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00:05a deadly fall in rural pennsylvania
00:16a small town left shell-shocked by the death of a loving wife and mother carol's death rocked the
00:24community it was just so unexpected and so surprising i think both of us felt sick in
00:29our stomachs and emotional like just a shock was it simply a tragic accident perhaps carol
00:39had somehow fallen in the bedroom and bled gone outside for fresh air and stumbled down
00:45the stairs and died or was it murder were you at the house on the day of carol's death yeah
00:52no okay okay they knew at that point that they had a bigger case on their hands
01:19carol hickok was born carol miller on june 30th 1945. she was the second oldest of 10 children
01:28carol to help her family took a job delivering newspapers and that's where she met roger
01:33hickok and carol and roger hickok married on may 9th 1964. the couple went on to have three children
01:43and raised them in rural pennsylvania. my name is betty thorin and i was first met carol in 1968
01:53at church we were new when we moved here to canton pennsylvania and she was one of the first
02:01gals that i met canton is a very small rural town i believe the population when we came was about
02:103 000 and you had 30 miles plus to go either way north or south to a larger city to
02:17shop
02:17and people often know what's going on in your business before you know it it's a very tight-knit
02:23community everybody knows everybody and you know there's small mom and pop kind of businesses there
02:29and then you go to the outer lands it's very rural and it's very bucolic you know it's dotted with
02:34beautiful red barns and at one time it was a large dairy community there were a lot of farms here
02:40roger roger had a farm and roger became a very successful veal farmer carol also had
02:49her own little veal business and she did very well with that she was respected she was a businesswoman
02:55she ran the business for them she did a very good job and was a good mom to her three
03:03children
03:06life seemed pretty good for roger and carol but in 1996 their relationship changed forever
03:15by all accounts you know roger and carol were living a good life she was a good wife she was
03:21a devoted mother well revered in the community and for one reason or another roger met emily
03:28and they began a 15-year affair after emily bellows schaefer and roger started a relationship
03:37he made no secret of their affair roger would spend time with emily and he would go home with carol
03:45and she would make these wonderful meals and pies and and welcome him home and then he would be with
03:52emily the other times and there was a cabin above their home that emily did stay in from time to
04:00time
04:01carol did know that emily was there she told me not everyone could do that or would do that
04:07she did that and she chose to do because she thought it was right regardless of what anyone said
04:13a mutual friend told my husband that he knew that roger had a little boy a child with emily it
04:22was
04:22very difficult to believe but my husband assured me that it was so and that they had a little boy
04:28the existence of roger and emily's son charlie would eventually be learned by bradford county district
04:35attorney daniel barrett after the son was born at one point roger had started a divorce from carol
04:42but emily i guess abandoned roger at that point and then roger and carol reconciled
04:48she said people want to know why i'm still here basically with roger she said i don't feel that the
04:56lord wants me to divorce roger i know i'm to stay here and that's what i'm going to do
05:04and then when emily wasn't taking very good care of her child roger got involved in seeking custody
05:11the child because the child needed care carol was a religious woman she enjoyed children
05:18and she willingly accepted charlie into her home and they built their life around the child
05:28carol roger and charlie were living together as a family
05:32when in the early hours of september 15th 2010 everything changed an occasional insomniac roger
05:42was having trouble sleeping on the morning of the 15th roger hickok woke up and as he commonly did
05:49he headed to a nearby coffee shop to get coffee and talk with his friends
05:55after arriving at the cafe in canton roger sat and drank coffee for several hours
06:01after a while uh he it was getting near school bus time so he called home to make sure that
06:08his son was on the school bus his wife didn't answer uh the his son answered the phone and his
06:16son said
06:17that he didn't know where mimi was because mimi is what he called his stepmother a few minutes later
06:22charlie calls his father and says mom is outside at the bottom of the steps
06:29she's unresponsive she's not moving i need you here roger then
06:36was stunned and called for 911 help because he knew something horrible had to have happened
06:43well i just called home and my voice said my wife saw me on the ship i was probably taking
06:48the clothes
06:48down to lay it out there in the yard can i get your name sir roger hickok did he say
