WEBVTT - The Girl In The Pole Yard — Sandy Beal E1 0:00:00.000 --> 0:00:04.520 Oh. Before we begin, please note this series includes talk 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:08.560 of suicide and sexual violence. Please take care while listening. 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:16.400 Do you remember this letter? I think I do. Mm hmm. 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:28.319 What do you want me to start? I'm writing to 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:33.960 you to request the following information in regards to the untimely, violent, 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:39.080 and unwitnessed death of my daughter Sanda and Bill. There's 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:41.200 not a day that goes by that I don't think 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:45.559 of her. This marks forty one years without her, with 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:56.720 no answers. A few years ago, Joanne Biale sent this 0:00:56.800 --> 0:01:00.000 letter to the Maryland State Police. It was later given 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.920 into me by her distant cousin, who have since gotten 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:09.240 to know very well. I'm a reporter who covers violence 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:12.080 against women, and I get a lot of tips about 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:16.400 stories emails from people who were desperate for a journalist 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:18.800 to dig into what they believe to be the greatest 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:23.240 injustice of their lives. When this letter came into my possession, 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:27.039 I knew there was something important about it. It's kind 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:30.640 of weird in retrospect, but I immediately began storing it 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:34.520 next to my passport alongside all my most important documents. 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:38.720 This letter is the reason why I found myself sitting 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:42.640 beside Joanne in her living room a year into the pandemic, 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:48.320 talking about Sandy. And I haven't gone over any of 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:52.280 this because I figured was starting new here. So we'll 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:55.280 just go ahead and throw out the questions and I'll 0:01:55.320 --> 0:02:00.520 give you what I can for the answers. Joanne is 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:04.080 eighty two and lives in rural Maynell, near the coast, 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:08.560 in a tidy house surrounded by wild blueberry fields. She's 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:12.519 short and sturdy, with thick white hair cropped around her ears, 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:17.160 and shiny blue, almost mischievous eyes. I come from a 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:19.840 long line of short, sturdy women, and I was immediately 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:24.360 at ease talking to her. These days, Joanne goes to church, 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:29.760 shops for clothes, visits with her family. Maine is where 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:33.360 she grew up, the place her family is from, but 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:36.680 back in the seventies she lived in seat Pleasant, Maryland, 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:41.119 in Prince George's County with her husband, Ronald, and their 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:47.560 four kids, Sandy, Michael, Stephen, and Ronnie. Caperani home from 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:50.160 school that day because he had a sore throat and 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:55.000 he didn't you know, And that's when the detective came 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:57.840 to the door and told me what what what happened? 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:02.000 He said, I've got some uh news that I don't 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:05.320 think the little fella should know, He said, could you 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:11.360 send him to your neighbors? And so he proceeded to 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:15.799 tell me. But where where? They found her? In this polelyard. 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:23.200 On the morning of February eleven, Frank Middleton arrived at 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:26.760 a utility pollard about twenty minutes away from Joanne's home. 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:30.520 To give you some context, pollards are where energy companies 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:33.200 store those tall wooden poles that are used to support 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:36.920 power lines. This yard was in a somewhat secluded spot 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:40.400 off the highway and surrounded by woods, which is why 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:42.440 it was odd that there was a car parked in 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:47.280 the lot when Frank arrived around nine am. And this 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:49.840 this fella had gone to work and found her, and 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:52.960 he thought she was asleep until he walked up to 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:56.040 the car and noticed that her glasses were up here 0:03:56.080 --> 0:04:00.080 and she was disarrayed, and um, he knew that she 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:06.520 was gone. Sandy's car, one blue Ford Pinto, appeared to 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:10.200 be stuck in the mud. Cardboard had been shoved under 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:13.720 all four tires, and there were tire tracks all around 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:16.839 her car like she had been trying to drive away. 