Episode 251

In June of 2013, 24-year-old Sarah Staudte became very ill and ended up in a hospital. Sarah’s internal organs were failing, her brain was hemorrhaging blood, and her doctors expected that Sarah was going to die. Yet, nobody could figure out the cause of the problem. Eventually, police were called in to investigate. They learned that Sarah’s father and brother recently had similar health complications before dying. Soon, the unbelievable and horrible truth came out. Someone was slowly, methodically, and systematically killing off everyone in the Staudte family.

Get instant access to all episodes, including premium unreleased episodes, commercial-free at swordandscale.com

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Sword and Scale contains adult themes andviolence, and is not intended for all
audiences. Listener discretion is advised.I didn't want another one to die in
the house. And why is that? Because houses are nasty after somebody's died

(00:22):
in it. Welcome. This isseason ten, episode two hundred and fifty
one of Sword and Scale, ashow that reveals that the worst monsters are
real. Well, most of youknow that we have an app and that

(00:54):
we've been working on updating it nowfor quite a while, almost two years
unfortunately, but it will be readyin twenty twenty four, early twenty twenty
four January, in fact, sowe're working towards that. We have a
bunch of other surprises coming in January. You will not be disappointed, guys,

(01:15):
see you soon. Family is notan important thing, it's everything.

(02:06):
Michael J. Fox said that,and many of you listening right now would
probably agree that your family is indeedeverything. For those of you that have
actually created a family of your own, you probably also agree that your everything
didn't come easy. When it comesto marriage, kids, and everything that

(02:29):
goes along with that, well,it can be a lot to handle.
It requires serious dedication and a lotof sacrifices to make it all work.
If you have created, maintained,and continue to maintain a happy, functioning
family, you deserve a lot ofcredit. It's hard work, as you

(02:52):
know, not everyone has what ittakes to do that. Oftentimes just fail.
Oftentimes families fail. One common problem, it seems, is that many
people start off thinking they want thetypical spouse and children lifestyle, but after

(03:15):
they get it, and maybe afterthey experience it for a few years,
they start to realize it's just notfor them. Unfortunately, after someone creates
a family, they are kind oflocked into it, kind of permanently.
Sure, anyone could get a divorceand abandon their kids, but societal,

(03:37):
legal, financial, and even religiouspressures can make it seem impossible. When
this happens, it can spell disaster. Sometimes the pressure of an unwonted and
seemingly inescapable life can lead someone todo something truly horrific. We've seen this
before with the likes of Chris watand Casey Anthony, but there are lesser

(04:03):
known cases where someone has made theterrible and selfish choice to end their family
in order to obtain personal freedom.Ultimately, they decided that the life they
truly want supersedes the lives of theirspouse and their kin. June ninth,

(04:26):
twenty thirteen, was a Sunday.That morning, a middle aged mom in
Missouri woke up and did what shewould normally do on a Sunday. She
took her kids to church, butshe wasn't able to bring along all of
her children because her oldest daughter wasn'tfeeling well. And then you woke up

(04:46):
Sunday morning morning, she was asleep, Okay, then what happened? Me
and the other girls went to church, and we left her sleeping, and
then I came home and she wasstill sleeping. And then maybe a couple
hours later, I went to checkon her, and we just couldn't get

(05:08):
her to respond or answer or anything. Forty nine year old Diane Stoudi returned
home from church and discovered something thatmost people would consider to be a worst
nightmare situation for any mother. Hertwenty six year old daughter, Sarah was
sick in bed and completely unresponsive.Thankfully, though Sarah was still breathing,

(05:33):
so Diane and one of her otherdaughters picked Sarah up, put her in
the family car, and rushed herto the hospital. Strangely, when doctors
examined Sarah, they couldn't figure outwhat had caused her to become so ill.
This ultimately led to the local policegetting involved. The lead investigator assigned

(05:55):
the case was Detective Mcamis. DianeStoudy as a wife and mother of four
children. She was the breadwinner ofthe family. She worked handling insurance ADJUSMA
claims for a medical field. Shewas heavily involved in church. She was
active in in choir and orchestra andspent a lot of time at church during

(06:18):
her downtime. And from what Iunderstand you, you're in the medical field.
You're a nurse, okay, butI'm a cardiology nurse. I know
hers. Yeah. Have you alwaysbeen like in the claims business like you
are now? Or were you everlike in hospital? Okay? How long?
How long ago was that? Gosh? Fifteen years ago? Okay?

(06:42):
Which hospital did you work in?Gosh? Saint John's Cox. I worked
up in Kansas City. And whatcompany do you work for now? Okay?
And you've worked for them for twelveyears? Very successful? Okay.
Diane and her children lived in Springfield, Missouri, a serene college city that
is mostly known for being the headquartersfor the sporting goods retailer Basspro. Others

(07:09):
may know of Springfield because of itsproximity to Branson, Missouri, which is
a popular tourist destination for a varietyof reasons. The Price Is Right was
filmed there, so was The BeverlyHillbillies if you remember that. And who
can forget Yakov Smirnoff and his weirdlittle theme park performance theater thing. He

(07:35):
was a personality during the eighties andachieved a Moniker of success, But I
digress. As a successful nurse andhealth insurance claims person, Diane Stoudy was
able to support her children, allof whom remained living with Diane well into

(07:57):
adulthood. As a whole, thisDoudi family wasn't known for being particularly social,
but they were considered to be especiallydevout churchgoers. What church do you
go to? Lutheran? Is ithere in town? Okay? Are you
pretty active in church? Are you? I'm their organist? Oh? Okay?

