Witnessed: Devil in the Ditch - Fatal Fantasy | 6. Monster

Episode Date: April 6, 2026

As each of the participants in the Underworld’s deadly game heads into the courtroom to face justice, the fate of the mastermind behind it all is revealed. Binge all episodes of Fatal Fantasy ad-free today by subscribing to The Binge. Visit The Binge on Apple Podcasts and hit ‘subscribe’ or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access. From serial killer nurses to psychic scammers – The Binge is your home for true crime stories that pull you in and never let go. Join our free newsletter at Patreon.com/TheBinge. The Binge – feed your true crime obsession. Fatal Fantasy is brought to you by Sony Music Entertainment and M. Williams Phelps LLC. Find out more about The Binge and other podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, binge crew. When you're finished listening to this true crime story, go see Hunting Matthew Nichols in theaters. This film has all the elements of the true crime stories we love, a sprawling mystery, intrepid investigators, powerful people who know more than they let on. Two decades after her brother mysteriously disappeared on Vancouver Island, a documentary filmmaker sets out to solve his missing person's case. But when a disturbing piece of evidence is revealed, she comes to believe her brother might still be alive. The film is in select theaters now, but you can immerse yourself in the story

by going to hunting matthewnichols.com right now. That's hunting matthewonichols.com. And welcome to The Hunt. Listen to all episodes of fatal fantasy, ad free right now by subscribing to The Binge. Visit The Binge channel on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe. Subscribe at the top of the page or visit getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen.

The binge. Feed your true crime obsession. The binge. Kyle Yulbert just murdered a man and is now walking up the Schwartz driveway away from the house approaching Mike and Katie who are working on getting the car out of the mud. After realizing they need a tow truck, Kyle says he's going to a neighbor's house to use the phone. He takes off his trench coat and places it along with the bloody sword in the backseat of the vehicle. Later, Katie said she saw blood on both and decided to place them in the trunk of the car in case anyone came by. Again, an indication that she knew what Kyle had done. I wondered how Kyle handled that moment of knocking on the neighbor's door.

After all, just moments before, he had slashed a man to death over 30 times in the most violent way imaginable. I wondered how he switched gears so fast from vicious killer to a kid in need of help. Remember, they gave me phage tea. They gave you what? Sage tea. It was actually, it was good, it was good quality stuff too. It wasn't that cheap crap you get at a supermarket. This was good tea. I remember thinking, like I was sitting in a drink because it was kind of rainy out and, you know, misty and miserable. Apparently I was very pleasant, cordial, and very polite. I was a perfect gentleman according to them. And you never known that I just killed a man. You're not thinking, holy shit, I left forensic evidence over there. I left hairs. I left DNA. You're not thinking any of that. My brain's not moving past. This is very good tea.

This conversation seems completely surreal to me. But let's face it, Kyle wasn't living in reality back then. Dr. Schwartz was murdered in early December 2001. Within days, police had arrested Mike Foal, Katie Inglis, and then Kyle Ullbert, and became aware of Clara Schwartz's involvement a few days after that. But it took until February 2002, a full three months later, before Loudoun County issued a warrant for Clara's arrest in connection with the murder of her father. Mainly due to the fact that we had to have the computer forensic analysis, obtained the IM messages to the different individuals, research the journal entries, tie those together to Kyle Holbert.

and we wanted to make sure that we had all the eyes dotted and T's cross. By then, they had a great deal of evidence against Clara and Kyle, along with statements from accomplices Mike and Katie. Cops knew the couple had driven Kyle to the murder location, but were not yet sure that they knew he planned to take a life. Detectives were convinced of one thing, however, that Clara and Kyle had conceived and careful, carried out this malicious crime together.

When Greg Locke asked Clara during one interview about the alleged sexual abuse by her father, she said he had once slapped her on the butt. Locke was stunned. He asked again if there was any sexual abuse whatsoever. No, Clara admitted, without hesitating. Was Clara now saying that she'd lied to Kyle to get him to murder her father? Locke certainly thought so.

