Speaker 1: A school of humans.
Speaker 2: On September nineteenth, twenty twenty three, just over nine months
Speaker 2: after William Vick was found dead on his bedroom floor
Speaker 2: in Clarksville, Arkansas, his house caught on fire. The house
Speaker 2: at nineteen fifty four County Road thirty two fifty nine
Speaker 2: was where William, his wife Laurinda, and Lorenda's mother, seventy
Speaker 2: two year old Martha MacLean, had all lived together. Martha
Speaker 2: lived in a detached house behind the property, but in
Speaker 2: a shocking twist of events, Martha had apparently tried to
Speaker 2: take her own life, and she left behind a note
Speaker 2: saying she didn't want to hurt anymore. She also left
Speaker 2: a second note confessing to William's murder. Martha wrote in
Speaker 2: her letter that she had tampered with William's prescription medication,
Speaker 2: and later she said she injected him with sex of methonium,
Speaker 2: a paralytic drug. Martha was close to death, but after
Speaker 2: police found her struggling to breathe with drugs including razapam
Speaker 2: and morphine all around her, they administered narcan on the
Speaker 2: way to the hospital, and Martha survived. She was in
Speaker 2: the hospital for around two weeks. After that, the prosecutor
Speaker 2: Jeff Phillips told William's family that he was issuing a
Speaker 2: warrant for Martha's arrest, but before that could happen, Martha
Speaker 2: MacLean was sent home from the hospital into Lorenda's care,
Speaker 2: and then just a few hours later, Martha MacLean died.
Speaker 2: After Martha's death, William's family believed that the investigation was stalling.
Speaker 2: Then they got some more shocking news, this time about
Speaker 2: William's eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars life insurance policy.
Speaker 2: William had told his children will and Ashley that each
Speaker 2: of them would be getting twenty five percent of the
Speaker 2: life insurance and that Lorenda would get the other fifty percent,
Speaker 2: but they found out after William's death that Lrenda was
Speaker 2: now the only beneficiary of that policy, meaning Lorenda would
Speaker 2: be receiving one hundred percent of the money. So it
Speaker 2: seemed to some members of William Fick's family that this
Speaker 2: investigation was on ice. The life insurance money was gone,
Speaker 2: and William's house burned to the ground under very suspicious circumstances.
Speaker 2: I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past five years of making
Speaker 2: my true crime podcast, Helen Gone, I've learned that there
Speaker 2: is no such thing as a small town where murder
Speaker 2: never happens. I have received hundreds of messages from people
Speaker 2: all around the country asking for help with an unsolved
Speaker 2: murder that's affected them, their families, and their communities. If
Speaker 2: you have a case you'd let me and my team
Speaker 2: to look into, you can reach out to us at
Speaker 2: our Helen Gone Murder line at six seven eight seven
Speaker 2: four four six one four five. That's six seven eight
Speaker 2: seven four four six one four five, or you can
Speaker 2: send us a message on Instagram at Helen Gonepod. This
Speaker 2: is Helen Gone Murder Line. We've talked to William's brother
Speaker 2: Ted and Ted's wife Michelle repeatedly about their suspicions following
Speaker 2: William's death. They had a lot of questions about Lorenda,
Speaker 2: especially after learning that Lorenda's mother, Martha, was about to
Speaker 2: be charged with William's murder. We've also heard from William's
Speaker 2: son Will will lived with William and Larenda, and in
Speaker 2: fact had left their home and moved out just a
Speaker 2: week or so before his father was found dead. Will
Speaker 2: said that Martha had never liked William, so that was established,
Speaker 2: but everyone wondered what would be Martha's motive for wanting
Speaker 2: to kill William at that time, that was something that
Speaker 2: the family just couldn't figure out. As we said earlier,
Speaker 2: Martha was close to death, but she lived, and after
Speaker 2: surviving that apparent suicide attempt, Martha was sent home to
Speaker 2: Lorenda's care. Just a few hours later, Martha was dead.
Speaker 2: William's family was reeling from his death, and then after
Speaker 2: that Martha's confession letter in her death that happened so
Speaker 2: soon afterwards, They said Lorenda was behaving in a way
Speaker 2: that made them suspicious. So over the next several months,
Speaker 2: Ted and his wife Michelle, and some other members Oflliam's
Speaker 2: family decided to do some of their own detective work.
