00:00:11
I did what I did nobody guilty but me
00:00:15
you know what I'm
00:00:16
saying if she were here now I would
00:00:19
start by telling her that I'm sorry and
00:00:21
that I love
00:00:23
her I would tell her I need my big
00:00:26
sister
00:00:28
back he chose
00:00:31
a certain category of victims who he
00:00:34
believed he could victimize without
00:00:37
repercussions this is a person who was
00:00:39
on a path at an early age and just
00:00:41
progressed and became somebody who was a
00:00:45
danger to everybody around
00:00:47
him I can only imagine the fear that is
00:00:51
felt at this
00:00:54
time I would characterize it as evil I
00:00:57
would characterize it as subhuman
00:01:01
I think he's a
00:01:02
monster every day I am haunted by
00:01:06
memories and
00:01:07
images I will never be whole again
00:01:16
[Music]
00:01:34
[Music]
00:01:47
Stuart welon was born in 1977 he grew up
00:01:51
in Jamaica Queens New York which was an
00:01:55
area that was known for having a lot of
00:01:57
drug
00:01:58
activity his father died when he was a
00:02:01
teenager there was indications that he
00:02:03
was sexually assaulted that he was
00:02:05
experimenting with drugs and was
00:02:07
introduced to pornography at an early
00:02:10
age in 1990 just after his father's
00:02:14
death Stuart won's mom moves them out of
00:02:17
the city to Montclair New
00:02:19
Jersey a safer neighborhood with a lower
00:02:22
crime
00:02:23
rate no mother wants to see their child
00:02:26
involved in criminal activity so what is
00:02:30
often done is let us move to a more
00:02:33
Suburban life and we can start all
00:02:37
over that was probably the intent of
00:02:39
this caring mother trying to move her
00:02:42
son to a different way of
00:02:46
life but Stuart weldon's difficult start
00:02:48
to life continues when he reaches high
00:02:51
school he seemed to have some pretty
00:02:53
significant learning problems he was
00:02:57
diagnosed with severe
00:02:58
ADHD he apparently had
00:03:02
dyslexia I think when a child um has
00:03:05
some learning
00:03:07
challenges how that child does depends
00:03:09
on a couple of different things not just
00:03:11
the severity of their disabilities which
00:03:13
is important to know but also how the
00:03:16
school handles those so are they getting
00:03:19
diagnosed early are they getting
00:03:21
appropriate treatment and it sounds like
00:03:23
that he ended up having a pretty limited
00:03:26
education
00:03:33
in 1996 Stuart Welden is at a mall and
00:03:36
he and his buddy uh basically pick up
00:03:39
three girls they're going to go out and
00:03:40
party they end up taking two of them
00:03:42
home but the third one they end up
00:03:45
kidnapping and sexually
00:03:49
assaulting at the age of 19 when he was
00:03:51
in New Jersey he was charged with uh
00:03:53
sexual offenses as well as a weapons
00:03:56
charge he was picking up women that were
00:03:58
might have been drug involved uh mental
00:04:00
health issues involved in
00:04:04
prostitution we often see a progressive
00:04:07
nature of criminal offenses For Those
00:04:08
who commit very serious
00:04:11
crimes the issues of violence often have
00:04:16
their foundation in control that if I'm
00:04:19
able to violently get you to do what I
00:04:22
want I have control over
00:04:25
you he's not starting out painting
00:04:28
graffiti
00:04:30
or even loitering in places where he's
00:04:33
not supposed to be or being on top of
00:04:35
the school when he's not supposed to be
00:04:36
on there or you know things that we
00:04:38
might think juveniles are exhibiting
00:04:40
poor judgment and they're going to grow
00:04:43
out of it this kind of crime is not like
00:04:48
that another step up the ladder of
00:04:52
engaging in criminal activity engaging
00:04:54
in violence especially when you see
00:04:57
sexually uh related or sexually involved
00:04:59
offenses you know typically that's a red
00:05:02
flag sometimes those behaviors are
00:05:04
innate and they repeat uh sometimes they
00:05:07
get progressively
00:05:10
worse it suggests
00:05:13
premeditation it
00:05:15
suggests violent Behavior it is violent
00:05:18
Behavior it suggests predatory behavior
00:05:21
and those are things that are often
00:05:23
times
00:05:25
predictors of future violence and future
00:05:28
sexual offenses
00:05:30
[Music]
00:05:32
when we look at serial killers we often
00:05:34
do expect them to come from the most
00:05:36
horrendous backgrounds and have parents
00:05:38
who don't love them don't care about
00:05:40
them abuse them take advantage of them
00:05:42
and then you find parents who for
00:05:44
whatever reason uh indulged their
00:05:46
children were permissive and basically
00:05:49
prevent that child from developing a
00:05:51
sense of right and wrong that's internal
00:05:58
[Music]
00:06:04
Stuart weldon's criminality reaches a
