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Snapped - Season 36 - Episode 08: Stella Lacy
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00:06A missing man is found murdered in Schenectady, New York.
00:11Not only was he obviously dead, he was nearly frozen.
00:15He had at least two ligature marks around his neck.
00:20This was a homicide. He died by strangulation.
00:25His loved ones claim he didn't have enemies.
00:30He was nurturing and caring.
00:32I couldn't imagine that type of betrayal.
00:37I said, something's up more than meets the eye here.
00:41But the clues point detectives to the last people anyone would have expected.
00:48They got together and said, we got to get rid of him.
00:52He was in love with her and wanted to end a toxic marriage so that they could be together.
01:00She manipulated this whole thing.
01:02She was the puppet master.
01:21November 23rd, 1995.
01:25It's Thanksgiving Day in Schenectady, New York.
01:29But instead of celebrating with her family, 30-year-old Stella Lacey is calling police to report her husband, Paul
01:38Lacey, missing.
01:41She had seen Paul the previous evening.
01:43She went up to bed around 11.30.
01:46Paul was downstairs rummaging around the kitchen for something to eat and never came up to bed, which was not
01:51unusual.
01:52He would sleep on the couch or a daybed on the first floor or go out late.
01:57But not coming home that night or the next day was unusual because it was Thanksgiving Day.
02:03It was very odd that Uncle Paul wouldn't be at Thanksgiving.
02:09You know, his life revolved around family.
02:15He's going to be at the police department, dispatch somebody to her house to conduct an initial interview.
02:25Officers ask Stella to walk them through the day leading up to Paul's disappearance.
02:30She told the patrolman that Paul had worked Thanksgiving Eve during the day.
02:34Ron Faulkner, who was Paul's first cousin, was actually living in the house and had been renting a room from
02:42the Lacey's.
02:43When Paul got home from work, she sent Ron and Paul out to get some bread for the stuffing and
02:49a couple other items.
02:51And she continued to make Thanksgiving dinner.
02:55Stella says Paul and Ron returned from the store around 11 p.m.
03:02There was a neighbor who lived kitty corner to Lacey's home.
03:07His name was Calvin Smith.
03:09And at this time, he stopped over just to socialize with Ron and Paul.
03:14And she went up to bed.
03:16Paul doesn't come to bed that night.
03:19The next morning, she believes he may have left to go to work.
03:23She had paged him.
03:26He doesn't come back.
03:27And that's what precipitates her initial filing of the missing persons report.
03:34To go missing on Thanksgiving, it hit us all hard because it's like we know Paul and he also had
03:42come home.
03:43So this was abnormal.
03:49It's not even 24 hours, but if someone's reported missing, they're put into a national database.
03:55In this case, there was a vehicle involved.
03:58It's 1986 Volvo with the New York plate on it.
04:01All this is entered into a database.
04:05The patrol officer asked for a recent photo of her husband, Paul, and if there was any extenuating circumstances that
04:17she should know about.
04:19She said he was not a drug user, but Paul was under a lot of pressure.
04:25They had some money issues.
04:26He lost his job, even though he got a new job at a local Coca-Cola warehouse.
04:31You know, they owed a lot of money.
04:32Additionally, she said he recently cashed out his 401k for about $8,000, but Paul wouldn't leave the family and
04:41the kids on a holiday.
04:44At this point, patrolmen interviewed neighbors, but we really didn't get any good leads.
04:53His devotion to his family makes the disappearance even harder to explain.
05:02Two days into the investigation, a tip comes in.
05:10At about 2.30 p.m., the Schenectady Police Department gets a call from a person living two and a
05:15half blocks from where the Lacy's lived,
05:18saying that there was a car parked on a one-way street in front of their house, parked the wrong
05:23way.
05:25There was a man sleeping in the car.
05:28The officers that responded made numerous attempts, pounding on the glass, knocking on the side of the car.
05:37And they felt that it was necessary to call for EMS.
05:42They opened the door and tried to wake this person up.
05:44Not only was he obviously dead, he was nearly frozen.
05:52They found no wallet, but they did find, by going through his pockets, an identification card.
06:01Then the police knew that this was Paul Lacy.
06:13Paul Lacy was born May 12, 1964, in Albany, New York.
