00:00:00
I could not kill them. I did not have anything to do with killing him. It felt shocking and devastating. I mean, it was not in our minds.
00:00:13
We really never believed that she was capable of this. They seem the ultimate power couple.
00:00:22
He had all the medals. Silver Star, Purple Heart. She told me she would be traveling on secret missions.
00:00:28
Flying on Air Force Two. Right with the vice president. But it took a hidden camera to detect their real secret mission.
00:00:36
We started doing surveillance. We'd observe them outside their home. Dark schemes and a deadly secret.
00:00:44
I'm thinking to myself, this can't be true. What had happened to her last husband?
00:00:49
She's screaming and she's like Bob's dead. It was horrible. And he's just like in disbelief.
00:00:56
Whoever did this was very evil. Her son suspected the truth. Would he reveal it?
00:01:03
She looked at me with the most hate I've ever seen. It felt like a betrayal. Mother against son.
00:01:12
It makes you question everybody. Everything's at stake. Hardest thing you ever did.
00:01:16
That was the hardest thing. I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline. Here's Keith Morrison with Secrets in the Smoky Mountains.
00:01:28
It seems alive somehow here in the foothills of Tennessee's Appalachians. The creeping tendrils of mountain mist that snake and swirl like lies.
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there's gold in there somewhere so they say the sort of place where you could strike it rich
00:02:02
or maybe get away with murder very scary shocking and devastating so after that mysterious death here who could anyone trust dearest friends the word betrayal
00:02:20
come to mind? Oh, absolutely. Brothers in arms? It's beyond disturbing. Closest family? She looked
00:02:28
at me as if she wished I was dead. Maybe no one. We were always looking over our shoulder.
00:02:38
Might still be, had it not been for him. Pretty shocking stuff. I don't think I'll work anything
00:02:45
like this again in my career just because of the different twists and turns. Yes, in that toxic swamp of secret identities, of heroes and villains, driven by greed, lust,
00:02:59
power. Whoever set this up and whoever did this was very evil. Oh, so many lies.
00:03:08
Everything that you were taught as a kid was a lie. This place, where the story begins,
00:03:20
seems created not for lies, but for love. The tranquil waters and soft sunsets are bradent in Florida.
00:03:29
And though the local sheriff's office may seem an unlikely place to find love, here's where it struck a county detective named Bob McClancy.
00:03:37
Anything to say, Bobby? I have a lot to say. How many hours do we have left on the tape?
00:03:43
A funny man. Welcome to Pasquale's Kitchen. And very kind, said his nieces. Not just a people.
00:03:52
We'd be so excited to go over there to see what new animal he got. Or he would be like, oh, I got a new bird. Come over and see it.
00:04:00
Give me a kiss. He had got us little turtles as kids. He was a real animal guy, wasn't he?
00:04:07
He was, yes. Say hi, Kristen. Loved his nieces, too. He used to take us out on the boat. He just always took care of us.
00:04:16
Just like he took care of his sister Kathy when they were kids. It was always like the two of us doing everything, yeah.
00:04:23
Causing havoc. As a sheriff's deputy said his sister Kathy, he once faced down a violent gang.
00:04:32
They had knocked him to the ground and took his gun and everything and beat him up.
00:04:36
As a matter of fact, I believe that they fired a shot, but it missed. So he barely made it through that one.
00:04:42
His marriage couldn't take it, and Bob McClancy sought love elsewhere. And then a southern belle at the sheriff's department,
00:04:51
an aloof secretary known as the office whiz, caught his eye. Her name was Martha Ann.
00:04:57
Was he crazy about Martha Ann? Yes, he was. He was really smitten. How close were the two of them? Could you tell that?
00:05:04
They seemed very close. Very. Very much in love. As much as we knew them, they always looked out for each other.
00:05:11
It was a real love match. Yes. Martha Ann had two sons. I always respected my mom.
00:05:18
She was very charming, highly intelligent. Sean was adopted as a baby, met Jen as a teenager, and she became his wife.
00:05:30
Where Sean was from was not discussed at home. But then he had Martha Ann, the only mother he'd ever known.
00:05:37
A mother is the sun and the moon and the stars to a little kid. Did it feel like she was?
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I was always told since a young age that the only people you can trust completely are your parents.
00:05:52
In the mid Sean mom Martha Ann was going through a painful divorce and then fell for the detective Bob Bob was very down and he taught me a lot of things
00:06:06
Like what? How to be a man. How to be a real person. Sounds like you liked Bob. I liked Bob a lot.
00:06:14
In 1995, Bob and Martha Ann got married. And on holidays, Bob's sister Kathy got closer to Martha Ann.
00:06:22
We'd go out shopping. That was our big Thanksgiving. You know, Bobby would stay home and the girls would just take off and go shopping.
00:06:30
Bob and Martha Ann retired in the late 90s, left Florida, and bought a big secluded hillside cabin in Coker Creek, eastern Tennessee,
00:06:40
in the shadow of the Smoky Mountains, not far from where Martha Ann grew up. A place where a man could forget about being a cop and all that violence.
00:06:52
By then, Sean and Jen had their own family and visited from time to time. Bob especially would treat our kids great.
00:06:59
He was fond of them. He was the real deal. Martha Ann went back to work, accounting job.
00:07:06
She loved numbers. And they made time for friends, too, like Debbie Hartman. We met at church.
00:07:14
Bob and Martha Ann just became very dear friends. friends. In Martha Ann, Debbie found her soulmate. She was what I would refer to as the quintessential
00:07:25
southern lady. She was like a sister to me. We had the same type of upbringing, the same type of
00:07:32
morals. We had fun together. We enjoyed sharing recipes together. She had two boys. I had two
00:07:38
girls. We'd talk about our children. We just were very, very close. Over the years, they shared
00:07:44
cookouts, road trips, church events. Just like two peas from the same pot. And you could just see, said Debbie, how much Bob and Martha Ann loved each other.
00:07:57
Never once did I hear them argue or have a sour word against one another. Never.
00:08:03
Just very loving. Like the perfect couple. And then, May 2006, when Martha Ann was at work, a family friend stopped by to see Bob at home.
00:08:16
And in front of him, well, he called 911. Martha Ann got home, then called for her friend, Debbie.
00:08:32
And she's screaming, and she's like, Bob's dead. And I'm like, Bob's dead. What had happened to Bob McClancy?
00:08:41
When we come back. I cried for 10 hours. I couldn't believe we lost such a great man.
00:08:46
Shocking. The two of us just cried our eyes out. The next thing you know, the sheriff comes out.
00:08:52
And I'm like, what in the world's going on? And she's like, I don't know. When Dateline continues.
00:09:05
It was the 15th of May, 2006, in Coker Creek, eastern Tennessee, 5 p.m. Now, when we're in emergency, I just walked into the residence, just the McClancy residence.
00:09:22
The, uh, Mr. McClancy appears to be, uh, expired. Bob McClancy, 56 years old, was lying in his favorite recliner.
00:09:33
The caller, a family friend, said the body was already cold. All right, we're on the way up there, okay?
00:09:39
Thanks, sir. The friend hung up and waited for first responders. I was a detective.
00:09:44
I'd been a detective for almost a year. Travis Jones, then a detective with the Monroe County Sheriff's Department,
00:09:51
was one of the first to go into the house. What did you see when you got there? I found Robert McClancy in a recliner.
00:09:59
I had a pistol in one hand, and an empty bottle of pills in the other hand. Have you ever seen such a thing before?
00:10:06
No. The gun hadn't been fired. But there were pills strewn all over Bob McClancy's body.
00:10:12
A white foam around his mouth pointed to an overdose. And a do not resuscitate order signed by Bob McClancy and left in the kitchen said he wanted to die.
00:10:23
Did you see this do not resuscitate order? I did. It looked like suicide. And Martha Ann had to spread the dreadful news to Bob's sister and nieces in Florida.
00:10:36
When you got the call, what is the duty to hear that about somebody you're so close to?
00:10:42
It was like in disbelief. It's like a nightmare. Yeah. Shocking. Can't imagine. When she told me he took an overdose and killed himself.
00:10:52
Do you still remember that moment? Yes, I do. You know, it affected me quite a while.
00:10:58
Sean, too, was grief-stricken when he heard about his stepdad's death. It must come as a shock.
00:11:04
I think I cried for ten hours driving from Florida to Tennessee. I couldn't believe we lost such a great man.
