01x01 - Why Am I Here?

[bunniefuu]

- This is going

to be an attempt

to remember the African dance

from yesterday.

Well, some of the steps because

I don't remember it all.

Bop.

[humming]

- The day Mary died,

the world lost someone truly,

truly good and wonderful.

Now the whole world is a little

darker without Mare here.

[tense music]

- I thought that the world was

a good place,

that good things were gonna

happen to me.

- I hate the defendant

with every bone in my body

and every drop of blood

in my veins.

I hate Kaitlyn Anne Conley

because Kaitlyn Anne Conley

m*rder*d my mother.

- I never thought

that anyone would ever call me

a k*ller or a m*rder*r.

♪

ADAM: I introduced her

to my family.

I got her a job

with my parents.

[sobbing]

And if I hadn't done

those things,

my mother would still be alive.

KAITLYN: For this to happen,

I can't quite wrap

my mind around it.

It's hard.

[sniffles]

Sorry.

With all due respect

to the justice system,

I'm innocent.

I want to know, why am I here?

And what broke?

Why didn't they get

the right person?

I want to know that.

[dramatic music]

♪

[somber guitar music]

♪

REPORTER: Today, another

beautiful, warm, humid day,

I would assume at some point.

64 right now

to kick off our Wednesday

here in Central New York.

- Pretty white girl

standing trial for a m*rder

that she may have

or may not have done?

It's a great story.

PERSON:

People feel sorry for her.

But in reality,

my personal take on it,

I think she's guilty.

- I've known the Conleys

for 34 years.

Yeah.

Great people.

- She's trying

to play the victim like,

"I was a 'doe-eyed,'" you know,

and I don't think that's true.

Well, I'm not buying this

Little Miss Innocent game.

♪

- Kaitlyn Conley

was guilty as sin.

I am willing to side

with the juries.

- It's a crime

of pure darkness.

It is a diabolical crime.

- Yeah, so it wasn't

just a quick death, was it?

- Just because it's Sauquoit

doesn't mean

that bad things can't happen

in this small town.

[indistinct chatter]

- I'm good.

I'm good.

I'm ready.

[laughs]

What, unburden my soul?

[laughs]

I don't know. I'm good.

I sleep fine at night,

besides being in prison.

I was sentenced to 23 years.

[soft dramatic music]

♪

I met Mary

through her son, Adam.

I had dated him

for a couple years.

They needed a receptionist

at their chiropractic office.

They knew I was responsible,

so they hired me for that.

Mary was very sunny,

very beautiful.

Everyone loved her.

I think she saw me as,

like, a daughter figure,

and that was nice.

We definitely got along well.

I was much closer with Mary

because there was always

something about Bill

that I didn't feel

comfortable with.

Bill was much more aloof,

and some people found him

to be off-putting.

Mary was so outgoing

and effusive and welcoming,

and people really

gravitated to that.

TAMARYN:

Everybody loved my mom.

She just--

she just was happiness,

happiness and love and light,

just

- My parents were

very much in love, still.

They had gone through

chiropractic college together,

and they started

their business together.

[tense music]

♪

KAITLYN: It was a normal day

at the office.

I got there first.

Mary got there

a little bit after 8:00.

Everything was normal.

It was a normal busy day

until the end of the day

when she started getting sick.

She was running

to the bathroom.

And when it came time

to close the office,

she just left very suddenly.

[dramatic music]

♪

- I received a text

from my father

on a Tuesday morning,

and he said that my mom

had been throwing up

and had some vomiting

and diarrhea.

They thought

that it just seemed to be

some kind of viral

gastrointestinal illness.

♪

KAITLYN: I didn't know

how sick she really was

until I got a text from Adam

that she was at the hospital.

We'd been broken up

for about ten months,

but Adam had asked me to come

to the hospital, so I did.

And the family was there.

And that's when I started

to understand

how serious the situation was

because she was in ICU.

♪

- [sighs] Went in and saw her,

and it was--

she was--her eyes

just looked terrified.

She had a trach tube in,

and she was trying to mouth

around it,

but she couldn't really talk.

Her heart kept stopping.

- At that time, it really did

seem like a mystery.

No one really knew

what was happening or why.

- In less than 48 hours,

my mom went

from her typical,

happy, healthy self,

seeing patients in an office,

to having died.

