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hey weirdos I'm Molina I'm Ash and this is [Music] morbid oh my God it's morbid again oh my
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God how you guys been how have you been good tell us right now bad penous I hope
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not everybody's like it's been a long year it's like that Meme that's like we're 3 days in we're 3 days in but you
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know it's it's all right it hasn't been that long of a year it's okay yet you know there were there were beautiful
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little Whimsical flurries in the air this morning really for a little bit and I said oh and then they went away I
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didn't see those um there's going to be big old flurries this weekend and I'm actually pretty excited it didn't snow
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at all last year yeah it didn't snow literally at all and the girls love snow and I can't wait to see Sydney and
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blanch in snow oh that's going to be cute because they're going to lose their damn Minds see the thing that I like
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about the snow is staying out of it but watching it I like being in my house like cozy as hail make it cozy as hail
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as hail I like to make some pancakes from scratch if it's a snowstorm and then maybe have like a little a little
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pancake party a little pancake party party watch a documentary or like a movie just like cozy see with kids of of
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a certain age oh yeah that's you just know that your snow day is going to be spent putting on and off wet snowsuits
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all day yeah and having red cheeks red cheeks but also having so much fun cuz sledding with them is hilarious oh I
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love sledding with them and also with dogs now it's going to be cleaning up all the dog like Shenanigans when they
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run in from the snow so it'll be pretty relaxing weekend yeah I have like a coup
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more years before I have to do that um and even after that a couple more years cuz newborns don't go in the snow yeah
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no I'm not going to take my newborn in the snow that's a bad idea I think they advise a good Stu you're good for a
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little while yeah that's kind of that's kind of nice I have like six years at least well no probably like no I don't
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know maybe like four or five yeah I don't know once they hit two you're doomed so I got like five years
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hopefully anyways well that's my timeline how your you're like well babies babies that's my sole Focus but
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anyways um my so Focus for this hour is really really tragic True Crime case oh yeah that's what a lovely true Soul
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Focus yeah that's my job right now that's my job that's my job that's your job yeah that's our job so yeah um I
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have a story about like a a love rectangle love rectangle correct or Square if you will okay but two of the
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the parts of the rectangle square did not know what was going on and it's a cheating scandal it's awful and it's
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terrible it's got like preachers in there being bad my it's wild okay you the the Affairs that your cases have
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been shedding light on or just I am in a place of affair with my cases well thank
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you for adding with your cases at of course absolutely I I quite literally just got married and I would quite
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literally never have an affair and uh Drew quite literally would never because woo wo oh my
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God stress but uh but my case is they're all up in there cuz I like a little bit
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of is scandalo and then also I think it's the high societies that I usually do oh yeah they're all cheating on each
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other God always has an affair this is not high society this isas affair it's just a Kansas Affair and you love Kansas
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too I love the I love the yeah oh [ __ ] Kansas was in my last story of your cases are and then right you were in
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Kansas earlier this week I was in Kansas yeah hey Kansas Auntie M Auntie M all right so let's start I'd say we're not
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in Kansas anymore but we are we are I was like you can't say that cuz we are in Kanas I not a bras
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sound like I said in Ken's ass you definitely did not that's what she said we're in Ken's ass we're in kenas here
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we are in kenas God reporting from wait some okay we'll get it to it eventually but
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sometimes on Tik Tok I get like news gone wrong Clips do you ever get those and it's like the girl and she looks in
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at the camera and she goes I so pale and the lady's like we're we're live and she's like reporting live
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from no just made think reporting live from kenz from kenzas oh God I almost got the hiccups you know when you're
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about to get one yeah I'm not a fish and I don't have gills I'm glad we could be with you
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through that so we can hold your hand through that don't TR time so let's start when Tom and Sandy bird packed up
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their three children and left West Memphis Arkansas for Kansas in 1982 everybody assumed that they were off to
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bigger and better opportunities Tom had graduated with a master's degree in sacred theology in 1976 which like that
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I feel like that would be like kind of a fun degree to get is he is he the preacher correct what gave it away so I
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if you know what sacred theology to me just felt like it might be something a preacher would take but doesn't that I
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would I think I would take that it sounds very uh important it sounds Whimsical as [ __ ] sacred theology yeah
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I'm not saying it sounds easy like I want anybody to get that impression very interesting yeah I feel as though I
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would be interested in that but anyways uh he had graduated with that master's degree in sacred theology sounds like
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Hollywood ites sacred theology have to say it yeah but then ever since that he had been working as
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an associate pastor in Little Rock like you know pastoring yeah his big hope though was to One Day lead his own
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congregation and the opportunity finally came in 1982 when the Church Missouri CID assigned Tom the task of
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establishing a new congregation in Emporia Kansas so while he worked to build up the new Faith Lutheran Church
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Sandra split her time between listen to everything she was doing I'm listening raising their three children ages 2
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three and five which like just do that alone like you're a hero in my eyes she was also teaching part-time at Emporia
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State University and at the same time pursuing a graduate degree in computer mathematics Sandra like I'm sorry what
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Boss [ __ ] alert sorry did you just say superwoman I did did you just say Wonder
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Woman synonymous yeah CU that's what I heard Sandra Superwoman Wonder Woman doing it all and the thing was both of
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them at this time were both thriving in their new rules and by the end of the year the Faith Lutheran Church had
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become an established part of the community with the church Elders praising Thomas one of the best
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spiritual leaders they ever had quote unquote the church elders always sounds like it's from Middle Earth doesn't it
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it really does like I know that's a real thing and I know like there's like Town
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elders and [ __ ] there's Town Elders I think so in some towns that's cool I feel they had them in Gilmore Girls so
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maybe I'm just making I think those are just townies no they call them the town Elders they had to speak to for Luke to
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buy a certain house you know you guys don't care right but they had to talk to the town Elders about it in AA yeah so
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that's where I would be if I was elders and Tom to I almost said Tom Elders uh any kind of Elders I feel like
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it's very Middle Earth yeah I agree you just like the elderly just yeah just the
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elderly ISM if you listen to Buffy and Mikey just said he's the Pod lab Elder you are you're from Middle Earth it's
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true what Earth am I from then I'm the I'm the Pod lab child I thought you were just going to say you're the Pod lab
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just no but anyways these Elders of the church they said that he was the [ __ ] tits except they didn't say it like that
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I was wondering no from the outside Tom and sy's marriage of course looked strong the type of Rel for reality no it
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was the type of relationship that their friends and family admired and actually aspired to but like I'm always saying
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behind closed doors things between the couple were not how they appeared to be to everybody on the outside Tom's work
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at the church was keeping him busier than he'd ever been before and obviously sy's responsibilities at work school and
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home left her really little time to pay attention at Tom and privately he complained to his friends about sy's job
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and the fact that she never had any time for him and she likewise confided to friends that she was worried that he
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didn't love her anymore oh jeez so it's like they were both just really steering
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away from each other at this point time gr apart yeah definitely outside of the church Tom's greatest passion was for
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sports and he wasted no time getting involved in local Athletics which totally cool to have a hobby but if you
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feel like your wife has no time for you and you're trying to make time for each other why go out and join all these
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sports team that's like away from each other yeah cuz he joined uh The Optimist Club basketball team and then he became
