Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Cold medicine killer: Did cough syrup make sleeping pastor kill wife?

Episode Date: September 7, 2017

A wanna-be pastor who blames a cold medicine overdose for the nightmare murder of his wife faces the death penalty if convicted. Nancy Grace, crime scene investigator Sheryl McCollum, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Bober and radio host David Mack update the case of alleged cold med killer Matthew Phelps. This episode also includes Dr. Bethany Marshall and reporter Carmen Coya Van Duijn join us to discuss an abused girl in New York and the Penn State frat death case. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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of independent lawyers without being billed by the hour. Since LegalZoom is not a law firm, hurry to LegalZoom.com now for your free estate planning kit. No obligation, just great resources to help you protect what you care about, your family. For special savings, be sure to enter code NANCY, N-A-N-C-Y at checkout. LegalZoom.com. LegalZoom.com. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Sirius XM Triumph, Channel 132. This young aspiring pastor charged with murdering his Sunday school teacher wife. I think I told my wife. What do you mean by that? What happened?

28-year-old Matthew Phelps arrested after a detailed and disturbing call to 911. I had a dream, and then I turned on the lights, and she's dead on the floor. How? How? How? Between labored breaths and alarming admission. I have blood all over me, and there's a bloody knife on the bed, and I think I did it. I can't believe this. A disoriented-oriented sounding caller telling the dispatcher he took cough medicine to sleep the night before. It qualifies that yes it looks like I did kill her. The knife is here. I have blood all over me. However this medicine made me do it.

A 28 year old man calls 9-1-1. He says he awakes from a dream, turns on the lights, and finds his wife, his bride, of just a few months, dead on the floor. Matthew Phelps, 28 years old, just out of the courtroom. His wife was stabbed multiple times. Laura Ashley Nicole Phelps. They haven't even been married a year. Now, let's go through what we know. Cheryl McCollum is joining me along with Dr. Daniel Bober joining me out of Florida, forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Bober. You know, this is really, really gripping my imagination because you know the defense is blaming the whole thing on course eating cough syrup.

Cheryl McCollum, what do we know about the crime scene? Nancy, the crime scene, if you listen to the 911 tape, is he wakes up. He's got dry blood on him. There's a bloody knife on the bed, and his wife is dead on the floor. Okay, you know, I want you to hear the 911 call because I heard something very incriminating in this call. Roll. Tell me exactly what happened.

I think I killed my wife. What do you mean by that? What happened? I had a dream. And then I turn on the lights and she's dead on the floor. How? How? I have blood all over me and there's a bloody knife on the bed and I think I did it. Okay. You mean, stay on the phone with me, I'm getting her ambulance, okay?

I can't believe this. I can't believe this. When did you wake up to find this? I don't even know what time it is. Alright, stay on the phone with me sir, I just gotta ask you a few questions, okay? I'm getting some help to you. Are you with the patient now? Yeah, I can see her.

Okay, alright, how old is the patient? How's your wife? She's 29. Okay, is she awake at all right now? What makes you think she's dead? Is she awake? She's not breathing. Okay.

Oh my god. What makes you think she's dead? Is she awake? She's not breathing. Okay. Oh, my God. Okay, do you think she is beyond any help? I don't know. I'm too scared to get too close to her. Okay, just stay on the phone with me, sir. I'm here with you. I'm here with you. I'm so scared. Dr. Bober, do you hear between those sobs the heavy breathing? The heavy breathing, I would argue, from exertion, Dr. Bober.

Exertion. I mean, think about it, Dr. Bober. You're the shrink. I'm just a lawyer. But in order to carry this out in his sleep, he says, he would have to get out of bed, go to the kitchen drawer, get a butcher knife, come back into his bedroom, pick his target. It's not a sofa. It's not a chair. It's not a pillow. It's not the dog it's his wife he has to approach his wife and stab her with such strength and velocity so as to kill her stabbing her multiple times imagine

dr bober pulling the knife up over your head down again down again down again down again she's found in the floor she's no longer on the bed dr bo. Bober. She struggled. He's covered in blood. What? Getting soaked with blood doesn't wake you up. All the stabbing, the struggle, fighting her from the bed to the floor. You don't wake up. You get all the way to, you find the light switch. You turn on the light switch.

