WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.060 Today I'm digging into one of those cases that 00:00:02.060 --> 00:00:06.259 honestly has stuck with me all week. The unsolved 00:00:06.259 --> 00:00:10.919 death of Lori Malloy. We're in East Providence, 00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:15.000 Rhode Island, back in March of 1993, where 30 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:17.140 -year -old Lori Lee Malloy, known by friends 00:00:17.140 --> 00:00:20.420 as Sled Dog, was found naked and dead on her 00:00:20.420 --> 00:00:23.539 bathroom floor. Right out the gate, everything 00:00:23.539 --> 00:00:26.800 about that scene was just off. The police walked 00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:30.179 into Lori's apartment on a welfare check. And 00:00:30.179 --> 00:00:32.960 they found the front door open, bathroom faucet 00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:35.979 running, two drinking glasses and some leftover 00:00:35.979 --> 00:00:39.520 salad sitting on the kitchen table. The fridge 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:44.479 fully stocked but unplugged. Odd, right? Welcome 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:48.479 to Beyond the Silence. Whispers across America. 00:00:49.640 --> 00:00:52.880 I'm Sammy, your host, driven to shine light on 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:55.859 the dark. corners of forgotten cases, demand 00:00:55.859 --> 00:00:58.579 justice, and keep alive the voices the world 00:00:58.579 --> 00:01:01.700 has tried to silence. Let's get into the ominous 00:01:01.700 --> 00:01:05.840 case and death of Lori Malloy. Let me paint this 00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:08.840 for you. Lori was found lying face down, completely 00:01:08.840 --> 00:01:11.439 naked, bruises clear as day on her thighs and 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:14.439 arm. But it's the hair that will never leave 00:01:14.439 --> 00:01:17.359 me. Her dark brown hair, torn out in clumps, 00:01:17.459 --> 00:01:20.109 literally all over the apartment. wrapped around 00:01:20.109 --> 00:01:22.829 her fingers, around one foot, even a strange 00:01:22.829 --> 00:01:26.530 little bracelet on her wrist. There was a clump 00:01:26.530 --> 00:01:28.969 of someone else's light brown hair stuffed in 00:01:28.969 --> 00:01:32.250 a shoe on a table by the door, like it had been 00:01:32.250 --> 00:01:36.750 yanked clean out of a scalp. It's no wonder detectives 00:01:36.750 --> 00:01:39.709 took one look at this and said, we've got a homicide 00:01:39.709 --> 00:01:44.430 here. They processed 14 pieces of evidence that 00:01:44.430 --> 00:01:47.989 night. Towels with mucus, kids' clothes, sheets, 00:01:48.209 --> 00:01:51.730 that hair, those glasses. They even did a sexual 00:01:51.730 --> 00:01:54.750 assault kit, which should tell you just how suspicious 00:01:54.750 --> 00:01:58.689 they really were. See, it was more than just 00:01:58.689 --> 00:02:02.010 the physical evidence, too. Lori had a complicated, 00:02:02.269 --> 00:02:05.430 often violent, relationship history. I mean, 00:02:05.510 --> 00:02:08.409 her marriage to scary, hairy Mariano had just 00:02:08.409 --> 00:02:11.449 ended weeks before. And there were police reports 00:02:11.449 --> 00:02:14.289 of domestic violence, restraining orders, threats. 