Proven Innocent (2019) s01e11 Episode Script
Shaken
1 Previously on Proven Innocent What's Sparrow Ridge, Heather? Do you think that any of those other girls could have killed Rosemary? It's not impossible.
NIKKI: Bodie meet Nathan.
It's why I've been afraid to give this a real shot.
You still want to do this? BELLOWS: Without the murder weapon, any new case against Madeline Scott is a nonstarter.
I've considered dredging Quarry Lake.
LODGE: If you don't find anything, you'll be crucified.
You can forget about becoming A.
G.
Dredge the lake.
[METALLIC CREAKING.]
[MACHINERY WHIRRING.]
The drones have covered 76% of the floor of the cove.
We've discovered 11 potential murder weapons.
Make that 12.
GRETA: Men and their toys.
Is all this really necessary? Drones are more discreet than divers.
And ten times more expensive.
Isabel, would you mind? Of course.
I would appreciate it if you would not discuss the finances for this expedition in front of any of the employees.
Don't worry, Gore.
They already know you're violating a dozen campaign laws to pay for this.
I have to keep it off the books so I can keep it out of the press.
I'm gonna find the murder weapon.
I'm gonna make an arrest.
And not a single person on the entire planet will care where the money came from.
But if you don't find the murder weapon, and the disclosures are made public, you're in a lot of trouble.
Madeline Scott is guilty.
I will go to my grave proving it.
And your grave might just be a prison cell.
[DOORBELL BUZZING.]
[WHIMPERS.]
Oh, God, you're my hero.
"Good morning, brother.
Thanks for waking up so early - "and bringing me my coffee.
" - Are these my muffins? "And muffins.
" Yeah.
So I matched the initials to a bunch of girls who went to our high school.
All of them seem like the type that would be involved in something strange like this, but there's a few I couldn't match.
Okay, "JS," that's gonna be, uh, Julie Selewicz, um, which would make that Elaine Sweeney, Lisa Guzman and Lisa Harrington.
How do you know all that? 'Cause they were part of the cool crowd at Sacred Heart, and I had a thing for Catholic girls back in the day.
Don't tell me you hooked up with all the girls at Sacred Heart.
No, no, not all of them, just most of them.
Mm-mmm.
- I'm serious, get going.
- I'm going.
I got it.
You're getting really good at this.
Oh, uh, feed Atticus.
Gotcha.
SNYDER: I was the leading expert on shaken baby syndrome in Cook County.
I testified in hundreds of cases.
[OVER TV.]
: We believed a triad of symptoms, when manifested in isolation, could only be caused by a caretaker shaking a baby to death.
But now we know that the triad can be caused by undiagnosed illnesses, head trauma or a combination.
There are a lot of people in prison who shouldn't be there.
That's a lot of wrongful convictions.
It's our worst nightmare.
It's a nightmare my sister's been living for ten years.
She was convicted of shaking her baby to death.
EASY: Amelia Vandenhey.
Six months old.
Her mother, Gabrielle, was alone with her the same day the medical examiner said she was injured.
Gabrielle was also diagnosed with severe postpartum depression.
Which the prosecution twisted to make her look like a homicidal maniac.
Gabrielle knew she was depressed.
It made her the most careful mother.
She loved Amelia.
She just h-had a hard time showing it.
Shaken baby cases have some of the highest conviction rates.
You convince a jury that a defendant is a bad mother, most of the time, the prosecution can just paper over any lack of physical evidence.
But what really convicted her was the medical examiner's testimony.
He said the only possible cause of death was shaking.
Who was the M.
E.
? He was.
GABRIELLE: Amelia hadn't cried for hours.
I thought it was the first time that she had slept through the night.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
But when I checked on her, she wasn't moving.
And her skin was ice-cold.
It was the worst moment of my life.
And then they said that I did it.
And everyone turned on me, including my own husband.
And I never even got a chance to say goodbye to her.
I'm so sorry, Gabrielle.
I'm sorry that you went through this, too.
Thanks.
EASY: The most damning moment of your trial was when your mother-in-law testified that you said you fantasized about getting rid of your child.
You know who she is, right? Deborah Vandenhey, of the Chicago Vandenheys.
Owners of one of the largest privately-owned banks in the U.
S.
So you didn't say that? No, I did say it.
And it's horrible.
All I wanted I wanted to be a good mom.
But Amelia, uh her crying Her crying was like nails on a chalkboard, and breastfeeding hurt.
I didn't want to be around her.
KIRSTEN: You didn't hurt her.
I was afraid that I might.
But I never did.
I made sure of it.
I took my meds.
I saw my doctor.
MADELINE: Tell us about the day before Amelia died.
Nothing nothing happened.
Literally, nothing.
She slept, and I watched and I watched her.
I may not have known how to connect to her, but I loved her.
I didn't kill her.
Imagine: you're a new mother struggling with postpartum depression, unable to bond with your baby - the way you're expected to.
- [BABY CRYING.]
Do you hide this feeling, and risk harming yourself and your baby? Or do you confide in someone your dark secret and risk their scorn? [BABY WAILING.]
If you're brave, you do the right thing and open up about your struggles.
You make sure your baby is safe.
But what happens if the baby mysteriously dies, an overzealous prosecutor uses your honesty against you, a doctor you don't even know testifies that science, says that you shook your baby to death? How do you go on? How do you keep from thinking, that you should have hidden your truth, pocketed it away and just endured the pain? On this week's episode of Until Proven Innocent, we'll discuss the case of Gabrielle Parcell, a woman who told her truth, and she paid for her honesty.
But now she has the opportunity to fight back.
SNYDER: Illnesses like meningitis, hemophilia, even vitamin deficiencies, mimic the signs of SBS.
Common household accidents like falling from a seated position can cause the type of head trauma I observed in this case.
MADELINE: In light of recent advancements in medical science, in your expert opinion, what was the cause of death of Amelia Vandenhey? Head trauma.
But it's impossible to know the cause of that without further testing.
Thank you.
Shaken baby syndrome is still a legitimate diagnosis, correct? Objection.
Shaken baby syndrome is an accusation, not a diagnosis.
- Sustained.
- I'll rephrase.
In your expert opinion, is it possible, to shake a baby to death? It is.
But I would only determine that to be the cause of death if I had excluded everything else.
And when Amelia's tiny, cold corpse was on your examination EASY: Objection! Inflammatory.
Sustained.
Ms.
Moriarty, I'm loath to agree with Ms.
Scott and Mr.
Boudreau, but what are we doing here? There's no jury present.
Spare the theatrics.
Theatrics are what these cases are all about, Your Honor.
That was not an invitation to the peanut gallery, Ms.
Scott.
Zip it.
There's a witness.
Use him.
MORIARTY: Dr.
Snyder, you testified at trial that the only day Amelia could have been injured was the day before she died, didn't you? I did.
But my expert opinion has changed.
Will it change again tomorrow? - BOTH: Objection! - I get the gist, Ms.
Moriarty.
But, counselors, without a specific reason to believe there may have been another cause of death, I'm not inclined to vacate a murder conviction.
But, Judge, we're merely seeking access to the autopsy slides and tissue samples so we can determine if something else caused Amelia's death.
Y-Your Honor, I-if I may.
I just want to make sure I didn't get it wrong.
Fine.
Motion to inspect the scientific evidence granted.
Court adjourned.
[ELEVATOR BELL DINGS.]
You should be ashamed of yourself.
Hiring a couple of shyster lawyers, to dredge up these horrid memories - of my poor granddaughter.
- Please, Deborah, you don't care about Amelia.
You don't care about anyone but yourself.
- Kirsten, that's not fair.
- Shut up, Clay.
All right, let's all just stay calm.
Hi.
I'm Madeline Scott.
Easy Boudreau, shyster-at-law.
You people are profiting off a lunatic woman and her dead baby.
- She killed my granddaughter.
- [ELEVATOR BELL DINGS.]
