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Speaker 1: So, Maggie, what about you?

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Speaker 2: Is there anything that could make you confess to a

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Speaker 2: time you didn't commit.

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Speaker 3: I don't have kids, but I imagine, you know, maybe

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Speaker 3: a situation where I would be looking to save somebody

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Speaker 3: that I knew was for sure innocent, like a child

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Speaker 3: or maybe even my mom, or you know, maybe there

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Speaker 3: wouldn't be a situation where I would falsely confess to

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Speaker 3: something to save somebody.

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Speaker 4: I had reached a point where I felt so beaten

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Speaker 4: down after seeing my son and daughter go through a

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Speaker 4: mental breakdown. I had just decided I'm just going to

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Speaker 4: tell them whatever they want to.

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Speaker 5: Hear from LoVa for good. This is wrongful. Can with

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Speaker 5: Maggie Freeling today Marnie Yang. On October fourth, two thousand

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Speaker 5: and seven, forty two year old Ronnie Ryder was going

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Speaker 5: about her morning at her apartment in Deerfield, Illinois. Suddenly,

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Speaker 5: neighbors heard a short scream, loud bangs, and a crash,

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Speaker 5: followed by silence. When police arrived, they found Ronnie lying

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Speaker 5: face down on her kitchen floor in a pool of blood.

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Speaker 5: A single bullet wound to the back of her head

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Speaker 5: was the cause of death. She had also been shot

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Speaker 5: two times in the stomach. Ronnie was seven months pregnant.

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Speaker 5: The bullets killed her unborn child. At the crime scene,

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Speaker 5: police found no indication of a struggle, nor were any

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Speaker 5: items missing from the house. But what they did find

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Speaker 5: was a threatening note inside Ronnie's purse discussing her boyfriend

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Speaker 5: and baby's father, Sean Gail. Gail was a major NFL

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Speaker 5: star for the Chicago Bears, and he and Ronnie have

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Speaker 5: been dating for seventeen years. The note mentioned Gail's alleged

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Speaker 5: affairs with sixteen other women, including Marnie Yang. Because she

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Speaker 5: was on that list, police interviewed Marnie about the murder.

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Speaker 5: They immediately honed in on her as a suspect. They

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Speaker 5: eventually arrested her, believing she was a jealous girlfriend willing

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Speaker 5: to commit murder to be with Gail, but none of

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Speaker 5: the forensic evidence led back to Marnie. In fact, the

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Speaker 5: neighbor said they saw a man running from the scene

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Speaker 5: of the crime.

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Speaker 4: At the time, I believed in the justice system. I

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Speaker 4: believed that the law would do the right thing. I

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Speaker 4: no longer believe that this was a huge wake up call.

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Speaker 4: My name is Marty Yang. I've been wrongfully convicted for

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Speaker 4: thirteen years.

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Speaker 5: Marnie Yang was born December twenty ninth, nineteen sixty seven

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Speaker 5: to Larry and Francine Marar and grew up in Skokee, Illinois.

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Speaker 5: She's the oldest of three children.

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Speaker 4: We grew up in basically a standard two parent household

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Speaker 4: for the day. You know. My mother stayed home and

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Speaker 4: raised us until we were a little bit older, and

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Speaker 4: then she went to work for my father's company, and

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Speaker 4: we had pretty much a standard childhood, I guess.

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Speaker 5: Marnie graduated from Niles North High School in nineteen eighty

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Speaker 5: six and went on to college at Illinois State University.

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Speaker 5: That's where she met her husband, Yen Yang.

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Speaker 4: I wouldn't exactly call it a blind date, because we

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Speaker 4: knew each other in passing, but we were introduced formally

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Speaker 4: by a mutual friend and we began dating. In college.

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Speaker 5: Marnie got pregnant and gave birth to twins, Emily and

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Speaker 5: Andrew in nineteen ninety one. Their younger brother, Brandon, was

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Speaker 5: born four years later. A couple of years after that,

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Speaker 5: Marnie and her husband divorced.

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Speaker 4: I was a single parent by the time Brandon, my youngest,

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Speaker 4: was an infant, and it was difficult financially. I always

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Speaker 4: had to work like three jobs, but it was very,

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Speaker 4: very rewarding. My children are amazing.

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Speaker 2: My mom. She was a good person.

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Speaker 5: This is Emily Marnie's daughter.

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Speaker 2: Whatever dream we had, she would help us pursue it.

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Speaker 2: She was very supportive. She would take care of our

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Speaker 2: friends in the neighborhood kids whenever they got hurt.

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Speaker 5: Emily especially remembers her mom loving animals.

