Dateline NBC - Arrest in UnitedHealthcare CEO murder. Drama at a Georgia sentencing. And Josh Mankiewicz on "Deadly Mirage."

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

Listen to this week's episode of the Dateline: True Crime Weekly podcast with Andrea Canning. What we know about the man suspected of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week in Manhattan. At her sentencing, a Georgia grandmother convicted of murder points the finger at her own son. And, the latest on Mommy Doomsday's legal woes. Plus, Josh Mankiewicz stops by to talk about his latest podcast, "Deadly Mirage." Find out more about the cases covered each week here: www.datelinetruecrimeweekly.com To get new episodes every Thursday, follow here on Apple and Spotify:Apple: https://apple.co/3Vx5THGSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5utP1NZyMUlyaUUv7XNq7j

I'm seeing Celia there. She sprung from jury duty? She is. You're listening in to Dateline's morning meeting in 30 Rockefeller Center. I think we got everybody. We'll go ahead and jump in. Our editorial team is catching up on breaking crime news around the country. I can give the police a call and see what evidence they have.

He didn't think there is yet a connection between the killer and the victim. It has a lot of wild tape and I couldn't figure out who did it in the end or what actually happened. I'm Andrea Canning. Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly. It's December 12th and here's what's on our docket. Drama in a Georgia courtroom as the woman convicted of shooting her attorney husband and throwing his body on a bonfire read a statement at her sentencing and pointed the finger at her own son. In Dateline Roundup, what will the jury decide in the case of the man accused of stabbing

Cash App co-founder Bob Lee to death? And more on the bombshell civil suit accusing Sean Diddy Combs and legendary rap mogul Jay-Z of raping a teenager. The suit claims the alleged assault happened after the Video Music Awards in 2000. Plus, Josh Mankiewicz tells us what he learned about the young couples at the heart of his new podcast series, Deadly Mirage. After the kids are in bed, some things happen that don't happen during the day. Let's just say. But before all that, we turn to a story that started last week in Midtown Manhattan, just blocks from our office at 30 Rock and has gripped the nation ever

since. In the early hours of last Wednesday morning, Brian Thompson, the 50-year-old CEO of health insurance company UnitedHealthcare, was gunned down outside of a New York City hotel where he was scheduled to attend an investor conference. The gunman fled the scene of what police said was a premeditated, preplanned attack. A manhunt is underway right now for the gunman who shot and killed the top executive of America's largest private health insurance company. The NYPD began a search for the shooter

holding daily press conferences, reviewing hours of surveillance footage and tips offering reward money. But five days into the manhunt, there was no sign an arrest was imminent until a phone call from a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania changed everything. Here's the deputy chief of the Altoona Police Department at a press conference. This morning at approximately 914 a.m., Altoona police officers received a call of a suspicious

male at a local restaurant. The man's name was Luigi Mangione, and within hours, the 26-year-old was charged with Brian Thompson's murder. NBC News correspondent Stephanie Goss has been reporting in Manhattan and Altoona on this investigation, and she's here to tell us what she's learned. And just a note before we start, this is still a developing story and things are changing very quickly, so we should say that we are taping this on Wednesday afternoon. Stephanie, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

You're welcome. Thanks for having me on, Andrea. All right. So you just, before we started taping, called it a fire hose of information. So there has been so much coming out in this story. Yeah, interesting. You know, I got the call and the person on the other end of the phone said, get to Altoona. We immediately hit the road.

It was just get in the car and drive basically five hours to this town, to this remarkable turning point in this story, where Luigi Mangione, whose name we had not heard, who had not been identified up until that point, was seen in a McDonald's. What have you learned about who this man is? Interesting background. He comes from a well-to-do family in Baltimore. He then went off to the Ivy League to the University of Pennsylvania, where he got a bachelor's and a master's in computer science. Then NBC News has reached out to the owner of what's called a co-living – I guess you

would call it a hotel of sorts or apartment complex – who became friends with him and said that he interestingly had a lot of back trouble, that it was tough for him to maintain a relationship because of the pain he was undergoing. We have also confirmed on a Reddit account of his and in some of these Reddit posts he talks a bit about his back pain and surgery and all of this is a way to get into why he may or may not have issues with the health insurance industry, Andrea. So there was a so-called manifesto. Where was that found and what did he apparently say in this? Well, according to three senior law enforcement officials, it was about 300 words or so. So it wasn't a ton.

