Sheila Davalloo // 397
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What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Heath. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello, everybody. Today we have a mouth-dropping case for you that Heath found for us somewhere super random on the internet. Yeah, I did. I was just actually looking for cases with extreme twists, which...

Which, this one is just really in-depth, and there's so many pieces to this story. I think you guys are going to be really interested in this case. Yeah, it has a shocking resolution. This one is a New York case, so...

So thank you guys so much for being here, guys. I did it twice, too. I was like, so, so. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Let's dive in. All right, guys. This is episode 397 of Going West. Almost 400. Almost 400. So let's get into it. ♪♪♪

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In November of 2002, a married New York research scientist found herself embroiled in a workplace love triangle. But when a 911 call was made to alert authorities of an attack, an obsession would lead to murder. Months later, a similar attack would help detectives pinpoint their culprit and unravel a tangled web of lies.

This is the story of Annalisa Raimondo and Paul Christos. It's also the story of Sheila Davalou. Sheila Davalou was born on May 11th, 1969 in Charlottesville, Virginia. But at the age of two, her parents, who were Iranian health and medical professionals, decided to move the family back to Iran, where Sheila would spend most of her childhood.

But when Sheila was 10 years old, the country was in the midst of the Iranian revolution that began in January of 1978. It lasted for a little over a year and it led to a violent war. But it wasn't until six years after it ended when Sheila was 17 that her parents were able to flee the continued hardships and turmoil that they were experiencing there to immigrate back to the U.S.,

When they arrived back, the family settled into Yorktown Heights, which is located in Westchester County, New York. Just two years after Sheila and her family moved back to the States, according to Sheila, her parents decided that she needed to stick with the family tradition of an arranged marriage. So wanting to respect their wishes, she agreed to marry a man named Fareed Musavi at the age of 19 in 1995.

Now, at this time, Sheila was attending SUNY Stony Brook and was working towards her bachelor's degree in biochemistry because she was very smart and had dreams of one day working in the pharmaceutical industry. Yeah, she was intelligent and kind of to a fault. Yeah, I agree with you there. So after her undergrad, Sheila then began attending grad school at New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York. And this is where she met a fellow student named Paul Christos.

So Sheila described Paul as handsome and intelligent and said that the two really hit it off. So despite the fact that she was married, even though it was arranged, this would mark the very beginning of her affairs. Paul and Sheila began to spend more and more time together and their relationship eventually developed into a sexual one.

Now, one day, about a year into Paul and Sheila dating, if we can call it that, Sheila's then-husband Farid called his wife's phone. And to his surprise, a man picked up. And it was Paul. So the two men spoke for a few minutes before agreeing to meet up for coffee to have a chat about what was going on here.

Now, Paul was very apologetic, explaining that he had no idea that Sheila was married and that she had kept that important detail secret from him for over a year.

But, despite all this, to Paul's surprise, Fareed really didn't seem all that interested in continuing his marriage to Sheila. And the conversation ended pretty amicably. So, after this, Paul was a bit hesitant to continue seeing Sheila, since she had proven to be quite unfaithful, but... That's fair. Yeah, yeah, that's very fair, but she also explained that her marriage to Fareed was arranged, and that she was never really in love with him. And she even vowed to Paul that she would get a divorce, which she did.

So, Paul accepted this response and empathized with her circumstance and agreed to continue dating her. They continued dating for the next few years until 2000 when the couple finally decided to tie the knot and get married.

So at the time, Paul was teaching at Cornell University's New York City campus, and Sheila landed a job as a research scientist for Purdue Pharma, located in Stamford, Connecticut. So they moved into a home in Pleasantville, New York, which is another suburb in Westchester County, so that their commutes would be less than an hour or so.

By all accounts, the two appeared really happy together, and there didn't seem to be any indication that the marriage was going cold or it was on the rocks, but in Sheila's mind, that just wasn't the case.

She explained later in an interview that she had been working long hours and was just feeling really burnt out. And that fire that she once had for Paul when they were, you know, engaged in this affair, had completely cooled off by this time when they decided to get married. I mean, Sheila even compared their relationship to a roommate situation where they both basically just coexisted with one another.

