Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - GLAM LADY REALTOR HIRES HIT-MAN TO OFF MOTHER-IN-LAW?

Episode Date: March 24, 2021

Well-known Missouri real estate agent, Leigh Ann Bauman, has been charged in a murder-for-hire plot.. Bauman allegedly agreed to pay $1,500 to have her former mother-in-law killed. Court documents say Bauman thought her ex-husband and former mother-in-law were going to challenge her in court for full custody of the couple’s children.Joining Nancy Grace today: Dale Carson - Criminal Defense Attorney (Jacksonville), Former FBI Agent, Former Police Officer, Author: "Arrest-Proof Yourself" Dr. Jorey Krawczyn - Police Psychologist, Adjunct Faculty with Saint Leo University; Research Consultant with Blue Wall Institute, Author: Operation S.O.S. - Practical Recommendations to Help “Stop Officer Suicide” (July 2021) bw-institute.com Steven Lampley - Author, Speaker, Retired Police Officer, Undercover SVU Detective, & Author: "12 and Murdered," www.stevendavidlampley.com, Facebook.com/StevenDavidLampleyPage Levi Page - Crime Online Investigative Reporter, Host, "Crime and Scandal" True Crime Podcast, YouTube.com/LeviPageTV  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. You know all those jokes about people hating their in-laws? Well, maybe there's a reason for that. You know, let me just put it on the record right now. Out of all the years I have been with my husband, never once was there a crossword between his mother or his father and me. Not once. Can you believe that, Jackie?

You know, so many people hate, hate their in-laws. I have the greatest in-laws ever. Well, you're going to hear, and that's not always the case. Let's start off with who is Leigh Ann Bauman. I need to get to know this woman. Listen. Even when it's snowing, it's still a beautiful place to live at Lake of the Ozarks. Oh, my gosh. That's gorgeous.

I'd love to sell you a house. I'm selling to you today. Okay. You're hearing just a tiny, tiny little bit of Leanne Bauman. That's on her Facebook post. Leanne Bauman is a very, very successful realtor in Lake of the Ozarks. You might want to know, where's Lake of the Ozarks? Well, it's beautiful.

It's in Missouri. Just trying to figure out, wow, I'm looking at her and she almost looks too good to be true. Long, beautiful, blonde hair. I mean, way down here. I would say it's almost to her belly button. She's holding up one of those little Paris Hilton teacup puppy dogs. Oh, and she's holding up a magazine of the mayors, all the mayors in the area, and they've all signed it to her. Okay, I guess this is off of her Facebook, but you know what? I don't know enough. Take a listen to more about Leanne Bauman.

43-year-old Leanne Bauman is a well-known wealthy real estate agent in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. Her social media is filled with pictures showing herself with guns, speedboats, motorcycles, and on old magazine covers in glamour shots. On her Facebook page, Bauman represents herself as a realtor, an artist, an entrepreneur, and a cheer mom. She frequently posts about her track record of success, including appearances with the mayor as, quote, first lady of Lake Ozark. She's also an art dealer, a professional speedboater, setting a world record during a 2020 race, and claims to have done work in pharmaceutical sales, as well as acting in modeling, citing appearances on Days of Our Lives and Nike commercials on her LinkedIn profile.

My goodness. Well, that's certainly a mouthful. That was our friend Jackie Howard at CrimeOnline.com. Let me introduce to you an all-star panel with us. Dale Carson, criminal defense attorney, former FBI and cop, author of Arrest Proof Yourself. I don't think I'm going to like anything he has to say. Dale Carson is joining me out of Jacksonville. Dr. Jory Croson, psychologist, adjunct faculty, St. Leo University. My goodness. Research consultant, Blue Wall Institute, author of operation sos practical recommendations to help stop officer suicide coming out july 2021 stephen lampley author speaker retired cop undercover svu detective and author of 12 and murdered you can find him at stephen david lampley.com but first to crimeOnline.com investigative reporter Levi Page.

