Speaker 1: Hi all, we have some exciting news to share. Paramount
Speaker 1: Plus has turned Burden of Guilt into a docuseries. You
Speaker 1: will get to meet the people involved, you'll hear from
Speaker 1: the people who have never spoken before, and you get
Speaker 1: to see where the story took place. We are so
Speaker 1: proud and excited to share it with you. You can
Speaker 1: stream it right now on Paramount Plus. Tracy Mquel Burns
Speaker 1: is a woman who is sharing her incredible life story
Speaker 1: for the first time. When she was just two, her
Speaker 1: four month old brother, Matthew died. The authorities were told
Speaker 1: she had killed him. She has spent decades trying to
Speaker 1: get justice for her brother and safety for her family.
Speaker 1: In the last episode, we told you about her baby
Speaker 1: brother's death and how she says she suffered abuse at
Speaker 1: the hands of her father Jan Barry Sandlin and her
Speaker 1: mother Almona. I'm Nancy Glass. This is Burden of Guilt
Speaker 1: Episode two Physics. At the end of episode one, I
Speaker 1: told you about Tracy Raquel's suicide attempt at the age
Speaker 1: of fourteen. She had saved up a month's worth of
Speaker 1: prescription anti seizure medication and swallowed it all at once.
Speaker 1: She wanted out of her home out of her life,
Speaker 1: a life of abuse and instability. But it didn't work.
Speaker 1: She woke up with her mother, Kathy Almond, shaking her
Speaker 1: and asking her, what have you done now? As a mother,
Speaker 1: I can't even imagine having a reaction like that. When
Speaker 1: Tracy Riquel woke up, she thought, I can't believe I'm
Speaker 1: still here. Surviving the overdose offered Tracy Raquel a renewed
Speaker 1: sense of purpose. Thought she had to survive for a reason,
Speaker 1: and that was to find out what really happened to
Speaker 1: her baby brother, Matthew. But the reality was, despite everything,
Speaker 1: she was still just a teenager trying to have an
Speaker 1: ordinary high school life. Tell me about these pictures in
Speaker 1: front of us.
Speaker 2: This is a picture of me being a cheerleader. It's
Speaker 2: the eighties, so blue eyeliner, but yeah, I guess it's cute.
Speaker 2: And by the way, let me just say, I know
Speaker 2: cheerleaders today do not understand. Those pom poms weighed like
Speaker 2: ten pounds each and if they got wet, it was
Speaker 2: fifteen so it was work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were huge. There's a lovely photo of her
Speaker 1: in a blue cheerleading uniform. A muscular young man is
Speaker 1: holding her in the air as she balances on one foot.
Speaker 1: Her arms are outstretched in theeed for victory. She's smiling, beautiful,
Speaker 1: and proud. This is where she shined in school and sports.
Speaker 1: It was her salvation, fine her successes outside of the house.
Speaker 1: Her mother, Kathy, saw her failed suicide attempt as an opportunity.
Speaker 1: She used it to identify her daughter as a danger
Speaker 1: to herself for someone else. Then she leveraged it to
Speaker 1: commit her.
Speaker 2: She woke me in the middle of the night and
Speaker 2: took me to a state hospital. You know, I have
Speaker 2: to wonder did she tell him I was a homicidal
Speaker 2: I was a threat.
Speaker 1: Look, it might seem reasonable to take a troubled child
Speaker 1: who has made a suicide attempt to a psychiatric hospital,
Speaker 1: but it's what Kathy told the staff that is so outrageous.
Speaker 1: Did you ever find out how she was able to
Speaker 1: commit you at the facility?
Speaker 2: What I learned later in life was that Kathy had
Speaker 2: told psychiatric professionals that I had been suicidal and homicidal
Speaker 2: because I had killed my baby brother, and that I
Speaker 2: had never been right. Since I don't understand, I don't understand.
Speaker 1: The hospital was not a safe place for healing. It
Speaker 1: was scary as hell.
