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[Music]
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during an evening church service
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38-year-old Steve Robards fell
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ill he died later that night of a heart
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attack one year later while reading
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Hamlet Steve Robards daughter studied
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the lines of Claudius the King when he
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says the following about death jealousy
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guilt and revenge my words fly up my
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thoughts remain
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below words without thoughts never to
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Heaven
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go in these words a clue to her father's
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death
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[Music]
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the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth
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Texas locals call it the
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Metroplex it's the largest Consolidated
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metropolitan area in the state known for
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the assassination of President John F
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Kennedy in D Plaza in
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1963 official now the president is
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dead 38-year-old Steve Robards was a
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Texas native recently divorced and
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worked as a mail carrier for the United
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States Postal Service very proud of his
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job which was just a Ru route Postman
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but he liked his job he liked being
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outdoors and felt some pride in it his
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16-year-old daughter Marie had recently
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moved in with him after a disagreement
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she had with her mother's new husband so
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they were living in a one-bedroom
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apartment at this time and he was on the
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list to get the next available larger
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apartment and uh he was very happy about
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having his daughter in his life at this
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point Marie enrolled in Eastern Hills
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High School where she was a popular
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straight A student quiet studious
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elegant the kind of girl that sort of
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you looked at twice and always wanted to
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get to know because she seemed so
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reserved so poised so intelligent there
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was never a flaw about her I mean her
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face complexion was perfect by all
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accounts both father and daughter
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enjoyed living together but their lives
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changed Forever on the night of February
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17th
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1993 just after dinner Steve robarts
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attended an evening church
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service when he returned home he told
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his girlfriend and daughter he wasn't
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feeling well after a little while he
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started getting stomach cramps severe
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stomach cramps and they became more
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severe as the night progressed are you
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feeling any better feel terrible after a
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few hours ultimately um 911 was called
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and he went into what appeared to be a a
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comike state right there in the living
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room he began to foam at the mouth and
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became nauseous and by the time the
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ambulance guys got there he was dead an
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autopsy revealed the death was caused by
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cardiac arrest and I didn't want to
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believe how could it be that bad he was
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38 how could it be how could it be that
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serious he was
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38 his heart was mildly
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enlarged it was probably 25% too heavy
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for a man his age and size and somewhat
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uncomfortably I signed it out as a
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natural death after Steve roar's death
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Marie went to live with her grandparents
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and transferred to Mansfield high school
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for a new start so for one year Marie
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lived the kind of perfect life every
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parent would hope their child would live
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she was an excellent student she never
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got in trouble she always turned in her
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homework uh she dated some but she was
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never in any way regarded as a wild girl
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after graduation Marie used the $60,000
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she received from her father's life
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insurance policy to attend the
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University of Texas
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she majored in Premed her dream was to
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become a
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pathologist even then she was just one
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of the most talented of the many
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freshmen at that sprawling University
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there was nothing that suggested
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anything except she was headed for this
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kind of excellent life that um seemed
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her
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Destiny Midway through her freshman year
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Marie learned that police were
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investigating her father's death they
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questioned how a 38-year-old man could
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have died of a heart attack so
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young it was by all accounts The Perfect
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[Music]
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Crime After Steve Robards Unexpected
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death his daughter Marie transferred to
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a new high school and made a new friend
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Stacy
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high I would have to say we are best
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friends you know we kind of fell in love
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with each other you know just um it was
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we had so much in common Stacy sees and
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Marie she sees something in Marie she
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sees through her in a way she realizes
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that that Poise and that Perfection is
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disguising
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something during senior year Stacy and
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Marie were both required to read
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Shakespeare's Hamlet for English class
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as they read the play together Stacy
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happened to begin with claudius's
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Soliloquy in act 3 in which Claudius
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agonizes over his decision to repent for
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killing Hamlet's
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father my fault is passed but oh what
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form of pray serve my forgive me my f
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murder that cannot be since I am still
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possessed of those effects for which I
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did the
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murder so Stacy reads the line goes
