Murder With My Husband - 273. The Man Who Dreamt His Own Death - John Yelenic

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

In this episode, Payton and Garrett unravel a chilling murder case, one where the victim seemed to sense his fate long before it struck. As tension builds and secrets surface, they explore how John Yelenic’s life spiraled into a deadly end he may have seen coming. Links: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case Sources: Oxygen.com - https://www.oxygen.com/dateline-secrets-uncovered/crime-news/state-trooper-kevin-foley-kills-dentist-john-yelenic MSN.com - https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/the-murder-of-john-yelenic-shattered-a-small-community-but-they-could-never-guess-who-did-it/ar-AA1xOQVa?apiversion=v2&noservercache=1&domshim=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1&batchservertelemetry=1&noservertelemetry=1 Wikinews.org - https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_state_trooper_found_guilty_of_first-degree_murder NBCNews.com - https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna29601049 Cybgen.com - https://www.cybgen.com/news/cases/Pennsylvania-v-Kevin-Foley.shtml IndianaGazette.com - https://www.indianagazette.com/news/cousin-to-john-yelenic-recalls-his-murder-at-crime-scene-diorama-presentation/article_85447758-ed5e-5d77-91a6-6f8823a39bb2.html SoapCentral.com - https://www.soapcentral.com/shows/dateline-5-harrowing-details-kevin-foley-s-crime-explored FindAGrave.com - https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14421356/john_joseph-yelenic NBC.com - https://www.nbc.com/dateline/video/the-premonition/9000204536 HappyScribe.com - https://www.happyscribe.com/public/dateline-nbc/the-premonition Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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capability, you'll have everything you need to get from work to play with confidence this season. Hurry in, employee pricing is on for a limited time. Visit your local GMC dealer for details. You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hey everybody, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Morland. And I'm Garrett Morland. And he's the husband.

And I'm the husband. You know we've sat in these same chairs for five years. I guess, yeah, five, because I think we got them the first year. Yeah, I think you're right. This table right here, Gary got this. Where do we get this? On Facebook Marketplace.

Guys, the table that is in front of us, if you're not watching on video, if you're listening. But it's our set, we've recorded here for five years. Yeah, same set. Table in front of us, Peyton and I got when we first got married. We didn't have any money. This was like 40 bucks.

Yeah, off Facebook Marketplace. Off Facebook Marketplace, some guy built it. We went to, it was pretty far. Yeah. It was kind of sketchy. It was. But we went up, went into their backyard, grabbed the table, went home,

and this thing is still hanging on. The state with us. Just, there's some pieces that are coming apart, but you can't tell. Well, we used to attach our mics onto the side of the table and those side pieces, like, I don't know if you can see they're like almost broke off from the weight of those mics. So we had to change the way we do that. At this point, we can't get rid of it.

It's nostalgia. It almost feels like it's carrying all of our energy. Like from the beginning of this podcast, it's almost like a relic. Yeah, it's actually kind of crazy. So we've had this table for a long time. Chairs. We got new mics. Yeah, we've got like new mics and equipment and stuff like that.

The table and chairs. Hanging on by a thread. Don't have much for my 10 seconds today, but I don't know. Look, I have some good podcast ideas. What? Tell him. I don't know. I kind of want to start a conspiracy theory podcast,

but I don't know if I want to start any more podcasts. You know, I do that over on Into the Dark. Are you trying to compete with me? No, remember I told you it was going to be different. Yeah, he did tell. It was like a different form of her format and stuff and It could be cool only conspiracy theories not true crime No only conspiracy theory just because I'm pretty open-minded like I will like kind of listens to people I will kind of listen to

Different people's opinions and be like, okay, I can see that or I understand that and so Do you think you could be convinced of almost anything? Well, it depends. I mean, sorry, I thought about that for a second. I mean, like you'd have to give me both sides and then let me form an opinion. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah, I think.

But I think there's certain things that I have strong opinions on that, like, no, I wouldn't budge from, but I feel like majority of things, like, no, I wouldn't budge from, but I feel like majority of things like conspiracy theories, for example, I like I'd sit there and listen and like truly try to like take in what the person's saying. Also, I love, I like, I'm a good, I like, I like a good conspiracy theory. Do you think you would play devil's advocate? To an extent.

I think I could be convinced of everything. So I don't think I'd be a good host for a conspiracy theory podcast. I feel like there are certain things where I'd be like, that sounds a little dumb. Yeah, I don't know, but I would ever say that. That's a little crazy. Oh, okay, I see.

