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Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds. Recently, I asked Mint Mobile's legal team if big wireless companies are allowed to raise prices due to inflation. They said yes. And then when I asked if raising prices technically violates those onerous two-year contracts, they said, what the f*** are you talking about, you insane Hollywood a**hole?
So to recap, we're cutting the price of Mint Unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes in details. Hello everyone and welcome back. I'm so happy to have you here with me to discuss yet another case. Unfortunately, my Neck Mech charity merch is currently sold out.
And I will not be restocking that collection, but I am working on a new collection that will be available soon. Anyway, today I'm going to be talking about Stacey Castor, who is known as the Black Widow. The incredibly manipulative story of Stacey Castor's life begins in 1985 when she was 17 years old, living in New York.
Stacey was still a teenager when she met 23-year-old Michael Wallace at a bar. And she said within the first few minutes of meeting him, she knew that they would one day get married. Now, Michael was the kind of guy who liked living on edge. He is described by friends and family as larger than life. He had a very fast-paced life and was known to be quite the party animal. And this was appealing to Stacey. And many people who knew them say they seemed like they were bachelors.
very much in love. And Stacey was right. After five years of dating, the two of them got married on April 7th, 1990. And it wasn't long after this that Stacey got pregnant and gave birth to their first daughter, Ashley. And soon after they had their second daughter, Bree.
And when it comes to work, for quite some time, Stacey was working in the billing department for an ambulance dispatcher and Michael was working as a mechanic. And obviously because of the nature of their jobs, they weren't often home at the same time. She would normally work nights and he would work days. So typically their daughters were only around one parent at a time. And for reasons that I truly will never understand, Stacey
Both Stacy and Michael had a favorite child. Michael favored their youngest daughter, Bree, and Stacy favored their eldest, Ashley. And for many years, the Wallace family lived what...
Most of us would say is a very typical life other than the very strange exception that they both had a favorite child, but things took a turn for them. Sadly, when Michael's drinking and alleged drug problem caught up with him, his party lifestyle that he once loved had landed him in jail for a short amount of time after he'd racked up a handful of DUI charges.
But the good news is Michael really did end up changing his life because he wanted to be a better husband to his wife and a better father to his kids. But it was a little too late for that. Stacey said that their marriage was far gone.
Towards the end of the 90s, she feared that he was having an affair, and she actually told a close friend of hers that she and Michael were seriously contemplating getting a divorce. It was mid to late 1999 when all this was going down, but according to Stacey, the two of them decided they would hold off on getting divorced until after the new year because they
They wanted the girls to have one more normal Christmas, but they never actually had the chance to divorce because that winter Michael became unexpectedly very sick and nobody could explain what was wrong with him. One doctor even suggested that he might have an inner ear disorder and he just continued to get sicker and sicker. And on January 11th, 2000, the girls came home from school and found their father practicing
unconscious on the couch. They said that he was making weird noises and funny faces. So obviously they were really freaked out and they called their mom, Stacy, who immediately sent an ambulance to their house. But unfortunately it was too late and Michael Wallace died on the way to the hospital. Obviously this was very hard for the girls. And the doctor said that he likely died from heart attack, but because he was only 38 years old, which is
fairly young for a heart attack. Obviously it does happen, but his parents really questioned that. So they pushed for an autopsy, but Stacy on the other hand was adamant that they didn't need to perform one. And because she was his wife, the doctors listened to her and Michael was buried without any additional answers as to what caused him to die at such a young age. And right after his passing, Stacy was able to collect $55,000 from his life insurance policy and brought her two daughters to
to Disneyland. Now you might think that Stacey doing this was a very loving and maternal thing to do, you know, to get the girls out to Disneyland, especially after losing their father, it probably helped ease the pain even just for a few days. And I definitely see why she did that, but this is the first and last maternal thing that Stacey Castor ever did because
Because after this little trip to Disneyland, Stacey really couldn't have cared less about her two kids. So then in 2001, only a year after Michael died, Stacey moved on with a new man she met named David Castor. She and David met through their boss and they hit it off right away. And David was really the opposite of Michael, which apparently Stacey really loved.
