UsernameFatigue

"Blood on the Door" - I am wondering why 20/20 is covering this story now? It is an old story and has been covered by at least one of the other true crime shows previously. That said, because it has been a few years I don't remember if the other show(s) covered all the same details as this episode. I was appalled at the interrogation by the polygraph administrator of the roommate. And his apparent mistakes in reading the polygraph. I hope he received some type of disciplinary action. I don't remember previously it being said that the knife was Johnia's? Was she really sleeping with it, or did the intruder/murderer actually bring it with him? If she was sleeping with it, I wonder why she felt the need to do so? One thing that surprised me was the law that Jania's mother Joan was able to get passed, which has now apparently been adopted by 34 other states. I am surprised that someone who has been arrested (rather that someone convicted) of a serious crime would have their DNA downloaded to a national data base. We know how often people are arrested in error and then let go, either because they are found not guilty or are let go even before there is a trail because they were arrested in error. What would have made more sense to me is if anyone convicted of any crime has to submit their DNA. If that were the law, and the law when Johnia was killed, her killer's DNA would have been in the database since he was already convicted of petty crimes. My guess as to why he left the note blaming his sometime partner in crime of the murder (even though only his DNA was found at the scene) was that he did not want his infant son to grow up thinking his father was a murderer.

This is case where I would say there are more questions than answers, still. Regarding the knife, it was not linked back to either roommate, and no one testified that Nichole had a knife or liked to collect knives. Also, if Nichole was the killer why would she leave the knife there? Even if she left without it, she would have had a chance to return to get it. The knife had 3 DNA profiles on it, Anita's was the only one that was established. Anita also had unidentified male DNA under her right fingernails. The prosecution I believe was trying to say that, as a poster wrote above, they argued and Anita was killed in the heat of the moment. But she wasn't, she was killed in bed by two stab wounds to the heart. Hardly seems like a frenzied killing by someone in a fit of rage. The testimony of the building manager popped up on my phone, so I decided to watch it. It is possible that the jury nodded off at times as the woman prosecutor was mind numbingly boring, and meandering in her questions. I found the defense was much better at questioning and held my interest. Was it established in the episode that the woman building manager and Marty the maintenance man were actually a couple and lived together? I don't remember it being said but they were together for 10 years and he worked as the maintenance man for 2 years. He showed her the screen and told her that he found it on the ground close to the sidewalk. He told the police that it was in the window. Odd though that neither one thought it was odd to find a screen with a cut in it? The manager, Laura, testified that she and Marty never talked about finding Anita's body or anything about someone being killed on property, after Anita was found. The defense attorney asked her twice and she said both times they never discussed it. I find that very odd. Also Marty committed suicide on New Years Day, 6 months after Anita was murdered. Even after his death he was considered a suspect in the case. I saw a clip of a police officer who carried out interviews after Cold Justice came on the scene being asked if they interviewed the drifter. He said no, they didn't because he was not on the list provided by Cold Justice. OMG.

Forgot to add to my above post: What was the motive for the killing? It was established that the two roommates had decided to part ways, so what would be the motive? As is often the case, I found the fawning over the victim a little over the top. Yes, she was beautiful and popular. But someone who repeatedly turned off the fish tank filter and eventually killed the fish (because she thought the tank was too loud) is not someone I would call kind.

I think the jury got this one right. There is no way if I were a juror I could have convicted Nichole. I don't know if she is guilty or innocent, but there are certainly things that don't add up. It makes no sense to me that if Nichole was the killer, she would leave the door locked, knowing that only 4 people had keys. It would make more sense to leave the door unlocked, as if Anita let someone in, and they also left through the front door. The screen thing is interesting. The maintenance man said in the initial police interview that he noticed that the screen was cut, and took it to be repaired. They when he returned it, he let himself in, called out, and threw the screen into the bedroom (where it just happened a murdered Anita lay). Odd. As I often do when Dateline covers a case, I tried to find more info on what happened during the trail. One thing I read was that the girlfriend of the maintenance man testified. She testified because he was dead, he had committed suicide (did they mention this in the episode?). She said that he told her that he found the screen on the ground. But in his interview with the police he said that the screen was in the window. Why the change in story? I also found the murder weapon interesting. It doesn't seem to be the type of knife a woman would have, more like something a guy would own. (Do women usually collect knives? None that I know). And the fact that it couldn't be traced back to either of the roommates. Then of course there is also the unknown male DNA. I think the fact that Cold Justice rode into town to solve the case may have worked against the prosecution. The scene they showed from the show where law enforcement tearfully tell the family that they have arrested a suspect I found distasteful. Is that series still running? I remember attorney Kelly Siegler being in hot water several years ago for withholding evidence when she was a lawyer. Possibly manufacturing it as well? Can't remember the details but I think it was in more than one case. I find her repugnant.