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:18.860 Her life wasn't as exactly calm leading up to 00:02:18.860 --> 00:02:23.180 that night. All of this, the open doors, the 00:02:23.180 --> 00:02:26.180 appliances unplugged, hair everywhere. What's 00:02:26.180 --> 00:02:29.599 that saying? The house was almost staged, like 00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:31.900 something you'd see in those cases where little 00:02:31.900 --> 00:02:36.300 details tell a much bigger story. Actually, I 00:02:36.300 --> 00:02:39.439 read another one a few years back. A woman gone 00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:42.219 missing, but every light in her house was left 00:02:42.219 --> 00:02:45.620 on and the sheets were stripped. When you see 00:02:45.620 --> 00:02:48.699 a scene that strange, you know, your gut tells 00:02:48.699 --> 00:02:51.460 you the truth isn't what's on the surface. Where 00:02:51.460 --> 00:02:55.060 was I going with this? Oh, right, the point is, 00:02:55.240 --> 00:02:58.659 police knew from the very first night. This was 00:02:58.659 --> 00:03:02.879 anything but natural. Now, here's where things 00:03:02.879 --> 00:03:07.439 take a turn. Dr. F. John Krolikovsky. You've 00:03:07.439 --> 00:03:09.780 probably heard that name if you follow cold cases 00:03:09.780 --> 00:03:12.879 in New England. He was the medical examiner called 00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:15.360 in the next day. And well, he ended up being 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:18.099 stripped of his credentials in not one, but two 00:03:18.099 --> 00:03:20.840 states for exactly this sort of thing. But I'm 00:03:20.840 --> 00:03:25.319 jumping ahead. Dr. Krolikovsky officially decided 00:03:25.319 --> 00:03:29.400 Lori died of natural causes, specifically hypertrophic 00:03:29.400 --> 00:03:34.139 cardiomyopathy, a rare heart condition. But when 00:03:34.139 --> 00:03:36.360 you look at his own notes, there's basically 00:03:36.360 --> 00:03:39.960 no major damage to Lori's heart. And he skips 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:42.639 over the hair, doesn't even mention the state 00:03:42.639 --> 00:03:47.090 of her scalp. Toxicology comes back clean, even 00:03:47.090 --> 00:03:49.490 though the file labels her as a known cocaine 00:03:49.490 --> 00:03:53.909 user. I might be wrong, but how do you miss physical 00:03:53.909 --> 00:03:56.389 signs of violence and call it a natural death? 00:03:57.650 --> 00:04:00.330 So just like that, the homicide investigation 00:04:00.330 --> 00:04:03.849 was wrapped up and closed. The cops had to take 00:04:03.849 --> 00:04:07.069 the ME's ruling as gospel. I think most people 00:04:07.069 --> 00:04:10.569 don't realize. One report like that, and the 00:04:10.569 --> 00:04:14.199 whole system just grinds to a halt. If the doctor 00:04:14.199 --> 00:04:18.639 says, natural causes, suddenly detectives are 00:04:18.639 --> 00:04:22.680 told to stand down, evidence is boxed up, families 00:04:22.680 --> 00:04:27.139 get told there's nothing more to do. Dr. Thomas 00:04:27.139 --> 00:04:30.100 Andrew, a forensic pathologist up in New Hampshire, 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:33.519 even said that if the cardiac findings weren't 00:04:33.519 --> 00:04:36.360 all there, the entire death certificate is built 00:04:36.360 --> 00:04:40.560 on sand. He laid it out, plain as day. Without 00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:43.500 a thorough workup, without tissue samples, and 00:04:43.500 --> 00:04:46.339 the right kind of examination, the case should 00:04:46.339 --> 00:04:50.879 have stayed open. But it didn't. So here's where 00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:54.180 everything changes. Lauren Malloy, Lori's daughter. 00:04:54.399 --> 00:04:57.240 She was just a toddler when her mom died, and 00:04:57.240 --> 00:04:59.360 for most of her life she accepted what everyone 00:04:59.360 --> 00:05:04.220 told her. Her mother's heart just stopped. Except 00:05:04.220 --> 00:05:07.500 in 2020, Lauren gets this message out of the 00:05:07.500 --> 00:05:10.500 blue from one of her mom's old friends. The friend 00:05:10.500 --> 00:05:12.939 says, hey, what you've heard all these years, 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:15.759 it isn't true. Lori was murdered and you need 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:19.500 to look at the case again. That was it for Lauren. 