He was responsible. He didn't party. He loved the outdoors and he was just a naturally driven person. David was also a father and had a son named David Jr. from his first marriage. And on August 16th, 2003, Stacey and David got married and their relationship was looking promising, at least to those on the outside looking in. On the inside though, things were not as happy as they seemed. Even though David was a father himself, he
He had no interest in being a father to Bree and Ashley. He'd expressed to Stacey that he didn't want to be responsible for raising her children, even though they were teenagers by this point, and he was known to be pretty harsh on the girls. He had very little tolerance for bad behavior, and he only...
really seemed to care about stacy it almost seemed like an inconvenience to him that she came with kids so david was the owner of an air conditioning company and by this point stacy had left her previous job and took a position as the office manager for his company and this was quite different for her compared to her last marriage where they barely got to spend time together because they were working opposite shifts now she was able to spend a ton of time with time with david but to be completely honest
I think it's debatable whether Stacey even loved David at all.
And that brings us to Monday, August 22nd, 2005. Stacey placed a 911 call that for the most part was pretty calm. She tells the dispatcher that her husband didn't show up for work that morning and that the last time she'd heard from him was the previous morning around 5 a.m. Stacey explains to the dispatcher how her and David got in a very big fight over how they wanted to spend their two-year wedding anniversary.
And apparently this was such a big fight that David told her to leave the house and to take her two kids with her. And she said that the last time she had seen him was when he locked himself in their bedroom with a bottle of booze and refused to come out. Now, Ashley and Bree had left the house that weekend after their mother told them to, but according to Stacy, she stayed behind.
She said she was still there on Saturday night and into the early morning hours of Sunday. She assumed that David was just in the room sleeping off the booze, and that's why he wasn't responding when she tried knocking on the door, but she confirmed that she heard him snoring.
She then tells officers that she had stayed at a friend's house on Sunday night and then just went to work from there on Monday morning. And so that's why she hadn't seen or heard from her husband in over 24 hours. And lastly, but most importantly, Stacey told officers that her husband had been suicidal. With this information, two officers were sent to the home and when they got there, they noticed the door was still locked and there was a
no response from David. So they had to kick down the door. And this is when they found David deceased, naked, lying face down on a bed that was covered in vomit. And next to the bed, they found some interesting items.
On the nightstand, officers found two glass cups, one containing a neon green looking concoction. I've never seen any drink that looks like this. They also found a bottle of apricot brandy and a bottle of cranberry juice. And then they looked under the bed and that's when they found an empty bottle of antifreeze. At the scene, Stacey appeared to be a complete wreck. And this is when she starts telling the officers how...
David was very depressed after he had lost his father recently. But something about all of this felt very off.
to the responding officers and they just weren't buying her story that he was contemplating suicide and after they took a closer look around the house and collected evidence they found a turkey baster in the kitchen trash that smelled like alcohol sergeant michael norton and detective dominic spinelli were the two men involved in this case who really couldn't accept the picture that stacy was trying to paint
I mean, I would be suspicious of her story too after finding a turkey baster, antifreeze, and finding him naked. It is very uncommon for someone to commit suicide naked. It does happen, but it's uncommon. And all of this combined led them to believe that David's death was not a suicide. It was a homicide.
So an autopsy was performed and it was confirmed that David had ethylene glycol in his organs, which is consistent with having being poisoned with antifreeze. When they performed this autopsy, they said they could actually see the crystals from the antifreeze in his organs.
But obviously this doesn't mean much when it comes to the manner of death because they assumed he died from ingesting antifreeze. That was never really the question. The real question was, did David drink the antifreeze himself or did someone force him to drink it? And detectives definitely found even more damning evidence as they continued to process the scene. First of all, the glass on the bedside table that contained the antifreeze had three
three fingerprints on it. And I don't think any of you will be surprised to hear that they all belonged to Stacy. And of course they process the turkey baster as well. And they found out that the tip tested positive for traces of David's saliva, as well as antifreeze. And obviously as a detective, you're thinking if David wanted to commit suicide by ingesting antifreeze,
Why would he use a turkey baster to give it to himself? Why wouldn't he just drink it from the cup that was next to his bed?