06:19He and his younger sister were part of a large extended family.
06:24He was a loving brother.
06:26We always were watching cartoons.
06:28He used to take me to school.
06:30I was little than him, so I walked slower, so I was pretty much led around, you know.
06:38We had very strong mothers, and then it turned us into decent people.
06:45Paul was always a happy kid.
06:48He always enjoyed life.
06:49Anything that he did, it was done because of his doing.
06:54What made him happy, that's what he did.
06:57Paul's father wasn't really in his life.
07:00I had to depend on the welfare system, but I was always going to take care of my kids.
07:10After high school, in the early 80s, Paul started working at a local market.
07:15He quickly rose to become a manager.
07:19It was also the place he met his future wife, Stella Close.
07:25Stella and her family was in our neighborhood.
07:28Her dad was a hard-working man.
07:31Her mom was a stay-at-home mom, from what I could tell.
07:34So Stella had a stable home.
07:38She had dated a couple guys that were not as nice as Paul.
07:43He was nurturing and caring.
07:45He wanted to have somebody to love.
07:48She started coming around, and then next thing you know, they're getting married.
07:55The young couple married in 1986.
07:59In the years that followed, Paul and Stella built a life together, including three beautiful children.
08:07He decided to go into his career at Cargill, which is a flour mill at the Port of Albany.
08:13Pretty much any job you got that was down at the Port of Albany, they paid you well.
08:23Whatever his wife, Stella, wanted, he made it for her, or got it for her, and started with a car.
08:32Then he bought her a house, had a pool put in.
08:36He provided everything for that family.
08:44And you know how it feels to not have a real father that you've been longing for.
08:49Therefore, you're going to be a stand-up man.
08:51And he decided to be that stand-up guy for his family.
08:57Paul strove to be the best father he could be for his children, ages 9, 7, and 16 months.
09:05Paul had three kids.
09:07A girl, a boy, a girl.
09:09That's what Paul wanted.
09:11His heart was kind.
09:13He would always make sure whoever he did for, he was going to do his best by him.
09:18He didn't care who you was.
09:22As far as Paul, his aspirations, each one was just a milestone.
09:28It became setting up for retirement, setting up for his children's education.
09:34So, yeah, his goals kept getting higher and higher.
09:42But two days after Thanksgiving Day, 1995, Paul has been found deceased.
09:51At first glance, it's unclear how he died.
09:56The keys were on the floor in the front seat.
09:59There was no broken glass anywhere.
10:01His clothes weren't disheveled like there was a struggle.
10:04There was no blood.
10:06There was no gunshots.
10:07There was no knife wounds.
10:08While there are no obvious wounds on Paul's body, closer inspection reveals a telltale sign of foul play.
10:18He had at least two rounds of ligature marks around his neck.
10:23He was strangled.
10:29There isn't much room in the back seat of this car, this Volvo.
10:35So it would have been very difficult for whoever killed Paul to have strangled him from the back seat.
10:45That would tell me it took a person of size and or strength to pull this off.
10:50And that it wasn't done in his car, it was done elsewhere.
10:54And then Paul's body was moved from the actual crime scene.
10:58Stranulation is not a typical means of death in a robbery case.
11:05People who strangle other people usually have a personal relationship.
11:11It could have been by someone who was close to him.
11:19Coming up, investigators learn about a recent feud.
11:24Paul put his foot down and said no.
11:27And then that's when the whole rage came out.
11:29And a possible suspect shifts the course of the investigation.
11:35I said, we'll get to the bottom of this.
11:37And with his hand, he pointed to the kitchen floor and said, the bottom starts right here.
11:56Two days after Paul Lacey was reported missing, his dead body has been found less than three blocks away from
12:05home.
12:06And investigators are trying to determine why.
12:11There was no jury on him at that time, although he was known to wear three rings, which he did
12:17not have on.
12:19His pockets and his black jeans were turned inside out.
12:23It could be construed as a robbery gone bad or a robbery slash murder.
12:28And the fact that Stella said that he carried a large amount of money on him at all times would
12:33point to that fact for sure.
12:38The only thing that they found was a pager on his belt.
12:41They download the pager information.
12:44Stella told the responding officers that she did try paging him and he didn't respond.
