87. Micaela Costanzo - The Wendover Slaying
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And don't forget to use code MWMH for 15% off your first purchase. Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. We just want to say a big thank you to everyone who supported us by purchasing our merch last week. Honestly, it's insane. Like it went better than I could have even expected. I just can't believe that there's that many people that want to wear this with us. I mean, we love it obviously, but...

I just can't believe it. So we just want to say thank you so much for loving us and supporting us and wanting to be a part of this community. With that being said, we do just want to remind everyone that this week there will be a bonus episode on Patreon. They've actually like gotten extra episodes every week this month. So if you want to check that out and support us, it's patreon.com slash murder with my husband. And also all the Patreon content is also ad free.

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I don't even know where to start, but long story short, do I tell the long story or the short version? Whatever you want. It's your 10 seconds.

Okay, well long story short we found out that someone on Twitch if you guys don't know what twitch is just type it in Google you can look it up but someone on Twitch would stream our podcast our YouTube videos and then react to them while other people are watching at the same time so I'm hoping that's making sense to everybody if they don't know what twitch is if you do know what twitch is and you'll completely understand anyway, so Peyton and I found this and there's actually quite a few people that watch it while

While someone named Boof Pack streams it. Shout out to Boof Pack. So we found him and I went on and joined the stream and was talking to everybody. And it was freaking awesome. So shout out to Boof Pack and everyone else that was also watching at the same time. And if you want to look it up, you can type in Boof Pack. It's B-O-O-F-P-A-C-K-K.

And also it's every Monday. So it's when our YouTube videos come out. He streams for like four or five hours. Yeah. And it's actually really just like a fan page for Garrett. So if the reason you're listening to this podcast is for Garrett, which I completely understand you guys, I'm obsessed with him too. Then go watch there because they, they just rally for Garrett over there. It was really fun to watch. All right, let's get into the story. So our case begins this week in Wendover, Nevada.

And Wendover actually borders Utah, Nevada, and it's a small hub of Little Vegas. There are casinos and gambling. The Bonneville Salt Flats are also there. And then there's also like a little strip. And it's a desert area, right? So, I mean, there's not a lot out there. A lot of dirt, though. So Wendover also might be known for its large neon cowboy named Wendover Will, who is this big...

Yes.

16 year old, Micaela Costanzo is just finishing track practice and she is helping clean up equipment and she's actually excelling pretty well in track. She's kind of a track star, if you will, in the area. Micaela actually goes by Mickey, which is what we will call her for the rest of the episode.

Mickey not only excelled in track, but she also excelled in school. She loved poetry and learning. Mickey was the youngest of three girls. Her and her middle sister, DJ, were best friends and inseparable. They played sports together, and they also hung out with the same friends.

And kind of the gist I was getting through listening to the family talk about her was that her and her two other sisters and her mom were close. Like they were, they all got along very well. They were very close. They were each other's lives and her and DJ were especially close. And I always think it's super special when siblings,

are good enough friends that they're able to share friends at school. Like I always thought that was cool. So I think that's kind of the situation here. And also Mickey was very pretty and she was popular at school. She really just had everything going for her. So after this specific practice, Mickey was planning on walking home. It was only about a mile from the high school to her house. And although she is a runner, Mickey normally would be picked up by her older sister, Christina and driven home and

But this specific day, her sister was out of town, which meant Mickey would then have to take the short trek home after practice alone. Mickey was a junior at school at the time, and her mother, Celia, describes her as extremely reliable and mature. She was responsible, consistently checking in with her mom, never really causing problems. So this short walk home really wouldn't be that big of a deal.

Celia actually describes Mickey as the teenager most parents would want. She was born happy. She was always positive, finding the good in life and extremely responsible. They had a great relationship. So this day, March 3rd, 2011, when Celia did not receive a check-in call or text from Mickey when track practice ended or when she made it home,

She was a little alarmed. She called her daughter, but the phone just rang and rang even more concerned. She dialed back once again, but this time the phone rang once and then went to voicemail. Mickey had ignored the call. So silly is extremely confused. This is not like Mickey. This is not like her daughter. They just, they didn't do this. So you decided to call Christina, the older daughter who would normally pick her up from school.

Christina was in Las Vegas at the time, but she needed to know if maybe she had heard from her sister since practice ended. Christina's like, no, but mom, you need to calm down. Like it's okay. And no find my friends. So I don't think she had find my friends or find my iPhone because it wasn't brought up in the case.