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the first baseman for the church softball team so it's like you didn't even get one hobby you got two but
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anyways it was through sports that he met Martin Anderson and his wife Lorna Martin and Lorna Anderson had ALS had
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moved moved to Emporia from uh Hutchinson Kansas in the mid 1970s and just like Tom and Sandy they also had
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several young children between 2 and 8 years old Martin Anderson managed the laboratory at Newman hospital and he
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also had a love of sports so that's how him and Tom kind of got along and struck
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up a casual friendship they didn't know it when they first met but the couples had a lot more in common than just
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sports like Tom and Sandy by 1982 the cracks in Martin and Laura's marriage had started to show unfortunately but
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neither of them really seemed like they wanted to address the problem or they could address the problem in 1982 Lorna
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alarmed a friend when she casually asked whether or not he knew someone who would
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um kill her husband I'm sorry that escalated so [ __ ] quickly sure did it went from
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like they pretty Instagram curated on the outside and like some shit's you know kind of unraveling a little bit on
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the inside to like she was actively trying to get a hit on her husband I think that's how the friend that she
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asked felt like wo this this really escalated I know you guys were like growing apart or whatever but I always
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wonder what kind of friend do you think you have what kind of friendship do you have where you feel comfortable asking
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that person if they first of all confiding that you would like your husband murdered yep and then two
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thinking your friend knows somebody that could get your husband murdered it's like
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involved in that friendship that I myself am just not provy to in my friendships I would call
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thats but yeah like I have one I love my friends yeah but um one I don't want to
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kill my husbands but good news I don't think any of them know someone who would if I wanted to well don't ask cuz you'll
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end up in a story later it's just always kind of wild to me I'm like wow yeah it's like when two serial killers find
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each other I'm like how'd that conversation start it's true like did one of you be like hey do you you know
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what I do sometimes and it's like the other one's like same where does that happen that's Lorna
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just feels like I'm like that was bold it was bold and her friend felt that way reck yeah cuz her friend was like I
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don't actually know anybody that would kill anybody specifically not your husband um also what she's like weird
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weird conversation we just had like this was kind of alarming but Laura was like
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oh my God I'm just kidding jk just joking girly I'm so joky but that incident obviously hinted at the
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problems that would later escalate way beyond measure that same year Lorna had her attorney actually prepared divorce
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papers which you know maybe you should have gone there first a little backwards but but later she claimed that Martin
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talked her out of the divorce so it's messy messy messy so the man you were fully willing to have killed talked you
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out of divorcing him I feel like you should be like no this is better for both of us yeah very much for you you
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would think yeah well in early 19 1983 Lorna appeared to be the quintessential Midwestern housewife she was delicate
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vulnerable she doed on her husband and children she was always quote quick to smile and quick to cry that's how people
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described her okay but under the surface however she was deeply unhappy in her marriage as we know and uh also as we
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know desperately looking for a way out oh this is upsetting privately she told friends that Martin was abusive toward
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her and sometimes toward the children oh no I don't know how true that is personally uh it was that desperation
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though that eventually led her to accept a part-time job as Tom Bird's secretary
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at Faith Lutheran just a few weeks after their first meeting it sounded at first
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like maybe she was kind of trying to like beef up some personal funds and try to become more independent to prepare to
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get out of her marriage that's the the vibe I got at first but then I read more about it and I was like I don't think
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that you had pure intentions with this yeah and unfortunately she wasn't solely focused on her job once she got it l she
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said I had a real problem not feeling good about myself Tom was very supportive very
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encouraging I bet I'm sure he was I bet though so the new job got Lura out of the house and offered new opportunities
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for social social socialization goodbye goodbye but what she really liked most was talking to Tom at first the
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relationship was casual It was friendly but within a month or two friends and church members were noticing some things
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and specifically they were noticing kind of intimacy between Tom and Lorna that was you know usually absent in Friendly
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relationships friendly platonic relationships people who are married to other people yeah yeah Tom insisted
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though that their closeness was quote unquote due to the counseling he was giving his secretary and nothing more
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uhoh just like remember that other case that I did the Don Hackney murder and that all had to do with counseling yep
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not good that's always the excuse now in no time at all Tom became Lorna's primary Confidant he was a shoulder to
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cry on every time things weren't going well at home and within a few months of starting the job the relationship became
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sexual oh looking back she said he told me that I was not what he needed in a wife but that he could make me into what
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he needed sweet um what and and you wanted to continue that what I feel like that
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should have been his like how he breaks up with you like that doesn't sound like a
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compliment and I can make you into what I need I don't like that at all [ __ ] and
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he's like you're not what I need for like a life partner but like I could I could like mold you into what I need
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right now it's like what about that sounds appealing couldn't tell you oh boy yeah sad but as Tom and Lorna's
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relationship grew so did the suspicion and the rumors about them spreading around the church according to
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journalist Scott Craft Witnesses described an electricity between the two and said they had pet names for each
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other oh e guys you should try to hide this a little better like you're having affair but to try to avoid being found
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out they started meeting in nearby towns or renting motel rooms in the uh in the
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country where they knew that they could be together away from the prying eyes of
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small town Emporia despite their efforts at secrecy though Lorna couldn't help but tell someone about her relationship
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with Tom this is where it begins uhhuh One Night in January before her affair with Tom had actually begun though she
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went out for drinks with one of her friends and actually her supervisor Jan me when the conversation turned to guys
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relationships all that Lura stunned Jen when she told her about her crumbling marriage and admitted that she had
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cheated on her husband more than once in the past and again that was before she had even started sleeping with Tom oh
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damn yeah with that second confession it was most likely less of a surprise when
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just a few months later Lorna told Jan that she had taken the job at the church to be close to Tom oh so she had like
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intentions going into this it wasn't like I just want to according to to what she told Jan that's what it sounds like
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yeah now she told Jan Tom and I are seeing each other and this is the uh this is one chance that we have to be
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alone and I enjoy working there just a few months later she would tell Jan I know this sounds really awful but I just
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wish something would happen to Marty and Tom's wife so we could be together for the rest of our lives there's like such
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I what is the word divorce I think it's divorce is what could happen for both of
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you yeah and you could be together just know that you want that be final your terms like you're not going to be able
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to talk me out of this I want a divorce hell even say I'm cheating on you I want
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a divorce yeah and it's like that's the thing and it's like we don't know like it what cuz Loro was claiming later that
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Martin was abusive abusive what the situation was so there's also that to take into consideration cuz like I
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immediately I'm like just get a divorce like Tom get a divorce from your wife like just divorce your partners and be
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together if that's what you really want like you don't need to have have an affair there's an out here but then I'm
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like if you put in there if that is true which we don't know no if that is true that he's abusive towards her and the
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children then maybe that is the most dangerous time for somebody in an abusive relationship is trying to get
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out of it and that's important there is that to at least hang on to there when we're like guys what the [ __ ] right
