Going West: True Crime - Michelle Knotek // 93

Episode Date: November 4, 2020

*In the 1990's and early 2000's, three people went missing while staying at a family home in Washington state and seemingly vanished without a trace. But each time police would go to the house, the homeowners had a perfectly reasonable explanation for their whereabouts, along with proof. So, what happened to these people? This is the story of Michelle Knotek.* *BONUS EPISODES: patreon.com/goingwestpodcast* *KEFLA ORGANICS CBD: Use code GOINGWEST20 for 20% off your order at keflaorganics.com* *CASE SOURCES:* https://www.the-sun.com/lifestyle/876416/shelly-knotek-abuse-daughters-serial-killer/ https://murderpedia.org/male.K/k/knotek-david.htm ( https://murderpedia.org/male.K/k/knotek-david.htm ) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/119827321/kathy-loreno https://murderpedia.org/female.K/k/knotek-michelle.htm https://peoplepill.com/people/michelle-knotek/ https://www.karisable.com/skazknotec.htm https://meaww.com/serial-killer-michelle-shelly-knotek-biggest-manipulator-daughter-tortured-killed-friends-family https://caselaw.findlaw.com/wa-court-of-appeals/1430291.html Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Heet and I'm your other host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. We hope everybody had a super fun and safe Halloween and hopefully everyone is having a good week thus far. Thanks for joining us. For those of you who are caught up on going west and who are looking for more episodes, remember that we have a Patreon account where you guys can get bonus episodes. We just released two bonus episodes for the month of October. We're going to have two more for you guys in the month of November. So make sure you head over to patreon.com slash going west podcast and subscribe.

Yes, in October, we did one episode on the murder of Cassie Joe Stodder and then we did an England case on the lady in the lake. So go check those out. There's also 20. I think there's like over 25 or so bonus episodes now for you guys to binge. Yeah, and even though Halloween is over, we're still putting out episodes for the dark parts. We'll have a new episode for that show coming out on Thursday, so make sure you go over and check that out. Also if you guys are looking to rep going west, head over to goingwestpod.com and click

on the shop tab and get shopping! Also, in exciting news, we no longer have those really obnoxious ads. A lot of people were really upset about the political ads and those were not. Us, we didn't put those in. That was our old host site, so we've now switched host sites, and now we don't have those ads, so yay! Yeah, so now you guys won't have super annoying ads in the show. Alright guys, this is episode 93 of Going West, so let's get into it! In the 1990s in early 2000s, three people went missing while staying at a family home in Washington state and seemingly vanished without a trace. But each time police would go to the house, the

homeowners had a perfectly reasonable explanation for their whereabouts, along with proof. So what happened to these people? This is the story of Michelle Michelle Notech, who went by Shelley, was born on April 15, 1954 in Raymond, Washington, which is a small town of about 3,000 people in southern Washington right next to the Willipa Bay that connects to the Pacific Ocean. It's a town known for its work in the timber industry and also has great fishing thanks to the Willipa River that runs through the town. The local sawmill has been one of the major employers in Raymond for many generations, and it being such a small town, it's very tight-knit,

and they really enjoy their celebrations between the annual oyster stampede, just one town over in South Bend, also known as the oyster capital of the world, and log sculpting contests, they have a lot of fun. Although the town is right near the ocean, it also has beautiful pastures, farms, orchards, and forests, and this is where Michelle called home much of her life.

