Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Worst news about 4 missing men, teen girl shoots mom

Episode Date: July 13, 2017

The news nobody wanted to hear was delivered early Thursday: The remains of 1 of 4 young men missing in Pennsylvania were found in a mass grave. WFMZ reporter Jamie Stover updates the search and probe. An Illinois teenager reportedly confessed to shooting her mom and then calling her girlfriend to help covering up the murder. The teens allegedly burned down the house after trying to clean up the blood. Psychologist Dr. Bethany Marshall explains what in a teen's mind might lead to matricide. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Sirius XM Triumph, Channel 132. The body of one of four Pennsylvania men missing since last week has been found. We have found human remains in an approximately 12 and a half foot peak common grave. We can now identify Dean Pinocchiaro, 19 years old, as one of the people found buried in that grave. He and three other men went missing within miles of each other over the course of several days last week. This is a homicide, make no mistake about it. There are additional human remains inside that grave. So this painstaking process will go on.

We're not done yet. We all knew in the middle of the night, when a late night press conference was called, that it couldn't be good. We knew. I'm Matt Weintraub, Bucks County District Attorney. I'm here to make an announcement about a significant development in the investigation that you've all been following so patiently, so diligently, we have found human remains in an approximately 12 1⁄2 foot deep common grave that we have painstakingly dug with a lot of care so as not to damage any potential evidence. I'm very very sad to say that we can now identify Dean Finochiaro, 19 years old of Middletown, as one of the people that was found

buried in that grave. He's been missing since Friday. We notified his family that we have recovered his body. There are additional human remains inside that grave. So this painstaking process will go on. We're not done yet. This is a homicide. Make no mistake about it. We just don't know how many homicides. We are yet to know the answer to that question.

And I want to let you know that we reiterated over and over again, and it goes to say one more time to the families that we're strong, and we're going to remain strong, and we're going to see this investigation to the end, and we're going to bring each and every one of these lost boys home to their families one way or another. We will not rest until we do that. I will take a few questions and then I'll see you tomorrow at 11. Do you have a number of these guys shot?

I can't comment on the type of homicide that it is at this point, but I am comfortable classifying it as homicide, Dan. Do you have enough to file homicide charges now, at least for the one victim? That is something that we're going to look at very, very closely. I feel that we bought ourselves a little bit of time in charging Mr. DiNardo with the stolen car case today and getting that $5 million bail. It is my hope that he does not post that, but that's his prerogative, of course, if he can post it. But we're going to start looking seriously at the homicide charges, and in fact, we already

have pursued that option. We hoped for the best, but a sense of foreboding hung in the late nine hours. We now know that one of four missing young Bucks County boys' body has been found. Intriguing. intriguing. It is stated by authorities that one body has been found among, quote, multiple bodies in a 12 and a half foot deep grave at a five million dollar farm. The family of this young boy, Dean Vinicario, just devastated. Our prayers and thoughts out to those families now. Joining me right now, special guest from Bucks County, Jamie Stover from WFMZ-TV. Please tell us what happened. So it was just several hours after the person of interest in this whole case was re-arrested on a charge that had directly connected him to these

four individuals that the district attorney alerted the press that he was... You mean the car charge? Yes, directly connecting him to one of the four men that had gone missing. Let's catch that back up, Jane. Sure. What I learned in the evening yesterday is that the heir to this vast real estate. I don't even know what to call it because there's a $5 million farm. There are multiple property holdings. There are homes scattered around the area

from what we've been told. And he, DiNardo, Cosmo DiNardo, is the heir to all that. He had been under suspicion, DiNardo, Cosmo DiNardo, is the heir to all that. He had been under suspicion, unspoken, and he had first been arrested on a gun charge regarding a 20-gauge Savage Arms shotgun and ammo that had been filed months ago. It had been dropped. Then they revived it, re-arrested him which in my mind was just a pretense to get him behind bars see if he'd talk about where these four boys are then he gets a million dollar bond that's a big clue that they suspect him of more than just