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still not saying it's awesome to like have an affair cuz it's with somebody else's husband too and it's like also
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kind of your friend yeah well a little bit I guess sort like not really not really but like you knew that he has a
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wife you know yeah and you knew of her like yeah like you know of her so that's not cool but like I guess me quickly
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saying like get a divorce is like me saying it without having knowledge of being in an abusive relationship that
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allegedly you know an allegedly abusive relationship exactly it's important to at least consider in that situation it
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is a consideration very good point but Lura wasn't the only one trying to escape a crumbling marriage as we know
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Tom and sy's relationship was also falling apart which was pushing Tom closer to Lorna like the other members
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of the church Sandy just recognized it for what it was and Tom wouldn't outright admit to the affair but he
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didn't exactly shy away from his unhappiness in the marriage and constantly complained like we know that
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s's work and education left her little time for him and it's definitely not his um Sports hobbies and having a
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full-blown Affair no it's definitely sy's work and education and taking care of the children that's the other thing I
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love that like you're complaining that like she's taking care of the kids too much yeah taking care of those kids
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she's working bettering herself what about me educating herself here I am playing baseball right a little bit
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basketball a little bit of a fair and pursuing my own dreams she's the problem and that's the other thing it's like
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okay she's pursuing her dreams you're acting like you don't have any dreams to pursue you're pursuing your dream right
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now you wanted to lead your own personal congregation and here you are doing it so why can't she do the thing that makes
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her happy if you had a strong relationship then this would not be a problem and you guys could understand
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that it might be a little tough for a little while and you might not see each other as much but you're working towards
00:20:05
goals and once you get there things will be different kids will get older things
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get a little easier like you see more of each other but there this obviously was
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not a relationship that could stand that test no and I think the thing was Tom had always envisioned a marriage where
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his wife would be content just being a pastor's wife yeah yeah that that seemed like it to me that's not Sandy
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have to imagine that part of him knew that getting into the marriage like you must have known that she had all these
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aspirations or I maybe I'm just assuming and well I mean she's already doing this
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stuff like you know she's a very motivated highly like you know dedicated dedicated and just like uh driven
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exactly like driven human being and it's like so why is this a shock to you that
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she's still that way right and just also putting into your kids and stuff too and
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I feel like that's what happens a lot in marriages that like that like we cover when we hear this it's like well I
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always wanted this and it's like not what you sought out and it's like and you should be upfront about that yeah
00:21:10
let someone know but I I wonder if it was when he started having an affair with Lorna that he realized what he
00:21:16
wanted yeah I wonder if that's really what it was yeah and what he wanted he often complained to Lorna was someone
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who quote considered being a pastor's wife a full-time job good luck interesting so the more time he spent
00:21:28
away from home the more Sandy began to worry about the marriage eventually the worry started actually affecting her
00:21:34
health and well-being she was losing weight she was having trouble sleeping and like I said this was when on more
00:21:39
than one occasion she was telling friends I'm afraid he doesn't love me anymore which is like heartbreaking
00:21:44
truly gut-wrenching later s's friend Angie deucing would say that Sandy quote was hurting a lot over her husband's
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relationship with his secretary according to Angie whenever the subject of marriage came up quote s's voice
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would break and her eyes would fill with tears oh I just want her to get out of there yeah cuz I'm like it's perfectly
00:22:03
acceptable if some somebody wants to consider being a pastor's wife a full-time job if that's what fulfills
00:22:09
you then like more power to you if that's not you then like somebody else bye yeah but by summertime s's Ator
00:22:18
towards her husband's not so subtle infidelity had changed her mother Jane explained to reporters that Sandy felt
00:22:24
like her life was good in the eyes of God and that it was up to Tom to make sure that his was and in early June she
00:22:30
ended up getting a promotion at Emporia State University so that meant she was going to begin teaching additional
00:22:35
classes in the fall which to her was a welcome distraction from the increasingly dysfunctional marriage yeah
00:22:41
but unfortunately she would not live long enough to embrace or experience that career advancement oh come on
00:22:47
despite their spouse's best attempts to address his the problems in their respective marriages neither Tom or
00:22:53
Lorna seemed particularly interested in the marriages anymore instead they can convinc themselves that they were meant
00:22:59
to be together and their marriages were nothing more than a roadblock to their happy future together okay then leave
00:23:05
them and that's the thing their problem could have been somewhat remedied by getting a divorce obviously we've talked
00:23:12
about Lorna's particular issue potential issue potential ex we have no proof whether that's true or not so it's like
00:23:20
that's the case then yeah that's a roadblock that's a road block for sure then what are you waiting for but the
00:23:26
other thing was and this is according to later witness testimony and this is a quote Lorna didn't want a divorce
00:23:31
because Martin Anderson had a large insurance policy and she wanted money not the divorce okay so that was at
00:23:38
least a part of it according to Witnesses okay and divorce also wasn't a permanent solution to what they really
00:23:45
wanted at the end of the day Martin and Sandy completely out of their lives don't have children with people that you
00:23:52
want completely out of your life because that will never be the case exactly but
00:23:57
the thing and if they had just divorced their respective spouses Tom and Lorna would have likely found themselves with
00:24:03
a net deficit he would end up paying alimon and a lot of child support with three children and she would be
00:24:09
responsible for four small children with little more than alimony to support them
00:24:14
so instead together they devised a wicked scheme where they would kill Sandy and Stage the scene to look like
00:24:20
an accident and then they would use the money from sy's life insurance policy which was valued at $300,000
00:24:28
to hire somebody to kill Martin Anderson so this is like devious diabolical damn so Tom was like We'll
00:24:38
Kill My wife make it look like an accident get the money from her life insurance and with that money hire
00:24:43
somebody to kill your husband wow and and they came up with that together evidently damn in May 1983 Lorna
00:24:50
contacted her friend and former lover Daryl Carter and asked him to meet her at the church saying that she had
00:24:56
something important to discuss with him he went to the church a few days later completely unaware of what Lorna
00:25:03
actually wanted to talk to him about and when he arrived Lura introduced him to Tom who was also there to meet Daryl
00:25:09
Carter they explained that they were in love and wanted to be together but that couldn't happen as long as they remained
00:25:15
married to other people Lorna explained that they had come up with this plan to murder Sandy and Martin but they needed
00:25:21
Daryl's help in order to pull it off uh initially Daryl Carter was like absolutely not I don't want anything to
00:25:28
do with murder and well also why don't you just get divorced from your spouses if you want to be together same question
00:25:34
everybody's having they're like guys there's an easier way but Tom explained that he loved Lura and was going along
00:25:39
with the plan in order to help her get out of an abusive marriage he told uh Carter Lorna didn't want a divorce
00:25:46
because Martin Anderson had a large insurance policy and she wanted the money and darl Carter explained uh that
00:25:52
he wasn't a killer and he had never engaged in anything like what they had planned to which Tom replied haven't
00:25:58
either I'm a man of God and I'm going to kill Martin Anderson implying that his actions were rooted in love for Lorna
00:26:05
wow but that he was still a man of God yeah obviously isn't it like a commandment like thou shal not kill I
00:26:11
feel like that's a pretty uh solid one I think that's a bad I think that's one that's like there's really no
00:26:16
interpreting that any different yeah I don't know like word on the street is that that's kind of a big one but who
00:26:21
know go off so it's rather unclear why Daryl Carter didn't just walk away from this conspiracy then and there but
00:26:28
instead of doing the rational thing he stuck around to hear their plants as Lura and Tom saw there were two viable
00:26:35
ways to successfully achieve their ends in the first plan they would get Martin drunk or drug him and then put him in
00:26:41
his car and take him to a remote location in the country and push the car over an embankment making it appear like
00:26:47
a drunk driving accident my God if they went with this scenario Daryl Carter's role would be to pick Tom up at the
00:26:54
accident site and drive him back to the house leaving Lauren at home all night with an alibi the second option involved
00:27:01
saving a staging excuse me a robbery at the home where Martin stayed each month during his Army reserve duty and
00:27:08
shooting him to death making it appear like a robbery gone wrong and actually if they went with the second option they
00:27:13
wouldn't actually need Daryl's help so darl was like okay lot to unpack here I was just going to say that's a lot to
00:27:19
consider he's like upsetting that I know you yeah so he left the church completely stunned after telling both of
00:27:25
them that he was going to need some time to think about this before getting back
00:27:28
to them a few days later when they still hadn't heard from him Tom actually ended
00:27:32
up paying a visit to the construction site where Daryl was working and was like did you make up your mind dude but
00:27:39
Daryl told Tom that he still needed more time to think about it and a short time
00:27:43
later he called Lorna and told her that he couldn't help them with their plan and assumed that without his involvement
00:27:49
they would drop the whole idea I was like wow good that you didn't help them bad
00:27:56
that you didn't report this that's the thing you could have saved two people's lives at the end of the day now on the
00:28:03
evening of July 16th just a few days after learning about her promotion at the University Tom suggested that he and
00:28:09
Sandy go out to dinner in a movie to celebrate the occasion after the movie ended they went home around 9:30 p.m.