You can also find him at Crime and Scandal True Crime Podcast. Levi Page, just one question to you. One question. And I know it's against everything you believe in to answer with a yes or no. I heard just said that this woman, Leanne Bauman, refers to herself as First Lady of the Ozarks. Is she married to the governor, a mayor, a city manager, anything like that? No. I could tell you were just about to start talking again so now let me ask you a full on question how does she position herself as first lady of the ozarks well she's a very successful real estate agent she would accompany the mayor to various social events knew the mayor personally

well wait a minute wait a minute is married? A socialite of sorts. Whoa. Levi. He's divorced. She's divorced. She's divorced. Okay, so interesting. All right, the first lady of the Ozarks.

Let's see, guys. I'm talking about a woman named Leanne Ballman. Take a look at CrimeOnline.com. You can see her for yourself. Very successful realtor. How does a woman like this get mixed up in murder for hire? Murder for hire. Well, let's delve into her mind a little bit more. Take a listen to more of the First Lady of the Ozarks talking about, guess what, herself.

The reason I've been having all this success is because of the time my life has been worth to Jesus Christ. Three weeks ago, four weeks ago, when Aaron Lee, I'll tell you, my life was on an altar, and life was empty, and now it is so full. We are so lucky and blessed. I sold $1.7 million the next week. And then won two world champion race finals. As your local female race car. And it's all because of Jesus. And just, you know, being a good neighbor and friend.

Trying to be better than you were the day before. I'm not kidding you. Because it is cold and wet out there. But you know what? You're going to feel good in my jacuzzi outside. So, anybody else wants to? Okay, that was kind of hard to hear. But that is the first lady of the Ozarks herself, according to her, Leanne Bauman.

And she's describing her business. I think that's what she's saying. Levi Page, help me out here. From what I can tell, she just said, she's saying that her racing sponsors helped her win two world championship race titles. And she wants to thank God for that. She says she's lucky and blessed that she has been feeling empty. And she prayed to Christ. And then suddenly she had a $1.7 million deal the next week. And if it's cold

and wet, you should come there because it's nice and warm in her jacuzzi hot tub. How did Christ get in that mix? You know, as far as I recall, let me go to you, Dale Carson, veteran criminal defense attorney, former FBI, former cop and author. As far as I know, and I'm certainly no biblical scholar, okay, certainly not, but the only thing I recall Christ owning was a pair of sandals, and I've got a very strong suspicion those were given to him. No home, no jacuzzi hot tub, no $1.7 million deal. So how does Christ, why is it defendants always drag Christ into the mix? Well, to make you trust them, obviously. But this is a bullet chick, and I don't know whether you're familiar with that term,

but they are hot, twisted, and deadly. And that's certainly what this woman is. Wait, wait, wait. She are hot, twisted, and deadly. And that's certainly what this woman is. She's hot, twisted, and deadly. You know, hot, twisted, and deadly. You know what? If you think that is hot, you know what? Power to you. Guys, we're talking about Leigh Ann Bauman.

And I got to tell you, she's beautiful. But if Dale Carson is correct, she's also twisted and deadly. Guys, take a listen to this. Leanne Bauman was married and going by photos and Facebook captions has at least two daughters, but she and her husband divorced in 2018. According to court documents, Bauman became concerned that her husband and his mother were going to take her to court to fight for custody of the children after she went to pick up her daughters and they refused to go with her. And there is the fly in the ointment.

Okay? There is the gnat in the punch bowl. It all starts with a custody problem. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Those of you just joining us, we're talking about Leanne Baumann from the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. Well, this is not just about her real estate practice. Take a listen to our friends at CrimeOnline.com.

Bauman blamed her ex-mother-in-law for the strain in her relationship with her daughter and believed her mother-in-law and ex-husband were possibly going to court to get full custody of their two children. Bellman allegedly sent her children a text that their grandmother would be dead. The children told their father. When he confronted the ex-wife about the meeting, she reportedly said she just meant the grandmother was old and was going to die. Hmm. Okay. Let's go back to our panel with me. Dale Carson, criminal defense attorney.

