Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - How is a 20 -year-old-woman, covered in blood with the word 'boy' carved in her arm, connected to a dead body sprawling out of a car? What happened to Ezra McCandless?

Episode Date: February 26, 2020

Ezra McCandless stumbles to the door of a home covered in blood, asking for help after reportedly being assaulted. But as the police investigation continues, the facts don't add up. What's the connection to the dead body of her boyfriend found in his car? What happened to Ezra McCandless?Joining Nancy Grace to discuss: Randall Kessler - Defense Attorney & Family Law Specialist Bruce Johnson - Owner of ISP Investigations, Master Sgt Region One Crime Scene Commander, Chicago Metro Area (Ret) Dr. Lyz DeBoer - Licensed Psychologist, NY, and PA, founder of Visionistas By Design  Dr. Kendall Crowns - Deputy Medical Examiner Travis County, Texas   Dave Mack: Investigative Reporter, CrimeOnlin Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. She's in horrible shape, blood on her face, covered in mud. Coming for help. You're coming for help. What happened? Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. County 911, what's the address of the emergency? This is Don Sipple calling, and I have a young lady that just came to my house and somebody attacked her and she needs

a doctor or her clothes are all torn and. And what is the address you're located at? What what is the address you are at? E 7614 430th Ave. OK, and is she injured? Yeah, she's injured. Her mouth is kind of got some blood around it and her toes are all torn. OK, and she's by herself?

She's by herself. She walked to my house here just recently. OK, and can you ask her what her name is? Just hold on a second. OK. What's your name, ma'am? What? You don't know? She's in kind of bad shape.

She just says she don't know. Oh, my stars. You are hearing a 911 call. What happened to this young woman? A 22-year-old so injured, she can't even say her own name. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Listen to more of that 911 call. I have an ambulance and some officers started that way. Did she say who did this to her? Did she what? Did she say who did this to her? No, she said she was attacked and assaulted and and she's from Eau Claire. Okay and uh, did she tell me your name?

Did she say where this happened? No, I didn't, I didn't discuss that. Okay. Do you want to stay on the phone with me, Don? Sure. Okay. So the ambulance is on the way? Yep. Ambulance and officers are on their way. I'll stay on the phone with you as long as I can. Okay. I'll hang on. Okay. Coming for help. You're coming for help. What happened? Joining me, an all-star panel, renowned defense attorney, Randy Kessler, joining us from the Atlanta jurisdiction. Bruce Johnson, an all-star panel, renowned defense attorney Randy Kessler, joining us from the Atlanta jurisdiction. Bruce Johnson, owner of ISP Investigations, crime scene commander, Chicago. Dr. Liz DeBoer, licensed psychologist, founder of Visionistas by Design at drlizlyz.com. Dr. Kendall Crowns, Deputy Medical Examiner, Travis County, Texas. That's Austin joining us. And right now to CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, Dave Mack. Let's start

at the beginning. What were we just hearing? Nancy, what you were hearing was a farmer named Don Sipple. He goes to his door, and there before him is a 19-year-old woman. She's muddy up to her knees. She's got blood around her mouth. She's disheveled. She's crying. And she tells him she needs help right now, that she's been attacked. And that's why Don picks up the phone calls 9-1-1. And he's, you know, you can tell he's trying to get information from her to relay back to 9-1-1

and can't even get the girl's name. You know, I'm listening to the 9-1-1 call and it's conjuring up so many images to Randy Kessler, a defense attorney joining me out of Atlanta. Randy, that's the kind of thing you want to play for a jury, if you ever make it to a jury. There's something about a 911 call that takes you to that moment, and also, you're getting the very first impressions of what could be a felony. You're exactly right. When you say the number is 911, it's almost like a theatrical drum roll. You know, whatever comes after this is a 911 call, it has a heavier sense of urgency and it's going to weigh on the jury and they're going

to listen more intently. And that's what you want as a lawyer. You want the jury to pay attention to what you're about to say or the evidence you're about to attender. And that's the best, you know, setup is, ladies and gentlemen, I want you to hear the 911 call. That's what started this whole process. It starts the whole thing. That's what started this whole project. It starts the whole thing. Dave Mack, tell me about where this happened. It happened about halfway between Menemee and Eau Claire. Most of the principals involved in this case lived in and around the Eau Claire, Wisconsin area.

