April 20, 2026

Wendi Davidson and Mike Severance - Part 1

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Michael Severance was a decorated Air Force staff sergeant from Lee, Maine — a young man known for his integrity, his loyalty, and his love of dancing the Texas two-step. In January 2005, just months into a troubled marriage to a West Texas veterinarian named Wendi Davidson, Mike vanished without a trace. His truck, his wallet, and his cell phone were all left behind. For weeks, investigators chased dead ends while Mike's family in Maine waited desperately for answers.

What they eventually found would shock everyone who had known him. What followed was a complex investigation, a bitter custody battle over Mike's infant son, and a legal case full of twists that left his family feeling that true justice was never fully served.

Mike survived five combat deployments to some of the most dangerous places on earth. Evil found him in his own home.

Today's snack: Queso dip from The Big Texas Cookbook (thanks Carla!)

Listen to part 2 today: https://patreon.com/lovemarrykill

Sources:

WEBVTT

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Hi, I'm rich, and Tina.

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If there's one thing we've learned in over twenty years

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of marriage.

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It's that some 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 today?

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I am pretty good?

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Good?

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How are you?

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I'm okay. That intro was a little rough, and it's

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my fault because I get stressed out about saying, Hi,

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I'm rich.

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I don't know why.

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Sometimes it comes out. Sometimes it comes out like Mickey

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Mouse or something.

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It does a little bit. Yeah, but you had told

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me before you started, I think I'm going to go

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in deeper this time. Yeah, and you really did it.

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So that's why I.

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Had every intent to go in deeper, and it just

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didn't work out. Said, I don't know. I don't know why,

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but I struggle. On a recent episode, I made a

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random comment near the end about craving a cheeseburger.

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You did.

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That comment has gotten It's funny. You never know what's

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going to get a lot of feedback and what's not.

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I got a lot of feedback on that comment and

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a lot of ideas that I'm going to need to

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test out here.

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Oh did you meet cheeseburger dip or something?

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No, No, I didn't. It doesn't. This is not related

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to the stock, but I just was looking at all

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these comments and people have strong opinion.

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We've had cheeseburgers since you made that comment.

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Actually, I had a cheeseburger at Buffalo Wild Wings. We

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went met some friends there, and oh, that's right. Normally

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I wouldn't get a cheeseburger at Buffalo Wild Wings because

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I'd get wings.

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But it's not really a long story. But we were

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supposed to meet somewhere else, but like, there's a ton

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of people there, so then we're Buffalo Wild Wings was

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right next door and it was actually during the beginning

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of french manness, Like a couple just go over to

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Buffalo Wild Wings.

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And it was actually a really good cheeseburger.

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Sorry that was a bad story, but go ahead.

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It was a good cheeseburger. I'm going to say. But

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I wanted to share some of the feedback because I

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think I'm going to have to go on a mission.

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So okay.

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Jillian says that the big arch for McDonald's is trash.

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Don't waste your time on it.

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Wait after the CEO's tepid bite of the big arch.

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I like, I don't need to try that.

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And Teresa gree She says McDonald's meat always has a

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funky taste. But she says, Dairy Queen has a barbecue

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ranchburger that's really good. It has an onion ring on it.

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So we have most of our Dairy Queen's here in Michigan.

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Are not the are they Brazier say, yeah, but we

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do have one not too far away. And there's like

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some Dubai Chocolate Sundays and stuff and shakes that I

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was kind of tempted to probably.

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Make a field trip.

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Yeah.

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Sherry also mentioned Arby's, which surprised me because I didn't

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think Arby's had burgers just roasty. I thought they were

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like the anti Burger. But they have a new bacon

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cheeseburger that apparently is amazing. Cher says, definitely give Burger

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King another try. Yeah, And apparently Burger King has they

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have onion rings on their menu, which I didn't realize.

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And you can get half Zi's which is half French

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fries and half that is genius. That is genius. And

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they also have tacos apparently what that's what Cher says.

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Try the tacos.

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So that's insane.

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I know, got all kinds of ideas here. So we're

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gonna have to do a burger taste test.

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Okay, we'll do that. So I wanted to talk about

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Michigan weather and how it really impassed us.

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Why are you laughing?

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I give you agree, right, Yeah, the winter is hard

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and long, and this winter especially was hard and long,

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and I think I was going through some stuff, you know,

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like our kids aren't here as much, and it you know,

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I'm just going to say her name, because she left

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her comment there on Spotify shouted me for being negative.

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She was like, could Tina be more negative? Blah blah blah,

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And I was like, all right, well, maybe I'm going

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through stuff, Rene, maybe it's just the season of life

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I'm in. But the sun is shining here in Michigan.

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I think I think that we for a real spring,

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and we've gotten you know, a few walks in. I've

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gotten some vitamin D. And I apologize if I can

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off as negative, but I think I'm I'm feeling better.

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I think that you know, you're on the you're on

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the upswing.

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Yeah, I'm just gonna well, I'm not going to always

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be positive because well.

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I would just say that when sometimes you like to

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joke around and like rip on me for different things

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and it's all in fun.

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And a lot of times I will say, hey, I'm

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going to give you a hard time about X before

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we record. Is that okay with it? And I encourage

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it and I don't want to, like, you know, show

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everyone what's beyond the fourth wall. But you know, I

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would never ever try to embarrass you on our podcast totally.

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I mean I would, you know, it's just me and

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you all the time. But you know, I feel like

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I feel like most people know that we have. We

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love each other very much and we wouldn't do anything

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to hurt each other. So just know if we're ribbing

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each other, it's usually in good fun. That said, we

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love to read your Spotify comments and feel free to

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leave criticism. It's totally fine. If you have, you know,

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something to say that might be critical, it's okay, we

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can take it. We always want to make the show better.

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Well, I have a snack for you.

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I guess it's a cheeseburger.

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No, it doesn't involve cheese though, So our good friend

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and listener Carla. She sent us this big box a

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while ago. She sent us snacks, but also in that

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box was a.

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Cookbook, really great cookbook.

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Yeah it was the Texas I actually brought it up

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with me just like you to remember the Big Texas Cookbook.

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And the case I'm working on today is set in Texas.

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So I thought, what better opportunity to make something from

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the cookbook. So I made you some caso dip.

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Oh yum.

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Yeah, I'm going to have to go get it. I

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left it on the stove because I wanted to keep

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it warm. Appreciate that there are some peppers in it.

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I know you're not the biggest pepper fan. I went

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light on them. Jalapenno and poblano peppers.

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Pepper handle it. It's the Bell peppers. But when I

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was in the shower, I could smell you cooking something

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and I was like, well, there's the onions, And then

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I thought I smelled Bell peppers too.

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It sounds great.

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All right, let me go get it. What did you

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think of the authentic Texas caeso?

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That was pretty good. I think it was for me

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a little heavy on the peppers, but really good flavor.

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The texture was perfect. How did you do that? How

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did you get.

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That very alvida?

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Oh, like whenever I've tried to make like a cheese like.

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You know the cookbook. Actually in the cookbook it said,

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you know, there's a lot of people that try to

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make a caeso dip with regular cheese and it just

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doesn't work. And you got Velvita is the key to it.

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Well, it's really good. I highly recommend that you try

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that if you like a keeso dip. The other night,

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you and I went out from Mexican and we did

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not finish the chips and salsa that were at the table,

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and we even got like some caeso on the side,

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and I was like, who are we?

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We had way too much food?

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Deep. Yeah, it was crazy, but this is delicious. I

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highly recommend.

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Shall we get to the story of Wendy Davidson and

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Michael Severance? Absolutely this case is a recommendation from our

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listener Tricia, who is in San Antonio, which is not

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far from where this takes place. Before we start, a

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content warning. This episode does include discussion of animals and euthanasia.

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While not explicit, some listeners may find it disturbing, so

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please listen with care. On the morning of Sunday, January sixteenth,

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two thousand and five, Leslie Severance was already at work

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in his hometown of Lee, Maine, a small town of

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about eight hundred people an hour north of Bangor, when

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his wife, Brenda, took a call that made her stomach drop.

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It was Leslie's daughter in law, Wendy, calling from Texas.

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She was looking for Mike and wondered had they heard

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from him. Mike was Leslie's son and Brenda's step son.

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He was twenty four years old, an Air Force staff

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sergeant stationed at Dayas Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas.

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He was also supposed to be on a plane to

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Maine that morning. He and Wendy and their two boys

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were coming home for a visit. Leslie had been counting

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the days, but Mike hadn't come home. According to wend

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he had simply not come back to the veterinary clinic

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where they lived the night before. She wasn't sure where

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he was. Brenda hung up and called the airline. The tickets,

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she was told had been canceled that morning. When Leslie

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got home from his shift that evening and heard what

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had happened. He didn't hesitate. He called Wendy and asked questions,

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and it was immediately clear to him that something was

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not right. Mike's pickup truck was still there, his wallet,

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his cell phone, his clothes, everything he owned was exactly

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where he'd left it. Mike Severance was not the kind

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of man who just disappeared. He was the kid who

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had earned the nickname bicycle Mike because he was always moving,

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always outside, no matter how cold the main winters got.

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He was the teenager who had stepped up to care

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for his father and younger brother after their mother died

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suddenly when he was just fourteen years old. He was

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the airman who had volunteered for dangerous missions across five

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deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq and beyond. The guy who, when

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a new soldier arrived at the base, took him under

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his wing and made sure he didn't go down the

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wrong path. He had worked his way up to crew

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chief and was proud of it. He had taught himself

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the Texas two step because he figured if you weren't

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great at talking to people, you could always just ask

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them to dance. He was, by all accounts, someone who

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always tried to do the right thing. His younger brother

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Frank called him his superman, and now he was gone.

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What followed was one of the stranger missing persons cases

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in recent Texas history, full of red herrings. A mother

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in law who seemed to despise her son in law

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from the moment she met him, Internet searches that raised

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serious questions, a tracking device that nearly derailed the entire investigation,

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and a Chihuahua named Wheezy who helped to crack the case.

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This is the story of Michael Severance and Wendy May Davidson,

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and of the people whose lives would be forever changed

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after one January night in San Angelo, Texas.

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Well, you've got my attention. Very interesting. They lived in

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a veterinary clinic.

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Yes, was a veterinarian. Leslie Severance was a jet engine

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mechanic for the Air Force when he met Valerie Smith

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around Christmas nineteen seventy six while he was home on leave.

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They married in nineteen seventy eight, and when Valerie got pregnant,

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Leslie made a decision. He left the Air Force and

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put his skills to work in the private sector. His

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training was good enough to land him a solid, well

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paying job, and the two of them settled in Wynn, Maine,

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a small town about an hour north of Bangor. Michael

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Allan Severance was born on July twentieth, nineteen eighty. His

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brother Frank came along two years later, in December nineteen

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eighty two. From the very beginning, Mike was a kid

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who needed to move no matter how cold the main

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winters got. And they got cold, he had to be outside.

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He got his first bike and never looked back. By

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the time he was six years old, he was racing it.

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Friends and family started calling him bicycle Mike, and the

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nickname stuck. In nineteen eighty seven, the family settled for

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good in Lee, Maine, a town of about eight hundred people.

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Leslie got a job at the Lincoln Paper and Tissue Company,

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and once Frank started school, Valerie went to work as

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a school bus driver. They weren't wealthy, but they made

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it work. What they lacked in money, they more than

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made up for in community. People were always dropping by

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the house, and Valerie was always happy to feed whoever

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showed up. The Severance home was warm, busy, and full

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of love, with Valerie at the center of it all.

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Mike and Frank were close as brothers, though they couldn't

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have been more different. Frank was outgoing and gregarious, while

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Mike was quiet and reserved. In junior high, he competed

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in skiing and played soccer and baseball. Both boys were

253
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deeply attached to their mother. At some point during those years,

254
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Valerie was diagnosed with lupus. She didn't let it slower down.

255
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She kept working and kept the household running. Then in

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late February nineteen ninety five, everything changed. Leslie was getting

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ready for work one morning when he heard a noise

258
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coming from the bedroom. I found Valerie unconscious on the

259
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floor and he couldn't wake her. He rushed her to

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the hospital, where doctors determined she had suffered a brain aneurysm.

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At first, there was cautious optimism. She was conscious and

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00:12:12.360 --> 00:12:15.320
knew her own name and address, but over the following

263
00:12:15.399 --> 00:12:21.240
days she deteriorated. Surgery and other procedures couldn't stop the decline. Eventually,

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she was transferred to a hospital in Boston, where doctors

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exhausted all of the treatment options. Valerie was left in

266
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an unresponsive state, kept alive by machines. On March eighth,

267
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nineteen ninety five, Leslie made the gut wrenching decision to

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take her off life support.

269
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That sounds like a devastating situation.

270
00:12:40.600 --> 00:12:44.200
Yeah, especially happening so suddenly like that. Mike was fourteen

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00:12:44.279 --> 00:12:48.120
years old and Frank was eleven. Leslie was devastated and

272
00:12:48.279 --> 00:12:51.840
completely at a loss. Valerie had handled everything at home.

273
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He didn't know how to pay the bills, do the laundry,

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or cook a meal. He was drowning in grief and

275
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suddenly he was a single father to two boys. Mike

276
00:13:00.519 --> 00:13:03.000
saw what was happening to his dad, and he stepped up.

277
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At fourteen, he started trying to hold things together, looking

278
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after Frank, helping around the house, being the steady presence

279
00:13:10.759 --> 00:13:14.440
that his father needed. A year later, in nineteen ninety six,

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Leslie met a woman named Brenda Layton who was working

281
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as a convenience store clerk. She had recently separated from

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her husband after discovering he had cheated on her, and

283
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she wasn't looking for anything new, but she and Leslie clicked,

284
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and by that July they had decided to merge their households.

285
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Brenda moved in with her two daughters. Thirteen year old

286
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Nicole and ten year old Brooke, joining Leslie, fifteen year

287
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old Mike and twelve year old Frank. Kind of very

288
00:13:40.559 --> 00:13:42.720
much like a Brady Bunch scenario, but with only two

289
00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:46.279
girls and two boys. Frank struggled with the new arrangement,

290
00:13:46.360 --> 00:13:49.399
but Mike took it and stride. He helped Nicole find

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her footing in the neighborhood and her new school, introducing

292
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her to people and taking her to different activities. They

293
00:13:55.639 --> 00:13:58.360
were both athletic, and before long the two of them

294
00:13:58.360 --> 00:14:02.559
were jogging together regularly. Mike graduated high school with honors.

295
00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:06.159
He had already gotten his Class one commercial driver's license,

296
00:14:06.440 --> 00:14:09.000
with an eye toward eventually making a living behind the

297
00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:12.600
wheel of a logging truck near his hometown. His dad

298
00:14:12.639 --> 00:14:15.559
had no objection to that plan, but he had some advice.

299
00:14:15.919 --> 00:14:19.080
See the world first, don't plant yourself in Maine before

300
00:14:19.080 --> 00:14:22.120
you've had a chance to experience something beyond it. He

301
00:14:22.200 --> 00:14:26.480
suggested the military, and Mike agreed. He began active duty

302
00:14:26.519 --> 00:14:29.960
on September twenty eighth, nineteen ninety eight, and was stationed

303
00:14:29.960 --> 00:14:33.559
at DAAs Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas. The Air

304
00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:36.360
Force turned out to be exactly what Mike needed. It

305
00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:39.440
helped him shake his painful shyness that he had carried

306
00:14:39.480 --> 00:14:43.200
since childhood. He grew more confident and more sure of himself.

