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[Music]
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on this episode of women behind bars
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one woman claimed she killed her mother
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while in a drug-induced fog
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the autopsy showed significant severe
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injuries
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it was a pretty awful death
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prison is cold hard steel
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another woman was convicted of murdering
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her mother
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and then dumping her on the side of a
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road
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my sister tried to apparently burn the
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body in the trash can to get rid of the
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evidence
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i i hid the fact that she was dead and
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i'm deeply ashamed of that
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and i feel horrible but i didn't kill my
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mom
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[Music]
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two women two brutal crimes these are
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the stories of cindy countess
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and jennifer blake
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[Music]
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[Music]
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on friday may 3rd 2002 49 year old cindy
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countess was caring for her ailing
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mother
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edna dooley countess was supposed to
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have been taking the antidepressant
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paxil for depression
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but according to court testimony she had
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missed her normal dosage for a week
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when her mother hid her medication on
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the day of the crime
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cindy started taking her meds again
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later in the evening
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something went terribly wrong and her 82
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year old mother
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ended up dead on the bathroom floor
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the autopsy showed significant severe
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injuries
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to edna dooley it was a
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pretty awful death there was no doubt
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that cindy countess had done that to her
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mother
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the whole question was why
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did cindy countess kill her mother in a
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cold-blooded rage
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or was it an accident the result of an
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adverse side effect to an antidepressant
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cindy countess was born in 1954 in
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roanoke virginia
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the second youngest of five children
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i feel that i have very blessed and very
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loving and caring upbringing i was
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taught responsibility
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reliability honesty and all of these
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things
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and more or less a christian home
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but family members believe that
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throughout cindy's childhood her mother
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edna dooley
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struggled with undiagnosed mental
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illness i feel like she had mental
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health issues for years and they were
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never
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diagnosed and no doubt that's why there
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was so much tension growing up is
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because
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mama didn't know how she dealt with the
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situation or her mental condition as
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well as she could
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i think she was bipolar and you know
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people her age they weren't diagnosed
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with bipolar
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or schizophrenia or whatever her problem
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was
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despite the difficulties in her
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dysfunctional family cindy was full of
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life
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she was very active she used to roller
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skate and ice skate
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and she was very good at that she won
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different trophies and stuff like that
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she did modeling and she did some acting
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cindy loved life she had a great love
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and zest for life she loved doing things
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different experiences
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she played tennis and won trophies for
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that too
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she was married twice married right out
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of school
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her marriage did not work out and
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she had a number of different
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occupations
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met a second man and got married
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in 1988 cindy married an entertainer
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the couple moved to las vegas to pursue
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careers in show business
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she was this aspiring singer actress
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model
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in las vegas but life in show business
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was not always glamorous
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like her mother cindy began to show
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signs of mental illness
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she was in and out of the mental health
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system several times
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she had a personality disorder that was
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characterized by a great deal of
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emotional instability and they had this
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life that had its highs and its lows
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then cindy's life got interrupted
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in 1997 cindy received an emergency call
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from her sister norma jean
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asking her to help care for their ailing
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parents
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countess's father had suffered several
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strokes and her mother was diagnosed
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with heart
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disease and dementia the 43 year old
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left her husband and returned to
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virginia to assist with the care
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[Music]
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my father had at least four major
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strokes
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and i would pick up the physical therapy
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for him
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i cooked and cleaned for them i i did
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everything for them to the very best
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it's my
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perfect ability to do so
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there are no words to truly convey
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the extent of difficulties that i
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and my older sister overcame
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she totally was overwhelmed at the job
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that she was trying to do
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even though she loved my grandparents to
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death she was not the right person for
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that job
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although their brothers lived in roanoke
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the two sisters say they were left to
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handle all the care
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nobody else ever offered even when we
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asked nobody wanted to help
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cindy's father passed away in december
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2001.
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despite her precarious mental state
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countess still became her mother's
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primary caretaker
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the living conditions were deplorable
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my mother had the obsessive compulsive
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disorder
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she collected everything
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the house was in total chaos indicative
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of hoarding which would be consistent
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with the mother's diagnosis of
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obsessive-compulsive disorder
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my mother bless her heart was a pack rat
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and so um i was the one that through the
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years did the majority of the cleaning
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even to the point of getting worms one
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time and that winding up at an
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emergency room as having done so
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mom had had open-heart surgery the year
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before
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mentally she just was in a bad state and
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if she had to go to the bathroom
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she'd just go after four years of taking
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care of their parents every need
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norma jean and cindy were worn out
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cindy and i both were just exhausted
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mentally and physically exhausted
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and it was just too much trying to take
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care of mom too
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i wound up having a nervous breakdown i
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was hospitalized for at least
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eight days in 2001.