But she had a pretty tough upbringing. Her very young parents had a super volatile relationship and divorced while she was a child. And after that, Michelle's mom abandoned the family and she never saw her again. Her mom was an alcoholic and got into another bad relationship, but it literally killed her. Because one night, her boyfriend beat her to death. And Michelle blamed her own father for this, saying that if he didn't divorce her mom, she'd still be alive. And Michelle was never the same after this, and she rebelled with everything she had in her. Michelle was a beautiful red head, so she attracted men very easily. And after high school, Michelle went on to marry her high school sweetheart, but their relationship didn't last. She then met a car salesman and married him,

but they divorced as well. And she had a child with each one, a daughter Nikki, and then a daughter Sammy. But after two divorces, she met a man named David Notek, and the two married in 1987. David Notek also grew up in the small town of Raymond, Washington. Once he graduated from Raymond High School in 1971, he started working at the local sawmill

before joining the Navy for about five years. He had actually passed the test to become a priest but decided to join the Navy instead, and there he learned a lot about construction. So once he returned, he started working in construction and dating a local woman. But shortly after his relationship ended, he met Michelle. David was known to be a regular Joe, and kind of someone that just blended in. But he was also known to be a kind, easy-going and loyal guy. Just two years later, in 1989, Michelle would birth her third daughter, Tori.

And this was her and David's first child together. So in 1989, when Tori was born, Nikki was 12 and Sammy was 9. So the family of five and their six dogs, cats, bunnies, and bird were living right along the Willepar River in a red, very quintessential country farmhouse surrounded by a white picket fence on a four acre plot of land. Since the no-text had a house with a lot of rooms, they were very welcoming to family and friends

who needed a helping hand. Enter Cathy Loraino Thomas. Cathy was born on August 8th, 1958, in Seamy Valley, California, and always had a passion for hair styling. She grew up around movies because her dad worked in the film industry, but in 1978, when he was 55 and Kathy was 20, he died on set during a filming accident. A year before this, Kathy's stepfather had died in a car accident. So two varied tragic accidental deaths to both of her father figures occurred within about a year of each other.

And after her stepdad died when she was 19, this prompted Kathy, her mother Kay, and her siblings to move to South Bend, Washington, which again is right next to the town of Raymond. Kathy's grandparents live there, so they all moved into a house together and Kathy began working as a hairdresser in town. And by the way, South Bend is even smaller than Raymond, I think is like half this size, so two very small towns next to each other just so you have a little visual. Kathy really wasn't known to be a problematic person at all. She was kind, responsible, and she was easy going. She loved her family, she loved going to work, and just relaxing at home, whether she was watching TV or baking something. But in 1991, so about 12 years after moving to Washington, 31-year-old Kathy started dating a man

that her mother Kay didn't approve of, and an argument ensued. Kathy then got into a fight with her brothers and then left home, stating that she was going to stay with a friend. Kathy couldn't afford to live on her own because she had recently lost her hairdressing job due to not meeting sales goals, so she had no money and she had recently lost her hairdressing job due to not meeting sales goals. So she had no money and she had nowhere to go. She originally stayed with her friend Carolyn, but then Michelle Noteck offered to have her stay at her house and exchange for helping her care for her daughters.

The two knew each other because Michelle visited the hair salon that Kathy worked at, so that's how they developed a friendship. Kathy's mom didn't like her hanging out with Michelle, who was about 35 at this time, because Kathy would often ignore the other people in her life when Michelle was around. But Kathy didn't want to go back home, so she took Michelle up on her offer. So fast forward three years in 1994. Kathy and her family hadn't spoken since she left in 1991, but her family was really starting to get worried because at this point, they didn't know where she was at all or what she was doing with her life.

So Kathy's family reported her missing. They knew that she was last staying at the no-text, so they informed police of this who went over to their country home and knocked on the door. And when Michelle opened up, she explained to them that Kathy didn't live there anymore, and in fact, a couple years prior, she had run off with the truck driver she was dating and they moved to Hawaii together. To prove this to be true, Michelle went into her house and grabbed a photo of Kathy standing in front of a semi-truck with a man.

