MURDERED: Mary Yoder Part 1

Hi, Grime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And the story I have for you today is more like 10 stories in one with twists and turns and betrayals that sound like they've been ripped from a screenplay because it starts in the most ordinary way. A woman goes to work, feels sick, and everyone assumes it's just a bug. But within two days, she's dead. And what initially seems like a medical mystery unravels into a murder investigation that divided a family and a community. This is the story of Mary Yoder. In late August 2015, a woman named Janine is taking her mom to a doctor's appointment in Central New York, near Utica. This should be a routine visit, but it's anything but. You see, Janine had just suffered a devastating loss. Her sister, Mary Yoder, had died suddenly and unexpectedly just the month before, in that very same medical complex. And truly, when I say suddenly, her 60-year-old sister went from being totally fine, like chipper working a normal day at her chiropractic office, to being violently ill, put in the ICU, and having to be revived seven times until her heart finally gave out and she died, all within less than 48 hours. But did you have heart issues? No, Mary was strong and healthy. The only medical condition she had were mild asthma and high cholesterol. Nothing that should have caused her death. So you can imagine the trauma that this medical complex holds for Janine and how difficult this appointment is for her. Because not only is she right near where her sister died, but her mom's doctor actually was the one who was Mary's regular doctor. He had overseen her care when she was hospitalized. So naturally, at this appointment, Mary comes up. Now Janine and her mom and siblings were under the impression that Mary died of ascending colonitis, which is this infection of the bile ducts. But according to Janine, when she mentioned that to the doctor, he looked kind of taken it back, and confused even. And he told Janine, "That was never a real diagnosis. Just one of the many possibilities tossed out early on after Mary came in, like when they couldn't figure out what was making her sick or why her heart kept giving out. All they really knew at that point, even when she's coming there to the doctor, is that they didn't know how she died. And they were still waiting for toxicology testing to tell them more." But before Janine left, the doctor asked her something, "Where's the husband?" The implication feels clear to Janine in that moment. And the whole drive home, her mind is just spinning. And that's when something hits her. Bill Yoda, Mary's husband, had her cremated just days after she died, even though no one knew what killed her. And she just can't make sense of things. Bill and Mary's daughter, Liana, who's actually a doctor herself, had been telling family that Mary died of that infection. So she contacts Liana again, and when she presses her on it, Liana confirms, "No, that is not what killed her." And yes, she's been cremated, that was after samples were taken. The toxicology testing that Mary's doctor mentioned was still underway. And as it turns out, that testing was extensive, because from the second that the pathologist Dr. Kenneth Clark began Mary's autopsy, he knew something was very wrong. Her organs were discolored, almost like her body had already started decomposing while she was still alive. And under a microscope, her tissue showed signs of a massive toxic attack, as if she had undergone aggressive chemotherapy, which she hadn't, like ever. So Dr. Clark tests for all the usual poison suspects, right, like arsenic, cyanide. But when those come back negative, he works with poison control resources, trying to match Mary's symptoms to something in their database. And this stretches on all the way through August and in September. But finally, nearly two months after Mary's death, they figure it out. Mary died from an overdose of Colchising. I've never heard of that. Most people haven't. I hadn't before this case. Colchising is typically used to treat gout. But Mary didn't have gout, so there is no reason that she should have been taking it at all, let alone the amount found in her system, which was enough to kill her many, many times over. And I assume this isn't like an over the counter kind of thing. No, no, no, no, you need a prescription. And it's not like, there's like a street market for this thing. Right. It's for gout. Right. So at first, poison control and everyone is thinking that there could be basically like accidental ways that this got into her system, both of which they need to identify fast because other people could be at risk. And so the first thought they had is, okay, she could have gotten it through contact with plants. Mary was this avid gardener and Colchising comes from a plant. So maybe she ingested something that she grew. Okay. I don't know the ins and outs of this drug, but I feel like you'd probably have to ingest a lot of a plant to die from it. And I, I don't see that happening by accident. It actually doesn't take that much. The lethal dose is remarkably low, but there is a second even scarier possibility. Mary was known to take a lot of supplements, a lot of vitamins