Poisoned by Her Son’s Ex-Girlfriend or Someone Else? The Suspicious Death of Mary Yoder
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No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus. Terms and conditions apply. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of True Crime with Kendall Ray. I am so happy to have you joining me today as we discuss yet another case. And if you are new, then welcome. So today we're going to be talking about a case that is very complicated. I think there will be a difference in opinions in the comments, which I always find interesting to see you guys kind of...

discuss the case with each other. It's one of those cases where even though justice has been served, there are many people out there that think they have the wrong person to this day. But before we jump in and I start trying to explain this all to you, I do have two quick announcements. First of all, I wanted to thank you all for the amazing feedback regarding my upcoming documentary, 530 Days, which will be coming out in 2023. I wanted to be really clear. A lot of people thought that

It was coming out in 530 days. The title of the documentary is 530 Days, and we do have a new trailer to share with you all today, which I'm very excited for you to see a little bit more of what we have been working on this entire past year. And for those of you who haven't already figured it out by the clues we left in the trailer, this documentary is on the case of Jessica Easterly, which many of you probably remember me covering at one point. And a lot of you got involved,

and made the right calls and sent emails to get help. And for a second there, we thought that maybe this family was finally going to be listened to, that they were going to get helped because we were told that that was going to be the case. However, it seemed like it was all for publicity and to frankly,

shut all of you up, which made me so mad that after so many people reached out, this family was continuously ignored. And there still is no justice for Jessica Easterly to this day. So I had to go down to New Orleans myself and see what the hell is going on down there. And

wow, was I blown away. I can't wait for you all to see it. Like I said, it's coming out before the end of the year. I will have an exact release date very soon. And then really quick, I just wanted to mention that it is that time of year again, and I will be matching all of your donations to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children from now until the end of the year. There is a link to make a donation in the description box if you would like to do so. We would so appreciate it. Alternatively, you can always buy some of our NECMEC merch, which is always available at

kendallray.shop. Specifically, our newest hoodie is my absolute favorite. I am so excited about the quality of this hoodie. We have never done a hoodie for NECMEC before. I really love this color and I love that we put a print on the back as well, which is also something new. And like always, 100% of the profit from that collection goes directly to NECMEC and I can't tell you how appreciative their team is. They are amazing people. I love being partnered with NECMEC and the

Thank you all for your support, truly. Because of you, we have now raised over $241,000. We are very close to hitting a quarter of a million dollars, and I'm very proud of all of you for that. But without further ado, and I know I had a lot of announcements, let's go ahead and jump into this case, okay? Because we do have quite a...

a bit to go over. So let's start with a background on Mary Yoder. She was born March 18th, 1955 in upstate New York and grew up with her two brothers and five sisters. And coming from such a large family herself, family just became a really important pillar in her life, both from a young age and as she grew older. Now, anyone lucky enough to have known Mary would know that she was the type of person that you'd walk away from feeling like

instantly better even if nothing was wrong she just had a way of impacting people from the way her loved ones and people she knew describe her mary had a warm contagious energy that just passed on to you if you were in her presence every bone in her body and fiber of her being was just good

And people loved her and gravitated to her. Like I said, family was extremely important to Mary. And in the 70s, while attending college, she met her future husband and the future father of her children, William or Bill Yoder. And the two of them were a little bit different, you could say. While Mary was extroverted and spiritual, Bill was introverted and intellectual. But their differences just seemed...

to align perfectly. A year after getting married, they had their first child, a daughter. Her name was Liana and she was followed by their second daughter, Cameron, two years later. They were a family of four for a handful of years and then eight years later, Mary became pregnant with her third child, a baby boy named Alexander.

The Yoders were always a very close-knit family, and from what I can tell, they were living a very happy, normal life. And Mary and Bill were actually both chiropractors, and they had opened their own business called Chiropractic Family Care in Whitesboro, New York. And to live together, have children together, spend time together,

And then also work together. I really admire that about them as someone who does the same thing. I am pretty much with my husband at all times. And it became more of a family business over the years when their son Adam eventually worked on and off at the business, helping where he could. And I think that's a really good thing.

And then eventually Adam's girlfriend, Katie, was introduced to Mary and Bill, and she quickly blew them away with her hard work ethic and eagerness to help. So she ended up being hired for the front desk, and it didn't take long for her to be promoted to office manager. Now, it's unclear when exactly Katie started working at the office, but what is clear is that her relationship with Mary remained consistent, and

even after her and Adam ended up breaking up. And let me explain that a little bit more. So she and Adam met in 2011. They met at a high school graduation party. And over the course of the next four years, they seem to have a very on and off relationship. You know, they're breaking up, they're getting back together. And it just kind of continued in that cycle. For example, one of those times that they had broken up, they ended up getting back together because K

Katie told Adam that she was pregnant, but it was an ectopic pregnancy. And for those of you who don't know, in simple terms, an ectopic pregnancy is when the egg is fertilized, but in the fallopian tube, which is not where it's supposed to be and can be very dangerous. So she told him that unfortunately she would have to terminate the pregnancy and that she would need his support during that time. And they ended up getting back together. And even through their struggles, Katie remained loyal.

to the family business. It's been said that she really looked up to Mary and overall just had a lot of admiration for her. And honestly, I don't see how you couldn't admire Mary. Mary was such a kind person that even if someone couldn't afford her services, she would barter with them for things like eggs and other random ingredients and give them chiropractic care in exchange.