00:06:06
new level now 28 years old he commits
00:06:10
assault with a deadly weapon and
00:06:12
receives a 3-year prison
00:06:17
sentence when he's released he moves
00:06:20
with his mother
00:06:22
again this time to Springfield in
00:06:25
Western
00:06:28
Massachusetts they live in a a property
00:06:30
made of two separate Apartments it would
00:06:32
hide some chilling
00:06:36
Secrets Springfield is the largest city
00:06:39
in Western Massachusetts and the largest
00:06:41
city in Hampton
00:06:44
County there's a lot of poverty here a
00:06:46
lot of crime a lot of drugs essentially
00:06:49
it's an old industrial town that has uh
00:06:51
been kind of overtaken by crime and
00:06:54
drugs it's essentially like a
00:06:56
distribution center of heroin between
00:07:00
Boston and New
00:07:02
York this kind of underbelly of criminal
00:07:05
activity um is something that is
00:07:07
appealing to him he kind of gravitates
00:07:10
to it and I think he feels like he fits
00:07:12
in and he understands it the narcotics
00:07:15
detective once told me the only reason
00:07:16
we don't have methamphetamine moving
00:07:17
into the Springfield area is because
00:07:19
heroin is so cheap here it's likely that
00:07:22
his mom thought she was moving him to a
00:07:24
better place what she doesn't realize is
00:07:28
she's basically moved moves him from the
00:07:30
frying pan Into the
00:07:36
Fire there's a Road in
00:07:38
Springfield that is essentially known
00:07:40
for sex workers to hang out for people
00:07:44
to be looking for to make money in
00:07:47
exchange for drugs and for Stuart Welden
00:07:51
who is very involved in criminal
00:07:54
activity this would be like a candy
00:07:56
store he could just drive down and pick
00:07:58
and choose whatever he wants
00:08:01
Welden became very well known in um
00:08:05
circles involving women who were
00:08:07
prostituting
00:08:10
themselves became very well known in
00:08:13
certain criminal circles in particular
00:08:15
an area of high in School Street in the
00:08:17
City of
00:08:19
Springfield he became sort of embedded
00:08:22
in in a particular uh criminal aspect
00:08:25
here in the City of Springfield
00:08:30
when you have kind of a
00:08:32
subculture of criminal behavior in a
00:08:35
community it is easier to get away with
00:08:38
things because people kind of look out
00:08:40
for each other in a way and you don't
00:08:42
stand
00:08:47
out Stuart weldon's respect for the law
00:08:50
deteriorates
00:08:52
further he breaks into someone's home
00:08:55
and when apprehended he violently
00:08:58
attacks a police officer
00:09:01
he receives a 2-year prison
00:09:03
sentence this is somebody that really
00:09:06
strikes me as he doesn't care about
00:09:09
anything he doesn't care about himself
00:09:11
that much he puts himself at all kinds
00:09:13
of risk he pulls a knife on a police
00:09:15
officer I mean he could have been shot
00:09:17
by police for legitimate reasons on many
00:09:19
different
00:09:21
occasions so he's somebody who doesn't
00:09:23
care about anybody or himself and I
00:09:25
think that is scary that is something
00:09:28
you don't often see
00:09:32
[Music]
00:09:46
Stuart
00:09:47
welen was very involved in the drug
00:09:50
world and he was dealing drugs which
00:09:53
made it very very easy for him to
00:09:55
encourage and entice women who were
00:09:57
struggling with addiction into his
00:10:01
car Wen used that as a way to lure them
00:10:06
to his
00:10:11
house a lot of the times he would get
00:10:13
women into a car with an offer of hey
00:10:15
I've got some drugs let's go do them uh
00:10:17
and then as they got closer maybe a
00:10:19
negotiation took place about a sex act
00:10:22
that ended up going too far but in a lot
00:10:24
of cases women went to his apartment
00:10:26
thinking they were going to hang out and
00:10:28
then when they got there they would find
00:10:29
out it was far more involved than just
00:10:32
smoking drugs
00:10:33
together it was more about physical
00:10:35
controls slaps punches uh ordering them
00:10:39
around uh forcing acts on them that they
00:10:41
did not agree
00:10:43
to he was kind of pushing the boundaries
00:10:45
to see what he could get away with he
00:10:48
subjected the victims of his crimes to
00:10:51
experiences that could could only be
00:10:53
termed as near-death experiences
00:10:56
[Music]
00:11:08
Stuart welon now aged 40 already has a
00:11:12
criminal history spanning kidnap
00:11:14
burglary sexual offenses and assault
00:11:17
with a deadly weapon he served two
00:11:20
prison
00:11:23
sentences he's now luring vulnerable
00:11:26
women to his
00:11:27
basement where he's torturing
00:11:30
them almost to the point of
00:11:34
death despite this increasingly alarming
00:11:38
Behavior he isn't drawing police
00:11:41
attention these women are vulnerable on
00:11:43