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:20.599 Sandy was in the driver's seat with her keys still 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:23.760 in the ignition. She had been shot in the right 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:26.560 side of her abdomen, with an exit wound on the 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:30.200 left side of her back. She was eighteen years old, 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:34.720 just a month shy of her nineteenth birthday. You know, 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:42.200 I asked that detective. I said, why wasn't Ronald and 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:46.480 I called to identify her? He said, but there was 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:51.120 Streem policeman there that knew who she was. And I said, well, 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:54.719 isn't that lovely? I'd like to know who the three 0:04:55.360 --> 0:05:01.760 cops were at the at the scene, because when that 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:08.520 detective told me that, I was furious that we were 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:16.360 not called immediately to claim her in any way shape 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:19.760 of fall. We didn't get a chance to see her 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:24.920 until she was in the funeral Paba. I've never gotten 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:28.400 over that, and I was really rip shit about that. 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:35.200 Just a few hours after Sandy's body was discovered, Joanne 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:37.880 got a knock at the door. A detective told her 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:41.080 that Sandy was dead and that it appeared she had 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:44.840 taken her own life. In the short time between finding 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:48.280 Sandy's body and notifying her family, the cops had already 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:52.719 developed a working theory Sandy had died by suicide. I 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:56.120 didn't take any of their crap because I could tell 0:05:56.240 --> 0:06:01.000 that they were hiding something. I says, you know something, 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:06.080 you can put any damn thing you want down. That 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:09.320 doesn't mean that happened that way. And I said, you 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:12.279 will never make me and my family and my friends 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:16.880 believe that. So I said, get the hell out of 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:21.000 my house. And uh. And I wasn't very nice to 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:23.400 him because I think they were skunking us all the 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:30.279 way around. From my Heart Radio, I'm Melissa Jolson, and 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.680 this is what happened to Sandy Beale an I Heart 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:42.840 original podcast, Chapter one, The Girl in the Pollard. This 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:46.479 is Michael. Yes, hi Michael, This is Stephen. Hi, Stephens, 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:52.560 how you going to hie? I wanted to meet with 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:56.200 the Beal family as a whole to learn more about Sandy. 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:59.279 When we first sat down, I didn't really know anything 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.680 about Sandy's case except for what was in Joanne's letter. 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:06.479 But I soon learned that the entire bill family shared 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:11.320 Joanne's suspicions. None of them believed Sandy had died by suicide, 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:16.240 not back then and not now. I met them at 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:20.040 Michael's house in the summer of to give you a 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:23.200 quick sketch of the family tree. Sandy was born first, 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:26.120 then a year later Michael, then Stephen. A year and 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:29.840 a half after that, Bang bang bang, as Joanne described it, 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:34.560 six years later, baby Ronnie was born. Joanne later asked 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:38.320 her husband Ronald, to get a vasectomy. All three of 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:41.440 Sandy's brothers live in Maine, within a thirty minute drive 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:44.880 of Joanne. Still, it's rare for them to get together 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:49.320 to talk about Sandy. What do we hope to gain 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:51.560 from all of this? I mean, I think that is 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:54.600 the question everyone might have. I'd love to hear your 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:59.000 own answers for it. Well, personally, I have no expectations. 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:01.760 These are people that's waiting on the sands of time 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:05.440 to run out on us. I don't expect anybody's gonna 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:08.280 serve it a day in jail, not even five minutes. 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:13.120 That's Sandy's youngest brother, Ronnie. He was only nine when 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.840 Sandy died, with almost a decade between them and age. 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:21.720 They had a special relationship. Sandy doated on Ronnie, buying 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:25.880 him presence and indulging him in games. In turn, he 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:30.680 idolized her. Now Ronnie is in his early fifties, and 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:33.840 he told me his recollections of her were beginning to fade. 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:36.520 She was wicked smart. I mean, you know, he can 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:39.199 do anything she wanted, as as you got, always got 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:44.160 a good grades. David, that's Stephen, Sandy's middle brother. He's 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:47.000 sixty and runs a printing press for the local newspaper. 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:50.480 In his spare time, he plays the drums, though he's 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:52.760 had a hard time finding bandmates who want to play 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:56.920 heavy metal. When he thinks back to his time with Sandy, 0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:00.480 he remembers himself as a typical, annoying young her brother 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:05.200 always butting heads with her. It's something that pains him now, 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:12.920 that wasted time spent fighting. Yeah. I always look at her. 