one shotgun possession and from what i've been told to the anger or the irritation of the DA, and I don't blame him, DiNardo makes the million-dollar bond. Then they discover that he has tried to sell, DiNardo has tried to sell one of the missing boy's cars, in the car tellingly is the boys the missing boys diabetic kit he has to have with him so you've got Cosmo DiNardo trying to hawk the car of a missing boy and that just blew everything wide open okay take it on Jamie. So from there, just hours after that came down, it was the first time we finally heard anything or got any clues as to what exactly it was about DiNardo that raised alarm with investigators. Hours after that, hours after he's put back into jail on this now $5 million bail, the district attorney calls this midnight news conference for a major update. And of course, everyone's wondering at that point, you know,

what are we going to hear? What are we going to learn? And the district attorney didn't spend a whole lot of time up there, but he didn't have to because he had some pretty bombshell news in which he announced that they found a 12 and a half foot deep common grave that he claims they have been slowly trying to uncover to try not to disturb any of this evidence. And he did say that there were multiple human remains in that grave on a DiNardo family farm where they've been searching for days. And at this point, they've been able to identify one of them. And it is, in fact, one of those young men who've been missing since last week, 19-year-old Dean Finocchiario. And the district attorney made no hesitation about it to say that

they are investigating this as a homicide. The question, though, is, you know, how many homicides are there? And what was the nature of these homicides? We don't know how this young man was killed. The district attorney chose not to dive into that if if they in fact know that answer at this point that is something we we are of course going to be right now when they say multiple bodies they don't we don't know if they're just the four missing boys if all four missing boys are in this so-called common grave that's a nice way of putting it, a common grave. It's a mass grave.

There are many bodies in there. Under the law, more than one body equals mass, as in mass killing. It leads me to think that there are more homicide victims in that so-called common grave, mass grave, authorities are in the process, as Jamie Stover from WFMZ-TV is telling us, of identifying further remains which were found by the use of cadaver dogs that they had deployed in the search of of the missing boys DiNardo sold guns and marijuana and in the past has bragged about killing somebody over some money and I found another connection we have said in the past that DiNardo was a Facebook friend of one of the missing boys, Patrick. Jamie advised us. They both attended school together. It was Holy Ghost Prep School in Ben Salem, but this almost broke my heart. We learned that Patrick, who had just finished his freshman year at Loyola

in Baltimore, just finished his first year of college. He and DiNardo were both members of a public Facebook group for buying and selling sneakers. If you look on DiNardo's Flickr account, what we believe to be his Flickr account, there are 187 photos of shoes. Okay, he had plenty of time to do that, including very expensive Air Jordans and Nikes. Interesting, some all four boys,

all four missing Bucks County boys are in that mass grave? Well, we don't have any confirmation of that. The only connection there is that they've been looking for four young men. They've been looking for four young men. They've been looking haven't been reporting on that may have been in that grave? And the district attorney did say yesterday after a quick slip up that they don't believe so, that they don't believe that there are other individuals. But they are looking into it, of course um and uh i mean that's basically where it stands i mean they're saying they don't know how many bodies are in this mass grave now this family began to amass a commercial and residential real estate holding empire thanks to cosmo dinardo's late grandfather he started buying real estate all the way back in the 70s. They have family properties in Philadelphia.

They have a multi-unit apartment building. Another building leads to a non-profit organization. There is a home in Ben Salem where his grandson, Cosmo Di DiNardo was twice arrested this week. What more do we know about, well hold on that's not even the end. DiNardo's dad also purchased commercial properties in Montgomery. There's a strip of storefronts. It goes on and on. And they use this main family residence where they control their business empire. There's a Philadelphia home, four more properties in Philadelphia, too, in Ben Salem.

My point is, this is a really rich family probably never would have suspected anything like this going on on their property and I just wonder how the parents didn't know something odd was going on. Well, the district attorney is hoping to speak to them. And yesterday, the DiNardo family, their attorney that they've retained, did a news conferences yesterday that they could really use anyone really to help them out with this investigation. Although it is clear that the district attorney does believe that you spoke a little bit about family finances, that the family could afford to bail him out again. Even given that DiNardo on that car charge, that stolen car charge, the judge set his bail at $5 million straight. And the district attorney made a point in the courtroom to say that he believes that the family probably could afford to cover that $5 million to get DiNardo out of prison.

