November 15, 2022 • 57 mins
An Anchorage narcissist thought he could dress the stage to cover murder and fool the cops.
Sources:
https://www.legalmomentum.org/history-vawa
https://casetext.com/case/bailey-v-state-809
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mark (00:00):
Home had become like a prison.
Susan was the warden.
The in-laws were the sentinelsand he and the kids were serving
time.
Marcy (00:08):
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(00:30):
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Mark (01:25):
Saint pulled into the parking garage at 5:00 AM No one
else was around.
So he drove with haste,commensurate to the screaming in
his head.
He had to set things right, hehad to get it all done, put it
away, put it behind him, andabove all, protect his family.
The tires screeched loudly asthey slipped on smooth concrete
(01:46):
in the sharp turns.
The big white car cork screwedhigher in the concrete building.
A few floors up, Sain slowed andpulled right.
He opened the door and tossedout the items, shoes, a bag,
glasses.
They hit the hard surface andskittered a few feet before
coming to rest.
Saint looked and saw how theydispersed.
(02:09):
Thought they looked about right.
Hoped they would do the job, andthen accelerated, tires
screeching.
This time he took the downslope.
The good thing about parks inhis city were that there were
many, somewhere civilized,manicured as a big city park
should be.
Some were wild, overgrown withbrush and trees and animals that
(02:33):
on occasion, ate people, Saintusually favored the tended and
trim parks.
But on this early morning, hewanted the privacy afforded by
the wild.
So he drove away from downtownto the southwestern periphery.
He knew a road on the edge of apark.
The houses on one side had hugewooded lots, and on the other
(02:55):
side, dense forest marked theboundary of Kincaid Park.
Once he found the road and thenthe trail head pullout, Saint
parked.
He sat with his windows open fora minute.
As the sound of the hot enginesubsided, it was replaced by
forest noise.
After a few minutes oflistening, Saint was satisfied
that he was alone.
(03:16):
He stepped out and looked aroundin the dim morning light.
There was no traffic this early.
The parking pullouts like thisone allowed access to the city's
network of trails.
The trail here was only lightlyused by runners and bikers who
flew by, maybe headed to moreheavily trafficked areas of the
coastal trail or downtown.
(03:36):
Saint grew more confident as theminutes ticked by.
He saw and heard no one as hepaced the edge of the gravel.
Looking out about 50 feet away,there was a cluster of huge
cotton woods.
The brush was thinned under thetree canopy.
That would have to do.
Saint returned to the car andpopped the trunk.
Her body was still in there.
(03:58):
He'd half expected that when heopened the lid, he'd wake up
from the nightmare.
There she was, wrapped in ablanket, but otherwise naked.
Saint glanced around one lasttime and then committed.
He reached in, pulling her upperbody towards him, adjusting his
hands under her shoulders, andheaving himself backward as he
arched her upward and out.
(04:19):
By now, her body was cold,surprisingly stiff.
There was a moment, as hedragged the length of her body
along the trunk lip where shewas almost balanced.
But he pulled her across thetipping point and the weight
shifted.
Saint, not nearly as strong ashe once was, fell backward
awkwardly, dropping the bodyhalf on him, half on gravel.
(04:41):
From his back, Saint felt ashock of urgency hit him.
He was fully exposed, on his assin the turnout of Kinkcaid Park
and his dead wife flopped acrosshis legs.
He scrambled to his feet, hookedhis arms under her armpits and
began pulling.
First off the gravel, across thegrass perimeter, then plunging
backward through the densebushes.
(05:02):
As Saint backed through thebrush, looking down at his wife
of the past decade, he couldn'thelp but think back to the
beginning.
1989.
Susan had been the perfect youngbride.
She had been everything he'dwanted in a girl during their
short courtship.
By the time the big day arrived.
They knew everything they neededto know about each other.
(05:23):
Having made promises andcommitments that would fuel and
guide their lives through theyears.
The wedding and honeymoon andFairbank seemed to Saint like it
could be the start of somethingthat would last forever.
But he should have recognizedthe signs.
You know what they say aboutthings being too good to be
true.
The first clouds on theirhorizon had popped up when they
(05:45):
returned to Anchorage.
Instead of getting their ownplace, Susan insisted they live
with her parents.
Playing on Saint's compassion,Susan said her parents were
getting old and needed themaround to help out.
She said that the arrangementwould also allow them to save up
for their own place.
He should have known.
What it really meant was thatfrom the beginning it would be
three against one.
(06:08):
Over time as he realized whatthe new family dynamic would be,
Saint adapted.
He didn't like the setup and hedidn't like their judgmental
attitudes, but he was alwaysrespectful of his in-laws and
helped out where he could.
The next shoe to drop was thejob.
Susan demanded to work outsidethe home.
They didn't need it.
He and Susan were living rentfree with her parents.
(06:31):
She got the job with the statewithout even telling him she was
applying.
She said that it would help themmake their dreams come true, but
the job meant he couldn't keepan eye on her and he was worried
that she would be distracted.
Being Mr.
Mom wasn't his idea of any kindof respectable life.
She could leave and do what shewanted and her parents were
always there to keep an eye onhim.
(06:53):
Anytime Saint tried to slip awayand have some fun, there was
that judgment waiting when hegot home.
The problem was Saint loved hiswife and she was smart about how
to keep him busy.
Even though she was workingfull-time, Susan started having
kids.
That was a real trap.
Saint loved his kids more thanlife.
(07:13):
He wanted them to haveeverything he hadn't.
But with each successive child,the possibility of escape,
getting away and getting theirown place grew more and more
remote.
The job, the kids, that wasabout the time the bad fights
started.
Susan would come home from work,take her stress out on Saint.
He would try to set herstraight, but she was angry and
(07:35):
demanding.
In some of these Susan's ragewould grow and they would lash
out at each other.
Saint didn't hurt her.
She hurt herself.
She would be furious crashingdown on him, like a wave against
the shore.
Her mistake was she wasn't awave crashing down on soft sand.
Saint was a rock, and Susanbroke herself on him.
(07:57):
Sometimes she was her bad enoughto go to the hospital.
Tellingly he was neverinvestigated.
Susan never reported him.
She knew who was really atfault.
Susan's lying and cheating stoleenergy from the family.
Saint didn't know when heraffairs had started or who they
were with, but he knew they werereal.
But by then they had to have themoney she was making when she
(08:18):
stepped out under the guise ofwork.
Home had become like a prison.
Susan was the warden.
The in-laws were the sentinelsand he and the kids were serving
time.
If there was a problem, thethree would circle the wagons
against him.
Saint was trying to give hischildren a better life, but was
constantly foiled by thesituation.
(08:41):
Saint's mind focused back on thetask at hand.
He had pulled Susan the rest ofthe way through the brush to the
small clearing under the canopyof the cottonwood.
He set about improving his lie.
Returning to the car, retrievingthe clothes he had brought.
They were the kind of sluttythings that Susan liked to wear
at work.
He dropped the items on theground as if they had been cast
(09:02):
aside during the attack.
He positioned Susan on her backthe best way he could.
Saint was spinning a narrativefor the cops who would
inevitably try to read thestory.
This woman had endureddepravities that ended her life.
When questioned, Saint was fullyprepared to add the subtext of
blame.
This would never have happenedif she had just chosen a
(09:24):
different path, stayed home andbeen a Godly wife and mother.
Saint had a plan for how allthis would go.
He wanted his beloved Susan tobe found.
To have quick closure to thesorrowful chapter in his
family's life.
He didn't like her body layingalone in the woods.
He wanted her to be found andbrought home so they could bury
(09:46):
her together as a family.
That's what he was doing allthis for.
Even as he completed the finaltouches around Susan's body,
Saint's mind was pulled back tothat last fight.
What was it now, two nights?
Last night?
Through the shock he couldn'tremember.
Susan was in their living roomscreaming at him as usual.
(10:07):
She was on the attack.
She had been with another man,or was it men?
She didn't care about the kidsasleep in their bedrooms.
She just cared about hurtingSaint.
Rubbing his nose in the pile ofshit she made him live in every
day.
When she came at him, Saintpushed her a little harder than
he intended, but strictly ondefense.
Susan, at the height of herflailing rage, lost her balance
(10:30):
and pitched backwards.
Everything would've been fine ifthe edge of the counter had not
been there.
She hit her head on the waydown.
Saint, for his part, and notrealizing the full extent of
what happened, fled from theroom.
He waited a little while beforepoking his head up, hoping that
Susan would be calmed, but bythe time he returned, Susan laid
(10:51):
dead in a pool of blood.
Her head split open.
From there, it was all a matterof saving his family from what
Susan had done.
If he called the police toreport an accidental death, they
would pin it on him.
He would go to prison.
Who would raise the kids?
Susan's family?
He had to cover up Susan's deatheven though it was an accident,
(11:13):
even though it was her fault.
He knew as a black man marriedto a white woman, no one would
ever give him a fair shake.
He wanted to cry when he thoughtabout what the kids had to put
up with from Susan and the restof the family.
This is probably exactly whatthey had planned from the start.
No.
Saint had to be the strong one.
The responsible one.
He would do the wrong thing toget the right result.
(11:36):
Saint stood to one side of theclearing and looked out over the
scene of Susan's rape andmurder.
He thought it looked good,better than on tv.
He added one final touch hangingher white bra in the open from a
branch.
It began swaying in the lightbreeze.
Perfect, he thought.
Marcy (12:07):
In June of 1999, Susan Bailey went missing.
Her husband, Michael Baileydidn't report that fact to the
police, but Susan was a reliableemployee.
When she didn't appear or callinto work for her second missed
shift, her boss began callingaround.
Susan's parents had no ideawhere she might be.
(12:28):
Her husband said Susan hadwalked out on him.
The boss, suspicious and alarmedby the husband's answers, called
the police.
A patrol officer was sent to theoffices of the State of Alaska,
Department of Natural Resourcesin the Frontier Building at 3601
C Street in Anchorage.
The officer spoke with two ofSusan's coworkers, a supervisor
(12:52):
and a friend.
They said Susan was usually avery accountable employee.
She didn't miss many shifts andwhen she did, she always called
to let them know why.
The supervisor conveyed theconversation with Susan's
parents and husband.
Susan's two coworkers wereuncomfortable voicing their
concerns.
They eventually worked up totelling the officer that they
(13:14):
believed that Susan was thevictim of regular physical abuse
by her husband.
Both coworkers talked aboutknowing Susan for several years
and observing that she regularlycame to work with visible
injuries that looked severe.
They said Susan always had anexplanation, an incident that
would cause the marks, whichSusan was embarrassed about and
(13:37):
tried to conceal as best shecould.
She told them that she was justclumsy and accident prone.
Over time, the repetitivestories wore thin, and paired
with some of the otherobservations about Susan's
relationship with her, bothassociates believed she was
regularly being battered.
After the introductoryconversation, Susan's supervisor
(13:59):
said that in addition to herunexplained absence, he was
further alarmed upon hearing twomessages from her work
voicemail.
One message was from buildingsecurity, notifying Susan that
they had an item of herproperty.
The other message was fromSusan's husband.
In the message, he tells Susanthat he's looking for her and
asks that she return his call.
(14:22):
He then said that he wouldn't behome because he was taking their
children to a friend's house.
During this part of the message,he listed all of their children
by name.
The officer agreed that thehusband's message to Susan
seemed odd.
The next stop for the policeofficer was the building
security department, where theofficer met with security guard,
(14:45):
Dixie Bogguss.
Boggusss told the officer thathe was on duty the morning of
June 25th.
He saw a late seventies modelwhite Oldsmobile sedan pull into
the parking garage, which was astandalone multi-story structure
next to the larger officebuilding.
The time of day and the speed atwhich the vehicle was traveling
(15:06):
were unusual.
People didn't generally startarriving until after six am.
He not only saw the car wasdriving with excessive speed,
but he could also hear the tiresquealing next door as it raced
up and then back down.
