Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Brunette beauty goes for walk, found hidden in basement crawl space wrapped In duct-tape 'like a mummy'

Episode Date: May 13, 2020

Joshua Fury tells police he comes home from work and his wife is missing. Police launch and extensive search including helicopters and dogs. Ultimately, Maria Fury's body is found wrapped in plastic. Who killed Maria Fury?Joining Nancy Grace today: Mark Eiglarsh -Criminal Defense Attorney Dr. Bethany Marshall - Psychoanalyst, Beverly Hills, follow on instagram at DrBethanyMarshall Cloyd Steiger - 36 years with Seattle Police Department, 22-year Homicide Detective & Author of "Seattle's Forgotten Serial Killer: Gary Gene Grant"   Joseph Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics at Jacksonville State University & Author of "Blood Beneath My Feet" Levi Page - Investigative Reporter, CrimeOnline Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Hi guys, Nancy Grace here. At a time when we are all pulling together to fight coronavirus, COVID-19, I have something for you. An all-free e-chapter on coronavirus crimes and how to fight them. Don't be a coronavirus crime victim. From door-to-door sales of fake cures and tests, vaccines. That's not real. To robocalls that are trying to scam you. To fake ads.

To phishing you online. To fake cures that are being sold on the internet and on infomercials right now. You've got to arm yourself against these crimes. Please download our free e-chapter, Coronavirus Crimes, Don't Be a Victim. Go to crimeonline.com. You'll see it there. Hit the link and download it for free. Arm yourself against criminals and scam artists, cons that will not only take advantage of you, but take advantage of you, your parents, your grandparents, and people you love at a time when we are all fighting the virus. I hope you go to CrimeOnline.com and download this. It's been highly researched and presented for you for free.

Goodbye, friend. Keep the faith. A 28-year-old beauty goes missing. I've never seen so many twists and turns in a case. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. With me, an all-star panel. First of all, my longtime sparring buddy, Mark Iglar, criminal defense attorney and author of Be Happy by Choice, Happiness Guaranteed or Your Misery Back. choice happiness guaranteed or your misery back you can find it at happiness happy by choice.com dr bethany marshall psychoanalyst to the stars joining me out of beverly hills at dr bethany

marshall cloyd steiger 36 years seattle pd 22 of that homicide author seattle's forgotten serial killer gary gene grant at cloydsteiger.com, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, Joseph Scott Morgan. But first, to Levi Page, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. You know, Maria Fury, it sounds like she's beautiful on the outside and beautiful on the inside. What can you tell me, Levi, about Maria before she goes missing? You know, Nancy, her friends and family say that she's an extremely nice person, always willing to help someone out. She loved animals

and she was reported missing Thursday afternoon. Hold on just a moment before we get into the missing. I'm looking at a picture right now, Dr. Bethany Marshall, and this is just the kind of photo that Mark Iglish hates and would fight me tooth and nail if I tried to bring this in front of a jury. But you know who she looks like? I know this drives you crazy when I do this, Dr. Bethany. She looks like 28- this drives you crazy when i do this dr bethany she looks like a 28 year old selena gomez so you know the storm looking at her right now and she's got it looks like a

i know objection right appealing to sympathy yes that's exactly what iglash would say and he would argue that this has nothing to do with her disappearance. She's with a young man. This must be husband, Joshua Fury, and with a gorgeous chocolate puppy, a chocolate brown lab, a puppy. Have you seen this, Jackie? I mean, when I look at her and I think about her going missing, it just burns me up. Levi, you said she was quote nice. I mean, you could say that about the sofa up in the living room. But what else can you tell me about her? I mean, I know you say she loves pets, but I know she was an exercise enthusiast. In fact, the last time she was seen, she was wearing black exercise pants with a pink stripe down the leg, a black shirt. It looks to me as if she had gone out, was ready to go jogging.