And Kathy's family was really confused by this because they didn't know how Kathy would move away and be living an entirely different life without informing them at all. It just seemed so strange. So to ensure Michelle was telling the truth, police tried to see if they could trace Kathy's steps, but they just couldn't. They had no idea where she was and had no real reason not to believe Michelle's story. And this was really disappointing to Kathy's family. So one of Kathy's brothers decided to hire a private investigator to see if they could

track down Kathy. But the PI couldn't find any trace of her just like the police couldn't. So then, the case went cold. In 1993, so about a year before Kathy was reported missing, another person started staying at the No Techs house. It was Michelle's nephew, Shane Watson, who was 18 years old and from Tacoma, Washington.

Shane was born on June and from Tacoma, Washington. Shane was born on June 6, 1975, and was raised to love the outdoors. He was incredibly sweet and loved by so many, and he adored spending time outside in nature. But Shane got into a lot of trouble after his parents divorced when he was a teenager. He didn't have the guidance he needed because his mother abused drugs and his dad was in a motorcycle gang which landed him in prison. So after their divorce, they sent him to live with his grandparents for some time, but then once he was 18, he went to live with Michelle, because she told him that she could provide

him with a more stable home. And he was excited to spend time with David doing outdoorsy things like fishing and chopping wood, so this would be a new experience for him, and also give him a place to live. Sometime after Shane moved in with the no-text, his parents and grandparents had difficulty reaching him. Whenever they called for him, Michelle or David would explain that he was out, so they started coming around to the house hoping to catch him, but again, they always said that he just wasn't home. That's when Shane's family started really worrying about him, because it wasn't like him

to stay out of touch. Shortly after Kathy disappeared, Shane's family reported him missing too. But when they did this, Michelle simply explained to them that Shane had moved to Alaska with his girlfriend to work on a fishing vessel. But just like Kathy, there was absolutely no trace of Shane. It's as if he just vanished. Yet Michelle assured the family that he was doing well and he was in Alaska. In 2001, so seven years after Kathy and Shane's disappearances, they still were nowhere to

be found. Since there was no trace of them and they were both adults, police just kept explaining to the families that they more than likely left on their own free will, especially since both families had some qualms, which is what drove both Kathy and Shane to the no-text. The weird thing for me is that I'm curious if Shane had any connections to Alaska, like if he actually knew anybody there or if this was just completely like random. I was wondering the same thing with Kathy because Hawaii and Alaska seemed so random. I couldn't find anything my research that said that they had any connections to that. All I know regarding Kathy is that she grew up in Southern California. And then when she was 20,

she moved to Washington. Those are the only two places she lived. Maybe she really liked to why. I couldn't find that information. And then maybe Shane was into Alaska. But same thing was Shane. He grew up into coma. Didn't live anywhere else. Yeah, it's just kind of strange that those two states specifically Alaska and Hawaii, those are like the two states that are essentially kind of like islands. That's why I think that was on purpose personally that they're so far a little weird, a little weird. So in 2001, again, seven years later, Michelle and David No Tech befriended a new man in town, 55-year-old Ronald Woodworth, who went by Woody.

He had just moved to the area a couple years prior from California, so he could take care of his mother. But after this move occurred, Ronald's partner left him and he was all on his own, which was devastating to him. But he kept himself busy with his job as a proofreader for the local newspaper, which was the Willapa Harbor Harold. He only worked here for about a year though, and was without a job around the time that he met the no-tax.

He loved doing volunteer work and was actually a pretty smart guy. He could even read Hyroglyphics, which that's pretty cool. But he did get into a little bit of trouble with the law in more ways than one, and this included writing bad checks, aka check fraud, harassment, four people applied for protective orders against him, and one woman filed a domestic violence protective order against him. But many people say he just didn't really know how to act sometimes. He did things like hide in bushes and then jump out and scare strangers, so he definitely

rub people the wrong way. But many people who knew him described him as being vulnerable and kindhearted. Okay. What? He's with hide in bushes and I think he just maybe like messing with people. vulnerable and kindhearted. Okay. What? He's with hide and bushes and... I think he just maybe like messing with people and he just kind of had one of those personalities that a lot of people just don't like mesh with, mesh with and they clash with. So yeah, he did kind of weird things like that.