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:17.320 Is you know the big sister is you know, which 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:20.120 is kind of weird. I mean because Sandy he was 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:26.240 she was no about five five something. Yeah, but the 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:29.880 mental image is larger than life. Yeah, Sandy seemed to 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:34.040 get along, Okay, I mean she for whatever reason, you know, 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.760 she I don't recall of her getting picked on or 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:42.439 whatever during that time frame. But then again, she regularly 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:47.720 kick my ass anyway. So lots of people I spoke 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:51.760 to about Sandy mentioned this element of her personality. She 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:55.840 was plucky, tough, and Sandy's toughness was an asset in 0:09:55.880 --> 0:10:00.240 her community. Prince George's County, where the Beals lived, is 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:03.680 located just outside of Washington, d C. If you're in 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:06.120 downtown d C, all you have to do is drive 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:10.120 east along Pennsylvania Avenue and you'll eventually cross into Peg County. 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:13.560 Keep driving for about twenty minutes, and you'll find yourself 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:17.600 at the Bell's former house in seat Pleasant. A white, 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:21.199 lower middle class family, the Beals lived in a modest 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:24.400 home in a less than desirable part of town. The 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:29.160 family described the neighborhood as sometimes chaotic. Crime and poverty 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:32.240 were concerns for residents of Seat Pleasant, and you had 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:35.920 to keep your wits about you, they explained. Joanne stayed 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:39.000 home with the four kids, and Ronald supported the family 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:42.720 working as a long haul trucker and doing construction. He 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:45.600 was often away from home and money was pretty tight. 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.959 He had two jobs. Sometimes he went out he had 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:54.120 a long haul and the other job was construction. So 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:59.360 he was pretty busy, and so he did the work. 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:03.400 He paid the bills. I was to go grocery shopping, 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:05.080 and I was to take care of the kids in 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:09.240 the home, and that was it. Sandy, an outgoing girl 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:12.440 with a knack for making friends, navigated the streets of 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:16.520 seat pleasant with relative ease. But make no mistakes, she 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:21.360 would not suffer somebody being wrong to her or messing 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:23.920 with her. And then you know she was, you know, 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:28.160 very smart, very pristine in her own way. But you know, 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:30.400 she was very fierce. I guess it was the best 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:34.000 way to put it. She didn't like me trying to 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:36.920 break her hair. She hated that. And even when a 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:39.800 little girl, and I was so happy because I had 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:42.520 a little girl, like a bridge, you know, and she 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:44.560 would take it out and I'd take it back and 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:48.439 I so after a while, I just let it be straggling. 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:51.679 She was a queen. She was the oldest and she 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:54.000 lets you know about it, and she was the boss. 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:57.240 We all shared one room, but Sandy had her own room, 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:00.600 and no one was loud in her room but her, 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:03.080 and unless you had a special permission to get in there. 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:06.840 That's Michael, Sandy's oldest brother and the sibling who was 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:10.280 closest to her. He's in his early sixties now and 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:13.400 lives near the coast with his wife, Becky. When you 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:16.000 get to know Michael, he has a really gentle demeanor, 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:18.760 but from the outside he looks tough, like the kind 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:21.320 of guy whose foot you wouldn't want to accidentally step 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:24.440 on in a bar. I do remember she like an 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:27.480 easy bake oven, and we used to make a bunch 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:30.560 of junk and eat it. And she had a makeup 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:34.640 mirror and you know, different things as you know, as 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:37.920 a young girl, stuff like that. We really seldom ever 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:41.000 thought about anything. I mean, we were just really connected. 