Little Miss Innocent: Passion. Poison. Prison. (2024) s01e03 Episode Script
They Took Me Down
[tense music]
KAITLYN: I had just
graduated in May.
And I was thinking, what job
should I start looking for?
Where should I start
looking for work?
Should I start thinking
about graduate school?
And I was ready
to make these plans.
But I also knew that
the police wanted
to come after me for murder.
LAURIE: The grand jury
indicted Kaitlyn Conley
on a charge of murder
in the second degree.
It was--you know,
it's a very serious charge.
You can't get much more
serious than murder
in the second degree.
- My attorney, Chris,
called me on June 13th
and said that
you have 30 minutes
to get to the police station.
- The first time I think
the two of us realized,
wow, uh, this is
a murder indictment.
This is real.
- So it was a time
for confession.
I said, Katie,
what's going on?
Did you kill Mary Yoder?
Quiet.
Too quiet.
And she says, Mom, Dad,
you know me.
All I want--
a little house, a husband.
CATHY:
Get married and children.
- Get married
and one or two kids.
So why would I jeopardize that
when that's all I want?
KAITLYN:
I was targeted.
And I was a scapegoat
in all this.
And they took me down.
[dramatic music]
♪
[grim music]
♪
- After I was indicted,
I was out on bail.
And then they put me
under house arrest.
So I couldn't leave my house.
They so strongly and firmly
believed that I'm guilty.
And I'd like to know
why they think that.
MARK: We were convinced that
we had the right person.
But you still have to put
the physical evidence
to that person.
So the colchicine bottle
became the most vital piece
of information
we had at the time.
It became clear
that that colchicine
was ordered out of California.
- I randomly
receive a phone call
from a detective from Utica.
I started thinking like,
you know, what happened?
What's going on?
What did I do wrong?
He wanted to ask me
a few questions
about a product that I sold.
They told me
that the colchicine
was being investigated
in a murder case.
I'm like, WTF?
Like, what's going on here?
- There was leads
out there that we believed
we could dig deeper into
by traveling to California.
So myself
and another investigator
made the trip out there
to speak with Rosa Vargas.
- I told the detective
about the email listed
on the order that was placed,
which is
- When we sat with Rosa
and started going over
the emails back
and forth of this,
I couldn't believe, you know,
what she was telling me.
ROSA: I tried reaching
Adam Yoder,
but the person I spoke to,
uh, that answered the call, uh,
she seemed to be a young female
with a very soft voice.
- I knew 110% who the girl was
that Rosa was referring to--
a soft-spoken female voice
at the other end of the line.
It was Katie Conley.
ROSA: She was really polite,
was really nice.
She knew exactly what
I was referring to.
I can't explain it in details,
but it's the sense
that you get that she was
a bit nervous
and trying
to end the call fast.
- I have never spoken
to Rosa Vargas.
And I would bet the key
to the front gate
that Rosa Vargas never
called the office.
They never got phone records
for the office
where allegedly she called.
So you could have
verified this.
We could have known for sure.
But they didn't.
TONY:
The important thing about
the Mr. Adam Yoder
Gmail account is,
one of the times
when information was sent
to a chemical company,
it was logged into from
Kaitlyn Conley's residence
and from
Kaitlyn Conley's iPhone.
- Digital forensics,
they don't lie.
So here is someone
in Katie's house--
Katie--ordering colchicine.
She did it.
♪
- Maybe yes,
I was in the wrong place
at the wrong times.
But I didn't do
anything wrong.
- Pretty sure I'm not lying
about this stuff.
[chuckles]
[grim music]
LAURIE: During the months
before the trial,
we just wanted
to focus on the case
and focus on getting
the evidence in there
and hope that it was enough
to get a conviction.
- I mean, we talked
to past boyfriends,
people who knew her
from school.
I mean, there was just--
we started to learn
there's another side
to Kaitlyn Conley.
MARK:
Okay, thank you.
- No, I didn't really
date other people.
I wasn't big
on the dating scene.
No. No.
I--even my other relationships,
I didn't have dramatic
or contentious breakups.
You know, I'm a pretty relaxed
kind of person, I think.
TAMARYN:
When Katie was indicted,
at first, me and my sister were
just kind of in disbelief.
Like, how could Katie
have done this?
Katie, really?
Like, this is crazy.
And--and then Adam
was just kind of like,
well, you guys don't really
know the real Katie.
LIANA:
We found out that Katie had
filed a police report a year
prior to my mom passing.
Now, at the time, technically,
they apparently were broken up,
but in that contained an
allegation
that my brother
had sexually assaulted her.
This was a surprise
to all of us.
That's when we were also
told that my brother
had received a phone call
that she made
from the police station.
- When that phone call
was over,
Katie had indicated that
she didn't want
any criminal action taken.
TONY: The sheriff's
office asked
if anything on
any of the devices
supported this allegation.
Kaitlyn Conley provides
to the sheriff's office
printed pictures of injuries
that she sustained
during this attack.
I was able to find those
pictures on her cell phone.
The problem is they were taken,
in some cases,
years prior to the date
of the alleged sexual assault.
And they appear to be taken
in relationship to an accident
she had while horseback riding.
LAURIE:
I do not believe--
and there is not one
shred of evidence
other than her word, which,
to me, is worth nothing--
that he sexually--
ever sexually assaulted her.
And it was just insane to us.
Like, you're trying to, like,
make up this rape allegation,
get him arrested, but you
went out in the parking lot
and immediately asked him
to get together.
She was the one
that continuously
reached out to him,
texted him.
She clearly had him fooled
and manipulated
and so many crazy red flags
that he didn't know.
Of course.
Young--young and in love.
M. WILLIAM: Months before
Mary's murder, they break up.
Adam's completely
done with her.
And she understands it
this time.
