Hello.
You gotta go.
Hello.
Oh, like, Clarice?
Hello.
I am Koelle.
And I'm Kenna.
Welcome back to diagnosing a killer.
We are so close to each other right now.
It's not even funny at all.
It's weird.
I should have brought some gum.
I know.
Jude yesterday at work seriously was so funny.
We were in pre-shift.
And I leaned over and whispered something to Clay.
I was like, something.
He goes, whoa, your breast smells like onions.
I was like, sorry.
I was like, does anybody have a mint?
It's like, I felt so new.
Don't go through.
So we have some news, obviously Ka'well is back this week.
And she is going to be here for good.
So we have a little bit of change in our co-hostery.
Dana is the love of my life.
She just has a really busy schedule.
And I appreciate that.
I respect that.
She's a badass bitch woman.
And she's going to be on for some episodes when she wants to.
And she has a good case and stuff like that.
But just plan on hearing a lot more from Ka'well.
And of course, moi.
In my throat, just gurgled when I said that.
So if you heard that in the microphone.
Moi.
Love you, Dana.
So a couple of exciting things that has happened recently.
I've gotten a lot of good feedback about our podcast.
Woo.
Me too.
There was a couple of my friends at the bar, the regulars.
Just two guys hanging in a hot tub.
Five feet apart.
Because I'm not going to stay in the rest.
Michael and Jesse both said, last night I was at the bar.
And they both said, I listened to a couple episodes,
like one or two or whatever.
Like it was so good.
Michael was saying, he really loved the jokes that we would make.
And the banter.
And he said that the whole lack of word choice when I said turn to bligh eye with Andre Thomas.
I don't know if you've heard that one yet.
But he's blind and has never had eyeballs.
And I said that.
And he was like, that's funny.
To me, like gaj out his own eyes.
Yeah.
It's really terrible.
It was a poor choice of words.
It was.
But he was like, oh my gosh, like that cracked me up.
Because obviously, like you were trying to be nice and you know, came across like,
and he goes, and then the bongos thing, like at one point my mic, you know, I'm like, yeah.
Yeah.
So that was funny.
And then Jesse.
Just playing the bongos.
Yes.
Jesse actually gave us a really good compliment.
He said that he really enjoyed the accuracy of things, the professionalism of it all.
So I really appreciate that.
So thank you guys both so much for that awesome feedback because that makes me feel good.
Like people that I'm not like poking, hey, listen to the podcast, listen to the podcast.
And then they just take it upon themselves to do it.
Right.
Hell yeah.
You know.
Yeah.
One of my good friends, Tawny, she was like, I love the flow of things.
It just sounds so cool.
And she said that she binged it.
She works from home.
So she was binging it.
Yeah.
And so she's excited to take her more.
Sorry.
Shout out to Brianna as well because Brianna is a good old, old friend of mine.
We have our own separate lives.
We haven't really been in contact every once in a while, the last couple of years.
But she reached out to me on Facebook and was like, dude, I saw that you posted about a podcast.
I was like, no way.
And then I listened to it.
She was like, I binged on the way home and I'm really upset that I have to wait for another episode.
That makes me feel so good.
So thank you guys all for the feedback and actually listening to us.
I was like, no one's going to listen to this except for mom and dad.
Not even.
I don't think dad listens.
Mom hasn't listened to the latest episode here.
I was like, have you listened to it?
She's like, I was napping.
I was napping.
It's much more exciting to listen to something when it's like, I mean, I've listened to all of our episodes
after we record them and I'm literally here.
But I'm like, it's interesting to me because I'm like, I want to make sure I sound okay.
Me?
Even though I'm always judging.
We're going to keep trying to pump out content regularly for you guys because I know there's like a little bit.
It's not as consistent as we want it to be.
So we're definitely going to try to start pre-recording a lot more so that we already have stuff set up for you guys.
And I actually saw on the on the RSS feed, like where I put all the podcast information and stuff,
you could actually upload podcasts and preset them to get pushed out at a certain date.
So I literally don't even have to go on that date if I want to.
I can be like, oh, post this on this.
Yeah.
So that's cool.
Oh, also we're on Spotify now.
Oh, yeah.
So yeah.
So if you don't have, I've heard of a lot of people say, well, what if I don't have Apple?
You know, I'm on Apple Podcasts and I don't want to go to that website every time.
You can't really manipulate the fast forward or rewind on the RSS.com.
I don't think I mean you can, but it's not as easy as Spotify makes it.
Right.
So we are on Spotify, of course, diagnosing a killer.
I also set up the email.
Yay.
Finally.
So the only people that have emailed me are Buzzsprout.
So please email us because I'd like to hear from someone other than a robot.
Send Bob's and Vegean.
That's what you're going to get.
People asking if you want to join eHarmony.
No, thanks.
Yeah.
Like super excited about all of that stuff happening.
We're again, we're going to be trying to post a lot more content, you know, a lot more frequently.
So thank you guys for bearing with us.
We're through our kind of testing stage for lack of a better phrase.
Yeah.
So also my drink of choice today, if anybody was curious, is Yerba Mate.
Oh, it's like an herbal caffeinated tea, which really doesn't exist.
But it's trying to stay away from coffee and black tea.
Sponsors.
Yeah.
How would you say that?
Goyaki?
Goyaki.
I don't know.
Organic herbal mate.
The rebel berry is the best.
Ooh.
Let's try that.
I personally have indulged in coffee already today.
I woke up super early and to me super early is like 9 a.m.
And I went to meet Onii at the gym.
Shout out Onii.
She kicked my ass and I don't think I'm going to be able to walk tomorrow.
Uh oh.
So glad we're doing this now.
Yeah.
Because I'm going to be bedridden tomorrow.
Oh wait, I work at double so I'm not.
Oh wait.
Anyways, that's enough small talk.
People are going to be like turning this off because you're not getting to the gates.
Like what are you doing?
I'm so bored right now.
Literally, I don't care about your freaking lives.
All right.
So I have a doozy of a case.
It's another Texas case.
So this took place in McAllen, Texas, in the valley.
Oh.
One of our listeners actually suggested that we do this case because they personally knew the
killer involved in this case and actually had multiple conversations with them at one
point in their lives.
The case that I'm going to talk about today is that of Monica Melissa Patterson.
She went by Melissa Patterson so I'm going to refer to her as Melissa throughout this.
So I'm going to first kind of set the scene, kind of bring it forward, and then I'm going to bring
you back.
So at 9 40 a.m. on January 28th of 2015 in New Braunfels, Texas,
Mark Nell is getting ready for work when he gets a phone call from McAllen, Texas,
where his 96 year old father lives.
So he gets a phone call from that, you know, side of, you can obviously tell by the area.
By the area code.
It was actually his father's neighbor across the street informing him that there was a fire truck
and an ambulance at his dad's house.
So he immediately, I know, right, scary, he immediately gets in the car and begins his,
you know, four hour trip because he's in New Braunfels.
It's going to take about four hours to get there.
Yeah, I just want to say that everybody should be kind to their neighbors, especially in 2015.
I probably only ever knew like maybe one of my neighbors at that time.
Mm hmm.
But yeah, they'll always have your back.
No, same, actually, I was living in New Braunfels.
Bring cookies every Christmas.
Yeah.
Straight up because they're going to be the ones that are looking out for your shit.
Oh, absolutely.
And so he begins his four hour trip south to McAllen.
He keeps the neighbor on the phone while he's driving down there for the whole time to give
him updates.
