Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #45 - Alex Murdaugh Sentenced AGAIN, PMPED and PSB’s “Dirty Hands” Plus Where in the World is Michael Colucci?

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

On today's True Sunlight Podcast, Co-hosts Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell update you on what went down at Alex Murdaugh’s federal sentencing hearing this week, where he was sentenced to 40 years. What does this new sentence mean? And why does Alex have to pay back millions to his former law firm and Palmetto State Bank when both allowed these crimes to happen for years? Also on the show, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office believes suspected murderer Michael Colucci has been on house arrest at his parents’ house but … his parents have been dead for years. Also, according to police reports, Michael was evicted from their home in April 2017 — BEFORE his first trial. Why does South Carolina have such a terrible bond system when it comes to violent criminals? Also, what police reports tell us about Michael’s life after his arrest in Sara Lynn Colucci’s death. We want to share a special thanks to True Sunlight fan Tom at the Late Night with Seth Meyers show for the unbelievable experience and CONGRATS to Sheryl Crow on her new album Evolution!!!  Stay Tuned, Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight...☀️ In April we’re offering your first month of Soak Up The Sun membership for 50% off. Join Luna Shark Premium today at Lunashark.Supercast.com. Premium Members also get access to searchable case files, written articles with documents, case photos, episode videos and exclusive live experiences with our hosts on lunasharkmedia.com all in one place. CLICK HERE to learn more: https://bit.ly/3BdUtOE. And for those just wanting ad-free listening without all the other great content, we now offer ad-free listening on Apple Podcast through a subscription to Luna Shark Plus on the Apple Podcasts App. Or become a Premiere Member on YouTube for exclusive videos and ad-free episodes. SUNscribe to our free email list to get that special offer for first time members, receive alerts on bonus episodes, calls to action, new shows and updates. CLICK HERE to learn more: https://bit.ly/3KBMJcP Visit our new events page Lunasharkmedia.com/events where you can learn about the upcoming in-person and virtual appearances from hosts! And a special thank you to our sponsors: Microdose.com, PELOTON, and VUORI. Use promo code "MANDY" for a special offer! For current & accurate updates: TrueSunlight.com facebook.com/TrueSunlightPodcast/ Instagram.com/TrueSunlightPod Twitter.com/mandymatney Twitter.com/elizfarrell youtube.com/@LunaSharkMedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And if you're just joining us, we're live from Evan's living room. It looks like Evan is about to purchase tickets to today's match. Kate, the real test is, will he use the BMO Toronto FC cashback master card? Well, if he wants to earn cash back on his purchases, he will, and... Oh, hang on. He's at the computer with his card and he's done it! Oh, clicky click! Magic trick!

The click heard around the room! You guys just about finished? Sorry, we got excited. Thanks for snagging those tickets. Make every purchase highlight worthy with the BMO Toronto FC Cash Back MasterCard. I don't know every single in and out of our criminal justice system, but I am tired of seeing prosecutors and law enforcement working in the name of justice

when it seems like they are working to protect everyone except the real victims. My name is Mandy Matney. This is True Sunlight, a podcast exposing crime and corruption, previously known as the Murdoch Murders Podcast. True Sunlight is a Lunar Shark production written with journalist Liz Farrell. Well, a lot has happened since we last spoke. Let's start with the good. A really awesome True Sunlight fan named Tom, who works at Late Night with Seth Meyers,

hooked us up last Thursday with VIP tickets in New York City to see Seth's show and guess who played? Sheryl Crow. Another amazing True Sunlight fan. And wow, it still feels surreal to say that. Liz, David, and I had the time of our lives at 30 Rock last Thursday. This whole experience has taught me how important other role fans play.

Liz and I were over the moon to do just that for Cheryl. She has done so much for women and humanity and she has encouraged our work during really hard times. Cheryl released a new album last week and David already bought it on vinyl for me. We are thrilled to see Cheryl all over, killing it. Seriously, she has been on every single talk show in the past month and she deserves this enormous amount of success. And to Tom at Late Night, thank you for thinking of us and sharing this

awesome experience. It was the best kind of medicine to get the gang back together in New York and cheer on the people who we love. I will say this a million times because I mean it. We have the best fans in the world and I can't wait to meet more of y'all in person. Now I am glad that we've had this experience because frankly, it put me in a much better mood to endure Monday, the day of Elick Murdoch's federal sentencing. Typical to everything that has happened in this case, the days leading up to Elick Murdoch's federal sentencing were chaotic, litigious, and of course, heavily covered by every major

news outlet in the country. Let me have David read a few of those headlines from last week, after Dick and Jim filed a slew of documents in response to the feds telling Ehrlich basically the deal is off because you failed your polygraph, which was a surprise to no one. Alex Murdoch's lawyers say FBI agents mention of Jordan Vandersloot led to failed polygraph test, the Associated Press. Alex Murdoch's lawyers fight to prevent sealing of polygraph results, Fox Carolina.

Murdoch's lawyers deny he lied on polygraph test. They want to debate it in open court, the state. Now, without spending too much time on this, polygraph test, they want to debate it in open court. The state. Now, without spending too much time on this, I just want to point out how Dick and Jim are still fully committed to the headline game, meaning they insert specific buzzwords and phrases in every single brief that they write to grab the media's attention. Dick and Jim know the whole Team Elec audience is shrinking, as evidenced by Jim Griffin's podcast numbers on YouTube.

Yikes. Dick and Jim continue to insert the most aggressive and egregious language in their legal briefs so that they can create low IQ drama for the press to gobble up and for social media to fight over. I think this is their way of exerting the little power they have left. They can't win in court, but they can most definitely get the press to write the headlines that they want to. And of course, they did this last week in response to the feds.

