48 Hours - Home Renovation Homicide

Episode Date: September 13, 2020

Did an out of control home makeover lead to murder? "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty investigates.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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ConstantContact.ca Aaron, this is Florida. Nothing strange here. The house was beautiful. It was 4,000 square feet. It had a pool, a garage apartment. It was a great house. The only problem was upstairs. Some of the rooms were too small and just the functionality did not work for some families. I could understand why they'd want to renovate it. When did you first meet Shanti and David? meet Shanti and David. Dave just called me on the phone and asked if I'd come by and take a look at the project. He said that they had done some work.

I wasn't at all prepared for what I saw when I got there. They had fully disassembled this house to a degree that I'd never seen before. It was rather astonishing. It was largely wide open, like you're inside of a giant shoebox. This house became more than just a project to David Tronis. It was his life. He obsessed on it. This house is the center point to the story and ultimately led to Shanti's demise. This case all started

with a call to 911, placed at approximately 3.51 p.m. on April 24th, 2018, by Dave Tranis. Hello? And David says that he came home and found Shanti floating in the bathtub.

and found Shanti floating in the bathtub. My wife, she's not breathing. Did that story make sense? Absolutely not. Shanti was extensively beaten. It makes me emotional. I feel bad for her family and for her son. It's upsetting that she won't get that life with him.

Clearly, Dave Tronis, from the very beginning, is a suspect. Absolutely. Dave was asked to go to the station and voluntarily remain there for hours. Just have a seat there. It'll be a little bit. He did not request counsel. He consented to swabs, to clippings, to a search of his person. Dave went into that interview with an agenda. I've never been more in love. I'm so happy.

And he just started getting confronted and confronted and confronted. I told you she was murdered. Murdered. Someone took her life from her. And there's nothing. You can't even fake it. That's how much you could give it. And it became a war of wills in that room. I didn't have any explanation for her, the severity of her injuries. And didn't David win that war of wills? He was not broken. Well, Dave didn't confess. Are we boring you? It seems pretty clear. These two detectives, they went into this room, decided that David was a murderer,

and then went the extra mile to try to put a file together to prove such. Did you guys get into an argument? Was she f***ed about the house? No. Is it possible that without this house, Shanti might still be alive? I think that's completely true. Thank you. Delaney Park is a well-established neighborhood. It's been around for over 100 years. Tara Stevens knows Delaney Park inside and out. She's a realtor who buys and sells homes there.

It's a great place to live, to raise a family, a lot of outside activity, great school system. It's a great neighborhood. So Delaney Park is a mile or so from downtown Orlando. Ryan Vecchio, a former prosecutor with the Orlando State Attorney's Office, got to know the area well when he led the investigation into the death of Shanti Cooper in April 2018. Did Shanti ever indicate to any friends or family that she was afraid of anyone? No. So you guys knew each other approximately five years this month. guys knew each other approximately five years this month. Vecchio and investigators dug in to learn all they could about Shanti and her husband, David Tranez. The couple had been married for more than

a year. Everybody we spoke to about Dave and Dave's background said that he was highly intelligent. That's what made him successful when he worked in business. How would you describe Shanti? It's what made him successful when he worked in business. How would you describe Shanti? Shanti Cooper was a hardworking, dedicated mom who cared deeply, deeply about her son. Her son was her world. Shanti's son, Jackson, was then eight years old. She shared custody with his father, Jim Cooper, whom Shanti had divorced in 2013.

She launched a lucrative financial software business and worked out of her home office. How did she meet Dave Tronis? Dave was outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota at the time. They met over the internet and started exchanging messages and profiles, and that turned into emails. Investigators later found this document on Shanti's computer that shows just how smitten she was. Dave, I will have to say, I think this will be a delicious detour. Amazing, magnificent, life-changing detour. I've had a pep in my step since we started this little email affair. In Minnesota, Dave had just ended a long marriage, but within months of meeting Shanti online, he moved to Orlando. Dave fell in love with Delaney Park and the house at 218 East Copeland Drive,

a house that came complete with its own gargoyles. We sold it to him for $607,500, which was a really, really good deal. How did he pay for it? Cash. Dave put the house in trust for himself and his mother and soon introduced Shanti to Tara. They seemed very happy. She was a beautiful, very nice person. I enjoyed meeting her.