What my mother is trying to say is Your family is trash.
- Classy.
- EASY: Hmm.
SNYDER: This is evidence of a brain bleed.
Ten years ago I saw one brain bleed which started within 24 hours before death.
But with new medical advances, I can slice the tissue samples thinner and see blood leveling, which shows this brain bleed started earlier.
So, the prosecution's theory that Amelia was injured on Tuesday Was wrong.
Amelia could have been injured up to five days earlier.
When someone else was with her.
Do you know what could have caused the injury? I've ruled out most illnesses, except one.
If she had something called factor XIII clotting disorder, much less force like something as simple as a fall on the floor could have been fatal.
Why didn't you bring this up at trial? I saw the triad, did a basic check for other medical problems I assumed it was shaken baby.
And when the prosecutor told me the mother had postpartum depression, I got confirmation bias.
[SIGHS.]
Medical tunnel vision.
Right.
So, what now? I can run a blood coagulation panel to determine if she had the disorder, but I need blood samples - from both parents.
- EASY: Hmm.
Well, mom's not gonna be a problem, but But the dad? Mama's boy? He just might be.
So, if Amelia could die from a random accident, there could be hundreds of women in prison for shaking their babies, when really, it was something as simple as a fall on the floor.
Sadly yes.
Oh, my God.
CLAY: If it was a disease, wouldn't they have already discovered it? Once "SBS" was written in Amelia's file, investigators stopped looking for a disease and started looking for a murderer.
MADELINE: There's a chance your daughter died of a congenital blood disorder.
To know for sure, we're gonna need a blood sample from you.
You didn't see how Gabrielle was acting.
She wouldn't even go near Amelia.
Broke my heart.
That was postpartum depression.
It doesn't mean she killed Amelia.
[EASY SIGHS.]
You know, we just learned prosecution got the timeline wrong.
They could have got a lot of things wrong.
If it were my kid, I'd want to know what really happened.
Okay.
Okay, I'll do the blood test.
But for Amelia.
Not for Gabrielle.
The whole Nathan thing just kind of - well, it surprised me.
- Yeah.
You should have told me about it earlier so I didn't make a fool of myself.
[CHUCKLES.]
Well, I'm sorry.
But I'm new at this, too.
But you told me you wanted to get real, you know, Nathan's a big part of my life, and you want to be in my life, - you got to know about Nathan.
- I do.
I I do.
I'm crazy about you.
But? But-but nothing.
I'm just processing this.
Oh, all right, okay.
Well, uh, you keep processing.
I'm gonna take care of Nathan.
What, you're leaving? Yeah.
I got to pick up the kid.
- Okay.
- Look, um no hard feelings if this is too much reality.
We started off just having fun.
So I get it if this is too deep.
Thanks.
That's actually really cool of you.
[LAUGHING.]
: Yeah, well uh, you're basically a man-child anyway, so it's probably a really bad idea.
Take care, Bodie.
- [DOOR CLOSES.]
- [CHUCKLES.]
A man-child? EASY: All right, bad news.
Clay tested negative for the blood disorder, which means Amelia didn't die of an illness.
So something else happened.
We just need to figure out what.
I don't want to rain on everyone's innocence parade here, but it's not looking good for our client.
We don't know if there was abuse, Bodie.
All we know is that Amelia was injured - the week before she died.
- Right.
And it could have been Gabrielle who did it.
She said she wanted to get rid of the baby.
Look at the M.
E.
's report a little bit closer.
You'll see that there's a bruise across Amelia's chest.
It looks like a belt mark.
That's evidence of abuse.
Or it's evidence of an accident.
Maybe an accident caused both the chest bruise and the head trauma.
A fall from as little as one foot high can generate twice the force an adult can generate shaking an infant.
Yeah, but that leaves us with an almost impossible task.
How do we find out if an infant fell ten years after the fact? We investigate.
We keep searching, but we don't give up.
[GRUNTING.]
GABRIELLE: If this was an accident, then this is my fault.
- You can't think that way, Gabby.
- No I was her mother.
I was supposed to-to protect her.
Something happened to Amelia, and I didn't know.
MADELINE: I know this is difficult, but we need your help if we're going to get to the bottom of this and get you out of here.
The medical examiner from your first trial now thinks that the injury could have happened as many as five days before Amelia's death.
Do you remember any accidents? I was hazy on antidepressants, so I stayed in my room a lot.
The mother-in-law, Deborah, was taking care of her quite a bit.
Wait.
What? There was a car accident.
- Are you serious? - Yeah.
It was, uh, four days before Amelia died.
Clay was driving her to a doctor's appointment with Deborah.
How bad was the accident? Clay said it wasn't bad at all, but I I remember that his car needed some body work.
My attorney at trial told me, that that was irrelevant, 'cause he said that the injuries definitely happened on Tuesday.
- Is it possible? - Yes.
It's very possible.
It's a big lead.
VIOLET: I seriously doubt.
Deborah Vandenhey is gonna talk to us.
Sure she will.
Rich ladies understand the power of a subpoena.
[LAUGHS.]
Believe me, she'd rather answer our questions here than in court.
VIOLET [CHUCKLES.]
: Wow.
DEBORAH: Nothing stands out about the week before Amelia died.
My son and I were taking care of her.
Unfortunately, her mother was no help whatsoever.
Well, we understand that you and your son got into a car accident with her.
The fender bender? Amelia was strapped into her rear-facing car seat.
Nothing happened to her.
She slept through the whole thing.
And you never took her to the doctor? As a matter of fact, we did.
We were on our way to see him anyway.
He checked Amelia thoroughly.
She didn't even have a bruise.
Did anyone other than you and Clay help to look after the baby, like, um - like a nanny? - Maybe Charles here.
DEBORAH: I don't believe in outsourcing childcare.
Charles cares for the house, not for the people in it.
Thank you, Charles.
Do you remember Amelia having a fall of any kind? Off a bed or a couch? No, I don't.
Amelia didn't fall.
And as I understand it, the timeline may have shifted, but that doesn't mean Gabrielle didn't shake her.
But there were other people alone with Amelia.
For example, her father, Clay.
And Clay had a son from his first marriage.
Uh, Declan.
He was ten at the time, right? Declan was away at boarding school.
He only had the pleasure of meeting Amelia once, when she was born.
And Clay was wonderful with Amelia.
You seem very convinced.
This is a strong, loving and tight-knit family.
We take care of our children.
We love our children.
We protect our children.
The only harm that came to Amelia was at the hands of a woman I deeply regret ever married my son.
I told Clay she wasn't good enough for our family, and I was tragically right.
Charles? Now, if that's all, Charles will see you out.
Hi, Charles.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER.]
Declan Vandenhey? - Yeah.
- I'm Bodie Quick.
Ezekiel Boudreau.
We represent your stepmom, Gabrielle Parcell.
Gabrielle's in prison.
We work on wrongful conviction cases.
You think she didn't do it? There's new science that shows she probably didn't.
We'd like to ask you a few questions about who was taking care of Amelia.
I can't talk right now.
I'm at work.
Work study? What is this, an exercise in character building? What do you mean? I mean, there are buildings on this campus named after your family.
You don't exactly need help with tuition.
I'm not close to my grandmother.
I don't want her money.
And I can't help you.
I barely knew Amelia.
Why aren't you close to your grandmother? What happened? Look, I don't want to have anything to do with that family.
Truly terrible people.
BODIE: How about your dad? How did he behave after Amelia was born? [SIGHS.]
I don't want anything to do with my dad, either.
I don't even speak to him, okay? And like I said, I have to get back to work.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER.]
There's nothing more touching than a loving and devoted son.
Why do you think Declan has a terrible relationship with his dad? I don't know.
Infidelity to his mother.
Emotionally unavailable.
- A thousand ways to screw up a kid.
- [EASY LAUGHS.]
Parenthood is a minefield.
Like you would know.
Look, here's the thing.
So, Nikki's got a kid.