00:28:15
and Sandy ran inside to grab a bottle of pink champagne for herself and a bottle
00:28:20
of whiskey for Tom and she told the babysitter that they'd be back in about an hour according to Tom they then went
00:28:26
back to his office at the church where they had a couple drinks and then parted ways when Sandy left to go to her office
00:28:31
at the University with plans to return a short time later to pick up Tom after he
00:28:37
had gone over his sermon for the next morning oh which like this already sounds weird you're you just went on a
00:28:43
date you're celebrating something you have a couple drinks together and now you're going your separate ways to get
00:28:49
like work done I don't like no I don't think so maybe but it's just a little weird and also wow to get your sermon
00:28:55
done well that's what really to me yeah so Tom claims that he went out for a jog
00:29:01
to think about his sermon and returned to the church expecting to find Sandy waiting cuz she was supposed to pick him
00:29:06
up but she wasn't anywhere to be seen after a little while longer he got concerned and walked around town for a
00:29:12
little while looking for Sandy before finally returning to home to relieve the babysitter without Sandy on the morning
00:29:19
of July 17th Sandy Bird's body was discovered by Kansas State Trooper John rule when he stopped to investigate what
00:29:26
looked like an accident when a car went over an embankment on Rocky Ford Bridge God when rule made his
00:29:32
way down to where the car landed he found s's body lying face down in the river just in front of her overturned
00:29:39
car based on the scene it looked like Sandy had missed the two 90° S curves leading to the bridge and then went
00:29:46
through the railing and over the embankment to the river below obviously causing fatal injuries in the process
00:29:53
but while the scene appeared to be that of an accident almost from from the moment he arrived something about it
00:29:59
didn't feel right to the officer he told Scott Craft in a 1985 interview I started to feel hinky about the whole
00:30:06
thing hinky I like that for one thing there were no skid marks anywhere on the road leading up to the point where the
00:30:14
car went over the bridge that would stick out so that's strange yeah um and while she might have missed the original
00:30:20
curve sending her in the direction of the railing surely she would have tried to stop the vehicle at some point before
00:30:25
it went over the edge you would think right the lack of skid marks on the road were not the only problem there was
00:30:31
other evidence that directly contradicted what had ostensibly happened on Rocky Ford Bridge officer
00:30:37
rule found sy's watch under the bridge far away from the car and the body with no obvious explanation as to how it had
00:30:44
gotten there and even more troubling were the spots of blood that he discovered on the bridge on the guard
00:30:51
rail and on the leaves uh on the trees below oh jeez so how did that happen yeah he told C I thought something
00:30:58
happened on that bridge but before he could investigate any further additional officers and emergency workers arrived
00:31:04
on scene and they started trampling on any evidence as they removed the car and sy's body awesome and he's not like a an
00:31:12
a homicide officer he's he just happened to be the officer that stumbled upon this oh jeez so that's not even like his
00:31:18
expertise but he brought his concerns to the sheriff who immediately dismissed his theory telling him it was highly
00:31:25
unlikely that anyone would kill a preacher's wife what why is this like a weird running idea isn't it that like
00:31:36
preachers and Preachers Wives are like immune to all the things like no one would kill a preacher's wife and it's
00:31:45
like what somebody who's mad about religion maybe somebody who's [ __ ] a preacher somebody who like what are like
00:31:52
things happen like people are not good all the time like what I love that like that job it's like it affords you like
00:32:00
immun couldn't possibly and it's like no everyone could possibly of course have we not seen that in the world like it
00:32:08
doesn't just cuz you have a job where you walk around saying that everybody should stop being [ __ ] and I'm the
00:32:14
extra not [ __ ] because I'm a pastor right doesn't mean that you're not a [ __ ] have you ever heard uh wolf and
00:32:20
sheep's clothing exactly I'm like anybody like they're not above it no they should be but they're not I can
00:32:26
name you a whole [ __ ] show dedicated to it actually exactly but rule later said there was a mountain of evidence
00:32:32
down there if you had been working a homicide I was sure she didn't die in a traffic wreck but I didn't have the
00:32:37
training to prove otherwise which must have that must be infuriating so frustrating to feel it in your bones
00:32:44
that like you know what you saw and what you saw wasn't right and to have everybody tell you no nobody would kill
00:32:50
a preacher's husband or prach wife to prove this but I don't know how and he doesn't want to like [ __ ] it up more
00:32:57
right so he's just like stuck between a rock and a hard place right and if I mean you're reporting to the sheriff
00:33:03
like yeah you don't and you don't want to contaminate [ __ ] or make certain things if you did find it be
00:33:09
inadmissible you know get yourself into trouble like there's a whole laundry list of things that would make this
00:33:14
incredibly frustrating so the coroner essentially agreed with the sheriff that Sandra Bird's death was the result of a
00:33:21
tragic accident and nothing more in his autopsy Dr Juan Gabriel noted that many of s injuries could have resulted in
00:33:28
death but the the most likely cause of death was a transacted kidney o which he stated was the kind of injury people
00:33:35
receive in motor vehicle accidents ouch despite some other uh excuse me some of the evidence contradicting the coroner's
00:33:42
findings like Sandy only having a small trace of alcohol in her blood no one contested the findings and the cause of
00:33:48
death was officially logged an accident and it's like we're just going to ignore
00:33:53
all the other stuff like no skid marks or anything wipe your hands of that no wow breacher wives don't use their
00:34:00
brakes like what so when officer Scott K delivered the news to Tom bird that morning he was surprised by the
00:34:07
preacher's reaction and he started to feel a little bit like officer John rule was feeling Tom responded to the officer
00:34:13
asking what was she doing out there we never go out there where is it what like First of all so many
00:34:20
questions second of all strange questions strange questions and you're really going like right off the bat
00:34:27
being like she's never gone there we never go there I've never seen that road what is what's a road what is a road
00:34:34
who's a car a vehicle what huh nope talking about a pterodactyl what I don't know what that is it struck CR as
00:34:40
strange that Tom would immediately assert that his wife never went to the location she was discovered uh before
00:34:46
even knowing where that location was by the way that's tough because he said we we never go there where is it you don't
00:34:56
know where it is but you also know that you've never gone there I just know that
00:35:00
we have never been there you don't where it is like what what but that wasn't the
00:35:05
only thing that seemed off in Tom's version of events when Sandy didn't arrive to pick him up he ran around town
00:35:11
looking for her it seemed a bit strange at least to this officer and a few others that he wouldn't just call the
00:35:17
babysitter first to find out if Sandy had just gone home and maybe forgot to pick him up immediately he assumed the
00:35:23
worst obviously why but like rules ions officer rule there officer Kon put his own Curiosities out of his head not
00:35:31
wanting to assume a religious leader capable of anything nefarious because you know that never happens no you
00:35:39
cannot consider that ever you just can't so although he had acknowledged the coroner's determination that sy's death
00:35:46
was accidental officer John rule just couldn't shake the feeling that everyone had either gotten something wrong or was
00:35:52
just simply ignoring the obvious yeah he recalled I kept thinking what what was she doing out there alone after dark and
00:35:59
although he struggled to imagine someone wanting to kill a preacher's wife as cuz
00:36:03
at this point it's been put in his head I guess he was convinced that he had come upon the scene of a homicide that
