- 2 days ago
A missing family man is found murdered in his car near his home in New York. When evidence of a secret affair is exposed, detectives unravel a chilling conspiracy orchestrated by individuals close to him and a mastermind driven by greed.
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00:10a missing man is found murdered in schenectady new york not only was he obviously dead he was
00:18nearly frozen he had at least two ligature marks around his neck this was a homicide he died by
00:28strangulation his loved ones claim he didn't have enemies he was nurturing and caring i couldn't
00:38imagine that type of betrayal i said something's up more than meets the eye here but the clues point
00:48detectives to the last people anyone would have expected they got together and said we got to get
00:55rid of him he was in love with her and wanted to end a toxic marriage so that they could
01:03be together
01:04she manipulated this whole thing she was the puppet master
01:25november 23rd 1995 it's thanksgiving day in schenectady new york
01:34but instead of celebrating with her family 30 year old stella lacy is calling police to report her
01:42husband paul lacy missing
01:46she had seen paul the previous evening she went up to bed around 11 30 paul was downstairs rummaging
01:52around the kitchen for something to eat and never came up to bed which was not unusual he would sleep
01:58on a couch or day bed on the first floor or go out late but not coming home that night
02:04or the next day
02:05was unusual because it was thanksgiving day it was very odd that uncle paul wouldn't be at thanksgiving
02:13you know his life revolved around family
02:20he's connected the police department dispatch somebody to her house to conduct an initial
02:27interview officers asked stella to walk them through the day leading up to paul's disappearance
02:35she told the patrolman that paul had worked thanksgiving eve during the day ron faulkner who was
02:40paul's first cousin was actually living in the house and had been renting a room from the lacy's
02:48when paul got home from work she sent ron and paul out to get some bread for the stuffing
02:53and a couple other items and she continued to make thanksgiving dinner
03:01stella says paul and ron returned from the store around 11 p.m
03:07there was a neighbor who lived kitty corner to lacy's home his name was calvin smith and at this time
03:15he stopped over and just to socialize with ron paul and she went up to bed paul doesn't come to
03:23bed
03:23that night the next morning she believes he may have left to go to work she had paged him
03:31he doesn't come back and that's what precipitates her initial filing of the missing persons report
03:39to go missing on thanksgiving it hit us all hard because it's like
03:44we we know paul and he also come home so this was abnormal
03:53it's not even 24 hours but if someone's reported missing they're put into a national database
04:01in this case there was a vehicle involved it's 1986 volvo with the new york plate on it
04:06all this is entered into a database
04:10the patrol officer asked for a recent photo of her husband paul and if there was any extenuating
04:21circumstances that she should know about she said he was not a drug user but paul was under a lot
04:28of
04:28pressure they had some money issues he lost his job even though he got a new job at a local
04:34coca-cola
04:35warehouse you know they owed a lot of money additionally she said he recently cashed out his 401k
04:42for about eight thousand dollars but paul wouldn't leave the family and the kids on a holiday
04:49at this point patrolmen interviewed neighbors but we really didn't get any good leads
04:58his devotion to his family makes the disappearance even harder to explain
05:07two days into the investigation a tip comes in
05:14it's about 2 30 p.m the schenectady police department gets a call from a person living two and
05:20half blocks from where the lacy's lived saying that there was a uh a car parked on the one-way
05:26street
05:26in front of their house parked the wrong way there was a man sleeping in the car
05:33the officers that responded made numerous attempts pounding on the glass knocking on the side of the car
05:42and they felt that it was necessary to call for ems they opened the door and tried to wake this
05:48person
05:49up not only was he obviously dead he was nearly frozen
05:57they found no wallet but they did find by going through his pockets an identification card
06:05the police knew that this was paul lacy paul lacy was born may 12 1964 in albany new york
06:24he and his younger sister were part of a large extended family he was a loving brother we always
06:31were watching cartoons he used to take me to school i was littler than him so i walked slower so
06:37i was
06:37pretty much led around you know we had very strong mothers and then it turned us into decent people paul
