48 Hours - The Strange Death of Professor Shockley

Episode Date: November 12, 2023

College professor and renowned entomologist Marianne Shockley went swimming with her boyfriend Marcus Lillard and their friend Clark Heindel, who got together in a small Georgia town one spring night. By morning, she and Clark were dead. Only her boyfriend, Marcus, lived to tell what happened that night. This encore episode of "48 Hours" last aired on 6/17/2023.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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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. Want to listen to 48 Hours uninterrupted? Subscribe to 48 Hours Plus for ad-free episodes today. There is good and there is evil.

And that night, evil came to play. We got a good one here. We got a call about the woman's been underwater for a minute or two. Don't touch nothing. No, no, leave that right there. Don't touch nothing. Her boyfriend said he walked out in the water. When he come back, she was propped up in the hot tub.

She was not breathing. Tell me her name again. Mary Ann Shopley. Mary Ann, last name Shopley. We get out here and she got a big old gash on her head. I'm telling you, the hair on the back of my neck stands up. Something ain't right with this. What's your name?

Marcus Lillard. I'm Marianne's boyfriend. I talk to her every morning and every night. She was my hero because she was so intelligent. My name is Dr. Marianne Shockley. I'm an outreach entomologist, and I'm the director of the insect zoo. She was on the cutting edge of the industry. I absolutely looked up to her.

As my big sister, I wanted to be her. We're gonna rope it off and go from there. I want you to now take me to May 11th, 2019. Okay. Take me through the day. What happens? Wow. They went bar hopping.

Had a couple of mimosas and then we have a couple of shots. And then they went out to the country club and had drinks there. I'm Penny Dearman. This is Bloodtown. I created the podcast about the Marianne Shockley case. They were having a really fun night. At this point, how many drinks do you think you've had? Oh. Oh, wow.

There was some communication about, does somebody have a pool? Marcus knew that his friend Clark Heindel had a pool. So, can I get your name, please? Clark. And they went over there at some point. They like to have a few drinks. They brought some beer with them.

Marcus and Marianne are in the hot tub, and they're enjoying themselves. What the hell happened after that? Marcus says that he went into the woods to gather some firewood. As I dropped the wood off at the fireplace, I could see Marianne slumped down. He called out her name, and she did not respond. We started doing CPR.

She was pronounced dead at the scene. My mother called me, and she said, Mary Ann's gone. I just fell to the ground, and I just was saying, no, Mama, no, no. And she was like, she's drowned in some hot tub. Mary Ann is not stupid. She would not drown in a hot tub. Something funny would do somebody.

It ain't adding up. I just knew that Marcus had killed her. I'm Carson Lillard. I'm Marcus' son. He's angry and he's violent. Marcus is in a police car at this point. You're not under arrest or anything right now, okay? Where is Clark? He went into his house.

Sheriff's office! Sheriff's office! And he shot himself to death. The very first thought was he had to have had something to do with this. Why would he kill himself? There's something he's hiding. I don't believe anything that comes out of his mouth. ¶¶ It was 1989 in Titusville, Florida. Kim Halleck said she and her ex-boyfriend Chip Flynn were kidnapped and attacked at gunpoint. Kim fled the scene, but Chip didn't make it out alive.

Did you kill Chip Flynn? No, ma'am. Crosley Green has lived more than half his life behind bars for a crime he says he didn't commit. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours, and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most, involving an eyewitness account that doesn't quite make sense. A sister testifying against a brother. They always say lies, you can't remember lies. A lack of physical evidence. And questions about whether Crosley Green was accused, arrested, and convicted because he's Black.

Just because a white female says a Black man has committed a crime, we take that as gospel. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, The Trouble Case against Crosley Green, wherever you get your podcasts. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X.