You know, when you first see a woman cut with blood around the mouth covered in mud you know to bruce johnson owner isp investigations master sergeant uh retired chicago metro the first thing you want to do is help her what strikes you about the 911 call what strikes me but that is that uh obviously she was dazed and confused and for the gentleman that was you, opening the door and seeing this in front of him, I'm sure he was a little bit in shock. You know, at this point, it's so early, you're not going to question her motives or anything like that. But you're looking at a young woman, 19, 20 years old. She's disheveled, possibly, you know, clothes torn up. Looks like she's been a victim of a beating.

And he was very, you know, obviously he's an older person and wasn't in the frame of mind to start questioning her. And that's why he was struggling when the operator was asking him questions about her condition. Yeah, yeah. He's a good Samaritan. Let's see what more we can learn. So besides her bleeding from the mouth, do we know what other injuries she has?

Does she look like she's injured anywhere else? Yeah, she looks a little bit. There's some other bloody marks on her leg a little bit. Okay. And her pants are all torn. Okay. And how old, if you had to guess, how old do you think she is? How old are you, ma'am?

19. 19. 19, okay. And how old did you have to guess? How old do you think she is? How old are you ma'am? 19 19, okay. The ambulance is coming. You're gonna get help. So she came on foot, correct? Yes. Okay. Yep, she just walked to my door. Okay.

Can you ask her who did this to her? Repeat that please. Can you ask her who did this to her? Oh, just a second. Do you have any idea who did this to you? Just hold on. No, no, she can't. She's pretty distraught. Okay, so the piece of evidence I hear from her, she makes her way to his door, bam's on the door, he comes to the door, she's in horrible shape, blood around her face,

on her face, covered in mud, to Dr. Liz DeBoer. You can find her at drlizlyz.com. Dr. Liz, I noticed that she does know her age. She knows she is 19, but does not know her name or what happened to her. So what we hear from just hearing her in the background of the 911 call is a high intensity of psychological disorganization. So obviously she's been involved in some extreme trauma. It just looks like an attack.

It looks like she's the victim. And she is really seemingly disconnected from reality, a real disorganized schema of personality. Right now, we don't know what to think. A 19-year-old girl shows up. What would you do? A lot of people wouldn't even open the door. That's right. They'd be too afraid. But this elderly gentleman opens the door, a good Samaritan to a woman covered in blood and mud. Listen. We'll get her the help. She needs to be in ambulance there. That's just what she needs. We'll get her taken care of.

I suppose the ambulance will probably take 10-15 minutes to get here. Yeah, they're coming from Menominee unfortunately, so it'll be a few minutes. She's got glasses on. Maybe I told you she's 19. Okay, yep. And did you say the blood around her mouth looks like it was dry?

Yeah, it's a little on the dry side. Yeah. So it must have happened a while ago. I think she's walked right away. Maybe. Yeah. I don't know how she found it here, but that's okay. Yep.

So Don, do you have any family type... I'm here right now. I'm here right now. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. On March 22nd of 2018, the Dunn County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call from a local farmer. I have a lady that just came to my house and somebody attacked her. A woman had showed up at his house and was bloody. She needs a doctor. Her clothes are all torn.

A young woman claimed that she had been violently attacked. What's your name, ma'am? You don't know? Do you have any idea who did this to you? She couldn't remember. They saw the word boy carved into her left arm. She said she was scared. Something horrible happened to this woman.

This is a strange situation, one I've never seen, and I've been around a long time. You'd think, oh my gosh, this is horrible, this poor woman. And then law enforcement show up and learn that her name is Ezra McCandless. But as you listen, you know, you hear, Jason Mengel, call Jason Mengel. Anybody that we can call for you? Jason Mengel. Finally that we can call for you? Jason Mingle. Finally, we have a name. You were just hearing our friends at CBS 48 Hours.

We learn her name finally is Ezra McCandless, and she keeps saying, call Jason Mingle. Okay, we also hear that someone has carved letters into her body. Joining me, Dr. Kendall Crowns, Deputy Medical Examiner, Travis County, Texas. That's Austin. Dr. Crowns, I've seen cases that I personally investigated and handled where victims' bodies had had letters carved into them, usually one letter, maybe two. And it's very, very rare. Have you ever seen anything like it?

