Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #46 - The Chaotic Life of Michael Colucci + Bowen Turner’s Entitlement on Full Display in Police Video

Episode Date: April 11, 2024

Sandy Smith, David and Mandy headed to Wichita to speak at the Kansas Governor's Office Crime Victims Rights Conference this week. Sandy and Mandy presented a case study in media and how powerful forces can shape a victim's pursuit of justice. You'll hear a short excerpt from today's presentation and Premium Members will get the full video soon. On today's episode, True Sunlight Podcast, Co-hosts Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell continue their deep dive into the circumstances surrounding the death of Sara Lynn Colucci, ahead of her husband’s retrial for murder this May. Through an extensive search into public records — including police reports and civil lawsuits that have never before been published — Mandy and Liz piece together the chaos of Michael Colucci’s life before and after he met and married Sara Lynn Moore. Also on the show, an update on Bowen Turner and what happened during his latest arrest in March. LunaShark was ahead of the pack with its FOIA for all video related to Bowen’s DUI arrest. You can watch the videos of Bowen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUoGg0HBOho https://youtu.be/SZ_0ILElGLE https://youtu.be/6Gk2KOOtLuc And everything Mandy and Liz found in the footage proves what they’ve been saying this whole time: Bowen belongs behind bars... 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

Maple syrup, we love you, but Canada is way more. It's poutine mixed with kimchi, maple syrup on hollow hollow, Montreal style bagels eaten in Brandon, Manitoba. Here, we take the best from one side of the world and mix it with the other. And you can shop that whole world right here in our aisles. Find it all here with more ways to save at Real Canadian Superstore. Behold the DQ freezer! An extraordinary freezer holding all the blizzard flavors of the past. It's opening to bring back Rollo and brownie batter. Grab them

before the DQ freezer closes. Only a DQ. Happy tastes good. I don't know what it will take for officials in the justice system to wake up and stop giving privileged defendants chance after chance. But I am furious this week after watching Bowen Turner's horrific DUI video and also digging in to Michael Colucci's troubled past. I see so many shocking similarities between the two privileged men in the land of no consequences. I can only hope that South Carolina officials and the public wake up and speak up before more people get hurt. My name is Mandi 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 hello from Wichita, Kansas. David, Sandy Smith and I flew to my home state this week to speak at the Victims' Rights Conference where we presented our story to a room full of victims' advocates and law enforcement officials and talked about what they can do to help mothers like Sandy Smith who feel snubbed by the system. The room was full of inspiring, pesky people, and it gave me so much hope for the world

to speak with so many people who care about changing our system for the better. Thank you to Kristin for inviting us on this special time, and thank you for giving Sandy her first motivational speaking opportunity. Our full speech will be available soon for Premium members, but I wanna play a clip of Sandy's speech because it was so spectacular. I don't know how to fix the problem that led to my son's murder being mishandled from the beginning,

but I do know that I am thankful to have so many wonderful people here helping me get justice for Stephen. Sadly, the passage of time makes information harder to source and justice more challenging to receive. Law enforcement doesn't always perform duties perfectly but they should admit when they are wrong and when they could have done a better job in their investigation. I am still waiting for that apology. It is so important to

empower victims to treat them as you would like to be treated, to give them respect and provide options of how we can help get the word out and raise awareness to help the investigation and keep the names of our loved ones alive. While we depend on others for actions and answers, we expect to participate in this process. While we may be victims, we are not helpless. While we are suffering, we will never give up. I do it for Stephen, and I'll never stop fighting for my son. Thank you. Sandy was beaming with pride talking about Stephen and answering questions about her Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I just want to thank you all for making a difference in her life. We have not solved Stephen's case yet, but we are nowhere near giving up. And Sandy is more motivated and hopeful than ever after hearing so many stories at the

conference about cold cases that were solved after decades. It just takes one person to turn a case around and we are going to find that person in Steven's case. Sandy knows we aren't giving up and we will continue to follow Steven's case while diving into others. And speaking of other cases, we have got to talk about Bowen Turner. Liz and Beth Braden foiled around and found out in his DUI case from March. And wow, this man managed to be so much worse than I expected, and I don't even know how that's possible.

We will talk about the video more on a COJ episode because there is just so much there. Lunashark obtained three videos showing not only how bad the crash was, but how horrific Bowen Turner's behavior was. As he spoke with Highway Patrol officer, Sierra Renee Calamaris, drove him to jail.

Highway Patrol doesn't have cages in their cars, so Turner sat next to her in the passenger seat, while the two drove to the Florence jail in their cars. So Turner sat next to her in the passenger seat while the two drove to the Florence jail in early March. The video shows Turner who has been given chance after chance after chance from the justice system, mostly thanks to his state senator attorney Brad Hutto, prosecutor David Miller, and Judge Markley Dennis, who agreed to give this deeply troubled and dangerous man probation, which he screwed up almost immediately and wound up back in prison soon after he got that sweetheart deal. Well, just four months after he got out of prison for his probation violation, Turner was

arrested for DUI, resisting arrest, and other charges after flipping his vehicle several times. The video was deeply, deeply disturbing. Turner drunkenly cursed and screamed at this police officer who honestly deserves a gold medal for patience. Please watch the video and link in the descriptions and share it to show the world that this is the monster the system made by letting him get off time and time again. We're going to break down the dashcam on COJ because again, there's a lot there.

