WEBVTT - S1: Ep 2 - Physics 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.800 Hi all, we have some exciting news to share. Paramount 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:07.560 Plus has turned Burden of Guilt into a docuseries. You 0:00:07.640 --> 0:00:10.799 will get to meet the people involved, you'll hear from 0:00:10.840 --> 0:00:13.840 the people who have never spoken before, and you get 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:17.079 to see where the story took place. We are so 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:20.600 proud and excited to share it with you. You can 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:29.800 stream it right now on Paramount Plus. Tracy Mquel Burns 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:32.800 is a woman who is sharing her incredible life story 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:36.080 for the first time. When she was just two, her 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:40.000 four month old brother, Matthew died. The authorities were told 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:44.239 she had killed him. She has spent decades trying to 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:47.680 get justice for her brother and safety for her family. 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:53.320 In the last episode, we told you about her baby 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:56.320 brother's death and how she says she suffered abuse at 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:59.360 the hands of her father Jan Barry Sandlin and her 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:08.840 mother Almona. I'm Nancy Glass. This is Burden of Guilt 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:17.280 Episode two Physics. At the end of episode one, I 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:20.480 told you about Tracy Raquel's suicide attempt at the age 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:23.680 of fourteen. She had saved up a month's worth of 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:28.160 prescription anti seizure medication and swallowed it all at once. 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.760 She wanted out of her home out of her life, 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:35.479 a life of abuse and instability. But it didn't work. 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.560 She woke up with her mother, Kathy Almond, shaking her 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:44.199 and asking her, what have you done now? As a mother, 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:49.240 I can't even imagine having a reaction like that. When 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:52.960 Tracy Riquel woke up, she thought, I can't believe I'm 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:58.040 still here. Surviving the overdose offered Tracy Raquel a renewed 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:02.600 sense of purpose. Thought she had to survive for a reason, 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:06.160 and that was to find out what really happened to 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:12.280 her baby brother, Matthew. But the reality was, despite everything, 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:15.440 she was still just a teenager trying to have an 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:20.000 ordinary high school life. Tell me about these pictures in 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:20.800 front of us. 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:24.320 This is a picture of me being a cheerleader. It's 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:27.959 the eighties, so blue eyeliner, but yeah, I guess it's cute. 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:30.040 And by the way, let me just say, I know 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:32.880 cheerleaders today do not understand. Those pom poms weighed like 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:34.880 ten pounds each and if they got wet, it was 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:36.880 fifteen so it was work. 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:40.680 Yeah, they were huge. There's a lovely photo of her 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:44.480 in a blue cheerleading uniform. A muscular young man is 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:47.880 holding her in the air as she balances on one foot. 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:53.000 Her arms are outstretched in theeed for victory. She's smiling, beautiful, 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:57.160 and proud. This is where she shined in school and sports. 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:02.560 It was her salvation, fine her successes outside of the house. 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:07.000 Her mother, Kathy, saw her failed suicide attempt as an opportunity. 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.720 She used it to identify her daughter as a danger 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:15.440 to herself for someone else. Then she leveraged it to 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:17.360 commit her. 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:23.920 She woke me in the middle of the night and 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:29.440 took me to a state hospital. You know, I have 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.919 to wonder did she tell him I was a homicidal 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:34.320 I was a threat. 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:37.800 Look, it might seem reasonable to take a troubled child 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:41.800 who has made a suicide attempt to a psychiatric hospital, 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:47.040 but it's what Kathy told the staff that is so outrageous. 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:50.600 Did you ever find out how she was able to 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:52.080 commit you at the facility? 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:56.520 What I learned later in life was that Kathy had 0:03:57.080 --> 0:04:01.800 told psychiatric professionals that I had been suicidal and homicidal 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:06.280 because I had killed my baby brother, and that I 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:10.920 had never been right. Since I don't understand, I don't understand. 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:17.039 The hospital was not a safe place for healing. It 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:18.520 was scary as hell. 