Best Served Cold (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

[0] In 2015, police in New York were alerted to a very strange death.

[1] The victim, who was a pillar of their community, had died suddenly and unexpectedly, and their autopsy had revealed something very unusual.

[2] So, the police began digging into the case, and eventually, after a few major twists and turns, they would get to the shocking truth.

[3] And the truth could be summed up in one word, evil.

[4] But before we get into today's story, If you're a fan of the Strange, dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

[5] So, if that's of interest to you, please invite the five -star review button out for dinner for their birthday, but have the wait staff sing happy birthday to you.

[6] Also, please subscribe to the Mr. Ballin podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts, so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads.

[7] Okay, let's get into today's story.

[8] I'm Dan Tversky.

[9] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York.

[10] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

[11] What's the answer?

[12] And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

[13] Hysterical.

[14] A new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios.

[15] Binge all episodes of Hesterical early and ad -free on Wondery Plus.

[16] It was late afternoon on Saturday, July 18, 2015, and Mary Yoder was out in her garden doing some weeding and replanting.

[17] It had rained early that morning, but now the sky over the little town of Whitesboro, located in the rural center of New York State, had the perfect amount of cloud cover, just enough to take the edge off the summer sun and heat.

[18] Mary smiled as she sat back on her heels and hooked her shoulder -length blonde hair behind her ears.

[19] Mary had just turned 60 four months ago, but with her strong arms and slim athletic build, she looked and felt much younger.

[20] Not that age, at least as a number, was anything that Mary spent a lot of time thinking about.

[21] What interested her much more was healthy living and enjoying all the experiences and wisdom she had gained over the years.

[22] And at 60, she'd had enough time to develop a true passion for most of her hobbies.

[23] These included making beautiful hand -thrown pottery, trying out all forms of exercise, making sure she and her family ate well, and most recently, learning how to belly dance.

[24] But in the spring and summer, it was her prized garden that Mary loved the most.

[25] And every minute she spent out there among the flowers and vegetables enjoying the natural beauty of her quiet surroundings just added to her feelings of contentment and gratitude.

[26] Mary turned away from her garden and looked up from under the brim of her old baseball cap at her comfortable four -bedroom house that she shared with her husband built.

[27] Not only had the two of them been married for almost 40 years, They were also business partners and chiropractors, health care professionals who treated pain related to nerve and skeletal disorders by manipulating a person's body.

[28] It was a method that some of their patients referred to jokingly as, quote, getting their backs cracked.

[29] Mary and Bill had established their practice family chiropractic care back in 1987, just two years after they both had graduated from Life University in Georgia with their doctor of chiropractic degrees.

[30] It had felt good to come back to New York.

[31] Mary had been born there, and it was where she had originally met Bill back in 1977 when they were both attending undergrad at the University of Buffalo.

[32] 28 years after setting up their private practice, Mary and Bill both still loved Whitesboro, which was nestled right between the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains in a beautiful valley of land that bordered the Mohawk River.

[33] With under 4 ,000 residents, Whitesboro was more like a rural village than it was a big bustling town.

[34] Many of the homes, the Yoters included, were spread out and surrounded by huge lawns and fields.

[35] Even so, the people there knew each other, and everybody seemed to know Mary.

[36] Whether she was treating patients at family chiropractic, located just 15 minutes away from her home, or riding her bike, working in her garden, or shopping at the local health food store and farmer's market, Mary just gave off this aura of warmth and kindness that instantly drew people to her.

[37] And when Mary smiled and spoke to you, no matter how short the conversation was, you felt like you had all of her attention and energy.

[38] But Mary and Bill's quiet, predictable, nice little life in Whitesboro was about to change.

[39] In a couple of months, on September 5th, the couple was going on the longest vacation of their married lives, a month -long cruise and European tour that they had spent all of them, June planning together.

[40] And even though Mary and Bill hadn't said it to each other in so many words, they both knew that this long absence from work was another step towards their full -blown retirement.

[41] Bill was almost 70 years old, and starting a few months ago, the two of them had begun scaling back their work hours.

[42] Bill now worked only two half days a week at the office, while Mary worked two full days.

[43] And instead of being open Monday through Friday, 8 .30 a .m. to 5 p .m., The office was now closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

[44] But as Mary turned back around and knelt down beside her garden again, she secretly thought to herself that she was probably slightly less interested in retirement now than Bill was.

[45] Being 10 years younger than him, she felt like she still had quite a bit of energy left.

[46] But as she thought about this, she also remembered that even when they chose to retire, even if it was tomorrow, they wouldn't get to actually retire right away.

[47] They would need to stay on for quite a while to train the next person who is going to come in and take over their practice.

[48] So it wasn't like this retirement was going to be an immediate shift.

[49] Plus, she could keep doing her outreach work as long as she wanted to, maybe even beyond their retirement since it didn't really involve Bill.

[50] Mary's outreach work were her regular visits to nearby Amish settlements to provide chiropractic care for them.

[51] The Amish are part of a conservative religious sect that relies on farming to support and feed themselves.

[52] Amish are known to live a very simple life with almost no modern technology, and so a lifestyle that relies so much on physical labor often leads to aches and pains, and so the non -medical treatments that Mary could offer them were met with gratitude, along with gifts of homemade pies and jams that Mary often counted as partial payment for her services.