There are other action shots of her. Here's one of her snow skiing somewhere with a mountain in the back background. I know she exercised routinely out in her neighborhood. And now I'm seeing another picture, Jackie, of her holding that little puppy. And now he's a big dog. Here she is. He grew up with her and she's got a big smile on her face. Where did they live, Levi? What's the location? Maple Grove, Minnesota, Nancy. Okay, right there. Joseph Scott Morgan, you and I have seen a lot of cases, but Maple Grove,

that sounds like it's out of the Laura Ingalls' Little House on the Prairie. Like nothing could ever go wrong in Maple Grove. Yeah, that's what makes these cases many times so very horrific, because you get this kind of beautiful, bucolic-sounding place, and all of a sudden, hell rains down on it, Nancy. You know, Cloyd Steiger, 36-year Seattle PD and author, Seattle's Forgotten Serial Killer, Gary Jean Grant. I haven't forgotten him, by the way. Maple Grove you know I recall Chloe turning into so many

homicide scenes and very often there be like Fair Street candy apple drive and then there's a murder and it's a perfectly neat looking residential home with a cul-de-sac or maybe tree-lined like beaver cleaver remember that cloyd and it just doesn't fit with what your mind believes is going to be a murder scene well joseph scott's right you know on on the outside the streets can look completely uh passive but you never know what else is going on in the neighborhood and what's going on inside so that's that's the problem with these cases. They speak up on everybody and nobody expects them.

Yeah, it really does. Guys, I want you to take a listen to WCCO CBS 4 News anchor Frank Vassillo. Tonight, police need help finding a Twin Cities woman whose family fears she is in danger. Maria Fury disappeared after she left her home in Maple Grove to go for a walk yesterday morning. Investigators want homeowners near Eagle and Pike Lakes to check their property for anything suspicious. Faria was wearing a black shirt and black pants with a pink stripe down the leg. A public search is planned for tomorrow morning. I'm listening to what they said, Twin Cities, Twin Cities. I feel like I know the Twin Cities like the back of my hand because of all the prey

books. You ever read those? There's like a whole series of them they always happen i'm pretty sure in around the twin cities so i'm looking at this location levi page she went missing walking i'm looking at her home it's in kind of a rural area but it's a subdivision is that that where she goes missing? Yes, it is, Nancy. And Nancy, her husband, Joshua Furry, says that he went to go to work. It was around 1130 a.m. and she was on the phone with her mom actually inside the house. And she said that she was about to go for a walk. Heading out for a walk. Guys, Maria Furry's family distraught along with her husband when she goes missing as she goes out for a walk. Nancy, can I make a comment about that? Yeah, jump in.

Yeah, you know, women who walk, run, jog on the same route every single day unfortunately really put themselves at risk. These are the type of young women where somebody might be watching out of their front window of their house and they see the same young woman come by day after day after day or a serial killer is looking for a victim and looking for somebody who's vulnerable separated from family and friends, an old boyfriend, somebody who's stalking her, you know, becomes preoccupied and begins to familiarize himself with her whereabouts. So when you tell me, I look at the picture, I look at how gorgeous she is. And by the way, as a psychoanalyst, I can sometimes tell people's mental health just by

looking at their face. You can tell by their affect. She doesn't look depressed. They look very happy in the marital picture. She loves her dog. But it's that jogging route that just concerns me a little bit if she fell prey to somebody who kind of had an eye on her. You know, as you were saying that, Dr. Bethany, and I don't know if this has happened with you, Mark Iglish with me, a renowned criminal defense attorney and author of Be Happy by Choice. Mark, take off your defense hat just a moment and help me analyze this. Because as Dr. Bethany Marshall was talking, a parade, a stream of women's names and faces ran through my head. Remember Sarah's school we just covered? I think Sarah was her first name.