Boggess was unable to see on thesecurity camera who might be
driving.
He walked outside to try andcatch sight of the car and the
(15:28):
driver as it exited.
However, he was too late.
Boggess decided to perform awalkthrough of the parking
structure, which he didperiodically throughout the
shift.
When he reached the area, hethought the car had turned
around and started down from,Boggess found items laying on
the floor.
He saw a tennis shoe, a pair ofprescription glasses, and a
(15:50):
fanny pack.
The pack held identificationbelonging to Susan Bailey.
Boggess bagged the property andtook it to the security desk.
He then left a message about theproperty on Susan Bailey's
office voicemail.
Boggess told the officer thatthe event was definitely
suspicious.
The property had not been thereon his prior walkthroughs that
(16:11):
night.
The officer seized the discardedproperty as evidence, went back
upstairs to Susan's office andrecorded copies of her
voicemails.
After that, he conferred withthe homicide sergeant about the
missing person case and herequested that an officer be
dispatched to speak with SusanBailey's parents and coordinated
(16:32):
with APD public relations for amedia release about the case.
Mary Lou and George Hollet areSusan Bailey's mother and
father.
They first became aware thattheir daughter was missing when
Susan's coworker called them.
An officer spoke with them thatsame day and they gave basic
information about Susan's livingsituation.
(16:54):
Susan married Bailey inFairbanks in 1989.
The newlyweds moved into theHollet's home in Anchorage after
the wedding, living with herparents from 1989 to 1996,
during which time the couple'sthree children were born.
In 1996, they moved out of theHollet's after purchasing their
own home.
(17:16):
Susan worked at the AlaskaDepartment of Natural Resources
from 1989 until herdisappearance almost 10 years
later.
The Hollets were reluctant totalk about the relationship
between Susan and her husband,but with their daughter missing,
they decided to candidly discusstheir concerns.
They told the investigatingofficer that her husband had
(17:37):
been physically abusing Susanfor years.
They told several stories thatillustrated the problem.
Mary Lou Hollett said that in1992, the couple were living
downstairs.
One evening, as Mary Lou wasabout to go to sleep, Susan ran
upstairs and said her husbandhad cut her with a knife.
Mary Lou saw that Susan wasbleeding from a small laceration
(18:00):
to her abdomen just below herribs.
When she got the bleedingstopped, Mary Lou went
downstairs and confrontedBailey, who admitted that they
were arguing, but offered noexplanation as to how or why he
stabbed his wife.
George Hollett said a similarincident happened one night in
1995.
(18:21):
It was just after midnight andthe Holletts were asleep.
Susan ran upstairs and said thather husband was trying to kill
her.
Once again, Susan had beenstabbed in the abdomen and was
bleeding from a superficial cut.
As the parents were tending toSusan, her husband began yelling
from the bottom of the stairs,demanding that Susan come down.
(18:42):
George said he spoke with Baileywho was enraged and would not
calm down.
He said that Susan was his wifeand he could do anything he
wanted to her.
When George told him Susanwasn't coming down, Bailey began
throwing things around, damagingproperty in the house.
George finally convinced him toleave by threatening to call the
(19:02):
police.
There was another time when MaryLou received a call from Susan
who said she needed to be pickedup from a local supermarket.
It was clear that Susan was incrisis.
When Mary Lou arrived at thestore, Susan appeared to be
trying to hide from someone.
When she got into the car, MaryLou saw that her daughter had
(19:23):
numerous bruises, including twoblack eyes.
When she expressed surprise overSusan's injuries, her daughter
begged her to drive away quicklybecause she was afraid her
husband was looking for her.
Susan explained that the couplewere staying in a motel when the
beating took place, and she hadescaped the room when her
husband passed out.
(19:44):
The injuries from that beatingwere severe enough that Mrs.
Hollett took Susan to ProvidenceHospital.
It turned out that Susan had abroken nose, two black eyes, a
probable concussion, lacerationsto her back, and significant
injury to her genitals.
Susan turned out to be six weekspregnant, and her husband had
(20:05):
accused her of having sex withanother man.
The hospital staff joinedSusan's parents in urging her to
report the assault to police,but she refused.
Later, the Holletts confrontedBailey about the incident and he
admitted to having had"a littleargument" and getting"carried
away." The Holletts took Susanto the AWAIC women's shelter one
(20:31):
time after a major fight.
Bailey showed up at theHollett's and demanded to know
where she was.
They didn't immediately tellhim, but he was insistent saying
something to the effect, Susanis my wife and I can do what I
want with her.
They figured that Susan would besafe at the shelter, so they
told Bailey that she was stayingthere.
(20:51):
Later, Susan said that she heardher husband outside the shelter
yelling into a microphonedemanding for her to come out.
The day after the initialmissing person's report, police
detectives contacted Bailey.
Bailey confirmed that his wifeSusan, was still missing.
(21:12):
When asked why he didn't reportit earlier, he said that he had
called the police on Saturdaythe 26th and was told to call
the hospital's, jail and Susan'sfriends.
No record of this call could befound.
Bailey denied assaulting Susan.
He consented to a walkthrough ofhis residence and the detective
(21:32):
saw indications of violence.
There were holes on the wall andred stains in suspicious
locations.
Bailey explained that some ofthe holes in the Sheetrock were
there when they moved in.
Some were caused by his punchingthe walls and some by moving
furniture.
The red stains were explainedaway as coming from a cut Bailey
(21:52):
had or from a leaking containerof meat in a shopping bag.
Initially, all of the Baileychildren denied that their
parents argued or fought.
They said they'd never heard orseen their father being violent
with their mother.
Based on detective'sobservations at the Bailey
residence, they obtained asearch warrant for the home.
(22:14):
Upon close inspection of theholes in the Sheetrock, some
were found to contain traceevidence.
Inside two round holes, Susan'shead hairs had been trapped as
she pulled her head out of thewall.
In other holes, there were tinysmears of her blood.
In the kitchen and living room,there was evidence that Susan
had discharged a large amount ofblood on the sharp edges at the
(22:36):
countertop.
With a large blood stain on thecarpet below.
When the carpet was pulled back,it was clear that Susan had laid
bleeding in this location forsome time, as the carpet, pad
and wood were all soaked throughand stained.
There was also evidence thatsomeone had attempted a
superficial cleanup of theblood.
(22:57):
In the laundry area of the housedetectives found a garbage bag
containing several damp items.
There was a pillow with a bloodstain and a pair of cutoff
sweatpants with a wide elasticwaistband.
When detectives asked Baileyabout the damp pillow and
clothes, he said that the bloodstain was old, but when Susan
disappeared, he panickedandwashed the pillow because he
(23:20):
didn't want anyone to think thatit had anything to do with her
being missing.
In addition to the house, asearch warrant was obtained for
Susan's hospital medicalrecords.
Among other things, there wasthe record of the visit that
Susan's mother had described.
The records confirmed her brokennose, rib, genital injuries, and
(23:42):
the fact that Susan identifiedher assailant as her husband.
On July 5th, 1999, a citizenwalking a dog on a trail off
Jodhpur Street in Kincaid Park,was attracted to a wooded
clearing by the site of a whitebra hanging from a tree branch.
He saw a woman's body beneathand summoned the police.
(24:05):
By the time Susan's body wasfound, police had been expecting
the call for almost a week.
The house crime scene had warnedthem that she was out there
somewhere and even the newestrookie would've been able to
guess that somewhere would endup being one of the many city
parks.
When the crime scene techniciansbegan their work, they found
(24:26):
several anomalies.
The pieces of clothing strewnaround the body looked like they
hadn't been worn.
It was like they had been cleanand folded before being put into
place.
Nothing appeared to have beenforcibly removed.
Examining the body, it was clearthat Susan died in a location
and position other than what shewas currently in.
(24:48):
She had a major injury to herhead and face, yet there was no
blood pooling on the ground.
The lividity pattern on her bodywas not correct for her
position, and there were markson her waist indicating that she
was wearing pants with a widewaistband as her blood pooled
after her death.
These observations led APDCaptain William Gifford, a crime
(25:11):
scene reconstruction expert toassert that the scene where
Susan Bailey was found wasstaged, and that the bra left on
the tree was a flag to draw theattention of someone to the
body.
Upon autopsy, the medicalexaminer, Dr.
Frank Falico, determined thatSusan's death was caused by
blunt force injury to her head.
(25:33):
She had suffered a very severelaceration to her head, and
several bones in her face andnose were broken.
Dr.
Falico noted extensive bruisingto Susan's chest, abdomen, back,
and upper extremities.
Several of her ribs and her leftwrist were broken and her brain
was swollen.
Dr.
Falico testified that thelividity of Susan's body was not
(25:56):
characteristic of the place andposition her body was found in,
indicating that she had beenmoved after she died.
A grand jury indicted Bailey inApril, 2002, charging him with
alternative theories of homicideand four counts of tampering
with physical evidence.
In pretrial evidentiaryhearings, Bailey's attorneys
(26:19):
made sweeping objections to thestate's evidence, asserting that
almost all witnesses were beingcalled to provide hearsay and
unfounded circumstantialevidence.
After hearing the arguments, thejudge suppressed several pieces,
but most were allowed in eitheras evidence of a pattern of
behavior or as the product ofexcited utterances.
(26:42):
When Bailey proceeded to trial,the prosecution called numerous
witnesses to testify.
Three of Susan's coworkerstestified about their
observations of Susan over thelast decade.
How she often came in withalarming physical injuries.
How her explanations of thoseoften didn't make sense.
One female coworker who alsoidentified herself as Susan's
(27:04):
friend said that Susan alwayswore turtlenecks and long sleeve
shirts to cover her injuries.
She also said that Bailey wascontrolling of Susan and that he
demanded to know where she wasand who she was with at all
times.
In relation to Dixie Boggess'sobservations in the parking
garage, Susan's supervisortestified that there would be no
(27:24):
reason for her to come to workat 5:00 AM.
He also described hisconversation with Bailey about
Susan being missing and howBailey seemed to not want to
contact the police.
Susan's mother and father werecalled before the jury to
describe their experiences withBailey abusing their daughter.
They talked about the stabbingincidents in 1992 and 1995.
(27:48):
Mary Lou Hollett also gavetestimony about the incident
where she took her daughter tothe emergency room after she had
been severely beaten.
There was a witness whotestified that Susan took
shelter at AWAIC three timesover the years and described the
time that Bailey went to theshelter and demanded that she
come out.
In 1997, Bailey's moved out ofHollett's home and into a
(28:09):
condominium complex.
Jennifer Martin, who liveddownstairs from the Bailey's
testified about regularlyhearing loud banging noises from
the apartment in the earlymorning hours.
She asked Bailey about thosenoises, and he joked about
having to,"beat the wife to keepher in line." Mykaela Bailey was
(28:30):
11 years old when her mother waskilled.
Initially, she denied anyviolence in the home.
By the time of the trial, heraccount had changed.
Mykaela testified that herparents often had fights and
usually had fights late atnight.
She testified that sometimes shewould hear yelling and banging
against the wall when she was inher room.
(28:52):
During the fights, she couldhear her mother crying and
asking her father to stop.
After hearing the bangingsounds, she would see damage to
the walls and her mother wouldhave obvious injuries.
Mykaela testified that she heardher parents fighting the night
before her mother disappeared.
Mykaela admitted that sheinitially told the police that
(29:12):
she had never seen her fatherhit her mother.
She also stated that she wasafraid to tell the police about
the fights between her motherand father because her father
had said it was"familybusiness." Captain William
Gifford and Dr.
Frank Falico gave testimonyabout the crime scenes, the
condition of Susan's body, andevidence of crime scene cleanup
(29:34):
and staging.
Security guard Dixie Boggessdescribed the incident with the
white sedan in the parkinggarage.
He testified that the lateseventies white Oldsmobile sedan
that the Baileys owned wasidentical to the vehicle that he
saw driving into the parkinggarage on June 25th, 1999.