307
00:14:43.679 --> 00:14:46.600
He had his first serious girlfriend in Texas, a woman

308
00:14:46.679 --> 00:14:50.360
named Hillary Langley. They dated for several months, and Mike

309
00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:52.960
got along well with her family, but he was twenty

310
00:14:53.039 --> 00:14:56.000
years old and not ready to settle down. When things

311
00:14:56.039 --> 00:14:58.759
started getting serious, He was honest with her about where

312
00:14:58.759 --> 00:15:03.519
he stood, broke up, but remained friends. Life was relatively

313
00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:08.080
quiet until September eleventh, two thousand and one. After the attacks,

314
00:15:08.279 --> 00:15:12.159
Mike was deployed as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. He

315
00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:16.080
was sent to Uzbekistan, just north of Afghanistan, where he

316
00:15:16.159 --> 00:15:18.960
served as part of a C one thirty crew, ferrying

317
00:15:19.039 --> 00:15:22.240
personnel and supplies in and out of the conflict zone.

318
00:15:22.679 --> 00:15:26.360
He volunteered regularly for the more dangerous missions because he

319
00:15:26.440 --> 00:15:28.919
was single with no kids, while some of his squad

320
00:15:28.960 --> 00:15:32.720
mates were married with families. Over the next couple of years,

321
00:15:32.879 --> 00:15:35.480
he would be deployed to the Middle East five times,

322
00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:40.879
spending time in Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Uzbekistan.

323
00:15:41.320 --> 00:15:43.960
He logged nine hundred and twenty two flying hours as

324
00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:46.879
a crew chief took part in five hundred and fifteen

325
00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:51.120
sorties and achieved a ninety nine percent departure reliability rating.

326
00:15:51.519 --> 00:15:52.519
What are sorties?

327
00:15:53.080 --> 00:15:55.960
That's basically just a mission, like a flight of mission

328
00:15:56.039 --> 00:15:59.960
to deliver supplies or something like that. In between deployment,

329
00:16:00.279 --> 00:16:03.360
he was back at Dayas in Texas, living his life.

330
00:16:03.480 --> 00:16:05.759
He learned to dance the two step and loved it.

331
00:16:06.200 --> 00:16:09.399
He started racing four wheelers in his spare time, and

332
00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:11.919
in the summer of two thousand and three he discovered

333
00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:14.759
dirt track racing and fell completely in love with it.

334
00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:18.039
He poured every spare dollar and departs and repairs for

335
00:16:18.120 --> 00:16:20.919
his car. There were stretches when he was eating ramen

336
00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:23.639
noodles for two weeks straight just to feed his hobby.

337
00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:26.440
His brother Frank had moved down to Abilene by then,

338
00:16:26.480 --> 00:16:28.440
and the two of them were close again the way

339
00:16:28.440 --> 00:16:31.120
that they'd ben as kids. On a December night in

340
00:16:31.159 --> 00:16:34.159
two thousand and three, Mike, twenty three years old, a

341
00:16:34.200 --> 00:16:37.799
combat veteran, a dirt track racer, a two stepping Air

342
00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:40.480
Force crew chief from a small town in Maine, went

343
00:16:40.519 --> 00:16:43.039
out to a bar with some buddies for a few beers.

344
00:16:43.440 --> 00:16:46.200
That was the night he met Wendy May Davidson.

345
00:16:46.720 --> 00:16:50.320
Judy and Lloyd Davidson were West Texas through and through.

346
00:16:50.799 --> 00:16:54.080
Both had been born there, raised there, and never once

347
00:16:54.240 --> 00:16:57.080
left the state. Oh it's a big state, but it

348
00:16:57.120 --> 00:17:00.159
really is. It's crazy to never leave it. After they married, right,

349
00:17:00.279 --> 00:17:03.159
they settled on a ranch north of San Angelo, a

350
00:17:03.159 --> 00:17:05.680
city of about one hundred thousand in the heart of

351
00:17:05.720 --> 00:17:09.160
the Texas hill Country, and that's where they stayed. The

352
00:17:09.240 --> 00:17:13.000
ranch was secluded, set apart from the town. The Davidsons

353
00:17:13.039 --> 00:17:16.519
didn't belong to a church or any social organizations. They

354
00:17:16.519 --> 00:17:20.359
had few friends and mostly kept to themselves. Lloyd worked

355
00:17:20.440 --> 00:17:24.079
at the local Levi Strauss factory, while Judy stayed home

356
00:17:24.119 --> 00:17:27.519
with the kids. Wendy made Davidson was born on July

357
00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:31.680
twenty third, nineteen seventy eight. Her brother Marshall came along

358
00:17:31.720 --> 00:17:34.799
the following year. Growing up on a ranch, the kids

359
00:17:34.799 --> 00:17:38.119
were surrounded by animals. Wendy got her first dog when

360
00:17:38.119 --> 00:17:41.039
she was three, a dog she named with the full

361
00:17:41.160 --> 00:17:44.319
confidence of a three year old Licky Candlestick.

362
00:17:44.759 --> 00:17:46.759
Now that detail kind of cracked me up. It reminded

363
00:17:46.759 --> 00:17:48.759
me of our own children when they would like when

364
00:17:48.759 --> 00:17:50.720
they were that age and they would just name things,

365
00:17:50.759 --> 00:17:52.640
just crazy random names.

366
00:17:52.680 --> 00:17:56.279
Yeah, that's great. She and Marshall spent their childhood exploring

367
00:17:56.279 --> 00:17:59.000
the land around them, rescuing a baby bird with a

368
00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:02.240
broken wing, nursing a raccoon back to health after its

369
00:18:02.319 --> 00:18:05.359
mother was killed. By the time Wendy was seven years old,

370
00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:08.279
she made up her mind she was going to be

371
00:18:08.359 --> 00:18:11.880
a veterinarian. As Wendy got older, her love of animals

372
00:18:11.920 --> 00:18:15.519
only deepened, and high school she excelled in animal science

373
00:18:15.559 --> 00:18:19.680
and agricultural studies. She showed goats at area stock shows

374
00:18:19.720 --> 00:18:23.200
to raise scholarship money for college, and was heavily involved

375
00:18:23.200 --> 00:18:27.200
in Future Farmers of America, or the f FA. She

376
00:18:27.279 --> 00:18:30.440
also cheered, played basketball and volleyball, and even acted in

377
00:18:30.480 --> 00:18:33.200
a play her senior year. But Wendy had a hard

378
00:18:33.240 --> 00:18:37.440
time with people, particularly other girls. She struggled to read

379
00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:41.160
social situations, often seeming unaware of how her words and

380
00:18:41.240 --> 00:18:45.160
actions landed with those around her. The other cheerleaders didn't

381
00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:48.240
seem to like her much. She wasn't popular, and she

382
00:18:48.319 --> 00:18:52.039
knew it. Her closest friend was a boy named Chris Collier.

383
00:18:52.359 --> 00:18:55.279
They dated briefly at sixteen, figured out they were better

384
00:18:55.319 --> 00:18:57.759
as friends and stayed that way through the rest of

385
00:18:57.839 --> 00:19:00.880
high school. What they had in common more than anything

386
00:19:01.160 --> 00:19:04.599
was their love of animals. Whatever her social struggles, Wendy

387
00:19:04.599 --> 00:19:08.000
worked hard, and it showed. She graduated second in her

388
00:19:08.039 --> 00:19:12.319
class as salutatorian. After high school, she had enrolled at

389
00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:16.440
Angelo State University Wright in San Angelo. Living at home

390
00:19:16.519 --> 00:19:20.480
and commuting to class. She had a steady boyfriend, Shay Kelton,

391
00:19:20.759 --> 00:19:24.720
the grandson of the venerable Texas Western writer Elmer Kelton,

392
00:19:25.039 --> 00:19:28.400
something of a local legend in those parts. During summer,

393
00:19:28.519 --> 00:19:31.240
she worked at an animal clinic, logging hours toward the

394
00:19:31.240 --> 00:19:33.839
career she had been planning since she was seven years old.

395
00:19:34.279 --> 00:19:37.119
Marshall was working summers too. He had a job with

396
00:19:37.160 --> 00:19:41.119
a man named doctor Terrell Sheen, a veterinarian who was

397
00:19:41.160 --> 00:19:44.960
also one of the area's most prominent landlords. Marshal did

398
00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:48.519
maintenance on Sheen's rental properties and helped out his sprawling

399
00:19:48.680 --> 00:19:52.440
seven seven seven seven ranch, more commonly known as the

400
00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:56.480
four sevens Ranch in Grape Creek, just northwest of San Angelo.

401
00:19:57.119 --> 00:20:00.400
Terrell Sheen would become more important to the family when,

402
00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:03.720
in early nineteen ninety eight, after more than twenty years

403
00:20:03.839 --> 00:20:07.319
on the factory floor, Lloyd Davidson learned that his job

404
00:20:07.480 --> 00:20:11.680
was disappearing. Levi Strauss was closing plans across the country,

405
00:20:11.799 --> 00:20:15.519
and the San Angelo location was on the list. Marshall

406
00:20:15.559 --> 00:20:18.799
introduced his father to Terrell Sheen, and, on Sheen's advice,

407
00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:22.759
Lloyd went into business for himself as an independent contractor.

408
00:20:23.079 --> 00:20:26.160
From that point on, he worked almost exclusively for Sheen,

409
00:20:26.440 --> 00:20:30.480
doing work on his properties. We'll be back after a break.

410
00:20:38.039 --> 00:20:40.839
After just two years, Wendy had completed all of her

411
00:20:40.839 --> 00:20:44.880
prerequisite coursework at Angelo State University and earned a spot

412
00:20:44.920 --> 00:20:48.359
at Texas A and M's College of Veterinary Medicine, one

413
00:20:48.400 --> 00:20:52.160
of only two veterinary schools in the state. I'm having

414
00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:54.839
a hard time with that word. Can you tell veterinary?

415
00:20:55.119 --> 00:20:56.240
He did just fine.

416
00:20:56.839 --> 00:20:59.599
She packed up and moved to college station. The dreams

417
00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:02.440
she'd had since she was seven years old was within reach.

418
00:21:02.839 --> 00:21:05.440
During summer, she went back to work for Cherrell Sheen

419
00:21:05.599 --> 00:21:09.079
as an assistant at his veterinary clinic, but her personal

420
00:21:09.119 --> 00:21:12.960
life was considerably messier than her academic one. At some

421
00:21:13.039 --> 00:21:16.359
point during college, she became pregnant and had an abortion.

422
00:21:16.960 --> 00:21:20.160
Soon she got pregnant again when her boyfriend at the time,

423
00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:22.680
a guy named Ryan Reads told her that he wanted

424
00:21:22.680 --> 00:21:25.119
to break up. She sprung the news on him that

425
00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:28.160
she was pregnant. At first, Ryan didn't believe her, so

426
00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:31.200
he took her to the doctor, who confirmed the pregnancy.

427
00:21:31.599 --> 00:21:34.240
Ryan talked it over with his family, who then met

428
00:21:34.279 --> 00:21:37.599
with Wendy's parents. The Reeds family told them that Ryan

429
00:21:37.640 --> 00:21:40.119
would do his part to support Wendy and the child,

430
00:21:40.319 --> 00:21:43.839
but that he wouldn't marry her. Judy Davidson was furious,

431
00:21:44.279 --> 00:21:46.200
he's not going to do the right thing. Then we

432
00:21:46.240 --> 00:21:48.599
want nothing to do with him, she said as she

433
00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:52.279
stomped off. What Ryan didn't know was that Wendy wasn't

434
00:21:52.279 --> 00:21:55.319
actually sure who the father was. There were three guys

435
00:21:55.319 --> 00:21:58.400
that she'd been with around that time. Wendy carried the

436
00:21:58.440 --> 00:22:01.480
baby to term doing the c rotations she needed to

437
00:22:01.519 --> 00:22:05.559
finish up school right up until she was due. Her son, Tristan,

438
00:22:05.680 --> 00:22:08.400
was born on October twenty ninth, two thousand and one.

439
00:22:08.920 --> 00:22:11.799
Judy came from San Angelo to College Station to care

440
00:22:11.839 --> 00:22:15.400
for the infant while Wendy finished her degree. After graduation

441
00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:18.279
in May two thousand and two, Wendy and Tristan moved

442
00:22:18.279 --> 00:22:21.880
to Abilene about ninety miles from San Angelo in her

443
00:22:21.880 --> 00:22:25.640
parents' home. That same spring, her brother Marshall graduated from

444
00:22:25.680 --> 00:22:29.119
Angelo State University and took a park ranger position at

445
00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:32.559
Lake Corpus Christie State Park, moving to the small town

446
00:22:32.680 --> 00:22:36.519
of Mathis, more than three hundred miles away. Wendy landed

447
00:22:36.559 --> 00:22:39.839
a job at the Abilene Animal Hospital, owned by doctor

448
00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:43.119
Larry Ellis, who had thirty years of experience, but he

449
00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:45.680
also happened to own a good deal of real estate

450
00:22:45.720 --> 00:22:48.599
around town. He offered Wendy a place to live in

451
00:22:48.680 --> 00:22:51.880
one of the rental properties, and she accepted. Was a

452
00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:55.279
generous arrangement for a new graduate with a baby. The

453
00:22:55.359 --> 00:22:59.960
job started well enough, but almost immediately cracks began to show.

454
00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:03.279
A week into her new position, a clinical employee named

455
00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:06.480
Ryan Good came by her apartment to drop off a pager.

456
00:23:07.119 --> 00:23:10.079
Ryan was just eighteen, the son of another vat at

457
00:23:10.079 --> 00:23:13.000
the practice, rush out of high school and heading to

458
00:23:13.039 --> 00:23:16.480
Texas Tech in the fall. Wendy invited him in. By

459
00:23:16.519 --> 00:23:19.039
the end of the evening, they had slept together, and

460
00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:23.039
within a week she was talking about a long term relationship.

461
00:23:23.240 --> 00:23:25.279
So how old is Wendy, She's like twenty one.

462
00:23:25.279 --> 00:23:26.839
Two twenty two.

463
00:23:26.960 --> 00:23:30.039
At this time, Yeah, Ryan was taken aback. He had

464
00:23:30.119 --> 00:23:33.640
no interest in anything serious. He was a teenager about

465
00:23:33.640 --> 00:23:37.119
to start college. When he ended the relationship, Ryan was

466
00:23:37.160 --> 00:23:40.359
struck by how deeply Wendy seemed to have attached herself

467
00:23:40.400 --> 00:23:42.440
to him in the span of just a few days.

468
00:23:42.960 --> 00:23:46.039
After that, she briefly dated the brother of a co worker.

469
00:23:46.559 --> 00:23:48.359
A few weeks in, she told him that she was

470
00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:51.920
pregnant and later said that she had miscarried. At work,

471
00:23:52.039 --> 00:23:55.400
things weren't going smoothly either. Wendy had a hard time

472
00:23:55.440 --> 00:23:59.839
with the realities of a veterinary practice, particularly youth in Asia.

473
00:24:00.200 --> 00:24:02.759
Whenever an animal was scheduled to be put down, she

474
00:24:02.799 --> 00:24:06.000
would become visibly upset, ranting and raving in a way

475
00:24:06.039 --> 00:24:09.640
her colleagues could only describe as a tantrum. She also

476
00:24:09.720 --> 00:24:13.200
bristled at the feedback from doctor Ellis when he corrected

477
00:24:13.200 --> 00:24:16.200
her technique or instructed her on how to handle a procedure.

