Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Shocking turn in mystery surrounding murder of 2nd grade teacher after home "bleached" clean, and mother-in-law runs down son-in-law after he exposes sex affair

Episode Date: September 28, 2017

When police responded to a 911 call from Vanessa MacCormack's husband that his wife was dead on her kitchen floor, they smelled the strong odor of bleach. Evidence the teacher's killer tried to clean up the murder scene helped finger a suspect. Nancy Grace is joined by reporter Ed Payne and psycho-analyst Dr. Bethany Marshall to look at the case. A Florida woman allegedly tried to run over her daughter's husband, but not because she didn't like him. Maybe she liked him too much. Police say Kathleen Davis, 58, had an affair with her son in law, but the relationship went sour when he told his wife -- her daughter -- about it. Nancy and guests dig into the story. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. February 2004, Maura Murray empties her bank account, drives four hours from school, crashes her car, and vanishes. Join the search as an investigative reporter uncovers new evidence, interrogates new witnesses, traces down new leads in this riveting new investigative series the disappearance of maura murray saturdays 7 6 central and 9 8 central on oxygen the new network for crime crime stories with nancy grace on sirius XM Triumph, Channel 132. Vanessa McCormick, a schoolteacher in Lynn, found strangled and stabbed inside their home in Revere.

According to the victim's calendar, last Saturday, she planned to go work out at the gym and then go apple picking. Instead, prosecutors say she was murdered. She had both slash and stab wounds on her neck. Investigators tell us there were no signs of forced entry but a grieving husband. Her parents couldn't reach her and he was telling them that he couldn't reach her either. It was her husband who called police. When the police got there the place smelled very strongly of bleach. A gorgeous young second grade teacher has been found dead in her Boston home.

Police say her body bore signs of extensive trauma, but were not revealing exactly how she died. This married mother of one had worked as a second grade teacher for some time. Her body was found after police respond to a 911 call. If you could see this woman, she's absolutely beautiful. Why would anyone destroy her in such a vicious way? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.

We want answers in the brutal death of this young woman, Vanessa McCormick, just 30 years old with her life in front of her. Police investigating the death of this married second grade teacher after she's found inside her Boston home with trauma to her body. She was found unresponsive inside her Revere home after a 911 call. Now, joining me right now is Ed Payne, crime stories investigative reporter, Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst joining us out of L.A., and forensics expert known across the country, Karen Smith. Ed Payne, what do we know about Revere,

the town where she was murdered? Well, you know, it's just a suburb just a little bit north of Boston, pretty middle class, pretty standard. You know, it's a town you might just kind of pass by, you know, if you're driving through the Boston area, but it, you know, it wouldn't really bring a lot of attention. Yeah, it's my understanding a very quiet suburb, kind of a bedroom community for Boston. It's a little bit of a commute, but a lot of people looking for, you know, a more sedate and neighborhood-y kind of life, a suburban life,

will go to Revere, and they drive into the city. Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, joining us. Have you seen that gorgeous photo of her in her wedding dress? She looks like a Barbie doll. She is so beautiful. Yeah, it's one of those mermaid dresses. I remember when I was little, Dr. Bethany, we would have paper dolls. We could not afford the actual dolls.

I had one Barbie doll, which I immediately tore the head off. So I had the paper dolls. And they would all all I didn't know what they were called then the mermaid dress that fits tight like strapless or something down to your knees and then it swooshes out that is her wedding dress and she's got this huge bouquet of white roses interspersed with pale pink I'm just looking at it. Drop pearl earrings and a long veil. Beautiful smile. Did you see this photo of her, Dr. Bethany? Yeah, not only that, I saw multiple photos of her. And you know, there were there were two categories of photos. One, one, there were a couple with

her arms around her husband. And the others were selfies. And in each selfie, she looks so beautiful. She, she looked happy. It's like she wanted to memorialize where she was. You know, you're right. In every photo, she and her husband look so in love. What I'm getting at is it's the perfect life. They've got this beautiful child, beautiful home, beautiful everything, a dream job working at William P. Connery Elementary School. She had been working there for five years.

The school community is devastated over her death. They gave a statement. It's from Dr. Mary Deal. Vanessa taught at Connery for five years and was in our district seven years. She was talented, dedicated, a passionate educator, loyal, kind, a compassionate friend and colleague. Our school community is heartbroken. She just seems so beloved. So Ed Payne joining us, Crime Stories investigative reporter, Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, and Karen Smith, forensic expert. Karen, what evidence will they be looking for? What do you know about what, if anything, they found at the scene? At first, they weren't saying who may have done this, an intruder. They weren't sure. So they did a thorough investigation. And unfortunately, they found that she had suffered from a number of different traumas.