He makes it very clear to her.
LIANA:
We've all had breakups.
You break up
with your boyfriend,
you cry, you go out,
you talk to your friends.
How could their
young relationship
have turned into something
so incredibly ugly
where she then
went after my mom?
Was my mom just
collateral damage?
Was there not even
a point to it
other than,
let me try to get at Adam?
LOCAL: It was a big
news story around here.
A lot of people--
a lot of people talk.
[laughs]
- A lot of people say innocent,
but a lot of people say guilty.
It's kind of 50/50.
But I believe that police
have done a fantastic job.
I think--I think she's guilty.
I'm still in disbelief.
I don't wanna believe it,
you know.
Hopefully they
prove her innocence.
- Guilty or not guilty,
anything can happen
because you never know what a--
you never know what a jury
is gonna see or not see.
[suspenseful music]
REPORTER:
The trial of a receptionist
who is charged
with poisoning her boss.
And lo and behold,
she was in a relationship
with that boss's son, Adam.
Prosecutors also say
that she was framing Adam
for the murder of his mom.
Are you with me?
Because there's a lot.
- I wanted a stand
for our family.
I wanted Katie
to see us all there.
And we were gonna
hopefully get justice.
KAITLYN:
I wasn't too worried.
I was like, okay,
it's finally here.
It's happening.
Now we can resolve it.
♪
- I found out there was
gonna be a murder trial
right before I found out that I
had gotten pulled for the jury.
And I think that's when
I started to panic.
Like, oh, my God, how am I
gonna get through this?
But I knew it was my duty,
and I just have
to figure it out,
and I'll get through it.
There was one juror that, uh,
kind of stood out
from the very beginning.
He made himself known
when they were picking jurors.
- I had never been a juror,
mostly because
I was in the military so long,
and I wasn't around.
I told them I could convict
my daughter if she was guilty.
And at that point,
the prosecutor wanted me.
- The defense strategy
was to point the finger
at Bill Yoder because Bill
Yoder was now in a relationship
with his dead wife's sister.
- You will find motive
through the testimony
on the part of William Yoder.
Do you remember the first time
that you had sexual relations
with Kathy Richmond?
- I don't remember
the date, no.
I wasn't keeping a journal.
- Everything that
the investigation can show
supports that as being true.
And some of it could be proven
through the communications
between the two.
ROBERT: There was a text
message after Mary's death
where Bill was
going to see Kathy.
He had to text her and find out
how to get to her house.
So wait a minute, you're
telling me he had an affair
and was going to her house
and having an affair,
but the guy's gotta text her
and find out
how to get to her residence.
This affair didn't start
before Mary's death.
LIANA: They looked into
everything surrounding him.
He was not involved.
He was not involved
in any aspect of it.
- It was, oh, gosh,
very, very hard
because I never get over
the guilt of wondering
if he had done it.
Just--I can't even
put it into words.
- My dad was going through
the emotional hell
of having his character
attacked and assassinated
the entire time.
LIANA: My mom
had a happy marriage,
but the life she lived
got taken away from her
by lie after lie.
It got taken away
in the courtroom.
It got taken away
on social media.
It got taken away
in the years of people
ripping apart her life.
[tense music]
TAMMY: It was a lot that
you had to think about.
You had to pay attention.
I did notice, uh, Katie's dad
always looking over.
I felt like he was looking
at me all the time.
And I couldn't understand,
why wasn't he looking
at the rest of the jurors?
But then it dawned on me
that this Pat guy was
sitting right in front of me.
So he was looking
at Pat all the time.
I didn't quite understand
why that was going on.
- We believed
the colchicine bottle
contained the murder weapon,
obviously.
So the colchicine bottle
was tested for DNA.
- Her DNA is on
the colchicine bottle.
Why?
- I felt bad, but it was like,
she did it.
All the evidence
pointed towards her.
There was nothing else
brought in,
no one else that it really fit.
Um, I--I just knew she did it.
M. WILLIAM: The trial closes,
and now it's
in the jury's hands.
Now we have deliberations.
LAURIE: She wrote
that anonymous letter.
She purchased the colchicine.
Her DNA was on the bottle.
Her DNA was on the envelope.
And we had connected her phone
to the Gmail account.
So I felt pretty good
about the case.
LIANA:
And then we get the call.
They have a decision.
It was a day that we had been
waiting for and hopeful for.
REPORTER: Eager eyes watched
as the jury of 12
spent several hours
deliberating the fate
of the 24-year-old
Sauquoit woman
accused of poisoning
Whitesboro chiropractor
Mary Yoder to death
back in 2015.
[suspenseful music]
But what happens?
M. WILLIAM: It comes back
10 to 2, not guilty.
A hung jury.
Katie gets to walk.
REPORTER: The murder trial of
the 24-year-old Sauquoit woman
accused of poisoning
her boss to death
has been declared a mistrial.
- It's not the verdict
that we wanted
because we wanted a total
exoneration for our daughter.
We know she's
completely innocent.
And the whole family
feels that way.
- We love you.
- Yes.
[laughter]
And a mother knows.
And a mother knows her child.
- We were two people away
from an outright acquittal,
which would have
finished the process.
It did.
It felt like a weight
off my shoulders.
I said, okay,
people believe me.
[suspenseful music]
TAMARYN:
I think we just went numb
because it was the only way
to, um
kind of stand up
and walk out of there
was to just to be numb.
ROBERT: Well, absolutely,
I was upset.
I mean, here you
spend all this time,
and now they come back
as a hung jury
after you spent, you know,
how many hours of your life
on this case?
And what are they
listening to here?
What--what happened here?
- There was no evidence to
prove what the prosecution
said they thought happened.
This was just a theory.
And it started out when
we went in, it was 50/50.
Within an hour of us talking,
it was ten people innocent,
two people guilty.