Things weren't adding up very quickly here. Plus, David, of all people, owned an air conditioning company. So he definitely would have known what a slow and painful death this would be. It really makes no sense because it turns out David actually had a shotgun under his bed, which unfortunately, that is the most common way that men die.
commit suicide. So obviously investigators were already leaning towards this being a homicide just from all that evidence.
But what really sealed the deal was David's will. David left everything, and I mean everything, to Stacey and her two kids, which David had always made clear he wanted nothing to do with raising those kids. And when his biological son, David Jr., found out about this, he was shocked, to say the least, and hurt. At first, he thought, wow, my dad must really not like me. And I
And I can't imagine how that would feel. He had always had a good relationship with his father. So to him, this made absolutely no sense. So now investigators are very confident that Stacy murdered her husband, poisoned him with antifreeze. But rather than tip Stacy off, they let her believe for quite some time that they weren't onto her. So three months into this, detectives learned that Stacy was previously married. And not only that,
her previous husband died. After reaching out to Cayuga County where Michael died, they uncovered some similarities in the death of both men. What really stood out to them is that neither of them had ever experienced any health problems
or mental health problems before their death. So for Michael to have suddenly gotten sick and then had a heart attack with no prior health problems, and then for David to have suddenly committed suicide without any prior known mental health issues,
The math just wasn't mathing. Going back to Michael's death, Stacey had tried to convince doctors that he had a history of medical problems, but all they could find was one instance where he had a hernia, which is fairly common. And once detectives started looking into David's depression that Stacey kept talking about,
Everyone close to him said that he was a happy guy with no history of suicidal ideation or depression. And once they had all this information, it became their mission to prove that Stacy had killed Paul.
both men. Obviously the next step here was to exhume Michael's body and figure out what really happened to him. And something that's super fucking weird that I wanted to mention here is Stacey had both men buried next to each other. The two of them never knew each other. There was no reason for them to be buried next to each other. I thought that was very strange. And she even had a plot for herself alongside them where she believed she would one day be put to rest.
I guess it's not strange in all situations. Like if you had truly lost your first husband who you weren't already planning to divorce, you know, you're very much in love and they suddenly die. You know, maybe you would want them in one space where you would eventually be buried. And then maybe you would make sense to have your other husband who you love very much buried there as well so that you could be with both of them forever.
after death, but I don't know. I thought it was really weird, especially considering what we know about Stacey and what she did to these men. But like I said, they needed to exhume Michael's body. And it took some time, but on September 5th, 2007, Michael's body was finally exhumed. And to nobody's surprise, his organs were literally glowing with antifreeze crystals. This was going to be the nail in Stacey's coffin, so to speak.
But it doesn't end there, folks. In fact, if possible, Stacey gets even more fucked up and you won't believe where the story goes from there. So a warrant was secured to wiretap her phone in an attempt to catch Stacey incriminating herself and cameras were placed outside her home and outside the grave of her two husbands.
And by this point, she had to know that they were closing in on her. And so she begins calling her daughters and telling them that the police think she was responsible for killing both men. And of course, she denies having anything to do with it over the phone. But clearly, she is panicking by now and begins to take the steps to clear her own name, which I will get to in a bit.
Only two days after exhuming Michael, detectives decide to bring Stacy in for a little chat. And this is where she messed up big time. While she was sitting down talking to detectives, she was asked a very simple question. Do you remember which glass it was that you poured the cranberry juice in? Right after David's death, she said that she had touched one of those cups to pour cranberry juice in, but she said she knew nothing about the antifreeze. When she was asked this question, Stacy said,
Stacey said, well, when I poured the antifree, I mean, I mean, cranberry juice, dumb. And notice how I said antifree. She literally said antifree instead of antifrees. And this is important to note for later. And after basically incriminating herself, Stacey panics and starts yelling at them, saying that they tricked her into saying that, and then said the interview was over.