And that just led them down a rabbit hole about who may have perpetrated this crime. It's a secure, quaint town. And the police and investigators were left with their heads scratching for quite some time. For those of you just joining us, a second grade teacher, gorgeous brunette with a world in front of her and a little child found dead in her own home. The state's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has made preliminary findings that she suffered blunt force injury to the head, sharp force injuries to the neck and asphyxiation. Quote, evidence suggests the killer made concerted efforts to clean up the scene and dispose of related items. Right there, Karen Smith, forensics expert. Random killers do not clean up the scene. As a general rule, explain. No, they don't. And Nancy, we've been here before. We've done experiments and we've shown how difficult it is to clean up a crime scene,

especially one as heinous as this. We're talking about blunt force trauma, a bloodletting injury, stab wounds, more bloodletting injuries. And then she was strangled. This is going to be a massive crime scene. There's going to be massive amounts of cleanup. And as you and I have seen in the past, cleaning up something like that superficially may be possible, but there's always going to be traces left. And I guarantee you, the police went in there with their light sources and their chemical reagents, and they found every single thing that they needed. Okay, remind me, Jackie, to come back to that light sources and all of the tricks of the trade in crime scene analysis.

I want to go back to something that you just said. She was bludgeoned dead. She was asphyxiated. She was apparently punctured. Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, she's murdered three times over. That's right. I was listening to Karen and I was thinking strangled, blood force trauma to the head, stabbed. One of the reports I read said that she was stabbed in the head, which is hard for me to imagine. This kind of overkill suggests that whoever did this was enraged at her.

This wasn't just somebody who wanted her dead for some cold, callous, calculated reason, that perhaps this is somebody who had a relationship with her and went into a fit of rage over something, that perhaps this was even an intimate homicide. You know what's interesting? I want to backtrack. Karen Smith with me, forensics expert, Dr. Bethany Marshall, Ed Payne, investigative reporter. Karen Smith, you alluded to experiments you and I have done together,

forensics experiments. One of them was patterned after the brutal murder of a mother allegedly by her son. And the only real trace that to me was probative or proved something was the fact that the mother's blood, the mother's bludgeoned dead out in the garage. A weapon was never found, but it looked to be something like a two by four. Upstairs in the guest bathroom, the mom's blood is found in the bathroom drain or on the faucet. Which said to me, the killer felt at ease staying in the home and having a little bubble bath after the murder. Okay, that's not random. That's my point.

Karen Smith, when I asked you, why is this not random? Random killers don't wait around for a cleanup or a coverup. They hit it and quit it. They're gone. They get what they're coming after, whether they're a junkie looking for money, whether it's a sex attack, whether it's a burglary for a DVD player or money or whatever they're trying to get. They get it. They kill if somebody gets in their way and they leave. They're not about, ooh, let me mop the kitchen floor. Let me do a couple of loads of laundry, Scott Peterson, before I leave.

Let's just clean up and make everything fresh and tidy and lemon scented. Oh, no. That's not how a random killing goes down, all right? At the most, they'll put somebody in a shallow grave or put leaves or trash on top of them. Uh-uh, no, probably not even that. When you find a body out in the open or dead in the garage, left where the person was killed, left at the point of contact, where the pocketbook was grabbed, where the car was jacked. That's random. Going in and doing a cleanup is not random. If you look at the method and assessment of homicide, it's very clear this is not random.

Ed Payne, investigative reporter. What do we know about the child? Well, Nancy, we don't know a whole lot about the child. It's a one-year-old daughter. Other than that, because we're dealing with a minor here, police haven't released a whole lot of details. By the way, they've been married two years. They got married in the summer two years ago. So this child was born one year after their marriage.

So it's a honeymoon baby. Let's just put it like that, Alan Duke. You know, but they've been married two years ago. So this child was born one year after their marriage. So it's a honeymoon baby. Let's just put it like that, Alan Duke. You know, but they've been married two years and the baby is one. So they were married for, you know, three months or so before she got pregnant. If that's where you're going, always in the gutter. Let me drag you out of the gutter, Alan. Hey, this is another thing I learned during our investigation of the case. The home was kind of new, at least new to them. They had recently purchased the home, and she had posted, Vanessa McCormick had posted, quote, Moving on to the next chapter in our lives.

I love this man more than anything, and I am so happy we're finally homeowners. And with that, Alan, Vanessa posts a photo of her husband, which she's in practically every photo she posts, and they look very loving, posts a photo of him carrying her over the threshold of the home. And they look very happy. Earlier this week, Vanessa's sister, Angela, remembered her as a devoted and loving mom. Words could never describe my sister. My sister was the world's

best mother. She did everything for her daughter and had so many plans for her. She never missed an opportunity to bring her places to show off the beautiful baby. She's the true definition of a family-oriented person. She always held get-togethers at her beautiful home that she designed to be like a home on HGTV and strive to get the family together. You know, Dr. Bethany, I want to just analyze that for just one moment. All you ladies listening, men, no offense, but I don't think you think this way. You know, Dr. Bethany, I remember when I was prosecuting hardcore felonies. I'd be working on weekends, and of course, I'd love it because I remember when I was prosecuting hardcore felonies. I'd be working on weekends. And of course, I'd love it because I knew the defense attorneys were kicked back with their feet up drinking beer, watching football.

