True Crime Campfire - Love Thy Neighbor: The Murder of Sean Cousins

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

There’s a proverb that says, “Love thy neighbor, but don’t pull down your hedge.” Basically, be kind to the people around you, but don’t get too involved in their lives because you never know who they really are. I think we all have crazy neighbor stories and we’re probably someone else’s crazy neighbor. I think maybe that proverb wasn’t talking about torrid love affairs and murder plots conducted between two scheming neighbors, but we are. Today, join us for a story about lust, betrayal, and murder.Sources:https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2003/06/10/witness-tells-tale-of-lust-murder/ https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2003/05/04/prosecutors-blame-death-on-affair-2/ Investigation Discovery's "Diabolical," episode "Lying for Love" Oxygen's "Snapped: Killer Couples," episode "Catherine Stanek-Cousins & Timothy Koile" Various court documentsFollow us, campers!Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfireFacebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://gramha.net/profile/truecrimecampfire/19093397079Twitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfireEmail: [e-mail]! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.

Hello, campers. Grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire. We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie. And I'm Whitney. And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction. We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire. There's a proverb that says, Love thy neighbor, but don't pull down your hedge. Basically, be kind to the people around you, but don't get too involved in their lives, because you never know who they really are.

I think we all have crazy neighbor stories, and we're probably someone else's crazy neighbor ourselves. I think maybe that proverb wasn't talking about torrid love affairs and murder plots conducted between two scheming neighbors, but we are. Today, join us for a story about lust, betrayal, and murder. This is Love Thy Neighbor, the murder of Sean Cousins. So, campers, for this one, we're in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, the morning of May 8th, 2001.

Debbie Coyle was just getting home from work when she saw her husband Tim and their neighbor Kathy's Stannock Cousins pacing around outside the cousin's house and looking vaguely worried. Debbie walked up like, what's going on? Cassie's freaking out, Tim said. Apparently, Kathy's airline pilot husband, Sean hadn't come home last night, and the airline he worked for had just called. Sean was supposed to make an international flight that morning, and he hadn't shown up. Missing a flight was way out of character for him. Debbie, who'd called the police on Sean and Kathy for a domestic disturbance earlier that spring,

told her husband he probably smartened up and just packed his bags and left. See, Debbie'd had a front row seat to the implosion of her neighbor's marriage. Just a few months earlier, in the midst of a screaming late-night fight that could have probably been heard all the way in Vermont, Kathy threw all Sean's stuff out on the lawn. And this wasn't Debbie's only reason for looking side-eyed at her neighbor. She had an even better reason for her animosity toward Kathy, but we'll circle back to that in a bit. Kathy Stannock was born in Chicago to a loving, typical Midwestern family. She was a bright kid, friendly and curious with dreams of traveling the world.

So it was no surprise to anybody when she ended up working as a flight attendant for Jamaica Airlines. Kathy loved her job, and Taylor's oldest time it wasn't long before she met a handsome pilot named Sean Cousins. Sean was appealing to her for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was his paycheck. And he was attracted to her, too. They hit it off fast. The fact that Sean was already married, with five kids, didn't seem to factor into the equation. He told Kathy he and his wife were separating and that the divorce was in progress, and when the marriage was finally dissolved a few years later, Sean and Kathy tied the within days. In the summer of 2000, they moved to the pretty suburb of Palm Springs Gardens

about an hour and a half from Miami and settled in. Now that they were married, Kathy drastically reduced her hours at work and focused on taking care of the house. Sean's flight routes took him from Jamaica to London and back again, so he was away from home a lot. The newlyweds promptly made nice with their next-door neighbors, Tim and Debbie Coyle. They had a little something in common as matter of fact. Debbie and Tim met while they were married to other people too. Debbie's husband Dan was fixing Tim's car and they got to talk in as dudes tend to do in garages and one night Dan invited Tim over to dinner. And that's where he met Debbie. Both of their marriages were failing at the time and Debbie, lonely and sad, needed a friend. That's who Tim was to her

at first. He made her laugh and even after their divorces it took a while for the friendship to turn into something more, but it did. And eventually, Tim invited Debbie and her daughter to move to Florida with him, and in 1997, they got married. Tim had a son of his own from his previous marriage, and the blended family worked hard to make it work. Before long, Tim and Debbie had a daughter named Lauren, and they were happy.

