Little Miss Innocent: Passion. Poison. Prison. (2024) s01e01 Episode Script

- 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
murdered my mother.
- I never thought
that anyone would ever call me
a killer or a murderer.
♪
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 murder
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: Rape allegations are
definitely very serious cases.
And Katie made an allegation
in this case
of a possible rape
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 rape 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 fucking--
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 killed 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 fucking believe it.
I got on the phone,
and I called
Bob Nelson from Oneida County.
And I said, "Bob, you're not
gonna fucking 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 killed 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 murder.
Now the question is,
who wrote the fucking 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 killed 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.