478
00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:19.359
She would simply disregard what he said, as though his

479
00:24:19.440 --> 00:24:22.799
three decades of experience carried less weight than her brand

480
00:24:22.839 --> 00:24:27.319
new degree. I imagine as event putting down animals would

481
00:24:27.319 --> 00:24:29.680
be really the worst part of your jerious so I

482
00:24:29.680 --> 00:24:33.640
can understand that her personal life continued its turbulent course.

483
00:24:34.119 --> 00:24:37.599
She dated a man named Jeremy Gonzales for about nine months.

484
00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:40.920
He eventually moved in with her. Then he lost his job,

485
00:24:41.160 --> 00:24:46.160
fell into depression, and started using drugs. The relationship deteriorated,

486
00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:49.480
and Wendy said the final straw came when he struck

487
00:24:49.519 --> 00:24:53.519
her dog. She threw him out. However, others suggested a

488
00:24:53.559 --> 00:24:56.799
different version of events that Wendy's parents had been unhappy

489
00:24:56.839 --> 00:24:59.799
with the relationship from the start, disapproving of Jeremy be

490
00:25:00.200 --> 00:25:03.359
of his Hispanic background, and that they had pressured her

491
00:25:03.400 --> 00:25:07.440
to end it. Whatever the truth, Jeremy did not go quietly.

492
00:25:08.119 --> 00:25:11.200
One night, Wendy was home watching television when someone started

493
00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:14.000
pounding on her back door. She grabbed her gun and

494
00:25:14.079 --> 00:25:15.000
chambered around.

495
00:25:15.319 --> 00:25:16.200
It was Jeremy.

496
00:25:16.559 --> 00:25:18.720
He kicked the door open and got in her face,

497
00:25:18.839 --> 00:25:21.279
screaming at her. She pointed the gun at him, but

498
00:25:21.359 --> 00:25:24.079
titn't fire. He grabbed it away from her, pressed it

499
00:25:24.079 --> 00:25:27.240
to his own head, and threatened to shoot himself. Wendy

500
00:25:27.319 --> 00:25:29.519
managed to talk him down and get the gun back,

501
00:25:29.640 --> 00:25:31.559
but he ran to the kitchen and grabbed a knife,

502
00:25:31.599 --> 00:25:34.559
still threatening to take his own life. The situation only

503
00:25:34.680 --> 00:25:37.480
ended when an off duty police officer who lived across

504
00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:40.519
the street heard the commotion and came over to intervene.

505
00:25:40.920 --> 00:25:44.920
After Jeremy, there was Joel Bird, a friend of a coworker.

506
00:25:45.319 --> 00:25:48.559
Wendy got pregnant again and they talked about getting married,

507
00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:51.720
but Judy Davidson didn't think Joel was good enough for

508
00:25:51.799 --> 00:25:55.000
her daughter either. The wedding was called off and Wendy

509
00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:58.960
terminated the pregnancy. By the fall of two thousand and three,

510
00:25:59.160 --> 00:26:02.279
Wendy was twenty five years old, a single mother living

511
00:26:02.279 --> 00:26:05.000
in Abilene with a one year old son, a series

512
00:26:05.039 --> 00:26:08.359
of relationships that had ended badly, and a job that

513
00:26:08.519 --> 00:26:13.119
was growing increasingly unstable. One night, shortly after Thanksgiving, she

514
00:26:13.200 --> 00:26:15.200
went out to a bar and met an Air Force

515
00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:19.240
staff sergeant from Maine named Michael Severance. They spent that

516
00:26:19.319 --> 00:26:23.079
first night together, a one night's stand. Mike thought, was

517
00:26:23.119 --> 00:26:24.920
Tristan's father still in the picture?

518
00:26:25.279 --> 00:26:26.359
I don't believe so, but.

519
00:26:26.400 --> 00:26:29.200
Then you said that you weren't sure if he was

520
00:26:29.240 --> 00:26:30.759
even Tristan's dad, right.

521
00:26:30.920 --> 00:26:34.400
He had basically offered to help support the child, but

522
00:26:34.440 --> 00:26:37.480
then Judy had got really angry and said if you're

523
00:26:37.480 --> 00:26:39.160
not going to marry her, then get out here. And

524
00:26:39.240 --> 00:26:41.400
it turned out she wasn't sure he was the father

525
00:26:41.480 --> 00:26:44.680
or not. I believe he saw Tristan a couple of

526
00:26:44.720 --> 00:26:47.799
times when Tristan was a baby, but then they drifted apart,

527
00:26:47.839 --> 00:26:50.079
and I don't think he was involved in all after that,

528
00:26:50.759 --> 00:26:53.559
After the night that Wendy and Mike met, Mike went

529
00:26:53.640 --> 00:26:55.720
back to his life on the Air Force base and

530
00:26:55.839 --> 00:26:59.079
dirt track racing in his free time, while Wendy's troubles

531
00:26:59.079 --> 00:27:02.799
at work got worse. Twice she had defied doctor Ellis

532
00:27:02.839 --> 00:27:05.440
by sneaking dogs out of the clinic that were scheduled

533
00:27:05.480 --> 00:27:08.279
to be euthanized. Ellis had let it go, but what

534
00:27:08.440 --> 00:27:11.799
happened next was harder to overlook. A client came in

535
00:27:11.839 --> 00:27:15.160
with a litter of sick kittens. Doctor Ellis examined them

536
00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:18.440
and confirmed that they were riddled with ringworm, a highly

537
00:27:18.480 --> 00:27:22.480
contagious fungal infection that can spread to other cats, dogs,

538
00:27:22.640 --> 00:27:26.920
and humans alike. In a clinical setting, it's particularly dangerous.

539
00:27:27.359 --> 00:27:31.079
The spores can survive dormant on bedding, grooming equipment, and

540
00:27:31.240 --> 00:27:35.519
unsanitized surfaces for up to thirteen months. Ellis kept the

541
00:27:35.599 --> 00:27:39.559
kittens in isolation while he confirmed the diagnosis, then gave

542
00:27:39.599 --> 00:27:44.559
Wendy a direct instruction to euthanize them. She couldn't do it. Instead,

543
00:27:44.799 --> 00:27:47.240
she smuggled the kittens out of the clinic and took

544
00:27:47.279 --> 00:27:50.160
them home to nurse them back to health. This despite

545
00:27:50.160 --> 00:27:52.480
the fact that her one year old son, Kristan, was

546
00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:55.880
living in that same apartment. When she believed the kittens

547
00:27:55.880 --> 00:27:59.000
were clear of infection, she began returning them to the

548
00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:01.960
clinic one at a time, but she was wrong. They

549
00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:06.039
were still contagious. Every cat at the Abilene Animal Hospital

550
00:28:06.200 --> 00:28:09.599
was exposed. By the time it was over, twenty eight

551
00:28:09.680 --> 00:28:12.680
cats had to be euthanized. Oh my gosh to hear

552
00:28:12.720 --> 00:28:15.200
she thought she was saving, you know, a small litter

553
00:28:15.240 --> 00:28:18.200
of kittens, and turned out the result was much worse.

554
00:28:18.640 --> 00:28:22.920
Doctor Ellis was understandably livid, and Wendy was fired, although

555
00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:25.519
she would later tell people that she had quit because

556
00:28:25.559 --> 00:28:28.559
Ellis and his wife were immoral people and she couldn't

557
00:28:28.599 --> 00:28:29.119
work for them.

558
00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:31.799
I'm sorry, I'm still thinking about the kittens. I have

559
00:28:31.839 --> 00:28:34.920
a question. Well, I guess they weren't just kittens. They

560
00:28:34.920 --> 00:28:37.799
were cats too. We were they people's pets that were

561
00:28:37.839 --> 00:28:39.559
staying at the clinic or do you.

562
00:28:39.559 --> 00:28:41.920
Know, I mean, I assume, so I would assume the

563
00:28:42.039 --> 00:28:46.039
foster situation. I yeah, I don't know the details around that,

564
00:28:46.160 --> 00:28:48.680
but yeah, it's just so sad that that spread to

565
00:28:49.200 --> 00:28:52.880
so many different cats. Wendy packed up, moved to Lubbock,

566
00:28:53.039 --> 00:28:56.559
and landed a job with a veterinarian named doctor Gary Schweed.

567
00:28:57.119 --> 00:28:59.839
She had barely gotten settled in Lubbock when she discovered

568
00:28:59.839 --> 00:29:03.359
that she was pregnant. Back in Abilene, Mike Severance was

569
00:29:03.400 --> 00:29:06.400
going about his life, working, going out with Frank and

570
00:29:06.480 --> 00:29:10.000
his Air Force buddies, pouring his weekends into dirt track racing.

571
00:29:10.519 --> 00:29:13.119
Then the phone rang and Wendy told him that he

572
00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:14.240
was going to be a dad.

573
00:29:14.759 --> 00:29:17.000
So they had only had the one night stand.

574
00:29:17.480 --> 00:29:19.559
I don't know one hundred percent if that's the case

575
00:29:19.720 --> 00:29:22.359
or not. I believe Mike characterized it as a one

576
00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:24.599
night stand, but I'm not one hundred percent clear that

577
00:29:24.640 --> 00:29:26.799
they didn't see each other maybe you know, once or

578
00:29:26.799 --> 00:29:27.680
twice after.

579
00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:29.400
That, okay, because I'm surprised that if it was a

580
00:29:29.400 --> 00:29:30.920
one night stand, she had his phone number.

581
00:29:31.640 --> 00:29:33.960
Mike did what he always did when he needed to

582
00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:37.440
think something through. He called his dad. He was honest

583
00:29:37.480 --> 00:29:39.920
about it. This had been a one night stand. He

584
00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:43.400
barely knew this woman. Leslie listened, then asked his son

585
00:29:43.440 --> 00:29:46.440
a simple question, what do you want to do? Mike

586
00:29:46.519 --> 00:29:49.720
thought about it. Family is important, he said, he didn't

587
00:29:49.720 --> 00:29:52.960
want his child growing up with only one parent. Leslie

588
00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:55.440
offered him a practical way of looking at it. If

589
00:29:55.440 --> 00:29:58.160
you get married, worst case it doesn't work out, and

590
00:29:58.200 --> 00:30:00.960
you get divorced. Either way, you're going to be paying

591
00:30:01.039 --> 00:30:05.000
child support. So maybe give marriage a try. Mike was

592
00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:08.119
twenty three years old and nowhere near ready to settle down,

593
00:30:08.480 --> 00:30:10.839
but he had made up his mind he was going

594
00:30:10.880 --> 00:30:13.720
to do what he saw as the right thing. In

595
00:30:13.759 --> 00:30:16.240
April two thousand and four, Wendy brought him to San

596
00:30:16.319 --> 00:30:20.000
Angelo to meet her parents. Judy Davidson took a dislike

597
00:30:20.079 --> 00:30:23.039
to Mike before she even knew about the pregnancy. She

598
00:30:23.160 --> 00:30:26.880
took his natural shyness as him being rude and disrespectful

599
00:30:27.400 --> 00:30:30.440
when she found out that Wendy was pregnant. Whatever initial

600
00:30:30.480 --> 00:30:34.319
disapproval she felt about Mike hardened into something more pointed.

601
00:30:34.759 --> 00:30:36.759
She didn't think he was good enough for her daughter.

602
00:30:37.240 --> 00:30:40.200
After that first visit, she made her feelings about Mike

603
00:30:40.319 --> 00:30:42.880
clear to Wendy it was more or less what she

604
00:30:42.920 --> 00:30:46.000
had said about the boyfriends who came before him. The

605
00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:49.200
two of them settled back into their separate routines, Wendy

606
00:30:49.279 --> 00:30:52.839
in Lubbock, Mike ninety miles away at the base in Abilene.

607
00:30:53.200 --> 00:30:55.240
He didn't make the drive to see her as often

608
00:30:55.279 --> 00:30:58.279
as she would have liked. By late spring, Wendy was

609
00:30:58.319 --> 00:31:01.680
convinced he was pulling away, and she complained bitterly to

610
00:31:01.759 --> 00:31:05.319
her brother Marshall about it. But Mike wasn't going anywhere.

611
00:31:05.680 --> 00:31:08.000
He had made a commitment to his unborn child, and

612
00:31:08.160 --> 00:31:10.920
he intended to honor it. They set a wedding date

613
00:31:11.039 --> 00:31:15.039
for September thirteenth. Around the same time, it became clear

614
00:31:15.079 --> 00:31:19.200
that Wendy's situation in Lubbock was untenable. Her relationship with

615
00:31:19.279 --> 00:31:22.599
doctor Swede had soured much as things had with doctor

616
00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:26.920
Ellis before him, and another firing seemed imminent. She wanted

617
00:31:26.920 --> 00:31:29.519
to move back to San Angelo to be near her family,

618
00:31:29.759 --> 00:31:32.200
and she had a vision she would open her own

619
00:31:32.319 --> 00:31:35.920
large animal practice. Judy and Lloyd had a different opinion.

620
00:31:36.319 --> 00:31:39.319
A small animal clinic, they argued, had lower start up

621
00:31:39.359 --> 00:31:43.200
costs and more reliable income. They pushed back. They even

622
00:31:43.279 --> 00:31:46.880
brought in Torell Sheen, now retired but still a trusted

623
00:31:46.920 --> 00:31:50.960
figure in their circle, to help make the case. Wendy resisted,

624
00:31:50.960 --> 00:31:54.759
but eventually was persuaded to open a general practice serving

625
00:31:54.799 --> 00:31:58.359
all animals, large and small. Once the decision was made,

626
00:31:58.480 --> 00:32:02.119
the family rallied around her. Terrell Sheen purchased a vacant

627
00:32:02.160 --> 00:32:05.400
clinic building on Sherwood Way, the former practice of a

628
00:32:05.440 --> 00:32:08.680
retired veterinarian, and rented it to Wendy at the below

629
00:32:08.759 --> 00:32:12.039
market rate of fifteen hundred dollars a month. Judy and

630
00:32:12.119 --> 00:32:16.440
Lloyd poured forty thousand dollars into renovations and equipment. Marshall

631
00:32:16.440 --> 00:32:19.559
contributed what he could. The building even had a small

632
00:32:19.599 --> 00:32:22.799
living area attached, which would serve as Wendy and Mike's

633
00:32:22.799 --> 00:32:25.599
home while they got on their feet. In the final

634
00:32:25.640 --> 00:32:29.640
months of her pregnancy, Wendy and Mike's stepsister, Nichole, spoke

635
00:32:29.720 --> 00:32:33.559
regularly by phone. Nichole was expecting her first child as

636
00:32:33.599 --> 00:32:37.000
well and had been leaning on Wendy for advice and support.

637
00:32:37.400 --> 00:32:40.720
On August tenth, Nichole gave birth to a girl named Cayton.