a lot of different levels not only in
00:11:45
terms of getting into a car with
00:11:47
somebody they don't
00:11:49
[Music]
00:11:51
know not only desperate perhaps in terms
00:11:54
of looking for drugs to kind of feed an
00:11:56
addiction but also their relationship
00:11:58
with the police is going to be very
00:12:00
difficult and so you know Stuart won
00:12:03
knows this he knows that most often when
00:12:08
a sex worker is raped or beaten up
00:12:11
either she's not going to go to the
00:12:13
police because she's afraid she's going
00:12:15
to be arrested for what she's been doing
00:12:19
or that she's not going to be believed
00:12:21
and all too often that's exactly what
00:12:26
happens these are women who sometimes
00:12:28
fall out of touch with their for periods
00:12:30
of time and uh liveed very transient
00:12:32
lifestyle so sometimes not being around
00:12:35
uh wouldn't be noticed it was actually
00:12:36
the women uh who hung out in high and
00:12:39
School Street who are the first ones to
00:12:41
realize we haven't seen this person for
00:12:42
a while but even they said that's not
00:12:44
uncommon sometimes people go to uh rehab
00:12:47
they get clean or they try to move on or
00:12:49
simply find another area move in with a
00:12:51
with a man things like that so these are
00:12:54
people whose disappearances might not go
00:12:56
noticed uh right away
00:13:02
it is almost a matter of you you haven't
00:13:05
punished me so why should I stop
00:13:07
committing the
00:13:08
crimes or maybe even escalating those
00:13:15
crimes I think we see the latter in this
00:13:18
case you haven't punished me severely I
00:13:22
am going to continue doing these crimes
00:13:25
and since the system is not stopping me
00:13:28
or deterring me
00:13:29
these crimes will
00:13:32
continue he does not have some of the
00:13:35
normal restraints that most people
00:13:37
have and that makes people afraid of
00:13:43
him they're aware that he'll do whatever
00:13:48
he's intimidating he'll fight cops he'll
00:13:51
run from cops he'll fight anybody I mean
00:13:54
this is somebody who truly seems to have
00:13:58
no restraint when it comes to getting
00:14:01
what he wants or doing what he wants to
00:14:04
do a lot of these women described
00:14:06
feeling like their life was draining
00:14:08
away they were losing vision and unable
00:14:10
to
00:14:11
speak having that complete and utter
00:14:13
control over someone's life that
00:14:15
essentially having the power over
00:14:16
whether or not they live or die and
00:14:18
being able to see their face react to
00:14:20
the situation that they're in it's just
00:14:22
astonishing to see the fact that he's
00:14:24
doing all these things not hiding them
00:14:26
not seeming to care about the
00:14:28
consequences
00:14:32
[Music]
00:14:45
America Len is a 33-year-old mother
00:14:48
who's just completed a drug
00:14:50
rehabilitation
00:14:52
[Music]
00:14:56
program 47-year-old Ernestine Ryan has
00:14:59
lived her whole life in
00:15:02
Springfield she is a mother and soon to
00:15:05
be
00:15:05
[Music]
00:15:08
grandmother Kayla Escalante a
00:15:11
26-year-old mom from neighboring
00:15:14
lllo struggles with drug addiction and
00:15:18
has lost touch with her
00:15:19
[Music]
00:15:21
family police have no idea where these
00:15:24
three vulnerable women are or even if
00:15:26
they're alive
00:15:27
[Music]
00:15:29
it's not until 5 months after America
00:15:31
Leiden is reported missing that
00:15:34
authorities suspect Weldon is
00:15:39
involved the first time I learned about
00:15:42
Stuart Welden he was pulled over for a
00:15:44
routine traffic stop essentially by by
00:15:46
some
00:15:48
detectives the car took off and Mr
00:15:51
Weldon had just taken off in the middle
00:15:52
of the stop which obviously the officers
00:15:54
gave Chase to
00:15:56
him the traffic stop all
00:15:59
for the police officer with probable
00:16:02
cause with probable cause to do a search
00:16:06
of the
00:16:07
vehicle to check out the welfare of the
00:16:10
individuals inside the vehicle and
00:16:13
perhaps to ask questions if there is any
00:16:16
speculation of criminal activity taking
00:16:20
place this isn't somebody who's
00:16:23
sophisticated and trying to hide his
00:16:25
criminal activities he's doing whatever
00:16:27
he wants to do right
00:16:30
then a Chase occurs and at the end of
00:16:34
the chase the police officers find that
00:16:38
there is a woman tied Bound in the back
00:16:42
seat of the
00:16:44
[Music]
00:16:46
car it's really the case of outstanding
00:16:49
police work police officers being
00:16:52
observant uh aware of of uh their
00:16:54
surroundings and and people of interest
00:16:56
in the area
00:16:59
it probably saved a life and it probably
00:17:02
saved more than one
00:17:04
life the woman who was in the front
00:17:06