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:26.720 They were sick kids, they were violet criminals. It was 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:29.400 a very violet, scary, terrified place. 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:33.839 Were you able to grasp the situation you were in? 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:39.520 I had no clue and I didn't understand what was happening. 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:41.720 How were you able to get out? 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:44.840 It was my aunt June, who came and said this 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.159 is not going to work and it was wrong, and 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:48.440 took care of me. 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:54.680 Tracy Riquel says she felt like she couldn't depend on 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:57.360 Kathy for even the most basic parenting. 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:00.359 When I was eleven, someone gave me a polaroid camera 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:04.359 for Christmas, and this little girl and I were friends. 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:08.599 We were talking about getting all dressed up and doing 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:11.720 hair and whatever little girls do. Oh, we can take 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:15.880 pictures because I've got this polaroid camera. I looked everywhere 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:18.880 I couldn't find it, wasn't where it normally was. And 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:23.799 then I did find it in her bedroom closet, opened 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:30.000 it up, and inside were just horrible sexual pictures of 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:34.000 your mother that you shouldn't see, especially not with a 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:35.240 little girl from down the street. 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:39.520 Kathy wasn't contrite or embarrassed by it. She was annoyed 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:43.480 with Tracy Riquel there were many dark moments with Kathy. 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:48.440 Tracy Riqul's only respite was on June. Kathy's sister June 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:50.839 had a knack for showing up at the right time 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:56.360 and showing Tracy Riquel she could experience joy. Tell me 0:05:56.400 --> 0:05:57.680 about your Aunt June. 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:00.839 We were always together when I was a child. She 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:02.920 was a little bit of reprieve. She would come and 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:06.320 get me and we'd go on trips together, and she 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:08.720 would take me places, and you know, so she was 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:11.760 this little bit of inspiration that there was something else 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:12.200 out there. 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:18.839 It was Aunt June who gave Tracy Riquel her first job. 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:23.240 She owned a hair salon in Atlanta. I started working 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:26.039 at this hair salon on Fridays and Saturdays in the 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:28.640 summer when I was like nine years old, sweeping floors 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:30.440 for five or ten dollars a day. 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:34.880 When Tracy Riquel started high school, the salon became a 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:39.919 real job with more hours and responsibility. June wanted to 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:42.679 put her on the payroll. 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:47.320 So I was fourteen and needed a Social Security card. 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:52.440 Growing up, my name had always been Tracy Sandlin, which 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:57.280 is Jan's last name. That's when Kathy had to say, well, actually, 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:02.720 your name isn't Tracy Sandlin, It's Golder, and Jan isn't 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:06.600 your father, but it's really not because it really is him. 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:08.520 But that's what we had to I mean, all of 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:10.560 this stuff just came spelling it like, wait. 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:16.000 What Ted Golder was Kathy's first husband. Racy Riquel was 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:19.920 born while Kathy was still married to him, but Kathy 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:23.680 had been having an affair with Jan during the entire marriage. 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:29.360 So your legal name was Tracy Golder on your birth certificate, 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:33.520 but your biological dad was actually Jan Sandlin and you 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:37.440 didn't find this out until you needed to have papers 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.680 in order to work and make money. Yes, what did 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:43.040 you decide to do about your last name? 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.000 I was fourteen and sat in front of a judge 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:49.200 and he said, well, what name do you want? Well, 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:49.920 Ted Golder? 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:54.200 She did not want Jan's last name, and Tercy Riquel 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:56.880 liked to be connected to Matthew in whatever way she 0:07:56.920 --> 0:08:00.720 could be, and her baby brother's last name was Golder. 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:03.240 I don't know who that is, but he's a Vietnam 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:07.200 Vette and it's Matthew's name, and I definitely don't want Jan's. 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:15.120 Eventually, Kathy, Jason, and Tracy Riquel settled into an apartment. 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:18.400 It was the first consistent home. She remembers. 