On top of her emotional warmth and kindness, Mary was also a badass when it came to her own personal health. At 60 years old, she was still doing triathlons, frequently outside, tending to her extensive garden. And for fun, she took up things like belly dancing, kayaking, and so much more. She was just very active and lived life to the fullest. She may have been 60, but she had the heart, spirit, and energy of someone far younger, which she attributed to her holistic lifestyle.

Mary was always taking supplements and was a big believer in natural medicine. And it's actually because of this, the fact that she was kind of the epitome of health, that

That makes what happened to her so unbelievably confusing. So that brings us to Monday, July 20th, 2015. And it was quite literally like any other day. Mary got up early, got ready for work, and headed out to see her first client of the day. And one by one, all of her morning clients came in that day, had their appointment with Mary, and said that everything seemed completely normal, that Mary seemed.

completely normal. So then around lunchtime, Mary leaves the office to go and check on her mother. And then she comes back to work, has some lunch, and then continues on to see her afternoon clients. And it's been reported that the lunch that she had was a protein shake, which was pretty typical for her. So she has her shake and gets ready for the next round of afternoon clients. But it wasn't long after Mary started seeing these afternoon clients that she realized that

something was wrong. Almost out of nowhere, she was feeling horrible and was in and out of the bathroom with uncontrollable vomiting and diarrhea. And one client even said that she saw a red ring around her eyes. And it got so bad that Mary knew she just had to go home. She couldn't continue to see clients, so she canceled her last few appointments and went home to rest. But once she got home, her condition became unbearable.

drastically worse and just continued to worsen throughout the night. And by the next morning, it was so bad that her husband, Bill, knew he needed to take her to the ER immediately. So on the morning of Tuesday, July 21st, Mary was admitted to the ER and there actually ended up being a handful of hours where she seemed to be improving. And during all of this, Bill is keeping his children up to date on her condition, especially his daughter, Liana, because she was a doctor herself.

Unfortunately, though, any improvement that Mary was having was quickly overshadowed by her sudden rapid decline. That night around 10 p.m., Mary is standing up in her hospital room when suddenly she just falls to the ground. And after that, she was immediately admitted to the ICU. And from that point forward, things changed.

just kept going downhill. On the morning of July 22nd, Mary ended up suffering her first heart attack and ended up having seven more that day. You can imagine what having eight heart attacks in one day would do to your body. She was in excruciating pain at that point. Mary was just suffering. She was fighting as hard as she could, but

In the end, she couldn't fight any longer. And that day, 60-year-old Mary Yoder, who was the picture of health, really, was pronounced dead. And nobody at the hospital could understand or explain why. And as you can imagine, her family was devastated.

shocked, to say the least, absolutely devastated and wanted to know what really happened because none of this made sense. And obviously the first steps here to figure out what happened to Mary was to conduct an autopsy. So her body was sent to the medical examiner in hopes that they could get an explanation as to why this

otherwise healthy woman went from fine to very much not fine in such a short period of time. Liana, her daughter and the doctor of the family, says that the medical examiner contacted her a few days after her mother's death and said that based on the severity and speed in which this illness came on and then killed her, he suspected that whatever it was, that it was infectious, something like ascending cholangitis.

Liana then passed this information to the rest of her family, her father, her siblings, and her aunts. Now, her three aunts are Mary's sisters, and you're going to hear me talk about them quite a bit. Their names are Sharon, Sally, and Janine. And three of them ended up playing a really big role in this entire case.

For many reasons, but initially it's because they were the ones who pushed for an investigation in the first place. Sharon, who's a nurse, said that when she heard about the medical examiner's initial theories on her cause of death, that something just didn't seem right to her. And she did trust what her niece Liana was telling her, but she asked if...

Liana could ask the medical examiner if they could run a toxicology test. And that wasn't an issue at all because the medical examiner wanted to run one anyway. And it turns out, while looking at some of Mary's cells under a microscope, he could see that the cells were attacking themselves, leading to an entirely new conclusion on her death.

Mary was poisoned. But the thing is, after he ran a bunch of tests on all the most common types of poison, arsenic, cyanide, etc., all of them came back negative. And while he wanted to continue running tests for more types of poison...

he wasn't able to do so. Because by this point, a month or so had already gone by and all they had left of Mary was one vial of blood because her husband Bill had her cremated.

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So they had already tested everything else they had available to them. So now they just had a single vial of blood and had to be very careful about what they decided to use it to test on. And

And because their theory still definitely was that Mary had been poisoned, the medical examiner sent that one last vial of blood to a poison control expert in upstate New York. And after the expert carefully considered the circumstances of Mary's death, there was only one thing she thought it could be.

colchicine. Now, colchicine in small doses can be prescribed by doctors to help treat people with gout, but in large doses, it's known to be incredibly lethal. And after testing that last vial of blood, which was their only vial of hope at that point, it did in fact come back positive for colchicine toxicity. And not only that, it was at an amount high enough to kill Mary 15 times a

over. And by this point, three months had passed. And now Mary's family had some answers that they were looking for, but they didn't have an investigation going as to who gave her the colchicine. Her sisters in particular felt like nothing was being done about this, that there was no investigation going on to figure out who did this to their sister Mary. And they could not let someone get away with this. They

So Sharon took measures into her own hands and went down herself to the Oneida County Sheriff's Department where she helped kick off the investigation. And to no surprise, it didn't take much convincing. I mean, how did this happen? How could this health-conscious woman ingest enough colchicine to kill herself 15 times over? There was nothing to suggest that this was a suicide. There was no evidence that this was some sort of tragic accident.

