True Crime with Kimbyr - Lights, Camera, MURDER! Actress Found Dead in Basement - Part 3

Episode Date: July 11, 2024

In the final part of True Crime with Kimbyr, we recount the tragic demise of Alexandra Ducsay. Her promising journey was cut short by a brutal crime. Discover the details of her untimely death and the dark side of fame that led to this heartbreaking loss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher Richards had actually dated Zondra. They asked Paul if anyone else knew this story and he said he hadn't told a soul. Well, actually, that wasn't true. He had told his girlfriend, Crystal. So the police interviewed her. And she said that her and Paul were no longer together because he was a pathological liar.

And Crystal told him she didn't know anyone named Christopher. And Paul was probably making all of this story up for attention and of course the $50,000. Then police interviewed Linda, Eric, Matthew, and Nicole just to make sure, and they had never heard of anyone named Paul and knew that Zondra had not dated someone named Christopher. Zandra's only partners they reiterated were Matt and Jay. Eric was frustrated. It had been five years at this point, and he told the Connecticut Post that the police hadn't communicated with them as much as they wanted. They would just keep

telling them to be patient and they were trying, but it gets harder and harder as the years go by. I don't blame the family for their anger, and I don't blame the police either. There was only so much information that they could actually release to the public. Only two weeks after Paul's fake confession on September 27th, a man named Jeremy Schaffner came forward. Jeremy was a bus driver from Bridgeport, who was church friends with Zondra. He said in April before she was murdered, Zondra invited him to hang out and discuss some songwriting.

She picked him up in her Mitsubishi and they drove Stunken Donuts in the parking lot. That's when her phone dinged and she'd received a scary text message from a guy named Donovan. According to Jeremy, this text said that if Zondra didn't pay back money that she owed him, he would kill her. As they got to talking in Jeremy's story, he tells them, Donovan Campbell was described by Zondra as a Jamaican gang member who lived out in New York. He was some kind of loan shark and she had borrowed $8,000 to pay for her car and she still owed him $6,000. Despite Donovan's threat to take Zondra's life, she seemed unbothered by it. Her and Jeremy just went back to their conversation and that was that.

And he made sure to say that he knew Zondra kept these parts of her life very private. Well, with this new lead, police looked into this Donovan Campbell out in New York, but there was no record of him. They also looked at Zondra's bank records, and guess what? This woman had her life together. She worked at a bank, let's not forget, she never would take a loan from a random guy. She didn't have to do that. In October of 2002, Zondra paid Thomas Pugh, who's Matt's father, $2,000 to buy Matt's Nissan. Just like Matt had said, he sold her the car and in March of 2004, she bought the white Mitsubishi for $12,000. The title was in her name. She paid off the entire car. And she had a total savings in her account of $37,000 at the time of her death. This was her

hard-earned money. It hadn't been a gift from Matt, like Anthony said, and Zondra wasn't wrapped up in some dangerous activities with loan sharks. All lies. So once again, they reached a dead end. It just seemed like people wanted to collect this reward. But after six long years, a glimmer of hope emerged in August of 2012. Detectives received a valuable tip from a person they had spoken to once before. It was none other than Anthony Pugh, Matt's cousin. You know how they say the third time's a charm? Well, Anthony said he was tired of being harassed by the police. He had just gone out of prison and he was ready to finally come clean. He said he knew something about Zondra's murder, but he didn't come forward sooner because he didn't want to rat anyone out.

But after seeking guidance from his wife and his pastor, he realized he needed to do the right thing and share what he knew. He began by explaining that back in 1993, Matt made Anthony part of his drug dealing business and Anthony respected his cousin. Even though selling narcotics was dangerous and both of them went to jail, he still trusted him. Finally, in 2005 to 2006, they were both free, they were out of prison, they were out of jail, and they landed jobs at chrome alloy, and they loved it. He said they worked together seven days a week, and they would even clock each other in to get more money. They love luxury things, gold chains, nice cars, expensive shoes, and making money. That was the lifestyle for both of them. But then they had a falling out. There was a police raid in New Haven,

and Anthony was rested again. And this time, Anthony blamed Matt for leading him into this lifestyle and getting him arrested. Anthony wanted revenge, and this was his chance. He said that back when Matt was still doing his time and he was still dating Zondra, things started to get really nasty between them on Matt's part. Remember I mentioned that they used to exchange letters? Well, the letters stopped coming as frequently,

and Matt suspected that Zondra had moved on, and ultimately it was true, and Matt wasn't happy. Well, according to Anthony, who was already told other stories, but in 2005, he said, after Matt's release, he resented Zondra for breaking up with him, and frankly, he became obsessed with her. He said he would go there to Linda's house at least once a week and sit outside in his car watching Zondra, trying to figure out her day-to-day routine and who the people in her inner circle were. Matt told Anthony he planned to kill Zondra.