(08:18):
Wow? How long have you beendoing that? Oh? Gosh,
thirty plus years? What? Asthe longtime church organist, Diane was well
respected inside the halls of her preferredplace of worship. Redeemer Lutheran, and
when Diane was there, she oftenhad her children with her. But on

(08:39):
June ninth, twenty thirteen, Diane'soldest daughter, Sarah, didn't make it
to church. She was apparently verysick, and her illness ultimately landed Sarah
in a hospital bed. Sarah Saudihad just graduated with a degree in France
from Missouri State University, and shehad not not gotten the job yet,

(09:00):
so she was just for the mostpart, she was staying at home and
not doing a whole lot after college. Does she work anywhere? No?
No, She's been supposedly trying tofind a job, but I don't think
she's been trying that hard. Whatare Sarah's friends like She She really doesn't

(09:22):
go out much, doesn't have manyfriends. Like the rest of the family,
Sarah usually kept to herself, andaside from deflecting her mom's encouragement to
find a job, she spent mostof her time online. Like many twenty
four year olds, Sarah loved hersocial media and watching YouTube videos. But

(09:46):
on one particular Sunday afternoon, Sarah'slifestyle had seemingly come to an abrupt and
unexpected end when her mom found Sarahin bed completely unresponsive. She is she
still unresponsive at that point? Prettymuch? Yeah, I mean we literally

(10:07):
had to Rachel and I had tocarry her. We carried her to the
car. Okay, And what didthey say at the hospital? Basically she
was as sick as sick could get, but no idea what it was.
We had no clue. When Sarahwas admitted to the hospital, the doctors

(10:28):
and nurses determined that Sarah's kidneys wereshutting down, many of her internal organs
were failing, and her brain washemorrhaging blood. Diane was informed that this
wasn't a case of if Sarah wasgoing to die, it was a matter

(10:48):
of when, but nobody could tellDiane or the police exactly what had caused
this to happen. When Sarah wasin the hospital, I went and I
spoke with the medical staff that wastreating her, Nurses, doctors, and
everybody was just they were befuddled.They did not know what was going on.
They had performed numerous tests on Sarahand everything was coming back negative.

(11:13):
As the police continued investigating Sarah's bizarreand unexplainable illness, they soon learned that
this wasn't the first time. TheStouty family had suffered an unexpected tragedy.
Are you married? I'm widowed whenmy husband died last year of a heart
Oh? Really? How old washe? Sixty one? Also he was

(11:37):
young. He had a lot ofmedical issues. Yeah, what kind of
stuff did he have? Oh?He had liver problems, he was diabetic.
He wouldn't quit smoking. Mark andDiane Stoudy met at Saint John's College
in Kansas and quickly became longtime sweethearts. They eventually got mayor, moved into

(12:00):
a modest sized home in Springfield,and had four children, but sadly,
at just sixty one years old,Matt Stoudey unexpectedly dropped dead. Mark study
primarily was a stay at home father. Diane, his wife, was the
breadwinner of the family and Mark.Mark took care of the kids. Mark

(12:22):
was in a band. He wasn'tmaking a lot of money doing that,
but that's what that's what he didfor a little bit of money on the
side and to keep himself busy.That he was the lead singer in a
band. Like his wife, Markwas a musician, though his genre of
music was much different than Diane's churchhymns Mark was the lead singer of a

(12:46):
rock band, Messing with Destiny,and according to his bandmates, Mark was
an especially jovial guy who loved lifeand loved his family. Throughout its existence,
Mark's band didn't find any mainstream success, but in the months leading up
to his death, Messing with Destinyhad been booking larger and more lucrative gigs,

(13:13):
so much so that it seemed likethe band was about to have a
breakout year. In fact, onthe weekend before Mark died, he and
his bandmates were rehearsing in Branson,Missouri and preparing to perform at an especially
large venue alongside the Aretha Franklin impersonatorsI Get Married to the Corporation Bombon in

(13:43):
the Nation. Sadly, Mark wasnever able to perform in that show.
On April eighth, twenty twelve,Mark died at home and his body was
discovered by his wife, Diane,who properly called nine one one. Diane

(14:03):
was eventually informed that Mark had diedof natural causes. Did they do any
kind of autopsy on Mark? No, they didn't. Yeah, I can,
I can remember them, you know. They they tried CPR on him,
and they told me that his lungswere just black from the smoke.

(14:26):
You know, he was pretty overweight, and they didn't even they just said,
it is a heart attack for sure, and it's like, okay,
where's he buried? Cremated? Okay. After Mark was cremated, his ashes
were scattered at a nearby lake,So obviously any further examination to more narrowly

(14:50):
determine his cause of death was improbable, But the police investigation into Sarah Stoudy's
illness did continue, and during thatinvestigation, the detectives also spoke to one
of Mark and Diane's other daughters,twenty two year old Rachel Stoudy. Rachel

(15:11):
Stoudy was kind of the prized childof the study family. She was very
successful, very intelligent. She wasgoing to the school at Missouri State University.
She too was very very active andinvolved in church with singing in choir,
and she was also a very artisticyoung person. And speaking with Rachel,

(15:33):
detectives were able to gain a littlemore insight into the Stouty family dynamics
and more specifically, the kind ofrelationship that Mark and Diane had. What
was mom and dad relationship like theywould filettle, did they fight a little
bit more than like any other marriedcouple or really so most of the arguments

(15:58):
over money like everybody else. Now, I know that your father passed.
When was it when he passed away? Sometime like last April, last April
last year. Very sudden, justvery sudden, deaf as far as the
dad goes, A pretty good dadto you and everybody, or what's your

(16:22):
opinion? He was nice with youguys, what you wanted to do.
It's always kind of been out ofa job and pretty much, I mean
you would get frustrated with whatever jobhe was in, like screw this before
they even came. Okay, justnot his thing. No, he was
trying to do the band betting,I guess, and yeah, make it

(16:44):
big, like any other person thathas a van. Okay. At this
point, police had established that MarkStoudy had unexpectedly died in April of twenty
twelve, and just over a yearlater, Sarah Stoudy had unexpectedly become very
ill and was not expected to survive. The police also learned that something equally

(17:08):
as tragic had happened between the timeof Mark's death and Sarah's illness. Do
you have a son as well?No? Not anymore. He died.
He died, and he had aseizure disorder. When did he die?
That was last fall. How oldwas he? He was twenty six.