But in the meantime, we have learned that in a move that seems highly unusual, Bowen was granted the opportunity to plead guilty to his DUI charge that appears to be disposed of after he just served 17 days in jail. We are still looking into this, but it appears like the system is letting this man off again. Right now, he is in prison for his Youth Offenders Act defense and he is still facing resisting arrest and public disorderly conduct charges. Meaning, he really could get out soon and he could get off easy again.

And after watching that video of how he treated a female officer, I am deeply, deeply concerned about what he could do if he gets out. Please keep making noise about this case. Share the video, start screaming about Bowen Turner. Call your local TV station and tell them to cover this story. The media is barely talking about this man and we can't just sit back and let the system give him another pass.

It is far too dangerous. But today, we need to talk about Michael Colucci. The trial is coming up in May and every day this case gets more concerning. Not only as we learn more about Michael and his very Elick Murdoch-y personality traits, but we are concerned about the Attorney General's office approach to this case or lack thereof. They simply cannot afford to put up a toothless prosecution again. And I hope that they realize that there are victims out there praying every day that they do their jobs in this trial

and finally get justice for Sarah Lynn Colucci. So when we dive into a case of Luna Shark, we do the extra background work that most reporters don't bother with. This extra work, like FOIAing police reports with the defendant's name, reading every legal document associated with the subject's family, developing relationships with people close to the situation who can tell you things that you will never find online. This extra work paints a full picture of a person for the world to see.

In a lot of cases, it is the full picture that someone like Michael Colucci or Elick Murdoch is working really hard to hide. For instance, this extra work in the early days of the Murdoch case helped us learn that Paul Murdoch had been in trouble with the law before for drinking on a boat and his father, with the help of Corey Fleming, got him out of it instead of getting him help. We learned that Paul had crashed while driving multiple times before the 2019 boat crash. And instead of learning a lesson, like most kids do, his parents worked hard to cover it up. And of course, in the Murdock case,

police reports and lawsuits are what led us to the Gloria Satterfield and Stephen Smith cases. In the Colucci case, police reports and legal documents show us a different side of Michael. They show a man living chaotically and suspiciously. And the police just believe him over and over again. Criminal records only tell you a little bit about a person. They tell you the stories where they didn't get away

with it, at least not initially. They tell you about the times a person was charged with a crime, but a lot of times, especially with privileged defendants, you can find events where it looks like there was enough for probable cause or at least enough to warrant a further investigation. And yet the investigation just ends. Police reports will tell you about the times they might have gotten away with something, which is important to know when you are looking at someone's escalating behavior and seeing a pattern of them getting away with whatever messes they make.

For instance, in June 2015, just a few weeks after Sarah Calucci was killed, a man in Somerville, South Carolina filed a police report about Michael Colucci. The man said that on March 21, 2015, two months before Sarah's death, he entered a written and verbal contract with Michael Colucci that Michael would sell a two-carat diamond set on a 14-carat gold band for him. Michael said that he would sell it for $8,500. The man said that months passed and Calucci seemed to be dodging paying him back for the

diamond ring set. On June 5, 2015, just weeks after Sarah died, Michael finally wrote the man a $7,000 check. And that check was backdated for a few days later. When the man tried to cash the $7,000 check on June 8th, 2015, when Michael said that it would be good, the bank said that the check bounced. The man went to Colucci's jewelry and told a representative that he would be contacting a lawyer and the

Somerville Police Department. On June 16, 2015, Kaluchi texted the man and said, I am going to pay you in full today. I'm getting between $50,000 and $70,000 in credit and you have to be patient. Okay, thank you. It has been a very difficult time for my children and myself. He said this will be resolved soon and we can move forward once again. He said he was sorry for the inconvenience.

Whoa. Using his wife's death to get out of financial problems. Does that sound familiar? And why was Michael expecting to come into so much money so soon after Sarah's death? What was up with that? We will get back to that, because the math here tells the story. But back to the police report from 2015, this man responded to Michael with concern and he asked if the diamond ring was sold. And Kaluchi says he sold it 45 days ago,

which is right before Sarah's murder. Michael promised that he would make it right, but the man felt suspicious of Kaluchi. The police then contacted a sales associate at Kaluchi's jewelry, who said at first it was on layaway, but then she said she didn't know where the ring was, and it could be at Kaluchi's residence. The police officer said that the man needs to have his ring back, and she said that she would look for it and contact the police if she found it. Here is the wild part. The police officer appeared to be cool with that. The police officer then quote according to the police report requested that she contact Kaluchi to inform him to contact the police officer and then the police officer just provided his contact info. That was it.

He even wrote at the end of the police report, however, I did not receive contact from Calucci. Huh. I just want to note that Calucci was under investigation at the time for his wife's murder, which was well known in the Somerville area. It is unbelievable to me that police wouldn't even bother to contact this man, who apparently stole an $8,500 ring and then wrote a bad check to try to get out of it. Remember when Russell Lafitte, acting as a conservator for the Plyler Girls after their mom died and their dad left, remember when he put Elena on a $150 a week spending budget with zero overdraft protections and one trip to the veterinarian prompted the solicitor's office to threaten bad check charges against

Elena? Well, this is a case of an $8,500 ring and a $7,000 check that bounced. How come Michael didn't get a letter in the mail from the solicitor like Elena did? How come the Somerville Police Department didn't do just basic follow-up work, like with the bank for instance, to just see if the check did in fact bounce? The police officer noted in the report that the man whose ring was missing only followed up with screenshots of conversations, essentially blaming the victim for not following up to see if Michael did in fact take the man's