She Her sister has a kid.
Had-had a kid.
Nikki's Nikki's raising a kid.
That's the deal.
Damn.
Scaring you off? No.
I thought about it a lot.
- I'm not scared.
- No.
- I'm terrified.
- Oh She called me a man-child, and she's right.
I dress up like a ninja.
What makes one a man-child can also make them a terrific father.
- Yeah? - You might have a great relationship with the kid.
Yeah.
Or I'll stab him with a sword by accident, and then you and Madeline will have to exonerate me for ninja baby syndrome.
All right, listen, here's the thing.
You're never ready to have a kid.
Irene and I did everything according to plan, and I live in a hotel now.
We got separated.
Dude.
You all right? Hey, listen.
I love everything about my kids.
I wouldn't undo anything in my life.
So you're saying I should do this.
Uh, I can't make that decision for you.
Come on, Easy, please.
Please.
Please make this decision for me, man.
Yeah, you got to decide for yourself, brother.
EASY: He truly hates his father.
Is it possible Clay was abusive and the mother didn't see it? - Or didn't want to? - It's possible, but Clay seemed genuinely hopeful about finding out what happened to Amelia.
Can I help you? I'm Frances Bonnett, Clay Vandenhey's ex-wife.
I got a phone call from Ezekiel Boudreau.
Just call me Easy.
Come on in.
FRANCES: I felt sorry for Gabrielle.
I wanted to warn her about the Vandenheys.
But when Clay and I divorced, I received a substantial settlement.
That came with strings.
- You signed an NDA.
- If I talk to you about anything, an army of lawyers will come and take everything that I have.
And you have something to say.
You could have told us about the NDA over the phone.
MADELINE: Just point us in the right direction.
I promise we won't bring you into it at all.
There was abuse in that family.
- MADELINE: Clay? - No.
He was the one being abused by Deborah.
She beat him as a kid.
And I can't prove it, but I think she hurt Declan, too.
MADELINE: What makes you say that? When Declan was eight, he came home from a weekend at Grandma's lake house with a broken arm.
She told me he fell off a horse.
But by the way he was acting I know when my son's lying to me.
I tried to tell Clay.
But Deborah has a weird hold on him.
So then I sent Declan to boarding school, and [CLEARS THROAT.]
Clay and I broke up a few months later.
Do you think Deborah hurt Amelia? It wouldn't surprise me.
At all.
You don't find what you want, so you just start accusing other members of my family, huh? We understand your anger, Clay, but we know your mother abused you.
- You don't know anything! - EASY: We do.
We know you're a grown man who needs to stop covering for his mother.
We know that your mother abused you and your son Declan.
My mother never laid a hand on Declan.
[SIGHS.]
Remember Declan's horseback riding accident when he was eight years old? Been talking to my ex-wife.
Your ex-wife signed an NDA.
We've been talking to a lot of people.
[SIGHS.]
You knew Declan didn't fall off that horse, didn't you? Declan told us he doesn't speak to you anymore.
That he doesn't want anything to do with you.
Isn't reconciling with your son more important than protecting your abusive mother? She can't hurt you anymore.
Declan was an exceptional rider.
I didn't want to believe that she was doing to him the same thing that she had done to me.
MADELINE: She hurt him.
And you.
Don't you think it's possible she also hurt Amelia? No.
No.
No, she loved Amelia.
I'm sure she loved you and Declan, too.
But this has got to stop now.
If she did something to hurt Amelia, I know would have helped her cover it up.
Does your mother know you're here? I don't need her permission for anything.
Especially if it concerns my own children.
Declan is now over 18.
So the law says I can only share his records with him.
As for Amelia, we closed her file years ago.
Uh, I'll have to search for it.
- I'll get it back to you.
- That sounds like a runaround.
Every time my mother hurt me, I got to come see Dr.
O'Barr.
You gave me candy, you spoke to me kindly, but you never reported it to the police, did you? I don't know what you're talking about, Clay.
Sure you do.
I spent ten years in prison and the next seven practicing criminal law.
I've seen all kinds of evil.
But a pediatrician who profits from covering up child abuse MADELINE: Got to be the worst kind of evil.
VIOLET: Special place in hell type of evil.
Careful.
Spurious allegations are called defamation.
Actually, it's only defamation if it isn't true.
I think you people need to leave.
We're leaving.
But we're not going away.
We'll be back with a subpoena.
And after we find what we need in those records We're gonna make it all public.
I'm sure someone else will be back for your medical license.
Yeah, it's Jeffrey.
Oh, my goodness, Mrs.
Vandenhey, you can't just barge in here, without an appointment.
- This is highly inappropriate.
- I don't need an appointment.
- You realize - Who the hell do you people think you are? - Hello, Mrs.
Vandenhey.
- Jeffrey called me the minute you left his office.
You can't go around harassing the people who work for me.
We can if they're protecting child abusers.
Isn't that precisely what you people are doing? You're protecting the abuser who was convicted, of murdering my granddaughter.
That's not what it looks like to us.
We spoke to your son.
You manipulated him.
My lawyers are drafting a cease and desist order.
Then a lawsuit.
We'll destroy you with legal fees alone.
- You scared, Easy? - Petrified.
What are you afraid we'll find? You may have bullied my son, Ms.
Scott, but you won't bully me.
Kate.
[VIOLET GRUNTS.]
LEVI: Okay, so I think I figured out, who all the girls are.
Get this.
All these girls they were there that night.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER.]
I also pulled the deed from that creepy house.
It turns out it was owned by some company called.
Karna-Surya-Kunti, Inc.
"Surya" means sun in Sanskrit.
Right, right, you just happen to know that? I did a lot of reading in the prison library.
Eastern religions was a fave.
Okay.
Hey, by the way, check this out.
This is a painting from another room in the house.
They made it into some sort of spiritual room or something.
What's this "R" about? It's got to be a name, right? All right, if we stay in Eastern names, there's Raj, uh, Rishni, Rashneesh.
Ravi is the Hindu god of the sun.
Wow.
Okay, this is getting really weird.
No.
It actually makes perfect sense.
Eastern religious symbolism, drugs, a secretive group of young girls.
- Levi, it was a cult.
- Oh, come on.
You really believe that-that Rosemary would join a cult? I think that, clearly, we didn't know her as well as we thought we did.
Okay, if "R" is a person's name, then that has to be the leader, right? - Right.
- Every cult has a guru.
Keith Raniere, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh - Charles Manson.
- All charismatic manipulators who promise enlightenment, and then dupe their followers into doing whatever they want.
Keith Raniere had all his girls on a crazy low-calorie diet.
Kept them skinny and mentally unstable.
Well, that would explain the Adderall.
That's what I'm thinking.
ROSEMARY: Do you want to be a virgin in college? No.
Do you? No.
So let's get it over with.
Right before she died, Rosemary was fixated on us losing our virginity.
I thought it was about the two of us going off to college.
It was probably this.
You think she was recruiting you.
All I know is that this cult is the key to what happened that night.
We have to talk to Linda Barrett again.
No, Heather Husband has Linda Barrett shut down, she's scared to talk.
Who else is there? Oh, let me see.
Wait.
Sarah Tawney.
She sent me a Christmas card in prison.
She said she believed we were innocent.
Maybe that's because she knows who's guilty.
SARAH: I was under his spell.
We all were.
He was so handsome.
Listen, did you, um did you have sex with Ravi? What did Linda tell you? She said that you all had sex with him.
He made us believe that sex was the path to enlightenment.
It was so screwed up.
But at the time, it felt like my salvation.
High school was horrible for me.
I was insecure, fat.
I didn't know where I belonged.
I was Maybe it's a teenage girl thing, but I felt unworthy.
Ravi changed all that.
So, how long was Rosemary in the group? She was one of the first to join.
She loved it.
Rosemary had a wild side.
She instantly became Ravi's favorite.
That piss the other girls off? It pissed off Heather Dupinski.
