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Mucho gusto.
Oh, yeah.
Hi friends, how are you today? Oh my God, great. I am really sweaty. I feel like a swamp monster.
And I'm here, and it's Monday. And today is Murder, Mystery, and Makeup Monday. If you're new here, hi, my name is Bailey Sarian, and I sit down on Mondays and I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my...
Noggin. And I do my makeup at the same time. If you're interested in true crime and you're like, "Hey, I kinda like makeup," I would say hit that subscribe button 'cause I'm here for you on Mondays. Let me tell you about today's story because what do we even say? Another scorned woman doing nasty woman things and being awful.
But this one had me surprised at the end. Today's story is about Stacey Ruth Daniels, who was born July 24th, 1967. Her parents were, you know, simple parents, great. She grew up in Clay, New York, which is a pretty large town.
not pretty large, but like somewhat large, predominantly white, middle-class, suburb area, just outside of Syracuse, New York. Now Stacey came from like a good family, at least it seemed, you know, based off of what I read. But growing up, it was said Stacey was really intelligent and she really, from a young age, she wanted to get into law and like she was really on her way to do so. She did well in school and like she was just really working towards that. I mean, that's always special.
I feel like. Cause law ain't easy, baby. So in 1985, when Stacey was just 17, one of her friends had introduced her to a guy named Michael Wallace. And it was said that it was love at first sight. You know, Michael was just one of those guys who he was the party. When he showed up, you knew it was going to be a good time. He was outgoing. He was very social.
And he liked to party. Some would say he partied a little too hard. But, you know, I'm not making excuses for it because it just kind of seemed like he was going through that party phase you go through when you're a teenager or like in college or whatever. I don't know. Drugs, alcohol, you're just like doing...
That seemed like he was doing that. In a later interview, Stacey said that when she first met Michael, she knew like she was going to marry him within the first couple minutes of meeting. It was just love at first sight, wasn't it? The two of them, they ended up dating for I think like two years. And then they had their first daughter, Ashley, in the year 1987. And then a year or two later...
I'm not quite sure because it just wasn't clear, but a year or two later, the couple decided to get married and they ended up getting married in Stacy's parents' home.
That's where they held the ceremony. It was cute. It was wonderful. Everyone seemed happy. And then not long after, the family of three turned into a family of four when they welcomed their second daughter, Bree, in 1991. Stacey's mom, her name was Judy, she said that her daughter, she had been like the happiest she had ever been, at least to her. She was like, wow, my daughter just...
seems to be the happiest. During this time, Stacey had worked for an ambulance dispatch company, while Michael, he worked nights as a mechanic. They were both working nonstop to make ends meet, which, obviously, very exhausting for the couple, but it's what they had to do. It's what...
A lot of people have to do, you know, especially with a growing family, all that. Now, unfortunately, because of the couple's opposite work schedules, it was causing quite a strain, you know, on the relationship and like within the home. The family all lived under the same roof.
But it really felt like everybody was just living separate lives, right? Everyone was just kind of a shadow coming and going. Sucks. And that trend also just really continued when it came down to their kids because the parents would be playing favorites, which I don't have kids. So, you know, I'm sure you guys have a favorite low key, but you don't like admit it.
Right? I don't know. Whatever. Anyways, so Bree, the youngest, she was more of a daddy's girl. And while Michael never really said it out loud, it was, you know, it was obvious to everybody. He didn't really like do a good job of hiding anything.
his favorite child. Now, Stacey noticed that her other daughter, Ashley, didn't get as much attention as Bree. So to compensate, Stacey really tried to focus her attention on Ashley, and she would also try to spend a lot of time together. And Stacey, she liked her daughter, Ashley, so much that she would even call her her best friend. That's endearing,
In a way, right? I don't know. Because you don't want your parent to be your best friend, but at the same time, I think she's just doing it because she feels bad.
But I'm not really sure. Either way, she's a shitty best friend. And you'll see why. Okay. As time went on, though, the family just started falling apart. Stacey and Michael, their marriage was really like on the verge of divorce. And the kids were divided. And there were even rumors swarming around the neighborhood that Michael and Stacey were participating in some kind of sexual affairs. I'm not sure if it was true or not, but
Stacey had gone to a friend and told her that, you know, she couldn't take it anymore. She was thinking about divorcing Michael. At this point, Michael had been drinking a lot. He was still like using drugs. And this affair was just kind of like the last straw. Fair, right? So when Stacey's having this conversation with her friend, Christmas was like right around the corner. So the friend is like, hey, why don't you just like
chill and wait until the holiday passes. And then you can move forward with the idea of divorce. You know, makes sense. Why break up the family right before the holidays? That would just, I'm sure, traumatize your kids. Maybe. I don't know. Okay. So it's late December, 1999. The family at this time still living in upstate New York and...
the winters I hear are pretty terrible. So at this time when Michael comes down with like the cough, like a fever or whatever, like no one really thinks much of it, you know? 'Cause everyone kind of gets sick around this time, but his cough ends up lasting for over six weeks, which is a little concerning,
but still not like a reason to rush to the emergency room in their eyes, you know? Not to stereotype, but it's not really that easy to get men to go to the emergency room, you know? So he's like, I'm fine.