I'm like, I'm going to get you. I would look out the law library window and think they're out there with their feet up. I'm going to get them. But I remember if I would be working at home, I'd have the TV on in the background and I would see the Martha Stewart show, you know, the old one, not the talk show, which was awesome. But the other one where she was in her home and she would be doing all sorts of domestic magic. And I would think, wow, I would like to do that. I'm going to do that one day. Of course, I never did because I was prosecuting murders and rapes and job molestations. But this woman had a dream.

And it reminds me a little bit of Lacey Peterson, because I looked in her home, their own Covina in Modesto. And she had it so decorated. And also reminds me of Tara Grinstead, because her mom took me into their home. This woman, Vanessa, says she wanted the home to look like the home on HGTV. If you look at all our pictures, and we're on the outside looking in, Bethany. Of course. But she was trying so hard to make this beautiful home and this dream world. And it was coming true, Bethany. I'm not faulting her.

I'm admiring her, Bethany. Well, you know, she was deeply rooted in her life. She loved her husband. In one of the photos, she has her arms around him and her hand on his chest. It's such a loving gesture as if she feels sort of safe, ensconced in his arms. As you mentioned earlier, she had the dream job. She loved her home. I mean, the fact that he carried her over the threshold when they bought the home means that she had so many hopes and dreams. This is a home where she wanted to invite people. That's one of the things her sister mentioned is that she opened up her home to other people.

She had a baby that she took everywhere. This is a woman who was thinking about not only the present, but the future. She had hopes and dreams. And that's what's so sad to me when I see these photos. I see sort of the look of somebody who's looking forward to the future. And yet I know she's not here anymore. And it's such a sad and tragic thing. Andrew McCormick being held without bail now after prosecutors say he killed his wife, Vanessa, inside their home because she said she wanted a divorce. Investigators tell us there were no signs of forced entry, but plenty of signs of a troubled marriage from drug addiction to talk of divorce,

what they believe was a motive for murder. She had both slash and stab wounds on her neck. A grieving husband who investigators now say is a guilty killer. When you run your own business, you know time equals money. That's not just an old saying. It's true. So why waste your valuable time dealing with issues LegalZoom can help with? You may already know over 2 million people have used LegalZoom to start their businesses. But LegalZoom services don't end there. Running a business comes with taxes, contracts, hiring employees, basically a

lot of fine print. And that is why LegalZoom built a network of independent lawyers. They're licensed in all 50 states to provide you the advice you need to get through the daily grind of running a business. And you don't have to worry about billable hours. LegalZoom is not a law firm. Instead, you can count on upfront pricing and clarity. So invest your time and money in growing your business. Let LegalZoom help with the legal stuff. For special savings, be sure to enter promo code NANCY, N-A-N-C-Y, in the referral box at checkout for special savings only at LegalZoom.com. LegalZoom.com. Accused killer Andrew McCormick broke into tears as prosecutors told the judge how he bludgeoned, stabbed, slashed, and suffocated his wife, Vanessa.

Prosecutors say the 29-year-old killed his wife, Vanessa, and then tried to cover up that crime. The ADA says Vanessa, a beloved second-grade teacher in Lynn, recently told McCormick she wanted to sell the house and file for a divorce. He told her she was crazy and would never sign anything. Prosecutors say a cocaine dealer told them Andrew McCormick had a $400 to $500 a week drug habit, that he bought $100 worth the day of the murder. Texts from his wife last month say, I hate you so much. They believe McCormick killed his wife and then tried to hide the evidence by scrubbing their home with bleach.

They were so spotless that the only two footprints on the tile floor were from a police officer's when he stepped in there. I want to head back to Vanessa McCormick and what we now are learning, the husband of Vanessa McCormick, the guy that Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst out of L.A., has been describing in all of these photos, I mean, one after the next after the next, has been charged with murder. I guess Karen Smith, forensics expert, we should have seen it coming, right? Why? It sounds like it. First of all, I made a couple of observations with the photographs. The husband, first of all, you talked about cleaning up the crime scene,

sort of a giveaway as far as I'm concerned forensically, as far as you're concerned prosecutorially. But in the photographs, he is a very strong, muscular man. He would have had absolutely no problem overpowering Vanessa and doing these injuries to her, as well as the cleanup that you've talked about so extensively. He was very big. She was very petite. As you said, she was very beautiful. And it's really disconcerting to me once again that we're dealing with a domestic violence issue where the husband is now charged with her murder. And we don't know if there's been prior calls. We don't know if they've been there before. But I have no doubt that the Massachusetts State Police, a very fine, excellent organization, is going to put every single piece of evidence together and bring the charges against him that are appropriate. You know, Karen Smith, you earlier referred to the techniques used by CSI crime scene investigators in processing a crime scene.