00:11:14
But shocking as it was, to those who knew Bob intimately, it was not a complete surprise.
00:11:21
Why? Four letters. PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. Back when the Vietnam War was sinking into its bloody depths,
00:11:31
Bob volunteered to go as a Marine. It took its toll, as did life-threatening incidents during his police career.
00:11:39
Bob had been on heavy medications, but still suffered flashbacks, nightmares, depression.
00:11:46
He said to me one day, I'm kind of having a rough time at the moment. I've not been sleeping real well.
00:11:52
And he said so I get up and I sit in the chair in the hallway And what worries me is if I fall asleep in the chair and maybe Martha Ann will get up to go to the restroom maybe I attack her
00:12:07
He said, you know, I'm having issues, and he said it kind of worries me. Martha Ann told Debbie she was very troubled.
00:12:15
She said, I'm trying, but you know, when I'm at work, he'll get in his bills. She said, Bob is abusing it.
00:12:22
bob's sister kathy had also seen warning signs how did you become aware that ptsd was really
00:12:31
beginning to become a factor in his life that had to be dealt with we had been up for thanksgiving
00:12:36
and he had explained to me that right after the holidays that there was a program and
00:12:41
he was going to enter it when that all came up that he was going into that program
00:12:45
i found it shocking you know yeah i mean he never because he never seemed like that at all he never
00:12:52
seemed like that. He never seemed like anything bothered him. Bob's New Year's resolution for 2006
00:12:59
was to finally beat PTSD. And in January, he set off to Nashville for an intensive six-week program
00:13:06
run by the VA. Soon after he got there, he called his sister Kathy with hope in his voice. He'd made
00:13:13
a new friend. His roommate, Charles Kazmarzyk, went by Chuck. He had told me that he finally found
00:13:20
somebody to talk to that understood what he went through in Vietnam because Chuck was there.
00:13:27
Yeah, you kind of need somebody who's been through the same thing, I guess. Yeah, right. Yeah. So he was happy.
00:13:33
Bob's new veteran friend Chuck was no average grunt. He was the very model of a war hero.
00:13:39
Special Forces airman, citations for valor earned in the most daring operations.
00:13:45
And such a big shot, he was invited to the presidential inauguration. Inauguration.
00:13:49
Do solemnly swear. Chuck was a sort of tonic Bob seemed to need. This relationship continued after the program was over, right?
00:13:57
Yes. After they got out of the program in February, Bob spent most of his time with Chuck.
00:14:04
He lived not far away in Knoxville. They did handyman jobs at each other's homes.
00:14:09
Bob had, you know, kind of replaced everybody else with Chuck. You know, Chuck was everything.
00:14:18
But Bob's PTSD persisted. Martha Ann did what she could to pick up Bob's spirits,
00:14:25
though that seemed to backfire when she got a makeover. She had had her hair cut short and blonde.
00:14:32
Big change. Big change. And I'm like, oh my God, you look beautiful. And she says, well, I'm certainly glad you like it.
00:14:39
She said, because Bob doesn't like it at all. He had a fit that I cut my hair off.
00:14:45
I said, but then a lot of men like ladies with long hair. So, you know, give him time. He'll come around.
00:14:51
When Martha Ann was at work, Chuck kept an eye on Bob. Chuck was right there. But Bob was in a downward spiral.
00:15:00
Martha Ann complained that Bob was abusing his antidepressants. And Martha Ann and Chuck found themselves managing one painful scare after another.
00:15:11
In one episode, they rushed Bob to the VA hospital more than three hours away, passed out in the car.
00:15:17
Out of it. Out of it. I understand they had to stop the car because they thought they were going to have to do CPR on them.
00:15:24
Bob was stabilized and, after he was deemed well enough, sent home. Two days later, on that Monday in May, Martha Ann got up early and went to work as usual.
00:15:35
She'd arranged for Chuck to check in on Bob that afternoon. It was he who found Bob.
00:15:41
Called 911. one. Debbie arrived later to find police cars and ambulances and a frantic
00:15:48
Martha Ann. And so the two of us just sat there and just hugged each other and bawled
00:15:54
and, you know, just cried our eyes out. Oh, it was horrible. Bob is dead. The next thing you know, the sheriff
00:16:08
comes out with Chuck in a t-shirt and I'm like what in the world's going on and she's like I don't know
00:16:17
so they drove off with Chuck coming up police have some questions for Chuck to come in and find your friend
00:16:28
dead he wasn't kind of rushing around and all upset no he was calm which was kind of suspicious
00:16:34
maybe you got a crime here yes when Dateline continues Martha Ann was a mess. Her husband, Bob, dead of an overdose of PTSD medications.
00:16:56
And she couldn't even get back into her own house. So her best friend, Debbie, and her husband took her in.
00:17:03
And, you know, the three of us just, you know, why, what happened, you know, crying, you know, all night long.
00:17:11
just sobbing and in disbelief that Bob was gone. To be there for my mom, I left immediately and drove through the night.
00:17:23
And Sean was filled with a flood of sorrow and guilt that he hadn't been there for his stepdad, Bob, as Bob had been there for him.
00:17:33
Bob took care of me every day. It'll make you feel close to a person. It did. debbie tried in vain to ease martha ann's grief i would bring up you know fun things that we had
00:17:47
done with bob you had a cry about it and it would be like no we're not gonna have that anymore
00:17:52
you know and then they not start bowling and of course then she start bowling with me and to make it even worse bob best friend Chuck had been taken away by sheriff deputies And so Debbie watched as Martha Ann tried to cope with her own sorrow
00:18:09
As she planned her husband's funeral. Anxious at the same time for her friend. That those small town cops had the wrong idea about Chuck.
00:18:18
And I thought, you know, okay, this was Bob's best buddy now. you know you're grieving for bob and you now you've got to take care of chuck a tough situation
00:18:27
for her situation which was about to get tougher courtesy of that small town sheriff's deputy
00:18:33
travis jones something strange here he thought he and the other detectives so they held chuck
00:18:40
for questioning for one thing why was he so cool his best buddy was lying there dead he wasn't
00:18:48
Kind of rushing around and all upset or anything like that? No. Calm. He was calm, which was kind of suspicious in itself.
00:18:57
To come in, find your friend dead, and he was calm. As he had been calm and kind of strange on the 911 call.
00:19:05
Mr. McClancy appears to be expired. The operator suggested Chuck might try to revive Bob.
00:19:11
If you want to try to do some type of CPR on him, I can give you instructions if you want to.
00:19:16
I'm CPR quality. We do have a do not resuscitate order on him. Okay. Chuck didn't seem to want to save his own best friend.
00:19:24
And to the detective, that do not resuscitate order seemed maybe just a little too convenient.
00:19:30
Maybe you got a crime here. Yes. Travis Jones wasn't alone. Bob's sister Kathy had her doubts, too.
00:19:38
Kathy knew Bob suffered from PTSD and took medication, but she refused to believe her brother would kill himself.
00:19:45
I mean, he could have part of his finger hanging off. He would duct tape it up and keep going, you know.
00:19:52
That's the kind of guy you saw, too. Yeah. So a pill-popping brother didn't make any sense to you?
00:19:59
No, it did not. Suspicions deepened a week later when they traveled to Bob's funeral in eastern Tennessee.
00:20:06
Deep in their grief, they met their friend who'd reported Bob's death to the police
00:20:11
and who was back in the community as police continued to look into him. His name was Chuck Kazmarzik.
00:20:18
How would you describe the guy? He was very creepy. There was just something about him, like,
00:20:24
when he looked at you, it was almost like he could just stare through you. Sean and Jen saw the same.
00:20:31
He seemed like a tough military guy. There was a look about him. The cold stare.
00:20:38
Yeah. then Kathy got a copy of the 911 call and what she heard sounded like the verbal equivalent
00:20:46
of a thousand yard stare mr mcclancy appears to be uh expired and i played the tape i played it
00:20:55
over and over and wrote it word for word what was in the tape and it didn't make sense a couple of
00:21:01
things first he said he didn't touch the body then he told the 911 operator when he asked about
00:21:07
CPR. He said he didn't need it. He was already gone. Now, if he didn't touch the body, how would you know
00:21:13
he was gone? How do you go on after that when you're full of these doubts and suspicions?
00:21:19
You go on. You don't have a choice, you know. But I knew I would not let it drop. But in the end,
00:21:26
even though Chuck was questioned at length, everything he did put under a microscope,
00:21:31
the suspicion appeared to be unfounded. The coroner actually ruled it suicide. And then in the weeks and months after Bob's death,
00:21:43
as suspicions dissipated like the mist in the surrounding hills, Chuck could once again walk with his head held high.