And suddenly, then you wake up after all that? Are you kidding me? And he's claiming that dextromethermin is what has caused him to be in a deep sleep. And hold on, Dr. Bober. I believe you defended him before, but let me remind you, Dr. Bober. This ain't the cold and flu season, okay? He said he took Coruscant to, quote, feel good.

His words, not my words. And so he could go to sleep. Alright. Hit me. Give me all you got, Bober. I think the defense is actually going to have a very difficult time with this one because first of all, if he was taking it in a therapeutic dose for a cold or a cough,

it would be unlikely, I mean, I'm going to say extremely rare that he would have any kind of reaction like this. And, if he was taking it in a therapeutic dose for a cold or a cough, it would be unlikely. I mean, I'm going to say extremely rare that he would have any kind of reaction like this. And then if he was taking it recreationally, then that would be voluntary intoxication, which is not going to work with an insanity defense. However, that being said, again, there have been isolated case reports. How did we get from chugging cough syrup to insanity? He's perfectly fine the night before. What, he got crazy for about 45 minutes well as we know a substance that for example is prescribed by a physician in a therapeutic dose can cause someone to not know the difference between right and wrong this is not

prescribed well this is not ambient this is otc over-the-counter cough syrup well they're they're having people that have had idiosyncratic or strange reactions even to over-the-counter medicines. But again, this being said, the fact that he said, I took it to feel good, is incriminating in the sense that he took it recreationally and not for its intended use. And if he was using it the way he was using it, that's obviously voluntary intoxication. You know, it's on the street. It's called Skittles, Red Devils, Triple C, you name it. We're getting high on cough syrup. It's the poor man's PCP. Dr. Bober, that's what it is. And here we've got this Kentucky Bible student high as a kite on Coruscant, stabbing

his wife dead. And now he's trying to blame the cough syrup. Well, let me tell you, Cheryl McCollum, Bayer Aspirin, who owns Coracetin, who creates Coracetin, is having none of that. They've already issued a statement saying we are sympathetic to the family, the grieving family of Lauren, but we don't know of any violent attacks associated with Coracetin. Right. And, of course, they're going to say their product is safe and effective. I'm sure that was issued by one of their PR people.

Dr. Over, you, you know, just to make the listeners happy, I have to be mean to some poor man on the show, and it's you. It's usually me. That was directed to Cheryl McCollum, okay? You are not Cheryl McCollum. Cheryl, jump in. Here's the deal, Nancy. The 911 call is a money tree for the prosecution.

No less than nine times he uses the word I. I had a dream. I turned on the light. I had blood all over me. I didn't want to go near her. I was afraid. I think I did it. I was afraid to touch her.

That's a great husband. You're lying there bleeding dead. He goes, I was afraid to touch her. But, Nancy, he never asked for help for her. He never lying there bleeding dead. He goes, I was afraid to touch her. But Nancy, he never asked for help for her. He never asked for an ambulance. He never asked him to hurry. No concern for her.

He simply says, oh yeah, she's down on the floor. She. He doesn't say her name. He's not upset. He's very calm while he's describing the dream and the bloody knife and dry blood all over him. And dry blood is going to come back to bite him. He waited.

He waited before he made that call. The blood had time to draw. Okay, Dr. Bober, you patiently stood by while I mangled and destroyed the names of the drugs in Corsetan. Okay? What are they? I'm going to write them out phonetically like I learned in second grade. Go ahead. Chlorpheniramine.

What? Did you have to say it so fast? Chlor. Hold on. Chlorpheniramine. Phenaramine is P-H. Phenaramine. Chlorpheniramine.

Phen. P-H-E-N like Phen-Phen? Yes. P-H-S. Chlorpheniramine. And that one is chlorophenyramine and the other one is dextromethorphan correct exactly perfect i can't believe i got one right hold on perfect dex write it down cheryl because we're going to be using this a lot dextromethorphane exactly okay i think and dextromethorphane. Exactly. Okay, I think. And dextromethorphane is the cough suppressant. And chlorpheniramine is an antihistamine.