[53] And while this willingness to work for food endeared Mary to the Amish, that kind of bookkeeping had not exactly made her and her husband rich.

[54] But once she and Bill actually sold their practice, they would finally have both the money and the time to travel, relax, pursue their own individual interests, and spend more time with their three adult children and their four wonderful grandchildren.

[55] As Mary finally stood up from her garden and stripped off her battered and dirty work gloves, she turned and looked again at the family home.

[56] And suddenly she found herself thinking of Adam.

[57] Adam had been the last of the Yoder kids to finally move out of the house.

[58] Thinking about her 24 -year -old son, the baby of the family and younger than his sisters by more than 10 years, made Mary worry.

[59] Ever since graduating from high school, Adam had stumbled in life a lot more than his two older sisters had.

[60] He also struggled with bouts of depression and anxiety.

[61] Even now that Adam was out of the house and living on his own, it was obvious to Mary and Bill that he didn't really know what he wanted to do with his life quite yet.

[62] He was enrolled in college, but previously, when he had been in college, he had dropped out.

[63] In fact, Adam had enrolled and dropped out of college on more than one occasion.

[64] But for now, anyways, he was in school, and so Mary and Bill were hopeful that he would just continue and he would graduate, and then he would fall into a career that he hopefully enjoyed.

[65] But the idea of Adam working a serious job long term, truthfully didn't really compute.

[66] The only steady job Adam had ever held was his first.

[67] part and full -time jobs as office manager and receptionist at the family chiropractic offices.

[68] But Mary was hopeful for her son.

[69] He might be struggling now, but he was a wonderful young man with good intentions.

[70] For example, even though he no longer worked at the family chiropractic office because he was now focusing on school, he still made regular visits there just so he could say hello to his parents and give his mom a quick hug.

[71] He also made sure, before he stopped working at the office to focus on school, that he found his parents a replacement to work in the office.

[72] And the person he recruited was his lovely longtime girlfriend, Katie Conley.

[73] Mary and Bill initially had some reservations about this.

[74] Not about Katie, she was lovely, but about the fact that if they hired her and then she and Adam broke up, what would Katie do?

[75] Would she quit?

[76] Would she stay on?

[77] And if so, wouldn't that be really uncomfortable?

[78] And considering that Adam and Katie were one of those couples that were always on again, off again, this seemed like a pretty valid concern.

[79] But ultimately, Mary and Bill hired Katie, and pretty much right away, they knew it had been the right choice.

[80] Katie had that office humming so smoothly now that Mary couldn't even imagine the practice operating without her.

[81] Mary flexed her back and then looked up at the mountains off in the distance.

[82] Then, as she tried to push her concern for Adam out of her mind, she began walking toward the back door of the house.

[83] When she reached it, she opened it up and stepped inside, and instantly she heard Bill in the kitchen already getting a start on making dinner for the two of them.

[84] Before closing the door behind her, Mary took one last look back at her prized garden.

[85] The last of the clouds had cleared away and so everything sparkled in the early evening sunlight.

[86] It was at moments like this, Mary thought, that life really did seem almost too good to be true.

[87] Two days later, on Monday, July 20th, 2015, Mary and Bill both woke at their usual time, around 6 .30 a .m. After chatting for a few minutes and making the bed together, Bill headed into their exercise room to do a short workout before he made himself breakfast and got a start on the day's activities.

[88] It was his day off and he planned to do a little reading and tackle a few household projects on a to -do list that never seemed to actually get any shorter.

[89] As he started his exercise routine, he could hear his wife's footsteps hurrying from room to room as she got ready for a long day at work.

[90] Mary always moved at top speed, and after 37 years of marriage, Bill knew that what his wife appreciated more than anything on a Monday morning was for him to stay out of her way.

[91] And since Mary had never been much of a morning eater, Bill also knew better than to offer to make her breakfast.

[92] When they kissed each other goodbye at 7 .45 a .m. that morning, Bill was struck as usual by his wife's vitality and her warmth.

[93] It was Monday, the start of a busy day, and Mary practically glowed with good health and energy.

[94] A minute later, she had left the house and hopped into her car.

[95] She gave Bill one more wave before backing out onto King Road and heading west toward the offices of family chiropractic care.

[96] Fifteen minutes later, Mary had arrived at the plain white medical building with its flat roof and box -like exterior.

[97] After pulling her car into the parking space right next to Katie's, Mary hopped out and just a minute later she was walking through the door of the front office.

[98] Katie looked up from her computer screen and the two women exchanged quick smiles and Katie held up a list of that day's appointments.

[99] This was Katie's way of telling her boss that no one had canceled and they had a full slate of patients.

[100] And sure enough, minutes after Mary's arrival, family chiropractic care was buzzing with activity and people.

[101] There were the usual packages and deliveries along with back -to -back appointments, but that was just part of it.

[102] Mary was as much a friend as she was a doctor, and so it wasn't unusual for clients to drop by in person to schedule their appointments or just to say hello.

[103] And it wasn't just the front office that was busy.

[104] Mary also ran a side business out of the back office where she sold a line of organic nutritional supplements that included her favorite, the protein powder that she herself often mixed with almond milk and used as a meal substitute or pick -me -up.

[105] By the time 1230 in the afternoon rolled around, Mary was ready for a break.