That has not happened at this point. The district attorney said last night that they had hoped that this may buy them some time. You know, not really entirely sure what that means. There have been no homicide charges filed against anyone at this point, but the DA is working toward that. Whether or not, you know, what kind of time they think they need for that remains to be seen. What do we know about the grand jury proceedings in that jurisdiction? In a lot of large jurisdictions, for instance, the one where I prosecuted, there was a grand jury, the same grand jury was summoned twice a week. As I recall, it was Tuesday and Thursday, and they would start early in the morning, early, early, like 7.30, 8 o'clock, we would start presenting to the grand

jury, and it would go past lunchtime or later if they had to, and then they reconvene on Thursday. And there would be around 150 cases to 200 cases indicted each day, which would be 400 cases at least a week, essentially. And we would have multiple prosecutors presenting to the grand jury. It only takes typically one witness to present a case to a grand jury because hearsay is allowed at a grand jury proceeding. It's not an issue of guilt or innocence. It's simply, is there enough evidence for this case to go to a jury to determine? So one witness can come in, i.e. the lead investigator, and state what has been found so far, including hearsay, and the grand jury decides they simply do yay or nay, bill, true bill,

or no bill. True bill goes on to a pettit jury, a jury of 12, no bill, it's over, it's dropped. We also were learning, as we now know, human remains found on the DiNardo estate. Reports that his parents are facing a grand jury on Thursday. This is one week after the first of four young men in Bucks County goes missing. Reports are that Antonio and Sandra DiNardo will face a grand jury on Thursday morning. The grand jury investigation may help get answers in the case, including details on Cosmo DiNardo's, their son's location and movements during the week the four boys go missing. Now, they've got a great lawyer. His name is Fortunato Perry Jr.

Issued a statement saying the family sympathizes with the families of the missing men and are cooperating. It's going to be a toughie to cooperate fully when it may cost your son life behind bars. Is there a death penalty in Pennsylvania, Jamie? Yes. I assume a death, lethal injection, death by needle? Well, we haven't had one actually in Pennsylvania in a very long time, even though they do have that sentence. It's been more than a decade since there has actually been an execution in Pennsylvania. And, you know, and that all would stem from, you know, that's getting way ahead. But that would all depend on whether prosecutors think that there are aggravating circumstances here that they could go after that sort of sentence.

And at this point, we're still waiting to see, you know, if a homicide charge comes into play and who that charge is against at this point. Well, I can guarantee you this, you know, I'm certainly no clairvoyant, but there's going to be a homicide charge. There will be at least one homicide charge because you don't just fall over by accident into a mass grave and bury yourself. Also, what they have been through, law enforcement, in finding these four boys has been painstaking. Using heavy equipment to dig a deep ditch on the property and then sifting through each bucket of dirt by hand. That's how painstakingly they have searched this property, searching through each bucket of dirt by hand. Still with me, Jamie Stover from WFMZ-TV,

and we are talking about the four missing Bucks County boys, one body now discovered. Jamie, what can you tell me about allegations the person of interest, Cosmo DiNardo, had not just been selling sneakers online, but guns and marijuana, and even bragging about having somebody killed over money. I can't tell you anything about that. Of course, there are, if you go on any news site or social media where the story's been tracked, you may find a thousand different theories on this. But the reality is, at this point, investigators have given no indication on what exactly may have been going on here, what may have led, how Dean Fenucciario, the only one of these males who has been located,

of course, as we mentioned, found dead. We don't know how we got to that property. We don't know why. We don't know the extent of that relationship. These are all the details that we're still waiting for prosecutors to answer as we try to understand really what happened in this whole thing. You know, how four young men and, you know, all around the same age from four different parts of the county go missing. Well, it's amazing to me if this is true that he had been selling marijuana and guns and he was already under some type of proviso not to have that weapon the savage arms 20 gauge and the ammo that had to be in place for a reason that he was still at it if these allegations are true jamie what do we know about the four boys themselves i know one was a freshman at loyola an upcoming sophomore what else do we know well we