His testimony was logically tiedinto the narrative of the crime
(29:56):
scene staging.
The defense asserted that thestate's case was all about
pinning Susan Bailey's death onthe usual suspect.
They asserted that while Baileyhad some flaws, he didn't kill
his wife, and it was lazy policework to say that he did.
They stated that Susan Bailey'sreal killer was still out there,
and that the state hadoverlooked and cherry picked
(30:17):
evidence to fit the story thatthey wanted to tell.
The jury convicted MichaelBailey of second degree murder
and all counts of tempering withphysical evidence.
Superior Court Judge Dan A.
Hensley imposed a compositesentence of 91 years to serve.
At sentencing Judge Hensley alsofound that Bailey's likelihood
(30:40):
of rehabilitation was"almostnil." He reached his conclusion
because Bailey never soughtcounseling or treatment or even
acknowledged that there wasanything unacceptable about his
behavior, and Judge Hensleyfound that Bailey's long
criminal history, despitelacking felonies or assaults,
indicated that he was notamenable to rehabilitation.
(31:01):
The judge found that Baileypresented a danger to society
because of the high risk that hewould commit similar crimes of
domestic violence in the future.
He added that Bailey's yearslong practice of severe abuse
established his case asexceptional.
The evidence admitted at trialshowed that over the course of
their marriage, Baileyrepeatedly committed felony
(31:22):
level assaults on his wife thatrequired medical attention, even
though Bailey was not prosecutedfor those assaults.
Judge Hensley said that thepurpose of the sentence was"to
keep Mr.
Bailey locked away to protectthe public." To begin the
(31:48):
discussion of this case, telleveryone why you picked it.
Mark (31:56):
I picked this case because it was prominent in my career.
There are a lot of women wholive in horrible situations like
Susan Bailey.
Most don't get murdered like shedid.
But these relationships areoften a matter of degree of
severity, and they oftenescalate over time.
As we see in this case, childrenare the silent witnesses.
In some ways, this case isrepresentative of my whole
(32:19):
experience.
Working nights I went to a lotof fights in progress.
Ironically, when this case camein, I was on day shift for
rotation.
You know, I only left nightshift a couple times, like twice
in seven years, before I went tothe detectives.
Marcy (32:33):
And you were the area car that took this initial call?
Mark (32:36):
Yeah, I was a responding officer.
The call went pretty much like Iwrote it.
One of the attractive thingsabout working patrol is you
never know what's gonna come outof the radio next.
I remember being sent to it, itwas missing person, plus it's a
little suspicious based on whatthey were telling the
dispatchers.
It's unusual that a missingperson's called in by, somebody
(32:56):
who isn't a spouse or familymember.
I'm saying that as when theperson has a family in town,
Anchorage, sometimes people onlyhave friends.
But when people have familymembers in town, it's unusual
that a missing person be calledin by somebody else.
That's unusual about this case.
After I arrived, I startedgathering information, and it
(33:18):
was clear that I was steppinginto kind of a much bigger
story.
If you get a theft report, it'ssimple.
There's no hidden mystery tosolve Scooby Do.
But this one felt different fromthe start.
Marcy (33:29):
Talk about why you called Bailey Saint and why you wrote
the narrative from hisperspective.
Mark (33:36):
I wanted to portray the kind of attitude, excuses that
men who commit these kind ofcrimes come up with to justify
their actions.
I get this perspective from lotsof experiences interviewing,
people who are abusers andlistening to rapists spin
situations so that they canclaim the moral high ground.
Marcy (33:55):
Do you think that they actually believe it or is it
just a lie that sounds reallygood?
Mark (34:00):
I think it's a little both, especially over time.
I think these guys come up withwhat's necessary to try and get
through the moment and, overtime they buy into their
bullshit story.
Marcy (34:11):
Well, studies have shown that people can actually start
to believe a story that's a lieif it's presented to them as
fact over time repeatedly.
People have the ability to sortof brainwash themselves if it's
in their self-interest.
Mark (34:23):
Yeah, exactly.
Do you think OJ Simpson liveseveryday thinking, I tried to
cut off my ex-wife's head?
No.
He morphed that in his own mindto encompass the
rationalizations and warpedmemories to allow himself to
live with himself.
You know, actually OJs a goodexample.
He brought that shit on himself.
He brutally murdered two peoplein a fit of jealous rage.
(34:46):
But today he has himselfconvinced that he's the victim.
In this case I called BaileySaint because despite all he did
to his wife over what the judgerightly saw as years of torture,
eventually brutally murderingher while their children laying
their beds, trying not tolisten.
Bailey would tell you that he'ddone nothing wrong and was a
true victim here.
(35:08):
So Marcy, when we discussedthis, you wanted to call him
Martyr.
I thought that was close to themark, but the label gave way too
much too soon.
and for that reason I went withSaint.
Marcy (35:19):
We'll use Martyr someday.
During that initial call, atwhat point did you suspect that
Susan was actually dead?
Mark (35:27):
When I started talking to coworkers, there was a feeling
of doom.
By that time in my career, I'dhad enough context, what I have
about five years on?
I'd seen enough to know thescore.
It really struck me as reallystrange the husband, wasn't the
one to make the missing personcall.
The concern of the coworkers,they were obviously very worried
about her.
The woman who said this is myfriend was almost in tears
(35:50):
telling me her suspicions.
They didn't wanna tell meanything about, you know, they
didn't wanna talk about this.
They didn't want to, castdispersions on the husband.
But, after 10 years of watchingher basically come in, just
getting beat, they thought theyhad to say something.
Then we listened to the weirdvoicemail from Bailey.
It sounded like a script.
When you call and say, Hey, canyou call me?
(36:10):
When you call your wife, and,you know, even if she's mad at
you, you say, Can you call me?
I'm taking the kids over to afriend's house.
This was more like, Veryscripted.
He listed all his kids out byname and we're going over to
John doe's house to have abirthday party like he expected
somebody to listen to this andit was part of his plan.
It was unusual and I rememberlooking at the coworkers there
(36:32):
and they looked at me and Isaid, Does that sound right?
And they both said no.
Marcy (36:36):
And they had Susan's property at the security office.
Mark (36:39):
Yeah.
So I went from talking to hercoworkers who were very
concerned down to talk with thesecurity guard Dixie Boggess,
who told me the story about,this car comes rocketing through
the parking garage early in themorning, very unusual,
suspicious, like, what's thatguy doing here?
And as he told that, I thought,oh shit, she's gonna be dead.
(37:00):
I know in describing it soundslike I'm jumping to conclusions
and of course, you know, I don'tknow any of these people and
we're only scratching thesurface here, and I wouldn't bet
the farm that she was dead, butI pretty much knew.
Marcy (37:13):
I remember about the time you took this call, cuz I worked
in the same building as Susanand there's a lot of state
offices in there.
At 14 stories, that building isone of the tallest buildings in
Midtown Anchorage and thatparking garage is about five
stories.
It's kind of attached to thefrontier building with a
walkway.
And Dixie was a fixture there.
(37:34):
He was, this old guy who didnight security and he was just
this kind old man that you wouldsee every morning as you headed
up the elevator.
Mark (37:42):
He came in for a shift on June 24th.
Do you think he was thinkingtoday, if I do my job, I'll be
the key to solving a murder?
Marcy (37:52):
Well, he always seemed like he cared about that
building.
I was happy to know that he wasthe kind of guy who would do a
good job, even at night whennobody was around to look.
Mark (38:00):
A surprising number of cases during my career were
solved by somebody who wasconscientious like him, who did
the right thing at the righttime.
I mean, if he hadn't seen thevehicle, if he hadn't been
paying attention, and if ithadn't found the stuff, that
stuff probably would've beenscattered around, by the morning
rush.
It would've been treated likegarbage, probably overlooked.
(38:22):
Instead, Dixie saved the day.
Marcy (38:27):
Bailey told Detective Shell that he had reported Susan
missing on the 26th and was toldthat he couldn't file a missing
person report.
Even if that were true, everysingle call to the police
department is recorded.
There would be a record of thatcontact,
Mark (38:45):
There's all these little things that tell you that he's
lying and that's one of thosethings, Right.
He's full of crap.
He said he called dispatch andtold they wouldn't file a report
unless he called the jail's,hospital's, friends.
That isn't policy.
I guess it could have happened,but it didn't because that's not
the requirement to file amissing person report.
But we really know he was lyingbecause there was no record of
(39:07):
any call, no log, no recording.
and if he had called there wouldbe a trace that he did.
Now, what he is doing there istaking advantage of what people
say about the difficulties offiling a missing person report.
The problem is he didn't.
His reluctance to report later,and the mysterious, he panicked
and washed the blood stainedpillows, they're small pieces of
(39:30):
the larger pie.
Marcy (39:33):
Did you do anything particularly special to get this
investigation going once yourealized how very suspicious it
was?
Mark (39:41):
As a responding officer, I'm not gonna be the primary
investigator, but I'd beenaround long enough to know that
to get missing personsinvestigations started, you
know, actively you had to sendup a flare, you know, get some
attention, even within thedepartment.
So I called homicide and spokewith a sergeant there.
I impressed on him theseriousness of the situation.
He asked that we interviewed theparents, to see what they said,
(40:03):
and said that, in, this is aconversation, well, do you want
me to go contact the, thesuspect and see what he says?
And he told me no, that theywould speak with Bailey, but
just to let him know what theparents said.
And he also gave me permissionto put the missing person
announcement out over the localnews.
So at that time, our publicinformation guy was Ron McGee,
who was a former on-airreporter.
(40:25):
And he actually came to thebuilding while I was wrapping
up, the investigation and Ibriefed him on what we wanted to
release.
And I remember him asking me,you think he killed her?
And I said, We can't putanything like that out.
We just need to put out thatshe's missing.
But I told him, Yeah, I think hekilled her.
Marcy (40:45):
You had a special attachment to this case and we
talked about it as you followedthe progress were more
frustrated when it becamestalled.
Mark (40:53):
For a long time this is one of the few cases that I, I'd
been involved with that neededto be closed.
It went on long enough to makeme worried that it would join,
Sophie Segie as a cold case.
At that time only a handful ofcases that I thought, Boy, I've
been involved in this and itreally needs to be closed.
But, actually now I think aboutit, there's only one now, uh, on
my list that Sophie surgery'sgone down.
(41:14):
I knew the case pretty well bythen.
And I knew as prosecutable, veryprosecutable.
But in those three years itseemed to languish.
I went into homicide regularlyto inquire about the status.
For a while the answers I gotwere like, we're waiting for the
evidence to come back.
We're waiting for the state lab.
We had a lot of movement throughthe homicide unit so the case
(41:36):
changed hands several times,moved around.
Finally, I was flattered, oneday I walked in homicide and the
sergeant who was Slav Markowitzat that time, I'd come and talk
to him several times about it.
And so without me, having to askabout it, he said, Mark, I just
reassigned the case to DetectiveGlenn Klinkhart.
(41:56):
Glenn wasn't in the office atthe time, but he later came and
found me, and told me they weremoving forward with the
indictment.
I was very happy.
Glenn cared about this case andhis cases in general, and he did
a good job finishing it up.
Marcy (42:11):
Why do you think it took so long for him to be charged?
Mark (42:14):
There are many, many things.
It took time for the forensicstuff to come back.
The prosecutors have to weighwhat are things gonna look like
when they go to trial?
This case has the stagingelement.
So if you're not gonna just, buythe defense's thing, well there
was a rapist that, kidnapped herand did this to her, you have to
have a good explanation of whatstaging is and so forth.
So there they have, to plan forthat testimony.
(42:37):
And I'm sure the prosecutorsweren't like, Oh boy, overjoyed
have to explain something likethat.
I think part of the delay was,the kids' original statements
were troubling.
They denied there was a problem.
It's not insurmountable, but itdepends on how that, interview
or that testimony would go infront of the jury.