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Isn't that cool Marie how that's
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written and Marie standing there Frozen
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in tears begin to stream down her face
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she asked me Stacy do you think people
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can go through life without a conscience
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and there was Stacy with her
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questions you have a
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secret yes you've done something yes and
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you know Stacy's first question oh my
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God you're pregnant Marie went no it's
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worse so after a while guessing I said
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did you kill someone she nodded her head
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yes and that's when Marie broke down and
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cried I can't talk about this right now
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Marie then admitted the
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unthinkable that she murdered her own
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father she said she did it with a poison
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she stole from her chemistry class A
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year
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earlier hey everybody quiet working on
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our last reports
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today be very careful with this
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stuff now everyone get your notebooks
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out Marie said that she took the poison
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when the teacher's back was turned
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placed it in a paper towel and hid it in
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her
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backpack one week later while preparing
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dinner Marie mixed it into her father's
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Mexican food with which concealed the
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taste of the
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poison there you go thank you sweetie
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mhm the poison she used mimicked the
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signs of a heart attack and her father
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died a few hours
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later the autopsy never detected the
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poison in his system
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[Music]
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after the confession Marie swore Stacy
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to
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secrecy if the pledge was broken Stacy
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knew her best friend would spend the
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rest of her life in
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prison Stacy is tormented however by the
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secret she too is trying to
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keep and she begins to have these
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nightmares
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in one of these recurring nightmares
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Stacy hears the voice of Marie's father
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calling from the grave
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[Music]
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in another Stacy sees Marie chasing her
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endlessly through the
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night she begins to lose her ability to
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focus she can't concentrate in school
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her grades go down she begins to drink
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too much at high school parties at one
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point she she asked her mother if she
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can check into a psychiatric hospital
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for adolescence and no one can figure
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out what had happened to Stacy it seemed
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like the classic meltdown Stacy knew if
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she said anything it would be her word
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against Marie since Steve robarts death
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was ruled to be from natural
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causes however the pressure on Stacy
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high was too great she told her mother
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the school guidance counselor and
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eventually the police
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so for 8 months Stacy kept the
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secret and it nearly destroyed her and
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she
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finally had to
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confess but Marie never
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would and like Claudius she seemed stuck
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trapped in her own private
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hell when Stacy hey told police that
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Steve Robards had been poisoned the
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police searched the chemistry lab where
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his daughter Marie said she stole the
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poison that killed him in the lab safety
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manual the page describing the chemical
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Marie allegedly used had been torn
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out it also tells you what precautions
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you need to take when using the
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substance it also tells you what to do
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in case it's swallowed or your eyes
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coming in contact with it if Marie used
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a poison to kill her father why hadn't
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it shown up during the
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autopsy it's not a normal procedure
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unless there's some indication that we
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need to do that uh it's it's it's a test
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testing that we don't do here at the
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facility and we have to send out for and
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the investigation did not lead us to
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suspect anything of that nature at at
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the time of the death the chemical she
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used the only way it could be detected
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is if the medical examiner in Fort Worth
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had a machine that cost
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$150,000 that could detect the trace of
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this chemical during an autopsy which
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they didn't have and which they never
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even thought of using the technology
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which confined rare chemicals in human
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tissue is called a mass spectrometer gas
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chromatograph since Marie planned to
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attend medical school and become a
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pathologist prosecutors suspected she
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was familiar with the screening test
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used by the local medical
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examiner she also knew which poison
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wouldn't be
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detected investigators hoped that Steve
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robarts tissue samples were still in
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storage since his death 18 months
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earlier the medical examiner's office
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was within days of destroying the tissue
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samples and the blood samples um as they
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do when there's there's nothing a Miss
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they don't suspect play or
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homicide the tissue samples were sent to
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an independent forensic laboratory in
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Pennsylvania where they were analyzed
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with the mass spectrometer gas
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chromatograph the poison they were
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looking for was a metallic substance and
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very rare we will not reveal the name of
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the poison on this
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program the gas chromatograph Mass