You know, why is it, Cheryl, that when men get a cold, somehow the wife ends up dead on the floor? Why is that? Isn't that amazing? You know, when I get a cold, I just blow my nose and keep going. But the wife ends up dead on the floor. Or the child. It's always the wife or the child. You don't really hear of women chugging,

chorus eating, then going on a killing spree. What's the deal, Cheryl? It's probably a killing spree that they can't remember. He just thinks he did it. He's not sure he did it. He just thinks he did it. Dr. Bober, what would you say? You mentioned voluntary consumption of drugs or alcohol, and you're so right. You know, you know

a lot about the law for being an MD slash psychiatrist, but voluntary consumption of drugs or alcohol is not a defense unless comatose. And if you're comatose, you can't commit a murder anyway. So that means we normally associate that with going to a bar and getting high as a kite, getting a snootful, as we say in Macon, and getting in your car and mowing somebody down or having a crash. Voluntary use of drugs or alcohol is not a defense under the law. Exactly. If it was, everybody in the jailhouse would be raising their hands saying,

I was drunk or I was high right now. Exactly. And then all be let out. But what about involuntary consumption of drugs or alcohol, Dr. Bober? Involuntary. What would that constitute? What would be involuntary consumption? Well, involuntary consumption would be either A, prescribed by a doctor,

or B, using a drug that's even over the counter and having what we call an idiosyncratic or some odd reaction to the drug. But the fact that the 911 calls and that he states in this call that he used it to feel good or to get high, I'm paraphrasing, that is going to hurt the defense because it seems like he was using it for recreational purposes and not therapeutic purposes. With me is Dr. Daniel Bober, forensic psychiatrist out of Florida, and Cheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case Institute. You know, guys, you know who's getting lost in the sauce is the woman, the wife, Lauren. The night before she was posting a Facebook video of a candle,

she sold candles for Scentsy. S-C-E-N-T-S-Y. And all of her friends saw it. She was in perfectly good spirits. People talked to her on the phone late the night before. Everything was fine. They'd only been married since November. And this guy, Cheryl, attended Clear Creek Baptist Bible College in Kentucky.

And I'm remembering that off the top of my head. Where he studied evangelism and missions work. She was a Sunday school teacher. I don't know how that factors into this, if at all. But I know that he was working for a lawn service. Hey, there's nothing wrong with that. I cut plenty of lawns myself. But why did he go to all that study

and he's out raking people's yard? Why isn't he, I mean, what happened? Did he not finish? Did he drop out? Was he kicked out? Did he crack under the stress? What happened? I mean, there's so many questions I have, Cheryl McCollum.

I have a ton of questions too, Nancy, but I'm going to go back to that 911 call again where he goes into great detail describing the knife. It's got blood all over it. It's on the bed. He never described her having blood all over her. All he said. Oh, it's all about him.

I've got blood on me. Boo hoo. And I'm afraid to touch her. Guys, listen to what the judge said. He has been in court in the last hours, and the judge gives a warning. You are Matthew James Phelps, is that correct? Yes, sir. Mr. Phelps, you've been charged with one count of murder.

Sir, you could receive a death penalty or life without the possibility of parole. Now, your next court date is going to be September the 25th at 9 o'clock. Dr. Bober, you're right again. We see the defense shaping up right now. Listen to what the defense attorneys had to say. They couldn't wait to get down the courthouse steps before they issue a statement. Listen. We have to ask everybody to withhold judgment in this particular case until we know more and we're able to develop more.

There's a lot to this story, I believe, that will be told in the future. Dr. Daniel Bober, Cheryl McCollum, we're on it. And now, on Crime Stories. She said that they brought her to Happy Valley because she was misbehaving, and they tied her to the truck, and they pulled her. It was pretty sad. I was crying, and I was hurt, too. It's like I could feel her pain. Are you hiring?

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dashboard. Find out today why ZipRecruiter has been used by businesses of all sizes to find the most qualified candidates with immediate results. Right now, my listeners can post jobs on ZipRecruiter for free. F-R-E-E. Go to ZipRecruiter.com slash Nancy Grace. ZipRecruiter.com slash Nancy Grace. One more time. try it for free. Go to ZipRecruiter.com. ZipRecruiter.com slash Nancy Grace. And now we head north to Albion. A 10-year-old little girl

dragged by a rope attached to a car. What? Beaten and starved and dragged with a rope attached to a car? A 10-year-old little girl? You know, it's enough to make me run out of this studio, get in my car, and race to the twins to check on them this very minute. My children are about to turn 10. They still believe in the tooth fairy. They believe in Santa Claus. And they believe in everything good in this world. To imagine beating and starving a 10-year-old little girl, tying a rope around her and dragging