and she even sold them out of her practice. So they start thinking like, oh my God, what if something that she was taking got contaminated during manufacturing? At least if it was her garden, the problem would be contained to her house. Right. But with this, I mean, they could be looking at a public health crisis. So they have her family go and collect and turn over everything they can find that she took regularly. And even though it seems far fetched, they do go even check her garden, but everything comes back clean. The simplest explanations are all getting ruled out. And without those scenarios, it's hard not to go somewhere darker, like maybe someone did this on purpose. And with that one doctor's words echoing in Janine's mind, she starts sharing her suspicions with another of her sister Sharon. They feel like, you know, they've been pretty much in the dark. They keep expecting to hear an update or to be contacted by police or something, but it feels like nothing is happening. So in mid-October, Sharon contacts the Onaida County Sheriff's Office herself. And she's like, hey, I'm just calling to see if you know what's going on with my sister, Mary Oder's mysterious death. And they're like, what? Never heard of it. Like, what are you talking about? And she's like, my sister, she died of an overdose from a random medication that she wasn't even taking. And we're all over here just like waiting for someone to tell us what happened. But the Lieutenant confirms there is no open case on Mary Oder. Did she call the wrong jurisdiction? Oh no, it takes some figuring out. But what it seems like is that the ME never notified the authorities of the findings. And oddly enough, Bill didn't either. But once the Sheriff's Office knows what's what, they quickly open a case with Lieutenant Robert Nelson and investigator Mark Van Namey at the helm. They know that poisoning requires access and opportunity. If this was intentional, it had to be someone close to her. So it's no surprise that they look at Bill first. And not just because he's the husband. I mean, there is literally no one else anyone can think of. Mary is the last person you would expect something like this to happen to. She had the most unassuming, happy life. Like she and her husband own their own practice. They were both chiropractors. And Mary especially was like adored by her patients. Some of which had been seeing her for decades. She was a staple in the community. And her hobbies were simple too. Like she loved wellness and fitness and gardening. And her life was just full of people who really loved her. Her three adult children. She had grandkids, a bunch of siblings and friends and Bill who has been her husband of nearly 40 years. Now according to Bill, he and Mary were happy. No affairs, no major issues. I mean, they had big plans for the future, including this upcoming trip to Europe that they had both been excited about. And by some accounts, he was barely functioning after she died. But a group of Mary's sisters, Janine, Sharon and Sally, they're just not so sure that's true. They say that the marriage had problems, including financial stress. And it raised eyebrows that Bill took monthly solo weekend trips to a hotel supposedly to write. Like he had published a couple of self-help books. They worked together though, right? Like I know, I guess like the solo trips feels like maybe they needed some time apart. Yeah, it was some space. Yeah, they had worked together their whole career. But recently, Bill had I guess scaled back some. Like the office was open three days a week and Bill and Mary's shifts were often split or rotated with Mary seeing more patients while Bill focused on like the business or back end of things. finances, administrative stuff. But even so, like, I mean, I get what you're saying. Everyone finds like what works for them, especially if you like work together. I'm not reading into the like solo trips too much either. But the sisters also have questions about his behavior when Mary was hospitalized. Remember, Mary's health deteriorated fast. It's not like she was hospitalized for weeks or months. We're talking less than 48 hours here. Starting on Monday, July 20th. Now, Mary was at work that day. Everything was normal. She was seeing patients happy and energetic, just like usual. But that afternoon, there was just this swift and noticeable change. A wave of nausea just hit her out of nowhere, then vomiting and abdominal pain. By the time she was finishing up with her last patient around 6, it was clear to everyone around her that something was wrong. And she told people that she had never felt so sick before. So she went home, spent the night in and out of the bathroom. And by Tuesday morning, this is the 21st. She was even worse. So around 9am, Bill drove her to the hospital. She spent the day there while doctors ran blood work and scans trying to figure out what was going on. And the medical attention seemed to help. Mary was feeling a little bit better. Now, doctors still decided to keep her their overnight for observation, but there didn't seem to be any like, you know, real alarm. So Bill assumed that she just had this nasty stomach bug, which is maybe why he did something a few of