In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to 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. It was nearing 3 a.m. on Mother's Day, May 12, 2019. That's when Baldwin County Sheriff deputies stormed into Clark Heindel's house and found he'd killed himself with a shotgun. We're going to need to get that gun away from him. His hand's still on it. 911? Yes, I need an ambulance. Only moments earlier, Clark had called 911, asking paramedics to come to his home in Milledgeville, Georgia, and the scene was captured on police body cams. Clark said a friend of his, college professor Marianne Shockley,

had seemingly drowned in his hot tub. We've got to treat this like a crime scene. Within hours, Mary Ann's death was being investigated as a homicide, and authorities say they had two suspects, her boyfriend, Marcus Lillard, who was being held for questioning, and Clark, a longtime resident of Milledgeville. I think a lot of people do think that because Clark Heindel killed himself, he had some kind of involvement. Today we're recording on location in Milledgeville.

This is season two. Penny Dierman investigated the case on her podcast. I'm doing this podcast because I need to know what happened to her. As it turns out, Penny had previously met Marcus. I met Marcus when I purchased my truck. At the time, Marcus was working as a car and truck finance manager. And what was your impression during that transaction? He was very nice. He was very personable, making jokes,

making me feel very comfortable, very at ease. And I liked him right away. Pretty much everyone agrees that Marcus, who was married and divorced twice, was a charmer. But as Penny later learned, that charm came with a reputation. He was definitely known as a ladies' man. Everyone, regardless of what they thought of him, knew that about him. Somehow, God continued to send women my way that were way too good for me, and I would date them, and I'd take them for granted, one right after another. It was a steady pattern.

He's the most charismatic person I've ever met. I mean, he's just got this kind of aura about him that sucks people in. Carson is Marcus's 23-year-old son. Anywhere he wanted to go, there was a woman there that he could shack up with and stay with. And eventually, Marianne also fell under his spell. The two had met in the late 90s when they were students at Georgia College in Milledgeville and working at the same local restaurant. Was there a spark in that moment?

No, I was a kid, man. I was probably 17 and she would have been 20. You know, I was a little, you know, a little wormy guy. I thought he was fine. I mean, nothing stood out to me to be irregular about him. Ayla Crippen is Mary Ann's younger sister. She went to the same college as Mary Ann and Marcus. He dated one of my best friends and roommates at the time. They didn't date for very long. She said she got a weird vibe from him. Marcus admits drugs got in the way of his

college education and he dropped out. I just thought life was a party and I treated it as such. I never really thought about him again until Marianne started dating him, you know, two decades later. The year was 2017. Marcus was on the road in Athens, Georgia. He knew Marianne lived there, so he invited her to lunch. I was on my motorcycle. We took a trip around Athens. We went to her home away from home, the botanical gardens. The motorcycle ride, I mean, that was as romantic as you can get for lunchtime on a Wednesday. Some 20 years after they first met, Marcus says they clicked. We spent every possible moment together on the weekends. Marianne enjoyed Marcus's company so much that she brought him along as her assistant

on trips to China and Ecuador. So this is a very serious relationship. Absolutely, yeah, yeah. We were super in love with each other. To me, he was not relationship material. He's somebody that you'd go have a good time with, and then you'd send him on his way. Ayla says the relationship seemed to suit Marianne's busy lifestyle. She'd been married and divorced three times and had two children.

She had a Ph.D. and was a star professor at the University of Georgia, where she was known around campus as Doc Shock. Her specialty was entomology, the study of insects. We are going to talk about bugs. Mary Ann liked everything about insects, including their taste. Ants taste like citrus. Some green state bugs taste like cinnamon. She embraced entomophagy, the eating of insects, and she believed bugs could be used as a protein source to help solve world hunger. So what do we have here?

Today we have cricket brownies. Shakira Magid was one of Marianne's students who became a true believer and something of a bug baker. At our request, she brought some samples. Let's dig in. Let's kind of try it. You can put a few more crickets on mine.

I'm not squeamish. Here. To Marianne. To Marianne. To Marianne. Ooh, and it's so moist. The brownie is perfectly cooked, perfectly baked. And the crickets add a little bit of added crunch.

