Anatomy of Murder - The Dream (Kelly Brennan)

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

A woman claims she had a dream that she hurt someone. After a body is found, investigators needed to uncover: was this ‘dream’ a figment of imagination or a confession?View source material and photos for this episode at: anatomyofmurder.com/the-dreamCan’t get enough AoM? Find us on social media!Instagram: @aom_podcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @AOM_podcast | @audiochuckFacebook: /listenAOMpod | /audiochuckllc Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Our aviation unit sees what they believe to be a body, deceased female. If you weren't paying attention, you could walk by and probably not know she was there. From the air, you've got a much better view. She has suffered from blood force trauma and that the death's not going to be natural. We probably are working a homicide. I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff. I'm Anasiga Nikolazi, former New York City homicide prosecutor and host of investigation discoveries true conviction. And this is Anatomy of murder.

Indian Atlantic Florida is a quiet little beach paradise that gets its name from its location. It's nestled between the Indian River Lagoon and Atlantic Ocean. This quiet tourist town is the kind of place people come to unplug kayaks at sunrise, beach paths by sunset. But on February 15, 2010, the tide turned dark. Kelly Brennan, a well-respected nurse, vanished under troubling circumstances. Lieutenant Todd Goodyear of the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, who at the time was assigned to the Criminal Investigations Division, knows this case well. Kelly worked at one of the local hospitals. I think she was a technician there, and she was an avid cyclist, was involved in some charitable work. She had been reported missing the night before on the 15th, around probably 9.45, 10 o'clock in the evening.

She had left the work to go to one of the local gyms where she worked with a personal trainer. She never made that appointment. Her vehicle was not at a residence, but it was not at the gym either. Everyone who knew Kelly described her as a good friend and overall caring person. She was also known to be reliable and punctual. Those who knew her best that she would never have blown off a session with her trainer, especially not without a call. And it wasn't just her trainer she missed that night. She was also supposed to see her boyfriend, Daniel Trott, right after the workout.

Daniel was supposed to meet Kelly at the gym. So he goes to the gym, and Kelly's not there. And he finds the personal trainer. He actually saw him walking around in the parking lot and said, you know, what's up? And he said, Kelly's not here. After that brief conversation, Daniel already sensed something was wrong. And this is totally not like her. He starts to drive around in that area.

He's also trying to get a hold of her on the phone, and, of course, it's going to voicemail. He can't get in contact with her. He goes and talks to her roommate, who she's living with, and she hasn't seen her or talked to her. Now, to many, it may seem like a little quick to involve the police, but Daniel saw the situation very differently. He was certain Kelly was in danger. According to friends, Kelly had left work early evening, then headed straight home to change for the gym. No one had seen her since. That left Daniel extremely worried. So Daniel reached out to Provard County sheriffs to report Kelly missing.

Investigators took the call seriously right from the start. It probably didn't hurt that Daniel Trott was a name they knew very well. Fairly well known in the town of Indian Atlantic. He had been the mayor. It was quite active in politics. A police bulletin was put out on Kelly's car and across-county's search began for any sign of the local well-known nurse. But as detectives continued to gather pertinent details about Kelly, they made an important discovery about Daniel's relationship with Kelly

that did raise new questions. She was married. She was in the process of a separation of divorce from her husband, and she had moved out of the house and was living with a friend. The man she'd been married to wasn't Daniel. He was the other man now turned boyfriend after Kelly had separated from her husband. So Anastika, this is really a good bit of intel as you begin your victimology portion

of your investigation, knowing your victim. A pending divorce can touch things like motive, money, custody, access, even escalation. And the status of relationships, as we all know, is often relative as you're attempting to develop your next steps in building a pool of potential persons of interest. And of course, even hearing this, well, you know, and you're, okay, you're looking at her husband, soon to be ex. Maybe it's this new boyfriend or who knows whether Daniel had something else going on. But as deputies tried to untangle the romantic web, it was only getting stickier.

Because Daniel Trott explained that he, too, had been a married man. The well-to-do former mayor and airplane pilot was in the midst of a separation that he claimed would soon end in divorce. It was only a few hours in, and this seemingly routine missing persons case, already had a lot of factors to consider. Todd shared what was going through his mind. You started looking at who's your potential suspects. Well, we have the husband. We also have Daniel.

