Sword and Scale - Episode 196

Episode Date: September 13, 2021

29-year-old Daryne Gailey lost his freedom when his 65-year old mother, Sylvia Majewska, was granted guardianship and conservatorship over him. With the #FREEBRITNEY movement exploding globally, what a better time to expose the abusive aspects of guardianship and conservatorship than now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. This is love, the name of a kind soul. He did not have the mental capacity to know where the Joker vane was. Hey there, welcome to season 8, an episode 196 of Sword and Scale. where the Joker of England was. Hey there, welcome to season 8, an episode 196 of Sword and Scale. The show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey Hey Hey Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey Hey! Hey! Hey Hey Hey Hey Hey Hey Hey Hey, how's her mom? I mean, how is her mom? Is she nice? Or is she overbearing?

We're gonna hear about the latter in this episode of Sword and Scale. But before then, I'd like to let you know that season two of Sword and Scale, along with Sword and Scale, rewind, will soon be behind a paywall. Yeah, it's part of our business model. But you can download it right now if you're a plus member. In fact, if you're a regular member, you can download it right now and you can store it and your little hard drive because it's going away in October. And it'll only be available exclusively through Plus. By the way, that's where you support us. Soaredandscale.com slash plus, sign up today if you can. We'll see you there. Hey Hey Hey

Hey Hey Hey Hey Hey Hey Hey Hey

Hey Hey Everyone has responsibilities, but some people have more than others. Life seems to pile on us, and we reassure ourselves that everything will be okay by thinking that the universe wouldn't give us more than we can handle. Very few people stop to think about what happens when we reach our breaking point, until we've already bitten off more than we can chew. On November 23rd, 2014, 63-year-old Andrew Galey woke up to six voicemails from his son's ex-wife.

According to the voicemails Andrew's 29-year-old son, Darren, was supposed to return his daughter from an overnight visit, but never did. Anoid by the early morning drama, Andrew called his son, but Darren didn't answer. Andrew knew that Darren's mother, 65 year old Sylvia Majuska, was required to supervise overnight visits, so he tried calling her. When Sylvia didn't answer either, Andrew became frustrated and started the drive to his son's house City of Tonsha, very well. Oxford Michigan, Poland County. Send a deputy out to you, what's the address? The address is I'm not there yet.

This is my son's house. His mother and Darren were supposed to have Darren's child back with the mother in general last night, night seven, and they weren't. Andrew wasn't sure what he would get out of this call because Darren's ex-wife attempted to file a missing persons report the night prior with no success. In Michigan, you can't report a person missing until they've been gone for at least 24 hours. A bit of an antiquated policy, if you ask me. Until those 24 hours would pass, the best thing police could do was perform a welfare check. I don't know. We did go out there last night and there was no one there.

What time did you go out there? Around 8 o'clock. 8 o'clock. And nobody at home. Hmm. Well, what do you suggest they view? If you want, just call us when you get there. We'll come out and take a missing person report.

If that's what you're wanting to do, it's a report of missing. Well, I think we should work towards that. I will be there probably in 20 minutes. OK. Thank you. I will call you as soon as I get the access. OK. Thank you.

Thanks. Bye. Two Oakland County Sheriff's deputies met Andrew at DARREN's and decided to take a look around. To their surprise, none of the previous officers had tried opening the front door, and they were able to walk right in. However, the three of them didn't get very far. Their eyes locked onto the couch in the pale, gray Sylvia Maguska dripping into a five-gallon bucket filled with blood.

Sylvia Maguska and her husband Andrew Galey lived in Oakland County, Michigan, which is amongst the wealthiest high-population counties in the United States. Sylvia was an accomplished painter and worked as an appraiser and director for two different art galleries. Sylvia's eccentric outward appearance, mixed with her obsessive-compulsive personality, charmed Andrew into falling in love with her. Andrew, who was a no-nonsense blue collar man, adored the adventure Sylvia brought into his life.

Sylvia also gave Andrew two daughters from a previous marriage, and together they had two more children named Carly and Darren. Unfortunately, the boy, Darren, was born with cognitive impairments, leaving him with a mental disability and a seizure disorder. Although Sylvia never connected with her daughters, she developed a special attachment to Darren. In 1996, when little Darren was only 11 years old, his life and the lives of everyone in this family would be turned upside down when his father's parents died, leaving him almost $1 million.

That kind of money would give most people peace, but to this family it would only bring pain. Sylvia quickly developed a distaste for being told what she could and couldn't do with the inheritance money and soon she filed for divorce. Her ex-husband Andrew will tell you that the divorce wasn't personal. Sylvia made it clear. She just didn't want to share. So we and I had a very bitter divorce. I had an inheritance. So we wanted it. We fought on it. We divorced. We had a special needs child, Darren, seizure issues, low IQ, special ed, all that stuff.

So he's a very controlling person. She's not a not very truthful person. So when the divorce came and she did it, you know and she filed for divorce, so be it, okay, so we got divorced, okay. I fought tooth and nail with her for visitation rights to my children. I spent a lot of money with lawyers and friend of the court's office, okay, and it was an uphill battle, being a male. I was employed, I owned drugs, I'm not a drug, and it was tough. The court battle lasted for 10 years, and Sylvia used her son, Darren, like a

weapon against his father throughout its entirety. Sylvia forced young, submissive Darren to write letters to the court claiming Andrew abused and neglected him. For a while, Darren didn't talk to me several years ago. The University of Lawrence gives Sylvia a PPO against me and all this bullshit, and needed my daughter, Carly. Well, I was horrible. It killed me.