Kyle had told her about the abuse in his past, so she might have thought that her accusations against her father would send him into a blind rage. Going to trial, the biggest question mark probably would have been Clara because more of her evidence was circumstantial and more of the evidence, specifically Kyle was direct. We had the sword. We had the DNA evidence. We had the testimony from Michael and Katie. So definitely Clara was the more challenging.

The prosecution was aware that the greatest challenge lay in proving Clara had planned to kill her father, first through her underworld game and then by coercing Kyle to act it out in real life. She had used the same M.O. on Patrick House, her former boyfriend, but he saw through it and disengaged. With that said, I was not overly concerned that there would not be a conviction in this case. You certainly can never guess what a jury will do. But with that, we believed that we had a good case, a solid case, and that Claire would be convicted. One of the biggest questions in play, as they were. case headed into the courtroom was, how much control did Clara have over Kyle Yulbert?

Would he continue to protect her even though it looked like he had become the state's major witness against her? Or would he realize Clara had manipulated him all along just to collect an inheritance? My name is M. William Phelps. I'm an investigative journalist in the New York Times best-selling author of dozens of true crime books. From Sony Music Entertainment and M. William Phelps, LLC, you are listening to Fatal Fantasy. Episode 6. Monster. I sold my car in Carvana last night.

Well, that's cool. No, you don't understand. It went perfectly. Real offer, down to the penny. They're picking it up tomorrow. Nothing went wrong. So what's the problem? That is the problem.

my life goes a smoothie. I'm waiting for the catch. Maybe there's no catch. That's exactly what a catch would want me to think. Wow, you need to relax. I need to knock on wood. Do we have wood? Is this tablewood? I think it's laminated. Okay, yeah, that's good. That's close enough. Car selling without a catch. So your car today on...

Carvana. Pick up fees may apply. I don't know about you, but I like keeping my money where I can see it. Unfortunately, traditional big wireless carriers seem to like keeping my money too. For years, I was paying these ridiculous wireless bills. Mysterious fees. Free perks. that somehow cost more. So eventually, I did what any reasonable person would do when something shady

is going on. I investigated. And that investigation led me to Mint Mobile. Mint Mobile has premium wireless plans starting at just $15 a month. All plans come with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text on the nation's largest 5G network. And here's the part that felt almost suspiciously easy. You bring your own phone, you keep your number, activate with ESM in minutes, and start saving right away. No long-term contracts, no weird hoops to jump through. It's overpriced wireless and get three months premium wireless service from MintMobile for $15 a month. Turns out the only thing unlimited about my old plan is how much money they were taking out of my bank account. If you like your money, MintMobile is for you.

Shop plans at mintmobile.com slash crimes. That's mintmobile.com slash crimes. Upfront payment of $45 for a three-month, five-kigabyte plan required, equivalent to $15 a month. New customer offer for the first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. The evidence against Kyle Uber, Mike Foley, and Katie Inglis,

was by far the strongest. So the first case headed to trial was Clara Schwartz. Loudoun County prosecutors were determined to get a conviction, thus paving the way to get the others more smoothly. courtroom proceedings began less than a year after the murder of Dr. Schwartz. As expected, Clara's defense plan to shirk the blame and put it on Kyle and his errant ways. They argued that Kyle took it upon himself to kill Schwartz because he could not differentiate between the real world and this fantasy Clara had created. The entire room waited for Kyle's appearance.

What would the actual killer have to say? Would he cast blame on Clara or protect her? What did it feel like when you walked into the courtroom to testify against the person who arguably manipulated you? I was confronted. I wanted to say something, but my notoriously. told me that if I said anything other than pleading the fifth, it would open up all kinds of things that, you know, basically he painted a doomsday scenario for me. And, you know, it's like, either you do this or, you know, you're fucked. How much more fucked could you be?