She was the star until Rosemary came along.
Listen, um do you think that-that Heather could have possibly killed Rosemary over this? Look, I-I got to get back to work.
I'd really appreciate if you didn't tell anybody I was involved in all of this.
I just Even though it happened a long time ago, it really screwed my life up.
- Please? - I'll get going.
Thank you for this information.
Yeah.
What are you doing with my money? - Hi, Rick.
- Hello, Gore.
What do you mean, your money? I'm hearing whispers, about my funds being used for non-campaign activities.
Come on, Gore, I've got ears everywhere.
Okay.
I'll tell you.
But I have to ask for your discretion.
This is really big.
I don't want it to leak.
Well, I'm nothing if not discreet.
The money went to the campaign, in a manner of speaking.
I used it to search the lake at Cathedral Cove.
Why'd you do that? To finish what I started.
And the campaign manager you thrust on me told me if I found new evidence implicating Madeline Scott in the Lynch murder, I would dominate every news cycle.
Well, he's right.
[CHUCKLES.]
So, did you? This old lantern matches the head wound on Rosemary Lynch.
I finally found the murder weapon, after all these years.
Let me see that.
- You sure about that, huh? - Yes.
The M.
E.
confirmed it.
The contusion in her skull matches that lantern.
The same metal fragments were lodged in her brain.
It's just a matter of time, before I connect it to Madeline Scott.
This isn't a lark, Rick.
This is justice.
I would sacrifice my entire political career for it.
Well, if you can connect this lantern to Madeline Scott, you won't have to sacrifice anything.
You arrest her before the polls close you'll win by a landslide.
It looks like they covered their tracks pretty well.
Yep.
Nothing but general wellness checkups and standard blood tests.
O'Barr is their private concierge doctor.
If they had something to hide, he may not have kept a record of it.
VIOLET: Wait a second.
Didn't Deborah say that Declan was at boarding school in the days before the baby's death? Yes, when she was bragging about not outsourcing childcare.
Well, it says here he got a flu shot on the Saturday before Amelia died.
He was home? Why would Deborah lie about that? DECLAN: I already told you, I have nothing more to say about my father.
MADELINE: What about your grandmother? - What about her? - She said you were at school the week your sister died, but Dr.
O'Barr gave you a flu shot on Saturday.
You were home.
Why would your grandmother lie about that? You should ask her.
Were you with Amelia that weekend, Declan? - Did something happen? - N-No.
Doctor said Amelia got hurt on Tuesday.
I was already back at school.
The doctor's timeline was revised.
It shows Amelia's injury probably happened over the weekend.
The weekend? Yes.
Declan, we know that your grandmother hurt you and that she asked you to keep quiet about everything.
I I can't.
EASY: Hey, hey, Declan.
Abuse is cyclical.
Now, you were only doing what you were taught.
It's time to break the cycle.
[CRYING.]
I think it was me.
[SNIFFLES.]
I think I killed her.
DECLAN: Gabrielle wouldn't come out of her room.
They said she was depressed.
My dad was playing golf, so it was just my grandma and I taking care of Amelia.
She asked me to watch her while she went to the bathroom.
We were in the kitchen.
I was I was trying to watch a video.
Amelia wouldn't stop crying.
I got irritated.
I kicked the high chair.
It-it slid across the floor, and she slammed her head against the wall.
MADELINE: Your Honor, this is the make of high chair that the family used.
Note that the bruising on Amelia is consistent with the high chair strap.
Declan, what happened after Amelia hit her head? I asked my grandmother if it was my fault.
And she said no, that it was Gabrielle's.
That Gabrielle never wanted Amelia.
She made me swear never to tell anyone what happened.
In my family you learn to do as you're told or suffer the consequences.
Declan, what are the consequences? When I was eight and talked back, Grandma twisted my arm so hard she broke it.
She told my mom I fell off a horse.
My first memory ever is of my grandma throwing a marble chess piece at my head.
My dad was clueless, but my mom f-figured out I'm so sorry, Gabby.
I-I didn't know.
I didn't know.
Thank you, Declan.
Nothing further, Your Honor.
No questions, Your Honor.
MADELINE: Your Honor, the defense moves to vacate JUDGE: I'll save you the trouble, Ms.
Scott.
Ms.
Parcell, I would like to personally apologize for everything you've been through and offer condolences for the death of your child.
You're free to go.
[GAVEL BANGING.]
One moment, please.
While it's not part of the current matter before this court, I find it necessary to address Deborah Vandenhey directly.
If not for the statute of limitations, I would issue a warrant for your arrest on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and child abuse.
This court cannot punish you.
But rest assured, madam, you will be judged harshly in the court of public opinion.
- Court adjourned.
- [GAVEL BANGS.]
[GALLERY MURMURING QUIETLY.]
Thank you.
Thank you.
- You're welcome.
- [BOTH LAUGHING.]
I'm glad we finally got to the truth.
- Clay, don't even start.
- No, no.
I don't know what to say, e-except I'm sorry.
For everything.
I appreciate that.
- I'm so, so sorry, Gabrielle.
- Oh, no.
No.
It was an accident.
You were just a child, and I don't blame you at all.
So please don't blame yourself.
Mom.
VIOLET: Criminal prosecutions are about punishment, not healing.
But when I look around, I don't see a world that's lacking in retribution.
- I see a world suffering.
- [REPORTERS CLAMORING.]
There is a deep, dark pain stirring in many of us.
We're afraid to be shaken out of that pain because it feels safe and familiar.
Like we need it to survive.
But the opposite is true.
We need to shine a light onto the darkness.
We need to face that pain and see it, because that is the only way we will truly heal.
BODIE: Hey, you made it! Come on in here.
It's freezing out.
How you doing, little man? What do you think? Handshake? Fist bump? Slap me some skin like 1977.
No? - How about a hug? - Yeah.
- [CHUCKLES.]
- Oh, what is that? Who brought the hot dogs and the chicken tenders and the chips and the Do you like that stuff? - Yes.
- Get it.
BODIE: Like a Dobermann in a meat factory.
So, uh, hey, what are we doing here? - We're eating junk food.
- Yeah, I can see that.
I've been working on this case, right? And it's made me realize that if kids don't have strong role models, they can get pretty screwed up.
- So? - So you make me a better person.
And I think that I might even be able to be a good example for Nathan.
And I love you, and I think that maybe together, you-you and me could ma NATHAN: Gross.
NIKKI: Hey, k-kissing's not gross.
- Yeah, it is.
- [LAUGHTER.]
Hey.
Have you ever flown like Superman before? - Not really.
- You're gonna fly today, my man! [LAUGHTER.]
BELLOWS: Has it been 16 years? Seems like yesterday.
You've certainly become a fine young woman.
Well, you haven't done so bad for yourself, either.
- I donated to your campaign.
- Really? - Thank you.
- My pleasure.
So, why exactly did you want to meet with me? I've been revisiting the Rosemary Lynch case.
VIOLET: In your case, as in Gabrielle's, the prosecution used outdated, misogynistic tropes about how women should behave.
They kept the truth in the dark, and they allowed this suffering to continue.
I think, in Gabrielle's case, the prosecution just believed another version of the truth.
Have you ever seen this lantern before? I don't think so.
Why? It was found at the bottom of Cathedral Cove.
It has been proven to be the weapon that was used to kill Rosemary.
MADELINE: I mean, they weren't evil.
They were just convinced of the guilt of their defendant.
If someone were to have been seen with this lantern the night that Rosemary was murdered we could arrest that someone.
Yeah.
I remember it now.
After Madeline and Rosemary had the fight, Madeline chased after Rosemary.
She was carrying that lantern.
MADELINE: And that earnest belief, that unrelenting commitment to justice, blinded them from seeing any evidence of innocence.
- EASY: Excuse me, what's going on? - WOMAN: Can we help you? - What the hell is this? - MADELINE: Easy? What's happening? BELLOWS: Madeline Scott, you are under arrest, for the murder of Rosemary Lynch.