Give me an overview. And in a nutshell, dumb me down for me, Karen. Don't make it difficult for me to learn. They're going to be dealing with a lot of different things. First of all, if he made, quote unquote, a concerted effort to clean up the crime scene and dispose of related items, clue number one. Second of all, we're dealing with her body. That's going to be evidence item number one. Has she been moved?

There are some giveaways. There's something called lividity, and that's the blood that settles after death. If her body has been moved, they're going to know it because there's going to be different patterns left on her body showing where there are dark purple versus some blanching white areas. And that's one thing they're going to look at. Also blood flows. We know that blood is very difficult to clean. We're going to be looking for blood flows against gravity that might have been left on her body. That will be a giveaway that her body has been moved as well. Any blood that's missing from the scene that's been cleaned up. Another giveaway. I mean, Karen, if I see

with, for instance, luminol. Luminol is a technique that blood lights up. It looks like infrared. That's what it looks like. You know, like when you're in a fun house and you see glowy psychedelic colors on the wall. That's what it looks like. If I see one swipe of a mop that shows me one time even that blood has been mopped up,

I can tell you it's somebody in the house. Bam! It's somebody that has to clean up the scene. That's right. Always go back to Scott Peterson because that's one in recent history we can think of. Why in the world do you suddenly start mopping and cleaning and doing laundry? Why? When you've never done it in your life?

If I see one darn sweep of the mop with Luminol, I'm arresting somebody close to that victim. Luminol is one technique used by CSI. In a nutshell, Karen, how does Luminol work? Luminol is a, it's what's called a chemiluminescent reagent. And what it does is it reacts with the iron that's in our blood, and it creates, like you said, sort of a greenish-blue glow. And when we see that in a presumed cleanup crime scene, which is what we have here, we can spray it in the area where we believe blood was, and those trace amounts are going to give off light. There's no light source that's needed. Everything you see on TV is wrong. They don't need a light source with this.

And that's photographed. It can show the patterns. You mean you can do it in broad daylight. You can use luminol in broad daylight. No, you have to have a dark room to use luminol, but you don't need an extra light source out there in order to make it show up. Hold on. I've got a question here in the studio from producer Jackie.

She wants to know, is there a way to get around luminol? Can you beat luminol? If there's blood, blood streaked on the floor of the walls and you use luminol, is there a way to avoid it showing up? Not really. It's going to show very, very minute trace amounts, but here's the kicker. It cross reacts with bleach. So bleach is going to make it glow as well. But trained investigators, which the Mass State Police has, are going to know the difference by sight on what is bleach and what is blood. A lot of people think you can destroy DNA with bleach. That's not necessarily true. DNA can survive going through the washer. It can survive bleach in many cases.

Now, possibly muriatic acid can destroy DNA, but it's tough to destroy DNA. But what were you about to say about the luminol? Yeah, it can destroy a lot of the larger alleles of DNA. But what I was going to say is once they see that glow and they believe that that is blood, they can use other presumptive tests, phenolphthalein, they can use leukomalachite green. And what they'll do is they'll swab that area. And if they get a positive reaction with those other tests, boy, that's enough to send that to the lab, come back with some DNA and match that to the victim. And that's the end of that. Right. Guys, we are reporting now

the husband has been apprehended. Andrew McCormick, 29, has been apprehended in the murder of his beautiful wife, the mother of his child, Vanessa McCormick. Again, she was found unresponsive in the couple's revere home with multiple signs of trauma to her body. And interesting to Dr. Bethany Marshall, he's the one that places the 911 call. Isn't that always the case, Nancy? These perpetrators always call 911 and they cry, they scream, they cry big crocodile tears as if they're not transparent, as if those tapes will not be played at some point, as if there will not be a lot of behavioral clues in the way that they place the 911 call.