06:54whether she's
06:55conscious he didn't say whether she's breathing or anything right no i'm almost there i got about a half a
07:03mile
07:03all right sir we're going to get the ambulance started out
07:08roger raced home to find carol at the bottom of some steps unresponsive and covered in blood
07:15from what looked like a severe head wound after a tragic fall carol was showing no signs of life
07:21and roger recognized that she was dead he and his son just said a prayer and waited for the emergency
07:28personnel to arrive at 8 16 a.m the coroner arrived to find carol hickok's body wrapped in a blanket
07:37and she was officially pronounced dead at the scene
07:47news of carol's sudden tragic death spread quickly to family and friends
07:53we received a phone call about 20 after eight from a friend who told us that carol had passed away
08:02i think both of us felt sick in our stomachs and emotional like just a shock my husband and i
08:09larry and i just just sat down and how can this be carol's family were devastated by her sudden death
08:19they struggled to comprehend how they were going to move on with their life they just said it was
08:23the most heartbreaking thing that they'd ever had to comprehend carol's death rocked the community
08:30it was just so unexpected and so surprising because she was a vibrant healthy woman and here something so
08:37seemingly simple took her out carol's death appeared to be a tragic accident from a fatal fall
08:45down the rear steps of her home but when first responders entered the house they found there
08:52might be more to the story than they realized in the master bedroom it became very clear that
08:59something big happened there was a lot of blood there was blood on the corner of the dresser
09:07there was blood on the floor investigators found blood on the bed but the comforter had been removed
09:14from the bed and placed in a washing machine still covered in blood the washing machine had not been
09:22turned on that was a mystery and for the police there was an effort to determine what can we see
09:29what
09:29might tell us something that had happened here and the circumstances were quite strange
09:40despite the discovery of a large amount of blood in the bedroom and on the comforter found in the
09:45washer investigators still considered the possibility that carol's death had been accidental they began to
09:54theorize that perhaps carol had somehow fallen in the bedroom and bled tried to pick up the clothing and
10:01and sheets that she bled on gone outside for fresh air and stumbled down the stairs and died
10:10it made no sense that this woman would have been the victim of some sort of violence because there was
10:17no sign that anybody had been there and there's also no reason why anybody would drag the woman out on
10:24the porch or left her in the lawn but investigators also had to follow protocol for an unexplained death
10:32and treat it like a homicide investigation until proven otherwise in cases where there's a possible
10:39injury there's always the questions that have to be asked who would want to kill this person
10:45the question here would be to look at the family look at the husband
10:49and uh anybody that might have a grudge or a reason to benefit from carol's death
10:57with investigators open to the possibility that carol may have been murdered roger became suspect number one
11:15after carol was found dead at the bottom of a flight of steps at her home on september 15th 2010
11:23investigators went to speak to her husband roger to see if he could help them work out if her death
11:29was
11:29the result of an accidental fall or something more sinister when police arrived at the house they
11:37were carrying on their investigation roger was sat smoking a cigar and this kind of jumped out to the
11:43authorities is quite strange behavior he was smoking a cigar just yards away from where his wife's dead body
11:49lay police took roger to the local station for an interview roger is being questioned because he's
11:58the husband he's the last person to have seen carol alive that morning so naturally they had questions
12:04for him roger explained to the police that he routinely would wake up early and want to do something and
12:13would go and get coffee they immediately deployed officers to the coffee shop to check the cctv and verify
12:21roger's story roger had arrived at the coffee place sometime in the range of 4 a.m it was
12:27before daylight quite early and it was easy to check whether he'd been there the records of the coffee
12:35shop could confirm that when questioned about the bloodied blanket that had been left in the washer
12:41roger said i don't even do the washing in our household i wouldn't even know how to use the machine
12:47police probe further to ask roger what happened that night had there been any disagreements between
12:52the couple he said no and that they'd gone to bed as normal between 9 to 9 30 p.m
12:57and it was at that
12:58point of 4 a.m that he decided to leave the house and that was the last time that he
13:02saw his wife alive
