48 Hours - Double Jeopardy

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

On September 24, 1988, Brenda Sue Schaefer was sexually tortured and murdered in Louisville, Kentucky. Brenda’s boyfriend Mel Ignatow was tried for the crime. Despite the testimony of his ex-girlfriend Mary Ann Shore, who led police to the spot where Brenda Sue’s body was buried, jurors found Ignatow not guilty for lack of evidence. However, six months later new incriminating evidence — Brenda’s jewelry and photos from the night of her murder — were discovered in Ignatow’s former home. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 7/15/2002. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, The Trouble Case Against Crosley Green,

wherever you get your podcasts. Brenda Schaefer was a sweet, trusting young woman. She had no enemies. All she had was friends. Then she met Mel Ignato, successful, established. He really lavished her with gifts. But he was the one person she never should have trusted. These were my last words to her. I said, please don't see him. I'm afraid. This monster somehow got control of her.

What he did to Brenda was unthinkable. We don't come across evil very much in our lives. Pure evil. And he's evil. He even admits killing her, but he'll never serve a day in prison for it. Be the jury, find the defendant not guilty. Brenda's family was stunned by the verdict. Everybody was in shock. It was just like a thunderbolt.

People couldn't believe it. Writer Bob Hill was so outraged, he wrote a book about the case. What he did, the fact he's got away with it all this time. But prosecutors will not give up. Will there be justice for Brenda? We were outwitted by a psychopath. A 48-hour mystery. Double Jeopardy.

America's criminal justice system is generally considered to be the finest and fairest in the world. But is it possible that the very system we depend on to protect us can in some cases prevent justice from being served? For years, a confessed killer walked the streets openly in Louisville, Kentucky. Everyone knows he committed a vicious, premeditated murder, but he will never spend a day in prison for it because as Erin Moriarty explains now, this human predator beat the system. beat the system. There is no mystery about who killed Brenda Schaefer.

Everyone in Louisville, Kentucky knows that this man, Mel Ignato, did it. The mystery is why Ignato remained a free man. It is a question that has consumed writer Bob Hill. The guy got away with murder. Absolutely got away with murder. Thirteen years later, he's still walking around, getting away with murder.

The night he was acquitted was like, where were you when Kennedy was shot? I mean, it was just, the whole community was outraged about the whole thing. They could not understand how this man was free. And still so outraged that Hill, a newspaper columnist for 26 years, sat down and wrote a book about it, Double Jeopardy. It's a tragic tale filled with more twists and turns than the country roads of his home state. It all started on a Saturday night, September 24th, 1988, when 36-year-old Brenda Schaefer disappeared without a trace. Her car was found abandoned less than half a mile from where she lived with her mom and dad.

My mother called me and said, Brenda isn't home yet, and that's not like Brenda. We knew. I don't think our mother believed it, but we knew that she was dead right away. Brenda's brothers, Tom and Mike, feared the worst. So did her best friend, Joyce Basham. I knew she was dead. You knew that right away? I knew that right away. That's the only thing he hadn't done to her. And he had such an obsession with her. He wasn't going to let her go. He was Mel Ignato, the man Brenda had dated for two years. Before she disappeared, she told Joyce she was going to break off the relationship. Early the next morning, the Schaffers gathered at the family home, waiting for some word. Of all the contemptible, detestable things Ignato ever did, he came over here

to the Schaefer family, just totally distraught, held hands around the table and cried and prayed with them, only hours after murdering Brenda Schaefer. He showed up and he started acting really strange. He would pretend to cry, but there weren't any tears. Linda Love was Tom's girlfriend. They were praying and crying, and I was observing Mel, and it was just, you know, there were no tears. There was no emotion. It was a show he put on. He did a lot of things for show, and show was important to him.

And this was the show. My God, we've lost Brenda. Where is she? At one point, I think he even said he's afraid he'd never see her again. He got the family upset by saying he'd never see her again, that she may never come home again. Hell, he just murdered her. Ignato claimed he had last seen Brenda at 11 the night before, when she left his house to drive home. But the family didn't buy his story and went straight to the Jefferson County Police. Detective Jim Wesley is in charge of the Violent Crimes Unit.