Yes, I have. I've seen people who've committed suicide actually etch whole sentences into their body, usually on their non-dominant arm. So it is actually interesting in this case that everything she has on her seems to be on her left side. Dr. Kendall-Crowns, it's really interesting that you notice that when you say everything is on her left side. What do you mean by everything? From the pictures, the carving of the word boy appears to be on her left forearm then her defensive injuries of her left palm of her hand also it on her left hand so and also the

defensive injury on her left hand looks very superficial as well with people with the defensive injuries i've seen where they were legitimately murdered the the wounds are actually very deep and cut through multiple layers of the skin because they're actually grabbing the knife, trying to stop being killed, and they'll do anything to stop it. So when they grab it, they grab hard and deep and they get cut very bad. Her wounds looks like someone trying not to hurt themselves, but trying to make it look like they were injured. You know, that's really fascinating that you picked up on that. Also, when you say on her left hand, I believe you said it was very superficial. Describe what you mean by that.

And if you could address the rest of her wounds. Sure. The wound on her left hand is on her palm, and it appears to be like only the skin surface, almost like it's scratching across the skin surface instead of a deep cutting. Again, with defensive wounds, it often goes through the upper layer of skin, the lower layer of skin and into the underlying fat. So she just looks like she has an upper layer wound only. Joining me, Dave Mack, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Now, this guy, the good Samaritan, Don Sipple, that we hear in the 911 call, he just hears bamming at 90 years old. He's sitting down to dinner when all of this begins for him. So 4.15 in the afternoon, sitting down to dinner, and here comes this knock on the door,

and he opens it up and sees somebody who looks like they have just been through the worst experience of life. And he has no reason to doubt anything she's saying. Take a listen to this. She was my girlfriend. I was in deep love with Ezra. She was an amazing person. I thought she was pretty interesting, and she was really artistic.

We were good friends. She liked having people in her life. As the investigation continues, Ezra is able to remember that she was attacked on a muddy road, very remote, by Alexander Woodworth, an ex-boyfriend. Law enforcement was treating this case as a woman who was violently attacked by a man, and they were unable to find him. You needed to find Alex. You thought he was an attacker. Wow. Wow. Ezra McCandless.

Now, what do we learn? Is she starting to come around, Dave Mack, and explain what happened to her? She's having trouble right at the very beginning, okay? At the very start when she's trying to relate what happened, she claims that she's kind of in a brain fog, that she can't really remember what all took place. Detectives are basing everything on what she is telling them. So they start, you know, investigating what she is saying and they immediately start looking for Alex because that's who she's claiming, you know, did this to her.

As the investigation starts to spread out, they get her to the hospital and they're just not able to find what's really going on. So Alex actually is missing. They can't find him anywhere. Take a listen to our friends at KARE 11. Ezra eventually broke up with Jason and Alex and around that time she claimed she was sexually assaulted by one of Jason's friends. Eau Claire detective Ryan Prock investigated Ezra's allegations. First meeting with her was March 1st, 2018. She came in for an interview. He kept telling me to be quiet, like she kept shushing me. She's sitting in up leaning against the wall with her knees up and she's telling me the story of what took place. Started getting really, really, really tipsy. That they consumed alcohol and that's when she said she blacked out.

And she was sexually assaulted at that point? That's what she believes, yes. So you believe she was a victim? Correct. You know, the stories become conflicting. Randy Kessler, you've tried so many cases. Very often witnesses are not what they appear to be often, witnesses are not what they appear to be. They definitely are not what they appear to be, but also memories fade and change. We all think,

how could you not remember something like that? And if you think about it, what you remember sometimes is the image of what you want to remember. You see pictures of yourself at a birthday party with family 20 years ago. You remember the picture of the party, but you don't remember the party. So memories change, witnesses change, and witnesses, that's why we have trial by jury. You know, we're trying to pick them apart, show why we think they're lying, impeach them based on other statements or prior inconsistent statements. All these tricks and tools of the trade help us get to the truth. It is very hard to just say, let the witness tell us the story and just believe it 100%. Okay.

You see a car in the distance, and this is all coming from the appearance of a young woman, very young, around 19 years old, covered in blood and mud. And now, is she connected to a dead body hanging out of a car? Take a listen to this. Everything changed when law enforcement found the body. We found Alex's body laying across the whole backseat footwall. I've been a prosecutor since 2011, and I've never seen anything this violent. This is heinous. 16 times he was stabbed.