If it went wrong, it could gutthe prosecution.
(42:59):
When MyKaeyla admitted thatthere was violence that they had
witnessed it and heard it,that's a green light for the
case.
That's what I think happened.
I don't know for sure, butlooking at this case in,
retrospect, I think that wasprobably the delay.
Marcy (43:13):
I wonder also if there was the need to do pretty
extensive preparation with her,if she's gonna testify as a
child.
That's a lot of therapy and workwouln't you think?
Mark (43:26):
Yeah, I'm sure that's a concern.
But the other thing there is youcan't prep a child.
That all has to be recorded andwhen you present that evidence,
Hey, we're gonna use this kidand she's gonna testify to this,
you have to give them what youdid to get that right, the
interviews and so forth.
That's all in recording.
So you could be accused ofbasically getting her to say
(43:47):
what you wanted to say.
So you gotta be careful aboutpulling that kind of testimony
out of a kid.
Marcy (43:52):
Certainly there's a lot of planning for having a child
testify even if you're not doingthat kind of preparation with
the child, you're doingpreparation sort of around the
child.
What supports you're gonna haveand how you're going to
choreograph all of that.
I guess you do that with allwitnesses, but it just seems
like the fact that you havechildren testifying would make
(44:14):
it particularly sticky and maybetake longer to get ready for
that.
Mark (44:19):
Yeah, I mean, you're talking about you're gonna
contact this child to interviewher or them about their dad
who's in prison and what shesays is probably gonna be very
important to how this case goes,if it gets prosecuted and so
forth.
So I'm sure there was a lot ofconsideration of the sensitivity
of those.
(44:40):
There's a lot of great evidencein this case.
I knew it was prosecutable andI'm not surprised that
eventually it went down.
But, those are the concerns.
I'm certain that some of thetestimony, if the kids had been
adamant about, no, no abuseever, if that was believable
testimony and not just, toprotect the father, then you
pretty much gutted your case.
The theory of your case.
Marcy (45:02):
The abuser victim dynamic can look a lot like a cult of
one.
The more you look at this fromthe outside, the more you sort
of say, What the hell?
Why did she stay?
Why didn't she report?
And how could you let it getthis bad?
Mark (45:18):
I don't know.
There are some answers that arecommon when you talk to victims
when they look back.
They love the abuser and weretrying to just ride it out until
the good times came back.
They feel responsible for thesituation and they feel, some of
them feel like they deserve theabuse, that they earned it.
Some of them grew up in abusivesituations and think, well, this
(45:40):
is normal.
This is how, this is love.
They might be the kind of personthat will keep a commitment even
if it kills them.
That sounds funny, but when yourfamily and social networks say,
you know, marriage is aninviolable contract sealed by
God, how are you gonna get outof that?
Sometimes the victim reallyrelies on the abuser for
(46:00):
financial support.
It's weird.
In this case, the opposite wastrue for Susan Bailey.
She was the only one makingmoney.
But if you listen to the episodeabout the Simmons family, the
wife in that case was trying tofigure out finances, what she
was gonna do, when she left herhusband, and, she just didn't
get out in time before themurders.
(46:20):
Closely related to the financialreason victims stayed because it
seems like the, it's a path ofleast resistance.
Susan knew that leaving would bedangerous.
She was probably afraid thatMichael would go, potentially be
a danger to other members of herfamily.
I don't think she doubted hewould kill her, but maybe she
feared, that he would also hurther parents or the kids.
(46:42):
Last but not least, they staybecause the children are that
leverage point.
The abuser threatens to take thekids.
Sometimes he may even threatento hurt the kids.
That can backfire in the abuser.
it's in situations like this, itoften the abuse or threatened
abusive kids, that's whatshatters the spell.
Victims that would normally justendure abuse, sometimes leave to
(47:05):
try and save the kids.
Marcy (47:07):
You went to a National Violence Against Women Act or
VAWA conference.
What influence did VAWA have onhow law enforcement responds to
domestic violence?
Mark (47:19):
Yeah, it was huge.
A lot of the things in VAWA cameinto effect in Alaska right just
before I became a cop.
I couldn't imagine not havingsome of these things in place.
Basically, VAWA was a set oflaws that go back three decades.
The goal of that law is toimprove services for victims of
sexual violence and domesticviolence and stalking.
(47:41):
It's a huge law.
Just to give you an idea, partof the law recognizes that
domestic violence is besthandled by government
organizations that have anunderstanding of the problem and
work together cooperatively.
So it funds education andtraining about violence against
women for victim advocates,police officers, prosecutors,
judges, probation, corrections,healthcare officials, and, faith
(48:05):
leaders.
Part of the law encouragesstates to enact certain laws
that are considered bestpractices.
An example of this are stalkinglaws.
There's also federal bans onthings that would inhibit victim
services, like fees for sexualassault examinations.
Over the years, VAWA has madesweeping changes, things that we
now take for granted like, youcan enforce a domestic violence
(48:27):
order across state lines.
Marcy (48:31):
I'm looking at a fact sheet on VAWA and it says, since
1994, O V W has awarded nearly 4billion, with a B, dollars in
VAWA grants to fund state,tribal and local governments,
non-profit organizations anduniversities focused on ending
violence against women.
The law helps fund shelters andother services well beyond just
(48:51):
emergency medical care and thebest practices that you talked
about.
Mark (48:56):
VAWA goals and standards were a big thing in my training.
When I started, like I said, thelaw had recently been
implemented in Alaska, and, oneof the big things was that it
meant we had mandatory physicalarrest in cases where the
primary physical aggressor couldbe determined or there was
corresponding physical injury.
This is a departure from othermisdemeanor crimes in that
(49:16):
usually a police officer has tobe present, for a misdemeanor
when a crime occurs for amisdemeanor arrest to be made,
unless you have a private personcomplaint.
With DV the officer just has tohave probable cause that an
eligible DV related crimehappened.
Marcy (49:35):
This prevents the situation where the victim says,
No, I won't press charges, andit takes it outta their hands.
Is that right?
Mark (49:43):
Yeah.
The mandatory arrest part meansthat it's the government.
So here's an example.
When I made a DV arrest, theoffender would often, say, Well,
is she pressing charges?
And with this law, I could say,no, it's out of his or her
hands.
It's the government that'spressing charges.
And this is a powerful thingbecause, We would go to trial
with evidence, even when youhave a DV victim that becomes
(50:06):
uncooperative because, well,maybe they've gone back with
him, but we have the evidence,we call her as a hostile
witness.
We still have, the basicevidence to go forward with
trial.
And, it's a great deterrent, forthis crime.
The thing about that is it's alot like the broken window
theory.
If you make an arrest for DV,that's shown to be a deterrent
for future violence.
(50:28):
Studies show if a person isarrested early, they're less
likely, continue an escalatingpattern of abuse.
If it had happened to Baileycould have head off some of the
violence that, Susan regularlyendured and that's assuming that
the assaults were reported thepolice.
Marcy (50:46):
This case made me think about how a lot of violence
prevention curricula focus onthe importance of bystander
interventions.
That standing up and sayingsomething is important to break
that violence cycle.
Susan Bailey's murder seems likean illustration of how difficult
it is to put that kind of thingin practice.
(51:06):
It seems like a ton of people inher life either suspected or had
witnessed what was happening toher, but no one was able to
stand up to the point where theycould convince her to stand up
for herself or, take action, andsome of those people were her
parents where they lived in thesame house.
Why do you think that theydidn't intervene, more strongly
(51:28):
than they did in this situation?
Mark (51:32):
I don't know.
Maybe it's generational.
Maybe they thought, kinda likeMyKaeyla was told, this is
family business.
I think that they saw that Susandidn't wanna do anything and
they entered into a pattern ofrationalization.
They wanted to support herdecisions.
It's her marriage.
Then there's the possibility,the issue of alienating her and
the grandkids, when they reallywanted to keep them close.
(51:54):
Maybe the parents were afraid ofdriving Susan and, Michael away.
If they were to, make an issueof it, maybe they're afraid of
losing all contact.
If that happened, they lose theability to help when help is
needed.
Those seem like similar reasonsto why the hospital isn't a
mandatory reporter of domesticabuse.
In this case, you had the stafflooking at felony assault
(52:15):
evidence, broken nose, raccooneyes, concussion, genital
trauma, which is extremelytroubling.
but it isn't, they aren'tmandatory reports.
There are things like gunshotsare mandatory reports, but dvs
not.
And the reason that is if youmake it a law that you DVs a
mandatory report, it has achilling effect on people
seeking medical attention.
(52:36):
The hope is that when a victimarrives at the hospital, that
person is gonna be convinced tomake the right choice about
reporting.
But it's easy in hindsight tosay that the family should have
done things differently, butwhen you allocate blame, in this
case, 99% has to go to theabuser.
Marcy (52:55):
Bailey showed up at the AWAIC shelter, which is the
abused women's shelter inAnchorage.
and him showing up there isreally alarming.
It was like, he was totallyunhinged.
But what I remember as adispatcher is those calls came
in with some regularity and theywere of special concern because
of it being a domestic violenceshelter.
(53:16):
And sometimes guys would comeand rant and rave outside like
Bailey did.
But I also remember that menwould go and jerk off on the
door and do other creepy,disturbing things.
How off your rocker do you haveto be to think that that kind of
thing is effective?
I guess I just have troubleputting myself in the mindset of
thinking that like a giant mantantrum is gonna make this
(53:38):
person feel bad and come homewith me.
Mark (53:43):
I remember a call where a guy was actually urinating on
the doors of the AWAIC shelter.
AWAIC is Abused Women's Aid InCrisis that's what it stands
for.
Just consider the mindset of aman who hears is, you know, his
wife's taken refuge in theshelter and this guy doesn't
look inward and think, uh, thishas gone all kinds of wrong.
What should I do to help?
(54:04):
Instead, he thinks somethingelse jumps in his car, goes down
there, and what, what's hedoing?
Is he trying to prove he's anasshole?
I can't understand it, but Iresponded to calls like that.
What was interesting was thestaff at AWAIC often didn't like
me.
They didn't like me much morethan the men I I came to deal
with.
Many were suspicious, some weredownright hostile with officers.
(54:26):
I remember they, they locked anofficer in their back gate one
time, and I don't, I can'tremember the full problem, but
they were really hostile to thatofficer.
I came as backup and I'm outsidethe wall.
I don't know.
I didn't understand the dynamicuntil much later in my career
when I started working closelywith advocates.
Marcy (54:46):
What do you think it was?
Mark (54:49):
Okay, so for obvious reasons, males, male motivations
are suspect there.
Most of the women who work theredo so to help others because
they themselves have gonethrough the same thing.
And the ones that haven't gonethrough that, have heard the
stories or worse, they've had todeal with people like Bailey
showing up outside, screaminginto the call box, It's very
(55:10):
frightening to them.
So the guys that show up, thoseguys know there are women
inside.
They know the cops are coming,they don't care.
They're there to demand theirproperty.
Marcy (55:23):
You wanted to talk about this case as representative of
your experience with domesticviolence.
Mark (55:30):
That's why I brought this case up.
As a cop working at night, Iwent to all kinds of domestic
violence calls right up tospousal homicide, suicide.
Unfortunately I went to severalof those, and obviously not
every relationship where there'sdomestic violence ends in
murder.
Those are a small piece, butterrible.
But DV is a huge societalproblem that affects entire
(55:50):
families.
Just like this one, kids growingup in this situation learn to be
victims and abusers or in theBailey family's case orphans.
Marcy (56:01):
91 years to serve seems like a good sentence for this
asshole.
He's lost a couple of appeals,so I think it's probably safe to
say the judge's goal of keepinghim from hurting anybody else
will be met.
I think about those kids though.
I hope they got lots of therapyand I hope that they have found
peace in their life.
(56:27):
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(56:51):
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(57:14):
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a 3 Little Birds, LLCproduction.
Home had become like a prison.