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:45.520 And actually when we were I think I was fifteen 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:48.640 or so, she might have been sixteen when we found 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:53.840 out she was actually adopted. Joanne got pregnant with Sandy 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:59.520 Young around her eighteenth birthday. Sandy's biological father wasn't interested 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:03.280 and become a dad, but Ronald, a suitor of Joanne's 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:06.320 who should written letters to while he was deployed overseas, 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:09.840 was up for the task. He married Joanne when she 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:13.480 was eight months pregnant and raised Sandy as his own child. 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:15.760 When my mom told us that, and I was like, 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:18.320 at first, I didn't believe it. I was like, what 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:20.600 are you kid me? All this time my dad treated 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:24.520 everybody equal. And then after that, I when I found 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:27.400 that out, I was just even more in love with her, 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:30.080 and you know, as a sister type, you know, it's like, 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:34.240 you know, wow, um. She She asked a lot of 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:37.320 questions like what happened, why, and different things like that, 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:42.800 but the answers she got were it was enough to 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:45.520 satisfy her. Is like, Okay, Well, I mean, you know, 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:48.680 I'm never gonna stop loving my dad. You know, whether 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:50.640 or not he's my real dad or not, he's He's 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:52.800 always been my dad and he always will be my dad. 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:57.320 So I think we kind of got tighter. If anything, 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:02.360 We've been through a lot in this family. I say, 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:04.640 the Good Lord was good to me to give me 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:09.440 a life to live this long. We know what we've 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:14.280 been through and it's been hell. I hope they we 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:25.080 find out something. For over forty years, the Beal family 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:28.200 has believed that Sandy was a victim of a violent crime, 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:31.760 a belief fueled by the suspicion that her death was 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:38.520 covered up. Here's Stephen, the guilty carry around over time 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:43.280 that ship turns a fucking anger. You passed you son 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:45.920 him a bit, she stole from me, You sold my family. 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:53.760 That's since it's put that category unforgivable ship, Sandy's sudden 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.720 death was disorienting to her family. She lived at home 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:01.280 and her family saw her every day. They were intimately 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:06.120 familiar with her behaviors, her moods, and her values. The 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:10.800 Sandy they knew was optimistic and ambitious, and, like many 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:14.440 teen girls her age, eager for her real life, her 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:19.920 adult life to begin. She was popular, she worked part 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:24.520 time at the mall. She didn't appear depressed or withdrawn 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:32.880 or hopeless. Suicide it didn't align with her personality. And again, 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:36.160 she had being you know, as passionate as she wasn't 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:40.000 fierce as she was. I just would not have thought 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:42.560 that she would want to do something like that, you know, 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:45.760 I just never got it. Could not wrap my fucking 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:50.080 head around her doing it. Suicide seemed completely out of 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:55.320 character for Sandy, and the crime scene, instead of bringing closure, 0:15:56.240 --> 0:16:02.920 just raised more questions. Police said Sandy had shot herself 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:05.760 in the right side of her abdomen, but the teen 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:09.520 was left handed. The family told me how they tried 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:13.440 to put themselves in Sandy's shoes, imagining how she would 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:16.240 have shot herself. Sitting in the front seat of her 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:20.320 subcompact Ford Pinto with a steering wheel in front of her, chest. 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:23.760 The gun would have been too heavy for Sandy to 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:27.760 hold and fire with her non dominant right hand. Instead, 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:31.040 she would have had to reach across her body with 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:34.160 her left hand to aim the gun at her right side. 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:38.920 It seemed like a clumsy way to shoot oneself. When 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:41.960 I was told what was happening, what had happened, I 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:44.600 was like, it's no way. It's just it's just no 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:48.760 way that it's gonna be. I couldn't believe it. Michael 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:52.600 was familiar with the gun found in Sandy's car. In fact, 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:55.080 all the kids in the Beale family knew about the gun. 0:16:56.160 --> 0:17:02.520 It was owned by Sandy's father. Was a long barrel, 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:08.160 chrome black handle, black Hawk model. Very nice looking gun, 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:11.200 you know, like I said it was. It was long, 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:15.240 and it was always loaded with hollow point bullets. It 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:20.480 was actually white something to shoot. It was so powerful 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:24.840 that when I first shot it, had to hold it 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:26.840 with both hands because I didn't know what to expect 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:30.439 out of it. It was because of their strong familiarity 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:34.600 with the gun and it's large Cumberson quality that the 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:38.520 Bills were convinced Sandy could not have used it on herself. 