638
00:32:41.119 --> 00:32:43.920
That same month, Wendy left Lubbock and moved in with

639
00:32:43.960 --> 00:32:47.400
her parents. While construction on the clinic wrapped up. Mike

640
00:32:47.480 --> 00:32:50.720
moved in too, commuting the ninety miles to dayas Air

641
00:32:50.720 --> 00:32:54.079
Force Base each day for work. Every day he spent

642
00:32:54.200 --> 00:32:57.400
under the same roof as Judy. Her dislike or almost

643
00:32:57.440 --> 00:33:02.119
outright hatred toward him seemed to intensively. Shane Michael Severance

644
00:33:02.240 --> 00:33:05.640
was born on September one, two thousand and four. Twelve

645
00:33:05.759 --> 00:33:08.920
days later, his parents got married. It was a small

646
00:33:08.960 --> 00:33:12.039
ceremony at the Justice of the Peace, just Wendy, Mike,

647
00:33:12.279 --> 00:33:16.640
three year old Tristan, infant Shane, Lloyd, and Judy and Leslie,

648
00:33:16.640 --> 00:33:19.400
who had made the trip down from Maine to meet Wendy,

649
00:33:19.519 --> 00:33:23.799
her family, and his new grandson. Leslie liked Wendy immediately,

650
00:33:24.079 --> 00:33:27.680
and he was completely smitten with Shane. During his visit,

651
00:33:27.720 --> 00:33:30.319
he often took both boys so that Wendy and Mike

652
00:33:30.400 --> 00:33:33.720
could have time to themselves. Mike, for his part, had

653
00:33:33.799 --> 00:33:37.440
genuinely bonded with Shane's older brother, Tristan. By the time

654
00:33:37.480 --> 00:33:40.000
of the wedding. The little boy had started reaching for

655
00:33:40.079 --> 00:33:43.200
Mike when something scared him, and was even starting to

656
00:33:43.240 --> 00:33:47.160
call him Daddy. The ceremony itself was brief. When Wendy

657
00:33:47.200 --> 00:33:50.440
set her vows, Judy burst into tears, stormed out of

658
00:33:50.440 --> 00:33:53.200
the room, and slammed the door behind her. The plan

659
00:33:53.359 --> 00:33:56.319
had been to celebrate afterward at a steakhouse, but Judy

660
00:33:56.400 --> 00:33:59.440
and Lloyd never showed up. Judy called later and said

661
00:33:59.480 --> 00:34:03.480
they couldn't make it, offering no explanation. Leslie headed back

662
00:34:03.519 --> 00:34:05.920
to Maine with a warm feeling about his new daughter

663
00:34:05.960 --> 00:34:08.639
in law, but a deep on ease about her parents.

664
00:34:09.039 --> 00:34:12.679
Wendy seems genuine, he thought, kind, but her mother struck

665
00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:16.280
him as cold and difficult. He worried quietly about what

666
00:34:16.320 --> 00:34:18.719
that might mean for his son. It sounds to me

667
00:34:18.840 --> 00:34:21.480
like Wendy's mom. Judy didn't like any of the guys

668
00:34:21.519 --> 00:34:23.559
that she dated, but it seemed like she had a

669
00:34:24.039 --> 00:34:27.000
very particular hatred for Mike. What do you think about, Like,

670
00:34:27.039 --> 00:34:30.239
how does that affect someone? If you're your mom, the

671
00:34:30.280 --> 00:34:33.239
person you trust in the world, you know is constantly

672
00:34:33.239 --> 00:34:35.599
feeding you negativity about your spouse.

673
00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:38.800
Mike sounds like a pretty good guy. He's trying his

674
00:34:38.920 --> 00:34:41.920
best here. Wendy sounds like she might be a little difficult,

675
00:34:41.960 --> 00:34:44.280
But once your kids are married, I feel like your

676
00:34:44.400 --> 00:34:47.519
job as a parent is to support that relationship, right,

677
00:34:47.760 --> 00:34:50.639
even if maybe you don't believe in it, because your

678
00:34:50.719 --> 00:34:53.119
child is going to sense whether you know you like

679
00:34:53.400 --> 00:34:56.800
their spouse or not, and you know your child needs

680
00:34:56.800 --> 00:34:59.400
every support and yet like the children need all the

681
00:34:59.440 --> 00:35:02.599
support they can. So that's just my opinion. But I

682
00:35:02.679 --> 00:35:04.880
feel like you need to keep your opinions to yourself

683
00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.159
unless there is abuse or you know, something deleterious going on.

684
00:35:09.519 --> 00:35:14.400
Yeah. Exactly soon after the wedding, the four of them, Wendy, Mike, Tristan,

685
00:35:14.480 --> 00:35:18.239
and newborn Shane moved into the small living quarters attached

686
00:35:18.280 --> 00:35:21.960
to the veterinary clinic building. It was tight, the bathroom

687
00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:25.400
doubled as a dog bathing area. Mike was still commuting

688
00:35:25.480 --> 00:35:28.719
ninety minutes each way to die Us with erratic hours,

689
00:35:29.039 --> 00:35:32.480
night duty assignments, and training schedules stacked on top of

690
00:35:32.519 --> 00:35:36.159
the drive. Wendy was running on new mother exhaustion while

691
00:35:36.199 --> 00:35:39.280
simultaneously trying to get a business off the ground. The

692
00:35:39.320 --> 00:35:43.400
stress compressed everything. Wendy grew peevish and short tempered, and

693
00:35:43.480 --> 00:35:47.039
the bickering between them became constant. So it just feels

694
00:35:47.079 --> 00:35:48.760
like a lot of stress, Like just when I think

695
00:35:48.760 --> 00:35:51.880
about commuting ninety minutes yea each way to work in

696
00:35:51.920 --> 00:35:54.920
a job that's I'm sure very stressful. And then Wendy

697
00:35:54.960 --> 00:35:58.239
trying to start a new business that's a huge undertaking

698
00:35:58.920 --> 00:36:01.840
with a newborn baby, and this situation where you're married

699
00:36:01.840 --> 00:36:03.599
to someone that you hardly.

700
00:36:03.320 --> 00:36:05.320
Know at this point, it's a powder keg.

701
00:36:05.760 --> 00:36:08.880
And then there was Judy calling every day, filling her

702
00:36:08.960 --> 00:36:12.440
daughter's ear with her contempt for Mike. In October, the

703
00:36:12.519 --> 00:36:16.559
doors to Advanced Animal Care finally opened and people started

704
00:36:16.559 --> 00:36:21.519
bringing their animals in. Judy installed herself as receptionist and secretary,

705
00:36:21.719 --> 00:36:23.880
volunteering her time at the clinic each day.

706
00:36:24.079 --> 00:36:26.559
Oh no, it doesn't that sound like a good idea.

707
00:36:26.679 --> 00:36:29.320
She also made clear that she expected Mike to pitch

708
00:36:29.320 --> 00:36:31.800
in at the business, never mind that he was working

709
00:36:31.840 --> 00:36:35.280
full time and commuting three hours each day. In her view,

710
00:36:35.559 --> 00:36:38.239
he was lazy. His stock car racing, which he had

711
00:36:38.280 --> 00:36:41.199
been doing since his early days in Abilene, struck her

712
00:36:41.280 --> 00:36:44.679
as the reckless hobby of an irresponsible man. She saw

713
00:36:44.719 --> 00:36:47.719
nothing admirable in it, and she didn't keep that opinion

714
00:36:47.760 --> 00:36:51.000
to herself. Mike, for his part, showed up every day

715
00:36:51.079 --> 00:36:54.400
as a father. He was warm and affectionate with both boys,

716
00:36:54.599 --> 00:36:58.079
with Shane still only weeks old, and with Christan, who

717
00:36:58.159 --> 00:37:00.960
by now was fully calling him daddy. He was doing

718
00:37:00.960 --> 00:37:04.639
everything he could, but Judy had already decided who he was,

719
00:37:04.760 --> 00:37:08.599
and nothing he did was going to change that. Despite everything,

720
00:37:08.840 --> 00:37:12.280
Mike and Wendy started making plans. They talked about finding

721
00:37:12.280 --> 00:37:15.039
a place out in the country, somewhere with enough land

722
00:37:15.159 --> 00:37:18.360
to keep horses and other large animals, a proper home

723
00:37:18.400 --> 00:37:20.599
for the life that they were trying to build. They

724
00:37:20.599 --> 00:37:24.000
found a property they liked, but Mike had another deployment

725
00:37:24.039 --> 00:37:26.800
coming up on January twenty fourth, and he didn't want

726
00:37:26.840 --> 00:37:28.960
Wendy to have to manage a move on her own

727
00:37:29.039 --> 00:37:31.960
with two small children. They told the realtor they'd be

728
00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:35.159
in touch when he got back. In November, Mike called

729
00:37:35.159 --> 00:37:38.400
a friend back in Maine. At some point in the conversation,

730
00:37:38.679 --> 00:37:41.320
he said something that stuck with the friend, even if

731
00:37:41.320 --> 00:37:44.039
it didn't fully register at the time. I think my

732
00:37:44.159 --> 00:37:46.320
mother in law is trying to kill me. The friend

733
00:37:46.400 --> 00:37:48.480
laughed it off, taking it as a joke.

734
00:37:48.960 --> 00:37:51.239
Do you know how many years that Mike had left

735
00:37:51.360 --> 00:37:52.639
on his enlistment.

736
00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:55.119
I don't know for sure. I want to say, maybe

737
00:37:55.159 --> 00:37:56.880
a couple of years left, but I'm not one hundred

738
00:37:56.920 --> 00:37:57.519
percent certain.

739
00:37:58.039 --> 00:37:59.639
That drive must have been grueling.

740
00:37:59.800 --> 00:38:03.000
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, We'll be back after a break.

741
00:38:10.440 --> 00:38:12.880
Despite the tension at home, there was something to look

742
00:38:12.960 --> 00:38:15.880
forward to. Mike and Wendy had been planning a trip

743
00:38:15.920 --> 00:38:18.760
to Maine in January, a chance for Mike to see

744
00:38:18.800 --> 00:38:21.679
his family and for Wendy to meet them properly. It

745
00:38:21.719 --> 00:38:25.000
would be her first time ever leaving Texas. They had

746
00:38:25.079 --> 00:38:27.639
picked the dates, bought the tickets, and were set to

747
00:38:27.679 --> 00:38:31.639
fly into Bangor on the morning of January sixteenth. Mike

748
00:38:31.760 --> 00:38:34.760
was especially excited for Tristan to see snow for the

749
00:38:34.800 --> 00:38:38.079
first time. On December twenty ninth, Mike headed out for

750
00:38:38.159 --> 00:38:41.400
a two week Air Force leadership training course near the

751
00:38:41.440 --> 00:38:45.199
Texas Oklahoma border. While he was gone, Wendy was supposed

752
00:38:45.239 --> 00:38:47.559
to be getting things ready for the trip, packing and

753
00:38:47.639 --> 00:38:51.079
picking up warmer clothes for herself and the boys. Maine

754
00:38:51.159 --> 00:38:54.880
in January is not West Texas, but when Mike came

755
00:38:54.920 --> 00:38:58.920
home nothing had been done. While he was away at training.

756
00:38:59.039 --> 00:39:01.599
Something else had been had happening. Back in San Angelo.

757
00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:06.079
Judy's mother, jesse May, was bedridden and dying of cancer.

758
00:39:06.480 --> 00:39:09.880
On January eleventh, Judy went to visit her. According to

759
00:39:09.960 --> 00:39:14.199
jesse May's husband, Emmett, Judy's stepfather, Judy used that visit

760
00:39:14.280 --> 00:39:18.199
to manipulate her ailing mother into signing papers that gave

761
00:39:18.320 --> 00:39:21.599
Lloyd and Judy power of attorney and named them co

762
00:39:21.719 --> 00:39:25.599
executors of jesse May's estate. When Emma found out, he

763
00:39:25.760 --> 00:39:29.559
was furious. It was, in a way, a window into

764
00:39:29.639 --> 00:39:34.239
who Judy Davidson was. Mike returned from training on January twelfth,

765
00:39:34.480 --> 00:39:37.679
energized and ready. He called his dad that day, excited

766
00:39:37.679 --> 00:39:40.119
about heading home in a few days, but he mentioned

767
00:39:40.159 --> 00:39:43.440
something that nagged at him. Wendy seemed distant since he'd

768
00:39:43.480 --> 00:39:47.000
gotten back off somehow. What Mike didn't know was that

769
00:39:47.079 --> 00:39:50.079
Judy had spent the two weeks of his absence working

770
00:39:50.119 --> 00:39:53.800
on Wendy, poisoning her daughter's feelings about the trip. First,

771
00:39:53.840 --> 00:39:56.000
she argued that it was bad for business to close

772
00:39:56.039 --> 00:39:58.880
the clinic so soon after opening. When that didn't seem

773
00:39:58.920 --> 00:40:02.559
to land, she changed tactics. She started planting a different

774
00:40:02.639 --> 00:40:05.639
kind of seed. What if Mike's family didn't let them

775
00:40:05.639 --> 00:40:08.400
come back, What if they tried to keep Shane in Maine.

776
00:40:08.960 --> 00:40:12.719
Judy's a little crazy a little bit. The next morning,

777
00:40:12.880 --> 00:40:15.840
January thirteenth, Mike was helping out at the clinic when

778
00:40:15.840 --> 00:40:17.840
he carried a poppy into the back for an X

779
00:40:17.960 --> 00:40:20.039
ray and left it on the table for a moment.

780
00:40:20.519 --> 00:40:23.920
Wendy lit into him, calling him stupid in front of staff.

781
00:40:24.440 --> 00:40:26.920
Mike didn't argue, He just picked up their baby. Shane

782
00:40:26.960 --> 00:40:29.159
got in his truck and drove to Abilene to visit

783
00:40:29.199 --> 00:40:32.400
friends without telling her. When Wendy couldn't reach him and

784
00:40:32.440 --> 00:40:35.480
saw his truck was gone, she called his cell repeatedly.

785
00:40:35.880 --> 00:40:38.719
He eventually answered, told her where he was, and was

786
00:40:38.760 --> 00:40:41.119
back at the clinic by four point thirty that afternoon.

787
00:40:41.559 --> 00:40:44.039
That evening, Judy and Lloyd took the boys for the night,

788
00:40:44.280 --> 00:40:48.400
something they'd been doing three or four times a week lately. Friday,

789
00:40:48.559 --> 00:40:52.079
January fourteenth was a normal day. Judy brought the grandchildren

790
00:40:52.159 --> 00:40:55.440
back in the morning, Wendy saw patients. Mike arranged to

791
00:40:55.480 --> 00:40:57.639
have some body work done on his truck while they

792
00:40:57.639 --> 00:41:00.880
were out of town. That evening, Wendy asked her clinic

793
00:41:00.920 --> 00:41:03.719
assistant Jamie, to babysit the boys so she and Mike

794
00:41:03.760 --> 00:41:07.360
could go out. Judy, who was still there, objected, why,

795
00:41:07.360 --> 00:41:10.480
asked Jamie instead of her. Wendy said she didn't want

796
00:41:10.519 --> 00:41:13.920
to burden her mother two nights in a row. Judy pressed,

797
00:41:14.239 --> 00:41:18.079
let me at least take Tristan. Jamie was young and inexperienced.

798
00:41:18.119 --> 00:41:20.440
She said two kids would be too much for her,

799
00:41:20.880 --> 00:41:24.159
and it was settled. Judy took Tristan home and Jamie

800
00:41:24.159 --> 00:41:26.920
took Shane. Mike had tried to get his friends Dereck

801
00:41:27.000 --> 00:41:29.119
and Julie to come down from Abilene for a night

802
00:41:29.159 --> 00:41:31.960
of dancing, but they couldn't find a sitter, so it

803
00:41:31.960 --> 00:41:34.920
would just be Mike and Wendy. They crossed the street

804
00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:38.400
to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, laughed around seven forty,

805
00:41:38.679 --> 00:41:40.559
and made their way down the street to a bar

806
00:41:40.719 --> 00:41:44.079
called Graham Central Station, where they danced and had a

807
00:41:44.079 --> 00:41:47.239
few drinks. They walked back across the street to the clinic.