And unlike so many divorced couples, Debbie stayed pretty friendly with her ex-husband Daniel, so much so that when he came to Florida to visit his daughter, he'd stay with the coils. Dan and Tim still got along great. And one afternoon, during one of Dan's visits, while he and the coils were outside working in the yard, Sean Cousins walked over, introduced himself and invited them all over to have some drinks in the backyard with his wife, Kathy. And it was that very first day, the first time they met Sean and Kathy, that the poor coils bore witness to the most awkward interaction in the history of mankind.

Sean was playing the gracious host, making margaritas for everybody, and when he came out with the drinks, this beautiful tray of margarine, Cargaritas, Kathy took one look at it and said, Ugh, I wanted salt on mine. And then she shooed him back to the house to fix it, like he was an errant child. It was excruciating to watch. Debbie later told the ID show Diabolical, Kathy wasn't nice to Sean.

The way she spoke to him, you could tell that she had absolutely no respect for him. And remember, this was the first time they'd ever met these people. Right. They were strangers, and she was just lording over her husband like he was her butler or something. But you got to make nice with your neighbors, right? I mean, Whitney's just about to invite Charlene over for some mint juleps, I'm sure. Look, over my dead body, will I make that woman a mint or any other form of julep? She squirts stray cats with a super soaker.

Okay, okay. That example. I forgot Charlene was such a bitch. Yeah. But Debbie and Tim befriended Sean and Kathy. Over time, it was clear that Sean was gone most of the week, leaving Kathy at home by herself. She confided in her new friends that she was lonely and hated being at the house by herself. Tim, ever helpful, gave her their phone number.

Hey, he told her, if you ever need anything, give us a call. Or, you know, just give me a call. Oh, boy. Did anybody else hear a little rumble of thunder off in the distance there? Mm-mm. No, just me. Okay. What could possibly go wrong?

That phone number did come in awful handy. One day, Kathy called the coils in a panic. There's a snake on my porch. Can you help me? I'm scared to walk past it. Debbie understood. She figured if she found a snake on her doorstep, she'd be pretty wigged out too. So she sent Tim over to de-snake Kathy's porch. It's not a euphemism. But when he got over there, the danger noodle was nowhere to be found. Tim didn't mind the trip, though, he assured her.

It was nice to see her again. A few days later, Kathy called again, this time with an overflowing toilet. After that, it seemed like Tim spent half his time at Kathy's house. She needed help with everything, taking the dog out, pool work, hanging up shelves. The list went on and on and on, and Tim showed up with bells on every time Kathy rang. Debbie didn't exactly love the idea of her husband having a honey-do list from somebody else's wife, but he always was home at the end of the day. was acting normal, so she let it go. In her mind, maybe Kathy had eyes for Tim, but Tim was loyal.

She had no reason not to trust him. Sean didn't have the same kind of trust, though. I mean, their relationship started as an affair, so he knew that a ring on a man's finger wouldn't necessarily deter his wife. In fact, Kathy seemed to have a specific preference for married men. Yeah. Before she met Sean, Kathy had gotten involved with her married supervisor. The supervisor ended up getting fired and his wife left him. This pattern would be something of a hallmark in Kathy's life. She liked her men like she liked her coffee. Rich, bold, and in somebody else's bug?

Metaphor get away from you there. Yeah, shut up. Anyway. Sean, noticing the signs of a bored wife, started changing his schedule, trying to be home more. Instead of staying one night in London, he'd try to get an immediate turnaround. A few times he'd come home and Tim would be in his house, performing one of his little, you know, domestic chores. And it was right around this time that Debbie heard that knock-down, drag-out fight between Kathy and Sean in the middle of the night and called the cops on him. Their marriage was clearly in shambles. It seemed like they really hated each other. And after that, it seemed like Debbie couldn't keep her husband Tim home.