passenger seat began screaming and it
00:17:08
became very obvious at that point she
00:17:09
was significantly
00:17:12
injured she immediately tells them she
00:17:15
has been held captive for one
00:17:17
month that she has been unsafe unwell
00:17:21
that she's been kidnapped and taken by
00:17:25
Welden the police officers uh see
00:17:29
some odd and very serious injuries she
00:17:33
complains to them about
00:17:35
pain the victim then communicates with
00:17:37
police officers about how Mr Welden had
00:17:41
been abusing her and and striking her
00:17:43
with an object and she had injuries on
00:17:45
her body very consistent with this sort
00:17:47
of
00:17:48
abuse she was giving this information a
00:17:51
very hysterical uh way that was
00:17:53
sometimes difficult to follow a little
00:17:55
rambling she was in obvious trauma and
00:17:57
distress essentially saying that he'd
00:17:59
been holding her against his her will in
00:18:00
his house for the past 30 days he had
00:18:03
been beating her tying her up things
00:18:05
like that uh she claimed that he had
00:18:07
been beating her with a hammer in the
00:18:08
leg and the injuries to her leg were
00:18:11
obvious it was very clear that she'd
00:18:13
been receiving abuse on that leg for
00:18:14
quite some time and she had to be rushed
00:18:16
to the hospital uh where she was
00:18:17
actually in almost in danger of losing
00:18:19
that
00:18:22
leg welon is charged with kidnapping
00:18:26
threatening to commit a crime carrying a
00:18:28
dangerous weapon and resisting
00:18:32
arrest despite the claims of his victim
00:18:35
police don't have enough evidence to
00:18:37
search his
00:18:40
house Mr won was brought to court and uh
00:18:43
the next day and I I handled the
00:18:45
arraignment on that case he was charged
00:18:46
with kidnapping and a a variety of other
00:18:48
assaulted charges I believe at that time
00:18:51
we requested a high cash bail and he was
00:18:53
held on a million dollar cash bail for
00:18:54
given the kidnapping and the serious
00:18:56
allegations which we later came to find
00:18:58
out was only the tip of the iceberg we
00:19:00
didn't have probable cause at least in
00:19:02
my opinion that time to go and search
00:19:03
his home uh that came a few days later
00:19:08
[Music]
00:19:12
on Springfield police received a call
00:19:15
from his adoptive mother who was
00:19:18
complaining about a smell in the
00:19:20
basement uh the way she described it to
00:19:22
police officers on on that call was she
00:19:24
was worried about potentially there
00:19:26
being a dead animal in the basement and
00:19:27
she was afraid to go and check it
00:19:31
out a number of uniformed Springfield
00:19:34
police officers entered the home and
00:19:36
immediately were struck with uh a very
00:19:39
strong inv vile odor that they were
00:19:42
familiar with as either decomposing uh
00:19:44
human remains or animal
00:19:47
remains for those of us who have been
00:19:50
involved in
00:19:53
investigation there is a distinct smell
00:19:56
you do not forget
00:20:11
at this point it was dark out it was
00:20:13
8:30 or
00:20:15
[Music]
00:20:16
so I recall getting onto the driveway of
00:20:19
the
00:20:21
home I remember smelling an odor that I
00:20:24
was somewhat familiar with at the time
00:20:27
even uh a great distance from the home
00:20:29
probably 50 ft at the end of the
00:20:32
driveway I went accompanied by police
00:20:35
officers into the home and down the
00:20:37
stairs I remember at that point the the
00:20:40
smell was very very
00:20:42
strong and then I was taken into a a
00:20:45
bathroom area and I I witnessed a body
00:20:48
there that was uh at that point pretty
00:20:50
severely
00:20:52
[Music]
00:20:55
decomposed when you find that it is is a
00:20:58
human being there is a drop in your in
00:21:02
your heart in your stomach because that
00:21:04
was someone's Mom Dad brother sister
00:21:07
family
00:21:08
member and when you find that the death
00:21:12
has
00:21:13
occurred that's an awful lot to
00:21:17
take the victim in the bathroom we
00:21:19
believed was the most recent victim went
00:21:22
missing sometime April or May of that
00:21:26
year a distinctive an tattoo and
00:21:29
fingerprints allow police to identify
00:21:31
the first victim as missing 27-year-old
00:21:34
Kayla
00:21:37
Escalante her body was bound and
00:21:41
gagged the first body was just in a
00:21:43
basement bathroom that anyone could have
00:21:44
really walk down
00:21:47
to I then walked outside and I was
00:21:49
brought down to the garage area down at
00:21:51
the end of the driveway by police
00:21:54
officers again the smell was very strong
00:21:56
even being in the open air uh walked
00:21:59
into the to the garage just a few steps
00:22:01
and could see at that point uh a
00:22:03
severely decomposed body the smell was
00:22:06