808
00:41:47.679 --> 00:41:50.119
Mike was loose and happy, full of the kind of

809
00:41:50.239 --> 00:41:52.960
energy that comes from a night out and the anticipation

810
00:41:53.079 --> 00:41:56.360
of going home. Before he came inside, he jumped into

811
00:41:56.360 --> 00:41:59.599
his truck and started doing wide spinning circles around the

812
00:41:59.599 --> 00:42:03.119
clinic parking lot, grinning like a kid. Wendy went in

813
00:42:03.199 --> 00:42:05.840
without him. It was the last night anyone outside the

814
00:42:05.840 --> 00:42:10.960
clinic would see Mike's severance alive. Saturday, January fifteenth started

815
00:42:11.119 --> 00:42:14.800
like any other morning at Advanced Animal Care. Judy arrived

816
00:42:14.840 --> 00:42:17.840
between seven fifteen and seven thirty. As soon as she

817
00:42:17.880 --> 00:42:21.360
walked in, Wendy left to pick up Shane from her assistant, Jamie,

818
00:42:21.440 --> 00:42:24.079
who had the day off. Wendy returned just in time

819
00:42:24.119 --> 00:42:26.960
to open the clinic at eight o'clock. She settled Shane

820
00:42:27.000 --> 00:42:29.599
into his little corner of the office, the spot they

821
00:42:29.599 --> 00:42:32.679
set aside for him, with his bed, his color fromobile,

822
00:42:32.920 --> 00:42:35.599
his swing, and baby toys, and she got to work.

823
00:42:35.920 --> 00:42:39.400
The door to the back bedroom stayed closed. Judy noticed

824
00:42:39.440 --> 00:42:41.760
that Wendy seemed to be in a good mood. When

825
00:42:41.800 --> 00:42:44.079
she asked if Mike was coming out to help, Wendy

826
00:42:44.119 --> 00:42:46.519
said no, he was hung over from the night before.

827
00:42:47.000 --> 00:42:49.719
A couple of hours later, Lloyd pulled in with Tristan

828
00:42:49.760 --> 00:42:52.280
in the back seat. He noticed Mike's truck sitting in

829
00:42:52.320 --> 00:42:54.679
the lot. He knew Mike could plan to drop it

830
00:42:54.719 --> 00:42:56.880
at the body shop that morning to get some work

831
00:42:56.920 --> 00:42:59.599
done before their trip the next day. He didn't think

832
00:42:59.679 --> 00:43:02.440
much of it, though. He brought Triston inside and went

833
00:43:02.480 --> 00:43:05.119
around the back to take care of some outdoor chores.

834
00:43:05.480 --> 00:43:09.320
By a little afternoon, Judy was tired and Tristan was hungry,

835
00:43:09.519 --> 00:43:12.400
so she and Twisted headed home. Boyd finished up his

836
00:43:12.480 --> 00:43:15.599
work and followed. Not long after, Wendy closed the clinic

837
00:43:15.639 --> 00:43:18.639
at three, strapped Shane into the truck and drove out

838
00:43:18.639 --> 00:43:21.880
to her parents place, arriving just after four, they all

839
00:43:21.920 --> 00:43:25.119
sat down to dinner together, and once again, over the meal,

840
00:43:25.320 --> 00:43:28.519
Judy argued that Wendy shouldn't go to Maine. The next morning.

841
00:43:28.880 --> 00:43:31.440
After dinner, Wendy loaded the boys back into the truck

842
00:43:31.480 --> 00:43:35.039
and drove to her grandmother's house. Jesse May was bedridden

843
00:43:35.159 --> 00:43:38.159
fading from cancer, and Wendy brought food and sat with

844
00:43:38.199 --> 00:43:40.719
her for a while. She told her grandmother she was

845
00:43:40.800 --> 00:43:43.159
leaving for Maine in the morning and promised she would

846
00:43:43.199 --> 00:43:45.840
come back to visit when they returned. Then she drove

847
00:43:45.880 --> 00:43:48.679
back to the clinic. Nobody had seen or heard from

848
00:43:48.719 --> 00:43:51.840
Mike that whole day. Early the next morning, Wendy called

849
00:43:51.840 --> 00:43:54.920
the airline and canceled the tickets to Maine. Then, at

850
00:43:54.960 --> 00:43:57.480
around five in the morning, she called the Severn's house

851
00:43:57.519 --> 00:44:01.280
in Maine. Brenda answered Wendy if she'd heard from Mike.

852
00:44:01.639 --> 00:44:05.199
Brenda was confused, what are you talking about? Aren't you

853
00:44:05.280 --> 00:44:07.880
supposed to be on your way here today? Wendy had

854
00:44:07.920 --> 00:44:10.199
said that she couldn't find Mike. He hadn't come home

855
00:44:10.239 --> 00:44:13.159
the night before. Brenda hung up and stood there, trying

856
00:44:13.159 --> 00:44:15.760
to make sense of it. Their flight was just hours away.

857
00:44:16.360 --> 00:44:19.400
Maybe she thought Mike had decided to come on his own.

858
00:44:19.760 --> 00:44:22.599
Maybe he'd surprise them and was already in the air.

859
00:44:23.000 --> 00:44:26.039
She called the airline the tickets, she was told, had

860
00:44:26.079 --> 00:44:29.679
been canceled that morning. The feeling in her stomach turned cold.

861
00:44:29.960 --> 00:44:33.000
She started making calls anyone who might have heard from Mike.

862
00:44:33.320 --> 00:44:37.079
She and Nicole grew increasingly frantic. Leslie was in the

863
00:44:37.119 --> 00:44:39.960
middle of a twelve hour work shift and couldn't be reached.

864
00:44:40.360 --> 00:44:43.079
What struck both women as they tried to piece things

865
00:44:43.119 --> 00:44:46.880
together from hundreds of miles away, was how unbothered Wendy

866
00:44:46.960 --> 00:44:50.760
seemed like this was a minor inconvenience, like a grown

867
00:44:50.840 --> 00:44:53.119
man with a flight booked and a family waiting for

868
00:44:53.199 --> 00:44:56.639
him simply hadn't come home and that was just something

869
00:44:56.639 --> 00:45:00.119
that had happened down in San Angelo. Marshall had called

870
00:45:00.159 --> 00:45:02.559
his parents to let them know that he'd be driving

871
00:45:02.639 --> 00:45:06.000
up on Monday. Judy mentioned almost in passing that Mike

872
00:45:06.039 --> 00:45:09.679
had gone missing. Lloyd offered a theory. Mike had wanted

873
00:45:09.719 --> 00:45:12.360
out of the military. Maybe he'd gone to Maine early

874
00:45:12.400 --> 00:45:15.639
and then slipped across the border into Canada. Back in Maine,

875
00:45:15.719 --> 00:45:18.199
Leslie got home from his ship to six that evening,

876
00:45:18.440 --> 00:45:20.800
expecting to head to the airport to pick up Mike

877
00:45:20.880 --> 00:45:23.760
and his family. Brenda broke the news that Mike was

878
00:45:23.840 --> 00:45:27.360
missing and told him what she knew. Leslie picked up

879
00:45:27.360 --> 00:45:30.039
the phone and called Wendy. She told him that she'd

880
00:45:30.039 --> 00:45:33.039
taken Mike's truck to her parents' house on Saturday evening

881
00:45:33.239 --> 00:45:36.159
and left Mike at home. When she returned, he was

882
00:45:36.199 --> 00:45:39.800
gone and she hadn't seen him since. Leslie listened, then

883
00:45:39.840 --> 00:45:42.679
pointed out something that didn't add up. He knew that

884
00:45:42.760 --> 00:45:44.840
Mike had planned to take the truck to the body

885
00:45:44.840 --> 00:45:49.480
shop Saturday morning, so why did she have it. Wendy paused, oh,

886
00:45:49.880 --> 00:45:53.119
h we've forgot to take it in. Leslie knew his son.

887
00:45:53.400 --> 00:45:56.199
He knew how much Mike loved that truck, how much

888
00:45:56.239 --> 00:45:58.280
he'd been looking forward to getting the work done during

889
00:45:58.320 --> 00:46:02.239
the trip. Mike wouldn't have gotten six forty three. That

890
00:46:02.360 --> 00:46:05.280
Sunday evening, Wendy and her father went to the San

891
00:46:05.320 --> 00:46:09.239
Angelo Police Department to file missing persons report. She called

892
00:46:09.239 --> 00:46:11.679
the Air Force as well. It had been more than

893
00:46:11.719 --> 00:46:14.599
twenty four hours since she had seen her husband.

894
00:46:14.920 --> 00:46:17.599
I can't imagine the feeling that Leslie and the rest

895
00:46:17.639 --> 00:46:19.880
of the family had back in Maine, Like this kind

896
00:46:19.880 --> 00:46:24.199
of feels so helpless, just knowing, like your son's missing. Yeah,

897
00:46:24.239 --> 00:46:26.760
there's nothing you can really do about it from that distance,

898
00:46:26.840 --> 00:46:31.320
and it's just really tough to think about that. Monday morning,

899
00:46:31.400 --> 00:46:35.119
Wendy opened the clinic for business as usual. Judy arrived,

900
00:46:35.199 --> 00:46:38.239
collected the boys, and took them to daycare. A detective

901
00:46:38.360 --> 00:46:42.079
came by to ask questions. Marshall was there too. Wendy

902
00:46:42.119 --> 00:46:44.719
told the detective that Mike had been acting strangely the

903
00:46:44.760 --> 00:46:47.800
last couple of weeks, drinking heavily, spending a lot of

904
00:46:47.840 --> 00:46:51.199
time at Buffalo Wild Wings and Graham Central Station. It

905
00:46:51.280 --> 00:46:53.760
was out of character for him, she said. She said

906
00:46:53.840 --> 00:46:56.599
she had gotten home Saturday night around eight o'clock and

907
00:46:56.760 --> 00:46:59.840
he simply wasn't there. She hadn't heard from him since.

908
00:47:00.280 --> 00:47:02.920
She also mentioned that two hundred and twenty one dollars

909
00:47:03.039 --> 00:47:06.239
was missing from the clinic's cash register. She figured that

910
00:47:06.320 --> 00:47:10.320
Mike had taken it. The detective looked around Mike's clothes

911
00:47:10.360 --> 00:47:13.039
all seemed to be there, Their luggage hadn't been touched,

912
00:47:13.320 --> 00:47:15.480
and sitting in the cab of Mike's truck was his

913
00:47:15.599 --> 00:47:19.599
wallet and cell phone. Meanwhile, in Maine, Leslie was frantically

914
00:47:19.599 --> 00:47:23.079
trying to get answers. He called the San Angelo Police Department,

915
00:47:23.239 --> 00:47:26.719
hoping for some sense of urgency. The officer he reached

916
00:47:26.840 --> 00:47:29.800
told him I will probably find him shacked up somewhere

917
00:47:29.800 --> 00:47:33.920
with a whore. Leslie understandably was stunned at the comment

918
00:47:34.039 --> 00:47:38.199
and their seemingly blase attitude. He called Daias Air Force

919
00:47:38.239 --> 00:47:41.159
Base next. They told him it was absolutely out of

920
00:47:41.280 --> 00:47:43.920
character for Mike to go missing, but until he was

921
00:47:43.960 --> 00:47:46.960
officially a wall, there wasn't much they could do, and

922
00:47:47.079 --> 00:47:50.880
he was on approved leave until January twenty fourth. Still,

923
00:47:51.000 --> 00:47:54.000
they promised to look into it. Two days after Mike's

924
00:47:54.000 --> 00:47:59.320
disappearance was reported on Tuesday, January eighteenth, Wendy visited an attorney.

925
00:47:59.400 --> 00:48:02.920
On her mother's advice. She filed for divorce and obtained

926
00:48:02.920 --> 00:48:06.480
a restraining order borring Mike from contacting her in person

927
00:48:06.920 --> 00:48:09.800
or by phone. It's a really odd thing to do,

928
00:48:09.880 --> 00:48:12.639
isn't it. Your husband's missing and you go filed time.

929
00:48:12.519 --> 00:48:15.000
Now worried about your husband's safety.

930
00:48:15.280 --> 00:48:17.880
Yeah, you would think that. Same day, the Air Force

931
00:48:17.960 --> 00:48:22.239
referred the case to the OSI or Office of Special Investigations.

932
00:48:22.519 --> 00:48:25.440
Two agents drove to San Angelo on the nineteenth and

933
00:48:25.559 --> 00:48:28.760
confirmed that Mike hadn't taken any of his military gear

934
00:48:28.880 --> 00:48:32.159
or clothing. Wendy told them Mike had been talking about

935
00:48:32.199 --> 00:48:35.199
not wanting to deploy again, that he was afraid something

936
00:48:35.239 --> 00:48:37.760
bad was going to happen to him overseas, and that

937
00:48:37.800 --> 00:48:40.559
it would be so easy to just disappear into Canada.

938
00:48:41.119 --> 00:48:44.559
When investigators interviewed Judy, she did her best to boost

939
00:48:44.559 --> 00:48:47.000
the theory that Mike had taken off to get out

940
00:48:47.039 --> 00:48:50.480
of his next deployment. She also made clear her feelings

941
00:48:50.519 --> 00:48:52.199
towards Mike. Here's a clip.

942
00:48:52.840 --> 00:48:54.119
When do you think cap of two?

943
00:48:55.079 --> 00:48:55.239
Oh?

944
00:48:55.320 --> 00:48:56.760
Thank you pie? Wow?

945
00:48:57.440 --> 00:49:01.280
You'd think extracted left with no blow, no money.

946
00:49:01.480 --> 00:49:03.880
If you hadn't met the guy, you wouldn't think it's

947
00:49:03.920 --> 00:49:07.159
strange of all, because I mean, he was just one

948
00:49:07.239 --> 00:49:08.440
super word.

949
00:49:08.320 --> 00:49:10.320
Do you think anybody hurt him? Or anything.

950
00:49:10.760 --> 00:49:13.800
He had a pretty smart mouth on him, so you know,

951
00:49:13.840 --> 00:49:17.599
if he popped off at somebody, I don't know. I mean,

952
00:49:17.639 --> 00:49:21.079
he was ubnoxious, he rude, he was nasty.

953
00:49:21.320 --> 00:49:22.239
I want no part of it.

954
00:49:22.800 --> 00:49:24.679
And I didn't even want her on my babies to

955
00:49:24.719 --> 00:49:27.559
have any part of it. I'm licking a lot. I

956
00:49:27.559 --> 00:49:30.639
didn't like him, never did and never will. And I

957
00:49:30.679 --> 00:49:32.639
hope no arms come to him. But if I never

958
00:49:32.679 --> 00:49:34.000
see him again, that's fine too.

959
00:49:34.559 --> 00:49:36.599
He didn't take him off to Canada or something.

960
00:49:36.679 --> 00:49:40.320
You wouldn't. I wouldn't. Oh gosh, no, I didn't much

961
00:49:40.360 --> 00:49:43.920
all have him any minutes. He was telling her, and

962
00:49:44.079 --> 00:49:45.920
he had a secret mission.