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Speaker 2: I remember her always bringing in stray dogs, cats, even squirrels.

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Speaker 2: We had central air in the back, and I remember

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Speaker 2: there was a baby squirrel stuck under it, and I

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Speaker 2: put a laundry basket over it and put some water

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Speaker 2: and some snacks, and I left it there. And when

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Speaker 2: I came back, it wasn't there anymore, and I was confused,

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Speaker 2: and I found out that my mom had brought it inside.

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Speaker 5: Oh and did you guys keep it?

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Speaker 2: We did. We'd bring it to the vet and everything.

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Speaker 5: Marnie worked in real estate, but she wasn't making enough

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Speaker 5: to support three kids on her own, so she picked

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Speaker 5: up jobs here and there. She worked as a waitress,

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Speaker 5: and she was an aspiring fitness model too, so she

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Speaker 5: occasionally did photoshoots on the side. In two thousand and five,

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Speaker 5: Marnie was working a security job at a Chicago Bears

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Speaker 5: convention when a man introduced himself as Sean Gale. She

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Speaker 5: later learned he was a defensive back in the NFL

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Speaker 5: and a Super Bowl champion. He was a major celebrity

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Speaker 5: in the football world.

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Speaker 4: I mean, at the time, it didn't mean anything to me.

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Speaker 4: I'm not a sports fan. I don't care. I mean,

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Speaker 4: I was there working a job, but I kept seeing

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Speaker 4: him throughout the weekend, and he kept talking to me

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Speaker 4: and passing. So we started a conversation. Because I was

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Speaker 4: also working in real estate at the time. It turned

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Speaker 4: out that he said he was looking for some property,

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Speaker 4: and I gave him my business card. He called me

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Speaker 4: just a couple hours after the convention was over, and

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Speaker 4: that's how we met. You know, we had started out

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Speaker 4: talking about real estate. It really was not very long

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Speaker 4: before he made the move towards a personal relationship.

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Speaker 5: Marnie and Sean started spending time together, but she didn't

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Speaker 5: consider their relationship all that serious, and her life was

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Speaker 5: full enough already.

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Speaker 4: I had three jobs, I had three kids. You know,

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Speaker 4: it wasn't really something that I concerned myself with all

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Speaker 4: that much. You know, I was doing me and living

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Speaker 4: my life. He was doing him and living his life.

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Speaker 5: She says it was a casual relationship that was never exclusive.

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Speaker 5: She always expected he would be seeing other women too.

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Speaker 5: One of those women was Ronnie Rider, who had been

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Speaker 5: dating Gaile for seventeen years. They met in Platteville, Wisconsin,

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Speaker 5: while Gaile was practicing with the Bears. Eventually, Ronnie left

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Speaker 5: the small town she was living in to move to

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Speaker 5: Chicago to be closer to Gayle. On October fourth, two

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Speaker 5: thousand and seven, Ronnie, who was now seven months pregnant,

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Speaker 5: was getting ready to leave her apartment for the day.

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Speaker 5: At seven fifty am, her downstairs neighbor heard footsteps in

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Speaker 5: Ronnie's kitchen. At seven fifty two, another neighbor leaving for work,

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Speaker 5: saw a black male walk up the stairs to Ronnie's building.

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Speaker 5: About a minute later, the neighbors heard a short scream

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Speaker 5: and loud banging sounds what they described as a pop, pop,

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Speaker 5: and a crash, and then silence. One of the neighbors

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Speaker 5: saw a black man run through the parking lot, get

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Speaker 5: into a black car, and drive away. Another called Ronnie's phone,

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Speaker 5: but no one answered, so they called nine one one.

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Speaker 5: When police arrived, they found Ronnie Writer laying face down

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Speaker 5: on her kitchen floor in a pool of blood. There

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Speaker 5: were multiple blunt force injuries to her head, and she

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Speaker 5: had been shot seven times. A single shot to the

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Speaker 5: back of her head was the immediate cause of death.

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Speaker 5: Ronnie had also been shot twice in the stomach, killing

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Speaker 5: her unborn baby. Police found no indication of a struggle,

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Speaker 5: and nothing was missing from the house. What they did

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Speaker 5: find were fingerprints on the doorknobs, which later returned without

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Speaker 5: a match. Most importantly, though, police found a letter inside

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Speaker 5: Ronnie's purse. It said that Ronnie should know that her

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Speaker 5: boyfriend was cheating on her. The author of the letter

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Speaker 5: wrote that Gail was spreading diseases and seeing other women

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Speaker 5: all around the world. At the end of the letter,

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Speaker 5: the author listed the names of sixteen other women, including Marnie,

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Speaker 5: who Gail was apparently sleeping with.