Tara did not feel quite the same about Dave. Dave's personality changed a little bit after the contract was signed. I just saw a very different side of him. He was like a guy or a child who wants to get their way, and they don't stop until they do. You were glad when the deal was over? Absolutely. I was very glad.

I didn't get a good feeling from him. Cindy and Dan Dow are Shanti's relatives by marriage. They didn't like Dave at first, but it wasn't long before Cindy had a change of heart. I love her, so I grew to love him. We absolutely adored him. The first time we had lunch, he walked in and he said, how lucky am I? I get to have lunch with two of the most beautiful women that I know. I mean, I mean, that's charming. In 2015, Dave and Shanti moved into their new home and attempted to remodel it with Shanti footing the bill. What did Dave do all day?

It's a great question. If you ask Dave, he says that he worked on the house and worked on the renovations and took care of the property and cleaned the pool. Contractors came and went. Demolition went on and on. But the renovation was an expensive failure. By 2018, the main part of the house was unlivable. Shanti was reduced to working and sleeping above the garage in a small apartment. Where did Dave sleep? I think he slept downstairs with the dogs. Maybe not all the time, but I'm pretty sure he was down there.

Desperate to resolve the housing situation, Dave turned to Keith Ory, a local house renovator, to resolve the housing situation, Dave turned to Keith Ory, a local house renovator, who also appeared on a reality TV show called Zombie House Flipping. Neighborhoods are under attack from zombie houses. What is Zombie House Flipping? Zombie House Flipping is a house flipping TV show where we take houses that are the worst of the worst. Is anything broken? I think we have a termite problem. And what we do is bring them back to life. I looked at the house. I realized that the structure was suspect and politely stepped outside. An engineer discovered the only thing holding up the house was two inches of stucco. It was rather astonishing.

They took away all the interior dividing walls and basically what was left was a two-story shell. Weren't you tempted to just run for the hills? Yeah. But at the same time, you rarely come across a challenge that's that bold. Keith was up for the challenge and began shoring up the interior. And then he got the go-ahead to use the house in the next season of Zombie House Flipping.

This is Zombie House Flipping. This is Zombie House Flipping. It was mid-April 2018, and filming was set to begin in early May. But there was a problem. Getting Dave and Shanti together to talk in person was proving to be really difficult. Keith went to the house to meet with the couple one last time to be sure they were on board. And they both said, yes, we understand. And then she took off immediately and left.

I got a sense that she was pissed off at him. Fessio said Shanti had been trying for years to get her name on the trust that owned the house, but Dave never followed through. And it seemed like things just sort of culminated to a boiling point. It was only days before Shanti's murder. She desperately wanted stability in her life, but was living in a house that was anything but. Her name was not on the deed, and she had already spent a lot of money on what

was essentially Dave's house. Shanti was the bankroll, the sole bankroll to almost a quarter million dollar renovation. What did she get for her $250,000? Well, a lot of headaches and heartaches. Well, a lot of headaches and heartaches. 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. Did you know that the movie Candyman

was partly inspired by an actual murder? Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. Thank you. Shortly after Shanti was pronounced dead, Dave Tranas went to Orlando Police Headquarters. I'll get her as soon as I can. Where he remained without a lawyer for 14 hours. We got to figure this out together, okay?

Of course. He didn't attempt to conceal anything. Richard Zaleski is Dave's attorney. He gave the law enforcement access to everything that they needed, everything that they wanted, and he laid himself out there for examination by all. We want to say how sorry we are

for your loss. At the start, detectives Teresa Sprague and Barb Sharp seemed sympathetic. Take a minute, okay? I know this isn't tough. They're very good at building rapport and have a tremendous amount of experience. If you have a suspect who's willing to talk, you just hit play and sit back and let them go on and on and on. And that's what Dave does. Dave sticks with his story.

He took the dogs to a park in the afternoon. And after he returned, he found Shanti still wearing her pajamas floating in the tub. So I can hear the water is running. I see her laying. One of her legs is kind of sticking up and out a little bit. And it's just extremely awful. Hey. Hi, Dave. Hi, Dave.