know uh thomas mio the the the young man who um whose car was found uh the DiNardo property. I've heard him described as nothing but a good kid, and that goes from family, that goes to friends, and his best friend, Mark Sturgis, who is also one of the four young missing men, was his best friend. They worked together for Sturgis' dad's construction company. In fact, that is the last time that they were seen together. It was the Sturgis family understanding that their son was going to be meeting with his

best friend, which wouldn't seem out of the ordinary for a young man to, for, for a young, for a young man to, to want to hang out with his friend. But what stuck out to them is when, uh, when their son's car, uh, after he went missing, turned up at a, at a shopping center, as you and I spoke yesterday, that, um, wouldn't really, uh, scream young, young man in his twenties. It's just not that, uh, kind of environment, um, most likely, but really we've heard nothing but good things again I saw all the pictures look like middle-aged ladies walking around in a Talbot's outfit that's what it looked like you know one of those Yankee Candle shop type centers where they have you know stuff you'd sit around on on your coffee table or on a shelf.

Upscale shopping for doodads, I guess you'd say. It's what it looked like. Maybe very, very touristy. Very, very upscale. Just didn't make sense to me. So I know that one of them went to Loyola. I know that some of them were friends. We don't know how one third one, one fourth one was actually connected. Now, what do we know about one of them, Mayo, being a talented

wrestler, had been friends since grade school with some of the missing boys. Graduated from Ben Salem High School. Described as good-hearted, hard-working, a great athlete. I mean, it just goes on from there. It sounds like these four missing boys were just scrubbed in sunshine. I don't know how they got mixed up in all of this and that's what everyone's wondering is you know what is um and that's been a question from the beginning that i think you know the community is still uh waiting to hear that hear that answer on how exactly

did this all unfold were there conversations leading up to this? Another thing, Jamie, I don't understand why there's any bond. Any bond at all. Do you have to grant bond on a murder charge in that jurisdiction? I mean, he made bond on a million dollars. His parents have millions at their fingertips, apparently, with all their holdings. So it seems like almost no matter what bond they're going to give DiNardo, he's going to make it. They only have to put up 10% of the bond.

So not only is it cash, but they could use collateral, such as, you know, sign over their house note. That equals the bond stake. So no matter what they put in as a bond amount on murder this family can probably make it is there any possibility of no bond that that's my curiosity right now why does he have to get out and it is my understanding in Pennsylvania uh from all that I've ever seen um and obviously an attorney would probably be the best to ask that question to. But it's my understanding that a homicide charge is the

only charge in which a judge could set no bail. But that was a big point of contention in the court. I think you're right, because that's true in many jurisdictions. There can be no bond, and for many reasons. A, that he could be a flight risk. With a passport and money, he could be gone. If, in fact, he has been selling marijuana, if he has been bragging about other deaths, then he's not only a flight risk, but he's a danger to the community. We also know that he's not only a flight risk, but he's a danger to the community.

We also know that he's allegedly had mental issues that makes him a danger to himself. So there are many reasons he should not get bond. And this is what's so scary right now to parents all over the country hearing this. You couldn't ask for four better boys than these boys that have gone missing. Now one we know dead. You never know who your children are coming in contact with, who their families really are, who they really are. On something as tenuous as a sneaker exchange Facebook group. It's just, it's very, very scary to me as a parent. We are bringing you the very latest here on Crime Stories. And joining me, Jamie Stover from WFMZ-TV. Jamie is headed out right now for more on this.

Jamie, thank you so much for being with us, friend. Sure, and thank you for having me. We are expecting more from authorities as they continue to search, but at this hour, our thoughts and prayers with the families of these four boys, the Bucks County boys, thank you again for being with us. Mother Anna Schroeder comes home from work to her Morrison, Illinois home to see her daughter, Anna, who was waiting on her, or so she thought, but instead of meeting her loving daughter at the door, Mom, Peggy, has a towel thrown over her face and then she is shot in the head in her own living room. After that, the home was burned down in an effort to cover up the crime. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.