Well, then he realizes, oh, wait, my dad has a, you know, caretaker, full time caretaker,
by the name of Melissa Patterson.
So he texts her to get an update while she immediately calls him and says that as far as
she knows, his full time housekeeper that she had actually hired for him, her name is Celestina
Marscorro, had called 911 and saying that Marty had a heart attack and that the paramedics had
come by to try to revive him.
So Melissa's on her way.
So she wasn't there?
No, no, no, she's on her way at this point.
And the housekeeper has informed her that this is happening.
OK.
Now, Melissa Patterson finally arrives to the scene within minutes.
And it was while Mark was on the way to McAllen that unfortunately, Melissa called him back
and gave him the news and I quote, your father just died.
Very cold.
Yeah.
Kind of like, oh, like.
By the way.
I'm so sorry.
Your father just died.
Yeah, like you don't want to sprinkle any, you know, sincerity in there.
So that is the scene that I want to paint.
Now I'm going to go back and tell you what kind of a person Marty Nell was.
This is the father that died.
And Marty and Mark.
96, that's a long life.
Yeah.
Marty and Mark obviously very two similar names.
Just to be clear, Marty is the man that passed away and Mark is his son.
So Marty Nell was actually raised by a West Virginia coal miner during the Depression.
Wow.
And he actually began working in the coal mine himself when he got into high school.
Did he get the black lung?
I don't know.
Obviously not.
He was 96.
Yeah, right.
96, man.
By all accounts, this guy was just tough as nails.
Like just one of those, you know, hard work in grandpa's.
I guarantee you his hands were like rock hard, you know, callots.
Yeah.
So during this time that he was working at the coal mine and he was in high school,
like I said, he met a fellow classmate, Penny Fletcher,
and immediately knew that they were meant to be together.
I know.
High school sweetheart's two a T.
I love that name Penny.
Penny, isn't that so cute?
We love a Penny.
Everyone around them, of course, knew they were soulmates.
It was just like, I mean, by all accounts, everyone was like, they're like,
you can tell they were together forever.
Now in the summer of 1941, the couple got married.
And then of course, a few months later is when the United States entered World War II.
So Marty immediately enlisted in the army.
He took it upon himself to immediately enlist himself.
He actually had pilot skills.
So he was almost instantly promoted because of course they need people.
He was almost instantly promoted to sergeant and he was all of a sudden training paratroopers.
Damn.
Right.
What a badass.
Like seriously, it's just one of those like badass World War II vets, you know, like,
you could talk to him for hours and just let's go kick some ass.
Right.
At this time, Penny was actually working as well as an operator at an up and coming telecommunications
company.
She made a very wise choice and decided to take stock instead of pay for this company.
So they're going to pay her in stock for the company.
Well, they actually tried to promote her multiple times,
but she declined because it would have required her to move and she didn't want to do that,
especially with Marty's situation in the army.
Yeah.
So finally, a couple years later, after the war ended, the company finally convinced Penny to
take the chief operator position at this branch in McAllen.
So that's when they moved to McAllen, Texas.
Wow.
They both moved here.
Marty retired from the army and he worked as a mail carrier,
still giving back to the community.
God, this guy.
Just a sweet old man.
At this point, well, he wasn't even old at this point.
He was, you know, a sweet young man.
I'll say.
So they had the perfect marriage by all accounts, but they wanted something more, of course.
Unfortunately, they were unable to conceive a child on their own, so they decided to adopt.
And then in 1953, they adopted Mark Mel.
I know, right?
Marty and Mark.
Oh, my God.
So cute.
I was going to say, I was like, oh my God, it's like Carl and Ellie.
Oh my God.
I'm going to cry on the podcast.
So by Mark's accounts, oh my God, this is like, you're really going to get me.
His parents were just like the best.
He said that they sang and danced and laughed a lot while he was growing up.
I know.
It's like breaking my heart.
And he was the only child?
Yes, he was the only child.
Well, it's really expensive to adopt.
Oh, of course, especially in the, you know, fifties, you know.
And so yeah, they just seemed like the sweetest little couple, like the best parents,
like always had joy.
The American dream.
Yeah, joy and laughter in the house and all that.
Now, by 1980, Mark, of course, was grown up and he had his own, he started his own family.
This is when the couple began to think about retirement.
Do you remember that company that Penny worked for?
I told you, it was an up and coming telecommunications company.
Southwestern Bell.
AT&T.
Well, Penny's choice to take stock instead of pay was, of course, a wise one,
and they instantly became millionaires because of this.
Fuck yeah, Penny.
I have stock in like in stuff, but I'm like, I never gonna see a time.
I get so sad when I check on my doge coins.
I'm like, ew, 23 cents of stock.
Literally.
Like, ugh, terrible.
Even though they had all this, they had come into all this money,
they really wanted to make it a point to live modestly.
They really wanted to spend time with their grandkids and just continue to stay as active as
possible.
Yeah, invest the money into their life.
Of course.
And frivolous things.
Of course.
And they're, of course, getting older at this point, and so they want to make sure that
they're seizing the moment.
Perpe Diem.
Marty would actually get up at 4 a.m. every day just to exercise,
just to take advantage of the day.
This guy is like a true American hero.
Literally.
Marty for fucking president, 20-20.
By 2014, this is the year 2014 now, the couple approached their 90s.
Of course, their age has started to catch up with them.
Unfortunately, Penny fell one day and fractured her pelvis.
I'm sorry, but at a certain age, there's really no coming back from that.
It's terrifying what happens.
But yeah, so she fell and fractured her pelvis.
Fractured her pelvis.
And she was in the hospital for quite some time, of course.
This is obviously very stressful on Marty.
I want to be like, Maddie.
Maddie.
Stressful on Maddie.
But by September 2014, Penny was cleared to return home.
So she was doing really good.
Marty was of course still worried and he was getting to the point where he thought
that he wasn't going to be able to care for her on his own.
Because their age, of course.
This is when their nurse suggested that she go to a place called the Comfort House.
Okay.
Now, the Comfort House is where the couple would meet the monster who ruined their lives,
Melissa Patterson.
She ran the Comfort House.
She was the head owner or whatever.
Well, I don't know if it was the owners, the non-profits.
It's kind of like, she was on the board.
But she was like the head board member, I guess.
She was the HBIC.
Yeah.
Yes.
Well, H-C-I-C.
H-C-I-C.
Get it?
You got her.
Now, we're going to talk about Melissa Patterson for a little bit.
Okay.
What?
Just look over and be like, can't breathe.
You got her.
Sorry.
Are you listening, Melissa?
I just dissed you.
You got some ice for that burn?
Seriously.
All right.
Back to the story.
Now, we're going to talk about Melissa Patterson for a little bit, as much as I don't want to.
But it's important to the case.
I couldn't find an actual birth date for her.
All I could find was that she was born in either 1968 or 1969.
She probably lied about her age a few times.
Well, no.
They were telling me, or not telling me about her age.
Well, no, they were telling me, or not telling me.
And the research that I did, they said how old she was then.
So I kind of did the math.
Yeah.
And yeah.
So 1968 or 1969.
So she was born to Hector or Tito.
We're going to call him Tito.
That was what his nickname was.
And Bertha Palacios in McAllen, Texas, where she was born.
She was the youngest of three with an older sister, Marciela Garcia,
and older brother, Jamie J. Palacios.
Her mother, Bertha, is a former far San Juan Alamo
Independent School District, or the PSJAISD Administrator.
It's a mouthful.
And Tito is the former Haldongo County Commissioner
and former San Juan Mayor.
