48 Hours - Gone

Episode Date: April 3, 2016

A Texas man thinks TV's Dr. Phil can help.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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As a mother, Michelle was awesome. I called her the picture girl. Pictures, pictures, pictures. She looked like a million dollars. Wear high heels and carry a baby on her hip. When she was a child, it was hard not to have a close friend relationship with her, even though I had to be the mom. A woman has vanished from her Houston apartment. Her family and friends are fearing the worst. I got the phone call from my son, and David said something's wrong.

Authorities say Warner's estranged boyfriend claimed she stormed out of the apartment following an argument. Mark Castellano was Michelle's boyfriend for a while. Mark and Michelle did meet at work. She captivates the room as she walks in. That part about her is completely true. She mesmerizes people. They had a son together who was Caden. Michelle was living with Mark the night she disappeared. We called the police. Everyone was searching. We don't have a

scene. We don't have a witness. We don't have evidence. We don't have a body. The more we thought about it, we kind of looked at each other and said, let's go back and let's search it. So will you explain to me how you use the iPhone and FaceTime? They tried to follow it like a treasure map. Like that kind of thing, right? Correct. Well, it was in real time. Face time. Face timing? Yes. So it's like I'm aiming it at this tree here and you say, do I go to the right of the tree or is it more to the left of the tree? That kind of thing? Correct. Exactly what I'm

looking at right now. A week went by. Michelle was still missing. We heard about Dr. Phil, and Mark Castellano was going on his show. Today, we will take you inside a national news story as it unfolded in front of our cameras in real time. Mark was going to be on Dr. Phil. When he said he wanted to talk with you, what'd you do? I got on an airplane, flew to Odessa, and there was a woman missing.

And like everybody else, we wanted to help find her. I'm staying strong for my son. I cry every once in a while. But you're hurting inside. Yes, I'm hurting inside. This is killing me. Friends describe her as bubbly. Those same people describe you as psychotic. Well, they don't like me too much.

She has to be alive. I'm sorry, she does. She has to be out there. If she is watching this right now, she can come home. What do you say to her? We can fix this. It was the worst week of my life. Michelle was just gone.

I'm Tracy Smith. Tonight on 48 Hours. Gone. 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 heard 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 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.

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by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. It's just about a 45-minute drive from the refineries of the Texas coast to the high-rises of downtown Houston. And in 2000, 20-year-old Michelle Warner moved to the big city. She was a new mom looking to make a fresh start. Michelle did have the small-town girl in her, but Michelle always desired to go to the big city. Donna Malone is Michelle's mom.

She loved to talk to people. She never met a stranger. We were really, really close when we were young kids. I mean, really close. Her brother, David. From the time we were born, we did pretty much everything together. I was her child, not theirs. She just grew into this beautiful swan, you know, and she had the long, pretty hair and a beautiful smile.

She started going to college and started studying criminal justice. But things didn't exactly work out. Michelle may have been a saint, but she was also a sinner. She married right after high school in 2001 and had a daughter, Haley. When that marriage went south in 2003, little Haley went to live with the ex-husband, and Michelle was on her own. Michelle was a great mom, but she ran into some tough times in her life. She fell in with a bad crowd. She even disappeared a couple of times. And she was arrested for possession of cocaine.

But that was eight years ago, and her family says Michelle's dark days were behind her. She was finally turning around. She was no longer on any kind of drugs. She was going to work every day. In 2008, she also began a relationship with a man she met at work, a man named Mark Costolano. My impression of Mark from the very beginning was, what an odd duck. What a strange little man. Mark Costolano and Michelle had met on the job. She was a secretary at a medical firm. He was the IT guy, you know, the person who fixed computers. I absolutely do not know what Michelle saw in Mark. He's always been, you know, a little off.

In 2009, Michelle and Mark had a son, Caden. But Donna says Mark Costolano wasn't much of a dad. Caden was about two months old, and Mark just went away. Just, I can't handle this. It's too stressful for me. Everything was always about me. Me, me, me, me, me. In those early days, life was tough for Michelle as a single mom, bouncing from job to job. No child support. He did not pay any child support.