But, you know, I want to go back to the blunt force trauma, the strangling, you know, the overkill. What we often see in domestic homicide is that there's been, let's say, a life insurance policy has been taken out or that the husband is having an affair or there's some type of motivation for the homicide. But in this case, given that there's such an overkill aspect, it makes me wonder if he's the sort of guy who's pathologically jealous, pathologically insecure, if she did something very small or benign, like, you know, talk to another guy or maybe stayed out too late. And he had a problem with self-regulation. He could not regulate his rage. And then he went into overkill mode. And so as we follow the story, it'd be interesting to hear what other family members say, what kind of a mood and personality he had. And also,

as you mentioned earlier, were there prior domestics? I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this wasn't the first domestic violence situation that they had been in. Guys, the husband has now been arrested, and we're learning so much more. We're learning that there was recovery of footage from a private surveillance system, as well as public safety cameras. What does that mean, public safety cameras? Was he out getting rid of evidence at a public dump? Because we know evidence related to this murder was disposed of. We also know that not only did he call police, he's the one that apparently finds the body,

but we know that computers, laptops, cell phones were searched. What would that be about, Dr. Marshall? Well, I would wonder about a couple of things. Remember with Casey Anthony that she researched neck breaking, strangulation, suffocation, all these kinds of things before her baby went missing. So I wouldn't be surprised if the police are looking to see, you know, what kind of searches he made prior to this domestic incident. Sometimes when there's a domestic homicide, the perpetrator searches for a dump site for the body. It doesn't appear that he thought he had in this case, but that might be

something that they would be looking for. Also, if he was having a relationship with another woman, not that that really matters if he's the perpetrator, but what would matter is putting together the motivation for this crime. You know, another thing, do you remember, and I just use this because it's so textbook, but you could point to any number of defendants. But remember how Scott Peterson tried to work up a baby chair for the baby daughter and some other items. He left without saying anything to the cameras, but just managed to break down and start crying at the scene while the cameras were rolling. Boo hoo. While the crime scene investigation tape was still up, they allowed him into the house apparently to fetch this... To clean up

some more blood? No, to fetch his kid's Disney chair. You know those little chairs that kids feel so comfortable in? And he was carrying it back. It was kind of an interesting scene. By the way, did you see what he studied in college? Go ahead. You drop it. Okay.

Although now he's been working as what they call a drywall taper. That's like he installs drywall, and he's a union member. He studied criminal justice at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and after that worked as a security supervisor for a private security firm. Okay. Dr. Bethany Marshall and Karen Smith with me, along with Ed Payne, investigative reporter. Dr. Bethany Marshall, a background in criminal justice, working in security. What does that say to you? What did he think?

He could clean up the crime scene and commit the perfect crime? Well, you know, there's robust research that suggests that sociopaths gravitate towards jobs in law enforcement. It's so fascinating. And I think the reason for that is that they love to relate to others on the basis of power. And so they see being a law enforcement officer as a very powerful position in society. So that's one thing. The other is that if he studied criminal justice, sort of the idea of like homicide and crime and, you know, the criminal mindset might've been very interesting to him,

which would suggest to me that he already was sort of premeditating on some level a criminal act or a violent act, even maybe before meeting his wife, that he might have been in love with the idea of criminal activity. You know, Karen Smith, forensics expert, we're all on one side of the law. And it's always disheartening when you see someone on, as I say, our side of the law, which I believe is the right side of the law, going to the dark side. But it happens. And those people, cops, investigators, people in security, people with criminal justice degrees like you, can make some of the best criminals. Why, Karen?

They can, but obviously, Andrew- Not this time. No, he did not pay attention in crime scene class because if he had, he would have known that what he was attempting was the impossible, knowing who he would be up against. It's true. Unfortunately, there are people in our profession that do decide to try to commit these heinous crimes. And perhaps, you know, I'm not the psychoanalyst, but it is an arrogance. It is the power. But I mean, what do you learn in criminal justice?

You learn basically that you cannot commit the perfect crime. That's crime scene 101. That's law enforcement 101. There is no perfect crime. There are crimes that are unsolved just because the evidence hasn't been found yet. In this case, not only did he call 911, he tried to clean up the crime scene, and he apparently ditched the evidence. So who else did he think they were going to come after? I mean, I'm looking at a picture right now, a snap, Dr. Beth Bethany Marshall psychoanalyst out of LA and it

makes me sick to my stomach and I felt this a lot of times in court when I'd be prosecuting a domestic homicide and instead of it coming out of me vomiting in the trash can in front of the jury it came out as just plain old mean i mean crazy mean in court i'm looking at a picture right now of this i don't even know what to call him monster he's huge he's all buffed out i'm telling you something the other day i was at the john david my son one of his soccer games and i looked at a guy there who was coaching for one of the other teams he's all buffed out I mean like massive muscles and chest I'm like David Lynch I looked to my husband said if you get buffed out like that you know what I'm telling on you I'm going straight to divorce court because you need to be either at work or with these children you do not need to be

pumping iron in the gym, okay? You need to be at work like me, okay? If I'm working, we're all working. And I'm looking at this guy. He's totally buffed out to the point that, Jackie, come look at this over my shoulder. He can't even get his bicep into his shirt. It's a short-sleeved shirt. Look at that.

