And You're To Blame: The Murder of Miriam Illes

The heart has been the subject of mythology for humanity for centuries. Egyptians believed that in the afterlife, your heart was weighed against a feather and if all your life’s sins didn’t outweigh the feather, you could join Osiris in the afterlife. If it was heavier, your heart was consumed by Amuut, a demon, and your soul disappeared forever. Ancient Greeks believed that the heart was the anchor of the soul and instinctively thought it was the source of heat for the body. Cultures all over the world recognized the importance of the heart, before even realizing how crucial it was to survival. Today’s case is about matters of the heart, both literally and figuratively. A heart surgeon’s wife is murdered in her locked house, shot through her heart in the middle of their nasty divorce and when the police find mounds of evidence, it all seems to lead them nowhere.

Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to Death, on the very first CRIMEWAVE true crime cruise! Get your fan code now--tickets go on sale February 7: CrimeWaveatSea.com/CAMPFIRE

Sources:
https://www.bestplaces.net/city/pennsylvania/williamsport https://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/01/heart_surgeon_convicted_of_kil.html
Investigation Discovery's "A Perfect Murder," episode "Heart Shot"
CBS's 48 Hours, episode "A Shot in the Dark"

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, campers, grab your marshmallows, and gather around the true
crime campfire. We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie and I'm Whitney,
and we're here to tell you a true story that
is way stranger than fiction or roasting murderers and marshmallows
around the true crime campfire. The heart has been the

(00:20):
subject of mythology for humanity for centuries. Egyptians believed that
in the afterlife, your heart was weighed against a feather,
and if all your life's sins didn't outweigh the feather,
you could join Osiris in the afterlife. If it was heavier,
your heart was consumed by Ammat, the demon, and your
soul disappeared forever. Ancient Greece believed that the heart was

(00:44):
the anchor for the soul and instinctively thought it was
the source of heat for the body. Cultures all over
the world recognized the importance of the heart before even
realizing how crucial it was to survival. Today's case is
about matters of the heart, both literally and figuratively. A
heart surgeon's wife is murdered in her locked house, shot

(01:05):
through her heart in the middle of their nasty divorce,
and when the police find minds of evidence, it all
seems to lead them to nowhere. This is and you're
to blame the murder of Miriam Illis.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
So Campers for this one. We're in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, a
teeny tiny town that's most famous for hosting the Little
League World Series. It's the kind of place you see
on postcards, with lush woods and picturesque little buildings. But
on Sunday, January fifteenth, nineteen ninety nine, something sinister was brewing.
Paula and Dean Peters had just gotten home from church,

(01:51):
and they were worried about their friend, Miriam Illis. Forty
seven year old Miriam served as their church's Sunday school teacher,
and she had missed that day's classes with telling anyone,
which was hugely out of character. She took a ton
of pride in her work and it wasn't like her
to not let anyone know that she'd be absent from church.
Paula and Dean lived nearby and stopped by Miriam's home

(02:12):
to check on her. Nobody answered the door bill, so
they walked her on the side of the house, and
when they looked through the kitchen window. They were horrified
at what they saw, Miriam lying unmoving on the kitchen
floor in a pool of blood. Police arrived on the
scene shortly after. All the doors were locked and they
had to kick the door in to get into the house. Inside,

(02:34):
they found Miriam's body next to a cordless phone. The
kitchen window, which had its blinds open, was broken, glass
shattered all over the kitchen. It was apparent that Miriam
had been killed by one gun shot to the heart
and that the killer had fired the shot through the
window from a distance. Oh that's creepy. Imagine just going

(02:55):
about your business in your home not knowing that there's
a killer watching you from outside. So the CSIS went
to check the wooded area that surrounded the backyard, and
there they found a gold mine of evidence. Next to
a tree about seventy feet from the house, the police
found a cigarette butt and some footprints from a size

(03:17):
fourteen basketball shoe left behind in the snow and mud.
About one hundred feet away toward the back of the property,
on a locked tennis court, was a homemade silencer made
of wire, PVC pipe and endcaps, crushed acoustical tile and
spray foam. Strange strange findings, but great evidence. The footprints

(03:39):
appeared to have come along a drainage ditch to enter
the Illis's property, and the killer used the tree to
steady his aim as he waited, watching through the only
open window until Miriam came into view, and then he
took his shot. In the midst of all this investigative chaos,
a man rolled up on the scene. He identified himself