00:21:50
When we did the Veterans Parade in Knoxville, they put him on the top because he was the most highly decorated.
00:21:57
After the awful tragedy of Bob's death, Chuck got on with his life again, said goodbye to his dear friend,
00:22:04
and comforted Bob's widow, Martha Ann. Oh boy. Coming up... He's lost his best friend.
00:22:14
She's lost her husband. Two grieving friends with growing feelings. It was like somebody just dropped a bomb on my head.
00:22:22
A cruise ship courtship. I looked at her and I said, Are you and Chuck together?
00:22:29
When Dateline continues. In the wake of Bob's death in May 2006, it was only natural, said Debbie,
00:22:46
that Martha Ann stayed in touch with Chuck. They shared a tremendous loss. He's lost his best friend.
00:22:52
She's lost her husband. They're commiserating. They're commiserating. They're helping each other through this grief.
00:22:58
And there was something else. Chuck said that Martha Ann was not feeling good. She was having issues with her back.
00:23:05
So it made sense Martha Ann would reduce her chores at home. Bob, remember, loved animals.
00:23:11
But the menagerie was too much for Martha Ann. So her son, Sean, helped her downsize.
00:23:18
Bob had an animal rescue that he ran out of his home. He had seven dogs and they had a couple cats and chickens and some goats.
00:23:29
and she started to get rid of all these animals as soon as he had passed away. Then there were other changes.
00:23:40
Weeks after Bob's death, Martha Ann invited Debbie and her husband to celebrate Chuck's birthday, dinner at Chuck's place.
00:23:47
When we got there, Martha Ann's dining room set was in Chuck's dining room. What did you think when you saw that?
00:23:55
I said, your furniture's up here. And she said, well, it certainly suits you. It's his house a whole lot better than mine.
00:24:02
But they're just friends? They're friends. They're friends. Still, how close were they getting?
00:24:09
I called her one day and I said, Jim and I are going to take a cruise. Debbie and her husband had gotten an incredible deal from a friend on a week-long Caribbean cruise.
00:24:19
And she said, well, do you think Chuck and I could go on that cruise? And it was like somebody just dropped a bomb on my head.
00:24:27
Chuck and I? And I said, if there's still spaces available, I'm sure she'll be glad to accommodate you.
00:24:35
It turned out there was still space. And Martha Ann and Chuck shared a cabin. And so we're on this cruise ship, and every event, you know, they're all dressed matchy-matchy.
00:24:50
And now, at mealtimes, when the waiter took orders, Chuck spoke for Martha Ann. Chuck would speak up and say,
00:24:58
the lady will have, and then he would order for her. When guests around the table rolled their eyes, said Debbie,
00:25:07
Martha Ann stiffened. She said, my mother taught etiquette, and a waiter would never have the nerve to speak to a lady.
00:25:17
Oh, my goodness. We were just all speechless. We were like, hello, do you know what century we're living in?
00:25:26
Have you heard of women's limb? We're allowed to order for ourselves. I was just absolutely floored that she would make a statement like that.
00:25:35
You know, a waiter would never have the nerve to speak to a lady. Wow. And I thought, well, number one, that is not Chuck.
00:25:44
I mean, he wouldn't know what right fork to use. Excuse me. Debbie at last confronted her good friend.
00:25:51
And that's when the other shoe dropped. And I looked at her and I said, Are you and Chuck together?
00:26:00
And she said, Yeah. And I said, Are you going to get married? And she goes, Oh, heavens no.
00:26:07
Though she was surprised, Debbie wanted her good friend to be happy. And when the ship docked in Cozumel, Mexico,
00:26:14
the group disembarked, went shopping, and then returned to the liner and compared their treasures.
00:26:21
And I said, So, you know, what did you guys get? And Martha Ann's like, you'll just have to wait and see.
00:26:28
Very, very mysterious. And, you know, it was kind of fun. A few weeks after the cruise and months after Bob's death,
00:26:38
Martha Ann invited Debbie and her husband to lunch. She said, I have something to show you.
00:26:43
And I said to her, is this our Cozumel surprise? and she pulls out a ring box that has the most gorgeous wedding set you'd ever want to lay eyes
00:26:54
on. It was breathtaking. Rings. And I'm like, oh my God, this is, I can't believe it. They weren't
00:27:04
getting married immediately, but when that time came, Martha Ann assured Debbie she would play
00:27:09
the supporting role. She said, and I want you to be my maid of honor. And I'm like, oh yeah, I'm
00:27:14
Excited, absolutely. I would love to be, you know, and I'm ecstatic for you. And I would be very honored to be your maid of honor.
00:27:21
Big deal to be asked. Big deal. So, in spite of the apparent sneaking around, thought Debbie,
00:27:29
there was something almost poetic about the romance between Martha Ann and Chuck.
00:27:35
And maybe dear old Bob would approve. I'm just so happy that the two of you, you know, have found one another.
00:27:42
You know, I know we've lost somebody dear to us, but something good has come out of this.
00:27:48
So congratulations. And besides romance, there was so much more to celebrate. Martha Ann and Chuck were going places.
00:27:59
They were about to be transformed from local Tennessee romantic partners into a sophisticated Washington, D.C. power couple.
00:28:08
Only in America. Coming up... She met a man from the FBI and she would be traveling on secret missions.
00:28:18
Flying on Air Force Two or something. Right, with the Vice President. Martha Ann's secret sudden change of fortune
00:28:25
when Dateline continues. It was five months or so after Bob's death, late 2006, Martha Ann and Chuck were about to move up in the world.
00:28:48
Martha Ann broke the news to Bob's sister, Kathy. She had parlayed her office wizardry into a big new high-profile adventure
00:28:56
with the federal government, who'd be spending time in Washington, D.C. She told me one day that she met a man from the FBI,
00:29:05
and he offered her a job as a secretary. She was getting a security clearance and she would be traveling out of the country on secret missions.
00:29:16
As a secretary? Yeah. Wasn't long before Martha Ann was promoted, as she told Kathy, she was transferred to the State Department.
00:29:27
Very hush-hush. She had a limo at her disposal, two passports, and with a government pension would never have any money worries again.
00:29:36
Her schedule filled up fast. She was apparently moving in the very highest circles.
00:29:42
She was already working for or flying on Air Force Two. Right, yeah, with the vice president.
00:29:49
Including travel to undisclosed locations. She's kind of hard to get hold of. Oh yeah there was no way of getting hold of her Sean though he moved to Tennessee with Jen and the kids and became a bridge inspector couldn reach his mom either I would call my mom to check in on her
00:30:08
and she would go missing for a month at a time, two months at a time, and you couldn't reach her
00:30:15
by cell phone or home phone. And as we find out, she's out traveling the country.
00:30:25
And though she was clearly very busy, Martha Ann, along with Chuck, carved out time to give back, to volunteer.
00:30:34
Together, they traveled the country, visiting military facilities. They presided over dedications and ceremonies honoring troops.
00:30:42
And Chuck handed flags to war widows at cemeteries. Chuck would go out with all these medals, and he'd go to the local high school and to veterans' parades.
00:30:53
He also reconnected with the guys he'd served with way back when. They were called old times.
00:31:00
When I first met Chuck, he had just started his training. He just fit in like all the other guys.
00:31:07
He was just one of us. He seemed to be a nice guy. Bill Walter and P.J. Cook are combat veterans who, with Chuck,
00:31:14
were gunners on some of the most powerful gunships in the U.S. arsenal back in Vietnam.
00:31:19
They lost touch, easy to do in such a sprawling military. But decades later, PJ ran into Chuck at a reunion of his gunship unit called the Specter Association.
00:31:32
So it was kind of just good to see the guy because he was just the guy we served with.
00:31:36
I just assumed that he completed his career like I did. And I served 22 years, Bill served 30, and we gave our whole life to this unit.
00:31:45
Back in the old days, said Bill, Chuck's nickname was Kaz. But now, Kaz had come up in the world from the lowest ranks to the highest.
00:31:55
So I go up there and I talk to him and I said, hey, Kaz, what's up, man? How you been doing?
00:32:00
He says, oh, I retired here a couple of years ago. Really? Wow. And I said, well, what was your rank?