At the time, Paul was trying to obtain his doctorate and he explained that this was kind of why they didn't spend as much time together. So in the fall of 2001, Sheila explained to Paul that her brother was coming to visit her, but that there was a bit of a problem here. Now, Sheila and Paul had been together for years at this point, but for the first time ever, she was mentioning that her brother Shaheen was schizophrenic and mentally ill.

So she told Paul that her brother didn't know that she had gotten married and that he would be extremely upset if he knew. Now, Paul knew that Sheila had a brother based on what Sheila and her parents had told him, but he had never actually met Shaheen. And Shaheen was not at their wedding a year prior. So it's like, he knows that this brother exists, but he's never met him, and now Sheila's saying, "Well, hey, um, he's gonna come visit, but by the way,

He doesn't know anything about our marriage and it would devastate him if he knew. Yeah, for some reason he doesn't know that they're married and Paul's not trying to rock the boat. He just is saying, okay, I'll respect that and I'll, you know, I'll go ahead and do what you want. So Sheila told Paul that in order to not upset her brother and cause an outburst, that she needed him to pack up all of his things from their shared home and go stay with family for a few days.

And although this seemed like a very odd request. Yeah, it definitely is very odd. It really is. Paul apparently just, again, he didn't want to stir the pot. He didn't want to upset his wife. So he agreed to get his stuff and leave so that Sheila could spend time with her brother.

But it was so odd because Sheila also hid anything that Paul didn't take with him and started hiding photos of them as well. So it's just a really bizarre situation. Yeah, she's trying to basically clear out anything that indicates that Paul lives in that home. Still, I mean, to Paul, he says, okay, if this is what I have to do, it's what I have to do. But after this...

Sheila's brother began to visit more frequently, requiring Paul to spend more time away from his own home.

Each time that he would go spend time with his parents or his own brother or a friend, he would stay at their homes for days on end. And these visits from Sheila's brother continued for more than a year. So Paul was at this point just getting very fed up with the situation, rightfully so, you know, because suddenly out of the blue, her brother visits her for the first time and then starts doing it constantly. Like it was just really weird. Super weird. Yeah.

So when Paul and Sheila did see each other, Sheila would sprinkle in the dramatic details of this supposed love triangle that was going on at work between her friends Melissa, Annalisa, and Jack. Now she would explain to her husband Paul that Jack was dating Melissa, but he was having an affair with Annalisa.

Paul later stated, quote, she would constantly ask me why Jack would do this, what he was thinking and what Melissa should do.

Well, if you haven't put two and two together yet, Melissa doesn't exist because Melissa is Sheila Davalou. Exactly. She made up this whole fake work drama to essentially tell her husband about her own affair because that's what was going on at home. There was no visiting brother in sight. She is hosting another man at her house. And this is why she's saying, I need to get rid of pictures, all of your stuff, because she doesn't want this guy she's having an affair with

to know that she lives in this house with her husband. Yeah, and she already pulled this on Paul with her first marriage. Like, when she was married to Fareed, she was doing the exact same thing, not telling Paul that she was married. And now, she's not telling this other person that.

that she is married to Paul. Which is why Paul was so surprised when Sheila's ex-husband, or her husband at that time, had called and he answered the phone. He's like, Sheila's married? He had no idea. Yeah, he's like, what the hell? So now it's happening to him. But Paul didn't know this at the time, you know, that Sheila was having an affair on him with a co-worker named Nelson Sessler, who she met at a happy hour after work in the summer of 2001-2008.

and they began a relationship from there. So, as I mentioned, just like Sheila had done to her first husband, here she is hiding her relationship with Nelson from her current husband, Paul. And she had even devised a scheme to make sure that the men never knew about each other.

So, basically, Paul was helping his wife cheat by removing any trace of himself from the home while having no idea that Sheila was having an affair. But, instead, thinking that he was being nice and letting her spend time with her brother. But here's where things get even more twisted.

Now, Daphne mentioned that Sheila was in fact the Melissa of the situation. Again, her supposed coworker from the concocted love triangle story that she explained to Paul. Well, it turns out that Anna-Lisa actually did exist. So, eventually, Nelson told Sheila that although their relationship was fun, he was seeing another coworker from Purdue Pharma named Anna-Lisa Raimundo.