And her neighbor had been watching her. She ends up dead, leaving behind a four-year-old little boy. But one that is more commonly known is Molly Tibbetts, the college student that was doing homework at her boyfriend's home. Boyfriend was out of town. She goes for a jog. Bam, turns out to be a farm worker that would see her go jogging day after day. How many cases start just like that, Mark Iglish? Unfortunately, too many.

So what's the message? If you're pretty, stay indoors, you know, so you don't be a victim. That's not exactly the message I was thinking of. I know. It's frustrating. But no, unfortunately, there are too many cases like that. Anyone in the same mode of action so that they can be followed, you hear that all the time. I like the point that was made. Yeah. You know, in my book coming out, Mark, I deal with how to stay safe in a lot of situations, including exercising. One of them is to take alternate routes. But you know what?

You have a route for a reason. Either it's timed out for the time you want or it's more convenient. There's reasons people do what they do by rope crime stories with nancy grace we're talking about the disappearance of a gorgeous young girl, and I'm looking at our picture right now, Maria Fury. Take a listen to CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter Dave Mack. Maria Fury's family described her as fiercely loyal to her family and friends. It's not like her to not keep in touch. Joshua Fury reported his wife missing in the early evening of April 30th.

He called the Maple Grove Police Department to report his wife missing. Fury tells officers that when he got home from work around 6 30 p.m. his wife wasn't there. He looked around the house. He found her phone. He then searched along her usual walking route. When he didn't find her, he reported his 28-year-old wife missing. Police conduct a search of the home. The next day, police begin an exhaustive search of the area, spending two hours searching on the ground, a helicopter conducting flyovers. But where is Maria Fury?

Where is Maria Fury? They say they did an exhaustive search. Let's get into it. Levi Page with me, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Tell me about the search. I understand the search was, as Dave Mack just described it, exhaustive. What did they do to try to find her? So they were searching in the woods. They were searching bodies of water, Nancy. They dispatched helicopters to search for her. And here's the facts surrounding her disappearance. Her husband comes home from work around 5 p.m she's not there he says that her cell phone is inside

on the kitchen counter her pocketbook debit card everything is inside wait wait wait hold on hold on that says a lot to me right there to cloyd steiger it's not like her remember when uh sherry papini went missing and her cell phone is found out in a rural area by us uh several mailboxes and it's sitting beside the dirt road with the earpiece coiled up on top of it it's out that tells me she was jogging here nothing seems to be amiss cloyd stygo cell phone sitting right on the counter levi where was her pocketbook we don't know we know that it was found inside Police said it was found inside. Well, that's important because it's not strewn out in the front yard. Cloyd Steiger, it's not dropped by the cars that she was trying to get in the car as in Jennifer Dulos, who went missing up in Connecticut. She's dead. Her cell phone's still

in her car. She never really made it out of her garage into the home. Here, the pocketbook's in the home. The cell phone's sitting on the counter. What does that tell you, Cloyd? Well, it tells me that whatever happened started in that house, whether it was her Well, I don't know about that. What if she walked out to go walking and left all her stuff very neatly right there? Well, that's the one.

The other thing that kind of bugs me about this is the time that she's only gone an hour, or he's only home an hour when he calls the police. Wait a minute, though. I disagree. He leaves around 2.30. He sees her talking on the phone. He gets back after work, and he noticed she's missing. He re-walks the route.

Levi Page, what I'm trying to say is there's no struggle in the home. There's no struggle in the car. The car is still sitting there. What more can you tell me, Levi? There is no evidence of a struggle inside the home. And he says that he got off work around 5 p.m. She was not there. So he got on his bike and went to the route that she usually goes on to go jogging and walking and could not find her. That was about an hour later after he returned from work, and then he called 911, and police arrived and started searching for her. Let me ask Japan. Just a quick comment.

