Speaker 1: Hey there, folks, says we speak. A woman is sitting
Speaker 1: in jail in Florida accused of killing not one, but
Speaker 1: two ex husbands on the same day, and with that,
Speaker 1: welcome to this episode Amy TJ Presents Rogue. You brought
Speaker 1: this case to my attention. And look, we follow a
Speaker 1: lot of true crime. I hadn't quite seen one like this.
Speaker 2: I've never seen one like this.
Speaker 3: We've seen women, I mean women killers are rarer, so
Speaker 3: to speak. But going on a killing spree is one thing,
Speaker 3: and we've seen that. But to kill two people in
Speaker 3: one day and have them both be your ex husbands,
Speaker 3: never seen that before.
Speaker 1: Well how many hours between?
Speaker 3: It was hours hours between. And when you hear how police,
Speaker 3: well they didn't even piece it together. She basically thought
Speaker 3: they already knew and squealed on herself. It's kind of
Speaker 3: crazy how this all went down.
Speaker 1: That moment was crazy. If that moment had been in
Speaker 1: a movie, you would laugh. That's a moment that you
Speaker 1: would actually laugh at. What that scene and how it
Speaker 1: played out that we're going to get into. But the
Speaker 1: woman's name is Susan Erica Avalanche, fifty one years old,
Speaker 1: and robes has happened in December that police got the
Speaker 1: call to one shooting and ended up finding somebody else.
Speaker 1: So she goes to how well she's accused of I
Speaker 1: should say this first and foremost. She's accused of going
Speaker 1: and shooting one ex husband. And this is the ex
Speaker 1: husband who then kind of gives them a heads up
Speaker 1: when they ask, hey, you know anybody who would do
Speaker 1: this to you? He said possibly my ex was his
Speaker 1: dying words, because he made it to the hospital and
Speaker 1: was alive and was hanging on for a little while.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was shot in the stomach. That is incredibly painful.
Speaker 3: I believe he was shot twice in the stomach. But
Speaker 3: before he died, he was able to point investigators towards
Speaker 3: his ex wife.
Speaker 2: He wasn't even totally sure and will tell you why.
Speaker 3: So the investigation began around three pm on December seventeenth,
Speaker 3: and this was in Florida. Police responded to calls of
Speaker 3: shots fired. That's when they found the fifty four year
Speaker 3: old man, who later died at the hospital. Before he
Speaker 3: was pronounced dead, he told investigators he opened his front
Speaker 3: door and someone just shot him, and he said it
Speaker 3: was possibly my ex wife.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And he didn't know because apparently what kind of
Speaker 1: delivery person was she supposed to be?
Speaker 3: Decided she was disguised as a food delivery driver, and
Speaker 3: they were actually through surveillance video, able to go back
Speaker 3: based on the description of the clothes she was wearing
Speaker 3: and the car she was driving driving given to police
Speaker 3: by her own daughter, her own fifteen year old daughter.
Speaker 3: But they found her stealing someone else's order from a
Speaker 3: Panera Bread. So she went into a Panera Bread, went
Speaker 3: up to the counter, took someone else's order, got into
Speaker 3: her car, and posed as a food delivery driver. So
Speaker 3: when he maybe looks out the front window or whatever
Speaker 3: sees someone, he sees she's disguised with a gray hoodie.
Speaker 2: I don't know what else she had on.
Speaker 3: To disguise her face, but it looked like somebody was
Speaker 3: delivering food. So he opens the door and boom, she
Speaker 3: just fire shots, according to police.
Speaker 1: Okay, so police get called to this scene and they're
Speaker 1: talking to this guy and wondering who could possibly have
Speaker 1: done this. So they are now because of that, directed
Speaker 1: towards her, yes, and they go find her. Ropes didn't
Speaker 1: take them long, and she just happened to be doing
Speaker 1: some car cleaning when they.
Speaker 2: Showed up some spring cleaning.
Speaker 3: Yes, So investigators tracked her down through the car, so
Speaker 3: they had the car description possibly my ex wife. They
Speaker 3: put it all together and they arrive at Avalon's home
Speaker 3: the following day, so this is December eighteenth. They walk
Speaker 3: up on her literally with bleach and rags in her hands.
Speaker 2: They said it was brazen. This was a busy neighborhood.
Speaker 3: People are out and she's got bleach and rags wiping
Speaker 3: down the interior of her car. When deputies come up
Speaker 3: and approach her, they say to her, we want to
Speaker 3: speak to you about your ex husband.
