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Speaker 1: School of Humans.

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Speaker 2: On January seventeenth, twenty twenty three, at eleven twenty two pm,

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Speaker 2: the Johnson County Deputy Coroner arrived at nineteen fifty four

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Speaker 2: County Road in Clarksville, Arkansas, and found the body of

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Speaker 2: fifty three year old William Vick. Both of William's children,

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Speaker 2: his daughter Ashley and his son will said that their

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Speaker 2: dad had been in very good general health, but they

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Speaker 2: had noticed that William had been choking on his food

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Speaker 2: over the last year of his life. It was an

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Speaker 2: issue that had been getting worse and worse, and this

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Speaker 2: apparently led to him going in for a routine ton

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Speaker 2: selectomy a week before his death. Tonsils surgery often happens

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Speaker 2: in children. Sometimes it's an emergency, but it can also

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Speaker 2: be an elective surgery for adults. It's sometimes recommended if

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Speaker 2: a person's tonsils are enlarged, or if there are airway obstructions,

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Speaker 2: or if the patient is experiencing frequent throat infections or

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Speaker 2: chronic sore throat, and in some other situations. But after

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Speaker 2: William was sent home to recover from his operation, he

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Speaker 2: began to experience some strange complications. Ashley got a text

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Speaker 2: from her father that was concerning. Her dad was texting

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Speaker 2: her to say that he was throwing up blood. Then

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Speaker 2: he texted her a picture of a sink full of blood.

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Speaker 2: Ashley told us that she reached out to her stepmother, Laurinda,

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Speaker 2: who had worked as an ear nurse. She said that

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Speaker 2: she asked Laurinda to take her father to the hospital,

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Speaker 2: but that Lorenda told her that William was stubborn and

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Speaker 2: that there was no need for alarm. Later on social media,

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Speaker 2: Lorenda posted that this was what she believed at the time,

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Speaker 2: and that as a nurse, she knew that rest was

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Speaker 2: the best medicine for patients in William's condition, but William

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Speaker 2: didn't get better. A few days after that text message,

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Speaker 2: William Vick was dead and his death was not an accident.

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Speaker 2: The cause of death on William's autopsy was listed as

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Speaker 2: a combined mixed prescription and illicit drug toxicity, basically a

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Speaker 2: drug overdose. The manner of death was homicide. William's family

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Speaker 2: was suspicious of Larenda, but the confession came from someone else.

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Speaker 2: It was from Lrenda's mother, Martha MacLean. Martha was seventy

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Speaker 2: two years old, apparently terminally ill with throw cancer. And

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Speaker 2: lived in a separate structure on William and Lrenda's property,

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Speaker 2: and she had written a letter confessing to the murder.

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Speaker 2: So why would Lrenda's mother want to hurt William? And

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Speaker 2: with her supposedly being frail and ill, would she even

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Speaker 2: be physically capable of something like that. I'm Catherine Townsend.

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Speaker 2: Over the past five years of making my true crime podcast,

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Speaker 2: Helling Gone, I've learned that there's no such thing as

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Speaker 2: a small town where murder never happens. I have received

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Speaker 2: hundreds of messages from people all around the country asking

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Speaker 2: for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families,

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Speaker 2: and their communities. If you have a case you'd like

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Speaker 2: me and my team to look into, you can reach

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Speaker 2: out to us at our Helen Gone Murder line on

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Speaker 2: six seven eight seven four four six one four five.

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Speaker 2: That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five,

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Speaker 2: Or you can send us a message on Instagram at

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Speaker 2: Helen gonepot This is Helen Gone Murder Line. According to

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Speaker 2: the medical examiner's report, there was no sign of heart

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Speaker 2: disease or any other obvious health concern that could have

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Speaker 2: caused William's death. The coroner also noted there was no

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Speaker 2: blood on the bedroom floor, which they had looked for

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Speaker 2: because he had been vomiting up blood days earlier. They

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Speaker 2: were looking for whatever could have caused his death, and

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Speaker 2: after William's body was sent in for an autopsy and

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Speaker 2: the toxicology report came back, they found it. Post mortem

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Speaker 2: blood testing showed positive for tramadol, the prescription medication, but

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Speaker 2: also lethal levels of laurazapam and massive quantities of morphine

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Speaker 2: and codine. William's body was cremated and Lorenda and her

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Speaker 2: sons read his ashes without William's daughter, Ashley and his

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Speaker 2: son will will had been living with William and Lorenda.