Can you tell me what your address is? He tells the detectives that he tried to perform CPR but couldn't get Shanti to breathe. She was dead when first responders arrived. Dave has a lot to say, and a lot to say to try to convince the detectives that he wasn't involved in his wife's death. I think something went wrong. Either she slept or she fell or she blacked out. Why did he agree to sit down and talk to

these detectives without an attorney? Because he had nothing to hide and he didn't think that it would hurt him. But the veteran detectives began to pick at his story and question how Shanti's bloody cheek and bruised eye came from a slip in the tub. Somebody who slips and falls doesn't receive the amount of blunt force trauma to focused areas in the head. Detectives also had spotted blood on Shanti's bed and suspected that's where she had been killed. But Dave says the blood likely was from Shanti's bed and suspected that's where she had been killed. But Dave says the blood likely was from Shanti's period.

It did get on the bedspread and it did get on the bed. There was a lot of other evidence that would be inconsistent with this being blood associated with a menstrual cycle. Detectives also suspected, and Shanti's autopsy later confirmed, that she was strangled. But Selesky says, as frustrating as it may have been to authorities, Dave can't explain Shanti's injuries,

not because he's lying, but because he simply doesn't know. He took his best guess based upon what he'd come to find. He doesn't know what happened, is the point. The detectives press on for hours, taking turns and peppering Dave with tougher and tougher questions. Did you two argue? No, absolutely not.

Did you fight? Absolutely not. Did you harm Sh? No, absolutely not. Did you fight? Absolutely not. Did you harm Shanti in any way? Absolutely not. Sharp and Sprague also question his timeline. Dave says that he called 911 about five minutes after he found Shanti. You've got to help us understand. But detectives insist that doesn't match what

they found at the house. There's no splashing of water anywhere in the bathroom. The inside of the tub is dry, completely dry. And she's damp. She's not even wet. So you've got to help us. Can you do that? I'm not sure everything. They're drawing conclusions based upon observations, and they're moving forward based upon these assumptions. They try to zero in on a possible motive. Did she catch you with another woman? Did she have a boyfriend? Was she about the house?

But given the sorry state of the house, detectives begin to wonder if that had something to do with Shanti's murder. I can't imagine how stressful it must have been, you know, not living in the home you want to live in. And it's taken two plus years, three years. I'm sick to death about what happened, but nothing happened today because there was no animosity between us whatsoever. And he says Shanti wasn't upset that her name wasn't on the trust that owned the house. So we had kind of talked about it and debated it, and we finally just said it doesn't really matter.

Let's just move forward. Teresa and Barb are tenacious. They don't stop. They're well-versed in interrogation techniques. You know, we saw the good cop, bad cop. We saw manipulation. Barb Sharp even moves her hand to Dave's knee and adopts a more subtle tone.

It will be okay. We can't help you until you help us. Before Teresa Sprague begins another attack. She treats you like a landscaper, like the pool boy. Probably because she's bringing in the money. As the hours tick by... What do you want your mom to think about you? They try anything they can to get him to confess.

Are you religious? You want to pray? This almost became a game of psychological warfare in that interview. Dave began the interview by saying how happy he had been with Shanti. But almost eight hours into the interrogation, the detectives aren't buying it. You claim to love that woman? I would be under the table in a ball if I was in love with that woman and she was dead.

I would be inconsolable. Do you think that he was penalized because he didn't act the way detectives wanted him to act? Oh, time and time and time again. You know, you fake cried for about seven or eight hours today. Not one tear came out of your eyes. Not one.

There's a lot of conclusions being drawn off of what they consider to be an odd affect of Mr. Tron's. And I think that that's a dangerous thing to do because we all react to stress differently. We all grieve differently. Dave even agrees to take a polygraph. But by then, it was the middle of the night. And investigators couldn't find anyone to administer it. They had to let him go at the end of the interview. How did they feel about that?

You always want to make the arrest right up front. You do. With Dave Tronis free, police would have to keep digging for clues. But even they were surprised by what they found. Is it fair to say that Dave Tranis was living a double life? At least two lives. Do you think the police treated Dave fairly? Watch more of Dave Tronis' interview with detectives at 48hours.com

She didn't slip and fall. It's not a possibility. Even though detectives were outright accusing Dave Tron as a murdering shanty... You strangled her. Some of her relatives, like Cindy Dow, believed him. Are you kidding? I bet my last dollar that it wasn't him. I thought he was innocent. You honestly did, Cindy. Why? I think it was just the growth of our relationship and how she adored him. Absolutely adored him.