I had, you know, at the time, thought that, you know, we were going to go with some sort of insanity defense because of my mental health. And that wouldn't get taken away from any kind of ability to get help. And did the prosecution know you were going to do that? He did seem like. Kyle did not end up testifying against Clara. He pleaded the fifth and walked out. Detective Locke explains what happened next.

Clara attempted to plead ignorance in the regard that she didn't believe that Kyle would really do this, but based on information provided by Katie Inglis and circumstances. substantial evidence, along with the information from Patrick House, it became apparent that she not only knew Kyle Holbert was going to do this, but she was the precipitating factor. The prosecution focused on Clara's manipulation of Kyle and how she had quickly established several ways she could get him to act out her sick, twisted fantasies and deadly desires. journalist Heather Greenfield covered the trial for the Associated Press. Do you think she recognized the mental illness that he suffered from and maybe she thought she could manipulate that situation? Various points in the trial that she recognized he had a mental illness

and thought, oh, even better than my boyfriend doing this because Kyle could get off on a mental health claim because she thought, well, if he gets caught, he could get away with her. or at least that was what was presented at the trial. Clara's court appearances were marked by her cool, detached manner, which did not do her any favors with the jury. I was on the witness stand for a day and a half. Clara was very emotionless and showed very little and facially

during the course of the trial. As expected, Clara's lawyers went after Kyle. What did her defense use in order to show that She played no part in this. What tactic? What defense did they put on? Oh, they tried to put it more on Kyle and say that she was just playing a game and he misunderstood and took this as real life. And she was not really asking them to kill her father that he must have just misunderstood.

But prosecutors weren't having it. They really put that without this, we would have had a young man that gravitated towards vampires and an underworld, but he wouldn't have had a reason to do this. He wouldn't have had a reason to go to this man's house if it weren't for her. Clara's lawyers also brought up her accusations against her father, something not appreciated by Dr. Schwartz's family. His other children and his brother were in the courtroom. One especially painful moment was when the absolute idiotic notion that he was trying to murder his own daughter came up,

something they and most everyone else found specifically galling and ridiculous. You really don't know where that came from. I think even her own friends questioned her. of tales of abuse. They said they had never seen bruising. They had never seen any other kinds of abuse, and neither had her siblings or other relatives. Clara told various stories of physical and sexual abuse to different people, but one of the most shocking aspects of the trial was the online facet of Clara's inventing a game with ties to the occult that would virtually imagine her own father's death.

The press aided up. Some reporters wrote that fantasy gaming was a bad influence on America's young people. At this point, a few homicides in other states had had connections to gaming. The Leesburg community was shocked by this aspect of the murder and partly blamed gaming itself for Dr. Schwartz's death. Others in Leesburg felt gaming itself wasn't the problem. it's only dangerous when used by a master manipulator. I think that was part of why it got so much attention. For me, though, as a reporter,

I'm always skeptical of a simple solution. More recently, it's been violent video games, these live role-playing games, now social media. What's behind all of these, though, at the end of the day, is people, and it's how you use these tools. Clara had been close to her mother whose death devastated her, but she had little in common with her father. He was a no-nonsense disciplinarian who expected her to excel in school.

He didn't seem like a comfort to her at such a challenging moment. Clara was lonely and grieving for the mother who had understood her. Look, her death was no excuse for plotting to kill her father. But once Clara was alone in that farmhouse with her father and no buffer, something changed in her. She became set on a much darker path. Joan had lung cancer and she had died five years before the murder. So at least according to testimony from her siblings, Clara was the one who had found her mom when she died.

