Law&Crime Sidebar - 3 Key Developments in Lindsay Shiver’s Murder-for-Hire Case

Episode Date: December 6, 2023

A Georgia woman is accused of plotting with her boyfriend to kill her husband, even going so far as to find a hitman. Robert and Lindsay Shiver were going through a contentious divorce when she was arrested by Bahamian authorities for the alleged scheme. The Law&Crime Network’s Jesse Weber analyzes the latest developments with retired FBI agent Colin Schmitt.SPONSOR: If you’ve used Incognito mode in Google’s Chrome internet browser, you can find out if you have a claim in only a few clicks by visiting https://www.forthepeople.com/LCGoogleHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. We have filed for divorce. Okay. We've been in the same house. It's hell on earth, as you can imagine. Okay. New allegations against a Georgia woman accused of plotting with her boyfriend in the Bahamas to have her husband killed.

What the husband had to say in documents given to Bahamian authorities, as Lynch, Lindsey Shiver goes to court on foreign soil. We're going to get into it with retired FBI agent Colin Schmidt. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. It's a love triangle that's getting even more complicated, as the husband of Lindsay Shriver says that her deceit goes even further than just having an affair and trying to have him killed.

He says she also had another affair. We're going to break this down. All the players in this case, it's quite the story. So Robert and Lindsay Schiever have been married for 13 years. Robert was an Auburn University football player and Lindsay was a beauty queen and Arburn cheerleader. The couple share three sons, ages four, 10, and 11. They live in a multimillion dollar home in Thomasville, Georgia, not far from the Florida

line or they lived together at one point. Robert Schiver signed with the Atlanta Falcons for a short time after college, but when he was cut, he went on to become executive vice president for senior life insurance company. And the family had a vacation home in the Bahamas. They seemed to travel there pretty regularly. But it turns out that Lindsay reportedly had a boyfriend that she was seeing there. Karen Spethel, he was a bartender in the Bahamas. Now, according to authorities, they name him as an alleged co-conspirator in Lindsay's supposed plot to murder her husband after he found out about the affair. They reportedly recruited this man, Farron Newbold Jr. to carry out the hit. He's also

been charged by Bahamian police alongside Bethel and Shiver in this murder for hire plot. And Lindsay Shiver, she was arrested. She was booked into the notorious Foxill prison in Nassau. But she has since been released on $100,000 bond. She's required to stay on the island, wear an ankle monitor, abide by a curfew, and has to check in with police regularly. But now we have some new developments that are giving us a better timeline and understanding of the case.

We have now learned that Lindsay allegedly had a second affair, according to paperwork, that Robert filed with authorities in the Caribbean country. Robert says that he found out that Lindsay snuck an 18-year-old lover into their vacation home in the summer of 2022. He apparently looked at her Apple Watch and discovered what was going on. Now, he says that he confronted Lindsay, but the two decided to try to work things out for the sake of their children. But then in February of 2023, it all came crashing down when Robert found out about the alleged

affair with Bethel. Robert Lindsay became involved in a bitter custody dispute, which leads us to this. body cam video in April. So what are y'all trying to do? 46, Thomas. I'm relocated a client's location at B.P. West. He just had my kids with my family all weekend, and I respected that. I didn't go

up there with my family. On the way back this morning, they were in Wiggum 20, 30 minutes ago. And then I get a message that they're dropping, he's dropping them with his parents, who have No rights.

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So Lindsay says it seems like our husband now has her kids and not her in-laws like she first thought, but Robert wouldn't pick up. No one thinks it turned to phone. Yeah. Where has your husband been staying? Oh, at my house. Okay. It's a lovely situation.

I mean, there's no crime here, so we're not... But where are my kids? Oh, I don't know. It must be. They've got to be with your husband. Which is what? Just frolicking around and can until he drops them with them? I'll come home.

I don't know. As you heard there, Robert and Lindsay are still living together at this point. Police get called out to the home in July of 2023 when Lindsay apparently decided out of the blue that she wanted to join her husband and children on their private jet to the Bahamas. Robert was not thrilled with that idea because at this point he knows that her lover is there. Here's what Lindsay told police. So what's going on, y'all are separated or what's the deal? We have filed for divorce. Okay.