I think it's admirable that he called the police right away. He went looking for her. He couldn't find her. He called the police because so many people wait 24 hours and then it's too late. Secondarily, did the husband know something? Did he go looking for her right away because she had a stalker or she had been engaging in some risky behavior, maybe running without a cell phone or without something to secure her safety? So maybe we should see this as a good sign that he went looking right away. maybe running without a cell phone or without something to secure her safety. So maybe we should see this as a good sign that he went looking right away. Guys, the police get dispatched to the couple's Maple Grove home.

They're at Red Fox Drive after husband calls reporting wife missing. A large-scale search is launched, including teams on the ground and searches by helicopter. Police bring out sniffer dogs, as they call them, scent dogs. We know that bodies of water were searched. To Joseph Scott Morgan, forensics expert, searching as a diver is very very difficult as you know i've dived all over before the twins were born and very often the water is so murky if you hold your hand up you can't see it very very difficult in especially lakes lakes what can you tell me about a forensic search of a body of water? How difficult is that, Joe Scott? It's very difficult, Nancy. First off, there are actually people that specialize in underwater crime scene processing. And, you know, a lot of the stuff,

as you stated, is done by feel. You have to. You kind of feel around. It's not like, you know, a lot of this stuff, as you stated, is done by feel. You have to. You kind of feel around. It's not like, you know, people think about, you know, you're diving, you go to the Caribbean, and you can see everything in front of you. It's not like that, particularly in these inland lakes. Even though Minnesota is known as the land of 10,000 lakes, these lakes are not necessarily clear. You've got a lot of silt in there. If you have, you know, a body or if you have other bits of evidence like firearms

and that sort of thing that we have to deal with in forensics that are at the bottom of the lake, most of these people that process these things actually do it by touch and feel. Wow. Just imagine being on your hands and knees at the bottom of a lake, feeling around for a body or a weapon. We know the scale was, the search was extensive at the get-go, but I understand Joseph Scott Morgan, they start in the house. Why? Well, because generally if you've got someone missing, okay, like this young lady, it's not like she had been to work or somewhere else. And plus this is the hub. If you imagine the center of a wheel, everything else kind of radiates out from where you live. And this is where she was last known to be. So that's going

to be our primary scene at that moment, Tom. That's going to be forefront in our mind as to where she is going to give us clues as to where she might be at this point in time. We're dealing with a missing persons case, And that's what we're trying to narrow down. Is there are there any clues at the scene that's going to give us an indication of where she may have been going? Did she leave a note? Was there a sign of struggle, as we had mentioned earlier, signs of break in that sort of thing. So we have to eliminate all of that other stuff before we extend it out any further. And if there were signs of a struggle, Mark Iglish, criminal defense attorney joining me,

let's just talk about Teresa Seavers. That's a great example. Cops walk in, there's an immediate sign of struggle. Now, a lot of times that indicates a random perp because if it wasn't random, they could clean up afterwards. If it wasn't random they could clean up afterwards if it wasn't random there may not be signs of a struggle but here we see no sign of struggle that tells me it could tell me a lot of different things but specifically that the incident did not occur in the home plus cops came and combed the inside of their home, Mark Eglarsh.

Yeah, yeah. It could tell you that, but it also could tell you nothing because the first thing a rookie cop's going to do when a wife goes missing is believe that it's the husband. And because of that, they then will consider where they spent the most time and the most likely place that this could have happened being the home. The absence of a struggle or evidence of a struggle can simply mean that the area has been staged however the husband wanted it to look like. And so I don't think that you take anything for granted. I think that you make no assumptions and you stay focused on the husband until you eliminate him. Well, you have to. Guys, take a listen to our friends at KSTP ABC 5, Crystal Bull.

This Maple Grove neighborhood doesn't seem like it would be the scene of a crime. At one point, we saw anywhere from 10 to 15 cop cars. Maple Grove police say 28-year-old Maria Pugh Theory was reported missing Thursday. It was through this neck of the woods that neighbors tell us they saw investigators bringing out their canines looking for evidence. Neighbors tell us the two moved into the home on Red Fox Drive this fall. A guy just moved in later in the fall and I just kind of met him a couple weeks ago. Came over and helped me with my yard work and seemed like a nice young couple and that we're very happy and all of a sudden this happens. This neighbor didn't want to be identified.