Oh, wow.
So they're both very politically involved in the county.
Very well known around town.
I really couldn't find a lot on her early life,
or even her career before she applied to this comfort house place.
I did read that she was a speech pathologist formally,
but I didn't literally had anything about her childhood.
I couldn't find any of that, which honestly,
it doesn't really fucking matter.
So she applied to be on the board of directors at this place
that we'd know as the comfort house.
It was a hospice, or it still is.
It's a hospice care facility that's been around since 89,
and they specialize in caring for terminally ill patients
that have four months or less to live, unfortunately.
Oh, man.
I know.
I could not work at this.
So it's strictly like hospice care?
Yeah.
I could not work at a place like that.
Me neither.
She was hired into this company by one Paul Garcia,
who was the treasurer of the board,
and who would actually later testify against her in trial.
Oh.
Yeah.
And I bet he feels like an idiot for hiring her.
But how do you know that?
You don't know something like that.
Especially if somebody doesn't have a previous record,
and like you said, it's hard to find anything about her.
Yeah.
So she probably didn't have a previous record.
Otherwise, Paul would probably be taken into account.
Well, it was wiped clean by her political polls and her family.
That's true.
Or it could have been.
She used to get in the way with shit,
and we'll find out later that this is not
going to be the first time that she's introduced
to criminal activity and involved in it.
So.
Da-da-da.
Shuck it.
Now, Marty would actually visit the Comfort House
several times a week, of course, to see his wife.
And he developed a friendship with a bunch of other staff
members, Melissa being the most prominent of those friendships.
She would give him food and ear to talk to while he visited.
Just became a friend to him pretty much.
By October, Penny actually seemed to be improving.
She was putting on weight, and she was recovering quite well.
So the couple's anniversary was actually on October 23rd,
and the family was planning on all going down there
to celebrate with them.
They were celebrating their like 73rd anniversary,
like something really outrageous.
Like, so cool.
However, on the day of the anniversary party,
Penny took a sudden turn for the worse.
This is when Melissa contacted the family directly
and told them that she didn't think that Penny was going to last.
The day of their anniversary?
The day of their anniversary party.
Oh.
The day that that party was scheduled.
Yeah.
Also, she didn't think she was going to last
really sentimental and empathetic choice of words there.
I don't think that she's going to last.
Yeah.
I'm sorry, but like day old food doesn't last.
Yeah.
This is what you say about a person.
Yeah.
Right.
The family was led to the room.
So the family had come down, of course, to McCallan for, you know,
they were led to the for whatever.
For, you know, whatever.
You know, whatever they're together.
After we just condemned her for being so coarse.
Damn it.
The family was led to the room where Penny was.
Apparently, she was having a lot of trouble breathing,
and it was a really hard scene.
She was horrible.
The son said that she was like almost like croaking.
Like she was really like shallow breath,
like couldn't really catch her breath.
I know it was really, really hard.
And then she unfortunately passed away around 9 p.m.
So this was like, whoa, like she was doing really good.
Homegirl was kicking it.
Gaining weight and then all of the sudden it seems.
Now everybody chalked this up to old age.
I mean, she was in her 90s, right?
Yeah.
Of course, Marty was beyond devastated.
I could not even imagine spending literally my entire life
with somebody and then losing them,
no matter how old and how much of a great life we had.
I mean, literally they spent their entire lives together.
Well, because of this, he of course started
to become more introverted and his mental and emotional side
began to dwindle with that, of course.
It honestly reminds me of our,
there's some grandparents on our mom's side
that that happened with, you know,
the wife passed away, unfortunately,
and within three months, so did the husband,
just because of losing that.
Like you're losing half of yourself.
Right.
It's awful.
Mm-hmm.
I, oh, I can't imagine that.
So Marty wasn't a resident of the comfort house,
like I mentioned, but Melissa actually continued
to care for him at his home after this,
because, you know, she wanted to be there for him or whatever.
Isn't that, isn't there like a,
like a conflict of interest with that though?
Like a code of ethics?
Yeah, like I have a friend that has,
that's employed by a company to perform a certain task
or a certain job, but if she were to like outsource
and do at home care or whatever,
that that, she's, she can do that.
Well, the thing is, it's like working for Uber and Lyft.
Yeah, I see what you're saying.
The thing is, is that she wasn't working for him.
She was just taking it upon herself to go and care for him.
She had hired a housekeeper for him
outside of the comfort house.
Oh.
You know what I mean?
She wasn't using the resources of the company to help him.
She was taking it upon herself to go to his house.
But is she getting paid to do it?
No, I don't think so.
I really don't.
Because she was, that's what I'm saying.
No, I don't think she was.
I think she just was trying to, at least,
I mean, I don't know, at this point it could have been genuine,
but she's trying to establish that she cares about this gentleman.
Yeah, she's trying to possibly portray that she has.
Yeah, but she find out later if she doesn't care about him at all,
which is very unfortunate.
Well, you know, that's just not gonna last.
Yeah.
So she was actually even, she told the family
she was even planning on spending Thanksgiving with him that year at his house,
which I was like, oh, that's kind of sweet.
It would be if you were a nice, freaking human.
I don't find that shady.
I'm sorry.
I would find that just as a, if that was my father or something,
I would find that fucking shady.
But, I mean, you want to believe that everyone's good
and you want to believe that everyone's genuine.
And at least you have someone to talk to
and someone to come around and check up on him.
And especially since Mark lived so far.
Exactly. This was on the board of this amazing
non-profit organization.
And she was also pending as nurse.
So, yeah, it makes sense.
Yeah.
This is when Melissa hired that housekeeper that I spoke about earlier.
Okay.
What was her name?
Celestina Marscorro.
She actually hired her to be at Marty's house
while she couldn't be there.
So this guy had pretty much somebody at the house with him at all times.
All the time.
Okay.
Okay. Now, okay, so we're back to January 28th, 2015.
This is the story I told in the beginning
when the son Mark was heading to McCallan to check on his dad.
So when Melissa Patterson arrived to the scene,
again, Mark is still on his way,
she immediately sees the paramedics giving life-saving procedures to Marty.
And she tells them to stop.
She goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, stop, stop.
And hands them a piece of paper with a signed DNR.
Oh my God, no.
No. The DNR looked accurate. It looked legit.
So the paramedics had no choice but to stop all life-saving procedures.
And unfortunately, Marty passed away a little bit later.
Oh no.
This is when Melissa called Mark and told him.
Your dad just died.
Kind of like that.
I was imagining she said it like that.
Yeah.
Now, after this happened, police, of course, were at the scene
and they began to try to get any kind of story from the housekeeper
because the housekeeper was the one that called.
She said that it was like any other morning.
She had made Marty breakfast and then she started to do some cleaning.
And then she said that she arrived back to the chicken, the kitchen.
Check on him.
She returned to the chicken coop.
So she said that she had arrived back to the kitchen to check on him
and he was slumped over.
Well, of course, she's freaked out.
Oh my God.
You know, I don't know if she tried to, you know, check on him or whatever.
And she obviously immediately called 911.
So by the time that Mark arrived,
this is four hours later, the coroner had already transported Marty to the Mord.
He literally didn't.
I don't know if that's proceed like standard procedure or whatever.
But when it's when it's, in my opinion, an unassuming like no foul play death,
which was what they thought at the beginning.
Why would you like just you can't?
It's not like you're taking the body out for evidence, you know,
like you couldn't just leave him there for just a little bit longer
for a son to like be able to say or at least like put him in a well,
keep him there.