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Speaker 4: I never expected it to be exclusive relationships. I just

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Speaker 4: I never found out until much much later that there

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Speaker 4: were quite as many women as there were.

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Speaker 5: Marnie herself found out about all these other women well

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Speaker 5: before the crime, when she also began receiving these letters.

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Speaker 5: In April two thousand and six, Marnie received numerous harassing

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Speaker 5: phone calls, and then in May of that year, the

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Speaker 5: letters came.

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Speaker 4: I mean, I was getting letters in the mail based

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Speaker 4: on you know, it was basically lists of names and

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Speaker 4: phone numbers and information on who these women were. If

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Speaker 4: I wanted to know who these women are, you know,

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Speaker 4: what am I dealing with here? I have children, and

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Speaker 4: is there anybody or anything within the letters that I

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Speaker 4: I was getting that would indicate that there was something

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Speaker 4: that I need to be worried about?

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Speaker 5: So she started researching who these women were through online

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Speaker 5: background checks. She says she wanted to make sure that

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Speaker 5: her family was safe, but this would later come back

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Speaker 5: to bite her. Eventually, the harassment extended beyond letters and

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Speaker 5: phone calls. One day in two thousand and six, when

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Speaker 5: Marnie was leaving Gail's house, she found dog feces smeared

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Speaker 5: all over the door handle of her car, and her

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Speaker 5: wiper blades were damaged.

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Speaker 4: You know. At one point, I actually received a note

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Speaker 4: that was left on my garage door saying you are

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Speaker 4: next or I'm coming for you next, or something like that.

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Speaker 5: One time, Marnie remembers she was out with Gail and

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Speaker 5: he mentioned a woman he had gotten pregnant.

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Speaker 4: He told her that he would take care of his

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Speaker 4: financial responsibilities in this matter, but that he was not

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Speaker 4: going to allow it to affect his life under any circumstances.

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Speaker 4: And that's a direct quote that much I do remember.

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Speaker 4: I think his exact words were that it was way

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Speaker 4: too late for him to do anything about it. So

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Speaker 4: he made it sound like whoever this woman was had

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Speaker 4: already had a child and come back to him later

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Speaker 4: with her basically with their handout looking for money.

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Speaker 5: After Ronnie's murder, Gail was immediately questioned by police. At

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Speaker 5: the time of the crime around eight am. Gail's whereabouts

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Speaker 5: are unknown. He didn't have an alibi until around ten am,

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Speaker 5: when he arrived at LeRoy's barber shop for a haircut.

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Speaker 5: According to police interviews, Leroy, Gail's barber said that this

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Speaker 5: was unusual. He never got his haircut in the morning.

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Speaker 5: For seventeen years, he had been going to LeRoy's for

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Speaker 5: haircuts always in the afternoon. Around one pm, after talking

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Speaker 5: with Gail, police stopped pursuing an investigation on him. Instead,

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Speaker 5: they turned their attention to interviewing his numerous alleged girlfriends,

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Speaker 5: including Marnie.

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Speaker 4: I thought to myself, well, I'm sure everybody's a suspect.

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Speaker 4: I'm sure they're going to be questioning everybody. This is

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Speaker 4: a horrible, horrible crime, and I basically just felt like, well,

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Speaker 4: since we have nothing to hide, then you know, let

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Speaker 4: him ask questions. I had no clue at the time

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Speaker 4: it was going to snowball into anything like this.

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Speaker 5: This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.

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Speaker 5: AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making

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Speaker 5: a positive difference in the lives of its employees and

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Speaker 5: the communities where we work and live. In light of

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Speaker 5: the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and in

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Speaker 5: recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform,

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Speaker 5: the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and

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Speaker 5: other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. Police also interviewed

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Speaker 5: Barnie's children, and they zeroed in on Marnie's sixteen year

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Speaker 5: old son, Andrew, five days after Ronnie and her unborn

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Speaker 5: baby were killed. Andrew became a suspect when police reviewed

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Speaker 5: his school attendance records and discovered that he hadn't been

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Speaker 5: in school the day of the murder. Now the heat

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Speaker 5: was on Marnie and her family. They were blindsided.

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Speaker 4: I didn't see at the time that this was going

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Speaker 4: to become some sort of twisted torture campaign.

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Speaker 5: Marnie and her kids were extensively interviewed for day and

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Speaker 5: hours on end.

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Speaker 2: The police had taken my brothers and I from our

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Speaker 2: house and brought us in.

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Speaker 5: Officers George Falenko, Scott Frost, and Charles Schleitz started asking

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Speaker 5: Mornie's kids about their relationship with their mom.