[SHUTTER CLICKING.]
NIKKI: Bodie meet Nathan.
It's why I've been afraid to give this a real shot.
You still want to do this? BELLOWS: Without the murder weapon, any new case against Madeline Scott is a nonstarter.
I've considered dredging Quarry Lake.
LODGE: If you don't find anything, you'll be crucified.
You can forget about becoming A.
G.
Dredge the lake.
[METALLIC CREAKING.]
[MACHINERY WHIRRING.]
The drones have covered 76% of the floor of the cove.
We've discovered 11 potential murder weapons.
Make that 12.
GRETA: Men and their toys.
Is all this really necessary? Drones are more discreet than divers.
And ten times more expensive.
Isabel, would you mind? Of course.
I would appreciate it if you would not discuss the finances for this expedition in front of any of the employees.
Don't worry, Gore.
They already know you're violating a dozen campaign laws to pay for this.
I have to keep it off the books so I can keep it out of the press.
I'm gonna find the murder weapon.
I'm gonna make an arrest.
And not a single person on the entire planet will care where the money came from.
But if you don't find the murder weapon, and the disclosures are made public, you're in a lot of trouble.
Madeline Scott is guilty.
I will go to my grave proving it.
And your grave might just be a prison cell.
[DOORBELL BUZZING.]
[WHIMPERS.]
Oh, God, you're my hero.
"Good morning, brother.
Thanks for waking up so early - "and bringing me my coffee.
" - Are these my muffins? "And muffins.
" Yeah.
So I matched the initials to a bunch of girls who went to our high school.
All of them seem like the type that would be involved in something strange like this, but there's a few I couldn't match.
Okay, "JS," that's gonna be, uh, Julie Selewicz, um, which would make that Elaine Sweeney, Lisa Guzman and Lisa Harrington.
How do you know all that? 'Cause they were part of the cool crowd at Sacred Heart, and I had a thing for Catholic girls back in the day.
Don't tell me you hooked up with all the girls at Sacred Heart.
No, no, not all of them, just most of them.
Mm-mmm.
- I'm serious, get going.
- I'm going.
I got it.
You're getting really good at this.
Oh, uh, feed Atticus.
Gotcha.
SNYDER: I was the leading expert on shaken baby syndrome in Cook County.
I testified in hundreds of cases.
[OVER TV.]
: We believed a triad of symptoms, when manifested in isolation, could only be caused by a caretaker shaking a baby to death.
But now we know that the triad can be caused by undiagnosed illnesses, head trauma or a combination.
There are a lot of people in prison who shouldn't be there.
That's a lot of wrongful convictions.
It's our worst nightmare.
It's a nightmare my sister's been living for ten years.
She was convicted of shaking her baby to death.
EASY: Amelia Vandenhey.
Six months old.
Her mother, Gabrielle, was alone with her the same day the medical examiner said she was injured.
Gabrielle was also diagnosed with severe postpartum depression.
Which the prosecution twisted to make her look like a homicidal maniac.
Gabrielle knew she was depressed.
It made her the most careful mother.
She loved Amelia.
She just h-had a hard time showing it.
Shaken baby cases have some of the highest conviction rates.
You convince a jury that a defendant is a bad mother, most of the time, the prosecution can just paper over any lack of physical evidence.
But what really convicted her was the medical examiner's testimony.
He said the only possible cause of death was shaking.
Who was the M.
E.
? He was.
GABRIELLE: Amelia hadn't cried for hours.
I thought it was the first time that she had slept through the night.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
But when I checked on her, she wasn't moving.
And her skin was ice-cold.
It was the worst moment of my life.
And then they said that I did it.
And everyone turned on me, including my own husband.
And I never even got a chance to say goodbye to her.
I'm so sorry, Gabrielle.
I'm sorry that you went through this, too.
Thanks.
EASY: The most damning moment of your trial was when your mother-in-law testified that you said you fantasized about getting rid of your child.
You know who she is, right? Deborah Vandenhey, of the Chicago Vandenheys.
Owners of one of the largest privately-owned banks in the U.
S.
So you didn't say that? No, I did say it.
And it's horrible.
All I wanted I wanted to be a good mom.
But Amelia, uh her crying Her crying was like nails on a chalkboard, and breastfeeding hurt.
I didn't want to be around her.
KIRSTEN: You didn't hurt her.
I was afraid that I might.
But I never did.
I made sure of it.
I took my meds.
I saw my doctor.
MADELINE: Tell us about the day before Amelia died.
Nothing nothing happened.
Literally, nothing.
She slept, and I watched and I watched her.
I may not have known how to connect to her, but I loved her.
I didn't kill her.
Imagine: you're a new mother struggling with postpartum depression, unable to bond with your baby - the way you're expected to.
- [BABY CRYING.]
Do you hide this feeling, and risk harming yourself and your baby? Or do you confide in someone your dark secret and risk their scorn? [BABY WAILING.]
If you're brave, you do the right thing and open up about your struggles.
You make sure your baby is safe.
But what happens if the baby mysteriously dies, an overzealous prosecutor uses your honesty against you, a doctor you don't even know testifies that science, says that you shook your baby to death? How do you go on? How do you keep from thinking, that you should have hidden your truth, pocketed it away and just endured the pain? On this week's episode of Until Proven Innocent, we'll discuss the case of Gabrielle Parcell, a woman who told her truth, and she paid for her honesty.
But now she has the opportunity to fight back.
SNYDER: Illnesses like meningitis, hemophilia, even vitamin deficiencies, mimic the signs of SBS.
Common household accidents like falling from a seated position can cause the type of head trauma I observed in this case.
MADELINE: In light of recent advancements in medical science, in your expert opinion, what was the cause of death of Amelia Vandenhey? Head trauma.
But it's impossible to know the cause of that without further testing.
Thank you.
Shaken baby syndrome is still a legitimate diagnosis, correct? Objection.
Shaken baby syndrome is an accusation, not a diagnosis.
- Sustained.
- I'll rephrase.
In your expert opinion, is it possible, to shake a baby to death? It is.
But I would only determine that to be the cause of death if I had excluded everything else.
And when Amelia's tiny, cold corpse was on your examination EASY: Objection! Inflammatory.
Sustained.
Ms.
Moriarty, I'm loath to agree with Ms.
Scott and Mr.
Boudreau, but what are we doing here? There's no jury present.
Spare the theatrics.
Theatrics are what these cases are all about, Your Honor.
That was not an invitation to the peanut gallery, Ms.
Scott.
Zip it.
There's a witness.
Use him.
MORIARTY: Dr.
Snyder, you testified at trial that the only day Amelia could have been injured was the day before she died, didn't you? I did.
But my expert opinion has changed.
Will it change again tomorrow? - BOTH: Objection! - I get the gist, Ms.
Moriarty.
But, counselors, without a specific reason to believe there may have been another cause of death, I'm not inclined to vacate a murder conviction.
But, Judge, we're merely seeking access to the autopsy slides and tissue samples so we can determine if something else caused Amelia's death.
Y-Your Honor, I-if I may.
I just want to make sure I didn't get it wrong.
Fine.
Motion to inspect the scientific evidence granted.
Court adjourned.
[ELEVATOR BELL DINGS.]
You should be ashamed of yourself.
Hiring a couple of shyster lawyers, to dredge up these horrid memories - of my poor granddaughter.
- Please, Deborah, you don't care about Amelia.
You don't care about anyone but yourself.
- Kirsten, that's not fair.
- Shut up, Clay.
All right, let's all just stay calm.
Hi.
I'm Madeline Scott.
Easy Boudreau, shyster-at-law.
You people are profiting off a lunatic woman and her dead baby.
- She killed my granddaughter.
- [ELEVATOR BELL DINGS.]
What my mother is trying to say is Your family is trash.
- Classy.
- EASY: Hmm.
SNYDER: This is evidence of a brain bleed.