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Speaker 2: He had just moved out few days before his father's death.

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Speaker 2: Both Ashley and will were left struggling to comprehend exactly

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Speaker 2: what happened to their father and how he deteriorated so quickly. Then,

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Speaker 2: on January twenty third, twenty twenty three, six days after

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Speaker 2: William was found dead on the bedroom floor, their worlds

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Speaker 2: got completely rocked again when they found out that Lorenda's mother,

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Speaker 2: Martha MacLean, had apparently confessed to their father's murder. I

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Speaker 2: need to back up for a minute, because there's kind

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Speaker 2: of a strange series of events that led to this.

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Speaker 2: We said last week that officers rushed to the home

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Speaker 2: where William and Larnda lived. As I said, Martha lived

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Speaker 2: in a separate structure on the property behind their house.

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Speaker 2: William's family members said William and Martha had apparently never

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Speaker 2: really gotten along, but they weren't sure why William built

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Speaker 2: Martha's house behind where he and Lrenda lived, But apparently

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Speaker 2: there was always tension between William and Martha. A police

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Speaker 2: officer was doing a wellness check on Martha when they

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Speaker 2: found her. She was in distress us She was struggling

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Speaker 2: to breathe, with morphine and lauriazapam bottle scattered around her,

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Speaker 2: and with a handwritten note next to the bed. But

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Speaker 2: the strange series of events actually started earlier than that.

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Speaker 2: What happened first was that earlier that same day, on

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Speaker 2: January twenty third, Lrenda and a friend of hers named

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Speaker 2: Linda went into the prosecuting attorney's office in Clarksville. They

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Speaker 2: said they had been trying to contact Martha and that

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Speaker 2: she wasn't answering. According to the charging documents, Special Agent

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Speaker 2: Matthew Foster from the Arkansas State police was called in.

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Speaker 2: This was apparently happening while the police officer was performing

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Speaker 2: that welfare check on Martha. He went into her residence

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Speaker 2: and found Martha unconscious, holding a pen in one hand,

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Speaker 2: and apparently trying to write a note. According to the report,

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Speaker 2: Linda Lorenda's friend quote provided a note that stated that

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Speaker 2: Martha killed William Vick end quote. Agent Foster also wrote

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Speaker 2: in his report that he spoke to Lareenda on that

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Speaker 2: same day and that she she told him that her mother, Martha,

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Speaker 2: had told Lorinda that she killed William by putting morphine

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Speaker 2: and other drugs inside his liquid medicine. The officer's report

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Speaker 2: read quote, she was unconscious and was struggling to breathe.

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Speaker 2: Next to her was morphine and loizapam bottle. Her hand

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Speaker 2: was holding a pen and a note was being written.

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Speaker 2: The note stated that she didn't want to hurt anymore.

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Speaker 2: End quote. After that, Martha was rushed to the hospital

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Speaker 2: and then special Agent Foster executed a search warrant on

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Speaker 2: that property. That's when he found another handwritten note. This

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Speaker 2: note talked about how Martha had killed William. The note

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Speaker 2: stated that Martha had tampered with William's medication, that she

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Speaker 2: put morphine, louriza, PAM and other drugs inside of William's

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Speaker 2: liquid medicine, and that after William took the medicine and

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Speaker 2: while her daughter Lrenda wasn't home, Martha said she went

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Speaker 2: inside William's residence and injected him with suxi methonium. The

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Speaker 2: note stated that Martha had been planning this for a

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Speaker 2: long time and that she originally planned to use a gun,

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Speaker 2: but that another family member had taken her gun away

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Speaker 2: from her. How did Martha get this drug? Because sex

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Speaker 2: and methonium is a paralytic drug. It's a drug that's

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Speaker 2: normally used for intubation, so when you're in the hospital

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Speaker 2: having a procedure and they need to make sure that

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Speaker 2: you don't choke on the tubes when they're put down

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Speaker 2: your throat. It's not a drug that would ever normally

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Speaker 2: be administered in a non medical setting because it paralyzes

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Speaker 2: your muscles and unless you are getting air from another source,