It was handwritten. It broadly criticizes the health insurance industry. Also specifically mentions United Healthcare. LESLIE KENDRICK And he said something to the effect of these parasites had it coming. KATE BAKER Yeah, strong words. He certainly seems to be alluding to the murder there. LESLIE KENDRICK Yeah, seems like it.

Were there any other targets? KATE BAKER Nothing specific, but it is certainly a concern within the NYPD of copycats potentially. There has been this kind of support for what he did. The NYPD again speaking out saying, this guy's not a hero. He murdered somebody, a father of two from Minnesota. You may have anger towards the health insurance industry. A lot of people do, but that does not warrant what he did that day in New York City. So there's legal cases going on now in both Pennsylvania and New York. Can you break down

the charges for us? Sure. In Pennsylvania, he was found with a weapon that was very similar to the one seen in the video of the shooter. So he is facing felony gun possession charges. He's also facing a charge of flying to police about his identity. And then in New York, it's the second degree murder charge as well as a gun possession charge or a few others. He has not entered a plea yet and you have this extradition process. You may remember with the Idaho murder story, Andrea, that Brian Kohlberger was also arrested, interestingly, in Pennsylvania and he did not fight extradition. He was turned around and sent to Idaho pretty quickly. In this case, you've got something of a surprise that his defense attorney, newly acquired, stood up in court yesterday and said that they were going to

fight this extradition, which could slow it down for weeks. But law experts say it is something of an inevitability that he's going to end up in New York City. So you were at the extradition hearing on Tuesday in Pennsylvania. It's really fascinating because we had been inside the courthouse trying to get a good seat early and we started getting some messages about how he entered the courthouse. Now he was escorted by armed sheriff's deputies in his orange jumpsuit. Our cameras were there and caught him going in and he was really agitated. He was yelling out. What are you doing? I'm sitting here untouched and I insult the intelligence of the American people and my experience.

He said something about, you know, the American people are being insulted, their intelligence is being insulted. By the time he got into the courtroom, when we were sitting there, he was calm, he was relaxed, even smiled a couple of times. There was also really an interesting moment during this hearing, which was pretty brief. But at one point, he tried to speak. Mangione tried to say something when he was not being addressed by the judge and his defense attorney whipped around and snapped, don't say a word. A little bit of tension between the defense attorney and his client. From an investigative standpoint, what happens next?

They're still sorting through hours and hours and hours, hundreds of hours of video. They are going through the forensics. We've just heard confirmation that they retrieved a print, some prints they say, that are the same at the crime scene that are the same as Luigi Mangione's. You know, there are some outstanding questions that I have and primarily they have to do with the planning of this. Brian Thompson was at a hotel down the street, which is not the hotel where the conference was being held. I'm very curious as to how he might have known that information.

So chilling when you raise that question, Stephanie. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast and breaking it down for us. Thanks, Andrea. Up next, the latest in a Georgia trial that's been broadcast all over the country. Last month, a 64-year-old grandmother was convicted of murdering her husband.

Then last week, she made a statement at her sentencing. I have waited for years to make this statement to everyone. I want the world to know who did this. That's Melody Ferris, who was convicted last month of murdering her husband of 38 years and burning his body to try to cover up her crime. At her month-long trial, the prosecutor painted a picture of an unfaithful wife looking for a way out of an unhappy marriage.

You're going to hear about the Ferris. Unfortunately for this family, they have drama. They are not a perfect family. Melody's defense team argued there are too many unknowns for a guilty verdict. We do have a lot of unanswered questions. Where was Gary shot? Where is the gun? No idea. How did Gary even die? But the real drama came at her sentencing last week when Ferris turned on her own son and accused him of being his father's killer. Dateline producer Carol Gabel covered Melody's trial and is here to fill us in. Carol, thanks for coming on the podcast. Thanks Andrea.

