All Episodes Discussion

[Ohmo]

On 3/15/2025 at 6:29 PM, JudyObscure said:

I wish Josh had reported this one, it called for some snark.

++++++++++1

3/21 episode: It was actually an update of the Katie Connolly case from 2015.  As Dateline went through it, the case came back to me.  I know we talked about it here.

Katie's been released from prison because her conviction was overturned due to how authorities searched her cell phone.  DA has to decide whether or not to try her again.

It's been several years.  Maybe it's the influence of watching more Dateline and 48 Hours in the intervening years, but it does feel like a stretch for Katie to have killed Mary to get Adam to return to her.  Seems rather drastic given the fact they had been on again/off again several times before that.  Why not simply wait for that cycle to repeat?

Katie worked at the office, but the practice was the Yoder family business.  Either Adam or Bob using their access to the building to frame Katie seems more plausible.

[pdlinda]

3 minutes ago, Ohmo said:

Either Adam or Bob using their access to the building to frame Katie seems more plausible.

I'm still mulling this one over.  20/20 had a similar scenario of false "suicide" cause of wife's death  and family pursuing justice for their loved one no matter how long it took!  In both cases, it turned out to be that the wife was murdered.

Bob got that $400K inheritance from his parents and was a philanderer, but not a murderer, so I'm left with Adam as my most likely suspect.  He had the computer skills and was smart.  He also seemed like a skillful liar on the stand.  Who knows about motive.  The State doesn't have to present motive although juries like to hear one.  

Katie did not come across as the killer no matter how hard they tried to present her as having a "dark side."

[Blissfool]

Katie came across guilty to me! There was so much evidence against her. I also noticed that when the detective was being hard on her she said "I didn't mean to kill her" then quickly corrected herself to say "he didn't mean to kill her." Also, I hated her sweet-speaking voice and her cadence. It reminded me so much of the villain in another show I watch.

[badgerwoman]

5 hours ago, Blissfool said:

Katie came across guilty to me! There was so much evidence against her. I also noticed that when the detective was being hard on her she said "I didn't mean to kill her" then quickly corrected herself to say "he didn't mean to kill her." Also, I hated her sweet-speaking voice and her cadence. It reminded me so much of the villain in another show I watch.

I think she's guilty, too.  The whole sending the letter about where the bottle of colchicine is pretty suspicious.  and she lied.

 

There was a hulu documentary about this case, I didn't see it but I found writeups of evidence dateline didn't include.  Katie  was stealing from the practice, using the practice money to pay her own bills.  She admitted to buying the prepaid credit cards used to buy the drug.  Her DNA was on the bottle.  She lied about being pregnant after a breakup with Adam.  Her pictures to prove he was abusive to her were downloaded from the internet.  She has lied about a lot of stuff, and it is pretty clear she and Adam had a pretty toxic relationship.

 

 

[Sarahsmile416]

I think Katie is guilty as well - I think her first lawyer was pretty pathetic and I can definitely agree with the ineffective assistance of council defense on that one.  

Also, the police interrogation did not seem as bad as they were making it out to be.  

That being said, nobody came out particularly great in this episode- the daughters were annoying, the husband seemed pretty slimy, the son had issues...the only ones I liked in this episode were her sisters (but not the one who got together with the husband) even if I disagreed with them about their theory.  

[TVbitch]

If Katie was stealing money from the practice, I can't believe Dateline left that out, because that could clearly be a big motive. If Mary had caught on that something wasn't right with the books, Katie could have killed her to avoid getting found out. Did the prosecution present that at trial?

The way the son was acting, I could also believe the two of them were in on everything together. Did they rule that out before they gave him immunity?

[Blissfool]

7 hours ago, badgerwoman said:

 Katie  was stealing from the practice, using the practice money to pay her own bills. 

 

If this is accurate, there's her motive! I had thought maybe she meant to kill the boyfriend and Mary somehow ended up drinking the poisoned drink.

[ridethemaverick]

Those daughters and their fake crying and whiny voices, ugh! Almost ruined my viewing experience. 