00:32:09
I retired as a chief. I'm like, really? As the former airman caught up on more than 25 years, Chuck flashed his medals.
00:32:18
And Chuck says, you guys should check your classified records. The VA checked my classified records, and I found out I got a whole bunch of really high medals from my operations in Vietnam.
00:32:31
Chuck invited PJ to his home in Knoxville, Tennessee. And I personally saw these awards on the wall in his house up in Tennessee.
00:32:40
What did you think when you saw it? Oh, I was floored. And I said, well, that's really great.
00:32:44
You got this. He goes, oh, yeah. They finally released these from classification, and here they are.
00:32:49
Then Chuck had an idea. He figured the Specter Association could benefit from Martha Ann's high wattage political and business savvy.
00:32:59
Wow, hey, anybody that volunteers to help is great. And as the months went by, Martha Ann carved out time from her schedule to become Association's secretary.
00:33:11
She was our recorder, yes. She was really good at taking down notes and making paper and so forth.
00:33:21
Association members were so impressed with the couple that Chuck was promoted to the board.
00:33:26
He and Martha Ann traveled internationally, representing Spectre, carrying the unit's mascot.
00:33:32
And there was time for fun, too. They reveled in their newfound happiness, enjoyed their new responsibilities, of course, but also decided to live a little.
00:33:41
Just out of nowhere, they said that, boy, we certainly like to have an RV. And my wife says, well, you know, my boss is selling a beautiful RV.
00:33:49
Well, of course, they went and looked at the RV and liked it a lot. So they made him an offer.
00:33:54
Right next to the RV, Chuck noticed a garaged anniversary edition Corvette. Tempting, even though he already had a Mercedes convertible.
00:34:04
He said, well, I like Corvettes, too. Show me that. Next thing you know, they bought the Corvette, too.
00:34:11
And pretty soon they were parading their new toys for their old friend Debbie. I hear a knock on the front door and I open the door.
00:34:20
And sitting in front of my house is this gorgeous, like $350,000 motorhome bus. Wow.
00:34:28
And it was to die for. This is what the wealthiest of the wealthiest drive. It had been custom made.
00:34:36
To Debbie and others, Martha Ann and Chuck had made it. They'd put Bob's painful death behind them,
00:34:43
and were now a high-powered couple, doing good things and living well. Sort of success a person wants to share.
00:34:51
In early 2008, Chuck relished the opportunity to share with a group of young people
00:34:56
stories about his many combat exploits. And what do you know? When he made his speech,
00:35:03
there was a reporter in the room, writing it all down for the local paper. Oops.
00:35:11
Coming up... She said, oh, there's more to this story. New lives that seem like a dream.
00:35:19
But Chuck and Martha Ann were in for a very rude awakening. The BS alarms are going off in my head like you wouldn't believe.
00:35:28
When Dateline continues. Amazing, isn't it? A life could change on a dime. In the spring of 2006, Martha Ann was burying her husband and great love, Bob McClancy.
00:35:51
But by the end of the year she had rebuilt her life and had a new partner Chuck In the meantime Bob sister Kathy had questions from Martha Ann about Chuck but couldn reach her What with the State Department travel schedule and Air Force Two duties
00:36:08
I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, but at that time when I told my older sister what was going on,
00:36:14
she said, oh, there's more to this story. Kathy still wanted answers about her brother's death,
00:36:20
but you know how people can start to sound like broken records? I think my family, friends, probably everybody was tired of listening to me saying,
00:36:30
this isn't right. I know something had to, you know, had to have happened. When Martha Ann found the time to respond to Kathy, she told her she was imagining things.
00:36:42
Did she accuse you of meddling? Right, yeah. Yeah, she said, your brother always said that you always had to get in people's business.
00:36:50
You could never just let things, let things lie. And I guess that was true. I don't stop till I find out.
00:36:57
Then she said Martha Ann got even more snippy. She literally told me that I needed psychiatric help.
00:37:05
I need to get over the fact that my brother killed himself. And I said I will never, I will never believe that.
00:37:12
But Kathy wasn't the only one getting the brush off from Martha Ann. Remember how Martha Ann promised that when she eventually got married,
00:37:20
her best friend Debbie would be maid of honor? At the monthly meeting of the Corvette Club in Knoxville, Debbie got a surprise when the chairperson asked new members to stand.
00:37:31
And? All of a sudden I hear this. Hi, my name's Chuck Kaczmarczyk and this is my wife Martha Ann and we've bought an anniversary edition Corvette.
00:37:40
Hang on just a second. When he got up at the back of the room that day and said, I'm Chuck and this is my wife, this is the first you knew they were married?
00:37:48
This is how I found out. You must have been asleep that day when you were a maid of honor.
00:37:52
I guess I must have been. So I said, Chuck, you know, I was actually I was kind of hurt.
00:37:59
Well, that's fine. And I said, you know, when did you all get married? Oh, we went on a cruise and we got married on the beach down in some island.
00:38:09
And I said, wow, you know, I'm happy for you. I'm still hurt. I'm happy for you.
00:38:16
Rude awakening. But nothing compared to the morning early in 2008, soon after Chuck gave his speech to a group of students,
00:38:25
eager to hear about his many heroic combat exploits. And a story about Chuck's talk appeared in the newspaper.
00:38:33
Vets who read it reacted with outrage. At the same time, Bill Walter was hearing about Chuck from another veterans group.
00:38:41
He was telling all of his war stories to them. And these guys were like, we never even heard about you before.
00:38:48
We've had these reunions for 30 some odd years. And this is the first one. Your name isn't anywhere on here.
00:38:54
Special forces guys like Bill and PJ didn't brag about their service. I'm like, it's just some guy spouting off, talking trash, trying to impress his buddies.
00:39:05
People want to aggrandize their service, right? Yeah, some some guys do. But it's very rare around our people to do that, especially when they're doing it in front of our own people.
00:39:14
The veterans called Chuck out. Well, Chuck went home all mad because they challenged him.
00:39:21
Doggone it, they cannot challenge me. No, and Chuck sent the group his official military records,
00:39:27
just to prove he was telling the truth. He also told them, due to an emergency, he'd be dropping out of circulation for a while.
00:39:35
Wouldn't be able to attend any more reunions anytime soon. And the BS alarms are going off in my head like you wouldn't believe.
00:39:43
Bill and the others informed the Air Force, and then the Air Force contacted the Veterans Administration,
00:39:48
asked them to check this guy out. The job fell to former Marine and investigator for the VA's office of Inspector General in Nashville,
00:39:56
Special Agent Nate Landkammer. This is definitely the case of a career. I don't think I'll work anything like this again just because of the different twists and turns.
00:40:05
Twists and turns that would end up leading to a chilling conclusion. And right away, here's what Nate heard.
00:40:12
The people who had served with him were very emphatic that he had not participated in these missions.
00:40:18
He specifically talked about the Iran hostage rescue being a part of that, being at the fall of Saigon and Vietnam.
00:40:25
He said he was there for all the big stuff. Yes. Naturally, Nate's first step was to check Chuck's service records.
00:40:32
So he went back to the Air Force and was surprised by what he found in Chuck's file, not what he expected.
00:40:38
His records did contain items substantiating significant combat service in Vietnam and after Vietnam.
00:40:48
Did he have a Silver Star? Hearts, the Distinguished Flying Cross, some very, very high awards.
00:40:53
This is big deal stuff. Very high awards, and they were substantiated by names and socials and names of missions and dates that these missions took place.
00:41:03
So as far as the Air Force knew, he was on the up and up. Yes. which presented a dilemma for the VA investigator.
00:41:11
So you've got really good-looking documents, but you're sitting in somebody's living room,
00:41:15
and he's saying to you, that's all BS. Yes. From the Air Force service members that I talked to that served with him,
00:41:21
every one of them was emphatic that he did not participate in any combat. At all?
00:41:26
At all. So Nate went back to the Air Force, asked them to double-check. The Air Force really started pouring over these documents into missions,
00:41:36
and the order numbers and rather quickly determined that these were all forged documents.
00:41:42
They were not legitimate. Yes, Chuck had been in the Air Force, but no acts of heroism.
00:41:49
Chuck had doctored old mission records, inserting his name and some official-looking stamps,
00:41:55
all of it convincing enough he was able to get the forged documents entered into his own Air Force record So he gone to an awful lot of trouble to lie about his service Yes he did
00:42:05
And if he lied about his service, they'd wondered what else the phony war hero might be hiding.
