The Perplexing Story of Dr. Sam Shepphard and Marilyn's Murder

[00:00:04] At the intersection of true crime and real estate, you'll find Crime Estate. I'm Heather. And my name is Elena. As real estate agents and true crime junkies, we view crimes through a different lens. So walk through the door of some of the most notorious true crimes with us and discover how sometimes the scene of the crime has its own story to tell. Well, hey, y'all. Welcome back to Crime Estate. I'm Heather and I'm joined as always by my

[00:00:31] dear friend and fellow real estate agent, Elena. And of course, our producer and commentator, Mel. Hey, ladies. Hey, it's been a while. Yeah. Well, I'm trying to think. I don't know when this will come out, probably like early May, but right now we're mid-April and you and I are just barely keeping our heads above water real estate wise. I mean, it's good. It's good. It's good. But yeah, we've had to reschedule some recording sessions for like our real jobs. Right. The ones that pay the bills. That's right.

[00:00:59] Yeah. Yeah. Just something a little important like that. Yeah. You know, so it's April right now. You know, historically, is this a busy season, slow season, like, or, you know, it's people ramping up before the summer. Yeah, totally. Yeah. The, like, um, there's an agent here in the neighborhood who's been practicing for a long, long time. And one of his running jokes is that, um, the houses come out when the peeps come out on the shelves. Oh, that's cute. It's like the peeps are coming. The

[00:01:29] peeps are coming. Oh, I love it. So yeah, it's been busy. Yeah. Yeah. But we'll take it. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. But you have a good episode for us today. It just took us a little while to get here. So thanks to our viewers for being patient. Yes. And also thank you for bearing with us the past couple of episodes. We've had some feedback that maybe our mics weren't loud enough. So I think we've figured that piece out. So yes, we've had some trial and error as we switched to going to YouTube because now we're using a different system that also does the video. So yeah, thank you guys. We

[00:01:56] got so many comments. So thank you guys for letting us know that the volume was a little off. We think we fixed it. Yeah. But if not, we'll keep trying. Yeah. And let us know. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So ready? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So Dr. Samuel Holmes Shepard was born on December 29th, 1923. I'm just like jumping in. That's 20. I didn't realize. Okay. Yeah. Do it. He was the youngest of three sons born to Ethel Shepard and Dr. Richard Allen Shepard. The elder Dr. Shepard was an osteopathic

[00:02:22] physician and surgeon and founder of Bayview Hospital. Ethel Shepard was a school teacher originally from Paris, Illinois. Not to be mistaken with Paris, France. Or Texas. Or Paris, Texas. Yeah. Okay. We're going back to Sam. Growing up in Cleveland seemed to be a pretty term life for him. He attended Cleveland Heights High School where he served as class president and met his future wife, Marilyn Reese, a tall, hazel-eyed beauty with long brown hair. Do you have hazel eyes?

[00:02:51] Yes. That's you. No, I'm dark brown. You are a beauty with long, dark hair. Oh, well, I'll take that. I will take that. Aw. So maybe I should say Marilyn was tall. She's 5'7". I'm 5'3", so that seems much taller than me. So I don't know. It's like average height. I don't know. I mean, it's slightly above average. I think average is like 5'4 or so. But I want to say early 1900s, 5'7 was tall for a woman, right? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So there at

[00:03:19] Cleveland Heights High School, Sam excelled both academically and athletically playing football, basketball, and track. Despite being named Outstanding Athlete by his high school class and earning several scholarships to play college sports, he decided to follow his father's footsteps and go into osteopathic medicine. He attended... Okay. Osteopathic medicine? What is that? Oh, don't ask me that. It's on an MD. I know it's on an MD.

[00:03:46] I feel like it's something with the bones, isn't it? I feel like it's more a holistic approach, but I could be wrong. I think I was at a hotel once, or relatively recently, they were having an osteopathic doctor's convention, and we Googled it and looked it all up, and now, of course, I can't remember it. Osteopathic medicine is a distinct branch of medicine where doctors focus on the

[00:04:12] interconnectedness of the body and its systems, emphasizing a holistic, patient-centered approach to healthcare. They're trained in conventional medical practices while also using osteopathic manipulative treatments, a system of hands-on techniques to diagnose and treat various health conditions. That was clear as mud. Yeah. Yeah, because an osteopathic doctor, you get your DO, the doctor of osteopathy, versus, I guess,

[00:04:40] your MD. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Once again, clear as mud. But it is a distinct, different branch of it. And so, okay, so we're back in Cleveland Heights, and just Cleveland Heights, for those of you who don't know, is one of the first historic suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, not an area that I think the three of us know that much about, but it was kind of a early 1900, so right around this time, because I think Cleveland Heights was first established in the year 1900.

[00:05:10] It was on some of John D. Rockefeller's land. It's right outside Cleveland, but they would have the streetcars. Kind of like my neighborhood was the first suburb of Dallas, which is kind of a joke. It's, you know... Downtown Dallas now, essentially. Yeah. But we had, like, in my neighborhood, we have streetcars. Did you know that there was, in Munger Place, there were streetcars? Yes. Yes. Yeah. We recently had construction in the neighborhood, and they were pulling up,

[00:05:35] and they were finding all the old streetcar ties in the ground. That's crazy. And Cleveland Heights was one of the first suburbs, which is a very close-in neighborhood, that had streetcars. Yeah. My little historic fact about Cleveland Heights. I like it. I like it. Erin wants to go to Cleveland, and I'm like, I don't want to go to Cleveland. But let's go for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Okay. I could see that. I still don't want to go. It doesn't hold an appeal to me. Mm-mm. Mm-mm.

[00:06:05] So Dr. Sam attended Hanover College in Indiana, taking pre-osteopathic courses before transferring to Los Angeles in the summer of 1943. In LA, he attended the Los Angeles Osteopathic School of Physicians and Surgeons, which is now the University of California, Irvine, and was awarded the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, or DO, like Mel said, medical degree. That's the most you've ever used the word, osteopathic, in your life? Yeah, I think so. Upon completing school after the successful long-term romance,

[00:06:34] he and Marilyn wed on February 21st, 1945, in Hollywood, California. So I'm curious, and maybe you know the answer to this, and it's coming in the story. Did she move to California with him in the 40s? No. Okay. That was scandalous. No. That would have been scandalous. It was very well noted that she stayed in Ohio. He was there, and they had this long-term, or long-distance romance. I think it's also interesting that he didn't go to World War II, that he was in school during this whole time.