From day one, when I was assigned this case, I truly, truly wanted to help these people. So what did you think at first? I knew the next person I needed to talk to was Mel Ignato. He met Ignato, talked to Ignato, and Ignato came on in Ignato-like fashion, very unctuous, very... He's calling him by his first name. He was calling me Jim, and he was saying, Jim, like, you're my buddy, Jim.

And I'm saying to myself, I'm not this man's buddy, and this man has done something. Just from meeting him the first day? Just the first experience sitting at the kitchen table and Mel Ignato on a piece of paper giving us the whole list of the day's events leading up to her disappearance. What do you mean? He was providing his own alibi. Now I'm concocted this tale that was so convoluted that it actually took about a month to trace all those things down. So the police were out searching neighborhoods where Ignato said he'd done things or saw things that were interviewing people that didn't exist. The thrill he got from leading us on so long

is that he felt he had done the perfect crime and he was never going to be caught. Coming up, Mel Ignato turns out to be no ordinary criminal. How did a wholesome hometown girl like Brenda Schaefer get caught in his web? We'll explain that next. Brenda Schaefer was truly a hometown girl. She was born and raised in St. Matthews, a small Louisville community author Bob Hill knows well. She never really left. Never went very far from this community at all, did she?

She was living at home when she was murdered. She'd come back to take care of her mom and to be with mom and dad and the family. She never quite got away. Mom and dad treated her more as a baby longer than the rest of us. Especially Mom. That was her little girl, and that's the last one, and the youngest one, and you try to hang on to them that way as long as you can. To Tom and Mike Schaefer, Brenda was the baby sister they always protected. To Joyce Basham, she was the close friend who worked with her in a local doctor's

office. I knew her for 12 or 13 years. She had no flaws. She had no enemies. All she had was friends. She got along with everyone. The elderly, the babies, everybody. She sounds like a lovable person. She was. You know, there was times when she would leave work, and we're talking about, you know, late, 8, 9 o'clock at night, and that she may go by the home, a patient's home, and take care of her for some reason. Brenda was a church-going Catholic girl who began dating Mel in 1986. She was 34 years old. Ignato, at 48, was 14 years older. She's a beautiful woman with a lot going for her, and yet this monster somehow got control of her and hung on to her. We don't come across evil very much in our lives, pure evil, and he's evil. But Mel Ignata was the image of success, a salesman who drove a Corvette, owned a 32-foot pleasure boat, and lived in an affluent

section of town. He made a good living as a salesman. There are people I've spoken with that liked him, that trusted him, you know, that thought he was a pretty good guy. But when Brenda introduced Mel to friends and family, everyone's initial reaction was skepticism. He was a work of art, I tell you. This guy, he told such outlandish lies and stories to impress people, and no one believed him. LINDA LOVE, Linda Love was the girlfriend of Brenda's brother, Tom.

LINDA LOVE, Tom and I basically both had the same opinion, that he was just extremely obnoxious and really couldn't believe that Brenda was dating him. So what attracted Brenda to Mel? I don't think there really was an attraction. I think that he just saw her and thought, I want her. And Brenda could be awfully assertive and put her foot down with men, but she just couldn't handle Ignato. But Brenda's brothers didn't know the worst of it. Mel Ignato fits one of the most chilling criminal profiles known to the FBI, a rare breed known as the criminal sexual sadist.

The sexual sadist is a person who is aroused by the suffering of another. I refer to them as the great white sharks of the sexual predators. At the time of Brenda's disappearance, Roy Hazelwood was an investigator with the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit and a leading authority on sexually deviant criminals. Louisville authorities called in Hazelwood for help in better understanding their lead suspect. The sexual sadist believes that all women are evil. And to prove that hypothesis, they don't date alcoholics or drug abusers or prostitutes in most instances.