00:42:11
So he kept digging, because down deep, where it really gets mucky, evil lives. And quite possibly, evidence of an unimaginable crime.
00:42:25
Coming up, Nate Landkammer would launch a special operation to learn the truth. We started doing surveillance on Charles and Martha Ann.
00:42:34
Chuck in a wheelchair? Exactly what were they up to? When Dateline continues. The End
00:43:11
They determined the documents chronically Chuck's heroics were forgeries. And that was no joke to VA investigator and former Marine Nate Landkammer.
00:43:20
It's very offensive. Very offensive to me. Personally? Yes. Wasn't he, like, appearing at Arlington Cemetery to give flags to widows and so on?
00:43:30
He was appearing at funerals, wearing his purple heart and comforting widows of servicemen who had died in combat.
00:43:39
Oh, but it got worse. As Nate kept digging, he discovered something about Martha Ann. Martha Ann, who'd never donned a military uniform in her life, showed up at a veterans retreat and claimed that she too had rank and medals and combat experience. She showed off a purple heart.
00:44:02
Several of the attendees at this retreat specifically remember her talking all about working at the Pentagon, being at the Pentagon during the 9-11 attacks.
00:44:14
And Charles was also telling people that, yeah, she's a full bird colonel in the Marine Corps, retired.
00:44:20
And nobody questioned her then? No. They believed her. But, Nate discovered that military glory, that big-time government career, didn't exist.
00:44:34
Any of it. There was no high-profile State Department job in Washington, D.C. No travel aboard Air Force Two with the Vice President.
00:44:42
No undisclosed locations. They were all the fantastic stories of two sophisticated con artists.
00:44:50
A con that wasn't just about social prestige, either. It was about cash. Chuck and his documents.
00:44:58
I knew we had a very substantial fraud case because those documents in particular were used to get the benefit money from the VA and Social Security as source documents that gave legitimacy to his claim.
00:45:10
Chuck was claiming thousands of dollars a month in disability payments. And then, look at this.
00:45:17
Looked like Martha Ann was helping Chuck. For example, on statements she signed supporting Chuck's claim for 100% disability.
00:45:26
She claimed that he was homebound and he could not take care of himself. He would not be able to feed himself.
00:45:34
He wouldn't bathe. He would just be wandering around the house aimlessly. Guy's in bad shape.
00:45:39
Really bad shape. He should be getting more money from the VA than what they're paying him.
00:45:44
Looked to Nate like he'd uncovered a major scam. And if Chuck was scamming the VA, what was Martha Ann up to?
00:45:53
Nate ran her name. And what do you know? Martha Ann was getting Social Security disability payments herself.
00:46:01
Because of... She claimed to have back issues where she couldn't walk. She was wheelchair bound.
00:46:07
And he found out that while Martha Ann was entitled to some of her dead husband's benefits,
00:46:13
she was claiming a lot more. Together, Martha Ann and Chuck were bilking the government for about $10,000 a month.
00:46:20
Nate wanted Martha Ann and Chuck, or Charles as his name appeared in the records, to be charged with fraud.
00:46:27
But first he needed proof they were lying about being disabled. So, we started doing surveillance on Charles and Martha Ann.
00:46:35
Nate and fellow investigators got into the back of a surveillance van with their video camera, and they waited.
00:46:41
We had several agents all participating in surveillance. And it wasn't long before Martha and Chuck appeared outside their home.
00:46:52
Here they are, supposedly disabled people, but by the look of it, perfectly fit.
00:47:00
We'd observe them doing hours and hours of yard work outside their home. Strenuous stuff.
00:47:06
Yes, very strenuous stuff for hours at a time at their Knoxville house. Watch them pressure washing their driveway and their house and clearing brush.
00:47:18
Bending over. No sign of back trouble. Lifting heavy objects. But look at this. Here they are arriving at the VA for one of Chuck's regular assessments.
00:47:29
You assumed their demeanor was going to change anyway. Yeah, well, we quickly found out that that was the case.
00:47:33
Martha Ann lifts a heavy wheelchair out of the car. Chuck gets in. She wheels him into the VA center.
00:47:40
a picture that might ring pity from even the hardest heart sometimes when they followed martha
00:47:46
ann she was moving out pretty good to where you'd almost break a sweat trying to keep up with her
00:47:51
and when martha ann had her appointments she and chuck would switch positions it actually got to be
00:48:00
He won wheelchair, so Nate got to thinking. And here's how Dr. Seuss would write it.
00:48:06
And then Nate got an idea. Wonderful, devious idea. That's true in a way, isn't it?
00:48:15
Yes. What if Nate arranged the schedules so that Martha Ann and Chuck had their appointments at the very same time?
00:48:23
Who would get in the wheelchair then, he wondered. What happened? Coming up, a conniving couple caught in a trap.
00:48:35
This can't be true. And Martha Ann's son, Sean, is about to launch an investigation of his own.
00:48:41
I had to know the truth. When Dateline continues. VA investigator Nate Landkammer had set a trap.
00:49:00
He knew Martha Ann and Chuck had just one wheelchair as they faked disability. So he set up appointments for them at the Social Security facility.
00:49:10
At the same time. So they arrived at the facility and then, as we suspected, they only had one wheelchair.
00:49:18
So Charles, instead of using a wheelchair, he had a walker and a cane. A walker and a cane?
00:49:25
A walker and a cane, both. And a knee brace. A stilt leg. stilt-legged, and then he was toting an oxygen tank as well.
00:49:33
As Chuck fumbled his way inside, Nate and his agents were waiting, busted. I interviewed Charles. We pulled him into an office, and then Martha Ann was being questioned
00:49:45
by another VA OIG agent and a Social Security Administration OIG agent. Martha Ann and Chuck Kuzmarzik had been found out. Chuck was no decorated hero.
00:49:58
They never once seen combat. No silver stars. No purple hearts. Those ribbons all fake.
00:50:05
And Martha Ann had never walked the hallways of the Pentagon as a Marine colonel,
00:50:10
much less than in the 9-11 attack, or flown on Air Force Two. Confronted with the evidence,
00:50:16
they confessed to perpetuating a complex and massive fraud and fake disability claims.
00:50:21
Had you or your partners in the investigation ever encountered people who were so...
00:50:28
Complexly fraudulent. I don't think I'll work a case like this again in my career.
00:50:33
But the really sinister stuff was yet to unfold. Because family and friends were only just finding out about the fraud,
00:50:41
in the summer of 2012, over early morning coffee, Martha Ann's best friend, Debbie Hartman, was reading her newspaper.
00:50:49
And I'm thinking to myself, this can't be true. This can't be true. So I start yelling at the top of my lungs, Jim, get up.
00:50:59
You've got to come see this. Debbie's husband, Jim, is a Marine veteran. Neither he nor Debbie could believe what they were reading.
00:51:07
Fooled the federal government. Stole money from our veterans. Is it the money that mattered or the...
00:51:14
Oh, no. It was the fact that they took it out of veterans' pockets that need it.
00:51:20
That's... That just sticks in my craw. That hurts. It must be quite something to know that this woman who was your best friend hid herself from you and conned you all these years.
00:51:36
Absolutely. Took me for a complete sucker. Jock, too. He would go and present the flags to a widow of a veteran that lost his life.
00:51:49
That's cruel. The people that he took in under that don't deserve that. And it wasn't long before Sean and Jen were reading online in disbelief
00:52:00
about Sean's own mother, Martha Ann, caught in an outrageous fraud with Chuck. And we found out that they were arrested on eight federal indictments.
00:52:10
That's how you found out? That is how we found out. We had no idea. Made your heart stop.
00:52:15
It was heart-wrenching. Very overwhelming. Martha Ann stole her dead husband's valor.
00:52:20
My mom never served a single day in any armed services unit. She assumed Bob's Purple Heart and told these veterans groups that that was her Purple Heart that she received in the 9-11 Pentagon attack.
00:52:38
By early 2013, Martha Ann and Chuck were sentenced. Charles got 30 months federal and then Martha Ann got 20.
00:52:46
They'd spent most of their ill-gotten gains, of course, so before she began her prison sentence,
00:52:52
Martha Ann prepared to sell the house for restitution. She started boxing up all of her belongings
00:53:01
and selling things and closing up the house. But Martha Ann was a notorious pack rat.
00:53:09
She had kept everything. Trunks full of clothes, thousands of pages of receipts, contracts,
00:53:16
documents. So what did she do? She gave them to her son, Sean, and his wife, Jen, for safekeeping.