[00:07:03] Yeah. I guess maybe they needed to make sure they had doctors. Yeah. In case the war continued on. Yeah. So shortly after they were married, they moved into a home in the wealthy Cleveland suburb to settle in to start a family. They're not saying that they had planned to go back to Ohio, but they fell to the pressure of Sam's father. He wanted him to come back home and help him with his busy hospital practice and medical practice, so the two went back home. So far, these two are high school sweethearts. They've made their way through high school

[00:07:30] and college together. They're settling back in their hometown. They bought a house. It seems pretty normal for the age. Right. Yeah. Totally. Like we all did. Yeah. Well, let's talk about the house a little bit that they bought. So the Dutch colonial was located at 28924 Lake Road in Bay Village, Ohio. I don't think we've talked about Dutch colonial style homes yet, so I want to touch on that a little. I don't think so either. So the style of home is prevalent in the Northeast US. It has a distinctive gambrel roof, overhanging eaves, and a symmetrical facade.

[00:07:58] Yeah. It sort of looks like a fancy barn to me, if you think about it that way. Yeah, for sure. The most distinctive feature of a Dutch colonial is the gambrel roof, which is a double-pitched roof with a steeper lower slope and flatter upper slope that provides some extra headroom and space in the attic. Oh, okay. We do not have attics here in Texas. I wish we did. I mean, or they're like very small because it gets hot. They're small and the stairs to climb it are flimsy. They come up from the roof or the ceiling and it's flimsy. Yeah, it's a ladder from your ceiling.

[00:08:27] Right. Do you ever have people just want to go up in the attic? I've had buyers that are just like, I want to go in the attic. All the time. They're always dads or- Grandpas. Grandpas. Yeah. Yeah. I've never had a woman ask me if she wants me to go up in the attic. No. And then I feel compelled to go in the attic. Oh. And usually I'm not in attic worthy shoes, so I have to take my shoes off. And then I feel like I should go up first. No, you go above and beyond. I'm like, no, I'm good here, Kate. Thank you. You're going by me. Please go check out. I know. That's all you.

[00:08:58] Yeah. I mean, I guess, you know, are you looking to see if you can actually like store space? Because like I know in our attic, I mean, it might be big in the sense that it runs the whole house, but it's small and where you could actually put things, you know, on it. I think they're definitely looking for, if they can put stuff there, they're looking for, does it have insulation? Rats? Are the rats, can you see obvious rodent droppings? Yeah. Right.

[00:09:25] And if like the systems are up there, so like sometimes our HVAC systems will be in the attic and they're sort of hard to get to. So I mean, I can see wanting to look, I don't need to look at every house. Like once you're focused on a house and you're like, this could be the one, then you can go so far away. Not on your like day to day. Yeah. We actually have an attic over our garage as well because it's a detached garage and I've never once been in it. We have a lot of like Christmas stuff up there.

[00:09:54] Jason goes up there, but no, I've never gone. And it's funny because I actually think that attic's probably in better condition than the attic that over our house house. That's funny. Nope. No desire to go into attic. Is the attic going to come into play in this story? No, it's what we're just talking about. I just want to talk about. I just want to talk about. It's like maybe a little foreshadowing. No. Okay. That ain't clever though. Another cool feature of a Dutch colonial are the Dutch doors, which are doors that open horizontally. So the top and lower halves can open independent of each other. I love a Dutch door. Me too. And it totally reminds me of Facts of Life.

[00:10:24] I don't know why. Was there a Dutch door in there? Because in my head. Or was it coming from the kitchen? Yes. Yes. It was in the kitchen. Like remember like the slamming kind of doors and you could maybe open up the top and. Yeah. I get that outside. Like I've seen like a few cute homes over in the Junius Heights kind of neighborhood near us that I've gone on tours of that like, oh, like you want, like you have the top open and

[00:10:50] you have like all this natural air or you kind of look out at your kids. But in the kitchen, I don't understand the practicality. I can see it. Like imagine you're a 1950s housewife and you've got to get stuff done. You just shut that bottom door, but you can keep the top open and like keep an eye on your kids. They can't come in and bother you. True. Oh, I like that. Like a little toddler gated area. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Similarly, similarly, similarly, similarly. Am I saying lili twice? You're, you're. Oh my God.

[00:11:21] Um, as many Dutch colonials have, they have double hung windows or sash windows that are painted windows that can be raised from the top or lowered from the bottom. So charming all around. Super charming. The shepherd home was four bedroom, two story home that overlooked Lake Erie with a detached garage, a private sandy beach, a bath house, a screened in porch. And it sat about a hundred feet above Lake Erie shore. So they bought this as newlyweds. Yes. This is a pretty fabulous house for like a little couple starting out. Right. And no, I couldn't find where the dad bought it for him.

[00:11:51] We're very bitter about our stories where the parents buy the newlyweds homes. I'm going to guess if the dad did not buy it, that the dad invested in this house because as a brand new doctor, even back then, I'm sorry, he's not cut the salary. I'm with you. I'm with you. But yeah, I'm looking at. Maybe he went to work for dad. Yeah. I don't know. Did he? Do we know? Yes. Okay. Yes. He probably got a very nice signing bonus. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:12:15] No, I'm looking at pictures of Bay Village and it's in one of the Western suburbs of Cleveland. And I think, you know, we were kind of being laughing about Cleveland earlier, but it's right on the lake. Like it looks very pretty. Yeah. It sounds, it sounds beautiful. It sounds like a really cool place to grow up. And in fact, Sam and Marilyn were raising their one son there, Samuel Reese Shepard, who they nicknamed Chip. The family remembers.

[00:12:42] Now I'm worried that he's going to be a mass murderer because he has three names and a nickname. Well, no. Okay. Okay. I'll just give that part out. Should I say it? No. The family were members of the nearby Methodist church and Marilyn was even baptized right there in the living room of their home on Lake Road. Like Sam, Marilyn enjoyed sports. And when she wasn't tending to the home or Chip, she would often go bowling or play golf with friends. I don't know why I love that so much. It sounds so wholesome. I know it does. I'm bowling.

[00:13:12] I love it. I know. It sounds very, well, with the golf part and living on the lake, it sounds very kind of northeastern upper class. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. But what the family really enjoyed doing was taking their water ski out on the lake. They co-owned a 14 foot aluminum boat with a 25 horsepower motor with their neighbors, Jay Spencer and Esther. And I'm going to say it, how? It's H-O-U-K. Okay. There are many pictures of them all water skiing together.