To prove that hypothesis, they date nice middle class women. Then he attempts to seduce, and he uses the same techniques that men and women have used since time began. Attention, affection, gifts. He really lavished her with gifts and stories. Here's a man who had things on the surface, looked pretty good, pretty comfortable. Then he begins to reshape sexual norms of the person. And it's not something that he says, okay, I want you to do this now. It's something that is very, very gradual. He takes her just beyond what she's done in the past. He was really into sodomy and things,

and these are not things that Brenda was, you know, drawn to, and really concerned her, and she talked to me about it. Then he begins to socially isolate her because he doesn't want her sharing this with other people. Then he begins to socially isolate her because he doesn't want her sharing this with other people. He wouldn't allow even me to talk to her if we were out, you know, in a group because he would just totally demand her full attention. No matter where she went, there he was and called constantly to harass her, whether it be at work or at home.

Now she's doing all of these things. And you remember I told you earlier that they believe women are evil. She's doing all of these things. And he says no decent woman would do these things. So I was right. And she needs to be punished. She had told me some really strange things. And one was that she was sleeping and she felt someone standing over her. When she

woke up, it was Mel. He was holding a cloth to her face. Of course, she got very upset. It was a cloth with chloroform. He said that he was trying to help her sleep. And she said, but I was asleep. Didn't she have friends who said, Brenda, you've got to get out of this? All her friends said, Brenda, you've got to get out of this. We talked for months to try to get her to leave. That was real hard for her to do. You don't break up with someone like Mel Ignato. Mel Ignato breaks up with you, but you don't

break up with Mel. And I think he made up his mind to kill her, and so he decided to make it as enjoyable as possible to him in the way he killed her. I begged her not to see him. begged her not to see him. I told her, I said, these were my last words to her. I said, please don't see him. I'm afraid. I said, I'm afraid I'll read about you in the paper. That's the last time I talked to her. Coming up, Brenda Schaefer finally summons the courage to get rid of Mel Ignato. But Ignato had already devised his own violent scheme to dispose of Brenda. to dispose of Brenda. In 2014,

Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military,

and when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch.

It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free, with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. Around Louisville, Kentucky, the investigation into Brenda Schaefer's disappearance was growing by the day. Authorities from the county, state, and even the FBI were now on the case.

And yet Mel Ignato, the leading suspect, appeared confident he would never get caught. Lead investigator Jim Wesley. He was coined to having the Ignato smirk. What's that? It's his smile that he shows for everyone. Mel has never come off his high horse. You believed at that point Mel had killed Brenda?

Yes, I did. But you had no body? No, had no physical evidence at all. So Brenda's brother Tom offered to help come up with some evidence. Wired with an FBI microphone, he met Ignato for dinner, hoping Ignato would slip and give a clue about what happened to Brenda. But Ignato had something else he wanted to discuss. While we're sitting there, he produced a sheet of paper about that long, and it had everything that Brenda had owned. Stocks, certificates, car,

everything. Everything she owned, right there. What was the point? He's sitting across from me, and he says, if she isn't found, she would want me to have this stuff. He wanted the most valuable items, including the insurance on the jewelry that he had stolen off of her body. One of the FBI guys told Tom later,

it's a wonder you didn't kill him right there. Just come across the table and just kill him. I think I wanted to get him so bad that i was willing to put up with anything just to just to get anything out of him nine months after the murder in the summer of 1989 ignato seemed to be flaunting the fact that he was untouchable seldom shying away from the cameras that followed him. He loved the notoriety. He loved the media and the press. So U.S. attorney Scott Cox devised a plan to use Ignato's own thirst for positive publicity

against him. I told his attorney it would be a good idea for him because he could get on the courthouse steps and tell the public that he had volunteered to come down and given his side of it and it would really help him in the whole public relations battle. Was that really your intention, to help Mel Ignato? Of course not. It was just a lure. Cox asked Ignato to voluntarily testify before a federal grand jury to clear his name. And Ignato went for the bait, hook, line, and sinker,

fully aware that if he slipped, authorities could use any incriminating statements against him. He volunteered to testify before a federal grand jury, which was just nuts on the legal level. Just his ego and his arrogance and who he is. The move came as no surprise to FBI behavioral expert Roy Hazelwood. Yes, I call narcissism the Achilles heel of the sexual offender.