$8,500 ring without paying him back. That would be stealing or at least fraud. The police officer noted in the report that this was a civil matter and the case was closed within a few days. It is wild to me that police often consider white-collar stealing as a civil matter, like it is so much less serious. I have seen police go to great lengths, including violence, for much less serious crimes. Yet, Somerville police couldn't even call Michael Colucci to ask where this man's $8,500 ring was. Come on. This appeared to be a pattern for Michael, where it looks like he stole from people via

handshakes and promises, and because of that, the police didn't take it seriously and he was apparently able to continue on. Last week, we told you all about a 2016 case where a woman reported to police that she took jewelry to get fixed in March 2016, just two months before Kaluji got arrested for Sarah's May 2015 murder. Months passed and the woman apparently didn't get her jewelry returned to her as promised and she noticed that Michael had been arrested in Sarah's murder. The woman found her jewelry which included her wedding set, a diamond ring and a ruby

cluster ring at three separate pawn shops. The woman provided all of this information, including receipts from Kaluchi's store. And yet, police just said that they would review the footage and it appears that they did nothing further in this case. Since 2016, police had records of this woman giving the jewelry to Kaluchi. They had evidence that the items had been pawned without the woman's permission.

And yet, they just moved on. The case is still technically active, but wow. Talk about police dropping the ball on what looked like a slam dunk case. There was another case we found showing the chaos of Michael's life and how he seemed to be protected by law enforcement's lack of interest in him. Let me have David read this police report. And yes, it is full of typos and he is reading it verbatim to show you how little effort the Somerville police invested in this incident. On August 4th, 2022, subject Lacy came to the police

department in reference to a theft that occurred in 2013. She completed a written statement. She stated that in 2013, subject Sarah Colucci called her seeking to buy a kitten from her. Colucci was a jeweler in Summerville. She stated that in exchange for the horse, she received a custom diamond ring for her daughter's graduation.

She stated the ring was made and that the Kaluchi family became like family to her. She stated the friendship was extremely personal and spiritual. She stated that he still has her diamonds. She did not state in the statement about how he got the stones back. She stated that she wanted to also take him to civil court. When asked why she waited so

long to come forward, she stated that she was a patient person and the Bible says not to sue Christians. When asked what has changed her mind about this she stated that she knew now that he was not a true Christian. She also stated that she heard that he was getting a large sum of money from life insurance payouts, and that if she was going to recover her diamonds or its cash equivalent, now is the time. Officer Anderson believes this is a civil issue and does not rise to the level of obtaining goods under false pretenses. She also claimed to have direct evidence in reference to his murder trial.

When pressed, she only knew of hearsay and did not have any direct evidence. Officer Anderson contacted the Attorney General's office, who now has the case, and as of the time of this report, they have not responded. When you look at the police reports as a whole, there seems to be a clear pattern of Michael being accused of not giving people back their jewelry. And maybe this wasn't important enough to police on a case-by-case basis back then, but it should be important now when prosecutors can use the bigger picture to show jurors what kind of financial pressure Michael was under at the time of Sarah Lynn's death and how it seemed to affect their marriage, to show jurors what kind of financial pressure Michael was under at the time of Sarah Lynn's

death and how it seemed to affect their marriage, to show jurors just how chaotic Michael's life was. So, today we want to talk more about what's in those police reports and in other legal filings and what they're showing us about who Michael was before Sarah Lynn was killed and who he seems to be after her death. There are a lot of dots that can be connected here, dots that were not connected in the first trial. But first, let's start with how Michael met Sarah Lynn.

I'm going to have David read Sarah Lynn's version of this. She wrote about it on a wedding website called Honeymoon Wishes. Before he reads it though, it's important for you to know some context. The first part is that at the time she met Michael, Sarah Lynn and her young daughter lived in a nice house in Fox Bank Plantation in Monks Corner, South Carolina, which is about 50 minutes northwest of Charleston. Fox Bank was a new neighborhood at the time. Sarah Lynn's house was built in 2007, the same year that her first husband Michael Vera died.

Her parents bought the home for her brand new, and she paid the mortgage on it. The house was more than 2,600 square feet and had three bedrooms and three bathrooms. Fox Bank sounds like a typical low-country development with a mix of homes and townhouses. It has a 67-acre lake with a dock, sidewalks, parks, a dozen ponds, and a resort-style swimming pool, according to the Homeowners Association website. According to Sarah Lynn's good friend Stephanie Merrill, who you heard from in episode 41, Sarah Lynn was meticulous about her home, both in how it was kept and how it was decorated. This stands in stark contrast with what we told you about how Sarah Lynn's parents found the house,

they were forced to evict Michael from it, and accused him of almost $39,000 in damage and theft. After Sarah Lynn met Michael, her life started to change. We'll talk more about that in another episode, but you'll remember that she lost her friendship with Stephanie because of Michael and the sort of path of destruction he was creating in Sarah Lynn's life. Now at the time Michael met Sarah Lynn in 2009, he had just filed for divorce from his first wife, Camilla, that previous October. He and Camilla had a daughter together. His divorce did not go through until mid-December in 2010, more than two years later. According to public records, the divorce started off with a bang. Michael