I would, I'd be like, I don't know about that. That's like, that's a little wild. Yeah. Anyways. That would be interesting though. Yeah, it would be interesting. Maybe we'll talk about another time. Get into get into it. On that note, let's hop into today's case and hope you guys love it. I just couldn't speak English at the end.

Our sources for this episode are oxygen.commsn.com wiki news org, NBC news.com side, I work side, Jen.com, Indiana gazette.com soap central.com find a grave NBC.com and happy scribe.com. So we've definitely covered cases on the show that have had dreams and premonitions. Typically someone who says a vision came to them in the middle of the night, an image of a friend or even a stranger lying motionless somewhere, surrounded by a pool of their own blood. And sometimes these people do wake up

and decide they're gonna report it to the police. And oftentimes that dream or premonition makes them a person of interest in the case, because when you randomly show up to the police and say, I had a dream of a murder, and the murder's real, well then a vision like that isn't something that comes across a detective's desk every day.

It definitely looks suspicious. But what happens when the person having that vision, that premonition about a murder is the victim themselves? And do you follow that information as a clue when the person who predicted their own death actually turns up gruesomely murdered in their own home? Okay. Today we are dialing back the clock 19 years, which should be like 1987, but it's actually 2006. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Right? Yep. You're correct. As we head to a small town called Blairsville, Pennsylvania to meet a single dad named John Jelenik, the 39 year old single dad, John has spent most of his life in Blairsville, Pennsylvania. John has spent most of his life in Blairsville, Pennsylvania, and that's where he was born on February 20th, 1967. Though when he was born, John didn't get to spend much time with his father because tragically his dad died in a car

accident when he was just a few months old. Luckily though, John had a strong mother who was dedicated to giving him the best life possible. And it seems like John worked hard growing up to make his mother proud. He was always making honor roll in school, and he seemed to know exactly what he wanted to do with his life. After he graduated, he set his sights on college, where he made the Dean's List. And then he went on to dental school. And after getting his degree, he partnered up with his own childhood dentist, the same person who had inspired him and mentored him. And together they started a new practice in Blairsville.

But John wasn't just any dentist. He worked with kids. He made them feel comfortable, happy, maybe even excited to get their teeth cleaned, which I imagine isn't an easy job. But John wasn't all work. He had a fun loving side too. A lot of people who knew John would describe him as a bit old fashioned.

He had a taste for old movies and music. He wasn't really one to get in on new technology trends. He never owned a cell phone, but a lot of his friends agreed he was always the life of the party. If you walked into a room, you could always find John surrounded by a group of people telling them some story that was making all of them smile, which was seemingly what attracted a beautiful young woman named Michelle Kamler to John

back when they were in their twenties. Now, everyone said Michelle was a total catch for John and apparently he knew it too. The bookworm had finally landed the homecoming queen. This was the way John described it to his friends. When they met Michelle was a divorced mother of two who worked at bars as a Budweiser girl. And while things were definitely moving fast between the couple, Michelle really seemed to be dedicated to their relationship. When John's mother got sick with pancreatic

cancer, Michelle stepped in to help out in every way she could while John was busy trying to get his new practice off the ground. So it was clear that things were serious between them because just two months into their relationship, John gave Michelle a two-carat engagement ring. That New Year's Eve, 1997, the couple flew to Vegas and tied the knot officially, making Michelle Mrs. Jelenik. And John wore the role of stepfather really nicely too. He helped shuttle the kids to school, sporting events, social activities, but there was

still something missing for John. He had always wanted a child of his own. And so he and Michelle seemingly tried for a while, and when it became clear that things weren't going the way they planned, they decided to look into adoption. They found an agency in Russia who paired them with a little boy. They would go on to name JJ and with JJ now back in America living with the family or like they adopted him, got a boy. They adopted a kid. John finally felt like his life was complete, especially as his

practice started to blossom. The family bought a nice house for their three kids, had a pool, a hot tub, a bar. But over time, cracks started to form in the couple's marriage. It began with little things, like John would be affectionate with Michelle, though she didn't seem to return it. And then about four years in, rumors began that both of them were cheating on each other. So by 2002, John and Michelle had decided they were just no longer meant to be together. Michelle took the kids and moved out of John's house officially separating. But as the next