In fact, Adam and Katie were tasked with collecting all of Mary's supplements, as well as some items from her office for police to test to see if, you know, maybe there had been some type of freak cross-contamination accident. But...

nothing was found. It was very obvious that the way that she ingested the colchicine had to have been given to her in a way that was deliberate. This was a cold-blooded murder, but the glaring question here is who and why? And so the first person that investigators looked into was her husband, Bill, of course. Statistically, we just know that you are far more likely to be murdered by your spouse than anyone else.

So he was the first on their list. And when it came to how Mary's sisters felt about him as a suspect...

They felt like it would make sense. In their eyes, Bill did not grieve Mary's death the way they felt he should have. And they also thought it was strange that he had gotten her cremated so soon after she passed, especially with unknown circumstances like this. And it turns out that even before Mary and Bill got married, her sisters had some conflicting opinions about Bill. Right before the two of them got married,

Bill had told Mary that he expected her to be okay with their marriage being open. And of course, Mary was like, um, absolutely not. And Bill agreed eventually to be monogamous. But the whole thing put a...

strange taste in her sister's mouths. They felt like he was always taking too many weekends away from her to be alone and that it was possible maybe he was cheating on her during those times. And to be fair, they did feel that at times he was a good husband to their sister.

But following her death, they felt and still feel that Bill had every reason to benefit from his wife's death. But I'll get to that. Now, when it came to investigators looking into him as a suspect, they just didn't think he was their guy. I mean, in their eyes, they felt like Bill really didn't have anything to gain from her death, like inheritance or something like that. It just didn't seem like he would have any motive to want her dead. Plus...

When he was brought in, he was incredibly forthcoming. He spoke with investigators for five hours and gave them access to anything they wanted, including computers from the office, a typewriter, a fax machine, and more. No matter how many questions they had, Bill sat and answered them all, even the uncomfortable ones, like if he had ever cheated on his wife. Now, Bill does deny any accusations of cheating on Mary, but...

He did start dating someone else very shortly after she passed. And I think if you took several guesses as to who Bill ended up dating, you probably wouldn't guess right. It turns out that after Mary died, Bill began dating, wait for it,

One of her sisters. That's right. Not Sharon, Sally, or Janine, but Kathy, her older sister, who I haven't told you about yet. Now, when I first learned this information, I was absolutely stunned. I mean, jaw on the floor. Because when you find out he is dating one of her sisters...

So shortly after she died, it definitely makes you rethink everything. Because obviously, a love interest maybe gives Bill a motive. But before you make up your mind, let me continue to give you all the facts here. And by the end of this, you can, you know, come to any conclusion you want. So at this point, investigators are keeping tabs on Bill. But they're just not convinced that he is their guy, even after finding out that he had started dating Mary's sister.

but they didn't know who else could have done it. But luckily for them, their next suspect was

or should I say suspects, honestly, fell into their laps. Towards the end of 2015, the medical examiners received an anonymous letter from someone claiming they knew who killed Mary. They immediately called the sheriff's department to let them know, and it just so happened that that same day, they received the exact same letter. Now, this letter accuses Adam, Mary's son,

So let's take a look at part of this letter. It reads, When I saw him a couple days ago, he appeared agitated and said that he was the reason for her death and wished he could take it back. Then he said he got a bottle of colchicine off online and put the toxin in one of her vitamins when he was over at his parents' house. He said his mom noticed he seemed disturbed at the time.

and that she thought it was since he was drinking at their house. Adam told her no, the beer was not the reason he was disturbed, and to just drop it. He said he apologized to his parents for ruining the holiday Father's Day and left. Adam was upset people weren't paying more attention to him. He felt he deserved more attention and he thought people would be nicer to him. He acted resentful and belligerent to his immediate family and became visibly irritated people kept talking about

his mom. He said he expected a financial payout after her death, which did not come. So this letter not only gave investigators a who, but also a why. If Adam was his mom's killer, like it claims, it was because he wanted more attention and was upset with his mom, and also because he thought he'd get some type of payout. Now, whoever wrote this letter claimed to have been very close with Adam,

which would explain why he was so comfortable telling him or her all of these things. And get this, the letter writer claimed to be close with Adam, which is why he was comfortable enough to say all of this around him or her. The letter writer also said that the Colchicine could be found under the

passenger seat of Adam's Jeep. That's where he said it was until he figures out where to put it or dispose of it next. I asked him to show me where it was kept currently and said no, but described it as a small glass bottle. So obviously the next course of action here is to bring Adam in for questioning. And he was brought in on December 9th, 2015.

And Adam came in without hesitation and for hours talked with investigators about his mother and the circumstances surrounding her death. And investigators finally just came to a point with him where they decided to just tell him about the anonymous letter to, one, see what he thought about it, and two, to allow them to search his Jeep, hopefully, if he was okay with that.

And right off the bat, Adam said that he was completely fine with them searching his car. But before that, he wanted to get in touch with his lawyer just in case, which is understandable. And after doing so, he signed a form that allowed investigators to have full-on access to his vehicle. And it only took a few minutes. It's...

to find what they were looking for. Under the passenger seat of his Jeep was a bottle of colchicine wrapped in cardboard. And Adam was totally shocked. While they were searching his Jeep, he was watching, smoking a cigarette, and it apparently almost fell out of his mouth. He could not believe it was there. And to investigators, it seemed like genuine surprise. But that wasn't all.

Also in his car was a crumpled up receipt related to the purchase of the Colchicine with the email MrAdamYoder1990 at gmail.com as the buyer. And right away, Adam tells investigators that that's not his email, he's never seen or heard of it before, and that he was sure that someone planted in his car. And interestingly, investigators were inclined to believe him.

