Serialously with Annie Elise - 374: Infatuated With WHO?! Her Cousin Does The Unthinkable

Episode Date: March 9, 2026

In October 2017, in the quiet hills of Lawrence County, Ohio, 26-year-old Stacey Holston was trying to move on from a secret she knew could destroy everything. What she didn’t realize was that the man at the center of it wasn’t ready to let go. By the time her husband came home from work that evening, a broken routine, a chilling phone call, and a locked door would signal that something was terribly wrong. Waiting inside the house was someone the family knew and trusted. What unfolded next would devastate an entire community and reveal just how dark obsession can become….If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow the show for weekly deep dives into the darkest true crime cases! To watch the video version of this episode, head over to youtube.com/@annieelise. .🔎Join Our True Crime Club & Get Exclusive Content & Perks..🎧 Need More to Binge? Listen to both of my weekly true crime series 10 to Life & Serialously with Annie Elise wherever you get your podcasts on the Annie Elise Channel!🍎 Apple Podcasts | Where you can also unlock access to 100+ and growing extra exclusive deep dives.💚 Spotify🔴 YouTube🎙️ All Other Platforms.📸 Follow Annie on Socials Instagram: @_annieeliseTikTok: @_annieeliseSubstack: @annieeliseFacebook: @10toLife.⭐SponsorsDose: Check out http://dosedaily.co/AE or enter AE at checkout to get 35% off your first subscription.Amazon Prime Video: Watch all episodes of SCAPETTA now only on Prime Video.David Protein: Check out http://Walmart.com to find a store near you!SKIMS: Shop my favorite bras and underwear at http://SKIMS.com. After you place your order, be sure to let them know we sent you! Select "podcast" in the survey and be sure to select our show in the dropdown menu that follows.Helix: Go to http://helixsleep.com/serialously for 27% off sitewide. Make sure you enter our show name after checkout so they know we sent you! .👗 Shop Annie’s Must-Haves! ShopMY: bit.ly/AnnieElise_ShopMy Amazon: bit.ly/AnnieElise_Amazon.🫵🏻 Get Involved or Recommend a CaseAbout Annie: www.annieelise.comFor Business Inquiries: [e-mail].📚 Episode Sources ABC 6 | Allison Scott | BBC News | Belfast Telegraph | Daily Mail | Irish Examiner | Jim Simons | Judiciary of Northern Ireland | Medium | Murderpedia | NBC4 Columbus | Ohio Court of Appeals | Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland | The Guardian | Wikipedia | WOWK 13 News | WSAZ3 | WSYX ABC 6••••••••••••••••••🚨Disclaimers1️⃣ Some links may be affiliate links, they do not cost you anything, but I make a small percentage from the sale. Thank you so much for watching and supporting me. 2️⃣ Sources used to collect this information include various public news sites, interviews, court documents, FB groups dedicated to the case, and various news channel segments. When quoting statements made by others, they are strictly alleged until confirmed otherwise. Please remember my videos are my independent opinion and to always do your own research. 3️⃣ The views and opinions expressed in this video are personal and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Assumptions made in the analysis are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the creator(s). These views are subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time and are not to be held in perpetuity. We make no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information on this video and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis. It is the reader’s responsibility to verify their own facts.

The search for a suspected killer resumes this morning in Ohio. That is a vast wide open area up in the area. We're told he ran off into the mountains after crashing his truck during a police chase. Crews are already out there preparing and getting ready to go head back into those woods. I'm holding up. I've got to be strong. What we have here is a horrible, horrible tragedy. I don't know why he would do something like this. He'd babysit my kids while we go out, you know, go grocery store shopping and everything else.

I just don't know why you do things like this. Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all new episode of Serialisly. Hello, hello, hello. And welcome back to an all new episode of Serialously with me, your true crime bestie, Annie Elise. And I hope you guys are having a good start to your week so far. I don't know if you're listening to this on Monday when it releases or maybe later in the week.

But whenever you're listening, I hope you're having a great day. I hope you had a great weekend. I hope everything is going well for you in your life. And yeah, I just hope things are good and happy, probably because I'm about to come shit all over it, if I'm being honest. So I'm like trying to get you in like a good mood, good vibes because I'm about to dump all over it. And I know that I probably say this a lot, but trust me when I say today's case is on a whole different level. It's one of those stories that it really makes it feel less like real life and more like it is some fictional, dark, twisted Stephen King novel. Truly, it's hard to believe that this is even real. I mean, we are talking layers of family secrets,

very disturbing relationships, multiple murders, missing children, and even more horrifying details that you will literally never see coming. It takes place in Lawrence County, Ohio, Not exactly a place where tourism is like booming or people are dreaming to visit, but it's as southern in Ohio as you can get, right there on the border of both Kentucky and West Virginia, right in the heart of Appalachia. And most of the people in the area really have spent their whole lives there. It's where their families are from, where they have lived for decades, it's where people grow up, start their families, and just remain. That's where they stay. Now, Todd and Stacey Holston were your happy All-American family. They were a younger couple, both still in their 20s, but in Appalachia, it's pretty common to get married and have kids while you're still young. The two of them had two boys. There was eight-year-old Devin, who was a second grader at Rock Hill Elementary School, and two-year-old Braxton. Now, Todd, Todd was a blue-collar worker, and he was often gone for long periods of time during the day at various work sites. And I wasn't able to find in my research or not, whether Stacey worked or if she just stayed at home and watched the boys

before they would go to school, manage the house, things like that. But either way, they both did whatever needed to be done to run the house and kind of balance the shared responsibilities. And it really did seem to work for them. The family lived in a mobile home in the Pedro area, right along State Route 93, a very long and windy road that is pretty far from any big cities, and it's just surrounded by trees and farmland. So it was far enough into the country to feel more secluded, but it was close enough that the drive into town for groceries or gas or any sort of necessities really wasn't that bad.

Now, the home had a very big front yard. Also this nice wooden porch where Todd and Stacey could just sit watching the boys play outside. It was beautiful. And what's even better was that a bunch of Stacey's family members all had homes nearby. So there was this sense of not only home, and comfort, but community there as well. But as we know, even the most picture-perfect families can have secrets behind closed doors. And in 2017, Stacey was keeping a big one. It was something

that she certainly was not proud of, and it had been weighing pretty heavily on her for quite some time. It was a chapter of her life that she knew that she needed to close, she needed to put it in the past, but it wasn't going to be easy. You see, Stacey hadn't been the most faithful to Todd in the recent months. She was having an affair. And at first, it started like many affairs as start. She was leaning on this person emotionally. She was kind of having them become her confidant, things like that. But then there started to become a sexual aspect to it as well. And then from there, things really crossed the line between flirting, a little bit of an emotional affair to like full-blown intimacy, sex, the whole nine yards. And she knew that she didn't want her husband Todd to find out,

anybody else for that matter, and she knew that it was time for her to end things and move on with her life. Mistakes were made, yes, but it wasn't too late for her to make things right. However, she also knew that this was probably going to be very messy, which, let's just be real, any situation like that is, you very rarely will get out of an affair unscathed. There were also, just with this one, way too many secrets involved. And I think that any time somebody gets their feelings hurt after an affair or, you know, in the process of an affair ending, they can get mean and they can get very vindictive. However, Stacey's situation was a little bit different. You see, this affair wasn't with someone in the community who maybe you would pass by every now