Seemed like a hardworking young couple that moved into the neighborhood and he was very well-mannered and quiet. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, the disappearance of a 20-something Maria Fury throws a community into a frenzy. The search goes on by helicopter, by ground, by canine. But then, with no luck, having gone over and over her walking route, police bring in, as they call, recovery dogs. Recovery dogs. In the search for 28-year-old Maria Fury, then a sudden twist in the case. Take a listen to CrimeOnline.com's Dave Mack. As the search for Maria Fury continues,

police begin to interview friends and family. That's when they learn that Maria Fury and her husband are having marital problems. In fact, Maria's mother tells police she intended to leave her husband. Friends describe Joshua Fury as controlling and possessive. He repeatedly denied harming his wife and even attempted to blame his wife's ex-boyfriend for Maria's disappearance. Police soon execute a search warrant of their home with recovery dogs, which hit on human remains in the lower-level crawl space with a dirt floor covered in plastic. The space was less than four feet tall. Officers spent hours working with a system of buckets and tarps to remove the dirt from the small crawl space. At about 1.30 in the morning on May 2, Maria Fury's body is found.

How does the body of this beautiful young Maria Fury end up in a crawl space? A crawl space of her own home. Now, many people have faulted police for not finding this the first few times they searched the home, but they only found Maria after bringing in recovery dogs, which means cadaver dogs. That's what that means. You know, you may see this in horror movies where bodies are hidden in crawl spaces, but in reality, it doesn't happen that much. We all recall the case of killer clown Wayne Gacy, who buried a number of young boys' bodies in crawl spaces in his own home.

But the reality is to Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor of Forensics, Jacksonville State, you don't see this mode of disposing of a body that often. No, no, you don't. I've worked several of them over the course of my career. And one of the really interesting, you know, little sidelines to this, I find in these cases I've worked, it seems as though, and, you know, Dr. Bethany

could probably talk to this, but it seems as though that people that do this sort of thing where they'll take a victim and bury them within the structure or beneath the structure where they're indwelling, where they live,

it's almost like they want to keep control of the body. OK, and there's any number of places that we can go with this psychologically, but it's like they want to deny access to anybody else to that body. Because, you know, if you take a body and you bury it out in the woods, you have the opportunity of just some random person coming along and finding the body. We were talking about that with working this case as a missing persons case. In this particular instance, these cops are not thinking about, well, maybe she's buried under the house in the crawl space.

That's not the case. They were working this as a missing person. You take her body, you bury it beneath the house. You have absolute control over access and movement of the remains of the evidence and everything. And so he literally asserts himself, inserts himself into this circumstance where everything is in his control, even though her body, the wife, the body of his wife is buried right beneath his feet. I want to circle back to you about the logistics of the forensic evidence that you would find look for how it's preserved and how it's destroyed in a crawl space it's very very significant in this case but

i want to go to dr bethany on what you just said dr bethany marshall joining me out of beverly hills dr bethany what does it mean when you dispose of a bot when you kill someone and you keep their body close you and i were talking about this the other day with shannon graves where this young woman was murdered she was dismembered she was put in a freezer and the killer her boyfriend kept the key to the freezer padlock on his keychain so every time he he looks, I mean, I've got pictures of the twins and David on my key chain. He has the key fob to his lover's dead body on his key chain. That's right. So what does this mean when you keep the body or a memento of the body close to you? Well, I think it think a significant fact that could shed light

on why he would put her in a crawl space in the marital home is that she wanted to leave. Her family was saying she wanted to divorce him, that he was jealous, possessive, controlling. And we know, I've said this so many times on your show, Nancy, women are at the greatest risk for homicide when they are gaining their independence and they want to leave an abusive relationship. So put that fact alongside these details that she's buried in the marital home. He's now guaranteeing she'll never leave.