Got it. So Christina, her sister says, no, obviously, like I said, um, and she explains that Mickey might just be missing the calls. Like maybe they were missing each other. Everything was okay. But Celia, her mom was still worried. So Christina promised to hang up with her mom and try to get ahold of Mickey herself in order to calm her mom's nerves. She wasn't really worried, but she's like, mom's nervous. So I'll, I'll try. Um,

So she dials the number, but once again, it rings and rings and rings. Mickey does not answer the phone. So Christina is a little stumped, but wonders if, you know, just maybe Mickey is finally being a normal teenager, like hanging out with friends and doing what she wants without having to be responsible and tell her mom all the time. Despite these excuses, no one really seemed to know where Mickey was, though. So Celia decides to leave work early and rush home.

maybe she would spot Mickey while driving through the town or just arrive home to their apartment to see that, you know, she was too wrapped up in homework to see the calls or, you know, maybe it was all a misunderstanding or something. It's kind of scary because I think growing up, you think, oh, it's never going to happen to me. You always, I've heard people say that. Like this, like,

You're almost in denial like this stuff doesn't happen, but it does it really does happen and it just happens to Everybody you're not gonna happen. Yeah, correct Yeah, so when Celia pulls into the house and makes her way inside only DJ is alone at the house her other daughter and she too had no idea where Mickey was and

DJ, immediately understanding the seriousness of the situation, begins calling everyone she knows. Her friends, Mickey's friends, who knew where she was, who was the last to see her today. And as words spread from Mickey's family to Mickey's friends, to the local high school students, and then to their families, panic began to set in when no one had heard or seen from Mickey.

a group of around 90 people made their way out to the local high school to look around for the missing teenager before Celia could even make the terrifying decision to call the cops.

And I've said it once, but I'll say it again for every victim's family whose loved one goes missing. That gut wrenching realization that authorities need to be contacted is like a fear we will never be able to understand. Agreed. So police ask Celia the basics. Like when was Mickey last seen? Had she reached out at all to any of her friends? Had she checked into the places she would usually be?

- Cameras, where's the cameras? Come on, it's gotta be cameras. - Jumping ahead. So Celia informs them like, "Yes, I have taken all the measures that I possibly could before calling you guys. In fact, over 90 people are already out searching for my daughter. Like you really were our last resort." When police hear this, they immediately realize something is definitely wrong. If this many people were already aware of her absence and they still hadn't found her, it doesn't look good.

Because normally if it's like a teenage runaway, someone somewhere knows something. Yes. And so it just takes a little bit of digging and then police are like, okay, now we figured out where they are. And so how far was the school? How was this? How far was this walk again? Only a mile. A mile. Okay. Yeah. And she's a track runner. Isn't that like two feet in there? So in the mile, does that include like going through her neighborhood and everything as well? I'm sure. Yes. Like a mile using like sidewalks is what I'm assuming. So it's really not that far. Mm-mm.

So although the local Wendover police department was small, detective Donald Burnham was placed on the case and insured an immediate investigation. There is no point in waiting, he says, because the longer you wait in a missing persons case, the harder it is to find them. So at this point, it's now been hours since Mickey was supposed to be home. It's now dark outside. It's getting colder. And Celia really feels like something is wrong.

DJ keeps calling Mickey's phone, leaving messages, telling her sister that this isn't funny, that she needs to come home. Wherever she is, she needs to come home. And the phone's still ringing? Yes. Are the calls being ignored still? No, that only happened once. Now it's just ringing. Interesting. Christina, her older sister in Las Vegas, has decided that it's time to cut her trip with her husband short and head home.

She originally thought maybe Mickey was just rebelling, but not anymore. It's been 12 hours since Mickey went missing and they have nothing to show for it other than the searches that are happening. It's morning time now and over 135 people are out searching for Mickey. Holy crap. And the media has gotten a hold of this story. The morning news is all about Mickey, the missing like local high school students.

Knowing they need more, police begin working on Mickey's cell phone records. It's newer technology, but it might be the best way to track the 16-year-old girl, or at least hint to her last known activity or whereabouts or who she was talking to. And meanwhile, they also begin bringing in anybody involved heavily in Mickey's life to be interviewed, including her boyfriend, Javier.

Now, Javier tells police that Mickey had been acting normal lately. And he also tells them that Mickey was just not the type of girl to run away. That anytime something had ever bothered her, she faced things head on. She never tried to hide or run from problems. That just wasn't her. So this really didn't make sense.

The first thing police discover after accessing Mickey's phone records is that all activity calls and texts from her phone had been basically rapid fire until 5 p.m. the day before when all of it just abruptly stopped.

So what do you mean rapid fire? Like she was sending lots of messages. Yes. It was very active. She was texting people, calling people. And just stopped. I think like normal teenage cell phone usage. 5 p.m. the day before? Like, no, the day that she went missing. But now we are in the next day. So yes, the day before. And what time did she get out of track again? Around 5, like 5.

Oh, yeah. Cause school ended around three. Then she had track practice. So around five, five 30, somewhere around there. Okay. Which I mean, that makes sense though. Right. She was at track. She was probably not using her phone. Yes. So she wasn't going to be using her phone. Yeah. But then all of a sudden it stops. Okay.

