Pushing Up Lilies: Recent Episodes
Julie Mattson
Pushing Up Lilies is a true crime podcast based on my perspective as a Forensic Nurse Death Investigator and a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner for the last 21 years.
When an entire family is lost, it's easy for the headlines to focus on the person responsible. In this episode, I wanted to do something different.
I'm taking you to Grand Haven Township, Michigan, where Mandy Karolkiewicz and her six children lost their lives in one of the most heartbreaking family annihilation cases of the year. Before we talk about the investigation, I want to remember the people whose lives mattered most, the victims.
Using my experience as a forensic death investigator, I'll walk you through how investigators process a scene involving multiple homicide victims, how forensic evidence helps determine the sequence of events, and why details like wound analysis, fire patterns, and scene reconstruction are so important.
We'll also discuss the research surrounding family annihilation, the psychological and behavioral patterns often seen in these cases and why recognizing risk factors may help save lives in the future. While we may never fully understand why these tragedies occur, we can learn from them, support those in crisis, and continue advocating for families before violence reaches a devastating conclusion.
This episode is shared with deep respect for Mandy, her six children, and everyone whose lives were forever changed by this tragedy.
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When a murder ends in suicide, investigators lose one of the most important pieces of the puzzle—the person who could explain why.
In this episode, I take you inside several recent murder-suicide cases from across the United States, including tragedies involving entire families, intimate partners, and parents and children. From Michigan to Oklahoma, Delaware, and Florida, these heartbreaking cases remind us that every scene tells a story, but it's the evidence that reveals what truly happened.
As a forensic death investigator, I explain how investigators reconstruct these complex scenes by examining body position, injuries, blood evidence, trajectories, fire damage, digital evidence, timelines, and countless other details. When there is no suspect to interview, no trial, and often no suicide note, the investigation must rely on science, careful documentation, and the facts left behind.
We'll also discuss why protective orders don't always prevent violence, why investigators avoid speculation during active cases, and why it's important to distinguish between homicide and suicide when understanding these tragedies. Throughout the episode, I share the questions investigators ask, the evidence they search for, and why the answers aren't always immediately clear.
These cases are difficult to hear, but they also highlight the dedication of investigators, first responders, and forensic professionals who work tirelessly to uncover the truth for victims and their families.
Join me as we explore the investigative process behind one of the most challenging types of death investigations, and the questions that often remain when murder ends in suicide.
With permission from Allie's friend, we're sharing a brief excerpt from Allie's Husband, Andrew Hummel, talking about waiting on the toxicology report.
What happens when a young, healthy woman is found dead in her own home... and the questions begin long before the investigation has answers?
This week on Pushing Up Lilies, I'm taking a closer look at the life and death of Alexandra "Allie" Hummel, a 36-year-old licensed nurse from Missouri whose unexpected death remains under investigation. Based on publicly available information, I walk through the timeline of events leading up to her death, including a documented domestic violence incident that occurred less than a year earlier and why that history is significant in any death investigation.
From the 911 call to the pending toxicology results, I'll explain what investigators look for when responding to an unexpected death in the home, how prior incidents become part of the investigative process, and why every piece of evidence matters. As a forensic death investigator, I also share my professional perspective on scene documentation, autopsy findings, toxicology testing, and the importance of remaining objective while allowing the facts to determine the outcome.
Most importantly, this episode is about Allie, a dedicated nurse, mother, daughter, sister, and friend whose loved ones continue to seek answers. While this investigation is still ongoing, her story also shines a light on the realities of domestic violence, the challenges victims often face, and why support systems are so important.
Next week, I'll be joined by Allie's close friend, Kelsey, who will share personal memories of Allie and offer additional insight into the woman behind the headlines.
If you or someone you love is experiencing domestic violence, please know that help is available. You are not alone.
With permission from Allie's friend, we're sharing a brief excerpt from Allie's Husband, Andrew Hummel, talking about when he discovered Allie.
What happens when someone disappears... after they've already died?
In this episode of Pushing Up Lilies, I'm exploring one of the most unusual and heartbreaking cases I've ever researched, the disappearance of Julie Mott's remains from a San Antonio funeral home following her memorial service.
Julie was just 25 years old when she passed away after a lifelong battle with cystic fibrosis. Her family gathered to honor her life, believing they would soon receive her ashes after cremation. Instead, they were met with an unimaginable nightmare: Julie's embalmed body had vanished.
I'll walk you through the timeline of events, from Julie's courageous life and memorial service to the shocking discovery that her remains were missing. We'll examine the police investigation, the role of a former boyfriend who became a person of interest, the civil trial that revealed serious security concerns within the funeral home, and why this mystery remains unsolved nearly a decade later.
As a forensic death investigator, I'll also share my professional perspective on the handling of human remains, chain of custody, funeral home security, and why cases like this are extraordinarily rare. We'll discuss what the evidence tells us, what it doesn't, and why preserving the dignity of the deceased is one of the most important responsibilities in death care.
No one has ever been criminally charged in connection with the disappearance, and Julie's remains have never been found.
This episode is a sobering reminder that even after death, families deserve answers, transparency, and the assurance that their loved ones will be treated with dignity and respect.
Join me as we examine one of the most perplexing and emotionally devastating mysteries in modern death investigation.
In this episode of Pushing Up Lilies, I'm examining the heartbreaking murder of 32-year-old Caroline Piña Cairo, a mother of five whose life was taken in a brutal daylight attack that stunned the Del Rio, Texas community.
When Caroline arrived at the hospital suffering from multiple stab wounds, medical teams fought to save her life. Despite their efforts, she later succumbed to her injuries. Three women were arrested and charged with her murder, but many questions surrounding the case remain unanswered as the investigation continues.
As a forensic death investigator and former emergency room nurse, I walk through what happens in the critical moments after a stabbing victim arrives at the hospital, why injuries like these can be far more severe than they first appear, and how investigators begin reconstructing a violent crime through witness statements, surveillance footage, forensic evidence, and medical findings. I also discuss why it's so important to separate verified facts from speculation while a case is still unfolding.
But more than anything, I want to remember Caroline.
She wasn't simply the victim in a headline. She was a mother, a friend, and someone remembered for her generosity and the kindness she showed others, even during difficult times in her own life. Behind every investigation is a family whose world has been forever changed, and five children who will grow up without their mother.
This episode contains discussion of homicide, stabbing violence, and death. Listener discretion is advised.
In this episode of Pushing Up Lilies, I’m covering the heartbreaking case involving Amy Steadman and the tragic family deaths that shook the community of Mechanicville, New York.
Cases involving multiple family members are among the most emotionally difficult for investigators, first responders, and the communities left searching for answers. As details emerged, investigators were faced with the complex task of piecing together what happened inside a home where several lives were lost, while loved ones struggled to make sense of an unimaginable tragedy.
As a forensic death investigator, I discuss the investigative process behind cases like this, the importance of carefully documenting the scene, evaluating the evidence without assumptions, and understanding how investigators work to reconstruct the events that led to such devastating outcomes. I also explore the emotional toll these cases can have, not only on surviving family members, but on the professionals responsible for uncovering the truth.
But beyond the investigation, I want to remember the people at the center of this story.
Behind every report are individuals whose lives mattered, families forever changed, and a community left grieving. Every death investigation is about more than determining what happened, it's about honoring those who can no longer speak for themselves and seeking answers with compassion, professionalism, and respect.
This episode contains discussion of family violence, homicide, and death.
Listener discretion is advised.
In this episode of Pushing Up Lilies, I'm examining the disturbing case of Shawn Michael Grate, a serial killer whose crimes spanned a decade across northern Ohio and left multiple families forever changed.
What makes this case especially unsettling is not only the length of time the murders continued, but how many opportunities there may have been to stop the violence sooner. As investigators pieced together the evidence, a clearer picture emerged of a predator who targeted vulnerable women, leaving behind unanswered questions and unimaginable heartbreak.
As a forensic death investigator, I walk through the timeline of the investigation, the evidence that ultimately connected the cases, and the forensic and investigative techniques that helped bring long-awaited answers to the victims' families. We'll also discuss how missing persons investigations, crime scene evidence, and victim identification play critical roles in solving complex serial homicide cases.
But as with every case I cover, I want to keep the focus where it belongs.
On the victims.
Each woman had a life, a story, and people who loved her. Behind every headline was someone whose future was stolen far too soon. Their lives deserve to be remembered with dignity, not simply as part of a criminal's history.
This episode explores the realities of serial homicide investigations while honoring the individuals whose stories might otherwise be overshadowed by the person responsible.
This episode contains discussion of homicide, sexual violence, and serial murder. Listener discretion is advised.
Who am I, and how did I end up investigating death for a living?
In this very first episode of Pushing Up Lilies, I'm sharing my story, from my path into nursing to becoming a Forensic Nurse Death Investigator. I'll talk about what drew me to this unique profession, what it's really like to investigate deaths, and why I felt called to create this podcast.
Over the years, I've responded to countless death scenes, worked alongside law enforcement, medical examiners, and families experiencing unimaginable loss. Those experiences have taught me that every death has a story, and understanding that story requires compassion, science, careful investigation, and sometimes asking difficult questions.