Ten years ago I saw one brain bleed which started within 24 hours before death.
But with new medical advances, I can slice the tissue samples thinner and see blood leveling, which shows this brain bleed started earlier.
So, the prosecution's theory that Amelia was injured on Tuesday Was wrong.
Amelia could have been injured up to five days earlier.
When someone else was with her.
Do you know what could have caused the injury? I've ruled out most illnesses, except one.
If she had something called factor XIII clotting disorder, much less force like something as simple as a fall on the floor could have been fatal.
Why didn't you bring this up at trial? I saw the triad, did a basic check for other medical problems I assumed it was shaken baby.
And when the prosecutor told me the mother had postpartum depression, I got confirmation bias.
[SIGHS.]
Medical tunnel vision.
Right.
So, what now? I can run a blood coagulation panel to determine if she had the disorder, but I need blood samples - from both parents.
- EASY: Hmm.
Well, mom's not gonna be a problem, but But the dad? Mama's boy? He just might be.
So, if Amelia could die from a random accident, there could be hundreds of women in prison for shaking their babies, when really, it was something as simple as a fall on the floor.
Sadly yes.
Oh, my God.
CLAY: If it was a disease, wouldn't they have already discovered it? Once "SBS" was written in Amelia's file, investigators stopped looking for a disease and started looking for a murderer.
MADELINE: There's a chance your daughter died of a congenital blood disorder.
To know for sure, we're gonna need a blood sample from you.
You didn't see how Gabrielle was acting.
She wouldn't even go near Amelia.
Broke my heart.
That was postpartum depression.
It doesn't mean she killed Amelia.
[EASY SIGHS.]
You know, we just learned prosecution got the timeline wrong.
They could have got a lot of things wrong.
If it were my kid, I'd want to know what really happened.
Okay.
Okay, I'll do the blood test.
But for Amelia.
Not for Gabrielle.
The whole Nathan thing just kind of - well, it surprised me.
- Yeah.
You should have told me about it earlier so I didn't make a fool of myself.
[CHUCKLES.]
Well, I'm sorry.
But I'm new at this, too.
But you told me you wanted to get real, you know, Nathan's a big part of my life, and you want to be in my life, - you got to know about Nathan.
- I do.
I I do.
I'm crazy about you.
But? But-but nothing.
I'm just processing this.
Oh, all right, okay.
Well, uh, you keep processing.
I'm gonna take care of Nathan.
What, you're leaving? Yeah.
I got to pick up the kid.
- Okay.
- Look, um no hard feelings if this is too much reality.
We started off just having fun.
So I get it if this is too deep.
Thanks.
That's actually really cool of you.
[LAUGHING.]
: Yeah, well uh, you're basically a man-child anyway, so it's probably a really bad idea.
Take care, Bodie.
- [DOOR CLOSES.]
- [CHUCKLES.]
A man-child? EASY: All right, bad news.
Clay tested negative for the blood disorder, which means Amelia didn't die of an illness.
So something else happened.
We just need to figure out what.
I don't want to rain on everyone's innocence parade here, but it's not looking good for our client.
We don't know if there was abuse, Bodie.
All we know is that Amelia was injured - the week before she died.
- Right.
And it could have been Gabrielle who did it.
She said she wanted to get rid of the baby.
Look at the M.
E.
's report a little bit closer.
You'll see that there's a bruise across Amelia's chest.
It looks like a belt mark.
That's evidence of abuse.
Or it's evidence of an accident.
Maybe an accident caused both the chest bruise and the head trauma.
A fall from as little as one foot high can generate twice the force an adult can generate shaking an infant.
Yeah, but that leaves us with an almost impossible task.
How do we find out if an infant fell ten years after the fact? We investigate.
We keep searching, but we don't give up.
[GRUNTING.]
GABRIELLE: If this was an accident, then this is my fault.
- You can't think that way, Gabby.
- No I was her mother.
I was supposed to-to protect her.
Something happened to Amelia, and I didn't know.
MADELINE: I know this is difficult, but we need your help if we're going to get to the bottom of this and get you out of here.
The medical examiner from your first trial now thinks that the injury could have happened as many as five days before Amelia's death.
Do you remember any accidents? I was hazy on antidepressants, so I stayed in my room a lot.
The mother-in-law, Deborah, was taking care of her quite a bit.
Wait.
What? There was a car accident.
- Are you serious? - Yeah.
It was, uh, four days before Amelia died.
Clay was driving her to a doctor's appointment with Deborah.
How bad was the accident? Clay said it wasn't bad at all, but I I remember that his car needed some body work.
My attorney at trial told me, that that was irrelevant, 'cause he said that the injuries definitely happened on Tuesday.
- Is it possible? - Yes.
It's very possible.
It's a big lead.
VIOLET: I seriously doubt.
Deborah Vandenhey is gonna talk to us.
Sure she will.
Rich ladies understand the power of a subpoena.
[LAUGHS.]
Believe me, she'd rather answer our questions here than in court.
VIOLET [CHUCKLES.]
: Wow.
DEBORAH: Nothing stands out about the week before Amelia died.
My son and I were taking care of her.
Unfortunately, her mother was no help whatsoever.
Well, we understand that you and your son got into a car accident with her.
The fender bender? Amelia was strapped into her rear-facing car seat.
Nothing happened to her.
She slept through the whole thing.
And you never took her to the doctor? As a matter of fact, we did.
We were on our way to see him anyway.
He checked Amelia thoroughly.
She didn't even have a bruise.
Did anyone other than you and Clay help to look after the baby, like, um - like a nanny? - Maybe Charles here.
DEBORAH: I don't believe in outsourcing childcare.
Charles cares for the house, not for the people in it.
Thank you, Charles.
Do you remember Amelia having a fall of any kind? Off a bed or a couch? No, I don't.
Amelia didn't fall.
And as I understand it, the timeline may have shifted, but that doesn't mean Gabrielle didn't shake her.
But there were other people alone with Amelia.
For example, her father, Clay.
And Clay had a son from his first marriage.
Uh, Declan.
He was ten at the time, right? Declan was away at boarding school.
He only had the pleasure of meeting Amelia once, when she was born.
And Clay was wonderful with Amelia.
You seem very convinced.
This is a strong, loving and tight-knit family.
We take care of our children.
We love our children.
We protect our children.
The only harm that came to Amelia was at the hands of a woman I deeply regret ever married my son.
I told Clay she wasn't good enough for our family, and I was tragically right.
Charles? Now, if that's all, Charles will see you out.
Hi, Charles.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER.]
Declan Vandenhey? - Yeah.
- I'm Bodie Quick.
Ezekiel Boudreau.
We represent your stepmom, Gabrielle Parcell.
Gabrielle's in prison.
We work on wrongful conviction cases.
You think she didn't do it? There's new science that shows she probably didn't.
We'd like to ask you a few questions about who was taking care of Amelia.
I can't talk right now.
I'm at work.
Work study? What is this, an exercise in character building? What do you mean? I mean, there are buildings on this campus named after your family.
You don't exactly need help with tuition.
I'm not close to my grandmother.
I don't want her money.
And I can't help you.
I barely knew Amelia.
Why aren't you close to your grandmother? What happened? Look, I don't want to have anything to do with that family.
Truly terrible people.
BODIE: How about your dad? How did he behave after Amelia was born? [SIGHS.]
I don't want anything to do with my dad, either.
I don't even speak to him, okay? And like I said, I have to get back to work.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER.]
There's nothing more touching than a loving and devoted son.
Why do you think Declan has a terrible relationship with his dad? I don't know.
Infidelity to his mother.
Emotionally unavailable.
- A thousand ways to screw up a kid.
- [EASY LAUGHS.]
Parenthood is a minefield.
Like you would know.
Look, here's the thing.
So, Nikki's got a kid.
She Her sister has a kid.
Had-had a kid.
Nikki's Nikki's raising a kid.