00:36:07
night and he wasn't ready to let it go so he quietly continued to pursue the case on his own oh John rule I know he
00:36:15
rules yeah exactly does while the coroner and Rule superiors were unwilling to hear his theories he was by
00:36:21
no means alone in his suspicions Kansas Bureau of Investigations aka the kbi agent Jay Vernon Humphrey said we heard
00:36:29
rumors faint rumors about him having an affair being tumed but no one wanted to tell us anything about that of course
00:36:36
not you know that this is happening but nobody wants to talk about it that's even more sus yeah where there's smoke
00:36:41
there's fire friends and family might not have wanted to speculate on whether Tom was having an affair but that didn't
00:36:47
mean that they didn't want to talk about Sandy altogether they did rule spoke to
00:36:52
those who knew her best and what emerged from those conversations was a portrait
00:36:56
of a woman that rule described as very uh very diligent very intelligent and the sort of person who ran at 100 m an
00:37:03
hour 18 hours a day just like we heard she did it all Sandy and he also learned that among other things she was a
00:37:13
stickler for safety and always wore her seat Bel I could you know what that makes sense of course it does obviously
00:37:21
none of us know Sandy but it's like that just like fits that Vibe of like she was
00:37:26
doing everything she needs to do working hard she would be one of those that's like where your seat belt put your seat
00:37:32
belt on well she's got three young kids you know it just makes sense Sandy breaks my heart truly so the fact that
00:37:39
Sandy always wore her seat Bel was yet another thing about the scene that didn't make sense when rule initially
00:37:45
made his way down to the crash site he discovered sy's Body Face Down in the creek suggesting that she had been
00:37:51
forcibly ejected from the car when it went over the rail had she been wearing her seat Bel like she supposedly always
00:37:57
did there was only a very small chance that that could have happened yeah and then there was also the interior of the
00:38:03
car itself after it had been removed from the site rule learned that the driver's seat had been adjusted much
00:38:09
farther back than would have been safe or even comfortable for Sandy who stood at 51 as someone who's also 5-1 you are
00:38:19
smashed up against that steering wheel to reach absolutely and like I've seen when John drives the car before you how
00:38:25
far back you are yeah like he can't or like when he tries to get in after I've been on it he can't get in without
00:38:31
moving the seat back yeah there's a very noticeable difference so obviously that
00:38:35
suggested that somebody much taller had been driving the car when it went off the bridge I mean that alone should be a
00:38:41
massive well why did nobody notice flag that should be a massive red flag yeah it's very easy to tell when someone 51
00:38:48
has been driving a car it let me tell you cuz you've even driven my car before and I can't get in as rule continued
00:38:54
quietly investigating sy's death Tom and Lura began putting the second phase of their plan into action because remember
00:39:01
they wanted both of their spes we not content with just one murder Sandy is dead now in September Lorna placed
00:39:07
another call to Daryl Carter who again declined to help them so Lura Lorna reached out to Daryl's brother Danny
00:39:13
Carter Jesus and enlisted his help why does she know so many people that she's willing to ask to kill someone I got to
00:39:19
I got to wonder that myself Lorna the thing was Danny also wasn't a killer but he thought he knew someone who was and
00:39:28
agreed to act as a middleman okay a few days later Tom cashed a $5,000 check which was a portion of the proceeds from
00:39:35
sy's life insurance policy and delivered that money to Dany who claimed he quote
00:39:39
sent it to a man in Mississippi who was to arrang the job several days passed then a week but neither the couple or
00:39:47
Dany ever heard back from the contact in Mississippi on the afternoon of November
00:39:52
4th 1983 Lorna and Martin along with their four children drove out to Fort Riley to pick up a new uniform for
00:39:59
Martin's Army Reserve position on the way home Lorna was driving and claimed that she started to feel sick so she
00:40:06
pulled off the road and ran into an adjacent field to bombit their four children are in the car right now yes
00:40:13
what the [ __ ] is about to happen something terrible yeah oh boy yeah it's very sad
00:40:19
that their kids were in the car when this happened so she claimed that she felt sick she pulled over and ran into
00:40:25
an adjacent to vomit she said as she walked back to the car she realized she had dropped her keys so she asked Martin
00:40:31
to come help her find them and as they searched in the ditch near the car a man quote cloaked in a black ski mask seemed
00:40:38
to come from nowhere and demanded that Martin hand over his wallet before Martin could even respond the man shot
00:40:44
him three times in the head killing him according oh my gosh yeah according to a
00:40:50
statement given to the Press by Tom bird a few days after the killing I'm sorry what so Tom bird gave a statement about
00:40:58
Martin's murder which he was not present at uh yes allegedly yep he said the man
00:41:05
went berserk shooting he shot Marty a number of times he grabbed Lura and pulled her down then took Marty's wallet
00:41:11
then a car was coming by so he threw her in the ditch jumped on top of her and told her not to scream then he got
00:41:16
scared and ran she didn't see where he went I'm sorry but that's the most [ __ ] ridiculous story I've ever heard
00:41:23
in my entire life and why are you telling me what happened when you weren't there well he was her counselor
00:41:30
so oh excuse me don't forget also everybody how are the kids doing I know in this whole planned thing that just
00:41:36
was done in front of your children yeah that's like probably theed up aspect that's really gross unreal horrified by
00:41:43
this they were young after the attack a a passing driver stopped to help Lorna and flagged down a school bus
00:41:49
transporting a local high school football team to a game nearby this is like so small town several of the
00:41:55
football players tried to revive Martin actually but it was too late I mean he'd
00:41:59
been shot in the head multiple times oh but they the football players tried oh yeah in their own statement to the Press
00:42:06
Junction City unders Sheriff John de depiro told reporters they were quote interviewing Witnesses trying to solve
00:42:13
the bizarre killing but he said they don't have a suspect they don't have a weapon and most importantly they have no
00:42:19
sensible motive for the murder of Anderson except someone's got to come out of here and be like uh there is
00:42:24
something weird she is having Affair so like somebody look into this yeah that would be my first thing I'd be like
00:42:31
there's all these rumors about her having an affair everybody exactly check into it at least don't you worry okay
00:42:36
good so the unders Sheriff might not have had any suspects or motive but authorities in and around Emporia were
00:42:42
starting to think that they might have some insight into who would want to kill Martin Anderson and why after hearing
00:42:48
the surprisingly detailed yet also suspiciously vague statement that again Tom bird question mark gave reporters on
00:42:55
Lor's behalf half yeah miraculous the editor of the Emporia G Emporia Gazette Ray call told another editor if you
00:43:02
believe that I'd like to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge that's honestly the truest statement No our friend Jay
00:43:09
Vernon Humphrey from the kbi also noted the unusual connection between Tom bird whose wife had also just died under
00:43:16
mysterious circumstances the other thing I'm like you two are Reckless you're many things but you're reckless you're
00:43:24
many things and Reckless is one of them this is one of them cuz it's like you have this whole plan that you're going
00:43:29
to run away together and just like be together after both your spouses die under suspicious
00:43:36
circumstances while everyone knows that you're having an affair already and you're going to raise seven kids between
00:43:41
the two of you after seven kids who are going to know what happened eventually to their other parent yeah yep wow
00:43:48
that's that's that's interesting interesting mhm wow but yeah like I said ja and Humphrey was was like there's a
00:43:56
