All language subtitles for Little.Miss.Innocent.Passion.Poison.Prison.S01E02.Someone.in.the.Circle.HULU.WEB-DL.DD+5.1.H.264-playWEB.en[cc]

[tense atmospheric music]

- No, I don't believe
I'm a monster.

[laughs]

I don't think anyone would
call me a monster.

- No, I think if the Yoders are
being honest with themselves,

they--they know that

there are monsters
in their family.

There are real monsters
in their family.

♪ ♪

[intense music]

♪ ♪

- It was a complete mind-fuck.

I mean, I got the phone call,

and I was at my son's
Christmas concert.

And I spoke with
the investigator, Van Namee,

and he said, "Listen,
we didn't tell you everything,

but we have this letter
and we have your brother here."

♪ ♪

"We were not expecting this,
but we just found the vial."

"And it's wrapped in cardboard
and has the receipt with it."

- Well, when we were told
about the anonymous letter,

and we were told
that it was Adam,

I mean, I laughed.

I-I--I laughed.

I said, that's absurd.

- So everybody was kind of
like, okay, it's here.

So we're like, okay, okay,
th-the letter is accurate.

So whoever wrote this letter
was right on that--

that colchicine was
in Adam's car

and underneath the seat.

♪ ♪

So at this point,
we asked Adam, okay,

we need to go back
into our office now,

and we need to speak
to you some more.

KAITLYN: We had been broken up
for over a year.

When I found out that

the colchicine was found
in Adam's car,

I said, oh, my God.

How deep was he in this?

Because it felt like, okay,

something happened.

And he knows
more than he's saying.

It's in his car.

- We had to get a feel
for Adam.

We wanted to either say,
okay, Adam's our guy,

or Adam's not our guy.

MARK: So during the interview
of Adam Yoder,

the part of the letter that
we actually showed him...

"The colchicine container
is under the front seat

until he figures out where
he can dispose of it next,"

he's definitely in shock
as I'm describing this to him.

♪ ♪

LIANA:
I spoke with some attorneys

who very clearly told me,

you know, if you want
to hire me for your brother,

you have to realize,
he could have done this.

And it hit me--like...

You're right.
All of us could have d--

it's like, that was when
it really blew it open to me

that we really didn't know
who did this.

♪ ♪

- This typed letter
is interesting

for a number of reasons,

because it points out
colchicine.

This is someone in the circle,
all right?

None of this stuff
has been publicized yet.

- There was only a few people
that knew that Mary died

from colchicine--the family

and maybe some close people
to the family that--

I mean, this isn't something
that was out there.

♪ ♪

They had too much information.

And they had access
to Adam's vehicle.

Adam is a suspect,
but again, we can't just say,

okay, focus on Adam
and not look at anybody else.

My instinct tells me,
we need to start looking,

okay, at family members,
at Bill Yoder.

In a lot of poisoning cases,

it comes back
as being the spouse.

- You have to look at Bill
if you're a detective,

and that's what they do.

- My mom has talked to me
many times over the years,

is that she was so proud
that they did the work

through the hard times
in their marriage.

- We had the closest,
most magical family--

f-from our memories,
from my memories.

- There was some conversation
in our briefings about,

is it possible
that Bill is the one

who planted this evidence
and wrote the letter?

♪ ♪

And it was very quickly,
in our mind,

that would have to be
an absolute stone-cold person,

willing to kill your wife
and frame your only son

for a murder
they didn't commit.

- Yes, I--I do think that
Bill could have killed Mary.

I think he had it in him.

♪ ♪

It's a pretty sobering thought.

[intense music]

- I was Mary Yoder's
hairstylist for 20 years plus.

Mary did not talk
about any marital problems.

However, the last time
she visited the salon here,

which was just a few days
before she was murdered,

her behavior
at that appointment was

so different from other times
that it just--

her behavior stuck with me
that day

because of her demeanor.

♪ ♪

Mary called her husband
and said on the phone,

"No, we are not going
to do that.

And no, that is not going
to happen."

And I do not know
what they were talking about,

but it was so out of character

for Mary to use
the type of language

that it--it caught me
completely off guard.

And I can't forget those words.

And then a few days later,
I find out she's dead.