- I couldn't wrap

my head around it.

I couldn't understand how

she could possibly have died,

and they didn't know

how or why.

And I wanted answers.

At the end of the day,

when we were standing

outside the hospital doors

in the parking lot,

I remember giving

Katie and Adam a hug

and telling Katie,

"Take care of him,"

thinking that he was gonna need

that emotional support

from her.

And then--

[sighs]

Of course--

oh, it makes me sick

to think of it now.

KAITLYN:

I miss Mary.

And I really hate

that this situation

has kind of colored

my relationship with her,

because I feel like

I can't really miss her

because I'm fighting

for my own life.

So sometimes I look

at all the cards on the table,

and I say, "Oh, my God,

it must have been Bill."

And then I look

at other things,

and I say, "No, no, no.

Adam must have been

involved too."

But I know it wasn't me.

So if it wasn't me, who was it?

[gentle music]

♪

[laughter and chatter]

KAITLYN: I grew up

with my three younger sisters.

We were always together.

We were thick as thieves.

[laughter and chatter]

We were always playing games,

you know, chasing the horses

and chickens.

It was a great way to grow up.

♪

Katie is our oldest.

DIRECTOR:

Is Katie a mommy's girl

or a daddy's girl?

- Daddy's girl.

- She's daddy's girl.

[both laugh]

She's daddy's girl.

She was shy, and she was

very quiet and helpful.

There is no way

that she could have changed

and been a Jekyll and Hyde.

[somber music]

KAITLYN: I really thought

that in my 20s,

I was going to work

really, really hard,

find a partner,

buy a house, have a career.

I met Adam for the first time

at my high school

graduation party.

One of my friends

brought him to my party.

- And we later found out

that that was Adam Yoder.

He was not invited.

We didn't know him before.

Katie hadn't met him before.

And that was the first time

that we even knew

that he existed.

[tense music]

KAITLYN:

Obviously, I liked him.

I thought he was

quirky and fun.

And it wasn't bad

at the beginning.

- This was really her first

adult relationship.

And, um, it--

it seemed really great.

He'd show up

with presents and flowers,

and they'd go on dates,

sometimes even let us

little kid sisters tag along.

- I mean, I think

all of the family

kind of treated Katie

as if she was more or less

Adam's fiancée.

Like, we all expected

that she was going to be

part of the family.

But Adam was very private.

We didn't know

about the turmoil

going on in the relationship.

Adam was pretty intense.

He was always telling me

how in love he was,

how I was the best thing

that ever happened to him.

And he would write

these very long love letters.

And even at the time,

I felt like,

"Oh, this is nice."

But it still made me

uncomfortable

because I'm like,

one, you just met me.

You don't know how great I am.

But he wouldn't stop.

♪

SIOBHAN: There were ones

that were saying,

"I love you, I love you,

I love you,"

written down 50-plus times

on a sheet of paper,

him pleading to her

about his love for her,

saying that,

"you need me in your life."

So very just controlling.

It wasn't your typical,

you know, "I love you" note.

It was very--

like, a dark twist to it.

- I would say

that the first year

of my relationship with Adam

was pretty good.

And then

he started

I'm sorry. Um

Then there was

a noticeable shift in him,

and I didn't quite

understand it.

- They both would work

at Adam's parents' office

as office managers.

And a lot of that

responsibility

ended up then falling on Katie

just because of how unreliable

Adam was.

- Um, I think she did

shelter me from a lot

of what was happening

at that time.

You know, emotions were high

at different times

for both Adam and Katie.

- They would break up

and then get back together

and break up

and get back together.

LIANA: The relationship had

its ups and downs.

Then my brother found out

about the cheating allegations.

He found out through messages

that she had been sending

that she had slept with

a very close friend of his.

I didn't cheat on Adam.

Adam got very paranoid.

He made me feel like

he was dangerous.

[foreboding music]

♪

And then he started drinking

to the point of blackout drunk.

TAMARYN:

He was just as toxic as Katie

as far as not being

a healthy relationship

for either of them.

Adam drank a lot.

He clearly had anger issues

when he was drinking,

if he wasn't blacked out,

if he was even able

to still stand and speak.

Let me say something.

As a father, I wish--

I wish I expressed

my feelings, right--

the first dinner I had

with him across the table,

there was something wrong.