Pushing Up Lilies was created to give listeners an honest look behind the scenes of death investigation. Whether you're fascinated by forensic science, curious about how cases are solved, or simply interested in the realities of this profession, I hope this podcast helps educate, inspire, and answer questions you've always wondered about.
If you're new here, welcome. This episode is the perfect place to begin. If you've been listening for a while, thank you for being part of this journey. I'm so glad you're here.
Join me as I share the story behind the microphone, and the path that led me to Pushing Up Lilies.
In last week's episode, I explored the tragic death of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf and the events that unfolded during a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas. This week, I'm following the case into the courtroom as we examine The State of Texas vs. Karmelo Anthony.
During this episode, I'll walk through the key moments of the trial, the arguments presented by both the prosecution and defense, and the jury's ultimate decision. We'll discuss the self-defense claim raised by the defense, the testimony presented during the proceedings, and the factors that may have influenced the outcome. I'll also review the sentencing phase and the emotional victim impact statements delivered by Austin's family.
As always, my goal is not to sensationalize tragedy, but to help listeners better understand the investigative and legal processes that follow a violent death. Cases like this often generate strong opinions and intense public discussion, but inside the courtroom, decisions must be based on evidence, testimony, and the law.
Join me as we take a closer look at one of the most closely watched criminal trials in recent Texas history and examine the legal journey from a fatal encounter to a murder conviction.
In this episode of Pushing Up Lilies, I’m covering the heartbreaking case of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf, a high school student whose life was tragically cut short during what should have been an ordinary day at a track meet.
In April 2025, a confrontation between two young men at a Frisco, Texas, athletic event ended in an act of violence that shocked a community and made headlines across the country. What began as a disagreement escalated in a matter of moments, leaving one family grieving the loss of a son, brother, friend, and teammate.
As a forensic death investigator, I walk through the known timeline of events, the investigation that followed, and the legal proceedings involving Karmelo Anthony. I also discuss the difficult realities surrounding youth violence, split-second decisions, and the devastating consequences that can follow.
But as with every case I cover, I want to keep the focus where it belongs.
On Austin.
On the life he lived, the people who loved him, and the future that was taken from him far too soon.
This episode is approached with compassion and respect for everyone affected by this tragedy. Beyond the headlines, this is the story of a young life lost and a community forever changed.
This episode contains discussion of violence, homicide, and the death of a minor.
Listener discretion is advised.
In this episode of Pushing Up Lilies, I’m covering the heartbreaking case of Rachel Castillo, a young mother whose disappearance in Southern California led investigators to a devastating discovery, and ultimately, the conviction of her estranged husband, Zarbab Ali.
Rachel vanished during what should have been a routine custody exchange involving her children. But almost immediately, investigators began uncovering signs that something was terribly wrong. What followed was an intense investigation involving surveillance footage, blood evidence, digital tracking, and a search that ended with Rachel’s body being found buried in a remote area.
As a forensic death investigator, I walk through how cases like this begin to unfold behind the scenes, how small pieces of evidence start forming a timeline, how investigators interpret behavioral patterns, and how critical those early investigative decisions become when someone suddenly disappears under suspicious circumstances.
This episode contains discussion of domestic violence, homicide, and burial concealment.
Listener discretion is advised.
In this episode of Pushing Up Lilies, I’m covering the mysterious death of Spencer Irwin, a 30-year-old Fresno City College student whose body was discovered behind a business loading dock in Fresno, California, in August of 2024.
What initially appeared to authorities to be a tragic but straightforward case quickly became something far more complicated.
Spencer was found naked, with no obvious signs of trauma, and early assumptions pointed toward a drug overdose or transient-related death. But toxicology reports later came back clean. No overdose. No clear explanation. And despite the unanswered questions surrounding his death, the coroner ultimately ruled it “natural causes.”
What makes this case especially unsettling is what didn’t happen.
No autopsy was performed.
And Spencer’s body was cremated.
As a forensic death investigator, I discuss the difficult reality of cases that fall into gray areas, where evidence is limited, assumptions are made early, and families are left searching for answers long after a case is considered closed.
Because sometimes the hardest part of an investigation…
is not what we know.
It’s what we don’t.
This episode contains discussion of death, investigative uncertainty, and unresolved circumstances surrounding the case. Listener discretion is advised.
In this episode of Pushing Up Lilies, I’m covering the tragic and deeply disturbing case of Sonia Exelby, a 32-year-old woman from Portsmouth, England, who traveled to the United States in October of 2024… and never made it home.
According to investigators, Sonia flew into Gainesville, Florida, after connecting online with a man named Dwain Hall through a fetish website. She was expected to return to the UK just three days later, but she never boarded her flight.
What followed became an international homicide investigation that shocked both sides of the Atlantic.
As I walk through the timeline of Sonia’s final days, I do so with compassion and care, because beneath the headlines was a real woman whose life mattered. A woman who trusted someone she believed she knew… and whose story ended in unimaginable tragedy.
From an investigative standpoint, I also discuss the complexities of cases involving online relationships, long-distance travel, digital evidence, and how quickly missing person cases can escalate into homicide investigations.
This episode is not about judgment or sensationalism. It’s about understanding the vulnerability that can exist in human connection, the realities investigators face in cases like this, and honoring the victim at the center of the story.
This episode contains discussion of violence, homicide, and sensitive themes involving online exploitation. Please take care of yourself while listening.
In this episode of Pushing Up Lilies, I continue Inside the Crime That Shook a Community with Part Three, focusing on the trial of the man responsible for the death of 7-year-old Athena Strand.
This is the part of the story where the legal process begins… but that doesn’t make it any easier.
As I walk through the courtroom proceedings, I do so with the same care and intention, because behind every testimony, every piece of evidence, and every legal argument is a family still living with unimaginable loss.
Trials are meant to bring answers.
They’re meant to bring accountability.
But they don’t always bring peace.
From an investigative perspective, I also share insight into what happens when a case moves from the scene into the courtroom, how evidence is presented, how timelines are reconstructed, and how the justice system works to piece together the truth in a way that can be understood by a jury.
And while this part of the story focuses on the trial…
I want to be very clear about something.
This is not about the man who committed the crime.
It is still about Athena.
Her life.
Her memory.
And the impact she left behind.
This episode contains discussion of child violence, courtroom testimony, and sensitive details surrounding the case. Please take care of yourself while listening, and step away if you need to.
In this episode of Pushing Up Lilies, I continue the heartbreaking case of 7-year-old Athena Strand.
This is Part Two of a story that is as heavy as it is important.
As we move forward, I walk through what happened after Athena’s disappearance, the investigation, the critical moments that unfolded, and the pieces that began to come together in a case that gripped so many people. This part of the story brings more clarity, but it also brings a deeper understanding of just how quickly lives can change forever.
I approach this episode with the same care and intention, honoring Athena, respecting her family, and being mindful of the weight this story carries for listeners.
From an investigative standpoint, I also share insight into how cases evolve once key information is uncovered, how law enforcement works against time, how decisions are made in real-time, and how those early hours can shape everything that follows.
But even as more details emerge…
I want to keep the focus where it belongs.
On Athena.
On her life, her light, and the love that surrounds her.
This episode continues discussions of child abduction and violence. Please take care of yourself while listening, and step away if you need to.
In this episode of Pushing Up Lilies, I’m covering a case that is incredibly difficult to talk about, the kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Athena Strand, and the man responsible, Tanner Lynn Horner.
This is one of those stories that stays with you.
Athena was just a child, full of life, curiosity, and innocence, and her disappearance quickly turned into something far more devastating than anyone could have imagined. What makes this case even more unsettling is how ordinary the circumstances seemed at first… and how quickly everything changed.
As I walk through the timeline of what happened, I do so with great care, for Athena, for her family, and for anyone listening who may find this story especially heavy. This episode is not about sensationalizing tragedy. It’s about acknowledging it, understanding it, and honoring a life that should have had so much more time.
From an investigative perspective, I also touch on how cases like this unfold, how quickly information moves, how critical those first hours are, and the realities behind scenes that most people never see.
But at the center of this episode is not the perpetrator.
It’s Athena.
Her story matters. Her life matters.
This episode contains discussion of child abduction and violence, and I encourage you to take care of yourself while listening.