But maybe he thought that people were going to think that that was funny. That's what I think. Yeah, maybe like he's one of those guys like, well they do something that kind of rubs people the wrong way and they, their interpretation of what they did is much different from... Yes. The other persons. Exactly.

So in 2001, he started staying at the No Techs home in Raymond, Washington. He lived there for about two years, but was last seen on July 20th, 2003. According to David and Michelle, two days after this, while Michelle was out of town, she called David at his job and explained to him that Ronald killed himself. So on July 25th, David buried his body on their property.

At this point, it's 2003, and there are now three people who have been reported missing and last seen at the No Tech's home. On top of that, one of the No Tech's daughters visited the police with a wild story. So now they finally had enough suspicion to search the notec home and see what exactly was going on inside that house. So a couple months ago my twin sent me this box of goodies from a company she knew I would love because she knows me because they're vegan and amazing and I love CBD. I cannot stress this enough, I love them,

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That's keflaOrganics.com and get 20% off your order using code going west 20. That's KeflaOrganics.com using code going west 20 no spaces. So what are you guys waiting for? Go get some Kaffla products. Although the NoteX lives seemed picture perfect, there were a lot of terrible things going on behind locked doors. Michelle had a very bad temper, so her marriage with David quickly went downhill when he realized how physically abusive she really was. She would often hit him and verbally abuse him, which caused him to turn

to alcohol and shut himself away from his own family and friends. Many of his friends later stated that once he got married to Michelle, he became an absolute nervous wreck, who is distant, paranoid, and always seemed incredibly stressed out. Weirdly enough, Michelle worked as a caregiver, which we'll get into later. And this was incredibly dangerous because family always knew Michelle to have a terrifying temper and manipulate vulnerable people, so not a good match for someone who's a caregiver. Because of her intense manipulation tactics, David stuck around and always stood up for her, despite the fact that she controlled all of his money and his entire life. Like she only gave him a small cut of what he made from his construction jobs, and she

did whatever she wanted with the rest. But again, on the outside to most people, they were a totally normal, happy family, and that's why Kathy decided to move in with them, because she had nothing but positive feelings towards them. That was until she was living there for a little while. And also by the way, this is why her two other marriages failed. It was because she was so abusive, and the two other guys that she was married to divorced her because of that abuse.

So let's get back to Kathy. At first everything was great. Kathy was great with the girls and they seemed to be one big happy family. But one day everything flipped and Michelle and David began physically and emotionally abusing Kathy Lorano. And many of these reports later came from the daughters, but here's some of the abuse that Kathy endured. Michelle and David would hit and slap her and hit her in the head. They'd pull her hair out of anger. They poisoned her, fed her rotten food. They put bleach and salt on the wounds that they inflicted on her.

They made her take medications that she wasn't prescribed to. They forced her to do manual labor work outside naked, which is also where they often made her sleep even in the winter, and this gave her hypothermia. They starved her and they made her sit in freezing cold water as long as they wanted. They kept her in a deep well for days and much, much more so these people are fucked up. Michelle even made her daughter's abuse Kathy too. Even though they didn't want to, she'd make them hit Kathy and stab her legs

with scissors. Because of all of this abuse, Kathy lost 100 pounds, her teeth and hair started falling out, and her mental health was in an all-time low, and this abuse eventually killed her because of all the trauma she had endured. Towards the end of Kathy's life, she couldn't talk or walk. She had a hard time seeing, and one side of her face was permanently drooped down. And you think about this, how horrifying this is, you think this family is normal, you go to live with them, and they torture you, and kill you. Yeah, it's really sad. And this abuse went on like this for over a year, and she was just trapped. Like they would, you know, they kept her in a well.