TAMARYN: I know
the very first interview

I had with
the sheriff's department, um,

they--they did ask me a lot
of questions about my father.

♪ ♪

I did have to face the fact

that my father could have
done this.

And it was terrifying
and just horrifying.

- And I would stop by
the office from time to time

when Katie was working there
to either have lunch with her

or, you know,
drop off a milkshake.

And, um,
just very different vibes

between when it was Dr. Bill on
or Dr. Mary.

♪ ♪

Can't quite put my finger
on it, but I definitely--

I trust my gut, and I...

was never really
fully comfortable around him.

[soft tense music]

KAITLYN: Bill would go
on these weekend retreats

to other cities in New York,

and he wouldn't
take Mary with him.

And he would leave and he would
do things without her.

He would do things alone.

And that was weird to me.

♪ ♪

ROBERT: We had subpoenas out
for phone records,

bank records, everything--
insurance policies.

We didn't want Bill to know
that we were looking at him

as a possible suspect.

♪ ♪

- We basically had to lie
to my father.

We had to pretend
we knew nothing.

We couldn't tell him
that we spoke to the sheriffs,

because they were thinking
that, you know,

he was potentially responsible,

and they didn't want
information getting back to him

about what they had
or what they were thinking.

- They asked me
about my father.

They asked me
about his whereabouts.

And about a week or two prior,
my father had sat down

with myself and my sister
and my brother

and had told us about a--
a relationship.

We have no idea
what's going on.

It was concerning to us.

When did this start?

So when I spoke
with the police,

I let them know
that information as well.

♪ ♪

TAMARYN: The police were
tracking my father's trips

out to Cazenovia.

He was going there more often
than he was staying home,

which me and my sister

and my brother
did not know about.

So that was alarming
to us too.

- So I first heard that
Bill was dating someone else

in November.

So his wife had died in July,

and I heard that he wanted
to spend Thanksgiving

with his new girlfriend

who happened to be
his sister-in-law.

So that was a shock.

- He told us that he was
in a relationship

with our Aunt Kathy.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

It was definitely...quick.

It--it happened very fast
and was shocking.

ROCCO: There are some
family members that believe

that this relationship
between Bill Yoder

and Mary's sister, Kathy,

had already been in play
when Mary died.

Doesn't it make more sense that
he would want to kill his wife?

We're speaking
with Janine Bakert King,

and she is the sister
of Mary Yoder.

If anyone had motive,
you feel that there was

one person that had motive,
and that was--

- Yes.
ROCCO: That was her husband.

- Right, he had financial
and romantic motive.

♪ ♪

LIANA: My mom's sisters were
very certain

that it had to be my dad,
or maybe my aunt was involved,

or some combination
of the two of them was guilty.

- Once the police learned
that my father was now dating

my Aunt Kathy, that,
you know, of course,

was a huge red flag
for a motive for them.

So then we had to face the--

if my father did this,
then did he also write

this letter
to the sheriff's office?

Is he now trying
to frame my brother?

Like, there was nothing
in the world

that was making sense
at that point.

♪ ♪

We made plans to get together
with my father for Christmas.

And all I could think was that,
if he was involved in this,

and I'm canceling
my Christmas plans with him,

is he then going to think,

well, if I suspect him,
then he needs to get rid of me?

LIANA: We hired security
simply for the fact

that we could not sleep
at night

not knowing
who might be coming.

♪ ♪

I would wake up
from sleep screaming.

All I kept thinking is,
I'm gonna get

another phone call
and someone else is gonna die.

[slow ambient music]

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter]

- I can never see
Adam doing it.

I can never see Katie doing it.

So I really--honestly,
it's a little mind-blowing.

- I believe that the husband is
now with a sister,

so it's, like, a little bit of
conspiracy type of stuff there.

- Well, there was
this poor young girl

who had a psy--
[splutters]

Wait, was he a chiropractor?
Hold on.

- Never heard
of a case like this.

Maybe in a thriller,
maybe in a--a spy magazine.

- And the woman paid her
to kill the husband.

However, this poor,
innocent girl, you know, it--

it was actually the wife that
did more than the poor girl.

- Mary and Bill were
the salt of the earth.

They were sweet, loving,
successful couple.