Dr. Jory Croson, police psychologist and author, Stephen Lampley, former cop undercover SVU detective and author, and Levi Page. Let me go first to our psychologist because I think I need to shrink right now. Since when do you text your children and tell them grandma's going to die? That just really shows the personality of her and her delusional thinking. Just like what Dale was saying, she's very narcissistic and self-centered. And when you come from her high level of so-called wealth and then comes down to this $1,500 to pay for somebody to kill a person, you can't even get a decent car paint job for $1,500.

That really stuck out in my mind, this small amount. I mean, you know, it was doomed from failure from the very beginning there. And it just goes back to her personality that, you know, self-centered, very important to herself and thinking that she could, you know, get somebody to do this for this price amount of money. You know, Dr. Jory Crawson, let me ask you a deeper question. Why do people puff themselves up? That's actually a technical legal term, Dale Carson. It is.

You're a veteran trial lawyer because there's a big difference in puffing yourself up. Puffing up your reputation or your sales ability is not against the law, is not a civil lawsuit. But if it goes beyond that and you're outright telling a lie to get pecuniary gain or monetary advantage, then it becomes actionable. What is, first to you, Dale Carson, puffing up? I know it doesn't sound like a legal term, but it is. No, no, it is. It's odd. It's when we say that we're a lot more than we actually are, we're all that and a bag of chips, when there is no bag of chips.

And people use that in order to lure people into a trap of believing them. Trust is what they're really selling, but it's fraudulent, as you know. Yeah. You know what I've always noticed? I don't know if you've noticed this before, Stephen Lampley, if you've ever been in the business of looking for a house or an apartment. Have you ever, I always noticed the realtors, I come trudging in from the courtroom at the courthouse trying a case, and the realtor would look so glamorous and like Chanel and dripping with jewelry and driving a Mercedes or a BMW. And I'd like pull up in my old beat up Honda. They project a lifestyle and a success record. And I guess that Dale Carson is right.

That makes you believe in them, right, Stephen Lampley? Well, Nancy, it does. It gives you a sense of trust in them that they know what they're doing. They are successful. They've been around the block more than once. It does. It gives that aura that I'm the expert. I can help you with anything you need. And back to you, Dr. Jory Croson, police psychologist and author. It's a deeper

question in my mind, whether it's from faking your Facebook account. I was reading an article just the other day, Dr. Croson, where people actually fake, for instance, taking flights on private jets and being on exotic vacations. And they edit all these photos to give themselves a much more glamorous lifestyle than they really have. Why do people do that? Well, it's to build themselves up. But the real danger comes when it's the crash, when you start falling down. And something as simple as in her case where the daughters kind of either rejected her or there was some kind of conflict with the mother-in-law. And you see immediately her response is, I'll get somebody to kill her.

Well, along that vein, you're absolutely correct. Guys, take a listen to this. Bauman asked a witness, quote, do you know anybody? The witness reportedly thought Bauman wanted to know where to get marijuana. Bauman allegedly replied, no, I want a hitman. Bauman reportedly told the witness she knew it was wrong and would go to church afterwards and ask for forgiveness. The witness said she thought about calling Bauman's mother-in-law to warn her and called her attorney instead. She said she was

worried the intended victim would call police. Reportedly, the witness believed Bauman was politically connected to the cops and she would get the blame. That is so funny to you, Dale Carson. I got to tell you a funny story about, do you know anybody? And the person thought she wanted to get hooked up with some marijuana. I have a connecting closet to my son's closet that, and that connects to his room and his tech cave where he has all of his computers and all his tech stuff set up. And I was in there hanging up his clothes and I heard him say, well, can you hook me up? I'm like, oh dear Lord in heaven. He's only 12 and he's buying pot. How has this happened to me? He was trying to get hooked. I kept listening, you know, of course, to get all the evidence. He was trying to get somebody to

send him the homework questions because he couldn't find them. So it's so funny to me that the witness, now this is reportedly, all of this has got to be proved in court, of course, a witness says that this woman, Miss It, the It Girl of Lake of the Ozarks, says, do you know anybody? And the witness immediately thought she wanted to get hooked up for a big fat doobie, a blunt. But no, she wanted something much more serious, a hit man. Dale Carson, what do you do with a witness like that? Cry? No, we don't cry about that. You've got to look at the history of that potential undercover informant. And what is really critical in winning these cases is to determine what was the relationship pre the recording.