Susan was the warden.
The in-laws were the sentinelsand he and the kids were serving
time.
Marcy (00:08):
Welcome to Crime Raven; true crimes, real life stories
from law enforcement and issuescrime fighters face.
This podcast highlights crimesresearched by retired Detective
Sergeant Mark Rein, usingpublicly available information,
court records and personalrecollections.
Content may be graphic,disturbing, or violent.
Listener discretion is advised.
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Mark (01:25):
Saint pulled into the parking garage at 5:00 AM No one
else was around.
So he drove with haste,commensurate to the screaming in
his head.
He had to set things right, hehad to get it all done, put it
away, put it behind him, andabove all, protect his family.
The tires screeched loudly asthey slipped on smooth concrete
(01:46):
in the sharp turns.
The big white car cork screwedhigher in the concrete building.
A few floors up, Sain slowed andpulled right.
He opened the door and tossedout the items, shoes, a bag,
glasses.
They hit the hard surface andskittered a few feet before
coming to rest.
Saint looked and saw how theydispersed.
(02:09):
Thought they looked about right.
Hoped they would do the job, andthen accelerated, tires
screeching.
This time he took the downslope.
The good thing about parks inhis city were that there were
many, somewhere civilized,manicured as a big city park
should be.
Some were wild, overgrown withbrush and trees and animals that
(02:33):
on occasion, ate people, Saintusually favored the tended and
trim parks.
But on this early morning, hewanted the privacy afforded by
the wild.
So he drove away from downtownto the southwestern periphery.
He knew a road on the edge of apark.
The houses on one side had hugewooded lots, and on the other
(02:55):
side, dense forest marked theboundary of Kincaid Park.
Once he found the road and thenthe trail head pullout, Saint
parked.
He sat with his windows open fora minute.
As the sound of the hot enginesubsided, it was replaced by
forest noise.
After a few minutes oflistening, Saint was satisfied
that he was alone.
(03:16):
He stepped out and looked aroundin the dim morning light.
There was no traffic this early.
The parking pullouts like thisone allowed access to the city's
network of trails.
The trail here was only lightlyused by runners and bikers who
flew by, maybe headed to moreheavily trafficked areas of the
coastal trail or downtown.
(03:36):
Saint grew more confident as theminutes ticked by.
He saw and heard no one as hepaced the edge of the gravel.
Looking out about 50 feet away,there was a cluster of huge
cotton woods.
The brush was thinned under thetree canopy.
That would have to do.
Saint returned to the car andpopped the trunk.
Her body was still in there.
(03:58):
He'd half expected that when heopened the lid, he'd wake up
from the nightmare.
There she was, wrapped in ablanket, but otherwise naked.
Saint glanced around one lasttime and then committed.
He reached in, pulling her upperbody towards him, adjusting his
hands under her shoulders, andheaving himself backward as he
arched her upward and out.
(04:19):
By now, her body was cold,surprisingly stiff.
There was a moment, as hedragged the length of her body
along the trunk lip where shewas almost balanced.
But he pulled her across thetipping point and the weight
shifted.
Saint, not nearly as strong ashe once was, fell backward
awkwardly, dropping the bodyhalf on him, half on gravel.
(04:41):
From his back, Saint felt ashock of urgency hit him.
He was fully exposed, on his assin the turnout of Kinkcaid Park
and his dead wife flopped acrosshis legs.
He scrambled to his feet, hookedhis arms under her armpits and
began pulling.
First off the gravel, across thegrass perimeter, then plunging
backward through the densebushes.
(05:02):
As Saint backed through thebrush, looking down at his wife
of the past decade, he couldn'thelp but think back to the
beginning.
1989.
Susan had been the perfect youngbride.
She had been everything he'dwanted in a girl during their
short courtship.
By the time the big day arrived.
They knew everything they neededto know about each other.
(05:23):
Having made promises andcommitments that would fuel and
guide their lives through theyears.
The wedding and honeymoon andFairbank seemed to Saint like it
could be the start of somethingthat would last forever.
But he should have recognizedthe signs.
You know what they say aboutthings being too good to be
true.
The first clouds on theirhorizon had popped up when they
(05:45):
returned to Anchorage.
Instead of getting their ownplace, Susan insisted they live
with her parents.
Playing on Saint's compassion,Susan said her parents were
getting old and needed themaround to help out.
She said that the arrangementwould also allow them to save up
for their own place.
He should have known.
What it really meant was thatfrom the beginning it would be
three against one.
(06:08):
Over time as he realized whatthe new family dynamic would be,
Saint adapted.
He didn't like the setup and hedidn't like their judgmental
attitudes, but he was alwaysrespectful of his in-laws and
helped out where he could.
The next shoe to drop was thejob.
Susan demanded to work outsidethe home.
They didn't need it.
He and Susan were living rentfree with her parents.
(06:31):
She got the job with the statewithout even telling him she was
applying.
She said that it would help themmake their dreams come true, but
the job meant he couldn't keepan eye on her and he was worried
that she would be distracted.
Being Mr.
Mom wasn't his idea of any kindof respectable life.
She could leave and do what shewanted and her parents were
always there to keep an eye onhim.
(06:53):
Anytime Saint tried to slip awayand have some fun, there was
that judgment waiting when hegot home.
The problem was Saint loved hiswife and she was smart about how
to keep him busy.
Even though she was workingfull-time, Susan started having
kids.
That was a real trap.
Saint loved his kids more thanlife.
(07:13):
He wanted them to haveeverything he hadn't.
But with each successive child,the possibility of escape,
getting away and getting theirown place grew more and more
remote.
The job, the kids, that wasabout the time the bad fights
started.
Susan would come home from work,take her stress out on Saint.
He would try to set herstraight, but she was angry and
(07:35):
demanding.
In some of these Susan's ragewould grow and they would lash
out at each other.
Saint didn't hurt her.
She hurt herself.
She would be furious crashingdown on him, like a wave against
the shore.
Her mistake was she wasn't awave crashing down on soft sand.
Saint was a rock, and Susanbroke herself on him.
(07:57):
Sometimes she was her bad enoughto go to the hospital.
Tellingly he was neverinvestigated.
Susan never reported him.
She knew who was really atfault.
Susan's lying and cheating stoleenergy from the family.
Saint didn't know when heraffairs had started or who they
were with, but he knew they werereal.
But by then they had to have themoney she was making when she
(08:18):
stepped out under the guise ofwork.
Home had become like a prison.
Susan was the warden.
The in-laws were the sentinelsand he and the kids were serving
time.
If there was a problem, thethree would circle the wagons
against him.
Saint was trying to give hischildren a better life, but was
constantly foiled by thesituation.
(08:41):
Saint's mind focused back on thetask at hand.
He had pulled Susan the rest ofthe way through the brush to the
small clearing under the canopyof the cottonwood.
He set about improving his lie.
Returning to the car, retrievingthe clothes he had brought.
They were the kind of sluttythings that Susan liked to wear
at work.
He dropped the items on theground as if they had been cast
(09:02):
aside during the attack.
He positioned Susan on her backthe best way he could.
Saint was spinning a narrativefor the cops who would
inevitably try to read thestory.
This woman had endureddepravities that ended her life.
When questioned, Saint was fullyprepared to add the subtext of
blame.
This would never have happenedif she had just chosen a
(09:24):
different path, stayed home andbeen a Godly wife and mother.
Saint had a plan for how allthis would go.
He wanted his beloved Susan tobe found.
To have quick closure to thesorrowful chapter in his
family's life.
He didn't like her body layingalone in the woods.
He wanted her to be found andbrought home so they could bury
(09:46):
her together as a family.
That's what he was doing allthis for.
Even as he completed the finaltouches around Susan's body,
Saint's mind was pulled back tothat last fight.
What was it now, two nights?
Last night?
Through the shock he couldn'tremember.
Susan was in their living roomscreaming at him as usual.
(10:07):
She was on the attack.
She had been with another man,or was it men?
She didn't care about the kidsasleep in their bedrooms.
She just cared about hurtingSaint.
Rubbing his nose in the pile ofshit she made him live in every
day.
When she came at him, Saintpushed her a little harder than
he intended, but strictly ondefense.
Susan, at the height of herflailing rage, lost her balance
(10:30):
and pitched backwards.
Everything would've been fine ifthe edge of the counter had not
been there.
She hit her head on the waydown.
Saint, for his part, and notrealizing the full extent of
what happened, fled from theroom.
He waited a little while beforepoking his head up, hoping that
Susan would be calmed, but bythe time he returned, Susan laid
(10:51):
dead in a pool of blood.
Her head split open.
From there, it was all a matterof saving his family from what
Susan had done.
If he called the police toreport an accidental death, they
would pin it on him.
He would go to prison.
Who would raise the kids?
Susan's family?
He had to cover up Susan's deatheven though it was an accident,
(11:13):
even though it was her fault.
He knew as a black man marriedto a white woman, no one would
ever give him a fair shake.
He wanted to cry when he thoughtabout what the kids had to put
up with from Susan and the restof the family.
This is probably exactly whatthey had planned from the start.
No.
Saint had to be the strong one.
The responsible one.
He would do the wrong thing toget the right result.
(11:36):
Saint stood to one side of theclearing and looked out over the
scene of Susan's rape andmurder.
He thought it looked good,better than on tv.
He added one final touch hangingher white bra in the open from a
branch.
It began swaying in the lightbreeze.
Perfect, he thought.
Marcy (12:07):
In June of 1999, Susan Bailey went missing.
Her husband, Michael Baileydidn't report that fact to the
police, but Susan was a reliableemployee.
When she didn't appear or callinto work for her second missed
shift, her boss began callingaround.
Susan's parents had no ideawhere she might be.
(12:28):
Her husband said Susan hadwalked out on him.
The boss, suspicious and alarmedby the husband's answers, called
the police.
A patrol officer was sent to theoffices of the State of Alaska,
Department of Natural Resourcesin the Frontier Building at 3601
C Street in Anchorage.
The officer spoke with two ofSusan's coworkers, a supervisor
(12:52):
and a friend.
They said Susan was usually avery accountable employee.
She didn't miss many shifts andwhen she did, she always called
to let them know why.
The supervisor conveyed theconversation with Susan's
parents and husband.
Susan's two coworkers wereuncomfortable voicing their
concerns.
They eventually worked up totelling the officer that they
(13:14):
believed that Susan was thevictim of regular physical abuse
by her husband.
Both coworkers talked aboutknowing Susan for several years
and observing that she regularlycame to work with visible
injuries that looked severe.
They said Susan always had anexplanation, an incident that
would cause the marks, whichSusan was embarrassed about and
(13:37):
tried to conceal as best shecould.
She told them that she was justclumsy and accident prone.
Over time, the repetitivestories wore thin, and paired
with some of the otherobservations about Susan's
relationship with her, bothassociates believed she was
regularly being battered.
After the introductoryconversation, Susan's supervisor
(13:59):
said that in addition to herunexplained absence, he was
further alarmed upon hearing twomessages from her work
voicemail.
One message was from buildingsecurity, notifying Susan that
they had an item of herproperty.
The other message was fromSusan's husband.
In the message, he tells Susanthat he's looking for her and
asks that she return his call.
(14:22):
He then said that he wouldn't behome because he was taking their
children to a friend's house.
During this part of the message,he listed all of their children
by name.
The officer agreed that thehusband's message to Susan
seemed odd.
The next stop for the policeofficer was the building
security department, where theofficer met with security guard,
(14:45):
Dixie Bogguss.
Boggusss told the officer thathe was on duty the morning of
June 25th.
He saw a late seventies modelwhite Oldsmobile sedan pull into
the parking garage, which was astandalone multi-story structure
next to the larger officebuilding.
The time of day and the speed atwhich the vehicle was traveling
(15:06):
were unusual.
People didn't generally startarriving until after six am.
He not only saw the car wasdriving with excessive speed,
but he could also hear the tiresquealing next door as it raced
up and then back down.