KAITLYN: After the first year,

whenever I started

pulling back,

he would get really nasty.

He would get physically violent

if I was there.

He would stop me from leaving

if I tried to leave.

He would call me

over and over

and over and over again

to the point where I would

turn off my phone

because I just needed a break.

I was scared of him,

but I still felt like it was

something that I could handle.

And then something happens

that--it did,

it changed everything.

Sorry.

[tense music]

♪

[line trills]

[exhales]

- It changed the way

I see the world.

MARK: r*pe allegations are

definitely very serious cases.

And Katie made an allegation

in this case

of a possible r*pe

that was committed

that was looked into.

In fact, the investigator

had Katie make

a controlled phone call

to Adam.

I really felt

that Adam was going

to do this again

to someone else.

And if he did, when he did,

that that was going to be

on me.

- In the controlled phone call,

he told her, "No, Katie.

"I don't know that I did that.

"You're saying I did that,

but I don't

know if I can believe you."

- When that phone call

was over,

Katie decided

she no longer wanted

to pursue the r*pe allegation.

She signed off on the case.

- I didn't understand

what victim shaming was

until I got there.

And they did nothing.

[ominous music]

♪

VIN: Katie came down

and said that

she was really afraid

for her life.

My wife was nervous

to be in the house.

Katie was living in the house.

I called up

the sheriff's department.

They refused to give me

an order of protection.

That's when I started realizing

this is more serious situation.

KAITLYN: Even though

I had broken up with Adam,

he was still a part of my life.

He still lived about

a half a mile from my house.

I had the same friend circle.

I still worked

at his parents' office.

At that time, Adam had

a very strained relationship

not only with his mother

but with his whole family.

KAITLYN: I think Mary was

very close to Adam.

She was his mother,

so of course,

she loves her son,

even if she knows

that things aren't quite right.

♪

- Before Mary's death, a lot of

the stories that I would hear,

Adam would be

very hot and cold towards Mary.

Just rude

and demeaning at times.

- Adam had a relationship

with his mother

that was complicated,

I would say.

And it was emotional at times.

He would get upset

with his mother.

His mother would get upset

with him.

- Adam and his mom did have

an argument on Mother's Day.

- Adam had gone over

on Mother's Day.

They had kind of observed

the holiday.

And then he got

into an argument with her.

And, you know, they had

exchanged some text messages

that were, you know, testy.

They were arguing.

You know, it'll always be

that last Mother's Day

for Adam Yoder

because that's really

the last time

he ever spent any quality time

with her.

KAITLYN: And sure enough,

a few months later,

Mary died.

[somber music]

M. WILLIAM:

This case here, I spent

probably a year and a half

on it,

interviewing, I don't know,

50-plus people,

going through thousands

of pages of documents,

thousands and thousands.

I mean,

this is a mystery, right?

How did she die?

KAITLYN: It was shocking

when Mary died

because she was so healthy.

So for her

to literally be here one day

and gone the next

without any kind of warning,

it was Earth-shattering.

It really was.

[somber music]

♪

- My father was

barely functioning to breathe

and just get through the day.

He just was, like, a shell

that was, I guess, on autopilot

just to be--survive.

- I was grateful to Katie

that she was there to help us.

Our family was in shock.

Katie put up a posting

on Facebook honoring my mom.

And at the time, it was

a very kind, long message.

She was gone.

There was no explanation

for what happened to her.

And I wanted answers.

[tense music]

♪

M. WILLIAM: So they begin

to do this autopsy on Mary.

And Dr. Clark,

the pathologist, opens her up.

And what he notices right away

is the color of her organs.

- We opened her up,

and I was shocked.

I mean, her organs,

the discoloration of her organs

looked like someone

who had been decomposing.

There was areas of green

and purple and brown and red.

That was very abnormal.

This cell death

that's going on,

that's just screaming, toxin!

Toxin! Toxin!

It's just screaming at me

like this.

Normally, we start testing

for illicit drugs,

heavy metals, arsenic, lead.

There was nothing there.

- At that point,

we're just waiting for answers,

waiting for anything.

- So now Dr. Clark

decides to go

to the Poison Control Center.

What they have is

a big, huge database.