And not because they thought his response to it all was genuine or they were just inclined to believe him, but because why on earth, if he actually did this, would he then come to the police station with the murder weapon in his vehicle? Riddle me that. ♪

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At that point, it had been four months since his mother's death. You're telling me he just kept it in his car and then drove himself to the police station where he knew they were going to search his car and they find it, of course. I mean, unless he was really dumb enough to do that, it makes no sense. And investigators also had to consider that Adam was nowhere near his mom on the day that she was poisoned.

He had a solid alibi. He was visiting his sister 300 miles away. So it all just made no sense for Adam to have been involved. And with this information, there was just no reason to hold Adam for any further questioning and he was given permission to leave. Just like his father, investigators decided to, you know, keep tabs on him, but it didn't seem like he was their guy.

But who else could it be? And before going, Adam agreed to give them his DNA in case it was needed for the future and also handed over his text communications between himself and his father, as well as himself and Katie.

Yep, remember Katie, Adam's on and off girlfriend who also worked at Bill and Mary's office as office manager. Well, she was also brought in for questioning. In the eyes of investigators, what better person to talk to than someone who worked for the family and knew them personally and professionally and was at the office the day Mary first got sick. So Katie came into the station and not only gave her insights on Mary and Bill as a couple,

couple and as business owners, but also gave her insights on Adam and his relationship with his mother. And slowly, she started revealing that Adam and his mother didn't always have the best relationship and that he hadn't been acting like himself lately and a few other things that made investigators wonder, could

Could Katie have been the one to write this anonymous letter? So they decided to just straight up ask her if she wrote the letter. And at first it didn't come easily, but the more they pushed her on it, she eventually admitted that she did in fact write that letter. So you are a letter writer, correct? That's what you told Mark? What made you write the letter? You wanted us to know? Yeah. Or did you want to see Adam get in trouble? No, I don't think it's nice to see Adam get in trouble.

Here's some issues I still have. You gotta look at it from our point of view. We're looking at one of three people here. The husband, Adam, or you. You said it may have been an accident. Did he express that he didn't mean to do this to you? Well, he said he regretted it. He regretted it? He said he was gonna do this again? He said he didn't think he could do it again.

She even said that Adam told her he was going to frame her.

And that guys don't use poison. It's a lady's weapon. And hearing that was definitely concerning to investigators. And not because they thought that Adam was framing her the way that she said he told her he was going to do. It concerned them because Katie bringing up the fact that poison is a lady's weapon just seemed strange. And by this point, investigators heard what they needed to hear and they let Katie go. But they were far from finished when it came to questioning her. Because

here's the kicker. Since receiving the letter, investigators were actually suspicious that whoever wrote that letter was actually Mary's killer. And after hearing everything that Katie said, investigators were more confident than ever that she was the one who killed Mary and was trying to frame Adam, not the other way around. So like I said, they let her go. But in the meantime, they were gathering evidence.

to prove their suspicions. Investigators got the digital records back from Katie's work computer, which if you remember, Bill allowed investigators to seize. And boy, did they find things. Oh my God. It turns out that on that computer, Katie's work computer...

The email, mradamyoder1990 at gmail.com, had been accessed and used on multiple occasions. And it wasn't just accessed on her work computer, it was also accessed on her home computer. So...

That's not looking good. And it gets worse because cell records also show that Katie looked up Colchicine on her phone. However, I do want to make note that it's unclear when she looked it up and that actually does matter. Yes, it could have been before the murder, which is obviously very incriminating, but...

it could have also been after. After all, this is someone that she claimed to have really admired. And I can totally see a world where you would want to look up something that could have potentially killed your boss. Now, I'm not saying this is the case or defending her. I just want to report the facts in full. And if we look at the other facts, we find out that Adam had never accessed that account, the MrYoder1990 at gmail.com on any of his devices.

Which says a lot. In a deposition on January 7th, 2016, this is what Adam had to say about the email address. "It has recently come to my attention that someone has established an email account using my personal information. I have learned the email account is through Google and the email account name is [email protected]. This is not my account. I never set it up, nor did I give anyone permission to establish this account in my name.

So here they have a digital trail that only points to Katie's devices, but what they don't have is an understanding of why she would do this. We know that she was at the office that day, which definitely gives her the opportunity to do it, but why? And motive is just so important. So investigators had no choice but to bring her back in. And when Katie came back in for questioning, this time investigators were not messing around. For six hours, they interrogated her and asked,

asked her outright, why did you kill Mary? And Katie was very distressed during the interrogation. She frequently repeated, my life is over. And at one point, she even began throwing up in a trash can. Like I told you, we know you got on Adam's accounts. Why did you get on Adam's account last night? These are all things we know. IP comes back, your house. Who took the credit card then? You're trying to tell me. We know what that credit card was trying to be used for.

Right, but I'm telling her it wasn't me. Okay. So, it's either you did this alone or someone else is involved with you because you got the credit cards. Is Ann involved in this with you? It's not with me. I'm not in this. You bought the two cards. I did. Okay. So, you either did this alone or somebody helped you or you helped them. It's one or the other. It's not a if you're involved. We know you're involved. You already said it. You got the card. That right there ties into the purchase of the cold system.