The motive for a jealous husband, angry over an affair, and then his wife leaving him is obvious. But police also had to consider if the new boyfriend, Daniel Trott himself, might have had reason to want Kelly to disappear. So you're probably thinking this yourself, right? How many times have we heard this story, a wealthy guy with a political career involved in a scandal? And at this stage of the investigation, you really can't rule anything out. You know, the majority of times, it's somewhat in your circle.

So now a little different interviews take place with Daniel. He was interviewed at the scene, but now we're going to interview him again. And at the same time, we need to find her husband because obviously they're estranged. Detective's desire to find and speak with Kelly's husband quickly became priority after a more in-depth conversation with Daniel. We know that there had been a violent incident once before between her husband and Daniel, so he needs to be cleared as a suspect. This case is moving fast. We still don't know what happened to Kelly, but tracking down her husband has to be job number one. Investigators also continued to keep a close eye on Daniel. Now you have a suspect pool.

You would have had Daniel, they're in a relationship, and then you have Kelly's husband, who would be a prime suspect as well. Police needed answers from both men in Kelly's life. Where had Daniel been before he was seen at the gym? And detectives really needed to lock that information down. And as it turned out, Daniel's account was easy to verify. He had just gotten back to Florida from Atlanta. As far as Daniel, we're able to rule him,

him out from the fact that we know that he was on a plane. We know when he arrived in Melbourne on that plane, and we know that he went from the plane to the gym really didn't have the opportunity. And this is why timelines are an investigator's best friend. We know that Kelly left work around six and never made it to her 7 p.m. training session at the gym. So whatever happened to her took place before Daniel's plane landed in Melbourne. But what had happened, and where was Kelly's husband? Deputies were dispatched to find him and bring him in to talk. Detectives quickly found Kelly's husband and grabbed a statement from him.

Her husband, who works for a restaurant chain, was actually in Orlando training a new management candidate at that restaurant. Still, detectives noted that his job training allowed Kelly's husband and have been back in town within the most critical window of time, about 6.30 p.m., which had been about half an hour after Kelly had finished her ship to the hospital. Investigators had to really zero in on where Kelly's husband went next. They were more than just a little skeptical when he claimed to have run errands in a neighboring town. And then he stops at a blockbuster video to pick up a videotape,

then goes to a Walgreens to pick up, I believe, a prescription. and then goes home. And that was a story that nobody in the room took out immediate face value. It's obviously an absolute must for police to verify Kelly's husband's whereabouts the night she disappeared. Did he have witnesses or anyone who could corroborate his account? Well, in fact, deputies found something even better. We're actually able to find out at what point he bought the videotape from Blockbuster. They have the receipts time stamp.

We actually had video from the Walgreens showing. they're actually purchased in the prescription so we can put him in a time frame. He was not in county even at that point. We know at what points in times he was at the two stores that he wouldn't have been able to more than likely do this. So we can pretty much count him out as a suspect. So it won't come as any surprise that I'd like to look at it in two different ways. The first, making the job of confirming his alibi very simple. I mean receipts, videotape evidence, putting him at those locations just as he said. And it is likely that may be enough.

But what I'd really want to nail down is that timeline completely. And here's why. When an alibi is just as you know, Aniseca, too obvious, somebody being at certain locations that clearly have video evidence, maybe it's a bit of misdirection as well. I'm just saying. Yeah, but at the same time, we know that documents tend to be better evidence than

people because people can fall into, they forget something, they have a motive to lie, or at least these are holes that can be poked by the defense, where documents or physical evidence are just that. And absolutely, you always have to look around them. And sometimes something that may seem great on its face has to be looked in further. But here, you know, it had been less than 24 hours since Kelly Brennan had disappeared, really without a trace. And investigators, based on their investigation, based on these documents and the other things

they found out, both from the new boyfriend and the soon-to-be ex-husband, well, they had cleared the two at least most obvious, likely as suspects. And none of the beloved nurse's friends had seen her since she left for work, and so far a massive search had failed to locate her car. It seemed like investigators were getting nowhere fast. Then a 911 call came in, and it was one of the strangest tips they'd ever heard. The Brevard County Sheriff's Office was investigating the mysterious disappearance of 46-year-old Kelly Brennan. There had been no signs of Kelly since she disappeared, and her somewhat complicated recent personal life was at the forefront of the investigation.