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Speaker 2: I told them that my mom and I didn't have

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Speaker 2: the best relationship. I as a young girl, I blamed

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Speaker 2: her for my mom and dad divorcing. And from there,

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Speaker 2: I think, in hindsight, they manipulated me. They told me

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Speaker 2: that my brother and my mom both committed the murder together.

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Speaker 2: They specifically told me that they knew that my mom

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Speaker 2: had weapons, and that my mom and my brother cemented

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Speaker 2: the murder weapon and a bucket and through it at

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Speaker 2: the bottom of Lake Michigan.

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Speaker 5: And so you are sixteen and you believe what the

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Speaker 5: police say.

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Speaker 2: Of course, they really got into my head and they

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Speaker 2: made me believe it.

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Speaker 5: Emily says the officers were relentless during interrogation.

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Speaker 2: They questioned me for twelve hours straight and I kept

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Speaker 2: saying that I don't know anything. And you know, after

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Speaker 2: twelve hours of saying I don't know, it really broke me.

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Speaker 2: I started banging my head on the table. They would

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Speaker 2: not take I don't know for an answer, you know.

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Speaker 2: And once I started banging my head, I get to

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Speaker 2: the table. Is when they left the room.

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Speaker 5: Emily thinks this is when they started trying to figure

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Speaker 5: out how to get her to talk.

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Speaker 2: I hadn't seen my dad in eight years. When he left.

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Speaker 2: He he said he was moving out of the state

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Speaker 2: to go live with his brothers in Massachusetts. And he

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Speaker 2: said I'll call you when I get there. And I

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Speaker 2: never heard from him again after that.

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Speaker 5: The officers told Emily they would find her father for

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Speaker 5: her if she wrote a statement. And seeing your dad

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Speaker 5: was something you wanted.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. It was a dream for me, you know.

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Speaker 2: So when they said, well, we can find them for you,

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Speaker 2: I I jumped out. I'm jumped at it, you know.

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Speaker 5: So Emily wrote a statement. Afterwards, she said officers Frost

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Speaker 5: and Schletts ripped it up and said it wasn't good enough.

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Speaker 5: She wrote another statement, but it still didn't meet their approval. Finally,

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Speaker 5: Emily says she wrote what they wanted her to say. Andrew,

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Speaker 5: Emily's twin brother, also in a similar position, but he

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Speaker 5: actually ended up being accused of the murder. He said

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Speaker 5: Officer Flenko threatened him by saying, quote, one of you

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Speaker 5: are going to prison for the rest of your life.

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Speaker 5: Will it be you or your mother.

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Speaker 4: It was so bad that it got to the point

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Speaker 4: where it drove Andrew to a mental breakdown. We had

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Speaker 4: to put him in a psychiatric hospital for two weeks,

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Speaker 4: and as a result of that, his twin sister also

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Speaker 4: ended up having a breakdown and she was in the

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Speaker 4: hospital for a week. That's what these people did to

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Speaker 4: my family.

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Speaker 5: Emily missed her prom because she was in a psychiatric hospital. Eventually,

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Speaker 5: Marnie said enough.

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Speaker 4: I had reached a point where I felt so beaten down.

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Speaker 4: There was nobody that could help me at that point.

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Speaker 4: My parents couldn't help They couldn't protect us. My attorney

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Speaker 4: couldn't seem to protect us. I couldn't go to the

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Speaker 4: police again. They were the ones that were terrorizing us.

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Speaker 4: After seeing my son and daughter go through a mental breakdown,

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Speaker 4: I had just decided I'm just going to tell them

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Speaker 4: whatever they want to hear.

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Speaker 5: Marnie found her opportunity one day when a business associate,

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Speaker 5: Christie Passion, reached out inviting her to meet at Denny's.

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00:19:54,480 --> 00:19:56,879
Speaker 5: Marnie knew the police had talked to Christy and figured

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Speaker 5: she could find out some information from her. At the restaurant,

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Speaker 5: Marnie noticed that Christy was wearing a wire. It was

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Speaker 5: sticking out of her coat. So Marnie decided this was

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Speaker 5: her chance to save her son by falsely confessing to

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Speaker 5: the murder.

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Speaker 1: I remember.

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00:20:16,040 --> 00:20:23,120
Speaker 4: Giving my perception of how the crime played out based

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00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:27,439
Speaker 4: on the multiple interrogations that the police had done with

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Speaker 4: me and the information that I had picked up from

293
00:20:30,400 --> 00:20:36,520
Speaker 4: there from media accounts, you know, things like that, and

294
00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:39,760
Speaker 4: come to find out later a lot of what I

295
00:20:39,800 --> 00:20:42,240
Speaker 4: said was not even completely accurate.

