Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
The national sales event is on at your Toyota dealer, making now the perfect time to get a great deal on a dependable new Toyota truck. Like a rugged, half-ton Tundra, workhorse by nature, powerhouse by design, the Tundra combines raw capability with premium comfort and advanced tech to fuel your wildest adventures. And with the available i-Force Max Hybrid Powertrain, you can take electrifying horsepower farther
than ever before. Or check out the fully redesigned Tacoma, delivering trail-dominating power and captivating style. The new Tacoma was born to make your off-roading dreams come true. And with the new available tech, this legendary truck is getting even better. And when you buy a Toyota truck, you buy Toyota dependability, meaning your truck will hold its value long into the future.
So visit your local Toyota dealer and check out amazing national sales event deals when you visit buyatoyota.com. Toyota, let's go places. Ever find yourself holding back on travel plans because you're afraid of the language gap?
Well, no need to mind the gap if you have Babbel. Designed by real people for having real conversations, Babbel gets you talking. Babbel's tips and tools are grounded in the real-life stuff you'll actually need. Everything is focused on conversation, so you'll be ready to talk wherever you go. Babbel's personalized learning lessons, real-time feedback, tracking, and visualizations keep you focused and motivated.
Babbel helps millions of people quickly and confidently have real-world conversations in a new language. Now, when I say to learn Mandarin on this program, I'm not kidding. There will be a future sooner than you think, where if you don't speak the language, the widely accepted language of Earth, you're going to be left out, just like you were left out when the internet took off and you didn't learn anything about coding.
So don't do that. Here's a special just for you. Oh, and this is a limited time deal for our listeners only. Right now, get up to 60% off your Babbel subscription, but only for our listeners at babbel.com slash monsters. Get up to 60% off at babbel.com slash monsters spelled B-A-B-B-E-L dot com slash monsters. Rules and restrictions may apply.
Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. I didn't want another one to die in the house. And why is that? Because houses are nasty after somebody's died in it. Welcome. This is Season 10, Episode 251 of Sword and Scale. A show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. ♪
Well, most of you know that we have an app and that we've been working on updating it now for quite a while. Almost almost two years now, unfortunately, but it will be ready in 2024, early 2024, January, in fact. So we're working towards that. We have a bunch of other surprises coming in January. You will not be disappointed, guys. See you soon.
The national sales event is on at your Toyota dealer, making now the perfect time to get a great deal on a dependable new Toyota truck. Like a rugged, half-ton Tundra, workhorse by nature, powerhouse by design, the Tundra combines raw capability with premium comfort and advanced tech to fuel your wildest adventures. And with the available i-Force Max hybrid powertrain, you can take electrifying horsepower farther and
than ever before. Or check out the fully redesigned Tacoma, delivering trail-dominating power and captivating style. The new Tacoma was born to make your off-roading dreams come true. And with the new available tech, this legendary truck is getting even better. And when you buy a Toyota truck, you buy Toyota dependability, meaning your truck will hold its value long into the future.
So visit your local Toyota dealer and check out amazing national sales event deals when you visit buyatoyota.com. Toyota, let's go places. Family is not an important thing. It's everything. Michael J. Fox said that. And many of you listening right now would probably agree that your family is indeed everything. For those of you that have actually created a family of your own,
You probably also agree that your everything didn't come easy. When it comes to marriage, kids, and everything that goes along with that, well, it can be a lot to handle. It requires serious dedication and a lot of sacrifices to make it all work. If you have created, maintained, and continue to maintain a happy, functioning family, you deserve a lot of credit. It's hard work, as you know.
Not everyone has what it takes to do that. Oftentimes, marriages fail. Oftentimes, families fail. One common problem, it seems, is that many people start off thinking they want the typical spouse and children lifestyle. But after they get it, and maybe after they experience it for a few years, they start to realize it's just not for them.
Unfortunately, after someone creates a family, they are kind of locked into it. Kind of permanently. Sure, anyone could get a divorce and abandon their kids, but societal, legal, financial, and even religious pressures can make it seem impossible. When this happens, it can spell disaster. Sometimes the pressure of an unwanted and seemingly inescapable life can lead someone to do something truly horrific.
We've seen this before with the likes of Chris Watts and Casey Anthony. But there are lesser known cases where someone has made the terrible and selfish choice to end their family in order to obtain personal freedom. Ultimately, they decided that the life they truly want supersedes the lives of their spouse and their kin. June 9th, 2013 was a Sunday.
That morning, a middle-aged mom in Missouri woke up and did what she would normally do on a Sunday. She took her kids to church, but she wasn't able to bring along all of her children because her oldest daughter wasn't feeling well. And then you woke up Sunday morning. She was asleep. Okay. Then what happened?
49-year-old Diane Stoudy returned home from church and discovered something that most people would consider to be a worst nightmare situation for any mother.
Her 26-year-old daughter, Sarah, was sick, in bed, and completely unresponsive. Thankfully, though, Sarah was still breathing. So Diane and one of her other daughters picked Sarah up, put her in the family car, and rushed her to the hospital. Strangely, when doctors examined Sarah, they couldn't figure out what had caused her to become so ill. This ultimately led to the local police getting involved.
The lead investigator assigned to the case was Detective McCamus. Diane Stoudy was a wife and mother of four children. She was the breadwinner of the family. She worked handling insurance adjustment claims for a medical field. She was heavily involved in church. She was active in choir and orchestra and spent a lot of time at church during her downtime.
And from what I understand, you're in the medical field? I'm a nurse. You're a nurse, okay. But I'm a cardiology nurse. I know hearts. Yeah. Have you always been in the claims business like you are now, or were you ever in... I used to work in the hospital. Okay. How long ago was that? Oh, gosh. 15 years ago. Okay. Which hospital did you work in? St. John's, Cox. I worked up in Kansas City. Okay.
