Double Cross | Princess LaCaze and the Natchitoches Cowboy Murder

0:06 Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime podcast where I tell stories of real crimes with real victims, whose cases are so shocking that many are left wondering how is this even real? I use my experiences in law enforcement corrections, and combined with my years as a criminal justice educator, dig deep into complex cases of evil acts, some so evil many feel they are unspeakable. Warning.

0:51 Unspeakable as intended for mature audiences. If you are easily offended, then I'm not your girl. Listening discretion is advised. Hey y'all, kJ you're back for another episode of Unspeakable. How is it going? How was your Thanksgiving? Let me ask you that because I have a story I have to tell y'all, and I know it's past Thanksgiving, but this is crazy. If you were watching on Patreon on Patreon right now, if you're watching this video, then I got to show you my hand real quick. If you're not a patron member, you won't be able to see it. But if you are, you need to go look at the video because I got to show y'all something. Hang on, let me lean into this camera so you can see my hand. You get the lighting right? If you can tell i'm'n have to take a picture. Okay, there it is right there. See that big old scratch and all these wounds in my hand. Y'all, are you listening to me, because this is very, very important. You need to write this down. Do not mess with a man's nuts. Okay, you don't mess with a man's nuts. And I'm not talking about my husband.

1:47 I'm talking about my beloved pet squirrel, Joseph Burrow. I stuck my hand in his cage like I do every day of my life, to give him some lovings and some nuts. And apparently I put my hand right next to where he had hidden some of his nuts, and that boy attacked me. He attacked me with a wrath of three thousand rhinos, and he almost killed me right there in the middle of Thanksgiving. I was fighting for my life. It was horrible, and so I had to eat my Thanksgiving dinner with my hand all wrapped up and bloodied. So I was like, oh my god, this is terrible. I can't believe he turned on me like that. What a butthole. So I went inside and I was like, I'm just gonna relax. And so it was chilly, so I was going to light a fire right, and so I couldn't get it lit. It wouldn't work. So I called my brother in law because nobody else was home with that time, and I was like, hey, can you come help me light this fire? And because I had turned the gas on and tried to light it, turned it off, turn it on, and it wouldn't work, and so he said, sure, no problem that. I'm so sorry he had Stephen mad apologies, bro, But he went down and I turned that gas on and apparently I hadn't like cleared it out good enough, and y'all, lit, he lit that lighter and boom, blew up at his face. He blew backwards like something out of the movies. I lit his eyebrows on fire and his beard and tore him up from the floor up and he's okay, y'all, he's all right. But between my squirrel and my fire, I almost look. Thanksgiving was a beast this year. So I hope you had a good one. But I just had to share that with you, because dad gummet it got serious in that house. Now, before I start this episode, which is a Louisiana episode, by the way,

3:19 you spoke and I listened, and a lot of my my peeps are from Louisiana and wanted a Louisiana episode. I got you. Okay, before I start that, though, I have some shout outs I want to give, and I'm going to start with Miss Shanil Acord and girl, I'm pretty sure that you are the Shanil that I met before I was even podcasting. It's when I first met Woody Overton and we became friends and I asked him to come to a live at my school and he did, and I think I stood in line with you and we hit it off, and you were just a joy to be around. So hey, girl, I remember you and thank you so much. Look look hout far we've come in a whole year. Look at this. You're supporting my show now and it just means the world to me. I've also got Miss Neelie Arnold from Bastrip, Texas, and I love getting Texas fans because it reminds me or it makes me feel like, you know, my sister's from Texas, so I'm like, ooh, they might know my sister. Like it's not the biggest state, you know, in the world, so which it's it's not, but it's pretty damn big, Okay, but I feel like everybody knows each other in Texas. And then I've got Mariah Taylor all the way from Birmingham, Alabama.

4:15 I've also got Miss Neelie Arnold from Bastrip, Texas. And I love when I get Texas fans because that's where my sister's from. And I feel like y'all all know each other, even though you know, it's not like a huge state or anything, all right. And then Mariah Taylor from Birmingham, Alabama. Hey, Mariah. I taught a girl named Mariah one time, but she spelled it different, and I don't know when I see it. You're the way you spell it. You spell it normal, So tell your mama thank you. It made it easy for me to read. And then, last but not least, I've got Danielle Hallowell from Edenton, North Carolina. Hey, girl, how are you? What's it like in North Carolina during during the winter. I'm curious. I've never actually been there, I don't think. Thank y'all all so much for your support. You know, it's become ever so apparent to me since I became a podcaster that you know, people get to pick and choose where they spend their money, and when you choose to support me as a content creator, that means a whole lot to me. You know, it's a different than going in supporting these huge businesses that you know, big box stores. This is really something that means so much to me, and my content comes from my heart. I work really hard on these episodes. So your support, I want you to know it. It's so means so very much to me and I want to thank you so much. So let's jump into this episode. It's going to take place in Nakadish, Louisiana, and this is going to start out in nineteen ninety seven. Now, Nakadish in relation to me, it's about one hundred and eighty miles from where I am. It's about a three hour drive, and it's kind of interesting, just a little history lesson real quick.

5:45 Nakadash is more than three hundred years old and is actually the oldest settlement in northwest Louisiana. And fun fact for people who also aren't from here Louisiana, a lot of people know New Orleans, right, it's even older than New Orleans, which is crazy, right because everyone thinks New Orleans that's the first one that comes to mind. And by the way, on that note, y'all, it's New Orleans. Everybody say that with me New Orleans. Please don't say New Orleans. You are gonna get robbed if you come here and you say New Orleans, because we know you're not from here New Orleans, now you know? All right? On that note, if you've never seen how nakodish is spelled, try it real quick. Try it in your head to spell nacodish, Pause it and try to spell it. And then I'm a spell it for you. If you've never seen it, all right, you ready? Nakadish n at c h I t o c h e s.

6:34 It's one of those words like our in New Orleans you have choppatulis right, and nobody knows how to spell anything down here. But now you know so anyway, Natchez is also one of the places in our state that is rich in culture and history and shopping too, by the way, and I like to do me some shopping. But it's famous for like Creole plantations. They have museums, lots of music. I almost feel like when I'm talking about it, I can hear the accordion, you know, going and playing. But lots of festivals too, y'all know, y'all know we like the festival down here. We will find a reason too. Festival, it doesn't matter. We would do crawfish festival, frog festival, buttole festival, we don't care. We will have a party if if we can. And the Christmas Festival of Lights is the biggest and the oldest festival that they do.