13:06early indications suggest that carol hiccock died sometime between 4 a.m and 7 a.m
13:13so roger's timeline stacked up officers then asked roger to take a polygraph test to verify what he had told
13:21them the major benefit of polygraph is it assists peace in eliminating suspects roger's willingness to
13:31take the polygraph was of course a good sign the police know that the impact of their suggestion of
13:42a polygraph test can be significant on a potential suspect so they often use the polygraph as a
13:49a tool to elicit a reaction to see what reaction they get someone who readily agrees to take a polygraph
13:59test usually this indicates that this is someone who wants to prove their innocence roger hickok was
14:07on heart and blood pressure medication he was 65 years old and the medications are well known to
14:14uh mess up polygraph results so his polygraph result was inconclusive despite roger's willingness
14:22to take the polygraph test the inconclusive result meant police continued to treat him as a suspect
14:30the investigation stayed with roger because he was the other person in the home he was married to her
14:37so he he remained somebody that might have in one way or another had some benefit or some motive
14:44police needed to consider all possible suspects at this stage and that included roger's son charlie
14:50even though he was 11 years old he was the person who discovered carol's body so the police had to
14:55ask him some questions to rule him out as a suspect however charlie's story that he was asleep during
15:02carol's death checked out so he was very quickly ruled out as a suspect diving deeper into carol and
15:09roger's family background and roger's family background police then found out about roger's affair with emily
15:15a revelation that dramatically changed the course of their investigation
15:22they found out that charlie wasn't carol's biological son and charlie was emily's son carol
15:29hickok's family of course had a fair amount of resentment i guess about roger's whole involvement
15:38with emily and the pain it must have caused carol over the years and the disruption to the family
15:44life once the investigators found out about this complicated situation possibly a love triangle
15:51it then gave them a bit of a motive to question whether emily had anything to do with carol's death
15:58roger however said that he had no relationship with emily anymore they hadn't been in contact
16:03for a long time and that she didn't have anything to do with charlie meanwhile police eagerly awaited
16:09the results of carol's autopsy hoping that it would reveal whether she had died from an accidental fatal
16:15fall or if her injuries suggested foul play and the possibility that she was pushed to her death
16:23when the autopsy comes back it showed the blunt force trauma to her head it showed bruising on her torso
16:30and her body but at the end of the day the cause of death was undetermined it is a huge
16:36disappointment
16:37for investigators because now they have no idea how carol really died
16:45nine days after carol's death trooper james kerrick went over to interview emily at her home which is
16:51around an hour away in pennsylvania from where carol lived after this two hour long interview kerrick said
16:59that emily was intelligent she was cooperative but he did notice this resentment that seemed to still
17:06be there towards roger and carol especially because of her lack of contact with charlie when asked
17:12directly if she had any involvement in carol's death emily simply answered no emily told trooper
17:21kerrick that she could not have got to canton to commit murder because there was no gas in her tank
17:26and she had no money when he left that day trooper kerrick knew that although emily could have had
17:32something to do with carol's death he had no evidence at this point so with no clear leads all
17:39the authorities could do was wait for the forensic and lab results to come in three months after carol's
17:46death with investigators no closer to determining how she had died the coroner decided to revisit the case
17:53it's not common for a coroner to revisit a case but there was just something about this case that
18:01didn't sit right with investigators the coroner is going through the photos again and he notices
18:07that there are scratches to carol's neck and it almost looks like defense wounds
18:15suddenly investigators had a potential cause of death
18:20if their suspicions were right then at some point carol had been fighting for her life while somebody
18:27had their hands around her throat
18:31what had once seemed like a mystery was now a murder investigation
18:38after discovering that they were now dealing with a homicide police received a phone call
18:44that revealed yet another twist to the story carol's brother contacted the police to say
18:50that roger and charlie had now moved to roger's home in crystal river in florida and that emily was
18:57living with them there too when it became known that roger had gone to florida with emily bellow shaffer
19:05and their son it was something of interest to the police this was very conflicting to what the