963
00:49:45.639 --> 00:49:46.440
He was going on.

964
00:49:47.519 --> 00:49:51.280
I said, when that man hasn't got stuz enough to

965
00:49:51.320 --> 00:49:53.519
pour piss out of the boot, do you really think

966
00:49:53.559 --> 00:49:55.679
they're gonna send him on a secret mission?

967
00:49:56.760 --> 00:49:58.079
You know that was hard, a little bit hard to

968
00:49:58.159 --> 00:50:00.440
understand because the audio quality wasn't great, But I thought

969
00:50:00.440 --> 00:50:02.440
it was important to play it just because it really

970
00:50:02.440 --> 00:50:05.400
gives you a picture of how Judy felt about Mike,

971
00:50:05.639 --> 00:50:08.800
Like really, he's missing, they don't know where he is,

972
00:50:08.840 --> 00:50:09.159
and she.

973
00:50:09.239 --> 00:50:11.159
Is just apathy or no.

974
00:50:12.840 --> 00:50:14.480
And I know I know they say not to read

975
00:50:14.480 --> 00:50:16.599
too much into it. But she was talking about him

976
00:50:16.599 --> 00:50:18.760
in the past tense the whole time. Did you notice that.

977
00:50:19.039 --> 00:50:22.880
Yeah, So this theory that possibly he went to Canada,

978
00:50:23.360 --> 00:50:24.679
how did he get to Canada?

979
00:50:25.280 --> 00:50:27.800
I mean, who knows, you know, in their mind, maybe

980
00:50:27.800 --> 00:50:30.440
he had a you know, a fake ID printed up

981
00:50:30.519 --> 00:50:31.039
or something.

982
00:50:31.119 --> 00:50:33.440
But yeah, but they could have checked, you know, like

983
00:50:33.519 --> 00:50:35.239
the airplane manifesto.

984
00:50:36.039 --> 00:50:38.199
If he had a fake passport or fake ID, then

985
00:50:38.280 --> 00:50:40.159
you know, maybe that wouldn't show up. But yeah, it's

986
00:50:40.480 --> 00:50:44.199
kind of a ludicrous idea. By January twenty fourth, the

987
00:50:44.280 --> 00:50:47.000
day that Mike was due back at DIAS and didn't show,

988
00:50:47.320 --> 00:50:50.000
he was officially a wall, which meant the Air Force

989
00:50:50.119 --> 00:50:53.840
was now fully involved. Air Force Special Agent Greg McCormick

990
00:50:54.000 --> 00:50:56.719
was initially frustrated by what he saw as a lack

991
00:50:56.760 --> 00:51:00.159
of urgency from the local police, but that same day

992
00:51:00.159 --> 00:51:03.000
the San Angelo Police referred the case to their Major

993
00:51:03.079 --> 00:51:06.400
Crimes Task Force. Wendy and Lloyd both agreed to take

994
00:51:06.440 --> 00:51:11.039
polygraphs at the Air Force's request. The results came back inconclusive.

995
00:51:11.559 --> 00:51:14.239
One of Wendy's attorneys later leaked to the press that

996
00:51:14.320 --> 00:51:17.280
she had passed. I didn't hear whether they asked Judy

997
00:51:17.360 --> 00:51:20.599
to take a polypephroda. I'm guessing they asked and maybe

998
00:51:20.639 --> 00:51:23.880
she declined, but I don't know. Investigators chased down a

999
00:51:23.960 --> 00:51:26.920
number of leads that went nowhere. Two calls had been

1000
00:51:26.960 --> 00:51:30.039
made to Mike's cell phone on January twentieth, one just

1001
00:51:30.079 --> 00:51:33.159
before one am, and another at one thirty from a

1002
00:51:33.199 --> 00:51:36.840
woman named Lauren Han. They thought perhaps Mike was having

1003
00:51:36.840 --> 00:51:39.280
an affair, but they tracked her down and it turned

1004
00:51:39.280 --> 00:51:41.920
out she was just calling out of concern since no

1005
00:51:42.000 --> 00:51:45.440
one had heard from him. Then Lloyd Davidson came forward

1006
00:51:45.480 --> 00:51:49.039
with another potential lead. He pulled investigators aside and told

1007
00:51:49.079 --> 00:51:52.239
them about a transgender woman who went by the name Tutu.

1008
00:51:52.719 --> 00:51:55.199
Lloyd had heard that Mike had gotten into some kind

1009
00:51:55.239 --> 00:51:58.719
of altercation with Tutu on the night before he disappeared.

1010
00:51:59.239 --> 00:52:02.760
Investigators track two to down several months later. Her real

1011
00:52:02.840 --> 00:52:06.400
name was Donielle laurn White. She acknowledged that she was

1012
00:52:06.440 --> 00:52:10.079
a regular at Graham Central Station, but flatly denied any

1013
00:52:10.159 --> 00:52:13.840
confrontation with Mike. There was nothing to support Lloyd's story.

1014
00:52:14.079 --> 00:52:17.320
Her name was crossed off the list. Back in Maine.

1015
00:52:17.440 --> 00:52:20.719
The idea that Mike Severance had simply chosen to vanish

1016
00:52:20.800 --> 00:52:23.639
was getting harder to believe. It just didn't make sense

1017
00:52:23.719 --> 00:52:26.559
that a man like Mike would disappear into Canada and

1018
00:52:26.639 --> 00:52:29.719
abandon his duties, both as a soldier and as a

1019
00:52:29.800 --> 00:52:32.840
husband and father. Leslie, Brenda and the rest of the

1020
00:52:32.880 --> 00:52:36.199
family weren't buying it. The investigation had taken on a

1021
00:52:36.280 --> 00:52:40.039
task force structure, now drawing in the Texas Rangers, the

1022
00:52:40.079 --> 00:52:44.280
San Angelo Police Department, and the tom Green County Sheriff's Department.

1023
00:52:44.760 --> 00:52:47.400
On January twenty eighth, the Air Force sent a team

1024
00:52:47.480 --> 00:52:50.320
to conduct a physical search of the two square miles

1025
00:52:50.360 --> 00:52:54.440
surrounding the clinic. They found nothing. Investigators went back to

1026
00:52:54.480 --> 00:52:57.559
see Wendy. She didn't offer anything new, but she did

1027
00:52:57.559 --> 00:53:02.159
give investigators permission to conduct a forensic examination of her laptop.

1028
00:53:02.400 --> 00:53:04.840
They made a complete copy of the hard drive and

1029
00:53:04.880 --> 00:53:08.360
took it in for analysis. As of mid February, the

1030
00:53:08.400 --> 00:53:12.400
task force still had no concrete evidence of anything. No body,

1031
00:53:12.519 --> 00:53:16.519
no crime scene, no witnesses. It seemed increasingly unlikely that

1032
00:53:16.559 --> 00:53:19.199
Mike had taken off on his own. If Mike did

1033
00:53:19.239 --> 00:53:22.639
go awall, the Air Force investigators reasoned he must have

1034
00:53:22.719 --> 00:53:25.960
had some help, possibly from his wife, so they wanted

1035
00:53:25.960 --> 00:53:28.719
to put a tracker on Wendy's car in hopes that

1036
00:53:28.760 --> 00:53:31.239
she might lead them to where he was hiding. To

1037
00:53:31.320 --> 00:53:34.280
place a tracker on a car, a civilian law enforcement

1038
00:53:34.360 --> 00:53:37.000
agency would need a search warrant signed by a judge,

1039
00:53:37.239 --> 00:53:40.159
but the military operates under a different set of rules.

1040
00:53:40.400 --> 00:53:43.199
This was a gray area. Wendy was not a member

1041
00:53:43.280 --> 00:53:46.000
of the military, but the OSI was looking for a

1042
00:53:46.039 --> 00:53:49.800
service member who may have gone awall. The OSI investigators

1043
00:53:49.800 --> 00:53:52.880
consulted with the staff Judge Advocate, who signed off on

1044
00:53:52.920 --> 00:53:56.519
the plan. The Texas ranger on the Investigative Task Force

1045
00:53:56.679 --> 00:54:01.800
was uneasy, fearing that the decision might jeopardize future potential prosecution.

1046
00:54:02.320 --> 00:54:05.159
His concerns were noted, but the Air Force decided to

1047
00:54:05.199 --> 00:54:09.000
move forward anyway. So one night near the end of February,

1048
00:54:09.159 --> 00:54:12.840
Air Force agents slipped a tracking device onto the underside

1049
00:54:12.880 --> 00:54:14.280
of Wendy's red Camaro.

1050
00:54:14.760 --> 00:54:18.719
Wendy trove a red Camaro with two small children, maybe.

1051
00:54:18.480 --> 00:54:21.840
Not the most practical choice of vehicles. A day later,

1052
00:54:22.000 --> 00:54:24.559
the tracker showed that Wendy had driven to a ranch

1053
00:54:24.679 --> 00:54:27.639
owned by Terrell Sheen, a guy who was renting the

1054
00:54:27.639 --> 00:54:31.119
clinic building to Wendy and who had employed both Wendy's

1055
00:54:31.119 --> 00:54:35.320
brother and dad at various times. When agents contacted Sheen,

1056
00:54:35.480 --> 00:54:38.599
he told them he boarded horses on his ranch, including

1057
00:54:38.639 --> 00:54:41.039
some that belonged to Wendy, and that she came and

1058
00:54:41.119 --> 00:54:44.599
went regularly as she pleased. He told investigators they were

1059
00:54:44.639 --> 00:54:47.400
welcome to come and look around. The four to sevens

1060
00:54:47.480 --> 00:54:51.559
ranch was an expansive stretch of land, a barn, mobile homes,

1061
00:54:51.760 --> 00:54:56.559
fenced corrals, and several ponds scattered across the property, including

1062
00:54:56.599 --> 00:54:59.880
a large stock tank. In Texas, a stock tank is

1063
00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:02.920
as a man made pond or reservoir used to catch

1064
00:55:03.000 --> 00:55:07.119
rainwater and provide drinking water for livestock like cattle and sheep.

1065
00:55:07.519 --> 00:55:09.960
Terrell gave them a tour of the property, but they

1066
00:55:09.960 --> 00:55:14.119
didn't do a thorough search. Not yet. After investigators made

1067
00:55:14.159 --> 00:55:17.519
a copy of Wendy's laptop hard drive for analysis, it

1068
00:55:17.599 --> 00:55:21.199
got Wendy thinking. She approached her assistant, Jamie and asked

1069
00:55:21.280 --> 00:55:25.119
casually if she knew anything about deleting Internet search history.

1070
00:55:25.480 --> 00:55:28.039
She said she thought Mike had been looking at pornography

1071
00:55:28.039 --> 00:55:30.800
on the computer and she wanted to clear it. Jamie

1072
00:55:30.800 --> 00:55:34.280
passed the question along to her fiance, who worked with computers.

1073
00:55:34.599 --> 00:55:37.280
He told them, you can delete the browsing cash, but

1074
00:55:37.400 --> 00:55:40.559
the underlying data remains on the hard drive. It doesn't

1075
00:55:40.639 --> 00:55:44.239
just disappear. When the computer forensics report came back to

1076
00:55:44.360 --> 00:55:48.000
investigators on March fourth, there was one particular search that

1077
00:55:48.199 --> 00:55:51.960
was eye opening. On January twenty sixth, eleven days after

1078
00:55:52.039 --> 00:55:55.519
Mike disappeared, someone had used that computer to search for

1079
00:55:55.599 --> 00:55:59.760
information about the decomposition of dead bodies in water. The

1080
00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:03.840
search had turned up specific details that a body submerged

1081
00:56:03.840 --> 00:56:07.119
in water will almost certainly rise to the surface eventually.

1082
00:56:07.519 --> 00:56:10.599
Weights might slow that process, but they normally won't stop it.

1083
00:56:11.000 --> 00:56:13.679
In warm water, a body could surface in as little

1084
00:56:13.719 --> 00:56:16.480
as eight to ten days, in cold water two to

1085
00:56:16.559 --> 00:56:20.400
three weeks. The following day, March fifth, they brought Wendy

1086
00:56:20.440 --> 00:56:24.039
in for questioning again. She was calm and composed. She

1087
00:56:24.199 --> 00:56:26.800
repeated her story. She had gone to her parents' house

1088
00:56:26.840 --> 00:56:30.599
on January fifteenth, come home, and Mike was gone. When

1089
00:56:30.639 --> 00:56:34.400
they asked about the Internet search regarding decomposing bodies in water,

1090
00:56:34.679 --> 00:56:37.800
she didn't flinch. She had an answer ready. She said

1091
00:56:37.840 --> 00:56:40.880
that when investigators had searched the creek behind the clinic,

1092
00:56:41.119 --> 00:56:43.559
she had wanted to understand whether a body would be

1093
00:56:43.639 --> 00:56:46.760
visible in that kind of water. She wanted to be prepared,

1094
00:56:46.840 --> 00:56:49.320
she said, for what they might find. It was a

1095
00:56:49.360 --> 00:56:54.000
plausible explanation, or just plausible enough. But when the questions

1096
00:56:54.039 --> 00:56:58.800
turned to Terrell Sheen's ranch, something changed. Her posture stiffened,

1097
00:56:59.119 --> 00:57:02.239
her answers got shorter, clipped. She said she and her

1098
00:57:02.280 --> 00:57:04.719
parents had access to the property and that she had

1099
00:57:04.760 --> 00:57:07.119
been out there recently with her dad to cut wood.

1100
00:57:07.559 --> 00:57:11.360
When investigators asked specifically about the stock tank on the property,

1101
00:57:11.599 --> 00:57:15.159
she hesitated. Just then her phone rang. She said she

1102
00:57:15.239 --> 00:57:17.320
had to take it. She was on call as the

1103
00:57:17.400 --> 00:57:20.800
after hours veterinarian for a group of local clinics. A

1104
00:57:20.840 --> 00:57:23.679
cat owner was on the line. The cat had badly

1105
00:57:23.679 --> 00:57:27.920
injured its leg. Investigators stepped out, figuring a serious injury

1106
00:57:28.000 --> 00:57:30.639
like that would keep her occupied for a while. They

1107
00:57:30.639 --> 00:57:34.679
figured wrong. Wendy rushed through the examination, a quick X

1108
00:57:34.800 --> 00:57:37.000
ray and a look at the leg. Not broken, she

1109
00:57:37.079 --> 00:57:39.960
told the owner, as she gave her some medication. She

1110
00:57:39.960 --> 00:57:42.480
showed them out the door in minutes, then slipped out

1111
00:57:42.480 --> 00:57:45.840
to her car, but the investigators hadn't left. They were

1112
00:57:45.840 --> 00:57:49.599
waiting across the street when they spotted Wendy's camaro leaving.

1113
00:57:49.800 --> 00:57:52.000
They followed her as she made a bee line for

1114
00:57:52.079 --> 00:57:54.760
the four sevens ranch. As she got out of her

1115
00:57:54.800 --> 00:57:58.199
car to unlock the gate, the investigators pulled up. She

1116
00:57:58.280 --> 00:58:00.559
asked what they were doing there, and they asked her

1117
00:58:00.599 --> 00:58:03.039
the same question. She said she had come to check

1118
00:58:03.079 --> 00:58:06.039
on her horses. They told her no one was permitted

1119
00:58:06.119 --> 00:58:09.519
on the property at that time. She protested, saying she

1120
00:58:09.679 --> 00:58:12.199
had horses that needed to be cared for, but the

1121
00:58:12.199 --> 00:58:15.920
investigators stood firm they were in the process of obtaining

1122
00:58:16.000 --> 00:58:19.000
consent for a thorough search of the property and needed

1123
00:58:19.000 --> 00:58:22.400
to secure it in the meantime. Finally, Wendy got back

1124
00:58:22.440 --> 00:58:25.400
in her car, reversed through the gate, and drove away

1125
00:58:25.920 --> 00:58:26.679
from the ranch.

