage. It's that some days you'll feel like killing your husband, and. Some days you'll feel like killing your wife. Welcome to love, Mary. Kill Hey, Tina, Hey Rich? How are you today? I am pretty good? Good? How are you? I'm okay. That intro was a little rough, and it's my fault because I get stressed out about saying, Hi, I'm rich. I don't know why.

0:40 Sometimes it comes out. Sometimes it comes out like Mickey Mouse or something. It does a little bit. Yeah, but you had told me before you started, I think I'm going to go in deeper this time. Yeah, and you really did it. So that's why I. Had every intent to go in deeper, and it just didn't work out. Said, I don't know. I don't know why, but I struggle. On a recent episode, I made a random comment near the end about craving a cheeseburger. You did. That comment has gotten It's funny. You never know what's going to get a lot of feedback and what's not. I got a lot of feedback on that comment and a lot of ideas that I'm going to need to test out here. Oh did you meet cheeseburger dip or something?

1:20 No, No, I didn't. It doesn't. This is not related to the stock, but I just was looking at all these comments and people have strong opinion. We've had cheeseburgers since you made that comment. Actually, I had a cheeseburger at Buffalo Wild Wings. We went met some friends there, and oh, that's right. Normally I wouldn't get a cheeseburger at Buffalo Wild Wings because I'd get wings. But it's not really a long story. But we were supposed to meet somewhere else, but like, there's a ton of people there, so then we're Buffalo Wild Wings was right next door and it was actually during the beginning of french manness, Like a couple just go over to Buffalo Wild Wings. And it was actually a really good cheeseburger. Sorry that was a bad story, but go ahead. It was a good cheeseburger. I'm going to say. But I wanted to share some of the feedback because I think I'm going to have to go on a mission. So okay.

2:01 Jillian says that the big arch for McDonald's is trash. Don't waste your time on it. Wait after the CEO's tepid bite of the big arch. I like, I don't need to try that. And Teresa gree She says McDonald's meat always has a funky taste. But she says, Dairy Queen has a barbecue ranchburger that's really good. It has an onion ring on it. So we have most of our Dairy Queen's here in Michigan. Are not the are they Brazier say, yeah, but we do have one not too far away. And there's like some Dubai Chocolate Sundays and stuff and shakes that I was kind of tempted to probably. Make a field trip. Yeah. Sherry also mentioned Arby's, which surprised me because I didn't think Arby's had burgers just roasty. I thought they were like the anti Burger. But they have a new bacon cheeseburger that apparently is amazing. Cher says, definitely give Burger King another try. Yeah, And apparently Burger King has they have onion rings on their menu, which I didn't realize.

2:56 And you can get half Zi's which is half French fries and half that is genius. That is genius. And they also have tacos apparently what that's what Cher says. Try the tacos. So that's insane. I know, got all kinds of ideas here. So we're gonna have to do a burger taste test. Okay, we'll do that. So I wanted to talk about Michigan weather and how it really impassed us. Why are you laughing? I give you agree, right, Yeah, the winter is hard and long, and this winter especially was hard and long, and I think I was going through some stuff, you know, like our kids aren't here as much, and it you know, I'm just going to say her name, because she left her comment there on Spotify shouted me for being negative.

3:40 She was like, could Tina be more negative? Blah blah blah, And I was like, all right, well, maybe I'm going through stuff, Rene, maybe it's just the season of life I'm in. But the sun is shining here in Michigan. I think I think that we for a real spring, and we've gotten you know, a few walks in. I've gotten some vitamin D. And I apologize if I can off as negative, but I think I'm I'm feeling better. I think that you know, you're on the you're on the upswing. Yeah, I'm just gonna well, I'm not going to always be positive because well. I would just say that when sometimes you like to joke around and like rip on me for different things and it's all in fun. And a lot of times I will say, hey, I'm going to give you a hard time about X before we record. Is that okay with it? And I encourage it and I don't want to, like, you know, show everyone what's beyond the fourth wall. But you know, I would never ever try to embarrass you on our podcast totally.

4:35 I mean I would, you know, it's just me and you all the time. But you know, I feel like I feel like most people know that we have. We love each other very much and we wouldn't do anything to hurt each other. So just know if we're ribbing each other, it's usually in good fun. That said, we love to read your Spotify comments and feel free to leave criticism. It's totally fine. If you have, you know, something to say that might be critical, it's okay, we can take it. We always want to make the show better. Well, I have a snack for you. I guess it's a cheeseburger. No, it doesn't involve cheese though, So our good friend and listener Carla. She sent us this big box a while ago. She sent us snacks, but also in that box was a. Cookbook, really great cookbook.

5:15 Yeah it was the Texas I actually brought it up with me just like you to remember the Big Texas Cookbook. And the case I'm working on today is set in Texas. So I thought, what better opportunity to make something from the cookbook. So I made you some caso dip. Oh yum. Yeah, I'm going to have to go get it. I left it on the stove because I wanted to keep it warm. Appreciate that there are some peppers in it. I know you're not the biggest pepper fan. I went light on them. Jalapenno and poblano peppers. Pepper handle it. It's the Bell peppers. But when I was in the shower, I could smell you cooking something and I was like, well, there's the onions, And then I thought I smelled Bell peppers too. It sounds great.

5:56 All right, let me go get it. What did you think of the authentic Texas caeso? That was pretty good. I think it was for me a little heavy on the peppers, but really good flavor. The texture was perfect. How did you do that? How did you get. That very alvida? Oh, like whenever I've tried to make like a cheese like. You know the cookbook. Actually in the cookbook it said, you know, there's a lot of people that try to make a caeso dip with regular cheese and it just doesn't work. And you got Velvita is the key to it. Well, it's really good. I highly recommend that you try that if you like a keeso dip. The other night, you and I went out from Mexican and we did not finish the chips and salsa that were at the table, and we even got like some caeso on the side, and I was like, who are we?

6:49 We had way too much food? Deep. Yeah, it was crazy, but this is delicious. I highly recommend. Shall we get to the story of Wendy Davidson and Michael Severance? Absolutely this case is a recommendation from our listener Tricia, who is in San Antonio, which is not far from where this takes place. Before we start, a content warning. This episode does include discussion of animals and euthanasia. While not explicit, some listeners may find it disturbing, so please listen with care. On the morning of Sunday, January sixteenth, two thousand and five, Leslie Severance was already at work in his hometown of Lee, Maine, a small town of about eight hundred people an hour north of Bangor, when his wife, Brenda, took a call that made her stomach drop.

7:32 It was Leslie's daughter in law, Wendy, calling from Texas. She was looking for Mike and wondered had they heard from him. Mike was Leslie's son and Brenda's step son. He was twenty four years old, an Air Force staff sergeant stationed at Dayas Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas. He was also supposed to be on a plane to Maine that morning. He and Wendy and their two boys were coming home for a visit. Leslie had been counting the days, but Mike hadn't come home. According to wend he had simply not come back to the veterinary clinic where they lived the night before. She wasn't sure where he was. Brenda hung up and called the airline. The tickets, she was told had been canceled that morning. When Leslie got home from his shift that evening and heard what had happened. He didn't hesitate. He called Wendy and asked questions, and it was immediately clear to him that something was not right. Mike's pickup truck was still there, his wallet, his cell phone, his clothes, everything he owned was exactly where he'd left it. Mike Severance was not the kind of man who just disappeared. He was the kid who had earned the nickname bicycle Mike because he was always moving, always outside, no matter how cold the main winters got.