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Speaker 2: you literally will not be able to breathe. Now, it

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Speaker 2: should be noted here that even though the confession letter

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Speaker 2: claimed that Martha had injected William with this drug, according

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Speaker 2: to the autopsy report, they did not find a measurable

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Speaker 2: trace of sex and methonium, though the report did indicate

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Speaker 2: that it would have passed from William's system in a

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Speaker 2: short period of time. Even if she did give him

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Speaker 2: an injection, it would have been very difficult to come

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Speaker 2: because so much time had passed. So police were trying

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Speaker 2: to understand more about William's relationships with his wife, Larinda

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Speaker 2: and also with his mother in law Martha. As we

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Speaker 2: said last week, William was married to his first wife,

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Speaker 2: Jesinda for eighteen years. They had two children, Will and Ashley.

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Speaker 2: They split up in two thousand and nine, and then

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Speaker 2: in early twenty eleven, William met Larinda. William's son Will

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Speaker 2: said that his father and Laurinda had met on a

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Speaker 2: dating site. Now Ted and Ashley said that they believed

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Speaker 2: Larinda had been pressuring William to get will to move out,

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Speaker 2: but will said that the weeks before his father passed

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Speaker 2: away were for him fairly normal. He admitted he never

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Speaker 2: had a particularly close relationship with Larnda, but he said

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Speaker 2: that he hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary in

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Speaker 2: those weeks. He did say he had seen Larinda's temper

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Speaker 2: flare on numerous occasions, since he was young.

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Speaker 3: Okay, what caused you to move about?

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Speaker 1: But I was only there for the holidays. I stayed

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Speaker 1: there a little bit longer, but he was about to

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Speaker 1: have surgery, and I decided to come back come a

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Speaker 1: week before him had surgery.

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Speaker 3: Okay, so Larinda didn't kick you out. You decided to

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Speaker 3: leave on your own.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay.

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Speaker 3: Did you feel like Lrenda put any distance between you

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Speaker 3: and your dad or did you feel like she encouraged

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Speaker 3: the relationship between you and him, or.

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Speaker 1: Or which she just kind of dad drul She sort

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Speaker 1: of had a mean personality. Wouldn't say she was like

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Speaker 1: abusive or anything when I would say that she was

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Speaker 1: just kind of a mean person generally. But I don't

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Speaker 1: think she's put any distance between us. I don't think it

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Speaker 1: was really possible distance between me and my father, but

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Speaker 1: from her perspectively.

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Speaker 2: Will talked about what he described as Lorenda anger.

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Speaker 1: I'll give you a story. Whenever I was younger, So

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Speaker 1: me and Lorenda's Unjagger, So Jagger's my stepbrother. So me

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Speaker 1: and Jagger when we were playing, I guess things got

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Speaker 1: a little rough between us. I think I hit him

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Speaker 1: or something, and then I realized I was probably get

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Speaker 1: in trouble for us. So I ran into my room

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Speaker 1: and lost it, but Lorenda got in and pushed me

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Speaker 1: to the then like hit my stomach exactly where Jagger

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Speaker 1: where I hit Jagger, which I think was probably not

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Speaker 1: something adult to due to a kid. I mean there

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Speaker 1: were other times where she was just very unsociable. I

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Speaker 1: mean she didn't do that when I got older, obviously. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: she would get really mad sometimes it was really randomly.

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Speaker 2: Will also said that about a year before his father's death,

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Speaker 2: something disturbing happened. He said that his father had said

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Speaker 2: to will that he believed Lorenda inchecked him with something

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Speaker 2: when he was sick, but William said he wasn't sure

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Speaker 2: what it was.

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Speaker 1: He doesn't know what it was because he was like

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Speaker 1: thick and delirious at the time, but he wasn't even

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Speaker 1: really sure. Yeah, if it happened, thought he was pretty

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Speaker 1: sure it happened. So when he told me the story

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Speaker 1: about her possibly injecting him with something, he told me

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Speaker 1: that he's tied in a weird service as it was

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Speaker 1: probably with Linda.

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Speaker 2: Will said at the time his father was very sick,

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Speaker 2: so he thought he might have possibly been delirious. Afterwards,

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Speaker 2: will said his father didn't mention it again.