This was anger and rage rage and this was personal. This case boiled down to whether you believed Ezra McCandless or not. Okay, take a listen to our friends at CBS 48 Hours. Ezra says she grabbed the knife by its jagged blade, wrenched it away from Alex and began stabbing him. You said you had the knife. Where were you cutting him? I just was going anywhere and everywhere I could. Okay. Proc looks at Ezra's hands, which have only superficial cuts. The wounds don't match. If you're grabbing a knife like she said she did,

and you pull your hand across, your hand is going to be filleted open. He just kept grabbing me and grabbing me and grabbing me. It's a harrowing story. But as the evidence is examined, authorities become more convinced than ever that Ezra McCandless is lying. This was cold-blooded murder. crime stories with nancy grace we got calls that alex was missing i thought maybe it was like an accident or something yeah we thought maybe we could help find him. What is he missing?

With nowhere else to go, the next day police return to Don Sipple's farm. As we're driving down the road, we see the muddy road right here. And we stop, and at that point we're able to see footprints in the mud coming from the top of the hill down the road and we lose them right in this area. Investigators follow those footprints and spot a car. This is the police video from that day. From our vantage point on top of the hill we use binoculars and were able to see down there. We could see a human body hanging out of the back seat driver's side. Did you immediately think, this is Alex? We did. We thought it was Alex.

Okay. You see a car in the distance, and this is all coming from the appearance of a young woman, very young, around 19 years old, covered in blood and mud. To Dave Mack, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Who is Alex? Alex Woodworth was 24 years old. He and Ezra had been romantically involved. He actually was friends. He worked as a barista at a coffee shop where Ezra and her other, her boyfriend actually went to this coffee shop. They all became friends

together. And then we had kind of a triangle going on. Ezra and Alex became close, became romantically involved. And it actually, that relationship caused her other relationship with uh jason and uh-oh okay guys we're talking about what seems to be a young woman appearing out of nowhere banging on an elderly gentleman's door he's a good samaritan mr sip well well up in his 80s at the time this happens uh really knocking on 90, and he's calling 911 trying to help this woman. Take a listen to this. 24-year-old Alex Woodworth is dead. Eau Claire police detective Ryan Prock is now leading the homicide investigation,

along with investigators from the Dunn County Sheriff's Department. It's a very, very violent attack on a person with a knife. How shocking was that to hear? Oh, terrible. Yeah. You can't wrap your mind around it. We knew nothing about it, really, just that he got stabbed 16 times,

and that's pretty graphic. Armed now with specific details, Prock returns to the hospital. He tells ezra he's found the crime scene and this time her memory returns beginning with a knife she says alex found in the car okay hold on it's all coming back to her now you're hearing our friends at cbs Hours. To Dr. Liz DeBoer, a licensed psychologist, you can find her at drlizlyz.com. Dr. Liz, how does that work? You don't remember, then suddenly, bam, it hits you, you do remember what happened. That's a really interesting question. Certainly, we've heard that when someone's involved in some kind of trauma, an attack, a physical altercation of this magnitude, the memory can be compromised, the physical stress. Sometimes what our brain does is kind of

disconnects from the moment in order to protect us as a protective factor. And so there is a feature of dissociation disconnect where the brain just kind of disconnects from the present moment in order to somehow protect the body, protect the psyche from such extreme distress. To Dr. Kendall Crowns, Deputy Medical Examiner, Travis County, Texas, that's Austin. There's nothing like a knife fight for somebody like you or me because you get so much forensic evidence, right? Explain how a knife fight, a death by knife, is so much different than, let's just say asphyxiation, a ligature manual, or even a gunshot wound.

What is it about a knife fight? Well, knife fights are usually, not always, but usually have quite a few wounds associated with them. The main reason is, is when you stab an individual, you don't necessarily hit something that's going to kill them instantly. And then that person's not going to lay there and just be stabbed. So they're going to try and fight back. They're going to try and run away. So you get more and more stab wounds in an attempt to control them and attempt to kill them. And if you don't land your stab wound in the right area, hitting like a major vessel or something associated with the spinal cord, they're going to keep moving

for quite a while. You get a lot of blood and you get a lot of movement. And then the more stab wounds, more superficial stab wounds, the more stab wounds, the more superficial stab wounds, the more stab wounds. Dr. Kendall Crowns, Dr. Kendall Crowns, let me just say two words. Jody Arias, to Bruce Johnson, owner of ISP Investigations, was Master Sergeant Crime Scene Commander at Chicago Metro

before he went into business for himself. That's not a walk in the park right there in Chicago. I'm telling you, that's right on par with inner city Atlanta where I prosecuted. Bruce, a knife fight. It's bloody. It's also rich in forensics. Absolutely. You know, there's going to be a lot, obviously, what the pathologist said, there's going to be a lot of blood, a lot of movement from the body.