8:42 He was the teenager who had stepped up to care for his father and younger brother after their mother died suddenly when he was just fourteen years old. He was the airman who had volunteered for dangerous missions across five deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq and beyond. The guy who, when a new soldier arrived at the base, took him under his wing and made sure he didn't go down the wrong path. He had worked his way up to crew chief and was proud of it. He had taught himself the Texas two step because he figured if you weren't great at talking to people, you could always just ask them to dance. He was, by all accounts, someone who always tried to do the right thing. His younger brother Frank called him his superman, and now he was gone.

9:23 What followed was one of the stranger missing persons cases in recent Texas history, full of red herrings. A mother in law who seemed to despise her son in law from the moment she met him, Internet searches that raised serious questions, a tracking device that nearly derailed the entire investigation, and a Chihuahua named Wheezy who helped to crack the case. This is the story of Michael Severance and Wendy May Davidson, and of the people whose lives would be forever changed after one January night in San Angelo, Texas. Well, you've got my attention. Very interesting. They lived in a veterinary clinic. Yes, was a veterinarian. Leslie Severance was a jet engine mechanic for the Air Force when he met Valerie Smith around Christmas nineteen seventy six while he was home on leave.

10:11 They married in nineteen seventy eight, and when Valerie got pregnant, Leslie made a decision. He left the Air Force and put his skills to work in the private sector. His training was good enough to land him a solid, well paying job, and the two of them settled in Wynn, Maine, a small town about an hour north of Bangor. Michael Allan Severance was born on July twentieth, nineteen eighty. His brother Frank came along two years later, in December nineteen eighty two. From the very beginning, Mike was a kid who needed to move no matter how cold the main winters got. And they got cold, he had to be outside. He got his first bike and never looked back. By the time he was six years old, he was racing it.

10:52 Friends and family started calling him bicycle Mike, and the nickname stuck. In nineteen eighty seven, the family settled for good in Lee, Maine, a town of about eight hundred people. Leslie got a job at the Lincoln Paper and Tissue Company, and once Frank started school, Valerie went to work as a school bus driver. They weren't wealthy, but they made it work. What they lacked in money, they more than made up for in community. People were always dropping by the house, and Valerie was always happy to feed whoever showed up. The Severance home was warm, busy, and full of love, with Valerie at the center of it all. Mike and Frank were close as brothers, though they couldn't have been more different. Frank was outgoing and gregarious, while Mike was quiet and reserved. In junior high, he competed in skiing and played soccer and baseball. Both boys were deeply attached to their mother. At some point during those years, Valerie was diagnosed with lupus. She didn't let it slower down.

11:48 She kept working and kept the household running. Then in late February nineteen ninety five, everything changed. Leslie was getting ready for work one morning when he heard a noise coming from the bedroom. I found Valerie unconscious on the floor and he couldn't wake her. He rushed her to the hospital, where doctors determined she had suffered a brain aneurysm. At first, there was cautious optimism. She was conscious and knew her own name and address, but over the following days she deteriorated. Surgery and other procedures couldn't stop the decline. Eventually, she was transferred to a hospital in Boston, where doctors exhausted all of the treatment options. Valerie was left in an unresponsive state, kept alive by machines. On March eighth, nineteen ninety five, Leslie made the gut wrenching decision to take her off life support.

12:38 That sounds like a devastating situation. Yeah, especially happening so suddenly like that. Mike was fourteen years old and Frank was eleven. Leslie was devastated and completely at a loss. Valerie had handled everything at home. He didn't know how to pay the bills, do the laundry, or cook a meal. He was drowning in grief and suddenly he was a single father to two boys. Mike saw what was happening to his dad, and he stepped up. At fourteen, he started trying to hold things together, looking after Frank, helping around the house, being the steady presence that his father needed. A year later, in nineteen ninety six, Leslie met a woman named Brenda Layton who was working as a convenience store clerk. She had recently separated from her husband after discovering he had cheated on her, and she wasn't looking for anything new, but she and Leslie clicked, and by that July they had decided to merge their households.

13:31 Brenda moved in with her two daughters. Thirteen year old Nicole and ten year old Brooke, joining Leslie, fifteen year old Mike and twelve year old Frank. Kind of very much like a Brady Bunch scenario, but with only two girls and two boys. Frank struggled with the new arrangement, but Mike took it and stride. He helped Nicole find her footing in the neighborhood and her new school, introducing her to people and taking her to different activities. They were both athletic, and before long the two of them were jogging together regularly. Mike graduated high school with honors. He had already gotten his Class one commercial driver's license, with an eye toward eventually making a living behind the wheel of a logging truck near his hometown. His dad had no objection to that plan, but he had some advice.

14:15 See the world first, don't plant yourself in Maine before you've had a chance to experience something beyond it. He suggested the military, and Mike agreed. He began active duty on September twenty eighth, nineteen ninety eight, and was stationed at DAAs Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas. The Air Force turned out to be exactly what Mike needed. It helped him shake his painful shyness that he had carried since childhood. He grew more confident and more sure of himself. He had his first serious girlfriend in Texas, a woman named Hillary Langley. They dated for several months, and Mike got along well with her family, but he was twenty years old and not ready to settle down. When things started getting serious, He was honest with her about where he stood, broke up, but remained friends. Life was relatively quiet until September eleventh, two thousand and one. After the attacks, Mike was deployed as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. He was sent to Uzbekistan, just north of Afghanistan, where he served as part of a C one thirty crew, ferrying personnel and supplies in and out of the conflict zone.

15:22 He volunteered regularly for the more dangerous missions because he was single with no kids, while some of his squad mates were married with families. Over the next couple of years, he would be deployed to the Middle East five times, spending time in Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Uzbekistan. He logged nine hundred and twenty two flying hours as a crew chief took part in five hundred and fifteen sorties and achieved a ninety nine percent departure reliability rating. What are sorties? That's basically just a mission, like a flight of mission to deliver supplies or something like that. In between deployment, he was back at Dayas in Texas, living his life.

16:03 He learned to dance the two step and loved it. He started racing four wheelers in his spare time, and in the summer of two thousand and three he discovered dirt track racing and fell completely in love with it. He poured every spare dollar and departs and repairs for his car. There were stretches when he was eating ramen noodles for two weeks straight just to feed his hobby. His brother Frank had moved down to Abilene by then, and the two of them were close again the way that they'd ben as kids. On a December night in two thousand and three, Mike, twenty three years old, a combat veteran, a dirt track racer, a two stepping Air Force crew chief from a small town in Maine, went out to a bar with some buddies for a few beers. That was the night he met Wendy May Davidson.

16:46 Judy and Lloyd Davidson were West Texas through and through. Both had been born there, raised there, and never once left the state. Oh it's a big state, but it really is. It's crazy to never leave it. After they married, right, they settled on a ranch north of San Angelo, a city of about one hundred thousand in the heart of the Texas hill Country, and that's where they stayed. The ranch was secluded, set apart from the town. The Davidsons didn't belong to a church or any social organizations. They had few friends and mostly kept to themselves. Lloyd worked at the local Levi Strauss factory, while Judy stayed home with the kids. Wendy made Davidson was born on July twenty third, nineteen seventy eight. Her brother Marshall came along the following year. Growing up on a ranch, the kids were surrounded by animals. Wendy got her first dog when she was three, a dog she named with the full confidence of a three year old Licky Candlestick.

17:44 Now that detail kind of cracked me up. It reminded me of our own children when they would like when they were that age and they would just name things, just crazy random names. Yeah, that's great. She and Marshall spent their childhood exploring the land around them, rescuing a baby bird with a broken wing, nursing a raccoon back to health after its mother was killed. By the time Wendy was seven years old, she made up her mind she was going to be a veterinarian. As Wendy got older, her love of animals only deepened, and high school she excelled in animal science and agricultural studies. She showed goats at area stock shows to raise scholarship money for college, and was heavily involved in Future Farmers of America, or the f FA. She also cheered, played basketball and volleyball, and even acted in a play her senior year. But Wendy had a hard time with people, particularly other girls. She struggled to read social situations, often seeming unaware of how her words and actions landed with those around her. The other cheerleaders didn't seem to like her much. She wasn't popular, and she knew it. Her closest friend was a boy named Chris Collier.