1126
00:58:26.840 --> 00:58:29.760
Wendy drove towards her parents' house. She called them on

1127
00:58:29.800 --> 00:58:31.880
the way and in a paniced voice, told her mother

1128
00:58:32.000 --> 00:58:34.800
she thought someone was following her. She told her family

1129
00:58:34.840 --> 00:58:38.000
to meet her at Grape Creek Cemetery, where her grandfather

1130
00:58:38.119 --> 00:58:40.719
was buried. It had already been a difficult week for

1131
00:58:40.760 --> 00:58:44.119
the Davidsons. Marshall, who was now working as a game

1132
00:58:44.159 --> 00:58:47.960
warden down in Zapata in Deep South Texas, had driven

1133
00:58:48.000 --> 00:58:50.760
four hundred miles north to San Angelo to be with

1134
00:58:50.800 --> 00:58:54.599
his family. Not only was Wendy's husband missing, but their grandmother,

1135
00:58:54.800 --> 00:58:58.039
jesse May, was in the final stages of lung cancer.

1136
00:58:58.719 --> 00:59:00.960
When they got the call from Wendy, Marshall hopped in

1137
00:59:00.960 --> 00:59:03.639
his car and drove the short distance to the cemetery.

1138
00:59:03.920 --> 00:59:06.320
Lloyd and Judy followed in their own car. A few

1139
00:59:06.360 --> 00:59:10.159
minutes later, Marshall arrived to find Wendy's red Camaro and

1140
00:59:10.199 --> 00:59:15.039
then Wendy standing beside their grandfather's grave, agitated and pacing.

1141
00:59:15.480 --> 00:59:18.400
He asked who had been following her. She said no one,

1142
00:59:18.800 --> 00:59:21.400
She just had something she needed to tell them. She

1143
00:59:21.440 --> 00:59:23.920
wanted to wait for her parents to arrive, but Marshall

1144
00:59:23.920 --> 00:59:26.960
could see that something was badly wrong, and he pressed

1145
00:59:26.960 --> 00:59:30.360
her to talk. She told him, I didn't kill Mike,

1146
00:59:30.519 --> 00:59:32.800
but I did find him dead, and I moved his

1147
00:59:32.880 --> 00:59:36.039
body to the tank, the tank meeting the stock tank

1148
00:59:36.119 --> 00:59:39.519
on Cherrell Sheen's property. She said she had found him

1149
00:59:39.559 --> 00:59:42.400
dead at the clinic on January fifteenth, after coming back

1150
00:59:42.440 --> 00:59:45.320
from dinner with Lloyd and Judy. She said that she

1151
00:59:45.360 --> 00:59:48.159
had moved him because she was certain someone in her

1152
00:59:48.159 --> 00:59:51.039
own family had killed him, and she hadn't wanted any

1153
00:59:51.119 --> 00:59:53.599
of them to get caught. Judy and Lloyd pulled up

1154
00:59:53.639 --> 00:59:57.480
a few minutes later. Wendy rushed toward them, sobbing, and

1155
00:59:57.559 --> 01:00:00.320
she and Marshall began talking over each other, both trying

1156
01:00:00.360 --> 01:00:03.000
to get the story out at the same time. Marshall's

1157
01:00:03.039 --> 01:00:06.000
first instinct was to tell her to stop talking. Wendy,

1158
01:00:06.039 --> 01:00:07.719
the best thing for you to do is just keep

1159
01:00:07.760 --> 01:00:10.119
your mouth shut. Then he walked away and called the

1160
01:00:10.159 --> 01:00:13.440
San Angelo Police Department. He spoke to the detective who

1161
01:00:13.480 --> 01:00:15.760
had been working on Mike's case and asked him to

1162
01:00:15.800 --> 01:00:19.320
come to the cemetery. When the detective pulled up, Marshall

1163
01:00:19.320 --> 01:00:22.800
met him with a direct question. Had investigators searched the

1164
01:00:22.880 --> 01:00:27.000
pond on Sheen's property. The detective said no. Marshall told

1165
01:00:27.039 --> 01:00:30.800
him they needed to. Michael Severn's's body was in that pond.

1166
01:00:31.000 --> 01:00:33.639
His sister hadn't killed him, she said, but she had

1167
01:00:33.719 --> 01:00:36.159
moved his body there. How would she have moved his

1168
01:00:36.239 --> 01:00:37.719
body there on her own account?

1169
01:00:37.800 --> 01:00:38.840
We'll talk some more about that.

1170
01:00:38.920 --> 01:00:42.079
Wendy insisted someone in her family had killed Mike, she

1171
01:00:42.199 --> 01:00:45.400
had only moved the body to protect them. The officer

1172
01:00:45.519 --> 01:00:48.519
arrested Wendy on a charge of tampering with evidence, and

1173
01:00:48.559 --> 01:00:51.400
they took her away. Wendy looked at her brother, What

1174
01:00:51.599 --> 01:00:55.159
are you, she said, A cop or my brother? I'm both.

1175
01:00:55.320 --> 01:00:57.760
Marshall said, so, Marshall was a game warden and I

1176
01:00:57.800 --> 01:01:00.320
didn't really know this, but a game warden is this.

1177
01:01:00.360 --> 01:01:02.920
From another case that we've done before, and it is

1178
01:01:03.000 --> 01:01:06.559
considered a law enforcement Marshall called after her, keep your

1179
01:01:06.559 --> 01:01:09.599
mouth shut until you've talked to an attorney the police station.

1180
01:01:09.679 --> 01:01:12.079
That's exactly what she did. She asked for a lawyer

1181
01:01:12.119 --> 01:01:15.079
and stopped talking. Her bond was set at five hundred

1182
01:01:15.119 --> 01:01:19.039
thousand dollars. Officers secured the area around the pond on

1183
01:01:19.119 --> 01:01:22.519
Terrell Sheen's four to sevens ranch on Sutton Road. Sheen

1184
01:01:22.599 --> 01:01:25.760
gave his permission to search the property, and before long

1185
01:01:25.800 --> 01:01:29.320
an underwater dive team was suiting up at the water's edge.

1186
01:01:29.440 --> 01:01:33.079
While they prepared, investigators spoke with one of the ranch hands,

1187
01:01:33.159 --> 01:01:36.000
a man named Jose Romero. He told them that he

1188
01:01:36.039 --> 01:01:39.119
had seen Wendy wore her red camaro on the property

1189
01:01:39.159 --> 01:01:42.400
more than once, but that was not unusual. Just after

1190
01:01:42.440 --> 01:01:45.400
two in the afternoon, the divers found a body. It

1191
01:01:45.480 --> 01:01:48.199
was weighed down with a collection of heavy objects, a

1192
01:01:48.239 --> 01:01:51.480
cinder block, a tire rim, a brake drum, and a

1193
01:01:51.519 --> 01:01:54.440
boat anchor, all fastened to the body with baling wire

1194
01:01:54.480 --> 01:01:57.199
and plastic ties. The body was that of a white

1195
01:01:57.280 --> 01:02:00.440
male wearing maroon boxer shorts. They were in inuries on

1196
01:02:00.480 --> 01:02:03.679
his back, consistent with stab wounds. The fifty two degree

1197
01:02:03.719 --> 01:02:06.960
water had kept him remarkably well preserved. How much time

1198
01:02:07.000 --> 01:02:08.199
has passed? Like six weeks?

1199
01:02:08.679 --> 01:02:10.360
Yeah, I think six or seven weeks.

1200
01:02:10.639 --> 01:02:12.960
When they brought him to the surface, they found more

1201
01:02:13.159 --> 01:02:16.199
additional wounds on the abdomen and chest, the same kind

1202
01:02:16.360 --> 01:02:19.679
made by something sharp driven in repeatedly. The next morning,

1203
01:02:19.719 --> 01:02:22.000
the dive team went back at ten o'clock and spent

1204
01:02:22.039 --> 01:02:24.400
the rest of the day gathering evidence from the pond.

1205
01:02:24.679 --> 01:02:28.320
By seven that evening they were done. Investigators drove to

1206
01:02:28.400 --> 01:02:31.000
Lloyd and Judy's house to inform them of what had

1207
01:02:31.039 --> 01:02:35.039
been found. Wendy's red Camaro was secured pending a search warrant.

1208
01:02:35.440 --> 01:02:38.559
That same night, three men in Air Force dressed uniforms

1209
01:02:38.599 --> 01:02:41.559
appeared at the door of Leslie and Brenda's house in Maine.

1210
01:02:41.719 --> 01:02:44.559
Leslie was still at work. The men wouldn't say anything

1211
01:02:44.599 --> 01:02:47.519
to Brenda, but she didn't need them to. She called

1212
01:02:47.519 --> 01:02:50.079
her husband and told him he needed to come home.

1213
01:02:50.440 --> 01:02:53.159
Well, that is where we are going to end part one.

1214
01:02:53.320 --> 01:02:55.519
I do have a few questions for you, though. We've

1215
01:02:55.519 --> 01:02:58.079
talked a little bit about Leslie being back in Maine

1216
01:02:58.119 --> 01:03:01.400
and really feeling helpless in this whole city situation. It

1217
01:03:01.440 --> 01:03:03.480
felt like he knew something was wrong from the very

1218
01:03:03.519 --> 01:03:06.000
first phone call. I think his instinct, his you know,

1219
01:03:06.199 --> 01:03:08.400
the father, he knew his son, and he knew right

1220
01:03:08.440 --> 01:03:11.960
away that Mike Ken just disappeared when he first called

1221
01:03:12.000 --> 01:03:14.800
the San Angelo police and they made a comment like,

1222
01:03:15.119 --> 01:03:17.480
we'll probably just find Mike shacked up with a whore.

1223
01:03:17.639 --> 01:03:19.679
Was I think the exact quote, what do you like?

1224
01:03:20.199 --> 01:03:22.079
That's so frustrating to me that that was sort of

1225
01:03:22.079 --> 01:03:24.239
the mindset. I mean, what do you make of that?

1226
01:03:24.599 --> 01:03:29.519
Well, it's grossly unprofessional and really not okay, no empathy

1227
01:03:29.639 --> 01:03:31.280
or compassion, and it.

1228
01:03:31.360 --> 01:03:34.280
Just sort of seems like they defaulted to, yeah, he's

1229
01:03:34.360 --> 01:03:37.679
probably he's probably fine, and maybe that's just sort of

1230
01:03:37.719 --> 01:03:40.360
like the way most of these cases turn out. But

1231
01:03:40.440 --> 01:03:42.840
it seems like they weren't very concerned and then to

1232
01:03:42.840 --> 01:03:44.599
make a comment like that, like you said, it's very,

1233
01:03:44.719 --> 01:03:47.639
very unprofessional. So the decision to put a tracker on

1234
01:03:47.719 --> 01:03:51.079
Wendy's car is an interesting topic. We'll talk more in

1235
01:03:51.119 --> 01:03:53.400
part two, but if you recall, the Air Force did it.

1236
01:03:53.440 --> 01:03:55.840
They didn't have a search warrant to do this because

1237
01:03:55.880 --> 01:03:58.679
they're the Air Force and they operate under different rules.

1238
01:03:58.719 --> 01:04:01.760
But there was concern that this might, you know, this

1239
01:04:01.880 --> 01:04:05.519
might harm a future prosecution. I'm curious as to your

1240
01:04:05.559 --> 01:04:08.199
opinion as a lawyer, not really a lawyer, I'm not

1241
01:04:09.320 --> 01:04:11.000
even close. What do you what do you think about

1242
01:04:11.000 --> 01:04:11.559
that decision?

1243
01:04:11.920 --> 01:04:14.480
Well, I'm curious because Mike was in the Air Force,

1244
01:04:14.599 --> 01:04:17.920
they had jurisdiction, even though it was ninety miles away.

1245
01:04:18.280 --> 01:04:21.400
Well, I mean, the interesting thing is whether they had

1246
01:04:21.559 --> 01:04:23.960
permission to put something on Wendy's car. Who was Wendy

1247
01:04:24.039 --> 01:04:25.760
was not in the Air Force, right, if it had

1248
01:04:25.760 --> 01:04:28.199
been Mike's car, they certainly would have had, you know,

1249
01:04:28.480 --> 01:04:29.280
authority to do that.

1250
01:04:29.320 --> 01:04:30.719
I think we're going to come back to this in

1251
01:04:30.760 --> 01:04:31.239
part two.

1252
01:04:31.400 --> 01:04:33.960
Yeah, we will, for sure. But it is an interesting

1253
01:04:34.159 --> 01:04:36.719
thought of whether that was the right thing, because that

1254
01:04:36.760 --> 01:04:39.119
really did help break the case because they saw her

1255
01:04:39.159 --> 01:04:41.800
going to Terrell Sheen's ranch. Then they had that, they

1256
01:04:41.800 --> 01:04:45.320
had the internet search of her about decomposing bodies, and like, okay,

1257
01:04:45.480 --> 01:04:47.519
they put two and do together. They were they were

1258
01:04:47.519 --> 01:04:50.000
going to figure this out, right, And I think Wendy

1259
01:04:50.199 --> 01:04:51.800
knew that the writing was on the wall that they

1260
01:04:51.840 --> 01:04:53.719
were going to figure it out. So to me, that's

1261
01:04:53.760 --> 01:04:56.199
probably why she she tried to get out in front

1262
01:04:56.239 --> 01:04:59.480
of this by telling her family that she had she

1263
01:04:59.519 --> 01:05:02.159
had found him dad and decided to hide the body.

1264
01:05:02.639 --> 01:05:05.000
How plausible do you think Wendy's story is that she

1265
01:05:05.400 --> 01:05:08.519
found his body she assumed that someone in her family

1266
01:05:08.679 --> 01:05:11.280
killed him, which I'm assuming she thought in her mind

1267
01:05:11.280 --> 01:05:13.760
it was Judy, Yeah, because Judy hated Mike so much.

1268
01:05:13.800 --> 01:05:16.159
But yeah, how plausible do you think that really is?

1269
01:05:16.760 --> 01:05:18.840
I mean, if I were in that situation, I would

1270
01:05:18.840 --> 01:05:21.719
call you first and say did you do you know

1271
01:05:21.760 --> 01:05:24.880
anything about this situation? And again, I don't know who

1272
01:05:25.000 --> 01:05:27.079
helped her, but someone must have helped her get Mike's

1273
01:05:27.119 --> 01:05:28.559
body into the back of her car.

1274
01:05:28.639 --> 01:05:31.199
Right, I don't want to say anything, but not necessarily

1275
01:05:31.360 --> 01:05:34.639
we can. We'll talk about that more part too. Big man,

1276
01:05:34.800 --> 01:05:36.840
He wasn't bit. He was like one hundred and sixty pounds,

1277
01:05:36.920 --> 01:05:39.679
so not tiny but not large either.