They'd be eating dinner as a family and Kathy would call with some emergency or other and Tim would just sweep on out of there telling Debbie she needs me like he's fucking Clark Kent or something. Up to this point Kathy seemed to be pursuing Tim aggressively but to no avail, but now avail, buckets of it. Once during a family pool party at the Coils House, Kathy showed up wearing a scimpy little string bikini. Now, this thing was almost more lingerie than swimsuit. Far be it for us to judge the sartorial choices of women, okay? Wear whatever you want, but I do think we got to read the room, you know? This wasn't a Vegas pool party, okay? It was a backyard barbecue with, like, toddlers sprinting around and weird tweens playing

mermaids and shit. Like, let the titties out literally any other day of the week, you know? Just saying, judgment. Debbie was frustrated and told Tim that she felt it was, you know, inappropriate and wanted Kathy to go change, but Tim just completely brushed her off. Now, I know it's not my job to give relationship advice on this show, okay? That's usually Katie's department, but when the mother of your kid is upset about something, you really shouldn't be like, babe, it's no big deal.

You're being so dramatic. Because if it's important to them, it really should be important to you. If they're overreacting to a situation, there's a more productive way to go about it than just ignoring the problem or acting like they're crazy. Debbie's bad feeling intensified one day when she and Tim took their daughter Lauren to a taekwondo practice. Practice went great, but as they were getting in the car to leave, they found a note on the windshield. That's never good, right?

who was the note from? Oh, Kathy, of course. It said something like, saw your car was here when I was here. This was weird as hell, and it creeped Debbie out, and I think rightfully so. Like, was this bitch for real? Like, was she a stalker? Why is she leaving notes on people's cars? It just really freaked her out. But Tim, presumably still wearing his Captain Save Aho cape, was just delighted. Of course, Tim and Kathy's relationship up to this point had been, an emotional affair, but in the spring of 2001, it turned very much physical. Neither Debbie nor Sean had any idea. Tim, feeling giddy and a little guilty, had an urge to confess to somebody, though. Now, I want to know who you think he decided to confess to. Hmm, um, a priest?

No. Okay, got to be his wife. No, please. Oh, God, um, Sean? Close. Now, this duck shit for brains decided to confess, via email, to Debbie's ex-husband, Dan. Okay? It's, I know, I cannot. He wrote, she offered it all to me. She has the looks, the body, Dan, by God, the things I've got to tell you, and the money. That might actually be the grossest sentence I've ever said out loud. Now, Dan, for his part, wanted nothing to do with this revelation.

He actually didn't tell Debbie. I mean, that's his ex-wife. In his mind, he was like, I don't want any part of this drama. He told the show Diabolical that he and Debbie weren't really talking a lot at the time anyway. He didn't really elaborate on why. But, you know, you can kind of see like ex-wife, ex-husband, you know. It's good that they were amical, but they probably weren't like best friends. So, Tim, despite resisting the affair at first, was now all in.

And from that email, we can see, in part at least, it was because of the money. Mm-hmm. He was constantly trying to impress and titillate Kathy. He showed her a website he built that had photos of him decked out in pseudo-military gear. The website was offering his services as a mercenary. Again with this. Delightful. Again with this.