[106] Although it would have to be a very short break, since Mary also planned to use the lunch hour to go visit her 92 -year -old mother who lived in nearby Utica.

[107] Telling Katie she'd be back by 1 .30 p .m., Mary ducked into the back room where she used the office blender to mix up a quick protein shake for her lunch, before making the 10 -minute drive to her mother's house.

[108] About an hour later, just minutes before 1 .30 p .m., Mary and Katie were both back in the office and opening the door to the first patient of the afternoon.

[109] As always, it was like turning on a faucet.

[110] Almost immediately, the office was alive with the sound of voices and the gentle clink of the doors opening and closing.

[111] It wasn't until Mary's 2 .30 appointment that she started to notice something was wrong.

[112] She had just said hello to her patient, a woman named Elizabeth Kelly, who had been coming to Mary and Bill for 17 years, when Mary suddenly had to excuse herself to run to the bathroom.

[113] Aside from the occasional cold, Mary hardly ever got sick, and yet here she was, her hands gripping either side of the toilet, throwing up into the toilet bowl.

[114] As soon as her stomach had calmed down, Mary stood up, she cleaned the toilet thoroughly, before scrubbing her hands in hot soapy water, and then rinsing her face.

[115] When she got back to her stomachs, she got back.

[116] out to the exam room, her patient looked concerned and asked Mary if she was feeling okay.

[117] It was just very unusual for Mary to look so uncomfortable and distracted.

[118] But Mary smiled at Elizabeth and gently shook her head and said it was nothing that a hot cup of ginger or peppermint tea couldn't cure.

[119] But by late afternoon, Mary was feeling even worse, and just the thought of herbal tea, even one that was supposed to soothe digestive disorders, was enough to send Mary right back into the bathroom.

[120] By 4 .30 p .m., it was obvious to Katie that her boss was not feeling well, because she was watching Mary make constant trips to the bathroom.

[121] But the 22 -year -old office manager didn't want to embarrass Mary, so she kept her mouth shut.

[122] When 5 .30 p .m. rolled around, and it was time for Katie to leave for the day, Mary was still finishing up with her last patience.

[123] Before turning off her computer, Katie stood up and peeked her head into the exam room where Mary was working.

[124] In her quiet and now very concerned voice, Katie asked if Mary needed anything or maybe wanted Katie to stay until Mary was finished.

[125] But Mary shook her head, no, she thanked Katie for the offer and told Katie to just be sure to lock the door and flip the open sign to closed when Katie left.

[126] At 6 .45 p .m., Mary was finally finished with her workday.

[127] When she called her husband Bill to tell him she was heading home, she also told him that she must have picked up some sort of gastrointestinal virus and couldn't keep anything down, so don't worry about making any dinner for her.

[128] When Mary arrived home 15 minutes later, she barely paused long enough to shut the car door behind her before rushing into the house and heading straight for the bathroom.

[129] By bedtime, Mary was too uncomfortable with diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pains to sleep upstairs with Bill.

[130] Instead, she told her husband she'd rather just rest downstairs on the couch close to the downstairs bathroom.

[131] She told Bill not to worry and that she was sure she'd be feeling better by tomorrow.

[132] But when Bill came downstairs the next morning, Mary looked even worse.

[133] She was so pale and sweaty and disheveled that right then and there, Bill grabbed the telephone and he called their oldest daughter, Leanna, a medical doctor who lived six hours away in Long Island, New York.

[134] When Bill described the situation to Leanna, she told her father to get married to the hospital emergency.

[135] room as soon as possible.

[136] At first, Mary wanted to wait long enough to take a bath and clean up, but even as Bill started filling the tub, Mary changed her mind.

[137] Almost too weak to stand up from the couch, she told her husband they needed to leave right now.

[138] By late afternoon, after Mary had been admitted to the hospital and doctors had begun aggressively treating her for what appeared to be a vicious stomach bug, Mary started to feel better.

[139] At about 6 p .m., Mary was finally all washed and clean, she was reasonably comfortable, and she was fully rehydrated.

[140] Also, by 6 p .m., the doctors had looked over Mary's various scans of her bones and organs, and there were no signs of trauma or disease.

[141] Additionally, her blood work had come back, and it was all normal.

[142] So even though they didn't know for sure, the doctors were reasonably confident that it really had just been a bad stomach bug.

[143] But because Mary's symptoms had been so severe, doctors wanted to keep her overnight, just to make sure that she really was on the mend before letting her go back home.

[144] At 9 p .m., Mary smiled at Bill, who had been sitting by her side the whole time, and told him to go back home and get some sleep.

[145] If there was any change in her condition, she or the nursing staff would give him a call.

[146] Bill thanked Mary and then gave her a kiss, and then he walked out of her room and made his way toward the front doors of the hospital.

[147] Within the hour, he was back at the Yoder House in his pajamas, brushing his teeth.

[148] When he was done, he turned his cell phone off and plugged it into a charging station in one of their empty bedrooms upstairs.

[149] Then he made his way across the hall to his own bedroom and climbed into the bed.

[150] By 10 p .m., he was fast asleep.

[151] It wasn't until the next morning at 5 a .m., when Bill heard a ferocious pounding on the front door, that he realized something must be terribly wrong.