So now we know that Melissa is Sheila, Annalisa is, well, Annalisa, and Jack is Nelson. So this is, in a way, like a love square. Yeah, it really is. Because we have two women and two men here. Obviously, poor Paul is only involved with his wife, Sheila, and then Annalisa is only involved with Nelson. But it's different for Nelson because he's not married. So he's allowed to date multiple people and figure out what he wants later.

but Sheila is pretty into Nelson. Exactly, and that's why at first Sheila told Nelson that it was no big deal and that she agreed that their relationship was nothing more than a summer fling. But behind Sheila's cordial facade, she was steaming with anger. God, that's just such a selfish thing for her to feel considering she is doing way worse to her loving, loyal husband.

But before we get further ahead, I think it's important to give you guys a little backstory on Annalisa Raimondo. So Annalisa was born on September 11th, 1970 to parents Renato and Susan Raimondo in Brooklyn, New York.

She grew up alongside her brother RJ and sister Bernadette, and both of her parents were respected doctors in New York. And they described Annalisa as perfect and an excellent human being. While her parents resided in Florida taking care of Annalisa's sick grandmother, Annalisa attended Harvard University where she obtained her bachelor's degree, and then Columbia University where she achieved her master's.

Anna moved into her own waterfront condo in Stamford, Connecticut in March of 2000, where she began working for Purdue Pharma. And that's where she met both Nelson Sessler and Sheila Davalou. Her coworkers described her as brilliant and that whenever she walked into a room, everyone's eyes would light up. She was athletic, elegant, adventurous, and most of all, very caring.

So jumping back ahead again, after Nelson broke off his fling with Sheila, he and Annalisa began dating more seriously and Nelson apparently moved into Annalisa's waterfront condo. So he is essentially choosing Annalisa over Sheila, which is totally fair. Everybody's allowed to choose who they want to choose.

But Sheila couldn't get Nelson out of her mind. Now, whether it was because she wasn't the chosen one or because she was really in love with him, I don't know. But either way, while continuing to fool her husband, Paul, she was still making remarks about this whole work affair that was bothering her.

Which is so interesting because it's like she's telling him but not telling him. Like she's trying to talk to someone about it so bad and is almost testing the waters with telling Paul. Yeah, I don't know why she wouldn't just do this with like a friend or a different co-worker. You know, why are you literally like dangling your affair in front of your husband's face and asking him for advice about what to do in this situation? I wonder if it's because...

She wanted to see his reaction, you know, like how he would react if he knew, even though it would be a completely different reaction to if some stranger is having an affair with another stranger, you know? Sure. Yeah. But it gets even crazier from here because she doesn't just stop there with the conversation with Paul.

Oh, yeah. I mean, Sheila went so far as to say that she wanted to help Melissa, again, herself. Yeah, herself. Herself spy on Annalisa and Jack. Again, Jack is actually Nelson. And break into Annalisa's apartment to look at photos.

Paul later stated that he even lent Sheila night vision binoculars and an eavesdropping device. No idea why Paul has those things, by the way. Yeah, that just doesn't seem like a very normal thing to have in your possession, I guess. But he did, and he lent it to her so that she could spy on Annalisa, which is so weird. I wonder if he was like, why are you, you know, putting yourself...

in this situation. Like it's none of your business. Well, that's kind of what I was thinking too. It's like, uh, he's basically giving her the green light as her husband saying like, Oh yeah, you want to spy on this coworker? Like,

Go for it. I'll even help you out. Here's some binoculars and some eavesdropping equipment. Maybe he just wanted to be supportive. I do not know. But on top of those two things, Sheila also purchased a lock picking kit and practice with it at home. I mean, this is just so freaking weird. Like this is not okay. But again, I guess Paul just didn't understand the severity of it without knowing the actual situation. So he just helped because he didn't know what else to do.