And as she's very angry and standing up to leave, a picture of the turkey baster falls out of the detective's folder. And then she really starts to freak out. She starts asking why they had pictures of that and demanded to know what all of this was about.
And detectives just looked at her and said, don't worry about it. The interview is over. If she wasn't completely worried that they were onto her before, she definitely was now. And it was only a matter of time until Stacey was arrested. But what do maniacs like Stacey Castor do when the pressure is building? They look for someone to blame. And for Stacey, that meant using her own daughter.
as a scapegoat. And that's where this story gets even more twisted. On September 12th, 2007, Ashley, who had just started her first semester of college, calls her mom and tells her that detectives came to her school and told her that they did not believe her father died of a heart attack. And obviously this was very upsetting for her. She was scared. She was quite freaked out that they had tracked her down and didn't know what was going on. Obviously,
She wasn't aware of all the evidence that was building. Obviously, she probably felt scared that her mother was going to be arrested for a crime that she believed at the time her mother didn't commit. So Stacey decides to comfort her daughter and herself by telling her that it's been a rough couple of days and she thinks that her 20-year-old daughter should come over to her house so that they can get drunk. She tells her that because the two of them have both been under so much stress that getting drunk would take the edge off.
And we know all of this because Stacey's phone was wiretapped. And most 20-year-olds aren't going to turn down the opportunity to go get drunk with their parents. So Ashley agreed. And unfortunately, this would be a huge mistake. After only having one or two drinks made for her by Stacey, Ashley became lethargic and sick to her stomach.
So she goes and lays down, she falls asleep for the night, and the next morning she has no recollection of what happened the night before. However, she didn't think too much of it, so she got dressed and headed off for school. But only a few hours later, she gets another call from her mom.
asking if she wants to come over and get drunk again. Now, this was definitely strange to Ashley, but she figured they had been going through a lot, so why not? So she goes over to Stacy's house and mommy makes her a drink and she remembers it tasting really, really gross. Obviously, she had...
some type of reaction to this gross tasting drink. And so Stacy gives her a straw and tells her to just down it, just get it to the back of your mouth and get it down. You're going to feel so much better. And so Ashley did. And once again, she felt sick to her stomach. So she goes and lays down and she doesn't wake up until she's 15 minutes away from her death.
The next morning, September 14th, Ashley's younger sister, Bree, finds her practically dead in her bed. So she calls out for their mother to call 911. And within minutes, she was on the phone with them telling the operator that her daughter had consumed an entire bottle of alcohol and a bunch of pills. And as she's on the phone, Bree finds a typed out letter saying,
that appears to be a suicide note written by Ashley. So she hands this note to her mom, who is currently on the phone with dispatch, and she starts telling them repeatedly that her daughter attempted suicide and left behind a note. So Ashley was obviously rushed to the emergency room, and I'm sure you will all be relieved to hear that luckily she survived.
But it was close. I mean, doctors said that she was 15 minutes away from dying. And I'm sure now you're all wondering what was in this note. And let me tell you, it is fucking wild. The note was a 750 word typed letter written by Ashley confessing to killing both her father and her mother's second husband.
and then how she made the decision to kill herself because she basically couldn't live with what she had done. The note also mentions how she knew police thought her mom was the person responsible, but in the letter, she says that she was the real killer. So when Ashley does wake up in the hospital, she wakes up to detectives immediately asking her about the note, and she has no idea what they're talking about.
She said that she was not suicidal, didn't write a note, and that she definitely did not commit a double homicide. And what was also really strange about this note is there were literally zero punctuation throughout the entire thing. No commas, no periods. It was just one long paragraph. And so detectives believed right away that the whole
whole thing was set up and that Stacey was responsible for not only poisoning both her previous husbands, but also tried to poison her daughter. And then clearly wrote this note herself to try and get away with all of it. And to make sure that they were 100% certain detectives analyzed a sample of Ashley's writing and confirmed that the tone and sentence structure were not a match.