Was she working for law enforcement? And if she was, then this becomes an entrapment case where the woman was tricked into doing all of this. But that's the only potential solution. Do you actually believe what you're saying? Or are you just putting? No, I do. Okay, you do. Okay, all right.

You may need to have a private session with Dr. Jory Cross after this, but that's between you guys. So the witness says, when she says, do you know anybody, he thought this gorgeous realtor wanted to get hooked up with some pot. And the witness says, no, no, no, no. I need a hit, man. Okay, listen to this. The night Bauman allegedly met with the witness to discuss the hit, the witness recorded the conversation. Bauman was told the hit would cost about $1,500. Bauman responded, okay, that's a reasonable price and would go to the bank for the money the next day. Bauman specified she did

not want her mother-in-law to be killed in Lake of the Ozarks because of the text she had sent to her children. Instead, Bauman told the witness she wanted her mother-in-law to be killed at her house in Herman, and her death should look like an accident. And take a listen to our friend Corey Stark at KMOV St. Louis. Family drama escalates to a murder-for-hire plot in Missouri. Tonight, a Lake of the Ozarks real estate agent is in custody. Leanne Bowman is sitting in the Camden County Jail right now. Prosecutors say she hatched a plan to kill her

mother-in-law. She paid people in St. Louis $1,500. They were expected to make the woman's death look like an accident. A witness recorded a conversation with Bowman where she confirmed the plot multiple times and explained she wanted her mother-in-law killed in Herman. Prosecutors also say she texted her daughter saying, quote, your grandmother will die. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, how does this very well-respected, glamorous, First Lady of the Ozarks realtor, Leanne Bauman, dig herself out of this?

You know, to Levi Page, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, tell me what happened. Jackie's telling me the informant is a woman. Dale Carson, defense attorney, is claiming the woman is the informant is a paid informant. What do we know about the witness? And is it true that the first lady of the Ozarks, Leanne Bauman, this very successful realtor, was given several chances to change her mind and back out of the hit on her own mother-in-law. But she insisted that it go forward. What do we know?

Well, what we know about this witness, it is a woman. And it was someone that she at first was venting about her mother-in-law with. And then as time went on, she said, do you know anyone? And the informant thought, I thought she was talking about hooking her up with someone that deals drugs. But instead, she actually wanted to hire a hitman, pay a hitman $1,500. The woman said, yeah, I know some people. It'll cost about $1,500. And Bauman responded and said, that sounds like a reasonable price and agreed to it. She was even asked multiple times, are you serious about this?

And she said, yes. She even said that she as a Christian knew that it was wrong, but that she would go to church and ask forgiveness for this after it happened. After she blows her mother-in-law's head up like a pumpkin, she's going to go ask for forgiveness? You know, Dale Carson, criminal defense attorney joining me out of Jacksonville, isn't it true that at every, every criminal trial, a standard jury instruction is that a defendant may immediately regret the deed, but that does not negate the intent at the time. Well, that's exactly right. But of course, we don't want the jury to know that, right? We want the jury to believe, well, we want the jury to be successful in defending someone.

You want the jury to believe that the government is dangerous and does strange things and can't be believed, particularly a witness like this. I mean, how did that conversation start with the well, you just heard it, Dale Carson, no matter how you want to twist it around. It started when Leanne Bauman was whining about her mother-in-law, about how much she hated her. And the mother-in-law was trying to poison her relationship. She went to go pick the two girls up and they wouldn't get in the car with mommy. And mommy boiled over and hatched a murder plan, according to prosecutors. That's right, according to prosecutors.