weird [ __ ] connection between the two of these quote unquote Widow and widowers so he called his colleagues and
00:44:02
nearby I think it's Gary County to let them know of the connection the tip prompted investigators to look into both
00:44:08
Tom and lner Lura where they learned that not only had Tom recently received a payout from his wife's in insurance
00:44:15
and cashed a check of $5,000 but Lura had also recently taken out a policy on her husband not long
00:44:22
before he was murdered ah weird strange crazy yeah so after just a few days of Investigation detectives traced the
00:44:31
$5,000 to Danny Carter and he and Daryl were immediately arrested in connection with the shooting Dany told police that
00:44:40
he indeed received the money from Laura Anderson as a payout for the murder of her husband but he said the man to whom
00:44:46
he sent the money had never contacted them to arrange the hit but still The Carter Brothers were charged with
00:44:52
conspiracy to commit murder damn on November 18th while they were being being held in jail Daryl contacted their
00:44:58
lawyer and told him pretty much flat out that Reverend Tom bird was absolutely involved in the deaths of both Sandy and
00:45:05
Martin oh damn they were just like uh let's spill the tea since we're already getting in trouble anyway they're like
00:45:10
we're not getting [ __ ] pull down for for this at least alone so realizing the very serious nature of the trouble that
00:45:16
he was in Danny Carter told police about his role in the crime specifically noting that while he did act as a go
00:45:22
between for Lorna and the Hitman That was supposed to be hired he never committed an act of violence
00:45:28
and he also explained that as far as he knew the person to whom he sent the money had never followed through so if
00:45:34
Martin Anderson was murdered and he was it wasn't by anybody that Danny Carter knew interesting cuz he was like the guy
00:45:41
in Mississippi never answered so so I don't know what happened here the intention was there we did not do it
00:45:46
right based on what Danny Carter told them the detectives were still missing a lot of pieces to the puzzle and actually
00:45:52
at this point really only knew one thing for certain Lorna and had conspired with
00:45:56
the Carter Brothers in an attempt to have her husband murdered wow a we brutal it's crazy a week later on
00:46:03
November 23rd she was arrested and on November 30th she was charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder
00:46:10
in his statement to the Press Chief investigator Al busky or Bui excuse me told reporters Anderson conspired with
00:46:16
Carter to have Martin Anderson done away with $5,000 changed hands and Mr Carter's function was to find someone to
00:46:23
take care of Marty that's what Mr Carter alleges so just kind of like telling everybody what's going on Lorna at this
00:46:30
point was held without bond and continued to assert her innocence in the entire scheme she was like I have no
00:46:35
idea what these people are talking about but okay and at the same time she was pretty much refusing to talk to
00:46:41
investigators but it didn't matter because a lot of other people were willing to be way more forthcoming like
00:46:47
don't worry we got you yeah by the first week of December detectives had managed
00:46:50
to track down Gregory Curry the man to whom Danny Carter had given money given the money to murder Martin so after
00:46:59
being yeah so many people to keep track of after being extradited from Ohio back
00:47:04
to Kansas and now charged as a co-conspirator alongside Lorna and Dany wow Gregory Curry accepted a deal from
00:47:11
the prosecutor where he pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal solicitation in exchange for a lesser penalty he was not
00:47:19
compelled to assist the prosecution in the case against Lorna but there was an implicit understanding that he could be
00:47:25
called as a witness for the prosecution wow but he didn't shoot Martin wow okay okay what's happening he
00:47:34
collected the money but he never followed through so that's why he only got the charge for uh criminal
00:47:39
solicitation during this period now the rumors of an affair between Tom and Lorna were going everywhere persisting
00:47:45
throughout Emporia but shockingly few if any actually believed that Tom bird was
00:47:52
involved in these crimes honestly that doesn't shock me whenever it's it shocks whenever it
00:48:00
involves it it just shocks me it's shocking in my core of my being but you're but on the other side I'm like
00:48:07
this is always what happens is everyone just goes no way no way Bonkers to me not with a job like that and it's like
00:48:15
that's wild that we are just like no lik God his occupation is too wild for that
00:48:22
and it's just like what like no no that's just his job like that's just his job right like why are we not we like
00:48:30
we're like so you know this guy over here who's you know a janitor he's more likely to do it because he's not working
00:48:37
in a church any sense no it's all bad and there are plenty of honorable jobs in the world I would I would say that
00:48:44
like teachers have honorable jobs nurses do they kill people sometimes janitors like everybody anybody in any job could
00:48:52
end up mothers kill their children like let's but pastors do not kill but pastors
00:48:57
don't kill anyone and it's like what like since when it's wild we've been proven time and time again that they are
00:49:04
real people like anyone else and they can be evil pastors they're just like us they're just like evil people sometimes
00:49:10
sometimes sometimes they're great you knowa we get the both we get the good we get the get bad and what is it The Facts
00:49:17
of Life you know don't you that stuck in my head love that love that Cho so much
00:49:22
anyway so at first anyway shockingly few believed but that changed on December 1st when Daryl Carter's girlfriend
00:49:31
another another another person coming in here her name was Jennifer Peterson she
00:49:35
got a call from Tom bird saying that he needed to speak with Daryl as soon as possible uhoh fearing for his safety
00:49:42
Daryl informed his lawyer of Tom's request and together they went to the kbi Jesus Christ I didn't even move did
00:49:49
you see that no I just saw it when it landed I didn't even move it just heed itself off there sorry so fearing for
00:49:56
his safety darl informed his lawyer of Tom's request and together they went to the kbi and sensing an opportunity to
00:50:04
fill in some of the missing pieces in the story kbi agents convinced Daryl to arrange the meeting with Tom and record
00:50:11
the conversation oh they were like oh you are definitely going to go see him if he needs to talk to you the urgently
00:50:18
let's [ __ ] go talk to him so darl was like okay awesome this isn't terrifying and on December 10th the two men met in
00:50:25
a local parking lot where Daryl secretly recorded the conversation and where Tom
00:50:30
bird acknowledged the original meeting in the church where he Daryl and Lorna all SM spoke of killing Sandy and Martin
00:50:38
my goodness the recording of the conversation went a long way to confirming what investigators had
00:50:43
already come to suspect that Martin's murder was the result of an affair between Tom and norna but while the tape
00:50:49
was an important piece of the story they still needed more evidence if they were
00:50:53
going to arrest Tom cuz it wasn't like a Smoking Gun no so they spoke to the babysitter who was watching the bird
00:50:59
children the night of sy's murder oh my goodness that upsets me contrary to Tom's claims of having gone for a jog
00:51:06
the night of the murder and returning home still in his jogging clothes the babysitter told police ah he came home a
00:51:12
little after midnight and he was quote wearing dress slacks a shirt and tie but he said that he had gone for a jog to
00:51:20
think about his sermon and then he came back and was still wearing his jogging clothes and she's like no and she's like
00:51:26
no no no no I like that this babysitter was like no no no so they kept talking to different people it took nearly four
00:51:35
months but finally on March 21st 1984 Tom bird was arrested and charged with criminal solicitation to commit
00:51:42
first-degree murder thank goodness but also who did this the question to be quite honest really
00:51:50
doesn't get answered that's upsetting yeah I think people have their own opinions and
00:51:55
I have mine that I might not tell you and you can have yours and you can have yours exactly okay so he was arrested
00:52:03
and at the time Lorna who had been free on bond was rearrested and after dropping the previous charges against