(17:30):
He'd had several strokes, so washis kind of an unexpected or it wasn't
a complete surprise, that's right.In addition to Mark's untimely death in Sarah's
unexplainable illness, another member of theStouty family had also died. He was

(17:52):
Mark and Diane's twenty six year oldautistic son, Sean. Sean Stoudy was
the only boy in the Stoudy family. He had autism and a couple other
medical issues that he dealt with,but he was the only son of the
Staudis and he kept to himself alot. With the medical issues. He

(18:14):
was involved in a work activity forspecial needs children, which he did well
at, but primarily just a stateat home as well. When asked about
her brother's death, Rachel Stoudy recalledthat Sean was very ill before he died.
She described his symptoms as flu likeand claimed that her mom took the

(18:37):
entire situation pretty hard. I rememberhe was throwing up and then all of
a sudden, How did obviously momhad to take that, I mean pretty
hard too. First dad and thenshort time lanter you know is your brother.
Did she seemed how did she seemto handle that? I can't imagine,

(18:57):
but she wishes there more she couldhave done. I mean she's told
me like when we talk at Nyis like she's just like a failure as
a mom because it's like it's onething to lose your dad and her husband
and Riah your dad you have.Well, that's a lot of a lot
of sudden death and a short amountof time. Sean Stoudy died in September

(19:18):
of twenty twelve after experiencing severe flulike symptoms. Rightfully so, the detectives
found it highly suspicious that less thana year later, twenty four year old
Sarah Stoudy was experiencing those same symptomsand was likely to die as well.
So as far as Sarah goes,when did she come down sick? Man?

(19:41):
How long did did she have?Was she thrown up? Or six?
She was thrown up? Because likethe toilets like right across from my
bridge and I here and it's likeare you okay in there? And how
many days she thrown up? Notvery many. Eitherres a couple of days.
Would you describe it as flu likeyour brother, or because it was

(20:03):
really odd, I mean lack ofappetite as well, because I was trying
to get her to eat but shedidn't want to. The similarities between Sean's
death and Sarah's illness were glaring,but there was one important difference. Sarah
made it to the hospital before theworst happened. Unfortunately, even though Sarah

(20:26):
was receiving much needed medical attention,the doctors had their doubts and they didn't
think Sarah was going to pull through. And from what we understood from the
hospital so far, we really haven'tbeen able to determine how your sisters will
say from the hospital standpoint. Okay, the doctors hadn't been able to confirm

(20:48):
anything as of yet. They're stillworking on it, but they basically told
us that what they were leaning towardsand what they were thinking was the case
that your sister had been poisoned.We were told that she's probably gone to
die. Within fifteen months, twomembers of the Stouty family had unexpectedly died

(21:11):
and a third member of the familywas deathly ill. For the police,
this didn't seem like a situation wherea family was dealing with some of the
worst coincidences imaginable. It was prettyobvious that something malicious was happening here,
and as the investigation continued, theunbelievable and horrible truth finally came out.

(21:41):
Someone was slowly, methodically and systematicallykilling off everyone in the Stouty family.

(22:15):
In April of twenty twelve, sixtyone year old father of four and lead
singer of the rock band Messing withDestiny, Mark Stoudy was planning to perform
a show with his band in Branson, Missouri, but Mark never made it
to that show. Just a fewdays before he was set to take the

(22:36):
stage, Mark's wife, Diane Stoudy, found Mark dead in their bedroom.
When Mark Stoudy died, the initialcause of death was believed to be just
natural causes. Mark had had somehealth issues. Was also said that Mark
would drink on occasion and smoked,and so it was just a situation where

(22:59):
they thought his lifestyle choices and thingslike that led to him dying of natural
causes. Leading up to his death, Mark's bandmates noticed that Mark's health had
been deteriorating. His skin was pale, he was weak on his feet,
and he didn't seem to have thesame pep that Mark was known to carry

(23:22):
himself with. Another person that tooknote of Mark's declining health was his twenty
six year old son, Sean Study. On his Facebook page, Sean wrote
the following, My father is slowlygetting sicker. His voice is slurred,
his walking is wobbly. His bodyis more tired than normal. He is

(23:47):
sleeping in bed longer than us.He may collapse under his weight at any
time. Just one day later afterwriting this post, Shawn announced on Facebook
that his dad was dead. Myfather died. He lived a full life.
The cause of his death is astroke. His funeral is this week.

(24:11):
Tragically, what Sean didn't know isthat his father hadn't died of a
stroke. Mark Stoudy was murdered,and even more horrifying, the person that
killed him was plotting to kill Seanas well, which they eventually did.

(24:32):
Five months after Mark died, SeanStoudy suddenly became very ill. According to
his sister Rachel, Sean was vomitingand had flu like symptoms. A few
days later, Sean was found deadon the floor of his home. Like
his father, Sean, was alsocremated, but in his case, an

(24:53):
autopsy had been performed. The initialcause of death for Sean study was also
ruled to be natural. He hadepilepsy as a child, and they found
lesions on his brain during the performanceof the autopsy, and without anything else
to go on, it was believedthat he died of a seizure. Both

(25:15):
Mark and Sean had presumably died ofnatural causes, so the police were never
called in to take a closer lookat the situation. But that all changed
about a year later. In Juneof twenty thirteen, yet another member of
the Stouty family became very sick andended up in the hospital. This time

(25:40):
it was twenty four year old recentcollege graduate Sarah Stoudy. Sarah was seemingly
dealing with the same flu like symptomsthat had affected both her father and her
brother just before they died. AfterSarah was examined by a doctor, it
was determined that her kidneys were shuttingdown, her other organs were failing,

(26:04):
her brain was hemorrhaging blood. Yetnone of the hospital's tests could determine what
caused Sarah's illness in the first place. Interestingly, it wasn't Sarah's illness and
her admittance to the hospital that alertedpolice and prompted an investigation in the Stoudy

(26:25):
family. Instead, it was ananonymous phone call that sprang homicide detectives into
action. Upon viewing the initial report, it seemed pretty bizarre. The report
talked about someone calling in saying thatwe needed to look at the Stoudy family
because of a couple of deaths,and now a young woman, Sarah was

(26:51):
hospitalized and appeared that she was notgoing to survive. After this anonymous call
came in and a police report wasmade, the investigators decided to speak with
Sarah's doctor. The doctor explained thateven though the exact cause of Sarah's illness
could not be determined, there wasa good chance that Sarah had been poisoned.