And not only did he have a plan, he said he had what he called a foolproof plan, one that would never get him caught. He told Anthony he was going to inject her with drugs and make her death look like an overdose. Even more specifically, Matt planned to use items he got from chrome alloy. So he stole things like paper smocks, paper booties, and gloves. And he stole two of everything so that he could layer up wearing them when he committed this crime. So he would prevent his DNA from getting on the crime scene.

Matt said that he would shave his entire body all of his hair off the day before, including his head, so there would be no evidence left behind. And the police would never find him. But he stole something else. Black permacel tape. Yep. Everything was adding up, especially of the tape. But recall the bloody footprint.

Well, it didn't have a distinctive soul. And it wouldn't if, like Anthony claimed, Matt covered it with a paper booty. The lack of fingerprints could, of course, come from him wearing gloves. But what if Anthony committed the crime to get back a mat and pin it on him? It definitely crossed the detective's minds. Anthony had a motive. And when police asked him why he was ratting out his cousin now, Anthony said, plain and simple, he wanted that $50,000.

But we've seen this before with the inmates and the bus driver. So was this even true? This information from Anthony was not enough to arrest. Matt. But apparently it was enough probable cause to search Matt's phone records for the day of Zondra's murder. And I was thinking, wouldn't they have done that already? Did they really not have enough probable cause? Did they even need it? I always thought that they could see those records and pull them no matter what. So I was a little surprised it took that long, but this was a long time ago. Well, as he traveled around the city that day, his phone pinged to a bunch of

sprint towers every time he made an outgoing call or received an incoming message. So at 647 and 6. 48, he was in Windsor, Connecticut at Chrome Alloy. At 9.04 p.m., he's in Rocky Hill, heading back home. At 9.15 a.m., he's in Wallingford, very close to his hamdened home. Then there's a long period of silence. But then, at 1147 a.m., Matt is in Milford. What? He's lying. He said that he wasn't in Milford at any time in that day. But at 1149, he's in Stratford. At 12.07, guess where he is again? back in Milford. And at 109 p.m., he's still there. Then at 2.18, he's at the Heskest station near Hamden, and at 219, he's back in Wallingford. He was in Milford twice. And one of those times, he was there for over an hour. At the exact time that Zondra was home between 1207 and 109,

which matches up what Jay had initially reported that an ex-boyfriend came around to Zondra's house that afternoon. That's telling. But let me be. make it more specific. At 1207, he left a voicemail for his wife, Cherise. At 109, she was calling him back, but he didn't pick up and she left a 19 second voicemail. Matt did not check his phone until 218, which means he was preoccupied with something between 1210 and 218. There weren't many car dealerships in Milford and he hadn't been at the Heskastas station at noon. So where was he? The phone records show that Matt had not called Zondra any time on May 19th. But back on May 16th, he called her five separate times in 25 minutes.

That can be seen as excessive. Six hours later at 7.50, Zondra called and left Matt a voicemail. On the 18th, the day before the murder, this man called her four times between 321 and 324. And four hours later, Zondra finally called him back. They had a four-minute conversation. Matt had claimed in his initial statement that he called her, two days before the murder, but actually he had been calling her the day before. What did they talk about?

And these records show that on the 16th, when Zondra was currently on the phone with her new boyfriend Jay, she ended that conversation to talk to her ex-boyfriend. The one that shouldn't have been anywhere near her house on the day of the murder, but was. What were the odds that Matt would show up at 1220 hoping to catch her off guard? The odds are pretty high, especially if it's true that he was watching her movements day in and day out. On August 24th of 2012, six years after Zondra was brutally murdered, her ex-boyfriend Matthew Pugh was arrested for a first-degree murder and first-degree burglary. But he was already in jail. He had been at the Gardner Correctional Facility since July 15, 2010, for yet another case.