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cindy started taking the antidepressant
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paxil after she was released from the
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psychiatric hospital
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countess was still left to pick up the
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brunt of her mother's care
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over the next six months cindy's
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mother's dementia worsened and she
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became increasingly difficult to manage
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cindy was the primary caregiver the
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at-home caregiver
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and many times her mother would
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get very agitated would scream yell
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take things would not do what cindy
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wanted her to do
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we all loved her mother but trying to
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take care of her was like a nightmare
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cindy struggled to meet her mother's
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unrelenting demands
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but her own health was in jeopardy in
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addition to the ongoing depression
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doctors diagnosed countess with breast
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cancer she had surgery and radiation to
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remove the tumor
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she's trying to deal with the depression
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and then she's trying to deal with
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breast cancer herself
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and she's trying to take care of my
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grandmother
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who is a full-time job and i really just
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feel like
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it was a recipe for disaster
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you had a mentally ill woman who was
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taking care of a mentally ill
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mother and without any help
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except from her sister and she had said
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herself she was at her wits
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end by the summer of 2001
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the relationship between mother and
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daughter reached a breaking point
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i had remained on the paxil that entire
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year
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and i had been taking my medicine
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explicitly
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according to doctor's orders up until
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the point when my mother had hid both of
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our prescription medicines
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my mother she got to where she didn't
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want to take her pills
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so she started hiding the medicine and
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she hid cindy's too
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so cindy was forced into withdrawal off
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that paxil
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her mother was hoarding drugs and this
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is again
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very common with people of dementia that
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cindy had not been on paxil for at least
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a week and it may have been
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two weeks people who have been taking
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medicines like paxil
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intermittently or suddenly stopped and
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they have a withdrawal
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we know that the more inconsistent they
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take them the more likely they're going
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to get into trouble with them
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i found myself the week and a half
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before
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the tragedy happened i was pacing the
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floor
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my skin was crawling my hands felt like
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balloons
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when women behind bars continues we wind
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up
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the two of us taking turns grabbing
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things to kind of
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flog one another with and that is
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pretty much the only memory that i have
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of that night
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while dealing with her own mental
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illness cindy countess cared for her
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obsessive-compulsive ailing
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year 82-year-old mother in april 2002
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countess says her mother hid her
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antidepressants allegedly forcing her
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into withdrawal
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after a week with no medication cindy
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felt desperate