few years passed, John started to feel a bit paranoid. Okay, so his wife moves out with his kids. So they separate, wife moves out with the kids. Okay. So sometime around early 2006, so this is about four years after they separated, John contacted his lawyer with a strange request. He gave them $10,000 and told them to set it aside

for something specific. He basically says to his lawyer, I have a feeling that I'm gonna be murdered. And if I am, I need you to use this cash to investigate my death. What the freak? Okay. So John didn't tell the attorney who he was suspicious of or even why, but he seemed very

convinced. He knew something bad was about to happen to him and that the police would likely never find his killer. He even mentioned something about how he thought his death would be covered up as well. And he believed there would be no evidence left behind. Now this whole thing is strange for several reasons obviously, but one of the biggest being,

if you had a sense of who was going to kill you, wouldn't you just tell them, like tell the lawyer the name, someone to look out for? Why would you put money aside to investigate your own death? It's got me a little confused. Well, he doesn't say any names. So maybe he's coming to his lawyer with this premonition of no idea who's going to kill

him, only a feeling. And unfortunately that vision, gut instinct, whatever you want to call it, turns out to be right. Because on April 13th, 2006, that same year, John's next door neighbor, a nine-year-old boy named Zachary, comes over to John's house to see if his son, JJ, is home and if he just wants to come outside and play. But as he's walking up their driveway to the front porch, Zach notices broken glass on the front steps. And then he sees that one of the glass panels on the side of the door is broken

and there's some blood on it. Now, when he peeks inside the house, he only sees their red carpeting at first. So he doesn't notice the pools of blood in the house, but he does see emotionless 39 year old John lying on the floor with his throat slit. Oh my gosh. From ear to ear.

So this nine year old little boy, Zack, runs back home as fast as he can. Holy crap, dude. Grabs his older brother and the two of them call nine one one and within a matter of minutes, John's home is swarming with first responders and police, but there's no hope for John. He is pronounced dead at the crime. Yeah, smart money moves are all about getting more out of every dollar with rocket money. You can easily find forgotten subscriptions and have

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And again, you guys, all the pop is sold online is honestly good for you. And it tastes like soda. It's sold on drinkolipop.com and Amazon and available in almost 50,000 retailers nationwide, including Costco, Walmart, Target, Publix, Whole Foods, Kroger, and HAB. Now, when the message initially came through dispatch, they misunderstood and put the call out as someone having died from a heart attack at John's address. So when police arrived, they are shocked to find

that this is no heart attack. Someone has been like violently slit from ear to ear. This is obviously not an accidental heart attack. This is a murder with intention. And whoever did it left bloody boot prints leading out of the back door of the house. In fact, cops notice there is blood everywhere in the house on the carpet, the walls by the front door.

And when detectives go down into the basement, they also see a pool of blood there too. So at first they think this is probably where the crime began, but when they look up, they realize there's just so much blood spilling from John's body upstairs that it had actually started dripping down through the floor into the basement.

Holy crap, that makes me, I feel nauseous. And that's how bad and bloody this attack was. When the forensic pathologist gets there, they literally describe it as quote, one of the most violent deaths they had ever seen. So as a forensic team collects samples for DNA analysis, detectives are speaking to other people in the neighborhood who say they had actually heard some pretty interesting things coming from John's home the night before. So a little before 1.30 in the morning, one neighbor tells police they heard what sounded like a loud argument, and they said they heard John screaming something

along the lines of, quote, I'll never loan you money again. But after that, some other neighbors said they heard something even weirder, what sounded like pig noises and squeals coming from the home at also 1 30 a.m. And as police learn more about John, they realize the first statement about John yelling at someone in his home in regards to loaning money. Well that sort of tracks because apparently John was a pretty generous person who had helped several people out with loans over the years. And one of them actually being one of his neighbors, a woman named Melissa Youse. So Melissa and John had been friends for a long time. Apparently, they actually went to high school together. And recently, John had loaned Melissa about $15,000

to start up a bakery that she wanted to open, which wouldn't be all that weird, except Melissa was apparently married and there were rumors that she and John might have been more like than old high school friends. Something that wouldn't have been too hard considering Melissa's husband was in the Navy, so he was gone for long stretches of time. Oh, and by the way, Melissa and her husband Tom are Zach's parents, the nine-year-old little boy who came over and found John dead in his house that day. You know, this is kind of random. I mean, not super random. I just find it interesting, like how having an affair with if you're in the military is is illegal the right word. It's illegal in their law.