Melissa was also controlling the scene.
Exactly.
And so she was probably like, get this guy out of here, you know.
By all accounts, it made sense to everybody that Marty had a heart attack due to his age.
And three days later, they did a military graveside service for Marty with the 21 gun salute.
If you've ever been to a military service, it is very emotional.
I've been the one, my dear friend, David passed away a couple of years ago,
and it was very hard.
But it's a really cool thing to witness, unfortunately.
I don't want to say cool, but you know, it's a touching thing to witness.
Although Marty had been laid to rest, the investigation into his death was just beginning.
Because they're like, oh, I mean, I don't know.
Yeah, he's, you know, old and you know, probably had a heart attack, but maybe it was like some
questioning going on.
Yeah.
On the morning of February 24th, 2015, so this is almost a month later.
A month later.
The housekeeper, Celestina, actually came forward with a startling confession.
I know, right?
Your face, you're like, what?
What?
She showed up with the Texas Rangers headquarters in Westlaco and asked to speak with somebody.
She told them that she had witnessed the murder of Marty now.
What?
Yeah.
A month later.
You know, I, okay, I didn't want to accuse her, accuse her at first, but when she called 911 and
said that he was having a heart attack, then she's saying that he was slumped over.
So which is it?
Like, was he grasping in his arm or his chest?
And that's why she thought it was a heart attack?
Well, I think she was saying he's not alive, it was probably a heart attack.
It's what she was like, why would you assume?
It's like, why would you assume?
Like, it would have been an aneurysm.
It could have been a blood clot.
Yeah, or whatever.
Yeah.
So according to Celestina, on that morning, Marty had received a phone call from Melissa.
There was an argument and he was very clearly upset.
Well, then she claims that a short time later, Melissa showed up at the house where the argument
continued.
Melissa actually asked Celestina to step out of the house into the garage while they were talking.
Excuse yourself, go to the garage.
Literally.
That's what made me, oh, that like cringes me out like, fuck you, like I'm not going to
leave, you're being rude to this poor old man.
Well, when Celestina stepped out into the garage, she saw a man by whom she knew by the name of
Mario sitting in Melissa's car parked outside.
He had worked odd jobs at the comfort house and he had like been around.
I don't think that Celestina worked for the comfort house, but he had been around the house,
you know, fixing stuff in the past.
Right, like clearly Melissa had had him come over a few times.
So she recognized him.
Yeah, but she knew him by Mario.
Then after this happened, she noticed him or whatever.
A few minutes later, Melissa came into the garage and motioned for Mario to come into
the house and he entered the residence.
Then, this is still all Celestina's story.
This is her accounts of things.
She tried to enter the house, but Melissa stopped her from going into the house and then
Melissa followed Mario into the house.
As Mario was walking into the house, Celestina relays that she overheard Melissa say, quote,
do what you have to do to Mario.
Oh my God.
Celestina then said that she heard a struggle and then a few minutes later,
Melissa and Mario came back into the garage.
Melissa then instructed Celestina to wait 30 to 45 minutes before calling 911.
Oh my God.
What a calculated bitch.
And they both threatened her life if she didn't comply with what they were telling her to do.
Holy crap.
Like seriously, what would you do in that situation?
I'd be terrified.
Like you just killed somebody.
Yeah.
You're not lying.
It's too late.
One of which is, I mean, I don't know if he's like Karl Pansrand size or not,
but that's what I imagine.
Big ol' bitch.
The big ol' bitch.
You want a job?
Yeah.
So she says that when she made the call, she followed the instructions of Melissa to a T,
which is exactly why she said he had a heart attack.
Yeah.
And she held onto this for how long?
A month.
Oh no.
I mean, I probably wouldn't flip that entire month.
Yeah.
That was me.
Of course she was terrified.
Well, the story seemed kind of far-fetched to the Rangers.
They were like, that's really specific.
That's a lot of detail, you know.
But they were like, all right, like we'll-
She can't find a happy medium.
Right.
It's like, no, he just had a heart attack.
And then it's this long dramatic story.
A long story.
Yeah.
It's like that.
The truth is in between.
That Kevin Hart, he's like, I make an excuse for everything.
He's like, if I'm late, I have an excuse.
And he lays out this entire long scenario at the end of it.
He's like, anyways, that's not five minutes late to work.
It's like this whole long story.
He's like, anyways.
So the Rangers had noted that she was actually too calm telling this story,
according to them.
And that the 911 call that she made was also very calm.
And they were like, if you would just witness to murder 30 to 45 minutes prior to this,
wouldn't you be a little shaky in your voice or a little bit more like, oh my god,
like some- like I would probably try to follow their instructions.
This is just me personally.
Yeah.
Follow their instructions, but tip off the paramedics, like you need to get here now or whatever.
Yeah.
I could see that, especially if you just witnessed a murder.
And even if you were instructed to say that it's a heart attack or whatever,
you still just witnessed a murder.
You'd still be very upset.
Yeah.
Although 30 to 45 minutes seems specific, but who's to say Melissa wouldn't just check her
phone for the records to make sure that she actually waited that long.
That's true.
Instead of just calling right away to the left, which I probably would have tried to do.
Celestina probably took a nap.
You know what?
I'm just going to just rest this off.
Sleep this one.
Yeah.
So now they're thinking that she might have something to hide because her story seems a
little far-fetched.
Well, the Rangers do their due diligence.
And I love this because you know, some, and it's unlikely in the same county,
but you always hear stories about like police stations that are too like prideful to work
with each other or like, oh, well, I'm a sheriff and I'm a Ranger and you're just a cop.
Like I'm not going to bring even on this investment.
You know, you kind of, and I'm like, a jurisdiction.
Yeah.
Unfortunately, you hear things like that, but the Rangers did exactly what they should have
done and get on them.
They shared all that information that they got with the Hildago, Hildago, Hildago,
Hildago.
Yeah.
It's right here.
It says, hid all go.
So they shared all this information with the Hildago County Sheriff's Office and two days
later, investigators went to the Comfort House to speak with Melissa.
Damn.
They didn't want to tip her off because obviously that's a way to, you know, make
someone scared.
So they just spoke with her about Marty.
Marty.
She said that they kids.
She said that they became really close after Penny died and he trusted them.
After Penny died and he trusted her enough to confide in her about his wealth.
Remember, I told you they were millionaires.
The plot thickens.
This is all Melissa's words, not quoted, but yeah.
She said that he has invested wisely and still have, I'm sorry, he said, I've invested my
money really wisely and I still have millions of dollars from this stock that my wife had.
She said that he told her that he planned to leave some money to the church, some to the
Comfort House, some to his grandchildren, but none of it to his son Mark.
Mark. So she said this?
She said that he told her that I'm going to leave this much money here, this much money
here, but Mark isn't getting any of it.
His only son isn't going to get any of my money.
What?
Um.
It doesn't sound like a very Marty thing to say.
Yeah.
I feel like I know Marty pretty well.
Right?
Yeah.
We go way back.
Yeah.
Well, apparently, according to Melissa, him and his son's relationship was not very good
and she believed that the son was after his money for a while.
So she believed that his son was kind of minding his peas in queue, waiting for his dad to die
so that he could collect his inheritance or his life savings.
She also claimed that Marty asked her to be sure that Mark did not try to take advantage of him.
What?
I know.
I'm getting annoyed.
Also, according to her, Marty asked her to take over his affairs, asked her to be the
executive of his estate and also gave her power of attorney.
Where?
Where's the document, Melissa?
Melissa.
Where's the receipt?
