Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - He's charged in multiple violent crimes including rape and the deaths of three women. So how did Stewart Weldon escape police for so long?

Episode Date: August 30, 2018

The bodies of three women were found in the home Stewart Weldon shares with his mother. Now we're finding out, he's no stranger to violent crime including assault, kidnapping and rape yet still managed to walk away from police. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Did police accidentally, not realizing what they were doing, let Springfield's serial killer slip through their fingers. When they let him out of jail with an ankle bracelet, you know, a monitor, which he immediately cut off after it took nine cops armed with batons and stun guns to take him down. The Springfield serial killer. How many women has he attacked? How many women has he attacked?

How many women has he killed? We want justice. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Take a listen to this. It started out with two cop cars. And then next thing you know, the whole street was filled with detectives.

They moved in a while back, but they're sort of quiet, secluded. It's freaky. I feel like I'm watching TV, and it's not real in my neighborhood. It's very unnerving. I guess it was unnerving, especially when you find out that there were at least three dead bodies of women inside the home he shared with his mother the bodies of america lyden ernestine ryans and kayla escalante all dead the ball of yarn is unraveling now but will we ever know how many women stewart weldon actually murdered out to to Chuck Roberts, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. I want to try and start at the beginning, but I've got to fast forward just a tiny bit. How did this guy,

they've got him in jail for, I think, six months, and then they let him go? What the hay? Exactly. I mean, and they let him go after May, basically. He leads police on a high-speed chase, May 27th. Broken taillight was the cause. They finally apprehend him after he crashes into a police cruiser and find a 25-year-old woman in the car with severe injuries. She had been held, she said, captive for a month, tortured, and raped. The police report indicates she suffered a possible fractured jaw, stab wounds in her abdomen, marks from being hit with a blunt object. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. Chuck Roberts, Chuck Roberts, hold on. You got me drinking out of a fire hydrant.

It's too much at once. It's not a bad thing, but let me just hold it. Grotesque injuries is the way they were described when they catch this guy and as chuck roberts from crimeonline.com has just told you it all started with a broken taillight so they start following him and typically you know when i see a cop pull up behind me with a blue light on i can't stop fast enough and i get out and and i apologize for whatever i've done wrong no i don't get out because i don't want to get shot i can tell you that right now I keep in the seat I hold up license registration I keep my hands in the air until the twins not to say a word okay and then I beg forgiveness and fix whatever it is this guy hits the gas when he sees the cops

pull up behind him on the street now that's a dead giveaway. Something is wrong, and it's called flight. To high-profile Connecticut lawyer Mickey Sherman, I love arguing flight to a jury. Now, I know in many jurisdictions, flight is no longer evidence of guilt. It won't be part of a jury charge, but you can still argue the hay out of it in front of a jury. I mean, Mick, come on. When cops pull up behind you, do you hit the gas at 90 mph? No, I go to 85 maybe. Thank you, Mickey Sherman. Thank you. And what you're talking about is flight means consciousness of guilt is one element of showing that. You may remember that kid I had from Durant, Connecticut, who didn't show up in court for nine years.

And when he was found guilty of the rapes, they did not find him guilty of the flight of a fugitive from justice. People kind of give people a free pass at times, saying, well, I don't know what I would have done in that circumstance. But more importantly, they're focusing on the crime in general. Yeah, you're right about that. The main crime, and there was evidence of the main crime, not the tailpipe, in the car, as Chuck Roberts has just told us. Well, that chase ended with Weldon, Stuart Weldon, crashing into a police cruiser. And then they find what in the front seat? State's exhibit number one number one states witness in chief a woman in the passenger seat crying and screaming that the cops had saved her life

they describe her as having quote grotesque injuries stab wounds to her abdomen a possible fractured jaw the 25 year old woman told cops on the spot Weldon had been keeping her as a slave, forcibly raping her over and over and over. She had been there at least a month. Now, I don't know why they didn't go straight to the property right then, but when they did go to his property, they find not only a child living there, but what else, Chuck Roberts? His mother, who called police three days after his arrest to report a foul odor in the house. And they arrived, started looking around. They found two bodies, remains really badly decomposed in the basement, and a third set of remains in an outdoor shed.