Yeah. But like, obviously, if you're not, then it's not illegal. At least in the. Yeah, I know there's other countries with different role in talking about the US. Well, and I guess like it's illegal not in the way of like, oh, you would go to jail. You just get kicked out. So it's basically just like honor code. Yeah, like job honor code.

Yeah, that's true. But is vastly different, right? From any other job where it's. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Very different. If you work at a bank and you're cheating on your spouse, you're not going to get fired. It's like that's an that's your issue. Yeah, I was also going to say, but it also could be because. Like a lot of people get married when

they're in the military for different benefits, so it also could be because like a lot of people get married when they're in the military for different benefits. So it also could be surrounded around that. Definitely. I'm sure there's people that are listening that are in the armed forces that will have more information, but just a food for thought. So when police start learning all of this more about john more about the neighbors, they wonder, is it possible that tom, this is melissa's husband,, came home realized his wife was having an affair with John because John had lent her money and then did something to John. But the more they look into these neighbors the more they realize it's not really adding up for them. For starters the bloody shoe print that they found leaving the house, which means after the

blood was already coming out someone stepped in that and left, so probably not the victim. They realize it's not the same size as Tom. And when they give Tom a polygraph, he passes. He even says he liked John, that he was actually really upset by the loss. So the police pivot to someone else John had loaned money to, his cousin.

This is a man named Tracy Jacobs. Now, apparently Tracy went to John when he needed help starting his lawn mowing business. And John, the good guy that he was, gave him about $20,000. But when police speak with Tracy, he's like, no, my cousin John didn't loan me that money. It was a gift. Like John wasn't asking me to pay that money back. And then Tracy passes a polygraph too.

So this lead of a neighbor hearing John yell, I'll never loan you money again. It's kind of just taking detectives on this wild goose chase that isn't going anywhere at the moment. Which means now it's time to look at the one person John did seem to maybe have bad blood with is soon to be ex-wife, Michelle.

So the more they look into John's past, the more detectives learn that the timing of John's death isn't completely random. See at the scene of the crime, they find something very telling. On John's coffee table covered in his own blood are his divorce papers, papers that he was set to sign and file the very next. What the freak? So they've been officially separated for years, but never actually gone through and finalized a divorce. Wasn't she the one who wanted the divorce or am I wrong? They both mutually agreed because the

rumors were they both had stepped out on their marriage. Okay. Because of their separation, Michelle was actually currently receiving about $2,500 a month in spousal support, but this was something that she was going to lose the second the divorce papers got filed. By this point though, Michelle had already moved on,

at least romantically, she was now living with her kids and her new boyfriend a Pennsylvania State Trooper named Kevin Foley and it was in a new house They had actually been dating for two years by this point. Remember the couple had been separated since 2002 It's now 2006 and the day before John is finally going to make the divorce official. He's brutally murdered in his own home This is not a good look for Michelle. Just interesting because no way $2,500 a month is enough to murder somebody. Well you have that but then you also have what detectives learn about the history of those four years between the separation and this day. Things had got pretty heated between the two of them.

Michelle seemingly did some pretty awful things to try and get her way during this time. For example, about a year and a half after they separated, Michelle accused John of physically abusing their adopted son, JJ. Something every single one of John's friends denies being a possibility. They say they never even saw John raise his voice, let alone a hand at JJ. Still, Michelle got a court order to keep John away from her and JJ. And then she reported him for violating that order, and John was arrested at his own dental practice one afternoon because of this. OK, now from there, the unfounded allegations against John

continue to the point where Michelle claimed John was now sexually abusing JJ. However, a judge found zero evidence of these accusations and this abuse, and it never results in any charges. Instead, Michelle was accused of coaching the six year old JJ to make these accusations against his father. That is horrible. A horrible, horrible parent. Do that to another parent. Obviously we have no idea what was going on behind closed doors.

So all we can trust is what's been reported. But it also sounds very similar to the case we did where this happens off. Yeah. I remember she was just claiming a bunch of false things and it ended up proven to be false and she wait, I forget. Oh, he died. Well, and honestly, yeah, he got killed this. I don't have statistics here, but messy divorces are messy because of things like this. Yeah, it's just toxic. The person wants to

hurt the other person wants to get as much as they can, unfortunately, which honestly, it's just toxic. The person wants to hurt the other person to get as much as they can. Unfortunately, which honestly it should be illegal. Like I think they should create more laws around it. It should be illegal to use the kid in some way to hurt the other person. Well, according to everyone in this couple's life, you know, during these four years of separation, Michelle seemed to be playing a pretty complicated game because she wanted John out of her life. She wanted to move on. She wanted to be divorced,

but she also wanted his money. He made pretty good money being a dentist. By January, 2006, it seemed like she was getting closer to making that a reality because they came to an agreement that said Michelle would get 60% of their assets and that they would share custody of JJ. Police are like, okay, that's a pretty good deal for a divorce, but maybe she wasn't satisfied.

