Who Do You Believe? (ABC)

[jenrising]

Quote

Takes viewers through compelling true-crime cases from dual perspectives. In each episode, the audience steps into the shoes of two contrasting narratives to hear the recounts directly from the victims and criminals with never-before-revealed details. Then the viewer plays armchair detective to deduce and piece together different versions of the truth. Every episode culminates by revealing key details from the adjudicated cases leaving you to question: "Who Do You Believe?" 

Premieres May 3 on ABC.

[mrsbagnet]

The man in the first story is a walking red flag. He moves way too fast, and he's a fool for love.

Edited May 4, 2022 by mrsbagnet

[Annber03]

Yeah, my main takeaway from this first episode was, "Gee, I can see why these two have both been married multiple times..." 

But I agree. He was really pushy and totally wanted to show off how flashy he was with the gestures, and she was clearly loving the money she got from him, despite her protests. The reveal about her relationship history in general at the end was somehow both surprising and not surprising all at the same time. 

[sempervivum]

I need more info about why Charity was granted alimony from Mark (?)-$2000/mon.- when she wasn't even legally married to him. 

Also, they just mentioned the first wife's suspicious death and the 'poisoning', but never followed up on it?

I agree he was controlling/pushy, but I believed most of what he said. He should have bailed after the breast reduction turned into $26K worth of liposuction, etc., followed by new implants 😬 She should have sued the surgeon for installing her implants right under her collarbone, too.

[Lisa418722]

While I would like to meet someone and have a relationship, watching this I thought I'm glad I'm single. 

[Annber03]

12 minutes ago, Lisa418722 said:

While I would like to meet someone and have a relationship, watching this I thought I'm glad I'm single. 

LOL, same. I often tend to think that whenever I watch any kind of true crime show in general :p. 

Edited May 4, 2022 by Annber03

[Whimsy]

I think both of these people were pretty terrible people. I believe Mark a little more, but he’s still way too controlling. Also, how much money does a surgical nurse even make? His finances make no sense to me. 
 

I also don’t understand how she got any sort of alimony if she was married to other people and her marriage to Mark want legal. 
 

I was interested in the premise of this, but it will be hard to watch this if I hate both parties in figure episodes. 

[mrsbagnet]

5 hours ago, sempervivum said:

 She should have sued the surgeon for installing her implants right under her collarbone, too.

I was so confused by her anatomy.

These two had plenty of shadiness to go around, but Charity was not believable at all.

I wonder how they book the subjects for this show. Presumably the two parties are fighting with each other and probably not on speaking terms. How did they get them to be on the show? I assume they pay them something.

 

Edited May 4, 2022 by mrsbagnet

[ellenr33]

I'm on Mark's side on this one! 

[tinderbox]

I will never watch this show again.  Sooooo sloooow.  I felt like I was being pulled through a knothole.  That said, I was bound and determined to watch this episode until the end.  IMO, they were both shady but she was worse than him.  

[CrystalBlue]

On 5/7/2022 at 3:10 PM, tinderbox said:

I will never watch this show again.  Sooooo sloooow.  I felt like I was being pulled through a knothole.  That said, I was bound and determined to watch this episode until the end.  IMO, they were both shady but she was worse than him.  

Agree, but I'll watch the next one before ditching the show.  I wonder why a serial bigamist is sitting on her couch and not in a jail cell.  Charity was a con artist and Mark was a fool, looking for love in the wrong place, and a controlling jerk at times.

[rwgrab]

Oof, this was like watching a whole hour of AITA on Reddit where the answer is "Yes!" for both of the people interviewed.  So many things didn't ring true from either side. 

Mark's saying he "just happened to remember" the GPS trackers he'd put on the cars - oh you mean those ones you have to constantly charge to keep the battery from dying?  That just happened to be recording his "wife's" location one day he thought to check?  Gotcha.

Charity having her ex-husband move into her old house instead of getting rid of the lease and also stealing a bunch of stuff from Mark's house after getting him out of town?  Makes perfect sense.

I don't think I need to watch a show that basically presents two unlikeable people who, even at their ages, aren't mature enough to have an adult relationship trying to hash out which one is more aggrieved.  At least it made me appreciate my own marriage a little bit more 😁

I have to hand it to Charity, though.  Getting alimony out of somebody after an annulment for a marriage that wasn't even legal to begin with?  She's got her con down pretty well...

[cmahorror]

Just watched the second episode with Nichelle Nichols. I have, unfortunately, had a lot of experience with older relatives with dementia and I saw a son trying his best to protect his mother. Nichelle was officially diagnosed with dementia almost a decade ago and that is not a disease that gets better with time, it is a degenerative disease with no cure and the person only getting worse as their brain deteriorates. Things were happening that probably would not have happened if her son had been more involved in her life and she did not have dementia. Her son recognized that and stepped in to save her from a predator who had taken thousands of dollars from his mother under the guise of being her friend. 

I know a lot is being made about her house being sold but that was probably the most realistic way to handle the situation. It is a romantic notion to want to die in your home but the reality is that she was getting worse and it was getting more and more dangerous for her to be alone.  Kyle didn't sell the home and then throw his mom into a nursing home, he moved her in with himself and is taking care of her himself. The funds from the sale of the house went into the conservatorship and is probably being monitored by the court. He even took her to a convention to make an appearance and she looked very happy there. 