Speaker 2: We talked in the last episode about the ongoing litigation
Speaker 2: between Farmer's Insurance company, who issued the life insurance for
Speaker 2: William Vick, and the estate of William Vick. But William's
Speaker 2: family got another surprise after his death. They learned that
Speaker 2: William's father, who had co owned the property the house
Speaker 2: was on with William and Larenda, had apparently been removed
Speaker 2: from the title to the land. This was a change
Speaker 2: that Ted claims his father was unaware of. Ted told
Speaker 2: us that he was estranged from William for around four
Speaker 2: years before his brother's death. Remember. He said that this
Speaker 2: was because William allegedly gained access to their parents' accounts.
Speaker 2: Ted said that he found evidence that both William and
Speaker 2: Larenda had spent money from the accounts. Ted and William's
Speaker 2: mother died in December of twenty eighteen. Ted said that
Speaker 2: his mother's funeral was one of the last times that
Speaker 2: he saw his brother face to face their mother died.
Speaker 2: Ted said that his father moved to Missouri to live
Speaker 2: with him and his wife, Michelle. Ted and William's father
Speaker 2: co owned the property that William and Laurinda lived on,
Speaker 2: and his name was on the title. But Ted said
Speaker 2: that after his father moved in with him, somehow his
Speaker 2: father was taken off the title to that property. Ted
Speaker 2: says that this happened without his father's knowledge, and after
Speaker 2: a period of time, Ted said that his father started
Speaker 2: getting phone calls, calls that Ted said were about the
Speaker 2: title to the house that Ted's father co owned with
Speaker 2: William and Laurinda back in Arkansas.
Speaker 1: And then my mom passed December the thirteenth of eighteen,
Speaker 1: so then I heard a little funeral that we had
Speaker 1: or not really a funeral, but going down to the
Speaker 1: the just going down to the going down to the
Speaker 1: funeral home and making the arrangement. That was probably one
Speaker 1: of the last times that we had spoke. So yeah,
Speaker 1: about a year and a half later, my dad started
Speaker 1: getting phone calls. I moved my fall up here in Missouri.
Speaker 1: We built him a little house beside us after my
Speaker 1: mom passed, and we had him moved up here by
Speaker 1: around Mark Yeah about May, yeah, April May timeframe of nineteen,
Speaker 1: so shortly after that, I think it was twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: About a year after that, Willy starts calling my dad saying, hey,
Speaker 1: we need you to sign over a quick claim beat
Speaker 1: and so, you know, Dad lets me handle all his business.
Speaker 1: And but I absolutely talked to my dad about all
Speaker 1: his business. I mean, he he's the yes or no,
Speaker 1: you know, he's the final say so. So Dad brought
Speaker 1: it to my attention. She's like, hey, I don't know why,
Speaker 1: but Willy wants to bring you know, wants me to
Speaker 1: sign a quick claim beat over to the property because
Speaker 1: my mom and dad was half owner of their property.
Speaker 1: I mean they technically owed him about seventy grand.
Speaker 2: And Ted said that William asked their father to sign
Speaker 2: over his share of the property. Ted told William that
Speaker 2: their father would not agree to that. That seemed to
Speaker 2: be the end of it.
Speaker 1: At least temporarily, And then a couple of times I
Speaker 1: received a call from one of those title companies and
Speaker 1: they were trying to get me to convince my father,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I can't convince my father. My father said, no,
Speaker 1: he's not signing over you know, Adeed, He's not signing
Speaker 1: a deed. And that was a company out of Texas.
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, then we just stopped
Speaker 1: hearing about it, probably a month and a half. Two
Speaker 1: months later, didn't hear petpe out of it anymore. So.
Speaker 2: Ted claims that somehow their father's name was removed from
Speaker 2: the title to that property, which meant that the title
Speaker 2: was in William and Larenda's names only. And this wouldn't
Speaker 2: be the last financial discrepancy that Ted said he and
Speaker 2: his family experienced in the wake of William's death. Now
Speaker 2: a lot of people may wonder why I'm going so
Speaker 2: much into the weeds of what happened with things like
Speaker 2: title changes. In addition to trying to help get justice
Speaker 2: for people. My hope for this podcast is also to
Speaker 2: help educate people. I want people to be aware that
Speaker 2: this can happen to them, that people can and do
Speaker 2: get names on things like property titles changed without the
Speaker 2: other party's knowledge, and this case really is kind of
Speaker 2: a case study in how that can happen. In order
Speaker 2: to have a valid signature, you have to rely on
Speaker 2: the credibility of one person, the notary, and as we'll
Speaker 2: soon see, that can be a serious problem. And then
Speaker 2: even more shocking was when Ted and Michelle say they've
Speaker 2: looked at the signature on that quick claim document. They
Speaker 2: insisted that Ted and William's father had never signed that document,
Speaker 2: and they were right because they talked to the notary.