Add me to the list of those who believe Katie is guilty. However, I'm not sure I could rule out Adam's involvement, so I can see why two juries struggled with the verdict.

[Sarahsmile416]

6 minutes ago, ridethemaverick said:

Those daughters and their fake crying and whiny voices, ugh! Almost ruined my viewing experience. 

Add me to the list of those who believe Katie is guilty. However, I'm not sure I could rule out Adam's involvement, so I can see why two juries struggled with the verdict.

That fake crying got on my nerves...that and their whiny voices.  Ugh.  

[pdlinda]

1 hour ago, Blissfool said:

Katie  was stealing from the practice, using the practice money to pay her own bills. 

 

How do you know that?  Did I miss something??

[pdlinda]

17 hours ago, pdlinda said:

Katie did not come across as the killer no matter how hard they tried to present her as having a "dark side."

After reading subsequent posts on this board about that Hulu documentary that portrayed Katie as engaging in theft from the practice, I have changed my opinion about her.  If those allegations are true (how will we ever know??), I think that Katie had the evil intent to kill Mary.  

I think if the State wants to develop these theories as to why Katie was motivated to kill Mary, they will retry her.  If the State Atty chooses, instead, to consider the case "resolved" and not put the $$$ and resources into prosecuting her for the 3rd time, she will never be retried.

Katie spent 7 yrs in prison...so there's that...chances are, she may re-offend in the future AND she's still a CONVICTED FELON for LIFE, so there's also that.  There are MANY COLLATERAL CONSEQUENCES to being a convicted felon.

[Ohmo]

3 hours ago, Sarahsmile416 said:

That being said, nobody came out particularly great in this episode- the daughters were annoying, the husband seemed pretty slimy, the son had issues...the only ones I liked in this episode were her sisters (but not the one who got together with the husband) even if I disagreed with them about their theory.  

Agreed. The vibes from the husband and son were "off" to me as well.  It'd be easier for me to believe Katie, Adam, and Bob were all involved. Bob and Adam just don't seem purely innocent in all of this. Katie could have written the letter to double-cross Adam, but Bob could have typed the order on Katie's typewriter to double-cross Katie.  Adam could have done the same with Katie's phone.

Katie may be guilty, but I don't think she's the only one who is.

2 hours ago, TVbitch said:

If Katie was stealing money from the practice, I can't believe Dateline left that out, because that could clearly be a big motive.

Also agreed, and why not bring up the pregnancy angle if Katie did that?

[12catcrazy]

This case really had me puzzled - I think that the letter to the police telling them where to find the bottle of the drug in Adam's car had me thinking that she probably did it.   That guy's car was a total pigpen, but why would he keep the bottle of pills if he had been guilty?  I keep thinking that Dateline must have left out a bunch of info about this.  Badgerwoman above mentions a Hulu doc about this guy and info about Katie that Dateline didn't tell us.  I also wonder if Katie hadn't been so young, pretty, and angelic-looking (and sounding) if the jury would've gone harder on her.  

[Blissfool]

12 minutes ago, 12catcrazy said:

That guy's car was a total pigpen, but why would he keep the bottle of pills if he had been guilty? 

 

Also, why would he order the colchicine with an email that so obviously incriminates him "mradamyoder"

16 minutes ago, 12catcrazy said:

Badgerwoman above mentions a Hulu doc about this guy and info about Katie that Dateline didn't tell us.  

I'm watching it right now and, 30 mins in, there is so much info that Dateline left out.

Her rape injury pictures were fake. One juror that led to the hung jury was a tenant of the Conley family. She searched many different poisons on her phone. Makes me mad that she's out living life as if nothing ever happened. 

[pdlinda]

23 minutes ago, Blissfool said:

Her rape injury pictures were fake. One juror that led to the hung jury was a tenant of the Conley family. She searched many different poisons on her phone.

Well, she was convicted in the 2nd trial so, apparently, unless there's a 3rd trial, those facts would have no bearing on the outcome.

[badgerwoman]

59 minutes ago, pdlinda said:

How do you know that?  Did I miss something??

found it in other discussions of the case.  The DA decided to concentrate on the murder charge and dropped that part.