(27:15):
So at that time I really didn'thave anything at all to go on
other than just the discussions with thedoctor. But having knowing that there's other
two other children still in the Saudihome, I felt like I needed to
do something to try to figure outwhat was going on, if this was
in fact a malicious act going onby somebody in the in the Saudi home

(27:38):
that I needed to act as quicklyas I possibly could, and that is
what led me to wanting to interviewDiane. From talking with the hospital,
it sounds like they're doing a bunchof tests and they're even sending some tests
off to labs elsewhere. They mentionedthe Mayo Clinic, and wow, do

(27:59):
you think there's any be anything suspiciousthat they find in all these tests that
they're going to be doing. Ihave no clue there could be anything maybe
malicious or suspicious and involved with them. I can't think of that. If
it would come back that there wassomething in there like that, how would
you explain that? I don't know. Forty nine year old Diane Stoudy was

(28:26):
the widow of Mark Stoudy and themother of Sean and Sarah Stoudy. Given
her background in nursing and the factthat she didn't seem overly concerned or emotional
that her daughter Sarah was about todie, the detective suspected that Diane may
know more than she was telling.As crazy as it seemed, she may

(28:52):
have even murdered her own husband andher own son. What was Mark's life
insurance policy? Like he only hadtwenty thousand? How about Sean. Sean
only had fifteen. What about Sarah? Sarah only has fifteen and you were

(29:18):
able to get the money from Markand Shawn's prebt Okay, what did you
do with that money? With Mark'swe were able to move into a better
neighborhood right just before Mark died.The Stouty family consisted of six people.
Mark and Diane were the parents ofthree kids in their early to mid twenties.

(29:41):
That was Sean, Sarah, andRachel. The youngest member of the
family was eleven year old Brianna.All six of them lived in a small,
two bedroom, one bathroom house inSpringfield, Missouri, but after Mark
died, Diane was able to usehis twenty thousand dollars life insurance policy to

(30:02):
upgrade. She and the rest ofthe family moved into a larger home in
a nicer neighborhood. What was yourmarriage life? How can I say this?
We were still married, but itwas not what you call a good
marriage. Has there been any infidelitieson either side? So I'm guessing him

(30:26):
just briefly thoughing he wasn't the besthusband. Probably not, not just society.
No, what do you mean bythat? Not to society? Well,
he was running around and he woulddrink and smoke pot, and so
he wasn't a very good guy.Yeah, was there any physical abuse towards

(30:49):
you, Nothing like that. Hejust had some extra maritable affairs. And
you said he did some drugs andsmoked and drank a lot, and okay
for police piece. If Diane hadmurdered Mark, his life insurance policy was
a possible motive, but so wasthe fact that Diane seemed pretty resentful of

(31:11):
her husband. Even so, thiswas all speculation, and at this point
in the investigation, there wasn't anyevidence that Diane had killed Mark and Sean,
or that she'd poisoned Sarah. Goinginto the interview with Diane, I
had nothing other than just a moreand more growing suspicion that she was somehow

(31:33):
involved. It was difficult because whenI brought Diane in without having any evidence
to put out there against her,it was just I wanted to get at
her level. I wanted to speakwith her and come across as being there
as almost a friend and understanding herto try to gain as much information as
I possibly could, and going intothe interview, I also understood that maybe

(31:59):
this isn't delicious there isn't at thistime, there's nothing to show that it
is, and so I wanted tobe very careful. If this is just
a mother that's gone through some terribletrauma, I did not want to add
to that. So it was itwas quite the fine line of trying to
figure out the balance of how fardo I push this. Ultimately, the

(32:19):
detective pushed his interview with Diane toits limit, and without outright saying it,
he suggested that Diane was responsible forSarah's illness, among a lot of
other things. With some of thestuff involved in these cases from what we've
been looking at, I think you'reaware of why we're just why we're here.

(32:42):
Maybe I don't know. I thinkyou know why we're here talking because
I know that there's a reason,maybe why some of this stuff did happen.
As far as did I do somethingtoo or I didn't do anything to
I mean, I guess I couldhave taken her to the er sooner,
but I didn't know if she Idon't know. I know I didn't do

(33:10):
anything, and if you did,I'm just telling you I didn't do anything.
And that's what I feel like you'reinsinuating. I do it. I
may not be the best mother inthe world because I do wait a little

(33:31):
longer before I take him to thedoctor. But naturally, Diane denied the
accusations, and after she did,the detective focused on the reasons that Diane
may have wanted to kill off herhusband and children. In other words,
he focused on her motive. Ithink Mark, he's having these infidelities.

(33:57):
He's not working. You've got thewhole the family. You gotta take care
of everybody. You have all thisstress and pressure on you to raise your
kids, to put food on thetable. You're the working one's out.
He's drinking, he's using drugs,he's doing things he shouldn't be doing.

(34:19):
I think person just gets pushed towhere, you know what, people just
can't take it anymore. I thinkit's just you got pushed so far yet
all this weight on your shoulders becauseyou're not a bad person, are you?
No? I don't think you are. The detective played this interrogation smart.

(34:44):
He took a sympathetic and relatable approach, and his strategy ultimately worked.
With regard to Sarah and her illness, Diane admitted that she knew a lot
more than she'd been telling. Dianeexplained that she he had been hounding Sarah
for weeks about getting a job,and after one particular argument between them,

(35:07):
Sarah did something that was very strange. We had been arguing. She got
really mad at me, and Ithink she went out in the garage.
Understand because she was commenting cycle thatkills cats. It's like, yeah,

(35:28):
this still kills people. And Iwas so mad. Yeah, I waited
before I took her to the hospital. Diane claimed that, in some bizarre
act of rebellion, Sarah went intothe family garage and started drinking anti freeze,
Yes, anti freeze. Not onlythat, but Diane also claimed that

(35:52):
Mark and Sean had done the samething. What a weird family. And
really, I knew they were drinkingany freeze and I was so mad.
I didn't want to take a name. I'm a horrible mother, Diane.

(36:13):
You knew that they were drinking annafreeze. You knew that they didn't We
both know that. You knew,Diane, that they were drinking anna freeze
because you were giving it to them. The detective quickly shut down Diane's explanation

(36:37):
for what happened to Mark, Seanand Sarah, and at this point,
he had pretty much figured out whathad happened. I'm sure a lot of
you probably have. Two Diane hadpoisoned her husband and two of her children
with anti freeze, to the pointwhere two of them had died and another

(36:59):
was about to die. Eventually,after being unable to maintain her ridiculous explanation,
Diane came clean. She admitted towhat she had done and explained how
she did it. How much wouldyou put in? Just a little?