Because back in August of 2008, 2008, two years after Zondra's murder, a woman named Tatiana Gregorchenko was walking down Andrews Street in New Haven when she was attacked. It was 8 p.m. and it was still light outside. And this man that attacked her was described as around 5-11, 25 years old, black male with a medium complexion wearing cornrows. He stole her bag at gunpoint. And when Tatiana tried to rip the bag from his grasp, you know what he did? He shot her. He shot her right in the hand, with his pistol. This was a residential street. The shot rang out and he ran in the other direction with her bag, thinking that no one had noticed him but people did notice. A woman across the street

named Stephanie thought that she heard fireworks and a scream and when she looked outside, that's when she saw the robber. She said he was wearing black, loose-fitting clothes and a black hat. He had broad shoulders and a muscular build, but she couldn't see his face. Another woman named Christine Mingo was in the passenger seat of a car and she said she saw a black blackmail running, carrying a bag like a football, and wearing baggy clothes with a medium complexion and he was wearing a do-rag. The police had struggled to find the perpetrator. There were so many conflicting descriptions and I-Witness testimony is very inconsistent and not always reliable. Tatiana's credit card was used at a supermarket and declined at Burlington Co-Factory, so

police went and checked out the surveillance camera and they found a woman using the card with three other people. The woman's name was Letchisha Black, and she was brought in for questioning. She said she, Joanne, and Joanne's two friends were driving around all day. It was her first time meeting the driver, and his name was Matt. Police identified this man as Matthew Pew from the surveillance footage. That week, the New Haven Police Department dismantled their robbery division. The officers got laid off, and this file was put in a drawer, and it wasn't touched for two whole years. When someone finally found the file, they put out a warrant for Matt's arrest and they arrested him in his new job working for Connecticut distributors. Now Matt had charges of robbery, first-degree murder, assault

in the first-degree, and carrying a pistol without a permit on top of his murder and burglary charges. The state of Connecticut says that you can't arrest someone for burglary five years after it occurred, so the charge should not have happened. The police had no way to prove that Zondri didn't let him inside the home, but murder was enough. And Matt's bail was set at $2 million. Matt pleaded not guilty. He said Linda just didn't like him, so he would never go visit Zondra outside of her house. Plus, he already stated in his initial interview

that he wouldn't have risked his marriage, so he wouldn't have been anywhere around Zondra's place. But soon, all of Matt's secrets would be revealed. Let me tell you what investigators dug up. Matt was born on June 19th of 1972 and moved out of his parents' house when he was just 14. Other than his drug dealing career, he held various jobs.

He did forklift operations, he was a shoe salesman, a limo driver, and a fish mart merchant. In 1996, 23-year-old Matt went into Army Navy clothing store, and he said he saw the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. He was dating three other ladies at the time, but he had to have this one. That was Zondra. Matt claims that Zondra told him she was 20, but she was actually only 16. And where I live here in California, 16-year-old dating a 23-year-old is a felony. But the age of consent in Connecticut is 16.

Linda felt like Matt had taken advantage of her daughter, but at the time, Zondra was smitten. She thought he was such a sweetheart, and Matt said Zondra knew that he had other girlfriends. But can we believe anything this man says? When Zondra invited Matt to her junior prom, he completely stood her up, and Zondra was devastated. Linda said, this was the first sign of this man's manipulation.

Unfortunately, Zondra wouldn't reveal too much to other people, about her relationship. And Linda had only met Matt one time. Zonda really liked the idea of things being mysterious, having this secret romance, and she thought Matt was handsome and cool and he would protect her. But sadly, so many of us have seen this scenario play out

over and over again, where a man will prey on a younger woman. And while the age gaps are fine when you're older, your brain is still developing when you're younger. And it's so easy to be blinded by infatuation. Matt had several children with other women. He had a criminal history. And when Zondra started college, he went to jail.

Zondra kept in touch with him, and they would do collect calls every single day. And Matt hung up all of her pictures and his letters on his wall in his cell. He told everyone about her, and he became completely obsessed. But if you would recall, Zondra wanted some space. She didn't see this relationship continuing much longer. She was actually becoming scared of Matt. He just kept calling her and just kept calling her

and calling her and he wouldn't take no for an answer. Sondra started to realize that this relationship was toxic and she needed to focus entirely on herself and her career. Linda called Matt's time in prison a godsend. Without Matt's presence, Zondra's career was finally coming together. She was getting acting and dancing gigs. She graduated from college with honors. And in 2004, Zondra wrote Matt a letter saying that she wanted to break up. It was then that all the mean letters really began. One time, Matt sent Zondra an eight-page letter full of threats. All kinds of threats. He would say, just wait until I get out.