her with a car. And guess who was at the other end of that rope? Guess who was at the other end of mother Leslie Ann Rader, a 34-year-old woman, and her boyfriend, Gary Bubis Jr., 37, his sister and his sister's boyfriend. in Albion and then would attach four backpacks on her and drag her by a car attached with a rope. Okay, Dr. Bethany, before I go to our investigative reporter, Carmen Coyavan-Down, what in the hay is going on? I mean, how do you even come up with a diabolical plan like that, much less inflicted on a child? And it's the mother. I think she should go straight to the penitentiary and stay there. I agree. Nancy, did you see these people's mugshots? They look like they were high. And I think that what's happened, it's hard for me to even analyze this because it's so severe and so horrific. And the sadism and the torture is so extreme that I almost feel silly analyzing it. But to the best of my knowledge, what I think happened is that these four were living in some

sort of a crack house. I think they were all methamphetamine addicts. I can tell by looking at their faces. If you look at the mugshots, they have like red sores, red pock marks, their pupils are dilated, their eyes are huge. And you know, with meth addicts, they take one thing and they get obsessed with it. Give them a shovel and they will dig to China, give them a piece of tape. They will, they will tape up their entire house. They are like a dog with a bone. It is the strangest thing. And then they push the envelope towards excitement, just like they need that surge of dopamine in the brain that activates the limbic system in the brain, and they keep taking more and more drugs. I think the torture of this poor 10-year-old little girl was in some way used to activate even more excitement.

I know that sounds so perverse, but sadism, one of the motivations behind sadism is to reduce sexual and psychological excitement. And they got obsessed with her. You know, Nancy, as you said earlier, even when they fed her a meal, they doused it with hot sauce. I think of them dragging this little girl behind a car. And I just, it makes me feel like I won't be able to sleep. I can't imagine the trauma and the PTSD this little girl is going to have. Is she ever going to be able to trust anybody? Is she going to be able to have appropriate attachments? Is she going to be able to trust anybody? Is she going to be able to have appropriate attachments?

Is she going to be able to concentrate in school? What physical injuries were inflicted on her? I'd really be interested to know that. I'm sure she's receiving appropriate medical care. I would think at this point, she's going to need to be in some very safe environment for at least a couple of years where she doesn't have any responsibilities, schooling or otherwise, where she just has a chance to recover. According to sheriffs, the little girl was only fed once a day, if that. And when she was fed, like Dr. Bethany says, they would cover the meal in hot sauce. She would run for the adult's amusement, say sheriffs. When she

didn't go fast enough, they would bump her physically with the car they were following her in or tie her to it with a rope and make her run faster, say police. Before making her run, they would load her up with heavy backpacks, two strapped to each shoulder, one on her back and one on her front. They made her stay outside with no water or a bathroom and beat her if she did not, quote, fall in line. All this abuse was passed off as punishment and discipline.

I just can't imagine what the girl lived through. Out to investigative reporter joining us, Carmen Coya Van Down. How did this go without being discovered, Carmen? You're living in a remote area. That's one of them. And people are not paying attention to their surroundings. I mean, some of the practices that they used on her was just so offensive. And some of the reasons that they would, in air quotes, punish her and use these disciplining techniques is because she was trying to get food.

That was basically it. They gave her no water access. Bathroom access was limited, if at all. And it became a situation where it was absolutely horrendous. She had to escape to a neighbor's house in order for her to be saved. But she wasn't the only one that was affected by this. There were other children in the house. It was a three-year-old that was found with, he was scalded with hot water. But as the doctor said, she was the target because there were other children there, but she was the one that they zeroed in on. And it was some sort of sick, twisted plot that they had against her. You know, according to the sheriffs, they still, quote, can't wrap their brains around it. What I don't understand, Cheryl McCollum, the girl's mother is the only one facing child abuse charges. She's been charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

To me, when you drag a person by a rope with your car for your fun, for your entertainment, that's an aggravated assault. They would hit her with the car to make her run faster when she was running in front, starving her, beating her. How is this simply endangering the welfare of a child? Why wasn't a charge of aggravated assault or even attempted murder added? And why is just the mother charged, Cheryl? That's what I was going to say, Nancy. It's clearly aggravated assault. It's clearly attempted murder.

Again, you've got, if you look at the crime scene photographs of this house, Nancy, there is no evidence any children live there. There are no toys. There's no bicycles. There's no balls. There's nothing. You would never know that a three and 10 and 12 year old are in that house. And what I am hoping is the 12 year old becomes the best witness and charges are added. The 10 year old girl tied to a car by a rope and dragged down dirt roads, Albion, New York, along with her boyfriend. You know, that's another thing.