Do you see that, Jackie? He can't even get that. And he's kissing her she's smiling at the camera he looks like he's about to bite her bite her face off now that I think about yeah yeah yeah oh Jackie just said it makes her wonder about steroids that's a good point but I look at this that's a great point and it's such a dichotomy Dr. Bethany I mean this photo I believe is after the baby's born. And they look so in love. I don't get it. It doesn't have a skull on the face of his sweatshirt. And one of those

photos to you one, he can hardly get the bicep through the shirt sleeve, but one of them he has a skull on the front of his sweatshirt. And I just I just think that's such a eerie photo, but, you know, when you see him all buffed out and muscular, um, I think about the motivations behind domestic homicide, why it's always the husband, um, or the wife or the parent or somebody in intimate relationship with the victim. And that's because it's in the context of intimate relationships that all the homicidal feelings occur, like envy, jealousy, resentment, betrayal. And so I keep wondering, you know, what was going on inside that house? Did she have a relationship with a guy who was maybe just a friend and he was boiling over with rage or jealousy? Was she a beautiful, free spirit in the world and he couldn't take it? Everything was upsetting him. This is probably a very unstable person for whom very small, benign events in both of their lives tipped him over

constantly. So I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there was a lot of arguing tension and maybe an ongoing domestic violence situation in that home. Karen Smith, you want in on steroids? Yes, we're talking about the criminal justice aspect. And a lot of police officers, male police officers, some females, do work out quite often. And there's a reason for that. You know, we're dealing with the criminal element. You have to be stronger than they are. You have to be able to handle yourself in very dangerous situations. But a lot of times, officers and people in the field go overboard and they do take steroids in order to appear bigger, to appear more intimidating, to maybe fend off the fact that somebody wants to fight them in the first place. So when you mentioned steroids, I know it affects the way that you behave as well, but it is pretty rampant in the criminal justice arena. This is what I know. This beautiful young mom, Vanessa McCormick, is dead. She was killed three ways, three times over. I want justice.

The ADA says McCormick left the murder scene with the couple's one-year-old daughter to go buy cocaine and then later called 911 in the day after he said he found his wife dead. He didn't try to revive Vanessa or even turn her over. She was face down on the bedroom floor. He said he simply checked her neck for a pulse and she was cold. She had both slash and stab wounds on her neck. She had signs of both manual strangulation and suffocation, the latter possibly from a trash bag that appeared to have been put on her head at some point. When the police got

there, the place smelled very strongly of bleach. The bathroom across the hall had been scrubbed spotless. They were so spotless that the only two footprints on the tile floor were from a police officer's shoes when he stepped in there. He's been crying since he was arrested. His defense PRINTS ON THE TILE FLOOR WERE FROM A POLICE OFFICER'S SHOES WHEN HE STEPPED IN THERE. HE'S BEEN CRYING SINCE HE WAS ARRESTED. HIS DEFENSE ATTORNEY CALLED THE CASE CIRCUMSTANTIAL, URGING THE PUBLIC TO RESERVE JUDGMENT. HE IS ADAMANTLY DENIED THAT HE COMMITTED THIS CRIME. McCORMICK'S ATTORNEY SAYS POLICE HAVE THE WRONG MAN, POINTING OUT THE COUPLE NEVER HAD ANY ISSUES WITH VIOLENCE. THE DEFENSE ATTORNEY SAYS McCORMICK DID HAVE A PRIOR DOMESTIC ISSUE IN A PREVIOUS RELATIONSHIP, BUT THAT CASE WAS DISMISSED. HE WAS NOT a previous relationship, but that case was dismissed. He was not convicted of anything. He has no record. McCormick's attorney also made the argument that his client would have no reason to bleach the home.

His DNA and his fingerprints are going to be all over the house. So why would he be bleaching the house? I think it's a lot more likely that an assailant from outside the home, bleached the house, and I heated it. And now to Florida, where a 58-year-old mom allegedly has, how can I say this, sex, relations with her daughter's husband. Repeat, a Florida 58-year-old mother has relations with her daughter's husband, age 33, and then allegedly tries to run him over in her Mercedes after he reveals the affair. Okay, just, Alan, did I get that straight? Am I understanding this fact scenario before I proceed one inch further?

Yes, that's one reason we're talking about it. Is it so bizarre oh okay number one i don't ever want to even think of my children having relations with anybody else okay i want to think about that much less trying to ensnare that love object into my own web of passion i really don't know how else to explain it but this is what we know right now kathleen davis 58 years old, allegedly has a sex affair with her daughter's 33-year-old husband. The husband, Michael Sciarra, exposes their indiscretion to the daughter. You know, right there, I remember when Dear Abby used to

be in the newspaper, the Macon Telegraph, Okay. Dr. Bethany Marshall will probably disagree with Abby. And if you do, just don't even say it. All right. Because I want to still be your friend, Dr. Bethany. Don't mess with dear Abby. God rest her soul. So people were always writing into dear Abby going, should I tell my spouse, my husband that I had an affair 10 years ago?