You're in the office the day Mary's there. Did somebody else want to hurt Mary and you help them? What does it come down to at this point, Katie? You need to help us because like I said, this is a done deal. We know all this stuff. And you know we know because we're laying out facts left and right for you. Now the bottom line is who, what, where, we already know that. It's the why. It's the only thing left. Why Mary? Help me understand. We've kind of...

done a lot of work, okay? And we know that your phone is used quite a lot for items in this case. Okay? You're the one that purchases... No. Help me. I didn't, though. But you're never going to believe me. Nobody else will believe you. You lied to me. I didn't mean to lie to you. But you did. That's the only thing we need at this point is why. You need to tell me whether you wanted to hurt her or did you want her to get sick or what. We need to know.

And ultimately, she was allowed to go home that night, but her arrest was inevitable.

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On June 13th, 2016, Katie Conley was arrested on charges of second-degree murder. And when word got out that Katie was the prime suspect and that she had been arrested, there was a large group of people who really rallied around her.

Her mom, dad, and twin sisters have believed in her innocence since day one. And obviously, it's not a huge shock to hear that her own family supported her. The real shock is that three of Katie's biggest supporters have actually been Mary's sisters, Sharon, Sally, and Janine. It is their belief that Bill and Adam framed Katie, and she is suffering the consequences of the murder that they committed.

Because in their minds, Katie had absolutely no reason to want Mary dead. So Katie remained on house arrest living at her parents' farm in upstate New York from 2016 when she was arrested all the way until her trial began in 2017. And obviously, because this is a case that's entirely based on circumstantial evidence, the prosecution knew that they were facing an uphill battle.

Nobody could place the Colchicine physically in Katie's hands and definitively say they saw her try to poison Mary with it. But the circumstantial evidence they had was on their side. I mean, everything pointed back at Katie. For one, as we've been over, all of the evidence

All of the devices that were logged into this MrAdamYoder1990 at gmail.com account were Katie's. Her phone, her personal computer, her work computer, nobody else's. Plus, the timeline pointed back to Katie. It's believed that Mary was poisoned right around lunchtime on July 20th, right before she began presenting symptoms. And Katie's

Katie was the only person with access to Mary during that time. And one by one, clients who came to the office that day took the stand to make the point that before lunch, Mary was fine. But after lunch, she was not. Every patient who testified said that Katie was the only other person they saw at the office. And Bill also took the stand and got emotional as he talked about his wife's final hours. On the stand, he attempted to shut down any rumors that he was somehow involved with his wife's death.

Although there are still people like Mary's sisters who think he is responsible. And during the trial, we also learned that Katie's work computer was the one that was used to purchase the drug. The prosecution even brought out the woman who sold the Colchicine used to kill Mary to the stand. She testified that she spoke with the buyer on the phone as is protocol for any potentially lethal drug and said that the person she spoke with was a woman.

and that they were soft-spoken and sounded young. And on top of that, we also learned that the Colchicine was paid for using prepaid credit cards. It's...

During those initial interviews Katie had with detectives, she told them that she bought those cards. Plus, and this is huge, Katie's DNA was found on the cardboard sleeve that was wrapped around the colchicine bottle found in Adam's car. I do want to note, however, that there was additional DNA found on the sleeve, but not enough to make a full identification.

I do want to point out, however, and this is also something that the defense pointed out as well, Katie was the office manager. She opened dozens of boxes a week, and they said that her DNA being on the cardboard sleeve was just a coincidence. The prosecution was able to show that pretty much everything

Everything pointed back to Katie. But there were times, like this cardboard, for example, where the defense had a strong rebuttal. And that made it especially crucial for the prosecution to drive home the motive, the why. Why the hell would Caitlin Conley want Mary Yoder to die? A woman who she looked up to, respected, loved.

loved. While prosecuting attorney Laurie Lisi would argue, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Or in other words, it all goes back to Adam. She would say that Katie, who was not dating Adam at the time, killed his mother to get him back.

Adam even took the stand and said that if this was her plan, it worked. He said that he called Katie on the way to the hospital because he knew that she looked up to his mother and that he wanted her to be there. Adam said that Katie helped him through his grief and that only a few months later, things fell apart again and they did break up once again. What's interesting though, and the prosecution pointed this out, the anonymous letter just so happened to appear right after the two of them split up for the final time.

According to DA Lisi, this breakup is why Katie wrote the letter in the first place. She argued that Katie felt if she couldn't have him after her original plan failed, that he deserved to go to jail. When it came to the defense's argument, attorney Christopher Pelley, who represented Katie, made the overarching argument that Katie was being framed. And the person they were pointing the finger at? Bill Yoder, who I should mention was given full immunity before the trial even began.

Even though the defense would argue that he killed Mary, he could never be charged with her murder. Regardless, they knew they had to point the finger away from Katie. So they argued that Bill was the only person in all of this who actually stood to gain something from Mary's death, including a new relationship and a substantial amount of inheritance money. I'm sure you haven't forgotten that very shortly after Mary passed, Bill began dating her sister.

Kathy. Now, while he claims that their relationship started after Mary's death, sometime in September of 2015 specifically, the defense argued that it began before. One of Kathy's neighbors even testified that she saw the two of them kissing several weeks before Mary's death. And then, of course, there's the money. The circumstances are a little unclear, but Bill supposedly inherited $400,000, and the defense argued that he killed Mary.

because he no longer needed to rely on her financially. But what's confusing about this to me is they owned a business together. Why would he need to rely on Mary for money anyway? There is mention that the two of them were in some debt, but again, I don't see how killing Mary would have...

got him out of debt anyway. It was their debt. Maybe there's just some details that we're all unaware of, but that's what the defense argued. Bill had two reasons to want her dead, and that his motive made the most sense, not this woman-scorned motive. In fact, Mary's sisters, who have spoken out a lot on Katie's innocence, say that Katie was the one to dump Adam, and that she was in a relationship leading up to Mary's death, which

which is why in their eyes, she would have no reason to want Mary dead. You slept through your alarm, missed the train, and your breakfast sandwich, cold. Sounds like you could use some luck. I'm Victoria Cash, and Lucky Land is where people go every day to get lucky. At Lucky Land, you can play over 100 casino-style games for free for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. Go to LuckyLandSlots.com and get lucky today.