She can't go out into the world. She can't be beautiful. She can't be out into the world. She can't be beautiful. She can't be admired by other men. She can't get another academic degree, write a paper, have children, enjoy her friendships. He has scrubbed her off the face of the earth and in his own crawl space. Also, Nancy, another less psychological and more cognitive behavioral factor is that he actually might be fairly low functioning, meaning that he couldn't pick a very sophisticated spot for her and that maybe this was, you know, what we call a crime of passion. I tend to think of it more as abuse going out of control.

He killed her. He had not prepared a dump site ahead of time. And so he had to bury her close to home. You know, like with parents who kill their children, we always know that two-thirds of children who are murdered by their parents are disposed of within a quarter mile of the home. And that's often due to familiarity and then lack of planning and preparedness on the perpetrator's part. Guys, we're talking about the husband. A Minnesota man, Joshua David Fury, 28 years old himself, is faced with a prospect that his wife's body, 28-year-old Maria, is found in his crawl space. Okay, so right there, Mike, Mark Arglash, you got a problem. Mark Arglash, criminal defense

attorney joining me and author. Mark, how do you dig yourself out of that hole when your client's body is in your client's crawl space in the basement? Yeah, I got no problems until the check clears, okay? This guy hasn't paid me a nickel. I got no problem. Let's just pretend he paid. Hypothetically, hypothetically, the guy is paying for my kids college. Then, yeah, I got a problem. And usually when the body is in your house and no one else has access to the crawl space, you're looking at a defense that likely will never work, and that is, you know, it was cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs when it happened. And that's it.

And then you're talking plea bargain. Yeah, I mean, you're stuck. What are you going to argue? That an intruder came in, murdered her, and buried her, had the time to bury her in the crawl space? And not just that, Levi Page, what was the condition of her body how was she found so Nancy she was found wrapped in plastic and she had duct tape over her nose her mouth and her face wrapped in plastic duct tape over nose mouth and face and as I recall plastic bag over

her head it was like Dr. Bethany Marshall psychoanalyst joining me out of Beverly Hills that she was hermetically sealed like a mummy yes I contrast this how he treated the body with helping the neighbor mow his lawn with his lawn work you know he's out there they're acting happy he on what Reed Molloy calls the mask of sanity, which is what the sociopaths frequently do. They act. They learn to pretend that they are normal in society. They are superficially gregarious and affable. They want to the side.

Joe Scott Morgan could speak more to this particular crime scene. But this is somebody who was so dispassionate about the woman he loved. You say hermetically sealed. I think, did you ever see the movie Boxing Helena? About 30 years ago? I know. I've tried to put that out of my mind because I knew what it was about

and it got me so upset that I couldn't bear to watch the movie. He wants to control the girlfriend. So he successfully removed body parts until she just left him in a little box. She's done. Okay, I had to take my earpiecepiece even i had to take my earpiece out for that one crime stories with nancy grace Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we're talking about the sudden disappearance of 28-year-old Maria Fury, the intensive search for her.

Cops come back, and let me point this out to Mark Iglish, criminal defense attorney. They came back with a second warrant to search the home. And in a crawl space, no more than four feet off the ground in the basement, there was a dirt floor basement. They find her body. They find it by use of cadaver dogs that they euphemistically call recovery dogs. Take a listen to Dave Mack, CrimeOnline.com. During a police interview, Fury admits to killing his wife and burying her body in the crawl space. He says he killed her during an argument about her leaving. He says he squeezed his wife's neck until he heard a snap, then realizing she was not dead, placed a plastic bag over her head and her nose. He told police that after he killed her, he wrapped her in duct tape,