[UsernameFatigue]

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. 

Edited March 24 by UsernameFatigue

[Medicine Crow]

I must say that I was not an Andrea Canning fan, but she's grown on me (& I like her look) these days.

[JudyObscure]

I've always watched Dateline the morning after, on my computer, through Spectrum, my cable provider.  

Now I can't do it because NBC is insisting I go through some rigmarole and join a NBCUniversity thing.  I called Spectrum although I knew it wasn't their fault.  I can still watch CBS and PBS online.  I ended up buying a whole new package and someone has to come out to set it up.

NBC may lose a lot of viewers over this.

[Realitystarr]

On 3/16/2025 at 10:55 AM, UsernameFatigue said:

Not sure why Dateline left that info out, but I find that Dateline often omits info that doesn't fit the narrative they are presenting. It seems Scott may not have had anything to do with his kids while he was with Desiree as there was no mention of her being a step mom to three kids. Very odd.  The article I read didn't say how old Scott's son was when he died in 2019, only that is was a sudden death.

Not to beat a dead horse but his son's obituary clearly states he died  at 39 years of age.  I also went and found Scotts Sunfords info that corresponded with all his kids etc etc and he is  much older then stated in the Dateline show.   And on his facebook there is  photo of him with Jeffrey which was also included in the above article I posted AND on his facebook he posted that photo 4 years after Jeffrey died so they did spend time together and his other kids commented on the photo too so they do have a relationship.

Either way I'm not going to debate it or share much more of the links to their personal info. Anyone who  knows how to google and wants the facts can do it themselves.

[Tdoc72]

On 3/23/2025 at 7:40 AM, badgerwoman said:

I think she's guilty, too.  The whole sending the letter about where the bottle of colchicine is pretty suspicious.  and she lied.

 

There was a hulu documentary about this case, I didn't see it but I found writeups of evidence dateline didn't include.  Katie  was stealing from the practice, using the practice money to pay her own bills.  She admitted to buying the prepaid credit cards used to buy the drug.  Her DNA was on the bottle.  She lied about being pregnant after a breakup with Adam.  Her pictures to prove he was abusive to her were downloaded from the internet.  She has lied about a lot of stuff, and it is pretty clear she and Adam had a pretty toxic relationship.

 

 

We Thought We Knew You by M. William Phelps is a great book about this case. I highly recommend it. He commented during the Hulu doc. 
 

She also did something to a previous boyfriend, but I can’t remember if it was stalking or falsely accusing him of abuse too. (It was in the book.)

And I never thought Bill the husband was having an affair before the wife died. I think he was an old man, saddened by the loss of his wife and got w/her sister, who was also recently widowed. Just two lonely sad people. 
 

I wish they would retry her but a lot of the more compelling evidence is from the cellphone is now excluded so I’m not sure they will. 7 years may be all the justice the family gets. 

[iMonrey]

On 3/23/2025 at 12:35 PM, TVbitch said:

The way the son was acting, I could also believe the two of them were in on everything together. Did they rule that out before they gave him immunity?

I guess? Because that's what I sort of gravitated to as well - that Katie and Adam were in on this together. And she framed him/turned him in when they broke up. I'm still not entirely convinced Adam didn't play a part in this, and I could even be persuaded he was behind the whole thing and framed Katie.

EXCEPT. The drug found under the passenger seat. With Katie's DNA on it but not Adam's. I have a hard time getting past that. Why would Adam put it under the passenger seat? Isn't it far more likely whoever was sitting in the passenger seat would slip it under there? Every time I go back to that I circle back to thinking Katie is guilty and tried to frame Adam.

There's also the fact that Adam was 300 miles away the day his mother was poisoned. I understand it's possible she was poisoned some time earlier than that day, but it seems far more likely it was done that day.  All the patients said she was fine up until lunchtime. And that really only leaves Katie as the most likely suspect. Also she changed her story multiple times while being questioned by the police. If she were just innocent and trying to do the right thing by turning Adam in why would she need to keep. changing her story?