[00:13:41] What is it probably going to know that I have been water skiing? No, you haven't. Okay. Hold on. Not water skiing. What's a sea-do thing called? Oh, like a jet ski? Yes. I've been on that. That's not nearly as scary as water skiing. Well, I've still been on it. I'm proud of you. I mean, that's impressive. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it. That's all I wanted to hear. Do you want me to reach over and pat you on the back? After this. Okay. Okay. Okay. So as you may be able to tell from what I've told you already, the shepherds love to entertain. So again, sort of like all of us.

[00:14:08] They installed a basketball hoop that they invited the neighborhood teens to play on and built what they called a club room above the garage. In the club room, they put a ping pong table and barbells. They loved informal potluck style dinners with friends and neighbors. I thought this was interesting because we regularly get together, but we don't do potluck. No. Is that like an Ohio thing or an upper? What is that? I'm thinking it was 50s, 60s, 70s. Like a time frame thing. Yeah. We Uber Eats a lot.

[00:14:38] Yes. That wasn't an option for them. Right. Yeah. Or like when we get together, I'll just be like, what can I bring? But I'm not bringing like a main part. The hostess would be polite and say, just bring some cookies or just bring some fruit or something like that. It's not like, well, bring the mashed potatoes. Right. We don't do that. So these people sound lovely. They sound like people we probably would have been friends with. Totally. Just give her a minute. I have a feeling she's going to shatter our image of this lovely family.

[00:15:07] Well, it wouldn't be crime estate without some crime. So you ready? Yeah, I'm ready. Okay.

[00:15:39] Okay. Chip safely in bed. Upon Don's return, the foursome sat in the living room and watched Strange Holiday, a 1945 movie about a man who returns to America from a fishing expedition to find the country being run by fascists. And it actually sounds like a really fascinating movie. I looked it up. And Mel, I want Justin to watch it and give us feedback on it because I might watch it. Yeah. It's pretty good. Sam didn't seem to like it much though because he fell asleep while the other three finished the film. Marilyn walked her guest to the door just after midnight and retired to her bedroom upstairs.

[00:16:10] Okay. So this so far still sounds like a pretty typical evening. Like the parents are hanging out. I mean, it sounds like something we would have done here from time to time. John is definitely one of the first husbands to fall asleep. Don is. Or Don. No, John is definitely. For sure. Yes. God loves him. He works very hard. I like it when we're all talking and then we're like, we're Don. Go. Like, yeah. Yeah. For sure. But here's where I think any parallels between our lives are going to end. Hopefully are going to end.

[00:16:40] Fingers crossed. Yes. At about 540 the next morning, Dr. Sam Shepard phones the mayor of Bay Village, Spencer Halk. Wait a second. Same relationship. Isn't that the same last name? Spencer. They own a boat together too. They own the boat. Oh. Okay. Okay. But he happens to be the mayor? Yes. Okay. Sorry. You just threw that in there. Yeah. But did I say it right the second time? Did I say it the same way at least? Yeah, you did. Okay. Okay. I was just confused about the mayor.

[00:17:09] But those aren't the people that were there the night before. Correct. Yeah. So he calls the mayor, Spencer Halk that they own the boat with and stating, my God, Spence, get over here quick. I think they have killed her. Spencer and his wife, Esther, race to the Shepard home to find Dr. Sam Shepard shirtless in the den, leaned back in a swivel chair, holding his neck. Shepard stated that while sleeping in the living room, he heard Marilyn shout his name. He ran upstairs and entered the low-lid bedroom to find what was described as a quote form standing over Marilyn's bed.

[00:17:37] He began to struggle with the form, but was hit on the back of the neck and fell unconscious. When he comes to, he checks his wife's pulse and determined that she was dead. He then quickly enters Chip's room, finding him asleep and unharmed before returning downstairs to find the form running out the back door towards the shores of Lake Erie. Sam chased after the figure. And again, a struggle ensued with what Sam would later go on to describe as a quote bushy haired person claiming that quote, I felt myself twisting or choking and this terminated

[00:18:06] by unconsciousness. When he, for the second time now, came to, he found himself missing his shirt and he retreated to the home where he called Mayor Houck. That is a horrible way to wake up. Yes. Okay. It's terrifying. But he woke up on the couch. On the couch. Yeah. Where he fell asleep. Yes. Watching the movie. Yes. Okay. Which, I mean, in my household is a pretty common. Yeah. Normal night to find somebody on the couch. Yeah. Yeah. I would wake Aaron up only because, so Sam and Marilyn did not share a bed.

[00:18:35] It was like twin beds. Oh my God. They did not share a very pretty bunch of them. Yes. Totally. I would wake Aaron up only because I can't sleep unless he's right there. Oh my God. Y'all are so cute. Yeah. You guys are very cute. No, I've learned my lesson that if Jason falls asleep on the couch, I don't wake him up anymore because when he wakes up, he's just kind of, he's not a good person to wake up. And so I'm like, you know what? I will let you sleep here. And then usually at like two in the morning, he'll come up to bed. And is he like, Melanie, why didn't you wake me up?

[00:19:03] Not anymore because I've told him that he was mean to me. Oh, good. Good. So upon being questioned, Sam was pretty vague on details. He could not recall how many intruders were in the bedroom when he was first knocked unconscious. He could not recall if the form was male or female, but he blamed both of these facts that he could not hear that is because he blacked out twice. That's why he's so sparse on details. He blacked out because he got hit, right? Correct. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So he had the, the struggle in the bedroom, right?

[00:19:30] Then ran out unconscious, ran out, checked on chip. He was fine. Ran to the shore. The guy was running or guy or girl, whatever was running away and got knocked unconscious again. Okay. At approximately 6am Bay village police officer, Fred drinkin arrived on scene. He went to Maryland's room to find her laying dead face up on the bed. Her PJ bottoms had been removed from one leg and her top had been pulled up, leaving her chest exposed. There were no signs of sexual assault. Her legs had been pulled through the slats at the foot of the bed frame.

[00:19:59] I don't know if y'all can picture that. No, like the old beds that had like the, the headboard and then it had the footboard and there was like vertical slats. They were pulled between them. The walls and closed closet door were covered in blood spatter. A later autopsy would reveal that Maryland died at approximately 430 that morning. It also showed that she was four months pregnant while walking the rest of the home drinkin found what appeared to be signs or staging of a robbery. Dr. Shepard's black medical bed was open content stood on the floor.

[00:20:29] Sam's high school track trophies and Maryland's bowling trophies were found lying on the floor broken. And despite nothing being taken, Sam's desk doors were open. So it wasn't like clear cut evidence, just like signs. I'm not sure anybody's trying to get your bowling trophy. I mean, that's not a regular robbery. I guess like give the illusion that like there was, oh, maybe like movement. Yeah. Like, right. While police were still investigating in the scene, Otto Graham quarterback from the Cleveland Browns and neighbor of the Shepherds arrived at the home. Of course.