The note also addresses Stacey as a mommy and Ashley never called her mother that. And she was also a very smart girl who always used proper punctuation,
And that was definitely missing in this note. The only somewhat incriminating thing that they found against Ashley was that she had previous diary entries where she had talked about suicide in the past. But this doesn't say much. I mean, it's pretty common for people to discuss things in their diaries that they're not actually going to carry out. And Ashley had been through a lot after losing her father and then her stepfather, which I'm not sure how...
she was over that. But I mean, losing her father was a lot. So detectives just knew that all of this wasn't her fault. And so the same day that Ashley went to the hospital, Stacey was arrested under suspicion of murder and attempted murder. And on December 20th, 2007, Stacey was indicted on one count each
of second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder, and a plot to forge a will, from where she had clearly changed David's will so that she would get everything and his son would get nothing. And although her charges didn't necessarily cover the murder of her first husband, a judge ruled on September 25th, 2008, that the prosecution would be allowed to admit evidence from that case into evidence during her trial.
Again, she wasn't being tried for Michael's death, but it would help establish a pattern of behavior, which would hopefully make it easier to get a conviction. So the trial began January 12th, 2009, and Stacey's defense attorney, Chuck Keller, took the very first step
the very bold position that Ashley was actually responsible for everything. And what's crazy is Ashley was only 12 or 13 at the time that her father died, but they still tried to say that she poisoned her father for not loving her as much as he loved her sister. And they also argued that she never wanted her mother to remarry and therefore she killed David as well. And lastly, they tried to convince the jury that she did in fact,
try to end her own life because of the guilt from all of it. How fucked up is that? I feel so bad for Ashley. After going through so much already to then be pinned for all of it, I just can't imagine what going through this trial was like for her. I mean, Stacey was clearly responsible for all of this. And even after everything, she was still trying to pin all of this on her own child.
I can't even wrap my head around that. But as we've gone over, luckily the case against her was very strong. Not only did they have direct evidence putting her fingerprints on the glass of antifreeze, but they also used computer analysis to determine that she was the one who wrote that letter.
It turns out that that letter was written at a time of day where Ashley was at school and Stacey was home, meaning the only person who could have written it was her. And the evidence for that gets even stronger because in court, audio is played from the wiretapped phone and Stacey can actually be heard typing in the background of a conversation she was having on the phone at the time.
the time that the note was written. And the last and probably most convincing piece of evidence that they had came from that conversation that they had with Stacey back in 2007. Remember how I said she slipped up and said that she poured the antifree, I mean cranberry juice, into
She said, "Anti-free." Well, that same language, "antifree" instead of "antifreeze" was used in that forged suicide note. - I took this picture of one like it out of my folder and I showed it to Stacey and said, "I had a question for you. "Stacey, regarding these glasses "that were on top of the nightstand next to David's bed, "you told us earlier that you had gotten David "some cranberry juice and some water. "By looking at the photo, would you be able to tell me
which glass it was that you brought in to David. Stacey leaned into the photo, was looking at it, at which time she said, when I poured the antifree, I made a cranberry juice. You're confusing me. You're jumping all over the place. At that point, I said, Stacey, I simply asked you one question. I didn't jump all over. It was just one question if you know which glass it was. At that point, the interview continued.
When she said to you, when I poured the anti-free, are you certain it was anti-free and not anti-frees with a Z? It was anti-free, absolutely positive. Thank you very much, detective. I have no more questions. Both Ashley and Stacey took the stand during trial. And even though Stacey tried to say she was the victim in all of this...
People just weren't buying it. The real victims here were Michael, David, and Ashley. And at the very least, we can be thankful that Ashley survived her mother's homicide attempt. And on February 5th, 2009, after four days of jury deliberation,
Stacey was found guilty on one count of second-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, and one count of forging a will. Good morning. Good morning. All right, Ms. Evely, I have your note that the jury's reached a verdict. If you'd stand for a moment. On indictment number 2007-1271-1, the people of the state of New York versus Stacey R. Castor, as to count number one, murder in the second degree, what is the verdict?