12:50So it pretty much corroborated Stella's story.
12:56After assisting the forensics people from the state police, it was determined that the body was going to be removed
13:03from the vehicle and would be shipped for autopsy.
13:07Then investigators made the notification right away.
13:15We asked Stella to come to the police department.
13:18She was given what is essentially a death notification.
13:21Started crying, seemed very upset.
13:24When she settled down, we said, now you need to help us help you and find out what happened to
13:31Paul.
13:35She's traumatized at this point.
13:37We found her husband dead.
13:39She's got three children.
13:40If she makes a mistake in a statement, we're going to let it go.
13:43But we do find some inconsistencies with what she tells us versus what she told the responding patrolman to report
13:53him missing.
13:54She said she saw him eat a salami sandwich at 1130, which she did not tell the responding officers initially.
14:03She also said that Paul came up to bed on Thanksgiving Eve and got in bed with her, that he
14:08wanted to have sex, but she turned him down.
14:12Even though there was inconsistencies, we have to take that into consideration.
14:16We have to take that into consideration, emotions, you know, finite details that she may or may not have forgotten.
14:21So we don't push her on that because you don't want to paint her in a corner yet until we
14:27know more.
14:29This time, when Stella describes the events leading up to Paul's disappearance, she leaves out mention of their neighbor, Calvin.
14:38As far as she knew, he never cheated on her, and she stated she never cheated on him, other than
14:48some financial pressures that they were under.
14:50On the surface, they had a good marriage.
14:55But Stella said that he did have an ongoing feud with a first cousin by the name of David Womack,
15:01who actually lived with them for a few months.
15:06His older cousin needed him, you know, and he provided a place for him, where the other family members were
15:14like, no, you're not staying with us.
15:17Paul was the one that was kind-hearted.
15:23Stella says the arrangement quickly turned sour.
15:27And on November 3rd, three weeks before Paul's body was discovered, the conflict between the cousins escalated.
15:36David would get into these rage-type arguments, stuff like that.
15:43He always had guns and stuff.
15:45But Paul was not like that.
15:47Paul wasn't a physical fighter.
15:51David Womack had an issue with his anger.
15:55So he probably thought he could bully Paul and stay there.
16:00Well, Paul put his foot down and said no, told him he had to go.
16:04And then that's when the whole rage came out.
16:07Paul kicked him out of the house.
16:09And according to Paul Lacy, his cousin Dave Womack sliced tires on Paul's cars.
16:18While David was never charged in the tire slashing incident, Paul's allegations pushed their relationship to a breaking point.
16:28And then that's when Paul wasn't.
16:29Paul did.
16:31Paul played his cousin, Womack, out of the house.
16:36But he allowed another cousin, Ron Faulkner, to rent a room in the house.
16:55of course he denied any involvement and said he hadn't seen paul in uh quite a while and in fact
17:03definitely he didn't see paul thanksgiving eve or thanksgiving david claims he went hunting with
17:10his sons on thanksgiving day that was corroborated by friends and family alike although he was
17:18very uh suspect at this point his his alibi was corroborated
17:27with david ruled out as a possible suspect detectives hope paul's autopsy will give them
17:34a new lead the ligature marks left bruising and a distinctive pattern around his neck
17:43the medical examiner had determined that in fact this was a homicide it was a further determined
17:49that mr lacy had died by strangulation caused by ligature
17:57this is not an exact science in terms of time of death the fact that paul had been quote unquote
18:03frozen because of the weather and actually had been dead for some time the me cannot put you know
18:12days on it so we had to rely on the stomach contents and statement of stella saying he ate a
18:20salami
18:21sandwich at 11 30 at night thanksgiving eve but paul's stomach was empty which would indicate that he
18:29hadn't eaten one of the last people to see him alive says that he is eating a sandwich or having
18:39a meal
18:39the autopsy report is inconsistent with that at this point they're highly skeptical of those initial
18:46reports we still had a lot of unanswered questions and now that stella may or may not be involved the
18:55pressures on us to find other physical evidence or real evidence or eyewitnesses but paul's body was
19:03moved from the actual crime scene like where did this actually happen
19:22investigators have received paul lacy's autopsy report which contradicts his wife stella lacy's story
19:31but with little evidence to go on police can't be certain of anything
19:39they know the answers they seek likely depend on finding where the murder took place
19:45well how about his house uh that's where he's supposed to be and the last time stella saw him