If John was dead and they were still married, not only would she get all of the assets, she also stood to gain a million dollar life insurance payout. Maybe John sensed this. Maybe that's why he went to his lawyer and gave him the 10 grand to investigate his death. If he died suddenly, here's the thing. There's no evidence at the scene of the crime that points to Michelle.

So sure, you can come up with a motive for an ex-, but those boot prints were far too large to be hers boyfriend. And when questioned, Michelle adamantly denies having anything to do with John's death. So now we're going to move over to the autopsy for a second because I found it interesting that the person working the case, Dr. Cyril Wecht, happens to be a pretty high profile pathologist. He's consulted on cases like the JFK assassination, the John Benet-Ramsey case. Apparently he's performed more than 20,000 autopsies. And coincidentally, he lives really close to John.

So he's asked to help out with this murder too. Coincidentally, he lives really close to John, so he's asked to help out with this murder too. And based on what he finds there, Dr. Wecht comes up with his version of what he thinks happened to John before he died. And it went something like this. He says, John was chased through the house by someone. His head shoved through the pained glass window by his front door, causing major, nearly fatal injuries to the side of his neck, but it doesn't end there.

Wecht then thinks John's attacker pulled a knife on him, one with a six-inch blade or longer, and used it to slash John's throat where he was then left for dead. But Wecht says John's attacker had to be someone bigger than him to make all of this happen, and John was six feet tall. So this means it likely was not Michelle herself who pursued him that night. Gotta be her boyfriend. It's gotta. So between that and the boot prints, it's gotta be someone else.

But here's where detectives get creative. Worrying that the case might need more physical evidence, one officer named Janelle Lydic shows up at the morgue and she takes fingernail clippings off of John, but she doesn't send them to the state crime lab. Instead, she puts them in the storage refrigerator at the Blairsville Borough Police Station and doesn't tell anyone. And while this may seem pretty shady, Officer Lydic is actually trying to help

because she sees a conspiracy unfolding and she wants to make sure that she's protecting the evidence in this case at all costs. What is going on right now? Okay, so she is freezing or saving? Saving the fingernails? Evidence. But the fingernails? Yeah because if he fought his attacker okay DNA would be in it. Yeah yeah okay. So remember I said Michelle had been dating someone for two years. You remember what I said he did? No. He was a Pennsylvania state trooper named Kevin Foley.

Surprise, surprise. Oh my gosh. Kevin and John didn't really get along too well. And Kevin's name was definitely being whispered around the local police station when John turned up murdered. Wow. At Desjardins Insurance we know that when you're a building contractor your company's foundation needs to be strong. That's why our agents go the

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But Lydic, who was running her first murder investigation ever, was told by superiors not to interview him, not to even really look in his direction. Like we know he is dating the ex-wife, but he's one of us. I can't take that. Don't go there. No, it annoys me, but she's like

Making me even more suspicious The stakes are really high for her though. She doesn't want to mess up this case It's her first murder case hence the storing the fingernails for later, but not really telling anyone The more though she considers Kevin the more these red flags pop up. Like the fact that right after the murder, Kevin supposedly had this big mark on his forehead and when someone asked him what happened, he said, oh, I just got hurt playing hockey. But Leidig feels like her hands are tied. Even if she were to speak out against Kevin in the department, who's going to listen to her? Especially because it seems like everyone is protecting him? The state police, which Kevin is one of, comes knocking on the Blairsville police's door

to say, hey, we're actually going to take over the investigation now. Wait, what? I don't think it works like that. Well, the state police apparently do get a search warrant for Kevin's car in the house he shares with Michelle, but they claim they search it and they don't find anything. Now whether or not they actually did their job or just wanted to make it seem like they did and clear him as a suspect I have no idea but I can tell you this of Rick is going on the case starts to run cold Meanwhile the rest of John's friends and family are literally shouting from the rooftops. Hi

please interview Kevin Foley like Tape it and let us know that you've done this. Like, let us know that you have properly looked into him. Like he's clearly an issue here. I need to know what the was going on with the attorneys. Well, John had mentioned to a friend that he was being threatened by someone in the police force before he went to that attorney and gave him the money. Okay.