If you don't come up here and straighten shit out between us, I'm not going anywhere and neither are you. Maybe you need your ass kicked because I can really make you look ugly for life. He went on to tell her, I told you that I can get vicious and ruthless when I need to, and all your space and ignorance is making things worse for me. I'm sick of your space games.

and wanting things your way. This is not funny anymore. So if you don't start making time for me and making this bid comfortable for me until I get out, you're going to regret that you ever met me. He also said, if you want to see some drama, then you're effing with the right man because frankly, I don't give an F anymore. Because basically, you don't anymore. So if you can't get your ass up here and see me, well, I will make your life a miserable living hell. Those are quite some really nasty things. Matt also said that Zondra would never be able to hide. that he knew her social security number, and he would send risque photos of her to the bank,

to her mom and dad and brothers. Zondra knew if her private photos were put on the internet, it may be hard for her to achieve her acting dreams. The media is cruel like that sometimes, and Matt wanted to ruin her reputation, and threatened not only Zondra, but her family as well. And this wasn't the only time you'd done this. Matt had a history of calling Zondra his property,

and assuming he had power over her, He threatened to erase her face. Wow. Zondra was terrified. These letters were deeply concerning. Recognizing the severity of this situation, Zondra took steps to ensure her well-being and her safety. So with her mother's help, they decided to report the letters of the Department of Corrections. She decided to write her own letter to the corrections facility on January 23rd, 2004. She said she was scared for her life. And if Mack got out, her and her family would be in danger. The department actually took this matter very seriously and launched an entire investigation into the situation. Not only did they prohibit Matt from sending

Zondra letters, but apparently this incident affected his original release date. He had to serve additional time. They extended Matt's sentence a couple months longer and told Zondra they disciplined him. But this only made Matt more upset. When he was released in August of that year, apparently he had cooled down on his threats because nothing ever happened. He met Charisse, they moved in together, they got married, and soon she was pregnant with their baby chastity. But Matt and Zondra still talked. They talked on the phone and they even met up. But there was more to it. Zondra told Nicole in April she was scared of coming home at night because Matt might be hiding in her bushes. Zondra reported multiple domestic offenses before her murder, but she never got a restraining.

straining order. She didn't think Matt was seriously going to hurt her. Yet in the end, he did what he said he was going to do. He erased her face. I tried to do my best to give some kind of message in these videos and what I could think of by reading the story and understanding everything that was happening. If you're with someone or someone is threatening to harm you and you don't think you're safe, please reach out to someone. Matt went to trial three years later in February of 2015 and it took so long because he cycled through several defense attorneys, and then he finally settled on Paul Cartney. In the opening statements, the prosecutor said, this was a brutal crime of passion. Matt was clearly the culprit, but his defense attorney claimed that Zondra was getting threats from a man named

Donovan, an entirely different person. Linda was the first person on the stand. She described Zondra and Matt's relationship. When Matt was calling every day from jail, Zondra was tired of it, and she wanted to move on. Linda intercepted a call and told Matt to stop calling and give her daughter some space. You know what he said back? You should really be careful about what you say and do. And Linda said, is that a threat? And Matt said, she could interpret it however she wanted. Linda suddenly realized a chokehold that he had over her daughter's life. She knew Zondra. She knew that Zondra liked to help people and Zondra cared about Matt and felt sorry for him, but his cruelty made it impossible to cut him off. brother Eric also came forward. He said he took a call from Matt and encouraged him to move on.

When he did this, Matt became aggressive and said he'd come see Eric as soon as he got out of jail. But it was an empty threat. Eric also said he had a conversation with Zondra in April and she said, I'm scared of what Matt might do. What was very interesting was a testimony from Matt's stepdaughter, Tramara. She testified that he didn't come home on the morning of the 19th. She'd woken up at 10 and the house was completely empty. So he was in a testimony. So he was working out. She said, if he were, she would have heard the sound of the dumbbells and his music since the gym was only 20 feet from her bedroom. At 11 a.m., she left the house to get breakfast at a nearby diner. And she didn't see Matt's car in the driveway. Matt wasn't home. So what was he

doing at that time? Jay also testified about everything we know that happened that day between him and Zondra, how they talked on the phone, how someone came to her door that she referred to as her ex-boyfriend. And it would make sense that it was Matt at her door. His phone records show that there was no call between them on the 19th. Matt wasn't supposed to come to her house because Linda didn't like when he dropped by. On February 17th, Matt's cousin Anthony testified that Matt had been plotting to kill Zondra for months. Matt had even told Anthony that Zondra had a big dog, but a dog he could handle. A big dog, but a sweetheart. And there was no way that Anthony would have known about Zina without talking to Matt. There were other witnesses, there were DNA witnesses on both sides, the defense and the prosecution.