Kelly was separated from her husband and involved in a relationship with the town's former mom. mayor, Daniel Trott. That relationship had started when Kelly was still married. Daniel Trott himself was also still married on his way to what appeared to be a messy divorce. All three of these relationships were about to come under even closer scrutiny based on a tip that came in via 911 the next morning. The caller told police about a woman who had a disturbing quote-unquote dream about Kelly Brennan. It was the next morning, about 7.30 in the morning. The Indian Atlantic Police Department received a phone call and got this story of a dream, and she kept seeing Kelly Brennan's face and even gave a location where she thought she was.

Investigators weren't sure what to make of the tip. Officers were dispatched to get a full statement from the caller. The Atlantic Police Department responded out to a call, and once they got there, they realized that they were probably involved in a death investigation. At that point, they called our homicide unit. unit to assist. I responded out to the scene in the Atlantic, along with the entire homicide unit. But what was it about this dream that pretty much convinced officers that Kelly, unfortunately, was most likely dead? And clearly that is unusual. Stories about dreams sometimes

don't make it past the 911 dispatch center where tips often come in. Well, in this case, it was who was filing the report that had Todd and his team doing the follow-up, the caller, was Daniel Trott's mother-in-law, the mother of his soon-to-be ex-wife, Sheila Trott. Sheila's mom, she actually said something to the effect that she believed that her daughter, Sheila was having a dream, and she kept seeing Kelly Brennan's face,

and she thought that she had hurt her. And Scott, this is one of those record scratch moments that it's like, wait a second, they're looking at Kelly's soon-to-be-ex-husband, maybe they're looking at the new boyfriend, but no one is thinking kind of beyond here, but here you now have the mother of Daniel Trott, soon-to-be-ex-wife, calling in with this really just crazy scenario, not something that happens every day, but is quickly going to turn investigators' attention.

Yeah, and you probably won't be surprised at Sagan, and I must admit, I'm not someone who believes deeply in primonitions, especially in something as serious as a homicide investigation. But let's just talk about it for a second. First, how credible is the statement, and was she in the frame of mind when she made it, questions that could potentially be cleared up by beginning to ask the questions. And as it turned out, the lead only gained credibility when detectives learned that Sheila's mom was calling from inside the Trots home, along with the Trots to adult sons. And so at that point, it's obviously critical not to get a group story with family members potentially helping each other remember what happened. So detectives went to the house and

spoke with Sheila, her sons, and her mom separately. The agents were interviewing Sheila up in the house and the other agents were doing interviews in their vehicles to try to find out what the circumstances, what the series of events were. Those events had begun the night before when Sheila's two sons arrived at her house for a visit. The story from the sons is Sheila had left the night before,

and she left sometime around 6 o'clock in the evening, said she was going to Walmart, and she would be back. But more than four hours had passed before Sheila ultimately got back. Probably close to 11, 1045. They hear Sheila. She walks into the house, and she begins to have what appears to be like a panic attack. She gets real dizzy, doesn't feel good, to the point that they call 911 and the ambulance comes out. She gets checked out by the ambulance.

She does not want to go to the hospital. The EMS crew left Sheila to recover at home, but not long after they departed, her symptoms returned. Approximately an hour later, she starts to have another event, a medical event, where she's almost having a seizure. And at that point, they call 911 again and she is transported to the hospital where they run tests and eventually release her back. And she comes back home with her son. A little short time after that is when she calls her son to come in and she's, talking now about the stream and having seen Kelly, I think I've hurt Kelly. I keep seeing her face and the son's, of course, freaked out by it, calls his grandmother, Sheila's mom and

says, hey, you need to come up here because something's wrong with mom. Sheila's mom was disturbed enough by the story to immediately get in her car and make the hour long drive from her home in the middle of the night. She drives up, goes up and talks to Sheila. She gets the same type of story from Sheila that she's having the stream. She keeps seeing Kelly's face. She thinks she heard her. She thinks she's at Mark's Landing. She goes, we need to call the police.