Speaker 2: They were sick kids, they were violet criminals. It was
Speaker 2: a very violet, scary, terrified place.
Speaker 1: Were you able to grasp the situation you were in?
Speaker 2: I had no clue and I didn't understand what was happening.
Speaker 1: How were you able to get out?
Speaker 2: It was my aunt June, who came and said this
Speaker 2: is not going to work and it was wrong, and
Speaker 2: took care of me.
Speaker 1: Tracy Riquel says she felt like she couldn't depend on
Speaker 1: Kathy for even the most basic parenting.
Speaker 2: When I was eleven, someone gave me a polaroid camera
Speaker 2: for Christmas, and this little girl and I were friends.
Speaker 2: We were talking about getting all dressed up and doing
Speaker 2: hair and whatever little girls do. Oh, we can take
Speaker 2: pictures because I've got this polaroid camera. I looked everywhere
Speaker 2: I couldn't find it, wasn't where it normally was. And
Speaker 2: then I did find it in her bedroom closet, opened
Speaker 2: it up, and inside were just horrible sexual pictures of
Speaker 2: your mother that you shouldn't see, especially not with a
Speaker 2: little girl from down the street.
Speaker 1: Kathy wasn't contrite or embarrassed by it. She was annoyed
Speaker 1: with Tracy Riquel there were many dark moments with Kathy.
Speaker 1: Tracy Riqul's only respite was on June. Kathy's sister June
Speaker 1: had a knack for showing up at the right time
Speaker 1: and showing Tracy Riquel she could experience joy. Tell me
Speaker 1: about your Aunt June.
Speaker 2: We were always together when I was a child. She
Speaker 2: was a little bit of reprieve. She would come and
Speaker 2: get me and we'd go on trips together, and she
Speaker 2: would take me places, and you know, so she was
Speaker 2: this little bit of inspiration that there was something else
Speaker 2: out there.
Speaker 1: It was Aunt June who gave Tracy Riquel her first job.
Speaker 2: She owned a hair salon in Atlanta. I started working
Speaker 2: at this hair salon on Fridays and Saturdays in the
Speaker 2: summer when I was like nine years old, sweeping floors
Speaker 2: for five or ten dollars a day.
Speaker 1: When Tracy Riquel started high school, the salon became a
Speaker 1: real job with more hours and responsibility. June wanted to
Speaker 1: put her on the payroll.
Speaker 2: So I was fourteen and needed a Social Security card.
Speaker 2: Growing up, my name had always been Tracy Sandlin, which
Speaker 2: is Jan's last name. That's when Kathy had to say, well, actually,
Speaker 2: your name isn't Tracy Sandlin, It's Golder, and Jan isn't
Speaker 2: your father, but it's really not because it really is him.
Speaker 2: But that's what we had to I mean, all of
Speaker 2: this stuff just came spelling it like, wait.
Speaker 1: What Ted Golder was Kathy's first husband. Racy Riquel was
Speaker 1: born while Kathy was still married to him, but Kathy
Speaker 1: had been having an affair with Jan during the entire marriage.
Speaker 1: So your legal name was Tracy Golder on your birth certificate,
Speaker 1: but your biological dad was actually Jan Sandlin and you
Speaker 1: didn't find this out until you needed to have papers
Speaker 1: in order to work and make money. Yes, what did
Speaker 1: you decide to do about your last name?
Speaker 2: I was fourteen and sat in front of a judge
Speaker 2: and he said, well, what name do you want? Well,
Speaker 2: Ted Golder?
Speaker 1: She did not want Jan's last name, and Tercy Riquel
Speaker 1: liked to be connected to Matthew in whatever way she
Speaker 1: could be, and her baby brother's last name was Golder.
Speaker 2: I don't know who that is, but he's a Vietnam
Speaker 2: Vette and it's Matthew's name, and I definitely don't want Jan's.