Mary's sisters found off. He went home that night to rest, which whatever Mary wanted to sleep to. But before going to bed, Bill says that he put his phone in another room to charge. So he didn't wake up as the hospital called him again and again and again. Because around 10pm, this is about an hour after Bill left, not even that long. Mary's condition took this sharp turn for the worse. First, she fell down while trying to use the bathroom. Then she was moved to the ICU. And in the early morning hours of Wednesday, the 22nd, she just kept spiraling. Her heart stopped at 417, then again, less than 20 minutes later. And when staff still weren't able to reach Bill by then, they actually sent state troopers to his door to wake him up. And when they do, Bill calls the hospital immediately. But even though the Yoder's house is just 15 minutes away, it took him an hour to get there. And Mary coded again just after 10am. Then once an hour after that, a total of seven times. Doctors brought her back over and over again until it was just too much and they couldn't anymore. She was pronounced dead at 2.54pm on Wednesday, July 22nd. So two sum of Mary's sisters, Bill's lack of urgency. The fact that you don't make sure your phone is right next to you while your wife's in the hospital, that you aren't rushing out the door when troopers have to wake you up about your wife's condition, it feels wrong to them. And listen, like I said, I get going home that night. Mary seemed to be getting better. She wanted to sleep. And to add more context, Bill probably had every reason to believe that it was some kind of stomach bug because their 25 year old son Adam had actually come down with something really similar just a few months earlier. He even went to the hospital. Now, he wasn't admitted like Mary, but it was pretty bad. And though it had taken a while, he bounced back. Yeah, but like, I'm sorry, keep your phone close on you. That seems like such a no brain or a thing. I know his excuse was that Mary had moved the phone charger months earlier. So he just like plugged it in where she left it and just like, so move the charger. I know it's like a little bit of a husband answer. It's like, what's where you put it? I don't know. And especially listen, once you know she's in the intensive care unit, like hustle, that's kind of my thing. And listen, there's something else that Mary's sister shares with detectives that bothers her. Once she learned that her sister died of a colchicine overdose, she started researching the drug. Because just like you and me, she'd never heard of it before. And she found something really interesting. Apparently, colchising can be used to grow super potent marijuana, which jogs this memory for her. Back in the early 1980s, Bill had grown some of his own marijuana using some kind of special process with the seeds to make the plants stronger. And just to be clear, at this point, Bill had been saying he'd never even heard of colchicine before Mary died. But knowing this, and again, they're connecting dots that we can't prove, but the sisters aren't buying it. But what's the why here? Is there a life insurance policy? Is it an actual affair? I know we've seen it all at this point, but it's definitely more rare to see a spouse kill their partner after 40 years of marriage. That's a long time. Yeah, and I assume there weren't like a bunch of red flags before this, or it wouldn't have been such a shock to Janine at the doctor's office when he's like, hey, where's Bill? Right, so that's the part that no one can totally figure out. If Bill did something to Mary, why? To answer your question, there wasn't any life insurance. I mean, they seem to be getting along fine. There were no accusations of domestic violence that I know of. And whatever Mary may have told her sister about financial struggles, it's not like he was, again, walking away with a million dollar life insurance policy. And it doesn't seem that she ever mentioned being afraid of Bill or that he had cheated on her anything. But if there was a time when Janine, Sharon, or Sally were questioning themselves, like cataloging all of this, all the years that Mary and Bill had been together, thinking how devoted you have to be to a person to build a life with them over four decades. Just when they might have thought they were barking up the wrong tree, Bill does something in late November that finally convinces some that he did have emoted it, that maybe he wanted out of his marriage. And this thing would become central to this case for the next 10 plus years to come. Four months after his wife unexpectedly died by poisoning, Bill gathers his three kids together for this big announcement. Bill's in love again, not just like a little crush or a date or anything like in love. So it's not like he just met this woman. Well, no. Like there is no scenario where this looks good. Either you have to admit you met her like the second your wife died. And while everyone else was grieving, you're boning her and just moved on super fast. Or you have to admit that there's overlap and you met her before your wife died. Somehow, there is a worse third option that kind of combines both. What do you mean? The woman that he is in a