And they want to win a case as well. So that's the difference between dispense and prosecution, right? They present it with their spin on it and They present it with their spin on it, and we present it with our spin on it. How do you spin a recording of the woman saying that she's a Christian, she's just going to go pray it away? What, do a couple of Hail Marys and be done with it?

Well, you've got to get that information suppressed from the jury. You can't let the jury hear that. Well, they're going to hear it. Well, maybe, unless there's an effort to suppress the evidence. And if that evidence is suppressed, the jury won't hear it. And it has to do with the credibility of the taping and the witness as well. If that witness is not credible and the government was somehow involved before they actually indicate on tape that they were involved, and that changes the mix altogether. And that's one of the efforts that we defense attorneys try to bring to the

attention of the juries. You know what I have found is Stephen Lampley, author, former cop, undercover SVU detective, I think the jury hates nothing more than a hypocrite, because I'm with them on that. Someone that says that they were feeling, quote, empty, even though they were an award-winning race driver and a glamour girl and the first lady of the Ozarks felt empty, prayed, and then got a $1.7 million deal and sends love from her hot tub jacuzzi, that's not going to go over very well with regular working class people like ourselves. Where, you know, growing up, seeing your parents work double shifts over time to help you get through school and then this, and you think you can plan it ahead of time, refuse to back

out when offered, and then say you're going to just ask forgiveness, that tape is going to come in, Stephen Lampley. Again, a jury hates a hypocrite. I agree with you. I believe, and of course the attorney knows better than I, but I believe that the recording will make it to court. And I think it should make it to court so so the jury gets a chance to see exactly what's going on with this woman uh worse that remains to be seen psychologically speaking if i could jump in that statement where she's going to go to church that sews up that closes the deal

and just really justifies her behavior just as long as I can go get my forgiveness. This is a done deal. You know, she's moving on. Is this Dr. Croson? Yes. Dr. Croson, it's like, next? What's next? I'm going to kill my mother-in-law. What's the truth behind it, Levi Page?

Was the mother-in-law really interfering with custody of the two girls? Or did the two girls just not want to go with mommy? Of course, that would break my heart if the twins didn't want to come somewhere with me. But I get it. But I don't think I'd order a hit on Miss Lynch. Nancy, we don't know about anything. All we know is that she is divorced.

She's been divorced since 2018. Well, that's not a felony, Levi Page, so I don't care. You can have as many divorces as you want. Doesn't matter. But Nancy, you know what's important about this is not only did she agree to do this hit, agreed to pay $1,500, she even gave this witness a business card,

her business card, and wrote her 74-year-old ex-mother-in-law's address on the back of it. Uh-oh, I can't wait to hear Dale Carson, defense lawyer out of Jacksonville, explain that away. Wait just a minute now. Anybody could write that on the back of the card. Has there been a handwriting analysis of that? And look, more importantly, wait a second now, motion in limine is going to prevent

the jury ever from hearing the post-up date. Don't throw around Latin words that nobody understands. All right. All right. The court's not going to allow something that's not relevant. Motion and limine means you file a motion and argue before the judge before the jury hears the evidence or opening statements even so the jury never hears the evidence. You don't want it to come out and then try to suppress it. You file a motion in limine ahead of time so the jury never hears that bell being rung. You can't unring a bell. All right.

That is so right. That is so right. So you want the, well, you just said, has there been a handwriting expert? Well, let's get a handwriting expert to back up the witness. And then how are you going to suppress it, Dale Carson? Are you just going to take your lump and keep going? Well, of course, then you would argue that there is no such thing as a proper handwriting analyst would be backed up, right? Well, you missed a beat. I can't believe this, Dale Carson. You could argue she wrote that on the business card because

she was going to refer a landscaper for her mother-in-law or a babysitter or a car repairman or a house painter. But what did she write on the card? Levi Page, why am I giving this guy any ideas? Levi Page, what did the card say? It was her business card, and on the back of it, she wrote her mother-in-law's address or ex-mother-in-law's address on it. Yeah, you know, there's no telling what Dale Carson is going to do with that by the end of the day. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Guys, here's another issue so the lake of the ozarks it girl liam ballman mom she says cheer mom mother of two realtor successful told the witness she would go to the bank on wednesday but a day later she was arrested by troopers after the witness ratted her out. Court documents say Bauman gasped and blamed everything on the witness, claiming the witness was a hustler who was trying to get money from her. Now, see, don't you hate that, Carson? Deal, Carson? No, no, I love that. No, I love that.