They think they are so superior to society in general and law enforcement in particular that, yeah, I know they're going to be attracted to me, but that's going to be kind of exciting. He bluffed the police and the FBI, and now he was going to bluff a federal grand jury. On October 16, 1989, Mel Ignato testified for four hours under oath in a sealed grand jury room. As expected, he denied killing Brenda Schaefer or knowing her whereabouts. But Ignato did give prosecutors a piece of information they didn't have. But Ignato did give prosecutors a piece of information they didn't have. Ignato mentioned he was dating an old girlfriend by the name of Mary Ann Schor. Mary Ann Schor was a former paramour of Mel Ignato's.

Mel knew he could manipulate her, and I'm sure he felt he had no better an accomplice than Mary Ann Shore. Investigators were convinced Mary Ann Shore knew what happened to Brenda. And if he couldn't get Ignato to crack, maybe Detective Wesley would have better luck taking on Mary Ann Shore. I got loud. And I just told her, I said, Mary Ann, I said, Brenda was beautiful. And Mel loved her. And he killed her. And I told her, I said, I said, Mary Ann, I said, Brenda was beautiful and Mel loved her and he killed her. And I told her, I said, you're fat and you're ugly and he's going to kill you too.

You're a dead woman. I'm thinking she's going to tell me the truth now. But then she raised her head and she said, I've got nothing to say. So they called Mary Ann in to testify before a federal grand jury. Cox is thinking, there's something here with Mary Ann Shore. She is the key to this thing. She said she'd seen Brenda one time, and she described how she looked and how she was dressed on the one occasion when she had seen her. And then later on during the interrogation, I asked her another question about Brenda and her looks,

and she said, you mean the last time I saw her? And I said, what do you mean the last time you saw her? You told us ten minutes ago you've only seen her one time. And she basically got up and fled the grand jury room. She ran out? She just stood up and took off. She just flipped. She couldn't deal with that.

Because the last time she'd seen her was during her murder. So at that point you start calling her lawyer? Every day. To tell him what? That we're gonna solve this case eventually, there's no question she's involved in it based on her reaction in the grand jury, and this was his opportunity to potentially save her from getting the death penalty someday.

And finally he came in and said, okay, what if she knows where the body is? What if I know where the body is? And the whole room just, after 13 months, my God, she knows where the body is? The whole room just, after 13 months, my God, she knows where the body is. Investigators finally have a witness, soon a body, and even the lead suspect under arrest. But somehow, Mel Ignata would still get the upper hand. That's next.

As the prime suspect in the murder of Brenda Schaefer, Mel Ignato has bluffed, smirked, and lied his way through more than a year of police interrogations and searches. Even though nearly everyone involved with the case believes he is the killer, there is no hard evidence. But then finally, Ignato slips up. In grand jury testimony, he mentions another woman, Mary Ann Shore, who quickly finds herself being pressured by detectives and questioned in front of the same grand jury. When she finally admits she knows where Brenda Schaefer's body is, it looks like the game is finally up for Mel Ignato. But as Erin Moriarty tells us, and this story vividly illustrates,

appearances can be deceiving. It really was a great feeling to arrest this man. Louisville detective Jim Wesley had waited for this moment for 16 months. I was the one who put the cuffs on him. And in true male form, once again, I was his buddy Jim, right up to the point when I locked him up, it was my buddy Jim. Malignato's former girlfriend, Mary Ann Shore,

cut a deal with prosecutors and told what really happened to Brenda Schaefer the night she disappeared. The details were more horrifying than anyone had imagined. It began here in the house Mary Ann Shore was renting on a busy Louisville street. U.S. Attorney Scott Cox. He had a legal pad where he had written down a list of all the things he wanted to do to her prior to killing her and all the tools and ropes and things that he would need. They screen tested that house.

What do you mean screen test? He had Mary Ann scream inside the house at the top of her lungs and he went out to the street to see if he could hear because he knew when he got Brenda in the house he didn't want the neighbors to hear her scream. Malignato methodically and cruelly planned this night of terror. He got Brenda here by convincing her he wanted her to meet an old friend of his. That's what got her in the house and they locked the doors and he told her she was there actually for a sex therapy class. They forced her to disrobe. They took pictures of her. They tied her to a table. He raped her. She was subjected to an evening of, which is no doubt in my mind, was pure torture.