[152] When he pulled on his bathrobe and stumbled downstairs to open the door, he saw two state troopers waiting for him in their gray uniforms and broad -brimmed Stetson hats.

[153] They told Bill he had to get to the hospital right away.

[154] Mary had been moved overnight from an observation room to the intensive care unit.

[155] While Bill had slept peacefully, Mary's doctors had called Bill's cell phone and their landline again and again, trying to alert him to the fact that Mary was now gravely ill and fighting for her life, but Bill had not answered.

[156] The state police escort took Bill right into the parking lot of the hospital where Mary was staying.

[157] By 5 .45 a .m., Bill was sitting in the ICU waiting area, calling each of his children to tell them it was time for all of them to get to the hospital as fast as they could.

[158] Then he made the same call to Mary's five sisters, two brothers, and her 92 -year -old mother.

[159] And then finally, Bill was allowed into Mary's hospital room and what he saw shocked him.

[160] I'm Dan Tiberski.

[161] 11, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

[162] I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad.

[163] I'm like, stop fucking around.

[164] She's like, I can't.

[165] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast.

[166] It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these girls.

[167] With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down low.

[168] Everybody thought I was holding something back.

[169] Well, you were holding something back intentionally.

[170] Yeah, yeah.

[171] Well, yeah.

[172] No, it's hysteria.

[173] It's all in your head.

[174] It's not physical.

[175] Oh my gosh.

[176] You're exaggeration.

[177] Is this the largest mass hysteria since the witches of Salem?

[178] Or is it something else entirely?

[179] Something's wrong here.

[180] Something's not right.

[181] Leroy was the new date line and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

[182] A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical.

[183] Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast.

[184] You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad -free right now by joining Wondry Plus.

[185] If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good, you are a fan of the Strange Dark and Mysterious.

[186] And if that's the case, then I've got some good news.

[187] We just launched a brand new Strange Dark and Mysterious podcast called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.

[188] And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries, a genre that many fans have been asking us to dive into for years, and we finally decided to take the plunge and the show is awesome.

[189] In this free, weekly show, we explore bizarre, unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between.

[190] Each story is totally true and totally terrifying.

[191] Go follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a prime member, you can listen early and ad -free on Amazon Music.

[192] Mary, her blue eyes full of pain and terror as she looked desperately into her husband's face, was now on life support.

[193] The only reason she was still alive was because doctors had been using electrical shocks to restart her heart each time it's.

[194] started to fail.

[195] Surrounded by her family, Mary held her husband's hand and closed her eyes.

[196] By 254 that afternoon of July 22nd, 2015, Mary Yoder, one of the healthiest people her family had ever known, was dead.

[197] Her heart had simply stopped beating.

[198] Immediately after Mary's death, the Yoder family requested an autopsy to find out how a gastrointestinal virus or infection could have killed an otherwise exceptionally healthy 60 -year old woman.

[199] That autopsy would be performed the very next day on the morning of July 23rd.

[200] But instead of getting any answers, the initial autopsy results were inconclusive.

[201] So even after releasing Mary's body for cremation, the medical examiner's office continued to run tests on the blood and tissue samples they had collected from Mary's body.

[202] Two days after the autopsy on July 25th, Bill and his children invited family members and friends to join them in front of Mary's beloved gardens for a celebration of her life.

[203] It was Mary's favorite time of the year and all of her flowers were in full bloom.

[204] Afterward, Mary and Bill's daughter, Liana, did her best to pull the Shattered Yoder family back together.

[205] Liana was most like Mary in terms of temperament and her practical hands -on approach to life and fixing problems.

[206] She encouraged her father to get in touch with their aunt Kathleen, Mary's older sister, who had also recently lost her spouse of many years.

[207] And Leanna also encouraged her father and her brother, Adam, to go take a trip together to the West Coast, just a couple of weeks so they could rest and hopefully begin to heal.

[208] But the first order of business, as far as Leanna was concerned, was just to get her father and siblings out of Whitesborough.

[209] The calls and visits and gifts of food from friends and patients were well meant, but especially for Bill and for Katie, who had spent hours and even days at the office on the phone canceling appointments, it was just overwhelming.

[210] So Leanna invited everyone to come back to her home in Long Island for a little getaway and a much -needed change of scenery.

[211] The effort involved in doing anything seemed almost too much for Bill, but eventually he agreed.

[212] And even though Katie and Adam seemed to be in one of their relationship off cycles, Adam urged Katie to join them in Long Island too.

[213] In the weeks that followed, the Yoder family began the long process of healing.

[214] After the initial shock and disbelief over their mother's sudden and unexpected death, they had begun to accept the idea that Mary had just died of complications from a gastrointestinal infection, and they thought less and less about what the full autopsy report, which had not been released yet, might actually tell them.

[215] So, when Bill got a call on September 17th, 2015, almost three months after Mary's death, he was totally unprepared for what the doctors had to tell him.

[216] According to the full autopsy, Mary Yoder had not died of a gastrointestinal virus or infection.

[217] In fact, Mary Yoder had not died of any natural causes.

[218] Mary Yoder had been poisoned with a toxin called Colchicine, the same drug found in a common prescription medication that is used to treat a painful form of arthritis called gout.

[219] In tiny and controlled amounts, colchicine helps reduce inflammation that causes pain.