Boggess was unable to see on thesecurity camera who might be
driving.
He walked outside to try andcatch sight of the car and the
(15:28):
driver as it exited.
However, he was too late.
Boggess decided to perform awalkthrough of the parking
structure, which he didperiodically throughout the
shift.
When he reached the area, hethought the car had turned
around and started down from,Boggess found items laying on
the floor.
He saw a tennis shoe, a pair ofprescription glasses, and a
(15:50):
fanny pack.
The pack held identificationbelonging to Susan Bailey.
Boggess bagged the property andtook it to the security desk.
He then left a message about theproperty on Susan Bailey's
office voicemail.
Boggess told the officer thatthe event was definitely
suspicious.
The property had not been thereon his prior walkthroughs that
(16:11):
night.
The officer seized the discardedproperty as evidence, went back
upstairs to Susan's office andrecorded copies of her
voicemails.
After that, he conferred withthe homicide sergeant about the
missing person case and herequested that an officer be
dispatched to speak with SusanBailey's parents and coordinated
(16:32):
with APD public relations for amedia release about the case.
Mary Lou and George Hollet areSusan Bailey's mother and
father.
They first became aware thattheir daughter was missing when
Susan's coworker called them.
An officer spoke with them thatsame day and they gave basic
information about Susan's livingsituation.
(16:54):
Susan married Bailey inFairbanks in 1989.
The newlyweds moved into theHollet's home in Anchorage after
the wedding, living with herparents from 1989 to 1996,
during which time the couple'sthree children were born.
In 1996, they moved out of theHollet's after purchasing their
own home.
(17:16):
Susan worked at the AlaskaDepartment of Natural Resources
from 1989 until herdisappearance almost 10 years
later.
The Hollets were reluctant totalk about the relationship
between Susan and her husband,but with their daughter missing,
they decided to candidly discusstheir concerns.
They told the investigatingofficer that her husband had
(17:37):
been physically abusing Susanfor years.
They told several stories thatillustrated the problem.
Mary Lou Hollett said that in1992, the couple were living
downstairs.
One evening, as Mary Lou wasabout to go to sleep, Susan ran
upstairs and said her husbandhad cut her with a knife.
Mary Lou saw that Susan wasbleeding from a small laceration
(18:00):
to her abdomen just below herribs.
When she got the bleedingstopped, Mary Lou went
downstairs and confrontedBailey, who admitted that they
were arguing, but offered noexplanation as to how or why he
stabbed his wife.
George Hollett said a similarincident happened one night in
1995.
(18:21):
It was just after midnight andthe Holletts were asleep.
Susan ran upstairs and said thather husband was trying to kill
her.
Once again, Susan had beenstabbed in the abdomen and was
bleeding from a superficial cut.
As the parents were tending toSusan, her husband began yelling
from the bottom of the stairs,demanding that Susan come down.
(18:42):
George said he spoke with Baileywho was enraged and would not
calm down.
He said that Susan was his wifeand he could do anything he
wanted to her.
When George told him Susanwasn't coming down, Bailey began
throwing things around, damagingproperty in the house.
George finally convinced him toleave by threatening to call the
(19:02):
police.
There was another time when MaryLou received a call from Susan
who said she needed to be pickedup from a local supermarket.
It was clear that Susan was incrisis.
When Mary Lou arrived at thestore, Susan appeared to be
trying to hide from someone.
When she got into the car, MaryLou saw that her daughter had
(19:23):
numerous bruises, including twoblack eyes.
When she expressed surprise overSusan's injuries, her daughter
begged her to drive away quicklybecause she was afraid her
husband was looking for her.
Susan explained that the couplewere staying in a motel when the
beating took place, and she hadescaped the room when her
husband passed out.
(19:44):
The injuries from that beatingwere severe enough that Mrs.
Hollett took Susan to ProvidenceHospital.
It turned out that Susan had abroken nose, two black eyes, a
probable concussion, lacerationsto her back, and significant
injury to her genitals.
Susan turned out to be six weekspregnant, and her husband had
(20:05):
accused her of having sex withanother man.
The hospital staff joinedSusan's parents in urging her to
report the assault to police,but she refused.
Later, the Holletts confrontedBailey about the incident and he
admitted to having had"a littleargument" and getting"carried
away." The Holletts took Susanto the AWAIC women's shelter one
(20:31):
time after a major fight.
Bailey showed up at theHollett's and demanded to know
where she was.
They didn't immediately tellhim, but he was insistent saying
something to the effect, Susanis my wife and I can do what I
want with her.
They figured that Susan would besafe at the shelter, so they
told Bailey that she was stayingthere.
(20:51):
Later, Susan said that she heardher husband outside the shelter
yelling into a microphonedemanding for her to come out.
The day after the initialmissing person's report, police
detectives contacted Bailey.
Bailey confirmed that his wifeSusan, was still missing.
(21:12):
When asked why he didn't reportit earlier, he said that he had
called the police on Saturdaythe 26th and was told to call
the hospital's, jail and Susan'sfriends.
No record of this call could befound.
Bailey denied assaulting Susan.
He consented to a walkthrough ofhis residence and the detective
(21:32):
saw indications of violence.
There were holes on the wall andred stains in suspicious
locations.
Bailey explained that some ofthe holes in the Sheetrock were
there when they moved in.
Some were caused by his punchingthe walls and some by moving
furniture.
The red stains were explainedaway as coming from a cut Bailey
(21:52):
had or from a leaking containerof meat in a shopping bag.
Initially, all of the Baileychildren denied that their
parents argued or fought.
They said they'd never heard orseen their father being violent
with their mother.
Based on detective'sobservations at the Bailey
residence, they obtained asearch warrant for the home.
(22:14):
Upon close inspection of theholes in the Sheetrock, some
were found to contain traceevidence.
Inside two round holes, Susan'shead hairs had been trapped as
she pulled her head out of thewall.
In other holes, there were tinysmears of her blood.
In the kitchen and living room,there was evidence that Susan
had discharged a large amount ofblood on the sharp edges at the
(22:36):
countertop.
With a large blood stain on thecarpet below.
When the carpet was pulled back,it was clear that Susan had laid
bleeding in this location forsome time, as the carpet, pad
and wood were all soaked throughand stained.
There was also evidence thatsomeone had attempted a
superficial cleanup of theblood.
(22:57):
In the laundry area of the housedetectives found a garbage bag
containing several damp items.
There was a pillow with a bloodstain and a pair of cutoff
sweatpants with a wide elasticwaistband.
When detectives asked Baileyabout the damp pillow and
clothes, he said that the bloodstain was old, but when Susan
disappeared, he panickedandwashed the pillow because he
(23:20):
didn't want anyone to think thatit had anything to do with her
being missing.
In addition to the house, asearch warrant was obtained for
Susan's hospital medicalrecords.
Among other things, there wasthe record of the visit that
Susan's mother had described.
The records confirmed her brokennose, rib, genital injuries, and
(23:42):
the fact that Susan identifiedher assailant as her husband.
On July 5th, 1999, a citizenwalking a dog on a trail off
Jodhpur Street in Kincaid Park,was attracted to a wooded
clearing by the site of a whitebra hanging from a tree branch.
He saw a woman's body beneathand summoned the police.
(24:05):
By the time Susan's body wasfound, police had been expecting
the call for almost a week.
The house crime scene had warnedthem that she was out there
somewhere and even the newestrookie would've been able to
guess that somewhere would endup being one of the many city
parks.
When the crime scene techniciansbegan their work, they found
(24:26):
several anomalies.
The pieces of clothing strewnaround the body looked like they
hadn't been worn.
It was like they had been cleanand folded before being put into
place.
Nothing appeared to have beenforcibly removed.
Examining the body, it was clearthat Susan died in a location
and position other than what shewas currently in.
(24:48):
She had a major injury to herhead and face, yet there was no
blood pooling on the ground.
The lividity pattern on her bodywas not correct for her
position, and there were markson her waist indicating that she
was wearing pants with a widewaistband as her blood pooled
after her death.
These observations led APDCaptain William Gifford, a crime
(25:11):
scene reconstruction expert toassert that the scene where
Susan Bailey was found wasstaged, and that the bra left on
the tree was a flag to draw theattention of someone to the
body.
Upon autopsy, the medicalexaminer, Dr.
Frank Falico, determined thatSusan's death was caused by
blunt force injury to her head.
(25:33):
She had suffered a very severelaceration to her head, and
several bones in her face andnose were broken.
Dr.
Falico noted extensive bruisingto Susan's chest, abdomen, back,
and upper extremities.
Several of her ribs and her leftwrist were broken and her brain
was swollen.
Dr.
Falico testified that thelividity of Susan's body was not
(25:56):
characteristic of the place andposition her body was found in,
indicating that she had beenmoved after she died.
A grand jury indicted Bailey inApril, 2002, charging him with
alternative theories of homicideand four counts of tampering
with physical evidence.
In pretrial evidentiaryhearings, Bailey's attorneys
(26:19):
made sweeping objections to thestate's evidence, asserting that
almost all witnesses were beingcalled to provide hearsay and
unfounded circumstantialevidence.
After hearing the arguments, thejudge suppressed several pieces,
but most were allowed in eitheras evidence of a pattern of
behavior or as the product ofexcited utterances.
(26:42):
When Bailey proceeded to trial,the prosecution called numerous
witnesses to testify.
Three of Susan's coworkerstestified about their
observations of Susan over thelast decade.
How she often came in withalarming physical injuries.
How her explanations of thoseoften didn't make sense.
One female coworker who alsoidentified herself as Susan's
(27:04):
friend said that Susan alwayswore turtlenecks and long sleeve
shirts to cover her injuries.
She also said that Bailey wascontrolling of Susan and that he
demanded to know where she wasand who she was with at all
times.
In relation to Dixie Boggess'sobservations in the parking
garage, Susan's supervisortestified that there would be no
(27:24):
reason for her to come to workat 5:00 AM.
He also described hisconversation with Bailey about
Susan being missing and howBailey seemed to not want to
contact the police.
Susan's mother and father werecalled before the jury to
describe their experiences withBailey abusing their daughter.
They talked about the stabbingincidents in 1992 and 1995.
(27:48):
Mary Lou Hollett also gavetestimony about the incident
where she took her daughter tothe emergency room after she had
been severely beaten.
There was a witness whotestified that Susan took
shelter at AWAIC three timesover the years and described the
time that Bailey went to theshelter and demanded that she
come out.
In 1997, Bailey's moved out ofHollett's home and into a
(28:09):
condominium complex.
Jennifer Martin, who liveddownstairs from the Bailey's
testified about regularlyhearing loud banging noises from
the apartment in the earlymorning hours.
She asked Bailey about thosenoises, and he joked about
having to,"beat the wife to keepher in line." Mykaela Bailey was
(28:30):
11 years old when her mother waskilled.
Initially, she denied anyviolence in the home.
By the time of the trial, heraccount had changed.
Mykaela testified that herparents often had fights and
usually had fights late atnight.
She testified that sometimes shewould hear yelling and banging
against the wall when she was inher room.
(28:52):
During the fights, she couldhear her mother crying and
asking her father to stop.
After hearing the bangingsounds, she would see damage to
the walls and her mother wouldhave obvious injuries.
Mykaela testified that she heardher parents fighting the night
before her mother disappeared.
Mykaela admitted that sheinitially told the police that
(29:12):
she had never seen her fatherhit her mother.
She also stated that she wasafraid to tell the police about
the fights between her motherand father because her father
had said it was"familybusiness." Captain William
Gifford and Dr.
Frank Falico gave testimonyabout the crime scenes, the
condition of Susan's body, andevidence of crime scene cleanup
(29:34):
and staging.
Security guard Dixie Boggessdescribed the incident with the
white sedan in the parkinggarage.
He testified that the lateseventies white Oldsmobile sedan
that the Baileys owned wasidentical to the vehicle that he
saw driving into the parkinggarage on June 25th, 1999.