00:53:24
If she asked me to do something, I will do it. Well, and in a way, I suppose, if she gave things
00:53:30
to you, then the feds or the other investigative agencies maybe wouldn't have access to them.
00:53:35
Well, yes. But when those boxes of records arrived, Sean and Jen dived in ravenously
00:53:41
to see what they could uncover. Who keeps all those documents? 30,000. 30,000? 30,000.
00:53:48
There must have been some job going through all of this stuff. It was overwhelming.
00:53:52
It was. I did feel conflicted about digging into my mom affairs but I had to know the truth Then Sean turned on one of the computers his mom had sent for safekeeping
00:54:08
He intended their kids to use it, so he wanted to be sure it was clean. He checked the trash bin and couldn't believe what he saw.
00:54:18
And there were photos of my stepdad, Bob, deceased. Dead. dead. There were many photos in there. They were photos of Bob McClancy lying dead in his recliner
00:54:32
in 2006. What was it like to see those pictures? Disturbing. Here were the pictures that told an
00:54:39
entirely different story to what Sean and Jen knew. In one picture, Bob would have a pistol
00:54:45
in one hand and a bottle of pills in the other. In another picture, Bob would just have a bottle
00:54:51
of pills and nothing in the other hand. And it was odd the way he was in the chair. The way his
00:54:56
leg was placed, looking back at that, I think you could tell that was body manipulation. The pictures
00:55:03
didn't appear to be police photos because they were all apparently taken before any police arrived
00:55:09
on the scene. So you called the cops. Right away. Sean, conflicted, was suddenly faced with the
00:55:16
prospect he may be implicating his own mom. And so torn, he called Nate, the VA investigator,
00:55:23
and began to tell him all about Bob McClancy's death in 2006. He said, I just want to talk to
00:55:29
you guys about this and get it off my chest because it's really been bothering me. And if
00:55:32
there's nothing to it, great. But if there is, I think it needs to be investigated. It's like
00:55:37
pulling a string, isn't it? Yes. And now the string led back in time, six years back, to that dismal
00:55:44
afternoon in the Tennessee hills when Chuck called 911 to report a suicide. It was just part of a
00:55:51
very complex evil scheme. You know, that was the sense that I got when I first saw the photographs.
00:55:58
So maybe this wasn't after all just a fraud case. Maybe, he thought, someone had gotten away with
00:56:06
Murder. Coming up, the old suspicions about Chuck. What had happened to the investigation all those years ago?
00:56:17
It was devastating. I felt guilty about it. I could blow on it. Yes. When Dateline continues.
00:56:23
The A. Special Agent Nate Landkammer had Martha Ann McClancy and Chuck Kazmarzyk for fraud,
00:56:41
but his investigation was about to take a sudden turn to evil. He had learned about the suspicious
00:56:48
as photos Sean and Jen found in the computer Martha Ann had given them. Pictures of Bob lying dead.
00:56:55
Sean contacted the U.S. attorney and said, I have some information that you might want to know
00:56:59
that may be helpful to the investigation. There were a lot of phone conversations between
00:57:04
Sean and Nate and Nate and I. Nate learned there had been an investigation into Bob
00:57:10
McClancy's death six years earlier in 2006. Remember Detective Travis Jones had been called
00:57:16
to the house after a 911 call placed by Chuck? I just walked into the residence, the McClancy
00:57:22
residence. The Mr. McClancy appears to be expired. Back then, the detective thought Chuck was acting
00:57:31
way too calm, was avoiding CPR on his best friend, and was staging that perhaps too convenient
00:57:37
do not resuscitate order. And it turned out the detective had good reason to want to question
00:57:43
chuck after he discovered a digital camera inside a backpack who found the camera i did did you
00:57:51
like assume anything about its ownership or anything like that no i just assumed it belonged
00:57:57
to the residence there mr mcclancy did you think as you're opening it up hey wait a minute maybe i
00:58:01
shouldn't be doing this or no it never crossed my mind at the time uh because that was standard
00:58:06
practice on the assumption that what there's no need to get a search warrant for a dead guy's
00:58:13
Camera. Right. On the camera were pictures of the deceased Bob McClancy. His body positioned differently than the way the police found him.
00:58:26
They were the same pictures Sean later found on the computer. Some showing Bob McClancy holding a revolver.
00:58:33
Others, the revolver and the pill bottle. What did you think when you saw that? That we had a stage scene.
00:58:39
if you have a stage scene maybe you got a crime here yes that's when the detective decided to
00:58:46
question chuck we took him down to the sheriff's office at the sheriff's office confronted with
00:58:53
the photo evidence chuck's story changed dramatically his first statement to the
00:58:58
police had been he arrived at the house after bob died and called 9-1-1 now he was telling them
00:59:04
that when he arrived, Bob wasn't quite dead, but was taking his last gasps. He had come home, found Mr. McClancy, said he was still alive, and he was barely breathing.
00:59:19
Chuck said he was the one who staged the scene and took the photos because he didn't know Bob was going to die,
00:59:25
and hoped that photos of his friend suffering might help Bob leverage more benefits from the VA.
00:59:31
Did you suspect that he killed his friend Bob? That was a possibility. At the time, Detective Jones believed he had at least a case of negligence.
00:59:41
His negligence caused his death. That was the evidence we had at the time. If he had moved quicker or called 911 sooner or tried to do CPR or something, his friend would still be alive.
00:59:53
He let him die before he called 911 Chuck was charged with tampering with evidence and criminal negligence So it must have seemed like you kind of had him on that
01:00:05
That's what we thought. But that's not what happened. Before the case could go to trial,
01:00:11
a judge ruled the photos taken by Chuck were not admissible in a court of law. Why?
01:00:18
The camera belonged to Chuck, not Bob. And Detective Jones had gathered the photos without a search warrant.
01:00:25
In the courtroom, that was it. The case against Chuck Kismarczyk collapsed. Go back to that time when you got that ruling and it was basically thrown out and you weren't going to get the case at all.
01:00:37
What was that like for you? It was devastating. Did you feel as if you were responsible?
01:00:42
I did. I did. I felt guilty about it. Like you'd blown it. Yes. Six years later, in 2012, Chuck was a convicted con man.
01:00:50
and investigator Nate Landkampner was looking at the very same images on the computer.
01:00:56
I knew that the local sheriff's department had some suspicions that Chuck had done something
01:01:03
but really weren't able to substantiate anything through charges being able to stick.
01:01:09
But to Nate, maybe Chuck was up to his lying eyeballs in Bob McClancy's death. It just really, really gave you the sense of, you know, whoever set this up and whoever did this and whoever took these pictures was very evil.
01:01:27
Chuck had taken the pictures. But what were they doing on the computer Sean got from his mother, Martha Ann?
01:01:34
Then Nate and the state investigators who joined him came up with a plan. They'd put Sean and Jen on the spot.
01:01:43
They'd get Sean to spy on his mom. Sean was about to become an undercover agent.
01:01:53
Coming up. What's it like to phone your mother knowing that you're going to be putting her on tape?
01:01:59
It had to be done. I asked her why the pictures were there. And she said, photos of Bob.
01:02:06
When Dateline continues. It should be noted that Sean's relationship with his mother, Martha Ann, was never particularly warm.
01:02:25
Martha Ann wasn't exactly the cuddly, protective type. I think I was more scared of my mom, looking back.
01:02:36
Remember, Sean had been adopted as an infant by Martha Ann and her first husband in Florida.
01:02:41
He said his mom was strict and quick to punish if Sean crossed her red lines. You knew that was it.
01:02:49
Your life was not going to be as pleasant for a period of time. What did you think when you saw her treating Sean that way?
01:02:58
It made me angry. Even so, Sean tried to stay loyal to his mom. But now he was about to go against her in a way he never could have imagined.
01:03:08
And he's seen the photos of Bob's dead body, contacted the investigator Nate Landkammer,
01:03:15
and now he and Jen were turning up more evidence for Nate's investigation. We were coming across all of these, what we would call crazy, crazy documents.
01:03:26
We couldn't wrap our brain around them. And one of those mind-boggling documents was Bob McClancy's will.
01:03:34
Bob had been married before he met Martha Ann and had a daughter. The daughter hadn't seen Bob in years, and she was cut out of Bob's will.
01:03:42
He wanted nothing to do with her, and I don't want you to know about my death, and I'm leaving you one dollar of my estate.