[220] But in the lethal amount found in Mary's organs and blood, colchicine causes such profound damage to cells that the body's response is literally to order those cells to die.

[221] At first, Bill and his children were just as confused as they were alarmed by this revelation.

[222] The doctors had avoided using words like foul play or homicide.

[223] Instead, they told the family that the medical examiner's office was still evaluating the test results and considering its next steps.

[224] But less than one month later, on October 15th, when still no more word had come from Mary's autopsy, and so the family was left to just speculate on what might have happened to Mary, Mary's younger sister, Sharon Mills, who was convinced this was no accident, decided to just call the Oneida County Sheriff's Department and tell them as much.

[225] Oneida County was the department that served Whitesboro.

[226] And by the time Detective Van Namie had finally gotten off the phone with Sharon, he found himself agreeing that Mary's death did seem very suspicious.

[227] And so after Detective Van Namie spoke to his superiors and they went over the autopsy report themselves, the Oneida County Sheriff's Office decided to open an investigation into Mary's death.

[228] Right from the start, Detective Van Namie knew he faced two huge challenges.

[229] Mary had died almost three months earlier, and if she had in fact been murdered, the trail was already going cold.

[230] He also knew from discussions with the medical examiner's office that it would be very hard to track down the source of the Colchocene that had killed Mary, as doctors either Mary or Bill could have ordered Colchicine, and since the drug also occurs naturally in some plants, investigators would have to check into Mary's gardening habits and what pesticides or chemicals she had been exposed to.

[231] And once Detective Van Namie found out that Mary was a heavy user of nutritional supplements, he knew it was possible that the poison could have been in one of her supplements.

[232] And so knowing he was getting a very late start and had some serious challenges ahead, the detective did not waste any time.

[233] He immediately requested access to Bill and Mary Yoder's phone records, and although Mary did not have a life insurance policy, so no one close to her stood to get a payout if she died, the detective still started to take a closer look at the Yoder's finances.

[234] Detective Van Naimi ordered deputies to conduct interviews with family and friends to find out more about Mary's private life.

[235] He asked Katie Conley to come down to the station and give a statement about Mary's last day at work on July 20th, and he talked to the patients who had seen Mary that morning and afternoon.

[236] He arranged to have these supplements in Mary's back office at Family Chiropractic, tested for the presence of Colchicene, and when it came to people of interest, Detective Van Namie already had one name at the top of his suspect list.

[237] In a town as small as Whitesboro, people were bound to talk.

[238] And if some of the rumors investigators had heard were true, it sounded like maybe Mary's perfect marriage wasn't so perfect after all.

[239] It would turn out that within two weeks of Mary's death, Bill had indeed connected with Aunt Kathleen, like his daughter Leanna had suggested he do.

[240] Kathleen had recently lost her husband of many years, and she lived near the Yoder household, and so Leanna figured she would be a good person to speak to as Bill went through his own grieving process.

[241] But apparently, Bill and Kathleen had begun doing more than just chit -chatting.

[242] By mid -September, just two months after Mary's death, Bill had become sexually and romantically involved with his sister -in -law.

[243] That relationship between Bill and Kathleen had caused a lot of tension among Mary's other siblings.

[244] One of Mary's sisters suggested that Bill was after Mary's money, and that in the weeks just before she died, Mary had placed a call to a marriage counselor, presumably to discuss problems in her marriage.

[245] And one of Kathleen's neighbors reported seeing Bill and Kathleen sharing a passionate embrace before Mary's death, suggesting that maybe Bill was having an affair while Mary was still alive.

[246] And while all of that was still unproven speculation, detectives did know one thing for sure about Bill.

[247] Mary's husband did not have an alibi for Monday, July 20th, the day investigators were now sure Mary must have ingested the Colchicine that would later kill her.

[248] When Bill was interviewed by investigators, he conceded that him being home alone all day on July 20th with no alibi, did make him look suspicious, but it was the truth, and he swore he had nothing to do with his wife's death.

[249] He then told police that if she really had been poisoned on the 20th, then there were dozens of people who could have administered the toxin, because on workdays, dozens of people, clients, friends, colleagues, workers would all pass in and out of family chiropractic, and so they would all have had access to marry.

[250] When detectives asked Bill why he had turned his phone off and put it in the other room on the night Mary was in the hospital, Bill said he never slept with his phone nearby.

[251] It was just habit.

[252] And when he left the hospital, the doctors had told him that Mary was going to be okay, so he was not on heightened alert.

[253] And as for why he had not picked up all of the calls placed to the landline phone at their home that night, Bill said there was no landline extension in his room, so he just didn't hear the phone ringing in the other rooms, and so he never woke up to it.

[254] As for his decision to have Mary's body cremated, despite the autopsy report being inconclusive, Bill said cremation was what Mary had wanted, and the medical examiner had released her body, and Bill was told they had all the tissue and blood samples they needed for further testing.

[255] Bill also freely admitted to his relationship with his sister -in -law Kathleen, but told detectives that he and Kathleen had never been involved either romantically or sexually before Mary died.

[256] died.

[257] And as for Bill's relationship with his wife, Bill never wavered on his description of their marriage as being strong and getting even stronger.

[258] They were in the process of planning a month -long vacation together, and after that they were looking forward to retirement together.

[259] And according to Bill, the only reason he had even been drawn to Kathleen in the first place was because of his crippling grief over his wife's death.