(37:21):
And what were you putting it in? So you were put it in in
Mark skatorade, You're put it inin Shawn's coke, just regular coke?
And what about Sarah regular coke?Coke? And you were only doing it
once a day because you thought that'sall you needed, okay, when they

(37:45):
weren't passing right away? Did youeventually start to give them more and more?
And I regret doing it? Ireally do like it of everybody I've
feared up healthily. Why did youdecide that you were going to use antifreeze

(38:08):
to do it? Why? Onsome other means? Because I read online
it was pretty easy to do.From what I understand, it almost tastes
good. Is that correct? That'swhat they say. The deadly ingredient in
anti freeze is a chemical compound knownas ethylene glycol. Some of you true

(38:32):
crime nerds may already know that itis colorless, odorless, and has kind
of a sweet taste. Don't tryit. Don't try it. I know
you want to. I know someof you are a little dumber than others.
But don't do it. Please.You're gonna get me in trouble.

(38:52):
It's also not typically detected when anautopsy is performed. In order to find
ethylene glycoll, a medically examiner hasto specifically look for it, which is
another reason it's commonly used as apoison Ingesting this compound can quickly cause several
fatal health problems, including dysrhythmius andheart failure. In case this is an

(39:19):
obvious, ethylene glycol poisoning is apretty awful way to die. You wouldn't
want to try it at all anyway. There's much easier ways. When your
internal organs start shutting down, it'snot a fun time. It's not going
to be good. It's actually quitequite painful. According to Diane, for
several weeks, she'd been slipping smalldoses of antifreeze into her husband's gatorade.

(39:46):
After he died from the poisoning,she did the same thing to her son,
Sean. The only difference was thatSean preferred Coca Cola over gatorade.
After Sean was dead, Diane thenbegan poisoning her oldest daughter, Sarah by
slipping anti freeze into her soda aswell. What kind of a mother would

(40:12):
harm her own kids for her ownbenefit? Oh, I don't know lots
of them. Just gonna let thatsit there for a minute. As far
as motive was concerned, Diane hada different reason for each of her three
victims. In the case of herhusband, Diane explained, she simply hated

(40:32):
his guts. Why didn't you callan ambulance or bring him to the hospital
at that point? Hated his guts. I understands how much was his life
insurance policy? It was only thousand, and you were able to use that

(40:53):
money to get into your new house. Okay, so need the money.
As for her son, Diane explainedthat Sean had become too much of a
pest and she simply couldn't deal withhim anymore. Sean would be interfering with

(41:14):
whatever I would do to the pointwhere he was getting into my work.
You get to the point where youjust pull out your hair because I didn't
know what else to do with them. Finally, Diane explained that she decided
to also murder her oldest daughter becauseSarah refused to get a job and Diane

(41:37):
didn't want to pay off Sarah's collegeloans. I mean, not wanting to
pay her college loans makes you doall kinds of stupid things, doesn't it.
Sarah's a difficult child to deal with. I understand, and I've been
kind of putting pressure on her too. You know, you need to get

(41:58):
out and get a job. Yourcollege bills are coming to I don't want
to pay for them. You know, pretty relatable, right if your kid
has college loans and you don't wantto pay them, just slip a little
anti freeze another soda problem solved.Diane's motives for the killings were just as

(42:23):
strange and bizarres as just the epitomeof this entire case. When talking about
Mark, she said that it's gotto the point that she hated him,
and where it really got strange andbizarre was with the children. She said
Sean was a huge burden. AndI even asked if it was a if

(42:45):
he was a pest, and shesaid, well he was. He was
worse than that. He was worsethan a pest. And then when discussing
Sarah, she had college loans thatshe needed to pay, but she wouldn't
get a job, and so's that'swhat led to her poisoning Sarah. It
was it was really stunning to hearher discuss what led her to killing off

(43:06):
and poisoning the family members. Dianeadmitted to what she had done and explained
why she did it, but evenso, there were still a few questions,
first being if Diane wanted to killSarah, why did she eventually bring
her to a hospital? And second, why did Diane spare her other two

(43:28):
daughters? What was the reason forbringing her when she was because you even
said, you know, she wasso bad, you know you thought she
was going to die and you hadto carry her? And did Rachel Was
she the one that said, hey, let's save her to the hospital.
Actually both of us thought the samething at the same times, like this,
take her in? Had you beengiven any to her? What about

(43:51):
Brianna? Why not those two Ilove and I wish I had done it.
Ever, Diane claimed that it wasRachel who prompted Diane to take Sarah
to the hospital. Speaking of Rachel. After Diane confessed, the detectives were

(44:13):
given the awful task of breaking allof this bad news to her. I
brought your mom in today and interviewedher at length quite a long time,
and basically what has happened is yourmom has admitted to killing your dad and
your brother and trying to kill yoursister. She had been giving your father

(44:37):
small doses of Annie Freese and hisdrinks. Same thing with your brother,
and same thing with your sister.Sarah's take some time and good. It's

(44:57):
a logical process. I don't evenknow how how you actually process that,
To be honest with you, Rachel, did you think there was anything going
on there with mom at all?I mean, did that even did that
thought even ever even crossed her mind? She never gave me any kind of
indication that she was just at herwords end with the three of them hitting
one time that you could remember,just frustrated, right, yeah. Rachel

(45:22):
Stoudy was a twenty two year oldunemployed college student. In a matter of
months, she had lost her father, her brother, and her oldest sister,
and now her mom was being lockedup for murder. Can you fucking
imagine what that's like. As aresult, the responsibility of caring for eleven

(45:49):
year old Breonna Stoudy fell on Rachel'stwenty two year old shoulders. Somebody from
the child Abaco the Center will talkto her briefly, and then after they
talked to her a little bit,if it's okay with you, we'll just
really start to you. She needsto be with you. She doesn't need
to be anywhere else. She needsto be with you. After Rachel was

(46:09):
made aware of this horrific situation,the detective left the interview room and Rachel
broke down understandably, you're god Sadly, the bad news that Rachel had just

(46:59):
gotten was only going to get worsebecause there was yet another horrible twist in
this story. Not only had Rachel'smom poisoned Rachel's dad, brother, and
sister, but it turned out thatDiane hadn't done this all on her own.