01:03:50
The wording seemed especially harsh. I didn't know Bob McClancy. Most fathers would not write something this cruel to their only daughter.
01:03:59
I just realized that this is just not adding up, and it just was very, very suspicious.
01:04:05
Bob's sister, Kathy, thought it was fishy, too. I know this wasn't Bobby's will.
01:04:10
I even said that to my daughters. Uncle Bobby would have never put this in here.
01:04:15
No, never. Nate concluded that Martha Ann, the sole beneficiary, had forged the will.
01:04:23
Came from Martha Ann, not from Bob. Came from Martha Ann. And the will, in particular, ended up being a major part of the investigation.
01:04:33
And then they discovered a curious date, or dates, Martha Ann's wedding to Chuck.
01:04:40
If you wait until after you turn 57 and remarry then, you can keep the benefits for the rest of your life.
01:04:46
And she ended up marrying Chuck in Las Vegas, Nevada, one day after her 57th birthday,
01:04:53
which allowed her to keep the VA benefits associated with Bob for the rest of her life.
01:04:59
Martha Ann used the same formula to claim her husband's Social Security disability benefits.
01:05:04
There was a stipulation under her Social Security benefits that she could not remarry prior to her 60th birthday.
01:05:11
So, of course, they then got married again three years to the date after their first marriage.
01:05:19
So, yeah, they had essentially two marriage dates. with so much compelling evidence against Martha Ann and Chuck.
01:05:28
Nate figured it was more than a coincidence that Martha Ann had married the man who was last known to be with her husband, Bob.
01:05:36
If Chuck had murdered Bob, then Martha Ann, who'd married Chuck just five months after Bob's death,
01:05:43
must have known something. We really never believed that she could be capable of killing Bob.
01:05:49
Just who would do such a thing? Well and we knew that Chuck was the last person with Bob So we really didn think Martha was the one that had killed Bob I think we both believed that it was Chuck But they wanted to be sure
01:06:06
If there was a murder conspiracy, maybe a son could find out from his mother. They decided to recruit Sean, get him to wear a wire and place a call to his mom, Martha Ann,
01:06:18
and ask her what she knew about the photos. Sean agreed. So he was willing to make the phone call and we gave him a recording device.
01:06:29
What's it like to phone your mother knowing that you're going to be putting her on the spot that way, on tape with somebody listening?
01:06:37
Well, had to be done. You nervous? I was nervous, but at the same time... You gotta know.
01:06:45
You have to know. Nate and Sean's wife, Jen, were listening as the call began. We talked for about an hour, about 45 minutes to an hour.
01:06:58
He's like, hey, mom, the kids were on the computer over the weekend. And when I got in the trash, I found like over 100 photographs in there of Bob dead.
01:07:07
I asked her why the pictures were there. And she said, photos of Bob. She started saying, I think those are police photos, Sean.
01:07:14
And he was like, mom, these photographs are not police photos. And then he said he has a pill bottle and a pistol and then he doesn't.
01:07:22
And he's dead. Why are these pictures in here? Her spontaneous reaction to this being posed to her was, for God's sake, Sean, delete those photographs.
01:07:32
And that was kind of what we were looking for. What did you think when you got off that phone call?
01:07:37
Did you think this woman was part of it? I really started thinking that she's guilty.
01:07:44
She has more of a role in Bob's death than she put on. Nate agreed. With the suspicious will, the wedding dates, and the photos of Bob's death scene,
01:07:57
Nate and his investigators believed they were dealing with a murder conspiracy, that Bob had not killed himself with an overdose of antidepressants,
01:08:06
but had been deliberately poisoned. And as they confronted their two suspects, one of them was about to sing like a canary.
01:08:16
Coming up The lovers start pointing fingers It was Chuck's idea and he did it She maintained her innocence from the very beginning
01:08:26
A dramatic courtroom showdown Chuck vs. Martha Ann Did you kill your husband? No sir, I did not
01:08:33
When Dateline continues It was a cold night, December 2012. VA Special Agent Nate Landkammer waited outside a jail cell in Tennessee, nervous, uncertain.
01:08:57
Inside, investigators were trying to persuade Chuck Kosmarzig to reveal, finally,
01:09:03
the real story of that deadly Monday in 2006. Who did what? Why? And then, out came the investigators.
01:09:13
Smiles on their faces. Chuck talked. That was kind of like the culmination of everything, knowing that what we had suspected was correct.
01:09:23
Nate understood full well. The stage was set for an epic he said she said battle between two major league con artists.
01:09:32
He couldn't know whose story would win, but Nate was pretty sure the one finally telling the truth was Chuck.
01:09:41
We didn't suspect it anymore. Now we know. In November 2015, in Madisonville, Tennessee, Martha Ann McClancy went on trial.
01:09:50
She was charged with first-degree premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
01:09:56
Attorney Matthew Rogers was appointed to defend Martha Ann, accused of poisoning Bob with his PTSD medications
01:10:02
and conspiring with her lover, Chuck, to make Bob's death look like a suicide, and then stealing Bob's assets and benefits.
01:10:11
A guilty verdict could mean the death penalty. But Martha Ann was fully ready to defend herself with an absolute blanket denial.
01:10:21
She maintained her innocence from the very beginning. She made it very clear that she wanted to speak with the jury and to tell her side of the story.
01:10:30
There were no cameras in the courtroom, but microphones were allowed. That was the love of my life.
01:10:36
I couldn't have imagined losing him. And I didn't want to lose him. I didn't want to be without him.
01:10:45
And besides, she testified, she didn't need to kill her husband. There's these allegations that you and Chuck were in this for some sort of financial reason or something to you.
01:10:58
What do you say about that? No, sir, absolutely not. I had my own money. I had my own funds.
01:11:05
To this day, would you be better off if Bob McClancy remained alive? Oh, absolutely.
01:11:10
Martha Ann did not benefit from the death of Bob McClancy. She would have received benefits through the government for his military service, whether he had remained alive or whether he had passed.
01:11:22
Chuck was the villain, said Attorney Rogers. Chuck played Martha Ann like a fiddle.
01:11:28
Mrs. McClancy was snowed by Mr. Kazmarzik's cons and manipulations, just as the government had been on numerous occasions in the past.
01:11:37
Mrs. McClancy was another victim of Mr. Kazmarzik. He had never ever indicated to me in any way that he had lied about what he had done in the military, about what he had received.
01:11:53
I thought that he had all these awards. Lying Chuck, said Attorney Rogers. say anything to avoid the blame.
01:12:03
What did Chuck not lie about? He's a habitual liar, and that's proven and documented.
01:12:09
I was in a position to attack his credibility, and that wasn't very hard. It was Chuck who forged Bob's will, said Martha Ann,
01:12:17
and she went along with it because the content of the will was what Bob wanted. And that was initially Chuck's idea?
01:12:26
It was Chuck's idea, and he did it. She knew knowledge today that she knew along with that.
01:12:31
I did go along with it. She had no idea, she said, that Chuck was planning to take those awful pictures.
01:12:38
And when questioned about the flashy government jobs she told Bob's sister Kathy about in Washington, D.C.,
01:12:46
Martha Ann simply scoffed, said it was a joke. I mean, it was just a hoax. That's all in the world it was, was the hopes to more or less get hurt and stop bugging me.
01:12:59
Attorney Rogers took Martha Ann back to the day Bob died. A normal day, she said.
01:13:06
You went to work that day? Yes, sir, I went to work that day. And she didn't have a clue that anything was wrong, she testified, until she arrived home after 6 p.m.
01:13:17
A young detective came out and took hold of my hands and he said, this is going to be the most difficult thing that you ever hear.
01:13:27
And he said, your husband has passed away. Conspiracy with Chuck? Of course not, she said.
01:13:34
Did you and Chuck ever have a conversation about getting rid of your husband? No. No, we did not. I don't know where he has come up with this.
01:13:43
First time she heard about a murder conspiracy, she said, was after she told Chuck she wanted to divorce him in 2012.
01:13:51
I didn't know about it until much later on when this wild, concocted story of my having murdered my husband was told for the first time.
01:14:02
And it was told by Chuck Kessmarsik. Did you kill your husband? No, sir, I did not. I did not kill Bob McClancy. I did not have anything to do with killing Bob McClancy.
01:14:12
I cannot tell you anything more than what I know that he died of a drug overdose.