But with this case, for a woman to overcome a man in this manner, the first blow had to be a good one or possibly near fatal because she has to take control of him. And she admitted that the first blow that she stabbed was to the head. So we're curious about where it was in the head. If you say the head, it still could be the lower base of the neck because she said that she stabbed him from behind. But the positions that she was talking about weren't right. But the first blow is the most important because he had to have gone down we know about the crime scene um that the officers were talking about in the field

there's a lot of blood and disheveled stuff outside of the vehicle that puts them outside um so how she was able to uh control him and possibly stand him the first blow. Well, she said the first blow was to the head and from behind. So that is probably what put him down. And then from there, she can gain control. She can be on top. And now you're going to start to win the fight because I want to know where's his defensive wounds and why couldn't he overcome her? Because she doesn't appear to be too big of a woman. She's 19 years old, probably 110 pounds. He looks like an average male, 5'8", 5'10", possibly 160 pounds. They don't add up unless the first blow had some debilitating wound to him.

Caught him off guard and caught him by surprise. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The catalyst told police Woodworth forced himself on her in the backseat of her car while parked on a country road. And she said Woodworth used a knife to cut her clothing. But then she got the knife away and stabbed him in self-defense. Prosecutors say McCandless cut her own clothing to frame a phony crime scene and set up her defense claim. So you don't know if that sweater was cut? Do you know if the sweater was torn? I don't. Do you know if the sweater was ripped? I don't. The prosecution

says this case is about a twisted form of love. Their theory that McCandless killed Woodworth in a desperate attempt to recapture the relationship she had with another ex-boyfriend. But the defense says the victim, Woodworth, had a twisted mind, fascinated with violence and cannibalism, and McCandless thought she was about to be violently raped. Her disturbed and obsessive ex-boyfriend attacked her, cut her, strangled her. Did I just hear cannibalism? You're hearing our friends at KARE 11. That's Lou Raguse speaking. Wow, this just gets crazier and crazier. But what we learn is that this young woman that we thought was the victim covered in blood and mud admits to the stabbing, but claims her boyfriend, part of a love triangle, attacked her.

Okay, wait a minute. I don't get it. Why would it be then that Randy Kessler, you're the defense attorney, what do you do when your client admits to stabbing somebody, claiming it's in self-defense, but then they take the time to carve the word boy into their own arm? I don't know what you do. You know, you got to go with what your client tells you. Well, you better think.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Randy, Randy, what do you do? You get a case like this. What do you just go into your conference room or your office and you huddle up with all those interns and sycophants? Oh, excuse me. Assistants that are always following you around at the courthouse and you just sit there what do you say think people come up with something

what how do you come up with something the first thing you've got to do is you can't let your client lie so you got to decide do you want to hear your client's story because if your client's story is one that doesn't make sense you can't let her tell another story when you know it's not true so that's the first thing. So, you know, I'm not sure that I even want to hear. Dr. Liz DeBoer, licensed psychologist. You can find her at drlizlyz.com. And self-defense, how would you suddenly just pause

in the whole self-defense drama and carve the word boy into your arm? Yeah, it doesn't make sense, does it? So I think that when we look at the evidence, that is one of the things that just stands out as, you know, how does that happen? What we can see is that, again, very disturbed sense of reality in this woman and probably a history of self-mutilation. You know, Dr. Liz DeBoer, I'm hanging on to one phrase you used, a distorted sense of reality. Okay, in my world, what that means, she's lying. Dr. Kendall Crowns, let's just get down to it, Dr. Crowns.

The victim, Alex Woodworth, was stabbed 16 times, I think. That's why I brought up Travis Alexander, Jody Arias' victim. He was stabbed about 28, 29 times. They couldn't really tell because the stabbed ones were overlapping each other before he was shot in the head. Dr. Kendall Crowns, what, if anything, about this death says that she was acting in self-defense? 16 stab wounds? That does not sound like self-defense to me. Well, I agree.