19:54getting a search warrant's pretty heavy lift and it takes time so we asked stella for consent to search
20:03paul's first cousin ron lived there they both consented there's investigators throughout the house
20:09upstairs downstairs and bedrooms and bathrooms and closets drawers private places at one point
20:16while i was there a man came just walked into the back door into the kitchen
20:23didn't knock we nodded to each other said hello and he immediately went to the turkey
20:29the thanksgiving turkey ripped off a leg started eating it and i asked i said who are you and he
20:36said
20:36that he was a neighbor identified himself as calvin smith
20:41calvin smith was another man who was in the house that night that paul lacy disappeared
20:50stella neglected to mention that calvin was there in her second interview with the police
20:58he said yeah this is really sad about what happened to paul i said yeah but we'll get to the
21:04bottom of
21:04this and with his hand he pointed to the kitchen floor and said the bottom starts right here
21:16they certainly got my attention i said what do you mean by that he shrugged his shoulders
21:25he was just as calm cool and collected as could be he's eating a leg off a turkey dinner
21:33and i took note of that and i said something's up uh more than meets the eye here you know
21:42again it's common sense the speculation is that it happened here i didn't want to put a lot of
21:50pressure on him right then because we didn't know was he involved was someone in the house involved
21:55so i just let it go but of course i told the rest of the team
22:05after concluding their search investigators suspicions are reinforced by another tip
22:12there was an anonymous call that came in that the origin was never identified
22:19but indicated that paul lacy had very poor eyesight and needed to wear his glasses all the time
22:28after we got that phone call from a friend we immediately you know started thinking where are
22:36the glasses no or no glasses in the car so that tells you pretty much that he didn't drive there
22:44where he was found
22:47at that point investigation goes back to the last place where he was seen alive
22:54with his wife ron faulkner and calvin smith
23:00we decided that we need to talk to ron calvin and stella for the third time and bring them into
23:07the police department to talk to individually they weren't under arrest but we had a plan
23:14you know we're going to interview them separately and be able to pull apart their stories or corroborate
23:20their stories if someone's lying it's hard to keep up a lie and one lie leads to another
23:26the inconsistencies that may or may not have meant something early on come into focus with a lot more
23:31when you add them up one or all of them are involved and it did happen in the house
23:41coming up detectives expose a marriage in distress she finally admits i've been having an affair
23:49in fact thanksgiving was our anniversary and a shocking confession turns the case upside down
23:58he said she stood there for a few minutes staring and it dawned on her that paul was dead
24:25on november 27 1995 two days after paul lacy was found murdered in the backseat of his car
24:34investigators attempt to verify his final moments with the three people who saw him last
24:41paul's wife stella lacy his friend calvin smith and his cousin ronald faulkner
24:52we start by interviewing stella i can tell that she's nervous now she's got a whole different
24:58demeanor and she knows that ron and calvin are being talked to in adjacent rooms
25:05contrary to what she initially told police stella admits she and paul were having problems
25:13the marriage wasn't as rosy as she initially uh painted a picture of and that paul always wanted
25:20sex and that was something she wasn't willing to participate in as much as he wanted to
25:25he was a free spender uh and they had filed chapter 13 to protect the house and their vehicles
25:32but he was spending money according to her hand over fist
25:38stella says she began spending more time with paul's cousin ron ron you know took care of a lot of
25:46chores around the house was uh uncle ron to the three kids she told police that ron was a breath
25:55of fresh
25:56air and could talk to her and she could talk to him and he would listen unlike paul
26:05she finally admits in fact i she says i've been having an affair with ron for about a year in
26:11fact
26:11thanksgiving was our anniversary i asked her if she loved ron and she said actually she didn't but
26:20house-wise it was a good thing for him to be there for babysitting cleaning chores etc
26:25but it was just like a convenience in terms of motive she's having an affair with paul's first
26:33cousin ron who's living in the home and had been there for about six seven months secondly there's a
26:39money issue and she finally admits that paul had two life insurance policies worth fifty thousand
26:50dollars
26:51stella admits that over time she and ron began to fantasize about life without her husband
27:00she told me that both her and ron disliked paul and even hated him and they talked about getting rid