01:14:20
And that was Martha Ann's story. Every word of it was true. She swore. If Martha Ann believes that her husband, Bob McClancy, was murdered, she would say that it was Chuck Casmarci.
01:14:33
He was there with Bob McClancy when he died by admission. He was the one that took photographs of Mr. McClancy and manipulated the scene of the death, whether it was a crime scene or not.
01:14:46
But the battle of the con artists was just getting started. And the prosecutors believed they had a strong case.
01:14:54
What was the most important piece of evidence in your view? The most important piece of evidence, of course, was the Randi's confession taken from Chuck Kasmarjic.
01:15:04
And what a dark and devious story of murder Chuck was about to tell. Coming up...
01:15:14
Keep it simple. Make it look as natural as possible. Powerful testimony from the star witness and from a reluctant son She looked at me as if she wished I was dead When Dateline continues
01:15:39
The climax was at hand. The years of fraud, the money and position and goodwill stolen from honest veterans,
01:15:48
were only background now. Martha Ann McClancy, charged with premeditated first-degree murder, faced the death penalty.
01:15:58
A lot of work went into this case, 12,000 pages of documents. Cindy Schemmel and Mac McCoy, then assistant district attorneys,
01:16:06
took on the hugely difficult task of boiling down a story every bit as convoluted as it was devious.
01:16:12
And to be able to tell it in such a simple story so 12 people off the street understand it.
01:16:21
That's really complicated to do. That's the hard thing. They would prosecute what was clearly a complex case using a well-tested strategy.
01:16:30
The old kiss method. Kiss? Kiss. Keep it simple, stupid. They presented the evidence of Bob McClancy's forged will and the wedding dates.
01:16:42
But not Chuck's photos, which had collapsed the case in 2006. Instead, they showed the jury police photos.
01:16:50
Well, Sean described the photos he found. All as he faced his own mother. She looked at me as if she wished I was dead.
01:17:02
She looked at me with the most hate I've ever seen from anyone. When Bob's sister, Kathy, testified,
01:17:10
I wanted to jump over the bench and choke her, but I thought, well, that won't get me anyplace.
01:17:15
But she just sat there. She showed no emotion. Just cold, cold-hearted person. At last, Martha Ann's fate rested in the hands of the state star witness,
01:17:27
her lying husband, Chuck, now on the stand. Chuck began at the beginning, when he met Bob at that PTSD clinic in 2006.
01:17:37
Did he ever express any suicidal thoughts to you? No. Then Bob introduced him to Martha Ann, said Chuck.
01:17:46
And they began an affair. And she began scheming to do away with Bob. She had mentioned on several occasions that she'd like to get rid of him.
01:17:57
And if he went away, that we could be together. She made all the decisions, said Chuck.
01:18:03
Investigator Nate Landkammer agreed. I think the investigation clearly showed that she was the mastermind.
01:18:10
And who was in charge of his medication? Martha. Turns out before he died that Martha Ann was put in charge of all of his meds,
01:18:19
that Bob was not to have any access to his own medications whatsoever. For days before Bob died, said Chuck,
01:18:26
Martha Ann ground up the pills into something she called magic dust. she had fixed his favorite meal for it and then afterwards remarked that she had used magic dust
01:18:40
on it the doses got bigger and bob more disoriented it was martha ann idea said chuck to rush bob to the va hospital suffering apparent overdoses to reinforce the impression that Bob was suicidal And then two days after his last trip to the VA hospital I was pretty sure that she was going to give him a lethal dose of the drugs because she was so specific about me being there at a certain period of the day on that date
01:19:10
She told him specifically, I'm going to I'm going to load him up with some magic dust.
01:19:15
You know, before I leave for work, she said, you come over and find him. He should be dead by then. I'll be at work. I'll have an alibi.
01:19:22
And that if I found him dead, just to make it simple and keep it simple, make it look as natural as possible in order to make it look like suicide.
01:19:30
Then Chuck confessed he staged the scene. I took some photos. There was also a bottle of pills that I put in his hand and also a gun.
01:19:43
Those photos intended as leverage to try to squeeze more money out of the VA. And the gun?
01:19:51
Chuck claimed it was to honor the wishes of a former detective to die with a gun in his hand.
01:19:57
You thought that was an honorable thing to do for Bob while you were killing him and sleeping with his wife?
01:20:01
I wasn't killing him. You weren't showing him. While you were letting him be killed and sleeping with his wife?
01:20:08
Yes. I think they were evil, but I think the root of their evil was their greed.
01:20:13
There it was. Martha Ann poisoned Bob, and Chuck was her willing servant. Match made in hell, quite frankly.
01:20:23
The motive? Chuck and Martha Ann wanted to be together, and they wanted money. How much money?
01:20:30
All together. I'd say close to a million dollars. Close to a million dollars. The prosecution rested with a scathing indictment of Martha Ann.
01:20:37
To have your husband die in stages thinking he's losing his mind because you keep overdosing him with these drugs until you get to that fatal dose,
01:20:50
it's hard to comprehend how some people can be that evil. But how would the jury judge Martha Ann?
01:20:58
The jury was out for quite a while, wasn't it? Yes, it scared us badly. We didn't know whether we'd won or lost.
01:21:04
Sean and Debbie and Kathy were all in court, nervous, hearts racing. I've waited 10 years. I was just trying to hold myself together, you know.
01:21:15
And then it came. Leave the jury. Find the defendant, Martha Ann McClamsey, a.k.a. Martha Ann Ketmarcy.
01:21:25
Not guilty of defense of first-degree murder. Not guilty. A wave of disappointment washed through the room.
01:21:33
I wish she would have gotten the death penalty, both her and Chuck. But the jury wasn't finished.
01:21:39
Leave the jury. Martha Ann was found guilty of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
01:21:47
It wasn't really a happy feeling. I'm glad justice was served, but I still thought, why did you have to kill him?
01:21:54
Do you think they got it right that she was the one primarily responsible? Yes, she was a real conniver.
01:22:00
Yeah Yeah Chuck had already made his deal He already pleaded guilty to murder conspiracy Got 25 years in prison Does Chuck sentence make sense to you He did conspire and assist her in this He was necessary to be able to prove the case against her so when you look at that it makes sense in june 2016 when it was martha ann turn to receive
01:22:27
her sentence she clung to a walker faking disability again that's what the prosecutors
01:22:34
believed and then the judge tore into her. The slow poisoning and slipping of life from an
01:22:44
individual is exceptionally heinous. He gave her the max 50 years in prison. I'm a firm believer
01:22:52
that karma will get you and I think it's got her. Ex-best friend Debbie was relieved. Absolutely the
01:23:01
epitome of evil. She was the meanest, cruelest, and she didn't get away with it.
01:23:07
That made me feel a little bit better about it. And for the detective who believed nearly ten years earlier
01:23:15
that Chuck was guilty, it was vindication. The fact of the matter is, if you had not
01:23:20
looked at that camera, if you had not opened up those photographs, we wouldn't be sitting here talking today.
01:23:27
And justice would have never got served for the McClansey family. So, it came out all right after all.
01:23:33
It did. Took a while, but it did. Yes, it did. No small thanks to Martha Ann's son, Sean.
01:23:41
No child should ever have to testify against their parent. That was the hardest thing you ever did.
01:23:47
That was the hardest thing. But that wasn't the end of the story. On appeal, Martha Ann McClansey's sentence was cut in half.
01:23:56
And in August 2025, she was approved for parole. Hearing the news, Sean was disgusted and outraged.
01:24:05
He has never been able to make sense of his mom's monstrous crimes. I think he had a lot of trouble wrapping his head around it and believing that she was capable of this.
01:24:17
Bob was a man of right. He was a detective. He was a Marine. And he would fight for justice for strangers.
01:24:24
And there was no way that he was going to go down like that and be silenced that way.
01:24:30
But there was one more piece of unfinished business. Sean, remember, was adopted.
01:24:36
I had always been told that I would never find out where I was actually from or who my birth parents would be.
01:24:46
Even after a Florida court denied him access to his adoption records, he was determined to find his birth parents.
01:24:53
He ended up getting in touch with AncestryDNA. And what do you know? We basically hit the bullseye immediately.
01:25:01
Wow. Which is crazy. They found his birth father living in Maine. That feels amazing.
01:25:09
Overwhelming. Not long after first speaking with his birth father, Sean traveled to meet him.
01:25:16
And they now chat regularly on the phone. And as they plan to see each other more often, Sean is discovering a whole new life.
01:25:25
A whole new future. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.