But no, she's locked the defense into, she's locked her lawyer into a defense strategy the defense strategy now has to be that the informant is a hustler trying to get money from her because that's what she blurted out to cops you can't get around it well clearly she is and and and she's a liar the informant not telling the truth okay all right here we go guys her linkedin account mentions acting modeling appearances on days of our lives and nike commercials and i will say this jackie uh did you see her book in photo she even looks good in her book in photo uh you know her her eyeliner is a little little a little smeary, but she looks good.

It's hard to look good in a bookend photo, but Leigh-Anne Bauman manages to pull it off. Well, she's not the first, and she certainly, sadly, will not be the last to order a hit, if, in fact, she did it. According to Dale Carson, she didn't. According to Dr. Jory Croson, she's a narcissist. Stephen Lampley says she's a hypocrite. Levi Page, what do you say? Do they have any more evidence than the CIA, the confidential informant?

Well, Nancy, to try to dispel the argument that this confidential informant was working with law enforcement to entrap her, when this informant was starting to feel guilty about this plot with Leanne Bauman, she was going to call law enforcement and was going to even call the mother-in-law, but she didn't want law enforcement to get involved because Leanne Bauman had connections with the local law enforcement there. So instead, she called her lawyer and her lawyer handled this for her. And the agency that is handling this is the Missouri Highway Patrol, and they're handling it to avoid a conflict of interest because Leanne Bauman is connected with law enforcement. So the witness did have a leg to stand on. Again, she won't be the first nor the last. Take a listen to this.

Jones was having an affair with the intended victim's husband, who she worked with. She used the relative anonymity of the dark web to hire a company called Sicilian Hitmen International to kill his wife, all from her quiet suburban Des Plaines apartment. But a network news organization investigating the dark web stumbled onto the plot and reported it to Woodridge police. Without their bringing this evidence to law enforcement's attention, who knows how this case would have ended up. She admitted that she had access to Hitman website.

Investigators found evidence of Bitcoin payments and communication between Jones and the Hitman website on her laptop. There you go. Another woman joining us from Chicago. You were just hearing ABC7 News Chicago, John Garcia, describing Tina Jones having an affair with a co-worker and wanted a Hitman. Goes on the dark web to Sicilian Hitman International, which is clearly fake,

and tries to pay hitman through Bitcoin. And of course, the would-be hit of all hits, Dahlia DiPolito. Listen to this, ABC 2020. Terry Parker, investigative reporter for WPBF 25 News, covered the story. So this guy, Muhammad, walks into the Boynton Beach police station and he says, I know a woman who's trying to hire a hitman to kill her husband. She has to find someone who can kill her husband for her. The man, Muhammad Shahadi, was recorded as he talked to detectives about his one-time lover, Dahlia DiPolito. He tells police he's speaking out to save the man's life.

Are you scared for the guy? Yes. She's really, I mean, dead serious on getting this done. It's quite a story, if true, because while he can describe Dahlia. She's maybe 5'6", 5'7", dark black hair. She's a good looking girl, really good looking girl actually. He can't even tell cops her last name or her address. At the time, we didn't know what to believe. We were kind of, you know, wasn't sure what we had. They had the reservations.