27:06of paul
27:09stella said she never thought that that was being taken seriously
27:16but stella says on thanksgiving eve ron surprised her
27:23she went up to bed paul came up a short time after and got in bed wanted to have sex
27:29with her
27:29she turned him down and they were in bed for the night
27:34within a few minutes maybe 15 minutes or so she said that ron yelled upstairs
27:42ron yelled up the stairs that paul had a phone call and he suggested paul come down and take the
27:49call
27:51according to stella he was only gone a few minutes and then ron went back up the stairs and asked
27:59stella
28:00to come down she walked in the room and just saw paul face down
28:06in ron's bedroom with a blanket a pink blanket over his head
28:15in the room besides ron was kelvin smith the neighbor that had been over to the house that evening
28:23she said she stood there for a few minutes staring and it dawned on her that paul was dead
28:35they said we got to get rid of him she went back upstairs got his shoes pants shirt his belt
28:43his pager
28:45dressed him dressed him all three of them because it's not easy to dress a dead body calvin and ron
28:52loaded paul in the back seat of his valvo stella said i'll stay here and clean up the mess
28:59she also said that calvin had the rope they used to strangle him and told calvin to get rid of
29:05the rope
29:05and she told me that he flushed it down the toilet after they load paul's body in the back seat
29:14ron drove the car and he drove the car a couple of blocks away the three of them got together
29:22and said
29:23here's what we're going to do we'll make sure our stories match and the biggest thing was that we're
29:29going to say it looked like a robbery here's paul's three rings which they removed from his hand after
29:34they killed him and the money out of his pockets stella said i'll wait till tomorrow to report paul
29:41missing and i'll beep him several times throughout the day so the police will think that i was really
29:48worried about him everything's going to be fine
29:55stella's confession seems to explain everything but detectives sense she is downplaying her involvement
30:05i don't know how true her confession is or not i've got enough to believe that she's telling the
30:09truth to a point but we need to talk to ron and calvin and put their stories together and see
30:16how close
30:16they are matching coming up the grisly details of the murder come to light he said all right i did
30:27it
30:27i put the rope around his neck twice and that was that and a confessed killer describes paul's last
30:36moments he kisses paul on the forehead and tells him i'm sorry but everyone can now be at peace
30:59new york authorities are investigating the strangulation death of paul lacy
31:06while his wife stella lacy is naming her husband's cousin and neighbor in his murder detectives are in
31:14other rooms with the two men trying to get their versions of the story i found out that calvin was
31:21not admitting to anything so i said let me try
31:27he denied being involved at all so i asked him if he put his hands on the rope and he
31:33said he did not
31:35i said calvin do you know what a rope is made of
31:38and he kind of said yeah i guess i said well it's made of fibers if you touch that rope
31:44you're gonna
31:44have these fibers embedded in your hand well this is definitely not true but calvin seemed to be
31:51believing me i told him that the pd had just purchased a fiber detection instrument now this is 1995
31:59uh copy machines were brand new big piece of equipment schenectady pd had purchased one recently
32:07so i took him out of the interview room and i told him that was the fiber detection instrument
32:15i lifted up the cover as you would place a piece of paper there and i said we're gonna stick
32:20your hand
32:20in that and we're gonna hit the detection button or whatever i called it and uh he put his hand
32:27down
32:28you know the bright light comes on i said don't look at the light
32:33he pulled his hand away the investigator's ruse has the intended effect
32:40right there at the copy machine he said all right i did it i i i strangled paul
32:46i put the rope around his neck twice and that was that
32:53i felt bad for calvin that i tricked him but i can do that i didn't uh interfere with his
32:59right
32:59to due process or convince an innocent person to confess something he didn't do
33:04all within the guidelines of the law according to calvin stella wasn't an innocent bystander
33:13he says he went along with the murder because she promised to give him 100 up front along with a
33:20cut
33:20from the insurance payout stella said i'm gonna give you some money he thought maybe this is life
33:26changing money they also took the rings off paul's fingers kelvin thought he'd get a lot of money for
33:34those three rings and instead all he got for the photo for the three rings was forty dollars
33:46when they question ron faulkner he confesses as well but with a different motive than calvin
33:54he was in love with stella and wanted to end a toxic relationship in the marriage so that they could