But now, her little girl. What has become of Anna Schroeder? She's charged with murder. That's what's happened to Anna Schroeder, the little girl that mommy rushed home from work to see. Yes, according to prosecutors, it was little Anna, mommy's little girl, that covered her own mother's face with a towel before shooting her dead. I'm overwhelmed. You know, I think of all the times I race, race. I nearly kill myself trying to get home to the twins, trying to get the twins to school, trying to get there to pick them up on time, trying to get them to soccer, to piano, to oh!

It's a constant race to do everything for your children, to be that mom in the Hallmark movie, in the Hallmark card, that perfect mom, that perfect family, and that's what Peggy Schroeder was trying to do, racing home to get dinner ready for her little girl. She's dead. Joining me right now is a very special guest, a longtime friend and colleague, Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst out of the LA area. Bethany, it's so great to hear your voice, even if it's over the airwaves. Nancy, it is wonderful to

be on air with you. And I feel so privileged to be talking about this story. It's horrific, but I'm glad we're going to be able to get into the details. You know, matricide, as it's called, or parenticide, which is slang, a slang term for when a child kills a parent, is extremely rare. Less than 1% of all murders are killing your mother. Less than 1%. But there's really no doubt in my mind that little Anna did this thing because she then texts to her friend, Rachel Helm, that her mom is dead. And the little friend doesn't believe it. And she, little Anna, the daughter, texts a photo of her mother dead to the friend, Rachel.

And I don't know what's going on in Rachel's head. But then she rushes over to her best friend's house to try to dispose of the body. And when they can't figure out what to do, they burn the house down. You know, in every case I ever tried, Dr. Bethany, there would always be one fact that just tore my heart up or made me the angriest or made me sick to my stomach. I remember I noticed it the first time when I was prosecuting a carjack case. It was my first carjack murder. And what got me, what threw me over the edge, I had to leave the courtroom, by the way. I didn't let the jury see that I was upset. I had them excused and I left for just a moment to compose myself. Was this fact, a young guy was carjacked and murdered. Hmm. People heard the gunshot and they ran out of their homes.

It was a nice neighborhood. And they see the young victim lying on somebody's driveway, bleeding from a head wound. Somebody rushed in and got a pillow and came out and put it under his head. I mean, he was dead. And they put a pillow under his head. I mean, he was dead. And they put a pillow under his head. And that act, to this day, I don't know, there's something so poignant and so evocative, the human mind and the human psyche. I got a conviction, the guy went to jail for life. Okay. But that pillow, that act of the neighbor. And in this case, it's a different emotion, Bethany. It's that the girl not only kills her mother,

but thinks so little of her. She sends a Facebook picture of her mother or a text of her mother's dead, bloody body. Bethany, what, help me. Well, and there's even more, Nancy, according to one report I read, Anna comes home and asks her mother to put the towel over her face before he shoots, she shoots her. So I don't know if she threw it over her mother's face, or she asked her mother to put it over her face. And it was a clean shot into the forehead. So you can imagine that this innocent mother, who actually also happened to be deaf, this is a deaf mom, who had

adopted Anna and an older sister of Anna's. So this is an adoptive mom. Anna asked her to put the towel over her head. There's a clean shot to the forehead. Anna calls her friend Rachel, who actually happens to also be Anna's lover. The two girls are girlfriends. They're lovers. And Rachel doesn't believe it at first. Anna texts a picture of her mother's bloodied body. Rachel comes over to the house, actually tries to help Anna clean up the scene. They spend the night, they drag the body into the mother's bedroom. They spend the night together, these two young lovers, these 15 year olds under the same roof as Peggy Schroeder, the deceased mother under the same roof as the corpse. And it's not until the next day when they realize that they're never gonna be able to clean up

or dispose of the remains that they decide to burn the house down. But you were asking a little bit more about motive. In about 50% of these cases where daughters between the ages of 15 and 17 kill their mothers, in 50% of the cases, there's extreme abuse going on in the household. Although I do not suspect that in this case. I don't either.