Speaker 1: Eventually, Kathy, Jason, and Tracy Riquel settled into an apartment.
Speaker 1: It was the first consistent home. She remembers.
Speaker 2: I was a sophomore in high school, and the only
Speaker 2: reason that we were stable then was because we were
Speaker 2: in HUD housing.
Speaker 1: HUD housing is housing and urban development. It's low income
Speaker 1: public housing.
Speaker 2: What was it like, this tiny, little bitty apartment complex
Speaker 2: surrounded by trees so that nobody on the outside could
Speaker 2: actually see what was inside.
Speaker 1: When Tracy Riquel was younger, she had been beaten for
Speaker 1: asking questions about Matthew's death. But as you heard in
Speaker 1: episode one, her father Jan was incarcerated for arm robbery
Speaker 1: when she was ten, so now she felt safe asking
Speaker 1: more questions about the issue that haunted her. How did
Speaker 1: her baby brother died? What did you grow up thinking?
Speaker 2: I didn't believe that it was an accident.
Speaker 1: Tracy Raquel had her suspicions, after all, she grew up
Speaker 1: in a household where abuse was the norm, even when
Speaker 1: she was a small child.
Speaker 2: There was one specific time, have to be under the
Speaker 2: age of four. He was in the shower and he
Speaker 2: called me to come and get his cigarette, the camel cigarette,
Speaker 2: and told me to take it to Kathy. I didn't
Speaker 2: know what to do with the cigarette.
Speaker 1: So what did you do?
Speaker 2: I just kind of stood there and then he put
Speaker 2: that camel cigarette out on me. That was the very
Speaker 2: first time that he punished me for not doing whatever
Speaker 2: he asked me to do.
Speaker 1: That is a terrifying memory, and Tracy Raquel has a
Speaker 1: lot of those when it comes to her childhood. I
Speaker 1: wanted to hear what Kathy Alman had to say about
Speaker 1: the situation, so I went to see her.
Speaker 2: I really can't get drawn into Tracy's fantasies anymore.
Speaker 1: She has been lying in torturing me for thirty years.
Speaker 1: I can't take it anymore. What do you mean, Kathy,
Speaker 1: What is she lying about everything? Kathy wasn't interested in
Speaker 1: having a conversation, but she did send her sister, Sheila,
Speaker 1: who lives with her, to come and talk to me.
Speaker 1: Tracy was not abused. She was spanked one time in
Speaker 1: her life when she was.
Speaker 2: In elementary school and Kathy called her smoking cigarettes in
Speaker 2: the bathroom and she spanked her.
Speaker 1: She was not abused. She was a very happy child.
Speaker 1: Sheila might have strong opinions about Racy Raquel's childhood, but
Speaker 1: she can't claim a lot of firsthand knowledge. Sheila spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time incarcerated during Tracy Riquel's youth. Her
Speaker 1: crimes included fraud, robbery, driving under the influence, and narcotics charges.
Speaker 1: Tracy Riquel became a teenager with a mission. It was
Speaker 1: if her brother Matthew was with her beside her asking
Speaker 1: her to find out what happened the day he died.
Speaker 2: There was a lot of pushback, so I would only
Speaker 2: do a little bit of research, and I would ask
Speaker 2: questions from everybody in my family until they would be like, okay,
Speaker 2: enough enough.
Speaker 1: She would need access to investigators and files that would
Speaker 1: be difficult for a kid to get her hands on.
Speaker 1: But having a stable household for the first time had
Speaker 1: allowed Tracy Roquel to stay at one school and even
Speaker 1: make friends.
Speaker 2: We were all athletes and I had a really great
Speaker 2: friend who was my neighbor. Everybody been and around Atlanta
Speaker 2: knew Ryan Fleming, and he was just a great guy.
Speaker 2: We were buddies. He played football for the high school.
Speaker 2: It was all star and he just kind of my
Speaker 2: support system.