[260] As for being motivated to harm his wife for her money, Bill said that was absurd.

[261] He had an inheritance that he had gotten from his father, and he knew that as soon as they sold their medical practice, he and Mary would both get to live very comfortably for the rest of their retirement.

[262] But even as Detective Van Namie began following up on all of the things that Bill had said during his interview, the investigation into Mary's death took a sudden and completely unexpected turn.

[263] On November 26th, roughly four months after Mary's death, both the Oneida County Sheriff's Department and the Office of the Medical Examiner received copies of a shocking letter, a letter that would instantly put a new name at the top of Detective Van Namie's list of possible suspects, a name to that point that no one had considered.

[264] Spread across two typewritten pages, the letter gave chilling details of how someone had intentionally killed Mary.

[265] And midway through the description of motive, method, and the crushing grief that the killer felt after committing the murder, the killer revealed their identity.

[266] It was Mary's own son, Adam Yoder.

[267] When Detective Van Namie finished reading this letter, he carefully slipped it into a clear plastic evidence bag.

[268] Then he took off the gloves he'd used to handle the letter and sat back in his chair.

[269] He told his deputies to get the letter over to the forensic lab and test for fingerprints and DNA, any and everything that would help them confirm the identity of the writer and the authenticity of the letter.

[270] After tasking his forensic team, Detective Van Naimi began digging into Adam's background, and it didn't take long to uncover some troubling information.

[271] Back in July 2014, a year before his mother died, Adam had been accused of rape.

[272] The charge was later dropped at the victim's request, and legally it had no bearing or place in the current investigation, but if it was true, the event that was described in the victim's statement painted the picture of someone who was definitely capable of violence and brutality.

[273] It also described a person who was jealous and needy and who struck out at people close to him.

[274] There were other red flags in Adam's background as well.

[275] There was Adam's checkered employment history, there was a civil lawsuit filed by one of his landlords that sued Adam, for significant damages to an apartment Adam rented?

[276] There was Adam's intense on -again -off -again relationship with Katie.

[277] There were reports that Adam suffered from depression and anxiety, and there was Adam's financial dependence on his parents.

[278] And even though Adam did have an alibi for July 20th, the day that Mary was poisoned, it didn't actually mean that Adam could not have committed the crime.

[279] Police already knew that starting on July 15th, Adam had been in Long Island visiting his sister Leanna, and he had only left Long Island at about 8pm on the night of July 21st after getting the news from his father that his mother was sick and in the hospital.

[280] But according to the confession in the letter that the police received, Adam had put the Colchicine into the nutritional supplements that his mother took like clockwork every day, meaning it didn't matter if Adam was not physically near his mother on the 20th.

[281] He could have put the poison into one of her many supplement powders before he left for Long Island on the 15th, and then it was just a matter of time before she actually consumed it.

[282] Finally, in December, after a meeting with all the investigators involved in the Mary Yoder case, Detective Van Namie was ready.

[283] He picked up the phone and he dialed Adam's number.

[284] Shortly after receiving the request from Detective Van Namie to come into the station for a formal interview, Adam left his apartment in Frankfurt, New York, and made the 30 -minute drive north to the Oneida County Sheriff's Department.

[285] At about 10 .30 a .m., Adam made his way inside the brick building that housed the Sheriff's Department, where he was immediately escorted to an interrogation room.

[286] Adam did not look good.

[287] He shifted in his chair, his hand drifting to the pocket in his pants, where he kept his pack of cigarettes.

[288] He'd lost weight and he seemed pale and nervous.

[289] When Detective Van Namie had called Adam earlier that morning and asked him to come to the station, he didn't mention the letter police had received 12 days earlier with Adam's confession in it.

[290] The detective had told him this interview was just routine, that earlier that week the police had also taken formal in -person statements from Adam's two sisters.

[291] And now that Adam was sitting nervously right in front of Detective Van Namie, the detective decided that instead of just confronting Adam with the information in the letter, he'd start by repeating the routine questions that investigators had asked him informally earlier in the investigation.

[292] Questions about Adam's alibi, Adam's last recent contacts with his mother, and when Adam had last been inside of family chiropractic care.

[293] As Adam appeared to relax a little bit and answered these questions the same way he had before, Detective Van Namie decided it was time to start throwing in some specific information from the letter, like the whereabouts of the poison that had been used to kill Mary.

[294] And so after Adam had answered the last of the easy questions, Detective Van Namie leaned forward and asked Adam if he would give police permission to, right now, go outside and search under the front passenger seat of his Jeep Wrangler.

[295] Instantly, Adam's whole demeanor changed.

[296] He stiffened and looked up sharply at Detective Van Namie.

[297] Then, breaking the tense silence, Adam said he really needed to speak to a lawyer.

[298] Detective Van Namie offered to get one of the court's public defenders on the phone, and a little while later, detectives left the room so Adam's phone conversation with the attorney was private.

[299] A few minutes later, Adam hung up the phone and the police officers came back into the interrogation room.

[300] Adam sat slouched in his chair, his elbows on the table and his head and his hands.

[301] Then, as if coming to a very hard decision, Adam reached out slowly and pulled the search and seizure agreement on the table towards him, and he signed his name.