7:24 Matter of fact, it goes on for six weeks. We like the party down here, all right. But it's also a lot like a lot of other areas, a lot of country places where people get up before daylight they're off to work, and lots of cattle and horses in the areas. As matter of fact, it's home to one of the largest cattle operations in the area, and it's run by the Smith the Smith family, Rayburn Smith family, and it's it's a pretty big operation. And something I really like about the people who work in cattle is it always seems like they're rough and tough guys, but like deep down in their hearts you can tell it's almost like you know, Yellowstone, if you're y'all watching that or have watched it, the cowboys may be rough and tough and roll, you know er, But they love the animals and they put a whole lot of effort into making sure that those animals are well taken care of. And they sometimes treat the animals better than they treat people. Right. One rough cowboy who worked for the Smith Cattle Company was a man by the name of Mike Lecaz and he was born in nineteen fifty five. He grew up with three siblings, and he was a cowboy y'all from day one. He grew up around cattle, and he was known for his natural skill when working with this livestock. He rode bulls and he roped cattle. Dude was described literally as tough as nails, all right, And it was really no surprise to anyone that after he graduated high school he immediately went to work in that field, and so, you

8:54 know, describing him. I read a statement about him that someone said he literally was one of the last real cowboys, if you want to think of him that way. He wasn't just for show. He didn't put on the outfit for show. He dressed to to be rough and tumble and to take care of these cattle. And it didn't matter what he was working with. Whether it was cattle, sheep, horses, didn't even matter the animal. Mike knew what the hell he was doing, and everybody knew it. Right. He was a man's man and he was an animal's cowboy. Now, don't get it twisted, though, Just because he was a rough and tough cowboy doesn't mean that he wasn't into being a committed man either, Okay, because when he made his mind up about a lady, he made his mind up. Matter of fact, he wasn't scared at all. And the proof is in the pudding here, y'all, because he got married in June of nineteen seventy four, like literally, as soon as he graduated from high school, he fell in love with this young girl. Her name was Ronda.

9:50 I have an aunt Ronda, by the way, if she's listening, hey girl. But he fell in love with a girl named Ronda, and she was a few years younger than him. But that did not stop and it didn't bother him at all that she was younger. And Ronda was quoted as saying that the first time she ever laid eyes on him was when she was getting off of a school bus and she turned to one of her little friends and said, ooh, I'm going to marry that boy. And sure enough, if she didn't, y'all, like for real, like something out of the movies, she was still in school, and of course she would have to be, because y'all want to know how old Rondo was when she got married. Fourteen four to the fricking teen Holy cow, right, But she was fourteen years old when they got married. He was a little bit older than her seventeen. And I know that sounds crazy, but people did it right. This is back. It's not twenty twenty three when this was happening.

10:43 So there was no doubt that the two of them were in love. And in nineteen seventy eight, a few years after they got married, they would start having children together. Their first child was Michael Junior, and then their second child was born in nineteen eighty and his name was William Lane. And although they were young, they seemed I was impressed by them. They seemed to have a good head on their shoulders. And Mike was willing to do whatever he had to do to take care of his little family and working as a cattle hand. You know, that's not work for the for the week of heart and it was common, and it still is common that people who work on these farms will get broken bones and injuries and you know, other issues associated with working your body hard. You know, my own husband, I've seen him super glue many many a wound in his day. But y'all, that's what that's what men do, right, and and that's what cowboys do. They cowboy up and they don't let anything get the best of them. And by all accounts, Mike wasn't someone who complained a lot.

11:41 He liked to joke and laugh and he was playful, but he was hard nosed when it came to work. And he literally was not a sissy. And that's why when Mike started experiencing symptoms that he could not get past, and he was like, this just doesn't seem to go along with what I'm doing daily at work, and he started kind of complaining about it, they knew, look, something's really wrong because he doesn't complain. So he decided to go to the doctor and get more answers as to what could possibly be causing these problems for him, and soon thereafter, Mike was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease and he was only nineteen years old when this happened. But now I'm a curious person, so I did a little more research on the disease to kind of see what Mike would have been dealing with. And if you've been listening for a while now, you know that I'm someone who's gonna, you know, look at his symptoms and really apply this to what he was dealing with and what he was going through. It's part of his story.

12:33 So the symptoms I found include like high blood pressure, severe back and side pain, and a really swollen or distended abdomen, amongst other issues. And I mean, hell, my back hurts just doing laundry. Can I get amen? Right? But this man's out there, you know, fighting animals and doing hard work, and on top of that, he's hurting pretty bad, and all jokes aside. You know, it's hard to ignored these symptoms after so long, but he still went to work and he provided for that young wife and those young babies. Now, it wouldn't probably surprise you that I tell you this, but young love doesn't last a lot of the time, and this case is no different. Right when you're young and you marry somebody, it's not necessarily what you're looking for when you're older and in your twenties. So as Mike and Ronda grew older, the stresses of marriage and raising children were really you know, they were realized, and they quickly determined.

13:26 By nineteen ninety, they had been married about sixteen years at that point, it just wasn't going to work out, and they both went their separate ways. I didn't get any feeling that there was any hatred or angst between the two of them. It just was kind of like they grew apart and they were like, I don't think I want to do this anymore, and they kind of mutually separated. They just both really went on with their lives, no big stink, and it was it was just over. And while his marriage may have failed, Mike wasn't one to sit around and wallow in his sorrows. He just pretty much delved deeper into his work. He says, well, plenty of time, and I want to make some money. So he just worked harder on the farm, right And a few years would go by, but he would later be introduced to a thirty year old local woman named and I am dead serious when I tell you this princess a thirty year old woman named princess. Now, look, okay, I know it's not nice to make fun of people. I'm not making fun And if your name is princess, that's that's lovely, okay, But your mama couldn't really come up with something better than princess. Come on, girl, I mean, come on. I mean, I guess not because she named her princess.