Obviously you can't get out of a fucking well, you know, like a deep ass well. Like the one we're all thinking of, like deep well. Right. They locked her in the pump house out back. They locked her in a room like she couldn't escape. This is just sick. It's just sickening to learn about this, to research that. It's just very, very sick. So one day after enduring all of this shit, Kathy passed out and David dragged her into the laundry room and tried to revive her.

Two of their daughters witnessed this as they hid behind the laundry room door as Kathy vomited and still appeared to be unconscious. That day, Michelle took the girls out of the house and nearly 50 miles away to stay at a motel. And when they returned home, Kathy was gone. But there was a recently burned fire pit next to the house. That's when Michelle told everyone that Kathy had died of natural causes, but they all knew that that was not true because they had seen what Michelle had done to her. Exactly. So, of course, Michelle also lied about Kathy moving to Hawaii with a man. Kathy died in 1994 from Michelle and David's abuse, and since Michelle's nephew Shane started staying with them in 1993, he was there to witness it as well.

And Michelle actually made Shane burn 36-year-old Kathy Lorraineau's body before burying it on the property. Then Michelle made up the whole Hawaii story and made sure the entire family knew what to say in case there were ever questioned and she even quizzed her daughters on this. So she's definitely trying to set up some sort of creepy weird alibi. At this time, Shane was 19 years old and he was absolutely horrified at the things he was witnessing.

But he received a lot of abuse as well. Shane was fed horribly. They wouldn't allow him to leave the house to go outside at all, unless one of them was with him. He was forced to do workouts in the rain and mud, and much more. Shane had even documented some of Kathy's abuse by taking photos of her dead body, likely so that he could report it to law enforcement and get them to help. But when Michelle found this out, she beat Shane severely. Michelle and David got so worried that Shane was going to tell someone that shortly after Kathy's death, David Notek shot him dead

with a 22 caliber rifle and then burned his remains and dumped them on a nearby beach. So again, they came up with a bogus story that Shane had gone to Alaska to go work on a fishing boat when they had actually murdered him. A big problem here was that Michelle made the kids abuse the guest too. So this hindered them going out and getting help because they feared that they could too get in trouble even though Michelle was behind all of it Like she even made Shane who was known to be a super sweet and kindhearted kid by everyone like just a really good guy She made him kick Kathy in the head

Repeatedly with his steel-toed boots and she threatened that she would do these things to them if they didn't do it to Kathy So overall just a terrifying and messed up situation. Yeah, so she's basically using this whole thing like, hey, you're a part of this. You're a part of this. You abuse these people too. So good luck telling the police cause you'll go to jail too.

Exactly, but it's like if they didn't, you know, abuse them, then they were gonna get the abuse. They were going to get beaten up. And same thing with Shane taking photos of Kathy's body. He took these photos to be able to have physical proof. There is this dead woman who has been reported missing, and I know where she is, and they killed her. And that was really his only proof, because the problem is if he were to be able to escape and go to police and say all this is happening, it's just his word against Michelle's.

Police are gonna knock on the door and Michelle's gonna deny it. But with a photo, that could actually lead to something being done. Right, he has proof at that point. The manipulation tactics here are just on a completely different level. I mean, she's so maniacal and everything she does, it's just unbelievable.

Yeah, it's absolutely insane. So years later, in 2001, when Ronald Woodworth moved in, he too endured great abuse. He was forced to do various tasks and chores outside in nothing but his underwear, even when the temperatures were very low. I mean, this is Washington, so it can get really pretty cold. He was forced to jump from the second story of the home onto gravel completely naked, which caused him to break multiple bones and severely bust up his feet. And then, after this happened, Michelle burned his feet in scalding water and then poured bleach on them. She also would drug him, starve him,

take all of his clothes away and wouldn't allow him to use the indoor restroom. And it's unknown exactly how Ronald died and it's believed he likely died from his injuries just like Kathy did, but since David buried Ronald's body in the backyard and didn't burn him, they were able to conduct an autopsy and determine that his cause of death was murder or his manner of death rather. It's just unclear exactly how he died. Michelle's middle daughter, Sammy, later said, while I think the murder of Kathy was an accident,