Melissa then explained that she hired Celestina to look after him during the week,
but she said that just before he died, Marty called her mad and accused Celestina of stealing
from him.
And he was like, this housekeeper stealing from me, get your ass over here, blah, blah,
I got a bone to pick with you because you hired her.
There was cash missing from the house, but there was never any confirmation to say that it was
Celestina.
And Melissa told the police that she was going to the house to confront Celestina when she got
the call about Marty.
Convenient.
You know what, Melissa is just a do-gooder and she clearly is a victim in this as well.
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, I believe everything that she's saying.
Totally.
Oh, she's also crying and making it seem like she's very upset at this point.
Probably, probably, crocodile tears.
I put on a bunch of chapstick before this, so I didn't get in giraffe.
That's a really good idea.
I should do that next time.
I talk so much, I should put like a law zinjin.
So after receiving all of this information, the cops decided that they weren't going to
tell her about what Celestina had told them in an attempt to not piss her off because
she's clearly fabricating this whole thing.
I mean, they weren't like 100.
The woman's delusional.
Yeah, but they weren't like, they weren't, they didn't have anything to say that what
she was saying wasn't the truth.
Right.
You know, and so they were like, they wanted her side of things.
Yeah, absolutely.
Even if it was.
So now, based on all of this information, the investigators have three persons of interest.
The housekeeper Celestina, Melissa, and now the son Mark.
No.
I know.
They have to try.
They have to.
Or Mark.
They have to try out every lead though.
Of course.
Now on March 2nd of 2015, the Rangers requested an interview with Mark.
Of course, he was like, yeah, absolutely.
They interviewed him about the knowledge that he had on the death of his dad.
He said that after his mom died, he was worried about his dad's mental health declining
and also stated that on December 3rd, so this is like a month and a half before he died,
he actually called his dad and his dad was worried that he was trying to murder him and
steal his money.
So when I heard this, I was like, okay, so there is a little bit of accuracy to like,
of course, Mark's not lying about this.
He said that he called his dad and his dad was been saying, no, like you're trying to
murder me.
You're trying to steal my money.
Melissa had manipulated him into thinking that.
That's horrible.
And he started to believe that because his mental health was declining so rapidly.
Well, this like really made me upset.
So get ready.
Mark, of course, got upset when you heard this.
So he just said goodbye and hung up on his dad.
And that was the last time that he spoke to him.
No, don't say that.
Oh, that's heartbreaking.
I know.
Don't.
It's got to be so hard for Mark, though, because he probably doesn't understand why his father
is saying these things when he's known who his father is for so long.
Yeah.
Though, like he said, his mental deterioration and just was, it was really bad.
And of course, when you have somebody that's trying to manipulate someone else that's in
that state, you know, I can see why Marty would be confrontational or whatever.
But oh, poor Mark.
Dude, I know.
And I feel really bad too because, you know, at this point, he doesn't know, of course,
that anything like this is happening.
But in hindsight, had he known that Melissa was manipulating him, he would have never
spoken to his dad.
He probably would have been down there.
Yeah, of course, he would have been down there and stuff.
So that's just really upsetting because I can't imagine, you know, like, well, it's hard.
You know, he's the one that robbed them of that, of course, it's not Mark's fault, of course.
Now, like I said, this is the last time that they spoke.
He also said that after his father shut him out, that was when Melissa decided to step in
as the middleman, as the messenger.
So she would relay things that were happening with Marty to Mark.
So they were talking.
And that's why he felt confident enough to call her on that day that he unfortunately passed
away because they had been talking.
Yeah, she probably knew that if if Mark got savvy to what was happening, then she'd be
out.
Of course.
So she had to kind of repair that bridge.
Of course.
Now, it wasn't until Marty passed away, unfortunately, that Mark realized that Melissa had much,
much more control over him than he thought and much more control of the situation, not even just
over Marty.
He said that when he arrived at the house at the day that his dad died, he brought his son
Doug along with him, his adult son.
He said that they couldn't get in because the locks had been changed on the door on the
front door.
Yeah.
Now, Mark confronts Melissa about this, you know, when he has time later on.
She goes immediately to her car and grabs some paperwork and presents him with this new and
improved will of Marty's that shows that she is power of attorney.
And so she changed the locks so Mark couldn't get in to like take anything.
Yeah, I think that stuff to see to see any of that was happening.
Maybe maybe there was paperwork on the tables at some point and it was laid out and stuff
like that.
Yeah.
And she doesn't want him showing up unannounced and then her plans foiled.
Yeah.
Now, this is obviously when Mark and his son Doug became suspicious that she had manipulated
him to doing all of these things before he died, which was the case, unfortunately.
What was the will about it?
It named her power of attorney and named her executor in his death.
It's called like a transfer and transfer in death.
So all of his money is going to go to her if he if it when he dies.
That's horrible.
And he signed it.
So.
And it's one of those things that's like, can you really prove that he was what is it
called when you have to be like sane and well, that he's like a sound mind.
Yeah, exactly.
But can you really prove that when Mark literally is over here saying like he hasn't been like
he's his health and mental and emotional deteriorating.
Like he thought that Mark was coming for his money and it wasn't true and stuff.
So it.
Yeah.
So Doug and Mark start to put together the pieces of her sinister mind is what I put
because it's terrible.
Like how calculated and it's unfortunately like cunning, like an annoying way.
Yeah.
It's kind of smart.
Like the worst fucking way.
No, seriously.
I mean, it's not smart.
No, I know.
But she has all of her people that have ducks in a row.
Yeah, much.
Now, people want what they want.
They'll do anything to get it.
Yeah.
And yeah.
Now, after Mark told the authorities this, of course, he immediately was like, look at this
bitch.
They decided to take a closer look at Melissa Patterson again.
Of course, like I said earlier, her family was really politically involved in the community.
So they were able to get a lot of information about her background, which is a good thing
for the police.
Mm hmm.
Even though Melissa was acting a little strange, she actually kept her story really
straight from the get go.
Yeah.
She was not budging.
And so that was like giving them her more credit and they were like, maybe she is telling
the truth.
Like, I don't know.
Right.
So, Lesnina, however, was changing her story slightly, giving authorities something to
question.
So now they're leaning more towards her, which is like, no, like you're going in the wrong
direction.
So they bring her back for a second interview.
So she says once again that a man named Mario murdered Marty and Melissa was involved.
Well, they realized that Celestina was hired as an interference between Mark and Marty.
Get this.
Melissa instructed Celestina that if Mark called the house, she was not to let him talk
to Marty.
She was she was told to give him the run around so that he didn't talk to Marty so that Marty
didn't accidentally like say something that Melissa didn't want him to say.
Yeah.
So when asked about Mario, she reiterated it reiterates that she doesn't know his name
or his last name, pardon me.
But he had previously been at the Nell House, like I said earlier, to fix a few things.
So he had called her on her cell phone before.
So the police were able to track this phone number.
Sorry, phone number.
They were able to track this phone number and they actually just typed it into Facebook
and it just popped up.
Because this guy is straight.
Yeah.
He's like, here I am.
Not hired for the brains of the operation.
He's just the muscle.
Right.
They come up with a photo and a Facebook profile with the name of Angel Mario Garza.
Idiot.
Like here I am for all the word to see.
I guarantee you it wasn't even on private.
You can see all of his posts.
He's like going to the Nell House.
Yeah.
Right later.
I can't wait to see you Marty.
On my way.
Like hanging out with my BFF Melissa all day today.
Just did some sketchy shit.