Speaker 1: And this is where it gets ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Her response, which one.
Speaker 1: So their antennas go up. So what do they do?
Speaker 1: They go figure out and track down where her other
Speaker 1: ex husband is and essentially have police there do a
Speaker 1: welfare check.
Speaker 3: Correct, So they find out her second ex husband actually, yes,
Speaker 3: lives in the Tampa area.
Speaker 2: So they you know, they just say, hey, yeah, let's
Speaker 2: just check on them.
Speaker 3: It's krond of crazy, she said, which one made us
Speaker 3: a little concerned. Tampa police go to the home of
Speaker 3: her other ex husband and find him shot dead. Avalon,
Speaker 3: they say, killed her second ex husband first in Tampa.
Speaker 3: So he was the first one to go and that's
Speaker 3: when after that she drove directly to kill her first
Speaker 3: ex husband. And so what would drive someone to do
Speaker 3: this in one day after all these years? By the way,
Speaker 3: I'm not sure how long she had been divorced from
Speaker 3: her second ex husband, who she killed first, But her
Speaker 3: first ex husband, we know this. She had been divorced
Speaker 3: from him for eleven years. So yes, there had been
Speaker 3: child custody fights, and yes there had been issues in
Speaker 3: all of that that usually happens with divorces. But to
Speaker 3: have that much time go by and then to suddenly
Speaker 3: snap and kill not one, but both of your ex
Speaker 3: husbands and not think you aren't going to be directly
Speaker 3: implicated is surprising. But police say this was planned, This
Speaker 3: was premeditated, and she did it with intent.
Speaker 1: It wasn't carefully planned. I mean you I mean, actually, Roes,
Speaker 1: there's no you can't usually not going to get away
Speaker 1: with killing once. But you're the first person that's going
Speaker 1: to be the suspect, right, two dead, say, I mean,
Speaker 1: what was going on? There was a breakup some kind
Speaker 1: because she didn't do this expecting to get away with it.
Speaker 3: You can't think that she was, and yet she was
Speaker 3: cleaning her car, so she was trying to get rid
Speaker 3: of evidence. She was trying to cover up her crime.
Speaker 3: So I would say by those actions, she was hoping
Speaker 3: that she'd get away with it. She wasn't thinking it through.
Speaker 3: Because yes, the first person you're going to look at
Speaker 3: is an ex or a scorned lover, or someone who
Speaker 3: had a romantic relationship. We know this is either about
Speaker 3: money or it's about passion, and this looks like it
Speaker 3: might have been about both.
Speaker 1: That's usually the two things they tell you, right, but
Speaker 1: this one. Look, when it comes to divorces, when it
Speaker 1: comes to kids, when it comes to money, there is
Speaker 1: a lot of people will tell you as hot and
Speaker 1: emotional as they've ever been in their lives, and as
Speaker 1: close as they've gotten to hate in someone in their lives,
Speaker 1: it's having to go through a divorce. And so she's
Speaker 1: got two and rose this is a situation where she
Speaker 1: don't have right is owing them money?
Speaker 2: Correct?
Speaker 3: So this is what the sheriff said in terms of motive,
Speaker 3: because any time you cover especially a bizarre case like this,
Speaker 3: everyone wants to know why.
Speaker 2: And so here's what the sheriff had to say.
Speaker 3: He said, Avalon had been in child custody fights with
Speaker 3: both ex husbands. Aha, right there, that's the passion, because look,
Speaker 3: you can hate your ex or you can have a
Speaker 3: very difficult divorce, but usually when kids are involved, you
Speaker 3: can it's tenfold. I mean, money's one thing, but kids
Speaker 3: are a whole other thing. That's part of you, that's
Speaker 3: a piece of you. So if you're fighting for custody
Speaker 3: with your ex, yeah, emotions are running high. So she
Speaker 3: had been in child custody fights with both ex husbands,
Speaker 3: She had owed child support to at least one. And
Speaker 3: this is what the sheriff said That really stuck with me.
Speaker 3: He said, And now five children are facing life without
Speaker 3: their fathers, and it seems as though they didn't really
Speaker 3: have their mother in their life to begin with, so
Speaker 3: they lost the one steady parental figure they had. And
Speaker 3: she did it because she was angry. She did it,
Speaker 3: perhaps because police say she owed one of them money.
Speaker 3: But for whatever reason, police say she literally snapped and
Speaker 3: drove from one ex husband to the other ex husband
Speaker 3: and just shot them in cold blood.