Michelle was doing it on her own, struggling to do it on her own. It was very difficult for her. Then, in the summer of 2012, she got a break, a new job at a law firm in Houston. All she needed was a place for her and Caden, now three years old, to stay. She reached out to the one person she knew there, Mark Castellano. He agreed to let them stay at his Houston apartment, but Michelle set down some rules. When Michelle moved back in with Mark, the agreement between them was that they would live together, raise the child together,

but not as a romantically involved couple. But just three months after moving in with Castellano, on Saturday, September 22, 2012, Michelle was gone. A woman has vanished from her Houston apartment. Her family and friends are fearing the worst. When Michelle's brother, David, couldn't get a hold of his sister, he called Castellano and confronted him. Do you have any idea where she may be? You're the last person I know of that's actually seen her.

Yeah, yeah, I am, that's actually seen her. Yeah, yeah, I am. I am. But like I said, I don't know where the hell she went. Castellano told David that he and Michelle had had a fight. She walked out and left her car and her toddler behind. David was surprised to learn on the night Michelle disappeared, Castellano took Michelle's car and drove Caden more than 500 miles, over eight hours, to his parents' house in West Texas. Mark's story did not make any sense. Almost immediately, Michelle's family filed a missing persons report. Five days passed. Nothing.

That's when Houston homicide detectives got the case. Where are we? That's when Houston homicide detectives got the case. Where are we? We are at the apartment complex where Mark and Michelle live together. Veteran Houston homicide detectives Phil Waters and Sergeant Brian Harris. When you first came here, you went in, and what'd you do? Went to the apartment. The family was there.

Actually, it was interesting that Mark's story was what happened, you know what I mean, in terms of the story that he was telling everyone. Castellano had told David in that phone call that he and Michelle had been arguing over Caden when she walked out. All of the events leading up to it, the fight, all of that stuff that happened here. Accurate, happened at least, what he's telling us. The only people in this scenario that are casting any kind of suspicion on Mark are Michelle's family. That's where all of that is coming from. And they're not saying things like,

you know what, Michelle told me yesterday that if anything ever happened to me, it's Mark. Instead, you were getting... We were getting, we don't like Mark, it's Mark. Instead, you were getting... We were getting, we don't like Mark. It's Mark's a bad guy. And it's more personality dislikes about Mark. But back at the apartment, cops did find something strange. We knew that Mark was an IT guy. He's a techie nerd. So then what becomes noticeable in the apartment, there are computers, but all the hard drives are gone. The homicide detectives wanted to talk with Castellano, so they called him at his parents' house in West Texas. Turns out he had an unusual question for them. He said, can I ask you a question, though? I need some advice. And I said, sure. And he said, do you think I ought to let Dr. Phil interview me?

What did you say? Well, I was a little stunned. I said, Dr. Phil? And I said, absolutely let Dr. Phil interview you. As the week passed, the search for Michelle expanded quickly from from Houston to West Texas, all the way here to Los Angeles and the Dr. Phil show. Today, we will take you inside a national news story as it unfolded in front of our cameras in real time.

It was Dr. Phil McGraw, not the police, who would first interrogate Castellano about Michelle's mysterious disappearance. Let's talk about the night she disappeared. Okay. You had a fight. Yes, sir. And was this a physical fight or an argument or both?

Basically, I come home. She's in her room. First thing she does is start yelling at me that the Caden has made a big mess. We start fighting. She walks up to me, and she gives me this kind of sucker punch while I'm on the floor. I mean, she hits me all the time, and I don't retaliate. But she hit me and said, and clean it up right, expletive, expletive.

And she goes in and slams the door. What was your first impression of him? That he was a game player. He thought he was the smartest guy in the room, and he wanted everybody to know him. You go back in to resume the argument, frankly. Right. Yes. And... She's gone.