TAMMY: Pat was doing
a really good job.
He had all, like,
the smokers on his team.
He seemed to know what
he was thinking and doing.
So they're like, yeah, sure,
let's--let's go along with Pat.
Yep.
- One of the jurors said,
someone's gotta pay,
might as well be her.
And I literally
lost it over that.
I ripped the shades right down
in the room yelling
because I didn't
wanna be violent.
But it was someone's life,
someone's life on the line.
- I was really surprised
that this Pat person
had gone up and shaken the hand
of Kaitlyn Conley's father.
He shook his hand right
outside the courtroom hall.
So that was very surprising.
- I rented at
their trailer park.
Yeah, I did.
I rented from--
I rented from Vin Conley.
But I said, Vin,
if I thought she was guilty,
I would have voted guilty.
But I don't--in my heart,
I don't think she did it.
LAURIE: I thought maybe
for some of the jurors,
that they might just see this
pretty 21-year-old girl
sitting there demurely,
looking like she was, you know,
just this sweet young girl.
And they might not
wanna convict her.
There's nothing I can do
to get over that.
The defendant is
who the defendant is,
and it's not gonna change.
TAMARYN:
To face that we were going
to have to do it again was--
it just seemed, um,
like, pretty impossible
at that point.
But we all--we wanted justice,
so it was, okay, well,
we're gonna do it again because
she needs to pay
for what she did.
- The prosecution said
that they were going
to try me again in six months.
I was still
under house arrest.
I'm like, we have to
do this all over again?
We just did it.
You couldn't
convince your jury.
You couldn't
convince ten people.
Why do we have to do it again?
- In a lot of murder cases
I've handled,
the decision to kill
is made like that.
Premeditation is
all over this case.
Advanced planning--
cold, calculated planning.
We can't just let her
walk out the door.
In the second trial,
we realized that
we had to change things up
in terms of our strategy
to digitally prove
what had happened
and why all of those
digital roads
led directly back
to Kaitlyn Conley.
- Now, with the gift of time,
we can go back.
And the game changer comes
when I'm re-examining
Adam Yoder's laptop.
On that laptop were numerous
backups of cell phones.
And about the third file
we examined, we realized,
this is not Adam's phone.
This is Kaitlyn's phone.
MICHAEL:
So this backup that Adam did
would be a snapshot of what
existed on the phone
about two months
after the killing,
but long before police
entered the case.
TONY:
I knew it instantly.
This is the holy grail.
So many notes
had been deleted by her
in the intervening months.
And the one that
jumps out first
is a note about the
mradamyoder1990 Gmail account.
It says, "Aisgay."
That could also be shorthand--
"Adamisgay."
Immediately, I'm looking
at it and saying,
that's the password.
And it was.
- If I'm a scorned woman
and Adam broke up with me,
and I'm gonna kill his mom,
am I gonna play a little game
with myself
and choose "Adamisgay"
as a password?
You bet your ass I am.
- I have never, ever in my life
used gay as a slur.
That doesn't fit in with me.
But do I believe that
that's his password?
Yes, I do.
Adam lived with a bunch of boys
who would use that as a slur,
um.
So yeah,
that sounds about right.
I believe that.
- Kaitlyn Conley deleted
6,000 images off her phone.
No one does that.
In the group of images
that were deleted
are dozens and dozens
of screenshots from websites
talking about poisons.
MICHAEL:
Throughout the fall of 2014,
she had looked at cyanide,
poison mushrooms, thallium,
and arrived ultimately
at colchicine
towards the end of December.
- First thing was like,
smack right in the face.
She takes Mary Yoder's
body weight
and then fills out the formula
for how much colchicine
would be necessary
to kill Mary Yoder.
I don't know.
That doesn't mean
anything to me.
I don't have a reason
to search lethal poisons.
I'm really--like, I don't
even put out, you know,
poison for the mice
in the barn.
I just--I can't. I can't.
That's not who I am.
- The research,
I think, brought things
to a different level
because it showed
a level of callousness,
of planning, of deviousness,
and, really, coldness.
But that is kind of typical
for the behavior
of Kaitlyn Conley.
This woman is a sociopath.
She has actually disconnected
the reality of her actions
and the possible consequences
of those from the moment.
- I wasn't too worried
about going to jail
for the rest of my life.
Because I was--
I was pretty present.
I was in the moment.
And I was just enjoying
the time with my family.
It felt like, okay, well,
let's--let's just keep going.
I've come this far.
I can keep going.
[tense music]
- I honestly did not know
how I mentally was,
or emotionally was, gonna
make it through a second trial.
REPORTER: 24-year-old
Kaitlyn Conley is now
starting with a fresh slate.
Conley's defense attorney,
Frank Policelli,
argues it's not Conley
who killed Yoder,
but rather her son,
Conley's ex-boyfriend
and the person he says
set Conley up
for the murder of his mother.
- The first trial,
they point a finger at Bill.
The second trial,
uh-oh, Adam did it now.
We're gonna use that tact.
- So they say, well, but
all these electronic devices
come back to Katie.
Yeah, right.
Ladies and gentlemen,
it was Adam.
It was Adam.
- With her interviews
with the police and her,
everything she said
was pointing towards Adam.
And the letter that she sent
was saying that Adam did it.
So I think, you know,
her new defense lawyer thought,
well, duh,
you told the police this.
We have to, like, try and point
the finger at Adam
to make that make sense, so.
Now another member
of the family
was under direct attack.
His character, everything was
being attacked and questioned
and dragged through the mud.
Good morning.
- The defense was able
to cross-examine Adam
and accuse him in open court
of raping Kaitlyn Conley.
M. WILLIAM: Let's talk about
this controlled call
that police make to Adam
for this alleged rape.