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:22.040 I was a sophomore in high school, and the only 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:25.040 reason that we were stable then was because we were 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:26.000 in HUD housing. 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:30.360 HUD housing is housing and urban development. It's low income 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:31.320 public housing. 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:37.359 What was it like, this tiny, little bitty apartment complex 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:40.280 surrounded by trees so that nobody on the outside could 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:41.920 actually see what was inside. 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:45.000 When Tracy Riquel was younger, she had been beaten for 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:48.440 asking questions about Matthew's death. But as you heard in 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:52.560 episode one, her father Jan was incarcerated for arm robbery 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:56.079 when she was ten, so now she felt safe asking 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:59.719 more questions about the issue that haunted her. How did 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:04.079 her baby brother died? What did you grow up thinking? 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:06.840 I didn't believe that it was an accident. 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:11.320 Tracy Raquel had her suspicions, after all, she grew up 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:14.520 in a household where abuse was the norm, even when 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:16.000 she was a small child. 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:22.000 There was one specific time, have to be under the 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:26.000 age of four. He was in the shower and he 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:32.160 called me to come and get his cigarette, the camel cigarette, 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:37.640 and told me to take it to Kathy. I didn't 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.920 know what to do with the cigarette. 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:41.600 So what did you do? 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:46.960 I just kind of stood there and then he put 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:52.440 that camel cigarette out on me. That was the very 0:09:52.480 --> 0:09:55.960 first time that he punished me for not doing whatever 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:56.760 he asked me to do. 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:01.560 That is a terrifying memory, and Tracy Raquel has a 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:09.880 lot of those when it comes to her childhood. I 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:12.720 wanted to hear what Kathy Alman had to say about 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:15.600 the situation, so I went to see her. 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:20.079 I really can't get drawn into Tracy's fantasies anymore. 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:23.400 She has been lying in torturing me for thirty years. 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:26.600 I can't take it anymore. What do you mean, Kathy, 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:32.120 What is she lying about everything? Kathy wasn't interested in 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:36.360 having a conversation, but she did send her sister, Sheila, 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:38.760 who lives with her, to come and talk to me. 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:44.200 Tracy was not abused. She was spanked one time in 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:46.120 her life when she was. 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:50.240 In elementary school and Kathy called her smoking cigarettes in 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:52.520 the bathroom and she spanked her. 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:57.360 She was not abused. She was a very happy child. 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:01.600 Sheila might have strong opinions about Racy Raquel's childhood, but 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:05.320 she can't claim a lot of firsthand knowledge. Sheila spent 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:09.480 a lot of time incarcerated during Tracy Riquel's youth. Her 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:15.120 crimes included fraud, robbery, driving under the influence, and narcotics charges. 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:28.240 Tracy Riquel became a teenager with a mission. It was 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:32.640 if her brother Matthew was with her beside her asking 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:35.400 her to find out what happened the day he died. 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:37.760 There was a lot of pushback, so I would only 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.240 do a little bit of research, and I would ask 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:43.800 questions from everybody in my family until they would be like, okay, 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:44.800 enough enough. 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:49.120 She would need access to investigators and files that would 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:51.160 be difficult for a kid to get her hands on. 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:55.240 But having a stable household for the first time had 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:58.720 allowed Tracy Roquel to stay at one school and even 0:11:58.800 --> 0:11:59.480 make friends. 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:02.320 We were all athletes and I had a really great 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:05.840 friend who was my neighbor. Everybody been and around Atlanta 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:09.520 knew Ryan Fleming, and he was just a great guy. 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:13.120 We were buddies. He played football for the high school. 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:15.520 It was all star and he just kind of my 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:16.360 support system. 