Stupid.
So this idiot, Mario, we were just talking about it, had been arrested before because
he's not very bright.
So the police came back the next morning with Celestina and they gave her a photo lineup
to look.
So obviously not like a in person lineup, but a lineup of photos.
And you know, actually one of the things I think is really interesting about the photo
lineup is that they include pictures of people that are no longer alive just to make sure
that you're not just giving them some bullshit.
Right.
Or the people that are not alive.
Right.
Or they'll include people that have been imprisoned during the time of this crime.
Right.
So they know that you can't just like pick someone out.
Right.
Which is awesome.
Well the investigators noted that when she saw his photo her face went completely pale
and she immediately pointed to him.
She's like that's the motherfucker right there.
They had pinpointed exactly who he was, remember?
Because she didn't know his last name.
So now they have like an ID on this guy.
Yeah.
So at this point investigators are more on the side of Celestina and now they're onto
Melissa who said that she was never at the house until she got called out on the day of
the murder after the EMS got there.
So she hadn't been to the house prior to that time on that day.
Melissa said that?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Well what was Mario's record again?
It didn't say.
Oh he just, I thought you said that he had been previously arrested.
He had been arrested before but it didn't say.
It didn't say what.
Okay.
Sorry.
It's okay.
Um so now they're onto Melissa who had previously said that she was never at the house until
she got the call on the day of the murder that EMS got there.
So she hadn't been at the house at all that day according to her until they called for the EMS.
Bullshit.
Yeah.
Now thank god for dumb killers because cell phone records came back and showed that all
three of their phones pinged the tower at the same time at the residence at the time of the murder.
So dumbasses.
Literally all three so she's like I wasn't there.
I wasn't there.
Who the fuck had your phone then?
Yeah you were.
You were definitely there.
Yeah.
With Celestina's account seemingly confirmed authorities asked her to help with a dangerous
assignment.
No.
They wanted to use her as bait and put a wire on her.
Wire?
Oh no that's the worst.
And it attempts to get a confession from Melissa.
Oh that's the worst.
You're putting somebody in a really dangerous situation.
I would be?
For the benefit of an investigation.
Shadding myself.
Yeah.
Literally I would.
I would have chat and I would not have stopped chatting.
You know me I'm a terrible liar.
I wouldn't be able to do that.
Me too.
I'm like.
Glittering.
Now Celestina agrees and on July 5th 2015 this is five months after the murder she sits
down with Melissa.
She confronted her with the accusation of the murder and of course Melissa denied,
denied, denied.
However.
She probably knew she was bait.
However she didn't come across as somebody who was innocent.
She didn't say I don't know what you're talking about.
I would have never done that this night the other.
She just said I don't know what you're talking about.
I don't know what you're talking about.
Melissa's a bad liar too.
Literally.
Clearly.
You could tell by the recording that she was guilty of something but they didn't get
a full confession so they couldn't it wouldn't hold any weight.
Right.
Now there was a little bit of a lull after this but then all of a sudden not all of the
sudden after you know more investigating a lead popped up.
Authorities discovered what is called an adult protection an adult protection services report.
So it's like you're filing a report you think that an adult is in danger so it's almost like
a child endangerment report but it's for an elder.
Yeah.
Um this was filed two months before Marty's death by one Raquel Ibarra.
Who's Raquel Ibarra?
She had called the police department and filed this report.
They contacted her and asked her why she did this and she said that she was providing
bereavement services to Marty after his wife's death.
She was like a therapist of science.
She was like a counselor.
Yeah.
Um he was clearly very visibly upset one day and she asked him why and he said that he had
learned that the beneficiary on his stock accounts had been changed to Melissa.
What?
She was named as the transfer of transfer on death like I said earlier so if he died she
would get all of his money.
He was upset saying things like quote why did this young lady do this and quote she doesn't
have the authority to do this.
So he knew what she was trying to do and he was pissed about it.
So she didn't convince him to like oh here's my password.
So the clock was ticking Melissa.
She knew.
Yeah.
Uh so this is when Marty called her at the session.
Ah.
So this is when Marty called her at the session and he was like what the fuck and she like
what are you like you can't do this and she was like calm down I'll be right there or whatever
like how she talks.
Um and she showed up to the session with this Sprekely bar in the room right so they're
all together in this room.
Like for her to like confront him or he wants to confront her.
Oh.
And she showed up in person.
Yeah.
Because well she's gonna try to manipulate and she's gonna like
try to smooth things over so Rock Hell doesn't say shit.
And also there's no record of this because they're not on the phone.
They're inside in person.
I mean maybe Rock Hell's you know they can legally record stuff if they just keep it
private still.
But then she's a mandated reporter.
Of course.
So he was asking her why she did this to why she did this to him and he was telling her to
change it back because she does not have the right to any of his stuff.
Well Melissa was being really vague and she asked Rock Hell to leave the room so that
they could have this conversation in private.
Like she did with Celestina.
Was Mario there?
No this was at the session.
No I know.
Then all of a sudden Mario gets out of the car.
Shows up.
It's like surprise motherfucker.
When when Rock Hell was like why do I need to leave the room.
Melissa was trying to say that the information that they were talking about was privileged
and that she didn't have any right to that information.
Rock Hell did not buy that.
But of course she has no right to state.
She can't be like no I need to hear all this.
So this is when she decided to report that adult protection service because she was like
something is clearly wrong here.
Like if this was his daughter it might be a different story but like this lady literally
barely knows this guy according to me and he's obviously visibly upset exactly for this reason.
So something's going on.
Clearly she was manipulating him.
Yeah.
Now I'm trying to isolate him as well.
Yeah.
Now we're at August 25th 2015.
This is when investigators bring in Mario Garza.
So Angel his real name is but Mario Angel.
Angel.
Angel Patista.
We watch a lot of Dexter.
He said that he worked part-time at the Comfort House and in January of that year
Melissa confided in him that she was about to become a rich woman.
You better marry me tomorrow I'm gonna be a rich bitch.
She told him that he changed his will and that she would share some of the money with
him if he helped her complete this murder.
So she was like I changed this guy's will I'm gonna be a millionaire and I'll split it with you.
Don't you love when when people do this where they think that they're gonna get this like big
like insurmountable amount of money literally and they think that they're gonna like oh you
just go ahead and kill him now and I'll pay you when I'm a millionaire and they never become
millionaires so they both get dicked it's hilarious.
I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.
Literally.
Yeah so he admitted that he agreed with this deal and he went to the house with her on that day.
He said that when she gave him the signal however he went inside to do the deed but
lost the courage to actually complete the murder himself.
Now he's saying that she was the one that actually physically with her own hands killed
Marty instead of him.
But they were the only two in the room with Marty of course and he can't.
One saying one well Mario's the only one that's saying that anybody did anything at this point
because they can't even get a confession from Melissa.
Now this is when a manner of death is now brought to light.
It's kind of bad of course I mean any death is gonna be bad.
Turn of warning.
So Marty Nell was killed by somebody putting a plastic bag over his head in an attempt to
suffocate him.
He fought very hard trying to breathe but unfortunately was unsuccessful and ultimately
died from this.
However then that's that's the end of talking about manner of death.
The police believe his story a Mario story that he backed out last second but if they of
course arrest him anyways because he was involved he was there.
Doi.
You could have stopped that.
Dummy.
Now with Mario in custody police are zeroing in on Melissa.
So this is the next day August 26, 2015 police arrived back at the comfort house.
They asked her to accompany them with an interview but she declined saying that she
doesn't want to talk and instead she wants an attorney.