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she finds a paxil dose
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i think they said it was 30 milligrams
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which
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is a lot and so she takes that one paxil
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dose
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and then the the description is
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that she becomes confused
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it was just a nightmare but it was real
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[Music]
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later in the evening countess made her
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mother dinner and put her to bed
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according to court testimony cindy then
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poured herself two mixed drinks to relax
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i had been sitting at the computer and i
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had to go to the restroom
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and um my mother had to go
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obviously about the same time but
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somehow or another
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while we were in the bathroom for some
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reason she slapped me
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she remembers mama striking her
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but she doesn't remember over what she
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said possibly
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mom got upset with her for putting the
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toilet paper
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in a certain place and not where she
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wanted it
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cindy had come in and had gotten
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frustrated because her mother was also
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yelling and
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agitated she was a demented agitated
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scared human being who didn't know what
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she was doing
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cindy did perhaps overreact when
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her mother slapped her and then it just
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went worse from there
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i believe she innocent essence did snap
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we wind up the two of us are taking
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turns
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grabbing things kind of flogged one
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another with
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her mom had fallen to the ground with
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her head by the sink and her feet
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towards the toilet
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and when her mother had gone down
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cindy did stomp on her and the imprint
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of her
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of her shoes is on her mother
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while her mother lay unconscious from
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the beating cindy claims she then
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blacked out
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my very next memory after the actual
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altercation
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is i'm in the living room talking on the
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phone with my older sister
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it was right around 11 o'clock the phone
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rang and
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she just seemed to be um
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not even sure of anything that was going
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on around her
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in fact they said she had a smear of
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blood on her leg
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she has no idea how it got there
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norma pleaded with her sister to get
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help from a nearby relative
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so i went and i got my older brother and
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he came
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in and we both saw that my mother was on
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the floor behind the bathroom door
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and so my brother reaches around and
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tries to take a pulse and everything
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the police arrived soon after to find
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edna dooley
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dead on the bathroom floor cause of
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death blunt force trauma
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the autopsy showed significant
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severe injuries to edna dooley
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to her ear her head the photos
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show that it was a pretty awful death
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several witnesses reported that cindy
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appeared to be intoxicated
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but countess denied she drank alcohol
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and says she never took a breathalyzer
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i had mistakenly told a couple of
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detectives that i had made
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a mixed drink or so i had poured those