And it starts to look

for similar symptoms,

findings of the pathologist,

and it puts things together.

- When the tests came back,

I see colchicine--

not just toxic,

at a lethal level.

I thought, holy f*cking--

are you kidding me?

Colchicine?

What the hell is colchicine?

Colchicine.

I said, what?

The medication for gout,

colchicine.

She didn't take colchicine.

She doesn't have gout.

TAMARYN: I just remember

at that point thinking,

maybe the supplements

that she takes,

was there

a possible contamination

from the factory?

Or did somebody

intentionally do this to her,

and why?

LIANA: I asked Katie,

"Can you remember anything

"that she might have had?

Did a patient bring in

something from home?"

And Katie said, "No.

"Your mom came back

to the office,

"and she just had a shake.

That was it."

M. WILLIAM: So they're all

kind of thinking,

where did it come from?

And to get it is not easy.

You have to order it

from a company

who keeps it

under tight lock and key.

And moreover,

you have to be a doctor.

Bill Yoder is a doctor.

- When it came back that

it was colchicine poisoning,

it was very, very weird to me

that Bill didn't contact

the police.

♪

- Sauquoit, New York,

is generally a safe town,

quiet rural town.

In October, I was at my desk

when I received a phone call

asking us to look

into the death of Mary Yoder.

That phone call was made

by Sharon Mills,

who would be

Mary Yoder's sister.

She described

her sister's death

as colchicine poisoning.

We'd never heard

of colchicine before.

I actually asked her

to spell it for me.

Mary's sister was

looking for answers,

looking for what went wrong.

ROBERT: In the early part

of the investigation,

we were looking

at who had contact with Mary.

We knew it had to be

somebody close to her,

at least that would

have access.

So, again,

we're looking at Bill.

In a lot of poisoning cases,

the spouse is responsible.

So we always look

at the spouse.

- I heard

about Mary Yoder's death

by a phone call

that Bill made to the salon

the day after she died

and that we were to cancel all

of her future appointments.

I just inquired as to what

could have possibly happened.

I said,

was it a tragic accident?

And he did say to me

on the phone

that she had gone

into the hospital,

and things didn't go so well.

The answer that he gave me

just didn't sit well with me,

unless it was

extreme malpractice.

I walked over to my client

at the time, and I said,

"I think he k*lled his wife."

I said, "I hope I'm wrong,

but I don't think I am."

[light music]

PERSON: Sauquoit is

a very small town.

Everybody knows everybody.

And, you know,

you will get an opinion

on everybody as well.

I got the ears covered.

That keeps out some opinions

but not all of them.

- My garden club

is very divided.

We do not talk about this case.

The Sauquoit Valley Garden Club

is very divided.

- I feel like everyone forms

their own opinions

based off of who they know

and, like, maybe who they're

closer in age with.

Maybe the older people

have more sympathy

for the chiropractor,

and the younger people think

she's innocent.

- I think everybody judges

based on who you are,

who you look like.

People see me,

and they might think

I'm a totally,

completely innocent guy.

But who knows what I do

behind closed doors?

[tense music]

♪

- How would Mary get this

into her system?

They don't rule it a homicide.

They don't know

it was accidental.

Was it suicide?

They don't know how this gets

into Mary's system.

So we had a lot of questions.

So Investigator Mark Van Namee

set up an appointment

to bring Katie Conley

into the sheriff's office

to get some information

as to what's going on

between Bill and Mary.

I thought it was a good thing

that the police were

investigating.

I felt a responsibility

to Mary and to her family.

I was going to help

in whatever way that I could

because we wanted to know

what happened to her.

MARK: Katie was

a typical college kid,

worried about, you know, finals

for the end of the semester,

very well spoken,

very well dressed, very polite.

KAITLYN: They were asking me

how the office was run,

how the day was

when Mary got sick,

how Bill acted.

I didn't really understand

that it was tipping

towards a homicide

investigation.

And when they were asking,

"Well, is it Bill?

Is it Adam?"

I didn't know what that meant.

MARK: She was

very forthcoming, credible.

The best description we had

of Mary's day was from Kaitlyn.

- Well, Mary had her routine

for her supplements

that she would take,

and she was into these

health shakes and other things.

She'd bring stuff

to the office

and take it there.

So who would've had access

to it?

We knew Bill did.