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:20.240 But he offered more than just moral support. Ryan's family 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:24.079 had connections in the police department. Tell me about how 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:24.920 much he helped you. 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:29.320 Ryan went with me down to Decab County Police Department. 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:32.559 What were you guys trying to find? 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:35.520 I wanted to see the pump side report, you know, 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:39.440 what was his cause of death? I just assumed it 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:43.160 was a homicide. And I'm fifteen. I thought I was crazy. 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:47.920 They gave me an incident report. There was no investigation, 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:49.440 nobody had ever done anything. 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:50.840 What did it say? 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:56.120 The incident report said that he suffered a head injury, 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:59.080 the ambulances coming, they're taking him to the hospital, and 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:03.360 that's all. So that's when it really opened all up. 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:08.240 She is only fifteen and she finally has this document 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:12.000 in her hand, so of course she studied it carefully, 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:16.319 and she found the lack of information suspicious. A baby 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:19.800 had died and there was practically no information. That was 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:23.080 not a typical situation. It was a lot more digging 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:25.600 to do, but she was a teenager and there was 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:30.320 also school and sports. Before she could completely immerse herself 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:34.640 into the investigation of Matthew's death. Tracy graduated from high 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:38.600 school and then her first thought was she needed to 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.679 get out of Kathy's house, where she felt like there 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:43.600 was no safety or protection. 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:46.560 I lived with Kathy until I was eighteen, and I 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:48.480 moved out on my own and had this little apartment 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:51.600 up on the lake and worked four jobs, just trying 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:54.640 to be away. I was terrified. I'm scared of everything 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:58.960 all the time. I never slept. I still don't really sleep. 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:05.040 Building herself up into a physically strong person, someone who 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:08.920 would be able to defend herself. That's why the military 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:09.880 appealed to her. 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:14.880 I needed to get out of where I was. I thought, 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:16.640 I'm going to go in the Army. I'm going to 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:19.440 go to ranger school, jump out of airplane, and I'm 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:20.920 going to learn all these skills that are going to 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.000 make me super tough and no one can never hurt me. 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:27.240 Tercy Mquel had just seen Top Gun, you know, the 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:28.040 first one. 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:32.280 I feel the need need first feed. 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:36.520 Some people wanted to date Tom Cruise. She wanted to 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:40.880 be Tom Cruise. How did you like the military? 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:45.440 Basic training was hard, a lot of sleep deprivation, all 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.560 that drilling, ceremony, following rules and getting up at different 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:50.440 times a day and all of that. But it really 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:54.080 sort of clicked in a way. I was stationed overseas, 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:59.080 so I was learning who I was. Came back home 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:03.680 and and found out that Jan was going to come 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:04.240 up for parole. 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:08.680 Jan was serving life in prison for a crime he 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:13.120 committed in Florida, So how long had he been away At. 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:16.400 That point He had done fifteen years for an armed robbery, 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:22.320 so it seemed reasonable that he might get out. And 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.400 that's where I think the fear really hit. 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:27.640 What was your fear? 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:32.240 It was just this terrifying thing that he was going 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:34.440 to get out of jail and he was going to 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:37.960 come and kill me. And I just couldn't what happened. 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:40.000 So you thought he would kill you. 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:44.880 It was a very realistic thought at the time. I 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:48.200 thought he was a danger to me. He was a 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:52.360 danger to Kathy. He was a danger to my brother Jason. 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:56.360 If you think that sounds extreme or paranoid, consider this. 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:00.280 Jan Barry Sandlin had terrorized her as a child. Elt 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:04.680 Another incident Tracy Raquel shared was so painful she could 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:09.760 barely get out the details through tears. Here's what she shared. 