14:41 But it, y'all, it made me think about this movie. I'm I'm a shooto straight. Have y'all ever seen the movie Let's Be Cops where they go in and they're pretending to be cops and then they get dispatched out and they go to this fight at a house to break up between these two women, and then a woman says, He's like, what's your name? What's your david? She says precious, and they don't believe her. I literally can't. I can't let this go because that's all I could think about when they said her name was princess. So I want to insert the audio for that movie just because it cracks me up. I watch you try to listen to it, because this is legit how I felt the whole time I was looking up information. Oh God, how dawn, sir, excuse me, that's a map. Oh you guys seem like two classy latest. Where's your name, precious? What is your real name? Precious? Yeah?

15:26 But like when you were Bornwooded, you're not your gang name or your sugar name. Yeah, precious, so precious, great name. Why don't you tell us what's going on here? Mike met Princess whenever he was working for her father in nineteen ninety two. And Princess's father his name was Joe, and he was a well known farmer in town. And he was also known as a hothead and pretty dominating when it came to his family, pretty obvious to everyone who came in contact with him that he wore the pants and the family and he was not to be questioned. And Mike was a cowboy though, and he wasn't really bothered by Joe's personality or lack thereof, so it didn't scare him off. And he and Princess quickly became an item. And you know, back then, when Princess was in her thirties, she was considered a very very pretty lady, and I guess you know, she could be considered a catch as far as looks go. And she was country as a turnip green. Okay, she was raised on a farm by her father.

16:26 She knew how to work hard, and Mike and her basically had a lot in common with that respect. They got along really well, and their relationships seemed to just be as a natural match as any. They just got on perfect together. Now a little bit about Princess. She herself was divorced. She was a single mother of three children, and having Mike around was really a good thing for all of them. Another added bonus was that Princess's kids were around the same age as Mike's kids, and so they could play around each other and it made for great built in playmates, right to combine the families together. So Mike and Princess decided that they were going to make their relationship official, and on June third of nineteen ninety three, they got married. And they settled into this modest home in the country, just outside of town. And it wasn't this huge home or anything. It was just a wood frame house. And Princess may have, you know, a Latti Dai name, but a large home wasn't part of her requirements or anything.

17:22 But she did like to dress nicely. So while Mike would be walking around town with spurs on, his cowboy boots and his blue jeans, Princess was always dressed to a tea. Every hair was in place, and she liked to look immaculate wherever she went. Now, Michael was also blessed in another aspect of his life, and that aspect would be in friendship. Mike's best friend was a manned by the name of Maryland Robinson, and their friendship was was tried and true. And the proof in that was that it had been over a twenty year friendship that they had been best friends, and they basically grew up together and every memory they had each other was in it was in it. I mean, they did everything together. And it's kind of funny to say this, but as much as Mike worked, if you asked him what his hobby was, he probably would have said it's working. I mean, he was so devoted to his job. And he was so lucky too in the fact that his best friend, Marylyn often worked alongside of him.

18:26 So he had a great setup, y'all. He had a beautiful wife, freshly married, he has his best friend working with him, and I guess you could just say. It's a testament to their friendship that even his ex wife, that first wife, Rhonda, agreed that they were tighter than anyone else, even making the comment in an interview one time that Marylyn probably knew Mike better than she did. I mean, this bromance was real, Okay. So everything seemed to be going really well in life until nineteen ninety seven, when only four years of marriage had gone by, when Mike was dealt a serious blow with regard to his health. It turned out that all those years of that grueling physical labor on the farm was starting to really really take its toll on his body. And he found out that not only did he have that kidney disease, but he was now in the throes of experiencing kidney failure. So this was a big deal. I mean, you have to have your kidneys, right, I mean, they're essential to your body.

19:30 So Mike when he found out, you know, he was bombed out, but he took it like a champ. And he was in a really good place mentally after the shok war off, and he was ready to fight and even went to the extent that he scheduled to have a shunt put into his kidneys for the purpose of assisting with kidney dialysis, because he said, look, I'm gonna go ahead and I'm going to do the dialysis. This would add years to my life. And the Princess says, of course, baby, that's what we have to do. We'll be able to, you know, live a longer life together. We'll chase our dreams. It's all gonna work out. It's gonna be fine. But just two days before that life saving treatment was supposed to start, that's when the tragedy would strike Mike and Princess's household. Because just after seven PM, a call came in to the Sheriff's office nine one one, and on the other end of that line was Mike's wife. It was Princess, and she was terrified. She had just come home and when she opened the door and walked in, she found her husband laying on the floor. He was unresponsive, and from the doorway she could see him laying in a pool of blood. The blood was all around him, and she screamed out to him, Mike, but he didn't respond, and the amount of blood just it it was too much for her.

20:56 She became extremely emotional. She wasn't sure if he was dead or alive, and she just begged on the phone, please get here quickly. Oh my god, he's not answering me right. So sheriff's deputies were immediately dispatched to their home, and that's where they found forty one year old Mike laying on the floor by the bar in the kitchen. He was on his back, but he was face up and his hands were extended above his head where he lay. He didn't have a shirt on, and he didn't have shoes on, and blood was pooling around him where he lay. Other than the noise of the TV playing in the background, the house was extremely quiet and extremely still, and as a police approached his body, became really clear that they were way too late to help him. Mike was dead, y'all, but this was a fresh kill. He hadn't been dead long. So detectives searched the home and they found in the doorway leading into the kitchen that there was a thirty caliber thirty caliber shell casing. So for Mike's position and the placement of the casing, it seemed that he had been shot through the left shoulder and then into the left side of his chest cavity and This means someone else had to be responsible for the death, because it would have been nearly impossible for someone to shoot themselves in that placement with that weapon. Plus it was