Has anybody called the police? There's something wrong here. She can call the police, which now starts the police investigation. We've confirmed who she was talking about as Kelly Brennan. We were aware, and Indian Atlantic actually had become aware as well, that we had a missing person's report on Kelly. Although investigators were concerned about what they heard, the interview with Sheila herself left them wondering if any of it was true. She doesn't remember anything other than she had this dream, and she had what she thought was seizures. She's not forthcoming with a lot of information other than she admits that she had the dream.

So for me, whether she's believable or not at this very moment is not really important. Keeping her engaged, keeping her talking. that's important because even though down the road you may be able to disprove this fact, it is given on the record. And of course, when I hear it, I'm completely suspect of everything she's saying, at least about this being a dream and something that's just coming to her in the night. But, you know, look, the most important thing right then and there is to find Kelly. And of course, investigators are very cognizant of the fact that it's likely too coincidental

to be amounting to no more than really a supposed dream. and investigators were convinced that the best way to figure out what had really happened was to take a closer look at the few details they'd been given. Deputies were dispatched to the quiet beach at Mark's Landing, where Sheila claimed she dreamed about seeing Kelly. Once we found out that she had said something about Mark's Landing, we then contacted some of our general crimes agents from our South precinct, which would be familiar with the area, to go down into that area,

to see if they located anything. Officers walked around the outer portion of the beach access and also the parking area and found no signs of Kelly. It seemed like the tip may have been nothing more than Sheila's emotions getting the better of her. Then came the call that would change everything. We also called in our aviation unit to come from above and see if they saw anything.

And so while the interviews are going on, our aviation calls in and actually says, says they've observed what they believed to be a body. In the Palmettoes, they're at the beach access in Marks Landing. Nearby officers were immediately dispatched to the location. It was a brush-filled area on the side of a wooden walkway leading to the beach. At that point, investigators arrive, go out and confirm that there is a deceased female there. Give us a description of what she was wearing.

And detectives did know that Kelly had last been seen not long before she was supposed to have an appointment with her personal trainer. She was wearing a workout attire, and she also had a heart monitor on that she would wear it to go at a fitness club. And it matches the description of what more than likely Kelly would have been wearing. Investigators sealed off the area around the body and fanned out across the pathway, scouring the path for any clues or physical evidence. It was a tough area for investigators to process. The beach access was damp, sandy, and cover.

in thick foliage. There's a little fence and an opening that you would walk down a dirt path. It branches off a couple different times that leads to the actual beach. And as most of the beach is in Florida, there's a lot of what we call scrub palmetals. And they're very bushy with the fronds coming out. And she is hidden a short ways into those. If you weren't paying attention, you could walk by and probably not know she was there. Detectives were convinced the crime scene had been carefully chosen to concede.

Kelly's body. That didn't really add up with the fact so far in the case. Remember, Sheila Trott had told them where to find her. So while detectives considered those contradictory details, the medical examiner shared more clues that seemed at odds with what they knew. They look at her, she has injuries, which appear to be blunt force trauma of some sort to her head. There's also some blood.

It appears that the death's not going to be natural, that we probably are working on homicide at that point. Detectives were definitely puzzled. Kelly had been beaten to death and then disposed of in the bushes along the beach. It wasn't the type of crime scene they'd naturally connect to a woman who'd once been Kelly's friend, that woman being Sheila Trott. And just that aside, according to the FBI, less than a tiny percentage of blunt force attacks like this one,

trace back to a female offender. And just a little bit more about Sheila Trot, well, she was a successful real estate broker known for her. philanthropy and she had no criminal record. On the surface, there were doubts whether this woman herself was capable of this type of crime. And even if Sheila was the killer, how had she lured Kelly to the deserted beach? I think at that point in the investigation, we probably weren't sure. There was some evidence that appeared like she had been drugged there to the final resting place. But did something happened right there at the access and then she was moved into there or was she from another location?