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• Many times the behavior of these men is not compromising at all. It's his way or the highway. He also may believe that love justifies sacrificing his wife or his girlfriend. The only way that he can ensure obedience and express authority and power is to kill her. And so that's why this happens a lot. It reminds me of the Scott Peterson case back from 2002. And of course it's a little bit different because Laci, his wife, was not having an affair, although she was pregnant and it was his child. Laci and Scott dated for two years and then eventually moved in together. And in November of 02, Laci was seven months pregnant and Peterson met a massage therapist named Amber Fry. He told Amber that he was single. So she had no knowledge that he was married. And so she began to date him not knowing that he had a wife, especially not knowing that he had a child on the way. (05:19)
• Although the autopsy results, they were sealed by the judge, an anonymous press release reported that there was nylon tape around the baby's neck and a cut on the baby's body. One day later, Laci's torso was found and it was about a mile away from where the baby had been located. Now she was severely decomposed. They said to the point that it was even hard to tell by looking at her that it was a human body. So you can only imagine. I mean, we talked about decomposition before. There's a foul odor and there's maceration. Sometimes it's very difficult to tell that it's even a body. In a lot of cases, we would have insect activity and animal activity that would desecrate that body even more and make someone really hard to be identified. Of course, in these cases, they did DNA to identify Laci and the baby, which they had agreed they were going to name him Connor. But Laci's head, arms, legs, and internal organs were missing. Like I said, she was severely decomposed, although her cervix was intact. In April of 03, Peterson was arrested. (09:52)
• And then in 05, he was sentenced to death by lethal injection. And what I found interesting is, and I didn't even know until I started doing research, that there's some pretty recent activity on the case. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection in 05. Then in August of 2020, so that wasn't that long ago, because this happened back in 02, they overturned his death penalty and then re-senenced him to life in prison without parole. This was December 8th of 2021. Then he was moved from San Quentin to Mill Creek State Prison in California in October of 2022. These are all fairly new things that have come up on the case October of 2022 when he was moved and then just there in 2021, re-sentenced to life in prison. (15:01)
• So maybe even one of the reasons I decided to go into it because I just, I was appalled at that time that a husband would kill his wife. But then now that I'm in the business, I see how often it does happen. It's rather scary. And we see it all the time in this line of work. Not all the cases are high profile and not all of them end up on the news. But I can promise you that in your area, even if you live in a small town, it happens often and you may not hear about it. Men killing not only their wives, but also their families. The Chris Watts case is another that really, really interested me. And it was a little more recent than the Lacey Peterson case. But nonetheless, it happens a lot more than you realize. (16:24)
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• I've found a New Year's Eve murder story that I thought that you all would be super interested in. I was thinking about it as I was going through all of the history of this particular story. I can remember growing up how mad I used to get. Did you all have chores? I had so many chores and I did not get allowance. A lot of my friends would have certain chores that they'd have to do certain days of the week. I was always jealous because at the age of 10, 11, 12, they always had money in their pocket. I didn't understand. My parents felt like chores were something that had to be done and that were not optional. You did not get rewarded for finishing them, for finishing them early or overachieving. There was no reward. We hated it. It was not fun. I can remember even as I got older, I would be forced to finish chores before dates. I used to get so mad because my poor dates would sit on the couch waiting for me to finish laundry before my mom would let me leave. It does make you angry when someone pesters you to do something. This story is real similar to what some of us have experienced growing up, but we didn't quite push it to this extreme, obviously. (02:14)
• So it was December 31st of 2014. Maria, the mom, dropped the daughter, Maria, off at work. When she came back, Mario, the brother, heard a thump in the garage and he knew that his mom and Christian had gone in there to get the boxes down from the attic. Finally, Christian decided he was going to do what his mom wanted him to do. Now Mario heard this thump and he didn't hear any yelling or screaming, which you would expect to hear if there was an altercation going on in the next room. So he figured that the boxes had fallen from the attic or someone had dropped one and so the thump didn't really startle him at all. One of mom's friends had arrived shortly after this and saw Christian in the garage with a mop, a broom, and a bucket. He looked to be mopping up what she thought was red paint. Often, blood is mistaken for red paint. Not really expecting there to be blood in the garage, she just assumed that it was paint that had spilled and that Christian was in there trying to clean it up. So the friend called Maria, the mom, to tell her that Christian was acting strangely, and got her voicemail obviously. She left a voicemail whenever Maria didn't answer. Mario eventually got up. He was on the couch in the living room and noticed that his mom hadn't returned to her room and that Christian had not come back into the house. So he kind of was wondering, hey, what's going on out there? He opened the garage door from the house and saw a puddle of blood, which the friend had mistaken for paint, and saw an axe leaning against the wall. (06:07)
• There were a lot of problems with Christian. He thought that his mother favored his older brother over him. One of the main reasons for that is because the older brother Mario did not live at home and he only came home during the holidays. And so, during that time of year, she did spend maybe a little more time with him just because that was their only chance to visit. Christian lived at home. Maria, the daughter, also lived at home. So the mom, Maria, really enjoyed the time that she got to spend with Mario during the holidays when he was visiting. Now Christian, he liked to be alone. He liked to play video games and he would sit outside for hours and stare at the sky. He also, in looking at his past, had been arrested for loitering, for prowling, and also for resisting an officer. He had been previously diagnosed with schizophrenia and he would occasionally, in the middle of the night while he was sleeping, hear voices from under his bed. (08:33)
• And Christian's condition seemed to worsen just days before New Year's Eve. Again, when Mario would come to visit around the holidays, the two would argue often. And the main reason was because Christian was jealous of Mario. He would stay in his room most of the time when Mario would visit. I found it interesting that when the police did arrive on scene, they actually found Maria's head in the trash can. After, they found her body lying next to it. Of course, they questioned Christian, who said that he did spend two days plotting his mother's murder. He did confess and told police that he finished her off and swung the ax at her like a baseball bat. This was well planned out with no previous discussion with his therapist and no indication that he was going to do this to his mother. And keep in mind, and we see this a lot with mental illness, where the parents really go above and beyond to try to do everything that they can for the child. Somehow it just doesn't work out. Maybe they can't afford to put them in an inpatient facility where they really need to be. There's not a lot of assistance. We all know that mental health is a huge problem, not just in Florida where this occurred, but all over the world. There was no indication that he had planned on doing this. Although mom, well, everyone in the home I guess you could say, was a little bit scared of him, because he heard voices. Who knew what the voices were telling him? Who knew in the middle of the night while he was in his bed and heard voices under it, what were the voices telling him to do? (11:14)
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• There was an 18 year old named Alex Valdez. I don't know the background, I couldn't find very much information on his parents, but he had been staying with his aunt and her boyfriend for about six months. The boyfriend was Sylvester Diaz Hernandez and he was 41 years old. Evidently the aunt and boyfriend told Alexis that he could live with them as long as he worked and continued to go to school, as well as help paying the bills. But as time went by, he decided he was going to quit school, he got a little more lax, he quit his job, he wasn't really holding up his end of the bargain. So on Christmas Eve of 2013, they asked him to leave. I don't know where he would have gone. I don't know where his parents were or if he had siblings. Like I said, I could not find that information. But on that evening, his aunt was attending a party. Alexis started drinking. You know what happens when you drink a lot. You kind of get, or some people get angry. Some people get really happy, but he evidently got angry. The two, Diaz and Alexis went to the store to buy beer, after Diaz returned home from visiting his family. Diaz's girlfriend, the aunt, was attending a party, so she wasn't there. Alexis had hid a hammer behind the door. (02:04)
• Great Vaughn, Texas is known as the Christmas capital of Texas, it's a beautiful city. There's all sorts of events. It's very family friendly, but bad things happen everywhere, it doesn't matter. So Aziz Yazdanpanah, and we're going to call him Aziz from here on out, was a 56 year old. And he and his wife had apparently been having some marital issues and had separated. So they had a 3,100 ish square foot home in Collyville, which is kind of a well-to-do neighborhood here around where we're at. They lived there together with their two daughters and their family seemed relatively normal. Not a lot going on, nothing that really drew attention to themselves. They dressed well and everyone thought they were just a happy family, which is very common. We see that many times we don't know what goes on behind closed doors. This was actually the case in this particular incident, but the wife had left him and she'd moved literally two miles down the road into an apartment in Great Vaughn. So she wasn't living far from him. I believe that she was trying to be amicable. She wanted her ex-husband to see her daughters. Although the problem was he had not worked in quite some time. He was in the mortgage business and had not worked in I think four years. (06:44)
• Now, when she moved out of the house in Colleyville and into the apartment in Great Vine, they actually had no water or electricity, because she was paying the bills, and then she stopped paying the bills. He had no income because he hadn't worked in four years. And she took a big part of the furniture. So, she left him with a 3,100 square foot home with no water, no electricity, and very little furniture. So that, probably on top of everything else, did not make him too terribly happy. Now, after he shot everybody, he put one of the guns in his brother-in-law's hand before he killed himself. So he was trying to make it look like the brother-in-law had something to do with the murders, or was a part of it. They determined that the brother-in-law had not shot either one of the weapons and determined that that weapon was actually placed in his hand by Aziz after he shot everyone, just before he shot himself. (10:08)
