48 Hours - The Mysterious Death of Kat West

Episode Date: April 11, 2021

A woman is found dead and the scene appeared to be staged with a bottle of absinthe. West, a Marilyn Monroe look-alike, posted on OnlyFans, a website some use to share adult content – was a fan involved? "48 Hours" correspondent Maureen Maher reports.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. What's the first step to growing your business? Getting people to notice you. But how do you do that? Two words. Constant contact. Your struggle with expensive, slow, and unmeasurable approaches to marketing your business is over. With constant contact, get email marketing that helps you create and send the perfect email to every customer. Connect with over 2 billion people on social media

with an all-in-one tool for posting and sharing, and create, promote, and manage your events with ease, all in one place. Join the millions of small businesses that trust Constant Contact with their marketing success. So get going and growing trust Constant Contact with their marketing success. So get going and growing with Constant Contact today. Ready, set, grow. Go to ConstantContact.ca and start your free trial today. Go to ConstantContact.ca for your free trial.

ConstantContact.ca People are so much more than how they are trying to survive in this world. I definitely wish my experience had gone differently, but I'm pretty proud of who I am today. Being on the front lines in New York City in the middle of a pandemic as a paramedic is a very scary job. I wasn't making ends meet. So I made the decision to post nude photos of myself on the internet to make more money. I was definitely concerned about the risks of being so exposed on the internet. And you never know what's going to happen. to happen. Sometimes I think about Cat West and I think about where she would be today and how much

more of her life she could have fulfilled. I started getting Facebook messages that a murder had happened in Calera. You know, a beautiful woman, nude, in a street, in a nice subdivision. That is what doesn't happen every day around here, and that's what drove the story. drove the story. Kat West, she was 42, was found dead on January 13, 2018. She was a beautiful woman. She looked a little bit like Marilyn Monroe.

You believe it was murder? I do. It's a mysterious murder case. A married mom found dead outside her home. We didn't know much about Kat West at all, and we certainly didn't know that her husband Jeff was a suspect. Jeff could not have possibly done it. I believe Kat was murdered, but I do not believe that it was by her husband.

It really turned out that Kat was a lot more than just a wife and a stay-at-home mom. Kat was the very out-there, exuberant, lively. She was the limelight of everything that we did. Kat West was posting pictures on OnlyFans, Exuberant, lively. She was the limelight of everything that we did. Cat West was posting pictures on OnlyFans, which is a website where people pay a subscription to see racy photos. It's sort of the happy medium between porn and the Brady Bunch.

She had several hundred followers. Everybody was a suspect to begin with. One of her subscribers. Did they come through with rage or jealousy or wanting something that they couldn't have? We were concerned, do we have somebody out there that's actually killing people? Had you heard of OnlyFans? No, ma'am. There's a lot of things I learned in this case. actually killing people. Had you heard of OnlyFans? No, ma'am. There's a lot of things I learned in this case. A. One look at her online presence made it clear.

Kathleen West put the social in social media. It was out there for the whole world to see. And friends like Brittany Dreisler say Kat was very extroverted. In the real world, she was always the life of the party as well. Kat would get on stages and sing. She couldn't sing for the life of her, but she would sing. Kat was proud of who she was. So on January 13th, 2018, when the 42-year-old wife and mother, widely known as Kat, was found dead in the street near her Alabama home,

veteran reporter and CBS consultant Carol Robinson smelled a story. In the tight-knit Birmingham suburbs, she's known as the Coco Chanel of crime. I don't let what I cover dictate what I wear. She later arrived at the scene and started hunting to see if Kat's past could help explain her death. She loved to be outside. That was her big deal. She had a swing set.

Kat's parents, Nancy and John Martin, say as a kid in Florida, she doted on her dolls. And did she want to be a mom someday? Absolutely. Yes. When she got a little bit older, she wanted to do modeling. What was the obsession with Marilyn Monroe? She kind of looked like her, she says. She tried to recreate some of her photos, her hairdos.

She loved her. She was obsessed with Marilyn Monroe and was trying to emulate her in every way. As Carol Robinson retraced the lines of Cat's life... There were always self-esteem issues there. She realized her resemblance to the troubled movie star was more than skin deep. She craved adulation from people whether she knew them or not. You tell her she's beautiful, she says, you're just my mom and dad. As time went on, Kat's parents say her feelings of isolation, self-doubt, and depression spiraled out of control. I don't know how many different places we took her to.