I don't know if we had a concrete feeling at that point that this happened somewhere else that she was moved here, but it was obvious that she was moved at least into that location to be hidden. Less than 24 hours after Kelly Brennan disappeared, she'd been found along the beach. She was no longer missing. She'd been murdered. Investigators already had a solid prime suspect. Sheila Trot, a scorn wife, went the potential motive to kill Kelly.

But there was still a deeply complicated web that needed to be untangled. Brevard County Sheriff's Lieutenant Todd Goodyear had a very unusual murder to solve. To some it might appear to have been an open-and-shut case that Kelly rents, Shannon had been the victim of a rage-fueled attack, potentially unleashed by an angry ex-wife, furious over an affair that had led to the breakup of her marriage. But so far, some of the evidence didn't line up with that story, despite Sheila Trot providing what could be viewed as a confession. And that's where the story gets more complex,

because Sheila claimed to have had this quote-unquote dream where she had seen Kelly's face, and then there were these varying accounts about Sheila talking about hurting Kelly. The detectives interviewing Sheila Trott in her home hope to get a clear picture of what actually'd happen, hoping that she would clear things up. She'll admit that she had the dream, but she doesn't remember anything about what happened or giving any specifics into it. And at the time that the agents were talking to her, she gets a phone call and the person on the other line is an attorney. At that point, Sheila takes the attorney's advice and says, I don't want to talk to you anymore.

Investigators' next step was to get search warrants for Sheila Trott's home and her car. Because now at this point, we have a person who has told us they had a dream, that they may have hurt a person, and we find that person, and they're deceased probably from violence. But the searches didn't turn up much to corroborate Sheila's account or lead to evidence of criminality. And so investigators, if they're not getting much there, they're going to turn to other avenues. You know, still remember they haven't found Kelly's car and she lived in a residential area. It wasn't at her home and it wasn't at the personal trainers. They're also going to look

to see if there's any potential witnesses to see if they can help figure out what happened to Kelly from the time she was last seen to then found at the beach. And as you know, Anisega, there are some natural steps that you need to take at a point of investigation once you've narrowed down your potential target. You know, you've done the best you can to gather any relevant evidence at the scene, and by the looks of this, it may be only aware the victim was dumb, but you've spoken to witnesses who may either aid your potential targets alibi or dispute it, and that's obviously valid information. And then you also turn back to your victim, because as we all know, forensic examination or an autopsy can really be a game changer. And in this case,

the first break in the case did come from Kelly Brennan's autopsy. The medical examiner's conclusions explain a lot more than just the cause of Kelly's death. She has multiple blunt force injuries to her head, which is what caused her death. Most of them were to the back and, I believe, side of her head. So it appeared that someone came up behind her and caused these blows. His best guess was something like a hammer. The autopsy report painted a grim picture of Kelly's last moments alive. she had been taken by surprise and violently beaten.

The blows themselves must have been hard enough to fracture her skull and the number of strikes left no doubt about the intent. Yet when they're looking at everything they had, there's no evidence of robbery or any sexual assault, which left the possibility that either this is some random attack or something deeply personal. Yeah, personal is definitely at the top of my mind on this Anna Siga. I mean, whoever ambushed Kelly meant

to kill her. Investigators were still digesting the possibilities when they got the next big break on the case. Two of our deputies that are on patrolling the area actually come upon her vehicle, parked in a area of duplexes that is not too far from where Kelly was living at the moment, probably a mile away. Her vehicle is backed into a parking space. It's not quite parked correctly. It's a little bit outside the lane. The way Kelly's car, was parked did provide Todd with some important clues. It's backed in like somebody was trying to hide the license plate that you wouldn't see it.