It really killed me. Because she was then. It killed me. It really killed me. Because she was then suing the trust. I was a trustee of Darren and Carly's trust, okay? And she ended up suing and breaking the trust early so she could get the money. Sylvia used a portion of the money she made in the divorce to set Darren up if anything happened to her. She bought Darren a home in Oxford and helped him get a job. used a portion of the money she made in the divorce to set Darren up if anything happened to her. She bought Darren a home in Oxford and helped him get a job at the local grocery store. Although Sylvia made a good chunk of change from the divorce, her reign of terror

had just begun. Sylvia was a brilliant woman and promptly learned how to manipulate the court system. Together, Sylvia and her tenacious legal team used the courthouse like an ATM. In only a few years, Sylvia sued Andrew repeatedly. Filed a bogus slip and fall lawsuit against a market and even went after her neighbors for their apple trees. Back then, the mere mention of Sylvia's name struck fear into the hearts of Oakland County judges. At one point Sylvia found herself

at the courthouse every other day, generating a legal file that was five inches thick. Sylvia's life was seemingly perfect until Darren met 27 year old Amanda Hendrick. We actually met online. Wasn't supposed to be like anything serious or anything like that. And then we decided in June, I think it was like it was a Tiger's game. I bought the tickets, he bought dinner.

I thought that was very appropriate. But he had to ask his mom permission for money to go out on a work night. I thought it was kind of weird that he had to ask permission and she said, well, is she driving or are you driving? You would assume that a grown man who lives alone needing to ask his mother for permission to go on a date would be a bit of a red flag. But Amanda gave Daring the benefit of the doubt. She was happy she did too, because Amanda immediately fell in love. Behind all of the quirkiness that came with Darren's disability was a kindhearted, gentle giant that she adored. All of his friends called him

bear, one because he was so hairy, he had to tell it was kind of gross. Um, and two he snored like a bear like crazy grizzly bear snore. Every day that we were dating he would have a Pepsi and Twizzlers for lunch at work and he called Pepsi his coffee. Which, you know, he didn't drink coffee and he didn't drink alcohol. So whenever he went out anywhere, he got a Pepsi that was his drink. Darren also fell in love with Amanda. She was his first intimate relationship and Amanda taught Darren what it was like to be independent.

Darren had never been able to stand up to his mom ever. And I was actually talking to one of his friends who now are one of my friends. And she said that she'd never seen him happier. And I gave him everything he had ever wanted. You know, the love, the support, just the normal adult life. And then she went on to say that, you know, he'd never had stood up to his mom and talk back to her until he was with me. And by talk back, it wasn't that like a disrespectful talk back. It was more like, It wasn't like a disrespectful talkback. It was more like, no, I am almost 30, mom.

I deserve this. I want your help with my money, but I don't want your help in my love life or in my house. It's my house. It's my life. I just need your help with my money. Can you still help me do that? But he didn't want to hurt her at all.

We both didn't want to hurt her at all. We both didn't want to hurt her. It was more, he was like, Darren realized, oh, wait, I'm an adult, I can do this. I just need help. Darren assumed that his mother would be delighted that he found a good woman, but Sylvia was pissed. Sylvia kindly told her son that any time or money spent on a woman other than her was

a waste. To put it gently, Sovia's mothering made Norma Bates look warmhearted. However, Sovia appeared to have a change of heart when she found out Amanda was collecting government money. That was when Sovia allowed Amanda to move in with her son, which bewildered everyone except for Darren's father. She allowed this woman to move in with Darren just because she wanted to money. Okay?

Because the man was on Social Security Disability. Well, there's a regular paycheck. Regular, like clockwork, forever. Right? That means she's got healthcare coverage too. So that wouldn't be important to Darren, right? That means she's got healthcare coverage too. So that wouldn't be burden to Darren, right? That's independent of Darren. Sylvia thought she could save some money on Darren's bills by allowing Amanda to move in with her son, but her plan backfired remarkably. Shortly after Amanda

moved in, Darren proposed. And Sylvia knew that the moment her son said I do, her power over him would dissolve. So Darren and I got engaged in the fall of 2013. I couldn't choose. I wanted so many different dates for different reasons. Darren just went August 3rd. And I went August 3rd and I went August 3rd. Then we decided to have the wedding at Novesta Church in Cassidy.

We had invited all of his family, his sisters, his uncle, his mom, his dad, you know, dad's girlfriend at the time, brother, all of them. Not one of his siblings or family members showed up. And his dad actually sent the invite back, saying something about the wedding was an abomination or something like that. Despite his family's behavior, Darren was happy. Darren finally felt like a grown man and believed that his life couldn't get any better. But days after the honeymoon, fate proved him wrong.

Well, Sunday morning I woke up and I just was not feeling good at all. So finally it was like 7 o'clock at night. I'm like, the pain hasn't gone away. I have to go to the ER. And so they ended up taking my blood, doing blood work because I had no idea what was going on. And then the doctor, not even two minutes later, comes in and says, congratulations, you're pregnant, no? Do you have the right paperwork?

And then Daring comes in the room because they wouldn't got him and the doctor comes back and says yeah I had the right paperwork congratulations you're pregnant right in front of Darren Darren's face lit up like nothing else like what when were you gonna tell me after they left it took me a minute and I remember telling him, how about we not tell anybody just yet? Darren wasn't able to keep the pregnancy to himself and out of pure excitement told everyone. So anyway, went home, thought he understood

not to say anything but to stay at work. I got a call from a coworker of his because I was friends with them. And they said, Oh, congratulations. What are you do when I went? Darren, I am going to neuter you. She's like, Oh, don't worry about it. He's just super excited. He's happy.