and then or a local pastor who you only see on Sundays or someone who, you know, you rarely bump into, which don't get me wrong, that would be bad enough. However, it would make the disolvement of an affair much easier, in my opinion, because you're not worried about running into them frequently. You're not worried about, you know, them feeling a tie to you in any way. It's easier to part ways with somebody where there's a few degrees of separation. But in Stacey's case, well, Stacey had been secretly seeing a man named Aron Lawson. And he had grown up in Lawrence County his entire life, just like Stacey. So they had that in common. He also lived very, very close to where Todd and Stacey's house was. So that logistically made sneaking around way more

easier for them. But unfortunately, and here's where things get a little bit twisted and a little bit, you know, uncomfortable. There's more to the story between the two of them. Because Arone was very close with Stacey and Stacey's family, not because he was a family friend, not because of the affair, but because he was also Stacey's cousin. Yes, you heard that right. own and Stacey were first cousins, which look, I don't even know how something like that happens. I could maybe see in a twisted, fictional novel type story or something like that where you meet someone, you're drawn to them, you're attracted to them, and then, oh my God, after you guys have sex, you're like, holy shit, we're related because you do a genealogy testing or you find things out

months later and you're like, oh my God, this is so gross, what just happened? They knew they were first cousins and decided to bond very close, closer than most cousins do emotionally. Remember, then he became her confidant, then it crossed over into sexual territory, and it's not only messy, but it's also ick, ick. And all of the incestual piece of it aside, let's talk about the fact that there will be no easy way to end this affair. It's your family. You're going to see them. You're going to see them at Thanksgiving on holidays all the time. So how on earth are you supposed to get out of this unscathed, right? Now, it's not clear how the affair actually started. But based on my research, there wasn't one specific moment where they just decided to start sneaking around or when the

relationship officially began. It seems as though it was more of a slow burn. Remember, they had known each other their entire lives. They had also spent a lot of time together. And they had been spending even more time together after Todd and Stacey moved into their house in 2017, because it was in that same area, that same community, and was within walking distance of a bunch of Stacey's other relatives. So like I said, Stacey knew that what she was doing was wrong. But what's interesting is that O'Rone felt the exact opposite. He wasn't ashamed of this affair like Stacey was. In fact, he even confided in his mom, Stacey's aunt. He told her all about their sexual. and intimate relationship, and he told her that he was absolutely infatuated with Stacey.

He had never met anybody like her. He claimed that Stacey was the love of his life. So I mean, they were in pretty deep, or at least on Aron's side of things. It was early October 2017, and he could tell that something was off with Stacey. Usually he would walk over to her in Todd's house, he would spend time with her and with her kids, but lately there had been this like definite shift in her energy toward him. And then on October 6th, Stacey finally broke things off with him. Whatever they were doing, whatever their relationship was, it had to stop. So you would think that this would be something that they could both agree on, right? Things needed to end. Not only is this a fair bad, but like, we're family. We can't be like, you know, get, you know, bumping and grinding

when we're related. That's weird. And I mean, with most affairs, there's always kind of that lingering question of what if we just decide to be together for real? What if we leave our spouses? What if we run off into the sunset together? The married person could get a divorce. They could start over, maybe even have more kids, just have a fairy tale ending. But this obviously was not an option for Stacey and Arone, even if they wanted it to be. They were first cousins. They can't get married. They can't go off. They're not going to have children together. Well, let's hope they're not going to. But it's literally illegal in the state of Ohio to marry your first cousin, as it is in many other states for good reason. Although I will say, in my research, I did come across the fact that there

are 20 states where it is legal. That's a little unsettling, personally, in my opinion, which, again, don't even get me started if they decided to get married and then have kids together. It's just a lot of bad. So anyway, you would think that if they both know that there's no real future, that they would know that this affair is going to end at some point. It has to. But that's not how things went. Both of them were not in agreement about the separation. Arone did not take things well at all. I mean, he had just been telling his mom that Stacey was the love of his life, that he had never met anybody like her, that he was absolutely head over heels in love with her. So even though things were, yeah, really weird and quite literally incestuous, he was kind of going through this weird form of

heartbreak when Stacey decided to end things with him. Now, Stacey, on the other hand, she felt a lot better after their breakup, or, I mean, whatever you really really. want to call it, but granted, it wasn't like your typical affair, where you will cut off complete contact, you'll never have to see the person again, and you can just go your separate ways. I'm sure it was awkward when she would still have to see a roan around, but she also knew that this was the right thing to do. She still loved Todd. She wanted to move on. She wanted to make her life work with her husband. So all to say, Stacey was feeling a lot more positive about the future. Everything finally felt like it was going to be okay. Or at least, that's what she thought.

she didn't realize was that something much darker was waiting around the corner. And before long, that darkness would completely swallow her and her entire family. On the morning of Wednesday, October 11th, Todd woke up very early for work to head to a work site at around 4.30 a.m. This wasn't really out of the normal. He worked long days. Sometimes he would have to show up at these sites extremely early, and that was really kind of an average morning for them. Sometimes his work sites could be as far as an hour and a half away. So there definitely were some frequent early mornings. So whenever that would happen, that would leave Stacy there to get both kids up, ready for school, get Devin off to school. And everything about that morning was completely normal. It followed the usual routine. Really, the only thing that was a little

out of routine was that instead of writing the bus home from school that day, Devin was going to go to his grandparents' house after school, which required him to take a different bus than he normally would. Now, because it was a small school and a very small, rural area, Stacey just needed to write a note for Devin's teacher, telling them about the change in the schedule. That's all she needed to do for him to take a different bus route home. It was just very, you know, close-knit town, small communication, things like that, nothing like overly formal. So Stacey fed the kids, wrote Devin his note, and got him on the school bus all before 7 a.m. Now, by 6.43 a.m., Todd had made it to his work site in Kentucky, which was about an hour and a half from home. but when he got there, right away, he noticed something kind of odd.

You see, Todd and Stacey were creatures of habit through and through. They followed a pretty similar routine every single day. So if something about the routine was ever off, it was pretty obvious. And in this case, usually, and especially when Todd was working so far away, Stacey would text him at some point in the morning asking if he made it to work safely. Mainly because the area was full of country backroads and even the most experienced driver could end up in some sort of driving trouble, like if a deer suddenly crossed the road or something like that. And besides, it kind of just made Stacey feel better knowing that Todd was safe and where he

needed to be so that she could just go along with her day. I think a lot of us do that with our partners, right? Like, hey, did you make it okay? Hey, how was school drop off? Just checking in, right? And for Stacey, again, this wasn't something that she just did on occasion or whenever she can make time for it. She always, always texted him. But by the time that Todd got to the work site that morning and pulled his phone out after clocking in, he realized that Stacey had never texted him. Now, at first, he just thought that it was strange, and he went about his day, being like, oh, this is weird, but, okay, I'm not going to, like, make a huge deal about it. He wasn't aware of any plans that Stacey had that day that may have made it difficult for her

to check in, but regardless, he tried to just brush it off. But then, as the day started to drag on, and Stacey still never texted him, that's when things started to creep. It's a bad thing. It's a bad thoughts started to creep into his mind. And what was even weirder to Todd in all of this is that she wasn't responding to any of his texts or calls. And that, that was really weird. Now, once Devin was at school, it was just Stacey and Braxton at the house. And while two-year-olds are definitely very demanding of your time and you have to pay very close attention to them, they also are at that age where they're becoming a little bit more independent. They're walking, they can stay distracted, They'll be playing for a little bit.