The only problem
with the controlled call is,
Adam doesn't admit it.
I was in shock.
I didn't know how to react.
And I was panicking.
And ultimately, I had drank
enough to black out that night,
so I couldn't defend myself.
I didn't have a version
of the story.
TONY: The defense revolved,
really,
around the relationship
with Adam.
But the prosecution turned
the arguments between them
from being a negative
to the prosecution
to becoming a positive
for the prosecution.
Showing this long-term discord
between Adam and Kaitlyn
really created motive.
- We presented the motive that
Katie had become
increasingly vengeful
towards Adam
over the weeks and months
leading up to Mary's death.
- The toxic relationship
between Katie and Adam,
Adam is done with it.
What does Katie do?
Well, I'm gonna take away
from Adam the thing
that I know he loves
more than anything.
And that's his mother.
MARK: This was very,
very calculated,
very, very planned out.
There's no doubt about that.
Mary Yoder is definitely
as innocent of a victim
as you can get.
ROBERT: The day Mary died,
Kaitlyn Conley is
in the office.
Now she's got opportunity.
She's got the time,
and she's got the opportunity.
- And the substance itself
is so innocuous.
It looks like a little bit
of white powder.
And what does it really take
but a pinch of that powder
to quickly put it
in somebody's drink?
Just walk by, drop it in,
and the deed is done.
No.
No, she--I didn't
see her have a shake
that day at the office, no.
I didn't see her
eat anything at the office.
- On top of that,
if that weren't enough,
she then tried
to pin it on him,
frame Adam for the death
of his own mother.
TAMARYN: She set everything up
under Adam's name.
She sent the letter
saying Adam did it.
It just was such pure evil.
That's all we could--
she just--Katie had to be
pure evil.
MARK: When Mary dies,
Katie is there at the hospital
with the family.
I mean,
that's how close she was.
And you know, she got to see
her handiwork firsthand.
- Katie was right there
every step of the way.
[exhales]
Oh, God, it makes me so angry.
- The idea that
you would get back
at your ex-boyfriend
by killing his mother
didn't make sense to me.
It was the most
ludicrous theory
that they could have
come up with.
TAMARYN:
Yeah, the jury went out
for deliberation again at
the end of the second trial.
And it was--
I mean, gosh, it was almost
like flashing back
to the first trial,
just that waiting and waiting.
And then, at one point,
they also sent a message
and said that they
did not know if they were
gonna be able to reach
a unanimous verdict.
And it was like,
this isn't looking good.
- I was very concerned
that, oh, my God,
we're gonna have to do this
a third time,
and we don't really
have anything more
to put into this case.
- This was a scenario
that frightened us,
that if reasonable jurors
go back and they deliberate,
and they say, you know,
she looked up
the lethal doses
of colchicine.
She wanted to see how much
she could administer
that was sublethal that would
only make somebody sick.
LAURIE: Maybe some
of the jurors thought,
we don't think that
her intent was to kill,
and so that's not murder.
That's something else.
So as a result of that,
we asked for the lesser
included offense
of manslaughter.
And the judge sent them back
with the murder charge
and the manslaughter charge
so that if they didn't convict
of murder, then they could
go on and consider manslaughter
in the first degree as well.
- So when Dwyer granted that
lesser included request,
I said, well,
now it's not yes or no.
It's murder,
manslaughter, or no.
So you've just given them
two opportunities,
and you gave me one.
LIANA: We get the call.
They have a decision.
At that point, nothing short
of just gripping terror.
We weren't quite sure we could
handle what was coming next.
[tense music]
♪
TAMARYN:
There was, of course,
a lot of commotion
in the courtroom.
LIANA: We had no idea
what to expect.
LAURIE: When the jury
said not guilty on murder,
for that moment, you're like,
oh, my God, she's gonna walk.
- My sister and I were
squeezing our hands
so tightly
we were bruised after.
- After such a long wait
to get to that point,
it was just so
overwhelmingly emotional
that I couldn't even--
it was just, we needed it.
[crying]
LIANA: We finally got
to the light
at the end of the tunnel.
We finally--somebody was
able to see what happened.
And so there was a small sense
of a relief.
Like, we made it.
We got here. We made it.
♪
- And it just--it felt
like everything failed.
I put all my faith
and all my trust
in the system and these people.
And it didn't work.
It felt like
we'd been let down.
SARAH: I truly think
that Katie is innocent.
And I know people
expect us to say that
because we're a family.
Um, but truly,
deep down in my soul,
I don't think that Katie would
have the ability to do this.
- You can only do so much
when you're down
at Bedford visiting.
And it's very hard
when we walk away each time
and we have to
leave Katie behind.
You leave a part of yourself.
- I, uh--I figured it out that
I'm probably not lucky enough
to live until she's free.
That hurt.
CATHY: It's--it's part of
your daily life every day.
And it just--it could
consume your whole day.
LIANA: I know they wanna
believe their daughter,
so I don't think that they'll
question anything she says.
I don't think the Conleys
would ever admit it
even if she did
admit something to them.
I don't feel that
they would ever
be forthright in telling us.
TAMARYN:
Adam's not good.
I don't think he'll ever
stop blaming himself.
I don't think that
he will ever
not be traumatized by this.
I don't think
he'll ever heal from it.
I hate Kaitlyn Ann Conley
because Kaitlyn Ann Conley
murdered my mother.
TAMARYN: And I hope she
never makes it out of prison.
I'd be okay if she
made it to 22 years
and then got fucking
killed in there.
I'd be happy.
[scoffs]
[sighs deeply]
- The Yoders don't
need closure.
And they don't
need that from me.
They need--they need help.
And they need to figure
a lot of things out.
But that has nothing
to do with me.
That has nothing to do with me.
Kaitlyn Conley is the killer.