Let's jump back in time a little bit. Who were Melody and Gary Ferris? Well, they were college sweethearts. And while Gary, you know, rose in prominence and became a very respected real estate attorney. Melody stayed home. They quickly started having children. And then they were able to buy what you might call a gentleman farm in Alpharetta, Georgia, which is right outside of Atlanta. They had a really nice sort of bespoke barn with a very nice apartment. You know, they had, from the outside, had a really nice life.

There was trouble between Melody and Gary. Did people know that? The children were very well aware of what was going on, that, you know, Gary was living downstairs in, you know, what would be a very elaborate suite and Melody was living upstairs. What we learned in the trial is that she had a couple of affairs. There was testimony that perhaps Gary did too, but Gary just didn't want to be divorced. Yeah, by the time Gary died, all the kids were pretty much out of the house with the perhaps Gary did too, but Gary just didn't want to be divorced. Yeah, by the time Gary died, all the kids were pretty much out of the house, with the exception of their son living in the apartment above the barn.

The police get involved in July of 2018, and Scott is the one who was living in the apartment above the barn. He's calling the police on Melody. What is going on here? Over the Fourth of July, Gary goes missing. And Gary apparently loves a big bonfire. And out in the country, it is certainly not unusual for people to have what they call a burn pile. And all the kids are looking for him. Melody is looking for him. And Scott is the one who calls the police because he says, I see a body on this burn pile. AMT – What did the police find when they come to the farm? LH – Well, they find Gary Ferris. And upon closer examination by the coroner and the pathologist.

We learned that he also suffered gunshot wounds. Then we learned that there were droplets of blood on his level of the house. So it's looking like he was shot in the house. When do they start turning their attention to melody? They always look at the spouse, but double in this case because this is a remote area. So the whole issue of a stranger might've done it, it just seems a lot less likely. I think Melody is a suspect early on,

but almost a year before she is finally charged. What is the motive exactly? Is it that, you know, the prosecution is saying she was angry at her husband or was she set to have a big payday from his death or, you know, all of the above? I think it's all of the above. And I think what the whole family dynamic had been for years is just a slow simmer of unhappy. The prosecution called to the stand a lot of witnesses. They called three of the four children. How are the children handling this?

In this case, it was very sad to watch because you could tell the turmoil they were in. Melody's two sons and one of her daughters testified for the prosecution. Then you had one daughter, the fourth child, and she testified for the defense. Amanda was, I think, one of their most key witnesses. I was calling out his name, trying to find him. I was getting desperate at this point. And I was standing right as the driveway dips and Scott calls me. On your phone? On my phone.

And he goes, Amanda, daddy's in this burn pile. I've been in Iraq. I know what burn bodies looked like. Amanda kind of points the finger at Scott, her brother. AMT – Well, I think all of the kids could be a little annoyed with sort of all of the attention and the financial support he got from his dad. You know Melody is quite small. AMT – Yes. AMT – And Gary is large.

And if she killed him, you know, there was that idea of how does she get him to the burn pile which is quite far away from the house. Well, it is. So in closing arguments, the defense attorney dropped 300 pounds of salt in front of the jury box and it was clearly difficult for him and he's saying to the jury, now imagine that little lady, she picked that up. I would say it was very visually impactful. Scott, why don't you look at the jury and answer this question?

You know, the interesting part is just the trial went on. Scott took the stand. Did you murder your father? I absolutely did not murder my father. Without a doubt, I loved him. Did you have anything to do to help your mother dispose of and burn your father? Absolutely not. He just was not a suspect, as it turned out, for police.

And we know that Scott and Melody did not have a great relationship. If the dad dies, Melody could cut him off. So, there didn't seem to be much of a motive for Scott to kill his dad. The jury deliberated for three days and returned guilty on all counts for Melody Walker. She was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. And she made quite a shocking statement. Yeah. She blamed Scott. Not only did I not do this, but I know who did. I know Scott killed his father. That had sort of been her theme, but, you know, she didn't take the stand. We only heard

from her at the sentencing. Scott, I have spent an entire life of loving and protecting you, but this I refuse to cover for you. As bad as it sounds, I want to be there to watch him chained and shackled and brought to justice. I plead with you. Yeah, this is definitely a case of a family divided for sure. Exactly. And we talked to all but one of the children during the trial. And one thing that did, as a mom, it made me feel good, is that the adult children have sort of made a pact that they would like to reconcile and to kind of rebuild their family

moving forward. That is very nice to hear, Carol. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Coming up, it's Dateline Roundup. A new celebrity was named in a bombshell civil suit filed against Sean Diddy Combs last week.