Speaker 2: The notary was a friend of Lorenda's and this person
Speaker 2: told them that William's father was not present when she
Speaker 2: notarized that quick claim document.
Speaker 1: Shortly after my brother's murder, my niece's mother, just Linda,
Speaker 1: not Lorenda, my brother's first wife, calls us and says, hey,
Speaker 1: did you guys realize your dad? Your mom and dad
Speaker 1: are off the property. And I'm like, what I mean,
Speaker 1: how would she even know that? But anyway, I guess
Speaker 1: she somehow figured out that William Lorenda was able to
Speaker 1: get Mom and Dad off the property. The notary admitted it.
Speaker 1: Lorenda seeked out this notary that was also a nurse
Speaker 1: friend of hers, and she was also an oary, so
Speaker 1: she allowed Lorenda to she signed and notarized all the
Speaker 1: documents to have to quit claim deed. And then when
Speaker 1: she was confronted by me over a phone call, the
Speaker 1: notary she admitted it, and then we called the police
Speaker 1: and the prosecutor, and at the time I was still
Speaker 1: talking to the prosecutor, and so then they called her
Speaker 1: in and she gave a statement and admitted, yeah, that
Speaker 1: my father was not present and she shouldn't have allowed
Speaker 1: them to do that to the deed. Now, my brother
Speaker 1: was never said to have been there. Lreinda did set
Speaker 1: it up. And so whether my brother was there or not,
Speaker 1: I don't know if he was physically present, but I'm
Speaker 1: certain he knew about that far.
Speaker 2: Then, almost a year after William's death, which had been
Speaker 2: quickly followed by Martha's death, Ted said that he got
Speaker 2: a call on Christmas Eve in twenty twenty three from
Speaker 2: someone he didn't know, a guy who had bought fifteen
Speaker 2: acres of land from Laurinda after William died, and this
Speaker 2: man said that William's house had burned to the ground.
Speaker 2: On Christmas Eve in twenty twenty three, Ted got a
Speaker 2: Facebook message followed by a phone call from a stranger.
Speaker 2: That's when he says things got even more surreal.
Speaker 1: After my brother's murder. I get a Facebook message from
Speaker 1: my brother's neighbor. They bought fifteen acres off Florinda after
Speaker 1: my brother's murder. But I get a message for him saying, hey,
Speaker 1: do you mind if we talk? We really want to
Speaker 1: you know, Lrenda's kind of sketchy right now. We want
Speaker 1: to talk to you guys. I'm like sure a call,
Speaker 1: and in that conversation was in about twenty minutes, he
Speaker 1: tells us the house burned down. I'm like when, and
Speaker 1: he's like, it was September the nineteenth, But it depends
Speaker 1: on what fire report you look at, because I think
Speaker 1: it was really close to midnight because I saw I
Speaker 1: did see one fire report said September the twentieth, and
Speaker 1: then I saw when it said September the nineteenth. But
Speaker 1: according to him, it was September the nineteenth of twenty three.
Speaker 2: Ted says that he absolutely believed that William knew about
Speaker 2: his father not being present when the document taking him
Speaker 2: off the title of the property was notarized, but he
Speaker 2: believes that William did not know about the beneficiary change
Speaker 2: in his life insurance policy. Ted says that he believes
Speaker 2: that Lrenda forged William's signature on that document just.
Speaker 1: To say, Lrenda also used that same notary to forge
Speaker 1: my brother's name off or not off, but basically to
Speaker 1: take my niece and nephew off of that life insurance policy.
Speaker 1: The same notary did the same yep, and now Willy
Speaker 1: was not present for that because his name was forged. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he had no clue that his kids were coming off
Speaker 1: the life insurance policy. He had literally just messaged my
Speaker 1: niece and nephew because they didn't have this policy for
Speaker 1: very long. I mean just months, you know, months before
Speaker 1: his murder. So anyway, she got with her little buddy
Speaker 1: and got that set up and got their names off
Speaker 1: the life insurance policy where she was one beneficiary.
Speaker 2: We've seen the act, David, that the notary swore to
Speaker 2: the one admitting that William and Ted's father was not
Speaker 2: present when that quick claim deed was signed, and I
Speaker 2: also want to mention something else, Ted pointed out. The
Speaker 2: notary who basically admitted to fraud because she admitted that
Speaker 2: Ted and Williams's father was not present when the quick
Speaker 2: claim deed was signed. Is the same notary who notarized
Speaker 2: those life insurance beneficiary policy changes, the ones that now
Speaker 2: meant Lrenda got one hundred percent of the life insurance money.