No, no. And the other 50% of cases, what you have is something called antisocial personality disorder, where you have a daughter that has simmering rage, resentment, lack of conscience, detachment, abusive relationship towards the mother. And you actually see an escalation of violence prior or leading up to the matricide. In the cases where the daughter has been abused, what you see is the daughter reaching out to maybe social workers, teachers, other types of people outside the house. And when they're unsuccessful, then they'll kill the parent. But in this case, you probably see the escalating pattern of violence. Here, there is no indication that this mother, Peggy Schroeder, had been anything but loving and caring and very self-sacrificing for her children, especially the daughter, Anna. And then I wonder what goes on in the mind of a killer when, for instance,

Anna Schroeder, the daughter, posts a chilling message, a very disturbing message to me anyway, on her mother's Facebook page telling her, quote, she would never forget her and she loved her. And she goes on in the post to say, quote, I don't even know if you can see me right now. But if you can, I just want you to know you were my best friend. She's evil. She's evil.

She's pure evil. She's a little girl, but she is the devil. Okay. Actually, she looks like it too. Did you see the photos of her? And she's big, kind of doughy eyed and her hair is dyed red. Both girls dyed their hair after the crime. They changed their hair color. What does that mean? I think they were, they were going to escape, but then Rachel, they would, I guess, go on the lam or, or, or try to, you know, evade consequences. But apparently

Rachel went home, told her mother, the mother drove Rachel straight to the police station. Rachel confessed. It was while Rachel was making the confession at the police station that Anna posted this Facebook post. It's so creepy. I mean, it really minimizes what she did to her mother. It's hard to tell if she's trying to cover up the crime. It's, you know, malingering that she's a good daughter who loves her mother. If she's minimizing it, it could even be that she's romanticizing the crime, that she's so happy that her mother's gone, that she does this. Can you talk to us like a regular person?

Please don't throw a lot of psychological terms on me. You know, I'm just a JD. All right. I'm just a trial lawyer. Well, what are you saying? Romanticize the crime. I think that after people in close family settings, after they commit homicide, often there's what we call a relief phase where they're actually glad that that other person's gone, that that other person's not on this earth anymore. So the Facebook post almost is like a love letter, sort of glorifying, dancing on her mother's grave. Mommy, I love you. I love you. But really what she's saying is, I'm happy you're gone. The daughter of a 53-year-old mother, Peggy Schroeder, is now charged for shooting her mother in the head, the mother Peggy, whose body was found in their burning home, a home that she worked so hard to provide for her family

to her daughters. She and a friend waited a day, tried to clean up the crime scene, then set the house on fire to conceal the crime, according to investigators. Now, Anna Schroeder, the teen scene, then set the house on fire to conceal the crime, according to investigators. Now, Anna Schroeder, the teen girl, lived with her mother, Peggy. She's now charged with two counts of first-degree murder, which I'm sure is a malice murder and a felony murder charge. This is charging her in the alternative. That means that if you take this to a jury, malice murder requires the jury find some degree of premeditation.

It can be in the blink of an eye, the time it takes you to raise a gun and pull the trigger. That's all that's required for malice or premeditation. There is another form of first-degree murder called felony murder, which is very simply that a death occurs during a felony for instance bethany not bethany and i go rob a bank bethany gets crazy and shoots a bank teller i can be charged with felony murder because i'm committing a felony and a death occurs during the felony i'm committing here it could be an aggravated assault with a weapon and a death occurred. There, just that simple. She is also charged with concealment of a homicidal death and arson. All of those are felonies.

Now, here's the kicker, Dr. Bethany Marshall. Even though she's charged with first-degree murder, because she is so young, the state law says she starts in juvenile court. If she's convicted as a minor, she will be out in about six years. That is so frightening, Nancy, because somebody who's this antisocial, maybe bordering on sociopathic, they don't attach to other people. They don't have a conscience. And when they kill, it's usually over something very innocuous. In most cases of matricide, when you rule out abuse,

you know, on the part of the parent towards the child, it's something so minor, like maybe her mother set a limit or told her she wouldn't give her an extra $20 to go out shopping, or told her that she couldn't see her girlfriend, Rachel. It was probably something so minor that spilled over into homicide. So imagine unleashing this woman on society. Now listen to these details, Dr. Bethany, and I want to hear you shrink it. Anna Schroeder allegedly texts the friend Rachel about what she did. Rachel did not believe her. So Schroeder sends her a picture of her mother's dead body.