Yeah, and I also kind of feel like Sheila has this bigger-than-life personality, maybe controlling, maybe demanding, where she's, like, you know, obsessing over this situation with these coworkers, and she just keeps driving it into Paul's brain. And he's just like, okay, okay, here. Yeah, and he's like, okay, like, I'll help you, you know? Like, he doesn't know what else to do. Right. Right.

Well, things are about to get very serious here. So on Friday, November 8th, 2002, 32-year-old Annalisa was in her apartment in Stamford, which was usual for her because she often worked from home on Fridays. Now, earlier that day at 10:34 a.m., Annalisa left a message on her parents' answering machine saying, quote, "Hi, Mom and Dad. I just want you to know what's going on. I know you're busy with Grandma, but I'll talk to you sometime."

Then around noon, Annalisa received a knock at her front door. Noon, this is during the day. Yes, it is. So when she opened the door, she was surprised to see her co-worker, Sheila Davalou, standing in the doorway. Now, because she was, you know, a familiar face at this point, she let Sheila inside. But just as Sheila crossed the threshold of the apartment...

Sheila began to violently attack Annalisa, stabbing her multiple times in the face, neck, and chest, with one of the stab wounds penetrating so deep that it punctured the back of Annalisa's lung. Annalisa also suffered blunt force trauma to her head, and as a result, she died from her injuries shortly after this attack.

Now during the murder, 33-year-old Sheila accidentally cut her own hand, which caused her to bleed. So basically with this, she's like, I need to go clean this up. So she goes and she runs to Annalisa's bathroom and uses her sink to wash up, not knowing that this would later link her to this very crime.

It appeared that Annalisa fought extremely hard for her life, which explained the defensive wounds that she had and just the sheer destruction of her apartment, like plants were knocked over and things were broken on the floor next to Annalisa's body.

The scene was just extremely violent. And it's so sad seeing pictures and videos of Annalisa. Like, she was such a beautiful and happy young woman. Her family and everybody who knew her loved her so much. And she wasn't doing anything wrong. She was just dating a man that, according to her friends...

she loved and adored. I mean, she caught the bouquet at her sister's wedding. Nelson almost caught the garner at the same wedding. Like, Annalisa was very happy in her relationship. And here's this outsider, Sheila, just coming to destroy everything and even somebody's life. Yeah, it is just beyond tragic. Well, now that Sheila had removed one of the roadblocks between her and Nelson, even though the roadblock was actually herself,

She ran downstairs and across the street from the condos to make a phone call that she thought would help her case. So Sheila called 911 from a payphone at a restaurant near the crime scene, and here's the only released portion of that call. "Yes, hello. I think the guy is... is... attacked my neighbor." "You think someone attacked your neighbor?" "Yes, yes. I heard yelling. I heard yelling." "What are you... you don't know your... hello?"

So, to break down that call for you guys, here is the full transcript. Sheila says, "Yes, the guy, he attacked my neighbor." Then the dispatcher responded, "You mean someone attacked your neighbor?" "Yes, yes," Sheila confirmed. "When did this happen?" the dispatch asked. It sounded as if Sheila said, "I saw a guy go into the apartment at 123 Harbor View."

So the dispatcher noted the address. Then not really quite understanding, they asked, quote, "126 Harborview?" But Sheila interrupted, correcting the dispatcher in an angry tone, yelling over the dispatcher's voice, "123 Harborview." The dispatcher asked, "What's your friend's name?" And Sheila replied, "I don't know her name, but she's my neighbor and she lives in apartment 105."

Which is it? Yeah. Well, she continues, and the guy was in there and he attacked her. But when the dispatch tried to get a description of this alleged attacker, Sheila hung up the phone. ♪

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That night, Annalisa and Nelson were supposed to attend a dinner with a few other co-workers at 7.30 p.m. But of course, Annalisa never showed up. She was killed over seven hours earlier, which prompted her co-workers to call her phone nearly 25 times. But by that time, investigators had already discovered her body inside the condo.

But where was Nelson? Well, he strolled up to the crime scene shortly after 8 p.m. and never even asked what had happened to Annalisa. That is just insane to me that he sees police at his girlfriend's apartment and he doesn't even have the heart to ask what's going on here. Yeah, so obviously that is looking weird. And in fact...