06:51was always a happy kid he always enjoyed life anything that he did it was done because of his doing
06:58what made him happy that's what he did paul's father wasn't really in his life i had to depend
07:06on the welfare system but i was always going to take care of my kids
07:15after high school in the early 80s paul started working at a local market
07:20he quickly rose to become a manager
07:24it was also the place he met his future wife stella close stella and her family was in our
07:32neighborhood her dad was a hard-working man her mom was a stay-at-home mom for what i could
07:38tell
07:39so stella had a stable home she had dated a couple guys that were not as nice as paul he
07:48was nurturing and
07:49caring he wanted to have somebody to love she started coming around and then next thing you know they're getting
07:58married
08:00the young couple married in 1986 in the years that followed paul and stella built a life together
08:09including three beautiful children he decided to go into his career at cargill which is a flour mill at the
08:17port of albany
08:18pretty much any job you got that was down at the port of albany they paid you well
08:28whatever his wife stella wanted he made it for her or got it for her and started with a car
08:37then he bought her a house had a pool put in he provided everything for that family
08:49and you know how it feels to not have a real father that you've been longing for therefore
08:54you're going to be a stand-up man and he decided to be that stand-up guy for his family
09:02paul strove to be the best father he could be for his children ages nine seven and sixteen months
09:10paul had three kids a girl a boy a girl that's what paul wanted
09:16his heart was kind he would always make sure whoever he did for he was going to do his best
09:22by him he
09:23didn't care who you was as far as paul is aspirations each one was just a milestone
09:33nick became setting up for retirement setting up for his children's education so yeah his his
09:41goals kept getting higher and higher
09:47but two days after thanksgiving day 1995 paul has been found deceased
09:56at first glance it's unclear how he died the keys were on the floor in the front seat there was
10:04no
10:04broken glass anywhere it was his clothes weren't disheveled like there was a struggle there was no
10:10blood with no gunshots there was no knife wounds while there are no obvious wounds on paul's body
10:17closer inspection reveals a telltale sign of foul play he had at least two rounds of ligature marks around
10:27his neck he was strangled there isn't much room in the back seat of this car this volvo so it
10:41would have
10:41been very difficult for whoever killed paul to have strangled him from the back seat that would tell me
10:51it took a person of size and or strength to pull this off and that it wasn't done in his
10:58car it was
10:58done elsewhere and then paul's body was moved from the actual crime scene strangulation is not a typical
11:06means of death in a robbery case people who strangle other people usually have a personal
11:16relationship it could have been by someone who was close to him
11:24coming up investigators learn about a recent few paul put his foot down and said no and then
11:32that's when the whole rage came out and a possible suspect shifts the course of the investigation
11:40i said we'll get to the bottom of this and with his hand he pointed to the kitchen floor and
11:45said
11:45the bottom starts right here
12:02two days after paul lacy was reported missing his dead body has been found less than three blocks away
12:10from home and investigators are trying to determine why there was no jury on him at that time although
12:20he was known to wear three rings which he did not have on uh his pockets and his black jeans
12:27were turned
12:27inside out it could be construed as a robbery gone bad or a robbery slash murder and the fact that
12:35stella said that he carried a large amount of money on him at all times would point to that fact
12:40for sure
12:43the only thing that they found was a pager on his belt they downloaded the pager information
12:50stella told the responding officers that she did try paging him and he didn't respond so it
12:57pretty much corroborated stella's story
13:02after assisting the forensics people from the state police it was determined that the body was going to be
13:08removed from the vehicle and would be shipped for autopsy then investigators made the notification
13:16right away
13:20we asked stella to come to the police department she was given with essentially a death notification
13:27started crying seemed very upset when she settled down we said now we you need to help us
13:34help you and find out what happened to paul
13:41she's traumatized at this point we found her husband dead she's got three children
13:46if she makes a mistake in a statement we're going to let it go but we do find some inconsistencies
13:51with