As Liz pointed out on Twitter, the polygrapher examining Elick Murdoch did what polygrapher's do. They said strange things about the political situation in the United States. As Liz pointed out on Twitter, the polygrapher examining Ellic Murdoch did what polygraphers do. They said strange things to establish ease and trust. Ellic Murdoch should know this game better than anyone. The FBI polygrapher apparently told Ellic that he just got back from interviewing Natalie Holloway's alleged killer, whose name they changed in their brief from Vander Sloot to Vander Sloop.

Dick and Jim also used absurd examples when referring to the polygraph standards in their brief. Again, this looked like it was just for the media. I wanna have David read this part. The polygraph examiner's questions run afoul I want to have David read this part. The polygraph examiner's questions run afoul of the following standards for designing polygraph questions issued by the Global Polygraph Network, GPN. Questions cannot be subjective or ambiguous.

Each question must be interpreted the same way by any person who hears it. For example, there is a question about having quote, sex, end quote, with someone. The term quote, sex, end quote, must be defined. Parentheses vaginal, oral, anal, manual, virtual, et cetera. When in doubt, specific words or phrases can be defined and agreed upon before the exam. That was the example that Dick and Jim included. Out of all of the literature out there available online

about polygraphs. And by the way, they are the ones who said that Ellic could pass a polygraph. They are the ones who said that Elick could pass a polygraph. They are the ones who wanted this. Now they are nitpicking a deal that they shouldn't have gotten to begin with. So Dick and Jim demanded an evidentiary hearing ahead of the federal sentencing. And from just looking at the headlines, it appeared like this hearing was up in the air and that anything could have happened on Monday.

Dozens of media crews gathered around the federal courthouse Monday, expecting fireworks. It is Murdoch, after all. Anything could happen. But instead, a half-hearted and flustered Jim Griffin showed up, without a sidekick dick. And he pretty much said, eh, we're dropping all of that. Now I didn't want to be there on Monday. I didn't want to drive two hours to see Elick Murdoch and a bunch of other people I don't

like. But I went, and so did David, because the federal government, stuck in the last century, doesn't allow streaming of trials and it was our job to see what went down. So we went. But where was Dick? Dick, who raised so much hell last week about Alex polygraph. He wasn't there. You would think that he would at least show up for his client to fight it, right? I made me wonder, did Dick and Jim have a fight? Or maybe he was actually in the state house. Or maybe he was campaigning for his now competitive seat

in the SE Senate. By the way, Russell Ott is running against Dick in the primary. Tell your Columbia friends that they can choose to take away Dick's power this June. Or maybe Dick never intended to be there at all. Maybe he had a scheduling conflict and he used the whole lie detector temper tantrum

to buy headlines and time. Maybe he thought, like he has so far in this case, that the system would bow down to him and accommodate his needs. Or maybe Dick finally realized that this case is costing him votes and every time he stands next to Elick Murdoch in the public, that decreases his chance of winning an election. See how confusing it is when politicians moonlight as defense attorneys? So for whatever reason, Dick wasn't there.

The documents he filed last week were all nonsense, which meant the hearing was at least brief. For those of you all who listened to Cup of Justice this week, you'll know that I have a different take than a lot of people on Monday's hearing. I didn't see it as this great day for justice. I saw it deep down as a sham. A front, a masquerade. It felt like a performance, presented by the Department of Justice, funded by the United States taxpayers, for the federal government to convince the public that the millions of

dollars they invested into this case was not wasteful. And certainly not duplicitous. Judge Gergel ultimately sentenced Elick Murdoch to 40 years, with 10 of those years being served consecutively to all the other counts. Meaning, if, and this is a huge if at this point, Elick Murdoch gets out of his murder convictions, plural, then he will have to at least serve 13 additional years in federal prison beyond his 27-year state sentence for his financial

crimes. So that essentially provides a decent backstop to ensure that Elick will likely be behind bars for the rest of his life. Now we could factor in good behavior and whatnot but that is a lot of ifs in the equation that Elick Murdoch just doesn't deserve. If the system works the way that it should, Elick Murdoch just doesn't deserve. If the system works the way that it should, Elick Murdoch will be in state prison for the rest of his life. And if Dick and Jim weren't a factor in Elick's legal future, then the government

wouldn't have to waste so much time and resources on providing backstops. Regardless, 40 years is a long time for a federal sentence related to financial crimes. I get that. But to me, as someone who has been consumed by his crimes for five years now, no sentence is ever enough. Judge Gergel went on and on about how the law license should be used for good and how

Ehrlich used it to do evil. He said that he wanted this stern sentence to serve as a deterrent to ensure that other lawyers won't do what Ellic did in fear of facing a hefty sentence. But here is the thing. I don't think Judge Gergel has to worry about a new crop of many Ellic Murdochs coming out of USC law with the intention of stealing from vulnerable clients. That was a unique crime that so few people, especially lawyers, would have the audacity

to attempt. And let's be real here. This system would have never caught Ellic if he didn't murder his family in an attempt to cover up his crimes. There are multiple lawyers who are still licensed to practice in South Carolina who knew that Ellick was stealing well before the June, 2021 murders and well before his fake suicide incident,

which essentially served as a giant red flag to sled. If we want to talk about backstops and spending government resources on actions that actually serve as a deterrent to bad lawyers and will make the system better, why wouldn't they start with those who kept Ehrlich's secrets for all of those years? Start with those who made him into the monster who believed that he

could get away with everything, including killing his own family. Why doesn't the federal government hold them accountable? Why does it seem like they just drew a tiny circle around ELEC when it came to accountability and they didn't go any further? The feds have talked a lot about we are seeing this through until justice is served in the last few years and I am tired of hoping that they are doing things behind the scenes that we don't know about. The simplest answer is often the truth. With no additional arrest in this case after nearly a year, it feels hopeless to assume that they are going to put their money where their mouth is. And speaking of money,

now we have to talk about the restitution, which to me is further proof that the feds are protecting the wrong people here while gaining zero ground on holding others to account. Elick Murdoch was ordered to pay over $8.7 million in restitution, but he will get credit for roughly $1.5 million that Russell and Corey have also been ordered to pay. And those fat stacks of cash go to...