very strong there were black flies
00:22:08
present we believe the victim found in
00:22:10
the garage uh was abducted sometime in
00:22:14
April the second victim is confirmed as
00:22:17
missing 47-year-old soon to be
00:22:19
grandmother Ernestine
00:22:22
Ryan her body was dumped and Loosely
00:22:25
covered with
00:22:26
cardboard I knew that we we had a very
00:22:28
serious situation on our hands uh I made
00:22:31
some phone calls to members of my staff
00:22:33
called uh assistant district attorney
00:22:35
Max Bennett and asked him to respond to
00:22:37
the
00:22:39
scene at that point it looked like we
00:22:41
had two bodies that had just been kind
00:22:42
of
00:22:48
[Music]
00:22:53
left the following day after detective
00:22:56
had noticed uh Disturbed dirt underneath
00:22:59
a wooden shed in the backyard and a uh
00:23:01
State Police Cav dog had alerted on the
00:23:05
area detectives began digging there
00:23:07
where we Unearthed the body of the third
00:23:12
victim bound with internet cords
00:23:15
computer
00:23:16
cables and almost completely decomposed
00:23:19
in a skeletal fashion uh with very
00:23:21
little tissue
00:23:23
left based on our investigation we
00:23:26
pieced together we believe she went
00:23:27
missing sometime in
00:23:30
September investigators need to use
00:23:32
dental records to identify 34-year-old
00:23:35
America
00:23:39
lien it certainly presents in in my
00:23:42
experience now as a very unique crime
00:23:45
scene and uh a very unique set of
00:23:48
circumstances that um you know at the
00:23:51
time were were startling were were scary
00:23:54
were
00:23:55
horrifying and now stand out as uh some
00:23:58
of the more uh heinous crimes and really
00:24:04
egregious you know scenery that that
00:24:06
I've seen in my years in law
00:24:11
enforcement women that were in the home
00:24:13
while his mother was around or present
00:24:15
in the home they walked out alive uh
00:24:17
when his mother would leave the house or
00:24:19
be gone for a long periods of time
00:24:21
that's when we believe the murders
00:24:22
occurred
00:24:29
we do believe that Mr Welden has been
00:24:32
living up uh up until the time of his
00:24:34
arrest at this
00:24:36
address this is a a largely residential
00:24:40
area with you know sort of middle class
00:24:42
families who take pride in their homes
00:24:44
and who go to work every day you know
00:24:46
children lived in that neighborhood uh
00:24:49
so there was a lot of shock especially
00:24:50
from that area of the City of
00:24:52
Springfield that you know this kind of
00:24:54
behavior that became National and
00:24:56
international news was happen happening
00:24:59
you know just yards away from their
00:25:05
[Music]
00:25:09
homes Welden is now charged with the
00:25:12
murders of America Leiden Ernestine Ryan
00:25:15
and Kayla
00:25:18
Escalante along with the previous
00:25:20
charges related to the kidnap and
00:25:22
attempted murder of the victim found in
00:25:24
his
00:25:26
car with well off the streets other
00:25:30
victims now feel able to report what
00:25:32
he's done to
00:25:34
them so here you have Welden in police
00:25:38
custody and police work now shows that a
00:25:42
series of rapes that had been ongoing in
00:25:45
that same city also
00:25:48
stopped police work then puts two and
00:25:51
two together to look at Welden perhaps
00:25:54
being the suspect for those rapes
00:26:00
he was incredibly brutal in his
00:26:04
rapes and I think that he didn't really
00:26:08
care if they lived or not I can
00:26:11
certainly
00:26:12
see that once somebody
00:26:15
died in his care how that would become
00:26:19
an additional fun thing for
00:26:21
him and then it would
00:26:24
continue even if something was reported
00:26:26
to police
00:26:28
you know Prosecuting a case involving a
00:26:31
person with serious mental health issues
00:26:33
and serious addiction issues who's
00:26:35
homeless in
00:26:37
transient really presents very difficult
00:26:39
circumstances for prosecutors to
00:26:41
maintain you know these cases are very
00:26:45
challenging it wasn't until a lot of
00:26:48
these women realized that women they
00:26:49
knew had been killed in that house
00:26:51
that's what brought them forward it was
00:26:52
doing it for other people and realizing
00:26:54
this this was a lot more serious and
00:26:56
they had to stand up for these women
00:26:57
that no longer had a voice
00:27:01
he's looking for people who are less
00:27:03
likely to go to the police he made
00:27:04
several statements to some of them go
00:27:06
tell someone no one's going to believe
00:27:08
you a and quite frankly that that's the
00:27:11
exact mentality of the women that he was
00:27:12
seeking out people who didn't think
00:27:14
they'd be believed who didn't think it
00:27:15
was worth coming forward and would just
00:27:17
be happy to move on with their lives