18:52 They dated briefly at sixteen, figured out they were better as friends and stayed that way through the rest of high school. What they had in common more than anything was their love of animals. Whatever her social struggles, Wendy worked hard, and it showed. She graduated second in her class as salutatorian. After high school, she had enrolled at Angelo State University Wright in San Angelo. Living at home and commuting to class. She had a steady boyfriend, Shay Kelton, the grandson of the venerable Texas Western writer Elmer Kelton, something of a local legend in those parts. During summer, she worked at an animal clinic, logging hours toward the career she had been planning since she was seven years old.

19:34 Marshall was working summers too. He had a job with a man named doctor Terrell Sheen, a veterinarian who was also one of the area's most prominent landlords. Marshal did maintenance on Sheen's rental properties and helped out his sprawling seven seven seven seven ranch, more commonly known as the four sevens Ranch in Grape Creek, just northwest of San Angelo. Terrell Sheen would become more important to the family when, in early nineteen ninety eight, after more than twenty years on the factory floor, Lloyd Davidson learned that his job was disappearing. Levi Strauss was closing plans across the country, and the San Angelo location was on the list. Marshall introduced his father to Terrell Sheen, and, on Sheen's advice, Lloyd went into business for himself as an independent contractor.

20:23 From that point on, he worked almost exclusively for Sheen, doing work on his properties. We'll be back after a break. After just two years, Wendy had completed all of her prerequisite coursework at Angelo State University and earned a spot at Texas A and M's College of Veterinary Medicine, one of only two veterinary schools in the state. I'm having a hard time with that word. Can you tell veterinary? He did just fine. She packed up and moved to college station. The dreams she'd had since she was seven years old was within reach. During summer, she went back to work for Cherrell Sheen as an assistant at his veterinary clinic, but her personal life was considerably messier than her academic one. At some point during college, she became pregnant and had an abortion.

21:16 Soon she got pregnant again when her boyfriend at the time, a guy named Ryan Reads told her that he wanted to break up. She sprung the news on him that she was pregnant. At first, Ryan didn't believe her, so he took her to the doctor, who confirmed the pregnancy. Ryan talked it over with his family, who then met with Wendy's parents. The Reeds family told them that Ryan would do his part to support Wendy and the child, but that he wouldn't marry her. Judy Davidson was furious, he's not going to do the right thing. Then we want nothing to do with him, she said as she stomped off. What Ryan didn't know was that Wendy wasn't actually sure who the father was. There were three guys that she'd been with around that time. Wendy carried the baby to term doing the c rotations she needed to finish up school right up until she was due. Her son, Tristan, was born on October twenty ninth, two thousand and one.

22:08 Judy came from San Angelo to College Station to care for the infant while Wendy finished her degree. After graduation in May two thousand and two, Wendy and Tristan moved to Abilene about ninety miles from San Angelo in her parents' home. That same spring, her brother Marshall graduated from Angelo State University and took a park ranger position at Lake Corpus Christie State Park, moving to the small town of Mathis, more than three hundred miles away. Wendy landed a job at the Abilene Animal Hospital, owned by doctor Larry Ellis, who had thirty years of experience, but he also happened to own a good deal of real estate around town. He offered Wendy a place to live in one of the rental properties, and she accepted. Was a generous arrangement for a new graduate with a baby. The job started well enough, but almost immediately cracks began to show.

22:59 A week into her new position, a clinical employee named Ryan Good came by her apartment to drop off a pager. Ryan was just eighteen, the son of another vat at the practice, rush out of high school and heading to Texas Tech in the fall. Wendy invited him in. By the end of the evening, they had slept together, and within a week she was talking about a long term relationship. So how old is Wendy, She's like twenty one. Two twenty two. At this time, Yeah, Ryan was taken aback. He had no interest in anything serious. He was a teenager about to start college. When he ended the relationship, Ryan was struck by how deeply Wendy seemed to have attached herself to him in the span of just a few days.

23:42 After that, she briefly dated the brother of a co worker. A few weeks in, she told him that she was pregnant and later said that she had miscarried. At work, things weren't going smoothly either. Wendy had a hard time with the realities of a veterinary practice, particularly youth in Asia. Whenever an animal was scheduled to be put down, she would become visibly upset, ranting and raving in a way her colleagues could only describe as a tantrum. She also bristled at the feedback from doctor Ellis when he corrected her technique or instructed her on how to handle a procedure. She would simply disregard what he said, as though his three decades of experience carried less weight than her brand new degree. I imagine as event putting down animals would be really the worst part of your jerious so I can understand that her personal life continued its turbulent course.

24:34 She dated a man named Jeremy Gonzales for about nine months. He eventually moved in with her. Then he lost his job, fell into depression, and started using drugs. The relationship deteriorated, and Wendy said the final straw came when he struck her dog. She threw him out. However, others suggested a different version of events that Wendy's parents had been unhappy with the relationship from the start, disapproving of Jeremy be of his Hispanic background, and that they had pressured her to end it. Whatever the truth, Jeremy did not go quietly. One night, Wendy was home watching television when someone started pounding on her back door. She grabbed her gun and chambered around.

25:15 It was Jeremy. He kicked the door open and got in her face, screaming at her. She pointed the gun at him, but titn't fire. He grabbed it away from her, pressed it to his own head, and threatened to shoot himself. Wendy managed to talk him down and get the gun back, but he ran to the kitchen and grabbed a knife, still threatening to take his own life. The situation only ended when an off duty police officer who lived across the street heard the commotion and came over to intervene. After Jeremy, there was Joel Bird, a friend of a coworker. Wendy got pregnant again and they talked about getting married, but Judy Davidson didn't think Joel was good enough for her daughter either. The wedding was called off and Wendy terminated the pregnancy. By the fall of two thousand and three, Wendy was twenty five years old, a single mother living in Abilene with a one year old son, a series of relationships that had ended badly, and a job that was growing increasingly unstable. One night, shortly after Thanksgiving, she went out to a bar and met an Air Force staff sergeant from Maine named Michael Severance. They spent that first night together, a one night's stand. Mike thought, was Tristan's father still in the picture?

26:25 I don't believe so, but. Then you said that you weren't sure if he was even Tristan's dad, right. He had basically offered to help support the child, but then Judy had got really angry and said if you're not going to marry her, then get out here. And it turned out she wasn't sure he was the father or not. I believe he saw Tristan a couple of times when Tristan was a baby, but then they drifted apart, and I don't think he was involved in all after that, After the night that Wendy and Mike met, Mike went back to his life on the Air Force base and dirt track racing in his free time, while Wendy's troubles at work got worse. Twice she had defied doctor Ellis by sneaking dogs out of the clinic that were scheduled to be euthanized. Ellis had let it go, but what happened next was harder to overlook. A client came in with a litter of sick kittens. Doctor Ellis examined them and confirmed that they were riddled with ringworm, a highly contagious fungal infection that can spread to other cats, dogs, and humans alike. In a clinical setting, it's particularly dangerous.