No purchase necessary. VTW group. Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus. Terms and conditions apply. But going back to Bill's motive, that alone doesn't prove murder. They also had to prove opportunity. And that would be a little bit more difficult. But...

the defense said that they did have a couple of scenarios in mind that would have given Bill the opportunity to kill Mary. The first being that Bill was in and out of the office that day, but no patients had seen him. He could have been just in his back office and never had come out. He was definitely the less social one of the two of them. So who's to say that he wasn't just...

you know, in the back working most of the day. The second scenario that the defense presented is the possibility that Bill poisoned one of Mary's supplements, which he could have done at any time, not just on the day she first got sick. And in that instance, it wouldn't have mattered if he was there the day that she actually got sick.

And something that we haven't really talked about, but it's very important to note, is that no one knows exactly how Mary was poisoned. It could have been in a supplement. It also could have been mixed into her protein shake that day. It could have been given to her in some other way we just aren't aware of. Either way, we don't know how it ended up

in Mary's system. And so whatever methods were being pitched by both the prosecution and the defense were really just guesses. And for the defense, the theory about Bill poisoning Mary went further than just a one-time thing. They said it was possible that Bill poisoned Mary not just once...

but twice. Christopher Pelley argued that Bill could have first put the poison in her supplement, but then when she was in the hospital and appearing to get better, he hit her with a second dose. If you remember, when Mary first got sick, she was vomiting, she was having diarrhea, she overall just felt terrible. But when she first got to the hospital, it seemed like her symptoms were clearing up. And then they suddenly...

just got so much worse out of nowhere. Then she declined so rapidly that she had heart attack after heart attack after heart attack. And there were many moments that Bill was alone with her. Is it possible he realized he hadn't given her enough the first time around and gave her more?

The defense argues yes. Mary's sisters also say yes, and they've pointed out that at one point Bill left the hospital and wasn't heard from for hours. And when he returned, he had brought Mary some cough drops and her inhaler, even though he wasn't supposed to give her anything that didn't come from the hospital.

They also say that when Bill was asked to hand over the inhaler and the cough drops to the medical examiner for further testing, that he couldn't produce either of them and said he didn't know where they were. And in the eyes of Mary's sisters, they believe this is when he could have given her a second dose of poison. Now, I have no idea actually if this was mentioned in trial because only some of it is available, but...

I think for the sake of fairness, it's worth mentioning. But going back to the trial, the defense attorney, Christopher Pelley, also had to make an argument for why the digital trail led to Katie if she wasn't responsible. So he brought up the fact that Bill was someone with complete access to Katie's work computer. I mean, it was, after all, his business.

At any point, he could have logged on using her credentials to make it look like she was the one placing the order for the Colchicine and she was the one who made that fake email in Adam's name. What this doesn't explain is why the seller of the Colchicine remembers confirming the purchase with a soft-spoken email. But actually, there might be

might be an explanation for this. And right off the top, I want to mention that I'm not sure, again, if this was mentioned in the trial, but I do think it's an important piece of information that's worth mentioning. Back in January of 2015, about six months before Mary died...

a letter of intent was written and signed for both mary and bill for the purchase of colchicine i don't want to go off on a long tangent here but it turns out that bill liked to grow his own marijuana and i didn't know this but colchicine can actually be used to enhance thc production and dating back to long before mary died bill was using colchicine to help grow his weed again i cannot confirm or deny if this was brought up in trial but

For the sake of being thorough here, I wanted to at least mention it because this information does throw some doubt into who that woman was actually speaking to on the phone when she heard a soft-spoken female because Mary was also a soft-spoken female. What I'd be curious to know is when the Colchicine was purchased.

Was it purchased in January soon after the letter of intent was signed by Mary? Was it before? Was it after? This information would definitely be useful to know. Now, going back to the trial here, the defense did push back on the prosecution's motive that Katie did this to get Adam back by saying she was the one who dumped him. And the letter, how could they argue that Bill was responsible for all of this if Katie

Katie admitted to writing the letter. Well, the defense would say that she was pressured into a false confession. However, a false confession doesn't explain why Katie's DNA was underneath the stamp that was used on the letter.

but i digress one of katie's supporters mary's sister sharon even took the stand and testified that she believed that bill was responsible and just think about the weight of that the victim's own sister is in support of the defendant sharon sally and janine sat on katie's side of the court through all of this and i'm sure that that weighed heavy on the hearts of the jury members but in the end after a two-week trial the jury took five days to deliberate

And they were hung. They could not come to a conclusion. Katie's lawyer said that he was absolutely shocked by this outcome and genuinely believed that they would have reached a not guilty verdict in under 15 minutes. But that wasn't the case. And so it was back to the drawing board. And DA Lori Lisi wasted no time and immediately began preparing the paperwork for a second trial. And in the meantime, investigators continued to collect evidence. And I think you'll be pretty interested to hear what they found.