That's the deal.
Damn.
Scaring you off? No.
I thought about it a lot.
- I'm not scared.
- No.
- I'm terrified.
- Oh She called me a man-child, and she's right.
I dress up like a ninja.
What makes one a man-child can also make them a terrific father.
- Yeah? - You might have a great relationship with the kid.
Yeah.
Or I'll stab him with a sword by accident, and then you and Madeline will have to exonerate me for ninja baby syndrome.
All right, listen, here's the thing.
You're never ready to have a kid.
Irene and I did everything according to plan, and I live in a hotel now.
We got separated.
Dude.
You all right? Hey, listen.
I love everything about my kids.
I wouldn't undo anything in my life.
So you're saying I should do this.
Uh, I can't make that decision for you.
Come on, Easy, please.
Please.
Please make this decision for me, man.
Yeah, you got to decide for yourself, brother.
EASY: He truly hates his father.
Is it possible Clay was abusive and the mother didn't see it? - Or didn't want to? - It's possible, but Clay seemed genuinely hopeful about finding out what happened to Amelia.
Can I help you? I'm Frances Bonnett, Clay Vandenhey's ex-wife.
I got a phone call from Ezekiel Boudreau.
Just call me Easy.
Come on in.
FRANCES: I felt sorry for Gabrielle.
I wanted to warn her about the Vandenheys.
But when Clay and I divorced, I received a substantial settlement.
That came with strings.
- You signed an NDA.
- If I talk to you about anything, an army of lawyers will come and take everything that I have.
And you have something to say.
You could have told us about the NDA over the phone.
MADELINE: Just point us in the right direction.
I promise we won't bring you into it at all.
There was abuse in that family.
- MADELINE: Clay? - No.
He was the one being abused by Deborah.
She beat him as a kid.
And I can't prove it, but I think she hurt Declan, too.
MADELINE: What makes you say that? When Declan was eight, he came home from a weekend at Grandma's lake house with a broken arm.
She told me he fell off a horse.
But by the way he was acting I know when my son's lying to me.
I tried to tell Clay.
But Deborah has a weird hold on him.
So then I sent Declan to boarding school, and [CLEARS THROAT.]
Clay and I broke up a few months later.
Do you think Deborah hurt Amelia? It wouldn't surprise me.
At all.
You don't find what you want, so you just start accusing other members of my family, huh? We understand your anger, Clay, but we know your mother abused you.
- You don't know anything! - EASY: We do.
We know you're a grown man who needs to stop covering for his mother.
We know that your mother abused you and your son Declan.
My mother never laid a hand on Declan.
[SIGHS.]
Remember Declan's horseback riding accident when he was eight years old? Been talking to my ex-wife.
Your ex-wife signed an NDA.
We've been talking to a lot of people.
[SIGHS.]
You knew Declan didn't fall off that horse, didn't you? Declan told us he doesn't speak to you anymore.
That he doesn't want anything to do with you.
Isn't reconciling with your son more important than protecting your abusive mother? She can't hurt you anymore.
Declan was an exceptional rider.
I didn't want to believe that she was doing to him the same thing that she had done to me.
MADELINE: She hurt him.
And you.
Don't you think it's possible she also hurt Amelia? No.
No.
No, she loved Amelia.
I'm sure she loved you and Declan, too.
But this has got to stop now.
If she did something to hurt Amelia, I know would have helped her cover it up.
Does your mother know you're here? I don't need her permission for anything.
Especially if it concerns my own children.
Declan is now over 18.
So the law says I can only share his records with him.
As for Amelia, we closed her file years ago.
Uh, I'll have to search for it.
- I'll get it back to you.
- That sounds like a runaround.
Every time my mother hurt me, I got to come see Dr.
O'Barr.
You gave me candy, you spoke to me kindly, but you never reported it to the police, did you? I don't know what you're talking about, Clay.
Sure you do.
I spent ten years in prison and the next seven practicing criminal law.
I've seen all kinds of evil.
But a pediatrician who profits from covering up child abuse MADELINE: Got to be the worst kind of evil.
VIOLET: Special place in hell type of evil.
Careful.
Spurious allegations are called defamation.
Actually, it's only defamation if it isn't true.
I think you people need to leave.
We're leaving.
But we're not going away.
We'll be back with a subpoena.
And after we find what we need in those records We're gonna make it all public.
I'm sure someone else will be back for your medical license.
Yeah, it's Jeffrey.
Oh, my goodness, Mrs.
Vandenhey, you can't just barge in here, without an appointment.
- This is highly inappropriate.
- I don't need an appointment.
- You realize - Who the hell do you people think you are? - Hello, Mrs.
Vandenhey.
- Jeffrey called me the minute you left his office.
You can't go around harassing the people who work for me.
We can if they're protecting child abusers.
Isn't that precisely what you people are doing? You're protecting the abuser who was convicted, of murdering my granddaughter.
That's not what it looks like to us.
We spoke to your son.
You manipulated him.
My lawyers are drafting a cease and desist order.
Then a lawsuit.
We'll destroy you with legal fees alone.
- You scared, Easy? - Petrified.
What are you afraid we'll find? You may have bullied my son, Ms.
Scott, but you won't bully me.
Kate.
[VIOLET GRUNTS.]
LEVI: Okay, so I think I figured out, who all the girls are.
Get this.
All these girls they were there that night.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER.]
I also pulled the deed from that creepy house.
It turns out it was owned by some company called.
Karna-Surya-Kunti, Inc.
"Surya" means sun in Sanskrit.
Right, right, you just happen to know that? I did a lot of reading in the prison library.
Eastern religions was a fave.
Okay.
Hey, by the way, check this out.
This is a painting from another room in the house.
They made it into some sort of spiritual room or something.
What's this "R" about? It's got to be a name, right? All right, if we stay in Eastern names, there's Raj, uh, Rishni, Rashneesh.
Ravi is the Hindu god of the sun.
Wow.
Okay, this is getting really weird.
No.
It actually makes perfect sense.
Eastern religious symbolism, drugs, a secretive group of young girls.
- Levi, it was a cult.
- Oh, come on.
You really believe that-that Rosemary would join a cult? I think that, clearly, we didn't know her as well as we thought we did.
Okay, if "R" is a person's name, then that has to be the leader, right? - Right.
- Every cult has a guru.
Keith Raniere, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh - Charles Manson.
- All charismatic manipulators who promise enlightenment, and then dupe their followers into doing whatever they want.
Keith Raniere had all his girls on a crazy low-calorie diet.
Kept them skinny and mentally unstable.
Well, that would explain the Adderall.
That's what I'm thinking.
ROSEMARY: Do you want to be a virgin in college? No.
Do you? No.
So let's get it over with.
Right before she died, Rosemary was fixated on us losing our virginity.
I thought it was about the two of us going off to college.
It was probably this.
You think she was recruiting you.
All I know is that this cult is the key to what happened that night.
We have to talk to Linda Barrett again.
No, Heather Husband has Linda Barrett shut down, she's scared to talk.
Who else is there? Oh, let me see.
Wait.
Sarah Tawney.
She sent me a Christmas card in prison.
She said she believed we were innocent.
Maybe that's because she knows who's guilty.
SARAH: I was under his spell.
We all were.
He was so handsome.
Listen, did you, um did you have sex with Ravi? What did Linda tell you? She said that you all had sex with him.
He made us believe that sex was the path to enlightenment.
It was so screwed up.
But at the time, it felt like my salvation.
High school was horrible for me.
I was insecure, fat.
I didn't know where I belonged.
I was Maybe it's a teenage girl thing, but I felt unworthy.
Ravi changed all that.
So, how long was Rosemary in the group? She was one of the first to join.
She loved it.
Rosemary had a wild side.
She instantly became Ravi's favorite.
That piss the other girls off? It pissed off Heather Dupinski.
She was the star until Rosemary came along.
Listen, um do you think that-that Heather could have possibly killed Rosemary over this? Look, I-I got to get back to work.