She's gone. I would take her pictures out and say out loud, Michelle, where are you? You know, just call me, text me, please. 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,

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More troubling information in the search for a missing mother. No one has heard from Warner in a week. Today, we're talking about the story of a beautiful young mother, Michelle Warner, who went missing after a violent fight with her ex-boyfriend, Mark Castellano. From the very beginning, Dr. Phil McGraw felt there was something suspicious about Mark Castellano. Why do you think Mark Castellano wanted to come on your show? Well, you know, I think this guy is a narcissist. I mean, I really do.

She basically owns me in a lot of ways. And I admit that. I cave to Michelle nine-tenths of the time. Castellano was on the defensive. He said to you, she could have just disappeared again. Right. That was a possibility. He says it was a possibility. She could have gone in the bedroom, locked the door, gone out the door, and left. But her car is still there. And her son is still there. Her son is still there. Her car is still there.

But she's gone off the grid. Meantime, in Houston, 500 miles to the east, the cops were searching the grid, trying to find Michelle. We do something called the psychological autopsy. We start breaking down the person's life. And so that's what we're having to do with Michelle. Back in West Texas, Dr. Phil continued his interview with Castellano.

He had a hunch that those missing hard drives might be connected to Michelle's disappearance. So he grilled Mark. You said you would show them to Michelle's disappearance, so he grilled Mark. You said you would show them to me? Yes, I have the drives. Do you have them here? Yes. Can we look at them? Yeah, I'll bring them to you. One second. Um, no, I don't have them because he still has them. He's still copying. Okay, well, you can come back. Okay, sorry. I thought I already, he brought them back, but he didn't.

You said you were going to show those to us, and you got up and walked to the door and then said, oh, that's right, they're not here. But not 15 minutes before we got here, you told my producer they weren't here. You already knew they weren't here when you got up to go get them. My mind is scatterbrained right now. I mean, I forgot. I forgot? Bells are goingined right now. I mean, I forgot. I forgot? Bells are going off right now.

I'm talking to him, and I'm watching the theater of what's going on. What was he doing? You know, he's playing games here. To him, it's a manipulation, and I'm wondering why he's not putting all of his effort, all of his emphasis on finding Michelle. You know, my dad used to say, for every rat you see, there's 50 you don't. When he tells you that lie, there's 50 more.

Dr. Phil relentlessly peeled back Castellano's story. He also admits throwing her cat down the hallway, throwing her cat into a wall, and that is very troubling to me. Each revelation led him closer to the conclusion that Castellano killed Michelle. Was there violence at that point? There was violence. She and I would wrestle, push each other around.

There was one time I choked her. He admits to being violent with her. He admits to being violent with her to the point of choking her. Now, think about this. If he, in fact, is culpable in her disappearance, why in the world would he admit that? So let's look at the moment when you asked him the big question. moment when you asked him the big question. It's really odd for a mother to just not check on, find out anything about a child. If you think something has happened to her, why aren't you looking for her? I mean, as far as everybody is exhausted, the leads that I have,

I don't know where else to go. The police are looking for their professionals. Did you do anything to her that would be considered foul play or criminal? No, no. Did you kill her? No, sir. So as you left, where did you stand with Mark Castellano? What did you think? It is clear in my mind, I'm not believing a word he is saying. When I walked out the door, I said,

he killed her, no doubt about it. You said it then. He killed her. But Castellano hadn't confessed to anything. After Dr. Phil returned to LA to get his show ready for broadcast, detectives brought Castellano in and turned up the heat. This is where it happened, Houston Homicide Division.

Here in the interview room, it wasn't exactly what you might think. There was no tough guy posturing, no rolled up shirt sleeves, guns on the hip, no raised voices. It was pure psychology. No raised voices. It was pure psychology. I was like, Phil, when you go in there, it's like walking into a minefield because, one, you don't want to upset him and make him angry, where all of a sudden he says the L word, lawyer, or he says, I want to leave. Detective Waters takes the lead. Okay, so the first thing, you're not under arrest. And again, I've told you, I certainly appreciate you coming here and talking to us.

I want Michelle to be found. Spending a lot of time here. I want Michelle to be found. That's what Castellano just said. That's his story, and he's sticking to it. Have you tried to call her? At this point, no, I don't want to call her. This was it. This was it.