requested a restraining order and was fighting for custody, and it was a fight that involved requests for drug testing. Within two weeks of filing for divorce, Michael had filed 10 affidavits with the state of South Carolina's family court ostensibly in support of his claims. One was from his mother Doris and another was from his stepfather, Evo. There are more than 95 filings related to this divorce case in the family court's public index. The documents themselves, though, are not public. At the time of this divorce, Michael and his first wife were in foreclosure and being sued by two mortgage companies. In December 2007, Aurora Loan Services claimed that they had given Michael and his first

wife a $1,520,000 mortgage in October 2006 for a three-quarters of an acre in waterfront property. According to court documents, the bank had stopped receiving payments on this loan in August 2007, meaning not even a year later and the loan was in default. In May 2009, a second mortgage company, National Bank of South Carolina, filed a complaint against the couple for what appears to be a second plot of land, just over of South Carolina, filed a complaint against the couple for what appears to be a second plot of land, just over half an acre, this time for a $550,000 mortgage that they took out in May 2008, which was just five months before Michael filed for divorce and 10 months after they had stopped paying on the Aurora loan, meaning it appears

they were already in default on a loan three times that size. The agreement was that Michael and his first wife were to have paid this loan back in a year. They had agreed to pay back the accrued interest in 12 payments and then the principal in one lump sum in May, 2009. Both properties appear to have been sold in public auction.

Now that's not the only legal and financial trouble Michael was facing at the time he met Sarah Lynn. Also, it's worth noting that at the time of Sarah Lynn's death, Sarah Lynn and Michael were behind in paying their mortgage on the Fox Bank home and it was in pre-foreclosure but we'll get into that. Here's David reading what Sarah Lynn wrote about meeting Michael Colucci in 2009. Not only will you get the story of how they met but you'll also get a sense of Sarah Lynn's humor and her personality. Michael and I were approached by a mutual friend to meet and go out on a

blind date. As many of you know, Michael was in the midst of several personal battles, and I was a widow with many reservations to date anyone at the time. Several personal battles. Now this is important. She's acknowledging the chaos that Michael was bringing to her doorstep at the time. A doorstep that was attached to a home that was not in foreclosure. Our friend was very persistent about Michael and I meeting.

He would call me and say, has he called you yet? I would say no, but that was perfectly fine at the time. Our friend would then hang up and call Michael and say, ''You need to call her.'' Michael finally called me one evening while I was walking into an all-you-can-eat crab legs dive in Monks Corner, South Carolina. We talked for a very long time and decided to stay in touch via phone communication. Every few weeks I would call him, or he would call me.

We are both very busy individuals so our phone calls would be short but sweet, always ending with the promise to touch base again soon. Finally we made arrangements to go downtown Charleston on a Friday evening and have dinner. I went to Folly Beach that day, alone as usual, and got really burnt. I stopped off to grab a lobster and decide if I really felt like going on the date. Lo and behold, Michael called me as soon as I was going into the Piggly Wiggly to pick out my one and a half pounder. We decided to go for it. We met at a neutral location in Somerville, South Carolina. I arranged for a friend of mine who lived downtown to have herself available, in the event I needed a quick escape.

Needless to say, when I saw him for the first time, it was love at first sight. It was the best date I have ever gone on and it felt as if he and I had known each other for years. I told my mom the next day as well as several other people who inquired about the date that he and I will get married. He is my one and always will be. Our daughters complete our family bond. This fairy tale romance could not have been dreamt, nor come under more awkward circumstances, but the Lord does work in mysterious ways.

This is the part where I should mention another one of Michael's quote personal battles that he was experiencing at this time. Not only was he going through a contentious divorce and defaulting on property loans, Michael had stopped making payments to a friend who had between forty and fifty thousand dollars in outstanding medical bills. Why was Michael paying this man's medical bills you ask? And we will be right back. This episode of True Sunlight is brought to you by Wild Grain. Wild Grain is the first ever baked from frozen subscription box for sourdough breads, fresh

pastas and artisanal pastries. And wow, it is so good! Every item bakes from frozen in 25 minutes or less. No thawing required. In our most recent box, we selected the Margarita pizza and the brioche buns. All slow fermented and spectacularly good. And you can now fully customize your Wild Grain box so you can get any combination you like. For a limited time, you can get 30% off the first box plus free croissants in every box.

When you go to wildgrain.com slash mandy to start your subscription. You heard me, free croissants in every box and $30 off your first box when you go to wildgrain.com slash mandy. That's wildgrain.com slash mandy or you can use promo code mandy at checkout. In today's economy, saving money is like an extreme sport. Coupon clipping, promo code searching. It takes skill, speed, sweat. Unless we're talking Kudos new phone, internet, and streaming bundle. With the HappyStack, you can sit back and stack up the savings on Kudos internet,

a sweet phone plan, Netflix, Disney Plus, and Amazon Prime, all starting at just $99 a month. Why was Michael paying the Spans medical bills, you ask? Well, we'll have David read you some excerpts from a lawsuit that the friend, a man named Curtis Reed, filed in early 2010 after a year of not getting any payments from Michael. On or about April 2005, the plaintiff was at the home of the defendant watching television and enjoying an afternoon with his friend. At one point, the plaintiff began walking toward the kitchen to get a beverage. The defendant snuck up behind the plaintiff, placed the plaintiff in a chokehold position from behind and lifted the plaintiff off his feet.