Rachel had her mother give her a ride to the Schroeder's home that night. And the girls tried to get the blood out of the carpet. I can't even imagine trying to get my mother's blood out of the carpet. So they go to sleep in Anna's room. Then they try to move Peggy's body to her bedroom, as you said. They lay her on the floor, cover her with a bed sheet. That is interesting to me. I've seen so many homicides when it's someone you know,

the perpetrator will cover the face of the victim they continue with the corpse lying there the bloody corpse of her mother working on the carpet then they walk to subway and they spend an hour having subway sandwiches and that is when Schroeder learns her dad, Daryl Schroeder, is heading to town, and she goes in the bathroom and vomits. Just pure guilt, I guess. Well, several facts stand out. Wait a minute, I've got something else for you. Then they walk to a store and buy cleaning supplies.

They buy cleaning supplies, and like you said, Rachel, who is blonde, dyed her hair red. Schroeder, who is brunette, dyes hers black. Finally, Saturday morning, they set the house on fire to conceal the evidence. By setting fire to the bed sheet that is covering up the mother. Mm-hmm. What does that mean? Can you imagine burning your own mother? Well, you know, Nancy, several facts stand out. First of all, the mother was single. She had divorced the father. And often parents who are victims of

matricide are at greater risk when they're single, because often in households where there's an unstable child, at least if there's two parents, one parent can protect the other. So you remove a parent and then the remaining parent is more vulnerable. Secondly, the idea that probably this occurred over something seemingly innocuous, like I said before, often young women who commit matricide work in concert with somebody else. They very rarely work alone. Usually they'll have a boyfriend or a girlfriend, somebody who's under their firm control. In this case, again, they spent the night under the roof with the corpse. I think that shows how cold-blooded

Anna was. Covering the mother's body with the sheet, although I'd like to think it was a sign of respect, like the carjacking victim where the neighbor came out and put a pillow under the victim's head. In this case, I think she just didn't want to be disgusted by the sight of the corpse. I think that's how shallow, manipulative, cold-blooded, egocentric this perpetrator was. And in terms of burning down the house, she must have been enraged at her mother because it was sort of like burn, baby, burn. I mean, not only does she shoot her in the forehead, but then she wants to burn down the house. And to me, that speaks of burning rage, but probably not because of abuse, as we said before, probably burning rage because her mother set a limit or her mother didn't gratify her in some way catch this she researched the daughter anna schroeder children who murder

their parents this was so orchestrated and planned this was not a spur of the moment shooting she researched it she thought about You know, it reminds me a little Casey Anthony. Remember how she researched neck breaking and asphyxiation and all these things that taught mom research before the before her little girl, Kaylee went missing. And not really thinking that she was leaving this whole trail of clues behind her. You know, it's so obvious. And also the pre-planning and the malice, the wish to get rid of this person. And I wonder what else could have been a motive besides, you know, rage and hatred.

I bet there's something that Anna wanted from her mother that her mother wasn't giving her like money or privileges. And do you remember with Casey Anthony, she bragged one of her friends that she was going to inherit her parents house. She really thought she was going to get these riches or this largesse from from George and Cindy. And I wouldn't admit I think it's interesting that Anna was adopted. She and her older sister were adopted. And I wonder if in her fantasy world, there was all this largesse and bank accounts and riches and that she would inherit that. It's just speculation on my part. Maybe she's not that farsighted to think about that. But I would wonder if this was in her fantasy world. You know, she was waiting at home for her mother sitting in the living room waiting for

her to walk through the door with her mother's 38 caliber revolver and the mom gets home at about 5 30 comes straight home from work to get to her daughter when anna meets her in the living room and shoots her execution style in the forehead. Well, that's what I know. And I'm waiting to find out if this girl, this killer, can be, as we say, bound over to adult court. I don't know if that's allowed in this jurisdiction. But that would mean that she would be treated as an adult. I want to thank Dr. Bethany Marshall, my friend and colleague, Nancy Grace. Crime Stories, signing off.

Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.