Drumroll please. Parker Law Group $4.5 million. Palmetto State Bank, $329,000. CUMIS Insurance, aka the insurance company in the Satterfield case, $3.8 million. And Pamela Pinkney, $13,000? There is so much weird here. What about the victims?

Why just Pamela? Why are they calling the bank and the firm victims? And will anyone actually see any of this money? And we will be right back. Here come the carrots making their way upfield, followed by the whole wheat bread. Over to the two dozen eggs. Sir, do you do this every time?

Sorry, I've been a little excited ever since I got this BMO Toronto FC cash back masterCard. Oh and the broccoli boots it over the line What a goal How would you like to pay sir? Credit, please make every purchase a win with the BMO Toronto FC cash back MasterCard with up to five percent cash back on your Purchases in your first three months terms and conditions apply I I just had a memory resurface. It's from September 2021 when the details of the Satterfield case were starting to emerge. We were told back then, in no uncertain terms by sources who were attorneys in South Carolina, that Satterfield would likely be the only case in which Ellic Murdoch was stealing

from clients. Why? Because in our sources' minds, again our sources who were attorneys, there was just no world in which any attorney who was a part of any law firm could have ever gotten away with stealing more than once, maybe twice. The financial checks and balances that law firms are required to have in place wouldn't have allowed for a pattern of stealing. In other words, it was unthinkable that there could be Elick Murdoch-level theft. But beyond that, Satterfield technically happened outside the scope of PMPED. Blurrious Sons were actually clients of Corey Fleming and not Elick Murdoch even though both men blurred the line on that one.

Our sources could not imagine a scenario in which Elick would have been able to steal from PMPED without them noticing. PMPED would have caught it. That was the logic. They would have caught it not only because law firms are required to have controls in place but because it was PMPED. Literally I was told, quote, Johnny Parker ain't letting that happen. Law firms are supposed to have type measures in place to catch and prevent thefts like this.

Every penny gets accounted for. Every single penny. We have a friend who is an attorney and she has literally had to write checks to clients for less than a dollar just to make sure that her client trust accounts are appropriately balanced. So to normal non-stealing attorneys at the time, it looked like the Satterfield case was going to be a one-off because it was just so unimaginable to think that a partner at PMPD could have gotten away with anything more than that. We now know that case was just one of 25 the government has identified in which

Ellic stole from clients. Let's talk about those cases really quick because this is the first time the public has been able to see the details of those. And we commend Emily Limehouse and the U.S. Attorney's Office for including this note in their sentencing memo. Quote, to highlight the breadth, scope and severity of Murdoch's scheme beyond his thefts from Thomas, Pinkney, Badger and the Satterfields, and to give a voice to the additional victims, the government briefly summarizes the loss sustained by the remaining victims. These victims did not want to be known publicly.

So the summaries start with a case in September 2005, and they detail the amounts Elick was able to get for his client, along with how much he stole from them, and a quick description of how he was able to steal it. Over and over we see that he filed fake disbursement sheets in local courts with anomalies that should have been caught. For instance, at least one of them didn't include dates with it. Remember in the Satterfield case how many red flags Judge Carmen Mullen overlooked in the disbursement sheets? It'll be interesting to see which judges signed

off on these fake disbursement sheets. In addition to that, ELEC was falsifying expenses, making up fake expert fees including repeat payments to something called Medical Resources starting in at least 2015. What is Medical Resources, you ask? Well, we did a little research through the South Carolina Secretary of State's office. Medical Resources appears to be a shell company that was set up in 2014 by someone named Barrett T. Bowler. Sound familiar? It should. Barrett T. Bowler is who owned Moselle before he signed it over to ELEC in a very shady real estate transaction. Barrett, who died in 2018, was also a suspected

drug trafficker who was indicted in Operation Jackpot back in the early 1980s. His charges were dropped when the witness in the case was killed by a car as he was crossing the street. Barrett was a very good friend of Elec. We sure hope the federal government has been able to look at medical resources more closely to see who else might have been using Barrett's so-called services. Another thing we learned from the government's summary of Ehrlich's other thefts apparently is that the Ferris case isn't the only one in which Ehrlich's best friend Chris Wilson paid fees to him directly instead of to PMPAD. Remember the Ferris case? The one in which Ellic asked Chris to cut him a check for $792,000? In the spring of 2021, PMPAD started asking about that money and found out from a receptionist

at Chris's office that the check had been given directly to Ellic. It's this money that Ellic was confronted about on the day he killed Maggie and Paul and it's this money that in the weeks after their deaths, he quickly tried to cobble together through a loan from Palmetto State Bank and Johnny Parker so that he could put it back in Chris's client trust account. In December 2014, Ellick and Chris worked on a case where they got a $500,000 settlement for their client. Chris wrote a check to Ellick for his half of the fees, $100,000, thereby allowing ELEC to divert that money away from PMPED. Chris Wilson is still practicing law,

by the way, so it's not clear what knowledge he had of ELEC's scheme. Chris, Cory, and ELEC, though, were the three best friends that ever could be. Cory started off by swearing to God he had no idea ELEC was stealing, but by the time of his plea deal with the federal government, we learned that he sure did know. Now the story had changed to he didn't realize that Elick had intended to steal the full amount of the money. Corey thought it was just, you know, a smaller scale plan to steal from their clients who had just lost their mother in a tragedy. Chris, as you'll remember, testified against Ellic, vaguely, in Ellic's murder trial.