Kaitlyn Conley
killed my mother,
and she is absolutely
where she belongs.
♪
KAITLYN: I had just
graduated in May.
And I was thinking, what job
should I start looking for?
Where should I start
looking for work?
Should I start thinking
about graduate school?
And I was ready
to make these plans.
But I also knew that
the police wanted
to come after me for murder.
LAURIE: The grand jury
indicted Kaitlyn Conley
on a charge of murder
in the second degree.
It was--you know,
it's a very serious charge.
You can't get much more
serious than murder
in the second degree.
- My attorney, Chris,
called me on June 13th
and said that
you have 30 minutes
to get to the police station.
- The first time I think
the two of us realized,
wow, uh, this is
a murder indictment.
This is real.
- So it was a time
for confession.
I said, Katie,
what's going on?
Did you kill Mary Yoder?
Quiet.
Too quiet.
And she says, Mom, Dad,
you know me.
All I want--
a little house, a husband.
CATHY:
Get married and children.
- Get married
and one or two kids.
So why would I jeopardize that
when that's all I want?
KAITLYN:
I was targeted.
And I was a scapegoat
in all this.
And they took me down.
[dramatic music]
♪
[grim music]
♪
- After I was indicted,
I was out on bail.
And then they put me
under house arrest.
So I couldn't leave my house.
They so strongly and firmly
believed that I'm guilty.
And I'd like to know
why they think that.
MARK: We were convinced that
we had the right person.
But you still have to put
the physical evidence
to that person.
So the colchicine bottle
became the most vital piece
of information
we had at the time.
It became clear
that that colchicine
was ordered out of California.
- I randomly
receive a phone call
from a detective from Utica.
I started thinking like,
you know, what happened?
What's going on?
What did I do wrong?
He wanted to ask me
a few questions
about a product that I sold.
They told me
that the colchicine
was being investigated
in a murder case.
I'm like, WTF?
Like, what's going on here?
- There was leads
out there that we believed
we could dig deeper into
by traveling to California.
So myself
and another investigator
made the trip out there
to speak with Rosa Vargas.
- I told the detective
about the email listed
on the order that was placed,
which is
- When we sat with Rosa
and started going over
the emails back
and forth of this,
I couldn't believe, you know,
what she was telling me.
ROSA: I tried reaching
Adam Yoder,
but the person I spoke to,
uh, that answered the call, uh,
she seemed to be a young female
with a very soft voice.
- I knew 110% who the girl was
that Rosa was referring to--
a soft-spoken female voice
at the other end of the line.
It was Katie Conley.
ROSA: She was really polite,
was really nice.
She knew exactly what
I was referring to.
I can't explain it in details,
but it's the sense
that you get that she was
a bit nervous
and trying
to end the call fast.
- I have never spoken
to Rosa Vargas.
And I would bet the key
to the front gate
that Rosa Vargas never
called the office.
They never got phone records
for the office
where allegedly she called.
So you could have
verified this.
We could have known for sure.
But they didn't.
TONY:
The important thing about
the Mr. Adam Yoder
Gmail account is,
one of the times
when information was sent
to a chemical company,
it was logged into from
Kaitlyn Conley's residence
and from
Kaitlyn Conley's iPhone.
- Digital forensics,
they don't lie.
So here is someone
in Katie's house--
Katie--ordering colchicine.
She did it.
♪
- Maybe yes,
I was in the wrong place
at the wrong times.
But I didn't do
anything wrong.
- Pretty sure I'm not lying
about this stuff.
[chuckles]
[grim music]
LAURIE: During the months
before the trial,
we just wanted
to focus on the case
and focus on getting
the evidence in there
and hope that it was enough
to get a conviction.
- I mean, we talked
to past boyfriends,
people who knew her
from school.
I mean, there was just--
we started to learn
there's another side
to Kaitlyn Conley.
MARK:
Okay, thank you.
- No, I didn't really
date other people.
I wasn't big
on the dating scene.
No. No.
I--even my other relationships,
I didn't have dramatic
or contentious breakups.
You know, I'm a pretty relaxed
kind of person, I think.
TAMARYN:
When Katie was indicted,
at first, me and my sister were
just kind of in disbelief.
Like, how could Katie
have done this?
Katie, really?
Like, this is crazy.
And--and then Adam
was just kind of like,
well, you guys don't really
know the real Katie.
LIANA:
We found out that Katie had
filed a police report a year
prior to my mom passing.
Now, at the time, technically,
they apparently were broken up,
but in that contained an
allegation
that my brother
had sexually assaulted her.
This was a surprise
to all of us.
That's when we were also
told that my brother
had received a phone call
that she made
from the police station.
- When that phone call
was over,
Katie had indicated that
she didn't want
any criminal action taken.
TONY: The sheriff's
office asked
if anything on
any of the devices
supported this allegation.
Kaitlyn Conley provides
to the sheriff's office
printed pictures of injuries
that she sustained
during this attack.
I was able to find those
pictures on her cell phone.
The problem is they were taken,
in some cases,
years prior to the date
of the alleged sexual assault.
And they appear to be taken
in relationship to an accident
she had while horseback riding.
LAURIE:
I do not believe--
and there is not one
shred of evidence
other than her word, which,
to me, is worth nothing--
that he sexually--
ever sexually assaulted her.
And it was just insane to us.
Like, you're trying to, like,
make up this rape allegation,
get him arrested, but you
went out in the parking lot
and immediately asked him
to get together.
She was the one
that continuously
reached out to him,
texted him.
She clearly had him fooled
and manipulated
and so many crazy red flags
that he didn't know.
Of course.
Young--young and in love.
M. WILLIAM: Months before
Mary's murder, they break up.
Adam's completely
done with her.
And she understands it
this time.
He makes it very clear to her.
LIANA:
We've all had breakups.