The defendant then threw plaintiff in a rough housing way causing the plaintiff to land against a door frame, which caused the plaintiff's left leg and ankle to fracture. From the date of the incident and particularly during the weeks thereafter, the plaintiff incurred substantial medical bills, which was of great concern to the plaintiff in that the plaintiff did not have medical insurance. According to the lawsuit, Michael and Curtis had entered into a verbal agreement wherein Curtis agreed not to sue Michael for what happened in exchange for Michael paying all of his medical expenses. Between April 2005 and January 2009, Michael made 16 payments of $1,000 each. That's about four payments a year.

Then he stopped. Now I know these are medical expenses we're talking about, but between $40,000 and $50,000 is a lot of money in 2005 dollars. Meaning it appears there was significant harm done here. I also want to note that according to the lawsuit, it doesn't seem like Michael did this with any kind of malice. From what we understand, Michael was on the wrestling team in high school. In fact, when he appeared for his 2016 bond hearing, he apparently thought nothing of wearing a wrestling team hoodie, a fashion detail noted by the Post and Courier at the time.

We're all picking up what we're putting down here, right? According to this lawsuit, Michael put his friend in a chokehold. You know, a classic wrestling move. He allegedly snuck up behind the friend, put him in the chokehold, and then threw him violently enough to shatter this guy's leg and ankle. Do I need to remind anyone about how Sarah Lynn died? guy's leg and ankle. Do I need to remind anyone about how Sarah Lynn died? That would be asphyxiation. Do I need to remind anyone about where, according to the indictment and testimony Michael claimed to be when Sarah Lynn was being asphyxiated to death? Well, he says he was in his car, which was right there, facing the spot where her body was found. Okay, now in response to this lawsuit, Michael admitted

that he did sneak up behind Curtis and put him in a chokehold and that it resulted in Curtis getting hurt. But he denied all other parts of the claim. In addition, he offered three points of defense. He said that Curtis had failed to state a claim in his filing, that Curtis couldn't file a claim because of the equitable doctrines of waiver and or unclean hands, his filing, that Curtis couldn't file a claim because of the equitable doctrines of waiver and or unclean hands, meaning I guess that Curtis is to blame for Curtis's claim. And third, my favorite, that the statute of limitations was over. In South Carolina, you generally have three years to file a personal injury claim. That means from the date you were harmed or the date you learned you were harmed, there's a timer that starts ticking. When did Michael

allegedly stop making his alleged payments to Curtis? Three years and some change after Curtis was hurt. If he was making payments to Curtis like Curtis claims in the lawsuit, did Michael stop because he knew it would be difficult like Curtis claims in the lawsuit, did Michael stop because he knew it would be difficult for Curtis to get the money from him? Who knows. But the more important thing here is the chokehold and the sneaking up behind somebody he ostensibly cared about and hurting them without apparently meaning to and then trying to get out of the consequences of that harm.

In legal terms, that could be called a common scheme. Which brings us to another report from 2019. This one was filed after Michael's mistrial and while he was awaiting retrial. On the morning of August 12, 2019, Charleston police were called to an apartment complex where they met up with a woman who said she was Michael Colucci's girlfriend. She wanted to report to police that less than a week earlier, she had been in a physical altercation with Michael at the apartment. She told police that Michael had broken her arm.

She said he had picked her up and thrown her on the ground and then left the apartment and went into the parking lot where she followed him and stood in front of his vehicle. She said that she then got in his car and told him that he had broken her arm and that he didn't acknowledge her, so she then left. After this, she said she went to the hospital and told doctors that she had fallen down the stairs. Two days later, she had surgery. She continued to tell her doctors that she had fallen down the stairs. Two days later, she had surgery. She continued to tell her physicians that she had gotten the injury from a fall, and it wasn't until August 11, 2019 when she went to the ER in pain that she told doctors that her boyfriend had pushed her down. The report then says a second police officer arrived

on the scene at the apartment and Michael's girlfriend told a quote, different story. In this version, she told the officer that she had told doctors that Michael assaulted her. At this point in the report, the officer wrote, quote, it should be noted that Miss Blank were redacting her name, advised resource officers that due to the medication she is on, that she is not thinking straight. Ms. Blank's story throughout did not make clear sense and she was very emotional while trying to explain herself. This is the part where we want to note

that this is a common thing unfortunately that we see in reports of domestic violence. common thing, unfortunately, that we see in reports of domestic violence. We call it a case killer. It's when an officer writes something in the report that seems to doom the case, either rightly or wrongly. And it's hard to tell which one this is. Was this a valid complaint that got tainted by the officer's misperceptions, or was the officer seeing things clearly and simply doing their job in reporting that this person wasn't a reliable narrator about what happened to her? As you know, the way these reports get written is almost wholly dependent on the perspective of the officer writing them, on what details they find important and telling, on the conscious

and subconscious opinions they're forming about the victim and the subject, in what way they want to steer the investigation. Law enforcement officers deal with a lot of nonsense every single day, and as such, they can sometimes become jaded or impatient or dismissive or even blind to what they're seeing, but they can also be keen observers. Like I said, it's hard to tell what's happening here, but also we've seen it happen before. The second the victim of a domestic violence incident says something that could be perceived as a variation of her original story, she gets labeled.