27:27 The spores can survive dormant on bedding, grooming equipment, and unsanitized surfaces for up to thirteen months. Ellis kept the kittens in isolation while he confirmed the diagnosis, then gave Wendy a direct instruction to euthanize them. She couldn't do it. Instead, she smuggled the kittens out of the clinic and took them home to nurse them back to health. This despite the fact that her one year old son, Kristan, was living in that same apartment. When she believed the kittens were clear of infection, she began returning them to the clinic one at a time, but she was wrong. They were still contagious. Every cat at the Abilene Animal Hospital was exposed. By the time it was over, twenty eight cats had to be euthanized. Oh my gosh to hear she thought she was saving, you know, a small litter of kittens, and turned out the result was much worse.

28:18 Doctor Ellis was understandably livid, and Wendy was fired, although she would later tell people that she had quit because Ellis and his wife were immoral people and she couldn't work for them. I'm sorry, I'm still thinking about the kittens. I have a question. Well, I guess they weren't just kittens. They were cats too. We were they people's pets that were staying at the clinic or do you. Know, I mean, I assume, so I would assume the foster situation. I yeah, I don't know the details around that, but yeah, it's just so sad that that spread to so many different cats. Wendy packed up, moved to Lubbock, and landed a job with a veterinarian named doctor Gary Schweed. She had barely gotten settled in Lubbock when she discovered that she was pregnant. Back in Abilene, Mike Severance was going about his life, working, going out with Frank and his Air Force buddies, pouring his weekends into dirt track racing.

29:10 Then the phone rang and Wendy told him that he was going to be a dad. So they had only had the one night stand. I don't know one hundred percent if that's the case or not. I believe Mike characterized it as a one night stand, but I'm not one hundred percent clear that they didn't see each other maybe you know, once or twice after. That, okay, because I'm surprised that if it was a one night stand, she had his phone number. Mike did what he always did when he needed to think something through. He called his dad. He was honest about it. This had been a one night stand. He barely knew this woman. Leslie listened, then asked his son a simple question, what do you want to do? Mike thought about it. Family is important, he said, he didn't want his child growing up with only one parent. Leslie offered him a practical way of looking at it. If you get married, worst case it doesn't work out, and you get divorced. Either way, you're going to be paying child support. So maybe give marriage a try. Mike was twenty three years old and nowhere near ready to settle down, but he had made up his mind he was going to do what he saw as the right thing. In April two thousand and four, Wendy brought him to San Angelo to meet her parents. Judy Davidson took a dislike to Mike before she even knew about the pregnancy. She took his natural shyness as him being rude and disrespectful when she found out that Wendy was pregnant. Whatever initial disapproval she felt about Mike hardened into something more pointed.

30:34 She didn't think he was good enough for her daughter. After that first visit, she made her feelings about Mike clear to Wendy it was more or less what she had said about the boyfriends who came before him. The two of them settled back into their separate routines, Wendy in Lubbock, Mike ninety miles away at the base in Abilene. He didn't make the drive to see her as often as she would have liked. By late spring, Wendy was convinced he was pulling away, and she complained bitterly to her brother Marshall about it. But Mike wasn't going anywhere. He had made a commitment to his unborn child, and he intended to honor it. They set a wedding date for September thirteenth. Around the same time, it became clear that Wendy's situation in Lubbock was untenable. Her relationship with doctor Swede had soured much as things had with doctor Ellis before him, and another firing seemed imminent. She wanted to move back to San Angelo to be near her family, and she had a vision she would open her own large animal practice. Judy and Lloyd had a different opinion.

31:36 A small animal clinic, they argued, had lower start up costs and more reliable income. They pushed back. They even brought in Torell Sheen, now retired but still a trusted figure in their circle, to help make the case. Wendy resisted, but eventually was persuaded to open a general practice serving all animals, large and small. Once the decision was made, the family rallied around her. Terrell Sheen purchased a vacant clinic building on Sherwood Way, the former practice of a retired veterinarian, and rented it to Wendy at the below market rate of fifteen hundred dollars a month. Judy and Lloyd poured forty thousand dollars into renovations and equipment. Marshall contributed what he could. The building even had a small living area attached, which would serve as Wendy and Mike's home while they got on their feet. In the final months of her pregnancy, Wendy and Mike's stepsister, Nichole, spoke regularly by phone. Nichole was expecting her first child as well and had been leaning on Wendy for advice and support.

32:37 On August tenth, Nichole gave birth to a girl named Cayton. That same month, Wendy left Lubbock and moved in with her parents. While construction on the clinic wrapped up. Mike moved in too, commuting the ninety miles to dayas Air Force Base each day for work. Every day he spent under the same roof as Judy. Her dislike or almost outright hatred toward him seemed to intensively. Shane Michael Severance was born on September one, two thousand and four. Twelve days later, his parents got married. It was a small ceremony at the Justice of the Peace, just Wendy, Mike, three year old Tristan, infant Shane, Lloyd, and Judy and Leslie, who had made the trip down from Maine to meet Wendy, her family, and his new grandson. Leslie liked Wendy immediately, and he was completely smitten with Shane. During his visit, he often took both boys so that Wendy and Mike could have time to themselves. Mike, for his part, had genuinely bonded with Shane's older brother, Tristan. By the time of the wedding. The little boy had started reaching for Mike when something scared him, and was even starting to call him Daddy. The ceremony itself was brief. When Wendy set her vows, Judy burst into tears, stormed out of the room, and slammed the door behind her. The plan had been to celebrate afterward at a steakhouse, but Judy and Lloyd never showed up. Judy called later and said they couldn't make it, offering no explanation. Leslie headed back to Maine with a warm feeling about his new daughter in law, but a deep on ease about her parents.

34:09 Wendy seems genuine, he thought, kind, but her mother struck him as cold and difficult. He worried quietly about what that might mean for his son. It sounds to me like Wendy's mom. Judy didn't like any of the guys that she dated, but it seemed like she had a very particular hatred for Mike. What do you think about, Like, how does that affect someone? If you're your mom, the person you trust in the world, you know is constantly feeding you negativity about your spouse. Mike sounds like a pretty good guy. He's trying his best here. Wendy sounds like she might be a little difficult, But once your kids are married, I feel like your job as a parent is to support that relationship, right, even if maybe you don't believe in it, because your child is going to sense whether you know you like their spouse or not, and you know your child needs every support and yet like the children need all the support they can. So that's just my opinion. But I feel like you need to keep your opinions to yourself unless there is abuse or you know, something deleterious going on.

35:09 Yeah. Exactly soon after the wedding, the four of them, Wendy, Mike, Tristan, and newborn Shane moved into the small living quarters attached to the veterinary clinic building. It was tight, the bathroom doubled as a dog bathing area. Mike was still commuting ninety minutes each way to die Us with erratic hours, night duty assignments, and training schedules stacked on top of the drive. Wendy was running on new mother exhaustion while simultaneously trying to get a business off the ground. The stress compressed everything. Wendy grew peevish and short tempered, and the bickering between them became constant. So it just feels like a lot of stress, Like just when I think about commuting ninety minutes yea each way to work in a job that's I'm sure very stressful. And then Wendy trying to start a new business that's a huge undertaking with a newborn baby, and this situation where you're married to someone that you hardly.