19:12investigators originally thought they had been told that emily had nothing to do with charlie yet now
19:17she had practically stepped in to be another mom to him all living together as a family under one roof
19:24and also it seemed possible that emily and roger all along had been carrying on their relationship
19:30and that actually it had been carol who was getting in the way
19:35the news of roger's move to florida with his ex-lover sent shockwaves through carol's family
19:42and the local community people who had reasons to resent either roger's conduct or emily's conduct
19:51over the years found a good opportunity to use the trip to florida as a reason to justify suspicions
20:00that roger or roger and emily or emily had been involved in carol's death
20:16just three months after carol hickok was found dead at the foot of the steps outside her home
20:22in canton pennsylvania her husband roger had moved to florida with his former lover emily
20:28and their son but without enough evidence police were unable to bring them back to pennsylvania to
20:36be interviewed seven months later on july the 19th 2011 police received a call that would turn the case
20:46on its head police get a phone call from emily schaefer and she says she has something interesting to
20:53tell them about carol hickok emily had explained to police that she and roger had a falling out
21:01she told officers that following their argument roger had taken charlie back to their home in
21:07canton pennsylvania that was kind of the last straw for emily she was very frustrated she was missing her
21:14child the reason that emily schaefer was even in town was because she had a court hearing to go over
21:20custody of young charlie eager to speak to emily about carol's death police collected her from the
21:31courthouse for a voluntary interview at the station emily arrives at the police station and they bring
21:37her into an office rather than an interrogation room so emily was not under arrest at this point
21:44this is just a conversation they have no idea what she's about to tell them
21:51trooper dave pelichick led the interview with trooper nathan lewis also in attendance
21:58we received a phone call from you today yes you wanted to to share some information with us yes
22:05she arrives with a backpack full of paperwork and troopers want to hear what she has to say
22:13roger hickok and i have had we've known each other over 15 years and it was a rocky 15 years
22:22as as time progressed he became more and more angry and violent do you think he's capable of something
22:31of causing harm to someone at first i thought you know there's no way roger could have done this
22:38but the more i see that he still has the hair trigger temper and the split personality i think
22:47anything is possible she's afraid of roger all of a sudden after a 15-year relationship where they're
22:52loving each other and they have a child suddenly she's afraid he's abusive she's scared of him she
22:58doesn't know what's going to happen and it looks like she's trying to protect herself from roger
23:05he is a narcissist and he is a sociopath emily then went on to talk about carol's history with charlie
23:13and roger prior to carol's death she was the primary caretaker of charlie after carol's death
23:20i went to florida with him primarily to take care of charlie because he does not
23:26it becomes very clear that emily is no longer roger's ally when roger and emily and their child
23:35went to florida the relationship with him didn't develop it wasn't at last we were together at least
23:41as far as roger was concerned emily had nothing really to call a job she was living from hand to
23:47mouth and eventually as the winter ended he headed back to pennsylvania and made it clear that he wasn't
23:53bringing emily with him in the middle of the interview as she's carrying on about how awful roger
24:01is her cell phone rings this is roger calling right now roger had called emily to ask her out for
24:09lunch
24:10when the call comes in from roger inviting her lunch he was calm and reasonable and wasn't yelling
24:16or complaining at her he just invited her so his calling her was consistent with very being very
24:24reasonable why did you want to have lunch
24:29because what he says to me and what he says to other people are opposite ends of the spectrum
24:38suspicious of emily's description of roger as a violent sociopath
24:43troopers continued to probe emily on their relationship we were supposed to have shared
24:49custody but he refused every opportunity every request that i had to see charlie he refused to
24:58let me see him roger does not want charlie talking to me emily is spinning this tale to investigators
25:04about how awful roger is and she's not really getting to the point of why she's there
25:10and so investigators are just letting her talk because eventually it's going to come out
25:16when's the last time before carol said that you had been intimate with roger
25:22the last weekend in july i was so desperate for any contact at all that i had with charlie that
25:30if i had to sleep with a son of a bitch i'd sleep with just so i knew what was