We've never seen him this happy before. He got home from work and he had wonderful voice notes from his mother. In his mother Sylvia's eyes, Darren thoroughly messed his life up. The life she had spent so many days cheating the legal system to provide for him. His mom had asked, it wasn't really asked. I'm saying ask because I'm trying to be nice about it was more like telling me that the baby was going to have too many medical problems because we were both fucked up. She said that I needed to abort it which I don't believe in that at all and if I didn't do that

I needed to give it up for adoption because neither of us could take care of ourselves. Sylvia had never felt so powerless, and she wasn't a type of person to accept that and let it go. To take the reins back, Sylvia called in reinforcements from her ex-husband Andrew, and together, they petitioned the court alleging that Darren was legally incapacitated. alleging that Darren was legally incapacitated. Being the courtroom's savant that she was, Sylvia convinced a judge that her son needed a legal guardian and conservator and persuaded them to appoint herself instead of Amanda. Darren's attorney Jason Dandy walked us through the process. In Michigan there are guardianships and conservatorships. In some states there's

only one or the other and they serve both roles. The way that it's bifurcated in Michigan is that guardianships tend to have authority over an individual's health care decision making and their placement where they live. Conservators have control or authority and responsibility over an individual's assets, and somewhere between the two of them, if someone serves in both roles, lies the authority to essentially control a person's life. You may be familiar with guardianships if you've ever heard of the free Britney movement. In California, they referred to the combination of guardianship and conservatorship as just conservatorship. For example, the legendary pop star Britney Spears was put under a conservatorship in 2007

after she had a very public mental breakdown. I think we all remember the old umbrella-shaped head incident. At the time, Britney's father, Jamie Spears, was appointed her temporary guardian, but that was 13 years ago. So typically, with a guardian ship or a conservatorship, the, there needs to be a petition filed where the, the, the substantive allegation is,

this person isn't doing right by themselves. For one reason or another, mental illness, physical disability or physical illness is generally the grounds and a guardianship case. And a conservatorship case, this person isn't doing right by their own assets. There are assets that will be wasted or dissipated if there's no conservator put in charge. And again, the reasons are often very similar, some kind of ongoing illness that affects their mental capacity or some kind of physical ailment that prevents them from effectively managing their affairs. The free Brittany movement began after Brittany made unsuccessful

attempts at having her conservatorship removed. After all, it was supposed to be temporary, and Spears seemingly got her shit together. Her fans noticed Britney was mentally stable enough to release multiple albums, tours, launch businesses, and hold a Las Vegas residency. Yet her father maintained complete control over her life. That was when conspiracy theorists began to wonder if Jamie held his daughter captive and forced her to keep performing for cash. Podcasts, YouTube channels, and even documentaries started popping up that examined every Instagram post, every TikTok Britney made in search of hidden messages begging for help. There there's a lot there.

What I can say is a few things. One, to anyone out there, if you put a quarter in the proverbial machine, you don't get to decide when it's shut off. And that is true for Guardian Chess and conservatorships. Without picking any particular individual and discussing them, I will just note that anybody who looks into, for example,

the Berkeley prison experiments, can see what happens when a person has authority that isn't realistically checked. And it rapidly grows out of control. The conspiracy theorists might not have been complete kooks. Brittany's recent courtroom testimony contained detailed examples of her abuse. I cried on the phone for an hour and he loved every minute of it. The control he had over someone as powerful as me as he loved the control. Thousand percent he loved it. They watch me change every day naked morning, noon, and night. My body, I had no privacy dork for my room. I gave eight gals of blood a week. If I didn't do any of my meetings and work from eight

to six at night, which is 10 hours a day, seven days a week, no days off, I wouldn't be able to see my kids or my boyfriend. I never had a say in my schedule. They always told me I had to do this. And, ma'am, I will tell you, sitting in a chair, 10 hours a day, seven days a week, it ain't fun. And especially when you can't walk out the front door. And that's why I'm telling you this again two years later.

After I've lied and told the whole world, I'm okay and I'm happy. It's a lie. I thought I just maybe I said that enough. Maybe I might become happy because I've been in denial. I've been in shock. I am traumatized. Jamie Spears relieved himself as Brittany's guardian, but maintained his conservator position. I don't blame him either because over the 13 years Jamie has been Brittany's handler, he's made almost $2 million. It depends if there are sufficient assets in the awards estate, so to speak, that they can be paid from that.

Otherwise they have to submit a voucher in most situations, asking the county to be reimbursed a minimal amount for their services. And so when you've got the person who's making the financial decisions, and they're also looking to find out how they're supposed to be compensated, I think in some instances, I'm not applying it to the specific case necessarily. But just in there are some instances where you're supposed to be compensated. I think in some instances, I'm not applying it to this specific case necessarily. But just in there are some instances where you're going to find people who act for lack of a better way to put it in a very self-serving way. But to answer your question, yeah, it's definitely something where you've got people who are making decisions about what to do with a person's money, and they expect themselves to be paid from that same exact part of money.

Britney Spears may have millions of fans fighting for her rights and liberties, but Darren Galey only had his wife. After Oakland County granted Sylvia legal power over her son, she wanted complete control. That's when Sylvia, Majuska, decided to give a new definition to the phrase, Monster in Law. When Sylvia Maduska's son, Darren, left her nest and started a family, she felt her control over him disappear. To gain it back, Sylvia brought her son to court and gained guardianship over him.

Although Sylvia legally controlled Darren's life, he was still married, and she wanted his wife's influence out of the picture. The first step in Sylvia's plan to gain absolute control was kicking Amanda out of her son's house. His dad called my mom and said Darren won't be coming back to the house. And everything's going to be turned off until she's gone. I'm five, six months pregnant at this point. And I wasn't going to have heat. In the middle of winter, we just had a huge ice storm.