I'll be okay. I'll walk it off. But their daughter Ashley remembered that this one afternoon where she and her dad were like hanging out in the living room and Michael, her dad, was coughing and just coughing and coughing to the point that he like puked all over the coffee table. And then he just laid on the couch trying to recover and it's really all he could do. But Ashley thought like, this is really weird. He's really sick.
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Have you heard about the 2018 study that showed half of prenatal vitamins tested had unacceptable levels of heavy metals? No? Well, now you have. I'm Kat, mother of three and founder of Ritual, the company making traceability the new standard in the supplement industry. I remember staring at my prenatal vitamins and finding all these things I was trying to avoid. High amounts of heavy metals, synthetic colorants, and unnecessary ingredients.
So, at four months pregnant, I quit my job and started Ritual because I believe that all women deserve to know what they're putting in their bodies and why. I'm so proud of our prenatal vitamin. The ingredients are 100% traceable, it's third-party tested for microbes and heavy metals, and recently received the Purity Award from the Clean Label Project. You see, we trace like a mother because, let's be honest, no one cares quite like a mother. But don't just take my word for it. Trace for yourself with
with 25% off at virtual.com slash podcast. So Christmas Eve rolls around and everyone is like getting together, coming to the table, you know, to have like dinner. Michael ends up coming to sit down and everyone had noticed like how puffy and swollen his face was. So naturally the family's like,
"What the hell? Like, stop being stubborn. You need to go see a doctor." And Michael finally agrees. So because it's the holidays, he can't get an appointment right now, but he makes one and he waits. So then on January 11th, 2000, Michael was laying on the couch while Ashley was at home hanging out with him. And she said she started to notice him acting a little funky. He was just making like weird faces and doing funny things with his arms.
Like his arms, I guess, flew up and down in the air. And then he fell down on the couch. And Ashley, who's just a tween, she didn't really think anything of it. She said she truly thought her dad was just being like, silly dad. He's just being weird and being goofy. So she didn't think anything really of it. So she leaves him on the couch because she has to go walk and pick up her younger sister from school.
And when she comes back into the living room, that's when she notices that her dad wasn't moving and she knew something was wrong. So she dialed 911. The paramedics arrived, but they were too late. Michael, at the age of 38, was dead.
38? What the hell? His body was taken to a hospital where it was then determined by the doctor that Michael had died of a heart attack. Now, Michael's sister was, I think it was his sister, but she was skeptical of a heart attack being the cause of death because to her, like, Michael was a pretty healthy guy. I mean, the only issue he ever had was like,
I think a hernia or something, but besides that, like, he was pretty healthy. And besides the weird cough, but still, overall, he was healthy. And Michael's sister just couldn't, like, believe that he could have died from a heart attack. I mean, she really wanted to have an autopsy done, but Stacy, Michael's wife, you know, she said, no, I mean, there's no reason to question the doctor's diagnosis. He, the doctor, was positive it was a heart attack, you know, so...
It must have been a heart attack. And that was that. I mean, people do have heart attacks at a young age. He was a hardworking man, you know? So obviously, Michael's death was really hard on the family. The girls losing their dad, Stacey losing her husband. Sad. You know, some time passes and Stacey, she receives Michael's life insurance policy.
which is like, I think around $50,000. And with that money, I know one thing she decides to do is take the girls on a trip to Disney World. Again, I think it's Disney World or it might've been Disneyland. Either way, she takes them to Disney and she's like, maybe I'll just lift their spirits a little, you know, something. Shit. Well, life goes on, doesn't it? So then in 2001, Stacey is like about 34. She left her job at the ambulance station
dispatch company and she got a job working as an office manager for an HVAC company. So she gets this new job. Great. Her boss at the time was like, Hey, our owner is here. Let me introduce you to him. He takes her over to the owner.
David Castor. So the owner, David, he was around 44 years old. He was tall and handsome. And you know, honestly, Stacey, she didn't hate it.
She liked it. She was enjoying what she saw. And once again, Stacey would, well, she wouldn't say, but based off of my own personal opinion, it just seemed like lust at first sight again. David and Stacey, they had connected with one another. They started talking and like David shared with Stacey that he had an older son who was grown and like moved out of the house. And Stacey shared that she had two daughters and they really connected.
and like seem to just enjoy each other's company, really. So they're connecting, they're really feeling each other, and this really leads to them having a little fling. Everybody loves love, don't they? Nobody wants to be lonely.
Okay, so they're connecting. They're having a fling. And honestly, David, he was not shy about like taking her out to nice restaurants or spoiling her with like little gifts at the office. I don't know what it is, but a gift at the office. So nice. I don't know why. So stupid. So he was just treating her like a queen. Okay. Lust was turning into love. And guess what?