[302] By mid -afternoon, Adam was standing in an empty parking lot outside of the Oneida County Sheriff's Department jail, watching as gloved police officers opened the front passenger side of his 1991 black Jeep Wrangler.

[303] Nervous, Adam pulled out his pack of cigarettes and lighter.

[304] He stuck one cigarette into the corner of his mouth, he lit it, and he started to smoke.

[305] A few minutes later, one of the officers who was conducting the search suddenly stepped back out of the Jeep.

[306] In his hand was now a cardboard sleeve, and nestled inside of that sleeve was a brown glass bottle, along with a crumpled up piece of paper.

[307] A glass bottle contained the deadly toxin Colchocene, and the crumpled up paper was a receipt for the Colchocene.

[308] The bottle of toxin had been ordered online from a company called Art Chemical by a customer named Adam Yoder, who had told them he needed the toxin to conduct a scientific experiment.

[309] However, as much as this evidence seemed to very clearly put an end to the mystery of who killed Mary Yoder, it would turn out this discovery in Adam's car was only the beginning of a much bigger and more twisted story.

[310] It would take investigators another six months, but they would finally uncover all the details.

[311] Here is a reconstruction of how and why Mary Yoder was murdered.

[312] Back on December 22nd, 2014, roughly seven months before Mary's death, her killer walked into a New York supermarket and used cash to buy a prepaid credit card worth $150.

[313] Nine days after that, Mary's killer used that prepaid mastercard to pay for one gram of the deadly toxin Colchicine that they had just ordered online from a company called Art Chemicals.

[314] The killer also made sure to use a fake email account when they changed.

[315] checked out.

[316] Because Colchicine is a lethal and therefore regulated substance, art chemicals required a letter of intent from the purchaser that stated how the toxin was going to be used.

[317] The killer had already prepared that letter, typed on family chiropractic care letterhead, saying that the poison would be used in a series of plant experiments.

[318] At the bottom of the letter were two signatures, Adam Yoder and Mary Yoder.

[319] Two and a half months later, on February 6, 2015, The package containing the Colchicene arrived at the bustling office of family chiropractic care.

[320] Like every other delivery, Katie just got up and signed for it, and then without opening it, she set it down with the other packages near the front desk.

[321] And then later that day, Mary's Killer would secretly grab that package and smuggle it out of the store without anyone noticing.

[322] Five months later, on Monday, July 20th, Mary's killer slipped into the back office of family chiropractic care, where Mary kept and sold nutritional supplements.

[323] After making sure no one else was back there, the killer pulled the brown glass bottle of colchicine from their coat pocket.

[324] The killer had done plenty of research, Googling website after website, that described in detail the effects of colchicine and the tiny margin that existed between lethal and non -lethal doses.

[325] One gram was more than, more than enough to poison dozens of people.

[326] So Mary's killer had to measure out the exact amount, enough to cause death even if Mary sought medical treatment right away, but not enough that Mary would die immediately.

[327] Mary's killer wanted Mary's death to take a few days.

[328] This way, it would seem like Mary had died of a gastrointestinal virus or infection.

[329] The killer also knew that once they administered a lethal dose of Colchocene, there was no turning back.

[330] Mary's death would be a foregone conclusion.

[331] Because Colchocene is a poison that spreads very quickly throughout the bloodstream.

[332] As soon as the toxin comes in contact with a human cell, it damages the cell so profoundly that the body's response is to order that damaged cell to self -destruct, meaning what would appear to Mary and her family and doctors as vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal cramps was really the slow and horribly painful process of Mary's tissues committing suicide.

[333] Mary's killer carefully measured out an amount of colchicine that was equal to several dozen individual grains of sugar.

[334] Then the killer added them to the ingredients Mary would use to make her lunchtime protein shake.

[335] The killer then carefully closed the brown bottle and slipped it back into their coat pocket and then seconds later, they were gone.

[336] A few hours later, it was time for lunch.

[337] Mary stepped into the back office, and even though she'd had a busy morning, she still had plenty of energy.

[338] She glanced at her watch, 12 .30 p .m. At least her last morning appointment had ended on time, which meant she could still make the short trip out to Utica and visit her 92 -year -old mother.

[339] Still thinking ahead to the rest of the day, Mary quickly moved toward the small refrigerator and pulled out the carton of almond milk and set it on the counter next to her open container of protein powder.

[340] She looked inside the can and saw there was just about one serving left.

[341] After mixing together the powder and almond milk in the blender, Mary turned on the blender and waited until the mixture was thick and frothy.

[342] A few minutes later, Mary tipped the last swallow of the protein shake into her mouth.

[343] Before leaving the office, Mary washed out the empty glass and the blender jar and called out to Katie that she'd be back in the office by 1 .30 at the latest.

[344] By the time Mary left the office to go visit her mom in Utica, she was already dead.

[345] She just didn't know it yet.

[346] Sitting by herself on the couch in the living room, after she had shewed her husband Bill to their bedroom upstairs, she had no way of knowing that there was no European vacation ahead for her.

[347] No retirement and no more warm summer days spent in her garden, the only thing in Mary's future now was 48, hours of intense physical and emotional suffering followed by death.

[348] Mary would have one brief period the next day in the hospital when pain and anti -nause medication along with replacement fluids would blunt the symptoms of her body's internal collapse.