Quote

So often Dateline leaves out pertinent information in cases they are covering. 

A lot of times I think that's because they have to negotiate with the suspect's lawyer about what they will and won't cover in order to get an interview with said suspect. That was clearly the case here. They also have to be very careful about what they can prove or risk a lawsuit.

Edited March 25 by iMonrey

[TVbitch]

After thinking about it, I'm leaning toward Adam being in on theft from the practice with Katie, but then when they thought they were about to get busted by Mary, Katie took it upon herself to solve their problem. Maybe that's why the son was so destroyed and bedridden for weeks and drinking heavily afterwards. He knows his part in it set events in motion. Then when the police ruled it a murder, Katie realized she better frame Adam.  

[UsernameFatigue]

13 hours ago, Realitystarr said:

Not to beat a dead horse but his son's obituary clearly states he died  at 39 years of age.  I also went and found Scotts Sunfords info that corresponded with all his kids etc etc and he is  much older then stated in the Dateline show.   And on his facebook there is  photo of him with Jeffrey which was also included in the above article I posted AND on his facebook he posted that photo 4 years after Jeffrey died so they did spend time together and his other kids commented on the photo too so they do have a relationship.

Either way I'm not going to debate it or share much more of the links to their personal info. Anyone who  knows how to google and wants the facts can do it themselves.

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. 

Edited March 25 by UsernameFatigue

[nora1992]

I’m late catching up, but the Mary Yoder case is tragic.  Conley is out not because of new evidence of innocence, but because the police only had a warrant to take her phone and not look at it (?????)

Mary’s sisters hate Bill more than they love Mary.  Her killer WAS in prison, but they are so blinded by 40+ years of disgust that they have lost all objectivity.

people can be a**h0les and still not be guilty of murder.  And, even with a $400k inheritance, Mary would still be needed as the sole breadwinner.  $400k is a lot of money, but that would be living on $50K for 8 years.  Where would the money come for years 9 and beyond?

[mostlylurking]

On 3/23/2025 at 7:48 PM, UsernameFatigue said:

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’m only half an hour in but I’m actually finding Mary’s sisters and their accents to be extremely distracting and annoying (sorry to anyone with this accent, I’m sure my voice is no picnic either).  My heart went out to the daughters!  I didn’t find them fake at all, they truly seemed heartbroken and were crying with real tears.  They seem very traumatized by this whole ordeal. I came on here to say exactly that and I’m surprised others found them fake.  I’ll have to check out the Hulu special as well.

It seems Andrea is trying to channel Keith with her narrating delivery.  She’s trying to get her own trademark style going.  I don’t hate it.

On 3/15/2025 at 5:29 PM, JudyObscure said:

My favorite line was Scot's after the detective asked him if Desiree  had and enemies, "No way!  She was an art teacher!  It's an elective!"

I laughed out loud at that!

Edited March 31 by mostlylurking

[Ohmo]

Dana Chandler

I think she's guilty AND I think her decision to represent herself points to the fact that she's guilty. She really thought she could pull one over on the jury in the same way she apparently got that Innocence guy to raise all of that money for her defense.  Dana thought she was all that and a bag of chips.

I always think of TVBitch who once said "Someone killed her/him/them."  That's a simple fact.

There was no forced entry.

Nothing was taken.

It wasn't a high-crime area

No other people in their circles matched up.

Her alibi was all kinds of hinky.

Even with no hair or DNA, I think she did it, and I'm glad the jury agreed.

[badgerwoman]

10 hours ago, Ohmo said:

Dana Chandler

I think she's guilty AND I think her decision to represent herself points to the fact that she's guilty. She really thought she could pull one over on the jury in the same way she apparently got that Innocence guy to raise all of that money for her defense.  Dana thought she was all that and a bag of chips.

she certainly didn't help herself.   Her strategy was to accuse everyone of lying about her behavior.  

I admire her daughter for attempting to get her to admit the truth.  

 

[iMonrey]

Have Andrea's eyebrows always been spray-painted on like that? They looked extra big and brown. If they've always been that way I don't think I've noticed before.