Yes. Shakira says she could tolerate eating bugs more than she could tolerate Marcus. I didn't particularly care for him. I couldn't really put my finger on it, but I didn't like him. Carson could relate. Nobody knows a father better than their own son. He had warned Marianne that Marcus had a Jekyll and Hyde personality,

largely because of drugs. He was on cocaine my whole life. And he cautioned her to be careful. He's angry and he's violent and you're going to see it. If I could tell you anything, it would just be to get away. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. The scary cult classic was set in the Chicago housing project. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror.

Candyman. Candyman? Now, we all know chanting a name won't make a killer magically appear. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. We're going to talk to the people who were there. And we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how this was created. Literally shocked. And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America.

If you really believed in tough on crime, then you wouldn't make it easy to crawl into medicine cabinets and kill our women. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. 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 a virgin. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn.

When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. On the afternoon of May 11th, 2019, Marcus and Marianne were in a celebratory mood.

The college school year had just ended, and as seen in this surveillance footage, the couple went bar hopping in Milledgeville before heading over to Clark Heindel's house. Had a few beers, smoked a little pot, started listening to some music, had a couple more beers. Marcus spoke to us from jail. He's been behind bars since Marianne's death. He told us about that night and how it all began as an impromptu jam session. Clark played the accordion and Marcus tried his hand at the conga, just as they had done in the past. We had stepped down from his porch and we're getting ready to leave. I said, hey Clark, I heard you got some acid. He says, no, but I've got some ecstasy. Marcus says all three of them took the ecstasy pills,

a drug that makes users feel euphoric, but can also cause anxiety and paranoia. What happened next? It got all fuzzy after that. I was so out of it, I couldn't make a sentence, so I couldn't speak. But Marcus did later piece together a timeline and told investigators that he thought he and Marianne got into the hot tub around 9 p.m. Marcus said at one point he got out of the hot tub and Marianne begged him not to leave. She says, baby, get back in this water with me right now. Was she afraid? Was she expressing any kind of concern? She had fear in her voice and it was definitely fear. Marcus says it was not clear what Mary Ann was afraid of.

Why in that moment did you not turn back? Because I'm an idiot. Leave that right there. Marcus initially told deputies that he went into the woods to collect firewood. But he later said the real reason he went into the woods was that he was trying to recreate a scene from a documentary called The Last Shaman. While on drugs, the lead character takes part in bizarre rituals like being buried alive. I said I'm going to the woods to dig a hole. Marcus says he went into the woods and simply lay down. For how long, he says, he does not know.

I can't remember anything past her saying, don't leave me. What do you say to those who are hearing this story of a guy who has a history with drugs, who is claiming, you know, I blacked out. Convenient, it sounds like. The devil was at work. I mean, everything that he could have possibly done to line this thing up, to make it confusing and deceitful, and it was all there. You emerged from the woods. What is the first thing you remember seeing, hearing?

I didn't hear anything. I could see Marianne slumped down with her chin up to her nose underwater. Deputies asked Clark where he was when Marianne was in the hot tub, and he says he stayed in the far end of the pool. I'm sitting down there, hanging out, swimming, Marcus says he pulled Marianne out of the hot tub and placed her on the pool deck. In doing so, Marcus admits dropping Marianne, who suffered a gash to her forehead. At that point, he says, Clark walked over. And he actually said, should we call 911?

And what did you say? I said, no, I think she'll be fine. But Marianne was not fine. That gash on her head bled profusely, and it appeared she was not breathing. Marcus and Clark say they took turns giving her CPR, but delayed calling 911. Maybe speak to some of the individuals that were present. Podcaster Penny Dierman has her own theory about why Marcus did not immediately call police. In 2015, Marcus was convicted of selling marijuana and possessing methamphetamine and cocaine. He was still on probation for that crime. I would say that if you were an individual who's

been in trouble with the law before and you're currently on probation that you would be afraid to call 911. It makes my family so angry and so hurt. If he had a good heart, if he truly loved Mary Ann, he would have sacrificed anything to save her. It's unclear how much time had passed before Clark called 911. But investigators believe Mary Ann had been dead for at least two hours before help arrived. The questions from deputies on the scene got much more pointed. If she's unconscious, y'all didn't think to call 911? If she's unconscious? more pointed. If she's unconscious, y'all didn't think to call 911? If she's unconscious?