He is obviously charged with three counts of that little girl, the young child, living in the house at 1333 Page Boulevard in Springfield. So I'm guessing, I'm guessing, to Dr. Daniel Bober, let me introduce my guests. Dr. Daniel Bober, forensic psychiatrist, Joseph Scott Morgan, forensic professor, Jacksonville State University, author, Blood Beneath My Feet, Renowned attorney, Mickey Sherman. Peter Vronsky, author of Sons of Cain, A History of Serial Killers from Stone Age to Present. And CrimeOnline.com reporter, Chuck Roberts. I'm guessing to you, Dr. Daniel Bober, that the living victim found in the car screaming with a fractured jaw and the stab wounds. He probably

got her and her daughter and was using the daughter as a threat to keep her there and keep her subdued would be my guess. It sounds like it is. You know, it's amazing when you hear there's so much evidence in this case. It's amazing that this guy wasn't on a no bond hold and they ever let him out to begin with. It's just the evidence is so overwhelming. You know, this particular woman had been reported missing in December. But then Lydon Escalante, a mother of one, vanished in December. Don't know how long the third woman had been missing. We have the fourth woman in the car that lived to tell the tale. The story gets worse and worse.

He had been storing the women's dead bodies in the home he shared with his mother. Peter Vronsky, author of Sons of Cain, weigh in. Well, you know, it's interesting that the fourth woman, the information seems to be that she is actually, that baby girl is his own daughter, and that he had quite a long relationship with this woman going back to New Jersey, and that she had fled from him earlier. And so this is a much more complex story than we're beginning to understand. And as I again understand, there might be also a son. So this may be some kind of madness that he's escalating on,

because if she had been living with him in, you know, a previous abusive relationship, this is getting radically now abusive as we're hearing this. Well, I tell you, what's very unusual is that she had no idea she had been with a serial killer listen we were able to really piece together a lengthy and complicated investigation to 52 counts uh for this indictment for which he was arraigned today and his conduct spans back a year uh 11 different victims there's kidnapping and rape charges including the three murder charges so. So it's sprawling in a way, and we're very pleased with this first step being over. As you can imagine, we've had a lot of contact with living victims and families of living and deceased victims. They're pleased with where

this has gone so far, but there's a long way to go, and we realize that. And this is the first step in the prosecution, and what will be a very vigorous prosecution. His conduct spans back a year. Eleven different victims. His conduct spans back a year, 11 different victims. There's kidnapping and rape charges, including the three murder charges. So it's sprawling in a way, and we're very pleased with this first step being over. You are hearing the Hampton District Attorney Anthony Ghilouni in the last 24 hours describing the case against serial killer Stuart Welding. He describes it as sprawling, and I would not be surprised at all if there are other dead bodies. I mean, this is not his first time at the rodeo.

Joining me, Chuck Roberts, Crime Stories investigative reporter, Peter Vronsky, Mickey Sherman, Joe Scott Morgan, and Dr. Daniel Bober. To Peter Vronsky, author of Sons of Cain, History of Serial Killers, how do you compare this guy to other serial killers that you have studied and written about and researched? Well, certainly, you know, the case even compares to a recent serial homicide case in Springfield, that of Alfred Gaynor. He killed nine victims. And there are certain similarities in the victims, in that these are vulnerable women who many of them are drug-addicted, crack-addicted. So there's very little kind of familial support. Often these kinds of cases are not reported,

although it's amazing in this particular case that two of the women were reported missing by their families. It also reminds me of the Cleveland Strangler. Eleven victims in Cleveland, Anthony Sowell, where they found bodies kind of sprinkled throughout his house and neighbors complaining about the smell coming from from his house in Cleveland. So there is this kind of pattern of inner city murders that are occurring of, again, victims that often slip through the cracks and are not reported missing just vanish. We are talking about a serial killer just apprehended the case, just starting. Stuart Weldon, we know that there are three dead bodies in the home he shared with his mother, and that's just the beginning. You know, another question to Joseph Scott Morgan, why is it always women?