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:13.960 It's really hard to sit here to all this and 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:18.840 then think there's not something wrong with you. 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:21.080 It's so embarrassing. 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:24.880 What was embarrassing? 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:29.160 Roaches and butter. 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:31.720 On toast. 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:38.360 That was a form of punishment from Jan. 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:41.600 He made you eat that to punish you. 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:47.640 Yeah, gosh, I'm like a basket case. Like I don't 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:50.720 know how many what could think he could be Like, Okay, 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:53.640 some of this style, it's ridiculously. 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:55.720 I might as well just do my best to get 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:56.320 it all out there. 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:58.880 I have to tell you. My heart broke as she cried. 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:02.720 This isn't a revelation. I don't think she's ever spoken 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:06.679 about before. Her father forced her to eat bugs on 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:10.439 toast his punishment, and yet she carries the weight of 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:14.280 shame and embarrassment. There were no limits to his cruelty 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:18.160 and depravity Outside of the home. There were whispers into 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:21.680 Cab County about Jan being part of a ruthless organized 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:24.800 crime group. He was sentenced to a long prison term 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:28.000 for a crime he was caught committing, but were their 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:33.000 crimes he had never been prosecuted for. At this point, 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:36.560 she was an adult. Tracy Riquel had married while serving 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:39.199 in the army and had two very young children of 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:43.399 her own. When she was a child, Jan had beaten 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.879 her for asking to visit her brother Matthew's grave. So 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:49.879 how would he respond to finding out that she was 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:52.000 now investigating his death. 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:55.440 I'm trying to figure out what happened to Matthew. He's 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:56.760 going to get out of jail. Do you know how 0:17:56.840 --> 0:18:03.520 much harder it's going to be out of chaos that 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:08.320 came with him. It's a Category five hurricane. It's unpredictable. 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:10.000 It's literally a nightmare. 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:11.880 You were on a mission. 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:16.200 You just couldn't get out of jail. So everything just expedited, 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:19.840 and I just worked harder, made more calls, reached out 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:20.560 to more people. 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:24.320 But here's the problem. When Tracy Riquel tried to bring 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:28.000 attention to the circumstances around her baby brother Matthew's death, 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:32.040 law enforcement into Cab County, Georgia wasn't interested. 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:36.480 For years, I had called the Cab County Police Department 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:40.640 and I always got the run around or was hung 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:42.919 up on. You know, it's a cold case, it's an 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:46.680 old case. They didn't have time. I had to call 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:47.479 a lot of people. 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:49.280 How did you not give up? 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:53.560 I had a friend whose uncle was in the FBI 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:56.760 at the time, who, you know, talked to me, just 0:18:56.960 --> 0:18:59.000 keep doing what you're doing. You got to keep sending 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:01.040 letters and you got to keep calling to you get 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:02.960 somebody different, you know, And I did. 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:09.800 And then something remarkable happened. Tracy Raquel reached investigator Jim Maybe. 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:14.000 I am a thirty year retired law enforcement officer. I 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:16.639 spent most of my career in uniform division, and he 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:20.520 got promoted to detective. I worked commicide for several years 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:25.560 and after that transferred over to the Medical Examiner's office. 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:30.119 Was a forensic death investigator. She had mentioned her father 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:35.760 was Jan Barry Sandlin. That shocked me. Before I came 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:38.760 to the Medical Examiner's office, I'd been assigned a cold 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:41.600 case file where a police officer had been killed about 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:45.679 the time that her baby brother had been killed, and 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:49.520 one of the people to interested in that police officer 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:53.400 death was Dan Salin. I couldn't believe that was her dead. 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:58.000 Jim Maybe had never encountered someone like Tracy Riquell before. 