00:27:18
after the fact having
00:27:21
escaped his objectives with with these
00:27:24
women his propensity to rape and commit
00:27:26
acts of violence are are are things that
00:27:29
have no place in our
00:27:31
society those rapes We Believe became
00:27:34
more and more violent involv
00:27:37
strangulation involved the use of uh
00:27:40
various sort of tools or Machinery in in
00:27:44
to to carry out these rapes and to carry
00:27:47
out uh the violence that was a part of
00:27:49
this experience for Mr
00:27:51
Welden some cases murder becomes a
00:27:55
product of one's desire not to be
00:27:57
apprehended but we believe in Mr
00:27:59
welden's case it was truly a sexual
00:28:01
murder in which the murder became a part
00:28:03
of uh his fantasy and carrying out his
00:28:08
desires Stuart welen was a sexual
00:28:11
stist in many respects so it wasn't just
00:28:14
a murder this isn't somebody who's
00:28:16
raping women and then killing them to
00:28:19
avoid capture this is somebody that I
00:28:21
think given the level of torture that he
00:28:25
inflicted on his victims who got sexual
00:28:28
satisfaction from that torture from
00:28:32
hurting them from seeing them cry or beg
00:28:36
or
00:28:44
[Music]
00:28:47
plead eight cases of rape are added to
00:28:50
weldon's charges thanks to the testimony
00:28:53
of survivors who are granted
00:28:56
anonymity a rape by its very definition
00:28:59
is a vile act one of the most heinous
00:29:01
crimes that um we know uh in our
00:29:04
Criminal Justice System but certainly
00:29:06
Stuart welden's behaviors as we came to
00:29:09
know them were particularly dark uh and
00:29:13
focused where he brought them to a level
00:29:16
of violence where uh they were strangled
00:29:19
where they were beaten and so on and so
00:29:21
forth in very very severe
00:29:24
ways this guy is not just a min
00:29:28
to sex workers this guy is a loose
00:29:32
cannon to everybody in his
00:29:35
life this is somebody who's been known
00:29:38
to threaten to shoot up a bar because
00:29:41
he's angry to assault a woman on the
00:29:43
street and yet this is somebody who's
00:29:45
engaging in all of these activities in
00:29:48
any other
00:29:49
neighborhood this guy would be in in
00:29:52
jail and then prison for any one of
00:29:54
these and yet he seems to be operating
00:29:57
with few consequences if
00:30:00
any Welden pleads not guilty to all
00:30:04
charges as prosecutors prepare for trial
00:30:08
they fear the nature of the crime scene
00:30:10
and the accounts of some survivors may
00:30:13
allow Welden to plead
00:30:16
Insanity so at that point it was my
00:30:18
concern that this is going to bode
00:30:20
poorly for us trying to prove that he
00:30:21
was able to conform his conduct the fact
00:30:23
he would leave rotting bodies out like
00:30:24
this
00:30:25
[Music]
00:30:33
[Music]
00:30:35
there was a description by one victim of
00:30:37
him uh essentially putting candles on
00:30:40
the floor in a
00:30:41
pentagram another one indicated that he
00:30:44
had motioned to an area underneath the
00:30:46
basement stairs and said that a demon
00:30:48
lived there and he threw salt there um
00:30:50
other times he he would just maybe
00:30:52
ramble about something satanic in a way
00:30:54
that uh the victims couldn't really tell
00:30:56
us exactly what he was saying just that
00:30:57
he was rambling on about satanic
00:31:00
things one of the things that I do
00:31:02
wonder about Stuart welen is whether he
00:31:05
had some kind of brain impairment or
00:31:06
brain damage that in some
00:31:09
respects affected his impulsivity that's
00:31:12
a problem for us because one of the
00:31:14
things we're going to have to prove in
00:31:14
this case is that he was uh sane and
00:31:17
that he appreciated the wrongfulness of
00:31:18
his actions and that he had the ability
00:31:21
to conduct himself in a lawful manner
00:31:23
when you hear things like that or the
00:31:25
fact that he he was obsessed with a
00:31:26
ghost detecting web site those are
00:31:28
things that you're going to need to
00:31:30
[Music]
00:31:40
explain Stuart welon is in custody
00:31:44
pleading not guilty to three counts of
00:31:46
first-degree murder and 49 other charges
00:31:50
relating to a total of 11
00:31:54
victims prosecutors are working to prove
00:31:56
he was criminally responsible for his
00:31:59
actions as they fear weldon's defense
00:32:02
may claim Welden was insane or under the
00:32:04
effects of a mental disorder at the time
00:32:07
of the
00:32:09
offenses he's due to face trial in April
00:32:12
2020 we had to show that there was going
00:32:15
to be some kind of organization to
00:32:16
What's Happening Here some kind of some
00:32:17
kind of pattern rather than just random
00:32:19
chaotic violence I tell this a lots of
00:32:22
new prosecutors the most important