The two of them go on to get married on August something of 2003. So when Stacey and David started dating so quickly after their father's death, Ashley and Bri, the kids, they were not very welcoming of this new guy, their new stepfather. He moves into the house and he came with his own set of rules that the girls had to follow.
And these girls were just not feeling it. They're teenagers. They're not feeling it. They're like, who is this new guy trying to tell us what to do? You're here, not our dad.
It's like, shit, fair. You can't tell them nothing. I guess he came in pretty strong. Demanded respect right off the bat. But there were obvious tensions growing between David and the girls. And it wasn't good. So David felt like the girls were being selfish and honestly quite disrespectful. I mean, he was the man of the house. And what he said goes. So things were just rocky within the family home right off the bat.
So it was a late Monday afternoon on August 22nd, 2005, around 2 p.m. Stacey had called the local sheriff's office to tell them that her husband, David Castor, had locked himself in their bedroom after a fight they had. And this is what she tells them. She's like, hey, hey.
i'm stacy so she says that their two-year wedding anniversary was coming up and david was thinking that he and stacy could like go on some kind of romantic getaway as one does for anniversaries sometimes you know but this getaway would just be the two of them so he goes to stacy and tells her like what he's thinking and how they should celebrate and stacy's like oh my god
I love this idea. Our family deserves all the fun it can have, you know, and she's thinking the whole family would be going. Now, I guess according to Stacey, David got a little annoyed. He's like, no, I just want it to be like the two of us. Well, Stacey was not having that and she wasn't going on the trip unless the whole family was going on the trip too. Well, according to Stacey, this ended in a just a huge fight between the two of them.
Some sources say that this fight went on for seven hours, but I need more context there because you don't just fight for seven hours. There's breaks, bathroom breaks, you get a snack. So I'm mentioning that, but I roll too, 'cause it's like, okay, whatever. So they get into this huge fight. Then she tells them that David, he was like, "You know what? I've had enough." And he grabs a bottle of alcohol. He went up to their bedroom, slammed the door, and then locked himself in the room. I mean, he was done with the argument.
No more discussion. So this happened on a Friday and Stacey told police that she hadn't seen David so angry before that night. She was like very upset. She ended up sleeping on the couch and just avoiding him for the rest of the weekend. So Stacey, she told the officers that David liked to drink like a lot. And she told them that he was probably just drunk sitting in that room,
Just drinking himself to, I'm trying to think of a word and I just went blank, to, you know, just drinking himself to fill in the blank. So one of the sergeants of the county sheriff department, they go out to the family home. Once again, Stacey tells them the whole story. And one of the sergeants goes up,
to the master bedroom and he was like okay the door is indeed shut and locked knocking on it and stacy's telling him that it's been like that for days now so the sergeant's knocking on the door doesn't get a response knocks again nothing so he then kicks down the door
you know to gain access and what he sees inside was not what anyone was expecting inside the master bedroom laying across the bed was 48 year old david laying naked across like a vomit covered bed ugh what yes right yeah crime scene photos are
Not great. I would not recommend seeing them. But it's like in crime scene photos, have you ever noticed there's never sheets on the mattress? Have you ever noticed that? No matter how nice the house is or anything, like there's never sheets on the mattress. And this is something that I've always wondered. It's not funny, but my brain has to protect myself. It's like no sheets.
What's that about? Anyways, poor David is dead. So investigators, they start looking around the room, right? And they notice that on the bedroom side table, there was a glass of cranberry juice, right? And then there was another glass that was like half full of a bright green liquid. On the floor, guess what they see? It was like slightly under the bed was an open container of antifreeze.
Yeah. And then also under the bed was a shotgun. Very mysterious items found, but officers have to go tell Stacy that her husband's dead. And as you'd expect, she's screaming, she's crying. She just cannot imagine that he killed himself. Like she just starts screaming and crying. I can't even imagine how anyone would be acting, you know? David's body is taken to a coroner
And they determined that David had committed suicide by consuming a lethal dose of antifreeze. Right? Side-eye. Sure. Officers would even go on to say that they have seen, like, many cases of different people who have committed suicide by antifreeze. Now they would go on to say, like, it's not easy. It's not short. It's definitely painful, but people have done it before. Plus, like, antifreeze is known to taste kind of good.
Don't ask me why I know this. Dude, my Google history is so messed up. It's like, is antifreeze delicious? Yes. Finding antifreeze recipes. It's not an easy death, though. Like, it's really painful. Okay, if you're going to commit suicide, like, that's, yeah, that's an option. But, like, it's weird. Because, like, right?
I have no words, but I feel like you understand. So Stacey had told officers that David had been like recently very depressed because his father had died like suddenly and he was really sad about it. So she was really worried that, you know, he might have killed himself because he was so down. That could be enough and no questions would further be asked. There was one detective who thought, hmm, that's a little sad.
it's a spesh bish there was one question lingering in his noggin you know the fact that david
would know what antifreeze was. He ran an HVAC company. He knows what antifreeze is. So killing himself by antifreeze was like an odd choice, especially because there was a shotgun underneath the bed. Not saying you should do that instead, but it's like, if you were gonna do that, why not just do it quickly? Why would you wanna do this slow, painful option, right? I'd hope.