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out i never drank those drinks
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cindy countess had been drinking and so
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to this date she doesn't remember what
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she did
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a month after the incident police
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charged 49 year old cindy countess
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with first degree murder of her 82 year
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old mother edna dooley
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during the trials i remember watching
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cindy and thinking
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that she seemed weak and a little bit
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out of sorts i would say
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and not really in touch with reality
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definitely depressed
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kind of like she lost her way like all
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this that happened in her life was
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pretty much over during the four-day
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trial the defense argued that countess
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had worked hard to take care of her
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mother
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and that cindy suffered from involuntary
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intoxication
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due to the paxil while involuntary
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intoxication in virginia anyways
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relies upon the fact that a person is
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being prescribed a medication by their
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physician
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they take the medication as prescribed
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and in the process of taking the
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medication that's prescribed
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the medication impairs them to a degree
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to where it causes them to do something
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they wouldn't normally do
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so the doubt in this case was yeah this
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medicine can do
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things and cause a person to do things
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they wouldn't normally do
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but the other doubt was she wasn't
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following her physician's instructions
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when cindy took the stand the
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prosecution asked if she had taken her
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medication in the manner that her
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physician prescribed
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she was in tears and she would tell
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the prosecute attorney that she didn't
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remember she didn't know she didn't
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remember when she would ask her
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all these questions trying to pin her
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down to
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what time of day you gave medicine what
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time you took medicine things like that
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cindy she couldn't remember all those
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things
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cindy had no business in her mental
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state
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she had no business being called up to
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testify she she damaged her own self
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by having to testify it was hard for my
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attorney it was hard for me
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to be able to find the right words to
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describe
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just exactly what did happen to me
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countess maintained she did not
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intentionally hurt her mother
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and believed she was innocent but her
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tearful testimony did not resonate with
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the judge
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the prosecution argued that countess had
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not taken her medication properly
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and that she had been drinking that
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night and killed her mother
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in a blind rage the prosecution
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had very strong case i mean the forensic
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evidence was very strong
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dna links and all that with the blood on
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cindy match to her mother
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the markings on dooley's face
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i think were like the treads of the
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tennis shoes and that's how they were
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able to match up
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that as pretty uh clear evidence
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that cindy countess had stepped on her
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mother
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and brutally killed her
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[Music]