Now, you have the once-in-a- while guy like John Wayne Gacy, the DC serial snipers who kind of mixed it up between men and women, but it's typically dead women, strangled, brutalized, you know, with Ted Bundy. I believe Peter Vronsky is the one that clarified for me that Bundy would actually, after killing his victims, bathe them, redress them, put on makeup on them, and do their hair. I mean, and here you got this guy storing the dead bodies, Joseph Scott Morgan. Yeah, and he kept them within arm's reach, too, which is, you know, another little disturbing tidbit there in his space. And I think that it goes to the fact that—

Did you just refer to the three dead bodies as a disturbing tidbit? Yeah, that is a disturbing tidbit. Okay, hold on just a moment. A disturbing tidbit, all right, is three dead bodies, women, likely mothers, daughters, sisters. I think they qualify as more than a tidbit, Joe Scott. Yeah, yeah, you're right, Nancy. To someone, they certainly do. They represent families, you know, mothers, wives, daughters. You're absolutely right. But again, if we're following the forensic evidence here, it is significant that he is keeping them within arm's reach so that he can, I don't know, have control over the comings and

goings. He's got a... I bet he was doing a lot more with them than that. Yeah, that's quite possible. You can look at people like BTK who went back and disinterred bodies and took pictures in their graves where he had buried the bodies. Yeah, yeah, I think so wait wait wait what back it up joe scott morgan he did i didn't know that about btk what did you say we're talking about buying torture kill dennis raider the dog catcher and no offense to all of you people that have been forced into catching dogs and euthanizing them for a living uh but that's a tip off to me right there that you catch dogs and you put them away so they can be euthanized all right so that's what btk did for a living for years and was married with a family seemingly normal dennis raider what did you say

he did joe scott a disinterment of remains where he would dispose the bodies. Yeah. And then there's actually pretty disturbing photographs. Disinterment. Have I not had the little discussion with you about talk in regular people talk? Okay. Disinterment of the remains. Yeah, we'll talk about it in some other time.

What is that? He dug them up. How's that, Nancy? He dug them up, dug up the remains. Yeah. After he buried them. And we go back and revisit. Yeah.

And I don't know. You know, I'm not a psychologist, but this revisitation of these areas where these horrible things have taken place is, you know, for every day, you know, guy walking down the street, it's kind of disturbing imagery when you think about it. I want to go now to Chuck Roberts about the scene. The scene when cops arrive there and they find three dead bodies, Chuck Roberts. Well, this happened three days after his arrest. It's striking to me that the mother of 72-year-old woman Connie Weldon had no idea that anything was amiss, and she waited three days after his arrest to report a foul order at the

address. But yes, the forensics began. It's a very detailed examination. They find stains from the clothing of one of the sexual assault victims. They tested for DNA, the stain, the result of the defendant cleaning himself after the alleged rape. They also found what is described as a murder weapon, two sticks connected with wire. I'm not sure, but strangulation is in the indictment. The cause of death has not been determined from the autopsy, but sticks connected with wire and strangulation obviously would go together. Listen.

All three remains provided to the office have been identified. That is the three victims who have been recovered. They are all identified. They are, in fact, all female. The Springfield Police Department initially and members of my office up until this morning have been in touch with members of the victims families. They are needless to say distraught and heartbroken. We have not gotten word from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in terms of a cause

of death yet or a manner of death. But we are obviously as I said last week investigating these deaths as suspicious at the very least. What we know right now is that two of the three women had been the subject of missing person reports in the city of Springfield. The preliminary information that I have is that those missing person reports were met with significant investigation by the Springfield Police Department. And, of course, they were not found as a result of that. But as far as I know at this point, two of the three were reported missing to the Springfield Police Department. You were hearing there the district attorney announcing that they have identified those remains.

I just can't imagine having someone in your family missing. You're frantically trying to find them. Then you find out they've been in this guy's home he shares with his mother with a little girl living there. I wonder if she saw the dead bodies. Her mom being beaten and stabbed in order to keep her there as a sex slave. You hear your mom screaming in the next room. It's a nightmare of horrific proportions. I want to follow up on something that Chuck Roberts with CrimeOnline.com just told me.

After sex assaulting these women, he would then clean himself up and just leave them as they are and use sticks connected with wire as a murder weapon. Mickey Sherman, that, you know, we've seen a lot of homicides, a lot. Sticks connected with wire is a homemade strangulation device, a ligature. What do you make of it, Mickey?