(47:20):
As the investigation continued, the policelearned that Diane Stoudie had an accomplice.

(47:58):
In June of thirteen, forty nineyear old Diane Stoudy was interviewed by
a Springfield, Missouri, homicide detective. During that interview, Diane confessed to
murdering her sixty one year old husbandMark and her twenty six year old son
Sean. Diane also admitted that shehad tried to murder her oldest daughter,

(48:20):
twenty four year old Sarah Stoudy,as well. Diane explained that for several
weeks she'd been slipping small doses ofanti freeze into her husband's drinks. After
he died from the poisoning, shedid the same thing to her son.
After her son died, she begandoing the same thing to her daughter.

(48:44):
After Sarah became deathly ill and wastaken to the hospital, an anonymous phone
call was placed to police about whatwas going on in the Stoudy family.
This prompted detectives to open an investigation. At the start part of that investigation,
homicide detectives didn't have much to goon. There wasn't any actual evidence

(49:07):
of foul play, But when Dianewas interrogated, it didn't take long for
her to crack. She admitted towhat she had done and explained how she
did it. Even so, theinvestigation wasn't quite over. The lead investigator
suspected that Diane hadn't told police thewhole truth and that she may not have

(49:29):
acted alone. He believed that Dianehad an accomplice. After Diane had had
made her confession to poisoning her family, it just there was this time where
she would she would talk about herdaughter, Rachel, and it just seemed
you could just see her. Itwas almost as if she lit up when

(49:52):
discussing Rachel. So when she wasdiscussing her other family members, you could
see just the hatred or disdain,animosity that she had towards them, but
she talked so it was a completeone eighty when she talked about Rachel,
and so much so that during mytime speaking with her, I began to

(50:15):
become suspicious as gosh was Rachel involvedwith her. In addition to Sarah,
Diane had two other daughters, twentytwo year old Rachel and eleven year old
Brianna, both of whom had notbeen poisoned, not yet anyway. After
Diane confessed and was arrested, Rachelwas made aware of the situation and sent

(50:39):
home, but the following day,Rachel was invited back to the police station
for yet another interview. One DetectiveShipley told you yesterday about what your mom
did. What do you think aboutthat? Confusion? Shock? That's nobody

(51:00):
expects to have something that they don'tdo that. Were you ever suspicious of
your mom? No, so youdidn't think that she would be capable of
doing something like this. You know, if anything, she had been helping
me with setting up like things forschool. It sounds like you and heard

(51:21):
from talking to her that you andher were pretty good buddies. Is that
right? You guys are real close, almost best friend kind of. Again.
When Rachel's mom was interviewed, thecops didn't have much to go on.
They didn't have any evidence to confronther with, which in the end
didn't matter because Diane confessed in Rachel'scase. However, things were a little

(51:45):
different. After my interrogation with Dianewas over, one of our crime scene
detectives got a hold of me andsaid that he had a piece of evidence
down in our evidence room that hethought I should look at. So I
went down there and he had ajournal, and the journal appeared to be
that of Rachel's and a couple ofthe entries were extremely odd and bizarre and

(52:10):
after reading them, it just kindof cemented my suspicion of Rachel. The
cops had found Rachel's personal journal,and in that journal, Rachel wrote the
following, It's sad when I realizehow my father will pass on in the
next two months Sean my brother willmove on shortly after. It will be

(52:32):
tough getting used to the changes,but everything will work out. This journal
entry pretty much confirmed the detective's suspicions. At the very least, it verified
that Rachel knew what her mom wasdoing, and Rachel may have even helped
Diane commit the murders. Do yourecognize of this? Yeah? I remember

(53:01):
this? Okay? What is thatlittle journal thing? Whose journal? Mine?
Your journal? New wrote this andyou remember writing it? Yeah?
Okay. I got some questions foryou, Rachel, some questions that you
need to be honest with me about. Now is the time to be completely

(53:22):
truthful with everything. After Rachel wasconfronted with her journal, she came clean
and admitted that, with the helpof her mom, Rachel poisoned her father,
her brother, and her older sisterwith anti freeze. Like mother,

(53:43):
like daughter. When did you guyscome up with this plan? I can't
think of exact dates, but Imean we talked about it like Christmas before
Rachel, whose idea was this,mom brought it up. I mean when

(54:05):
we discussed it, would she sayto you basically went through different options.
We had a book on poisonous plants. I mean she would talk about cyanide
and she mentioned once how hard itwould be defined. I was trying to
find things that wouldn't be traceable,or at least would be hard to trace.

(54:30):
According to Rachel, she and Dianehad thought long and hard about how
they were going to go about murderingthe rest of the family. I can
only imagine that conversation. After manydiscussions, they eventually settled on using anti
freeze, which again is not easilydetected when an autopsy is performed. More

(54:55):
than likely, Diane's background in nursingmade her aware of that fact. How
many times a day were you givendoing this putting the ana freeze in your
dad's drinks? How many times onaverage per day were you doing it?
Twice? It was a trade off. She would do it, then I
would for how long several weeks?Several weeks? How many bottles of anaphreeze

(55:24):
did you guys go through upwards offive for your dad. Yeah, you
went through about five bottles. Andhow big were the bottles? Can kind
of give me a visual about howbig you think they were? So probably
around a gallon or so something likethat. Okay. Over the course of

(55:46):
several weeks, Rachel and Diane slippedabout five gallons of anti freeze into Mark
Stouty's drinks, which ultimately led tohis death. Well, Diane's motive were
rooted in hatred for her husband.Rachel had a different reason for wanting to

(56:06):
kill her father, My dad.I couldn't really see him ever like doing
anything to help us. He hadno concept of money. He was always
just blowing money. He would alwaysbeat out of the house, wouldn't really
help her in the house. Wasbasically a drain on her on us.

(56:32):
Basically, Rachel saw her dad asa deadbeat. She considered him to be
a worthless burden on the family.As for her brother, Rachel claimed that
she wasn't immediately on board with theidea of killing Sean, but after her
mom kept pressing the idea, Racheleventually agreed to go along with the plan.