the very same duct tape that he was later going to use to hang her missing posters. Then he cleaned up the house and went to work. Fury told authorities the murder and cover-up took only two and a half hours. Wow. Chloe Steiger, 36 years Seattle PD, 22 years homicide. Sounds like he was proud of it that he managed to kill her dispose of her body and do a cleanup and make it to work on time yeah you know he this guy is like an ultimate i think i agree with bethany he kind of

sociopathic or psychopathic tendencies and he just it's just a matter of here's what i did and you know one of the things that you mentioned john wangasey and burying in the in the crawl space and the one of the things that made john wangasey get caught was it started to smell and this guy would have had that problem down the line that would have started the odor were kind of came up from the floor but he is uh the ultimate controlling you know know, it's my house, my person, and I'll just do this and go to work and act like nothing happened at work. So yeah, he's a piece of work. Guys, we're talking about Maria Fury, now discovered in the crawl space of her husband's

home. Take a listen to our Cut 7 Fox 9 News anchor Kelsey Carlson. Joshua Fury is charged with second-degree murder for the death of his wife, Maria. Now, authorities discovered her body in a crawl space at the couple's home on Saturday. Investigators believe Fury strangled his wife because she planned to leave him. After today's court hearing, Maria's mother thanked the community for its support. You'll have to know, obviously, her murder was just gut-wrenching. But we really want to thank the community for its support. You'll have to know obviously her murder was just gut-wrenching but we really want to thank the community for the love and support that surrounds Maria and surrounds all of us and we really feel your love and so does Maria so thank you.

Fury's bond was set at two million dollars in honor of Maria's voice. Her family is raising money to help victims of domestic violence. To Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst joining us, why not just break up? If your wife wants to leave you, why go through all of this and risk life behind bars or the death penalty just to make sure she's dead. I mean, and who wants to be with someone that doesn't want to be with them? He did not want to think of her being a free agent and autonomous in the world. That would have tortured him. These guys have what we call persecutory anxiety. If you go out and have a, that means you have rejected me. You've left me behind. They're very primitive and infantile, meaning just like a baby who feels that

mommy deserves to devote her whole entire life to the baby. And by the way, babies deserve to feel this way. These adults are like caught in that infantile mindset where they cannot let the woman go. She has to only be devoted to him. And if she does anything else, it's like off with her head. That's the psychology. The mechanics of recovering her body out of a crawl space that was no taller than four feet in a dirt floor basement took hours and hours. Take a listen to WCCO4 Katie Johnston. Investigators believe Joshua Fury killed Maria Fury because they were having problems and she planned to leave him. Police say a dog used to detect human scent indicated a body was in a crawl space in the lower level of the couple's home. Officers took turns digging in the crawl space

and found her body at 1.30 in the morning Saturday. Fury told police they had a fight Thursday morning and he strangled her and put a plastic bag over her face. To you, Justice Scott Morgan, forensics expert, do you recall the search for 2-year-old Kelly Anthony where police and medical examiner investigators were out way into the night the wee morning hours with cranes with spotlights shining down on their hands and knees so as not to disturb what they would find trying to piece together 200 plus bones of kelly's tiny body

including for instance this tiny little bone at the end of your pinky your your little finger trying to piece together this child's body can you imagine in that basement hours and hours taking turns digging into a crawl space yeah yeah it's a nightmare i've worked several of these and a friend of mine, an old investigator actually described it this way. It's like trying to cook a four course meal in a phone booth. It's a very tight, constricted area. And listen, you're not just on your hands and knees in a crawl space. You're on your belly and everything is right in front of you. So it's very intimate conditions. Whereas, you know, if we're standing upright, if we're working a case inside of a house,