He told her that he'd been in combat in foreign wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, had done private security for various high-level people, killed all kinds of people and was generally an all-American badass. Keep in mind, and this is something I had to remind myself when I was researching this case, this is the spring before 9-11. So he was fully insinuating that he was actually a Merck, not like a military contractor. Right, right. In one email written while he was on vacation, he wrote,

You told me the other night I was dangerous, but you don't know the half of it. I am dangerous, see? I've literally gotten into gun battles, well, sort of, with British patrol boats. At 2 o'clock this morning, I got into a standoff with an American Coast Guard gunboat for really no reason. The Coast Guard captain wanted to board my boat, and he had every legal right. He also had what could be seen as probable cause. I fit the drug dealer profile perfectly, young, white American, very fast, very expensive speedboat, painted black, also very. arms. Oh, my God. Okay, how are these women who think this stuff is hot real? Like, that's the part I don't

understand because I would just be cackling laughing at this. It's baffling. I don't understand. Because, like, the well sort of sent me to the moon. I know. I just got fell out of my chair. Sort of. And by sort of, what he means is that he was actually sitting in front of his computer looking at internet porn and fapping it. That's what you mean. Like, what do you mean? And yeah, it's just, it feels like this is how people talk in like those really like five cent romance novels. Yeah, totally.

It's just, ugh. Anyway, the letter goes on and on and on and on and on about how cool and collected he is and how right Kathy was to call him dangerous. He also bragged about how he was totally hanging out with an old lady friend who looked exactly like some Hollywood actress. Now, despite the fact that I committed war crimes is probably one of the worst pickup lines in the universe, only slightly beating out the time that a guy told me

that my friends were ugly and asked me to dance. This shit worked on Kathy. She wrote him an email that read, You make me feel like a girl out of a fairy tale. I want to be with you always. I want to be the only woman in your life and you the only man in mine. My God. It reads like an eighth grader's AIM away message.

Ew. Tim's shady past did more than just turn Kathy on. It planted an evil little seed in her head. She had a whole husband she couldn't stand. And her new man Tim was capable of murder. I mean, who would lie about something like that? Ooh, there's that thunder again. Y'all really can't hear it.

Ominous. Sean had a life insurance policy worth around $500,000. Kathy suggested that he increased the limit to $750,000 and then again to $1 million. That was quite a bit of scratch, enough for a widow to start a new life. Tim was on board, and he and Kathy started to plan the murder of Sean Cousins and Ernest. Kathy, perhaps inspired by Tim's tales of Daring Doe, told Tim that she used to work for a mob-owned strip club in Chicago and had reached out to her old boss to see if he knew any hitman for hire, but hadn't heard back. Tim said he might know a guy in Chicago as well, a former Yugoslavian soldier who had also served in Israel.

Tim decided to hit the guy up to see if he'd helped them in exchange for half of the million dollar payout. And guess who his guy in Chicago was? was campers. It was, of course, Dan. Again, his wife's ex-husband Dan. Just, what is up with this guy and Dan? Like, is it a bromance? Does Tim want to smooch Dan right on the mouth? What is happening? Like, is it true love? I wonder. He's obsessed. He's obsessed with Dan. It's just getting weird for me at this point. Yeah, and I want to point something out here that this allegedly highly trained mercenary slash assassin slash badass, asked his wife's ex-husband to help him commit a murder via email. In writing, via email. He said via email twice. Because it's just so unbelievably

fucking stupid, Whitney. It really is. I mean, I've, okay, I've never been a mercenary, granted. But I'm pretty sure day one, lesson one, they probably cover stuff like don't rope your wife's ex-husband in on a hit, especially from your AOL account. Just saying, okay? But anyway, because Dan has half a brain in his head, he said, yeah, thanks for asking, but I'm going to say no, and just ended the conversation there. But he didn't tell anybody either.

Didn't call the cops, didn't try to warn Sean Cousins, didn't do shit with these incredibly incriminating emails. What the hell, Dan? In the meantime, Kathy gave Tim $1,500 to buy a gun, and he came back with a 45 pistol. Meanwhile, Meanwhile, Kathy's behavior towards Sean got more and more violent. She constantly escalated.