His testimony was logically tiedinto the narrative of the crime
(29:56):
scene staging.
The defense asserted that thestate's case was all about
pinning Susan Bailey's death onthe usual suspect.
They asserted that while Baileyhad some flaws, he didn't kill
his wife, and it was lazy policework to say that he did.
They stated that Susan Bailey'sreal killer was still out there,
and that the state hadoverlooked and cherry picked
(30:17):
evidence to fit the story thatthey wanted to tell.
The jury convicted MichaelBailey of second degree murder
and all counts of tempering withphysical evidence.
Superior Court Judge Dan A.
Hensley imposed a compositesentence of 91 years to serve.
At sentencing Judge Hensley alsofound that Bailey's likelihood
(30:40):
of rehabilitation was"almostnil." He reached his conclusion
because Bailey never soughtcounseling or treatment or even
acknowledged that there wasanything unacceptable about his
behavior, and Judge Hensleyfound that Bailey's long
criminal history, despitelacking felonies or assaults,
indicated that he was notamenable to rehabilitation.
(31:01):
The judge found that Baileypresented a danger to society
because of the high risk that hewould commit similar crimes of
domestic violence in the future.
He added that Bailey's yearslong practice of severe abuse
established his case asexceptional.
The evidence admitted at trialshowed that over the course of
their marriage, Baileyrepeatedly committed felony
(31:22):
level assaults on his wife thatrequired medical attention, even
though Bailey was not prosecutedfor those assaults.
Judge Hensley said that thepurpose of the sentence was"to
keep Mr.
Bailey locked away to protectthe public." To begin the
(31:48):
discussion of this case, telleveryone why you picked it.
Mark (31:56):
I picked this case because it was prominent in my career.
There are a lot of women wholive in horrible situations like
Susan Bailey.
Most don't get murdered like shedid.
But these relationships areoften a matter of degree of
severity, and they oftenescalate over time.
As we see in this case, childrenare the silent witnesses.
In some ways, this case isrepresentative of my whole
(32:19):
experience.
Working nights I went to a lotof fights in progress.
Ironically, when this case camein, I was on day shift for
rotation.
You know, I only left nightshift a couple times, like twice
in seven years, before I went tothe detectives.
Marcy (32:33):
And you were the area car that took this initial call?
Mark (32:36):
Yeah, I was a responding officer.
The call went pretty much like Iwrote it.
One of the attractive thingsabout working patrol is you
never know what's gonna come outof the radio next.
I remember being sent to it, itwas missing person, plus it's a
little suspicious based on whatthey were telling the
dispatchers.
It's unusual that a missingperson's called in by, somebody
(32:56):
who isn't a spouse or familymember.
I'm saying that as when theperson has a family in town,
Anchorage, sometimes people onlyhave friends.
But when people have familymembers in town, it's unusual
that a missing person be calledin by somebody else.
That's unusual about this case.
After I arrived, I startedgathering information, and it
(33:18):
was clear that I was steppinginto kind of a much bigger
story.
If you get a theft report, it'ssimple.
There's no hidden mystery tosolve Scooby Do.
But this one felt different fromthe start.
Marcy (33:29):
Talk about why you called Bailey Saint and why you wrote
the narrative from hisperspective.
Mark (33:36):
I wanted to portray the kind of attitude, excuses that
men who commit these kind ofcrimes come up with to justify
their actions.
I get this perspective from lotsof experiences interviewing,
people who are abusers andlistening to rapists spin
situations so that they canclaim the moral high ground.
Marcy (33:55):
Do you think that they actually believe it or is it
just a lie that sounds reallygood?
Mark (34:00):
I think it's a little both, especially over time.
I think these guys come up withwhat's necessary to try and get
through the moment and, overtime they buy into their
bullshit story.
Marcy (34:11):
Well, studies have shown that people can actually start
to believe a story that's a lieif it's presented to them as
fact over time repeatedly.
People have the ability to sortof brainwash themselves if it's
in their self-interest.
Mark (34:23):
Yeah, exactly.
Do you think OJ Simpson liveseveryday thinking, I tried to
cut off my ex-wife's head?
No.
He morphed that in his own mindto encompass the
rationalizations and warpedmemories to allow himself to
live with himself.
You know, actually OJs a goodexample.
He brought that shit on himself.
He brutally murdered two peoplein a fit of jealous rage.
(34:46):
But today he has himselfconvinced that he's the victim.
In this case I called BaileySaint because despite all he did
to his wife over what the judgerightly saw as years of torture,
eventually brutally murderingher while their children laying
their beds, trying not tolisten.
Bailey would tell you that he'ddone nothing wrong and was a
true victim here.
(35:08):
So Marcy, when we discussedthis, you wanted to call him
Martyr.
I thought that was close to themark, but the label gave way too
much too soon.
and for that reason I went withSaint.
Marcy (35:19):
We'll use Martyr someday.
During that initial call, atwhat point did you suspect that
Susan was actually dead?
Mark (35:27):
When I started talking to coworkers, there was a feeling
of doom.
By that time in my career, I'dhad enough context, what I have
about five years on?
I'd seen enough to know thescore.
It really struck me as reallystrange the husband, wasn't the
one to make the missing personcall.
The concern of the coworkers,they were obviously very worried
about her.
The woman who said this is myfriend was almost in tears
(35:50):
telling me her suspicions.
They didn't wanna tell meanything about, you know, they
didn't wanna talk about this.
They didn't want to, castdispersions on the husband.
But, after 10 years of watchingher basically come in, just
getting beat, they thought theyhad to say something.
Then we listened to the weirdvoicemail from Bailey.
It sounded like a script.
When you call and say, Hey, canyou call me?
(36:10):
When you call your wife, and,you know, even if she's mad at
you, you say, Can you call me?
I'm taking the kids over to afriend's house.
This was more like, Veryscripted.
He listed all his kids out byname and we're going over to
John doe's house to have abirthday party like he expected
somebody to listen to this andit was part of his plan.
It was unusual and I rememberlooking at the coworkers there
(36:32):
and they looked at me and Isaid, Does that sound right?
And they both said no.
Marcy (36:36):
And they had Susan's property at the security office.
Mark (36:39):
Yeah.
So I went from talking to hercoworkers who were very
concerned down to talk with thesecurity guard Dixie Boggess,
who told me the story about,this car comes rocketing through
the parking garage early in themorning, very unusual,
suspicious, like, what's thatguy doing here?
And as he told that, I thought,oh shit, she's gonna be dead.
(37:00):
I know in describing it soundslike I'm jumping to conclusions
and of course, you know, I don'tknow any of these people and
we're only scratching thesurface here, and I wouldn't bet
the farm that she was dead, butI pretty much knew.
Marcy (37:13):
I remember about the time you took this call, cuz I worked
in the same building as Susanand there's a lot of state
offices in there.
At 14 stories, that building isone of the tallest buildings in
Midtown Anchorage and thatparking garage is about five
stories.
It's kind of attached to thefrontier building with a
walkway.
And Dixie was a fixture there.
(37:34):
He was, this old guy who didnight security and he was just
this kind old man that you wouldsee every morning as you headed
up the elevator.
Mark (37:42):
He came in for a shift on June 24th.
Do you think he was thinkingtoday, if I do my job, I'll be
the key to solving a murder?
Marcy (37:52):
Well, he always seemed like he cared about that
building.
I was happy to know that he wasthe kind of guy who would do a
good job, even at night whennobody was around to look.
Mark (38:00):
A surprising number of cases during my career were
solved by somebody who wasconscientious like him, who did
the right thing at the righttime.
I mean, if he hadn't seen thevehicle, if he hadn't been
paying attention, and if ithadn't found the stuff, that
stuff probably would've beenscattered around, by the morning
rush.
It would've been treated likegarbage, probably overlooked.
(38:22):
Instead, Dixie saved the day.
Marcy (38:27):
Bailey told Detective Shell that he had reported Susan
missing on the 26th and was toldthat he couldn't file a missing
person report.
Even if that were true, everysingle call to the police
department is recorded.
There would be a record of thatcontact,
Mark (38:45):
There's all these little things that tell you that he's
lying and that's one of thosethings, Right.
He's full of crap.
He said he called dispatch andtold they wouldn't file a report
unless he called the jail's,hospital's, friends.
That isn't policy.
I guess it could have happened,but it didn't because that's not
the requirement to file amissing person report.
But we really know he was lyingbecause there was no record of
(39:07):
any call, no log, no recording.
and if he had called there wouldbe a trace that he did.
Now, what he is doing there istaking advantage of what people
say about the difficulties offiling a missing person report.
The problem is he didn't.
His reluctance to report later,and the mysterious, he panicked
and washed the blood stainedpillows, they're small pieces of
(39:30):
the larger pie.
Marcy (39:33):
Did you do anything particularly special to get this
investigation going once yourealized how very suspicious it
was?
Mark (39:41):
As a responding officer, I'm not gonna be the primary
investigator, but I'd beenaround long enough to know that
to get missing personsinvestigations started, you
know, actively you had to sendup a flare, you know, get some
attention, even within thedepartment.
So I called homicide and spokewith a sergeant there.
I impressed on him theseriousness of the situation.
He asked that we interviewed theparents, to see what they said,
(40:03):
and said that, in, this is aconversation, well, do you want
me to go contact the, thesuspect and see what he says?
And he told me no, that theywould speak with Bailey, but
just to let him know what theparents said.
And he also gave me permissionto put the missing person
announcement out over the localnews.
So at that time, our publicinformation guy was Ron McGee,
who was a former on-airreporter.
(40:25):
And he actually came to thebuilding while I was wrapping
up, the investigation and Ibriefed him on what we wanted to
release.
And I remember him asking me,you think he killed her?
And I said, We can't putanything like that out.
We just need to put out thatshe's missing.
But I told him, Yeah, I think hekilled her.
Marcy (40:45):
You had a special attachment to this case and we
talked about it as you followedthe progress were more
frustrated when it becamestalled.
Mark (40:53):
For a long time this is one of the few cases that I, I'd
been involved with that neededto be closed.
It went on long enough to makeme worried that it would join,
Sophie Segie as a cold case.
At that time only a handful ofcases that I thought, Boy, I've
been involved in this and itreally needs to be closed.
But, actually now I think aboutit, there's only one now, uh, on
my list that Sophie surgery'sgone down.
(41:14):
I knew the case pretty well bythen.
And I knew as prosecutable, veryprosecutable.
But in those three years itseemed to languish.
I went into homicide regularlyto inquire about the status.
For a while the answers I gotwere like, we're waiting for the
evidence to come back.
We're waiting for the state lab.
We had a lot of movement throughthe homicide unit so the case
(41:36):
changed hands several times,moved around.
Finally, I was flattered, oneday I walked in homicide and the
sergeant who was Slav Markowitzat that time, I'd come and talk
to him several times about it.
And so without me, having to askabout it, he said, Mark, I just
reassigned the case to DetectiveGlenn Klinkhart.
(41:56):
Glenn wasn't in the office atthe time, but he later came and
found me, and told me they weremoving forward with the
indictment.
I was very happy.
Glenn cared about this case andhis cases in general, and he did
a good job finishing it up.
Marcy (42:11):
Why do you think it took so long for him to be charged?
Mark (42:14):
There are many, many things.
It took time for the forensicstuff to come back.
The prosecutors have to weighwhat are things gonna look like
when they go to trial?
This case has the stagingelement.
So if you're not gonna just, buythe defense's thing, well there
was a rapist that, kidnapped herand did this to her, you have to
have a good explanation of whatstaging is and so forth.
So there they have, to plan forthat testimony.
(42:37):
And I'm sure the prosecutorsweren't like, Oh boy, overjoyed
have to explain something likethat.
I think part of the delay was,the kids' original statements
were troubling.
They denied there was a problem.
It's not insurmountable, but itdepends on how that, interview
or that testimony would go infront of the jury.