we have some kind of distance between, you know, literally our faces and the body itself. But in this particular case, you're literally right on top of the body and you're terrified because first off, it's hot. It's very humid under there. The ground, because you're in a crawl space, is very uneven. Notice what Dave said earlier in his report. It varied from three to four feet. It's not like a smooth basement. So you're having to deal with the contour of the ground. And then you have all these evidentiary considerations. Am I laying on top of something? Am I moving something around? Lighting is horrible. Most people don't have their crawl space lit. So you have to bring in lights. Well, guess what comes with the lights, Nancy? Incredible heat. You begin to bake underneath this environment. That's why they kept having to bring fresh investigators in. After a while, your shoulders hurt, your elbows hurt, your knees hurt, even your belly hurts. And then you're under incredible stress

to try to make sure that you can put all of these pieces together. You have to photograph in very tight areas. It is an absolute horror show to work one of these cases. I think back, you know, we've cited John Wayne Gacy a couple of times. There are these classic images from his home, which I don't think even stands any longer. But, you know, the police in Des Plaines, I think is the name of this location up in Illinois, they had to take the floors up out of the house. And there's these classic images of the crime scene investigator standing between the joists. You don't have this opportunity in her case.

You literally have to kind of feel your way along, like we were talking about underwater, but it's a horrible environment to have to indwell. To Dr. Bethany Marshall, according to cops, after murdering Maria and burying her body, he cleaned up meticulously. Sounds like Scott Peterson. He turned into a neatnik, went to work, came home, and reported her missing.

What do these actions tell you? He was really planning to get away with the perfect crime. What it tells me, Nancy, along the lines of what I said about him being a sociopath, you know, criminals are stupid. We all know that from years of working together, right? That they never think they're going to get caught. Not only did he feel he had ultimate control over her in life and in death, he felt he had control over the community, over her family, over the police. I bet if you interview her family, you're going to find out that he was incredibly controlling and derogatory towards them as well.

I think they all probably knew he was an abuser. And he probably thought he could get away with anything, like that nobody could ever come in with luminol, that nobody would ever know based upon his personality type that perhaps he did something to her, that her family who loved her so much would never think to investigate and take a look at what he might have done with her. He just thought no one would check. I bet this was a clean, quick cleanup job. And when the investigators came in, it was pretty obvious what happened. What about the fact that he planned in his own mind, he actually planned to use the duct tape that he was wrapping around her head to put up missing posters.

Not only did he said that, I was going to say, not only did he plan to use the duct tape that he used on his to kill his wife, to hang up the posters, but he said it so dispassionately to the police. I mean, why confess that to the police unless you are such a sociopath that you have absolutely no feelings? You're cold blooded. This is the kind of guy that once he gets behind bars, he's going to start bragging about the crime because it didn't mean much to him other than it was exciting to end her life. Who was just jumping in? Who is that? It's Iglar. See, when I hear all these details, when I hear about what he did to the body and how he tried to conceal her and all the specifics that you're talking about,

that almost eliminates the chances of success on an insanity defense. See, that's... Okay, who has a dog? Is that you, Igloash? Oh, well... You know, one of the best witnesses I ever put on the stand was a dog. So great.

So, I don't mind your furry friend. So, by this meticulous planning... That was my wife. That was my wife. It's her fault. By this meticulous planning, he almost eliminates any possibility he's going to be able to plead insanity.

That's what I was just going to hit you with, but you beat me to the punch, Iglish. You're right. Well, that's my point. Yeah, that's my point. I don't want you to hit me with that. Yeah, look, my job is to do the best that I can with the facts that I have. And, you know, the guy's already given it up in detail. Idiot.

And that matches, apparently, the physical evidence. Yeah, and the thing is... I got a real problem here. You know, if this goes to trial, because right now he's charged with murder two, the max on that is 40 years. But if he goes to trial,

don't you know the prosecutor's gonna love arguing to the jury. He was planning to get an inside laugh every time he hung up a missing poster for Maria because he was using the same duct tape he used to bind her body. He'd probably relive it every time he'd rip off the duct tape and put up the poster and touch and hold that duct tape. Well, you know what? Rot in hell, Fury. We stand by as justice unfolds.

God willing, it will. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.