fights and got physical, too. There were multiple instances reported by both Sean's mom and his ex-wife of Sean showing up at their houses with scratches and visible bruises. His mom encouraged him to leave, but Sean didn't want to give up on his marriage. Now, one thing we know about male victims of domestic violence at the hands of women is that they'll often brush off the physical abuse because their female abusers are smaller than they are, or because society just tells them to man up. but look there's never any reason for somebody to physically abuse you ever so if that's happening to you it's not okay and whatever your gender and theirs we hope you're going to reach out for some help now tim's family also noticed his erratic behavior getting worse he was angry and snappy all the time

his daughter loren felt like he was seconds away from exploding at any moment which is a rough way to live to have to walk on eggshells around your dad like that before he met kathy tim was his daughter's best friend. Lauren talks fondly about her dad, driving her around and eating luncheables with her in the car, and now suddenly this little girl was responsible for managing her father's emotions. She worked hard to make sure he never had a chance to snap at her. One evening, while the coils were at home, Kathy called Tim's phone. Repeatedly, and Debbie was furious. This woman was a bottomless pit of need, and Debbie was officially over it. Kathy had her own husband to pester. She needed to leave Debbie's alone. So Debbie grabbed the phone and Tim lost his flip in mind. They struggled over the phone

for a few seconds and then Tim just hauled off and punched Debbie in the face. Everybody was stunned. He'd never done anything like that before. In the next morning, little Lauren, who had heard her parents arguing the night before, saw her mama's black eye and was filled with a rage that no child should ever have to feel. She knew exactly what had happened, but she was powerless. She was just a little girl. Of course, Tim almost immediately loved Bonn to the family to make up for his little mistake. And the situation got worse, of course, when Sean came home one day to find Tim in his house, again. Now, sources differ on what exactly Tim and Kathy were doing, but I think we can assume that they weren't playing parcheese. Yeah, unless it was like strip parcheasy, which doesn't really

sound that fun. No, not at all. Sean was furious, of course, and he confronted Kathy, and big strong man Tim jumped in and started pushing Sean around. Kathy, perhaps sensing an opportunity for a self-defense plea, grabbed the pistol and handed it to Tim. Just go ahead and shoot him, she said. But for some reason, highly trained mercenary Tim couldn't do it. Yes, because like so many ridiculous twat baskets before him, so many of whom we've covered on our show,

he was just lying about all that because, of course, he was. Yeah, he wasn't a certified American badass at all. He was just a guy that really wanted to bump uglies with his hot neighbor. He made a website just to impress her. Mercenary for hire. It's the most unhinged simp behavior I've ever seen. Anyway, so an infuriated Kathy called 911 while her lover held a gun to honor her husband. And what followed is probably one of the weirdest 911 calls I've ever heard.

The dispatcher kept trying to gather as much information as she could. could. When she asked, who has the gun? Kathy calmly responded, well, it's being passed around. The neighbor's here trying to save my ass. Passed around. What? Answer, answer the fucking question. The dispatcher clarified, did your husband have it out, ma'am? And Kathy said, no, my neighbors got it. The poor dispatcher prompted again, trying to figure out who escalated the situation to the point of drawing a gun. Did anybody have it out at all? She said. And Kathy lost her goddamn mind.

He said, look, stop asking me questions and get here or I'll shoot him myself. Oh, wow. Get here or I'll shoot it myself. Way to stay under the radar, girl. Well played. And the thing is, if you listen to the call, you can hear how collected Kathy is. She wasn't cowering or scared. She's very matter of fact.

And when it becomes clear that the dispatcher isn't. just going along with her story, she freaks out and shows her cards. Yeah, she's just annoyed. She's not at all. Yeah. You can tell she's not scared. She's just irritated. It sounds like she's calling the cops because, like, the Burger King ran out of ketchup.

Yeah. Like, that's what it sounds like. It's ridiculous. So after a few minutes of this, the cop showed up and separated everybody to get their statements. And eventually, they ended up slapping the cuffs on Sean and bringing him in for battery. Aye. But Tim dropped the charges the next day. You can't exactly murder somebody for the life insurance if they're sitting in jail.