Adam's computer became a major focus for evidence collection leading up to trial number two. One of the things they found on his computer was a backup from Katie's cell phone from the time period shortly after Mary was killed. And after looking through Katie's search history, they learned that the phone had been used to conduct searches on types of lethal poison. Her

Her phone had also been used to look up mathematical equations to calculate how much colchicine it would take to kill someone that weighed the same as Mary. Plus, her notes app had the words under seat typed out in a note, which some people believe was Katie planning out where she was going to hide the bottle. And get this, investigators uncovered the password to the Mr. Adam Yoder 1990 at gmail.com account, and it was Adam is gay.

That was the password. Adam is gay. And during the second trial, this is something that the DA argued just screamed, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. So let's just talk about this second trial before I give it all away. Just like the first time around, the prosecution's argument was that Katie killed Mary in some revenge type plot to try to bring Adam closer to her.

And while the DA stuck to the same story and same strategy as the first time around, the defense did not. This time, Katie was being defended by Frank Polichelli, who was no longer pointing a finger at Bill, but now pointing the finger at Adam, who, by the way, also has complete immunity.

And part of the defense's tactic was emphasizing Adam's computer skills, specifically that he would have been capable of accessing Katie's computer from afar. And one of their star witnesses was Adam's cousin, David, who at one point was living with him and testified that Adam was really good with computers. He said that Adam went to school for computer science and that at one point he saw him using Katie's laptop at their house. Plus, according to the defense, Adam's

Adam could get access to Katie's computer anytime he wanted. All he would have to do is use his own key to let himself into the building and log on. And lastly, and this is a big one, the defense worked hard to paint Katie as a victim of Adam's. And that's when they dropped the bomb that she had been raped by Adam.

by Adam. Now, Adam took the stand and addressed this accusation and admits that he could not be very helpful because he said that on the night that Katie says he raped her, he was blackout drunk. He does, however, admit to slapping her on one occasion and calls his actions regrettable, but says he has no memory of the night in question. What he does say he knows for certain is that he did not order the Colchicine, he did not kill his mom, and that he did not plant evidence or do anything to frame Caitlin Conley.

But then it gets crazier because he tells the jury that in April of 2015, he thinks Katie tried to poison him. That's right. He says that while he was studying for finals, Katie gave him a supplement called AlphaBrain, which I'm sure a lot of you have heard of. And she said it would help him with some information retention. After taking this supplement a few times, Adam said that he became extremely sick and

so sick that he had to go to the emergency room. Now, I can't say whether or not Katie did try to poison him, but I can say that that bottle of AlphaBrain was taken and tested and there was no poison in the AlphaBrain. So it could have been a really, really bad stomach bug or it could have been something sinister.

It's just not something that I have the answer on, and it's something that you're going to have to come to your own conclusion on. And as for the jury's conclusion, well, they didn't come to one easily. In fact, after two days of deliberation, they came back the same way they did during the first trial.

completely hung. But Judge Dwyer, the judge from the first trial as well, basically told them to try harder and come back when they had an answer. So after two more hours, the jury came back and they came back with a guilty verdict. Not for the charge of second degree murder, but a lesser charge

manslaughter. During the sentencing in January of 2018, Judge Dwyer listened to many people when it came to making his decision on her sentence. First, he heard from Mary's daughter, Tamarin. My name is Tamarin Yoder. Mary Yoder is my mother. On July 22nd, 2015, my mother's heart stopped beating because of this defendant. I have tried to find the words to describe how my mother's murder has impacted our lives.

but none feel strong enough to convey the complete devastation. The level of pain, fear, and anger are indescribable. My mother was a glowing light in this world with a heart full of love to share. She was one of the most genuinely kind and loving people that you could ever know. She truly cared about people and saw the best in everyone and helped them see the best in themselves. She wanted to live

She wanted to enjoy life with her family and friends and to watch her grandchildren grow up. When we learned after the autopsy that there was a toxin found in my mother's blood, the world flipped upside down again. The possibilities didn't make sense. Her supplements were tested for possible contamination. Her food and drink were sent in for testing. Then we had to face the fear that someone had intentionally poisoned her.

This defendant, Caitlin Conley, claimed to have loved my mother and looked up to her as a mentor. Yet through this entire ordeal she has not shed a single tear, has shown no emotion at all, as we've relived over and over the agony of my mother suffering in her final days. As one by one her organs and her body died, she has not shown a hint of regret or remorse for what she has done.

She placed no value on my mother's life except to use it as a means to destroy a family. My family now has a life sentence of anger and loss and fear and pain. Kaitlyn Conway has not shown any compassion and this certainly shows no remorse for her actions. I believe she should be shown the same level of compassion as she's given us and I ask the court to please consider the maximum sentence.

Thank you. He also heard from Bill. Everyone who knew Mary or even briefly met her said that she was one of the kindest, most loving, caring persons they'd ever met. When she was part of your day, your day was better. Your day had more light and more energy, more joy. Often when Mary and I were walking around a grocery store, I would lag behind a bit just to watch her. Whenever she would pass someone, she would smile.

perhaps say a word or two, maybe put her hand on their arm. When she walked away, that person just looked happy and radiant. In the 40 years I knew Mary, she was the essence and center of my life. Sharing life with Mary is what gave meaning to all the moments of my life. Even when she wasn't with me, I couldn't wait to get back together and share everything with her. We just loved spending time together, even if it was just snuggling on the couch.