Due to Sylvia's guardianship over her son, Darren could do nothing to stop his mother, and Amanda moved out. The next step in Sylvia's plan was cutting off any communication between Darren and his pregnant wife. From that point, I barely got to talk to Darren. So they took his phone away, changed his number, watching who he was calling, how long he was on the phone for? They only put so many minutes on per week so that that's all he could use took his car away. So he couldn't even go and hang out with his friend Tony or go anywhere without his mom. So at one point they did give the car

back, but they only put enough gas in to go back and forth the work. That was it. Sylvia only had one step left in her strategy, and it would be a step that would hurt Darren the most. Although Darren begged his mother not to, she filed for divorce on his behalf. Sylvia and I got into this good cop bad cop deal, where I was a rational one and I could kind of get nearer to do things that needed to be done for his own best interest or Sylvia wanted things right down, okay, one now. Well, that's not how you work with people, okay, especially your son who has a learning disability and a low IQ and didn't want the divorce anyway.

Because a man that was controlling, you know, he had her hand on his dip and so we had no chance. And basically these two bitches didn't get along, understandably so. Don't assume that because Andrew was involved meant that he had any say in the decision-making. Soviet worked Andrew like a puppet just like she did. Everyone else. It was just a pretty time and Darren, she sought my help with Darren. I buried the acts from my side and I think she did here, but she wanted something. That's the only reason why I was calling.

I was pushed away, pushed away, pushed away. She couldn't control Amanda. She couldn't control Darren. She brought me in. I mean, I've talked at length with a counselor about this and came up with him. She wanted you. She needed you. That's the only reason why I there. I got that and I'm okay with that because it was all about daring. Five days after receiving the divorce papers, Amanda went into labor. Charlie Hendrick was born on April 10th, 2014. She weighed 7 pounds and 9 ounces.

I didn't tell him I was in labor. The reason why I didn't tell him is because, during one, when he was super excited, he got... how I put this nicely. Annoying sometimes. Which I think that's any man that's excited, anybody really can get when they're happy and excited about it, they just exoo bit. Well, his was on a whole nother level. And I was already stressed as it was. I didn't want his mother in the room.

That was one of the biggest things. I already knew it was gonna be difficult for me because of not being able to be a family at that moment. I wanted Darren there, but I knew it wasn't just going to be him and I. When Darren learned that Charlie was born, he had to ask Sylvia for permission to visit the hospital. To everyone's surprise, Sylvia allowed Darren to go, but under her supervision. When I was admitted, they had asked me if there was anybody

that I did not want in the room, and I specifically said his mother and his father. When they came, she tried very, very hard to get in, but they almost had to remove her with security. And she tried waving the paper saying, oh, I'm his guardian, he can't be without me. And it was just, I was so tired for one, I didn't want to deal with it. And I said, fine, five minutes.

And I find, I just let her end. And to this day, that's the biggest regret. Because I let her in to hold her when she was in newborn. And she kind of held her out like she was diseased. And I'm like, no, there's something wrong there. Just because Sylvia allowed Darren to visit his baby doesn't mean that she would let him stay all day. So his work had said you can take two days off, this is completely fine, I'll be paid. And his mom had said, well no, he only needs to be there for half hour.

Oh man, his face though. I'll never forget that. He got to feed her her first bottle. So I mean, he got a few firsts, which I'm glad that he got those. She had a hold of him already. I mean, he put his pinky out and her hand was barely big enough to fit around his pinky. And he was ear to ear smiles and the counselor nurse, the one that had said, if you don't want her here, we can get the security security said that you have five minutes

or until she says you have to leave. And she did not like that at all, but that was a one time I kind of felt like, finally I got the control. After Charlie's birth Sylvia didn't cut back on her courtroom tactics. Sylvia filed for a personal protection order against Amanda on Darren's behalf over a fabricated assault from before they were married, which the judge denied. And then after I had Charlie, they took away the car again,

because she said, well, if you're not willing to get a vasectomy, you're not going to get your car. Because we don't need another mistake in this world. Amanda and Darren spent several months in divorce court attempting to stop his mother from ripping their family apart. But they were ultimately unsuccessful. Finally, on the day their divorce was finalized, Amanda brought Charlie to court with her. After the hearing, Sylvia felt content.

She had accomplished her goal of having the one and only say in her son's life, and allowed Darren to take a parting photo with Charlie and Amanda. The picture he took at the courthouse that day is our only family photo we have to. It just is thinking of that photo makes me want to cry. This is the only one and it's in a freaking courthouse.

In a courthouse. I don't have one of the three of us in the hospital. I don't have any, you know, birthday photos, you know. The only one I have of all three of us is in a freaking courthouse after divorce hearing. It's just stupid. I should have, I should have all these photos of both of them together.

But yeah, that, that photo is one of the best photos I have even though Charlie's face isn't in it. That one shows Darren 100%. How happy was to be a dad? Before Charlie left with her mother, Darren took the opportunity to allow Andrew to hold his granddaughter for the first time. Another thing that happened that day was Darren had asked me, can I see Charlie? And I'm like, yeah, sure, she's your kid. I'm not going to keep you from her.

And so he took her and was showing everybody and everything. I stayed back because I was like, I'm not going to interrupt in whatever I can see. Not that I didn't trust him. It was just that mom instinct to watch, especially with Sylvia right there. And so he took her over to his dad and said, Hey dad, do you want to hold Charlie?

And when he walked up to him, his arms were like in front of him. And when he answered Darren, his hands and arms were behind him. I said, no, not this time, or maybe another time. I can't remember the exact phrase, but you could see the disappointment on Darren's face. Darren's attitude towards his parents changed at that moment.

Darren never let the heartache get to him, but his spirit broke when Andrew refused to hold the baby. I remember Darren a few times saying, what did I ever do to make them so upset at me? I just remember, it's not you. It's not you. You despite them, you are an amazing man. You have difficulties just like everybody else.