296
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Speaker 5: Marnie left out Andrew and her made up version of

297
00:20:46,359 --> 00:20:49,320
Speaker 5: events since she wanted to protect him and she alone.

298
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Speaker 5: Was arrested in early two thousand and nine. She was

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Speaker 5: charged with the first degree murder of Ronnie Ryder and

300
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Speaker 5: intentional homicide of an unborn child. The trial started in

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00:21:08,359 --> 00:21:12,160
Speaker 5: early March and lasted two weeks. The prosecutor was Assistant

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Speaker 5: state's attorney Patricia Fix. As there was no forensic evidence

303
00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:21,280
Speaker 5: implicating Marnie, the prosecution presented largely circumstantial evidence at trial.

304
00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:24,200
Speaker 5: Among them was a video from a shell gas station

305
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Speaker 5: showing a black Volkswagen fleeing from the scene of the crime,

306
00:21:27,960 --> 00:21:30,879
Speaker 5: which they said was the exact car Marnie had rented

307
00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:34,679
Speaker 5: that week for a modeling job. They also tried to

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00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:37,040
Speaker 5: prove to the jury that a silencer was used on

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Speaker 5: the gun that killed Ronnie, and that Marnie must have

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Speaker 5: built a homemade silencer from items she purchased at home depot.

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Speaker 5: Then there were the background checks Marnie had done on

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Speaker 5: the women named in the letters, and of course Marnie's

313
00:21:54,520 --> 00:21:58,479
Speaker 5: alleged confession. The prosecution also attempted to show that Marnie

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00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:01,760
Speaker 5: had sent the threatening letters herself self. They cited several

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00:22:01,800 --> 00:22:05,639
Speaker 5: unsent letters nearly identical to the one found in Ronnie's purse,

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Speaker 5: and address labels they claim or found in Marnie's home office.

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00:22:12,080 --> 00:22:15,720
Speaker 5: Gil's own testimony also became evidence use against Marnie, as

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Speaker 5: did the testimony for Marnie's daughter Emily.

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Speaker 2: The prosecutor, Pat Fix, came in right before I testified,

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Speaker 2: and she said, you have to to testify on everything

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Speaker 2: you made in your statement, otherwise you're going to get

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Speaker 2: in trouble.

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Speaker 5: So Emily took the stand against her mom.

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Speaker 4: The state's attorney basically forced her to testify, forced her

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Speaker 4: to give fast testimony on top of it.

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Speaker 5: Marnie's defense attorneys were Jeffrey Lerner and William Hedrick. Their

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Speaker 5: main defense was to cast doubt on Christie's credibility as

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Speaker 5: well as point out that the investtigation was not thorough.

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Speaker 5: They argued that it focused too quickly on Marnie and

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Speaker 5: her family instead of following other possible suspects. This was

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Speaker 5: the extent of their defense for Marnie.

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Speaker 4: And I really believed that once we got to court,

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Speaker 4: I really believed that the evidence, or lack thereof, would

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Speaker 4: speak for itself and that the justice system would do

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Speaker 4: the right thing. I had no clue that they were

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Speaker 4: going to take all of these everyday things that were

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00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:39,840
Speaker 4: never really evidence in the first place and twist them

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Speaker 4: into something nefarious.

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Speaker 5: With a weak defense against the state's arguments. On March fifteenth,

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Speaker 5: twenty eleven, Marnie Yang was found guilty of the murders

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Speaker 5: of Ronnie Ryder and her unborn child. She was sentenced

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00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:01,200
Speaker 5: to two concurrent terms of imprisonment and for the drivation

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00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:05,480
Speaker 5: of her natural life without the possibility of parole. She

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00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:15,960
Speaker 5: was thirty nine years old. During her thirteen years of incarceration,

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Speaker 5: Marnie has refused to let the system drag her down.

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Speaker 4: I made a decision when I first got incarcerated, and

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Speaker 4: I reminded myself that I have no choice about being here.

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Speaker 4: I don't have the option to just get up and leave.

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Speaker 4: But what I do have is the option of allowing

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00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:43,640
Speaker 4: it to consume me and eat me up inside and

351
00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:48,639
Speaker 4: become bitter and angry, or I can use this time

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00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:53,199
Speaker 4: as positively and productively as possible. And I feel like

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Speaker 4: that's what I've done. I'm a math teacher. I teach math,

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Speaker 4: you know, and I try to have as pos of

355
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Speaker 4: an impact on my immediate community as I can. But

356
00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:07,840
Speaker 4: it's still a very difficult environment.