13:52what she tells us versus what she told the responding patrolman to report him missing she said she saw him
14:01eat a salami sandwich at 11 30 which she did not tell the responding officers initially
14:08she also said that paul came up to bed on thanksgiving eve
14:12and got in bed with her that he wanted to have sex but she turned him down
14:17even though there was inconsistencies we have to take that into consideration emotions you know finite
14:24details that she may or may not have forgotten so we don't push her on that because you don't want
14:30to
14:31paint her in a corner yet until we know more this time when stella describes the events leading up to
14:38paul's
14:39disappearance she leaves out mention of their neighbor calvin but she has another theory about
14:45who might be involved as far as she knew he never cheated on her and she stated she never cheated
14:52on
14:52him other than some financial pressures that they were under on the surface they had a good marriage
15:00but stella said that he did have an ongoing feud with a first cousin by the name of david walmack
15:07who actually lived with them for a few months his older cousin needed him you know and he provided a
15:17place for him where the other family members were like no you're not staying with us paul was the one
15:24that was kind-hearted
15:28stella says the arrangement quickly turned sour
15:32and on november 3rd three weeks before paul's body was discovered the conflict between the cousins escalated
15:42david would get into these um rage type arguments stuff like daddy he always had guns and stuff
15:50but paul was not like that paul wasn't a physical fighter
15:57david walmack had an issue with his anger so he probably thought he could bully paul and stay there
16:06while paul put his foot down and said no told him he had to go and then that's when the
16:11whole rage came
16:12out paul kicked him out of the house and according to paul lacy his cousin dave walmack sliced tires on
16:21paul's
16:21cars while david was never charged in the tire slashing incident paul's allegations pushed their
16:30relationship to a breaking point paul lacy kicked his cousin womack out of the house
16:42but he allowed another cousin ron faulkner to rent a room in the house
17:00of course he denied any involvement and said he hadn't seen paul in uh quite a while and in fact
17:09definitely didn't see paul thanksgiving eve or thanksgiving david claims he went hunting with his
17:16sons on thanksgiving day that was corroborated by friends and family alike although he was
17:24very uh suspect at this point his his alibi was corroborated
17:32with david ruled out as a possible suspect detectives hope paul's autopsy will give them a new lead
17:42the ligature marks left bruising and a distinctive pattern around his neck the medical examiner had
17:51determined that in fact this was a homicide it was a further determined that mr lacy had died
17:58by strangulation caused by ligature
18:02this is not an exact science in terms of time of death the fact that paul had been quote unquote
18:09frozen
18:10because of the weather and actually had been dead for some time the me cannot put you know days on
18:18it
18:19so we had to rely on the stomach contents and statement of stella saying he ate a salami sandwich
18:26at 11 30 at night thanksgiving eve but paul's stomach was empty which would indicate that he hadn't eaten
18:37one of the last people to see him alive says that he is eating a sandwich or having a meal
18:44the autopsy
18:46report is inconsistent with that at this point they're highly skeptical of those initial reports
18:53we still had a lot of unanswered questions and now that stella may or may not be involved the pressure's
19:01on us to find other physical evidence or real evidence or eyewitnesses but paul's body was moved
19:09from the actual crime scene like where did this actually happen
19:15so
19:28investigators have received paul lacy's autopsy report which contradicts his wife stella lacy's story
19:37but with little evidence to go on police can't be certain of anything
19:45they know the answers they seek likely depend on finding where the murder took place
19:51well how about his house uh that's where he's supposed to be and the last time stella saw him
20:00getting a search warrant's a pretty heavy lift and it takes time so we asked stella for consent to search
20:09paul's first cousin ron lived there they both consented there's investigators throughout the house
20:15upstairs downstairs and bedrooms and bathrooms and closets drawers private places at one point while
20:22i was there a man came just walked into the back door into the kitchen
20:29didn't knock we nodded to each other said hello and he immediately went to the turkey
20:35the thanksgiving turkey ripped off a leg started eating it and i asked i said who are you and he
20:42said
20:42that he was a neighbor identified himself as calvin smith