They were like a power couple
in my eyes.

[tense music]

WENDY:
There was some gossip about

when that affair
could have started.

But I had heard
that the affair had started

prior to Mary's death,
and I think that's a--

a terrible thing to do
to your sister.

In my opinion,
Bill could have done this

because he is
a very smart man.

When you have that opinion

that you are smarter than
everybody else in the room,

it leads to being able to try
to pull things off that,

you know, you think that nobody
will ever find out about.

TAMARYN:
My father had

horrible things
said about him,

horrible accusations
made against him,

flat-out completely
made-up things.

It's absurd.

♪ ♪

- Once the investigation
really got going,

we were introduced
to three of Mary's sisters.

They approached
the Oneida County sheriffs

and said, I think you need
to look into Bill.

They truly believed that
Bill had everything to gain

and nothing to lose
from Mary's death.

He had the means
and the opportunity.

♪ ♪

- Investigator Mark Van Namee
received a phone call

one night from one of Mary's
sisters down in Florida.

She's a nurse.

Once she heard that colchicine
caused Mary's death,

she had some concerns
about how Mary would get this.

They didn't put anything
on the death certificate

as to the cause of death
other than,

they knew it was colchicine.

- Who would have ordered
colchicine?

Who would have had the ability
to order colchicine?

Who would have known that it
could be used to kill somebody?

♪ ♪

So in Mary Yoder's
sisters' minds,

they believed that
Bill Yoder was the suspect.

Talk of the Town,
TALK 100.7 FM, Rocco LaDuca.

- So when Bill Yoder says he
had never heard of colchicine,

he had no clue that it was used
to grow marijuana,

the family members
who know Bill

and know what colchicine is
don't believe him.

They don't buy that.

♪ ♪

M. WILLIAM:
When we talk about colchicine,

for one, I had a tough time
pronouncing it,

looking at the word, 'cause
I had never seen it before

when I first did this case.

This is a rare,
rare toxic substance.

- Is it possible
that Bill killed her

so that he could be with Kathy,
and he could retire,

and he could keep
all the money to himself?

That makes a lot
of sense to me.

- Um, they--

[whispers]
How am I gonna word this?

Adam's relationship
with his dad

is definitely,
you know, unique.

[intense music]

KAITLYN: Adam and his father
had a strange relationship.

♪ ♪

It wasn't
the kind of relationship

that I had with my own father.

My father is very supportive,
and I know he loves me.

And he's always going
out of his way to help.

And Bill and Adam didn't have
that kind of relationship.

M. WILLIAM: There were times
when they fought

and they argued because
Adam dropped out of school,

drinking too much.

So his dad is upset with him.

Bill was very cold,

and he almost treated Adam
like a stranger.

Like, he didn't seem to care
what Adam did,

or if Adam was suffering,

he was okay with that.

♪ ♪

- Adam and Bill both
are persons of interest,

one because they're the spouse
of the deceased,

and the other
because they're mentioned

in the anonymous letter,
and as investigators,

our thought process is,
you know,

which one of these guys
could this possibly be?

ROBERT: Yes, and we were
looking at Bill.

Is there some hidden thing
we don't know about?

Is--is there an affair?
Is there something else

going on
that we don't know about?

♪ ♪

But we knew that Bill was
definitely gonna be

one of the last people
we speak to,

'cause we wanted to talk
to everyone else

to gather information,
and when we bring Bill in,

confront him with anything that
we find in the investigation.

So let's talk
to Kaitlyn Conley.

So we decide,
she works in the office,

she may have information
on Bill...

What the relationship
between Bill and Mary was

and what goes on
in the office.

♪ ♪

So investigator Van Namee
calls in Kaitlyn Conley.

[soft tense music]

♪ ♪

KAITLYN: The police asked
if I could come in

and answer some questions
about the office.

So of course,
I dropped everything

and I went right up there

and I started
answering questions.

♪ ♪

- Katie seemed like a--

I don't know
if I would say shy,

but just very meek, mild.

She worked in the office.
She knew the family.

She had a relationship
with Adam.

So we were raised

that the police are there
to help you.

And I felt, again,
if I was in a position to help,

why wouldn't I?

[intense music]

- During the interview,
she keeps talking

about how suspicious
Adam was acting.