I mean, take off your defense hat just a moment and let me analyze this because I've never seen that used or fashioned wire connecting two sticks. I'm sorry. I was just on the phone making my reservations to go to Mars. To go to where? To go to Mars. I know. You know what? Okay. See, that is why people, they get, they don't understand why prosecutors and defense attorneys not that i ever fraternized with them in court but you see them smile or laugh sometimes it's so overwhelming it's just too much to take in i mean mickey have you ever heard of that someone fashioning

uh a garrette or a ligature with two sticks and a wire? Would he go out in the backyard and make it? Anything is possible. The only question I really have is one of the folks on the show here said that this goes back at least a year. I've got to believe that this goes back like 10 years. These things don't get committed in isolation. And it's basically like a bad script for Psycho 2. We were almost like in shock because

we were really concerned about connie because no that's his mom yeah that's what really we're concerned about because we all love her well you know i appreciate them being concerned about stewart weldon's mother that was living there with all the dead bodies and the little girl and the is crying and the mom screaming every night in the bedroom. But I'm a little more concerned about the little girl, the kidnapped victim, and the families of the three dead women. And I agree 200% with Mickey Sherman, high-profile Connecticut lawyer, that says he doesn't think this just started in the last year.

And speaking of that homemade ligature that was found in the murder room, two sticks connected by wire, to Peter Vronsky, author of Sons of Cain, History of Serial Killers. Weigh in on the ligature, Peter Vronsky. That's a common weapon for a particular type of serial killer, the anger excitation category of serial killer. These are super sadistic serial killers. And so what that type of weapon allows him to do is to very slowly strangle his victim near to the point of death. But then short of the victim dying, he then releases the garate and brings the victim back to life.

And so this is kind of the extreme form of control and sadistic pleasure that he has in bringing his victims so close to death and then releasing them. It gives them this incredible sense of power over life and death. And of course, it's a horrific form of torture for the victim themselves. Neighbors, when they realized what Stuart Weldon was charged with, they flinched when they recognized his mugshot. And they described him as a reclusive yet menacing figure. They would see him walk from his perfectly neat, perfectly normal home he shared with his mother, strolling to a nearby Dunkin' Donuts and a convenience store. This is the guy we know murdered three women.

And back to Mickey Sherman, high-profile Connecticut lawyer specializing in criminal defense. I don't, this is, these are not, I'm telling you, these are not his first three murder victims. I think you're going to go back five, 10 years. These, these kinds of nutcases just don't pop up because the guy got served at McDonald's on time. These are deep psychological and it's like like i said i'm going to mars this is a problem that's never going to be solved it's like a gun issue hold on when you say this is not a problem that's going to be solved well maybe not the big issue um floating out there

about violence on women or violence and brutality in general. But we can solve the Stuart Weldon problem very easily. I'm guessing that this jurisdiction does not have a death penalty. That's Springfield, Massachusetts. That's your neck of the woods. Let me guess. No death penalty, right? I don't believe so.

And so then why go where they're going? The worst it's ever going to get is life without parole. So basically you can just murder as many women as you want and stack them up in piles in your bedroom to decompose, and you're not going to get the death penalty, right? As long as you're in Massachusetts. Okay. So that's what we know about that.

I'm wondering about the MO and what you think about it. To Dr. Daniel Bober, forensic psychiatrist, we keep saying we need a shrink. Well, we've got one. Dr. Bober, there's no way these are his first three victims, that he suddenly started murdering women at 40 years old. Yes, Nancy, you know, touching upon what Peter had said, I mean, the fact that he uses the garate, you know, these are rituals that a lot of these serial killers have,

and the act itself has meaning. So if you look back into their childhood, very often a lot of them were, for example, abandoned by their mothers. They feel incompetent or impotent with women. So a lot of it comes down to what their background is and how they were raised and some of their experiences that shape a lot of these rituals. Dr. Daniel Bober, I've been waiting for a long time for you to blame it on somebody's mom, and you did it.