Speaker 1: But he offered more than just moral support. Ryan's family
Speaker 1: had connections in the police department. Tell me about how
Speaker 1: much he helped you.
Speaker 2: Ryan went with me down to Decab County Police Department.
Speaker 1: What were you guys trying to find?
Speaker 2: I wanted to see the pump side report, you know,
Speaker 2: what was his cause of death? I just assumed it
Speaker 2: was a homicide. And I'm fifteen. I thought I was crazy.
Speaker 2: They gave me an incident report. There was no investigation,
Speaker 2: nobody had ever done anything.
Speaker 1: What did it say?
Speaker 2: The incident report said that he suffered a head injury,
Speaker 2: the ambulances coming, they're taking him to the hospital, and
Speaker 2: that's all. So that's when it really opened all up.
Speaker 1: She is only fifteen and she finally has this document
Speaker 1: in her hand, so of course she studied it carefully,
Speaker 1: and she found the lack of information suspicious. A baby
Speaker 1: had died and there was practically no information. That was
Speaker 1: not a typical situation. It was a lot more digging
Speaker 1: to do, but she was a teenager and there was
Speaker 1: also school and sports. Before she could completely immerse herself
Speaker 1: into the investigation of Matthew's death. Tracy graduated from high
Speaker 1: school and then her first thought was she needed to
Speaker 1: get out of Kathy's house, where she felt like there
Speaker 1: was no safety or protection.
Speaker 2: I lived with Kathy until I was eighteen, and I
Speaker 2: moved out on my own and had this little apartment
Speaker 2: up on the lake and worked four jobs, just trying
Speaker 2: to be away. I was terrified. I'm scared of everything
Speaker 2: all the time. I never slept. I still don't really sleep.
Speaker 1: Building herself up into a physically strong person, someone who
Speaker 1: would be able to defend herself. That's why the military
Speaker 1: appealed to her.
Speaker 2: I needed to get out of where I was. I thought,
Speaker 2: I'm going to go in the Army. I'm going to
Speaker 2: go to ranger school, jump out of airplane, and I'm
Speaker 2: going to learn all these skills that are going to
Speaker 2: make me super tough and no one can never hurt me.
Speaker 1: Tercy Mquel had just seen Top Gun, you know, the
Speaker 1: first one.
Speaker 2: I feel the need need first feed.
Speaker 1: Some people wanted to date Tom Cruise. She wanted to
Speaker 1: be Tom Cruise. How did you like the military?
Speaker 2: Basic training was hard, a lot of sleep deprivation, all
Speaker 2: that drilling, ceremony, following rules and getting up at different
Speaker 2: times a day and all of that. But it really
Speaker 2: sort of clicked in a way. I was stationed overseas,
Speaker 2: so I was learning who I was. Came back home
Speaker 2: and and found out that Jan was going to come
Speaker 2: up for parole.
Speaker 1: Jan was serving life in prison for a crime he
Speaker 1: committed in Florida, So how long had he been away At.
Speaker 2: That point He had done fifteen years for an armed robbery,
Speaker 2: so it seemed reasonable that he might get out. And
Speaker 2: that's where I think the fear really hit.
Speaker 1: What was your fear?
Speaker 2: It was just this terrifying thing that he was going
Speaker 2: to get out of jail and he was going to
Speaker 2: come and kill me. And I just couldn't what happened.
Speaker 1: So you thought he would kill you.
Speaker 2: It was a very realistic thought at the time. I
Speaker 2: thought he was a danger to me. He was a
Speaker 2: danger to Kathy. He was a danger to my brother Jason.
Speaker 1: If you think that sounds extreme or paranoid, consider this.
Speaker 1: Jan Barry Sandlin had terrorized her as a child. Elt
Speaker 1: Another incident Tracy Raquel shared was so painful she could
Speaker 1: barely get out the details through tears. Here's what she shared.