And updates on the upcoming trial of Lori Vallow, AKA Mommy Doomsday. Plus, Josh Mankiewicz will be here to talk about Deadly Mirage, his new podcast about a group of young couples who liked to party until one of them was murdered. Welcome back. Joining me for this week's roundup is Dateline producer Michelle Madigan. Hey, Michelle. Hello, Andrea. Okay, we're going to start today with Verdict Watch in a story we've been covering a lot on the podcast lately. The trial of Nima Momeni, the man accused

of fatally stabbing Cash App co-founder Bob Lee back in 2023. Michelle, you just got back from San Francisco where the jury began deliberations last week, and this is not a quick one. It's taking a while. Yes, days have gone by. The jury is really taking their time in their deliberations. As a reminder, Momeni isene is charged with first degree murder, but the jury could reject that and find him guilty

of a lesser charge, like second degree murder or manslaughter. Or they could find him not guilty of any charge. What has the energy been like at the courthouse during deliberations? Because it gets hard for people the longer the jury is out. There is a lot of tension on the second floor of that courthouse. At the end of the hallway,

where this trial has been taking place, you have a lot of media just waiting. The jury files in and files out, and you're trying to read their expressions, and you really can't tell. The defendant's mother was there, pacing back and forth. I did hear she brought cake for the media and people that are waiting.

There's just an energy of anticipation. Next up, we're off to New York for news in another big case we've been following, the mounting sexual assault allegations against music mogul Sean Diddy Combs. Earlier this week, NBC News' Chloe Malas broke the news that there are now allegations against another star. Tonight, explosive allegations against legendary rapper and mogul Jay-Z. One of the lawsuits involving Shawn Combs was refiled on Sunday to include new accusations against one of his former close friends, rapper Jay-Z, whose legal name is Shawn Carter. The plaintiff here is anonymous. She's identified only as

Jane Doe in the lawsuit. She accuses Kongs and Carter of assaulting her in the year 2000 at an MTV Video Music Awards after party when she was just 13 years old. What have we heard from Sean Carter since this accusation has come out? I know he's been somewhat vocal, at least in writing. Absolutely. Both Combs and Carter have denied these accusations. Carter's lawyer, Alex Spiro, has submitted a court filing asking the judge overseeing the case to require that the plaintiff either reveal her identity or dismiss the charges.

Okay, well, be sure to follow up on that story. We are finally headed to Arizona for a news and another case that may be familiar to Dateline fans, Lori Valo-Daybell. She was the subject of a few Dateline episodes, plus Keith's podcast, Mommy Doomsday. What is going on with that? So, yes, last year, Daybell was sentenced to life in prison in Idaho for the 2019 murders of her two children. But she's currently in prison now in Arizona,

awaiting two separate trials for newer allegations that she allegedly conspired to kill her former husband Charles Ballot. That's the man she was married to when she met Chad Daybelle. Prosecutors also say she conspired to kill her niece's ex-husband, Brandon Goudreau. Last week, she had two big hearings. In the first, a judge said that Laurie was competent to go to trial. In the second, a different judge granted her request to represent herself in court. The team from East Idaho News was in the courtroom. Let's take a listen. Can you just tell me a little bit why you want to represent yourself?

Yes, Your Honor. For the past five years that I've been incarcerated, I have taken upon myself to study case law and criminal rules of procedure in the state of Idaho and Arizona, as well as federally. Laurie will first face a jury on the charges relating to Charles Valo's death. Do we know when that trial is happening? Well, jury selection is scheduled to begin March 31st and then the trial would go into April. Okay, Michelle Madigan,

thank you for bringing us all these updates. We appreciate it. Thank you, Andrea. For our final story this week, we've got a very special guest, Josh Mankiewicz. He's here to tell us about his brand new original podcast series called Deadly Mirage. Hey, Josh. How you doing, Andrea?