So back to the original question, how was it that Ellic was able to steal from more than 25 clients over the course of at least 16 years? How was it that all this could occur within two institutions, the law firm and the bank, without it being understood that something not entirely above board was going on there. We know with the bank, Russell repeatedly helped Ehrlich by doing things outside of

bank policy and the law. Remember when Mark Tinsley told the court in Ehrlich's murder trial that a five-year-old could have seen what Ehrlich was up to? Why didn't PMPD catch what Ehrlich was doing and why didn't Palmetto State Bank catch what Russell was doing? It sounds like there were opportunities for someone, anyone, to ask questions. And why does it seem like all of this wasn't considered when the US government determined that PMPED and Palmetto State Bank would be classified as victims? As part of his sentencing, Elick Murdoch was ordered to pay more than $8.7 million in restitution. Like Mandy said, more than $4.5 million will go to PMPAD and more than $325,000 will go to Palmetto State Bank. More than $3.8 million

will go to the insurance company Elick defrauded in the Satterfield case. And just over $13,000 will go to Pamela Pinkney. That last bid is for money that Corey Fleming held back from Pamela's settlement. Some of that money was used to pay for a private flight to Nebraska for the College World Series with ELEC, Corey, and Chris Wilson. The funny thing here is that part of ELEC's restitution is joined several with Corey's and Russell's restitutions, meaning Corey and Russell are for all practical purposes stuck paying money back that they stole with and for ELEC. Now, we've talked a little bit about this in a previous True Sunlight episode and on Cup of Justice, but PMPED and Palmetto State Bank are considered victims because the government classified them that

way. They weighed the harm done to them and decided, yeah, they qualify. And because of that, the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act dictates that PMPED and the bank are owed the full amount of their losses, including the amount of money they spent investigating these thefts. Maybe in any other context, this would be considered fair. But going back to the idea that people couldn't wrap their heads around in late summer 2021, Ellick couldn't have stolen from PMPD for very long without getting caught because law firms have fiduciary duties to their clients. Turns out that's not true though, right? Turns out he could steal from them for a very long time without getting caught. Same goes for Russell with

the bank. And we cannot believe that this isn't something the government isn't scratching their heads over. How? Now, case law involving the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act in the Second and Eleventh Circuits has since established that the MVRA does not apply to victims who, even though they haven't been charged in connection with the crimes in question, have quote, dirty hands in it. Obviously, there are a lot of different ways to define what dirty hands means. One definition could be described as willful blindness, as in to not catch Ehrlich and Russell, one would have had to have been willfully blind and be looking the other way. What we don't understand is how anyone can look at the facts of Ehrlich's case and think that the law firm and the bank don't bear responsibility. We don't understand

how anyone can think that they shouldn't have to experience the pain of loss because of this. PMPAD acknowledged its own liability in this by making malpractice insurance claims on the firm's policy to help them pay some of the victims. And for what it's worth, Palmetto State Bank isn't some nameless, faceless building. The bank is Russell Lafitte and his father, both of whom knew about and allowed for Alex Gaines. How can the bank be a victim when one of the two is serving federal time for these very same crimes? But no, the government, for whatever reason, is allowing the firm and the bank to recoup their costs.

So theoretically, they could both walk away from this, not having lost a dime when it comes to what Ellic and Russell stole. Obviously, this is a principle of the matter situation because we all know Ellic says he's broke. So the chances of him paying back any of the $8.7 million is really low. Beyond that, he really doesn't seem to think he owes anyone anything. Here's David with what the government wrote

in their March 28th sentencing memorandum. In his sentencing memorandum, Murdock minimizes the loss sustained by the victims, arguing that he should receive some benefit because the victims have been made financially whole. He even goes so far as to claim that in light of their financial recoveries, the victims are better off now than they would have been had he not stolen from them. I mean, you can't make these things up. As far as restitution goes,

we've gotten a few questions from listeners that we wanna answer. The first is why weren't the Plylers included in the restitution? Criminal restitution is calculated by the actual financial loss suffered by the victims. In the Plylers case, Russell settled Hannah's account before she turned 18.

Basically, Ellic paid back what he had taken with other stolen money and bank loans extended to him by Russell under false pretenses. The Plyler's still have a civil claim here though. For instance, because they wanted to treat the Plyler's money like their own personal piggy bank, Russell and Ellic seemed to have purposely held back a larger sum of money than was necessary that could have been better invested, causing a financial loss to both Hannah and Elena. Another question we got is why wasn't Arthur Badger included in the restitution? After PMPED discovered the theft, Arthur received a check for $1.36 million, the actual amount of money stolen from him about 10 years earlier.

PMPED even paid for a giant check to get made so they could have a photo op handing it over to Arthur as if Arthur had won the PMPED lottery. It's almost like they wanted to divert Arthur from realizing that there was more to the story with this windfall he was getting. So ultimately in paying restitution to PMPAD, ELEC would be paying back the Badger money as well. However, just like with the Plylers, Arthur has a civil claim to make here. Not only was he deprived of having that money years ago, we all know that $1.36 million in 2011 money is not the same as $1.36 million in 2022 money. At any rate, the amount of money that PMPAD paid back to clients is included in

ELEC's restitution. But we have to ask, what assurances does the government have that they know the full breadth and scope of what ELEC stole from clients? Are they relying on PMPAD's limited forensic accounting? And did the government look beyond ELEC? Hey, it's a fair question. If a law firm has a history of theft and we now know that PMPAD has this history, it seems to us that the government might want to get to the heart of that to find out why and to find out if there were other anomalies on the books. Or are we to believe Elick was the only person in the world to falsify expenses?

Not only do we have no indication that the government went deep in its investigation into Elick's law firm, we can see that they are perfectly content to make the law firm's landing a lot softer. Maybe this wouldn't be a question on our minds if we didn't know the connection PMPD has to the U.S. Attorney's Office through partner Danny Henderson's daughter Kara, who for years served in the unusual role as liaison to the U.S. Attorney on behalf of the 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office. You know, the prosecutor's office controlled by the Murdoch family for more than a century. The same prosecutor's office that wouldn't recuse itself for the murder case for months

and that was allowing Ellic to drive around with two badges right up until his alleged roadside shooting in September 2021, which is after they were told by Sled that Ellic was a suspect in the murders. Okay, enough about Elec Murdoch. We hope that this federal sentencing is the last that we will hear from him for a long time. But also, we know better. We know Elec. We know that this isn't over.