You break up
with your boyfriend,
you cry, you go out,
you talk to your friends.
How could their
young relationship
have turned into something
so incredibly ugly
where she then
went after my mom?
Was my mom just
collateral damage?
Was there not even
a point to it
other than,
let me try to get at Adam?
LOCAL: It was a big
news story around here.
A lot of people--
a lot of people talk.
[laughs]
- A lot of people say innocent,
but a lot of people say guilty.
It's kind of 50/50.
But I believe that police
have done a fantastic job.
I think--I think she's guilty.
I'm still in disbelief.
I don't wanna believe it,
you know.
Hopefully they
prove her innocence.
- Guilty or not guilty,
anything can happen
because you never know what a--
you never know what a jury
is gonna see or not see.
[suspenseful music]
REPORTER:
The trial of a receptionist
who is charged
with poisoning her boss.
And lo and behold,
she was in a relationship
with that boss's son, Adam.
Prosecutors also say
that she was framing Adam
for the murder of his mom.
Are you with me?
Because there's a lot.
- I wanted a stand
for our family.
I wanted Katie
to see us all there.
And we were gonna
hopefully get justice.
KAITLYN:
I wasn't too worried.
I was like, okay,
it's finally here.
It's happening.
Now we can resolve it.
♪
- I found out there was
gonna be a murder trial
right before I found out that I
had gotten pulled for the jury.
And I think that's when
I started to panic.
Like, oh, my God, how am I
gonna get through this?
But I knew it was my duty,
and I just have
to figure it out,
and I'll get through it.
There was one juror that, uh,
kind of stood out
from the very beginning.
He made himself known
when they were picking jurors.
- I had never been a juror,
mostly because
I was in the military so long,
and I wasn't around.
I told them I could convict
my daughter if she was guilty.
And at that point,
the prosecutor wanted me.
- The defense strategy
was to point the finger
at Bill Yoder because Bill
Yoder was now in a relationship
with his dead wife's sister.
- You will find motive
through the testimony
on the part of William Yoder.
Do you remember the first time
that you had sexual relations
with Kathy Richmond?
- I don't remember
the date, no.
I wasn't keeping a journal.
- Everything that
the investigation can show
supports that as being true.
And some of it could be proven
through the communications
between the two.
ROBERT: There was a text
message after Mary's death
where Bill was
going to see Kathy.
He had to text her and find out
how to get to her house.
So wait a minute, you're
telling me he had an affair
and was going to her house
and having an affair,
but the guy's gotta text her
and find out
how to get to her residence.
This affair didn't start
before Mary's death.
LIANA: They looked into
everything surrounding him.
He was not involved.
He was not involved
in any aspect of it.
- It was, oh, gosh,
very, very hard
because I never get over
the guilt of wondering
if he had done it.
Just--I can't even
put it into words.
- My dad was going through
the emotional hell
of having his character
attacked and assassinated
the entire time.
LIANA: My mom
had a happy marriage,
but the life she lived
got taken away from her
by lie after lie.
It got taken away
in the courtroom.
It got taken away
on social media.
It got taken away
in the years of people
ripping apart her life.
[tense music]
TAMMY: It was a lot that
you had to think about.
You had to pay attention.
I did notice, uh, Katie's dad
always looking over.
I felt like he was looking
at me all the time.
And I couldn't understand,
why wasn't he looking
at the rest of the jurors?
But then it dawned on me
that this Pat guy was
sitting right in front of me.
So he was looking
at Pat all the time.
I didn't quite understand
why that was going on.
- We believed
the colchicine bottle
contained the murder weapon,
obviously.
So the colchicine bottle
was tested for DNA.
- Her DNA is on
the colchicine bottle.
Why?
- I felt bad, but it was like,
she did it.
All the evidence
pointed towards her.
There was nothing else
brought in,
no one else that it really fit.
Um, I--I just knew she did it.
M. WILLIAM: The trial closes,
and now it's
in the jury's hands.
Now we have deliberations.
LAURIE: She wrote
that anonymous letter.
She purchased the colchicine.
Her DNA was on the bottle.
Her DNA was on the envelope.
And we had connected her phone
to the Gmail account.
So I felt pretty good
about the case.
LIANA:
And then we get the call.
They have a decision.
It was a day that we had been
waiting for and hopeful for.
REPORTER: Eager eyes watched
as the jury of 12
spent several hours
deliberating the fate
of the 24-year-old
Sauquoit woman
accused of poisoning
Whitesboro chiropractor
Mary Yoder to death
back in 2015.
[suspenseful music]
But what happens?
M. WILLIAM: It comes back
10 to 2, not guilty.
A hung jury.
Katie gets to walk.
REPORTER: The murder trial of
the 24-year-old Sauquoit woman
accused of poisoning
her boss to death
has been declared a mistrial.
- It's not the verdict
that we wanted
because we wanted a total
exoneration for our daughter.
We know she's
completely innocent.
And the whole family
feels that way.
- We love you.
- Yes.
[laughter]
And a mother knows.
And a mother knows her child.
- We were two people away
from an outright acquittal,
which would have
finished the process.
It did.
It felt like a weight
off my shoulders.
I said, okay,
people believe me.
[suspenseful music]
TAMARYN:
I think we just went numb
because it was the only way
to, um
kind of stand up
and walk out of there
was to just to be numb.
ROBERT: Well, absolutely,
I was upset.
I mean, here you
spend all this time,
and now they come back
as a hung jury
after you spent, you know,
how many hours of your life
on this case?
And what are they
listening to here?
What--what happened here?
- There was no evidence to
prove what the prosecution
said they thought happened.
This was just a theory.
And it started out when
we went in, it was 50/50.
Within an hour of us talking,
it was ten people innocent,
two people guilty.
TAMMY: Pat was doing
a really good job.