• Years ago, when I worked in Harris County, there was a homeless gentleman who would sell newspapers in a median in front of a gas station, and no one knew who he was. I think they called him Bubba, but no one knew his legal name. And he would go into the gas station and get a drink and people would address him as Bubba, although that wasn't actually what his name was. He had no family, he had no home. He would sell these newspapers for the Houston Record Chronicle and then use what little bit of change he made off of those to feed himself. And so, I just remember he was a very thin older man and he had a very bushy gray beard and a lot of gray hair. And one morning he was struck by a car. We were never able to find out who he was. I just remember that he was in our unidentified remains cooler for quite some time. And I think they eventually just removed a phalanges or a finger and kept that for DNA purposes in case family ever came forward. But, he may not have had any family. Like I said, we didn't even know who he was to actually use his name to search for relatives, which I always thought was super sad. And then again, I thought, man, this guy's actually trying to work and trying to make a little bit of money and support himself. (13:09)
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• Christmas and New Year are risk factors for cardiac and non-cardiac deaths. A couple of reasons for that are that people delay actually going to the ER. They don't want to rush up there if there's nothing truly wrong. They don't want to leave their families. They're in the middle of the holiday festivities. They're spending time with the people that they love and they don't want to leave. They don't want to go to the emergency room. So they delay seeking treatment and they consume a large amount of foods. We all know we all overeat during the holidays. I hate to admit it, but I am very guilty of that. Just the stress of the holidays in general, people are having to work extra hours to be able to afford Christmas gifts for the people that they buy presents for. A lot of people don't have a choice., they are new to their jobs and they are forced to work during the holiday hours. Also, just the general excitement of the holidays can build up the catecholamines that actually can cause fatal heart arrhythmias. And we don't really think about it that much, but education can help. Moderate consumption of food, not smoking, different things like that can actually improve our risk. But nonetheless, the risk is still there. (02:10)
• So I looked over at my dad and he was clenching his chest. I could see sweat coming through his shirt and he looked like he was in pain. So I asked him, dad, are you okay? What's going on? How are you feeling? And he said, oh, my hernia is acting up. And we all know men sometimes are a little bit in denial when they have issues coming up. They don't want to go to the doctor, but he blamed it on his hernia. So my mom was in the bathroom at the time and my mom was also an RN. And so I went in there and I said, hey, mom, I'm pretty sure dad's having a heart attack. I'm going to call 911. And so her response was kind of funny. I think she was a little bit in denial. She's like, let me put my makeup on and I'll drive him up there. And I basically said, no, you can't drive and do CPR at the same time. I'm calling 911 right now. Long story short, EMS came and picked up my dad. And when they put him on the EKG, I could actually see him having a heart attack. (07:40)
• I was looking also into deaths that occurred on Christmas day and I found one that happened back, this was way back in 1929. There was this family in North Carolina that was murdered. There was a gentleman by the name of Charlie Lawson and he was a sharecropper and he murdered his wife and six of his seven children. And this actually happened on Christmas day in 1929. The odd thing is, and this was very strange for a sharecropper because they didn't make a lot of money. But days before Christmas he took his wife and all seven of his children and they ranged in age from four months to 17 years. His wife, bless her heart, was pregnant her entire life. He took them into town to buy new clothes and his plan was to have a family portrait. This was a big family. Again, very strange for a sharecropper to do this. So on the 25th Christmas morning he shot his 7 and 12 year old daughters with a 12 gauge shotgun. They were leaving to go to their aunt and uncle's house and he went into the barn and shot them on their way to the aunt and uncle's house. Now after he did that, he went home and shot his wife, she was on the porch. Then he went into the house and shot all of his children and he bludgeoned his four month old. Then he disappeared for several hours at which time he was in the woods and he eventually shot himself in the head. Now if you can imagine being the only survivor, if you have six siblings and your parents, so a total of eight people that die on the same day and you're the only surviving family member. Can you imagine how devastating that would be? (11:57)
• There were a lot of rumors after the event that Charlie, the dad who committed the murders, was sexually abusing his 17-year-old daughter, Marie. She had actually told a friend that she had become pregnant by her father. Now there was a rumor that Charlie had told Marie that if she ever told her mother, and this is a quote, some killing would be done. So it is believed that there's a possibility that Marie told her mom that she had been impregnated by her father, at which point he found out and carried out what he promised and killed the entire family. If y'all are like me, I would love to go to this location. But shortly after the murders, Charlie's brother opened the home as a tourist attraction. Now this is a place that I would want to go. This to me would be a vacation. It probably would be for most of you as well. So apparently when Charlie murdered Marie, the daughter that he supposedly was sleeping with, she was in the middle of baking a cake. The cake that Marie baked that day was actually on display in the home when the tourists would come in. Well guess what? People are weird and the visitors, the tourists that were coming into the house, started taking raisins off the cake for souvenirs. So people, come on. Like eventually it had to be covered with glass so that no one could touch it because everyone thought it would be cool to have a raisin off this cake that Marie baked that night. So all of the Lawsons, the entire family, were laid to rest in this family graveyard. And Arthur, who was 17 at the time, of course he was the only survivor, he's the one that came home and found his entire family had been shot. So he of course survived and went on to get married and have some children, actually four children. And then later in 1945 he was killed in a motor vehicle crash. (15:49)
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• I started working as an LVN before I graduated from RN school. And so after graduation, I was able to pretty much continue my job there. But of course, my pay went up because at that point, I was actually a nurse and not a patient care tech. So I began working there and that required a lot of additional training. I got my NRP, which is going through the neonatal resuscitation program. And at that point, I was able to attend deliveries in the operating room for C-sections or vacuum extractions, which I'm not quite sure they do anymore. And they tried to do it to me when I was having my oldest daughter and I insisted that they take it off because I did not want any assistance getting her out. But there was a time too when they did a lot of forceps deliveries and those types of deliveries all put the babies in a little bit more danger than a normal vaginal delivery. And so they were done in the OR and we always had a resuscitation team on standby to actually assist in case there were any complications. And that team would consist of usually a couple of NRP trained nurses, which I was one of, and then also maybe one or two respiratory therapists. And our job was to, as soon as the baby came out, the doctor handed the nurse the baby, we would take it straight to the warmer, dry it off, keep it warm, suction the lungs or perform CPR, whatever was necessary. (03:43)
• So mom was coming in trying to drop off her breast milk and this nurse was basically attacking her baby who was only five days old. So mom noticed all this bleeding from the mouth. Now he was one of seven that she allegedly murdered when she was working there at that hospital between June of 2015 and June of 2016. So when mom saw her, she told the mom that the blood was due to the tube that was going down his nose into his stomach, irritating his throat, and that it was causing the bleeding. But apparently it was quite a large amount of blood and this little boy only weighed, well he weighed less than three pounds when he was born. He was actually pronounced dead less than five hours after mom saw Lucy attacking him. The doctors who actually examined him said that he lost more than a quarter of his total blood volume. So initially the death was ruled a natural death and the cause was ruled a GI disorder. So they did that before ever doing an exam of any kind. They just assumed that because the baby was premature and had some stomach problems going on that they were just going to rule it natural. (08:14)
• So again, from some of the other cases that we had talked about with nurses killing their patients, insulin was used and she'd also injected air into a four-day old's stomach through the NG tube. And then she did the same thing with that little one, searching for his parents on Facebook soon after his death, just having a strange interest in what they were doing and how the death affected their family. She also had left a three-month-old with irreversible brain damage after she tried three times to kill her by putting air into her NG tube. Now she was arrested several times and then released on bail, and the reason for that is she would bail out and then they would claim that they were going to use that time to do more of an investigation. And so arrested in 2018, released on bail, arrested for a second time in 2019, and then posted bail again. And then her final arrest was in November of 2020. And at that time, she was charged with seven counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder. The infants that she murdered, five of them were boys and two of them were girls.(11:23)
• Great parents take great care of their children. Absolutely no known reason why the child would not survive, but for some reason they just don't. Now at the same time, we have what's called an overlay. And I think we're all guilty of this at some point when our kids are young, where they sleep in the bed with us. Many moms will go to sleep holding the baby and breastfeeding the baby and the baby will end up being smothered by mom's breasts or parents sleeping in the bed with a baby and the baby ending up face down in a pillow or up against mom's back or dad's stomach or falling between the bed and the wall and getting lodged there and causing the baby to asphyxiate or not being able to breathe. And of course, when those babies are transported to the hospital as death investigators, we still go to the home and we document many things, including where the baby was found. We have dolls that we use to actually have the parents show us where the child was found face down, face up, face against an item or a person. And so we ask a lot of questions of the parents. (15:13)
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• I was driving home from work earlier and I started thinking about sometimes how paranoid my job has made me over the years. And as I was driving down the road and it was very dark and the road was very curvy, I got to thinking, you know, I'm trusting that person that's coming towards me around that curve from the opposite direction not to hit me. And I don't know them from Adam and I don't know if they're paying attention. I don't know if it's somebody with a good career or if it's a kid who just got his driver's license, but I'm driving on a curvy road in the middle of the night and it's dark and I'm trusting them without knowing them at all. (00:30)