36:03 Know at this point, it's a powder keg. And then there was Judy calling every day, filling her daughter's ear with her contempt for Mike. In October, the doors to Advanced Animal Care finally opened and people started bringing their animals in. Judy installed herself as receptionist and secretary, volunteering her time at the clinic each day. Oh no, it doesn't that sound like a good idea. She also made clear that she expected Mike to pitch in at the business, never mind that he was working full time and commuting three hours each day. In her view, he was lazy. His stock car racing, which he had been doing since his early days in Abilene, struck her as the reckless hobby of an irresponsible man. She saw nothing admirable in it, and she didn't keep that opinion to herself. Mike, for his part, showed up every day as a father. He was warm and affectionate with both boys, with Shane still only weeks old, and with Christan, who by now was fully calling him daddy. He was doing everything he could, but Judy had already decided who he was, and nothing he did was going to change that. Despite everything, Mike and Wendy started making plans. They talked about finding a place out in the country, somewhere with enough land to keep horses and other large animals, a proper home for the life that they were trying to build. They found a property they liked, but Mike had another deployment coming up on January twenty fourth, and he didn't want Wendy to have to manage a move on her own with two small children. They told the realtor they'd be in touch when he got back. In November, Mike called

37:35 a friend back in Maine. At some point in the conversation, he said something that stuck with the friend, even if it didn't fully register at the time. I think my mother in law is trying to kill me. The friend laughed it off, taking it as a joke. Do you know how many years that Mike had left on his enlistment. I don't know for sure. I want to say, maybe a couple of years left, but I'm not one hundred percent certain. That drive must have been grueling. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, We'll be back after a break. Despite the tension at home, there was something to look forward to. Mike and Wendy had been planning a trip to Maine in January, a chance for Mike to see his family and for Wendy to meet them properly. It would be her first time ever leaving Texas. They had picked the dates, bought the tickets, and were set to fly into Bangor on the morning of January sixteenth. Mike was especially excited for Tristan to see snow for the first time. On December twenty ninth, Mike headed out for a two week Air Force leadership training course near the Texas Oklahoma border. While he was gone, Wendy was supposed to be getting things ready for the trip, packing and picking up warmer clothes for herself and the boys. Maine in January is not West Texas, but when Mike came home nothing had been done. While he was away at training.

38:59 Something else had been had happening. Back in San Angelo. Judy's mother, jesse May, was bedridden and dying of cancer. On January eleventh, Judy went to visit her. According to jesse May's husband, Emmett, Judy's stepfather, Judy used that visit to manipulate her ailing mother into signing papers that gave Lloyd and Judy power of attorney and named them co executors of jesse May's estate. When Emma found out, he was furious. It was, in a way, a window into who Judy Davidson was. Mike returned from training on January twelfth, energized and ready. He called his dad that day, excited about heading home in a few days, but he mentioned something that nagged at him. Wendy seemed distant since he'd gotten back off somehow. What Mike didn't know was that Judy had spent the two weeks of his absence working on Wendy, poisoning her daughter's feelings about the trip. First, she argued that it was bad for business to close the clinic so soon after opening. When that didn't seem to land, she changed tactics. She started planting a different kind of seed. What if Mike's family didn't let them come back, What if they tried to keep Shane in Maine.

40:08 Judy's a little crazy a little bit. The next morning, January thirteenth, Mike was helping out at the clinic when he carried a poppy into the back for an X ray and left it on the table for a moment. Wendy lit into him, calling him stupid in front of staff. Mike didn't argue, He just picked up their baby. Shane got in his truck and drove to Abilene to visit friends without telling her. When Wendy couldn't reach him and saw his truck was gone, she called his cell repeatedly. He eventually answered, told her where he was, and was back at the clinic by four point thirty that afternoon. That evening, Judy and Lloyd took the boys for the night, something they'd been doing three or four times a week lately. Friday, January fourteenth was a normal day. Judy brought the grandchildren back in the morning, Wendy saw patients. Mike arranged to have some body work done on his truck while they were out of town. That evening, Wendy asked her clinic assistant Jamie, to babysit the boys so she and Mike could go out. Judy, who was still there, objected, why, asked Jamie instead of her. Wendy said she didn't want to burden her mother two nights in a row. Judy pressed, let me at least take Tristan. Jamie was young and inexperienced.

41:18 She said two kids would be too much for her, and it was settled. Judy took Tristan home and Jamie took Shane. Mike had tried to get his friends Dereck and Julie to come down from Abilene for a night of dancing, but they couldn't find a sitter, so it would just be Mike and Wendy. They crossed the street to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, laughed around seven forty, and made their way down the street to a bar called Graham Central Station, where they danced and had a few drinks. They walked back across the street to the clinic. Mike was loose and happy, full of the kind of energy that comes from a night out and the anticipation of going home. Before he came inside, he jumped into his truck and started doing wide spinning circles around the clinic parking lot, grinning like a kid. Wendy went in without him. It was the last night anyone outside the clinic would see Mike's severance alive. Saturday, January fifteenth started like any other morning at Advanced Animal Care. Judy arrived between seven fifteen and seven thirty. As soon as she walked in, Wendy left to pick up Shane from her assistant, Jamie, who had the day off. Wendy returned just in time to open the clinic at eight o'clock. She settled Shane into his little corner of the office, the spot they set aside for him, with his bed, his color fromobile, his swing, and baby toys, and she got to work.

42:35 The door to the back bedroom stayed closed. Judy noticed that Wendy seemed to be in a good mood. When she asked if Mike was coming out to help, Wendy said no, he was hung over from the night before. A couple of hours later, Lloyd pulled in with Tristan in the back seat. He noticed Mike's truck sitting in the lot. He knew Mike could plan to drop it at the body shop that morning to get some work done before their trip the next day. He didn't think much of it, though. He brought Triston inside and went around the back to take care of some outdoor chores. By a little afternoon, Judy was tired and Tristan was hungry, so she and Twisted headed home. Boyd finished up his work and followed. Not long after, Wendy closed the clinic at three, strapped Shane into the truck and drove out to her parents place, arriving just after four, they all sat down to dinner together, and once again, over the meal, Judy argued that Wendy shouldn't go to Maine. The next morning.

43:28 After dinner, Wendy loaded the boys back into the truck and drove to her grandmother's house. Jesse May was bedridden fading from cancer, and Wendy brought food and sat with her for a while. She told her grandmother she was leaving for Maine in the morning and promised she would come back to visit when they returned. Then she drove back to the clinic. Nobody had seen or heard from Mike that whole day. Early the next morning, Wendy called the airline and canceled the tickets to Maine. Then, at around five in the morning, she called the Severn's house in Maine. Brenda answered Wendy if she'd heard from Mike. Brenda was confused, what are you talking about? Aren't you supposed to be on your way here today? Wendy had said that she couldn't find Mike. He hadn't come home the night before. Brenda hung up and stood there, trying to make sense of it. Their flight was just hours away.

44:16 Maybe she thought Mike had decided to come on his own. Maybe he'd surprise them and was already in the air. She called the airline the tickets, she was told, had been canceled that morning. The feeling in her stomach turned cold. She started making calls anyone who might have heard from Mike. She and Nicole grew increasingly frantic. Leslie was in the middle of a twelve hour work shift and couldn't be reached. What struck both women as they tried to piece things together from hundreds of miles away, was how unbothered Wendy seemed like this was a minor inconvenience, like a grown man with a flight booked and a family waiting for him simply hadn't come home and that was just something that had happened down in San Angelo. Marshall had called his parents to let them know that he'd be driving up on Monday. Judy mentioned almost in passing that Mike had gone missing. Lloyd offered a theory. Mike had wanted out of the military. Maybe he'd gone to Maine early and then slipped across the border into Canada. Back in Maine, Leslie got home from his ship to six that evening, expecting to head to the airport to pick up Mike and his family. Brenda broke the news that Mike was missing and told him what she knew. Leslie picked up the phone and called Wendy. She told him that she'd taken Mike's truck to her parents' house on Saturday evening and left Mike at home. When she returned, he was gone and she hadn't seen him since. Leslie listened, then pointed out something that didn't add up. He knew that Mike had planned to take the truck to the body shop Saturday morning, so why did she have it. Wendy paused, oh,

45:49 h we've forgot to take it in. Leslie knew his son. He knew how much Mike loved that truck, how much he'd been looking forward to getting the work done during the trip. Mike wouldn't have gotten six forty three. That Sunday evening, Wendy and her father went to the San Angelo Police Department to file missing persons report. She called the Air Force as well. It had been more than twenty four hours since she had seen her husband. I can't imagine the feeling that Leslie and the rest of the family had back in Maine, Like this kind of feels so helpless, just knowing, like your son's missing. Yeah, there's nothing you can really do about it from that distance, and it's just really tough to think about that. Monday morning, Wendy opened the clinic for business as usual. Judy arrived, collected the boys, and took them to daycare. A detective came by to ask questions. Marshall was there too. Wendy told the detective that Mike had been acting strangely the last couple of weeks, drinking heavily, spending a lot of time at Buffalo Wild Wings and Graham Central Station. It was out of character for him, she said. She said she had gotten home Saturday night around eight o'clock and he simply wasn't there. She hadn't heard from him since.