He had all, like,
the smokers on his team.
He seemed to know what
he was thinking and doing.
So they're like, yeah, sure,
let's--let's go along with Pat.
Yep.
- One of the jurors said,
someone's gotta pay,
might as well be her.
And I literally
lost it over that.
I ripped the shades right down
in the room yelling
because I didn't
wanna be violent.
But it was someone's life,
someone's life on the line.
- I was really surprised
that this Pat person
had gone up and shaken the hand
of Kaitlyn Conley's father.
He shook his hand right
outside the courtroom hall.
So that was very surprising.
- I rented at
their trailer park.
Yeah, I did.
I rented from--
I rented from Vin Conley.
But I said, Vin,
if I thought she was guilty,
I would have voted guilty.
But I don't--in my heart,
I don't think she did it.
LAURIE: I thought maybe
for some of the jurors,
that they might just see this
pretty 21-year-old girl
sitting there demurely,
looking like she was, you know,
just this sweet young girl.
And they might not
wanna convict her.
There's nothing I can do
to get over that.
The defendant is
who the defendant is,
and it's not gonna change.
TAMARYN:
To face that we were going
to have to do it again was--
it just seemed, um,
like, pretty impossible
at that point.
But we all--we wanted justice,
so it was, okay, well,
we're gonna do it again because
she needs to pay
for what she did.
- The prosecution said
that they were going
to try me again in six months.
I was still
under house arrest.
I'm like, we have to
do this all over again?
We just did it.
You couldn't
convince your jury.
You couldn't
convince ten people.
Why do we have to do it again?
- In a lot of murder cases
I've handled,
the decision to kill
is made like that.
Premeditation is
all over this case.
Advanced planning--
cold, calculated planning.
We can't just let her
walk out the door.
In the second trial,
we realized that
we had to change things up
in terms of our strategy
to digitally prove
what had happened
and why all of those
digital roads
led directly back
to Kaitlyn Conley.
- Now, with the gift of time,
we can go back.
And the game changer comes
when I'm re-examining
Adam Yoder's laptop.
On that laptop were numerous
backups of cell phones.
And about the third file
we examined, we realized,
this is not Adam's phone.
This is Kaitlyn's phone.
MICHAEL:
So this backup that Adam did
would be a snapshot of what
existed on the phone
about two months
after the killing,
but long before police
entered the case.
TONY:
I knew it instantly.
This is the holy grail.
So many notes
had been deleted by her
in the intervening months.
And the one that
jumps out first
is a note about the
mradamyoder1990 Gmail account.
It says, "Aisgay."
That could also be shorthand--
"Adamisgay."
Immediately, I'm looking
at it and saying,
that's the password.
And it was.
- If I'm a scorned woman
and Adam broke up with me,
and I'm gonna kill his mom,
am I gonna play a little game
with myself
and choose "Adamisgay"
as a password?
You bet your ass I am.
- I have never, ever in my life
used gay as a slur.
That doesn't fit in with me.
But do I believe that
that's his password?
Yes, I do.
Adam lived with a bunch of boys
who would use that as a slur,
um.
So yeah,
that sounds about right.
I believe that.
- Kaitlyn Conley deleted
6,000 images off her phone.
No one does that.
In the group of images
that were deleted
are dozens and dozens
of screenshots from websites
talking about poisons.
MICHAEL:
Throughout the fall of 2014,
she had looked at cyanide,
poison mushrooms, thallium,
and arrived ultimately
at colchicine
towards the end of December.
- First thing was like,
smack right in the face.
She takes Mary Yoder's
body weight
and then fills out the formula
for how much colchicine
would be necessary
to kill Mary Yoder.
I don't know.
That doesn't mean
anything to me.
I don't have a reason
to search lethal poisons.
I'm really--like, I don't
even put out, you know,
poison for the mice
in the barn.
I just--I can't. I can't.
That's not who I am.
- The research,
I think, brought things
to a different level
because it showed
a level of callousness,
of planning, of deviousness,
and, really, coldness.
But that is kind of typical
for the behavior
of Kaitlyn Conley.
This woman is a sociopath.
She has actually disconnected
the reality of her actions
and the possible consequences
of those from the moment.
- I wasn't too worried
about going to jail
for the rest of my life.
Because I was--
I was pretty present.
I was in the moment.
And I was just enjoying
the time with my family.
It felt like, okay, well,
let's--let's just keep going.
I've come this far.
I can keep going.
[tense music]
- I honestly did not know
how I mentally was,
or emotionally was, gonna
make it through a second trial.
REPORTER: 24-year-old
Kaitlyn Conley is now
starting with a fresh slate.
Conley's defense attorney,
Frank Policelli,
argues it's not Conley
who killed Yoder,
but rather her son,
Conley's ex-boyfriend
and the person he says
set Conley up
for the murder of his mother.
- The first trial,
they point a finger at Bill.
The second trial,
uh-oh, Adam did it now.
We're gonna use that tact.
- So they say, well, but
all these electronic devices
come back to Katie.
Yeah, right.
Ladies and gentlemen,
it was Adam.
It was Adam.
- With her interviews
with the police and her,
everything she said
was pointing towards Adam.
And the letter that she sent
was saying that Adam did it.
So I think, you know,
her new defense lawyer thought,
well, duh,
you told the police this.
We have to, like, try and point
the finger at Adam
to make that make sense, so.
Now another member
of the family
was under direct attack.
His character, everything was
being attacked and questioned
and dragged through the mud.
Good morning.
- The defense was able
to cross-examine Adam
and accuse him in open court
of raping Kaitlyn Conley.
M. WILLIAM: Let's talk about
this controlled call
that police make to Adam
for this alleged rape.
The only problem
with the controlled call is,
Adam doesn't admit it.
I was in shock.