[00:20:59] He had seen all the ruckus and had come down to find out what was going on. I don't mean to interrupt you. I'm sorry. No, please. But I'm curious in your neighborhood, if you see like the police and an ambulance at a house, are you walking down to see what's going on? No. We, I mean, we all, all the neighbors, when this happens on my block, we all stand outside. Right. And they're like waiting for another neighbor to come tell you. It also kind of depends upon what time of day.

[00:21:28] If it's in the middle of the night, usually I'm texting a couple of my neighbors going, hey, do you know what's going on? Or things like that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. I was just curious. Like if you would just walk up. What about you? Would you? No, I would be like texting the neighbors. For sure. Yeah. Okay. Which wasn't an option he had. Right. True. Yes. Otto's wife, Beverly, was very good friends with Marilyn and would often jet ski with Sam and Marilyn when Otto was away with football. While the house was still under investigation before the police had officially cleared it,

[00:21:57] they allowed Otto Graham to view Marilyn's bedroom. He later recalled. That's weird. I know. He later recalled the Saturday evening post his thoughts upon entering the room saying, quote, oh my God, it looks like someone stood in the middle of the bedroom with a great big can of red paint and a brush and flicked it all around. This wasn't a couple of blows. Oh no. Whoever did it, they had to be out of their mind. That's one. That quote is awful. Mm-hmm. And two, why would they just let the football player walk through the bedroom? Yeah.

[00:22:26] I mean, there's nothing he could do. I'm sure he's never been in their bedroom before. Right. I mean, there's nothing that makes sense. I would almost be less surprised if it was his wife who would, like, that they were coming over. Hey, can you help with Chip, you know, the child or something like that. I only wonder that maybe he was a little bit of a celebrity and they were allowing, you know, like kind of in awe of the Cleveland Browns quarterback to have more access to the house than he should. Surely, surely.

[00:22:56] By 8 a.m., the county coordinator, Sam Gerber, was at the home and getting a detailed report from Officer Drinkin on his preliminary investigation. The story from the start seemed improbable to Gerber, who quickly began to suspect Dr. Shepard citing the neatly pulled out desk doors and lack of evidence of a forced entry. He also noted a large blood stain on the knee of his pants, suggesting to him that Shepard had knelt in blood. Soon, the story was all the city of Cleveland could talk about.

[00:23:23] The morning after the murder, newspaper, the Cleveland Press ran a front page article with the headline, Doctor's Wife Murdered in Bay Village. And while this and some of the first articles were sympathetic to Sam, after there was little to no movement in the case, the press and the city began to grow suspicious of him. By December 21st, the Cleveland Press ran a headline with accompanying article declaring why no inquest? Do it now, Dr. Gerber. So they're just like calling people out in print? Totally. Which I'm kind of here for. Are you?

[00:23:53] I wish there was more of that. Okay. Well, we'll have to talk about that. Okay. We can dive in later. I mean, if they had evidence that they had uncovered and they're saying, hey, why are the police being corrupt? There should have been an inquest. But they're just- Just like speculating. Yeah. Yes. I don't like the speculation. Okay. I get that. I get that. I get that. During the course of the investigation, it was a discovered that Sam had been having affairs during the course of his marriage to Maryland. That was first confirmed by Nancy Ahern. Remember her? Mm-hmm.

[00:24:22] The woman that they were with the night? Mm-hmm. Okay. Oh, wow. Yeah. They were sleeping together too? No. She confirmed that he was having an affair. Sure. I will say, when you said they built the rumpus room over the garage and they only have- I didn't call it a rumpus room. That's what I heard in my head. And I'm picturing like key parties. Oh, God. Okay. We need to go back to this. It's still the 50s. This is still- Okay. Okay. Hold on, y'all. You're thinking 70s. I didn't dive too much into this, but apparently Bay Village was a big area for key parties.

[00:24:51] You should look that up while we're- Okay. Honestly. Wow. I think there were some precursors to the key parties. I've watched a little bit of Mad Men. There was some crazy stuff going on in the 50s too. They were just hiding it better. Yeah. Totally. Okay. So she relayed, Nancy Ahern, relayed to the Bay Village police chief that Sam had been seeing a lab technician from the hospital. And the only way I can think of that she knew is that Sam must have told her husband and then her husband told her. Yeah.

[00:25:19] But the part that's kind of weird to me is that they're hanging out the night before to like midnight. I am sorry if I know that my friend's husband was having an affair. I don't think- I mean, I could be friends with her, but I don't think I could want to socialize to that degree. Let's do a hypothetical. Uh-oh. Because we all three hang out a lot. And let's be clear, we arrange it. Our husbands do not. Right.

[00:25:49] But if I were like, hey, you and Jason come over and you do about John's affair, you just wouldn't come over? Like then I would feel like- She would tell you. Well, yeah, but maybe at this point she's still trying to figure out how to tell me and she's still trying to verify that it's accurate. I feel like you would still come and like keep the pretense for a little while. Okay. Yes. But I'm not sure I'd be staying till midnight. That's fair. Yeah. Watching a movie. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:26:16] That's like a, that's a different level of like relaxed friendship. That's true. That's true. I get that. I get that. So that fact was enough to shoot him to the top of this suspect list. Shepard voluntarily came into the police station for questioning where police questioned him about Susan Hayes, his lab technician lover. There he flat out denied the affair. Bad idea. But when Susan Hayes was asked about it, she told the whole ugly story of Tris at her apartment and in his car. Of course she did. Yeah.

[00:26:44] On July 21st, the very day that the Cleveland Press ran a headline article questioning why Shepard had not been the subject of an inquest. Gerber scheduled the inquest to begin the very next day. And side note, I did not know what an inquest was. So in case our listeners don't know, I'm going to lay it out. One of those weird, one of those words you hear about all the time, but you don't really. You just sort of shake your head like you know what they're talking about. It's legal. It's legal. Right. So according to the Cornell Law School website, an inquest is a judicial fact finding inquiry.

[00:27:13] Normally a coroner and or jury will request an inquest regarding the cause of an individual who was killed or suddenly died under mysterious or other suspicious circumstances. Usually the inquest will result in an establishment of the manner of death involved, such as natural, suicide, murder, accidental, or undetermined. If culpability was shown to have contributed to an individual's death, a criminal prosecution may occur afterward. So it's not that they're saying we're looking at a person. They're looking at the death. Right. Okay. Right.