Detectives ushered him to the boathouse on the property of the condo complex and ordered him to stay there while they investigated his girlfriend's murder. But to investigator's surprise, Nelson ended up falling asleep and

And police noted that he didn't seem affected at all by what was going on. Like he didn't show them any emotion that this amazing woman he called his girlfriend was dead in her home. So of course, the first thought for police was that Nelson likely committed the murder. But without any evidence tying him to the scene, he couldn't be arrested.

Now, due to his behavior and the fact that they were in a relationship, of course, he did remain a person of interest for a little while. That was until police checked his alibi, which revealed that he had been at work all day on November 8th. Remember, her murder took place around noon. So he was ruled out as a suspect completely despite his strange behavior.

One detective later stated, quote,

After Annalise's murder, Sheila began to console Nelson about the loss of his girlfriend. And the two actually began to rekindle their old relationship, which makes me mad for multiple reasons. One, Sheila getting what she wants. And two, Nelson's girlfriend is murdered and he just seems to be like hopping to the next, you know? I mean, I'm not in his shoes, but from the outside...

Just makes me sad. No, and it's so crazy that the person who killed Annalisa is now consoling the man...

who was Annalisa's boyfriend. That's what makes me so mad. It's like it's so twisted, you just want to rip your hair out. Truly. But as we know, Nelson still doesn't know that Sheila is married to Paul at this point because she hid it from him very well. So at least he's not knowingly getting into it with a married woman. You know, maybe he's just looking for some comfort. We'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Now, after police were able to pinpoint where the 911 call came from, which again was that payphone, they questioned people in the area, including business owners and all of Annalise's neighbors to see if that voice on the recording matched any of them. But none of them did, of course. So with that, they collected what DNA samples from the scene that they could and just hoped that someone would come forward with a tip.

In the meantime, Sheila was smitten that Nelson was back in her company and she knew that she had thrown police off enough that she wasn't even on their radar.

But she came home after the murder with a large cut on her. And when Paul had asked her about it, she said that she got it from opening a can of dog food. And somehow this was enough of an explanation. I guess without, you know, obviously he doesn't know her coworkers. He probably didn't even hear about Annalise's murder. So he's not putting anything together at this point. He's just believing what she says. Yeah, exactly. And to be fair, you know,

Again, Sheila was hiding it very well, but Paul doesn't seem like he's very suspicious of very much at all. No, he's really not. She's doing a good job. I mean, of...

keeping all of her little secrets. And when we get to this next part, you guys will see why I said that because it almost feels wrong that he's not suspecting something. Yeah. Well, all of this would change one day in March of 2003 because Sheila wasn't quite done yet. She had one more roadblock in her way. It is about to get terrifying.

On Sunday, March 23rd, 2003, so five months after the murder of 32-year-old Annalisa Raimundo, Sheila and Paul were at home together when Sheila suggested that they play a game. A game, huh? Yeah. She explained that they both needed a little spark in their relationship, a little romance, and she convinced him that the best way to do that was to spice things up in the bedroom.

The rules were simple. One person would be blindfolded and handcuffed while the other person would touch the blindfolded person with different objects. And they had to guess what the item was. So Sheila agreed to be blindfolded first, which made Paul feel at ease. Remember, this is her idea. And this part makes me laugh a little. He proceeded to touch her with a camera, um,

A bottle of shampoo and a couple other things. It just seems... I get what you're saying. Yeah, it's like the most unsexy things you could touch your partner with. A camera. No hate on Paul. It's just those items seem a little bit strange for this game. It's kind of funny.

But then it was Paul's turn. So Paul, you know, he put on the blindfold or Sheila put it on him and she handcuffed him to the chair because they're using a chair in their room. But then, and this is so scary when you realize what she's doing, something strange happened as Paul later stated, quote,

Can you guys guess what those two thrusts were?

Sheila had retrieved a paring knife from the kitchen and plunged it into Paul's chest twice. Obviously, he was bleeding profusely from his wounds and begging Sheila to call 911 or take him to the hospital.