He took everything away from her, her dignity. He did everything. There was nothing left of Brenda. It went on for hours inside this house. Mary Ann Shore admitted she took part in the horrific abuse, but claimed she was not in the room for the actual murder. Mary Ann said she left the room when Ignato actually murdered her, and he had a bottle of chloroform, and he put chloroform over her mouth until she couldn't breathe anymore. In terms of viciousness of crimes,

where would you put this? At the very top. How much more vicious can you get to plan a murder, to confine a young woman in a house, to torture her, to kill her, and to bury her to where her family has no idea where she is for 16 months? There's nothing more vicious than that. There's nothing more vicious than that.

In the dark woods behind the house, Malignato and Mary Ann Shore buried Brenda's body in a grave they dug weeks in advance. On January 10, 1989, the agonizing search for Brenda Schaefer would come to an end. To see a small bag come up from the ground, I remember standing there and agreeing with everyone else, saying, how could a body be in that bag? He tied her up in a very neat bundle, perfect knots,

he learned somewhere along the way, this neat little bundle of dead person. I think they found her 16 months after she was killed. Six months after that, our mother died, and seven months after that, our father died. So he murdered all three of them. My thoughts were with the Schaefer family. My thoughts were how well this is going to come out in trial. I was already thinking about that. I was thinking, this guy's going to death row. But it was another two long years before Malignato would go to trial, and then it wouldn't take place in Louisville. Intense pre-trial publicity forced a change of venue to Covington, Kentucky, a small community

that knew nothing about the case and wasn't used to the style of the man who would prosecute it, Ernie Jasmine. How would you describe Mel Ignato? Well, prosecutors sometimes have a term which they call a sock-sucking scumbag. Jasmine was confident he had enough circumstantial evidence to convict Ignato of first-degree murder. You have to make sure the pieces that you put in together are absolutely, unequivocally, perfectly fitted.

And did you think you could do that in this case? I didn't think I could. I did it. But Jasmine was up against a skillful defense attorney named Charlie Ricketts. Ricketts says he believed Malignata was innocent, one of the few in Louisville who did. Did you ask him early on, point blank, did you have anything to do with Brenda's disappearance? You bet I did. Did you ever ask him that again? Continually. Each time, he denied it.

You believe Charlie Ricketts when he says, I really thought he was innocent. I take it you don't. No one was duped by Mel Ignato. You really believed it? Absolutely. What did you think had happened to Brenda? She had disappeared for a year and a half.

We all wish we knew what had happened to Brenda. That was the one reoccurring theme that Mel Ignato kept sounding. Find my sweetheart. On December 9, 1991, the state of Kentucky put Mel Ignato on trial for murder one. I thought they had this thing won. They had the woman who was there when it happened. How could they lose? Mary Ann Shore, now with a dramatically different look, was the prosecution's star witness. With no physical evidence linking Ignato to Brenda's murder, Shore's testimony was crucial.

But no one ever anticipated just how badly she'd testify. She was a terrible witness. She was poorly prepared. She wore a short skirt that was hiked up to here. He kept telling her she was here for a sex therapy class, that she needed to have this because she just was very cold-natured and he needed that sex. Shore testified that she not only participated in the sexual torture, she also told the court she took pictures of it. But the incriminating photos could not be found. Ignato's attorney suggested a jealous Mary Ann Shore had killed Brenda Schaefer herself. Your testimony, Ms. Shore, today is the difference between your life and your death, isn't it? Yes. And Ricketts used her appearance, her dress, her demeanor, her whole story against her,

saying she was capable of doing this. She was a strong woman. She was a jealous woman. She was upset because Brenda Schaefer had taken Ignato away from her. She wanted revenge. And if I can't have Mel Ignato, says Mary Ann Shore, nobody's going to have Mel Ignato. But the prosecution still had one piece of heavy ammunition left, a tape recording of a conversation between Mel Ignato and Mary Ann Shore.

Before Ignato was arrested, the FBI had wired Shore while the two discussed what they'd do if this overgrown lot where Brenda was buried was sold to developers. And don't get rattled. I don't give a shit. I'm telling you, they're going to dig eight feet down the whole damn length of the property, okay? Don't get rattled.