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Speaker 1: At first. He wasn't even sure himself did it really happened.

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Speaker 1: He wasn't assure himself. You don't want to believe someone

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Speaker 1: would do something like that, especially someone you're married with,

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Speaker 1: and they put a bed list every night. He said

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Speaker 1: that he was and he can get injected twice that night.

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Speaker 1: Letter claim that my dad was having an allergic reaction

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Speaker 1: to something, even though I've never noticed that that allergies

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Speaker 1: to anything, and that she was giving him inject him

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Speaker 1: with some sort of allergy list. I don't even know what.

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Speaker 1: He didn't get in much detail.

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Speaker 2: Then Tom went by and things to go back to normal.

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Speaker 2: Will said that his father was in good health, but

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Speaker 2: like his sister Ashley, he mentioned that William would choke

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Speaker 2: when he was eating.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes when he was eat it would choke him. It

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Speaker 1: was chosing tome. He wouldn't be able to eat it,

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Speaker 1: but he looked like basically peeked the food back up

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Speaker 1: so they couldn't breathe, and it just got work and

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Speaker 1: was over that year.

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Speaker 2: Will lived with Lrenda and his father for most of

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Speaker 2: the year. In twenty twenty two, he then left for

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Speaker 2: a period of time, but he said that he came

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Speaker 2: back for the Thanksgiving in Christmas holidays that year. He

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Speaker 2: was still staying there into January of twenty twenty three.

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Speaker 2: Will said that he left William and Larenda's home for

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Speaker 2: good just a week before his father died. He said

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Speaker 2: that he was shocked when he learned that his father

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Speaker 2: passed away. His mother, Jacinda, had gotten the call from

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Speaker 2: Will's sister, Ashley. Ashley told us last week that even

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Speaker 2: though her parents had their issues over the years, and

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Speaker 2: that breaking up their marriage was difficult, that they were

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Speaker 2: married for a long time, they had children in history

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Speaker 2: and still had a lot of love for each other.

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Speaker 1: I love my mom. I live living in Missouri at

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Speaker 1: the time. And my mom comes home and I go

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Speaker 1: to Greeter and she's just like prus has passed me.

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Speaker 1: She's crying, and she goes into the room that her

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Speaker 1: and my stepfather there, and they come back out called

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Speaker 1: me into the living room, and that's where she breaks

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Speaker 1: the news to me. Disn't got breaks the moves that

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Speaker 1: my father had passed away that night. He was sick

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Speaker 1: before and he was like spitting out blood and stuff,

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Speaker 1: and I had tried to convince him I love with

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Speaker 1: my sister that he needed to go to the hospital

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Speaker 1: because he just had a surgery. And then immediately after

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Speaker 1: the surgery, him being a very stubborn person, he decided

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Speaker 1: to do a bunch of yard works, which was not

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Speaker 1: a good idea.

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Speaker 4: You have done that, but a couple of days after

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Speaker 4: he kept sitting up blood and stuff, and that's not good.

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Speaker 4: That's not you know, it's not supposed to be doing that.

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Speaker 4: So we try to convince them to go to the hospital,

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Speaker 4: but Lorenda convinced him not to go, even though her

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Speaker 4: being a nurse, she should have known better.

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Speaker 1: And I told him directly in text and on a

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Speaker 1: phone call that man, it's like she's trying to kill you.

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Speaker 1: Like she's trying to kill you right now, stop listening

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Speaker 1: to her, stopping stubborn, go go to the hospital. But

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Speaker 1: he didn't, and he ended up dead.

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Speaker 2: Even though will said he is suspicious of Lorenda, will

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Speaker 2: did have quite a bit to say about the relationship

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Speaker 2: between Martha and William. He said Martha hated his father.

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Speaker 1: There were plenty of interactions where you could just tell Martha,

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Speaker 1: you're not like my dad, and my dad felt equally

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Speaker 1: the same towards her.

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Speaker 3: Do you say in your opinion that it is talk

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Speaker 3: that Martha's.

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Speaker 1: Did they have killed your fathers and not alone. I'm

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Speaker 1: not saying that she was a part of it Bomtal,

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Speaker 1: but she didn't wall unless she worked do it.

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Speaker 3: What was her gerald stay of health at the time

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Speaker 3: that you went.