She went to a lot of counseling. It was a tough few years. Her parents say she was battling bipolar disorder and drinking too much. But by 2004, the broken pieces of Kat's life finally began to fall into place. It happened at a Super Bowl party. And that's where she met Jeff. Kat struck up a conversation with a local Army recruiter named Jeff West. They fell in love on their first date.

It was really love at first sight. Yes, it was. Within the year, they were married in Las Vegas. They moved around the country for Jeff's job, and in 2005, they had a daughter, Lola. Lola was her light. Lola was her gift, and she adored her daughter. In 2011, the West family moved to Southern California, where Army veteran Brittany Dreisler's husband was thinking of enlisting. At the recruiting station, Brittany says Jeff West basically had her husband at hello. What was your impression of him?

He was just super reassuring and nice. He was just nice. So nice, she says, that he even invited the Dreislers to his home. His wife, Kat, answered the door. She was just in her tank top and shorts and really happy, bubbly, and hey, girl! Right off the bat, she was like, you want a drink? Brittany says as far as she could tell, Kat and Jeff West were a happy, if somewhat unlikely, couple. Seeing how Kat carried herself and what she looked like and then seeing Jeff, I know opposites attract, but I was like, that guy pulled that girl? Uh, you know, it never really made sense to me until I started getting to know them more.

You would not describe this as a conventional marriage? Definitely not. When it came to the unspoken rules of entertaining, she admits Kat was so colorful that she sometimes colored outside the lines. She would jump from the kitchen counter to the sofa and shirtless, braless. Wait, in front of you and your husband? Yes, my husband would go, oh my gosh. The couples hung out at home, but also started going to bars and clubs. She'd be lively, animated. He would just be sitting on the couch, relaxing, having his drink.

Did you ever see the two of them fight? Kat would fight. Jeff would not. Cat would get emotional. When she was drunk, she would get loud. She would get feisty. But he would sit there and just say, Okay, boo-boo. Okay, I love you. All right, baby girl.

You never saw an ounce of jealousy from him? Never. Never. That surprised me because I don't think many men would feel that way. Carol says Jeff was proud of having an attractive wife. In 2014, the Wests had moved to Alabama, where he had a job as a campus police officer. The couple always made time to be together with a regular date night, including on the night of January 12, 2018. Jeff's parents had then 12-year-old Lola for the evening. They go out to a restaurant, you know, they have some drinks and dinner.

After dinner, they stopped at a liquor store. Security cameras show the couple shopping, apparently without a care in the world. Everything seemed fine. At one point, he even patted her on the butt. But it would be the last time Cat West would be seen alive. 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 I just was shocked, baffled. I don't believe it. When Brittany Dreisler learned of Kat's death, she immediately contacted Jeff West. What happened? How did this happen? And his answer was just, I don't know. Neither did Makorsha Pirafoy. It was dark. It was cold.

I wasn't sure, like, what I was seeing. She'd been driving to work before dawn that day when she spotted something. I think I see a person laying in the road. Well, halfway. Micorsha went home to get her parents. They returned to the scene. Her body was frozen, like frozen. I was traumatized. I was just in the car crying. McCorsha's mother called 911.

They asked to see if she was breathing or not. She wasn't. And we just waited for the police to get there. Calera Police Sergeant Mike Melhoff, a veteran criminal investigator, arrived about 30 minutes later. Looking at the scene, Kathleen's head is laying in the road. Her body is actually laying in the grass. And there was something else he noticed right away. It did appear that the body had been moved more than once. Kat West was found lying in a pool of blood across the street from her house. Melhoff noticed there was another blood pool nearby.

Next to Cat's body, her cell phone and an open bottle of absinthe liquor, the kind she and her husband had been seen purchasing the night before. The absin absence bottle, it was just propped up on the phone just like that. It just did not seem right that it would have landed in such a way if it, other than being staged. Carla Robinson, who saw the crime scene photos, also thought it looked staged. That bottle was placed on the phone. By somebody. By somebody. She says there was somebody at the scene whose behavior caught authorities' attention. Jeff West standing in the doorway. At one point, he was on the porch smoking a cigarette

and watching. And when Melhoff spoke to Jeff inside. His behavior was not what I expected it to be, knowing that his wife was outside. What was your reaction to it? It was everybody grieves in a different way, and that was something I kept telling myself. Kat had a roughly two-inch gash on the left side of her head. The cause of death was blunt force trauma. The injury that she suffered was enough to actually fracture the skull.