And what company do you work for now? UnitedHealthcare. Okay. And you've worked for them for 12 years? Mm-hmm. Very successful. Okay. Diane and her children lived in Springfield, Missouri, a serene college city that is mostly known for being the headquarters for the sporting goods retailer Bass Pro. Others may know of Springfield because of its proximity to Branson, Missouri.
which is a popular tourist destination for a variety of reasons. The Price is Right was filmed there, so was the Beverly Hillbillies, if you remember that. And who can forget Yakov Smirnoff and his weird little theme park performance theater thing. He was a personality during the 80s that achieved a moniker of success. But I digress.
As a successful nurse and health insurance claims person, Diane Stoudy was able to support her children, all of whom remained living with Diane well into adulthood. As a whole, the Stoudy family wasn't known for being particularly social, but they were considered to be especially devout churchgoers. What church do you go to? Redeemer Lutheran. Is that here in town? Uh-huh.
As the long-time church organist, Diane was well-respected inside the halls of her preferred place of worship, Redeemer Lutheran. And when Diane was there, she often had her children with her. But on June 9, 2013, Diane's oldest daughter, Sarah, didn't make it to church.
She was apparently very sick and her illness ultimately landed Sarah in a hospital bed. Sarah Stouty had just graduated with a degree in French from Missouri State University. And she had not gotten a job yet, so she was just, for the most part, she was staying at home and not doing a whole lot after college. Does she work anywhere? No. No? She's been supposedly trying to find a job, but I don't think she's been trying that hard.
Like the rest of the family, Sarah usually kept to herself and aside from deflecting her mom's encouragement to find a job, she spent most of her time online. Like many 24 year olds, Sarah loved her social media and watching YouTube videos.
But on one particular Sunday afternoon, Sarah's lifestyle had seemingly come to an abrupt and unexpected end when her mom found Sarah in bed, completely unresponsive. Is she still unresponsive at that point? Pretty much, yeah. Okay. I mean, we literally had to, Rachel and I had to carry her. Oh, wow. We carried her to the car. Okay. And what did they say at the hospital? Nothing.
Basically, she was as sick as sick could get. But no idea what it was? We had no clue. When Sarah was admitted to the hospital, the doctors and nurses determined that Sarah's kidneys were shutting down. Many of her internal organs were failing and her brain was hemorrhaging blood. Diane was informed that this wasn't a case of if Sarah was going to die. It was a matter of when.
But nobody could tell Diane or the police exactly what had caused this to happen. When Sarah was in the hospital, I went and I spoke with the medical staff that was treating her, nurses, doctors, and everybody was just, they were befuddled. They did not know what was going on. They had performed numerous tests on Sarah and everything was coming back negative.
As the police continued investigating Sarah's bizarre and unexplainable illness, they soon learned that this wasn't the first time the Stoudy family had suffered an unexpected tragedy. Are you married? I'm widowed. My husband died last year of a heart attack. Oh, really? How old was he? 61. Oh, so he was young.
Mark and Diane Stoudy met at St. John's College in Kansas and quickly became long-time sweethearts. They eventually got married, moved into a modest-sized home in Springfield, and had four children. But sadly, at just 61 years old, Matt Stoudy unexpectedly dropped dead.
Like his wife, Mark was a musician.
Though his genre of music was much different than Diane's church hymns, Mark was the lead singer of a rock band, Messing With Destiny. And according to his bandmates, Mark was an especially jovial guy who loved life and loved his family.
Throughout its existence, Mark's band didn't find any mainstream success, but in the months leading up to his death, messing with Destiny had been booking larger and more lucrative gigs. So much so that it seemed like the band was about to have a breakout year. In fact, on the weekend before Mark died,
He and his bandmates were rehearsing in Branson, Missouri and preparing to perform at an especially large venue alongside the Aretha Franklin impersonators. Sadly, Mark was never able to perform in that show.
on april 8 2012 mark died at home and his body was discovered by his wife diane who promptly called 9-1-1 diane was eventually informed that mark had died of natural causes did they do any kind of autopsy on mark no they didn't no no i can i can remember them you know they they tried cpr on him and uh they told me that his lungs were just black
After Mark was cremated, his ashes were scattered at a nearby lake. So obviously any further examination to more narrowly determine his cause of death was improbable. But...
The police investigation into Sarah Stoudy's illness did continue. And during that investigation, the detectives also spoke to one of Mark and Diane's other daughters.
22-year-old Rachel Stouty. Rachel Stouty was kind of the prize child of the Stouty family. She was very successful, very intelligent. She was going to school at Missouri State University. She, too, was very active and involved in church with singing and choir, and she was also a very artistic young person.
In speaking with Rachel, detectives were able to gain a little more insight into the Stoudy family dynamics, and more specifically, the kind of relationship that Mark and Diane had. What was mom and dad's relationship like?
They would fight a little bit. Did they fight a little bit? More than, like, any other married couple? Not really. Okay. So what were most of their arguments over? Money. Like everybody else? Now, I know that your father passed. When was it when he passed away? Sometime, like, last April. Last April of last year. Very sudden. Just a very sudden death. As far as a dad goes, a pretty good dad to you and everybody, or...
What's your opinion? He was nice. With us. He let us get away with it. Oh, you guys could do anything you wanted to do? Has he always kind of been out of a job? Pretty much. I mean, he would get frustrated with whatever job he was in and like, screw this. Before they even can. Okay. Just not his thing. No. He was trying to do the band thing, I guess. Yeah. Make it big like any other person that has a band. Okay. All right.
At this point, police had established that Mark Stoudy had unexpectedly died in April of 2012. And just over a year later, Sarah Stoudy had unexpectedly become very ill and was not expected to survive. The police also learned that something equally as tragic had happened between the time of Mark's death and Sarah's illness. Do you have a son as well?