They had to say, let's see some proof. To get proof, the cops make Muhammad a confidential informant. He arranges to meet Dahlia at this gas station. Cops are staked out as their mystery woman arrives. And that's exactly what Dale Carson, criminal defense attorney out of Jacksonville, saying that the CI in this case, not Dahlia DiPolito, not Tina Jones,

but Leanne Bauman's case, is really entrapping Bauman and is out to make money. So you really think Dale Carson, the informant, will do all this for $1,500? I mean, that is amazing, you've got to admit. I mean, $15,000 I can see, but $15,000, no. I can't see that. But of course, the individual here is making an effort to connect this woman to a crime. And who's more believable, some woman who knows how to get a hold of marijuana sales or some woman who's the first lady of the Ozarks. Well, nobody said the CIA confidential informant could find the pot. She just assumed that's what Bauman wanted. And hey, that leads me to another question. If I asked Jackie here in the studio, hey, can you hook me up? I doubt pretty seriously Jackie would think I wanted to

smoke a doobie. You know, so why did this woman think Balmain just wanted to get her mitts on some good stuff, huh? Why is that? And it ain't over yet. Take a listen to Emmy. Emmy had been in a messy split with her husband. And at one point last year, a ranch hand working for her told police Emmy asked him to, quote, take care of her husband's girlfriend. He told authorities Emmy asked him to, quote, take care of her husband's girlfriend. He told authorities Emmy asked him about, quote, taking her out.

He recorded a call in which Emmy asked, quote, if he knew anyone who could help get rid of her, nobody will miss her. The ranch hand told police investigators he believed Emmy was serious. And investigators also say when they searched Emmy's computer, they found she had searched for, quote, how to get rid of the other woman for good. You know, what's interesting, too, are so many things. Dr. Jory Croson, book about to come out about stopping officer suicide. Dr. Croson, you hear a lot about wanting to kill the husband, kill the ex-husband, but I've rarely seen a hit ordered on rid of her, you know, not to deal with it.

Let's go sit down. Let's talk. Let's do things that are, you know, logical and healthy. But she immediately moves to this. I'm just going to have her killed and I'll make it look like an accident. And then I'll go to church and ask for forgiveness and I can go sell more real estate property. Just that simple. Another issue to Levi Page. I understand that she wanted to make the hit look, quote, accidental. What was the accident supposed to be? We don't know that yet, but when she was talking to this informant, she said that she did not want the murder to be carried out at the mother-in-law,

the ex-mother-in-law's Lake of Ozark home. She wanted it to be carried out in another home and that she wanted it to look accidental. And the informant said, we can make it look however you want it to be. They can carry it out in whatever mode you want it to be carried out in. You know, in the Dolly DiPolito case, the cops actually made the scene look as if there had been a murder and led the defendant, Dolly DiPolito, down the garden path, telling her her husband had actually been killed. You know, this woman also refers to herself, Leanne Bauman, as a cheer mom, and now I know why. I'm looking at a picture of her with her two little girls dressed up in a cheerleader outfit

at a ball field. They look pretty young to Dr. Jory Croson. What effect is all this going to have on the two little girls? Oh, it's going to be devastating to think that your mother tried to kill another family member. It's going to be very difficult to deal with. So, you know, isn't it true that at that age, Dr. Croson, the girls are getting to be 10, 11, 12, 13-ish. You're going to have mother-daughter conflicts because they're starting to say things like, no, mom. And mommies don't like that. But she, instead of dealing with it and accepting that as part of a young girl growing up, wanted to kill the mother-in-law. I mean, I can't even think of violence befalling my in-laws.

And think about how the children are going to have to, you know, they're going to go through this court case. This is going to be probably, you know, a couple of years. And as the children grow, they're going to continue to be exposed to this and they're going to have to deal with it. You know, they're going to need to really be able to sit down and talk therapeutically with a professional. You know, another issue, Dale Carson, criminal defense attorney, quote, do you know anybody? And she wanted a, quote, hit man, somebody to get rid of her.

All joking aside, that's damning. That is damning for Leanne Bauman. Right. If it comes in, it's going to serve to acquire a conviction for the prosecuting side. And so you don't want it to come in. And you'll do what's necessary to prevent it, right? The good news in this scenario is the mother-in-law lived. And now Leanne Bauman is getting exactly what she hated to start with.

Her girls are spending even more time with the mother-in-law. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.