00:05:19.720 --> 00:05:22.800 She pulled all the old files. She went searching 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:25.939 for answers and refused to drop it, even after 00:05:25.939 --> 00:05:29.839 decades of doors being slammed in her face. She 00:05:29.839 --> 00:05:32.000 brought the case to the Rhode Island Medical 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:34.040 Examiner's office and you know what happened? 00:05:34.420 --> 00:05:37.279 The acting chief said he flat out refuted the 00:05:37.279 --> 00:05:42.129 old autopsy. said hypertrophic cardiomyopathy 00:05:42.129 --> 00:05:45.430 wasn't the cause, said there wasn't any clear 00:05:45.430 --> 00:05:48.589 reason for Lori's death at all, which is a strange 00:05:48.589 --> 00:05:51.569 thing for a state doctor to admit when reexamining 00:05:51.569 --> 00:05:57.449 a 30 -year -old file. Lauren kept pushing, petitioned 00:05:57.449 --> 00:06:00.709 for Lori's body to be exhumed, tracked down new 00:06:00.709 --> 00:06:04.129 forensic experts, and went to the press. Her 00:06:04.129 --> 00:06:06.589 mother's case became public for the first time 00:06:06.589 --> 00:06:09.779 in decades. then made its way to national coverage. 00:06:10.860 --> 00:06:14.339 Meanwhile, old pieces of evidence from 1993, 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:18.740 like the assault kit, miraculously hadn't been 00:06:18.740 --> 00:06:21.899 tossed out. Everything was on the table for fresh 00:06:21.899 --> 00:06:25.040 analysis. I've talked with families who've walked 00:06:25.040 --> 00:06:27.819 this same path, and look, long -term advocacy 00:06:27.819 --> 00:06:31.079 feels like living life in waiting rooms and inboxes. 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:34.519 Lauren once described the wait for forensic results 00:06:34.519 --> 00:06:37.560 as like, holding your breath not knowing when 00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:41.040 you'll get to breathe again. Day 50, day 100. 00:06:41.399 --> 00:06:44.420 She even posted little countdowns to social media, 00:06:44.699 --> 00:06:47.279 just so people could see how the not knowing 00:06:47.279 --> 00:06:52.100 eats you alive. Even now, more than three decades 00:06:52.100 --> 00:06:54.879 after Lori's death, Lauren's still waiting for 00:06:54.879 --> 00:06:59.300 answers. Her mom's body exhumed, new tissue tests 00:06:59.300 --> 00:07:02.160 pending, attorneys and detectives passing the 00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:06.199 case back and forth. But that hope? It never 00:07:06.199 --> 00:07:09.199 went out. And you know, for every case like this, 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:11.199 where a daughter stands up and refuses to be 00:07:11.199 --> 00:07:13.639 ignored, there's a whole set of families quietly 00:07:13.639 --> 00:07:16.439 doing that work in the background. Every voice 00:07:16.439 --> 00:07:20.959 matters, even if change takes years. Alright, 00:07:21.139 --> 00:07:23.540 I could talk about this for hours, but that's 00:07:23.540 --> 00:07:25.220 where we'll leave Lori Malloy's story today. 00:07:25.500 --> 00:07:28.399 On the edge of hope, with justice not forgotten, 00:07:28.680 --> 00:07:33.600 just waiting to be claimed. That's it for today's 00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:36.540 episode. The questions remain and the search 00:07:36.540 --> 00:07:40.660 continues because every lost soul deserves answers 00:07:40.660 --> 00:07:44.839 and every story deserves to be heard. What are 00:07:44.839 --> 00:07:47.660 your thoughts? What do you believe happened? 00:07:48.180 --> 00:07:51.019 Share your voice because sometimes the smallest 00:07:51.019 --> 00:07:55.040 detail can spark the biggest breakthrough. I'm 00:07:55.040 --> 00:07:57.699 Sammy and this is Beyond the Silence, Whispers 00:07:57.699 --> 00:08:01.180 Across America. Thank you for listening. Stay 00:08:01.180 --> 00:08:02.920 safe and I'll see you next time.