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the trial left a family at odds and
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raised some doubts
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by the end of the trial it was clear
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that the family was divided
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the two brothers were sitting with the
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prosecution
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ms draper was sitting on ms countess's
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side
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and both sides had other family members
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sitting with them
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so a clearly split family which both
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sides confirmed was true
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neither of the boys had a great love for
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her mother
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they had both been trying to get what
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little our parents owned
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long before my father died and i have
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never been totally convinced
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that they didn't play some role in my
00:18:06
mother's death
00:18:07
i've always felt that there was there
00:18:10
was more to it than what we would ever
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know
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when women behind bars continues it's
00:18:21
easy to say well
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it's the drug's fault but i'm sorry the
00:18:24
person took the drugs
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and you're responsible for your own
00:18:28
behavior
00:18:33
in the fall of 2003 49 year old cindy
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countess stood trial for the stomping
00:18:38
death of her elderly mother
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edna dooley the prosecution maintained
00:18:43
that countess committed the crime in
00:18:45
cold blood
00:18:47
the defense claimed cindy suffered from
00:18:49
involuntary intoxication
00:18:51
a rare side effect of the
00:18:52
antidepressants that blurred cindy's
00:18:54
ability
00:18:55
to tell right from wrong so
00:18:58
here we have a person with a chaotic
00:19:00
life
00:19:01
taking medicines not as prescribed and
00:19:04
in finding a dose
00:19:05
taking it in a large amount no one
00:19:08
starts with 30 milligrams of the apaxel
00:19:10
you start much lower and build your way
00:19:11
up
00:19:12
and mixing it with alcohol so how much
00:19:15
responsibility did this count is have in
00:19:17
this
00:19:19
the judge rejected the involuntary
00:19:21
intoxication defense
00:19:23
saying after testimony from a
00:19:25
psychiatric
00:19:26
expert that there was really not enough
00:19:30
study
00:19:30
done on the matter to show that this was
00:19:33
a condition
00:19:34
that could be applied to this case
00:19:39
[Music]
00:19:49
we were totally shocked when we found
00:19:52
out
00:19:53
what the judge was doing to her and you
00:19:55
could tell
00:19:56
a poor little thing she was
00:19:59
literally begging the judge
00:20:03
to show some mercy to her it's easy to
00:20:06
say well it's not
00:20:06
the person's fault it's the drug's fault
00:20:09
but i'm sorry the person took the drugs
00:20:11
and you're responsible for your own
00:20:14
behavior
00:20:14
i wasn't surprised she was found guilty
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because the the defense had a very very
00:20:21
difficult case to deal with
00:20:24
after her conviction cindy was taken to
00:20:26
roanoke city jail
00:20:28
seven months later she returned for
00:20:30
sentencing
00:20:32
as a last-ditch effort the defense asked
00:20:34
the judge for leniency
00:20:35
and to consider that cindy also suffered
00:20:38
from caretaker burnout
00:20:40
caregiving is tough work as satisfying
00:20:43
as it can be on one level
00:20:45
over time it can
00:20:48
cause people to become significantly
00:20:50
depressed and if they're depressed
00:20:52
already
00:20:52
it can worsen the depression the sick
00:20:55
person taking care of the sick person
00:20:57
would neither have the resources
00:21:00
to mediate a conflict i think the
00:21:04
constellation of events were such that
00:21:06
cindy did kill her mother
00:21:07
and appropriately doesn't remember what
00:21:10
happened because it was such an awful
00:21:11
awful event
00:21:17
he sentenced her to 30 years with 14 of
00:21:20
those to serve
00:21:22
after the 14 years she should be under
00:21:24
10 years of intensively supervised
00:21:26
probation
00:21:28
it was the most pitiful thing i've ever
00:21:29
seen in my life
00:21:31
i have a picture of her when she was
00:21:33
convicted and she was literally
00:21:35
terrified
00:21:38
she was absolutely terrified she had
00:21:41
this
00:21:41
look of utter astonishment
00:21:45
that she could have actually done this
00:21:47
and be committed for it
00:21:49
the judge gave her the minimum sentence
00:21:52
he could under the guidelines
00:21:54
so judge wexting did what he felt
00:21:58
and believed and thought was
00:22:01
just for a woman who had
00:22:05
caused her mother's death second-degree
00:22:07
murder is a serious crime
00:22:09
you can't really argue with the sentence
00:22:12
that she got
00:22:18
cindy was transferred to fluvana
00:22:19
correctional center for women
00:22:21
a medium security facility in troy
00:22:23
virginia
00:22:25
the four years she has since spent
00:22:27
behind bars have taken a toll
00:22:30
prison is cold hard still that's pretty
00:22:33
much what you're surrounded by
00:22:35
that's pretty much what you are
00:22:38
subjected to
00:22:43
cindy will never totally adapt to where
00:22:46
she's at
00:22:46
she will never totally adapt for one
00:22:50
thing her health is so bad
00:22:52
her nerves are shocked she's not a mean
00:22:54
hardcore person
00:22:55
and so it's hard to deal with these hard
00:22:58
people street people that she has to
00:23:00
deal with this is a very painful
00:23:03
existence to me
00:23:05
very painful cindy now passes the long
00:23:09
days by corresponding with her
00:23:11
ex-husband
00:23:11
and her two sisters who visit
00:23:13
occasionally all of her letters are very
00:23:15
sad
00:23:16
sometimes i'll go for a day or two
00:23:17
without reading them because i dread
00:23:19
getting depressed over them
00:23:21
to this day cindy has mixed feelings
00:23:23
about the incident
00:23:25
she mourns the loss of her mother but
00:23:26
also feels that she got a raw deal
00:23:30
she does know that she had a role in her
00:23:33