One revelation that came out in court was that after Clara discovered her mother's body that morning, she packed her lunch and book bag and went to school as if it were any other day. And then she called her father to let him know Joan was dead. She might have been in shock, but her behavior seemed awfully cold and detached. Over the next few years, Clara grew to resent her father to the point of observes. session. So much so, she spent hours with their friends imagining the death of the old guy in her fantasy game. Still, why the hell did Clara's plot become a reality? Forensic psychologist Dr. Catherine Ramsland told me there can be a cocktail of psychological reasons behind how

Clara reached a tipping point and decided to plan her own father's murder. And yet, within it all, her motivations were as old as time itself. I think she wanted freedom, and she also knew that he was worth a lot of money. He had assets that she would get one-third of in her mind. And for some reason, she was driven by financial gain and also to be able to get out from under this, the observation of a person who she thought wasn't worthy of trying to, to help her direct her life. So this is about childhood alienation

from a parent that she just doesn't get along with. Clara had often complained that her father had put undue pressures on every aspect of her life, including her future. But her sister and brother disagreed that their father was overly strict and argued that it was Clara

who acted like a spoiled child. Her siblings thought she was being unreasonable. Greg Locke had a different, time grasping as most of us do, how murder became an option. It is very hard for me to understand what could be going through a 20-year-old's mind that they felt that their life was so bad or so impacted by another individual, especially a mother or father, that they would have them killed. Mental health issues do not excuse anyone from knowing the difference between right and wrong.

But Clara's state of mind affected even Detective Locke's observation of the family dysfunction. I believe that like any death of a mother or father when you're at a young age, she probably did have some depression after her mom's death. Specifically, one of the things that was brought up and that she mentioned to me was that her dad had wanted to seek counseling, but settled on buying her a horse. So she didn't want to do counseling? I don't believe so. She turned to her underworld.

As her case moved forward, Clara wasn't doing herself any favors by coming across inside the courtroom as a stoic, spoiled child, unwilling to take any responsibility. She chose not to testify. After closing arguments, the jury took all of three. four hours and unanimously found her guilty. When it came time for sentencing, the judge was a bit lenient, in my view. I covered the sentencing part. Now, she had some foreshadowing of what may happen

because the jury had recommended 48 years in prison, and that is indeed what the judge decided. It likely wasn't unexpected, but when she heard it, she simply turned it. She simply turned and left. She didn't look at her relatives. She showed no reaction. She just left the courthouse.

The first dragon met the hand of justice and was now confined to her dungeon. But three more were still waiting in the wings. After taking the fifth at Clara's trial, Kyle Yulbert was still debating his next steps. Should he plead guilty at his trial or take an insanity plea. Most people seem to think, well, with all of those voices talking to him, of course the guy

was insane. By now, Kyle was starting to realize that he had been manipulated all along by Clara, even though it had been so difficult for him to see it. Here's Dr. Ramsland once again. Superiority is what makes him highly vulnerable because he doesn't. realize that a better manipulator is standing right next to her. She's honed her skills on other people already by this time where she's tried to get them to do things.

So this guy coming at her is chaos and she can just draw him in and get him to do what she wants. So Kyle, who has this code of honor is an easy mark. because she can make it seem as if she's in desperate needs. She's a damn blue of distress. Manipulation is one thing. But Kyle also knows the voices he talks to are not fully understood by the world around him. They popped up in stressful times and seemed to be his guides or his gods, the voices that directed him.

At times, he would say they controlled him, but clearly they didn't because they also warned him and he would ignore them. You know, they were a convenience. They comforted him and made him feel like he wasn't alone. These voices, for some reason, were the only point of dissent when Kyle walked to the house that night, imploring him to go no further. Why was this the one time he ignored them? I think when Kyle breaks from them, it's showing that they aren't really in control and maybe never have been, that they might just be. excuses that he's used because he's now determined to do something that his gut essentially is telling him don't do. But he has to. He's invested now. He's got this whole identity that he's shown her, that he will come through for her.

He has to save her. And it doesn't matter what his gut or his psyche is telling him. Kyle then does something nobody expects. He pleads out, his case. One would think he had the perfect opportunity to put on an insanity defense, as I mentioned earlier. But he decides against it. Sanity is a legal term. Psychosis is a medical term. Explain that for me.