Yeah, yours may be a little bit worse, but you're a happy, lucky guy. And you have one of the biggest hearts in the world, and that's what I love about you. After the divorce, Darren was allowed a supervised overnight visit with Charlie every other weekend. Being the easygoing person she was, Sylvia demanded that she supervise Darren and Charlie's visits. Charlie's first few stays with her father and grandmother were uneventful until the weekend of November 21, 2014. That Thursday, which was 16 days after the divorce, Sylvia reached out to Darren's father. Now Sylvia's always been paying Darren's bills, always, always, always. We are co-conservers and co-guardians of Darren.

So she emailed me last week to sing. Once again, she had to pick in money for Darren's house payment because the child support payments were taken a month or okay. And then when I was up there last week during the week, she showed me a I don't know what day it was, but through her stay, I was so. And she was in tears and we were talking about that. And she was saying, I just hate him. I hate him. I hate what Darren's doing to me. I can't do this any longer, I can't do it. And being a father and trying to be the calm one, rational one, I said, well you know that's to steal. He'll be that so you know me now, okay. He's still a lover. We don't like what he does, but we still

love him. The next day, Andrew called Darren and his mother while they drove to pick up the baby because he heard they were fighting over a car seat they bought for Charlie. When I talked to her again, I told her I said, I wish you luck. And I said, I wish you well. I wish you luck. I would give you a lot of courage. I'm trying to pump her up. I told Darren,, I said,

Darren, be nice to your mother. Okay, she's doing a lot for you. She's paying your bills, she's doing this, she's kicking your money. Her broke, he's made some money, raking leaves, cash. But he put new breaks on his car. And there is not much of Darren's estate.

So that was Friday, okay? I gave Sylvia Pep Dog a good thing, Darren. Be cool. It'd be nice to be your mother, please. Sylvia was getting very upset with Darren. I mean, she'd say you hate your child with meaning and anger behind them and what he was doing was Darren was screwing up himself in reality. But Sylvia internalized it all about hurt. Andrew believed that Sylvia was mad about the car seat because Amanda forced Darren to buy it. Sylvia said that I was forcing him and that I had to supply it because they were paying child support. And so I had called our worker,

I don't remember her name Rachel or something like that. And I said, what do you want me to do about it? And she's like, oh yeah, we already got three emails from her. And I'm like, well, what do I do if they show up and they don't have a car seat? She said, call the cops. And do not let either of them in your house. Even though Darren would be fine,

but we all know how Sylvia's do not let her in the house. When they arrived, Amanda showed Darren how to install the car seat and buckle Charlie in. Then before Darren left with his daughter, Amanda said her goodbyes. So I went back to the car to just say, I had a weird feeling that I think any mom would have. And like, I just need to say goodbye again and to tell Charlie that I loved her and that I'd see her tomorrow because the next day was my birthday. I went back and I was saying goodbye

to her and I kissed her in the forehead and I told her I love you Princess and I'd see her tomorrow and we'd celebrate my birthday and she could to see, which is my mom, and she just had the biggest smile, and it was one of those sweet moments. And I just went back in the house after that, after she waved goodbye, which was a new thing. Like, literally just started doing that with people. Their parenting agreement allowed Darin to keep baby Charlie overnight, but he must have her back before 5.30pm the next day.

The problem was, they never dropped off Charlie on Saturday. 6pm had rolled around and Amanda was unable to reach Darren or Sylvia. Eventually, Amanda called the police and requested welfare checks at Darren and Sylvia's homes. That is when Amanda left the voicemails Andrew Galey was awoken to on November 23rd. That morning Andrew called 911 on his way to Darren's house, where he was met by two Oakland County Sheriff's Steputies. They opened the front door, was unlocked. It my my researchly correctly. When they opened the door, that's where the initial contact with Sylvia was made.

And she was on a couch in the living room of the house with her arms cut open, pretty good. Draining her blood was draining into a like a five gallon bucket. They told Andrew to go back to his vehicle. Andrew ran back to his vehicle and waited in his vehicle. One officer started to render aid with Sylvia and then obviously called for medical assistance. And knowing that there was supposed to be two other people in the house from what Andrew was telling our officers, the other officers searched the remainder of the house.

This is Detective Lieutenant Willis, with the Oakland County Sheriff's Department. To everyone's surprise, Sylvia was still alive despite her massive amount of blood loss. So obviously when the officers approached Sylvia, they asked her questions, what's going on, what happened, and things of that nature. And she had, which only can be described as she would speak gibberish. She made no sense. It was a lot of mumbling and a lot of repetitive stuff that had nothing to do with. Nothing of evidentiary value for us, certainly. She couldn't describe anything that was going on. It was like she was in a state of shock. There was an allegation that she suffered a series of mini strokes, so

maybe there was some aphasia coming on. While that officer was tending to Sylvia, the other officer was in search of seven-month-year-old Charlie. When the officer entered, he hung a left and went down the corridor, which had the bathroom and three bedrooms down. The first room he came to was an open bedroom door. He looked in, the bed was made. There's no signs of any kind of issue there. The house was in pretty good shape. But when he tried to open the bathroom door, it was blocked. The officer forced When we tried to open the bathroom door, it was blocked.

The officer forced the door open to find a horrifying scene inside the bathroom. That was the most unique part of this whole investigation as the wait Darren was presented. So if you can imagine going into a bathroom, the door being difficult to open, and determining it's because an adult male laid on the bathroom floor. So if you open the bathroom door on the left side as a cabinet, the toilet all the way to the back is the tub.