1278
01:05:39.920 --> 01:05:42.159
I have a question about hard drives. Even if you

1279
01:05:42.199 --> 01:05:46.840
take your MacBook down to factory settings, your internet, sir,

1280
01:05:47.239 --> 01:05:51.480
someone can a forensic computer analysis can still find it, right.

1281
01:05:51.840 --> 01:05:54.599
I mean not, It's not guaranteed that they can find things.

1282
01:05:54.639 --> 01:05:58.159
But nothing really gets overwritten on a hard drive. It

1283
01:05:58.280 --> 01:06:01.920
basically just when you or your history or you you know,

1284
01:06:02.159 --> 01:06:05.000
delete everything on your hard drive, it's basically just deleting

1285
01:06:05.239 --> 01:06:09.039
like the pointer to the information. The information is still there,

1286
01:06:09.639 --> 01:06:12.719
but you're just deleting the kind of the signpost to

1287
01:06:12.760 --> 01:06:15.880
get to the information. So until the information is overwritten

1288
01:06:15.880 --> 01:06:17.480
with something else, it's still there.

1289
01:06:17.800 --> 01:06:20.000
Okay, you just said that like an it person, but

1290
01:06:20.079 --> 01:06:22.360
I think I understood the gist of what you were saying.

1291
01:06:22.719 --> 01:06:26.239
So I have an idea for a software that can

1292
01:06:26.280 --> 01:06:30.159
delete things permanently. I someone needs to work on that. Yeah, someone,

1293
01:06:30.199 --> 01:06:32.280
we know we can.

1294
01:06:32.639 --> 01:06:34.920
I'm guessing something like that exists, but yeah, I'm not.

1295
01:06:35.239 --> 01:06:35.960
I'm not sure.

1296
01:06:36.199 --> 01:06:39.199
Well, the absence of any Google searches is probably a

1297
01:06:39.239 --> 01:06:40.239
little damning.

1298
01:06:39.920 --> 01:06:44.559
Too, maybe, but not certainly not as damning as searching

1299
01:06:44.639 --> 01:06:47.599
for you know, what happens the decomposed bodies. I'll be

1300
01:06:47.639 --> 01:06:56.039
sure to come back for part two. So this case

1301
01:06:56.119 --> 01:06:58.719
got me thinking a little bit about James Harriet. Do

1302
01:06:58.719 --> 01:07:01.480
you remember James Harriet? I do for people who don't

1303
01:07:01.480 --> 01:07:04.199
know James Harriet is he wrote a series. He was

1304
01:07:04.199 --> 01:07:08.480
a veterinarian in England, in the Yorkshire Dales, like out

1305
01:07:08.480 --> 01:07:11.079
in the countryside of England, and he wrote a series

1306
01:07:11.119 --> 01:07:12.960
of books. The first one, I think was called All

1307
01:07:13.039 --> 01:07:15.480
Creatures Great and Small, and he wrote a whole bunch

1308
01:07:15.519 --> 01:07:18.880
of them with like stories of his veterinary practice, like

1309
01:07:18.960 --> 01:07:21.440
working with like large animals and things like that. And

1310
01:07:21.559 --> 01:07:23.840
this case reminded me of that for two reasons. One

1311
01:07:24.000 --> 01:07:26.079
is obviously the veterinary angle, but do you know do

1312
01:07:26.119 --> 01:07:29.400
you know what the other one is? M No, Because

1313
01:07:29.840 --> 01:07:33.719
Wendy's first son was named Tristan. Tristan was the name

1314
01:07:33.760 --> 01:07:37.199
of a character in James Harriet's books, and I wanted

1315
01:07:37.199 --> 01:07:39.880
to name one of our children Tristan. I really liked

1316
01:07:39.880 --> 01:07:41.760
that name a lot, ye, And you were not a big,

1317
01:07:41.840 --> 01:07:42.800
big fan of that name.

1318
01:07:42.880 --> 01:07:44.360
I mean, it's a nice name, but I just didn't

1319
01:07:44.360 --> 01:07:45.639
want to name whever our children that.

1320
01:07:45.840 --> 01:07:47.639
Yeah. But do you remember you and I used to

1321
01:07:47.800 --> 01:07:50.280
back in the early days of our relationship, we would

1322
01:07:50.360 --> 01:07:52.559
read James Harriet's stories to each other.

1323
01:07:52.719 --> 01:07:53.079
He did.

1324
01:07:53.920 --> 01:07:57.000
I know it sounds so cheesy. Yeah, read to each

1325
01:07:57.000 --> 01:07:59.719
other before would just sleep at night.

1326
01:08:00.119 --> 01:08:02.480
James harry books were really good because each chapter was

1327
01:08:02.519 --> 01:08:04.760
like its own little story, so you could read like one.

1328
01:08:04.800 --> 01:08:08.039
Yeah, very sweet, very I mean not always like I.

1329
01:08:08.039 --> 01:08:09.159
Think someone were sad.

1330
01:08:09.840 --> 01:08:13.039
We're sad, yeah, but there was all. It's also a series.

1331
01:08:13.199 --> 01:08:16.319
Did you know that TV series? Yeah? Yeah, I did

1332
01:08:16.359 --> 01:08:19.600
know that. I've never watched it. No, I've never seen

1333
01:08:19.600 --> 01:08:21.960
it either. But the books are just if you haven't

1334
01:08:21.960 --> 01:08:24.640
read them, like to me, they're just so like heartwarming.

1335
01:08:24.720 --> 01:08:28.079
They're really human and humane and just full of like

1336
01:08:28.319 --> 01:08:32.279
eccentric farmers and you know, stories about animals and stuff,

1337
01:08:32.279 --> 01:08:35.319
and they're really just a lovely set of books. I

1338
01:08:35.359 --> 01:08:37.520
did look up and read a few things about James

1339
01:08:37.560 --> 01:08:39.840
Harriet that I don't know if I knew before, but

1340
01:08:39.880 --> 01:08:41.840
it's been a while. The one thing that I thought

1341
01:08:41.880 --> 01:08:44.079
was interesting is he didn't actually start writing until he

1342
01:08:44.159 --> 01:08:46.600
was in his fifties. Like he was a full time

1343
01:08:46.680 --> 01:08:49.840
veterinarian he had practiced for decades, and his wife finally

1344
01:08:49.880 --> 01:08:53.039
convinced him to sit down and write about his experiences.

1345
01:08:53.039 --> 01:08:55.239
And he almost didn't do it. But his books have

1346
01:08:55.319 --> 01:08:59.319
sold over sixty million copies worldwide. His real name, by

1347
01:08:59.359 --> 01:09:02.319
the way, was names Alfred White used the pen name

1348
01:09:02.399 --> 01:09:05.840
James Harriet, which he took from a Scottish footballer that

1349
01:09:05.880 --> 01:09:08.479
he saw on TV one night when he needed a pseudonym.

1350
01:09:08.560 --> 01:09:10.359
I guess why did he need aseo.

1351
01:09:10.720 --> 01:09:11.079
I don't know.

1352
01:09:11.159 --> 01:09:12.920
I guess he just didn't want. I think the books

1353
01:09:12.920 --> 01:09:16.600
are not purely truthful. I think there's a lot of

1354
01:09:16.640 --> 01:09:18.119
I think there's a lot of fiction mixed in with

1355
01:09:18.199 --> 01:09:19.720
the books as well. I don't think it's one hundred

1356
01:09:19.720 --> 01:09:20.880
percent accurate, and I know it.

1357
01:09:20.840 --> 01:09:23.199
It's like richent Tina. Aren't our real names. A lot

1358
01:09:23.199 --> 01:09:25.439
of people don't know that, But I mean, you don't

1359
01:09:25.439 --> 01:09:27.760
want anyone to know our real names, our pen names,

1360
01:09:27.880 --> 01:09:31.239
right of course, well not exactly.

1361
01:09:31.199 --> 01:09:34.159
Our podcast names. But the the Yorkshire Dales where the

1362
01:09:34.199 --> 01:09:36.800
books are set it actually became like a major tourist

1363
01:09:36.960 --> 01:09:39.640
attraction because of that, And there's a museum there called

1364
01:09:39.680 --> 01:09:42.520
the World of James Harriet where you can visit the

1365
01:09:42.560 --> 01:09:45.920
actual house and the surgery where he practiced. Wow, which

1366
01:09:45.960 --> 01:09:46.920
would be really cool.

1367
01:09:46.960 --> 01:09:50.399
I think I remember how wholesome these books are if

1368
01:09:50.399 --> 01:09:51.960
you're a fan of like The Little House and the

1369
01:09:52.000 --> 01:09:54.840
Prairie Books, or you have an older child. I think

1370
01:09:54.880 --> 01:09:59.399
your older child would probably be interested in these books. Yeah, yeah,

1371
01:09:59.720 --> 01:10:00.760
really good stuff.

1372
01:10:00.840 --> 01:10:03.399
Yeah we should. We should start doing that again, pick

1373
01:10:03.439 --> 01:10:04.880
the James Harriet books back up.

1374
01:10:05.479 --> 01:10:08.640
Well, once in a while, we do. Still you sound

1375
01:10:08.680 --> 01:10:12.840
like the cheesiest couple in the whole. It's possible, yeah,

1376
01:10:12.920 --> 01:10:15.760
which is fine, But we still do that once in

1377
01:10:15.760 --> 01:10:16.159
a while.

1378
01:10:16.359 --> 01:10:18.399
Well, one thing we do that I really enjoy is

1379
01:10:18.399 --> 01:10:19.520
when we're on a road trip.

1380
01:10:19.800 --> 01:10:21.439
The only thing that we enjoy.

1381
01:10:21.880 --> 01:10:24.000
One of many things that I enjoy is when we're

1382
01:10:24.000 --> 01:10:26.039
on a road trip and you read to me when

1383
01:10:26.079 --> 01:10:27.800
we're like, I'll be driving and you'll be in the

1384
01:10:27.840 --> 01:10:30.479
passenger seat, and you know, we'll read read a book

1385
01:10:30.479 --> 01:10:31.399
while we're on a road trip.

1386
01:10:31.720 --> 01:10:34.640
We are we are very very wholesome. Yeah, maybe the

1387
01:10:34.640 --> 01:10:35.479
books are wholesome.

1388
01:10:35.520 --> 01:10:38.760
Maybe we're reading, you know, fifty Shades Great.

1389
01:10:39.239 --> 01:10:42.960
Lady Chatterly, I don't even rated books. Oh, fifty Shades

1390
01:10:43.000 --> 01:10:43.279
of Great.

1391
01:10:43.520 --> 01:10:44.239
I just said that.

1392
01:10:46.000 --> 01:10:47.880
I heard it. I just didn't process it.

1393
01:10:49.159 --> 01:10:49.880
That's okay.

1394
01:10:50.039 --> 01:10:52.119
The allergies are kind of getting to me a little.

1395
01:10:52.319 --> 01:10:53.239
I got it.

1396
01:10:53.279 --> 01:10:55.920
So it's Saturday afternoon when we're recording. What are we

1397
01:10:55.920 --> 01:10:57.520
going to do with the rest of the week, our weekend?

1398
01:10:57.600 --> 01:10:59.000
I have an idea. Do you want to hear it?

1399
01:10:59.119 --> 01:10:59.800
Okay? Sure?

1400
01:11:00.159 --> 01:11:03.439
Keyes is three hours away, three hours and five minutes.

1401
01:11:03.960 --> 01:11:04.680
You've mapped it up.

1402
01:11:04.800 --> 01:11:07.279
Is the nearest I did. I mapped it out, and

1403
01:11:08.119 --> 01:11:09.520
maybe we should just do a road trip.

1404
01:11:09.640 --> 01:11:11.680
This is just this is down near Dayton, Ohio. I

1405
01:11:11.720 --> 01:11:15.239
believe Hubert Hubert City Heights, Uber Heights. That's right. Yeah,

1406
01:11:15.279 --> 01:11:17.039
I used to live in Dayton, so we could we

1407
01:11:17.039 --> 01:11:19.000
could do it, make a road trip, go down. We

1408
01:11:19.079 --> 01:11:20.680
have to record part two though.

1409
01:11:20.760 --> 01:11:23.079
I mean we're at a schedule really, so yeah, we

1410
01:11:23.119 --> 01:11:26.439
could really do have the next alright, thirty six hours.

1411
01:11:26.439 --> 01:11:28.319
We could definitely do it. All right, let's go I

1412
01:11:28.359 --> 01:11:30.560
should Should I get an Airbnb or we're going to

1413
01:11:30.640 --> 01:11:32.119
go back and forth the same day?

1414
01:11:32.800 --> 01:11:35.079
I don't know. This is your this is your trip now.

1415
01:11:35.239 --> 01:11:37.880
So well, the only thing I'm a little nervous about,

1416
01:11:37.880 --> 01:11:39.680
and I'm serious about this, I don't know if you are,

1417
01:11:39.880 --> 01:11:43.479
but people like it opened on Monday, April sixth, and

1418
01:11:43.600 --> 01:11:46.960
people were camped out. People we're camped out to go

1419
01:11:47.039 --> 01:11:47.520
to buck.

1420
01:11:47.520 --> 01:11:50.520
It's been almost a week, so hopefully that died down

1421
01:11:50.560 --> 01:11:52.720
a little bit of y the first Saturday.

1422
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You guys will be the first people to know if

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01:11:54.720 --> 01:11:57.079
we visit BUCkies, and you should follow us on Instagram

1424
01:11:57.359 --> 01:12:00.359
and other social media if you're not, because we us

1425
01:12:00.439 --> 01:12:02.119
you know, we post interesting things you do.

1426
01:12:02.199 --> 01:12:04.159
I was just looking at some funny things you posted

1427
01:12:04.199 --> 01:12:04.760
today and they.

1428
01:12:04.640 --> 01:12:08.520
Were you know, is just to make people smile or

1429
01:12:08.760 --> 01:12:12.520
think a little bit or feel seen with our Instagram,

1430
01:12:12.560 --> 01:12:14.680
I try not to promote us too much, just I

1431
01:12:14.760 --> 01:12:16.760
just want people to smile, and it works.

1432
01:12:16.800 --> 01:12:17.439
It works for me.

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01:12:18.319 --> 01:12:22.840
That's great. Well, you've wasted another perfectly good hour and

1434
01:12:23.079 --> 01:12:26.359
fifteen if you've made it this far listening to us.

1435
01:12:26.640 --> 01:12:28.199
If you'd like to listen to part two of this

1436
01:12:28.279 --> 01:12:30.960
case right now, you can join us on patreon dot

1437
01:12:31.000 --> 01:12:33.880
com slash love Mary Kill. We have one tier five

1438
01:12:33.920 --> 01:12:36.159
dollars a month, and for that you get early ad

1439
01:12:36.199 --> 01:12:38.720
free access plus a monthly bonus episode.

1440
01:12:38.760 --> 01:12:41.520
I mean, truly, it's the best deal on Patreon.

1441
01:12:42.560 --> 01:12:44.039
Wow change.

1442
01:12:45.119 --> 01:12:47.520
I don't I'm not very good at self promoting, but

1443
01:12:47.640 --> 01:12:51.159
I feel like most creators you know would make multiple tiers,

1444
01:12:51.520 --> 01:12:53.760
but we just try to keep it simple and try

1445
01:12:53.800 --> 01:12:55.079
to encourage people to join.

1446
01:12:55.319 --> 01:12:57.079
Yeah, until next time

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01:12:57.479 --> 01:13:39.520
Don't he your husband and don't kill your word lesbian