Murder With My Husband - 302. Murdered By An Angel - The death of Milton Sawyer

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

In this episode, Garrett and Payton explore the case of a beloved antique store owner who was brutally murdered in his own home. 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/isaac-melcher-and-angel-sawyer-kill-her-husband-milton-sawyer WTKR.com - https://www.wtkr.com/2018/08/02/elizabeth-city-man-dies-during-home-invasion-armed-robbery Medium.com - https://medium.com/@TheCrimeChronicles./wife-and-lovers-deadly-plot-to-end-husband-s-life-0775dc23bea2 DailyAdvance.com - https://www.dailyadvance.com/news/local/nc-appeals-court-upholds-sawyers-murder-conviction/article_39499906-d48f-5c4e-920e-9276a7751d84.html Yahoo.com - https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tv/articles/north-carolina-antique-store-owner-184314688.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKaBzRPLaIT_r3AiqHB8A8zxGp1eOFEFgrw6SHFUZot-hmtIK8JwDU51tK4C1DG5pYH2dD-zKR4xkBOTvqgnk1wugdU4pGhzc8cij2ZCSCxVFO0vWW29m5XzrihYrsDZUZAPhY6zI-aRC19GacDTgWT3IDgJbGtFHpX2G1vkky01 TheSun.com - https://www.the-sun.com/news/6498380/dateline-milton-sawyer-elizabeth-city/ Wavy.com - https://www.wavy.com/news/national/murder-of-elizabeth-city-businessman-milton-sawyer-on-dateline/ TheCinemaholic.com - https://thecinemaholic.com/milton-sawyer-murder-how-did-he-die-who-killed-him/ Caselaw.Findlaw.com - https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/nc-court-of-appeals/2193951.html Dateline NBC - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/righteous-obsession/id1464919521?i=1000679929118 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. I'm the husband. Welcome back.

Another Monday. Another podcast. Hope everyone had a good new year. We did nothing. We sat inside and... You play video games. I don't know. Maybe we're old.

We didn't really do anything, to be honest. You know, Dizzy's scared of the fireworks, so we had to stay home, make sure she's safe. Yeah. We're just parents. At some point you have to grow up, right?

You know, I feel like ever since 2020, years just don't really count. I feel like we should all subtract like three years from our lives. That's because we all died and now we're in a simulation. Maybe it's like we're all in lost.

Yeah. Seriously, though. Maybe we're all actually dead and we're just, it's one big lost has anyone seen lost no seriously though like you guys you can't you can't lie like what's up it's it's been like that time has been weird it's been warm yeah just everything changed and here we are doing a doing a podcast i don't know life's crazy anyways bagel shops open it up and we'll keep everyone updated don't have any updates yet but it's coming just

lots of stuff behind the scenes other news in our last lives, nothing too much. Here we are, recording, making a podcast. We love you guys. Thank you for being here. Thank you for supporting us. I think on that note, we're just going to hop into today's case. Our sources for this episode areoxygen.com, WTKR.com, medium.com, daily advance.com, the sun.com, wavy.com, the cinemaholic, caselaw.com, finelaw.com, and dateline. Every small town has that one very beloved local, the older man who bags groceries down at the supermarket, the school principal who all the kids admire and respect, the neighbor who always greets you with a smile and never says no to lending a hand, it's these friendly faces that make a community feel like a home. That makes us feel comfortable, loved, welcome. that gives us hope in humanity. So when something tragic and seemingly random happens to one of these people,

the pillars of our community, it feels personal, even to those who only knew these people in passing. Because it leads us to wonder, if someone so admired, so well known, can be targeted by a random act of violence in their own home, are any of us really safe, or is nothing in this world truly random? So let's head back to the year 2018 to a quiet North Carolina community along the river

known as Elizabeth City. It is here that a 55-year-old man named Milton Henry Sawyer Jr. calls home. In fact, he has for his entire life, which is probably why he is such a pillar of the community. Milton came from a big family full of siblings, half-siblings, step-siblings, most of which he remained close with his entire life. But that probably wasn't hard for Milton. Everybody who knew this guy said they loved him. He was the kind of person who always had a smile on his face, who loved cracking jokes and keeping the mood light, the guy who everyone would pat on the back and ask, when are you going to run for mayor, Milton? In many ways, Milton kind of seemed to be the mascot

of this small city, Elizabeth City. He was always a great student and was the drum major in his high school marching band. And after graduating, he got a degree in math and computer science and worked in data management at the University of North Carolina. But Milton, just being a simple man, always had one dream. And it was one that he eventually chose to pursue. That was in the world of collectibles. Milton loved antiques and sports memorabilia so much that he actually ended up opening his own little antique store in his hometown of Elizabeth City. It was just three miles from his home and he called it Treasure Hunter. Now, by this point, Milton was married to his high school sweetheart. They had two children. And while things at the antique shop seemed to be going

well, his marriage at this point wasn't. Now, reportedly, Milton had a bit of a wandering eye and the romance had come to a bit of standstill with his first wife. A wandering eye, okay? Yeah, that's what they be calling it. That's the who used to call it, all right? Wandering eye. It's like a polite way to put it. Right.

Yeah. You know, he just had a wandering eye. What can you say? Yes, better than being like, you know, I just like to sleep with other people. Yes, I mean, yeah. So Milton began looking outside the marriage, and he eventually found it with another woman,

who he then had a third, child with, another daughter. So after the affair, Milton and his wife chose to part ways, but they stayed on good terms for the sake of their children. And for a few years, Milton dated around, but in 2011, he met someone 10 years younger that would kind of change his life entirely. Our name was Angel Marie Wilson. Again, this is 2011. Angel was the daughter of a pastor who was raising four children after her own failed marriage. So she and Milton actually confided a lot in each other. They shared a lot of the same challenges. Plus, they were falling in love fast. A year later in 2012, they tied the knot and Angel became a part of Milton's business, helping him run the antique store.

Now, Milton was head over heels for Angel as the two acted like teenagers in love. He showered her with gifts. He did everything he could to protect and nurture Angel. And meanwhile, Angel seemed to be doing whatever she could to keep the business thriving. She was organizing, staging inventory to make the space more inviting. She worked the cash register, that sort of stuff. But as the years passed, this couple fell into a routine and with seven kids between the two of them to manage, their relationship lost its spark, as did the Treasure Hunter. By 2018, the business was starting to flounder. Not many people were shopping at the store.

And regardless of how well liked Milton was in the city, it was becoming difficult to turn a profit. But still, Milton seemed like a loving husband, committed to overcoming the challenges that life gave them. So on July 23, 2018, he posted on Facebook saying, quote. Every man deserves a real woman that makes you forget every other woman on the planet.

Okay. I found mine, and she is all that and more. I love you, my angel. And then, around July 30th, 2018, Milton and Angel went to visit Milton's son, Caleb. Caleb was now 20 years old and an engineering student living in Raleigh, North Carolina, studying for his degree,

and Milton and Angel made the two and a half hour trip to help Caleb move into his new house. And Caleb said the trip with his dad and stepmom was perfect. Everything seemed great between Milton and Angel. They were giggly, happy. Honestly, Caleb, the son thought it was kind of similar to when they first got together. So Caleb thought, okay, they had a rough patch, but they're turning a corner. The spark seemed to be coming back between the two of them.

It's interesting because this is not a knock on Milton, but just in general. like no one's perfect and I don't know how to say this without maybe it coming off rude but there's skeletons in everybody's closet and those skeletons don't have to be extremely bad doesn't have to mean that person's killing someone or doing something illegal but like we're all human everyone's been the villain at some point there's just it's I know I do find his post kind of funny considering like his history in life.

Well, I mean, it's a good example, right? Like he had a wandering eye. Like people paint him as or currently we're like, oh, he's perfect and he's so nice. And he's like, okay, well, he cheated on his wife. Well, and also like his post being like every guy deserves a woman who makes him forget that other women exist.

Yeah, it's kind of funny, huh? I'm like, no, bro, that, no woman is going to do that for you. You got to do that yourself. Yeah. Like, that doesn't exist. That's a fairy tale. That's a fantasy. I don't know. So they are here with Caleb visiting him. Everything seems to be going good. But just three days later, everything would come to a screeching halt. It was around 2 a.m. on August 2nd, 2018, when Milton and Angel's neighbor, a man named Carl, heard a frantic banging on his door. And when he answered, he saw Angel,

Milton's wife, hysterical, screaming, and covered in blood at 2 a.m. on his doorstep. Okay. Now, she said a man, dressed in all black and wearing a mask, had broken into their home a little after midnight. He had stolen some things before attacking both her and Milton. She claimed the robber had tied her in Milton up, binding them with duct tape. The intruder then hit her in the face with a pistol, demanded they, tell him where their money was, and after they did, she tells her neighbor, the guy did something terrible to Milton. But she doesn't give any details about what it is, just basically

saying like Milton's in trouble. Now, hearing Angel's story, the neighbor dialed 911 right away and police rushed over to the residence. And one of the earliest deputies at the scene was Sergeant Jason Will Barger. And he was terrified. of what he might find in the home. Because like I said, he knew Milton. When police were responding, they knew this was the guy who had grown up here in this smaller town. Everyone knew him.

And he always thought Milton was a lovely guy. In fact, he actually saw Milton an angel earlier at a local Italian restaurant. This was just a few hours before getting the call and responding. So the police make their way over to the Sawyer's house There doesn't appear to be any forced entry, but this is a relatively safe town. Maybe they actually had their doors unlocked on this summer night. So police enter through the back doors, guns drawn because they aren't sure what's going on.

And everything inside is completely quiet and still when they walk in. But the place is a mess. It looks totally ransacked. Droars and cabinets opened with their contents everywhere. and there's jewelry and other valuables spread out on the floor. Police said you could barely walk on the carpet without stepping on something. And when the detective gets to the bathroom, that's where he eventually finds Milton. He is face down on the floor lying motionless.

His hands are duct taped behind his back and... Jeez, man. He no longer has a pulse. Okay. So 55-year-old Milton Sawyer is dead. Is dead. Is dead in his own home. And while just like his wife had said, it appears to be a very obvious robbery gone wrong,

Milton's cause of death wasn't totally identifiable just from looking at the crime scene alone, but it did seem to be clear what the intruder was after. Angel claims she had a lot of her expensive jewelry stolen between $50,000 and $100,000 worth of jewelry. And as far as evidence was concerned, there honestly wasn't a whole lot. Dude, $100,000 in jewelry? I know. It's a lot.

I think I have to remember, these are people who run an antique store. They're collectibles. So the one thing that was strange was a key that was left out on a table. Investigators later learned the back door actually had been locked after all. And this key had been used to open it and then left inside by the assailant. So whoever did this literally had a key to the home. Had they stolen it? Is this someone that the Sawyers knew?

And was there more to the story than just a robbery gone wrong? Well, the police's best witness right now is Angel Sawyer. She'd gotten a look at the intruder. So police went to speak to her at the hospital where she was being treated for a head wound. And by the time they spoke, Angel was also in a neck brace and awaiting a cat scan. her injuries didn't seem superficial, but she wasn't as helpful as the police had hoped. She could only describe the robber as a white male

since he was wearing a mask. She said the night started out with her and Milton having some quiet time alone while their two youngest daughters were actually away at sleepovers. They were lying in bed, binge watching Game of Thrones when she got up to get a snack. Games of Thrones is so good.

She claims, though, when she opened the door to her bedroom, there was a masked intruder standing there, and he came storming in asking her to hand over her jewelry. She said the man then grabbed Milton and tied him up first before moving on to her. He left Milton in the bathroom and then brought Angel into the bedroom where he forced her to hand over some of her belongings.

At one point, she said she tried to grab Milton's cell phone, which was on the floor, but the assailant came and saw her. he hit her head so hard she nearly lost consciousness. And during all of that, she could hear a commotion in the bathroom. And that's when she realized Milton had probably been hurt in there. She said, this is when she saw an opportunity to run to a neighbor's house to escape. She claimed, first she tried a sheriff who lived a couple houses down from them, but he didn't answer. And then some friends who also weren't home before finally making it to the neighbor that answered. And what she supposedly didn't know at this point while being questioned was that Milton wasn't just injured

in the bathroom. He had died. And while police are talking to her, she apparently has no idea. So investigators break the news to her in the hospital. She becomes a total wreck. And when Angel finally calms down and gathers her thoughts, she gives the detectives some theories on who she thinks the intruder was, which isn't abnormal. They're going to ask, is there anyone who wants to hurt you? who do you think could have done this? So she said, she believed the attacker knew that they owned the treasure hunter and was targeting them deliberately. It wasn't a random attack.

Apparently, Milton had recently advertised that they were having a yard sale at their house and had made their address public on Facebook, which she actually got mad at Milton at the time for doing. And then when the police asked her, okay, well, what happened earlier in the evening before the robbery? like we want a whole timeline of your day leading up to this. She tells them about the dinner they had, and that's where the sergeant had saw them and could confirm this.

But after that, Angel said Milton went to meet up with someone. It was a guy named Dylan who was actually trying to sell him a TV. Milton told Angel would be quick, just a public stop. They would meet him in a fast food parking lot. Supposedly, Dylan was actually a regular around the store, but Angel told police she found him to be a bit shady. Actually, there were quite a few people that Milton dealt with that she thought were pretty shady. Most of them treated their store like a pawn shop to try and sell stolen goods.

Okay. So understandably, Angel didn't love the fact that Milton was working these deals outside of the store. She thought it could be dangerous and that it was very possible from there they were followed home. In fact, Angel said she and Milton got into a pretty heated argument about it on their way home. But they made up shortly after. However, there was one other thing detectives needed her to explain. Hey, so at your house, we actually found a key that was used to get into your home. Okay.

Yeah. And? And they're like, how does an intruder have a key for your back door? And Angel is like, oh, no, this is very simple. Her kids were always forgetting their keys, so they often hid one out by the back door for them to use. She's like, it would be a simple look, and you could find the key. So at this point, police feel it's pretty likely that Milton was targeted by someone because of his business. After all, the store didn't just sell antiques.

They bought and sold a lot of golden jewelry as well. And one of the first people they actually wanted to speak with was the man that Angel said Milton had met up with earlier that night. His name, Dylan Hostedier. now Dylan wasn't just another client he had committed a couple of robberies before he was caught so police knew his rap sheet so when his name got brought up they were like yeah yeah we need to talk to him they figured it wasn't hard to imagine dylan following the couple home that night and waiting for the right time to strike but this wasn't a guy who was going to come and willingly and talk to the police so i'm not sure how but they ended up arresting him for possession of drugs and that's when they get him to come down to the station to talk about Milton. She's got to be involved. I know that sounds crazy to say right now, but I mean, come on, we're 300 episodes in on murder with my husband.

She's got to be involved. Yeah, I mean, I think you always look at the partner. Have to. So at first, Dylan tells police what Angel said, that he met up with Milton around 8.30 p.m. in a fast food parking lot to sell him a TV, and that his girlfriend was actually there with him. Dylan said after he and his girlfriend parted ways and spent the night separately. But eventually, after some more questioning, Dylan changes his story and says, okay, actually, we didn't go home.

We went and bought drugs together from a dealer, and then he and his girlfriend went back to his house. But what's strange is when police bring him in for questioning, Dylan has a black eye. Now, this is not a good look when you're being questioned in a murder investigation. But Dylan insisted he was innocent That he and Milton were just friends That he loved Milton just as much as the next guy He had no reason to go after him

The problem was his alibi was I was at home doing drugs This is not exactly an alibi However, when police go to speak with Dylan's family Who he still lives with They all vouch for him They're like yeah, we saw him come home that night Yeah, we saw him at home doing drugs

Yeah So police take a sample of Dylan's DNA just in case And in the meantime, they move on to other suspects. But DNA actually is a pretty big problem in this case in general because they find no DNA at the crime scene. Killer did a pretty good job of covering their tracks. There was no shell casings, no blood, footprints or fingerprints. And again, this is 2018. Not so much as even a hair seemed to be left behind. Even Milton's cause of death was kind of still a bit of a mystery. At least until the autopsy was over. So what they discover is that

Milton died from manual strangulation. This is an interesting method for a robbery gone wrong. Yeah, that doesn't really make sense. Right. Not just because it's time intensive, but as we know, strangulation is typically deliberate, personal, a little rageful. So now the police are starting to wonder, okay, is this not a robbery gone wrong? And was there a more personal connection to whoever did this, was there more to the story than Angel was letting on? Now, after Angel recovers, she takes police to the treasure hunter to see if anything might be missing there as well. She's like, maybe they robbed the store and the house. But nothing seems to be out of place. So a day or so later, police go to visit Angel again at the home where

she's staying with a few friends. And when she comes out to greet them, they notice that she seems like a shell of herself. She's holding a teddy bear. She's holding a photo of Milton. She's She's crying uncontrollably. It almost seems like everything it kind of hit her. But when they go to ask her for more details about the night in questions, she starts giving some strange answers. When asked about the fight they had over buying the TV, Angel was like, nope, we made up straight away.

We even had sex that night. And then she proceeds to tell the police that they actually had sex every single morning and every single night, every single day. Oh, man, they're just nice. But sometimes joked with Milton that he must. be getting tired of her, but they were still madly in love. However, she said, it hasn't always been this way. There was a time after they got engaged that she found out Milton had been seeing another

woman. I mean, surprise, surprise. And while she was able to move past it, she claimed Milton didn't really return the favor. She said he was incredibly jealous whenever a man looked her way. Now, all of this does make sense to police because they'd heard from Milton's family who said, you know, this marriage wasn't perfect, cracks had formed. but Milton had told his brother that it was because no matter what he did

Angel never seemed to be happy with him she always wanted more, more attention, more gifts, more money, just more. He was never enough and according to other witnesses Angel found more just like Milton had Ooh Turns out Milton was not the only one with a wandering

eye in this marriage Which is like I said you just I have said it before you never ever know what's going on behind closed doors with anyone married, not married single, just people in general, you never, honestly, I know it might sound negative, but you never truly know somebody. You just don't.

Angel was also guilty of it. In fact, Dylan, the guy that they met up, at first she was like, this guy's so shady, the guy that police kind of feel like they ruled out. Apparently, he and Angel had had a little fling after she met him down at the Treasure Hunter. Sounds like it was brief, but that might be because it. Angel set her sights on someone else. The year prior, back in 2017, 44-year-old Angel was in a car accident that required

her to start some physical therapy. She met a 37-year-old therapist named Isaac Melcher. As the two worked together, Angel said her pain wasn't getting any better, so Isaac recommended a treatment called dry needling. It's kind of like acupuncture. So it's a closed door kind of thing. And it was behind those closed doors that this relationship. blossomed. She began telling him intimate details of her life. She started sending him naked

pictures. And soon, this conversation turned into we're having a full-blown affair. By the way, Isaac also had a wife and three kids of his own at the time. But it wasn't long until Angel and Isaac began having sex, meeting up about three times a week, and most of them were during these treatments. Now, then came January of 2018. This is eight months before Milton's death. That is when Angel went to Isaac to say she no longer would be going to therapy because Milton believed she was having an affair with him, which she was. Like Milton wasn't wrong. He was right.

Yeah. This didn't put a stop to things. They kept finding new and creative ways to see each other outside of like going to therapy. And by May, they were really testing the boundaries when Angel told Isaac that she and her family were going to a particular beach that afternoon. she's like, you just bring your family there too. And that day, together with their families, they literally walked past one another. And Milton notices, obviously, like he knows who Isaac is. Yeah. Milton doesn't say anything that day, but the following Tuesday, Milton's daughter called

Isaac's office and said, hey, you better watch out. My father's going to come into your office and confront you. Like, he knows what's going on. He's angry. And that's when Isaac called the police. And an officer went down to Milton's store to say, yeah, don't go to his office and confront him. Maybe don't do that. Now, what's weird is after this, Angel just sort of ghosts Isaac. Like, almost like all his drama had been too much and she was like, okay, I'm just done. Yeah. Throughout June, two months before the murder, he tries to get in touch with her through Facebook.

She doesn't respond. And then he calls her using the office phone line. He's like, hey, I still love you. And finally, by the end of that month, Angel was coming back around. And that's when Isaac told her he was willing to leave his wife and kids for her and would take her away from Milton. Oh, no. This never works. So honestly, pretty quickly, police learn about this affair.

They kind of already knew. They realize... There's some motive going on. Yes. Isaac, we need to look into him. But when they do, they find out this guy is totally clean. His wife and kids, a good job. He's involved with the church.

He has no criminal record. Plus, Angel says she's pretty positive that Isaac was not the man who came into her home and attacked her and killed her husband. Still, they try to track Isaac down. And when they speak to him, he claims there was no affair. He tells police, I don't know what you're talking about. There was no contact between me and Angel. It was all professional. Oh, no, because he was trying to hide it from his wife.

He also says he was home the night of the murder with his wife and kids. He only left for a short window to go to Walmart. because he spilled water on his phone and needed a new one. Which is why police aren't even able to take a peek at his old cell phone because he had thrown it out. All right. Well, red flags all over the place. Anytime someone has an issue with their phone,

this is going to look suspicious in a murder case. Yep. But it gets worse. Shortly after this brief conversation with police, Isaac actually leaves North Carolina. He goes to Oregon, where he's originally from, to visit his mother. and it's there on the opposite side of the country

that the truth finally does start to emerge. What's crazy. If he would have just been like, yeah, we had an affair, yada, yada, yada, but I didn't do anything. The police probably would have dropped it. It would have been less suspicious. Yeah. And they probably wouldn't have looked into him anymore.

Right. It's the denial when literally Isaac. And then moving out of the state. Had called police and said, hey, Milton's going to come down to my store. Yeah, that's crazy. So while Isaac is in Oregon, he calls. calls his former youth pastor turned dairy farmer, a man named Louis Kazumir. And he says, hey, I'm in town. Can we meet up for a bit? Two are very close. The pastor said

he saw Isaac as his own son. It didn't seem odd. That was until he actually lays eyes on Isaac and he says he looks broken. According to the pastor, Isaac is slumped over. His eyes are shifting. So Louis invites him into his backyard because Isaac says he has something that he needs to discuss with him in private. And that's when he tells Louis, hey, I had an affair. I'm in love. And I may have strangled her husband to death. Oh, my gosh.

But Isaac also tells the pastor something, too. He said, Angel had told him that Milton was abusive and was going to kill either of them if he found out about the affair. I don't know if I don't believe this right now. So Isaac basically confesses to murder, but then tells his pastor, I'm basically like the night and shining armor. Oh my gosh, dude, get out of here. I saved Angel from her monstrous husband. Now, I want to say this abuse was never confirmed to be true. So after Isaac leaves that day, Louis is like, okay, yeah, I know that this is like my son and I'm a pat, like was his

pastor. He just killed somebody. I got to call police. Like, I'm not just going to keep this a secret. So he gets in touch with the sheriff's department dealing with the case back in North Carolina. and he's like, hey, Isaac just came to my house and confessed him murdering his mistress's husband. And right away, officers hop on a plane to Oregon. They meet up with Louis, and that's when they ask him for his help one more time. They are going to try to catch Isaac, but they need him to get that confession on tape. They're like, hey, if he's already confessed to you once, invite him over, we'll record it and get him talking about it again. So over the next few days, Louis agrees to record three different phone calls with Isaac. And Isaac tells him a similar

story. He confesses to Milton's murder. He says that he believed he was helping Angel, that he was in love with her. And he adds, quote, I reached the place where I asked the devil to help me in because I knew that I had to go fully turn my back on God to this. I reached the place where I asked the devil to help me. What is up? What do you mean? Because I knew I had to fully turn my back on God to be able to do this. Oh, and by the way, Isaac's wife... Freak? Darlene is actually on the line during one of these phone calls, apparently hearing all of this for the first time. Oh, for the first time?

I thought you meant that she had been like okay with it. No. Okay. But Isaac makes a few more explosive statements during these recordings. He didn't want to turn himself in because there was evidence of premeditation that if he got away with it, he still wanted to be with Angel. His wife hears this part too. And he says, Angel helped me plan this whole thing. Holy crap.

She was in on it. I didn't do this alone. He claimed that there was no other way out, according to Angel. Milton would never let her go. Divorce was not an option and the only way forward was killing him. Now, with these taped confessions as evidence, police arrested Isaac Melcher on August 21st. This is 19 days after Milton's murder. He was charged with first degree murder and they arrest Angel Sawyer with the exact same charges.

Super curious where this goes because... How do you prove this? Yeah, how do you prove it? Right. Proving this is so hard. Now, as they're both awaiting trial, obviously more details start to come to light. We see this often in cases. Like exactly how the murder plan was set in motion in the weeks before Milton died,

turns out about a month before the murder back in July, Isaac began talking to Angel about killing her husband. By this point, Isaac had already committed to leaving his wife, was preparing for separation. And while he kept asking Angel to do the same, she told him she couldn't. She was too afraid of what Milton might do. So when Isaac spoke about a way to get rid of him for good, he says she willingly went along with it.

They talked about mixing Milton's medication with alcohol trying to fake an overdose. And at one point, Angel apparently even tried to do this, but it only made Milton's sleep till noon the following day. Do is any of this over text? Does it all phone calls? Do they have proof of it, like, texting each other or no? I don't think they have messages because I think they would have come up in reporting. Yeah. But I think this is all just based on interrogations, them talking to police.

Now, after the yard cell where Angel got annoyed with Milton for publicly listing their address on Facebook, she's like, wait, this is perfect. She told Isaac he could pretend to be a burglar and robbed them because he got their address off Facebook. and then he could kill Milton in the process. The thing was, they never actually set a date for the plan, but on August 1st, Isaac was ready to go. He had already had a bag prepared with duct tape, rags, bottles of alcohol, a pistol. And then he used a key that Angel had set out by the back door in anticipation.

Okay, there's the key. They didn't set a date, but she was like, while talking about the plans, like, oh, yeah, I put a key out there for when this. happens. That's so diabolical. So the day comes. He breaks in. He goes into the bedroom, forced Milton into the bathroom, put him in a chokehold until he

stopped breathing. Then he and Angel grabbed cash from Milton's nightstand, emptied her jewelry stand to make it look realistic. And after that, Angel smacked her own head on the table to make it look like she'd been beaten up. I just, okay, I think about this often when we

cover cases where someone is staging and like has to hurt them like at some point like think she's standing there before she's about to swing her head is there a part of her that's like what am I doing no I think there's so much adrenaline adrenaline and just other emotions going on I bet you doesn't even cross their mind like you're so far in deep that you're willingly going to smash your head into a table for sure yeah you're playing the part at that point I think so I mean it's wild I couldn't do it if I was there I mean I wouldn't ever get to this point but if I was at that point before swinging my head into the table, I would probably laugh because I'd be like, how insane is this? Like, this is actually

crazy. It's so insane. I'm just like, oh my gosh, you had every opportunity to just stop. Okay, so she what idiots, smashes her head into the table. Apparently, before that, she actually had Isaac hit her too, though she said it wasn't hard enough. Then she ran to the neighbor's house, claimed an intruder had robbed them, hurt her husband. You know where the story goes from there. Now, when Angel is confirmed, confronted with this entire thing. She tells police, yeah, I did know about the plan. She's like, I did know. Like, Isaac had told me he wanted to kill my husband, but he also threatened to kill me if I ever spoke about it. And she's like, so it's not really all it's claiming to be like, Isaac was just really greedy. He wanted me to himself. I just don't believe it. I don't believe it.

And so she's not taking Isaac's side on this. She's kind of throwing him under the bus. Now, ultimately, Isaac agreed to a deal. He was willing to testify against Angel in court in exchange for a lesser sentence. He pleaded guilty to the lighter charge of second degree murder and was given 20 years in prison. But Angel would have her date in court also in September of 2021. Now, I'm, I mean, I'm glad he went to jail, obviously. I'm really curious what happened to Angel, though. Here's the thing about these cases that always shock me when it is like a love triangle case. Every time they go to trial, this love, this relationship that they killed for. Oh, it falls apart. they testify against each I'm like was that really worth it I mean it was it was enough to kill someone but now at trial it makes sense like when push comes to shove can they actually handle it no no I'm like it really it obviously wasn't a love worth fighting for yeah yeah exactly so after hearing Isaac's testimony his relationship with angel how she'd given him her perfume lotion jewelry the night of the murder and left a key the jury didn't need very long to decide

her role in it. It took them just 20 minutes to come back with a verdict at her trial. Thank goodness. Angel Sawyer was also guilty of first-degree murder sentence to life behind bars. And what became clear was Angel didn't just take Milton's life. She broke his heart. For a time, she stole his reputation. I mean, no one ever confirmed the details Angel shared with Isaac about domestic abuse. No one ever came forward to say the threats he made against Angel were valid, that she, you know, he would kill them. Dude, they all have kids. Yeah.

Like, that is so messed up. Angel has kids. Her kids don't have a mom now because her mom's evil. Isaac has kids. They're kids together. Their kids don't have a dad. Yeah. They don't have a dad now because the dad's evil.

And Isaac has a wife. Milton had kids. Isaac has a wife who now has to raise her kids alone because her husband killed his mistress's husband. And now Milton's kids grow up without a dad because someone decided to kill him. And here's this. thing. Insane.

Garrett said this earlier. Everyone has skeletons in their closet. Yeah. Everyone has made mistakes. Milton made mistakes. And you know what this case did. Not only did they kill Milton, they put all of his mistakes on display for people. Which sucks because we're all human.

Right. So people now don't remember Milton as this man who always said hello to you, who asked how your family was, how your kids were doing, who remembered little details of conversations, the man who was always smiling, who was in love with his wife, who would have done anything to make her happy, they now have this tainted view of him of this case that has spilled over. But as we know, none of this, Milton, was enough for Angel Sawyer. She wanted it all so badly she ended up losing it all, including a man that everyone really did love. And that is the murder story of Milton Sawyer. Once again, like we always say, there's just so many people involved with cases.

like this like combined there's like 10 kids alone that are involved love triangle cases always just i'm like dude if you had just taken like gone to therapy like this motive that seems so intense in the moment just leave your significant other instead of killing somebody literally would go away we don't need to kill people you if you care about your affair that much just move just leave leave like if you want to be together just and i know that's easier said than done but like Go for it. It's easier than killing someone, in my opinion. But I think they get to a point where it's like...

They're delusional. Killing someone is easier. Yeah. And that's why I'm saying, like, these love affair things, I'm like, it is always so pointless. Wow. All right, you guys, that is our episode for today. And we will see you next time with another one. I love it.

I hate it. Goodbye.