22:32 quickly noted that there was no weapon there, so it couldn't be a suicide. I mean, dead people don't remove weapons. So Mike's death was shocking to say the least. I mean, how could someone so tough be killed so easily? And no one even could name an enemy that Mike had, Like, no one could even think of someone that would have even a grudge against him. So police started thinking an investigators said, well, maybe this is a robbery gone bad. And what brought them to this conclusion was the fact that the home was in disarray, so there was lots of papers thrown around. They saw drawers pulled out and they were emptied on the floor, so pretty much a telltale sign of someone's been going through his stuff. Now, looking at the totality of the circumstances, police were thinking about the fact that there also had been some break ins and some burglaries in the area recently, so it's not too far fetch to think, Okay, well, maybe we need to take a step back and really look at this and see what we can assess from this crime scene visually. And something to point out is that it's not just what you see in a crime scene that matters. Right, So, even as my listeners, right, when y'all look at crime scene photos, it's not just what's in the photo that matters. I mean, it's how you see it. Most of us look at a crime scene photo and we try to figure out, okay, well, how could that item have gotten where it is based on human interactions with the person or the

24:07 item. I mean that investigators will tell you that crime scenes have a way of like talking to you. You know, you're walking through the motions to figure out how did A become B become C. And the thing was that this crime scene wasn't really saying much to them in reality, looking at the crime scene, it just seemed really basic. It wasn't very complex. It was just like Mike's dead on the floor, Drawers are pulled out, papers are everywhere. But it didn't really it didn't really tell a story of what had occurred. So investigators started to work the inner circle, which to some may actually even seem offensive, especially when you love someone and you know in all actuality. It's it's really normal. It's necessary because the inner circle we all know this is usually the closest to the victim, and only someone close to a victim would usually want to hurt them, unless it's just completely at random, which is not a strong statistic if you look at that in terms of crime. So the police decided to escort Mike's wife, Princess, back to the police station to ask her some more questions and hopefully they would be able to get a little more insight as to what Mike's day would normally be like. And they also wanted to clarify what were Princesses whereabouts that day.

25:23 They wanted to rule her out, as you know, possibly being involved in the murder. So Princess explained the actions of her day. She told investigators that she had to work from eleven to five, so she left the house that morning, and she hadn't even spoken to Mike since she said goodbye to him that morning when she left her work. After she finished work, she went to one of Mike's trailers, and she said she picked up some shoes and some sheets and then she headed home. But she was also able to provide receipts from Walmart, proving that she was actually there as well. And from what I understand, she actually worked at Walmart. Okay, So the receipts were timed around six thirty pm, and that was before she went to the house and discovered Mike's body and then promptly called nine to one one.

26:11 So Princess described seeing Mike sprawl on the floor and he was in that pool of blood, and that's when she says, yeah, I panicked. He wasn't answering me, so I ran back outside. But she never entered the home to like personally check him. And you know, I'm personal opinion here, but I did find that odd of a reaction for the man that you love to be laying there and you just look from the doorway and then run. But you know, I know that everyone's reaction to violence is different, And you know, I'd like to think that if I saw the man I love laying on the ground at a pool of blood, I would rush straight up to him and at least attempts CPR or to stop the bleeding or something.

26:56 But she didn't do that. But I've learned this, y'all that you can't always assume someone's behavior is indicative of foul play. Totality of your life experiences will change the way that you react to things. If you've never seen violence, it might make you panic. If you're used to violence, it may not make you panic. But she literally had no knowledge of how this murder could have happened, nor did she have any clue of anyone who would have wanted to do it. So when the questioning was complete, she was released by police to go and grieve properly with her family. So police continue digging into Mike's life, but they came up with nothing that could possibly explain how he ended up murdered in the kitchen. By all accounts, you know, everyone gave the same story. Mike was just a hard working guy.

27:47 He didn't have any aspect of his life that would really open him up to this type of violence. So the thing is this, Okay, every murder has the same causes. Don't care. You can go through every murder you've ever listened to or watched or been a part of, but they all have the exact same causes. And it's gonna be one of three things, y'all. It's gonna be money, It's gonna be revenge, or it's gonna be sex when it is all said and done. That's all there is. The only motives people find to kill people. It's literally that simple. All you have to do is go down the list and try to figure out which one. And that's exactly what police did. They kept digging into every aspect of Mike's life. So they start with money. They checked into all of his finances, and they did a bunch of poking and prodden, and they found everything was sound. He didn't known any money to anyone. There was no bunch of debt that he had to someone. No one owed him a bunch of money. They quickly ruled out money. It was just not an issue and it wouldn't have been a reason to kill Mike. Also important to mention here was that when Princess went and walked through the home with investigators to help them determine what all was taken from the home, she couldn't identify anything that was missing except some photos that were normally there. And that that's just odd, right, I Mean, if all of the drawers were dumped and papers

29:19 were strown everywhere, wouldn't you think that they were searching for something of some type of value, because if not, then what's the point of destroying the home. Why would someone break into a home and take photos. It seems like they would want TVs or phones, or jewelry or something that's got value other than sentimental value. But she couldn't point anything out. Nope, it's all here, so kind of weird. But money was not the cause of this death. So then they moved on to revenge. So police interviewed a whole lot of people, but they couldn't find anyone who Mike had a grudge against or vice versa. Mike. He was a good old boy. He worked, he ate, and he slept. There were no hidden there's no hidden life no one knew about. There was no illegal activities, there were no red flags, nothing. But this is curious, right, I mean, the order of the world says that this just can't be. It can't be that there's nothing wrong and someone ends up murdered. There is a rhyme and a reason to everything. Police just had to figure it out. They had to put the puzzle pieces together. The problem was they were lacking some pieces, a lot of pieces actually, So police even wondered, Okay, what if this somehow was a suicide. I mean, weirder things have happened, okay, I mean, what if he did kill himself and then Princess came home and wanted to spare him the embarrassment of, you know, being

30:52 someone who took their own life. So he you know, the weapon was there, but she came in and took the weapon and hid it. But that didn't They couldn't find anything that would point to that. You know, they could not make sense of anything because even in Princess's own questioning, she mentioned that he had this big hope for his upcoming dialysis for his kidney condition, and he was going to do everything he could to fight this illness. He wanted to live. He didn't have any desire to die none. Mike genuinely wanted to improve his quality of life, and he had made extensive treatment plans to achieve this goal. I mean, Helly was just two days out from starting his treatment. So Mike's son, Mike Junior I guess we'd call him, was sixteen years old when his dad was killed. And as you can imagine, this was pretty rough on his boys. He adored his kids, he loved them. He worked hard to provide for them, and he never would have just up and left them either. It just didn't seem to fit that suicide was an answer. His kids actually found out after a hunting trip that they were on, and they said that their mom wouldn't tell them what happened until they returned, and when they got back, they were devastated, as you can imagine, but they were also like stunned that this could happen to their dad. It wasn't something that you would expect in his life.