You can be psychotic where you are not in touch with reality, and then you kill someone. But you understand it's wrong, so you try to clean it up, you try to, and have a fake alibi, you tried to get away. That means you knew that what you did was wrong and there are legal consequences. So you can be found sane, but also psychotic. So what would be a good insanity defense? If he had been at Robert Schwartz's home and he saw Schwartz pick up a kitchen knife and he just, oh my God, he's going to kill me in self-defense.

So that's his delusion, and he thinks it's genuine self-defense. And he's not thinking about the consequences. Or if he decides that Schwartz is really a werewolf and that he's going to shift. If I don't kill him now, he's going to shift into his wolf form and overpower me, so I have to do something. Those are the kinds of things. For example, we had one where, and this is called the Deific decree. He understood that what he did was wrong. when he killed his ex-wife and two daughters

and cut out their hearts and put them in his pocket. And so it was wrong, but it was God telling him to do it. But then he knew that he had to also pluck out his eye because the Bible said, and he had to, and he did. He plucked out his eye and ate it. That's pretty psychotic. He went to the police station and gave them the hearts. We've seen cases of delusional psychotics

claiming that the voices in their head, God, for example, were telling them to kill. But in Kyle's case, the voices were actually begging him not to, which would not have helped an insanity plea. Also, Kyle told me he thought he would get a lesser sentence if he owned up, took responsibility, and pled guilty. But that was not to be. He said, what looks good for us, really, is that the judge basically told her, you know, that this is all her fault. He said, he'd acknowledging that she could cause all this, then the fact that she told one of her cellmates that she was good, you shipped all the blame on to me because I'm of a feeble mind. That's pretty damning in and of itself. Kyle was given a life sentence, a longer one than Clara.

Usually, the person who planned the murder gets the longer sentence. Judge Thomas Horn made it clear to Kyle why he was given a stiffer penalty than Clara. He admitted that Clara did all this, but he said that he couldn't think of any punishment that would have a deterrent effect on a man who was in a fantasy world. Those were his works. That's why he went above and beyond. Here's reporter. Heather Greenfield.

I think people were a little bit surprised that she didn't get more time than Kyle. But aside from that, I mean, it's still a long time. And no sentence brings back Dr. Schwartz. Infamous is the gossip show that's smart. We talk about Tyra Banks and bringing down top model. We talk about Jenna Jameson and how she dominated the 90s. You know, she's horny and she's in charge.

She just was very smart about marketing herself. We talk about celebrities who maybe shouldn't be celebrities, like the Beckham guy. Brooklyn is their first kid. He's had a little bit of the Nepo baby curse. We investigate orgasm cults. A woman's erotic power can unlock many other powers in her life. And, of course, we discuss people who have gotten into lots of trouble. My name is Molly McLaughlin.

I am one of Jen Shaw's many victims. She was defrauding the elderly, and her tagline was the only thing I'm guilty of is being shamazing. Listen to Infamous, the gossip show that's smart. The show's called Infamous. Time gives people perspective. It provides the opportunity to think about the things they've done. I had interviewed Kyle about a dozen years ago for my book. but I spoke to him recently for this podcast.

He had come to terms with what he had done, expressed remorse, and yet was steadfast in his opinion that murder was never his intention on that December 2001 night. If you recall, at the beginning of this series, Kyle said this.

You know, I can't force anybody to believe what I have to say. I'm not even interested in trying to make anybody believe what I'm trying to say. I am stating truth. That's it. But as we continued talking, he added something more. I didn't go there to kill him. Tent was to intimidate him to make him think that, hey, somebody knows what you're doing. So if anything happens to her, you will be held accountable.

By, I know what you're doing. Kyle is referring to Clara's lie that her father had sexually abused her. I had never really bought into Kyle's. I didn't go there to kill him, explanation. And neither had forensic psychologist Dr. Ramsland. He presents the story as I didn't really think I was going to kill him. I didn't really need to, but he aggressed on me. And then I had to protect myself.