(03:59):
as Miriam's estranged husband, doctor Richard Illis. He'd arrived at
the house to drop off their five year old son,
Ritchie Junior. He and his son had been out of
town for the weekend, and he was supposed to drop
his son back off with Miriam. The two had reached
an uneasy truce of co parenting in recent months, and
Richard seemed genuinely shaken by the news that is soon

(04:20):
to be ex wife was dead. Investigators noted that when
he was told that Miriam had been killed, he asked
how it happened, and then strangely said, what evidence did
you find? Okay, that's a weird question. But when asked
about an alibi, doctor Illis told the investigators that he'd
been on the road with Ritchie when the fatal shot

(04:42):
was fired. But we'll get back to that in a moment.
When exactly had Miriam died. The phone next to her
provided the best clue. Phone records indicated that Miriam had
been on the phone with a friend in Montana when
she'd been killed. Her horrified friend says she thought it
was it was weird when the call just cut off
abruptly at ten thirty seven.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
That happened when you and I were talking ones like
my cell phone died and you threatened to call my
mom and the cops and the FBI.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
Uh. Yeah, we have a true crime podcast, bitch, We've
seen some shit. I was very worried. I know you were,
especially I think you had said something about like seeing
a creepy guy earlier that day, and I just put
the two together in my head. Oh man, I was
freaking out.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yeah, it was it was not. It was like I
was like, cause, like I had charged my phone and
like like I got like twelve texts when it turned on,
I was like, what the fuck? And I was like,
it's like what.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
You better call me right now or I'm calling your mom.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
I was like, oh shit, sorry.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
I've done that to my husband before, by the way,
So anyway, that gave police something They didn't usually have
a precise time of death. As usual, the first thing
the investigators had to do was figure out who their
victim was and who on earth would want her dead.
Miriam Zambie was working as a surgical assistant at a

(06:06):
hospital in Saint Louis when she met doctor Richard Illis,
one of the best cardiac surgeons in the state. Miriam
was a warm, friendly person who never really met a stranger,
just a friend she hadn't met yet. She was always
volunteering her time and making sure to stay active in
her community. She and Richard hit it off quickly and
began dating and eventually married in nineteen ninety one. They

(06:28):
moved to Williamsport that same year and bought a lavish
mansion upon a hill.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
But despite all their wealth, Miriam stayed grounded and practical.
She still drove a sensible van and shopped at the
dollar Tree. One of their friends told forty eight hours,
you wouldn't think, wow, that's a doctor's wife. All that
really battered to Miriam was her son and being a mom.
When the couple's son was two, Miriam quit her job

(06:56):
and decided to stay home with him. According to Richard,
this was the dream come true for everyone. He said,
she was a wonderful mother. I couldn't have hoped for
anyone better than her to take care of my son.
During the mid nineties, things were wonderful for the Illis family.
Miriam was active in the PTA and at the local

(07:17):
Catholic church, their son was active in school and in sports,
and doctor Illis's career was taking off. In fact, doctors
were coming to Williamsport to work with him, like doctor Chazama,
his partner. By all accounts, everyone loved the Illesses. Miriam
was kind and giving, Richard was a great provider and

(07:37):
a brilliant surgeon, and their son was a happy little boy.
Well mostly Miriam's friends said that Richard was controlling and cruel.
One said he wanted his dinner at a certain time,
he wanted the house perfect. If she didn't please him,
she paid a price, and he wouldn't punish her by

(08:00):
away from her and the family. Of course, he'd use
his job as an excuse, because, as we all know,
surgeons have a demanding job. But at this point Miriam
rarely saw her husband.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Bry didn't want to see him if he's acting like that.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
Sure. In nineteen ninety eight, Miriam, a devout Catholic, hired
a divorce attorney. It didn't really seem like she wanted
a divorce. She seemed to go back and forth on
whether she actually wanted the good doctor out of the house.
The problem was she was pretty sure he was having
an affair. Eventually, she and her lawyer were able to
confirm it, and the news shocked her into action. When

(08:37):
she was still working, Miriam hired an assistant for Richard
named Catherine Sawyer. Catherine paid her back by sleeping with
her husband ou skank, yeah rude. Mariam moved out when
she learned about the affair, and the couple began to
move forward in settling the divorce. Now I'm not exactly