32:15 But really nothing was comeing to light, and the only motive left and that age old list of reasons to kill was sex. But Princess and Mike were happily married. I mean they were looking forward to Mike's quality of life, you know, improving so that they could grow old together and achieve all of the goals that they had set. So detectives decided to go back to the original crime scene and work the theory that Mike had possibly been the victim of a robbery that went wrong, and lending a little more steam to this idea, was the obvious motive given the disheveled nature of the house and the fact that it appeared to be rummaged through, and so their idea was like, okay, well, maybe there was a transient person that wasn't even from the area that randomly selected the house. They were looking for money or things, you know, to steal and sell. And so officers decided, maybe we should go over to the neighbor's house. Let's see if we can drum up some new leads by people that live, you know, near Mike.

33:13 And wouldn't you know it, like a good neighbor state farm was there, Well not really, it wasn't state farm, but there was a good neighbor, right, And this neighbor remembered something that they thought might should be shared. She remembered seeing a black suburban suv driving down the road and suspiciously. She said, it was seen multiple times in the area in the weeks surrounding the murder as well, and it just really seemed out of place. And come to think of it, the neighbor says, yeah, I saw the suv on the day of Mike's murder too. She saw it coming out of the driveway and then she saw it turn and go down the road. Now, you know, as luck would have it, she didn't get the license plate or anything, but she did get a good look at the driver.

34:01 Nice right, my girl will spill the beans. Let us know what's he looked like. So this got detectives, you know, hanging on her every word. And so they asked her to describe the driver of the suv and this was the description that she gave. She said it was a male, he was lighter completed, and he had dark hair. So that sounds like a really generic statement, right, But once they were able to get this neighbor to come in, they were actually able to get a composite drawing of what they believed the driver would look like. And once they got that composite sketch, they took the approach of handing out that sketch, along with the description of the vehicle, to multiple other law enforcement agencies to see was there any other agency that Mike could help them identify the vehicle and or the driver.

34:45 Now, during that time, there were also some people that came forward and believed they might have an idea of someone who might have wanted to kill Mike. And honestly, this was a bit of a stretch. But when you have no leads other than a black vehicle and a generic you know, drawing of someone you think might have been involved. Police were willing to just check out anything that came their way. Mike's father in law, Joe, was described, as I told you before, as not the friendliest guy in town and was a hothead. So some people said, look, I think Joe may be involved here, and if he himself didn't, you know, kill Mike, it could be that he hired someone to kill Mike so that Princess could get out of their relationship. Now there's no mention as to why she would want to be out of the relationship. They were happily married.

35:34 But investigators still went to speak to to Mike's father in law, Joe and to see what he had to say, and from the jump, Joe was adamant that he had nothing to do with Mike's death, and investigators were curious, you know, what type of weapons do you have, Joe, And in just conversation it kind of came around to the fact that Joe did own a lot of weapons, including, you know, a high power rifle that they believed was similar to the one that killed Mike, and Joe willingly says, come see, I'll show you my whole entire gun collection. You can look at my cabinet and interestingly, all of his guns were in place. There was nothing missing, and you would think if you used a gun to kill somebody, or you hired someone and provided a gun to kill somebody, that you wouldn't leave it in the cabinet. Every one of his weapons was accounted for. And another thing that was kind of sticking out like a sore thumb was that, you know, Joe's whereabouts were known during the time that Mike was killed. He was involved in some other activities that he couldn't have possibly been in two places at one time. So basically, investigators found no way to connect Joe to the murder, even though some people in town really felt like he was the guy. So the weeks continued to pass and they had no solid leads, and they were still looking for that black suv, but it wasn't tracked down and nobody saw it, and the case, y'all was going cold really fast, and police kind of started to think to themselves that someone just may have gotten away with murder. But on September twelfth,

37:08 Princess walked into the police station wanting to speak to detectives, so they bring her back and they're like, you know, what's going on? And with her she had a handwritten statement where she believed that Mike may have hired someone to assist him in committing suicide. She said that Mike was wanting to die. He was refusing to go on dialysis and the truth was that he didn't want to be hooked up to a machine and he was going to refuse any surgery for a kidney transplant if it came about now. If you remember on March first, when Princess initially came in and she made her statement to the police, she made no mention of this and was adamant that he was excited to be getting, you know, treatment opportunities and that he was looking forward to feeling better. So why now is she coming forward with the idea that he was suicidal and why hadn't she mentioned this at the very beginning. It's kind of like a complete, you know flip here. Well, could it be that she was trying to protect his image and now that you know, the heat was kind of on and that nothing had been found, maybe she was wanting the truth to come out, or was there more to the story and she was starting to get nervous, so she was trying to come up with an explanation for something that she hasn't even been asked to explain. Remember, Princess wasn't the only person in Mike's life that he was close to.

38:32 He was really close to all of his sons and his brother as well. So investigator said, look, we want to go talk to these people and see if there was any instances that they know of where Mike said he didn't have the will to live. And so when they go to Mike's family, they are emphatic that that was absolute nonsense, and they if Mike was going to say that he didn't want to live, or if he was wanting to end his life, they would know about it. They certainly didn't believe he would have confided that in Princess and then not them. You know, it was completely out of left field, and honestly, it completely took him by surprise. And they were happy detectives had stopped by too, because something else had come up in the last few weeks that they were wanting to talk to detectives about. And what came up, y'all was the rumor Mill. And y'all know, I don't care where you're from. Y'all know how that rumor mill works, you know it. I mean, I've heard rumors about myself before that were I was stunned to find out the things that I had done incredible, right, That rumor mill is always churning. So y'all belly up to the table, because I'm about to spill the tea. According to the rumor mill in town, ever since Mike was killed, his beloved princess has been spending a whole lot of time with his best friend, Marilyn Robinson.