00:32:24
witness and the most consistent witness
00:32:25
in any murder prosecution is going to be
00:32:27
your scene
00:32:29
we had to ask for an extension here
00:32:30
because crime scene detectives spent
00:32:32
days digging in that yard and then going
00:32:35
through that house and being very
00:32:37
careful to procure DNA evidence swabbing
00:32:40
everything uh looking for fingerprints
00:32:42
things like
00:32:43
that they were very careful in making
00:32:46
sure that they're preserving evidence
00:32:49
this is preserving your crime scene are
00:32:52
you keeping as many people out of the
00:32:54
crime scene as possible are you thinking
00:32:57
in the fure future is there something
00:33:00
that could change my crime scene weather
00:33:02
for example we had to take a lot of
00:33:06
small disparate pieces of evidence link
00:33:08
them together to build a pattern that we
00:33:10
could
00:33:10
extrapolate we found two bleach bottles
00:33:13
there which kind of indicated some kind
00:33:15
of cleanup had happened the ground was
00:33:16
sticky also indicating some kind of
00:33:18
cleanup had occurred under there at some
00:33:20
point
00:33:28
yo it's me
00:33:31
Jersey I apologize if I ever my over
00:33:37
say wish I could have did better with my
00:33:39
life you know what I'm saying but I'm
00:33:42
tired of living
00:33:45
man the video isn't a confession but
00:33:48
evidence of Welden trying to cover his
00:33:50
actions would help prove he was acting
00:33:53
with
00:33:54
intent there were inconsistencies in his
00:33:57
story
00:33:58
too it became kind of known to me that
00:34:01
he might be saying the the victims were
00:34:02
only bound after they were they were
00:34:04
killed so that they' be easier to move
00:34:07
and so we had to look at the exact
00:34:08
circumstances we found him in at that
00:34:10
point and uh the first victim uh in
00:34:13
discussions with the medical examiner we
00:34:15
were able to determine that the she was
00:34:16
bound in duct tape and due to some of
00:34:18
the lividity and the blanching of the
00:34:20
skin uh that medical examiner was going
00:34:22
to be able to give us testimony saying
00:34:24
that blood was still flowing at the time
00:34:26
that those Bonds were were applied lied
00:34:27
to the victim and that she was alive
00:34:29
when that
00:34:31
happened there's a broken hyoid bone in
00:34:33
the neck and and we knew that to mean
00:34:35
that some Force had been applied
00:34:37
manually to the neck uh most likely with
00:34:40
hands we got very lucky with a DNA hit
00:34:43
from our second victim uh on one of the
00:34:46
backs of the post there which let us
00:34:47
know her body had some at some point
00:34:50
been underneath those basement steps and
00:34:53
then we found her in the garage that was
00:34:55
very helpful because it brought back uh
00:34:57
the art Theory essentially that the bad
00:34:59
things were happening to these women in
00:35:00
the basement and then the bodies were
00:35:02
brought out which showed an organized
00:35:04
pattern and that allowed us to start uh
00:35:06
bringing in the stories of the survivors
00:35:08
from from uh his basement and we're able
00:35:10
to start applying what happened to them
00:35:12
to what happened to the bodies that we
00:35:14
[Applause]
00:35:15
found essentially through all these
00:35:17
pieces of evidence it became very clear
00:35:19
that Mr Welden knew uh who was a
00:35:23
suitable victim for what he wanted to do
00:35:25
he knew where to procure them from and
00:35:26
how to procure them uh without any
00:35:28
resistance there weren't reports coming
00:35:29
in of him dragging women into his cars
00:35:32
he knew how to charm them in and then he
00:35:34
knew how far he could go with these
00:35:36
women if there's someone in the house he
00:35:38
knew he had he had to let them go if he
00:35:40
knew he had the house kind of completely
00:35:42
unfettered for a long period of time
00:35:44
that's when we believe these killings
00:35:45
were happening
00:35:53
[Music]
00:36:03
[Music]
00:36:07
when you have bodies buried in your
00:36:09
basement you know one of the only
00:36:12
options left is to plead insanity and
00:36:15
the fact that he didn't plead Insanity U
00:36:18
likely means he was evaluated and was
00:36:21
told as an attorneys were told that he
00:36:22
doesn't meet the insanity defense he
00:36:24
wasn't legally insane at the time he
00:36:27
committed these crimes this was
00:36:29
definitely premeditated and well thought
00:36:31
out by him people evaluated him and said
00:36:35
bad news you're not
00:36:40
insane to discover that a human human
00:36:43
being was capable of uh really
00:36:47
torturing victims uh systematically in
00:36:50
that
00:36:51
home and the the deaths that those three
00:36:55
women experienced and what Mr Welden did
00:36:58