[00:27:43] Okay. Yeah. And then in this case, I get it's very obvious she was murdered. So I guess they're calling the question the culpability of any suspect, I guess. Something like that. Okay. It seems like it's step one of an investigation. Yeah, totally. Now, I don't know if this is always the case with inquest, but with this inquest, it took place in public and it was at the Bay Village School Gym and it was a packed house. I'm going to go out on a limb without having known what an inquest was until 30 seconds ago.

[00:28:11] It does not normally occur in public and not in a school gym. And I want to see it. I'm seeing people with pitchforks in my mind. I mean, this is crazy. To observers, Sam seemed void of emotion and detached. When asked if he ran or walked in an attempt to catch the form, he stated, I can't give you a specific recollection. I proceeded as rapidly as I could. Well, yeah. I mean, he had just been knocked unconscious, according to him. True. True. Okay. When pressed about his affair with Susan Hayes, he denied, denied, denied at the advice of attorneys.

[00:28:42] Finally, after much goading from the Cleveland press who ran headlines like, quit stalling, bring him in, Shepard was arrested and a grand jury was called to consider the evidence in the case. On August 17th, just one day after Shepard had posted his $50,000 bail, the grand jury indicted him on first degree murder charges and he was rearrested. On October 18th, 1954, the trial of Dr. Sam Shepard began in Cleveland, despite his attorney's attempts to have the trial moved, which obviously, I mean, the Cleveland press is running those headlines.

[00:29:10] So on November 3rd, the jury of seven men and five women visited the home at 28924 Lake Road. I do love when a jury visits the site of the crime. I feel like that gives them a unique perspective. Yeah. This is one of the most, not that this is like historic, historic, but this 1950s, it's one of the older ones that we've kind of heard of this story. Although you've got to imagine like they didn't have like the video cameras, you know, it seems

[00:29:37] like this would be like really critical in a way that, you know, you don't have it always happen. You know, we, we have not talked about, we still have not done. Yeah. Nicole Brown Simpson. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We, we know guys, we know we haven't done OJ and Nicole Brown yet and we will do it, but that's one of the most famous instances of the jury being brought to tour the home. Are people asking for it? Oh yeah.

[00:30:06] Oh, but it, it's a big story. That's probably more than one part. Yeah. It needs, I mean, not that we don't do all of our stories right, but it just requires a lot more background. I feel like this is a summer thing, a summer task. And I think, I think so many people are familiar with it that in order to do it kind of justice in like our unique way, it will require a little bit more research. Totally. I think, I think we need to put it for the summer because I think that'll be kind of a fun one to do. But yes, spoiler alert, the jury goes to the house in that one.

[00:30:35] So they tore the home, making sure to see the bedroom where Marilyn was murdered and the den where the desk drawers were found evenly open and the stairs leading to the lake shore. Shepard, who was chained to police, followed the jury as they walked the home and property. Reportedly, when the tour stopped at Chip's room, Dr. Shepard paused and cried at the sight of his son's teddy bear in the room. The day after visiting the Lake Road home, opening statements began. Prosecutors alleged that Marilyn and Sam had been arguing about his infidelity and that is why she was killed that morning.

[00:31:05] For their part, the defense countered that the expectant couple had just, quote, enjoyed the best four months of their marriage. Dr. Lester Adelson spent two days on the stand testifying that Marilyn violently died. During his time on the stand, he showed grisly autopsy slides. Sam asked to be permitted to leave the courtroom during this portion, but was denied the request. Instead, he stood in the corner of the courtroom with his back to the screen. Which is tough. That's tough. Yeah. And you think, I mean, I don't know if he did it or not. I'm 50-50 so far on what you're telling us.

[00:31:33] But if he didn't, to see his wife's body like that, that's got to be hard. Totally. Totally.

[00:32:04] What kind of surgical instrument did they think they were seeing? Well, they don't know. They just feel like it looked like a surgical instrument. Yeah. Okay. No, they didn't find a surgical instrument. They just thought it felt like... I don't know. I'm 50-50 too with this. This is seeming a little bit like in a movie. Yeah. But it was a prosecution star witness, 24-year-old Susan Hayes, who pretty much sealed the deal for the prosecution.

[00:32:33] Hayes detailed her affair with Shepard and upon answering yes, the question, quote, in all this period have you told us about and what your activities with Sam are going on, you were aware, were you not, that he was a married man, was posed. And the prosecution rested. So he basically said, did you know he was married? She said yes. And he's like, I rest. My case. Because that means he's going to kill his wife? Right. I mean... And also that's... She didn't... I mean... I don't know how that is like...

[00:33:00] How that is more damning for him. Like, you know, so he was having an affair, horrible, and she knew he was having an affair. Okay. Not sure her knowing or not knowing makes it any... If anything, it makes it maybe weirdly somewhat better, like because he was being a frat. Oh, he's like... And unlike... It's not like she had just found out that he was married and he had to do something about it. Right. He had told her he was married the whole time. Like the one guy. The Amber Frye. Oh, Scott Peterson.

[00:33:30] Yeah, Scott Peterson. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. For the defense's part, they argued that the injury that Sam had suffered that morning had been impossible to self-inflict. So he expected the jury to surmise that he could not have like been... The attack he received could not have been sustained by himself. Yeah.

[00:33:53] But if their theory is that he was like arguing or struggling with his wife, could she have done that? Yeah. Potentially. Okay. Potentially. Yeah, it's risky. Okay. Yeah. And what we would probably all agree is a universally bad idea, the defendant was put on the stand. Yeah. Sam testified that the subject of divorce had never come up during their marriage and he further claimed that while the two would have their shared marital spats, it was never violent or too intense.

[00:34:21] Under cross-examination, the prosecution really set their sights on exploring the multiple affairs that he had during the course of their marriage. Under oath, he was forced to admit to the affair with Susan. As well as an encounter with a patient. During closing arguments, prosecutors posed several rhetorical questions such as, could this man, quote, in the prime of his life have been, quote, rendered senseless with a single blow? Why were there, quote, no signs of a struggle in Marilyn's room? And how could the assailant have landed 35 blows on Marilyn while Shepard made his way to the stairs?

[00:34:51] Why can't he remember whether he had his shirt on? Apparently that was something else. Like he couldn't remember if he had his shirt on when he went upstairs or if it was off at the shore. He couldn't recall. I mean, I think those are fair questions, but I don't know. I think it's reaching on both sides. Both sides are really grasping at something. Yes. Yeah. And from what you have told me of their relationship, I mean, I didn't know her personally, but they had a pretty good happy life. I can see her being like, just like, could you just leave the affairs?

