Episode Transcript
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Charlie Incarica (00:00):
I'd been away
from Shady Grove for six weeks.
I was home and restless.
I tried to explain to mymanager at Best Buy where I'd
been since late March, in hopesof picking up some shifts, which
proved less than successful.
I also tried to patch things upwith Amy, which proved less
than less than successful.
As for Shady Grove, like therest of the nation, the 2020
(00:26):
July 4th weekend was arelatively muted affair.
The town's usual plans forIndependence Day, a parade in
which Uncle Sam would hurl cupsof pudding at the crowd, was
scrapped in favor of a salute toShady Grove's healthcare
professionals.
While unquestionably a nobleidea, it was a disaster on every
level, from Mayor Lyon'sill-advised lung costume to the
(00:49):
large float that carried thetown's doctors and nurses,
which, while an impressive andmoving tribute to these brave
healthcare professionals, alsoleft the hospital unstaffed for
13 hours.
But perhaps worst of all, themurders remained unsolved.
And the town was growingincreasingly frustrated with the
(01:09):
police's lack of progress.
Taylor Branagin and I kept intouch via email, and though at
the time she couldn't revealmuch about an ongoing police
investigation, she hinted atsome frustration, alluding
vaguely in one email to theinvestigation not having moved,
quote, one fucking inch sinceI'd left.
(01:30):
Taking that as a covert pleafor my return, I packed up my
car and once again headed toShady Grove.
To the people who had startedto feel, if not like friends,
then at least like the cast of along-running TV show that had
started to feel like friends.
(01:51):
Oh great.
I'm good.
When Estelle told me that themood of the town had shifted in
the last month and a half, Istarted to get the sense that
the town's emotions had alteredsomewhat in the last six weeks.
I said shifted.
Oh, right.
How has it shifted?
Estelle Hayes (02:11):
Well, people are
getting angry that there's been
no movement on the case.
There's a real streak of goodold-fashioned sexism and
misogyny in this town, too.
There are some who think thecase isn't going anywhere
because a woman's leading theinvestigation.
Charlie Incarica (02:25):
That's awful.
Estelle Hayes (02:26):
Well, by and
large, it's not a very
progressive community.
Some of them have started tomarch in front of the police
station with signs demanding sheresign and quotes from the
Bible saying how police work isa man's job.
Charlie Incarica (02:38):
The Bible says
that?
Estelle Hayes (02:40):
Probably.
Charlie Incarica (02:41):
I called
Taylor the next day to let her
know I was in town, and told herI'd heard the town's mood had
shifted or altered.
She sounded tired.
Taylor Branigan (02:50):
Yeah, I mean
it's just the governor's really
handcuffed us.
No judge will sign off on awarrant to search Teddy's home
or office or shopping cart.
Same thing for Margaret and herhotel suite.
I mean, obviously I I shouldn'teven be sharing this with you.
This is off the record, right?
Charlie Incarica (03:08):
Um I reached
out to District Attorney Teresa
Nolo, but she declined to beinterviewed, saying she didn't
want to say anything that mightdisrupt the case.
Governor Hart also repeatedlydeclined to be interviewed about
the murders, though she didspeak once in front of a
socially distanced gaggle ofreporters.
(03:29):
But even then, she was evasive.
This is from April 9th, 2020.
The occasion was aribbon-cutting ceremony, at the
opening of a factory thatmanufactures giant scissors for
ribbon-cutting ceremonies.
Governor, it's the one-monthanniversary of the murder of
your daughter-in-law and twoother people, and yet you
haven't issued any statementsabout it.
Governor Hart (03:48):
Well, I'm holding
these giant scissors, so it's
possible I didn't hear thequestion correctly.
But let me just say I've alwaysfelt quite strongly that the
aftermath of a murder isn't anappropriate time to talk about
it.
I think it's important torespect the privacy of grieving
families, and as you rightlypoint out, that includes me.
(04:10):
I'm focusing all my emotionalenergies on processing my son's
and my own deep trauma.
And with that out of the way, Isay, let's cut this ribbon.
Charlie Incarica (04:26):
And while D.A.
Teresa Nolo wasn't talking,that didn't mean she wasn't
acting.
Under state law, she had theauthority to hire an outside
medical examiner to look overthe official coroner's report,
which she had done early inJuly.
And what she found sent thiscase in, if not a whole new
direction, then certainly not inan old direction.
Taylor Branigan (04:47):
Well, obviously
when that independent report
came out, it threw the wholeinvestigation for a loop.
Charlie Incarica (04:52):
Dr.