Uh, no. No. I can tell you that. Don't. I mean, why would you make yourself feel better by purging and make your spouse feel like doo-doo? No. Oh, Nancy, I get, I get this question in my office all the time. A patient will come in and say, right.

I always say to the patient, well, if you tell the spouse, you'll feel better. And then they'll have to live with it for the rest of their lives. Exactly. So, no, you don't tell your spouse. Thank you, Dr. Bethany. I'm very proud of you. No psychobabble, mumbo-jumbo in disagreeing with Dear Abby, okay? Because that would be crossing the line for me. So, I would read Dear Abby, even as a girl, the Macon Telegraph.

And here, for some reason, the son felt he had to unload to his wife, okay? Had to tell her. Well, of course, they're estranged now. But Michael also told police he had a sex relationship with his mother-in-law before the relationship with his wife ended. Then there was an incident just a couple of days ago. An angry mother-in-law throws eggs at his house and at his car. Okay.

Now I'm not talking about Justin Bieber here. I always like to infuriate my twins by saying Justin Bieber. It's Bieber, mom! I love that. It's like on cue every time I say, it's Beaver. Okay, or sometimes I say Taylor Swift's. Oh, that drives him over the edge, but back to this.

So she goes and eggs his home and his car. This is a 58-year-old woman. And then, according to police, she runs him over, trying to kill him, by running him over with the mercedes ed pain crime stories investigative reporter please tell me i've got the facts wrong well we know when police got there that you know this black mercedes that she was driving was doing like donuts all over the front yard and she was chasing him around it's not funny jackie quit laughing okay go ahead i guess it says something about her that she pulled out her two-door mercedes to uh track down her former lover that you mean her son-in-law yeah it was her lover slash son-in-law it was quite a side of police well if you're gonna run

over somebody you might as well do it in style yeah with the donuts so and enraged davis was seen by police seen by responding police chasing michael with her mercedes on his front lawn while he tried to dodge the oncoming mercedes you know a mercedes is a hunk it is a ton of metal so this is what we know there has been and i remember covering it the the first death by Mercedes when a dentist's wife ran him down in the parking lot. He was nothing but a speed bump. And they had two little boys left. Daddy's dad and mommy's in jail. Great.

That's one of the reasons, Dr. Bethany, is you've advised me not to kill David because the twins will be left with who? What? Who's going to take care of them? Alan Duke? I mean, what am I going to do? So that's why I hold back. You know, I put that knife back in the drawer every night after dinner. But here, the mother-in-law tries to kill the son-in-law. Dr. Bethany, we need to shrink desperately here. Oh, by the way, with the dentist's wife, not only did she run over her husband, then she went back and forth over him multiple times. So it was really an overkill situation. And I would say in this case, this just screams a borderline personality disorder to me. You know, women with borderline personality... Can we just start with the eggs

can we start with the throwing the eggs a 58 year old woman throwing eggs at a car and a house well first of all what about the fact that this son intent this son-in-law intentionally destroys the mother-daughter relationship by a sleeping with the mother-in-law it's not like she was the only one involved in that he He was there, too. And then telling the daughter. Why couldn't he keep his yap shut? Just shut his pie hole. Well, poor judgment, right?

But on the mother's part, I kept thinking about the role of envy, having envy towards her daughter. The daughter's young. Did you see the photos? The daughter's gorgeous. She looks happy. And when people are envious, this is so shocking. I almost don't even know what to say. Other than the fact that

when people are envious, they usually want to destroy the object of their envy. Envy is a feeling that if you have something good and I don't have it, I want to destroy what you have. So I think this is a mother who's envious towards her daughter for having a marriage, a home, babies, the life. And so what better way to destroy the object of her envy than to sleep with the daughter's husband? That's what she did. And then the husband, it'd be interesting as the story unfolds to know more about this,

but the husband stupidly thinks that if he tells his wife that somehow the situation will be better. Well, it's not. It gets worse. And then the mother-in-law, not only is she envious, but she's massively immature. I mean, throwing eggs at the house, that's what teenagers do. That's not what a grown, mature woman does. So somehow she thinks that if she eggs the house, the situation will be better. I mean, this is a really, a very disturbed mother. I know I'm looking at a photo right now, Karen Smith, forensics expert of the mom, the mother, you see Kathleen, the mother, putting a necklace on her daughter on her wedding day with the bridesmaids in the background.