(56:58):
Sean I accepted that she wanted himgone, but I really didn't think
he was necessary, Shawn me arguedon a lot, because I still think
we could have put him in beenlike a assistant living, but she wanted

(57:21):
him out. She would just goon and on about him just being a
burden. Basically, After Mark andSean were dead, Rachel and her mom
then decided they were going to alsogo after Rachel's older sister, Sarah.
So how are you guys getting herthe drinks without her knowing about it.

(57:45):
She's on the computer a lot,on YouTube a lot, on sites like
that a lot, and she's easilydistracted. It wouldn't take much to like
get what I'm drink she did haveand just slip it. We'll quit.

(58:06):
According to Rachel, the plot tokill Sarah was her mother's idea, but
again, Rachel had her own reasonsfor wanting her sister dead. Did you
and your mother discuss killing Sarah?I'm almost thinking about it. What would
she say about it other than thefact that she basically lived in the back

(58:29):
bedroom and didn't like have any dunctionto get a job more or less,
that she wasn't going anywhere with herlife, and that she really had a
new purpose. She was very adamanton that Sarah was just a burden,
that Sarah needed to be taken careof. By taking care of I mean,

(58:52):
she means killed mom probably has herown issues with her. What about
you? Did you guys find alot? Yeah? Why did you want
Sarah? Did? I mean?She grew up it later when she got
on the medicine, but she stillargues she still has really unappropriate jokes.

(59:22):
Inappropriate jokes. That was Rachel's rationalizationfor killing her sister. Did you hear
that? What is going on?What is wrong with the world right now?
Does anybody know? I'd like tofind out what is wrong with people

(59:45):
in their twenties, specifically, whichmakes someone like this think that murder is
appropriate if their sensibilities are offended?Holy fuck buck. Also, the depravity
didn't end there. If you rememberfrom Diane's earlier police interview, it was

(01:00:07):
Rachel who prompted Diane to take Sarahto the hospital. This decision didn't come
about because of some sort of sympathyfor Sarah or because Rachel was having second
thoughts. The decision was rooted entirelyin selfishness. I'd like to know why

(01:00:28):
you guys eventually took You know,when Sarah got so bad? Now you
guys said you thought that she waspretty much dead. Why did you take
her to the hospital. I didn'twant another one to die in the house.
And why is that? Because housesare nasty after somebody's died in it?
And what does that mean? Whatdo you mean? What do you
mean by that? I get alot of nightmares, Like after Sean died,

(01:00:52):
I moved into his twe it wasawful, awful, awful in there?
Were you surprising you found out thatSarah was going to live? Very
surprised? Were there any more discussionsof finishing, finishing or wrong? I
didn't really get never never got tothose discussions. According to Rachel, if

(01:01:17):
her sister survived the hospital stay,Diane and Rachel would still have carried out
the murder, though they never gotaround to discussing how they would actually do
it. At the same time,they were also planning to commit yet another
murder. It really is scary tothink of what would have happened if if

(01:01:39):
we if our attention was not broughtto what was going on in the Sudy
family. And it came straight fromRachel's mouth, to me that their plan
was to kill the the youngest childof the family, who at the time
was only eleven years old. Soit's one of those situations of thank god

(01:02:00):
we were able to stop this whenwe did. Otherwise this is a small
child would have possibly succumbed to theto the same outcome as what the others
did. Again, it wasn't Sarahgoing to the hospital that caught the attention
of the police. It was ananonymous phone call that alerted the authorities.

(01:02:23):
Eventually the detectives figured out where thatcall came from. The caller was Diane
and Rachel's church pastor. Who didyou tell what happened? I mean,
I hint did a little with Sibby, but I didn't get there. What
did you tell Pastor Sibbey? Imainly wanted help because I didn't want to

(01:02:52):
get so far. Rachel partially confidedin her church pastor, and after he
learned that Sarah was in the hospital, he called police. Had this call
not been made, eleven year oldBrianna would likely have suffered the same fate

(01:03:13):
as Mark, Sean and Sarah.Did you think that eventually after everybody dying
off in similar way, is thatwe might show up to talk to you
guys. Didn't really think I wouldget caught. Stupid nut that I think
on it. Did you want itto just be you and your mother?

(01:03:38):
Yeah? And why is that causeshe understands me? She doesn't any Given
what had happened in the Stoudy home. A logical question is why Rachel.
Why did Diane choose Rachel to bethe accomplice and not any one of her

(01:04:01):
other children, And also why wouldRachel agree to follow her mother and go
along with such an evil plan.Why indeed would a child want to please
her parents and do what they say. I believe the reason Diane chose Rachel

(01:04:23):
or those two acted together is justbecause of this very strange mother daughter relationship
they had. And both of themdiscussed that it was obvious that Rachel was
the favorite of Diane, that shewas kind of the chosen child. Rachel
was very artistic and was talented musically, which was one of Diane's passions.

(01:04:45):
And they spent a lot of timetogether in church, and you know,
Rachel talked about the same things.Rachel talked about. Her and her mother
were the only ones that really understoodeach other. That nobody else did,
but it was almost like a bestfriend relationship as opposed to a mother daughter.
Miraculously, after Diane and Rachel confessedand we're both arrested, Sarah Stouty

(01:05:10):
pulled through and was eventually released fromthe hospital. Unfortunately, some of the
physical effects of the anti freeze poisoningwere irreversible. Sarah survived the into freeze
poisoning her sister Rachel, and hermother Diane's Dottie put in her drink,
but she now has brain damage andrequires round the clock care. Her brother

(01:05:33):
and father died from the poisoning.Sarah was kind of a medical miracle because
by all accounts, it was believedthat she was going to pass, but
she ended up surviving. She didsustain some pretty heavy brain damage from the
incident, so Sarah now lives inan assisted living home full time. Following

(01:05:55):
Sarah's release from the hospital, bothDiane and Rachel were charged with several crimes,
including two counts of first degree murderfor the deaths of Mark and Sean
Stoudy and attempted murder for the neardeath of Sarah Stoudy. When Rachel went
to court. Obviously, this wasa death penalty case, but Rachel ended

(01:06:16):
up taking a plea deal that shewould testify against her mother. During the
death penalty hearing for Diane, Rachelpled to murder, and she was offered
part of her plea deal that shecould be eligible for parole after I believe
it was forty or forty two yearsprior to Diane's case actually going to trial.