But until his next drama, we have bigger things on our plate, such as the Michael Colucci case out of the Charleston area. Over the past week, we have learned a lot about this case and about Michael. Our team has been consuming everything we can possibly learn about the Colucci case to prepare for this

trial in May. And we are watching Cork TV's trial coverage beginning to end over and over. We are talking with new sources who knew Michael and knew Sarah. Beth Brayden is filing FOIA after FOIA after FOIA so we can get our hands on every single legal incident Michael was involved in before and after Sarah's death. We are pouring over probate files, lawsuits, traffic tickets, literally everything that we can find out about this case and about the man who is on trial for murder. This is the kind of all consuming work Liz and I did for two years before David and I launched the Murdoch Murders podcast in 2021.

It was those kinds of details we knew from late night phone calls with sources and from devouring thousands of legal documents that set our knowledge of the case apart from the others who were covering it. After reviewing the evidence presented in the 2018 murder trial that ended in a hung jury, I can tell you that I believe, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Michael Colucci killed his wife, Sarah Lynn Colucci,

on May 20th, 2015, outside of their Somerville, South Carolina jewelry business. killed his wife, Sarah Lynn Calucci, on May 20th, 2015, outside of their Summerville, South Carolina jewelry business. I believe this for many reasons, but the first is that the evidence does not match either of the stories that Michael Calucci has claimed. He said that Sarah Lynn either hung herself

with an industrial hose or Sarah tripped over an industrial hose and it somehow strangled her. This is hard for me to believe because 1. The marks on her neck do not match the size of the hose on the scene. 2. The autopsy revealed multiple pressure points on her neck. 3.

Her body was cold to the touch when EMTs arrived on scene, meaning it appeared she had been dead for much longer than when Michael said that he found her. Four, police found evidence of a struggle in Michael's car, which was never explained in Michael's story. And five, Michael's lip was busted when EMTs arrived on scene. He said he got a bloody lip from attempting CPR. But how is that possible? The physical evidence tells a much more plausible

story. That Michael and Sarah got into a fight. That Michael strangled Sarah to death and attempted to stage a suicide or accident before the police arrived. And beyond the evidence, we have learned that Sarah Lynn, like most women, likely wouldn't choose to leave the world in that way. In a back alley, suffering a painful death via a hose and a chain link fence, with her husband she so often fought with just a few feet away. I've come to the conclusion that Michael had the means, motive, and opportunity to kill Sarah, especially considering details surrounding Michael's relationship with Sarah

and how Michael's personal and professional lives were collapsing around the time of Sarah's death. He certainly had the ability to strangle her, whether he used a hose or maybe even something from his car like a cell phone cord, or something that's similarly thin and strong. But I think the opportunity part of this case is why it is so important and why we are dedicating a lot of time and resources to the Calici case. As we discovered in the Elick, Murdoch, and Bowen Turner cases, people become increasingly dangerous when the system shows them time and time again how much they can get away with. The state now has the opportunity to show this man that he can't get away with it, allegedly, this time. The state has the opportunity to correct its wrongs from 2018 and to finally get justice for Sarah Lynn Calucci. And sunlight could play a major role in

that. For next week's Cup of Justice, we spoke with Vinnie Politan of Court TV about the Calucci case. He said that this was the first full trial that Court TV filmed when they were rebooting the network in 2018. I always found it shocking that the South Carolina Attorney General's Office prosecutors

tried the case like they did with Court TV cameras in the courtroom. They appeared to lack enthusiasm, legal knowledge, and basic concern for the jury understanding the story that they were presenting. They were not acting like people who went home at night to inboxes full of critics.

Well, turns out they weren't. Vinny told us that the case was not streamed live. Rather, it was broadcasted months later on Court TV's channel network. And this makes a lot of sense. Cases that Court TV now covers live get a ton of traction, media coverage, social media chatter, etc. etc.

To me, this is the most fascinating case that we have come across since Murdock. It is complicated, like we barely have told y'all about Sarah's first husband's death or about Michael's mother's murder. There are layers and layers of complex storylines to follow. And like Murdoch, at the heart of the story appears to be a man who is used to getting out of everything. I am assuming and hoping that the other media will catch on before May. But regardless, we plan on being there to stream the entire trial, and we will be providing live context in our coverage so the AG's office can rest assured

that knowledgeable people will be watching. And now is the time to put their best case forward like they did with Murdoch. Context matters in cases like this. And the more we learn, the more disturbed we are with the AG's office in their non-aggressive approach to this case. We'll be right back.

The most disturbing thing we learned is related to Michael's house arrest. It's yet another story about how South Carolina does next to nothing to keep track of defendants who are out on bond awaiting trials and violent crimes. So remember, this case has been going on for nine years. Sarah Lynn Colucci was killed in May 2015. A year later, Michael was charged with murdering her. Two years after that, he was tried for her murder and the judge declared it a mistrial when the jury couldn't reach a verdict.

We are now six years out from that. In 2016, Michael was put under house arrest and lived with his mother and stepfather in Somerville, South Carolina, in a seven-bedroom house where he, his brother, and their five step siblings were raised on a more than 12-acre piece of property. According to sources, Michael didn't last long in that house. His stepfather kicked him out and Michael moved to the family's 3,000 square foot waterfront beach house on Edisto Island, which Murdoch listeners will recognize as where Maggie Murdoch was staying in their family's beach house at the time of her murder.