The autopsy showed signs of sex, but there was no indication of sexual assault. Also, her blood alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit. Still, the medical examiner could not say exactly how Kat sustained the injury. The manner of death was undetermined. Was it an accident? Was Kat so intoxicated that she fell and cracked her head? Or was it murder? And if so, who killed Kat West?

While authorities searched the neighborhood for clues and witnesses, Jeff went to headquarters. Police say he stayed for about six hours. Was Jeff cooperative? Absolutely. Jeff was adamant with police. He had no idea what had happened to Kat. He speculated she may have died by accident. He also said their marriage was in a good place. Police later discovered what the couple's friends already knew. I think it would be fair to characterize her as an exhibitionist. She enjoyed the attention. Jeff revealed he would actually photograph Kat and help her post suggestive photos online,

where hundreds of paying subscribers knew her as Kitty Kat West. She was very out loud about it. She was making money. But Britney says for Kat, it was about a lot more than money. Kat, when not behind the website, was not always confident. Yes, you have your husband, but you always want to be pretty to others. And remarkably, Jeff seemed to love it. Jeff got the best of both worlds. He was able to be with his wife. She got what she wanted, which was, I get to make my money, I get to show off what I have, and he's not going to leave me. I get to show off what I have and he's not going to leave me. Brittany says by 2018, Kat's online activity had really ramped up. She'd been using that subscription-only website, OnlyFans, to share adult photos and videos.

She was starting to get knee-deep in that type of industry. And with OnlyFans came a new feature for Kat. Providers and subscribers could communicate. Subscribers could also make requests. Had you heard of OnlyFans? No, ma'am. Melhoff was interested to learn that Jeff had photographed Kat for her site the night she died, and her page contained subscriber requests for personalized content. Could one of her OnlyFans subscribers have stalked and murdered her?

Do we have somebody else out there that's actually killing people? He says they knew they had to cast a wider net, so they sent Jeff home. Melhoff says they spent about three weeks looking for other suspects. There were thousands of names that had to be culled through in order to properly investigate this. As police continued gathering evidence, Carol Robinson says they had more public involvement than they wanted. Kat's death had set the internet on fire. You had this huge online presence, these murder discussion Facebook groups. While they may have started in Kalira, you know, there were people from all over. And they aren't quiet about their opinions.

It seemed everyone had an opinion on the way Kat died. It's the husband. I vote stalker. It might have been a freak accident. And the way she lived. I don't agree with her lifestyle. She brought this on herself. She was proud to have such an amazing figure. Good for her. She was a sympathetic victim to many. She was an unsympathetic victim to many. On Facebook, Jeff later made it clear that all the online chatter had taken a toll on the family. To the public, our tragedy is juicy gossip, he wrote. The Facebook thing was really intruding on their lives, in his opinion. Investigators had formed their own opinion. Kat's death had been no accident. And on February 22, 2018, they made their move.

William Jeffrey West, the victim's husband, has been arrested and charged with the murder. Bail was set at half a million dollars. Brittany Dreisler says Jeff should never have been arrested, firmly believing that police failed to fully investigate the hundreds of OnlyFans subscribers who had paid to see the racy content Kat posted. Did someone else kill her? Some see it as unseemly. Others call it harmless fun.

Stay at home! Either way, the online venue where Cat West posted her racy photos, known as OnlyFans, Welcome to OnlyFans. Is a lot more than only a website, says Carol Robinson. It's sort of the happy medium between porn and the Brady Bunch. Whether you're a blogger, celebrity, model, whatever, you can reward your loyal fans with even more of the great content you already produce, but get paid for it.

Since COVID-19 caused widespread lockdowns, OnlyFans has become a provocative and profitable platform for celebrities. Last summer, former Disney star Bella Thorne reportedly made a million dollars in one day posting lifestyle content. There's a lot of myself in this video, yeah. And the site has become an exotic destination for more salacious staycationers as well. A place to dream of living large and potentially to make a good living in the process. I'm really excited to introduce you to Courtney Tilia. The former teacher in this YouTube video told a reporter she quadrupled her income posting nudes on OnlyFans. I wear things that allow me to

feel sexy because when I feel sexy, I feel powerful. This woman says she's paying her way through a neuroscience master's program. Amen. And this pastor made headlines when she left the pulpit, not for a higher calling, but she did eventually make a higher paycheck. Can I get a hallelujah and an amen? Hosting on OnlyFans and now reportedly earning tens of thousands of dollars a month. By the end of 2020, the London-based site had grown to more than a million content providers and 90 million subscribers. subscribers. Does it surprise you at all to hear that as soon as the pandemic hit,

OnlyFans, the popularity and the usage of it jumped by 75 percent? Not at all. In 2015, Lauren Quay moved to New York from her home in West Virginia with dreams of making it big on Broadway. I really wanted to make something of myself. Soon frustrated with the rat race, the 23-year-old daughter of a doctor and nurse began studying emergency medicine and became a paramedic around the time the pandemic began. I knew that there was a job that needed to be done. Almost immediately, she found herself treating and transporting critically ill COVID patients, working at the intersection of life and death.