If she was breathing. Deputies decided to separate the men for further questioning. They put Marcus in a squad car. Policy says I have to put you in handcuffs any time I catch a train for you, okay? Just place your hands on your back for me, okay? But judging from the body cam footage, deputies seem to be having a hard time getting Clark to cooperate. I've been told three times to stay off the pool, but he's insisting to have his lawyer. Something, something is not right here, bro.

All right, wait right there. It's a crime scene now. Wait right there. I asked you to wait right there, sir. I asked you to wait right now. But then the deputy watching Clark got a phone call and Clark wandered off. We got a dead woman. No one noticed that Clark had slipped into his house. Not until deputies heard that shotgun go off. Sheriff's office! Sheriff's office!

Sheriff's office! And found his body. It tainted the case 100% because there weren't two people there that could say what happened. There was only one. But investigators say Clark did leave behind a potential clue, a handwritten suicide note. And I just said, well, he had to have done it. If that pill made me so stupid, maybe it made him for once in his life a violent guy. What do you think happened to Mary Ann Shockley?

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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. Baldwin County Sheriff Bill Massey and Major Brad King say they still can't shake the unease they felt when they arrived at Clark Heindel's house on May 12, 2019, during the early morning hours when Mary Ann Shockley was pronounced dead.

The feeling at this scene was totally different than any I'd ever been to. And it was a very, very strange, strange feeling that everybody noticed here. Sheriff Massey remembers walking through Clark's house when he spotted what turned out to be a handwritten suicide note on the kitchen counter. This is the suicide note Clark wrote before taking his life. That is the note, yes, that we found in the house. He says, I am very sorry. I don't know what happened with Marianne, but it was on my watch, and I am so sorry for the family and friends. Massey says Clark did not admit any guilt in the letter. It mostly instructed his

heirs on what to do with his possessions. Marcus was now the only surviving witness from the scene that night. Why was Clark allowed to go back into his home? Well, I'll be up front with you. It was a violation of our policy and procedures. How big of a mistake was that in this case? Oh, it was a terrible mistake. Terrible mistake. It was a dramatic, a dramatic error in this case. Soon after deputies discovered Clark had killed himself, Marcus was taken in for questioning. Hours later, he was interviewed by Michael Maben, a special agent for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, also known as the GBI. Maben broke the news about Clark's suicide. During the time that I guess he was in the backseat of the car, Clark went inside

his house and he committed suicide. You're kidding. I'm not kidding. Why would he do that? I don't know. I bet that sheds some light on him. I mean, maybe we need a kiss to do that. Marcus immediately began speculating on what might have happened when he says he was in the woods and away from Mary Ann.

There's a pretty good chance that Clark got in that hot tub with me. I'm going to say there's a very high chance of that. A really high chance. Help me out, man. Do you think he did something to her? Well, she would do it to herself, and I know I didn't do anything. The investigation was in its early stages, and authorities weren't sure who or what to believe. Ayla found it impossible to believe her sister could drown in a hot tub.

That made no sense. Marianne was intelligent. Like, even if she was drinking in the hot tub, I just could not see that happening. Almost immediately, investigators found out about Marcus' 2015 drug conviction. But they were also looking closely at Clark Heindel, who was 69 years old and had his own issues. And he had a bit of a checkered past that really caught up with him and impacted his career.