But, apparently Michael didn't let the court know about this address change. In May 2017, the Attorney General's office filed a motion to revoke or amend Michael's bond. According to the motion, Michael was violating the conditions of the bond that was set for him a year earlier in that he was not living at his parents' house. Also, the AG's office had information that Michael was not abiding by the terms of his house arrest, which stated he could only leave the house of his house arrest, which stated he could only leave the house to go to, quote, work, attend religious services, medical,

dental, and or health appointments, and attend appointments at his lawyer's offices. A few days after that motion was filed, Judge Christy Harrington held a hearing and signed an order putting Michael on house arrest at his parents' beach house, i.e. the house he was already staying at without the court's permission. The judge again restricted his movements but provided more details about what he was and wasn't allowed to do, including new provisions for parenting. Michael was required to be at the house between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. every day and he was barred from entering any premises where the primary business was the sale or consumption of alcohol. According to Robert Kittle with the South Carolina Attorney General's Office, this

is where Michael remains under house arrest at his quote, parents' house. But according to police reports, Michael hasn't lived at that address since at least April 2018, which is seven months before his November trial. And apparently he hasn't faced any consequences for not living at the location where he is supposed to be on house arrest. On March 25th, 2018, the Colleton County Sheriff's Office was called to the Edistro Island house by the attorney for the Coluchi estate. Almost a year earlier, Michael's stepfather, who had been diagnosed with dementia and by all accounts was

experiencing increased stress as a result of Michael's murder case, shot and killed Michael's mother at the family's jewelry store in North Charleston. He was determined not to be fit to stand trial. According to the Sheriff's Office, the Calucci's estate attorney, whose name is redacted from the report, quote, advised that they had to have Michael Kuluchi evicted from the house and he is not to return. Here's David with more from that report. While they were at the residence, which is in a narrow one-way out electric gated road. Mr. Blank said Michael came in and went down the narrow road, turned around and stopped in front of this residence and tried to start arguing with the family members.

Mr. Blank said that Michael should have no reason to be inside the gated area. Mr. Blank said that Michael is out on bond and is not to have any contact with any of the family members, but he could not provide paperwork showing this. I advised Mr. Blank that a report would be completed stating the above. On April 4th 2018, just eight days after Michael appears to have been evicted from his parents' beach house, the Colleton County Sheriff's Office was called to the address again, this time in reference to the house being entered and vandalized. The

call came in as a burglary. The name of the caller is redacted, but we're told that it wasn't Michael. Michael is actually listed on the report as, quote, other. According to the report, the caller arrived at the house after not being there for a week, and the house was destroyed and spray painted. Photos show that items were thrown around and smashed, and there was at least one large drawing of a penis spray painted onto a table.

A golf cart was reportedly missing along with at least one piece of furniture, which reminds us of some other police reports. On October 5, 2015, five months after Sarah Lynn Calucci was killed and seven months before Michael was charged with her murder, Sarah's mother called the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office. Sarah's mother and father owned the home that Sarah and Michael lived in in Monks

Corner, South Carolina. And on October 4, 2015, the day before the mother called police, they evicted Michael from the home. On October 5, the next day after they evicted him, they reported $38,950 worth in damage and theft to the home. Barbara Moore, Sarah's mother, reported that Michael had taken the family's security cameras, he had taken the internal and external light fixtures, he had taken the refrigerator, the stained glass lighting from the kitchen.

She reported that he had taken thousands of dollars in window treatments, shelving from the main bedroom hall and bathroom closets, the washing machine, the dryer, the bathroom mirror, cabinets from the garage and the HVAC unit, both inside and outside component. She reported that Michael had left holes in the walls and had damaged the flooring on both floors. The main bathroom shower and the floor were destroyed.

The main bedroom wall was damaged. The cabinets under the stove were damaged. The window screens were damaged. And adding insult to injury, she said that he had even taken the attachments to the house's central vacuuming. A few days later, Sarah's father called the sheriff's office again, this time to tell them that he had found a suspicious substance in the maintenance shed at the house. A yellow plastic pill bottle with a white cap. Inside was a plastic straw with white powder residue on it. This was taken into evidence by the deputies for testing.

The report does not indicate what, if anything, was found. Another report from July 2017 filed with the Edisto Beach Police Department by Island Bikes indicates that a golf cart Michael Colucci brought in for service had been stolen from its lot. I point this out only because a golf cart was reportedly missing from his parents' house at the time of his eviction. So this might be an explanation for that. Okay, seven months after the Colucci family appears to have evicted Michael from the house where the court believed Michael was on house arrest, Michael goes on trial for Sarah's murder.

At his trial, the bond was again amended, but with no mention of the address change. His attorney Andy Savage successfully argued that Michael did not need to reside in jail during the trial, and instead he could stay at the same hotel where he and his staff were staying near the courthouse. After at least one night in jail and a short hearing on the matter, Michael was placed on an ankle monitor. It is not clear what happened after a mistrial was declared. And since then, he has lived, well, who knows? Definitely not the AG's office. Sources have told us that Michael lives in a rental on Edisto Island

that is not and never could be considered his parents' house. After Michael was arrested in May 2016, Judge Markley Dennis, Bowen Turner's plea deal judge, set Michael's bond. And here is David reading from the bond conditions. Prohibited and restrained from any contact with any of the alleged victim's family members, directly or indirectly except

as may be allowed, authorized, and or mandated pursuant to filed orders in Berkeley County Family Court. The defendant shall be under house arrest at his parents' home, location redacted, however shall be allowed to work, attend religious services, medical, dental, and or health appointments, and attend appointments at his lawyer's office, and to the extent the defendant either has a passport or obtains one, he shall be required to... And then it ends. Those are the official bond requirements available to the public.