• Now this happened, I think, between May and September of this year. So it's very, very new, but he was actually arrested for putting nerve blocking agents and other drugs into IV bags at a surgery center. And so this resulted in the death of one of his coworkers and then also resulted in many of his patients having cardiac emergencies for what's considered to be a pretty simple surgery. So his name is Ronaldo Rivera Ortiz. He's a 59 year old. He was recently arrested in Plano, Texas by the police in Dallas, Texas. He faces the maximum of life in prison. But again, another example of somebody whose life is basically in our hands. I think about it frequently when you're in the hospital and I don't know how many of you have ever had surgery, but I had a kidney removed back in 2018. And I just remember when the doctor came in and he was talking to me and making small talk, trying to make me comfortable. And he got out his little Sharpie and started making X's on the left side of my abdomen and my flank. And I thought to myself, wow, I mean, we've all heard it happen. How easy would it be for them to be distracted, not be paying attention, be in a bad mood, be upset with someone and mark the wrong area and do surgery on the wrong body part or remove the wrong body part. It's kind of frightening when you think about it. (04:34)
• They've never been written up because that hospital didn't want any legal consequences. So this looks very much like probably what happened in this case. They wrote him up, but there was never anything major done about it. And he was never fired because he was friends with the CEO. He also reportedly had about $4 million in unpaid taxes. So who knows, maybe he was just trying to take other people down with him because of that. But 10 to 20 patients were transported, incubated, and had to be put on a ventilator because he was tampering with these bags. And so I know I mentioned in an earlier episode, and if you didn't hear it, I'll say it again. When I was working in a hospital setting and I would medicate my patients, I always took the blister pack of the medication and all the syringes or whatever I was going to give them into their room unopened. And as I opened them, I would explain what they were, why we were giving them and just try to educate them a little bit and also let them see, I'm opening this, I'm giving you what I'm supposed to, this is not being tampered with, those types of things. (16:43)
• But it does happen. My doctor actually left a sponge inside of me after he delivered my daughter. I'm 21 at the time, had absolutely no knowledge of what it was like to have a baby. And I was trying not to be that complaining patient who whined and something was always wrong, and this hurt and that hurt. I was trying to be tough, right? Because I'm old enough to have a baby, I should be able to handle it. And so he did my episiotomy, left the gauze in there, sewed it up. I go home and this may be TMI, but I go home and I feel this heavy, like pushing feeling on my stitches. And I'm like, what is going on? Again, I'm 21, never had a baby before. And I didn't want to complain or be that person who calls the doctor over and over and over asking, what's wrong? Something's not right. But I did, I had to. I knew something was wrong. It literally felt like another kid was trying to push their way out. And so it was so, so heavy and I couldn't figure it out. I called him, I swear y'all, I called him three times a week for two solid weeks. (19:33)
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CONNECT WITH JULIE MATTSON:
• Website: https://pushinguplilies.com
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CONNECT WITH JULIE MATTSON:
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• A lot of nurses who have done this tend to make excuses and claim that they're taking someone's life to end their suffering or on the opposite end of the spectrum, they want to get rid of difficult patients. They might be tired of taking care of someone, and they don't want to do it anymore, and they figure that the best way to do it is just to over-medicate them or give them a medication that can cause them to go into cardiac arrest. Some also might have hero syndrome, which is where they may give them a medication or too much of a medication to cause them to go into cardiac arrest so that they impress others by trying to revive them being the hero. And a lot of nurses may do this for attention, a lot of nurses may do this because they are depressed, they may want to do this to relieve frustration due to a heavy workload. You also have heard stories of doctors who might kill patients just because of experimental curiosity, wonder what this would do, or they may have a god-like power over patients and it makes them feel special or important. These are reasons in looking into it, why some nurses and doctors have chosen to kill their patients. (05:29)
• This is not to say that every nurse who prefers the night shift is a murderer or should cause concern, but a lot of nurses or people who think that they can get away with murder in a hospital setting might prefer the night shift when no one that works administration is there. It's quiet, family members are usually not present, may be a little bit easier for them to get away with something. Association with incidents at multiple hospitals can cause issues because those jurisdictions don't communicate, so if it's someone who's had problems at several different hospitals, again and have bounced around from facility to facility, those facilities may not communicate what the problems have been, and so they get completely overlooked and the person may go to work at a hospital with a completely clean slate, even though they've caused problems at multiple different institutions. If a nurse or a doctor tries to predict when someone will die, that's a little suspicious because you really don't know... Healthy people can have cardiac arrest suddenly and be dead the next day, it can happen very suddenly. You could have a lethal arrhythmia and be gone when you are otherwise healthy or had a great day and were mobile and didn't have any problems or complaints. (08:22)
• The police also found the recording where he had called his wife from jail and said that he wanted to lengthen the patients stay in the ICU so he could actually get over time. Now, the nurses in that facility said that that wasn't true, because they were very short-staffed, and he very well could have gotten over time even without injecting these patients with air, causing them to have to stay longer in the ICU after heart surgery. But to me, this is absolutely ridiculous. So, they had found air embolus in all these patients, he had injected it into their IVs to try and say, I did this because I knew that they would become ill or have complications and need to actually stay in the ICU longer, and I could get over time caring for them... No, I don't think so. So this guy is behind bars as well, will hopefully not see the light of day. (15:43)
• A lot of these people were never in trouble before they committed these crimes, but... I don't know, something clicked. That's what we were talking about earlier. I guess, something just clicks. They get this crazy idea that, Hey, if I injure this patient, they're going to have to stay here longer, and I can get some over time, or if I do something to this patient and that causes them to code, I'm going to look like the good guy. When I start CPR and we can actually bring them back, I'm going to look like a hero. So we're always loving to all people of all ethnicities and all backgrounds, and part of our job is to be non-judgmental, to remain unbiased and to take care of everybody. So I just find it interesting that there are people that abuse their power in all professions, but I find it particularly interesting in my profession, just because I could never ever, ever imagine doing that. Like I said, staying late and caring for patients and going above and beyond and making sure that they eat dinner before giving them their meds and maybe not even go into the bathroom during a 12-hour shift and not eating lunch, just going home knowing that I cared for my patients to the best of my ability was what helped me sleep at night. And again, it's not just nurses and doctors, it's every profession, but I thought that it would be interesting to focus on medical homicides and serial killers that are nurses and doctors because there are many of them. (21:55)
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• It was so strange because this dentist, y'all was actually old as the hills, he was my mom's dentist when she was a kid. He pulled all of her teeth when she was 16 years old and gave her dentures because she had really bad teeth. I remember her telling me how bad it hurt. I thought to myself, why is she taking me to him if he caused her so much pain as a child? But nonetheless, she did... I just remember he had the most awful furniture in his waiting room, it was covered in plastic, the really thick plastic that you stick to. And then the music that he played was literally what you hear in a funeral home, it was horrifying. I can remember him filling several of my teeth without using anesthesia, so I felt every bit of it, and I guess I could thank him for my high pain tolerance, because that very well could be the reason why I can literally pass a kidney stone with a smile on my face. But this guy was evil. And it was the weirdest thing I know that many times, if you're a good kid, when you leave the dentist's office, you get some sort of gift... I found it really strange that my dentist had a ceramic workshop of some sort in his office, and he would make a plaster of Paris gifts to take home and paint. So we only had two molds, they were a rattle snake and an owl, and the owl was a bookend. (01:10)
• I ran across the story of a little girl named Lisa and French, and looking back at her pictures that I was able to find, it reminded me very much of the pictures that they took of us when we were in kindergarten, in first grade. So she was only about four years older than me, so I was five when this happened, and of course, I never saw it on the news. It may not have ever made the news, but then again, I'm sure that my parents probably protected me somewhat from stories like this... Because I had no idea when I was younger that all these things go on in the world. Which was crazy, and I think to some extent, it's great that our parents protect us from some stuff, my kids probably wish I had, they're probably grown up paranoid because they've heard all my death stories and the worst stories ever, but somehow they survived. Lisa French was a little nine-year-old and she lived in Wisconsin, she was murdered and sexually assaulted by one of her neighbors. His name was Gerald Turner, and he lived about half a block from her and her family. On Halloween of 1973, she was trick or treating by herself, she was supposed to have a friend with her. She had left her house at about 5:45, she had a hobo costume on, so I can imagine that she looked adorable,. She had little dotted freckles on her cheeks, and her friend Ann Parker was supposed to go with her but and got grounded, so... Ann wasn't able to go with her. Lisa went alone and on her way to this party, she actually stopped at the classmates house and trick-or-treated, and then she stopped at a teacher's house and did the same... Before she went to Turner's house. (07:38)
• Of course, a lot of those forensic mental institutions, their goal is to release those people eventually back to prison and not to home, they just can't live in the general population with everyone. So, they would not go from a forensic mental institution directly home or out in the public, they would go from there to a prison... I mean, if you could only imagine this poor little nine-year-old trick or treating on her own, it sounds like she was very trusting. I know that bad things happened back then, but I just think that they were less likely to happen then than they are now. I know that I had discussed before, but back when I was a kid, we waited till dark and we trick or treated by ourselves, our parents stayed home and handed out candy, and we went trick or treating. Now, rarely were we alone. We were usually with a friend or with several friends or even a sibling, but the plan was for her to have a friend with her, and I'm not even sure if her mother knew that the friend ended up not being able to go. But I found this a very interesting story, he basically just discarded her and he only lived half a block, so he could have been watching her for quite sometime. (15:38)