25:34going on in charlie's
25:35life investigators understand they have something going on here and they realize
25:41if they let her keep talking she's going to bring them back to the date of carol's death
25:47you talked to roger between the end of july and the date of carol's death did you have any contacts
25:53with him i probably talked to him but i didn't see him he made it a point to let me
25:59know
25:59that he was not home um the morning that carol died he sent me a text message at four o
26:06'clock in
26:06the morning what did the text say
26:13the text said september 15th at four oh seven a.m he sent a text message you up i texted
26:23back him
26:24at seven oh two a.m saying i'm up i said favor to ask can i borrow the ford and
26:30the big trailer i was
26:31moving out of my apartment he texted back troubles that was around 2 21 in the afternoon i said work
26:41question mark i said get earlier messages question mark he said death and i said never good then he
26:49texted back uh 302 at state police to wanda i said what's up and he said troubles and i texted
26:58back
26:58prayers let me just back up a little bit when when he kept saying death you never asked who i
27:04i never
27:05asked who i he didn't say she's not asking about anybody else in the house so to me that's a
27:14giant
27:14red flag you're not asking about your son who lives in the house or the woman who's taking care of
27:20your
27:20your child or any of the other people that are in that family you're not asking about any of them
27:26i found that to be very unusual palachic knew emily had a motive that she was mad at roger that
27:32she
27:33didn't like roger and she had things to say so his curiosity was quite up there this was the time
27:39to
27:39see where the case would take him and keep the person talking very uh let her talk and ask her
27:46questions
27:48what was the only thing standing in the way between you and charlie prior to carol's death prior to carol's
27:54step roger i would say carol no she took care of no between the only thing between you and charlie
28:02was carol okay because the minute carol was removed i moved right in you certainly had motive to get
28:09carol out of the picture in emily's mind it's obvious at that point that she realized that she was
28:16becoming a suspect that they weren't accepting everything she had to say were you at the house
28:23on the day of carol's death yeah no okay okay
28:30when emily stammers and first she says yes then quickly corrects herself and says no
28:36they knew at that point that they had a bigger case on their hands
28:45this responding and then correcting herself shows somebody trying to strategically manage
28:51the interview situation to give interviewers the response she thinks is most appropriate
28:57and indeed there are times when these kind of verbal slips are direct indicators of deception of of
29:06what the real answer is to the question investigators can use that kind of slip very directly and
29:14strategically to pursue that line of inquiry and they can use it just as a broad indicator of
29:20somebody who is not telling them the whole truth are you a violent person because if this was not an
29:27accidental death yeah this is the first time this person has caused harm to someone can i tell you a
29:33little bit he came into the house one time he said i'm going to take charlie and leave and i
29:39picked
29:39up the nearest cast iron frying pan and i hit him square in the back with it and he handed
29:45charlie back to me
29:47and left the fact that emily struck roger with the frying pan showed that she could let her anger take
29:53her to the point of senseless violence and uh real violence too not a slap across the face or anything
29:59like that
30:03it was at this point that police decided to ask emily to take a lie detector test
30:09uh we would like you to take a polygraph at some point just to say hey it's not me i
30:13didn't do anything to
30:14well i was i was never at the house the two twos one goes higher chest one goes lower measure
30:21your
30:21breathing some people breathe more through their chest some people breathe more through their stomach
30:24okay the reason we measure these i breathe through my chest because i sing in the shower when she's
30:36singing and starting breathing exercises i think she was probably trying to be cute and try to endear
30:42herself to the policeman and make them think that she's very relaxed and confident and so forth
30:51it's an act emily has gone into this interview as a woman very confident very organized very used to
30:59handling authority not intimidated in any way and i feel that the singing is part of this attempt to
31:07to continue to charm the officers she believes she can sweet talk her way out of the situation
31:15the test is about to begin please remain still
31:17according to that woman's death do you intend to answer each question truthfully
31:21yes they had been interviewing emily for four hours yet nobody had asked her directly if she was
31:29responsible for carol's death did you cause that woman's death no did you cause that woman's death at