We don't know what the police were seeing in that moment, but we do know a few things here. One is that Michael's girlfriend was inclined to protect Michael from the start. She had a long-time relationship with him that, according to sources, started either immediately after or soon after Sarah Lynn's death. Also, according to her, he was fully supporting her financially at that time. We have also seen documentation showing that she was, at one point, using Evo and Doris' Somerville home as her official address. Second, is that she allegedly suffers from the disease of addiction. Third, is that what she appears to have said is both true and not true. Meaning, she originally told doctors that she had fallen, but then she later told doctors that she was harmed by Michael. So, when she tells this

second officer that she had told doctors that she was harmed by Michael, was she telling a different story or was she telling a different part of the same story? Regardless, officers said that they checked to see if a police officer had been called to the hospital to receive a report of a physical assault in the timeframe provided by Michael's girlfriend, and there was no such report. A detective was later sent to the woman's apartment

for further investigation, but the woman wasn't there. Three months later, she contacted the detective and told him that she wanted to press charges. She told the detective she got evicted from her apartment because Michael had stopped paying rent, and that Michael was her sole source of income and support. She said she had been staying with random friends since her eviction,

and that she was thinking about this incident, that she had remembered it. She told the detective that she and Michael had been at his home on Edisto Beach on June 6, 2019. Michael's girlfriend said the two had been drinking that day and began to argue, but that it didn't become physical at that point. She said she asked Michael to take her back to her apartment, and once there, they got into another argument. When Michael opened the door to leave, she said she was standing next to him when he grabbed her and threw her against a wall corner. She said she felt her forearm instantly break, and again, this is all according to the detective's version of what she said. Michael's girlfriend told police that she had known Michael for 30 years and had helped him go through his criminal trial when he was accused of murdering his second wife. She said they'd been in a relationship for two and a half to three years and that early into

their relationship Michael had asked her to marry him, but she said no. She gave two Edisto Beach addresses where she said they had lived. Both are redacted in the report. But going back to the part where we told you she was using Evo's and Doris' Summerville home as an official address, Michael had been evicted from that address very soon after his May 2016 arrest and sent to live at his mother's and stepfather's beach house on Edisto Island, which would seem to be putting his dating timeline with this woman at more than three years. In her November 2019 call to the detective, Michael's girlfriend said she had last seen Michael two days prior when she was at his house to get her vehicle title. When the detective asked her why she waited so long to call him back, she said

she was scared for her safety from Michael. She referenced Michael's family and how he's quote connected to a lot of people, but she noted that she'd never been threatened by any member of Michael's family. According to the report we received from Charleston Police, the investigation is ongoing. There's no indication in the report we received from Charleston Police, the investigation is ongoing. There's no indication in the report that police have ever spoken with Michael about this and he has not been charged with assaulting this woman. We should note that this is the same woman who appears in a private investigators video of Michael that was taken in a public place on May 15, 2019.

This video was given to us by a source and it was taken a few weeks before the alleged incident occurred with a broken arm and two months before the police report was originally filed. So this video is a separate incident in which Michael and his girlfriend appear to be verbally arguing and Michael's preteen daughter appears to be with him. So the video, which has no sound, begins around 4pm with Michael driving a white pickup truck with the preteen girl in the passenger seat. 30 minutes later, he pulls into what appears to be an apartment complex, and he and his daughter wait in the truck until his girlfriend

comes marching toward his car, appearing to be angry. And I mean, she's marching. She's leaned forward, her arms are swinging by her side, and she's walking quickly. She's wearing a black t-shirt, shorts, and possibly no shoes. When she reaches the truck, she immediately opens the passenger side door just as Michael exits the vehicle from the driver's side and comes over to her. Michael is wearing a rumpled long-sleeved button-up shirt and wrinkled khakis. He has an unlit cigarette dangling from his mouth. The woman speaks animatedly as Michael attempts to light the cigarette. Both are standing outside the open passenger side door. Michael advances on her with his hands up, possibly in a calm down gesture. In reaction, she steps back and away from

him and continues to talk animatedly, repeatedly tapping on her chest in that sort of classic gesture of sincerity or earnestness. She attempts to pull the cigarette out of Michael's mouth as he goes to light it. He seems momentarily confused by what she was trying to do, but he doesn't react otherwise. Then he appears to make a point that he emphasizes with his hands, and she points toward the apartment building, appearing to yell something at him. Once his cigarette is lit, he begins to speak back to her in an animated, possibly dismissive way. She responds in kind. He turns and walks away from her and she follows him, gesturing in annoyance to the person in the passenger seat. She follows Michael to the driver's side of the car where he's pointing at the truck while speaking. He gives a slight shake of his head and makes moves to get

into the truck, but she is hot on his tail. She opens the driver's side door wider. This is when you can see a neighbor is watching the argument from a short distance in the background. According to the Private Investigators report, their fighting was so loud that it attracted the attention of several passersby. Michael gets into the truck and his girlfriend tries to sit on top of him or scoot him out of the way. They're both in the truck and it becomes hard to see what's happening, though it's clear from her head movements that the girlfriend is still speaking. When she can't get in the truck, she stands outside of it while leaning in. In the meantime, another neighbor has joined to watch. This one peeks out

from behind a nearby dumpster and appears to be talking with the first neighbor. Then, a third neighbor appears to walk toward the vehicle to see what's happening but then turns away after looking. He walks away slowly. At this point, Michael is sitting in the vehicle and the girlfriend appears to be yelling at him. It's unclear what Michael is doing. When she walks away, Michael's daughter gets out of the vehicle. The girlfriend starts to walk back, still engaged in verbal conflict with Michael, who remains in the truck. The girl stands outside the truck on the passenger side. Then Michael gets out of the truck slowly while still engaged in verbal conflict with the girlfriend. The girl walks away from the truck and waits as Michael checks to make sure her side of the truck is locked. The three then walk toward the girlfriend's