Cheryl, you and I have talked about this a million times. I have prosecuted child abuse, beatings, cigarette burns, rapes, child molestation, starving, you name it. And the mother almost always sides with the husband or the boyfriend. What? Why? I don't get it, Cheryl. I'm going to tell you, it's the devil. Anybody that would harm a child needs to go to prison.

But a mama that would sit by and watch it and participate, hell ain't good enough. You know what, Cheryl? You took the words out of my mouth. Dr. Bethany, help me out. Why? Why do women go along with boyfriends, husbands, live-ins, users, and let their children be abused? And please do not pass it off as drugs. complex psychology where often the boyfriend or the husband wants the wife or the mom all to himself. He resents the children as intruders into the relationship. And then the mother is so desperate for the attachment to the man that she prioritizes that over the attachment to the

children. Sometimes there's another layer where the boyfriend may have some sexual interest in the children. And so the mother hands the child over sort of as a favor or a gift to her boyfriend. Often the psychology of child abuse, the other layer is seeing the child as being greedy for having needs. So any need, you know, for food, for sustenance, for nourishment, for clothing, the adults in the household resent that child for having needs. And then they distort and twist the needs into greediness. So say this 10-year-old little girl, she had to sneak to get food and then they would punish her for it. So they probably twisted that into, so she's such a greedy little pig. We're going to have to punish her for this. I've heard stories where adults have put chains on the refrigerator just so the children cannot open the refrigerator door because they feel the

child is so unconditionally bad for having needs. And then the other layer, Nancy, is that in these twisted, sick, perverse households, the adults often choose one child to love and one child to hate. Remember that story many years ago where there was a household with multiple children and one of the boys was chained to the coffee table and starved while the other children were sitting at the table and they were fed good meals? I see this in the news and again and again in my practice. I have patients who come in and their parents targeted them and then showed favoritism towards the other children. So that's a part of this complex psychology. And I think that

the final factor is that the children are used as pawns in marital arguments. So, you know, let's say if the mother loves the child, then the father or the boyfriend will abuse the child in order to get back at the mother, and then the mother tolerates that. Back to Carmen Coya Van Down. What happens now? Please tell me there is a chance that these charges are going to be upgraded on all of the perpetrators. Right now, the only charges that are getting is second degree charges on the accomplices. The mother's the only one facing child abuse charges. The good thing is the children are currently all living now with relatives. And as you mentioned, we're hoping that they're getting

the proper medical care that they need at this moment's base in time. But at this moment, there is no sight of the fact that there's going to be aggravated assault or any other types of charges that are going to be elevated to the remaining three accomplices. We will continue with our coverage of our other stories, but right now, a missing teen alert. Canton Police searching for this girl last seen at her residence. She has now been missing for six days. Macy Olcheski last seen 8 a.m. Thursday morning leaving her home in Canton. She is believed to have been driving the car she just got, a 2002 Hyundai Santa Fe. She's 5'5", 130 pounds, green eyes, blonde hair, according to Canton Police.

Help us find Macy. Joining you right now from CrimeOnline.com, investigative reporter Lee Egan. Lee, give me the background. Okay, this little girl, she's only 16 years old. Her family's describing her as very sweet, sensitive. She doesn't really, she's a homebody. She likes to hang out with her little brother and sister after school on weekends. She's a referee for a youth soccer team. They're frantic for answers. She has ties to Florida.

Her grandparents live there. I believe it's in Coral Beach, Florida. She has a few friends there that she knows. Nobody has seen her. there's no sightings no confirmed sightings whatsoever um no activity on her cell phone no activity on her bank card it's just like she's vanished um the family's just desperate for answers they don't know where to turn this little girl a junior at cherokee high school uh i'm taking a look at her right now. She's just absolutely beautiful. Macy Olszewski, last seen 8 a.m. Thursday morning. I'm sure her parents think she's headed to school. What happened to

Macy? She's never been in any trouble before. She is not responding to cell phone calls. We don't know if the cell phone has been lost or destroyed. If you have any information on the whereabouts of Macy, dial 770-720-4883. Repeat, 770-720-4883. You work your entire life to help your children, right? You go to work when you don't feel like it. You put your feet on the ground and rush to get them ready for school. Urge them along with homework, activities, you name it. Pour all your love, all your hopes, all your dreams into your children.