There is nothing in the public index showing that the ankle monitor was removed. There is no other update on Michael's bond that we can find. Now what is important to know here is that the victims in this case believed that Michael was still under ankle monitoring while awaiting his retrial. But here is David reading what the attorney general's office said to us. Our attorney is pretty sure he does not have an ankle monitor on now. He said he thinks he was put on a monitor during the trial but thinks the monitor was removed after the now. He said he thinks he was put on a monitor during the trial, but thinks the monitor was removed after the trial. He believes the bond went back to prohibiting contact with the alleged victim's family. He is under house arrest at his parents'

home but is allowed to leave for work, attend religious services, medical, dental appointments, and attend appointments at his lawyer's offices. Note the use of alleged victim there. The prosecutors trying this case are calling Sarah Lynn, who they say had a crime committed against her, a crime that they are prosecuting, an alleged victim. Alleged. We get that there's a question about whether Sarah Lynn was murdered or killed herself, but the one set of people who question about whether Sarah Lynn was murdered or killed herself, but the one set of people who should be certain Sarah Lynn is a victim should be

the ones prosecuting the case because ostensibly they believe beyond a reasonable doubt that she was murdered by her husband. But get this, in February 2023, Michael's attorney Andy Savage filed a motion asking that the court issue an order prohibiting the state and their witnesses from referring to Sarah Colucci as victim and from referring to Michael Colucci as defendant. He also wants the judge to bar people from referring to the place where Sarah died as a crime scene and to instead call it the incident location. His argument against referring to Sarah as a victim is that to instead call it the incident location. His argument against referring

to Sarah as a victim is that it violates the presumption that Michael is innocent. And this is why Andy Savage makes the big bucks, ladies and gentlemen. We'll talk more about all these motions that he's filed in this case so far. They are extraordinary and I think you'll find them fascinating, especially when you consider that 99.9% of defendants don't get this kind of service. In fact, even if every public defender were to copy and paste Andy's motions into their own cases, I don't think our system is built to handle this kind of effort. Anyway, back to the issue of bond. I want to note that South Carolina has a victimims' Bill of Rights and one of those rights is to be

reasonably protected from the accused or persons acting on his behalf throughout the criminal justice process. One would think reasonably protected would be the justice system at least knowing where Michael lives, but it sounds like the victim should also be told that information. When you have a nine-year case, it's pretty foreseeable that a man out on bond on a murder charge might have a change of address every now and then, right? Like the state alluded to in its one motion about revoking bond, there have been issues involving Michael and his bond compliance. To be clear, there's no record of him being charged with violating the terms of his bond,

but according to sources, several incidents of his suspected noncompliance continued to be reported to various law enforcement agencies over the years and the consistent response they have received in return was, this is not our jurisdiction. So a look at Michael's post-bond life is interesting. Let's start with the timeline and some background information. Michael, like I said, was arrested on May 6, 2016. He was released on bond May 12, 2016. And he was to remain at his parents' house in Somerville on house arrest. This was not his first arrest in 2016, by the way.

Three months earlier, Somerville police and Dorchester County Sheriff's Office deputies had arrested him for the misdemeanor charge of not having a business license. He was arrested at his parents' house in Somerville where he was living at the time. Weird, right? This is the first time either of us have heard of someone getting arrested for not having a business license, so we're kind of wondering what was going on there. Right after Michael was arrested though, his fine was paid and he was released. Now according to sources and police records, at the time Michael was put on house arrest, Michael's stepfather did not want him living with him anymore.

Also, Michael's mother had been taking large amounts of money from the couple's accounts to allegedly pay for Michael's legal fees. And according to sources, Evo had expressed anger about various transactions that Doris appeared to be making to transfer assets out of Evo's name without his permission. Two weeks after Michael was released on bond, on May 27, 2016, he contacted the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office to let them know that Evo was not well. Here's David. Mr. Colucci states he was calling to make the Sheriff's Office aware of his father Evo Colucci's condition. Mr. Calucci states his father is under a doctor's care and provided a letter from Dr. Rex Morgan MD that I have scanned into this

report. Mr. Calucci states his father is not in his right mind. Attached to this report is a doctor's note stating that Evo had been diagnosed with mild to moderate dementia. The letter is from April 25th 2016 and states that Evo had been diagnosed with mild to moderate dementia. The letter is from April 25, 2016, and states that Evo has difficulty with his short-term memory and that he would benefit from the appointment of a guardian to assist him with day-to-day living and a conservator to assist with his finances. Now, why would Michael preemptively alert sheriff's deputies to his father's condition? There could be several reasons. Sometimes people alert law enforcement to their loved one's medical conditions so that if police are ever dispatched to the person's home or if they ever encounter them in public, they'll know how to better interpret their actions and get them the care they need.

So was this what Michael was doing? Or was it something else? So was this what Michael was doing or was it something else? Was he alerting police because he knew Evo didn't want him at the house and this was a way of mitigating that issue? Stick a pin in that because I first want to talk about something else. We are still awaiting Foyas to return but according to one report from Berkley County Sheriff's Office on June 9th, 2016, one month after Michael was arrested for murder and was released on bond, a report was filed by a former client of Michael's jewelry store who said that he had pawned her jewelry which she had left with him to repair back in March 2016. She had learned of Michael's

arrest for murder and wanted to report this because he had repeatedly ignored her request to return her property according to the report. She contacted members of Michael's family and had been told that she might want to check pawn shops, according to the report. She also learned the name of an associate of Michael's who might know something about where the jewelry was. So she went to three different pawn shops and found her jewelry. The name of Michael's associate was listed at each shop as the person who had sold her jewelry to them.