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spectrometer directs a beam of electrons
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on the sample breaking it component
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molecules apart for
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analysis the results are charted on a
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graph each Peak is a separate compound
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the size of the peak is proportional to
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the amount present the number is the
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exact time in minutes it took for the
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compound to travel through the column
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from the moment of its injection to
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detection in Steve robard sample
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scientists found a metallic compound
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with a retention time identical to the
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poison his daughter Marie admitted
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stealing from the chemistry
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lab and the amount found in Steve
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Robards body was massive 28 times the
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lethal
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dose with this news Fort Worth homicide
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detective Thomas Boer went to the
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University of Texas and Austin to see
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Marie
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robarts she came out in the hallway and
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I introduced myself I told her she was
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under arrest for the death of her father
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Steven Robards years earlier she had no
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response um there was no reaction and
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Marie quietly went with them poised as
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ever and once they got in that little
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room they barely had to ask a question
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and she confessed and broke down and she
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was pretty forth forthcoming with
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information um fairly quickly she didn't
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try to hide she apparent ly was uh
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either guilt-ridden or had thought a lot
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about what she had done and came forward
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with the
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information the most fascinating aspect
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for both the police and for journalists
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covering the case was Marie's
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explanation of her
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motive what was it that made you want to
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kill your father and she
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said I wanted to be with my mom but in
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an ironic twist like some
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out of a Shakespearean tragedy it was
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all in vain because Marie Robards mother
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and her new husband were planning to
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move to Florida and didn't tell her
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until after her father's
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funeral Marie had no choice but to move
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in with her grandparents so she could
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finish High School in Texas and thus
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began this tale that in many ways is a
00:16:26
kind of Twisted modern parable of
00:16:29
teenage girls in the suburbs these girls
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that are have those Mercurial emotions
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but also many of whom are girls of
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divorce who are trying to grow up with
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parents who have split up and seem often
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preoccupied with rebuilding their own
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lives and forget about the needs of
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their own
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children despite her confession Marie
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robard surprised Everyone by deciding to
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plead
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not
00:17:00
guilty she now said she hadn't planned
00:17:03
to kill her father at
00:17:05
[Music]
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all in
00:17:15
1996 Marie Robards went on trial for the
00:17:18
murder of her father Steve she pleaded
00:17:22
not guilty her defense was that she had
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no intention of killing
00:17:27
him get your notebook
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Marie admitted that she stole the poison
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from her high school chemistry
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lab and she also admitted that she put
00:17:42
the poison in her father's Mexican food
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but she said she only planned to make
00:17:48
him sick not to kill him of course that
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doesn't make that much sense if he just
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got sick she wouldn't get to go back
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with her mother prosecutors said Marie
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was a straight a chemistry student and
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the amount of poison used was 28 times
00:18:03
the lethal dose anybody who's going to
00:18:06
go to a local medical school to study is
00:18:09
probably if they're a high school
00:18:11
student is probably above average as far
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as in the science um department and as a
00:18:17
matter of fact I mean that was part of
00:18:19
my investigation I collected her grades
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and she had very high marks in school
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and in the Sciences are you feeling any
00:18:27
better I feel ly did you get me some
00:18:30
ginger they also pointed out that Marie
00:18:34
stood by and watched her father die
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without saying a word to her father's
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girlfriend or the ambulance crew that
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tried to resuscitate
00:18:46
[Music]
00:18:47
him 18 months later the gas
00:18:50
chromatography found what the first
00:18:53
autopsy did not that Steve Robards had
00:18:57
died of a massive dose of
00:19:02
poison the prosecution presented Marie
00:19:04
Robards signed confession as
00:19:09
evidence did you know that this stuff is
00:19:12
dangerous yes or
00:19:14
no yes sir how did you know that cuz my
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chist teacher
00:19:20
said said what that it was
00:19:25
danger Stacy testified that Marie told
00:19:28
her that she always knew that enough of
00:19:30
that chemical would have killed her
00:19:33
father and that was this defining moment
00:19:36
that her best friend admitted that Marie
00:19:40
had the knowledge about what that poison
00:19:42
would
00:19:44
do the forensic evidence the confession
00:19:48
and the testimony of her own best friend
00:19:51
all worked against
00:19:53
her the prosecutor in the case called
00:19:57
her a Relentless predator
00:19:59
another prosecutor called her society's
00:20:01
worst nightmare a girl who kills her dad
00:20:05
uh but some people saw her as a kind of
00:20:09
Lizzy bordon of
00:20:11
Texas this sweet Charming successful
00:20:17
industrious young girl who suddenly did
00:20:21
something
00:20:22
inexplicable and in this surprising
00:20:25
twist at least for me I began to sense a
00:20:29
sympathy developing for her because in
00:20:32
many ways she was the symbol of what
00:20:36
modern divorce has done to our
00:20:39
society the medical examiner says Marie
00:20:42
was a very clever killer I just tell you
00:20:45
she was good enough to fake me out
00:20:47
initially because I you know went for
00:20:50
the head fake and did couldn't find
00:20:53
anything on May 9th
00:20:56
1996 it took the jury less than an hour
00:20:59
to find Marie Robards guilty of Murder
00:21:03
She was sentenced to 27 years in prison
00:21:07
I don't know what we do about it but
00:21:08
they are kids they don't think exactly
00:21:11
like adults and that do mean you can you
00:21:14
know they can get by with something like
00:21:16
this with a slap on the wrist but 27
00:21:20
years seems a little excessive to me
00:21:22
what she had done was commit the perfect
00:21:24
crime it was by all accounts The Perfect
00:21:27
Crime had Dorothy Marie not uh mentioned
00:21:30
it to a friend she probably would have
00:21:32
gotten away with it I mean almost
00:21:34
certainly would have gotten away with it
00:21:36
Marie has never spoken about what's
00:21:40
happened since what is known is that
00:21:43
Marie is the model prisoner at this
00:21:45
women's unit in East Texas where she's
00:21:47
going to be staying for several more
00:21:50
years that she has never
00:21:53
complained that she always volunteers
00:21:56
for the worst chores
00:21:58
that one day a psychologist went to see
00:22:01
her and she was wearing this paper thin
00:22:03
prison guard and a cold fret had come
00:22:06
through Texas and she was
00:22:08
shivering and the psychologist said why
00:22:10
don't you ask for something
00:22:12
warmer she said I don't deserve
00:22:16
to she Shrugged she smiled and she said
00:22:19
I'll be okay
00:22:21
[Music]
00:22:31
more
00:22:33
[Music]
00:22:45
[Applause]
00:22:47
[Music]