No, not anymore. He died. He died. He had a seizure disorder. When did he die? That was last fall. How old was he? He was 26. He'd had several strokes. So was his kind of an unexpected or... It wasn't a complete surprise. That's right. In addition to Mark's untimely death and Sarah's unexplainable illness, another member of the Stoudy family had also died.
He was Mark and Diane's 26-year-old autistic son, Sean. Sean Stoudy was the only boy in the Stoudy family
He had autism and a couple other medical issues that he dealt with, but he was the only son of the Stoudys, and he kept to himself a lot with the medical issues. He was involved in a work activity for special needs children, which he did well at, but primarily just stayed at home as well.
When asked about her brother's death, Rachel Stouty recalled that Sean was very ill before he died. She described his symptoms as flu-like and claimed that her mom took the entire situation pretty hard. I remember he was throwing up. Okay. And then all of a sudden... How did... Obviously, mom had to take that, I mean, pretty hard too. First dad and then...
short timeline or you know it's your brother um did she seem to how did she seem to handle that I can only imagine but she wishes there was more she could have done I mean she's told me like when we talk at night it's like she feels like a failure as a mom because it's like it's one thing to lose your dad her husband right yeah your dad her husband yeah well that's a lot of a lot of sudden deaths in a short amount of time
Sean Stoudy died in September of 2012 after experiencing severe flu-like symptoms. Rightfully so, the detectives found it highly suspicious that less than a year later, 24-year-old Sarah Stoudy was experiencing those same symptoms and was likely to die as well. So as far as Sarah goes, when did she come down sick?
I mean, how long did she have, was she throwing up or sick? - She was throwing up 'cause like the toilet's like right across from my room. So I mean, like here and it's like, are you okay in there? - How many days is she throwing up? - Not very many either. - A couple of days. Would you describe it as flu-like, kind of like your brother? Or was it different? - I don't know 'cause it was really odd. I mean, lack of appetite as well 'cause I was trying to get her to eat, but she didn't want to.
The similarities between Sean's death and Sarah's illness were glaring, but there was one important difference. Sarah made it to the hospital before the worst happened. Unfortunately, even though Sarah was receiving much needed medical attention,
The doctors had their doubts and they didn't think Sarah was going to pull through. And from what we understood from the hospital so far, we really haven't been able to determine how your sister got so sick from the hospital standpoint. Okay. The doctors haven't been able to confirm anything as of yet. They're still working on it, but they...
Within 15 months, two members of the Stoudy family had unexpectedly died and a third member of the family was deathly ill.
For the police, this didn't seem like a situation where a family was dealing with some of the worst coincidences imaginable. It was pretty obvious that something malicious was happening here. And as the investigation continued, the unbelievable and horrible truth finally came out. Someone was slowly, methodically, and systematically
Killing off everyone in the Stouty family. Nice to meet you. Or maybe we've met before. I'm the COVID-19 virus. I use disguises to fool your immune system. My buddy the flu virus and I make thousands of people sick every year. But updated vaccines make it a lot harder.
Don't make it easy for these viruses. Stay up to date on your COVID-19 and flu vaccinations this fall. Sponsored by Champions for Vaccine Education, Equity, and Progress. CVEEP.org. There was a time when summer surprised us. When galleries opened minds, adventures opened hearts, and we all remained open to whatever the day might offer. It was a time to enjoy. It was summer, this summer, at Biltmore.
Plan your visit or overnight stay so you can enjoy the marvelous works of Chihuly and savor the season. Reserve now at Biltmore.com. Be warned that once you pick up a refreshingly cold drink from McDonald's and people see just how refreshingly cold that drink from McDonald's is, you may create drink envy. Because there are drinks. Then there are drinks from McDonald's. From McDonald's.
For a morning brew that really creates a stir, get any size iced coffee, including caramel and French vanilla, for just 99 cents before 11 a.m. Price and participation may vary, cannot be combined with any other offer or combo meal. In April of 2012, 61-year-old father of four and lead singer of the rock band Messing With Destiny, Mark Stouty, was planning to perform a show with his band in Branson, Missouri.
But Mark never made it to that show. Just a few days before he was set to take the stage, Mark's wife, Diane Stoudy, found Mark dead in their bedroom. When Mark Stoudy died, the initial cause of death was believed to be just natural causes. Mark had had some health issues.
It was also said that Mark would drink on occasion and smoke. And so it was just a situation where they thought some of his lifestyle choices and things like that led to him dying of natural causes. Leading up to his death, Mark's bandmates noticed that Mark's health had been deteriorating. His skin was pale. He was weak on his feet.
and he didn't seem to have the same pep that Mark was known to carry himself with. Another person that took note of Mark's declining health was his 26-year-old son, Sean Stoudy. On his Facebook page, Sean wrote the following: "My father is slowly getting sicker. His voice is slurred. His walking is wobbly. His body is more tired than normal. He is sleeping in bed longer than us.
He may collapse under his weight at any time. Just one day later after writing this post, Sean announced on Facebook that his dad was dead. "My father died. He lived a full life. The cause of his death is a stroke. His funeral is this week." Tragically, what Sean didn't know is that his father hadn't died of a stroke. Mark Stoudy was murdered. And even more horrifying, the person that killed him was plotting to kill Sean.
as well, which they eventually did. Five months after Mark died, Sean Stoudy suddenly became very ill. According to his sister Rachel, Sean was vomiting and had flu-like symptoms. A few days later, Sean was found dead on the floor of his home. Like his father, Sean was also cremated, but in his case, an autopsy had been performed.
Both Mark and Sean had presumably died of natural causes, so the police were never called in to take a closer look at the situation.