mother's death
00:23:34
although with her personality disorder
00:23:36
she reinterprets this at this time
00:23:38
i take responsibility that the tragedy
00:23:41
happened
00:23:43
but in all overall picture i do not
00:23:47
feel that i am capable of such a
00:23:50
horrendous type of an act
00:23:53
[Music]
00:23:56
with 10 years to go cindy has a long
00:23:59
road ahead
00:24:00
i'm 53 years old now so if i were to
00:24:05
serve the 10 remaining years
00:24:10
of this 14-year sentence then i would be
00:24:13
about 63 years old
00:24:16
i hope the remaining years fly by she's
00:24:18
only been in prison now five years
00:24:20
i'm not sure she'll survive prison
00:24:22
should that be the price for killing her
00:24:24
mother
00:24:26
some people say yes i say no
00:24:31
but she's sentenced to serve less than
00:24:33
half of the 30 years
00:24:35
still a substantial amount of time with
00:24:37
some heavy probation at the end of it
00:24:40
it's certainly not out of line with
00:24:42
similar decisions in similar cases
00:24:46
cindy countess continues to grieve for
00:24:48
her parents and is deeply remorseful
00:24:51
i would like to have been in a financial
00:24:54
position to have paid for my parents
00:24:56
to have had 24 a day private care
00:25:00
in their own home i love them to the
00:25:03
point i wanted
00:25:04
to give them a lot more than ever i was
00:25:06
able
00:25:07
to give them and that's my biggest
00:25:09
regret
00:25:12
next on women behind bars she was frozen
00:25:16
there were signs that she had been
00:25:18
burned
00:25:19
and she was wrapped in a bad sheep from
00:25:21
the home
00:25:26
for more information about women behind
00:25:28
bars go to www.wetv.com
00:25:33
[Music]
00:25:35
on december 26 2000 kathy cranick's
00:25:38
burnt and frozen body was discovered on
00:25:40
the side of a dirt road
00:25:44
she was frozen there were signs that she
00:25:47
had
00:25:48
been burned and she was wrapped in a bad
00:25:50
sheet from the home
00:25:52
according to authorities the evidence
00:25:54
pointed to kathy's daughter
00:25:56
jennifer blake and her boyfriend corey
00:25:58
jackson
00:26:00
she certainly wanted her mother out of
00:26:02
the picture she was going to do
00:26:03
something
00:26:04
to to get it done jennifer
00:26:07
did horrible acts she put the blame on
00:26:09
everybody but her
00:26:10
was jennifer the innocent daughter
00:26:12
framed by her boyfriend
00:26:14
or was she the mastermind behind her
00:26:16
mother's violent death
00:26:24
jennifer lynn blake was born on april 4
00:26:26
1975
00:26:28
in puerto rico four years later her
00:26:30
mother kathy gave birth to jennifer's
00:26:32
brother
00:26:33
michael we pretty much had a good life
00:26:35
you know had everything we needed
00:26:37
we weren't rich but we weren't poor we
00:26:39
went to good schools
00:26:40
you know had good good upbringing i
00:26:42
would say
00:26:43
there was no evidence of any kind of
00:26:45
family trouble they all seemed happy
00:26:47
kathy was very well loved by everybody
00:26:50
she had a servant's heart she was very
00:26:51
kind
00:26:53
but michael says there was an
00:26:54
undercurrent of tension between the two
00:26:56
siblings
00:26:58
she always said something about her
00:26:59
where we just were never real close
00:27:03
felt like she always held something
00:27:04
against me
00:27:06
her father michael cranick senior was a
00:27:08
navy man
00:27:09
and moved the family from state to state
00:27:11
as he was assigned to different bases
00:27:14
when jennifer was 11 the craneux settled
00:27:16
in virginia
00:27:18
we moved a lot always having to get new
00:27:21
to
00:27:21
new places people you know things
00:27:23
schools
00:27:24
lots of schools for jennifer the most
00:27:27
painful adjustment was her father's
00:27:29
absence
00:27:30
when he was out to sea for months at a
00:27:32
time
00:27:33
when i was growing up i had two lives
00:27:36
one when my father was home and
00:27:39
one when he wasn't which was more often
00:27:42
than not
00:27:44
when my dad was gone it was rough
00:27:48
my mother was physically abusive to me
00:27:52
emotionally verbally abusive to me
00:27:56
jennifer claims her mother kathy tried
00:27:58
to choke her until she passed out
00:28:00
she also says when her dad was away
00:28:02
kathy would loan jennifer out to men for
00:28:05
cash
00:28:06
she allowed some of the men that she
00:28:08
cheated on my father with
00:28:10
to molest me her brother michael
00:28:13
adamantly denies jennifer was molested
00:28:16
i don't think there was any truth at all
00:28:19
and it was never no proof or anything to
00:28:20
back it up
00:28:22
she lied a lot i've never heard any
00:28:25
complaint from anybody
00:28:27
about kathy being abusive or
00:28:30
being involved in anything immoral or
00:28:32
improper if there's abuse
00:28:34
that's long-standing and significant it
00:28:37
typically can be documented
00:28:39
people know about it other family
00:28:41
members know about it
00:28:43
by the age of 12 jennifer and her mother
00:28:45
were constantly fighting about the rules
00:28:47
of the house
00:28:49
my mother wasn't strong enough to really
00:28:51
put her in her place she basically would
00:28:53
say what she wanted and then
00:28:55
jennifer would do what she wanted and my
00:28:56
mother couldn't do nothing about it
00:28:58
sometimes my sister would even put her
00:29:00
hands on my mother
00:29:02
the problem only escalated when jennifer
00:29:04
became a teenager
00:29:06
i started acting out being more
00:29:09
rebellious
00:29:11
once i got to be about 12 13 i avoid
00:29:14
being home as much as possible
00:29:16
i started running away a lot
00:29:20
about every year at least two three
00:29:23
times a year
00:29:25
things were tough but things are tough
00:29:27
for every family
00:29:28
everybody goes through trials and
00:29:29
tribulations it was nothing to
00:29:32
to to explain why she acted the way she
00:29:35
did towards us
00:29:36
i would say she was a pathological art
00:29:39
she would lie about stuff that didn't
00:29:40
even need to be lied about
00:29:42
she would say whatever it took to get
00:29:43
what she needed or what she wanted you
00:29:45
to believe
00:29:47
the situation reached a crisis in the
00:29:49
winter of 1990
00:29:51
when jennifer's father was away on duty
00:29:54
the troubled teen attempted suicide
00:29:57
i believe at the time that my mother was
00:30:00
setting me up
00:30:01
to be molested again i ended up
00:30:04
being committed in a psychiatric
00:30:05
hospital after jennifer was released
00:30:08
from the hospital
00:30:09
she became more violent towards her
00:30:11
mother
00:30:13
three days before my 16th birthday in
00:30:15
1991
00:30:16
i was arrested and charged with assault
00:30:19
and batter
00:30:20
against my mother my mother wasn't real
00:30:24
strong
00:30:25
so my sister overpowered her and she
00:30:26
took advantage of that
00:30:28
i was placed on probation
00:30:31
i violated my probation that summer
00:30:36