So they checked the call logs first on Mickey's phone and on Mickey's phone records. They don't have Mickey's phone. This is, they're going through like Verizon or whoever, and they noticed something strange. Besides all the calls her friends and family had been attempting to make to her phone in an effort to find her, there had been one specific number that called Mickey several times just before all of this stuff stops. Oh man.

And the phone number belonged to a boy named Cody Patton. Now, Cody Patton is not her boyfriend, remember, but he is one of Mickey's oldest friends. They grew up together. They had never actually dated considering that Mickey wasn't allowed to date until she was 16, but they might have had crushes on each other growing up, puppy love type thing. Cody was 18 currently, so he was one grade higher than her in school. He was a senior at Mickey's school.

He was a football player and had once lived in the same apartment complex as Mickey, which was how they had met when they were really young. But Cody was engaged now.

and living in his fiance's parents' house. Wait, he's engaged as a senior in high school? Yes. Can you imagine being engaged in high school? I know it really works for some people, but it couldn't have been me. Yeah. So when police discover that Cody and Mickey had been in heavy contact right before she went missing, they bring him in for questioning as well. He tells police that he had last seen Mickey the day before around 5.30 in front of the school after her track practice. Okay.

He tells them that Mickey was standing in front of the school with somebody, somebody who at the time he assumed to be her boyfriend, Javier, but now he wasn't sure. And police are annoyed that he's not sure, but they also understand that Cody, they're annoyed. Yeah. But they understand that Cody had been awake all night searching for Mickey. Like he had, he hadn't slept.

Because she had gone missing the day before and he had been part of those 90 to 135 people. So they're like, maybe his memory is cloudy. He seems tired. He can't stop yawning. Like, you know, maybe it's just not the best time to be interviewing him. Have they still not looked at the school cameras? So you're holding out on me. I know you're holding out on me. It's okay. All right. Keep going. We'll get there. We'll come back.

You know, I lay out these timelines really well for this case. And when you jump ahead, it just makes my brain scramble. So as police are trying their best to investigate Mickey's life, Mickey's friends and family are still out searching for her. And despite their efforts to remain positive, DJ Christina and Celia truly feel on day two that something really bad had happened and they

they come to the understanding, the agreement between the three of them that they probably wouldn't see Mickey again in the way that they wanted to. And people try to tell them to shake off those feelings and remain hopeful. Like we're all out searching, but they just had that feeling in their gut. They're her family. They're the people who are closest to her. They just devastatingly knew Celia, Christina, DJ and Mickey were close. They loved each other. They had that bond and you can't argue with that.

And with all of this, minutes turned to hours and turned to days, and day three quickly approached. 36 hours since 16-year-old Mickey had disappeared after school. Search teams had now moved from Wendover, the small city, into Wendover, the vast Nevada desert. That's the crazy thing is Wendover is not this big.

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I think that this is something we have to discuss in this case because it's your best hope here that she is in the city because once you get out of the main area, you are in miles and miles of desert. Yes. Like think about Nevada.

you are in miles and miles of places to hide a body where it will never be found. There's just not enough manpower to search the ground. So this shift over from searching in places people might see her to the empty basin of desert that extends over 180,000 square miles was another big blow to Mickey's family. But Saturday morning, a search out in the middle of nowhere produces a possible clue.

It might be nothing. It might be something. Tire tracks that veer off the dirt road and into the desert near an area that they refer to as the gravel pits. Thoughts are, who would need to drive out here unless they were looking to do something that they didn't want anyone else to see? That's what the local people use this place for. So they thought, okay, it's definitely worth checking out. So the search crews follow the tire tracks and

and they notice disturbed sagebrush as they go, but it's not until they notice what appears to be blood near some of the sagebrush that they freeze in their tracks. They're like, okay. And they decide to call the police to let them finish the search. I mean, who willingly wants to keep going once you've seen blood, right? It's hard because at that point you're

You're thinking instantly it's, it's a body, it's human blood, but there's also a really good chance it could have been from an animal. It could be like coyote blood or something. Anything. Yep. So police arrived to the specific area and they bring a camera to video record as they check out the bloody ground that the searchers had like warned them about. And I mean, this is really great prep for a crime scene and trial because the first time they're coming across this blood, they're videoing it. And

And I actually saw the footage on the Dateline episode that was covering this case called Under the Desert Sky. But essentially in the footage, police begin lightly digging around the area of the blood and then they kind of abruptly stop.

And you can't really see anything, but you do figure out that they conclude that they have uncovered what they believe to be like a human body. It's not a full human body. - What? - It's just like human body parts that they're like, okay, we're gonna stop digging. There's obviously something here. - That fast? - That fast. - Oh my gosh, no way. - You can see in the footage, they're barely brushing. Like when I say digging, they're not with like shovels. It's kind of like, think of someone digging for fossils. That's what it's like.