20:47calvin smith was another man who was in the house that night that paul lacy disappeared
20:56stella neglected to mention that calvin was there in her second interview with the police
21:05he said yeah this is really sad about what happened to paul
21:08i said yeah but we'll get to the bottom of this and with his hand he pointed to the
21:14kitchen floor and said the bottom starts right here
21:22they certainly got my attention i said what do you mean by that he shrugged his shoulders
21:31he was just as calm cool and collected as could be he's eating a leg off the turkey dinner
21:39and i took note of that and i said something's up uh more than meets the eye here you know
21:47again it's
21:49common sense the speculation is that it happened here i didn't want to put a lot of pressure on him
21:56right
21:56then because we didn't know was he involved was someone in the house involved so i just let it go
22:02but
22:03of course i told the rest of the team
22:11after concluding their search investigators suspicions are reinforced by another tip
22:18there was an anonymous call that came in that the origin was never identified but indicated that paul
22:27lacy had very poor eyesight and needed to wear his glasses all the time after we got that phone call
22:36from a friend we immediately you know started thinking where are the glasses you know were no glasses
22:44in the car so that tells you pretty much that he didn't drive there where he was found
22:53at that point investigation goes back to the last place where he was seen alive
23:00with his wife ron faulkner and calvin smith we decided that we need to talk to ron calvin and stella
23:10for the third time and bring them into the police department to talk to individually
23:17they weren't under arrest but we had a plan you know we're going to interview them separately and be
23:23able to pull apart their stories or corroborate their stories
23:27if someone's lying it's hard to keep up a lie and one line leads to another the inconsistencies
23:33that may or may not have meant something early on come into focus with a lot more when you add
23:38them
23:38up one or all of them are involved and it did happen in the house
23:47coming up detectives expose a marriage in distress
23:51she finally admits i've been having an affair in fact thanksgiving was our anniversary
24:00and a shocking confession turns the case upside down
24:05she said she stood there for a few minutes staring and it dawned on her that paul was dead
24:31two days after paul lacy was found murdered in the back seat of his car
24:41investigators attempt to verify his final moments with the three people who saw him last
24:47paul's wife stella lacy his friend calvin smith and his cousin ronald faulkner
24:59we start by interviewing stella i can tell that she's nervous now she's got a whole different
25:05demeanor and she knows that ron and calvin are being talked to in adjacent rooms contrary to
25:13what she initially told police stella admits she and paul were having problems the marriage wasn't
25:21as rosy as she initially painted a picture of and that paul always wanted sex and that was something
25:28she wasn't willing to participate in as much as he wanted to he was a free spender uh and they
25:35had
25:35filed chapter 13 to protect the house and their vehicles but he was spending money according to
25:41her hand over fist stella says she began spending more time with paul's cousin ron ron you know took
25:52care of a lot of chores around the house was uh uncle ron to the three kids she told police
26:00that
26:00ron was a breath of fresh air and could talk to her and she could talk to him and he
26:07would listen
26:08unlike paul she finally admits in fact i she says i've been having an affair with ron for about a
26:17year
26:17in fact thanksgiving was our anniversary i asked her if she loved ron and she said actually she didn't
26:25but house wise it was a good thing for him to be there for babysitting cleaning chores etc but it
26:33was
26:33just like a convenience in terms of motive she's having an affair with paul's first cousin ron who's
26:40living in the home and had been there for about six seven months secondly there's a money issue
26:47and she finally admits that paul had two life insurance policies worth fifty thousand dollars
26:57stella admits that over time she and ron began to fantasize about life without her husband
27:06she told me that both her and ron disliked paul and even hated him and they talked about getting rid
27:13of paul stella said she never thought that that was being taken seriously
27:23but stella says on thanksgiving eve ron surprised her
27:30she went up to bed paul came up a short time after and got in bed wanted to have sex
27:35with her
27:35she turned him down and they were in bed for the night within a few minutes maybe 15 minutes or
27:44so
27:44she said that ron yelled upstairs ron yelled up the stairs that paul had a phone call and he suggested