No thank you.
No I'm fine today thank you.
Yeah thanks.
The day after Mario gets arrested and she knows that he was talking to them.
Yeah.
Well either way they're going to want to talk to her because there was someone admitted
that there was a crime that happened.
Exactly.
So I mean yeah.
So this is Dummy.
This is amazing.
She goes no I don't want to talk I'll just take an attorney.
Thanks and they go well go and arrest her capital murder.
Thanks.
You could meet up with him at the station.
Really yeah we'll bring you to talk to you.
We'll go over there.
Cute you're still arrested.
This kind of hurt my heart though one of the arresting officers actually knew her dad and
brother personally because they were so known.
Her brother had political ties as well.
Yeah.
And he was quoted as saying that it was quote devastating having to arrest a daughter of
a personal friend of mine but as a sheriff of this county we had to do what we had to do.
I mean that's a bummer but at the same time she's a fucking criminal.
You're a fucking bitch.
Yeah.
Of course with their parents' pull and their money she doesn't stay in jail long and her
$500,000 bail was immediately posted by her parents.
Ugh God.
With the amount of people around this family this was a huge case in the community of course.
By now it was very clear that the quote unquote tension between Marty and his son was completely
made up by Melissa.
Investigators are now working overtime to build a case against her of course and they asked
Mark if he would be okay with them exhuming his dad's body in order to help with the
investigation maybe if they can find any defensive.
Do it.
Do anything.
He agreed.
Yeah.
Thank God.
And they proceeded to do this.
Well honestly you know in cases like this unfortunately I mean she has power of attorney
if it had gone through she could have had him cremated and then she would have literally
I'm sure that was her goal.
I'm sure.
Yeah.
So they proceeded to do this uh exhumation is that what the right word?
Yeah.
Exhumation.
While the autopsy was being performed they did note that he had a couple of broken ribs on
his back which would be consistent with somebody being held down.
Yes.
He also infrared light also revealed suspicious marks on his neck which were signs of trauma from
strangulation.
Yeah.
Of course.
Yeah.
So they have all they need to nab this bitch is what I wrote.
So soon after her arrest the chairman of the comfort house board remember the guy I talked
about earlier notifies investigators that this murder might not be the only crime that
Melissa's committed in the recent past.
He noticed that there were a lot of missing funds from the comfort house non-profit organization
organization shortly after she was arrested and wanted to complete an audit to be sure.
Yeah.
So during this time they're waiting for the audit investigators turn their attention to
the death of Penny saying that it was questionable and hastened.
Oh my god I forgot about the fact that Penny like took a turn for the words.
Oh my god.
So they also discussed exhuming her as well but at this point had obviously been much longer
and it probably wouldn't have led to anything and of course Mark has already been through
so much so they declined to do that.
He said you know what if she's behind bars for the rest of her life because my dad
I'll take that you know.
Yeah.
We don't want to risk throwing too much information at the jury and then getting confused and then
she doesn't have to do this.
So they decided to focus their case on Marty.
Two months after Melissa's arrest this audit comes back from the chairman with the chairman
of the board.
It showed that the comfort house accounts were pretty much stripped clean of money.
What?
The audit revealed that she had been embezzling money from the organization since her first
day working there totaling over two hundred thousand dollars and stolen money from a non-profit
in which twenty grand of this money went to funding her son's graduation party.
Twenty grand?
I'm screaming.
I'm pretty sure you can do a wedding in twenty thousand.
Literally.
What?
And nobody I'm sorry but nobody knew she was doing this.
How if I was or people just like benefited the doubt.
Well I don't know their family does have a lot of money so
maybe it wasn't really weird that she threw an extravagant party for her son.
But clearly she's a broke bitch.
Clearly.
And she's fucking greedy.
That's so greedy.
She was also a noted partier in which she would steal money to live her lavish lifestyle.
She would take frequent trips to Vegas which goals but not like that.
Just to blow the non-profit money like that's horrible.
Non-profit for them.
For me.
Profit for the casinos.
You dumb bitch.
God.
Oh get this.
So that was 200 grand.
Investigator also discovered that after Marty's death Melissa transferred almost $250,000 from his accounts into hers.
So this is over half a million dollars that she's now stolen from two places.
I'm sorry did Mario get paid yet?
And Mario's still a broke bitch.
And he's still a broke asshole.
Goodbye.
I repissed.
What?
The money is all gone at this point and there are huge sums of money in this investigation that are still
missing or unaccounted for.
So all of that money that she's known from like she doesn't have it.
Yeah.
Oh of course not.
Hidden somewhere or she spent it.
God.
Because of all of this they looked into her financial past of course and realized that she was in debt to the IRS and several other organizations.
She had gone bankrupt.
Bankstrap.
She had gone bankrupt from her speech therapy job that she held before working for Comfort House and owed close to 300 grand in total.
But she could have paid that off.
Literally.
She could have done something right with the money.
Not really.
Yeah.
No but I mean like yeah.
It's not like she was in a Vegas party.
Yeah it's not like she was desperate is what I'm saying.
Yeah.
Like some people just get desperate.
No this woman doesn't care.
No she only cares about money.
She's narcissistic as fuck.
She's greedy.
She's gluttonous.
Like she doesn't care.
She doesn't care about all that debt that she has.
That's not why she's stealing this money.
She's stealing the money to make her life better for herself.
She doesn't care.
That's horrible.
Now this is September 25th 2017 so two years later.
Okay.
The trial begins.
She's been in jail the whole time thank god.
Good.
Um oh so they didn't.
Well in between those two years before she's in jail right they can't she's not just is she gonna hold on is that how it works?
They're gonna be in jail while they're waiting trial.
What?
She wouldn't be free while she's awaiting trial would she?
It depends on if the the bail was paid.
Like the bond was paid.
Yeah it was.
So she was free for two years after this?
Yeah.
They probably had like an ankle monitor on her whatever but she probably just stayed home.
Ew that's annoying.
But isn't that horrible?
There's some there's like some crimes where they're like there's not gonna be a
they'll revoke the bond or the bail and you can't get out.
That's BS.
No we'll remember her parents paid the bail.
Or if they think you're a flight risk.
I mean it's a good thing that I don't know this information because that shows that I'm not a criminal and I've never been to jail before.
Have you?
I've never been to jail but I've definitely busted my fair share of friends out.
Oh my god.
For sure.
So now this is.
Shout out to Valentine's Day 2012.
Crazy year.
Why do you pay?
No.
Uh wait that was your 2000.
Anyways um now September 25th 2017 Melissa's trial begins.
Among the charges theft from a non-profit, misapplication of fiduciary property which is
like misuse of the money that he was entrusting her with and of course capital murder.
Now is Greg Thompson and Joseph Orendian up against eight different defense attorneys.
One of whom that was named Rick Salinas no relation.
Oh well.
And out of those eight four of them were the most prominent defense attorneys in the county.
So they got the best of the best to defend her.
Yeah.
Um so prosecutors try to argue that her outrageous spending and pending bankruptcy was her motive for stealing comfort house money and from Marty of course.
Yeah.
According to them on the morning of his death he confronted Melissa to bring the wills over so that they could change them back and instead she was like nope you're gonna die.
Yeah it's terrible.
Uh they used Mario Garza's statement instead of having him testify because he was in custody.
But they used it against her.
Dummy.
Yeah.
The defense attempted to pin the crime on Mario instead of Melissa of course.
Even though she had chosen the best defense attorneys to get this if this doesn't scream I'm a narcissist.