When investigators searched the home for any other clues, they also found a few items, you know, to have like DNA and slash or fingerprint tested. The glass of antifreeze on the nightstand was dusted for fingerprints, which they discovered had three fingerprints on it. And the fingerprints were like oddly placed as if someone was holding the cup from the bottom and
the fingerprints matched Stacey's. But it wasn't like really unusual to have her fingerprints on a glass in her own home, you know? So it was kind of like, okay, that's something, but it's not everything. Now on the actual container of antifreeze, there were no fingerprints found, like none at all. In the kitchen, investigators also find a turkey baster. Now this turkey baster was found in the kitchen garbage.
Now, it might not be weird, but it was noted because, first of all, the kitchen looked like it hadn't been used for cooking recently. And second of all, that turkey baster looked brand spanking new. I mean, who's throwing away a brand new turkey baster? You get one in your life and then that's it. You have it forever, right? Never seen one thrown away before. So, okay, weird. So like they take pictures of the turkey baster in the trash and
And then it was taken to be tested for DNA or whatever, because it had a smell to it. It smelled like alcohol. And there were a few drops of liquid in it. So they want to see what that was all about. So it gets taken, it's tested. And the testing revealed that no fingerprints were on the turkey baster itself, but on the end where like the drip comes out,
Is that how you describe it? That had David's DNA on it. Now I know what you're thinking. Oh, I get it. I know what happened. Shut up. Don't ruin it because listen, be patient because there's so much more. So life is going on for poor Stacey who lost two of her husbands now.
Talk about bad luck, Stace. Stacey ended up having David buried in a plot right next to her previous husband, Michael. Yeah, she had them buried side by side. I don't know if that's weird or not, but I was like, what the fuck, girl?
What is that? But I mean, at least it limits travel time for when she does visit those graves. I think maybe that was her thought process, but that was an odd choice. So in David's will, he left everything to Stacy and her daughters and not one thing to his own grown son, David Jr. And that in itself was weird. His son...
Sadly took it as his dad like wanted nothing to do with him and didn't even try to fight it He was just like I guess my dad doesn't want anything to do with me the poor guy But uh, yeah, he didn't see it as worth a fight which good for him I mean not really but like some people just fight and fight and it's like is it worth it? I don't know actually don't listen to me. So since everything was left to Stacy She ended up taking over the HVAC business, you know David's business and things were slowly getting back to normal I guess
Well, there was this one detective. His name was Detective Spinelli, which, side note, I know, wasn't that the girl's name on that cartoon recess, Spinelli? Anyways, this detective, he was smelling something funky going on. I mean, he deep inside believed that David's death was not a suicide, but maybe a murder. So he's like, you know what? I'm gonna do some digging on my own time.
And I love that, right? And that's when he decides, you know what, who I should reach out to first? I should reach out to Stacy's first husband, Michael. You know, maybe he can give me some answers. And that's when he finds out that he can't because Michael, too, is dead. Ooh.
You're in trouble. So Detective Spinelli, he reached out to investigators who handled Michael Wallace's death. And that's when he realized there were a lot of similarities going on. A surprising out of nowhere death to both of these men. So this detective is like,
This bish. I mean, did she kill her husband? Now, because there was no autopsy report for Michael, the only way they could like dig a little deeper into this theory was by exhuming Michael's body and actually like, you know, do an autopsy on him. So they exhume Michael's body. They get a toxicology report after they exhume his body. And when it comes back, it tested positive for a presence of antifreeze in the body.
Yeah, in Michael's body, the first husband. I'm noticing a theme here, right? You see, antifreeze poisoning can be identified within the body by the growth of calcium oxalate crystals. And this happens within the kidneys. And these crystals were found in not only Michael's body, but also in David's body. Aha, right? Stacey. What are you doing, girl? So...
The detective orders his team to have Stacy's house wiretapped. Now they wanted to listen to any phone calls made from within the home, any unusual conversations, you know, all that. He also ordered for the team to set up cameras that were facing towards Stacy's home and also at the grave sites of both Michael and David. I mean, they were really hoping to catch any
odd or unusual behavior on her end, right? And they didn't, it's not funny. They didn't catch anything unusual other than the fact that Stacey never visited their graves. This fucking bitch, right? She put them next to each other. At least pretend, bitch.
Like, damn, she couldn't even go once? So then, on September 7th of like 2007, so that's quite some time, Scott and Pi, Stacey was brought in for questioning. Now, the investigators were asking her, they were showing her a picture of the nightstand. Do you remember which glass it was that you poured the cranberry juice in? And she looks at the photographs of the glasses, and she responded with, this is a quote, well, I poured the antifree-
I mean... And then she stopped and said, I mean, I mean the cranberry juice. Like we're in a Scooby-Doo show. She had a slip up, you know? I just...