It's just been a matter of time. It's always the parent's fault. It's the mother's fault. He was not abandoned by his mother. He was still living with her, a big leech, a tick, a mooch, a parasite living with his mother. She did not abandon him, Dr. Daniel Bober. I was making a more general statement. I was just trying to use an example of how experiences shape behavior, Nancy, but I appreciate your comments. Very, very well put. I appreciate your comments. Dr. Bober, why is it that shrinks, not you, of course, always try to blame someone's

upbringing? You know, there are millions of people that have horrid upbringings, horrible, horrible. And they actually somehow managed to pull out of it and make a living and go on in life without stacking up dead bodies in their bedroom bober well you know it's just one factor it's not it's not the whole story but it's sometimes it plays could you please tell me why i care the i care to the extent that if the if someone not him but if someone is insane i don't want them in general population because that would be cruel and tortuous. Because they would be beaten, assaulted, mistreated horrifically. And I don't want that. That's not what jail is supposed to be.

But that's not really working with me, Dr. Bober. This guy is not insane. He had the wherewithal to track his victims, to catch them, subdue them, assault them, murder them, and store them. And then when he saw police, run. Run. Okay, so he knew very well what he was doing was wrong. Yeah, I mean, certainly without knowing the case in more detail, it seems that there's evidence of obviously concealment. And as you said, that he tried to flee. So, I mean, there's definitely consciousness of guilt there that he knew what he was doing was wrong.

It seems that way, at least prima facie. You know what's interesting? I want to throw this out to not only all of our guests. And I'll start with you, Mickey Sherman. One neighbor says that, quote, he's the kind of guy that just stares at you. He gives you this creepy look. What is it, Mickey? I mean, I've looked at defendants a million times and go, okay, they're just evil.

There's something you just know intuitively, instinctively. It's like when you see a snake or a black widow or a tarantula. You know instinctively. Nobody needs to tell you to get away. Same thing with this guy, according to the neighbor, and I've seen it in court. But, Mickey, you're up close with them every day during your practice. What is that thing you just know to stay away from this person? I think, I got to tell you, I disagree with you.

I think that most of the time they interview the neighbors or the relatives, and what they get is he was always a nice, quiet person. He would help the kids set up a lemonade stand. We never believed that he'd be guilty. Lemonade stand? What are you even saying? I'm telling you what the neighbor, you know what, Mickey, this is what the neighbor said. Nobody said anything about helping the children set up a lemonade stand.

Speaking of children, he was keeping one hostage. More often than not, though, when they interviewed the neighbors and relatives and friends, they painted a different picture than we know this person has. Well, you're living in an alternate universe than I am, Mickey Sherman. Joseph Scott Morgan, can you please throw me a bone here? Well, I don't know if I can throw you a bone, but I can tell you that this guy's living with decomposing corpses in his house. That in and of itself is disturbing enough, but he's now, he's got this poor woman who

he is keeping around, almost like a cat playing with a mouse, torturing her at his leisure. And this is the big mistake that he made, Nancy, in this whole thing, is that now we've got a living witness. These horrible injuries that they talk about, that's going to be real important in tying down a timeline relative to what he did to her, how long it took him to do this to her, and probably even more important than those decomposing bodies that he left behind. Weldon was arraigned in Springfield District Court on charges of kidnapping and assault to rape, and as a result, an additional $1 million cash bail was set by agreement with the defense counsel and as directed by my office and set by the court, that $1 million cash bail is separate and apart from the $1 million cash bail that was set on

Tuesday, May 29th on charges of kidnapping and serious bodily injury. It is important to note that those two cases, those two sets of charges are separate and factually distinct from one another and do involve a separate victim. At this point, Mr. Weldon is held on $1 million cash bail on one case, $1 million cash bail on another case, as well as having his bail revoked on preceding cases, which occurred on Tuesday, May 29th. I guess they are holding him on millions of dollars of bail after they let him slip through their fingers and get away. I still don't understand why authorities believe that an ankle monitor works. To Chuck Roberts, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. We're talking about a serial killer with three dead bodies in the home he shares with his mother,

one child, a little girl being held hostage. One woman found beaten, stabbed, fractured jaw, screaming her head off. And obviously his next victim, a homemade ligature made of sticks and wire. I mean, and they let him slip through their fingers, set him free with an ankle monitor. Chuck Roberts, why? They have let him go time and time again. He has kidnapping and sexual assault at 19 in New Jersey was his first crime. 20 cases against him, against Weldon prior to this arrest. Three cases currently open, but you're right. May 27th, he was driving around, and he never appeared to his probation officer. No one was monitoring him at all, as you pointed out, and yes, it is unusual