[00:35:20] Like it was the 1950s. Yeah. A lot of men had affairs. I mean, yeah. Not excusing it at all, but also placing it in context that she is living a plush lifestyle. And at that time period, people were oftentimes loathe to break up quickly because they don't have an easy fallback. Right. Totally. Totally.

[00:35:48] On December 17th, the nine week trial ended and the jury was sent to deliberate. And by the following Tuesday, they had a verdict. Dr. Sham. Sham. Well, sorry. Maybe that's a Freudian slip. Dr. Sam Shepard was found not guilty of murder in the first degree, but instead found guilty of murder in the second degree. Wait, wait, wait. What is that? You're going to ask me that. And I'm like, as I'm reading it, I'm like, oh shit, I should have put that in there. Is it usually like first degree? It's like where it's premeditated in second degree. Maybe so. Yes. Well, that's what we're going to go with. Yeah, sure.

[00:36:19] You can fact check us later. Judge Edward Blythin sentenced Shepard to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 10 years. But the story's not over. Oh. It sounds like it should be. It's not over. Weeks after the judge handed down the sentencing, Sam's mother, Ethel Shepard, committed suicide at her son, Dr. Stephen Shepard's home with his gun at the age of 65. She left a note. Wait, Stephen Shepard? Is that another son? It's another son. Okay. The brother. Yeah. Okay. A lot of doctors. A lot of doctors. A lot of doctors.

[00:36:49] Yeah. So she's at Dr. Stephen Shepard's home, got his gun, killed herself to his 65, and she left a note that read, Dear Steve, I just can't manage a lung without father, dot, dot, dot, mother. No. So dad had died too? Oh, sorry. Okay. Dr. Richard Shepard, Sam's father, was a patient at Bay Village Hospital, and he was critically ill with a pleurisy attack and would later die of cancer. Oh, I've had pleurisy. Oh my gosh. Yes.

[00:37:18] What is pleurisy? Okay. So pleurisy is an inflammation of the lining of your lungs. And when I had it, I thought I had pulled a muscle in my back. And we were visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Houston, and I was having all this back pain, but then it sort of wrapped around in my chest. And so I was like, babe, you've got to take me to urgent care. And so we go. And when you tell urgent care you're having chest pains, they immediately think you're having a heart attack, even though I'm like a 32-year-old healthy woman at this point.

[00:37:47] I was like, you're not 32. No, but at this point I was. And so they're like doing an EKG, and I have a full-blown panic attack. I like get hot and cold, and I'm like stripping off my clothes. And I'm like, John, you have to go out and talk to the doctor. I'm not having a heart attack, but he's giving me a panic attack. So anyway, he comes in, and he's like, I think you have pleurisy. And I was like, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. And he was like, well, I'm going to give you some pain medication. You just need to rest.

[00:38:16] And I was like, well, what would you do for a pulled muscle in my back? And he was like, well, essentially the same thing. I was like, okay, then I'll go home. So then, but my husband's dad has been a nurse his whole life. And so we're texting, and I'm telling him that. And he's like, yeah, you had classic pleurisy symptoms. I was like, people don't really get that. That's not a thing. No, I thought it was like a 1950s thing. Yeah, there you go. Interesting. Okay, so I didn't realize they could put you in the hospital. But yeah, we are educating. That's right. Sort of.

[00:38:45] Well, he also had cancer. Yeah, yeah. Maybe. So she was anticipating him dying. And she's like, nope, can't do it. I'm just going to kill myself. Right. And it was days after her son was sentenced to life in prison. Okay. But this, I mean, this suicide is horrible. But Chip, the son was home at Dr. Stephen Shepard's home when she killed herself. I know. His brother probably took him in. Yes. Dad's in jail. Oh my gosh. Can you believe that? It's a lot. It's so much. And Chip is what, like three or four at this time? I think he's like seven or eight.

[00:39:15] Okay. Yeah. But young. Young. Yeah. The next five years, Dr. Shepard spent in a maximum security prison near Columbus, Ohio. After several rejected appeals, there was some promise when Dr. Paul Kirk, a well-respected criminalist, conducted his own investigation. He determined that the killer was most likely left-handed, that they used a heavy flashlight, not a surgical instrument to murder Maryland, and that it was perpetrated by a person or persons who hated the Shepards. He also noted the appearance of blood in Maryland's bedroom that did not belong to Sam or Maryland.

[00:39:44] Oh, that seems like a big oversight. Yeah. Very, very promising. In July of 1955, three months after Dr. Kirk's investigation was completed, a swimmer found a dented flashlight in Lake Erie. But the final break for Sam Shepard came when Robert Eberling, a man who had washed windows at the Shepard home, was arrested for larceny. After searching Eberling's home, they found a cocktail ring that belonged to Maryland. Acting on a hunch with no basis, in fact, an officer asked Eberling why his blood was found at the Shepard home in 1954.

[00:40:14] Shockingly, Eberling began to explain that he cut himself a few days before the murder while repairing a storm window at the house. He explained that he dripped blood throughout the home. Dumb. So dumb. I mean, I'm kind of excited by this officer who kind of improvised a bit. Yeah. Eberling was later cleared, though, of any wrongdoing after passing a polygraph. But it's a 1950s polygraph. And I don't trust a 2025 polygraph. Yeah. Yeah. But this was all enough to set the wheels in motion, and Sam was set to appeal his sentencing again.

[00:40:42] Sam's first attorney passed away, so he had to obtain new counsel. He hired a new, young, brazen attorney, F. Lee Bailey. Oh. Aren't we supposed to know who that is? Mm-hmm. Isn't that somebody famous? Uh-huh. He represented O.J. Simpson. No. That we talked about earlier. Are you serious? No. Were you just laughing when we were- Uh-huh. Yeah. I was like, oh, they have no idea. Hold on. Are you sure? Yes. Oh, here we go. The fact checks. Please fact check me, though. I mean, you're going to be right. I just didn't think that's who it was.

[00:41:14] Oh, he was also a defense attorney for the Boston Strangler. Patty Hearst. I know about Patty Hearst. Wow. Okay. So, yeah. So, he's like the new Spitfire attorney. All right. Damn, he was kind of like a badass. Elena, I'm sorry for fact checking you. It's all right. It's all right. No, it's fine. Okay. I definitely want- I feel like there could be books written about him. Okay. Anyway. Oh, surely so. Oh, well, he also had like five wives. So, yeah, I'm sure there was. Oh, okay. There's some stories to tell. Okay.