And it looked very mutual to everyone. Did she ever express any concern or fear of Dave? Never. Never. or fear of Dave? Never. Never. After being questioned by detectives,

Dave headed straight to his home in Delaney Park, and that's where Cindy found him. I stood him up and turned him around and looked at his arms, and there was not a scratch on him. There was nothing. Cindy, did you ever ask him point blank, did you have something to do with the death of Shanti? I did. What did he say?

No. I would not kill the love of my life. Defense attorney Richard Zaleski says the problem with this case is that detectives and prosecutors were convinced from the start that Dave Tranez was Shanti's killer. Zaleski says the bias of the investigators is clear from the police report. They've already suggested that they have it figured out. Like bull in the china shop trying to make this work at all costs because they've done nothing to develop other suspects. But Vecchio denies that. He says detectives checked out every possible suspect and got lucky when an important lead fell into their laps. A worker from Club Orlando called and shared that they knew of Dave Tronis

because he was a patron at the club. What is Club Orlando? Club Orlando is a same-sex bathhouse. Did Dave have a membership at Club Orlando? Several memberships. Every six months, Dave renewed his membership. Detectives headed to the club to investigate and found a longtime club employee who in this police-recorded interview says he witnessed Dave having sex at the club. I was just walking through and I saw David.

He was giving oral sex to this guy. From what everybody who knew Shanti has said, she would absolutely have not tolerated it, put up with it, endorse it. It just wouldn't have happened. There's a significant possibility that Shanti knew all about it. And why do you believe that? Because none of her family members seem to know anything about it. And her family members seem to indicate that if Shanti did know, she'd be upset. And I appreciate that, but what you tell your mom and dad about your sex life and what you do behind closed doors,

you know, people are people, adults are adults, and life is messy. But Vessia wonders if Shanti ultimately did discover Dave's duplicity on the night she was murdered. Had that revelation made Shanti threaten to turn off the money spigot once and for all? But she would be killed because of a house? Well, what would somebody do when they were about to lose the most important thing in their life? Because in April of 2018, the most important thing in Dave's life was that house. Dave told Cindy and others that he believed Shanti may have been murdered by a burglar, and the defense claimed that $5,000 in cash was missing from the house. thousand dollars in cash was missing from the house. Also missing, Shanti's diamond engagement ring, valued at approximately fifteen thousand dollars. That was highly, highly suspicious.

The detectives wanted to get to the bottom of it. Why couldn't it have been exactly as Dave said, that he leaves and someone breaks into the house, beats her, leaves her there. And Dave comes home. Why doesn't that fit? Well, the lack of forced entry. This scene did not have any sort of evidence of a struggle. There's thousands of dollars of valuables that are left in plain sight. in plain sight. A private investigator hired by defense lawyers canvassed neighbors asking them about a particular homeless man who reportedly had been seen around Delaney Park. It was said

he resembled the actor Woody Harrelson. What about the transient that everyone describes who looks a lot like Woody Harrelson? I mean, when you got nothing better, you throw everything against the wall and see if something sticks. This home is at 218 East Copeland Drive. Detective Teresa Sprague tracked Woody down and recorded this interview. You see there's a large blue dumpster in the driveway. Have you ever been there? No.

Nothing placed Woody inside Dave and Shanti's home. But Vecchio says his interview shows police chased down every lead, including checking out her ex-husband. Shanti had had a bad divorce. This was not an easy end of the marriage. Did you look at Jim Cooper? Yes. Mr. Cooper was interviewed, and Jim Cooper was eliminated as a suspect very early on. He had an alibi.

On August 29, 2018, four months after Shanti's murder, Dave Tronis was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder and held without bail. And how did the two of you react when you heard that? I wasn't believing it whatsoever. I thought they were just trying to solve a murder easily. I always had the suspicion. Dave's arrest gave prosecutors another piece of the puzzle, Shanti's missing engagement ring. The ring is probably one of the most powerful

and damning pieces of evidence in this case. As long as that expensive ring was missing, Dave Tronis could argue that a burglar had murdered Shanti. But the day he was arrested, police found it among his possessions. We searched the room at his mother's house where he was living, and lo and behold, we found the rings in his suitcase in his bedroom. Still, Dave's arrest was not the end of the investigation. It led to a cascading series of new revelations that surprised even a veteran prosecutor like Ryan Vecchio. This was a case that had so many twists and turns, I would no longer make assumptions of anything. You don't learn this stuff in law school.