• So the fatality rate, in reality for child pedestrians, is two to four times higher on Halloween. Of course, not just children are at risk, Halloween is the third deadliest day of the year for pedestrians, and we always have a lot of auto-pedestrian accidents. A lot of people any time of year trying to cross the road where there's not a cross walk or trying to beat traffic running across the road, and especially at night wearing dark clothes and trying to beat a car is not a good idea. So, it's always good to give your kids a small flash light or a glow stick, put some sort of reflective tape on their costumes or their shoes or even their bags of candy. And then before you go out, of course, remind the children to across the street only at intersections and always look both ways. So if you're going out or driving anywhere, always be particularly careful of intersections, especially before you turn, not everybody waits for the red walk sign before they try to cross the street at a crosswalk. And stay off of the side streets or even neighborhood streets,. Your phone is going to cause major distractions, and all it takes is not paying attention for a split second and something really bad could happen. (27:11)
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• I remember one night when I was with my friends and we were in a spare room of our house in the little town of Valley View, Texas, shout out to my home town. We were playing with my Ouija Board that I had gotten for Christmas, and of course, it spelled out something, I can't even remember what it was. But during this time, we were all a little bit spooked and it was new and it was mysterious. We looked up and there was literally someone looking in the window, it freaked us out and we screamed. It could have been completely our imagination, but we had so much fun with it, and I remember that game just being the highlight of many of our sleep overs. (02:34)
• Since 1984, there have been 24 homicide victims related to egging. This is because when you go to the store to buy eggs, of course you don't have to have an ID, it's not a big deal. It's not like other items that they are now requiring identification for before you could purchase. You don't have to be a certain age, obviously, to buy eggs. They are super cheap, they are very small, they're easily concealed, they can be kept in your pocket, and you can sneak up on somebody and throw it at them and they will not know what's coming. Some stores in certain areas actually don't sell eggs or shaving cream or items that kids or teenagers can use to wreak havoc on their neighbors to minors during that week of Halloween. Which is really pretty smart when you think about it, it's not something that normally would cause a problem. You wouldn't normally question a teenager who goes into the grocery store and buys a carton of eggs. But around Halloween, it tends to look a little bit suspicious. (11:14)
• So whenever he came to the door, Pizer had on face paint and a mask and gloves, and all the things that someone would have on normally on Halloween. However, when he answered the door, she raised her arms and had a weapon inside the paper sack that she was caring and she shot him in the chest. So Joan Rabel was actually from Pennsylvania, and she was a writer and a photographer. Back in 1957, she had gone to one of Peter Fabiano salons and she was looking for a job, and that's where she met Betty. She was also a hair dresser, she worked there with Peter. Betty and Peter owned a couple of different salons in the area, and that's how Betty and Joan Rabel actually became friends. Now, Pizer was a medical secretary and she was divorced, and she also became friends with Joan. They would spend their time drinking coffee and gossiping and talking about other people, and so they became super fast friends. But Pizer had bought a 38 and they borrowed a car and then after Pizer shot Fabiano, she actually later hid the weapon in a storage container at a nearby store. (16:09)
• I'm a huge horror movie fan, and I can tell you growing up, my dad, who recently passed away, was my horror movie buddy. It's very rare that you can call your dad at 11 o'clock at night and say, Hey, you want to go see cabin fever? You want to go see a scary movie? And for him to say, Yeah, let's do it. Which theater, what time? Where should I meet you? And so we would go and literally eat our weight in popcorn. I love watching scary movies, trying to guess what's about to happen and I love being scared. So my granddaughter is the same way, and I'm so super excited, I asked her the other day if she wanted to be my new scary movie buddy, and she said yes, and so I can't wait until she gets older and she'll actually go to the movies with me and watch these movies. I know most of them are super predictable, of course everyone always falls running from the bad guy, and it doesn't matter really how corny they are or how terribly written I think they are, I still always want to see them. And in my mind, I'm not really a critic, I basically feel like if they entertain me for any given period of time, I am happy that it only cost me $15 or $20 to be entertained. (19:48)
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• I ran across a couple other really interesting Halloween deaths that probably most of us have never even heard of. So we all know that all over the world, but there's a huge gang population in California, so in Northwest Pasadena and Los Angeles County, back on October 31st in 1993, there were actually three gang members who gunned down a group of boys who were trick or treating. It turns out the kids were ages; one was 13 and two were 14. There were actually three who died and three who were wounded, there were a total of 10. They were returning home from a Halloween party, and three of them were killed, and one of them, a 14-year-old was actually shot in the leg, and then another 13-year-old were shot in the hand. But these kids were all ranges in age, from 13 to 14. So, they were just in a innocently walking, and one of the men involved in the shooting was Herbert McClain, he was a Junior and he was 26 years old. (03:56)
• In 1984, Greene became pregnant, she had miscarried a couple of times, she had a baby due in November, she was about eight months pregnant. So, this is Halloween 1984, Doreen took Deana, who was her son with her current husband, Charles, and they went trick-or treating, Charles stayed home, handed out candy at the residence. This sounds like a typical Halloween evening for a big majority of the couples, husbands don't want to go walking around and so they stay home and hand out candy. Well, when they returned home, Charles went to get more candy because he had run out and he was going to go to the liquor store as well. He was gone for about 15 minutes and Doreen was home by herself at that time with Deana. Around 9 o'clock, there was a loud knock on the door, and Doreen answered the door and there was a man in a wolf mask. (14:25)
• She was behind a sofa and reportedly did not see this happen, thank God, I know that she probably heard way more than she should have, but she was hiding and didn't actually visualize this occurring. And whenever William Dennis left the residents, he left the wolf mask by the door. Now, Doreen actually was only 31 at the time this happened, and she died on the way to the hospital in the ambulance. When the police went to check Mike's house, they saw blood on the steering well inside his truck. (17:23)
• Halloween is one of the most common times of the year for crime, and statistics show that the number of car accident fatalities on Halloween night, 40% of them are due to drinking and driving. There are on average, about 17% more crime related claims on Halloween. According to some insurance companies, property crime is the most common crime committed on Halloween, and that's about 60% of property crimes that involve theft. Violent crimes can increase by as much as 50%, which is two times the daily average. And a lot of people wonder why crime on and around Halloween, why there's an increase? And they say that some of the contributions would be at that time of year, it gets dark earlier. (21:50)
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• I can remember waiting out by the road and my sister walking up this long sidewalk, of course, they had the outside decorated, didn't look too scary, so we weren't really initially too terrified. But they pulled her into the house and then made her screen before they gave her candy. I was completely freaked out, I'm like, Oh no, forget it, I'm not going in there. I took off running home, I don't care if they're giving me a whole snickers bar, I'm not going in, so I ran home. That's one way to save money on candy because all the kids are going to run away, and you might get one or two that aren't afraid, that are going to actually go inside and scream. I mean, now I'll look at it and laugh, but that would never fly these days, because if someone pulled your kid into their house… The SWAT team would be there. (02:12)
• So dad reached in, pulled out a Pixie stick and actually loosened the powder by rubbing it around in his hands and poured it into Timothy's mouth, and then gave him a drink of Kool-Aide. So Timothy immediately started vomiting and actually died on the way to the hospital, at this time he was eight years old. So the story was that Ronald, the dad, was actually about $100,000 in debt, so prior to this, he had taken out life insurance policies on both of the kids, $20,000 life insurance policies. Literally, like Timothy dies on October 31st and on November 1, the very next morning 9am, Ronald's on the phone with a life insurance company trying to collect on the policy. Come to find out he had also gone to a friend who worked at a chemical plant and asked a lot of questions about potassium cyanide and how much of it is needed to actually kill a human and different things like that. But the story of what happened is, the kids had all knocked on the door at a house and no one answered, they weren't home. So the kids ran next door to another house while Ronald had four giant pixies in his pocket that he had laced with potassium cyanide, and he actually folded the end over and stapled them shut. He caught up with the kids and he's like, Hey, you all have some rich neighbors, and he put a giant Pixie stick in each of the four kids bags. (04:59)
• So William Jr, who went by BJ, was the son of William Liske, and William married a lady named Sue who had two sons, Devin and Derek. Susan and William got married back in 01, and it's always hard when you try to merge two families, especially when there are young children, it's just very, very challenging. And so this case is no different, the father kind of found himself torn and struggling between his relationship with his wife and his relationship with his son. So Susan's son Devin was older, and he came home one day after church and he had spent the night with his dad. He went to play some video games when he got home, and then he started realizing the house was really quiet, it was Halloween, and he thought that everybody would be up and getting ready to go trick or treating or just getting ready for the excitement of Halloween. But it was really quiet. So he made his way to his parents room, they were both covered in a quilt, and he started speaking to them and they didn't speak. So he went over to his mother's side of the bed and shook her, she didn't respond. When he pulled the blanket off of her and William, he saw blood. (08:26)