34:05be together
34:09ron knew that her relationship with paul was not what she wanted
34:17ron said he'd do anything to make stella happy
34:22so while he was out running errands with paul and calvin the night before thanksgiving
34:27he decided to make the fantasy a reality
34:34ron said here's what we're gonna do calvin you get the rope because you're a big guy and you can
34:39uh
34:39hide behind my bedroom door i'm gonna yell up to paul when he comes in you put that rope around
34:47him
34:48twice and just pull as hard as you can which by calvin's account and ron's account this is how it
34:59went down
35:08calvin just pulled as hard as he could for a couple minutes and ron actually jumped on top of calvin
35:16put
35:16more weight on paul as he's dying ron leans forward kisses paul on the forehead
35:27and tells him i'm sorry but everyone can now be at peace
35:38paul's body was found on saturday november 25th three days later ron calvin and stella were arrested
35:46all three were charged with murder tampering with evidence uh conspiracy
35:55while they all face the same charges investigators believe stella was the driving force behind the
36:02crime stella i think manipulated them both into doing it she was uh the puppet master
36:14i was shocked that calvin ronald and stella had murdered my brother over insurance money
36:23with stella anything she wanted my brother would have gave it to her it was senseless
36:30that she would even go to those extremes
36:34i couldn't imagine that type of betrayal that type of pain that you would inflict
36:44on someone that you care about for for money
36:52paul's family relies on prosecutors to exact justice but when it comes to stella they have major
36:59concerns although i think stella orchestrated this it's hard for a jury to put someone away for life
37:06even though they planned it we have to make sure we did our job and the evidence is enough to
37:12take it
37:13to trial you build the best case because you're gonna get one shot at this
37:33in august 1996 stella lacy goes on trial for the murder of her husband paul lacy
37:41her alleged co-conspirators decide to take plea deals instead ronald and calvin they were facing a
37:49potential death penalty case and sure their attorneys advised them that they're only shot to save their
37:57own skin by pleading to the lesser murder charges rather than face potential death penalty
38:07calvin pled guilty to first degree murder was sentenced 25 to life ron decided to plead guilty to second
38:15degree murder and also received 25 to life as part of his agreement calvin provides testimony against
38:24stella prosecutors do not require the same of ron he was in love with her and would never harm her
38:38the defense strategy was that she did not participate in the murder only became aware of it after the
38:52fact when ron and calvin notify her and that her involvement was to help dispose of the body
39:04however calvin denies such claims he testifies that stella was the one that told him paul's death
39:12needed to look like a robbery he also claims that stella wanted it to happen before the holiday
39:21calvin indicated stella had tried to do some pre-planning and that her representation that she was
39:29totally insulated from the actual homicide was incorrect
39:37paul's cousin david womack takes the stand as a witness
39:44he testifies that stella not only knew about the murder she was the one who planned it
39:52his testimony was that he was approached by stella and offered ten thousand dollars to kill paul
40:01womack's statement shows that stella had thought about this in advance
40:08but it doesn't seem to be enough for the jury
40:13walmack's credibility was terrible he never reported to police that she had approached him so
40:18you know it looked like sour grapes on his part the jury didn't believe his testimony she was actually
40:24found not guilty of first-degree murder she was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide
40:33tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution she was sentenced 10 to 32 years in state prison
40:46the first reaction was upset anger we tried to let the justice system do their job but it failed us
40:57i feel like stella got a break she should have did more time than anyone else because this was all
41:06her plan
41:09of course i was disappointed i take that as a loss
41:13we did our job i think she manipulated this whole thing the fact that she did not actually physically
41:20participate in the murder is tough i think for a jury to take it to the level to send her
41:25to prison for life
41:33paul did not deserve to have his life taken away because of somebody's greed
41:43he deserved better and he didn't get that
41:52he didn't get that
41:52paul he had an infectious smile he had a hug that would warm you to the bone
41:58his generosity was unlimited we still talk about him today 30 years later we keep him alive in our heart
42:08with paul it's like i know he's safe i don't have to worry about him
42:16and and that's the way i go forward with my life
42:24you
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