Speaker 1: It's all relative, but this we're not talking about. And
Speaker 1: you said money and passion, it seemed the emotion had
Speaker 1: to be the stronger thing. We're not talking about again,
Speaker 1: it's all relative the type of money that you kill for.
Speaker 1: It was not the type of money you kill over.
Speaker 1: So it had to be who knows saying we're going
Speaker 1: to find out so much more. But it's such a
Speaker 1: bizarre story, Robes that will I will forever. There's no
Speaker 1: way you could think you would get away with murdering
Speaker 1: two people on the same day that you used to be.
Speaker 3: Married to, right, And I also keep thinking about, Look,
Speaker 3: you can't get into this state of mind of somebody
Speaker 3: who's willing and capable of doing what police says she was.
Speaker 3: But to imagine that her fifteen year old daughter was
Speaker 3: upstairs when she was posing as that food delivery driver.
Speaker 3: Now her fifteen year old daughter then had to be
Speaker 3: interviewed by police. She didn't see the shooting, but she
Speaker 3: heard the gunfire and she looked out the window, and
Speaker 3: she is the one who gave police the description of
Speaker 3: what the shooter was wearing and the car she was driving.
Speaker 3: And it's interesting because you would think a child would
Speaker 3: know their mother's own vehicle, but that wasn't the initial
Speaker 3: the She didn't necessarily say that, which speaks to perhaps
Speaker 3: their relationationship or how close they were, not if she
Speaker 3: didn't know that that was her mother's car. You would
Speaker 3: know your mom's car if it was pulling up, and
Speaker 3: you would think the ex husband would know the ex
Speaker 3: wife's car if it was pulling up. So clearly there
Speaker 3: was an estrangement there where she could have posed as
Speaker 3: a food delivery driver and they didn't necessarily know. In fact,
Speaker 3: he was even telling police, I think it was my
Speaker 3: ex wife. He didn't even know for sure, so that's
Speaker 3: really fascinating. But you pointed out the amount of money.
Speaker 3: When we come back, we're going to talk about just
Speaker 3: how much child support that Avalon owed her ex husband,
Speaker 3: and we're going to get into what her current boyfriend
Speaker 3: told police and the official charges she is now facing.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to Amy and TJ Presents. We are presenting
Speaker 3: one of the more bizarre murder cases that we have
Speaker 3: ever seen in our journalism careers. I can't remember a
Speaker 3: story where a woman chose, planned, and executed her plan
Speaker 3: to kill both of her ex husbands in the same day,
Speaker 3: but that is exactly what fifty one year old Susan
Speaker 3: Erica Avalon is accused of doing.
Speaker 2: And she had moved on.
Speaker 3: She had a boyfriend, a living boyfriend who then had
Speaker 3: to obviously speak to Belie when when she was arrested,
Speaker 3: and he told detectives that the day before this all happened.
Speaker 3: So she, according to police, committed these crimes on December seventeenth,
Speaker 3: So December sixteenth, he said. She made a very uncharacteristic
Speaker 3: remark that he remembered that stayed with him and he
Speaker 3: didn't quite know what she meant, but she said, I
Speaker 3: love you in case something happens to me.
Speaker 1: Man, that's not what you want to hear from your
Speaker 1: significant other. I'm about the door.
Speaker 3: If I came up and said that to you before
Speaker 3: I was leaving, what would you think?
Speaker 1: Where are you going? What's up?
Speaker 2: And what are you about to go do? And who
Speaker 2: are you going to see?
Speaker 1: I don't use the wear all black like that.
Speaker 3: Actually it was a gray hoodie but yes, no, but
Speaker 3: who knows, but that so he remembered that.
Speaker 2: He told police that. And this is.
Speaker 3: The other really shocking part of it. And I know
Speaker 3: that there's no amount of money that would justify what
Speaker 3: she did. But when you think about the fact that
Speaker 3: this woman was divorced from her first ex husband for
Speaker 3: eleven years. She owed, according to police, four thousand dollars
Speaker 3: in unpaid child support, and she was facing a deadline
Speaker 3: in the coming days to pay two hundred dollars of
Speaker 3: that four thousand, or she was going to lose her
Speaker 3: driver's license. That was what they were threatening. So two
Speaker 3: hundred dollars, that can't be the reason why she did this.
Speaker 3: But maybe it was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Speaker 1: Maybe that maybe she'd been on edge for a long
Speaker 1: time in the back and forth, like you said, continues.