In addition to the attempt to hide the tag, it also appeared that the parking job was rushed. And a good look inside the car explained why the driver wanted to get away from it as fast as they could. We seal the vehicle tow it to our processing center and then start to go through that. In that vehicle, we find a large amount of blood in the passenger side. And I believe there's some transfer maybe to the outside of the vehicle. And the blood evidence and where it was located provided more insight into the way the ambush-style attack had unfolded. It was now believed that the killer had used Kelly's own car

to transport her from the scene of the attack to the beachfront where her body was found. We have blood in Kelly's vehicle, but it's her vehicle. vehicle. And in fact, there's a lot of blood on the floorboard on the passenger side seat. Our belief she was probably put into the vehicle with her head down. And that's why all the blood's there. And you know, Scott, here, while there's a lot of question marks, there's things that they're able to start putting together, right? Is that Kelly's clearly found at a beach, but now if her car has blood inside of it, that presumably is going to come back to her forensically when they test it, well, then at some point she was inside that car. So did the killer take her to

beach and then come back. Too soon to tell and it's still a question mark, but that scenario does sound more likely. The pieces now are all starting to fit. It's obvious evidence that Kelly's car was ditched post-crime and that vehicle not only contained the victim's blood, but very possibly forensic evidence tying back to the person likely responsible for her murder. So the theory for police was back to the townhouse where Kelly was living. It seemed likely that, that she was attacked close to her car, most likely, after she had changed clothes for her workout. Crime scene experts next scoured the area between her home and the parking lot. We go back to the residence where she's living.

Some of the agents start to look around. They find an area in the grass where it looks like the vehicle had been pulled off the driveway into the grass in the front yard. At the same time, they're looking there. They find blood. So detectives were confident. They had just found the original crime scene. The pieces, as I said, of the puzzle were all now falling into place. So now we have a feeling that this is probably where the first event happens.

At the same time, canvassing the neighborhood, a witness comes forward, a neighbor who says, hey, as I was driving back out, I noticed a flashlight in the yard at Kelly's residence. Up toward the side of the house, where it was. would have been easy for a person as Kelly came out of the house, this person could come up behind her and blitz attack her and take her down. And then at that point, the vehicle's moved over to where they can pick her up and put her into the vehicle. So this new witness gave important corroboration that this is indeed where Kelly was attacked. I mean a flashlight in the bushes and now blood, pretty conclusive when taken together with other evidence. So investigators had now

established a solid theory of the attack. They also already had this, remember, potential motive. And based on what Sheila's son had initially told police, their mother was unaccounted for from before 6 p.m. until almost 11. The same time frame in which police believed Kelly was killed. Now, all that remained was to answer the final question. Was Sheila Trott the person who committed this crime. Todd believed the evidence in Kelly's car provided that answer. Why did she end up that way, probably face first in? Probably because there was a person not with great strength, so it would fit to be a woman and she pushed her in head first and then flipped her up. So it kind of makes sense of how the blood pattern is in the vehicle as to how

somebody would put her in if you're not that much bigger and stronger than the body you're trying to put in. Investigators believe they now had enough to charge Sheila Trott. They had circumstantial evidence plus her own statements. So at that point, we got at the state attorney's office with the evidence that we have, and they give us an arrest warrant, which we take to a judge, judge signs it, and Sheila is arrested. But this case was far from over.

As the trial approached, prosecutors heard whispers that Sheila Trott had changed her story. In fact, that foggy memory. had grown clear. And this new account threatened to nullify all of the state's evidence. It's a crazy case. Sheila now says she went over to confront Kelly about the relationship. And right, as she gets there, a person kills Kelly. This man kills her, kills Kelly.

She sees it happen. And a man puts Kelly in Kelly's vehicle and drives away. And Sheila follows because she's concerned. doesn't call the police, doesn't let me know what's happening, she follows down to Marsh Landing and get rid of the body. Admit what you have to, deny what you can. Maybe she felt she had to admit she was there, but now come up with this alternate or innocent explanation.

So she goes with what I call the ghost defense, meaning she would transfer all her own criminal conduct to this nameless, faceless person that police would obviously never find. Yeah, somebody else did it, right? and the defendant just happened to be there at the very same time. And that new story wasn't the only obstacle the prosecution faced at trial. I think the main defense was, hey, they don't have any evidence that directly relates to my client. They didn't find a murder weapon. No one actually saw her do it.