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After the arrest of Dave Tranez, investigators received a tip that took them completely by surprise. It led them to Minnesota and back in time to when a much younger Dave was married to a woman named Carol. Former close friends of Carol told detectives that they believe Dave may have been poisoning her. As soon as Carol got married to Dave, she started suffering a bunch of unknown health issues. That made prosecutor Ryan Vecchio wonder if Shanti could have been poisoned. In Shanti's case, she had appendicitis and had to have an appendectomy. Shanti had had that emergency appendectomy eight weeks before her death. Appendicitis and poisoning have similar symptoms,

and Dave told detectives that Shanti had digestion problems right up to the day she died. She hasn't found, since the appendectomy, a diet that she can eat regularly and feel good. Vecchio needed more information, so he and Detective Teresa Sprague went to Minnesota in November of 2018 to meet Carol face-to-face and recorded this interview. I have issues with chronic pain and immune system issues that are not necessarily definitive. Carol told Vescio she also struggled with gut issues and that Dave cooked most of their meals. Has it ever come into your frame of thought that your marriage to David Tronis or him cooking or making you drinks was making you sick? No. Have you ever thought that any of your issues related to your health problems was him poisoning you?

No. Carol said her health issues continued even after her divorce from Dave. Yet Vestio says he remains suspicious. It very well could have been a scenario to where Dave was providing both of them with items that caused them to be ill. We just could never have real concrete proof of it. concrete proof of it. Vecchio wondered if there was another reason Carol seemed to be protecting her former husband and whether it had anything to do with Dave's finances. We saw a thousand pages of bank records belonging to Dave Tronis.

One thing that we noticed was that Dave and Carol still had a joint bank account together. That account at times contained hundreds of thousands of dollars. But Carol said she simply had forgotten to take her name off that account. People who are divorcing each other don't leave assets on the table. And they sure as heck don't leave them together. It's unclear where that money came from. leave them together. It's unclear where that money came from. Vestio believes that Carol, who was not charged with any crime, could be helping Dave manage his money while he's in jail.

I think that Carol is involved in David's finances and has some level of control. The surprises in the case kept coming. Soon after Shanti's death, detectives had placed a surveillance camera pointed toward the outside of Dave's house. Detective Sprague was interested to see who was coming and going out of the house. And that camera ended up actually turning into a pretty valuable piece of evidence. That camera captured images of private investigators hired by Dave's original law firm coming and going. Detectives believe that when one of those lawyers, Robert Mandel, realized that the PIs were on camera, he placed a call to Vecchio. I never ever expected that he was going to tell me that he in fact had an item of physical evidence that he had been holding on to for 11 months. Never would have expected it in a thousand years. And what was

that evidence? They were a set of purported bloody sheets and it literally, literally took my breath away. That defense attorney, Robert Mandel, told Vecchio that the defense team had acquired the bloody sheets from the garage apartment where Shanti was found dead, but had never turned them over to the prosecution. But Ryan, as shocking as that is, that wasn't the only evidence that later turned up, was it? No. I ended that call with the defense attorney and said, listen, if you have anything else, now is the time to tell me. And about 10, 12 hours later, the next morning, I got another call from him. And that's when he said, I have one other item that I think we have to turn over. That item turned out to be a green cord.

Mandel told Vescio that a private investigator removed it from the house and preserved it in an evidence bag because Dave was threatening to kill himself. Does that make sense to you? No, makes zero sense to me. Why go get the item and then treat it as if it were a piece of evidence? Remember, the autopsy revealed that Shanti had been strangled, and Vecchio believed there was a real possibility that the green cord could be the murder weapon. Do you think Shanti discovered Dave Tranis' secret on the day she was killed? Take an in-depth look at the timeline in this case on Facebook at 48 Hours.

With the prosecution now in possession of that green cord, tests were conducted to see if indeed it was the murder weapon used to strangle Shanti. Is there any evidence to indicate that in fact that cord was used to kill Shanti? No, that cord did not have any DNA on it. But the cord wasn't picked up until weeks after Shanti's death, and authorities believe Dave had plenty of time to clean it. Investigators had spent months examining all the evidence, leading Vecchio to craft his own theory about when Shanti was killed.