Yes. Unfortunately, he lost his license to practice psychology. Podcaster Penny Dierman says Clark's license to practice psychology was revoked in 2017 after a former female patient filed a complaint with a state licensing board. She charged that Clark had engaged her in a sexual relationship and had given her marijuana. It's a pretty sordid tale. But investigators could find no proof Clark had done anything to Mary Ann. Sheriff Massey had known Clark for years and knew his son had died at the age of six from a rare form of cancer. Losing his psychology license, the death of a young son that had had him depressed for years, the embarrassment of it all, and it happened to his house. After his son's death, Penny says Clark took the first of several trips to Peru to work with shamans,

much like the main character in the last shaman documentary. By coincidence, Marcus says he and Clark discussed that film on the night Marianne died. And in another bizarre twist, Marcus says Clark found some hydrangea branches and shook them around Marianne's body. It was ritualistic or seance or something. Clark, who had opened a local yoga studio in recent years, had a lot of friends and supporters, including Marcus's son, who began seeing Clark for therapy when he was only 14 years old. I did love Clark, and I still do, and I think I didn't realize how much he meant to me until he was gone.

Carson says that as soon as he heard Marianne was dead, he pinned the blame on his father, whom he describes as a malignant narcissist. He was headed towards destruction and was determined to bring somebody with him. And Carson wasn't the only person who felt Marcus had violent tendencies. I was at my desk at the office, and a young lady called me extremely upset,

and she said, Sheriff Massey, Mary Ann Shockley didn't drown. She said Marcus choked her to death. Soon after Marianne Shockley was declared dead in the early morning hours of Mother's Day, May 12, 2019, Sheriff Massey received that phone call from an ex-girlfriend of Marcus, who said she strongly suspected that Marcus had choked Marianne. She said the same thing happened to me a long time ago when I was at a low point in my life and she said he choked her having sex. News had spread through word of mouth in the small town that Marianne had died in a hot tub and Marcus was in jail. I asked her if she'd

come give us a statement and she did. Marcus's ex-girlfriend told investigators that Marcus had a choking fetish and that it was a regular part of their sex life. How many times do you think you and Marcus had sex? Maybe a hundred times. How many times do you think choking was involved? I would say at least 30 times. The woman said the erotic choking was consensual, but one time she says Marcus went too far. He choked me long enough to where I lost consciousness and my body crumbled to the floor. He just left me there. Marcus says his ex-girlfriend was exaggerating, but he didn't deny choking her during sex. It was really more of a place to put your hands for control. Just a little light pressure to the carotid arteries, you know. That was really about it. There was never any pressure here.

The pressure was here. It was not that. It was blown way out of proportion. Marquez said he only tried choking Marianne one time, and not on the night she died. He said she told him she didn't like it, and he never tried it again. Ayla does not believe him.

I believe that they were having sex and he choked her and that is what caused her death. GBI agents had first interviewed Marcus on Mother's Day morning and later placed him in custody on a probation hold stemming from his previous drug conviction. The following day, Monday, May 13th, 2019, the autopsy results came in, and investigators felt they were damning. We were notified by the medical examiner that it was a classic case of strangulation. Busted blood vessels in our eyes and had nothing to do with any drowning. Medical examiner Dr. Melissa Sim Stanley wrote that Marianne quote died as a result of asphyxia due to strangulation. The manner of death is best classified as homicide. Given the results of the

autopsy and the information from Marcus's ex-girlfriend, authorities say Marcus became the focus of the investigation. Hours after getting those autopsy results, GBI agent Michael Maben requested another interview with Marcus, and he agreed. Again, he did not request a lawyer, at least at first. Strangulation is what killed her, okay?

And you need to tell me what the hell happened, because you know. We need to talk about it. I don't know. If I knew, I would have told you immediately. Agent Maben accuses Marcus of lying. So I need to get a lawyer at this point because you've already got your mind made up. You already got your mind made up.