She did that. She said that. That's what she said. Naturally, because the detective isn't an idiot, he picked up on that and he called her on it. He's like, what'd you just say? The antifree? Stacey in return accused them of trying to frame her and she demanded the interview be stopped and she told them, I'm not answering any more questions.
She got up, she was about to leave the room and she looked at their stack of photographs the detective had, right? And she saw one photograph on his pile of papers and it was an image of the turkey baster from her trash can. And before leaving the room, she looks and she's like, what do you have that for? What's that for? Like just in a really aggressive way. She's like, what is that?
But in response, the detective said, like, are you answering questions or not? Like, he was a sassy bitch and I was here for it. Obviously, she stormed out, but she was very upset about something. Police kept their eyes on the cameras and the wiretap at the family home. And Stacey was making a round of phone calls to friends. And she was just, like, going on and on, like, I can't believe they think I'm involved. I can't believe they think I did this. I'm just shocked.
I don't know what to do. Like, why would they blame me? No, she was just complaining on all the phone calls. Like, how could they even think this? Why would they even think this? I'm a victim. And her friends were like, I don't know, Stace. Like, just play it cool, girl. Everything's going to be fine, girl. I believe you. Well, investigators decide to question Stacey's daughters.
So they end up locating Ashley, remember the oldest daughter, they end up locating her and ask if they can, you know, ask a few questions about her relationship with her mother and father. And if she noticed anything unusual with Michael's death.
Her biological father. She's like, no, like nothing at all. Like, why would you even think that? She was becoming pretty defensive, which is understandable because like, why are they questioning her out of nowhere? And she just felt like it was straight up disrespectful that the authorities are even asking her anything like this. But also she was upset because they had located and questioned her on her first day of college. It's like her first day of school at a new college. And they find her, stop her and question her like in the...
In front of, hello, you know, like that's embarrassing. So she was not really open to answering questions. As soon as the authorities left though, the first thing she did, she picked up her phone and she called her mom, Stacy. And she tells her mom, she's like, look, mom, the authorities, like you can tell she's very shaken up and upset.
Sad. Just, you know when you're like so irritated and annoyed that you start crying? It's like that. Like she's crying, but like you could tell she's just, anyways. So she's telling her mom, she's like, they came to my school. They questioned me. Like, how could they do this? And Stacey's on the other end like, what? Oh my gosh.
She's just all like shocked that this would even happen. So Ashley is just on the phone venting to her mom, all upset, all frustrated. And her mom says, you know what, sweetie? Sweetie, you know what? Look, just come home. We've both had a rough week. Let's both just like get drunk. This is what her mom says to Ashley, her daughter. In later interviews, she says, she was like, oh, cool. Oh, cool. Yeah. Like,
She low-key thought it was awesome that her mom was giving her permission to have some alcohol with her.
She's still a teenager at this point or like not legal to drink. So it was you know, pretty cool She's like, oh cool. I'm gonna go drink with my mom. So she ends up going back to her mom's house She has a couple I think maybe just one adult beverage with her and then she ends up passing out at home and then she wakes up the next morning with like a full-on hangover not fun, but it happens when you drink right so Stacy goes to school the next day and her mom calls her again
Stacey calls to invite her daughter back over. "Come over and have a drink with me again. You know, it's time to relax, let some steam off. Maybe we can have a little drink for your birthday that's coming up, a pre-birthday cocktail." And Ashley, once again, is like, "Okay." It's her mom.
That's her best friend. So when Ashley gets to her mom's house, the first thing Stacey does is offer her a drink. Ashley said when she took a sip of that drink, it was really nasty tasting, you know? But she held on to it. She didn't want to be rude. But she's like, I'm not going to keep drinking this. It tastes like crap. So Stacey's like, what's wrong? You don't like your drink? And Ashley's like, oh, it just doesn't taste very good. And Stacey's trying to tell Ashley, you know, like, that's alcohol. It tastes like shit. So if
You do this and Stacey kind of shows her daughter a trick with a straw. You know when you get liquid in the straw and then you pour it in your mouth? She was doing that to get the drink to the back of her throat so she could swallow it, which would then get her drunk without having to taste the alcohol. And she's like, oh, cool, mom. Thanks. So Ashley ends up drinking it like that. And she continues drinking because again,
Why not? It's her mom. Okay? It's her best friend. It was cool to hang out with her and act like an adult with her, right? Now, this is the part that shook me to my core. Bitch.