That's what parents do, right? And then one day, they make it. They make it to their dream school. Parents thinking they're giving their children what they may never have had. A higher education. A chance to be successful, which so many of us translate to happy. Can you imagine these parents' grief when they send their son away to Penn State. He's a smart boy, all A's, athlete, the works, the golden boy, the apple of their eye.

And he's dead. After a drunken frat party, where nearly 18 hours pass with him lying in a stupor in the floor where people step over him, punch him, hide his body, basically waiting for him to die. When one boy says, let's call 911, he gets roughed up and kicked out. Imagine this life could have been saved if they had just called 911. They had 12 to 18 hours to do it. In a stunning twist, in the last hours, the Penn State frat boys have been cleared of felony charges in the death of a teen boy found dead after a drunken hazing ritual.

Repeat, the frat boys have been cleared, let off the hook on felony charges after this teen boy is found dead. And it's on surveillance video. How they party into the night, 12, 18 hours, around his comatose body. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. And maybe I'm projecting. But when my children finally make it and they get into a college, God willing, only for me to get a call like this, and then they're let off the hook, I cannot imagine what the Piazza family is going through right now.

Joining me, Dr. Bethany Marshall, renowned psychologist joining us from L.A., Cheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case Institute. Also with me, investigative reporter Carmen Coya Van Down. Carmen, thank you so much for being with us. Please, let's start at the beginning. What happened that night in that fraternity house? Well, that evening, they were supposed to be standing up to pledge that evening. And in short, when the gentleman that decided to want to be a part of the fraternity, Piazza being one of them, they were to drink heavily. They fed them wine, vodka, beer after a ceremony to mark their

decision to pledge in the organization. Part of that included running them through speed drinking games and things of that nature. And in the process, they drained a very large bottle of vodka. There were security video that was recording all of this while this was happening. As you know, Piazza was an engineering student, sophomore from New Jersey, and he was appeared to be already intoxicated.

They knew this. By 11 o'clock, they had already put him on the couch. They let him sleep. In fact, they had put some heavy weights on him in order for him not to roll over. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. So he was already, this teen boy was already, had already been forced to quote, run the gauntlet. And what I mean by that, it's a speed drinking game where they had to drain a bottle of vodka.

Security video recorded the teen boy Piazza, engineering student from Lebanon, New Jersey, led to a couch at 11 o'clock. Just minutes later, he falls head first down a set of basement stairs. He fell head first down wooden stairs. And what did they do? They bring him back up. This time he's carried. He is unconscious for hour after hour after hour. They continue to tend, let me say, to their hurt friend, pouring liquid on him, booze, strapping on a loaded backpack to his chest to keep him from rolling over and choking on his own vomit. By the early morning hours, the boys pictured stumbling from one couch to other areas. He can't really stand up.

He falls into one door. Then he falls onto, face first, a stone floor. Nobody does a thing. He ends up falling back down the stairs to the basement. He's again carried back upstairs. At this point, they finally call an ambulance. Finally. I don't know how many hours had actually passed. Then the cover-up. What happened then, Carmen? After the authorities had arrived on the scene and they had taken him to the hospital where he was soon pronounced dead, they tried to figure out and assess the situation. And arguments, the defense arguments, state that the jury should have considered other facts, facts that led to some of these dismissals of charges, believe it or not. As far as they know, they didn't even think that anybody died.

They didn't think anybody was responsible for anything, that it was just poor lapse in judgment. They say that the evidence that recorded this death was unforeseeable. And in addition to that, they had heard over and over again that the accomplices, as a matter of law, that they didn't think that there was anything wrong with what was going on. How can you not know something's wrong? Cheryl McCollum, Timothy Tempiazza had severe head trauma,

according to the hospital, and a shattered spleen. He died of traumatic brain injury. Cheryl? They knew something was terribly wrong, Nancy. When they flashed water in his face and he wouldn't wake up, when they lifted his arm and it dropped back down, when they put a weight on him so he wouldn't keep rolling off the sofa and choked on his own vomit, they knew. They knew something was wrong. They slapped that child in the face repeatedly trying to wake him up. They tried to redress him. They hid alcohol.