And, according to the report, one of the pawn shop employees identified Michael as the man accompanying this associate when he sold the jewelry to them. According to the report, deputies were in the process of obtaining video footage of the suspects during the transaction, but the report doesn't indicate whether or not police ever followed up on the case. The women's jewelry was, however, returned to her. They had recovered a wedding ring set, a diamond ring, a ruby cluster ring, and an engagement style ring. According to the report, the case is still active. Now, on this very same day, Michael's stepfather, Ivo Calucci, called the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office, a different agency, on Michael at around 20 after 8 in the morning. Remember, this is just one month after Michael's arrest for murder. Michael was supposed to be living with Ivo and Doris at their Somerville house,

but Ivo told deputies that he and Michael's mother had been separated. From the report, it seems like Doris might have been living at the couple's beach house on Edisto Island at the time. Evo was upset because he said Michael kept taking the keys to his Prius and his Corvette. He did not want Michael driving his cars. According to a source, Michael had been taking Evo's cars without permission from Evo and had driven the Corvette, which was a prized possession of Evo's, in a reckless way around the family's 12-acre property. While deputies were speaking with Evo, his wife Doris pulled up and told deputies that all the vehicles on the property except for a pickup truck were in both her name and Evo's. So the deputy

told Evo that he'd have to go to court and get a judge to divide their assets. In other words, because the cars were in both his and Doris' names, the deputy was saying that Doris was technically allowed to loan the cars to whoever she wanted. With Michael by her side, Doris told deputies that Evo had cut her off financially and that when she came to pick up some money, he began yelling and shouting because of the Corvette, which Evo saw had been moved. Doris blamed Evo for moving the Corvette and told deputies that her son Michael had cleaned the Corvette and was going to put the cover on it to keep it out of the weather. Doris

also told law enforcement that the Corvette doesn't have brakes or windshield wipers and the car could not have been driven anyway, which she had just told deputies that Evo had been the one driving it and now she was saying it was undrivable. She told deputies that she'd make sure the Prius was brought back to Evo that afternoon and asked that they be there for the exchange. She also told police that Evo had violent episodes in the past and in one argument had a firearm in his pocket. Because of this, she said she'd removed firearms

from the house and hidden others. Michael told deputies that the Prius was in the shop because the windshield was cracked. He then gave deputies an audio recording of him speaking to Ivo and Ivo using profane language. The deputy wrote, quote, I heard Michael say to Mr. Colucci on the recording, quote, I will get you the car back in a calm voice. Michael told the deputy that he would call them to be there for the exchange of the vehicle so that they could help keep Evo calm. But instead, Doris later called police to tell them that the car was back and on her

property at the beach house. She told deputies that she didn't want to give the car to Ivo because he already had a car to drive. While at the house earlier, Ivo's daughter told deputies that Michael would get Ivo angry so that he could record him yelling and using profane language. Also, Ivo apologized to the deputy for being irate when law enforcement arrived. Now, here are two very interesting things in the report. One is that the deputy noted that he told Ivo how to start the eviction process with Michael and had warned Ivo that both he and Doris would have to be on the same page about that. So, one month after being put on house arrest at this address, Michael was already about to get

evicted. The second interesting thing is this handwritten statement to deputies from Evo's daughter. Here's David. In the past several months, when at my dad's home, I've witnessed Michael Antonio Calucci, legal name change, not adopted, provoke my dad, baiting him to the point of an argument. If you hear any audio tape of my dad, Evo Calucci,

using profane language and screaming that you can't hear Michael or Doris Calucci screaming, or using profane language during an argument, then this is a setup for blackmailing my dad. Also, my dad had to take money, parentheses, very little amounts that were left in account and put in new accounts that Doris Kaluchi could not take out. She previously took over $150,000 out of my dad's other accounts, both personal and business. This $150,000 was for the use of Michael's attorney to help him with a charge of murder.

My dad is afraid of Michael and has asked his wife of 40 years to make him leave and she refuses. Notice the part where she wrote that Michael was not adopted by Ivo Colucci? But yet, he goes by the last name Colucci. When Michael turned 18, he legally changed his name to Ivo's last name. Why? Well, only Michael can answer that question, but we will note that the last name, Kaluchi, was associated with wealth and influence. We will also note that sources have told us the Kaluchi name was important to Michael, and people who knew him for years assumed he was adopted. We'll also note that consistently in the police report,

Evo refers to Michael as his stepson, but Michael refers to Evo as his father. A week after the argument about the cars and Evo expressing his desire to have Michael evicted, Evo called the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office again, evicted, Evo called the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office again, this time to report Michael for violating the terms of his bond. Again, we're just a month out from his arrest and his release on bond. Evo reported to deputies that he was walking the long driveway of their house around 6 a.m. when he encountered Michael who appeared to be returning home at that hour. Evo told the deputy that Michael was not supposed to be out and about per a court order,

but he didn't know where Michael had been. At the end of the report, officer Eric Amos wrote, quote, Mr. Evo requested that the incident be documented and was supplied with a case number. Nothing further, period. And the report just ends like that. Literally, nothing further. This is where I get frustrated. When I see little things like this that show how broken our system really is. Police are supposed to care about public safety

more than they care about checking off their to-do list and closing cases. When Eva called the cops and asked them to document the fact that his stepson was violating his bond conditions, I am assuming that he believed what I would have believed. The documentation would have gone into some kind of system and alert those in charge of his case, perhaps the Attorney General's office, that he was allegedly violating his bond.

Maybe Officer Amos could have done some basic police work to see if there was a digital footprint catching Michael violating his bond. Maybe if he had an ankle monitor like he was supposed to, it should be really easy to find out whether this was true or not. But no. Michael already had it documented that Evo was losing it and that he couldn't be trusted. Officer Amos apparently made zero attempts from what we can see to find out if what Evo said was true.

He apparently didn't bother to even ask Evo or do a search to see exactly what Michael was out on bond for and what his conditions were. Instead he just wrote nothing further, and he moved on. And Michael moved on too, and he moved away from the home where the Attorney General's office still believes that he is staying in, and it appears like no one is keeping tabs on this accused murderer

who will face trial next month. But guess what? We aren't moving on, and we found a whole lot more about Michael in police reports specifically. We will be rolling out a series of premium articles, timelines, and visuals starting this week for Lunashark Premium members only. Remember, Lunashark Premium members will get exclusive access to watch the trial starting on May 13th, live with us, so be sure to sign up for Lunashark Premium today! Your support means the world to us and helps us continue our mission to expose the

truth wherever it leads, to be a voice for victims and to get the story straight. Stay tuned, stay pesky, and co-hosted by journalist Liz Farrell. Learn more about our mission and membership at lunasharkmedia.com. Interruptions provided by Luna and Joe Pesky.