and needs to be dealt with in Massachusetts. But I mean, his criminal history dates back to 2005, assault with a dangerous weapon. 2010, breaking and entering at night with the intent to commit a felony, assault with a deadly weapon. Ten charges were leveled against him after a traffic stop last October. Reckless operation of a vehicle, four counts of assault with a dangerous weapon. How he got out of jail, I don't know. You know, this was a neighborhood that was described as quiet, safe, lovely. To Peter Vronsky, author of Sons of Cain, History of Serial Killers. Peter Vronsky, isn't that so often the case? And I'm thinking again about BTK, Dennis Rader, even Golden State Killer lived in a nice neighborhood on a quiet street.

It always seems that way. That's the conundrum, the mind. Often these offenders kind of represent that quiet neighborhood and that they're invisible. Stuart Weldon is not one of those types of serial killers. This is a guy who has a very visible, violent record of offenses, multiple charges of assault and battery on police officers resisting arrest. This is a raging,rollable um individual now a breakthrough dna matching stewart weldon's profile allegedly found on a weapon used against a sex assault victim the dna was detected on that weapon found in the home of the accused killer stewart weldon you know i've

dealt with uh many many serial and spree killers. To Joseph Scott Morgan, death investigator, author of Blood Beneath My Feet, weigh in on your comparisons between Stuart Weldon and other serial killers you've processed yourself or researched. Yeah, Nancy, with this fellow in particular, he's holding things close to home, whereas, you know, cases that I've worked over the course of my career in New Orleans and Atlanta, you would find bodies, you know, dispersed over a large area. And I find that the thing that's fascinating about this guy is that he has these bodies that are within his sphere, within his reach that he can maintain control over. The methodology, as was mentioned just a few moments ago by the utilization of the garrote, I've had two series of serial killers that I have worked personally where this mechanism

was used. And they do bring these individuals to the point of death, release it, and then re-engage them. You'll have multiple marks on the neck where they are actually engaging these individuals and then releasing the thing to open the airway back up again. This isn't like somebody coming out of the dark and driving a stake through someone's heart, where it's kind of a quick finish. This thing is long, torturous, and absolutely horrifying. Many other women, multiple women, have now come forward to police with claims of

kidnap, assault, sex assault after Weldon's arrest. He is accused of killing three women that we know of, Escalante, Lydon, and Ryans. He's also accused of committing an array of attacks and crimes against eight living victims that got away. Many objects, we have now learned, were taken out of Weldom's home and sent to the State Police Crime Lab. Those objects include, that I know of, brown tape found on the ankle of one of the dead women. So he was taping with duct tape, most likely, their legs. Stains from sheets found in a trash bag in the home.

Only three of the items have generated clear matches to Weldon's DNA that we know of. There was a stain on a tank top, and of course the wire-wrapped wooden sticks were both matches, with a third item that was redacted in the report. I can only imagine what was so awful that it was redacted, taken out of the report. Right now, traditional DNA testing is going on. I imagine more testing is set. But I want to go back to what Mickey Sherman said, that this is not his first time.

Mickey, the only way we can figure this out is to match up other dead bodies that we don't know exactly what happened to them, missing women. And another unusual thing, unlike many serial killers who typically murder within their own race, he didn't do that. He murdered outside of his race. So what I'm saying is he is statistically an aberration. He's not fitting in with our usual serial killer assumptions. So really, anyone, particularly women, could have been his victim wherever he's been. Mickey? It's very much like Ted Bundy. And what they should do is set a limit on the budget of the prosecution for this case. They should be able to put them on file for $12.

There's so many angles of proof beyond a reasonable doubt here that I think they're going overboard when they spend time on too much DNA research or other things. There's just so many other ways to prove this case. But you don't need all the traditional stuff. You've got this guy six ways from Sunday. There's only one way to get the death penalty on this guy is if he murdered in another jurisdiction with the DP. My concern right now is not so much as sentencing,

but finding all the victims. Will we ever find all the murder victims of spree and serial killer Stuart Wilden? Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.