Just when I think I have seen it all, I am proven wrong. To answer DanaK, Christina's fiancé is in jail because when he gave his cell phone to the police so that they could rule him out as being involved in the murder, they found numerous pictures of child pornography on his phone. Not to speak ill of the dead, but Christina had terrible taste in men, to put it mildly. I was also shocked when they showed Post at the trail. I would not have known it was the same guy as was in the driveway the morning he found Christina's body. The bizarre thing too is that in the driveway his hair was silver gray, at the trail it was mousy brown. So did he dye it to try to look suave, and mousy brown is his actual colour. I agreed with the cop though who was gobsmacked that Post turned over his phone knowing what was on it. Mello, another creepy, slimy character. You could tell that he thought he was the smartest guy in the room, whereas he was totally transparent. And Zack Hughes? What a whacko. What I thought was really odd was that he killed Christina by stabbing her multiple times. We all know from watching these shows that killers who use knives often cut themselves as the knife gets slippery from blood. You would think that he would be worried that he might damage his hands, which could end his career as a pianist (such as it was). Then we have Hughes' father speaking in court about how proud he is of his son. WTF? Your son took away the mother of an innocent child. OMG!!!! The whole case was just bizarre and gross from start to finish. I was appalled that the daughter is with a friend of Mello's, and that Christina's sister has to fight to get custody of her. How ridiculous.

Regarding "A Cool Desert Morning", like others I am disgusted with the light sentence her husband received. What I don't understand is why the drug dealer was not questioned as to what he sold the husband on the night that Susan died. Could they not have proved that he bought oxy? In any case, it was obvious that he would have gotten away with murder had Susan's parents not had deep pockets. And with the light sentence he received, he pretty much did get away with murder.

When Pinkus and his daughter first showed up, all I could think was "Why did they chose two actors who look so little alike?". Lol. Making Pete able to leave the property has brought so many good storylines to the show. I LOL'd when Pete walked onto his girlfriend's neighbour's property and asked if there were any ghosts there. Also loved the ghost's 80s track suit and walkman. And finding out at the end that the elderly lady gardening was the ghost's wife and murderer of Donna's husband. Well written and acted episode, as usual.

I really enjoyed this episode. I loved the scene where Missy tried to get sympathy from Mary as she had just lost the "love of her life", and Mary was having none of it. Well acted episode from all the actors. I wonder if the next season will bring more episodes with the old YS cast, now that the show has had a season to establish Georgie and Mandy as leads, and also given the viewers a year to grieve the loss of George?

I enjoyed this episode, and it was made even better by there being no Ryan. Unfortunately it looks like he makes a return appearance next week. I wish the producers would leave out the bloggers/haters scenes. Some people will do anything for attention, and putting them on TV just gives them more reason to stalk Gypsy. I was a little taken aback when Rod said early on that he thought Ken was an idiot. I don't know if he was joking and it just didn't translate well on screen. But he did redeem himself when he talked later in the show about how much Ken loves Gypsy, and that he is there for her. It is good that he acknowledges that their baby will have the love of two parents, which Gypsy did not have. I thought it was ironic as well when Ken's mom talked to Ken about how he will feel when his baby is born, given that Gypsy's mom obviously did not have those feelings for her daughter. I am glad that both Gypsy and Ken have supportive families.

Oh, but Colter would just fix whatever was broken with twigs from the forest. Every week I say to myself that I am going to stop watching, as the turn the show has taken this season is not entertaining. As others have said, it is just lazy writing. I started watching the show not for Justin (who I do like well enough) but to see if I could spot familiar places in the lower mainland of B.C. A few weeks ago they filmed part of the episode in my mom's hometown, and I was able to see the property that was owned by my grandmother (and great grandparents before her). That almost made it worth wading though the dreck that this show has become. At this point the scenery, and the addition of Randy who is awesome, are the only things keeping me watching. I often ff through (what seems like) the endless abuse of women scenes.