So it's not like Stacey couldn't have just sat Braxton down really quick to play by himself while she either called Todd back or responded really quickly to one of his text messages. So understandably, Todd began to worry. He just couldn't shake this gut feeling that something was very wrong. Now, fast forward to around 6.30, 6.45 p.m. that day. Now, by this time, Todd was clocked out for the day. He was on his way home from work. But like I said, it was pretty far away.

work site, about an hour and a half, so he had a pretty lengthy drive ahead of him. And that entire drive home, he continued calling and texting Stacey, but she still wasn't answering. Now, by this point, he just could not calm his nerves any longer. Whether Stacey was sick or hurt, or maybe one of the kids were sick or hurt, he knew that something was seriously wrong here. So he pulled up his contacts, and he called Stacey's mom Tammy. Because if something's wrong, who better to call than Stacey's mom, right? She surely would know if there had been an emergency throughout the day, or maybe she could see Stacey and walk over to the house. I mean, who knows, that would be a great person, or a point person I should say, to check in with. Plus, as I just said, Tammy only lived about a quarter

mile down the road, so she would easily be able to jump in the car or even walk over there and be at the house in no time. And that's exactly what Tammy did. But within just a few minutes, Tammy called Todd back, and she did not have good news. She claimed that the front door was locked. So she hadn't been able to get inside. And I'm not sure if the door being locked was out of the ordinary, but the fact that nobody had answered the door when she knocked, that definitely was weird. The two-year-old should have been at home. Stacey should have been at home. So why was nobody answering the door? Even if Stacey had her hands full or was tending to the two-year-old, maybe bath time, maybe dinner, maybe laundry, whatever it is, she would have heard something or said something. So when her mom, Tammy, was greeted with nothing but silence,

it was immediately concerning. Now at that point, Tammy was asking Todd like, hey, well, what should I do from here? What do you want me to do? And like I said, at this point, Todd was worried sick. And Tammy was also starting to become just completely frantic and worried. So Todd told Tammy, you know what? You need to just literally break into the house if needed. I need you to get inside. We need to see if Stacey's okay. Break a window, kick in the door, do whatever. Just get inside and get eyes on what is going on. He even said, like, I don't care. what you have to do, I will fix anything, I will replace anything, just get inside. Now, Tammy did eventually gain access to the house. But from what I could tell, the sources didn't specify exactly what she did to gain entry. The front and back doors were both locked after Tammy went in. So maybe she got in through a window, through a different means, I'm not really sure. But the main thing is, the point being, she got inside. And then something really weird happened. She still had Todd on the line, ready to update him as she got inside. When all of a sudden, Todd heard Tammy scream, scream so loud it was the loudest noise he had ever heard her make. He heard her yell out,

oh my God, then heard this very loud noise and then complete silence. True crime teaches us that everything leaves evidence, right? But here's something that most of us don't think about. Our lifestyle leaves evidence too. All the late night research sessions, the stress, the takeout, the processed snacks while binge watching documentaries. I mean, your body is processing all of it. And one organ that is doing a lot of the heavy lifting, your liver. Your liver filters everything that you consume and it performs over 500 functions every single day, from energy production to digestion, metabolism, and vitamin storage, and when it's overloaded, you can feel it. You feel sluggish, midday crashes, digestion issues. And that's where dose for your liver comes in.

DOS is a clinically backed liver health supplement, but it's not another capsule or powder. It's a liquid that you take in a daily 2-ounce shot, and it actually tastes like fresh-squeezed orange juice. It works by helping cleanse the liver of unwanted stressors and supporting daily liver function so that your body can do what it's designed to do, and it's made with zero sugar, zero junk, and zero calories. Even better, Dose has real clinical results, with two double-blind placebo-controlled studies showing positive impacts on. liver enzyme levels. So if you're ready to solve the mystery of why you've been feeling off, check out dosedaily.c-o-c-o-slash-A-E or go to dose-daily.com and enter A-E at checkout to get 35% off your first subscription. Your body does so much for you. So let's do something for it. That's D-O-S-E-D-A-I-L-Y-O-C-O-S-A-E for

35% off your first month subscription. Don't miss Scarpetta. A propulsive new crime thriller, starring Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman, Academy Award winner Jamie Lee Curtis, Emmy winner Bobby Connovali, and Emmy nominee Simon Baker and Academy Award winner Ariana DeBose. Scarpeta follows Dr. K. Scarpetta, Nicole Kidman, a brilliant and no-nonsense chief medical examiner as she investigates a haunting murder that strangely parallels her first major case from decades earlier. Is the case that made her, the case that breaks her? Based on the best-selling novels by Patricia Cornwell, Scarpetta is both a crime thriller and a messy family drama

that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Get ready to hunt a serial killer in this satisfying series with terrifying twists and an ending you won't see coming. Watch all episodes of Scarpetta on March 11th only on Prime Video. Now, as you can imagine, Todd's mind was running a million miles an hour. He was still on his way home from this work site. All he knew at this point was something was going on inside his house. What had that noise been?

Why was she screaming? Had Tammy dropped the phone in shock after seeing something? Like, what is happening here? So that's when he called Tammy's husband, Stacey's stepdad, Donald. Todd quickly explained everything that was going on to Donald. He said that he was on his way home and that now both Stacey and Tammy weren't responding. So if Todd couldn't be there to see what was going on himself, he felt like Donald was definitely the next best option. So Donald did the same thing that Tammy had done.

He got in the car, headed down the road to Stacey and Todd's house to hopefully solve whatever the problem was, but then 10 minutes passed, then 20, and Donald still hadn't called Todd back. It's safe to say that Donald understood how panicked Todd had been, so there was no logical explanation as to why he wouldn't have called him back immediately to update him, or even just to calm his nerves if this was all some sort of weird misunderstanding or false. Even if something was wrong with either of the kids or Stacey, that would have left two other adults with phones who could have easily called and explained everything. So something just was not adding up here. Luckily though, by this point, Todd finally made it home. And from the way that nobody was answering, he already knew that something awful had to have happened. But what he walked into was something that he could have never imagined, not even in his worst nightmares. As soon as he walked through the front door, he saw Arone, which kind of put him at ease for a moment. It was a familiar face. It was a family member in the midst of all of this chaos. But before Todd even had time to think about why he was there, or even where everybody else was during all of this, Aron pulled out a knife and attacked him. Now, Todd was not a small guy, and in any other circumstances, he would have been able to block Aron's attack for sure. But everything happened so incredibly fast. And Aron had surprised him.

He had the element of surprise. He just seized the moment and attacked him as soon as he walked through the front door. Now, you'd also think that multiple stab wounds to the head and neck would completely incapacitate a person. But not Todd. Which I don't know if it was his adrenaline that was just going so high to where he didn't feel any of this, or if the wounds were more shallow than what I'm imagining and envisioning. But Todd was able to fight back through this knife attack. And shockingly, he was able to pry the knife out of Arone's hands.

and somehow he even got on top of him, pinning him down on the living room couch. And he was in complete shock, kind of being like, what are you doing? What's going on? Like, I don't understand. Now what's odd in all of this? More, I guess I should say more odd than your wife's cousin randomly being in your home and stabbing you, is that Arone had this very weird look in his eyes, almost like a character in a movie coming out of a trance. And I'm sure that it's something that you really have to see in person to really understand, which I don't wish that on anybody, but Todd claimed that there was this clear switch in Arone. Immediately after this switch, he seemed extremely apologetic.