But that all changed about a year later. In June of 2013, yet another member of the Stoudy family became very sick and ended up in the hospital. This time it was 24-year-old, recent college graduate, Sarah Stoudy. Sarah was seemingly dealing with the same flu-like symptoms that had affected both her father and her brother just before they died.
After Sarah was examined by a doctor, it was determined that her kidneys were shutting down. Her other organs were failing. Her brain was hemorrhaging blood. Yet none of the hospital's tests could determine what caused Sarah's illness in the first place. Interestingly, it wasn't Sarah's illness and her admittance to the hospital that alerted police and prompted an investigation into the Stoudy family.
Instead, it was an anonymous phone call that sprang homicide detectives into action. Upon viewing the initial report, it seemed pretty bizarre. The report talked about someone calling in saying that we needed to look at the Stoudy family because of a couple deaths. And now a young woman, Sarah, was hospitalized and appeared that she was not going to survive.
After this anonymous call came in and a police report was made, the investigators decided to speak with Sarah's doctor. The doctor explained that even though the exact cause of Sarah's illness could not be determined, there was a good chance that Sarah had been poisoned.
So at that time, I really didn't have anything at all to go on other than just the discussions with the doctor. But knowing that there's two other children still in the Stoudy home, I felt like I needed to do something to try to figure out what was going on. If this was, in fact, a malicious act going on by somebody in the Stoudy home, then I needed to act as quickly as I possibly could.
And that is what led me to wanting to interview Diane. From talking with the hospital, it sounds like they're doing a bunch of tests and they're even sending some tests off to labs elsewhere. They mentioned the Mayo Clinic. Do you think there's going to be anything suspicious that they find in all these tests that they're going to be doing? I have no clue. There could be anything maybe malicious or suspicious involved with that? No.
I can't think of that. If it would come back that there was something in there like that, how would you explain that? No. 49-year-old Diane Stouty was the widow of Mark Stouty and the mother of Sean and Sarah Stouty. Given her background in nursing and the fact that she didn't seem overly concerned or emotional that her daughter Sarah was about to die...
The detective suspected that Diane may know more than she was telling. As crazy as it seemed, she may have even murdered her own husband and her own son. What was Mark's life insurance policy like? He only had $20,000. How about Sean? Sean only had $15,000. What about Sarah? Sarah only has $15,000, I believe.
And you were able to get the money from Mark and Sean's, correct? Mm-hmm. Okay. What did you do with that money? With Mark's, we were able to move into a better neighborhood. Right. Just before Mark died, the Stoudy family consisted of six people. Mark and Diane were the parents of three kids in their early to mid-20s. That was Sean, Sarah, and Rachel.
The youngest member of the family was 11-year-old Brianna. All six of them lived in a small two-bedroom, one-bathroom house in Springfield, Missouri. But after Mark died, Diane was able to use his $20,000 life insurance policy to upgrade. She and the rest of the family moved into a larger home in a nicer neighborhood. What was your husband's marriage like? How can I say this? We were still married, but it was not what you call...
A good marriage. Have there been any infidelities on either side? He had. He had. So I'm guessing then just briefly talking, he wasn't the best husband? Probably not. Not to society, no. What do you mean by that, not to society? Well, he was running around and he would drink and smoke pot. So he wasn't a very good guy is what you're saying? Yeah.
Was there any physical abuse towards you? Nothing like that? He just had some extramarital affairs and you said he did some drugs and smoked and drank a lot? Okay. For police, if Diane had murdered Mark, his life insurance policy was a possible motive. But so was the fact that Diane seemed pretty resentful of her husband. Even so, this was all speculation and at this point in the investigation, there wasn't any evidence that
Diane had killed Mark and Sean or that she'd poisoned Sarah. Going into the interview with Diane, I had nothing other than just a more and more growing suspicion that she was somehow involved.
It was difficult because when I brought Diane in without having any evidence to put out there against her, it was just I wanted to get at her level. I wanted to speak with her and come across as being there as almost a friend and understanding her to
to try to gain as much information as I possibly could. And going into the interview, I also understood that maybe this isn't malicious. There isn't at this time. There's nothing to show that it is. And so I wanted to be very careful if this is just a mother that's gone through some terrible trauma. I did not want to add to that. So it was quite the fine line of trying to figure out the balance of how far do I push this
Ultimately, the detective pushed his interview with Diane to its limit. And without outright saying it, he suggested that Diane was responsible for Sarah's illness, among a lot of other things. With some of the stuff involved in these cases, from what we've been looking at, I think you're aware of why we're here. Maybe. I don't know. I think you know why we're here talking. Because I know that there's a reason why.
Maybe why some of this stuff did happen. As far as did I do something to her, I didn't do anything to her. I mean, I guess I could have taken her to the ER sooner, but I didn't know. If she, I don't know. I know I didn't do anything. And if you did? I'm just telling you, I didn't do anything. And that's what I feel like you're insinuating I did. I may not be the best mother in the world,
because i do wait a little longer before i take him to the doctor but naturally diane denied the accusations and after she did the detective focused on the reasons that diane may have wanted to kill off her husband and children in other words he focused on her motive i think mark he's having these infidelities he's not working you've got the whole burden of the family you got to take care of everybody you
have all this stress and pressure on you to raise your kids, to put food on the table. You're the working one. He's out. He's drinking. He's using drugs. He's doing things he shouldn't be doing. I think the person just gets pushed to where, you know what? People just can't take it anymore. I think it's just you got pushed so far. You had all this weight on your shoulders because you're not a bad person, are you? No? I don't think you are.
The detective played this interrogation smart. He took a sympathetic and relatable approach. And his strategy ultimately worked. With regard to Sarah and her illness, Diane admitted that she knew a lot more than she'd been telling. Diane explained that she had been hounding Sarah for weeks about getting a job. And after one particular argument between them, Sarah did something that was very strange. We've been arguing.