Oh my god.
They had chosen the best defense attorneys but she was noted as picking which attorney would do the questioning and what questions they were gonna ask.
Because she thinks that she's a better defense attorney than a defense attorney.
An actual legal defense attorney.
Someone that went to school and made money instead of stealing it Melissa.
Right.
So she literally just thinks that she could manipulate everyone in the courtroom like she manipulated Mario.
Of course.
I put what a fucking narcissist.
Um so on November 1st 2017 after just three hours the jury from Melissa guilty on all counts and counts and she was sentenced to life without possibility.
Shock.
She never showed any remorse or regret.
Shock.
I thought you were gonna say shock again.
So you did it for me.
Yeah.
As far as the family of course they're glad that justice has been served but Marty's story is a constant reminder that unfortunately elderly citizens and seniors can be and are the most vulnerable of our community and people will try to take advantage of them.
Absolutely.
It's it's honestly scary.
It is.
It's people always think about you know childnapping and like nabbing childnapping and and stuff like that.
Or to make sure that you know you know children are our future but still yeah um yeah elderly people get taken advantage of.
Um well that was something that I was also really concerned with with paw you know when he went when he went into assisted living.
Thankfully that was never the case.
We didn't have to worry about that.
Um but you never know.
I mean it's really really tragic and it's people that work in places like this and it's people that are on the board in places like this.
It's ridiculous.
We're going to talk about the um again you know Melissa Patterson was never diagnosed with anything per se.
However I think that she really resonates well with narcissistic personality disorder.
Of course you can tell that she just thinks that the laws don't apply to her and that she can get away with anything and.
She's the smartest person in the world.
Now narcissistic personality disorder there's a bunch of different personality disorders but this one specifically is a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance.
A deep need for excessive attention and admiration.
Trebled relationships and a lack of empathy for others.
Um behind this mask of extreme confidence lies a fragile self-esteem that's vulnerable to the slightest criticism.
Which is why she she she only talked to her defense attorneys in court and she shut the hell up for everything else.
Yeah or it's like when I think it was like two instances one with the with Raquel the counselor.
Yep.
And then with Marty over the phone that it's like a like a conflict for her because she wants to isolate Marty.
But she also can't look bad in the eyes of anyone.
Yeah of course.
So she rushed into the counseling session to plead her case as to why she's not a bad person.
And same thing with Marty I mean I'm sorry with Mark um when she you know got him between Marty and Mark.
Well she also doesn't want Mark to think that she's a bad person.
So you know that's that fees into her ego is egotistic nature.
Um that it's like well it's not me that's doing it.
I'm not it's not me.
I'm the good person.
I'm trying to help.
And yeah well unfortunately that lack of empathy with that comes people that are very very good at doing that.
Yeah what you're talking about and that's it's really scary.
Um it also says that a narcissistic personality disorder causes problems in many areas of life.
Of course such as relationships work school or financial affairs.
People with this disorder may be generally unhappy and disappointed when they're not given the special favors or admiration they believe they deserve.
And they may find their relationships unfulfilling and others may not enjoy being around them.
Huh yeah not.
Yeah I just I just think this is super interesting so I'm gonna read just a couple of symptoms and also this is um of course you know true crime podcast we want to shed light on.
The mental aspect of it but if you're listening to this and you think that somebody is like maybe expressing some of these symptoms or whatever it does not hurt to get someone the help that they need.
And we've seen in a lot of these cases had these people gotten the help they needed maybe their paths are different you know.
But it also means that just because some people exhibit some of these symptoms does not mean that they have a mental illness.
Oh of course of course not but you know these are some uh with all of these paired together you know to look out for it.
Right it's when it's excessive.
Yeah it's a it's a pattern of behavior that goes over a length of time.
Yeah absolutely.
So I'm just gonna list off a couple here so the symptoms include having an exaggerated sense of self importance.
Expects to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it.
I feel like that's me.
Why you gotta call me out like that?
Yeah being envious of others and believe others envy them.
Being behaving in an arrogant or haughty manner coming across as conceited boastful and pretentious and insisting on having the best of everything for instance the best car or office which is why her son had to have the best graduation party.
I want the best of everything.
I mean too but I'm not gonna you know plot a murder to get it or steal it.
And honestly thieves piss me off dude.
Thieves are the worst.
Like fuck off I worked hard for this money.
And you're just gonna take it because you think you deserve it that literally grinds my gears.
Yeah I used some of your lettuce the other day.
What the fuck?
You're like I'm gonna go to the clinic now.
I'm not sick.
No I don't even think that was my lettuce lookie I don't know.
It was somebody's lettuce.
I ate it.
If you're listening we might have used your lettuce.
I think mom I used your lettuce.
Anyway so that was the story of Melissa Patterson she is behind bars for life as far as I know she is still alive and hopefully still rotting in prison.
Yeah suffer.
Yeah literally that's in that poor man you know with the way that Marty his story kind of unfolds and all of the badass things he did growing up like he probably would have lived well over a hundred years.
Yeah maybe even Penny was doing great you know.
And Penny.
And unfortunately they didn't get for lack of a better term justice for Penny however they did get justice for Marty so I think that in turn resonates with justice for Penny.
I'm sure that's all Penny cares about.
But they're together again and they're happy with each other eternally forever together so that makes me feel a little bit of a sliver lining I guess.
Yeah sweet people you seem like sweet people.
Well thanks for listening that was a long one oh not a long one actually that was actually just about the time that we're aiming for you know with our podcast I think the last couple of ones have been a little short.
They were like 40 minutes but yeah we're going to try to aim for that hour mark.
Yeah and you know we'll do some that are because there's some cases that simply don't have enough information to fill an entire hour if that's the case we'll preface it in the beginning or we'll put it in the title so that maybe if you just have a short commute like to work or the store or something you can pop on one hour.
Or if you have a road trip and you can play one of our normal episodes we can you know definitely preface if it's going to be like a small mini episode or like a full you know full episodes.
Definitely one of our upcoming episodes are going to be a two parter.
Yeah absolutely again we'll preface that.
On the other end it's like there's so many cases where there's just so much information.
Yeah well thank you for the suggestion the person that suggested us they didn't want their name to be said but thank you for the suggestion I've had a lot of fun researching this.
Yeah it sounded like an interesting case.
Yeah and there's also a documentary that gave me most of my information so I definitely want to give them credit it's an episode of Snapped and I think it's season 25 episode 20.
I'll put that in the show notes too just as a little.
That's on Oxygen by the way.
It is okay I got it on.
Snapped?
Yeah I got it on.
Well I actually rinsed it I got it on Prime Video for like $1.99 I got it.
Yeah but yeah it's definitely an interesting document it's only like 45 minutes long it's not anything crazy.
But yeah so in the meantime while we're waiting on our next episode to come out hopefully I'll be posted later this week I think I'm going to post this one in a couple days and then that one a couple days later.
We do have our Instagram set up so that is at diagnosing a killer we also have a Twitter account at killer diagnosis and then I finally set up that email like I said.
It is diagnosing a killer at gmail.com and again we are on Spotify and Apple podcasts so if you want to listen on Spotify I don't know if you like streaming that better or whatever or if you want to suggest someone that doesn't have an iPhone.
Yeah comment, email us, subscribe, all that good stuff.
We really are at least I am kind of like oh man like quite a few people are listening to this it makes me feel good.
I'm getting excited.
Yeah so thank you guys so much for your support we really love you guys.
Alright well we will see you in a few days I guess.
Love you bye.
Bye.