Deadly Obsession: I looked up this Darryl Burton guy who runs a website called "Miracle of Innocence." I don't know why he chose to insert himself into this story. At best he's projecting. At worst he's seeking attention/publicity. When the accused's own daughter testifies against her in the killing of her father you can pretty much take that to the bank. I don't know why the second jury was hung. Hilarious that the third jury only took three hours to convict her after she made a fool of herself trying to act in her own defense. If she'd stuck with a good defense attorney she might have gotten another hung jury and the state might not have tried her a fourth time.

Interesting that Hailey's brother Dustin did not participate in this story. I don't think we even saw him, I wonder if he was at any of the trials. 

Another thing I noted was that Mike and Karen occupied one half of a duplex/condo but the show didn't interview whoever lived in the other half to see if they heard anything. We heard briefly from a neighbor who lived a few doors down but nothing from the people who would have been nearest to them.

[badgerwoman]

25 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

 

Interesting that Hailey's brother Dustin did not participate in this story. I don't think we even saw him, I wonder if he was at any of the trials. 

 

https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/crime/2018/12/07/dana-chandler-cross-examines-her-children-during-hearing-friday/6747722007/

 

He was there and testified.  

[Mondrianyone]

I can't shake the image of Dana jumping up and down on their trampoline in the middle of the night and cackling like a loon. She really was a mental case.

[Peanut6711]

While I think she was guilty, I can understand why several of the prosecutors didn't want to risk taking it to trial. There wasn't much hard evidence.  Nothing tying her to a gun or definitively putting her in the state. The two gas cans (more likely for traveling in rural areas rather than major interstates) to avoid stopping for gas yet she stopped at a convivence store and interacted with a clerk made a conflicting narrative, though I guess some of the juries didn't get that part.  Again, I believe she's guilty, but the case was weak and definitely had room for jury reasonable doubt.

Never the less, she basically hung herself on both the law and order end. First, by lawyering up when the police only came around to cover all the bases. Most innocent exes living out of state would have simply stated that. The fact that she only agreed to meet police in her lawyer's office in contrast to the kids who all gave willing statements and took polygraphs was a big red flag. And then second, by representing herself. Odd since she had a good attorney funded by that innocence group.

She definitely had some mental health issues. 

55 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Have Andrea's eyebrows always been spray-painted on like that? They looked extra big and brown. If they've always been that way I don't think I've noticed before.

Oh yeah, she's been rocking that Groucho Marx look for a while.  It's distracted me before. 

[TVbitch]

Agree she was guilty, and poor Darryl seems naive and needs to make better choices for his innocence project. Kind of refreshing to see kids who weren't buying their parent's stories. The thing that made me completely dismiss her alibi is that no woman traveling alone is going to sleep in her car overnight on the side of the road with no cell service because she wants to go driving in the mountains. Especially since it appeared her car was just a sedan. 

Now onto other important things, like Andrea's makeup. 😁 She's always overdone it, in my estimation, but this episode I thought her makeup was particularly garish. I think she would look so much better if she dialed it back. It was almost pageant level heavy, and it really ages her. Just some sage advice from someone who doesn't even wear makeup. 🤭

[nora1992]

14 hours ago, TVbitch said:

. The thing that made me completely dismiss her alibi is that no woman traveling alone is going to sleep in her car overnight on the side of the road with no cell service because she wants to go driving in the mountains. Especially since it appeared her car was just a sedan. 
 

To counter this argument, in my younger days when driving across states, I did sleep in my sedan in rest areas/ Walmart parking lots when traveling alone and unable to find a hotel with a coupon.  Remember the paper books with walk-in rates that were organized by highway exit?  I was young, poor and unafraid/cheap/dumb.
This isn’t an argument for innocence, but proof that people can have even less sense than you’d think.

Edited April 6 by nora1992
Deleted what was meant to be quoted

[Vivigirl10]

21 hours ago, Mondrianyone said:

I can't shake the image of Dana jumping up and down on their trampoline in the middle of the night and cackling like a loon. She really was a mental case.