We had no evidence. We had nothing. So Detective Waters started looking for motive. If Castellano was a killer, did something push him over the edge? Pressure's building. The pressure's building on me, yes. When she gets mad, she's violent. She'll hit you. She thinks she has the right to. You know, a man has to take up crap.

She's a pretty girl and she gets everything she wants. She has a right to. You know, a man has to take up crap. She's a pretty girl, and she gets everything she wants. She has a princess attitude. Wow. That princess attitude phrase was a flag for detectives, an insight into how Castellano viewed the relationship. We kind of get a flavor for your relationship, and this is my impression, is that when it's good, it's, like like intensely good.

But when it is bad, it is intensely bad. Detective Waters' approach? No tough questions. Yet, he's trying to get Castellano to trust him. Let's get to last Saturday, the 22nd. Okay. And what's your... He walks out and slams the 22nd. Okay. And what's your answer? She walks out and slams the door to her room. And about 10, 15 minutes later, I open the door to say, well, you know what?

And she's gone. She's gone. Once that narrative was complete and he felt like he had told his story, it was at that point that I'm now going to confront you. I need you to explain to me what happened. This is a dance. I'm letting Mark play the music. And then at one point, another song comes on, and it's mine.

And now the dance changes. We both know, we both know, Michelle did not walk out of that apartment. I don't love her. I'm not in love with her. I mean, I don't want anything to happen. I wish Michelle would pop up right now and go, hey, I need you. When she gets mad, she's violent. I don't care what advice that she is. I said something about, you take too many pills,

you can't watch Caden or something. Detective Phil Waters sat for hours talking to Mark Castellano, gaining his trust. She was like, I can't tolerate Caden. She was like, I need help with him. She was like, he's driving me nuts. Waters finally discovered a way to bring out the truth about what happened that night. You brought up Caden. Yes.

So your concern for Caden is mainly centered on when Michelle is the primary caregiver. Caden was the most important part of his life. So I knew that I was going to have to frame whatever he did in that apartment in that context. That context, getting Castellano to admit his actions that night were to protect Caden. It wasn't about hurting Michelle. It was about the love and the strength of that love that you have for Caden and protecting him from anybody that would threaten or hurt him. And that's what you're going to have to explain now. The strategy worked. So I want you to be honest with me and tell me what happened.

When he took his glasses off, I went, here it comes. You knew. I just knew it. She's getting dressed. And she's finishing up. And she's still yelling and Caden's hiding. I grabbed her and I broke her neck. Boom. There he comes with it.

I'm sorry. Give me the death penalty. That's fine. I deserve it. Look, I'm proud of you. Your life's not over with, Mark. I push her and then grab her. But by the time Sergeant Harris came into the room, Castellano seemed to pull himself together

and physically demonstrated how he killed Michelle. Castellano claimed Michelle's erratic and abusive behavior pushed him over the edge. She'll hit you. She thinks she has the right to. He painted this picture of Michelle as an abusive woman. Yes. When you talked to other people, did they say that she was volatile, she had a temper, she was abusive? Everyone we talked to described her as a, not just family members, but as a loving mother. Was there any evidence that Michelle was abusive to Mark?

Not anything that was documented other than Mark's story. I'll be right back. After his confession, he was left alone with his phone. But instead of calling a lawyer, he called his parents. He called his brother. A friend. guilt anymore.

A friend. And I wanted you to know that she's dead. He even talked with Dr. Phil's producer. It was a moment of rage. I just, I couldn't take it anymore. I pretty much confessed to everybody I could think of. Castellano

had also told Detective Waters what happened moments after he killed Michelle as he stood over her body lying on the bed. He said that Caden walked in and said, what's wrong with mommy? And he turned around and his response was, oh, she's taking a nap. He put Caden in a bath and then dragged Michelle's body into the closet. That's when he loaded Caden into Michelle's car and drove through the night over 500 miles to West Texas. He left Caden with his parents, turned around,

and drove all the way back to Houston, back to the apartment where he had left Michelle. How did he get her out of the building? He packaged her up in a large container, plastic container, and duct-taped her hands and feet, put a bag over her head. He said he explained that he put the bag over her head because he was tired of looking at her. He was tired of looking at her.