40:01 Did you hear that? If you didn't, it was every woman listening to this show right now going mmm hmmm, because y'all knew that was coming, didn't you. You cannot turn a hoe into a housewife, as Luda would say, can't turn a hoe into a housewife. Hosedn' ac Right, y'all know that song, don't you? If not, google it? But here's the kicker. It's bad enough when your best friend would start courting your wife pretty quickly after you've been murdered, But it's even worse when after your murder there are claims that this isn't a new romance, but rather they've been having an affair for almost two years prior to Mike's death. Well, considering we never got to the last item on the list of obvious reasons to kill, now seems like a really good time to dive on into that whole idea of sex being a cause to kill someone. But y'all, just because a rumor is started doesn't mean that it's true. We all know that. So the police had to go and try to mitigate truth from fiction and facts from lies.

41:12 And look, I really appreciate that too. They didn't jump to conclusions and say, oh, here we go smoking gun. No, they want to investigate it and see if there was any fact, because there's a lot of messy people in this world that run their head about everything and they know nothing right. And I'd also imagine that this was a tad uncomfortable because you know, you're riding a thin line as an investigator of offending a widow and also accusing her of stepping out on her recently deceased husband. So there's got to be a little delicacy, you know, when you're approaching this idea. But the good news is this, the police don't have to directly walk up to her and say Hey, have you been sleeping with you know, Marilyn. The they can do some indirect investigating to see if there's any hanky panky going on. Because I submit to you, ladies and gentlemen, that phone records do not lie. The detectives in this case would agree, because when they subpoenaed the records, it started looking really curious that there was a little bit of unusual activity on the actual day of the murder on Maryland's phone records.

42:21 And this would include a call made from a convenience store which was interestingly on the route from Princess's home to the Walmart in Winfield where she was working. And that call was made from that convenience store to Maryland about eight thirty in the morning on the morning of the murder. Now, I wouldn't consider this a smoking gun or anything, but when you look at it in totality of the circumstances, it's really curious that this took place. You know, is it possible that Princess could have been the one making the call in an effort to hide the fact that she had, you know, her cell phone on her, which would have easily been able to be tracked. So did she stop and make the phone call herself to Marilyn instead of using her cell phone, So something that detectives also would have to prove. That's you know, you always have to look at these cases, you know, down the road, they would have to prove that. Okay, if they're going to believe that that Princess did make the call from the payphone and if they were having an affair, it's great circumstantial evidence. But then you have to think down the line of Okay, now I have to prove to a jury that she actually made the phone call too. So it may be a red flag in the investigation, but it's not proof, it's not fact. It's circumstantial.

43:39 So detectives decided, let's shift from looking into Mike's actions on you know, on the day of his death, and let's look a little closer to what Princess was doing since Mike's death. Maybe that would talk to them a little bit more. And this turned out to be rather interesting because it looked as if she was living her best life in meeting after Mike's ended. Matter of fact, y'all, she was living such a good life that she was living her best life all over the world. She had been to the Bahamas, she had gone to the Caribbean, and she had also gone to Hawaii. And again giving her the benefit of the doubt, people do grieve differently.

44:21 Maybe she needed to get away a bunch. But what was interesting was how was she able to afford these trips because it wasn't like they were filthy rich or anything. And what they found was that she was using Mike's death policy payouts to go on the trips. So they looked into these policies to see, okay, well, how much money are we talking And it turns out she didn't receive one payout or two or three. She actually got four payouts on Mike's death, and each of these policies paid out twenty five thousand dollars. Also rather interesting was the fact that Princess was quick to sell off their property and their home. And while none of this in and of itself is going to prove a murder or anything, it really starts pointing the finger at Princess, you know, being involved in some fashion in her husband's death.

45:21 Not only had she gotten a hefty payload from his insurance, but she also made good money off of selling his property in their home and then she's also entertaining a lover who happens to be her deceased husband's best friend for the past few years. And this is what we in the business would call a clue. So by December of nineteen ninety seven, detectives are convinced they know who is responsible for Mike's death, but proving it's the hard part. So have Princess's actions so far looked really bad? Yes? Does she look like a total hoe bag, yes, But being a bad acting hoe bag doesn't mean you're a murderer. I mean, if that was the case, half of the towns in America would be locked up, right, So detectives kept digging for more information, and what they found was that Maryland and Princess had also taken trips together. They had gone to Houston, and they had gone to New Orleans. But at some point shortly after Mike's death, that relationship began to sour, wouldn't you know the grass is not always green on the other side, And rather quickly had that relationship soured, But Princess had begun another relationship while still trying to break off the relationship with Maryland and the new man in Princess's life was named Simon Sarpy. Now Simon, by all accounts, seems to be a nice guy, and I did some research on him.

46:47 I'm gonna be honest with you. I was really torn as to whether I was gonna put this part in the podcast or not, because y'all, he didn't commit a crime, and I didn't want to put a spotlight on this poor guy. But I find that it's important to the case that I went ahead, and I'm gonna tell it to you. Although Princess was with this new love interest named Simon, Simon was a guy that also had a conscience, all right, And based on some research that I did, Simon also worked for the Department of Probation and Parole. And when I found that out, I hoped that based on his work experience, this would mean that, you know, he was a good man who made good decisions, based on the fact that you know, he's overseeing bad people that have made bad decisions. And it looks like that was an absolute fact, because even though he was seeing Princess and he thought she was beautiful in all, a pretty face and a pretty heart are two very different things. And she had said something to him that just had not sat right, and he couldn't shake it ever since she said it. He Princess didn't outright admit to him that she had murdered Mike or anything, but she told him that she was worried about the police coming after her, and then she mentioned something about a gun being thrown in a local river. And at this point, y'all, Mike had been dead for nearly nine months and no one had been held accountable for his

48:17 death. So Simon's listened to what she's say and going, wait a minute, what why would the police be coming after you? And what the hell are you talking about a gun in a river? And she never really would follow up on what she had said, but it just lingered in Simon's mind. And where there's smoke, there is fire. So Simon does the right thing and he goes to the police. And I watched part of his interrogation, and his body language just gives off that he is just like overwhelmed. He doesn't want to be wrongly accusing a widow of anything. He also is seeing her, but he just, you know, like he's right in his head a lot, you know, and men like rub their head and they take their hat off, and then they rub their head and they put their hat back on when they're trying to like think through stuff. That was kind of the body language you got from this guy, and you know, police really believed that there was something to what he was saying. So they bring Princess back in for more questioning, and once again, she starts answering their questions, but this time she kind of looks like a child caught with her hand in the candy jar because she changes her story. And if there's anything I know and you know it too, it's that the truth never changes.