00:52:09
her they were like oh let's get rid of those it's okay Lorna it's not okay though because we're charging you with
00:52:15
far more serious things like um aiding and abetting first-degree murder and we're going to hit you also with two
00:52:20
counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the shooting death of your husband good so welcome
00:52:26
back welcome back Lura on May 31st a preliminary hearing was held during which darl and Daniel Carter testified
00:52:33
that Tom bird had solicited both men to help kill Martin Anderson Daryl told the
00:52:38
jury Tom bird told me at the time he loved Lura Anderson and that he was doing this to help her because he loved
00:52:44
her additional evidence at the hearing included the 45-minute recorded conversation between darl and and Tom
00:52:50
that happened in December of the previous year and based on the evidence presented by by the prosecution judge
00:52:56
William dick off uh ordered Tom bound over for trial and the date was set for July 1st
00:53:02
1984 let's go so many trials are about end in a way that is satisfactory it kind of does man okay
00:53:13
man um and just so many trials are about to happen so just strap in so Tom's trial for the charge of criminal
00:53:20
solicitation began in August of 1984 during which one witness after another testified about Tom's relationship with
00:53:27
Laura they were like we are ready to talk they were so good at hiding it except not at all the jury also heard
00:53:33
critical testimony from Daryl and Daniel Carter and Gregory Curry who was the one
00:53:38
that had been hired but never followed just want to keep you updated I appreciate it because I was like who's
00:53:44
Greg exactly I'm like I got it so they all told of their role in The Conspiracy to kill Martin Anderson although
00:53:51
authorities at the time acknowledged that the plot to kill Martin Anderson was never carried out out with Greg
00:53:55
shooting the man Tom was still found guilty and sentenced to 2 and 1 half to 7 years in
00:54:01
prison 2 and a half to seven years yeah that's it but don't worry I told you there were more trials a a toddler to a
00:54:10
second greater amount of time yeah okay cuz it's only conspiracy to I mean I I don't mean only but in the eyes of the
00:54:18
law the eyes of the law it's only conspiracy to commit which again seems like that needs an overhaul a little bit
00:54:24
well Al this guy did end up dead yeah so like the conspiracy kind of went into practice here so I don't know and I
00:54:32
still don't want anyone who conspired to commit murder get out of prison to be my
00:54:37
pastor and to do it again like you're going to serve seven years you could come out I mean you could [ __ ]
00:54:42
conspire in in yeah you're conspiring I'm saying that's what you do once a conspire always a conspire I've
00:54:49
always saved that conspiracy I've always saved that just said you know what I always have uh Sav
00:54:56
but as Tom began serving his sentence for the solicitation charge the investigation into s's death had finally
00:55:02
gained some remember two people were killed here and in October of 1984 they actually had her body exed and a second
00:55:11
autopsy was performed by Dr William Eckert uh a certified forensic pathologist hell yeah I know right let's
00:55:17
let's get in there with this forensic pathology I think he may have been involved in other cases that we've
00:55:21
talked about cuz his name his name very familiar yeah it is but memory is so bad
00:55:26
retweet and we've done so many cases at this point but in addition to injur the injuries noted in the previous autopsy
00:55:33
which were consistent with the uh accident edert noted a number of other significant blunt force injuries that
00:55:40
could not be accounted for by an accident by a car accident and injuries to the wrists and arms oh that's awful
00:55:47
according to his final report the latter injuries were consistent with defensive
00:55:51
injuries as injuries caused when a person has his arms outstretched in an effort to ward off blows in the attack
00:55:57
oh that's so awful of course it is like that's the mother of his child of his children yeah and like it doesn't even
00:56:04
sound like it sounds like their marriage was not good no not at all it's not like
00:56:09
you know like it's like you took vows at one point like that's just like you just
00:56:13
have like a shitty marriage and this is the path it take like wow it's so diabolical ups and it's even sadder to
00:56:21
think that in in both of these cases specifically because we're talking at Sandy right now he asked her out on a
00:56:27
date while their marriage wasn't doing so well to celebrate an achievement that she had just made and that must have
00:56:32
made her feel so seen and happy and like maybe things are going to turn around maybe we got through it maybe we're
00:56:38
going to come out the other side and then the night ends like with this and it's like with him standing over you
00:56:44
presumably murdering you like oh yeah like that's horrific and then on the other side of things Martin Anderson
00:56:53
just thought he was going for a drive with with his family to pick up his uniform just happy to be out for a drive
00:56:59
you would assume hopefully or just you know driving with your for I think like don't four kids four kids yeah like and
00:57:07
then you think like oh no my wife is sick um and then oh crap like let me go help her lose the fix find the keys that
00:57:13
she lost and then that boom you're done and you just wonder how much the kids saw I know and it's like I didn't really
00:57:20
look too much into that because like kid stuff BMS you said they were young so it's like
00:57:25
that's a whole other set of traumas that you have put on your children for your own selfish reasons and it's like damn
00:57:33
you didn't take into consideration that you know maybe I won't get away with this and then my kids don't have parents
00:57:39
any parents like then I am leaving my kids and it's just like you could put that kind of trauma on them for your own
00:57:47
selfish needs like you know what I mean like absolutely that's so much trauma on
00:57:53
kids like I can't even considering them and that's your number one job is to consider them at all times in all
00:58:00
decisions man it's just really upsetting but yeah this could have ended in so many different ways it really could have
00:58:06
but back to uh Dr William Eckert's uh findings here so he he found all these defensive wounds and similarly he
00:58:15
theorized that the wounds to s's Head and Shoulders quote could have been caused by an instrument such as the
00:58:19
branch of a tree a baseball bat a pool queue or a tire holy [ __ ] these were she was beaten
00:58:27
intensely oh my God finally he noted a lack of injuries one would expect of somebody who had been forcibly ejected
00:58:33
from a vehicle in his opinion the injuries believed to have been caused by the accident could have just as likely
00:58:39
been caused by a fall from a significant height wow like these were intense injuries and they were not just car
00:58:47
accident injuries wow that's interesting it is in February 1985 investigators went back to Lura who had ended her
00:58:55
relationship with Tom and was now dating a new man oh wow wow all for not wow yeah isn't and isn't
00:59:08
that always the way he goes to jail and it's like wow thought you guys were you guys
00:59:15
were so in love that you conspired to commit murder both of your okay yep got it so wow so the police tracked her down
00:59:26
and she gave a statement to police alleging that Tom had told her on the night of sy's death and this is her
00:59:31
statement she alleged that on the night of sy's death he had driven Sandy out to
00:59:36
Rocky Ford bridge and as they walked out onto the bridge Tom struck Sandy with a
00:59:40
tire IR which is exactly what the doctor said exactly what he said he's believing
00:59:45
Sandy to be unconscious he tried to throw her over the side but she held on to the railing and he kicked her until
00:59:52
she fell oh my God so she put up a fight which explains the defensive wounds that's
00:59:58
horrific yep and it gets worse after moving s's body into the POS the position it was discovered in the water
01:00:05
Tom drove the car which accounts for the seat being pushed back as it was over the edge of the the embankment there and
01:00:12
jumped out before it went off the bridge once he staged the scene he ran back to
01:00:16
the church ditching his clothes along the way and changed into the suit that he was wearing when he and Sandy left