Darren's head was on a pillow, propped up on a pillow, laying against the tub, his body, and he was over six feet or around six feet. He was laying on his back, his feet were touching the door, that was what was causing the difficulty opening door. Darren had a blanket up to his waist, there was a cushion from the couch that was on the top of the toilet seat. The bathroom was kind of indisturably. Darren had leather construction gloves on, boxer shorts, one sock on, one sock off, and his neck had been obviously last rated at least one time, but with all the dry blood and stuff around there, we didn't

know the extent of that. Unlike Sylvia, her son was dead. Darren was lying on the bathroom floor wearing only underwear, a single sock, and a pair of construction gloves. Darren's head rested on a pillow against the bathtub, and he stretched his body out far enough to hold the door shut with his feet. Although the scene inside of Darren's bathroom was bone-chilling, it wasn't why police were there, and they moved on. After that, you continue to search down the hallway to the back bedroom,

and that's where he found Charlie Galey, also just the seven-month-old child also deceased. The baby's room had a bed in it. Like an adult size bed and the crib. The child was laid in the crib, fully dressed, diaper, pants, one Z, a cardigan sweater, meticulously dressed,

the body laid out her left side side so she was facing a wall, facing away from the main part of the room. She had some sort of mucus coming from her nose but that was the only, for lack of better term, disturbed area of the child. Charlie's autopsy yielded bizarre results. The seven-month-old died of blunt force trauma from blows to the head with a soft object. Darren's autopsy results were just as uncommon as Charlie's. Darren's throat had three significant lacerations from ear to ear. The wounds were deep enough to cause massive blood loss, but they weren't the cause of death. Instead, Darren died from a fourth, small laceration directly to his carotid artery. The investigators determined a chain of events from the night prior based on the condition

of the crime scene and combination with the autopsy results. We have determined from Andrew Galey that DARREN had parental rights on every other weekend but they had to be supervised rights because DARREN had some cognitive or mental disabilities. We thought that perhaps Darren intentionally or unintentionally hurt the child, perhaps Sylvia left for a time or did something and

then as a result of that committed suicide. Because of the way of his dress, his gloves, things of that nature would just make more sense that he committed suicide and then at some point either Sylvia came back and found this stuff that happened, and you know, understandably freaked out and tried to kill herself or something. We weren't sure. That was our first initial thought. It was reasonable to assume that the soft object

used to deliver the blows to Charlie's head was Darren's gloved hand. What baffled the detectives was why Darren would kill his own child. After interviews with Darren's friends and family, the investigator speculated that if Charlie's death wasn't accidental, her murder was motivated by Sylvia's behavior. The investigators believed that Darren had had enough of his mother controlling his life. Darren had tasted freedom and knew he would never have it again.

So they determined that to free himself and his child from Sylvia's grasp, Darren murdered Charlie and then himself. No one that the detectives interviewed found their story to be an impossible scenario except for Andrew Galey. Andrew was adamant that Darren wasn't to blame and pushed for detectives to look at Sylvia who was recovering in the hospital. The following clips are from Detective Willis' interview with Andrew. So when I hear, trying to try not to jump, why hear the baby die to the end from him?

And I hear that Darren is dead when the wound to his throat. Darren was not suicidal by any means. He was friendly. Everybody loved Darren Grover's. He was loved through the neighborhood as a kind soul. He did not have the mental capacity to know where the Joker Vane was. Andrew tried to convince them that Darren wouldn't have killed himself, but he said nothing about killing Charlie.

The detectives believed that Andrew was in denial, and you can't blame him. The detectives believed that Andrew was in denial, and you can't blame him. However, Darren's mental capacity did give them an explanation for why it took four tries to cut his own throat. Because she was always said, she was not emotionally attached. I'm not emotionally attached to this reading,

I'm just not. I'm just not doing it. Several, several, several times. So that's what I have to say. I'm just not doing it. Several, several, several times. So that's what I have to say. I don't believe so, do I? Has she been released? No, she's thought the hospital's right away. Is she sedated?

Yeah, I love her. So with all of these things, I'm doubtful. When Charlie tells me that the officer told her that they're thinking along the lines of suicide I I don't I don't see it. I don't see it work But I'll say it again So they should not even out So we know more information. That's what I'm saying and that they should still be guarded

That's what I think and feel now. I know you can't go by feelings, but from my side, I am. Because I know you things are tiny. Suicide, Darren. Never. Never. Lieutenant Willis couldn't arrest Sylvia based on her ex-husband's gut feeling, and the evidence didn't support Andrew's theory, either. What struck me is odd because again we had, we didn't really have a solid working theory yet. We just had a bunch of circumstantial evidence everywhere to suggest, you know, I mean honestly as a human being the last thing you think is a grandmother would kill her granddaughter and her son. I mean, for all the intensive purposes, everything I knew about Sylvia at that point

was that she was, you know, an upstanding member of society, never had any trouble that I knew of or anything like that. Now, you gotta understand, Sylvia was in her 60s, her dad was 26, I mean, and he was a good, shaped, young kid. So for us to think that his mother overpowered him to do that is kind of a stretch. Lieutenant Willis tried to entertain Andrew's theory by serving a search warrant at Sylvia's

home, but the judge denied it because there wasn't enough evidence. At that point, the case appeared to be open and shot. That was until Andrew called Willis late one night on the day before Darren's memorial service demanding a top secret meeting. Detectives believed Darren Galey murdered his seven-month-old daughter before killing himself to free them from his mother's overbearing grip. They determined that when Sylvia Maguska discovered the murder scene, she couldn't live with what she saw and attempted suicide. The case was just about closed when Darren's father Andrew asked for a secret meeting. When Andrew entered the room, he asked the detectives to speak quietly.