Diane claimed that in some bizarre act of rebellion, Sarah went into the family garage and started drinking antifreeze. Yes, antifreeze.
Not only that, but Diane also claimed that Mark and Sean had done the same thing. What a weird family. I put it really short and sweet. I knew they were drinking antifreeze. And I was so mad at them, I didn't want to take them. I'm a horrible mother. Diane, you knew that they were drinking antifreeze. You knew that. They didn't. We both know that. You knew, Diane, that they were drinking antifreeze.
The detective quickly shut down Diane's explanation for what happened to Mark, Sean, and Sarah. And at this point, he had pretty much figured out what had happened. I'm sure a lot of you probably have too. Diane had poisoned her husband and two of her children with antifreeze to the point where two of them had died and another was about to die eventually.
After being unable to maintain her ridiculous explanation, Diane came clean. She admitted to what she had done and explained how she did it. How much would you put in? Just a little. And what were you putting it in? So you were putting it in Mark's Gatorade, you were putting it in Sean's Coke, just regular Coke. And what about Sarah? Coke. Regular Coke? She loved Coke. Okay.
And you were only doing it once a day? Because you thought that's all you needed? Okay. When they weren't passing right away, did you eventually start to give them more and more? I may have. And I regret doing it. I really do. I've screwed up everybody. I've screwed up my whole family. Why did you decide that you were going to use antifreeze to do it? Why not some other means? Because I read online it was pretty easy to do. Okay.
From what I understand, it almost tastes good. Is that correct? That's what they say. Okay. The deadly ingredient in antifreeze is a chemical compound known as ethylene glycol. Some of you true crime nerds may already know that. It is colorless, odorless, and has kind of a sweet taste. Don't try it. Don't try it. I know you want to. I know some of you are a little dumber than others, but don't do it, please. You're going to get me in trouble.
It's also not typically detected when an autopsy is performed. In order to find ethylene glycol, a medical examiner has to specifically look for it, which is another reason it's commonly used as a poison. Ingesting this compound can quickly cause several fatal health problems, including dysrhythmias and heart failure.
In case this isn't obvious, ethylene glycol poisoning is a pretty awful way to die. You wouldn't want to try it at all anyway. There's much easier ways. When your internal organs start shutting down, it's not a fun time. It's not going to be good. It's actually quite, quite painful. According to Diane, for several weeks, she'd been slipping small doses of antifreeze into her husband's Gatorade. After he died from the poisoning, she did the same thing to her son, Sean.
The only difference was that Shawn preferred Coca-Cola over Gatorade. After Shawn was dead, Diane then began poisoning her oldest daughter, Sarah, by slipping antifreeze into her soda as well. What kind of a mother would harm her own kids for her own benefit? Oh, I don't know. Lots of them. Just gonna let that sit there for a minute. As far as motive was concerned,
Diane had a different reason for each of her three victims. In the case of her husband, Diane explained she simply hated his guts. Why didn't you call an ambulance or bring him to the hospital at that point? Because by then I hated his guts. Hated his guts. I understand. And then I hated his guts. And how much was his life insurance policy? It was only $20,000. $20,000 and you were able to use that money to get into your new house? Yes.
I didn't need the money. As for her son, Diane explained that Sean had become too much of a pest and she simply couldn't deal with him anymore. Sean would be interfering with whatever I would do to the point where he was getting into my work. You get to the point where you just pull out your hair because I didn't know what else to do with him.
Finally, Diane explained that she decided to also murder her oldest daughter because Sarah refused to get a job and Diane didn't want to pay off Sarah's college loans. I mean, not wanting to pay her college loans makes you do all kinds of stupid things, doesn't it? Sarah's a difficult child to deal with. I understand. And I've been kind of putting pressure on her to, you know, you need to get out and get a job.
Your college bills are coming due. I don't want to pay for them. You know, pretty relatable, right? If your kid has college loans and you don't want to pay them, just slip a little antifreeze into their soda. Problem solved. Diane's motives for the killings were just as strange and bizarre as just the epitome of this entire case.
When talking about Mark, she said it got to the point that she hated him. And where it really got strange and bizarre was with the children. She said Sean was a huge burden. And I even asked if he was a pest. And she said, well, he was worse than that. He was worse than a pest.
And then when discussing Sarah, she had college loans that she needed to pay, but she wouldn't get a job. And so that's what led to her poisoning Sarah. It was really stunning to hear her discuss what led her to killing off and poisoning the family members. Diane admitted to what she had done and explained why she did it. But even so, there were still a few questions.
First being, if Diane wanted to kill Sarah, why did she eventually bring her to a hospital? And second, why did Diane spare her other two daughters? What was the reason for bringing her when she was, because you even said she was so bad, you thought she was going to die and you had to carry her. Did Rachel, was she the one that said, hey, let's take her to the hospital? Actually, both of us thought the same thing at the same time. It's like, let's take her in.
Diane claimed that it was Rachel who prompted Diane to take Sarah to the hospital.
Speaking of Rachel, after Diane confessed, the detectives were given the awful task of breaking all of this bad news to her. I brought your mom in today and interviewed her at length for quite a long time. And basically what has happened is your mom has admitted to killing your dad and your brother and trying to kill your sister.
She had been giving your father small doses of antifreeze in his drinks. Same thing with your brother and same thing with your sister Sarah. Take some time. It's a lot to process. I don't even know how you actually process that, to be honest with you, Rachel.
Rachel Stoudy was a 22-year-old unemployed college student. In a matter of months, she had lost her father, her brother, and her oldest sister, and now
her mom was being locked up for murder. Can you fucking imagine what that's like? As a result, the responsibility of caring for 11-year-old Brianna Stoudy
fell on Rachel's 22-year-old shoulders. After Rachel was made aware of this horrific situation, the detective left the interview room and Rachel broke down.