Sheila then told Paul, oh my God, I think I hurt you. You're bleeding. Yeah, no shit. You just fucking stabbed the guy. Yeah, but she didn't even acknowledge this because what she told Paul was something fell on you. I think the candle hurt you. So she's trying to play this off as if,

a candle could break skin and stab you? Well, this is so crazy to think about because obviously he has no idea what's going on. He's tied up blindfolded, so he can't touch his chest. He can't look down. So all he knows is what he's feeling. And without having any indication of what this feeling is, he's trying to figure out like,

Like that's why he's saying he felt pressure on his chest and a thrust, but he didn't, he wasn't even necessarily aware that something had penetrated his body. You know what I mean? Yeah. He didn't immediately know that he had just been stabbed. Yeah. It's so crazy to think that without all of your, your other sense, you know, your sense of sight that you can't,

fully make out what's happening to you. Yeah, I definitely agree. So Paul asked Sheila to take off the blindfold, which she did, but when he asked for the handcuffs to be taken off...

Sheila said that she couldn't find the key. Very convenient that she couldn't find the key, but I actually believe her that she couldn't find the key because apparently they had to break the chair to get the handcuffs off of the chair. Yeah, so she did at least do that. She helped break the chair.

So, again, Paul asked Sheila to call 911, which she claimed that she would do. But instead of doing this, get this guys, she actually called Nelson

and asked him to come over at 8:30 p.m. for a date. What the fuck, lady? She is so evil! Insanely evil. Her husband, I mean, obviously she's doing this, she's making the conscious choice, but he's bleeding, asking her to call 911, and she goes and asks another guy on a date. That's nuts. Yeah, absolutely bonkers. So eventually Paul felt like he was basically gonna bleed out. So instead of finishing him, for some reason, Sheila told him that she would take him to the hospital.

Now, Paul recalls that Sheila drove as slow as she possibly could to buy some time. And when they arrived at Westchester Medical Center, she parked in the back parking lot of the building. So it kind of seemed like she was trying to park in like a secluded area. Right. Well, Paul was in the back seat of the driver's side. And when the car stopped, Sheila got out and opened the back door.

Now, Paul was relieved, believing that his wife was gonna help him out of the car. But, when that car door flung open, this shit is absolutely crazy, Sheila tried to finish him off by stabbing him in the chest one more time. And I have so many questions about this because...

Why is she doing it there? Is it because part of her loved him or felt bad and that's why she didn't stab him to death in their room? And then she talked herself into it on the way over there and did it in the hospital parking lot? Well, that's the thing because even after stabbing him again, she still didn't kill him. So what is she doing here? Well, Paul didn't have much energy left in him, but with everything that he had, he tried to wrestle the knife away from Sheila.

The fight eventually moved into a grassy spot near the building where Sheila yelled out, quote, "Stay with me! Talk to me!" And this is so insane because she's acting as if she's trying to help Paul while repeatedly trying to kill him. Like, the manipulation and gaslighting of those around her is unreal.

Well, thankfully, somehow, Paul was able to get away and ran 200 feet where he saw a medical resident and asked for help.

But of course, Sheila was not far behind, asking the resident if she could take Paul herself to the emergency room. But thankfully, this resident refused. Like, this resident knew well enough that there was a situation going on here and was like, absolutely not. And I don't know what she thought was going to happen to her and how she thought

Killing her husband was going to let her settle into Nelson's life forever because obviously the police are going to suspect you by that point if two people are dead. Yeah, definitely. Well, it didn't take long for Sheila to be tracked down by police and arrested, charged with attempted murder, the attempted murder of Paul.

In her interview with detectives, Sheila told them that they were in fact playing a game, but it got out of hand and she wouldn't elaborate how. Yeah. Oh, right. It got out of hand because you crept down into the kitchen to get a knife and you stabbed your husband twice and then a third time.

Yeah. But since Paul luckily was alive, police already knew what happened because he had told them just before he was ushered into the operating room for open heart surgery. Yeah, this poor guy was stabbed so violently that

that they actually had to do surgery, open heart surgery. And can we just talk about the fact that Paul is like a superhuman for not only surviving three knife wounds to the chest, but two of which happened before a long car ride. And then the third, he was able to wrestle Sheila and then run for help. Yeah. I mean, this guy was just fighting for his life at this point.