I still remember taking patients away whose family members couldn't come with us. They didn't know if it was going to be the last time they saw each other. That was really rough for me. Rougher still, she says, because even though she was saving lives, it was impossible to save any money. She was making only about $40,000 a year, less than other first responders like many New York police and firefighters. Is what you were getting paid enough to cover your monthly nut? No, not at all. It wasn't feasible to live off of that salary.

As her bills piled up and employment options dwindled, Lauren turned to OnlyFans. I don't have to go outside of my house. You know, this could be an easy business. Using an alias, she started by posting lingerie pics cropping out her face. But she says she soon stopped cropping. And before long, the paramedic who by day was covering every inch of her body in protective clothing started taking it all off online. Did you post full nude shots? Yes, I did. And she says if Kat West was proud to be on OnlyFans, she would have had reason to be.

The human body, I believe it should be celebrated. And how did it make you feel when you were posting? I felt empowered. I did not feel like I was degrading myself. And just to be clear, this was money you were using to put food on your table? A hundred percent.

But Lauren admits she was worried about the exposure. It was scary to think that, you know, I'd be taking pictures of myself that would be on the internet. Especially as her pool of OnlyFans subscribers started to grow. She says some of the requests for personalized content especially as her pool of OnlyFans subscribers started to grow. She says some of the requests for personalized content were disrespectful. There are some really weird people on the internet. Did you ever consider that maybe someone from her online life could have played a role in

what happened to her that night? We looked into that, and there just wasn't that evidence out there. No evidence that an OnlyFans online user was involved in Cat West's death. What the evidence does show, says Jeff's attorney John Robbins, is that Kat wasn't murdered. She fell and hit her head. Jeff's parents, Jerry and Susie, agree. They aren't sure exactly how Kat hit her head, and they don't think authorities can prove it either.

They set out to get Jeff. There was no investigation. I know he's innocent. I don't care what anybody says. He did not do this. Jeff's parents say he was incapable of harming his family. Now, that is exactly what you would expect to hear from the parents of an accused killer. But you would probably not expect to hear the same thing from the parents of the alleged victim. He's honorable, and he loves my daughter.

I know he didn't do it. He didn't do this. Kat's parents, John and Nancy, say their daughter was conspicuously clumsy, and the drinking did not help. Brittany Dreisler concedes anything is possible. She could have ran outside in the street, right? Because she was so intoxicated. Authorities insist Jeff West is a murderer, but their tactics suggest otherwise. John Robbins says just a few months before trial, the prosecution offered Jeff West a deal. It's called an Alford plea. Jeff would not

have to admit that he had committed a crime, but he would have to acknowledge that the state had enough evidence to likely convict. Now, if the judge accepted that deal, it means that Jeff would be let off with time served and only two years probation. He could walk out of jail almost immediately. What does it tell you as a defense attorney when the prosecution is offering a deal? That tells you as a defense lawyer, the prosecution has some problems with their case and they recognize that. According to Shelby County prosecutors, plea deals are standard in every case. Robbins says he told Jeff it was a reasonable offer. He rejected it immediately.

Why did he reject the offer? Because he says, I cannot say that I'm guilty of something that I didn't do. Jeff West decides to roll the dice and take his chances in court. He understands the risk of going to trial. Do you believe Kat West's death was a murder or an accident? See what investigators found as they retraced what happened the night she died and her online life at 48hours.com. 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 Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad free right now. For more than two years, Jeff West has awaited trial in custody. We weren't getting a lot of information at the time. The police were holding things close to their vest.

Defense attorney John Robbins believes prosecutors have problems with their case. He says the Friday before trial, they called him with more talk of a plea deal. We discussed what would it take to settle the case. But they could not come to terms. The prosecution has also notified the court it will make a new filing of evidence, text messages between Jeff and Kat. It was very apparent that it was a very volatile relationship. Prosecutors will tell the jury that the Wests did not have a harmonious marriage. You're throwing almost 14 years of a relationship away.