Not making light of the ultimately chilling aspect of this but the image of it did kind of make me chuckle.  I bet they were like, WTH??? 

These lunatics representing themselves in court only goes to show a person who continues to believe they are smarter than everyone else in the room.  I.e., capable of getting away with murder.

What a great tactic for the prosecutor to pin Dana down to "yes" or "no" questions and show her complete inability to comply.  She had to explain away everything. 

I was a little worried with her looking like a pretty nice, benign, older lady by the time of the last trial.  And just being given an open floor to plead her case/side of the story.

I really felt for the daughter having had a strained relationship with her Dad at the time of his death.  Typical of so many teenagers but never having had the chance to repair it.  I hope she's forgiven herself and understands she was just a child. 

The thing that kills me about Andrea are the completely asinine rhetorical type questions she asks (and to be fair, I think other interviewers do this as well in this type of format).  My husband and I often yell alternative answers at the t.v. "You must really miss Victim A?"....."Yeah, not really".  "So she was just a pretty amazing person, huh?"......"Actually, she was kind of terrible and awful to be around".  I mean come on.  What are they going to say?  It happens over and over again.

[Pi237]

26 minutes ago, Vivigirl10 said:

. 

The thing that kills me about Andrea are the completely asinine rhetorical type questions she asks (and to be fair, I think other interviewers do this as well in this type of format).  My husband and I often yell alternative answers at the t.v. "You must really miss Victim A?"....."Yeah, not really".  "So she was just a pretty amazing person, huh?"......"Actually, she was kind of terrible and awful to be around".  I mean come on.  What are they going to say?  It happens over and over again.

This 1000% drives me insane! She doesn’t interview. She leads. With wide eyes and bad acting. Stop It. 

[Ohmo]

I'm putting this here because I'm sure Dateline must have covered the Karen Read case.  48 Hours definitely has.

I'm seeing it mentioned all over the place.  Hulu and several news outlets.  My question is why?  Why is this case getting so much attention?  We all know about it 'cause we like true crime shows, but most Dateline/48 Hours cases don't travel into mainstream outlets.  Why has this one garnered so much attention?

Oh, don't forget.  There's supposed to be a new Dateline episode now on Sundays---10/9 central.  Plan accordingly. 😁

[pdlinda]

9 hours ago, Vivigirl10 said:

So she was just a pretty amazing person, huh?"......"Actually, she was kind of terrible and awful to be around".

I remark about the same thing with every single episode.  Every victim is described with the same glowing, remarkable terms.  "Lights up a room", "a sparkling personality", "once you meet her/him you'll never forget him/her", " a smile that was unforgettable."  

The thought occurred to me that only the very best of humanity are crime victims according to the reality crime shows like Dateline.

I worked in criminal defense for many years so I KNOW the truth.  In many instances, the criminal behavior involves two individuals who were arguing or otherwise engaged in conflict.  

If a clock was used to monitor the ultimate event (the death of one) at one moment, one of the parties was the "victim"...10 minutes before, the OTHER PARTY was the victim of criminal behavior (but not killed), and so it goes...it's like a "dance of dysfunction" made up of many component pieces of a relationship puzzle. 

However, I admit that the surviving family members/friends must feel better remembering their deceased loved one in the terms mentioned, regardless of the truth...so there's that....

 

[Lsk02]

13 hours ago, Ohmo said:

I'm putting this here because I'm sure Dateline must have covered the Karen Read case.  48 Hours definitely has.

I'm seeing it mentioned all over the place.  Hulu and several news outlets.  My question is why?  Why is this case getting so much attention?  We all know about it 'cause we like true crime shows, but most Dateline/48 Hours cases don't travel into mainstream outlets.  Why has this one garnered so much attention?

Oh, don't forget.  There's supposed to be a new Dateline episode now on Sundays---10/9 central.  Plan accordingly. 😁

Dateline covered it in October2024, you can see the discussion here starting on page 206. The episode is called The Night of the Nor’easter. 
As for why so much coverage, who knows. Magic mixture of attractive victim and suspect, possible police corruption, and more? I haven’t seen any of the other coverage, so I can’t speak to it. But I do remember the Dateline episode. 