Understandably. Sadly, the bad news that Rachel had just gotten...
was only going to get worse because there was yet another horrible twist in this story. Not only had Rachel's mom poisoned Rachel's dad, brother, and sister, but it turned out that Diane hadn't done this all on her own. As the investigation continued, the police learned that Diane Stoudy had an accomplice.
Nice to meet you. Or maybe we've met before. I'm the COVID-19 virus. I use disguises to fool your immune system. My buddy the flu virus and I make thousands of people sick every year. But updated vaccines make it a lot harder.
Don't make it easy for these viruses. Stay up to date on your COVID-19 and flu vaccinations this fall. Sponsored by Champions for Vaccine Education, Equity and Progress. CVEEP.org. There is an all new way to experience the Virginia Lottery. Virginia Lottery Rewards is an easy, exciting way to earn points for playing lottery games in-store and online. That's right, any lottery game.
Join now by going to valottery.com slash rewards or downloading the lottery app and be on your way to play, points, and prizes. Log in or sign up today to earn 100 points instantly. This episode is brought to you by Allianz Travel Insurance. When you're far from home, anything can happen. That's why more than 70 million American travelers trust Allianz Travel Insurance to protect their adventures.
In June of 2013, 49-year-old Diane Stouty was interviewed by a Springfield, Missouri homicide detective. During that interview, Diane confessed to murdering her 61-year-old husband, Mark, and her 26-year-old son, Sean.
Diane also admitted that she had tried to murder her oldest daughter, 24-year-old Sarah Stoudy, as well. Diane explained that for several weeks, she'd been slipping small doses of antifreeze into her husband's drinks. After he died from the poisoning, she did the same thing to her son. After her son died, she began doing the same thing to her daughter. After Sarah became deathly ill and was taken to the hospital,
An anonymous phone call was placed to police about what was going on in the Stoudy family. This prompted detectives to open an investigation. At the start of that investigation, homicide detectives didn't have much to go on. There wasn't any actual evidence of foul play, but when Diane was interrogated, it didn't take long for her to crack. She admitted to what she had done and explained how she did it.
Even so, the investigation wasn't quite over. The lead investigator suspected that Diane hadn't told police the whole truth and that she may not have acted alone. He believed that Diane
had an accomplice. After Diane had made her confession to poisoning her family, there was this time where she would talk about her daughter Rachel and it just seemed, you could just see her, it was almost as if she lit up when discussing Rachel. So when she was discussing her other family members, you could see just the hatred or disdain and
animosity that she had towards them. But she talked so, it was a complete 180 when she talked about Rachel. And so much so that during my time speaking with her, I began to become suspicious as, gosh, was this, was Rachel involved with her? In addition to Sarah, Diane had two other daughters, 22-year-old Rachel and 11-year-old Brianna, both of whom had not
been poisoned. Not yet, anyway. After Diane confessed and was arrested, Rachel was made aware of the situation and sent home. But the following day, Rachel was invited back to the police station for yet another interview. When Detective Shipley told you yesterday about what your mom did, what do you think about that? Confusion. Shock. I mean, that's... Nobody expects to have somebody that they know do that.
Again, when Rachel's mom was interviewed, the cops didn't have much to go on.
They didn't have any evidence to confront her with, which in the end didn't matter because Diane confessed. In Rachel's case, however, things were a little different. After my interrogation with Diane was over, one of our crime scene detectives got a hold of me and said that he had a piece of evidence down in our evidence room that he thought I should look at. So I went down there and he had a journal that
And the journal appeared to be that of Rachel's. And a couple of the entries were extremely odd and bizarre. And after reading them, it just kind of cemented my suspicion of Rachel. The cops had found Rachel's personal journal. And in that journal, Rachel wrote the following. It's sad when I realize how my father will pass on in the next two months. Sean, my brother, will move on shortly after.
It will be tough getting used to the changes, but everything will work out. This journal entry pretty much confirmed the detective's suspicions. At the very least, it verified that Rachel knew what her mom was doing. And Rachel may have even helped Diane commit the murders. Do you recognize this? Yeah, I remember this. Okay. What is that?
After Rachel was confronted with her journal, she came clean and admitted that with the help of her mom,
Rachel poisoned her father, her brother, and her older sister with antifreeze. Like mother, like daughter. When did you guys come up with this plan? I can't think of exact dates, but I mean, we talked about it like Christmas before. Rachel, whose idea was this? Mom brought it up, and we discussed it. What did she say to you? Basically, went through different options.
We had a book on poisonous plants. I mean, she would talk about cyanide. And she mentioned once how hard it would be to find. I was trying to find things that wouldn't be traceable, or at least would be hard to trace. According to Rachel, she and Diane had thought long and hard about how they were going to go about murdering the rest of the family. I can only imagine that conversation. After many discussions...
They eventually settled on using antifreeze, which again, is not easily detected when an autopsy is performed. More than likely, Diane's background in nursing made her well aware of that fact. How many times a day were you given doing this, putting the antifreeze in your dad's drinks? How many times on average per day were you doing it? Twice. It was a trade-off. She would do it, then I would. For how long?
Several weeks. Several weeks. How many bottles of antifreeze did you guys go through? Upwards of five. For your dad? Yeah. You went through about five bottles. How big were the bottles? Can you kind of give me a visual about how big you think they were? So probably around a gallon or so. Something like that. Okay. Over the course of several weeks, Rachel and Diane slipped about five gallons of antifreeze into Mark Stoudy's drinks.
which ultimately led to his death. While Diane's motives were rooted in hatred for her husband, Rachel had a different reason for wanting to kill her father. "My dad, I couldn't really see him ever like doing anything to help us. He had no concept of money. He was always just blowing money. He would always be out of the house, wouldn't really help around the house.