I mean, usually when you hear self-defenseispense, it's like you stab them once, maybe twice, and you run for it. And I often will tell police when we get these cases come in and someone's claiming self-dispense, I'll give you one stab, maybe two. But once you get over five, six, eight, now we're starting to talk, how is that self-defense? And 16, I mean, and it's in the back of the head as well. It's just, it's very, very suspect that how could that be self-defense? I don't think it is. Okay, because forensics, science is going to rule the day. I don't care what Ezra McAnlis, the young woman says. I don't care what a witness says. I care what the forensics tell me because they're not going to lie. To Bruce Johnson, what do you make of the theory that this murder was not spur of the moment that you may expect with 16 sab wounds? It sounds like a frenzy, but that it was

premeditated. What do you know about claims that Ezra McCandless lured Alex Woodworth, just 24 years old, to that muddy road, knowing what was about to happen? Right, well, and here you go in the love triangle that usually they end up like this very nasty, very vindictive, very conniving means of death. So something's going on in the love triangle, and she's worried about Jason, and she's taken out Alex. For that whole story, we haven't gotten the whole part of it to, and we haven't got into the third part of the triangle, this John Hanson, how he comes into play. But basically, her world is crumbling. And if you go back just a few minutes with her statement, stating that it was defensive wounds.

So I want to know, based on her statement, if he's on top of her in the car, where it started, where's his first action? Where's his first stab wound? And how could he not control her based on her own statement? So where's his first stab wound to her? If she puts her hand up and blocks it, he's still going to be able to overcome her. So her statements fall flat really quick with putting him on top of her. And she's somehow gonna overcome him, take the knife, you know, stab him

multiple times, which she eventually admits, and then carves herself. A lot of gaps, a lot of holes. We are starting to get a picture of a premeditated crime. Did this 19-year-old Ezra McCandless actually lure the victim, Alex Woodworth, to his death? As opposed to being some frenzied act of self-defense, then text messages are uncovered. Take a listen to our friends at CBS 48 Hours. Then the detective reviewed suggestive text messages Ezra had sent to Jason's friend. Prock also interviewed Alex Woodworth and he did not support Ezra's version of events. He said that Ezra told him that it was consensual. She just regretted it. This relationship wasn't even a love triangle. It was consensual. She just regretted it. This relationship wasn't even

a love triangle. It was a love square. And those relationships began and stopped with Ezra McCandless. The sexual assault case was ultimately dropped, thanks in part to Alex's statements. And Ezra was upset. Her world was crumbling around her. She had created Ezra. She had created this intricate network of lies and they kept falling apart and there was nothing left. There was nothing left behind it. Ezra moved out of Eau Claire and back home with her family. But Jason says she tried desperately to win him back. She wove these tales about these manipulative, vindictive men who tried to take me away from you, Jason. It's not me. It's them. Wow. What a mess.

What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. Randy Kessler, renowned defense attorney, joining me out of Atlanta. There's nothing like text messages popping up on your client's cell phone. Text messages that clearly disprove claims of self-defense. It's the worst. As soon as you think you got it. It was good practicing law 30 years ago, wasn't it, Nancy? At least from our side when we didn't have text messages on Facebook and posting and Snapchat and cell phone cameras and security cameras on every building. It's a new world and dependents have a harder time today. That's the way it is. Man, you're so right. Dave Mack, what do you make of claims that

Ezra McCandless, just 19 years old, lured the victim to a bloody death, that this was not some spur of the moment attack? The police believe that she used her writings and the fact she wanted to talk to Alex about how the relationship ended as a means of getting him away from the coffee shop and everybody else to separate him so she could be alone with Alex. So she lured him from the coffee shop, claiming she wanted him to look at her writing. Did you mention earlier that there were 600 text messages? The night before this happened, she was texting with her ex-boyfriend, Jason Mingle, and they exchanged 600 messages, and at no point did she ever mention that she was coming to Eau Claire. So her goal, according to police, is to lure Ezra McCandless away, murder him, in order to get back with the first boyfriend, right? Correct. What do we know, Dave Mack, about claims that this crime scene was staged? Well, what police figured out was from the

time that the attack occurred in that vehicle that Ezra was able to take the time to set the stage there. As we mentioned, she claimed the attack to set the stage there. As we mentioned, she claimed the attack happened in the backseat of that vehicle, but all the evidence, the DNA, the blood, everything that was found was outside the vehicle. And police believe that Ezra took the time between the end of the attack, when Alex was no longer able to do anything, that Ezra then took the time to rip her clothing or cut her clothing to stage herself to make it look like she had been the victim, and that she set the stage in that vehicle to make it appear that they had been in this attack and that Alex was the aggressor.