Yeah, and during all of this, unaware of the absolute chaos of the evening, Nelson showed up to Sheila and Paul's house ready for his date. Because remember...

He was the brother who doesn't know, or he's not the real brother, but you know what I mean? He was the brother. Yeah. And he doesn't know that Sheila is married or lives with another man. So when he arrived, he noticed that police were swarming the home. And that's when they explained to him that there was a domestic dispute and that Paul Christos was taken to the hospital.

Nelson's response was, who is Paul? Once the pieces are fitting together and Nelson learns about the attempted murder, he told investigators that they should look into Sheila as a potential suspect in the murder of his former girlfriend, Annalisa Raimundo.

Paul was able to fully recover from his injuries and eventually testified against his wife in court regarding the attempted murder against him. And in February of 2004, Sheila was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Sheila's defense stated that she was troubled and never meant to hurt her husband, but the prosecution countered saying that Sheila wanted her husband dead so that she could be with her lover, Nelson Sessler.

But the fight wasn't over yet, because detectives had a very strong feeling that Sheila was also responsible for the death of Annalisa. But they didn't quite have enough to charge her yet. So they spent the next few years analyzing the crime scene and details and building a case. Then, on November 6th, 2007, two days short of the five-year anniversary of Annalisa's death,

38-year-old Sheila Davalue was finally charged with first-degree murder. Now, it would take another few years for the murder trial to begin, but it finally did in January of 2012. Well, this time, Sheila elected to have a jury trial and also to defend herself in court.

The prosecution brought forth evidence in the form of DNA that was taken from the sink in Annalisa's bathroom, which matched Sheila's and explained the cut that Paul had seen days after the attack. I mean, it's a DNA match, y'all. Yeah, really. I mean, there's no way around this. But they also focused on the voice comparison from the 911 call that was placed from the payphone.

A voice recognition expert was brought in to analyze the call, but they stated that in their opinion, the voice was only a 68% match, which Sheila defended by saying, quote, One thing I want to mention about this too is

is usually when you call 911 and you're reporting a crime, they want you to stay on the phone. So, A, why would a neighbor call from a payphone at all and not the phone in their home? This is the 2000s. And B, why would a neighbor call from a payphone

Why would they hang up when they're getting frustrated about the address and then they just hang up? I feel like a normal person wouldn't do that. Like a neighbor. Yeah, that wouldn't happen. They would stay on the phone with the dispatcher and they would get all the information that they need. Who would hang up and run away? The person who's trying to flee the scene. Exactly. The killer. 100%. So...

Sheila also pointed to a blue contact lens that was found in Annalise's hair, and claimed that it pointed to a different killer altogether.

She also said that pertaining to the blood evidence that matched her, that for a violent attack like that, there should have been more blood. Like, well, this, that's really not helping your case. Your DNA was in the bathroom, girl. Yeah, dumbass. So she went on defending herself, stating, quote, This is a case where I'm being accused of killing someone. Did the state prove that I was physically there on November 8th, 2002? They can't do that.

But the jury was not buying her BS excuses, and after deliberation, the jury found 42-year-old Sheila Davalue guilty of first-degree murder. And she was sentenced to 50 years in prison in Connecticut after she completed her sentence in New York for the attempted murder of her husband, well, ex-husband, Paul.

Yeah, as you can imagine, after she stabbed him a few times, Paul, he got a divorce. Somebody did the right thing. I say it all the time. Get a divorce. 100%. After the trial, Annalise's family spoke about the heinous crime that took their daughter's life. Her father said, quote, Sheila Davalue took away our most precious possession.

He also said that the fight for justice caused him great agony and that he needed medication to cope and question his faith in God. He called Sheila a heinous woman and demonic. Paul was also there for Sheila's murder trial and explained that Sheila didn't display any remorse and that she was arrogant, thinking she could win an appeal.