• So that's another murder that happened on Halloween. I found those two very interesting, one where dad killed his son and one where the son killed the dad, as well as the rest of the family. Of course, not to say that only bad things like this happened on Halloween, because we all know that that's not true. But I thought just concentrating on these murders that occurred in October, specifically on Halloween Day, would be very interesting for this series. I know that a lot of these are cases that we don't hear of every day, or cases that haven't been on the news, and so I like to touch on stories that you don't hear so much about, and stories that are new news, instead of going over stories that we all know, and things that we've all heard before. Again, two very interesting cases, I'm looking forward to doing research on more Halloween deaths. I know that we've all seen the movie Halloween and all of the sequels, I think there's 11 now and then there's a new one coming out on… I think October 14th of this year, 2022. But we all love the story of Michael Myers, who was committed to a sanitarium as a child because he murdered his sister Judith, and then 15 years later, he escapes and stalks and kills people in this fictional town in Illinois. And of course, all of his killings occur on Halloween, which is when all the films take place, but I am one of those people who's still going to go to the movie theater and watch every single sequel, because even though it may be like the one before, I can't miss it. (13:34)
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• There's two different kinds of exams, and acute exam is one that we do on someone at the hospital that's been assaulted within the last 20 hours or five days, those are the ones that come to the hospital that could potentially have life-threatening injuries that may need prophylactic antibiotics that would still be effective because of the time frame that can be discharged from the hospital and monitored and offered some form of counseling. A non-acute exam is one that someone might report years after it happened, and obviously there's not going to be any injury there, outside of psychological injury, and so there's really no need for them to see a doctor. There's probably not going to be anything that needs to be treated urgently, they may have an STD, but we can still have them tested and have it treated, but there's no acute reason for them to see a physician or go through the expense of being seen in the emergency room. So they'll go to a different facility and go through the exam and actually have the interview process done and be checked for STDS and receive a counseling that they need. (04:39)
• We can get semen on a swab and we can get DNA as far as skin cells or saliva or other bodily fluids. So when I'm doing a sexual assault exam, if someone says he kissed my ear, then I'm going to swab the ear... If someone says he kissed my neck here, I'm going to swab that area. If they have a hickey, obviously, they've been sucking on their neck, and I'm going to swab that area. So this is why the history is very important, so we can know exactly where to collect the evidence and what we're looking for. I did swab her anus, and of course, all of the swabs that I took from her went to the crime lab, and we do also put their underwear in the kit and the underwear goes, because many times, if there's DNA it's going to come off or slip off on the underwear. So it's an important part of evidence collection, and almost always, unless someone completely refuses, we will include their underwear as part of the evidence. So, did the anal swab, sent her underwear to the crime lab and it was processed. And actually, the boyfriend's DNA or skin cells from touching her were actually found on the swabs, and that in addition to the scratch that I found and took very good pictures of were actually presented in the courtroom when I was subpoenaed. (09:55)
• Several years ago, there was a male nurse who was working at a hospital and he was taking care of a female who had a hip fracture, she had actually had surgery, she was on the surgical floor, she was about two days post-op and still on pain medication, which we would expect. So getting oral pain medication, I believe she was on hydrocodone, which is normally what they kind of graduate you to from IV pain medication after a couple of days. Knowing this, she was aware that she was not really going to be getting any more medications through her IV because she was taken hydrocodone orally to get ready to be discharged home. So one afternoon, a male nurse walks into her room and he said, We're going to take a nap today, and she kind of looked at him and she was like, I don't wanna take an nap... I'm not tired. And he said, Well, too bad, pretty much, and he closed her blinds and proceeded to walk over to her and inject something into her IV. She basically falls asleep, and when she wakes up, she finds him fondling her. (15:33)
• So the Texas Attorney General's Office stepped up and they said, You know what, this shouldn't be happening. All these children, all these adults should all be examined, they should all have a voice, and so even though back then the police were reimbursed by crime victims compensation in our state, they had to wait for reimbursement, they still were on a budget, and so now the Texas Attorney General's Office actually pays the nurse straight out instead of the police department paying the nurse. So, that the decision to do the exam doesn't always have to come from the police, that was such a great change that needed to be made because there's no reason for money to be the deciding factor. And that was always a shame, and I feel like there were probably a lot of cases that didn't get investigated that should have because of lack of money and lack of funds. So that has changed over the years. And for that, I am very, very happy. I know that now the sexual assault kits, there's a bit of a back up, having them processed, but I know that a lot of that is due to budget, and a lot of that is due to lack of staff, and hopefully those things will resolve and the process of actually having the kits analyzed will start happening quicker. And again, I know that sexual assault is not a pleasant subject, it's not really one that anybody wants to hear about... Believe me, when I came to the hospital, everyone looks at me and I was like, Oh, did someone get assaulted or did someone die? It's like this black cloud over me, everyone's just always wondering, how on earth do I deal with it? That's how... You know that you're helping people, you know that you're empowering people, and you're allowing them to have a voice and talk about what happened. (23:38)
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• I know that hotels are a magnet for suicides and other types of death. People will go to a hotel to commit suicide to avoid making a mess at home, and so, of course, in that hotel room where someone might shoot themselves, there's going to be a hole in the wall or blood or whatnot. And so to avoid that mess at home, then they would go to a hotel... I've seen this a lot over the years. Obviously, the hotels aren't going to widely advertise deaths that occur there because they want to keep making money. So, they wouldn't want everyone to know that all these people have come there to kill themselves or other things that go on in the hotel. They don't want you to feel unsafe, and they're obviously not going to be like, Hey, come here, people die here. So the truth is, people are 19 times more likely to commit suicide in a hotel. And they kind of believe, like I said before, they're being thoughtful, they don't want to make a mess at home. (01:55)
• So these days, you'll notice that hotel rooms may not have a balcony or even a window that opens, and that's because of a large number of people who jump to their death from a hotel room... I had a scene years ago where a group of people rented a hotel room for a drug party, the group was shooting up meth at this cheap hotel and they didn't want to get caught at their residence. So one of the group members became unconscious and so she stopped breathing and everybody panicked, and the rest of the group members decided that the best thing to do was to put her under the mattress inside the foundation, which is that surface that the mattress rests on, surrounded by wood. I used to think, and maybe it is true, I'm not sure that it was put there so you wouldn't lose things under the bed, but that's probably not the purpose of it. But weeks later, someone in the group actually started feeling bad about it, imagine that, and they called the hotel, it's not the Hilton, by the way. And they told the office staff that they were there three weeks prior, that they had a friend that became unconscious and then in a panic, they placed her under the mattress, so of course, management has to investigate this, they're not going to be like, Okay, whatever. (07:03)
• It's kind of strange, when I look back at some of the different deaths that have happened in hotels. A lot of celebrities have been found dead in hotel rooms, which is kind of interesting, and I don't think in those cases that they're there to avoid making a mess, I think that they're probably on tour and just happened to be where they were. For example, Whitney Houston, she was found in February of 2012, she was 48 years old, and she was at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. But she was found in the bath tub in a foot of water and her death was ruled a drug overdose. I believe they said that it was accidental, that she was taking several different medications to help her sleep, but she was at the Beverly Hilton. Anna Nicole Smith, she was found in 07, and she was 39 years old. She was at the Seminal Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Fort Lauderdale. Her death was also ruled a drug overdose. And so going back, John Belushi, he was one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live. He was found in the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood, CA., he was only 33. (10:25)
• In 1938, there was a story about a female that fell from a ninth story window, the medical examiner was unable to determine if it was an accident or suicide. And in 1939, another male fell from the building. Also the same year, another gentleman was found dead in his room after ingesting poison. In 1940, there was a female who died after ingesting poison. Many people again, who jump out the window, in 44 someone died after jumping out the seventh floor window. So then we had a 10-year span where nothing happened. But in 54, another female died after jumping from the seventh floor window, and she landed on top of the marquee. And then in 62, someone jumped from the eighth floor... In 62 again, someone jumped from the ninth floor. And the interesting part that I read about this is that her and her spouse were arguing, he left the room, went downstairs, and when she jumped out the window, she landed on top of of him. (16:33)
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• So this case just hit really close to home for me, but I wanted to give you all some information on this guy because I've been at a piece and together a timeline of his life, and it seems like he was only 11 when he first entered the juvenile court system. So at the age of 12, if you can only imagine a 12-year-old, he was charged with aggravated assault with a weapon. And what aggravated assault means is that He brandished a weapon during an assault, it's actually possible to be charged with this, even if you don't injure the victim. So over the next five years, he was actually held 16 times for multiple different charges, those are ranging from aggravated assault to rape. One of his rape victims was even male. So he was placed in custody of youth services multiple times as a teenager, and then after a six-month stay in juvenile detention, he was released home to his mom, and then two weeks later, he committed a crime of kidnapping and was transferred to an adult court. (01:10)
• So when we look at the timeline, he was arrested in 2000 and he was released in November of 2020, but was supposed to be in prison until 2024. So, I kind of broke down the timeline. Which kind of interesting to me because had he been held in prison for the entire 24 years, then there's a series of other crimes that would not have happened. and we can't help but think this, right? Because he grew up, has been in trouble since he was 11. Has been held 16 times for different charges, from aggravated assault to rape, so these are not just stealing a candy bar at 7/11. I mean aggravated assault and rape, y'all, for a 12-year-old. Because he was released in 2020, he was out of prison, and in September of 21, low and behold, he sexually assaulted someone while armed with a weapon, and then fled the scene. Of course, the victim had no idea who he was, went to the hospital and had a rape kit collected, which is what I've done for 21 years, part of my job, we collect kits on people who know their perpetrator, just so that we do have evidence for conviction. But we also had many people who would present and had no idea who the perpetrator was. I know that I've had cases where people broken to a home and sexually assaulted someone at knife point or gunpoint and injured them, but they had no idea who they were, so that does happen. And many times they do know who their perpetrator is, but not always. (05:42)