Of course, after that bizarre little altercation, Sean wasn't oblivious to his wife's shenanigans anymore. She'd have to turn the charm up to 11 to get him to stay. So the winsome-to-sum had to come up with another plan and fast. They went back to the drawing board, and Tim, one-trick pony that he is, hit up Dan again. You know, I really feel like the real story here, the real human interest piece, in this case, is this Tim Dan romance. Like, what on earth did they talk about, aside from Tim's affair and murder plots, I mean? For sure. And it does not escape me that his lies about his shady past are pretty close to Dan's actual life.

A military career in Yugoslavia followed up by time served in the Israeli special forces. This guy actually was a badass. Yeah, so, you know, did Tim feel inferior to his wife's ex? Did he make up this ridiculous Jason born action movie history to just kind of soothe his wounded ego? Who knows? Either way, it's lame as fuck. The born stupidity, that'd be Tim's movie. So anyway, once again, in an email,

because surely the cops have no way of tracing those, right? Tim told Dan there was a battle. Sean went to jail. The battle will resume here, and I can really use some backup. A battle. Is that what you'd call standing there in Kathy's kitchen with piss running down your leg waiting for the cops to come get Sean a battle yeah i feel like you kind of rewrote that script in your head after it happened babe bless your heart everybody

joined me in a good cringe and then we can all move on so sure was tim of his eternal bond with dan that he bought dan a plane ticket to florida from chicago and attached to the email and on may six tim told kathy the plot was on kathy told sean that she wanted to go on a date and give their marriage another good old college try, so she suggested dinner in a movie. Ugh, such a bitch. So the plan was this. Dan would go to the movie theater and lie in wait near Sean and Kathy's car. During the movie, Kathy would tell Sean she was cold and ask him to go get her jacket from the car, and when he went out there, Dan would be waiting, and that would be it for poor Sean. The plan was all set up, and at around 9 p.m., Sean left the theater to go out to the car, but a few minutes

later, he came back to his seat in the theater, Kathy's jacket in hand. Yeah, you guessed it. Dan told Tim no again. And for some reason, instead of telling Kathy that they needed a new plan, he just let her think it was all good to go. She just must have been super pissed. And the next morning, Kathy left the house, told her mom she needed to go to the beach and reflect on her marriage. Something very lifetime movie about that in there, gives you some insight in how Miss Kathy sees herself. She got back around noon. and immediately picked a fight with Sean. He stormed out of the house and went for a walk,

and he was about three miles away when he called a friend of his to vent, and he asked her to come pick him up. But then a few minutes later, he called the friend back. You don't need to pick me up after all. He said, Kathy's going to come get me. That would be the last time anyone spoke to Sean Cousins. Which brings us back to May 8th, the day Debbie came home to find her husband and Kathy,

pacing around outside the house, acting all sweaty and suspicious. The next day, Kathy reported Sean missing. I don't know why she waited that long, but as we've already established, this woman ain't great at staying under the radar. Three days after that, the police finally brought her in for an interview, which just seems to be a Florida thing. Like, I guess they just assume all missing people are fine until proven otherwise. But I guess it's not that weird when the missing person is an adult. I mean, especially an airline pilot who has easy access to, you know, travel. But whatever, it still seems weird to me that you would wait down.

long to interview somebody. So Kathy was, as usual, calm and cash with the police. She told him she and Sean had gotten into an argument at the movie theater. And when they got home, he just took off. She said when she went to pick him up, he refused to get in the car and told her he was going to a bar to pick up another woman. So Kathy was like, okay, whatever, and drove away. And that was the last time she saw him. For all she knew, he'd run off with some other woman. Now, while Kathy was in the interview room, our boy Tim was keeping it together like a champ, just cool, calm, and collected. By which I mean, he was acting like the most suspicious person in the galaxy. Homeboy kept calling Kathy over and over, telling her she didn't have to cooperate with cops.

You don't have to tell them anything. He called so much that eventually the detective asked Kathy to turn off her cell phone. At one point, he told the sergeant that he was Kathy's boyfriend, which was pretty weird given that they were here about Kathy's missing husband. My God, how in the hell did Kathy think this dweeb was black off? He's got the emotional fortitude of a wet paper towel.