They covered this crime up. They even researched on their phone, you know, head injuries and vomit and what's wrong with this guy if he's cold to the touch. They knew and they did nothing. They did nothing to help him at all. Wait a minute. What did they research during this time? Head injuries? What else? Cheryl McCollum? If he was cold to the touch and, you know, excessive vomiting, they researched what could be going on with this guy. The problem is they never called for help. The very people that could help them, they didn't call. They didn't want any authorities there. Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychologist joining me out of L.A., when you tie a backpack, a loaded backpack, to somebody's chest to keep them from rolling over and choking on their own vomit,

how can you do that and not know something's horribly wrong? I so agree with you, Nancy. These boys were cogent enough to make a very sophisticated plan. They carried him up the stairs twice. They weighed him down with a backpack so that he wouldn't vomit. on their phone. These boys were sober, Nancy. And so I think we need to reframe our thinking about this entire incident. We're thinking of it as a hazing. I don't think of this as a hazing at all. I think of this as a cover-up for a brutal attack. And as a psychoanalyst, I try to think about what is the group psychology behind an attack like this. And usually with men or boys, you have one very strong ringleader, either like a sociopath or a very domineering person who gets all the other young men to rally around him and want to be just like him. And pretty soon there's this powerful group psychology

where they're all engaging in the attack together. And, you know, the other thing about this school, I was reading up on this the other day, that these fraternities are considered independent from the school. That's what the school is saying, that these fraternities stand on their own, so the school is not responsible, according to the school. However, a part of the school program is that they, in their school curriculum, they let these students have time away from classes to pledge, to go through these hazing rituals. So in a sense, the school is colluding with these brutal attacks. There was one report where in one of the sororities, a group of girls took two girls behind a building, kicked them, beat them, punched them, stepped on their heads and their necks. So this is not hazing, Nancy. This is brutality. This is envy. This is

attacks. And the school is sort of looking the other way while all of this takes place right next to their campus. You know, Dr. Bethany, I was lucky in college. I was independent for two years of college and was attached to a sorority for two years of college. And don't laugh at me, ladies, okay? But what my sorority did to me, they sent me cards when I had tests. They sent me violets. They surprised me at 6 o'clock in the morning with all the pledges and took us out to a pancake breakfast. That's what they did. It was fun. And I had gone away to college and did not know one person except a boy that parents worked a farm near our place in Macon, Georgia, and he lived across campus. I knew not a soul. And these girls were so nice to me. It was 80 pie. And for those two years,

I was friends with them and they could not have been nicer to me. For two years, I was independent, worked in the library at my alma mater, Mercy University, and, you know, that's when Bethany, as you know very well, I was with Keith, my fiancé, that was then murdered. So I got to see both sides of college life, but I never saw anything at all like this I don't know why we keep causing calling it a hazing ritual because Bethany Cheryl Carmen Carmen you already know all this one of the fraternity brothers is shown on tape examining Piazza making animated gesture then he told the Granger he saw a bruise on Tim's chest and that Tim was thrashing and making weird movements. He told all the guys there, Tim needs help. He needs medical care.

That's when other members shoved him and told him to get out. He then goes to the vice president, who also told him to get out. One fraternity member actually sends a group message saying Tim might actually be a problem. He fell 14 feet down a flight of stairs, hair first, going to need help. They slap him in the face. One brother tackles another onto the couch and lands on top of him. He's still laying there unconscious. He starts vomiting, which is a very bad stage when you start vomiting while you're in a coma or when you're comatose at about 1.30 a.m. That's when they attach the backpack to him. He rolls off the couch. So they slam him, body slam him on the couch. And minutes later, he pushes his right hand, a brother pushes his right hand down on Piazza's abdomen.

He rolls to the floor. His legs are moving. He tries to get to his feet. The backpack comes off, but he falls back and hits his head on the floor again. He's on the floor in a fetal position. He gets on his knees, grabbing his abdomen. He tries to stand up, but falls face down onto the floor again. He staggers into the lobby, falls headfirst into an iron railing, landing on a stone floor. he tries to get out the front door he spends about six minutes on his knees with his head in his hands he rolls to his side clutching his stomach a forensic

pathologist estimates his blood alcohol between 0.19 and 0.24 fraternity brothers are seen on surveillance video stepping over his body lying in the floor stepping over him coming in and out they walk all around him piazza tries again to stand he falls down three steps and the brothers leave him on the floor. A fellow pledge videotapes him before leaving the house. Why? He keeps falling every time he stands up. It's just heartbreaking. He's trying to get out.