in frankly a ham-handed attempt to cover
00:37:02
up his
00:37:03
crimes is very unique it it's it's
00:37:07
something that I have not seen otherwise
00:37:08
and I hope to never see
00:37:10
[Music]
00:37:21
[Music]
00:37:26
again pleas be seated course now on
00:37:28
session no talking
00:37:33
[Music]
00:37:35
please your
00:37:37
honor many of these women didn't come
00:37:39
forward because they were terrified
00:37:41
about what happened to them based on who
00:37:42
they were how they lived what they were
00:37:44
going through they didn't think anyone
00:37:46
would believe them or care about what
00:37:48
happened to them the only good thing
00:37:50
that comes from this case your honor now
00:37:52
they know that that's not
00:37:54
true when America Ernestine and cayb
00:37:57
were in his house he knew he had that
00:37:59
house to himself for an extended period
00:38:01
of time he knew he would not be
00:38:02
interrupted or disturbed he would have
00:38:05
time to do what he
00:38:07
needed he tailored his lies and the
00:38:09
cover up about this case depending on
00:38:11
who he was talking to he would explain
00:38:13
the smell in a way that was designed to
00:38:15
cause the least amount of alarm to his
00:38:17
audience he tailored these lies about
00:38:20
the smell while searching the internet
00:38:22
on how to remove the smell of dead
00:38:23
animal carcasses always careful to never
00:38:26
search them as dead bodies
00:38:28
the intent for what he did here is all
00:38:31
over this
00:38:43
case kayy was a daughter a sister and a
00:38:47
mother she could light up a room with
00:38:49
her smile fill it with her
00:38:52
laughter her love for her friends and
00:38:54
her family never dwindled but instead it
00:38:56
grew every day
00:38:58
she could love with the power of a
00:39:00
thousand Hearts she never gave up on the
00:39:02
things that meant the most to
00:39:09
her there are no words to describe the
00:39:12
pain in my heart that start of the day I
00:39:14
found out my mom was one of the
00:39:16
defendant
00:39:17
victims the feelings of hurt sadness
00:39:20
confusion loneliness regret and most of
00:39:22
all anger are just few of my daily
00:39:25
emotions now
00:39:27
I wake up every day hoping that this was
00:39:29
all the bad dream and relive the world
00:39:32
when I realized it was real
00:39:35
they they say time heals all all wounds
00:39:38
but your honor I don't feel like this is
00:39:39
a wound that will ever
00:39:41
heal I miss my
00:39:51
mom for 3 months I wondered every single
00:39:55
day where she was
00:39:57
is she okay having hope we would see her
00:40:00
again the day I gave birth I still
00:40:03
wasn't aware she was dead playing alone
00:40:05
in a dirty dark
00:40:08
garage my life crumbled and stopped the
00:40:12
minute the detectives came to my
00:40:15
door I'll never forget those
00:40:18
moments every day I am haunted by
00:40:21
memories and
00:40:23
images I will never be whole again
00:40:28
the defendant took away my
00:40:31
daughter my sweet little
00:40:34
angel Kayla
00:40:36
Jean take care
00:40:40
Out Mr Stewart Wen in consideration of
00:40:44
this offense court orders that you be
00:40:46
confined at MCI Cedar Junction for the
00:40:49
term of your natural
00:40:54
life to give voice to people who are
00:40:58
downtrodden to give a sense of respect
00:41:01
to people who have really been at the
00:41:03
lowest rungs of society for a very long
00:41:06
time uh to give a sense of purpose and
00:41:08
meaning to people who are suffering from
00:41:11
addiction and are suffering from mental
00:41:13
health issues to give them worth through
00:41:16
this
00:41:17
process is is really very special
00:41:21
work I want to give credit to our team
00:41:24
and in particular assistant district
00:41:25
attorney Max Ben
00:41:28
who pieced together a case and worked
00:41:32
with great
00:41:33
compassion and in great fortitude to
00:41:37
give the murder victims families and the
00:41:40
living victims a sense of
00:41:44
dignity a sense of closure a sense of
00:41:47
justice around the horrible things that
00:41:49
happened to them or happened to their
00:41:50
loved ones there's nothing I could say
00:41:53
that would ease the
00:41:56
pain of the of the families of of the
00:41:59
victims in this
00:42:01
case seart won's victims were at a very
00:42:06
desperate point in their lives and they
00:42:07
were all battling addiction and trying
00:42:09
to beat it and it's can be easy to
00:42:12
forget that these were women who had
00:42:15
children
00:42:17
often they were sisters they were
00:42:22
daughters they had interest they you
00:42:25
know they loved their family
00:42:28
and they really were much more than that
00:42:33
snapshot of what they were struggling
00:42:35
with when they died
00:42:38
[Music]
00:42:45
[Music]
00:42:57
[Music]
00:43:03
[Music]
00:43:09
[Music]