He claimed that there were people who were breaking into homes in the area, and he thought that Todd was a home intruder, basically saying like, hey, sorry, I was just trying to protect the house, I thought that you were a burglar, that's why I attacked you, even though he had stabbed Todd multiple times at this point, and probably had more than enough time to realize this was Todd, not some random intruder. So then Arone told Todd that Stacey and the kids were in their bedroom hiding and that everybody was fine. Everybody's okay, they're just in the bedroom and they're hiding. So for a split second, Todd felt at ease. But then, the reality started to sink in. And he realized that something still just was not right. Aron had said that Stacey and the kids were in their bedroom,

but he never mentioned Tammy or Donald. And Todd knew that Tammy and Donald were also supposed to to be at the house. So where were they? And why wasn't everybody coming out of the bedroom after hearing Todd's voice and hearing Arone attack him? Not to mention, everything was still way too quiet. If Todd hadn't known any better, he would have figured that nobody was home at all. Now, given that Aron had just stabbed Todd multiple times, accident or not, Todd was pissed, and he was also much bigger than Aron. So he literally threw him out of the front door and told him, leave, get off my property, get the hell out of here. But what he didn't realize in that moment was that he just let a monster walk free. When Todd went back inside, he started to notice things that

he hadn't noticed before. There was blood all over the floors, so much blood, in fact, that it was hard to track where it was even coming from. And that's when Todd started going room to room, just looking for his family. Now remember, it was a mobile home, and I don't know the exact layout of it, but think of it as like a very long trailer with this long hallway and then bedrooms scattered on either side. And inside of his little son, Devin's room, was a horrific scene. Stacey was in there, lying on her back on a futon bed, a blanket on top of her body. But it was clear she wasn't just lying down and resting or taking a nap. She wasn't moving. And this blanket on top of her was completely saturated in dark liquid. Her body

body was also cold, her coloring was off, and it was clear that Stacey was dead, and it was also clear that she had been dead for quite some time. Now, Todd wouldn't know it until later, but Stacey had been shot twice in the chest and once in the back. The gunshots had hit two vital organs, her heart and her lungs, and sadly, she wasn't alone. On the floor in Devin's room was Donald. His body hadn't been covered with a sheet or a blanket or anything else, and he too was surrounded by a pool of blood. He had been shot once in the shoulder and once in the chest. He was dead too.

Stacey's mom, Tammy, was in the laundry room, but she wasn't hiding, like O'Rone had said. She had been shot once in the neck and once in the back. And for whatever reason, her body too was covered with a blanket. Which I cannot even begin to imagine the trauma that Todd went through that day, going door to door of your home, where you are supposed to feel safe, protected, comforted, and seeing your entire family annihilated.

I mean, I just can't imagine finding your family slaughter in your own home. Now, to make matters worse, all of the victims had been shot with a 20-gauge shotgun. And I'm sure a lot of you are probably very familiar with this, but shotgun wounds are a lot more brutal and gory than if somebody is shot with, say, you know, a regular handgun or glock. they, quite literally, will shred you and rip you apart. So when I say that there was blood all over the house and all over the surrounding bodies, I mean it.

It was chaos. But by the time that Todd found the bodies and recognized what Arone had done, Aron was long gone. Not only had Todd already kicked him out, but you see, he had already been planning his escape route. After he shot and killed Stacey's mom, Tammy, he grabbed her car keys to her truck, moved the truck around to the back of the house so that it would be out of anybody's line of sight when they went by the house, but also so that it would be close enough that when he would flee, he could jump in the truck and take off. And that's exactly what he did. Even though Todd was shocked and confused by everything that had just happened, not to mention the injuries that he had suffered from being stabbed

multiple times by a rowne, there was still one thing heavily weighing on his mind. He hadn't seen either one of his children in the house. And I'm sure that he was in a state of shock seeing the horrific things that he had just seen. But as a parent, I'll just be the first to tell you, it doesn't really matter what else is going on. Your kids are always and always will be your top priority. And the fact that he didn't see either one of them, it was enough to send chills down his spine. So he quickly started searching the rest of the house. And that's when he found two-year-old Braxton. Now, fortunately, Braxton was okay. He was just in another room separated. from the other bodies. There wasn't even a scratch on him, thank God, but he was all alone,

this two-year-old little boy. And then that left the question of, okay, well, where was Devin? Remember, Stacey had arranged for him to be at his grandparents' house after school that afternoon. But by this point, Todd fully expected Devin to be home. This was now late in the evening. Now, I'm sure that Todd, maybe in the moment, just tried to convince himself that, okay, maybe Devin, being the older brother, hid Braxton in this room away from the others to keep him safe, and then he went on his own and hid in another room. Devin was an amazing big brother. He was always looking out for Braxton.

But Devin was nowhere to be found. So Todd wasn't really sure what else to do. He grabbed Braxton and he jumped in the car and he drove down the road to Tammy and Donald's house for help. Luckily, Tammy's brother was there. I'm assuming that he lived there as well. And Todd was able to use his cell phone to call 911. And I'm not sure if Todd had lost his phone in the struggle with Arone

or if maybe he left it behind in a panic or what happened. but all to say now he was finally able to call the authorities. He was able to make the 911 call, get help for his family, tell them what was going on, and get some medical attention for himself. And Todd was terrified. I mean, his wife had been murdered. Their parents had been murdered. One of his children was missing.

The person who was most likely responsible was also probably his own family member, his cousin, someone who he had trusted, somebody who betrayed that trust in more ways than Todd even knew at this point. someone who quite literally tried to kill him as well. This man was potentially responsible for a triple homicide, and Todd feeling the weight of the fact that he led two of the victims right to him by asking them to go over to the house that night. And Todd's biggest fear in all of this was that Arone kidnapped Devin in the process. Maybe he was going to try and use Devin for some kind of leverage,

like a hostage, something to get what he wanted in all of this. Maybe he was planning on running off with him or raising him as his own. Who knows? But when I say that this case was a huge media sensation, I mean it, through and through. It was a very tightly knit area and word got around fast. Which, to make things worse, this guy who had just brutally murdered three people potentially kidnapped a second grader and went on the run, he was nowhere to be found. I mean, it would be horrific even if he was reprimanded immediately and taken into custody.

but that wasn't the case. Arone seemingly vanished. People were panicking, and word got around that maybe he was hiding out in the woods. And this part of Ohio is basically surrounded by woods in all directions, which means he wasn't just hiding out in some random forest somewhere. He could have been hiding out on somebody's property, behind somebody's house, lurking in their backyard, looking in their windows, even hiding out in a barn, possibly. And who was to say that he wasn't hell-bent on killing more people?

maybe going on this weird murdering spree. Because remember, at this point, nobody is even thinking about what the motive could have been. Nobody knew about the affair. So it seems like he had some sort of psychological break and just started killing people and took off. Not to mention, Todd told the authorities, my son, Devin, is still missing too,

which they immediately put out a Bolo alert beyond the lookout, and the theories about what Aron might be doing with Devin, they started spiraling out of control. What's even worse is that investigators had contacted Devin's school, and when they did that, they learned something very odd. According to the school, Todd had called the school earlier that day and had arranged for Devin to take his normal bus route home. Not the one to his grandparents' house, not the one that his mom wrote the note about, but his regular route. Meaning, it seemed like Devin had made it home that day, after all.