357
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Speaker 5: Marnie has filed several appeals during her time in prison,

358
00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:16,040
Speaker 5: but all have been denied. But in early twenty fourteen,

359
00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:19,760
Speaker 5: Jed Stone of Stone and Associates came on the case.

360
00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:25,040
Speaker 5: Jed immediately noticed glaring hallmarks of a wrongful conviction. Starting

361
00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:27,920
Speaker 5: with the police force in Lake County, Illinois.

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Speaker 1: What do we know about the Lake County Major Crimes

363
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Speaker 1: Task Force? They have been responsible for a myriad of

364
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Speaker 1: wrongful convictions, documented wrongful convictions. Lake County was the epicenter

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Speaker 1: of wrongful convictions in the United States.

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Speaker 5: And Jed can name plenty of examples of that.

367
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Speaker 1: Alejandro Dominguez is a freeman today, exonerated and wrongfully convicted.

368
00:25:57,119 --> 00:26:03,160
Speaker 1: Juan Rivera is a freeman today, exonerated and conviction reversed.

369
00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:10,480
Speaker 1: Benny Starks exonerated and free after a wrongful conviction, Jason

370
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:13,040
Speaker 1: Strong the same, all.

371
00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:16,119
Speaker 5: Out of Lake County where Marnie was convicted. Jed believes

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00:26:16,119 --> 00:26:20,240
Speaker 5: that Marnie's conviction fits into this pattern, particularly her confession.

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Speaker 1: There are hallmarks of false confessions. A number of wrongful

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Speaker 1: convictions come about because of a confession or statement by

375
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Speaker 1: the accused that at first blush implicates them in the crime,

376
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Speaker 1: but on careful analysis is shown to be a false confession,

377
00:26:46,640 --> 00:26:50,440
Speaker 1: and no one did that at Marnie's trial. Her description

378
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:54,600
Speaker 1: of the physical promises was wrong, her description of the

379
00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:58,560
Speaker 1: order of bullets fired was wrong, and the way the

380
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:01,760
Speaker 1: body was found as well as the way the body

381
00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:08,680
Speaker 1: must have fallen was wrong. Those immutable mistakes of fact

382
00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:11,520
Speaker 1: are evidence of a false confession.

383
00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:15,720
Speaker 5: So Jed's team hired a false confessions expert to evaluate

384
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Speaker 5: Marny's confession. David Thompson of Wicklander and Associates.

385
00:27:20,040 --> 00:27:22,720
Speaker 1: Yes, in fact, there are so many of them that

386
00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:27,400
Speaker 1: they are now international experts in this area, and he concludes,

387
00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:31,640
Speaker 1: and concludes correctly, that this has all of the hallmarks

388
00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:33,199
Speaker 1: of a false confession.

389
00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:37,320
Speaker 5: Another thing Jed points out were false claims made by

390
00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:41,800
Speaker 5: prosecutor Patricia Fix as well as by police officers including

391
00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:44,960
Speaker 5: George Falenko, Scott Frost, and Charles Schlitz.

392
00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:50,680
Speaker 1: The state claims that when the police executed a search warrant,

393
00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:59,040
Speaker 1: they found address labels in Marnie's apartment. I've seen how

394
00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:03,760
Speaker 1: the police are trained to execute a search warrant and

395
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:10,200
Speaker 1: how they in fact execute search warrants. They document everything.

396
00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:16,080
Speaker 1: There was no photograph of address labels. That struck me

397
00:28:16,720 --> 00:28:17,800
Speaker 1: as so curious.

398
00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:22,080
Speaker 5: Jed believes the address labels never existed, and the quote

399
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:25,800
Speaker 5: unsent letters prosecutors said were found in Marnie's home were

400
00:28:26,040 --> 00:28:29,240
Speaker 5: very simply the letters that Marnie had also been receiving.

401
00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:35,080
Speaker 1: These police officers should not, must not, cannot be trusted,

402
00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:39,320
Speaker 1: and the fact that these labels were never photographed is

403
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:42,920
Speaker 1: damning as to their reliability and truthfulness.

404
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:46,400
Speaker 5: There was also evidence that was never presented at trial

405
00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:50,360
Speaker 5: that is exculpatory for Marnie, like the fingerprints which were

406
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:53,040
Speaker 5: tested and did not match her. There was no evidence

407
00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:56,920
Speaker 5: of Marnie ever being at Ronnie's home. Marnie's new team

408
00:28:56,920 --> 00:29:00,000
Speaker 5: of experts also investigated other claims the state made it

409
00:29:00,760 --> 00:29:03,480
Speaker 5: including that her rental car was seen on a gas

410
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:06,280
Speaker 5: station surveillance camera near the crime scene.