relationship with, that he is in love with now, is one of Mary's own sister. Yeah. Okay, I have so many questions, but let's pause for a second. Walk me through this. How does someone go from thinking Bill killed their sister to being in a relationship with him in a matter of months? So they don't. It is not Janine Sharon or Sally that Bill is announcing he's in love with. So it's not that. They have another sister, Kathleen. That's who Bill is seeing in love with whatever. And look, I know grief can bring people together in unexpected ways, but this seems fast to say the least. And basically Bill says that like after Mary died, he and Kathleen just like leaned on each other. They were both mourning 'cause Kathleen's own husband had died after this long illness the year before and they understood what the other was going through. And then in September, things got romantic. So we're talking about this four months after Mary died, but it got romantic two months later. Correct. Dude, I would haunt the out of my husband. I mean, if I'm still around, if I'm still around, I don't need to haunt them. I will go for them for you. I mean, I'm not, I'm not saying never be happy again, but just like not like this. No. And according to ABC News studios, which actually made this Hulu docu series about this case, this is suspicious to a lot of people. I mean, family and investigators alike. They wonder if the relationship started before Mary died. Same. Maybe he wanted to be with Kathleen and got rid of Mary to make that happen. So detectives are obviously like catching wind of all of this. And they quietly start to subpoena phone records and bank statements. They also talk to the yoder children who are in this like impossible position. Like they're cooperating with law enforcement while pretending with their father that like nothing is going on. And what are they thinking at this time? Like, this has got to be a little suspicious to them too, right? I mean, they love their dad. But they're starting to face the thought that he might be responsible for this. I mean, at least that's what Bill and Mary's daughters, Leanna and Tamron kind of describe and how like terrifying the thought of this is. They talk about it during an interview with ABC News. And they said, you know, they were surprised to say the least about his relationship with Kathleen. And one of the other things they're really honest about is Tamron tells police about this odd conversation she had with her dad not long after their mom died about this inheritance that Bill had recently received when his own father passed away. But he got close to like half a year. of $1 million. And according to Tamran, he said that while the money wasn't really enough for two people to retire on, it was for one. So you have this like, no, there's no affair, but you have this weird Kathleen thing, and no, there was no life insurance on Mary. - But there was like a financial thing. - Could there have been financial motive after all? Maybe not the normal kind where, you know, someone's in a lot of debt or something, but like a financial motive nonetheless. But then, just as Lieutenant Nelson and investigator Van Neumy are starting to really dig into Bill, the strangest thing happens. They get an anonymous letter that completely changes the direction of this case. On November 23rd, 2015, the same type written anonymous letter shows up at both the Sheriff's Department and the ME's office. Each envelope is post-marked November 20th, 2015. And this is what that letter says. Please forward to acting investigators. I know police are currently looking into this debt, but I don't know where to send this information. This is in regard to the July 22nd, 2015 death of Mary Oder in Utica, New York. If the toxin found in her was colchocene, Adam Yoder, her son, is responsible. He told me he did, and moreover, he told me how and where he put the rest of the toxin. It was already odd Adam drove back so early the day of her death, arriving in Utica around 6.30 a.m., meaning that he left Long Island very early morning because she wasn't in grave condition then. It's weird he'd drive down to Long Island and then go back north in the middle of the night, especially since he'd been so standoffish and just mean to her. Telling her he functioned better by not seeing or talking to her. He felt she was unfair to him and he resented that. She should have helped him more. When I saw him a couple days ago, he appeared agitated and said he was the reason for her death and he wished he could take it back. Then he said he got a bottle of colchocene off online and put the toxin in one of her vitamins when he was over at his parents' house. He said his mom noticed he seemed disturbed at the time and she thought it was since he was drinking at their house. Adam said he told her no, the beer was not the reason he was disturbed and to drop it. He said he apologized to his parents for ruining the holiday of Father's Day and left. Adam was upset people weren't paying more attention to him. He felt he deserved more attention and he thought people would be nicer to him. He acted resentful and belligerent to his immediate family and became visibly irritated people kept talking about his