He also demanded that he promise to keep what he was about to tell them private until after his son's memorial. have the original, I have copies, there's other detailed lists of Sylvia, a period to do this. A lot more history, pretty entertaining when you read this. In case you missed it, Andrew gave the detectives three letters Silvio wrote. According to Andrew, the letters were clear-cut admissions that Sylvia killed Darren and Charlie. Why he didn't produce these sooner? Nobody knows. Is it a confession? Is there in these letters? And is it a confess to harming the child, both dire and in, so she had this plan. Mm-hmm.

And that spelled out. It spelled out. It doesn't leave. I would be surprised if you came up with a question on this. I mean, sure, you'll have some. But though, I have real short answers or anything, it's there. I mean, I didn't go into it, but it's there.

Sylvia's youngest child, Carly, had gone to her home, where she found a binder sitting on the kitchen table. In that binder, it was a stack of insurance information accompanied by three letters. Sylvia had addressed the letters to Carly, her sister Dora, and Andrew. Carly opened her letter which read, Dear Carly, while you're the one left with the work, I've tried to patch and sort things, leave clear instructions and plenty of life insurance to make your future easier. Fly first class to take care of any estate issues and get good legal support. There's little to deal with as I've sold all my possessions to you.

Let the house go back to the bank and walk away from as much as you can. Move on and live your life. You've been a sweet daughter and I'm very proud of you. Remember all the good times we had baking, cooking, making things and laughing most of all. Get a really good bottle of wine and make a toast to all the good times we had, baking, cooking, making things and laughing, most of all. Get a really good bottle of wine and make a toast to all the wonderful times in my life. I'm satisfied with the travels and accomplishments I made. Sorry for the way things ended, but my life was over a long time ago. To let Darren live could

only bring more heartache that chapter is over Live on Prosper and take as much happiness as you can fit into your heart forgive Dora much love mother in the same letter that Sylvia admitted to killing her son She asked her daughters to toast her life Carly brought the letters to Andrew, and he read them before taking all three to the police.

Sylvia's non-shellant language was no different in Andrew's letter, which read, Dear Andy, dare and live to full life. It is not sustainable without enormous efforts on our parts. The expense is too costly, both financially and emotionally. I apologize for the lack of gratitude given to you by Dora and Meredith. You gave them a good home, and so much more than their natural father did, in many ways they're unaware of. I bet ties the baby, and surely she isn't having with Darren now, at peace and protected from Amanda and her brother.

She can't hurt Darren anymore or inflict mental anguish on their daughter. Carly is executor, and I have left instructions to help her with legal paperwork. There are several life insurance policies that should leave both her and Dora okay financially. Hopefully after a few months everyone will move forward and realize that what I did was for the good. I'm sorry for any anguish I have caused you. It was done with an open heart. Take care, Sylvia.

Sylvia had written and placed the letters in her home under the assumption that she would be dead by the time Carly found them. Although it wasn't a confession, the letters were Sylvia's attempt at justifying the murder of her son and granddaughter. In a way, Sylvia almost bragged as if by killing them, she did her last good deed as a mother. The investigation was turned on its head, and law enforcement rushed to Sylvia's hospital

room before Andrew left the station. The next day, Lieutenant Willis had the forensic team back at Darren's house for an in-depth look at the scene. When we're back in the house, what I didn't mention to you before is we have a scan, almost like what realtors have now. When you do walkthroughs of homes, we have a scanner that can recreate the scene. And but it was brand new.

And it was the first time our agency ever used it. So it took forever for us to do. Well, while we're allowing these scans to go and whatnot, we're thinking about ideas or whatever, we decide to use blue star, aluminum, or whatever, and we sprayed it in a bunch of different areas. It revealed a pretty extreme scene, if you don't know what I mean. It led us into the bedroom, Darren's bedroom,

where when we pulled back the covers, you could see blood stains on the sheets underneath, although it's comforter, it was over it at the time. There's a lot of blood transition between the bedroom and the bathroom right across the hall. There was blood in the kitchen, there was blood in the dining room, there was blood in the dining room kitchen area, and obviously where Silvia was in the living where she cut her arm. Darren's home was spotless to the naked eye, but the blue light made it look like a slaughterhouse. A receipt was found on the kitchen counter and showed a more sinister meaning behind the

argument over the car seat. So as we're reviewing it, and there was a receipt also on the countertop, and it says car seat in the car in $63 or something to that effect from the buyer near Darren's house. That led us to go to the buyer and Darren's house to watch the transaction that occurred because we felt the time frame was was very very close to

when this word occurred. Myer supplies the video you could you could see obviously I had no audio but you could see an argument kind of ensuing over this it seems after the fact we determined that Sylvia was quite upset via interviews with Amanda and others that that this car seat was even had to be bought. She was really, really, really upset about it. So she had every intention upon this, at the end of this, all being wrapped up, someone taking that car seat back and getting their $63 back, which is again kind of kind of wacky. An examination of Sylvia's phone also revealed a Google search for carotid artery, giving