It's believed at that point in time that the attack on her left arm where the boy was etched into it, that that's what she was doing during that time between the attack and the time she shows up at Mr. Sipple's farmhouse. To Dr. Kendall Crowns, Deputy Medical Examiner, Travis County, Texas, Austin. Dr. Crowns, what suggests to you the scene was staged? The way the body is in the back of the car, it's odd. There's blood all over the place. And then just her ripped clothes and walking away from it. And then, of course, the superficial injuries to her body.

To me, all of it just sounds very set up and unrealistic. What do you mean the opposition of the body in the back of the car? His head's hanging out the door. So if either she's trying to pull him back into the car to let him die or she stabbed him in the car and he's trying to pull out, it's odd that his head's hanging out the doorway. He's either trying to get out or she pulled him back in. Although she's a very small woman, so I don't think she could manipulate his body all that much. We are learning that

Ezra had a quote, pretty in pink performance at trial. What does that mean, Dave Mack? At trial, when she was on the stand, Ezra McCandless had a demeanor several times. You've mentioned Jodi Arias today. And that was the comparison that people came up with, that she was so composed. She wore an outfit that made her look softer, more feminine. The pretty in pink refers to the pink sweater that she wore on this day in court where she was on the stand and just looked like this peaceful, fragile, wonderful little flower of a girl who could never be involved in a heinous crime. A peaceful, fragile snowflake on the stand.

Bruce Johnson, how many times have you seen that? Someone present a very different image in front of a jury than what they really were? Thank the Menendez brothers. Yeah, well, the first noticeable thing was, you know, they changed her glasses. She has makeup on and she instantly lost her nose earring. And at times she even had a somewhat joyful demeanor on the stand. Take a listen to this. We, the jury, find the defendant, Ezra J. McCandless, guilty of first-degree intentional homicide as charged in the information.

And the answer to the special verdict question is yes. Use the dangerous weapon. Wow. It only took the jury three hours to convict now 22-year-old Ezra McCandless, 19 years old at the time, of murder one with a weapon. Apparently overwhelming evidence at trial. What do they mean by overwhelming evidence at trial, Dave? Dave Mac joined me from Crime Online. What were the significant facts that convicted her? You've got the crime scene in and of itself that doesn't

match her story of what happened. You've got all of the blood found outside the vehicle. And again, you go back to the 16 stab wounds on Alex's body with the first wound being the back of the head. Very big in the argument in talking about the lack of defensive wounds that she was able to take him by surprise. That was the basic thing that really, when you look at this case, Nancy, her claim that she was the victim, that he had attacked her in the back seat, and none of the physical evidence bore that out. It was actually outside the car. She was the aggressor. What do you make of that, Dr. Kendall Crowns?

Because we're hearing Dave Mack state that the victim had no defensive wounds that she, quote, took him by surprise. How can that be proven forensically? I'm not 100% sure if you could prove that he was taken by surprise. How can that be proven forensically? I'm not 100% sure if you could prove that he was taken by surprise just by the nature of his wounds. But the fact that he has no defense wounds does mean that he either didn't fight back or she did get him from behind initially. Or one of the wounds initially done was severe enough that he was immobilized. You know, we know at the end of the trial, she showed no remorse, but did sob and apologize

at sentencing. Another case of me, me, me, me, me, me, me, forget about him. It's all about me. In the end, what's her sentence, Dave Mack? Her sentence was life in prison with the possibility for parole after 50 years. Too much? Not enough? What about it, Bruce Johnson? Definitely fits the crime. She should not get parole. This was a heinous crime.

She overtook him. She set him up. She set up the crime scene. It just goes on and on. There's a lot of vindictiveness there, and she should not have any chance of parole, let alone 50 years. To Randy Kessler, fair sentencing. I'm not so much about the punishment and punishing her as much as I am about the protecting society. If she's the kind of person that sounds like she is, that doesn't recognize what she did was wrong and

doesn't admit it, then I don't want her on my streets. We wait as justice unfolds at this hour. Ezra McCandless plotting her appeal behind bars. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.