Yeah, then what are you going to do when they go back? We will let them handle it. He never really mentioned the act of murder or disposing the body, but he certainly made incriminating statements that I thought would sway a jury. I fail to understand how you could reach any conclusion other than this dude is covering up this heinous act which he has committed. covering up this heinous act which he has committed. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island.

It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still have urged it. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island

to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with, and

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It's just the best idea yet. I don't give a shit if you tell me to go and dig eight feet down the whole damn length of the property, okay? How could you listen to that tape and not think that Mel was involved? There's 12 people in northern Kentucky that listened to that tape and came to the same conclusion. Greg Laukoff was one of those 12 people. For him and his fellow jurors, the importance of the tape all came down to one word, sight. Or was it safe?

It's not shallow, that place we safe? It's not shallow. That place we got, it's not shallow. So don't let it get you rattled. Besides, that one area right by where that site is does not have any trees by it. There was one key word. I believe it was safe. Or sight. Or sight. We listened to that many, many, many, many times. And collectively as a group, we could not decide on what word that really was. That one area right by where that site is does not have any trees back. Why the hell would you bury a safe behind Mary Ann Shore's house? But that's what they said. Ricketts convinced the jury it might

have been a safe back there. And the jurors never thought, well, what's the safe got to do with anything? We're talking about a body here. Besides, investigators never found a safe buried anywhere on the property. You have a guilty man, ladies and gentlemen. I'm just asking, please, don't collect any money. Right before the verdict, what were you feeling? It is no way under the sun that he's going to walk out of here. In just a little more than two hours, the jury announced they had reached a verdict.

I was very hopeful and always had great faith that the correct verdict would be returned. I was doing a lot of praying and reading the Bible a lot, and I was just placing my trust in the Lord. Jury's verdict is as follows under instruction number one. We the jury find the defendant, Melvin Henry Ignato, not guilty under instruction number one. First count, not guilty. It just dropped. And then I thought, no, Tom, there's more counts. It'll be all right.

Second count, not guilty. It's a feeling that I've never had before. I hope I never have again. I could see it in everybody else's faces too. Everybody. Prosecution team, they were just in shock. Everybody was in shock. I'm still in shock. I just went numb. Did you get a look at Malignato? He just did the famous smirk, like, well, I got away with it. You know who the most astonished people,

I won't say surprised, I said astonished, in the courtroom at the verdict was Charlie and his client. Relieved more than anybody could ever know. And the perpetrator is walking out of court. How would anyone feel? Oh, it feels great. I think it's the greatest Christmas present I've ever had. It was just too much for the community to handle. Oh, it was just like a thunderbolt. I mean, people couldn't believe it.

The Ignato acquittal meant that only one person would be going to jail for the murder of Brenda Schaefer, and that was Mary Ann Shore. As part of her deal with the prosecutors, she pled guilty to a lesser charge of evidence tampering. I realized the involvement in this whole situation was wrong. She served a couple years. Ironically enough, Ignato walks, and she gets a couple years in jail. The little devil did the time, and the big devil walked.

Up next, six months after Ignato walks out a free man, this man makes a startling discovery, proving once and for all, Ignato was guilty. What he found and where, when we come back. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets,

the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney,

I've seen some crazy cases. And this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informants's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify,

and listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. The jury had spoken. Mel Ignato was a free man and anxious to tell anyone who would listen that he was also an innocent one. This interview aired shortly after the verdict. Well, I think that in a case like this, as complex as it is, I think there are always going to be people who will feel that I'm guilty. There will always be people who feel that I'm innocent. The Kenton County jury handed down the decision of not guilty. And, of course, I'm very pleased with that.

As author Bob Hill vividly remembers, it was a terrible defeat for federal and state authorities. But if they couldn't get Ignato on murder, they would try to prove he lied before the federal grand jury and at least convict him of perjury. Because they were so convinced the man was guilty, he must serve some time for this. He just couldn't walk free from the system. But for the feds to prove that Ignato lied about Brenda's murder, they needed new evidence, such as those pictures that Mary Ann Shore claimed she took the night Brenda died.