You know, in my mind,
all of a sudden,

she's pointing a finger
at Adam,

similar to the letter.

♪ ♪

And that's when I came out
and I asked her,

Katie, did you write us
a letter?

She didn't answer it
with a yes or no.

So I asked it a second time,
and her answer was,

you know, you can't protect me.

♪ ♪

So I again said, Katie,
if you wrote the letter,

we need to know that.

And it was at that point
she admitted

to writing
the anonymous letter.

I stepped out of the room.

♪ ♪

This is the moment
that she goes from being,

you know, just another witness
to the person responsible

for writing
the anonymous letter.

We'd always said, you know,
the person that wrote

this letter has definitely got
to be considered

a suspect in our case.

♪ ♪

So we--we started recording

about halfway through
that interview.

- I can't talk about that.
I'm sorry.

[sniffling]

Sorry.

[hyperventilating]

INTERVIEWER:
Are you all right?

[sobbing]

INTERVIEWER:
Are you all right?

KAITLYN:
[sobbing]

Sorry.

[hyperventilating]

[tense music]

[whimpering]

INTERVIEWER:
Take a deep breath and hold it

and then blow out.
Go...

[inhales sharply]

And...
[exhales deeply]

[continues breathing deeply]

♪ ♪

Ah. Okay, sorry.

INTERVIEWER:
Shake it out?

Thank you.

[sighing] Oh, man.

INTERVIEWER:
Okay?

[laughs]

Okay.

- It's--it's just--
it's a lot.

It's a lot
to live with every day.

I'm under a lot of pressure.

♪ ♪

- So now the decision was made
to treat her like a suspect

at that point forward.

Every interview would be
taped, recorded.

♪ ♪

When I went back in the room,

we started
a conversation again.

- So he had told me
that he had the bottle.

And without knowing
that he did,

I thought it was another ploy
for attention,

because that seems like
something that he would say

for that attention,
for that wow factor.

- He didn't come out and say
that he killed his mother,

but he framed it as a question.

"What do you want me to say,
that I killed her?"

♪ ♪

And I remember
getting goosebumps

and thinking, no.

Nope, nope.
No, I do not want to hear that.

I do not want to hear that.
I do not want you to say that.

I don't want that to be true.

She definitely tried to paint
the picture of Adam as being,

you know, as bad as possible.

- You know, I told Katie that,
you know, statistically,

little boys don't kill
their moms.

They'll ignore 'em
all day long,

but they don't kill 'em.

And she came back
with the response

that kind of caught me
off guard.

MARK:
Hm.

As I'm talking to Katie,
and she comes back

with the response about, "Yeah,
and they don't use poison.

That's a lady's weapon,"
with a smirk,

that was, like,
maybe the light bulb moment.

We were convinced that,
you know,

we had the right person.

♪ ♪

[door closes]

This is a girl who thought

she was smarter
than everybody else.

And Katie Conley believed

that when we read that letter
and it said, Adam--

Adam did it
and here's why he did it,

she thought that was it.

We're gonna slap the cuffs
on Adam,

and we're gonna arrest
Adam Yoder for the murder

of his mother,
and case closed and that's it.

That didn't happen.

♪ ♪

KAITLYN:
I felt like I couldn't leave

until I told them
what they wanted to hear,

and they knew
what they wanted to hear.

They knew
what they wanted me to say.

And I was really stuck there

until I cooperated.

She--she moved up the radar
very quickly.

You know, all these things,
you know, from,

you know, admitting to writing
the anonymous letter

to, you know,
the statement about,

poison is a lady's weapon.

You can't help
but be like, this--

the person that is sitting
across from me

is the murderer of Mary Yoder.

♪ ♪

KAITLYN: They were asking
just very general questions,

and then they started
asking questions

that made me sit back
and say, whoa.

They think I was involved.

They think I did this.

And I felt like, no, no, no.

If I can only explain
what happened,

then you'll see.

[intense music]

CATHY: Katie came down
one night in December.

She came down to the kitchen
with her friend and said,

"I've just come
from the sheriff's office."

And we were taken aback
at that.

Her friend said
that she was being questioned

about the death of her boss,
Mary Yoder,

who was a friend.