But Matt finally testified on his own behalf. And that's where things went very wrong for him. Because his already shaky story got even shakier. He said that he left work that morning to check on his stepdaughter and to hang out with one of his girlfriends. So now he's saying he was cheating on the wife. The same wife that he was saying was the reason he wouldn't have been at Zondras because he didn't want to risk his marriage. He said after he left work, he stopped at the Hess gas station before checking in a stepdaughter. But wait a minute. He stopped there at 915. That doesn't match up with the evidence.

The prosecution pointed out he had stopped at Hess at Hesse at 2 o'clock. But Matt said, no, I went out in the morning and the afternoon to get gas. But he wasn't caught on camera in the morning. And why would anyone have to fill up on gas twice in the same day? This time he also admitted he had gone to Milford. Another thing he said that he didn't do. He said he went to five different car dealerships all over, and one of them was in Milford. Then he said he went to a Kmart Plaza and Bridgeport Avenue to stop at a Radio Shack, and I'm going to show you this on the map. It's in Milford, but it's not far from Zondra's home. Well, of course, he was asked why he never admitted to being in Milford to begin with, and he blamed it on the detective, saying that Detective Yude was using aggressive interview tactics, and he was

scared he was going to get beaten up in the interrogation room. There was something else that they wanted to know about. The electrical tape in his home. He said he got it from work to fix a car bumper after a wreck. The 12-person jury had a lot of deliberating to do, and it was a very hard job to decide on a verdict with all the limited information available. Everyone's testimony had holes in it one way or another. When they were deliberating, they actually asked Judge Denise Markle to hear Jay and Matt's testimonies again, and she agreed. Jay's story remained the same, but Matt has changed, and he ultimately dug his own grave. And you know why that was? Because in his testimony at trial, he finally admitted that he went to Zondra's house. He said at 1220, he knocked on her door and they had a short

conversation. He said he was a little angry, but they resolved their disagreement. And he didn't kill her. If a person changes their story five times, there's probably something they're trying to hide. On March 2, 2015, after three days, the jury convicted Matthew Pugh of murder and burglary, and he was sentenced to 60 years for murder. That's the maximum sentence in Connecticut and 20 years for burglary. Throughout this entire trial, Matt barely paid attention. He was reading a self-help book. And Zondra's dad was furious. He knew Matt didn't care about his daughter. He knew Matt didn't care about his daughter. And in his statement, he called Matt a despicable little person who had to have his five minutes of revenge. Not only did Matt try to take away Zondra's face, her beauty, and her power,

he killed her in a place where he knew Linda would find her in order to emotionally destroy the entire family. Zondra's father went on to say that if the death penalty were legal, he would personally want to administer the injection. Of course, Matt tried to appeal his sentence, but his appeals were dismissed. There was something else I thought was interesting that came out at trial. On May 19th, the day that Zondra was murdered, Matt was on the Milford-Stratford line at 1147 a.m. near Zondra's gym. And a few minutes later, when Zondra left the gym, Matt was in Stratford. At 12.7 p.m., he was heading to Milford, driving in the same direction as Zondras. And at 109, he was in Milford. He was following her every movement, trying to get her alone. This is what the prosecutor

believes happened the day that Dondra was killed. Matt shaved his head that morning. He took the day off from work. He didn't go home to check on a stepdaughter. He planned to kill Zondra that day. Matt knocked on her door and at this point they had a conversation. I assume he went back to his car and prepared for the murder. And at 1245 he jumped her at her front door. The gate was open and Zena ran outside. Matt dragged Zonda down to the basement wearing two pairs of paper scrub suits and after he killed her, he cleaned up all the evidence. At 2 p.m. he dropped the evidence at a Hess gas station. In the end, all the evidence points to Matt. He had the motive, the means, and the opportunity. Sondra was a rising star. She was a beloved daughter, sister, and friend. She should not be

remembered by what this evil monster did to her, but for her radiant personality and her genuine warmth, she was a blessing to anyone who had the privilege of knowing her. I will see you in my next video. Bye.