Then a brother searches his cell phone for falling asleep after head injury, cold extremities in drunk person, and other searches. They call 911 at 1048 a.m. It's almost lunchtime. This has been going on since early the night before. The fraternity president then directs a member to get rid of any evidence. Timothy is pronounced dead at Hershey Medical Center from skull fracture, shattered spleen, abdomen filled with blood.

The pathologist says his head and stomach injuries would have been very very painful and the spleen injury was likely made worse by the jostling and moving and sitting on him in the last hours a judge throws out the charges to carmen Coya Van Down, investigative reporter, is there any way the judge's decision can be appealed? It is my understanding that it could be appealed. However, at this moment, there have been no motions in making that happen. I'm just sick about it. Dr. Bethany Marshall, what about the parents? I mean, I always thought I knew it all about grief and loss, having lost my fiance and then my father. But your child. Nancy, they won't recover from this.

You know, because of the twins. When you have a child, you have a baby, you have a child, you raise that child, your whole life is devoted to the protection and the safety of that child. The minute that child is born, it's an indescribable feeling. You know, I have new moms come to my practice and they tell me stories that are heart-wrenching. They have these healthy, lovely, wonderful babies. And they say, you know, I'm afraid to take my child outside. What if the child gets kidnapped? I'm afraid to to take my child outside. What if the child gets kidnapped? I'm afraid to send my child to school. What if the child gets molested? And I have to normalize these feelings for them because when you're a parent, when you're a mom. Wait a minute,

wait a minute, wait a minute. What's wrong with that? There's nothing wrong. That's why I'm saying I have to normalize these feelings. Those feelings aren't normal? They are normal. I'm saying it's... Okay, because I did not take mine out. I wouldn't even take them to church until they were almost two years old. I understand that, Nancy. Seriously. That's what I'm saying.

I was afraid either A, somebody would breathe on them, or B, they'd kidnap them. I... And Nancy, you and I were... Go ahead and laugh, Beth. No, you and I were friends back then. Cheryl, don't say a word.

Not a word, Cheryl McCollum. So can you imagine when your worst fear actually comes true? How devastating that is? You and I were friends back then. Cheryl, don't say a word. Not a word, Cheryl McCollum. So can you imagine when your worst fear actually comes true, how devastating that is? And it's not just the brutality, the attack, but the fact that these boys are going to roam free in the world, and these parents will never have the future that they hoped for with this child. They'll never see him get married. They'll never see him establish his career. They won't have him in their old age. And I just keep going back to the fact of the brutality of the attack. I cannot get that out of my mind, Nancy. If this was in an inner city and a privileged, wealthy boys and a fraternity. These guys would be in jail and they would never get out.

We have to call this what it is. It's an envious, homicidal, rageful attack. It is not a hazing. I think we need to even drop that language altogether. I wish the reporters would drop it. I wish the school would drop it because the language camouflages the reality of what happened. And the other concern that I that nobody's bringing up that I'm looking at carefully from an outsider's perspective is the judge's response to this. You know, in fraternities, you have people placed in different places. Right.

And in many cases, this could be very well the alma mater of this particular judge. There is speculation that there may be some sense of cover up. We need to think about that as also a possibility. They are brothers to protect each other. So evident. It is captured on video and nobody and they are throwing out the most weightful charges out the window first. It is District Court Judge Alan Sinclair. District Court Judge Alan Sinclair. What, Carmen, what do we know about him? Not much. And that's really what's interesting about it. A lot of information has been circulating, but not much has been able to be confirmed, which is very interesting.

And that's really where I started looking into and trying to identify, what is his relationship with this fraternity? Why would these things be thrown out so quickly when you have evidence right in front of you of what happened? Let me go out to Cheryl McCollum. I mean, it's on video. What more do they need, Cheryl? Not only is it on video, I go back to that text message that was sent, 1153, where he says Piazza might actually be a problem. He ends that text message saying, going to need help. I don't think he was talking about 911.

I think he was saying, going to need help covering this up. Y'all get over here, get rid of the alcohol, dress this guy back, get rid of the backpack. That's what I think he was talking about. This is what I know about District Court Judge Alan Sinclair. He graduated in 96 from Shippensburg University. He had a B.A. in criminology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. That's what I know about him so far, but I'm sure there's a lot more to know. District Court Judge Alan Sinclair tossing out the most serious charges against a group of frat brothers that let a boy die.

God willing, it ain't over yet. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.