Ron was definitely on purpose. It was done in the exact same way. She knew what the outcome would be. I don't think that the murder of Kathy was an accident at all. Well, I think what she means is that Kathy died from the abuse, but they didn't actually murder her. You know what I mean? Like they didn't actually say, let's kill Kathy. She just died from what they did. So I still think it's murder. But I think that's what Sammy means is that they actually set off to kill. They were like, let's kill Ronald and they killed him. Right. Okay. Yeah, I understand that. And Michelle's story of him committing suicide didn't make any sense because

she actually had his credit card address changed to some random address into coma washington to try and make it seem like he moved there. So for her to tell this story that he killed himself, like what is his web of lies? Well clearly this one was really stupid on her part because if you're going to change his address and then say he killed himself, those two things really aren't going to add up. Exactly. And it also wasn't just the guests who received abuse. All the children saw firsthand throughout their upbringing's just how manipulative and unhinged Michelle was, and they watched their stepdad David turn into her.

Michelle gave the brunt of the abuse to the girls. It appeared David was more loyal to the girls and just abused the guests. Sometimes Michelle could be sweet and showered the girls with affection, but she snapped very easily and loved playing mind games. For example, she would do things like send her kids to school without all their homework, just so that they would get in trouble at school, and then she could punish them, physically and verbally, when they got home. Sometimes she would even lock her oldest daughter in a closet and bring her stale food. Other times she would wake the

girls up in the middle of the night, even in the winter, and make them go outside in their pajamas. Then she'd have them lay in the mud and roll around as she sprayed them with a hose. What in the fuck? The girls would often wear long pants and shirts to cover up their bruises for school, and on one occasion, she put one of the girls headfirst into a glass door and screamed, look what you made me do! As her face went through the glass and cut up her whole entire face. Michelle also liked to embarrass people, so she's also one of those people.

And she would sometimes force her oldest daughter to dance with Shane, who remember her is the girl's cousin, naked in order to humiliate them. So she's just all around, just a sick and messed up person. Everything she does is just unthinkable. All of the guests tried to escape at one point or another, but Michelle was so manipulative and tricky that whenever they would run off, which I'm sure barely happened at all,

like I'm sure they maybe got away once, she would call out to them and apologize and promise to change and try to coax them into coming back by vowing to feed them their favorite meals and treat them well, and you know she played mind games with them. And at that point they were already so weak that they didn't know what to do and they'd return back to the house just to receive the same abuse, but even worse. And that's so tough because when you're that weak, you're starved, you've been abused, you've been physically abused. Like, what do you do at that point?

You know what I mean? She's trying to coax you to come back. You have no other place to go. You're basically just crawling on the ground and she's telling you that she's going to give you all these things that you haven't been getting. That's just really, really tough. And again, she's so manipulative that, and she's got them in her grasp, you know, she has been completely just breaking them down for all this time. So they're really at her mercy and it's not their fault. So as we mentioned earlier, Michelle often worked as a caregiver for local elderly people through an agency.

In September of 2001, so before Ronald began living with the no-text, Michelle started working for an 81-year-old Pearl Harbor veteran named James McClendock, who went by Mac. Mac had some hard issues, so he always rode around in his motorized wheelchair. During the time he was under Michelle's care, neighbors heard Michelle abusively screaming at him on multiple occasions. And just so everyone knows, she was caring for him at his house,

so it was his neighbors that heard this, because she lived like out, no one would would be hearing anything that happened at her house Because she lived on a for-acre plot-a-land Right, and so people are hearing this and it's not hard to believe at this point and it's unknown what other abuse could have He could have endured but six months in into caring for him They were at his house together when Max supposedly fell Michelle called 911 to report it because it was a terrible fall and he'd hit his head, but the following day, he died.