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:43.600 It's got a lot of those three seven. Uh, you 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:46.640 know they have a lot of recoil, a lot largest 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:51.240 handguns you're gonna get. Yeah, you think dirty Harry mag 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:53.640 You know the old movie is like how pulls out 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:57.840 that it's about that length gun recoil with a senate fly. Yeah, 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.520 it's just physics and her left hand have never gone 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:02.840 over that far to be able to do that, And 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:07.199 the unbelievable part about her and committing suicide was just 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:11.760 too far out. The family also thought the location of 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:16.440 the wound was strange. Why would someone intent on suicide 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:21.560 shoot themselves off center in the stomach and as small 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:23.600 as she was in the in the size of that 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:28.560 gun on her non dominant hand would have been would 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:31.080 have been really hard. I mean, if if that's what 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:35.119 you plan on doing, was was killing yourself, that was 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:37.960 certainly you know, why don't you just slowly walk through 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:41.400 a fire and see if you'll eventually, you know, burn 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:49.000 the death. We don't know why Sandy had her father's 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:52.919 gone with her that evening, but her family is convinced 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:57.280 that whatever she was doing, she wasn't alone. When the 0:18:57.320 --> 0:19:00.679 Bill's got her clothes back from police, they noticed that 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:05.720 she dressed up nicely, wearing brown gaucho slacks, a white blouse, 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:08.520 and calf high black suede boots that her mom had 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:14.000 given her for Christmas. Sandy's nails were recently manicured, painted 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:18.760 with pale pearlyzed nail polish. To the family, her choice 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:22.680 of outfit suggested she was meeting someone that night who 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:25.480 else they wanted to know could have been in the 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:32.159 Pollard with Sandy. Here's what they think happened. Sandy was 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:36.240 shot by someone else sitting beside her in the passenger seat. 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:40.199 This would explain the location of the gunshot and the 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:43.560 trajectory of the bullet from the right side of Sandy's 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:47.000 abdomen to the left side of her back. It was 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:50.119 the cardboard found under the wheels of Sandy's car that 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:53.960 solidified their doubts. The cardboard told a story of a 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:56.480 girl who was trying to leave the Pollard that night, 0:19:57.280 --> 0:20:14.159 not one intent on suicide. My name is Kim Parmer. 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:19.280 I am a second cousin of Sandy Belle, and we 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:22.760 are in the home of where the origin of all 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:27.080 of our family began, and John's Port, Maine. I met 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:30.359 Kim at a hotel just up the street from Joanne's house. 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:34.399 Kim is a licensed therapist, and it comes through and 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:38.399 the way she communicates. She makes good eye contact and 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:42.959 speaks carefully, with kindness and warmth. She's the type of 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:45.000 person who makes you feel like you could tell her 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:49.480 anything and she'd never judge you. These days, Kim now 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:52.600 sixty four, lives in Texas and she's got a solid 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:55.480 tan to show for it. But she comes to Maine, 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:58.200 the place of her birth, whenever she can to see 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:01.760 the bells. See Andy has a grave marker here too, 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:04.960 and she visits it when she can. So this is 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:09.399 a map of um just Prince George's county, in the 0:21:09.440 --> 0:21:14.560 area where she lived, and based on all the information 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:16.800 that I have of her date books or letters or 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:18.840 anything that had an address on it or that I 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:23.760 could identify, I plotted it onto the map. Where she lived, 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:26.480 where she went to school, where she died, where she worked. 