♪ ♪

We just couldn't believe.
Like, why--

why are you being questioned?

What's going on?

- Katie approached us
and said, you know,

"Oh, my goodness, you guys
will never believe it."

You know,
"They think I did this."

And I just remember
being dumbfounded.

Like, how could you get it
so wrong?

♪ ♪

- One of my friends
told my father

that he thought
I should have an attorney

because of the police presence.

And my father said, "No,

"because she didn't
do anything wrong.

"And if she didn't
do anything wrong,

she wouldn't need an attorney."

CATHY: And then they asked
if Kaitlyn would go down

to the sheriff's office
to sign a deposition.

And Katie said, you know,

"Mom and Dad,
would you go with me?"

I said, yes, of course.

MARK: The hope is,
every interrogation

or every interview,
is to obtain--obtain the truth,

and that's what we hope for.

- We picked up Katie
here at the house,

brought her up
to the Sheriff's Office,

and they said,
"It will probably be an hour."

- I felt that
I need to go in there,

and I'm gonna start
pushing things more.

♪ ♪

[door opens]

CATHY: So Katie was brought
into a back room,

and Vin and I were kept
in a small little room waiting.

Well, after an hour,
she wasn't coming out.

KAITLYN:
I got this feeling,

the police were
playing a game with me,

and that they knew the rules
and I didn't.

I really didn't know
what was going on.

And I didn't like
where they started to go.

- I realized that
she was being interrogated.

That's when I said,
wow, this is--this is serious.

CATHY:
They're doing more than just

having her sign a deposition.

♪ ♪

VIN:
I beat on the door.

CATHY:
Yeah.

- I beat on the door,
like, after six hours.

They knew I was there
to bring my daughter home

or to get an attorney for her,

and they were
still questioning.

- They wouldn't
let her come out.

They said, "Well,
she didn't ask for a lawyer,

so, you know, she's not
going to have a lawyer."

- You know, Katie never asked
for an attorney,

never asked for a lawyer.

You know, she--
she never invoked

her right to--right to counsel.

- Katie was put in a room
with two middle-aged white men

who are bullying her.

♪ ♪

This was never even
in the realm

of what we would anticipate
would happen

to any of our daughters.

KATIE:
[sobbing]

MARK: She was trying
to work herself up

to a fake emotion
and that kind of thing.

I think Nelson saw it
clearer than I did.

He just kind of slides
the garbage can over

and is like, whatever.

KATIE:
[gagging and coughing]

KATIE:
[hyperventilating]

- When they finally
let me leave,

and I had to walk
into the waiting room,

and my parents were there,
and they said,

"The police told us that you--
you killed somebody."

And I looked at them...
[choking up]

And they said,
"We know you didn't,

but why would they say that?"

And I said, I don't know.

I don't know.

- The fact that
Mary's sisters support me,

and that they know Bill
and they know Adam,

they know I didn't do this,
and that they support me,

that means something.

That means a lot to me.

I was absolutely blown away.

I just could not believe

that this young,
23-year-old girl

could have anything
to do with this.

I mean, she just seemed
like this sweet, quiet,

meek little thing.
[laughs]

And I couldn't imagine

how they could
be looking at her.

♪ ♪

SARAH: Oneida County sheriffs
had railroaded

their investigation
and locked eyes on who,

in their mind,
it had to have been.

And they created a narrative
in which Katie fit their story.

MARK:
Katie is very calculating.

You could just tell that in--
in speaking with her.

What she tells you,
when she tells you,

how she's gonna tell you.

And it doesn't come
as any surprise that

when you look into her phone,
her phone is the same.

KATIE:
Okay, can I--

- Yeah, if I knew anybody
that could go in

and find the information
that was in these computers,

these phones, Tony would be
the person for that.

- I'm the guy who tears apart
someone's entire digital life

and learns way more about them

than they thought
anyone would ever know.

- Kaitlyn Conley's cell phone
is a treasure trove

of interesting artifacts
for this case.

♪ ♪

To me, I immediately knew,

Kaitlyn Conley is
a very different person

internally than the persona

that people were seeing
externally.

[laughing]

[clears throat] Sorry.

Um, no,
I did not kill Mary Yoder.

♪ ♪