If it went wrong, it could gutthe prosecution.
(42:59):
When MyKaeyla admitted thatthere was violence that they had
witnessed it and heard it,that's a green light for the
case.
That's what I think happened.
I don't know for sure, butlooking at this case in,
retrospect, I think that wasprobably the delay.
Marcy (43:13):
I wonder also if there was the need to do pretty
extensive preparation with her,if she's gonna testify as a
child.
That's a lot of therapy and workwouln't you think?
Mark (43:26):
Yeah, I'm sure that's a concern.
But the other thing there is youcan't prep a child.
That all has to be recorded andwhen you present that evidence,
Hey, we're gonna use this kidand she's gonna testify to this,
you have to give them what youdid to get that right, the
interviews and so forth.
That's all in recording.
So you could be accused ofbasically getting her to say
(43:47):
what you wanted to say.
So you gotta be careful aboutpulling that kind of testimony
out of a kid.
Marcy (43:52):
Certainly there's a lot of planning for having a child
testify even if you're not doingthat kind of preparation with
the child, you're doingpreparation sort of around the
child.
What supports you're gonna haveand how you're going to
choreograph all of that.
I guess you do that with allwitnesses, but it just seems
like the fact that you havechildren testifying would make
(44:14):
it particularly sticky and maybetake longer to get ready for
that.
Mark (44:19):
Yeah, I mean, you're talking about you're gonna
contact this child to interviewher or them about their dad
who's in prison and what shesays is probably gonna be very
important to how this case goes,if it gets prosecuted and so
forth.
So I'm sure there was a lot ofconsideration of the sensitivity
of those.
(44:40):
There's a lot of great evidencein this case.
I knew it was prosecutable andI'm not surprised that
eventually it went down.
But, those are the concerns.
I'm certain that some of thetestimony, if the kids had been
adamant about, no, no abuseever, if that was believable
testimony and not just, toprotect the father, then you
pretty much gutted your case.
The theory of your case.
Marcy (45:02):
The abuser victim dynamic can look a lot like a cult of
one.
The more you look at this fromthe outside, the more you sort
of say, What the hell?
Why did she stay?
Why didn't she report?
And how could you let it getthis bad?
Mark (45:18):
I don't know.
There are some answers that arecommon when you talk to victims
when they look back.
They love the abuser and weretrying to just ride it out until
the good times came back.
They feel responsible for thesituation and they feel, some of
them feel like they deserve theabuse, that they earned it.
Some of them grew up in abusivesituations and think, well, this
(45:40):
is normal.
This is how, this is love.
They might be the kind of personthat will keep a commitment even
if it kills them.
That sounds funny, but when yourfamily and social networks say,
you know, marriage is aninviolable contract sealed by
God, how are you gonna get outof that?
Sometimes the victim reallyrelies on the abuser for
(46:00):
financial support.
It's weird.
In this case, the opposite wastrue for Susan Bailey.
She was the only one makingmoney.
But if you listen to the episodeabout the Simmons family, the
wife in that case was trying tofigure out finances, what she
was gonna do, when she left herhusband, and, she just didn't
get out in time before themurders.
(46:20):
Closely related to the financialreason victims stayed because it
seems like the, it's a path ofleast resistance.
Susan knew that leaving would bedangerous.
She was probably afraid thatMichael would go, potentially be
a danger to other members of herfamily.
I don't think she doubted hewould kill her, but maybe she
feared, that he would also hurther parents or the kids.
(46:42):
Last but not least, they staybecause the children are that
leverage point.
The abuser threatens to take thekids.
Sometimes he may even threatento hurt the kids.
That can backfire in the abuser.
it's in situations like this, itoften the abuse or threatened
abusive kids, that's whatshatters the spell.
Victims that would normally justendure abuse, sometimes leave to
(47:05):
try and save the kids.
Marcy (47:07):
You went to a National Violence Against Women Act or
VAWA conference.
What influence did VAWA have onhow law enforcement responds to
domestic violence?
Mark (47:19):
Yeah, it was huge.
A lot of the things in VAWA cameinto effect in Alaska right just
before I became a cop.
I couldn't imagine not havingsome of these things in place.
Basically, VAWA was a set oflaws that go back three decades.
The goal of that law is toimprove services for victims of
sexual violence and domesticviolence and stalking.
(47:41):
It's a huge law.
Just to give you an idea, partof the law recognizes that
domestic violence is besthandled by government
organizations that have anunderstanding of the problem and
work together cooperatively.
So it funds education andtraining about violence against
women for victim advocates,police officers, prosecutors,
judges, probation, corrections,healthcare officials, and, faith
(48:05):
leaders.
Part of the law encouragesstates to enact certain laws
that are considered bestpractices.
An example of this are stalkinglaws.
There's also federal bans onthings that would inhibit victim
services, like fees for sexualassault examinations.
Over the years, VAWA has madesweeping changes, things that we
now take for granted like, youcan enforce a domestic violence
(48:27):
order across state lines.
Marcy (48:31):
I'm looking at a fact sheet on VAWA and it says, since
1994, O V W has awarded nearly 4billion, with a B, dollars in
VAWA grants to fund state,tribal and local governments,
non-profit organizations anduniversities focused on ending
violence against women.
The law helps fund shelters andother services well beyond just
(48:51):
emergency medical care and thebest practices that you talked
about.
Mark (48:56):
VAWA goals and standards were a big thing in my training.
When I started, like I said, thelaw had recently been
implemented in Alaska, and, oneof the big things was that it
meant we had mandatory physicalarrest in cases where the
primary physical aggressor couldbe determined or there was
corresponding physical injury.
This is a departure from othermisdemeanor crimes in that
(49:16):
usually a police officer has tobe present, for a misdemeanor
when a crime occurs for amisdemeanor arrest to be made,
unless you have a private personcomplaint.
With DV the officer just has tohave probable cause that an
eligible DV related crimehappened.
Marcy (49:35):
This prevents the situation where the victim says,
No, I won't press charges, andit takes it outta their hands.
Is that right?
Mark (49:43):
Yeah.
The mandatory arrest part meansthat it's the government.
So here's an example.
When I made a DV arrest, theoffender would often, say, Well,
is she pressing charges?
And with this law, I could say,no, it's out of his or her
hands.
It's the government that'spressing charges.
And this is a powerful thingbecause, We would go to trial
with evidence, even when youhave a DV victim that becomes
(50:06):
uncooperative because, well,maybe they've gone back with
him, but we have the evidence,we call her as a hostile
witness.
We still have, the basicevidence to go forward with
trial.
And, it's a great deterrent, forthis crime.
The thing about that is it's alot like the broken window
theory.
If you make an arrest for DV,that's shown to be a deterrent
for future violence.
(50:28):
Studies show if a person isarrested early, they're less
likely, continue an escalatingpattern of abuse.
If it had happened to Baileycould have head off some of the
violence that, Susan regularlyendured and that's assuming that
the assaults were reported thepolice.
Marcy (50:46):
This case made me think about how a lot of violence
prevention curricula focus onthe importance of bystander
interventions.
That standing up and sayingsomething is important to break
that violence cycle.
Susan Bailey's murder seems likean illustration of how difficult
it is to put that kind of thingin practice.
(51:06):
It seems like a ton of people inher life either suspected or had
witnessed what was happening toher, but no one was able to
stand up to the point where theycould convince her to stand up
for herself or, take action, andsome of those people were her
parents where they lived in thesame house.
Why do you think that theydidn't intervene, more strongly
(51:28):
than they did in this situation?
Mark (51:32):
I don't know.
Maybe it's generational.
Maybe they thought, kinda likeMyKaeyla was told, this is
family business.
I think that they saw that Susandidn't wanna do anything and
they entered into a pattern ofrationalization.
They wanted to support herdecisions.
It's her marriage.
Then there's the possibility,the issue of alienating her and
the grandkids, when they reallywanted to keep them close.
(51:54):
Maybe the parents were afraid ofdriving Susan and, Michael away.
If they were to, make an issueof it, maybe they're afraid of
losing all contact.
If that happened, they lose theability to help when help is
needed.
Those seem like similar reasonsto why the hospital isn't a
mandatory reporter of domesticabuse.
In this case, you had the stafflooking at felony assault
(52:15):
evidence, broken nose, raccooneyes, concussion, genital
trauma, which is extremelytroubling.
but it isn't, they aren'tmandatory reports.
There are things like gunshotsare mandatory reports, but dvs
not.
And the reason that is if youmake it a law that you DVs a
mandatory report, it has achilling effect on people
seeking medical attention.
(52:36):
The hope is that when a victimarrives at the hospital, that
person is gonna be convinced tomake the right choice about
reporting.
But it's easy in hindsight tosay that the family should have
done things differently, butwhen you allocate blame, in this
case, 99% has to go to theabuser.
Marcy (52:55):
Bailey showed up at the AWAIC shelter, which is the
abused women's shelter inAnchorage.
and him showing up there isreally alarming.
It was like, he was totallyunhinged.
But what I remember as adispatcher is those calls came
in with some regularity and theywere of special concern because
of it being a domestic violenceshelter.
(53:16):
And sometimes guys would comeand rant and rave outside like
Bailey did.
But I also remember that menwould go and jerk off on the
door and do other creepy,disturbing things.
How off your rocker do you haveto be to think that that kind of
thing is effective?
I guess I just have troubleputting myself in the mindset of
thinking that like a giant mantantrum is gonna make this
(53:38):
person feel bad and come homewith me.
Mark (53:43):
I remember a call where a guy was actually urinating on
the doors of the AWAIC shelter.
AWAIC is Abused Women's Aid InCrisis that's what it stands
for.
Just consider the mindset of aman who hears is, you know, his
wife's taken refuge in theshelter and this guy doesn't
look inward and think, uh, thishas gone all kinds of wrong.
What should I do to help?
(54:04):
Instead, he thinks somethingelse jumps in his car, goes down
there, and what, what's hedoing?
Is he trying to prove he's anasshole?
I can't understand it, but Iresponded to calls like that.
What was interesting was thestaff at AWAIC often didn't like
me.
They didn't like me much morethan the men I I came to deal
with.
Many were suspicious, some weredownright hostile with officers.
(54:26):
I remember they, they locked anofficer in their back gate one
time, and I don't, I can'tremember the full problem, but
they were really hostile to thatofficer.
I came as backup and I'm outsidethe wall.
I don't know.
I didn't understand the dynamicuntil much later in my career
when I started working closelywith advocates.
Marcy (54:46):
What do you think it was?
Mark (54:49):
Okay, so for obvious reasons, males, male motivations
are suspect there.
Most of the women who work theredo so to help others because
they themselves have gonethrough the same thing.
And the ones that haven't gonethrough that, have heard the
stories or worse, they've had todeal with people like Bailey
showing up outside, screaminginto the call box, It's very
(55:10):
frightening to them.
So the guys that show up, thoseguys know there are women
inside.
They know the cops are coming,they don't care.
They're there to demand theirproperty.
Marcy (55:23):
You wanted to talk about this case as representative of
your experience with domesticviolence.
Mark (55:30):
That's why I brought this case up.
As a cop working at night, Iwent to all kinds of domestic
violence calls right up tospousal homicide, suicide.
Unfortunately I went to severalof those, and obviously not
every relationship where there'sdomestic violence ends in
murder.
Those are a small piece, butterrible.
But DV is a huge societalproblem that affects entire
(55:50):
families.
Just like this one, kids growingup in this situation learn to be
victims and abusers or in theBailey family's case orphans.
Marcy (56:01):
91 years to serve seems like a good sentence for this
asshole.
He's lost a couple of appeals,so I think it's probably safe to
say the judge's goal of keepinghim from hurting anybody else
will be met.
I think about those kids though.
I hope they got lots of therapyand I hope that they have found
peace in their life.
(56:27):
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(56:51):
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If you haven't already, pleasesubscribe to Crime Raven, so you
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(57:14):
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