31:36her home no just about them please remain still
31:44did i fail or did i pass or what you failed
31:51i fail yes no the point at which the suspect is told they failed the polygraph that's when it's
32:00raised the level it's made it a confrontational uh situation were you in that house that night with
32:06her no absolutely not absolutely not if that was the truth you would have passed the polygraph
32:13yes emily what happened that night tell us the truth please i wasn't there i wasn't there
32:23is this the thing that you want to be truthful and tell us what happened
32:34after failing a polygraph test about her movements in the hours before carol
32:39hickok was found dead at the bottom of a flight of steps at her home emily bellow schaefer continued
32:46to deny any responsibility for carol's death i don't have it in me to hurt anybody not intentionally
32:58roger in the back with a skillet
33:03listen we know you were there okay i told you that can you look at me please please we know
33:11you
33:11were there did you go about to kill her that night at that point she knows they're trying to determine
33:18what happened and that she had responsibility there did you intend for her to die no
33:27what happened that night what was your purpose of being there you can do it emily claimed that
33:35uninvited she had gone to the hickok home that morning to visit her son and when she encountered
33:41carol a fight between the two unfolded i don't want charlie to know any of this
33:49i don't want him to hear how she attacked me
33:54what did she do to you she used her fists can you show me it was like this like two
34:00of them together
34:02i was like this and you were close to her i was close enough
34:09i pushed her backwards she fell backwards into the bedroom into the dresser we wrestled around a
34:20little bit i think we rolled over the bed once
34:24was she saying anything to you during this yeah my husband my husband
34:32i'm not here to see your damned husband i'm here to see my son the last place i saw her
34:39she was on
34:39the floor next to the dresser was she conscious she was breathing okay do you know if she was bleeding
34:48at that time well there was blood on the bedspread did you do something with the bedspread i put the
34:55bedspread in the washing machine but i don't know how to run the washing machine so i just left the
35:01bedspread in the washing machine she knew that her blood was on those sheets and she knew that her
35:08blood might be that be detected sooner or later on those sheets so that's why she headed to the washing
35:12machine she had some finger marks on her neck does that trigger anything you're trying to get her off of
35:20me did you have blood on you i don't remember blood on my hands or my face i don't remember
35:31i don't remember any blood on my clothing asked if she had blood on her it's as if emily forgets
35:39herself and and goes back in time and she's there at the moment of the murder and she holds up
35:44her hands
35:45and it's as if she's she's she's looking at the the murder weapons for a moment we get this curious
35:52indication of absolute guilt did you ever tell roger what happened no did he ever ask you no emily had
36:00the opportunity here to implicate roger that he had somehow enabled or assisted her in murdering carol
36:07but she didn't take that opportunity and so he was cleared how did she get to the bottom of the
36:12stairs
36:13i don't know how she got to the bottom of the stairs she was quite alive the last time i
36:20saw her
36:22after talking to emily for eight hours the troopers decided to end the interview for the day
36:29are you going to arrest me and fingerprint me and send me to jail and you are going to have
36:35to face the
36:36music in this at this point they read emily her rights they let her know she is under arrest and
36:43they take her to the county jail the following day investigators visited emily to confirm her
36:51videotaped confession in writing during the videotaped interview emily tried to claim that carol had
36:58confronted her in the hallway and it wound up uh that carol died the next day she did not change
37:05that
37:05version the only part she changed was instead of saying carol was alive when she left the house
37:11she admitted that carol was dead that she had taken carol out of the house
37:15and she acknowledged at that point that she had moved carol's body down to the foot of the stairs
37:22all police needed now was dna evidence proving that emily was at the scene of the crime
37:28the sheets embedding and blood on the scene was analyzed by the state police laboratory
37:36and it was determined that some of the blood there was emily's blood which of course placed emily in
37:41the scene emily's confession and dna evidence meant that she faced a lengthy prison sentence for carol's
37:50death if found guilty of homicide but because emily denied the charge of murder the case went to court
37:59in august 2012 nearly two years after carol hickok's death emily stood trial for the murder of her son's
38:07stepmom i'm tapped to be there every day i show up at the courthouse at least a half hour beforehand