Tired of looking at her. With the container loaded in the backseat of Michelle's car, Castellano once again made that long drive back to West Texas. Outside of Midland, he buried Michelle in a shallow grave. It turned out Michelle's body was somewhere out here in these endless West Texas oil fields. Castellano had drawn a map and given police a rough idea of where the grave was, but it wasn't a good enough description.

The key to finding Michelle's body was as close as an iPhone. Hello? Hi, Sergeant Harris, it's Tracy from 48. Well, you can see that, right? Harrison Waters stayed in Houston with Castellano while local police and FBI agents tried to locate Michelle's body with the map, but it only got them in the general vicinity. So they called us in the interview room, and we decided to try the FaceTime.

FaceTime is the Apple iPhone's video phone. You can see and hear whatever the person on the other end of the line wants to show you. Like that kind of thing, right? Just walking around, aiming it. Correct. And so they panned the area and then he told them to stop and he directed them towards, it was like more of a big scrub brush. When they got closer, that's when the FBI agent, we could hear her say, I found her. I found her. With the discovery of Michelle's body,

Castellano was finally arrested and charged with murder eight days after Michelle went missing. In an exclusive interview, Dr. Phil's show went on TV a few days later. Mom vanishes. The killer confesses. Until Mark's confession, Caden had been staying with his relatives, but now authorities moved him in with Michelle's family. With Castellano behind bars, I got the chance to confront him.

And what he told us was a brand new version of what happened that night. Hi, Mark. I'm Tracy Smith from CBS News 48 Hours. From the start... You okay? Yes, ma'am. Mark Costolano had told everyone... She's gone. She's gone.

Yes, sir. ...lies. So we wanted to set the ground rules before our interview. So here's the thing, Mark. You lied to the cops. You lied to Dr. Phil. You lied to your parents. Why should we believe you now? There's no point to lie about anything. I don't like lying. I don't like lying at all. It's not me.

I'd rather just go ahead and tell the truth and get it over with. Are you telling me the truth now? Yes. Of course I'm telling you the truth. The first thing Castellano wanted to tell us. We got into a fight. It just, it just happened all wrong. Was that he was not a murderer. It was, you know, not my finest hour. Not your finest hour? No. Why do you say that? Well, I mean, this, the whole thing wasn't my finest hour. He says, yes, it was true. The couple had a fight that night, but he, the whole thing wasn't my finest hour. He says, yes, it was true.

The couple had a fight that night. But he was the victim. It got violent. Well, yeah, they always get violent. She beats the hell out of me. I've been beaten by this woman for a long time. But this time, Castellano says he'd had enough. Remember, there's never been an official report of abuse in this case.

So did you just snap? To retaliate back from her swinging at me? Remember, there's never been an official report of abuse in this case. So did you just snap? To retaliate back from her swinging at me, yeah. I snapped her, hit her back. This time I was tired of being hit, and yeah, then I was going to defend myself this time around. So you threw stuff back and forth and then you grabbed her? I didn't grab her yet. She punched, she threw another punch at me. And then?

That's when I grabbed her and lunged forward. This is where Castellanos' story changes. I grabbed her and I broke her neck. I'm sorry. From his confession to the police. So I want to go back to this confession. What actually happened that night? That's what we don't really talk about. That's Castellanos' lawyer.

At all? Telling him not to reveal all of what happened that night still I should have done this I should have done that he did tell us a few details Castellanos now says it was all an accident in the struggle he says Michelle died when he ended up falling on top of her neck. Michelle's death was my fault because I'm the one that fell on her. That fell on her? Yes, I did fall on her. She just, I like that. I mean, she was just lifeless, and all of a sudden, you know, her body let go, and it was an accident.

Michelle's mother, Donna Malone, can barely contain her disgust. First of all, I will never believe it was just an accident. You don't just an accident murder someone and feel nothing. You drive a car and you hit somebody. Did you want to hit them? No. You're like, it was an accident. You might be at someone's house and they just had a brand new carpet put in and we're eating velvet cake and you drop it on the floor. Did you want to do it? No. You feel bad about it? Yes. But still accidents are accidents.