Bitch. Because 17 hours go by and her younger sister, Bree, came into Ashley's room where she had knocked out for the night. She tries to wake up her sister and instead Ashley was unresponsive. So Bree is yelling for her mom, you know, Stacey. She's yelling at her, call 911, call 911. So Stacey made the call and told the dispatcher that Ashley was unresponsive, that she thought
her daughter was having trouble breathing and also that she believed her daughter had taken like a bunch of pills. She then is on the phone with a dispatcher and she's like,
You can hear it in the recording. She's like, "She drank an entire bottle of vodka. Oh, Ashley, why?" I hate to judge, but it's kind of calm for someone whose daughter is like dying right there, you know? But then again, Stacey has seen a lot of deaths at this point. Brie runs out of Ashley's room. They make the phone call to 911. Brie runs back to Stacey's room and comes across a suicide letter. Oh yeah. And it was not far from Ashley.
Now, this letter or note was typed. It was very long. There were no periods or punctuation at all. So it's just one like run-on sentence. But while reading the letter, it appeared to be Ashley's quote unquote murder confession. In this letter, Ashley allegedly admitted to having killed her father and stepfather by putting antifreeze in both of their drinks and also said that she gave Michael rat poison to quote finish the job.
which there was actually rat poison found in Michael's autopsy report. So, and like that was a public knowledge. In the letter, she also mentioned killing herself, killing her stepdad and her real dad and said she did it for quote, for her mother, end quote. In the end, it said, quote, now everyone is going to know what really happened and they know it wasn't you, it was me. Please,
Please don't hate me. Remember, I love you." Well, the ambulance and all that arrived and they rushed Ashley to the hospital and it was like a pretty close call, but she ends up surviving miraculously. They ran some tests on her and they revealed that there was a potentially fatal amount of painkillers in Ashley's system. And if the paramedics arrived like
Any minute later, she most likely could have died. So time passes, Ashley wakes up and she's all sorts of confused, okay? She tells investigators she has no idea what happened to her. She has little to no memory about the night before.
police when they did come in to question her. She said the last thing that she remembered was her mom giving her a drink. And then they mentioned like, do you remember writing a suicide letter? She had no idea what they were talking about. And she also told the officers that she didn't, she never wrote a suicide note.
She's like, "I have no idea what you're talking about." This was all they needed, investigators. They're like, "Stacey's our bitch. She just, I think she just tried to kill her daughter." Lucky for them, they wouldn't have to go far to find Stacey. She was right outside the door smoking. And they placed her under arrest for the murder of David Castor and for attempting to murder Ashley and framing her for the murders of David and Michael.
Yeah, this is a lot. Stacey was shocked. She's like, "Oh my God, you guys got this all wrong. I am innocent. Please." Naturally, Stacey pled not guilty, telling everyone, literally everyone who interviewed her or anything that it was her daughter Ashley who killed everyone. She's like, "Hello, the letter. Could you imagine?" She's literally blaming her daughter. This is where I was like, "What? Huh? What now? She's blaming her daughter?"
This is new. So Stacey's in jail awaiting for her trial, right? She's claiming to be innocent. So Stacey's team, they hire private investigators to try and find the connection to Ashley, try to find the Ashley connection to the murders. So one thing they found was a letter. It was like an old letter to Ashley's boyfriend, both teenagers at the time, saying that she was going to kill herself. But that was like the only evidence they found. And to many, it gave that
dramatic teenager vibe. You know what I'm saying? When you're a dramatic teen, you're like, I don't want to die. It was giving back.
Either way, the defense saw this as they're like, gotcha, see? Gotcha. She wanted to die, everybody. But it didn't make a lot of sense that Ashley would have killed her father because at the time of his death, she was only 12 years old. So if she did do it, she would have to know at 12 years old about antifreeze and also rat poison and stuff. So it was kind of like, what kind of 12-year-old knows that?
Before the internet and all that, you guys. I mean, the internet was like still pretty new, but like still, you know? So prosecutors, they argued that the typed suicide note where Ashley quote unquote confesses to killing her father and stepfather was actually written by Stacey and not Ashley. On top of that, prosecutors found several drafts of Ashley's suicide note on Instagram.
Stacey's computer. Now ain't that some shit? I know this story is awful and bad but the part that's just like blowing my mind still is the fact that this is her daughter. She's blaming her daughter. She tried to kill her daughter. Do you understand? She tried to kill her daughter and blame it on her.
I just can't. I still cannot. I just want to punch this lady in the face. Like, what are you doing, lady? You could blame anyone else. You're not going to get away from it. But like, literally, you could blame anybody else. But you blame your own kid? Your favorite kid? Your best friend?
There's some sickos out there. Sometimes they're your own mother. Oh, that's so scary. Forensic investigators noted that the timestamps of the documents themselves had been written/typed when Ashley was in school. Thank you for a timestamp, right? There was no way she could have typed it up. She's in school, okay? Plus, remember the wiretap recordings?
that the police had set up from Stacey's home? Well, this was all like, is this speculation? I'm not sure. But like, listen. In court, they play this one phone call that had taken place around the same time that the suicide letter was being typed up. Stacey made a phone call.
that was recording through the wiretap while it's believed the suicide letter was being written or typed up. It was Stacy, she's on the phone talking to a friend, which mind you, side note, she was dating a new dude. Yeah, she was already dating a new dude and they're talking on the phone like, "Mmm, babe, I can't wait to see you. Oh, what do you want me to wear? Oh." She's got beer flavored nipples or something, you know what I'm saying? Anyways, but on this call, you could hear in the background typing noises.