When an autopsy was conducted, it was determined that his cause of death was acute, subdual, hematoma, which is blunt impact to the head. As far as the manner of death, the medical examiner ruled it undetermined, so he couldn't tell if he had simply fallen and hit his head or if someone had struck him. And weirdly enough, Michelle Notek was in his will. She was granted $5,000 to take care of his black Labrador named Sissy, and once Sissy died, she would own Max entire estate, which was worth $140,000. So this fucking bitch knew.

Here's the thing. She had been working for this guy for six months. It had been reported that she had screamed at him more than one occasion by neighbors, so guarantee she wasn't very kind to him. Why the hell is he gonna put this new person in his life in his will and be the sole heir of all of his assets? It makes no sense. And just very, very suspicious.

I mean, I don't even think it's suspicious. Like I feel like she just pulled one over on him. Like, I mean, think about it. All the things that we know about Michelle up to this point, is it hard for us to believe that she killed this guy who is 81 years old, who she's been taking care of supposedly, and then writes herself into as well. I mean, it's not hard for me to believe.

And again, he's in a motorized wheelchair, so all she has to do is push that over and hit him in the head and make it look like it was an accident. So going back to Ronald, by the time Ronald was living at the No Tech home, the two older daughters, Nikki and Sammy, were no longer living at home because they were in their 20s at that point. But Tori, who again is Michelle and David's daughter, was 14 years old. And she actually contacted Nikki and Sammy when Ron went missing and said she was scared that her mom was responsible for whatever happened to him. So the older sisters told Tori to look for evidence. And that's when Tori went snooping around and found bloody bandages and a bunch of Ronald's personal belongings that he wouldn't have left without. And this was really key because Sammy and Nikki not living at home anymore?

They're free. They could easily go to the police. But what do they have to show for it? How can they prove that what happened actually happened? Again, it's just their word against Michelle's. So they kinda need Tori to act as somewhat of a spy and collect evidence? Exactly, because if they have evidence, they can finally bring their mom down. But they can't just have their word.

I mean, that could backfire for sure. Because if they go to the police and then the police go visit Michelle and Michelle just kind of waves it off with a silly story. Now Michelle knows what the girls did. Right, exactly. And Michelle has done it twice before. Right. So, Tori collected these things and in early August 2003, went to police with Nikki and Sammy to tell them what they thought their parents had done to Ronald Woodworth, who remember at this point was a missing person, and then they explained everything else that had happened in the house. With that, police were granted a search warrant for the property, and that's when they

found Ronald's body buried there. On August 8, 2003, so a little over a month after Ronald was killed, both Michelle and David NoTech were arrested and held on a $2 million bail. Of course, Michelle denied having done anything to anyone, and she even told police that Ronald had moved to San Diego. But later, David told police that that was a lie that they rehearsed, just like Shane going to Alaska and Kathy going to Hawaii.

I don't know why they think that like you're just gonna pick a faraway place and say that that's where they are. Like everyone that lived with you just happened to move far away. But what I honestly don't understand is that it worked the first two times. It worked with Shane and it worked with Kathy. It's unbelievable. So when David and Michelle were arrested, Max Black Lab Sissy was in their house,

meaning that Michelle had lied about the dog's death so she could take ownership of Max's house. So that just kind of, I'm actually surprised she didn't kill the dog, but that just goes to show you that she was trying to get all of Max assets. So guarantee, in my opinion, she had something to do with his Max assets, so guarantee in my opinion she had something to do with his death.

Yeah, I mean 100%, there's no doubt in my mind. Within days of their arrests, their bail was raised to $5 million each. Michelle was originally charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Kathy Lorreno and Ronald Wood, while David was charged with the first degree murder of Shane Watson. During their arrangement, they both pleaded not guilty to all charges. However, the following year, they accepted a plea deal and pled guilty to ensure lesser charges. Michelle entered an Alfred plea, so she didn't admit that she did these things, but she took

legal responsibility for one count of second-degree murder and one count of manslaughter. There wasn't really very much evidence in this case other than the daughter's recounts of what happened, which is circumstantial, well, and Ronald's body. But since Kathy and Shane had been killed and their bodies burned ten years prior, there was no evidence that their deaths actually occurred there, which is why they couldn't get Michelle on their murders. And with that, a judge sentenced 50-year-old Michelle Notek to just 22 years in prison on August 19th, 2004.