Speaker 2: And there was more alleged insurance fraud to come because
Speaker 2: on September twentieth, a day after the house fire, Lorenda
Speaker 2: filed a claim on her homeowner's insurance policy was State Farm.
Speaker 2: A fire investigator who was a State Farm representative came
Speaker 2: out to examine the home and in their report it
Speaker 2: was stated the property quote suffered complete collapse and prolonged
Speaker 2: burning of all structural components and contents end quote. Lorenda
Speaker 2: said she was out of state at the time of
Speaker 2: the house fire, but she gave State Farm, the insurance company,
Speaker 2: a list of property that she claimed was lost in
Speaker 2: the fire. She said that the property had an estimated
Speaker 2: value of eighty two thousand, eight hundred and six dollars.
Speaker 2: By the way, this is all according to the affidavit.
Speaker 2: State Farm reviewed the list. They lowered the estimate a
Speaker 2: little bit. They calculated the loss based on Lorenda's list
Speaker 2: at sixty one thousand, four hundred and nine dollars and
Speaker 2: seven cents. So they paid Lorenda out. They gave her
Speaker 2: two payments of five thousand dollars each, and then another
Speaker 2: payment of fifteen thousand dollars. They gave her more additional checks,
Speaker 2: one for almost nine thousand dollars. That one was meant
Speaker 2: to replace the value of an antique govern one of
Speaker 2: the items on her list, and then another final check
Speaker 2: for another twenty seven thousand dollars. Meanwhile, Ted was getting
Speaker 2: frustrated by what he saw as a lack of progress
Speaker 2: in his brother's death investigation. So after having conversations with
Speaker 2: the process Cocuter, Ted said he believed that the prosecutor
Speaker 2: seemed to be uninterested in pursuing the fraud charges, so
Speaker 2: he made a call himself to the Arkansas Insurance Department's
Speaker 2: Criminal Investigation Division. Sue Johnston picked up the phone. She
Speaker 2: was an insurance investigator, and she started looking into the case.
Speaker 2: As y'all know, we talk a lot about cold cases
Speaker 2: every single day. I talk to families that are frustrated
Speaker 2: about lack of progress in these investigations. And one avenue
Speaker 2: that families ask about a lot is civil court. They
Speaker 2: want to know, can you file a lawsuit against the
Speaker 2: person you suspect may be involved in a murder? And
Speaker 2: the answer is yes, sometimes you can. Sometimes justice starts
Speaker 2: with following the money. She actually went around and interviewed
Speaker 2: Lorenda's neighbors, and the neighbor said Lorenda did not have
Speaker 2: the items she put on her list in the house
Speaker 2: at the time of the fire. The neighbor said they
Speaker 2: knew this because this person and several other people had
Speaker 2: actually helped Larinda move all this stuff out. That's confirmed
Speaker 2: by the affidavit that before the fire, Lorenda had several
Speaker 2: people help her move a lot of stuff outside, including
Speaker 2: some of the stuff that was in her itemized list
Speaker 2: that she provided the insurance company. The people who helped
Speaker 2: Lorenda remove those items from the house are part of
Speaker 2: public record. They were interviewed by the investigator, Sue Johnson.
Speaker 2: According to the affidavit, the interior of the house was
Speaker 2: basically empty when the fire happened. These people told the
Speaker 2: investigator they had helped Lorenda move and that except for
Speaker 2: a mattress on the floor and some toiletries, that house
Speaker 2: was empty. So a claim specialist was asked to recalculate
Speaker 2: the personal property loss based on the testimony of these people.
Speaker 2: They figured out that Lorenda was overpaid by over thirty
Speaker 2: two thousand dollars. In the affidavit, it stated quote between
Speaker 2: October six, twenty twenty three, through November eleven to twenty three,
Speaker 2: Lorenda Vick committed theft of property when she was paid
Speaker 2: by State Farm Insurance for items she included in her
Speaker 2: claim that she alleged were destroyed in a fire that
Speaker 2: were not actually present at the time of the fire.
Speaker 1: End quote.
Speaker 2: A bench warrant for Lorenda's arrest was issued on December third.
Speaker 2: On December third, twenty twenty four, a warrant was issued
Speaker 2: for Lorenda's arrest on the charges of felony theft of
Speaker 2: property related to the alleged taking of property out of
Speaker 2: her house prior to the fire. Now, because these charges
Speaker 2: involved theft of property valued at over twenty five thousand dollars,
Speaker 2: it's a Class B felony in the state of Arkansas.
Speaker 2: If convicted, Lorenda could face five to twenty years in prison.
Speaker 1: And a fine of.