And so they leave the area and they call in a crime unit to like professionally exhume the area. The problem is the closest crime unit is in Reno, which is nine hours away. Holy crap. Yeah. So police seal off the area with crime scene tape and they just begin waiting. Yeah.

Meanwhile, Christina, her oldest sister, was still out driving around from the night before and had made her way out to this search area. I mean, there's different searches going on. And she noticed the unmarked police cars. She noticed the attention this specific search area was getting versus the others.

And so scared, she rushes home, picks up her mom and drives to the police station. They had to know what was going on out at that area. The chief tells them that they believe they found a body. And so they are calling off all the rest of the searches.

And Christina is like, well, why are you calling off the rest of the searches? You don't even like, do you know that the body is Mickey? Like, why would you stop? And he says, well, we don't know. Um, so we're going to be bringing in the professionals just to be safe. And so she's like, so it might not be her. That's what Christina asks with a little bit of hope. And the sheriff looks at her and says, well,

Well, Mickey is the only one missing. Yeah. So it is most likely her. And this is so much to fathom here. But after being told that the Reno forensics wouldn't be there until the next morning, Mickey's family felt betrayed that their loved one would be out in the dark alone for another night. Yeah.

That's hard. That's rough. It's rough. And so I just want to point out that this is something as we, as the public, don't think about when we hear these cases, like not purposely, but just for lack of an experience, we don't realize that every decision hurts. Every aspect matters for the victim's families.

And this is not just a body that they've possibly found in the ground. This is a loved one, right? So police assure the family that they will sit out there all night for as long as it takes so that she's not sitting out there alone. And so that's what they do. They sit out there all night with the body. And this is what you have to do for victims and their families. This is how every victim should be treated. I really hope it's not her.

Well, she is the only one missing. Yeah, I'm just saying, I really hope it's not her. So back in town, the information is being broke to the media about the possible body and searches are being shut down. The next morning, the sheriff's station and forensic team begin processing the crime scene and they conclude everyone's worst fears. Dang it. That laying inside the shallow grave under some sagebrush was 16-year-old Mickey Costanzo. Are you kidding me? Like, why?

Why? So she had been stabbed, slashed, and beaten all to her head and neck. There was extensive blood loss and the wounds portrayed aggression and rage. This really felt like off the bat a personal attack.

And a zip tie was actually found around Mickey's wrist. She had been abducted and taken against her will from the school that day. That's what police believe when they find this zip tie. Okay. Celia remembers DJ's brutal physical reaction as the sheriff's department broke the news to the family. That DJ, her best friend, her sister, had screamed and fell to the floor. A scream that her mom, Celia, will never forget.

a scream and agony for her lost sister and best friend. And as news spread now reaching further than just Nevada and Mickey's family holds a press conference demanding justice, the public is also chasing answers. Who had done this and why? I mean, she was 16 years old. Mickey seemed to have no enemies. No one could pinpoint a reason and police had no suspects or even someone of interest.

There were no hairs or fibers or fingerprints found at the scene. But as the sheriff's department dug deeper into Mickey's life and evidence, they

They obtained Garrett's favorite security camera footage from the school cameras the day Mickey was taken. Finally, you scared me. I was kind of zoning out and you said Garrett. And I was like, wait, what? Why am I in this? Why am I in this? So to their shock, Cody, Mickey's friend who she had been in contact with, the one who was older, who was engaged, he was right.

Mickey is seen on footage walking out of the girl's locker room and making her way through the halls, leaving school through the rear entrance with somebody. Somebody who, like Cody had said, was not her boyfriend, Javier. But somebody who, unlike Cody had said, was him.

Mickey had left school through the back door and Cody had followed her. Oh, here we go. He's a liar. He is a liar. When detectives figured this out, they take the information to Celia, her mom, and ask her for some more information about Cody and what she knows about him. And she tells him,

Cody, man, I already know. Yeah.

Now, Tony's parents had really taken Cody under their wings and loved him. They had supported him as their own son. They were invested in his life and his choices. So after learning more about Cody, the sheriff's department decided to bring him in once again to confront him with the footage they discovered. Cody once again told them that he had been texting with Mickey that day about getting her help to move like some car parts.

He then tells them once again that he saw her at the end of practice that day at the front of the school by the front doors standing there with somebody. But as police know, Mickey never went to the front doors. The camera clearly shows that she went out the back doors and he followed her. And do people not think about this? Like, did he not go, oh, there's probably cameras, but.

I can lie and get away with it. So the interrogators decide to tell him the truth at this point. They say, hey, you know what? We got the security footage. We saw you on video by the back doors right around the time that Mickey disappeared. They tell him that they believe he has something to do with the murder. And when confronted with this allegation, Cody tells them...