No one saw her put the car there. The police say that they cleared these suspects, but did they really? In the courtroom, you were always worried about how the jury will view your evidence. including a defendant's changing story. So are they lying now or are they lying then? But with Sheila Trott, there was another aspect for prosecutors to contend with. Trot had never really confessed. She always said what she saw was a dream.

Because the interesting part of it, did she really have medical events or was at a show? You know, that's the crazy part. Was she really having a physiological response to what she had done? or was she trying to in some form come up with some type of defense? That medical event was the seizure-like symptoms that had medics going to her door. So was it a guilty conscience that caused the physical symptoms? Well, I'd argue yes. But the defense would likely say it was actually an unrelated event

that then caused those strange statements. So as a prosecutor, you're going to remind the jury it is important that they use their common sense when they make their decision. Obviously, she had some forethought of what she was going to do. I mean, because obviously she parked, she laid in wait, she waited for her to come out, she attacked her from behind, she had a weapon with her.

You almost got to believe that she picked the spot to put her. I don't think it was by chance. There's a ton of beach accesses she could have picked. But that one's farther away, but not too far, but far enough away. There's not a lot of people down there, particularly at that time of night. There's not a lot of traffic. So the trial itself ended up as a clash between the two stories, one in which Sheila Trott was a victim, a woman in the wrong place at the wrong time, an unlikely witness to Kelly Brennan's murder.

And in the second scenario, the prosecution's evidence, she was depicted as the scorned wife, furious at Kelly, this younger woman who had stolen in her view, her life and her husband. a situation that had apparently made her angry enough to start to fixate and then formulate a plan to beat Kelly to death with a hammer. She was upset about the relationship, particularly the fact that he was spending money on her. Financially, I think it was a problem. I think she was used to living a certain lifestyle, and I think she saw it maybe going away. As the trial reached its conclusion, it seemed obvious that defense had one problem that couldn't be conjured away by a ghost defense. You know, unfortunately for them, you can't really come away from is the fact that she had a dream

that said she killed Kelly. It's just a strange case. It's bizarre almost to the fact that you have this dream that unlocks a murder. After both sides rested and summations were complete, the jury deliberated and then returned with their verdict. She was found guilty on all charges. It's a shame that a young woman died because of that. It wasn't a dream.

Sheila Trott was sentenced to life behind bars. It was a fitting end to an unusual case riddled with contradictions. There is still some lingering mystery. Why did Sheila Trott talk to her family about this, quote, dream? And why did she tell them where she had left Kelly Brennan? Was it a legitimate medical event or a sign of guilt? Those are questions that will likely never be answered. She gave the actual location.

So almost in some weird way in her mind, she decided she wanted to found. But I've never really seen her display remorse in anything she's ever said. I don't really see a person with remorse. In most homicides, it's rarely the slam-dung piece of evidence that cracks it wide open. It's the pattern. And this case is a perfect example. It's the digital crumbs that look ordinary until they line up a little too neatly. It's an alibi that seems fine until you hold it against one camera, one receipt, one neighbor who remembers the time.

Ten small tells, all pointing the same way. And that's what solves it. Justice came together the same way the lie came apart, piece by piece. Relationships can be messy. They can cause pain. They can end. But they shouldn't lead to violence and obviously. never to murder. I've also thought a lot about Sheila Trot's sons and her mom. What they did was

brave and I'm sure very difficult. They called police when she made the strange statements and then ultimately testified at trial when called by the prosecution. As a prosecutor, I say they obviously did the right thing, but I can also see how very difficult that must have been and I'm sure they were conflicted. You can continue to love someone even when you know they've done very bad things. So I feel for them too and say to you all, it's another reminder about how many layers of people are affected by every murder. But of course the person we should end on is Kelly Brennan. She was ambushed and brutally murdered.

She wasn't yet 50 years old. She should have had many more years of life. Tune in next week for another new episode of Anatomy of Murder. Anatomy of Murder is an Audio Chuck original. Produced and created by Weinberger Media and Frasetti Media. Ashley Flowers is executive producer. This episode was written and produced by Walker Lamond, researched by Kate Cooper, edited by Maria Passingham and Phil Jean-Grande. I think Chuck would approve.