[00:41:43] In 1963, Bailey filed a habeas corpus in federal court, citing that the prejudicial publicity before and during trial violated Shepard's right to a due process. Interestingly, it was around this time that a new series premiered, The Fugitive, about a wrongly convicted doctor who escaped from prison where he was sent after being convicted of killing his wife. And while the show was thought to be loosely based on Sam, the creator of the series has always had the speculation.

[00:42:09] If you looked at my Google search history from the last five minutes, I've been looking up The Fugitive, trying to see if this was- Oh, how funny. Really? Because I started like going, okay, this is feeling very fugitive. The series creator says it's not, but surely. Other people have thought that- Yes. Okay, definitely. In July of 1964, Shepard's conviction was overturned on the grounds that Shepard was not afforded proper federal due process.

[00:42:36] In federal law, due process guarantees fairness and impartiality in legal proceedings and government actions that could affect someone's life, liberty, or property. It ensures individuals are treated fairly and have a chance to defend their rights according to law.com. Federal district judge Carl Weinman called Shepard's 1954 trial, quote, a mockery of justice, and referred to many of the Cleveland Post articles. Two days after he posted bail, Shepard married Arianne Teben-Johans? Teben?

[00:43:06] Yeah, go with it. Okay. A 32-year-old divorcee from Dusseldorf, Germany. In a tidbit you can file under a not-so-fun fun fact, Arianne was a member of Hitler's youth program during World War II, and her half-sister would go on to marry Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. Okay, that's weird. Yeah. Also, were they like pen pals in prison? Yes. That's so great. Yes. I was like, how is she meeting him?

[00:43:32] I mean, I don't personally hate on her being part of the youth program because that was... Just what was expected at the time. That was the norm. Like, you're in the scouts. You're in the, you know, I mean, the Hitler youth. Now, her sister marrying this guy, that's... He was a bad dude. Yeah. I went down a little rabbit hole researching him. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty bad, but I don't understand these women who fall in love, like, with people in jails. Okay. Yeah.

[00:44:02] Same. So Sam and Arianne moved into the home at Lake Road in Bay Village where there was not going to be a happily after with the newlyweds. But both of your faces... Yes. Okay. They moved into the same house. Yes. I mean, I'm getting the impression it's a cool house, but... Oh, dear. Yeah. Shepard's conviction was reinstated by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in a two-to-one vote. He was, though, allowed to remain out on bail while he appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. So there's a lot of like back and forth.

[00:44:31] I didn't know you could reinstate a conviction. Yeah, I guess you could. Apparently the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals did or can. In May of 1966, the Supreme Court, after hearing arguments from F. Lee Bailey, ruled eight to one to reverse the Sixth Circuit's ruling and reverse Shepard's original conviction, calling the first trial a, quote, carnival atmosphere. So when John worked on the Court of Appeals, he was on the Fifth Circuit. Oh. Okay. Interesting. And that's all I really know. Okay. It's just like the level below the Supreme Court. Okay. Cool. Cool. Yeah.

[00:45:01] Okay. So two days after the reversal of his conviction, prosecutors announced that it would once again try Shepard for the murder of Marilyn. Wait, can they do that? So much back and forth. Apparently. So I get, that sounds like double jeopardy. There must be a nuance there that I'm missing. Either that or, it was before all of that was a thing? Like you couldn't, I don't know how long they were trying him for first degree instead of second degree. Oh, maybe so. Okay. Maybe so. I don't know. All right. The second trial began on October 24th, 1966.

[00:45:32] Presiding over the trial was Judge Francis Talty. I was like, Talty. When I was, I was like, Francis Talty. Like, and this is fun to say. Were you going to say something, Mel? No, no, no, no. You know, I start going to rabbit holes when you're like telling some of this. I'm looking it up too, but go ahead. Sorry. During the retrial, prosecutors took some of the salaciousness and scandal out of the equation, choosing not to call Susan Hayes to testify and said, relying on Shepard's previous statements, denying the affair, even though it was a publicly known fact.

[00:46:00] The prosecutors did come with a new thorn inside though. Mary Cohen, Cohen, chief medical technologist in the County corners office, testified that blood spots found on Sam's watch were the result of blood spatter. The prosecution, a woman. Yes. Yeah. That's pretty good. The prosecution rested with that seemingly damning testimony. Fortunately for Shepard though, attorney F. Lee Bailey was ready calling Dr. Paul Kirk to the stand. Remember Kirk was a criminalist who introduced the theory that the killer was left-handed on the stand.

[00:46:30] Kirk contended that the blood on the watch was not spattered, but instead quote, for the most part, it looks like contact transfer while admitting that the, the irregularly shaped spots could be the result of flying blood. The quote, lack of a symmetrical tail left the theory in doubt. And his closing argument, Bailey dramatically attested quote, someone was angry, angry enough to kill someone who didn't have the strength in her arm that Sam Shepard had for indeed, he would have crushed that skull like an eggshell. Oh, so he was like, Sam would have done more damage. Right.

[00:47:00] Exactly. Okay. He went on to say, quote, why was this person so angry? What had happened? What had Marilyn done to anger that person? We will never really know. Okay. Which valid, but also is like, what would we call now victim blaming? But now I also find it interesting in your quote, and I'm assuming this is a direct quote. Someone was angry, angry enough to kill someone who didn't have the strength in her arm. Oh,

[00:47:29] you think maybe he was calling Susan Hayes? Yeah. Well, her, like, wouldn't people normally default to say his? I would. Yeah, you're right. Or there. Copy and paste. It was a direct quote. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. The evening of November 16th, 1966, the jury found Sam not guilty of the murder of Marilyn Shepard, and he was freed. Sam returned to a surgical practice upon his release, but developed a serious addiction to alcohol and barbiturates. In 1968, Arian,

[00:47:59] Arian, Arian? I don't know. I don't know how you're saying it. The galley married right out of prison. Yeah. Filed for divorce, citing his violent temper and addictions. Ooh, violent temper. Yes. Okay. In 1969, Shepard decided to go into professional wrestling using the name Sam, the killer Shepard. Okay. That's a life choice. I, no, I did not see that coming. That's like, what the hell? Like that's, crazy. that's like, again, back to OJ, because he wrote that book.