They're not planned. That's why they're called accidents. That tear was the only time during our interview that Castellanos showed any emotion. He's a liar. Comparing it to spilling cake on someone's floor, but to murder someone, that's a violent act. Did you choke her? No. I didn't choke her. But you said you were angry. I was very angry. You said you snapped.

Yeah, to go ahead and actually raise my hands against her. I had a gun. I've always had a 9mm. If I really wanted to kill Michelle, I would have shot her. I would have taken my gun and shot her. That he could just have shot her if he wanted to kill her, that's just nonsense talk. It's nonsense. What did you do with Michelle's body? Um, it stayed... it stayed, um...

it stayed in the closet. You know, I looked at her, and it was just like, oh, my God. So that's when I put the bag over her head, and I put her in the closet. you know, I looked at her and it was just like, oh my God. So that's when I put the bag over her head and I put her in the closet. Why the bag over her head? Because just her face, the way it was frozen, I knew I messed up. Did it occur to you as you were handling her body that this was the woman that you loved? This was the mother of your child.

I did. I did. And I also know I couldn't bring her back. Three days later, Castellano would dump Michelle's lifeless body in that shallow grave. How do you feel about misleading people for so long? Well, it was a tough call. It was a very tough call. I didn't plan on getting away with this. If I had planned on getting away with this, I would have got away with it. I feel very angry about the fact that Mark lied to all of us. He could have just told the truth from the beginning. It was obvious that everyone was on to him. Family, law enforcement, why not just tell the truth, get it over with?

She did attack me first. The more Castellano talked, the more it seemed he was angry with women. I mean, women are now, y'all are replacing men in a lot of aspects. Y'all are becoming big-time aggressors. Women are now the new aggressors. She's beautiful, and you're a beautiful woman yourself. Life's a little easier for women like you because people just can't put bad things

with pretty people. It sounds like you resent that a little bit, Mark. Well, when you sit there and have been told that when you're not a pretty person that, you know, life's going to suck for you. Mark Costolano's bizarre answers during our jailhouse interview raised more questions about what makes him tick. So we wanted to talk more about it with Dr. Phil. I've got to say, I really screwed myself over the way I confessed everything, because first of all, I didn't really describe everything accurately. And second of all, I didn't really think every word I was going to say was going to be used completely out of context, which it was in a lot of ways.

He's criticizing the process. Things were taken out of context. Well, here's the context. Did you kill her or did you not? I think this guy has such an inferiority complex. And that's one of the things about narcissism. There's a false sense of superiority,. There's a false sense of superiority. But it's a false sense of superiority.

The truth is, they really feel inferior. They really feel very inferior, very put upon. And he felt very much that he had reached above his level with Michelle. And... That she was out of his league, so to speak. Out of his league. She was way over his head.

In this instance, she did not reject him. He had the ultimate rejection of her. What do you think his motive was? I think this guy is very hedonistic. I think this relationship was on the downslope. I think it was falling apart apart and I think he felt her slipping away. I think it was one of those situations where if I can't have you, nobody will.

At his trial, Castellanos' attorneys will present his new version of what he says is the truth. We the jury. But will the jury buy it? It was very hard to wait on the trial. We wanted some form of justice for Michelle. We felt that we were building up to this pinnacle that would bring us some sort of peace. May 27, 2014.

Mark Castellano is on trial for the murder of Michelle Warner, the mother of their son, Caden. This is a case about obsession, rage. Assistant District Attorney Jamie Reyna. And this defendant's calculated attempts to get away with murder. He became so upset with Michelle that he grabbed her by the neck,

that he started to choke her. He started to squeeze her neck. You'll hear him tell those officers he choked her for one and a half to two minutes. We'll call Investigator Phil Waters. At the center of the prosecution's case, Mark's own words, that videotaped confession to Detective Waters. We both know, we both know, Michelle did not walk out of that apartment.