Speaker 2: Up to fifteen thousand dollars. From what we've been able
Speaker 2: to figure out, it seems that currently Lrenda is in Louisiana.
Speaker 2: That's where she lived before and apparently where she moved
Speaker 2: back to after William died. The authorities have been notified
Speaker 2: and there is a warrant out. Ted started the Facebook
Speaker 2: page Justice for William Vick. He has been doing media
Speaker 2: outreach since William's death and it's been working. Local newspapers
Speaker 2: have picked up the story. On Thursday, December fifth, twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four, the headline in the Courier newspaper read Johnston
Speaker 2: County woman accused of theft of property. The main story
Speaker 2: in the paper was about the alleged insurance fraud and
Speaker 2: the over thirty two thousand dollars that Lareinda allegedly took
Speaker 2: from State Farm. So what's happening with the case now?
Speaker 2: According to Ted and Michelle, the prosecutor, Jeff Phillips said
Speaker 2: that pressing charges against Martha would not stop him from
Speaker 2: filing charges against Larenda or anyone else if he suspected
Speaker 2: that they were involved in William's death. But since Martha died,
Speaker 2: there doesn't appear to have been a lot of movement
Speaker 2: on this case. So does the prosecutors still plan on
Speaker 2: filing criminals charges against Larinda. We don't know for sure,
Speaker 2: and the prosecutor has not answered our request for comment.
Speaker 2: As we said last week, the life insurance money from
Speaker 2: William's farmer's insurance policy amounts to eight hundred and forty
Speaker 2: four thousand dollars. Meanwhile, that money is sitting in an
Speaker 2: account and is the property of the Arkansas court system
Speaker 2: until this case is adjudicated. Basically, it's stuck now. I
Speaker 2: want to point out again, and this is very important,
Speaker 2: we are only hearing one side of the story. We
Speaker 2: haven't heard Lorenda's. She's under no obligation to talk to anyone.
Speaker 2: No charges have been pressed against her or anyone else.
Speaker 2: No arrests have been made in connection with William's homicide.
Speaker 2: We have contacted Lorenda. She told us she did not
Speaker 2: want to comment, and she referred us to her attorney.
Speaker 2: We contacted her attorney for comment and so far we
Speaker 2: have not received a response. Ted did win another legal
Speaker 2: victory when he won a judgment against Larnda for the
Speaker 2: land that his father had co owned with William and Larnda.
Speaker 2: On October twenty third, Ted posted an update on the
Speaker 2: Justice for William Vick facebook page. He wrote that there
Speaker 2: had been a property auction and that he and his
Speaker 2: family had purchased the land to keep it in the family.
Speaker 2: He wrote, quote, selling on the courthouse steps just doesn't
Speaker 2: bring the most dollar, but that is absolutely okay with me.
Speaker 2: One thing I can say is Larenda said I would
Speaker 2: never own that land. Guess she was wrong. Not only
Speaker 2: do we own the property. There is still a sixty
Speaker 2: thousand dollars judgment against her for stealing from my father,
Speaker 2: but she has been wrong in a lot of things.
Speaker 1: End quote.
Speaker 2: In March of twenty twenty four, the judge awarded Ted
Speaker 2: and his family sixty thousand dollars for that land. He
Speaker 2: says he doubts Laarnda will ever pay that judgment, but
Speaker 2: he considers it a moral victory. The civil cases against
Speaker 2: Larenda continued. Her next court date was set for later
Speaker 2: in December, and a warrant has been issued for her arrest. Sadly,
Speaker 2: the fraud case for just over thirty thousand dollars is
Speaker 2: moving faster than the potential murder case. So far, no
Speaker 2: one has been arrested or charged in connection with William
Speaker 2: Vick's homicide. That story in the Courier about the civil
Speaker 2: charges filed against Lorenda closes with the line quote at
Speaker 2: press time, Lorenda Vick has not been taken into custody.
Speaker 2: End quote. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line.
Speaker 2: Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of School of
Speaker 2: Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me
Speaker 2: Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts. Special thanks to
Speaker 2: Amy Tubbs for her research assistance. Noah camer mixed and
Speaker 2: scored this episode. Our theme song is by Ben Salep,
Speaker 2: Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and L. C. Crowley.
Speaker 2: Listen to Helen Gone ad free by subscribing to the
Speaker 2: iHeart True Crime Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you
Speaker 2: are interested in seeing documents and materials from the case,
Speaker 2: you can follow the show on Instagram at Helen gonpod.
Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight
Speaker 2: seven four four six one four five. That's six seven
Speaker 2: eight seven four four six one four five
Speaker 1: School of Humans,