38:15every day because it was more than just a story at that point i had to let the community know
38:20what was
38:21going on it was very important for me to be at this trial i felt that i needed to be
38:26there for justice for
38:27carol she was an innocent victim that should be alive today i wanted to know the truth because
38:35there had been so many stories going around this and that and the other thing that i know the truth
38:40should come out in the trial and i needed to be there for those reasons something i found incredibly
38:47remarkable was that there was no one for emily she has no support in that courtroom whatsoever
38:55emily was incredibly stoic during the trial she showed very little emotion any emotion she showed
39:01she would tip her head down and she would talk to her attorney and that was about it
39:06she was very silent through that trial well the one thing i remember clearly about emily i did not see
39:13remorse i never saw a bit of remorse that i could not fathom and i could not get past during
39:25the trial
39:25the prosecution played emily's videotape confession to the jury before unveiling another key piece of evidence
39:33the most interesting part of that trial was the introduction of emily's diary because you could
39:40really see where she began to unravel one excerpt read she's referring to roger here and you can get
39:47a sense of how angry she is toward roger i wish i had a two by four i'd hit you
39:53upside your head and
39:54scream at your lifeless body now or even because i died a little every single day you have kept us
40:00apart
40:01and then she goes on to say there will be no i love you's until this situation is resolved
40:07how why on earth would could i love anyone who could so carelessly heartlessly do this to me
40:14who would be so blind and selfish
40:19the things that emily put in her diary showed that she very much resented that she didn't have much
40:27carol was the reason that roger didn't need her to help raise the boy carol was the reason that roger
40:32didn't want to live with her and so forth so she wanted to get rid of carol six days before
40:39the
40:39murder emily wrote i must do what i must do the information in the diaries pulled everything together
40:46and brought real context to what it was emily was doing when she went to the home of
40:52roger hickok and carol hickok the prosecution also highlighted the evidence found by the coroner
41:00when he revisited the autopsy photographs a very small but very significant part of the evidence
41:08was little mark's cuts on carol's neck where she was trying to pry away emily's fingers trying to get
41:16those fingers off her neck and it actually cut into her own skin it showed among other things
41:23that strangulation was the cause of death the prosecution argued that the only reason emily
41:31went to carol's house on the day of her death was to commit murder the evidence was clear she had
41:37no
41:38need to go to the house to see charlie she could have done that at lunch she had no reason
41:43to go there
41:43to see carol because carol wouldn't have wanted to talk to her that she went to the house went into
41:48the house and killed carol shows that that was her objective from the start emily's confession took
41:56herself as far as the offense of voluntary manslaughter that is causing a death during a fight the overall
42:05circumstances of the case were such that it was undeniable that this was a murder this wasn't a
42:13well this wasn't a fight that went bad on august 10th 2012 the jury retired to deliberate and at 4
42:24p.m they returned with their verdict the jury found emily guilty of second degree murder the felony
42:33offense of burglary and other charges on september 27 2012 emily bella schaefer was sentenced to life in
42:42prison without the prison without the possibility of parole and she remains incarcerated
42:54this tragedy began when roger began a dalliance with emily bellows schaefer that wound up with emily
43:00involved in their lives but the murder itself is all the fault and crime of emily bellows schaefer and
43:11that's where guilt was found and that's where the true and complete blame lies
43:18carol's death was truly tragic a horrible thing happened to a very good person because of someone
43:25else's anger greed uh selfish intentions carol will always be remembered as a pillar in this community
43:35i never met carol hickok but i regard her as a wonderful woman and almost a saint because i don't
43:44know how many women could take in the child of their husband's mistress and carry on and love that child
43:51as if the child as if the child were her own i give her a lot of respect for that
43:58carol was strong what she did she did a hundred percent her business her hunting her mothering her
44:07cooking her marriage vows and the way she loved charlie spoke volumes
44:15just spoke volumes she was faithful in friendships she was kind just a hundred percent her girl
44:24that's all i can tell you she just was great
44:30so
44:40so
44:42so
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