47:00 She also mentioned that two hundred and twenty one dollars was missing from the clinic's cash register. She figured that Mike had taken it. The detective looked around Mike's clothes all seemed to be there, Their luggage hadn't been touched, and sitting in the cab of Mike's truck was his wallet and cell phone. Meanwhile, in Maine, Leslie was frantically trying to get answers. He called the San Angelo Police Department, hoping for some sense of urgency. The officer he reached told him I will probably find him shacked up somewhere with a whore. Leslie understandably was stunned at the comment and their seemingly blase attitude. He called Daias Air Force Base next. They told him it was absolutely out of character for Mike to go missing, but until he was officially a wall, there wasn't much they could do, and he was on approved leave until January twenty fourth. Still, they promised to look into it. Two days after Mike's disappearance was reported on Tuesday, January eighteenth, Wendy visited an attorney.

47:59 On her mother's advice. She filed for divorce and obtained a restraining order borring Mike from contacting her in person or by phone. It's a really odd thing to do, isn't it. Your husband's missing and you go filed time. Now worried about your husband's safety. Yeah, you would think that. Same day, the Air Force referred the case to the OSI or Office of Special Investigations. Two agents drove to San Angelo on the nineteenth and confirmed that Mike hadn't taken any of his military gear or clothing. Wendy told them Mike had been talking about not wanting to deploy again, that he was afraid something bad was going to happen to him overseas, and that it would be so easy to just disappear into Canada.

48:41 When investigators interviewed Judy, she did her best to boost the theory that Mike had taken off to get out of his next deployment. She also made clear her feelings towards Mike. Here's a clip. When do you think cap of two? Oh? Thank you pie? Wow? You'd think extracted left with no blow, no money. If you hadn't met the guy, you wouldn't think it's strange of all, because I mean, he was just one super word. Do you think anybody hurt him? Or anything. He had a pretty smart mouth on him, so you know, if he popped off at somebody, I don't know. I mean, he was ubnoxious, he rude, he was nasty.

49:21 I want no part of it. And I didn't even want her on my babies to have any part of it. I'm licking a lot. I didn't like him, never did and never will. And I hope no arms come to him. But if I never see him again, that's fine too. He didn't take him off to Canada or something. You wouldn't. I wouldn't. Oh gosh, no, I didn't much all have him any minutes. He was telling her, and he had a secret mission. He was going on. I said, when that man hasn't got stuz enough to pour piss out of the boot, do you really think they're gonna send him on a secret mission? You know that was hard, a little bit hard to understand because the audio quality wasn't great, But I thought it was important to play it just because it really gives you a picture of how Judy felt about Mike, Like really, he's missing, they don't know where he is, and she.

50:09 Is just apathy or no. And I know I know they say not to read too much into it. But she was talking about him in the past tense the whole time. Did you notice that. Yeah, So this theory that possibly he went to Canada, how did he get to Canada? I mean, who knows, you know, in their mind, maybe he had a you know, a fake ID printed up or something. But yeah, but they could have checked, you know, like the airplane manifesto. If he had a fake passport or fake ID, then you know, maybe that wouldn't show up. But yeah, it's kind of a ludicrous idea. By January twenty fourth, the day that Mike was due back at DIAS and didn't show, he was officially a wall, which meant the Air Force was now fully involved. Air Force Special Agent Greg McCormick was initially frustrated by what he saw as a lack of urgency from the local police, but that same day the San Angelo Police referred the case to their Major Crimes Task Force. Wendy and Lloyd both agreed to take polygraphs at the Air Force's request. The results came back inconclusive.

51:11 One of Wendy's attorneys later leaked to the press that she had passed. I didn't hear whether they asked Judy to take a polypephroda. I'm guessing they asked and maybe she declined, but I don't know. Investigators chased down a number of leads that went nowhere. Two calls had been made to Mike's cell phone on January twentieth, one just before one am, and another at one thirty from a woman named Lauren Han. They thought perhaps Mike was having an affair, but they tracked her down and it turned out she was just calling out of concern since no one had heard from him. Then Lloyd Davidson came forward with another potential lead. He pulled investigators aside and told them about a transgender woman who went by the name Tutu.

51:52 Lloyd had heard that Mike had gotten into some kind of altercation with Tutu on the night before he disappeared. Investigators track two to down several months later. Her real name was Donielle laurn White. She acknowledged that she was a regular at Graham Central Station, but flatly denied any confrontation with Mike. There was nothing to support Lloyd's story. Her name was crossed off the list. Back in Maine. The idea that Mike Severance had simply chosen to vanish was getting harder to believe. It just didn't make sense that a man like Mike would disappear into Canada and abandon his duties, both as a soldier and as a husband and father. Leslie, Brenda and the rest of the family weren't buying it. The investigation had taken on a task force structure, now drawing in the Texas Rangers, the San Angelo Police Department, and the tom Green County Sheriff's Department.

52:44 On January twenty eighth, the Air Force sent a team to conduct a physical search of the two square miles surrounding the clinic. They found nothing. Investigators went back to see Wendy. She didn't offer anything new, but she did give investigators permission to conduct a forensic examination of her laptop. They made a complete copy of the hard drive and took it in for analysis. As of mid February, the task force still had no concrete evidence of anything. No body, no crime scene, no witnesses. It seemed increasingly unlikely that Mike had taken off on his own. If Mike did go awall, the Air Force investigators reasoned he must have had some help, possibly from his wife, so they wanted to put a tracker on Wendy's car in hopes that she might lead them to where he was hiding. To place a tracker on a car, a civilian law enforcement agency would need a search warrant signed by a judge, but the military operates under a different set of rules.

53:40 This was a gray area. Wendy was not a member of the military, but the OSI was looking for a service member who may have gone awall. The OSI investigators consulted with the staff Judge Advocate, who signed off on the plan. The Texas ranger on the Investigative Task Force was uneasy, fearing that the decision might jeopardize future potential prosecution. His concerns were noted, but the Air Force decided to move forward anyway. So one night near the end of February, Air Force agents slipped a tracking device onto the underside of Wendy's red Camaro. Wendy trove a red Camaro with two small children, maybe. Not the most practical choice of vehicles. A day later, the tracker showed that Wendy had driven to a ranch owned by Terrell Sheen, a guy who was renting the clinic building to Wendy and who had employed both Wendy's brother and dad at various times. When agents contacted Sheen, he told them he boarded horses on his ranch, including some that belonged to Wendy, and that she came and went regularly as she pleased. He told investigators they were welcome to come and look around. The four to sevens ranch was an expansive stretch of land, a barn, mobile homes, fenced corrals, and several ponds scattered across the property, including a large stock tank. In Texas, a stock tank is as a man made pond or reservoir used to catch rainwater and provide drinking water for livestock like cattle and sheep.