But where were those pictures? According to FBI expert Roy Hazelwood, those photos were Ignato's trophies. ROY HAZELWOOD, FBI EXPERT, He would never get rid of those pictures, because this describes his power. This documents and validates his power and his control over Brenda Sue Schaefer, even up to the point in time that she died. So they searched his house? They went entirely through, all through his house.

They went back a second time, went all through his house. I'd like to say we tore the house apart, but there is one thing that could have been torn up that wasn't. That one thing was the carpet inside Mel Ignato's home. Six months after Mel Ignato was acquitted of murder, the new owners of Ignato's home decided to redecorate and replace the old carpet. Carpet layer Steve Doherty expected it to be just a routine job. Yeah, I was just pulling it up, and then all of a sudden I seen a Ziploc bag down there.

They knew right away what it was. Some jewelry and a couple canisters. They found the photographs in the heat duct of Ignato's old house, the photos Mary Ann Shore had taken that showed Ignato abusing and raping Brenda Schaefer. The jewelry in the bag was Brenda's. The carpet layers found something that three law enforcement agencies missed.

And the fact that, bottom line, we were outwitted by a psychopath, that hurts deeply the feds had all the evidence they needed to convict ignato of perjury once we saw the pictures I mean that was it ignato didn't have any chance at that point he had to go ahead and plead guilty then of course being ignato he turned on a dime after years of denying any involvement whatsoever he tried to get a lesser plea because he cooperated with authorities. Mel had to stand before everyone and say that he killed Brenda. Ignato stands there and describes that he did take Brenda Schaefer and did sexually torture her and did murder her.

And then he turned around and looked at the family and said, but she died peacefully it was just pure ignato it just sends chills for you what kind of animal does that kind of thing says that kind of thing when malignato was led off by federal marshals after he was sentenced he was smiling doesn't surprise me at all here's a man that committed murder and can never be tried for it. Ignato can never be punished for Brenda Schaefer's murder because of double jeopardy, the constitutional provision that protects citizens from being tried over and over again for the same crime. In Mel Ignato's case, he spent just five years in prison for perjury and was released. He spent just five years in prison for perjury and was released.

If he had been convicted of murdering Brenda Schaefer, Ignato could have been put to death. What was your reaction when you heard the pictures were found, that there was no question at that point that Mel Ignato had killed Brenda Schaefer? I had no remorse. I didn't feel as if myself or the other jury members had failed to do anything. We had no hardcore evidence that we feel as if we could, as a group, convict Mel Gnato. How do you feel now? Regretting that somehow a bird didn't land on my shoulder and whisper something that I didn't know to ask him to get the truth from him? Aaron, you got to understand,

this man's convincing. You knew he had committed this murder and he finally admitted it. That had to feel good. Yes, but was it justice as to the victim's family and the victim? No, it was not. Brenda's been dead 13 years. Ignato served five years for perjury, confessed to the murder, said I did it, but never really served time for that murder. He has always been an arrogant, unpleasant individual. And everyone to this day cannot stand to see Mel Ignato walking in this town. We had no trouble finding Mel Ignato. Can I set up a time to do an interview?

No, you cannot. Do you want to talk about these charges at all? I do not want to talk about anything. I have no comment. Please leave. As he walked away, Ignato told an inquiring neighbor that it was just the media trying to rehash an old story. They don't have anything better to do.

They don't know what's important in life. But it's not an old story to the people of Louisville, who fear that the man who brutally killed Brenda Schaefer and got away with it could strike again. It would be awful, just awful, if Ignato should happen to do this sort of thing to another woman. He could convince them that he's a good guy and he's the best thing for them, and then do harm to them.

That's what scares me about Ignato. I don't think the man has changed, and I truly believe he has the ability that he'll do this again. He'll find that person just like Brenda, and he'll do it again. He's the only person I think I've been able to hate and he'll do it again. He's the only person I think I've been able to hate with any length of time, for a long time.

And with him, it comes easily. I hate what he did. I hate who he is. The fact he's got away with it all this time. I just don't think that he's been punished nearly enough. been punished nearly enough. In 2002, after being charged with additional counts of perjury, Mel Ignato was sentenced to nine years in prison. He was released in 2006 and died in 2008.