Living in the same house, it's hell on earth, as you can imagine. Okay. but anyway woke up this morning we have travel plans to leave and he's insisting that i don't go okay and then i have my keys he starts moves me out of the way starts trying to unload my car tells me he owns the car he owns the rights to it just got super aggressive and that's when i called immediately because he's been physical before and i'm just not okay the officers asked to speak with Robert, and he had some clarifying details about this trip. So for the last three weeks, maybe longer, she's had her couple's trip playing with her boyfriend

and at Key West. Okay, but she just said you're going. That was the Key West. I'm taking my kids, my three boys to Bahamas. Her kids. I like it. Yesterday, she's in the mess saying that she's going to change her plans and now get on the airplane with me and the kids to go to Bahamas.

I'm too, by the way. She's going to go her boyfriend. Elsewhere. And me and the kids are going to our house. And I've told her I'm not supporting that. And you're not getting on the airplane. That can mess with the kids' heads. And it's just something we're not going to do.

Robert here is talking about a private plane, which he and another person have a majority ownership of. In situations like this, the best thing that we always recommend is y'all separate. Don't just separate from each. other. You don't need to be going on vacation together if you file for divorce and it's obviously a volatile situation. Now, according to Bahamian authorities, this same day is when Lindsay and her

boyfriend mapped out or planned this murder for hire plot. Retired FBI agent and the president of Kronos investigations. Colin Schmidt is here with us. Colin, great to have you back here on Sidebar. Thanks so much. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. So first, what do you make of this new revelation about this new affair that we didn't know about? Well, it sounds like chaos is an understatement of what's going on in that family's life. And my heart goes out to those three children because they're dealing with, particularly the mother who's got some serious, it sounds like some serious psychological issues or whatever and really being, demonstrating some selfishness.

But it sounds like the Bahamian authorities did a fantastic job doing this case as well as going head and getting that phone and the phone is the is the fountain of all evidence in our society right now and it sounds like he not only he did some telephone forensics but obviously the behemian authorities did those forensics the fact though that he knew she was having this affair and having another affair does that factor into the the prosecution's case of why she would have wanted to kill her husband you know there's one thing where um you know we've seen cases before where someone's having an affair. They don't want it to be discovered. They're leading a secret life. The fact that a lot of this was out in the open, unfortunately, does that hurt or

help the prosecution's case, you think? Well, the prosecution's going to go down on the elements of the crime. They'll start, but they also need to, at some point, to explain to the jury the why. And that's the motive is basically all these affairs. And frankly, with two affairs, there was probably a third affair. You know, when somebody's engages this kind of behavior, it shows a pattern of conduct. So when they eventually get all the evidence together and present this evidence to a trier of fact, whether it be a judge or a jury, at that point, the elements is what matters. But if it ends up getting in front of a jury or from a in front of a trier of fact, he or she is going to want to know the why. And all those affairs demonstrate motive on why she wanted to have her

husband killed. You know, Robert also had apparently told authorities that he was living in fear of his wife. He accused her of drinking, making poor decisions, falling in with an unpleasant or bad crowd. And then he also apparently said, quote, if something were to happen to me, Lindsay would receive loads of money. What do you think about that? Once again, that goes right to motive. And he's demonstrating that he's really concerned about not only his safety, but the safety of his children. But there sounds to be like a lot of things going on here, a lot of money, private jets, jetting off to the Bahamas, vacation homes, all these kind of things. And most Americans don't get the experience.

And so it's clear that she had a motive not only because she was in an unhappy marriage, but she also wanted to get access to all that money. By the way, isn't it amazing that the Apple Watch is how we found out about the affair? I mean, so many times we don't realize the technology that's on us or that we use when you're trying to lead a secret life or you're trying to map something out and we'll talk a little bit more about the murder for hire plot, that is some of the most strongest evidence against you. Yeah, I mean, I started in my law enforcement career in the 90s and compared to then and now, I think it's easier in some ways to be a investigator because you have all these, basically,

technology on the bad person or the suspect's body, all you've got to do is open up the watch or open up the phone and then you're going to have generally all the evidence is going to be right there. Now, there's still nothing new in these documents about a murder weapon or how, they plan to carry out the murder. Is that surprising to you that we don't have more details about that? And a side note is, any ideas about how they tried to do it? Depends on how they found out about this. Did he report this based upon the Apple Watch and then they did some cell phone forensics

to find out what her intent was? Or did they run some sort of undercover operation on her where she discussed her plan to harm him? Well, let's amplify that a little bit because according to what we've seen in the reporting, the case really centers around these WhatsApp messages that appear to lay out the whole plot. So, and you might be saying how did the police find those messages? Well, they were investigating a break-in at a bar where Bethel bartended.