Speaker 3: It's really hard to sit here to all this and
Speaker 3: then think there's not something wrong with you.
Speaker 2: It's so embarrassing.
Speaker 1: What was embarrassing?
Speaker 2: Roaches and butter.
Speaker 4: On toast.
Speaker 2: That was a form of punishment from Jan.
Speaker 1: He made you eat that to punish you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, gosh, I'm like a basket case. Like I don't
Speaker 3: know how many what could think he could be Like, Okay,
Speaker 3: some of this style, it's ridiculously.
Speaker 2: I might as well just do my best to get
Speaker 2: it all out there.
Speaker 1: I have to tell you. My heart broke as she cried.
Speaker 1: This isn't a revelation. I don't think she's ever spoken
Speaker 1: about before. Her father forced her to eat bugs on
Speaker 1: toast his punishment, and yet she carries the weight of
Speaker 1: shame and embarrassment. There were no limits to his cruelty
Speaker 1: and depravity Outside of the home. There were whispers into
Speaker 1: Cab County about Jan being part of a ruthless organized
Speaker 1: crime group. He was sentenced to a long prison term
Speaker 1: for a crime he was caught committing, but were their
Speaker 1: crimes he had never been prosecuted for. At this point,
Speaker 1: she was an adult. Tracy Riquel had married while serving
Speaker 1: in the army and had two very young children of
Speaker 1: her own. When she was a child, Jan had beaten
Speaker 1: her for asking to visit her brother Matthew's grave. So
Speaker 1: how would he respond to finding out that she was
Speaker 1: now investigating his death.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to figure out what happened to Matthew. He's
Speaker 2: going to get out of jail. Do you know how
Speaker 2: much harder it's going to be out of chaos that
Speaker 2: came with him. It's a Category five hurricane. It's unpredictable.
Speaker 2: It's literally a nightmare.
Speaker 1: You were on a mission.
Speaker 2: You just couldn't get out of jail. So everything just expedited,
Speaker 2: and I just worked harder, made more calls, reached out
Speaker 2: to more people.
Speaker 1: But here's the problem. When Tracy Riquel tried to bring
Speaker 1: attention to the circumstances around her baby brother Matthew's death,
Speaker 1: law enforcement into Cab County, Georgia wasn't interested.
Speaker 2: For years, I had called the Cab County Police Department
Speaker 2: and I always got the run around or was hung
Speaker 2: up on. You know, it's a cold case, it's an
Speaker 2: old case. They didn't have time. I had to call
Speaker 2: a lot of people.
Speaker 1: How did you not give up?
Speaker 2: I had a friend whose uncle was in the FBI
Speaker 2: at the time, who, you know, talked to me, just
Speaker 2: keep doing what you're doing. You got to keep sending
Speaker 2: letters and you got to keep calling to you get
Speaker 2: somebody different, you know, And I did.
Speaker 1: And then something remarkable happened. Tracy Raquel reached investigator Jim Maybe.
Speaker 4: I am a thirty year retired law enforcement officer. I
Speaker 4: spent most of my career in uniform division, and he
Speaker 4: got promoted to detective. I worked commicide for several years
Speaker 4: and after that transferred over to the Medical Examiner's office.
Speaker 4: Was a forensic death investigator. She had mentioned her father
Speaker 4: was Jan Barry Sandlin. That shocked me. Before I came
Speaker 4: to the Medical Examiner's office, I'd been assigned a cold
Speaker 4: case file where a police officer had been killed about
Speaker 4: the time that her baby brother had been killed, and
Speaker 4: one of the people to interested in that police officer
Speaker 4: death was Dan Salin. I couldn't believe that was her dead.
Speaker 1: Jim Maybe had never encountered someone like Tracy Riquell before.
Speaker 4: Wasn't some politician or someone of great important, just a
Speaker 4: child that died. It's terrible, Yeah, but why would I
Speaker 4: take it? But Tracy said some things that intrigued me.