[iMonrey]

18 hours ago, Ohmo said:

I'm seeing it mentioned all over the place.  Hulu and several news outlets.  My question is why?  Why is this case getting so much attention?  We all know about it 'cause we like true crime shows, but most Dateline/48 Hours cases don't travel into mainstream outlets.  Why has this one garnered so much attention?

Part of it might be that there's a documentary about her on MAX.

[Vivigirl10]

Regarding Karen Read, I think it's also because what happened is highly debatable with many people having a strong opinion. It's a true "whodunnit".  I don't know that it will ever be truly clear or proven, one way or the other.  I've watched the Dateline and the MAX documentary, as well as done some reading online, and I'm still not sure where I stand.  I'll be following the next trial. 

 

[iMonrey]

"The Widow of Woodland Hills." The title sort of gives it away, don't you think? As if that were not enough, within the first ten minutes it was clear they were interviewing everyone except the wife. 

It's amazing how many people think they can get away with murdering their spouses, but I guess that's what keeps Dateline in business.

Josh really summed it up with the typical murderer defense. "I lied about this and this and this, but I'm not lying about this!" 

[badgerwoman]

42 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

 

Josh really summed it up with the typical murderer defense. "I lied about this and this and this, but I'm not lying about this!" 

that was pretty funnyl

[LakeGal]

20/20 and Dateline both did this case at the same time opposite each other.  I realize the case was just settled in court.  They all jump on the case.  Is 48 Hrs going to do this case too?

[badgerwoman]

1 hour ago, LakeGal said:

20/20 and Dateline both did this case at the same time opposite each other.  I realize the case was just settled in court.  They all jump on the case.  Is 48 Hrs going to do this case too?

they did it originally in 2018, and an update in 2024.  there's  a thread in the 48 hours forum.  

[TVbitch]

I remember this one from before, so I wasn't spoiled, but yeah, way to give away the twist in the episode title. That's why I never look at the title when I'm watching.

Hard to believe Robert's Alaskan friend, who had no record, and who would almost come off as a decent guy (if he hadn't helped murder somebody), just went along with it for what was at most going to be a $30,000 payday. He kept talking about how, after the murder, Robert could not convince him that he was still a good guy. Ya think?

I wonder if the family has any relaitonship with the daughters, who still clearly support their mother.

For those who also watched the 20/20 version, is it worth watching if you've already watched this one?

[Realitystarr]

delete

Edited April 13 by Realitystarr

[Pi237]

I fell asleep a dozen times trying to watch the 20/20 version. A few more with this one. These shows are sooooo dragged out and repetitive! 

[Peanut6711]

20 hours ago, TVbitch said:

I wonder if the family has any relationship with the daughters, who still clearly support their mother.

I hope the aunts, their brother, and a good therapist help the daughters see the light of day. I can imagine it would be troubling to come to terms with the fact that your mother killed your father (and possibly set you up to find him) but given the kind of person their mother appeared to be, it's better for them to realize it and deal with it, otherwise she will continue to be a toxic influence on them even from jail.

[pdlinda]

4 hours ago, Pi237 said:

These shows are sooooo dragged out and repetitive! 

At this point, I AM CONVINCED that the legacy networks (ABC/NBC/CBS) are in revenue freefall...people simply are going to other forms of media...yes, i know each has a streaming venue but insofar as production costs for long-running shows like our favorite "true crime genre" are concerned, I see $$$ being cut bigtime.

Therefore, what we're seeing are cases covered YEARS AGO being revisited as "new developments" like the actual trial occur.  Much less expensive to cover.  They have a time slot so that's why we're stuck with "stretching out" each episode.

The thing that ALWAYS amazes me is how unfazed and "normal" the actual perpetrators of the crimes appear, regardless of the grisly facts that emerge regarding their PROVEN role in committing the crime. 

I always attribute that to their inner core of "denial" and the fact that jails/prisons have a robust program of "medication protocols" for 90% of inmates whom they deem to be "seriously mentally ill."

 

Edited April 13 by pdlinda