I remember he told the attorney, I feel like my death also might be covered up. Now luckily that same friend who John had talked to is involved in local politics. So they go to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office and say, hey, so this is what's going on over here. There is a man who's been murdered and his ex-wife is dating a cop.

And he had told me before all of this that he was having issues with the cop and now he comes up murdered. I don't think the case is getting proper attention. I'm not saying one of the cops has murdered him. I'm just saying I don't think the case is being properly looked into. And once the state prosecutors start looking into the case, they realize there are problems in this case that they might be dealing with some sort of police corruption over here. So as they're looking back at the case files, they find all of these interviews from Kevin's

coworkers, none from Kevin himself though. So there's no interviews in files from Kevin, but all of his coworkers claim, yeah, Kevin hated John. In these interviews, his coworkers would say that Kevin would just casually mention out loud how he wished John, his girlfriend's ex-husband or soon-to-be ex-husband, would die a horrible death. What is wrong with people? And that was sometimes the first thing out of his mouth after the words, good morning.

Like he made it very Obvious and loud that he hated this man. It's crazy what an ego can do Like it's absolutely wild what an ego can do and we see it every day with just People in general just like how their egos completely just can't stay silent. They just can't they can't handle it No, like so many men more than women, like so many men, they just cannot handle any form of, I don't even know, any form of feeling inferior at all. Well, and he just like, can't help but to walk

into a place of work as someone who has power and let everyone in the office know who has no idea who John is. They have no affiliation with John. It's not like he's also a co-worker. I say I hate this guy care. That's what I'm saying. It's not their lives.

Like your delusional. These people don't even care, but you are so bothered in it that you think everyone cares, you think your opinion needs to be heard. People are wild. So the prosecutors are like, okay, we're looking into Kevin right now. And they start to compile some real evidence against him. And it starts with some surveillance footage. So they find these security tapes from two convenience stores right near John's house from the night of his death. And in them, they see a truck passing by around 1am headed in the direction of John's house. And remember, this is about 30 minutes before

neighbors hear those horrible, what they said pig noises coming from John's house. Here's the thing about this truck in this footage, though, while the prosecutors feel confident that it is Kevin's truck, they have it analyzed by an FBI specialist and they're like, hey, it's kind of hard to make out. There's some similarities to his truck, but there's also differences too. So it's not the smoking gun they're after. They keep digging and they start looking at the bloody boot prints that were left behind. Now, they do seem to be Kevin's size, but that alone is not going to make them able to press charges. What they needed to match was the tread of the boots as well. They needed to prove that Kevin owned boots that matched the ones from the blood prints.

And they find that it's a brand of shoe called ASICS, but they learn it's a limited edition shoe that was never sold in stores in Western Pennsylvania. However, the brand actually had this law enforcement purchase program thing at the time that allows police and firefighters to order. Oh man, it's all coming down. Directly from them for a discount. Now this is in 2006 before shopping online.

I mean, it just wasn't what it is now. So it's a lot crazier that someone was ordering directly from a store and not in person And when they look into those records they find sure enough Kevin Foley bought a pair of these same Special edition shoes before John's death. Okay. I just have to say what an absolute When what an idiot because he's a cop and just that he forget that wouldn't what an idiot because he's a cop and just that he forget that they would be able to do this. Like also you just walked out with you didn't even try to clean up your boot prints like you're a cop. You know what they're

going to be looking for. I just think this goes to show that like he really didn't think he didn't care. He's hated. He's like I'm safe like I'm safe. I'm a cop too. Yeah, I will never be charged for this. I don't even need to try to think he just hated him so much. I don't think he cared. Like what was happening in that moment? So this is obviously the same tread and size as the bloody prints found in John's home. But there was still one more piece of evidence that they wanted to examine.

And that was the secret fingernail clippings that Lydic had kept after the autopsy. Those still hadn't been sent out for DNA testing, but that was about to change. So the clippings are sent to an FBI crime lab. And when they come back with the results, they say, there's only a one in 13,000 chance that the DNA found under John's fingernails

does not belong to Kevin Foley. Those are pretty good odds. That's also a weird way to say it though. Instead of saying there's a really good chance it's the DNA. You know what I'm saying? No offense to how you said that or how that was written, but it was just like there's a one in 13 chance it no 13,000 chance it's not usually. I don't know.

