March 7th, 2025 - Contentious Neighbors

In Missouri, a young woman was arrested in connection to the death of her one-year-old child.
In Massachusetts, a woman was found shot to death outside of her apartment. Police announced that a suspect has been captured and charged.
In Virginia, law enforcement responded to reports of shots fired and found a man and woman suffering from gunshot wounds in a car.
We have new and updated information on the case of Gordon Laakso, the Wisconsin man accused of killing his wife over the weekend.
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello and welcome back to Sword and Scale Daily, a
daily show covering all things true crime, five days a week.
It's Friday, March seventh. I'm your host, Ryan Williams. In Missouri,
a young woman was arrested in connection to the death
of her one year old child. In Massachusetts, a woman

(00:23):
was found shot to death outside of her apartment. Police
announce that a suspect has been captured and charged. In Virginia,
law enforcement responded to reports of shots fired and found
a man and a young woman suffering from gunshot wounds
in a car. We also have new and updated information
on the case of Gordon Laxo, the Wisconsin man accused

(00:43):
of killing his wife over the weekend. All of this
com anitchew right now here on Sword and Scale Daily.
On Friday, February twenty eighth, deputies with the Scott County
Sheriff's Office in Missouri, as well as paramedics, responded to

(01:06):
a home in Cape Girardo after receiving a report about
an unresponsive toddler. When first responders arrived at the home,
they made their way inside and found a one year
old child with blue lips and beyond help. The child
was pronounced dead at the scene. When deputy spoke with
the child's mother, twenty one year old Alissa Weymeyer, she
stated that she had put the child to sleep at

(01:27):
around six thirty pm the previous day, but when she
woke up, she found that toddler was unresponsive and noticed
their lips were blue. The problem with this story was
that by the time deputies were notified that this child
was unresponsive, nearly nineteen hours had passed by since Alyssa
allegedly put her child to sleep, and because of this,
deputies deemed the death suspicious and passed the case onto

(01:50):
investigators and ordered an autopsy. Now. During the autopsy of
the child, they found that the cause of death was
due to dehydration. The medical examiner also found quote unquote,
very little evidence of food in the child's stomach. An
external examination also found that the child had blistering, this
really weird pattern that was suggestive of a pretty severe

(02:10):
diaper rash. Once these results were finalized, detectives decided to
bring Elissa in for a formal interview. While speaking with detectives,
Alyssa stated that she last remembered feeding her child on Wednesday,
February twenty sixth, sometime around five to six pm. After that,
everything seemed to be a blur. Alisa claimed that she

(02:31):
had a pretty severe migraine that had lasted a couple
of days. She recalled that she changed her child's diaper
before putting them to sleep on the twenty seventh. She
also claimed that she'd a woken at around one or
two am when the child was crying and spent roughly
thirty minutes soothing the child before she put them back
to sleep. However, just twelve hours later, the child was dead.

(02:51):
She did go in a state that she should have
taken the child to the doctor on the twenty seventh,
but she claimed that her migraine was so bad she
just put the child to sleep and then went to
take a nap. Ultimately, Alissa way Meyer was charged with
felony abuse or neglect of a child resulting in death.
She has since been booked into the Scott County Jail.
During her first court appearance on Tuesday, March fourth, a

(03:14):
judge ordered that she be held on a one hundred
thousand dollars cash only bond. If new details are released,
we'll be sure to bring you an update. On Tuesday,
March fourth, At around six twenty pm, officers with the
New Bedford Police Department in Massachusetts were dispatched to an

(03:36):
apartment building it on the four hundred block of Bolton
Street after they received reports about a woman who was
found critically injured. When oscers responded to the scene, they
found the victim in the hallway of the first floor
outside of an apartment. Officers immediately began performing life saving
measures until paramedics arrived. Soon after, the woman was transported
to Saint Luke's Hospital, where tragically, she was pronounced dead.

(04:00):
The victim was later identified as thirty two year old
Karina Martinez Orties. Her cause of death has been reported
as multiple gunshot injuries. Investigators with the New Bedford Police
Department's homicide Unit, along with detectives from the Massachusetts State Police,
started working hand in hand to identify the person responsible
for Karina's untimely death. On Thursday morning, the New Bedford

(04:23):
Police Department announced that a suspect had been taken into custody.
The announcement identified forty nine year old at Wilo Morales,
Cologne as the alleged murderer. According to the police, the
investigation revealed that the suspects lived in the second story
apartment above Karna, and that the two at one time
had a quote unquote contentious relationship with one another. After

(04:45):
speaking with witnesses, including some of Karina and Wilo's neighbors,
investigators found that the victim was often fearful of her
alleged killer. They also learned that on Tuesday night, Karina
was planning on bringing food to a new neighbor who
had just moved into the building. This neighbor explained that
they just struck up a friendship with Krina and were
looking forward to breaking bread and getting to know each other,

(05:08):
but she never showed up. It's believed that as Krena
was heading out the door to this new neighbor's apartment,
she encountered Wiloh, who allegedly opened fire multiple times, effectively
killing her. Surveillance footage from the immediate area showed the
suspect fling from the apartment building and leaving the scene
in his car. After he was identified as a person
of interest, investigators were able to track his phone to