• I believe her husband called 911 and reported her as a missing person at around 7:30 that morning, the morning of September 2nd. The police began looking for her and a bicyclist located Eliza Fletchers cell phone on the ground while she was riding her bike, and then also found a pair of men's champion slides, kind of a like the sandals, in the street, in the same area, very near where the cell phone was found. So obviously she turned all of this into the police, called the police as soon as possible. The slides were tested for DNA, and they did a rush on it, and it actually only took 18 hours to link Abston to the slides, which were found in the area where Fletcher was abducted. They did get a hit on DNA in the codes database, and there were also reports that Abston was found on the morning of September 2nd, which was when the abduction took place, he was seen cleaning his terrain later morning acting strange. And this is the day of the abduction, washing his clothes in the sink, which was abnormal and just acting strange. (10:32)
• Interestingly enough, I also found that Abston had a brother that was two years younger than him, he was arrested, his name was Mario. He was arrested during the investigation of Abston after the rape and the theft and the abduction, charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to manufacture and sell fentanyl, and intent to manufacture and sell heroin. And he was also a convicted felon and was in possession of a firearm. So he was arrested. So we have dad arrested, brother arrested, and now Abston arrested. Just a long history of being in trouble I don't understand personally why someone who's been in trouble for so long, and continues to have issues with aggravated assault and weapons, theft and rape, all these things are huge crimes. I don't understand why he was released from prison four years early, just because he cooked and cleaned at the prison? I don't know if you all agree with me not, but that's kind of my stance on it, and in doing my studies, I just... Those are things that bug me about this case. (18:27)
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• The one thing that we don't do is autopsies. Now, you may find in some offices that the investigators have multiple jobs, and one of them may be to serve as an autopsy tech and also investigate the death, those may be in smaller offices where they have fewer staff members and they utilize the investigators also as autopsy tech. In our office though, we do not... Ultimately, the autopsies are done by the forensic pathologists or the medical examiners or assistant medical examiners that work at the office. We also do not collect DNA, at the scenes at our office, not to say that it's not done everywhere. But I know on TV, they're like, Who is this guy? Let's go ahead and collect some evidence on him and see if we can find out who he is. And all of a sudden on an iPad, DNA comes back in 15 minutes and it definitely does not happen that way. We do not swab the body in any way before we send it to the medical examiner because we don't want to lose evidence. So, that's not something that we do on scene, which many people see on TV and maybe get angry when they find out that DNA does take a little bit longer than it does on CSI.(02:51)
• We want to get as detailed as we can... Photos, and you can never take too many because we want our doctors to feel like they were there. We want them to be able to look at the body and also look at our scene photos and put the picture together to determine the cause and manner of death. And in addition, we are going to interview people to get additional information, but we don't move anything before we take pictures. We want photos of the scene the way it was when the person was found, we want to always make notes about things that are moved prior to us getting there. Many times, the police or the fire department will have to move something in efforts to try and resuscitated someone if they think that that's a possibility, and we always make notes of those things that are moved... Many times when we get to the scene, it's not supposed to happen, but it has... Where law enforcement may have moved the weapon or picked up the casings, and we need to know where the weapons were, what the weapons were, what the ammunition was, where the casings were found, if the projectiles were located, all those things are very important to our doctor and a big part of what we do. (06:14)
• Sometimes these questions are hard to ask... Well, always they're hard to ask, right? Because it's really hard to ask someone who's just lost a loved one all these questions about history and whatnot. But they're just things that we really to know and the best thing that we can do is just explain to them that our job is to find an answer for them, as far as how their loved one passed away, and any information we can get from family is going to help us to do that. So, we do try to make them understand that we're doing this for them, we're not just being nosy, asking questions, there is a reason why we do what we do. Many times we have to follow up as far as finding family, we've gone back to people's homes before to look through their belongings to see if we can find business cards. Maybe indicating a doctor they may have gone to in the past who might have record of a next-of-kin or a close family contact. We may have to go to the apartment office to find out if they listed an emergency contact on their paperwork when they signed their lease. And so there are many ways that we can look to try and find family members of someone. We also have some computer programs that we use and some agencies that we can reach out to if we have problems trying to find family. Many times an issue of identifying someone comes up, if that's the case, and when I say identifying, if a person doesn't have a photo ID and you can't look at the photo and then look at the person, and now 100% beyond a shadow of a doubt that that's who that is. Even if they're locked in a house that is believed to be theirs, they are unidentified. (08:52)
• We do also carry knives so that we can cut people down when they hang themselves if they have not been previously cut down by EMS for life-saving measures. And then on car accidents, we are responsible for taking photos of the vehicle from all angles. We need to know the deceased position in the car... Were they the driver? Were they the passenger... Was their foot on the gas? Was their foot on the break? Is the car running? Are the keys in the ignition? Was the door open? Was the door closed? Did the airbags deploy? Did they have their seat belt on, is there any alcohol in the floor board, any indication that they may have been on their phone and been driving distracted, anything like that, are all things that we have to look for in the vehicle and take photos of... Even in natural deaths, if we have to go out and it's a young person who dies at home, we make note of things that we find in the house, any paperwork from a recent ER visit that shows us the complaints and the diagnosis of that person when they were discharged. (13:28)
• There are many cases where there's really no indication that we have absolutely no idea, and those are the cases that are going to go to Fort Worth and get full autopsies, and they're going to look at everything. They're going to look for blood clots, they're going to look for strokes, they're going to look for bowel instructions, they're going to look at everything to try and find the cause and manner of those deaths. We don't always have clues, but a big part of our job is to try to find them if they're there, and also photograph them. It's a very hard job, and a lot of people think that they would love it, and they get hired and then find out that they don't... It's difficult to go into someone's house and see some of the things that we see, it's difficult to visit with the families and ask some of the questions that we have to ask, but those of us who do it love it, and we do it because we're there to help the families, and we do want to help them find closure. (17:27)
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Episode 05: Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies, I'm your host Julie Mattson. Today I want to talk to you about one of the questions that I get asked a lot being a death investigator. And that is, how to avoid an autopsy. There are many reasons why people do not want an autopsy, reasons range from religious beliefs to not wanting the body, as they call it, mutilated. Depending on each individual case, the Medical Examiner will decide if the autopsy is necessary. A possibility of a suicide or a homicide will always warrant an autopsy, but today I want to share with you what you can do to avoid your own autopsy.
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Episode 04: Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies, I'm your host Julie Mattson. Today we are going to talk about Armin Meiwes. Armin was born December 1st of 1961, he was a German computer repair technician, and he achieved international attention because he advertised on a website called the Cannibal Cafe. He was looking for a voluntary victim who wanted to be slaughtered and consumed, so he found his victim in a gentleman named Bernd Brandes. Bernd was a 43-year-old engineer from Berlin. He was the one that Armin actually chose for the position, although many responded, which is crazy to me to think that anybody would respond to that. Armin killed Bernd and then proceeded to eat a large amount of His flesh. This to me is just crazy, but it's so interesting. I usually look back at someone's life or history or the way they were raised, and you can somehow put two and two together as to why they turned out this way or why they think this is acceptable behavior. Let's take a closer look together, ready?
Episode 03: Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies, I'm your host Julie Mattson. Part of our job consists of notifying family when a loved one has passed away, and many times no one, neighbors or close friends, know of any family members of the deceased. It makes it really difficult for us to hunt down the legal next of kin, the person who would be responsible for carrying out funeral arrangements. When someone passes away and and they don't have a family member that we can locate, we'll go through the house and try to find their phone, look through their phone to see if we can find any phone numbers or any indication of someone that they've called regularly. a friend or a close family member. Neighbors, many times, will be the ones who call the police for a welfare check, because Mr. Smith next door used to get the mail every morning and they haven't seen him in a few days. They go over and knock on his door, he doesn't answer. They call 911, Police go over, fire department forces entry and finds him deceased in bed. So, I just encourage everybody, if you have a friend that you know does not have family or a neighbor that doesn't get many visitors, make me just check on them just to make sure that they're okay.
Episode 02: Welcome back to Pushing Up Lilies, I'm your host Julie Mattson. As death investigators, we deal on a daily basis with all kinds of insects; roaches, flies, gnats and spiders. Of course, those are things that they don't really show you on TV, because it takes the glamor out of the job. And the truth of the matter is, we're not walking around in high heels looking our best with our make-up on and our hair done, we are sweating, dodging insects and sometimes we even go home smelling like a decomposed body.
Episode 01: Welcome to the very first episode of Pushing Up Lilies, a true crime podcast shared through my perspective as a Forensic Nurse Death Investigator and a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner for the last 21 years.