27:54paul come down and take the call according to stella he was only gone a few minutes and then ron
28:02went back up the stairs and asked stella to come down she walked in the room and just saw paul
28:12face down in ron's bedroom with a blanket a pink blanket over his head
28:21in the room besides ron was kelvin smith the neighbor that had been over to the house that
28:29evening she said she stood there for a few minutes staring and it dawned on her that paul was dead
28:41they said we got to get rid of him she went back upstairs got his shoes pants shirt his belt
28:50his
28:50pager dressed him all three of them because it's not easy to dress a dead body calvin and ron loaded
28:59paul in the back seat of his valvo stella said i'll stay here and clean up the mess
29:05she also said that calvin had the rope they used to strangle him and told calvin to get rid of
29:11the
29:11rope and she told me that he flushed it down the toilet after they load paul's body in the back
29:19seat
29:20ron drove the car and he drove the car a couple of blocks away the three of them got together
29:29and said
29:29here's what we're going to do make sure our stories match and the biggest thing was that we're going
29:36to say it looked like a robbery here's paul's three rings which they removed from his hand after they
29:41killed him and the money out of his pockets stella said i'll wait till tomorrow to report paul missing
29:49and i'll beep him several times throughout the day so the police will think that i was really worried
29:55about him everything's going to be fine
30:02stella's confession seems to explain everything but detectives sense she is downplaying her involvement
30:11i don't know how true her confession is or not i've got enough to believe that she's telling the truth
30:16to a point but we need to talk to ron and calvin and put their stories together and see how
30:22close they
30:23are matching coming up the grisly details of the murder come to light he said all right i did it
30:33i put the rope around his neck twice and that was that and a confessed killer describes paul's last
30:42moments he kisses paul on the forehead and tells him i'm sorry but everyone can now be at peace
31:06new york authorities are investigating the strangulation death of paul lacy
31:13while his wife stella lacy is naming her husband's cousin and neighbor in his murder detectives are in
31:21other rooms with the two men trying to get their versions of the story i found out that calvin was
31:28not admitting to anything so i said let me try
31:34he denied being involved at all so i asked him if he put his hands on the rope and he
31:40said he did not
31:42i said calvin do you know what a rope is made of and he kind of said yeah i guess
31:48i said well it's made
31:49of fibers if you touch that rope you're gonna have these fibers embedded in your hand well this is
31:55definitely not true but calvin seemed to be believing me i told him that the pd had just
32:02purchased a fiber detection instrument now this is 1995 uh copy machines were brand new big piece of
32:10equipment schenectady pd had purchased one recently so i took him out of the interview room and i told
32:15him that was the fiber detection instrument
32:22i lifted up the cover as you would place a piece of paper there and i said we're gonna stick
32:27your
32:27hand in that and we're gonna hit the detection button or whatever i called it and uh he put his
32:33hand down you know the bright light comes on i said don't look at the light
32:40he pulled his hand away the investigator's ruse has the intended effect right there at the copy
32:48machine he said all right i did it i i strangled paul i put the rope around his neck twice
32:55and that was
32:57that i felt bad for calvin that i tricked him but i can do that i didn't uh interfere with
33:05his right
33:06to due process or convince an innocent person to confess something he didn't do all within the
33:12guidelines of the law according to calvin stella wasn't an innocent bystander he says he went along
33:21with the murder because she promised to give him 100 up front along with a cut from the insurance payout
33:30stella said i'm gonna give you some money he thought maybe this is life-changing money
33:33they also took the rings off paul's fingers calvin thought he'd get a lot of money for those three
33:42rings and instead all he got for the total for the three rings was forty dollars
33:52when they question ron faulkner he confesses as well but with a different motive than calvin
34:01he was in love with stella and wanted to end a toxic relationship in the marriage so that they could
34:12be
34:12together
34:15ron knew that her relationship with paul was not what she wanted
34:24ron said he'd do anything to make stella happy
34:29so while he was out running errands with paul and calvin the night before thanksgiving
34:33he decided to make the fantasy a reality