Now, here's the thing. It might sound like all of this was happening over the span of multiple hours and they were making progress on the investigation, but the reality is that it was all happening in between Todd calling 911 and them going to the house to check out the crime scene. It all happened very quickly. So the police issued an endangered missing child alert because they feared that he had actually gone on the run with Little Devin. But what they didn't realize was that that scenario was not the worst thing that could happen. Because once the police arrived, they realized that Devin had never been missing at all. But he also wasn't in the house hiding from Arone. In his own room, hidden underneath a pile of clothes, was Devin. And unfortunately, he wasn't alive either. He had suffered the same fate that all of his family members had. He had been shot twice, once in the arm and once in the torso.

So now everybody was freaking out. Not only had this murderer killed three adults, but he had killed a child, a child that was his own family member, a child he had been close with, someone who trusted him. That is just a whole other kind of evil. And he was still out there on the loose. Okay, if you've listened to this show for a while now, you know that I am always looking for snacks that actually helped me hit my protein goals without tasting like hardboard. And lately, I've been reaching for David protein bars a lot. They are seriously impressive nutritionally. They have 28 grams of protein, only 150 calories, zero grams of sugar, which is actually one of the highest protein to calorie ratios on the market.

Jeremiah, my husband, who is like, you know, trail runner, ultra runner, all of the things, he actually has a 100-mile run coming up. He loves these as well, and he's very picky with what he puts into his body for fuel. But the real reason I like them is the texture. They are soft and doughy. They have these like satisfying chunks, these little crispy bits that make them feel like they're way more than like a protein bar. They feel more like an indulgent treat. And my current favorite flavors are blueberry pie and salted peanut butter. They are so freaking bomb. But there are a bunch of options like chocolate chip cookie dough, peanut butter chocolate chunk, fudge brownie, red velvet, cake batter, cinnamon roll. And the exciting news is that David is now available at Walmart stores nationwide, also on walmart.com, where you can try a single bar for just $2.97. So don't just take my word for it. Go grab one yourself. Head to Walmart today to try a bar or to stock up on four packs of your favorite flavors like blueberry pie and salted peanut butter sold exclusively at Walmart. You can also check out

Walmart.com to find a store near you. Today's episode is sponsored by Skims. Now, I think I've talked to you about skims before, but before I found skims, I honestly never thought that much about underwear. I'd focus on the outfit, the dress, the jeans, the graphic tea, whatever bra or underwear I had on underneath was like an afterthought. But once I tried skims, I realized how much the right basics actually change everything. And you know how sometimes you'll have like a mix of everything that's for all my girlies listening? A mix of everything in your drawer, different brands of underwear, different brands of bras. But then you always find yourself picking a certain one or like going for the certain brand and like leaving all the other ones behind.

that is 100% what I do because they've just totally changed the game for me. One of my favorites is the fits everybody scoop brawlet. I wear it every single day. It gives you that support, but it doesn't feel like a wiry type of bra, but you like feel, you know, good. And somehow skims managed to make something that is just like actually supportive while still being incredibly comfortable. And their underwear is the same way.

Super soft, stretchy fabrics. They hold their shape. They stay comfortable all day long. And it's one of those brands. where once you try it, you end up slowly just replacing your entire drawer because nothing else really compares. So shop my favorite bras and underwear at skims.com. And after you place your order, be sure to let them know that we sent you. Select the podcast and the survey and then choose our show in the drop-down menu that follows. That way they know we sent you. But I'm telling you,

their stuff is the best. Again, skims.com. Now what's really crazy is that Arone hadn't just immediately gone into hiding after fleeing the house. While he was at the house before Todd came in and confronted him, he had found some cash lying around the house that he grabbed and stole. So after leaving the house, he drove to the nearest store, blood-soaked clothes and all, and he bought new fresh clothing. Now how nobody in that store found this guy who was covered in blood to be some sort of issue? I have no idea. I mean, the thought of being in a store and looking down the aisle and seeing this guy picking out clothing while he's completely soaking wet, head to toe, and blood, and not saying anything and not calling the police, how that happens? I have no idea. I mean, it's beyond.

But in any event, he did get new clothes, he changed his clothes, then he left Tammy's truck abandoned, and he went into the very dense Southern Ohio woods. For the next two nights, there were dozens of police officers looking for him. They had sent dogs, drones, everything. But, Somehow he managed to escape every single last one of them. And Arone was nowhere to be found. The search is expected to start again just about daybreak. We hear the church bells going off right now. We know that it is 7 o'clock, and so it should get daylight in just a little bit.

We went to the command center, which is just a few miles down the road. We had trouble getting our live view to connect. But crews are already out there preparing and getting ready to go head back into those woods and search for Aaron Lawson. And again, who the search they didn't find him yesterday when he had ran off into the woods. They exhausted those resources, still have them out there again today, searching for him. A firefighter did say earlier today when we saw him at the gas station, he said that Aaron is an avid hunter and that there are mushrooms out in the woods that he could possibly be eating. It is pretty chilly this morning. And the firefighter said that with Lawson being an avid hunter, he could possibly be stuffing leaves inside his shirts or his clothing to stay warm.

So again, not sure the exact location of where Lawson is this morning, but Cruz are hoping to find him today. Right now, we do know, though, that Sugar Creek Christian Academy School is closed today. They said due to this manhunt ongoing, it's just best if they do close their schools. Then there was a huge break. Aron finally was caught, but he didn't get caught by the investigators. He actually turned himself in. But it wasn't as though he turned himself in because he was feeling guilty and felt remorseful for what he had done.

Actually, the reason he turned himself in was because the second night out in the woods was too cold for him. He couldn't hack it. He was freezing. He was uncomfortable. So in his mind, he's like, you know what, prison is better than sleeping out in the cold. I'm going to go just turn myself. into the police department. Which, let's just take a beat on that for a second. What a coward. First of all,

it's like, you can go on this mass murder spree, but you can't hack it in the cold for two nights. You need more of a cushy life than that. You can't hack a couple of nights camping, but you can take the innocent life of a young child who is your family member. How does that equate? I just don't understand. So he was immediately taken into custody, and there was literally a crowd of people waiting for his arrival outside of the police station. It was a moment that locals say that they will never forget. People were crying, yelling, applauding that he had been apprehended, and not only people who knew and loved this family, but strangers as well. And the people who couldn't be there in person to witness this physically, they were watching all of the news coverage live, knowing that they were experiencing

a horrific piece of the town's history right in front of their own eyes. After being taken into custody, Aron confessed to everything. I guess he finally felt like he had nothing to lose at this point and wanted to be honest. However, when considering the crime scene and everything that Todd had come home to and walked in on, was the story as cut and dry as it seemed? Had Aron planned Stacey's murder and then just rolled with the others as they fell into his lap? which let's go over what happened that day, step by step from Aron's perspective. I mentioned earlier that he didn't take the breakup with Stacey very well at all.

He wasn't happy with their relationship going back to what it once was, just, you know, as cousins, his family, he wanted more. And that's when he knew in his mind if he couldn't have Stacey, nobody could. Ton couldn't have her as a wife, Devin and Braxton couldn't have her as their mom, Donald and Tammy couldn't have her as their daughter, nobody deserved to have her. He was angry, and simply feeling those emotions, it wasn't enough for him. He wanted revenge. He wanted her to feel as hurt as he felt when she broke up with him.