(08:59):
sure how much Richard Illis was making at the hospital.
He acknowledged in his interview with forty eight Hours that
he quote was compensated, probably more than he was worth.
Whatever it was, the family court required him to pay
Miriam thirteen thousand dollars in child support a month. A month,

(09:21):
adjusted for inflation, that's about twenty five thousand dollars today,
poor baby. Do any heart surgeons want to have a
baby and then go through a contentious divorce. I'm kidding.
I'm kidding, mostly unless.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
Just don't sign that prenup.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
I mean, I don't think prenups account for child support.
So true, true, So come on baby. Richard tried protesting
the payment, obviously, but when you're making buckets and buckets
of money in a town where the median income is
fifty three percent lower than the national average, I don't
think you're going to have a leg to stand on anyway.

(10:03):
Despite the money, Miriam still held out hope that she
and Richard might reconcile, but according to his colleagues, Richard
wasn't interested. Despite the awkward and sometimes heated nature of
their broken relationship, they agree that they wanted the best
for their son, so they had called, you know, a
somewhat uneasy truce. When it came to their co parenting relationship.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
Miriam had primary custody and Richard got little five year
old Richie on the weekends. Doctor Illis looks back fondly
on this time. He says, I had a pretty perfect
life there for a little while. I had a girlfriend
who I loved, and we had a great time. Had
a beautiful son who was being taken care of by
his mother, who was the best mother in the world.
There's no doubt about that. Everyone will tell you that.

(10:48):
My dude, gross Like who says that stuff out loud?
She was an excellent caretaker. I mean, obviously I didn't
want a banger anymore, so fuck off. Oh my lord.
It clearly does not get how awful that sounds, which
is fascinating to me. During this time, Mariam leaned on
her friends. It seemed like she was on the cusp

(11:10):
of turning a corner of getting that twinkle in her
eye back. Still is going to get her groove back,
you know, But strangely something seemed to be holding her back.
One friend, Leslie Smith, was with her one evening, and
Mariam got a worried look on her face and suggested
they should step away from the windows just in case. Wow,
how many times have we seen this folk? So many

(11:32):
people who end up murdered sense that they're in danger
before the danger actually happens. Listen to those instincts and
you'll talk yourself out of it. Oh you're just being crazy, No,
you're not. If you get that persistent feeling, listen to it,
and then, of course, all that hope was gone in
the blink of an eye. William's port was, of course

(11:54):
appalled and shaken by this awful crime. Not only had
they lost a prominent, wonderful woman, but they had no
idea if it was a random or targeted attack. Suddenly
it felt like no one was safe, and that's an
alien feeling in such a small town. Naturally, the police
wanted to speak to Richard first, especially because Richard was
an avid hunter and a pretty good marksman. He easily

(12:17):
agreed to an interview and gave every impression of the
fully cooperative and grieving widower. He told investigators that he'd
picked Richie up and started driving toward the Honeybrook area
to visit his family. He said that he'd been driving
for about an hour when Richie told him that Miriam
hadn't fed him dinner and he was hungry, so he
and Richie stopped about thirty five miles away from Miriam's

(12:38):
house at McDonald's, and then, tired from a day of
surgeries and realizing that it probably wasn't safe to continue driving,
he decided to check into a hotel and continue the
trip in the morning. Now this was all true. Mostly
employees at the restaurant did remember seeing doctor Illis, but
didn't remember exactly when, some saying that they saw him

(13:00):
and his son as late as eleven PM. He and
Richie did stay at a hotel that night, and they
did continue their trip the next morning. Police tried the
drive in both good and bad weather conditions, observing the
speed limit and not, but couldn't seem to make the
timing work as Richard said it had. Something wasn't quite
right with the story, but they didn't have much to

(13:22):
go on for now. They wanted to interview little five
year old Richie to get his perspective on this, but
they needed Richard's permission because he was a minor. Richard
refused because one the kid just lost his mom, and two, allegedly,
he was scared of cops. All of Miriam's family and
friends seemed absolutely shaken by the news of her murder.

(13:46):
Miriam had no enemies. Surely, no one would want to
hurt her. No one in the world hated her like that.
Her friends, of course side eyed Richard, but other than that,
they had no idea. Investigators were at a loss This
wasn't a ton to go on in terms of victimology.
What they did have, though, was the evidence at the scene,
and oh baby, was that going to be a gold mine.