Lieutenant Willis everything he needed to determine what occurred over the weekend of November 21, 2014. In Sylvia's quest to gain complete control over her son, she had exhausted all of Darren's money and in process drained herself emotionally. So rather than give up control to someone better suited for the situation she put them all in, Sylvia chose to murder her son and granddaughter instead. Sylvia planned the murders on Friday and she wrote the letters assuming that she would

be dead by the time her family found them. Sylvia then picked up Darren and reluctantly purchased the car seat that only she knew would never be used again. That night Sylvia tucked Darren and his daughter into bed and waited for them to fall asleep. Once Sylvia heard Darren snoring, she took the box cutter out of his working bag and snuck into his bedroom. Sylvia slashed her son's throat three times from ear to ear, but failed to sever any major blood vessels. Then Darren got out of his bed, holding his gaping neck,

and walked to the bathroom wearing only his underwear. Darren stood over the bathroom sink scared, and confused, asking his mother for help. Sylvia was calm and collected as she laid her son down and tried to comfort him like she wasn't the cause of his suffering. Darren had lost a lot of blood and was lying on a cold bathroom floor in the middle of winter. When Darren looked up at his mother, a person who had always promised to take care of him and told her that he was cold. Sylvia left the bathroom. When she returned, Sylvia put a pillow under Darren's head, covered him in his favorite blanket,

and dressed him in winter gloves and socks. Sylvia then placed a pillow on the toilet seat where she sat over her son and googled how to cut his carotid artery. Darren laid his arms down by a sides, unafraid of the person seated above him and stared at the reassuring face of his mother. Sylvia cut Darren's neck one last time and he bled to death, leaving his head fixed on where she sat. After Darren was dead, Sylvia cleaned the entire house until it was relatively spotless. Sylvia then walked into her granddaughter's room where the baby slept peacefully in her crib, and then Sylvia did the unthinkable. She beat seven-month-old baby Charlie to death,

and then placed her back into a sleeping position before walking to the living room and cutting her own wrists. While lying in her hospital bed, law enforcement arranged Sylvia on two counts of first degree premeditated murder. When Amanda learned the truth of what happened, she felt relieved to know the man she loved never hurt their daughter. Sylvia took so much, so many things. The life that they were supposed to have together lives we were supposed to have together. we were supposed to have together Amanda buried their daughter while she waited for the trial to begin.

At the funeral one of Darren's co-workers brought seven balloons to release in honor of Charlie and one for Darren. I would like anyone hearing this to know that Darren Galey was a very special person. He had some kind of cognitive or developmental disability, but he was absolutely in an every way a full human being. And more than that, and I'm not saying this because he's dead, I'm not saying this because he had some kind of disability. It's just a reality. He had a soul made of gold. He was anxious, he had, he was a full person, so he had his days, but he was such a kind soul. He helped people out at his job. He liked doing his work. I believe he genuinely loved his, his now ex-wife, and I know without a doubt he loved his baby. And, and it

is not often that an attorney can say that they loved a client. And I really loved that guy. He was a good person. Sometimes he drove me nuts, clients that pick up the phone and blow you up three, four times a day and I'm not saying that's what he did. But anyone can press your limits. But Darren was a special person and I was very confident that his child was going to be a special person as growth happened

Unfortunately that opportunity was taken away Oakland County jail kept Sylvia on suicide watch until February 12th 2015 when a psychiatrist found her incompetent to stand trial Sylvia had found one more wave manipulating the courts by acting crazy during her examinations. However, Sylvia was only able to keep it up for two years. Finally, a second psychiatric evaluation found Sylvia completely normal, and shortly after, she pled no contest to the murders. And I will tell you, based on this experience that I had,

there may be cases where you can, quote, tell by looking. But in this instance, I never saw it coming. Not in a million billion years. Sylvia was an anxious person, maybe a little controlling, maybe a lot controlling. But never did I think that she would ever contemplate, let alone actually carry out, the murder of her own son and her own grandbaby. As an infant, I mean that's a level of distorted thinking, or some people like to write things

off as evil, and I just don't know, I don't know what's real. I know that in my heart I believe evil exists, And I know that that act looks evil from the outside. But was was her thinking what I would call evil thinking or was it just so distorted that what she did in that moment was in her mind the only solution to end her own personal hell that she might have felt trapped in? I just don't know. But I do know that it took an amazing person off of this planet and another person who was going to turn out to be an amazing person.

And it robbed everybody involved of the opportunity to get to know them. And it robbed Amanda of an opportunity to be a mother to her child for the rest of her literal life. In November 2017, Sylvia Majusko was found guilty of two counts of second-degree murder and will serve up to 50 years in prison. Sylvia addressed the court after her sentencing and spent most of her time describing what a good mother she was.

I was hyper-vigilant, constantly, constantly helping him. And that's all I ever did was help him until I ran out and hit a breaking point. I did everything I possibly could. I just reached a breaking point where it was impossible and it did something to me. I broke. Something happened. It wasn't anything mild. It was something terrible that happened. I feel what happened, it's really hard to live with that. Even though I don't know what happened, I accept it, I accept responsibility for it, it's a real shame. I'm very sorry, I'm so sorry you have no idea, this is beyond belief. I really have done a lot of grieving." What Sylvia failed to recognize was that she didn't have to take care of Darren.

When Darren married Amanda, his life was going well. It was when Sylvia refused to give up control that Darren's life fell apart. Sylvia chose to be Darren's guardian, Sylvia forced Darren into a divorce that put him in debt, Sylvia demanded that she supervise Darren's visits with Charlie. Sylvia brought those responsibilities upon herself, and when she couldn't handle them anymore, she decided to murder her son and granddaughter. Alright, that's going to do it for this episode. Thank you for joining us. We're going to be back a week from now with episode 197. Until then, don't forget to stay safe. Hey, good morning. I just wanted to check in and let you guys know I just listened to the most recent plus episode on Crick Ride Out in this family. I actually know the ride outs really well and my dad actually took Robin's mom to the trial

every day. I was big news around here and I was so curious when no one had done that yet because it's such a horrifying story especially that not everybody would sound guilty. It's just crazy to me. So anyways, you should see a huge op-pick in membership because I've done it to my whole family and people are really interested. I loved your viewpoint. I've cracked lots of the change to have this voice and you gave it to them. So again, this is Sue. I've been a plus member for quite a while and I absolutely love your podcast.

So my number one is go to, so with that, just say thank you and bye. Thank you.