55:07 Terrell gave them a tour of the property, but they didn't do a thorough search. Not yet. After investigators made a copy of Wendy's laptop hard drive for analysis, it got Wendy thinking. She approached her assistant, Jamie and asked casually if she knew anything about deleting Internet search history. She said she thought Mike had been looking at pornography on the computer and she wanted to clear it. Jamie passed the question along to her fiance, who worked with computers. He told them, you can delete the browsing cash, but the underlying data remains on the hard drive. It doesn't just disappear. When the computer forensics report came back to investigators on March fourth, there was one particular search that was eye opening. On January twenty sixth, eleven days after Mike disappeared, someone had used that computer to search for information about the decomposition of dead bodies in water. The search had turned up specific details that a body submerged in water will almost certainly rise to the surface eventually.

56:07 Weights might slow that process, but they normally won't stop it. In warm water, a body could surface in as little as eight to ten days, in cold water two to three weeks. The following day, March fifth, they brought Wendy in for questioning again. She was calm and composed. She repeated her story. She had gone to her parents' house on January fifteenth, come home, and Mike was gone. When they asked about the Internet search regarding decomposing bodies in water, she didn't flinch. She had an answer ready. She said that when investigators had searched the creek behind the clinic, she had wanted to understand whether a body would be visible in that kind of water. She wanted to be prepared, she said, for what they might find. It was a plausible explanation, or just plausible enough. But when the questions turned to Terrell Sheen's ranch, something changed. Her posture stiffened, her answers got shorter, clipped. She said she and her parents had access to the property and that she had been out there recently with her dad to cut wood.

57:07 When investigators asked specifically about the stock tank on the property, she hesitated. Just then her phone rang. She said she had to take it. She was on call as the after hours veterinarian for a group of local clinics. A cat owner was on the line. The cat had badly injured its leg. Investigators stepped out, figuring a serious injury like that would keep her occupied for a while. They figured wrong. Wendy rushed through the examination, a quick X ray and a look at the leg. Not broken, she told the owner, as she gave her some medication. She showed them out the door in minutes, then slipped out to her car, but the investigators hadn't left. They were waiting across the street when they spotted Wendy's camaro leaving.

57:49 They followed her as she made a bee line for the four sevens ranch. As she got out of her car to unlock the gate, the investigators pulled up. She asked what they were doing there, and they asked her the same question. She said she had come to check on her horses. They told her no one was permitted on the property at that time. She protested, saying she had horses that needed to be cared for, but the investigators stood firm they were in the process of obtaining consent for a thorough search of the property and needed to secure it in the meantime. Finally, Wendy got back in her car, reversed through the gate, and drove away from the ranch. Wendy drove towards her parents' house. She called them on the way and in a paniced voice, told her mother she thought someone was following her. She told her family to meet her at Grape Creek Cemetery, where her grandfather was buried. It had already been a difficult week for the Davidsons. Marshall, who was now working as a game warden down in Zapata in Deep South Texas, had driven four hundred miles north to San Angelo to be with his family. Not only was Wendy's husband missing, but their grandmother, jesse May, was in the final stages of lung cancer.

58:58 When they got the call from Wendy, Marshall hopped in his car and drove the short distance to the cemetery. Lloyd and Judy followed in their own car. A few minutes later, Marshall arrived to find Wendy's red Camaro and then Wendy standing beside their grandfather's grave, agitated and pacing. He asked who had been following her. She said no one, She just had something she needed to tell them. She wanted to wait for her parents to arrive, but Marshall could see that something was badly wrong, and he pressed her to talk. She told him, I didn't kill Mike, but I did find him dead, and I moved his body to the tank, the tank meeting the stock tank on Cherrell Sheen's property. She said she had found him dead at the clinic on January fifteenth, after coming back from dinner with Lloyd and Judy. She said that she had moved him because she was certain someone in her own family had killed him, and she hadn't wanted any of them to get caught. Judy and Lloyd pulled up a few minutes later. Wendy rushed toward them, sobbing, and she and Marshall began talking over each other, both trying to get the story out at the same time. Marshall's first instinct was to tell her to stop talking. Wendy, the best thing for you to do is just keep your mouth shut. Then he walked away and called the San Angelo Police Department. He spoke to the detective who had been working on Mike's case and asked him to come to the cemetery. When the detective pulled up, Marshall met him with a direct question. Had investigators searched the pond on Sheen's property. The detective said no. Marshall told him they needed to. Michael Severn's's body was in that pond.

1:00:31 His sister hadn't killed him, she said, but she had moved his body there. How would she have moved his body there on her own account? We'll talk some more about that. Wendy insisted someone in her family had killed Mike, she had only moved the body to protect them. The officer arrested Wendy on a charge of tampering with evidence, and they took her away. Wendy looked at her brother, What are you, she said, A cop or my brother? I'm both. Marshall said, so, Marshall was a game warden and I didn't really know this, but a game warden is this. From another case that we've done before, and it is considered a law enforcement Marshall called after her, keep your mouth shut until you've talked to an attorney the police station. That's exactly what she did. She asked for a lawyer and stopped talking. Her bond was set at five hundred thousand dollars. Officers secured the area around the pond on Terrell Sheen's four to sevens ranch on Sutton Road. Sheen gave his permission to search the property, and before long an underwater dive team was suiting up at the water's edge.

1:01:29 While they prepared, investigators spoke with one of the ranch hands, a man named Jose Romero. He told them that he had seen Wendy wore her red camaro on the property more than once, but that was not unusual. Just after two in the afternoon, the divers found a body. It was weighed down with a collection of heavy objects, a cinder block, a tire rim, a brake drum, and a boat anchor, all fastened to the body with baling wire and plastic ties. The body was that of a white male wearing maroon boxer shorts. They were in inuries on his back, consistent with stab wounds. The fifty two degree water had kept him remarkably well preserved. How much time has passed? Like six weeks? Yeah, I think six or seven weeks.

1:02:10 When they brought him to the surface, they found more additional wounds on the abdomen and chest, the same kind made by something sharp driven in repeatedly. The next morning, the dive team went back at ten o'clock and spent the rest of the day gathering evidence from the pond. By seven that evening they were done. Investigators drove to Lloyd and Judy's house to inform them of what had been found. Wendy's red Camaro was secured pending a search warrant. That same night, three men in Air Force dressed uniforms appeared at the door of Leslie and Brenda's house in Maine. Leslie was still at work. The men wouldn't say anything to Brenda, but she didn't need them to. She called her husband and told him he needed to come home. Well, that is where we are going to end part one.

1:02:53 I do have a few questions for you, though. We've talked a little bit about Leslie being back in Maine and really feeling helpless in this whole city situation. It felt like he knew something was wrong from the very first phone call. I think his instinct, his you know, the father, he knew his son, and he knew right away that Mike Ken just disappeared when he first called the San Angelo police and they made a comment like, we'll probably just find Mike shacked up with a whore. Was I think the exact quote, what do you like? That's so frustrating to me that that was sort of the mindset. I mean, what do you make of that? Well, it's grossly unprofessional and really not okay, no empathy or compassion, and it. Just sort of seems like they defaulted to, yeah, he's probably he's probably fine, and maybe that's just sort of like the way most of these cases turn out. But it seems like they weren't very concerned and then to make a comment like that, like you said, it's very, very unprofessional. So the decision to put a tracker on Wendy's car is an interesting topic. We'll talk more in part two, but if you recall, the Air Force did it.