So the day before the murders, he began plotting. On Tuesday, October 10th, he walked down to Stacey and Todd's house. He made sure to arrive when Todd was still at work so that he wouldn't have to deal with him being around and seeing his every move. He knew that Stacey would also be distracted with the kids, so doing what he planned to do next would be easy. It was just Stacey and the kids at home, and this visit of his kind of played off just as that, a visit. It wasn't odd, it wasn't out of the norm. I mean, the family pretty much had an open-door policy. If you wanted to come over and hang out, just come over and hang out. Then whenever

they wanted you to leave, they would just tell you. But they all lived nearby, so people coming and going, especially family members, that happened on the regular. Now, even though Stacey had put her foot down about their intimate relationship, she hadn't told him that he wasn't allowed to come over to the house or be with the kids or say hi or anything like that. Plus, if she did, if she tried to tell her own cousin he wasn't welcome at her house anymore, that would look weird. It may tip people off. So there Aron was just hanging out. Then, at some point, while Stacey was just doing her thing, maybe making dinner, laundry, or playing with the baby, Arone took his chance to do what he had been planning all along. When Stacey wasn't paying attention, he snuck into one of the bedrooms

toward the back of the mobile home. Now, which bedroom it was, the court documents didn't say, but I do have to wonder if it was a room that maybe wasn't used very often based on what I'm about to say here next. Because once he was in that bedroom, he took a book that was lying nearby, opened the window, and stuck the book underneath to prop it open. Now, like I said, I don't know which room this was, and we are talking about a mobile home here, but I would think that if it was the main bedroom or the one that Todd and Stacey were often in, they may have noticed that there was a draft or something like that from this window being propped open. It's October, yes, but it's also Ohio. It can get a little bit cool. But whether they noticed it or not, I mean, just like that,

he had created a way for him to get back inside the house without anybody knowing. Now, by this point, he had already made up his mind, too. He even confessed that opening that one, window was 100% with the intention of acting out the murders the following day. It wasn't like he was considering what would happen or like he was struggling with the decision or going back and forth about his plan. He knew what he was going to do. It was only a matter of time before he found the perfect moment to live out this dark fantasy he had in mind. And trust me, it is dark as you'll see here in a minute. So the rest of that day into the evening, he just continued hanging out with Stacey and the kids. He smiled right to her face knowing that by that time, the very next day, she would likely

be dead. Then later that night, at around 7.15 p.m., Todd finally got home from work. And pretty much as soon as he got home, Stacey basically volunteered him to drive Arone home. Kind of being like, okay, well, that's a wrap. You know, Todd's going to give you a right home, have a good night. And this was something that apparently really bothered Aron. It just fueled his rage. The next day was October 11th, the day of the murders. And Arone was more than familiar with Todd's schedule, so he knew that he was going to be leaving pretty early in the morning that day. And like I mentioned earlier, he left around 4.30 a.m., which by this time, Aron was already awake and waiting. But he wasn't waiting with empty hands. He had his 20-gauge shotgun and eight shells loaded with

slugs. And that wasn't all he had. He also had come prepared with a backpack loaded with supplies. There were multiple flashlights, knives, toilet paper, a tarp, food. I mean, it was clear that he wasn't planning on staying at this crime scene. He was planning on running. So about 30 minutes after Todd left, at around 5.30 a.m., Arone snuck into the house through that window that he had propped open with the book the day before. And then he sat and waited. He could hear everything that happened that morning, from the kids waking up to walking through the house and getting ready,

to cooking breakfast, all of it. But still, he just sat there and waited, because in his mind, he knew it wasn't the perfect time to strike yet. And at first, it honestly kind of seemed like Stacey was his one and only target, which it's crazy then in hindsight to think about how far things ended up progressing. Aron then heard Devin say goodbye to his mom and his little brother. He went out the door and got on the school bus, and he knew that with every passing minute, it was almost his time to strike. Then, at around 8.30 a.m., Stacey went into that back bedroom that Aron was hiding in. Now, he must have known at some point that Stacey would be going in there, just walking right into his trap. It was also just Stacey and two-year-old Braxton in the home at this point, but Stacey didn't

have Braxton with her when she walked into that room. And as soon as she walked in, she saw Aron, and he wasted no time in doing what he had planned to do. He shot Stacey with the shotgun. three times, twice in her chest and once in the back. And as you can imagine, it didn't take very long with multiple shotgun wounds for Stacey to bleed out and die. Now I want to give you a huge trigger warning here. For those of you who have weak stomachs, you don't even have to have a weak stomach, actually, to need this trigger warning, because what I'm about to share next and what he did

next is absolutely foul. O'Rone dragged Stacey's body into Devon's bedroom. He then laid her out on that futon bed that was in the room. He undressed her body, put a condom on, and he had sex with her deceased corpse. I mean, if you aren't gross enough with the incestual relationship that's already going on, adding necrophilia to the list, that certainly is like next level unhinged and deranged. I mean, it is so sick. It makes me speechless. Very rarely do we hear it. about necrophilia in cases at all, but now we're hearing about it also with their own family member. It is, oh, God, it makes me sick to my stomach, truly. I mean, like, what in the actual F is going on here? And I have to say, too, the detail of him using a condom is kind of a detail that I get stuck on a little bit. At first, I thought that maybe it was so that he wouldn't get any DNA on her body when the police arrived and when they, you know, do an autopsy and all of that,

and so that he wouldn't get caught for the murders, because that I feel like would make the most sense in all of this, right? But it wasn't like he took it with him or disposed of it. After he was done, he just dumped the used condom in the kitchen trash can. So regardless if it was that day or weeks later into the investigation, I mean, they were going to know that it was him. They were going to find this. Plus, the fact that he had brought all of that supplies with him

to go out on the run and to flee, it makes me think that he knew that he would be the one and only suspect and that he was going to have to go out on the run. So why go through the trouble of using a condom? Maybe there's something I'm not thinking, which tell me if you have other thoughts. Now, revolting as all of that is, which I know it is absolutely disgusting, atrocious revolting makes you want to vomit. But this next part is even harder for me to describe. At around 9.30 a.m., about an hour after killing Stacey, around around, did something that completely altered the entire course of this entire case.

Sleep is one of those things that affects absolutely everything. Your energy, your mood, your focus, even your health. And if you are sleeping on the wrong mattress, you feel it. That's why switching to a Helix mattress will be a game changer for you. It was a game changer for me. I've told you before. I've had my Helix now for, gosh, five years, six years. I put one in our guest room.

I got my mom one. I think my sister just got one, Amy. It's just the best. I cannot speak highly enough about it. And Helix is actually the most awarded mattress brand with reviews from experts like Forbes and Wired. But what makes them really stand out is that they personalize the mattress to you. You just take the Helix sleep quiz, answer a few questions about how you sleep, what you like, and they match you with the mattress that is designed specifically for your preferences.

Mine is the sunset lux. I also have the topper. And when I tell you, it is a moon cloud, it is a moon cloud. Now, also the best part, they deliver it straight to your door with free shipping in the United States, and you get a 120-night sleep trial and a limited lifetime warranty. So you really get time to make sure that it's the right fit for you. And honestly, better sleep really does change your entire day. Go to HelixSleep.com slash seriolessly for 27% off sitewide, an exclusive offer for listeners

of Serialesley with Annie. lease. That's helixsleep.com slash seriolously. And also make sure to enter our show name after checkout so they know we sent you. That is helix sleep.com slash serialously for 27% off sitewide. I mentioned earlier that Devin was supposed to ride the bus to his grandparents' house that day after school, right? Stacey wrote that note to Devin's teacher in the morning saying that Devin was allowed to change buses and bus stops. But as we know, Arone, is a sick, twisted individual. And seemingly, on a whim, he decided to switch things up with that plan. He knew where Devin went to school, again, because he was family. He also knew Devin's teacher.