I really hope the series stops giving Ryan air time. He is insufferable, and adds nothing to the show. I also wish they would stop showing the losers who have made their life following Gypsy's. Showing them only gives them fuel to try to get their own 15 minutes of fame. Why fan the flames? I don't follow Gypsy on SM but my guess would be that they don't post about the baby, otherwise it would still show up in other venues/shows/articles. Good for them. And it may be easier for Gypsy that one might think. After all, her whole childhood into adulthood was in the public eye due to her mother's insatiable appetite for attention and scamming. Gypsy might go in the extreme other direction to protect her daughter.

You are right. I did some more googling, and came across an article by The Cinemaholic. It describes the then upcoming Dateline episode, and even in the article describes Desiree and Scott as high school sweethearts. It then goes on to name Scott's children and their partners, just as were named in Jeffrey's obituary. It is shocking that this article didn't figure out that Jeffrey would actually be a year or so older than Desiree, so no way could his father and Desiree have been high school sweethearts as the Dateline episode claimed. I haven't seen anything stating Scott's age, but yes he has to be a couple of decades older than stated in the episode. And obviously the picture shown of Desiree in high school was not with Scott. (Though I must say for being in his likely early to mid 40s when they married, he looked very young and fresh faced). Good on you for figuring it out, and yikes on Dateline for making such a huge error. Makes you wonder what else they might be reporting in other episodes that is totally inaccurate. Thanks for posting about this again, Realitystarr. Dateline should hire you to do their research, as whoever is doing it is, or at least was for this episode, incompetent.

I was hoping someone would post regarding Friday's episode. So many red flags right away on that case that were ignored. Even though it was almost 20 years ago, surely law enforcement should have been advanced enough at that time to spot obvious flags. Right away when Matt said to the 911 operator that Kari's lips were blue and her hands were cold, I said out loud, "Not possible", if she was alive 40 minutes before when he left. The EMTs said that lividity had set in, again not possible with his timeline. And telling the 911 operator that she left a note, but telling the police that the police found the note and handed it to him. An unsigned, typed suicide note at that. Thank goodness for Kari's mother Linda, but I was also surprised that she wasn't suspicious (or suspicious enough) to go to police until she saw that Kari's cell phone was being used after her death. Just a few days before her death, Kari told her about Matt's note blaming Kari for Kassidy's death. It was the final straw and Linda said Kari told her she was going to leave Matt. In any case thank goodness the body was exhumed months after the death, and Matt was convicted just a few years later. What an evil person to be fine with letting his daughters grow up to think their mother left them by her own choice. It really is too bad that Vanessa could not be charged with anything. She knew Matt was going to kill his wife, and stayed silent. She really only got emotional on the stand when she relayed that Matt threatened her if she told anyone. How creepy that she was fine with going ring shopping with her lover's children, weeks after her lover killed their mother. OMFG.

So often Dateline leaves out pertinent information in cases they are covering. The show often goes out of its way to leave the viewer wondering how the accused was convicted, but a google search will usually find several pieces of evidence that Dateline did not disclose. It is extremely annoying. I had a hard time believing that Katie was guilty based on the Dateline episode, save for one thing. The fact that she bought the prepaid credit cards that were used to purchase the medication used to kill Mary. I haven't seen the Hulu documentary, but wonder if Mary discovered that Katie was stealing from the practice? Poor Mary, to think that three people close to her, her husband, son and office manager were all creepy enough (at least that label applies to son and husband) to be viable suspects in her murder. And I agree with others about the two annoying daughters. I am sorry their mother was murdered, but listening to them was like chalk on a black board.

I have found the last several episodes of 20/20 to be really well done as well, and have come to actually prefer 20/20 to Dateline. Like the first person posting about this episode, I wondered how Paul got custody of his children, and wondered if he had abused and threatened his wife into giving him custody. That and possibly snowing the courts. As one participant in the episode said, he thinks he is the smartest person in the room. I was horrified that he tried to pin the murder on his 16 year old son, even going so far as to try to convince the son the take the wrap. Telling him that jail isn't that bad, the food is good and he wouldn't have to worry about being raped? One of the most sickening things I have heard a murderer say and do, and it is a pretty high bar to start with. Too bad the death penalty was not (I assume) an option.