Sheila has since proclaimed her innocence and tried to appeal her conviction many times, even appearing on the podcast Snapped, where she was interviewed about her crimes. Actually, in fact, she was on the show Snapped twice. She's the only person in history that has been on that show, that TV show, twice. And by the way, just to clarify, there is a podcast called Snapped and a TV show. And she was on both. Yeah, she was on both and she was on the show twice. But get this.

In 2019, so just a few years ago, police wanted to speak with Sheila yet again, this time about her potential involvement in a third murder. Well, a second murder, but you know what I mean. She was trying to kill Paul. The third case. Yes, third case. So this was about the murder of 32-year-old New York woman Nancy Smith.

On December 5th, 2001, so 11 months before Annalisa's murder, and months after she started having an affair with Nelson, Nancy Smith's parents received a call from her work that she had not shown up that day. Now this was very unlike Nancy, so a little concerned by this, her parents drove to her home in New Windsor, New York, and discovered a gruesome scene.

Nancy was found lying on the floor of her living room and she had been stabbed, beaten and strangled to death.

Her killer then covered her deceased body with blankets and pillows. We've gone into that a lot on this show, why a killer would do that. If they know the victim or they feel guilty about it, they're trying to like cover up their body for the integrity of it all. You know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. And it's actually been said that this is something that women often do when they kill somebody.

But strangely, just like Annalise's murder, there was no sign of forced entry and it didn't appear that a robbery was a motive because nothing was taken or missing from Nancy's home. You're probably thinking, what does this have to do with Sheila Davalue? Well, investigators soon found out that Nancy was a former co-worker of Sheila's when she worked at Oxford Health and they couldn't help but see the similarities in the two cases.

Nancy worked in the medical field like Annalisa. She was stabbed numerous times in her home like Annalisa. But most of all, there was a note that investigators found in Nancy Smith's home that read, Nelson C.T.,

Now, since Nelson is not a town or city in Connecticut, many have speculated that Nelson C.T. could have meant Nelson Sessler, who lived in Connecticut. But others believe that the note was referring to a popular hair band called Nelson, and that Nancy was planning to see a show of theirs in Connecticut.

But if this was about Nelson Sessler, was it possible that he was dating another woman during this time and it angered Sheila enough to commit her first murder? Which I feel like that could be cleared up by police talking to Nelson and him saying, yes, I knew this woman. I saw her. You know, so I wonder that information has not been made public. Yeah. But I mean, they she Sheila. Yeah.

worked with Nancy. So was there another guy? You know, it just makes you think. It does. But either way, detectives felt suspicious enough of Nancy Smith's murder to at least question Sheila Davalue to see if there was, you know, a possible connection there. Well, to this day, Nancy Smith's murder has never been solved. And her case is still an active and ongoing investigation. So if you have any information about the brutal slaying of Nancy Smith...

please call the town of New Windsor Police Department at 845-565-7000. Or you can contact the anonymous tip line at 845-563-4657. And by the way, there is still a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Nancy's killer. ♪

Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening. This was a really wild one with just so many... Yeah, what a ride. Like, so many twists and turns and characters in this story. And I feel so horrible for Annalisa's family and friends because she was truly just an amazing person. I completely agree. She really was, I mean, again...

watching different videos of her and seeing pictures. She seemed so truly lovely and wonderful and did not deserve this. I just got to wonder what Nelson feels after all this. You know what I mean? Yeah. All the violence. It wasn't because of him. It's not his fault either, but all the violence that was done unto other people because of someone's obsession with him. Yeah. And you know, I was kind of starting to think after doing the research for this episode that

that, you know, what if Nelson did kind of have an inkling about something that was going? What if he did maybe know? And I know that's something that probably a lot of you guys are going to ask as well. Yeah, I feel like especially because we always say this, everybody reacts differently to bad news and to horrible situations. But it is interesting that he didn't have a big reaction after Annalise was found murdered.

So I don't know. It definitely makes you think. But either way, we know at least Sheila is an evil, evil person here. Well, if you do have some thoughts on this case, make sure that you go and talk about it over on our discussion group on Facebook. That's where we talk about all the cases that we cover. And we do pop in on Instagram and reply to you guys there as well. So, yes, would love to hear your thoughts on this one. And thank you so much for tuning in.

All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. ♪♪♪