34:41ron said here's what we're gonna do calvin you get the rope because you're a big guy and you can
34:46uh
34:46hide behind my bedroom door i'm gonna yell up to paul when he comes in you put that rope around
34:54him
34:54twice and just pull as hard as you can
35:01which by calvin's account and ron's account this is how it went down
35:15calvin just pulled as hard as he could for a couple minutes and ron actually jumped on top of
35:22calvin put more weight on paul
35:27as he's dying ron leans forward kisses paul on the forehead
35:34and tells him i'm sorry but everyone can now be at peace
35:45paul's body was found on saturday november 25th three days later ron calvin and stella were arrested
35:53all three were charged with murder tampering with evidence uh conspiracy
36:01while they all face the same charges investigators believe stella was the driving force behind the
36:09crime stella i think manipulated them both into doing it she was uh the puppet master
36:21i was shocked that calvin ronald and stella had murdered my brother over insurance money
36:29with stella anything she wanted my brother would have gave it to her it was senseless
36:37that she would even go to those extremes i couldn't imagine that type of betrayal
36:45that type of pain that you would inflict on someone that you care about for for money
36:58paul's family relies on prosecutors to exact justice but when it comes to stella they have
37:06major concerns although i think stella orchestrated this it's hard for a jury to put someone away for
37:13life even though they planned it we have to make sure we did our job and the evidence is enough
37:18to
37:19take it to trial you build the best case because you're gonna get one shot at this
37:40in august 1996 stella lacy goes on trial for the murder of her husband paul lacy
37:48her alleged co-conspirators decide to take plea deals instead ronald and calvin they were facing a
37:57potential death penalty case and sure their attorneys advised them that they're only shot to save their
38:05own skin by pleading to the lesser murder charges rather than face potential death penalty
38:14calvin pled guilty to first degree murder was sentenced 25 to life ron decided to plead guilty to second
38:22degree murder and also received 25 to life as part of his agreement calvin provides testimony against
38:31stella prosecutors do not require the same of ron he was in love with her and would never harm her
38:41stella's demeanor during the trial was cold very cold stone-faced
38:51the defense strategy was that she did not participate in the murder only became aware of it after the fact
38:59when ron and calvin notify her and that her involvement was to help dispose of the body
39:11however calvin denies such claims he testifies that stella was the one that told him paul's death
39:19needed to look like a robbery he also claims that stella wanted it to happen before the holiday
39:28calvin indicated stella had tried to do some pre-planning and that her representation that she was totally
39:37insulated from the actual homicide was incorrect paul's cousin david womack takes the stand as a witness
39:51he testifies that stella not only knew about the murder she was the one who planned it
40:00his testimony was that he was approached by stella and offered ten thousand dollars to kill paul
40:08womack's statement shows that stella had thought about this in advance
40:15but it doesn't seem to be enough for the jury
40:20womack's credibility was terrible he never reported to police that she had approached him so
40:25you know it looked like sour grapes on his part the jury didn't believe his testimony
40:30she was actually found not guilty of first-degree murder
40:36she was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide tampering with evidence
40:41in hindering prosecution she was sentenced 10 to 32 years in state prison
40:53the first reaction was upset anger we tried to let the justice system do their job but it failed us
41:04i feel like stella got a break she should have did more time than anyone else because this was all
41:13her plan
41:16of course i was disappointed i take that as a loss
41:20we did our job i think she manipulated this whole thing the fact that she did not actually physically
41:27participate in the murder it's tough i think for a jury to take it to the level to send her
41:32to prison for life
41:40paul did not deserve to have his life taken away
41:46because of somebody's greed
41:50he deserved better and he didn't get that
41:59paul had an infectious smile he had a hug that would warm you to the bone
42:04his generosity was unlimited
42:09we still talk about him today 30 years later we keep him alive in our heart
42:15with paul it's like i know he's safe
42:21i don't have to worry about him and and that's the way i go forward with my life
42:27i don't know
42:28i don't know
42:29i don't know
42:44you
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