(14:09):
I mean size fourteen footprints and cigarette butts and homemade silencers.
Sherlock Holmes is rubbing as little cocaine stained hands together
with glee. Wohoo. There gotta be something good there, right. Well, unfortunately,
our good doctor was a size nine. But the cigarette
and three little hares found on the homemade silencer went
off for DNA testing and came back as no match

(14:33):
to Illis or anyone else. They ran it against god,
dang it. Another sweet piece of evidence that came up
during their search of Miriam's house was a video inventory
of the couple's marital home. A lot of people take
those for divorce proceedings before they start splitting up the assets.
Something that drew their attention was doctor Illis's workshop. One

(14:54):
investigator told forty eight Hours he had all the types
of woodworking equipment that would have been necessary to struck
this particular silencer. In response to that, Richard says, oh, yeah,
I could have made it, but I would have made
a silencer that was good. That silencer that they found
is very amateurish. Richard, Honey, bless your heart. I feel

(15:15):
like bragging about whether you could make a better silencer
than the killer is maybe not the fricking point, but okay, good,
you know, do you want a cookie or what? Anyway,
this and the driving reenactments was enough to get the
investigators a search warrant, and inside the workshop they found
traces that seemed similar to the amateurish silencer found of

(15:36):
the scene. And this was very interesting. On the doctor's
nightstand was a book titled They Wrote their Own Sentences,
the FBI Handwriting Analysis Book, as well as a book
called how to Hide Your Assets and Disappear. Great job
leaving that out in plane view. Man, you're you're killing it.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah, and forty eight hours ago was the handwriting book.
Was a strange book for the doctor to have. Okay,
let those without sin cast the first stone, Like I
know what they're getting at, but like, we're right here,
you know, with shelves and shelves weird books. Who do
you think is your target audience? Forty eight hours O? Hey, right,

(16:23):
and it's strange. It was strange perhaps because shortly after
illis found out what was found at his house. A
mysterious letter showed up at his attorney's office.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
Oh spooky man, y'all know I love me an anonymous letter.
Anytime one of these shows up, you know you're about
to see the desperate Shenanigans of a dipshit killer who
thinks they're a lot smarter than they are. And somehow
it all just makes the arrest so much more satisfying.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
The letter writer claimed to be the killer and said
he knew what evidence was found at Miriam's home. The
letter was written in block letters in pencil. It read,
in part, I shot Miriam. The Lord ordered me to
harvest the wicked racist ones of this town. It was
signed Soldier of God, Soldier of Equality, Soldier of Death.

(17:21):
Now was Miriam racist? No, but they still had to
check it out. They interviewed all of Miriam's friends, former
co workers, and acquaintances again who all vehemently denied that
she was racist. What was more likely, and something we
see a lot in our world, is that the letter

(17:42):
writer was trying to mislead the investigators. I wonder who
would want to do that, huh, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
Maybe someone whose house was just raided by cops, somebody
who might be feeling a little bit of pressure.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah, or maybe it was some looney tune unrelated to
the crime at all. Who knows. They were able to
recover hair from the flap of the envelope, but again,
DNA testing didn't show any matches. In fact, none of
the DNA matched any of the other DNA. The cigarette
butt didn't match the hairs from the silencer, which didn't
match each other, which didn't match the hair from the envelope.

(18:18):
So what the hell were five different people involved in
this crime? With someone planting evidence. Time was passing, and

(18:54):
unfortunately the case was growing cold. Investigators knew that their
best lead was Richard. He was by far their best suspect.
He was losing the divorce A thirteen thousand dollars monthly
child support payment is a pretty convincing motive for just
about anyone, and that damn drive from Williamsport the Harrisburg

(19:14):
was stuck in the investigator's craw But it just wasn't
enough yet. It was to this point all circumstantial evidence
and not quite enough to tip the scales of justice yet.
And then four months after the murder and three months
after the first, a second letter was delivered. In this one,