(05:30):
an area in Springfield where he was later detained. After
he was taken into custody, Wilo allegedly admitted that he
was responsible for Kreena's death. He's since been booked in
a jail on a charge of murder and carrying a
firearm without a license. He remains in custody without bond
in his due beck in court for a probable cause
hearing on March twenty eighth. For many in the neighborhood,

(05:52):
there's this profound sense of grief and uncertainty about Krena's death.
One neighbor recalled, quote, my girlfriend knew her very well.
She was a great person. That's what's kind of shocking.
Another neighbor, who reflected on the history of the neighborhood,
said the following quote. My girlfriend called me and I
was in the shower and I was like, what's going on.
She told me her friend just passed away, and I'm like,

(06:14):
what happened? And she told me she got shot over
there at Bolton Street. And it's shocking because we usually
hang out over there. It's a nice area. There were
other areas that were bad, but this area here, as
you can see, it's all restaurants, stores and clubs. If
new details are released, including a potential motive, we'll be
sure to bring you an update on Sunday, March second,

(06:47):
at around twelve twenty two am, officers with the Chesterfield
County Police Department in Virginia were dispatched to the sixty
three hundred block of Pewter Avenue after receiving a report
from a concerned citizen about shots fired. When responding officers
arrived on Pewter Avenue, they started looking around the area
for anything suspicious. Shortly thereafter, they found a car that

(07:09):
was parked with two occupants inside. Both appeared to be
suffering from some type of injury. Initially, officers noted what
appeared to be an adult female in the passenger seat
and an adult male in the driver's seat, but soon
that assumption would change. Unfortunately, the female occupant was well
beyond any help and was pronounced dead at the scene.

(07:30):
It appeared as if she had been shot to death
in a targeted attack, whereas the driver suffered a self
inflicted gunshot wound. He was still alive when officers arrived
and was transported to the hospital for emergency treatment. At
the time of this writing, he is alive and was
later identified as thirty year old Roberto Elias Zaldivar. Now.
A few moments ago we mentioned that officers initially believed

(07:52):
that the decedent was an adult female, but they soon
learned that she was only a fifteen year old girl
and that the suspect in this alleged murder was romantically
involved with this young teenager. That in itself is unfathomable.
Although Roberto is still in the hospital, he's officially been
charged with second degree murder and use of a firearm

(08:13):
in the commission of a felony. Once he's discharged from
the hospital, he will be booked into the Chesterfield County Jail.
We'll continue keeping your eye in the story and bring
you an update when more information has been made available.

(08:33):
On Wednesday's episode of Sword and Scale Daily, we brought
you the story of seventy year old Gordon Laxo, the
Wisconsin man who's been accused of killing his wife, sixty
eight year old Mary Laxo, And now we have some
updated information on this case. To quickly recap, the investigation
started on Sunday, March second, just after one pm, and

(08:54):
that's when an unknown person contacted the New Richmond Police
Department and requested a welfare check at the lack So home.
The caller stated that they were speaking with Mary earlier
in the day and learned that Gordon had allegedly threatened her,
which caused her friend to become concern for her well being.
The reporting party stated that they feared Mary was in
serious trouble and wanted officers to make sure she was okay.

(09:16):
As we know, officers responded to Gordon and Mary's home
on the thirteen hundred block of Bluff Border Road, where
they established contact with Gordon. Upon their arrival, they told
Gordon they were there to check on Mary's well being. However,
at that time he explained that she wasn't at the
house and wasn't answering or returning any of his calls.
When we last left off, we knew that Mary's body

(09:38):
had been discovered in a rural area of Polk County,
though we didn't have the information as to how police
were led to her body. We also didn't have an
official cause of death, but we had some indication based
on the charges that were filed. But now we have
some of that information. As it turns out, it was
Gordon himself who led officers to the location of Mary's body.

(09:59):
You see, during that initial contact with officers at his
home and after stating that she wasn't answering or returning
his calls, he started to make some incriminating statements. Gordon
told officers that earlier in that day he had to
listen to Mary quote unquote ramble on for roughly seven
hours before she started hitting him. He claimed that at

(10:19):
that point things got a bit out of control and
the situation escalated, though he didn't really clarify, and during
that point in the conversation with the officers, Gordon was
reported to have started packing a suitcase while telling the
officers that he'd be coming with them. That's when one
officer asked Gordon if Mary had left the home, to
which he replied, quote, oh, you haven't found her. She's dead. Now.

(10:44):
This is a stark contrast to the first story he
told officers when they first arrived and seemingly came out
of left field. He also explained that he regretted what
he had done and wished he would have taken her
to a hospital instead. He claimed that he panicked and
dumped her body on the edge of Cornfield, just north
of New Richmond. Two hours later, Mary's body had been recovered.

(11:06):
It's since been confirmed that Mary died as a result
of strangulation, which we kind of had an indication of,
despite not having a confirmed cause of death at the
time we first reported on the story. As we know,
Gordon Laxa was in custody at the Saint Croix County
Jail on charges of first degree intentional homicide, domestic abuse
by strangulation or suffocation, and hiding a corpse. His bond

(11:29):
is set at one million dollars. If more information is
revealed in this harrowing case, will be sure to bring
you an update. Thanks so much for tuning in this
week for Sword and Scale Daily. I'm your host, Ryan Williams,
and we'll see you back here next week.