And like, so they play it in court and they're like, what are you typing around this exact timestamp that the suicide letter was typed up? Can you let us know? She's like, I don't know. I wasn't typing. She was just being a little shit on the stand. I don't know anything. I know nothing. I didn't do it. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Prosecution argued that Stacey was writing one of the drafts of Ashley's suicide note during the call. The note itself contained Stacey's fingerprints.
fingerprints on it, but not a single print of Ashley's was on the page. Now that's a little funky, ain't it? Sure we could all agree. Prosecutors, they were out to prove that Ashley's suicide attempt, quote unquote, was actually another murder planned by Stacey. Prosecutors believe Stacey saw the evidence of her two husband's murders on
You know, they're starting to stack up. And she's like, oh, fuck. And like when she learned that the police had exhumed her first husband's body and she found out that they found traces of antifreeze in his system, she most likely panicked and realized she needed to come up with a plan to protect herself. So she comes up with this one.
Wow. So Ashley ends up in court. She ends up taking the stand and she recounted how her mother had convinced her to drink the two nights before she almost died. And the only reason she drank the quote, quote, nasty tasting drink was because she trusted her mom. It was her best friend. There was a lot of things presented in court that still like didn't make sense and didn't have clear answers to like the glass that was found next to David, uh,
on the nightstand was missing his fingerprints, right? Also how the turkey baster that they found in the kitchen trash had both David's DNA and traces of antifreeze on it. And the DNA on the turkey baster and the lack of David's fingerprints on the glass suggested that David was force fed antifreeze, you know, rather than like willingly take it. You know, it's all just...
What's it called? Speculation, theories, ideas. I think we can all get behind it. So prosecutors presented a timeline that suggested Stacey had been feeding her husband the antifreeze with the turkey baster for four days in order to make it look like a suicide. So she was like squirting it in there, you know, most likely wearing gloves. Stacey countered the argument claiming David got the idea to commit suicide.
wait for this. She said David got the idea to commit suicide by antifreeze while they were both watching some kind of like dateline situation about Lynn Turner. Do you know about Lynn Turner? Ouch. Let me tell you about Lynn Turner. Miss Lynn Turner over here, she got the nickname the Black Widow, which I find like a lot of killers and stuff kind of get that title, don't they? So Lynn Turner, she got the nickname Black Widow because she murdered
two past lovers by using antifreeze. This dumb bitch. She's like, yeah, that's how he got the idea from a woman, the black widow. He's like, that looks fun. I'm going to do that. Yeah, that's what he said. This is what she's running with. Mm-mm. Mm-mm. Like, what do you even say? Um,
Okay, I'm sure you were watching that, Stacey, but all right. So prosecutors believed one of the main motives was money. You know, it always seems to be money, doesn't it? So they believe that, you know, Stacey murdered her husband's
to collect their life insurance and like their estates. Michael's death, Stacey got 50K, 50 to 55,000. Stacey also had David's will changed to exclude his son from a previous marriage, leaving her $300,000 as the sole beneficiary. And David, he was pretty well off. Like he had motorcycles, jet skis, snowmobiles,
a house, a business, and all of that went to Stacey. So could be a good motive, right? Stacey's defense team had the task of creating reasonable doubt. Doubt. I don't know why I said it like that. I'm feeling saucy today. So they tried to make it seem that even at the age of 12, young Ashley still
could have killed her father. They said her motive for killing him was the fact that she was jealous of the favoritism he showed her younger sister Bree over her. That's why she did it. The defense team noted that Ashley and David's
Their relationship was, you know, rocky, and how it was no secret the two did not get along. I mean, the defense was pretty convincing. They even had Stacey's mother, Judy, the girl's grandma, believing that her granddaughter had committed the murders. Could you imagine your teenage self...
Angry diary being like taken into court and read. You know when you're a teenager you're so angsty and just mad at everyone and everything and you say the stupidest shit sometimes. I know in my diary I was like, I'm gonna fucking...
die and I hate everyone. And if that ever got read in court, I would just cry and shit my pants. But they were using this as like gospel, like her teenage notes and shit. So many felt like there were many flaws in Stacey's version of the night. Stacey had claimed that it was her daughter, Ashley, who had murdered both her husband's
And while she couldn't prove any type of motive for her daughter's actions, she implied it was probably because her daughter was mentally ill. And then the prosecutors also pointed out the impossible coincidence that Ashley confessed to the murder when David's death was ruled a suicide. Does that make sense? Because at first it didn't click for me. Because David's death was ruled a suicide, so why would she say it was murder? You know?