I'd really appreciate if you didn't tell anybody I was involved in all of this.
I just Even though it happened a long time ago, it really screwed my life up.
- Please? - I'll get going.
Thank you for this information.
Yeah.
What are you doing with my money? - Hi, Rick.
- Hello, Gore.
What do you mean, your money? I'm hearing whispers, about my funds being used for non-campaign activities.
Come on, Gore, I've got ears everywhere.
Okay.
I'll tell you.
But I have to ask for your discretion.
This is really big.
I don't want it to leak.
Well, I'm nothing if not discreet.
The money went to the campaign, in a manner of speaking.
I used it to search the lake at Cathedral Cove.
Why'd you do that? To finish what I started.
And the campaign manager you thrust on me told me if I found new evidence implicating Madeline Scott in the Lynch murder, I would dominate every news cycle.
Well, he's right.
[CHUCKLES.]
So, did you? This old lantern matches the head wound on Rosemary Lynch.
I finally found the murder weapon, after all these years.
Let me see that.
- You sure about that, huh? - Yes.
The M.
E.
confirmed it.
The contusion in her skull matches that lantern.
The same metal fragments were lodged in her brain.
It's just a matter of time, before I connect it to Madeline Scott.
This isn't a lark, Rick.
This is justice.
I would sacrifice my entire political career for it.
Well, if you can connect this lantern to Madeline Scott, you won't have to sacrifice anything.
You arrest her before the polls close you'll win by a landslide.
It looks like they covered their tracks pretty well.
Yep.
Nothing but general wellness checkups and standard blood tests.
O'Barr is their private concierge doctor.
If they had something to hide, he may not have kept a record of it.
VIOLET: Wait a second.
Didn't Deborah say that Declan was at boarding school in the days before the baby's death? Yes, when she was bragging about not outsourcing childcare.
Well, it says here he got a flu shot on the Saturday before Amelia died.
He was home? Why would Deborah lie about that? DECLAN: I already told you, I have nothing more to say about my father.
MADELINE: What about your grandmother? - What about her? - She said you were at school the week your sister died, but Dr.
O'Barr gave you a flu shot on Saturday.
You were home.
Why would your grandmother lie about that? You should ask her.
Were you with Amelia that weekend, Declan? - Did something happen? - N-No.
Doctor said Amelia got hurt on Tuesday.
I was already back at school.
The doctor's timeline was revised.
It shows Amelia's injury probably happened over the weekend.
The weekend? Yes.
Declan, we know that your grandmother hurt you and that she asked you to keep quiet about everything.
I I can't.
EASY: Hey, hey, Declan.
Abuse is cyclical.
Now, you were only doing what you were taught.
It's time to break the cycle.
[CRYING.]
I think it was me.
[SNIFFLES.]
I think I killed her.
DECLAN: Gabrielle wouldn't come out of her room.
They said she was depressed.
My dad was playing golf, so it was just my grandma and I taking care of Amelia.
She asked me to watch her while she went to the bathroom.
We were in the kitchen.
I was I was trying to watch a video.
Amelia wouldn't stop crying.
I got irritated.
I kicked the high chair.
It-it slid across the floor, and she slammed her head against the wall.
MADELINE: Your Honor, this is the make of high chair that the family used.
Note that the bruising on Amelia is consistent with the high chair strap.
Declan, what happened after Amelia hit her head? I asked my grandmother if it was my fault.
And she said no, that it was Gabrielle's.
That Gabrielle never wanted Amelia.
She made me swear never to tell anyone what happened.
In my family you learn to do as you're told or suffer the consequences.
Declan, what are the consequences? When I was eight and talked back, Grandma twisted my arm so hard she broke it.
She told my mom I fell off a horse.
My first memory ever is of my grandma throwing a marble chess piece at my head.
My dad was clueless, but my mom f-figured out I'm so sorry, Gabby.
I-I didn't know.
I didn't know.
Thank you, Declan.
Nothing further, Your Honor.
No questions, Your Honor.
MADELINE: Your Honor, the defense moves to vacate JUDGE: I'll save you the trouble, Ms.
Scott.
Ms.
Parcell, I would like to personally apologize for everything you've been through and offer condolences for the death of your child.
You're free to go.
[GAVEL BANGING.]
One moment, please.
While it's not part of the current matter before this court, I find it necessary to address Deborah Vandenhey directly.
If not for the statute of limitations, I would issue a warrant for your arrest on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and child abuse.
This court cannot punish you.
But rest assured, madam, you will be judged harshly in the court of public opinion.
- Court adjourned.
- [GAVEL BANGS.]
[GALLERY MURMURING QUIETLY.]
Thank you.
Thank you.
- You're welcome.
- [BOTH LAUGHING.]
I'm glad we finally got to the truth.
- Clay, don't even start.
- No, no.
I don't know what to say, e-except I'm sorry.
For everything.
I appreciate that.
- I'm so, so sorry, Gabrielle.
- Oh, no.
No.
It was an accident.
You were just a child, and I don't blame you at all.
So please don't blame yourself.
Mom.
VIOLET: Criminal prosecutions are about punishment, not healing.
But when I look around, I don't see a world that's lacking in retribution.
- I see a world suffering.
- [REPORTERS CLAMORING.]
There is a deep, dark pain stirring in many of us.
We're afraid to be shaken out of that pain because it feels safe and familiar.
Like we need it to survive.
But the opposite is true.
We need to shine a light onto the darkness.
We need to face that pain and see it, because that is the only way we will truly heal.
BODIE: Hey, you made it! Come on in here.
It's freezing out.
How you doing, little man? What do you think? Handshake? Fist bump? Slap me some skin like 1977.
No? - How about a hug? - Yeah.
- [CHUCKLES.]
- Oh, what is that? Who brought the hot dogs and the chicken tenders and the chips and the Do you like that stuff? - Yes.
- Get it.
BODIE: Like a Dobermann in a meat factory.
So, uh, hey, what are we doing here? - We're eating junk food.
- Yeah, I can see that.
I've been working on this case, right? And it's made me realize that if kids don't have strong role models, they can get pretty screwed up.
- So? - So you make me a better person.
And I think that I might even be able to be a good example for Nathan.
And I love you, and I think that maybe together, you-you and me could ma NATHAN: Gross.
NIKKI: Hey, k-kissing's not gross.
- Yeah, it is.
- [LAUGHTER.]
Hey.
Have you ever flown like Superman before? - Not really.
- You're gonna fly today, my man! [LAUGHTER.]
BELLOWS: Has it been 16 years? Seems like yesterday.
You've certainly become a fine young woman.
Well, you haven't done so bad for yourself, either.
- I donated to your campaign.
- Really? - Thank you.
- My pleasure.
So, why exactly did you want to meet with me? I've been revisiting the Rosemary Lynch case.
VIOLET: In your case, as in Gabrielle's, the prosecution used outdated, misogynistic tropes about how women should behave.
They kept the truth in the dark, and they allowed this suffering to continue.
I think, in Gabrielle's case, the prosecution just believed another version of the truth.
Have you ever seen this lantern before? I don't think so.
Why? It was found at the bottom of Cathedral Cove.
It has been proven to be the weapon that was used to kill Rosemary.
MADELINE: I mean, they weren't evil.
They were just convinced of the guilt of their defendant.
If someone were to have been seen with this lantern the night that Rosemary was murdered we could arrest that someone.
Yeah.
I remember it now.
After Madeline and Rosemary had the fight, Madeline chased after Rosemary.
She was carrying that lantern.
MADELINE: And that earnest belief, that unrelenting commitment to justice, blinded them from seeing any evidence of innocence.
- EASY: Excuse me, what's going on? - WOMAN: Can we help you? - What the hell is this? - MADELINE: Easy? What's happening? BELLOWS: Madeline Scott, you are under arrest, for the murder of Rosemary Lynch.
[SHUTTER CLICKING.]