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:33.119 This was just her little world. Kim showed me the 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:37.600 material she's gathered over the years, medical records, court documents, 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:41.159 freedom of Information Act requests, spreading them out on a 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:44.720 hotel bed for me to look through. She's the detective 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:49.000 of the family, inquisitive, diligent, and fixated on this idea 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:53.680 of justice. Joanne and I just stayed in touch intermittently 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:57.919 over the years, and they started sending me stuff. I 0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:00.440 started I was asking so many questions there, like here, 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:05.320 just take it. And so that's you know, these files 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:08.720 of stuff that I have now. Kim is the entire 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:11.679 reason why I started looking into the story, why I 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:14.000 learned the name of Sandy Beale in the first place. 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:17.959 She's the one who gave me Joanne's letter, and I 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:22.720 just learned to keep Sandy's summary with me. I carried 0:22:22.760 --> 0:22:24.720 it with me all the time, so if I ever 0:22:24.840 --> 0:22:28.080 met anyone an investigator, whatever, I I just passed them out. 0:22:28.720 --> 0:22:32.000 I first met Kim at a domestic violence conference in Texas. 0:22:32.720 --> 0:22:35.280 I was there to moderate a panel with Lorraina Bobbitt, 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:39.200 whose experience of domestic abuse and marital rape had been 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:42.359 badly overshadowed by the act that had made her infamous. 0:22:43.160 --> 0:22:45.159 If you don't know her story, I encourage you to 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:48.199 look it up. Something I said that night must have 0:22:48.240 --> 0:22:51.879 resonated with Kim, because immediately after the panel she approached me. 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:55.280 Remember going up to you afterwards and almost running up 0:22:55.280 --> 0:22:57.200 there and trying to get there before other people because 0:22:57.200 --> 0:22:59.160 I knew you were going to get bombarded with people 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:03.639 asking questions, and I thought, well, who knows, maybe maybe 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:07.520 she would find this intriguing. I did. As a reporter, 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:10.080 I've written more stories than I can count about women 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:12.760 who have died violent deaths, and I've spent time with 0:23:12.800 --> 0:23:17.120 their families as they've begun the grieving process. But usually 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:22.160 those cases had answers, however unsatisfying, they might feel. This 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:25.280 was a true mystery, one that had persisted for over 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:29.240 four decades. The Bell family was stuck in the unknown. 0:23:32.760 --> 0:23:35.760 I kept finding myself looking at a photo of Sandy 0:23:35.800 --> 0:23:39.520 that Kim gave me along with Joanne's letter. It's a 0:23:39.560 --> 0:23:44.359 black and white portrait Sandy's high school graduation photo. She 0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:47.560 has long, blonde, feathered hair with a middle part that 0:23:47.640 --> 0:23:51.280 makes you think a fair faucet. Her mouth is poised 0:23:51.280 --> 0:23:54.760 into a half smile, and she stares off camera like 0:23:54.880 --> 0:23:59.480 something in the background amuses her. Almost everyone I spoke 0:23:59.520 --> 0:24:03.720 to about Sandy mentioned how pretty she was, especially her 0:24:03.800 --> 0:24:07.600 long blonde hair, and while she got attention for her looks, 0:24:08.040 --> 0:24:10.600 it didn't seem to give her a big head. She 0:24:10.720 --> 0:24:13.800 was just genuinely nice and friendly to those around her. 0:24:14.800 --> 0:24:19.160 That's the Sandy Kim remembers. We didn't meet until we 0:24:19.160 --> 0:24:22.800 were fourteen. The two girls were only six months apart, 0:24:23.280 --> 0:24:28.200 and their friendship was a defining one. And we headed 0:24:28.240 --> 0:24:30.399 off and went back to her bedroom like teenagers do, 0:24:30.560 --> 0:24:32.240 and we sat on her bed and we just started 0:24:32.280 --> 0:24:49.800 talking and just loved her from the start. Kim and 0:24:49.840 --> 0:24:52.800 Sandy met for the first time shortly after Kim moved 0:24:52.800 --> 0:24:56.000 to Maryland, to a neighborhood about an hour from the Bells. 0:24:57.240 --> 0:25:00.280 The two girls spent their early teenage years going back 0:25:00.280 --> 0:25:04.200 and forth to each other's houses and trading worlds. Living 0:25:04.280 --> 0:25:06.640 in Maryland was you know, you would think that it's 0:25:06.720 --> 0:25:11.560 this preppy, kind of wonderful place with Annapolis and preppy 0:25:11.560 --> 0:25:14.160 clothes and everything. But I look back now and those 0:25:14.200 --> 0:25:17.040 are some of the most traumatic, scarious times of my life. 0:25:17.200 --> 0:25:20.000 The thanks I got exposed to it at that age. 0:25:21.720 --> 0:25:25.280 While Kim was technically older by a few months, Sandy 0:25:25.400 --> 0:25:29.080 often played the role of protector. And I'm like trying 0:25:29.119 --> 0:25:30.879 to avoid it right now because i don't want to cry, 0:25:32.040 --> 0:25:43.560 but I'm going to okay. Um. So, at fourteen, I'm 0:25:43.600 --> 0:25:47.000 in this new school and it was exciting and everything, 0:25:47.000 --> 0:25:50.720 and that um, my mom had to come pick me 0:25:50.840 --> 0:25:53.119 up one night because I was at a friend's house 0:25:53.240 --> 0:25:56.320 at a playground in the middle of a cold a 0:25:56.440 --> 0:26:00.480 sack and I'm just like waiting for my mom and 0:26:00.520 --> 0:26:03.240 this guy walks up and I recognize him because he's 0:26:03.280 --> 0:26:06.159 on the football team. He's a senior on the football team. 0:26:06.200 --> 0:26:09.360 And I, to this date don't know how it unfolded, 0:26:09.440 --> 0:26:12.240 but before I knew it, he had his hands down 0:26:12.280 --> 0:26:16.960 my pants and I I just remember freezing. I mean, 0:26:17.000 --> 0:26:19.720 I hadn't even been kissed yet by a boy at all, 0:26:20.359 --> 0:26:24.080 and I'm thinking all these people they're looking out their 0:26:24.080 --> 0:26:27.800 windows watching this guy do this to me, and I 0:26:27.920 --> 0:26:30.560 just associated. And so that weekend I went to go 0:26:30.640 --> 0:26:32.560 see Sandy and I was telling her about it, and 0:26:32.560 --> 0:26:36.400 I was really upset about it, and she got pissed 0:26:37.920 --> 0:26:39.680 and she's like, I'm going to take care of this 0:26:39.840 --> 0:26:42.840 for you. Kim told me that A few days later, 0:26:43.040 --> 0:26:46.280