He had nothing to do with it. He did not kill her. And despite his pleas, police don't budge. After some back and forth, Cody eventually asks if he can speak with his biological father, who despite not being a big part of Cody's life at this point, actually had been the person who brought him to the station that day.

And remember, he was living with Tony, his girlfriend, his fiance's parents. That's kind of weird. Yeah. So police do not have the audio or video recording in that room, or they just haven't released it to the public. While Cody and his father were speaking behind the closed doors, but they were standing right outside. And it was while listening into their conversation that they heard wailing coming from the other side of the door. But it was not Cody sobbing.

It was Cody's father making those noises midway through their conversation together. - What? - So detectives decide to enter back into the room with Cody and his father and figure out what was going on. Exactly what Cody had told his dad that had made him react in such a vocal way. Cody's father urges Cody to tell the cops the truth in the interrogation room. - Oh. - He says he needs to be honest about the heinous thing he had done, if not for himself, for Mickey.

You gotta start fixing this now. As much as you can. What you did is heinous, Cody. I don't want to abandon you at all, okay? You gotta do what's right, Cody.

And like this part's really sad because it's recorded and you can hear him barely being able to get the words out through sobs. Like his dad can barely talk. Oh my gosh. So knowing they basically have the perfect scenario now and that not much effort is needed for something to happen. Detectives just sit back and let Cody talk. And this is what he tells them.

Cody confesses that he actually did pick Mickey up from school that day to give her a ride. He tells them that it was during the car ride that Mickey demanded that he, Cody, break up with his fiance, Tony, and date her instead. Now, Cody tells them that he refused. He wasn't going to do that, and that made Mickey mad. He says she started yelling at him and hitting him, and he says by this point, they had driven all the way out into the desert.

and the fight had actually escalated to outside of the vehicle. - B.S., this is a complete B.S. - So through sniffles, he tells police that Mickey hit him again, so he pushed her, and she fell down as a result of the shove and hit her head. He says that she laid there on the ground, her eyes looking up at the sky. He remembers her eyes turning black, and he confesses that he didn't know what to do.

Mickey started seizing, so he grabbed his shovel from his car, which who just randomly has a shovel? I mean, we actually do have those like garden shoes. Okay, never mind. Ignore us. We're not murderers. So he grabbed his shovel from his car to try and knock her out by hitting her in the head. And then he says that the hit tore up her head pretty bad and he panicked that she wouldn't stop making noises. So he eventually cut her throat and

And he tells them that once he realized what he had done, he just dug a shallow grave, put her in it, covered her up and burned her clothes. End of story. This contradicts everything though, right? Because she was zip tied. She was stabbed in multiple places. And he said, I just cut her throat. Well, she was, her throat was cut and he did say he hit her head, but the damage to her face and her head was a lot more extensive than one shove hit on the back of the head and a cut to the throat. Got it.

And that was it. Cody, I guess, had snapped after Mickey had snapped. There was no real solid reason, no motive. But either way, Cody, a local high school student and longtime friend of Mickey, was arrested and charged with her murder. His dreams of entering the Marines after high school had now turned into facing the death penalty. But as I'm sure as most of you are feeling, to Mickey's family, Cody's lawyer, and even the police...

This all just felt weird. Yes. It didn't feel like an answer. It didn't really make sense. Christina couldn't believe that Cody that they knew and loved had just randomly killed her sister. But what could they do? He had confessed. So as they tried to face reality, a 1000 seat concert hall in town was rented for Mickey's funeral as she was so dearly loved. The whole town was mourning the loss of Mickey. Also,

He blamed it on her, right? Like he, he, he victim, he blamed it on her, which is so messed up. Right. He basically said it was self-defense, but it wasn't self-defense, but she was freaking out first. She told me to break up with my fiance. Yeah. Like no way. So Mickey's happiness and kind spirit was celebrated that day and remembered as I hope all of us can do today for her.

And it was after the funeral that police knew they needed to solidify their investigation. If they had probably, you know, felt good about the confession from Cody, they might not have put so much more energy into investigating Mickey's death or

but they couldn't deny everyone else's feelings about it as well. So the part that was stumping most people in Mickey's life was her demand that Cody break up with Tony and date her. It just didn't make sense. Mickey was dating Javier. And also she had kind of backed off her friendship with Cody after he got engaged because he

I mean, he's engaged. They weren't really as close of friends as they once had been. Mickey didn't want to get in the middle of such a serious high school couple. The drama just wasn't for her. Plus everyone knows how serious Tony and Cody were. I mean, they were engaged in high school. Cody, who was six foot six and heading to the Marines had proposed to Tony, who was way shorter than him before his plans of leaving, which is why I think they got engaged so early and,

Toni actually prided herself in taming Cody's rough temper and setting him on the right path. I mean, her family had taken him in and she had convinced him to be baptized in her church. Toni encouraged Cody to graduate, to get into the Marines and to live a good life.