Could have Adam went over

to the house, to the business?

Is it possible? Yes.

KAITLYN: Adam contacted me.

We had been broken up

for over a year,

but he wanted me to give him

the key to the office

so that he could go and get

some of the nutritional

supplements

so that the ME could test them

and see if there was any kind

of cross-contamination.

And I didn't feel comfortable

giving him my key,

so I went with him.

He started just going

wholesale through the office.

He was grabbing

supplements, vitamins.

I just stood back,

and I watched him

because I didn't really know

what was happening.

- Adam said that if anyone

was going to get in trouble

for this, it was going to be me

and that he was going

to watch me burn.

And I really thought

he was talking

about the patient files.

And now I don't think that.

[ominous music]

♪

I think Adam knows

more than I do.

♪

- We just got the test results

back from Albany.

All the supplements

are negative.

I'm sitting in my office,

and the secretary walks in

and says, "Dr. Clark,

I have a letter for you."

I opened the letter,

not thinking anything of it,

and I proceed to read.

And the letter starts

by saying, "Dear Dr. Clark,

"I understand

you're investigating

"the death of Mary Yoder.

"If you discover colchicine

in her blood,

"I know who did it, and I know

where you can find

the empty bottle."

I couldn't f*cking believe it.

I got on the phone,

and I called

Bob Nelson from Oneida County.

And I said, "Bob, you're not

gonna f*cking believe this."

ROBERT: So at that point,

I go out to my mailbox.

I receive a letter.

I go into my office.

I open the letter up.

And it's the same letter

basically

that the medical examiner's

office got

stating Adam k*lled his mother,

and the colchicine is

in his vehicle.

News of this letter came in.

We didn't know what to think.

It was just--it was just crazy.

- Everything changed when we

got this letter in the mail.

At this point, I say, OK,

now we're looking

at a homicide.

- After I open the letter,

it's a wrap.

It's a m*rder.

Now the question is,

who wrote the f*cking letter?

[ominous music]

♪

After my mom passed,

my brother was drinking

very heavily.

But it was something

that we expected

based on the severity

and how depressed he was.

It seemed like

his coping mechanism.

- But Adam really thought

that after his mother died

that I'd be

his girlfriend again.

And he was genuinely surprised

and shocked

when I said no.

And that didn't

make Adam happy.

♪

- Vin and I did not realize

that Adam would

drive by our house

and park outside of the house

at all hours

of the day and night.

- So I started getting

very nervous

because Adam knew where I was.

He knew

if I was at a restaurant.

He knew if I was

at a friend's house.

I didn't know

what he was gonna do.

I didn't know

what he could do.

I was scared enough

that I started carrying

a pocket knife with me

just in case.

ROBERT:

Once we received the letter,

we had to come up with a plan

as to how we're going

to approach Adam,

whether it be

we pull him over,

and we try to search

his car that way,

whether he's at school,

and we go get a search warrant.

MARK:

And the plan was hashed out.

We would call him

out of the blue.

And the decision was

definitely a gamble.

- Adam comes up

to the sheriff's office.

Investigator Mark Van Namee

takes him

into an interview room.

He just starts talking to Adam.

Again, Adam has no idea

what we're looking at.

Adam is very intelligent,

a very smart kid.

Dropped out of college

a couple times.

He went back to college.

He also seemed to have

some troubles in his life.

Investigator Van Namee

tells him,

"We received a letter,

and here's what it states,"

that he k*lled his mother

and that the colchicine

is in his vehicle.

And this was just

kind of thrown at him.

And he's like--

he didn't know what to do.

MARK: Once he agreed

to let us search his Jeep,

we go out with him

to where his car's parked.

ROBERT:

It's an older Jeep Wrangler.

There is garbage and everything

all over in there.

I mean, it's just piled

with stuff in there.

MARK:

I wanted Adam to be there

when we were searching

his car.

I wanted to see his reaction.

So he's standing there

smoking a cigarette.

ROBERT:

The forensic investigators

get a garbage bag

and start taking trash,

basically is what it is,

out of the vehicle

so we could get to look

underneath the seat

of the vehicle.

- In my mind, I'm like,

there's no way

we're gonna to find anything

in this car.

ROBERT: They look

underneath the seat.

And right where it said it was

in the letter,

there was a package.