Speaker 1: Look that you can a story about the double murder
Speaker 1: can get sadder, but to think it was over possibly
Speaker 1: two hundred dollars is tough to stomach. This is a
Speaker 1: This is a bizarre when got what now.
Speaker 3: Five five kids according to the sheriff, between these two marriages,
Speaker 3: and they are now I don't know the ages.
Speaker 2: I only know the age of the fifteen year.
Speaker 1: Old, but I have right all five are her kids.
Speaker 3: Yes, and now it's unclear where they are. But I'm
Speaker 3: imagining if it was her first marriage and she had
Speaker 3: a fifteen year old her second marriage, who this man
Speaker 3: who she also killed, I'm imagining those kids that are
Speaker 3: obviously younger. If you do the math, I would think
Speaker 3: they are younger kids. So that is incredibly tragic, and
Speaker 3: that's what the sheriff was speaking to. That was the
Speaker 3: real tragedy here, that these kids are now literally orphans
Speaker 3: for all intent and purposes.
Speaker 2: So she right.
Speaker 3: Now has only technically been charged with second degree homicide
Speaker 3: for the murder of her first husband, but they say
Speaker 3: that will almost certainly upgraded to a first degree murder
Speaker 3: charge after prosecutors conveni granduri, which is supposed to be
Speaker 3: happening shortly, and they are saying that they will likely
Speaker 3: seek the death penalty in that and then for the
Speaker 3: Tampa murder, they are about to bring those charges as well.
Speaker 2: So she still has a lot more legal.
Speaker 3: Hoops to jump through, but it looks like at the
Speaker 3: end of the day she is going to be facing one,
Speaker 3: probably two first degree murder charges, and we know how
Speaker 3: Florida rolls, it is very likely that she would then
Speaker 3: be facing the death penalty. Because the sheriff also made
Speaker 3: this statement, we believe this was premeditated. She knew exactly
Speaker 3: what she was doing. She came here solely to kill
Speaker 3: her ex husbands period.
Speaker 2: End of story.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I was waiting and that was mine. It
Speaker 1: was going to be my question to you about second
Speaker 1: degree they're going to be upgraded. Yes, the premeditation, there
Speaker 1: is a there was a maliciousness to this crime. That Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was my question too. You have you seen anything?
Speaker 1: Did they give anybody a reason for why they're going
Speaker 1: after the death ploding?
Speaker 3: Just the fact that it was premeditated, and I think
Speaker 3: the fact that she thought about this and did what
Speaker 3: she did and essentially orphaned her children, I think all
Speaker 3: of that is taken into consideration. And by the way,
Speaker 3: I mentioned what the boyfriend had told police about what
Speaker 3: she said to him the day before.
Speaker 2: Another interesting.
Speaker 3: So he talked about what she did before these alleged crimes,
Speaker 3: and then he also told police what she did after
Speaker 3: the alleged crime, So before she got seen or got caught,
Speaker 3: I should say, bringing out bleach and rags, trying to
Speaker 3: wipe down her car. The boyfriend said that when she
Speaker 3: came back home after this road trip, that he didn't
Speaker 3: know what she was doing. He said she got into
Speaker 3: the shower while she was wearing the same gray sweatshirt
Speaker 3: that her daughter described that was seen in the surveillance video.
Speaker 3: At the Panera bread and he thought that was bizarre.
Speaker 3: I'm wondering why this boyfriend wasn't asking more questions, Babe,
Speaker 3: why are you getting into the shower with your clothes on?
Speaker 3: But he made that point to police too, soet.
Speaker 1: Obviously you would say to your significant other, what in
Speaker 1: the world are you doing? Maybe he knew something was up. Okay,
Speaker 1: here we go.
Speaker 2: Oh, he said, she didn't explicitly tell me what happened.
Speaker 1: Explicitly he suspected. We'll see what happens. That's this is
Speaker 1: just an It's an awful one, it's an intriguing one.
Speaker 1: It's a fascinating one, and we wait to possibly get
Speaker 1: some answers for exactly why why she did this. But yeah,
Speaker 1: just one we wanted to hop on and tell you
Speaker 1: about here. We will continue to follow it here on
Speaker 1: Amy and TJ Presents. We always appreciate you spending some
Speaker 1: time with us. But for now and for my dear
Speaker 1: Amy Robot, I'm TJ. Holmes. We will talk to you
Speaker 1: all soon.