[349] But by the time Mary's husband had fallen asleep peacefully at their home on the evening of July 21st, Mary's organs had already begun to shut down.

[350] And by the time her children and husband had gathered at the hospital, on July 22nd, Mary's heart would only have enough strength to keep beating long enough for Mary to say goodbye to her husband and her children.

[351] Meanwhile, as Mary slipped into cardiac arrest at 254 p .m. on the afternoon of July 22nd, Mary's killer sat by themselves in the quiet, empty office at family chiropractic care.

[352] Caitlin Conley, affectionately known for years to Bill and Mary Yoder as Katie, their trusted family friend, their office manager, and their son's longtime girlfriend, stared at the screen on her cell phone.

[353] She was waiting eagerly for news from the hospital.

[354] And with a thrill of dark satisfaction, Katie imagined the grief and pain that Adam must be feeling as he watched his mother die.

[355] It would turn out, Adam and Katie didn't just have an on -again, off -again relationship.

[356] They had an incredibly toxic and abusive relationship.

[357] and when Adam had finally broken up with Katie for good back in August of 2014 after Katie had accused him of raping her, Katie had snapped.

[358] There had been plenty of other times over the course of their four -year -long relationship where she had manipulated Adam into getting back together with her after they'd broken up, a faked pregnancy and miscarriage, taking him to court over a loan she had made to him that he had not paid back, the threat she might commit suicide, but after that charge of rape that she had filed against Adam back in July of 2014, she knew deep down that even if they did get back together, it wouldn't be for long.

[359] Katie had withdrawn the charge, but Adam had been shocked and deeply shaken by what he said was a totally false allegation.

[360] And so by August 2014, Adam had decided that the only way to protect himself was to stay away from Katie Conley.

[361] But Katie couldn't let that happen.

[362] at least not without making Adam suffer first.

[363] So, beginning back in early 2015, shortly after their official breakup, Katie started laying her plan for revenge.

[364] She would take from Adam the thing he loved the most, the person who was always there when he needed help.

[365] His mother, Mary Yoder.

[366] And Katie would be so clever about how she planned this murder that instead of anyone suspecting her, she would make it look like Adam was the killer.

[367] She had set up a fake email account under his name and used it to buy the Colchocene.

[368] She had also paid for the poison with a prepaid card.

[369] She'd registered in Adam's name.

[370] And she'd signed Adam's name to that letter of intent that was sent to the Colchicine distributor, Art Chemicals, saying how the poison was going to be used in a science experiment.

[371] As for conducting the actual murder, that was too easy.

[372] Katie just signed for the toxin at work and no one noticed because she signed for all the packages.

[373] Then she took it home with her for safekeeping until July 20th, at which point she just walked into the back office, and when no one was looking, she pulled it out and she spiked Mary's protein shake ingredients.

[374] And then, following Mary's death, Katie would plant the bottle containing the toxin under the front seat of Adam's car, and then in the anonymous letter that Katie would write and send to police, she would not only tell them to look in Adam's car for the toxin, but she would also tell them that Adam was the killer, that he had confessed to her about killing his mother because apparently his mom had not been giving him the attention he needed and deserved, that he felt like she had abandoned him, and so he had snapped.

[375] But in reality, when Detective Van Namy got that letter, he didn't believe what it said.

[376] It just seemed too convenient, like whoever had written it and sent it in, was probably just trying to frame Adam.

[377] And so right after getting this letter, Detective Van Namie had turned to Katie to learn more about Adam to see who might want to frame him.

[378] And not only did Katie seem to go out of her way to paint Adam in a very negative light, she also confessed that she was the one who wrote the letter.

[379] She insisted that Adam had admitted his guilt to her, and so she had written the letter because she was afraid that if Adam didn't get arrested right away, he might hurt her, Katie, like he had hurt her when he tried to rape her.

[380] When Adam arrived at the police station for that interview on December 8th, 2015, it just didn't make any sense to investigators that if Adam was the murderer, why would he agree to a search of his car that he knew would turn up that bottle of culchicene?

[381] And when they tested that bottle for DNA and fingerprints, the only match they got was for Katie, not Adam.

[382] On June 13th, 2016, Caitlin Conley was arrested and charged with planning and carrying out the murder of Mary Yoder.

[383] If she was convicted, she would have faced life in prison.

[384] But on May 18, 2017, after a jury could not reach a unanimous verdict, the judge declared a mistrial.

[385] It wouldn't be until the end of a second trial in January of 2018 for the lesser charge of manslaughter, which is committing an unintentional killing, that Katie would be found guilty and sentenced to 23 years in prison.

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[404] She struck him with her motor vehicle.

[405] She had been under the influence and she left him there.

[406] In January 2022, local woman Karen Reed was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O 'Keefe.

[407] It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location.

[408] What happens next?

[409] Depends on who you ask.

[410] Was it a crime of passion?

[411] If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling.

[412] This was clearly an intentional act.

[413] And his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia.

[414] Or a corrupt police cover -up.

[415] If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover -up to prevent one of their own from going down.

[416] Everyone had an opinion.

[417] And after the 10 -week trial, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision.

[418] To end in a mistrial, it's just a, confirmation of just how complicated this case is.

[419] Law and crime presents the most in -depth analysis to date of the sensational case in Karen.

[420] You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondery Plus.

[421] Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.