Does that make sense? The prosecutor said something in court like, "Isn't it an amazing coincidence that a guy who was thinking about suicide is being murdered at the same time?" Stacy, anything to say? And Stacy's just like, "I don't know. I don't know. I don't know." She didn't know anything. What did she-- It's like, girl, what do you know at this point? Do you know your name, for Christ's sakes? She knew.
She knew. Don't lie, girl. I was kind of shooketh that Stacey even took the stand in the first place, you know, in her own defense. And she still pointed the finger at her daughter, Ashley. And it's like her daughter was right there in the court.
Could you imagine the betrayal, the hurt, the feelings you would have? Oh my god, that would be just… I just couldn't imagine. Anyways, many were kind of believing Stacey's side of the story, but all evidence was pointing to fucking Stacey, okay? Listen.
If you don't think it's Stacey, then you're an idiot. Anyways, but on February 5th, 2009, the jury found Stacey guilty of second degree murder in the poisoning death of David Castor and of attempted second degree murder for overdosing her daughter, Ashley, with vodka and drugs. I mean, thank God Stacey was found guilty, but...
Her poor daughters, they don't have fathers or a fucking mom 'cause their mom is a piece of shit. Anyway, so Ashley, she ended up giving a statement at the end going on to say that like she never knew what hate was until now. She was like, "I still love her, but at the same time, like I hate her and it's just so confusing." And in the end, all she wanted was for her mom to say sorry for everything she did, including all of the lies, but Stacey never did.
It was really sad. I mean, the fact that like Ashley was giving this really touching statement to the court, like talking directly to her mom, her mom wouldn't even look at her. Didn't even like even address her own daughter. It just, I still can't get over that. I still can't get over that. Can't believe she's that heartless.
That's so sad. So the judge told Stacey that he had never before seen a parent attempt to murder their child in order to set their child up for a crime they themselves committed. I mean, it was really mind blowing, right? But in the end, Stacey was sentenced to 25 years to life for the murder of David and an additional 25 years to life for the attempted murder of Ashley. So when Stacey was sentenced,
She was 41 at the time, so pretty much it was like a rest of her life sentence. You know? Stacey was placed in Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in Bedford Hills, New York, and her earliest possible release date is June 15th, 2055. And that would be like just after her 88th birthday, June, July.
When's her birthday? July? June. I can't remember, but it'd be around then. But guess what? In 2009, you know, good old 2020 came through. They did a story on this case and they were even able to interview Stacey. During the interview, Stacey even went on to say, Ashley brought this on. Ashley really knows what happened. Yeah. She's still, still. And I was like, girl, what the fuck?
but stacy said she felt bad for her younger daughter brie saying that she was the innocent victim in all of it don't you just want to slap this woman in the face punch her give her a nosebleed something like what anyways after the trial neither of their daughters spoke to their mom again neither of them spoke to their mom again
That was just it. All they wanted was an apology and they never got one. Isn't that awful? In 2010, it was confirmed that there was an investigation going into the death of Stacey's father. His name was Jerry Daniels. So he died in 2002 and Stacey's father, Jerry, had been hospitalized for some kind of lung ailment.
and was on the road to recovery. Like he was even scheduled to be released in a couple of days, right? So Stacey, she had come by to visit him in the hospital on February 26th of 2002. And it was reported when Stacey came, she brought like a drink for him. And they believe when she came in, the can was open. And the very next day, Jerry suddenly died.
Yeah. What the fuck? After his death, Stacey became the executor of his estate, and she also made sure her father's remains were cremated. Can you believe that? Now, I was trying to figure out if this case was still open or closed. I couldn't find anything. Plus, I don't know. Because, listen, June 11th, 2016, only seven years into her sentence, seven years...
Stacey was found dead in her jail cell at the age of 48. It was later determined she died of a heart attack with no evidence of suicide or of foul play. Life will get you, huh? It's kind of bittersweet, but at the same time, I want her to live forever just in jail because I feel like that's like torture. And you would hope
One day she would apologize to her kids because she died. The kids never got an apology. I don't know if they would ever get one because it seems like this Stacey is a fucking loon. It's really sad. I feel really bad for the kids. I mean, they're grown now. I hope they're doing well.
and not giving up because that's exactly what their mom would want. You know what I'm saying? Lifetime ended up doing like a movie about this story as well. It was called "Poisoned Love: The Stacey Castor Story." It's on my to watch list, but do I need to watch it at this point? I don't know. You can also watch the court trial of Stacey and all that, like her on the stand, which is interesting to watch because she just, she just lies.
Ah, that my friends is the story about Stacey Castor. I don't know what to call her, an actual demon. I've heard this story before, but when I was actually kind of digging more into it, it just really sucked because I was like, damn, she really blamed her own kid and then tried to kill her kid.
Oh my God, could you? I cannot imagine this. I cannot imagine this ever happening. And it did. It was like sickening. Ew. I'm glad she's dead. I'm sorry I said it. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. What did I say? Have a good day and make good choices. But other than that, I'll be seeing you guys later. Goodbye. Bye.