She'd written a week before she died. You don't want me. Fine. Someone will. I always want you, he'd replied. Fine, someone will. I always want you, he'd replied. The texts went from erratic to erotic so fast that Robbins actually wants to use them to defend Jeff. Anytime Kat said something that, quote, can be considered an argument, his response is, I love you, I want you, you're sexy.

I love you. I want you. You're sexy. Today is the first day of the murder trial against Jeff West in the murder of Cat West. The judge banned news cameras from the courtroom, but we were at the courthouse taking notes. And it soon became clear there were at least two things the defense and prosecution agreed on. The cause of death, blunt force trauma, and how the night began. Jeff and Kat had started drinking at dinner and bought more booze on the way home. It was later that Kat apparently had changed into lingerie and asked Jeff to photograph her for her online fans. On Instagram that night, he posted this picture of the absent liquor bottle. Authorities contend he would bludgeon her to death with that very same bottle. But why would Jeff West want to kill his wife?

I wouldn't want to speculate as to, you know, what drove him to that point, but I can certainly say that I feel that, yes, he's the one responsible for his wife's death. At the scene, Milhoff says he found it odd that Jeff did not ask for details about his wife's condition. I would have thought that he would have at least asked, you know, can I see her? Carroll believes what Jeff did say made authorities suspicious too.

According to Jeff, he went to bed about 10 30. Kat stayed up. Now that's Jeff's version of what happened. But before long, Milhoff unearthed a different story on a health tracker app on Jeff's cell phone. Well, the health app actually shows Jeff's phone moving as late as 10 minutes after 11 o'clock. And Melhoff says he believes Jeff also lied about when he woke up that morning. Jeff told police his dogs got him up by barking at the cruisers out front. But a neighbor reported seeing Jeff before police arrived. She could see a man in the house pacing back and forth.

Having laid out what they believed were Jeff's movements that night, police look at Kat's phone, which also had a health tracker app. It showed her phone had stopped moving 16 minutes before Jeff's. But what had actually caused Kat's fatal wound? About a month after her death, police got test results from that absinthe bottle. It had a sliver of glass chipped off, and there were two spots of Kat's blood on the bottom. We had Jeff's fingerprints on it. Wouldn't you expect that given that they bought it together and they said they'd been drinking that his prints would be on it? Absolutely. But

Melhoff says there was something specific about the prints that helped point the finger of blame at Jeff. Basically the bottle was held inverted much like he'd be holding it like a club. Jeff's thumbprint was found in a downward position on the bottle, and his ring fingerprint was found over here. She was not hitting head with that bottle. Robbins says that's clear because Jeff is a righty, and the prints on the bottle were from his left hand. And there's a good reason they're upside down.

The bottle was in a bag. You would pull it out of the bag in the same way where your thumbprint would be going down. But to win this case, the defense will tell the jury that Jeff West could not have murdered his wife because Kat wasn't murdered. I've handled well over 100 murder cases. Never went forward on a murder case where the manner of death was classified as undetermined. What happened that night to Cat West? In a nutshell, she fell, she hit her head.

Robbins says police found Jeff dressed in the same clothes as seen in the security video the night before. There was nothing on his clothes. No liquor, no blood, no bodily fluid, no tissue, no hair. And there was no hair on the bottle. There's no glass in her womb. And despite what police told us, no real effort Robbins maintains to consider other suspects or theories about Kat's death. to consider other suspects or theories about Kat's death. The only person they ever looked at was Jeff, and they really never looked at it whether it was an accident. Was there ever a time when you or anyone in the police department looked into the possibility of it being an accident? Absolutely not.

I don't want to sit here and say that I immediately ruled out an accident, but just the head trauma alone, knowing that the body had been moved, it was very hard to try to look at this as an accident. Not hard at all, insists Robbins. The two blood pools at the scene suggest that after Kat fell, she could have gotten up and fallen again. Because it's clear that she moved around after she had that head injury. John Robbins has whittled his entire case down to only one witness, a witness guaranteed to get the jury's attention.

Kat's mother, Nancy Martin, takes the stand to tell the jury about her daughter's lifelong struggles. It's a lot of pressure. Yeah, it was. It really was. Martin testified that she herself had witnessed Kat West in an intoxicated state go outside barefoot in any, whether it was hot or cold, she said. She would be in varying stages of dress. Were you surprised at how supportive Kat's parents, particularly her mother, was of the man police say killed her daughter? You know, I can't really recall another case where the mother of the victim and the father of the victim were so attached to the suspect. Kat's parents are even giving Jeff legal advice. They help convince him not to testify.