And it seemed even after Cody was arrested for Mickey's murder, it didn't change Tony's feelings for him. She wrote him every day while he was in prison and consistently made the four-hour drive away to go visit him. They talked on the phone during the times that she couldn't drive to see him in person. So his cruel acts of killing Mickey didn't really seem to turn her away from their relationship. Oh, yeah.

My light bulbs are going off. As the case was being prepared for trial, Cody's attorney admitted that the death penalty was going to be hard to avoid. He did his best to prepare Cody's case to avoid it. And it was during this investigation that he had a surprise visitor show up at his office. So this is Cody's lawyer. Tony and Cody's biological father were at his door.

Tony asking to speak to her fiance's lawyer. His attorney recorded the conversation with Tony's permission and what came out of it, for me at least, confused me even more. Okay, let me guess. Your medicine cabinet is crammed with stuff that does not work. You still aren't sleeping, you still hurt, and you're stressed out. That's what you're saying.

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Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash husband, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash husband now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash husband. So out of Tony's mouth herself, she says that the day that Mickey was murdered around 5.30 p.m., she received a text from her fiance, Cody, that said, I have her.

Because of their conversations before that day, Tony knew that that meant that Cody had picked Mickey up in the car and was asking her to come join them. So Cody picked Tony up. So now we have Cody, Tony, and Mickey in the car. The three of them drive around, finally ending up at the gravel pits. And this is all what Tony is telling Cody's lawyer.

According to Tony, when Cody stopped the car, he and Mickey climbed out and began arguing. And it was during this argument that Tony, still in the car, heard a loud thud. She claims that she got out of the car and saw Mickey on the ground not moving. She said Cody began digging a shallow grave and when he was done, together they began beating her, killing her. Oh my gosh.

She says when Mickey stopped moving, they moved her body over to the grave and buried her. Now, Cody's attorney probably didn't care to know why Tony had showed up and told him this today, why she had shown up with Cody's dad of all people and said this, but

everyone else, including all of you guys, probably care to know why all of a sudden she's doing this. Had Cody's father convinced her to do this so Cody would get a lesser charge? Had Tony decided to do this to help Cody get a lesser charge? Or

had Tony actually done this, but still we really don't have any more answers to a motive or a why with this new information. What was the real story here? Cody's attorney obviously betrayed Tony Fratto immediately after she came and visited him and turned the tape over to police who then arrested her because she just admitted to helping in the crime. And now it was time for police to answer the question we all have, what actually happened and why?

As they studied Tony and Cody's relationship a little bit more, they were puzzled to discover that Tony was not like a problematic child or student.

She was close with her parents, devout in her religion, and a good student. She had goals, seemed responsible, but outside of her family, she really didn't have any friends besides Cody. Cody and Tony had begun dating in the ninth grade, and she was immediately obsessed with him as he was with her. But Cody could be controlling, which eventually led to abuse.

Oh my gosh.

He shoves her against the locker. He throws his arms around violently. It's obvious that things are not good, but Tony refused to press charges for fear that Cody would not get into the Marines if she pressed charges against him. This makes it more confusing though, because I thought, well, maybe it was her idea. Right. But now that- You're hearing this. Yeah, now that I'm hearing this, I'm just confused. And you have to keep in mind, Cody is six foot six. Whoa. And Tony is like-

Five foot probably under five five. Okay So the difference like as he's throwing her against the locker is a little like it's a little uncomfortable to watch and it is it's very violent more like it's it's definitely domestic violence as you're watching the footage But she refuses to press charges. They obviously stay engaged You know, we have that whole situation but even after discovering this it doesn't really lead them to more clues about what had happened and

And these two now, Cody and Tony, would not turn on each other, both claiming that their stories were accurate. And that's two different stories. If he's saying, no, I acted alone, and she's saying, no, I helped, that's going to be hard for the state to come forward and prosecute both of them. Yeah, it's true. So finally, the state decides to throw Cody a deal.

He would get life in prison with the possibility of parole, no death penalty, if he would testify against Tony and tell the truth about what happened at trial. He initially says yes and begins his final confession with police. So now we're on his third story of what happened. And how do you know what the truth is? You know what I mean? Right. Everything's so skewed now. He's signed this deal through his lawyer. But I mean, people lie.

- Yeah, Mickey's been doing that, right? - All the time. - So he starts off explaining that at school that day, Tony ran into Mickey in the hall and confronted her calling her a slut. - Geez. - Now you're probably listening to this just as confused as police are because we really still don't have any backstory about what's going on between the three of them that has caused any angst at all.