Days later in court, 51-year-old David Notek admitted to shooting Shane, but he told a different story. He said that Shane was outside with a rifle, which he wasn't allowed to have, and the two got into an argument about it. He stated that he tried to take the rifle from Shane, and when he did so, it discharged and hit Shane in the neck. Since Shane's body was burned and his ashes dumped on the nearby beach, there was no way to prove what actually happened to him.

Also, none of the daughters had witnessed this, so David admitting this made the charge go down from first degree to second degree murder, and he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. However, David was released early in 2016, so he ended up serving 12 years in prison. And I think this was probably because he wasn't the mastermind behind it. It was all Michelle, like she was the puppeteer. So even though David did a lot of horrible things to people, Even his non-biological daughters admit that Michelle was the real abuser and that she was a master manipulator who told David exactly what he had to do.

It still does not excuse murder. I mean, you're still a murderer? Of course, and he admitted to it and he's spent time in prison for it. So of course, I mean, still did horrible things. No one is denying that. The unfortunate thing here though is that Michelle is going to be released a little early, four years early in fact. Michelle's now 41-year-old daughter, Sammy, spoke this year on the fact that her mom is set to be released from prison in 2022. released from prison in 2022. Just 18 years into her 22-year sentencing. She stated, I just wanted people to finally really know the truth. When my mom comes out of prison,

I don't want her to be able to hide it. She's the biggest manipulator of anyone I've ever met. I don't think that she could ever outgrow that. I don't think that she could ever change. I just wanted to save other people from her manipulation. Which is terrifying that her own daughter is saying that and this woman is going to be released in less than two years' time. And, I mean, she's gonna be in her 70s, but still, it's scary.

The scary part for me here is that if Tori and the daughters didn't do anything about any of this, Michelle would have just continued to go on abusing people and probably murdering people. Yeah, these girls did an amazing thing even though I'm sure it was terrifying for them to do. Since Tory was just 14 when her parents were arrested, she was put into the custody of her older sister Sammy who took great care of her. And despite their terrifying childhoods, they are living happy and successful lives and have families of their own. None of them are in contact with their mom and actually fear what will happen when she's released from prison in 2022.

They don't feel that way for David because he's actually expressed deep regret and remorse for everything he's done, unlike Michelle who isn't capable of guilt. But they still don't have a relationship with him. The girls explain that David doesn't have a backbone, so he was very easy to manipulate, and Michelle took advantage of that. Michelle has even proven to be manipulative to fellow inmates in prison and things got so bad that she had to be put in her own cell away from others because she was trying to like screw with people in prison and make them do whatever she wanted them to do.

I'm actually surprised that nobody has offed her in prison if she is that way. Prison is hard, prison is tough, and for her to be able to do things like that in prison, I'm just surprised honestly, nobody has done anything. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. And this was a really insane case to dive into, and I did find some conflicting dates about when certain people moved in and stuff like that. So, if anyone wants to learn more about this story from the people it happened to, there's a book on it called If You Tell, a true story of murder, family secrets, and the unbreakable bond of sisterhood by Greg Olsen, and it's the whole entire story, and I definitely plan to read it. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and next week we'll have an

all new episode for you guys to dive into. I think this one was a little bit different than the ones that we usually talk about, but I stumbled upon this case and it was just so shocking that I really want to talk about it, so just really, really sad and tragic and our hearts go out to everybody who was manipulated and abused by this evil, evil bitch. Absolutely, she's a sick, inter-able person. So guys, if you want some extra bonus episodes,

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