Speaker 4: She wasn't interested in money, baying, or fortune or anything
Speaker 4: like that. She was simply wanting to know the truth
Speaker 4: about what happened. Well, one of the manto's that we
Speaker 4: have in the Medical Examiner's office, it isn't justice that
Speaker 4: we see it's true, so justice can be served.
Speaker 1: What was your first meeting with Jim Maybe?
Speaker 2: Like he said he would help, and we talked for
Speaker 2: a couple of hours.
Speaker 1: During that conversation, Jim Maybe asked Tracy Raquel to put
Speaker 1: everything she knew in writing, and he thought he might
Speaker 1: never hear from her again because in his experience, that's
Speaker 1: how things went.
Speaker 4: She typed out a two three page letter of everything
Speaker 4: that she could remember that occurred the day that Matthew died,
Speaker 4: and I started to read it and investigate it.
Speaker 1: Now, only a parent can request access to their child's
Speaker 1: medical records, and so for years, Tracy Raquel had asked
Speaker 1: Kathy to get them from Decab and North Side Hospitals,
Speaker 1: but Kathy refused.
Speaker 4: She tried to obtain records surrounding Matthew's death after her
Speaker 4: mother really wouldn't discussion with her.
Speaker 1: That all changed when investigator Jim Mayde got involved.
Speaker 4: I go missed my mother to request records from the
Speaker 4: Cab Medical.
Speaker 2: And so that's when it started. Early ninety three, the
Speaker 2: medical records from the hospital came.
Speaker 1: You heard at the very beginning of this series about
Speaker 1: this moment when Tracy Raquel first saw the records. Finally,
Speaker 1: twenty two years after Matthew's death, she held the envelope
Speaker 1: that would solve the mystery that had haunted her most
Speaker 1: of her life.
Speaker 5: The cab General Hospital, December seventh, nineteen seventy one. Patient
Speaker 5: name Matthew Stephen Golder. Skull X rays reveal extensive skull fracturing,
Speaker 5: primarily on the left side. The clinical findings indicate massive
Speaker 5: brain damage. The brain was markedly conduced and swollen. He
Speaker 5: was felt to be terminal. Mother reports that the child
Speaker 5: was thrown out of the crib by a two year
Speaker 5: old sister and that she found him comatose.
Speaker 1: The report is shocking. What did you do after reading it?
Speaker 2: I called my grandmother first and I asked her, do
Speaker 2: you know this? Did you know that this says this?
Speaker 2: What is this? And she said, very matter of fact,
Speaker 2: not in a cruel way, and yes, we know this,
Speaker 2: We've always known that.
Speaker 1: Did you believe it?
Speaker 2: As a human being, you have a moment where you
Speaker 2: have to ask the question, is it possible that I
Speaker 2: killed my baby brother? There's this terrible thing to think
Speaker 2: that someone said this about you, and then that people
Speaker 2: had to wonder.
Speaker 1: On top of that, friends, neighbors, and people who knew
Speaker 1: the family, like Jackie Wilson. They all heard the same thing.
Speaker 2: Everyone was saying that Tracy had brought her brother out
Speaker 2: of a bed.
Speaker 1: I talked to Jan one time.
Speaker 4: He said that.
Speaker 1: Tracy had a temper and that commed in the bed
Speaker 1: and she threw it out.
Speaker 2: It didn't make sense to me, but that was what
Speaker 2: they said.
Speaker 1: You went with it, Tracy Riqueal has heard different versions
Speaker 1: of what happened to Matthew since she was a child.
Speaker 1: It was chalked up to accidents. At one point, Kathy
Speaker 1: even said Jan it but those were just stories. This
Speaker 1: hospital report was in writing. Then Tercy Riquel called Kathy
Speaker 1: hoping for some kind of explanation.
Speaker 2: Once I got Kathy on the phone, she said she
Speaker 2: never said that. I just wrote it down wrong. And
Speaker 2: then she said, well, you know, it was an accident.