Basically, Rachel saw her dad as a deadbeat. She considered him to be a worthless burden on the family. As for her brother, Rachel claimed that she wasn't immediately on board with the idea of killing Sean. But after her mom kept pressing the idea, Rachel eventually agreed to go along with the plan. Sean...
I accepted that she wanted him gone, but I really didn't think he was necessary. Sean we argued on a lot because I still think we could have put him in assisted living, but she wanted him out. She would just go on and on about him just being a burden basically. After Mark and Sean were dead, Rachel and her mom then decided they were going to also go after Rachel's older sister.
So how are you guys getting her the drinks without her knowing about it? She's on the computer a lot, on YouTube a lot, on sites like that a lot. And she's easily distracted. It wouldn't take much to get whatever drink she did have and just slip it real quick. According to Rachel, the plot to kill Sarah was her mother's idea. But again, Rachel had her own reasons for wanting her sister dead.
Did you and your mother discuss killing Sarah? Mom was thinking about it. What'd she say about it? Other than the fact that she basically lived in the back bedroom and didn't, like, have any gumption to get a job. More or less that she wasn't going anywhere with her life and that she really had no purpose. She was very adamant on that Sarah was just a burden that Sarah needed to be taken care of.
By taken care of, I mean... She means... Killed. Mom probably has her own issues with her. What about you? Did you guys fight a lot? Yeah. Why did you want Sarah dead? I mean, she grew up with later when she got on the medicine, but she still argues. She still has really inappropriate jokes. Inappropriate jokes. That was Rachel's rationalization for killing her sister.
Did you hear that? What is going on? What is wrong with the world right now? Does anybody know? I'd like to find out. What is wrong with people in their 20s specifically? Which makes someone like this think that murder is appropriate if their sensibilities are offended. Holy fuck. Also, the depravity didn't end there.
If you remember from Diane's earlier police interview, it was Rachel who prompted Diane to take Sarah to the hospital. This decision didn't come about because of some sort of sympathy for Sarah or because Rachel was having second thoughts. The decision was rooted entirely in selfishness. I'd like to know why you guys eventually took, you know, when Sarah got so bad...
Now you guys said you thought that she was pretty much dead, but why did you take her to the hospital? I didn't want another one to die in the house. And why is that? Because houses are nasty after somebody's died in it. Okay, and what does that mean? What do you mean by that? I get a lot of nightmares. Like after Sean died, I moved into his room and it was awful, awful, awful in there. Were you surprised when you found out that Sarah was going to live? Very. Very surprised?
According to Rachel, if her sister survived the hospital stay, Diane and Rachel would still have carried out the murder, though they never got around to discussing how they would actually do it. At the same time, they were also planning to commit yet another murder.
It really is scary to think of what would have happened if our attention was not brought to what was going on in the Stoudy family. And it came straight from Rachel's mouth to me that their plan was to kill the youngest child of the family, who at the time was only 11 years old.
So it's one of those situations of, thank God we were able to stop this when we did. Otherwise, the small child would have possibly succumbed to the same outcome as what the others did. Again, it wasn't Sarah going to the hospital that caught the attention of the police. It was an anonymous phone call that alerted the authorities.
Eventually, the detectives figured out where that call came from. The caller was Diane and Rachel's church pastor. Rachel partially confided in her church pastor and after he learned that Sarah was in the hospital,
He called police. Had this call not been made, 11-year-old Brianna would likely have suffered the same fate as Mark, Sean, and Sarah. Did you think that eventually, after everybody dying off in similar ways, that we might show up to talk to you guys? Didn't really think I would get caught. Stupid note, I think, on it, but... Did you want it to just be you and your mother? Yeah. And why is that one?
Given what had happened in the Stoudy home, a logical question is, why Rachel? Why did Diane choose Rachel to be the accomplice and not any one of her other children? And also, why would Rachel agree to follow her mother and go along with such an evil plan? Why indeed would a child want to...
please her parents and do what they say. I believe the reason Diane chose Rachel or those two acted together is just because of this very strange mother-daughter relationship they had. And both of them discussed that. I mean, it was obvious that Rachel was the favorite of Diane, that she was kind of the chosen child. Rachel was very artistic and was talented musically, which was
Miraculously, after Diane and Rachel confessed and were both arrested, Sarah Stoudy pulled through.
and was eventually released from the hospital. Unfortunately, some of the physical effects of the antifreeze poisoning were irreversible. Sarah survived the antifreeze poisoning her sister Rachel and her mother Diane's daughter put in her drink, but she now has brain damage and requires round-the-clock care. Her brother and father died from the poisoning.
Sarah was kind of a medical miracle because, by all accounts, it was believed that she was going to pass, but she ended up surviving. She did sustain some pretty heavy brain damage from the incident. So Sarah now lives in an assisted living home full time.
Following Sarah's release from the hospital, both Diane and Rachel were charged with several crimes, including two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Mark and Sean Stoudy,
and attempted murder for the near death of Sarah Stouty. When Rachel went to court, obviously this was a death penalty case, but Rachel ended up taking a plea deal that she would testify against her mother during the death penalty hearing for Diane. Rachel pled to murder, and she was offered part of her plea deal that she could
be eligible for parole after I believe it was 40 or 42 years.
Prior to Diane's case actually going to trial, Diane agreed to take a plea deal to take the death penalty off the table. So both Diane and Rachel are currently incarcerated in the Missouri Department of Corrections. Rachel will be eligible for parole when she's in her 60s. Diane will serve her entire life in prison.
During the sentencing phase, Rachel read a brief statement in court and apologized to her sister, Sarah. In response to Rachel's statement, Sarah addressed the apology in a few media interviews.