That same day, near Deer Park, Florida, 150 miles from Palm Springs Garden, a landscaper was trimming the grass on the side of the road near Penny Wash Creek when he found what he thought at first was a couch cushion. But as he got closer, he realized with horror that it was actually

a body lying face down in the creek. When investigators arrived, they were struck by how put together the body looked. His clothes were intact and his wallet was in his pocket. When Detective Rubin Santa Cruz ran the deceased's name, a missing person's report for Sean Michael Cousins popped up. How did Sean Cousin's body get from a dirt road in Palm Springs to a rural creek in the middle of nowhere? When the detectives arrived at the cousin's house to inform Kathy of her husband.

husband's death, they noticed that she seemed more nervous and upset. She immediately walked out to the backyard and called Tim. Tim advised her to get a lawyer, which, while good advice, pretty much instantaneously put them both right at the top of the suspect list. Saying she wanted an attorney, Kathy stopped cooperating with the cops. Tim sat down for an interview, though. He had some red hot tea he wanted to spill about airline pilot Sean. There's a rumor that Sean's been smuggling drugs on his international flight, Tim said. Of course, when they chased that little tidbit down, they came up with Bubkiss. There was no indication whatsoever that Sean was anything but above board.

I love when people try to do that. It's just the humest thing in the world. It's like they think that the investigators will go dig into this, find nothing, and still think, well, I mean, I guess we just didn't find it. It's got to be, I mean, we'll just give up the case then. It's got to be that, right? I mean, what the hell? And the other thing they kept insinuating was that Sean took his own life, that, you know, he was depressed, even though literally no one thought he was depressed, aside from his shitty fucking marriage. Yeah, it's like they, you know, surely the investigators aren't going to talk to anybody else, right?

No, don't believe me. It's just so dumb. So dumb. When the police questioned Sean's first wife and his mom, they told them all about how toxic Sean's marriage to Kathy really was. Kathy had told the police about the fighting, but she hadn't told them about the physical abuse. Everybody had witnessed Sean's scratches and bruises. The investigators were even more sure now that they had the right people in their crosshairs. And the police got a break in the case during a canvas of the cousin's neighborhood.

Yeah, one neighbor recalled hearing multiple gunshots from the cousin's house the night that Sean went missing. Time of the gunshots coincided with the Emmy's estimated time of death, which was more than enough for a warrant to search Kathy's house, but to everybody's frustration, there was no physical evidence of any kind of struggle. The search did turn up evidence of Tim and Kathy's affair, though, and that made everybody's antennae twitch. Then, Debbie told police about how a couple days after Sean's death, Tim called her and told her that he'd accidentally spilled pool chemicals in her brand new van and had to rip the carpet out. He was going to take the van to a dealership to get the carpet reinstalled. At the dealership, the mechanic noticed that there were droplets of red liquid on the floorboards of the van.

To them, it looked like blood, so the dealership called the cops, who sent a forensics team and good for them. Damn, good catch. The forensics team collected samples and were able to match the blood found in the vehicle to Sean Cousins. I thought maybe it was a Florida thing that dealerships are so used to seeing blood drops in their cars that they're like, bring the boys of blue in. Like, do it.

Home of Florida man, they're used to that. Plus alligators. I mean, you know, there's just got to be rampant alligator attacks. Totally. But everywhere in Florida. It's just, there's blood spatter on everything. The final nail in the coffin for Tim was our old friend cell phone records. Investigators were able to trace Tim's journey from Palm Beach Springs right to the area where the body was dumped. The detectives were pretty sure that Kathy was in this up to her eyeballs, but so far they couldn't prove it. Unfortunately for her, though, all Tim's little e-mail.

to Dan blew up her spot. The investigators traveled up to Chicago, and Dan was like, finally, I've been waiting for you guys to get here. And he told him all about how Tim asked him to kill Sean, and if he did, Kathy would pay him. Whoops. You know, Dan, you could have told him before the murder,

would have saved a human life and all, for God's sake. I'm so sick of these people. Just so many. There's so many of them. So now it was habeas grabus time for Kathy and Tim on charges of first-degree murder. The cops picked both of them up and placed recording devices in the van in hopes that one of them might say something incriminating. And y'all, it is such a gross conversation.