On count two, attempted murder in the second degree, what's the verdict? And on count three, offering a false instrument in the first degree, what is the jury's verdict? All right, do you wish the jury poll, Bill?
Chuck? Yes, Judge. All right, Kelly, go ahead. Ladies and gentlemen, if the jury has stated through your foreperson, we have found the defendant guilty of all three counts in the indictment. Juror number one, is that your verdict? Yes. And then a month later, she was sentenced to 51 years in prison. And Ashley made a very powerful speech about the impact of her mother's actions. The biggest question I ask is why? Why did she do these things?
I know that's probably never going to be answered. There are so many things that she has ruined. She'll never be able to see Bree graduate. My father will never take me down the aisle. She'll never get to see her grandchildren.
All those things she took away from me. She killed two people and tried to kill me and blame it on me and blame me for the other deaths. That bothers me so much. I had to pretend for a year that everything was okay, that nothing was bothering me, even though I was worried about the trial and worried whether the jury would believe me. I hate my mother for ruining so many people's lives. I don't even know why she did it. What gave her the right to play God with people?
And I hate her for having me be the one that found my dad, just like her for having Bree found me. I never knew what hate was until now. Even though I do hate her, I still love her at the same time. That bothers me. It's so confusing. How can you hate someone and love them at the same time? I just wish that she would say sorry for everything she did, including all the lies.
And I and though I feel bad for her today as she sits there by all by herself She's the one that did this to herself and nothing bothers her After my mom is sentenced today. I'll go back to my loving home with people who care about me She's not gonna go home. And if she hadn't chose to do these things she could be home with me and breathe she would not have to worry about anything and
I've cried enough tears about this and I don't want to cry anymore. I just want it all to go away. It will never go away. I have to live with this for the rest of my life. There are times when I get afraid thinking I might turn out like her because she was good at one time. No, I won't. I know I could never hurt my children like she did. I hate how she tried to make me look stupid in that note that she wrote.
I've tried so hard to make something of myself. I have a 3.9 GPA and still she tried to make me look stupid. But Mr. Fitzpatrick made her look stupid with her lies. I hate how she made people choose side in our family with our friends. Brie and I are children. People are supposed to stand up for us. But she's an adult and that is the decision she made.
I think about this at night, and I can't even imagine what's going through her head, all the things that she can't do. I had all these fears about if the jury hadn't believed me. What if she got out and tried to hurt me again? Or what if she tried to hurt my sister, kill anyone, and I didn't try to kill myself? I would never leave my sister or Matt. I just don't understand how you can say you love someone and in the next breath try to kill them.
I wish she had told me what was going on. She was my best friend and she took that all away just because she got scared. Well, I was scared too when I was in the hospital all by myself and I wanted my mom, but she was the one that did this.
And since that first day when she was arrested, Stacey has continued to maintain her innocence and claims that the worst thing she's ever done was get a speeding ticket. And this is just frankly sad. But even Stacey's mother,
Ashley's grandmother believes that Stacey is innocent and that her granddaughter is guilty. So then in 2011, David Jr., David's son actually sued Stacey for his father's estate and won, which will obviously never bring his father back, but will at least give him a part of him that she had taken away. Now, Stacey herself did end up passing away and
in prison in 2016 at age 48. And up until that day, she maintained that she was innocent. And her cause of death was deemed to be a heart attack, which honestly I think is karma after killing her first husband and then trying to convince everyone that he died from a heart attack. And obviously Ashley and Brie have been through so much trauma. I can't even imagine how it feels, especially to be Ashley, right?
Both Ashley and Brie made the decision after she was arrested to never speak to their mother again, other than when Ashley was able to confront her in court. I can only hope that the two of them are...
living more peaceful lives after they know that justice was served and that their mother can never hurt them or anyone else again. God, I really think that is one of the most crazy and disgusting cases that I have ever covered, especially now being a mother myself. I just, I can't even fathom how you get to that point. God, it's mind-blowing.
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.