Sarah claimed that she's forgiven both her mom and her sister for what they have done. I forgive her for what she did to me. Was your forgiveness something that was really hard to come to over time? Or how does that process work? I am a Christian and I believe forgiveness is the only way to go. Was that something you were able to do right away? Yes.
While you might be inclined to commend Sarah for taking the high road here, she might not be as deserving of that commendation as you think. Believe it or not, there was yet another bizarre twist in this really, really crazy tale. During one of her police interviews, Rachel Stouty told investigators that Sarah knew about the plan to murder both Mark and
And... Sean. It's very possible she could have overheard. Did Sarah know, yes or no? Yes. She obviously just didn't realize that she was going to get it also. Sarah more or less overheard. She really didn't plan. She was just more there. But Sarah knew. But Sarah knew. Okay. So did Sarah ever become suspicious when she started to get sick? She did mention...
Oh, am I going to die? She never mentioned anything about, are you guys poisoning me too? No. But she asked if she was going to die. Who did she ask that? Mom. What did your mom say? I don't know. Granted, it's entirely possible that Rachel was lying. But when she was first asked about Sarah's knowledge of the crimes, Rachel said that Sarah knew nothing. It was only after the detectives pressed her that Rachel changed her story.
If Rachel was lying and just wanted to throw Sarah under the bus, why would she initially deny that Sarah knew? If you're wondering, the police did investigate the possibility that Sarah knew about the murder plot, but ultimately, conspiracy charges were never filed against her. So, who knows?
During Rachel's interview, she talked about Sarah having knowledge of the poisonings of both Mark and Sean. I did look into that and there were some things that might have indicated that Sarah was in fact knowledgeable. And I have spoken with her.
If Sarah knew that Diane and Rachel had killed Mark and Sean Stouty, it means that justice was not fully carried out for either victim.
It's been over a decade since both men were murdered, so the likelihood of prosecutors bringing up charges against Sarah is pretty much non-existent. She's free to go. But at least we can say that the mastermind behind it all got her comeuppance.
In terms of Diane, I have never seen one bit of remorse from Diane about any of it. And I think the only remorse that she might have is that Rachel got caught with her and now that Rachel is going to spend decades and decades in prison. I believe this whole case really just centered around Diane's narcissism, her selfishness, and how she wanted it her way and it was only going to be her way.
It was a situation, it seemed, that these people that she did not like, she was eliminating, she was getting rid of just so she could have it to what she wanted, which was her and Rachel. It was a situation where I believed that Diane was just a pure narcissist. And it's cliche, but in my career, I don't know that I can say that I've sat across from somebody that was truly more evil than Diane.
What's especially mind-boggling about Diane Stoudy is that there was almost nothing forcing her to remain in or maintain the life and family that she no longer wanted. She could have walked away at any point. She was the breadwinner of the family. She was the only one with a real job. She had all the money, all the power. And all but one of her kids was well into their 20s.
If she wanted to, she could have just left. If she wanted to, she could have just taken Rachel and her youngest daughter with her. Left everyone else to fend for themselves. There was no reason at all for any of this. Sure, that would have been kind of a shitty thing to do and people would have looked at her a little differently, but they're doing that now. And they're doing that a lot more harshly.
And at the same time, I imagine that Mark, Sean, and Sarah, all of them, would have preferred that Diane had just left instead of, you know, poisoning them. But as the detective explained, none of that mattered to Diane. The pain she caused didn't matter and neither did the other options that were available to her. Those options just weren't good enough for Diane.
Diane was going to have things her way. Because Diane is a narcissist. Diane is selfish. Diane is evil. Diane is a monster. Felt like I was talking about someone else for a second there. Alright guys, thank you for joining us. We'll see you next time. Stay safe.
Hey, Sergeant Gale. I just wanted to thank you for doing all of the child murder podcasts. I know it must be really hard. I work in child care and...
It's so important for people to understand if you see something, you say something. And every time, like, I cried from all of the stories with the kids. But it's so important because people hear it and you don't want to keep hearing it. Well, then someone needs to do something instead of someone thinking that somebody else is going to do it. So I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for doing the child story so there is awareness. Thank you so much. Have a good day. Bye. Hey, Mike.
Um, I'm sorry for my voice right now because I'm completely devastated over episode 246. Um, I'm not asking anything of you, Mike. I don't want you to change, Mike. But podcasts will never die. They'll never say that to me again. And also, fuck Austin Robinson, that little pussy.
That little girl did not ever ask for anything but love. The way you made that episode was so beautiful and scary. And I loved how long it was, and I loved all the information, and I loved that audio. Freaking kiss every time. And now I'm gonna go cry myself to sleep. Bye.
The national sales event is on at your Toyota dealer, making now the perfect time to get a great deal on a dependable new Toyota truck. Like a rugged, half-ton Tundra, workhorse by nature, powerhouse by design, the Tundra combines raw capability with premium comfort and advanced tech to fuel your wildest adventures. And with the available i-Force Max Hybrid Powertrain, you can take electrifying horsepower farther and
than ever before. Or check out the fully redesigned Tacoma, delivering trail-dominating power and captivating style. The new Tacoma was born to make your off-roading dreams come true. And with the new available tech, this legendary truck is getting even better. And when you buy a Toyota truck, you buy Toyota dependability, meaning your truck will hold its value long into the future.
So visit your local Toyota dealer and check out amazing national sales event deals when you visit buyatoyota.com. Toyota, let's go places. This episode is brought to you by Allianz Travel Insurance. When you're far from home, anything can happen. That's why more than 70 million American travelers trust Allianz Travel Insurance to protect their adventures.
With benefits for medical emergencies and evacuations, trip cancellations, travel delays, and baggage mishaps, you can travel with perfect peace of mind. Learn more and get a quote at AllianzTravelInsurance.com.