Like, if you have a weak stomach, you should not listen to it. After some bullshit hand-wringing about how the cops have nothing, we're going to be fine. Tim makes Kathy a promise. He says, if I get out before you, I won't leave until I get you, okay? I promise you. As romantic as that was, it wasn't enough for Kathy. You swear to me? You swear to me? You swear to me on Lauren's life that you won't leave me?

As in his daughter, Lauren. She's asking him to swear on his daughter's life that he won't leave her in prison. And this dipshit said yes. He swore on his daughter's life that he wouldn't abandon his mistress. Don't that just warm your heart? Aw. Even if you're not superstitious, I think that's just a monstrous thing to say. She's asking him to put her over his daughter.

It's just disgusting. It is. He is so disgusting. Now, initially, both Kathy and Tim pled not guilty, but about halfway through the trial, Tim decided to take a deal. In exchange for a lesser charge, he agreed to testify against Kathy. I know. I know. Take a moment. I know we were all rooting for these two crazy kids to make it. Ah, the soldier of misfortune and his mafia princess. I know. It's a tragedy.

On the stand, Tim explained the whole awful story. The night Sean was murdered, Kathy sent him a page with their secret code 666 which nerd alert the mock of the beast Tim knew that that page meant it was time so he ran over to the house and when he got there he found Kathy and Sean in the garage this is so awful y'all Sean had been shot but he was still alive and when he saw Tim he was actually relieved he thought Tim was there to help him he asked for help Sean, desperate and covered in his own blood, begged Kathy not to kill him. And Kathy handed Tim the gun and commanded him to shoot her husband.

Tim, who had finally realized he was in way over his head, refused. This wasn't the plan. So instead, Kathy grabbed the gun, squatted down in front of her terrified, begging husband, and pulled a trigger. Afterwards, Kathy told Tim that if he loved her, he'd help clean up the crime scene. They used kitty litter to soak up the blood and wipe down the garage with bleach. After that, Tim removed the seats from his car and drove up north to dispose of the body. Now, Tim probably had good reason to lie here. He was testifying to save his ass.

But here's the thing. His testimony was verified by none other than Dan. Fucking Dan. Dan is the bad penny in this case. He just pops up everywhere. This case showed up. Dan! He told the jury that Tim called him on the night of the murder all freaked out and told him that Kathy had actually gone through with it.

Dan said he didn't believe him at first, but then Sean turned up missing and then the body was found. That must have been enough corroboration for the jury. Kathy was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years. Tim was convicted of second-degree murder and served 10. They're both out now, and I hope they're staying out of trouble. What the hell with those sentences, by the way? How was that anything but first-degree murder? still don't understand the sentencing, though, whatever.

I don't get that one at all. Yeah. Contrary to what Tim claimed at his trial, his daughter Lauren believes that her dad was actually the puppet master in this case, manipulating Kathy to get rid of her husband. He wanted them money. We can't

say for sure, but it was definitely clear from the start that Tim was interested in Kathy, at least in part because of her money. It makes sense then, why he would big himself up to be some kind of macho protector when he was really just an average Joe. We've said it before, Campers, but if you get too caught up in the fog of fantasy, reality can

sometimes bite. My guess is, reality has bitten hardest for Sean's kids, who we hope have been able to find some peace, and Tim's kids who were victims in this as well. So that was a wild one, right, campers? You know we'll have another one for you next week, but for now, lock your doors, let your lights and stay safe until we get together again around the true crime campfire. And as always, we want to send a grateful shout out to a few of our lovely patrons. Thank you so much to Jerry, Brianna, Marine, Carrie, Jenna, Sharon, and Victoria. We appreciate y'all to the moon and back.

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