I didn't know how to react.
And I was panicking.
And ultimately, I had drank
enough to black out that night,
so I couldn't defend myself.
I didn't have a version
of the story.
TONY: The defense revolved,
really,
around the relationship
with Adam.
But the prosecution turned
the arguments between them
from being a negative
to the prosecution
to becoming a positive
for the prosecution.
Showing this long-term discord
between Adam and Kaitlyn
really created motive.
- We presented the motive that
Katie had become
increasingly vengeful
towards Adam
over the weeks and months
leading up to Mary's death.
- The toxic relationship
between Katie and Adam,
Adam is done with it.
What does Katie do?
Well, I'm gonna take away
from Adam the thing
that I know he loves
more than anything.
And that's his mother.
MARK: This was very,
very calculated,
very, very planned out.
There's no doubt about that.
Mary Yoder is definitely
as innocent of a victim
as you can get.
ROBERT: The day Mary died,
Kaitlyn Conley is
in the office.
Now she's got opportunity.
She's got the time,
and she's got the opportunity.
- And the substance itself
is so innocuous.
It looks like a little bit
of white powder.
And what does it really take
but a pinch of that powder
to quickly put it
in somebody's drink?
Just walk by, drop it in,
and the deed is done.
No.
No, she--I didn't
see her have a shake
that day at the office, no.
I didn't see her
eat anything at the office.
- On top of that,
if that weren't enough,
she then tried
to pin it on him,
frame Adam for the death
of his own mother.
TAMARYN: She set everything up
under Adam's name.
She sent the letter
saying Adam did it.
It just was such pure evil.
That's all we could--
she just--Katie had to be
pure evil.
MARK: When Mary dies,
Katie is there at the hospital
with the family.
I mean,
that's how close she was.
And you know, she got to see
her handiwork firsthand.
- Katie was right there
every step of the way.
[exhales]
Oh, God, it makes me so angry.
- The idea that
you would get back
at your ex-boyfriend
by killing his mother
didn't make sense to me.
It was the most
ludicrous theory
that they could have
come up with.
TAMARYN:
Yeah, the jury went out
for deliberation again at
the end of the second trial.
And it was--
I mean, gosh, it was almost
like flashing back
to the first trial,
just that waiting and waiting.
And then, at one point,
they also sent a message
and said that they
did not know if they were
gonna be able to reach
a unanimous verdict.
And it was like,
this isn't looking good.
- I was very concerned
that, oh, my God,
we're gonna have to do this
a third time,
and we don't really
have anything more
to put into this case.
- This was a scenario
that frightened us,
that if reasonable jurors
go back and they deliberate,
and they say, you know,
she looked up
the lethal doses
of colchicine.
She wanted to see how much
she could administer
that was sublethal that would
only make somebody sick.
LAURIE: Maybe some
of the jurors thought,
we don't think that
her intent was to kill,
and so that's not murder.
That's something else.
So as a result of that,
we asked for the lesser
included offense
of manslaughter.
And the judge sent them back
with the murder charge
and the manslaughter charge
so that if they didn't convict
of murder, then they could
go on and consider manslaughter
in the first degree as well.
- So when Dwyer granted that
lesser included request,
I said, well,
now it's not yes or no.
It's murder,
manslaughter, or no.
So you've just given them
two opportunities,
and you gave me one.
LIANA: We get the call.
They have a decision.
At that point, nothing short
of just gripping terror.
We weren't quite sure we could
handle what was coming next.
[tense music]
♪
TAMARYN:
There was, of course,
a lot of commotion
in the courtroom.
LIANA: We had no idea
what to expect.
LAURIE: When the jury
said not guilty on murder,
for that moment, you're like,
oh, my God, she's gonna walk.
- My sister and I were
squeezing our hands
so tightly
we were bruised after.
- After such a long wait
to get to that point,
it was just so
overwhelmingly emotional
that I couldn't even--
it was just, we needed it.
[crying]
LIANA: We finally got
to the light
at the end of the tunnel.
We finally--somebody was
able to see what happened.
And so there was a small sense
of a relief.
Like, we made it.
We got here. We made it.
♪
- And it just--it felt
like everything failed.
I put all my faith
and all my trust
in the system and these people.
And it didn't work.
It felt like
we'd been let down.
SARAH: I truly think
that Katie is innocent.
And I know people
expect us to say that
because we're a family.
Um, but truly,
deep down in my soul,
I don't think that Katie would
have the ability to do this.
- You can only do so much
when you're down
at Bedford visiting.
And it's very hard
when we walk away each time
and we have to
leave Katie behind.
You leave a part of yourself.
- I, uh--I figured it out that
I'm probably not lucky enough
to live until she's free.
That hurt.
CATHY: It's--it's part of
your daily life every day.
And it just--it could
consume your whole day.
LIANA: I know they wanna
believe their daughter,
so I don't think that they'll
question anything she says.
I don't think the Conleys
would ever admit it
even if she did
admit something to them.
I don't feel that
they would ever
be forthright in telling us.
TAMARYN:
Adam's not good.
I don't think he'll ever
stop blaming himself.
I don't think that
he will ever
not be traumatized by this.
I don't think
he'll ever heal from it.
I hate Kaitlyn Ann Conley
because Kaitlyn Ann Conley
murdered my mother.
TAMARYN: And I hope she
never makes it out of prison.
I'd be okay if she
made it to 22 years
and then got fucking
killed in there.
I'd be happy.
[scoffs]
[sighs deeply]
- The Yoders don't
need closure.
And they don't
need that from me.
They need--they need help.
And they need to figure
a lot of things out.
But that has nothing
to do with me.
That has nothing to do with me.
Kaitlyn Conley is the killer.
Kaitlyn Conley
killed my mother,
and she is absolutely
where she belongs.
♪