for running away individuals
00:30:39
have a pattern of acting out they may as
00:30:42
children and adolescents be diagnosed as
00:30:44
having conduct disorder which means a
00:30:46
failure
00:30:47
to really respect the rights of others
00:30:49
that may become a lifelong pattern of
00:30:52
disregarding the rights of others
00:30:55
jennifer spent three weeks in a
00:30:57
detention facility
00:30:59
in 1993 the 17 year old dropped out of
00:31:02
high school
00:31:03
got married and had her first child
00:31:05
named jasmine
00:31:08
but three years later the marriage ended
00:31:10
in divorce
00:31:11
jennifer's mother took her daughter and
00:31:13
her granddaughter in
00:31:15
a young girl with a child that was my
00:31:18
mother's granddaughter she played
00:31:19
she loved her so yeah that she let her
00:31:20
move back in to help her out
00:31:23
but the cranic household was in turmoil
00:31:25
and jennifer's parents divorced
00:31:27
the 25 year old single mother began
00:31:29
dating another man and became pregnant
00:31:32
two months into her pregnancy jennifer
00:31:34
met 21 year old dishwasher corey jackson
00:31:37
and began a torrid affair
00:31:40
he liked me from the moment we met i was
00:31:44
engaged in
00:31:45
about two months pregnant we ended up
00:31:47
having sex
00:31:49
and it was so good that i couldn't leave
00:31:51
it alone
00:31:52
in april 2000 jennifer gave birth to her
00:31:55
second daughter
00:31:56
she then broke up with the baby's father
00:31:59
but continued to date jackson
00:32:01
while living at home my sister was
00:32:05
she wasn't working and she was
00:32:08
using marijuana alcohol just really not
00:32:10
doing nothing with her life
00:32:12
to make matters worse jennifer started
00:32:14
sneaking her boyfriend corey jackson
00:32:16
into her mother's home the garage door
00:32:19
doesn't block
00:32:20
the room over the garage is empty i said
00:32:23
if you need you know
00:32:24
saying a place to crash you can sleep up
00:32:27
there there's a bathroom in the garage
00:32:29
just get the hell out before she gets up
00:32:31
for work in the morning
00:32:33
she became it for him he relied on her
00:32:35
for housing i mean
00:32:38
he snuck in that house i'm told
00:32:41
every night to sleep there when
00:32:44
jennifer's mother found out
00:32:45
she was furious she
00:32:49
i guess had went out of town and i let
00:32:51
cory stay
00:32:52
for like two days and um
00:32:57
she came home early and and caught him
00:32:59
in the house and she was livid
00:33:02
and she just told me you're just not
00:33:04
welcome in my house
00:33:05
my mother was like look jenny if you
00:33:08
keep bringing them in you got to leave
00:33:10
jennifer refused to obey her mother's
00:33:12
rules
00:33:13
pushed to the breaking point kathy gave
00:33:15
her daughter an eviction notice
00:33:18
kathy expressed that she and jennifer
00:33:20
weren't getting along well
00:33:21
and finally one day she asked me whether
00:33:23
or not she could have jennifer evicted
00:33:26
within a few days she asked jennifer to
00:33:28
move out
00:33:29
kathy had expressed some fear for her
00:33:31
own safety she was distressed that she
00:33:33
had to give her 30 days advance notice
00:33:35
and was concerned how those 30 days
00:33:38
would go especially once she gave notice
00:33:39
to jennifer
00:33:43
[Music]
00:33:46
on sunday night according to corey
00:33:48
jackson's testimony
00:33:50
corey snuck into the house and found
00:33:53
jennifer distraught he finds her crying
00:33:57
and she begins to tell him about the
00:33:59
so-called abuse that she says she
00:34:01
endured
00:34:03
by her mother's boyfriend years ago
00:34:06
and how she had had enough with her
00:34:09
mother
00:34:10
and she goes on to sit with him on the
00:34:13
bed
00:34:13
and plan how to kill
00:34:16
her mother
00:34:20
when women behind bars continues my
00:34:22
sister tried to
00:34:23
apparently burn the body in the trash
00:34:25
can get rid of the evidence
00:34:31
in 2000 25 year jennifer blake a single
00:34:34
mom of two
00:34:35
had moved in with her mother kathy
00:34:37
cranic alarm that jennifer was sneaking
00:34:40
her boyfriend in
00:34:41
on a nightly basis crainick gave her
00:34:43
daughter a month's notice to leave
00:34:46
she had nowhere to go with her children
00:34:48
and she felt like
00:34:50
she was gonna she was gonna end up in a
00:34:51
shelter according to court testimony
00:34:54
jennifer and her boyfriend corey jackson
00:34:56
then took matters into their own hands
00:34:59
they allegedly devised a plan to kill
00:35:01
her mother at dawn
00:35:02
while her two children were asleep
00:35:11
early one morning my mama had got up her
00:35:13
at work
00:35:14
she went to get uh showered and dressed
00:35:17
my sister's daughter jasmine
00:35:19
she stayed in my mother's bed they were
00:35:21
real close they were sleeping in the
00:35:22
same bed
00:35:23
the youngest child keaney was asleep in
00:35:25
another bedroom when authorities say
00:35:27
jennifer confronted her mother somehow
00:35:30
my sister started an argument with my
00:35:32
mother
00:35:32
and got her into the uh the bathroom she
00:35:35
started to
00:35:36
get her on the ground and she called for
00:35:38
help jennifer
00:35:40
approached her and said i hate you and
00:35:42
they struggled
00:35:44
in the bathroom area so corey coming to
00:35:47
the bathroom and had to hold my mother's
00:35:49
feet now and my sister
00:35:50
choked her this whole time
00:35:54
my mom was apparently screaming you know
00:35:57
saying jenny
00:35:58
stop jenny stop and uh
00:36:01
jasmine actually woke up and heard it
00:36:03
they
00:36:04
suffocated and strangled her and to make
00:36:07
sure that she was dead
00:36:08
they took her head and they put it in a
00:36:11
tub of water
00:36:12
to see if there were any bubbles
00:36:17
jennifer tells a very different story
00:36:19
and denies any role in the murder
00:36:22
she claims her mother was already dead
00:36:23
when she woke up
00:36:26
there was corey sitting on the counter
00:36:28
next to the bathroom sink
00:36:31
and my mom was laying on the floor
00:36:34
she was dead and corey
00:36:37
claimed to me that my dad had come to
00:36:40
the house
00:36:41
got in an argument with my mother and
00:36:43
ended up choking her
00:36:44
in the kitchen and that cory moved her
00:36:47
to the
00:36:48
bathroom jennifer admits that instead of
00:36:51
calling police
00:36:52
she helped corey dispose of the body to
00:36:54
allegedly protect her father
00:36:57
corey told me to go get a trash can and
00:36:59
i did it was a 17 gallon
00:37:02
corey claimed that it was to burn her
00:37:06
body
00:37:07
my sister tried to apparently burn the
00:37:09
body in the trash can get rid of the
00:37:11
evidence
00:37:12
he set my mother's body on fire in the
00:37:15
garage
00:37:16
there was smoke pouring out of the
00:37:19
garage
00:37:20
it was disgusting it was horrible it was
00:37:22
it was just that thick
00:37:23
black acrid smoke it was disgusting