(19:37):
the letter writer described himself. He revealed knowledge of the
investigation and that doctor Illis was not the correct suspect.
Definitely not doctor Illis. Okay, they just.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
Freaky kill me.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
It wasn't doctor Illis. They got the wrong man. The
letter writer said he spoke several languages, had many fans
sch fancy degrees, and that he had a higher IQ
than any police officer.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
No mensa, no mensa.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
No mensa.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Dang it almost had a bengo.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
I mean, the mensa is in his heart, even even
if he didn't have the membership card.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
He also wrote that he had access to the Illesses
home and used Richard's supplies to make the homemade silencer
while they are on vacation, which is convenient bonkers.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
This letter, which I really wish we had access to,
clearly draws an arrow to doctor Ellis's partner, doctor Chay Zama.
He was fluent in several languages, had many advanced degrees,
was good friends with the Illnesses, and had access to
their home. There was a rumor that doctor Zama and
Miriam and had an affair, but that wasn't based in

(20:52):
reality at all. They were just friends, close certainly, but
not that close. But when investigators looked into doctor Zoma
whereabouts on the night of the murder, he'd been out
with friends all night. He had an airtight alibi and
no real motive to hurt Miriam. Good try, mister letter writer,
But no, the letters were good evidence by themselves as well.

(21:14):
As we mentioned before, the first one was sent four
days after the warrant was served on Illis's house, which
is a pretty big coincidence, to say the least. Then
there's the pencil. Now, any good true crime buff knows
that pen ink can be traced, even the ballpoint itself
can be linked to a specific pen but pencil is untraceable.

(21:36):
The block writing made it impossible to do any kind
of analysis to link to any suspect. So basically the
letter writer was a ghost. Except this was exactly the
type of letter that the book found on Richard's nightstand
outline as being the hardest to trace, crazy Gowinki dan't huh.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
It's also a good indication of the mentality of the
actual murderer.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
Right, hm hmm.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
It seems like whoever did the crime was anxious that
the police were getting close and was just throwing everything
at the wall to see what stuck, you know, like, yeah,
maybe they'll buy that Miriam was a bigot. Maybe they'll
buy that doctor Zama did it for no reason. Maybe
they'll stop looking in this direction. Jingly keys, jingle keys.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
Don't look at that, look at this. So by the
summer of nineteen ninety nine, it felt like nothing was
going right for the investigators until a fisherman was walking
home from the river one day, about forty feet off
the highway when he nearly tripped over what he thought
was a piece of driftwood. On closer inspection, though he
realized that it was a rifle. He immediately called the authorities,

(22:43):
who identified it as a rare Savage twenty three D
rifle that had its serial number drilled off. The thing
about the serial number being drilled off rather than filed
off is that sometimes when it's filed off, you can
use acid to recover some or all of the numbers.
A drill will obliterate the numbers completely. This particular make

(23:04):
and model of gun was last sold in nineteen forty nine,
which is before records were even kept, so they had
no way of even linking it to Richard Illis. Perfect
joy dam. The gun had some specific modifications that helped
the police confirm that it was their murder weapon. It
had a set screw at the top that was a
perfect fit for the homemade silencer. Ballistics later confirmed that

(23:27):
it was the gun that killed Miriam Millis. The gun
was discarded right along the route that Richard claimed to
have taken the night of the murder. Then, less than
a quarter mile away, a pair of basketball shoes size
fourteen were found with the same tread as those found
at the crime scene. On the tongue of the shoes
was a hare and when they ran the DNA, no

(23:50):
match again, What the fuck? A year later, investigators uncovered
a little bit of an Illis family secret. Stick with
us for a second, because this juicy. Richard's godfather's name
was Joe Kowalski. Now, part of the reason that Richard
wanted to move back to Williamsport is that he and
his uncle Joe used to hunt and hike and fish

(24:12):
in the woods around Williamsport when Richard was a kid.
He and Uncle Joe were super close while Richard was
growing up, and when Joe passed away, he left Richard
a bunch of his guns. Now it turns out that
Uncle Joe was actually Richard's biological father, right, so juicy Anyway,

(24:33):
investigators found a photo of Joe holding a rifle that
looked disturbingly similar to the murder weapon. So there's our
connection between Illis and the gun that potentially killed Miriam.
A bit of a winding road, but it's there. Unfortunately,
the DA didn't think that was enough for an arrest woosy,
so doctor Ellis remained a freeman. Richard married Catherine, his girlfriend,