There was also several mentions about Britney Spears and her conservatorship. These are two very different situations. Britney is a healthy woman who had some mental issues in her youth but was able to get help and proved that she was taking care of herself and there were no barriers to her being able to continue to do so. Nichelle Nichols is a 90-yr old woman with dementia. The reality of the situation is that she will not be able to take care of herself, no matter how much she wants to, because her body will not let her. It isn't fair, no one is denying that, but that doesn't change the situation.

Edited May 17, 2022 by cmahorror

[Tdoc72]

I didn’t even really to watch the Celeste Beard episode to know who I believe. The daughters. This case has been on a lot of other shows. True crime fans will get this:  Celeste & her mother remind me of Stacey Castor and her mother. I always believed Stacey’s daughters as well. 
Looking forward to seeing some others thoughts on this one, either familiar or not familiar with the case. 
Oops…didn’t realize this is a two parter. 

Edited May 19, 2022 by Tdoc72

[Court]

On 5/19/2022 at 12:59 AM, Tdoc72 said:

I didn’t even really to watch the Celeste Beard episode to know who I believe. The daughters. This case has been on a lot of other shows. True crime fans will get this:  Celeste & her mother remind me of Stacey Castor and her mother. I always believed Stacey’s daughters as well. 
Looking forward to seeing some others thoughts on this one, either familiar or not familiar with the case. 
Oops…didn’t realize this is a two parter. 

Agreed. Celeste is a liar liar. 

[Glitches]

Early in tonight’s episode Wesley admitted he encouraged the police to look into his mother, Sandra as the murderer of her husband, Jon Garner. As soon as Wesley said this, I thought Wesley himself was the guilty party. Who would say that about their own mother? Oh, I know who. A man-child who can’t hold a job or support himself and hopes to inherit the insurance that would pass to him if his mom were convicted. Now neither his mother or sister are speaking to him.  Good thing Wesley remains close with Jon’s family so they can support him. 
 

PS. It bothered me also that Wesley was calling his mom by her first name. 

[redpencil]

Some of Wesley's theories were just preposterous to me, like her throwing the gun in the lake and then retrieving it later, or paying off law enforcement to lose the photos (and then at the very end claiming her new husband must have been in on it). I started off open-minded, and found him believable at first, but that went downhill. He never really gave a good explanation for why he thought his mom would have done that to begin with. It would have made more sense if he initially didn't think she did it, and then was swayed by evidence, but that wasn't the case. He thought it was her from basically the second he found out, even before he had seen her, and never gave an explanation for why he would have thought that. The only thing he talked about was his claim of Jon telling him about some argument they had, and a super vague "something wasn't right", which is nowhere near enough to lead a son to think his mom capable of murder.

I know they didn't cover the whole trial, but deliberating for 2-3 hours feels like absolutely nothing for a murder case. It must have been really obvious.

Edited June 9, 2022 by redpencil

[ShawnaLanne]

On 5/18/2022 at 11:59 PM, Tdoc72 said:

I didn’t even really to watch the Celeste Beard episode to know who I believe. The daughters. This case has been on a lot of other shows. True crime fans will get this:  Celeste & her mother remind me of Stacey Castor and her mother. I always believed Stacey’s daughters as well. 
Looking forward to seeing some others thoughts on this one, either familiar or not familiar with the case. 
Oops…didn’t realize this is a two parter. 

I consume a lot of true crime too, but I hadn't heard of this one before. But yeah, I absolutely believe the twins. Celeste's personality type is everything red flag. I have known enough people like her, never taking responsibility for their own actions, always blaming other people, gaslighting TF out of other people. She makes my skin crawl. And what about that recording of her saying that she put a hit on Tracy? Her only defense was they edited the tape and took it out of context. What context could she that have been in? I mean my GOD. And her mother. Also, one thing the girls did, particularly the one who left their dad to live with Celeste owned up to their mistakes. On way you can always tell a liar is a liar from what they will or will not own up to, hold themselves accountable for. 

[SunnyBeBe]

I just watched the episode about the fireman in Tucson (David Watson) who was charged years after the crimes with the murder of his ex-wife, former MIL and her friend, over a custody battle.  The child is now an adult who spoke to defend her dad.  It’s apparent the adult daughter has been influenced by her father and is blind to the truth.  I suppose it’s expected.  Believing her dad is probably easier than seeing the person he truly is.  I’ve actually seen a couple of shows about this story.  If had stopped killing after the first murder, he’d have probably gotten away with it.  Taking out the grandmother and her friend, the day after she wins unsupervised visitation, was a dumb move.  

[redpencil]

Yeah. I think the daughter truly believed what she was saying; I never thought she was knowingly lying. But she was too young to really know details, and has clearly subconsciously come up with explanations for every piece of evidence, and has believed what her father told her.

[SunnyBeBe]

43 minutes ago, redpencil said:

Yeah. I think the daughter truly believed what she was saying; I never thought she was knowingly lying. But she was too young to really know details, and has clearly subconsciously come up with explanations for every piece of evidence, and has believed what her father told her.

True.  She has no idea how she sounds,  I don’t think anything could change her mind, unless her dad confessed.  Even then, she’d likely find a way to justify it.  

Edited July 26, 2022 by SunnyBeBe