411
00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:11,719
Speaker 1: They say in court, this video will capture a black

412
00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:18,080
Speaker 1: Volkswagen Rabbit, the very car that Marni Yang rented and

413
00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:22,480
Speaker 1: was driving in the neighborhood of the murder at the

414
00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:23,760
Speaker 1: time of the murder.

415
00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:27,120
Speaker 5: The post conviction defense team thought there might be something

416
00:29:27,200 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 5: amiss with that piece of evidence.

417
00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:32,880
Speaker 1: And so we went to the Shell gas station, looked

418
00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:36,560
Speaker 1: at the video camera. And the truth is that, to

419
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:43,440
Speaker 1: a reasonable degree of scientific certainty, a video expert viewing

420
00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:48,280
Speaker 1: that video says that car is not a Volkswagen Rabbit,

421
00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:52,440
Speaker 1: It is not the car that was rented by miss Yang,

422
00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:56,040
Speaker 1: It is not even the same make or model of

423
00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:58,960
Speaker 1: the car as rented by miss Yang, and so the

424
00:29:59,080 --> 00:30:04,600
Speaker 1: jury was misl led. The evidence is unreliable and wrong.

425
00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:13,880
Speaker 5: Marnie's experts also determined that it was unequivocally impossible for

426
00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:17,000
Speaker 5: Marnie to have created a homemade silencer for the gun

427
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:20,360
Speaker 5: that killed Ronnie. They even had a firearms expert test

428
00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:24,440
Speaker 5: the prosecution's theory, but even with his extensive experience, the

429
00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:28,240
Speaker 5: expert could not physically build a silencer with those materials

430
00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:31,120
Speaker 5: to fit on the gun used to kill Ronnie.

431
00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:34,680
Speaker 1: The place theory that she used c clamps from home

432
00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:40,520
Speaker 1: depot to fix a silencer on a gun is foolishness.

433
00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:44,720
Speaker 1: It doesn't work. It cannot be made to work under

434
00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:45,920
Speaker 1: any circumstance.

435
00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:55,000
Speaker 5: The investigators also discovered roles of film taken at the

436
00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:58,960
Speaker 5: crime scene that were never developed. When they were the

437
00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:03,560
Speaker 5: photo showed bullet projectory patterns. Marnie's experts determined that at

438
00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:06,840
Speaker 5: just five feet, Marnie was not physically tall enough to

439
00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:10,280
Speaker 5: be the shooter. Witnesses descriptions the morning of the murder

440
00:31:10,320 --> 00:31:13,120
Speaker 5: also echoed the belief that it couldn't have been Marnie.

441
00:31:13,600 --> 00:31:16,640
Speaker 5: Several people reported seeing a six foot tall black man

442
00:31:16,720 --> 00:31:18,960
Speaker 5: in the area and even going up the stairs to

443
00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:20,280
Speaker 5: Ronnie's apartment.

444
00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:24,960
Speaker 1: And Marnie just so that everybody knows is a white

445
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:27,320
Speaker 1: woman who is five feet tall.

446
00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:31,160
Speaker 5: So what about someone who better matches the description.

447
00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:37,760
Speaker 1: When we became miss Yang's lawyers, we asked for production

448
00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:44,520
Speaker 1: of the video surveillance tapes from a store next to

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00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:50,760
Speaker 1: the barber shop to see if we could accurately determine

450
00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:53,280
Speaker 1: when Gail arrived and when he left.

451
00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:57,840
Speaker 5: Jed believes that pat Fix either lied or misled the

452
00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:01,160
Speaker 5: grand jury by saying Gail was out LeRoy's barber shop

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00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:02,920
Speaker 5: at eight thirty am.

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00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:07,320
Speaker 1: We determined that he arrived around ten o'clock, not eight thirty,

455
00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:11,080
Speaker 1: and we determined that he left somewhere after ten thirty.

456
00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:16,120
Speaker 5: And in December of twenty twenty one, a new witness

457
00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:20,280
Speaker 5: came forward with more pertinent information that again supported the

458
00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:28,280
Speaker 5: claim that someone other than Marnie was the perpetrator. Jed

459
00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:31,680
Speaker 5: and Marnie's team filed their most recent petition with all

460
00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:34,800
Speaker 5: of these details and more in December of last year.

461
00:32:35,320 --> 00:32:38,240
Speaker 5: In May twenty twenty two, the state submitted a motion

462
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:41,320
Speaker 5: to dismiss their petition. The back and forth could go

463
00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:44,800
Speaker 5: on for months, and all the while Marnie will sit

464
00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:45,520
Speaker 5: in prison.