They examined his phone, and they found these messages about Lindsay, and Lindsay, like, allowing Bethel to kill Robert. And then you see these communications between, I believe it's Bethel and Newbold, where he says, quote, this N-word rolled up on Lindsay and wouldn't let her on the plane and he put his hands on her. I'm about to come out of retirement for this N-word. And then he's allegedly written a friend. He's flying into Baker's Bay. She's thinking about letting me kill him, but he has the kids. Not sure again if he's writing to Newbold or someone else. They arrest Shiver on July 21st. They examine her iPhone and they discover that she had

sent Newbold Jr. several pictures of Robert, along with a text saying, kill him. So so much of this is on the is in the messages well it sounds like exactly that they they were investigating a crime unrelated to this at the bar they got a hold of these WhatsApp messages saw them in a phone based upon whatever uh authority they had to see these messages read them and then at that point that that allowed them to go ahead and do the next level perhaps use a warrant to get her phone and then get even deeper into the investigation start and frankly start a new investigation which was the murder for hire so it looks like this all obviously all obviously started with these WhatsApp messages that were on his phone. He probably didn't have the,

it's obviously he didn't have the disappearing message ability put on on these messages. So at that point, I'm sure law enforcement photographed all the messages and then from there moving on to the next part of the investigation. But it's not surprising to you at this point that authorities haven't released what a murder weapon could have been or what the plan was to kill. is it is it is it you seen it usually where they keep that close to the vest they don't want to relay that information at this point or maybe you know another way of looking at it's so premature there wasn't a plan about how to actually carry it out what do you think well it's both things and number one it might have been premature but the second more important issue here is because

there's children involved is was there a co-conspirator was there another person involved in this murder plot and so they certainly don't want to release there anything to tip that person off because they want to obviously get that person wrapped up in this before they release everything to the public. There's also an alleged confession from Shiver to the Bahamian police that she told Bethel she wanted to kill Robert and Bethel said that he wanted to kill him too. But she also said that she was just venting, never actually planned to do him any harm, that she was angry. In your experience, if someone admits something like that but then says I wasn't being serious about it, not necessarily the confession, but the idea that what I said, I didn't really mean. I didn't really want him dead.

What do you think? Well, there's confessions and there's corroborated confessions. And those are the ones that, frankly, the FBI does is we wouldn't go and interview somebody unless we had evidence leading us to believe they were going to do a crime. So then for her to say, I was just kidding in the confession, well, they're going to have all the WhatsApp messages, all the stuff on our phone, all this other evidence that corroborates her confession, which basically locks her in to the crime and makes her. confession admissible in court.

Do you think that the person that she was having the affair with, that first person, do you think that person's going to be a witness in this case? Do you think that person has any relevant information? Well, it depends on what's on the phone. Now, if he's participating in this and somehow as a co-conspirator, giving her assistance or advice or something along those lines. And by the way, let's be clear, that 18-year-old or was 18 at the time, there's no evidence that that person has been involved in that.

this. But it's just I'm trying to understand how that could factor into the overall case. And that will be an option for the law enforcement where they're going to, if he said things that were supportive of the crime or the conspiracy, well, then they're going to have the option of charging him as a co-conspirator or may use him as a witting witness, basically some or a participant witness where he would go and basically lay out is what he observed her saying to even further strengthen the elements of proving the elements of the crime. To give everybody a little context, so Shiver appeared at Nassau Magistrate's Court on Friday. She didn't speak to reporters outside.

She and her co-conspirators are expected to appear again later in the week to enter pleas and ask for a review of bail conditions. They face up to, I believe, 60 years in prison if prosecutors can prove that this was a murder for higher scheme. Do you anticipate that we are going to see some of them turning on the others or both of them turning on Shiver or Shiver turning on them? or is this a case where they're all in it together? Absolutely. You'll start seeing people turn, especially these individuals, because it doesn't appear that they have a lot of experience with the criminal justice system. And if they're staring down the barrel at 60 years,

they're definitely going to do the right thing in terms of this case and take care of themselves and, frankly, you know, give assistance to law enforcement. All right. Crazy case. But Colin Schmidt, really always appreciate you taking the time. breaking it down for us, letting us know what this investigation is going to be about and what might be happening behind the scenes. Thank you so much, sir. Appreciate it. My pleasure. Anytime.

And that is all we have for you here on Sidebar, everybody. As always, thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.