49:31 People only change their story when they forget to remember what they said, or they're trying to construct lies to fill the gaps for other lies that they may have told. My daddy always has said this to me. He's like, well, baby, the truth is easy because you never have to remember what you said. That's a direct quote my dad always said, and it rings true to this day. So remember that letter that she brought in about Mike wanting to end his life. Well, now she said Mike had asked her to end his life and she just couldn't bear to do it. But while she was just too heartbroken y'all to do it. She wasn't near as heartbroken to ask her lover to do it. Hm. Hm, right, that's right. Mike's best friend, who unbeknownst to Mike was also his wife's lover, was asked about doing the job. Now. It was her position that Marilyn and Mike had talked about it and he was going to put Mike out of his misery. Per Mike, Mike wanted this to happen. Now, even if that was true, which I'm highly doubting, it seems kind of strange to me that Mike would be sitting at the table or on the couch eating a bowl of cereal while he's about to be executed by his best friend willingly and knowingly. It just seems like a really really odd situation. I

51:06 Mean, I've never personally planned my own execution, but it seems to me like I'd rather be laying down on a couch or sitting in a chair rather than putting food in my mouth and watching TV as someone puts a bullet in my head or on my shoulder in his case. You know, I'd also like to that point to say that I would rather a bullet in my head and not in my shoulder if someone was going to kill me for myself, Like, why would you want to suffer and risk not dying? Even though I know it's I know the caliber weapon is gnarly, But Princess claims she calls Maryland to let him know that she would be gone because she heard that Maryland would be taking care of it, so when she got home, she now admits, Look, I wasn't shocked that he was dead, and that's why I didn't go in the house and check on him, because I knew who had done it. But just y'all, human nature alone, the beauty of the world right now is in the world forever, is that we get to think people, We get to assess art, We don't have to listen to what other people tell us and take it as fact. We get to use our brains right and human nature alone would make me want to know more information if I were Princess and if that story were true, which I don't believe, but if it were true, I would want to know more.

52:25 Did he suffer? Oh, my god, was he scared? Did he have any final words for me? His beloved wife? My love? Right? Who wants to end his life? And like doctor fucking Kevorkian over here, you're gonna execute your best friend. I just I don't know, man, I would want to know more. But the innocent Princess claims that she just didn't ask any questions. What was done was done. It was Mike's will, and there you go, it's done. My hands are clean. Yeah, whatever, that dog, don't hunt y'all. You know. So, investigators felt at this point they had to do what they needed and enough was enough. So at that point, both Maryland and Princess were arrested for Mike's death, which is a shocking blow to his family. This is a direct quote from one of his sons, William. It was in my mind that Princess got something to do with it, but I never would have thought about Maryland. There is no way a best friend would do that to me.

53:22 I remember saying, they ain't no way, There's no way Maryland done that. It was like, what in the world she twisted his mind? And that's the truth about it. Isn't that weird too that the son knows that Maryland murdered his dad and he still is like leapfrogging over that and saying, Princess must have warped his mind. What that tells me is that the son knew Maryland well enough to know that Maryland was a good guy. This went bad. Sex will do something to a man and a woman, but all take the murder out of it. I feel like the sons felt like Marilyn was a good guy. But what in the world, how could this have happened? And they still pointed the finger at Princess Hell. Even Mike's ex wife she said quote, I was very shocked when all of it came out. Marilynd and Mike they were just best friends. They always got along together. So even the ex wife was shocked by Marylyn having done this.

54:34 So while the couple may have both been arrested, arrested and convicted, they're not the same thing, right. So while the case surely seemed to have a lot of power going behind it, it wasn't exactly sign seal delivered right. There was more to be done. The two were no longer seeing each other at this point, and so investigators felt like, hmm, this might be a little bit of a benefit to us, because all we need to do now is sit back and wait. Investigators felt like eventually there would be a fallout between the two of them. Knowing what they believe had happened here, all they had to do was wait, and wouldn't you know? On May fourteenth, nineteen ninety eight, there was a new chain of events that would add interest to this case because Princess would call nine one one in hysterics and say that her daddy was holding someone at gunpoint and she was afraid he was about to kill that person. So police show up, lights and sirens, and wouldn't you know that when officers arrived, they found none other than Marilyn Robinson on the bullet end of Princess's daddy's gun, and he was being accused of trespassing on their property. Now, I'm shocked that he survived this.

55:51 I'm shocked that the dad didn't shoot him. I really am. Like I was like, I can't believe he survived or not. You know that he lived. I cannot believe they didn't shot Hi. So he was immediately arrested by police, and they held him because they wanted to question him further at this point. So when they asked him, what were you doing there? He said, I wasn't breaking in and I wasn't trespassing. Princess called me over there, she invited me over. I drove over there because she asked me to. The thing is, when I showed up, that's when Joe came out and put a gun in my face. And then she called nine to one one, and both police and Marylyn at that exact moment kind of had an aha moment. They both realized Princess was setting him up.