I always felt that I was the most fortunate person on the earth. Mary was my wife. Every day I felt blessed and grateful that she was in my life and that she had chosen to share life with me. And she often told me she felt the same. We felt like the two luckiest people in the world to have found each other. It somehow makes it worse for me and my family knowing Katie was, knowing that Mary was murdered for such a trivial reason. It's frightening to think how little it took

to push her into such a horrible act. She had a fight with her boyfriend and so she murdered his mother to get even. She killed someone who loved her and treated her with kindness. And she's never shown any regret or remorse at all. Quite the contrary, anyone that was present at the trials often saw Katie smiling, even while poison experts were describing the terrible effects of coltracing.

and witnesses were talking about Mary's horrible suffering in her last hours, smiling. We saw her smirking at various law enforcement agents as they walked by the defendant's table because she thought she'd gotten away with it. The pain, the suffering, the murder, none of it seems to bother her. It's like it's all a lark for her, a game of wits. Today she's being sentenced for the cold-blooded, premeditated killing of another human being.

a murder carefully designed to cause terrible pain and suffering. And anyone who watched her carefully during the trials knows she's not really all that sweet. She seemed to find Mary's suffering and death somehow funny and amusing, something to smile about. But there's nothing amusing about heartlessly killing another person. There's absolutely nothing amusing about Mary's death. I'm not a judge, and I don't have the legal expertise or wisdom to make this decision.

But today I have been asked to give my opinion about this. Given all the facts, I think 25 years would be the minimum appropriate sentence. I'm asking for the maximum sentence not out of vengeance or hatred, but out of justice. And lastly for the prosecution, Judge Dwyer heard from Adam. My name is Adam Yoder. I am the son of Mary Yoder. My mother is the best person that I've ever known.

and the best person I will ever know. I wish I could continue my mother's legacy of love and kindness and forgiveness and patience for my family, but the shoes to fill are so big that I do not know where to start. Hopefully in time I will find some answers and be able to partially remedy the blessing of the angel that was stolen from the people I love most. I introduced Katie Conley to my family.

And because I loved her, they all accepted her and treated her as family, as blood. But make no mistake, as much as I hate her, which is more than I ever thought I would be capable of hating anyone, I hate myself infinitely more. I introduced her to my family. I got her a job with my parents. And if I hadn't done those things, my mother would still be alive. And I live with that pain and the torture of that truth.

There hasn't been a single day since the first trial where I haven't suffered from that. And I promise every person in this courtroom that I will carry that with me for the rest of my life. Thank you. Then it was time to hear from the defense's side. And the person who spoke out on behalf of a lighter sentence for Katie was Mary's sister, Janine. Dear Judge Dwyer, Mary Doder was my sister. I have one statement in the defense.

caitlyn conney has been convicted of first-degree manslaughter and my sister's death although i firmly believe she is innocent i must respect the decision of our courts with that being said i am writing to you to plead for mercy and leniency as you decide on caitlyn's sentence i didn't know caitlyn well before my sister died

I knew of her mostly through the things my sister said about her. All good things. In my heart of hearts, I don't believe that Caitlin would ever hurt Mary. It is my belief that Caitlin wants only to live a good, productive life and would never intentionally harm anyone. I believe that she has been wrongfully convicted and that in this instance, this is an instance where our justice system has failed.

This makes me at the heartbreak of losing my sister almost unbearable. As I said earlier in this letter, I do understand that I must be respectful of the court's verdict and therefore also accept that Caitlin will be sentenced. I pray that you will show mercy as you decide on her sentence. Katie herself also spoke and gave a brief statement saying that she was innocent. The justice system...

and to our jury system. I'm innocent, and I would like to thank my family and friends and strangers for standing up in support of me. That is all. Thank you.

But in the end, Judge Dwyer decided that a harsher punishment was necessary due to the excruciating pain that Mary was in in her final hours of life. And so out of the 25 years that Katie faced, she ended up being sentenced to 23 years. And not only that, she was also given an additional five years of supervision and

And Katie's story doesn't end there, because since she was sentenced, she and her new lawyer and her team of supporters have began to rally around overturning her conviction. In December of 2020, a Zoom hearing was held in regards to Katie's first attempt at appealing her conviction. However, after several months of deliberation, the conviction was upheld. A second attempt to appeal came in September of 2021, but once again, the appeal was denied.

Then most recently, in August of 2022, her attorney filed a motion stating that Katie was inadequately represented by each of her two previous lawyers. The motion to overturn was sent to Judge Dwyer, and a hearing was scheduled to discuss the motion in July of 2023. But when that time came, Katie's attorneys changed their focus. Rather than wait for Judge Dwyer's decision on whether or not her conviction would be overturned,

returned, they ask that he recuse himself completely. And this will only be a decision that he gets to make. And as of the time I'm recording this, a decision has not been made. Right now, Katie is serving her 23-year sentence at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County, New York.

and will be eligible for parole in 2037. I have to tell you that covering this case was extremely difficult. I wanted to make sure I did a fair job for everyone involved. Honestly, just the sheer sadness that this family has been through is such a tragedy. And I've spent time reading dozens of comments and threads on the internet about, you know, what the public thinks when it comes to this case. And

It seems everyone's pretty divided. There are people out there who think that Katie was wrongfully convicted and framed by people who were closest to her, while there are others who believe that

she is guilty and that this conviction is true justice for what happened to Mary. And I know I say this every time, but especially with this case, I really want to know what you all think. It's really hard when a victim's family is split with what they think. I mean, that makes it just...

so much more difficult. But I really want to hear from all of you, so let me know in the comments below, who do you think killed Mary Yoder and why? Mary had a lot of life ahead of her and was such a loved person by so many people in her lives, and her death is an absolute tragedy. I know, though, that she will be remembered by all her loved ones and all of her clients and people in the community as someone who...

truly loved what she did, gave back when she could and did her best to be the best person she could, that she was full of life. And yeah, it's just sad that that was all taken away from her.

That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then stay safe out there.

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