01:00:23
the house that night and that's why he did not return home in jogging clothes like the babysitter said I am and also
01:00:31
you beat your wife to death or excuse me you beat your wife up to the point of death she's still holding on for dear
01:00:40
life and you kick her until she is completely dead and falls down and then you drive the car that you presumably
01:00:48
presumably was your family car off the side of an embankment and then you go to church
01:00:56
I have no words you go back to church no words after all of that truly no words after
01:01:06
all of that and this is after you like you said have been like we're going to have a date night yeah to celebrate you
01:01:12
and what you have achieved wow that like oh poor man Sandy damn yeah so based on the second
01:01:21
autopsy and Lorna's statement of what allegedly happened a grand jury indicted Tom yet again this time with the first
01:01:28
deegree murder of his wife Sandy and the trial began in July of 1985 at trial lion County district attorney Rod
01:01:35
Simmons told the jury that Tom quote had murdered his wife out of love for Lorna
01:01:39
Anderson which was supported by the evidence and the testimony heard from The Carter Brothers the bird's
01:01:45
babysitter and several of s's friends who testified that she had discovered his affair not long before her death
01:01:52
most significant were the results of that second autopsy and the circumstances of the scene which
01:01:57
supported the prosecution's theory that Sandra bird had been killed on the bridge before being thrown into the
01:02:03
Ravine which explained why her blood had been found on the trees leading down to
01:02:07
the embankment and I also believe on the guardrail so much more sense now exactly
01:02:12
and shout out to officer John rule for immediately recognizing those sign shout out it's a good John if
01:02:19
he good joh if he didn't become like an actual homicide investigator after that my goodness I hope John rule like I ring
01:02:29
I hope you're still ruling John rule right so the defense on the other hand of course argued that the prosecution's
01:02:34
case was full of inconsistency inconsistencies and relied heavily on hearsay except for that whole forensic
01:02:40
pathologist and you know the blood on everything above where her body was found got it but cool defense attorney
01:02:46
Robert heck told the jury no one saw a damn thing adding that his client had spent the night looking for his wife
01:02:52
okay yeah totally okay also nobody saw a damn thing including that no one saw him
01:02:57
looking for his no one saw that objection here the babysitter saw him in different clothes so nice try after a
01:03:04
brief investigation the jury returned with a guilty verdict and Tom burned was Tom Jesus Christ Tom bird was sentenced
01:03:11
to life in prison for the murder of his wife Sandy bird and he was already serving that 2 to sevene stint oh I like
01:03:19
I like life better than 2 to seven years life is much better much better now it was Lura Anderson statement to police
01:03:26
that led to Tom's arrest and eventual conviction for murder but it's unlikely that she expected at any point to find
01:03:32
herself of the same position probably not by the fall of 1988 though she was facing very serious charges and a strong
01:03:39
case against her for the murder of her husband so she took a deal and she agreed to plead guilty to one count of
01:03:46
second degree murder in exchange for a 20-year sentence in her statement given to investigators Lorna identified Tom as
01:03:54
the shooter in Martin's murder I wondered if that was possible leading to additional murder charges being brought
01:04:01
against Tom but in March of 1990 a jury acquitted Tom of the charges related to Martin's death and that's why I say we
01:04:10
don't know who shot Martin okay he was acquitted yep so Tom ended up appealing his conviction to the state supreme
01:04:20
court in 1986 the one where he received life for the murder of Sandy but the verdict and the sentence were upheld
01:04:27
since then he is said to have been a model prisoner and he got uh remarried in the late ' 80s Oh my he continues to
01:04:33
assert his innocence and claims that while he and Lorna were sexually intimate on three or four occasions I
01:04:38
don't need to know how many my BR my guy it doesn't matter to me they never had a
01:04:42
relationship uh sexual relations are a relationship also excuse me Pastor that that doesn't constitute a relationship I
01:04:50
I thought that was like a big thing nope okay nope exactly um and he said that he
01:04:57
never agreed to participate in any murders he said except aren't you on like you know recording saying that you
01:05:03
talked about it at least talked about it you at least talked about it yep that's
01:05:07
pretty [ __ ] up which is participating and that's participating and talking about it at least yeah so there's that
01:05:12
but he says of Lorna she was emotionally attached to me and on my end there was a
01:05:16
need to be needed I like the idea of being needed so I unprofessionally let it happen it was more emotional Than
01:05:23
Physical thank you Tom yeah thank you Tom for your time yeah uh there are many people
01:05:31
though who believe that Tom was convicted on circumstantial evidence and questionable testimony from people with
01:05:37
faulty memories are the people in the room with us right now like who no who is that he ended up being released from
01:05:45
prison he got parole he was released in 2004 and his supervision period ended in 2006 okay
01:05:54
and he's gone on to lead a quiet life Wow but he was convicted for murdering his wife he certainly was but
01:06:03
not for shooting Martin Anderson I want he was acquitted of that I want to be very clear interesting Lorna served
01:06:11
nearly her entire sentence and was released on parole in 2007 with her supervision period officially ending in
01:06:19
2014 and from everything I could find also has gone on to live a quiet life but apparently they both live in
01:06:25
Kansas I I am shook by that and wow didn't think it was going to end like that I just feel really bad for
01:06:39
Sandy and I they fam and Martin yeah and those [ __ ] kids I feel so bad for both sets of these kids I know I hope I
01:06:48
can't imagine what they've gone through I hope that yeah wonderful lives and I hope they've gone G on to just be happy
01:06:55
and healthy and got whatever they needed to get yeah cuz it it breaks my [ __ ] heart to know what they all just went
01:07:01
that that was a lot of kids to have involved in all that [ __ ] seven that's seven kids four of which at least were
01:07:07
there when killed yeah like that's that's really upsetting and then like just to think of I mean both those
01:07:16
murders were horrific brutal so brutal like Martin was shot in the head three times near by his children and his he
01:07:25
was shot in the chest once he ended up being shot four times yeah and it's like and then sand thrown off an embankment
01:07:31
yeah she was beaten and thrown off an embankment like that's Unthinkable truly it's
01:07:38
Unthinkable truly and the fact that we really never will know like the fact that we don't know concretely who shot
01:07:46
Martin Anderson is the biggest thing for me cuz I'm like I got to know who that was yeah and I like his kids deserve to
01:07:54
know abely his parents his family and I'm sure everybody has their own opinions but none of us know for certain
01:08:01
yeah cuz it's like which is like incredibly frustrating I can't imagine if that was my loved
01:08:06
one for John rule yeah situation and for Dr eert yep like coming in after you know we got we had a coroner the first
01:08:15
time around the fact that this could have thr forensic pathologist the second time around and look what you got yeah
01:08:21
and just the fact that this could have gone so differently s's death could if if John rule hadn't had his suspicions
01:08:28
and you know looked around at certain things and a couple other people hadn't had their it she could she could have
01:08:34
never Justice she still would have been listed as dying from an accident yeah when we know that that's not the case
01:08:42
damn yeah that's a horrifying case I know in every way and I feel really bad for those people that had to deal with
01:08:51
it cuz holy [ __ ] I do too so treat people nicely yeah and don't cheat on your spouse just be honest man yeah just
01:08:58
honesty is the best policy and uh with that being said we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird
01:09:05
as weird as any of this because we'll disown you alen n [Music] bye [Music]