(24:58):
and retained full custody of Richard, for whom he obtained
a passport. Yikes.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
At this point, Richard finally let the police interview Richie Junior,
but his memories of that night were hazy and full
of holes, even beyond what would be normal for a
night two years in the past, especially a night where
a kid lost his mother.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
Yeah. Yeah, The police.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
Had a bit of a horrifying suspicion that doctor Ellis
had drugged Richie the knight of the murder. It would
be easy enough. He was a doctor, and he'd have
access and the knowledge of drugs to ensure that his
son stayed asleep long enough to murder his estranged wife
and get back on the road, but alas, too much
time had passed and that was mere conjecture. In two thousand, Tricky, Dicky, Catherine,

(25:46):
and his son moved to Laredo, Texas, right on the
border to Mexico, where Richard had gotten a new job
as a heart surgeon. His proximity to the border and
the fact that he got Richie a passport made the
cops awfully nervous, but it was fine because he was
let go from that job, and he and his new
family moved to Spokane, Washington, where he was preliminarily hired

(26:08):
as a heart surgeon, but that didn't pan out either.
It seemed like somebody was sending anonymous letters of their
own anywhere he went. Hospitals were being sent anonymous packages
filled with newspaper clippings about Miriam's death, along with a
warning about hiring Richard. No one knows for sure who

(26:32):
was behind it, but some people suspected that it was
Miriam's family just letting Richard know that they were keeping
tabs on him. Apparently, some local journalists received from packages
as well anywhere Richard moved, which is just huh. I
just love it.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
I just love vicious. I mean, imagine how angry you
would be. Years are going by without justice. It's ah,
that's the least you'd want to do, you know, because
he kept getting fired.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
It's hilarious, it's pretty good. Richard, for the record, believed
that it was a jealous competitor, which is insane but
also sounds very much like something a heart surgeon would say.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
So the ego on you, you little dweeb.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
But you can't keep a good man down, or a
bad man down, or a good doctor down or whatever.
You know what I'm saying, Doctor illis needed some of
that cold hard cash. And you know by now what
surgeons do when they can't do anything else and don't

(27:46):
want or need to get any certifications. Right, say it
with me, folks, fair mayor mayor plastic surgery, plastic surgery.
Yeah remember head snapped to pay guy?

Speaker 2 (28:01):
Oh god, it'd snaptoopey guy.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Haven't We've done like eighteen cases where it's been like
and they did plastic surgery without any certifications. Like it's
just oh, it's tales old as time, you know, they're
just anyway, I know there are fantastic plastic surgeons who
do great work and are passionate and have have fantastic certifications, Board.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
Certified plastic surgeons who actually have the training and all
has to do it.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
Just remember to like google them before you let them
slice you up.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
Okay, I got a story about this. I have a
friend who got some work done and after the fact
she found out that her plastic surgeon had actually been
like arrested a bunch of times for like operating under
the influence.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
Excuse me, yes, is that awful?

Speaker 2 (28:56):
It was years ago, but still, like, how are you
still practicing wild stuff?

Speaker 1 (29:01):
I just yeah, just google, just just google them before.
Absolutely so anyway, he was, he you know, It's just
it just sucks when people would bad people come out
on top, even for a little bit, you know. Yes,
So remember the shoes, okay, and the mystery hair, the

(29:22):
size fourteen shoes and the mystery hair. Well, one of
the investigators got a wild hair and decided, you know what,
let's test the hair against Richie Junior. And you want
to know what, it was a match? Finally it was
habeas grabs time. Now it's not clear why it wasn't

(29:46):
like a match initially, like court documents talk about mitochondrial
tests and the sample not being big enough, so it's
possible that either the tech wasn't there, like it wasn't
its infancy, or it was just a really small sample.
But either way, they got a match and they were
going to put the cuffs on the doctor. Finally, the
spoken Sheriff's Department, who'd been keeping tabs on Illis for

(30:08):
the Williamsport PDEE, tried to grab Illis at his office
while the Williams Point guys waited like expectant fathers at
the precinct. Unfortunately, Ellis didn't show at his office.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
The thing that all of Richard's friends told the police
when they were gathering evidence was that he always carried
a gun. Doctor Zama told investigators to be careful that quote,
should they gather enough evidence to arrest him, Richard would
kill everyone, including his son, to ensure that no one
lives to testify. Who if that didn't make your blood
run cold. Illis seems to have been tipped off and

(30:43):
was trying to shake his tail. He was driving towards
downtown Spokane. They didn't think he had anyone in his car.
His son was at schools what on earth was he doing?
But then randomly he pulled over. They were able to
arrest him without further incident. Phew. During his search of
the doctor's computer, the investigators found a laptop, and during