[00:48:28] That was like, what if I had done it? Yeah. Yeah. Yikes. Within a year of his wrestling debut, Sam Shepard collapsed in the kitchen of the home on Lake Road. He began vomiting blood and died. An autopsy later lists the cause of death as liver disease, but would later be revealed that he died of Wernicke encephalopathy, a type of brain damage associated with advanced alcoholism. Oh. Mm-hmm. It was reported by his third wife, Colleen Strickland, whom he married six months before his death, that towards the end of his life,

[00:48:56] he was drinking as much as two fifths or 1.5 liters of liquor a day. Oh, wow. I don't know what that is. What's, what's a handle? I don't know. But a liter is like pretty big. That's like, yeah. Oh, like a two liter of Coke. Yeah. Right. Okay. Okay. That helps. Yes. But there's still so much speculation about the death of Maryland. In 1997, Chip, Sam and Maryland's son filed a civil suit against the Cayuga County. Is that right? I'm going to say Cayuga. Cayuga County on behalf of his father for wrongful imprisonment.

[00:49:25] A judge ordered that Sam and Maryland's bodies be exhumed for DNA and forensic analysis. Wow. After an eight week trial in 2000 though, jury sided with the county and a subsequent interview. Six of the eight jurors said that they were convinced that the 1954 jurors got it right. And that Sam was guilty of killing Maryland. Wow. Yeah. Well, okay. What do you think? Do you think he did it? Because I will, I will say, I think for the most part,

[00:49:54] we are generally the three of us inclined to feel like the husband did it. Mm hmm. If you've listened to any of our past episodes, this one, I'm not as sure on. This one's tough. I'm also like, I still don't know. I still don't know. Yeah. I mean, yes, we're kind of clouded with the fact that we know that he, you know, grows into the severe alcohol, alcoholism and drug addiction later on. And then, you know, but then at the same time, you know, if he,

[00:50:24] if it's indeed found his wife murdered like that, and then was tried for her and then put in prison, I could see that how that could throw you for a loop and you spiral out of control. So I don't want to necessarily say the things that we know about him later on. Right. Or precursors for it. It just seems just so hot. Like, why would he do it? Right. He's living his best life. Like having these affairs and having a wife at home, taking care of things in the rompus room and the rompus room. Like I don't see the motivation.

[00:50:53] They had friends over until midnight. That's the thing. And then he calls at like five something in the morning. Like you would have to be like, if they were having a nice, normal, friendly, social night there, I don't know. It just, I mean, it just seems so. But also who else would do it? Like, it doesn't sound like they really explored any other. Right. There were no other options. Yeah. Other than this one guy who was cleaning the windows. But I mean,

[00:51:20] it is a little weird that he had obviously stolen a ring from her house. And there was his blood in the house. But what was the point? She wasn't sexually assaulted. Well, but it like, was it a sexual assault like interrupted? Because it sounded like one leg of her pants was down and her shirt was pulled up. I don't know. I don't know either. It's tough. This looks confusing. This is a tough one. And also, I mean, I don't, I don't remember how big the house was. I don't remember the square footage,

[00:51:50] but he was knocked unconscious for like just a few seconds before he was able to run out the, run out the door to find the guy. Like it wasn't long. Right. I mean, it's probably, he probably like saw stars, right? Like, like not like completely unconscious, but just like sort of out of it for a minute and then got up and kept running. Yeah. So the, I've mentioned to y'all via text that I had gone to a film festival last night and we watched the 25th anniversary of the movie, Christopher Nolan's movie Memento. And it,

[00:52:19] which is a famous, like it's a really good movie if you haven't seen it before. Um, and Stephen Tobolowsky, which we, we did a story earlier in our podcast about one of his family members. He's the guy from crime. Uh, he's from, from Groundhog Day who always, he's a great big character actor, but in many movies, he's the one in Groundhog Day. He was like, um, watch out for that step. It's a doozy. And so he's a reoccurring character in that movie. Well, he was also, uh,

[00:52:49] one of the main characters in Memento. And so he spoke about it last night, but the movie, and I, you know, it's really good. So I don't want to give too much away, but it is about a man who, who had been, uh, hurt when his wife was being murdered in their house. And he has, does it, and he, um, loses the memory. Uh, like in amnesia, um,

[00:53:15] related to getting injured while he was trying to defend his wife. Way to bring that like total full circle. I'm back to the movies and to a story we've covered. I mean, it is crazy. And in that movie, people didn't believe it because it was a real, just random kind of, they were like, Oh, it was somebody just random off the street. And people are like, no, somebody in the middle of the night, it's just not random off the street. It can happen like that. Right. And maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. You're going to have to watch the movie,

[00:53:45] but it, I feel like I'm having a lot of deja vu. Yeah. So there was a lot of, there's a lot of full circle. There's like the OJ and all kinds of, I'm going to bring it full circle back to the house though. So let's do it. What happened with the house? It was demoed in the late 1990s. Oh, but the shepherd family did own it for several years after the murder. In its place, a huge 3,600 square foot home, five bedroom, four bath is now built. It's, it's cute. It's a standard,

[00:54:12] it's a stucco nineties home. It has a very West coast vibe to me. Like it's just, it's kind of blah. It doesn't, it doesn't have charm as the first house for sure. Right. But it has a nice backyard. Yeah. Right there on the lake for sure. Yeah. Yeah. So what do you think? Um, I think this was a fascinating episode. Thank you so much for bringing it to us. Thanks. What about the property though? Oh, well, okay. So I would probably live in the original house. Mm hmm. Um, I would definitely list it.

[00:54:42] I would live in the new house. Uh, anything on a body of water I'm in for. You know what? I kind of feel like I would live there too. Yeah. I'm kind of drawn to this one. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And now I want to go look up at Dutch revival. Colonial. Colonial. Colonial. Yeah. Dutch colonial. We'll of course have pictures on our, if you're watching us on YouTube, there'll be all sorts of photos. There's a lot of pictures. And then follow us on socials for that too. Yeah. Awesome. Oh, buy me a coffee. We didn't talk about buy me a coffee. Oh yeah. Okay. So you guys are so sweet and you're like, we love the show. We want to support the show. And you can do that now.

[00:55:12] Go to our website, go to our socials, click the link, buy me a coffee. You can give us like 50 cents a dollar. Let's be clear. You're not buying us coffee. You're buying us wine. Yeah. So thanks for that. Um, but every little penny helps. Not cheap. Not cheap. So yeah. And if you have an episode idea, if you have like commentary, send it to us. We'd like to hear that. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks guys. Well, we'll see y'all if not next week, the week after we'll see how the spring market goes. Bye. Bye.

[00:55:42] Hey y'all. Thanks for listening and being a part of our crime estate family. If you're curious about today's featured crime estate, you can find additional photos and details from today's episode online at crimeestate.com or on Facebook and Instagram by following at crimeestatepodcast. Have a crime estate we should cover? Let us know. Shoot us an email at crimeestatepodcast at gmail.com. Until next week.