He says that Cody finally convinced Mickey and Tony to talk. So Mickey got into his car willingly that day and they picked Tony up after this like confrontation at school earlier that day.

He begins talking about how they made their way out to the gravel pits together when all of a sudden Cody's lawyer showed up and stopped the interview. No way. After talking for a minute alone, they walk back in and Cody tells police that he's changed his mind and is not taking the deal.

Cody tells police? Yes. Well, the lawyer and Cody together acting as a team tell police. Refusing to turn on his lover and fiance, he decides that he will take his chances in court. I'm so confused. None of this is like there was something off. We were right there. Something really big that's off. We were two seconds away from figuring out another story that might actually give us some sense to this crime. Some clarity. And it got shut down.

So obviously the state still wants answers. So they turn around and attempt to offer Tony a deal instead. Her deal is second degree murder with a chance of parole after only 18 years. But she would, you know, have to testify against Cody. Tony agreed. She signed the papers right away. Tony swore on the Bible that this next version was the true story. Which, that's a pretty good deal. It's a great deal. It's a great deal considering that he's going to be...

Up for the death penalty if he takes his chances in court. Yep. So she claimed that Cody hated Mickey, that she annoyed him and it had been bubbling up for a while. So that day, Cody texted Tony claiming that he had Mickey and was coming to pick her up.

The three of them drove off into the desert and Mickey was stuffed into the back of the vehicle. So now this version of the story, we're at least getting her handcuffed, right? But why? Like, why did, what did Mickey do? Still know why. When they approached the gravel pits, Cody sent Tony a text, even though she was sitting right next to him. So he texts her from the front seat and says, we have to kill her.

Cody then got out of the car, according to Tony's testimony, and he dug the grave and then he took Mickey out and he hit her. Tony claims that she stayed in the car the whole time until Cody demanded that she hit Mickey with the shovel. And so that was all she did. She hit Mickey in the head with the shovel.

despite in her confession, admitting to using the knife to cut Mickey's throat the first time to the lawyer. Now she says, nope, I didn't touch the knife. I only picked up the shovel and hit her with the head. Oh, I hate that. Everyone's just lying. And the stories are just everywhere. Yeah, sucks. She says afterwards, they got into her car and went to McDonald's, which-

why you got to do McDonald's like that? You know? And then they burned Mickey's clothes. She confirms that she still to this day has no idea why Cody really did it or even hated Mickey. She doesn't really know the motive. He was just an abusive boyfriend and he was angry. And if it wouldn't, if it wasn't Mickey, it was going to be her. So that's why she went along with it. That's the testimony that she gives after cutting the deal. Okay. But yeah,

Shortly after this deal was cut, like paper signed, we're doing this. Something came out, a missing puzzle piece that no one had until now. Tony had been keeping a diary at the time of the murder and the defense had somehow now got a hold of it. The defense for Cody.

And in the diary, we see a very different side of Tony. One where she expresses her concerns that Cody won't actually marry her, that he hates her, which unbeknownst to her at the time was probably true because Cody was actually seeing an older woman. He was cheating on Tony, but she didn't know. So her feelings were probably valid that he was like pulling away, being distant. She also wrote that she hates herself and she has a lot of anger, that she had some suicidal tendencies. Yeah.

She was also absolutely terrified of losing Cody to his good childhood friend, Mickey. She despised Mickey in her journal. Which is interesting because you said that they didn't really have a relationship anymore. No, they had stopped talking. So why did she, how was she so, I guess, scared?

She hated her and she considered her a threat to her relationship with Cody. And this is all in her own words in her diary. Tony was jealous of Mickey and not afraid to admit it. Tony hated the friendship that Cody and Mickey shared at the beginning of her and Cody's relationship. And she eventually demanded that Cody can never talk to Mickey again, which this was why Mickey had backed off of the friendship with Cody because Cody wasn't allowed to talk to her either. And she was

She knew how Tony felt because Tony had actually like confronted Mickey before in the hallway, you know, saying like mean things to her. So Mickey was kind of under the conclusion that like Tony didn't like her and that Tony and Cody were engaged and Tony didn't like her.

Tony didn't want her and Cody to have a friendship and Cody was trying to hide the friendship. So she just eventually like cut the friendship off. Oh, and in the, like through all of this, we also learned that Cody wasn't even allowed to talk to Mickey's family towards the end. So Tony had completely like cut off, not just Mickey, but everyone, everything that had to do with Mickey had to be out of Cody's life, according to Tony.

And after this diary came to light, it really felt like the only clear motive anyone could find for the murder of Mickey. No one could ever find a motive for why Cody would have wanted to kill Mickey. He never said he had a problem with her. He never. But we now have a motive for why Tony would want to kill Mickey written in her own words.