Yeah, I do. Well, you're going to arrest the murderer. I'll tell you that. It was only one day after Mary Ann's death when Marcus was charged with her murder. He was formally indicted nearly two years later in March 2021 and charged with four counts, felony murder, aggravated assault, involuntary manslaughter, and reckless conduct. He was ordered held without bond. It made sense that she was not responsible for her

own death because I know my sister. She wasn't a careless person. Did it make me feel better? No, because now I know that someone took her from us. Marcus sat in jail. Months turned into years. Sheriff Massey says investigators vetted Clark and dropped him as a suspect. And as the trial approached, Marcus settled on Matt Tucker as his defense attorney. And he just goes, I'm not going to admit to anything I didn't do. to anything I didn't do. Largely because of COVID, nearly three years went by before Marcus Lillard stood trial for the murder of Mary Ann Shockley.

But on April 4th, 2022, his trial began here at the Baldwin County Courthouse. Assistant District Attorney Tammy Coffey laid out what the prosecution believes happened between Marcus and Marianne on the night she died. After they got in the hot tub, I think that they engaged in sex. I think he choked her. I think he choked her too hard and for too long. Assistant District Attorney Nancy Malkor told 48 Hours there was no clear evidence of sexual activity because Mary Ann's body had been in the hot tub for a prolonged period of time. Meanwhile, GBI agents had been busy talking to former sex partners of Marcus to determine if he had choked them. It turns out GBI agents found eight women. I went out with Marcus a few times back in

the fall of 2016. One night we were having sex and he put his hands around my neck. You said he did choke you at times? He did try to choke me. That was something that he was into. I stopped him twice. It's not something that I'm into. I don't like it. It scares me. Prosecutors put six of the women on the stand. The women testified Marcus choked them or attempted to choke them during sex. And two of those witnesses told jurors Marcus had choked them until they passed out. All of it was consensual. They're still alive. So, I mean, how is it even relevant?

But Ayla thinks their testimony was relevant and demonstrates how callous and dangerous Marcus could be. It's one thing to gamble with your own life, you know. If you want to do drugs, if you want to choke yourself out, I mean, okay. And one of his girlfriends, he just told her to shut up. So that showed a disregard for women, period. The medical examiner testified to her findings, but Tucker noticed that the autopsy revealed the hyoid bone in Marianne's neck was intact and not broken. Some experts, including a surgeon Tucker consulted, considered that unusual in a strangulation case. And he said, that's what you need to explore. Find out why it wasn't broken. If somebody was strangling Marianne, why didn't it break?

Tucker suggested to Dr. Sim Stanley that perhaps whoever killed Marian was too old or not strong enough to break that bone. He asked, could that person be 70 years of age? And she said yes before she realized what she was saying. Clark was 69 at the time. Tucker says that shows Clark, nearly three decades older than Marcus, could have been Marianne's killer. But would this juror agree?

I was not there to prosecute Clark. I was there to find whether Marcus Lillard was guilty or not. I was there to find whether Marcus Lillard was guilty or not. Follow the evidence to learn more about what happened the night Marianne died at 48hours.com. Let the record reflect that all jurors Ann after she rebuffed his sexual advances. It was a scenario that Marcus said had haunted him while he was behind bars. My theory for the better part of the three years was that he took a shot at her while she was alone and she rejected him. Prosecutors say there is no evidence Clark did anything to Mary Ann,

and they insist Marcus was the killer. In the autopsy, it shows manual strangulation. It was deliberate. The muscles themselves were severely damaged. I didn't, I didn't struggle her. What do you say to people who are convinced you killed Marianne? I've been defending myself for so long, I'm not even really concerned what they think. At trial, prosecutors Tammy Coffey and Nancy Malkor put Marianann's sister, Ayla, on the stand. I know my sister. I know, you know. And she talked about a private letter found in Maryann's house. The letter was her being reflective on her relationships

and how she has selected guys to date or to spend time with that were not good for her. Did she mention anyone by name? She did. And that was Marcus. She wrote, when he does white lady, he gets violent. The white lady, you know, I understood that to be cocaine. Tests show that Marcus did have cocaine in his system the night Marianne died, but could not pinpoint when he had taken the drug.