Glenn Elwood's report didn'tdiffer in the conclusions of the
county coroner.
He agreed they had all beenstabbed.
Where he differed was in thedetails.
For example, Elwood observedboth Chip Bing and Michelle
Quincy had their throats cut atthe jugular need a second there.
Talking about blood alwaysmakes me Oh boy.
(05:14):
Even just saying the word nowoh the room is spinning a bit.
Um, okay.
Estelle Hayes (05:20):
Um, Estelle okay,
I'm just gonna Hi, um people or
listeners or anyway.
Charlie has asked me to readthis bit because, well, it'd be
cruel to say he's not quite manenough to read about blood and
(05:41):
violence, but on the other hand,it'd be dishonest not to say
it.
And I believe in being honest.
Anyway.
Dr.
Elwood noted that Bing andQuincy's throats had been cut at
the jugular and at the Adam'sapple.
Chief Ebner's death happenedthe same way, though without any
subsequent stabbings.
Jesus.
(06:04):
Only person I've ever heard ofneeds a trigger warning for his
own podcast.
Just cover your dainty littleears, it'll be over soon.
The nature of these woundsmeans the killer was likely
looking to kill them silently.
Those wounds typically producea swift and nearly noiseless
death.
Also, the blood splatterpatterns weren't consistent with
(06:25):
all three of them being stabbedin that room.
Charlie Incarica (06:28):
Oh my god.
Branagin immediately calledforensics back to the scene of
the crime.
But they couldn't get the wholeteam down there, as Shady
Grove's forensics team, likemany therapists and Europeans,
take the month of August off.
However, they did send one oftheir summer interns.
(06:50):
And stunningly, the intern wasable to show that Michelle and
Chip were likely in separaterooms when they were um when
they when the thing happened.
But there was something elseabout the murders.
Taylor Branigan (07:01):
The stab wounds
were very deep.
They would have required anunusual amount of strength to
accomplish them.
Several of the thrusts piercedeasily past bone.
This suggests it was not onlylikely done by a man, but by a
man of far greater than averagestrength.
Which posed a good news, badnews scenario.
We finally had a probablecharacteristic of the killer.
But that characteristic didn'tmatch any of my main suspects.
(07:23):
Charles?
Charlie Incarica (07:26):
Glenn El
Wood's report also had another
revelation.
That thing with the knife andthe necks that happened to Bing
and Quincy did not happen withAmanda Putnam Hart.
Taylor Branigan (07:37):
The killer
clearly had the knowledge and
technique to sorry, I I forgotthe euphemism we decided on so
you wouldn't pass out.
Charlie Incarica (07:44):
He had the
knowledge and technique to sort
the laundry of the victim'snecks.
Taylor Branigan (07:49):
Yeah.
Uh right.
I'm not gonna say that.
Point is, he didn't sliceAmanda's throat, which suggests
that he, because the evidencestrongly suggests it was he,
wanted her to suffer.
Charlie Incarica (07:59):
That's just
awful.
Taylor Branigan (08:01):
Charles, have
you ever thought that maybe the
whole murder podcast thing isn'tfor you?
Maybe you should just go home.
Charlie Incarica (08:09):
Meanwhile,
Taylor wasn't going home from
suspecting Margaret and Teddywere still very much involved
with the murder.
However, the apparent strengthof the stabbers' stabs on the
stabbees didn't seem a naturalmatch with either Margaret or
Teddy.
The Elwood report concludedthat the murderer's murder of
Amanda, of all the murderingsdone that day, was the one
(08:30):
murder in which the murdererseemed intentionally sadistic,
or the most sadistic.
None of them were nice.
Stabbing seldom is.
And so Taylor continued todrill down, working 16-hour
days, following leads, gamingout scenarios, looking at paint
swatches, in a word, relentless.
(08:52):
And then, as August turned toSeptember, she decided to do a
little digging on a hunch.
And what she discovered.
Taylor Branigan (09:00):
Well, it blew
my mind.
Charlie Incarica (09:03):
What was it
that blew acting interim chief
Taylor Brannigan's not easilyblowable mind?
You'll have to stay tuned tothe next the murderer killings.
Sentence.
Margaret Mandragora Jones isalso a Putnam.
She's Walter Putnam'sgranddaughter.
Taylor Branigan (09:39):
Because it was
just tough for me to imagine
even a parent's love would bethat binding for someone like
her.
And it turns out, his firstwife was a geography teacher in
a small town called Majamberkun,New South Wales.