465
00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:51,280
Speaker 1: I firmly believe that Marni Yang is an innocent woman

466
00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:57,200
Speaker 1: languishing in jail for a crime she never committed. And

467
00:32:57,280 --> 00:33:01,880
Speaker 1: I firmly believe that the investoration and prosecution of her

468
00:33:01,960 --> 00:33:09,280
Speaker 1: case falls into a deep disturbing pattern of wrongful convictions

469
00:33:09,280 --> 00:33:12,280
Speaker 1: of innocent persons in Lake County, Illinois.

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00:33:14,840 --> 00:33:17,600
Speaker 5: Prosecutor Patricia Fix is now a circuit court judge in

471
00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:28,160
Speaker 5: the nineteenth Judicial Court in Lake County, Illinois. After her conviction,

472
00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:31,120
Speaker 5: Marnie and her kids lost touch. Emily says she and

473
00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:35,920
Speaker 5: her mom did not speak for about eight years, and

474
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:37,480
Speaker 5: do you guys have a relationship now?

475
00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:38,440
Speaker 1: We do.

476
00:33:39,400 --> 00:33:43,960
Speaker 2: We're as close as we can be. She calls me

477
00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:50,920
Speaker 2: her a happy place. I hope that we can heal

478
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:56,200
Speaker 2: from this and her start her life again.

479
00:33:57,040 --> 00:33:59,120
Speaker 5: What would her starting her life again look like? Do

480
00:33:59,120 --> 00:34:01,360
Speaker 5: you have visions of of what you and your mom

481
00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:02,400
Speaker 5: and your brothers are doing?

482
00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:10,600
Speaker 2: Her cooking Thanksgiving dinner. My grandparents are there, and my

483
00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:17,640
Speaker 2: brothers and my best friend turkey stuffing, green bean castlele

484
00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:23,040
Speaker 2: sweet potatoes. My mom was the one always cooking and

485
00:34:23,080 --> 00:34:28,759
Speaker 2: we would always have it at her house. My mom

486
00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:34,080
Speaker 2: is innocent, and I hope that sooner rather than later,

487
00:34:34,680 --> 00:34:40,400
Speaker 2: we can connect in the physical together again.

488
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:48,200
Speaker 5: Marnie also hopes that the truth will come out.

489
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:53,120
Speaker 4: I did not commit this crime. I'm horrified by this crime,

490
00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:59,480
Speaker 4: and I never lose sight of the collateral damage that

491
00:34:59,560 --> 00:35:05,600
Speaker 4: this has impacted everybody, everybody. I want justice in this case,

492
00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:11,520
Speaker 4: for me, for Ronnie, and for everybody involved.

493
00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:18,720
Speaker 5: Marnie's children, Emily, Andrew and Brandon wrote a book about

494
00:35:18,760 --> 00:35:21,440
Speaker 5: their mom and her case. Searched the book, which is

495
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:30,640
Speaker 5: called My Mom Marnie to learn more next time. On

496
00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:33,600
Speaker 5: Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling, Tammy.

497
00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:36,480
Speaker 6: Poole, he kept reaching for the trigger and I had

498
00:35:36,520 --> 00:35:39,120
Speaker 6: my hands on the end of the barrel, and I

499
00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:41,279
Speaker 6: kept thinking, it's gonna shoot me, It's gonna shoot me,

500
00:35:42,719 --> 00:35:47,879
Speaker 6: and he he pussed your group.

501
00:35:54,880 --> 00:35:57,560
Speaker 5: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling.

502
00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:01,239
Speaker 5: Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the

503
00:36:01,280 --> 00:36:03,400
Speaker 5: links in our bio to see how you can help.

504
00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:06,800
Speaker 5: I'd like to thank our executive producers, Jason Flahm and

505
00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:10,279
Speaker 5: Kevin Wurtis, as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea

506
00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:15,360
Speaker 5: researcher Lila Robinson, story editor Sonia Paul, with additional production

507
00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:18,680
Speaker 5: by Jeff Cleiburn and Connor Hall. The music in this

508
00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:23,160
Speaker 5: production is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.

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00:36:23,360 --> 00:36:25,960
Speaker 5: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,

510
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:29,799
Speaker 5: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at

511
00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:32,840
Speaker 5: Wrongful Conviction, as well as at Lava for Good. On

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00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:36,120
Speaker 5: all three platforms, you can also follow me on both

513
00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:40,440
Speaker 5: Instagram and Twitter at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie

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00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:43,520
Speaker 5: Freeling is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in

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00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:46,160
Speaker 5: association with Signal Company Number one