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Speaker 1: When she was an old woman and she had been

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Speaker 1: smoking since forever, I suppose apparently she had a broke

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Speaker 1: cancer as well, which I didn't even fell about.

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Speaker 2: So why would Martha Lrenda's mother want to hurt William?

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Speaker 2: Larenda and William married on December third, twenty eleven, after

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Speaker 2: dating for just a few months. Lrenda's children lived in

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Speaker 2: Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and Lareinda was an only child, so

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Speaker 2: at her home it was just her, William and Martha.

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Speaker 2: Will William's son said he observed that Martha was not

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Speaker 2: in good health, but what exactly was Martha's medical condition?

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Speaker 2: Martha had told family members that she went in for testing.

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Speaker 2: Was she actually terminally ill? She seemed to have told

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Speaker 2: some people that she was, but she also apparently told

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Speaker 2: some family members that the doctors weren't able to finish

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Speaker 2: the test because she had blood in her throat. The

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Speaker 2: family had a talk with the prosecutor, Jeff Phillips, in

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Speaker 2: which he indicated that he believed Lrenda played a role

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Speaker 2: in William's death, but he said he planned to only

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Speaker 2: charge Martha with murder. According to the family, this was

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Speaker 2: because the prosecutor apparently believed that if he charged Martha

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Speaker 2: before she died, Lrenda would be under suspicion as well,

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Speaker 2: and that that would kind of hang over her and

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Speaker 2: possibly affect Larenda's ability to collect on life insurance. Remember

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Speaker 2: we said last week that before he died, William had

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Speaker 2: two life insurance policies out on him for a total

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Speaker 2: of eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and his family

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Speaker 2: was asking questions about those policies. During the talk that

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Speaker 2: Ted and Ashley and some other family members had with

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Speaker 2: the prosecutor, Ted said that Jeff Phillips, the prosecutor, had

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Speaker 2: referred to Lrenda as the black widow. Let's take a

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Speaker 2: closer look at this confession letter, because if Martha's story

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Speaker 2: is true, that she was the one who murdered William

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Speaker 2: and that she acted alone, how did she get access

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Speaker 2: to William's medicines in the first place. Lrenda told investigators

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Speaker 2: after she got home while William was recovering, she tried

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Speaker 2: to give William his steroids and that he refused to

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Speaker 2: take them. After that, Larenda claimed she gave William's drugs

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Speaker 2: to her mother. Then Martha claimed in her confession that,

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Speaker 2: unbeknownst to Larnda or anyone else, she swapped William's steroid

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Speaker 2: medication out with morphine, and that she administered that morphine

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Speaker 2: in order to kill William. We're also unclear, by the way,

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Speaker 2: exactly where the morphine came from. As we said last week,

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Speaker 2: we don't have access to William's prescriptions. But even if

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Speaker 2: he wasn't prescribed these drugs rugs, they may have been

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Speaker 2: drugs that were kept in the home. The issue is

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Speaker 2: also complicated because Martha was supposedly terminally ill. Apparently she

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Speaker 2: was on hospice care, so the drugs could have been

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Speaker 2: drugs she was prescribed. We just don't know. And there's

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Speaker 2: still the question of motive again, why would Martha want

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Speaker 2: to hurt William. William's family believes that Lrenda may have

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Speaker 2: convinced Martha that William was abusive. We talked about that

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Speaker 2: last week that Ashley said her father had zero history

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Speaker 2: of being physically or emotionally abusive, But she said that Lrenda,

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Speaker 2: in her opinion, was creating a narrative where her father

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Speaker 2: was being described as abusive. Now again, I have to say,

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Speaker 2: Lorenda has not been arrested or charged in connection with

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Speaker 2: William's death. She's declined to comment and referred all calls

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Speaker 2: to her attorney. Her mother, Martha, is the one who

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Speaker 2: confessed to William's murder, So in their discussions with the prosecutor,

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Speaker 2: William's family claimed that they discussed that scenario if it

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Speaker 2: was Martha, What if Lorenda had played a role. What

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Speaker 2: if Lrenda, for example, convinced her mother that she was

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Speaker 2: in some type of imminent danger from William. Would that

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Speaker 2: be enough to convince Martha to kill Could Martha, who