Speaker 2: You picked him up and you dropped it.
Speaker 1: She says she didn't say it. Then she says it
Speaker 1: was an accident. I'm having a hard time making heads
Speaker 1: or tails of your mother's response. What did you think?
Speaker 2: I'm a person who I think just guilt and I
Speaker 2: your friends, So yeah, I'm looking around trying to think, well,
Speaker 2: is it possible? Is this the horrible secret that's been
Speaker 2: going on?
Speaker 1: Is this why Matthew's name could never be mentioned out loud?
Speaker 1: Is this why Jane beat her when she insisted on
Speaker 1: visiting his grave because they held her responsible. Matthew was
Speaker 1: in a coma and breathing erratically. It was all in
Speaker 1: the hospital record, but there was more. Doctors examined his
Speaker 1: entire body, and his physical state revealed evidence that her
Speaker 1: brother had been a victim.
Speaker 6: There is an old, dry, ulcerated area over the mid
Speaker 6: left medial surface of the left foot. There are old,
Speaker 6: dark purple colored areas of echamosis and bruising in the
Speaker 6: left periclavical region.
Speaker 2: There was a level of abuse that Matthew had been
Speaker 2: through as a four month old child. He had a
Speaker 2: third degree burn on the step of one of his
Speaker 2: little feet. He had what looked like an old fracture
Speaker 2: to his clavical He had brazing on his body.
Speaker 1: How exactly would a two year old break and bruise
Speaker 1: Matthew's clavicle or burn his foot. Then something happened that
Speaker 1: would dramatically change everything, and ironically, it was something her
Speaker 1: little daughter, Goldie.
Speaker 2: Did Goldie was getting close to too. We had brought
Speaker 2: groceries in and there was a gallon of milk sitting
Speaker 2: in front of the door, and she was trying to
Speaker 2: lift this gallon of milk to get it in the kitchen,
Speaker 2: and she could not even drag it. And it's like
Speaker 2: a light went off.
Speaker 1: What do you mean?
Speaker 2: It occurred to me that she can't even drag this
Speaker 2: gallon of milk, much less pick it up. How was
Speaker 2: it that I, you know, four months old, picked this
Speaker 2: infant up, lifted him over the side of a crib
Speaker 2: and threw him on to a floor. That wasn't a possibility.
Speaker 1: The weight of one gallon of milk is just about
Speaker 1: eight and a half pounds. According to the medical records,
Speaker 1: Matthew's weight was just under fifteen pounds. Goldie had unwittingly
Speaker 1: given Tracy Riquel a simple physics lesson.
Speaker 2: There was this epiphany watching her and realizing, I know
Speaker 2: that that can't happen that way. I know that's not possible.
Speaker 1: But even still, Tracy Raquel wouldn't just trust her own intuition.
Speaker 1: She sought out the opinion of.
Speaker 2: Experts, had multiple appointments with neurologists and pediatricians and pathologists
Speaker 2: just in Savannah alone to explain, is this possible?
Speaker 1: So did anyone tell you it was?
Speaker 2: No one ever said that. No, they said no, it's
Speaker 2: not physically possible.
Speaker 1: Finally, emboldened, she called anyone and everyone who was there
Speaker 1: the night Matthew died at Decab Medical Center.
Speaker 2: I just basically went down a list of people I
Speaker 2: could call and just called everybody. Most people didn't want
Speaker 2: to talk to me, and he did.
Speaker 1: It was Butch, her father, Jan's older brother. The Sanlin
Speaker 1: family didn't have a reputation for nothing. Though his rap
Speaker 1: sheet didn't match Jan's. Butch had been busted for shoplifting, trespassing, firearms,
Speaker 1: and driving offences. But he did have a soft spot
Speaker 1: for his niece.
Speaker 2: Butch was a kind of terrifying man when I was
Speaker 2: a child, Mister Georgia, mister all Southeastern Bodybuilders. It was
Speaker 2: a really big, huge man, but he was always kind.