So I think parts of the narrative make very little sense in terms of the consistency of what we know about. the victim. I think he hurt the guy initially from behind. And once he started, he kept going. Certainly, Schwartz would try to defend himself. He grabbed the blade. That's all very likely. But once he was down, Kyle continued to thrust the blade into him. What would you say to people listening to say, he knew he was going to kill that man? Anybody believe. I will tell you the truth. You're looking at this, I can see how it looks. I can see how people can they come to that conclusion.

There was two people in the house that night. One of them's dead. So you can, at this point, you can kind of write this narrative any way you want. To yourself, what I really stand again. I've been telling the same story for 24 years. In my line of work, I mean, killers minimize their role in the crime all the time when they give a confession. One, I am four years, not by a word. If I was fagy, if I was trying to paint myself in the best life,

possible. You would think what I'm still in prison. I'm still serving the life sentence. I'm still dealing with all the fallout that comes with taking another man's life. At what point does it become, why would he put in this much effort for this law? On the flimsy hope that I might one day go home? Well, that's not going to happen, right? You know that. Right? I mean, barring any sweeping prison for reform that, you know, or clemency, by clemency petition, I'm not going home. While he recognizes what he has done, few of us can imagine. what goes on in Kyle's mind. Kyle seems perpetually adrift in a world

where he never knows what's real and what is not. There's one particular childhood friend he's held on to. Meeting her, I now don't talk to you, I can see her. I remember the phone call from her aunt when she died. I was eight or nine years old, and this tore me up. First experience with death, you know, that's a big thing for any kid. Fast forward, about 2015, I think.

I'm talking to one of the therapists, and I'm telling her about this kind of stuff. And she comes back to me the next day. And she says, hey, listen, I wanted to ask you about that person. You know, what was her name? I gave it to it. And it's like, we can't find a record of her. Michelle Lavender never existed except in my mind. I asked Dr. Ramsland a question.

I think we all want to know the answer to. the voices, these characters. How real is that for them? It's quite real. They hear things. They see things. They feel isolated because other people who don't hear and see those same things, treat them like you're weird.

Don't talk to me about that. And so even though it's their reality and they can't get other people to agree to it, the voices direct them. For Kyle, uncertainty is. eternal. I have memories of things in my head that I remember doing. I have had it proven to me forcefully and repeatedly that they didn't happen. Something nagged at me.

Mike had said there were other bodies and Kyle had said he buried them in the back of a house. So I asked him about it. I remember being a vigilante killer I targeted drug dealers and pedophiles. I remember doing it, but the times that I believe it happened, I've been able to prove conclusively that I wasn't actually able to do it at those times. And let's be real here, you know, that doesn't happen in real life. Real life, he gets caught, but it's hard to know that there are memories in my head that never actually happened. It's scary. Do you know that the entire time that I was with my ex-wife, six years were together.

For the longest time, I would wake up and I would be scared that I had imagined the whole thing, that I'm spending two or three hours at a time sitting on, you know, sitting at the phone talking to a deadline, that she was imagined. The fact here is that Kyle is mentally ill, and he brutally murdered an innocent man for no reason and must bear responsibility. All of those things can be true at the same. same time. But there are complexities here that we need to understand. And I would never want to be in Kyle's position in his state of mind. None of us would. I mean, who's to blame for this? And how

senseless is this tragedy? In my opinion, Clara has the largest hand in this. And she's very narcissistic, her motivation seems to have been about money. I think she was afraid her father might be getting ready to cut her out of the will or not pay her college bills or something, which made her want to hurry this along because she was, she knew what he was worth, how much she would be getting if he were gone. And she told a considerable amount of lies through the process trying to fool her siblings and bringing horror into their lives over what she did. So she was a narcissistic manipulator who got caught. Mike and Katie are out of prison today.