56:36 She was moving her chest pieces, she was playing the game. She was very calculated in what was going on. It's stunning that Joe didn't shoot him because the only person that could dispute what Princess was now claiming to be the truth was the very guy that her dad had a gunpoint, but he didn't shoot him. And on a side note, I do want to say this, I don't think Princess's daddy had any knowledge of the truth. He was simply being used by Princess. Like everyone else in Princess's life, he was a means to an end. Just turns out daddy never pulled the trigger. So once the reality set in that Princess was using Marylyn as a scapegoat, Marylyn decided it was time to come clean and Marilyn gave the statement that he didn't kill Mike because Mike asked him to, but rather he killed Mike because Princess planned his murder. She basically asked Marilyn to kill Mike because she wasn't happy about Mike's upcoming dialysis, because she had been wanting out of the marriage, and if he got the treatment, he would live longer and it would cost her money. Of all of the backstabbing, evil shit that I have ever heard, this one right here hurts my soul. A woman would vow

58:07 to marry a man in honor and cherish him through good times and bad, through sickness and health, until death do they part. And not only did she not take care of him during his bad times, not only did she not aid him during sickness and in health, but she took his best friend, seduced him, got into a sexual relationship with him, and then used that against the very man that she married. And all of this none the wiser to him. He was literally sleeping with the enemy, and if he had improved, she would have to take care of him, and she didn't want to do it. Princess told Marilyn if he agreed to kill Mike, that they would be together forever, they would live happily ever after. And Mike was so blinded and so in love and captivated by Princess that he actually considered killing his best friend, but Princess would continue to have to encourage him to do it until he finally got the nerve to do so. And don't get it twisted. I'm not saying Marilyn is a victim, but I hope that you can see that there is gray area here in so far as this man was manipulated and used, he also is a murderer. But Marilyn finally caved, and he said that on the morning of March first, nineteen ninety

59:38 seven, Princess called him from that payphone to let him know that she was out of the house and to confirm the plan should go forward. She was adamant to him that I do not want to come home and walk in that house until he is dead, and Marilyn confirmed to her that Mike would be taken care of later that afternoon. So how did it all go down? Marilyn asked his teenage son Rodney, to give him a ride to Mike's house, and this request wasn't out of the ordinary because they were best friend y'all, and it was common for them to visit, so Rodney drove him up. Marilyn walked in through the sliding glass door on the home, and Mike was sitting there watching television. And that's when Marilyn raised the rifle. He pulled the trigger, and he shot his best friend, a man who trusted him and loved him, through the shoulder and into the chest, where he flew backwards and slammed to the ground his hands above his head from the massive impact of the shot, where he died on the spot with no chance of survival. Marilyn then left the scene and dumped the gun in a nearby river.

1:00:57 Marilyn said, listen, I'm gonna lead you all to the gun. I want to show you where I dumped it. I'll do anything. I'll give you whatever you want, and after a brief search of the river, the murder weapon was recovered just as Marilyn said it would be. I want to tell you real quick, if you're not if you're not familiar with you know, with the weapons and caliber of bullets and all of that, I want you to know that the bullet that Mike was hit with. Is the same type of bullet they used to shoot bear with Like it's a snub. No, it's a flat nosed bullet, not a pointed one that will you know, separate the skin and go into the body. This one causes massive damage and it's like a boom. I mean, you're you're knocking out a bear with it. That's why that man was laying flat on his back, That's why his arms were above his head. It literally blew him away.

1:01:55 And with all of the evidence together, both Marylyn and Prince would face trial for the murder of Mike lcaz. Now. Prior to the trial, Marilyn Robinson pled guilty to manslaughter and he was sentenced to the maximum imprisonment for manslaughter, which was forty years. And he also agreed to testify against Princess and trial as the star witness. And something to note here, And I know this is going to be weird because he murdered Mike, Okay, but we do have to I think we don't have to, but I want to address this because it was noted by multiple people that Marilyn Robinson was extremely emotional on the stand. He openly sobbed on the stand, and it was just strikingly remorseful how he testified on the stand, and it didn't seem to be crying for himself. It seemed to be crying for what have I done? What did I do to Mike? It seemed so incredibly genuine. And I know he killed him, it's his fault, but if he is remorseful, I hope so he should be. And I think that maybe that lends itself to what Mike's sons claimed earlier on when they were like, I just can't believe Marilyn would do that. I don't think Marilyn could believe Maryland did that, and all over a woman, a piece of shit woman at that. Now,

1:03:28 Princess would also take the stand, but her strategy would be to stick by the story that Mike wanted to end his own life. And when it was all said and done, the jury didn't buy Princess's story. She was convicted of the murder of her husband, and she was sentenced to automatic natural life. Bye bitch, And I wish the story ended there, but it doesn't. On September of twenty eleven, before a US Court of Appeals, Princess trial attorneys or attorneys would make the argument that they were not made aware of the deal prosecutors made with Maryland prior to his guilty plea. That deal was that if he testified against Princess. The deal says that Rodney, his son, who drove him to the murder scene, would never be brought up and Rodney would never have to testify in the trial. To me, that sounds like a good deal because Rodney didn't really Rodney didn't have any concept of the murder, of what was going on. He just was the ride.

1:04:35 I know we could have prosecuted him for it, but I think intent matters here, and I don't think Rodney had any intent. And while this in and of itself seems rather insignificant in the big scheme of things, the courts would rule get this. The courts would rule that the defense should have had that information before they went to trial, and as such, Princess's conviction was overturned. She was in jail until twenty eleven, when she was released on appeal, which would result in another trial that didn't take place until twenty seventeen.

1:05:15 This go round, Princess would we would take a different strategy, though, and she decided instead of going to a trial, she would cop out and plead to a plea deal. Now, the family desperately wanted Princess to have to take direct responsibility for what happened to their father. So basically Princess was going to have to stand up in front of the judge and everybody in court and say the words I did it. The deal she received was that she would plead guilty to manslaughter and be given credit for the thirteen and a half years of time served, as well as a credit for her time that she served in the parish jail. And this meant that she would have only one year left to serve under the new agreement. It's sick. It's unconscionable that, because of a stupid reason, this woman would get a second opportunity.

1:06:19 And when it was all done, while the family got to hear of her admission of responsibility from Mike's death, the reality was Princess was out of jail in no time. Even Mike's ex wife was hurt by the final outcome. Her exact statement was, Princess should be in jail. If anybody should walk, it should be Marilyn. Princess plotted this out to a tee and as I speak to you right now recording this episode, Princess is out living her best life again, while Mike is buried six feet underground. Marilyn Robinson is serving his forty year sentence at a voil's correction center, and he's going to be eligible for parole when he turns seventy two years old. And Princess is out walking the streets, the mastermind behind all of it. I know her parents thought that they were making a statement by naming their daughter Princess, and I mean, well, she did get a lot of attention, but for all the wrong reasons. You may have a fancy name, Princess, but to me, you're about as important as a white crayon.