mom. He says he expected a financial payout after the death which did not come. After he found out he was not getting the money he thought he would, he said he regretted what he did. Was hysterical and he didn't know what he was going to do, but he had ideas. He said now the colchocene container is under the front seat passenger side of his Jeep. That's where he said it was until he figures out where to put it or dispose of it next. I asked him to show me where he kept it currently and said no, but described it as a small glass bottle. He has a black Jeep Wrangler 1991 model. I am sending this anonymously because I can't keep this information. It is right to alert authorities, but it's still hard to do and I fear attaching my name to this information right now. I'm very close to him, but what he did was wrong and I believe he would be capable of repeating this type of act. To add credibility to this, Mary Oder got sick two days before she passed away suddenly. The cause of her death was not released and initial medical reports were inconclusive, but I now suspect colchocene poisoning from her son and her symptoms were sudden onset abdominal pain, nausea, and diarrhea. She was admitted Tuesday to the hospital and died Wednesday afternoon after repeated failed attempts to restart her heart. Adam's monetary concerns are suspect because he struggled financially and supported somewhat by his parents' assistance. Colchocene is a very specific name and the name of the toxin found in Mary Oder was not released, so if they are one in the same, it's not a coincidence. After he related to me the information about where the specific toxin is and the details, I feel this is necessary for appropriate authorities to pursue this. Oh, they're gonna pursue this all right. Starting by talking to 25-year-old Adam Yoder. The detectives bring him in on December 8th for an impromptu interview and when they sit down with him, they just lay it out there. We got this letter claiming that you poisoned your mother with colchocene and that the bottle is still in your Jeep. And right away, Adam denies it all. He says that he'd never even heard of colchocene before they were all told about Mary's cause of death back in September. And he didn't know which police agency was investigating the case until today when they called him in. So after a quick call to a lawyer, he agrees to let them search the Jeep, which is in the parking lot since he drove it to the station. So they go outside to do this search right in front of him. And it takes a minute because this thing is a hot mess like text literally have to clean it out just to get to the seats. And as investigator Van Amy later told ABC News, he's thinking there's no way they're gonna actually find anything. But when they look under the front passenger seat, there it is. Exactly where the letter said it would be. This small glass bottle of colchocene. To say that everyone is stunned is an understatement. Not only is the colchocene there, but right by it is the receipt dating back to January of that year. Chock full of helpful details like the email address used to buy it. Mr. Adam Yoder 1990 at gmail.com. And the address that it was shipped to, the Yoder's chiropractic office. Now when they find this, Adam seems just as floored as everyone else. And he swears that he's never ordered colchocene. And that email address isn't even his. Although it is similar to others that he's used. He also points out that he wasn't even around when his mom got sick. He'd been in Long Island visiting his sister, Leanna starting on July 15. And he didn't get home until he got the call that Mary was in the hospital. Toll records ultimately later back that up. But if the letters write and he drugged her vitamins around Father's Day, like, does that alibi even count or matter? Maybe not. But Adam is insistent that this had to have been planted to frame him. And honestly, there is something about how this all unfolded that kind of makes investigators agree. Really? I know, like who doesn't love an easy solve, right? Like many detectives might have taken this evidence handed to them on a silver platter. I ran with it. Called it a day. But to Vanneumy and Nelson. It's all just a little too perfect. Like someone just offering Adam up. The thing is, if Adam is being framed, it's probably by whoever actually killed Mary. So why now? Was this a diversion? Were they getting too close? I mean, at this point, the only person they've been looking at was Bill, and while his behavior has been suspicious at times, if he's behind this, it means that he poisoned his wife and then had no problem setting up his own son to take the fall for it. Which would be diabolical? To say the least, but not impossible. And investigators decide that what they need to do is they need to talk to someone who knows this family well. Someone who might be able to shed light on the family dynamics and clue them in on Adam's activities. So they decide to go to 22-year-old Caitlin Conley. Now, Katie is the office manager at the Yoder's practice, and she has been working there for nearly three and a half years. But she is also Adam's ex-girlfriend. They started dating back in 2011, on-again, off-again, like things