We found one single earring was placed on the nightstand. The other earring was in Shanti's ear. And what does that say to you? That tells me that Shanti was most likely sitting on the side of her bed, That tells me that Shanti was most likely sitting on the side of her bed, preparing for bed, taking those earrings out, and that's when the attack happened. The sheets and bed frame did have Shanti's blood on them, and Shanti didn't use her phone after 11.30 p.m. The scene was consistent with this attack happening somewhere in the midnight to 2, 3 a.m. time period. But David called 911 late in the afternoon saying he had just found Shanti floating in the tub. Zaleski says investigators are jumping to unfair conclusions. A few hours of time off the grid doesn't allow them to shift the timeline.

Prosecutors continued to build their case even as Dave sat behind bars listening to anyone who had information about Shanti's death, no matter how surprising the source. I met David Tronis in Three Whiskey. Three Whiskey is a housing unit in the Orlando jail where Edward Gizmondi shared a cell with Dave Tronis. He slept next to me and I slept next to him. After getting out of jail, Gizmondi met with Vecchio and Sprague. that he and Dave began talking and bonded over a shared interest in obscure hallucinogenics, including sapo, a poison derived from a South American frog. He said that you could use sapo to put in people's salsa and kill them quietly. Killer's salsa might sound ridiculous, but not so far-fetched when you consider that authorities suspected that David

poisoned both his wives. Gizmondi supplied even more information that, if true, was truly damning. He says Dave admitted that he and Shanti had a fight before she died. He just said there was an app on his phone that there was messages on that she had found, apparently, that suggested he was having sex with men. And she was going to show everybody. And what did Dave say he did? He snapped. He said he freaked out. And did what? He didn't specifically say what he did, but that he had killed his wife.

Investigators were unable to corroborate Gizmondi's story about the app. We didn't have any purchase records of apps and we did not see it on Dave's phone. I've read your statement and at no point do I see anywhere where you had told them that Dave had actually said, I killed my wife. But sitting here now, you said Dave told you, I killed my wife. Yes, ma'am. In jail, he said, I killed my wife. Word for word is what he told me.

But why wouldn't you tell the state's attorney's office that? I did. I told him that he had snapped. That's the word that I used. I don't remember if she had asked me, did he admit to murdering her? Like, word for word like that? One of the few things both the prosecution and the defense do agree on is that neither is sure they can believe Gizmondi.

He pled guilty to one count of lewd or lascivious behavior and is now a registered sex offender and still on probation. This individual certainly has credibility issues. Zaleski took over Dave's defense earlier this year. The original attorneys withdrew from the case after turning over the bloody sheets and the green cord. It's outrageous. It really is outrageous.

The defense attorneys have been submitted for investigation by the Orlando Police Department to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for potential crimes of tampering with physical evidence or accessory after the fact to murder. Those lawyers, Robert Mandel and Gregory Greenberg, say they didn't break any laws and didn't do anything wrong. I think that we have an obligation when we know such things to turn them over. Ryan Vescio left the state's attorney's office in 2019.

Today, he represents Shanti's estate and has filed a lawsuit so her money goes to her 10-year-old son, Jackson. It's been more than two years since Shanti was killed. Dave remains behind bars, awaiting a trial that keeps getting delayed. Is he scared? Oh, terrified. Terrified. He's locked up in isolation and his life is on the line. But Zaleski thinks that some of the evidence, the cord and the sheets, will ultimately be inadmissible.

Because of how they were recovered, the chain of custody is in question. Raising doubt isn't going to be difficult here. But Shanti's family has no doubt about what should happen to Dave. He has to be found guilty. He is guilty. Cindy Dow, who once found Dave so charming, feels very differently about him now. He should be sentenced to death. feels very differently about him now.

He should be sentenced to death. I want him to remember when he looks at me. I want him to remember every lie. Every lie. When Cindy remembers Shanti, her heart still breaks. Cindy remembers Shanti. Her heart still breaks. She was a happy, giving, kind, fun, loving person who had a mission in this life. And she didn't get to fulfill it. fill it. Hotshot 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 Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. So smart. Did she have a good heart? Yes. Yes. A jealous boyfriend. A tragic death. Mark was possessive. That doesn't make him a murderer. This is a case where things aren't always as they seem. 48 Hours, Saturday at 10, 9 central on CBS. 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.