So I want you to be honest with me and I broke her neck. Okay. The state medical examiner testifies Michelle was strangled. Her hyoid bone, just beneath her jaw, was broken. Mark Castellano does not take the stand. Instead, his lawyer, Eric Davis, presents that very different story. Michelle's death was an accident. She comes at him, and he grabs her, and he's controlling her. And he falls down with his weight on hers, and hears a pop.

When he reached out to defend himself, to protect himself, he didn't anticipate that she would fall and break her neck. I didn't find any real evidence that the throat was disturbed. An expert for the defense, a forensic engineer, testifies Mark's accident story was a possibility. There's no physical evidence that shows any type of squeezing or sideways forces. All of the physical evidence shows is forces applied from the front. So what's the detective's reaction to Castellanos' defense?

Is that possible that he fell on her and that's how her neck snapped? No. The problem is, is that you cannot accidentally strangle someone for a minute and a half to two minutes. Show me what you think he did, what he told you he did to Michelle. What did he do? He's so mad, he follows her in the bedroom. And he goes, and whatever takes place, he reaches out, and he's just grabbing her. For a minute and a half and two, he's grabbing her, grabbing her. And she has nowhere to go.

If Castellano thought the jury might take pity on him, prosecutors would present more evidence that shows the actions of a cold, callous killer. Weeks after Mark's confession, detectives discovered a chilling piece of surveillance video. So that's their apartment right over there. And across the way on that building there, there was a camera, and that camera showed a shadowy view of the back stairs of Castellanos' apartment.

So he drags her body in a bin down the stairs. You see him stop, and he has worn himself out. He even says when he's on the phone with people that he's confessing to, you know, Michelle had gained a lot of weight. So it was really an exercise to bring her down the steps and put her in the car. As for those hard drives that seemed to be so important in the early days of the investigation, turns out they weren't relevant to the case. If you cannot remain composed when the verdict's read, you should step outside at this time.

After more than a week of testimony, 19 witnesses, and six hours of deliberations, a verdict ending an anxious wait for Michelle's family. If you'd stand, please, Mr. Castellano. We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of murder as charged in the indictment. Mark Castellano, guilty in the strangling death of Michelle Warner. I was very pleased with the fact that he was declared guilty. I said, okay, good, they did this quickly. So I believe that this is in the hands of a good, solid jury, and they'll do the right thing.

The next day, Michelle's loved ones are back in court for Castellano's sentencing. Ironically, it's also Michelle's birthday. She would have turned 33. Each side will be given 25 minutes to argue their case. Mark Castellano's attorney begs for mercy and argues his client's much-talked-about confession was a show of remorse. I'm sorry. Crime was solved because of a man's conscience.

In fact, if Mr. Castellano had kept his mouth shut, we wouldn't be here. But he did what most criminals don't do. He told on himself. No matter what you do, he's going to the penitentiary. The question is, how long? Michelle's family wants to see Castellano receive the harshest penalty, life in prison. I do not think that he has any sense of remorse. None.

I hear nothing but excuses that it was Michelle's fault that he did what he did. And we all have free choice, and he chose to kill her. The jurors spent four hours debating his fate. All rise in the jury. Finally, a decision. The jury having found you guilty of murder, you are now sentenced to 27 years

in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Justice. The sentence feels like a slap in the face for Michelle's family. One word went through my mind when I heard 27 years. Seriously? After several months, it's still impossible for the family to understand the jury's decision. I don't know what happened in the room while the deliberation was going on because I've not had not one juror come forward and speak to me. I do not feel that I got closure for my daughter's death

and neither does any of the rest of her family. None of us do. Now it is up to Michelle's family to explain to two kids, a daughter living with her ex-husband, and little Kayden, why their mother is gone. It's like taking your entire world and flipping it over.

You don't expect anything like that to ever hit that close to home for you, and it's turmoil. I miss the laughter that I shared with her, and I just miss the conversation. I can't have that anymore, and that's very sad. It's very lonely. It makes me feel lonely. So it's an empty hole that will always be there for the rest of my life,

and that's a hard thing to swallow. for the rest of my life. And that's a hard thing to swallow. Mark Castellano will be eligible for parole in 13 and a half years. He will be 53 years old. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.