1:03:53 They didn't have a search warrant to do this because they're the Air Force and they operate under different rules. But there was concern that this might, you know, this might harm a future prosecution. I'm curious as to your opinion as a lawyer, not really a lawyer, I'm not even close. What do you what do you think about that decision? Well, I'm curious because Mike was in the Air Force, they had jurisdiction, even though it was ninety miles away. Well, I mean, the interesting thing is whether they had permission to put something on Wendy's car. Who was Wendy was not in the Air Force, right, if it had been Mike's car, they certainly would have had, you know, authority to do that. I think we're going to come back to this in part two. Yeah, we will, for sure. But it is an interesting thought of whether that was the right thing, because that really did help break the case because they saw her going to Terrell Sheen's ranch. Then they had that, they had the internet search of her about decomposing bodies, and like, okay, they put two and do together. They were they were going to figure this out, right, And I think Wendy knew that the writing was on the wall that they were going to figure it out. So to me, that's probably why she she tried to get out in front of this by telling her family that she had she had found him dad and decided to hide the body.

1:05:02 How plausible do you think Wendy's story is that she found his body she assumed that someone in her family killed him, which I'm assuming she thought in her mind it was Judy, Yeah, because Judy hated Mike so much. But yeah, how plausible do you think that really is? I mean, if I were in that situation, I would call you first and say did you do you know anything about this situation? And again, I don't know who helped her, but someone must have helped her get Mike's body into the back of her car. Right, I don't want to say anything, but not necessarily we can. We'll talk about that more part too. Big man, He wasn't bit. He was like one hundred and sixty pounds, so not tiny but not large either. I have a question about hard drives. Even if you take your MacBook down to factory settings, your internet, sir, someone can a forensic computer analysis can still find it, right.

1:05:51 I mean not, It's not guaranteed that they can find things. But nothing really gets overwritten on a hard drive. It basically just when you or your history or you you know, delete everything on your hard drive, it's basically just deleting like the pointer to the information. The information is still there, but you're just deleting the kind of the signpost to get to the information. So until the information is overwritten with something else, it's still there. Okay, you just said that like an it person, but I think I understood the gist of what you were saying. So I have an idea for a software that can delete things permanently. I someone needs to work on that. Yeah, someone, we know we can.

1:06:32 I'm guessing something like that exists, but yeah, I'm not. I'm not sure. Well, the absence of any Google searches is probably a little damning. Too, maybe, but not certainly not as damning as searching for you know, what happens the decomposed bodies. I'll be sure to come back for part two. So this case got me thinking a little bit about James Harriet. Do you remember James Harriet? I do for people who don't know James Harriet is he wrote a series. He was a veterinarian in England, in the Yorkshire Dales, like out in the countryside of England, and he wrote a series of books. The first one, I think was called All Creatures Great and Small, and he wrote a whole bunch of them with like stories of his veterinary practice, like working with like large animals and things like that. And this case reminded me of that for two reasons. One is obviously the veterinary angle, but do you know do you know what the other one is? M No, Because Wendy's first son was named Tristan. Tristan was the name of a character in James Harriet's books, and I wanted to name one of our children Tristan. I really liked that name a lot, ye, And you were not a big, big fan of that name.

1:07:42 I mean, it's a nice name, but I just didn't want to name whever our children that. Yeah. But do you remember you and I used to back in the early days of our relationship, we would read James Harriet's stories to each other. He did. I know it sounds so cheesy. Yeah, read to each other before would just sleep at night. James harry books were really good because each chapter was like its own little story, so you could read like one. Yeah, very sweet, very I mean not always like I. Think someone were sad. We're sad, yeah, but there was all. It's also a series. Did you know that TV series? Yeah? Yeah, I did know that. I've never watched it. No, I've never seen it either. But the books are just if you haven't read them, like to me, they're just so like heartwarming.

1:08:24 They're really human and humane and just full of like eccentric farmers and you know, stories about animals and stuff, and they're really just a lovely set of books. I did look up and read a few things about James Harriet that I don't know if I knew before, but it's been a while. The one thing that I thought was interesting is he didn't actually start writing until he was in his fifties. Like he was a full time veterinarian he had practiced for decades, and his wife finally convinced him to sit down and write about his experiences. And he almost didn't do it. But his books have sold over sixty million copies worldwide. His real name, by the way, was names Alfred White used the pen name James Harriet, which he took from a Scottish footballer that he saw on TV one night when he needed a pseudonym.

1:09:08 I guess why did he need aseo. I don't know. I guess he just didn't want. I think the books are not purely truthful. I think there's a lot of I think there's a lot of fiction mixed in with the books as well. I don't think it's one hundred percent accurate, and I know it. It's like richent Tina. Aren't our real names. A lot of people don't know that, But I mean, you don't want anyone to know our real names, our pen names, right of course, well not exactly. Our podcast names. But the the Yorkshire Dales where the books are set it actually became like a major tourist attraction because of that, And there's a museum there called the World of James Harriet where you can visit the actual house and the surgery where he practiced. Wow, which would be really cool. I think I remember how wholesome these books are if you're a fan of like The Little House and the Prairie Books, or you have an older child. I think your older child would probably be interested in these books. Yeah, yeah, really good stuff.

1:10:00 Yeah we should. We should start doing that again, pick the James Harriet books back up. Well, once in a while, we do. Still you sound like the cheesiest couple in the whole. It's possible, yeah, which is fine, But we still do that once in a while. Well, one thing we do that I really enjoy is when we're on a road trip. The only thing that we enjoy. One of many things that I enjoy is when we're on a road trip and you read to me when we're like, I'll be driving and you'll be in the passenger seat, and you know, we'll read read a book while we're on a road trip. We are we are very very wholesome. Yeah, maybe the books are wholesome. Maybe we're reading, you know, fifty Shades Great. Lady Chatterly, I don't even rated books. Oh, fifty Shades of Great.

1:10:43 I just said that. I heard it. I just didn't process it. That's okay. The allergies are kind of getting to me a little. I got it. So it's Saturday afternoon when we're recording. What are we going to do with the rest of the week, our weekend? I have an idea. Do you want to hear it? Okay? Sure? Keyes is three hours away, three hours and five minutes. You've mapped it up. Is the nearest I did. I mapped it out, and maybe we should just do a road trip. This is just this is down near Dayton, Ohio. I believe Hubert Hubert City Heights, Uber Heights. That's right. Yeah, I used to live in Dayton, so we could we could do it, make a road trip, go down. We have to record part two though. I mean we're at a schedule really, so yeah, we could really do have the next alright, thirty six hours.

1:11:26 We could definitely do it. All right, let's go I should Should I get an Airbnb or we're going to go back and forth the same day? I don't know. This is your this is your trip now. So well, the only thing I'm a little nervous about, and I'm serious about this, I don't know if you are, but people like it opened on Monday, April sixth, and people were camped out. People we're camped out to go to buck. It's been almost a week, so hopefully that died down a little bit of y the first Saturday. You guys will be the first people to know if we visit BUCkies, and you should follow us on Instagram and other social media if you're not, because we us you know, we post interesting things you do. I was just looking at some funny things you posted today and they. Were you know, is just to make people smile or think a little bit or feel seen with our Instagram, I try not to promote us too much, just I just want people to smile, and it works.

1:12:16 It works for me. That's great. Well, you've wasted another perfectly good hour and fifteen if you've made it this far listening to us. If you'd like to listen to part two of this case right now, you can join us on patreon dot com slash love Mary Kill. We have one tier five dollars a month, and for that you get early ad free access plus a monthly bonus episode. I mean, truly, it's the best deal on Patreon. Wow change. I don't I'm not very good at self promoting, but I feel like most creators you know would make multiple tiers, but we just try to keep it simple and try to encourage people to join. Yeah, until next time Don't he your husband and don't kill your word lesbian