(01:06:44):
Diane agreed to take a plea dealto take the death penalty off the
table, so both Diane and Rachelare currently incarcerated in the Missouri Department of
Corrections. Rachel will be eligible forparole when she's in her sixties. Diane
will serve her entire life in prison. During the sentencing phase, Rachel read

(01:07:06):
a brief statement in court and apologizedto her sister Sarah. I'm sorry.
I couldn't find the courage to stayright, to go for help, to
pretend to I was scared that theyscarce excuse. In response to Rachel's statement,

(01:07:27):
Sarah addressed the apology in a fewmedia interviews. Sarah claimed that she's
forgiven both her mom and her sisterfor what they have done. I forgive
her for what she did to me. Was your forgiveness given us something that
was really hard to come to overtime? Or how how does that that
process work for something? How many? I am a Christian and I believe

(01:07:54):
forgiveness is the only way to go. Was that something you were able to
do right away? Yes, Well, you might be inclined to commend Sarah
for taking the high road here.She might not be as deserving of that
commendation as you think. Believe itor not. There was yet another bizarre

(01:08:15):
twist in this really really crazy tale. During one of her police interviews,
Rachel Stoudy told investigators that Sarah knewabout the plan to murder both Mark and
Sean. It's very possible she couldhave overheard, did Sarah no? Yes

(01:08:36):
or no? Yes? She obviouslyjust didn't realize that she was going to
get it. Also, Sarah moreor less overheard. She really didn't plan.
She's just more there, But Sarahnew Sarah. So did Sarah ever

(01:09:00):
become suspicious when she started to getsick? She did mention, oh am
I going to die? She nevermentioned anything about her you guys poisoning me
too? Or no? But sheasked if she was going to die?
Who? Did she ask that?What? Did your mom say, I

(01:09:21):
don't know. Granted, it's entirelypossible that Rachel was lying, but when
she was first asked about Sarah's knowledgeof the crimes, Rachel said that Sarah
knew nothing. It was only afterthe detectives pressed her that Rachel changed her
story. If Rachel was lying andjust wanted to throw Sarah under the bus,

(01:09:46):
why would she initially deny that Sarahknew? If you're wondering. The
police did investigate the possibility that Sarahknew about the murder plot, but ultimately
conspiracy charges were never filed against her, so who knows. During Rachel's interview,

(01:10:06):
she talked about Sarah having knowledge ofthe poisonings of both Mark and Sean.
I did look into that, andthere were some things that might have
indicated that Sarah was in fact knowledgeable, and I have spoken with her about

(01:10:27):
that and she has said things tome that, you know, we're we're
alarming and disturbing. But based onSarah's mental capacity and the effects from the
anaphrees from from her being poisoned,there was never never a case that was
that was brought against Sarah. IfSarah knew that Diane and Rachel had killed
Mark and Sean Stoudy, it meansthat justice was not fully carried out for

(01:10:51):
either victim. It's been over adecade since both men were murdered, so
the likelihood of prosecutors bringing up chargesagainst Sarah is pretty much non existent.
She's free to go, but atleast we can say that the mastermind behind

(01:11:12):
it all got her come uppance.In terms of Diane, I have never
seen one bit of remorse from Dianeabout any of it, and I think
the only remorse that she might haveis that Rachel got caught with her,
and that now that Rachel is goingto spend decades and decades in prison.
I believe this whole case really justcentered around Diane's narcissism, her selfishness,

(01:11:39):
and how she wanted it her wayand it was only going to be her
way. It was a situation thatseemed that these people that she did not
like she was eliminating, she wasgetting rid of just so she could have
it to what she wanted, whichwas her and Rachel. It was a
situation where I believed that Diane wasjust a a pure narcissist. And it's

(01:12:01):
cliche, but in my career.I don't know that I can say that
I've sat across from somebody that wastruly more evil than Diane. What's especially
mind boggling about Diane Stoudy is thatthere was almost nothing forcing her to remain
in or maintain the life and familythat she no longer wanted. She could

(01:12:28):
have walked away at any point.She was the breadwinner of the family,
she was the only one with areal job. She had all the money,
all the power, and all butone of her kids was well into
their twenties. If she wanted to, she could have just left that she
wanted to. She could have justtaken Rachel and her youngest daughter with her,

(01:12:53):
left everyone else to fend for themselves. There was no reason at all
for any of this. Sure,that would have been kind of a shitty
thing to do when people would havelooked at her a little differently, but
they're doing that now, and they'redoing that a lot more harshly. And

(01:13:15):
at the same time, I imaginethat Mark, Sean, and Sarah,
all of them would have preferred thatDiane had just left instead of, you
know, poisoning them. But asthe detective explained, none of that mattered
to Diane, the pain she causeddidn't matter, and neither did the other

(01:13:39):
options that were available to her.Those options just weren't good enough for Diane.
Diane was going to have things herway because Diane is a narcissist,
Diane is selfish, hm, Dianeis evil, Diane is a monster.

(01:14:29):
Oh, I felt like I wastalking about someone else for a second.
There. All right, guys,thank you for joining us. We'll see
you next time. Stay safe,Hey, Thart and fail. I just

(01:15:02):
wanted to thank you for doing allof the child murdered uh podcast. I
know it must be really hard.I work in childcare, and it's so
important for people to understand if yousee something, you say something, and
every time, like I've cried fromall of the stories with the kids,

(01:15:23):
but it's so important because people hearit and you don't want to keep hearing
it. Well, then someone needto do something instead of someone thinking that
somebody else is going to do it. So I just want to thank you
for the bottom of my heart fordoing the child story so there is awareness.
Thank you so much to have agood day. By became like I'm
sorry for my voice being out becausethey am completely devastated over episode six.

(01:15:54):
I'm not asking anything of you,Mike. I don't want you to changed.
Mike By podcasts will never die.They'll never say that to me again.
And also, fuck awesome Robinson,that little pussy, that little girl

(01:16:15):
did not ever ask for anything butlove the way you knew. That episode
was so beautiful and scary, andI loved how long it was, and
he left all the information and heloved that audio. Freaking kid every time.
I mean, I'm gonna go Forardmyself this week. I like Mike. It depend