apartment. The girlfriend appears to be upset and is walking in front of Michael and the girl. friend's apartment. The girlfriend appears to be upset and is walking in front of Michael and the girl. More than an hour later, the three exit the apartment building calmly. The girlfriend has changed her clothes and is carrying a purse along with a duffel bag. They do not speak to each other. The girlfriend leads the way to the truck and she puts her bag into the back of the truck. It's like a covered bed of the pickup. Michael says something to her and goes to retrieve the bag and puts it in the cab of the truck where his daughter is already sitting. Some discussion seems to ensue

between Michael and his daughter. He then moves out of the way and the girlfriend tries to situate the bag and get herself into the cab as well. He waits by the door and then closes it. He then unlocks the driver's side door and gets in and backs out of the spot. This video was one that had been taken to show law enforcement that Michael appeared to be violating

the terms of his house arrest. He did not appear to be in a location that was known to have been approved by the court. Again, Michael has not been charged with violating the terms of his bond, but the last bond order that appears to have been issued came in 2018 after the Attorney General's office moved for revocation or change to the terms after learning that he had not been living at the address he'd given to the court in 2016, and they also tried to further restrict his movements so that he could not visit a place whose primary business was to sell alcohol. There was a temporary change to the terms of his bond during the two weeks of his trial in which he was ordered to wear an ankle monitor and stay at the same hotel where his legal team was staying. But other than that, nothing. Nothing that we've been able to find anyway.

Also, as we told you last week, the AG's office still seems to be under the notion that he has been living at his parents' house on Edisto Island, a home he was evicted from in April 2018, a full seven months before his first trial. Which reminds me, we told you last week that he had been evicted from the house he lived in with Sarah Lynn in October 2015. Sarah Lynn's parents had actually started that process of trying to get him removed in July 2015, according to court documents. It was October 2015 when they discovered the alleged damage and thefts. According to a source, at the time that house was put up for sale in August 2015, real estate agents were warned that Michael was not allowed on the property at any time for any reason.

agents were warned that Michael was not allowed on the property at any time for any reason. We're not sure if Sarah Lynn's family had that noted out of an abundance of caution or if they had reason to fear that he would show up. We'll be right back. Hi, do you have guided tours today? Imagine having Europe all to yourself during the Air Transat off-season promo. Book your flights to Europe starting at $549 at airtransat.com. Conditions apply. Air Transat. Travel moves us.

So back to the original point here, we have another report of Michael being violent with someone, more specifically picking that person up. During his first trial, it came out in testimony that Sarah Lynn's strappy heel had come off one of her feet and was still hanging on. Additionally, she had a scrape on the top of that foot and on her knees. That raises a few questions, right? Like was she dragged? Was she picked up?

Was she picked up and dragged? Or like Michael's defense team contends, did this happen when she tripped her way into getting hung by a garden hose? Okay, let's talk a little bit more about Michael's personal battles that were happening at the time he met and married Sarah Lynn. Like we said, he was going through a divorce and dealing with foreclosures at the time. There was another issue happening too. In February 2008, one of his business partners sued him and the LLC the partner thought they

were a part of. In May 2005, an entity called Berkley Investment Company Inc. along with Michael and his business partner Colvinder Purwal, as members of Magnolia Center LLC, bought 18 acres in Charleston County. They put in some of their own money, but also took out a $450,000 loan from First Federal of South Carolina to make the purchase. To secure that loan, Berklee Investment Company, Inc. and Colvinder and Michael executed a loan in March 2005 as authorized agents of Magnolia Center LLC. According to the lawsuit, they represented to the bank that Magnolia Center LLC. According to the lawsuit, they represented to the bank

that Magnolia Center LLC was an organized and existing South Carolina limited liability corporation and that they had full authority to enter into the loan and execute all documents related to the loan. Now, before I move on, we wanna interject something here because as people with mortgages and loans, getting that money wasn't a simple thing. Every single thing we tell the bank has

to be proven. There has to be proof backing it up. When you have an LLC in South Carolina, you have actual documentation of it. You have a certification of existence, for instance, actual documentation of it. You have a certification of existence, for instance, articles of organization, and an operating agreement, and these are not very difficult to get. And once you get them, you actually are asked to produce them as evidence that you have an LLC. Both of us have had to dig up our LLC documents multiple times for multiple reasons. And yet, here we have First Federal of South Carolina giving nearly half a million dollars to Michael Colucci and his friends without apparently checking into it. I say apparently because it turns out, according to this lawsuit and the South Carolina Secretary of State's website anyway, that Magnolia Center LLC was not a thing at the time the bank gave them this loan.

According to records with the South Carolina Secretary of State's office, Michael had reserved the name for the LLC in March 2005 at the time of the mortgage, but that was it. The LLC wasn't officially registered for another two and a half years. Berkeley Investment Company, Inc. and Colvinder sued Michael and Magnolia Center LLC because they wanted the court to declare that he had violated his obligation of good faith and fair dealing and to declare that he be disassociated from Magnolia Center LLC. It's unclear what the resolution was, but the case was dismissed by all parties in 2010, according to the Charleston County Public Index. Now, right before Sarah Lynn died, it was clear that she and Michael were in financial

and marital trouble. In April, one month before her death, Sarah Lynn had texted Michael, quote, Tell Camilla to never contact me again. I'm not your messenger. I'm going to the shelter. Enjoy the house I built. By the way, the house is in pre-foreclosure status. My parents are not going to allow that to happen, but they are not going to allow you to live here either. Think hard and play your cards right, Michael. Game on."

