01x03 - They Took Me Down

[bunniefuu]

[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 m*rder.

LAURIE: The grand jury

indicted Kaitlyn Conley

on a charge of m*rder

in the second degree.

It was--you know,

it's a very serious charge.

You can't get much more

serious than m*rder

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 m*rder indictment.

This is real.

- So it was a time

for confession.

I said, Katie,

what's going on?

Did you k*ll 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 m*rder 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 as*ault.

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 r*pe 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 m*rder, 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 m*rder 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 m*rder 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 m*rder 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 m*rder 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 m*rder cases

I've handled,

the decision to k*ll

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 k*lling,

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 k*ll his mom,

am I gonna play a little game

with myself

and choose "Adamisgay"

as a password?

You bet your a*s I am.

- I have never, ever in my life

used g*y 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 k*ll 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 k*lled Yoder,

but rather her son,

Conley's ex-boyfriend

and the person he says

set Conley up

for the m*rder 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 r*pe.

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 k*lling 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 k*ll,

and so that's not m*rder.

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 m*rder charge

and the manslaughter charge

so that if they didn't convict

of m*rder, 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 m*rder,

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 m*rder,

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

m*rder*d 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 f*cking

k*lled 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 k*ller.

Kaitlyn Conley

k*lled my mother,

and she is absolutely

where she belongs.

♪