00:37:27
the garbage can is too small they can't
00:37:29
burn it in the house so they
00:37:31
figured that they better wrap it up in
00:37:32
the sheet put it in the trunk and drive
00:37:34
it somewhere where they can dump it
00:37:37
according to the police report the
00:37:39
couple was unable to find a place nearby
00:37:41
to dump the body
00:37:43
they picked up jennifer's seven-year-old
00:37:45
daughter jasmine from school
00:37:47
and drove across the virginia border at
00:37:49
nightfall
00:37:51
after picking up the child mothers in
00:37:53
the back of the trunk they
00:37:54
take the mother to rural north carolina
00:37:58
and they dump kathy's body on the side
00:38:01
of a rural road there
00:38:04
my sister's job jasmine she testified
00:38:06
that she remembers stopping
00:38:08
she remembers my sister and cory getting
00:38:11
out of the
00:38:11
car after allegedly dumping the body in
00:38:14
a ditch
00:38:16
corey jennifer and the kids checked into
00:38:18
a motel
00:38:19
after that they were like well we'll
00:38:21
come back later when jasmine's sleeping
00:38:23
you know and actually buried everybody
00:38:25
just put her in a ditch at this time
00:38:27
corey woke her up middle of the night
00:38:29
about 3 4 o'clock in the night and
00:38:30
apparently my sister said she couldn't
00:38:32
i don't know what was going on in her
00:38:33
head at that time but she didn't want to
00:38:34
go back and
00:38:36
and do anything about it so they just
00:38:38
left her the way she was
00:38:41
later that week jennifer filed a missing
00:38:44
persons report
00:38:45
and the police began their investigation
00:38:48
my sister's final story was my mother
00:38:49
was last seen getting in a red car with
00:38:51
a friend of hers that she didn't know
00:38:52
who it was
00:38:53
and uh was never seen again i remember
00:38:56
them asking me was i responsible for her
00:38:58
disappearance to which i answered no
00:39:01
did i know where she was at that moment
00:39:03
to which i answered no
00:39:09
two weeks after the murder police found
00:39:12
kathy cranek's body
00:39:14
on the side of the road cause of death
00:39:17
strangulation and suffocation
00:39:21
she was frozen you know there were signs
00:39:23
that she had
00:39:24
been burned and she was wrapped in a bad
00:39:27
sheep from the home
00:39:29
the police quickly zeroed in on jennifer
00:39:31
and corey
00:39:33
initially when she talked to detectives
00:39:35
she tried to pin this on the father
00:39:38
authorities eliminated michael cranick
00:39:40
as a suspect and followed the evidence
00:39:43
back to corey and jennifer
00:39:46
they tried to burn the body in the
00:39:48
garage and he left evidence behind
00:39:50
they left evidence on the body i believe
00:39:53
a hair from koi was found
00:39:55
on a sock that he stuffed in the
00:39:58
mother's mouth
00:40:00
so it didn't take long once they found
00:40:03
the body to
00:40:04
connect jennifer and corey to this
00:40:08
almost a month after kraenig's body was
00:40:10
found police arrested jennifer and corey
00:40:12
and charged them with first-degree
00:40:14
murder i would never kill my mom i would
00:40:17
never help anybody kill my mom
00:40:19
i hid the fact that she was dead and i'm
00:40:21
deeply ashamed of that
00:40:22
and i feel horrible but i didn't kill my
00:40:25
mom
00:40:29
in exchange for testimony against
00:40:31
jennifer corey jackson entered into a
00:40:33
plea agreement
00:40:34
and pled guilty to second-degree murder
00:40:37
corey flipped on her immediately for a
00:40:40
plea that reduced
00:40:42
what could have been life for him to
00:40:44
second degree murder
00:40:49
corey jackson took the stand and claimed
00:40:51
jennifer coerced him into murdering
00:40:53
kathy cranek
00:40:54
the defense argued that jackson's
00:40:56
testimony was not credible
00:40:57
[Music]
00:40:58
corey is the case against me corey
00:41:01
jackson's
00:41:02
self-serving lies was the case against
00:41:05
me
00:41:06
the prosecution countered that jennifer
00:41:08
had motive to kill her mother
00:41:11
but jennifer maintained that she did not
00:41:13
kill her mother and she was only an
00:41:15
accomplice
00:41:16
after the fact when she took to stan and
00:41:19
when she testified
00:41:21
she was a family person she loved her
00:41:23
family she felt sorry she apologized to
00:41:25
him
00:41:26
but she never admitted killing
00:41:29
her mother my sister never admitted it
00:41:32
she put the blame on everybody but her
00:41:35
the prosecution then presented powerful
00:41:37
evidence that linked jennifer and corey
00:41:39
to the scene of the crime
00:41:41
they found the motel records so they had
00:41:44
her being in the area
00:41:45
but the most damning evidence of all was
00:41:47
the testimony of jennifer's daughter
00:41:49
jasmine
00:41:51
who spoke of overhearing her grandmother
00:41:53
cry for help
00:41:54
during the killing the biggest thing to
00:41:56
implicate her was
00:41:58
her daughter's testimony her hearing
00:42:02
specifically jenny stopped you know
00:42:03
jenny stopped my mom yelling
00:42:05
but i believe it was her daughter's
00:42:07
testimony that really sealed the case
00:42:16
at the end of the four-day trial the
00:42:18
jury returned the verdict within an
00:42:20
hour they found me guilty of one count
00:42:24
of first-degree murder
00:42:25
in the death of my mother i didn't think
00:42:28
it was real
00:42:30
i didn't think it could be happening i
00:42:32
honestly believe that i was going home
00:42:35
that day the judge sentenced jennifer to
00:42:37
life in prison
00:42:39
her accomplice who went for the plea
00:42:41
agreement
00:42:42
received 35 years
00:42:48
jennifer was transferred to a medium
00:42:50
security prison
00:42:51
she's serving a life sentence without
00:42:53
the possibility of parole
00:42:56
she has had no contact with her daughter
00:42:58
jasmine who lives in florida
00:43:00
her younger daughter keaney lives with
00:43:02
her grandparents who bring her up to see
00:43:04
jennifer
00:43:04
several times a year despite the
00:43:07
conviction
00:43:08
jennifer still maintains her innocence
00:43:11
an individual who killed a parent for
00:43:14
what we would consider really
00:43:15
selfish anti-social reasons might hold
00:43:19
on to that
00:43:20
sense that they were a victim because
00:43:23
they don't want to really deal with what
00:43:24
they did they believe that by
00:43:27
maintaining their innocence
00:43:31
that at some point they'll be vindicated
00:43:33
even though they're
00:43:34
completely aware that they did in fact
00:43:37
commit the act
00:43:42
i still don't know who killed my mom it
00:43:45
wasn't me
00:43:46
the person that took my mom from me took
00:43:47
away any chance that i ever had
00:43:49
of resolving any issues we had yeah we
00:43:52
had issues
00:43:53
it was tough but it's my mom
00:43:57
no matter what she did i would always
00:43:59
love her always want to be there for her
00:44:02
always
00:44:02
care for her
00:44:11
you