He knew the people who worked at the school. He knew what the rules and the policies were. So that morning, he called Rock Hill Elementary School posing as Todd. When they answered, he said that he was Todd, Devin's dad, and he asked if he could quickly speak with the guidance secretary. And he made sure to make this phone call from Stacey's phone, so that if the school had caller ID, the number that would be on file would be the one from Stacey, Devin's mom, their family, it would all make sense. It would prove that he was taught. So he gets transferred over to the secretary, and that's when he very calmly spoke with them, letting them know that although Stacey had originally planned for Devin to go to his grandparents' house that evening, there was going to be

a change in plans. He explained that Devin's grandfather got sick, so he wasn't going to be able to watch him after school after all. So Devin now needed to take his normal bus route home. So the school is kind of like, of course, no big deal at all. We hope he feels better. We hope that everything goes well. We will make sure that he gets on the right bus home and gets home safe and sound. And technically, Devin did get home safe and sound. It was once he was home in his usual happy and safe space that he was now in a literal nightmare. Devin was eight years old. And if you don't have an eight-year-old or if you've never been around one, you might think that they're just young and naive, but at that age, they're pretty smart.

They're old enough to be pretty intuitive as well, especially about different situations that are around them. They also are old enough to make note of differences in their usual routine, and they're bold enough to ask why. Kids don't really have a filter at that age, so if something feels off or if something's different, they will just outright ask the question or say it, sometimes to their detriment because they don't know if they're being off-putting or rude, at least my son sometimes, but they don't have a filter.

So when Devin got home, he was taken by surprise. I mean, usually it was his mom, Stacey, at home, waiting for him, or even his dad, Todd, if he had the occasional day off. But regardless, it was almost pretty much always one of his parents. So when he walked in the door and only saw Aron, it just completely threw him off. And at first he kind of just thought, like, cool, I get to hang out with Aron, my family member. but it didn't take long for him to start getting creeped out and weirded out by the situation. Arone would, yes, sometimes babysit for them, but usually his parents would tell him about it beforehand.

And sure, he did come over a lot, but pretty much always when Stacey was there. So this was different. Why was he there alone? Where was Stacy? Where was his mom? The two of them sat in the living room together, talking about what Devin had done at school that day. However, once the conversation ended, things started to get pretty awkward.

being a normal eight-year-old, Devin started asking questions like, why are you here? Where's my mom? Where's my dad? And eventually, Arone got annoyed with Devin, annoyed by this line of questioning. The questions were back to back, one after another, and Devin wasn't accepting a simple, you know, just because as an answer. And I guess when Aron originally planned for Devin to come home that day, he just thought that it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Like Devin would just roll with whatever he said, he wouldn't ask any questions, he wouldn't put. on anything, but this now was not proving to be the case. And even weirder is all day long, while Arone had been at the house with only two-year-old Braxton, he was almost like playing a house with him, pretending like he lived there, taking care of Braxton, changing his diapers,

feeding him, even laying him down for a nap at one point, like stepping in to this role as though he is the parent in all of this. All while Stacey's body was lying dead in the other room. after he had just assaulted her as well. However, two-year-olds aren't eight-year-olds. Braxton went along with it. He didn't know any different, but now here was Devin, and Devin was going to ask questions. It was human nature. And Aron just really underestimated him. He wasn't expecting that at all. So that is when Aron decided that Devin was interfering with whatever half-assed plan he had made. What that plan was, we still don't entirely know. We don't know if he was going to kidnap one or both of the boys and then flee into the woods. It's unclear completely. Personally,

I don't really think he had much of a plan, but he was now becoming irritated by the line of questioning. So Aron tells Devin like, hey, look, I brought over my PlayStation to the house so you and I can play, which of course, eight-year-old Devin was stoked on this. So Aron told Devin that he put the PlayStation in his bedroom behind the dresser, even though Stacey's body was still inside that room, overed up by a sheet. But of course, Devin didn't know that. He didn't suspect it. He was this innocent little kid. He was being promised a fun day of video game playing. So he had tunnel vision, a one-track mind, and he ran, beeline it directly to his room and to the dresser. But when he peeked behind the dresser, he noticed that nothing was there. He was also too young and too innocent

to even question why it would have been behind the dresser to begin with. But he had done exactly what Aron wanted him to do, which was turn around, have his back to him, and head towards his bedroom. So Aron, being the complete, utter coward that he was, he took that opportunity, as Devin's back was to him running, excited to play his PlayStation, he took that opportunity to shoot and kill Devin without having to look him in the face. In fact, Devin was still facing his dresser, looking for that PlayStation he was promised when he was shot and killed. Aron shot him once in the arm and once in the torso. Now, unlike when he killed Stacey, he just left Devin's body right where it fell.

He didn't even try to move him or touch his body at all. Instead, he just threw piles of Devin's own clothes right on top of him, trying to hide him and conceal him. Which I don't know. Maybe it was just the shame of having to see his little body lying there, and he couldn't cope with that. So he just threw all of these clothes on top of him to quickly hide him. and maybe that's why he also shot him when he had his back turn to him because he's such a coward

and he could only do it if he didn't have to look at this innocent little eight-year-old. And the court documents didn't specify when exactly they believed the Devin was killed, just that it was sometime after school, when promised this video game, this PlayStation. Which it's just so sad to think about because had all of this gone the way that it was originally supposed to, with Devin going to his grandparents' house after school, he never would have been in the same house with Aron, and he certainly never would have been in the same room as his dead mom. Which I don't know the true diabolical nature of why Aron called the school and changed the bus route if he didn't have any intention of killing Devin at first. I don't know what the plan

was in all of that. It just doesn't make sense to me, especially because as we know, Braxton was left unharmed. So I don't know. Maybe it was just a spur of the moment part of the plan, maybe it was part of the grander scheme in all of this, maybe he wasn't thinking, I don't really know. So like I mentioned earlier, Todd was pretty much calling and texting Stacy all day. Then it was between 6.30 and 6.40 p.m. that he tried calling her one last time, before ultimately calling Stacy's mom Tammy. And as we know, when Tammy first arrived, the doors were all locked. Nobody was answering the door. But at this point, Arone was still inside the house. He was in the main bedroom listening to Tammy knocking on the door. He was far away enough that she wasn't able

to look inside and see him, but he was still close enough to hear every single move that she made, which I would imagine that he thought that maybe she would just give up and go home, assuming that nobody was home, but instead he heard her start breaking into the house, just as Todd had instructed her to do. So in that moment, her fate, unfortunately, was sealed. He stood right there behind the bedroom door, gun in hand, waiting. Then, once Tammy was inside, she quickly started going from room to room, looking for Stacey and the kids, and as soon as she walked into the bedroom, Aron jumped out from behind the door and shot her. And I mentioned earlier that Todd was still on the phone with Tammy when he heard her scream.