That's just one of the many texts that show the problems they were having, including several that mention her wanting a divorce and one that says, no wonder we're getting divorced. We'll talk more about those texts and the phone evidence in a future episode. Okay, let's talk about the case Mandy mentioned at the start of the episode, the one about the diamond ring that Michael had been hired to sell. But let's first go back to the trial real quick. In testimony from a local used car salesman slash bar owner during the trial, it came out that Michael had asked him for a $50,000 loan shortly after Sarah Lynn's death.

The car salesman slash bar owner noted that he'd asked him if there was anything he could do to help with Sarah Lynn's funeral and that Michael had turned him down saying they didn't even have her body yet. Michael's lawyer Andy Savage twisted that testimony around by basically asking the witness, do you know who I am? As in, I'm an expensive man so maybe that money was for me. Additionally, Andy told the witness that Michael came from affluence and that he had a lot of money beyond just the jewelry store, that he had a lot of money beyond just the jewelry store, that he had a number of real estate holdings that made him wealthy and not in need of borrowing $50,000. Andy also told the witness and the jury that he and the state were mentioning this money because they wanted to insinuate to the jury that

Michael killed Sarah Lynn for money. As he's saying this, prosecutor Megan Birchstedt is in the background making faces, but at no point did she object to this questioning, not even when he asked the car salesman if he had ever sold drugs to Sarah Lynn, apropos of nothing. Then at the end of his cross-examination, and in the most artful of ways, after telling this man that Michael didn't need money, he suggested that a man like Michael would never ask a man like this car salesman slash bar owner for money. Nowhere did Andy mention that he wasn't hired until after Michael's arrest more than a year later. Or that, as we've all learned over the past few years, seemingly rich people take out emergency loans.

It's a thing. Ask Russell Lafitte. Nor was there any rebuttal from the prosecution later in their case to counter Andy's assertions that Michael had no money problems at the time of Sarah Lynn's death. So right around Sarah Lynn's death, it appears Michael was A. In need of cash and B. Expecting an influx of cash. Again, a man reported him to Somerville Police in June 2015 saying that in late March 2015, he had contracted with Michael both verbally and in writing to sell a 2 plus carat diamond ring. The agreement was for Michael to sell the ring for $8,500. The man told police that he made numerous attempts to contact Michael to get his share of the sale. On June

5, 2015, just a few weeks after Sarah Lynn's death, Michael cut this man a check for $7,000, but unbeknownst to the man, he had backdated the check by three days. The man found out soon enough when he tried to take it to the bank to get it cashed. After that, the man returned to the jewelry store to talk to Michael. According to the police report, Michael told him that he'd transfer some money around to make good on the check and this man returned to his bank three days later and again tried to cash the check, but the bank said it could not dispatch the funds according to the report. The man returned again to the jewelry store and told Michael that he'd be calling a lawyer and the police, and like we said at the

beginning of the episode, Michael texted him about a week later to say he had made arrangements to get that $7,000 and so there was no need for him to go to a lawyer, that he could pay the man today. Michael further texted that he was getting a $50,000 to $70,000 line of credit. Remember, the used car salesman slash bar owner had told the court that around the time of Sarah Lynn's death, Michael had asked him to borrow $50,000 and Andy was basically like lies, lies, lies. Well there it is.

Michael was looking for $50,000 and actually more than that. Now, why did Michael tell this man he was getting a lot of credit for this much when all he appears to have owed the man was $7,000 and why even tell him the range of what he is getting? It's very odd, right? But who knows the answer there? The bottom line is this. Michael was in financial trouble before he knew Sarah Lynn, while he was dating and married to Sarah Lynn and at the time of Sarah Lynn's death. He was at the point in his life where he had to ask a used car salesman slash bar owner for a quickie loan.

Did that mean he'd run the clock out on his stepfather's generosity? You know, the stepfather who footed the very large bill for Andy's retainer and who said he was scared of Michael and who said he didn't want Michael serving his house arrest under the same roof as him and who fought with Michael's mother over Michael and finances and who ultimately one year after Michael's arrest shot and killed Michael's mother telling police he had a lot of reasons for doing so. In the first trial, the prosecution did not connect the dots for the jury on Michael's money troubles and how it was a source of stress among his family and particularly with his wife, who saw Michael as a saving grace for her and her daughter, but who soon found out that what

she initially saw as temporary personal battles was actually just who Michael Calucci is as a person. Just like in the Elik Murdoch case, the dots are all there to tell a story that this man is dangerous and his life happened to be at a boiling point right around the time his wife was killed. That story, with all of the dots connected, removes all reasonable doubt for me. But will the Attorney General's office bother to connect those dots this time? Will they lay out a carefully crafted story like Creighton Waters did and show the jury who the man at the defendant's table really is?

Or will they shrink and let Andy Savage bulldoze his way through the trial for his second time and show Michael Colucci once again that South Carolina is truly the land of no consequences for men like him. We will see in May. Stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay in the sunlight. I'm sorry. True Sunlight is a Lunashark production created by me, Mandy Matney, and co-hosted by journalist Liz Farrell. Learn more about our mission and membership at lunasharkmedia.com. Interruptions provided by Luna and Joe Pesky.