So just weeks before the trial, Cody decided to plead guilty for a chance at parole. So after his fiance takes the deal,

That he was offered first. So confused. He just is like, nevermind, I'll plead guilty. I'm still just confused why when he was talking, he just stopped. Like that is the big missing puzzle piece in my eyes. And to me personally, that story is the truest story we were getting. It seems like it, correct. Because her and Mickey had been fighting that day. Tony had called her a slut. That's the only story we've really gotten that has any tension. And then he just stopped. And then it stopped.

I don't understand. Yep. So after he pled guilty, he spoke publicly in court and he was kind of speaking to Mickey's family, who he was really good friends with too before this. And he says this, I'm not all to blame for her murder, but there's no justification for what I did.

So he kind of points the finger at Tony, even though in his original statement, he never mentioned Tony. But then why not say that? I don't know. Why not tell the story? I don't know. Gosh. I have no idea. So he was sentenced to a life term with no possibility of parole, which with his deal, he would have been given a life term with the possibility of parole. Now, Tony obviously had her deal and she was eligible for parole this last January, but she was denied parole.

Mickey's family really does not want Tony to be paroled because they truly feel like she had a bigger part in the murder than she's been willing to admit or take responsibility for.

So Tony Fratto has never wavered from her final story. And I guess we will never know the real truth for sure. That is horrible. We will most likely never know exactly why Tony and Cody murdered Mickey that day or how it all went down. And Dateline actually did an interview with Tony, which I'm not, I always, I don't want to touch. I don't want to give her a voice to speak when she's obviously done something wrong. But one thing I did find interesting in the interview is that she,

she's retelling the story, the same story she told in court. And as she's talking, she kind of slips up, I think personally. She says, and then, yeah, we're in the car. And then we drove up to the designated spot. Oh no. She says that on the Dateline interview. And they're like, wait, the designated spot? And she gets wide-eyed and she goes,

Well, the spot where it happened and they're like, well, why would it have been designated? Exactly. And she goes, I'm just saying it's the spot that like, it's just where it happened. Yes. She just completely freezes up. And to me, that makes me feel like Tony, at least when she got in that car, knew what was happening. Cause in her story, she says she doesn't know until they get up there and he texts her saying like she has to die or whatever. Um,

If she's calling it the debt, like they had agreed on this or something, you know what I mean? Or she had made it up in her head. I can't believe that he still to this day hasn't come forward. And especially because she took the deal and ratted him out. Yeah. And he just said, okay, especially because she was up for parole. It got denied, but it'll, it'll come up again. So,

So confusing. So Mickey actually rests on a family ranch now next to her grandpa and Mickey's mother, Celia feels like, you know, Mickey sits on the top of the world there now in the most beautiful spot and the whole family will eventually be there with her too, which kind of brings her peace.

No one expected something this tragic could happen in Wendover, that a beautiful, happy, loving teenager could be tragically taken way too soon. But it did, like it does everywhere. So today we will think of the happy Mickey that we learned about and keep her family in our thoughts and prayers. And that is Mickey's story. Can he, first of all, horrible. So

Second of all, can he still come out and if he comes out and says something is there any deals that can be made or is it just over with do you know? Um, okay. I mean, I'm not gonna say I'm an expert here, but I'm pretty sure no if you were to come out and tell the real story I don't think his sentence would be changed. They couldn't try to appeal it to do a new case His lawyer might be able to okay appeal and try to get a new trial a new trial but then they would have to prove that something in the first trial went wrong and

And also then it would have to go through people like through the process to try to get it. And that's such a hard process anyways. I'm not saying that he shouldn't try because I do think that there's more to the story than we are hearing. And maybe the family doesn't, maybe they don't even want to know anywhere and they're trying to move on from it. Yeah. But.

Maybe they want closure. Maybe they want to actually know what has happened. And I think they feel like they know. I mean, they talked about it pretty openly in their interviews. They do believe that Tony was the reason that all of this happened. But that's obviously not proven in court. But that is just how they feel. So messed up. That whole story is both of them, Cody and Tony. Yeah. Either way. So messed up. Either way, it's absolutely just... And it just seems so uncalled for. So sickening. Yeah. Even if it was just that like...

Tony had confronted Mickey and, you know, she was obviously, obviously in a bad state. She was obviously being abused. Right. She obviously felt like, according to her diary, that he didn't love her, which he didn't because he was having an affair. Still, no reason to just kill Mickey. Never, ever a reason to. Never a reason. To hurt somebody. Right. Anyways, you guys, that is our case for this week. Once again, thank you so much for supporting us this week with merch. It has been amazing.

Unbelievable. I can't even, I'm just excited to see everyone's pictures and for everyone to get their stuff. And we really hope that you all love it. Thank you for always supporting us. Thank you for loving us. And we will see you guys next week with another episode. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.