(31:05):
a forensic analysis, they found an unfinished manuscript titled I
Swear to God Heartshot Murder of the Doctor's Wife. It's
written from the perspective of the killer in excruciating detail.
The characters' names aren't even changed, like, oh, hello again,
Mark Twitchell idiot. Apparently he wrote that quote. The killer

(31:28):
felt an orgasmic catharsis at the moment Miriam was killed.
Ew oh my god. Oh, I don't even know what
to say about it.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
It's disguised. He is the creepiest motherfucker. Like, just look
up a picture of him right now, Like, yeah, he
has a terrible mustache, which is a choice. He's just
he's the fucking worst. I hate him so much.

Speaker 2 (31:55):
Chasmic cas and don't worry though, Okay. Richard has an
explanation for this. He told forty eight Hours I thought
it would generate more interest and more widespread knowledge of
the actual facts of the case, which were not being
disseminated by the police. That was my motive. Oh yeah,
makes perfect sense. So you had to write orgasmic catharsis

(32:16):
to get that info out to the public. Digit really
come on man. At trial, the prosecution's theory of the
case was pretty clear cut. In order to avoid a
thirteen thousand dollars a month child support payment and any
further bleeding from the divorce, Richard Illis drugged his son
shortly after picking him up for the weekend trip. Then

(32:37):
he doubled back to Miriam's home, where he took out
his tools. They shoes several sizes too big, the homemade silencer,
and the used cigarette, but he carefully procured earlier. He
found the tree that he could lean against, and he
waited and watched for her through the kitchen window with
his father's antique gun. When she finally came into view,

(32:59):
he lined up, shot, took a breath, and squeezed the trigger,
and then he planted all the evidence. The jury found
doctor Richard Illis guilty of first degree murder, and he
was sentenced to life in prison. A week later, he
attempted to take his own life by gouging his wrist
with a paper clip. He was stabilized by prison medical staff.

(33:21):
In a strange update, Richard Illis brought a lawsuit against
camp Hill Correctional Institution, claiming that he was deprived of
adequate food while being temporarily housed there. He said he
was denied forty six meals and lost eight percent of
his body weight between August fifth and thirty first, twenty ten.
According to him, his preferred pain medication was eliminated from

(33:42):
the prison pharmacy, and it prevented him from standing at
his cell door to receive meals, which is required on
that block. He accused eleven correctional staff members of cruel
and unusual punishment. Now that would be horrible, except, as
the defense pointed out, he was able to walk down
to the library, the visitor's room, the yard, the showers,

(34:02):
and the telephones. The library and visitors room are both
in other buildings. Now, we are not saying our prison
system is perfect, good God, is it not? But I
am saying that Richard Illis is a liar and should
be shot out of a cannon. That's pretty much it. Anyway,
His case was thrown out. According to court records, Illis

(34:22):
was offered an alternative medication and could have requested a
disability accommodation. I do think it's weird to make inmates
have to stand for food, though, like maybe cut that out.
It's kind of strange. This isn't military school. What probably
happened is that Richard didn't like being told what to do. Anyway.
I think this one is really about the power of friendship, campers.

(34:45):
Miriam's absence left a hole for all of doctor Illis's
careful planning. He didn't account for one thing. He had
no way of knowing Miriam was on the phone that night,
narrowing his alibi down to just a few crucial minutes.
So all that clever, villainous planning had a wrench thrown
in because his wife was so well loved. How's that

(35:08):
for justice? Huh? So that was a wild one, right, Campers.
You know we'll have another one for you next week,
but for now, lock your doors, light your lights, and
stay safe until we get together again around the True
Crime Campfire. If you haven't booked your spot yet on
the Crimewave True Crime Cruise from November three through November
seventh to the Bahamas, may I remind you get on it, y'all.

(35:30):
For the love of guy. It's going to be so
much fun. Join Katie and Me plus last podcast on
the left. Those guys are hilarious, scared to death and
sinister hood awesome and awesome for a rock and good
time at sea. You can pay all at once or
set up a payment plan, but you've got to have
a fan code to book a ticket, So go to
Crimewave atsea dot com, slash campfire and take it from there.

(35:51):
And as always, we want to send a grateful shout
out to a few of our lovely patrons. Thank you
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to the moon and back. And if you're not yet
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(36:12):
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