All right. So this is a story that has it all, love, intrigue, betrayal, without giving away too much for our listeners, tell us a little bit about the podcast. Pete This is about some young couples living out in the California desert in 2014. This is a completely manmade community. This is an area that would not sustain life or it not for the intervention of modern technology and bringing water in from other places. So they live in this lush green place that's known as Silver Lakes. And they are young couples with young kids. And after the kids are in bed, some things happen that don't happen during the day, let's just say.

They called themselves the Wolf Pack, maybe because whenever they got together, they howled. They would get drunk, they would party, they would take off their clothes and then anything goes. That's Michael Fleeman, a true crime writer. It starts as a Playboy Channel fantasy, but this is real life and there are real complications. And then we learn in the podcast, someone in the wolf pack ended up dead. There was a murder.

And the question was how all of that tied in together. Was it hard to get these people to open up to you or to do interviews given sort of this, maybe the sensitive nature of this group? You would think that it was. And I'm not saying it was easy. It was not. But a couple of members of that group came forward to law enforcement and said, we have suspicions about someone in our group. We know some things. And we think that you ought to know them too. And they did that completely because they were, they knew the dead man and they were very interested

in figuring out what had happened. And then they also talked with Dateline about that. Turning on their own. Well, I mean, I think what they were finally doing was sort of standing up for what they thought was right. So this tip that comes in, Josh, it helps investigators start to narrow in on a suspect. The tip was that the wife of the murdered man had been having an affair. And, you know,

she had told police there were no problems in her marriage. And because of the tip, they knew who the affair was with. Detectives were able to get a warrant to go up on the phones belonging to the wife and this guy that they had turned she was having an affair with. I love you, Sabrina. I love you too, child. Now, the interesting thing about those wiretaps is that they reveal, no question, there's an affair going on and that it predated the murder. There is no point in which she, her name is Sabrina, Sabrina Lamomb, there's nothing in those wiretaps

where she acknowledges knowing about it beforehand and there's nothing to suggest that she participated in it. And, you know, something that will allow them to make an arrest or prove some sort of conspiracy between the two. So this really becomes a game of cat and mouse and a lot of twists and turns in this story. Absolutely. Let's take a listen to Sabrina, the wife, in the police interview room, which is from an upcoming episode. What do I do now? What do you do now?

You tell me everything you know. Because I'll be honest with you. What I get out of this interview is going to make a huge decision on if you ever touch and see your kids again, ever, in your entire life. Yeah. Now I feel like I've been just completely like out of my mind. Oh, he's playing hardball there. And how it ends is, to me, kind of shocking. Well, Josh, a wolf pack, the desert, a murder, a shocking ending.

Can't miss. I am very much looking forward to listening to this podcast. Dateline Premium Podcast subscribers can now binge the whole series ad-free. Everyone else can listen to episodes one through four now for free. And episodes five and six will be available for free next week. Josh, thank you so much for joining me.

This is a good one. Thanks, Andrea. That's it for this episode of Dateline True Crime Weekly. Next week, NBC's senior consumer investigative correspondent, Vicki Nguyen, will be here with some tips on how to keep your home safe if you go away over the holidays. And if you want to find more about the cases covered on the show,

head to our website, DatelineTrueCrimeWeekly.com. Coming up this Friday on Dateline, he was a fugitive with multiple identities and more than a dozen accusers. Would he finally face justice? Did you sexually assault anyone? Did you defraud anyone? No, no, no, no. He's a danger. He's a menace. He thrives on hurting people.

Watch My Story, the man of many faces, airing this Friday on NBC at 9, 8 Central. To get ad-free listening for all our podcasts, subscribe to Dateline Premium. Thanks for listening. Dateline True Crime Weekly is produced by Frannie Kelly and Katie Ferguson. Our associate producers are Carson Cumanny Kelly and Katie Ferguson.

Our associate producers are Carson Cummins and Caroline Casey. Our senior producer is Liz Brown-Kurloff, production and fact-checking help by Sara Kadir. Veronica Mazaca is our digital producer. Rick Kwan is our sound designer. Original music by Jussie McGinty. Bryson Barnes is head of audio production.

Paul Ryan is executive producer, and Liz Cole is senior executive producer of Dateline.