Mike Foal was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 18 years, many of which were later suspended, and so Mike wound up doing fewer than 10. He refused to speak to me. Katie Inglis was sentenced to a year for consterned. and disappeared into private life after she was released. She also refused to speak to me. Clara Schwartz remains in prison and is not eligible for parole until the 2040s. Clara has never spoken to anyone in the media about her crimes.

Kyle, on the other hand, wanted to talk. He wanted me to understand. a few things. Some psycho killer who gets off on this shit. You know, I didn't do this shit for kicks. What happened was a tragedy. People are going to think what they want to think. I'm here telling people this is what happened.

This is how it happened. You said, I am not a monster. Do you believe Clara is a monster? Yes. Everything I have heard, she has not once admitted guilt or shown any remorse for what has happened. That's monstrous. of me. I ask Kyle

for a final word. First and foremost, I mean, I've said it before and I will continue saying I'm sorry that this happened this was not this is and will remain the worst event of my life

and I ruined other people's lives in the process and there's nothing I can do to take that back. How stupid how foolish, just how easily I got manipulated. If I hadn't been as broken as I would let too.

As part of a promise I made to Kyle, if you wish to read his writing, find his substack at Cheshire Madness. A convicted killer with a substack. How life has changed since this crime took place. I've never been afraid of dying. Dying doesn't scare me yet, I fear being forgotten.

I fear living a life not worth remembering. When I die, nobody's going to remember me. I'm not going to leave anything behind except just a one tragedy. That that's what I'm going to be known for. That's what I'm going to, how I affected the world. But it is your legacy. I mean, that's definitely what you'll be known for. And that's why I'm reaching out to the world so there's something else.

People will know me for something. Other than the worst thing I've ever done. Selfishness, manipulation, narcissism. The three common traits behind a lot of nonsensical murder, and certainly the three rail cars driving this train. Technology played no role. It was simply a weapon, like a gun, poison, or a 27-inch sword. Clara allowed greed to dictate her behavior. She is no different from the man who walked into Schwartz's home and killed him. She is a killer herself.

The Schwartz family suffered a tragedy no family should endure. And the patriarch, Dr. Robert Schwartz, was sleeping in the same house with the devil just a short walk down the hallway. Nobody ever suspected Clara was a threat. If you want more of the same storytelling, you've heard on Fatal Fantasy,

check out my weekly podcast, crossing the line with M. William Phelps, wherever you get your favorite shows. I want to thank all of my sources, those who made it into the podcast, and those who did not. I also owe great thanks to Catherine St. Louis for her script consulting

and Jonathan Hirsch for all of his hard work on every aspect of this series. and likewise to everyone at Sony Music. From the very beginning, thank you so much for listening to Fatal Fantasy. If you or anybody you know struggles with mental illness or for any mental health assistance or to get help, please visit the National Alliance on Mental Illness, nami.org,

or call 1-800-950-6-2-6-6-6-6-6-6.4. Text, helpline to 62640, or email helpline at nami.org. Unlock all episodes of fatal fantasy ad free right now by subscribing to the binge podcast channel. Not only will you immediately unlock all episodes of this show, but you'll get binge access to an entire network of over 60,000. crime and investigative podcasts. Shows like Catch Me if you can and blink all ad-free. Plus, on the first of every month, subscribers get a binge drop of a brand new series. That's all episodes all at once.

Search for The Binge on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page. Not on Apple? Head to GetTheBinge.com to get the binge.com to get access. wherever you listen. Fatal Fantasy is a production of Sony Music Entertainment and M. William Phelps, LLC. Written and executive produced by me. From Sony Music Entertainment,

the executive producers are Jonathan Hirsch and Catherine St. Louis. Our production manager is Samantha Allison. Jeremy Adair is my senior producer and script consultant. Matt Russell, my sound engineer. I use Epidemic Sound for music and SFX.