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:02.280 Wasn't some politician or someone of great important, just a 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:05.119 child that died. It's terrible, Yeah, but why would I 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:08.159 take it? But Tracy said some things that intrigued me. 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:14.000 She wasn't interested in money, baying, or fortune or anything 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:17.080 like that. She was simply wanting to know the truth 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:19.800 about what happened. Well, one of the manto's that we 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:22.760 have in the Medical Examiner's office, it isn't justice that 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:25.679 we see it's true, so justice can be served. 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:29.320 What was your first meeting with Jim Maybe? 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:32.720 Like he said he would help, and we talked for 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:34.240 a couple of hours. 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:38.560 During that conversation, Jim Maybe asked Tracy Raquel to put 0:20:38.720 --> 0:20:42.000 everything she knew in writing, and he thought he might 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:45.360 never hear from her again because in his experience, that's 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:46.080 how things went. 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:50.360 She typed out a two three page letter of everything 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:54.040 that she could remember that occurred the day that Matthew died, 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:57.719 and I started to read it and investigate it. 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:01.240 Now, only a parent can request access to their child's 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:04.960 medical records, and so for years, Tracy Raquel had asked 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:08.400 Kathy to get them from Decab and North Side Hospitals, 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:10.240 but Kathy refused. 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:14.000 She tried to obtain records surrounding Matthew's death after her 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:15.840 mother really wouldn't discussion with her. 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:19.560 That all changed when investigator Jim Mayde got involved. 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:21.960 I go missed my mother to request records from the 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:23.119 Cab Medical. 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:27.680 And so that's when it started. Early ninety three, the 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:31.119 medical records from the hospital came. 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:34.960 You heard at the very beginning of this series about 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:39.960 this moment when Tracy Raquel first saw the records. Finally, 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:44.960 twenty two years after Matthew's death, she held the envelope 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:47.879 that would solve the mystery that had haunted her most 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:51.160 of her life. 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:57.719 The cab General Hospital, December seventh, nineteen seventy one. Patient 0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:06.240 name Matthew Stephen Golder. Skull X rays reveal extensive skull fracturing, 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:13.440 primarily on the left side. The clinical findings indicate massive 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:20.800 brain damage. The brain was markedly conduced and swollen. He 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:26.760 was felt to be terminal. Mother reports that the child 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:29.080 was thrown out of the crib by a two year 0:22:29.119 --> 0:22:31.399 old sister and that she found him comatose. 0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:39.640 The report is shocking. What did you do after reading it? 0:22:41.119 --> 0:22:45.199 I called my grandmother first and I asked her, do 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:47.200 you know this? Did you know that this says this? 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:50.840 What is this? And she said, very matter of fact, 0:22:50.960 --> 0:22:53.720 not in a cruel way, and yes, we know this, 0:22:54.320 --> 0:22:55.119 We've always known that. 0:22:55.800 --> 0:22:57.280 Did you believe it? 0:22:57.920 --> 0:23:00.280 As a human being, you have a moment where you 0:23:00.320 --> 0:23:03.960 have to ask the question, is it possible that I 0:23:04.119 --> 0:23:09.120 killed my baby brother? There's this terrible thing to think 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:12.919 that someone said this about you, and then that people 0:23:13.000 --> 0:23:14.200 had to wonder. 0:23:14.160 --> 0:23:17.320 On top of that, friends, neighbors, and people who knew 0:23:17.359 --> 0:23:20.840 the family, like Jackie Wilson. They all heard the same thing. 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:25.600 Everyone was saying that Tracy had brought her brother out 0:23:25.640 --> 0:23:26.159 of a bed. 0:23:27.280 --> 0:23:29.880 I talked to Jan one time. 0:23:30.760 --> 0:23:31.720 He said that. 0:23:32.640 --> 0:23:36.400 Tracy had a temper and that commed in the bed 0:23:37.520 --> 0:23:38.600 and she threw it out. 0:23:39.960 --> 0:23:43.160 It didn't make sense to me, but that was what 0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:43.679 they said. 0:23:45.280 --> 0:23:51.880 You went with it, Tracy Riqueal has heard different versions 0:23:51.960 --> 0:23:54.800 of what happened to Matthew since she was a child. 0:23:55.359 --> 0:23:58.639 It was chalked up to accidents. At one point, Kathy 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:03.040 even said Jan it but those were just stories. This 0:24:03.160 --> 0:24:08.119 hospital report was in writing. Then Tercy Riquel called Kathy 0:24:08.560 --> 0:24:10.800 hoping for some kind of explanation. 0:24:11.640 --> 0:24:14.119 Once I got Kathy on the phone, she said she 0:24:14.200 --> 0:24:16.720 never said that. I just wrote it down wrong. And 0:24:16.760 --> 0:24:18.920 then she said, well, you know, it was an accident. 0:24:18.920 --> 0:24:20.080 You picked him up and you dropped it. 0:24:21.320 --> 0:24:24.720 She says she didn't say it. Then she says it 0:24:24.760 --> 0:24:28.399