Remember, he heard her scream, there was that loud noise, and then it went completely silent, which, as you can guess, the loud noise was the gunshot that ended up taking her life. After shooting Tammy, Aron quickly dragged her body across the house to the laundry room. Then he covered her up with a blanket as well. Which, why he put her in the laundry room separate from Stacey and Devin, it's still unclear. It's never been stated. I just don't know. I mean, Stacey and Devin's bodies were together in Devin's room.

And to me, it would make sense to keep them all together. But maybe there was some other reason why Aron did what he did. Or I don't know, maybe there wasn't. It's one of those little details in this case that we may never understand. Now, I'm not entirely sure where two-year-old Braxton was during all of this. We do know that at some point O'Rone put him down for the nap earlier in the day, right? So I don't know if the crib was in the main bedroom or a different room. I don't know if that's where he stayed the whole time, but I would imagine that anybody would be woken up to the sound of gunshots, especially a two-year-old who,

in my opinion, two-year-olds are usually light sleepers, at least mine were. So not too long after this is when Todd had called Donald. Then the same exact pattern played out as it did with Tammy. Arone just sat in hiding, listening to Donald, try every single possible way to get into the house, and just waited for him. Eventually, Donald kicked in the front door because he clearly at this point understood how sketchy this whole situation was. He knew that he had to get inside that house one way or another. I mean, the only thing on Donald's mind was making sure that his family was okay. But as soon as Donald stepped foot inside the home, Aron shot him. And this is just my speculation, but I would imagine that Aron knew that if it came down to a physical fight, he wouldn't have been able to overpower Donald. He had let

Stacey, Tammy, Devin, all of them move around the house, walk around the house, and kind of go about their day until eventually blitz attacking them. But that's not what he did with Donald. He just immediately struck. And then we get to the point where Todd came home. Now, by the time Todd arrived, Arone was way more vulnerable because this time around he didn't have the one thing that kept him safe and kept him powerful, his shotgun. He had completely run out of ammunition by the time that Todd was home. So he hadn't really thought all of that through. He only brought the limited amount of slugs or shells or whatever you would call it with him, which I truly believe if he even had at least one round left, I think that this story would have ended very differently. And I don't know that Todd.

would have survived it. Now, what's interesting is that Arone and Todd both recall what happened next a little differently. They both agree on the fact that Todd came inside the house, Aron stabbed him, and Todd overpowered him. They also both agreed that Todd had asked Aron why he had attacked him. But for some reason, the answer is different depending on who you ask, though I, I of course am inclined to believe Todd's account more than I would Aron's. But as I said earlier, Todd had said that Aron played it off as he accidentally stabbed him. There were people breaking into houses all through the neighborhood. He thought that he was an intruder, and that's why he jumped on him and started attacking him. But Aron claims that he said to Todd, quote,

I don't know. It was just a blind thing of anger. So two very conflicting answers, right? But like I said, I'm more inclined to believe Todd over dirtbag coward loser Aron. Regardless, it's just kind of odd and worth noting. So Todd was taken to the hospital after the attack, and he was treated for his injuries, and luckily he was able to fully recover from his physical injuries. With bandages visible from the back of his neck, family surround Todd Holston. Shortly after he was released from the hospital, the sole survivor of Wednesday's brutal attack. I'm fine. I mean, I'm holding up. I've got to be strong. As soon as I walked through the door, he just started attacking me.

Did he say anything to you? No. He just started attacking me. I don't know why he would do something like this. He'd babysit my kids while we go out, you know, go grocery store shopping and everything else. I just don't know why he would do things like this. After Arone's arrest, he was indicted on four counts of aggravated murder. And even though he had originally confessed to the crimes, he pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

Time passed and everyone was eagerly waiting for his trial to begin, hoping that justice would finally be served once and for all, and over a year passed, when suddenly, on February 11, 2019, O'Rone had a change of heart. Instead of pleading not guilty, he decided to plead guilty. This against his defense team's advice. Now, why he did it, I truly have no idea. Maybe he suddenly found religion in prison, which we always hear about right. Maybe he finally felt guilty and remorseful. Maybe he heard about how badly child murderers get treated in prison. I don't really know. Really, it could have been a little bit of everything. Who knows? His defense team later said that he basically just didn't want to have to put everybody through the trauma of a full trial.

Of what they, quote, said, would be full of all of gruesome photos that would be presented and all of the things that would be said about him. Before his sentencing, he briefly spoke to the court, and, shockingly, he wasn't asking for forgiveness, which this video is a little bit difficult to hear for my audio-only listeners, but he's pretty much saying that he doesn't expect any sympathy during the sentencing. I don't expect a sentry. I expect what a being killed. Did he say it. I'm not accused with whatever being taken.

As you so, I have been sentenced to death for the four counts of murder. And on top of that, he also received a total of 59 years and six months for, the other non-capital counts. That was in February of 2019. His execution date was set for January 6th, 2026, although we all know that in capital punishment cases, his team is going to be scrambling to do whatever they can do to put it off for as long as possible. Now really quick, I do want to just say this. Put yourself in Todd's shoes for a moment, okay? He entered his house that night, found his wife, his son, and two family members, his in-laws, deceased. Then discovered that it was their other family member who was responsible for all of this and that he went off and took off and was on

the run. So imagine trying to like calibrate all of that in your mind, reconcile all of that to where it's like, oh my God, my whole family has been annihilated or a big chunk of my family has been annihilated and it was our own family member who did it. Like what the hell is going on? then once he is reprimanded and confesses to everything, you also discover that your wife was having an affair, cheating on you, and not just an affair, but with her own cousin and her own murderer. I don't even know where your mind goes after that and how you come back from that. I truly don't know. I feel like there are just so many layers to this that are wild. And poor Todd, it's like blow after blow. You lose your wife. You find out she was having an affair. You find out that she was having an affair with her own cousin. Like, where do you go from there? Right? Honestly, where do you even go from there? So this case is honestly one that just does not even feel real for so many different reasons. I mean, we've heard of so many different crazy things in a lot of these cases that we've talked about. But a quadruple homicide over a love-obsessed cousin, I I mean, that's a new one. That's a new one, even for me. My heart just goes out to all of the family members and friends of these victims. I don't know how you begin to have peace with that or any

sort of closure. I mean, hopefully they do have a little bit of peace knowing that Arone will never see the light of day again. But I'm sure there's a lot of internal struggles with why this all happened to and the motive behind it. And I don't know, it's just a tough one, a very complex case. So thank you so much for listening or watching. If you're on YouTube, take a quick second. Hit the subscribe button so that you don't miss any other episodes. If you are listening to this on the audio version, make sure that you are following the podcast. Just hit the little top bottom button or top button wherever it is and press follow, totally free.

But that way you won't miss any other episodes. And as a reminder, we have an all new episode coming out tomorrow. But it's on the 10 to Life podcast feed. So if you're not following that podcast, it's a totally separate podcast, but also true crime. It's called 10 to Life. Search it wherever you listen to your podcast. It's totally free. Make sure you follow it because we do put out new episodes every single Tuesday.

And for those of you who are watching this on YouTube, even if you're a video lover and you love consuming these cases via video, I do want to just let you know. You can always listen to the uncensored version of these cases on the podcast. YouTube makes me censor it. They make me cut certain things out. so you can always have the uncensored version on the podcast and a little bit earlier than when they release on YouTube. So thank you guys so much for tuning in to today's case. I will be back on the mic with you tomorrow on 10 to Life and until the next one. Be nice. Don't kill people. Please do not have an affair with your cousin and just don't be a disgusting human being. All right. Thanks. Bye.