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Speaker 2: was very ill and only had a little bit of

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Speaker 2: time left, have taken the fall for her daughter. That

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Speaker 2: was another possibility they say they discussed. William's family said

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Speaker 2: they also discussed with the prosecutor the issue of having

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Speaker 2: two suspects. That's a scenario in complication We've talked about

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Speaker 2: many times in reporting this podcast, But they say the

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Speaker 2: prosecutor assured them that filing charges against one suspect would

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Speaker 2: not hinder their office's ability to file charges against someone

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Speaker 2: else at a later date. I want to go back

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Speaker 2: to Martha's confession letter for a minute. Martha confessed to

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Speaker 2: doctoring William's pills, but that confession letter also stated that

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Speaker 2: she gave William an injection. So if the injection was fatal,

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Speaker 2: how likely a scenario was it that William would have

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Speaker 2: allowed Lorenda's mother and not Lorenda, the one with the

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Speaker 2: nursing license, to administer him an injection. Remember, everyone said

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Speaker 2: they didn't like each other. Why in this scenario would

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Speaker 2: William allow Lorenda's mother to come in with a syringe

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Speaker 2: of something and inject him. How likely is that scenario? Also,

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Speaker 2: if Martha was terminally ill and frail, could Martha even

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Speaker 2: make it upstairs by herself? William's bedroom was upstairs. It

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Speaker 2: turns out that how frail Martha was kind of depends

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Speaker 2: on who you ask. Remember, William's family claimed that Martha

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Speaker 2: was infirmed that she needed assistance getting around, and she

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Speaker 2: apparently claimed to be terminally ill with throat cancer. But

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Speaker 2: according to Jeff Phillips, the prosecutor, the coroner's investigators told

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Speaker 2: him they witnessed Martha walk upstairs twice while they were there.

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Speaker 2: Another issue that came up was when the prosecutor claimed

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Speaker 2: there was a problem with jurisdiction. The jurisdiction for the

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Speaker 2: case turns out to be a little bit complicated because

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Speaker 2: William lived in Johnson County and that's where his body

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Speaker 2: was found. But Jeff Phillips stated that because William had

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Speaker 2: once worked as a sheriff's deputy for Johnson County, even

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Speaker 2: though it was years earlier, that if Johnson County handled

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Speaker 2: the case there would be a conflict of interest. Because

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Speaker 2: of that, the case was turned over to the Arkansas

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Speaker 2: State Police. That's another thing that William's family has questions about.

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Speaker 2: While all this was going on, Martha was recovering, she

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Speaker 2: was getting ready to get discharged from the hospital. The

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Speaker 2: prosecutor was getting ready to file capital murder charges against

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Speaker 2: Martha MacLean. But the prosecutor had an issue because, apparently,

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Speaker 2: according to William's family, the county doesn't have hospice care

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Speaker 2: in jail, so they had to find a responsible party

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Speaker 2: to take care of Martha once she was released from

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Speaker 2: the hospital. Lorenda was her only child, so even though

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Speaker 2: murder charges were being filed against Martha and she was

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Speaker 2: at that time a prime suspect and William's murder, she

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Speaker 2: was sent home to recover, which meant that she was

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Speaker 2: sent home to Lrenda's care. Just a few hours later,

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Speaker 2: Martha McLean died of a drug overdose. I'm Katherine Townsend.

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Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murderline is

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Speaker 2: a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's

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Speaker 2: written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by

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Speaker 2: Gabby Watts and Miranda Hawkins. Special thanks to Amy Tubbs

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Speaker 2: for her research assistance. Noah camer mixed and scored this episode.

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Speaker 2: Our theme song is by Ben Sale, Executive producers of

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Speaker 2: Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Else Crowley. Listen to Helen

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Speaker 2: Gone ad free by subscribing to the iHeart True Crime

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Speaker 2: Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you were interested in

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Speaker 2: seeing documents and materials from the case, you can follow

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Speaker 2: the show on Instagram at Helen Gonepod. If you have

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Speaker 2: a case you'd like me and my team to look into,

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Speaker 2: you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone

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Speaker 2: murder line at six seven eight eight seven four four

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Speaker 2: six one four five that six seven eight seven four

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Speaker 2: four six one four five

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Speaker 1: School of Humans