had been off before Mary's death. Maybe it seems like they reconnected briefly in the wake of the tragedy, but either way, Mary had a door at Katie, and the feelings seemed to be mutual. I mean, Katie was at the hospital the day that Mary died. She helped plan the memorial. She was even mentioned in Mary's obituary. So, Katie comes to the station in mid-December. And this is really their first time interacting with her. Their impression of her is, you know, she's the soft-spoken young woman who seems eager to help. And before they jump right into the tough family questions, they just ask her about Mary's normal routines, and her last day at the office, what stood out? What do you remember? And Katie had already gone over a lot of this with the Yodors, both Leanna and Bill had asked her about it. So, it's fresh in her mind. It had just been her and Mary in the office that day, a totally average Monday. Mary arrived at 8am, worked the normal morning she was seeing patients. Then, she left at like 12.30 to have lunch with her mom, but it turns out her mom had already eaten. So, Mary came back about an hour later, mixed a protein shake and then took some vitamins. That was her typical routine. She kept supplements at the office and at her house. Now, on July 20th, she'd brought the vitamins with her, and she made her shake using almond milk from the office fridge, which already had been tested and came back clean. But Katie can't remember whether the protein powder for like her shake or whatever, if that came from the office stash or not. So next, investigators asked her about culture scene and she said she's She's never even heard of it, but she knows that Mary was killed by some kind of toxin. I mean, she was actually with Adam when he was collecting a bunch of supplements and stuff from the office to be tested by poison control. I guess initially he had asked her for the key so he could just go on his own and get the stuff, but she didn't want to give it to him, so she went along. "But the whole thing was strange," she said, like, he was acting frantic, just like grabbing everything he could find. And before they left, she says that he told her, "If anyone got in trouble for this, it would be her." "Is that a threat?" "I don't know what that was," but Katie tells police she is suspicious of Adam. She says that he can be controlling and at times violent, and that's when she tells them something that maybe they should have already known but might have missed. He actually filed a police report against him in 2014 for sexual assault, though she didn't end up pursuing charges. And on top of that, she remembers that back in February, this package came to the Yoder's office. It was addressed to Adam, which was odd because while Adam used to work there, he hadn't in years. So she says she left it on her desk or like near the front counter and she assumes that he eventually picked it up. "What about his relationship with Mary? Like does Katie have any idea of why he would want to kill his own mother?" She says she doesn't know why anyone would want to kill Mary. But others had described their relationship as complicated Mary and Adam's. There was no question that Mary loved him, but Janine told Crime Watch Daily that she had also enabled him, although she was starting to take a firmer stand. And I guess they had gotten into an argument on Mother's Day, which led to Adam telling her that he didn't want to see her and Bill too much anymore. And even though it seems like they had made up, he had lashed out at her via text just the week before she died because he needed help with something and it sounds like he felt like she brushed him off. But here's the whole thing. I mean, they're hearing all of this, Nelson and Van Amy, but there's something bothering them. And it's not Adam and Mary's relationship. It's the way that Katie is talking. For suspicions, they're almost too similar to the anonymous letter. And so investigators begin to wonder if she was the one who wrote it. And if that's true, it means that they've had this thing all wrong. So they immediately start digging, who is Katie Conley and what have they been missing? It turns out a lot. But all that comes in part two of this story. Now, if you've got the crime junkie fan club app, you can listen to that right now and add free, or you can come back next Monday to find out what detectives learned and why justice has been so elusive. Here's some issues I still have. You gotta look at it from our point of view. We're looking at one of three people here, the husband, Adam, or you. You're going to have to help us if you're telling us you have nothing to do with this. You're going to have to help us rule you up. Just like we have Adam or Bill, writers is not responsible for this because right now there's a lot of things on an answer questions that we had, the Gmail account and then some other things. And Katie said those long points at the point today, you need to help us clear you. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkie.com. And you can follow us on Instagram @crimejunkiepodcast. We'll be back next week with part two of this story. [Music] The crime junkie is an audio check production. I think Chuck would approve.