I mean, and they're all so gorgeous. They're all dressed up in these beautiful outfits. Here we go with the mermaid dress again. I mean, it looks like a Barbie doll. I mean, how can it go so wrong, Karen Smith? And there's really no way out forensically, Karen, because the cops drive up and they see her running the guy down. Absolutely. I cannot imagine pulling up in my patrol car, seeing a black Mercedes with a woman driving, doing donuts in the front yard, and this guy shucking and jiving, trying to dodge, being run over. You talk about probable cause. And in the police report, which was so succinctly written, everything is down there. It even says that after they arrested her and put her in the police report which was so succinctly written everything is down there it even says that after they arrested her and put her in the back seat she said yeah i wanted him

dead so not only do you have a spontaneous utterance i don't even know if she was red miranda at that point it doesn't really matter um the police hello open and close case no problem you know what i think it's deeper than what we know. I mean, it's deep enough. You've got the mother-in-law sleeping with the son-in-law, the son-in-law relieving himself of his guilt by telling his wife. He and the wife become estranged, of course, and separate. Then the mother-in-law comes over, eggs the house, and tries to run the husband down with a Mercedes. But that's not all. You go back a couple of months. Listen to what I learned, Dr. Bethany. Just a few months before this, police were called to the home because neighbors heard Hannah scream. And this is what Hannah says when the police get there. They were having family dinner with the two children, two-year-old and six-year-old boys, the father and the mother

around the dinner table. The husband, Michael, according to the wife, Hannah, gets extremely agitated by the conversation at dinner where the mom is talking about an achievement she had at work that he, quote, flipped out on her and everything went haywire. Wow. Go ahead, Dr. Beth. You know, what that tells me is that there was definitely a domestic abuse situation happening in the home. Because one of the things we see with domestic abuse is jealousy towards the wife's achievements. In fact, you know from all the stories we've covered over the years, Nancy, that women are at the greatest risk for domestic homicide when they have a big achievement. Or they're about to leave the relationship. that women are at the greatest risk for domestic homicide when they have a big achievement or they're about to leave the relationship. Like let's say they decide to go to college or they bring home an award or they decide to take a trip with their girlfriends. I mean, they have some

accomplishment or achievement in the world which marks autonomy in the relationship that usually the husband gets dysregulated and then lashes out. So not only do we have the mother-in-law, who I believe had envy and jealousy towards her daughter and wanted to destroy the marriage, but now Hannah is married to a man who's also envious and jealous towards her accomplishment and achievement. So she can't catch a break. She has a mother and a husband, both who envy her. so talk about patterns repeating this this is a really good example of that you know another thing about this area it's jupiter florida you know that's where all those millionaires go to live like tiger woods lives there there's just like millionaire row and exclusive shops and huge mansions which really shows that you cannot judge a book by their cover.

Because here they are in this home surrounded by palm trees and beautiful grass and lovely estates. Well, this is what's going down. An affair exposed a mother-in-law eggs the home in the car of her son-in-law, her lover, after he exposes it to the daughter. You know, Dr. Bethany, why would he have told the daughter? Why? Why would he tell his wife? You know, we'll never know why. But what I would guess is that he rationalized to himself that he was getting it off his chest.

But really, he told her because he wanted to stick it to her. How about he's just a good old-fashioned a-hole? What about that? Oh, I'm sorry. That's probably not psychoanalytical language. No, the clinical term is douchebag Nancy. Okay. Now, Dr. Bethany, my children may one day listen to this.

This is why we never, ever, ever use the Lord's name in vain, and we spell things, preferably backwards. Okay. Sadly, the children now know how to spell backwards. Okay, so I'm kind of at a loss here. So where does it stand right now? Ed Payne, Crime Stories investigative reporter, please tell me I'm wrong. Has this woman actually made bonds?

Is she out traipsing around free? Yeah, I'm afraid she has. Oh, dear Lord in heaven. Everybody batting the hatches. Two days behind bars at the Palm Beach County Jail. I bet that was tough, the Palm Beach County Jail. Go ahead. She's out.

Right? Yeah, $3,000 bond. So that's live from Palm Beach Gardens as we wait to find out what's going to happen next. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Word to the wise. A, get a divorce if you want to have an affair. Okay. B, don't pull donuts in the front yard. C, don't egg anybody and get caught. And D, if you must sleep around, don't do it with an

in-law. And with that, I'm signing off. Goodbye, friend. Do you find yourself obsessing over unsolved mysteries? Do you wish there was a group of Goodbye, friend. cold cases they adopt. Their first cold case focuses on the mysterious disappearance of nursing student Mara Murray in 2004, and it's free to join thanks to Oxygen. Sign up now or find more info at club.crimecon.com. That's club.crimecon.com. This is an iHeart Podcast.