It turns out, Walter's widowmoved the girls to Canberra,
Australia, where she fell inlove with a Swedish diplomat.
And while her maternal aunt,Erica Hobbes, the elder, went
(10:01):
back to America to confront heruncle, her mother chose a quiet
life, becoming a teacher andmarrying an idealistic young
barrister named Thomas Jones.
They had a daughter, Margaret,but divorced when she was young.
And Thomas Jones moved toSydney, having opted to lose his
idealism for tax purposes.
Margaret moved to Sydney at 18,following in her father's
(10:21):
footsteps.
And then I checked up on thewhole sister city thing with
Shady Grove.
It was originally MajamblerCoon and not Sydney who reached
out to Shady Grove to entice itto become Sister Cities.
My guess is Margaret was behindthat the whole time.
Charlie Incarica (10:37):
Why would
Margaret go through all of that
trouble only to switch it at thelast minute to Sydney?
Taylor Branigan (10:43):
I reached out
to the city council in Majambler
Coon, and when I mentioned hername, I hadn't even hit the drag
part of Margaret McDragar Joneswhen this stream of expletives
came back at me.
I'm assuming they wereexpletives because most of them
sounded like random long vowelssmothering one another with
pillows.
So clearly, they'd met her.
And I'm thinking she wasn'twell liked.
Charlie Incarica (11:04):
Because they'd
met her.
Taylor Branigan (11:05):
Precisely.
Charlie Incarica (11:07):
So Taylor had
every reason to suspect
Margaret, despite her endlesscomplaints about Shady Grove,
had chosen to go there allalong.
Taylor Branigan (11:21):
Okay.
Interview with MargaretMandragora Jones, September 4th,
2020.
The time is 9.08 AM.
Present with Miss MandragoraJones are myself, acting interim
chief Branagan, and herattorney, Ellen Newberry.
Margaret Mandragora-Jones (11:34):
And
still, inexplicably, the Muppet
babies.
I know you're a putnam.
Damn it! Looks like I owe you$100, Ellen.
She thought that you'd getthere before the end of the
lockdown.
I thought she was being wildlyoptimistic.
So you've learned to Google.
Why did you lie to us,Margaret?
You mean my white lies likegood morning or it's nice to see
(11:55):
you?
It's called good breeding.
Taylor Branigan (11:57):
I mean about
your connection to Shady Grove.
Margaret Mandragora-Jones (12:00):
I
never lied.
Or am I required to tell youeverything about my life?
Is it a lie that I haven'tshared with you that my blood
type is O negative, theuniversal donor, but I refuse to
donate because of that label'spresumptuousness?
Or that I've had recurring,lightly perverse dreams about
former Vice President DickCheney since I was at
university, or that I'm tryingdesperately not to comment on
the positively baroque vulgarityof my solicitor's top.
(12:23):
Damn.
Taylor Branigan (12:24):
I mean that you
were responsible for the Shady
Grove Sister City thing.
Margaret Mandragora-Jones (12:28):
Is it
a crime if I did?
Taylor Branigan (12:30):
You clearly had
ulterior reasons for coming
here.
Well, I confess to that.
Margaret Mandragora-Jones (12:34):
You
may indict me on the charge of
ulterior motives.
But that's not a thing, is it?
And more importantly, itdoesn't make me guilty of
murder.
Though a few more trips herejust might tempt me to give it a
go.
Let's get going, Alan.
Charlie Incarica (12:47):
I just want to
let you know there's about a
minute left in the episode.
But keep listening.
Because just as Branigan goesto stop the recording.
Taylor Branigan (12:55):
Okay, interview
terminated at What the hell?
You just ripped that door off!
Margaret Mandragora-Jone (13:01):
Sorry,
didn't realize it was locked.
Although the locks on yourdoors are more or less
decorative, apparently.
Taylor Branigan (13:10):
We had all
thought it had to be a man who
did the stabbing.
But seeing Margaret rip thedoor off its hinges with one
hand changed everything.
Charlie Incarica (13:18):
So you could
say you discovered someone from
down under might have donesomething downright underhanded.
Taylor Branigan (13:26):
No, I don't
think I could ever bring myself
to say that.
Charlie Incarica (13:28):
It'd be a cool
soundbite, though.
Taylor Branigan (13:30):
That's gonna be
a hard pass.
Charlie Incarica (13:33):
So, there seem
to be more layers to this bloom
and onion of murder.
We'll dip the pieces into thesauce of this mystery on the
next episode.
I'm Charles and Karika, andthis continues to be the
murderer killings.
Country Singer (14:49):
These things
make you manage.