Jeff's in good mood. He's fired up. In closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney Daniel McBrayer finally ties together the state's theory of what happened that night and why. He says Jeff had lost his temper with his wife. He had a problem with her drinking and her social media usage. Prosecutors say the evidence from that night shows it. He had thrown her phone into the street and clubbed her to death with a liquor bottle when she went after it. He had thrown her phone into the street and clubbed her to death with a liquor bottle when she went after it. And McBrayer says the way the bottle and phone were positioned convinced

authorities it could not have been an accident. There were those two items stacked perfectly together right there on the street next to her body. Jeff loved his wife. Did you ever consider the possibility that this guy just snapped one night? But there's no evidence of that. He does not have a history of violence. The trial is ending when prosecutors make a last-minute move. They convince the judge to let the jury consider a lesser charge than murder. Reckless manslaughter.

I think that we could see a verdict tonight. This is the hard part. We're just waiting. 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 the bold risk-takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time,

only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just The Best Idea Yet. They were afraid that they were going to lose the case. John Robbins says he wasn't happy about the last-minute lesser charge that prosecutors introduced.

And it's easy to see why. It takes the jury less than five hours to convict Jeff West of reckless manslaughter. Jeff is stunned. Both sets of parents are also stunned by the verdict. That was bulls**t, and you know it. I couldn't believe it. I really couldn't. Almost three months later. Judge Bill Bostick sentenced Jeff West to 16 years. How did you react when you heard 16 years? I just wanted to cry. With credit for time served, Jeff will be behind bars for 13 more years. For the prosecutors, it's a kind of split decision.

Obviously, we would have preferred a murder verdict. But they declare victory anyway. We're glad to get a sentence as split decision. Obviously, we would have preferred a murder verdict. But they declare victory anyway. We're glad to get a sentence as we did. For the defense, it is a stinging defeat. Jeff knows if he had accepted that plea deal from the prosecutors, he'd probably already be home. In retrospect, that probably should have taken the deal. In retrospect, he probably should have taken the deal. Both sets of parents stand behind his decision. By a show of hands, who thinks Jeff is not guilty?

We all think he's not guilty. We all think he's not guilty. They sat down with us as a group three days after sentencing. Who thinks that he got a fair trial? Nobody. No hands. They believe the judge threw the book at Jeff West in sentencing for refusing to settle the case and that from the moment Kat's death made news. That double life, an adult themed subscription based business. She was harshly judged in the court of public opinion. It was the fact that she was doing these

things that small towns don't understand. I think society is always going to be hard on women for anything that we do. New York City paramedic Lauren Quay says for her, the harsh judgments did not start until last November, when a newspaper reporter contacted her out of the blue. He said, somebody tipped the New York Post that you're a paramedic with an OnlyFans. He told her he was investigating whether her OnlyFans page violated her employer's code of conduct. And in that moment, I wanted to just like crawl in a hole and die. Lauren says she canceled her OnlyFans account immediately. The expose,

including her real name and where she lived and worked, began circulating a few weeks later. I opened my Instagram and saw, you know, 600 follow requests. Were you afraid for your safety? Absolutely. What do you think would have happened if you had kept your OnlyFans website going after the article dropped? Well, I think it definitely would have made a lot of money. As it happens, she did anyway. Worried that Lauren might lose her job, a friend set up a GoFundMe page for her. Supporters contributed more than $100,000. But the private ambulance company she works for kept her on the clock. It's always really hard to watch people pass away. Sometimes I think about Cat West and I think about where she would be today.

Sucks that she was taken so early. Cat's friend Brittany Dreisler is living with loss too. She's gone. That's heart-wrenching. They have a daughter that's in the mix of everything. I think people forget that a child is involved. Right. Every week, Lola, now 16 years old, goes with all her grandparents to see Jeff. Are the four of you sticking together just for the sake of Lola? No, no. They're family. But even when Jeff West does get out of prison, this will always be a family with someone missing.

In an honest light, how would you like her to be remembered? Kind, caring mother. Kind, caring person who loved her husband and loved her daughter very much. Lola is being raised by both sets of grandparents. Jeff West has filed an appeal. Be a little bit brave. Don't ever be afraid to. Got a couple questions.

Say what you gotta say. Do you think it's time for schools to reopen? Say what you gotta say. We are still talking about this story rightfully so. Say what you gotta say. We are still talking about the story rightfully so. 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. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman.

But 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, wherever you get your podcasts. 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 reached the age of 10 that would still have heard it. It just happens to all of them.

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 app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.