Anyways, keep going. Well, how else would I have said that there's a one in there's like a 50% chance that it is his DNA. Well, when you're ruling out like when you're ruling out that it's just usually we do it backwards, you know what I'm saying? Okay, but I know what you're saying. It was just, you know, it confused me a little.

Don't blame me. Blame the sources that give me the information. I can't change their statistic. I don't know that. I don't blame you. These are pretty good odds either way in my opinion that this DNA belongs to Kevin Foley and then you add in everything else. The DA is confident they have enough to file murder charges and on September 27th, 2006, the state trooper is finally arrested for John's murder. Kevin's trial begins in March of 2009 and here is the story the prosecution paints. On the evening of April 13th 2006 Kevin might have shown up at John's house to bully him about some

of the terms of his divorce agreement, including the spousal support Michelle was about to lose when the divorce went through. Maybe the discussion got heated, a fight broke out and ended in murder after Kevin pursued John through his home. Now, when it comes to evidence, one in 13,000 chances that it's not his DNA isn't great when 13 million people are in Pennsylvania. But it's been two years since they got those results back by the time of trial. So in the meantime, DNA testing had made some pretty big leaps and bounds. So during the trial, they call up another expert who ran that DNA again in a newer test, and their technology says there's actually a one in one hundred and eighty nine billion chance that it's someone else's DNA.

Okay. That feels like a smoking gun. Now of course the defense tries to refute these findings especially because this is really the first time that results from this new technology have been used in court before but they also point to a few different loose ends that they believe show Kevin is innocent. Like the fact that someone heard John yell, I'm never going to loan you money again, even though John had never actually. Yeah, but I mean, let's be honest, I are always all over the place. They even tried to point the finger at an already incarcerated convict who

said he killed John, even though he had zero connection to the case. Overall, the defense's case of trial is pretty weak, especially when they called up one of Kevin's friends and fellow troopers who said Kevin had asked him at one point to actually help him kill John. Oh my gosh. And then shockingly, Kevin Foley himself takes the stand at his own trial. He kept insisting he was innocent and that he had a sick sense of humor and sometimes he did make off-colored jokes but he claimed he never said any of these things with the intention of actually carrying them out.

So he's like yeah yeah I did say that I wish he would die a horrible death I did say I hate him and I actually did ask someone to help me kill him but I was joking. You know who wasn't at this trial though? The wife. Michelle. She never stepped foot into the courtroom and probably for the best after about two weeks of testimony, I say some that's a little sus to me. I know we're not. It's probably not going to be about her at all, but that's a little suspicious. According to the law, Michelle never asked her boyfriend to go kill her soon to be access according to the freaking law. I think the reason they go

for this because they they're not saying it's necessarily premeditated. According to the law, she's innocent. According to Garrett Merland, she's not. You're gonna stink in your identity. Identity, yeah. So after about two weeks of testimony, the jury deliberates and after over six hours, they return with a verdict. Kevin Foley was found guilty of first degree murder

and he was sentenced to life behind bars. Now as for Michelle, she never faced any charges in John's death. After the trial ended, she took the three kids and moved to Georgia. Did she get all the money? She probably did, she probably got all the money too. Yeah, I didn't see anything in sources about that.

Apparently no one's asked that question, but I'm gonna assume yes. I mean, if she has nothing to do with the murder, his family can't come in and say, you know what I mean? That just irks me the wrong way. Just my opinions that something's a little off there. There are still people who think she played a role in this. She should be held accountable that Michelle allegedly

may have even manipulated Kevin into doing it. But Michelle denies this. She says she never fueled any hostility Kevin had toward John. Prosecution never found evidence in their investigation to charge her with anything either, though John did have one request before he died. One he set aside with that money

in case his premonition came true, he wanted his attorneys to pass along a message to JJ. So he said, I'll take the $10,000, investigate my murder and also make sure JJ knows how much I love him. That's so heartbreaking. And that is the case of John Jelenik. That's so heartbreaking. I mean, John didn't do anything, man.

I mean, people get divorced every day and ain't nobody killing anyone. That's so sad. Honestly, I don't know. That's sad. It's horrible. All right, you guys, that is our case for today and we will see you next time with another one. I love it.

I hate it. Goodbye.