Speaker 1: What did he say happened?
Speaker 2: He didn't know the details exactly, but he said he
Speaker 2: knew that they were responsible, that they had planned this,
Speaker 2: and that they were going to blame it on me.
Speaker 1: It's really shocking. He told you that this was the
Speaker 1: plan all along that Jan and Kathy wanted to kill
Speaker 1: the baby. How did he know that?
Speaker 2: He said, I arrived at the emergency room and you
Speaker 2: were sitting on a concrete slab where ambulances pull up,
Speaker 2: and they were, you know, football field away in the
Speaker 2: parking lot, discussing there, you know, their story and how
Speaker 2: they were going to get this together. He said. He
Speaker 2: walked up and he grabbed Jan and said, what have
Speaker 2: you done? What have you done?
Speaker 1: How did Jim reply to that?
Speaker 2: He said he didn't have a response. That was it,
Speaker 2: And so I think that I was the scapegoat.
Speaker 1: They put the blame on Tracy Riquel, but they didn't
Speaker 1: say it was intentional. The easiest thing was to say
Speaker 1: it was an accident. The truth is that Jan and
Speaker 1: Kathy met little resistance. Think about it. Each person who
Speaker 1: had their hands and eyes on Matthew neglected to take
Speaker 1: any action. The staff and two hospitals had seen this
Speaker 1: child and examined him. They wrote about his injuries, even
Speaker 1: the old ones that showed clear signs of abuse. The
Speaker 1: doctors saw it, they knew. The coroner signed off on it.
Speaker 1: The police didn't ask any questions. Everyone just went along
Speaker 1: with the story.
Speaker 2: Nobody had to do any work. Nobody had to be
Speaker 2: responsible or held accountable.
Speaker 1: But that was about to end. Tracy Riquel was a
Speaker 1: soldier and she knew it was time to go to
Speaker 1: war on the next Burden of Guilt.
Speaker 4: According to the Georgia Death Investigation Act, anytime a child
Speaker 4: dies like that at autopsy has to be done. I
Speaker 4: kept thinking about Sola, Well, how did the coroner sign
Speaker 4: it out as an accidental lift?
Speaker 1: Stay tuned for Burden of Guilt, the documentary coming in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four and airing only on Paramount Plus. If
Speaker 1: you would like to reach out to the Burden of
Speaker 1: Guilt team, email us at Burden of guiltpod at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. That's Burden of Guilt pod at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: If you or someone you know is worried about maltreatment
Speaker 1: or suspec the fact that a child is being abused
Speaker 1: or neglected, call the Child Help National Child Abuse Hotline.
Speaker 1: You can call or text one eight hundred four a child.
Speaker 1: That's one eight hundred four two two four four five three.
Speaker 1: One way to show support is by subscribing to our
Speaker 1: show on Apple Podcasts and don't forget to rate and
Speaker 1: review Burden of Guilt. Five star reviews go a long Way.
Speaker 1: A big thank you to all of you who are listening,
Speaker 1: and also be sure to check us out and follow
Speaker 1: us on Instagram at Glass Podcasts. Burden of Guilt is
Speaker 1: a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group,
Speaker 1: in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is hosted and
Speaker 1: executive produced by me Nancy Glass, written and produced by
Speaker 1: Carrie Hartman and Andrea Gunning, also produced by Ben Fetterman
Speaker 1: and associate producer Kristin Melchor. Our iHeart team is Ali
Speaker 1: Perry and Jessica Crincheck. Special thanks to Tracy Riquel Burns
Speaker 1: and her husband Bart. Voice acting in this episode was
Speaker 1: performed by Trey Morgan. Audio editing and mixing by Matt
Speaker 1: del Vecchio. Burden of Guild's theme composed by Oliver Baines.
Speaker 1: Music library provided by my Music And For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts.