Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - The Diaper-Wearing Murdering Lawyer - The Andrew and Alecia Schmuhl Story

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

Andrew and Alecia Schmuhl’s case is one of the most shocking and bizarre crimes in recent Virginia history: after Alecia was fired from her law firm, she and her husband spiraled into desperation and rage, culminating on November 9, 2014, when Alecia drove Andrew- dressed in an adult diaper, latex gloves, and a fake badge- to the home of her former boss, Leo Fisher, in McLean. Posing as law enforcement, Andrew forced his way inside, tased and zip-tied Leo and his wife, Susan, then tortured, stabbed, and slashed their throats using a kitchen knife while demanding passwords and information, all while Alecia waited outside in the getaway car. Miraculously, both victims survived and gave police detailed descriptions that led to a short car chase and the Schmuhls' arrest minutes later, with Andrew still wearing only the diaper.

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So this guy, wearing nothing but an adult diaper, just tried to commit murder. Why? Now the guy's name is Andrew, and Andrews 27 when the story starts. when this story starts and he's living in Virginia, and Andrew, he's a smart guy. He's actually an attorney for the U.S. Army, and, you know, he's doing well for himself. But then one day, in 2010, something terrible happens.

He's out doing some physical training in the military when suddenly he slips on a patch of ice and boom, he injures his spine. And when he's at the hospital, the doctor prescribes him multiple pain killers. Now, while these drugs are supposed to help, Ultimately, his back pain never really stops. So he keeps taking them. And over time, he becomes addicted. And then years go by, and it's now 2014.

And Andrew, he's still hurting. I mean, he barely leaves the house at this point. He's living on disability and getting about $1,000 a month to live on. So most of the financial weight falls on his wife. This woman, Alicia. And Alicia is 26, and she's also a lawyer working at a law firm. And so now that he's injured and on pills, she's the one paying most of the bills and keeping everything together, and this is stressful. So over time, all this extra stress

starts to get to her, and she's missing meetings and deadlines, and her own boss starts coming down on her. So things are going bad for both her and Andrew, and at one point they decide to apply for a mortgage. The problem with that is that Andrew is living on dissoning. ability checks right now, and he and Alicia want to make him look employed so that they have a better chance of getting approved. So they decide to lie to the bank and list Andrew as an employee at her law firm. And this actually works. The bank believes them and they get the loan. However, unfortunately for them, Alicia's boss finds out, this guy, Leo. And Leo, he's upset about this. I mean, he runs part of that firm. So he tells her that what she just did,

was actually mortgage fraud. But, because he thinks she's a great employee, he doesn't actually want to fire her. So rather, he sends her home while he decides how to handle this. So Alicia goes home and she explains everything to Andrew.

And immediately, Andrew is pissed. Like, how dare Leo say what they're doing is mortgage fraud? The audacity. So the next day, both Andrew and Alicia go to the law office and they confront Leo. And Andrew's all yelling about how they weren't trying to commit any mortgage fraud,

and Leo tells Andrew to step outside so that he can talk to Alicia alone. But Andrew, he doesn't want to step outside. He wants to stay and argue, until Alicia calms him down and she tells him to leave the office. So Leo, being the nice boss that he is, he talks to Alicia alone, and he still doesn't fire her. Now, regardless of all this drama, Andrew and Alicia's situation still doesn't get better. Andrew's health keeps declining and he develops kidney stones and he has to be taken to the ER. And I assume Alicia stays right there with him helping him get through it. And on top of all that, they're apparently having money problems.

And this and everything else in her life just puts Alicia even further behind at work. And that is when her boss Leo finally decides that he's had enough and he fires Alicia. And he pays her severance. Now, here's where the story actually gets dark. Both Andrew and Alicia are super pissed about her getting fired, and they are not about to let this slide. And that is when they come up with a plan to file a lawsuit against the firm that she works for, specifically an employment discrimination lawsuit. And if they win this lawsuit, they believe that they'll make a ton of money from it,

way more than they ever would from any severance pay. Here's the thing about that, though. I guess to win this lawsuit, they feel like they need some internal documents and other information that they currently don't have access to because they don't have the company passwords and such. So they start thinking, what if we could break into Leo's house and torture the information and passwords out of him? And after that, then they can murder him because, you know, he's the one who fired Alicia. And it all sounds insane, but this is exactly what they're going to do. And so they get to work. Alicia goes out and she buys a bunch of supplies like handcuffs and NyQuil and a taser and adult diapers.

Because I guess part of Andrew's plan is to wear an adult diaper to the break in so that he doesn't have to stop for bathroom breaks. Okay. And so the night finally comes. The night that they're going to break in and torture and murder Leo. And so Andrew, he puts on his adult diaper and he dresses in all black and he puts on an angel. and he puts on an Indiana Jones style hat for some reason. Then they drive to Leo's house. And Alicia, she waits in the car while Andrew walks up to the front door.

Then boom, boom, boom, he knocks. And Leo opens it. And suddenly, he hits Leo with a taser. And Leo falls to the ground. Then Leo's wife walks in. This woman, Sue. And Andrew flashes a badge at Sue. And he pretends to be law enforcement.

But the badge that he flashes is actually a... novelty badge that you would like get as a joke for like a bachelorette party? In fact, the badge literally reads Pecker Inspector Department of Erections on it. Now, Sue, she can't see the badge up close, but she knows this guy isn't law enforcement. So she starts backing away. But unfortunately, Andrew corners her and he zip ties her and Leo. And he eventually starts grilling Leo, asking him questions about the law firm he works at, asking him if he recently fired someone, asking him for specific details. And then later, he drags Leo into Leo's home office and he forces him to log in to the law firm's private network. So now, Andrew has access to the administrative files, client lists,

and everything else. And so Andrew, he goes through the system looking for something useful to their lawsuit, but he doesn't find anything helpful. So he walks outside to the car to update Alicia. And at this point, they've been there for three hours. But Andrew, he's not done yet. I guess he doesn't want to leave empty handed. So he goes back inside the house and he asks Leo if he keeps any cash or gold at home. And Leo says no, but that, you know, he can go to an ATM if he wants. But Andrew, he doesn't want to take Leo to an ATM, probably because there'd be cameras there. But at this point, he's frustrated. And I guess he decides that there's. nothing more to do and that now he's going to kill both Leo and Sue. So suddenly he pulls out

a kitchen knife and pow he starts stabbing Leo. Then he pulls out a pistol and blam he fires it at Alicia but the bullet misses. So then he starts stabbing her and when he's done Andrew leaves the room. But Sue she's not actually dead. So she musters up all her strength and she drags herself over and she hits the burglar alarm. And suddenly loud sirens start blasting throughout the whole house. And Andrew, he hears this and he freaks the fuck out. And so he rushes out of the house and he gets into the car and he and Alicia drive away. Now pretty quickly, police and an ambulance arrive. And by some miracle, both Leo and Sue are still alive, even though they're hurt pretty badly. And Leo, he's able to tell the police exactly who attacked them.

Because remember, Andrew once came into his office to like confront him and argue with him. And immediately, police know that Andrew and Alicia couldn't have gone far. So they get a description of their vehicle and they put out an alert for it. And it's not long before police find them and pull them over and Andrew is in the car wearing only the adult diaper that he had put on. I guess he had ditched the rest of his costume. And so bam, police arrest him. Also, bam, police arrest Alicia. Here's his mugshot and here is her mugshot.

And ultimately, Andrew gets sentenced to life in prison, while Alicia gets sentenced to 45 years in prison.