As for that private letter... Ayla testified that her father burned the letter, leading Matt Tucker to question her memory. You don't recall what the beginning of this letter started as. She's swarping now. She read it. But three years ago, how do you remember what was in there? Tucker

offered jurors a second explanation for Mary Ann's death, a theory now embraced by Marcus, who no longer blames Clark. I think the ecstasy in the hot tub killed her. I feel like in my heart of hearts that the medical examiner has made a mistake. Marcus' lawyer tried to get the medical examiner to admit Mary Ann could have died because of the amount of ecstasy and alcohol in her system,

coupled with the heat of the hot tub. Ecstasy is also known as MDMA. Now, ma'am, it's true that this hot tub was 107. There was supposed to be 104. That didn't have a factor with the body temperature being that high, with having the high levels of MDMA in her system, with them being drinking all day. This had nothing to do with it. And she was like,

no, she just disregarded that immediately. But the medical examiner's own autopsy revealed that Marianne had cardiomegaly, an enlarged heart, which is a condition that medical experts say could lead to sudden cardiac death. 48 Hours had some questions and sent all the autopsy information to Dr. Greg Davis, a forensic pathologist not involved with the case. After reviewing the documents, he said that it was possible Marianne was strangled, but a valid competing cause of death is sudden cardiac death due to mixed drug intoxication, a lethal mix of MDMA, alcohol, and marijuana, with a contribution from underlying heart disease. He said there was no way he would have called Marianne's death a homicide. If it were up to him, he wrote, he'd classify her manner

of death as undetermined. But no medical experts testified for the defense. No one did. Not even Marcus. He wanted to testify bad. He wanted to get across, but I didn't think it'd be productive. The trial moved swiftly. Jury selection started on a Monday, and by late Friday afternoon, April 8th, 2022, the case went to the jury. Time to deliberate. What are you thinking? I had peace, man. I had peace over really the whole thing. Deliberations began and ended just like that. Less than an hour goes by, there's a verdict.

38 minutes. My first impression was he did it. He committed this murder. And whatever they tell me is not gonna prove to me that he didn't do it. Tyasha Davis was juror number 11. Why did you think that? Because the professor was his girlfriend.

And Clark Hinder was a 70-something-year- old man, he couldn't have murdered her. And I just, I knew Marcus did it. I just knew he did it. The top charge was felony murder and the verdict was not guilty. Verdicts on the other charges followed in quick succession. And it's just not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty. With each one, my heart just kind of sunk lower and lower. I thought there was no way that he could get off. We were in utter shock. Everyone was shocked. And of course, I look over at Marcus and he's got a smirk on his face. And my blood was boiling. How does Tysha explain her change of heart? I felt like the prosecuting attorney,

she painted the picture that Marcus Lillard was a womanizer. He was a narcissist, but they didn't prove that he was a killer. What do you think happened to Mary Ann Shockley that night? I don't know what happened. That frustrated me because we don't know what happened to her. Or if she really was strangled, if she died from strangulation, who strangled her? So it sounds like you even question if there was a murder in the first place. I have my doubts about that. Judge Allison Burleson also had doubts, but they were of a different nature.

Mr. Lillard, I've come to quite a different conclusion than what the jury has come to. It is quite clear to this court that the only person you were concerned with that night, May 11, 2019, was herself. She immediately found that Marcus violated his probation for that 2015 drug conviction, and he was remanded to prison. My conscience is very clear when it comes to Mary Ann. Do I miss Mary Ann? Yeah. I was lucky to get that time with her that I did. And I cherish that. I think of Marianne every single day. I have her name on my bracelet. I'm wearing her earrings right now.

Marianne was the most beautiful spirit. She worked hard. She cared about things that other people didn't care about. The teeny weeny creatures that keep us alive, that keep our world turning. Join me Tuesday for Postmortem from 48 Hours, where we'll dive even deeper into today's episode and answer your questions about the case.